Pokemon - Solo's Strange Journey

My eyes creep open. 

I'm in my bed... Arceus, I missed my bed so much. I forgot just how nice it feels. There is no pain today. My toes can wiggle without problems. No more Aspear Berry. No more beef jerky!

Praise you, Arceus, for this beautiful world!

Snore

Buneary is snoring away on my chest. 

She's so damn cute, curled up like a fluffy, furry little ball. She is using her ears as a pillow. Her soft snores and peaceful face are so pleasant to my senses. She is perfect.

The world is perfect. 

My arms have wrapped around her while we slept... I should probably remove them before she wakes up-- What if that wakes her up? Then I'm fucked too! Maybe I can just pretend to be asleep?

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The alarm goes off. Oh no. 

Buneary's eyes rip open and meet mine. Shit. 

Instantly, I close my eyes and pretend to be asleep.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

The alarm doesn't shut off on its own. Of course. 

I open my eyes and meet Buneary's. She's glaring at me. 

I'm paralyzed in fear.

No wait, Buneary doesn't know Glare, and I regain control of my body. Slowly, I extract my arms from around her.

Beep. Beep. Beep.

And I turn off the alarm. "Good morning Buneary. Did the alarm wake you up? Me too. Did you sleep well? You look a little upset. Did you have a weird dream? Always happens to me when I wake up to the alarm." Her glare intensifies. My ploy failed.

She keeps her glare up but I don't relent. I continue to pretend like nothing has ever happened until she rolls her eyes at me and says, "Buneary..." Glorious success! ... I think.

Buneary hops off me and I get up and out of the bed too. 

The pile of clothes and writing supplies must still be packed away, and luckily, I find the freshly cleaned and classy leather backpack just outside my bedroom door. 

"Thanks mom!" No response.

My stuff is quickly packed away, I get dressed in the dark blue cargo pants and the plain white sweater that I prepared yesterday.

The Buneary-brown scarf is put aside until I leave the warm house. 

And then Buneary and I move downstairs for breakfast. 

Mom has already prepared the table for all of us. "Thank you mother. I don't think I say this often enough, you are the best mom ever!" She looks pleased at the compliment, and Buneary and I take our seats. 

There is no need for knives this morning. Just toasted shepherd loaf slices, crispy bacon strips and scrambled eggs.

"Buneary, let me help you a little." I say as I set up her bread slice and pile some bacon and eggs on top. 

I hold it out for her to take a bite off.

She hesitates a little before taking a large bite out of it and chewing it. Her face lights up in ecstasy. "Tastes good right? And you can eat this with your paws even with mom around."

Buneary looks at Roselia and Cherrim for confirmation and is reassured when they are also eating with their hands.

She takes another massive bite out of her breakfast before taking the bread into her own paws, which allows me to eat my own breakfast.

"Awe. You are such a little cutie! Swole, are you sure you don't want to participate in contests? I would give Buneary 10 points just for showing up!" That's why you are a retired housewife and not a contest judge... 

"No mom. Contests are for girls and weirdos. And there's no way I will put her in a frilly dress and have her prance around for people to ogle her."

"You don't need to do that. Actually, in the battle rounds, if you defeat your opponent within the time limit, it doesn't matter how impressed or disappointed the judges are." 

Huh? I can just defeat the opponents? That seems pretty cool... Too cool! Where is the catch? 

"Cynthia herself once won the Grand Festival by just beating everyone. Me included."

"YOU fought against Cynthia!? Which pokemon did you fight? Her Garchomp?"

"Yea, I did. She wasn't famous yet and her Garchomp was still a Gabite but they were incredible. It was a one versus one round and they took us out in just 3 minutes. 3 of 10 minutes, that is." Wow!

"By the way, did you notice any tremors in the night?" She asks. 

"Tremors? No, I slept perfectly fine. Buneary, did you notice anything at night?" She shakes her head.

"The radio said the entire region had measured earthquakes this night."

"Weird. Really? The entire region? Where was the epicenter?"

"That's the weirdest thing. They don't know. It was like the earthquakes happened everywhere with the same strength. The scientists are mystified and the reporters act like the world is ending."

"Huh, so just the usual. Global warming isn't enough anymore?"

Mom laughs. "Haha. Yea. It's always the same with the media, isn't it?"

Ding dong.

"Oh, that must be Johanna. Did you pack everything?" She says as she gets up and hugs me tightly before going towards the front door. "Did you remember the underwear?"

"Stop it mom! Yes, I packed everything. Please don't say that stuff around the others!" Arceus, she is just going to embarrass me again, isn't she?

"I packed you some toothbrushes and toiletries." 

... Shit. I forgot about that... "Thanks mom." I grumble out and Buneary sniggers at my expense.

---

Mom opens the front door. 

While I put on my shoes, mom hugs and greets Johanna.

"Hi Mrs. Berlitz. Thank you for driving us--." I start but Johanna crushes my sentence short with a hug.

"Oh Swole, we were all so worried about you! I can't believe your father would do that to you." She turns to mom. "Lisa, if you need any help, then you can count on me. You don't need to be afraid of Benjamin. Our families have always stuck with each other and I won't be the one to change that." 

Our families stick together? What's that about? All I know is that mom's parents used to work for the Berlitz family. 

"Oh, and Swole, you call me Johanna. I'm not so old that you can call me Mrs."

"Alright Johanna." My hands are held up high in surrender.

"I know I can count on you, Johanna." Mom gets Mrs. Berlitz off my case. "Thanks... Now! Swole, why don't you go ahead to the car, let us old ladies talk a little bit. And call me sometimes from your travels! Love you, Swole!"

"I love you too, mom. Bye!"

"Goodbye my little boy. And Buneary, don't you dare let him get hurt!"

"Bunnie! Buneary!"

"Goodbye Buneary!"

I wave goodbye as we stroll out of the garden. Buneary looks at my behavior before copying it, to waves mom goodbye too. 

I guess I won't be here again for a while now. I'm going to miss watching the Flabébé and their Floette guardian.

The Combee, Caterpie and Butterfree... And... well... 

It's not like I can watch them now either. They went into hiding as soon as they saw the snarling bunny on my shoulder.

"Buneary, don't be a menace. These poor pokemon think you are some kind of savage monster."

"Bun." She says proudly. She agrees with me and is proud of it... Good grief.

"Try not to get us kicked out of places. You menace." She nods and smiles brightly. At the thought of getting us kicked out? Or at the thought of being a known menace? 

Damn you, Buneary.

Johanna's car is parked all the way down to the front entrance of our property. Dawn is exiting the car from the passenger seat, while Barry and Lucas are sitting in the back row.

Barry and Lucas are still in their old outfits. Lucas in his black jacket and his blue cargo pants. Barry in his white-orange striped pullover and yesterday's dark gray jeans.

As Dawn exits the vehicle, I can see that she has changed her outfit to something even more girly. A thick, pink, fleece coat. Tall, pink boots and white, thigh-high stockings. 

The coat is long enough to hide whatever hot-pants or skirt she might be wearing... Maybe she is wearing nothing beneath?

Are women just immune to the cold? No matter what she actually hides under the coat, she's practically not wearing pants. 

In Sinnoh, that is just irresponsible.

"Hey guys! How are you? Excited for your first pokemon yet?" I ask them. 

"Hi Buneary! Hi Swole!" Dawn greets me back and Buneary beams, at being greeted first. 

Don't be so smug. You only get the special treatment because you are cute.

"Fuck yea I am! I couldn't even sleep at night. I don't even know if I want a Chimchar, Turtwig or Plibplup!" Barry says excitedly to Lucas' annoyance. 

"It's Piplup. Not Pluplup. And I know exactly what pokemon I will get if I can chose first."

"Lucas, come on!" Dawn whines. "Tell us which pokemon you want. I promise we won't pick your choice away. By the way, Barry, let's trade seats. I want to sit next to Buneary." 

Barry the doormat, swaps places with Dawn. Now she sits in the middle backseat with her bottomless handbag on her lap.

I will have to sit through hours of her fawning over Buneary, won't I?

I get in the car last and put Buneary on my lap, and my backpack between my feet. Then, Buneary immediately slaps away Dawn's curious hand, which wants to pet her extra fluffy ears.

Seeing how distracted Buneary is now, I take my chance and sneakily move my own hand in order to pet her fluffy ear.

Buneary growls but I got away with doing the crime! "Dawn, you shouldn't try to pet her. She only lets me do it." I collect deadpan stares all around, until Johanna finally enters the car and she starts the engine.

Finally, our little road-trip begins.

For about an hour we just chat with a backdrop of the rural scenery rushing past us. I tell the gang all about my adventure to Lake Verity and back... at least about all the things I was comfortable talking about. 

No need to tell them about the Bibarel or the countless instances of me being scared into almost shitting myself.

Eventually, the conversation stalls because there is nothing left to talk about. The others didn't really do anything the past month, and with nothing else to do, I pull out my notebook and start writing down notes on what I learned on my adventure.

Dawn taps me on the shoulder. "What are you-- ... Swole, did you get muscles?" She asks, shocked.

She was fawning over Buneary until now and was trying to convince Buneary to let her pet her. Now she's grabbing and squeezing my shoulder and arm... 

I'm going to have to think of a reward for Buneary in the future. She's already doing a good job of getting girls closer to me. She truly is the best pokemon ever.

"I want to maximize the training efficiency with Buneary. So I note down her strengths and weaknesses that I noticed on our way back home." 

Buneary looks appalled at the notion of her having any weaknesses at all. 

"For example, her dodging abilities and flexibility are unbelievable. Off the charts you could say. The way she can just move past projectiles is just amazing." 

Buneary beams at that. Good. This will buy me some favor for the critique.

"But... she only has normal and fighting type attacks. If a ghost pokemon had ambushed us, we would have died without a chance to fight back."

"Bune?" 

I don't think she has ever even seen a ghost pokemon. "Ghost pokemon are entirely immune against both normal and fighting type energy. None of your attacks would even be able to hit them." 

And she's slack jawed.

Yea. The world's unfair, isn't it? "There are also a few attacks that cannot be dodged at all. Aerial Ace will just hit you in the back, out of nowhere and some projectiles are homing. And most electric type moves and beams are just way too fast to dodge too." I can see Johanna nodding along in the rear-view mirror. 

"Nerd!" Says Lucas.

For the next two hours the guys talk about which Sinnoh starter pokemon is best while Dawn has her hands repeatedly slapped away by Buneary, while I write down my notes.

Occasionally I take turns with Dawn, at having my hands slapped, but I can tell that Buneary secretly loves the attention. 

She's just too precious.

---

The scenery passes by and Dawn drones on and on about dresses she wants to wear and to make Buneary wear.

But eventually, the car moves past the farm lands, villages, meadows and grasslands of route 201, and a suburban landscape comes into view.

Sandgem Town. 

It's a town of around 9 thousand people. It has a pokemon center, a shopping center and various other businesses that Twinleaf Town doesn't have. 

If we want any food that we can't grow ourselves, then we must drive all the way here to buy it. Thankfully, bottomless shopping bags exist and we just need to go shopping like once a month.

A little bit out of town, is also a small beach and an international harbor. Besides being the supporting town for Twinleaf Town and various minor villages along the nearby routes, Sandgem Town's port also handles the majority of Sinnoh's international trade.

Sandgem Town also happens to contain our first goal of the day: Professor Rowan's pokemon laboratory. The current, temporary home of three pokemon that will join our merry group today.

"Hey! I think I can see the lab already!" Shouts Barry and everyone tries to find it.

There it is. 

A massive, white, round tower. About 3 stories tall with some satellite dishes on top. An ancient red brick tower with a windmill is directly adjacent to the laboratory. It's surrounded with vast grasslands and a few trees. Probably to let pokemon roam around in between experiments.

Right now, there is a small herd of Miltank lazing and grazing around. A couple of wild Pidgey are stealing some of the food of the Miltank and a few Butterfree are collecting nectar from the occasional wild-growing flower.

The car stops at the open front gate of the property, and the others are rushing to get out of the car and up the pathway to the lab as soon as possible. 

I take my time a little to look around, because it's not as important for me as it is for them. I will only get my pokedex and the first paycheck for the field researcher job that we all officially have from today on.

Together with the savings that my parents have already put aside for me, my pokemon journey will be safely financed.

"Hurry it up Swole. We're not going to wait for you." Lucas urges me along.

Crash

A sudden, loud noise of a breaking window and of shouting, stops everyone in their step. 

Something is going on in the lab. 

I hurry to catch up and we enter together through a sliding door entrance.

Inside, there is chaos. 

A hurricane came through there and everything is trashed, broken and all over the floor. Broken beakers, broken cabinets and even a totaled washing machine is in the middle of the room. 

A few pokemon are scared and have huddled at the edge of the round room: A Castform, a few differently colored Burmy and two Shellos. 1 pink and 1 blue. They are both males. 

Weird. I thought the females were pink.

"What's going on in here! Are you alright?!" Johanna arrived on the scene last and asks the professor and his assistant for an explanation.

Professor Rowan is an older fellow. His hair is white, even his bushy mustache has already grayed out completely. He is wearing a buttoned up lab coat with a dark brown necktie. 

His assistant is a beautiful young woman. She has green hair that is tied back in a thick ponytail and wears red glasses. She is carrying a Dunsparce just below her breasts. 

I want to trade places with Dunsparce.

"We are fine." Professor Rowan calms Johanna down and explains to us all, "The three pokemon I prepared for you today, have started fighting over food and ran away, chasing each other out the window towards the forest. It is nothing to worry about. Pokemon, especially young pokemon like them, can be a little rowdy when they have not settled down with a trainer yet."

Well... No pokemon for my friends I guess. 

"What about us? How will we pick our pokemon now?" Asks Barry. 

I can see the worry clearly in their faces. 

I unconsciously pet my Buneary on my shoulder-- but just once. I'd like to keep my hand. 

Without her I would be dependent on someone else. I'm so glad to have you, Buneary.

She looks at me and smiles, as if she heard my thoughts.

"How about you 4, go out and collect them? It would be a good team building exercise for you and your future partners." Suggests professor Rowan.

"Alone?" Johanna is aghast. "Are you sure that is a good idea, professor? Only Swole has a pokemon of his own to protect them. What if they are attacked by wild pokemon?"

And I have to agree. Buneary might not be able to protect us all at the same time. "What if we are attacked by more than just one pokemon? Buneary can't protect all of us."

But the professor is adamant in his decision. 

His face is stern but still somehow reassuring. Much unlike my father, who is just stern mixed with more stern. 

"You don't need to worry so much. The nearest wilderness is far away and the rangers are doing a splendid job at keeping the peace around Sandgem Town."

"Swole, don't be such a p-- coward." Lucas says, "The professor wouldn't send us into actual danger. Let's just get going already!"

... I'm not a pussy... I just like being prepared... Good grief, it's not like we have a choice anyway.

"Alright, let's just go." - "Alright!" - "Finally!" - "Okay..." - "Bun!" 

And the gang gets ready. 

Johanna still looks uncertain until professor Rowan pulls out a pokeball. "Staraptor, come out." 

He tosses the ball and a teeny, tiny Staraptor comes out. Much smaller than dad's. Is he healthy? 

"Staraptor, I want you to help them search for Chimchar, Turtwig and Piplup. But only intervene if their lives are in danger. Alright?" - "Star!"

I'm not sure how much help a little Staraptor is going to be, but it's better than no help at all. And maybe he can spot more from the air?

The gang rushes out the back door, some (Dawn) slower than the others, and I casually follow after them with Buneary.

From my shoulder, Buneary talks to me. "Buneary." She tries to reassure me. 

"Sigh, I know. I trust you, Buneary. I just have a bad feeling about this."

---

Narrator-POV:

And so the merry band of friends hops, skips and jumps across the field and into the nearby forest.

Buneary is taking the vanguard position and Swole walks right behind her. 

Dawn and Lucas are lagging behind a few steps, already out of breath. 

Barry is still walking and talking about their soon-to-be partners like nothing has changed. The young man has unlimited energy, much to everyone else's annoyance.

"How far do you think they could have gone? Who do you think caused the fight in the first place? Is Staraptor going to help us at all, or is it just going to be watching us from above like this?" Barry rattles on and on. Only interrupted on occasion because he needs to spit out spiderwebs. "Anyone else notice the suspiciously large amount of spiderwebs all around us?"

Buneary and Swole stop immediately, causing Barry to walk into Swole's back. 

They did not notice the increasing amount of spiderwebs all around them. 

They take a look around and it is true. The trees are covered in webs. The tree tops are also gleaming with reflections from the afternoon sun. One could even describe the amount as 'suspiciously much'.

"Guys, stick together. This isn't normal. And no more talking unless you see something else suspicious Barry." Orders Swole. Dawn runs closer to the group and Lucas lazily follows. "Buneary, can you hear anything?"

Buneary extends her ears as much as she can, she closes her eyes and scans the surroundings. Before long she points in a direction and says, "Bun."

"The pokemon are that way?" She nods. "Alright. Let's go. Remember guys, stick together. If you aren't around, Buneary can't protect you." Dawn and Barry scoot a lot closer to Swole and Buneary at that.

"Don't be such a pussy man. You heard the professor. The pokemon around here are friendly." Lucas remains cool and aloof. His confidence causes Dawn and Barry to relax a little again. 

But Swole stays tense.

"What pokemon around here? We haven't seen any since we went into the forest. This isn't right. It feels just like the wilderness. Keep your eyes peeled. And look above us too." Swole and Buneary take point again and march onward to the pokemon that Buneary has heard.

Dawn is increasingly getting scared again and is now sticking to Swole like glue. Barry is scared too and his head is on a swivel trying to find any pokemon around. 

Even Lucas has grown more tense but his trust in authority is superseding his sense of caution.

The spiderwebs are getting denser and are now even creeping along the floor. The sounds of distressed pokemon are coming from up ahead.

A sense of duty overcomes Barry and Lucas' fright, and they run ahead to assess the situations. Swole, Dawn and Buneary run after them. 

"Stop running you idiots!" Hisses Swole.

Swole eventually catches up to Barry and Lucas in a clearing. 

A hole in the canopy lets in a lot of light and they see Barry and Lucas helping a distressed Turtwig and Chimchar. 

Piplup is unattended and trying to tell them something indecipherable. "Piplup! Piplup! Piplup! Piplup!"

They are all stuck in a massive spider web that crosses the entire clearing. The ground is a little sticky and the clearing is surrounded by a wall of dense web.

"Buneary, do your Defense Curls. Now." Something is going on and Swole wastes no time to prepare for the worst. 

He even pulls out his berry case for quicker access. "Dawn, get Piplup out of there. We're running away from here." And Dawn startles into motion, to help Piplup out.

"What's he saying anyway? Buneary do you understand what he wants?" Swole asks and Buneary points out the web-walls around them in between curl sets.

There are husks of pokemon stuck in the walls. 

Weedle, Rattata, Patrat, Marill and a Yanma. They are all pale and look like raisins. "Fuck." The other teenagers are still trying to free the pokemon from the sticky webs and have not yet noticed their surroundings.

Buneary finishes her last Defense Curl and stands ready to fight at any moment. Swole looks around the clearing to find any sign of an enemy. 

And then he sees her. A massive, 1 meter tall, red and black striped spider in the shadows across the clearing. 

Ariados. Slowly stalking closer on her legs, 2 of them are raised permanently in the air: And with a total of 6 legs, she is technically an insect and not a spider.

Two much smaller Spinarak are creeping beside her. Buneary sees them too and she looks to Swole for orders.

Swole immediately understands that these are not normal, everyday pokemon. 

These are deadly, wild pokemon. 

They should not be here. "Buneary, use Baby-Doll Eyes on the Ariados." Buneary nods and charges her fairy type energy.

Ethereal eyes appear and some fairy energy seeps into Ariados but most of it just bounces off uselessly.

"Damn! Fairy is weak against poison, I forgot!" With this the other young adults notice the commotion around them too. "Guys, hurry it up with the webs! Buneary, distract them! Use Quick Attack on one of the Spinarak!"

"Bun!" And away she rushes. She aims for the left Spinarak but a purple glowing leg interrupts her charge. Ariados deflects her Quick Attack with her own Poison Sting. A weak attack with a chance to poison.

The weak poison does not manage to break through Buneary's normal type energy and the opposing 2 pokemon just uselessly smash into each other. "Pound on Ariados then retreat!"

Buneary instantly switches into her Pound attack and smashes Ariados over the head with her ears. 

But before she can retreat, the left Spinarak hits her with a Poison Sting in the side. A clean hit.

The shadow of the right Spinarak extends around Ariados and two claws come out of it and hit Buneary in the back for no effect. 

Buneary is immune to Shadow Sneak.

Buneary's side hurts a little but not much. The Defense Curls are doing a good job at protecting her.

She retreats and faces her three opponents again.

The three spiders are not just going to leave the bunny alone now. They run after her. The Spinarak legs are glowing with purple poison type and Ariados is preparing something in her mouth.

"Get ready to dodge. We stay on the defensive until the others can join us!" 

Ariados attacks first, a barrage of Pin Missile shoots out from her mouth, swiftly piercing through the air towards Buneary. She dodges the first few needle-sharp splinters easily enough but couldn't dodge both the Spinarak at the same time.

Boom! Thud!

Two clean hits into her side and back. The one against her back left an oozing purple bruise. Buneary is poisoned. 

"Shit! Buneary! Get out of there with Quick Attack!" Buneary dashes off towards Swole. She is much faster than the spider family, but their teamwork is nothing to scoff at.

They run after her yet again. Charging the same attacks again. Why change a working strategy?

"Buneary, ignore the Ariados, hit the left Spinarak with a Quick Attack and Pound! We need to reduce their numbers!" Swole orders, becoming increasingly nervous. 

'This is bad.' He thinks to himself. 'We're losing. What's taking the others so long!?'

Another Pin Missile barrage comes flying and hits Buneary in the side. She endures the pain and smashes into the Spinarak.

Smash!

One hit, and the Pound is charged quickly even with sharp needles peltering her torso. Each missile is weak on its own, but the damage is starting to accumulate. At the same time, the poison is still coursing through her veins.

Wham!

A second hit. The targeted Spinarak is forced to interrupt his Poison Sting, but the other Spinarak is in the air about to hit Buneary in the back yet again.

But! Finally, support arrives. A volley of embers, bubbles and leaves hit the sneaky spider in mid air and give Buneary some space to breathe for a moment. 

With one Spinarak in the ropes and the other handled, Buneary can easily sidestep the long ranged Pin Missiles attack.

Buneary is winded. The damage keeps stacking up. "Buneary, don't get distracted by Ariados. Pound the Spinarak into the fucking ground!"

"Bun!"

Boom!

The dazed Spinarak did not even know what hit him. Suddenly another full power Pound pounds into his back.

Spinarak is KO.

And his mother is enraged. At full tilt, she is skittering over the ground charging a massive amount of poison type energy in two of her legs. 

Buneary is too winded to dodge. 

A few wayward embers hit the sprinting Ariados, but she does not care.

"Buneary, counter with Pound!" Buneary cannot afford to get hit by a fully powered poison attack anymore. She charges her ears and the Pound attack hits the Cross Poison. One of Ariados legs is blocked successfully but the other descends cleanly on Buneary's head.

Critical Hit.

Buneary is smashed across the clearing and Swole dashes to her side as fast as he can. 

The world around him disappears and Buneary is all he can focus on.

Buneary is in a terrible state. Her back is bleeding and oozing purple liquid. Her head has a huge gash that is bleeding and oozing too. 

She is heavily poisoned. 

She is struggling to stand back up. Her body might be KO, but her fighting spirit has not yet given up.

Swole does not think. He just acts. 

In a swift and practiced motion, he opens up the berry case and pulls out a Pecha Berry. Swole pushes the berry into Buneary's mouth and she struggles to eat the sweet, peach shaped fruit.

As the first bite goes down her throat, the poison starts to dissipate. 

With the second bite her limbs stop trembling and Buneary heaves herself up.

Buneary is back in the fight. Barely.

Swole turns around and the world reappears. He refocuses on the fight. 

Ariados is on the defensive. 

Barrages of Bubble, Leafage and Ember are distracting her but none of the projectiles can connect. The three pokemon are starting to become exhausted from their constant attacking.

Clearly, the wild Ariados is in her own league.

"Buneary... We can't run away from this thing."

"Bun." She nods determinedly. She never even considered running away. 

"Can you get in there and use Flail?" Buneary looks at Swole, then at herself and her wounds and with even more determination she nods again and lowers her stance for a sprint.

"Buneary, use Flail!"

An incredible amount of white glowing energy bursts out of every wound on her body. The glow is collecting around her ears, arms and legs, and with a mad dash she sprints into the barrage of attacks.

Chimchar, Turtwig and Piplup's projectiles hit her in the side and back but this only manages to fuel her own attack further. 

The attacks let up because the pokemon do not want to hit their ally, and Ariados is confused about the sudden break in combat. 

The confusion lasts for only a second, until a brilliantly illuminated Buneary appears from her backside. Buneary's body is shining from ears to toes in blindingly bright light. 

Her shining limbs start to smash into Ariados.

Smash! Pow! Boom!

One strike and kick and punch and hit after another pummel into Ariados with little pattern between the hits. 

A kick with her left leg, a punch with her right arm, a strike with both of her ears, a bite; Her entire body is used as a weapon against Ariados.

Ariados has no chance against the attack. Occasionally, one of her legs starts charging energy to block but the next hit just nips any counter attempt in the bud.

The clearing is filled with the staccato sounds of Buneary beating Ariados into the ground.

But eventually, the energy fades and the hits subside.

Under the right conditions, Flail becomes one of the strongest attacks. At the brink of death, only Self-Destruct and Explosion are even more powerful.

Any normal Buneary would have passed out from wounds long ago, but not this one. 

Ariados did not stand a chance against one of the most powerful attacks in the pokemon world, and her swirly eyes prove that.

Ariados is KO.

Buneary wins.

"WRRYYYYY!!"

Buneary's blood freezing victory cry shakes the clearing and startles Chimchar, Turtwig and Piplup into their temporary trainer's arms out of fear.

The display of dominance shakes Dawn, Lucas and Barry to their core. As if they were affected by a paralyzing status move, they cannot move. 

Swole rushes to his Buneary and as her consciousness fades, Swole is there to catch her in his arms.

Buneary is KO.

---

Swole-POV:

Fuck yea! "FUCK YEA! We fucking did it!" 

I make a little victory dance, where I jump around and lift Buneary up above me... She's passed out... I shouldn't be doing that. She should be getting rest.

Dawn, Lucas and Barry are staring at us. 

Staring at our victory. 

Man, this feels nice. 

I wish Buneary was awake to feel this too. Their scared temporary partners are huddled in their arms. 

Yes! Be mortified! You pathetic fools have led us here!

Cough, anyway. "Guys, we should skedaddle."

"What?" Lucas answers me.

I thought everyone knows what skedaddle means? "I mean, we should get the fuck out of here. There could be more enemies around."

"Why did these Spinarak and Ariados just attack us?" Asks Dawn. 

"Actually, Swole, why did you attack them first? And so brutally?" Asks Barry.

What? "There are pokemon corpses hanging all around us. The Ariados and the Spinarak were about to ambush you. And then eat you." I explain the situation to them.

"What?" - "What?" Say Barry and Dawn. 

"What the fuck!?" Shouts Lucas. "Guys, he's right! What the fuck is going on here?!" 

They all get a little closer to the walls around us to see the hollow, dry and pale husks.

Pukes

Dawn loses her breakfast and Barry doesn't look too good either. Lucas is trying his best to stay stoic but I can see the cracks in the facade. 

"Piplup! Piplup! Piplup!" And Piplup is loudly complaining about the fact that he was in the splash zone.

Of all the starter pokemon, Chimchar looks the most affected. 

His gaze is fixated on the ground in terror. He must have realized how close he was to becoming pokemon food.

"Yea, so, let's get out of here before any more Ariados come. Those were truly wild pokemon, by the way. And I don't know about you three, but Buneary and I can't fight anymore." 

Dawn catches herself, finally, and strengthens her grip on poor Piplup before running to me near the entrance of the clearing.

The others linger near the strung-up corpses for a moment longer before dejectedly making their way too.

Welcome to the world of pokemon, I guess...

We all silently make our way back. My mind keeps wandering to Buneary. I don't have any more Sitrus Berry. 

My feet walk a little faster. 

Far behind us, more sounds of pokemon battle sound out. This is the wilderness. Did the professor not know that?

I hurry up some more.

Not soon enough, we break through the forest and get back into the grasslands around the laboratory. The Miltank notice our panicked running-- When did we start running?

"Mil!" One Miltank stands in our way and points at my passed out Buneary. 

What does she want? "Mil! Mil!" She wants Buneary? Fuck that! I won't let her get hurt!

Whomp

Ouch! "What the hell Miltank! Oi! What are you doing with Buneary!" She knocked me over and stole Buneary! Fucking cow! 

Wait, there is a green glow? Does Miltank know a healing move?

"Mil!" What the fuck? The green glow collects in one of her nipples and... She is now moving Buneary's mouth to her nipple... I think I read about that move once... No... Milk Drink...

Buneary's wounds are all closing up and her breathing stabilizes.

Arceus? Why must Miltank force feed breast milk to my Buneary? It could have just been a green beam of light instead. What were you thinking? 

... Moomoo Milk is Miltank breast milk! Fuck! ... I'm just going to pretend this never happened. I still need to drink it with every good breakfast.

"Can I have Buneary back?" I ask and thankfully, she hands Buneary back... I use my sleeve to remove the breast milk stains from Buneary's mouth.

Gross.

... I have to thank Miltank for this, don't I? "Thanks. For healing Buneary."

The others are weirded out too. Although their pokemon look perfectly fine with what just happened. 

Must be a cultural difference.

We continued our way, "This never happened. Let's not ruin Moomoo milk, alright?" Says Lucas to a round of instant agreement.

---

The sliding door to the laboratory slides open. 

Johanna, professor Rowan and his assistant have already cleaned up the mess and are now sitting together at a table, drinking coffee and eating cookies.

"Mom! We were attacked out there!" Dawn ruins their good atmosphere. Good. Fuck them.

Professor Rowan seems unconcerned, but Johanna is flipping out. She is shooting the professor murderous looks and rushes to her daughter to check up on her and then to hug her.

Dawn is only a little out of breath but otherwise perfectly fine. Unlike Buneary who still hasn't woken up yet. 

"Professor, do you have anything to heal Buneary up? The Cross Poison was too much for her."

At the mention of Cross Poison, professor Rowan's cool demeanor starts to show the first cracks. "Cross Poison? Are you certain? The pokemon around here should only know Poison Sting."

At least this means he didn't know this was going to happen. "The forest was taken over by wild Ariados and Spinarak. I mean, truly wild. We found multiple corpses of pokemon in their webs." I report to him. He will know what to do.

"Where is Staraptor?" He asks. 

... Oh shit. I totally forgot about him. Shit, did he get caught in a web in the canopy? "I--... We haven't seen him since we entered the forest... Right guys?" The others nod and now professor Rowan seems really worried.

"Roseanne, can you please give those four their pokedex, their prepared wallets and a briefing on their responsibilities? I need to go and investigate this." Professor Rowan says, as he removes his lab coat to reveal a full belt of six pokemon.

"Yes, sir." Answers Roseanne, the pretty research assistant with bright green hair and fat tits.

Professor Rowan leaves the room while tapping away on his Poketch wrist-watch.

Roseanne stands up and walks over to a cabinet, next to the still broken washing machine. She starts to rummage through it as Dawn asks her, "What will the professor do now? Is his Staraptor in danger?"

Roseanne looks over her shoulder for a second before continuing her search and answering, "Staraptor is fine. He might not look so tough but looks can be deceiving in the pokemon world. As for what the professor will be doing now? I believe he will be calling the pokemon rangers of Sandgem Town and together they will either relocate the pokemon that came here or put them down."

Johanna looks alright with that, but the others look pretty worried now. About the pokemon that were about to eat us? 

"Put them down!? You mean they will just kill them?" Shouts out Lucas. 

Well... I say, fuck them too. They almost killed Buneary, and all of us would have become pokefood afterwards.

"Yes. The policy for wild pokemon that come too close to cities and routes is to capture them alive first and if they have killed and eaten humans, then they will be put down." Barry and Lucas look shocked.

At the killing and eating humans part? Or the putting down part? 

Dawn on the other hand, looks a little bit reassured actually. She must have been really scared out there to react like that.

I don't think Barry and Lucas fully realize how close they were to dying. 

Chimchar, Turtwig and Piplup were far too weak to defeat Ariados and just a little bit more damage and Buneary would have passed out before finishing the fight.

... Buneary! "Excuse me, Roseanne? Do you have any recovery items for Buneary? She took the brunt of the battle for us and hasn't woken up yet..."

Roseanne looks up from her rummaging, again, to check on me and Buneary and then resumes the search for our stuff while answering, "The potions should be on that shelf over there. If they are missing, the Miltank outside are trained to help out pokemon centers in the future and can heal Buneary too."

Miltank? What Miltank? I don't know about any Miltank. Let's check the shelf instead.

"The Miltank already healed her, Miss. Rosanne. But Buneary is still passed out." Barry says. 

When did that happen? I can't remember but there don't appear to be any serious wounds on Buneary, so maybe he's right.

"Ah, in that case, more recovery items will not help you. Buneary just needs to rest to recover in her sleep." Roseanne explains. 

So Buneary is alright now? 

That's good. 

I walk up to Johanna, still at the table drinking coffee and sit down with Buneary in my lap. Slowly stroking over her head and ears. 

You were incredible out there Buneary...

...

The others follow suit and we sit and talk for a while until the topic of choosing their starter pokemon is brought up from Johanna. 

Dawn immediately tightens her hold (a little too much) on her Piplup. "I choose Piplup! He's just the cutest!" She exclaims while Piplup struggles to breathe. 

Just a few hours ago, Buneary was the cutest. 

Despite his restricted position, Piplup beams over the compliment... If only you knew, buddy. Girls are fickle beings.

"And I will stay with Chimchar! He's the one I planned to get anyway. Infernape is one of the coolest pokemon ever and I will do my best to train Chimchar into a big and strong Infernape!" Says Lucas in an unusual amount of fervor. 

Not even he is immune to the joys that a pokemon can give.

"Well, and I will stay with Turtwig. I feel like we have a deep connection already. Isn't that right Turtwig?" And Turtwig nods enthusiastically. "Turt... wig!" 

I guess they are both very enthusiastic people...

"You both seem equally slow too, you really are a perfect match for each other!" Lucas voices the thoughts that we were too polite to state out loud. 

Turtwig and Barry cheer at the perceived praise and Chimchar starts laughing. Chimchar and Lucas are also a perfect match as it seems.

Roseanne joins the group and places a pokedex, as well as a stylish leather wallet, in front of each of us. "You seem to have already chosen your pokemon?" She asks to a round of nods. "Great! Then we can go straight to handing out the pokedex and your wallets."

She points out the devices and wallets in front of us. "As you should already know, the pokedex is a technological marvel developed by professor Oak that can access data for almost every pokemon ever discovered. It can also automatically acquire and store data on newly discovered species." 

That's cool. Beats carrying around books. 

"The newer models, like this one, can also show you all sorts of information on your pokemon, when you scan their pokeballs."

With that she pulls out three standard pokeballs, red tops with white bottoms, and places them in front of Dawn, Lucas and Barry. "Why don't you try that feature out? Just hold the pokeball in front of the pokedex."

Dawn is first and reads out the data on Piplup: "Moves... Pound, Bubble, Growl, Peck... What's Growl?"

You seriously don't know that? "Growl is a normal type status move that lowers your opponent's strength. If you have the time to use that move, you should. It means Piplup will take less damage from physical hits."

"Ah, thank you, Swole... It also says Health Points 53, Attack 45, Defense 59, Special Attack 71, Special Defense 62 and Speed 40. What do those numbers mean?" 

No clue. If I had to guess it means how strong Piplup is. But this is the first time I hear of that stuff.

Roseanne answers, "That is the numerical evaluation of Piplup, according to professor Kukui's newest model on pokemon strengths. He is a researcher in the Alola Region who specializes in pokemon moves. And he came up with this model to help determine the power of moves." 

Never heard of him before.

"This was actually part of his recent doctorate and allowed him to become a recognized professor. All the new pokedex come equipped with a feature to determine the strength of caught pokemon." 

Alright, color me curious.

I pull out Buneary's premier ball and scan her. 

I skim past the moves because I know them already-- Wait, 'After You'... I read about this once, but I can't remember what it does. 

Is that move new or did Buneary not know that she can use the move?

But let's see about the stats. Health Points 50, Attack 94, Defense 42, Special attack 25, Special Defense 72 and Speed 104.

Holy shit. That's far better than Piplup. And Speed is over 100? I would have thought it only goes to 100... 

Well, Buneary is pretty damn fast. And her hits are pretty good too.

Her physical defense is a little weak and her special attack power seems to be non-existent in comparison.

"I wouldn't put too much trust into those values." Roseanne says while we all inspect the stats on our pokemon closely. "They are very accurate but they can easily change over time through training. Pokemon are not set in stone at birth, and strategy will always make or break a battle."

"That's right." Johanna adds. "I myself have seen many pokemon that started out very weak but became really strong later. Glameow used to be the weakest pokemon in our friend group but in the end I managed to become a top coordinator with her. So don't be disappointed if your partner is not the strongest yet."

Yea... But Buneary is stronger already and I won't give up training her. 

Sorry Barry. I don't think you will stand a chance against me in the platinum league.

"Alright. Next up, your new wallets." Roseanne continues. "It is a bottomless version for cash and it also contains all the paper documentation you will ever need as a trainer in the Sinnoh region. As well as any documentation you would need for international travel and a card to access your banking account. Should you lose your documentation, you can just retrieve a new copy from any pokemon laboratory in any region." 

Cool. So we don't have to waste time with bureaucracy.

"And last but not least, your responsibilities for your monthly wages." 

Right. Nothing is ever free. 

"You will be required to document any unusual pokemon behavior you observe. And you will be acting as first responders in emergency situations where your pokemon can assist you appropriately." 

That's it? The monthly paycheck is pretty large for just that.

"What kind of emergency situations?" Asks Lucas and Barry follows up, "Yea, will I need to send Turtwig into burning buildings?" 

"No, if you don't think you can solve the issue, then you shouldn't involve yourself. As for what types of emergency situations: House fires, natural disasters, stopping ongoing criminal activities and assisting pokemon rangers and Officer Jenny's." Is what Roseanne answers. 

Those are all pretty dangerous activities. Damn.

"Generally, you don't have to go out of your way for these types of things and you are not expected to search for any trouble. The Sinnoh League is actually just investing into your future as trainers. The stronger the trainers of a region, the more international power a region holds. That's why your responsibilities are mostly just a front to appease the public about the tax money spending."

Interesting. I think it's honestly really nice to finally learn something about the national and international politics of Sinnoh and the other regions.

"Cool story." Says Lucas. "Does that mean we are trainers now? Can we leave? We still need to get to trainer school today and have spent a lot of time in the forest already." 

What? Nooo! I wanted to learn more about politics!

Roseanne chuckles a little before telling us, "Haha, yes. You are all officially trainers now. And official field researchers. And you can leave. Go out there and make Sinnoh proud, will you?"