Pokemon: Mega Tactics - Chapter 4.1

Not long later, you and Serena left the Pokemon Centre behind and continued on your journey towards Lumiose City.

Serena it seemed, had taken quite a liking to Vespiquen. She had kept her new pokemon out of its pokeball, letting it fly alongside her as you both walked. You personally had released Pidgeotto and had the bird pokemon scouting for a specific pokemon.

You kept your eye on Serena as you went, marvelling at the change in her attitude from the night previous where she'd broken down. Compared to the crying girl from last night, there was a confident and cheerful young woman, humming a cheery song as you travelled, taking in all the sights around her and chatting with her new pokemon.

'I don't think it's possible to get over a broken heart that quickly.' you mused. You at least had moped about for a a good two weeks the last time one of your crushes didn't pan out. Admittedly, she hadn't really known Ash all that much, so there was that to consider. Serena knew you far more than she knew Ash in comparison for instance, and you'd only been travelling with her for a day.

She might have just been putting on a brave face, but there was something a bit different about her now, compared to how she was even before running into Ash and his girlfriend. She seemed a bit more..not confident, but, sure of herself? There seemed to be more of an easy going purpose about her now. It wasn't a massive change, just a little thing that you picked up from her body language. Her shoulders weren't slumped like they were yesterday.

You were broken out from your thoughts by Serena, "Oh my, what an adorable pokemon!" she said.

You looked to see what she was talking about, and caught sight of a Budew walking across the route path just a dozen or so feet ahead.

"It's a Budew," you told her, stepping up beside her and holding up your pokedex for Serena to take a look, "Here."

"Budew, the Bud Pokémon. In winter, it keeps its bud closed to survive the cold, but then opens it again in the spring." The Pokedex recited. Alongside that, the general natural abilities of the species was shown, alongside its typing and evolutionary path.

"Oh wow, Roselia and Roserade huh? What beautiful pokemon!" Serena gushed.

You grinned, "Well, if you like it so much, why not catch it?" you asked.

"Would that be alright?" Serena blinked, "I know you said I could explain away Vespiquen because I was worried about her, but isn't it a bit much actively trying to catch a pokemon."

You shrugged and waved her off, "It should be fine," you replied, "It's not like you've caught these pokemon years in advance or anything, you grabbed them on the way to get your starter pokemon, besides, I'll vouch for you."

"Well, I'll take your word for it then Cobalt!" Serena smiled prettily and agreed. She turned then to look at Vespiquen, "Are you okay to battle Vespiquen?" she asked.

"Ves!" the bug and flying type nodded readily, and turned to face the Budew.

"Alright Vespiquen, let's try Gust!" Serena threw her hand out and ordered.

Zipping forward through the air, Vespiquen's wings began glowing blue and it unleashed a powerful gale force wind towards the Budew.

Budew jumped as it saw the attack coming and swung its body into a spin, unleashing dozens of razor sharp glowing bladed energy leaves through the air to counter.

The sliced into the wind and cut through some of it, lessening the power overall, but most of the gale force wind got through and slammed into Budew, the super effective attack carrying it through the air and slamming Budew into a tree hard enough to crack the bark.

"Yay! Way to go Vespiquen!" Serena cheered.

Budew despite the damage it took, gave itself a little shake and stood up. Its form glowed white, and then suddenly, there was a flash and there were five Budew where there was one.

"Eh!?" Serena's cheers were cut off as her eyes widened, "What's this!?"

"It's Double Team, their illusionary clones," you called out to her, "Don't panic."

"Alright, I get it!" Serena nodded and pointed her hand to the group of Budew, "Hit them all with Power Gem!"

Thrusting her hands out, Vespiquen conjured dozens of large glowing golden spheres of energy. The attack she had attacked Serena with the previous night. With a jerk of her hands, the bug and flying type sent the dozens of energy spheres shooting towards the Budew like bullets.

As one, the Budew's eyes began glowing gold and they each unleashed beams of golden light.

Four of them were torn right through, being illusionary, but the final one washed over the Power Gem's heading for it and suddenly their trajectory was reversed, shooting towards Vespiquen alongside the golden beam!

"Oh no! quick, Defend Order!" Serena panicked.

Instantly following her orders, Vespiquen crossed her arms and hundreds of small crimson red insectoid shaped energy spheres formed around her body, just in time to take the attacks and save her from taking any damage.

"Now Attack Order!" Serena showed good instincts and followed up quickly.

Suddenly, the red energy insectoids exploded outwards into a swarm that shot towards Budew in the tens of dozens, and before budew could react, they all slammed into it.

Budew dropped to the ground with swirls in its eyes a moment later.

"Woohoo!" Serena cheered, pumping her fist and jumping into the air. Your eyes locked onto her bodacious chest as it bounced into the air with her. And you made a mental note to tell her not to do that when people were watching as you saw her skirt rise up dangerously close to exposing her underwear and backside to you. "Way to go Vespiquen!" as she landed, the older girl ran over and wrapped her pokemon in a great big hug, the bug and flying type happily returning her affection.

They broke apart after a few moments, and Serena brought out a pokeball from her skirt pocket and enlarged it, before giving it a little toss towards the downed Budew. It was captured within moments,

"Look, look Cobalt!" Serena turned to you after picking the pokeball up and holding it up for you to see, "I caught a pokemon properly this time in my first battle to!"

"Great job Serena, you've got some real potential when it comes to battling," you praised her, walking over to pat her on the shoulder. And you meant it, she kept calm pretty much and she didn't get too flustered and thought quickly on how to use her pokemon's attacks. "..Just maybe don't jump about like that in public to celebrate? I kind of...almost saw up your skirt." you scratched your cheek sheepishly.

Her lovely gem like blue eyes widened and her cheeks went pink, "Oh!" she gaped, "..I'm really sorry about that! I'll keep that in mind."

You quickly waved your hands and blurted, "You don't need to apologise for that, it's not as if it's something I wouldn't want to see," you said before realising what you were saying and snorting at your own bumbling, "It's just that, I didn't think you'd want people to get a glimpse up your skirt."

"..Right, you're right." Serena nodded, but despite her cheeks getting even pinker, there was a little smile on her face at your words.

Before you could say anything else, there was a familiar caw from above, and you both looked up to see Pidgeotto descending. You held out your arm, and the large bird landed on your forearm, the intense physical training you'd went through alongside Gible to help him train over the last five years allowing you to hold the bird pokemon up without problem, "Did you find any Pidgeotto?" you asked.

"Pidgeo!" Pidgeotto nodded vigorously and you grinned.

Moments later, you were led off the path of Route 4 into the dense forest surrounding it, following behind Pidgeotto.

"So what did you send Pidgeotto out to look for?" Serena asked, running alongside you with Vespiquen flying above her.

"A Ralts," you answered, "I saw some in this forest from time to time while I was training with Gible while we were training out here."

"Oh really?" She eyed you in interest, "That reminds me, you said something about only wanting to catch specific pokemon last night and that's why you didn't catch Vespiquen."

"That's right," you nodded, "Outside of specific circumstances, I'm only going to catch and raise pokemon that have the potential to mega evolve?"

"Mega Evolve?" Serena cocked her head to the side in confusion, "I don't think I've heard of that before."

"You wouldn't, it's all hush hush right now," you grinned, "It's a special type of temporary evolution only found out in the last few years, it's something only some pokemon can go through and only as long as they have a strong bond with a trainer. The only reason I know about it, is because my uncle is the lead researcher on it, and because I helped him out a lot, I got to see a lot of his research into it."

"Oh wow!" Serena gasped, "That sounds so cool. You really are aiming high aren't you."

You nodded, grin widening. You reached into your pocket and pulled out one of the mega stones you had, your Charizardite, "See this, it's called a mega stone, specifically, it's called Charizardite, it's the mega stone that lets Charizard mega evolve into Mega Charizard," you explained, "The pokemon is supposed to hold the mega stone, in this case, a charizard. But there's a second stone needed, that the trainer is supposed to hold, called a Key Stone, that I'm going to be looking for on my journey. Once I get it, I'll be able to mega evolve Charmander once he's a Charizard."

Serena shook her head and smiled, "You're really amazing Cobalt." she complimented you.

You felt your chest puff with pride a bit. "You're not so bad yourself." you winked at her, drawing a giggle from her.

Just a few moments later, you came both burst out of a tree line into a small clearing. There was a flash of light in your peripheral and suddenly, you heard the sound of crackling electricity in your ears.

Then there was a flash of light and more electricity, and you whirled around. Pidgeotto was suddenly at your side, eyes glowing silver with the power of Mirror Move, while one of his wings was lit up in a current of crackling electricity.

And with a tiny fist crackling in electricity itself, was a Ralts crossing blows with your Pidgeotto. 'It attacked it, and Pidgeotto blocked it with Mirror Move!' you realised. 'That could have hurt if Pidgeotto wasn't so on the ball!'

"Pidgeotto!" Pidgeotto barked and pushed harder, winning the clash of fist and wing, throwing the Ralts back through the air. As it flew back though, it disappeared in a flash of light on the grass covered ground, arms held out protectively in front of it, looking as if it was trying to block you.

It was so small though, that you could see right over its tiny form to behind it. Your eyes widened as you caught sight of another Ralts, laying on a small bed of leaves. It was tossing and turning, moaning lightly and its white face was stained with a deep red flush.

It looked sick.

'That's why it attacked!' you understood. It was trying to ward you off from its sick friend.

You stepped in front of Pidgeotto and held your hands up placatingly towards Ralts as you lowered yourself to your knees, making yourself look as least threatening as possible.

"Cobalt what are you doing?" Serena asked, as Vespiquen hovered over her worriedly. Pidgeotto was tense, ready to spring into action at any moment.

"Ralts here was just spooked, it was just trying to protect its sick friend," you explained to her, getting a look of realisation from the older girl. You looked at Ralts and smiled gently, "Hey, we're not here to hurt you."

Ralts kept its arms up in a sloppy guard, prepared to attack or defend instantly.

"Looks like your friend there isn't doing too well." you noted.

"..Ral.." Ralts nodded hesitantly.

"My name's Cobalt, I'm a pokemon trainer," you explained, "I'm looking for some specific pokemon to raise, and Ralts was a pokemon I wanted, I found you because I had Pidgeotto over there looking through the forest for any Ralts."

Ralts tensed up slightly at your words and intentions, but you continued on, "I'm not going to force you to come with me or anything like that, or even battle you to catch you, not when your friend is in that condition," you revealed, "But, how about you come along with me willingly? We're a long way from any pokemon centre. But I've got five pokemon with me right now, if I catch you, I'll have six, and that's the most pokemon I'm allowed to carry right now. If I catch your friend after you, they'll be teleported to my uncle who's trained to be able to take care of pokemon, and he'll be able to get your friend all the help they need."

Ralts was still tense, and everyone was silent as it stared at you intently for a few moments. But finally, it slumped, letting go of its guard and nodding in agreements. "Ralts.." it nodded lightly.

Smiling gently still, you reached into your pocket and retrieved two empty pokeballs, enlarging them both, "Alright, you first okay?" you asked.

Ralts nodded in agreement, and you got up and gently walked over to touch one of the empty pokeballs to its head. It clicked open and Ralts was sucked inside before it closed again. The ball glowed red and shook for a few moments, before it dyed down and the capture was completed.

That done, you made your way over to the other Ralts, "There there, you'll be fine soon, I promise." you gently reached down and pet Ralts' head.

"..Ral.." it smiled weakly at you and nodded.

Like its friend, you reached down and gently tapped the other empty pokeball to its head, and just like its friend again, it was sucked inside the pokeball and captured without issue.

As soon as the capture was completed though, the pokeball glowed white, before disappearing.

"Wow!" Serena exclaimed, while both Vespiquen and Pidgeotto let loose noises of shock as well.

You turned to them with a grin, "When a trainer goes over their carry capacity, the newly caught pokemon is teleported to the ones who sponsor that trainer for safekeeping and to be looked after," you explained, "For me, at least right now, it's my uncle's lab. It'll probably be the same for you, though you could probably get it changed to your parents if you wanted."

"That's good to know, thanks!" Serena replied. there was a bright smile on her face, directed at you, and when you raised an eyebrow at her, she shook her head, "That was really nice of you, you know? What happened to that tough guy that just wanted to leave Vespiquen?" she teased.

Vespiquen crossed her arms and nodded in agreement.

"Vespiquen only took a light flamethrower from Gible, she got put down, but she would have recovered from those injuries in no time," you stuck your tongue out at them, "Ralts was really sick though, it looked like it had a fever to me and without proper treatment it could have died."

"Well, I suppose that makes sense," she mused, before tapping her chin and rolling her eyes at you, "But really, a light flamethrower? That attack looked like it could have burned a house down easily."

You merely grinned at her, "What can I say? Me and Gible trained hard together," you said. You made your way over to Pidgeotto and ruffled the pink mane on his head, "Good work buddy." you praised him, before returning him to his pokeball.

You turned to Serena and held your hand out to her invitingly, "So, ready to finally get to Lumiose City with no more distractions?" you asked.

"Let's go!" Serena nodded and laughed. She turned on her heel and started running back the way you both came, "Catch up if you can!"