Chapter 85: Heartbreak
"WAHOOOOOO!!!"
"GYAAAAAAAARO!"
Gyarados roared while I hooted and hollered.
Currently I was sitting on the back of his neck as he charged his way through the surf of Cerulean Bay, while May and Dawn were riding my other two Gyarados the same way. Misty and Joy on the other hand were riding on my Milotic, who were gracefully gliding through the water compared to the powerful charges of the Gyarados.
I don't know how they were doing, but I was having the time of my life as Gyarados dove beneath the waves so that we could explore the world below. Thankfully this time I remembered to get the goggles out of my bag.
I did NOT however have a rebreather, which were stupidly expensive and sold solely by the Devon Corporation in Hoenn. With so many Pokemon that I could surf and dive with now though, I fully intended to get one the first chance I got.
For the time being though, Gyarados and I contented ourselves with diving for brief periods to explore the underwater world beneath us. And there were water type Pokemon EVERYWHERE under the surf.
I didn't try capturing any for the time being, since I already had so many water type Pokemon. But as we dove down we saw schools of Goldeen/Seaking, Corsola, Finneon, a Huntail, and even numerous massive blobs in the open water to the east that could only be a pod of Wailord.
Naturally though, all good things will come an end. All too soon we reached the other side of the bay, and we had to land to continue making our way to Lavender town.
Gyarados and I got there first, as we had been going the fastest as we had the most fun. Soon after was May and Dawn on my other Gyarados, and then Misty with Joy on my Milotic. Meanwhile Pidgeot swooped down with an exhausted Charmeleon in his talons, who had tried to swim his way across the bay as a part of his training. Poor guy didn't even make it a quarter of the way across.
Also swimming across were Lucario, Wartortle, Buizel, Piplup, and several of Misty's Pokemon. They were all a bit slower than the Gyarados and Milotic though, so we had to wait until they caught up.
Instead of sitting around though, we all took the chance to change into dryer clothes after washing most of the seawater off in a nearby stream that was flowing into the bay.
As I watched the girls rinse themselves off, I felt the need to burn the image of four beauties frolicking naked in the stream in my memory. I was almost tempted to take a picture of them to preserve the moment, but then I ran the risk, even if it was a minute risk, of someone else seeing it.
And as with all lovely moments, it too came to pass as they started drying themselves off and dressing.
"That's a cute scrunchy." Dawn suddenly said, drawing my eye to the accessory Misty was tying her hair with.
"Thanks! My dad and Daisy gave it to me last night." Misty answered her, but I barely heard.
Instead, my gaze was on the scrunchy as I noticed a familiar flow of energy on it, even if I couldn't actually make out the physical details on it.
"Ace!"
"Hm?" I hummed in response to May's voice, as she nearly shouted to get my attention.
"Lucario and the others are here." She said while looking at me weirdly."
"Oh! Thanks." I said while putting Misty's scrunchy out of my mind. For the moment.
I then turned my attention back to the bay, where the rest of our Pokemon were about to come in. The first to make it in were Misty's Pokemon, Starmie, Seaking, Carvanha, and Seadra, followed by Piplup, Wartortle and Buizel with Lucario picking up the rear. And the moment they all pulled themselves onto dry land, they all collapsed from exhaustion.
"You did really good everyone! I'm so proud of you!" Misty exclaimed as she knelt down to hug her Pokemon.
"There there Piplup. Take a nice long rest." Dawn said as she scooped her Pokemon into her arms to carry.
"Have fun?"
"Fuck you."
I smirked at Lucario's response as he tried to flip me off with his paw, which both Wartortle and Buizel tried to mimic as best they could.
"Hey! Don't be teaching them any bad habits."
"I have no bad habits."
"Oh yeah? Do we need to go over your 'secret' chocolate stash?"
"Chocolate is not a habit, it is a way of life! And I will not have you criticizing my lifestyle!"
I just shook my head at him wryly before returning Wartortle and Buizel to their respective Pokeballs. I then swapped them out alongside my Gyarados and Milotic to give them a chance to rest, before replacing them with my three Rattata, the three Meowth, and Tyrunt. Naturally, Misty became incredibly flustered when she saw the rock/dragon type.
"Everyone ready?" I asked as the girls finished dressing, and Lucario groaned from tiredness.
Currently we were directly north of the Rock Tunnel, and still had a few days of walking until we got to the Pokemon Center that was right outside the entrance. But, we were however several days ahead of schedule compared to if we'd departed Cerulean on foot.
So, instead of hiking as far as we could, I put more emphasis on finding a place to camp for the night. We still traveled southward, but not nearly as far as we usually would've.
Still, it took us a couple hours of hiking until we found a pretty decent place to camp, a craggy outcrop of rock with a small stream trickling by it. And the entire way there I was given numerous berries and other miscellaneous things that my Meowth found and brought to me as we walked.
Maybe I'll ask Joy to make a berry fruit salad to have for dessert tonight?
Tyrunt of course made a game of trying to chase down my Meowth and Rattata to use their tails as a chew toy. I just let him be since they were too agile for him to catch, right up until he actually had nearly caught one. After that I pulled out his favorite chew toy that I'd gotten back in Cerulean, a literal tire.
Even as we set up camp Tyrunt was going to town on that tire, futilely trying to tear it apart with his teeth. Even if he couldn't get through it now, I'm pretty sure he'll be able to tear it to shreds soon enough as his teeth developed.
Once camp was set up, I quickly got a large pot up over the fire before filling it with water and several ingredients that I left to simmer into a stew. With camp set up, and dinner simmering to be ready in a few hours, I spent some time working with my Pokemon.
My current goal was for my Rattata to evolve into Raticate soon, as well as my male Meowth evolving into a Persian. But the ones I planned to focus the most on the next few days were Poochyena, Houndour, and Sneasel.
The three of them were dark types, which would come in especially handy in the ghost-filled Lavender town. And while both Poochyena and Houndour should be relatively close to evolving, Sneasel was going to be more of a challenge since she required a Razor Claw. But that was ok, they were far easier to come by than Prism Scales.
But, as dark types, all three of them were significantly stronger at night than they were during the day. So, I planned to focus on training them then to increase their chances of evolution, while focusing on my other Pokemon when the sun was up.
Nearby I could hear Misty and May having their own little mock battle, while Dawn was directing her Pokemon through a series of drills to prepare them for their first contest. Joy meanwhile had set up a little stand on the edge of camp, where she was examining and treating all of the little Pokemon that came near. I had no idea how she was drawing them all in.
That was how we spent the rest of our afternoon more or less, during which I would take minor breaks to check on the stew until it was time to actually start prepping the rest of dinner.
We decided to save the fruit salad for tomorrow to see if my Meowth could bring in any more berries to add to it. Instead we figured we'd just have some pudding cups for dessert.
We also made a few sides to go with the stew, when I heard a few bushes rustling.
"Follow my nose Jimbo, and we'll find dat food in no time!"
"I've heard that before..."
"Ohhh! I can practically already taste it!"
Three familiar voices declared and groaned as their owners appeared, and all of us froze while staring at one another. Naturally, the voices belonged to Team Rocket.
"Gah! It's da twerps!" Meowth declared in alarm.
"Egad!" James exclaimed as if in fright.
"Just what we needed..." Jessie groaned with undisguised exasperation.
I didn't need my aura to see that all three of them were exhausted, hungry, and beat up. They probably never had a proper chance to recover after our fight yesterday. Maybe I'll slip Jessie some stew later.
"""Team Rocket!"""
The girls exclaimed with alarm as they immediately became alert.
"What do you want now?!" Misty spat at them with a particularly venomous tongue, probably because of what they did to her family's Pokemon yesterday.
"Well for starters, we'll take your dinner!" James declared with a grand gesture, which was ruined by the line of drool coming from the corner of his mouth.
"Yeah! And then we'll take ya's Pokemon too, if ya don't mind!" Meowth sneered as his claws came out.
"You-!" Dawn exclaimed at their sheer audacity.
"If we win, then we get food and more Pokemon. But if we lose we stay hungry and have nothing for the boss... Well, nothing ventured, nothing gained!" Jessie declared as she seemingly got on board with James and Meowth's plan.
""GO!!"" The duo cried at the same time as they threw out their four Pokeballs.
"""..."""
Except nothing happened after that, since all four of their Pokemon were out cold.
"Oh yeah... Dey still haven't recovered from da battle yesterday..." Meowth said with a voice full of growing dejection. After all, that was all the Pokemon they had on them...
"Don't worry Meowth, we still have an ace up our sleeve!" James declared hopefully, even as he returned his unconscious Pokemon.
"That's right! There's still someone able to fight!" Jessie added with a voice full of all the pep she had been missing earlier.
"Really? Who?" Meowth asked confusedly, not understanding what Jessie and James were getting at.
"Alright then! I choose you, MEOWTH!" Jessie cried while pointing at us.
"WHAT!?!" Meowth screamed back at her.
"I can fight, but I'm no battlin Pokemon!" Meowth declared angrily.
"Stop pussyfooting around, and get in there!" James commanded him.
"Yeah! Get in there Meowth!" Jessie ordered before kicking him in the ass to send him flying at us.
"WAAAAAAAAH!" Meowth cried as he tumbled head over heel across the ground, before coming to a stop right in between our two groups.
"Well alright then!" I said with an evil smirk.
"Hehe.... How's it hangin twerpy?" Meowth asked awkwardly.
"Pretty well. I'm about to get into a battle." I told him mercilessly.
"Go!" I cried out while willing two specific Pokemon to go forth into battle.
""Meow!""
The two female Meowth cried as they appeared from the side, their tails flicking back and forth as they paced before their opponent.
"MEOW!" Meowth cried out when he saw them, his eyes practically becoming hearts. I couldn't blame him though, since my Daisy personally groomed all of my Pokemon when they were at professor Oak's lab. She even brushed every single one of my Sharpedo and Carvanha's teeth every night.
My Meowth looked like prize Pokemon from her care, and it was obvious that Meowth was smitten at first sight.
"Just let Meowth put on da old Meowth charm!" He declared as he got on his hind legs, and strutted over to my Meowth.
"Do ya's ladies come around here often?" He asked them in a flirtatious manner.
"""Booooooo!""" The girls booed at the lame line.
""Meow!"" My Meowth snubbed him as they looked away disdainfully.
"My my, play hard ta get?" Meowth asked with absolutely no concern.
"..."
"Beat it pal! I'm a busy!" Meowth said as someone tapped him on the shoulder.
"Meowth." My male Meowth snarled back at him, making Meowth stiffen up as he slowly turned to face him.
"He he... Pals?"
"Meow!"
With a swipe of his claws, my Meowth left several red lines along Meowth's face.
"YEOWWWWWWWW!" Meowth cried in pain as he ran around in circles, before coming to a stop to see the two female Meowth rubbing up against the male lovingly.
"Dat does it!" He snarled angrily, his claws coming out to face my Meowth in combat.
"Mrrrr." My Meowth practically growled as he narrowed his eyes, and flexed his own claws threateningly.
...
*Bang!*
"Stay down!"
*Crash!*
"Don't get back up!"
*Snap!*
"..."
No matter how hard he was hit, how much he was scratched, and no matter how many times he was knocked down, Meowth continued to get back up to face my Meowth.
"He's almost like the protagonist of an anime..." I said in amazement.
"Right?" May said in agreement, as Meowth got back up yet again.
"Come back Meowth, it isn't worth it! Pussy is temporary, but Team Rocket is eternal!" James yelled out dramatically, as if Meowth was fighting to his death.
He was tired and hungry, but Meowth was far from dying as he continued fighting my Meowth over and over again, only to get his ass beat.
"Purrrrrr..."
"!!!"
Meowth suddenly looked up in alarm from the sound coming from my Meowth, as his entire body began to glow before growing larger until he was about three feet tall. He also became a quadruped instead bipedal like before, before the light vanished to reveal a sleek Panther-like figure.
"Per~sian..." My newly evolved Persian purred while looking down on Meowth with contempt, even as the two female Meowth began rubbing up against his legs lovingly.
""!!!""
Suddenly there was a flash of light as May and Dawn both had one of their Pokemon appear, Glameow and Delcatty.
"Meow!"
"Catty!"
They both crooned as they started rubbing up against my Persian as well, both also looking down at Meowth in contempt.
"!!!"
"WAHHHHHHHH!!!"
Meowth cried while running away with tears streaming down his face, making even ME almost feel sorry for him at the current situation.
"Meowth, wait!"
"Come back!"
Jessie and James cried as they followed after Meowth, the food and our Pokemon pretty much completely forgotten by them.
"Well.... That was different." I said while shaking my head.
"I'll say." Dawn replied while awaiting her head.
"I feel kinda bad for him though..." Joy said with a voice full of pity.
"Eh... With how much they try stealing our Pokemon, I wouldn't worry about it. That's already the fifth(?) time we've run into them?" I said while looking to the girls and Lucario for confirmation.
I then put the matter of Meowth's love life out of my mind as I turned my attention to Persian, who was hamming it up with all of the attention he was getting from the other two Meowth, Delcatty and Glameow.
~~~
Persian- the Classy Cat Pokemon
Type- normal
Though admired by many for their sleek fur and regal demeanor, they are tough to raise due to how fickle and vicious they could be. They are prone to pouncing onto and biting others. This Pokemon has the Limber ability.
Moves- Scratch, Growl, Feint, Fake Out, Pay Day, Fury Swipes, Power Gem
~~~
I nodded in approval as I checked out Persian's updated entry. Along with his physical abilities going up from when he was a Meowth, he also learned the move Power Gem.
"What do you think?" I asked him.
"Per~sian." He purred in what sounded like a condescending voice, but that was mostly just how Persian sounded. I could tell he was VERY proud of himself though.
I couldn't deny I was tempted to test what he was capable of now after evolving, but Lucario suddenly reminded us of something as he called out, "Hey, the foods getting cold!"
We all hurried to the table, quickly setting it and getting the food ready to dish out as we all took our seats. Just as we were about to dig in though...
"May I join you?" A new voice asked within my mind, a voice that I recognized immediately.
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