It was five days walking to reach Viridian City. The Lion had found, fought, and captured a ryhorn. Fulgrim had picked up an ekans, much to Malcador's discomfort. Perturabo and Rogal had both gotten onixes, which caused a massive fight until the Emperor reminded them that Perturabo could evolve his into a steelix. Rogal promised not to evolve his, and they were able to get on their way again.
Jaghatai did get a ponyta on their second day, just as the Emperor had promised. Leman had claimed the smoochum they encountered when he learned it evolved into a jynx and the story behind it. Sanguinius found a spearow, and in an odd turn of events, befriended it instead of fighting it. Ferrus had an adventure getting his magnemite, it had ended up stuck to his hand.
"Fulgrim! Help me!" Ferrus called out as he came out of the tall grass waving his arm, hoping to dislodge the magnetic pokemon that was stuck there.
"I've got you," Fulgrim said, grabbing one of Ferrus' pokeballs and using it to catch the magnemite.
"Thanks," Ferrus said. "I guess that's one way to catch a pokemon."
"You'll need to throw the ball far from you when you train and fight with it," the Emperor said. "Otherwise it'll stick to you again."
"Yes, Father," Ferrus said.
Roboute had found a pikachu in the bushes along the river, and was able to catch it with a bit of help from the Lion. Horus found a houndour rooting around near the kitchen of the third inn they stayed at, and caught it in the moonlight. Lorgar found an impidimp and found it worked well with him. Alpharius, Horus, and Magnus found a trio of evees that they intended to evolve differently. Malcador had been quite happy to find an exeggcute, the unevolved exeggutor. Valdor was still adjusting to the buneary that the Primarchs had found for him. It was kind of cute, but also a strange thing for them to select for him.
"This is a lot bigger than Pallet Town," Corvus remarked, looking around at all of the buildings, trying to see if he could spot more ghost type pokemon.
"Maybe there are bats in the belfry?" Konrad asked, pointing to a large building.
"Maybe," Mortarion agreed. Now that everyone had at least one pokemon, those who didn't have two were trying to catch up.
"Remember, those of you with two pokemon already should hold off on getting anymore until everyone has their second," the Emperor said as he and Valdor prepared to go into the travel office that assisted groups on adventures getting to their next destination. "Behave for Malcador."
"We will," Horus said.
"You can search for pokemon, just stay in groups and don't go too far," Malcador said.
"Thanks, Malcador!" the Primarchs chorused as they grouped up and scattered.
*********************
"What do you think, Klyde?" Boneigh asked, looking to her partner. He was watching the Primarchs scatter through beat up magnoculars.
"This is a great opportunity," Klyde said. "But it's going to be quite the risk."
"True, but think of what kind of pokemon they'll have," Boneigh said. "They're the Emperor and his sons, they're going to have so many legendary pokemon that it'll be nuts."
"And Georgiano will give top thrones for them," Klyde agreed, a shine in his eyes.
"Well, we shouldn't stay up here, they'll catch us if we aren't careful," Boneigh said. They were on the roof of a building across the street from the travel office.
*********************
The litten charged up to the Lion, tail high, determined. The small fiery litten began to rub its head against the Lion's leg, purring all the while.
"I think it likes you," Vulkan said. Corvus giggled.
"It is adorable," the Lion said. "Maybe it wants to join my team." With that, the Lion knelt slightly to pet the litten, then tapped it with a pokeball. There was no resistance and the pokeball sealed.
"That was almost suspiciously easy," the Lion said with a chuckle.
"It must really like you," Corvus said.
"Now we need to get Corvus a second pokemon," Vulkan said.
"Maybe we can find a rookidee here," the Lion suggested. "Cities are often home to many birds."
"That's how I found my pidgey!" Fulgrim called over as he Ferrus and Roboute went through the intersection the Lion, Vulkan, and Corvus were standing at.
"Malcador's going to like that one better," the Lion called back. The two groups of Primarchs waved at each other and then continued on their way.
*********************
Konrad, Mortarion, and Alpharius had made a trio, they were focusing on getting Mortarion's second pokemon. He was looking for a grimer, so they were searching around the trash areas.
"Once we have this, can we go looking for bats?" Konrad asked. They weren't having a lot of luck with the trash areas.
"One more," Mortarion said. "Then we can find a--- Ha!" He had just spotted a trubbish, and prepared his bulbasaur for battle.
"You've got this," Alpharius said, encouraging the bulbasaur.
"Got it!" Mortarion said. "Let's get you a new bat buddy, Konrad."
*********************
Fulgrim, Ferrus, and Roboute continued on their way. They were trying to focus on Ferrus, but keeping an open mind in case something for Roboute popped up.
"Hey, that one looks like some kind of mouse," Ferrus said, pointing out a mousey looking pokemon.
"Yeah," Roboute said, calling out his pikachu and catching the nidoran. "Now we need to find something for you."
"As long as it doesn't happen like magnemite did," Ferrus said.
"Look!" Fulgrim said. "That one has a hammer!"
"Mine!" Ferrus called out. He stepped back and flung the pokeball with his magnemite.
*********************
Sanguinius, Horus, and Lorgar were trying to find anything for either of them not Horus. They saw a pretty bird pokemon.
"That's pretty," Sanguinius said. "Spearow, do you want to have it join the flock?" He called out his spearow and set it out to join the other bird.
"Taillow!" the new bird called out as it and spearow came in to land.
"That's a little weird," Horus said. Lorgar nodded, but he looked more in awe than Horus did.
"I know I'll have to fight with them, but I'd rather they not fight each other," Sanguinius said. "Let's them work together."
"I guess that makes sense," Horus said.
"Clefairy!" a new pokemon appeared around a corner, distracting all of them.
"I'll take it!" Lorgar said.
*********************
Jaghatai, Leman, Magnus, and Malcador were studying a map, trying to find good stops between cities that would have a variety of pokemon. Leman was also working on training his smoochum, trying to not be too distracted.
"These pyramids are just on the other side of Pewter City," Magnus pointed out. "They'd be interesting to check out."
"They are always a draw for you," Jaghatai said jokingly.
"They are all over Prospero," Magnus said. "And there's always interesting stuff in places like that."
"True," Jaghatai agreed. They all stopped as they heard the sounds of pokemon in distress.
"Sounds like there's three of them," Leman said, recalling his smoochum and rejoining the others.
"Indeed," Malcador said. "That alley way."
Magnus held back as they neared the alley. A group of boys were taunting an odd trio of pokemon, a mudbray, a poochyena, and a mime jr. The boys were throwing things at the pokemon, causing things to get stuck in the mudbray's mud covering.
"No one wants you!" one of the boys called out, hurling a can of something down the alley.
"Poochyena, use lunge!" Leman called out, hoping that it would listen. One of the boys towards the back turned to look at him.
"These pokemon don't have trainers, they aren't going to list-" he was cut off when the poochyena unbalanced him, running up to Leman, who promptly tapped it with a pokeball.
The boys stood up, now facing Jaghatai, Leman, and Malcador. Jaghatai decided it was his turn to deal with the boys.
"Mudbray, use stampede," Jaghatai called over. The donkey like pokemon ran through the boys, following a similar path to the poochyena, just ending at Jaghatai.
"My turn," Malcador said. "Mime jr. can you use mime to tie them up?"
"Mime!" the mime jr. called out, and stopping at each boy it mimed tying them up, causing what appeared to be real ropes to appear. It finished standing next to Malcador, who tapped it with the pokeball he had waiting in his hand. "Let's go."
"Wait, you can't leave us like this!" the leader of the group of boys called out. "Not tied up like this!"
"Well, those ropes will only be there for a few minutes," Jaghatai said dismissively.
"You can use the time to think about what you've learned here," Malcador said. "You shouldn't taunt things like pokemon, or anyone really, for situations they can't control. The right person for them may be just around the corner."
*********************
Perturabo and Rogal were determined to keep an eye on each other. Angron had joined them, to possibly provide a distraction if nothing else. He was also thinking about his primeape, it seemed sad, or maybe lonely, under the anger it displayed. They joined a crowd that was gathering around a man with a crank powered music device. A disheveled looking aipom was tied to it with a string, doing something that looked like a dance around the music device. Angron took immediate dislike to the situation, then an idea struck him to help both the aipom, and his primeape.
"Do you guys think the appearance is an act?" Angron asked Perturabo and Rogal, the thought had just come up to him, and he wanted to make sure. "Like Malcador?"
"Maybe," Rogal said, looking at the man and the aipom. "The man doesn't have the same appearance, which I would expect with an act."
"But, we don't know that for sure," Perturabo said. "It's possible that he wants to play on the pity of the people for the aipom, but not himself."
The question was answered when the aipom tripped over the string that connected to the music device. The man playing stopped abruptly, and began to yell at the aipom. The crowd, which had been enjoying the show, quickly became awkward and began to disperse. This caused the man to heap more abuse on the aipom.
"Hey!" Angron called out. "All it did was trip, there's no need to be so angry with it."
"And what would you know about anger, brat?" the man spat back.
"That was probably not the best response," Rogal muttered to Perturabo, who nodded his agreement.
"I know enough to know that just tripping isn't something to get that angry over," Angron retorted. "And that you mistreat your aipom."
"What are you going to do about it?" the man snarled.
"Claim it," Angron said. "You're treating it dishonorably."
"You'll have to fight it," the man said.
"Very well," Angron said. "Primeape, use tackle. Gently."
Angron's primeape came out, and practically hugged the aipom, lifted it slightly, and spun it around to where Angron could catch it. He gently lobbed the pokeball and caught the aipom.
"I believe that's match," Angron said. The man growled, but knew that he couldn't do anything about it.
"Primarchs, gather back at the travel office," Valdor's voice came across their vox beads. They all acknowledged and began to regroup on their way back.
Perturabo stopped his group to grab a klink, Konrad got a woobat, Ferrus revealed his was called a tinkatink, Vulkan had found a jangmo-o, Corvus had found his rookidee which made him very happy, and Alpharius a ditto.
"Alright, lets check out the pokemon gym here," the Emperor said as he emerged from the travel office.
"But we need to find you and Valdor second pokemon," Horus said.
"We can find them on the way," the Emperor said.
*********************
"Well, they're back together again," Klyde said to Boneigh. "Heading towards the gym."
"Georgiano isn't here though," Boneigh said. "I bet they'll be disappointed."
"Probably," Klyde said with a snort. "You want to see it?"
"Nah," Boneigh said. "We should go see how they're traveling to Pewter City."
*********************
"It's a porygon!" the Lion called out, spotting the odd looking pokemon. It kind of looked like some kind of origami bird. The Emperor was excited, it was the one that he was hoping to find in Viridian City. He looked to Valdor for assistance. With some reluctance he called out the buneary, while the Emperor called out his magikarp right at his feet.
"Alright, magikarp, watch the buneary," the Emperor said. He hoped it wasn't too fast for the magikarp to keep up, and was somewhat concerned that it was. He caught the porygon without issue. They were distracted by the sound of something sparking.
"What's that?" Roboute asked, looking at the slightly glowing pokemon.
"Plusle!" the pokemon called out.
"It acts as a cheerleader," Ferrus said, consulting the pokedex. "It likes to encourage it's team."
"We should catch it for Valdor!" Ferrus said. "It seems to think buneary is its team."
"True," Valdor said, trying to keep his groan internal.
+That was the risk you ran when you let the Primarchs randomly select your pokemon.+ the Emperor sent.
"There's the gym!" Jaghatai called out.
"It looks closed," Angron said, disappointed.
"Let's take a look," Malcador said. He wasn't ready to give up quite yet.
They arrived in front of the gym, to find the Galactic Scout troup there as well. The troup master came over to the Emperor.
"The gym's closed," he said. "Looks like it'll be open later."
"We'll have to cycle back then to get the badge," the Emperor said.
"Aerathur," one of the other adults with the troup said in a warning voice.
"Angron," Valdor said at almost the same moment, and in a similar tone.
"I'll fight you now, and we'll see who comes out on top," Aerathur shouted.
"No," Angron said. "I'll not fight my primeape against your mankey, they're from the same troupe originally."
"What to you mean?!" Aerathur yelled.
+Isn't this the child Angron beat up so badly at Nova two years ago?+ Malcador sent to the Emperor.
+Yes.+
+Clearly he didn't learn his lesson.+
+No, it would seem not.+
"We should be going," the Emperor said out loud. "We'll be taking wagons out to Pewter City. Plenty of stops along the way to pick up pokemon."
"Yes, we should be going too," the troop master said. "Come along, kids!"
*********************
"Well, that could be useful information," Boneigh said. "Maybe we can use it against them."
"Possibly," Klyde said. "That Scout really has something for the kid with the primeape. Wonder what that backstory is."
"We'll introduce ourselves to them on the way to Pewter City," Boneigh decided. Klyde nodded, and they headed off to their own transportation.
*********************
"They'll serve," Malcador declared after inspecting the seats on the wagons. They would also sleep in the wagons overnight if they didn't reach an inn, each set up with canvas coverings to keep out the weather.
"Let's go!" Jaghatai said. He was excited to get moving again, even if they had to come back to Viridian City to get the gym badge. They loaded up seven to a wagon, six Primarchs and one of the adults, and headed out to Pewter City.
*********************
It was six days to Pewter City, including stops at known hot spots for a variety of pokemon. The Primarchs trained their pokemon by dueling each other in the first evening. The Emperor dueled against Valdor, using his porygon to do damage, but had his magikarp out at his feet.
"Why don't you have magikarp fight, Father?" Sanguinius asked the next day when they reached the first pokemon hotspot, a medium sized lake.
"Because it doesn't actually know anything useful," the Emperor said. "It knows splash, and that's all."
"Oh, that doesn't sound like it does anything," Sanguinius said.
"It doesn't," the Emperor said. "But that's alright. it gets experience just by being out when I fight with porygon."
"Look! A murkrow!" Konrad called out. He called out his woobat to help train it against a new opponent. A brief scuffle occurred, and he was the first to get to three pokemon.
"Nice!" Mortarion said as he recalled his trubbish. He was enjoying training with it, but bulbasaur had grown on him.
"There's a starly to add to the flock," Sanguinius said. He sent out his taillow, who flew up to the starly. The two flew around each other for a moment, then came back to land near Sanguinius.
"That is just the weirdest thing," Mortarion muttered.
"I know," Horus said. "But kind of cool." Mortarion just grunted at that.
"What is that smell?" Fulgrim asked sharply. "It's smells like one of Konrad's stink bombs."
"I didn't bring any," Konrad said.
"Maybe it's a stunky?" Ferrus wondered. "They're known to be in the area."
"I'll go find it!" Mortarion volunteered.
"Of course you are," Fulgrim muttered.
"Hey Fulgrim!" Mortarion called over. "There's a vulpix here, you may need to give it a bath though."
"Is that what the stunky was getting at?" Fulgrim asked. He liked the idea of a vulpix, but wasn't sure how bathing a fire type pokemon would work. Thinking it over, he went off in the direction of Mortarion's voice to find his vulpix.
"Oh! that one looks like Rataskyr!" Leman said as he pointed out a bluish-white squirrel. Rataskyr was a mythical squirrel from Fenris. "If I can catch it I'll call it that."
The Primarchs were starting to scatter away from the wagons, looking for pokemon.
"Hey, everyone, let's gather back together and continue on," the Emperor called out. "I don't want you guys going too far."
"Yes, Father!" the Primarchs chorused. The head wagoner chuckled at this.
"You're lucky they listen so well, my lord," the man said.
"They do, at least for now," the Emperor said. "We'll have to see how it goes in the future."
The Primarchs gathered again, Leman coming down from the tree that he had climbed to get Retaskyr, a pachirisu. They all settled in to continue on their way.
*********************
The rest of the day went smoothly, the Lion spotted a rufflet and a hawlucha. He caught the rufflet while Jaghatai got the hawlucha. Perturabo and Rogal found a beldum and a roggenrola respectively. Ferrus found a ferroseed which amused him, he had also learned of a legendary pokemon called iron hands that he naturally felt drawn to. Roboute found a pancham, which he found amusing.
"It's an abra!" Magnus called out as it appeared in a tree above them. He immediately pulled out a pokeball and threw it at the abra, practically levitating with excitement. The abra, clearly sensing Magnus' excitement let the ball hit it, instead of teleporting away. Summoning the ball back to him, Magnus giggled with excitement.
A deerlike pokemon with multi-colored antlers appeared. Ferrus pulled out the pokedex which declared it to be a xerneas, Lorgar claimed it, saying it reminded him of arceus, the legendary he was most excited to find.
"it's a tiny T-Rex!" Vulkan said, pointing out a tyrunt. He pulled out a pokeball and gently pressed it against the tyrunt's nose. "Boop!"
Corvus found a charcadet wandering around the trees. Alpharius caught a doduo they found towards the edge of the trees.
"Now we just need something for Father, Uncle Malcador, and Valdor," Magnus said.
"There'll be time enough tomorrow," the Emperor assured them.
*********************
The next day brought new pokemon for the adults. Malcador caught a pikipek, he was delighted when Ferrus checked its evolution and found its final evolution was called tucannon. The Primarchs caught a riolu for Valdor when they made a pause for the day.
"It's a farfetch'd!" the Emperor called out, spotting the bird pokemon. He had just caught it when another shadow passed over them. Everyone looked up as the large shadow moved. The Primarchs looked up with confusion, Valdor was attempting to determine if it would clear his head, or if he needed to duck.
"It's a hot air balloon," Malcador said, equal parts interested and confused. He had never seen one, but had read a lot about them, and had once managed to wheedle some information about them out of the Emperor.
The hot air balloon glided over the group of wagons, and landed on the path in front of them. Two people got out of the balloon's basket, both struck poses, as if preparing for a dramatic entry or introduction. An introduction that didn't happen.
"Magikarp, use splash," the Emperor said, holding up the pokeball that magikarp stayed in. It appeared in midair between the two, and slapped them with it's tail before falling to the ground. The Emperor recalled his magikarp.
The two balloonists froze in shock. One was a woman, and the other a man, they were wearing identical uniforms of white with black boots and the letter "M" in red on their tops. They looked at each other, then back towards the Imperial party.
"We don't need rhyming couplets for an intro," the Emperor said. "Make your challenge."
"Right," the woman said. "I'll challenge... That one!" She pointed to Lorgar.
"You've got this, Lorgar!" Magnus called out. Horus nudged him forward.
"Mareep! I choose you!" the woman yelled. A sheep looking pokemon with odd nodes on it's ears and tail.
"Impidimp," Lorgar said. He was nervous because he didn't have any ground type pokemon which he knew were strong against electric types like mareep. He was hoping that he could get something going with impidimp, as his first caught pokemon. "Impidimp, use stampede."
The impidimp made a run towards the mareep, clearly intending to bowl it over.
"Mareep, use jolt!" the woman called. Mareep's woolen coat began to spark with electricity. It then spun and kicked out with its back feet and discharged the electricity straight at impidimp. Lorgar's pokemon stopped mid-charge and jiggled before falling over.
"Impidimp, return," Lorgar said. "Clefairy, use pound."
"Mareep use static shock," the woman said, another arc of electricity and clefairy was down as well.
"Xerneas," Lorgar said. "Use rainbow spear." It was his last pokemon, and he really wanted to get something in, then to try and tag Rogal in. Xerneas lowered it's head and a ray of rainbow light shot from it's antlers, taking out mareep.
"Sentret," the woman said. "Use tail smack!"
"Dodge, Xerneas," Lorgar called out. "Use tackle!"
The sentret went flying as xerneas scooped it up in its antlers and flung it. The woman reached for another pokeball, and Lorgar got nervous. He had only caught the xerneas yesterday, and wasn't even sure of all the moves it knew.
"Qwilfish," the woman said. "Poison sting."
"Xerneas, rainbow spear," Lorgar called out. He was really hoping that it could do it again, and that she wouldn't pull out a fourth pokemon. Xerneas was able to use the rainbow spear again, and knocked out the qwilfish, but it stumbled, clearly tired. "Xerneas, return."
"Well, you won this time," the woman said. "Next time you'll have to face Klyde."
"And what's your name?" Valdor asked. It had taken him a moment to remember that pokemon duels were part of the experience, and that Lorgar wasn't in any kind of danger. He still didn't like them.
"Boneigh," she said dismissively. "We're part of Team Melta."
"And what do you want with us?" Valdor continued.
"Oh, this was just an introduction," Boneigh said. "We'll be seeing you guys around!" With that she turned and signaled to Klyde and the hopped into the hot air balloon and headed off again.
"Well, that was weird," Corvus said.
"Yeah," Vulkan agreed. "What do they want from us?"
"Possibly to steal any valuable pokemon we get," the Emperor said. "Like Team Rocket from the show."
*********************
The road to Pewter City had one more surprise. The first caught pokemon started evolving, starting with the starters they received in Pallet Town. Squirtle evolved while dueling against Perturabo's klink.
"Nice! Wartortle!" Rogal said.
"That was cool!" Perturabo said.
Bulbasaur evolved while fighting Angron's primeape. Ferrus had mentioned that primeape could evolve, but it probably needed to get a lot of experience before that happened. Angron agreed to do his best to be patient, and understood that he had gotten an already evolved pokemon that wasn't common.
Charmander and dreepy evolved at the same time. Charmander had been dueling the Lion's rhydon, and dreepy Valdor's buneary. They were both excited to keep their first pokemon at about the same level, especially since they dueled together often.
Fulgrim's ekans picked a less than ideal time to evolve. Malcador had insisted that he train his exeggcute against Fulgrim's ekans to help him deal with the possibility of having to fight against one. It was during one of these sessions that the ekans evolved into arbok. Everyone paused, Fulgrim pulling out his pokeball in case they needed to call the session off.
"It's bigger than I thought it would be," Ferrus said to Perturabo. He was trying to find out how to evolve his onix into a steelix. It seemed that he would have to find something metal for it to hold in the pokeball, then trade it with someone else.
"I'm alright," Malcador said after taking in the arbok a moment. Fulgrim relaxed and put the pokeball away, letting the duel continue. Arbok won, but exeggcute did well.
*********************
They arrived in Pewter City the following day, and the pattern from Viridian City repeated itself. The Lion found a glameow, though it was more skittish than the litten had been. Fulgrim found a jigglypuff and thought it was just too cute to pass up. Perturabo found a magby, which everyone told him was rare. He was also looking to find something for his onix to hold so he could trade with Ferrus to get his steelix.
Jaghati found a blitzle, and quickly joined it to his herd. He kind of liked Sanguinius's idea of his pokemon being friends. Leman found a rockruff, which he was excited for. He wanted poochenya to have a companion. Rogal found a shieldon which he thought was cool. Konrad had the misfortune of having his fourth pokemon find him. A lickitung that jumped out at him and licked him.
"That's gross," Fulgrim said.
"Hey, I didn't ask it to," Konrad said as he blindly tapped the lickitung.
Sanguinius added a fletchling to his flock, it took both the starly and the taillow to convince it though. Ferrus found a meltan and was excited. Angron found an aron, which he went with, and was more excited when he found out that it's final evolution became aggron.
"It's like Ferrus taking a pokemon with the same name as his legion," Angron said.
Roboute found a teddiursa, it was fighting with the oddish that Mortarion claimed. Magnus dragged them near a museum and found an uxie. He was very excited because it appeared to be a legendary pokemon, the first they had found. Horus found one called spiritomb, which made him excited as his flagship for the Luna Wolves was called the Vengeful Spirit. Lorgar got a ralts.
Vulkan had the second one with a legendary pokemon, finding a volcanion. It delighted him to no end. Corvus found a sableye, and Alpharius had a deino. The Emperor found a smeargle that was painting a fence. It was joined by a spoink that Malcador caught. The Primarchs grabbed a shuppet for Valdor.
"Alright," the Emperor said. "We've arranged travel to Cerulean City. We'll stop at the pyramids that Magnus spotted in Viridian City, and stop at Mount Moon. We should go to the gym here and get our first badge."
"Yeah!" the Primarchs chorused.
"This is the rock one right?" Rogal asked.
"Yes," Valdor said.
"Probably should be you then," Perturabo said.
"Not that your's are any better," Rogal shot back.
"Pretty sure the gym leader here has an onix," Malcador said. "It's really not something you should pit your onix against."
"Yeah," Rogal said. "Maybe Angron? Rock and ground types are weak to fighting."
"Yeah!" Angron said. "I'll try it!"
"We can fight the other trainers at the gym so everyone gets experience," Leman said. Magnus agreed with this. He was really wanting to get his psyduck to evolve so that it would stop having headaches all the time.
"Wartortle should be good here too," Perturabo said, deciding to throw a bone to Rogal.
"That's true, he's a water type," Rogal said. Perturabo was working on evolving his klink on the side.
They entered the gym and found a lot of trainers hanging out, and the Galactic Scouts troup. Aerathur rushed over towards Angron as soon as he spotted them. Angron saw him, but ignored him, chosing to focus on getting to the gym leader.
"Hey, Cub," Surlaz said coming up to the Lion. "You got an actual pokemon yet?"
"I've got four," the Lion said. "Rhyhorn seems appropriate for this gym."
"Fair," Surlaz said. "Charmeleon, let's go!"
The Lion and Surlaz squared off, their pokemon began circling each other.
"Rhyhorn, use horn drill," the Lion called out. Rhyhorn charged, and rammed into the side of the charmeleon.
"Charmeleon!" Surlaz called out. "Heat blast!"
"Rhyhorn, knock over!" the Lion said. The two attacks hit each other, but the rhyhorn kept going, slamming again into the charmeleon, taking it out.
"Ha!" the Lion crowed.
"You win this time," Surlaz said. "Next time."
"Next time," the Lion said. Suddenly rhyhorn evolved into rhydon. "Bonus!"
"Wait, that wasn't evolved?" Surlaz asked.
"No," the Lion said.
There was a loud clanking noise as magneton suddenly reattached to Ferrus's arm. "Fulgrim!"
"Use the pokeball!" Fulgrim called over. He was in his own battle, using pidgey to try and get its experience up.
"Right!" Ferrus said, reaching out for his pokeball. "Magneton, return. Tinkatink, go!"
The Emperor was hanging back, watching when he got challenged. He tossed magikarp at his feet and then called out porygon. He planned to evolve porygon soon, magikarp had no where near enough experience to evolve yet.
Valdor's buneary evolved after he and Malcador dueled each other. No one seemed brave enough to challenge Valdor, so Malcador had chosen to challenge him. He groaned a bit, the lopunny wasn't exactly better than the buneary.
Angron approached the gym leader and challenged him. The other Primarchs wrapped up their battles as quickly as they could, then turned to watch Angron. The gym leader brought out a geodude. Angron thought a moment, then called out his first of two pokemon.
"Aipom, use tail smash," Angron said. The aipom smacked its tail into geodude, taking it out.
"Geodude, return," the leader said. "Onix."
"Aipom, return," Angron called out. He had been training against Perturabo's onix, and knew Aipom wasn't quite there yet. "Primeape."
"Onix, rock throw."
"Primeape, rage fist," Angron said. "Seismic toss!" The onix was sent flying.
"Excellent," the gym leader said. "Here's your boulder badge."
"Thank you," Angron said formally.
"You're most welcome!"
"I did it!" Angron called as he rejoined his brothers. "Let's get out of here."
"I think the other trainers will be happy to not have Valdor towering over everyone," the Emperor said.
They came out of the gym and headed towards the stores. There were several stones needed to evolve some of the pokemon. Alpharius wanted a water stone to evolve his evee into a vaporeon. Magnus would was going to pick up to the sun stone he would need to evolve his evee into espeon, but he didn't want to evolve it yet. Roboute and Ferrus wanted thunderstones to evolve their pokemon. Malcador needed a leaf stone to evolve his exeggcute. Perturabo was still looking for a metal coat, the Emperor needed updgrade and dubious disc to upgrade porygon. The Lion needed procector to evolve rhydon into rhyperior. Mortarion also wanted a leaf stone for the oddish he had just got. Alpharius and Malcador quickly evolved their pokemon before they boarded the bus to Cerulean City.
*********************
They arrived at the pyramids at about mid-morning, Perturabo, Magnus, and Malcador were clearly the most excited. A strange winged ball-like pokemon popped out of the nearest ruin. It looked at the Imperial party as they got off the bus.
"Who's that pokemon?" Magnus asked.
"Sigilyph," the pokedex said.
"That's mine!" Malcador called out, cutting off anything else the pokedex was going to say about sigilyph. "Exeggutor! Psychic exchange!"
A beam of light went from one of the exeggutor's faces and touched the sigilyph. The new pokemon spun, and dipped lower. Malcador took it as an opening, and threw his pokeball. It landed heavily on the ground, shook for a bit, then the light changed, and the seal chime rang out.
"Yeah!" the Primarchs chorused as Malcador recalled exeggutor and grabbed the sigilyph.
"Now to explore," Perturabo said. He wasn't sure if he'd find anything here, but was excited to see what others might find. Magnus was really hoping to find a mew. Wandering through, they also found a yamask that Alpharius claimed. Alpharius knew it would amuse Omegon to no end when he got back. They were just about to the last building they could safely inspect when an injured mew appeared. Magnus quickly ran up and tapped it with a pokeball. The mew offered no resistance at all.
"What did that to a mew?" Ferrus wondered, the ground quivered slightly and they bunched together. A giant black pokemon that looked almost to be made of metalic crystal appeared.
"I think that's the answer," Corvus said. "But what is it?"
"Necrozma, it searches for sunlight to use as energy," the pokedex droned out.
"Necrozma?" Fulgrim said. "That sounds like a pokemon for you Ferrus!"
"Hm, it's weak against bug, dark, and ghost pokemon," Ferrus said. "I don't really have those, and it seems to be a legendary."
"Magneton might be able to do it," Fulgrim encouraged. "You want to catch it, right? You don't need type advantage there."
"Besides, we can help," Vulkan said. "Corvus as all sorts of ghost type pokemon. Drakloak might be helpful."
"Right, I'll do it!" Ferrus said. "Magneton! Ram!"
Magneton slammed into the necrozma, knocking it off balance. Ferrus tried the pokeball, but it got out, and retreated. It got too far for Ferrus to throw a pokeball, but still looked catchable. An idea struck Ferrus.
"Magneton, magnetic field!" he called out, holding up his arm to give the best surface area. "Focus on me!" With that, he shot forward, and up slightly as magneton increased the power of it's magnetic field, sucking Ferrus to it, there was a clang as Ferrus made contact. "Alright, let's grab necrozma."
The necrozma wasn't ready for another pokeball so quickly, and remained captured the second time. Ferrus then got magenton to get close enough to the ground that he was touching it again, then use its pokeball to break the connection.
"Well, that was super effective," Perturabo said.
"And pretty cool," Fulgrim said.
"We need to head back," the Emperor called. The Primarchs chorused an agreement and they turned around. Valdor paused, aware that Malcador wasn't with the rest of the group. He found the Sigillite in the shade, a raised eyebrow was answered with a shake of the head.
"I'm coming," Malcador said as he rose from the pyramid he had used as a seat. They came out to the waiting bus, and found what looked like an ice cream cone floating there.
"I didn't think it was hot enough to cause hallucinations," Magnus said. It was late morning, but already on the hot side of warm.
"That's a vanillite!" the Emperor said, quickly tossing a pokeball at the slightly melting pokemon. "That should help it stay together."
"Alright, there's a lake that we should reach about mid-afternoon if you want to find more pokemon," the bus driver said.
"Excellent!" the Emperor approved. He knew several of the Primarchs hadn't found pokemon for themselves at the pyramids, and was hoping to keep things roughly level. Several of the second caught pokemon were starting to evolve as well. Perturabo had traded his onix with Ferrus to evolve it into steelix. He was borrowing Ferrus' tinkatink for a bit. They intended to wait for the tinkatink to evolve before trading back.
"Hopefully we don't have to deal with team melta again for a bit," Malcador said. He was watching Magnus, who was carefully holding the pokeball that had his new mew in it.
"I believe there's a pokecenter at the town we're stopping in tonight," Jaghatai said to Magnus. "It should be fine until then."
"True," Magnus said. "And being in the pokeball at least stablizes it, so it shouldn't be too bad off."
*********************
They arrived at the lake, and were quickly confronted by a blue bug pokemon that the pokedex identified as a karrablast. Fulgrim claimed it while Roboute hung back. Everyone else came forward, searching for pokemon either for themselves or for the others.
"Look! A rayquaza!" Vulkan called out. "Let's get it for Valdor!"
"You sure you don't want it?" Valdor asked. "It is a dragon."
"There's other dragons," Vulkan answered. He and Corvus teamed up with charmeleon and drakloak to catch the rayquaza for Valdor. They then watched together as Sanguinius sent his fletchling out to convince a pidove to join his flock.
The forest around the lake suddenly fell silent. A pack of zarude appeared, heading down to drink. Angron quickly brought out his primeape, he knew it was getting close to evolving into annihilape, and hoped the zarude would be a good addition to his troupe .
He was right, primeape evolved in the middle of the fight. The two went at it quite violently, but Angron was able to catch the zarude. The rest of the zarude pack ran off, and after a moment the forest returned to normal.
*********************
They were able to stop at the pokecenter before heading to their inn for the night. The nurse there was able to fix up the mew, and there was a bit of a buzz about the arrival of a mew and the Imperial party. Bored, Mortarion had wandered out to the back, trying to find their biohazard waste to check out. He didn't find that, but did find a grimer trying to get into a trashcan outside. He quickly caught it before it could cause trouble.
At the inn they were accosted by a patrat which Roboute caught. Their next stop was Mount Moon, timed to get there at night, when some of the primarchs wanted to evolve certain pokemon, and others hoped to find their next one. Perturabo was getting concerned as he hadn't found anything since magby in Pewter City.
"There's still time," Rogal said. "Besides, your klang that just evolved and beldum that's getting ready to evolve."
"And tinkatink," Ferrus said. "Steelix is doing great by the way."
"I think tinkatink will be evolving soon," Perturabo said, willing to be distracted from his dour thoughts. "And there's Malcador's mime jr, we really need it to evolve soon."
"We should have tinkatink and mime jr fight," Ferrus said. "Maybe they'll evolve together."
"Possibly," Malcador said, having come up behind them while they were talking. The cane he was using didn't make the same kind of thump that his staff did, and he was having a bit of fun sneaking up on the Primarchs because of it.
"Will you fight your mime jr?" Perturabo asked. He was getting excited by the idea.
"Of course," Malcador said. "I don't want you guys getting too far ahead of me." So far he had only evolved his exeggutor. He was considering trading his pikipek to Magnus when his abra evolved and he was ready for it to be an alakazam. He was hoping it would be a trumbeak by then.
"Let's do it!" Ferrus said. He was looking forward to having his tinkatink back as a tinkatuff. Perturabo, for his part, was excited to get his steelix back.
"Well, we should take it outside," Rogal said. "Just in case things get messy. And we can watch Jaghatai and Alpharius race."
"That's a good idea," Malcador said as they headed outside. Jaghatai and Alpharius were racing their ponyta and doduo respectively to get Jaghatai's ponyta to evolve. It was one of the last starting pokemon to evolve.
They found the Emperor and Valdor in a duel as well. Magikarp as ever at the Emperor's feet, he was trying out porygon2, having just gotten it back from Horus. Valdor was using his lopunny, which he had to admit was growing on him. His plusle was also out, cheering on lopunny.
"We can go over there," Perturabo said, pointing out an open space. "Tinkatink!"
"Mime jr," Malcador called. "Let's put tinkatink in a box for a bit."
"Tinkatink, use tackle," Perturabo said. Mime jr. dove to the side. "Hammer swing!" Mime jr. wasn't as lucky that time and was flung away. There was a flash of light, and mr. mime stood up.
"One down, one to go," Ferrus said. He watched tinkatink with quiet intensity in his silver eyes.
"Mr. mime, slap down," Malcador called.
Their fight was disrupted by a shout of triumph around the corner. It was clearly Angron, who had been fighting his primeape against Roboute's raichu. His primeape had just evolved into annihilape. It was followed shortly by a flash of light as ponyta evolved into rapidash. Ferrus' attention was pulled back when tinkatink evolved while he wasn't looking.
"Ha ha!" Perturabo said. He quickly recalled tinkatuff and handed it over the Ferrus, who handed him steelix. The two shared a smile, and they headed inside. Alpharius taking a moment longer as he had to catch doduo. He'd fallen off when ponyta had evolved. Once everyone was inside they headed to bed.
*********************
They left the inn at midmorning. Magnus evolved his evee into an espeon, since it had to be done in the day. Horus would evolve his that night into an umbreon. He was also looking for a lunastone, a pokemon he had found scrolling through the pokedex. Naturally he wanted it for the tie to the Luna Wolves.
The sun was just setting as they arrived at the observation point on Mount Moon, the Primarchs spilled out of the bus, most looking for their next pokemon. Rogal and Konrad found a cave that seemed promising. Rogal was looking for a diglett, and Konrad was on the hunt for the last bat pokemon he could find in the pokedex, gligor.
"Here we are!" Rogal called as he saw a diglett. "Wartortle, use water gun!"
"Ha! Golbat, use sharp fang!" Konrad called out spotting his own prize.
"Umbreon!" Horus called out as his evee evolved. Sanguinius congratulated him, but most of the others had scattered.
*********************
The Lion was roaming around, he liked Mount Moon. It reminded him a bit of the mountain that Aldurukh was built into on Caliban. His reflections were cut short when he heard the sound of a pokemon in distress. Searching among the boulders he found a honedge stuck tip down in a stone, struggling to free itself.
"Now, how did this happen?" the Lion asked. "Should teach them a lesson about how to treat their pokemon. I'm going to have to grab you by the hilt. Don't fight me please."
He grabbed the honedge by the hilt, and pulled it neatly from the stone. A quick glance around he found the sheath part, reuniting the parts of the pokemon.
"All better," he said, releasing the honedge. "Do you want to join my team?" He held out a pokeball to the honedge, letting it decide. After a moment it tapped the button on the front of the pokeball, catching itself. He then wandered back towards the Emperor.
"Rataskyr! Thunder jolt!" Leman called out. He had found a cubchoo and was trying to catch it. His pachirisu flung lightening from it's tail, hitting the cubchoo square on. It collapsed, and Leman was able to catch it.
*********************
"Where did you leave that honeblade?" Boneigh asked as they came up to the area they had left it in earlier. "I thought it was around here?"
"It was," Klyde said, looking around in confusion. "We need it if we're going to have a chance against whatever that was we saw on the pokespex."
"I know," Boneigh said tersely. "It's giant, whatever it is. There's not supposed to be anyone up here, so how could it have escaped?"
"Another pokemon?" Klyde asked. The argument was disrupted by the sound of hooves, and a joyful cry. Jaghatai had found his glastrier, and was working on catching it. Boneigh and Klyde turned and looked at each other.
"The Primarchs," they said together, in a not wholly pleasant way.
"One of them probably took the honedge," Klyde said.
"Well, they can just catch whatever this giant pokemon is for us, then we'll take it from them," Boneigh said. Klyde nodded his agreement, a malicious light shining in his eyes. With their course set, they headed in the direction of the cheering boys as they were encouraging Jaghatai in his fight with glastrier.
"Mudsdale, heavy slam!" Jaghatai called. "Hawlucha, moonsault stomp!" He knew it was going to take effort to get the legendary horse pokemon. His two came together and glastrier was disoriented by the double attack. Jaghatai took the opening, and caught it.
"Here's our opening," Klyde said. He and Boneigh leapt forwards, once again striking dramatic poses. The group turned, Leman and Konrad calling out jynx and lickitung respectively.
"Use lick," the two Primarchs called out. The two pokemon came out right in front of Boneigh and Klyde, and licked them both.
"That is so disgusting," Fulgrim said.
"But effective," the Emperor said. He turned to the two members of team melta. "I believe I already mentioned that there's no need for theatrical entrances."
"But it is the team melta way," Boneigh said. "Maybe next time."
"Perhaps," the Emperor said. "Now, what is it you want?"
Boneigh opened her mouth to answer, but was interrupted by the booming, six-beat tread of a giratina coming up to where they were.
"That's a really big pokemon," Horus said. He hoped he wouldn't have to use the lunastone he had caught just a few minutes before. "Ferrus?"
"Giratina the renegade pokemon, it is said to come from a world that is the reverse of this one," the pokedex rang out.
"It's mine!" Vulkan called out. "Let's see, it's a legendary, let's try it against volcanion."
"Good choice," Malcador said, moving towards the middle of the group. He didn't want to be too close to the fight in case of stray attacks, but was finding the night to be a little colder than his liking.
"Oh ho, we'll have to find a way to take that one too," Boneigh said. "I knew they'd have multiple legendary pokemon."
"We can hear you, you know," Corvus said, appearing right next to them. "And you are not taking any of our pokemon. Especially not Vulkan's."
"Oh, you think you're going to stop us?" Klyde asked.
"If I have to," Corvus said. "And I'm not alone."
"Indeed not," Konrad said. "There's room in the shadows for two."
"Three," Alpharius corrected, smiling slightly as Konrad twitched. Klyde had jumped when Konrad spoke, and both team melta members jumped when Alpharius revealed himself.
"You are all too creepy," Boneigh said.
"What's this about being creepy?" Valdor asked, having slipped around behind them. "I think you need to reconsider your plans about giratina, and volcanion. Thank you for the distraction, Primarchs."
"That wasn't my intention," Konrad said with a slight pout. A loud whoop from Vulkan signaled the capture of giratina.
"Did you see, Corvus?" Vulkan asked. He turned to look for his brother, and found him facing down team melta.
"Sorry, Vulkan," Corvus said. "Got a little distracted by these guys wanting to steal your pokemon."
"We've been dissuading them from that idea," Konrad said.
"We're right here," Klyde grumbled.
"About that," Valdor said, signalling to Leman. "Plusle, thundershock."
"Rataskyr," Leman called out. "Thundershock."
The two electric pokemon targeted the team melta members, sending them off the way they had come, sliding down the side of Moon Mountain.
"Looks like team melta's firing off again!" they called together.
"Now, let's get you a new pokemon, Corvus!" Vulkan called.
"I think there's something in this cave," the Lion called over.
"You mean other than the digletts and gligor?" Konrad asked.
"Yep!" the Lion called. "It feels like something bigger, and not in the same areas as the digletts and gligors."
"Let's go!" Vulkan called. Heading into the cave they found a deoxys that Corvus fought with his drakloak and corvisquire. Perturabo was the only one to come away from Mount Moon without a fifth pokemon, Lorgar had found a klefki, which kind of looked like a dropped key ring.
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