Act 1: Logs 2
"Log seven, day thirty-eight. Vulpix and I... suffered our first real defeat today. She was hurt badly, and I..."
There is a long pause in the recording before it cuts off altogether.
"Long seven, day thirty-eight, part two. Sorry about that, professor. Anyway, our winning streak was finally broken. Vulpix suffered from a cracked ulna, several cracked ribs, a dislocated shoulder, contusions to the head and back, various lacerations, and a concussion. I won't lie, professor, this scared . The loss stung, but Vulpix's injuries... She'll be back at one-hundred percent in just a few days, which both relieves and awes . That many injuries on a common animal? One as small as Vulpix? They would be on a long and hard road to recovery if they recovered at all. The whole thing dislodged so... unpleasant mories of ho. I had a lioness..."
Again, there is an uncomfortable silence in the recording.
"Animals don't have the sa higher brain functions we humans do. Much of it matches up to us, but others are nonsensical, even unthinkable to us. This is going to be greatly simplified or we'll be here all day, so bear with . In large predators, they often have what's called K-selection reproduction, that's with a capital K, where they produce a small number of very valuable and resource-intensive offspring in response to a stable environnt. The opposite, r-selection, is seen often in invertebrates and prey species, who have many 'cheap' offspring, so they can afford to lose several in their usually hostile environnt and still continue the species."
"Does that sound callous? Sit down for this next one."
"Lions, one of the big cats I worked with, evolved to thrive in the harsh, arid land of Africa. They've taken an inhospitable environnt and mastered it, but such a thing requires so extre asures... Selective infanticide is one of them."
Birch clicks 'pause' on the recording and wheels his office chair back away from his computer, leaning back and looking up at the ceiling as he pretends Lee's words didn't rattle him. After several long minutes, he sits back up and hits 'play' again.
"To a lion, it makes no sense to keep and invest ti into offspring that are unlikely to survive. So abandon unwanted cubs, others... take a more violent approach. We had an incident back ho so months back, after one of my lioness' gave birth to three cubs. Sothing we could not identify triggered her, and she... One didn't make it."
"It was all too easy to imagine Vulpix... No, I'm not going there right now."
"On a different note, I was surprised to see the healing machines in the Pokemon Center. They were always used as a convenient handwave for healing in the gas, as no kid playing a video ga would want to wait around for manual treatnt and buying healing items all the ti would be infeasible. Considering these healing machines, or I guess the proper na is 'Omni-Trauma Units' take much longer and according to Nurse Joy, only work up to a certain dosage before a pokemon's body begins to reject it, it's definitely not a handwave and explains the need for the Pokemon Center needing to address serious injuries manually. Visually, it looks similar to Heal Pulse, so maybe they were inspired by the move? I dunno, I'll research that. I was surprised absolutely none to find that the units are made by Silph Co, who still gives dystopia gacorp vibes sotis."
"In other news, I ca dangerously close to outing myself as a... foreigner... like a moron. A dragon-tar nad Zinnia, who forced herself in our group, nearly caught after I blurted so half-rembered line about her tribe, the Draconids. At first, I was reluctant to let her co, but she and her Shelgon were the ones who defeated Vulpix. She and her pokemon are strong, sothing that may be useful later. As much as the back of my mind is telling it's a bad idea, the protection she can offer outweighs the risk just the slightest amount."
"We're setting out in the morning, and I've got to get to bed, so that's it for this one. Lee, out."
"Log eight, day forty-one... Fuck."
"I got my Treecko, and a Corvisquire, both on total accident yesterday. We finally made it to Petalburg Woods and began our way inside. For several hours it was uneventful. Or it was uneventful for Brendan and Zinnia, I was too enchanted by all the pokemon to really notice the ti passing. Anyway, we stopped for lunch and Brendan's Shoomish wandered away. We found him by a ransacked Pecha bush, and the owner of said bush was not happy."
"This was the first ti I've seen a Corvisquire. I vaguely recall his last form, Corviknight, from promos for the latest ga, but other than that, he was a total unknown. I knew my ta knowledge was only going to get more and more unreliable, but this threw for a loop."
"Corvisquire ca down at Brendan and Shroomish like a missile, and in such a cramped clearing, only Vulpix had the agility to fight him, so we did."
"My Pokedex gave it's a little blurb about Corvisquire when I was identifying him, saying that his kind are masters of gauging an opponent. This guy ca down, saw three humans, a Vulpix, a Shroomish, a Shelgon, and a Swablu, and decided fighting was a good idea. It didn't take long to figure out why. Even with and Vulpix going full-tilt, Corvisquire kept pace, even taking a Will-o-Wisp to the back and getting up like nothing happened. It looked like we had the edge, then he busted out Extrespeed."
"I would call Vulpix fast. With Quick Attack, she can move so fast that her features blur together to the naked eye, making her little more than an orange, fox-shaped sar. Normally the whole 'move so fast you vanish' thing is a common occurrence in TV to signify soone moving quickly, but to actually see a pokemon be there one second, then be gone the next with the displaced air cracking loud enough to echo in the woods is... sothing else. I know there must be so trick to Extrespeed, because if my napkin-math is right, Corvisquire would need to move at roughly mach 50 to beco invisible, and super-durability or no, I have a hard ti believing a bird would not practically atomize itself at such a speed. The delay between his vanishing and his actual attack landing also points to Extrespeed not being mach 50... Unless physics here are different from my earth's. Shit, that's going to keep awake."
"Vulpix managed a miracle right before she collapsed, firing off a Fire Spin so huge it was like an orange, F1 tornado spawned from nowhere in the forest. Vulpix's eyes glowed the sa color as hellfire, and she sohow shielded from the attack despite how I should have been fried. Zinnia's Shelgon popped a quick Protect to keep her and Brendan safe. Corvisquire was caught in the whirlwind and had countless burns and contusions to show for it. At the mouth of the tornado, he was thrown almost a fourth of a mile with enough force to make an indent in a tree we found him in. This is where we found the Treecko colony."
"Professor, I'm going to confess sothing I regret. I caught a Treecko I know was supposed to go to another trainer. The damage Corvisquire's impact did to the tree caused the mammoth thing to fall down. It was a long-dead tree and was on borrowed ti, but it was still the ho of the Treecko colony. As it fell, the Treecko in question froze up, and Corvisquire was still unconscious at the best of the tree. I threw two hail-mary pokeballs and caught both of them, thus saving them, with pure luck. I could justify keeping Corvisquire, as we beat him one-on-one and letting a dangerous pokemon like him go would be irresponsible, but Treecko..."
"I should have let him go. He wasn't ant to be mine, yet I kept him, because I know he grows to be a Legendary contender, and thats legendary with a capital L. Was that wrong of ?"
"I just... Shit, moving on."
"I gave Treecko a rudintary physical to get a baseline. Physically he's in good shape, ntally I can't say for sure. He just lost his ho, after all. Corvisquire was given a Rawst berry that I had Vulpix sniff out to take the edge off his burns and promptly returned to his ball. He'll need a visit to a Pokemon Center to get back up and running. I'm hoping he's not going to be difficult, but I get the feeling he is. I am sick and tired of this forest so we're going to bed to make haste out of here. Once we're in Rustboro, we'll begin training for our gym match. Lee, out."
"Log nine, day forty-two. We're in Rustboro and have so non-flammable training grounds to use. I've had Vulpix limited to just control exercises like maintaining a hovering fireball and moving fireballs along short paths as to avoid a forest fire. We're lucky her Fire Spin was so intense it turned everything it touched to ash instantly, or I'd probably have the Rangers jumping up my ass. Our attempts so far to replicate her burst of power in the forest have been... Well, the less said the better."
"I dropped Corvisquire off at the Pokemon Center, and Nurse Joy cleared him after a round or two under the Omnitrauma. The little bird has been... combative to say the least. He's yet to directly disobey , even in the gym battle we had today. He even ran an unsupervised errand for by getting my gym registration in my stead, so I'll count my blessings there."
"in the anti, I had Vulpix and Treecko begin their own training. Vulpix's physical conditioning is at a level I would call adequate, and she continues to gain lean muscle at a steady rate, so we'll likely dial that back so in favor of more pyrokinesis. For reference, one of the few tis I could coax her into playing with , she easily pulled off my feet with just a jerk of her neck during a tug-of-war with a rope toy. Before we get too in-depth with her pyro powers, I'll have her help teach Treecko Quick Attack. It's a wonderful movent option as well as being a force multiplier, and would help his rather ta movepool."
"This brings us to the last event of today: my gym battle with Roxanne."
"I went to the Rustboro Trainer School to see about taking a class or two, and Gym Leader Roxanne was there. Rather than have us wait, she offered to let us battle right there if I helped her teach a class and kept an open mind about working with the School in the future."
"Professor, I know you said your sponsorship would open a lot of doors for , but I didn't realize it would be this many. She took one look at my ID, saw my title, and practically offered whatever I wanted to work for the School. I told her I'd be open to projects here and there but that my primary research belongs to the lab."
Birch sighs in relief and wipes his forehead.
"The battle was sothing else. I had no idea that gym leaders have two teams, one for challengers and one of their own personal teams. Considering the citadel-like arrangent of all the regions, it makes sense that gym leaders are stronger than they let on since they more or less rule their cities. The mayors and local governnts may say whatever they want, I know the League is really in charge with their monopoly on power. Also, they do need to give young trainers a fair chance, or the League tournants would be barren."
"Anyway, we battled her real team and squeaked out a narrow win. Corvisquire thrashed Roxanne's Geodude with Steel Wing and Extrespeed. Just him having Extrespeed and being a Galar native pokemon makes think Corvisquire had a prior trainer or let him go, but that's for another ti. He was felled by her much more powerful Nosepass, and despite the type disadvantage, I put Vulpix in."
"We held our own, but when it got down to the wire, we had to make a leap of faith. Nosepass's Sandstorm was fouling all of Vulpix's shots because she couldn't see, so using telepathy, I plugged her sight to my eyes so she could fight from the 3rd person. I didn't ex-"
Birch once again pauses the recording and tries to process what he's heard. They pulled the sense-sharing trick, again. No, they pulled an even more extre version. If Lee is being one hundred percent truthful, then they just perford sothing impossible.
Telepathy with aningful communication is only seen in one in a thousand telepathy-capable pokemon, and telepathy with one-to-one understanding is easily fifty tis as rare. There was exactly one report of a blind man who owned an Alakazam saying he sotis saw wispy things when his pokemon was near him, supposedly things Alakazam was looking at, but nothing ca of it. Now, full overriding of senses?
"That doesn't happen..." Birch whispers to himself. He swallows, but it doesn't help his suddenly dry throat any. The brains of people and pokemon are just too different. Countless n, all with decades of experience and access to near-infinite League resources, had tried and failed what Lee did casually.
First the pyrokinesis, now this? What did he do differently? It could not have been just an accident. Or was it?
Does... Does Lee even know of such a limitation? That can't be it... can it?
Birch eyeballs the videophone in the corner, now feeling out of his depth. He shakes his head and clicks 'play' again.
He and Lee need to talk soon.
"-ect it to work so well, but we won when her last barrage of Ember hit."
"Then Steven Stone walked up."
Birch feels his blood pressure skyrocket.
"He was, ah, a surprisingly personable guy, all things considered. I guess you get used to being nice to everyone in such a public position of responsibility. He instantly knew Vulpix and I used telepathy and watched her pyrokinesis in action, so I guess our chance of surprising him beca an even bigger pipe dream. Jesus. Anyway, thats all for this one. Lee, out."
"Day forty-six. I should probably start doing these on my phone. My Pokegear? Is Pokegear the na or the brand? Eh, it's a phone. The pokedex is fine as for its own functions, but sending huge dia files through this thing takes for fucking ever and kills the battery. Anyway, as I've noted before, Treecko's growth is nothing short of explosive. He's been working hard to master Quick Attack, and now has an adequate grasp after only a few days. He's in excellent shape and health, and I have full intention of helping him stay that way, He throws himself into training with admirable aplomb, but I have fears of him burning out."
There is a short pause.
"We'll... work on that more later. Corvisquire was already powerful at his ti of capture and his performance in battle speaks volus of his abilities. He improves quickly as well, adding power and technique to each of his moves with their repeated use. Now I just wish he would curb his enthusiasm for violence...Again, we're working on it."
"On to other topics, I'm glad that both Treecko and Corvisquire are responding well to their diets. Corvisquire was easy, as I just copied Vulpix's mix with more red at and so grains substituted with nuts. To ensure healthy armor growth upon his eventual evolution to Corviknight, who I'm told is a Steel-type, I do add so iron supplents in for him. Treecko is where I ran into issues. I was surprised to learn the Treecko line is strictly herbivorous. I guess it makes sense given the Grass typing, but it threw off. I admit I'm... not well versed with herbivores, as I spent most of my ti working with carnivores. His mix should et all his nutritional and calorie requirents even with his instance on harsh training factored in, but it leaves taste as sothing to be desired. I'll wrap this up as I've got to go. Brendan's match with the Rustboro gym leader is coming up and my team is about done with lunch. Lee, out."
"Log eleven, day fifty."
"I don't have a ton to report on this one, as we talked on the phone regarding my 'concerns' a few days ago. We're in-route to Dewford. Recently, I've been working with my pokemon in earnest to create custom moves, as you'll see by the attached file. It's been going well I think. For Vulpix, Convergence still needs more work, and Fox Fire is still in the fanciful dream stage, but we'll get there."
"I've also been training with Corvisquire to further abuse Extrespeed and to try and figure out the secret to Swift's homing ability. We've been able to get Swift to change targets mid-flight, but thats all. It's frustrating Corvi sothing fierce. In another vein, research by a sowhat unknown researcher from Galar nad Doctor Castel suggests the Corviknight line has a smattering of Dark mixed in with their Steel and Flying types. Not much, but enough to be useful. I'm really hoping this is the case. Why? I was re-reading the section in 'Type Advantages for Trainers in a Hurry' regarding how Dark moves normally have a level of homing built into them like Faint Attack and Pursuit, as the Dark energy naturally gravitates toward anything living, or emitting 'aura' I guess. If we can transmigrate Dark energy into Swift, we'll have a seriously difficult move to dodge, see my notes on the custom move: Pursuers."
"Treecko, anwhile, has been learning Faint Attack from Vulpix. It's taking longer than Quick Attack since Faint Attack is not a move that the Sceptile line learns naturally and this is the first ti Treecko has ever had to mold Dark energy, but Vulpix is a patient teacher and Treecko is a stellar student. Fuck, I'm kind of kicking myself for not realizing the potential of such a move before. I know it's not as fast as Extrespeed, but when used, I can't seem to follow the user with my eyes. No one can. It's as if my eyes just slide off of them and my brain just refuses to acknowledge that there is sothing there. I know there is a word for this but it escapes right now. If we can apply that effect to projectiles... Anyway, I got to see a Vaporeon in action as she chased away a full-grown Sharpedo harassing the cargo ship taking us to Dewford, then I got to see her lt into a drain as a mass of water. What an unfair, broken ability that I must have. Vaporeon went to the top of my wanted list, and I will have one. I'm going to finish up here and send this before the cell signal gets too weak. Lee, out."
By now, Birch is too tired to be surprised by the revelation of entirely new moves being created and sighs, promising himself he'll be amped up later. He scrolls down the folder with all the audio files to find a single picture and several text files as well.
Clicking on the first one, it's a rather straightforward list of pokemon nas written on photo-copied paper, presumably ones that Lee wants. Several are crossed out, and the last one is almost entirely scribbled out.
-More to be added-
Vaporeon
Eevee?
Snorelax
Flygon
Audino/Chansey/Blissey
Seviper/Zangoose (only one)
Persian
Absol? Research More
Kecleon
Manectric/Luxray
Kangaskhan? Research More
Mienshao
Latias/Latios - Wishful thinking
Lmao Braixen
Lucario
wo- Get real
Birch closes the file then goes to the next one.
Custom Techniques - Vulpix
#1
Na: Convergence
-Fire-type
Description: Fireballs spontaneously manifest around target and converge, exploding for Fire damage.
Leaves little room to dodge.
Strikes all points of foe, negating need to aim for weakpoints
-Slower than Protect. Current speed can be dodged by faster foes that aren't surprised.
Notes:
Requires pyrokinesis. (See - Vulpix bio notes)
Power good. Need to work on explosion sync, projectile speed, and energy consumption. Don't use in serious battles.
#2
Na: Fox Fire (Na not final)
-Fire-type
STILL IN CONCEPTUAL PHASE
Description: Fox-shaped fla clone runs down and engages foe as a separate combatant. Explodes for Fire damage when defeated.
Notes: Vulpix's pyrokinesis has a long way to go before she can exert this level of control midbattle. Very cool, but very impractical (for now)
Birch whistles to himself as he closes the file. "That's bold, but ga-changing if it can be done." He clicks the next one, feeling eager.
Custom Techniques - Corvisquire
#1
Na: Pursuers
-Dark-type
STILL IN CONCEPTUAL PHASE
Description: N/A
Notes: Swift needs deconstructed first.
The next file, the one for Treecko, is empty, leaving Birch to lean back in his chair as his throughs swirl a mile a minute.
"di?"
He looks up, seeing his dicham at his office door with a bottle of aspirin and glass of water already in his hands.
Birch laughs. "Thank you, old friend. Lee is giving a headache again and you're right on ti. Here, co take a look at this," he says, turning his computer monitor around and opening the files again.
dicham steps closer and listens to each of the audio files, then looks at the text files with his face as impassive as stone. After a long mont, the pokemon looks between his trainer and the aspirin in his hand, before sighing and tossing the little pills in his own mouth without any sha.
Reviews
All reviews (0)