Chapter 18: Chapter 18
I approached the massive tree at a steady pace. The only pokemon I kept out for now was Pidgey just in case anything jumped out at me, plus his Steel Wing was great for hacking my way through foliage that got in my way.
I let loose a whistle when I finally made it into the area the towering tree was located in and craned my head up and up to get a good look at it. It was something else alright. The tree base had to be easy thiry feet wide, possibly more.
I looked up over the tree, taking in the branches and any space in sight, but I couldn't see any pokemon around. "Give it a wake up will you?" I asked the bird on my shoulder, "Use your Gust."
The small bird barked and nodded before jumping off my shoulder and beating his small wings rapidly conjuring a large squall of wind that sliced through the air and battered the tree top, tearing hundreds of leaves from it and leaving them to get swept up into the harsh winds.
Pidgey kept up the attack for a few moments before a loud, deep bellow roared through the air. Suddenly, a massive, more compact cyclone of wind tore through Pidgey's gust, shooting out of the tree tops and tearing down towards us.
"Pidg!" Pidgey barked aggressively and stopped his Gust, wings glowing silver with Steel Wing just as the cyclone reached him. He threw his wings out in front of himself and outright caught the cyclone, blocking it!
And to my horror, Pidgey was being pushed back! Rapidly! Shit! Shit! Shit! I reached for my belt and was just about to grab one of my other pokemon's pokeballs and send them out to help, when Pidgey gave a massive squawk and erupted into bright blinding light.
"No fucking way! Already!?" I gaped in shock as Pidgey's form blurred out by light began to grow rapidly, expanding to more than three times his usual height, and he was already quite big, his tail feathers blossoming out and a crest of feathers growing out of his head.
My first pokemon released a piercing shriek, "Geeotto!" and the light disappeared around him, except for his still silver glowing wings. Not content to block anymore, with his now much larger wings, the newly evolved Pidgeotto slashed out with both of his wings and smashed the cyclone of wind back to where it came from.
A shadowy blur jumped out of the way and the attack smashed into the tree, tearing a massive hole in the bark. The blur landed on one of the open branches, and I finally got a good look at what I was dealing with.
Humanoid, with a brown barch like body and a massive long white mane of hair. It was a Shiftry! "The hell is a Shiftry doing here?" I couldn't help but wonder.
"Shiift!" it growled angrily, gesturing down at us with a leafy hand.
I'm not sure what it means, but I may as well be up fucking front. "Shiftry!" I shouted, drawing its attention, looking up into its narrowed yellow eyes. I reached into my pocket and grabbed an empty pokeball and held it up for it to see, all the while maintaining eye contact, "I've come to challenge you and capture you, do you accept!?"
Its lips drew up and it growled but it dipped its head in acknowledgement, "Let's go Pidgeotto, let's smash its face in!" I grinned. "Quick attack and Wing Attack!"
Pidgeotto shrieked loudly and shot into the air, propelled so fast by a sudden blur of white light exploding from his tail feathers I could barely keep track of him with my eyes. He was on Shiftry in a split few moments, swinging out with his wing.
The attack tore right through the branch Shiftry was standing on, but the grass and dark type wasn't there, it bounced to the middle of the tree and kicked off of it launching itself at Pidgeotto, the leaves on its hands erupting into green light and lengthening into blade like shapes.
Pidgeotto couldn't turn fast enough to counter attack but before the attack slashed into him, my pokemon beat his wings, conjuring a squall that pushed him back, just in time for Shiftry's slash to meet nothing but air.
Pidgeotto lashed out again with Wing Attack slamming it into Shiftry's side, but Shiftry's foot exploded into cyan blue light at the same exact moment it lashed out with a mule kick and caught Pidgeotto in the chest.
They both gave shouts of pain as they fell from the air, spiralling downwards at a rapid pace. Dark light shimmered into existence around Shiftry's hands and my eyes widened as I recognised it from the anime. Dark Pulse!
"Sand Attack!" I shouted the first thing that came to mind.
Shiftry pulled out of its descent and turned, cupping its hands like it was about to fire a kamehameha wave but just as it did, Pidgeotto lashed out with a wing, and a spray of sand appeared from it and washed over Shiftry's face.
The tengu like pokemon roared in pain, its hands going to clutch scrub at its eyes, completely forgetting about the power it had conjured. The Dark Pulse exploded in its face the moment it pulled its hands apart and the extra force behind it slammed it down into the ground with no chance of recovering while Pidgeotto beat his wings and levelled out, flying above the downed dual type pokemon.
"Finish it off with Gust!" I shouted up to Pidgeotto.
My starter turned to me and nodded before turning back to the downed grass and dark type beginning to push itself up shakily from its harsh landing after just a few moments.
It didn't get the chance as Pidgeotto began to beat his wings rapidly and summoned a massive squall of wind that put anything he could bring up as a Pidgey to shame.
The flying type attack slammed into Shiftry's back and ploughed the part grass type into the ground. It groaned in pain and the ground beneath it began to buckle under the gale force winds battering it into the ground.
I had to anchor myself down hard, and even with a backpack weighing over two hundred pounds and my own body weight I very nearly got launched into the air by the Gust attack, and I was way out of the way of the epicentre of it.
'Jesus fuck!' I grimaced, hands clenching so tightly into the straps of my backpack it felt like they were going to start bleeding. Pdigeotto did not stop. He kept up beating his wings slamming gale force squall after gale force squall into Shiftry's back, and only after a good thirty seconds when it fell limp under the super effective onslaught did Pidgeotto stop.
"Thank fuck for that." I sighed in relief, looking at the devastation brought about by my pokemon. And it wasn't a small piece. Shiftry lay limp in a crater as deep as its body, and all the grass and been torn from the ground for a good fifteen feet in diameter.
Pidgeotto landed on the ground beside me, chest puffed out proudly despite the large, ugly blue bruise I could see through his feathers there. But just as I was about to congratulate him on his win and evolving, he closed his eyes and an orb of cyan green energy swelled into life around him. The bruising I could see through his feathers began to recede before my very eyes.
I blinked, "Is that Roost?" I wondered aloud. I know pokemon generally learn attacks half the time when they evolve in the anime world and a lot of the time in the game as well, but I wasn't expecting a move like Roost.
Pidgeotto let the orb dissipate after a few moments and opened his eyes, giving a quick bark and nodding his head at my words, confirming what I said.
"You really are such a try hard mate." I couldn't help but shake my head and chuckle.
Pidgeotto just preened smugly. "Alright, alright," I conceded, lifting my hand and patting him on his newly grown pink crest of feathers atop his head, "You're amazing, but I already knew that right?" I had to marvel at his size now. Before, he barely reached halfway to my knee cap, now he was level with my shoulder!
"Pidgot!" he nodded, but it didn't stop him from butting his head into my palm. We stayed like that for a few moments before Pidgeotto pulled back and pointed at the downed form of Shiftry, "Pija!" cried the bird, narrowing his eyes and jerking his head at the defeated pokemon.
"Oh right!" I almost forgot. Walking over to Shiftry, I touched the empty pokeball I had in my hand to its downed form, and it clicked open, sucking the pokemon inside and clicking shut, before glowing red and beginning to shake from side to side in my hand.
It shook a good eight times before slowing to a halt, letting loose a click of success. I grinned happily even as the ball was teleported out of my grasp and back to the Viridian Pokemon Centre.
"Now how about we try and get to Pewter tonight?" I mused, turning back to Pidgeotto.
The large human sized bird cocked his head to the side before a grin seemed to split his beak. "What?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow at him, "What's with that shit eating grin?"
Pidgeotto didn't answer, instead he flapped his wings and flew over to me. And before I could even wonder what he wanted, his talons dug into my heavy backpack and then the newly evolved bird pokemon bodily lifted me and it up into the air with ease. Lifting over three hundred pounds like it was nothing.
..I would have ordered him to put me down, if I didn't lock up in fright like a little bitch. Being scared of heights can be such a pain in the ass sometimes.