32 Chapter 31

The Prodigies made good progress and covered 1/6 of the forest in just one day. They had more time then yesterday and surprisingly encountered less Pokémon. Just like the previous day they had seen no other Pokémon and have only seen Spinarack or Ariados. None of the encounters were particularly tough.

The hardest thing they found was a level 27 Ariados that was promptly defeated by all the fire type starters that the Prodigies have. Fortunately Spinarack and Ariados are weak to fire types and the prodigies have plenty of those. Percy and Misty could visibly be seen growing closer and trusting each other with their backs.

It seemed like a good friendship was growing between the two of them. They would tease each other occasionally and could operate well in a battle situation. Mistys ability to fight against bug type Pokémon was poor but Percy made up for it with his hyper aggressive compensation.

Most of Mistys Pokémon were focused on defense and Percy put out plenty of damage to compensate for Mistys side. Crash had long since recognized Percys relationship with Misty and has become less irritable and aggressive to her and her Pokémon. Mistys Pokémon also noticed their friendship and extended their defense to Percy.

They had just finished up the search and it was about 6 in the afternoon. The cooks prepared dinner while the rest set up the camp. After setting up camp every Prodigy except Baxter was around a fire and chatting idly. Suddenly Kushida stood up and addressed the Prodigies as a whole. "Excuse me everyone." She waited for all of the eyes to be on her. She was the only person in the camp to get the undivided attention after only knowing them for a couple of weeks.

Percy and Jason stopped their conversation and watched Kushida. She cleared her throat before talking. "I've talked to some of us and I think we've come up with a great idea. We've decided to make a Prodigy Clan. A clan where we can allocate our resources and be able to make group decisions and make alliances as a whole. Being a fragmented group of people makes things difficult. Rather being able to officially make announcements and decisions as a organization can make things better and significantly more profitable.

Instead of being known as Professor Oaks trainers we could be known for ourselves and our own accomplishments." She's been feeding the idea to some select Prodigies to increase overall group agreement. At least Percy had seen her approach multiple prodigies with the idea. Everybody absorbed the information and processed it. "What will Professor Oak think about this?" Jasper asked. Kushida nodded as if she had expected this question. "I asked him earlier and he said it was a great idea as long as we remain on call for his requests." Professor Oak found himself hoping to eventually pass away the responsibility of being the caretaker of the Prodigies.

Not only has it caused him a lot of stress, it also caused every single one of their actions to be taken as his action. Fortunately for him, the opportunity came faster than he expected. "Of course there's a lot more to this than just that, I just wanted to let you guys think about it. We'll talk about it more in depth when this mission is over. So please just think it over and give it some thought." Everybody went back to what they were doing.

Jasper finished up breakfast and everybody ate by themselves or in their own groups. Kushida, Ash and Marcus could be seen talking together. Percy could only pick up bits and pieces of what they were saying but he could tell they were talking about the Clan idea. Jason asked Percy what the whole thing was about and Percy explained what they talked about last night. "So it's more of an organization?" Jason asked after listening to Percy talk. "I would call it more of an actual clan. The ability to distribute Pokémon is something an organization could never get.

I imagine Ash wants to do something like this to help lower class families and trainers. He wants to be able to help people who have nothing to their name. I'm not sure what Kushidas goal is. When she was talking about it earlier it seemed like she was interested in having underlings and power. She didn't say that directly but while Ash talked about all the people he can help, she talked about strength and power.

A place to relocate our resources is a great idea and being forever under Professor Oaks name is not the best. It has potential to become something big but if we mess up it could cost a lot of money. There's no reason to think about it too much until they sort everything out." Percy took another bite of his dinner and looked back at Jason. Jason seemed to be worried about something and tapped his foot nervously. Both of their attentions switched to two approaching people.

Grace and Luna approached Jason and Percy. Graces long strawberry blond hair was tied in a ponytail and she wore a standard trainer outfit. Although the outfit was simple she was still stunning and would attract almost any eye that saw her. Luna wore a more…. eccentric outfit. High black boots went to her knees and she wore fishnets and a black skirt.

A choker was tight around her neck and her pale and creamy skin contrasted harshly against the black theme. A black tank top covered a minimal amount of her upper body and Percy caught himself looking somewhere he shouldn't. Percy had barely interacted with Luna at all and the only time he did was not a pleasant encounter.

Two hours ago Percy sat with his Pokémon and rested after a battle against Spinarack and Ariados. Percy and his Pokémon weren't particularly tired and only took the break to screw around and release some stress. Crash and Percy got into a playful fight. Crash used Scratch on Percy and Percy countered with his hatchet.

Aura strengthened his body and his weapon and the two of them dueled. Although fighting with deadly weapons isn't considered playful to most people, Percy thought that it wasn't that serious. If he would've died to a Pokémon then it would've been one that had tried to kill him long ago.

Percys axe and Crash's claws clashed and sparks flew. Percy smiled and just practiced his weapon skills. Crash enjoyed practicing his choreography and smiled his toothy grin. Eventually both of them wanted to win the mock duel and got progressively more intense. Percys brow starting sweating and each of his swings had some real power behind them. Crash went faster and started to push Percy back. Percy flipped a switch in his brain and became serious.

He felt his muscles working together and rolling over each other. His hatchet never stopped moving and circles were always being carved through the air slashing towards Crash. Crash was feeling some serious pressure and felt his guard breaking down. Normally Crash would destroy Percy in a normal battle, but he was only using Scratch so his attacks lacked power and practice.

A couple of seconds later Percy broke through Crash's guard and Crash took a tentative step back. Percy threw a hard kick into Crash's chest sending him rolling into somebody. "Aahh!" Percy cringed and looked at who Crash bowled over. He was immediately greeted with a view of under a girls skirt. Luna lay spread out on the ground the under part of her skirt facing directly at Percy.

She sat up shaking her head and looking for what just assaulted her. Luna made eye contact with Percy and immediately covered her skirt. Percy turned away in a poor attempt to act as if he didn't see anything. Luna wasn't convinced and her face became an angry red. She grabbed a rock on the ground and chucked it at Percys head. The rock hit Percy straight in the forehead knocking him to the ground.

Crash watched on with a smirk. He was happy that his trainer finally got put in his place. Luna stood up and dusted herself off before continuing with what she was doing with a slightly pink face. Percy remained on the ground until the rest time was over.

Grace and Luna were approaching Percy and Jason. Grace smiled brightly and engaged in conversation with the two boys. Lunas face was slightly pink and she sent angry looks at Percy occasionally.

Percy was fully aware of the hostility Luna radiated but was thoroughly set on pretending nothing happened. "Anyway I've talked to my modeling agent and he said that I can give some of the Prodigies something. There's going to be a big modeling get together in a few weeks in Viridian City. And my agent is willing to have 5 extra Prodigies come and meet some modeling agencies.

There'll be all kinds of other models and agents there so it's a great place to make connections. Since you guys said you're willing I thought to approach you first." Grace explained. Both boys thought for a second before replying. "I've thought about it and I'm kinda of in a relationship with a model. Im not sure she would want me to be associated with other models." Jason said. Percy had forgotten his relationship with Charlotte. There's definitely no way that the obsessive Charlotte would want Jason to show up to a big modeling gig with somebody else.

Charlottes a pretty big model and things won't be pretty if she finds out that Grace is "trying to steal Jason". "Oh? Your in a relationship with a model. What's her name?" Grace became curious. Jason scratched his head and looked around seemingly embarrassed. "Uh her name is Charlotte. I don't remember her last name through." Both Luna and Grace had adverse reactions. Grace seemed uncomfortable with the name Charlotte. Luna was confused on how Jason didn't know the last name of his girlfriend. "Oh. I know Charlotte. I did a advertisement with her a few days ago. She was nice." Grace put on a big smile.

Both Jason and Percy felt her emotions were the exact opposite. "You don't have to lie. She's one of the most vile people I have ever met. I'm only "dating" her because it was forced on me. Actually she was a terrible person to Percy. He almost died saving her life and she did nothing to make it up to him." Jason said. Grace tilted her head slightly and asked, "How did you get forced into a relationship with her?" "She was already bribing me with money to just stay with her longer.

It seemed she had already contacted her body guards and if I said no then they would've taken me." Grace raised her eyebrows in surprise. "She wasn't very nice but I didn't think she was that bad. Her bodyguards were very intimidating. Big muscular guys with Machokes. I wonder where she hires them." Jason shrugged and looked at Percy. "I'll go to your model meet.

Is there something specific I should wear or do I have to wear a suit or something." Percy asked. He didn't want to look dumb or unprepared and tarnish Graces reputation. "You can come to my agents place before and we'll get you dressed good. I'm thinking of wearing a theme of outfits as the Prodigies. Who else do you think would want to model in the Prodigies? I don't think Zoe or Aurora would want to because of their clans." Percy looked at the camp of teenagers and thought for a second. "I'm sure Ash, Haley or Misty wouldn't mind modeling.

You can try asking Jasper but I doubt he'll do it without some sort of bribe. I don't know much about anyone else to know if they want to model." "That's what I was thinking. Okay then, I'll send you the location of my agent and we'll see you then." Grace waved goodbye to the two boys and walked away. Percy turned to Jason to resume their conversation but his hand was suddenly grabbed. Percy looked at his hand and saw a pale hand with black nails grabbing it.

The hand was squeezing his hand hard and Percy felt some of his bones groaning under the pressure. He looked up to see Lunas face staring at him. "Can I please talk to you. In private." She said through gritted teeth. Her face was red from what Percy assumed to be anger.

Before Percy could respond he was pulled from his chair and dragged behind a tent. "Don't you dare tell anybody about that. And I mean anybody." Luna threatened Percy. Percy put his arms up in surrender and said. "I didn't think you were a pink kind of girl." He almost immediately regretted what he said when he saw the slow head turn. A solid slap landed on his cheek and he stumbled back a few steps. That was one of the strongest hits Percy had ever felt in his entire life.

It stung and his left eye started tearing up. "Ow." Was all he said. "Thats only a taste of what you'll get. Also I don't want your perverted ass to go to the modeling gig. Although Grace made it seem like a small thing it's a really big event. She worked a lot to get those extra tickets and if her hard work gets wasted on you. I don't want you to ruin her big opportunity. Just tell her that something came up and you won't be able to make it.

Her career means more than anything pervert." Percy stared at her wordlessly as his cheek slowly became more and more red and swelled. "ok" Percy squeaked. He walked out from behind the tent and immediately went to Grace. He said he couldn't come due to some unforeseen circumstances and apologized. Grace never noticed Luna take Percy away and give him a talk. Percy walked straight into his tent and fell asleep with Crash.

He didn't have any watches for the night and didn't want to go back to Jason with a swollen cheek. Jason witnessed Percy go behind a tent with Luna and then heard a loud smack. Then Percy came around the tent holding his cheek. He apologized to Grace and went immediately into the tent. 'Oh well. Not my problem.' Jason thought to himself.

AN:Pretty boring chapter but things will pick up quickly for the rest of this arc.