Into the Unown (Pokemon Fanfiction OC)

It did work, kind of. Ever since the events of that day, Brucey had been trying to make it up to Espy with all sorts of awkward gestures like massaging her with his claws when she was lounging or leaving Berries and Pokechow next to her while she was sleeping.

All of this only served to annoy the senior Pokemon, but she was adept enough to know that it was all done under good intentions. So instead of admonishing him, she just gently chided Brucey and corrected him whenever she was feeling patient enough for it.

Seeing the two of them like that reminded Nina of the awkward dynamic between an older sister and her annoying younger brother. She could feel a sense of warmth within her from her Pokemon’s wholesome interaction with one another.

That said, Brucey was still quite persistent with his pranks against Nairy. Though at least he now knew to back off when he was told and had significantly reduced the frequency of his mischief. Apparently, Espy had included some of her desire to expel Brucey from the team during their little sharing session, a fate that the needy Golbat feared more than anything else.

There were still some rough patches, but that’s just something for Nina and her team to work on over time.

“Thank you for taking my call today, Professor Oak.” Nina said towards the white haired visage of the Pokemon Professor on her Pokedex screen

“No, it is entirely my pleasure,” replied the excited looking Professor. “That email you sent was very enlightening. If proven true, we might finally be able to crack the mysteries behind Crobat Evolution! As expected of Bill’s student, I almost feel jealous that he found you first. Not to disparage your own abilities of course, dear Nina. Yours is the most remarkable young mind I’ve encountered in a long while.”

Nina smiled and thanked Professor Oak for his praise. “Judging by your reaction, I’m assuming nobody else has come up with a similar thought? Why, though? It felt fairly obvious to me after interacting with Brucey.”

Professor Oak shook his head with a wry smile. “Such is the benefit of having a layman’s perspective. Sometimes, we so-called ‘experts’ miss the obvious because we’re too entrenched in the nitty gritty of advanced sciences. And while I have found a couple of papers which follow a similar line of thought, most of them were hyper focused on the instinct component of the Zubat line and not from the perspective of an emotional development standpoint as you proposed.”

The Professor explained that most of those papers ended with a shaky proposal that a Golbat’s natural Evolution was the result of the Pokemon being ‘Gifted’ or simply more intellectually developed than their peers. Which wasn’t exactly wrong, but it felt very much like an obvious observation as opposed to anything meaningful.

“So what should I do then, Professor?” Nina asked. “I would like to prove this theory right as well, but I’m not exactly a scientist, so I don’t really know if there’s any strict processes that I need to abide by.”

“And I wouldn’t presume to tell a trainer how to train their Pokemon either.” Oak responded. “Simply do what you think is best for the development of your Golbat and maintain proper documentation. If it is not too much to ask, I would love it if you could send your records over to me for review. By the end of it, with your blessing, I’d like to list your name as the primary author of the research paper that will be published on the subject.”

Nina blushed in embarrassment, unsure of how to respond. “You flatter me, Professor. I wouldn’t mind being a collaborator, but primary author is a little…”

“I mean, it’s not like I’ll be the one writing the paper or anything!”

Professor Oak laughed at the girl’s reservations. “Nonsense! This is a theory that you proposed, my girl. And you will indeed be doing the bulk of the work with your regular reporting. My job is to just sort through them and compile them in an articulate manner to support this hypothesis. So having your name front and center is only right.”

“But having a sample size of just one Golbat feels a little tenuous don’t you think?” The girl argued.

“Indeed. Which is why, with your permission, I’d like to reach out to some of the other trainers in my network and get them involved as well. Any contributors therein will be listed as collaborators. What do you think?”

Nina naturally agreed to the proposal. Having a larger sample size would help to substantiate their claims. Not to mention, the other more experienced trainers might spot something that Nina overlooked.

After hammering out a few more details, like the frequency and formatting of her reports and so on. Nina exchanged a few more pleasantries with Professor Oak before heading off to the Vermilion Flames specialized Pokemon training facilities.

***

“Do you think you can achieve this someday?”

Nina had booked one of the many private training rooms in the Vermilion Flame. There were rules regarding their usage, mainly related to Pokemon size and move restrictions but none of them applied to her since she was looking to train Brucey today.

The girl had pulled up a video of Koga’s Golbat on her Pokedex and was now showing Brucey to see if he had any inkling on how to achieve the bat swarm effect that the Elite Golbat was currently performing on the screen.

“Kukuku…” Brucey laughed, but in a weaker and more uncertain tone than usual.

Nina kissed the Golbat on the top of his head to reassure him. “It’s fine if you feel overwhelmed, we’re not looking to be able to do this in just one day. For now, let’s try having you use Substitute, see how many clones you can produce in one go,” she said.

Which, as it turns out, was only two at once. More than what Nina had initially anticipated. It seemed that Brucey really pushed himself to the limit to impress his human as evident by the slight wispiness and translucent look of the second substitute.

Nina made sure to heap a ton of praise on Brucey and rewarded him with some Berries, which he now learned to eat without making a mess of his surroundings.

“Alright, seems like the first step would be to first raise your endurance and efficiency.”

Substitute in the Pokemon games worked by sacrificing a portion of a Pokemon’s HP to create a clone that could take a hit for them. In real life, this translated to a stamina and Type Energy costs. The former, Brucey had in abundance since he was quite hyperactive, but he still had room for improvement as evident by the exhausted heap of Golbat in Nina’s arms.

Type Energy capacity might be a bit tricky since Substitute used Normal Type Energy and Golbats were Poison and Flying Type. But it wasn’t impossible. Normal Type Energy served as the foundation for all Type Energy, which meant that all Pokemon could harness it to varying degrees. Arceus’s default form was Normal Type for a reason after all. 

So Brucey just needed to optimize the conversion of his native Type Energy to Normal Type Energy to be as close to being one to one as possible.

Nina put on her earplugs and continued instructing Brucey. “Since you’re having trouble being physical right now. Let’s do some Hyper Voice training.”

Nina was aware that Hyper Voice wasn’t part of a Golbat’s official movelist. It even said as much on the Pokedex when she looked it up. But it was another one of those things that just made no sense. After all, Golbats could learn Uproar, so why not Hyper Voice. They shared the same principles, just that the former was a more focused move whereas the other one was indiscriminate in its scope.

If this was a game then that would be it. Such limitations were simply hardcoded and there was nothing that Nina could do about it. But this was real life, and if something made sense then it should be achievable.

And, since Espy was also working on the move as well, Nina decided to be efficient and had her teach Brucey so that they could both work on it together. That said, her Espeon didn’t like having her ears blasted by an external source so she kept away from the Golbat when he was practicing.

Brucey took in a deep breath, puffing up his massive cheeks as he yelled out as loud as he could. But what came out wasn’t an ear splitting roar as much as it was a sharp and unpleasant Screech.

Screech itself wasn’t a bad move; it could stun an opponent Pokemon for a period of time, leaving them completely vulnerable to any attacks. But it was more of a utility/status move instead of one capable of doing damage. 

Nina did have plans to hone Brucey’s Screech into becoming an aural spear that was sharp enough to pierce through eardrums and deafen most opposing Pokemon though.

Without their hearing, battling Pokemon couldn’t receive instructions from their trainers. And hearing also played a big part in maintaining one’s sense of balance. It also wasn’t a typical status condition that could be easily cured with some quick healing on the field.

“You did good, Brucey. But remember we’re focusing on volume, not pitch. You remember how Nairy always roars at you whenever you piss him off too much with your pranks. Try to channel that sort of energy.”

“Kukuku…” Brucey laughed in amusement at the recollection of his companion’s grief and tried to imitate him. The end result was a little hoarse, but it was significantly more dulled than compared to the earlier Screech.

Nina clapped her hands in encouragement. “Awesome, Brucey. You did great. And remember to do the vocal exercises that Nairy taught you. We don’t want you straining your voice too much. And tell me if you need to take a break, okay?”

Brucey nodded and continued on. And once Nina judged that her Golbat had drained all of his Type Energy, she tapped on the tablet that controled the training room and conjured up a holographic obstacle course for Brucey to fly in.

She didn’t fully appreciate this at the time. But Brucey did an incredible job of dodging Nairy’s attacks down in Diglett’s Cave when they first met. Most of it came down to his quirky way of flying and his clever use of Taunt.@@novelbin@@

Instead of going in one smooth line or weaving around in curves, Brucey was almost like a housefly in that he jerks and zips around in short bursts and seemingly random patterns. He could fly smoothly as well of course, but whenever he was feeling excited from a successful prank, that was how he flew.

Most trainers would probably think of it as some problem to fix, but Nina saw it as an advantage. As evident by all the battles that Brucey had been in so far. Most of her classmate's Pokemon simply could not get a handle on him as he buzzed around like an annoying bug, causing most ranged attacks to miss and completely disorientating any melee opponents.

In addition, he was very good at sneaking in Taunts to hinder his opponents judgment and force them into an enraged state where they just attacked mindlessly. It was an issue that could be largely mitigated through training and experience, but most trainers at Nina’s age simply could not deal with such an aggravating tactic.

The only times that he had been defeated was when encountering indiscriminate Electric Type moves and that one time he faced off against that girl whose Oddish Nina borrowed during her first day of school. Only now, it had evolved into a Gloom. The girl used the same sweet scent tactic Nina demonstrated to her, alongside an assortment of other nasty powders to completely incapacitate Brucey. 

And honestly, Nina didn’t even feel bad about the loss. Rather she felt an odd sense of pride at having greatly contributed to the growth of such a promising trainer. Though she did send Espy out to take the girl down a peg after Brucey. 

They also had a pleasant conversation afterwards where Nina commended her on her hard work while the girl was telling Nina all about her Gloom’s training regimen the past few months. She didn’t bother to make friends with the girl though since her personality was a little too intense. 

Also, at some point, she took out an album from the Gym and asked her to sign it. And Nina had strict policies when it came to getting too intimate with fans to avoid any unnecessary drama.

“We need to work on your control Brucey. I like the way you fly, but you need to do it with more thought. There were more than a few times where you got hit by an attack you could have dodged just ‘cause you weren’t thinking and flew right into it.” There was still a part of Brucey that retained a Zubat's animalistic instincts, which was good if used in moderation, but at the moment, Nina’s Golbat was too heavily reliant on those instincts to guide his actions.

Nina watched as Brucey tried his best to dodge the random projectiles and obstacles that came his way as he progressed. She intentionally randomized some of them to hone Brucey’s reaction speed, so that he could dodge on instinct if he had to. But the rest followed a fairly predictable pattern. A pattern that Brucey had trouble discerning due to his bad habits.

She noticed that Brucey was still prone to panicking and lacked peripheral awareness, but the number of times he was getting hit was steadily decreasing after each run. So he was no doubt improving.

Nina continued cheering for Brucey and rewarding him for a job well done, rotating his regimen a couple more times before calling it a day. She had faith that her Golbat would become an absolute menace in the arena some day. 

Thoughts of all the tears that would be shed because of Brucey made Nina smile in sinister glee. Until said thoughts were interrupted by a message from Kerry, saying that she was done with her extracurriculars and asking about Nina’s whereabouts.

“Oh right, I forgot. Kerry wants to come over to my place tonight.” And so the girl returned her Pokemon and cleaned up before heading out to meet with her friend.

***

Author's Note:

The Council has spoken!

New release schedule will be four chapters a week, starting from next Tuesday!