26 Awkward Adventure (2/3)

[Words: 1628]

Three masses of light spat out of the Pokeballs, merging on the ground to form siamese cats. Each one with a different colored bowtie and coconut-colored fur.

One, the one with a red bowtie, had a fierce look of a wild tiger. The other adorned a giddiness only seen in playful children, with a yellow bowtie to match. And the last one, even while attacking, looked depressed with its light blue accessory.

A certain trope was afoot, but the random battle stunned Izan too hard for him to even joke about it.

The Meowth scuffed the ground as they leaped forward, brandishing their razor-sharp claws.

Like deer in headlights, the horde froze and stared at their sudden attackers with wide eyes. Izan's bewilderment matched their surprised faces.

Why Joe decided to attack a few Rattata out of the blue was beyond him.

"T-tta!"

One of the Rattata, the biggest of the five, chittered something that broke the others out of their daze. Right before the Meowth claws could touch them, each one nimbly leaped over the trio of cats.

"Ata-ata!!" "Tta!!" "Rat-a!"

In sync, three of the Rattata wailed at the Meowth with the red bowtie as the rest glowed white. The cries become sound waves that hit the Meowth without fail.

A blue glow emanated from Meowth, prompting the aggressive cat to shrink in on itself and fold its ears back.

With that, the remaining two Rattata charged at once, slamming into the red bowtie Meowth. The impact knocked the wind out of the feline and concluded that fight with a sickening crunch.

Izan's eyebrows raised to his hairline. 'They are way more coordinated than I expected random Pokemon to be. That was a triple [Screech] and double [Quick Attack] combo.'

"Oh no, Rudey!" That was a weird nickname for a Pokemon, but Izan wasn't one to judge. "Go for another [Scratch], but try and single one of them out first!"

Taking a moment to glance at each other, the last two pounced at a single Rattata with malicious ferocity.

Apparently, unlike the cats, it had some battling skills. The two Meowth didn't even get a little close to the Rattata, missing over and over.

By then, the fear the Rattata horde once had was completely gone.

In fact, they started outright snickering at the display.

Well, Izan thought they were. Considering their lack of sapience, they were probably communicating.

It was a fun thought, though.

He had to do 'something' to refrain from walking past this entire battle and continuing down the road.

The point of the Pokemon world was for exotic experiences, right?

Something even as small as getting to pet a human-sized spider. Wrestle with a giant snake made of rocks. Marvel at a massive bird with rainbow wings that granted miracles on occasion.

Bring down organizations that threatened world domination or something similar. Meet and converse with, if possible, literal gods.

This? This was a literal cat and mouse chase.

Sandshrew was attentive at first, but then, she yawned and leaned more into his shoulder.

Izan agreed with her. This was indeed boring.

Robin was on the same page as him, watching the battle with a relaxed posture. He had the sneaking suspicion this type of thing happened often.

But, Lora was the exact opposite. She went from relaxed and even happy to crossed arms and fidgeting, tapping her foot.

Letting out a sigh, she spoke. "Oh my Arceus, Natu, please just-"

There wasn't so much a sound when a pink flash caused the Pokemon group to swap places. Two of them swapped mid-attack, causing them to headbutt each other. The other two had a Meowth teleported to their backside, much too close to dodge the incoming [Scratch].

All knocked out. And the last one hadn't moved.

The leader. It was the biggest of the five, after all.

"Huh?" Joe, taken aback, turned when he realized it was help from a friend. He flashed her a bright smile. "Oh, thanks for the assist, Lora!"

Her foot stopped tapping, but she didn't uncross her arms. "Mm." was her well-constructed response.

The Meowth both blinked as they realized that there was only one more rat left. Quick on the uptake, they jumped to both sides of the rat, stalking around it as only a feline could.

"Moody, make sure it can't run away! And Todd, try and intimidate it. Push it to come my direction!" Joe ordered.

The Meowth with the blue bowtie hissed at the Rattata opposite of Joe, blocking off its exit path. Meanwhile, the other Meowth batted the air in front of the rat, as if it was playing with it.

That was enough for Rattata to be wary, it seemed, as it jumped back, chittering and squeaking all the while.

'Did he really name his Meowth Moody, Rudey, and Todd? …I kinda feel bad for Todd.'

With enough jumps, the Rattata scooted right into Joe's reach. As soon as it was within his grasp, he smoothly flicked a Pokeball out of his sleeve and tapped its tail.

The flash of red that absorbed the rat was self explanatory.

"Ha! You're in for it now!" And then he proceeded to… squeeze the ball with both hands?

Izan couldn't tell if it was letting itself be caught or actively trying to get out. Or if him squeezing it was doing anything.

*Click*

He blinked. Well, it was caught now.

"Wait, can you just force them in the ball like that?" Izan muttered, slightly tilting his head. That wasn't something he'd ever thought about trying.

The bland look Lora gave Izan already answered the question. "No. Please don't follow in this idiot's footsteps for anything that requires brainpower." She rolled her eyes and looked back at Joe. "If the Pokemon struggled enough, the Pokeball would explode in his hand."

'Ah.' That made more sense. Otherwise, those jokes about ten-year-olds casually sending out pseudo-gods would be true.

They still could be true, just with him instead of a random kid. He did know the location of some pretty seriously powerful items if the anime or manga had any truth to it.

He could even still be a ground-type specialist. The Blue Orb suppressed Groudon, didn't it?

'Wait, don't those orbs let Groudon and Kyogre control you? And they seem to change function based on the timeline. Never mind, bad idea.' Izan shook the thought away.

"Heh. It's not stupid if it works." Joe said with a satisfied smile. The eye rolling from the girls was almost audible.

After putting away his locked Pokeball, Joe began to gently take care of the dazed Pokemon. Even the Rattata group he just bullied were administered Potions.

Izan, too, rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, whatever. Did we really just stop so you could catch some random Rattata?"

That question gave him a different response from each person. Lora just ignored him, massaging the sides of her head. Robin looked at him with a slightly curious look, but said nothing.

Joe looked outright confused. "Well, yeah. My Pokemon gotta get levels somehow. Training and all that, ya know?"

Izan blinked. "Traning? That was a normal battle."

'It was kinda sad to watch.' He left unsaid.

In response, Joe stood up and dusted off his pants. Returning the rest of his Pokemon, he spoke. "I thought you of all people would know. Pokemon get stronger by beating other Pokemon."

Izan did know. That was why it didn't make any sense.

Pokemon didn't get stronger by just being giant bullies. Battles could only be beneficial if a Pokemon struggled to take the win. If the fight was so harsh that their body felt their life was on the line.

The only reason the Rattata group could counter was that it used status moves and good teamwork. Plus, the Meowth clearly had bad instincts and no battle experience. That sort of one-sided battle wasn't worthwhile at all.

'At least, I think so. If it was that simple, I wouldn't be ahead of anyone since Sandshrew has done such little battling.'

Izan shook his head. 'I guess it would technically be considered training in his case. His Meowth won't get any levels out of it, but they could get some experience with coordination. And landing their attacks. And… a whole lotta other things.'

Internally, Izan's opinion of Joe plummeted into the 'dumb' territory. In reality, he nodded.

Even if he explained it, Joe probably wouldn't listen. That was the vibe he gave off.

Dusting off his hands, Joe pointed down the road. "Alright! Now let's get outta here before the rest of the Rattata wake back up."

A gaggle of 'mhm's was the only response he got as they continued down Route 11.

[+]<Chapter 1/3>[+]

t...that's the end of the chapter btw.

Thanks all for the warm welcome back. Hope you enjoyed this chapter, even if it wasn't much.

I have quite a lot more random questions that I've accrued while I was sick. So I'm just gonna ask you one instead of talking about unnecessary things.

RQ: How would you describe Izan's personality so far?

If I had to answer this, I was trying to go for someone who was headstrong, selfish -a bit of a coward, yet self-aware of himself. He knows when he's being selfish. He knows when he's making a dumb decision. But unless that decision makes him feel bad, he's probably gonna do it anyway if the inclination is strong enough.

And if he decides to do something, he'll do it. No. Matter. What.

If you can't answer the above question, I have a different one: If you had to pick any stage 1 Pokemon for your Pokemon journey, which would it be? No Mythical/Legendaries allowed.