Act I: Chapter 11

Hello everyone,

Pretty good reception to everything in the last chapter, with the mega evolutions and what not. But one thing I feel like I do need to clear up.

Oak did not wreck Lance's whole team with only his Dragonite. Brody said 'Dragonite to Dragonite', nothing more. So it was one on one, and really, neither of them won per say. Oak just distracted him enough to get some anger out of Lance's system and talk some sense into him.

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Cinnabar Island was a wreck.

I stood in the exact spot on the beach as when Minato teleported us off of the island, looking towards the mainland. Where there were trees, blackened husks replaced them. Almost all of the forest that backed up to the beach was gone.

The sand was once brown, but now had a white layer on top of it because of the ash from the Volcano. The only place that was normal, was where the sea met the beach, having long since dragged everything but sand into its depths.

Hashi stood beside me, looking into the sea with a pained expression on his face and his body tense. His massive hands clenched.

Minato was looking into the sky, in the spot that Mewtwo had floated over us. I could tell through our link that he was replaying the night in his mind. I did my best to ignore it.

Madara ran around, playing in the ash. He must have felt that it was made from fire, just like he was.

Shika was curled up, right before the beach, where the water would barely reach her and cool her off. Her eyes were pointed off towards the horizon.

I stood there another five minutes without moving, lost in my thoughts and refusing to look down at my hands. They felt moist, and sticky, just as they had that same night. I knew it was trauma, and fought the urge to clean my hands.

'There is no blood, Brawly.' I told myself over and over.

I wasn't sure how much time had passed, but eventually my ride showed up. Shika was the first to notice the pidgeot with a trainer on it's back diving from the clouds. She didn't move, but her eyes tracked the bird the whole way.

Just like before, another Pidgeot followed the first and dove after it. I began the process of returning my pokemon and finished up just as the two massive birds touched land.

"Brawly?" The trainer asked as she hopped off of the bird.

"That's me." I said, forcing a smile on my face. "Thanks for agreeing to meet me here."

"Don't sweat it." The woman said as she took her goggles and hat off of her head. Her brown hair was in a very tight bun. "Most of the danger has passed anyway."

I couldn't pin her age, but she was developed. My experiences in my other life told me that her womanly curves meant nothing when determining her age. Some just develop faster. Still, my eyes roamed her form while I could.

'Is every trainer super fit or something?' I couldn't help but think as her blue eyes rose and met mine. She smiled knowingly and started some stretching her legs out. All the while, her eyes peered into me. I did not break, and met her eyes with my own. Absentmindedly, I noted how my mood had changed from somber to teasing quickly.

'Young hormones are good for something, I suppose.' I deduced as the girl jumped up.

"Ever flew before?" The girl asked, not even bothering to introduce herself.

"Yes ma'am." I answered. My past life's southern upbringing came out and showed itself in my speech. She looked at me strangely.

"You from Orre?" She said curiously.

"Hoenn." I replied quickly. "But I've picked some things up from all around." I lied, trying to explain my speech.

She nodded in acceptance, before walking back over to her pidgeot and jumping on it. I followed her lead, and cautiously approached the other massive bird. It's beady eyes watched me the whole time before kneeling and letting me hop on.

"You sure you don't want to go straight to Pallet Town?" She asked.

"Yep, just to the mainland. Everything else will be on foot." I confirmed as I pushed the button that tightened the straps of the harness to my legs.

"Alright." She said, and her pidgeot took off.

I braced myself, and soon we were in the air and climbing. I didn't look back at what used to be known as Cinnabar island, but if I did, I would have seen the destruction the volcano caused.

I had a few reasons for not going straight to Pallet Town. One, I wanted to make as much of the region on foot as I could and get the full experience of being a trainer. Two, the extra weeks on the road would allow me to train my pokemon more extensively and build up some money from the trainers I would meet.

I wasn't getting low on money. In fact, the bank accounts my father had frozen, were now opened back up, with a larger line of credit as an apology when I went up there and threatened a formal complaint. So my money had doubled overnight, and given me some cushion for the coming trip.

The trip was surprisingly short, and I begrudgingly forked over the money for the trip. The flight was massively overpriced. And the trainer knew it from the smirk she had on her face.

Once she was in the sky, off to wherever she came from, I released all of my pokemon. They materialized into the world, tense and ready for a fight. Once they saw that nothing was happening, they observed their surroundings.

"We're back on our journey." I said with my arms out to my side and a smile on my face. "And you know what that means?" I asked all of them.

Everyone but Minato looked at me curiously, waiting for me to reveal the answer. He could literally read my mind, so he was nodding towards me before I even said anything.

"Training!" I said as I took off my backpack and opened it up.

"Hari!" Hashi said excitedly.

Madara and Shika looked at me curiously, since they had yet to have a proper training session with me yet. I smiled, as I realized I got to tortur….train them properly.

I revealed two 'weight belts' from the backpack. I picked up another set before I left, after I got a training routine down.

"Hashi, Minato." I called out to the original members of the team. "I think the best thing to do for you two is to get you some coverage. Hashi, psychic types will always give you trouble. One counter to that, is steel type energy. Shika here." I said, pointing to the newest member of the team. "Knows how to manipulate steel type moves already with Iron Tail."

Shika took some initiative and summoned the energy required for the move. Her unique tail shone with energy as she performed the move.

"I want you to try and turn your energy to match that, but in your hands and your head. If you can hit people with steel punches or an Iron Headbutt, it'll hurt a lot more." I explained.

Hashi understood what I was trying to get him to do, so he moved forward to Shika. Mainly because Minato had all of us, minus Shika, connected and was explaining it in concepts instead of words.

Hashi laid his hand on her tail, trying to get a feel of the energy. I felt him call his own energy from his body and try to mold it to match her own, but it wouldn't turn and fold the way he wanted to.

"Hari." Hashi grumbled as he tried to manipulate it.

I turned away from them, knowing that Hashi had his objective, and he knew what he needed to do. I wasn't sure if there was such a thing as Iron Punch, but I did know that Hariyama could learn bullet punch, which was a steel type move, so that was what I was going for.

"Minato, steel types." I said as I pointed in Shika's direction. The image of a Skarmory impaling a hypno appeared in my mind, courtesy of Minato. I shook it off, and tried not to let it distract me.

"That's right. Will cause you problems. They are weak to fire type moves." I explained as I knelt down to where Madara was and gave him some loving in the form of patting him.

"Can you fire an ember right here." I asked Madara as I pointed to a spot in the grass.

At the same time, I gave Minato mental commands to read Madara's mind and feel how he molded his energy. Minato obeyed, and concentrated on Madara as he let out a ball of fire in the spot I commanded.

It was weird being able to feel a psychic memorize things. Minato's intelligence continued to rise with each day that passed, and I knew that he wouldn't have to be shown again to be able to practice the move.

'Got it.' Minato's deep, otherworldly voice said in my head. The words ran together perfectly in the sentence, instead of feeling off. His speech was getting better and better.

'Get to it.' I told him with a smile as I turned my attention to where Hashi was. His hand was no longer on Shika's tail. Instead he was staring at it as it flickered between it's normal orange color, and silver.

"Good shit, Hashi!" I said as I watched him. He didn't even react to my praise. No doubt, he wasn't satisfied with just that. He wanted to get the move down.

"Shika, come over here please." I said, now that she was done with showing Hashi how to manipulate the energy. She obeyed and strutted over to where I stood, with a harness in hand.

I knelt down to Madara, and started putting his harness on him. He sniffed the straps and licked my hands as I did it. Soon enough I had it strapped on him. I turned the knob once, and waited for his reaction.

He tilted his head as he looked backwards toward the belt. He knew something was happening, just not what. I chuckled at his reaction.

"This will make you stronger, and faster." I told him.

'Too weak.' Minato told me in my mind. 'One more.'

I trusted him not to push Madara too far, and turned the knob once again. Madara stood up from his sitting position, and looked pretty comfortable.

"Run around for a little bit, get used to it." I said as I turned to Shika. I put her harness on way faster than I did Madara's. Mainly because she stayed still and didn't lick me all over while I did it.

I turned the knob twice, and when she didn't react at all, I turned it twice again. She shuffled a bit, and looked at me like 'is that all you got?'. So I gave her two more turns.

'Three times as strong as Madara's, and right under Hashi's weight.' I noted, trying to get a feel of her physicality.

I heard a yelp, and turned to see Madara rolling on the ground. Apparently, he had tried to perform a Quick Attack, before getting used to his weight.

When he stopped rolling he looked up to me with a happy look on his face and his tongue out, panting.

"I told you so." I said when I noticed he wasn't hurt. The little bastard got a smug look on his face and I rolled my eyes at what he did next.

Then he went right into another Quick Attack, in spite of what I said.

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"Stay by my side, Shika." I commanded the ultra rare pokemon at my side.

She obeyed me, and moved close enough to brush my side with every step we took. I had looked up the Indigo League's rules for pokemon and cities on the pokenet. It turns out that towns and cities had full authority on whether or not to allow pokemon to roam free or not.

Pallet Town was free roam when it came to pokemon. I suspected that it had a lot to do with a former champion having pokemon that controlled the city and the surrounding wilds. Perhaps, a little too much, considering we had a total of six battles with wild pokemon on the three day journey from the beach to Pallet Town. All of them were wins for Madara, who grew physically stronger, faster than my other pokemon.

The training regime rotated daily. During the mornings, two of my pokemon trained their physical strength and speed with the weight bands and the other two worked on new moves. During the day, while we traveled, they would practice certain moves that I called out at random to train up the speed with which they could call their energy up and manipulate it.

Wild pokemon were reserved for Madara, to build up his battle experience and try to catch him up to the others quicker.

I had yet to travel off of the main path into the true wild, where the stronger wild pokemon ruled. Everything we battled were stragglers, and would take nothing but a punch or kick from my pokemon to defeat.

There had been a single pokemon trainer, if you could even call a bug specialist such a thing. He wasn't as bad as I made him out to be, he just made the mistake of sending his scyther, against Minato. On the surface, this seemed like a good idea. Bug moves are strong against Minato.

Only problem is that Minato has started to live up to his namesake. One teleport, and a flame covered fist to the back of the head of the scyther had ended the fight pretty quickly. I was actually concerned with how fast the bug had fallen to the forest floor. So was his trainer, if his speedy exit towards Pallet Town's Pokemon Center was any indication.

'At least he paid me first.' I thought as I crossed the city limit sign and stepped into Pallet Town proper.

I couldn't actually see any of the town yet. It was hidden by the forest that I had to make a right turn to exit.

When I finally did, well I was actually impressed. Not by the town itself, but the fact that Oak's ranch was the first thing I got to see as I came into the town. Which, by the way, is fucking massive.

The fence line that I could track with my eyes extended far back into the forest. Just in my line of sight, I estimated to see about two hundred acres, minimum. There was no telling how far it extended to the east though.

And then, Shika growled. I turned my head to see what she was growling at, and saw one of the most majestic sights of my life.

An Arcanine bolting full speed across the fields towards us. A dust cloud formed behind me.

"Madara. Here." I said, getting the attention of the dog. About the same time I said that the absolute monster of an animal was in front of me, on the other side of the fence.

His intelligent eyes roamed over my party. His eyes lingered on Shika for a moment longer than anyone else, and then landed on Madara.

The arcanine let out the most intimidating bark I had ever heard, and Madara bolted towards the legendary pokemon with his own less intimidating bark.

If you've ever seen a parent dog and puppy meet again, then you know what happens next. They greeted each other like excitable family canines might. The next thing I knew the massive arcanine was rolling on the ground, smothering my growlithe with love.

I refused to look away from the majestic animal, taking in all of its features. It may have been acting like a regular dog, but I knew that it could torch everything around us with a thought, and then run from here to Blackthorn in a night.

'Well that might be an exaggeration, I don't know how far it is from here to Blackthorn.' I thought as I witnessed the two dogs interact.

I was broken out of my thoughts, as Hashi stepped in front of me. The world folded behind the arcanine, and the arcanine's trainer appeared.

Oak, and his alakazam, popped into the world with an intense look on his face. As if he was going to war. His eyes quickly examined the situation, and then they softened. His whole frame relaxed into what most people recognized the old professor as.

Hashi still stood in front of me, menacingly, and Oak took notice.

"Sorry about that." Professor Oak said as he walked over to the arcanine playing with Madara. "It's not everyday you get this one to bolt off like that." He said as he kneeled down and rubbed the massive dog on the belly as he played.

I was starstruck with the old champion standing in front of me, and didn't respond. Although an orange glint to my left in the sky did catch my attention for a moment. Oak took notice then and his head snapped in the same direction.

The orange blob, I suspected to be his dragonite, flew up into the clouds once again, but did not return. I almost passed out with the sensory overload of seeing all three of these ridiculously powerful pokemon in one place.

'They thought I was a threat?' I deduced as everything settled down.

"Let me guess." I said, finally. "My growlithe is the offspring of your arcanine."

"Correct in one." Oak said as he stood up and let them do as they wished. "Blaine mentioned that he had found a trainer for the little guy, but when you didn't show up after the disaster, I thought the worst."

He walked towards me with his hand out. "Samuel Oak."

"Brawly." I said as I grasped his hand firmly. Callouses from constant work with pokemon and on the ranch scratched against my hand.

"Brody's son, no?" Oak said as he let go.

"Yes sir." I said with a smile.

Oak looked past me to the pokemon in my possession. "Quiet the assortment of pokemon you have there."

He paused when his eyes landed on Shika. My hand dropped to her head, protectively.

"So you were there then?" Oak asked, making a few assumptions of how I got the absol on my side.

"Unfortunately." I answered.

Oak's eyes roamed her form a little longer, studying her. His alakazam floated in the air behind him doing the same thing. Shika and the alakazam had yet to stop looking at each other.

"Well, they won't be done for a while, I suspect. Would you like some lunch?" Oak said as he turned back to the entrance of the ranch.

I looked down at Madara, and decided that it would be cruel to deny him this time with his parent, not to mention you don't deny Samuel Oak anything.

"That would be fantastic."

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The main path into the ranch was beautiful. The grass was kept nice and close to the ground. The shrubbery was perfectly trimmed, and there wasn't a nick on the fences.

'I would expect nothing less from the most famous person on the planet.' I thought as I took in the sights.

A ponyta herd sped beside us in the field to my right, led by a well groomed rapidash. A venusaur shifted to my left, and the mound I had rode off as a plant before revealed itself to be the final evolution of the bulbasaur line. It's eyes roamed our party before deeming us unimportant and going back to sleep.

"It's impressive, Professor." I said, continuing to look around. Taurus roamed in a field at the edge of my vision.

"My proudest achievement." Oak replied quickly, as if he had said it a million times.

"And that's saying something." I told him.

His arcanine soared into the air over us into the field with the venusaur, startling me. Madara barked right behind me and decided against jumping over the fences, opting to just go under before joining his father.

"He is very healthy." Oak commented as Madara sped on. "All of your pokemon are."

I smiled at the compliment. "Brody made sure I knew how to take care of pokemon. Nutrition wise, and training wise." I said trying to give my father the credit.

"You should give yourself more credit." Oak said. "There is a massive gap between knowing how to train pokemon, and actually training them. I would argue that it is the hardest thing a trainer may learn how to do."

"We'll have to disagree on that, Professor." I said without thinking.

Oak looked in my direction then. "Enlighten me."

I shouldn't have answered, I should have just brushed it off. But there is something about strangers that make you willing to tell them personal information. Probably because you know they don't know you well enough to judge you.

"Getting over the death of one of your pokemon is pretty fucking hard. But statistically, it's something every trainer will learn to do." I admitted, while turning away from the man. My eyes roamed on my surroundings but not actually seeing anything.

Oak's reply was swift, and cut deep. "Oh no, son. That's something no trainer should ever learn to do."

I didn't answer for a moment, but I realized that he was absolutely right. If you got too used to it, that meant you never developed a close enough relationship to be a good trainer.

"Well, I guess that means I'm on the right track then." I said, while pushing the conversation to the back of my mind.

Oak didn't continue the discussion on that particular topic, and I was grateful for it. I was mentally kicking myself for even having a moment of weakness in front of someone else. My problems were my own, and I could deal with it myself.

"What do you say to a burger?" Oak said out of the blue.

My mouth watered and my stomach growled at the thought of a cheeseburger. My teenage body, once again overruled my thought processes.

"Sounds amazing."

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I left Pallet Town the same day, with a full stomach and the number of Professor Oak, with a promise to call if I ever needed anything. He kindly asked that I wouldn't give it out since he has had to change it too many times to count already.

Our conversations weren't that enlightening after our initial meeting. We talked about trivial things like the paths that I had been on, and the pokemon I had seen and the battles I had fought.

He never asked about Blaine, or anything related to Cinnabar Island. I suspected he had clearance to all of my answers that I gave to Lorelei anyway. In the end, it seemed that all I, and Madara, had done was give him a much needed break from overworking himself. I apologized profusely for interrupting his work, but he brushed it off saying that he enjoyed times like those.

Soon enough, I found myself on Route 1, heading towards Viridian City to try for my second badge.

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A/N: Boom!

So I will not be adding a team review every chapter, but maybe every two or three chapters as a refresher. I feel like I update fast enough for it not to be a problem, but I do know that we forget things as readers when we don't see it a lot so I haven't come to a decision yet.

When Brawly is traveling, it is safe to assume that the team is training frequently, as I described in the chapter. I might cover a few battles on the way to Viridian, just to show the progress everyone is making though. How do we feel about that?

Not much happened in the chapter, which is weird for this chapter. BUT Hashi, and Minato are getting some major coverage!

Let's talk about it in the reviews!