"I'm concerned about Perturabo, Father," Rogal said as they were at a stopping point between Mount Moon and Cerulean City. "He's the last to get his fifth pokemon."
"He's being very particular about his team," the Emperor said. "It's understandable that he may take longer to get something. He was fairly lucky to get the ones he wanted early."
"True, but he's not happy about it," Rogal said.
"He'll get something," the Emperor assured his seventh son.
They had one more stop at a delta just outside of Cerulean City. It was there that Perturabo finally found his fifth pokemon, a carvanha that Leman fished. Rogal found a dwebble, his sixth pokemon. Horus found a piplup and Alpharius a tangela.
Rogal felt slightly guilty getting his sixth pokemon at the same time as Perturabo getting his fifth, but dwebble evolved into crustle, and it was too good to pass up. Perturabo didn't seem to mind, so Rogal relaxed.
******************
"We have now arrived in Cerulean City," the bus driver announced as they pulled up at the bus station. It was conveniently set near the travel office. The Primarchs quickly headed off to find pokemon in the city while the adults worked together to arrange their route to Lavender Town.
"We should get some kind of souvenirs," Horus said. He had gotten the whole group to stay together for now. They had wandered into some kind of open air market area that had several shops around.
"That one sells shirts!" Fulgrim said. "We can get the Triad matching shirts." The Triad was how they referred to the Emperor, Malcador, and Valdor together.
"That's a great idea!" Sanguinius said. They wandered into the store, looking around for a shirt pattern they thought would work well. it took them quite a while, and a few false starts.
"This one!" Konrad said, holding up a shirt that had exeggutor and a strange rock looking pokemon with a large nose. A closer inspection found toucannons flying among the exeggutors, and occasionally sitting on the rock pokemon. There were also magikarp splashing about.
"It's perfect," Fulgrim said. "Now we just need one big enough for Valdor."
"Or we can see if they'll do a custom size," Ferrus said, indicating a service counter that had a sign that read "Customizations and Special Orders". The Primarchs approached the counter, Horus holding the shirt. They found a woman standing at the counter ahead of them, demanding the seamstrix to ring up her items.
"How can I help you?" the seamstrix asked. They turned, relieved to see the shirt Horus was holding.
"Can you make a very large version of this shirt?" Horus asked. He shot a quick glance at Fulgrim who provided what he knew to be Valdor's measurements.
"Of course!" they said. They took the shirt Horus held out and headed towards the curtained work area behind the desk. The woman glared at the seamstrix, clearly irate.
"I was here first! You will serve me first," she snapped.
"I'm not a cashier," the seamstrix sighed heavily. This was the 4th time they had told her that. "I can only do customizations, or special orders, such as these boys have done. You have to go to the scanners in the front."
"I'm not waiting in those lines," the woman said.
"Brynda, come on!" another woman appeared and grabbed Brynda. "We've already checked out, and they don't even have a scanner here."
" This is unacceptable," Brynda said, digging her heels in.
"Mamzel, there is no scanner, or wafer reader," Horus said. "They cannot assist you in paying for your items."
"You stay out of it you little twerp," Brynda said. This cause the other Primarchs to turn towards her. Vulkan looking a bit confused as he arrived having found a shirt closer to Malcador's size.
"What's going on?" a man asked as he approached. He was wearing the store's uniform with a name tag that announced him to be a store manager.
"Finally, a manager," Brynda said as the woman who had tried to pull her away groaned. "I want the employee for this scanner stand fired."
"This isn't a scanner stand," the manager stated. "It's the seamstrix stand. They don't have a scanner or reader. Where is Trendi?"
"Serving these little brats before me!" Brynda yelled.
"They can't ring you out here," Brynda's companion said. "Stop being so stubborn, and let's go."
"Your companion is correct, mamzel," the manager said. "And if you do not move along to the scanners I will have to ask you to leave without your merchandise."
"Fine," Brynda snarled, snatching her items off the counter and storming off. Her companion followed her, shooting an apologetic look to the manager. He then turned to the Primarchs.
"Have you been helped?"
"Yes," Horus said. "I believe you said their name was Trendi? Is making a special order shirt for us."
"Excellent," the manager said and headed off.
"It's all ready!" Trendi said a few minutes later. They had come out with the shirt already folded and tied up so it wouldn't unfold as the Primarchs carried it.
"Thank you!" the Primarchs chorused and joined the lines to pay. Then they headed back to the travel office area, looking for pokemon on the way.
By the time they had made it back to the Triad they had found a keldeo for Jaghatai, a noibat for Konrad, and a flamigo for Sanguinius. They came around the last corner to the travel office and found Malcador fighting to catch one of the rock pokemon from the shirts they had gotten. The pokedex quickly revealed it as a nosepass.
"That makes it even better," Vulkan said as Malcador caught the nosepass. "Now it has three of Mal's pokemon on it."
"Father!" Horus said as he lead the other Primarchs up. Fulgrim had the bags with the shirts. Valdor's had required its own. "We got you guys something."
"Oh?" the Emperor asked, raising one eyebrow questioningly. Fulgrim passed off the bag with Valdor's shirt to Ferrus, then fished in the other to bring up the shirt meant for the Emperor.
"Matching shirts!" Fulgrim said pulling out the shirt. Ferrus reached into the bag he now held, and passed Valdor his while Fulgrim grabbed Malcador's.
"It's.... interesting," Valdor said. He wasn't fully successful at keeping his groan internal. This earned him some disappointed looks from the Primarchs, and a quick glance of displeasure from the Emperor. He ducked his head in quick apology, and put the shirt on.
"Now, which one of you selected this print?" Malcador asked. He hadn't put his on yet, but was looking at the design. Konrad raised his hand. "Did you by chance consult your visions for this choice?"
"No," Konrad said truthfully. "Just a lucky guess. I like the exeggutors and magikarp."
"We should head to the gym, then the train station," the Emperor said after Malcador put his shirt on. They were taking a train out to Lavender Town. It made a stop at a power station near by which both Ferrus and Malcador were excited for. They were hoping to find a strong magnetic field in the area to evolve magneton into magnezone and nosepass into probopass.
******************
They went to the Cerulean City Gym, which specialized in water pokemon. Alpharius decided to take on the challenge at this gym. As with Pewter City, the others entertained challenges with others in the gym while Alpharius headed toward the gym leader.
"This will be a 2 v 2 fight," the gym leader said. "Starting with staryu."
"Vaporeon," Alpharius said. "Hydro pump."
"Staryu, spin attack," the leader said. Water sprayed everywhere. "Surprise attack!"
"Aurora beam," Alpharius called. He was aware he was somewhat at a disadvantage, but figured he could use ditto if needed. Its mimic would be helpful. There was also tangela, but he hadn't had a chance to train with it yet and didn't want to give it a trial by fire. His vaporeon's attack made it, knocking staryu out of the ring.
"Starmie, rainbow star!"
"Deino! Headbutt!"
The two pokemon slammed into each other, deino smacking into the jewel like core of starmie.
"Gnaw off," Alpharius called. Deino got a hold of one of starmie's limbs and bit it, starting to gnaw on it. Starmie struggled and managed to get away, but was weakened.
"Power breath," Alpharius said. This knocked starmie out.
"Good job!" the gym leader said, handing over the water badge.
******************
They made the afternoon train out to Lavender Town and settled in. There were other trainers on the train, and the Primarchs were excited to have the opportunity to duel with other people. Duels were allowed on the train in a special dueling car.
There were a few scattered challenges for the Primarchs, and one brave soul who challenged the Emperor. He was very surprised at the smeargle that the Emperor used. Another person challenged Malcador after confirming that he was also on the pokemon adventure. They then went to the dueling car, due to size limitations only the two trainers could enter with their pokemon. The Primarchs wished Malcador good luck and Valdor moved to next to the door between cars. He did this every time one of the Imperial party had a duel. The Primarchs were still not sure if the shirt was making him more or less scary when he sat there.
"Alright, 1 v 1," the challenger said.
"Agreed," Malcador said. He thought a moment and chose nosepass. It was a bit of a trial by fire for the new pokemon, but a good test to see where it was at. "Nosepass."
"Seviper," the challenger called. Malcador frowned, reminding himself that this was the exact reason he had been training most of his pokemon against Fulgrim's arbok. Not that I had intended to test this alone Malcador thought.
Out in the passenger car Magnus and the Emperor exchanged glances, but otherwise didn't move. It was Malcador's fight, and they would leave him to it.
"Seviper use poison fang," the trainer said.
"Nosepass, rolling tackle," Malcador said. The two pokemon came together, seviper's poison fang wasn't very effective as it couldn't get through the rocky skin of the nosepass. The rolling tackle was a bit more effective, but seviper was able to make a slash with it's sharpened swordlike tail and dislodge nosepass.
"Rising lunge," Malcador called. Nosepass shoved upwards throwing the seviper against the car wall. Seviper struggled a bit, but eventually sagged in defeat.
"Seviper, return," the trainer called. "Good fight... my lord?" This last was said hesitantly.
"Good job, nosepass, you can return now," Malcador said, retrieving his pokemon. "Indeed, it was a good fight."
"I appreciate you accepting my challenge," the trainer said. She still seemed nervous to be alone in the car with him now that they weren't dueling.
"There's no reason to be worried," Malcador said. "Though I should warn you that Valdor is right outside the door. He's supposed to be on vacation too, but certain things you just can't turn off."
"I appreciate the warning," she said, and tried to steel herself for going out past the imposing Custodian. She'd made it to the door, and faltered.
"I can go first," Malcador offered. "Valdor will move with me, and not be immediately outside."
"That may be the best plan, lord," she said, gratefully giving way to the Sigillite.
"How did it go?" Valdor asked.
"Went well, nosepass is quite good," Malcador answered. "I won against a snake."
"So that's why Magnus looked this way," Valdor chuckled.
******************
They got off at the power station, looking for or evolving pokemon. Ferrus and Malcador went off, looking for the biggest electromagnetic field they could find. Corvus and Vulkan accompanied the Lion as he looked around.
"It's a raikou!" Corvus called. He was waiting to get a ghastly in Lavender Town which was supposed to be full of ghost type pokemon. The Lion was excited and challenged the pokemon.
"Rhyhorn!" he called out. He was looking forward to using honedge, but didn't want to try it against a legendary pokemon. Rhyhorn was a better option, and he was looking forward to trading it with Vulkan to borrow tyrantrum for a bit. He needed to trade to evolve rhyhorn into rhyperior.
The fight was fast, and furious, but the Lion came out victorious. There was another crowing of victory as Leman found a cryogonal and caught it with mightyena. Perturabo found his sixth pokemon fairly quickly, discovering an iron treads that was trying to break onto the grounds.
"Let's get ready to go!" Valdor called out. The Primarchs raced back to the station, waiting for the next train. Lorgar came up last, looking very pleased with himself. The Emperor gave him a questioning look, but he just said that he caught his sixth pokemon. With that they headed off into the rock tunnel.
******************
"Wonder what we're going to find in here," Rogal said excitedly. As he had six pokemon he wasn't allowed to catch more. A full six pokemon team each was all that was allowed for large groups on an adventure. He was still allowed to help someone else if needed. He was also willing to trade his boldore to evolve it into a gigalith. He and Roboute were thinking of trading on the other side of the rock tunnel.
"Koffing!" came a booming echo-y voice. Mortarion perked up right away and caught it with his ivysaur. He was looking forward to it evolving into venusaur soon. All three of the starter pokemon they were given by Professor Fir were close to their final evolutions.
"Nice!" Konrad called. Also at six pokemon he was playing support. Mortarion gave a mock bow with a bit of flourish.
"We have to get something good for Valdor's last pokemon," Horus said quietly to the group. "Ferrus?"
"Well, there's victini," Ferrus supplied looking through the pokedex. "According to local legend the person who has a victini on his team can't be beaten."
"That sounds like the perfect pokemon for him," Leman said. The others nodded in agreement. "But I somewhat doubt we'll find it here."
"True," Ferrus said. "Maybe in Lavender Town.
"How long is this tunnel?" Angron asked.
"Not sure, but I think it's a few hours," Jaghatai said. "I don't think we'll have to stay the night."
"Hopefully not, but it may be late," Magnus said.
"There's no need to worry about me," Malcador grumbled. The Primarchs weren't being quite as quiet as they thought they were, and the tunnel echoed.
An azelf appeared briefly, teleporting away like an abra. Magnus got interested, and called out his abra to try and find the azelf again. He liked the idea of trying the Sanguinius method to get his last pokemon.
"Ha!" Magnus called as abra came back with the azelf in tow. It then evolved into kadabra, which made Magnus even happier. He wanted to train with it a bit as a kadabra, then he was going to trade with Malcador to make it an alakazam.
"Nice," Jaghatai said, also supporting.
"There's a light up ahead," Valdor said. "I didn't think it would be the end of the tunnel already."
"It's not," the Emperor said, preparing a pokeball. He motioned the others to stop, and slipped up as quietly as Corvus towards the source of the light. It was a litwick, and quickly became the Emperor's sixth pokemon.
"That has to be the weirdest pokemon team anyone's come up with," Malcador noted with some amusement. "And one of your pokemon is useless."
"Hey, magikarp learned tackle the other day," the Emperor said with feigned annoyance. "It'll eventually evolve into gyarados which is far more impressive."
"It's the only first caught pokemon that hasn't evolved yet," Roboute said. "Even some of the third and fourth caught pokemon are starting to evolve, and Malcador already evolved his sixth."
"Everything happens in its own time, Roboute," the Emperor said. "Somethings need more patience than others."
"I guess," Roboute said.
They continued down the rock tunnel. There was a brief time where light filled the tunnel as the sun set. It then got very dark, the Emperor called litwick out again, the Lion had torracat come out, and Vulkan took the back of the group with charmeleon.
"Are we there yet?" Angron called from the middle of the group.
"Not yet," the Emperor said, hoping silently that he wouldn't have to hear that every five minutes for the rest of the tunnel.
Malcador stumbled on a small outcropping of rock, and barely kept himself from falling. The party stopped immediately, everyone moved to the side of the tunnel and found an outcropping of rock that served as a seat. Malcador didn't seem to be very happy about this, but admitted he needed the rest.
"How far are we from the end?" Magnus asked.
"Just over a kilometer," the Emperor answered. He glanced at Malcador, knowing they could offer to carry him if needed. Malcador shook his head, declining the offer. The sound of another large group passing through the rock tunnel from the way they had come caught everyone's attention.
"It's you!" Aerathur snarled, catching sight of Angron and lunging forward.
"You got something more than your mankey?" Angron asked, moving to the edge of the group, brushing his fingers against the five pokeballs that contained his team.
"It's a primeape now," Aerathur said hotly. "You got anything better?"
"Oh, I've got all sorts of things available," Angron said. "Ambipom, I choose you."
"Slowpoke," Aerathur said. "Tail strike."
"Ambipom, double hit," Angron called. Ambipom dodged around the slowpoke like it was nothing and hit it once with each tail hand. Slowpoke looked dazed, but otherwise unharmed.
"Headbutt!"
"Full tilt fling."
The fight went on for a while, Angron and ambipom eventually getting the upper hand. Aerathur howled in anger as he was forced to call back his slowpoke. He went to charge forward, but was caught by the troop leader.
"Aerathur," the man said sharply. Angron had already shifted positions, ready to fight the other boy. "What's gotten into you?"
"He beat me up at school!" Aerathur snarled.
"That was years ago," Angron said. "But I'm alright with round two."
"Angron," the Emperor said warningly. Angron quickly backed down while the Emperor continued. "I believe you should move along ahead of us now."
"Yes," the troop leader, Feren Mythe, agreed quickly. "Boys, come along."
"Next time, Cub!" Surlaz called over his shoulder as the troop moved in front of the Imperial party.
"I'll get you then!" the Lion called back. Feren Mythe then called for Surlaz to assist him in keeping Aerathur with the group.
"Well, that was a more entertaining rest than I was expecting," Lorgar said.
"Indeed," Malcador said as he stood up. "Well, we should keep going before we have to spend the night in here, which I for one don't want to do."
They found that it truly wasn't that far to the end of the rock tunnel. It opened just outside of Lavender Town, and the inn they were going to stay at that night. Malcador seemed quite happy with the site of the inn.
******************
"Alright, let's find your gastly," Vulkan said the next morning. He, the Lion, and Corvus had separated from the rest of the group, who were getting supplies and working out the bus schedule to Saffron City. They hadn't been able to get the attachment for the pokedex, so they were hoping the Lion could assist in the locating.
"There's one over there," the Lion said pointing to an alley on the other side of the street.
"Perfect!" Vulkan said. The three were waiting for an opening to cross when Konrad joined them.
"Hey, Covrus," Konrad said. "I looked up gastly in the pokedex last night. It evolves into a haunter, then requires a trade to evolve into gengar. Would you mind trading it to me as a gastly first, I evolve it to a haunter, train it up a bit, and trade it back to you to make it a gengar? You could have honchkrow to hang out with corvisquire."
"Oh! Then Night Haunter has a haunter," Corvus said. "I like it."
"Thanks!" Konrad said. He joined the group as there was an opening in traffic, and the hunt was on.
They came out of the alley ten minutes later, Corvus and Konrad looking quite happy. Then, they saw a crowd forming near the end of the rock tunnel.
"Wonder what's going on over there?" the Lion asked. They quickly joined the others, all of the Primarchs were clamoring for the Emperor to let them see what was going on.
"Alright," the Emperor said. He was curious himself. "It will push us back to a later bus though."
They joined the crowd, which started to part to let them through. The Primarchs filtered through the crowd a bit, but stayed close to the adults. They were stopped at a police cordon set well back from the mouth of the rock tunnel. A large, skeletal looking pokemon was blocking the entrance. It appeared to be taking energy from the ground.
"We need a pokemon trainer who is willing to do battle with the eternatus," a teal haired officer called out.
"Eternatus, that sounds like a pokemon for you, Vulkan," Corvus said. The Lion and Konrad nodded their agreement. Vulkan looked unsure, he already had two legendary pokemon, and there was no way this one wasn't one as well.
"There's nothing stopping you from having three legendary pokemon," the Emperor said. Malcador chuckled at the idea, and Valdor also appeared amused. "Besides, Magnus has three."
"I'll do it!" Vulkan said, encouraged by the Emperor's comment. He thought a moment before calling out giratina. He hadn't had too much time to train with it, but it was already regularly winning in duels.
"Good choice," Malcador approved.
"Calamitous slash!" Vulkan called. It was the newest move that giratina had learned. Eternatus growled, rising up on several legs, showing itself to be much larger than giratina. However, it seemed to be weakening already, its feeding off the earth having been disrupted. Vulkan took his opening, and threw his pokeball, catching eternatus.
There was cheering from the crowd as Vulkan came back across the cordon and joined the Imperial party. The Emperor glanced at his chronometer, and realized that they had missed the bus he had intended to take.
"Well, I guess we have some time for pokemon trades when we get to the bus station," the Emperor said as they turned and went back through the crowd again.
The Lion and Perturabo decided to trade to cover each other. Konrad and Corvus had already done their trade. Magnus traded his kadabra with Malcador, borrowing trumbeak. He'd trade it back when he had evolved it into toucannon.
******************
The bus trip to Saffron City had only one stop on the first day, and it was an unexpected one. A snorlax was found asleep, sprawled across the narrow road. The bus came to an abrupt halt, taking a look, the Lion got out to deal with it.
"That was almost a good one for him," Valdor noted to the Emperor, who chuckled.
"Hmm," the Lion said, talking to himself to plot out what to do. "Let's try honedge."
He called out the pokemon, and told it to poke the snorlax, hoping it would wake up and wander off. He got half of what he hoped for. The snorlax was enraged, honedge dropping back somewhat distressed.
"Braviary," the Lion called. "Let's help honedge out a bit. Sky drop!"
Braviary rose high, honedge distracting the snorlax, then honedge swept in with slash. Snorlax roared, then moved off. The Lion recalled his pokemon, and quickly got back on the bus.
******************
"Alright, try not to go too far!" the Emperor called the next day as they all poured off the bus, looking for pokemon. Angron found a slakoth to round out his ragtag troupe. His annihilape looked quite pleased with the set up. Roboute found a kubfu, which he thought was amusing.
"Fulgrim! It's a moltres!" Ferrus called out as the firebird pokemon flew over them.
"Pidgeotto!" Fulgrim called. He knew the pokemon wouldn't be able to fully take out moltres, but he needed it on the ground to use other pokemon. Though there was a possibility that pidgeotto would convince moltres, like Sanguinius's birds had convinced each other to join the flock. Moltres and pidgeotto moved around each other, seeming to have a conversation. Then moltres shot fire at pidgeotto.
"That's not good," Fulgrim said as pidgeotto barely dodged out of the way in time, arrowing down towards Fulgrim. "Ninetales, arbok!"
"Do you need help?" Ferrus asked.
"Maybe," Fulgrim said. He arrayed his pokemon, arbok using a poison attack, then ninetales using fire spin. The two attacks hit at once, giving Fulgrim the opportunity to catch moltres. "Or not."
"That was cool!" Mortarion called over. He was always happy when the others with poison pokemon used them.
"We have to head back now," Horus called, relaying the signal he'd gotten from the Emperor. As they were heading back when they were distracted by a smallish pokemon. They went to check it out and see if it was good for any of them, or could become Valdor's last pokemon.
"Victini!" the pokemon called, announcing it's identity.
"That's victini? It's a lot smaller than I expected," Fulgrim said. Ferrus nodded in agreement. Several Primarchs worked together to herd the victini towards the bus where the adults were waiting. Valdor recognized that they were moving a pokemon they meant for him.
"Wonder what they've found for me this time," he said. "It looks small."
"Yes, that seems to be somewhat of a theme with your team," Malcador said.
"It's a victini," Ferrus said. "The pokedex says that it brings victory to the trainer that has it."
"It's perfect," Malcador said. Valdor chuckled, but got out his last pokeball and caught the victini.
******************
They arrived in Saffron City two days later, and everyone had their last pokemon. Ferrus was the last to get his, finally finding an iron hands.
"Why does it look like it's giving the Vulcan salute?" Ferrus asked as he and Perturabo approached the pokemon.
"No idea," Perturabo answered. "Maybe it's supposed to be turtle hands."
"Maybe," Ferrus said. He selected a pokeball, and prepared to throw it as far as he could. Magnezone had an even stronger magnetic field than magneton, and he had to work to get it to release far enough away that it didn't accidentally pull him into the fight as well.
"I can help with magmortar is you need," Perturabo offered. He and the Lion had traded back the previous evening.
"Magnezone!" Ferrus called, throwing the pokeball sort of like a dodgeball when he was trying to get Jaghatai. "I'll try with just magnezone first." It took a few minutes, but he was successful.
They went through the city, stopping briefly at the shops to get items for evolving pokemon that they didn't have already. Then they headed to the gym.
"Can I get the badge from this gym?" Magnus asked. The Saffron City Gym specialized in psychic pokemon, so Magnus was very excited to try his team.
Magnus headed for the gym leader, just like in the previous two gyms the others spread out to challenge others in the gym. The challenge was set as a 2 v 2, the standard for gym combats.
"Mr. mime," the gym leader called out. Magnus smiled. He dueled Malcador's mr. mime regularly, and knew how to fight them.
"Golduck," he said, calling out his first pokemon. "Double jet."
"Mr. mime, slap down," the gym leader called.
The double jet hit first, and harder. Mr. mime went flying across the small arena.
"Lock up," the gym leader called.
"Tackle!"
Mr. mime went down, golduck stood victorious over the mr. mime. The gym leader nodded appreciatively at Magnus before calling out venomoth. Magnus recalled golduck and pulled out mew instead.
"Poison powder!"
"Psyshot!"
Mew's attack one shotted the vemomoth, and Magnus came back with the marsh badge. The others wrapped up their fights and they left to go find the train to Celadon City.
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