HankPankylol
patreon
A Winkle of Reality: Chapter 17.
🕑 Added 2025-07-07 15:00:17 +0000 UTCI REALLY like this chapter. It's the first one I'm actually proud of. We start of with a quick visit to Gary, and then, we meet a couple of legends.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
“Pippy, Tackle!”
“Spin.”
Gary yawned as the dumbass little girl pointed dramatically at Squirty, her shitty Pidgey letting out a pathetic attempt at a war cry as it dove headfirst at his starter. Said turtle Pokémon merely grinned as he pulled his limbs and head into his shell.
Gary burst out laughing as the dumb bird smacked into the steel-hard shell like a fucking Bug-Type on the windscreen of his car. Pidgey didn't even have time to hit the ground before the Rapid Spin sent it flying back to its garbage trainer, completely limp.
“PIPPY!”
“Fucking Mew, that was pathetic! Did you steal the bird from your parents?”
Fat tears rolled down the cheeks of the seven year old as she recalled her Pokémon. Not that Gary gave a fuck.
Don't challenge talent if you're shit.
“You're a meanie!”
“And you suck! Smell you later loser!” He yelled at her retreating back, chuckling to himself. She was too young to have an official license, so there was no money changing hands. Still, there was no need to be a sore loser. Getting upset about losing to Gary Oak was just fucking dumb. It was a natural law of the universe.
Or at least, that was usually the case.
Mood soured, he absently padded Squirty on the head when he came running for attention, the little whore. And walked back to his girls. Usually when he was battling they stayed off to the side and cheered him on, as he deserved. Yet, the silence was deafening and the crossed arms didn't bode well.
The cheering and eye candy was great, but they were really fucking uppity for being his employees.
“What?” He grumbled, folding his own arms at the looks he got.
“Done bullying children for the day?” Sindy did not seem impressed.
“Hey! She fucking challenged me! It's not my fault she got destroyed!”
“Right, the seven year old deserves to get mocked for trying to have a friendly battle. How dare she not have a famous grandpa to give her rare Pokemon and training.”
Sarcasm wasn't as much fun when it was directed at him.
“Fuck off.” He stomped off into the field, directing Squirty to give Water Pulse another go. Growl was running drills, sprinting back and forth, switching to Ember when she got tired. It was a harsh regiment for the Growlithe, but she took to it like a Remoraid to water.
They were standing on one of the wide open plains outside of Pewter, having gotten to the city a couple of days ago. It wasn't the first time Gary had been there, and it still sucked ass. Everything was dirty, made of fucking shit and sticks, and the people were assholes. He would have preferred to just wreck that scrub Brock and fuck off, but with Squirty so close to evolving, it made more sense to get that out of the way first.
He couldn’t wait to see the look on that tough-guy wannabe rock fucker’s face when his Wartortle decimated him.
Plus, it gave him time to catch some Pokémon for Gramps. Nothing had really excited him so far, not enough to join his main team anyway. One of the Rattata wasn't bad, but who wanted a fucking Raticate?
“Are we seriously not going to talk about this?” Sindy could be real fucking persistent, he would give her that. The others tended to default to letting her take the lead, probably because she was the best trainer among them. Gary also had a sneaking suspicion that Gramps had hired her to be the leader.
Gary wasn't Ash. He wasn't fucking stupid and saw through them instantly. There was no fucking way Gramps would actually let him have personal cheerleaders just because he wanted them. The Professor was too paranoid about pissing people off or seeming like he was abusing his position. Even the car was only because Ms. Ketchum was annoyingly observant and had snitched about Gary's feelings regarding Peri.
A team of bodyguards/babysitters, though? That made way more fucking sense.
“Talk about what?” But that didn't mean he had to play along.
“You've been moody since we left Viridian and it's not hard to figure out why. Just call him if you feel that bad.”
“Why the fuck would I feel bad about that over-privileged, tomato-haired dumbass getting a taste of his own medicine?” He forced out between gritted teeth.
It was true. There was no need for him to feel bad. So what if Gary pulled a fast one on Peri. The lucky fuck needed to be taken down a peg. Waltzing into Gary's life and fucking everything up. Gary used to be the center of events in Pallet. It used to be him people talked about, him they whispered would be great. It was bad enough that Gary needed to share whatever scraps of attention Gramps had left over from his research with the fucking loser Ash, but at least nobody took him seriously since he fucking sucked.
But then.
Peri.
Emo fucktard swaggered into town, already in possession of multiple Pokémon, one of which was a fucking Titan natured Bagon. What the actual fuck was that shit. Everything fell into his lap. Everything Gary had to work his ass off for, he got by existing. Gary studied for hours every single day to get the best grades and all he got was a nod of appreciation, if Gramps even noticed. But fucking Peri ran around, violent psycho that he was, paying no fucking attention in the school, during basically no studying, yet he was fifth in the fucking class. He and Gramps would spend hours talking, long into the night about all kinds of shit, but Gary had to fight tooth and fucking nail too get more than five fucking words.
Even Green liked the bastard more. Only Peri could be oblivious enough to not notice the Stantler eyes she made at him.
And to top it all off, Peri then got an Alpha, fucking shiny, Growlithe, while Gary got a normal one.
Gary was the grandson of The Pokémon Professor Samuel Oak, not Peri. Gary was the one that had helped taking care of the Pokémon and researching all his life, not Peri. And yet, everyone was tripping over their fucking dicks to suck the guy off.
And yeah, maybe the guy was kinda fun every now and again. Maybe they had a moment, or whatever. But that didn't mean that Gary didn't need to put him in his place.
-Peri looked out over the waters as he told Gary his story, about Orre, Gateon, the gang, and the attack. Gary looked away as the other boy's eyes grew wet at the corners, feeling uncomfortable with both the situation and the new revelations. He couldn’t help but feel a little like a dickhead for acting like he had been. And before he knew it, without even thinking about it, his mouth opened and he told Peri things he'd never told anyone-
He rubbed his face to get the memory out.
There was no reason for him to feel bad.
No reason at all.
Barking pulled him from his thoughts and he looked up. The local wild Pokémon had long vacated the area, if they even spent much time in a public place like the field.
So Gary was very fucking surprised when he saw Growl getting punted across the grass by a large tan blur hurling out of a tree.
The bird Pokémon pulled up from its attack and let out a warning cry as it stared down at Gary and his Pokémon with superiority. The brown and beige coloring easily gave it away as a Pidgey, yet if it hadn't been for that, Gary would have said that it was a Pidgeotto. The thing was fucking massive. The average Pidgey was only about a foot in height and had a wingspan around double that.
The Flying-Type that hung over them was nearly twice that, and thick to boot. It wasn't quite large enough for Gary to call it a Titan, but his teeth bared in a grin as his dark mood vanished.
If an Alpha dumping into his lap didn't validate his behavior, then what the fuck would.
“Squirty, you're up! Let's show it that size isn't everything!”
And with any luck, Squirty would cross the threshold and evolve from the battle. Nothing quite like hitting two Pidgeys with one Rock Throw.
Figuratively, anyway. He didn't have a Rock-Type yet.
—-----------------------------------------------------
“Peri, I'm not sure you understand the magnitude of what you have done.”
Despite his seemingly calm demeanor, the manic glint in his eye was easy to recognize after spending time with the geezer. The pandemonium of researchers crowding around a different monitor, frantically replaying the clip I'd sent to the Lab, didn't hurt.
“Pretty sure I understand-”
“Confirmed, reliable footage of Legendary Pokémon is as rare as your Bagon! The best we have got in the last several decades is a blurry picture of what MIGHT have been a Raikou and a blizzard people claim to have been caused by Articuno. This is groundbreaking!”
“I know, that's why I-”
“And even beyond Ho-Oh itself, the atmospheric consequences of its mere presence are marvelous! It's long been theorised that Legendarys have a deeper connection to their elements and that there's more to their ‘Realm’, so to speak, than mere mythology, but to see the evidence. Not to mention the effects on Growlithe-”
“Sol.”
“Hmm?” I tilted my PokéDex down and rolled my eyes. Of course the name got his attention.
It had been three days since everything went down and I'd honestly expected the call a lot sooner. Apparently the Professor had been confirming the effects the video showed with others that were in the nearby area.
Which was fine. It gave me time to get my team started on their training properly.
Even now, as I leaned against a tree in a small clearing near the road where we'd spent the night, Sol and Siren were busy going at it. My large yellow canine was sprinting back and forth, pausing at the end of the field to spray out a burst of Ember, trying to alternatingly widen the spread and narrow it, and then sustain it. His tongue swayed in the wind as he ran past me. It had taken over 10 minutes to get him up and going, but he was happy enough once he started.
It felt like a weird thing to think about a Growlithe, but both the battle with Gary and the wild Pokémon had shown me that Sol was too slow. His size gave him a lot of power, yet it was a lot of bulk to shift around. I’d hoped that he could learn Quick Attack to offset it, however a look at the PokéDex told me otherwise.
Which I didn't understand. If Arcanine could learn Extreme Speed, how could Growlithe not learn Quick Attack?
Make it make sense.
I did see that he could learn Agility, though. That and Flame Wheel would be the next two moves I'd try to teach him.
Siren, meanwhile, was doing much the same, working on getting the speed up and cost down for her levitation. Her elemental training was a little different though. Rather than working on control, something she had spent the last three years working on at the Reserve, I had her switch between Water Gun, Water Bullets, and Ice Beam as fast as she could.
I had plans for when she could switch seamlessly.
It might’ve been more effective to separate the physical and elemental training, and I might do so later on, but I wanted them to get used to it while on the move. It would better prepare them for actual battles.
Betty was spending the time in her ball. While she had mostly recovered, she’d been a menace as the others started training without her. It was easier for everyone if she wasn't pouting and screeching at everything.
“An odd name. Does it have a meaning?”
The question brought my attention back to my conversation.
“I heard it in Orre. Someone told me that it was an old word for the sun.” Orre being a shithole was incredibly convenient for explaining random shit.
“Hmmm, it might be from ancient Sinnoh. It reminds me of some of the old dialects, though I'm unsure of the syntax. I'd have to break out some of the books, though my collection is not as extensive as I'd like- HEY! Don't try to distract me!”
“I'm not-”
“Fine, we'll put the rest of that conversation to the side for the moment. I wanted to speak about the trouble you had immediately prior to Ho-Oh's appearance.”
Both our faces took on more serious expressions.
“Are you okay?”
I hesitated. It had been a lot, but truthfully…
“...yeah. Yeah, I actually am. It wasn't great, don't get me wrong, yet… yeah. I'm mostly just worried about my team taking the wrong lessons from it.”
The Professor nodded thoughtfully. He took a second to gather his thoughts before speaking slowly.
“People underestimate Growlithes. They take their caring nature and immense loyalty to mean a docile nature, and that is to some degree true. Growlithe are some of the easiest Pokémon to train and bond with if you can get one to agree to be your companion, especially for a Fire-Type. However, that loyalty has… I don't want to say consequences, but it carries over into everything they do. Including battling. While it is rare for a Growlithe to take it to that level, they will not hesitate if they believe their Trainer is in danger. You are Growlithe’s, Sol’s, number one priority. Even if that means burning the world to cinders to ensure your safety.”
I hummed in agreement. That more or less mirrored my thoughts on the subject.
“And I doubt I have to explain Betty’s behavior. A normal Dragon-Type is bad enough, but a Titan? There were many reasons I was hesitant to allow you to start with the team that you have, and this is one of them.”
Silence fell between us, me not wanting to get into that again and Oak clearly uncomfortable with having to get into the emotional side. Though the mention of his hesitation did remind me of something.
“Speaking of your rules,” I began, feeling the anger stir again, “Gary and I had a little battle outside of Viridian.”
“Oh?” The feigned nonchalance wasn't very convincing with the way the Professor suddenly avoided looking at the screen.
“Yeah, and I couldn’t help but notice that Squirty was very good for an untrained Pokémon. Hell, if I didn't know any better, I'd say he was close to evolving already! But that can't be true right? That would take months of dedicated training, and you wouldn't allow us to train before we got our licenses, right?”
“Yes, well, I'm sure you have places to be, Pewter won't travel to you after all, and I need to get back to work. I'd suggest you call the good Doctor and talk with her. Call me if you find anything interesting.” He coughed out and ended the call before I had a chance to respond.
I rolled my eyes again, keeping the snarl off my face.
Despite his kindness during our first meeting, he was really bad with people. And while I couldn't blame him for wanting his grandson to succeed, I'd thought him better than that kind of trick.
Still, he was right. I had places to be. Standing up, I stretched my sore muscles as the sun crested the tree canopy and crept over the clearing, the morning dew evaporating along with the last chill of night. The light felt good as it warmed my bones, the last sweat drying on my skin before I put my shirt back on. I had already completed my own training before talking to Oak and I was quite proud that my knuckles barely hurt after punching one of the trees for a while.
Progress was being made. I couldn't keep up with Sol when it came to sprints, but I gave Siren quite the challenge.
If only the meditation went as well. The energy within me was getting more and more solid, yet it kept evading my grasp.
I'd get it though. Just had to be patient and not lose my fucking shit any more than I had.
It was possible that some of my punches had been a little more anger-filled than usual.
Clapping my hands, I opened my mouth to call my Pokémon over for some water and food before we set off. Yet, before a word left my mouth, I noticed Sol sprinting at me. His teeth were bared, eyes focused in a way that reminded me of the fight in the forest. He'd never shown even a hint of aggression towards me, so I was caught completely off guard and couldn't do more than freeze. The shock caused me to take a second to notice that his eyes weren't on me.
They were on something behind me.
With no second thought I threw myself forward, vaguely hearing something passing over my head as I did so. Sol shot past me and a commotion started up as I got back to my feet. It took a little longer than necessary as between Sol’s growls, I heard what was unmistakably a human voice cursing.
Turning around, I wasn't sure what to say. Fuck, I didn't even understand what the fuck I was looking at!
“GET OFF ME! HELP!”
Sol was on top of my assailant, nails scratching against metal as he pawed at the breastplate of the man beneath him. As in, the guy was wearing a full set of fucking samurai armor, bucket helmet included. His legs were desperately kicking, trying to force Sol off of him, while his hands tried to wrench a long metal bar out of Sol’s mouth.
Did… did he try to hit me with a fucking katana?
What.
The.
Fuck.
“Sol.” I said monotonously when my Growlithe pried the blade away from whoever the fuck that guy was. The canine quickly ran over to me and laid the sword by my feet like it was a stick he wanted me to throw and turned back to bark warningly, fur standing like bristles.
The Samurai, which was a fucking weird ass thought, got up as I picked up his weapon, cradling his hand as a thin line of blood dripped to the grass. He got over it quickly though, pointing at me accusingly.
“Your Pokémon attacked me!”
I was stunned.
Then I was fucking furious.
“What the fuck do you mean, you fucking cunt stain!? YOU ATTACKED ME WITH A FUCKING SWORD!”
“A Trainer must always be ready for battle! Your unpreparedness is your own fault!” He crossed his arms and looked down his nose at me. “I am the Samurai of Viridian Forest! What's your name?”
“Call me Dad, because I fucked your mom!” Got him.
He sniffed. “Such crassness. There can be no doubt. You must be from Pallet!”
The mention of Pallet set off a PTSD-like flashback. Suddenly I remembered him from the anime. It was the moron that Ash fought in Viridian Forest. The fuckface that jumped the group with a sword and ended up attracting a Beedrill swarm.
“So what?” I asked. If memory served, buckethead had gotten his ass whooped by all the Pallet kids and had a complex about it.
“Ha! I knew it! Two other Trainers from Pallet have come through here, and I lost to both! There will not be a third! Go, Pinsir!”
“Hey I didn't agree to a battle!” My words went unrecognized as the red light of his Pokéball solidified. Huge mandible-like pinchers, gray and littered with spikes, clacked menacingly atop the head of the five foot tall Bug-Type. It stood on two legs, dull-brown exoskeleton segmented by thin lines. A hiss came from its large mouth, rectangular teeth arranged horizontally, while its triangular eyes glared at me.
“Pinsir, use Vice Grip on that Growlithe!”
Caught off guard, I didn't have time to give Sol a command before the large insect blurred across the distance with deceptive speed and clamped its pinchers around Sol's midsection. The canine yipped in pain as the Pinsir strained with effort and lifted Sol off the ground and held him above its head.
“Ha! I knew that the others just got lucky! So much for Oak only choosing the best! Guess that money and rare Pokémon can only do so much heavy lift-”
“Sol, thin Ember, straight down!”
“-SHIT! PINSIR, DROP IT!”
Too late. Fire crackled to life between sharp teeth and erupted forth. We barely started training, but the progress Pokémon could make in a short amount of time was astounding. The pellets of flame were so tightly packed at that range, that they almost seemed like a solid stream. The attack washed over the Bug-Type, hitting its armor with the sound of hail on a tin roof. Screeching, the Pinsir shook its head and sent Sol flying 20 feet back in my direction.
“Sol, again!
“Pinsir, charge!
Still laying on the ground, my Growlithe lifted his head and repeated the Fire attack. Unfortunately, between the disorientation of hitting the ground and the distance, the Ember went wide before Sol could get it on target, allowing the huge bug to begin running. Covering its face with its thin arms, Pinsir ignored the super effective attack and kept going. Sol sustained the Ember, each bullet leaving scorch marks on the carapace. The closer the Pinsir got, the tighter the grouping became, the force behind them slowing the Bug-Type down more and more.
But Sol was still young and untrained. He could only keep it up for so long.
The attack petered out and Pinsir surged forward. It was clearly hurt, one eye squeezed shut from a lucky hit and noticeably less steady on its feet. Nonetheless, it rushed at my Pokémon, head lowered to catch him between its devastating pinchers once more. Sol tried to scramble out of the way and managed to get off with just a glancing blow. I tried to yell at him to regain some distance, yet with the first blow, as well as his size, he was just too slow. Pinsir quickly caught up and went for another Vice Grip-
-only to stumble through a red flash as Sol returned to my Pokéball.
“Hey, you can't do that! We didn't agree to switching-”
“Siren, Ice Beam.”
A jagged beam of blue-ish white energy struck the Bug-Type straight in the chest. Pinsir stumbled back, ice spreading across its torso. I didn't have to say anything before a second Ice Beam impacted its head. The triangle eyes were wide in surprise, the vertical vagina mouth frozen open beneath the ice cube. A third beam flew through the air and froze a tree as the Samurai repeated my trick and recalled his Pokémon.
“That's cheating! You can't-”
“Shut the fuck up. YOU attacked unprovoked first. YOU didn't wait to set the terms. So either send out your next Pokémon or fuck off before I show you what it feels like to be attacked with a sword.”
He narrowed his eyes at me, but I was serious. Anger management was something I needed to work on, but I'm sure even Dr. Enthal would agree that my feelings were justified.
“Fine, I'll take on your fish. You may have beaten Pinsir with that cheap trick, but it won't work twice! My next Pokémon will end this! Go, Metapod!”
I gaped in surprise as the green cocoon materialized.
Was he for real?
The Samurai interpreted the expression in his own way.
“Ha! It seems that you recognise your imminent defeat! But it is too late, you must reap what you have sown! Metapod, use Harden!”
Metapod, standing on the tip of its banana-shaped body, shone a dull grey for a moment before returning to normal, blank eyes staring into the void, seeing horrors that mere mortals couldn't understand.
I stared back.
“Too stunned to move, eh!? We will not let the opportunity pass us by! Your fate is sealed! Metapod, Harden again!”
Another flash of grey.
“Quivering in your boots!? Next time you should know your limits! Learn the folly of your ways! Metapod, once more! Hard-”
“Ice Beam.”
Like a boomerang, Metapod went flying through the air, ice encasing its bottom half. To my surprise, however, the Bug-Type was still conscious and managed to wiggle back upright.
“HA! No way a weak attack like that will get through our defenses! Metapod is harder than steel now and-”
“Ice Beam.”
Unlike the first time, Meatpod stayed in place and merely fell backwards, completely frozen over.
“WHAT!? METAPOD NOOOOOOO!”
Recalling the cocoon, Samurai pointed at me again, even as he power walked backwards.
“Your tricks may have prevailed today, but this won't be the last time we face each other and we'll be even stronger next time!”
He was gone before I could even blink, slipping between the trees as the sun chased the shadows deeper into the forest.
I…
I had nothing. That was fucking weird. I should probably report that guy to Oak or something.
Looking down at Siren and shrugging at her confused expression, I considered the blade in my hand.
At least I got a sword out of it.
Cool?
—------------------------
“Finally.” The relief of finally seeing Pewter as we broke through the cover of the trees was hard to describe. Sol and Betty were by my side and even the hyper-aggressive Dragon-Type slumped with exhaustion, before I recalled her now that we were in public.
Viridian Forest was a lot fucking easier in the games.
Nothing particularly interesting happened in the five days after the battle or whatever with the Samurai. We'd get up before dawn, train, walk, maybe battle, make camp, and train again. It was a somewhat monotonous routine that I’d nevertheless come to enjoy.
It was an exhilarating thing, watching progress being made in record time and then demonstrated against unsuspecting Bug Catchers.
Who were a real thing and, just like in the games, not very strong. But what they lacked in strength, they made up for with numbers.
Holy fuck, there was a lot of them.
An endless parade of Caterpies, Weedles, Metapods, and Kakunas. Individually they sucked, usually not even able to land a single hit, yet after 40 of them in a day, exhaustion caught up and every slip just made it worse. That's not even mentioning the actual decent Pokémon, like the guy with a Beedril or the grown-ass woman running around destroying people with a Scyther.
Fucking Newbie Crushers. No shame.
As for the Bug Catchers, it wasn’t like I didn't understand the appeal. Bug-Types were plentiful, easy to catch in their first, and even second evolution, and grew fast. Beedrill and Butterfree were even decent Pokémon that only really fell off at the highest levels of Training.
I'd thought about catching something myself. It was just…
…they were so mundane.
Maybe Gary had a point. I was getting spoiled.
“I challenge you to a Pokémon battle! One-on-One, you and me-Hey! Where are you going!?”
I didn't bother acknowledging the kid as he waved at me. I just kept going towards the lights in the distance as the city lit up with the sunset dipping below the horizon.
“Don't ignore me! Don't you know that my Rattata is in the top percent of Rattatas!?”
That made me stop. I thought for a moment and then sighed.
Exhaustion wasn't a good enough excuse to ignore a legend.
As Sol squared up with the top percent Rattata and absolutely decimated the tiny rodent, my thoughts were already in Pewter.
First, the PokéCenter. Potions had kept my team on their feet, but that wasn't sustainable in the long run and with all the poison moves and Poison-Types in the forest, I'd feel better if they got checked by a professional.
And after that.
It was finally time for my first badge.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I was laughing my ass off writing the samurai bit. That shit tickled me something fierce. Next time, we arrive in Pewter.
Thank you for reading. Hopefully you enjoyed.
Comments
wretched Cat
😆, the top percent rattata will be realized one day,.....maybe, lol. Great .chapter again man. Sol I'd once again a good booy.
