Into the Unown Ch 186 (Regular tier)

Author's note:

Since no one commented on the formatting last chapter. I'll stick with single spacing for the regular tier releases then.

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Chapter 186

“Alright, everyone. Great work today! Let’s take a short break and head back to town for lunch.”

Nina, and her Pokemon were back in their little training ground by the base of Mount Silver, with Toki and Totodile in tow. They had just concluded the morning’s training session when Toki rushed over with what might as well be a bomb in his hands.

“Nina! Nina! Look what I found! Isn’t he cute?”

What the boy found was a green, reptilian Pokemon, with black markings across its eyes and body, rocky skin, red belly, and a perpetual glare on its face.

Nina immediately dropped the Pokeball she was holding, mouth agape in horror. “Get away from that Larvitar, now!” She cried, then exchanged a frantic look with her Pokemon.

“Espy, barrier! Nitey, separate Toki and get him away from that child!”

With resolute cries, the two Pokemon shifted to a look of severity as they promptly jumped into action, just in time for the trees to shake, snow splattering on the ground from an angry roar in the distance.

“Espy! Are you sure you want to do this? Last chance to pass the ball over to Nitey.” The Dragonite was probably the best candidate to take on the encroaching Tyranitar, but Nina would prioritize Espy’s wishes.

“Es!” cried the Espeon, along with a mental pulse of resolution to Nina’s mind, eliciting a helpless sigh from the girl. “Alright, drop the barrier and concentrate on the fight. Clody, take over for Espy — raise the ground and build us a wall.”

“Clod.” Sir Clodington cried in affirmation and slammed his bulbous tail onto the ground to create an earthen fortress. Meanwhile, Espy did a little hop and hovered over to the other side.

“What happened? Did I do something wrong?” Toki asked, voice full of anxiety as Nitey let him down from his embrace. The Larvitar was just left alone where it originally stood, away from the group.

Nina shook her head and gave the boy a reassuring pat on the head. “No, it’s my fault. I should have given you a warning.” The girl then pointed towards a direction in the forest, where one could clearly see a rippling canopy of trees, steadily approaching their direction.

“That Larvitar you found, it isn’t alone. In fact, I’m willing to bet that the Pokemon that’s currently headed our way is probably its mother.”

And sure enough, as Nina’s words concluded, the forest split apart, to reveal the imposing figure of an angry looking Tyranitar headed their way, her blood red eyes scanning the surroundings to confirm the presence of her child before landing a glare on Espy who stood at the forefront with a look of insolence on her face.

“TAAAR!!!” Tyranitar roared, her booming voice causing the surrounding earth to quake in fury.

“Es!” And in response, Espy unleashed her aura, her immense willpower pressing down on the armored kaiju Pokemon she was targeting, forcing the Tyranitar to let out a strained groan.

But as expected of a species of Pokemon that were known for their fearlessness — quite literally, because the Tyranitar line were incapable of feeling fear — Tyranitar merely glared in defiance and let out another roar to dispel Espy’s influence.

“Careful, Espy. Dark Typing aside, Tyranitars are still very powerful physical brutes. And watch out for her Hyper Beam as well — it’s likely to be even more powerful than Nairy’s”

In fact, it was said that the angular holes on its rocky exterior, near its chest and thighs, contained a meshy rock fiber that acted as heat vents of sorts. Using those vents, Tyranitar could overclock its physique and give itself a short term power up.

“But those vents, if you can target them, might be advantageous to use.” Nina continued, receiving a telepathic nod of affirmation in return.

“TAAAR!!!” Without even waiting for Espy to initiate, Tyranitar charged forwards, fangs gleaming with sinister Dark Type Energy. However, before she could even reach halfway to Espy, the Espeon’s silhouette blurred and abruptly appeared beside Tyranitar to deafen it with a close range Hyper Voice.

“TAAAR!!!” Tyranitar cried out in pain and swiped wildly to the side, trying to rake at the offending Espeon with its deadly claws. But by then, Espy had already disappeared once more, stepping daintily atop the Tyranitar’s shoulder to blind it with a Mud-Slap to the eyes.

Nina smirked. At the end of the day, a wild Pokemon driven by instinct could hardly outmatch her highly intelligent and well trained princess.

Tyranitar roared out once more, flailing wildly at the air to catch the Espeon who had long since moved away from its vicinity.

During her floundering, a melodic voice imbued with Fairy Type Energy resonated in the air and slowly seeped into every fiber of Tyranitar’s being to lull it into a drunken state. This was Alluring Voice, part of Espy’s latest arsenal of Fairy Type Moves that she acquired from Elizabeth the Gardevoir.

During their downtime, Nina often flew back to Cerulean City to visit her family, since she now had a jet engine in the form of a Dragonite to Fly her. And during her visits, Espy would often spend time with her Uncle Ali’s Gardevoir to train her Psychic prowess and learn from the half-Fairy.

That said, there were some moves that Espy absolutely refused to use, despite having learned them, like Draining Kiss — the regal Espeon was simply too proud for it. In fact, she hardly even used Baby-Doll Eyes these days unless she was begging Nina to buy cosmetics for her. Charm was fine though, Espy did like being fawned over by Beverly’s Vaporeon and her cousins, even if she won’t admit to it.

As Tyranitar stumbled and fell flat on her face, Nina could feel a pang of disappointment from Espy over their mental link. The Espeon was obviously expecting more of a fight. But just as she had that thought, Larvitar cried out in distress at the sight of its struggling mother, completely breaking her out of her drunken stupor.

“TAAAR!!!” The blinded Tyranitar roared in fury, her jade-like outer shell beginning to glow a faint red as steam exhausted from every cavity in her body to melt the surrounding snow.

“Clody, get ready a counter-Earthquake and fortify the wall.” Nina said as she felt a rumble on the ground.

Tyranitar propped herself up with a forceful stomp, sending a powerful shockwave rippling across the ground. In her gaping maw was a ball of bright white condensed Type Energy, primed and ready to be unleashed.

Nina frowned at the thought of the environmental destruction Tyranitar’s indiscriminate Hyper Beam would cause. “Nitey, get ready to intervene. Espy, I know I said I would leave it to you, but we can’t let that Hyper Beam spread too far.”

Both Pokemon cried in affirmation as Nitey moved to the front, ready to cover his companions on the off chance that the destructive beam ended up getting past Sir Clodington’s defenses. 

Meanwhile, Espy readied her signature Reflect, but not before doing a quick run at Tyranitar’s legs and clogging the Rock and Dark Type’s steamy thigh vents with a double shot of Mud-Slap and racing back to guard her companions.

“TAAAR!!!” Tyranitar cried from the rapidly building pressure. With half of her vents clogged, her jade shell glowed an even brighter red, cutting short the charge on her Hyper Beam and forcing her to release it prematurely to avoid overheating herself.

That said, the destructive beam of light she unleashed was still almost the same thickness as the Tyranitar herself as it impacted against Espy’s Deflect barrier and got redirected towards the sky, like a heaven piercing beacon.

Unfortunately, the Psychic barrier wasn’t large enough to catch the entirety of the beam, so some of the light spilled towards the side and crashed against Sir Clodington’s earth barrier.

The Clodsire groaned as he did his best to repair the steadily thinning wall of earth, even smothering it with a layer of mud to help absorb the force more evenly. He was fully cognizant of the fact that if he failed to hold his ground then his liege would have to step in personally to safeguard them, and the stalwart knight absolutely refused to be subjected to such humiliation.

Fortunately for Sir Clodington, his fears never came to be as the Hyper Beam steadily waned in due time, leaving behind a lightly panting Espeon and an exhausted Tyranitar currently on her knees.

“Lar! Lar! Larvitar!” The juvenile Pokemon cried as it pumped its stubby little legs through snow and mud to reach its mother’s side. And true to its species’s reputation, the tiny Larvitar stood fearlessly in front of its mom to face the Espeon intent on harming her.

Nina smiled, trying her best to hold back on rushing over to pamper the brave little rock lizard. “That’s enough, Espy. I don’t think you’ll gain anymore from this battle. Could you try to make peace with Tyranitar, so that I can go over with a healing Potion?”

“Es.” Espy conceded easily enough, fully in agreement with her human as she steadily approached with an amicable cry. Unfortunately, the awkward Espeon wasn’t very good when it came to socializing without her telepathy. So before things could come to a blow again, Nitey flew over with the jovial Poppy in his arms to befriend the Tyranitar in her stead.

“You really should learn a thing or two from Nitey.” Nina chuckled, earning her a resentful pout from Espy. 

When it came to making friends, Nitey was in a whole other league of his own. Nina watched as Tyranitar broke out into throaty laughter at whatever it was that Nitey said to her.

Eventually, Tyranitar did consent to being healed. So Nina rushed over with her supplies. “Sorry about everything that happened.” Nina said as she cleaned the mud around Tyranitar’s eyes with a damp towel. 

“We weren’t trying to steal your child or anything, Toki just found Larvitar in the forest and wanted to make friends with him.” The girl explained. “And it just so happened that Espy wanted to test her abilities against a powerful Dark Type as well…”

“Ty…” Tyranitar groaned in acknowledgement. Apparently, Nitey had already explained things to her. The Dragonite was currently trying to unclog the two cavities on Tyranitar’s legs with some Water — a fairly unpleasant experience if the frown on the stoic Rock Type’s face was any indication.

To the side, Toki, Totodile and Poppy were pampering Larvitar with Berries. Nina made a mental note to give some to Tyranitar as well, if she even had enough supplies on hand.

“I’d like to gift your family more Berries as a token of my apology. Do you mind if I stop by your cave sometime and drop them off?”

“Ty…” Tyranitar growled in contemplation, and after a timely follow up from Nitey, reluctantly agreed with a nod.

“Great! I still have some on hand, so feel free to snack on them while I apply a Hyper Potion. Is there a particular part of your body that hurts?”

Tyranitar shook her head, merely pointing at her thigh cavities. It made sense, since Espy wasn’t able to get any direct hits in, except towards the Tyranitar’s eyes and her sensitive heat vents.

“Alright, I’ll get right to it once Nitey is done with his clean up.”

And that was how Nina and her companions got acquainted with Larvitar and his mom. She invited the pair for lunch afterwards, but Tyranitar declined and opted to return to their home in Mount Silver instead.

A shame, since Toki looked quite reluctant to leave his new friend. So Nina promised to let him tag along the next day when she went to visit the cave. Under the condition that he stuck close to her and asked for permission before doing anything — to avoid a repeat of today’s incident.

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Author's note:

So I know that some of you might have been expecting Nina to catch the Larvitar but I don't want to crowd her team just yet. Not when she still has Brucey, Gastly and Poppy to train - all of whom are still fairly underdeveloped.

Fow now, you can just imagine Toki sneaking into the forest on the regular to go play with Larvitar. And eventually, when he comes of age, Tyranitar will give her blessing for the boy to take her child out on an adventure.

And who knows? Maybe someday, somewhere down the line, Nina will see Toki again as a full fledged Pokemon trainer.

PS. I went to watch F4 yesterday. It was really good. A proper self-contained movie. (if you discount the end credit scene) Also, is there anyone better than Pedro Pascal when it comes to playing the sad dad character? I wish they did more with The Thing though. His character arc felt incomplete. But then again, there's only so much you can shove into a feature length film.