Sugarcube
patreon
Chapter 63 - Treating Ourselves
🕑 Added 2024-09-30 19:58:37 +0000 UTCChapter 63 – Treating Ourselves
After beating Violet and earning ourselves a fourth Hoenn badge we opted to make our way back to the Lilycove city gym but not before Violet got a chance to interact with her now adoring fans. The woman was basking in the attention acting like a proud prinplup. Signing autographs and doing all she could to promote the gym. Eventually I got fed up with the situation and took the time to hand over my now battle-weary Pokémon to the nurse Joy operating the adjacent Pokémon center. By the time I came back she was still occupied but eventually got snapped out of her marketing fervor by Sceppy the Sceptile who also had just about enough.
“Ah! Sorry! I couldn’t disappoint our gym’s fans.”
“Scep…”
“It’s fine, you really enjoyed yourself out there. Perhaps you could do this more often.”
“What more often?”
“Having gym battles outside in front of a crowd. You know? Show off in front of Lilycove city denizens.”
“That would be nice but… It wouldn’t be as attention grabbing as the battle we just had. The only trainers that challenge my gym are those who aren’t as serious about battling but want to show their friends and family that they are at least capable enough to earn one or two badges. To be honest this is the first higher difficulty gym battle we’ve had in a while…”
“And you gave me a great battle even with a type disadvantage! I’ll be sure to recommend your gym to other serious trainers.”
“Aww that’s so sweet. I’ll gratefully accept your help then.”
‘I’ll just text a recommendation to Roxanne. I don't know any other trainer currently undertaking the circuit.’
After a short walk we were back inside the gym, and I was again greeted by the picturesque scene of verdant berry trees and the large collection of grass types taking care of them. The last time I was here Halo got into a scrap with Violet’s Tangela who was looking after its tree. While Victini used the distraction to make off with at least two Mago berries.
“The gym’s storage room is all the way in the back, just follow me.”
Following her I couldn’t help but keep a careful lookout for a vengeful Tangela who probably figured out that its berries got stolen after the fact. Luckily Violet’s gym wasn’t overly large, only being big enough to host one battlefield, the surrounding flora and a small side building which was probably our target destination.
“We’re here, inside you’ll find a handful of older technical machines. Ummm it’s not all that well organized and I haven’t been in there for over a month so it might be a bit dusty. If you need anything just give us a shout.”
“That’s okay I have a little sister, so I am used to walking into messy rooms.”
I turned over the handle and walked inside. Just like Violet said a small layer of dust was forming over the furniture and items in the room. At first glance it was hard making out where the technical machines were being kept and just as I was about to start cleaning up to make my task more manageable, I felt the mental equivalent of a ping go off in my head. Informing me that my psychic partner had returned from her latest adventure.
“Egon!!”
‘What’s up? Did you have a good time?’
The locked upper window unlatched itself and my trusty companion zipped inside landing on top of my head. Making herself comfortable
“I was looking all over for you! You were supposed to be battling inside the gym!”
‘My Pokémon posed a fire hazard, so we duked it out inside the Pokémon center battle court. I won my fourth badge but that Ludicolo of hers threw us for a loop.’
“I knew you could do it! Next stop Mossdeep City! What are you doing in this dinky old room?”
‘Violet gave me permission to pick out a technical machine. It’s kind of hard finding them buried underneath all this rubble.’
“I’ll help!”
Using her psychic powers helped me organize all the items in their proper place and even got rid of all the excess dust gathering it all up in one lump and shooting it out the window. Now that things were finally properly ordered I could find out what we had to work with.
‘Mega Drain… that’s an older one I didn’t know they were still making these despite the clearly superior version also being available to purchase…, Bullet Seed no, Grass Knot’s great something to keep in mind as a secondary option,’
There were only a handful of technical machines kept inside this storage room and I was close to giving up and picking number eighty six Grass Knot, until I finally found what I was looking for.
“Solar Beam! Come to papa!”
I pulled out the move I was specifically looking for with a sense of relief. Thankful that the gym kept a stock of this staple grass type move.
“Won’t a grass type move be impossible to learn?”
‘Normally yes, but Solar Beam is the exception. Any fire type Pokémon can learn how to harness the energies of the sun. This will be our trump card for beating the Sootopolis city gym. This is a single use technical machine and since you’ve done an amazing job at coaching Glove on how to use psychic type moves…’
“Say no more I’ll do it!”
‘Great, it’s time to head out and get some of my other stuff sorted. I promised to send my findings report on Rena’s drought ability to a Hoenn lab and we still need to buy that ferry ticket to Mossdeep.’
We exited the storage room only to see Violet busy updating her social media status on the sole computer in the gym. She managed to find a recording of our battle on pokétube and seemed to be busy arguing back and forth with a group of random detractors.
Not wanting to get in the middle of that we sneaked past her and kept walking. Sceptile helpfully noticed our situation and decided to escort us out.
“Thanks a bunch. We picked up a copy of Solar Beam and organized the storage room so it’s a bit more manageable.”
“Tile!”
‘Please don’t take any more of their berries.’
“….!”
‘You know we usually have a celebratory feast after winning a badge, right? Keeping some space free in your stomach isn’t uncalled for.’
My mind registered a pang of resignation before feeling the familiar weight of an invisible rabbit entering my backpack. Most likely scrounging around for a snack to tide her over until lunch break. Eventually Sceptile brought us all the way back to the front entrance where we shared a special moment with the bipedal tree lizard.
“You do a great job taking care of your trainer Violet’s lucky to have you.”
“Tile…!”
“When it is my time to enter the ace ranking I hope we can have a proper battle with no holds barred.”
We shook hands/claws with the promise to go all out against each other next time we encountered each other in an official capacity. With that I turned around and left returning to the Pokémon center to pick up my remaining team members while not looking forward to writing that report.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Two hours later*
“Aaaand I am done!”
As soon as we got to the Pokémon center I booked a computer booth and got set to working on that discovery report on Drought. Naturally professors don’t actually require or expect teenagers on their first circuit run to produce quality work but that didn’t stop me from doing the best I could. Having a background in the STEM sciences from my previous life I knew how to write a proper one. I sent one copy to my actual sponsor Professor Juniper and the other one to the mailing address of Professor Birch’s Laboratory in Littleroot Town. I knew Professor Birch was mainly interested in Pokémon Ecology and not battle abilities but ones that can affect weather changes would probably be of some interest to him.
“Food!!”
My Pokémon team who had been patiently waiting for me were nearing the limits of their patience. It was then I realized with some amount of embarrassment that I had forgotten to make lunch on time. So, I promptly shut down my computer and went back up to our room to recall them for our outing. They were all gathered together ready and eager to go out for some lunch.
“Please forgive me. I got sucked into working longer than I should have.”
The older Pokémon didn’t mind as much but Litwick and Halo did not like being separated without good cause for longer periods of time.
“Vess…” “Lit…”
“How about this? The two of you get to pick out the restaurant we’ll be dining at.”
My Litwick didn’t actually eat solid food but he greatly appreciated berry scented incense. Which meant that we would probably end up going to one of the fancier places if he had anything to say about it. Halo also had a penchant for high end places and going there after not receiving any gym badge winnings would put us in the red. The downside or rather an upside in this case was that having dinner with an entire team of Pokémon out of their balls was impossible inside fancier restaurants. The only food places that offered those kinds of services were low end and affordable. Halo and Orin wouldn’t put the group's needs over their own.
We went out and to help facilitate their ease of choosing we had Numsy giving Halo a ride while Orin stood atop my left shoulder just happy to be a part of our search party. While we were walking the streets of Lilycove City I pointed out multiple dining establishments vocally weighing the pros and cons of each.
“You want Galarian food? Numsy’s already had it that one time we ate out in Castelia so he can fill you in.”
“Rupt…”
“Vess…”
“How about Paldean? Spicy meats with lots of garlic.”
“Lit…”
“Hmm… A place that smells good and serves dishes that are a bit more highbrow.”
Eventually we passed the city’s urban confines and ended up at one of the many tourist beaches. And as luck would have it this beach had a snackbar with a large open space that would be a perfect venue for all my Pokémon to have lunch together.
“What about this place? We haven’t had Alolan cuisine before. We could all have a Malasada each.”
“Laaar?”
“It’s a fried pastry filled with whatever type of berries you prefer a staple food item overseas.”
“…Vess.”
“If you don’t like it, I’ll get you something else.”
She gave me a small nod not exactly eager to try this unknown type of food but unwilling to make the group keep walking for much longer. With her tacit approval I walked inside while the rest of my Pokémon picked a spot to sit at keeping Numsy company since he was too big to walk through the front door.
The inside walls were decorated with photo’s depicting Alola’s natural beauty and a collection of souvenirs. All the tables were occupied confirming this place’s popularity as a hotspot to get genuine Alolan cuisine. The line leading up to the counter was long so I already mentally prepared myself to be stuck waiting in line.
‘This will take longer than expected. Can you let the others know?’
“Ayup!”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Thirty minutes later*
Eventually I finally made it to the front of the line. The eatery offered varying sizes and flavors of malasada seeing as there were seven of us it made for quite the tall order.
“Hello, I would like two Big Malasada's, two medium and two small.”
“What flavors would you like?”
“For the big ones I’d like One sour and one spicy, For the medium I’d like two dry tasting ones and make the small ones’ sweet tasting.”
“That’ll be all?”
‘Ah heck I guess it’s fine to treat myself once in a while.’
“Could I get an extra soda pop with that?”
“That’ll be 800 Pokédollars please. Our restaurant does offer discounts for first time trainers participating in the circuit. If you show us your trainer’s license you’ll get thirty percent off..”
“Wait, how’d you know I am a licensed trainer?”
“We saw you leaving your Pokémon team outside. and the Camerupt stuck his head through the kitchen window.”
“…Sorry, I’ll give him a talking to.”
“It’s fine! Our cooks need a little bit of shaking up now and then.”
When it became time to pay for lunch, I decided to use the gym’s card for my team’s meals and as for my Sitrus berry flavored soda pop I had to pay for it with my own personal card. It wasn’t often that I used the gym’s card since I could only use that money for my Pokémon’s food expenses but this technically falls in that category. Not that we ate out all that often, else I’d be pretty sure I would be receiving a personal call from Mr. Moore if that was the case.
With my order placed I removed myself from the premises and joined the rest of my team who were still waiting outside. Each of them resting inside one of the outdoor patios reserved for customers.
“Hey guys, sorry it took so long. This place is crazy popular. I had to wait in line.”
They all gave me a small cry of acknowledgement before continuing on with their game of Timburr’s Tower. Numsy had grown too big to properly enjoy board games and was watching on clearly bored out of his mind. I felt like this was a good time to get some buddy time in, with my oldest friend.
“You want to head out to see the sights? We have a pretty good chance of meeting water type that we haven’t seen before.”
“Rupt?”
“They know which patio we’re in and I’ve already paid for our meal so it’s no issue.”
Numsy seemed eager enough to take a stroll along the beach as long as we kept a good distance away from the water so that’s what we did. Since I spent a good deal of time working on my report at the Pokémon center a sizable chunk of the beach goers were already packing up for the day. That meant we could wade our way through without accidentally bumping into anyone.
“Let’s play I spy a Pokémon like we used to. You can start.”
“Came Rupt…?”
“Something white? That’s easy a wingull.”
“Rupt!”
“We’re on a beach. I don't have to look. There’s only a finite number of wild Pokémon out here unless we also count trainer owned ones. Now it’s my turn, I spy…”
I scanned the beach for a more difficult to guess target until my eyes finally landed on a blue deflated blob with what seemed to be tentacles coming out of it. The Tentacool was obviously stranded and severely dehydrated.
“Game’s off! There’s a Pokémon who needs our help!”
“Came!”
The both of us ran towards the sad looking Tentacool while a small crowd of children was already forming around the Jellyfish Pokémon unsure of what to do without parental guidance. The kids made way for me seeing as I came together with Numsy. Clueing them in on my status as a licensed Pokémon trainer.
“Don’t touch it!. In this state it will sting anyone that gets close. We’ll need to hydrate it first before attempting to move Tentacool. Does anyone here have a large bucket?”
“I do!”
The pig tailed girl in a one-piece responded enthusiastically.
“Can you fill it up with water and bring it over? You! boy in the green trunk, help her carry it over. Take turns if the other one gets exhausted.”
The two of them sped off leaving behind a nervous kid with glasses.
“What are you going to do?”
“I can’t tell how long Tentacool’s been like this. I'll have to give up my fizzy sitrus pop. Stand back a bit, Tentacool might shoot Poison Sting when it comes to its senses.”
I was loath to do it, but we were still a ways off from the sea. Sacrificing my one guilty pleasure to rescue a Pokémon in need was a basic kindness. I opened up the can and started dousing Tentacool’s delipidated body with fizzy citrusy goodness. The Sitrus extract had a restorative effect and could be used in a pinch situation like this one if one’s conventional healing items ran dry. Tentacool’s body started ballooning up slowly being filled with the water it needed. Soon enough my soda pop ran out, its contents not being sufficient to entirely substitute the jellyfish’s Pokémon need for water.
“Tenta…”
“Easy there, you are stranded on a beach. We’ll get you back into the water so just hang on tight.”
“Cool.”
“What’s it say?”
“Rupt.”
“It got nabbed by a flying Pokémon but dropped when it proved too much of a hassle to eat? You must be one though fella. It does make sense though the rangers usually wouldn’t allow one of your kind to get near to a beach frequented by humans.”
Tentacool and tentacruel were well known for being extremely territorial while at the same time not posing as much of a danger compared to other aggressive water types like gyarados. Since most of their attacks aren’t powerful enough to breach the steel hulls of passing ships.
“You must be far away from home. It might be a good idea to contact a ranger. They’ll release you at the nearest tentacool spawning grounds. Wait before all of that, can I try something?”
“Tenta?”
It has been a long while since I had the chance to use the Pokédex I received from Professor Juniper. Tentacool was known for being a wide-ranging species it would for sure have all the relevant data pertaining to this water and poison type.
“Hey you, what's your name?”
“Cliff.”
“Would you mind grabbing the Pokédex that’s in my backpack and scanning Tentacool with it? I haven’t had the chance to record his species yet.”
The nerdy looking kid’s eyes lit up at the prospect of handling such a renowned device and in anticipation of Cliff's probable series of questions. I gave him all the necessary information he would need.
“The right flap, just press the big white button in the middle and point. The scan will start automatically.”
Tentacool, the Jellyfish Pokémon Because Tentacool’s body is almost entirely composed of water, it shrivels up if it is washed ashore. If this Pokémon happens to become dehydrated, put it back into the sea. Tentacool tend to drift in shallow seas, such as the areas near beaches. If you get bitten or stabbed by its toxic tentacles, rush to the hospital.
“Yep, that sounds about right. Isn’t that so Cliff?”
Just as Cliff was about to respond to my rhetorical question. His duo of friends came back carrying a large bucket of seawater between the two of them. Thankfully not being followed by their parents I didn’t want to get it on with parental figures afraid of their children running the risk of being stung by a poison type like Tentacool.
“We’re back and we brought a bucket of water!”
The children let go of the bucket, the item falling on sandy ground with a soft thud.
“Say Tentacool…”
“Tenta?”
“Do I have your permission to pick you up and place you inside this bucket of seawater?”
“Cool!”
It seemed that my donation of a fizzy drink was enough to assure Tentacool that I had no malicious intentions toward it. So, I carefully placed both my hands underneath it’s weirdly gelatinous body and lifted the water type into the bucket. As soon as I did so Tentacool’s body started expanding again until it reached about two feet in size when adding the length of its grasping tentacles into the equation.
“Tenta! Tenta!”
“Tentacool is thanking us for the offered help. Now you all go make sure that your parents don’t figure out what you’ve been up to. The four of us will be in a heap of trouble if they ever find out you’ve been standing around an uncaught Tentacool. I’ll leave the bucket at this spot so you can come back to pick it up as soon as we're done here.”
Their faces cramped up at the realization and they quickly dispersed not wanting to be spotted and get grounded for life. A licensed trainer like me could interact with all sorts of dangerous wild Pokémon without getting into trouble unlike the kids who by the looks of it were about one or two years my junior. Before leaving Cliff gave me back my Pokédex with a disappointed expression, probably a tad frustrated that he couldn’t acquaint himself with the device.
It was now just me, Numsy and Tentacool. In any other situation I could just drop the water type into the ocean without repercussion but since this stretch of sea was populated with swimming tourists the responsible thing to do was call the ranger hotline and have them take care of it. So that’s what I did.
Hoenn, just like any other country, had a three numbered emergency line that you could call in a situation like this. Granted this wasn’t really an emergency but I didn’t have the number of the local ranger outpost on hand and there weren’t any computers nearby. With a bit of trepidation I dialed the number on my Xtransceiver and hoped for the best.
“This is the Hoenn region’s emergency hotline. Do you require police, fire, ambulance or rangers?”
“Rangers please.”
“Hold on, I am sending you through.”
Luckily, I didn’t have to wait and immediately got connected to the on-duty ranger.
“Lilycove ranger outpost HQ, what seems to be the problem?”
“I found a dried up Tentacool on one of Lilycove City’s beaches and rehydrated it. Now I figured I can’t just let Tentacool loose at shore since it’s a tourist area…”
“That is correct, usually in these cases we send someone over. Has the Tentacool in question stung anyone?”
“No, he is quite amenable after I proved my intentions. As far as I can tell some flying Pokémon mistakenly tried to make a meal out of him but dropped him after getting a taste of Tentacool’s Poison Sting.”
After it was made clear that Tentacool was not a threat I was asked to share our current location with the ranger’s interlocutor. I was clueless as to this particular beach’s name, so I told them to come pick Tentacool up at the restaurant where the rest of my team was waiting. Following the call’s conclusion, I had a chat with Tentacool and he was agreeable to spending the rest of the afternoon with us at the restaurant before one of the rangers came to get him back home.
“I sure am lucky that I worked on my stamina back home. Or we’d be having trouble moving you Tentacool.”
“Tenta.”
I was fairly sure that the sight of a ten-year-old carrying a tentacool around in a bucket would have prompted some of the adult passers-by to come and talk with me. However, Numsy’s presence advertising my status as a trainer did much to keep the busybodies away.
“We’re back!”
“Ninee!” “Lit!” “Vess!” “Nitan!” “Arf!”
I was greeted by the sight of my team only giving me brief greetings before going back to munching on each of their respective fried pastries. The Malasada’s allure being too great for them to pay any attention to me or the venomous jellyfish Pokémon I was carrying with me in a bucket. Each of them received a straw basket labeled by flavor so that there wouldn’t be any confusion on whose Malasada belonged to whom.
“Numsy go have lunch, yours is the big one labeled sour. I’ll look after Tentacool.”
My buddy didn’t need to be told twice as he rushed on over to join the semicircle of Pokémon who were enjoying their lunch.
“I don’t really know what a tentacool eats. Do you want a berry or something else?”
“Tenta…!”
It was hard for me to accurately read the expression of the near amorphous invertebrate, but it looked like Tentacool was moved by my hospitality. It took a while but eventually he gave his assent indicating that he would like to have lunch together with us. So, I opened up my old trusty backpack and fished out my stash of berries. Pulling the lid off the plastic container holding our supply of berries I presented Tentacool with the opened box.
“You can pick one. If you are unfamiliar with the various kinds of berries then the Oran berry would be your safest bet.”
Tentacool extended one of his feelers and hovered it over my selection until he finally grabbed a cheri berry. Pulling the spicy tasting berry into the bucket and into its unseen mouth.
“Can I also?”
‘Are you already done with your Malasada?’
“Yes! It was delicious. We should eat out more often!”
“Okay, you can all have one berry each, but that means no dessert after dinner!”
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------A bit after lunch*
After enjoying lunch with the team, we started training at a cleared out empty spot. Tentacool who was still waiting for the ranger to come pick him up agreed to help out me and Numsy with the next stage of his ability exercises.
“Bear with it, no pain no gain! You are doing an excellent job Tentacool.”
Tentacool was hosing down my bovine friend with a weakened version of Water Gun. While Numsy had to stand still and take it. So far we had a modicum amount of success, the Water Gun not being potent enough to knock him out but it did cool down his core temperature making him act lethargic.
While I was busy making sure Tentacool didn’t take it too far. The others got busy working on their own abilities. Raven was doing training of a similar nature as Numsy standing still while she got peppered with low power embers from an eager to help out bug type. Orin, after getting tutored in the basics of applying Shadow Tag, was busy extending his shadow far enough to prevent Glove from escaping. The little candle didn’t have issues with catching the big lug but having the effect of Shadow Tag not be broken by the return function of Glove’s ball still eluded him which Rena activated from time to time.
We spent our time like that until finally a figure riding a large flying Pokémon flew overhead before landing right next to us. I could recognize the ranger’s attire with but a glance what was surprising to me was his manner of transport. Mantines were large enough to carry people but vastly preferred swimming over flying so seeing one do so was quite the surprise.
“Tineeee!”
“Hello and you must be Egon. Sorry I am late when you called, I was in the middle of an escort assignment. This is the Tentacool you were talking about?”
“Cool!”
“Yeah, he’s been a real help getting my Camerupt to get used to water type attacks.”
The ranger pulled out a poké ball from his belt before showing the capture device to Tentacool.
“Alright see this? I’ll be temporarily catching you with this here ranger ball. When me and Mantine reach the nearest coral reef where others of your kind live, I’ll release you straight away. Do you trust me Tentacool?”
“…Tenta.”
“Great! Do you want to say your goodbyes to Egon?”
Tentacool turned towards me and extended one of his feelers in a clear attempt at giving me a handshake which I quickly reciprocated by gently wrapping his feeler with my bare hand confident that the poison type had no intention of stinging me.
“You make sure to grow into being a big scary Tentacruel so no Pokémon will ever mistake you for a food item, alright?”
“Tenta!”
We finished saying our goodbyes. Numsy's farewell tinged with a smidge of relief and the ranger bopped his ball gently onto Tentacool’s head sucking the water type inside. With his business finished the ranger hopped back onto Mantine's back and the two of them took off in the direction of the ocean. Leaving us back to our own devices.
“Ferry… hmm Oh! I forgot to buy tickets! We’ll have to race to make it in time!”
“Doofus!”
Comments
Cody Adam Carroll
Sometimes I feel like he loves pokemon too much to be a fire type specialist like he is. I feel like he would love being a pokemon ranger running around exploring and helping pokemon.
Desidia
Thanks for the fast chapter.
Heraclitus
That was a fun chapter. The slice of life stuff is always enjoyable.
