Pokemon: Way of Life Chapter 43

Hi all,

Here's the next chapter. There is a time skip at the beginning, and Lucas finally encounters a Scyther.

November 5th

A week later, Lucas was once again exploring the Viridian Forest, accompanied by his Pokemon. During his exploration of the outskirts, he must have walked dozens of kilometres. His map was becoming more detailed, including markers for distinct landmarks, locations of harvestable plants and Pokemon territories. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to come across a Scyther yet, but he decided to venture a bit further inside today in the hopes of finding the elusive Pokemon.

As he had all his partners with him today, he felt confident that no matter what the forest threw at them they would be able to handle it. In the last week, all four of his Pokemon had grown significantly, which further boosted his confidence.

Dante had made excellent progress in perfecting his evolution. He still needed time to absorb the last of the energy from the psychic stone. However, he was already over half way to maxing out his energy capacity. It was unfortunate, but some of the energy from the stone was lost during the process, but it was still worth the price. If Dante continued to meditate every day, Lucas was confident that his partner would be ready for his evolution.

The same could be said of his potential. Poliwrath showed no mercy in training him, and Dante shared his complaints with Lucas, who patted him on the head and encouraged him to keep working hard. To say Dante was salty is an understatement. Lucas reminded himself to send a gift to Poliwrath, for helping out so much.

Dante had made progress in mastering his moves, primarily his teleport skill. He was so excited about the move that he spent a couple of hours every day improving it. However, the aura cost was still prohibitive, so he was limited in how much time he could spend on it.

Imara had made similar advancements in terms of her evolution. Although her energy capacity was still far behind Dantes, due to the fact that her evolution stone was a grade lower than Dantes. She joined Dante and Duke in training with Poliwrath, and seemed to relish the physical training.

After working hard on her dragon-type affinity, she had finally reached fifty and met one of the requirements to learn Weather Ball. Instead of spending her AP, he gave her half of the ten Smart Candy that he received from winning the tournament, to increase her Special Attack to eighty-five, fulfilling the other requirement. He then gave her Weather Ball TM, and she finally learned the move yesterday.

Maximus had raised his fighting type affinity by a large margin and Lucas was able to teach him a new move—Brick Break. Not only did it deal a lot of damage, but it removed the effects of Reflect and Light Screen before attacking. He still needed to teach him some of the powerful fighting-type egg moves from the Move Tutor function, but he only had one TP to spend at the moment. He realised that there would be an upper limit to how many points he could earn, as he only received one point whenever his Pokemon mastered a move. He would have to be more careful about how he spent them in the future.

Additionally, Lucas used the rare candy he had been holding onto to raise Max's potential to 'A'. Just like Imara, he had been walking around holding his evolution stone in his arms to help charge it, but without the same fervour as Imara. He was beginning to realise that his girl liked to hoard expensive treasures. Would he have a female Smaug when she evolved into a Charizard?

Finally, his newest member, Duke, had seen the most improvement. All of the Pokemon had reached level ten, and he was no different. It just took some more battles to get there. Thankfully, he had the hold item, Exp Share, which he gave Duke once the others reached level ten. Any experience they received thereafter, a portion of it was added to Duke's cache of experience.

Because he couldn't battle any official Pokemon below his own Pokemon's level, he would have to keep them at level ten until he conquered the first Pokemon gym. Thankfully, any experience they earned up to that point was still accumulating in their cache, so it wasn't wasted.

Duke had increased his dragon-type affinity by a lot, and he had also learned Twister. The next move he was targeting was Bubblebeam, which was better than Water Gun. Another move he was looking at was Focus Energy, which gave the Pokemon a chance to bypass an opponent's defence completely. There was no doubt that it was a powerful support move.

Duke had finally mastered water manipulation, and now he could utilise all of his speed. With Rain Dance and Swift Swim, he would be a speed demon in battle. As for his stats, they had improved a lot under Poliwrath's guidance. Lucas wanted to give Duke another week of training before he spent his AP, but his gym battle was scheduled for tomorrow, so he took the plunge and spent all forty-five points. Afterwards, his parameters looked a lot more respectable.

=====

Pokemon: Horsea | Name: Duke | Age: 0 | Gender: M | Type: Water | Potential: A | Affection: 30 | Favourite Foods: Seaweed Salad

Description: If it senses any danger, it will vigorously spray water or a special type of ink from its mouth.

Stats

Level: 10 | Exp Cache: (120) | AP: 0 | HP: 170 | Aura: 250 |

Attack: 41 | Defence: 75 | Sp Att: 84 | Sp Def: 53 | Speed: 70 |

Traits

Land Walker: Marine Pokemon’s speed is not affected outside of the water.

Special Ability

Swift Swim - Doubles the ability-bearer's speed during rain.

Balance - Increases the maximum aura by 25%.

=====

He could now use Duke in the gym battle, which would increase the number of options he had against his opponents. On a side note, Duke was now pretty fluent in the English language after being tutored by Dante, and he had been lording it over everyone since.

Lucas paused as he spotted some foliage ahead of him that looked like it had been cut with a blade. When he examined the ground carefully, he noticed that there were a series of distinctive footprints. They were round imprints with three small claws on the front. He raised his head and looked further ahead. A feeling of excitement welled up inside him. Based on his research into the Pokemon, he knew the footprints belonged to a Scyther. They were very distinctive and could not be mistaken for anything else, at least not in this region.

Lucas turned to his team who looked at him with curiosity. "I have found the tracks of a Scyther. We have to be careful, as their scythe blades are dangerous."

He wasn't only speaking to his Pokemon, but to Giro who was streaming his adventures to his followers on his channel. As a result of the initial success with Jason, he began streaming almost every day of his exploration of the forest. His followers didn't seem to care that he wasn't interacting with them ninety-five per cent of the time. Whenever he found a safe location, he would spend some time chatting with them.

It was definitely an adjustment because he had to moderate his behaviour, especially when he was by himself like today. He couldn't give a hint of his gamer abilities, for example, and he had Giro turn away whenever he needed to stop for bathroom breaks. Only skills and natural athleticism that could be explained away were allowed to be shown live. He had to be vigilant because he couldn't make his followers forget something they had seen, and he wouldn't be able to prevent the news from spreading like wildfire.

Lucas could imagine that his chat was exploding now that he was on the trail of a Scyther. He didn't hide his plans to acquire a Scyther, after all. As he moved forward, he carefully scanned every part of the environment. His tracking skill let him estimate that the tracks were about two hours old, but it paid to be cautious. The Scyther could easily have doubled back.

An hour later, after following a series of Scyther tracks, the ground began to gently slope downwards, and Lucas cautiously descended down to the bottom. When the ground evened out again, he spotted a tree that had been violently slashed. Lucas cocked his head in curiosity. Did the Scyther mark its territory?

"It seems we are getting closer to finding the Scyther," Lucas said quietly. "Everyone, be prepared for an ambush."

They moved forward into an area of dense vegetation, and it was only because of his aura sight that Lucas had confidence in proceeding through. There could be plenty of Pokemon hiding out of sight.

There was a flash of aura out of the corner of his eye, and Lucas spun in that direction. Fortunately, it was only an Oddish running away from the group, and it soon disappeared from sight. Lucas sighed in relief, and was about to start moving again when another flash caught his attention, right in front of him this time.

'Look out.' Imara cried out.

Lucas hastily erected a barrier with telekinesis, pouring two hundred aura into the skill, just in time to avoid a scythe-like blade that appeared seemingly from nowhere, and struck the barrier.

78 damage done to the Barrier.

Barrier: 122/200

Lucas stumbled backwards from the impact, and the Scyther was preparing to strike again when his Pokemon made their presence known.

Imara fired off an Ember, and Scyther jumped back to avoid the attack, flaring its wings to help it gain some distance. The other three Pokemon reacted next, all three firing off attacks at Scyther, forcing it to dodge to the side as soon as it landed on the ground.

Lucas stepped back to allow his team to do their work. "Guys, I can't direct all four of you at once. I will offer suggestions, but you are free to attack as you see fit."

Scyther ~ Level 13 ~ HP: 190/190 ~ Aura: 180/180

His Pokemon heard him, but they didn't bother to respond, recognising that they needed to keep their focus on the fight. The Scyther shot forward again, one of its blades raised to deliver a strike.

It was Imara who was the target, since she was the closest. She tried firing off another ember, but she was too slow and the blade came crashing down on her.

Max stepped forward and cast Protect in front of Imara, and the blade bounced off it, causing Scyther to reel back off balance from the unexpected move. Imara took advantage, twisting around with dragon-type energy appearing on her tail, and striking Scyther with Dragon Tail.

42 damage dealt to Scyther.

HP: 148/190

Dante fired off a Psybeam, followed up a moment later by Duke, who fired an Octazooka. Scyther recovered and dodged the first attack, but it looked like it was going to be hit by the second. The Scyther created a copy of itself—Double Team—which took the attack for the original. Imara and Max were preparing their next moves when the Scyther retreated a few metres, giving it plenty of time to dodge the next two attacks.

Scyther raised both of its blades and dark-type energy coalesced on them. Lucas had only a moment to warn his team before two dark blades of energy shot out, flying through the air at the team. They scattered, diving to both sides, avoiding the deadly attack which gouged two long furrows in the ground.

"Guys, don't group together. Keep yourselves apart and attack from different angles," Lucas suggested. They may have the advantage of numbers, but if they don't work together well, they could still lose.

The team surrounded it on all sides, and the Scyther seemed unsure of which Pokemon it should attack next. Lucas had more chances to command his Pokemon with this setup, so he laid out some instructions quickly.

The team fired off more offensive attacks, except for Max, who cast a Thunderwave. The attacks came at the Scyther from weird angles and with staggered releases, making it difficult for the Pokemon to avoid all of the attacks. It crouched and raised its wings, before launching itself forward swiftly with a Quick Attack.

Duke was in the firing line, so Lucas quickly ordered the Pokemon to dodge to the side. Scyther raised its blade and a bug-like energy gathered on it, before it swung down like it was a farmer cutting wheat. Duke struggled to avoid the attack, and was stuck on his side, sending him sprawling.

44 damage dealt to Duke.

HP: 126/170

Imara and Max rushed in before the Scyther could strike Duke again, and Max's speed ensured that he arrived first, who attacked with Rock Smash. The Scyther blocked the attack with its two blades crossed over its body, dispersing most of the damage, but causing the Scyther to stumble backwards.

12 damage dealt to Scyther.

HP: 148/190

Imara followed up with Ember, and was able to connect this time.

It's super effective! 58 damage dealt to Scyther.

HP: 90/190

Scyther chittered loudly, and swiped his blades in a circular motion, forcing Max and Imara to jump backwards to avoid them. At this point, both Dante and Duke came back into play. As Duke got up, Dante fired off another Psybeam. Scyther was able to dodge the attack easily enough, but it had forgotten about Duke. The Pokemon received an Octazooka to the back, sending it tumbling forward, covered in ink.

Critical Hit! 85 damage dealt to Scyther.

HP: 5/190

"Stop," Lucas commanded when his team looked ready to attack again. The Scyther was seriously injured, but it was still trying to get to its feet by raising itself with its scythe-like appendages. In the end, the Pokemon had no chance of winning against his four partners teaming up against it. However, he was sure that it could beat any of his Pokemon individually.

Lucas approached the Pokemon and crouched down next to him, but kept a respectful distance. "I know that you probably hate me right now, but I will be sending you off to get treatment. Soon, you will hopefully join my team."

The Scyther glared at him, and Lucas realised that it wouldn't be able to understand him. Then again, he didn't think it would matter. The Pokemon wouldn't be interested in anything he had to say.

He retrieved a neutral ball from his belt, but before he sent it off, he examined the Pokemon.

======

Pokemon: Scyther | Name: -- | Age: 1 | Gender: F | Type: Bug, Flying | Potential: S | Affection: -- | Favourite Foods: --

Second Stage: The Pokemon has progressed through its second growth stage.

Description: Leaps out of tall grass and slices prey with its scythes. The movement looks like that of a ninja.

Stats

Level: 13 | Next: 67% | HP:190 | Aura: 270 |

Attack: 85 | Defence: 72 | Sp Att: 45 | Sp Def: 68 | Speed: 91 |

Traits

Relentless - Will not stop pursuing its opponent until it is defeated.

Special Ability

Technician - increases the power of moves that have a base power of 60 or less by 50%.

=====

Sure enough, Scyther was powerful. It was already in the second stage, so it would save him a lot of work. If he was able to figure out how to trigger its pre-evolution, then he would be the only person in the Pokemon World currently that owned a Scizor. The only problem was that there was no Metal Coat hold item like in the games, so he had to figure out the requirements himself.

Lucas sent the Pokemon off, and retrieved his phone. He sent a message to the PokeLodge, letting them know that he had another occupant in his habitat and that it needed treatment. Lucas looked back at Giro and talked to his followers. "Well, guys and girls. I finally caught myself a Scyther. I hope I can bond with him once I level up to Advanced Student. I think we need to call it a day. Let's return to the city."

With Dante's remaining aura, he could teleport them almost two kilometres, which would save some time. He decided not to use the move since they could travel the distance in a short amount of time.

{0(((..)))0}

Later that evening, Lucas threw his phone down on the bed and groaned. Even with a manager, he still had to spend some time communicating with people regarding his business interests. The last week was significant as a lot of things had happened that had distracted him from training with his Pokemon.

The biggest of these was the release of aura incense onto the market, which happened yesterday. Since the products had been advertised for weeks, there had been a lot of buzz generated, and thousands of products were sold out by mid-afternoon. Every incense sold generated a profit of ten Pokedollars. Lucas received twenty percent of that, which was a high margin considering that he didn't have to spend a single Pokedollar on its production. It meant that he would be receiving an influx of Pokedollars shortly. In the short term, the earnings won't be all that significant. However, ten to twenty thousand Pokedollars per week was nothing to scoff about, and it would only grow exponentially from there. Once his incense range expands, and they begin selling in all regions, he will be generating hundreds of thousands of Pokedollars every week.

Which is why he was already working on the next incense ever since he received the new batch of ingredients. As always, he aimed to create an incense that benefited him and his friends first, so he focused on dragon-type insight incense. Since Imara and Duke were training their dragon-type affinity, he figured it would help them when they stalled at higher levels. Upon reaching seventy in any affinity, it became increasingly difficult to raise them beyond that. Since the most powerful moves were locked behind them, they were very important for any trainer. Only normal-type moves had no limitations, which made it the most common and popular energy type. However, there was a trade-off, as normal-type moves weren't super effective against anything.

Once he finished creating the new incense, he would turn his attention back to the incense that helped Eevee breed in captivity. Not only because it had the potential to make him plenty of Pokedollars, but also because he thought that it would be cool to unlock all the secrets for all of its evolutions.

Spook wandered into the bedroom and jumped onto the bed, carrying a Leaf Stone with its vines above his head. Lucas had discovered the evolution stone when exploring the forest, and had given it to Faith since he had no need for one at the moment.

"Don't get too comfortable," Lucas warned. "You know the rules."

Spook ignored him, settling deeper into the bed and closing her eyes. Lucas shook his head in exasperation. She had not taken it well that she could no longer sleep with her partner, and snuck into the bedroom at every opportunity. The Pokemon already spent all day with her partner, so it wasn't like she was being deprived. No, she was just spoiled.

Faith walked into the room, dressed in shorts and a t-shirt. She stopped when she spotted Spook and sighed. As she climbed into bed, she leaned over and kissed him on the cheek.

"Should I send her away?" Faith asked with a smile.

Lucas groaned as if he was suffering. "It's a huge sacrifice, but I think we can keep our hands to ourselves for one night."

Suddenly, the door flew open and the rest of their Pokemon rushed into their room, as if they had been waiting at the door. They jumped onto the end of the bed and settled next to Spook.

"Well, there's no turning back now." Faith crawled into his arms and rested her head on his shoulder. "So are you finished with the business calls, Mr Tycoon?"

Lucas replied, "I am for now. Who even calls at this time of night? Geez, I knew there would be cockroaches crawling out looking to take advantage of me, but how did they get a hold of my number?"

"Just keep referring them to Alfred," Faith said. "He knows how to handle it. All he has to do is threaten them with his insanely powerful Pokemon."

"I bet," Lucas shuddered. He recalled a few days ago when he was exploring the forest, and his phone had died because he had forgotten to charge it. Half an hour later, he spotted a Crobat in the sky, and its presence had been so overwhelming that he nearly pissed himself, even with his mental resistance. Thankfully, the Crobat didn't attack, but flew away. A few minutes later, Alfred appeared with the Crobat following behind him.

He had come looking for Lucas after he was unable to contact him about a business matter. Apparently, Alfred had a fondness for bat-like Pokemon, and his entire team was composed of them. Crobat, Swoobat, Gliscor, and two terrifying Noiverns, who looked at Lucas like they wanted to devour him.

Alfred had said in his posh voice, "I like this type of species. I once had to rescue a boy from a well filled with Zubats. I almost lost my life to the menaces, but I came to appreciate them once I got over the fear."

Coincidentally, his phone rang and it was Alfred on the other line.

"I have taken care of all the annoying people you sent my way," Alfred said. "They should not be bothering you in the future."

"What does that mean?" Lucas gulped. "You didn't feed them to your Noiverns did you? Because the last time I saw them, they looked incredibly hungry."

"Of course not, sir. That wouldn't be very proper. They would have to do something a lot more egregious before I gave them that treatment."

"Right," Lucas said, not knowing if his manager was taking the piss. It was difficult to tell when it came to the man. "Thanks for getting rid of the trash. Is there any other reason for your call?"

"I have found you a drummer," Alfred said. "His name is Yuji Sakurai, and he is about a year older than you. Funnily enough, I found him in a music store, testing out some drums. He is raw, but his talent is undeniable."

"I will take your word for it," Lucas said. "I only need to record the song for the moment, but there may come a point where I perform the song live on stage. I will be playing it for my audience on Tweak at least. Is he okay with that?"

"As long as he makes some Pokedollars out of it, then it should be no problem, sir. Here are his contact details. You may call him at your convenience."

Lucas wrote the details down. He was pleased that he had a drummer to produce a proper rendition of the song. Once he finished with the gym, he will go back to the recording studio and finish producing it.

"So, have you found an architect to create some designs for the island?" Lucas asked.

"There is someone that I want to hire in particular, but they are fully booked up, and they are not cheap either. I may have to compromise and look for someone with a bit less experience."

"I don't need the number one architect in Kanto," Lucas said. "I will be doing a rough draft of what I want the town and resort is to look like. Their job is to refine it further, so it doesn't need to be the most qualified for the job."

"Then I will cast my net wider, sir," Alfred said. "I have got in contact with Nora on the island, and it looks like they will be finished with the habitat in two to three weeks."

"They have made remarkable progress," Lucas exclaimed. "I bet having Maggie and her Pokemon would help speed things up."

"We need to get moving on the plans for the town if you want to be efficient. I need to start the hiring process for some construction workers. I am considering hiring a company located in Pewter City that has plenty of experience. We have to provide them with temporary housing while the town is being built, though."

Lucas hummed. He may need to move forward with his plans to revisit the island. Sometime in the next couple of weeks, he would have Maggie travel to Pallet Town and stock up on initial supplies for the town and temporary accommodations. After visiting his family, they would travel back to the island and get the ball rolling. He would take Alfred with him and any other employees that they hire in the meantime. It would cost him a lot of Pokedollars, but he was currently sitting on close to five hundred thousand Pokedollars. He would keep one hundred thousand for himself, and invest the rest in the island.

Alfred approved of Lucas' plan when he mentioned it to him, and told him to hurry up with the sketches for the town. This was so he had a rough idea of what to present to the architect and the construction company. Lucas hung up and placed the phone on the bedside table. It looked like he was going to remain busy for the foreseeable future.

Before he travelled back to Pallet Town, he would like to travel to another city, and he had two options. Pewter or Celadon City. He was leaning towards the former because he needed to get started on reviving the Pokemon as soon as possible. However, there was no way he could make the journey in two weeks and return as well. Viridian Forest stood as a massive obstacle in his way. To reach Pewter City, he would have to travel the northwestern road and take a circular route, avoiding the forest completely. That would likely take a month, even with Shelly.

On the other hand, reaching Celadon City meant that Kanto would open up to him in a lot of ways; Saffron City was only a few days' travel from there, and Vermillion City beyond that. Far to the northeast, there was Cerulean City. The same problem occurred, however, in that it would take too much time to get there. Approximately two weeks with Shelly, and that was without any detours along the way.

Lucas wasn't in a rush to collect all the gym badges. There was still over a year before he challenged the Junior League. So he could just stay in Viridian City for a while, exploring deeper into the forest and levelling his Pokemon. He had done more research on the Junior Circuit, and found out how challenging each gym would be, the further he progressed. For the second gym, he would face Pokemon that were level fifteen on its hardest difficulty. Each gym after that the level requirements rose, but the gap between levels decreased, as it became more difficult to advance. Only in the last gym would you face level thirty Pokemon, an excellent precursor to the championship.

"You are thinking heavy thoughts," Faith ran a finger across his brow, smoothing out the furrow.

"Just wondering where to go from here," Lucas said, sharing his thoughts with her.

"Hmm," Faith placed a hand on her hands and thought for a moment. "We can stay here for that time. I was thinking of obtaining another Pokemon from the catalogue, and training the team in some more battles."

"What are you interested in?" Lucas asked curiously.

"A Phantump," Faith said. "It will cost a lot to get here, but I really like the combination of grass and ghost-type. Plus, it's cute."

"Until you evolve it," Lucas said dryly. "Well, if you want it, you might as well get it now."

Faith nodded, "I will get it tomorrow."

"How's the alchemy coming along?"

"Alright. It is a lot more difficult than I imagined, but I spent the entire week grinding it out. I can now make grade one potions, but it will be a long time before I even think about trying to invent new potions."

"You're amazing," Lucas grinned, before he sobered when he thought of something that troubled him. "By the way, do you know what is the matter with Jason? His first visit with his dad seemed to go alright, but now he is visiting him a lot, and he hasn't joined me in adventuring in the forest again."

"I'm not sure. I don't think anything is wrong. Maybe he is trying to make an effort to reconnect with his dad."

Lucas grunted. He would have to keep a close eye out, to make sure that his friend wasn't taken advantage of by his dad.

They decided to get some sleep, as Lucas had his gym battle tomorrow. However, whilst Faith drifted off to sleep almost immediately, Lucas was still wide awake an hour later. He was so full of anticipation, that he couldn't quiet his mind, even after trying meditation. Giving up, he eased out of bed, careful not to wake Faith or the Pokemon, and padded out of the room.

Lucas plonked himself down on the sofa, and turned on the television, lowering the volume until it was a dull murmur. The sheer boredom of watching infomercials advertising Pokemon products made him drift into a light doze. He was suddenly brought back to his senses when he noticed that there was now an emergency broadcast airing on television. Lucas rubbed his face and leaned forward, riveted.

The reporter came on, and the situation was clear, even before he began speaking. In the background, buildings were on fire. Emergency services along with a plethora of water Pokemon battled the blaze. Lucas listened to the reporter and he was horrified when the true scope of the tragedy was revealed.

Stone Town had been destroyed in a matter of hours, the entire town set ablaze, and with only a handful of survivors so far. There is no information on who or what is responsible.

It was safe to say he wasn't getting any sleep tonight.

So, what do you think? The next chapter is the gym battle, but it is slightly overshadowed by the tragedy that has just happened. Who would destroy an entire town?

Thanks for reading.