"Who're you dude?" I ask the Samurai-guy. I remember him from the anime. He and Ash battled for some reason.
"Me? I'm the representation of discipline and honor in human form. I'm Samurai!" Does this guy not cringe while saying this? Maybe his brain has yet to develop.
"So your name is Samurai?" I ask him, finding it ridiculous that a couple of parents will name their kid Samurai.
"Yes indeed. My name is the same as the elite military warriors in Kanto history who followed the code of Bushido—honor, loyalty, and discipline. I have proved that I am worthy of such name from having defeated countless foes in battle.", he says while carrying around a sword and a bug-catching net.
Is it a sword or a katana? I don't really know the difference. Not that I care, with my pokemon, I could take on a sword user anytime, a thundershock from Chungus will KO them.
"I'm Red from Pallet town." I mentioned it even though he didn't ask me where I come from. Well it's the only form of identity I have. Having a home in this world makes me feel connected to it. Like a sense of belonging has already been formed to this world of Pokemon.
'He's just a kid living beside the forest I guess.' I don't know much of this world to begin with, so I always try to make sense with the information I've been given or can observe.
And so far I've come to two big conclusions. Firstly, this world of Pokemon is a one of one of it's own. Unlike the anime, there's no Ash Ketchum here. I wish I could meet him somewhere in this world. He's one of the many reasons I love Pokemon. His adventures opened the door to my childhood fantasies of having pokemon and beating other trainers.
Secondly this isn't even the world from the videogames. This was crystal clear the moment I arrived in this world. Pallet town is big. While in the games we had like 2-3 houses including Oak's laboratory which was right beside the houses there ,in this world I had to walk for half a day to reach it from my house.
Another reason is the absence of the female protagonist from the games. Leaf, the female option given to the player to choose to play as. I haven't met my female counterpart since I came here. I am glad I didn't transmigrate as Leaf, becoming a female would be a challenge too big to tackle. As if my current situation isn't as overwhelming in itself.
Coming back to the Samurai guy...Such a weird name but I can't be saying that while my name is Red. It'll take a while for me to get used to being called this but thank god it's something distinct, not another Jake or Paul. Red was also my mom's favourite color. I wonder what she's doing right now. Hopefully, not lamenting my absence.
"You wanna battle?" I ask him. I'm still not used to pokemon battles yet. I had no pets in my past life and have never witnessed a wild animal in front of me. I remember visiting a zoo but I've forgotten about it. I used to have nightmares of being chased by huge predators or some beasts underwater. But pokemon are pretty cool to look at from what I've seen so far. Misty's gyarados is very difficult to look at though.
If I found it while at the ocean I'd faint. It is more than terrifying. I've seen how it made easy work of the berserk Rhydon. It's gaping mouth is bigger than I am. Misty is definitely more capable then I remember her from the anime. But my pokemon aren't weak either. I've won all my battles so far. Mostly carried by my pokemon I think.
Anyways, the battles are like a sport in this world. Possibly more than that, I think each region has formed their own pokemon leagues to encourage more trainers to grow and find some powerful trainers who'll protect humanity against pokemon who pose threats to it. I'm yet to know what powers are given to the Champions of each region. But I'm sure they have more authority than the common citizens in the region.
"I'm much obliged to battle another trainer from Pallet Town, the guy before you was too strong for me."
"Was his name Blue?" Blue is my childhood friend, only viewing me as a rival since we're similar in age. That's why he's so annoying to me all the time. Thinks he's rage-baiting me by being mean.
"He didn't tell me. My guess is I wasn't worthy of earning his name." he looks hurt.
"But he wore a short-sleeved dark gray polo shirt with the collar flipped up and purple cargo pants and black shoes. He also carried a light blue pack around his waist, and has purple bands around his wrists." does he have a video recorder? A brief description would've sufficed.
"Oh that's Blue alright."
"Is he your friend?"
"Yeah, yeah. He is my rival I suppose." Why am I answering these unnecessary questions? I bring out my pokeball. Oh wait, Chungus the Pikachu is already out of it. Lying on his back, resting.
"I choose you!" I nudge him toward the battlefield on the grassy terrain.
"Your friend is the strongest trainer I've battled in my life.. His kangaskhan sweeped my party of three pokemon. Mind you, my pokemon aren't weak at all."
"We'll see about that." Misty says from the sides. Already packed up and ready to move out from this forest. She thinks this battle won't last long. I'm not sure how to feel about that.
"Go PINSIR!" He throws his pokeball, after striking the ground it emits a red beam and a creature as tall as me comes out.
"GRAAARR!" A brown Pinsir cries out with a pair of massive horns. Protruding from the surface of these horns are thorns.
'Does this guy eat humans too?' Its whole body is a light brown color with three claws on each limb. It has small triangular angry white eyes with small black pupils and its mouth has multiple sharp teeth arranged horizontally rather than vertically. Its feet are thicker than its hands
'This guy looks horrifying.' No wonder Pokemon like pinsir live deep in forests. If it were found nearby towns, a lot of commotion would take place.
'He's still a bug.' I regain some of my lost composure.
"Chungus use Thunder shock!"
Pikachu prepares to release a jolt of electricity from his cheek pads or whatever they're called. I won't ever be touching them after seeing what happened to poor Bob the squirtle. He went into shock, thankfully Misty was there to take care of him.
"Pinsir use Bug BIte!"
'What does that move do?' Is it a simple biting attack?' What's the difference between a bite attack and a bug bite attack?
Pinsir rushes forward towards Chungus bending down it's huge body to bite him with it's sharp teeth.
"Chungus dodge!" I shout before Pinsir gets to bite my pikachu whole.
Chungus doesn't panic and just moves to his side, avoiding the attack. Almost like the jagged rows of teeth don't even faze him.
'He's awfully calm.' Oh right, he's always faced this kind of pressure regularly from when he went around stealing food back in the City.
"Use double team!" My initial approach was half-assed, I need a distinct winning strategy for each of my pokemon. Well, I'll find out with some battle experience. I need to use this move first and only have Chungus attack when the foe has just missed their attack on his illusion.
"PIKA!" Chungus moves rapidly, impossibly fast for someone his size. Maybe he needs that much fat to not starve at the bursts of energy output he exhibits,
"graaa?" PInsir looks confused seeing two Pikachus before itself. His eyes can't follow Pikachu's movements.
"Don't dawdle Pinsir! Use Vise Grip!" The Samurai shouts right when Pinsir was about to let it's guard down.
"GRAHHH!" It cries violently before stooping low and charging at Chungus. 'Is it a headbutt? Why the fuck are the names of his moves so technical?"
"Keep using double team!" Pikachu does what he does best, Run.
In a quick movement the Pinsir arrives before a couple of Pikachus who were illusions of the original. It starts to grip each one from it's pincers and squeezes them to deal damage. Obviously it fails as there's no real Pikachu among them.
Right when it's busy squeezing it's second fake pikachu, I yell "Use thunder shock now!"
"PIKAPIIII!" Chungus who was waiting for this moment, halts and charges his attack quickly.
In a second the Pinsir is struck by jolts of electricity. It seems like Chungus wants to finish the battle with this assault.
"GRAAAHHHH!" it screams as it lowers itself down to the ground. As if to say it's giving up. I really don't know what I'd do at the moment if it withstood the attack. If I were the Samurai I'd just let my pinsir use the harden move. But would that've been enough against electric attacks? There's so much to learn.
"Return Pinsir." Samurai says, clearly dejected.
"We'll get them next time pal." He smiles towards his pokeball containing his Pinsir.
"You better be ready for my next partner." He brings up his head to look at me, determined to win.
"Go Beedrill!"
A Beedrill pops up from his pokeball. It's size is almost half of my body. I'm not too fond of insects and the only ones I could tolerate were ants. Wasps look too hostile for me. And here is a nightmare come to life, a wasp the size of a small child.
Well it looks vastly different from a wasp as it only has four limbs, with the front-most limbs featuring two large, lance-like stingers. A third stinger is located on its rear end. I wonder what these stingers are made of but I'm not that curious to look for answers if my answers meant getting close to it in any way or manner.
Misty shrieks beside me. I almost forgot about her. The once mature battler I watched beat the Rhydon now looked like she'd seen a ghost. Not that I blame her. I couldn't look at the bug pokemon properly last night due to the dim light from the torch and holy shit. I don't blame her at all for disliking these guys.
"BZZZZZZ!" It buzzes angrily. It's ruby like eyes were charming to look at. Kind of like admiring a tiger's muscles. It's life threatening for sure but also very interesting to look at. I wonder if there are any documentaries about pokemon I could watch during my spare time.
"Will you switch out your pokemon Red? Trainers can do so in between rounds by the way." he tells me.
"Thanks, I knew that." I smile, Chungus has shown what he can do. Time for others to shine.
"Go Percy!"
The spearow happily cries out "SKREEE!" with it's belly full and having seen the previous fight, he is more than pumped for battling the beedrill. Maybe he's cheerful that I chose him over Icarus the pidgeotto.
"Finish the battle quickly, Red another half an hour here means another half an hour in this forest." Misty says before looking away in disgust. She really can't stand insects.
"Alright. Percy maintain your distance from the stingers!" I could've used Bob here as Percy needs to close the distance between his opponent to effectively land his attacks. In a sense, he's a meelee fighter. While Bob the squirtle is a ranged fighter who has good defense.
Thinking in this way Beedrill is also a meelee fighter, unless it has a ranged attack in its arsenal...
Percy flies above the Beedrill by flapping his wings continuously.
"Beedrill follow the spearow and use string shot to bind it!"
The beedrill doesn't flap its wings but vibrates them rapidly producing a loud buzzing sound. It starts to close the distance to get a good shot at Percy.
Percy notices this and speeds up directly into the sky, He's not a good glider like Icarus is, so he flaps his wings to get to higher elevations.
After some time of chasing Percy, the Beedrill stops mid-air and starts to hover. Right then it blows silk from its mouth at a speed faster than it was moving with a second before.
The silks spreads out in a pattern like a fishing net. It's skilled for sure.
'So this is string shot. The beedrill stayed still to get a good aim at Percy.'
Percy still is flying up, I wonder what he's thinking. He doesn't have eyes at the back of his head so he surely doesn't see what's coming for him.
"Percy dodge!"
He looks down at the silk projectile about to reach him. If he keeps moving higher he'll be caught in the silk as his speed is slower.
"DIve right below you!" I shout at him, hopefully he understood.
"He looks right below, there's no possibility of him getting caught if he dived right there. But he'd need to either let his wings go still and let gravity do it's work or...
"SKREEE!" He points his body downward and flaps for a final time, tucking his wings partially beside his torso. He dove straight downward, dodging the string shot.
"Beedrill use string shot again!" The samurai yells, he thinks his beedrill will get Percy while he's diving.
Percy rapidly reaches a speed I've never seen him in, from afar he looks like a rocket going straight towards the ground.
'Is it possible to change directions? I think so, but how? If I were Percy, what could I do?'
Beedrill starts to spew silk at where Percy was heading toward.
'If he could swerve...'
"Tell Percy to flap his wings, the air resistance will slow him down, in that way he can evade the attacks." Misty says from behind me.
"You're right Misty but lemme try something different." I reply while gathering my final thoughts.
"Percy spread out your right wing!"
"SKREEE!" he follows my command and opens his right wing more than his left one . He curves sharply towards his right, just in time to miss all the string shots by the beedrill.
"BZZZZ!" The beedrill gets angry, it's ruby eyes glowing. It starts to prepare to sting Percy when he lands. But I won't let it.
"Percy tilt your body to charge into the beedrill!"
Percy understood what he needed to do. He tilted his body towards his left and prepared to peck the beedrill when colliding with it.
"That's insane! Beedrill use Poison Sting!"
The Beedrill jabs both of his stingers towards it's front. Percy being half the size of the beedrill flares his wings to slow himself just enough to dodge the stingers.
He pecks the beedrill in its eye. Not only did he carry the momentum of the flight but he also used all of his strength in that move.
"BZZZZ!" The beedrill cried out for help while getting knocked out in one hit.
"SKREEEE!" Percy cries out to celebrate his victory. Spreading out his wings to boast his achievement.
"This was fun to watch." Misty smiles.
"You might be better than Blue, Red. It is an honor to be given the opportunity to battle you."
"Likewise Samurai." I wouldn't have thought of this without this battle.
"Please allow me to have a final battle, Red!" he says enthusiastically.
Right then we hear a storm of buzzing from all around. Sounds of wings vibrating, it seemed low but in an instant it started to blare into my ears.
"BZZZZZZ! BZZZ! BZZZZ!" I look all around to find numerous beedrills approaching from my right side. Not even the Tree can protect us from them.
"Or not. RUN!"