“Alright Brucey, Let’s see your Kage Bunshin!”
“Cro!” The Crobat cried and burst into a swarm of approximately fifty clones in the air — double that of his original limit.
Nina cheered. “Good work Brucey!” His Type Energy reserve had evidently grown larger after Evolution.
“Heh. Not too bad. But you still have a long way to go, kiddo,” said the voice in her Pokedex. It was Hattori, whom Nina had called to brag about her Crobat’s Evolution.
The man looked the same as ever, still with that belligerent look on his face but looking a lot more put together. Likely due to pressure from his bosses.
“Yeah…” Nina sighed. “Seems like fifty is his limit. Your Itachi can go up to a hundred right?”
The man shrugged. “Eh, it’s whatever. You mostly use the move as a distraction anyway. Fifty is good enough.” Hattori chuckled. “The little missie’s gonna be pissed though, when she finds out your Golbat evolved before her Noibat.”
“Huh? I thought with all her Blackthorn secrets and all, she’d have supercharged his growth by now?”
“Nah, those two don’t really get along. The Noibat’s obedient but only so far as he’s willing to tolerate her for the sake of survival, y’know?”
“Huh… Is she still scouring the lands for signs of a Mega Stone?”
“Yeah…While training her Pokemon at the same time…” Hattori sighed with a dejected wilt. “At this rate, we’ll really be rushing to get enough badges in time for the conference. Any chance I could get you to delay for another year? Little missus won’t join without you.”
“Ha! Haha!” Nina laughed, then laughed, and laughed some more. Before punctuating her refusal with a curt “No.”
“Tch. Figures… Anyways, I gotta go now. Paperwork to do, people to kill and all that.”
Nina opened her mouth, wanting to get a jab in on her reluctant mentor’s ambiguous relationship status with Janine. But the screen blacked out before she could.
The girl rolled her eyes and turned to address the grounded Brucey while beckoning for Espy to join.
“Alright, you two. Now that you’re out of the Pokemon Center, you should know what I want to talk about.”
“Cro…”
“Es.”
Brucey averted his gaze in shame. But Espy met Nina’s eyes without an ounce of shame on display.
The girl sighed. “Alright, I can already tell that Espy’s not going to listen. But Brucey…”
The Crobat shuddered as Nina took a step towards him, only to stiffen up in surprise when she ultimately pulled him into a suffocating hug.
“I’m so glad you’re alright…” Nina whispered, voice cracking from strain. “But don’t you ever, ever do that again, okay?”
“Cro… Cro!!!”
Brucey nodded, tears welling from his eyes. He understood now, the sadness that Nina was feeling. Whereas before, as an apathetic little Golbat, he would have just tilted his head in confusion, trying to figure out why his human was crying.
“Recoil moves are fine when necessary. But when you mutilate yourself just to take your opponent down with you… It makes me really, really sad. Do you understand?”
Brucey nodded once more, full on sobbing into Nina’s embrace by this point.
To the side, Espy averted her gaze, unwilling to admit the discomforting tightness niggling at her chest.
Nina wasn’t sure if their emotional display had gotten through to her stubborn princess. But hopefully, next time, she would think twice before using Last Resort again.
***
“Congratulations Nina.”
“Thank you Professor Oak.”
“Cro!”
The old Professor chuckled. “Of course, congratulations to you too, Brucey.”
After her call with Hattori, Nina dialed Professor Oak, to update him on Brucey’s Evolution. They still had that study going on to figure out Golbat’s Evolution trigger. Though, last time she checked, very little progress had been made by her seniors. To the point where Nina was starting to doubt her hypothesis.
“So Professor Oak, what do you think? It’s hard for me to ascertain since he evolved mid battle, but how relevant would you say our focus on his emotional development was to Brucey’s Evolution?”
Professor Oak hummed in consideration. “Hmm… Based on what you told me, it’s hard to come to any definitive conclusion. Although, the strong surge of emotions you felt during that pivotal moment is definitely a point of interest. Tell me, Nina, you’re no stranger to bond driven Evolutions by this point, how does Brucey’s Evolution compare to say… Nitey’s?”
“I mean… it definitely felt different. But if I had to make a comparison, I’d say it felt more similar to when Espy evolved. We were under duress back then, so a lot of that stress came through. With Nitey, when he went from Tini to Nairy, I could feel the strengthening of our bond. But it felt more like an empowerment of something that was already there… if that makes any sense?”
“I see… So a strong Psychic component was formed then. This is indeed fascinating. But we shall need a larger sample size to say for certain. Would you mind writing up your findings for me? I think the other trainers involved in this study will find your perspective to be highly enlightening. In the meantime, I shall collate everyone’s results so far and publish our hypothesis. Perhaps that will invoke some hidden sage in academia to come forth and contribute to our ventures.”
“Will do, Professor! C’mon Brucey, let’s continue with our testing!”
“Cro!” And with that, the pair of trainer and mon bid adieu to their sponsor and eagerly resumed their measurements of Brucey’s new physique.
***
“Do inform me once you arrive in Ecruteak City, Lady Jones. I would love for you to come witness our performance in the theater.”
“Of course, Lady Zuki. It would be my honor,” said Nina. “We plan to go the long way around via Azalea Town. So it might take a while. But once we arrive, I will make it a priority to notify you.” Nina and her friends were all excited to watch the Kimono Girls perform live.
It had been a few days since Nina’s match with Falkner. They had stayed a little longer because Justin, Kerry and Lucy all wanted to challenge the Sprout Tower. Unfortunately, Haunter hadn’t completely gotten the hang of Will-O-Wisp yet, so Nina mostly stayed behind to oversee her training and experiment with Brucey.
“Don’t worry, we can always Fly back with Nitey to visit,” said Nina to the sulky Haunter at the time.
She did manage to convince Kerry to help bring Poppy over to battle though. Which her friend was very happy to do as part of her dastardly plan to steal away the Popplio’s affection. Nina just chuckled and gave Poppy a little kiss before handing him over. As if the bond between her and her Pokemon were that fickle.
Justin and Lucy wanted to try their hands at Falkner’s Gym as well, having been all hyped up from witnessing Nina’s battle atop the Heaven’s Gate.
Unfortunately for them, the pair was exactly the sort of frivolous young trainers that Falkner loathed. So not only did he reject their request for a battle atop the Sprout Tower — partly because it was still under repair — he even came down hard on them with his Pokemon.
The two still won, as one would expect from protagonist characters. But it was a hard fought battle that left even the usually optimistic Justin all solemn and reeling by the end of it.
Zuki smiled and pulled Nina into a gentle hug, her lavender scent tickling at Nina’s nose. “Please do. Kazuki is keenly looking forward to his date with Espy.” The girl added with a suggestive wink.
Nina giggled. “Of course. But I’ll have to warn you, my Espy has very expensive taste. So you’ll have to equip your Umbreon with a fairly sizable war chest.”
Zuki laughed at Nina’s teasing and bid another round of goodbyes to the younger girl and her travel companions before waving them off onto Route 32.
***
“WOOO!!! KAWABUNGA!!!”
Justin shot into the air from his Blastoise’s cannon, did a flip and cannonballed right into the ocean with a weighty splash.
“Stupid Justin, you’re gonna hurt yourself you moron!” Lucy yelled at her childhood friend as she trudged angrily into the water.
Meanwhile Nina and Kerry laughed at the pair’s antics to the side, revelling at the gentle sea breeze caressing their damp, salt crusted skin. The warm winds rustled at the nascent cherry blossoms lining the coast, felling vibrant pink blossoms and awakening dormant buds from their winter slumber.
Route 32, being that it wasn’t a main route, was largely untamed wilderness along pristine shorelines. And since they were now well into the start of spring, the weather was warm enough for the quartet of young Pokemon Trainers to indulge in a little beach day.
“Not gonna lie, I kinda wanna try blasting off like that. Seems fun. Right, Poppy?”
“Po-po! Popplio!” Poppy clapped his stubby fins together in barely contained excitement, wanting to be launched like a cannonball as well.
Nina giggled and got up, dusting the sand off her bum as she approached Justin’s Blastoise with Poppy in her arms and Lynxie the Luxio in tow, the naughty lion cub wanted to play too.
“Tuff! Wiggly-tuff!”
“Oh, you wanna come too, Wigglytuff?” said the girl to Justin’s deep voiced, spiky-haired Wigglytuff. Upon Justin’s request, Nina had been helping him train the little guy. So Wigglytuff had gotten quite attached to her over the past few days.
“Come on, let’s get to Blastoise before Lucy is done wringing Justin dry.”
As she walked down the beach, Nina let out a silly smile at the leisurely scene before her; Espy and Sir Clodington were lounging beneath a tree, the former abhorred getting sand stuck in her fur while the latter preferred to stay away from the sun.
To their side was Kaipo the Marowak, polishing her bone staff with the special oil and cloth that they got for her. Perched above, Kerry’s Noctowl was peacefully napping atop a tree branch — the night owl hadn’t had the chance to fully adjust to human time just yet.
Haunter was folding origami under the tree's shade, but quickly dove back into Nina’s shadow to resume bodyguard duty once she got moving, despite her assurances otherwise. The Haunter was overly protective of her charge, much to Nina’s appreciation. Peppy the Chansey was by Kerry’s side, doting over their Eevee egg. And in the distance, Polly the Poliwhirl, was languidly drifting in the ocean.
The rest of the Flyers; Lucy’s Pidgeot and Charizard, Justin’s Noivern, Brucey and Nitey were having a little race in the skies. Lucy’s Fire lizard had developed a one-sided rivalry towards Nitey since his unceremonious defeat last time. While Noivern, who somehow managed to retain her mild personality even after Evolution, was just happy to hangout with an old friend.
A rain of superheated sand and glass fell from the sky, much to Nina’s chagrin as Lucy’s Magmar engaged Justin’s Houndoom in battle. The hellhound Pokemon was still as unruly as the first time that Nina saw him back in the conference. So all of the senior Pokemon in their little entourage had agreed to take turns beating him into submission. The belligerent Dark Type wouldn’t learn otherwise.
“I’ll need to tell Justin and Lucy to clean up after their Pokemon later once they’re done bickering.” Leaving glass shards on a beach where a lot of people walked barefoot was highly irresponsible.
Additionally, Lucy’s adorable Rhyperior was busy building a majestic sand palace while Justin’s Scyther and Sharpedo had gone hunting. Scyther in the forest and Sharpedo in the ocean.
Lucy’s Manectric and Magnemite were… Actually, Nina had no idea what they were doing. The two Electric Types seemed to be playing some sort of game where they were levitating a magnetic puck and passing it back and forth at one another like a supernatural version of air hockey.
“Hey, Blastoise! We wanna play too. Mind launching us like you did Justin just now?”
The supersized turtle Pokemon looked towards his trainer, who was being suplexed into the water by Lucy, then back at Nina. And with a shrug, Blastoise smiled and responded with a friendly “Blast!” in affirmation.
***
Nina dove into the ocean with Poppy in tow. With the Ruins of Alph and Union Cave in the vicinity, the girl figured that there was a non-zero chance of her finding something significant in the nearby waters.
Not to mention, she wanted to test out her little sea puppy. See if the species’s knack for treasure hunting was all it was cracked up to be.
“Come to think of it, this is the first time that Poppy and I have gone diving out at sea huh?” Nina was overcome by a sense of wistful melancholy as she recalled her time with Tini in days long past.
With a speedy woosh of water currents, Poppy excitedly swam circles around Nina, doing all sorts of tricks to impress his human and eliciting giggles from her as bubbles spewed from the gap of her rebreather.
The girl signalled for Poppy to lead the way while the two revelled in the sight of the underwater world; colorful schools of fishes running on sight, Magikarps tangled up by Tentacools, and a Qwilfish that puffed up in intimidation when Poppy came close for a little nuzzle.
Nina giggled and gently caressed her Popplio’s little red nose that was pricked by that Qwilfish’s quill. Luckily, the curious sea lion was not poisoned — the wound was too shallow to have caused much harm.
The two of them continued to play around as they explored, going deeper into the depths as they went. Poppy, Nina noticed, had a bad habit of picking up Shellders and messing with them, likely a trait that his species shared.
One of the Shellders actually retaliated with an Aurora Beam, which Haunter had to leave Nina’s shadow to block for them. Needless to say, Poppy threw the Shellder away in a panic and was a lot more cautious around them from that point on.
“Good, hopefully he learns a lesson from this and stops being so naughty.” Nina nuzzled Haunter affectionately for the timely save and went on her merry way.
Eventually though, Poppy perked up and swung his head back and forth as if he had just sensed something. Then, abruptly zoomed off into a little dark corner of the area they were in.
Nina tilted her head and followed suit, her little flippers working overtime to keep up with her energetic baby.
And when she turned the corner around a dense clutter of corals, she saw it — a sunken ship buried amidst rock and sand.
***
Author's note:
Regarding the break on releases I mentioned last chapter, I will let you guys know when it actually happens. I reckon there's another week of normalcy before that. An even then, I'll only really need a couple of weeks at most.