Into the Unown Ch 101

Chapter 101

Nina noticed that under the blue fuzz coating a Golbat’s body was a layer of relatively tough and leathery skin. She scratched at Brucey who was cooing in her arms while Nairy just looked on with a jealous gaze on the side.

Her new Golbat demanded a lot of physical affection, much more so than even Nairy. Which often led to a situation like this where the two competed with one another for Nina’s attention.

The girl sighed and gestured for Nairy to come over for hugs as well. “There’s plenty of me to go around guys, no need to get all jealous…”

“Nair~” Nina grabbed hold of her Dragon’s neck and pulled him in for nuzzles. Much to Brucey’s annoyance, who did not like it when Nina splits her focus like this. But Nairy just gave the bat Pokemon a smug look and leaned in even further into his space.

Meanwhile, Espy was sitting next to Nina on her usual spot on the couch and just did an exaggerated eye roll at the two massive babies in her midst.

Nina giggled at her Espeon, thinking that she was probably still mad about what Brucey did a few nights ago.

Golbats were nocturnal creatures, so there needed to be a transition period where Brucey had to adjust his internal clock to that of a daywalker as opposed to a nightcrawler. This is in order to sync himself up with Nina and the rest of his new family.

During this time, Nina would leave a window open at night for Brucey to leave the dorm with, just so that the Golbat wouldn’t feel bored while everyone else was asleep. Of course, she had to have a talk with him and forbid him from pulling any pranks within the vicinity of the school to avoid any trouble.

Problem was, Brucey took Nina’s warning lightly and there was one night where he managed to secure a fainted Ekans which he brought back to the room, probably hoping to scare his companions with, only to be caught by Espy almost immediately.

Because despite being asleep, Espy kept a minimal amount of her Psychic senses passively active. So the moment that an unfamiliar Psychic signature entered into her range, she immediately jolted awake and wrenched the Ekans from Brucey’s grasp before unceremoniously tossing the poor snake Pokemon out the window.

That night, Nina woke up to the sight of Brucey being spun around mercilessly as Espy continuously laid into him for his inappropriate behavior. 

Strangely though, the Golbat didn’t appear to be upset or remorseful from the punishment. Instead, he seemed to relish the attention he was getting from Espy and tried to do everything he could from then on to get a rise out of her.

It was getting to the point where Espy was actually irritated enough to break Brucey’s wings if he kept pushing his luck any further, so Nina quickly got involved to resolve the situation.

Unfortunately, nothing she said was getting through to him. In fact, her increased attention on the Golbat implicated her in his pranks as well since Brucey took it as a sign of affection.

Nina was truly at a loss on what to do. She found that Brucey was almost like an autistic child in terms of his social awareness. He had trouble reading emotional tells and interpreting words. As such, he couldn’t tell the difference between good attention and bad attention.

Which actually made sense if one were to consider the fact that Zubats were blind until they evolved. So of course they couldn’t read expressions and gestures. They also had a very different relationship with sound than other Pokemon, so it wasn’t weird that Brucey couldn’t read emotional tones either.

To the bat, any attention was good attention because all of it helped to soothe the loneliness gnawing at his heart. He didn’t seem to realize that his poor behavior would only serve to foster resentment and drive a wedge between him and all his other companions.

There were all sorts of personality types among the Pokemon in the Cerulean Gym, but none of them were quite like Brucey. And if there were, they wouldn’t be included in any training and be left in the exhibit instead. So Nina was at a loss on what to do.

The girl was starting to regret her decision to take Brucey in. She had thought that she could redirect Brucey’s prankster energy towards battles. But she had been proven to be nothing but wrong so far.

That was, until Espy decided to translate Nina’s feelings of regret and beam it directly into Brucey’s mind, causing the Golbat to come bawling at Nina in distress.

“Espy! That was super mean and uncalled for!” Nina yelled at the time. It was probably the first time that she had ever raised her voice against the Espeon.

However, Espy was unrepentant, which just goes to show the extent of her frustrations. Worst still, even the usually good natured Nairy was starting to take Espy’s side. If the situation continued to persist, Nina risked her entire team falling apart.

But Espy’s uncouth behaviour did give Nina an idea on how to approach the problem. So she sat Brucey down with Espy and had the Espeon beam all the negative emotions she felt towards Brucey directly into his mind. That way, there was no room for misinterpretation on Brucey’s end.

The end result was inordinately effective, Brucey wilted and even broke out crying at all the hate that he was feeling from Espy, prompting Nina to pull him in for an impromptu cuddle session and assuage him until he was calm enough to continue.

The stick had to be balanced out by a carrot, so Nina then asked Espy to think of a time where she felt positive acknowledgement from something nice she did for somebody else. 

The tsundere princess actually averted her gaze and took awhile to respond, feeling too embarrassed to expose her soft side in such a direct manner. But in the end she did comply, though she kept Nina out of the loop, so her human did not know what was shared.

Brucey immediately perked up at the emotions he was feeling, seeming to like it much more than what he was feeling before.

“See, Brucey,” said Nina. “There’s a big difference between the attention you get from doing something nice for someone and pranking them. I’m not going to stop you from playing pranks ‘cause I think it’s a big part of who you are. But you need to learn when to stop and to balance it out with good deeds every once in a while to make up for all the grief you cause. Do you think you can do that?” 

And just for good measure, Nina also asked Espy to reiterate her words using simple concepts for the socially challenged Golbat.

He nodded, seeming to understand. And ever since then, he 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.

“Alright, time to go to school now, guys.” Nina said, putting an end to their morning cuddle session, much to Nairy and Brucey’s disappointment. She gave them each another reassuring caress and returned all her Pokemon into their Pokeballs before grabbing her stuff and wearing her shoes in the entryway.

“What the…” Nina frowned the moment that she shoved her feet into her footwear, feeling the sensation of coarse obstructions within. The girl grabbed her shoes and turned them outside down, emptying the rocks and pebbles that had been shoved into them at some point.

Nina sighed. “I guess this is just something I gotta learn to live with from now on…”

***

“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 moves 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 translates 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 is 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 his massive cheeks out 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 controls 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.

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 attack 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 still 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.