Route 14

I didn’t expect you to show up first. Let’s have a battle, then. Maybe you can finally show off Mega Evolution.

- But-

Go Meowstic!

- Go Zuul!

- Shadow ball!

Light screen!

Zuul throws a ball of darkness at meowstic, imploding on contact and leaving meowstic unconscious on the floor.

Go Absol!

- Venoshock!

Bite!

Zuul vomits a mass of purple sludge all over absol, leaving it covered in the stuff. Absol faints from the smell alone.

Go Greninja!

- Thunderbolt!

Water shuriken!

Zuul extends her index finger and fires a lightning bolt at greninja, frying it until it flops to the floor.

ZUUL.

How… why… did I lose to someone like you? You’ve got the mega ring and you didn’t even try to mega evolve your gengar! Have you even bothered to find some gengarite yet?

- Um-

Did you try to bond with your pokémon? Or even empathise with them? Why is it that you don’t even seem to care and yet still achieve so much? Every time one of my pokémon gets hurt I feel it, each time they pass out it hurts me!

- Oh…

Since you seem to lack empathy and probably can’t tell, I’m mad with you!

Shauna, Tierno and Trevor appear from the city gatehouse.

Hey guys! We were just at a dojo, I learned a lot of new moves!

Serena, are you okay? You seem upset…

…

Caldar, what happened to your wrist?

- Hm?

I look to my wrist on which the mega bracer is locked to. It seems I scratched myself deeper than I thought when I tried to rip the bracer off and a bruise has formed since then too.

Is it a side effect to using Mega Evolution?

Not likely!

- I caught it on something…

Oh, I heard there was a haunted house on this route! We should go have a look!

I think I’ll do some training alone for a while…

Oh…

Sounds like fun! Let’s go!

Well if you’re going…

Tierno and Trevor rush off.

You’re coming too, right Caldar?

- I suppose so.

Hey guys wait up! You don’t know where it is!

Shauna chases after the guys and I plod along behind. I take the opportunity to recruit, but I don’t find anything I’m able to catch. Instead I use the time for some intensive training for Siegmeyer.

Once I feel he’s ready for it I give him a moon stone. One of the many evolution stones I find just lying around, I’m not exactly sure why people think they’re so rare especially as they seem to vanish after use.

Siegmeyer ♂ Lv. 43

I eventually reach the haunted house just outside Laverre City, it was easy enough to find, there was a sign on the path nearby.

What. Was. That.

- I have no idea…

Laverre City

Not long after entering the city proper I’m approached by a girl with a vacant look on her face.

You! A gift!

She forces a shiny stone into my palm. It reminds me of the stone Max likes to hold only it’s a different colour.

- Thanks?

ZUUL!

Zuul pops out of her pokéball, snatches the stone from my hand and quickly retreats back to the pokéball.

The Green Fairy sends it’s regards.

- Hey wait a minute, I have questions. Who is the green fairy anyway?

The vacant look on the girls face fades and is replaced with the look of mild confusion.

I’m sorry, what? How did I get here? Sorry were we talking? Green fairy? I don’t know anything about that, you might want to ask the gym leader here. She specialises in fairy types.

- Huh?

In Arceus’ name what’s going on here?

Sorry, I’ve got to go home now. Looks like time got away from me for a while there.

She wanders off, seeming to get her bearings first and then more confident as she rounds a corner.

A quick visit to the pokémon center later and I head to the gym. Other than the dollhouse theme inside it seems like someone has taken a page from the playbook of a certain Kanto gym leader who had a surplus of teleport warp platforms.

Unless I got turned around several times the place had 4 bathrooms, 7 dressing rooms, 3 drawing rooms, 9 bedrooms, and one pokémon gym arena.

Oh my, another challenger so soon? Hmm, the last one had better dress sense. Let’s hope you can at least battle as well as she did.

Go Mawile!

- Go Siegmeyer!

- Bulldoze!

Crunch!

Siegmeyer stomps across the arena, slams into mawile and pushes it against the arena wall. During this process mawile chomps on Siegmeter’s arm.

- Earth power!

Crunch!

Siegmeyer focuses and the ground underneath mawile erupts, flinging it out of the arena and through a window.

Go Mr. Mime!

- Poison jab!

Psychic!

Siegmeyer clenches his fist, the quills on the back of his hand stand up and before Mr. mime can react it gets a spiny fist full force to the face.

Go Sylveon!

- Poison jab!

Charm!

Siegmeyer punches sylveon across the face with his envenomed fist, sending sylveon flying and embedding it into the arena wall on impact.

How brutish! Typical boy, no finesse. But you earned the Fairy Badge nonetheless.

I leave the gym to find the gang heading somewhere together.

Oh, hey Caldar! We were just about to check out the Pokéball Factory!

I’ve never been to one before, I can’t wait to see how they make them!

Yeah, come on, it’ll be fun!

I wonder if they give free samples…

Maybe we’ll get to see a Master Ball!

You know, I’ve always wondered how those things work. Maybe we’ll get to see come… diagrams, eh? Or maybe even see some without their cases on! Can we go, please?

A short trip north of the city later and we’re in front of the factory. Shauna rushes off inside.

It looks smaller than I first expected…

Shauna comes running out the front door and sprints past us.

Eeek! It’s Team Flare, help!

Chasing her is a flair guy.

Get back here little brat! Nobody can know we’re here!

We’ve got to help her!

Great, time to put some of my martial arts into use!

Trevor and Tierno set off in pursuit.

- Do you think we should-

The boys can handle one flare grunt, Shauna will be fine. I’m worried at what Team Flare are doing in the factory.

- Well, since I’m here I guess I’ll help…

You guess?

- I’ve dealt with people like this more times than I’d like to count and frankly I’m a little sick of it, but I have a plan, let’s go.

Oh no you don’t! I’ve seen how you deal with these situations, we’re not getting anyone else killed. We’re doing this my way.

- But he didn’t- …fine I’ll follow your lead.

Pokéball Factory

Inside the factory was rather disappointing, it looks just like what you’d expect for any factory. Conveyor belts running in all directions. Oh, and the flair folk patrolling the floors and gantries. One of them near the entrance approaches us.

Well well, more brats. I’ll have to teach you both a lesson!

I’ll handle this one, you get the next one!

Serena and the flair grunt begin a pokémon battle. I make my way deeper into the factory.

Enemy sighted! Requesting backup!

This flair grunt tries to grab me but I punch him in the nose and while he recoils I shove him onto a nearby conveyor belt which takes him away towards some very dangerous looking machinery. Too dazed to move he doesn’t realise what’s going on, I leave him to his gruesome fate.

Caldar! No!

Serena takes a moment from her pokémon battle to give me a stern look.

- Oh, fine!

I drag the flair grunt off the conveyor belt, knock him out with another punch and leave him sprawled on the floor. Another grunt tries to grab me from behind, I break his arm and give him a swift elbow to the face. I move on as he retreats to a corner to cry.

I make my way up to a gantry where another grunt stands in my way, he grapples me but I manage to throw him over the side into a pile of conveniently placed cardboard boxes.

As I reach the admin office I can hear Serena had finished her pokémon battle and is rushing up the gantry to catch up. I bust down the door to find three flair folk intimidating a man who appears to be the manager of the factory.

Out of the question!

Oh come now! It’s quite simple, give Team Flare exclusivity to your products. Or better yet, join us for only five million pokédollars.

Or we’ll just take what we want.

And blow up your factory!

No! Please, not that!

- OK I think that’s enough.

What’re you going to with all the pokéballs anyway? Take exclusivity on the market or something?

Uh… that’s not a bad idea…

We were just going to catch pokémon with them…

Bryony, Celoisa! Get rid of this brat!

Go Liepard!

Go Manectric!

- Go Gwyn!

Need and hand? Go Meowstic!

- Light screen!

Disarming voice!

Assurance the meowstic!

Bite the meowstic!

While liepard and manectric gang up on meowstic, Gwyn sets up a rather ineffective defensive barrier. I see Serena wince in pain before she returns meowstic to it’s pokéball.

Go Absol!

- Psyshock the manectric!

Bite the manectric!

Slash the absol!

Bite the delphox!

Liepard slashes at absol while absol slashes at manectric while manectric bites Gwyn, who blasts manectric with mind bullets or something I can’t see.

- Gwyn return! Go Velen!

Slash the manectric!

Assurance the lucario!

Bite the lucario!

Liepard and manectric gang up on Velen while absol takes the advantage to remove manectric from the situation.

- Power up punch!

Slash!

Slash the absol!

Liepard swipes it’s claws at absol before Velen smashes liepard’s face in with a single punch.

Let’s just get out of here, we’ve taken all the pokéballs anyway. No need to waste any explosives.

The flair admin and her two friends with the interesting headgear rush out the door.

Oh, thank you, young trainers!

- You’re welcome.

If only you got here sooner. I’m going to have to contact the insurance company… we’re going to be months behind on production now…

- Serena, you were right.

Hm? About what?

- The whole empathy and bonding thing. I saw it really did hurt you when meowstic fainted. It reminded me. In my earlier days of being a pokémon trainer I’d feel pain whenever I lost a pokémon, it was so bad sometimes I’d pass out.

Oh yeah! What was up with that?

Really? So you were a trainer before you came to Kalos? Why do you think you can’t bond with your pokémon as well as you used to?

- I don’t really know, something changed? I’ve been travelling so long I’ve become desensitised to it?

So how long have you been travelling?

- I kind of lost track… years probably.

Well what was the date when you first set off?

- I can’t remember when I first left home, but I started my journey from my Aunt’s house in Kanto on the third of March.

Since March? That’s not so-

- 2007.

Wait, what? If you started at 14 like the rest of us then that’d make you… 33 years old! You barely look 16!

- It’s complicated, would you believe me if I told you I met Dialga a couple of times?

Time travel? Impossible!

- Yeah…

Tell me, why do you still travel? Why are you still on your pokémon journey?

- I just want to find my way home…

Is that really it?

Meanwhile on the North-Eastern coast of Kalos…

Allright Rangers! We trained for this!

The rhyhorn was just spotted at the edge of town, it should be here soon!

Why’re we trying to stop it anyway? Remember those kids it saved from that burning orphanage? Or those bank robbers it trampled?

You’re forgetting all the property damage it caused, and you’re forgetting we’re on the beach. What do you think is going to happen to a rock type once it hits the water?

The poor thing is going to get itself drowned!

The ground begins to shake.

Quiet now, it’s almost here! Capture stylers on the ready!

Rhyhorn comes running down a street and leaps off the tidal wall and continues to stampede across the sand.

Roaahh!

Launch the capture discs!

The rangers each launch little spinning tops from wrist mounted devices. Lines of energy trail from the spinning tops as they begin to loop around rhyhorn over and over.

Rhyhorn doesn’t break stride and smashes through the energy lines, sending the spinning tops flying. Rhyhorn ploughs through the line of rangers, kicking up sand all over.

*cough* Did we stop it?

No sir, it hit the water… but…

The rangers turn to look at the water to see a jet of spray racing across the surface of the water, and causing it is rhyhorn.

It’s running… on the water?!

Somebody find me an expert! The pokédex said nothing about this!