Chapter 18-19

We spent the rest of the day mourning our lost friend. We crowded around his body and sat in silence. Almost silence. The roar from Kenpachi's jets along with the sounds of the forest prevented us from absolute silence. When the sun set, Ino roused the team from our mourning.

I walked back to the camp with the team following behind me. I went into my backpack and brought out a shovel before we returned to Quicksilver's still form. I dug the grave alone. Both Broly and Kenpachi were passionate in their desire to help. I denied them both though. I needed to do this.

When I finished the hole, I synced up with the team mentally and they saw exactly what I needed. Ino placed Quicksilver's body in the grave with her telekinesis. Kenpachi covered it up with sand and filled the hole. Broly created a giant tombstone with ancient power. Igneel sent a blast of fire onto the rock to soften it up. Kisame focused her hydro pump and used it to carve what I directed into the stone. The Trevanant, not yet a member of the team, stretched his tree arms and caused flowers to bloom over the grave.

It was perfect. I read out the stone's inscription, "Here lies Quicksilver, the fastest pokemon to roam the skies. A brother, a father, a friend." My voice choked up at the end. I broke into tears.

We left the grave by morning the next day. I'd fallen asleep leaning on the headstone and my team joined me in spending their nights there. We walked back to the camp. I procrastinated on addressing the Trevenant to implement the plan I came up with.

I sent Oak a message on the Pokedex asking to meet. To my surprise, he teleported into the clearing a few seconds after I sent my message. I opened negotiations. "I need you to find someone for me. I'll tell you about Broly's evolution if you do" I was putting a lot on the line here. It was worth it though, that Poacher would pay. He'd cost me and I'd repay that a hundred-fold.

"Who do you need me to find and why?" Of course, he'd ask questions. This was the professor. He was my only hope so I couldn't ruin this.

"A pokemon poacher. He killed Quicksilver. I can share my memories with Alakazam so you'll have a picture to go on at least." Oak nodded and I felt a presence battle with Ino's in my mind. I calmed her to allow him access and He viewed my memories of yesterday.

His presence retreated from my mind. Oak went still for a few seconds. A sure sign that Alakazam was showing him the memories. I fidgeted and moved from side to side before I caught myself. I was no child waiting for a scolding.

Oak finished viewing the memories and took a few seconds before he finally spoke. "I'm sorry for your loss. But do you still need to go after him? You had your revenge. Your pokemon felled most of his" He had to be joking. This had to be a fucking joke.

"Yes. Yes, I do. I won't rest till that bastard and his Gengar are on their way to one of the seven hells"

"Is it not enough that you've caused him the pain he caused you? Must you go farther? I've seen what revenge had done to men stronger and more disciplined than yourself. It turns the best of men into the worst of men. No exceptions."

I understood his point. But, I wasn't 15 years old. I was a grown man. The poacher had committed a crime deserving of death. Far be it from me to prevent a man from getting his due.

" I see you've set your mind on this, but I can not help you" No doubt he could see the displeasure on my face.

"I'll also tell you how to evolve Milotic from Faebas" I added. I needed this information. I'd put everything on the line to get my way at this point.

"I find it strange that you're volunteering information you claimed not to have when I first asked. As much as I want that information, the face you saw in your memories wasn't real"

What? I dreamt up Quicksilver's death? This old man had to be fucking with me.

"No, that's not what I meant. The poacher himself was as real as you and I. A powerful psychic type may project a false image into reality. He used an illusionary form to obscure his identity. I suspect that Alakazam of his was using some of its power to maintain the illusion, even while he battled". His explanation made sense I guess.

"So, you're no help?" I asked

"I wouldn't say no help. I still have plenty to bargain for that information you offered."

"I'm not interested," I said. I sounded petulant, but I couldn't budge on this. "If you can find him, then please let me know. I'll give you the information then"

"Fine, then. I'll keep an eye out for your Quarry. I only hope you know what you're doing.

"Thank …." Alakazam teleported him out of the forest before I could finish my sentence. Fucking asshole.

That was a bust. The entire interaction was a bust. I'd lost that exchange. I let him know that I wasn't as clueless as I'd tried to come across, and got nothing in return. Except perhaps, that the psychic type was much more powerful than I'd thought.

I turned to face my other goal for today. The Trevenant. He'd come alive to help my team and had since remained with us. It wouldn't take a genius to guess what he wanted. I wasn't opposed to that though. I hadn't planned on getting a Trevenant on my team, but which of my pokemon had I actually planned on catching?

The grass/ghost type would cover several weaknesses in my team composition. I walked toward him. "Hey, buddy. Interested in joining the team?" I asked.

He looked at me and then raised a branch to my forehead. I couldn't understand it but he showed me his thoughts. His memories. It wasn't a psychic-type link. It was both less and more at the same time.

The Trevanant had always been in the team. From the first day. The day I buried Growlithe's ball in the forest. He'd felt my grief that day and bonded himself to me. He had watched me while I trained in Viridian. When I left on Quicksilver's back, he couldn't follow anywhere as quickly. When I finally settled down in the Safari Zone, he'd found me after the first month. It took that long to cross Kanto on foot.

He was content with watching over the team. When he saw me in danger though, he interfered. He stepped out and fought on my behalf. He mourned Quicksilver as deeply as I did. He was the only one apart from Broly and I that had seen Quicksilver as a pidgeotto. Arrogant as nothing else, and hardworking. Competitive but friendly.

I engulfed him in a hug as large as any I could. I leaned back and said, "Hashirama". He looked confused. "That's your name" He hugged me back in an embrace so tight I heard my ribs creak.

We spent the rest of the day lazing about and resting. The team wanted to train. I felt their desires. I was too happy to have them alive though. I needed a day to bond with them and none denied me that.

Kenpachi spent the day racing around under Broly's watchful eyes. Evolution or not, he was still the baby of the team. Hashirama was building a good relationship with Igneel and Kisame. That friend group confused me. Their type compositions should have made them all enemies. Their personalities even differed. Kisame was mischievous and loved to play pranks. Igneel had a fiery personality. Always looking to prove his strength. Hashirama seemed assured in his strength and content to sit still for months.

Ino sat with me as she always did. I meditated on my aura and felt the links that connected me with my team. Where Quicksilver once was sat Hashirama's calming presence. I felt my heart ache at that. Hashirama wasn't Quicksilver's replacement. No one could ever replace my speedster. I hated how he stood where Quicksilver once did. I loved him but hated what his presence seemed to represent.

Ino was there for me. Hands-on my face and mind in mine. She soothed my worries. My negative emotions. I calmed and watched the team play and rest. I fell asleep in the lotus position, watching them.

The next day, I was up before dawn. I had planned the day out yesterday. The first thing I did was send my pokemon into their balls. I'd 'captured' Hashirama in one yesterday. I left Ino out though. She was already awake and already knew what I wanted.

I blinked and saw myself in front of the same department store as two days ago. I needed to speak to Ino about her surprise teleports. I walked in to make my purchases. I got everything I'd gathered yesterday with two major changes. I got the TM for Hyper beam instead of Giga Impact. My team had changed. That was the fact of things. Instead of being a 60-40 split between physical and special attackers, it was now a 50-50 split. The fact that most of my special attackers wouldn't be able to use Giga Impact, at least in an effective manner, tipped the scales in their direction.

I also grabbed the TM for Sunny day. I'd realized that I wasn't making the best use of Igneel's ability. Solar power was a powerful ability and we'd neglected it.

I checked out, and my account was 30,000 poke dollars lighter. I'd need to find a way to make money eventually. My original idea was to capture the Crystal Onix and sell it for a couple million. Quicksilver's loss made that untenable. Sunburst Island was much too out of the way for me to make the journey.

I'd have to challenge a few gyms and trainers then. Battles were also a source of income. A much more interesting source if you asked me. Ino took me back to the clearing and I released the rest of the team. I put Ino back in her ball to teach her hyper beam. She was the best person to teach the rest of the team a new move.

I also taught Hashirama sunny day. The move would be useful for both him and Igneel and they were already very friendly. Igneel would teach Hashirama protect. Hashirama would teach Igneel sunny day and solar beam.

I could only imagine the power of a solar beam used by a powerful Charizard boosted by the solar power ability. It would be glorious, I was sure. We started the day with the team going off to begin their individual training. Kenpachi was with me though.

His original training plan would be useless in his present form. We focused on getting him used to his new form and mode of movement. I had him travel around the forest. Taking a route between trees. He fucked up a lot. But with how thick his armour was, he could barrel through trees without even feeling it. That was both a positive and negative.

I didn't want him hurt but the lack of pain gave him no incentive to get better. He was, though. Slowly and steadily.

I left him to that and I walked over to watch the rest of the team. Igneel was showing Hashirama Protect. Did they decide to start with Hashirama's learning? That was surprising. Igneel was normally too impatient for that.

Ino, Kisame, and Broly were together. Ino was teaching them both Hyper Beam. Kisame was getting a small beam that showed she was making progress. Broly couldn't manage anything yet. That was normal though. He was a physical genius but special moves were never his forte.

The work continued all through the week. Igneel had given up on trying to teach Hashirama Protect. Now, they were working on Sunny day. It was quite foolish of me to expect Igneel to be a teacher. His temperament was ill-suited for that.

Kisame had gotten Hyper beam down and was now focusing on her water manipulation. Broly was coming along nicely with the move. He no longer needed Ino's help and she'd moved on to teach the move to Kenpachi. He needed to learn both protect and hyper beam. Protect was easier to learn and he was making progress. Hyper beam was a dud for now, at least.

I decided that we'd all made enough progress after a month passed like that. Everyone had managed to get their moves down. I had to send Ino to teach Hashirama protect but he got it down quickly with patient instruction. Igneel learned both sunny day and solar beam. I was right. When the moves came together, they formed a beam that managed to blind even me in broad daylight.

Kenpachi could travel around freely and had learned the moves he needed. Kisame's water manipulation had come into fine form.

She could use the water prison shark dance technique. It was rudimentary but she'd managed to lift up part of the lake and had it surround her in a dome. A dome at least a few hundred metres large. It was beautiful and brought tears to my eyes when I first saw it.

Ino's training was more difficult to judge the progress of. She didn't learn any new moves but focused on efficiency. She could use her moves with little warning. She'd increased the number of moves she could use in quick succession.

My team was ready. We would be completing the gym challenge. We had about a year till the conference, and we'd make good use of that.

Name; Donnell Oak

Age; 15

Hometown; Pallet

Next of Kin; Samuel Oak

Account balance; 1,050 Pokedollars

Pokemon.

· Kleavor (Nickname; Broly)- Male. Bug/Rock type

Moves; Signal beam, agility, fury cutter, quick attack, slash, swords dance, protect, stone axe, ancient power, hyper beam, and rock throw.

· Milotic (Nickname; Kisame)- Female. Water type.

Moves; Brine, ice beam, hydro pump, dragon breath, dragon pulse, water gun, protect, recover, hyper beam, iron tail and bubble beam.

· Charizard (Nickname; Igneel)- Male. Fire type.

Moves; Ember, dragon breath, scratch, bite, growl, metal claw, flame thrower, protect, sunny day, solar beam, hyper beam, and dragon rush.

· Pupitar (Nickname; Kenpachi)- Male. Rock/Steel type.

Moves; Tackle, rock throw, bite, crunch, and leer.

· Gardevoir (Nickname; Ino)- Female. Psychic/Fairy type.

Moves; Teleport, psybeam, psychic, confusion, hypnosis, dazzling gleam, moonblast, and recover.

· Trevenant (Nickname; Hashirama)- Male. Ghost/Grass type.

Moves; Sunny day, solar beam, protect, hyper beam, wood hammer, shadow claw, forest curse, and destiny bond.

Ino teleported me to the same store as last time. The Fuchsia city gym wasn't challenged by trainers often. At least, as often as some of the others. Koga was not a merciful man. His poison types didn't kill often but his demeanour demoralised trainers even more than Surge's. That made it easy to schedule a challenge for 9am today. I'd watched some of his previous battles but Gyms didn't have fixed teams above the third badge level. He could use pretty much anything.

I'd be ready though. My team was strong. Very motivated too. Quicksilver's death had lit a fire under us when it came to training. We were unstoppable. Koga would be nothing more than a checkpoint on our rise to the top. We hoped that we'd find the Poacher on the way there but if we didn't, we had another plan. I'd become the fucking champion and dedicate as many resources as necessary to find the bastard.

Searching for one person without even a face to go by would be impossible for me. For teams of ace trainers though? Not so much.

We made it to the gym with 10 minutes to spare. Checking in was smooth and seamless. The receptionist guided me down a dark hallway to the battle arena. I was almost blinded on arrival at the stadium. Koga didn't have much of an audience for his lower-tier battles. People dressed in Ninja costumes on the stands. Gym trainers, I guessed. There were a lot of them though. Definitely more than I'd seen in any other gym.

Koga came out once the clock struck nine. He was in a similar ninja costume as his gym trainers. The only difference was that his outfit was purple, while theirs was black. He was silent and still while the referee announced the rules for the match. It was a 3v3 with me releasing first. I only had one substitution, but Koga had an unlimited amount.

The rules were also another reason why Koga's gym was rarely challenged. I started things out with Hashirama. This was to be his first gym battle. He was both advantaged and disadvantaged in this gym. A good first match. Koga released a Nidorino on the field.

I had Hashirama start things out by using sunny day. The already bright arena became even brighter. The heat was sweltering. Fuchsia was humid and the heat wasn't helping. I felt beads of sweat begin to build on my neck. If I was suffering so much in my sweats and tank top, I couldn't even imagine Koga's discomfort.

He showed no signs of that and ordered his Nidorino to use double kick. It jumped towards my Ghost in a weird double jump manoeuvre. Bad idea. We'd spent a long time teaching Hashirama how to use moves with only seconds of preparation. A solar beam smashed into the Nidorino and sent it crashing into the arena's walls.

It wasn't knocked out though and Hashirama sent another beam at it. Koga returned it before the move could hit and released a Muk on the field. "Explosion" Koga spoke out. His Muk lit up and then the arena followed suit. The rocky terrain was devastated. When the smoke cleared up enough, Hashirama was the only one left standing. He was covered in a cracked protect. I was thankful I made sure all my pokemon knew that move.

Koga returned his Muk. It hadn't fainted, which was a huge surprise but it didn't look like it could handle an attack in its present state. The next pokemon he sent out was a giant Crobat. His was the only known specimen of the pokemon in the world.

It sent out a hyper beam. Hashirama countered it with one of his own. The Crobat's move won out and powered through to slam into Hashirama. The move had lost most of its power so all it did to Hashirama was disorient him. The crobat didn't rest on its laurels and used Giga drain on my distracted pokemon.

I could see the leaves on Hashirama's body begin to wither as he got weaker and weaker. "Solar beam" I shouted. He was slower than last time but he managed to send a bolt of light toward the Crobat. It dodged the move with ease.

"Poison fang" Koga commanded in that calm tone of his. The Crobat blurred towards Hashirama and latched onto him. I returned him a second later. He'd done well. That Crobat was heads and shoulders above the rest of the pokemon Koga had used in this battle.

I released Igneel next. He started things off with a Grand fireball. The giant ball of fire must have been too large for the Crobat to dodge because it hunkered down in a protect. The fire washed over his shield and it was sent crashing into the ground a second later. Igneel had followed behind his fireball with a dragon rush.

The Crobat tried to get up from its position on the floor when Igneel hit it with another dragon rush. A flamethrower from Igneel sent the pokemon into the sweet bliss of unconsciousness. The first knockout of the battle.

From there, the rest of the battle was a formality. The Nidorino and Muk were already weakened and fell to Igneel. I left the building with a brand new soul badge. My next destination was the pokemon centre. I checked in after dropping Hashirama off. I needed a hot shower. I hadn't let my hygiene slack while I was in the wild but some comforts of civilization couldn't be emulated with even the most advanced technology.

After my shower, I decided to spend the rest of the day outside. My first destination was the local battle arena. Fuchsia was a very traditional city. It was one of the very few that still had dedicated arenas for trainers to challenge each other.

I needed money to pay for a teleport to Celadon. The arena cost me 300 pokedollars to gain entry but you had to spend money to make money. I registered myself at the front desk and waited to receive a match. Each battle could net me 500 pokedollars if I battled someone at my present level. If I went a badge or two higher, then the prize would be triple.

I waited for almost ten minutes before the announcer called out my name. I got up from my seat in the stands and made my way to the field.

A girl stood across from me. She looked to be about two years older and the screen said she had six badges to her name. That meant I could make about 1,500 pokedollars from this battle if I won. She lost the coin flip and had to release first.

Her first pokemon was a titanic Aggron. It looked to be about the same size as the Aggrons that killed Kenpachi's mother. I had the perfect counter, and he was all fired up from his gym battle. Igneel appeared on the field with a roar that made the audience cringe and cover their ears.

The female trainer and I didn't show any discomfort though. The referee started the battle. She whispered something to her pokemon that had it glowing silver for a few seconds. It glowed again for a second and stopped. 'Fireball', I instructed Igneel through our aura bond. Using aura to send complex messages was difficult but one-word orders were easy.

The giant fireball soared toward the Aggron. The green glow of protect covered it a second before the attack hit and was gone by the time the fire died down. The Aggron was untouched. 'Rapid fire' I instructed next. Igneel sent almost a dozen fireballs screaming at the Aggron. The Aggron was forced to keep its protect up for longer than a few seconds this time.

That made no difference though. The Aggron still emerged unscathed. I grit my teeth. Igneel was pissed to see his moves ignored. I wasn't even surprised when he didn't wait for any more orders and slammed into the Aggron with a dragon rush.

The Aggron tanked the attack and grabbed onto Igneel. It threw him on the ground and stomped hard. Igneel managed a dodge and was able to find his feet. 'Fly' I commanded. Igneel listened to me this time and went soaring into the air.

The Aggron was content to stand there and watch Igneel retreat. Sunny day was the next move I had Igneel use. The reason steel types were weak to fire-type pokemon was that they had no way to cool their bodies. Being surrounded by a thick metal coating created a lot of heat. With sunny day active, we were going to bake that thing in there.

Igneel's solar power ability would also come into play. "Roast it" I commanded out loud. The sight that came next was glorious. The field was washed in flames. I saw the green glow of Protect fade in the fire and the Woman across from me returned her Aggron a few seconds later.

The next pokemon she sent out was a Blastoise. It was a behemoth of a pokemon. Its blue skin contrasted with the brown of the rocky arena. Its shoulder cannons were gleaming in the sunlight. Igneel's sunny day was still active, but the Blastoise seemed keen to remedy that.

The first thing it did when the battle started was to use rain dance. The move cancelled out Igneel's sunny day. The raindrops were an annoyance to Igneel for now. They'd wear on him with enough time. This battle was now on a time limit. "Hydro pump" the trainer in front of me started with.

The blast of water went soaring past where Igneel used to be. She wasn't deterred and the pokemon began to spam the move. Eventually, the Blastoise slowed for a bit. Igneel retaliated with a massive hyper beam. The Blastoise retreated into its shell, making the move ineffective. I gritted my teeth at that. This was bad. Very bad.

I lifted his Pokeball to return him but the look Igneel sent my way was enough to make me reconsider. This was unusual for him. He'd always been well-behaved. I guess a dragon was a dragon and this one was no different. I settled down to watch the battle.

The Blastoise came out of his shell and sent another hydro pump at Igneel. "Surf press" The woman screamed to the heavens while taking on a pose. The Blastoise mirrored her and gathered the water from the floor into a wave that he began surfing on. Igneel dodged his first two attempts but was hit on the third pass. The Blastoise slammed its body into Igneel and my dragon went down.

I thought it was over and was about to return him when he managed to right himself in mid-air. He flew up. Over and above the cloud cover. The referee looked at me, and I just shrugged. There was no altitude limit for flying types in semi-formal battles like this one. Igneel came flying down after a few minutes and just hovered, staring at the Blastoise.

It came towards Igneel for another hit but a few seconds before impact, Igneel opened his mouth and a beam of sunlight came pouring out. The powerful solar beam hit the Blastoise at near point-blank range. It went down in a one-hit knockout.

Its defeat eliminated the rain dance and Igneel let out a roar of dominance. The woman across from me looked like she'd swallowed a lime. She forfeited without releasing her last pokemon.

The announcer declared me the winner after a few seconds and the crowd went wild. I hadn't paid attention to the audience all through the battle. The number of people in the crowd shocked me. I allowed Igneel to bask in the admiration before I returned him to his ball. I walked back into the halls and was met with the trainer I'd just defeated.

Her smile was bright. "Hey, I'm Sarah. That was a fun battle wasn't it?"

I smiled back. "Yes, it was. Donnell Oak" I introduced myself.

"I know. I saw the name on the screen. I knew I was in for a tough fight when I saw it was against an Oak. Your Charizard is awesome by the way. I didn't expect it to breach Aggron's defence. Beating Blastoise was the real surprise though. You must have worked really hard."

She rambled. A lot. I was about to dismiss her after she spoke about my last name but that last sentence made me reevaluate her. I smiled. My first real one since she'd accosted me.

"Igneel is really strong, isn't he? He's worked hard." I said in reply. She started telling me about herself. Her name was Sarah Stark. She was from Celadon. She'd been training for five years now and was working towards her seventh badge.

She also told me why she forfeited. She'd challenged Koga a few days ago for her sixth badge and most of her team was too heavily poisoned to battle. The third pokemon she had for the battle was a Growlithe, but the field wasn't conducive for that kind of pokemon. Her Blastoise had submerged the arena.

We ended up stopping at a bar to get some drinks. My first drink in this body. A few hours later, I got to experience another first.