Into the Unown (Pokemon Fanfiction OC)

Author's note:

Reminder that Chapter 130 was released with Ch 129. So go back and read that if you accidentally skipped ahead.

***

“Okay, you two. Do you understand the importance of working together now?” After their most recent loss, Nina booked a training room and lined up both her newest additions in front of her.

“We’re called a team for a reason. You might not be fighting on the field at the same time, but it’s important that you set up for the one that comes after you.” A well honed team of Pokemon would know to automatically set up for their successor whenever they were on the verge of fainting, even without trainer input. Beverly’s Pokemon were a good example of this.

Nina turned to Sir Clodington. “Especially you, Clody. I know you don’t get along with Brucey but it’s imperative that you work together with him as a fellow brother in arms. I shouldn’t need to tell you to Poison your opponents whenever you get the chance.” None of what Nina said was the crux of the duo’s defeat, but she still wanted to take advantage of their introspective mood to iron out their relationship a little.

“But before any of that, we’ll need to work on your fundamentals. Starting with you Clody…” Nina explained that Sir Clodington needed to stop telegraphing his Dig, it was a waste of valuable time in battle, especially given how slow he was in sinking to the ground. “We’ll also need to work on your endurance and Type Energy capacity, but there’s no way to rush that, just plain hard work.”

The girl then turned to her Golbat. “Brucey, I know you’ve been trying hard. But I can’t help but feel that you’ve been very impatient as of late. That final Rock Blast shouldn’t have hit you if you didn’t rush in like that. I know we don’t have a big finisher for you just yet, which is all the more reason why you should stick to what you’re good at until we do.” Harassment tactics required a lot of time and patience to pay off, a fact that Brucey, as a natural prankster, should be well aware of.

Both Pokemon grumbled in acknowledgement. It was a good thing that Sir Clodington had a stubborn and unyielding will, so a couple of losses wouldn’t deter him just yet. Nina gave them both an encouraging smile and clapped her hands together to pep everyone up. 

“Alright, Brucey, you’re working with Espy today on your Quick Guard and Confuse Ray. You’ll notice that Supersonic isn’t as effective as it used to be for these well trained VF kids, so we need to get your Confuse Ray to the same level of efficiency. Quick Guard will help to shore up your lacking defenses. Doesn’t matter how quick your opponents are if they can’t get through to you, and Espy is an expert with parries and guards so pay attention to her.” The girl instructed.

“And Sir Clodington,” continued Nina. “You, me and Nairy will work on upping your stamina. After that I want you to experiment with Sludge Wave and potentially Muddy Water.” 

Muddy Water wasn’t a move that Paldean Woopers could learn naturally, but they could harness Water Type Energy and they were inherently Ground Type. So Nina was hoping that her Water proficient Dragonair could help facilitate matters, with the eventual goal of combining both Sludge Wave and Muddy Water to create a custom move — Swampy Terrain. It would be quite a difficult feat given the complexity of both moves, but Nairy was also an expert in combination moves so it didn’t hurt to try.

And with that, they set about a very intense training session, with both the focal Pokemon more motivated than ever to improve themselves. Nina would have to further educate Sir Clodington on teamwork as well, but shoring up his fundamentals took precedence.

***

“Impressive work.” A series of claps caused Nina to jolt in surprise at the end of her Pokemon training session. She turned around to see the figure of Lilian Blackthorn standing by the entrance.

“Lilian! Hi! Erm… Did you want to use this room? Sorry, I’ll get out of the way.” Nina moved to return her Pokemon only to be stopped by a firm grasp of Lilian’s hand.

“Melina Jones, Nina! Please… I…” Lilian faltered and let go of the girl before averting her gaze in an uncharacteristically meek fashion. “I had a talk with Alfred, and he pointed out the error of my ways.” The boyish girl took in a deep breath and refocused her eyes on Nina with a steady gaze.

“I came here today to apologize for my conduct the other day. I… might have gone too far in jest. Please, forgive me.” The normally regal Blackthorn girl lowered her head in remorse towards Nina, causing the girl to fluster and panic.

“Please, no.” Nina urged her friend to raise her head. “There’s nothing to forgive — I might have overreacted as well. Joking… that’s right, you were joking! Of course you were! I’m the one at fault for taking things too seriously.” There was no way that aristocracy like Lilian would take a romantic interest in a plebian like Nina. “Of course not, duh! Stupid hormones! Stupid puberty!” Nina inwardly chided herself.

In response to Nina self-deprecation, Lilian gave a firm shake of her head. “No, the fault lies with me. I am, as you are well aware, not privy to the finer subtleties of casual socialization. Especially among… friends.” Lilian’s eyes softened and began to waver. “We still are right… friends?”

Nina chuckled and let out a warm smile at the awkward girl in front of her. “Of course we are, you silly Psyduck. Friends forever.” The girl extended a hand to Lilian, which the other girl firmly clasped with a shake. They stood grinning at each other before letting go as Lilian cleared her throat and straightened her posture.

“I do have other matters to discuss, if you would be so kind as to lend me your time?” said the Blackthorn, to which Nina readily agreed.

“Of course, do you mind if I settle my Pokemon first, or is this urgent?” Lilian shook her head and told Nina to take her time. 

Nina nodded. “Well, if you’re not in a rush, we can also head to the cafeteria for a quick meal as well. My Pokemon are probably feeling peckish after that workout.”

Lilian seemed to hesitate at the proposal as she instinctively reached towards her pocket, presumably to check her schedule, but then thought better of it and returned to Nina with; “I’d love to share a meal with you Nina. As friends, of course!” She added hastily.

Nina laughed and gave the socially awkward girl a reassuring pat on the shoulder. “No worries, lemme just address my Pokemon and we can head off.”

***

“Will you be taking part in this year’s inter-school meet?” Lilian began as the two girls settled down on their usual spot in the inner courtyard. It was close to evening by this point, so there was an almost warm ethereal glow to the dim twilight passing through the ancient oak tree under which the pair sat.

Second year students of the Vermilion Flame didn’t have as many classes in the main castle campus anymore. More often than not, they would be required to be in one of the satellite buildings to make use of the more advanced facilities and make room for the new batch of first years. But Nina and her gang still preferred coming to the inner courtyard to eat lunch, as opposed to the more spacious detached cafeteria building where Pokemon below medium sizes were allowed out of their Pokeball.

Nina nodded as she unboxed her bentos one by one. “Yup, Principal Niko already approached me about it during the start of the school year, probably didn’t want to risk me getting engaged in something else during that time.”

“I see…” Lilian continued. “Well it just so happens that I have been invited as a guest of honor as well.” The coalition of Kantonian schools invited the Blackthorn girl last year too, but she was preoccupied with clan matters at the time and could not attend. “And so I was wondering if you would like to stay in my family’s villa during that time? Kerry-Anne Joy is invited as well of course, should she choose to come along.”

Nina hummed in consideration. “I think Kerry mentioned something about tagging along as a volunteer, but I’m not sure. We’ll have to ask her next time. As for me…” The girl was unsure if she wanted to stick with the presumably luxurious villa or stay with her other classmates in the school-prepared hotel just to socialize a bit.

As if sensing her dilemma, Lilian moved to assuage her friend’s doubts before she even voiced them. “The villa is attached to the school’s nature preserve in the outskirts of the city and is actually fairly close to the Verdant Orchid, where the event will be held.” 

There were many schools vying for the honor of hosting the inter-school meet, but unfortunately, not all of them had the space or resources to do so. Which meant that the Verdant Orchid, with its more open architecture, abundance of real estate, and dedicated nature reserve, was chosen more often than not. 

“Additionally, to my knowledge, the traditional inn which all the schools plan to stay in is also within the vicinity.” Lilian added. “In fact, the inn imports hot spring water from neighbouring Johto, of which we also may partake in through an interconnected pipe.”

Nina lit up at the prospect of a private hot spring. “Indoors or outdoors?” She exclaimed.

Lilian chuckled in amusement. “Both. The bathing area has a partially open design that will allow you to admire the starry night sky should you desire.”

“Deal!” Nina eagerly agreed to the invitation.

***

“Do you have really basic Sandstorm TMs?”

“That depends…”

Nina raised an eyebrow at Johnny. “On?”

“Whether or not you’re one of those assholes who throws away the case and immediately puts the TM in one of those disc towers.” The TM shop owner replied, with a great deal of indignation.

Nina laughed. “Lemme guess? Someone did that right in front of you?”

“The balls on that motherfucker!” Johnny exclaimed, looking more sober with rage than Nina had ever seen him, eliciting more laughter from the girl.

“Cheer up, just ban them from the store and be done with it. Besides, you know me well enough by this point that you know I won’t do something as crass as that.” Collecting all the colourful and artsy cases was half the fun in owning physical media as far as Nina was concerned.

Johnny nodded in approval. “Sandstorm pile is right there.” The man pointed. “What Pokemon are you looking to teach?”

“A Paldean Wooper.” Nina replied. Sir Clodington was in his Pokeball at the moment, since the derpy brown blob didn’t particularly like being out in the sun.

“A rare little bugger.” Johnny hummed in consideration. “Get one from a Diglett, there should be heaps of them available.” The stoner then took out his inhaler for a hit to cool his temper. “Oh yeah… That’s the stuff…” He moaned. “Anyways, I’m not short on Sandstorm so if you buy another one, I’ll give you 50% off on it.”

Nina chuckled. “You just want to get rid of your old and unpopular stock.” Sandstorm was a really unpopular move among conventional trainers — too messy and got in the way of proper communication. But that was exactly why it was advantageous for well trained Pokemon. Nina thanked the man and proceeded to browse the store’s selection. All the while thinking about which second TM to get.

Sir Clodington’s training over the past few weeks had been going really well, thanks to the Wooper’s iron will and unrelenting tolerance for punishment. In fact, Nina had trouble telling the overly zealous knight to stop and rest sometimes. It was a good thing that Nairy was around to intervene when needed.

Just as Nina had anticipated, the Paldean Wooper and his abundant control over Ground Type Energy meant he was quick to pick up Earthquake. They had yet to reach a point where the nascent move could affect the entire arena, but it was only a matter of time. Sir Clodington’s stamina was steadily increasing as well, albeit at a much slower pace than the overachieving Wooper would prefer. But this has always been the case with endurance training.

“Hmm… Maybe I should get Sludge Wave?” Nina considered. She found that Sir Clodington’s excellence in Ground Type control was balanced by his inefficient Poison Type manipulation. So although Paldean Woopers could learn Sludge Wave naturally, progress on that front was stalling.

Nina shook her head to dismiss that notion. “Nah, Brucey managed to get the hang of Sludge Bomb. With Espy’s help, we can probably import it over to Clody and have him appropriate it for his own use. But speaking of Brucey…” Nina looked over to the pile of TMs specific to Flying types and hummed in consideration. “We do need a big finisher for him.”

So in the end, Nina bought a Sandstorm with only a handful of uses left, which was fine because she had Espy. As well as Brave Bird and Steel Wing, which were ludicrously expensive. The former, in particular, cost the miserly girl three thousand whole Pokedollars. Nina sighed at her impatience and lack of foresight. “I should have asked Martha for help instead.” She mused, referring to her uncle’s Corviknight.

***

Public Service Announcement:

Before you click off, just a quick PSA.

I just found out that "Into the Unown" has started to show up on pirate sites. More specifically the one that rhymes with trash bin.

Now before you pick up your pitch forks, I'd just like to say that I don't actually mind. In fact, it's kind of a strange honor in a way since my understanding is that only novels above a certain size gets scrapped into these websites. >.<;

The most important part is that I'm not incurring any financial loss from this since the advanced released chapters aren't available in those sites. My little story could hardly compare to a behemoth like Shadow Slave after all.

That said!

Please be aware that "Into the Unown" is only being officially posted on Scribble Hub, Royal Road and Patreon. If you find this story anywhere else then know that the one posting isn't me and avoid engaging.

Honestly, I don't even know why you would go out of your way to read this story in a subpar platform that butchers the formatting of every post anyway. Since the story is available for free on RR and SH.

I say this because G3, the author of Shadow Slave has been encountering an issue where these pirates are running his chapters through AI to modify the content before posting.

I don't know why they're doing that, I could only speculate. And I doubt they'll do the same with my story, but I just want you all to be aware in case that does happen and my words get misrepresented. That's the one thing that I hate the most by the way, I hate it when people twist my words and misrepresent my intent.

And that's basically it. Another reminder that next chapter will be on Sunday.