Chapter 32: Flowers and Rivers
"How come you're already tired?"
Fanny ignored the fighting type's question, she was a proud and virtuous Salandit! Her elegant beauty and humble demeanor was much too rare for a common Mankey to stare at! She was the perfect specimen for her species, a model that all other Salandits must strive to become-
"The nurse told her that she was getting fat, Brat probably never walked for more than ten minutes at a time, Now that she's trying to lose weight, she's already out of breath," Fanny ignored the old Passimian's words, he knew nothing! He was ugly!
"Oh..." The Mankey nodded in understanding, "Why didn't she train? Doesn't she know that training makes us super strong? Is she stupid?"
"WHAT DID YOU CALL ME?!" Fanny turned and screamed at the Fighting Type.
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"Whoops, someone's getting grumpy, up we go~," Dishon said with a smile as he picked his Starter off the ground, the Shiny Salandit slithering out of his grasp in order to wrap herself around his waist, her purple eyes glaring at the two Fighting Types that still walked on the ground.
Eri watched her Mankey shrug and turn to look at her, as if asking "What did I do?", causing her to shrug in return.
The two trainers were making their way towards a bridge passing over a river pouring down the melted snow from the top of the nearby mountain. Stopping every once in a while so Dishon could take photos of the wild Pokemon they passed along the way.
"I just think they're neat~" Was his explanation when Eri asked why he was taking a picture of some Skiddo.
"Are you sure Ms Dendra is going to be fine?" Eri asked Dishon as the sound of the upcoming river entered her ears, the muffled voice of Dendra shouting commands to her team could be heard further ahead, followed by the sounds of rocks smashing apart and Psyduck running away.
"Her team is stronger than they seem, you don't have to worry about her." Dishon waved her concern away before pointing at something in the opposite direction of where Dendra was, "Look there," he told her, causing Eri to turn her head and look, her eyes widening at the sight.
"Is that-" She didn't finish her sentence, staring in awe at the sight before her.
Hundreds of colorful Pokemon were running around and playing with each other, all walking together like a moving field of flowers as they made their way north.
"Flower Season~" Dishon smiled at the sight, taking a picture of the distant Pokemon with his phone before turning to look at Eri, "Wanna get a closer look?"
"Do I?! Let's go!" Eri pumped her fist in the air, followed by her Mankey before the trainer and starter pair started running towards the colorful field of flower Pokemon.
"Passimian..." The older Fighting type grumbled as he followed the young trainer.
"Come on girl, to your feet, we're back to walking." Fanny hissed in annoyance as she crawled down from her trainer's waist and started walking beside him.
"Sal!"
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Sliding down to reach the edge of the river, Medicham grabbed onto a rock jutting from the ground before she flipped over to sit on top of it, watching her trainer and teammates battle a bunch of water types a bit further upstream.
"Ayo Chica, You come here a lot?" Medicham looked down at the water, seeing a pair of orange weasel-like Pokemon sticking their heads out of the water, the yellow collar around their neck floating like a pool toy, keeping their heads out of the water. Buizel.
"Not interested." Medicham lazily told the two water types, one of which rolled his eyes as his friends snickered at him.
"Why not? The water's nice!" The first Buizel told her, his paw poking out of the water and motioning her to come in, "Everyone should take a good swim every once in a while~" He said before licking his lips and diving back into the water, poking his head a bit further back from where he previously was.
"We're just making sure you're enjoying yourself, Chica~" The second Buizel said with a smirk as his tail spun behind him, pushing him closer to the rock Medicham was sitting upon, "We know how to treat a girl~"
"I'm on the lookout for Pokemon with different colors that they normally should have." Medicham ignored the two Buizel's advancements, "Like a Salandit that's white instead of Black, have the two of you seen anything similar nearby."
"Ooh~ Playing hard to catch, eh?" The second Buizel smirked as he slapped the rock she sat on, "That's fine with me, me gusta un desafio~"
"Wasn't that one bloke from upstream a bit bluer than usual?" The first Buizel asked.
"He was hit with Powder Snow, that doesn't count," The second Buizel told him before he returned to Medicham, "By the way, how long can you hold your breath?"
"You look a bit skinny, is there no fat on those arms?" The first Buizel asked with a smirk, "Your legs on the other hand... You should try and dive to touch the river floor, It's a wonderful exercise, we promise, Hehehe~" He licked his lips before diving into the water, emerging on the other side of the rock Medicham sat upon, opposite of the other Buizel.
"If you don't know anything then there's no reason to keep talking to you." Medicham told the two before standing up, preparing to leave.
"Hey hey, Leaving so soon? Why don't you join us for lunch, Chica?" The first Buizel asked, a quiet growl escaping his mouth as his tails started swirling underneath the water.
"Yeah Yeah~ We got so much food~" The second Buizel's tail started spinning as well, his eyes focusing on the fighting type.
"All you gotta do to eat something around here..." The first Buizel's tail spun like the propeller of a torpedo, shooting him out of the water, "Is to get in the water and drown already!!!"
"I never ate a Medicham before! How exciting!" The second Buizel joined his friend as he too torpedoed out of the water, the two Weasel-Otters shooting towards the Fighting/Psychic from the opposite direction, prepared to strike.
"Taste our double Aqua Jet!" The two water types shouted simultaneously as their tales propelled them in mid-air, their bodies surrounding themselves with Water as they shot at Medicham in a pincer attack.
Seeing the two wild pokemon attack her, Medicham only had a single thought in her head as the Aqua Jets got closer.
"What a waste of time..."
As the closer Aqua Jet entered her range, her fist shot towards it, surrounding with yellow energy, lightning bouncing between her knuckles.
"Wai-!" The first Buizel tried to change direction in order to avoid the Thunder Punch, but it was no use. Even though his body managed to avoid the punch, the water surrounding him didn't.
Perhaps if he used Quick Attack instead of Aqua Jet, the outcome could have been different, but as the electricity channeled through Medicham's fist and into the water of the Aqua Jet, Buizel let out a scream of pain as he fell back into the river below before his head floated back above the water, his eyes faded and swirling.
"No, Hermano!" The second Buizel managed to correct his trajectory to avoid the range of Medicham's arms, "You'll pay for this!" He yelled as he stopped his Aqua Jet outside of Medicham's reach, his tails spinning in the air and keeping him aloft.
Medicham lazily stared at the Buizel, wondering what he was going to do now that his friend was so easily beaten.
"I've been working on this move for weeks now!" He yelled as he held his arm out, water gathering at his palm and extending forward like a blade, his tails gaining speed before he charged towards Medicham, using Liquidation to turn his arm into a blade of water, "What will you do now?! I have the reach! You lose- ack!" His cry of victory turned into a choke of defeat as Medicham's foot connected with his forehead, pushing the Buizel back into the river, the blade of water falling apart as Medicham used his head as a springboard to jump back onto solid ground.
"...Amateurs." Medicham lazily stared at the two unconscious Buizel floating in the river before she shook her head and started to make her way back to her trainer.
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"Woah... I've never seen so many Grass Types in one place before..." Eri whispered in awe as she and Dishon sat a bit to the side of the procession of Flower Pokemon. Watching the many colorful creatures making their way north of the summer.
"They're all very pretty..." Dishon said as he sat on the grassy ground, surrounded by a small swarm of Hoppip that the wind carried in his direction.
"Hop?" One of the grass-types asked with a smile as Dishon started petting the friendly mons.
"Yes, you're all pretty."
"Hoppip!" One of the Hoppip cheered before a gentle gust of wind carried it away.
"Hop Hop!" The rest of the Pokemon voiced with smiles as the wind picked them up to join their friend in following the migration of flowers.
"Umm, Dishon?" Eri turned to ask the older trainer, "Are any of these Pokemon Fighting types?"
"Hmm, Let's see..." Dishon looked over the many Pokemon in the sea of flowers, "The Tsareena and Lilligant lines are both solely Grass types, same with the Lurantis line... The Florges line, despite what some might think, is solely a Fairy type. The Jumpluff line that was just here are Grass/Flying, and the Vespiqueen line is Bug/Flying. Sorry kiddo, I don't think any of these Pokemon are fighting types."
"Bummer... Do you think we can beat some of them?" Eri looked at her partner, "It's just, Mankey and Passimian are good and all, but Cascarrafa is going to be our third gym badge. I want to get a new member for my team before I challenge Kofu..."
"You're saying that as if you need to challenge the gym as soon as you get there." Dishon told her, "You can always do a detour towards Porto Marinada, I heard that place has a bunch of different Fighting types you can capture."
"Take a detour?" Eri asked.
"Yeah, Take a short trip a bit west of Cascarrafa, find a cool pokemon you that's willing to join you, and then come back to challenge the gym once you're ready," Dishon explained before standing up, "You don't need to challenge Kofu right away, take your time until you feel like you're ready..." Dishon squinted his eyes as he looked into the large group of different flower Pokemon.
"Sal?"
"Oh, it's nothing. Just thought I saw something, no need to worry." Dishon chuckled as Fanny climbed up his clothing before reaching his shoulders, grabbing onto them and looking at what he was staring at from a higher vantage point.
"Sal! Salandit Sal!" She yelled in his ear, her tail starting to slap his back repeatedly.
"You sure? It could also just be a regular flower, It doesn't have to-" "SALANDIT!!!" "-Fine! Stop yelling at me!"
"What's going on?" Eri asked as she stood up as well, trying to look into the crowd of colorful Pokemon to see what got both Fanny and Dishon so worked up.
"What's going on?" Dishon repeated the question, his hand now shuffling around his bag before he pulled out a white Pokeball with a red line separating the top and bottom of the ball, a white button in the center of the red line, "Well, let's find out, shall we?"
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"Did you find it?" Laying on her back, Dendra looked at the clouds above as she waited for the good news from her team to reach her.
"Medicham..." Her Pokemon told her, causing the Trainer to release a sigh of exhaustion.
"Darnit, We even said we'd find a shiny Buizel and everything..." Dendra breathed tiredly as her Medicham popped her head into her line of sight, looking down at her trainer, a single brow raised in question.
"Don't look at me like that!" Dendra tried to smack her Pokemon away, "When you say you're gonna do something, you need to see it through. I said I'd find a Shiny Buizel, I can't just return empty-handed."
"Cham Medi..."
"But Buizel are adorable! Why would Dishon not want one on his team?!"
"Medicham Cham!"
Dendra groaned before she kicked the air with both legs, using the force of her kick to propel herself onto her feet, "Let's just go deliver the bad news." She started walking towards the two approaching trainers.
"Falinks?"
"Sorry guys, the hunt is over..." Dendra sadly shook her head, her Hariyama and Falinks letting out sighs of disappointment while her Medicham and Tauros stared at her blankly.
"Why the sad look?" The taller of the two trainers asked.
"Because we couldn't find a Buizel for your-" Dendra stopped mid-sentence as she turned to look at Dishon, the sight of the other trainer giving her a bit of a pause, "-What is that on your head?"
"This?" Dishon asked as he pointed at the small green and yellow being on his head, "This is Lemon, I just caught her like... Five minutes ago?" He raised his hands above his head and cupped the small Pokemon, "I probably would have ignored her if Fanny didn't use Torment on me,"
"She does do that a lot..." Dendra pointed out before her eyes widened in realization, "Wait! Does this mean-"
"That I got a new Mon for my team?" Dishon asked as he stared at the Pokemon cupped in his hands, the thick green leaves that surrounded the green flower bud looked like hair on top of a soft yellow head, a pair of glossy green eyes staring into his own as four green petals extended from the collar of green leaves around the Pokemon's neck, each ending with tips of white, surrounding the soft yellow body of the small critter, "Yep, I love her already~"
"SAL?!"
"Don't worry, You're still number one~" Dishon said as he placed the green and yellow Pokemon back on top of his head, the small critter closing its eyes as it seemed to fall asleep the moment it nestled itself on top of his head, using its front petals to latch onto his light-brown hair as their body spread open like a green and yellow flower.
"Mr. Dishon captured a new teammate while you were off fighting Psyduck~" Eri giggled at the look Dendra was giving the other trainer.
"Eri, I told you to not call me Mister," Dishon groaned exaggeratedly, "It makes me feel old.."
"You... You caught a new Pokemon?" Dendra asked.
"Yes, That's what we both just said-" Dishon told Dendra only to choke as the Energetic trainer pulled him into a tight hug, forcing the Salandit wrapped around his waist to climb onto his shoulders in order to avoid getting crushed.
"Oooh! That's so awesome! Yosh! We need to celebrate this!" Dendra said with cheer, her Falinks and Hariyama echoing her excitement.
"We can celebrate this after we reach Cascarrafa and get setteled, we still need to reach the Pokemon Center before the sun sets, Dendra. We have a schedule." Dishon told her as he peeled her off.
"Schedules are meant to be ignored!" Dendra pumped her fist into the air as she cheered.
"Yeah!" Eri mimicked her.
"No! Stop teaching her bad lessons! Schedules are important!" Dishon cried as he found himself surrounded by fighting types.
"Salandit Sal!" Fanny started slapping her tail on his Dishon's back, urging him to keep moving so she could go to sleep.
And on top of his head, with her green eyes silently peeking open to look at the commotion around her, the newest member of Dishon's team took in the colorful sight before she returned to sleep, using her new trainer's head as a bed.
"Fomantis..."