Chương 202: Chapter 174

Heavy wind whizzed past my hair as I held down the hood of my raincoat. Even though I was protected against the rain, my entire body still felt wet. Princess had originally created a psychic barrier above my head, but she had gotten too tired to keep it up. The occasional boom of thunder rattled me, but it had been at least twelve hours since making it to route 215, so I'd gotten used to the sudden noises by now. Strangely enough, there was a peculiar quiet to the route as well.

Between the booms of thunder, it was as if everything was muted somehow. It was subtle, but easy to catch when you noticed. My ears felt full, as if I was flying on an airplane and no amount of blowing with my nose pinched did the trick. It was like I'd lost forty percent of my hearing. The sound of rain and thunder were still at their normal level, however. Despite all of this, I knew not to panic. This was a well-known effect of the route, and there was no explanation for it.

Trainers just ignored it and made it through with no problems. I was currently crouching at a distance from Sweetheart and she quivered in trepidation. She'd been waiting for this since her evolution.

"Ready?!" I yelled out. Pupitar jumped in place, excited for what was to come.

"Three, two, one—" A sudden pop, and then a loud hiss escaped from her shell, and she flew headfirst toward a tree, running through and destroying it completely. Splinters and chunks of bark exploded outward, but I was far enough to avoid any injuries. Sweetheart fell back onto the floor and struggled to stop her momentum, so I started to run after her. It took a minute for me to catch up.

For a few seconds, I reminisced about the time when Princess had been a Togepi and struggled to stop her Rollout in our apartment. It all seemed so far away now.

"Holy crap!" I yelled.

"You went so fast! I'm so proud of you!" I rubbed her tough stony exterior, and she rumbled under her cocoon. The entire team congratulated her as well. I had released Sunshine for this occasion only, because he never would have forgiven me if I let him miss the first time Sweetheart used the pressurized air inside of her to propel herself. All in all, I'd call it a great success. Tangrowth rubbed her head and creases with his vines, Jellicent rumbled proudly and Togetic clapped to congratulate her.

Honey offered a thumbs up and yelled so loudly that for a second, I thought I'd regained my normal hearing. I recalled Sunshine after he offered the rock type some praise. It wasn't so much that the rain creating steam every time the droplets landed on his shell bothered us, but it was mostly because he was a big baby and the weather bothered him. I'd release him when we found a spot to hide away from the rain. There was a small mountain coming up in a few hours, so maybe there'd be a small cave to hide under.

The route was definitely on the easier side of things, but the permanently muddy floor was tiring me out quickly. And somehow, route 212 was worse than this! I was definitely never stepping foot down there.

"How much supply did that use?" I asked Sweetheart.

"Can you go for another one?" The ground type eagerly nodded. She wanted to fly, and she looked like she was having the time of her life. She ended up propelling herself seven more times until she ran out— seven and a half if I counted that last attempt that barely lasted five seconds. It would take multiple hours for the compressed air to replenish completely. What it did not do, however, was tire her.

She was still just as excited as she'd been before, so I wouldn't have to worry about overusing it in battle due to stamina worries. Still, having only eight meant that we couldn't just rely on the technique for mobility in battle, but it'd be very good to use in specific circumstances, both offensively and defensively. Hell, I was even starting to think that combining the move with Iron Defense would be too lethal for fleshy Pokemon.

Pupitar was getting a lot better at crawling too, using the two small appendages on the sides of her cocoon to drag herself forward. She was slow, and would always be without the pressurized air, but she could at least maneuver now, which did wonders for her self-esteem. Evolution almost always took time for a Pokemon to get used to, but radical changes like hers were a lot worse. To go from being able to walk to crawling would feel crippling.

"Let's keep going," I declared. Sweetheart's eyes saddened, but I smiled at her as I stood back up.

"What do you think? You're sticking around, obviously. We're not in a hurry." Thunder boomed as she excitedly celebrated. ——"Finally, no more rain," I groaned as I took cover under the nameless mountain's overhang. Well, it probably had a name, but I didn't know it.

"I'm gonna release Sunshine and get started on dinner. Honey?" The electric type nodded and walked up to me.

"I can't cook without my sous-chef," I grinned, releasing the fire type.

"We're cooking some stir-fry. Not the biggest fan of vegetables, but it'll do I think. It's a leg up from pasta, but there's a first time for everything. Uh, I had the recipe saved somewhere. Start taking the veggies out." I looked through my laptop as Turtonator lazily lay down under the deepest recesses of the overhang. Buddy, meanwhile, couldn't be any happier.

He was soaking in the rain and his head had almost doubled in size from all the extra water, which was comical seeing as his head was already way bigger than the rest of his body. Princess was curiously observing Electabuzz pull out all the ingredients, while Sweetheart was already eating some rocks from the side of the mountain. Angel silently lamented the lack of sunlight. He'd enjoyed the rain at first, but he missed the sun shining down on his vines.

"Where the hell did I even save this— ah, there it is!" I yelled.

"Oh, Arceus, what the hell is a tablespoon? I don't know how much that is!" Electabuzz chuckled and opted to just eyeball it.

"Don't make fun of me," I rolled my eyes.

"We're in the same boat. Now you've got to heat the stove to medium-high heat and put the skillet on it, then you add the oil. Oh, wait, how much is a pound?" Maybe I should have kept to pasta. This was going to be an unmitigated disaster. We struggled the entire way through and had no measuring tools, so everything just went wrong. ——"This looks really bad," I grimaced.

"The picture on the website looked way better than this." Turtonator snorted and let out a rumbling grunt. Before Princess could even retort to defend me like she was about to, I clicked my tongue.

"We did follow the instructions… sorta. I think we put too much soy sauce and we overcooked everything… but hey, better overcooked chicken than undercooked. The last thing I want to get in the middle of a route is food poisoning." Electabuzz offered a serving to everyone. Sunshine and Buddy reluctantly accepted. I expected Jellicent to do so, but Turtonator was a welcomed surprise, especially since he'd criticized us so harshly. Honey was over the moon that they'd both accepted.

He was dissatisfied with the meal, but no one would become an expert chef in a few days. Angel and Sweetheart were just content to eat anything. Everytime the grass type did so, it was as if he was eating the best meal of his life. He immediately grabbed the bowl, dragged it under his vines and he was done in a few seconds.

"Angel, I didn't add your vitamins yet!" I scolded.

"Well, it's okay, I'll just slice up some more berries for you." Princess perked up at the mention of berries. I spread the vitamin powder over all of their meals and mixed it, then cut up a few Oran Berries for Angel and Princess and did the same.

"You know, Princess, you defended Honey and I's cooking, but you still don't want to even look at it," I said. She guiltily stared at her brother, who nodded with a grunt.

"If you want to really show us how you appreciate our cooking, you should have a little taste." I held out a bunch of mixed vegetables in front of her mouth, and her head immediately turned away.

"Come on… do it for mommy? Pretty please?" Togetic finally chomped down on the fork and ate something other than Oran Berries for the first time ever, which was wonderful progress. Electabuzz watched for her reaction with bated breath, but I placed a hand on his still-wet shoulder to let him know to temper his expectations. She held out her tongue and groaned as soon as she finished. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

"You don't like it, but it won't kill you, right?" I smiled.

"I promise you that when Honey and I get better, you'll like it. Here, you can cleanse your palate with some berries and water." We ate dinner mostly in silence, listening to the soft sounds of the rain pattering against the mountain and its surroundings. The sound of rain had always been good at making me sleepy, and it seemed to have the same effect on most of my Pokemon, especially when it was so much louder than everything else.

Tangrowth splayed out a ton of his vines, creating a bed for me, Honey and Princess. Sweetheart was asleep and still eating rocks somehow. Eating was so crucial to their species that they could somehow do that. Only Buddy was still awake, warding off the few wild Pokemon that dared to approach us. Most of them were harmless, not because they were weak but because I felt like they were friendly and just wanted to sleep somewhere dry.

"Let them in," I whispered, looking at a pair of Lickitung. He hesitated for a few seconds, but shrunk down to his normal size as his eyes dimmed down. It was just two Lickitung at first, but we were soon joined by a Drowzee, a Kricketune, two Mightyena and a Ponyta. The poor fire type's flames were so weakened. I had no idea what it was doing on a route where it always rained. It was limping too, and its leg had a massive bruise.

"Did something fight you?" I worriedly asked. The horse neighed with a small, shy nod.

"I've got things to help you," I continued, grabbing a potion from my bag.

"It'll make you all better." There was knowledge behind Ponyta's eyes, so it looked like it already knew what a potion was. It must have seen a trainer use it at some point. The fire type nervously approached me, making sure not to wake up any of my Pokemon and I quietly sprayed her leg with a potion. The flames on its back immediately grew from uncomfortably hot to just warm, and I managed to put my hand in the fire, much to Buddy's worried glances.

"There you go," I softly said.

"You can all sleep here. We'll be on our way tomorrow morning, and I'll keep my Pokemon under control when they wake up." More and more Pokemon showed up as the hours passed, and I could tell there was history and rivalries within certain packs. A group of five Psyduck seemed to be hated by every Pokemon here, although they were oblivious to it. A Staravia was constantly glaring at a Pidgeotto, and Ponyta warily looked at an Elektrike that had just shown up.

I guessed he was the one that hurt it, but there seemed to be some kind of truce here. Of course, my Pokemon were already awake at this point, and aside from being way too paranoid and Sunshine carving out his own slice of the cave for himself and threatening to attack anyone that got near him, everything went rather well. I still stuck by his side for warmth, as did the others. Not even a single fight broke out between the other Pokemon, and it was quiet enough for me to get some studying done.

I ended up feeding the wild Pokemon too, but there were too many now. Somehow, rumors about this little spot spread and the small overhang ended up being completely packed by the next morning. ——"Bye-bye everyone!" I waved.

"Stay safe out there and good luck!" They'd been a nice little community. It was a nice reminder that every route had its own history, links between different Pokemon groups and complicated relationships. It was a shame that I couldn't get to know them better. I had a feeling that a few days with them and I'd be able to understand how they spoke perfectly, but my stay in Veilstone would be busy already, so I couldn't afford to waste time. Not that hanging out with Pokemon was wasting time. It was cool.

I trekked through route 215 for the remainder of the day, using the well-demarked trail to go over the mountain I'd just slept under. There was also a path around, but it would take at least ten hours extra, if not more. It was tiresome, but at least I was training my stamina further. Walking on a flat path was easy— I could do it for the entire day if need be, but walking up muddy slopes and on rocky, uneven terrain was a completely different picture.

Angel tried to carry me a few times, but I refused his help, much to his chagrin, although there were multiple instances where he pulled me up small cliffs I couldn't climb. Turtonator and Sweetheart weren't exactly equipped for this route, so they stayed in their balls for the time being. Princess lazily floated above me with her chin on my head the entire time.

"Finally," I groaned as I sat below another overhang— this time on the other side of the mountain. There would only be one more like this to climb, and apparently it'd be possible to see Veilstone from its peak, even though it was slightly smaller. The rain had assuaged slightly, but it was still pouring. Electabuzz calmly prepared pasta on the stove while I opened my laptop again. I had this idea for a move that had been unable to leave my head, and it had to do with steam explosions.

My PDF textbook had this whole section about how steam behaved under different temperatures and environments that was a few pages long, and I'd learned that it could actually explode under a large amount of pressure. That hadn't even been on my radar when thinking about applying physics to Pokemon battles, but it was certainly feasible. Pokemon battles at a high level were not just a set of individual, one-on-one fights. It was a team effort, each Pokemon building up for the next.

Strategies sometimes only bore fruit after five Pokemon went down, but for this one, I would only need three in a set order. Sunshine and Buddy had been obvious. One was practically made of water and the other could vaporize it by just standing there, but the process was actually more complicated than I thought. I heard the fire type groan as he strode to my side, and Jellicent chided him to tell him to stay quiet while I was engrossed in my thoughts. Mist wasn't steam.

Mist was water in a condensed phase, meaning it was still in a liquid state, but light enough to float in the air. Fog was similar, but denser. For steam, the water needed to be in a gaseous state. Or that was what the textbook said anyway. If mist was still water in a liquid state, then heating it up should in theory turn it into steam. We could have just used the rain for a proof of concept, but I wanted to be sure that we could reproduce this without it.

There would always be water in a gym leader's arena and in any tournament worth their name, but using Mist would make a lot more vapor in theory, since Buddy could just fill the arena completely. That would be different against Crasher Wake, since his entire arena was like the Solaceon tournament's Water Field. It was a bummer I'd gotten no practice on it.

"Uh, go ahead and use Mist," I whispered, chewing on my thumb nail.

"Not too much. We don't want to blow up the cave and have it collapse on us." Jellicent rumbled, and a thin mist escaped from his mouth. I let him release it until we had a good amount— around three times my body size. Any amount would do if we pressed down hard enough. I stepped back.

"Okay, now heat that up," I told Sunshine. The dragon spat out a thin stream of flames toward the mist, and the mist turned into vapor. It was a minute change, but it became more transparent and lighter. Mist tended to stick to the ground, clearly showing that it had some weight to it. Vapor was a lot wispier and easily blown away by wind.

"Princess," I said. Her eyes shone, and a transparent bubble of psychic energy captured the steam before it could dissipate. She would be the one to squeeze it until it blew.

"Press down on it as much as you can." I could feel my heartbeat. The bubble grew smaller and smaller, and the steam denser. Princess clearly met some resistance, narrowing her eyes as she kept pressing. Until the bubble shattered with a burst of pressure, the sound of the explosion reverberating across the small cave and the steam scattering quicker than I could see. There was no flame or change in color, of course. This was a steam explosion, and it didn't use any kind of ignition.

The blast had been next to one of the walls of the cave, leaving only a gaping hole in its place and crumbling stone.

"Holy shit," I breathed out.

"That worked. I did a thing! We did a thing!" Even Sunshine was somewhat surprised that it had worked, and he couldn't help but celebrate with the rest of us. By celebrating, I meant him having the slightest hint of a smile on his face.

"Makes you change your mind about battling with me?" I asked. His smile disappeared, but he didn't answer.

"Whatever," I grumbled. I could always create other moves that didn't need him.

"Should we name it? I mean, I don't think I'll call it out in battle seeing as how complicated it is to create, but it'd be cool. It's our first custom move, you know?" Electabuzz excitedly nodded. He was maybe even happier than I was, and wanted a combination of his own now. Unfortunately, electricity came later in the textbook and was probably a lot more complicated than water. I took a few suggestions from the team and Sunshine had less-than-stellar, crude names.

Angel moved his vines so quickly that I could barely catch the first word, but his suggestion was an extremely long name that would just be too much to remember. Sweetheart wanted it to be as violent as possible, aligning with Sunshine, and Buddy went with the hilariously boring name Steam Explosion, but that wasn't it.

"No, guys, I need a cute name. No explosion of death or whatever," I said, eyeing the rock type.

"How about Bubble Blast? It rolls off the tongue. Princess uses a bubble to pressurize the vapor, and we'd be keeping up the water theme." Togetic chirped, clapping her hands. She seemed to enjoy that one, and so did I. The others all groaned except Angel, who was happy enough with the name.

"That's three against three," I said.

"And you can't even agree on a name. We win," I stuck out my tongue. Jellicent whistled sharply, more agitated than he usually was. He said that only the Pokemon that could actually create the move should have a vote.

"No, no, we're a family. Everyone has a say," I smugly said.

"Right guys? Buddy's saying that your vote doesn't count!" This time, even Sweetheart joined our side, and the water type just sighed in defeat. I just really liked cute things, okay? Now that the name was decided, I started to think again. In a potential battle, it would go like this. I would lead with Buddy and use Mist at some point before he was unable to fight, then switch the Sunshine and heat up the field enough to completely fill it with water vapor.

Both wouldn't even need to fight if substitutions were allowed. I would just switch to Princess and have her create explosions next to her opponents, and we'd be able to do so until the steam ran out— meaning that there'd be multiple explosions. Her masterful control would be key here. I didn't know if the type energy that Jellicent infused into Mist would still make the move count as water type or something else, but any explosion would seriously hurt whatever the hell we were fighting.

And, we'd be able to adjust their sizes depending on how much vapor we packed together! She'd always lacked in power, and she would lag behind the rest of the team in that department at least until she evolved, but Pokemon battles were a team effort. If she couldn't use powerful moves by herself, then we would make our own path. The potential with physics was nearly limitless, both offensively and defensively. My previous assumption had been wrong. There were already moves to create with my limited knowledge.

I suddenly felt a very real urge to devour my entire textbook right this instant before moving on to more complicated concepts. My lips twisted upward. Physics was fun. And I hadn't even begun to scratch the surface.