Act I: Chapter 10

Hello everyone,

I wanted to clear something up from the last chapter. When Brawly asked his dad how many trainers he knew that had an absol, Brody said one. What he meant was that Brawly was the only trainer he knew of. I should have made that more obvious, my bad.

Now that is cleared up, let's get into the chapter.

Follow me on instagram at wtmcdonaldauthor! If you are feeling generous, and wish to donate to my writing career, you can find me at Patreon under Twubs for early access to chapters of The Ladder, Defiant, and Tsunami of the South!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

*********************************************************************************************************

"We need to have a talk."

I closed my eyes for a moment, and tried to beat back the irritation that made its way into my mind. I was tired of having to explain myself, but I would, to get me out of this situation. Although, I would not tell him the whole truth.

"Let's do it." I said as I moved past him into his office.

There was a simple mahogany desk inside. On the walls were pictures from his days as a normal trainer. On the back wall, all of his trophies and achievements were on display. A monitor sat on his desk, along with a mouse and keyboard. He was surprisingly tech-savvy.

'Don't get very far as a trainer without understanding technology.' I couldn't help but think.

Brody sat down in his chair, and made himself comfortable. "What really happened with you and Blaine?"

I met him in the eyes, so that he wouldn't think I was lying. "I guessed the evolution method for turning a growlithe into arcanine." I lied straight to his face.

Brody stared at me, but didn't react immediately. Definitely not the way Blaine did.

"What?" Brody said, a little dumbfounded.

"Yea I know. He handed me the pokeball to Madara, and I jokingly asked if he had a fire stone laying around." I revealed it casually. "Next thing I know, there is a delphox holding a wand to my neck and I'm in Blaine's personal lab."

Brody's elbows came to rest on the desk and brought his hands right in front of his face. "Fuck kid." Brody said.

He ran his hands through his hair before asking his next question. "Did he threaten you?"

'Wow, this conversation just skipped a few steps. Aren't you supposed to be in awe of my guessing?' I thought. Then I noticed his tensed muscles. His hands were gripping each other hard, and the veins in his arms were bulging.

"Yes." I answered.

'Parental instinct outweighs shock I guess.' I assumed.

Brody stood up immediately when I confirmed that Blaine threatened me, and turned away from me. I could feel his rage from where he stood. I could only imagine what things were going through his head.

"Why didn't you tell me?" Brody said. "I would have set that shit straight, fast."

"A couple of reasons." I said. "He was dead the same night, I saw no reason to tarnish a dead man's reputation. And I won't rely on you to bail me out of everything."

"You had no problem doing that twenty-minutes ago." Brody said, cutting into my argument quickly.

"She's Elite Four." I retorted. Threats from Elite Four trumped my want to be independent from my father. I could instantly get blackballed from the entire league at her command. That is something that cannot ever happen.

Brody didn't respond for a moment, but he accepted the answer. I could tell he was working through his rage over the situation. I hadn't really had any time to be angry at my situation. Most of my brain was just going towards solving problems I regularly found myself in.

"Fuck that motherfucker." Brody said finally as he sat back down.

"I agree." I told him.

"So you need a firestone." Brody stated.

My surprise must have shown on my face, because he responded before I could.

"I can't whip his ass, now that he's in the ground. But you walking around with that majestic beast would be a nice middle-finger to his bitch ass." Brody explained.

I couldn't help but feel extremely happy at my father's reaction. It was nice knowing that even if we were arguing and disagreed about some things, he had my back no matter what. I realized that I would also do the same for him, not to mention what atrocities I would commit for my mother. My blood sang in excitement at the prospect of violence, but I beat it down.

"How rare are firestones?" I asked.

"Pretty fuckiing rare." Brody said. "It'll take me awhile to track one down."

"Blaine said that he has been monitoring the most common locations, so he probably had a huge stack hidden somewhere." I revealed. "And they might become more available in the future. Unless Oak takes over his role."

"Oak's in on it too?" Brody asked, actually surprised.

I backpedalled a bit. "Well I don't know that for sure. Blaine just mentioned him in passing. Oak does have one of the only two arcanine in existence, though."

"And a dragonite, and a fucking nidoking." Brody said, rolling his eyes at the absolute powerhouse Samuel Oak is.

"Yea, that's ridiculous." I commented. "But that reminds me, what will happen to Blaine's arcanine?" I asked, with a little naive hope.

"The League will never let such a dangerous pokemon roam free, son. I bet Lance has already dealt with it." Brody said, crushing my dreams.

"Well, ok then." I replied lamely.

"When a pokemon hits a certain threshold, it's best they go down with their trainer." Brody said, now calm from earlier.

I didn't know what to say to that, nor could I think of another topic to talk about with him. So I stood up and made my way to the door.

"When are you leaving?" Brody asked.

'At least he's not trying to stop me.'

"Now seems as good of a time as any." I said. I was already getting tired of being home. As much as the world was intent on killing me, I still loved being out there on my own.

Brody nodded, and stood up. He walked around and his massive frame engulfed mine in a manly hug. "If you need anything, call me." He said seriously.

"And if you leave without saying goodbye to your mother, I'll be on your ass like white on rice, you understand?"

*********************************************************************************************************

I, wisely, obeyed my father and went to have an emotional goodbye with my mother, before she loaded me down with food and sent me on my way.

Instead of teleporting straight back onto the beach that Tsunade died on, I decided to visit Granite Cave before heading back. I wasn't sure why, but it felt like a good idea now that I had pokemon to protect me.

That's what brought me to standing right in front of the entrance that led into the cave, with absol's ball in my hand. Hashi, Minato, and Madara all stood around me, waiting for me to do something. In the end, I decided we got introduced to our new member properly.

In a flash of red light, absol appeared in front of us. It looked at me, and then looked at my hand holding its ball. It sneered at the pokeball, and I could understand why none of my pokemon liked staying in their balls.

"Sorry, I have to put you up while in the towns and cities of this world. Otherwise, when we're traveling, you can be out all you want." I told it as I brought out my pokegear to skan the pokemon.

"But first." I began as the red light connected with its body. "You need a name."

'Ding.'

'Absol, the Disaster Pokemon.'

I looked down to skan the information. I skimmed until I found the relevant information. While I was doing that I noticed that the absol had appeared by my side and was sniffing the object in my hand. My other hand reached and patted it on the head absentmindedly. Which of course, triggered Madara's jealousy, and he whined beside me. I obeyed, and reached down to pet him too before finding the information I wanted.

"Female" I said, and was about to put up my pokegear before I saw the move set at the bottom. I read it quickly, and was not disappointed.

'Ability: Pressure.

Moves known: Future sight, quick attack, pursuit, bite, night slash, iron tail.'

My eyes widened and I filed the information in the back of my mind. "You're a powerful girl aren't you." I said to myself more than anything. "But I think I have a name for you."

Absol perked up and waited for me to reveal it.

"Shika." I said. My motivation was Shikamaru, but considering he was male, I remixed the name since I didn't know any of his clan members who were female.

Shika nodded at me, content with the name. "Meet your teammates." I said pointing at the members while naming off their names. "Hashi, Minato, and Madara."

Hashi did his customary greeting of laying his massive hand on her head, affectionately. It was like a statement that he would protect her. She looked up at him, but didn't acknowledge him otherwise. An image of him holding Tsunade's dead body in his hands flashed through my mind before I beat it back.

Minato nodded towards her. I knew he wanted to greet her with his mind, but her dark typing blocked him unless she wanted to let him in. She nodded back towards him.

Madara barked at her and ran around her legs. Shika actually bent down and nuzzled the little fire dog like what I imagined a mother arcanine would.

I smiled as her integration with the team was completed. "Ok good, now we're going to do a little exploring. This is where Hashi grew up." I said and pointed at the cave.

Hashi's head turned to the cave with nostalgia on his face. His braided blue hair ran down his back and touched his butt. The new braid, and pokemon grade hair tie was courtesy of my mother. Somehow it just fit him.

Hashi moved forward, and I followed him. This trip was really about him, I didn't know why, but it felt right letting him come back to his home.

We moved into the cave, and memories of stumbling upon his batter body hit me. I smiled as I reminisced. Hashi didn't even pause, he just kept walking like he owned the place. Minato and Shika kept pace beside me, looking around the cavern. Madara had his nose to the ground and was running around sniffing things.

There was some fluttering of wings, and I looked up to see a group of zubat flying around the top of the cavern. Madara barked at them, but they didn't respond to his challenge. It wasn't really fair, considering I had three matured pokemon backing him up. Even if they had a little growing to be considered fully grown. I doubted any wild pokemon would give us trouble.

Hashi continued to move through the cavern with practiced, confident steps. I wondered if he had a destination in mind, or if he was just walking. Either way, I didn't care.

I fell into a routine as we walked, which basically consisted of keeping track of the turns we took, and keeping up with Madara. Minato never left my side, and the only time Shika did was to corral my curious growlithe. Every time, I just smiled, content with her motherly instincts. It was weird because she acted like a mix of a dog and a cat.

And then, before I knew it, there was a little makuhita looking up at Hashi with wonder in its eyes. Like a child who wanted to grow up to be a firefighter, seeing a real fire truck for the first time. Hashi stared back, with recognition in his eyes. Then he bent down, and held out one of his massive hands.

The little round pokemon moved forward to touch him.

"Hari!" A more feminine shout than Hashi's own, stopped the makuhita from continuing.

It looked back towards the direction of the voice, and so did we. The same Hariyama from earlier flew out of the darkness of the cavern, sprinting towards Hashi.

I felt my pokemon tense, and I sent mental commands to all of them through Minato to stay still and watch. This was something Hashi needed to handle.

White energy gathered on the hand of the attacking Hariyama and she thrust forward. Hashi had stood up long before she reached him and was prepared.

His own hand, that showed no sign of using his energy, rose to meet her own. They met with a 'thud', and Hashi stopped her momentum altogether. She seemed surprised at the turn of events because she was slow to react when Hashi grabbed her hand and flipped her over his hip, onto the ground.

She hit the ground with a grunt, and finally got her wits about her. She tried to hit him with another palm, he blocked. She kneed him, and he blocked her. They went round and round with her tiring herself out and him just waiting for her to stop.

A bunch of other small makuhita appeared in the light of the cave, watching the fight with wide eyes.

Finally, Hashi jumped off of the female hariyama and stepped back before letting out a grunt.

"Hariyama." Hashi's deeper voice bounced off of the walls. The female hariyama got to her feet and looked at him in a new light. Almost like she recognized him.

That's your son, you should recognize him. I thought, as I watched the exchange.

She bowed her head to him and let out a weak. "Hari."

At that signal, the makuhita surrounding them rushed Hashi curiously. He bent down excitedly and interacted with them. Some would throw a punch, which he would block and smack them playfully. Well, most would consider it a little aggressive, but they were fighters by nature and it looked affectionate. Hashi even corrected a few of their punches, teaching them how to properly do it.

I decided to let him have his fun, and found a rock to sit on to eat lunch and feed everyone. Shika tasted her blend of food that was based off of my father's Pangoro's blend, and was actually pleased with it. After she finished, she laid beside me and played with growlithe who would bite at her playfully.

I brought out my pokegear to start thinking about moves that my team could learn to cover weaknesses and give them a wider move pool. It didn't take me long to figure out what I could do for everyone, and I wouldn't have to pay for any move learning technology.

Minato actually disappeared for about fifteen minutes before returning with a silver hypnosis looking medallion around his wrist. I sent him a mental question.

'Silver. Helps.' He retorted, showing off his deeper vocabulary and understanding of language. Then he sent me another image of a kadabra and some abra's living around some silver deposits.

I nodded.' Like kadabra's spoon.' I thought. Abra have been seen around this area for a long time, so I wasn't that surprised.

What did surprise me was that the female hariyama had disappeared for a while, before returning clutching something. She cradled it in her hands and brought it straight to Hashi.

Hashi stared at it in wonder, and Minato linked us together at my subconscious command. I could feel, through Hashi, that it was giving off a tremendous amount of energy that synced with his own. It was weird being able to 'feel' a pokemon's energy.

She offered him what looked to be a yellow stone. He took it in the same way that she did, cradling it in his massive hands.

"Hari!" Hashi grunted. It echoed around the cave.

"Yama." The female said and bowed her head towards him. Then she turned to the makuhita around her. "Hari!" She commanded and pointed. The little makuhita obeyed and followed her back into their lair or home or whatever.

Meanwhile, I gathered up my things in my backpack and headed over to him. He turned to me, and offered his hand out so that I could see it. It became apparent what it was, very quickly. The DNA-like structure in the middle of the stone gave it away.

It was a mega stone.

*********************************************************************************************************

"I thought you said you were leaving."

Brody didn't even look up from his computer to acknowledge me. I didn't respond, instead I motioned for Hashi to show him our latest discovery.

Hashi set the mega stone on the table gently. That did cause Brody to look at it, and when he did, his fucking jaw dropped and he backed away from it like it would kill him. Junior appeared in the room, in front of him and the stone. Both of their eyes were locked on to it.

"So you do know what it is?" I asked him, noticing his reaction.

"How the fuck did you get it?!" Brody roared towards me as he stood up. His eyes never left the stone on the table, nor did Junior move.

I recited the story to him. The whole time, he looked at the stone on the table from different angles to get a clear look at it. I finished up my explanation and it did almost nothing to him.

"It's not going to kill you!" I exclaimed, tired of his freaking out.

"Son, you don't know what you just stumbled on." Brody said, finally looking up at me.

'I actually do.' I thought. 'I actually had a theory that there would be a mega stone for Hashi. But I never imagined it to be true.'

"That's why I brought it to you. Hashi keeps worshiping the damn thing!" I said, playing along with my act.

"First Absol, Arcanine, and now this?" Brody muttered as Junior moved and he sat back down in his chair and ran his hand through his head. "How do you keep getting in these situations?" His head dipped into his lap.

"What did I do now?" I asked, incredulous.

Brody sat up, and his hands went to the mouse and keyboard in front of him. He pulled up a page I couldn't see and started typing. It took him a few minutes of pulling screens and typing logins into it before he reached the database he was looking for.

"That is a stone, essential for what is being called 'mega evolution' by professors around the world. Boosts a pokemon's power to that of the legends temporarily." Brody said calmly as he turned the screen in my direction. It was a picture of him and his starter, a blaziken, but it was mega evolved and was about to attack the rest of my father's pokemon. It was the same pokemon that would have destroyed the town when I was younger, had my father and his full team not taken down the rogue pokemon.

Flame flashed through my mind as I remembered a glimpse from that night.

"You remember him right?" Brody asked, motioning to his starter.

I nodded at him. "I only vaguely remember what happened." I said.

"Steven showed up at the gym's door one day." Brody said, starting off the story. "I remember there being a suspiciously low amount of trainers that challenged me that day. He asked for use of the training grounds. It is one of the more unique ways people on my level train our pokemon. I thought nothing of it. So we retreated underground, you were there actually."

That surprised me, but it made sense. I have memories of flames everywhere, although I didn't know what happened.

"He had an assortment of stones with him, and claimed that he wanted me to participate in an experiment of his." Brody said as he turned the screen back towards him. "Said it would make certain pokemon, who were compatible with the stones, on par with the legends. He called it Mega Evolutions. Said he was working with Professor Sycamore from Kalos to track down these stones that were essential in triggering mega evolution."

I nodded, following along. I already knew all of this information anyway.

"He gave me a stone, compatible with Blaziken and the instructions on how to trigger the phenomenon. Mine and blazikens connection was well known in the league, and I had established myself as an extremely efficient Gym Leader. Stephen trusted me and Wallace with it, no one else." Brody explained.

I didn't know that part. 'Wasn't Wallace famous for his Milotic? It can mega evolve?'

"I lost Blaziken. Wallace lost his swampert. Lance lost his alteria. Volkner managed to save his electivire by grounding him long enough for his pokemon to beat the stone off of his body. Cynthia's garchomp managed to save her lucario. I never figured out if anyone else suffered any losses. I don't think you remember how fucked up I was after that." Brody finished, not really going into too much detail.

I wanted to ask more questions, but I didn't have to, Brody answered me. "Apparently, the stone needs a focus, or it'll send the pokemon into a state of rage. Sycamore claims to have fixed the problem, but the League has had him by the throat ever since. Apparently, they are close to approving a set of Ace trainers, hand picked by him, to do another trial. He knows better than to approach us again."

"He didn't face repercussions?" I asked, curious. The League normally has a heavy hand approach to those situations.

"The League cut his funding by ninety-five percent for five years. Oak had to stop Lance from killing Sycamore. Met Lance mid-air somewhere over the sea, dragonite to dragonite, off the coast of Kalos. Nobody saw the fight, all we know is that it lasted four hours, above the clouds. Luckily, no pokemon died in the fight. Stephen quit for a year, blamed himself, and went on a sabbatical. Ironically enough, Wallace was the one to beat some sense into him." Brody said.

I could see his eyes kept flashing to the drawer I knew kept a bottle of scotch and a few glasses. His hand twitched that direction a couple of times, and Junior's eyes would snap to him before he would stop and return to the story.

'So before they knew about Key Stones, they tried it without them. And the pokemon lost their minds?' I deduced from the story. 'And Oak can still go toe to toe with Lance? Sheesh.'

"League kept it under wraps?" I asked.

Brody nodded. "Sound familiar?" He asked.

'Very familiar.' I agreed as I thought back to the whole arcanine/Blaine situation. 'But I'll need a key stone.'

The image of Mewtwo floating above me on the beach appeared in my mind. I squashed the hate that built up in my mind because of the pokemon. Patient, we need power first.

"You told me that blaziken had something called 'battle craze'." I said while standing up and looking at the stone on the desk.

"That's what we called it for a while. Sycamore just claimed to figure it out. In fact..." Brody explained, and went to look on the computer. A couple of clicks and he found his answer. "...The request was put in a week ago. Stephen sent me the information himself."

'Wow, are all of the events of the pokemon world going to happen at once!? Aren't the games events set apart by a couple years at least?' I wondered, as I processed the information.

"Are y'all going to stop it?" I asked, curious as to why Stephen was sending it around.

Brody smiled. "Stephen wants to." He said. "Wants to wrap Sycamore in so much red tape he never even mentions the phrase 'mega' again."

"Don't." I told him simply, voicing my opinion on it.

Brody looked at me strangely, as if he didn't expect it. Then came the anger. "What?" He asked.

"You're trying to stop progress, dad. If he has willing trainers, and claims to have fixed the issue, why not let him test it on a smaller number of people." I reasoned. Of course, I knew he actually had cracked the code, or at least I had a hunch that he had. And I needed it.

"What do you remember of that night?" Brody growled.

"Flame." I said simply.

"He killed Machamp, almost immediately. Had I not returned Aggron, his foot would have melted through his skull. Junior teleported us out, and Poli flooded the entire cavern. I had to drown my own fucking pokemon." Brody snarled at me in anger, his eyes red. "The League blamed the earthquakes on a nearby steelix, a peaceful one. Then I had to hand the town the steelix's head, because they demanded it."

'Oh shit.' I thought. 'That is pretty fucking intense.'

"Instead of blocking it completely, demand that there be a more controlled test. Only pokemon of champion level strength, with type effectiveness, be present to combat them if the worst happens." I argued.

"Come back after eight badges. You have no idea how strong champion level pokemon really are, son. This went beyond even that. There is no place in this world for it." Brody said dismissively, and this time his hand opened the drawer for the scotch. Junior did not stop him this time.

I had no argument against that, but I was tired of being told to get more experience. I grabbed the stone on the desk, and turned around to leave. I stopped at the door, realizing I was leaving on a bad note again.

Brody uncorked the scotch and just as he was about pour, I spoke. "Love you pop. Eight badges, and we'll have another talk about this. Until then, I'll leave it alone." I told him, and then walked out with Hashi following me.

Brody put the cork back on the bottle of scotch, and put it back in the drawer without pouring anything. I heard him sniffle and wipe his nose before responding just as I got to the edge of hearing distance.

"Deal, squirt."

*********************************************************************************************************

Hariyama

Name: Hashirama (Hashi)

Ability: Thick Fat

Moves recognized by pokedex: Arm Thrust, Sand Attack, Focus Energy, Detect.

Skill set: Advanced body technique with running, fighting, wrestling. Very physically strong because of weight training and constantly using focus energy during training and battle.

*********************************************************************************************************

Hypno

Name: Minato

Ability: Inner Focus (I will explain this later)

Moves recognized by pokedex: Barrier, Pound, Teleport, Hypnosis, Confusion, Dream Eater (Weakened)

Skill Set: Advanced body technique with running and throwing punches and kicks. Mentally advanced due to always being outside of pokeball and near an intelligent trainer. Confusion has morphed into telekinesis, and very strong for age.

*********************************************************************************************************

Growlithe

Name: Madara

Ability: Flash Fire

Moves recognized by pokedex: Quick Attack, Ember, Flame Wheel, Bite.

Skill set: Very well-behaved. Hasn't had any time to train with Brawly too much yet.

*********************************************************************************************************

Absol

Name: Shika

Ability: Pressure

Moves recognized by pokedex: Future Sight, Quick Attack, Pursuit, Bite, Night Slash, Iron Tail.

Skill set: Natural disaster sensing, hiding mind of itself and trainer against psychics at any time.

*********************************************************************************************************

A/N: Boom! There is a little recap on the team so far, some people have asked for that a couple of times. Maybe I'll add at the end of every chapter.

I feel like, since I am taking so much liberties with this world. There is always information I have to drop on y'all. Weirdest thing is that I keep finding reasonable ways to explain a realistic pokemon world. It's fucking fun for me let me tell you.

Brody is also a blast to write. He is literally my father, for anyone who is curious as to who he is modeled after. You're basically getting mine and my father's relationship during college repackaged as a pokemon story. That's a weird thing to type, let me tell ya.

So Brody no longer likes Blaine, even if he is dead, and was willing to fuck him up once he learned of the threat. Hashi would be a great father, and now has a Hariyamite?? (I guess that's what it would be called.) Shika is a mother hen for everyone, just what the team needed honestly. And might be one of the most powerful on the team tbh, haven't decided yet.

And mega evolutions have history in this world! What about that Oak and Lance bomb I dropped?

Let's talk about it in the reviews.