Chapter 138

Friendly Fire


Pokémon List:

Luna (Kirlia)

Fay (Riolu)

Midna (Zorua)


It was surprisingly easy to buy 300 Pokéballs without making too much of a fuss.

As an individual it was probably going to be the Pokémon world equivalent of buying an automatic rifle, bleach and bin bags, but for a company it would be another day at the office.

Using the anonymous persona of Blank, I could get the Dream Company to buy Pokéballs as a part of a give away action. It was for a smash bros clone I 'created'. But instead of Nintendo properties I used Pokémon. It wasn't anything fancy, and more akin to the first release of the game, Smash 64, but it was brand new and innovative in this world, so it would sell, or at least it would according to projected sales and general-interest roadmap. As part of its marketing, people who bought the game got the chance to win a Pokéball.

We'd give away around 100 of them, and the rest…well sometimes cargo gets lost during transport.

It wasn't the most elegant scheme, but it beats getting involved with the criminal underworld. Worst case scenario, I'd have to pay a fine, right? I wasn't familiar with this world's justice system but I guess I must be doing some form of fraud. I also wasn't sure whether the people who managed the finances knew about it, but so far the company hadn't refused any of my strange requests and dutifully fulfilled their part of the bargain.

I requested them to have it shipped to Hearthome City and stored there temporarily. I should reach it in a week or two, assuming of course I don't get into more side quests. I marked the location in my Pokédex and calculated the travel time.

I'd also have to buy a bigger backpack, one with higher grade storage capabilities. My current one was fine for now but it had its limits and wouldn't be able to stand the test of time. Hearthome city was a big city, so I'd be able to get a lot of stuff done there, including but not limited to finding Fantina and taking her badge.

Kind of strange how the Gym challenges became side quests, but such is life.

Another strange quirk of life is random Pokémon flying through the sky and on their way to ram into you.

I was in the middle of ordering 400 packages of dried food when a loud scream and a black blur came barreling towards me.

{Duck!} a psychic voice screamed through my consciousness.

I dove to the right, planting my face in the dirt to avoid whatever was coming. I turned my head around and caught a glimpse of a Zorua trying to master the subtle art of crash landing.

If I hadn't heard Luna's voice in my head, I'd at least would've heard Midna scream her lungs out. It was hard to estimate how high in the air she was, but I could tell that a crash would hurt. A lot.

Midna tried to catch her fall by shifting her form in the air, but it was too late. Like a comet, the bright cluster of energy slammed into the tree whose shade I'd enjoyed seconds earlier. It was rather annoying that out of all the places Midna could crash into, she'd ended up with my tree.

The light faded and a dazed blue Wobbuffet lay slumped on the ground. The Pokémon looked like a big strange balloon or punching bag, though it didn't seem hurt per se. Not that I had seen her use that form before, but my guess was that she'd tried to absorb the impact of landing. She had shifted too late, assuming it would even work of course.

"Luna, seriously?" I groaned as I got up. I brushed leaves and wet dirt off my pants.

Luna teleported right in front of me. She was covered in sweat and blushing. {I'm sorry! You and Midna both are just really hard to pin down.}

She waved her hand and I felt a psychic touch flick away the remaining leaves out of my hair.

Fay came storming out of the bushes. "Wow, that has to be a new record—" She came to a halt when she saw me and the crashed dazed Midna.

"Uh…" her eyes widened. "I mean, what the hell Luna? You could've hurt her!"

"I am hurting!" The Wobbuffet complained as she sluggishly tried to get up. She tried to get on all fours but distinctly lacked the limbs to do so. It took a few seconds for Midna to realize that and she changed into a Kecleon, a form far more agile, and climbed up the tree. She followed one of the larger branches to the end, using the tail to balance herself and took a look at the horizon. "Yup, that's almost a full 50 meters."

"How much?" Fay asked.

{This much!} Luna spread out her arms. {But times way more.}

I looked at Midna, Fay and finally at Luna with what I hoped was a very disappointed look. "What are you three even doing?" I really did feel like I was a grown up scolding kids for breaking a window. I probably should actually be concerned and maybe supervise it. I wasn't sure whatever they were doing, but it probably had some sound reasoning behind it.

"We're launching Midna like a cannonball!" Fay excitedly said.

Nevermind the sound reasoning.

{I am practicing my Midna launching skills,} Luna clarified.

"Okay haha, I fell for the joke, but seriously. What were you guys doing?"

{Wasn't joking,} Luna insisted. {I am training my psychic moves on a Dark Pokémon. Just like you said I should.}

"I see," I murmured. "How logical."

My team did great in Alamos Town, yet they also failed at critical points. They scraped through most fights, but Luna failed to finish the fight against Greninja and all three together failed to hold back Charizard. True, both Greninja and Charizard had been enraged due to their trainers dying, and maybe it was unreasonable to expect two unevolved and one mid-evolved Pokémon to win against them, but still I felt a tiny bit disappointed.

Truth of the matter was that I hadn't invested much in their training of late. Mostly due to them always being able to keep up and me growing a bit lazy and more concerned with other business. Alamos Town in that way had been a wake up call.

Who knows what else might come up ahead in the future? Nothing good, that much was promised by the gods of space and time.

"So, you managed to affect a dark type?" I asked. Luna got wrecked in the fight against Greninja due to Greninja's Dark typing and the closed off space that limited Luna's mobility. "That's great, did you finally get the hang of Magical Leaf or Dazzling Gleam?"

Those were the moves I wanted her to focus on. Psychic moves did affect Midna to a degree (she wouldn't be able to communicate with Luna well otherwise) but her natural resistance meant that most of Luna's attacks weren't that useful.

Luna still won every fight against Midna, but that was mostly due to Midna's lack of offensive capabilities and Luna brute forcing her way through Midna's type immunity. It wasn't what you'd call ideal, so I told Luna to focus on learning the two moves that would be effective against Dark Type.

{I managed to send Midna flying by doing this!} Luna struck out her hand and the ground next to her dislodged itself explosively. It was like a trap underneath the earth sprung shut. Dirt was sprayed everywhere, including up. {I used my telekinetic powers to affect the ground underneath Midna!}

It didn't seem like the force that dislodged Midna would be that big. Even if she didn't weigh much.

"I helped!" Fay said. "Luna can't really launch Midna superfar, not even a full meter, but I can help her!"

"How?" I was starting to sound interesting. I did put a lot of emphasis on trying new things.

"Luna, let's show Dust our combo attack!"

My breath hitched. "Excuse me-"

"Fuck no, I ain't going through that again!" Midna protested, she climbed higher up into the tree.

"Hold up, I want to see this." I walked over to my backpack. I quickly started looking through it until I found a football. I intended to use it for a training exercise, but hadn't gotten the chance to do so. "Okay, try launching this thing as far as you can."

Luna and Fay shared a devilish grin.

I tossed Fay the football. "Show me what you got."

Fay caught it with her paws and looked at Luna. {Take a few steps away please.}

I did as asked, making sure there was at least 10 meters between me and the duo.

"On three?" Fay asked.

Luna nodded. Her fuming started glowing with power. The air around Fay started to shimmer, as if she was inside a microwave.

"Two." Fay tossed up the football. Around her blue aura ignited violently.

{One!} Luna narrowed her eyes.

Like before, the ground erupted around Fay as an invisible finger snapped the earth loose. I was certain that Fay was about to be sent straight up, take a load of damage but use the speed to to kick or hit the ball while flying up herself, but then the shockwave froze in the middle of the blast.

Fay stood her ground firmly. Around her the clock had stopped for a split second. Vivid colours surrounded Fay's body and covered it like a force field. A second later she lit up like a flash grenade, the explosion inverted itself and drew inwards.

Just then the ball finally came down.

A flash erupted around Fay and a dull but incredibly loud explosion followed.

The ball was sent flying and zipped straight up, disappearing out of sight.

"Holy fuck!"

I looked up and found the ball to be nothing but a small black blur against the sky.

Fay and Luna let out an exhausted breath and gave each other a tired high five.

I tried to comprehend what I had just witnessed. Unless a trainer shouted a move, or you had a Pokédex on hand, you kind of had to guess what moves you saw being used.

Luna's explosive opening, Fay's body lighting up,the attack momentarily freezing before being absorbed. "You just countered Luna's attack!" I muttered incredulously.

Fay grinned. "And I then forced all that energy into a very narrow point."

{It's a combination attack we came up with!} Luna beamed.

"It's called Lovebomb!"

{No it isn't.} Luna said, shaking her head. {That name is awful.}

"It's great!"

"So yeah, I tried riding that explosion," Midna coughed. She had come down from her tree. "I regret doing that."

"Holy shit I hadn't even thought about combination moves." I gushed. "How'd you even come up with that?"

{Fay was teasing me so I attacked her.} Luna said, matter of factly.

"Teasing her with what?"

{Magical leaf!} Luna quickly cut in. She was blushing and I had the faint idea she wasn't honest.

"Excuse me?"

{I couldn't get the magic leaf to work, so they were teasing me. I lashed out and Fay accidentally countered. Midna got caught in the blast, which is something that rarely happens. LOOK!}

Luna folded her hands in front of her small body and sighed. The air around her fizzled and small green spheres of light appeared around her in a perfect arc.

"Kir!" She pushed her hands away in an aggressive motion. The orbs surrounding her began to flicker, like broken Christmas lights, and then faded away completely.

Midna, still looking like a gecko thing, climbed up my back. I didn't need to see her to feel her smile. "It's a shame you can't do that move. You could keep trying to work on Draining Kiss, your species should be able to do it."

Luna's expression turned cold. Ah, so that's what they were teasing her about.

The psychic turned red and fixed her eyes on Midna. {No, I can't and I won't. It's a silly move, uncompetitive and unreliable.}

"Are you certain?" Midna asked. "I'm sure you can find someone to prac-" A perfect leaf shaped projectile sped towards her and hit her in the face. Three more glowing leaves followed and considering Midna was on my shoulder, I immediately shook her off and threw her off me.

Midna's face hit the dirt again and then the magic projectiles crashed into her.

"Hahahaha!" Midna cackled. "Ahahahah this is the best day of my life."

Luna's eyes fumed with power and the air began to crackle around us with power. Around her a storm of glowing leaves began to pop into existence and they began to whirl around her.

"Oh come on, that's the best you can do?" Midna challenged with a grin. "Come on, hit me harder."

The leaves around Luna began to rotate faster, dancing on the current of Luna's emotions.

One of them cut narrowly past my face and I felt a light hot sensation in my cheek. "Magical leaf…". I've seen other Pokémon use the move before but never this powerful, not this many leaves and not such fine control. It usually was just a beam of green sickle shaped projectiles.

I took a step back. "Relax Luna," I said. "Midna's just fucking with you."

{Then she can fuck off.} Luna growled at the fox.

"Hiya!" Fay suddenly appeared between Midna and Fay. Her palms were shrouded with Aura flames. She carefully looked both her teammates in the eyes. Then, with a steady voice she said. "Not again, nope. Stop it, both of you."

Midna's laughter died quickly once she realized nobody was laughing besides herself. "Whoopsie." She muttered apologetically.

Luna's gaze flicker bounced between Midna and Fay. Finally, she released a sigh and the Magical Leave was dispelled.

"And that's how we discovered Lovebomb." Fay said with a laugh.

{I'm not going to learn Draining Kiss,} Luna sighed. She folded her hands together. {And I disagree with the name Lovebomb. It's a stupid name. We could name it something like Psychicblast or Aura Revenge."

"Lovebomb is an amazing name!" Midna said.

{Your opinion doesn't count.} Luna gave Midna a glare.

"Hey, I helped create the move, I should own at least a solid 40% of the rights. We can each have a quarter." Midna tried to argue. "Besides, I apologized."

"She did apologize," Fay agreed. "So that's two against one."

"Also, you got Magic Leaf under control, thanks to little ol' me." Midna grinned. "Maybe it's good that I get a bit under your skin sometimes."

Midna sadly was right. Somehow, for some reason, my Pokémon do seem to learn an awful lot by fighting each other. I wondered whether that said something about them, me or if that was a Pokémon thing in general.

Luna nodded slowly. Her stance relaxed a little bit. {Well, I did learn Magical Leaf.} She swung her hand. Around her in a circular arc leaf shaped lights appeared 7 pieces total. They cast a soft emerald coloured glow onto the ground and her surroundings. {Another weapon against pesky Dark types with a loose tongue.}

"That's the spirit!"

"Cool cool cool, training's going really well." I said. "Just as planned."

{No wait, we still need to decide on the name for the move. Lovebomb is a bad name, right?} Luna turned her eyes. Naturally, they grew really big and cute and innocent.

"No way!" Fay protested. "Lovebomb is a great name to show off the power of friendship, right?!"

Fay joined Luna in looking at me with huge expectations.

Midna stifled a fake yawn. "Hurry and make a choice already."

Even though I had no hand in this move's creation, all eyes were on me. I could practically visualize the choice based menu in front of me. Pick your poison.

"Well…" I began, trying to think of something to say. I wanted to go back to messing around on my laptop. "Imagine…you know…." An idea popped up. "Well, what if you had someone counter the counter created by Fay, how much power would that generate?"

Fay gasped. "Oh shit."


A/N Kept you waiting, huh.

Wanted to make a more relaxed chapter about training, but it was quite a rotten struggle. But it's here, rejoice.

Thanks to Faerot and TheMuffinSigmaKing for the chapter. Hope the next chapter comes out faster!

-CaptainMoonlight-