#my friend and i discussed about which pokemon would be in their team. eevee and umbreon was ther for their similar looks to r27 lol

[keirientez]

Pokemon trainer AU, Reborn is the champion meanwhile Tsuna is his apprentice. Tsuna’s design belongs to my friend @Cloud_Knee (Twt or X)

[idiotwhotalkstoomuch]

Albert Ketchum

(This art of him is NOT MINE this is a practice art by my good friend @neaa25​ who I commissioned to draw Albert. I will update this bio when they send me the finished commission which I am very excited for because look at her talent, check her art out on her blog and I would like to quickly clarify that she isn’t taking commissions online, I managed to commission her cause we’re longtime friends.)

Full Name: Albert Ketchum

Alias/Title(s): Dr. Ketchum, Traitorous moron, Bert

Age: 12 (joined Team Rocket), 19 (joined Project Mewtwo), 24 (deceased)

Team: Ninetales (Starter) (deceased), Parasect, Slowking, Skarmory, Eevee (Espeon after his passing)

TW: I make mentions of scientists experimenting on a child and the death of a young adult and pokemon

Albert originally started off as a regular trainer doing the gym challenge but quit 5/8 badges in as he had no passion for the gym challenge and pursued pokemon research again which eventually got him scouted by Team Rocket Admin, Proton who recruited him.

He began as a standard grunt but switched to Science branch of Team Rocket almost immediately and became an official Team Rocket scientist at 14. This promotion in such a short span of time is why he was scouted to be one of the scientists to work on Project Mewtwo.

During his tenure as a Team Rocket scientist, he found an Eevee that he captured and intended to evolve into an Umbreon but due to his line of work involving much less battling he never had time to do this and Eevee stayed the way it was, often perching on his shoulder whenever it was allowed to.

In the Mewtwo project, he was the one primarily in charge of monitoring Ash’s development as a pokemon-human amalgamation while the other scientists focused on Mewtwo. Ash subconsciously communicated with him telepathically over primarily innocent child things that Mewtwo couldn’t explain to him like why can’t he see anything but darkness, is he a human, etc.

Albert’s decision to defect from Team Rocket was solidified when he overheard talks of how Ash isn’t developing the way they want him too and discussed adding more Pokemon DNA to him to try and make him more powerful or maybe injecting pokerus into his bloodstream to see how his human side would react to a virus that positively affects pokemon even though a month prior, a study from another Science branch reported that pokerus can very negatively affect humans if infected.

He managed to smuggle Ash away by having his Parasect and Ninetales use spore and confuse ray on all the scientists in the lab that day to give him an opening to take Ash out of his tank and put him in an ultra ball before booking it out of the lab and New Island with his Skarmory.

Albert had Ash with him for roughly 2 weeks as he journeyed around trying to evade Team Rocket and figure out the best course of action for where to leave Ash as he realized after getting him out of the island that taking him to people so directly related to him would endanger them and even if he didn’t take care about his siblings very much ever since the start of the Mewtwo project, he didn’t want to endanger them anymore than he already has.

Ideally Ash should’ve just stayed in his pokeball all the time while they travelled as his appearance would draw too much attention but Ash kept breaking out because he wanted to see the world around him after a lifetime in darkness with Mewtwo to the point that Albert bought him clothes to conceal as much of his body as he could with a backpack to conceal his tail and a cap to cover up his horns. He took to calling Ash “kid” since he didn’t have a name for Ash and didn’t want to call him Test Subject all the time. 

Delia was a bit offended when Albert enlisted her as the one to take care of Ash since that meant he thought it was okay to endanger her but she still took him in much to Albert’s relief who gave Ash a final goodbye before flying away with Skarmory.

A week after this, he’s killed at the age of 24 by Archer and Proton’s Weezings using explosion on him and his Ninetales whilst they were already hurt from toxic. He had Slowking use teleport to get Skarmory, Parasect, Eevee and itself away in time but Ninetales got away from the teleport to stay by Albert’s side as he faced death. Slowking didn’t return for Ninetales as it understood Ninetales’ decision, much to the chagrin of Eevee who wanted to stay by Albert’s side too but was denied that. 

Proton had approached the pair for anything on Ash and or to potentially sell, but unbeknownst to him,  Ninetales survived long enough after Albert’s passing to unleash a final act of revenge. It cast the Ninetales curse on Proton, causing him to lose his physical body and become a wandering spirit much to the horror of Archer and the pair’s pokemon.

His pokemon became wild thanks to the fact the explosion that killed Albert had destroyed their pokeballs and Skarmory, Parasect and Slowking went on to live their own lives while Eevee fruitlessly searched for Albert and Ninetales, eventually evolving into an Espeon during its search. 

Espeon would later be caught by Ash in the Orange Islands and would stay with Delia when not used by Ash.

[akirameta84]

Warning: This is VERY LONG. i got carried away.

"hey don't you have a wip fic for another au?" yeah shush i have a new idea that's not as fleshed out (after writing that turned out to be a lie) as the chunibyo one but i had to share it.

its in every fandom, but Saiki K Pokemon Au time. it's always cliche but who cares its amazing.

Kaido is the mc. for sure. he chooses a froakie because the professor (its kusuke, he's totally it) said it was a dark and mysterious as him. at first he's disappointed by the frog but once it evolves he starts loving it. him and greninja wear matching outfits. he tied red wrist wraps on its arms and he wears a pink scarf.

nendo is his rival lmao. he met him when kaido left with his first pokemon and challenged him to a battle, immediatly. he said loser has to buy the other persons ramen. "but i dont even know you??" "oh. well lets be friends, runt!" "you just asked to fight me???" nendo uses an eevee because his mom gave it to him when he was young. kaido wins because nendo didnt use a single attacking move. he just used sand attack and growl. the battle lasted 10 minutes because kaido kept missing.

now with his newly self proclaimed rival, after going to eat ramen, kaido sets out on his journey. i like to imagine a region with just every pokemon cause its cool that way. kaido mainly looks for fighting type pokemon, and a few dark types, and it takes him a bit to realize that this is probably a bad strategy and that he isnt finding anything, as cool as they are. he catches a shroomish, not knowing it became a type he wanted, because he was impressed with it's "battle capabilities" because it survived an attack that had fainted others. he names it doomslayer cause he's such an edgelord.

somewhere along the way nendo finds him and says that he's going to challenge a gym, and that kaido should join him. kaido agrees because "oh yeah, thats why im on this journey" and they go to the first gym.

The first gym is ghost type, run by toritsuka. why is he first? cause he's prolly not very good at battling and he knows it. the gym itself would be very foggy, and kaido has to traverse it to get to toritsuka. along the way toritsuka has spirits tell him where kaido is, and he'll release a pokemon near there for him to battle, and this happens 2 times. Torisuka himself uses 2 pokemon, a Litwick and a Galarian Yanmask. both are female, obviously. kaido absolutely demolishes these two pokemon, with his water and grass type, seeing as they're part fire and ground. first badge complete.

surpsingly, nendo also beats this gym, mainly because eevee can use bite. guess he figured out how to use attacking moves lmao. also yes ik bite is learned at 25, and rn they're at like lv 12 but shh. he found a tm or smt. it also helps thst toritsuka could barely hit nendos eevee due to the ghost and normal type thing.

nendo tries to travel with kaido, but kaido usually manages to worm his way away from him. he usually gets away whenever nendo challenges someone else and they have to tell him that he can't catch someone else's pokemon.

second gym is chiyo's gym. she uses grass types, and her gym is covered in flowers, trees, and it looks like a forest. the puzzle itself is rather simple. the floor is covered in large flowers, and you have to step on the correct ones or get sent back to the start. i like to imagine a giant vine yeeting kaido. chiyo also forgot to write clues over which ones are correct and ends up helping kaido, and winds being endeared by his determination. chiyo uses a Fomantis and a Petilil, because she thinks they're cute. kaido actually struggles quite a bit because he brings a water type and a grsss type. he wins in the end though, because chiyo ends up lovestruck and forgets to attack. she daydreams about inviting him to run the gym with her because he's so talented in her eyes, but he leaves before she can ask, grass badge in hand.

after chiyo's gym, kaido's froakie evolves into Frogadier, and he cries. in-between gyms again, kaido catches a rockruff because it was cute and it whined when he tried to walk away after battle. again, kaido catching types he likes without even knowing, provided his rockruff evolves at nightime. he names it Decimator. at this point i place kaido's levels at 19-21 ish, and close to rockruff and shroomish evolving.

next gym is hairo's and surprise surprise, it's a fire type gym. his gym his very, very intense. he has actual jets of fire lining his gym. there's no puzzle because he believes in just battling for victory or whatever, kaido didn't catch it behind the roar of the fire jets. kaido just walks along a pathway and gets challenged to battle by 3 randoms. i like to imagine one of them is nendo, and its never discussed. he has a fire type and everything, and its just not brought up. he's back to his single eevee after this too. kaido also wins with relative ease, considering he has a water type and rock type, although he makes the mistake of sending shroomish out at some point, but makes a clutch switch after it survives a flamethrower. fire badge obtained.

right after this, his shroomish evolves into breloom and he cries again. he gets very happy when his pokemon evolve. and also, after a few random encounters, his rockruff also evolves. its day form because kaido is a clueless baby. he still loves it all the same. at some point nendo challenges kaido with a single pokemon again, but this time it's a leafeon. kaido asks how he knew to evolve it, and he just says he battled next to some funny looking rock and it changed. of course. it actually manages to oko Frogadier because kaido wasnt expecting anything other than an eevee, but his breloom deals with it easily, because nendo kept using not very effective grass moves because it worked once. how does he have 3 badges again? nobody knows. level 25-27 now.

next gym is saiko's, and he uses normal types because all the other types were "too needy for someone like him." he's got 2 Persians and a Toucannon. he tried to use 3 persians but he was told that he needed something else just in case someone brought a fighting type by his dad. so he grabbed the first wild bird he found and evolved it. saiko doesnt have a puzzle, and instead just has an elevator that you can pay 5000 Pokedollars to use, otherwise you have to take the stairs like a pleb. Kaido takes the stairs because he's keeping his money dammit. its only 3 stories until saiko's floor, so it's really not much. Kaido sweeps easily with breloom until toucannon comes out. breloom gets slaughtered by a flying type move, and he sends out lycanroc to finish it. normal badge complete.

when he next sees nendo, he has a meowth with his leafeon. kaido asks where he got it, and nendo says he found it near the rich looking gym. kaido concludes that nendo accidently stole a pokemon and they go to return it. saiko says that the plebs can have it as a reward for defeating him, and dismisses them. levels 30-33.

5th gym! mera runs this one, and there isn't a type. she has an Alcremie, Appletun, Cherubi, and a Vannilish. what can i say, girl loves her food. kaido is genuinely concerned that she is gonna eat her pokemon though. the challenge is cooking. kaido has to cook curry, and if its bad, he fights a trainer, up to 3 times. if its good he gives it to mera and moves on the next curry. the actual battle goes okay, but its fairly difficult due to not having a single type, and being unpredictable. obviously he wins in the end, and the badge is a bowl of curry.

frogadier evolves into greninja finally, and they have the matching outfits going on. nendo laughs at it. somewhere nendo also got an applin. kaido is fairly sure he took this one from mera as well, but he decides to let it go, and tell nendo how he can evolve it. he doesn't think nendo understood, but he tried. kaido also realizes he only has 3 pokemon, and decides to find two more. he finds a braixen, which he evolves into delphox. her name is Lucifer's Eternal Flames. Lucy for short. he also catches a noibat. the noibat was caught because he got lost in a cave, and the noibat was leading him out, so he decided he couldn't just leave it there. he names it the Jet Bat Wings. yes im doing that and yes its hilarious. levels 37-39.

gym 6. fighting type, and its kuboyasu. he tried to leave behind his violent days behind him, and become a poison type gym, but eventually gave in and did fighting instead. after he had already dyed his hair purple for the colorscheme. he kept the fighting gym purple because he already commited dammit. 4 pokemon, and hes got Toxicroak (yes ik the irony), Lucario, Grapploct, and Pangoro. greninja faints quickly, and so does lycanroc, but after some paralysis tricks with breloom and delphox sweeping the rest, pangoro comes in and ko's delphox. noibat pulls through in the end, with flying type moves. fighting badge earned.

next battle with nendo, and it turns out he actually evolved applin, and now he's got a flapple. kaido is midly impressed. kaido catches his 6th and final pokemon, an absol. he was overjoyed when he finally got another dark type. he names it Fluffy. yes, the dark type doesnt get an edgy name. levels 44-46, there was a longer gap in between the 6th and 7th gyms. oh also, you may be wondering about an evil team in this au. and my answer is....¯\_(ツ)_/¯

gym 7. Fairy type. Teruhashi. you knew she'd be coming eventually. and yes i saved the characters people prolly wanna know about until last haha. and because i think they fit the more difficult gyms. girl's got 5 pokemon, Mimikyu (i think it fits her fake perfect girl personality), Slyveon, Gardevoir, Florges, and Magearna. how does she have a legendary? prolly cause she's perfect and just asked for it, and someone actually found one. No puzzle here, but having to find his way through the mobs of teruhashi fans is prolly hard enough. Kaido actually has to try this gym several times due to him lacking anything good againist fairies. he gets it eventually though, and teruhashi has to reassure her fans that it's okay that she lost before they murder kaido. fairy badge down.

at this point kaido has no clue how nendo keeps getting gym badges. he has 3 pokemon, and one isn't even evolved. especially considering how easily Kaido himself can beat him. kaido I shrug it off as the plothole it usually is in pokemon games. levels 47-50. Noibat evolves into Noivern, and kaido has himself a pretty strong team. Greninja, Delphox, Absol, Lycanroc, Noivern, Breloom. although he has just been choosing based on personal preference, it turnes out nicely. and yes I'm padding this out cause y'all know what gym is next.

Gym number 8. The psychic type gym, run by Saiki and Aiura. It doesn't get more cliche than this. The challenge in this one is a maze. There's no extra trainers here, instead Kaido fights Aiura everytime he encounters her. She only uses 1 Pokemon in these battles because they happen a lot. Kaido wonders how she keeps finding him, let alone getting through the maze so easily when there's walls everywhere. He brushes it off as her just knowing the layout. battle itself happens, and it's a double battle. they each have 3 pokemon. Saiki has a ditto, espeon, and an alolan raichu (because he thought it was cute) Aiura mainly runs the support side of the team, and she's got a female meowstic, alakazam, and reuniclus, and wishes she had a cuter team, but she makes it work. This is prolly Kaido's second hardest gym. not harder than teruhashi's because he had no advantages, unlike this one where he's got several dark types. the battle is hard because they know exactly what kaido is gonna do. the minute he sends out his breloom to get a cheap paralysis, out comes ditto. the breloom ditto nearly wipes out both dark types, but noivern takes care of it, only to meet a sad demise at the hands of raichu, despite the dragon advantage. he's able to win on his second try, after he refused to send out breloom due to the fact that they just seem to know his next move. it creeped him out. Psychic badge done.

nendo tries to take saiki out for ramen with him and kaido after his gym fight, declaring him his best buddy, and it's not explained why nendo decided this. nendo eventually wins the argument and they get ramen. kaido notices saiki looks disturbed everytime he looks at nendo, but brushes it off as "yeah he disturbs me too." they part ways and onto victory road because im still mourning how there wasn't one in sword and shield. after victory road, kaido is nearing level 60 on everyone.

elite four? eheh i don't know who'd make it up. prolly 4 previous gym leaders with fully evolved teams and more pokemon. not tlo worries about them tho.

Kaido bests the elite four, and marches on to the champion.

Champion Akechi. Full team of 6 Pokemon, and he's a formidable opponent. He's able to easily predict what moves are going to be used next, and always has type advantage. Although, unlike before, while difficult to do, it is possible to do something unpredictable to trip him up, which is the only way Kaido is able to win. His team consists of Serperior, Glaceon, Gyrados, Ninetales, Togekiss (it's just there to be annoying, it can barely attack, and akechi did this to be a nuisance so he can't be clean sweeped), and Mew. Again, I love unexplained lengendaries on teams okay. To Kaido, it seems like with enough switching, he could easily defeat Akechi, but Akechi is very good at predicting. So againist Akechi, it's like the team as been catered specifically to beat Kaido. But, knowing him, it likely was. It takes him ages to beat Akechi. Like literal ages. The only saving grace is Akechi can get tripped up if Kaido is unpredictable enough. It's likely a mixture of that and para hscks that lets him win, and Kaido is champion. Nendo did try to challenge him (somehow beating the elite four) but was beaten. I love how the rivals always beat everything but then get horribly beaten by you.

Holy shit this is longer than i thought it would be. I have been writing this for literal hours. Hope you enjoyed. This is what my brain had inspiration for today apparently, instesd of the fic im working on.

Hadn't seen too much Pokemon stuff for saiki k yet, so tada. and yes, i came up with most of this while writing. the only idea i had before i started writing was the saiki and aiura gym

[smallersocksx]

Pokemon Journeys Episode 74 (Ramblings/Review)

Introduction/Background:

I'll be honest I haven't been watching the series as actively since episode 65. That's because the episodic formula they chose to use for the series was honestly starting to grate on me and if you read my post on my issues with the Pokémon Journeys anime. I did bring up one of my issues being the episodic formula.

As time grew on through my issue with the episodic formula and some of the other issues of the series begun to annoy me even more so I needed to take a break. When they announced Dawn would be making an appearance, I knew I had to watch (the one instance where the episodic formula kind of worked in my favour). As Diamond and Pearl was my first game, my favourite anime series and had some of the best story-telling in my opinion. In comparison to Journeys, I think my main issue with the series is the lack of direction and not knowing where the story is going.

That element of surprise might be great for some people and if you’re enjoying the series that’s great too. Personally, I love the story-telling aspect of the Pokémon anime and watching these characters go on their own personal journeys. This is why watching a story-driven series, I want that level of clarity and direction provided by a linear narrative. This is why the episodic formula was starting to grate on me, Journeys is great when they are focusing on furthering a character’s goal or development, my issue lies with the huge gap in between which later results in a huge pacing issue that could easily be resolved if they gave time for certain aspects to be fleshed out more.

However, that isn’t to say Journeys is a bad series. I’ve certainly enjoyed a lot of the episodes and the slice of life aspect the series provides in comparison to earlier series. On the other hand, given that the series is meant to be focusing on travel that can be construed as a negative point as well.

And I've realised as I'm writing this, this may come across as a rant about the series rather than discussing the episode. So, if you're still reading thank you ^o^ But I thought it was necessary to give some background to explain how my opinions have been formed and if you recommend that I re-visit some episodes that’s great too!

So far, I've only seen the episode with some really poor subtitles. So, if I've misinterpreted a scene then you can let me know. But I think I got the gist of most of the episode. If you’ve read some of my other posts, I always try to break down these reviews/ramblings.

The Beginning:

I feel as though this episode is going to end up drawing similarities to the DP episode Sleepless in Pre-Battle. In which, Darkrai causes nightmares and Cresselia is unable to help the town for some reason, I can’t remember the exact reason in the original episode although in this case, it’s obvious as we see Team Rocket’s Matori Matrix attack and injure Cresselia. This sets up, the boys’ side of this DP mini-arc in which they’ll investigate the Darkrai side of the problem and something I greatly appreciated ASH! REFERENCED! HIS! BATTLE! WITH! DARKRAI!!! It was something I greatly appreciated and kind of wished Journeys took the time to reference some of Ash’s other achievements and experiences more often. Give him more of a mentor-ish role like he was to May back in AG. 

Rather than Chloe joining the boys in Sinnoh, originally, she was meant to be going on a trip with her family as the summer holidays had begun. However, those plans immediately went down the gutter as both her parents had work and her brother was joining his friend at summer camp (this is going by really horrible subtitles so I may be entirely wrong). I honestly don’t know if Chloe went to Sinnoh intending to join up with Ash and Goh or just going on a trip by herself. But I really liked the call back to Following a Maiden’s Voyage in which Chloe had packed too much the same as Dawn and her Mum ended up giving her a more appropriate-sized backpack. I think there might have been a Sword and Shield reference in there as well because at the beginning of the game the Mum says the backpack, she gives the player was the one she used for her journey and I think Chloe’s Mum said something amongst those lines. I don’t know I might be grasping at straws.

I loved all the Sinnoh/DP references earlier in the episode and to be honest I was focusing more on the Dawn and Chloe side of the episode rather than the boys (sorry Ash and Goh).

Chloe and Dawn:

Now I’ll be honest, I love Chloe for me personally she’s one of the stronger aspects of the Journeys series. However, in this episode, she annoyed me a little bit. From my point of view, one of the more subtle ways Chloe has developed after catching Eevee was that she learnt to relax and embrace being a kid primarily because of Eevee. This development was highlighted in the Glimwood Tangle episode where Chloe ended up playing with the group of Impidimp. If it had been Chloe from 20 or even 30 episodes before she may have handled that situation completely differently. Whereas, as of late she’s learnt to relax and have fun which at times was something I could have done when I was her age. 

Anyways, I’m going on a tangent once again. I just thought the whole argument with Dawn was rather pointless, I didn’t understand the need to create any conflict when they were getting on perfectly well beforehand. That was kind of my biggest gripe on the girls’ side of the episode. 

On the other hand, they also set up a good opportunity for Chloe to grow which I kind of hope they take. Another issue, I’ve been having with the Journeys anime is that they set up some great plot lines or potential development and fall through on delivery or never act on it. One aspect I loved about episode 63, was that they were setting up an interesting way for Chloe and Eevee to develop or find a goal by meeting other trainers that own an Eeveelution and learn why they chose that particular form. They could have even set up Ash getting in contact with May or Serena to talk to Chloe about Glaceon and Sylveon. But the writers never followed up on the potential storyline after episode 63, which is so frustrating.

This is why I’m hoping with Dawn’s influence Chloe actively begins to at least try things out to learn what is a good fit for her. This was an issue with Serena as well, before discovering Pokémon Performing, she didn’t really actively try out other things like battling as much. Even, Ash gave Contests a go and ended up developing some of his best strategies from those experiences such as the Counter Shield and the Ice Aqua Jet. Considering, Pokémon is an anime targeted towards children, it would be a good message to send, to at least try something once rather than not trying at all.

Climax:

Following their (unnecessary) argument and battle with a sleep-deprived Rhydon, Chloe and Dawn come across the injured Cresselia from the beginning of the episode. Going back to the Rhydon, in the original Darkrai film they did expand on Darkrai causing Pokémon to fall asleep and have nightmares but I can’t recall if the Pokémon were affected in Sleepless Pre-Battle. It was an interesting and small touch that I liked about the episode (also poor Rhydon).

The preview for the next episode shows Chloe calming Cresselia or at least gaining Cresselia’s trust, and it made me think again this might be me just grasping at straws. But perhaps Chloe has some sort of affinity with Psychic-type Pokémon because we had that whole weird vision aspect (that was again never addressed) in the Glimwood Tangle episode where Chloe had that vision of Galarian Ponyta and Rapidash. I don’t know, that’s a theory I just developed that probably won’t pan out.

Conclusion:

All in all, it was a decent episode to come back into for Journeys. If I’m honest if they were promoting the DP remakes, I’m surprised they didn’t try to do anything that focused on the Creation Trio rather than the Lunar Duo however the Creation Trio did play a huge role in the DP films and Dialga and Palkia in the original anime so perhaps they wanted to give more spotlight on the Lunar Duo or even hint at Tobias’ return with Darkrai? 

If I’m completely honest I’m concerned about the pacing for the next episode as this arc is only meant to be two episodes, this episode did do its job of setting things up. In my opinion, it could have been faster in some areas, they could have even shown a Contest in this episode and have Dawn and Chloe meet in that way. Given in the next episode the two groups will meet up and attempt to defend Cresselia from Team Rocket and I don’t think they’ll have much time to show off anything Contest-related which is a shame because Contests were my absolute favourite aspect of the games and anime. 

If this were a three-episode arc maybe they could have used this episode to focus on Chloe and Dawn, next episode focuses more on Ash and Goh finding Darkrai have the groups meet up and then the third episode half-battling and half showing off contests. I don’t know this is just me throwing some ideas out there. As I think Journeys just has a huge issue with pacing for some reason and this episode was sort of slow in some areas and as I mentioned I’m worried the next episode is going to be really rushed.

But overall, it was a decent episode and I’m hoping we’ll get to see the rest of Dawn’s team next episode as I love her Pokémon to bits. Also, Pikachu and Buneary reunion, please!!!

(And I may watch this episode again with proper subtitles)

[tgwlpau]

How does the gang meet?

Ooo!! Yay headcanons!!

Ted and Charlotte meet first, seeing as they reign from the same region. They meet when they both arrive at the lab to receive their first pokemon! Prof.Sycamore is out on a research trip so our traveling Prof.Hidgens steps in to help out the young trainers.

Ted is eager to pick his first Pokemon while Charlotte simply wants to learn more about them questioning Prof.Hidgens. Ted immediately picks a little Froakie, he questions why Charlotte hasn’t picked one. 

“I’m not really much of a trainer” She comments, he’s puzzled by this but finds it intriguing. 

When Ted is leaving he and his Froakie are having slight trouble communicating, He sees Charlotte approach followed by a gorgeous Sylveon who looks delighted. She kneels down next to the Froakie and almost immediately befriends him. 

They hang out a little while before Charlotte is called home due to a Pokemon emergency.

 Bill and Emma are next, Its Hoenns day for picking your starter pokemon. 

Emma is first in line at the lab and takes some time to talk with the eccentric Prof.Hidgens. He happily answers all her questions while she plays with his Piplup.

Bill is very shy and is stressing over his decision. He’s gone over everything he knows about his three options. (More on this when I describe how they picked their starters). He bumps into Prof.Hidgens and Emma while deep in thought, apologizing over and over before rejoining the line. 

Paul had just arrived in Hoenn and is marveling at the new area, he is very exhausted after traveling by boat all day to reach the island and decides to rest in one of the forests. Emma is out looking for Pokemon on a slow day when she encounters a small Bulbasaur. 

The pokemon looks unusually frightened and shys away from her. She approaches it slowly with her hand out. She hears a very distressed voice shouting through the forest growing stronger as it approaches. She fears the voice will scare the Pokemon but it seems it recognizes the voice

“Oh, Budo! There you are!” A boy emerges from the shadows, he throws himself at the very excited Bulbasaur who wraps his vines around the boy. The boy becomes aware of the girl’s presence and looks up

“Oh hi.. I’m Paul!” He looks down at his Bulbasaur “Sorry we were resting and I guess we got lost” 

“I’m Emma! And your Bulbasaur is very cute” They remain awkwardly silent for a moment before Emma asks the inevitable “So… where are you from? I’m from.. well here!” She exclaims

“I’m from Kanto but I’m traveling all around! I’m not the best trainer but I love Pokemon and think I’m getting better” They discuss for awhile before night falls and they must part ways. Not, however, before Emma offers to help him train and they make plans to meet up tomorrow.

Bill and Paul meet shortly after this. Bill is walking around town reading followed by a very excited Eevee and a sleepy Mudkip lay on his head. Paul is exploring with his Psyduck trying to calm him down, his Bulbasaur following behind. 

They bump into each other making the Mudkip fall into Paul who quickly catches it. The Eevee tries its best to intimidate Paul but its just too cute. Paul gets the message and hands the Mudkip back to the boy. 

Bill adjusts his glasses “Oh thank you! I apologize, I was very caught up with my reading” He looks towards his Eevee “Sorry about him, he’s very passionate about his friends, I’m Bill by the way” he extends his hands, Paul shakes it firmly.

“I’m Paul” He gestures towards his Bulbasaur and Psyduck “This is Budo and Kincho” Bill’s eyes widen and he kneels down.

“Extraordinary” He whispers in awe. Paul gives him a weird look, Bill quickly resumes his position.

“Sorry, I’ve just never seen one before. He’s very cute and looks to be in excellent health and your Psyduck looks very calm” Paul beams with pride giving his Bulbasaur a high five, Budo responds with a vine five. The boys decide to head to a cafe nearby and spend all day talking about Pokemon. Paul learns more about his Pokemon from a very eager Bill. Bill hears about Pauls adventures across the regions and his love for Pokemon. 

After this Bill starts joining the training sessions with Emma in the forest. However, he’s mainly there with his Eevee and his research equipment. The three become very fast friends. 

 Paul receives news from Kanto about his family, he must act quickly. He fully expects to have to say goodbye to his friend however when arriving at their final training session both Bill and Emma are ready and packed for a long journey. 

The gang makes their way to Kanto and stay for a while before Paul receives confirmation that everything is ok. The group decides to head west to Johto to progress their Pokemon journey. 

After a long day of travelling, they make camp in a secluded spot in the forest, Paul falls asleep first nestled closely with his Bulbasaur. Emma is next after a small training session with her Torchic and her newly found Eevee she met while in Kanto. Bill stays by the fire cuddled with his Eevee and leaning sleepily on his newly found Snorlax reading a book about the Johto area (Also found in Kanto)

He plans to sleep but suddenly he hears shouting and grunting deep in the forest. He becomes alert and motions for his Eevee to awaken the others. 

They all approach slowly towards the noise cautiously and quickly hide behind a bush. They watch as two figures can be made out. A purple light is being emitted from the scene. 

“Leave me alone!” A young girls voice shouts. She isn’t afraid but determined, Bills watches as the girl commands an order. He looks to where she is commanding and sees an Espeon. The Espeon is in a fighting stance, determination coursing through its eyes. Paul nudges Bill and points towards what appears to be the young girls opponent.

“Should we help?” Emma whispers. Bill considers this for a moment but before he can answer, the young girl makes another command. Shes good. She defeats the opposing Pokemon before scolding the opponent.

The three friends watch in awe as the opposing trainer races off in anger leaving his injured pokemon behind. The young girl sighs in sadness and approaches the Pokemon. “I’m so sorry” She whispers “You’re really hurt, we need to get you to a Poke Center” She claims. Bill knows better and pops out quickly. 

“It won’t make it,” he says, much to the shock of his friends. The girl turns quickly in shock, holding a Mimikyu. He hears all his friends gasp at the sight of the Pokemon. It shouldn’t be here, it traveled a long way just to be abandoned. “Please let me help” the girl is weary at first before allowing Bill to help.

The group goes back to the camp and talk while Bills helps the Pokemon, assisted very eagerly by his Eevee.

“I’m Alice by the way…”. The group nod and introduce themselves. After a while, they all decide to rest and deal with everything in the morning.

Bill claims that Alice should keep the Mimikyu, to which she excitedly agrees to. The two become fast friends, and the group all agree to ask if she would like to join their journey. “I would love to,” She says honestly

They spend the day getting to know each other. Alice almost has a complete team of six, much to the group’s surprise. She’s the youngest of the four, but dont let that stop you. Shes extremely smart and tactical. Her pokemon are strong and very well cared for.

The group spends some more time in Johto, Paul gains a very chaotic Eevee. They decide to head north to Kalos to continue their journey. 

Almost immediately they are confronted by a young trainer who challenges a very timid Bill to battle. Paul volunteers to take his place and they battle. Paul sends out his Bulbasaur, while the boy sends out a Froakie. Emma sighs at his obvious stupidity.

“Water types are weak against grass types” She comments. The boy glares at her then poses a very smug smile at Paul. 

“That might be so, but my Froakie is extremely good” With this remarks, the boys battle it out, eventually declaring the boy the winner. Paul sighs discouraged comforted by a lowkey surprised Emma. Shell never admit it but she was impressed. 

“I’m Ted by the way, but you can call me the best Pokemon Master” The group groans at Ted. Alice thinks for a moment before stepping forward.

“I’ll battle you" She claims. Ted’s smug smile falls as he stares at the girl. He scoffs but Alice doesn’t give in. “You scared?”

At this Ted becomes determined and accepts her battle request. Ted sends out his Machop, Alice smiles extremely smug and sends out her Espeon. Who takes one look at the Machop and smiles. The battle lasts about two minutes before Ted is unfortunately beat, he claims good game but shakes her hand just a little too hard. 

Alice’s victory is short as she feels a Pokeball move around in her bag. She pulls it out and summons her Mimikyu. The group is shocked to find it in such bad shape.

Ted quickly volunteers to take them to a friend of his who can help. He claims there isn’t a Poke Center too nearby. He leads the group to a small house, located in a beautiful plane of grass. Surrounded by flowers and a small river.

A young girl is seen gardening assisted by a beautiful Sylveon and a very smug Delcatty. She smiled excitedly upon seeing Ted and the group of friends. She approaches them with a never faltering smile. She gives Ted a quick hug, his face flushes red before they let go. She turns to the others.

“I’m Charlotte!” They hurry their introductions and alert Charlotte of the situation. She nods and carefully takes the Mimikyu inside. She tends to it, much to the group surprise, it heals very quickly. While the ghost type rests she offers them food and they all talk about their journeys. Ted explains how he wishes he could travel around like them, Charlotte agrees and describes her passion for Pokemon. Emma invites them to join the journey. They both agree. 

And that’s that. Im so sorry about how long this is. I was not expecting it. More will come soon though, how they found all their pokemon, getting their starters and more! Hope you enjoyed :)

[warlordess]

An Alternate Journey (Pokeshipping; part four)

Authors - @warlordess​ and @miyatoriaka​

Notes - So here it is, the major motion-fanfic of the century! For those who don’t know, famed Pokeshipping artist Miyatoriaka drew a twelve or thirteen page comic for Pokeshipping Week 2018 based on the “role reversal” theme. After seeing a few pages, and then obsessively rereading all the pages over and over, I felt inspired to write for the first time in months, to really sit down and dedicate hours to a specific project. When I mentioned casually that I was interested in writing a fanfic version of her comic, she was immediately supportive! Since then, we’ve discussed the project over a few conversations and figured a lot of little details and kinks out and I was able to draft a few chapters while working which I finally had time to start typing up…

You can find the prologue here.

You can find chapter one here.

You can find chapter two here.

OoO

Title - “An Alternate Journey”

Summary - Eleven year old novice trainer Misty starts her Pokemon adventure, best friends Gary and Ash by her side. But will she withstand every test her travels throw at her and become the greatest master trainer of all time? Fic co-crafted with famous fan-artist, Miyatoriaka!

Ages - Misty and Leaf are eleven years old, Ash and Gary are thirteen, and the adults are adult-aged so who cares about ‘em? Lol.

Chapter Three - Brock

OoOoO

“Misty, get back here!” Ash huffed in exasperation, gasping for air to ease his burning lungs as he and Gary continued to chase after their mutual friend. “Why would she follow Leaf like that? This is too dangerous! I mean,” he paused to catch his breath again, offering the other boy a furtive glance before refocusing on the semi-dark path before them, “you know who that guy was with, right?”

“Yeah, trust me, I noticed the logo same as you,” Gary replied, gritting his teeth, face darkening in thinly veiled fury. “Team Rocket… But Misty doesn’t know anything about them since she only just left home…” Then he raised his voice loud enough for the redhead to hear despite the distance between them. “I just wish she’d wait for us to catch up!” he finished, lengthening certain syllables to better get across his point.

“Can’t!” the aforementioned female shouted, barely bothering to turn her head as she and her loyal Eevee speedily skipped and leapt over multiple fallen brambles, thick tree roots, and otherwise uneven footing. “If Leaf thinks she can do something here then I can too! Ah! I hear something up ahead!”

[read more]

The night had almost completely taken over and Misty had to strain her eyes momentarily while they adjusted to viewing her surroundings exclusively via moonlight. She crashed through a thorny patch of foliage and entered into a clearing, where she found the man in black and what seemed to be a cohort of his, who was now in possession of the entombed Pokemon fossil. Both of them were actively battling against Leaf while the three security guards from the museum were on the ground behind her, each nursing a fainted Pokemon of their own.

“Leaf!” Misty yelled, leaping into action with Eevee in tow, however she was blown back by a gust of wind that seemed intent on driving both a physical and metaphorical wedge between the two girls.

It was Hypno against Hypno and Misty, blinded by curiosity, couldn’t ignore the sudden feeling of inadequacy she felt as she watched her rival up in arms and doing serious battle with someone else, let alone a criminal.

A Hypno? Since when did she have one of those?

Ash and Gary appeared behind the redhead after clearing the obstacle course themselves but she was too enthralled by the amazing show of power before her to notice them.

“Use psychic and, when they’re down, finish this up with headbutt!” Leaf commanded, throwing out an arm to point out their target before having the gall to glance at Misty over her shoulder as if just noticing her presence. “Well, if it isn’t my precious little late bloomer. Actually you’re just in time for once. You’ll get to see my Ditty crush these two losers,” she concluded proudly with an almost affectionate wink.

“Ditty…?”

“Like we’ll let you ruin our weeks of planning with one little Pokemon! Hypno, barrier!” the same grunt Misty had seen earlier in town growled.

It was a quick draw. Leaf’s Ditty (odd sounding nickname but sure) released a blast of unnatural energy so powerful that even the surrounding atmosphere was thick with it. This energy grew, condensed into a barely visible beam that shot in the opposing psychic type’s direction, shattering the mirror of light that had been erected in front of them. Then Ditty dug their stubby claws into the ground and propelled toward their somewhat dazed and injured opponent, smashing into them and knocking them backwards into a nearby tree.

Hypno fell limply to the forest floor, clearly unconscious, the man in black clicking his tongue in frustration before returning the Pokemon to their Pokeball.

“You assured the boss that this would work!” his female partner wailed angrily, shoving him in the shoulder to soothe her own ire. “Like you said, weeks of planning, right? And then we’d definitely get away with a priceless fossil that the boss would undoubtedly promote us for!”

“Look, I promised we’d escape the museum security and the cops if we followed through with my plan! I never said nothin’ ‘bout some snot-nosed trainer and her friends!”

“Well, either way, I did my part sneaking up on the guards’ Pokemon and using mine to knock ‘em out! I’m not gettin’ pinched again this soon after the last time!” And thus, she haphazardly threw the artifact she’d been holding into his arms. “Here! You take it and figure out our backup plan!”

“We don’t have one to figure out! And I’m not risking prison just yet either!”

Scowling, he faced the group of children who’d spectacularly fowled up his last month of impressive scheming, taking in the sight of a smirking Leaf to a courageous Misty, to a stone-faced Ash and downright furious-looking Gary.

Finally deciding that the odds were stacked too high against him, the dastardly villain tossed the fossil into the bushes nearby, grabbed his partner’s hand, turned and dragged her away deeper into the woods while she screeched indignantly in protest.

“Ah! Get back here!” Misty shouted too, lunging forward as if to initiate another chase, but she was stopped just as swiftly by Ash snatching a hold of her hand and shaking his head at her. “Ash, what’re you…?”

Perhaps thankfully, she was distracted from finishing her accusatory inquiry by the sight of Hypno glowing white. It seemed blinding in the darkness, their form shifting and morphing, molding and shrinking. The light faded into an odd violet blob with a humorously minorly animated expression on its face.

“Wait, that wasn’t a…? What is that?” Misty asked, shaking Ash off of her and pulling her Pokedex from her pocket, flipping it open and pressing the analysis button.

“Ditto, the transforming Pokemon. Due to its unique organic makeup, it can rearrange its cell structure to transform itself into any other shape upon sight. It has a fault memory, however, and relying on it can cause it to inaccurately mimic its target. This Pokemon is one of a few species that has no gender.”

“Wow…” she exclaimed in awe, unable to conceal her envy. A Pokemon that could turn into anything, huh…?

“Thanks, Ditty, you were perfect as always,” Leaf told her Pokemon affectionately, bravely leaning down and further expressing her adoration with a kiss to the side of Ditto’s face before recalling it to its Pokeball. Then she turned and winked at her audience, fossil now tucked neatly under her arm, “Well, Misty dear, boys, I hope you enjoyed our show. Though I’m afraid if you’re looking for an encore worthy of me it might take a little while.

“Feel free to watch me as I walk away, okay?” Another wink and a suggestive puckering of her lips and she traipsed by, leaving the rest of them to follow after her.

By the time they’d made it back to Pewter’s Museum of Science and Natural History, Sergeant Jenny had arrived and was alternating between barking orders at her subordinates and double-checking details from the witness statements previously relayed to her, including the three security guards who’d retreated after their Pokemon had been knocked out in order to explain the situation to their superiors and the police. At the sight of Leaf leading the group of other trainers, however, ancient and priceless artifact in her grasp, everyone and everything came to a halt.

“Oh, oh my, I can’t believe it!” Penelope was the first to regain her nerve, hand over her mouth and looking downright tearful at the truly victorious outcome. “You found our project! You got it back f - from them? Oh, thank you!”

Leaf was almost instantaneously surrounded by officer and employee alike, all showering her with praise and applause, shaking her hand and calling her a hero, telling her that she would of course have unlimited free access to the Pewter museum, lifetime guarantee. And Leaf was lapping it up while Misty and her friends stood in the background.

“Yeah, I still don’t like her much…” Ash muttered, but his begrudging tone belied the newfound respect he couldn’t contain.

“She sure does make a lasting impression though,” Gary replied softly, his tone much more accepting of how impressed he was, and he purposefully avoided eye contact with his old friend, who was suddenly sporting a half-knowing, half-disbelieving expression.

Finally deciding that she’d seen enough, Misty beckoned to Eevee and her friends, turning and heading back to the PokeCenter.

While a large part of her couldn’t help but envy Leaf for becoming so unattainably strong and knowledgeable, another much smaller part of her couldn’t help her pride.

At least one of them had made large strides towards their dream…

And, while nobody else could see it, the redhead smirked to herself, the next thought running through her head both courageous and frank.

She would catch up to her old friend soon enough…

OoO

Misty spent the next two days training her Pokemon, challenging or being challenged by any local or passing trainer, especially those who’d also decided to go watch Brock battle at the gym. She still wasn’t sure of the strategy she should use to face the gym leader but she was at least able to gauge the Pokemon he had in possession and what moves they knew, how strong they were.

“My Metapod evolved into a Butterfree, so I could use sleep powder to put them out… But does putting a Pokemon to sleep actually win the round?” she mused aloud the next day after lunch. Their group was currently back at the gym for another recon mission, sitting halfway up the bleachers and watching Brock beat another young trainer.

“I think regulations say the Pokemon has to be unconscious for one full minute or else must withstand three impacts from enemy Pokemon techniques before being declared unable to battle,” Ash told her, brow creased as he did his best to remember the rules.

“Really? They want me to hit an unconscious Pokemon?” Misty yelped.

“Well, Pokemon are generally able to handle a lot, otherwise being a trainer and the existence of the league and all that wouldn’t be possible. But also, unnaturally induced methods of status effects - sleep, poison, freezing - are usually minor and only have very short-term effects unless there’s a drastic strength difference between the one inflicting and the one inflicted, which means the latter wouldn’t stand much chance against the former anyway.” Noticing this more in-depth explanation didn’t ease the redhead’s discomfort, Gary added, “But yeah, most people just wait the minute out and have the other side forcibly forfeit the round.”

“Mm hmm… I guess that makes sense.”

“So what are ya thinkin’? Is today the day? Honestly, I’m kinda impressed you’ve been able to keep yourself from running straight up to Brock and challenging him these past couple days. I dunno if I coulda withstood that kinda wait if I was in your shoes,” Ash told her with a snarky grin.

“Well, I guess that just means I have more patience than you!” Misty joked back, shuffling to her feet and sighing to calm her nerves. “But I guess I’m not gonna get much stronger or smarter than I am now, am I? So…” the redhead replied with an affirmative nod, maybe more to encourage herself as she rose to her feet rather than to further impress her decision on her friends.

Then, before anyone could continue or conclude the conversation, she was bounding over the bleachers in front of her, taking care not to knock into any of the other spectators in her excitement as she hopped from row to row in pursuit of the gym floor.

“Brock!” she shouted in between shallow grunts as she weaved and leaped her way closer, Eevee in tow. Her fists formed, shoulders tight, eyes ablaze, before pointing out the shirtless gym leader who was practically gaping at her from his earthy arena below. “I’ve come to beat you and get my first gym badge!”

“Uh…” the teenage gym trainer blinked, flustered by her manic enthusiasm.

“Well, that’s not embarrassing for anyone,” Gary commented with a hollow laugh, but Ash already had his mortified and flushed face in his hands, shaking his head halfheartedly in exasperation.

Misty vaulted over the wall dividing the seating sections and the arena floor, gasping for breath all the while. Eevee joined her moments after, looking mighty ferocious for such a small creature.

“Ah, so you’re next, huh? And what’s your name if I might ask?” the suddenly quite imposing teenager asked, teeth sparkling as he smiled at her and skin glistening with sweat after his previous workout.

“My name is Misty and this is Eevee, and we’re gonna take on the whole Pokemon League together because it’s our dream to be the best trainer in the world! You’re our first step so you better be ready to lose!”

“That’s some good energy I feel comin’ from you two! I like it when my challengers are filled with the kind of passion you have for your dream. It makes for a good match,” the teenage boy replied with what appeared to be a charming smile.

Ash, having barely recovered from his bout of secondhand embarrassment after Misty’s most recent spectacle, felt an agitated tingling flare up in the back of his mind, his eyes narrowing subconsciously at the display before him.

There was no way Brock was… was there?

“Now if we’re talking about dreams, I have one of those myself. You see, though my family maintains the Pewter City Gym, I don’t wanna stay here running it forever. No, in fact, what I really want more than anything is…” There was a drum-roll playing inside everyone’s heads as they braced themselves for his answer. After all, who’d heard of a gym leader who didn’t really want to be a gym leader before?

“What I really want is a girlfriend!”

Misty and Gary immediately facefaulted at such a proud (and wildly random) declaration but Ash’s reaction was the exact opposite.

“What are you doing?” Gary muttered in objection, looking up as the raven-haired trainer leaped to his feet with the appearance of a man whose brain had just imploded.

And internally even it felt that way to him, his nerves snapping and muscles going rigid. He had thought for sure that, despite whatever slight paranoid concern that had crossed his mind at first, he was just reading entirely wrong into the situation, but now he couldn’t help thinking it to be true…

“Well,” the lean and (still) shirtless gym trainer went on contemplatively, “I want a girlfriend, but also I wanna go on a sabbatical and learn the ins and outs of Pokemon breeding. I guess that means I have two dreams, and twice as much to accomplish once I leave this place to my family…

“So let’s start this battle, okay, Misty? And we can see if your passion for your dream is strong enough to take me down!”

“This is a Pokemon battle between gym leader Brock and challenger Misty for the Boulder Badge! The official rules of this gym state that the challenger may use any and all Pokemon on hand in order to defeat all Pokemon in Brock’s possession. There is no time limit!” Brock’s assistant explained from the sidelines, holding up both arms as he did so, then drawing them both down as if they were slicing through the air. “You may start!”

“I call Geodude!”

“Come on out, Butterfree!”

The two Pokemon appeared in a symmetrical flash of red light from across the field from each other, the bug-type floating up on their sparkling wings while the rock-type levitated in place, flexing its gravelly biceps.

“Ah, rookie mistake! Bugs have a distinctive weakness against rock-types!” Brock warned her tauntingly. “Geodude, tackle!”

“Dodge it, Butterfree! And counter with your gust!”

The rock-type Pokemon propelled itself up at its foe, who was light enough to twist himself sideways in mid-air, escaping a direct hit. Geodude was still able to clip the bug-type in one of his wings however, causing a momentary lack of control. Butterfree struggled to stay up in the sky, fluttering backwards to what seemed to be a safe distance before starting to flap his wings, the wind picking up and swirling around in response. With one final brutal thrust, Butterfree was able to push the wind tunnel at his opponent, who automatically crossed its muscular arms in front of its combined face and torso, blocking the impact from doing any significant damage.

“Butterfree, let’s try your supersonic!”

“Rollout, Geodude!”

The felled bug-type shook off his recent failure and unleashed a high-pitched yet somehow hollow wail that Misty could barely make out. Geodude, however, was already on the move, tucking itself into a mostly perfect sphere and spinning in place before shooting itself at his opponent.

The supersonic appeared to miss its mark due to the increase in the rock-type’s speed and, what’s more, Geodude continued to swing his entire mass back and forth across the battlefield, picking up momentum and coming closer to direct impact with the bug-type with every attempt.

Butterfree dodged to and fro even without Misty’s directive but he was losing ground - er, air - as Geodude continued to pick up speed, climbing drastically higher towards the ceiling until finally…

“Freeee!” the bug-type screeched out loud, falling haphazardly toward the ground after being slammed into by his opponent.

“Ah, oh no, Butterfree, quick! Use your gust to keep yourself from hitting the ground!” Misty yelped, internally admonishing herself for not thinking up a better strategy more quickly.

This battle was already reminding her of her recent discouraging loss against Leaf…

Nevertheless it worked, and the adamant wind bursting back at him helped him glide high into the sky despite his latest injuries. Unfortunately, he wasn’t out of the woods quite yet because first contact did nothing but ignite further Geodude’s thirst for victory.

“Keep it going!” Brock shouted triumphantly, throwing forward a fist to urge his Pokemon onward.

“String shot, Butterfree!”

White, sticky thread shot out from between the small fangs in Butterfree’s mouth, the bug-type going so far as to spray it in all directions.

It didn’t take long for Geodude to get caught up in the webbing, though it didn’t bring him to a complete stop.

“Gust again, Butterfree!”

“Geodude, defense curl!”

The dusty wind cycle hand next to no effect on the rock-type Pokemon, something Misty was getting both used to and frustrated by. Not to mention that Geodude adding to his already stellar defense was going to make him downright infallible. And there was still that ongoing rollout technique too…

There really was nothing else for it. She would have to use her special not-so-secret strategy after all.

“Butterfree, use your sleep powder!” Misty commanded, and her Pokemon followed suit quite dutifully.

“Nice try but you can’t stop Geodude that easily, especially not now!”

And it appeared that Brock’s latest taunt was true, for even when slowed down by Butterfree’s string shot, the previous momentum and combination of reckless power and speed it’d gained from rollout were enough to evade any targeted area of status ailing dust as it floated towards the ground from Butterfree’s wings. The rock-type was out of reach way before the sleep powder drifted toward his original position on the field.

But watching her recent maneuver fail gave Misty another idea.

“Butterfree, one last time, use your gust!”

The bug-type screeched, holding himself high above the stream of sleep powder, flapping his paperlight wings rapidly, causing the aforementioned powder to dispense suddenly over a much wider range. It sparkled in the artificial light from the rafters as it landed all over the battlefield, including…

“Ah, Geodude!” Brock gaped before a mildly impressed grin spread across his face. He crossed his arms over his chest and nodded affirmatively, his Pokemon faltering mid-roll on the ground, trying to blink away the onslaught of excessive exhaustion setting in.

Misty waited the mandatory sixty seconds, not having the heart to attack a defenseless, unconscious Pokemon (no matter what mineral composite their body was made out of), before the makeshift referee raised the hand that was closest to her side of the arena.

“Geodude is unable to battle! Misty is the winner of round one!”

“Not bad at all…” the Pewter City gym trainer lamented, returning his Pokemon and repocketing the Pokeball he’d used, at the same time removing another one and holding it up.

“This next one won’t be so simple for you to beat though! Truth is, I only have two Pokemon on hand that adequately produce a challenge as rock-types but this other one is my strongest and it’s usually all I need to teach new trainers a lesson or two…”

Misty knew what was coming before the next words had even left Brock’s mouth.

“Go, Onix!”

He launched his second Pokeball into the air where it snapped open of its own accord, scarlet light shooting out of it and forming a large scale semi-opaque mass that took up a significant portion of the gym leader’s side of the field. The Pokeball flew back to Brock’s hand, a ricochet effect after the release of the Pokemon held within.

“The challenger now has an opportunity to exchange their Pokemon before the new round starts. You have thirty seconds!” the referee shouted in clarification.

Misty paused momentarily where she stood, weighing her options, looking her airborne Pokemon over and assessing his damage. True, he’d been knocked around a little by Geodude’s rollout but he’d been quick enough to dodge most everything else and tough enough to outlast the hurts he had received.

“Butterfree, are you up for another battle?” the redhead chose to finally ask, the bug-type twisting around and bobbing up and down in response, which seemed to indicate a ‘yes’. “Alright then, let’s go!”

“You got this, Misty!” Ash cheered from the bleachers, and Misty offered him a thumbs up from where she stood, only now just realizing that he and Gary had moved down to the first row of seats for a closer view.

“Round two, start!”

“Butterfree, string shot and then combine your sleep powder and gust like last time!” she ordered of her Pokemon. Why fix what wasn’t broken after all?

“I told you I wouldn’t make this one so easy for you to win! Mud sport, Onix!”

The giant rock snake gave a mighty roar and thrashed around, disrupting his opponent before the second phase of attack could be commenced, kicking up much that lay throughout the entirety of the arena with his tail. He flung it around, submerging the sticky threading meant to slow him down and negating its effects.

“Rock throw!”

“You gotta dodge it, Butterfree!”

Onix smashed his tail into the ground, unearthing a few boulders, curling his tail halfway around them one at a time and launching them in the bug-type’s direction. Butterfree weaved left and right, barely missing multiple direct hits until, finally, he couldn’t maneuver fast enough.

He careened backwards flat against the wall behind him and fell to the ground, the damage too great for him to catch himself as he went.

Misty panicked internally, running around the marked edges of the gym’s battlefield boundary to get a closer look at her hurt Pokemon but was unable to get any closer, prepared for the round to be officially called in Onix’s favor.

And perhaps she’d counted her Exeggcute before they’d evolved because, despite all odds as well as Butterfree’s major weakness to rock-type damage, he began to cautiously and feebly flap his wings again, winnying his name as he slowly rose back into the air once more.

“Great job, you got this, okay?” Misty encouraged, Eevee apparently coaching her ally with similar words of comfort from beside her trainer. “Now try using your confusion!”

“Onix, rage!”

The rock-type roared again, his eyes appearing to glow somewhat from his suddenly unbridled fury just as a wave of psychic energy blasted against him, knocking him back a foot or two. Grime and dirt that had settled in the crevices between each of his nodes instantaneously unsettled and wafted into the air. Even more enraged after this latest attack, the earthy serpent let loose a torrent of wails and slams, beating and crumbling everything in his wake. Butterfree barely rose high enough to avoid this terrifyingly aggressive outbreak, though both he and his trainer were caught off-guard by what happened next.

“Wrap him up in your bind!”

Onix lifted himself up to his full height, encircling the bug-type with his whole body and coiling tightly around and around, crushing Butterfree from without.

There was a screech as Misty’s Pokemon vanished completely from view. Seconds later, Onix unwrapped himself and dropped the nearly fainted bug to the ground.

As Butterfree landed, he automatically unleashed a toxic cloud of dust and then went completely limp.

“Oh no, Butterfree…” Misty moaned in concern, removing the aforementioned Pokemon’s ball from her belt just as the referee began to make his announcement.

“Butterfree is unable to battle. Brock is the winner of round two! The challenger may have thirty seconds to choose their next Pokemon!”

“You did really well; thanks so much for everything,” Misty whispered to the Pokeball in her hand after recalling her Pokemon to it. “I promise I’ll get you some treatment after this.”

She then took a few seconds to weigh her options. Onix’s defensive stat was so high that most of her Pokemon were going to have trouble doing any damage. It was the very same problem she’d acknowledged since the beginning but it was even more evident now as she experienced the situation firsthand. She had originally hoped that the ingenuity of her sleep powder strategy would be enough to carry her team straight through to complete victory but she knew that chances of that were rather slim…

“Fifteen seconds, challenger!” the referee warned her.

“Eevee vee eev eevee!” her starter Pokemon yelped from her wide, nudging her in the ankle to get her attention.

“It’s nice that you wanna help but I don’t know how much you’ll be able to do… And I don’t want you… getting hurt too, like Butterfree did… or like what happened to you before when you fought Squirtle, you know?” Misty reminded the fox-like Pokemon with a sigh. She was quite surprised when Eevee not only stood her ground but ended up leaping into the fray without her trainer’s say-so.

“Wah, Eevee! But…” the novice trainer called out but her Pokemon twisted her head around, offered one last confident bark of her own name in her direction before marching on. “Well then… heh, I guess I choose Eevee!”

“Round three; start!”

“Tackle, Onix!”

“Eevee, use your growl!”

Despite his size, the rock-type Pokemon seemed rather put off by the smaller one’s throaty howl. He still pursued a direct hit with his physical techniques but Eevee bounded sideways, sliding in the dirt, and the tackle missed.

“Sand attack!”

It took much effort on Eevee’s part as she rocked back and forth on all fours, kicking up at the earth with her paws until a decent dusty smog hit the air, bellowing up into Onix’s face, causing him to roar and blink his eyes rapidly in discomfort, wrenching sideways while he waited for his vision to clear.

“Now’s your chance, Eevee! Tail whip and then quick attack!”

The normal-type Pokemon hopscotched around on all fours, wagging aforementioned tail back and forth, before grinding her paws into the ground. Then, using that friction as a base, she dashed off at high speed, leaping up onto the closest boulder-fragmented portion of Onix’s body, shooting up and up until she was close enough to smash him in the face.

“Again! And again!”

Eevee bounded to and fro in less than a second per command, so instantly that Brock hadn’t even drawn his breath to utter a counter just yet.

Onix, made of rock though he was, did seem to be looking a little short of breath. Misty was just starting to think that she and Eevee would be able to win this without having to call on any other Pokemon when…

“Onix, rage!”

The rock snake’s eyes glinted red and he unleashed a full, deep cry, much the same as the first time he’d been ordered to use that technique. His sudden flailing maneuver forced Eevee to evacuate, and she dodged one last earthy jab by flipping backwards and landing on all fours without a scratch.

“Rock throw!”

Now on the defensive, Eevee dodged as one - two - three! - giant masses were thrown haphazardly her way. Soon the whole battlefield was covered in smog from the dusty ground, so thick that neither trainer could see their Pokemon.

“Eevee!” Misty shouted desperately.

“Onix!” Brock’s tone was quite similar.

“Eevee, if you can hear me, hit ‘em with your quick attack a few more times!”

“Not gonna be quick enough! Harden, Onix!”

They were finally able to make out two distinctive shadows as the dust around them really began to settle and it looked at first like Onix was starting to buckle under Eevee’s repeated full body barrages but the smaller Pokemon let out a high-pitched yelp as the rock-type noticeably upped his defenses, stature growing stiff in response to Brock’s order. The normal-type bounced off her opponent and fell backwards, rolling into the dirt.

“Rage again, Onix!”

It was over so quick, Misty felt winded by the results. Eevee fainted and she went to pick her Pokemon up, carrying her over to Ash and asking him to watch over her for the duration of the battle. Knowing that her starter had willingly made such a sacrifice for the sake of their dream unnerved her some but it mostly left her feeling resolved to not let such a thing go to waste.

Between the type advantage and the sheer massive physical and defensive power, Onix continued to successfully fell most of Misty’s other Pokemon, usually in two to three shots a piece. They did their best to each whittle away at his energy before they were knocked out until, finally, only one was left.

Her last hope…

“Go, Gastly!”

Round seven. If she didn’t win this one then she’d be defeated and have to try for her first badge again another day. After all the training she’d done, all her observations, all of her Pokemon’s efforts, after her loss to Leaf and subsequent first row seat to her rival demolishing Team Rocket’s theft at the Pewter Museum of Science and Natural History...

“Let’s start this off with your confuse ray!”

There was a flash of blinding light that left Brock’s Pokemon looking moderately dazed. Onix swayed from his massive height but didn’t buckle entirely. The gym leader, acknowledging that most of his Pokemon’s attacks would be rather useless, did what he could to strategize around it.

“Rock throw!”

Unfortunately his Pokemon didn’t seem to hear him properly, instead slithering forward before ramming himself straight into the far wall.

“Onix?! Snap out of it! I said you have to use your rock throw on Gastly!”

Knowing better than to wait for Brock’s voice to get through, Misty decided to take advantage of the situation.

“Use your lick attack!”

Gastly floated dutifully up towards his opponent’s face, a prime target for a nice sick lick, guffawing all the while. Onix seemed to stare through him as he approached, appearing both absent-minded as well as short of breath, and neither affect seemed to improve after the ghost-type made contact.

Onix, I said use your rock throw! C’mon, buddy!” Brock shouted from the ground.

Perhaps it was due to Brock’s soothing (yet uneasy) tone finally reaching him, or perhaps he was simply so grossed out by Gastly’s slimy organ streaking across his face, but his vision seemed to immediately clear and he shrieked throatily, going on the offensive and launching a few boulders at the ghost-type’s speedily retreating and gassy back as it trailed away.

Gastly evaded by altering his visibility, fading in and out of sight and appearing in multiple different areas of the gym, once or twice even sneaking up on Ash and Gary (causing the former to vacate not only his seat but that entire section of the bleachers in mere seconds).

If the ghost-type’s uproarious laughter was not indication enough, his level of distraction being so high that he couldn’t be bothered to listen to his trainer���s next directive, cost them their opportunity to maintain a purely offensive position.

“Darn it, I told you to use hypnosis, Gastly!” Misty cried out, stomping her foot into the ground. It took her three attempts just to be heard and Brock and Onix weren’t having it anymore.

“Just keep using your rock throw, okay? Gastly can’t dodge forever!”

And the gym leader was right. Despite his ability to turn invisible at will, Gastly still maintained a semi-corporeal body, and his attempts at escaping a direct his were eventually thwarted by his opponent digging up and utilizing the entire battlefield against him.

Gastly smashed into the wall behind him, pieces of it crumbling to the ground in retaliation. The ghost-type appeared to be downright winded - flattened - where he landed before popping back into full form and gravitating dazedly back towards the center of the arena.

He seemed to turn more serious after taking some decent damage, eyes glowing a smoky violet as he attempted to use his hypnosis after all, however Brock told Onix to avert his gaze, which caused it to fail.

“Don’t waste any time, Gastly; try your night shade instead!”

The gaseous smog floating around the ghost-type seemed to size and shudder, the lights all around the gym fluttering from up in the rafters. There was an eerie shift in the environment and the energy around them all before Onix seemed to be smacked by a mostly invisible wave of dark power, the impact sending him flipping backwards. Just as he was crawling back to his full height, another burst of unearthly energy careened into him, and he crashed back into the wall behind him.

“Onix, counter with your rock throw!”

The two Pokemon were both up in arms, using their natural element to try and take the other out over the next several seconds. Everytime Gastly let loose another round of night shade, it would shoot straight into the newest boulder Onix had dug up from the ground, shattering it to pieces but otherwise dissipating harmlessly. Likewise, the rock-type’s onslaught was useless in reaching the ghost-type Pokemon, though not lack of trying. Alas, any boulder that happened to successfully make it past wave upon wave of elemental power was dodged by Gastly anyway.

It was watching this transpire over the following few seconds that gave Misty an idea.

“Gastly, stop what you’re doing and just listen to my directions… Go left now!” the redhead shouted aloud, watching her Pokemon follow her latest orders to a tee. “Now go right! And… right again! Left now! Left! Right… Now use your sucker punch!”

With each specific instructive shout, her Pokemon phased forward on the battlefield a little at a time, perching in mid-air just long enough for one of Onix’s impending attacks to get within a few inches of impact before being told to move again, and each maneuver got him closer and closer to his target, hiding behind the hurled boulders to conceal his location and eventual trajectory.

The gaseous smog swirling around Gastly darkened and tightened up into what appeared to be a clenched and gnarled fist, smashing into Onix’s stony face and sending him careening to the ground. For the last time, dirt was loosened and lifted up due to the ferocity of the battle taking place before settling once more where it had come from.

Brock returned his family’s precious momento Pokemon to his ball, waving at the referee to call the final round and the victor’s name.

“Onix is unable to battle! The winner of the round, the battle, and the Boulder Badge, is the challenger Misty and her team!”

Gary rose, cheering and clapping, Ash let out a whooping holler, still carefully holding the now barely conscious and still wounded Eevee in his arms. Gastly was rolling around the arena, laughing outrageously to himself, and Misty continued to stand there in the middle of the challenger’s box, hardly daring to believe what seemed to have transpired.

“I… we… won?”

The question came out breathless, almost pained. Her last ditch strategy had somehow panned out and earned her the win? She’d gotten her first badge? She’d… finally proven herself as a professional trainer!

“We won! We won!” she screeched, hopping and dancing around, repeatedly pumping her fists into the air, Gastly swooping in and twirling joyously around her. We did it! Yay!” And she ran towards the area of the bleachers where her friends stood waiting for her, Ash squaring his shoulders and losing all functionality in his limbs as Gastly came near, relinquishing Misty’s Eevee to her so they could properly celebrate their victory together.

It was, in fact, after she’d called Gastly back to his Pokeball (causing Ash to loosen up) and while her starter Pokemon was affectionately and softly licking her cheek that Brock thought it was finally time to approach them all.

Misty nuzzled Eevee’s forehead before giving her to Gary, turning and waiting to receive her prize. But to her confusion, Brock took her by both hands and pulled her close. She felt a rippling shock course through her but it faded immediately when Brock opened his mouth to speak.

“Misty, I…” he began but was interrupted by a balking, apparently infuriated Ash.

“Excuse you!” the raven-haired trainer squawked, eyebrows twitching madly, skin and brain aflame with… with something as he quickly intervened between gym leader and challenger, pulling Misty backwards and freeing her from Brock’s dastardly grip.

“Um…” the redhead began in befuddlement.

“Ah,” the rock-type trainer responded knowledgeably, “so the headstrong, over-protective, jealous boyfriend comes to the rescue.”

The words flew from Ash’s mouth in a flighty rage before he could stifle them.

“I’m not her boyfriend!” And, to further prove such a fact, he willingly stepped away and let the two of them get on with their business.

Misty appeared to have a delayed response after the strange scenario that had just occurred between herself, the gym leader, and her old friend. Nevertheless, she shook it off after a few more moments of half-baked contemplation and resumed her conversation with Brock, clearly ignoring a still furious Ash, who was stomping around and muttering to himself in the background while Gary smirked at his odd behavior.

“You’ve got a good team with you, Misty. May you never forget that this badge,” he told her as he revealed the shimmering circular item, “was earned through the use of your combined power and not just your personal wit alone. It’s important to rely on teamwork and to honor everyone’s sacrifices. Your Eevee, your Butterfree; they knew how important this victory would be to you and fought despite their weaknesses.”

“Yeah, it was probably thanks to Butterfree that you beat Onix at all, ya know?” Gary mentioned from the background.

“Wha’d’ya mean?” she asked in confusion.

“You didn’t notice?” Ash replied, having recovered from his recent temper tantrum, or perhaps he just felt as though he needed to be included in the conversation. “When he fell to the ground and fainted, Butterfree released some of his poison powder. It drifted up and infected Onix. That’s why your Pokemon’s normal physical moves began doing more and more damage; because he was weakened by poison.”

“Wait, really?” And, to think, it had still taken the rest of her team to knock Onix out...

“Anyway, here ya go! You’ve definitely earned this,” Brock relented, handing the shimmering gray pin over to the redhead and watching her eyes slowly widen in awe, her lips starting from slack before curling upward into a relieved smile.

She accepted the token of her victory and couldn’t contain her whoop of glee, throwing up her hand holding the Boulder Badge into the air as if to show it off to the world. She then took a moment to show the badge to Eevee, who cheered her own name from the safe haven of Gary’s arms.

Her next step to becoming the world’s greatest Pokemon Master was complete. And so, her adventure would continue on.

OoOoO

Notes - And so, trainer Misty has earned her first Kanto League badge! What will be her next adventure? Will she have to battle Leaf again anytime soon? And will she learn anything about the evil Team Rocket organization that everyone else seems so wary of?

[pikachu-potter]

Pokemon Let’s go Pikachu/Eevee thoughts

While it’s likely no one cares I want to vent my own thoughts and feelings about these new games so here goes!

Firstly I want to say I am very very excited for these games. The only reason I brought a Nintendo switch was to be able to play the next pokemon games and let's go Pikachu/Eevee are the first steps to that. And while I’ve read these aren’t the true first core game RPG’s of the series going to the switch but more a game to tide us all over until next year. And let's be real, no matter anyone's frustration with it being Kanto remakes and such people are still going to play the hell out of it.

My concerns with the games are more the features and how these are going to be affecting the next core generation game, or even within just this game itself.

So the first topic I want to bring up is the Pokemon Go side of things. I love pokemon go, it’s an amazing game where I have met some brilliant people and done some amazing things with them such as late night pokemon hunts and running in a thunderstorm to catch a Pikachu. The game was uniqe and fresh for pokemon with some imaginative ideas that would only work for a mobile game that involved us walking.

So my first point to bring up is the catching style and encountering of wild pokemon. They have clearly taken this from Pokemon Go, you can see clearly in the video the rings that get smaller which you have to throw you ball into to catch said pokemon. Now, as I said this was a great dynamic of the mobile game. As for the switch game? I’m actually really down for it! The traditional press a button and wait for it catch or not was a bit dull and boring, this gets you more involved and more invested in playing. It means you may need to buy more balls to begin with because you aim is off.

Continuing on the theme of battles and catching pokemon, here’s my first real concern. There’s no battling to lower pokemons health to make them easier to catch. While this is again a dynamic of the pokemon go mobile game it does leave a slight problem, or at least question until the game is released. How do we level up our pokemon? What happens if an unpassable trainer is too high powered and we have no pokemon to beat them unless we were to level our already made team? This is just something I’m thinking about, in no way is it an issue if game freak comes with a good way to do the leveling.

My next thing to ponder is the ability to transfer pokemon from go to the switch game. This is pretty awesome, and I’m interested in seeing how it will work in sense of what the CP translates to along with what level these pokemon become, if they keep their shininess and if there moves translate to anything in the game. Not only that but as discussed between me and a friend, what about legendary pokemon. If you can transfer pokemon over, with the raids and such you have multiple chances of catching a legendary, so can you transfer all these legendaries across? And my biggest question about this is definitely how and when will the transfer process become possible? Is it right away? Because if so then the game could be a real easy grind starting off with a Mewtwo.

I do feel with the transferring of pokemon from go I have another big question, and I’m not sure if others will find it so troubling. When you transfer a pokemon is it a one-way process and if so do you actually lose it from pokemon go? Personally I’m not wanting to transfer my legendary pokemon when I only have one and may never be able to claim them back. I like having them all there, kind of as a bragging right of “Look, I’ve actually walked enough to catch these pokemon” but again we will see.

The co-op mode is another interesting thing. From something, I read each user profile on the switch can have their own save file of pokemon. That’s awesome, however, does this mean that when you do it co-op it uses another user? And when you catch a pokemon together does it become both of yours as in you both have a copy in your save? This is still a totally cool feature and something me and my brother would have loved as kids, sadly the dream of running around together has long since died since he prefers lots of other games to pokemon nowadays.

Finally! My last concern query. The games were said to not have wifi compatibility or something, which I took to mean there was no way to battle or trade through this game. Okay, slightly annoying I know. However, that’s not where my worry is. My worry is about catching the pokemon. If this were to be true, does it mean that both games have the ability to catch all 151 original pokemon? I mean, you can’t make two versions and then not have them link together when they each have version exclusive pokemon which you need to complete that Pokedex, right? So either, they need to have it where you really can catch them all in both games or include some trading method to enable you to achieve this.

And that is the end of my views. Sorry to bore you all with that!

[saltylikecrait]

For @finnreyfridays rival theme. Have a Pokemon AU.

Followers of my other blogs might know that I’m an old Pokemon fan. That was actually my first fandom. I just picked up Ultra Sun after 15 years without playing a new game and found myself falling in love with the games all over again. Sorry Star Wars, I’m leaving you for Pokemon. I was happy to find that the rivals in the new games are usually friendly and nice, unlike the jerks that I had to be rivals with back in the old days.

In my AU, Rey is 11 and Finn is 13, because those are totally appropriate ages to let children travel around islands and face dangerous situations by themselves. Good ol’ Pokemon.

Professor Skywalker - resident Pokemon expert - returned to Alola from a year of research in the Kanto region with a young girl in tow. The girl, Rey, was abandoned by her parents at a young age, and Skywalker, sensing her gift with Pokemon training, took her in and raised her like the daughter he never had.

A neighbor boy, Finn, took a liking to Rey almost right away. He got mixed up with Team Skull a couple of years before, but once they asked him to start stealing Pokemon, he decided to leave. He’s waiting a couple more years before he takes on the island challenge since he doesn’t feel quite ready yet.

Rey is still convinced that her parents might come looking for her in Alola. She thought that doing the island challenge might be a good way to search for her parents. Maybe she would return to Kanto in a couple of years to look for them.

When Rey is eleven, Professor Skywalker gifts her with a Litten to be her starter. Finn stops by the lab a couple of days later and chooses Popplio, hoping that his water type would be a match for Rey’s fire starter. He and Rey became good friends over the three years she’s been in Alola, but he wants to do well in the island challenge, which makes Rey his rival.

During a memorable journey, Finn and Rey learn from one another by battling each other, discussing what to evolve their Eevees into, and investigating the strange portals to other universes that occasionally appear on the islands…

Finn faces his past with Team Skull by facing down their big bully grunts, Kylo, Hux, and Phasma and being victorious. Rey finally accepts that her parents are not looking for her and realizes that she has gained a family that loves her in Alola.

They find themselves well-matched. Finn beats Rey in friendly battles and vice-versa to help their Pokemon gain extra experience. By the time they complete the island challenge, they’ve forgotten about being friendly rivals and are 100% invested in cheering each other on.

But Rey does worry that their friendship could be put in jeopardy if one of them becomes a champion and the other doesn’t. Finn reassures her that will not be an issue. He would be happy for Rey if she became a champion, even if he didn’t and he knows Rey feels the same way.

Finn and Rey both make it to the Elite Four. Rey loses to Poe Dameron, ace trainer with a crazy combination of flying and steel Pokemon. Finn loses to Rose Tico with her preferred ice and grass types. They are both runners up, but Rey convinces Finn to try again next year, with a little more training.

The evening of their journey’s completion, Rey approaches Finn with a blush on her face.

“Hey, Finn?” “Yeah?” “Um…” she stops. She tries to keep her hands from trembling by stuffing them in her pockets. “Do you wanna get some malasada with me?” Finn laughs because Rey is addicted to the stuff. On more than one occasion, he had to drag her away from the various malasada restaurants in the region and remind her that they had places to be. “Sure, Rey.” At that, she beams and grabs his hand and tugs him to the nearest restaurant.

Years later, Finn realizes that Rey was trying to ask him on a date in the cute, flustered way that kids get. Oh well, Rey was his first crush and he was hers.

They’re still together after all these years, helping each other train their Pokemon to be their very best.

Next stop: the Kanto Pokemon League.

[smallersocksx]

Pokemon Journeys Episode 62 + 63 Review (that nobody asked for!)

These reviews I’ve been writing for Journeys have been so well-received I was honestly surprised! I think I’ll only write them for episodes that contribute to the storyline or character development rather than filler-esque episodes.

I know I’m late with episode 62 and a lot of people have already reviewed the episode. I had watched the raw on the Friday and I wanted to watch the sub to have a more informed opinion. However, my Grandmother’s dog was rushed to hospital and I was way too anxious to actually do anything other than worry. Thankfully, he was discharged and is doing a lot better!

Anyways, as usual I will keep my review below the cut, so if you want to read that’s great!

I don’t know how long this post will be given it's about two episodes but I’ll try to break it down into sections.

Build-up and the Beginning:

To be honest this was an episode that I had mixed feelings towards whilst waiting for it to air. As I have mentioned many times, one of the aspects I find frustrating about Journeys is the pacing and development, and once it was confirmed Sobble would be evolving into Drizzile after only one actual episode dedicated towards his development, I was honestly annoyed especially as Sobble was pushed to the side in favour of Grookey being the new “cute” starter.

The beginning of the episode wasn’t particularly great if I was honest, I didn’t understand the point of the television interview and then there was Sobble’s actual evolution scene. When the synopsis described Sobble’s evolution being triggered by him saving another Pokémon, I thought it was going to be something epic rather than him saving an Oddish from a falling berry. I think they could have handled Sobble’s actual evolution a lot better, they could have gone down the route of something similar to Professor Sycamore’s Garchomp when she evolved from Gible to Gabite and then to her current evolution, she was surrounded by the other laboratory Pokémon and Professor Sycamore and it was so wholesome. I think if Goh’s other Pokémon had at least witnessed the evolution it would have made the evolution sequence better, I mean Oddish didn’t even acknowledge that Sobble had saved it.

Drizzile:

For the majority of the episode, I felt so sad for Drizzile, I mean I was a little confused that he forgot about his middle evolution as Renji had it on the screen in Episode 54 (but never mind!). I just felt so sad for him after he saw his reflection and learnt he wasn’t an Inteleon yet. However, Goh’s other Pokémon didn’t help Drizzile feel any better, he was literally being tossed around left and right until he was caught by Big Bro Cinderace (that is my nickname for him) but sadly even Cinderace didn’t understand the extent of Drizzile’s feelings.

Throughout the series, we’ve had a lot of episodes surrounding a trainer and a Pokémon trying to understand one another’s feelings and they have honestly made some of the best episodes such as DP’s Stopped in the Name of Love, where Dawn’s Piplup was physically ready to evolve but emotionally he wasn’t and Dawn didn’t even realise the extent of Piplup’s feelings until Meowth translated for her. There’s even an episode in XY, where Serena didn’t understand Braixen’s attachment to her branch without James’ help. There’s probably even more but these are the two that I can think of at the top of my head. Even in these instances, Dawn and Serena didn’t realise the extent of their Pokémon’s feelings without the help of a third party (which was using Team Rocket a lot better than Journeys)

I went a bit off track, it's a lot easier for a Pokémon to understand their trainer’s feelings than a trainer to understand their Pokémon’s and that's because of a language barrier. Similar to animals in the real world, Pokémon have to use alternative means and signals to express their feelings and I think what made this episode more impactful was Goh not receiving that third party help (although Professor Cerise did give him a hint by notifying him about Pokemon experiencing personality changes when they evolve).

Whilst, I believe part of Drizzile’s depression stemmed from the fact he wasn’t an Inteleon yet, I think he was confused and emotionally drained due to these new innate traits he’s suddenly developed such as laziness. Whilst, the episode does acknowledge and try to address this issue for Drizzile, I don’t think it entirely hit the mark. Compared to the BW episode, A Village Homecoming, where a Zweilous under the care of Iris’ friend evolved into Hydreigon it went on a rampage because it was confused by the sudden change and scared until Iris calmed it down (which was some good development for her). Whilst, I respect the fact Goh gave Drizzile space and time to process his emotions, this ending is a little bit unsatisfactory to me, I’m sad Drizzile is just sat in a cave all alone, I was hoping by the end of the episode he would overcome his depression and accept his new form and traits. Plus, if the writers pull what they did with Farfetch’d and forget Drizzile exists, I’m going over there with a pitchfork!

Goh’s emotional development:

Now I won’t lie, lately, Goh has been getting on my nerves and I hate feeling that way especially given he’s meant to be a main character. However, one of the aspects that was annoying me was his rapid development particularly in the area of battle but this episode did an amazing job of representing Goh’s emotional development.

If this was Goh at the beginning of the series, there would have been no doubt he would have tried to drag Drizzile out of that cave instead he was taking his time and trying to coax Drizzile out until Cinderace decided to drag the poor boy out and it broke my heart seeing the single tear slide down Drizzile’s cheek more than it did every instance he cried as a Sobble.

What I love about this episode is Goh learning from his mistakes and recognising that Drizzile’s personality change was similar to when Scorbunny evolved to Raboot and then Raboot to Cinderace. Although they missed an opportunity with Ash, he could have brought up his experience with evolution and personality change with his Charizard. Anyway! As I mentioned in the Drizzile section it's harder for a Pokémon to articulate their feelings as humans do. However, even humans have difficulty expressing or even understanding their own feelings sometimes and Goh understood that.

That heart-to-heart, Goh had with Drizzile made me cry but it did such a great job reflecting Goh’s emotional development and that moment Drizzile wiped Goh’s tear as Goh had once done for him was so moving. As I previously mentioned, I like the message of giving someone space and time to process their feelings but as I previously mentioned that ending left me with some mixed feelings.

Conclusion:

Whilst, I would have preferred Sobble have more development before evolving and for the actual evolution to have been handled better. All in all, it was a good episode that honestly had me crying. The ending for me was a little unsatisfactory but I definitely think this has been one of the better Journeys episodes to have come out as of late.

Episode 63

It’s a miracle! They didn’t wait for 20 episodes to give Chloe and Eevee development and they went to a different region!

Prologue and Continuity:

At the beginning of the episode, the group are watching the Adult division of the Marine Athletics Race held in Hoenn. Eevee takes a particular interest as a Vaporeon is participating in the race and I really loved this link to her debut episode where she was copying all the Eeveelutions such as walking elegantly like Sylveon and attempting to swim like Vaporeon before nearly drowning (God love her!)

However, I love the fact similar to the Ponyta episode, Chloe takes the initiative and wants to meet Vaporeon and his trainer as it may be good to expose Eevee not only to her evolved forms but also learn from other trainers that have had an Eevee why they evolved them into certain forms (Ash this would have been a great opportunity to call May and Serena! Or even Virgil!)

Kairi and Vaporeon:

I honestly loved the dinner scene after the group tried the racecourse and it's a miracle Ash is actually using Dracovish! I loved the discussion Chloe had with Kairi asking why he chose to evolve his Eevee into a Vaporeon. And I liked the fact his answer was simple, his Eevee loved the sea, was a natural on a surfboard and evolving Eevee into a Vaporeon was a natural fit for the two of them.

I’ve only watched the episode raw, there’s a bit where I assume Goh asked Chloe what she would want her Eevee to evolve into. I think Chloe’s answer focused around the fact she wants Eevee to decide for herself rather than have her or someone else decide her path, a feeling Chloe probably relates to as her classmates all assumed she would want to be a Pokémon Professor like her father. Also, Eevee sleeping on top of Vaporeon was so wholesome, I’m sorry why are not talking about this!

The Ending:

After the incident caused by Goh’s Dewgong (honestly going from the episode preview I thought it was something to do with Team Rocket so Dewgong causing trouble was a nice change of pace and not doing Team Rocket dirty by using them as convenient plot devices!) Anyways, I loved the ending, as Kairi gave Chloe a Water Stone and I love the fact it doesn’t mean Chloe has to use the stone immediately but the stone is around and is there as an option. Chloe and Eevee can keep deepening their relationship which already increases Eevee’s evolution potential as three of her evolutions are triggered by the bond between trainer and Pokémon. Going down the line, I think Chloe meeting other trainers that have an Eevee or one of the Eeveelutions is a great way for her to develop and learn from other trainers.

All in all, this was a great Chloe and Eevee-focused episode (as mentioned in my overall Journeys critique I’m just sad Yamper is being pushed to the side when Chloe’s earlier development is attributed to her bond with him). Hopefully, in future episodes, Yamper can be more involved. Overall, the last two episodes of Journeys have been good. The trailer/preview they showed, Infernape’s BACK!!! Also, seeing more of Ash’s old Pokémon like Hawlucha and Noivern my favourite father-son duo!! Journeys finally delivering on what the fandom wanted! Also, I think I heard Kakihara’s voice in the trailer and if I’m right, I’ll be over the moon, he’s honestly one of my favourite voice actors >o<

All in all, Journeys might have some good content coming up, my only complaint being I don’t like how all the Gen 8 content is being shoe-horned into these mini arcs and we’re hardly seeing any Galar characters.