playthough From Everland to Reborn ~ A fairytale themed run [Last defeated: Amaria]

[Candy]

2 minutes ago, J-Awesome_One said:

You are the queen of excellent story telling of Reborn. o.o I LOVE the ending with Florinia basically persuading Vanilla to help with Team Meteor. That was AWESOME!!!!! Something tells me you won't spoil this yet but I'm gonna ask anyways. Is there gonna be a point in this story that she basically thinks "Well... I don't mind helping Reborn from Team Meteor. I need to help out." Or is she always gonna be how you've made her in this chapter? Or is that not planned out yet? Haha.

That's what I was talking about when I felt this episode was going to be 3x cooler than the others I've written  (Besides the fact that Fern gets punched in the face too, which is great)

I will do you a service and answer the question. The answer is yes. I think though that the process in which she learns to think this way, while keeping a strong sense of self which she already has, is one of the major points on this playthrough. I hope I can do this great (albeit temperamental and violent) character justice...

[Candy]

Somehow this thread got 1K views Idk everybody who reads this cheesy excuse of a playthru but thx for the support <3

[seki108]

Well, that punch was some catharsis by proxy.   

 

Florina used Logic.  It was Super Effective!     I was going to try to fit this in the joke, but I couldn't think of anything good.  Just enjoy the pic:

Spoiler

 

[Candy]

43 minutes ago, seki108 said:

Well, that punch was some catharsis by proxy.   

 

Florina used Logic.  It was Super Effective!     I was going to try to fit this in the joke, but I couldn't think of anything good.  Just enjoy the pic:

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Ha, all of us saw it coming except Fern xD

Can't fight back when logic is wrapping your brain hahaha

[GenEric]

fern got decked in the face

<3

[Candy]

From Everland to Reborn ~ Episode 8

As Florinia had asked, I headed toward Jasper Ward, which also meant that I would have to walk to the northwestern edge of the spacious Peridot Ward.

I was still walking on the streets of Obsidia, when a girl approached me and proposed me to give my pokemon a haircut for half the regular price. I'm a sucker for discounts of this sort, so I went into the salon.

“Welcome trainer,” said an older employee of the salon. “Would you like me to estimate the friendship between you and your pachirisu?”

“You can tell that sort of thing?”

“I have a rare ability, which allows me to see the threads uniting pokemon with trainer. Unfortunately though, your pachirisu does not seem to have completely opened up your heart to you. I would advise you to build its trust by battling or simply playing together.”

I looked at Pikachu, and it turned its head as though it was confused.

“What kind of play would you recommend? Pikachu is a tag-along buddy and doesn't battle.”

I amazed myself, since under normal situations I would never inquire further on an unimportant matter.

“I assume this is your first pet? You see, it varies among species but pokemon tend to like it when you scratch the back of their ear or underneath their chin.”

The woman demonstrated by scratching Pikachu. What she said seemed to be true because Pikachu let out some purring sounds like I'd never heard before, and was closing its eyes to feel the comfort better.

“Try it,” the woman withdrew her hand and grabbed mine to put it on top of Pikachu’s head. I scratched the head and ears, at first with trembling fingers, but as Pikachu confirmed me that I was doing it correctly, I became less afraid.

“I'm now available to give your pokemon a haircut,” this time a young man approached me. The stufful that had been sitting on his table jumped off with glowing fur. Looking at that, Pikachu felt more encouraged to get the haircut and willingly jumped on top of the table.

After around half an hour, the haircut was over, and Pikachu came looking absolutely refreshed. Of course, having lived as a wild squirrel before encountering me, it had never felt the ear scratching or fur trimming until today.

The haircut was rather harsh on my wallet even with the discount, but I felt it was worth the while.

“This is a present from me,” said the middle-aged woman as she handed me a small vial of liquid. “It's an interesting potion which was very popular in my adolescent years. When you feel your friendship has matured, allow both of you to take a sip out of the same vial. The effects are temporary, but you might enjoy a little surprise.”

I inspected the vial. It had a label, but it had been hastily removed, because I could see the white remains of a sticker. I would normally never accept something from a stranger, much less something that required me to ingest it, since it could as well be poison. However, I guessed I could just accept it and never use it, so I did just that.

The smiling employees fared me well, and I resumed my trip to Jasper.

 

The thugs and gang members in Peridot Ward scurried away when they saw me walking. It appeared that the blondie I gave a warning to did his homework very well. Not to mention that half of them were also trainers I had defeated. I went to a store in Peridot to buy some super potions, but then I remembered that I had bought the ones I had from a smuggler and hence wouldn’t find them there. I hope Jasper has some good potions, because I’m almost running out of them.

 

When I entered Jasper, I instantly understood what Florinia had meant. The buildings were wrapped in long, thick vines which broke them as a python would break the spine of a rodent. I went to the east, but the way was blocked by large trees that seemed to have grown from the ground underneath the concrete street. The west was no different, and thus I found myself confused as to what Florinia wanted me to do, if there was no access to the PULSE. I thought that perhaps the cops would have some info on how to get to the other side of town, but the mere thought of interacting with police officers was gut-wrenching to me.

So I decided not to go in, and look for a way myself, when a cop who came out of the tunnel from Peridot Ward saw me.

“Oh, isn’t it you? The one who Miss Florinia say to allow passage?”

Yes, it was one of the pair of guards that were stationed at the border between Opal and Obsidia Wards.

“Yes, but I’m on my way back. Bye.”

“Wait, don’t go yet. You see, I’m coming back because there’s a shortage of police officers in Jasper. This department has been tasked to deal with the mutant plants up here, but not only have they been unsuccessful, they even lost more than half their officer count! Please come inside - the chief is sure to welcome any help at this time.”

Great. Now I’m helping cops on top of helping the anti-Team Meteor group. Just my luck.

“Greetings, I’m the chief of the police department,” said an old man by reflex, but seeing that I was accompanied by an officer, he cleared his throat. “Who is this young lady you are escorting, Officer Miller? ”

“This is the girl who successfully rid Obsidia of the same problem we are facing in Jasper and Beryl Wards.”

“So this is the girl I’ve heard reports of? I’d heard she was petite and quite young, but I didn’t expect her to be this frail-looking,” the department chief smiled, but the damage had been done. I already wanted to kick him in the stomach for disrespecting me so. However, I only held calm because I couldn’t afford being held in a prison cell over here in Reborn.

“I’m sure she would be of great help to us.”

“I understand. Brave young girl, I’m sure Officer Miller must’ve briefed you about our situation here, but the biggest problem right now is the shortage of officers. We would be increasingly thankful if you could help us find the five officers, who I have been able to contact save for one. For the last officer, I am not sure of his situation, for the one who picked up my call was his growlithe.”

“So only five officers, huh? Fine. I’ll be back when I find them.”

I left behind the two cops that looked as though I’d just saved their mom from a tragic death.

 

My priority, though, was to find the machine that was causing the destruction in the first place.

I’d forgotten to ask the officers about a way to cross to the other side of Jasper, but I wasn’t going to return to that Hell office. I didn’t have to look too much for the way, though, because a building I went in had a path leading to the Pokemon Center, where I rested my pokemon for a little and gained a new member (Golden Key, from Alice in Wonderland), before heading the second path which led towards a forest.

“Malchous forest, hm?” I said to Pikachu.

The forest canopy was shading all our path, so everything looked darker than it should have been. The grass was muddy, indicating that it had rained recently. I didn’t appreciate that, though, because my leaf loafers were getting dirty. At some points, I ran into narrow paths between trees, which occasionally tore little bits off my dress when I wasn’t careful enough. Fortunately, my bubblegum dress could be easily mended by stretching and filling the small holes.

At a few locations, I encountered Team Meteor grunts, who didn’t hesitate to engage me in battle. Again, extra experience for my monsters is not unwelcome. Especially since I had just added Golden Key to the team - it appeared not to be a strong attacker, but it had Prankster as his ability, which meant I could use status moves with increased priority. This ability was handy on this pokemon, because Candy had bred Spikes, Iron Defense, Switcheroo and Thief onto it. Unfortunately, I had to get rid of Thief as Golden Key learnt the move Draining Kiss, because I didn’t see an immediate use for it.

While we were walking through the maze of trees and tall bushes, though, Pikachu smelled out and found something useful for me. It was a big root. As I held the root in my hand, one of my pokeballs opened without warning, and Prince was out jumping and begging for the big root. I thought he wanted to eat it, but instead it bounced around happily with it, and went back into his pokeball. Whatever the reason, I had no motives to take his root from him, so I let him hold it.

I resumed walking for a rather long time, with my own suspicions that I would get lost in the forest and repeat a rather gruesome story of my ancestors.

However, I was wrong in expecting this, because instead of a gigantic gingerbread house, I made it onto an opening in the forest, where I saw a machine much like the one I’d seen in Obsidia Park. In front of the machine, I also found a person, though this was not ZEL contrary to my expectations.

“Hey there, I figured you’d show up soon,” said the young man with brown hair.

He looked rather thin and the dark circles under his eyes made me wonder whether he had even slept in the past couple of days. Either he was a fashionista or cold all the time, for he was wearing a red scarf when the temperature was pleasant out.

“You came here because of this thing, right?”

“No, I came to talk with some stranger with a red scarf. Stop stating the obvious.”

The guy seemed taken aback by my comment, but regained his default grim expression quickly.

“Of course. It’s a real shame though, isn’t it? Tangrowth’s caused a lot of damage.”

“I can see it. Can we cut the crap and get to the battle? I don’t have time to waste with the likes of you.”

“You’re impatient, I see. At least let us introduce ourselves. I’m sure we’ll meet more times in the future, regardless of the outcome of our battle,” the guy softened his expression. “My name is Taka. What’s yours?”

“Vanilla.”

“So Vanilla, who stopped the PULSE in Obsidia, correct?”

“PULSE?”

“Pokemon Ultimation Link-System Exaggerata, or PULSE. It morphs the pokemon and-”

“Amplifies its power to over its original limit. I know all this jazz, let’s get fighting.”

Spoiler

The first thing I did was to put Golden Key to the use. I set up two Spikes, since Golden Key did a good job in tanking the grassy attacks that were evidently boosted in power by the surrounding forest. After that, I just had to switch into Anna, whose Heat Wave I was sure would take out Taka’s team in the blink of an eye. It pretty much happened that way, though the combustion of the grass into a forest fire was not something I’d predicted. Fortunately the fire was contained to remain only on the battlefield, or rather, Taka stopped me when I tried to pick up Anna and run for our lives. The field change stacked all the odds in my favor, since the environment no longer boosted grass attacks but instead hindered them. Anna had no problem taking out the Exeggcute, but deemed a switch necessary when Taka sent out his chatot. Wolfie, who through training had learned Rock Tomb, took down the bird in two hits. I stayed in on the tangrowth, which by the way was hurt by the cleverly placed Spikes, because Wolfie had Fire Fang which would be boosted by both the sunrays and the flaming hot surroundings. I thought I had made a mistake, though, when tangrowth used Mega Drain. Fortunately the fire lowered its efficiency. After some turns though, I didn’t get lucky and fainted Wolfie to a critical hit. I allowed Anna to take the prize, for she was undoubtedly this battle’s MVP.

 

“What a loss,” Taka said, as he saw the tangrowth faint and fall out of the PULSE. “However, I have mixed emotions to see this PULSE stopped. In any case, I should let you know that there’s another one up in Beryl Ward, so come check it out if you’d like.”

“You’ll regret telling me this information, because I’ll go right now and break that machine in pieces.”

“If that’s what you want to do, I’ll probably see you there.”

Taka said this and disappeared together with the fainted tangrowth by teleportation. Again, that way of leaving looks rather dope.

After putting out the fire with Prince’s Bubble Beam, I took a while to find the exit to the forest because I kept making wrong turns. That, though, allowed me to find the four missing officers and one dog which lost its officer.

Spoiler

 

When I was finally near the exit, though, I was stopped by a loud voice.

“Just what do you think you’re even doing?”

I turned around, and found that the voice was from a little girl, perhaps seven or eight years younger than me. She had pink hair, which looked fairly natural. If it’s colored, I would perhaps enjoy a visit to her stylist.

“I was going to mess up those Meteor jerks myself! It’s not even fair. I’d finally got away from my dad so I could stop the bad guys.”

“Well news flash, little girl. I already took them out. Come earlier if you want to be part of the show. Bye.”

“Wait! I’m not done talking here. My dad! He doesn’t let me do anything, not even go after the bad guys. What kind of dad doesn’t let his daughter be the hero of the story?”

“You know, I don’t care about you or your dad. When I made a deal with Florinia, the list didn’t include ‘babysit a crybaby’. Go bother someone else.”

“Don’t even think of coming to stop the machine at Beryl. That’s where I live and so it’s my territory!”

“I’m headed that way, so you might want to get rolling,” I said and left the girl to her own devices.

Some parents really have it tough. I’m glad I won’t need to deal with shit like that.

 

When I returned to the Jasper police department, I realized that all the four officers were sitting in the office, waiting for my return.

“She’s here, chief!”

“Thanks so much for saving me, I’ll forever be indebted.”

As a reward, the chief gave me a pokemon egg, and the title of “honorary member of the Reborn City Police Department”.

Looking down at the egg, I chuckled at the irony of it all. What did I get myself into.

 

VANILLA RATES: REBORN CHARACTERS

Spoiler

Everyone not mentioned stays the same.

• Taka: 3/10 he seems different to the other Team Meteor members, but his attitude isn't an excuse to condone his membership.
• Heather: 2/10 her wish to fight the 'bad guys' is admirable for a girl so young, but she's obnoxious and I dislike kids in general.

 

Hope you enjoyed this episode~  Did you like the new addition of a battle video? Editing the sound (since I mute the volume) was quite a hurdle for me, a noob in video editing *_* Also, I got a cottonee egg from the police... I was considering whether to add it to the run, but I think we're overcrowded with grass types as is, so I'll keep the run as originally intended! Cya - Candy

 

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[J-Awesome_One]

Yay! More of this! Interesting moveset with Golden Key. Surprised with the friendship level with Heather though. I kind of expected Vanilla to like her a bit more. Maybe like a 5 despite being obnoxious. Great though! Can't wait for the next Chapter!

[Corso]

3 hours ago, Candy said:

Editing the sound (since I mute the volume)

So did you record the battle with no sound and add the music at a later stage?

Any chance I'll see my favorite "special effect"?

[Candy]

6 hours ago, J-Awesome_One said:

Yay! More of this! Interesting moveset with Golden Key. Surprised with the friendship level with Heather though. I kind of expected Vanilla to like her a bit more. Maybe like a 5 despite being obnoxious. Great though! Can't wait for the next Chapter!

Vanilla places quite an importance to respect. Those who earn hers are good to go but those who disrespect her see hell. Since Heather is outright disrespecting her (for talking like her superior) and her own father (who seems to be performing normal parental functions), her ratings are close to being what Fern's are.

4 hours ago, Corso said:

So did you record the battle with no sound and add the music at a later stage?

Any chance I'll see my favorite "special effect"?

Yep, that's why you might note a lil part with no music xD what's this special effect??

[Corso]

Do you remember my battle against ECT Connal?

[Candy]

1 hour ago, Corso said:

Do you remember my battle against ECT Connal?

yeah, since I didn't play gen 7 I didn't know what berserk was xD is that your favorite special effect? Unfortunately the lag is tremendous on mac when you try to use the animations, hence why I have them off...

[Corso]

Actually I added that aura effect, it has nothing to do with Drampa's ability

[Candy]

Just now, Corso said:

Actually I added that aura effect, it has nothing to do with Drampa's ability

xD xD unfortunately no one in my team's got the ability Trace, so can't use Berserk. but if you'll tell me how you added it, I'll add it at moments of berserk fosho

[Corso]

I just put a particular video (an aura animation with a green background) over the battle, then remove the background and change the color to match the pokemon's type

[Candy]

From Everland to Reborn ~ Episode 9

The next location was Beryl Ward. Again, though, I found myself unable to buy super potions because the way to the main part of the ward was blocked by mutant vines that threatened to asphyxiate anyone who approached them. Instead, I walked over to the long bridge, only to find an abandoned power plant shut off and a cave which had a giant boulder standing in the way.

Since obviously this was not the way, I changed my direction and went to the west side of the ward, where, again, I encountered a forest.

“Guess this is the Beryl side of the forest,” I mumbled to myself, not really liking the idea of getting lost in the grassy maze.

I was just walking and watching for any suspicious characters, when suddenly the ground sunk under my feet and I fell to the abyss, knocking the back of my head in the process.

I woke up after I don’t know how long, by sneezing into a white fluffy tail. It was Pikachu, who was instantly cheered up when I opened my eyes.

“Ow ow,” I complained about my headache. “Where am I?”

I remembered about entering the forest, but now I was encountering myself in a human-sized cage. Regardless of the situation, Pikachu still looked happy to be in the forest, where it could smell the grass and talk with the bird pokemon that watched us trapped.

I was about to set us free, when someone I didn’t want to see right then, appeared.

“Ha!” Fern laughed when he saw me in the cage. “This is too much. Only a sucker like you would fall into a trap like this. I guess nuzleaf are deceptively crafty, to be able to construct a sturdy cage like this.”

“I don’t need your opinion, and I don’t need to see your face.”

“Oh, I’m so scared. As if. If you’d like, I can help you out of there, since I can just pull on this little lever,” Fern said, and for an instance I was surprised he was talking sense. “I’ll do it only if you beg on your knees. What’d you say?”

“I should’ve known better,” I said to myself, but loudly enough for him to hear.

I picked myself off the floor, and took some seconds to stabilize my footing. Then, I walked over to the cage’s door.

“Are you going to make a deal or not? I don’t have time to waste much like you.”

“Shut up, who in their right mind would do that?”

I took a breath, stepped back a little and added some momentum into my kick. Fortunately, the junctions of the wooden door, which had been exposed to rain and dry weather over the course of a good number of weeks, broke off easily. It almost fell on Fern, but unluckily he dodged it in time.

“Well, that’s my cue to leave. See you, loser.”

True to his word, he disappeared quickly into the shade of some bushes. Not that I would’ve followed him. Today he didn’t do anything to get on my nerves, really.

I was picking up Pikachu, when I heard a voice. I thought it was a Meteor grunt or someone, but when I looked back, I only found a parrot looking back at me.

“You look familiar,” I said to it, and it spoke up.

“Liberate Vanilla, liberate Vanilla,” it said, but when I got close to it, it flew away.

“I’m sure that was that guy… the one with the red scarf, you know,” I scratched my head, but I could not remember the bloke’s name. “Not that it matters. Let’s get this business done.”

 

The forest was evidently less wild than the Jasper side. For one, there were few trees, and the bushes were smaller. Another thing was that there were man-made bridges and later on a little set up to slow me down by making me look for levers to flatten out the way. On the way, I found a narrow passage that led to a library, which if I must note, was in terrible shape. At least I managed to find something useful - the Field Effect read-out for corrosive field. I went out of the library, thinking I would definitely not want to be the librarian of that place.

Despite the cumbersome work, I managed to finally find the PULSE or whatever it’s called.

This time, though, I found not one, but three suspicious figures hanging in front of it. Multiple-personality-disorder ZEL pointed a finger at me, and the guy with the red scarf just waved when they saw me coming.

“Next time cut the puzzles. It only wastes time and does nothing to stop me,” I told them.

“Who’s this?” asked the third figure, who was wearing a tight black hood. Perhaps he’s bald underneath.

“This is Vanilla, who destroyed the PULSE in both Obsidia and Jasper,” answered the guy.

“Ah so that was you. The alley cat parading as a tiger,” the man said. “But we will put an end to that. I’ll let you know what it truly means to buy our wrath.”

“Hold it right there,” an additional voice said. I only know one person with that childish female voice, and I was not wrong. It was that crybaby whom I’d met recently on my way out of Jasper’s Malchous forest.

“Isn’t that Heather, the daughter to the Beryl Ward Gym leader and-”

“I know all too well who she is, but why is she here?” the man cut off scarf-boy short.

“Isn’t that obvious?” Heather answered as she unmounted her dragon. “I’m here to stop you evil people, duh!”

“How reckless. Weren’t you taught to exercise better judgement?”

“Who cares! I wouldn’t want to live by stupid rules.”

“Just because you do not understand something does not make it ‘stupid’.”

Ditto. Can’t believe I’m siding with the evil team on this argument.

“Would you shut up? I didn’t come here to get lectured, so get your team ready to get wrecked.”

The man, whose name I still didn’t know, accepted Heather’s challenge, and ordered ZEL and Taka (good, now I can refer to him by his name) to deal with me. Two against one? How is that even fair?

Spoiler

I sent out Golden Key and Anna, since the opponents sent out exeggcute and glaceon, both which are weak to fire. I set up Spikes and Anna OHKO’d exeggcute before it could even say its prayers. I predicted that glaceon would be healed on the next turn, but I was wrong. ZEL let its glaceon go down, but not before lowering my pokemon’s speed. Since Anna would definitely go down next turn thanks to that speed debuff, I switched her for Wolfie. Chatter has 100% probability of confusion, but thankfully my mons didn’t give in to the status condition both times. The infamous tangrowth was sent out, so I felt the battle was almost coming to an end. I healed up Anna, who I thought would be most useful against the grassy monster, while sacrificing Wolfie. Sorry Wolfie, you did well. It took me a little while to get rid of the espeon, and I was unpleasantly surprised with the revelation that ZEL had one more pokemon - an umbreon. Apparently they’re now a tamer of cat-looking dogs. Fortunately though, Golden Key is a fairy type with Draining Kiss, so I had less trouble defeating this one. At that moment, Golden Key leveled up and learned Foul Play. I underestimated how important this move would be for this battle. For Anna, whom I thought would be the one to deal with the tangrowth, went down to the Future Sight attack I had totally forgotten of. Really, when did that pink cat use it? That meant my last team member, Prince, had to be sent out, even though I could already see tangrowth regaining health with a 4x super effective Mega Drain on him. That is exactly what happened. The battle ended up becoming a slow slap-slap show. After almost exhausting all of Golden Key’s Draining Kiss and Foul Play PPs, the tangrowth finally reached its demise.

It didn’t matter in the end, because I ended up victorious. My team really is strong.

The PULSE was once again deactivated, and ZEL, noting this, decided to teleport out of the field. Taka also left, since there really was nothing left for him to do. The apparent leader, though, was audacious enough to just note his underlings’ escapade and try to walk away in style. Heather followed him, but he managed to escape*.

“Damn it! He got away,” Heather kicked a rock. “You probably remember those freaks say that I’m the Gym leader’s daughter. Might sound fun, but it’s far from it.”

“If you say so,” I said.

You could say I felt I owed her one for dealing with the third Team Meteor member, because I don’t think I could’ve battled against three at once.

“He just tries to keep me at home all day, and says I shouldn’t do anything at all ever. If you’re going to the Gym, give him a good beating on my behalf.”

“You don’t have to tell me.”

Heather seemed satisfied with my answer.

“One of these days I’m going to fly away and never return,” she said, and did something similar by getting on her dragon and flying away. I wonder why she doesn’t just go, given that her father has let her ride on that flying dragon? I may never know. Not that it’s important.

“Let’s go take a rest. I’m exhausted,” I told Pikachu, and walked towards the Pokemon Center.

 

VANILLA RATES: REBORN CHARACTERS

Spoiler

• ??? guy leading the operation in Beryl: 3/10 he's an enemy, but his arguments make sense - means he's a human capable of reason
• Heather (+1): 3/10 I'd thought she'd be a big talker but small do-er... at least she's capable of following through what she says

*I didn't actually rescue all the officers before the Beryl PULSE battle, which is why my storyline doesn't include the police officers uncovering the identity of a certain Meteor Agent.

 

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[Corso]

I didn't expect that transition, great job!

[Candy]

1 minute ago, Corso said:

I didn't expect that transition, great job!

I think I did a favor to my readers by cutting that 5 min long segment lol

I wanted to do a "An eternity later..." spongebob transition, but 1. didn't know exactly how and 2. was too lazy to lol

[GenEric]

so good

:<3

[Candy]

From Everland to Reborn ~ Episode 10

Interestingly, the way from the forest to the pokemon center and beyond were pretty much left unharmed. The destruction of Beryl Ward wasn’t as advanced as Florinia had made me believe after all. Once I healed my pokemon, I headed towards the Beryl Gym.

On the way, I bumped into a middle aged woman. When I apologized, she said not to worry and asked instead whether I was headed for a Gym battle.

“You know, Poison leader Corey has a daughter much younger than you, but she’s got some attitude. I wonder where she got such personality, for neither her father nor her late mother were like that.”

Heather, of course.

“I see,” I said to the woman before walking away. Although the short conversation was unwelcomed, it did give me a hint of the battle to come.

“Poison leader, huh,” I whispered to myself, and Pikachu trembled. No joke, no one wants poison.

I pulled out my Pokegear, because I remembered finding the Field Effect read-out for a poison-related field. It was corrosive field, which I assumed was what Corey would battle over. Unless there was another poison field. Whatever, that’s something I’ll ask Ame when I go into the Gym.

Spoiler

Now that I checked the field, though, I realized that I had only two pokemon that could be handy for the battle: Prince, with his move Earth Power, and Golden Key, who is a steel-type. If my offensive Prince was defeated, I would have a hard time, since my other pokemon have weak defenses and would get wrecked by boosted poison moves.

I had to do something. I returned to the pokemon center, and checked my box of pokemon.

“Fairy type, no. Grass type, no. Come on, Candy. Why did you give me so many grass types?” I sighed. “Kame can’t do much either, since his Muddy Water would be resisted because of added Poison typing.”

I scrolled through the list, and eventually found the pokemon I needed.

“Aladdin? Way to scratch my fresh wounds, cousin.”

Candy probably didn’t do it on purpose, however, for she doesn’t know the whole story. She likely thought she was playing a little game, since I did tell her a long time ago that I had a stupid crush on Aladdin. About 3 years ago, I believe, when I technically attended family and friends gatherings.

Being a descendant of a lineage of high status mages, Aladdin was also forced to attend many parties. He was a kind guy, but didn’t have many friends because he was born without magical powers and hence considered rather an embarrassment to his family. As it turns out, he joined our squad of unpopular nobles. It’s a shame that he fell in love with Jasmin, one of the most popular girls, and her poison ruined him completely. He disappointed me in ways I can’t bring myself to describe, but Candy, optimistic as she always was, has no clue about his change… and I have no intention of bursting her bubble.

Ironically, what a befitting name for a team member that will be used on a poisoned field.

With a little disgust, I grabbed Aladdin out of the PC and deposited Cinderella.

“Don’t be a jerk in the field,” I told Aladdin, but the poor meditite had no idea what I was talking about.

The addition of a new member meant I needed to train him up. I tried battling trainers, but they were all so weak! In the end, I had to grind on the grass next to the Gym. In the process, though, I had a pleasant surprise - Wolfie evolved into a lycanroc (day form). She also learned accelerock, but afterwards I had to choose stealth rock before it because I judged Wolfie to be a rather fast pokemon anyway.

Pikachu stood by as we trained against spearow, noctowl, ekans and meowth, jumping and dancing, using its tail as a cheering pom-pom. I guess Julia would be pleased with an electric pokemon like Pikachu. I wonder why she doesn’t have a pachirisu in her team, but it’s of little importance. I must train.

Aladdin, turns out, isn’t very fast, but “strong as ten regular men” just as the Aladdin from the legend, not so much the Aladdin I was acquainted with.

“Come now, Pikachu. I think my team is ready for action.”

 

When we entered the Gym, however, there were no trainers like in the other two Gyms. I shrugged and went into the field where the battle should take place, but there was nobody.

“Don’t tell me Corey isn’t taking challengers.”

It’d be too annoying and I don’t have time for this. Who knows, Team Meteor could be setting up a new PULSE while I’m here wasting time.

I ran out of the field room, which as expected smelled like artificial chemicals, and went to the display to talk to Ame.

“Corey isn’t there?” Ame said. “Hmm, maybe he’s in his secret room. He sometimes keeps himself locked there, though I don’t know for what reason. Corey certainly is one of the more… I don’t know, withdrawn leaders. He hasn’t been the same since his wife passed away a decade ago.”

“Alright, I’ll try to find that secret room. Bye.”

“Oh, one more thing. Corey uses the corrosive field and-”

“So I was right. Thanks for telling me, Ame.”

“I see you have already gotten the Field Effect read-out. In that case, good luck and don’t get drenched in venom!”

The display then returned to its default screen.

“Pikachu, can you help me find the hidden room? I’m human and can’t really make an educated guess here.”

Pikachu hopped off my shoulder, and started running around the Gym while I also tried the walls of the place. When Ame said ‘secret room’, my immediate thought was of a hidden passageway behind a bookshelf, as that’s what was commonly seen in comic books, but I had to think of something else, for there were no bookshelves in our vicinity.

I heard Pikachu’s loud squeaks and I ran over to see what it had found. The little squirrel was in front of a wall cornered by the right stairs. If I paid close attention, I could see that there was a barely-visible narrow opening under the wall. That part of the wall was actually a door!

“Thanks buddy,” I said and petted Pikachu like the lady from the salon taught me to. “Now we need to find a way to open it.”

Yes, for even with my strength, the door didn’t bulge one bit.

I checked my surroundings, and felt that the large lava lamps were just too suspicious given that they were randomly either pink or blue. I turned them on and off until I got them all to be pink. Just then, I heard a metallic sound, and I found the secret door opened on its own.

Pikachu jumped onto my shoulder again, and we went in.

“When people keep themselves shut off, it usually means they want to be left alone.”

The man with purple unruly hair turned around to face me. Somehow his face looked familiar, though I didn’t think I’d met him already.

“It’s midday. You’re a Gym leader. Come out and do your job,” I said what was on my mind.

“I will. I’ll-”

Just then, I happened to look at his table, where some black clothes were neatly placed.

“That hood…” I widened my eyes. “You…”

“Guess you caught me in a bad timing,” Corey said. “If you have figured out who I am, then do not tell Heather, for it is unnecessary for her to know.”

I stood there frozen for a moment, remembering Heather’s outright distrust of her father, and how badly she wanted to defeat Team Meteor, who was making a disaster out of her ward and beyond. Next, the conversation between that unknown Meteor Agent and her hit me.

Corey looked at me with cold eyes, and without a word tried to pass by me. I grabbed his arm tightly, but surprisingly he did not complain.

“I thought Heather was just a spoiled brat, but she was right about one thing,” I said, looking at him dead in the eye. “Your a piece of scum. How dare you betray your own daughter? How dare you side by those who kill innocents?”

Corey raised and flung my grip off his arm.

“I do not see a single reason I should need to confess my grievances to a stranger who has only come for a Gym battle.”

“I may be a stranger,” I said, holding back my bloodthirst. “But I demand an explanation. When Heather complained about you, I thought you were correct. Tell me why I shouldn’t hold the same opinion she does now.”

Our eyes met in a glaring competition. However much Corey’s apathy permeated his soul, my sheer determination must’ve eventually persuaded him to speak up. Still, that didn’t mean he would choose words that made his motives clear.

“I was cursed by my own luck,” he said, barely moving his lips. “Let us have the battle you wish. There will be plenty of time to discuss the specifics after that. In fact, I will be able to show you my true thoughts, in a way that cannot leave any doubt. I guarantee it.”

My fist loosened. There was something in the man’s expression which just made me unable to press further. It made me hate him more, but there was nothing I could do about it. I stood in his room for a minute while he himself left it behind.

 

As I’d wished, we had our Gym battle. The corrosive field was indeed a handicap for my team, and all save for Golden Key suffered greatly.

Spoiler

In the beginning, I defeated three pokemon with little to no problems thanks to Prince’s earth power. However, since I felt I should save Prince for perhaps the boss battle, I withdrew him to avoid losing him to a mareanie’s strengthened water move with potential poison typing added. I thought Elsa could deal some damage to the mareanie by Freeze-Dry, but I miscalculated that the foe would be holding a telluric seed and that it would serve as a shield on this field. I guess I should start collecting seeds and using them myself. Elsa went down, unfortunately, and I decided to send out our brand-new teammate, Aladdin. He took out the mareanie and later the nidorina, which was a critical hit but I doubt the blue rabbit could’ve survived even without it. The last opponent was a crobat. I sent out Golden Key, which was a wise choice since the bat’s strategy was to lower my own attack and speed. Golden Key’s Foul Play calculates damage based on the foe’s attack stat, so it was in vain. The problem why I judged I had to switch out Golden Key was that the crobat also had Roost, which healed itself when Corey had already used up his super potions. However, me, with five pokemon left and Corey with only his ace left, the battle was pretty much settled. I had to allow the crobat to faint Aladdin, but Wolfie showed off her newly acquired strength by taking down the pesky bat with a Rock Tomb.

 

When the battle was over, Corey gave me the most empty congratulations I’d ever received. He was also about to hand me a badge, but he was interrupted by an uninvited guest barging into the Gym battling court.

“I’m going. Bye,” was what Heather said when she entered.

“Excuse me?” Corey asked.

“I’m leaving for good, and you can’t stop me,” Heather insisted. “I’m sick of you and your stupid rules. I’m sick of you saying I can’t do anything ever!”

Corey fell silent. Heather seemed to await a response, despite wording things as though she didn’t require his approval. Meanwhile, I was feeling increasingly awkward by the second of silence, since I was sure this wasn’t a conversation that should really be heard by a stranger. Despite having no fond feelings towards Heather, I couldn’t help pitying her, for I knew what it was to be deceived by a person one trusted. It would be a lie if I said I didn’t consider telling her about his father being Team Meteor, but I held my tongue as it was neither my place nor my business to reveal such a secret.

Seeing that Corey had no intention of saying anything at present, Heather turned around and said, “So I’m done. With you. With everything. That’s all.”

“That’s all?,” Corey finally spoke up. “You can’t just fly away and wish all your problems will be solved by magic. I see I have failed even in teaching you the most basic things.”

“I can take care of myself. Watch me.”

“Heather,” Corey stopped her once more as she was about to exit. “Have you taken your mother’s ring with you?”

“I did, so what?”

“Don’t lose it.” 
I thought I heard his voice cracked, and couldn’t help but glance at him sneakily. He did not, however, crack his poker face, so there was no way to guess his thoughts. Even when Heather was out of the room, he didn’t betray the slightest hint of emotion.

“Ten years of torment… for her to vanish this quickly,” he said.

“You didn’t tell her your secret, which I’m not a fan of, but that’s not my business,” I said. “What is my business is to know why you are with Team Meteor. You haven’t forgotten you owe me an explanation, have you?”

Corey shook his head slowly.

“Of course not, but this place won’t do. Follow me to Beryl Bridge and you’ll know what you wish to know.”

 

VANILLA RATES: REBORN CHARACTERS

Spoiler

• Corey: 1/10 Can't believe he is betraying everyone.
• Heather (+2): 5/10 She is still an irresponsible brat, but I can't disagree with her choice to escape.

 

QUICK LINK TO NEXT EPISODE

[J-Awesome_One]

I've been waiting for your rating of Heather to go up. Very interesting Chapter this was. Loved the Gym battle and how Candy finds out about Corey being part of Team Meteor. Keep going! Can't wait for the next update.

[Candy]

9 hours ago, J-Awesome_One said:

I've been waiting for your rating of Heather to go up. Very interesting Chapter this was. Loved the Gym battle and how Candy finds out about Corey being part of Team Meteor. Keep going! Can't wait for the next update.

I wanted Vanilla to know about Corey being T Meteor, but missed the chance for not rescuing the officers in time lol

Yah eventually I think Vanilla should overcome the dislike of a loud 10 yo and realize Heather and her are pretty much alike in temperament and goals.

[Candy]

From Everland to Reborn ~ Episode 11

When we reached Beryl Bridge, the first thing Corey did was to send out all his pokemon. For a moment, I thought my coming there had been a trap, and that he was going to ambush me with all his pokemon at once, but that was not the case.

“You have served me well, but you are no longer needed. Go now.”

Three of his pokemon did not hesitate even a moment to consider his words and left, but his nidorina and his crobat remained. The nidorina actually tried to beg for her trainer to pet her head, but when she pressed her head against Corey’s hand, he brusquely pushed her away.

“Hey,” I let out, but he paid no attention to me.

“You’re not wanted. Go away,” he said, and the nidorina looked back once before walking away with a bent neck.

Corey noticed his crobat still flying by him, as though it thought it could camouflage and be forgotten.

“That means you too,” Corey insisted. “You're not special. Go away, and don’t come back.”

The poison-type leader waved his hands in the air to shoo the bat. The crobat got the message, and with much hesitation, flew away north.

“Why-” I started, but Corey did not hear me again.

“With those out of the way, I’ll not be needing these,” Corey murmured and threw away his pokemon’s pokeballs.

Finally, he turned to face me. His face looked like he’d aged ten years in the last hour.

“Now, what do you want to know, Vanilla? You said you wanted to know why I’m with Team Meteor.”

“Indeed. Why?”

“In my youth, I happened to stumble upon a certain Ruby Ring. I’m not a connoisseur of jewelry, but this ring looked so wonderfully dazzling, that I just needed to give it to my love who was equally as beautiful and perfect. My fate was decided right then, and in my naivety I could not predict how downhill everything was headed to.”

Corey paused and walked towards the bridge’s edge. Now his back was faced to me, and he was taking in the scenery of Reborn City from the tall bridge.

“My love died during childbirth. Heather remained, but her mother never opened her eyes again. Through a lot of blackmail and pressuring, though, I discovered that she had been neglected by the doctor, who was more interested in obtaining that cursed Ruby Ring than maintaining my wife alive.”

“What’s the point of the Ruby Ring? Did the doctor want to sell it off or something?”

“Team Meteor seems to be collecting certain artifacts, including the Ruby Ring, though the specifics weren’t briefed to me. I only joined them, after all, to strike a deal with them to allow me to keep the ring - the only memory I now have of my happiest days.”

“I assume it's the ring that your daughter carries now.”

“Yes. Now she has the cursed ring in her hands, and will be hunted for it. I can no longer do anything for her, but if you have an ounce of sympathy, do look after her for she’s naive and does not understand the cruelty of the world.”

“I won’t promise anything,” I said. Corey turned his head halfway.

”I don’t know you well, or really at all, but it does seem to me that you do understand it. At least there will be someone from whom she can learn.”

The right side of his face, which was all I could see from my angle, was grinning.
I should’ve read under the lines. I should’ve understood what was behind that enigmatic smirk.

But I didn’t.

“I no longer have the right to call myself her father,” Corey said, and with more energy than I supposed he would have, he jumped onto the parapet.

“Wai- Wha- Come back down!” I blurted out and ran to where he was standing, but it was too late. He had already jumped to his end.

“No… No…”

I stood close to the parapet. I almost dared not see below, but I also couldn’t help looking. When I saw his body, which was slowly releasing blood, I felt sick to my stomach. It wasn’t a novel sight for me, and I literally knew the man for less than an hour, so I couldn’t figure out why I felt like this. But the fact was that for a good minute, I did not have strength on my arms to pull my upper body right up.

“What a moron,” were the words that snapped me back to the present.

With trembling arms, I pushed myself to stand upright. The voice, of course, had been Fern’s.

“To think that I came all the way here to challenge a suicidal psycho. What a waste of my time.”

“You call your sister a robot, but you have less sentiment than her, you know,” I said in a low voice.

“Probably. I’m unaffected, because I just see it as natural selection, y’know. The weak die off because they can’t adapt to their environment. Think of me as heartless, if you will. I couldn’t care less. Truth is often times heartless, and I’m not ashamed to say it how it is.”

“Whatever. I don’t care about your foolish opinions. Just leave me alone.”

Perhaps I looked paler than usual, or he might have caught a hint of discomposure in my voice, because Fern looked at me with an eyebrow raised.

“Can't believe something this minor has you shaken. He fell onto Lapis Ward, if you want to take a look at his corpse,” he shrugged. “See ya late-”

Just then, I don’t know if it was an earthquake of something else, but the entire bridge moved sideways, almost making us trip over.

“What the heck was that?! Look, I see smoke coming out further south. Somewhere in North Obsidia Ward, I suppose.”

“What even,” I said, standing up to check the smoke.

“Well, I’ll be going to see what’s up with that. Later, loser.”

Fern left, and I was left by myself.

Now alone with my thoughts again, I remembered the last moments of Corey. I hated that I was so shook by a death so unrelated to me.

I punched the parapet, which made my hand bleed a little. Pikachu squeaked at the sudden motion.

“Sorry, I just needed to hit something, and I missed my chance to do it on Fern’s face.”

Why must death follow me everywhere I go?

Pikachu jumped off my shoulder and sat on the parapet, looking up at me with knitted eyebrows.

“I’m alright,” I said and patted its head. “Let’s go to Lapis Ward. If I remember correctly, that’s where the next Gym is anyway.”

 

I had to go all the way through Jasper, Peridot and Opal to get to Lapis Ward, but that also allowed me to find the origin of the smoke Fern and I had seen from the Beryl Bridge. When I was walking on the northern Opal bridge, I saw the number of people increase until I was almost pushing in between them to scramble through. Then I reached the crowd of police officers, some who recognized me from the Jasper and Beryl incidents, and got the inside scoop about the issue.

“Someone detonated a bomb and broke the Grand Stairway,” said one police officer. 

Indeed, there was a large hole on the stairs, which was still producing some smoke but not as much as when I first saw the explosion from Beryl Bridge. With the permission of the officers, I approached the gaping hole on the stairs, but the cave was so deep I could not see anything but the occasional flickering of lights.

“Probably Team Meteor,” I whispered to Pikachu.

Given that there was no way I could climb down the hole, I chose to prioritize Lapis Ward. When I reached to the large ward, which, unlike most located within Reborn City, was much less of a mess, I found a large crowd of people gathered in the north of the ward much like the one I had encountered near the Grand Stairway. I knew what that was about, and part of me didn't want to get near it, but I nonetheless dragged my heavy feet forward.

At the front row, I found Victoria and some other lilac-haired girl looking behind the building, where presumably Corey’s dead body was. Victoria acknowledged me, but was busy coaxing the upset child.

“Why… Isn’t… Isn’t that?” I heard the purple-haired girl uttering.

“Shelly, honey, step away from there,” Victoria said, pulling her sleeve.

“I… I… I can’t breathe.”

“Don’t cry, everything is going to be alright. Let’s go back in,” Victoria said, hugging the young girl.

“Isn’t that… That’s… Heather’s…”

“It doesn’t matter now, honey. Let’s go in and take it slow.”

Shelly nodded, and we were going to enter the large building, which happened to be a Gym facility, when two familiar faces appeared on top of some rooftops.

“I’ve seen those faces before. They’re from Team Meteor,” I whispered on Victoria’s ear.

“Agent Beryl confirmed deceased,” I heard the young man say to the intercom.

“Team Meteor? Don’t tell me you did this,” Victoria shouted.

“As if! That was-”

However, the man was cut off by his comrade before he could blabber on about Corey belonging to Team Meteor.

“We didn’t do it, but it’ll be best for all of you if you keep your noses out of our business. For your sake,” she said. “Let’s go, Aster.”

“Oh yeah, they’ll need us at the stairway.”

That confirmed my suspicion that Team Meteor was behind the stairway explosion.

“Keep shut and come,” the woman commanded him, visibly irritated by the leak of information.

When they were out of our sight, though, something even more weird happened.

“What is that…?” I pointed at something with a trembling hand. “Is it a ghost?”

I have seen elves and fairies, but ghosts were something new for me. In Everland, ghosts were regarded as the followers of the Devil, and hence we were taught from a very young age to fear them.

“Oh, t-that’s Shade. What do you w-want, Shade?” Shelly, who still had hiccups from crying, surprised me by asking the ghost with little to no fear.

The ghost didn’t reply, but instead made the body and all the blood disappear together with himself.

“What even was that?” I blurted out.

“Shade’s a Gym leader too, but nobody is sure whether he’s human or not…” Victoria explained briefly. “Let’s all go inside before any more weird things happen.”

Nobody disagreed. I was led to Shelly’s room on the second floor. Apparently this young girl was the Lapis Gym leader.

 

Inside the room, Victoria narrated what had happened. Apparently they were just about to have a Gym battle, when they saw a man falling off the window.

“As Shelly said outside, that was Corey, and this girl Heather’s father,” I informed her. “By some unfortunate chance, I happened to be right where he threw himself off the bridge.”

“Ah, this is terrible. Poor Shelly is only 12, and now she seems so distant. If all this complicated mess is related to Team Meteor, I need to find out.”

“If you want to check on them, they’ll probably be at the Grand Stairway.”

“Right. I’ll go there now. Whatever they’re doing, we need to know what our enemy is up to.”

Victoria approached Shelly, and lowered her upper body to reach eye-level with the sitting girl. She then caressed her purple hair, and asked whether she needed anything for when she was away.

“N-no, thank you. And sorry,” Shelly said, looking quite pale.

“Why are you sorry?”

“For making you two worry…”

“Oh, don’t be silly. I know I don’t know you well, but we’ve got to look after each other in these desperate times, see? I will be back soon, so take care and don’t force yourself, alright?”

Shelly nodded and slightly smiled. I was glad Victoria was there, for I couldn’t have offered such comforting words.

 

Victoria and I departed Lapis Gym to see what Team Meteor was doing in the Grand Stairway. Team Meteor had apparently left us a ladder, which smelled like a trap. However, we had no choice but to go in, right?

"I'll go in first, you follow me alright?" Victoria told me and I nodded. Here we go.

VANILLA RATES: REBORN CHARACTERS

Spoiler

• Corey (+2): 3/10 Dude is suicidal and confused. Gotta give him a pass.
• Fern (-1): 0/10 Sociopath and a jerk. How worse can you get? 
• Shelly: 4/10 Strikes me as someone with weak character, but seems (surprisingly) to be a normal girl in Reborn.
• Victoria (+1): 7/10 She's composed and speaks with clear mind. Definitely an adult.

 

QUICK LINK TO NEXT EPISODE

[J-Awesome_One]

I LOVE READING THIS SO MUCH! I was eager to see what would happen between Vanilla and Corey and also Shelly and Shade. Somewhat shocked you didn't give Shelly at least a 5 out of 10 but it's whatever. And now I'm just waiting for Fern to get a negative number on his rating. Haha. Unfortunately, I can see Victoria's rate going down in the next Episode or 2.

[Candy]

12 minutes ago, J-Awesome_One said:

I LOVE READING THIS SO MUCH! I was eager to see what would happen between Vanilla and Corey and also Shelly and Shade. Somewhat shocked you didn't give Shelly at least a 5 out of 10 but it's whatever. And now I'm just waiting for Fern to get a negative number on his rating. Haha. Unfortunately, I can see Victoria's rate going down in the next Episode or 2.

Holy are you psychic? Es tru, Victoria's rating is going down soon... and yah I wasn't sure about Shelly, but Vanilla doesn't know her very well and I don't think that "sorry for making you worry" wouldn't have sat well with her (since it smells like she has low self-esteem. Shelly should've said "thanks for supporting me" or something)

[J-Awesome_One]

9 minutes ago, Candy said:

Holy are you psychic? Es tru, Victoria's rating is going down soon... and yah I wasn't sure about Shelly, but Vanilla doesn't know her very well and I don't think that "sorry for making you worry" wouldn't have sat well with her (since it smells like she has low self-esteem. Shelly should've said "thanks for supporting me" or something)

Well I mean the next 2 times you battle Victoria, she essentially tries to make you feel guilty and I hate, HATE it when she's basically like "Ohh. You don't care about Kiki. All about the kids." Like fuck off.