The next day.
Su Yuan's face was a little twisted, and he felt a pang of regret. There was about an hour left until he met with Hikari at nine. It would take at least half an hour to get to the station from here, so time-wise, he had plenty.
But the problem was right in front of him: a gigantic Onix was staring at him menacingly, letting out a low growl from time to time.
Onix, the Rock Snake Pokémon, is a Pokémon with a very gentle nature.
Or at least, it was supposed to be.
But from its current behavior, Su Yuan wouldn't associate it with gentleness.
"Grrr..." The Onix's growl grew deeper. Its thick, serpentine tail was grinding on the ground, a sign that it was entering a battle-ready state.
Su Yuan looked at the glint of malevolence in Onix's eyes, and his mood became even more depressed. As planned, he had woken up early that morning. After a quick shower, he set off for the station. On the way, Su Yuan encountered a strange-looking Pokémon.
Su Yuan recognized it. It was a Grass Sickle Pokémon, Fomantis. But unlike the typical pinkish-green Fomantis, this one's small face and body were yellowish-green. The stripes on its body and its eyes were not the usual red, but a vibrant emerald green.
A Shiny Pokémon! Also known as a different-colored Pokémon or a glitter Pokémon.
With just one look, Su Yuan felt that he had fallen in love with it. Fomantis's appearance was genuinely adorable, and its evolution, Lurantis, was a beautiful Pokémon that could rival the likes of Lilligant and Gardevoir. Unlike Togekiss and Chansey, which are only "adorable" on the surface but are actually much dirtier than they appear.
Most importantly, Su Yuan saw hope in having his first Pokémon! The reason he had been rejected by Pokémon before was because of his Intimidate ability. But Fomantis has a hidden ability—Contrary!
Contrary: All stat changes a Pokémon with this ability receives are reversed. Raises become drops, and drops become raises.
Simply put, Pokémon with this ability are not afraid of Intimidate. And unlike abilities like Competitive or Defiant, it doesn't immediately want to fight you the moment it's triggered. The more you intimidate it, the more it might want to be close to you.
With this thought, Su Yuan approached Fomantis. And then...
After taking one look at Su Yuan, Fomantis bounced away...
However, what excited Su Yuan was that he didn't feel the same panic or fear from Fomantis as he had from other Pokémon. Although Fomantis ran away, Su Yuan felt that it was more like it wanted to play a game. This was a feeling he had only ever gotten from the un-evolved Litten back when he lived in Sinnoh.
So, Su Yuan followed Fomantis into the forest outside the city. After that, he not only lost track of Fomantis but also had the incredibly bad luck of running into an Onix and instinctively intimidating it...
Onix:What are you looking at? Look at me again, I dare you.
Onix:Oh, you have the guts to intimidate me?
Being provoked for no reason, how could this Onix, which already had a bad temper, tolerate it? And then, a battle ensued.
Su Yuan:This is so difficult.
"..."
The tension between the man and the snake grew. Su Yuan wasn't afraid of the Onix. On the surface, the Onix was intimidating, but it was also weak to Fighting-type moves. Although Su Yuan was human, he had indeed mastered Incineroar's moves, including the Fighting-type move, Superpower. This was one of the reasons he was confident enough to be in the forest alone.
Furthermore, the League regulations forbid hunting and eating wild Pokémon, but battles for self-defense or non-lethal combat are allowed. Getting knocked out or fainting are two different concepts from dying.
However, even if Su Yuan could use Superpower, he had no experience using the move against a Pokémon. Onix looked very hard; who knew if the Onix would faint first or if his own arm would shatter from the bone-crushing impact? The physical constitutions of humans and Pokémon can't be equated. If he had a choice, Su Yuan would prefer not to fight the Onix head-on.
"Chirrup!"
Just as Su Yuan and Onix faced off, the shiny Fomantis suddenly ran over, bouncy and happy. It used its scythe-like emerald leaf to poke Su Yuan's leg in a dissatisfied manner. It was as if it was asking, "Why did you suddenly stop playing with me?"
Roar—
Fomantis's sudden appearance caused Onix to go berserk. It used its thick, rocky tail to smash the large rocks nearby, trying to sweep the rock fragments toward Su Yuan and Fomantis.
Onix's sudden outburst was fast, but Su Yuan was even faster! Onix had just smashed the rocks and hadn't had time to make its next move when Su Yuan leaped up and hit it with a slap, making it dizzy.
Fake Out!
A priority move that also causes the target Pokémon to flinch for one turn.
"Hiss!"
After slapping the Onix, Su Yuan's face changed. "Ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch..." The pain from a full-force slap on a rough, uneven rock surface was unbearable.
"Good thing I didn't use Superpower..."
Taking a few sharp breaths, Su Yuan's right hand was shaking slightly. "It's so tough."
After the hit, Su Yuan, without looking back, grabbed Fomantis (Fomantis averages 30 cm and 1.5 kg) and ran away from the Onix. Although the game stated that it would cause the Pokémon to flinch for one turn, who knew how long a "turn" was in real life?
If I can't use a move, there's never a next turn, right? That's ridiculous. If he couldn't win, then he had to run.
As for Fomantis, Su Yuan wasn't a human Pokédex. Even with all his battle experience, he couldn't just start commanding a wild Pokémon he had just met. Forget commanding it; whether it would listen to him was a whole other question. He took Fomantis with him purely because he hadn't given up on the idea of catching it.
"ROAR!!!"
Behind him, Onix let out an angry roar. If before, Onix was in a battle-ready state, now it was completely enraged.
Whoosh—
A rock the size of a basketball was thrown by Onix. Su Yuan flinched and instinctively rolled to the side, narrowly dodging the attack. If that had hit him, Su Yuan would probably have to report to the goddess.
Splat—
Because of Su Yuan's hurried and clumsy roll, not only did he land in a mess, but Fomantis in his arms also took a nose dive into the mud. Fomantis, looking bewildered, got up from the ground. It tilted its head, looked at Su Yuan's mud-covered face, and then looked back at the Onix that was still flinging rocks at them. Fomantis puffed up its face. It was a little angry!
"Chirrup!"
Fomantis gathered the power within its body. A large number of leaves surrounded by white light swirled above it, eventually forming a small tornado-like storm that shot toward the rocks being thrown at them.
"This is..."
Su Yuan was a bit dumbfounded. Judging from the move Fomantis was using, it was clearly the powerful Grass-type special attack, a move in the same category as the Dragon-type's signature move, Draco Meteor—Leaf Storm!
"But you're just a Fomantis. Where did you learn Leaf Storm?"
(P.S. Fomantis can actually learn Leaf Storm through a Technical Machine.)