Chapter 26

The rest of the night wasn't too eventful after my run in with SHIELD, honestly, I was just so exhausted that as soon as we got home, I just crashed and passed out. After a solid night sleep, I woke up and realising I still had Cinder and Gastly inside the poke balls I made my way to the kitchen and released the two of them.

Upon materialising they looked around and upon noticing the familiar location of the apartment they relaxed. Putting some food in front of them and getting my own we ate in silence, and when we were done, we all moved to the gym to go over the previous night's gains and happenings.

STATUS

NAME: SAMUEL FARTHING

AGE: 21

LEVEL: 4/??

EXP: 16/74

JOB: Novice Trainer

BOND: CHARMANDER (90%)

GASTLY (71%)

DRAW CHANCES: 10

POKEMON: 2/∞

POKEMON STORAGE: 0/∞

ABILITIES/ PERKS: Mental Fortitude (MAX), Genetic Anomaly, Inventory, Inspect (MAX), Aura (Beginner+), Psychic (Beginner+)

I couldn't see any big changes when it came to my status apart from an additional level, nothing that related to the change in use for my aura and psionic abilities. It must be a more subtle internal change than something large enough to affect the display of my status. There did seem to be a kind of limiter on how I can develop those abilities and I felt quite limited in the paths available at the moment.

Hopefully when I got a Pokémon that related to either of the abilities, they help me improve in the usage and strength. It's the only thing I can think of that would help me move past the 'beginner' level proficiency.

CHARMANDER (Cinder)

LVL 15 (53/100)

GENDER: MALE

ABILITY: BLAZE

BOND: 90%

HEALTH: 100%

STAMINA: 100%

MOVES: Scratch (Advanced), Growl (Intermediate), Ember (Intermediate), Smokescreen (Beginner)

NOTE: A bond of less than 40% will cause Pokémon to ignore some commands

Looking at Cinder's sheet I couldn't see much of a change yet, like me there was just an increase in experience, no new level. Though with him getting close to a level up I was curious about how he would go about evolution, whether it was tied to the level like the game or there was something more esoteric that he had to meet certain conditions before he could evolve.

It could be along the lines of developing his fire affinity to generate enough energy to fuel an evolution or improving his control over his moves and the energy usage, possibly even something bond or combat related. There was just so much information I didn't know that really limited my path forward.

GASTLY

LVL 13 (69/80)

GENDER: MALE

ABILITY: LEVITATE

BOND: 71%

HEALTH: 100%

STAMINA: 75%

MOVES: Confuse Ray (Intermediate), Lick (Intermediate), Hypnosis (Intermediate), Mean Look (Intermediate), Payback (Beginner)

NOTE: A bond of less than 40% will cause Pokémon to ignore some commands

Gastly had seen the most improvement in his status out of the three of us, with not only an experience increase, but a bond and proficiency increase. The night had been really beneficial towards him, seeing such a large increase for all of us in experience must have been related to our situation with Black Widow and Hawkeye, for there wasn't anything else that I could think of that would have bumped it up so much.

We found a lot of use for both 'Lick' and 'Mean Look' last night that it was no surprise that they had increased in proficiency. 'Lick' was able to paralyse the criminals for much longer and 'Mean Look' had an interesting effect in that it causes the receiver to freeze in spot, they didn't pass out or had anything else happen to them.

Though they were unable to escape from the immediate area and I think I could tell at one-point last night when it did increase in proficiency as it had a much wider effect and got multiple individuals instead of being single targeted. This definitely helped as the larger groups were easier to take down and with Shield on our tail last night, it also meant that we were able to get away quickly.

Thinking about Shield I really hoped that my next Pokémon helped with that issue, I could really use one that helped with my mobility or was able to help me move under their radar. I was concerned that I didn't notice the tracker until nearly too late, while it still gave them plenty of room to look, it also narrowed down their search area from all Brooklyn to about a quarter.

Putting that to the back of my mind I turned to Cinder and Gastly to go over our game plan for the immediate future.

"Hey guys, great work last night, it was hard with those people chasing us around and stopping us from really putting the hurt on the gangs last night."

"Char, Gas Gastly", getting a reassuring look from both of them.

"So a bit of a run down, they work for an organisation or group of people called Shield. Basically, they are a group of spies and people that are supposed to apprehend criminals and threats to the country and world." Explaining some of what they do.

"Char, Charmander, mander char" With a confused look from Cinder as I explained about Shield. Getting an inkling of what he was meaning I continued.

"Are you asking why we don't work with them?"

"Char", getting a nod in response.

"Well basically, they have been infiltrated by a group of criminals called Hydra. Who in the short of it, want world domination.

Now Shield don't actually know that Hydra have done so, and we can't tell them as I don't know to what level they have infiltrated at the current time, so I don't want to expose them and cause unnecessary damage when in the future I could really put the hurt on them."

"Gas, Gastly ly Gas, Gastly gas" Getting an eager look from the floating ghost.

Not being too sure what he said I could get a hint of eagerness and mischief through our bond. Making me crack a smile I looked at him,

"Yes, don't worry when it comes time that we take on Hydra, I'm firstly hoping you are either a Haunter or Gengar. When the time comes you can let yourself loose on them, you won't believe what they have done and the levels of depravity they have gone to for their goals."

Getting a satisfied look from him I could tell I hit the nail on the head with that comment.