The Red Ascendant 4 (Patreon)

The Red Ascendant 4 - or ‘It is now my duty to protect' (Pokémon, Zirca 2036 OC-I)

“How was the Circuit in Kanto?”

I nodded, sitting by one of the chairs that was in the hospital room as I entertained a renewed conversation with Suzuen and… Emille.

Emille Alexandrova was what one would see in the classic jock individual, quite the ‘blond but adorable’ kind of guy with his macho but not too much mindset and… he was a himbo. Without a doubt in mind, I could see him as such but he was also a nice friend to have around.

Not too overbearing but kind of bombastic when needed.

“It was years ago… I would say it was a bit intense for a ten years-old but still a fun experience,” I replied truthfully, trying my best to not stray with the ‘I did Red’s journey, so I can claim that as mine’. “Made many friends but… I had to release most of my Pokemon after I retired.”

“It still sucks so bad that you decided to do that! Like, why didn’t you keep them?” Emille asked a very fair question but, before I could answer it, Suzuen reasoned it in his own way.

“Maybe it’s because it’s not fair to keep a Pokemon in their ball for years of inactivity? It’s only fair that a trainer takes care of their Pokemon by freeing them if battle is not something they expect to grant them regularly. Plus, maintaining a large group can be expensive.”

“Still, you keep your ‘Champion Team’, right? I wonder how strong those are,” Emille hummed, grinning a bit. “Ya know, the battle proposal is-”

“Currently halted until he secures a gym badge in the region, Emille. Speaking of which, Evan, can you show me your ID?”

I was a bit surprised by this sudden request, bracing for impact as I complied with the request and waited for Suzuen’s reaction to it. I handed the card, seeing Emille tilting by his chair in an effort to catch a glimpse of it without standing up… only to come close to tripping while at it.

Suzuen shook his head at the silly effort, but his flat look fell right as he started to study my team and…

…

…

“I think I get what you meant with ‘Making a team from scratch rather than use the ones you have now’,” The Gym Leader wisely remarked before returning the Card. “I will say that I wasn’t expecting you to… have that many strong Pokemon.”

“Come on! I want to know now!”

Suzuen huffed. “If you want to know, just have John train with you and you will pick up what kind of trainer he is.”

“...That’s not going to tell me anything- I know this is a trick and-”

“We could have a one-Pokemon competition if you help me find a place where to train and find some more Pokemon for my ‘Team Zirca’. Just not our Starters.”

Emille beamed at this idea. “And that I believe!”

Suzuen facepalmed but looked pleased with this positive turn of events. The chat didn’t go further beyond that as we left the Gym Leader to rest while Emille took me around Santa Devante to show me some good spots where to train and a few ‘high grass’ areas where to catch new Pokemon.

There were a few in town as the administration had seen fit to create ‘safe capture spots’ from sheltered wild Pokemon to avoid getting kids entangled in dangerous elements outside the city. Specifically, there was a genuine fear for children to end up facing ‘drugged-up’ Pokemon in the wild.

‘Rumors’, as Emille was keen to repeat that it was all a big fat load of crap that it wasn’t confirmed as truth, said that someone was using illegal batches of ‘Mythrill’, which was a powerful enhancing drugs, to ‘empower’ the wild Pokemon and thus push trainers to be even stronger before facing the League Circuit.

Turns out that it was a quarter-backed idea considering the end result being a sharp increase in deaths among young trainers due to this circumstance. The League denied any correlation to this situation and denounced anyone trying to make articles on such a possibility.

So yeah, the chances of the league being the worst was pretty much becoming an apparent reality to me. Suzuen was a bit more subdued about it, but it was clear both he and Emille thought the same about those in charge of it.

I couldn’t find much else on who was in the Elite Four, that information limited to only those that got to fight them and… it barely got out since most challengers were pressured to retire if they failed. The kind of retirement that was ‘you either keep your mouth shut or you are going to get legally bent over n’ fucked’.

Not pleasant, but quite suspicious. Further attesting to this being a dangerous region for another big reason.

After checking the ‘safe grass spots’ with Emille, I decided to spend the day actually training. I just got a Riolu, so it was best to just focus on getting… ‘them’ accustomed to Dreepy. I realized only at that time I was thinking of how I never checked if Riolu was a boy or a girl, but I was surprised when the Lil Dex confirmed this Riolu was a girl.

She’s getting the best headpats.

“Dreepy, this is Riolu. Riolu, this is Dreepy. You are part of my current team so… be good friends as we are in this boat together.”

Dreepy nodded, while Riolu’s response was slower but positive nonetheless. Dreepy was more than happy to be given a task in general. The Dragon/Ghost-Type was a bit surprised when I just gave him a ‘fly-endurance’ exercise, putting him through a small obstacle course which he had to do five laps of without skipping any obstacles.

At first glance, that sounded small but… what I wanted this Pokemon to do was to learn how to be faster and more flexible. We were going to face some scary-strong opponents, so we had to focus on speed as a priority early on for a Pokemon of his calibers.

Riolu, however, couldn’t enjoy that luxury as she was not as nimble as Dreepy and I wanted her to have a unique way to handle big opponents. From my limited understanding of ‘Mythrill’, the drug made its user resilient to pain and keen to feel pleasure from it.

So, one either has a way to deliver enough damage to cause the drugged user’s body to quit before it could recoil from any attack or… disable it altogether. Fighting was not just a matter of hitting hard or fast- even precision became secondary as one element stands out the most.

“And that is adaptional awareness,” I remarked as I finished giving her a bit of a pep talk. “One thing that many learn when fighting for self-defense is that there are many ways to end a fight, but one priority needs to be the same- you are there to win first. This doesn’t mean being ruthless all the time, but it is a matter of knowing how to win and do it for the sake of swift success.”

Riolu nodded at this and she seemed quite intrigued by what I was saying.

“Now, this exercise shall be a bit peculiar as you may not feel ready for it but it is just a small exercise: I want you to try and defeat me in this spar… without trying to be too damaging. I will give you ten seconds, then retaliate and show you what I mean if you are struggling, got it?”

A nod, then a determined ‘arf’, and Riolu took a stance as we both moved to a medium-sized field for the sparring.

Emille sat by the bench nearby and- “Riolu, kick Evan’s ass!”

That motherfucker! What about the Bro-code?!

I held back from being a moron about it and just took care of the task at hand. Riolu rushed forth to try and prod my guard, appearing surprised when her strikes were not yielding any result. She was quite intense about it, with the power behind each hit stinging a bit but failing to do much to break through.

Ten seconds moved fast, with Riolu getting faster and faster, first out of determination and then out of desperation. She could tell that she wasn’t prepared for what was to come and…

She was right. I bolted forward right as ten seconds passed, leaning down towards her and arching my head in a way to barely dodge her counterpunch. Her eyes widened in shock right as my own fist approached, but rather than fully impacting on her cheek, it carefully aligned to briefly touch her round chin.

A moment she was tense and yet willing to fight, the next one Riolu’s body stiffened and fell backward.

She was unconscious for just a few seconds and… the next few one she woke up in my arms as I sat beside Emille.

“Arf? Rio-Rio?!”

“Yup, that’s how ‘simple’ it is. But it’s not an easy task to master. What I did was quite the basic version of what that was-”

“And yet it was so cool! How does that even work?” Emille pestered, sounding excited. “One moment you were on the defensive and then you used a single punch and won.”

I huffed, patting Riolu's head. “It’s a matter of knowing a living being’s body. Riolu is a humanoid due to her frame which makes it simple to compare her biology to a human’s one. The size makes it tricky but… the point is that I gave her a concussion by hitting a spot under her chin. By causing her head and skull to rattle, her brain would shake a bit and cause her to lose control of her body momentarily. The bigger the concussion, the bigger the damage it can have in terms of lasting effects.”

“Ri-Riolu?” The little one asked, sounding a bit shaken up, but I sighed warmly.

“You’ll be fine. The concussion I gave you was a tiny one and it was meant to do one thing- drawing you unconscious for long enough to end the battle victoriously. Which I am sure you can agree was the case.”

She nodded and nuzzled against my chest.

“So yeah, this is how it works. I never considered trying this approach on my first journey, but I had time to think about it and… Pokemon can technically learn to fight on their own while in battles, without relying much on orders on specific moves.”

“Oh yeah, that’s something some trainers do. Like Yorra.”

I blinked, spotting a bit of an ‘emphasis’ on that name. “Hm? A friend of yours?”

“She and I… we are close.”

I smiled a bit. “Oh? Is Emille crushing on someone.”

“N-No…” The blond muttered, looking away for a moment and… then blinking as he glanced at me quizzically. “Maybe- I mean, is it wrong to be crushing on a childhood friend?”

“Not really, but it does make you behave adorably.”

He blushed at this and snorted. “And you are also as annoying as she is at teasing.”

I slowly nodded, turning away. “Sounds like a good friend-material then, I guess I will just open up a blackmail folder under your name in my journal.”

His shoulders sagged as Emille deflated in dread. “Please don’t…”

I chuckled a bit, the young man smiling back shortly after as we both sobered up. Dreepy was done with his training quite soon and as he rested on the bench while Riolu kept him company while she guarded our stuff, Emille and I took off to the slightly-larger arena for our planned Pokemon battle.

He looked quite giddy and he decided to be the one releasing first. A Primarina came through, the Water-Fairy Type looking quite strong and… I didn’t have anything that was effective enough to gain a true advantage. Rather, I had to choose a risky pick.

“Nidoking, go!”

Emille’s eyes widened a bit as the Poison-Ground Type roared in challenge at his own foe. The surprise was brief as he smiled giddily.

“This is going to be a fun spar.”

It sure was going to be one to remember.

—---d-d-d-d—------

AN

Not the best ‘balanced fight’, but it hasn’t to be balanced to be a good one.

Next chapter will start with another POV. Kingston has news to bring to his boss after all…