Into the Unown (Pokemon Fanfiction OC)

Chapter 263

“Cro…”Brucey crooned as he glided across the ocean, taking comfort in the delicate weight upon his back. He almost never got to Fly with Nina thanks to the existence of that phat phuck — he once heard the noisy yellow haired woman call Nitey that, saw how much it annoyed him and it had stuck with Brucey ever since.

It wasn’t fair! As a Crobat, Brucey had four wings — four BIGGER wings! So how was it possible that those tiny little nubs could haul such a tubby orange package around so quickly?

“Kukuku…” Maybe it was time to help the Dragonite lose some weight. Images flashed through his mind of where the phat phuck kept his secret stash of sweets — within the yellow sparkly one’s bean bag. The Jones family Pikachu even helped to sneak snacks for him on occasion since he was too phat to fit into the kitchen without breaking things.

“Brucey~” came the soothing voice by his ear, he could feel Nina’s cheeks nuzzling against his back. “Whatever it is that caught your eye; no. We’re in a rush today. No time for diversions.”

“Cro! Crobat!” Brucey protested. He had been nothing but a good boy today. Though he would be lying if he said he didn’t want to spend more time with just the two of them.

Brucey had been working hard the past couple of weeks to master all the new moves that he had been taught. And as a reward, Nina agreed to Teleport a bit farther away so they would have the opportunity to Fly together to their destination — they were headed towards that sandy place with all the punchy Pokemon to challenge the loud, big belly human in order to test the result of Brucey’s training in a “proper Gym battle” as Nina put it.

“Kukuku…” He wondered if he would be able to steal the loud human’s shiny pants this time, it was really eye-catching when he saw it the first time. He would have to be careful not to use any of his moves though. Nina had told him that he couldn’t use Pokemon moves on humans unless she said so.

“Brucey~ No scheming allowed. Just be patient, alright? You’ll get to let loose soon.” Nina gave her lovable trickster a little kiss. Brucey never understood why humans liked doing that, and he couldn’t really feel it over his thick fur either. But he could feel the affection emanating from his beloved human every time that she did and it made him feel good.

So he reciprocated with a purr which just came across as a gravelly squeak, eliciting giggles from Nina.

“In the meantime, let’s just enjoy the scenery. Nitey’s too fast so we don’t get to do this usually.”

“Cro…” Having once again been reminded of his slowness, Brucey couldn’t help but feel a twinge of annoyance and proceeded to flap his wings even harder.

“Hehe… Silly Brucey. You know what would be good training? If we get you to Fly around while carrying Clody. You should be able to tolerate his toxic skin and he’s heavy enough that he should be able to give you a nice little workout.”

“Kukuku…” Nina did not know this, but that big brown blob was actually afraid of heights! Back when Sir Clodington was a smaller brown blob and he was a Golbat, he once pranked the Wooper by carrying him out the window in his sleep. It was the scarediest he had ever seen his stuck up rival. The way he cried out in panic and pleaded for him to be brought back down remained one of Brucey’s fondest memories.

Of course, he would never brag about it. Especially not to big sis. Because if big sis knew, then she would tell Nina. And if Nina knew, then she would get all angry at him.

“I love you, Brucey…” Nina whispered, sending warm tingles down his fur. “You’ve been working really hard. So let’s see how you perform in a Star battle with a Type advantage. Remember, harass, subterfuge and Poison. Chuck’s Pokemon are all straightforward fighters, you’re basically a semi-direct counter to them. Obviously, I’m not expecting a full ace. But at least try to take out two of his team.”

Brucey did not understand all of Nina’s big words, obviously. But the intent was conveyed all the same — part of the perks of being Pokemon. Especially now that he was evolved and more big brained, there was no longer any confusion. He never understood why big sis was so insistent on learning human words. Seemed like a waste of time to him. Or maybe she was just too smart for her own good.

“Kukuku… Cro!” Brucey would do more than just take out two of them though. He was gonna defeat ALL the punchy Pokemon. That way, Nina would have no need to use anyone but him and big sis ever again. Oh, and little Brinny too. Brucey didn’t know how to swim, he hated getting wet. And maybe Ra-Ra as well, Brucey loved how chilly the baby Amaura was to cuddle. Lil sis Azzy too, of course — can't leave Nina defenseless. 

***

It wasn’t much longer until they reached the shores of Cianwood Gym. And Brucey, being the considerate gentlemon that he was, landed them away from the sand.

Sand was no good. It was rough, annoying and got stuck all over his fur — big sis said so, so it must be right. And what was next to sand? Water. Yucky salt water no less. And Brucey hated getting wet, so Espy must have been thinking about him when she said that. Truly his big sis had the biggest brain.

“Thanks for the Ride, Brucey.”

“Cro…” The Crobat crooned at his human’s touch.

“I’ll take it from here. So why don’t you return to your Pokeball and rest up for the battle?”

“Cro! Bat!” Brucey shook his head in refusal, he wanted to be out with Nina for a little longer.

“Oh Brucey… What am I gonna do with you?” He could sense waves of exasperation and affection from Nina’s voice. “Alright fine, it’s just a short walk to the Cianwood Gym anyway. But make sure to keep your wings to yourself, alright? We don’t want you taking up too much space and accidentally bumping into anyone.”

“Cro!” Brucey heartily agreed and hugged his wings tight against his ovoid body before awkwardly waddling along in Nina’s wake.

“Hehehe… You’re so adorably silly, you~” The girl laughed. Brucey liked it when Nina laughed, because it meant that he did something right and she was happy.

“Kukuku… Cro!”

The walk to Cianwood Gym ended up being quite a long one. Partially because Nina had to match her pace with Brucey’s waddling. She didn’t mind of course. Rather, she occasionally pointed a camera at the goofy Crobat to immortalize his endearing visage.

“Nina, you’re here!”

When they eventually reached the Gym stadium though, the pair was greeted by fire-hair girl. Brucey never liked fire-hair girl, Espy told him it was her fault that Nina got hurt by that crazy-burn-lizard last time. Also, the emotions she emanated reminded him of those bad humans that liked to look at Nina with hot eyes whenever they were out and about.

“—Master Chuck has been teaching me how to more efficiently use my Aura, saying that training with your Pokemon was the best way to strengthen our bonds and motiva—”

“Cro!” In a fit of protective urge, Brucey enveloped Nina with his wings while she was in the middle of conversing with the pervert.

“Brucey~ Cut it out. I’m talking with Lilian right now.”

“It’s okay, Nina. We’ve kept Master Chuck waiting for long enough anyway. Allow me to escort you to him. I’m really looking forward to seeing how you will perform against his Star team. Maybe even catch a glimpse of your Mega Dragonite?” There was anticipation oozing from the girl’s every word.

“Hah. We’ll see… But unfortunately, I don’t think I’ll be needing Nitey for this one.”

Brucey could feel the mischievous thoughts being transmitted through their bond, prompting him to echo Nina’s chuckle with his own laughter. “Kukuku…”

***

Brucey exited his Pokeball with rapturous cheers. It was almost deafening, the air buzzing with excitement. It was overwhelming and loud and his finicky and zoomy brain absolutely loved it.

In front of him was a Hitmonchan with his fists up and peeking at him with an intense gaze between the gaps. Brucey had seen him before, he remembered the moment he demolished fire-hair girl’s Pokemon. It probably hurt… If he could hit him of course.

He watched as orange Type Energy swirled around the Hitmonchan, no doubt some sort of power up move. The punchy Pokemon was practically glowing in his eyes and he was only getting brighter by the second.

“Kukuku…” Brucey knew exactly what to do with him and Nina no doubt agreed as evident by the sharp whistle he received shortly after. 

“Cro!” Snatch! And the Hitmonchan instantly deflated with a confused look on his face. The tendrils of Type Energy fell apart and surged towards Brucey instead.

“Kukuku…” Brucey winced and his wings faltered ever so slightly, the sudden empowerment was almost too much for him. But the amusement he felt towards his opponent’s bewilderment saw him through.

Focus Energy, Quick Guard, Detect, Agility and Bulk Up — that was how extensive the Hitmonchan’s buff was in just a single move, as expected of a Gym’s Star Pokemon. Not that Brucey would know all of that. He just knew that the amount of Type Energy he stole was greater than the two or three that they had him practice with during training. But he trusted that Nina would know what to do.

And sure enough, after noticing her Crobat’s struggle, Nina whistled for his Kage Bunshin combo and Brucey eagerly obliged.

With his body brimming with stolen energy to the core, Brucey created his clones easily enough before invoking Substitute and disappearing into one of them. He didn’t even feel super tired after using the move, unlike usual, thanks to Hitmonchan’s donation.

He had no idea how Substitute worked. Big sis tried to explain it to him but he didn’t really need to think too hard about it. Nina bought him that TM ages ago, so all he had to do was feel it out. Just go like woosh and wash and schwloop and poof!

The Crobat’s form faded in place of over a hundred small Golbat clones — Nina had told him before the match to keep his clones extra small to make it harder for the punchy Pokemon to hit. But to his surprise, one of them popped immediately and it was super close to where his Substitute was too.

He looked over and saw his opponent Hitmonchan charging up a ball of energy between his fists. It was no fair! Punchy Pokemon weren’t supposed to have shooty things!

Brucey quickly scattered his clones and had them spinning around the Hitmonchan like a Hurricane. And as a matter of fact, it was a repurposing of his Hurricane. Espy was the one who came up with the idea, since both her and Nina kept saying that the movement of his swarm was too “predictable”.

It took a lot of lecturing from his big sis and a lot of diving into the phat phuck’s head for control demonstrations, but he finally got it. Basically, he just needed to make the clones swirly instead of the wind. It was even easier actually, since he didn’t even have to wrestle with wild Flying Type Energy to get it done. Nina wanted him to eventually be able to do it along with his usual windy Hurricane, but he hadn’t figured out how to yet without poofing his own clones.

The Hitmonchan at this point was frozen in place, guard up, Fighting Type Energy swirling around his right fist and watching the chaotic swarm of faux Golbats intently.

Not wanting to give his opponent any time, Brucey sent a dozen of his clones charging towards him. Only for the Hitmonchan to obliterate them in a single punch, even managing to punch a hole in his Bunshin Hurricane from the shockwave.

But jokes on him, the clones immediately went boom and splodges of sticky Poison splattered onto the Hitmonchan’s extended arm — Venom Drench and Sludge Bomb.

Hitmonchan hissed and tightened his guard up once more. It was too bad Brucey couldn’t figure out how to make his Poison air-y, even with lil sis Azzy’s help. But Nina said it was fine so long as he could make the Poison stick.

“Charge through, Saitama!” The loud man called. As if Brucey would let him!

The swarm Hurricane tightened and converged. But this was also when Nina called out to him with a warning. “It’s a Feint, Brucey! All in with Venom Drench before he catches you!”

Brucey shifted track immediately, sacrificing half of his remaining clones to bombard the Hitmonchan with debilitating Poison from every direction while the punchy Pokemon frantically began dodging and jabbing his fist out with a vacuous coating to no avail.

By the time that the chaos settled, Hitmonchan was covered from head to toe with purple tar, so encumbered that he could barely move at even the most sluggish pace.

Nina whistled, signalling that it was time for Brucey to end this. So he cancelled his Substitute and crashed into his opponent with Brave Bird.

The Hitmonchan proved resilient though as he bore through the pain and grappled onto Brucey while pummeling his fist into him with fading strength — it barely tickled the Crobat. And with a crash, the duo smashed into the arena wall and Hitmonchan fainted.

“CROBAAAT!!!” Brucey shrugged off the recoil damage and flew towards Nina in triumph, earning him affectionate squishes to his cheeks.

“Great work, Brucey! But it’s not over yet. Five more to go!”

“Cro!” Brucey huffed and got back into focus. That’s right! He was going to beat everyone and prove once and for all that he was Nina's number one Pokemon!

“Hahaha! You guys’ve got spunk! Let’s see how you deal with this one then… Let’s go, Libre!” The loud man shouted and threw out a vibrantly decorated Pokeball to reveal a little bird Pokemon with a colourful face and bright red feathers. But most notably, the bird was also wearing a golden belt with a familiar looking, shiny round gem that the green prank-friend gave Nina recently — the one that allowed that phat phuck to become one with their human, much to Brucey’s envy.

“Tch. A Hawlucha... Of course he has a freaking Hawlucha.” Brucey could feel Nina’s annoyance seeping through their bond, followed by a whistle from the girl.

Brucey’s eyes took on a sharp glint. Before the battle, Nina had given him a specific set of instructions. One of them being that if he ever were to see anything that looked like Nitey’s gem, get in there and steal it.

So while the loud man was making funny poses with his Hawlucha and riling up the crowd, Brucey broke into a Kage Bunshin once more and took advantage of the confusion to swipe at the wrestling Pokemon’s belt — Thief!

It was actually Brucey’s favourite move, one that he learned by himself back when he was a Golbat — the basis for the majority of his pranks. It’s just unfortunate that he couldn’t use it very often in battles since not a lot of people used Held Items. Today though, it was finally proving its worth.

“Kukuku…” Brucey let out a triumphant cackle as he escaped with his prize clutched between his claws. But before he could celebrate any further, he was struck by an Aerial Ace, popping his Substitute-clone and sending him crashing into the ground.

“Brucey!!!”

“Hahaha! Nice try, but Hawlucha’s are real territorial, which lead to them developing their Unburden ability. An enraged Hawlucha can catch up to an Egg stealer in a mere instant, so stealing from one is just asking for trouble… Now! Get in there and teach that thieving Crobat a lesson, Libre!”

“Haaaaw!!!” The Hawlucha screeched and began diving towards Brucey with meteoric fervour and a fist crackling with Thunder. All the while, a mirage of swords and feathers surrounded the Fighting and Flying Type hybrid to empower him — a Swords Dance and Feather Dance combo.

A sharp whistle sounded and the mirage broke away to empower Brucey instead. Libre the Hawlucha might’ve floundered in the air if not for his downward momentum. And so, the assault continued.

“Cro!” Brucey yelped and frantically scrambled out of the way of a direct hit. But the explosion of Thunder afterwards sent him tumbling around the ground like a broken marionette and holding onto his stolen item with dear life.

“Get up, Brucey! Don’t let Hawlucha catch up to you!”

“Kukuku…” One of Brucey’s wings were limping and his entire body was aching but despite that, he let out a haughty grin and with almost malicious glee, stared right up at the loud fat man before plopping the stolen Hawluchanite into his mouth and swallowing with an exaggerated gulp.

“Y-You! What?! Spit it out this instant!” The audience laughed at the Gym Leader’s astonishment and so did Brucey. To the wily trickster’s mind, the gaping look on the loud man’s face was worth all the Berries in the world.

“Brucey~ Stop putting weird things in your mouth! Now we gotta have Kerry look at you when you get back. But oh well… Sorry Chuck, I’ll ship it back to you via Pelipper once it passes through his droppings.”

Rapturous laughter sounded through the audience and Brucey began mocking the befuddled man by miming the poses he was striking with his Hawlucha earlier. However, right as he was messing around, the silhouette of Hawlucha, seething with anger, vanished in Extreme Speed.

“Cro!” Brucey yelped and raised his wings in a Quick Guard just in time to block a Flying Press from the Unburden-ed Hawlucha. The anxiety-driven speed boost the wrestling Pokemon got from that ability was insane.

“Bomb him!” Nina called and Brucey could feel her panic in their bond.

“Cro-bat!”

Libre the Hawlucha tried to grapple his opponent into submission while they were all tangled up. But before he could get a solid hold on the wily and rotund Crobat, Brucey opened his big mouth and barfed onto the colorful feathers of the Hawlucha to drench him from head to toe with sticky Poison — Sludge Bomb, Venom Drench and Acid Spray.

“Haw…!” In the aftermath, Libre was stuck to the ground with feathers weighed down by sludge and glaring up at Brucey with bloodshot eyes, his angry Aura flaring like a bonfire.

“Let’s put him out of his misery, Brucey. No point dragging this out.” And no point allowing their opponent any time to recover. The Crobat was starting to tire and Nina knew this. His stamina still wasn’t up to par when compared to the rest of her senior team.

“Cro!” Wobbling precariously in the air and keeping at a distance, Brucey bombarded his opponent with a torrent of Air Cutters which the grounded Hawlucha countered with expert dodges and Rocky projectiles.

Libre tried to Taunt at Brucey to get him to charge at him, but Brucey just shrugged it off. After his embarrassing showing at the bird Gym, he had worked hard with his big sis to make himself less susceptible to those types of moves.

There were a few times where the Hawlucha tried to empower himself again, only to be thwarted by the move stealing Crobat once more.

Nina was right that Brucey was an effective counter against Chuck’s Fighting Types. For most of these martial Pokemon, while their physique was more impressive than the norm, a lot of their strength came from these inner enhancements. And with Brucey’s Snatch in play, they simply could not get enough buffs in to perform at full spec like they were used to. Which also meant no ultimate oh-KO punches and the like.

That said, there was a limit to how much of these foreign buffs Brucey could absorb and he was already tethering on the edge, as evident by his bloodshot eyes and twitchy spasms. So, with a few quiet whistles from Nina, she forbade him from using Snatch anymore, much to his chagrin.

And quite unfortunate as well, because the Pokemon that came after Hawlucha fainted was Medicham, who also had a Mega Stone on her person.

Brucey’s swarm converged to steal the stone but was thwarted by a Psychic barrier that materialized from the Medicham’s mind. That was not fair! Punchy Pokemon shouldn’t be able to do the things that big sis does! And Brucey could never win against big sis.

But he wouldn’t give up that easily. Sensing that his end was near, Brucey began setting up for the others, just like he was taught.

He breathed out an icy smog from his mouth — Haze, which he learned from Azzy — and spread it all around the arena with a light Gust.

Then, while the Medicham was glowing and making silly poses with her trainer, he tried to mess with them by putting on a Mean Look and Confuse Ray while making all sorts of unpleasant noises — Screech and Supersonic. Unfortunately, the visual moves did not affect the strong-willed Psychic and the aural ones were blocked by the barrier.

So be it then! Brucey triggered his Kage Bunshin and Substitute combo once again, the clones looking all weird and deformed. But it didn’t matter, he had them all surround the barrier and just waited, until it shattered with a blinding light and unveiled the Mega Medicham cocooned within.

The Aura was overwhelming, like icky tendrils slithering in Brucey’s mind, telling him to relax and succumb. But Brucey just shook it off. This was nothing to Nina’s number one Pokemon!

“CRO! CROBAAAT!!!” Brucey cried and his clones converged as the Mega Medicham slapped her palms together in a burst of Psychic Type Energy.

One by one the Golbats popped, until only the real Brucey remained. But he saw it, right before the Medicham slammed into him with a Zen Headbutt, splashes of dark purple Poison staining the Mega Pokemon’s otherwise pristine exterior.

“Kukuku…” And with a final smirk, he fainted, passing the baton along to his next family member in line, most likely Espy. His big sis had been chomping at the bits to have a proper battle with a Mega Pokemon, just to prove that she didn’t need a Mega Stone to be strong.

The Crobat’s vision faded to black and his final thoughts conveyed to a certain Espeon simmering in her Premier Ball, the ruby red gem on her forehead glowing in vindication.

***

Author's note:

I was supposed to make some edits to this chapter before the public release. But when I finally got around to it, I completely forgot what I was supposed to change. Urgh...

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