Paldean Knights - Chapter 6

“Here should be fine,” I waved at the expansive rear field of the palace, neatly trimmed hedges blocking the view of the stables further out. “As long as we don't tear things up too much, the landscaping crew will come by in a few days to fix things.”

“Okay, so this is your Tera Orb,” Nemona explained, handing me the dark purple sphere of crystalline material. There was a silver ring around it, only interrupted by a hexagonal protrusion of the same material. The bottom of it was ringed three times with the same silver material, in comparison to the plain purple upper hemisphere.

“I know Harrington told you to explain this, but I do know what a tera orb is,” I replied dryly.

The darker-skinned girl grinned and rested one hand on her hip as she handed over the special item. “Nope. The Director is trusting me with this important duty, so I'd be betraying his instructions if I didn't at least give you an overview.”

“Mrow?”

I rolled my eyes and reached up to my shoulder to scritch at sprigatito. “Hmm? You want to listen? Okay, I guess.”

Nemona blinked, looking between myself and the grass-cat, then shook her head. “So, you use your tera orb to terastallize your pokemon. You do this by focusing on the pokemon you want to use it on, then forcing your will through the tera orb. Usually calling out a verbal command helps to focus your intent, too. Here, let me show you.”

I nodded obediently, sprigatito on my shoulder watching on, seemingly enraptured as Nemona produced a pokeball and released...

I blinked. “You chose quaxly?”

Wasn't the rival character supposed to take the rock to your elemental scissors? I shook my head, ignoring the protest from my starter at the rapid movement.

“Yep!” Nemona chirped with a grin. “What, did you think I'd go for a type advantage? You're the newbie trainer, Prince. I've made the top eight in the yearly conference. You need the handicap more than I do. And besides-”

She reached down and picked up the duck, who squeaked in alarm, then settled with a-

-with a-

-I twitched, trying to suppress even the thought of the pun, before it bubbled up.

-with a fowl look at his trainer.

“-quaxly is cute! I've always like water types! You saw me with my tauros, right?” Nemona gushed, apparently oblivious to the irritation of her pokemon.

“Hmm... I guess,” I hummed. “I'm more partial to ghost and dark types, myself. Flying types are a close third, though.”

“Interesting,” Nemona smiled, a softer expression. “While water's my favorite, I do have a dusknoir on my tournament team.”

I whistled lowly. “Nice. Not one of the ones I'm looking at picking up, but that's a very strong ghost. Second favorite type?”

“Fighting, actually,” Nemona grinned again, setting quaxly down as he fidgeted in her grasp. “I like their spirit!”

I nodded, trying to recall the other pokemon on her team. I'd remembered the aqua tauros simply due to her good strategy, but... “Let's see... I don't think I caught the match with the dusknoir, but... you've got a milotic, right? A poliwrath, a pawmot and... infernape?”

“Good memory,” Nemona praised. “I'm trying to get my hands on a jangmo-o, but there's only one family that breeds them here in Paldea, and trying to get clearance to catch anything on the Isle of Armor is a pain, even for someone with my family's connections.”

I nodded, grimacing. The island was a private reserve for the royalty of Galar, much like the Royal Wood here in Paldea. But the keepers of the island had been a bit more careful about maintaining the unique biodiversity of exotic imported pokemon there.

As such, it usually took a huge favor granted by the high nobility of Galar – or an equally large bribe – to gain access to it. Even then, though, you were only allowed to capture specific species.

It reminded me of an even more exclusive Safari Zone.

“Oh, jeeze!” Nemona suddenly cried, palming her face. “We've gotten totally off track. As fun as talking up my current team and my dream catches are, I should really get you through learning about the tera orb before I forget.”

“If you feel you have to,” I nodded, sighing at the return to the previous topic.

“So, anyway, you just hold it out and-” Nemona gripped her orb with intent, narrowing her gaze at quaxly, who stiffened. “-Terastallize, Quaxly!”

“Quack!” The duck cried, a rainbow of energy manifesting around it as it took on the myriad hues of a stained glass window, glowing brightly with inner light. Above its head, a 'crown'-like formation of phantasmal crystal materialized with what appeared to be a splash of water in gem form at its base.

Despite myself, my breath caught.

Terastallization was Paldea's 'unique mechanic' type thing. Kalos had mega evolutions, Galar had dynamaxing, and Alola had their z-moves. Information about Sinnoh, Hoenn, Johto, and Kanto wasn't all that easy to come by, but I didn't know if this specific variation of the pokemon world I'd been born into meant they had a gimmick as well.

I did know that Unova's special power was money, though.

Regardless, though, the sheer awe of the tera process managed to seep through even my own dreary jaded cynicism. “Okay, that's cool.”

“Mroo~oow,” Sprigatito purred, tilting her head this way and that at the light show.

“Quack!” Quaxly cried, his bill jutting upward proudly.

The cat on my shoulder sniffed disdainfully and I immediately felt validated by my choice to avoid the duck. He was kind of an asshole, just as I'd suspected.

Look, ducks and I had a history, alright? And it wasn't good.

Fucking farfetch'd.

“Okay, so when you terastallize a pokemon, they change their type,” Nemona explained with a nod towards her 'mon. “Now, officially your pokemon will lose their current types and have it fully-replaced by their tera-type, which is the type they become after you activate your tera orb.”

“But, in actuality, the pokemon in question keeps their innate type or types and, as a result, moves using their original type will still be stronger or more versatile,” I nodded, picking up the explanation just to prove I could. “So a fire type pokemon with a tera-type of ground will have stronger fire type attacks and, while terastallized, stronger ground-type attacks.”

Nemona pouted slightly, but nodded. “Right. So quaxly's here is actually a water tera-type. So, given that he's water type normally, his tera-type being the same as his natural one means he'll receive an extra bonus to water-type moves and attacks.”

“Mow!” Sprigatito chirped, jumping from my shoulder onto the ground and turning to me with eager eyes.

“Ah, she wants to try?” Nemona guessed.

I snorted, but nodded, holding out my own orb. “You ready, girl?”

A green whiskered face bobbed up and down.

“Sprigatito – Terastallize!” I commanded, feeling the energy within and around me flex and focus through the orb. Immediately, my starter burst into a corona of light, taking on the same gem-like quality as quaxly had moments earlier. Only this time, the crown was reddish in color, shaped like a tower, and adorned with a large dragon spreading red wings.

“Oooh! Dragon tera-type,” Nemona commented, clapping quickly as sprigatito looked herself over. “That's a pretty rare one. Unfortunately, I don't think the sprigatito line has any dragon-type moves to benefit from the enhancement. Don't be too down, though, because as far as defensive calculations go, your pokemon's new tera-type is its only type. That means while terastallized, your sprigatito won't have to worry about its weakness to fire, for instance.”

“While that's useful, you should know that move pools are basically a fabrication,” I replied. “They're just shorthand created to allow trainers to more easily classify the types and numbers of moves that a pokemon learns instinctually. They're nothing like the hard and fast rule that most people make them out to be.”

Nemona blinked, cocking her head. “I've never heard that before, who told you that?”

I frowned at her. “It's covered in advanced energy type studies classes. I thought you were Harrington's best student?”

The girl's cheeks reddened, and she reached up to scratch the back of her head, looking off to the side. “Ahh... well, the academies are set up so that you can bypass some classes if you get badges instead. I basically spent my entire first year getting badges and so I've already clepped out of all the basic stuff, but the advanced classes are kinda' hard, so Director Harrington writes me passes to take time to train my team and compete against Naranja.”

I stared at her, my mouth slipping open to respond...

“Ah.”

...and nothing of substance came out.

She's a meathead. My rival is a meathead.

Sweet Arceus, see me through this mess.

“Anyway!” Nemona coughed, clearing her throat as she smiled widely and not at all awkwardly at me. “How do you know about that stuff? If they're advanced classes and you're, what... eight?”

“Nine next week,” I shrugged, my eyes tracking back down to sprigatito, even as quaxly's gem-like glow began to fade.

“Ah, yeah, it's running out. Each use of a tera orb tends to last about five minutes or so. If a pokemon is cycling a lot of energy – like in a battle – that can extend the time period for the change, though.” Nemona held up her orb. “How many uses you get out of your orb kind of varies. No one knows why, but some people can use their orbs more often than others. It takes a day or two for them to recharge naturally, but if you take them to a pokecenter, you can let the Nurse Joy in charge charge if up for you, if you're in a jam.”

“That's because of the tera raid cystals inside the orb,” I stated, giving mine a closer look. The sphere wasn't actually perfectly opaque and, if you held it between yourself and the sun, you could see a gem embedded within the orb. “They're from the crater – or the asteroid that struck it originally – but they're only part of the equation. The crystals react with the human holding them, using the focusing matrix of the tera orb, to project tera-type energy onto the pokemon of your choice. That's what allows the terastallization process.”

“Whoa... really?” Nemona asked, her eyes wide as she mimicked me and held her orb to the sky. “By the treasures! You're right!”

For want of anyone else to share my disbelief, I turned to sprigatito and quaxly. The former seemed slightly stunned at the route the conversation had taken, losing her gem-like glow as she looked at me with an impressed air. The latter, though, was hiding his face behind his wing.

Yeah, if she was my trainer, I'd be ashamed, too.

“What the Joys do at pokecenters is expose the crystal inside your tera orb to a larger one they keep in the rear of the centers,” I continued tiredly, rubbing at my forehead. “The larger tera crystals replenish energy a lot faster, but aren't really portable and focusing matrices for them are... unwieldy and too expensive to be viable.”

Officially, at least.

I shrugged and put my new tera orb away in its new designated pocket. “But, you're at least correct in regards to no one knowing what quality allows people to more efficiently use the tera energy stored within their orb.”

Again, officially.

Military secrets were a thing in this world, too, and terastallization was the Paldean answer to Kalosian mega-evolutions, so it was important to know as much about how and why it worked as possible in case a war ever broke out.

Not that it was especially likely for either Kalos or Galar to invade. Neither of those regions liked the idea of visiting the madhouse that was Paldea too often, let alone trying to live here. And Orre to the south, over the strait, just didn't have the manpower, resources, or infrastructure to try anything. We'd... kind of made sure of that, actually.

“Okay, so how do you know about all of this? Isn't this super-advanced stuff? I didn't skip out on all of my basic classes, you know,” Nemona stated, finally looking away from where she'd been enthralled with her tera orb.

I shrugged, waggling a hand. “Eh, pieces of it are, and it's not like it's a big secret, either. Anyone curious enough with access to a public library can find out about it, if they start digging at least. But it's mostly because I have a degree in pokemon energy studies.”

The girl blinked, jerking her head as she stared at me. “Huh?”

…

Nemona Torrez didn't know what to make of her current situation.

When Harrington had asked her to dress up nice and meet the newest spoiled princeling, she'd tried to decline until he made a vague threat towards the excuses he'd made to cover her classes and grades. Then she'd sighed and agreed. At worst, it would be a wasted afternoon of irritating pomp and niceties, but it'd at least get her parents off her back, so there was that upside, too.

Attending something that could be classified as a 'high class social gathering' usually did.

And networking with one of the royals certainly counted.

Even if he was... what, sixth or seventh in line for the throne? At least that.

But... Aznaro was... not what she expected.

“Stop!” He called out, and she froze.

“What, what's wrong?” Nemona asked, turning to look around her, but seeing nothing except the forest preserve of the royal family.

“Is there something wrong, my prince?” Lyra, his bodyguard, asked as she went into high alert, her hand at her belt. “Are there wild pokemon?”

“There are always wild pokemon,” Aznaro sighed, coming up to Nemona and pulling her backwards carefully. “Look where you were about to step.”

Nemona blinked, looking down at the ground and-oh!

“Those are smoliv sprouts, aren't they?” Nemona asked, her eyes widening.

“Yep,” the prince nodded, reaching into his pack and pulling out a spray bottle filled with – as far as she could tell – plain water. “And they do not like being stepped on, especially when they're sleeping.”

Nemona watched as he dropped to his knees, his sprigatito jumping down from his shoulders as he began spritzing the half-buried pokemon. “What are you doing?”

“Waking them up,” Aznaro replied, shifting the plain black t-shirt he'd changed into. Nemona herself was glad that she'd packed a change of clothes. And, more than that, been given a changing room after the formal stuff was over. “They tend to half-bury themselves when they’re taking in sunlight and napping. But rain makes them wake up to take in more water. It’s the best way of getting them up without irritating them. I'm planning to capture one.”

Nemona blinked. She didn't think of herself as an elitist trainer or anything, but the smoliv line, ending with arboliva, were agricultural pokemon. And they were damn good at that. Arboliva orchards produced high-quality fruits and oils that were one of Paldea's biggest large-quantity exports.

Sure, she knew of some trainers who used dolliv or arboliva in their line up, but they were usually either grass-type specialists or... well, someone desperate to fill an empty spot on their team. Whether that was just an extra body or a much-needed elemental slot varied, but few people actively sought out smoliv in specific for their conference­-

Nemona stopped her train of thought right there.

“So... you're not planning on attending the conference?” She asked, her eyes widening as the tiny grass types began waking up and dislodging themselves from the dirt.

“Smo! Oliv! Mol!” The various cries rang out, the – admittedly adorable – little bulb pokemon looking around.

“One minute,” Aznaro nodded to her. “Hey little ones. Remember me?”

Various tiny chirps erupted from the half-dozen sprouts. Aznaro chuckled as they crowded around him and he rubbed the various small pokemon on the sides of their body. “Okay, okay, I've got a few berries in my bag. Here we go...”

Nemona watched in a slight daze as he interacted with the wild pokemon, introduced his starter to them, and began chatting with them about the forest. Absently, her eyes tracked towards the bodyguard with the red hair and red eyes. As the young royal knelt on the ground, she slowly edged over to the other woman.

“Does... I mean... is this...” Nemona asked quietly, waving her arms at the boy in front of them and trying not to be insulting.

“This is normal for his highness, yes,” Lyra confirmed in an undertone. “He... has a way with pokemon. Even wild ones. Especially wild ones, in fact. It's like nothing I've ever seen before.”

Nemona simply nodded, remembering the coverage of the party the month prior. She'd thought it had been exaggerated. Just propaganda to enhance the image of one of the background royals who never really did anything. After all, who actually believed an eight year old could talk down a wild garchomp – one of the world's most temperamental and destructive dragons? But the more she'd heard a few of her classmates talk about the party, the more she'd wondered.

“Okay, so you want to come with me?” Aznaro asked, smiling at one of the slightly derpy-looking pokemon and offering a pokeball. “Here you go.”

Nemona's jaw dropped slightly as the pokemon tapped the ball and was immediately captured, and feeling something vaguely like disgust and outrage, turned to look at Lyra, gesturing towards the prince again.

The bodyguard sighed and shrugged. “I told you, he has a way with pokemon.”

“I'll say,” Nemona muttered as Aznaro stood up and dusted himself off, his sprigatito taking a perch on his shoulder again.

“Okay, so what did you want to know?” The prince asked, turning towards Nemona and Lyra.

The tanned girl blinked, then shook herself. “Right... I was going to ask if you intended to go to the conference this year?”

“Ah,” he hummed, rubbing his chin. “I guess you don't have to be ten years old, do you? Well, probably not this year. Maybe next. I might try for a badge sweep this year, though.”

“There are better pokemon for badge challenges than the smoliv line, you know?” Nemona couldn't help herself from offering. “If you're looking for another grass type to synergize with your starter, you could pick up a deerling or a foongus.”

Even if she shivered at that last suggestion.

Asnaro snorted, smirking at her. “Don't like poison types?”

Nemona winced, she must have been a bit too expressive there. “Ah... they're great and all, but... not my cup of tea.” She didn't really want to go into the incident with the seviper when she was young. It was embarrassing and reflected poorly on the household staff to let a wild pokemon get so close to their manor.

“But even something like a skiddo would probably be a better match for your team than a smoliv. They evolve into gogoat, you know? Great battlers, even a match for some of the tauros I've seen, if you train them right.”

Aznaro hummed and nodded, but patted his newest capture regardless, “I think I'll stick with smoliv, thanks. Anyway... if you want to go, now would be the time. Once we get any deeper into the forest, you'll need me to guide you out or you'll have to fight your way out on your own.”

“I've got my battlers with me, I'm not worried,” Nemona waved the prince off.

“Suit yourself,” he nodded, turning to march deeper into the wood with just his sprigatito. “Same to you, Lyra. You know I'm perfectly safe here in these woods.”

“I know, your highness,” the redhead sighed, “but if I left you alone with someone your parents haven't thoroughly vetted, I'd be brought up on charges. No offense, Lady Torrez.”

Nemona gave the woman a weak smile. “None taken? I get it. I had some caretakers I wasn't allowed to buck back when I was a kid. These days, with my team, it's a lot better, but...”

Lyra nodded. “I'm not as plugged into the battle circuit as I used to be, but your skills are very respectable for how young you are. You have a real shot at going pro and making it stick. Trying for a gym leader position?”

Nemona blushed a bit and grinned shyly at the older woman. “Th-thanks... I haven't really thought about it. I'm still in school, after all, and there's my family's title to consider, but I want to make a real shot at being regional champion, at least.”

Lyra chuckled, “Sorry, I shouldn't laugh, but that's every kid's dream, it seems like. It was mine too, but... royal bodyguard pays almost as well with a lot less stress, even if I do get fewer perks and less press coverage.”

It was Nemona's turn to giggle and open her mouth to reply when she caught a shift in the trees above them.

Then Lyra's hand was around her wrist as she made to grab a pokeball. “Don't.”

Nemona frowned, torn between staring at the woman and trying to track the red, green, and white flashes of feathers through the canopy.

“”“Haw!”””

Three simultaneous voices rang out as shapes dropped from the treeline, the impacts kicking up dust and debris from the forest floor. Nemona's breath caught in her throat as she saw the three bipedal birds take up a triangle formation signaling their readiness to attack right in front of Aznaro. Their beaks were bared, talons on their forepaws outstretched in threat displays, and their eyes the beady seriousness of a wild pokemon about to rampage.

Aznaro raised his hands and-

Clapped?

“Bravo, Bravo!” Aznaro cried, his voice infused with more pep and energy than she'd heard from him since they met a few hours ago. “Amazing! You really surprised me!”

Nemona twitched as she felt like the foundation of her world was shifting underneath her very feet. The hawlucha all instantly broke their poses, shifting to prideful and shy stances, bowing at the praise the prince heaped on them. Then he approached, complimenting their feathers and their coloration.

“-oh, and you've been eating better since last month, too! Very good!” Aznaro grinned, casually brushing the feathers of the lead bird, who puffed up his chest in response. “Now let's see... ah, is that a bruise on your arm? Let me get out a potion, okay?”

Nemona stared as the boy younger than her talked down the wild pokemon that, just a moment ago, she'd been sure were going to attack them, into sitting for an examination.

That... that wasn't supposed to happen. Wild pokemon were... wild! They didn't sit down with you for a tea party like this! They attacked! They injured people! Hundreds of people per day would be injured by encounters with aggressive wild pokemon! No one could just-just... talk them down! The smoliv had been one thing. Unevolved, mainly sedentary grass-types who were - in all honesty - pretty weak. She could see them being chatted up, maybe, if someone had good skill with them. But wasnt’ Aznaro supposed to be a budding ghost-type specialist?

This was more than just 'having a way with pokemon.' This was... incredible.

“Lucha!” One of the flying types asked, jerking their beak towards Nemona, surprising her.

“Oh, her? That's Nemona. She's a friend who wanted to see the forest. Hmm... she's like an older pack member of the big gathering place where humans send their young to play-fight with other young. Remember I told you about that?” Aznaro explained, the bird blinking at her, then nodding and squaring up to Nemona, ten feet away.

Nemona's fingers itched for a pokeball.

“Really... hmm,” Aznaro turned away from where he was examining one of the other hawlucha's legs. “You've got two options, Nemona! You can watch him do some impressive stunts to show off and then compliment how well he did them, or you can battle him. He seems to think you're strong and would make a good trainer.”

Nemona jerked in surprise, looking between the prince and the pokemon flexing at her.

Her tongue slid across her lips. “I thought this was a royal reserve.”

“You've got his highness' permission if he made the offer,” Lyra chimed in from her side, stepping away as Nemona fingered the orbs on her belt. “Hawlucha aren't all that rare anymore and with Aznaro's ascent it shouldn't be a problem. You are doing him – and the royal family by extension – a favor, after all.”

Nemona felt her grin stretch and selected her battler. “Go, pawmot! Let's show this bird who's boss, buddy!”

As one of her best battlers materialized, striking his fists together in eagerness, Nemona reflected that she hadn't thought she'd get one new pokemon today, let alone two. But... if the world was going to go crazy around this prince, then at the very least she'd take refuge in what made sense. Maybe she'd even get a battle out of the prince after they got finished with this little adventure!

~~~

Still trapped inside.

Wrote more pokemon.

Might have another chapter of something up tomorrow.

Have fun, enjoy, and thank you for your support!