The All Mighty Earth - Pokemon SI Chapter 38

Asher's Team:

Lago - Rhydon

Sebastian - Nidoking

Selena - Nidoqueen

Seraph - Clefable

Death - Marowak

Colossus - Steelix

Clamps - Gligar

Ivor - Mamoswine

Jet - Flygon

Garchomp

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In the middle of the Viridian training area, a human, a Flygon, and a Garchomp were standing around, with Asher keeping a respectable distance from the land shark pokemon. He wasn't afraid, but rather disturbed with what he was seeing. Or rather, with what was seeing him.

Hollow golden eyes stared back at him, the life sucked out of them, and Asher couldn't stop himself from being disturbed. Jet was standing besides him, with the other dragon regarding Garchomp wearily, but even he was very clearly disturbed by the lack of reaction shown by the other pokemon.

"Hey, can you answer me?" Asher tried to get a reaction to no avail, with his new team member just gazing at him blankly, and huffed.

He'd released Garchomp expecting a fight, which was why Jet was right besides him, instead the savage beast that wanted to previously rip him apart was doing absolutely nothing but stare into space.

Asher had some suspicions, so he pointed at a nearby boulder and spoke. "Destroy that thing, use Dragon Claw."

The reaction was instant, the hulking dragon lunged at the giant rock with pulsing green claws shrouded in aura, and roared before breaking and shattering the stone like glass.

A few pebbles were blown in Asher's direction, but he simply brushed them off.

"Alright, it looks like you only know how to take orders. That's not good." He noted to himself as Garchomp returned to his side and looked at him, awaiting more orders.

"Do you want a name? It's kind of a theme of all my pokemon, each of them have a title other than their species, plus it makes them feel more unique. At least to me."

Garchomp continued to stare at him blankly, so Asher decided to make picking a name a bit simpler, since his new pokemon clearly wasn't all there.

"Alright, how about this, I'll start calling out names and you grunt when you like one. Understand?"

Garchomp didn't respond, and Jet was starting to look concerned.

Asher rubbed his chin, thinking for a moment, and started to list names. "Core?"

No response.

"Raiden?"

Just blank stares.

"Jaws?"

A slight breath, but still as a statue.

"Bruce?" He asked, starting to get annoyed at the lack of action.

Nothing.

"Sidon?" He uttered out, carefully examining Garchomp's face for any sign that he was listening at all.

A twitch of the eye.

"...Anchor?" Asher offered weakly, just mentioning whatever comes to mind at this point, but surprisingly he gets the subtlest of grunts out of his new pokemon.

"Really, Anchor? You know what, I was just coming up with whatever, I kinda like it now though. Yeah, that'll do just fine."

Asher didn't get an outwards response, but he saw a flicker of light spark in the newly dubbed Anchor's eyes, and decided to call that progress.

"Okay, I want you to fire off all your moves one by one over there." He pointed towards an empty space, before continuing. "Remember, put a bit of distance between us first. We don't want to go around attacking each other now do we?"

Anchor didn't question the orders, walking away before Asher even finished and started to fire off some attacks.

Taking note of them all, Asher realised how unrefined the moves truly were. True there was some raw power there, but Anchor was missing a huge amount of finesse when it came to technique. That wasn't really surprising, seeing as he was essentially forced to evolve, so the lack of experience was blaring. It was the reason he'd chosen to release Jet, since he shared both his types with Anchor training him would hopefully be easy.

"Hey Anchor, Jet's gonna show you a thing or two here. Try to learn some moves from him will ya."

Anchor stopped unleashing attacks and robotically marched next to Jet, staring at the other pokemon with unnerving intensity, as he fired off a stream of mint coloured flames. Dragon Breath wasn't a bad place to start, since Anchor already knew Dragon Rage, and they were, in essence, very similar moves.

Asher was expecting his new pokemon to struggle but, much to his surprise, he got the move down nearly instantly. It took a few tried, but Anchor proved himself to be quite talented at Mimicking other moves. Once he had Dragon Breath learned, he started to work on Dragon Pulse, with the move starting to take shape just like before.

Maybe Anchor wasn't totally mindless afterall.

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Asher held up a pair of jeans, folded them, and put them in his suitcase; preparing to leave for Sinnoh tomorrow.

The time leading up to him leaving was a bit hectic, but it was finally time for him to go. It wasn't a real problem for him, he could use some time away, and being an ambassador for Indigo was just the excuse he needed to take his leave.

"You're leaving tomorrow?" Asher didn't even bother looking her way, knowing who it was.

"I am, and I'll be gone for two months, so if there's anything you want to say to me, get it out now."

"...why did you leave me? I was happy, I loved you, so why did you do it?"

Asher wasn't sure what he could tell her why exactly he did what he did. At the time, he felt like it was the best thing he could do for her, distance someone he loved from a reckless idiot, but now he wasn't really sure. Why did he leave her? Was it something selfless like that, or-

"I wanted to make myself feel better. I'd just lost three friends, all because of my fuck up, and I... I wanted to myself feel better. Like I was a person who put other above himself, not a selfish idiot who let his pride get the better of him. Truth is, I broke up with you because I wasn't ready."

Sabrina was quiet as he continued to pack his bags, and eventually she asked. "Did it work? Did you feel better afterwards?"

"No, but I still think I did the right thing. I needed to grow up, and I could only do that alone."

Asher had noticed her watching him a few times now, and it bothered him a bit, but he never did  approach her about it, maybe it was cowardice, maybe he was scared to face her, or maybe he didn't even deserve her back.

That didn't matter to him though, not anymore. He was just about ready to move on.

Sabrina questioned him, her tone not quite as neutral as before. "Have you grown up?"

Asher stopped for a moment, and allowed himself to give the faintest of smiles. "I think I have. Besides, I'm acting as Indigo's ambassador, this is my chance to prove to myself I've changed."

He turned around, looking Sabrina in her crimson eyes, and she nodded as though she approved. He was glad she didn't seem to hold much of a grudge over what he did. Maybe in the future they'd be able to patch things up.

"Something has changed in you, I can see it. You're more of an adult now."

Asher smiled at her. "I'll make sure to prove you right."

Sabrina looked away for a moment, and teleported away. She left him alone, nothing but his belongings keeping him company.

Asher's smile slowly faded, with him staring at his branded hands for a moment, before he resumed packing his belongings away.

Whilst they weren't exactly close like they were before, at the very least he had a feeling they'd be talking again. That was one less thing on his chest.