Suffice to say, we didn't get very far as Sin and I carried the Stuffels at a walk as to not wake them from their nap. Puff did her best, using the opera-like voice needed to use sing for as long as she could. The baby Pokemon were strong and had strong lungs too that greatly annoyed her. Sing made Sin and me drowsy but we weren't the intended target so with some extra effort on her part, Puff was able to focus the vibrations and TE towards only the two being carried.
Unfortunately, we didn't make it to Elizabean village that was supposed to be on this route, so we spent the night around a fire like normal. The Stuffel seemed afraid of it and hid behind me as they watched the fire burn. They were behaving so far(since they were asleep most of the time), and seemed to like the berries from the satchel.
After I had finished the necessary care routines, this time forgetting neither the whetstone sharpening or Puff's brushing, I let Ian get buzzed off a shot of mercury. Sin was getting a last-minute workout in with some dumbbell rows but also analyzing the Bedew remains. We had cut off the tops where the poison was and it was now soaking off to the side where I left them. I ignored his interest for now and tried to get the Stuffel to settle down for the night.
They were a pair of brothers, and one of the ones that was near me crawled to lay down so I stroked him gently. He elbowed me in the leg for the effort with a half put together hammer arm. I groaned in pain and he started crying and licking my bruised leg in apology. His brother came over to help and when I got them to settle down the first one forced my hand onto his soft head.
It was weird, they sometimes wanted to be petted and other times they just about punched me in the face for them only to cry and apologize when they did. They weren’t very fond of personal space either as one was straddling both my legs to sleep, and I was starting to get why their dad wanted a short break. I’m sure that they could take on my team one on one as their strength was as much as Sin’s even if they weren't very fast as him(and that's saying something).
The next day when I made it to the village to get some stares directed at the Stuffels that were waking up now that Puff had stopped singing. I was thankful to her and let her rest in her pokeball because she was dead tired from constantly using that move.
This was better than the alternative of having them awake, and even better was that there was something going on in the village such that I wouldn’t have to travel with them more. It wasn’t a tournament but instead there was a booth set up in town with officials handing out booklets and explaining the situation with a presentation on a TV.
“Strong trainers I need help! Evil team Swarm has been destroying Beedrill hives and forcing Beedrill colonies to relocate and two days away, one of those colonies is making a beeline towards Elizabean village so we hope you'll join us in changing their course!" the woman loudly showed off what was happening.
When one of her aids passed out a booklet to me I flipped through it as my Stuffel peered over my shoulder from my backpack. The booklet contained information on team Swarm, a fake evil organization made by the government to encourage trainers to stick around places that weren't gym cities. This was a single badge level threat and anyone with at least one badge could participate.
In two days, they would let a bunch of tamed Beedrill fly this way while a couple team Swarm grunts drove them towards the village. Our job as trainers was to get them to turned away by defeating the grunts, holding them off for long enough, or knocking them out. The Beedrill and grunts would have ribbons on their bodies and the top ten trainers with the most ribbons collected by the end of this would get rewards.
They ranged from money to the TM for U-turn with first place getting first pick. There was also some other awesome stuff you could pick from after collecting a certain amount of ribbons for the younger or weaker trainers. At 5 you could get a great ball and at 20 you could get a camping tent or the before mentioned great ball.
The thing that made me drool was the spatial bag at 50 ribbons. The only thing with more ribbons was a fire stone of grade 4, meaning it takes 4 months for a Pokemon to fully take on all the strength of the evolution. Those evolved Pokemon I faced before, they were ready for the second badge plus some. Once they caught up to their own power level, it would take much more preparation for each following gym challenge. There weren't many downsides except that trainers who did, relied heavily on the fact that their Pokemon evolved to win battles. So after the rest of us caught up, they would be less skilled at battling than the rest of us.
But back to the spatial bag, 50 Beedrill or 10 grunts worth of ribbons were needed to get that dreamy leathery goodness as an option. If I had to pick one reward(which I do have to), that would be it. The Stuffel on my shoulder wanted a coupon for half off ice cream cones at 3 ribbons so I nodded as if considering the cheap nonsense they listed as a possible choice. That made him happy and he hugged my neck gently with squishy arms. Stuffel was soft and he felt like a neck pillow I may have tested out at the Eclipse pokemart. Not as soft as Puffball herself but good in a pinch.
I signed up for the event, costing me 50 pokedollars for entry. Then I settled down to finding a good place to battle other trainers. I didn't have to look far before I found 5 patches of chalked grass set up with trainers battling. I was quickly challenged by a short boy with brown hair.
"I challenge you to a battle, quickly before someone else ques up" he said, rushing me to get in a forming line. There were already 20ish people in the line so I followed him like he said. Battles passed quickly and I stood there talking with him as he eyed my team, including the Stuffels.
"So how tough do you think the Beedrill colony attack is going to be, I have one badge already but it's going to be a bunch of Beedrill you know?"
"I mean it's still pretty early in the circuit so it can't be too hard" I responded. I was multi-tasking to keep Sin's Stuffel, the one who had hammer armed my leg last night, from wandering off by blocking his path with my good leg and figure out which Pokemon to use this time. I decided to use Ian.
He was onto something; his weight had increased by a lot, and I wanted to test out how much the first bottle and the taste he had last night had affected him. He was definitely slower as is but not while using shadow sneak. When it was finally our turn to take a battlefield we were quickly urged forward as many wanted to grab a field for themselves.
"One on one, 200 pokedollars?" the boy who's name was George asked.
"Sure, Ian take him out" I sounded really cool when I said that but less so when Stuffel patted my head hard enough to make me wince. I decided to let Sin take care of all three of the children, something he glared at me for. He knew scary face and he was certainly using the move as he burned a hole in the back of my head.
Ian chuckled at him, watching both forwards and behind with his gemstone like eyes. George also sent out his starter "Pip."
The Piplup looked dead at Ian and I swear I saw fear. Poor thing must be scared of ghosts, and what an easy battle it was. Shadow sneak into fury cutter made the whole thing so easy. So easy in fact, that I wasn't able to gauge what the mercury did. He swung and the damage looked the same as before on the defenseless Piplup. George didn't have an answer for the freeze up and for some reason sent out another Pokemon.
"Ummm, could I get a retry?"
"Retry, did this kid just say retry?" Ian asked, floating back to me. Not wanting to give up the field I let him have the retry. Money wasn't the only thing I was after and I would win unless this kid had a real ringer. He didn't, but what he did have was a Bronzor that was able to tank a few hits while using payback to counter every other strike.
This led to a closer match where I watched Ian etched the Bronzor a little more each time with scratch. Normally the resisted move would do jack squat against such a defensive Pokemon but I watched him do it anyway. The mercury and his own additions weight-wise made for a very heavy slash. I noticed Bronzor glowing pink sometimes and Ian slowing down as if all of a sudden he weighed more. Ian was silent throughout the process despite any issues he may be facing. He trusted me instinctively for a reason I can only attribute to his former life as a soldier. All this time he had listened to me without question, making himself more of an extension of me rather than another being.
After we walked to the side, I asked George if his Bronzor knew gravity "Yeah, what about it?"
"Can you keep the 400 and train my Honedge in learning gravity?" He thought for a moment, searching on his phone for something.
"Honedge can't learn gravity, what do you want that for anyway?" He did seem willing though, money in his hand receding.
"It's alright if he can't learn it, but I want to at least try. What do you say George?"
"I say it's your money I guess" he shook my hand and I motioned for Ian to follow him to train nearby. "Also what's your name again?" Dammit George, that was great and you went and ruined it. I informed him and they went off to the nurse Joy tent the organizers had brought to this village for the event. I was trusting Ian more and more each day and adjusting to the blind loyalty my starter showed to me.
Now,
I had more people to battle.
