This world is inhabited by creatures that we call pokemon. People and pokemon live together by supporting each other, but now the scourge threatens the safety of the entire region. Kohaku has become a dangerous place, where children stay at home and only brave souls go adventuring.
Welcome to KOHAKU. Come for the nightmares. Stay for the tea and crumpets.
The season is SUMMER. It is easy for survivors to forage for food from the land, as there are entire abandoned farms ready for harvest. On the downside, you can smell the corpses.
swarms
GRAND OPENING !
Welcome to KOHAKU REGION's grand opening! If you're interested in joining, come check out our grand opening giveaway!
It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single trainer in possession of a good team of Pokemon, must be in want of a very good training session.
Of course, the best way to train a Pokemon for battle was to make them do exactly that. For the past ten minutes her Nidorina and Staryu fought each other, always at a distance, always careful to not land any critical hits. Really, they might as well be firing at targets. Naturally, their trainer was not happy with this, but unsure how else to spice it up, Deryn shrugged called over the newest addition – a tiny, weak little thing who was just happy to not have to run anymore goddamn laps. “You. You’re on the same team as Nidorina. Now, fight.”
The Nidorina and Staryu picked up where they left off, more or less ignoring the Chikorita who was still staring up at Deryn. It took a moment for her to figure out why.
“They’ll notice you if you join in. Just use Tackle or something.”
The Chikorita nodded determinedly and launched into that attack, just in time to get in the way of Nidorina’s attacks. Damn, that looked like it hurt. Nidorina looked horrified, the poor thing. Deryn had never been happier that they trained in the dream world.
(Nidorina, Staryu, and Chikorita (if it can gain exp from being KO’d that is??) are mains, Poliwhirl, Drifblim, Dodrio are running more goddamn laps in the party.)
It was a lovely dream-day to make your Pokemon fight each other.
Deryn was trying something a bit different from last time. Instead of having her Pokemon fight two-on-one, she decided that they might as well have a free-for-all sort of battle.
And like last time, her Pokemon were still hesitant to do each other some actual damage. The Luxray, the one Deryn decided had the best odds because hello type advantage, refrained from using any electric attacks on the Dodrio and the Poliwhirl.
Maybe it was time for words of encouragement. “Stop being such a wuss. It’s not like you can electrocute them to death here or anything.”
The Dodrio and Poliwhirl appeared to be ganging up on him now, but still they held back. Deryn doubted that their attacks were even at half power.
Finally, she gave in. She threw her hands up in the air. “Fine. Fine! We’ll shoot targets instead. But I swear, if you lot don’t hit those targets with all you’ve got, I’m making you run laps.”
(luxray, poliwhirl and dodrio +12, skrelp, cradily, drifblim +2)
Deryn was starting to get used to the idea of compromising with her Pokemon. Sure, it was more than a little disappointing that they didn’t want to do what she wanted, but Deryn kept telling herself that they’ll warm up to idea eventually.
So instead of holding a mini Battle Royale, today they’re just shooting at targets, and they’re actually putting their all into it. (Of course they were – they knew that the punishment would be to run those hideous laps Deryn liked to make them do).
The Drifblim and the Cradily were predictably doing well, and when the Skrelp seemed to have caught up enough (although it’s accuracy was a bit off what Deryn wanted), Deryn presented the next task. A bit out of breath thanks to the balloons, she called over the Drifblim. “Use Ominous Wind and get these babies moving. Don’t let the others pop them. Don't lose.”
Then, to her other Pokemon, “You two have to shoot these out of the air. Whoever shoots the most out of the air doesn’t ever have to run laps again—”
The Pokemons’ faces lit up.
“—until tomorrow.”
Oh. Well. That was better than nothing, wasn’t it? “And the loser has to run double.”
There was something weird looking about Tangela, and the weirdness increased whenever it moved.
Seriously, Tangela were just downright weird.
But Felizia had had the Pokemon long enough to get over it… for the most part, anyway.
Felizia threw disks at her Pokemon who, in turn, hit them back with Vine Whip. And when they had lost all the disks, or had been hit too far for either of them to reach, Felizia – having no plan b – sent the Tangela to attack a tree. At first, the Tangela just lashed at the tree with vine whip, and even threw in a bind for good measure (because there was no way she’d let this tree escape), but then the strange happened.
Tangela used Mega Drain. A second later, a number of leaves fell from the tree.
“… okay?” Felizia was pretty sure that that had been a coincidence but the sight had still given her a bad feeling. It was like she’d seen an omen. “That’s enough, you. Let’s go home already. You can beat up a tree later.”
Just then, an eerie wind blew.
“Or not. Let’s leave the trees alone. Very alone.”
Ugh. Deryn didn’t know what kind of shopaholic thoughts had possessed her, but now that she had sobered up she somewhat regretted getting her hand on so many low levelled Pokemon. These three weren’t just low levelled, they were the lowest of the low, at a measly new-born level of one.
But the egg shop wasn’t known for refunds, and despite how much Deryn was going to complain about them for the next 98 levels, she knew that they could grow up strong.
Even that Magikarp that was flopping around over yonder.
“Listen up you three.” Her tone took on that of an instructor. “You’re new here, and you’re going to do what everyone else done when they were new too.
You’re going to run laps.”
The newly hatched Pokemon looked at her blankly, having no idea what that meant. And by the end end of the session, they were all too familiar with the act of running (or, in one case, flying laps). The Seel had flopped at a disappointingly slow pace until its belly and tail hurt and it could flop no more, the Fletchling flew until its wings felt like falling off, and at the end of it, the Poochyena collapsed, exhausted, never wanting to run ever again.
They had to become better. They had to become stronger.
Tiffany used a sign – normal – to help hurl things through the air. Targets, rocks, whatever she could find really. It didn’t matter as long as there was something for Mo to hit. He zapped most of what was thrown through the air, although, of course, zapping the rocks didn’t really do all that much. But that didn’t matter; what mattered was whether he could actually hit them or not.
It was repetitive work, and when it became boring, Tiffany switched from throwing things in the air to throwing things at Mo. Without warning. He had a lot to say about that, but there’s only so much you can say when you’re busy trying to hit things and avoiding being hit yourself.
<What are.> Zap. <You even.> Zap zap. <This isn’t funny—whoah!> That one was a rock; Mo had to drop down to dodge it. <That’s unfair! Stop with the rocks!>
How on earth were you supposed to train one of these?
Dammit Brett. “Whatever.” Deryn dismisses her question out loud and focuses back on the fish. Ugh, it looks as stupid as the flopping movement it makes, but Deryn holds her tongue; there was nothing to gain in insulting an unevolved Gyarados. “You can just… splash. Just keep splashing – and put some effort into it!
“And you two.” She points at her Cradily and Bayleef. “Fight each other. Grass moves only.” The Cradily, who only knows one grass move, is clearly not happy with the idea. Deryn raises an eyebrow right back at the Pokemon (because, c’mon, that Cradily was totally raising a metaphorical eyebrow). “What? I’m not having you throttle Bayleef that easily. Now get moving! I want to see some results!”
At least they didn’t shy away from the idea of fighting each other.
