Chapter 10: Pokemon 4

The next morning, after exchanging farewells with Serena, Carl and the LTs made their way west to Cyllage City on the coast.

Looking out at the ocean and the many islands, Carl then turned his gaze to his fire, grass, and fairy pokemons. He was going to need to train up his water pokemon if he wanted to get anywhere with catching the pokemon in the area.

The first thing he did was something he hadn't had to until now. He looked up the local trainers to see if they were willing to impart tips to the new guy in the area. After asking some of the locals for information, he was directed to one of the docks.

Upon arrival, he saw a guy in fishing gear getting set up, who was Fisherman Shad, according to the person who gave him information. Next to him was a blonde haired girl in a red bikini, who fit the description of Swimmer Marissa.

Carl introduced himself to the two friendly trainers, and asked if they had any advice or tips on how to go about exploring the area.

The two, especially Marissa, seemed to catch fire with enthusiasm for their topic of conversation. They spent at least an hour telling Carl all about what areas he should avoid as a newbie, how to go about training water pokemon, how to teach his future water pokemon how to surf, and other helpful advice.

After thanking them for the helpful advice, Carl went and checked into a hotel. He checked his HM Collection, and found that it contained the ability Surf, so he could teach his pokemon on his own, no need to seek any other trainers out to teach his pokemon.

The only issue was that Carl couldn't really bring his three LTs with him into the ocean while he adventured. Eventually, with much promises that he would stay safe, they decided that they would rather just wait in the pokeballs than be stuck on shore worrying about something they couldn't help him with.

Later that evening at the hotel, as Carl was returning to his room from the restaurant, he noticed a strange shifty guy that was hanging out in the halls of the hotel. The guy looked like had been backpacking his way around the world.

Before Carl could get a word in edgewise, the guy reached into his backpack, causing Carl to tense. But the strange man only pulled out a little statue of a big headed man, shoved it into Carl's hands and then ran off.

Looking at it closely, Carl saw it was similar to those statues of heads on Easter Island back in his original world. Wondering just why the dude had acted so weird, Carl entered his room and placed the statue on the table in front of him.

It looked like a normal statue. Carl probed it with his magic senses, and froze in pain. It felt like something was forcing itself into his mind. Something was pushing at his mind, and that something was big. Carl fought whatever it was, he pushed and strained, sweating and shaking.

Eventually he was able to divert the force away from him, and he collapsed onto the couch, weak, pale, and shaking.

"Fiona, Rhona, Talbot. Get rid of that statue, please." Carl croaked.

Only now did his pokemon notice how unusual he was acting. Talbot grabbed the statue with his vines, while Rhona opened the balcony door. Talbot tossed the statue out the window, and Fiona sent her biggest blast of fire that burned the strange statue to ash.

Looking at the scene, Carl couldn't help but think, 'Shouldn't a stone statue melt? Maybe it only looked like stone…'

"Thanks guys. Whatever that was, it was some type of magic/psychic thing. I am seriously exhausted and hurting now, so I'm going to spend some time in the medunit. Will you guys be okay for now?"

[We're fine. Go! Go! Get in the medunit!]

Carl opened his Warehouse, and stumbled to the medunit. He collapsed in it, and spent the rest of the night being healed up. Whatever that thing was, it had done a number on his brain and mind, almost breaking him. If he ran into any more of those things, they were getting annihilated.

The next day, Carl woke up feeling well rested. He felt around his mind and magic, and felt like it was actually expanded in a way, while being more firm. He couldn't quite explain it. It seems like he got the equivalent to a heavy mental workout, and then healed up in the medunit to get stronger.

When he tested his mental links, he was startled to realize he could create 5 of them now.

"So there had been some benefit to whatever crisis that almost was." Carl muttered. "Don't care, I'm still going to destroy those statues first and ask questions later if I ever see one again."

Carl spent the rest of the day reassuring Fiona, Rhona, and Talbot that he was alright. They had been quite nervous about how he had been attacked by some weird statue and they hadn't realized it at the time. They too promised to destroy any of those statues they saw, which actually reassured Carl a great deal.

The next day, the LTs went into their pokeballs and into the Poke Organizer in the Warehouse while Carl made his way to the safe areas the trainers had pointed out to him. Ever since he had purchased his rebreather, he had been looking for excuses to use it, and today was the day.

He slipped into the ocean and started exploring. It was a lot of fun, seeing the underwater beauty. He had never had an opportunity to Scuba dive before, so this was an entirely new experience to him. In the Buffy the Vampire Slayer world even though he had the money to afford the hobby, he hadn't dared actually go into the ocean. Who knows what kind of water demons he would have ran into? Carl shuddered in fear even thinking about it.

Carl started bringing out his water pokemon that he'd caught before and started training them. It was…unusual. Carl really didn't know how to exercise a fish, until he came up with the idea to use his magic to congeal the water around the fish pokemon. They would then have to work much harder to swim against the resistance, and get a better workout.

That and using their special abilities to exercise and grow stronger in them seemed to be the key to growing the potential in his pokemon.

Carl then got into a routine where he would train his water pokemon in the morning, which was also a huge workout for him as he found that swimming muscles were a bit different from parkour muscles. And then in the afternoon he would join Fiona, Rhona, and Talbot in exploring the land side of the coast.

After a couple of weeks of this routine, Carl noticed a strange Magikarp would keep coming over to check out what he was doing. After a few days of this, Carl scanned the fish pokemon. He was surprised at the potential in the pokemon. It was a similar tier to his Lieutenants.

Carl then reached out with a psychic link. The fish seemed interested in what he was doing, maybe he would accept contact?

[Hello there, Magikarp. Are you interested in what we're doing?] Carl asked once he had established a link.

[Yes.] The Magikarp responded.

[We're training to get stronger. Are you interested in getting stronger?]

[Yes.]

[Do you want to join us?] Carl posed the question to the Magikarp.

[Yes.] The Magikarp answered as he swam closer.

[Is yes all you can say?] Carl wondered if the fish pokemon just didn't understand what he was asking.

[No.] The Magikarp responded after a short pause.

[Okay, then. Do you have a name?]

[No.]

[Hmm. How about Matt?]

[No.]

[Matthew?]

[No.] The magikarp responded more forcefully.

[Okay, you don't like the name.] Carl spent some time thinking. When the Magikarp evolved, he would turn more like an eastern dragon. [How about the name Shenron? It was the name of a powerful dragon.] And it granted wishes if it had the power. So it made him think of the yes/no responses of the Magikarp.

[Yes.]

[Good, you'll be Shenron then.] Carl then had the Magikarp get attuned to a pokeball.

When Carl did a better scan of the fish pokemon, he was glad he had found the pokemon when he did, as he was at 49% of his potential. Who knows but if the pokemon wouldn't have continued training and evolved before maximizing his potential? It would have been a huge waste.

After adding Shenron to his group, Carl slowly made his way south along the coastline as he spent most of his morning trainings Shenron. The fish pokemon was growing quickly, thankfully, because Carl wanted him to get to the point he was at 100% and evolved so he could join the rest of the group out of the water.

Six weeks later, Carl arrived at Ambrette Town, where he ran into Serena again at the hotel. They spent another nice evening, having dinner and wandering around the town together, exploring what was there.

On Carl's part, he really enjoyed Serena's upbeat attitude. She had a lot of drive to improve herself as a trainer, which he admired about her. Carl even shared a little of what he knew about how pokemon should train to their maximum potential before evolving.

Even if she wasn't a friend, Carl didn't feel like sharing this information was too detrimental to him. No one else had his magic abilities, so being able to sense which pokemon had huge potential was beyond anyone else, thus he still had an advantage over everyone else. And no one else but him could say for sure when the pokemon reached 100% and should then evolve.

While Carl and Serena were exploring the town, they found out about the Glittering Cave further east that had been discovered just chock full of fossils. Serena seemed excited about exploring the caves, and maybe finding new pokemon, so Carl decided it would allow them to spend more time together.

The next day Carl, Serena, and his LTs arrived at the cave system. They spent some time spelunking, finding several rock and ground type pokemon.

Carl was enjoying himself until they ran into some guy in a red suit with red hair and sunglasses. Who wears sunglasses in a cave? Idiots, that's who.

"Well, well. What do we have here? A couple of nosy little Trainers have come poking around." The red clothed idiot spewed some nonsense. "Listen up! We're the fashionable team whose very name makes people tremble in fear: Team Flare. Team Flare's goal is to make it so we're the only ones who are happy! We don't care one bit about what happens to other Trainers or Pokemon. Get out of here. Don't you know not to play with fire?"

Carl looked at him for a moment. Then looked over at Serena. "Do you know anything about this Team Flare he's talking about?" Carl totally ignored the red idiot for now.

Serena nodded affirmatively. "Yes, they are a group of thugs, thieves, and terrorists. They've caused the deaths of a number of people and pokemon."

Carl saw the member of Team Flare get really mad and start reaching for a pokeball, which could be considered a deadly weapon. [Fiona, Rhona, Talbot. Subdue him and any pokemon he might call out.] Carl gave mental commands to his team.

The member of Team Flare called out, "Get him Houndour!" And then threw out a pokemon. The pokemon looked like an armored Rott Weiller.

Fiona disappeared from view and reappeared behind the Team Flare idiot, and knocked him out with one swipe. Meanwhile Rhona and Talbot combo attacked the Houndour, knocking him out instantly with overwhelming attacks. Carl casually walked up and grabbed the pokeball the Houndour came from and put the hound back in its ball.

"What? Aren't pokemon battles supposed to be fought one by one?" Serena asked.

"Well, this idiot wasn't trying to duel us, he was attacking with the intent to cause harm, or even kill us. Since it wasn't a duel, we didn't play by duel rules. Like you said, their organization has killed people in the past. Evil people like that won't be stopped by being nice to them." Carl tried to get Serena to understand that holding back on thugs would not help, and would be even more dangerous to her health.

"Of course we don't fight like this in real duels. But in different situations, different rules apply." Carl continued talking as he pulled some rope out of his backpack and began tying up the Team Flare member. Carl was pleased to see a thoughtful look on Serena's face, as opposed to her outright rejecting his advice.

Carl let Talbot carry the team idiot captive as they exited the cave and made their way back to Ambrette Town to turn him in to the police. They had to spend some time giving statements and contact information to the police.

Eventually they were free to go, chose to have another dinner and night out together before retiring for the evening.

The next day they decided to leave town together, traveling back to Cyllage city where they split ways. Carl was going to return to Lumiose City. He had gotten word from Clark that the water training facilities were complete, and wanted to test them out. As well as have Shenron in the lab to record his evolution now that he was getting close.

Meanwhile Serena continued her journey, headed Northwest towards Geosenge Town.

A few days later, Carl returned home, and spent a few days relaxing with his parent with some light training put in every day.

By the end of the week, Shenron had gotten his potential maxed out and was ready to evolve. Claire joined Carl, Clark, Fiona, Rhona, and Talbot in the lab as they watched the evolution of Shenron.

When he was done evolving, he was 8 feet long. The blue scales on his back were a deep ocean blue, and almost iridescent. A regular Gyaradoss still had many fishy features, like his fins and tail. Shenron still had those fishy features, but they were much smaller than a normal Gyarados.

After testing his power level and attacks, Carl was quite happy at his strength. And now that he could fly and breathe air, Shenron could join the rest of his Lieutenants with him on their journey and training with the pokemon army he was building.

They threw a party with all his pokemon at the facility to celebrate. It was a fun time, watching all his pokemon playing with each other. Thank goodness he didn't supply alcohol, cause a drunk pokemon that said "Hold my beer and watch this" would be terrifying.

After a month at home, spending time with his parents and training pokemon, while talking with Serena on the pokegear in the evenings, Lumiose City experienced blackouts for three days.

After the three days, when power came back, the news reports came out that Team Flare had temporarily taken over the power plant supplying power to the Kalos region. There was a lot of talk amongst the citizens that the police should work harder to round up Team Flare and lock them in jail. They were a public menace.

A week later came news that Team Flare had taken over the Pokeball Factory and tried to extort several Master Balls from the personnel there. Serena called Carl that evening and narrated how she had ran into Team Flare at the Factory. She wanted to thank him for his words that convinced her not to play by Trainer Dueling rule, because it allowed her to subdue them and stay safe.

Carl was happy to hear she was safe. But he was getting really tired of putting up with Team Flares shit. He wasn't sure what he could do about it, though. He had no idea where the organization was based out of. The police were obviously also stumped, since they hadn't taken them down yet.

Just as Carl was getting ready to head out for another training trip, everyone's Holo Caster suddenly turned on. A hologram of that black suited man with the red mane-like hair showed up. Carl was wondering how he managed to hack everyone's Holo Caster.

Carl's question was answered shortly, as he revealed he was Lysandre of Lysandre Labs and the secret boss of Team Flare.

"Guess that answers how they were able to stay ahead of the cops as well as finding secret information." Carl commented.

Lysandre explained that he was the rightful King of Kalos, and then revealed that he was going to use the "Ultimate Weapon" from the war from 3,000 years ago to wipe out all live in the Kalos Region that didn't submit to his rule.

'That's it. Lysandre has just hit the point of no return. Time to take out the garbage.' Carl thought.

He then went to his Warehouse, gathered his gear, assembled his pokemon army, and prepared to deploy.

He hadn't felt a need to use his Sling Ring that he got from the Sorcerer Supreme costume he had worn all those years ago on Halloween. He'd been enjoying living life at the pace that the Pokemon world moved at. There had been no urgent need, until now, to use it.

Carl opened some portals inside the defenses of Lysandre Labs, where Lysander was doing his world hostage terrorist play. He sent his pokemon army to subdue any members of Team Flare around. He meanwhile, made his way to the main lab.

When Carl got there, he saw that red lion-mane haired man working on some kind of device on a platform. Apparently he hadn't prepared his big weapon before gloating to the world, and he didn't expect anyone to be able to open portals and get through his defenses as quick as Carl did.

Carl didn't bother trying to talk to the man. He didn't know him, or his past. And he didn't have any Talk-no-Jutsu available to turn enemies into allies. The man was a terrorist that was holding a gun to the head of the world.

So Carl didn't hesitate, he simply aimed his previously purchased sniper rifle and put a round in Lysandre's head.

After the head of Team Flare died, Carl spent a few moments looking around suspiciously, keeping his guard up. The head terrorist had died so quickly and anticlimactically, that Carl kept thinking there would be something else happening.

When nothing happened, Carl put away his rifle, and began looking through what the mad man had been working on. Not willing to leave such a nasty weapon lying around to fall into who knows whose hands, Carl began disassembling everything for later study, chucking it into his Warehouse. He then searched Lysandre's body.

Carl looted his Pokegear, his Holo Caster, his accounts and pokeballs. He found a single Master Ball on the man. Carl put it away for later. If Lysandre needed a Master Ball to catch some pokemon, it must have been an impressive pokemon.

After looting the labs, Carl left to find that his LTs and pokemon army had subdued all the Team Flare members and their pokemon. The police were moving around, arresting them while his pokemon looked on.

After praising his pokemon, Carl returned them to their pokeballs, left a short statement with the police, and then left.

Once everything finally settled down, Carl and his Lieutenants gathered to see just what pokemon was in the Master Ball. When Carl released it, he saw it was a majestic looking deer with his antlers rainbow colored and glowing. The legendary Xerneas pokemon stood in front of his group.

Carl extended a mental probe, enough to communicate, but not establish a bond, to get the story from him about how he was caught. Team Flare had besieged him and wore him down to the point that Lysandre had an easy time capturing him with the Master Ball.

The proud pokemon naturally wanted his freedom, so Carl let him go. He felt more at ease with the pokemon he was raising. They had more history, friendship, and loyalty due to their long journey of training to be the best they could.

Besides which, when Carl scanned the Legendary pokemon, he had detected that his LTs had a similar potential level as the Xerneas had. So Carl was excited with the idea that he would eventually train up a team full of Legends.

Why would he need to convince one proud pokemon that had gotten to the top on his own to join his team? He could just train them himself, and they would have a greater sense of loyalty and belonging because he brought them from the bottom to the top.

Carl soon resumed his training journeys. Time seemed to be passing in a blur, since he was having a lot of fun and was so focused on his goals.

He found a female Bagon with a potential large enough that she would eventually grow to be a legendary pokemon on the outskirts of Geosenge Town. After creating the psychic mind link, she took on the name Selene. After three months she evolved into a Shelgon, but her shell was red, different from the usual white.

Shortly after finding Selene, when Carl was traveling back to Lumiose city, he found a Honedge, which was a Ghost / Steel type pokemon that looked like a floating sword. Carl was impressed with his potential, and made his offer to join them. He had just been able to create a sixth psychic link, and sensed that this was the last one he would be able to make in this world. Something about the number six seemed to be the max in the Pokemon world.

The Honedge took on the name Calibur. It amused him because of the reference to Soulcalibur and Excalibur from his original world. A week after Selene evolved, Calibur evolved into a Doublade, a double sword body with long arm like tassels. Calibur's new form was a brilliant golden color that emphasized his excellence.

Carl's 14th birthday came around, and he invited Serena to come, where he found out she was only a year older than him, not two years like he had assumed the first time he saw her. Thankfully the idiot Calem found someone else to hassle, and Carl never heard from him again.

Carl's parents really liked Serena, and he could tell they were already thinking about them getting together.

A few months later, while Carl was on a training journey to the Azure Bay for another underwater adventure, he ran across another Legendary Pokemon, the Kyogre. It looked like a weird fish with large hand-like fins.

Before dropping into the world, Carl had been planning on using his Master Balls that he'd purchased to capture some powerful pokemon, but now his plans had all changed. He had six Legendary Pokemon in the making, so he wasn't really tempted to go looking for already powerful pokemon. He decided he would save the Master Balls for emergency situations. Like if he ran across rampaging pokemon that he couldn't subdue or kill himself.

So he just enjoyed having seen another rare pokemon, took some pictures, and went about his business.

Towards the end of his third year in the pokemon world, he found another couple of pokemon with the potential to grow into legendary pokemon. One was a Sneasel, a weasel shaped pokemon. The other was a Mienfoo, a fighting type pokemon that looks like a martial arts weasel.

Carl decided they would make excellent gifts for Serena, since he was growing even closer to her. He spent many long discussions with her about how to train up her Legendary pokemon in training.

Halfway through his fourth year in the Pokemon world, Fiona finally maxed out her potential and evolved into a Delphox. Like her previous evolution, she was a foot taller, at almost 6 feet, and she had 6 tails.

Shortly after, Rhona evolved into a Gardevoir. She was taller than normal Gardevoir, and her green hair fell down to her waist, instead of her shoulders. But like all of his Lieutenants, she was powerful.

A month later, Talbot evolved into a Torterra, and he was huge. At 8 feet tall, with small trees on is shell, he was an absolute tank.

Shenron surprised everyone when he maxed his potential and evolved. Until that time, no one was sure if he had another form. He didn't grow much larger than he already was, but he did grow four legs and claws, and looked even more dragon-like. His whiskers on his face were now almost three feet long.

Selene finally evolved a few months later into a Salamence that looked like a stereotypical western dragon. She was about 6 feet tall, with long blood red wings and a deep green body.

Calibur was the next to evolve to his third form, an Aegislash. He looked like a floating sword with arms, carrying a shield.

On Carl's sixteenth birthday, Serena agreed to try dating him. They began traveling together on their pokemon training journeys. By this point Carl trusted her enough to show her the Warehouse, though he still didn't share details about the Jump Chain yet.

Carl parents also purchased a much larger van with expanded space inside so Carl and Serena could transport their pokemon with them. Even though Serena didn't have a psychic link with her pokemon, she had taken to following Carl's practice of keeping her most promising pokemon out with her, so they could build a very deep relationship with each other.

Over the year they traveled, Carl found four more pokemon with Legendary potential that Serena caught and started building into her main team.

All this time, Carl continued to send data to Clark and make the occasional stops to work with him at their company. As a result their company, Poke co. was starting to get a name for itself outside the Kalos Region for high quality, advanced Trainer gear.

At Carl's 17th birthday party, his parents gifted him with a large cargo hauling helicopter so he could transport his pokemon with him as he planned to travel to other regions soon.

But before he did that, he went on a tour around the Kalos region, beating each of the eight gyms needed so he could enter the region tournament. He then beat the elite four and the past champion. It wasn't hard to win with the quality of pokemon he had.

The first region Carl and Serena visited was the Kantos Region. Once they parked their helicopter in the capitol, they used their van to travel around the region, catching and training. Carl loved the life he was living. Adventure, an open road, and a hot girlfriend.

At one point in their journey, they heard about a rare Dratini pokemon that was spotted in the Safari Zone, so they decided to take a look. When they arrived at the Warden check in center, Carl noticed the pictures on the wall of a young looking warden posing with the Dratini. When Carl asked about it, the man pulled his gun and started pointing it at Carl's face.

Carl was pissed. He didn't know why this nut job was pulling a lethal weapon on him, and he didn't care at the moment. Using his magic to control the air around the Warden, he made it hard for the man to move. Carl moved in and broke his hand first, to make sure he couldn't use that handgun. Then he proceeded to break his arm and knock him out for good measure.

Afterwards, they called the cops to press charges.

The investigation showed that the Warden had a habit on pulling his gun on anyone who showed interest in the Dratini and threatening them to leave it alone. Just the previous day, he had pulled his gun on a 12 year old boy trainer, and scared the young boy near to death.

Since he had a history of unstable behavior, the cops pulled him in for a psych eval, and to charge him with several crimes.

After a few days, Carl and Serena were free to resume their journey. The Warden was sane, just incredibly obsessed with pokemon, and so he was fired from his job and placed in prison for a few years while he got help.

Carl and Serena continued to tour the different regions around the pokemon world, always returning home every three months to continue building up their knowledge and technology base.

At the end of his 8th year in the world, his pokemon started evolving into their Legendary forms.

Fiona returned back to being a fox shaped pokemon, with 9 tails. She stood 6 feet at the shoulder.

Rhona evolved into a fairy / elf looking pokemon.

Talbot actually shrunk a bit to 6 feet at the height of his shell, but he had a miniature elven forest on his back. And he could fly. So that was amazing.

Shenron grew deer horns on his head, lost all his fishy characteristics, and grew to be 20 feet long. He looked very similar to the Shenron from the Dragonball manga.

Selene also grew to be 20 feet long, but she was built more solidly. She reminded him of the western dragons from D&D.

Calibur evolved into a plate armored knight with a sword and shield. He could still fly just fine, and he didn't clank when walking. So even though he looked like a knight, he could sneak like a thief.

When Carl turned 21, he knew he had a year left in the world. He had been thinking about it for a while now, and he finally made the decision to share with his family about the Jump Chain.

At first it was hard to explain why he never told them before. There were a lot of feelings that were running hot.

Carl didn't have all of the answers for them. He didn't know some of the answers himself. But he promised them that he would return for them.

He also shared about his life and times in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer world. For Serena to find out he already had multiple girlfriends waiting for him in that world was a bit awkward at first.

Especially when, with his enhanced hearing, he heard her murmur, "No wonder you were so skilled on our first time. I'll have to get those girls a thank you gift for training him so that our first time was wonderful, and not painfully awkward."

He was both proud and embarrassed.

But she made him promise to follow certain rules in the future. In her mind since she couldn't stop him jumping into different worlds and possibly getting involved with different women, then he needed guidelines.

No matter how hot, he couldn't get involved with bitches. They needed to be generous and open minded, not small minded and jealous.

Before taking their relationship to the next level, he needed to make her aware that he's got other girlfriends too. It's not fair to blind side the girl with his other relationships after they've already had sex.

No children until they can all reunite and the girls can meet and get to know each other.

Carl was just relieved she was taking it so well, he might have agreed to more stringent rules.

Once everything settled down from Carl's revelation, Clark, Claire, and Serena started working on making sure to outfit his warehouse with everything he would need. Pocket dimension storage bins. Weapons, foods, medicine.

They also installed the machinery needed to create pocket dimension storage units, incase he needed more space later.

Finally, on the last day, everything was packed. Carl was as prepared for his future jumps as he could be. They had said their goodbyes.

Carl and Serena had made love for the last time for however long the separation would be.

All of Carl's pokemon were in their pokeballs and in his warehouse.

Time was up, and Carl left the Pokemon world behind.