FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Seeming to show up at the most odd times, Cheren made another guest appearance right as we made our way to the stairs that were man made of course, that led us inside to the place where Twist Mountain's winding cave system began.

Cheren stopped ne before I started my climb, and called out to me, "Kynexn! I've got my Jet Badge now! Battle me again. I'm sure I'll do a lot better!"

He was right, it was down to his Unfezant and Pendragon, but Pendragon managed to overcome Cheren's bird even with a disadvantage. It certainly left a mark on him, as he was fascinated by when I chose to show how experience can overcome type advantages, especially if you can utilise the environment effectively.

Out of the middle of nowhere, a rather annoying voice rang out from the mountainside. That ridiculous laugh, that echoed off the walls could only belong to one person. "That was a fine Pokémon battle!" Alder jumped down from the mountainside with a flourish, landing gracefully and looking at us both with a gleaming grin.

"Alder..." I however, was not impressed.

Cheren, was obviously impressed, and so he greeted him with a reserved reverence "Well, if it isn't the Champion, Alder. I've gotten so much better. You better watch out." I was glad to see that his pessimistic attitude had started to dwindle, being slow replaced by optimism.

Alder paused, looking at Cheren with much scrutiny. He folded his arms and the smile mostly faded from his face, as if he had transformed into 'Serious mode," Alder. , "What do you plan to do with your new strength?"

Cheren too paused, seriously considering his answer. What was the reason for hm going on this journey? To log every Pokemon in Isshu? That was something he wanted to do anyway. Perhaps he wanted to prove someone wrong, overcoming a challenge that only he knew about. "If I get stronger, and become the Champion, that will be the reason for my existence. Being the Champion for me would be confirmation that I'm feeling alive."

Alder's smile returned and he lowered his arms, putting one on his hip, and the other letting hand lose. "Hmmm... you remind me of Marshal."As inspiring as this was, I certainly had a mountain to explore. With a quick dismissal, I headed off up the mountain, leaving the two of them alone.

"Bye, everyone. I'm off to face Team Plasma again."

Alder let out another wide smile. Cheren was definitely becoming something completely different than when he set out. "Goodbye Champion. I'm just gonna pep talk Cheren for a while then." This of course caused Cheren to let out a bit of a blush, even though it was still just the two of them and nobody else was really around.

Whilst exploring the innards of the mountain, I came across Clay, who seemed to be searching for something. It wasn't exactly UNUSUAL for a prospector to be seen searching for something, but he seemed distracted and unfocused as if he wasn't really sure what he was going to do next.

"Hey, Clay! What are you doin' round these parts?" I called out, trying to get his attention. And succeeded, but not in the most pleasant way. He spun towards me with a look of surprise, before seeing who it was and calming down.

"Consarn it! You can't just sneak up on people like that!" He'd just finished gasping, clearly startled by the abrupt noise. Once he regained his composure he began to explain what he was doing there. I couldn't help but chuckle at him trying to pretend like it didn't just happen, but it wasn't my fault that he wasn't paying attention to his surroundings in such a dire time.

"Well, I was looking for Team Plasma. Maybe figured they'd try to go all super villain and maybe carve out a base in MY mountain. They don't know who they're messing with if they think I'll allow something like that!" He said with an annoyed huff. It was understandable, they were just as much of a thorn in his side as they were in mine. Sometimes making their hideouts in the most obviously ridiculously in plain sight locations, to potentially having what could only be described as an evil tree house. So nothing was off the table for this bunch.

"Well, they likely scattered when Alder appeared. There's a chance that he may have gone through the mountain already and done your dirty work for you. I last left him talking with Cheren."

"Speaking of, where is the little scamp?"

"He should be coming through the Mountain as well, at some point. Not sure when though, Alder likes to talk... a lot."

"Boy do I know that," Clay said with a sigh.

Based on his personality, I knew exactly how he'd answer, but it certainly was fun to hear his southern-isms, but it was also reliable due to that exact same southern-ism. "Clay, can you keep a secret? There's something that I feel comfortable telling you now, considering that you're a nice honest stand up guy."

"Are you kiddin' me? There's no secret told I haven't kept! Well, 'cept for that one, but that's not the point! Anything you got's confidential." Clay said, putting his whole being on the line for it.

"Well, I'm curious to how you'll react. But, anyway, I'm able to understand Pokémon. I met your Pokémon in battle but I know I didn't meet YOUR Pokémon in battle. Would you mind bringing them out for a quick chat?" Clay's eyes lit up at that particular prospect, which is something that in this region he noticed that there was a lot more, out in the open aspects to Pokémon versus his home region of Hoenn, and his experiences in Sinnoh.

"Is that so? Well, lotsa people have claimed that, so far none of em really have been proven able to. But if you think you're one of them special types, then go ahead, can't s'pose it'll hurt. Come on out y'all!" Clay tossed his Poké Balls in the air, and they all opened at the same time and fell to the floor. There was quite the bit of light in the cave as they all popped out at once, revealing the forms of several Pokémon. A familiar Excadrill, and a Krookodile, from which I was familiar with as being related to the Krokorok I saw. There was a giant frog that was definitely new, but I knew it was an evolved form of Palpitoad due to the evolutionary similarity I was only assuming anyway, since he hadn't scanned the Pokémon yet, and would do so after politely asking. At the same time, a Flygon's form was revealed, as well as a Mamoswine, and another new Pokemon that I'd never seen before.

"Well, you've certainly got quite the team! Hello everyone." He gave a deep bow, which none of them were used to, and some reacted with further looks of interest, while the Mamoswine seemed to want to wait for it to be over.

The Excadrill, being the more active of the bunch chimed in first. "Well ain't that somethin'. Never thought I'd see a Human bow to a Pokémon." His tone was that of genuine surprise as well as a curiosity induced by paying attention to the conversation while being in the ball.

"Well, it's just, I don't consider myself above or below Pokémon, I see us as equals. A pleasure to meet you, my name is Kynexn." I extended my hand out for him to give a handshake to, to which he paused only for a short bit before accepting.

"Pleased to make yer acquaintance as well. Name's Buster.." It certainly was a fitting name and he wondered if perhaps it came from a time when Clay was far younger and this Excadrill was becoming stronger as a Drillbur.

"Buster, a very fitting name. Not that I'm a so called 'Name Rater' or something," I added with a chuckle. This however, was enough to convince Clay on the spot, who was wide eyed and almost slack jawed.

"Well that tears it. Ain't no way yer fakin' it. I never told ya his name, and as ya said, ya didn't even meet him in our battle. I'll be darned as well. Shucks. Well don't stop now, ya still got five more to meet." Clay said, with a hearty chuckle. It seemed that this encounter had completely taken his mind off of Team Plasma for the time being, He really need a good cheering up. The one that caught my interest next was the Flygon, which originated from my home region, so it was quite a surprise to see one in Isshu. His name was Mordin and for the love of him, he was the biggest geology nerd that he'd ever met. It was no wonder Clay had him as a Pokemon, considering that if any other reason, he'd be really knowledgeable about finding signs that would lead to a good prospect.

The Krookodile was clearly Clay's second main digger, who perhaps didn't quite have as unsurprising a name, Spike. This continued all the way up to the Mamoswine, whom just said the bare minimum amount of communication required, before choosing to go back to half hibernating again.

For a while we conversed, and Cheren eventually showed up inside the mountain, which meant that Alder had talked his ear off something fierce. Or, he potentially got caught up in logging EVERY single Pokémon that he came across while also doing a bit of a short study.

Clay cupped his eyes and saw Cheren coming in from the cave entrance. "Ah there you are, Cheren! Was just finishing up an amazing conversation with yer friend here. By th' by... You seen that Team Plasma crowd lately? It's high likely that yer Champion friend Alder decided to scare 'em off. But this is none of yer concern for now. I shouldn't have involved you earlier either. Squirts like you two should just enjoy travelin' with yer Pokémon. Twist Mountain's a fine place to explore! You'll have some fun if you just leave this here path... Weeell... Better ya just see it yerself, 'stead o' listenin' to me yammer. Be seein' ya, sprouts! Feel free to train yerselves on my mountain fer as long's ya like."

Cheren adjusted his glasses and I knew that that meant that it was time for him to speak. "I thought he was going to get me involved in all that bother again, so I was bracing myself before I knew it. I'm going in first, so I'll be seeing you." Cheren then walked deeper into the mountain path,

Along the way, following Cheren in, Ii asked some of the local Pokémon for assistance with searching as many nooks and crannies as we could find. It seemed there wasn't actually a base set up here, and in the process of this delay, Cheren had managed to find himself in the tail end of an encounter with a Team Plasma Grunt. I could tell that this was going to be yet another annoying encounter.

There was one thing in battles that I disliked more than a sore winner, and that was a sore loser. A backhanded compliment fell into that category. "Huh. Pretty strong... But you're only strong because you Trainers are controlling Pokémon!" If anything, he was projecting. Maybe that was how Ghetsis was able to recruit so many people. All I could do was speculate. This however, did nothing to quell my building anger.

"You're wrong!" I shouted at the grunt, with the ferocity of a lion that made Heji tremble in his ball in awe. Why the hell did this whole damn organisation have such skewed views? Ghetsis must have incredible powers of persuasion to get so many people spitting out the ideas that were put into them.

"Cheren is strong enough by himself! In fact, he's so strong, that THAT is why his Pokémon are so strong. They get their strength from him!" The emotion flowed from me as smoothly as flat water to the point of nearly being transparent. To say I was passionate on the matter would have been an understatement..

"Kynexn..." Cheren could hardly contain his surprise, but it seemed that this impassioned meeting was about to abruptly draw to a close. In the distance, footsteps could be heard hurrying through the path growing louder as they came right near.

The second grunt who appeared, was out of breath and didn't even care if what they blurted out would be heard, and were almost seemingly proud of it. The first quickly turned to the second one to hear what they had to say. "Hey, there you are! We found that thing we were looking for. We should head for the tower now" There were very few possibilities that that could leave as to what they had found.

With a quick turn, the second grunt, and first grunt faced us, with the second grunt speaking. "Get this! Team Plasma has obtained the power the change this world and end people's control over Pokémon. That's right! We must use force in order to right the wrongs of the world. Now let's gather around our king. Our lord N!"

Before they managed to scurry off, I hurriedly spouted out a warning to them. "Just because you can awaken Zekrom doesn't mean you're going to succeed. I've told countless of your members that even with Zekrom you won't be able to defeat me! I'm not going to let a bunch of grunts stand in my way."

"Kynexn? What are they talking about?" He seemed rather concerned that there was something out there that would be able to shift the balance of power in their favor, and that people like them had found it.

With a solemn sigh, I started to explain. "Cheren, I'm afraid you're not going to like, and yet at the same time you will. Team Plasma has found a way to resurrect Zekrom. The Dragon-type Pokémon that supposedly was involved in the Creation of the Isshu region."

"Whaaat?! Those Team Plasma bunch... they go the extra mile to gain power and cause trouble. How bothersome... Kynexn, I'm going to stay here for a while. I'm going to think a little about what the Champion asked me... What do I want to do with my power after I get strong? And why do I want to win so badly in the first place?" He folded his arms and began to pace in place. He was going to be having a meeting with his Pokemon likely, even if he wasn't able to understand them directly, their bond had strengthened to the point that they could convey feelings to each other and that was going to be a good start for Cheren in his journey of self discovery.

"Good luck on your soul searching Cheren... I hope you find what you are looking for. As for me, I've got a Dragon to worry about." Chasing after Team Plasma, I quickly rushed out of the cave.

Whilst exiting the cave I encountered Cedric Juniper, who greeted me heartily, backpack in tow as usual. Seems that backpacker life never really left him. "Hello, Kynexn! How is Tensa doing? Seems like you've had quite the adventure here. Say, I just had a thought--have you heard of Dragonspiral Tower?"

"Yes. I'm headed there now, actually."

"Really? Quite impressive."

Cedric's eyes lit up at the prospect of meeting up at the tower. He'd have a head start on me due to the fact that I was still aiming to collect all the Gym badges of the region., "No one has ever been inside. My daughter has wanted to investigate that tower for a long time, considering it's one of the great mysteries of Unova."

For now, I decided to keep it secret that I knew what Team Plasma was planning at Dragonspiral Tower.

"I'm not too old for some adventuring. Away I go to have a look at Dragonspiral Tower! Catch you later!" He called out, with a smile and a wave, as he rushed off into the distance. He sure did move fast for an old man, that much was certain. For now though, I gave a good look at the city from afar before trekking down the mountain pass to reach it.