TEEN: Field Research (Reverto Silicis ut Vox) Chapter 47 breaking the chains!

[Captain GIROG]

Hey, there.


Lots of chapters. You'd better get cracking.

TABLE OF CONTENTS:

Spoiler

Chapters 1-11 (you are here)
Chapters 12-20
Chapters 21-27
Chapters 28-31
Chapters 32-33.5
Chapters 34-35
Chapters 36-37
Chapters 38-40
Chapters 41-42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapters 46 and 47

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Field Research, chapter 1 (prologue):

Pewter City, Kanto. The grayest, dullest town in the world. It's a town that prides itself on its stones; in fact, the town's motto is the "Stone Gray City". It used to be a mining town, that is, until fossils and asteroids were found in Mt. Moon just to the east. Really, the only impressive parts of the town are the Natural History Museum, which consists of seven fossils, and the gym, which swaps hands a few times each year. Very few things ever happen there. The most popular gossip of the day was, as always, how the current gym leader (currently an old man named Jason) was planning to leave Pewter and go to a currently vacant gym somewhere else, in a more pleasant city.

That's of no consequence, of course. Pewter goes through gym leaders like lightbulbs. One stays around for a few years, until it can't stand working in such a dull place. A lightbulb will die out, but the gym leader has the pleasant choice of just packing up and leaving. There is a small market street, though, where almost everyone works in the generically labeled stores- "Fresh Fruit" had gone out of business the week this story begins, and it had been quickly replaced by another store with the same name. This story begins outside of a store that had just had a layoff, in true Pewter style. Things will change rapidly, but everything seems to stay the same. The store, generically named Pokémon Market, was a place where travelling trainers would buy medicines and food for their Pokémon, had received a series of complaints that their store workers had no idea of the difference between a FullHeal and a FullRestore, which is apparently very important. The truth is, Ken Russel didn't even care all that much.

Ken Russel had dark brown hair and gray eyes, but that was hardly his most distinctive trait. The first thing most people noticed about him was his nose- it was crooked and misshapen, a result of it being broken several times. Like all lazy people, Ken liked to spend most of the day out of his head. That's not to say he was brainless, he had a very quick mind. His wandering mind caused him to get poor grades in school, so he wasn't able to get into any colleges. He thought about going to community college, but he never really went through with the idea. He was as unnatural as a normal person can be.

His boss was not very happy when he sold several trainers something that they weren't asking for. After this happened a few times, his boss told him he was being demoted to janitorial work. Ken Russel, who didn't much like the idea of working harder for less pay, suggested something else his boss could do with a mop. Ken thought it was mighty clever, but his boss was not amused by Ken's wit. Ken lost his job, and was lurking Market Street hoping to see a sign in a window that read "HELP WANTED". He only managed to find one such sign, and that was in the window of the Pokémon Market.

This was a very bad time to lose a job, at least for Ken Russel. Like most people living in Pewter, he shared an apartment with a friend- a tall, bony daydreamer with shoulder length unkempt strikingly blond hair. Justin Sanson looks more like a mop than anything else, Ken thought as he looked in a restaurant, which was aptly named Pasta.

That thought led to the memory of his remark to his former boss. He laughed for a second, which startled an old woman who was walking near him on the street. She gave him a strange look- How could some barely graduated kid be chuckling to himself in the dullest town in Kanto? Ken didn't notice this, he was worried about how he would pay the rent and get food.

His roommate was recently given the sack as well, and unemployment wasn't a very good thing if you have rent to pay. He quickly ran some figures through his head- he had just enough money for two nights of food for himself. Justin had less money than Ken, which meant they had maybe one night total. They had some food in the refrigerator, but- No, there was a power outage the night before and the refrigerator was left open. They had some ramen in the pantry, but a few days of noodles and a night of cheap food was not going to be very good. Ken started to think that his witty comment to his boss wasn't so funny anymore.

He decided to go back to the apartment. Justin was gone for the day, so Ken had a while to think up plans to make money. This was not going to be a very good week.

 

[Captain GIROG]

Chapter 2

Field Research, chapter 2 (Good things can happen in bar/grills.):



It was about two o'clock when Ken finished the walk home. If he hadn't tried his wit against the boss, he would be clocking out about now. At least he got out early. That was a happy thought. Too bad he'd never be going in again. Janice, the old lady who lived next to Ken, was bringing her Meowth in from a night at the Pokémon center. Ken tried to get into his apartment before Janice noticed him, but that would be expecting too much.

"Oh, hello Kyle! You're home a bit early, aren't you?" Janice asked in a loud, warbly voice.

"Ehm, yes. I took off for the day. Nice to see you, but I need to-"

Ken was cut off. "I just got in from taking Mr. Silly to the hospital! It seems as if he has a bad case of the sniffles."

"That's too bad, but I need to go-"

Janice took no notice of Ken's attempt to leave. "I decided that I ought to take him in before he got all the other kitties sick! How are your cats? I'm sure you and Jason are taking good care of them!"

"I'm just going in to feed them. Good bye!"

"Well, Kyle, think I'll bring in my other kitties, too! They're a bit-" Ken never found out what the other cats were; he walked in the apartment and shut the door before she could finish.

Truthfully, Ken had no cats. For that case, he had no Pokémon at all. He didn't really want one, but Justin was always talking about going to a professor and picking one up so he could join the Pokémon League. Justin had several fantasies of what he was going to do. He never did them, of course, but it's always good to dream. Ken thought about getting a late lunch of ramen, but decided against it. He didn't want to waste what little food he had. Ken did, however, go into the kitchen for some water. He had just turned the corner when he saw someone who looked more like a mop than a human boiling water and dumping in a block of noodles. He was singing. Justin did a poorly-choreographed spin to grab some salt, when he yelped and lost what balance he had from the surprise of seeing someone in his kitchen. He dropped the salt.

"What're you doing here?! You're supposed to be at work!" he asked as he stood, clutching the now-empty salt shaker as if it would run away if he let it go.

Ken answered bluntly. "I lost my job. What are you doing here?"

"Caitie stood me up. Do you believe it?" answered Justin.

He quickly grabbed a brush and dustpan, his body obviously going twice as fast as his mind. Right as he bent over to clean the spilled salt, his face blanched. He looked up slowly to meet his friend's blank face.

"You what? You- you're joking, right? I mean, you can't have lost your job. I spent all my money on making the reservation for Caitie and I at Bar and Grill- You mean you took the day off, right? The boss gave you a vacation, right?" Justin was obviously looking for an excuse for Ken's answer.

"I mean I got fired. I don't have a job anymore." Was his frank response. Justin was staring upward, his face full of shock. He kept brushing passively, even though the salt was all in the dustpan. This was not a good day for Justin Sanson.

"What time was that reservation for?" Ken quickly asked, changing the subject "We could go there for dinner, so your money isn't wasted."

It took a few moments for Justin to recover from his shock. "Well," he began. "It's at five, so I guess it's still good. I don't know why I made a reservation for a Bar and Grill anyway. I mean, it's not like it's a stuffy fancy restaurant, so I guess reservations are pointless!" He gave a forced laugh to try to cheer himself up. "Well, at least it'll guarantee no wait! Right?" Justin continued on this path of rambling for quite some time- it was about three when he finished by saying, "Who knows? Maybe they'll be hiring!"

Justin finally looked down to see a very clean patch of linoleum and a dust pan filled with dirt.

---

At half past four, the room mates started to walk back to Market Street. They walked past Pokémon Market (the help wanted sign had just been taken down) and several other stores, until they came to a very boring-looking, run down restaurant that looked like it could seat twelve at most.

"Well, here we are!" Justin said, feigning excitement. Honestly, he was far from excited. He was worried about how he was going to get a job in three days, before he ran out of food. He was worried about how he was going to keep his home, when the rent was due in four days, especially since his landlord had him and his roommate sign and double-sign a page of the housing contract highlighting the fact that they would be kicked out in a day if they weren't able to pay rent.

Justin tried to put this out of his mind when they entered the grubby restaurant. The friends sat down between an obviously drunken man with an unwashed beard and a couple wearing black. The couple was talking to each other quietly and quickly. Ken and Justin ignored them. A waiter took their orders, and they were quiet for a while. After a few minutes of silence, Justin finally spoke up.

"What do we do now?"

Ken was surprised at this question. "What do you mean?"

"We're both dead broke and out of jobs. I looked all over and I'm assuming you did too, and every time a job opens up, it's taken faster than lightning. We have three days of food and four days of rent, and we'll never be able to find jobs in time. What do we do now?"

Ken took a while to answer. "Well," he began. "You can move back in with your father in Pallet Town. My family's in Sinnoh, so I'll have to think of something else to do. I might just take a suggestion from our friend behind me." The homeless drunk behind him was passed out now, and was snoring loudly.

Justin did not like this suggestion at all. "No, I'm no going to go live in my mother's basement like a failure. I need a real job. We both need real jobs, and we both should be thinking of better ways of getting them than walking around the streets looking for signs." At this point, the couple wearing black was listening to their conversation intently.

"Well, what's your alternative?" Ken asked.

"Umm..." Was Justin's only response. He sat down and was quiet for a short time.

Ken took the silence to inspect the couple in front of him. The man was in his mid twenties and had cherry red hair that was almost black. He was tall and had very pale skin. The woman was about the same age as the man, maybe older, with short, bright red hair a sharp contrast to his dark. Her skin also had a much healthier tone to it, and she wore a lapel pin with a Pokémon League insignia on it. Ken was about to return to his food, when Justin's face lit up.

"You have an idea?" Ken asked hopefully.

Justin's face went red. "Erm, yes, but I don't know if you'd think it's very good."

"Any idea would be better than what we have now." Ken replied. "What is it?"

"Ehm... Well, we could... Uh... We could... Go to a Pokémon Professor and become Trainers... It would be pretty tough, though... Training takes skill..." Justin said quietly, his face pointed down.

There was silence again. The couple wearing black continued their conversation, but kept glancing over at Ken and Justin. They were obviously talking about them.

Justin broke the silence again. "Never mind. It was a ridiculous idea. Let's finish up and... Oh no, did you bring money?"

"Oh, oh no... Oh no... I thought you were paying?" Ken's day was getting worse at every turn.

There was silence again. The couple wearing black kept talking. After a while, they seemed to have reached a conclusion, because they stood up and walked over to Ken and Justin,

They stood in front of the table for a few seconds before the woman spoke. She had a very no-nonsense tone to her voice, which was apparent through her to-the-point speech. "We have a job you two might be interested in. We will pay for your meal if you agree to join us at this location-" she dropped a paper with an address on it onto the table. "Tomorrow. We will expect you there at seven o'clock. Have a nice day."

The two left the restaurant after unceremoniously dropping a few bills on the table. Ken was the first to speak. "Well, we seem to have gotten a bit of luck. We got a free meal, save the reservation, and a chance for a job."

"I don't think it'd be a very good idea to go to that address..." Justin murmured.

"What did you say?" Asked Ken, seemingly happy.

"Nothing..." Justin replied.

Ken smiled. "I thought so."

 

[Captain GIROG]

Chapter 3

Field Research, chapter 3 (The chapter where the main plot is introduced):



The next day passed by slowly. Neither Ken nor Justin had anything to do before leaving to meet the red haired woman. At one point, Justin was certain the second hand on his clock was ticking ten times between numbers. Everyone knows what it's like to have a slow day, when time flows by at the speed of a glacier creeping to an ocean of even more ice. This was that day, only twice as bad, as both were trying to think of what could happen. Neither of them had any idea of what to expect, though the suspicious actions of the couple and their obvious bribe led Ken to believe that it was nothing legal. He didn't care, though. In his opinion, legality is purely point of view.

Justin, however, was wondering why the two decided to invite him and Ken. They were obviously talking about something else before the two friends entered the restaurant, so something the couple heard caught their attention and made them change topic. They were probably as desperate for help as Ken and Justin were for jobs, or else they wouldn't have just offered a job to strangers for no reason other than their need of a job. Maybe he would finally be able to start his Pokémon journey? He could just see himself- standing on top of a hill, a Pokéball in his hand, staring down at Pewter City for the last time. He saw himself wearing the Pokémon League insignia on a belt buckle, or maybe on cuff links? A hat, maybe, though a lapel pin would be nice. He was just pondering whether a necklace would be a good idea when the Ken came in to tell him that it was time to go.

The two friends walked down the streets as the sun was starting to set. There weren't any clouds, but the strong winds made it seem darker and grayer than a normal day. They passed through Market Street. Justin, still caught up in his trainer fantasy, was pondering on what Pokémon he would like to have as a companion. When he was in school, he took Pokémon Biology as an elective. He wanted something of the Ground type, or maybe Dragon? He was certain he read about a ground/dragon type living in Sinnoh, though it was supposedly very rare. What was it? Galchomp, or Garchap, or something like that. He remembered the Latin name, though: Terra partis, the Land Shark. He remembered the teacher saying that they're among the strongest Pokémon in the world, and that they can dig through ground as if swimming through water. That's what he would like.

Ken, however, was not caught up in a daydream. He was checking the address and his watch repeatedly. He was just starting to worry that they would not make it on time when they finally made it to a tall building with a red "R" written on the side. The R was crossed out, though, and a larger "M" was written in its place.

"Well, shall we go in?" Ken rubbed his hands together as if he were excited.

Justin hesitated a moment. The building looked very ominous. Scarred bricks and boarded-up windows made up the façade of the building, and garbage blowing in the wind seemed to avoid it. "Uhm, I guess so. You can go in first."

Ken walked up the few stairs leading to the double doors. "Actually," interjected Justin. "It's probably locked. The address is probably wrong. We should go back and see if we can contact them some other way."

Justin's fearful statement was ignored, as Ken opened the doors with ease. "Come on, then. You need a new job just as much as I do."

The building was obviously, at one time, a hotel or some other fancy estate. There was a huge foyer with a greeting desk in the front. a gigantic, but dirty, crystal chandelier hung above their heads. Several of the jewels were missing, but none riddled the floor. Ken surmised that they'd been stolen. Justin didn't notice the decorations- His attention was focused on the red-haired woman who walked in the door behind them. She was wearing black, but it was a different coat than she wore the day before. She seemed surprised to see them. "You're early." She noted. "The others probably aren't here yet." She motioned to an electric door to the left of the desk. "Follow me."

They did, Ken more willingly than Justin. Despite his eagerness and optimistic personality, Justin was not the bravest person in the world. In fact, his cowardice is well noted. The three entered a room with a large oval-shaped table with several chairs around it. The wall behind the head of the table was emblazoned with a large, red M written in a pointed, graceful style. The woman motioned for Ken and Justin to sit down, which they did without a word. After a few minutes, more people began to enter. First came the man who was in the restaurant the day before, second a dark-skinned man in black, third a small, fidgety character (also in black) who kept glancing around himself. They were joined by more and more people, none of whom were wearing black. By the time the table was full, there was a group of twelve oddly matched men and women. It seemed that the first action those wearing black took after entering the room was to bow his or her head respectfully to the red-haired woman sitting below the M. Ken decided that she must be the leader, going by the amount of respect she was receiving from the others. Justin had a wild look in his face and was stock-still, as if he was expecting everyone to pounce him at the first sign of motion. Finally, someone's watch beeped, causing Justin to jump slightly. It was seven o'clock. The woman stood up and spread her arms.

"Welcome," she began. "To new acquaintances, and to old friends. Welcome, To the second meeting of Team Magnum."

A few of the members, none of them wearing black, gave her surprised, even shocked, expressions. Ken wasn't alone in his belief that something less than legal was going on. He and Justin were being offered positions in a criminal team. This seemed fine to him, but apparently not to Justin, who had begun to shiver. The woman continued. "I'm not surprised that this information came as a shock to some of the new members. The reason we withheld this information from you until this meeting is for the safety of the team, which we hope you will someday consider your family."

This last comment received nods and small smiles from the older members. The only new member who didn't look at least slightly unsettled was Ken. "Thank you for the welcome, ma'am." Ken started, oblivious to the pointed looks from members new and old. "Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Ken Russel." The older members looked at him as if he said something offensive. The woman at the end of the table, however, allowed a small grin to escape.

"My name is Cammaren, I go by my first name only. My assistant," She gestured to the man she was speaking to in the restaurant the day before. "Is Elijah, and he too only goes by his first name. The other members may introduce themselves now, if they want."

Everyone was introduced. Everyone, Ken noticed, seemed to forget their surnames. The dark-skinned man was Barnabas, the fidgety one Jared. There was a Darius, an Elisabeth, a Caleb and a Julia. Caiden and Miriam were twin brother and sister. When it was finally time for Justin to introduce himself, he accidentally claimed to be "Juh-jussm" before correcting himself. His face glowed bright red. Ken was surprised how much command Cammaren showed over everyone, even the new members. He knew that everyone would be joining the team.

"Now that we have that behind us, I'd like to educate our new members on what we stand for, and on what our plans for the future are. Lastly, I will tell you all what you will be expected to do, and of your pay." She drew out the last word, which definitely helped the color return to many of the faces of the new members.

"We, as I have mentioned before, are Team Magnum. We seek to hold power over Kanto as my grandfather's team, Rocket, had half a century ago. Thanks to his unwilling help, we already have certain funds and facilities that have fallen into disuse since Rocket's fall from power."

She began to describe exactly what her grandfather left her after his death the month before, and how, in his will, having written that his estates go to his granddaughter, he guaranteed the newly formed Team Magnum research facilities and the huge amount of intellectual property that is inside of them. She finished this speech after about half an hour by saying that because of the rapid change in technology and knowledge, constant research is a must.

"Most of you must be wondering why I brought in you and not someone else. Some of you have certain knowledge we find necessary." She made a motion to Elisabeth and Caleb. "Some of you have executive personalities." Cammaren made a gesture to Julia and Darius. "Some have certain... Skills, which would be put to use well in gaining new members." The twins received her gesture this time. "And some of you... Some of you have certain aspirations and needs which put you in excellent situations for our work." Unsurprisingly, her gesture this time was to Ken and Justin. Justin gave a surprised hiccup. "I have asked Barnabas, Jared and Elijah to give more in-depth instructions to you as to your current assignments. Please leave the building one at a time; we don't want to be noticed and shut down just as we're getting started."

Everyone began to exit. In less than a minute, the only people left in the room were Cammaren, Ken and Justin. Justin seemed too afraid to leave, and Ken was waiting for his friend. It seemed that Cammaren expected this to happen, as she began to speak again. "Your assignment," She stood up. "Is much longer and much more difficult than those of your teammates".

She headed to the side of the room opposite to the entrance. She opened a panel hidden under a fire alarm, then entered something on the small keyboard that was revealed. A door, previously unnoticed, opened to reveal an elevator. She motioned for Ken and Justin to follow her inside. The door closed automatically, and they were being slowly dropped underground.

"This job isn't just more difficult, it's also much more important. My grandfather put a huge amount of money in lab research, but next to none into field research. Because of this, we have a large understanding of how local species behave in a controlled environment, but we're clueless on how they behave in the wild." She finished this comment as the door reopened, revealing a dusty lab. It was filled with fifty-year-old technology, extremely advanced for its time. It could be easily compared to average modern technology. "My grandfather used only the best machines to get his work done. Unfortunately, Magnum will have to work with the best from fifty years ago."

Cammaren continued to lead the way through the lab, lights switching on in turn as motion sensors got their first use in half a century. It was an eerie sight, seeing things that were abandoned for so long beginning the slow process of coming to life. There were giant computers, tubes for containing liquid, and machines with uses that would be impossible to guess from just looking. "This lab is one of the estates left to me in my grandfather's will. It will be where our first scientists, Jared and hopefully Elisabeth and Caleb, will work."

They continued to walk. The lab was enormous, probably taking up multiple city blocks. When they had walked for about five minutes, the three finally stopped in front of a large machine with a keyboard, a large computer screen, two round holes, and two handheld devices plugged into it. Cammaren began to speak again. "This machine is your business. You will be doing field research on Pokémon and their habits before capturing them and sending them to the lab for our scientists to study in a more controlled environment. This research is extremely important, as Magnum's plan for seizing control is based on Pokémon, just as Rocket's was. The first step, which is already completed, is infiltrating the Pokémon League. As you may have guessed, I applied for the job of Pewter Gym Leader and was accepted as a Psychic Master." There was a hint of pride in her voice as she pulled out her Pokémon League ID card, which identified her as a representative of the league.

Justin was the first to respond, which surprised Cammaren as much as Ken. His face was shining with excitement. "So, so you want us to go out and capture Pokémon? You- you want us to actually go out and battle and become trainers? I'm in. This- this is amazing!"

"That's great." Commented Cammaren. "Now, if you don't mind, I'll finish speaking." Justin looks a bit embarassed. "I don't want you to just go out and battle, though you're welcome to when you're not doing research. You will be required to record information on every Pokémon, especially exotic species, that you come by. I don't care how, but you will be required to send almost any exotic species you meet to the lab, or train that Pokémon for battling and hunting; all the while taking notes. You will use..." She unplugged the handheld devices from the computer. "Modified Pokédexes to record information, either verbally or textually. Kanto-native Pokémon will probably already have quite a bit of information already. They're powered by solar cells as well as batteries, so you will rarely have to open it up and replace the batteries. You will probably need a good supply of them, though, in case you enter caves for study or travel." She guided them through setting up the Pokédexes, sending Pokémon to labs via wireless transfer, making calls and accessing existing data on Pokémon.

After quite a bit of this, Cammaren noticed Justin looking very anxious. "You can probably finish learning about these on your own. Now, I don't think you could possibly do any research in the field without Pokémon. Lucky for you, there are two young Pokémon that have been held in stasis for several decades in this machine. I don't know exactly what they are, I'm unfamiliar with their labeling." She powered on the machine. "The first was labelled 'PsyRKG/G', and the second 'NrmWLE'."

She typed in "WITHDRAW" and then the two labels, causing the machine to rumble and spit two white-chrome Pokéballs out into her hand. She handed the first to Justin. "You can have NrmWLE." She handed the second to Ken. "Yours is PsyRKG/G. Now be careful, we have no clue what's inside of them."

Justin's mind was moving a mile a second. 'Please, let it be Garchomp, or whatever evolves into it!' he thought.

Ken wasn't so selective on what it was. He just wanted it to be powerful. He pressed the button, and the ball opened.

 

[Captain GIROG]

Chapter 4

Field Research, chapter 4 (Why Whismur would make bad pets):


The light dimmed. The three looked down to see what appeared to be an alabaster child with what looked like coattails trailing from its feet, joining together behind it and giving the appearance of a dress. The child had a sort of green helmet of what might be hair, and had two bright red flat horns, rounded at the top, at the front and back of its head. The Pokémon looked up at Ken, putting a hand (not truly a hand, but a point that the arm came to) up to its small mouth. Ken noticed two large, brilliantly red eyes under its helmet of hair. The Pokémon made no sound, but Ken felt his feelings being explored. It obviously liked what it saw, as it smiled and shuffled over to Ken. "It's a Ralts." Cammaren observed. "It has very strong psychic powers, and it senses and reacts to the emotions of its trainer. If you treat it with kindness, it will react better than any other Pokémon. My first Pokémon was a Ralts as well, and she became my strongest fighter." She smiled at this, then instructed Justin to open his ball. "I didn't give that to you so you can stare at it."

Justin hoped and prayed for that dragon. He closed his eyes and pressed the button. When he felt the ball close again, he opened his eyes. What he saw was not a Garchomp, or for that case anything he was hoping for. Instead, he was looking at something that looked inspired by a six-year-old's drawing of a rabbit. Its body looked like a purplish blob with a mouth and two broken plus-signs for eyes. It had two feet that were yellow at the end, and two floppy ears colored the same. It had a tail with a hole at the end, and had two holes at the base of its ears. Its stubby arms were fidgeting in front of its face. All four (including the Ralts) were looking at it oddly. Once again, Cammaren spoke up. "It's a Whismur. It's a normal type, and you should try as hard as you can to not startle it."

Justin seemed to ignore the serious tone to her voice. A stupid grin spread across his face. "It's actually pretty damn adorable. C'mere, let me pick you up."

As he reached for the Whismur, it jumped back and started shaking. Then, it exploded. Not literally, but the sound it emitted was close in volume. It seemed to be inhaling from its ears instead of its mouth, as it was able to scream without pause. The cry kept getting louder, and the Whismur showed no sign of stopping. Ken, Justin and Cammaren covered their ears and grit their teeth because of the terrible noise, and the Ralts teleported to the other side of the giant lab. After a few minutes that seemed like hours, the Whismur's screaming started to have pauses. When it stopped screaming altogether, it passed out. Cammaren looked vicious.

"Let that be your warning-" she was talking loudly, her ears still ringing. "To never do what I warn you not to. This Pokémon is as much of a coward as you, and it does a lot more than just shake when it's scared. Go back to your homes and learn about your Pokémon a bit, and come to my gym tomorrow for your trainer cards. Go. GO!" She was vicious, and looked like she really needed time on her own.

Justin gathered up his sleeping Whismur, and the two walked quickly back to the exit. They found the Ralts sitting in front of the elevator door, and it floated up onto Ken's shoulder. Ken pressed a button to open the door- there was no password for exiting. Justin was fumbling in his pocket, trying to find the Pokéball so he could relieve himself of the weight of the now-snoring Whismur. As the group walked back to the apartment, Ken opened his Pokédex and began to take notes on the Ralts. He was able to write more about the Pokémon than he should have- the Ralts was helping telekinetically. It was around midnight when they made it home. Ken went to his bedroom, with the Ralts following him closely. Justin, however, walked into the kitchen and started to make a batch of ramen. He stopped, and thought that his Whismur should have something to eat as well. He had no clue what to feed it, so he made a call to Janice next door. She was delighted to have a guest, even at midnight. The poor lady probably hadn't had friends over in years. As he entered, he opened the Pokéball and let out the still-snoring Whismur. Janice, still in a pink floral nightgown, put a teapot on to boil.

"Now, Jason, what do you need help with?" she asked nicely, offering him a seat at a coffee table.

"Well, fate's kindly thrust a Whismur into my arms, and I have no clue how to take care of it." Justin pointed to the unconscious loud purple rabbit, which one of Janice's many Meowth was now sniffing.

"Ooh, now dear, you seem a little disgruntliated!" Janice loudly squealed. "He's such a cute little thing!"

"I noticed." Ken muttered, remembering the terrible things that happened after he said something very similar in the lab. "Wait, how do you know it's a he?"

"I think the first thing we should do is find out what you should feed it. That's a great idea, isn't it, Madam?" She picked up the Meowth that was batting at the Whismur's ears. "Come on, I know just the book." She carried the Meowth into another room. There was a shuffle of moving books, and she brought back a gigantic old book that looked more like a library than a single volume. It was labelled "Pokémon: Caring for your pet, companion, or helper."

"What did you say this was, dearie? Oh, I remember! Whiscash, right?" She flipped quickly through the book, stopping on a page with a picture of a large fish. "This doesn't look very much like a Whiscash." She took another look at the Whismur, which Madam was investigating again.

Justin heard a whistling from the other room. "The tea!" shouted Janice.

Justin picked up the book. He turned the page and saw a large picture of Whismur, and copied what he read into the Pokédex, taking special note of where it said: "When a Whismur has a tantrum, the only way to silence it is placing your fingers over its ears. This will make it impossible for the Whismur to breathe from anywhere other than its mouth." and "A Whismur is a vegetarian and will eat almost any fruits or vegetables, provided they are not poisonous and provided they will not attack."

That was bad news for Justin. Ramen may be vegetarian, but he doubted the Whismur would eat it. Janice came back into the room carrying two steaming mugs. "Here's the tea! Now, it hasn't had time to steep, but I think you should add in sugar and cream while it's still hot."

She ran back into the kitchen and brought back a huge plate of carrots, cucumbers, crackers, vegetable dip, tortilla chips, salsa, potato chips, ham slices, and just about anything you can put on a sandwich. It also had cream and sugar, for the tea. "Now Jason," Janice began. "You're a Pokémon trainer now! You have to learn to take care of yourself! I remember back in fifteen-ought-sixteen twenty-four, when they would just kick you out to start a journey as soon as you learned the difference between an Entei and an Ekans! Now, these days..." She continued to ramble, and Justin listened intently. About a minute in, he went to take a sip of his tea. This made Janice stop her story, slap him on the hand, and had her say "Let it steep!" angrily before continuing her tale.

Unlike Ken, Justin thought Janice was a nice old lady who just needed friends. About ten minutes into her rambling, Whismur woke up. Surprised to find itself on a table, it began to shiver. Justin could tell he was about to scream. He only made noise for a second before Justin put his thumbs over the holes in Whismur's ears. ("My, that's loud." Janice remarked.) Justin moved his hands when he thought the Whismur had enough time to calm down. He picked up a carrot and offered it to the rabbit, and it greedily accepted. Justin remembered that, though it seemed only a few hours in the Whismur's memory, it was the first time he ate in half a century. At this point, Justin accepted Janice's comment that Whismur is a male to be fact. It was gobbling down a piece of lettuce when Janice spoke again.

"Isn't it the dearest thing? Oh, I'd have to say it's almost as cute as my Ms. Snickers! She's my only Skitty, and she won three awards for best in show." Janice started to ramble again.

Justin absentmindedly started to scratch Whismur on the top of its head, which caused a happy sounding purr reminiscent of an idling diesel motor. It was about 1:30 when Janice, aided partially by the fact that the food was gone, decided it was much too late. She provided Justin with several vegetables for feeding Whismur, and sent him on his way. He walked the three steps to enter his apartment, unlocked the door, put the vegetables in the empty refrigerator, and walked to his bedroom. He thought about putting Whismur on the foot of his bed to sleep, but decided against it as he didn't think he could sleep well with a constant, extremely loud rumbling noise in the room. He put him in the Pokéball, and went to sleep. Justin fell asleep almost immediately, and didn't wake up until ten in the morning. His life somehow went from great, to terrible, back to great, to frightening, to embarrassing, to great all in the span of forty eight hours. He had no idea what the next day would be like, but he was just happy to not be moving back to Pallet.

 

[Captain GIROG]

Chapter 5

Field Research, chapter 5 (Here, have a quest):



Ken woke up at about eight to find the Ralts sitting on the window sill watching the people outside on the street. It was creating tiny balls of light and throwing them down at people, then teleporting to the other side of the room when someone looked up. It was apparently enjoying itself thoroughly, as Ken felt a rush of disappointment when he closed the window. "Come on," he said to the Ralts. "It's time for breakfast. Now what do you eat?"

The Ralts looked confused. Remembering his and the Ralts's link, he began to think of food. Almost everything he thought of received a positive reaction. "Well then, I guess feeding you will be easy." He concluded.

He walked to the kitchen and remembered his lack of food. He didn't think ramen would be a very good breakfast. The Ralts, however, seemed perfectly fine with this thought. "To each his own, I guess." Ken muttered, and the Ralts agreed.

Ken went to take some leftover ramen out of the refrigerator, and was surprised at the large quantity of vegetables in it. Ken took out a potato and onion instead of the noodles- hash browns seemed a much more appropriate breakfast. In the other room, Justin was awoken by the salty-sweet smell of potatoes cooking on a skillet. He got up, got dressed, and went into the kitchen. Almost the second he entered the room, a tiny ball of light exploded in his face. He flinched and made a sound almost as loud as his Whismur. He fell on the ground, and looked up to see Ken's Ralts with a none-too-happy expression on its face.

"What the hell was that?!?" Justin asked to nobody in particular.

"You blew up his ball," Ken answered. "He's not very happy about it."

"His ball- Wait, how can everyone tell Pokémon genders except for me?!?" Ken, like Janice, didn't answer the question. Instead, he asked another.

"What do you mean by 'everyone'?" Ken asked, truly curious.

"Well, you figured out Ralts, and Janice yesterday told me that Whismur is male. Actually, she didn't so much tell me as mention it in passing."

Justin went on to tell Ken the story of his visit to Janice and how he learned how to calm down Whismur. "That's also how I managed to get that potato you're cooking now, and all the other food in the refrigerator. I don't know how we're going to take it all on our trip, so we might have to give some of it back."

When Justin finished talking, he let Whismur out of his Pokéball. The rabbit was still asleep and was snoring again. Ken finished the hash browns and they all started to eat. Whismur woke up while Ken and Justin were discussing getting camping equipment. It walked over to Justin's leg and pulled on his jeans, while pointing at the top of the table. Justin looked down, and the Whismur pointed both of his stubby arms into the air and shouted "Whii! Whii!"

"You want to go up on the table?" Justin asked.

The Whismur nodded. "Whii! Whii!" it said again, nodding.

"All right, then." Justin picked up his Whismur and put him on the table. He began to eat some of the potatoes.

Ken and the Ralts watched this scene with a small amount of humor. "Could I have some lessons on how to speak rabbit?" Ken asked, smiling. He and the Ralts chuckled at the comment.

Justin wasn't so entertained. "That's so witty. Now, I'm going to see if I can't find my backpack and tent, and you should probably do the same." He finished his food and left the table carrying Whismur, who was still gobbling down some food.

Justin and Whismur started to dig through things in closets that hadn't been touched in years- he even found some money in a couple of places. By the time he was done, he found a hiking backpack, two sleeping bags, three lanterns, and some lantern fuel. He and Ken started packing things they would need: clothing, food, water, and everything Ken and Whismur found in the closets. This all fit snugly into the pack, and the two decided they would take turns lugging the bag around. At half past eleven, they all left and headed toward Cammaren's gym.

The gym looked very bland on the outside; it looked more like an office building than a stadium. The inside, however, was decorated as ancient sandstone ruins. Tan rock riddled the stadium, which was in use. Grass was growing on the floor, and the two trainers stood on elevated platforms decorated as broken down millenia-old buildings. The bleachers surrounding were designed to look like slate steps, but as Ken sat down he noted that they were plastic. Cammaren and another trainer were the combatants. Cammaren was commanding a yellow pokémon with a giant nose that was holding a pendulum, and the other trainer a giant bee with giant honeycombs on its underside. A giant scoreboard was displaying the matches- Cammaren had already won with a green and white bird Pokémon labelled "Xatu" against a blue beetle labelled "Heracross". Down on the field, the battle was starting to heat up. "Vespiquen!" Cammaren's opponent shouted. "Order an attack to finish it off!"

Justin was confused about the trainer's command at first, but soon he heard the Vespiquen start to buzz. Suddenly, out from under the queen bee's honeycomb came hundreds of tiny bees flying straight toward Cammaren's pokémon. She was quick to react and make her own command. "Hypno, protect yourself!"

The Hypno created a force field around itself, but it was too late. A single bee got through before the shield was up completely, and it stung the Hypno on its nose and broke its concentration. The force field vanished, and the Hypno was completely covered in bees. "That's a neat trick..." Muttered Ken.

Cammaren withdrew her Hypno, who was flailing around on the ground trying to wipe off the hundreds of bees. The still-living bees flew back to their queen, and the ground was covered with insects who died to fulfill their commands.

The scoreboard showed the results of the second fight, and a giant "FINAL ROUND" appeared at the top of the screen. Cammaren told the trainer to change Pokémon for the third round, and he unwillingly obliged. A horn sounded, and the trainers threw out their final fighters. Cammaren threw out what looked like a small, very thin, alabaster white woman with green hair, red eyes, and a flat red object jutting out of her chest and back. "I choose Gardevoir." She announced smugly.

Her opponent look equally smug. "I guess I'll have to use..." he threw a Pokéball. "Beedrill!"

An enormous hornet flew out of the ball. It had two sets of legs, and the top set had two giant needles on the ends. These stingers were in addition to the giant needle coming out of its abdomen. Justin recognized it immediately, as he grew up next to Viridian Forest, where Beedrill are all too common. Justin knew all too well how deadly poisonous those needles are. When he was a child, a Beedrill stung a child in his class, and he ended up staying in the hospital for two days. Cammaren was unimpressed. "Keep your mind calm, Gardevoir." She said coolly. "This will be over very quickly."

Her opponent thought so, too. He pointed at the Gardevoir and shouted, "Beedrill! Twinneedle attack!"

Cammaren said nothing, but stared ahead at her Pokémon. The Gardevoir was faster with her force field than the Hypno was. She blocked the Beedrill's terrible stingers, and launched a beam of psychic energy out of the palm of her hand. Cammaren remained silent. The beam hit the Beedrill, and the Pokémon backed off. Gardevoir began to teleport around the field, confusing the Beedrill and its trainer.

"Gah!" The trainer spat. "Beedrill! Chase it! Pursuit!"

The Beedrill did as its trainer commanded, but only managed a scrape on the Gardevoir's arm. Both Gardevoir and Cammaren both winced in pain. Soon, the stadium was filled with immense mental power as the Gardevoir attacked the Beedrill's mind directly. It fell down and twitched on the pile of bees. The horn on Gardevoir's chest was glowing red; her eyes were as vicious as Cammaren's were at Justin the night before. Her arm was outstretched angrily, her palm facing the hornet.

"Grrr, that's enough! I forfeit! You win! Make her stop!" The trainer yelled. He pulled out his Pokéball and withdrew his Beedrill.

The scoreboard lit up with the words "WINNER- LEADER CAMMAREN". Cammaren didn't withdraw her Gardevoir- She teleported next to Cammaren and followed her off the platform. Ken and his Ralts were clapping energetically. Justin was amazed, and his Whismur had no idea what to think of the whole event. Justin heard the trainer leave the gym, muttering under his breath. ("She's such a cheater, having her Pokémon battle on its own. League rules say she has to give it commands...")

Cammaren apparently just noticed the two in the bleachers. Ken, Justin and their Pokémon walked toward her. Cammaren pulled out a spray, applied it to her Gardevoir's wound, and went to meet them.

"Enjoy the show?" Cammaren asked, obviously feeling braggy about her win. "We certainly did." She motioned to the Gardevoir, whom Ralts had walked up to and was speaking to mentally.

Justin had no idea what was said between the two psychics, but Cammaren and Ken both heard it from their psychic link.

'When I grow up, I'm going to be the best fighter in the world, just like you!' Ralts thought, energetically.

'Now, dear, if you were the best fighter, how could I be the greatest?' responded Gardevoir.

The Ralts thought for a second, then replied 'We'll both be the best!'

Cammaren smiled, and responded to the two. 'You have such a soft spot for children.' She told her Gardevoir mentally. She turned to Ralts. 'You'll become a Gallade, though; a master of courtesy and swordsmanship. You can be the best physical fighter in the world, and Gardevoir can still be the best mental fighter.' He seemed to like the idea.

Ken was curious. "How- how did you talk to them without saying anything?"

Cammaren was just as surprised as Ken was curious. "You heard that? Not many people can. I guess your Ralts's powers have already started rubbing off on you."

Justin was much more confused than Cammaren was surprised or Ken was curious. "Umm, okay. About our trainer cards..." Justin fidgeted.

"They're in my office. Follow us." Cammaren and her Gardevoir started across the gym, into a room opposite the entrance.

Her office was just that- an office. It had a computer, a filing cabinet, some crystal statues, and a file labeled with an ornate red M on the desk. The only thing out of the ordinary was a large machine in the corner with six indents on the top. Cammaren picked up the file and pulled out two cards, one with Justin's face and info on it, the other with Ken's. She handed them the cards. "How did you get all this information about us?" asked Justin. Cammaren gave no answer. Instead, she changed the topic back to the battle.

"The trainer you just saw was the result of overtraining one Pokémon. You saw how quickly Gardevoir got rid of his Beedrill. About the same thing happened with my Xatu and his Heracross, which led me to the belief that all of his Pokémon are hopelessly weak. I sent in my Hypno when I should have sent in Gardevoir." She looked sadly at the Pokéball that contained the yellow Pokémon, and put it in one of the indents on the machine in the corner. The ball started to grow red. "That's a PAHD, a Pokémon Automatic Healing Device. I have no idea how it works." She added on the last bit when she saw Justin open his mouth. "I'll also give you some money for Pokémon supplies. Go to the Pokémart, buy some potions and Pokéballs, then head east to Mount Moon. We need some good information on Clefairy, and that's where they live. Good luck, and be safe."

 

[Captain GIROG]

Chapter 6

Field Research, chapter 6 (Justin battles Youngster Joey):

Justin stood on a hill just outisde of Pewter and stared back at the city. He tried to make that moment as similar to the fantasy he had the night before as possible, but there were three flaws. First, he didn't have a super-powerful dragon at his side. Instead, he had a small purple and yellow blob of a rabbit. He wasn't wearing the Pokémon League insignia on a belt buckle. The only thing with an insignia on it was a small lapel pin (from the Pokémart), which he was wearing on the collar of his new black wool jacket. He wore this jacket with black pants to look more like a member of Team Magnum. If he's going to work for them, he might as well look the part. Lastly, he was wearing a giant hiking backpack with vegetables hanging off of the side. When he turned around to continue on his way to Mt. Moon, Ken was already a good way along the road, so he had to jog to catch up. This is no mean feat while wearing such a large pack.

Ken and Ralts were keeping a steady pace. Ken hadn't heard a well formed, recognizable linguistic thought from his Ralts since they were in the gym, which he found odd. He still felt emotions from the child-like Pokémon, but that was all. Ralts was apparently trying to communicate as much as Ken was, but Ralts had just as much success. They eventually settled on emotions and weakly-formed images. The two fledgling trainers and their Pokémon continued down the rocky road, stopping by a rambling stream at dark for meal of carrots and preserved meat. They decided to set up camp under some birch trees, and they set out again the next day.

At about ten in the morning, they stopped to have some breakfast in a clearing off the side of the road. Ken made hash browns again. The two were eating and talking when they heard something rustling in the woods.

"What's that?!" Justin asked, startled.

"Probably nothing." Replied Ken.

A minute later, a young boy jumped out of the bushes. He was wearing shorts, a t-shirt and a backwards-facing hat. He was holding two Pokéballs out in front of him. "You two are trainers!" he shouted.

Ken replied calmly. "Yes, how good of you to notice. Want some potatoes?"

The boy laughed, trying as hard as he could to be intimidating. "Very funny! I challenge you to a Pokémon Battle! Loser has to give the winner ten bucks!"

Justin jumped at the challenge. "You think you're tough? Whismur'll break through your Pokémon like it's nothing!" Whismur didn't look too sure about that.

"We'll help, I guess." Ken told the two. "It's only fair- you have two Pokémon, and we each have one. Deal?"

The boy thought about it for a second. "Okay, but if I win, you each have to give me twenty instead of ten! Each!" He threw his first ball. "Go! Squirtle!"

Out popped a small blue turtle with a brown shell standing on two legs. Justin shouted, "Go! Whismur!" Whismur walked in front of Justin, looking rather nervous.

"You can do it, Whismur! Attack!"

Whismur waddled (relatively) quickly toward the Squirtle. The young trainer shouted a command. "Squirtle! Use your Water Gun!"

Whismur was shot back when a blast of water hit his face. He looked embarrassed and disheartened. Justin reassured him. "You can do this, Whismur."

The Squirtle launched water at the Whismur again. Whismur was just barely able to step out of the way. He looked a bit scared. Justin was thinking hard, trying to think of a way Whismur could attack the Squirtle without opening himself to another shot of water to the face. Whismur dodged another attack, and Justin thought of the answer. "Whismur! Yell at it!"

Whismur looked confused. Justin gave the command again. "It's what you do best, so it has to be worth something!"

Justin heard Whismur inhale through his mouth and ears. What followed was a blast of sound that wasn't too loud to Ken, Justin or the other trainer, but the Squirtle collapsed grasping its head. It seemed that Whismur managed to focus the sound waves coming out of its mouth to hit full force on Squirtle, but not sound too loud to anything else. The trainer called his Pokémon back. Whismur smiled and looked up to Justin, who gave him a pat on the head. "Pidgey!" he shouted. He threw his second Pokéball. A small brown bird flew out. "Sand Attack!" the trainer commanded just as Whismur was inhaling.

The Pidgey kicked up sand right in Whismur's mouth and ears, causing it to cough and stop his attack. When he tried tried inhaling again, the Pidgey kicked up more sand the same way.

"Pidgey! Attack it while it's weak!" the young trainer shouted.

The Pidgey complied. It swooped down and started pecking and clawing Whismur, kicking up sand all the while to keep Whismur from doing anything but trying to hit the it with a weak punch. Finally, Justin decided to call back Whismur.

"There goes your wimpy little bunny!" the trainer shouted irritatingly, obviously forgetting Whismur's defeat of his Squirtle.

"My turn." Ken announced.

Ken walked up in front of Justin, who was holding Whismur's Pokéball angrily. Ralts teleported in front of him and started to growl. Ken could sense Ralts opening a mental connection with the Pidgey for a split second. After that was closed, Ken's link with Ralts grew stronger for a moment, in which Ken could see through Ralts's eyes. They were amazingly strong. In a brief second of understanding, Ken realized Ralts stole a characteristic of Pidgey from it. "Pidgey! use Sand Attack again!" the trainer shouted.

It seemed to have no effect. Ralts didn't even wince. Ken thought quickly about what he'd seen Ralts do in the last few days. Ralts's mind wasn't strong enough to launch a full-fledged mental attack like he'd seen Cammaren's Gardevoir do, the most he could probably do was confuse the Pidgey. He knew there was something else... After a few seconds of thought, he threw the thought of a ball of light at Ralts. Ralts understood the command, and created several light balls and threw them at the bird- The Pidgey was blinded by the explosions. It flew into the ground.

"Just attack it, Pidgey!" The young trainer shouted. The bird got up and tried to swoop down in on Ralts, but Ken gave Ralts an image of Cammaren's opponent's Beedrill on the ground.

Like Ken predicted, the mental attack didn't do much besides confuse it. The Pidgey flew into the ground again, and had a great deal of trouble getting up again. Its wing appeared bent. "Pidgey, what're you doing? Attack!"

The Pidgey hopped over to Ralts, who threw another ball of light at it. The Pidgey fell down, clearly beat. The Trainer fell to his knees and withdrew his Pokémon. "Y-you win." He admitted defeat.

Justin jumped up. "Ha, ha! I knew we'd win from the second I saw you! Nobody can stop Justin Sanson, Pokémon Master!" Ken didn't bother to correct Justin.

"Okay kid, where's our money? C'mon, fork it over. Don't leave us waiting." Justin was -very- excited about the win.

"Umm... I don't have... Ten dollars..." he said quietly, staring off to the side. He was embarrassed at his idle bet.

Justin went from being excited to angry very quickly. "What?!? You don't just go around making bets you can't deliver on, you little punk! What else do you have?!?"

Ken gave Justin a glare that could have killed an insect. "So, want some hash browns?" He asked the embarrassed boy.

The reaction was immediate. The boy's mood instantly perked up. "Are you serious?"

Ken nodded. "Completely serious. I accidentally made too much for the four of us to eat. Want some?"

The boy gave a firm approval, ran over, and started to eat. He didn't have a mess kit, so he ate from the now cool pan.

"I just started my journey, but I forgot a lot of stuff back home so I'm staying in the Pokémon Center over there-" He made a gesture in the general direction Ken and Justin were headed. "While my stuff is in the mail. I can show you the way, if you want, since, you know..." His voice trailed off and he looked down a bit shamefully.

"That sounds good." Ken reassured him. Justin thought that the only good payment was the ten dollars they were promised. He didn't say anything, though.

They packed up, and the boy washed the dishes for them as more payment. Justin didn't mind this at all, less work for him is always a good thing in his opinion. The three, led by the boy, began to walk down the road again. They finally came to Mount Moon. Right next to a sheer face was a giant building that would have looked more at home in a city than next to a mountain, with a giant Pokéball painted on the side with a Pokémon League insignia in its center. The building looked two or three stories high, and was as wide as Cammaren's gym. It had a red domed roof. "Here it is. We're right on time for lunch. The League provides free food for travelling trainers. And, uhmm, sorry about the annoyance earlier. I thought it would be a good way to make some quick money..." The boy apologized.

No sooner had he said "free food" than had Justin rushed inside. The inside was just as impressive as the outside- There was a reception desk where trainers would put their mildly injured Pokémon for the nurses to heal on machines similar to the one in Cammaren's office, and where trainers can put more seriously injured Pokémon to be brought in the infirmary. There was a top level that could be accessed by stairs, escalators and elevators with computers, phones and a cafeteria, and there was apparently a basement with free lodging for trainers. Non-trainers could also stay there, but for a small price. He could hear nurses giving announcements on the intercom, ranging everywhere from announcing a trainer's Pokémon were fully healed to reminding trainers that battling is strictly prohibited in Pokécenters and force will be used to stop any fighting.

Justin walked up to the counter and waited for a nurse to take his Whismur. When one walked up, he offered her the Pokéball. "Could I see your trainer card?" she asked. He obliged her. "Thank you, Justin. May I ask the species and gender of the patient, and what its medical condition is?"

Justin answered. "Umm, it's a male Whismur. He's been pecked and scratched pretty bad, and he has sand in his ears, lungs and mouth."

The nurse thanked him and told him that Whismur would be fully healed in about ten minutes. The young boy who Ken and Justin beat in a battle walked up to the counter next to him. He offered his Pidgey and his trainer card, and the Pidgey was brought back in the infirmary due to its broken wing. He went upstairs to get some food with his Squirtle. The Squirtle was hitting the side of its head- its ears were probably still ringing. Justin followed him upstairs. The boy went to sit with some friends. Justin saw Ken's Ralts sitting at a table next to the giant backpack, so he walked over to him. "Where'd Ken go?" he asked.

Ralts pointed to a line at a buffet. Justin's heart lept- the buffet was huge. "I'm going to go get some food. Don't wander off."

The line moved slowly, but that was just because of the vast amount of food. Ham, beef, chicken, salad, pie, fruit crumble, cake, gelatin, pudding, all sorts of bread, pasta, noodles, seafood, beans, soup, burgers, chili, and everything else. Ken got a bit of everything (but the noodles), and showed his trainer card to the cashier so he wouldn't have to pay. He went to the table and sat down. "Free food! Why didn't we become trainers sooner?" Justin joked.

Ken took a large bite of chicken and shrugged. Justin was about to dig in when he heard "Justin Sanson, your Pokémon is fully healed; Justin Sanson, your Pokémon is fully healed." on the intercom.

Justin told Ken to watch his food while he was downstairs. Ken grunted from behind a mouthful of chili, but made no promises. Ralts levitated a roll off of Justin's tray and started eating. Downstairs, Justin showed his trainer card to a nurse. The nurse gave him Whismur's ball back and told Justin to take care and have a nice day.

Justin opened the ball, and Whismur came out looking confused. "Whii?" He asked and looked around.

"We're in a Pokémon Center. That's why your scratches are gone, and why you don't have any sand on you anymore." Justin told Whismur, kneeling over. "Now, how'd you like some lunch? There's a huge buffet upstairs, and I got some apples and bread for you."

Whismur jumped up and down, shouting "Whii! Whii!", clearly thrilled.

Justin smiled. "I thought so. You're a bit short for stairs, don't you think? How'd you like to ride an escalator?"

Whismur's shouting of "Whii! Whii!" was so loud that several trainers were staring. One walked over to him and mentioned how cute Whismurs are, and how she wants to get one. She scratched Whismur on the head, which started him rumbling like an engine. She laughed and walked away.

"This must be the best day of your life." Remarked Justin. "You beat up a Squirtle, you get healed, strangers tell you how cute you are, and you get to ride an escalator. On top of all that, a huge tray of food is waiting for you upstairs."

Whismur was amazed when they went up the escalator, if not a bit startled. How could he be moving, if he wasn't walking? Whismur was rather disappointed when they had to get off. Justin reassured him that they'd be riding one downstairs, too. That seemed to perk him up again. Justin found Ken and Ralts right where they were. Ken was still scarfing down food, and Ralts was levitating an apple off of Justin's plate. "Hey, that's Whismur's!" Justin said, taking the apple away from Ralts.

He put Whismur on the table and gave him the apple. The Whismur gave the apple back to Ralts, who stuck his tongue out at Justin. Ken got a good laugh out of this. Justin, too, chuckled a little. Whismur took an apple off of Ken's plate and started to nibble on it. "Good job," Justin told Whismur. "Serves him right."

Justin took out his Pokédex and started recording information he got from that day's events, making special note on Whismur's powers in battle and how it's weak to getting sand and dust in its respiratory system. After the four finished lunch, they left the Pokécenter. It was time to do what they're getting paid for. The two trainers and their companions entered Mount Moon.

 

[Captain GIROG]

Chapter 7

Field Research, chapter 7 (Ken gets attacked by bats):



The opening to the cave was covered in warning signs. "ZUBAT ARE BLOODSUCKERS" warned one, another said "ALWAYS TRAVEL WITH A COMPANION". Yet another said that if you want to travel the whole way through the tunnels to Cerulean, to "ALLOW FOR A FULL DAY OF TRAVELING". It went on to give yet another warning to "NEVER SLEEP IN CAVES INFESTED WITH ZUBAT". There were several signs showing proper spelunking gear, and even more warnings about the Zubat that lived in the mountain. Needless to say, Justin was hesitant to enter the cave. Ken and Ralts led the way with Justin and Whismur following cautiously. Eventually, they reached a point where they couldn't see sunlight anymore. When this happened, Ralts created a ball of light and levitated it in front of the group. Every few seconds, Justin heard a squeaking noise coming from the high ceiling and saw something shuffle. Afraid that these were the deadly Zubat the signs were warning about, he decided it would be a good idea to check his Pokédex on information about the bloodsuckers. He opened the handheld, touched a button on the screen that said "search encyclopedia", and spoke "Zubat" in a clear voice to the machine.

Justin could feel the hard disk spinning, then three names appeared vertically in a results box. The first was "Zubat", the second "Golbat" and the third "Crobat". He touched Zubat. It took a second to load, but soon text appeared on the screen along with a picture of an eyeless blue bat with long legs and gigantic teeth. Suddenly, a recording of a bored-sounding voice, probably Cammaren's Grandfather's researcher, started loudly reading off the information. "Zubat, the Bat Pokémon." Ken and Ralts stopped walking and turned to face Justin, who was starting to turn white. "It uses echolocation to see its surroundings, and is completely blind beside this. Be careful when in a cave inhabited by Zubat, as they will attack when they hear loud noise." Whismur started to whimper quietly. Ken was looking furious. He made a motion that suggested closing the Pokédex, which took a while to register to Justin. "Zubat are very sensitive to sound, however, and this-" Justin finally closed the handheld.

The squeaking became more frequent, and shadows could be seen flying quickly around the tunnel. Ralts conjured several more balls of light to better illuminate the cave, and what they saw was terribly frightening. There were about two dozen Zubat flying around their heads, squeaking to try to locate the group. The four remained absolutely still, as if the slightest motion would alert the bloodsuckers. Eventually, Ken started to slowly sneak down the tunnel. Justin followed suit. They were almost past the bats, when...

Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep! Ken's Pokédex started to ring. Someone was trying to call him. There are sometimes very bad times to get a call, and this was one of them. All together, the Zubat swooped down on Ken, trying to get to bare skin so they could start to drink his blood. Ken yelled, and Ralts started throwing balls of light at the Zubat. The bright flashes had no effect on the blind bats. Ralts tried to blast one with his mind, but it was too hard with his trainer in distress. This distress was his, too, due to the psychic link between the two.

Justin was in shock. Before this, Ken was always the one to save him; the metaphorical big brother. Now that the positions were switched, and Ken was the one in a ball on the ground yelling for help, Justin's mind stopped working. He stood for a good ten seconds doing nothing before Whismur nearly pulled him over for tugging his pants too hard.

"What? Do you have an idea? What do we do?!?" Justin was desperate.

Whismur pointed at himself, then at the Zubat flying around Ken. It shouted "Whii!" very loudly.

Justin understood immediately. He was a Pokémon Trainer now, and he had to save someone. "Alright Whismur, go! Knock them out of the sky!"

Whismur started to inhale from his ears just as he had done when fighting the Squirtle. All of a sudden, it launched a massive burst of sound that made two Zubat fall unconscious onto the ground. Whismur turned toward more of the bats, which fell down likewise. Whismur did this to the rest of the bats, until there was only one still conscious. It tried to fly away, but Justin was too fast. He threw a Pokéball at it. The Zubat disappeared in a flash of light, and the ball fell to the ground. It lurched around for a few seconds, its button glowing red, but then it stopped. Justin had just caught his first Pokémon.

Feeling very victorious, he turned to Ken. Ken appeared to have only been bitten once on the hand, but he looked extremely pale from fright. Ralts helped Ken stand, looking almost as shocked as his trainer. Ken stood up, walked over to Justin, and warned him to always tell him before he did something stupid. Justin tried to say he and Whismur were the ones to fend off the Zubat, but Ken didn't listen. Instead, he opened his Pokédex to see who called. He expected it would be Cammaren asking how far they've gotten in their research. The ID was "Magnum Pewter Laboratory", so Ken was almost certain to see Cammaren when he hit the call button.

When someone answered, it wasn't Cammaren, or even Elijah. It was someone with black hair and a large nose. Ken recognized him as Caleb from the meeting. "Hello?" he began. "Is that Ken? It's pretty dark where you are. Why didn't you answer when I called earlier? It's been a few days, and we need-" Caleb stopped talking as Ralts levitated a ball of light under Ken's face, highlighting his murderous expression and crooked nose. Caleb looked scared.

"Is this a bad time? I can call back later-" Caleb was cut off when Ken began to speak.

"Well, seeing as a flock of Zubat attacked the last time you called, and I rather like my blood INSIDE of me, I decided I'd call back so nothing deadly would attack us the next time you call and cause a racket worthy of a Whismur. So, no, this isn't a bad time. Back there, that was a goddamn AWFUL time." Ken was being a bit harsh. There was no way for Caleb to have known where they were, but Ken just had to air his frustrations out on someone. "So, what's so important?"

Caleb was cautious. "Erm, well, I'm sorry about that, then. Cammaren needs some Pokémon sent here so we can start doing some lab research... Do you have anything to send?"

"There's a metric truckload of unconscious Zubat back there, if you really want those things. Twenty less of those bats from Hell would be great for this cave." Ken was now venting his anger on the twitching blue bats.

"Oh, that'd be great!" Caleb breathed a sigh of relief and looked calmer. "I assume Cammaren showed you how to transfer Pokéballs?" Ken hung up without answering.

"Justin, start putting those bats into balls and send them to the lab. They want them for God-knows-why." Ken took some Pokéballs out of the smaller bag he brought into the cave and started gathering up Zubat, then he sent them back to the lab one by one.

Justin was doing the same. "I hope they don't mind that I'm keeping one to train." Justin said to Ken. This got an unhappy look.

"Which one are you keeping?" asked Ken.

"Why? They're all the same."

"Which one are you keeping?!?" Ken demanded.

Justin pulled out his Pokéball and let the Zubat out. It fluttered around Ken's head, looking like a deformed blue butterfly. Ken caught it by the wings and looked at its teeth, which were stained red. Ken felt the sore on his hand. He didn't look happy. "Of all the Zubat here... You just had to take the one that bit me, didn't you?"

"Well, it was the only one that Whismur didn't knock out... I couldn't just let it escape." Justin looked slightly embarrassed. Ken let go of the bat, which started to flutter around Justin's head. "Plus, I want something that can fly. You saw how Whismur did against the Pidgey."

Ken grudgingly accepted Justin's choice. They finished sending the unconscious Zubat to the lab, and the two set their Pokédexes so they wouldn't beep loudly when someone was calling them. Justin put the Zubat back in its ball, and the four continued on their way much more cautiously. Ken was checking the map again, and Justin was keeping a lookout for Pokémon. They had traveled for a while when they saw something in the distance- It was a light, floating up and down slowly. It was moving toward them. Ken told Ralts to extinguish the light, and they hid behind a rock jutting out of the wall.

The light got closer. It was revealed to be a glowing stone held by a pinkish Pokémon with a curly tail, brown ears and comically tiny wings on its back. Though the wings weren't flapping, the Pokémon seemed like it was barely affected by gravity. It was singing softly. Justin whispered to Ken, "I think that's a Clefairy... What's it holding?"

"I don't know... Wait, where's it going?"

The Clefairy turned through a very small tunnel. The trainers jumped up and Ralts conjured a light again. "We have to follow it!" Justin announced.

"How, though?" Ken replied. The tunnel was way to small for Ken, or even the skinny Justin, to enter.

Ralts answered this question for them. The connection between him and his trainer was opened wider... Wider...

Eventually, to Ken's surprise, Ralts pulled Ken's mind into his tiny body. Ken saw his own body fall over through eyes that weren't his, and for the first time since he was at Cammaren's gym, he heard Ralts think. 'This will do for now, Teacher.' He thought to Ken.

Ken thought about what Ralts called him. 'Wait, Teacher? I haven't taught him anything. Why-'

His thought was interrupted. 'Of course you have. You just don't realize it; and yes, I can hear your thoughts. Our minds are as one when we are like this.'

Outside of Ralts's body, Justin was trying to wake the mindless body of Ken. Ralts, or maybe Ken, gave a slight laugh. He grabbed Ken's Pokédex, then headed into the small tunnel; Ken watching the whole way.

 

[Zekurom]

Re: Field Research (7 chapters! I wonder when I'll get feedback?)

You know, you should probably wait longer than three hours to post new chapters. Otherwise, people still won't be able to read it if they come a day later to look at the thread.

 

[Captain GIROG]

Re: Field Research (7 chapters! I wonder when I'll get feedback?)

You know, you should probably wait longer than three hours to post new chapters. Otherwise, people still won't be able to read it if they come a day later to look at the thread.

Mkay, I'll try doing that. Maybe one every other day...


I'm a bit clueless with chapters and spacing between them, the only thing I ever posted was a one chapter journal on some other forum four years ago.

 

[betagold]

Re: Field Research (7 chapters so far, Feedback is appreciated)

I have to say, I'm quite enjoying this.

 

[Captain GIROG]

Chapter 8

Field Research, chapter eight (Ken has an out-of-body experience while in a body):



It was all so bizarre. Ken had no control of where Ralts was going, but he felt this new body as if it were his own. He knew he could leave back to his body at any time, but he needed to know what the Clefairy was doing. The Pokémon was moving slowly, now that it had to waddle instead of skipping; catching up to it was easy. It paid no attention to the small Ralts behind it, but kept on its way. The tunnel kept getting wider and taller until Ken could have stood up straight in it if he were in his own body. Eventually, Ken and Ralts saw a dim light, growing brighter as they went closer. Ralts took out Ken's Pokédex. 'You thought you would need this before we went into the cave, Teacher.' Ralts thought.

'I think it can take video recordings. We're going to have to mess around with it, though. I don't remember exactly how it works.' Ken explained.

Ralts took out the Pokédex, and with a bit of work, they began recording. The tunnel ended in a gigantic, dome-shaped cave with three holes in the ceiling, in a triangular formation. It was now night, which meant they had been traversing the caves for several hours. In the center of the dome rested an enormous pile of every type of stone imaginable. Most of it, however, was black and rough. The glow that could be seen in the tunnel came from stones similar to the one the Clefairy they followed was holding. Soon, several more Clefairy came out of tunnels in the walls similar to the one Ralts used to enter. They were all singing softly, and they were all carrying stones. They gathered around the rocky heap in the center and deposited their treasures with the rest of the stones. Ralts was recording this eagerly. The Clefairy began to sing in unison, and one skipped over to greet their guest.

"We welcome the visitor, but not his guest." The Clefairy sang, in a language completely alien to Ken. Ralts understood it, though, and translated in his mind. "The unwelcome guest is seeking knowledge, and we will permit him to ask three questions."

Ken and Ralts both figured that Ken was the unwelcome guest. He thought to ask about the language, or about the stone the Clefairy was holding, or maybe why the Clefairy are barely affected by gravity. His reason for being there, though, made him ask a completely different question. 'Could you tell me about the stones in the center of the room?' He threw the thought at the Clefairy.

It kept to its word. "We gather stones and deposit them every night."

Ken was annoyed at the obvious answer. 'What do you do with the stones?'

"Every three moons, all of the stones, except for half of the Stones of the Moon, are expelled from the mountain. Think carefully of your third question."

Ken thought for a second. He could guess that the stones went around Kanto, if not the whole world. That question didn't need to be asked. He also didn't need to know what happened to the stones that aren't expelled, so he asked a question he felt Cammaren would have wanted him to ask. 'What would happen if the stones didn't reach their destination?'

The Clefairy responded after a few seconds of thought. "There are millions of stones that have been launched and remain undiscovered. There would be few negative consequences."

Even as the small Pokémon answered this last question, Ken felt his link with Ralts growing dimmer and started to feel his own body again. He suddenly felt a small weight appear on his chest, as if something had fallen on him. He could no longer hear the strange singing. In its place was Justin speaking, sounding very panicked. "No, he's not conscious! He sort of just stopped doing everything!
No, his Ralts isn't here, it ran off! Yes, he still has a pulse, if he didn't I'd have told you he died!"

Ken looked at the thing that was on his chest. Ralts had teleported his Pokédex back.

Ken stood up. He walked up behind Justin and looked who he was talking to on the Pokédex. He was talking to Caleb again. Just as Caleb asked if Justin had tried CPR, Ken decided to speak up. "I don't think that would be a very good idea, Justin was always terrible in Health Class."

Justin jumped and dropped his Pokédex, which Ken caught. "Well, it looks like you won't need me anymore, so I'll just hang up-" Caleb said. Justin was speechless at his friend's sudden recovery.

"Don't hang up, I have a hell of a lot of information to give you right now." Ken told him.

"What happened? Is it important?" Caleb asked, sounding as excited as he was earlier about the Zubat.

"I found the Clefairy, and a possibly huge source of profit. I'm sending the video to the lab as we speak. Call us back after you've watched it." Ken hung up.

Justin got his mind back in order, and asked Ken the obvious question. "What happened back there?"

Ken told him about joining with Ralts and following the Clefairy. When he got to the part with the cave, he showed Justin the video. His eyes lit up when he saw the huge pile of stone. Right when they got to the part with the Clefairy telling Ken he was unwelcome (which Ken translated for Justin), Caleb called back, this time with Elisabeth and Jared next to him. Elisabeth was holding what looked to be a large bottle of blood, probably for feeding the small flock of Zubat.

"That was amazing! I mean, the parts we understood were." Caleb started.

"Why was the Clefairy singing to you and why were you unconscious?" Elisabeth asked.

Ken repeated his story, this time finishing with the questions he asked the Clefairy and its answers. Elisabeth spoke almost immediately after Ken finished. "Stones of the Moon? It was obviously talking about Moon Stones. That means the other rocks in the pile must have been evolutionary stones, too!"

The expressions of the three in the lab were all those of joy. "Do you have any idea what evolutionary stones are worth? This'll be enough to upgrade our equipment! I'm sure Barnabas and the Twins will like this, too. More money means more members. The execs will be excited, too. They don't have much money for bribes or enough members to order kidnappings or blackmail or any of that. We'll get so much more power from this... Caleb's going to go tell Cammaren now, aren't you Caleb?" She gave Caleb a smile that hinted that something bad would happen if he didn't do what she wanted. Elisabeth, Ken noted, had certain skills that made her excellent for running a crime team's lab. Caleb got up and headed to the lab's exit.

"Erm, now, don't let your heads go aflutter now that you're done with one assignment." Jared said in a nervously excited voice. "Cammaren has told Elijah to tell me to tell you to tell her that you're done with an assignment when you're done with an assignment. Now hurry up and contact her, or else you won't be able to catch her before morning! Goodbye now!"

By this time, Ralts had teleported back to Ken. Ken tried to ask him about what happened when he was gone, but he was once again unable to send more than an image and an emotion. This, thought Ken, was going to have to be fixed.

 

[Captain GIROG]

Chapter 9

Field Research, chapter 9 (Jigglypuff is a jerk):

The trainers decided it would be prudent to get out of the caves before contacting Cammaren. They headed back the way they came, and managed to get to the Pokécenter without incident. It was about two in the morning, so Justin registered a room for the night. It was much too late to call Cammaren, and because of this, they decided to wait until morning. The two fell asleep almost immediately on the tiny cots in the similarly small basement room.

That night, Ralts's dreams mingled with Ken's. He saw the Clefairy again... It had something... The stone! He needed the stone. That was his purpose. He followed the Clefairy around a corner, and into... A forest. The Clefairy suddenly grew taller. It wasn't a Pokémon anymore. It was a man in a black outfit with a large red R on his chest. Ralts (or was it Ken?) tried to reach out with his mind for his mother... No response. His father? No... His sister? Gone. The man wearing black looked down at him and said in the Clefairy's singsong voice, "How'd you like to come with me?".

Ralts spoke up in Ken's voice. "Where's my family?"

The man wearing black looked down at him. "They didn't get the stone." He took out a Pokéball, and then...

Ken woke up. He looked down at an arrangement of pillows he made for Ralts to sleep on, and saw that he was just waking too. Ken knew that they dreamed the same strange dream, and he decided to ask about it. He sent an image of the stone. Ken sensed a shocked emotion, Ralts obviously hadn't figured out that their dream was shared. Ralts gave no answer.

Thoroughly confused, Ken looked over to the cot across the room. Justin was asleep, and Whismur was lying down on his head. They were both snoring loudly. According to the clock, it was already nine o'clock. He stood up and got ready for the day. Ken's mind came back to the dream. As he thought about it, he realized that he knew how the dream would end. Ralts would have gone into stasis, not moving, changing or thinking, for the next fifty years. This extended sleep would come to a sudden end when a red haired woman and two aspiring teenagers pulled he and a Whismur out of a machine.

He suddenly felt a wave of grief for his Pokémon. What did happen to his family? Were they, like him, captured by Rocket? Ralts sensed his grief and stuck his head into the washroom, where Ken was shaving. "It's nothing." He told Ralts, turning his head and cutting his face on the razor. He finished shaving, cleaned and bandaged the cut, then went to wake Justin.

"Justin, get up. We have to call Cammaren and get breakfast." Justin didn't hear him over the sound of Whismur's snoring.

Ken quickly grabbed Whismur's ear and tugged it slightly. He woke up immediately and gave an extremely loud scream for a split second. This was enough. Justin was wide awake. "Get up, we overslept and we still have to call Cammaren and eat breakfast."

Justin looked up at Ken. "What happened to your face?"

"I cut myself shaving. What happened to yours?" There actually wasn't anything wrong with Justin's face. It had the desired effect, though. Justin stood up and walked into the washroom.

"There's nothing wrong with my face..." Justin replied.

"I must've been seeing things. How about you get ready for breakfast while you're up?" Ken was famished. They didn't have anything to eat the night before in the caves except for some rolls Ralts nicked from the cafeteria.

While Justin was packing the backpack, Ken decided to call Cammaren. He had registered her number the day she gave him the Pokédex. When she answered, he saw her angrily yelling at someone to her left. "Can you find the time to wait just one minute? God, I'll battle you when I'm done! This is important!"

Looking behind her, Ken saw she was in the gym. Someone had apparently just challenged her for the chance to win a badge. "Hello, Cammaren." Ken greeted her. "Has Caleb given you the information Justin and I got for you?"

"He has." She responded. "Why didn't you contact me sooner?"

"It was very late when we got out of the caves. The only reason we told the lab workers was because Justin was already talking to Caleb." Ken told her.

"Yes, I heard about your adventures with the Clefairy. I must say, I'm impressed. I didn't discover that trick with the link until several months into training." Cammaren did, in fact, seem impressed.

"You mean, you can...?" Ken began.

"Of course, most who have strong bonds to Psychic Pokémon can use their link in many ways. I SAID TO WAIT! CAN YOU GET THAT THROUGH YOUR THICK SKULL?!? CALL BACK YOUR NIDOKING UNTIL WE START!" The challenger was apparently growing impatient. "We can discuss that later. Now, your next task is to research Slowpoke near Cerulean City, on the other side of Mt. Moon. I think I can forgive your depressingly small amount of information on Clefairy due to the magnitude of the said information, but we need you to actually study the Slowpoke. Jared will expect an extensive page on their behaviors in the wild by Friday next week. Good luck." She hung up before Ken could say anything.

Ken looked over his shoulder to see Justin with a wide look of disbelief on his face. He took a second to say what he was thinking. "Slowpoke? She can't be serious! Have you ever seen one? They have to be the most boring things in the world!"

Ken looked at Justin and didn't say anything. They finished packing and went upstairs to the cafeteria. The breakfast selection wasn't on a buffet, but was spread out on several tables. The selection was almost as amazing as the lunch one. There was bacon, sausage, all kinds of cereal, bagels, every pastry imaginable, waffles, pancakes, fruits, breakfast burritos (which Justin took several of), and everything else that you could call breakfast food. After stuffing themselves happily, they packed some fruits, pastries and drinks and set off for the caves again. Before they entered the cave, though, something that looked like a large pink ball bounced by them, singing softly. It turned to face them, and stared with large blue eyes. There was a tuft of hair on its head. Justin looked at it strangely, but Ken identified it immediately.

"What... Is that?" Ken asked.

"It's a Jigglypuff- it's supposed to become pretty powerful if you train it correctly. I want to catch it." Ralts, sensing Ken wanted to battle, teleported in front of his trainer.

"Okay, but you should hurry up- It's supposed to take more than a dozen hours to get through the tunnels." Justin sat down on a nearby rock.

The Jigglypuff sensed danger and puffed itself up. It stood on the ground with an aggressive look on its face.

Ken gave the command for Ralts to attack with his mind. The Jigglypuff, who was rushing at Ralts, lost its balance. It rolled a short distance, got up, and punched Ralts. Ralts teleported a short distance away and attacked with balls of light. They were blinding, even with the sun shining. The Jigglypuff fell onto the ground and rolled again. Ken, figuring it was a good time to capture it, took out a Pokéball and threw it at the Jigglypuff. The ball lurched for a few seconds as it did when Ken caught his Zubat, and then stopped. Ken had just caught his first Pokémon.

Ken walked over to Ralts and checked to be sure he was hurt too badly from the punch. Ralts assured Ken he was fine with a string of positive emotions. Feeling better, Ken put the ball into a small pocket in his vest, and the party went onward into the caves. Ralts once again led the way with his ball of light, and they managed through the caves without great trouble. When they were a few hours in, though, they saw something scuttling in the tunnel ahead. Ralts sent its light over to it and revealed it to be a reddish Pokémon with two mushrooms growing on its back.

"Know what that is? You can catch it if you want." Ken said to Justin, who looked sickened by the sight of the Pokémon.

"I know what it is, but I wish I didn't. I sure as hell don't want to catch it, either." Justin tried not to look at it.

"What do you mean?" Ken pressed further.

Justin shuddered. "It's a Paras. It's a terrible example of parasitism. See those mushrooms on its back?" Ken nodded. "They're connected to all of its body systems. It does nothing but make the Paras constantly think it's hungry. It'll burrow to find plants to suck the life out of, just so its mushrooms can suck the life out of the Paras. One of the mushrooms will grow faster than the other, though, and it'll overpower the smaller one. When the mushroom gets this big, it'll become a Parasect- an empty shell of a Pokémon controlled completely by the abomination on its back. That's not the worst part. When the mushroom starts to get too big for the Parasect to carry, the mushroom will put an irresistible urge to mate in it. When the female lays her eggs, the mushroom spreads its spores onto the eggs to infect the young. The mushroom will then finish sucking the life out of the Parasect, slowly killing it. We learned about it in Biology, remember?"

Ken was shocked. He felt bad for the small bug. "Well, I think this'll be a good time to see how Jigglypuff does in a battle."

Ken sent out the balloon Pokémon. "Jigglypuff, sing!"

To his surprise, the Jigglypuff crossed its arms and turned to face the wall. "Hmph." It grunted, pouting.

This didn't sit well with Ken. "Jigglypuff! Sing! Put it to sleep so you can beat it up more easily!"

Jigglypuff continued its pouting. "Fine, punch it then! I saw you hit Ralts!"

Jigglypuff remained firm in its refusal to follow Ken's commands. Ken tried to reach out with his mind, but found it a lot harder to do with the Jigglypuff than with Ralts.

"Do something, then! I'm your trainer, you have to obey me!" Ken was incensed. "Well? Go! Attack! Pokémon are supposed to like winning fights!"

Jigglypuff muttered something under its breath. Neither Ken nor Justin knew what it said, but Ralts fell on the floor laughing and Whismur looked entertained. "What?!?" Ken demanded to Ralts. "Did it say something about me?!?"

Needing to know what it said and why it wasn't obeying, Ken opened the connection with Ralts to his very best. Among the thoughts he could just barely sense, he managed to single out a thought that Ralts found hilarious: A Jigglypuff muttering "Maybe if you asked nicely I'd do something, you piece of-" Ken didn't ever find out what he was a piece of, as Ralts had another fit of laughter when he recalled the memory. The huge difference in their emotions severely weakened their link to the point where Ken wasn't able to finish the memory. He could easily guess, though. He recalled the Jigglypuff furiously. He told Justin that, since neither of his Pokémon seemed up to fighting, he was welcome to see how well Zubat fought. This statement brought another roar of laughter from Ralts.

The Paras was still scuttling around. Justin, not understanding what was so funny, decided to just forget about it. He pulled out the ball his Zubat was in and pressed the button to release the blue vampire. "Zubat! Go!"

The Zubat looked ready for action. It swooped over the Paras, squeaking the whole time. This seemed to disorient the bug. "Zubat! Suck the life out of those mushrooms!" Justin commanded, and the Zubat obeyed perfectly.

It landed on the back of the Paras, avoiding its pincers. It bit the mushroom and began to suck the juices out of it. What better metaphor for honor was there than having a predator destroy a parasite? When Zubat tried to fly away, however, it got hit on the wing by one of the claws, leaving a gash and making it difficult to stay in the air. Small drops of blood trailed behind the bat. "Zubat! Try to get the other one!"

The Zubat managed to fly over the weakened and confused Paras. The death of one of its mind-controlling mushrooms seemed to make it less inclined to attack. When Zubat finished the second, the bleeding somehow stopped. The injury was still there, but Zubat just stopped bleeding. The Paras stood stock still. It didn't move for a good minute. Then, slowly, it took the sucked-dry mushrooms off of its back and threw them as far as it could. There were two dark spots on its shell where the mushrooms had been, but that didn't matter to the Paras, which burrowed out of sight. Justin was very pleased by this.

Ken was still confused by Zubat's rapid healing. Feeling the need to find an answer, he opened his Pokédex and made sure the sound was off. After a minute of tweaking, he opened the page on Paras. It didn't say much about the grisly parasitism, but it did provide the answer he needed. Near the bottom of the Pokédex entry was written:

Though the parasitic fungi on a Paras's back will eventually lead to its death, the extract of the fungi have great medicinal value and are the primary active ingredient in FullRestores.

Ken, still furious at his Jigglypuff, was glad to have at least solved one puzzle. He spent a good part of the trip adding what Justin said to the page on Paras. They continued through the tunnel, and didn't stop until they reached the exit. They came out of the cave with a beautiful view of the landscape. There was a river, and a group of children was playing by it. Off in the distance, Ken and Justin could see the prosperous city of Cerulean.

 

[Captain GIROG]

Chapter 10

Field Research, chapter 10 (Enter a prick):

The Sun was setting over a midsummer day as they left the caves. Justin gave a sigh of relief when he stepped off of hard stone and onto cool spongy grass; his feet were sore from the constant thudding on limestone. The trainers set up their tent, and after a meal of assorted cooked vegetables and fruits, they unrolled their sleeping bags and went to sleep.

The next morning, Ken and Justin began their trek again, but not before using their last potato to make hash browns. The road led them down by the river, where they found several dopey-looking pink dog-like things sitting in and around the water. Ken turned his head to Justin. "Are those the Slowpoke?" he asked.

Justin looked at the Pokémon and replied. "Stupid little things, aren't they?"

Ken stopped walking. "We're supposed to do research on them. Shouldn't we stop and write a few things down?"

"Don't worry, I bet they won't have moved an inch when we come back tomorrow. Besides, I want to get set up in the Pokécenter in Cerulean." Justin's eyes seemed to light up at the idea of a bed and free food.

"Fine, but if we can't find them later, you're the one who's going to have to explain this to Cammaren." Ken looked a bit less than happy, but he too was brought up by the idea of a Pokécenter. It was almost noon when they passed by a well-dressed teenager with slick black hair strutting down the path with a Pokéball in his hand.

Before Justin could say anything, Ken pulled out his Pokéball. "Hey kid!" he shouted. "I challenge you to a Pokémon Battle!" Ken knew that if he wanted Jigglypuff to listen to him, he would have to put it in a situation where it would be forced to.

"Well then," the boy said in a pompous voice. "Despite your obvious lack of manners, and your-" he looked at Ken's clothing. "Unwashed visage, I guess I could consent to a battle. However, I feel you shall find my Pokémon a higher breed than whatever you've trained." Ralts growled at the trainer.

Ralts teleported in front of Ken, but was sent a negative thought of Jigglypuff. He teleported back to Ken's side regretfully. "Now, may I introduce: Cacnea!"

The boy's Pokéball opened to reveal a green spiky ball with an evil grin. Its mouth appeared to be made up of several circular dark holes, and it had dark-green rhombi on its front. A fourth rhombus was on the top of its head, and a yellow flower was growing off of this shape. It used two spikes for legs, and had two clublike arms with even more spikes at the end.

"Amazing, isn't she? Mother paid top dollar to have her imported from Sinnoh. She's of a breed whose flower never wilts, and it emits such a wonderful aroma." The pompous boy smelled the air to punctuate this statement. "Now, what do you have? I'm just dying to know."

Ken did not like this kid. "Jigglypuff!" he yelled, throwing the ball unceremoniously to the ground.

Jigglypuff came out of the ball and shot Ken a look of discontent. Across from the balloon, Cacnea gave an impatient look and gesture to her trainer. "With that attitude? I think I'll wait for our opponent to make his move."

Ken wasn't very happy about this statement, and neither was the Cacnea. "Jigglypuff, put it to sleep!"

Jigglypuff ignored this. "I said to sing! Go!"

Cacnea was having similar problems from her trainer, who refused to give even the most basic instructions. She gave him several pleading looks. "You've had your chance," he told her. "You made the wrong choice. Now you won't be able to have the first attack. I think you'll remember this lesson, don't you?"

This set her off. She jumped at Jigglypuff, who was too shocked to fight back. Cacnea threw Jigglypuff at her trainer and stood with her back to Ken. She looked up at him, lifted her arm, and smiled. Ken understood happily.

"Well, it looks like our Pokémon want to switch sides. Does this sound good to His Majesty?" Ken mocked. "It looks like the 'higher breed' can't stand a trainer who doesn't even know to give orders!"

The well-dressed trainer looked at Jigglypuff, who looked up and nodded. They both looked furious. "Jigglypuff, would you be so kind as to pummel that traitor to the ground?" Jigglypuff looked happy to oblige.

Ken had no clue how to command this new Pokémon. After commanding Cacnea to protect herself from the Jigglypuff's poorly thrown punch, Justin spoke up. "Leech Seed! I think Cacnea can seed their opponents!" he shouted.

Ken looked at Cacnea, who blocked another punch. "Leech Seed!" he shouted, echoing Justin.

Cacnea spat several seeds from her mouth, which stuck to Jigglypuff like glue. They dug their roots into the Pokémon and sprouted quick-growing vines that seemed to somehow nourish the unattached Cacnea.

The Jigglypuff bounced back to the well dressed trainer. "Jigglypuff, I need you to sing!" the trainer commanded.

Jigglypuff sang a beautiful song, which made everyone who listened drowsy. By sheer force of will (and Whismur sneezing halfway through), Cacnea managed to stay awake. The vines grew even more, and Jigglypuff was beginning to look fatigued. "Cacnea!" Ken commanded. "Smash it!"

Cacnea gladly followed her order. She ran up to Jigglypuff and pounded it with her spiked arms. The Pokémon flew against a tree, obviously knocked out. The vines shriveled and fell off. The rich boy was furious. "Fine!" he shouted, stamping his foot. "Take that worthless cactus! I don't need it! Go away! GO AWAY!" He threw the Cacnea's Pokéball at Ken, who caught it before it hit the ground.

The boy picked up Jigglypuff and walked away. "You're forgetting something!" Ken shouted cheerfully. He threw Jigglypuff's Pokéball at the trainer. It hit him in the head. He scowled, picked it up, and returned the Jigglypuff to its ball. He continued his angered strutting.

"You're just going to let him walk away with your Pokémon?" Justin asked, surprised.

"Of course, they're made for each other. They're both snobs, and they're both full of gas. I think it was a fair trade, though." Ken looked down at Cacnea, who seemed pleased to see her trainer walking away from her. "You want to go out of your Pokéball for a while?" he asked Cacnea. She gave a smile of approval- this was probably the first time she was out of her Pokéball since she was caught in Hoenn.

The five continued on their way to Cerulean. It was coming on noon, so they planned on getting there well before dark. As Ken looked at the Slowpoke laying around by the river, doing nothing but lying down and thinking, he realized that though they were far from the smartest creatures in the world, they were definitely on to something.

 

[Captain GIROG]

Chapter 11

Field Research, chapter 11 (Justin challenges a Gym):


Cerulean City was, in every sense, an inverse to Pewter. Just a few minutes after entering the city, they saw children playing with each other, they heard people say hello to complete strangers, and they saw people looking into extravagant window displays in stores with unique names. A particular store, The Pokémon Master, caught Justin's eye. He and Whismur went inside while Ken waited with Ralts and Cacnea. Justin came back out a few minutes later with a Pokémon League belt buckle ("I've always wanted one of these!") and stickers for Pokéballs. He was fussing around with putting a winged oval on Zubat's ball when they reached the Pokécenter. It was quite easily the most amazing building in the city. It took up a small city block, and rose up several stories. Ken and Justin were blown away upon entering this giant of a building.

The foyer was enormous. It took up an entire floor, and dozens upon dozens of trainers and their Pokémon were sitting at tables, talking and having a great time. Justin was almost knocked over by a Doduo, which was being pursued by its trainer because of a coat in one of its beaks. The reception desk, which was on the other side of the floor, had twelve nurses at it. Justin, seeing one wasn't busy, jogged over and placed Zubat's Pokéball on the counter. He then went upstairs to join Ken in the food court.

The Pokécenter near Mt. Moon just had a buffet. This Pokécenter had a two buffets, four fast food restaurants and a large kiosk for Pokémon foods. Justin stood dumbfounded, staring at the huge selection of foods. He was awoken from this stupor when Whismur, who had been sitting on his shoulder, tugged his ear, shouted "Whii!" and pointed to a table where Ralts and Cacnea were waiting for Ken. Justin dropped Whismur off at the table and went to one of the buffets, where he picked up some of everything. He was about to go back to the table when he decided to stop by the Pokémon kiosk to see what he could get for Zubat- he didn't think Zubat would like bread very much. After a short wait, a man behind the counter greeted him. "How are yeh'? What's hungry?"

Justin replied quickly. "Zubat. What do they eat?"

The man behind the counter asked him to wait a minute while he got what Justin wanted. He ran into a room in the back and returned with a bag of what looked like blood. Justin went pale. "Is that...?"

The man laughed. "O'course not! Well, part of it is. It's a soup of proteins and vitamins that looks and tastes like blood to whatever lucky Zubat drinks it! It's also a lot cheaper than just plain blood. Now, can I see your card?"

Justin gave the man his card, and he swiped it through a machine. "Have a nice day!"

Justin went back to the table, where Ken and Ralts were eating. Cacnea was eying Ken's food, not sure if she was allowed to have some. Whismur hopped over to Justin's tray and started eating some oranges. Ken looked up from the lasagna he was devouring and glanced at the bag of Zubat food. "That for the blue thing?" he asked. Ken apparently hadn't gotten over his bite.

"It's for Zubat." Justin replied. "Speaking of which, its wing should be mended soon..."

Ken turned to face Cacnea. "What do you eat? Have whatever you want."

Cacnea, surprised at Ken's generosity, picked up a piece of meat and started to rip it into smaller pieces with her clublike arms. When they were small enough, she began to eat them. Cacnea, it seemed, was a carnivore.

They continued to eat. Justin heard the announcement that Zubat was fully healed halfway through his bowl of tomato soup, so he drank the rest and went downstairs to the reception desk.

"We mended Zubat's wing and got some parasites out of its fur." the nurse told Ken. "Its wing is still sore, though. It should be completely recovered by tomorrow, but we suggest you let Zubat out to fly for a few hours tonight to get it used to its wing again."

Justin took back Zubat's Pokéball, but before he left, he asked another question. "Umm, what gender's Zubat?" he looked slightly embarrassed.

"It's difficult to tell when they're this young. When it evolves into a Golbat, you'll be able to tell from the size of its fangs. Males have fangs around three inches long, but female fangs are only two inches." She smiled and turned to the next trainer, who had a burnt-looking Rattata.

Justin went back upstairs to the table, where Ken was attacking some shortcake. Justin took out Zubat and put it on the bag of fake blood. Ken looked at the slowly deflating bag, shuddered, and went back to his food. Justin heard him mutter something along the lines of "freakish". He bit back a laugh and finished his food. "Well," Justin stood up. "I'm going to go check us into a room, then I'm going to go out and check out the city. Contact me if something very bad happens."

Justin did just as he said he would. After dropping off the hiking bag in their room, he walked outside with Whismur following closely. His shirt was tucked in so people could better see his belt buckle, and he wore Whismur's empty Pokéball on his belt next to Zubat's and four others. After looking in several stores and watching people for a while, he finally came to the reason he left Ken at the Pokécenter: The Cerulean City Gym.

Most of the inside of the building had a layout similar to the Pewter gym. There were major differences, though. The stands were normal bleachers, and didn't appear to be made of stone. The largest change was the stadium. Where there were mock-up ancient ruins in Cammaren's gym, there was a massive pool with several floats for trainers and Pokémon to stand in. The air was very humid, but it lacked the chlorine smell most pools have. It was probably kept clean without chemicals so fish Pokémon could breathe during battle. There was a plaque on a rail near the entrance. Justin walked up to it and read:

Cerulean City Cascade Gym
Commemorating eighty years of excellence in Water Pokémon training.


Next to that plaque was a plastic sign.

Leader: Kathryn Savers
Accepting badge challenges from the hours of 12:00 Noon to 5:00PM Mon-Fri. Please speak to Ms. Savers during these hours.
Swimming lessons from 8:00AM to 1:00PM Weekends (Please sign up beforehand)
Pokémon training lessons 8:00AM to 12:00 Noon Mon-Fri (Please sign up beforehand)

Justin looked at his watch. It was three o'clock on Wednesday, so he could challenge the leader. He looked around the gym, but it was empty. He was about to turn and leave when a hand clapped him on the shoulder. "Gha!!" he shouted and turned around.

He saw a short-haired woman wearing a windbreaker and wetsuit with a large, green L on the front, identifying herself as a member of the Pokémon league. She was probably in her early forties. She smiled at Justin's reaction and gave a rich laugh. "Surprised you, didn't I?" she looked at his large belt buckle, which made it obvious that he was a trainer. "I'm guessing you want to challenge me?"

Justin was still a bit surprised. "You're Ms. Savers?" he asked shyly.

"The one and only. But call me Kathryn, I'm not teaching now." She took a small handheld, similar to Justin's Pokédex, out of her jacket's pocket.

"Can I see your trainer card?" she asked.

Justin looked unsure.

"You do want to try for a Cascade Badge, right?" she asked.

Justin pulled himself together. "Yes, ma'am." He handed her his card.

She waved Justin's card over the handheld, and Justin's face and name appeared on the screen with a large number 0 next to it. "Going for your first badge, Justin? I guess I'll go easy on you."

She led the way downstairs. Justin's mind was moving a mile a minute. He only had two Pokémon. He only kind of beat one trainer. He never got in a battle without needing to go to a Pokécenter afterward. He only started being a trainer less than a week ago!

"Where are you from?" Kathryn asked.

"Erm, Pewter." Justin said, feeling overwhelmed.

"That's a nice little town," she lied. "Cammaren just became the leader there, didn't she? She's a nice girl. Very ambitious, but very strange. She had her name changed so that she only has a first name. No last name at all. There's even an 'accidental' burn on her birth certificate where her last name was. Have you met her?"

"A couple of times." They had reached the bottom of the stairs.

Kathryn stopped and faced Justin. "Cascade Gym battles are two on two, so you'll use whatever two Pokémon you think will do best and command them simultaneously. If they're land Pokémon, they can stand on those platforms in front of yours. Whoever has the last standing, swimming or flying wins. Good luck!"

Kathryn took off her jacket and jumped in the pool. She swam to her platform masterfully. Justin, who never felt very comfortable in the water, walked to his end of the pool and jumped onto his platform from the side of the pool. The billboard to his right lit up, saying "LEADER KATHRYN SAVERS VS. CHALLENGER JUSTIN SANSON" with their pictures beneath the names. Kathryn opened her two Pokéballs, revealing a large blue-and-grey ray and a brown starfish with a red gem in its center. "Go! Mantine! Staryu!"

Justin sent out his Pokémon. "Whismur! Zubat!"

The Manta ray dove underneath the water at its trainer's command. The starfish, however, began to spin and float off the surface of the water. "Staryu! Tackle the Zubat!" Kathryn shouted.

Zubat dodged the spinning starfish. "Whismur! Attack the Staryu!"

Whismur started to scream at the Staryu, constantly changing its pitch. Justin failed to see why its voice was tuning up and down, until he saw the Staryu stop midair, shaking. After a few seconds of shaking, its core cracked. Kathryn recalled the Pokémon and congratulated Justin. With the first Pokémon down, Justin only had to worry about the Mantine. He had no clue how his Pokémon were even going to be able to hurt it. Zubat wouldn't be able to go into the water; its fur would get wet and it would be unable to fly. Whismur's attacks wouldn't be able to reach into the water; because sound is the vibration of air. The stadium was quiet...

"Mantine! Water Pulse!" Kathryn broke the silence with a command.

Ripples began to form in the water, emanating from where the Mantine was swimming. Ken could see it take aim. It appeared to spit, and a second later a huge ball of water was launched out of the water. It hit Zubat directly. Zubat fell into the water, where it struggled for a second. Justin recalled the small bat. "Again!" Kathryn shouted.

Mantine jumped out of the water and started to glide. Whismur inhaled to scream, but Mantine spat another ball of water into his face. Whismur coughed out the water and inhaled again. Another ball of water hit, this time knocking Whismur into the pool. Whismur was about as good at swimming as Zubat was. Justin called Whismur back into his Pokéball. The scoreboard lit up with the words "WINNER: LEADER KATHRYN"

Justin heard clapping from in the stands. He turned to look, and his face blanched. Ken, Ralts and Cacnea were watching the battle. Kathryn, who had already swam over to Justin's side, congratulated him on almost winning. "You just need to get a more varied team. Zubat isn't very useful at all unless it has a neck to bite." She noticed Justin staring at Ken in the stands. "Is that a friend of yours?" she asked.

"Yeah. Thanks for the advice. I'll try again some other time, I guess. Bye." He left the stadium filled with disbelief.

"Why're you here?" he asked Ken, who followed him out of the gym.

"Cammaren called me and asked if I knew you're challenging the Cerulean Gym Leader. Apparently challenges are shared information throughout the League. So what made you think you could beat a leader?"

"Um, I'm not sure. I just kind of... Thought I'd take the challenge. I almost won, though." Justin looked embarrassed.

"Not really," Ken replied. "You didn't even hurt the Mantine. The Staryu was pretty damaged, though. Speaking of which, aren't you going to let Whismur out to dry a bit?"

Justin let Whismur out of his ball. His fur was soaked, but it was drying off. Justin took out Zubat's ball, but Ken stopped him. "I'm sure it can dry off inside the Pokéball."

Whismur was breathing into his ears and out of his mouth, like he did when he was screaming. He wasn't making any noise, though. He was probably drying out his windpipes. The five went back to the Pokécenter. They went to the third floor, the floor the trainer lodges started. Their room was large. Two queen-sized beds, a television, a fully equipped washroom, a computer and a video game console were all in a free hotel room, courtesy of the Pokémon League even to the most small-time trainers. This room was much better than the one near Mt. Moon, which had nothing but a radio, some cots, a sink and a shower. Justin was playing a racing game (which Whismur tried to learn, but was frustrated by his lack of thumbs) and Ken was reading a book on his Pokédex when they heard something tapping on the window. Justin paused the game and walked over to the window, and was greeted by a Zubat with a small package tied to its leg. He opened the window, let the Zubat in, took off the package and opened it. The Zubat flew out of the window and into the night. This reminded Justin that he was supposed to let Zubat fly a bit that night. He let his own Zubat follow, and looked into the package. There were two black patches with red M's on them and the words "Reverto Silicis ut Vox" written in red letters. Justin unfolded the attached letter and read out loud:

"Dear Ken and Justin,

"We have discovered an excellent use for the Zubat you provided us! It seems they're able to track someone miles away on scent alone, so we had a grunt break into your apartment and steal some of your belongings so the Zubat could find you. They make excellent message carriers, and they always return after their jobs are done. We have them well trained. Enclosed are two patches that go on the inside of a jacket to be used to identify fellow members of our growing team. They're adhesive, but you can sew them on if you want.

"Good luck with the Slowpoke!
"-Jared

"P.S.
"Turn your television to the Pokémon League Network tonight at eight!"

Justin put down the letter and picked up the patches. "So we have to put these inside our jackets?"

"That's what Jared said." Ken answered, taking one of the patches.

He walked over to the closet and took out Justin's jacket and his vest. He threw Justin's heavy jacket to him. "I don't know how you can wear this in summer." Ken muttered.

Justin put the patch on the inside. As Jared had said, the patch stuck on without the need to sew it. He then looked at the time. "It's almost eight. I wonder what Jared wants us to watch."

"I don't know, change the channel." Ken said, lying back down on his bed.

Justin changed the channel to the Pokémon League Network, and a commercial break just finished. A camera was zooming in on a giant stadium on a hill surrounded on all sides by bleachers. Two trainers stood on elevated platforms on the edges of the green Astroturf field. The Pokémon League theme began to play, and a commentator began to speak. "It's a beautiful night at the Indigo Plateau Stadium, where this next round of hopefuls will compete to gain the rank of Pokémon Master, and join the Pokémon League! The first match of the night will pit hopeful trainer Micheal Chong"- the camera zoomed into a black haired trainer wearing a triangular golden necklace and a denim jacket. -"And the new Gym Leader and Pokémon Master, who just gained the title last year in this very competition, representing the Psychic-Type Boulder Gym in Pewter, Cammaren!" The camera zoomed into a woman standing on the other platform. She had strikingly red hair and wore a long black jacket. She had a no-nonsense expression on her face and made a big show of opening her jacket (showing a patch with a red M on it) to grab a Pokéball.

"Well, shall we begin?" she asked the other trainer.

Miles away in Cerulean City, her two researchers were watching the television intently.

 

[betagold]

Re: Field Research (Eleven chapters so far, feedback would be much appreciated.)

I'm really liking this story. It's a very scientific approach, and it's quite an interesting read.

 

[Captain GIROG]

Re: Field Research (Eleven chapters so far, feedback would be much appreciated.)

I'm really liking this story. It's a very scientific approach, and it's quite an interesting read.

Thanks for the feedback!

 

[Captain GIROG]

Chapter 12

Field Research, chapter 12 (Cammaren battles Pokémon):

The commentary continued. "Cammaren, the Mind-Bending Master from Pewter, is one of the few trainers to hold an undefeated professional record. She took the job of Leader last week when the former Leader, the Ghost Whisperer Jason Gestas, moved to Lavender Town to better commune with the spirits of Pokémon. At the age of twenty-three, she's certainly not the youngest leader ever, but she does come very close. Her skills seem to be inherited from her Grandfather, who was the leader in Viridian City for quite a while before going off to train on his own. Her father was apparently also very skilled, though he never joined the League. With a family like hers, it's no surprise she ended up being such a prodigy.

"Our challenger today, Micheal Chong, has also had quite a winning streak. With a 19:1 win to loss ratio, he's the highest ranked basic trainer in the world. However, and bear this in mind while betting, he loses an advantage most trainers have due to the fact that he's taking on Cammaren instead of another leader. Usually, trainers have defeated all of the current leaders, so they are familiar with their battle styles in the big games. He's never faced Cammaren before, though, so this will be a very interesting battle. Mike's actually traveled all the way from Orre to take on the Indigo League. He collected his badges in almost record time, and he is the favorite to become the next Master. If you wish to place bets, call the number on the screen within the next minute to have a chance to win. Ten dollar entry fee. Remember, even if you've never seen these trainers battle before, you have a 50:50 chance of winning! If you lose, your entry fees will be used to provide services such as free food and shelter to traveling trainers in Pokécenters. We'll be right back with the start of the battle after these messages."

The channel went to commercial. Ken had put down his Pokédex and was watching intently. Justin had forgotten his game. After a minute of advertisements, the channel went back to the stadium. "And we're back!" the announcer shouted. "Cammaren of Pewter Vs. Micheal Chong! A battle that'll be so hot, the sea will rise three inches! I'm kidding, of course. Now, for those of you just joining us, the battle will be single, six-Pokémon elimination. All the bets are in, and the favorite is Micheal Chong with betting over two to one! We'll see how these combatants fare against each other soon, the battle will begin in thirty seconds. "

The two trainers had walked onto the center of the Astroturf field and shook hands. They were walking back to their platforms when a timer appeared on a giant billboard. The crowd was shouting the countdown together- Ten, nine, eight, seven -Cammaren and Micheal took Pokéballs out of their holders.- Six, five, four, three -Cammaren threw her Pokéball onto the field.- Two -Micheal did the same. The crowd was in an uproar. One! BATTLE! The crowd burst into excited applause. The light from the Pokéballs dimmed down. Micheal's dimmed to reveal what looked like a giant stone. "He leads with his Golem!" the announcer shouted.

Cammaren's light dimmed. A black and purple pig with black pearls ornamenting its body was revealed. "Cammaren chooses Grumpig!" the announcer shouted.

The trainers began to issue commands. The Grumpig began a strange sort of dance that filled the minds of whoever watched it, even through television, with strange music. The Golem retracted its arms, legs and head into its shell and began to roll quickly toward the dancing pig. Grumpig danced out of the way of this attack, and the trainer took a few seconds to give another command. Both the Golem and Micheal seemed entranced by the Grumpig's strange dance. The trainer gave the same command as before, and Golem rolled toward the Grumpig again. The Pokémon wasn't so fast to avoid it this time. Grumpig was knocked against a wall, but it got up and began to dance again. While the Golem was turning around to roll at it again, Grumpig's pearls flashed. The Golem went to roll at it again, but it turned around mid roll and slammed into the same wall Grumpig was knocked into earlier. The announcer, who had been making useless statements, commented on this. "Grumpig's known as the Manipulation Pokémon for this very reason- it can alter its opponents' minds to do its bidding!"

The Golem shook its head to get over the force of the collision. It started to roll at the Grumpig again, and then a large drawing of a boulder flashed on a scoreboard at the stadium. The crowd started cheering. The battlefield began to change. Rocks started to appear out of holes which were opening up in the ground. Grumpig jumped onto a tall one of these, and the Golem slammed into the rock. The rock began to teeter dangerously. Grumpig's eyes and pearls lit up again. The Golem didn't appear out of its shell- it had been knocked unconscious. The rock fell over, and Grumpig fell on its head. "That's something else!" the announcer shouted. "Both Pokémon knocked out at the same time!"

Cammaren looked furious at this development. She recalled the Grumpig. Both trainers sent out their next Pokémon. Cammaren sent out a large, floating clay statue with a dozen eyes circling its head. Micheal sent out a giant red and black tortoise with white smoke surrounding it. Fire was coming out of holes in its shell. "Torkoal against Claydol! This will be interesting."

Almost the second the Torkoal appeared, Cammaren shouted a command to Claydol. Its raindrop-shaped arms orbited around it for a second, and then they pointed at the turtle. The Torkoal was too slow to avoid the beams of energy that erupted from the Claydol's arms. After the beams subsided, the Torkoal tried to stand up. The earth beneath it exploded, launching the tortoise into the air. It fell on its shell and was unable to stand up. Micheal scowled and called back his Torkoal. Two down, four to go. The announcer was ranting about the flawless victory when Micheal threw out another Pokéball, revealing a giant blue mudfish. "He chooses Swampert!"

The crowd roared with cheers. Cammaren and Micheal shouted commands simultaneously. The Swampert shot a piercing beam of ice out of its mouth and ran toward the Claydol. Claydol, on the other hand, created a force field to protect itself. Swampert jumped up to the Pokémon, shattered the force field, grabbed the Claydol and pummeled it to the ground. When a large crack appeared on the statue, Cammaren withdrew it. She threw out another ball- something that resembled a palm tree appeared. "Exeggutor!" shouted the announcer. It had three egg-shaped heads underneath a growth of palm leaves, and it had two legs under its trunklike body. Cammaren shouted an order. Its heads started to hum in unison, and the Swampert started to look tired. The Exeggutor leaned forward, its leaves facing the Swampert. Something was launched out, and the Swampert was knocked over. It was snoring. Micheal recalled the Swampert.

His next Pokémon was a red humanoid chicken. "He sends out a Blaziken! A fire type can easily overpower plants, but will it be able to match up against Cammaren's psychic types?" Flames were bursting out of its hands and feet. Micheal shouted a command. Before the Exeggutor could react to Cammaren's defense order, the Blaziken burst into flames and slammed into Exeggutor. Exeggutor caught fire and was running around the battlefield in flame when Cammaren recalled it.

Cammaren had a serious look on her face when she sent out her next fighter. The ball dimmed to reveal Gardevoir, the white and green human-like Pokémon Ken and Justin saw Cammaren fight with in her gym. Cammaren's face went blank as she joined her mind with Gardevoir's. An instant later, Blaziken was crumpled over on the ground. "A stunning win from Cammaren's oldest partner! Micheal still has two more Pokémon, though. Cammaren is winning by one, and we're waiting to see who Micheal will send out."

Micheal's ball hit the battleground, which was changing again. Most of the rocks and all of the Astroturf disappeared and were replaced by a muddy surface. The dimming light from the Pokéball revealed a giant green dinosaur-like monster with a blue rhombus on its stomach and several black holes around its body. As it stood up, the mud around it dried out and started whipping around the giant Pokémon. Both Gardevoir and Cammaren looked frightened, and then angered. "He sends out a Tyranitar, and Cammaren looks furious! Until recently, Tyranitar were banned in official League battles for just being too powerful, but that ban has since been lifted. This is a very bad situation for Cammaren, as Tyranitar are completely unaffected by psychic attacks! Hold on, it seems as if she's calling a time out. We'll be right back."

Everyone was staring at the television. Ken broke the silence "She's a damn good trainer." he observed.

Justin turned to face him. "Undefeated? I'm not surprised. You saw how well she battled in the Gym, and look at her now! The Blaziken was down the second she sent out Gardevoir. Grumpig got knocked out by a fluke, and did you see what happened with the Torkoal? Boom!" Justin pantomimed an explosion. "I don't know how she's going to be able to get rid of the Tyranitar. Those things are tough."

The commercials ended to show Cammaren looking murderous. The announcer started talking again. "After a short conversation with the officials, the situation is unchanged. The current battle is Tyranitar fighting for Micheal Chong against Gardevoir for Cammaren, and the battle has restarted!"

The Tyranitar was dangerous, but it moved very slowly on two comically small legs. The sandstorm surrounding it was growing larger as more and more mud dried and was picked up. The Tyranitar spat fire at Gardevoir, but she blocked it with a force field. She teleported on top of one of the few remaining rocks, and the horn on her chest began to glow. Glowing leaves appeared out of thin air and started swirling around her. After a few dozen leaves were summoned, they flew at the Tyranitar, several taking root on its hard body and whithering away when they sucked out a good bit of energy. The rest of the leaves sliced at the unarmored parts of its body- its black holes, the tip of its tail, its mouth and its eyes were all targets. This attack kept on for quite a while. Whenever the Tyranitar staggered close enough to attack, Gardevoir would teleport away and continue this assault. Tyranitar seemed severely weakened when it breathed in to spit a fireball at Gardevoir. At this point, the Tyranitar recieived a mouthful of razor-sharp leaves. The leaves caught fire, and Tyranitar's unarmored mouth was soon ablaze with the flame that was meant for Gardevoir. It fell to the ground to grab mud to put out the fire, but the dust storm had taken the water out of the mud, leaving cracked dirt. Tyranitar started flailing and rolling on the ground. Gardevoir teleported right above it and floated in place, and then a massive explosion of pure energy enveloped the Tyranitar. The crowd erupted in huge fits of applause as Micheal recalled his unconscious Tyranitar.

The announcer was going wild. "Oh my God, that was amazing! Never before have I seen such a brilliant use of teleportation and Magical Leaf! And the Focus Blast to end it all... Even if you support Chong, you have to admit that that was excellent! Chong has one Pokémon left, and that Pokémon would have to defeat Cammaren's Gardevoir and Xatu if Chong is to win! We'll be right back!"

Ken and Justin could hear cheers and jeers coming out of the rooms surrounding them. Justin and Whismur were cheering loudly with the other trainers watching the battle. "Did you see that?!?" he excitedly asked Ken. "How its face just caught fire? And then how Gardevoir was floating above it, and she set off an explosion right on top of the Tyranitar! That was so awesome!"

Ralts was clapping. Ken had a huge grin on his face. "Maybe that's what you need for the badge? A Tyranitar?"

Justin ignored this jab. The battle had started again. Micheal, looking almost on the verge of tears, sent out his last Pokémon. "Nidoking!" the announcer shouted. The Nidoking was on the ground in half a minute. The announcer started again. "Cammaren is the winner! Micheal Chong has been steamrolled by the still undefeated Cammaren!"

The two trainers walked onto the battlefield and shook hands again. Cammaren presented Micheal with a silver Pokémon League badge signifying his streak. He left the stadium quickly, followed by Cammaren. She had a very smug expression on. The cheering in the other rooms continued. Ken turned off the television and light. Justin gave him a glare and walked to the unoccupied bed. He slept restlessly, dreaming of himself facing Cammaren on Indigo Plateau. He dreamed of a win, and Cammaren presenting him with a gold badge instead of a silver one. He dreamed of Cammaren patting him on the back and leading him out of the stadium, and then of him going in the next day to battle the Elite Four... The crowd was cheering, but the cheers were punctuated with loud beeps. What was that? He definitely heard beeps. He unwillingly woke up to find Ken's alarm clock placed right next to his head. It wasn't a very subtle way of getting him to wake up, but it worked none the less. He stood up and got ready for his day of research.

 

[Captain GIROG]

Chapter 13

Field Research, chapter 14 (Justin catches a Slowpoke):

Thursdays always have a lazy air to them. Mondays are the end of the weekend, when everyone goes to work. Tuesdays are when everyone gets back to speed. Wednesdays are big days; they're the halfway point through the week, when people start to look toward the weekend. Fridays, of course, are filled with the energy of people waiting to go home to start their weekends. Saturdays are when people go out and do, and Sundays are when people get together and enjoy company. There is nothing special about Thursday. People don't really have anything to look forward to except for the next day.

This is amplified if you're spending the day staring at something that barely moves. The Slowpoke were sitting by the river, lost in thought. Occasionally one would dip its tail in the river, then flip it out a few hours later, throwing a fish into the air. It would spend a few minutes walking over to the flopping fish to eat, but then it would forget what it was doing and go to sleep. Several stray Meowth hid nearby the Slowpoke, running out to steal the fish they caught. The Slowpoke didn't mind, they forgot about the fish they caught a few seconds after they were stolen.

A few hours after they started researching the Slowpoke, Justin tried approaching them. He cautiously walked forward. The Slowpoke didn't even notice him. He walked right up to one and started taking notes on its appearance. It had pink skin with soft, pink fur. Its four stubby legs had tiny white nails on the ends which probably weren't very good for walking long distances. They had thick sweet-smelling oily tails with white flashes at their tips. Their faces were caught in a constant blank smile, accentuated by blank eyes which rarely blinked. Their spiral ears rested at the top of their heads. They had tan muzzles and very few teeth. Justin spent about half an hour trying to get it to move, but got no reaction, even when he pushed the unmoving creature. The slowpoke stood up, completely ignoring Justin. "Buuh", it yawned. It walked over to the river and started to swim lazily. The clouds, which had been building up all day, opened up. it began to rain softly.

Ken, who had a tent set up, was sitting back with Ralts. Ralts was eating one of the several apples he took from the buffet that morning. Ken was writing down everything that the Slowpoke did. "Learn anything?" he asked the flustered Justin.

"Not really, but I got a pretty good description of Slowpoke, and a fur sample." He held out a small container with some pink fibers inside. "I'll call Caleb and have him send a Zubat to carry this to the lab. We should spend a bit of time here to see how the Slowpoke act in bad weather."

The Slowpoke were surprisingly active in the rain. This was relative, of course. One by one, they yawned and walked into the river to swim. The rain was getting progressively worse as the Slowpoke stood up and yawned. The tent eventually began to leak, so the researchers packed up and headed back to the city. They ate dinner and went back to their room to sit out the rain. When it was clear it wouldn't let up, they decided it would be a good idea to start writing the page on Slowpoke and call the Lab to send a Zubat.

When the soaked Zubat flew into their window an hour later, Justin unrolled the note tied to its leg. It was in handwriting he didn't recognize.


"To Ken and Justin,

"Although Cammaren said the deadline for the report is next Friday, it would be much appreciated if we had it by Monday instead. We hope this isn't too much of an inconvenience.

"Thank you,
"Caleb."


Ken laughed at this. "'Too much of an inconvenience'? We get to turn in a page that says 'Slowpoke are pink and lazy' five days early!"

Justin tied the hair sample to the Zubat's leg and sent it off into the night. They lazed around for a few hours, then finally went to bed. The next morning, they went back to the river. The grass was still wet from the night's downpour, but the air was much cooler and much more comfortable. Out of the corner of his eye, Ken saw a Slowpoke yawn. Ralts was sleeping next to him on a rock, and there was a fly buzzing nearby. The tent was so snug... The air was so comfortable... The Slowpoke were sleeping, Ralts was sleeping, why shouldn't he sleep? No, he had to stay awake. He had to research the Slowpoke... But what was there to research? They don't do anything... The tent was awfully comfortable...

Ken and Ralts were sharing a body again. They were on a mountain, high above sea level. There were several holes in the summit. He looked up. The Moon was full, what was taking it so long? It's been three months. Suddenly, the mountain started shaking. Stones of all sorts were flying out of the summit... He looked east and saw the Dawn appear, and a sparkling stone was flying... He felt something wet against his face. Was it raining again? No, what is it? The wetness was gone. There it was again! And again! And again! And...

Ken woke up to see a Slowpoke licking his face. He pushed the Pokémon away and jumped up. What time was it? He checked his watch. It was three, he'd been asleep for only a few hours. Where was Justin?

His last question was answered by a rustling in the woods. Justin and Whismur came crashing through some brush. "Hey, guess what?" Justin said excitedly. "We just won a battle!" He held up a handful of bills. "And I got some money off it, too!"

The Slowpoke that was licking Ken's face was now sniffing his shoes, which were next to the rock Ralts was sitting on. Ken picked up his shoes and put them on, afraid the stupid pink thing would eat it. Justin noticed the Slowpoke. "Hey, one's actually doing something!"

The Slowpoke looked up to Justin. "Baah?" it sighed. The Slowpoke walked up to Justin and sniffed his leg. Justin found it funny until the Slowpoke started licking his pants. "Hey, stop!"

"Baah?" the Slowpoke responded. It butted its head happily on Justin's leg. This knocked a Pokéball off of his belt, which landed on the Slowpoke's head. Justin leaned over to pick it up, but the Slowpoke decided it smelled nice. The Slowpoke licked it, and was pulled inside. Justin had just accidentally caught a Pokémon. The ball glowed for a second, but didn't jerk around. The Slowpoke was probably confused about what happened. Justin picked the ball up cautiously.

"Congratulations, Ace Trainer." Ken said, trying to bite back a laugh. "You managed... You caught... I mean the Slowpoke caught... Ha... Ha HA!" Ken was on the ground laughing.

Justin was surprised. "Is that even possible?!?" his eyes were wide in shock. "I mean, of course it's possible, it just happened! But how did it happen? I don't even..." Justin opened the ball.

"Baah?" Slowpoke sighed. It yawned, then promptly fell asleep. As soon as this happened, the rain started again. Justin called back his new Pokémon. "I think we have enough information for today." Justin muttered. He took his bag and, followed by the laughing Ken, they walked back to Cerulean through the rain.

Justin was trying to run the positives through his head. He caught a Pokémon, of course, and it can evolve into something pretty powerful. On the other hand, Slowpoke is dangerously retarded. Does it know any attacks? They didn't see them do anything violent in the wild. He checked his Pokédex for the fifty year old lab data.



Slowpoke, the dopey Pokémon. Though it seems mindless, it is actually constantly lost in deep thought. Psychic link has been attempted, but has never been successful. If threatened, it will retaliate with strong psychic attacks and headbutts. It swims much faster than it walks. Its tail is a delicacy in some cultures.



Okay, so it can attack and swim. So what good is that to him?

Justin stopped in his tracks and turned to Ken. "You go back to the Pokécenter, I think I'm going to go do something."

Before Ken could respond, Justin was gone. Ken turned to Ralts. "Where do you think he's going?"

Ralts shrugged, and they continued on their way.

 

[Captain GIROG]

Chapter 14

Field Research, chapter 14 (Justin wins the Cascade Badge):


Justin was reading more lab data as he jogged through the damp city.

Slowpoke's most powerful ability is Disable, which causes its opponent to be completely unable to perform an action for several minutes. A Slowpoke will use this on predators when they attempt to attack.

He was barely paying attention to people around him; he nearly ran into an elderly couple coming out of a store. Justin made his way to his destination quickly, not stopping anywhere. He entered as soon as he arrived.

The Gym was exactly how he remembered. Kathryn was congratulating a trainer on a well-fought battle. Her Mantine was still jumping out of the water and gliding near the ceiling, so it was obvious the challenger lost. Kathryn looked up at the entrance and saw Justin standing there, looking nervous. She put on her windbreaker and went to greet him.

"Nice to see you again, Justin." She greeted him, shaking his hand. "Want another try for the badge?"

She didn't wait for an answer before taking out the handheld. Justin handed over his trainer card, and they walked down to the pool again. "I trust you remember the battle style," Kathryn said. "So we can just jump right in!"

They went to their floats, and their faces appeared on the screen again. There was a three second countdown. When the buzzer sounded, they sprung into action. "Go! Mantine! Staryu!" Kathryn shouted.

"Whismur! Slowpoke!" Justin sent out his Pokémon.

Whismur took aim at the spinning Staryu. "Whiiiiiiiiiiiiii!" he began to scream. Kathryn gave an order and the Staryu flew into the water. This action was quickly followed by Whismur's float shaking violently. Whismur barely hung on. The Staryu slammed into Slowpoke's float next, causing him to fall into the water.

"Slowpoke! Get back on!" Slowpoke sluggishly followed its command.

Justin saw the Staryu begin to spin swiftly under the water to charge at Whismur's float again. "Slowpoke! Disable!"

Slowpoke didn't seem to do anything. The Staryu was rushing closer and closer to the float. Whismur probably wouldn't be able to stay on. Justin would fail again if Whismur fell off, since Slowpoke wasn't doing anything at all. Why didn't he try battling with Slowpoke before so he could learn it's completely useless?

Staryu was inches away from the float when it stopped completely. It was still spinning, but it couldn't get any closer to the float. Slowpoke turned to Justin, smiled and yawned. "Baah."

Justin smiled; apparently Slowpoke wasn't as useless as it seemed. The Staryu flew out of the water and into the air. "Disable!" Justin yelled.

At Kathryn's command, the Staryu started to spin and shoot star-shaped shards of light at Slowpoke. Slowpoke barely noticed. Justin commanded Whismur to attack again, and the Staryu went to fly back underwater. It hovered an inch above the pool, but couldn't go any lower. Slowpoke sat down. "Baah."

Whismur's attack was devastating. He seemed to have hit the right frequency, as the Staryu started shaking again, not once touching the water that Slowpoke banished it from. Its core cracked like it had done in the previous battle, but it continued to float after it had been knocked out. Slowpoke's Disable seemed to last a very long time. Kathryn recalled her Pokémon.

Now it was time to battle the Mantine which had been waiting for orders underwater, gliding beneath the surface ominously. "Wing attack!" Kathryn shouted. It flew out of the water and flew towards Justin's side of the pool. It slammed into Slowpoke with its wing. Slowpoke fell off of the float again. "Confuse ray!"

Slowpoke, who had been climbing back onto the float, was bombarded with a beam of multicolored light coming out of the Mantine's eyes. Slowpoke's own eyes went wide as a reaction. It jumped off of the float and slammed its head repeatedly into the side of the pool. "Slowpoke! Don't!" Justin shouted, sounding panicked.

"Gah! Whismur! Attack!" Justin recalled the now unconscious Slowpoke.

Whismur began to scream again. Mantine dove underwater to avoid the attack. It flew out of the water again, this time behind Whismur. It slammed him with its fin. Whismur barely held on, then started to scream again, but the Mantine turned around and spat a ball of water into Whismur's mouth. Whismur once again held on through sheer willpower. "Wing attack!" Kathryn shouted again.

Whismur looked vicious. It braced itself against the float. Without thinking, Justin shouted. "Defend yourself!"

Whismur stared intently at the incoming Pokémon. The Mantine was just a yard away from Whismur...

There was a flash of blinding light, brighter than anything Justin saw before. Even Ralts's flashes were dim in comparison. When the light dimmed, Whismur was gone. In his place was a large blue Pokémon with two round ears, purple and black on the front and attached to its head with thin stalks. It had a huge mouth with four large teeth and two large arms coming out of its sides. Its legs were stubby but looked very strong. The Mantine continued its attack, but was caught on the fin by the blue Pokémon. It was flung around several times, then thrown into the bleachers. The blue Pokémon jumped off of the float into the bleachers and kicked the Mantine back into the water, where it floated unconscious. The blue Pokémon shouted in victory, a sound so loud that Justin fell on his knees clutching his ears. The Pokémon stopped when it saw Justin on the ground. It ran over to Justin, picked him up and cheered in front of him. "Fwaa! Fwaa!" it shouted, jumping up and down with its hands in the air. Justin looked very confused for a second, but realization dawned on him slowly.

"Whi- Whismur?" he asked.

The Pokémon looked at itself. Then at Justin. It smiled and nodded. Kathryn, who had jumped off of her float, was climbing out of the pool to congratulate Justin. She was still in a great mood. "Congratulations on your first badge! Oh, and congratulations to you too, Whismur." She turned to the blue Pokémon. "Or, should I say, Loudred?" Loudred smiled. "Fwaa!"

Justin was ecstatic. He had a badge, and his Pokémon evolved! He just managed to blurt out the first words to come to mind. "Th-thank you! I- Erm- Thank you!"

Kathryn chuckled. "Here you go, a Cascade Badge. Here's your trainer card back. Congratulations, again." She handed Justin two objects. The first was his trainer card, which now had a water droplet design below his name in a formerly empty line.

The second was a small clear plastic case with a bright blue lapel pin inside of it. There was a piece of paper beneath it. "Thank you! Thank you so much!"

Kathryn patted Justin on the shoulder, smiled, then left to her office.

Justin stood still for a few seconds, but he was roused by Loudred shouting and pointing at the door. Ken and Ralts had just walked in. "Why," Ken said in a loud, calm voice from the entrance. "Did you decide to try again? How long did you last this time?"

Justin smiled, then started up the stairs to the exit. He was followed by Loudred, whom Ken had just noticed. Justin was grinning like a fiend. "Like Whismur's new look? We thought the blue would look good with my badge." He held up the Cascade Badge, which was still in its case.

Ken looked shocked, but soon regained his composure. "You won? Hmm, oh well. Cammaren told me to scorn you if you lost again. I guess I'll miss that chance." He turned to Loudred. "Whismur evolved, I see." He patted Loudred on the head.

They walked back to the Pokécenter, Justin fussing with adding his badge to his belt. After it was securely in place, he opened the paper that was inside the case and read it.


Cerulean City has the oldest still-running gym in Kanto, not including the stadium on Indigo Plateau. It is also the only gym that has always stayed one elemental type, and has been passed down from mother to daughter for several generations. The Cascade Badge was the first badge designed for distribution to qualifying trainers, and is the only badge that is still hand made of glass-enameled copper. Congratulations, Trainer, you are holding a piece of history.


Justin read this four times. He ran the last sentence through his head over and over. Congratulations, Trainer, you are holding a piece of history. That carried quite a bit of weight to him. His first badge was the first ever. When they arrived at the Pokécenter, Justin and Loudred ate dinner while Slowpoke was healed. Ken had eaten already, so he headed to their room and continued the paper. Loudred's appetite, Justin noticed, had not been affected by evolution. If anything, he ate more voraciously than when he was a Whismur. They finished devouring two trays of food and went up to their room.

Loudred tried to get Justin to teach him the racing game again now that he had fingers, despite his lack of thumbs. Justin going against Loudred was a very amusing sight, even though Loudred was a sore loser. Loudred was throwing a tantrum when Ken wisely decided to hijack the television to watch some League battles. That night's battle pitted an ancient-looking veteran specializing in the Electric type against a teenager who looked like he was probably still in grade school. Despite the Lieutenant's age, he was able to win with his equally venerable Raichu.

Loudred wasn't able to sleep on Justin's bed anymore; he was much larger than when he was as a Whismur. He slept in his Pokéball, which Justin noticed made a low-pitched, rather soothing grumbling noise. It seemed that Loudred still snored. Ralts, Ken noticed, was sitting on the east-facing windowsill, staring out at the full moon. Ken thought of the dream he had that day. Ralts and he obviously shared dreams again, but he still couldn't quite figure out the significance of the dreams. A stone played an important role, obviously, but that was all he could think of. As he slowly gave way to sleep, he saw a streak of shining light cut through the dark, starry sky.

 

[Captain GIROG]

Chapter 15

Field Research, chapter 15 (Here comes a new main character):



The next few days went very, very slowly. The peak of the weekend was Ralts playing the world's slowest game of fetch with Justin's Slowpoke. This involved Ralts placing a fish on the ground then levitating it away whenever Slowpoke came near. It ended rather unexpectedly when Slowpoke finally caught on and disabled Ralts's telekinesis, after which it gulped down the fish. Ralts, feeling cheated, began floating rocks into the air and throwing them at the wild Slowpoke. One of the rocks hit a slowpoke on the nose, causing it to jump up and spit water in random directions. After a few seconds of this, it stopped and fell back asleep. When Sunday night finally came, the two researchers were glad to finally be able to give their report. Elisabeth was pleased about the information.

"Thank you very much! I think this reaffirmed our beliefs about the Slowpoke." She told them on a call. Ken noticed several new scientists working behind her. "Our beliefs, of course, being they're completely useless. The extra information about Disable might be good, though. Cammaren's just coming back from Indigo Plateau, so you should probably wait until tomorrow to contact her for your next job."

"Okay, then, Talk to you later. Before I go, what's that guy doing with that Spearow?" Ken replied.

She turned around to see a new lab worker trying to pry open a bird's beak with two toothpicks. "That's an excellent question. I think I'll go fix that." She was standing up when she pressed the button to cancel the call.

Ken put down his Pokédex and turned on the television. A show about fishing in the icy waters of Sinnoh was on, which made him start to think of his parents. His father worked on the docks at Snowpoint, so Ken wouldn't have been surprised to see him in the background. His mother wasn't able to work, so he would have been very surprised if he saw her. They had moved up north only a few years before, when his mother developed a condition that nearly destroyed her lungs and made it difficult to breathe in warm weather. Her allergies to grasses made it even harder to breathe; Kanto is mostly grassland. They had been needing to move for years. His parents decided to wait until Ken graduated. Ken had to move in with his older friend just weeks after turning eighteen. Justin's father would visit him weekly when they were living in Pewter, which always left Ken wondering how his parents were doing. Ken decided to convince Cammaren to let them do research up in Sinnoh sometime so he could visit his parents in their new home. He went to sleep watching Ralts on the windowsill, reminding him of the day their new life started.

---

It was past dark, and Caitie Savers wasn't in a very good mood. For the past week, she'd been trying to contact someone about a date she'd missed, hoping to apologize. She was made even madder when she learned her mother, Kathryn, was beaten in a Pokémon battle by the same guy. At least she knew why he wasn't responding; he was in Cerulean. "The nerve..." she whispered.

"What?" The officer next to her said, obviously thinking she was talking to him.

"Nothing." Caitie replied.

Caitie was a new recruit for the Pewter City Police Department. She had passed the examinations to become an officer with flying colors, and many others on the force expected her to become Commissioner some day. She had a very thorough way of dealing with everything. That night she was doing general patrol in a broken-down part of town.

"Be watchful around here, there's been a string of arrests in this general area over the last few months." the other officer warned.

"I know." Caitie replied. "I'm the one who arrested them, remember?" She slowed down, though, and dimmed the headlights on the patrol car.

"Criminals and law breakers are a great deal similar to wild Stantler. If you're hunting them, you have to keep a low profile and stay quiet." The officer told her.

Though she was on the force for about a year now, she still hadn't gotten used to the overly-verbose way of speaking her peers used. Or, as they would say, their sesquipedalian loquaciousness. "Quiet, I think I see someone."

She pulled over and turned off her lights. Sure enough, someone wearing black was sneaking into an abandoned old building. They sat and watched for a while, and in a few minutes, a different person walked out. Then another went in. Cautiously, Caitie got out of the car with a gun and taser on her belt, hopeful that she wouldn't have to use either. Luckily, since the building was condemned, she didn't need a warrant to enter it.

It looked like it was a hotel at one time. The foyer was huge, with two elegant staircases leading to a top floor. There was a reception desk in the front of the room, and a giant crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling. She was about to head through a door to the left of the desk, when...

"And who do you think you are?" asked a commanding voice.

Caitie turned around to face a tall red-haired woman wearing a black jacket. "Well? What are you doing here?"

Caitie pulled out her badge. "I'm Officer Caitie Savers of the PCPD, here to investigate suspicious activity."

"Oh yes, I thought I recognized you. He really couldn't think of anything else when we met last week. You look a great deal like your mother. She thought of you a great deal, too."

Caitie was uneasy. for the first time she could remember, she was unsure of herself. "Who are you, and why're you here?"

"I think I can go wherever I want on my own property. As for who I am, you already know. I know that as a fact."

She was not comfortable. "C-Cammaren?"

Cammaren smiled. "There you go. Let me turn on a light."

A Gardevoir, whom Caitie hadn't noticed, walked to Cammaren's side. Light emanated from nowhere in particular. "You're worried. Why is that?

Caitie, who knew the leader's psychic reputation, had a feeling she already knew. "Who were you talking about, thinking of me last week?"

"Exactly who you think. Justin felt rather embarrassed, sitting at the table he reserved next to his friend, talking about what they had to do now that they were out of money. Lucky for him, he found a job shortly after my assistant and I overheard them. Of course, you must not care, why else would you have not shown up that day? He probably hasn't thought of you since he left." Cammaren was clearly enjoying herself. She was cruel when she wanted to be.

"You know what happened, I know you do!" Despite her best efforts, Caitie began to think of the events of the week before. Her old Arcanine, Nicki, had a fit that day. It was a violent seizure which stopped her heart. By the time she was brought to the Pokécenter and pronounced dead, Caitie had missed the date.

"How sad. There are things technology can't cure, I guess. You'd better be on your way." Caitie, who had been thinking of trying out some police brutality the psychic, now felt a great urge to leave. She left and got in the patrol car.

"What happened in there?" the deputy asked the pale-faced Caitie.

"N- Nothing. I think we should report suspicious activity, though." she said absently.

Caitie finished her patrol. When she got home to her apartment, she called her mother. Nobody answered. When she called again, Kathryn Savers answered in a tired-sounding voice.

"Hello? Who's this?" Kathryn had probably been asleep when she first called.

"It's Caitie." she replied.

"Oh. What's up, Cait? Why're you calling so late?"

Caitie started to feel silly. "Umm... Do you remember Justin Sanson?"

"Oh yeah. He's a pretty good trainer. He's from Pewter too, I think. Wait... Was he the one you were supposed to meet that day? The day that...?"

There was silence from Caitie's end.

"What's this about? You can't still be upset over that date, can you?"

Caitie finally answered. "Well... I saw Cammaren earlier. You know, the leader from Pewter?"

"Oh. What'd she say to you?" Kathryn sounded like she heard a great deal of stories that began with "I saw Cammaren earlier".

"Oh... Nothing. It's about Justin. Did- did he mention me? In the gym?"

Kathryn was silent.

"Oh... I'm just being silly. I'll just hang up..." Caitie went to put down the telephone.

"Wait. Don't hang up. Cammaren loves to read minds and mess with people's emotions. If it'll make it up to you, he has one of those new Pokédexes, the ones that can do pretty much anything. You can call him if you have his Trainer ID."

Caitie somehow felt better, but that feeling didn't last long. "I don't know how to get his ID."

Kathryn gave a short laugh. Caitie heard her typing something over the phone. "Caitie, you're forgetting that I'm a member of the Pokémon League. I can get this stuff for you. If it's so important that you'll call me at midnight, I'm going to do it for you. Speaking of which, you should probably think of getting a new Pokémon. I could get you a water Pokémon, if you want. Remember Grandma's face when you got a fire type?"

Caitie thought about it. To be honest, she really wanted another fire type, but it would feel wrong to have a Growlithe. "Well... I'm thinking about getting a Vulpix, and maybe training it this time."

Kathryn sighed. "Oh well, I guess there's an oddball in every family; just don't let your grandmother know. Training would be a good idea, though. Here it is! Do you have something to write this down?"

Caitie grabbed for a pencil and wrote down the number Kathryn read off. "Thank you so much!" she thanked Kathryn.

"You're lucky, some of my friends would yell their kids's ears off if they called at midnight for a boy's phone number. One last thing before I go back to sleep, if you're going to get a Vulpix, be sure you get to know it before you try petting it. Those things're ovens on four legs. 'Night, honey. Love you."

"Night, Mom." Caitie responded. Kathryn hung up the phone. She decided to call Justin in the morning, get a new Pokémon, and try to find a way to meet him. Once Caitie Savers wants something, she's going to get it, even if that means losing her badge.