Space Interlude - Teething on Gold (Ryo)

Mako prefecture was one of the less dangerous wildernesses on Venus. Though the air was hot from all the nearby volcanic activity and positively poisonous due to the regular radioactive storms, it was rated as safe for trainers to come out and test their pokemon.

The wilds in the area were a quite a bit higher level than you’d find around Freeland and normally that would have made Kuzko avoid the place for casual exercise, but in this case if he didn’t do at least that much his ward would never be satisfied.

It had only been a short two months since he began taking the pokemon outside and it had already gotten tired of the weak ‘mons that you could find in the low level training zones in the big city.

Speaking of his new pokemon, it should be showing up any time... there.

Kuzko lined up his dex and set the zoom to max as the ash clouds overhead burst apart and two pokemon dashed through the gloom.

The first was an Egoclasm, a living firestorm in the shape of a large bird. It flew gracefully through the air like a spark on the wind, powerful strokes of its wings interspersed with jets of flame giving it unmatched agility in the Venusian skies.

A fact that was unacceptable to the second pokemon, a thick, five meter long serpent wreathed in radioactive light. Its face was a rictus of fury and its massive fangs sparked with deadly intent.

Where the Egoclasm danced in and out of the ash clouds with graceful movements, using its flame jets both to dodge its pursuer and counter attack, the sky serpent dashed across the sky with powerful lunges powered by its rage and frustration. From this distance the smooth arcs of red flame and vicious zig-zags of [Pursuit] almost looked like something out of a movie and they made it easy to see who had the advantage.

The flaming bird was cunning, powerful, and clearly faster than the pursuing serpent, not to mention something like thirty levels its superior at least. It used the ash clouds as a smokescreen, dipping into them every time the serpent would look for it and swirling away like a matador after the furious pokemon dove right at it.

Even with the misses however, the serpent kept coming. Any other pokemon would have changed tactics by now, perhaps switching to ranged attacks or making use of the ash clouds itself to ambush its target. The serpent however just kept dashing at it, dark lines of power drawing themselves over its flashing scales as it drew on its moves just to keep up with the massively higher level pokemon, as if any difference in their abilities could be made up by raw fury.

To the serpent’s credit it hadn’t allowed itself to be hit by the enemy in its reckless assault, and its target was slowly running out of ash clouds to dodge into as the serpent herded it towards the edge of the zone. After another two exchanges, the Egoclasm dodged in the wrong direction and its evasive maneuvers forced it away from the ash clouds and out into the open.

For a moment it seemed as if the serpent’s relentless pursuit had finally paid off...but well, there was a reason why Egoclasm was called the Master of the Skies on Venus.

As the duo emerged from the clouds the serpent began glowing a sickly green-blue and the air started to hum as it charged up for some kind of of massive blow. Then a bolt of electric might flashed through the sky, followed an instant later by a low rumble as the Egoclasm’s [Thunder] struck the serpent right on the crown of its head.

The serpent contorted in agony as its built up energy went out of control and bust away from it in glowing green lines. It snarled and narrowed its eyes in focus as it tried to hold on to the building move, the lines of light turning around to wrap around it like a cloak. Then the paralysis took and the light slipped away as the serpent began to fall from the sky.

The Egoclasm, wild it may be, was not one to pass up an opportunity to remove what it saw as a competitor and with a screech of triumph the pokemon dashed towards the shuddering serpent, its already flaming wings turning a fearsome deep blue.

Then the serpent [Roared].

The cry of impotent rage and indignant fury cut through the air on a wave of dragonic might, eclipsing the rumble from the lightning bolt a few moments before and forcing even Kuzko who was hundreds of meters away on the ground to shake out the ringing in his ears. Needless to say its intended target did not fare nearly as well.

The Egoclasm drooped in the air, its flames returning to its customary red and gold as the pokemon was battered into unconsciousness for a moment. Just a moment.  Then the moment passed and the confused and frightened pokemon did what any sensible creature would do after having its consciousness disrupted by sheer sound.

It fled.

The powerful pokemon burst away like a shot from a cannon, all the energy it would have spent on its complex battle dance instead turned to moving away as quickly as possible. In just a few moments it had vanished into the ash clouds, traceable only by a soft red glow before that too faded from sight.

Even paralyzed by the electric assault less than a minute before and exhausted from the long skirmish, the serpent made to chase. It gathered up Dark energy in its coils and filled every space in its body with summoned will as it made to resume its [Pursuit] and-

“Mixuryl, that’s enough! Come back!”

Kuzko sighed in relief as the pokemon let the move dissipate unused. It gave one long look towards the direction its quarry had fled before turning away and diving towards its Trainer. A week ago he would have had to forcefully recall it with the pokeball if it had failed to defeat its quarry, which would have been a challenging task at this distance. A month ago and he might have had to do it whether the pokemon won or not.

Training dragon types was a pain in the ass.

Mixuryl, the pokemon he got from his favourite celebrity (a title that was being reconsidered after all this trouble), was proud to a fault and had an anger management problem a mile wide. The pokemon basically refused to tolerate anything flying directly above it and seemed to have a problem with anything higher than it was from the ground in general. Even buildings.

Kuzko cut the video and began fiddling with his dex, practised movements getting it to project what looked like a T-shaped standing coat hanger with its Hard Light System. A minute later the five meter long sky serpent pokemon landed and coiled itself around the top bar.

The projection, which was called ‘Standing Rack for Large Flying Types’ in the configuration catalogue, was wide enough to let two Pidgeot stand comfortably side by side and sturdy enough to keep its form when an Aerodactyl put its full weight down on it. It was a common choice for care and maintenance when dealing with bird shaped pokemon, and in this case it was sufficient for this violent cousin of a Dragonair to rest on after its long battle without getting below its Trainer’s head height.

Also important was the fact that its height could be adjusted and Kuzko had been slowly lowering the height every day. The serpentine dragon’s eye level was now only a few inches above his own, a state of affairs that would have been unacceptable to the pokemon just a few weeks ago.

Baby steps.

Kuzko established eye contact and then slowly approached the pokemon, ensuring that it knew he was approaching but not waiting for permission. The pokemon expressed minor hostility as he approached, as always, its crest that bore a striking resemblance to feathers rattling in warning.

It was “testing the relationship to see if he’d give up his claim to superiority” is what the Dragon-Type cliffnotes said. Well he wasn’t gonna do it, even if the pokemon was kind of scary.

The Mixuryl huffed and subsided, turning away from him as if bored. It would try again next time, as always.

Kuzko drew close to its side and pulled a tube of Paralyze Heal (tm) from his bandolier. He sprayed it liberally across the pokemon’s entire body, making sure to get as much of the chemical as possible on the places where the pokemon shuddered the most.

Other than the bolt that caused the paralysis, the pokemon wasn’t injured at all. But while he could deal with the paralysis...

Kuzko turned his head to look at the dark spot on the pokemon’s crown where it had been struck by lightning. He deftly pulled a small spray bottle full of Potion (tm) from his bandolier and inched it slowly towards the site of the wound. The pokemon turned to look at the bottle as it approached its face, movements stilling and jaws creeping open as the bottle grew closer and closer.

...

Yea, not that stupid.

Kuzko replaced the potion in his bandolier and decided to let the pokecenter handle the rest of the wounds. He’d lose a chance for some care and bonding, but he’d keep his arm in one piece and he felt that was a good trade.

Besides, it was probably time to go before those annoying Paparazzi showed up. A look to the east showed a dust cloud in the distance that was too low to the ground, and approaching him at speed. Right on schedule.

A quick scroll through the call list on his dex got him the psy-signature for a teleport taxi, and a few seconds later his dex was already growing the beacon for his ride to teleport to.

Just a month ago Kuzko would have found the mere idea of calling for a chauffeur ridiculous. Convenient as the psynet was it was just way too expensive to make use of unless you had your own high level teleporter pokemon.

Now however...well money wasn’t as big a deal for him anymore and it wasn’t like this ride was costing him anything.

His dex spat out the beacon on the ground nearby and three seconds later a red headed man and his Alakazam teleported to it. The man blinked twice and looked quickly around himself, breaking into a smile as his gaze landed on Kuzko’s face.

“Kuzko! Just the man I wanted to see. We were all worried sick when nobody could find you in the city!”

I’ll bet.

“Hey Shawn,” Kuzko greeted the man, “Just took Mixuryl out for some training. Decided to take the scenic route.”

“Say no more, say no more. I for one definitely understand the desire to see the sights sometimes. In fact I would be happy to drive you around if you need it.” The smiling redhead said.

“And you’re saying you wouldn’t sell my location to the highest bidder as soon as we got there?”

Shawn gripped his chest as if in pain and took two shaky steps backwards.
“Kuzko, you wound me. You and I both know I would sell to the top ten!”

“Right. So how many of them know you left to pick me up?”

“Hell if I know mate,”Shawn answered with a shrug, “The usual crowd I suppose? Some of them might have gone for lunch.”

Kuzko sighed and ran his hands through his short curly hair. A steadily growing headache throbbed under his scalp, but he did his best to tamp it down. It wouldn’t do him any good if Mixuryl picked up on his mood.

“Alright whatever, let me just set up and we can go.”

He turned back to his pokemon, distantly registering Shawn’s agreement as he contemplated what to do next. Recalling it would be the smart move. Mixuryl was not a patient pokemon and even though most of his harassers had come to understand that, there was always an idiot or two trying to make a quick buck.

On the other hand, part of the deal was that the pokemon be seen. If he kept travelling around with it under lock and key there might be problems with his benefactor in the future, not to mention all the other benefits from ‘interested parties’.

The pokemon was being pretty well behaved today.

...

Kuzko tapped at his dex and a second later a ‘styler hoop extended from the device and looped itself gently around Mixuryl’s body. The device wouldn’t be enough to restrain the pokemon if it decided to attack something, he’d have to recall it if that happened, but it would calm it down a bit and make it less inclined to strike in the first place.

“Ready.”

 The words were barely out of his mouth before the world vanished in a torrent of purple energy and then suddenly he was somewhere else.

Zinna State, Freeland, Home. Kuzko was back in his home town, his pokemon (sans perch but still connected via styler attachment) hovering by his left and the person who was quickly becoming his personal teleporter standing by his right.

He would love nothing more than to make his way home, feed his pokemon, and take a nap but that wasn’t in the cards. Ahead of Kuzko stood his greatest foe. A dozen eyes, hundreds of teeth, and a wicked streak a mile wide.

Paparazzi.

A chorus of questions erupted as soon as the light from the teleportation faded, and the barrage only intensified after they noticed that Mixuryl was out and about.

He rested his hand on the pokemon’s flank, calming it with his presence (and reminding it that its superior was around and demanded he not bite the annoying people)  as he stepped off the teleportation platform and into the waiting crowd.

Dammit Ryo, you owe me for this.