Glory Within Our Grasp - 2

Traversing Route 202 on Metang's back was kind of funny. you're enjoying it a lot. you especially enjoyed that spooked Staravia that you flew past so fast it fell from its nest then attacked you, only to get punched out of the air by one Thunderpunch from Metang before it could even react.

It looked pretty average though, size wise and went down really easily. If you're going to catch one, you want one with more fight in it than that one. And a well raised Staraptor can grow up to the same size of the average Pidgeot easily.

Another Staravia, smaller than the first had taken offense to its mate you assumed being hurt and attacked you as well, only to get taken down in the blink of an eye by Turtwig leaping to your defense and catching the flying type with a point blank leech seed, the vines of the attack getting its wings tied taught and sending it plummeting to the ground.

You have Metang stop high above the route and observe the many pokemon going about their buisness. Most of the Starly and Staravia in the tree's are watching you intently. One stands out above the rest, most likely the leader of the flock and strongest. This Staravia is huge, nearing the size of an actual Staraptor

It wasn't the only interesting pokemon out and about though. Because down below, with a small pocket telescope you pulled from your pants, you could see a Growlithe duking it out with a Luxio over what looked to be an oran berry bush.

Odd, Growlithe nor Luxio are usually far from their packs, but you can't see any nearby. Could they both be cast outs fighting desperately for food? You know it can be quite rough for pack pokemon after they get cast out, the vast majority of the pokemon in this area lived in groups and had their own territories.

Honestly, you're not quite sure what you want to do right now. They're all interesting pokemon. That Staravia would be a real massive powerhouse physically as a Staraptor, and you can get a fire stone easily enough, so an instant Arcanine considering their line didn't really suffer from much abilities that could only be learned at a lower stage. You remember watching one of Ash Ketchum's battles, when he fought the electric gym leader of Kalos, that guys Luxray was quite a beast when it used Electric Terrain and Wild Charge.

"Oho!" You hum in interest when Luxio snarls at the Growlithe, electricity sparking around its fangs and lunging at the fire type canine.

Its forced to try and divert immediately when Growlithe opened its mouth and unleashed a stream of green and yellow flames. Luxio yelped when the flames rushed over its form, and when the flames cleared, Luxio was locked in place.

"Was that Dragons Breath?" You wonder aloud.

Growlithe isn't idle at all and rushes Luxio quickly, raising up on its hind legs and swiping down with its front paw right across Luxio's cheek, smashing the electric type into the ground. The fire type spun with the momentum, actually lifting up one of its hind legs and kicked Luxio up, then the fire type caught it with its other pawn and drived it back down into the ground. You wince as Growlithe lays a total beat down on the electric type.

The fire type beat it down with Close Combat right up until it lost consciousness and fell limp. You whistle, impressed with the display while the fire type eats a bunch of the berries and makes its leave, but not before spitting a small ball of flame to the ground beside Luxio as if in disgust.

Jeez, you were thinking of catching it, but you didn't really want to deal with that attitude.

There's a free Luxio sitting there right for the taking though. It isn't very strong, but from what you can see it has a decent size to it despite being a cast off from its pack.

An electric type would be nice, but you could go either way with it. Only, you're not cruel enough to just leave it there unconscious. 

"Grab that Luxio with psychic will you buddy?" You ask your starter.

Metang hums and nods, eyes glowing an even brighter blue as he enforced his psychic attack to grab the electric type and levitate it up into the air. When it reaches you, you take Turtwig in one arm, while using your free arm to gently bob the electric lion with an empty pokeball.

It's captured without any resistance. Man that Growlithe really did a number on it. 

Well, now that you have it, you may as well scan Luxio and find out its moves.

"Luxio, the Spark Pokémon, and the evolved form of Shinx. Luxio's sharp claws conduct electricity, and the slightest scratch can knock out an opponent. Gender: Male, Ability: Intimidate - Moves Known: Tackle, Quick Attack, Leer, Charge, Spark, Thunder Fang, Roar, Bite." The pokedex function relays to you.

Huh, not a bad move set at all. And it knows Quick Attack too. That would be really useful on a pure physical beast like a Luxray.

Speaking of moves though, you need to teach your new buddies, and Luxio too you supposed, moves from your TM's. You stocked up on a bunch of permanent copies before you left.

"Return little guy," You say to Turtwig and recall the grass type to his pokeball. While trusting Metang to keep you from falling or dropping anything, you casually pull off your back pack and reach into the compartment you keep your TM Case.

Honestly, you loved your bag. It could store so much due to it being imbued with the power of the move Minimize. Anything you put in shrunk and would only regain its size when you took it out of the bag. So handy, though it cost a pretty penny.

You go first with Luxio, tapping the TM discs to its pokeball one after another. Teaching it Protect, Toxic, Double Team and Thunderbolt.

Turtwig is up next, and you teach him Energy Ball, Protect, Toxic and Double Team.

With Chimchar, you teach him Flamethrower, Toxic, Protect, Double Team.

Similarly with Piplup, you teach it Toxic, Protect and Double Team like all the others, and Scald to round it out.

Not many people could do this kind of thing. Just load up their pokemon with tons of moves with TM's. Permanent copies cost a ton of money, and only certain places sold certain TM's, so it was a other just finding them. Thankfully, you were basically pay to win for now.

You've even come up with a strategy called Toxic Stall because of all he same moves you taught your pokemon. Poison with Toxic, then use Protect to shield from attacks and Double Team to hide and prolong. Although that would only work for a bit, the stronger the pokemon, the much longer they could endure the poison until they just built up enough resistance to shake it off.

That done, you stash your TM Case back in your back and eye the giant Staravia, who's sharp eyes still hadn't left your person. Generally a flock leader will battle any opponent one on one, to cement their position. You're sure Metang would be able to handle it with ease, it's the flock that is the problem.

There has to be easily around fifty of them, most of them Starly, but a good three dozen or so Staravia spread throughout the ranks as well. As soon as you go for the capture, you're going to get swarmed by them, and while Metang would most definitely win in the end, there's no way he could protect you from the whole flock while fighting them at the same time.

It's tempting though. You heard Ash Ketchum has a literal army of Tauros that grows larger by the year after they breed with local Miltank at Professor Oak's Ranch in Pallet Town.

You wouldn't mind an army of Staraptor at your back. But do you really want to risk it?

Sitting on Metang's head, you locked eyes with the Staravia flock leader. You once again had to marvel at its size. Even just roosting as it was atop its a tree, it had to be a good four feet in height.

It might be a bit too soon to catch a literal flock, but this thing is a power house. Once it evolves into a Staraptor, it'll probably be able to smash a Dragonite out of the air just out of sheer physical power.

You want it.

You might be a new trainer, but there isn't a rule that says a new trainer has to capture low level pokemon to raise them up.

Staravia seemed to understand your intentions.

"Raaaviaa!" it squawked loudly, flaring its long, powerful grey feathered wings out at its side and shooting up into the air. And following its lead, the flock of Staravia and Starly took to the air from the trees and faced off against you.

All in, with over fifty Starly, and three dozen Staravia, they near blotted out the landscape behind them with sheer numbers.

The flock leader at the front, raised one wing at the air and pointed at you, and then with another squawk it shot towards you rapidly with Quick Attack, its flock following its lead behind it.

It would have made for a scary sight, if you were any other trainer just starting out on their first day. But, you took an extra three years to prepare and learn under your older brother from time to time, no make sure you were ready for situations like these.

"Gravity!" You ordered the pokemon beneath you.

"Tang!" Metang cried out in confirmation, and raised his powerful gleaming silver arms into the air towards the approaching flock.

The air over them all shimmered with pressure, and as one, every single one of them was rooted in place, and pushed down hard out of the air into the ground more than fifty feet below.

All of them but the flock leader.

"Ravia!" it struggled mid air, flapping its wings as hard as it could as it fought against the gravity pressing down on it.

Impressive. Metang's Gravity can crush a tank. Heck, he'd even been able to briefly hold down one of your brother's main pokemon for a bit.

And then it exploded into bright white light. Your eyes widened as you watched the glowing bird grow rapidly in size, nearly doubling in height and wing span. And moments later, the glow receded, and in its place, a massive Staraptor easily eight feet in height beat its wings harder against the gravity holding it and began actually making progress towards you and Metang.

You definitely want this thing now.

"Psychic and pull it in for an Ice Punch!" you ordered your pokemon.

Immediately, your first pokemon released its Gravity technique, and Starapor let loose a vicious crow, "Raptor!", and it didn't even hesitate for a split second, the moment it was released from under the effects of Gravity, it exploded forward in a zipping Quick Attack again.

It closed the remaining distance in a second, and lashed out with a powerful kick that actually knocked Metang back a bit despite his incredible weight. It was a good thing your Metang was used to training Steven's pokemon, because that was quite the hit.

"Metang!" Your pokemon cried, and Staraptor squawked in surprise as a blue outline appeared around its body, and the towering bird was dragged towards Metang, who lashed out with two heavy metal clawed fists, empowered with ice.

With the Psychic trapping Starapto's body, Metang kept it in place as it struck with the twin super effective fists, Staraptor cried out in pain, and struggled mightily, but couldn't break free of the Psychic attack binding it, not when ice began creeping over its body.

Moments later, Staraptor was completely immobile, wings and lower body frozen over, and held tight by Psychic. And with its job done, Metang floated the half frozen flying type up to eye level with you.

Despite the twin super effect attacks it took, with momentum behind them at that, Staravia glared at you defiantly. It cast a look at its flock littering the ground beneath you, before sighing and lowering its head to you and conceding defeat.

"You're quite impressive, I have to admit." you complimented the pokemon as you pulled out a luxury ball and tapped it to the pokemon's beak, the most expensive and comfortable pokeball popping open and sucking it inside. The black pokeball shook for a few moments in your hand, before stopping and letting loose a ping to signify the capture completion.

You smirked, eyeing the pokeball, "Well now," you hummed in interest, "A full party already, that's kinda funny." you haven't even been a trainer for five hours yet. Not that you can honestly blame yourself, three starters, a Luxio and a Staraptor? Definitely worth it.

You grabbed your pokedex and held it up to the pokeball, "Now let's check what we're working with here."

"Staraptor, the Predator Pokémon, and the evolved form of Staravia. Staraptor's ferocious nature means that it has no problem challenging much larger opponents. Gender: Male, Ability: Reckless - Attacks Known: Wing Attack, Quick Attack, Aerial Ace, Double Team, Steel Wing, Close Combat."

Huh, not a very varied attack set, but decent. May as well teach it Protect and Toxic like the others on the way to Jubilife City.

"Good job buddy," you said, patting Metang's head. "Now, let's get a head on to Jubilife City."

It didn't take you all that long to get to Jubilife City. According to the Pokegear, it's usually about a three or four hour walk at a leisurely pace between Jubilife and Sandgem Town.

Metang's casual flying pace is quite a bit faster than that. So it was maybe an hour and a half it took you to get there. And even then, you were slowed down a bit because you stopped to let Chimchar, Turtwig and Piplup battle a few stray Bidoof and such and show off their abilities in a fight.

All three of them were quite powerful, you had to admit. For their level at least.

The first thing you did upon entering Jubilife City, was head towards the Pokemon Centre, and hand over the pokeballs of Metang, Luxio and Staraptor to Nurse Joy to get them healed up. Metang didn't really need it, but he'd lost a decent chunk of stamina, so getting that recovered was of the good as far as you were concerned.

You could have done the same with the other three, but your older brother had warned you quite a few times to never be a part of at least one of your pokemon, you never know when thieves could attack a Pokemon Centre you were staying at.

You thought it was kind of pathetic that people had actually targeted Pokemon Centre's to steal pokemon, but you heeded your brothers advice regardless.

While waiting, you added Dawn's number to your Pokegear, and sent her a message.

'Hey, it's Cobalt. I just got into Jubilife City. Wbu?'

After sending it, you took the time to release your three pokemon from their pokeballs and feed them. And a few minutes later, your Pokegear buzzed with Dawn's reply.

'Wow, that was quick. When I firs started it took me a couple of days to get to Jubilife. Granted, I was doing some training with a pair of older trainers I was travelling with and catching some pokemon. I'm actually in Jubilife as well, meeting up with a few friends, I flew here on my Togekiss. You wanna come meet them?'

Huh, cool. Today really is your day. You didn't think you'd get to meet up with her again so soon, and with friends too. Maybe they're hot as well?

'Sure, are they as hot as you? I'm just waiting on my pokemon getting checked up with Nurse Joy and then I'm good to come meet you and your friends,'

She replied moments later.

'Lol, gonna flirt with them 2? I wouldn't be the best judge on a girls hotness :P. But I think so? You've probably heard of them, they're Coordinator's like me. May Maple and Serena Yvonne. I'll send you pictures of em' to let you see lol. And we'll come meet you at the Pokemon Centre, we need to get rooms for the night anyway.'

A few seconds after she sent the response, your Pokegear buzzed with a new pair of notifications, as the images came through.

You do know these girls. 

They're both pretty famous. May has won two Grand Festivals, where as Serena like Dawn has won one, but has also been the runner up for Kalos Queen. Looks like Serena is growing her hair out, you remember she cut early in to her career, and had kept it that way for a while. Wonder why she was growing it out again?

Either way, you couldn't help the smile that spread across your face. Man is it good to be you.