Pokemon X Nuzlocke ~To be a Pokemon~ Chapter 12

All was dark, the air thick and dusty. I lay pinned to the ground, my mouth full of dirt, my unknown assailant standing on top of me.

“Oh! Sorry!”  A voice chirped cheerfully as the creature jumped off, “I’d been so busy fighting that ralts that I did not notice anyone standing underneath the branch I had been perched on.”

“Humph! Well be careful next time!” I snapped jumping to my feet only to end up starring down at a corphish, “And tell Toulouse to watch out for others when he picks a fight!”

“Who’s Toulouse?” someone murmured behind me as the espurr I’d previous been watching suddenly appeared next to me, balanced carefully on my shoulder.

I will admit, I don’t like having pokemon appearing out of the blue to suddenly stand on me, it was too much to bear, I screamed.

“Oy! Nat! A little help here?” a voice I immediately recognized called out as Toulouse came running down the hill, a trainer I knew to be Tirzah racing behind him, a pokeball brandish in the air as she chased after him.

“Hey Nathy!” my friend giggled as she halted by my side, the ralts totally forgotten as he scampered off to hid among the tall grass, “Nice Espurr you have there! What’s her name?”

I glanced at the espurr perched on my shoulder, the creature starred wide eyed back at me, a large grin on her face.

“Umm…I don’t know…she isn’t really…”

“My name is Caen.” The pokemon interrupted, her voice gaining confidence as she spoke, “You  could always call me Cell instead but in this form I feel Caen suits me better.”

“Caen, that’s a nice name.” Toulouse suddenly spoken, appearing by my side his gaze entirely fixed on the espurr, “Welcome to the team!”

I blinked in surprise at the ralt’s sudden change in personality, however I did not have the time to comment about it because my dear friend Tirzah’s attention had now returned to her original prey.

“That’s the pokemon Chachi and I were trying to catch!!!” she exclaimed her voice filled in disdain as she rushed forward in attempt to grab the fleeing Toulouse.

A large smile spread across my face as I watched the two dance around for a little while under the confused gaze of Chachi and Caen. Finally decided it was time to step in I reached forward to grab my ralts before a fight broke out between the two.

“Ummm…Trisha, this is Toulouse. Toulouse, be kind, she’s my friend.”

The two froze, and starred at me in surprise.

“Wait!? Are you implying that this ralts we’ve been hunting all this time was on your team?!” Tirzah wailed in frustration.

“I’ve been trying to tell you this all morning!” Chachi grumbled, grinning triumphantly at her trainer who obviously had never understood what her pokemon had been saying in the first place.

“I’m sorry you made the mistake…” I said stepping forward with Caen still perched on my shoulder, “It was my fault, I let him run wild like that to be mistaken that way.”

Sighing my friend knelt down beside her corphish and handed her a pokepuff, “Well I guess going up this route wasn’t totally in vain. I may have not been able to catch any pokemon. But I’ve found something better instead!” she laughed, abruptly jumping to her feet as she extended her arm to point her finger at the espurr and I in the way rivals did in all the movies they showed on television. Obviously you learned nothing about pokemon on TV.

“Nathalie! I challenge you and your espurr to a battle!”





I guess the first problem that immediately came to my mind as soon as my friend finished speaking was that Caen wasn’t even mine yet. She was still wild no matter how she acted around me. However looking at the expression on her face, clearly she believed Toulouse’s easy welcome meant she could battle as one of mine.

I wasn’t going to make the same mistake twice, I did not want to battle with Caen only to learn she had escaped from a master just like Roubaix, frankly I had enough of dealing with other’s pokeproblems for today. However I did not intend on telling my friend there was a valuable wild pokemon standing right in front of her.
Shrugging I finally gave in, if I refused I’d have not only one trainer but three angry pokemon chasing after me, that was not an appealing idea.

“Fine,” I grumbled, eyeing Caen carefully as the espurr jumped to the ground and Toulouse stepped up to stand beside me, “I accept your challenge.”

“Alright!” Tirzah cheered as she raced forward and began tracing a set of line in the sand, “We’ll fight one on one, Chachi against your espurr. The first one to push the other behind the two set of lines wins the battle. There are no real rules other than no killing and teleporting the other’s pokemon off the line.”

“Sounds good,” Toulouse spoke up directing his words to Caen as he smiled supportively, “You can do it!”

“Chachi use Vice Grip!” Tirzah yelled as soon as both pokemon stepped into the limited space. Rushing forward the corphish did her best to reach Caen in the amount of time her trainer had given her to register that she was supposed to attack.

“Reflect the attack with scratch!” I called as I noticed the espurr flinch at just the sight of the Chachi reaching out to hit her. Recovering quickly Caen deflected the attack, her left arm trapped between the corphish’s pincers she brought her second hand down the pokemon’s face, claws outstretched as she did her best to leave traces along Chachi’s carapace. The two seemed to struggle in the center of the battle field as the espurr did her best to try and free herself from her enemy’s grip but in vain.

Suddenly her eyes seemed to begin glowing as she tried to lower Chachi’s defense with leer before going for another of her attack moves known as Covet.

“Keep her trapped there! Use sword dance and then grab her second arm with Vice Grip!” Tirzah called in encouragement, “! We can win this!”

“Keep away from her pincer!” I called out desperately, “And use confusion to destabilize her!”

I could only stand and watch as Caen twisted around, carefully avoiding Chachi’s attempt at grabbing her before twirling back to face the Corphish, starring directly into its gaze.
Something seemed to happen between the two and they stayed that way until Chachi let out a loud gasp. Letting go of the espurr she stumbled backwards, standing rigidly straight the espurr seemed transfixed by the confused pokemon’s movements.

“What are you doing?” Tirzah gasped as her teammate suddenly seemed to lose all ability to decide her own movements. “Try Vice Grip.”
Any attempt to attack on the corphish’s part only served to harm her even move, and I couldn’t help but smile as Chachi gradually seemed to move closer to edge of the line.

“Finish this with scratch!” I yelled, breaking Caen from her thoughts. The espurr surged forward, quickly acting as her control on Chachi began failing and the corphish broke from confusion. The impact sent her skidding over the line and rendered Caen unable to continue fighting as she fell to the ground. We stood in silence for a few moments waiting for someone to move.

“Well…that was intriguing…” Tirzah finally spoke up as she returned Chachi into her pokeball, “I guess your espurr won even if she fainted from exhaustion after using one of her own attacks.”

“At least she’s not dead.” I grumbled as I grabbed a spare pokeball from my pocked and tossed it into the air, the capsule opened up, trapping the sleeping espurr inside. Well at least we now know she wasn’t someone else’s.

My friend grinned at my cold joke and extended her hand for me to shake, “This was real fun! But be prepared! As soon as I’ve healed Chachi at the center I’ll be out searching for a rematch! And next time it won’t be a playful game!”

“Sound good!” I chuckled, releasing my friend’s hand to crouch down beside Toulouse who was glaring challenging at Tirzah in silence as she marched across the grassy field and onto route 6. Next time I wouldn’t make the mistake of fighting with a wild pokemon I didn’t know anything about, he would have stood a better chance against the corphish than Caen did.

“It was quite an entertaining match to watch.” Toulouse finally said as Tirzah disappeared down the path, “She’s good, quite good actually. But doesn’t know how to use any of her attack, she has a real potential but it may result in her exhausting herself more than her enemy.”

“She’ll learn. I’m sure of it.” I replied as I began moving through the grass toward the main road, my ralts trailing close behind me.

“You’ll take good care of her. I’m sure of it.” He spoke, a new tone of confidence seemed to have replaced his old grumpy voice. “You’ll need someone to guard Roubaix. No one else is the perfect candidate for the job, besides the day-care-center will help me level up quicker than just following along in a team who doesn’t look highly at me.

“You have a crush on her don’t you?! You want to look strong!” I interrupted, breaking out into laughter as she blush on Toulouse’s face gave it away, “Don’t worry, I promise I won’t tell anyone.”

“I’m sure she guessed it. Her type is open to people and pokemon’s emotions. She could tell she reminded me of someone I used to know.” He paused, glancing up at me as her smiled sadly, “I don’t want to bore you with my backstory.”

“No! No!” I exclaimed, there was no way I was going to wreck an opportunity like this to bind with my most unruly of team members “I’m sure your history is plenty of interesting!”

Shrugging the ralts continued walking down the path as if lost in his thoughts for what felt like a painful eternity.  

“I used to despise trainers before you…they gradually broke my family apart. Capturing them one by one as they started with my older brothers and mother before killing my father in a wild encounter, leaving my sister and I to fend for ourselves…until someone came along and took her too.” He spoke, eyes fixed on the ground, “Being wild is bloody unfair! We cannot go to the center to heal when poisoned, so for many the trainers are a chance of survival, but that wasn’t the case for Jasmine. I followed my sister’s so-called partner, at first I was hopeful, he was good and she was well treated…better than I ever could have done. That was…until she encountered a vivlion. The two fought and she was poisoned, her trainers eventually capture the vivlion but they were way too far off to travel to a center and he had no way of temporarily relieving her pain. So he had no choice but to leave her there to die slowly as the poison sapped slowly through her system.”

“I’m sorry…” I muttered, unable to think of anything else to say that could possibly comfort him…I was really terrible at it, and I would have to think hard of other things to say when confronted with these sudden outbursts…because they would soon become frequenter.”

“Bah! There was nothing you could have done! You weren’t even there to begin with. I was forced to watch her die that way…only able to approach her when he coward of a trainer was far off mending his happy business with the vivlion! At least she was glad to have company during her last moments. There was nothing else I could have ever done for her but execute her final plead. I had to give her that final killing blow, to prevent her from being tortured any longer.”

We continued walking in silence down the path, veering right to head down route 7 were apparently there had been a snorlax incident, luckily no one was around and the bulky creature was nowhere in sight.
Finally we arrived at the day-care-center where a kind and helpful women healed my team and explained the rules of the pension. I could leave two pokemon there at any time and come back to check up on them later. If I wanted to take on out I would have to pay a fee for all the levels they went up. Food and a place for them to sleep was free charge, besides Roubaix’s master was willing to chip in for a safe place to train his furfrou and whoever I chose to guard it until Roubaix was ready o fend for himself.

Releasing my team mates out of their pokeballs I introduced them to Caen and gave them enough time to give their final goodbyes to Toulouse and Roubaix, it would be a while before we returned and most likely my team would change drastically during that time, and not necessarily for the better…

“So this is a goodbye?!” Caen asked wide eyed as she raced over to Toulouse, “I’ve never had to say any goodbyes when those close to me left! How can I bear to do this when we’ve only just met!?”

The ralts stood in silence, not bothering to reply nor even trying to free himself from the espurr’s grip. Moving to put his hand on Caen’s should he spoke. “I am just going to become stronger for you and the others. Today you proved yourself to be a worthy opponent to anyone who would dare challenge you in battle. You will fit in well with Nathalie’s other pokemon. But I need to become stronger before I can join you. Next time we meet we will challenge that trainer’s pokemon together!”

“Did I miss something or has Toulouse suddenly become a totally different pokemon?” Geneva whispered into my ear, leaning close as she watched the two talk, “Mind you, he hasn’t evolved yet. But he has sure matured quickly!”

Grinning I turned to face Roubaix, stepping past my braixen while chuckling softly a reply, “Much happened while you were sleeping, but you will only hear about it when the time is right! For now I think we should leave those two and join the others with Sir Roubaix!”

Glancing back at the ralts and espurr as she trailed beside me, my braixen and I joined Loiret, Oxford and Colombes who were gathered around Roubaix who seemed lost in his tale.

“…and then my master let out a large scream! Ordering his team of guards to surround us! But your trainer’s friend was quicker, she released her entire team out to halt their advancement before they could block our path. Toulouse was then able to make a way through the crowd for us to approach my master and your trainer…HEY Nathalie! I’m telling them about how you got my master to let me roam free!”

“I hope you aren’t exaggerating too much!” I laughed, Loiret’s face seemed to be filled with disbelieve and awe, hopefully the pikachu wasn’t believing in every word the furfrou was saying, though by the looks of it she did seem pretty convinced by what he was saying.

“Bah!” A voice chuckled as Olivier emerged from somewhere behind me, “It would be natural for royalty to put forward the feat of their trainers.”

“Kenji! You evolved!” I exclaimed sauntering toward my friend and his frogadier.

“Yup!” the tall boy next to his pokemon replied with a large grin on his face, “Kenji here has been doing a lot of training! And in the meantime Zahira has been jumping right and left causing nothing but trouble for her trainer.”

“Hey! Flying!! No creature as honorable as I would dare go low as jumping on the ground!” a fletching chirped in indignation, perching herself on Olivier’s shoulder. “And last time I checked you didn’t mind my hunting!  Even though I’d occasionally mistaken a trainer’s pokemon for a wild one…But hey! At least no one died!”

Ignoring the incomprehensive complaints of his pokemon Olivier strode forward, his gaze locked on Roubaix.

“So Marina wasn’t lying in hope of gaining some respect, you two did successfully bargain with the Parfum Palace owner. I’m surprised he let you take one of his furfrous!”

I blinked, momentarily panicked at the prospect that my friend was going around telling everyone where I was leaving Roubaix. What if someone asked how we knew he felt captive in that palace in the first place?! I didn’t know exactly why Idris told me to keep my ability secret but if the first person I told went around spreading rumors it wouldn’t take her long to come and track me down to bring me home again.”

“With everyone hunting the furfrous for the prized pokeflute no one even stopped to think why they had both gone missing in the first place. You two did a real good job thinking before acting.” My friend continued speaking and I let out a sigh in relief, Nina hadn’t told anyone about it after all, “I’m impressed you put your bickering aside to help someone in need.”

“Ya…” I replied, a little taken aback by the unnecessary compliments but wanting to even things out with whatever rumors Marina had spread, “It was Nina’s idea to speak to the master actually, all I had done was ask her the questions and take care of the furfrou.”

“Oh…what she had told me had been a totally different tale. Nina said you had found Roubaix and came with the ideas on your own before she even arrived.”

Darn…so she had kept to most of the truth after all…

In attempt to make up for my mistake I burst out into laughter, “Haha! Nina’s really unassuming you know? You never had the opportunity to spend time with her after you moved in and followed us on our journey, but truth is she hates taking the credit. Yes I did find Roubaix but all I did was wonder why he ran away in the first place and mentioned that to her while we were escorting him home, she came up with all the brilliant ideas.”

Olivier turned to glare at me and we both stood there for what felt like several painful minutes of just starring before he spoke, “I admit I haven’t had the time before we were tossed our starters at and sent on a journey to get to know her better. But she did seem to me as someone who enjoyed being at the center of attention and not as you said unassuming of what she does. Besides, last I recall you barely remembered her name and had to have her remind you on the very day we left. Unless she went through a sudden shift in personality during your…mini adventures you aren’t admitting the role you played in this pokemon’s freedom.”