Chapter 08 River Social and Birds of Prey

After thinking it over I'm going to try to complete choice 3. Some might choose otherwise because in the show Misty was very bratty and bossy, but how bad can it be? I definitely jinxed that, but if we look at it from story examples, companions aren't always together. Sometimes they part ways early on because of various circumstances.

Making my way to the girl on the riverside with Zorua now asleep in my shirt I use my social skills to start a conversation. "Hey there stranger, any water pokemon biting?" Really, that's the best I can come up with? I know I've never been good at approaching people but this is a bit ridiculous.

Hearing the unknown voice she turns away from her lackluster fishing while studying me. Having some to some internal decision about me, she then laughs at my poor attempt at a conversation starter. "Hahaha, no unfortunately no pokemon are biting right now. I just like being by the water anyway. Are you a new trainer?" She gives me a friendly smile signaling me that I can join her.

"By the way my name is Rian Ambrose, family and friends call me En though. It's nice to meet someone new." Ugh, maybe I should've gone with option one. That book looks pretty useful now.

"You're not too good at this are you? Don't worry since you're cute this magnanimous beauty will overlook it. I'm Misty Williams and it's nice to meet you too. By the way I've never seen that pokemon before. Are you not from Kanto?" That first part seemed kinda flirty. Wait, handsome mysterious starts talking to beauty by the water, she might've gotten the wrong idea. Let's try to divert her expectations, she's cute but I'm not interested.

"Ahaha you could tell? To be honest I was just curious if you'd let me borrow your fishing rod for a moment. I wanted to catch a water pokemon but I don't really want to jump in a river looking for one. I'm not really from Kanto but you can say I have family here. This is Zorua, she's my first pokemon and my partner on this journey." Nice, let her know I'm not interested in her romantically. But how am I gonna ask her to be a traveling companion?

"Oh you're interested in water pokemon? I guess we have something in common. I'm a water type specialist and I left home to become a better trainer. Here, you can use my fishing rod. Let's see what you got." She hands me the fishing rod, trying to grab my hand 'accidentally'. But I'm not some beta protagonist that gets embarrassed about small things like this. So I receive it without changing my expression. She looks at me kinda funny, but I really don't want to know what she's thinking.

"Thanks, I don't know if I'll catch something but I can be pretty lucky sometimes. Water types are pretty good with only two type disadvantages. They can also help you cross large bodies of water if there's no transportation available. But mostly I want to add one because my mother used to take care of water pokemon." I look across the river to see if I can see any lucky spots. Eventually I spot a golden aura a little bit upstream, casting the rod in the spot I wait for something to bite.

"We'll see if you're as lucky as you say you are. Your mom sounds like a wonderful person if she likes water pokemon." She flashes me a suggestive smile, which I just brush off with a polite smile.

"Yeah she was a wonderful person." And now it's awkward, and now she looks apologetic. Ugh, this silence is so weird. Note to self don't bring up depressing topics in a new conversation. As if the world heard my plight, something came to break me out of this awkward moment.

*Splash!*

Seems like something is pulling on the rod and it's pretty strong. I wonder what pokemon it could be, Magikarp? Poliwag? Goldeen? Reeling it in I see a purple blob. Upon closer inspection it looks like a shiny Feebas. I really underestimated how ugly Feebas would look in real life. Don't get me wrong it's not something that would make me want to bleach my eyes, but it just looks sad and unhealthy. With sunken eyes, dark rib pattern on its stomach, and various spots on its purple

scales. All those things aside, Milotic is a really good water pokemon in my book. Not to mention Gyarados is kinda overused. Now let's look at its stats…

[Feebas (Shiny) ♀

Water

Lvl.11

Potential: ✧✧✧✧ 4 Stars

Bond: -5%

HP: 39

Attack: 13

Defense: 19

Sp. Attack: 17

Sp. Defense: 27

Speed: 37

Ability:

Swift Swim/ Boosts speed in the rain or water

Oblivious/ Stats can't be lowered

Adaptability/ Increases power of moves of the same type by 25%

Moves: Flail, Dragon Breath, Mirror Coat, Water Gun

Evolution Requirements: Marvel Scale or Beauty up]

Yup another future powerhouse in the making for my team. If I manage to finish my current quest then I can either get the item to evolve Feebas or a diet that can raise her beauty. I'll opt for the second option since I'll be able to build more trust that way. Removing her from the lure I try to hold her, facing me she seems calm and ready to strike at any moment. "Hey there Feebas, I'm sorry I just fished you up like that. But will you be my pokemon? I know you have the potential to be a beautiful and strong pokemon in the future, I'll make sure to feed you good food too. What do you say?"

Mulling over it for a bit, Feebas eventually agrees to join me. After I feed her some poke treats I keep in my jacket for when Zorua wants a snack. So I take a luxury ball and officially catch Feebas. With two pokemon and one egg I'm really hyped to have a battle soon. As for the luxury balls I got Oak to buy me 5 in exchange for letting him collect data on Zorua, and for making food for the ranch pokemon every so often. My cooking skills have improved greatly with Juichiro's cooking memories. The only weird part is that some ingredients are made of Pokemon, like Taurus steak.

"Woah Rian! You actually caught something, I've never seen that pokemon before, do you know what it is? It may not be the prettiest pokemon but it's still a beautiful water type." Seems like as long as it's a water type pokemon she'll love it. I wonder how she will feel if she sees an Araquanid, with her infamous fear of bug type pokemon.

"She may not be the prettiest pokemon now but she will be in the future. As far as I know she's a Feebas, a water type pokemon that isn't native to this region at all. Let's see what the Pokédex says about it." Taking out my phone I press the Pokédex icon and scan Feebas' pokeball with the camera. That's right I took apart the Pokédex and engineered it into my phone. I haven't told Gramps because he was pretty adamant about not tinkering with the Pokédex.

*Scanning* *Bring*

"Feebas the Fish Pokemon. Feebas' fins are ragged and tattered from the start of its life. Because of its shoddy appearance, this pokemon is largely ignored. It is capable of living in both the sea and in rivers."

"Well color me impressed Rian, I wish I had caught it myself. It'd be nice to have a new water type pokemon. But finders keepers I guess. What're your plans now?"

"Thanks Misty, for letting me use your fishing rod too. I might've never got the chance to meet Feebas otherwise. As for my plans I'm planning to go to Viridian City and register for the League Circuit. Would you like to accompany me? It'd be nice to have someone to talk to on the way."

"I'd love to. We'll be travel buddies, and you can tell me about some of the water pokemon in your home region." We decided to sit by the water and talk a little bit more before we start heading over to Viridian.

*Ding* [Quest Complete, sending rewards] With that I feel my phone buzz, checking it I see two new applications. One called TM Loader and the other PGQ Shop. The first application can read TM disks and load them in my pokemon's pokeball, effectively teaching them the move. In my TM list I only have Surf. Luckily for me it seems that I can reuse it as many times as I want. As for the PGQ Shop, it seems I can buy any item in the pokemon world. The catch being that I need PGQ Coins, and the exchange rate for pokedollars is 1000 to 1. The rewards turned into redeemable coupons in the shop.

All of a sudden splashing sounds interrupt our conversation, out of the river comes a roughed up Ash. In his hands is a hurt Pikachu, it seems he had his run in with the Spearow flock. I don't say this out of assumptions, but because of the flock in the distance that seems to be catching up. I help him out the water before I start questioning him. "Hey Ash, it seems like you're not having a very smooth start to your journey. So that's the pokemon you got from Gramps, it's in pretty rough shape. Here use a Potion, it'll keep it stable enough before you make it to a pokemon center in Viridian City just down that path."

After applying the potion on pikachu it's complexion seems a little better and some of the scratches fade away. Taking this chance I scan his Pikachu, it's only level 7 with a 4 star potential. It seems Gramps was lucky to catch this one in the wild. However, out of nowhere Ash decides to commandeer Misty's bike and leave. "Thanks for the help Rian, and I'm sorry I'll return your bike someday I gotta get help for Pikachu!" Like that he's already gone in the distance.

"Hey bozo! That's my bike, come back here!" Misty doesn't take too kindly to the sudden theft, pokemon emergency or not that's a stranger stealing your bike.

"Sorry about that Misty, Ash doesn't think things through very much, he was probably only thinking about Pikachu. We can catch up to him and Viridian to get your bike and an apology. Before that though we have more pressing matters. Zorua it's showtime!" Calling out Zorua because that flock of Spearow decided to split into two and attack us. There's only 4 Spearow around level 7.

"Alright girl it's time for our first battle, start by stunning them with a Snarl!" "Kyuuu!" Zorua jumps out of my shirt and faces the group of Spearow. Releasing a cry that forms a dark sound wave catches them by surprise and leaves them slightly stunned. Thinking quickly I remember Spearow is a normal/flying type so ghost time moves won't affect it but the same applies for normal moves against Zorua.

"Quick Zorua use Shadow Sneak to jump behind them and ground them with a swift!" Moving through the shadows at astonishing speed she quickly sends a barrage of stars making them crash down. "Now that they're down, take 'em out with an Extrasensory attack!"

Soon Zorua's yellow eyes glow pink and surround the downed Spearow with pink psychic energy. She then makes them crash into each other knocking them out. "Nice job Zorua! Now come back and take a rest." After some petting and praise she snuggles back into her home. I wonder if she leveled up any from that encounter, after all she was still only level one before the fight.

[Zorua ♀

Ghost/Normal

Lvl. 7

Potential: ✧✧✧✧✧ 5 Stars

Bond: 75%

HP: 42

Attack: 38

Defense: 29

Sp. Attack: 41

Sp. Defense: 29

Speed: 37

Abilities:

Illusion/ Allows the creation of illusions and increases evasiveness.

Dark Boost/ Powers up dark type moves, and at night increases stats by 20%]

Nice, Zorua leveled up by 6 levels in this one battle. She might be a lower level than Feebas but in pure stats she stands above. It also seems my scan ability has increased in proficiency because I can see pokemon abilities and what they do. I glossed over it because I was excited about catching my first wild pokemon.

Meanwhile I was celebrating my first battle and flawless victory, on the sidelines was a dumbfounded Misty. "What just happened? Are you sure you're a beginner trainer? Those moves were unlike anything I've seen from a beginner."

"Haha of course I'm different from normal rookie trainers, I'm aiming for the top. No way am I gonna do that by panicking and stumbling around like an amateur. Now let's go get your bike back." It's true my battling style is different from the usual trainers I've seen on broadcasted battles. They tend to be more straightforward, attacking and dodging. Not the combination of different moves like I just did.

Moving along the path we find something that looks like the charred remains of a bike. It seems like even with a slightly healed Pikachu things still went like the show. That doesn't change the absolutely furious expression Misty is currently sporting. "That insufferable idiot! How could he do this to my bike! By Arceus I will make him pay! Misty Williams is not so forgiving.." With newfound vigor she picks up her destroyed bike and sprints the rest of the way towards Viridian. With nothing better to her I keep pace with her.

Bikes aren't cheap, the basic ones cost about 250k pokedollars. I would know after all, I didn't want to spend my whole journey walking on my two feet. Taking one of my Dino Caps from my jacket I look at it with pride remembering the hard work to finish what I stored. For now I won't use it, it's too early in my journey to start speed running. Putting it away I look forward and see the outline of Viridian City in the horizon. I wonder if I'll meet that certain duo in the city…

My journey has barely started but the future holds so many things. Look out world, here I come. A hazy pink violet aura slightly surrounds me as I move forward with excitement in my eyes.