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

[Candy]

From Everland to Reborn ~ Episode 29

I followed Saphira to Tanzan Mountain in silence, quietly thinking how awkward a contrast she made with the meadow of the cove. As we had hypothesized when we first passed through the mountain, the metallic gates and pipes were all Team Meteor’s doing.

“Let’s enter from here,” she said, pointing to a tightly shut metallic gate.

I was starting to inspect the gate for any protrusions I could use to climb it up, when Saphira suddenly asked me to step back. Glad I reacted in time, for right after I moved to the side, her dragonite sent a light beam onto the gate, which ended up melting in in a few seconds. I was already betting that she had brought me here to use me as a human shield, but I was also glad that she was so transparent that it was obvious what to expect from her.

Saphira went through the gates, and we were warmly received by two guards that were looking out for intruders. The dragon-lady, though, didn’t hesitate to hurt both their pokemon and them. I passed in between their bodies which lay unconscious and bleeding, but stopped in my track.

“What are you doing? Hurry up before anyone else comes,” Saphira said.

“Next time just battle their pokemon and incapacitate them,” I muttered, glaring at her. “We don’t need to be on the same level as Team Meteor.”

Saphira clicked her tongue and walked up to me with hasty steps.

“Listen, naive little girl,” she looked at me with her serpent eyes, holding my neck in her right hand. “Team Meteor is the enemy. The less grunts they have, the better for us. This is war. Stop being an idealist and a coward, and get back to work.”

Nilla circled around, making loud buzzing sounds, especially close to Saphira’s head. This distracted her enough to allow me to grab her wrist and push her away. The girl seemed surprised that I was able to free myself so easily, but then turned her back to me and went into the Meteor base in defiant silence.

 

The interior was a factory field again, with lots of rooms and sealed corridors.

“You can take the path of the left, and I’ll go through over here,” I whispered.

“No,” Saphira shook her head. “We’ll work together. No splitting up.”

“Why? That’s inefficient.”

“Inefficient will be if they capture both of us individually. At least one can stay behind while the other goes forward. Worst case scenario, they’ll try to kill us, but if we’re together I can dodge a bullet by hiding behind you.”

That confirmed my suspicion that she just wanted me for life insurance, but that wasn’t my biggest thought at that moment. Perhaps it was the atmosphere full of machines, or the Meteor grunts walking about, but I was taken back to that factory in the western edge of Peridot Ward. That time, when Amaria and I snuck into that smelly place, would things have been different had we worked together than splitting up to speed up the process? The thought stung my chest, but fortunately I didn’t need to lose myself in my thoughts, since right then a couple of grunts noticed us and came over to fight us.

Though Saphira had looked like she was going to exterminate everything that stood in her way, something apparently made her change her mind about killing the enemy unnecessarily. Instead, she fought with obvious bloodthirst but without actually causing bloodshed. However, her straightforward and at times violent battling style didn’t hinder her from being a creative double-battle partner. Since my pokemon were evidently weaker than hers, I quickly realized that she wasn’t just attacking the foes full-force, but also sometimes taking the supporting role so my pokemon could strike harder. Why? I wasn’t sure, for in my opinion, it would be a better strategy for her to take up the offensive and leave me all the defensive work.

On the western side of the base, we found the two children we were looking for. Anna and Noel were beyond happy to see that help had arrived, but unfortunately we could not find the keys to open the cages, no matter how much we searched for them.

“Don’t worry,” Anna reassured us. “Please defeat Team Meteor again, for then they’ll leave and you’ll have more freedom to look for the keys.”

“We only took a glimpse of it when we were brought over, but the Meteor admins that you’re looking for probably will be in the northernmost room,” Noel added.

Since we had no other choice, really, we chose to follow the twins’ idea.

 

We were just about to enter the main room, where I supposed we’d find some Team Meteor leaders, likely Sirius and either ZEL or Taka, Saphira was tackled from the side by a grunt who jumped out of nowhere.

“What? I thought we beat all of them,” I marveled, and watched as the two of them struggled.

The grunt was clearly trying to choke the girl, but I stood there for more than a few seconds just watching before stepping in to help. I pulled the grunt while Saphira pushed him away, and he eventually let go of her and fell backwards. Now that his face was visible to me, I recognized him as Simon from the Yuyeyu building, who had made friends with Charlotte.

“Assassin,” Simon said in a low voice, his face twitching in anger. “You’re a despicable human being.”

“If you, a Meteor grunt, thinks of me that way,” Saphira said and dusted off her clothes. “Then it’s a compliment for me.”

“Because of your stupid light show, Tara and the others have died and sunk to the bottom of Tanzan lake,” Simon clenched his teeth.

“And here I thought you’d enjoy it, since that was Draco Meteor,” the dragon-lady smirked. “Vanilla, let’s go in now.”

The gates opened and closed behind her.

I glanced at Simon, who was still on the smooth floor looking down. So the unfortunate grunt lost his partner in crime.

“They’re people too,” I remembered Charlotte pointing out back in Yuyeyu.

I approached the gates to the room Saphira had disappeared to, but stopped for a second.

“My condolences,” I told Simon without taking my eyes away from the gates.

The Meteor grunt didn’t move from his spot, and didn’t respond either.

I walked one more step, and the gates opened for me.

 

ZEL was inside as expected, but so was Dr Connal and a PULSE machine, this time hooked to an abra. ZEL was busy fixing the machine, apparently, but they’d sometimes disappear from where they were, and translocate to the other side of the room.

“Doctor. We meet again,” Saphira said, her eyes turning wilder than before.

“I see you are in good health,” he grinned. “However, I can’t say your presence is welcome.”

“For all the years I’ve known you, I knew you were twisted. However, I didn’t expect you to be outright stupid enough to join Team Meteor.”

“Why do you say it’s stupid?”

“They’re a terrorist group, for god sake. You’ll not only be sent to jail for your outlawed therapies in the orphanage, but also for being part of Team Meteor. What a dumb way to add extra crimes under your belt, don’t you think?”

Dr Connal looked unaffected by Saphira’s statements, however.

“Then you might find relief that I have not joined Team Meteor. I merely have offered assistance in exchange for them helping me capture what has been stolen from me.”

Right then, the gates slid open again and I saw Sirius entering the room.

“You,” Sirius muttered when he looked at Saphira and then me.

I thought he was going to fight us right then and there, but instead he pushed me away and stood next to Dr Connal.

“ZEL, I’ve just received communication,” he said. “Lin will be coming here shortly to observe our progress.”

Dr Connal and Saphira both acted as though the mention of this certain ‘Lin’ had grabbed their attention.

“N-now? Please stop her. Abra still won’t obey us,” ZEL said with a shaky voice, but then they disappeared and appear a few feet from where they were originally. “The PULSE is causing things to just disappear and appear without any form of predictability.”

That reminded me about Spinel Town, and the forest, where trees and even whole houses were disappearing and appearing elsewhere. Probably the source was this uncontrolled PULSE.

“We also have the damned earthquakes to take care of,” ZEL sighed.

“Put more brain power onto this, ZEL,” Sirius ordered. “Otherwise, if Lin sees this mess, she is going to have all of our heads.”

“Hah,” Saphira laughed. “Then maybe we should cause more disruption so this Lin person does the dirty work for us.”

Sirius gazed at both of us with a dead serious look.

“Don’t underestimate us,” he said. “ZEL, teleport them somewhere far from here.”

“But,” ZEL started.

“You won’t,” Saphira said, walking in large strides toward Sirius.

“Now,” Sirius shouted at ZEL, and instantly Saphira’s body disappeared into thin air. Unlike with ZEL, however, she didn’t appear in the same room after a couple of seconds.

“I-it worked?” ZEL said, visibly surprised by the result.

“Now do the same with Vanilla,” Sirius commanded.

“Wait, I can leave through the main exit,” I said, raising both my hands, but it was futile.

 

The next thing thing I knew, I was standing in a stinky dark room. Luckily I had a lantern with me, so I walked through the oozing green liquids and half-empty barrels. I walked carefully, but there was an earthquake and nearly lost my balance and fell into the probably toxic liquid. I thought it was just that once, though, but the earth where I was kept moving side to side at varying intensities.

Finally I found a man-made hole in the wall, so I went through it.

“Where am I?” I asked Nilla, who obviously buzzed in confusion. “Is this still Tanzan mountain? Or am I even in the same Reborn region?”

I shrugged. That wasn’t important now - what I had to do was find a way out of this cave.

I walked aimlessly for perhaps half an hour, until I heard a voice calling my name. Interestingly, I had not the creativity to call Saphira’s name as I walked around.

“Vanilla, is that you?” I could hear her clearly when I found a cliff.

“Yes.”

“I’m down here, but the cave’s echoes allow me to hear you quite well,” she said. “I’ll look for a way to go up. You look for an exit, alright?”

“Sure.”

So I resumed my aimless walking. I found many dead ends and cliffs, but nothing that looked like an exit. There must be one somewhere, though, for how else could people have brought in those barrels full of green disgusting liquid?

At one point, the earth shook so strongly that it knocked me over. Rocks and debri came falling down, but luckily they didn’t on top of me.

“Is everything fine up there?” Saphira asked.

“It's fine.”

“Whatever is causing those earthquakes must be close by. Keep an eye on that.”

I clapped my hands to take off the excess dust, and stood back up. Dragon-lady told me to keep an eye out for the origin of the earthquakes, but quite frankly I just wanted to exit this place without finding it. Unfortunately, that wasn’t something I could dream of, given my bad luck.

“Vanilla, it’s the pokemon that is causing all the earthquakes,” Saphira shouted. “It’s headed your way!”

Indeed. Nilla and I saw the pokemon, and the lilac firefly instantly hid herself behind me.

The pokemon’s metalic head, which was probably around five times my height, rose up from the depths of the cliff. It was a steelix, but given its default face, I couldn’t tell if this one was angry or neutral to see me.

It screamed at me, which probably meant it was angry.

“Vanilla, keep your calm,” Saphira said. “I’ll try to help you out but from here I can barely even see the tail of the steelix.”

Keep my calm? Easy to say that when you aren’t being glared by a gigantic monstrosity.

Anyhow, I did the only sensible thing I could do: battle.

Spoiler

 

When the steelix was defeated, it slid off the cliff and down to the depths. However, just moments later, the same metallic snake climbed its head back up, this time having Saphira sitting on top of its forehead.

“Listen Vanilla. I’ll go rescue the kids on this steelix. You try to deactivate that uncontrollable PULSE, you hear me?”

“Fine,” I said, and grabbed the hand that she extended for me. Even though deactivating that abra was going to be a pain, riding a metallic snake wasn't particularly pleasurable to me either.

 

It turned out that we had been underneath the Tanzan mountain Team Meteor base all this time.

As Saphira had planned, she left me close to the entrance to the base, while she exited the mountain and turned around to make a huge hole on the wall of the base’s western end.

“Nilla, let’s go,” I said, running all the way through the base, ignoring the grunts who looked at me as though they’d seen a ghost.

When I entered the infamous PULSE room, Sirius glared at me with his one eye.

“Vanilla’s back. That machine really is useless,” he sighed. “I’ll leave her to you, ZEL. I have to be at the entrance to see if I can delay Lin in anyway possible.”

When Sirius went out the room, ZEL disappeared and appeared once more.

“This piece of junk,” they muttered and teleported again.

“Perhaps it would be best to have Vanilla take the initiative to inactivate the PULSE all together,” Dr Connal suggested. “After all, she has come here to do just that.”

“Sounds like a plan. See if you can actually do it, Vanilla,” ZEL spat.

Spoiler

Indeed, this was a much more challenging fight than my previous ones. Actually, it was so hard a battle that I lost once, twice… I didn’t really count how many times. ZEL and Dr Connal laughed at me everytime I failed, but I knew there would be a combination of team members which I simply was getting wrong. So I borrowed Team Meteor’s computer and chose a new team every time I challenged the PULSE. Part of me hoped the machine would get tired of trying and exhaust itself, but it just did not happen. Fortunately, my suspicion was right: I did have great mons, which could be sent out in one certain way to defeat PULSE abra.

Though the battle had been tiring, the moment abra slid down of the PULSE machine unconscious was one of the most satisfying moments of my life.

“Great, now we have nothing, which is better than a mess,” ZEL rolled their eyes.

However, since I took so long to deactivate the machine, I lost my chance to escape before Lin’s arrival. Sirius came into the room and announced that Lin had arrived.

“You’re still here Vanilla? You don’t understand. You’re placing both your miserable life and ours in danger by being here.”

“I planned to leave, but unfortunately I’m still here,” I replied.

“Look, Vanilla. I have an idea which none of us will like but it’s the only way to escape with our necks intact,” Sirius said, and I could tell he was agitated. “You will pretend you’re a new recruit. Don’t say anything stupid.”

Just then, the gates opened and an adult woman with long green hair appeared.

“Sirius, you are standing in my way,” she said barely moving her mouth.

“Excuse my imprudence,” Sirius said and quickly jolted out of her way.

“Report,” Lin demanded.

“We experimented with using the PULSE to amplify abra’s power to teleport a party into the heart of the ruin,” he explained. “However, in the end, abra’s power could not be controlled and the project was terminated.”

“Incompetent,” was Lin’s feedback.

She looked directly at me, with a gaze so sharp that could have pierced through my chest.

“Why are these here?”

Sirius looked at me and then back at Lin with a vague smile.

“This is Vanilla, a new recruit. She helped us with the PULSE-Abra project.”

The woman did not make any expression, not even one of disgust, but she seemed somehow aware that I wasn’t who Sirius was saying I was.

“Lying becomes you, Sirius,” she said. “And the other?”

She was referring to Dr Connal, who came forward and introduced himself as the intelligent academic he supposedly was. He was brave, though, for briefly asking her whether they had met each other before, which I thought would earn himself a death sentence on the spot, if Lin really was as formidable as people made her seem. Lin denied acquaintance, but said nothing more.

Rather than her not saying more, though, it would be more appropriate to say that she was prevented from inquiring anymore. That is, after a strong shaking of the floor, a grunt came into the room and announced that a giant steelix had broken through the western wall of the base.

“A what?” Sirius asked, very puzzled and probably with despair levels off the charts by now.

“You wouldn’t know about this, would you, Vanilla?” Lin asked me and I just shrugged.

Since she saw she wasn’t going to get any response from me, Lin turned to the gates.

“Size doesn’t equate strength. I’ll deal with this.”

 

Whatever happened outside of the base, I had no way of knowing. However, one thing was certain: I had never been inside a building that shook so much as it did a few minutes after Lin left the room. All four of us fell down and slid back and forth on the floor even though we were trying to hold on.

Once the shaking subsided, though, Sirius roughly pulled me by the arm up to my feet.

“Go now Vanilla. If Lin doesn’t see you again when she comes back, it’ll be the best outcome for all of us.”

I didn’t need further encouragement. I ran out of the room, and tried to dodge the pieces of broken ceiling that were falling down everywhere.

“Nilla, fly very close to me. I don’t want you to get hurt by all this debris.”

 

We finally made it out of the mountain and onto the Tanzan meadow. The twins were there, likely waiting for Saphira.

“Vanilla, let’s go back,” Noel said, however.

“Wait, what about Saphira?”

Noel and Anna looked at each other.

“I don’t think she’ll be back anytime soon,” Anna said. “We just saw her falling onto the mountain together with the steelix.”

 

VANILLA RATES: REBORN CHARACTERS

Spoiler

• Saphira (-1): 1/10 For killing the Meteor guards unnecessarily and then insulting me.
• Simon (+1): 4/10 He is hurting because of the loss of Tara, and didn't just stand back but tried to avenge her death.
• Lin: -2/10 She's the leader of Team Meteor, who has allowed people like Solaris do as he wishes (hence deserves the rating Solaris has).

 

QUICK LINK TO NEXT EPISODE

[....]

Oh,she met Lin finally!

 

Also,

 

Anna is the real mvp~

 

The amount of effort she puts in is unbelievable~

 

 

[Candy]

3 minutes ago, Thundermaze said:

Oh,she met Lin finally!

 

Also,

 

Anna is the real mvp~

 

The amount of effort she puts in is unbelievable~

 

 

Anna + drought is OP xD But I literally had to repeat this battle like 10 times because once I had the "let's burn!!" plan, I realized the abra had magic guard and I was like FUUUUU. But then I found out Bambi can learn Worry Seed (I swear never used this move in my life) to change the ability to Insomnia haha

But also at some point (I don't remember when) Vanilla's going to switch Anna's ability to flash fire... for at least 1 or 2 battles

[....]

@Candy I look forward to your new battles ~

[J-Awesome_One]

You are keeping me more and more interested in this as you continue! I was not expecting a rating from Simon though. Hmm. Ohh well. I like that you changed it from the game's usual "Scooby doo plan" (aka LET'S SPLIT UP GANG!) to let's just stick together. And the little throwback to... To... Idw to think about it! :'( Anyways, great work as always!

[seki108]

While I've never agreed with superhero logic, I do think it fits Vanilla's character well enough.  I do wonder if that attitude will connect with her past tragedy.

 

Like Awesome said above, I am enjoying how you are handling the alterations.  Another excellent read.

[GenEric]

vanilla is as cool as ice~

[Candy]

From Everland to Reborn ~ Episode 30

I escorted the children home, and told the others who waited inside about the event of Saphira’s probable death. Shelly and Laura showed shock on their faces - especially the latter, who started shedding tears; however, Charlotte was adamant not to believe a word I said.

“Please. Saphira would’ve sent out dragonite to help her mid-air. The people in our family don’t go down that easily.”

I neither agreed nor refuted her idea. Saphira was a dependable ally, but also a dislikeable human and hence I wasn’t sure whether her help or her absence was actually best for the integrity of the group.

All of us sat down on the corner of the living room, where previously I had found Shelly sitting alone. For now, it seemed that we needed to have everyone on the same page.

Noel was the first to ask a question.

“Vanilla, when Saphira’s steelix fell down, we saw a woman riding a hydreigon. Do you happen to know who that was?”

“There was a woman?” Anna batted her eyes. “I didn’t see anyone.”

“Yes Anna, that hydreigon didn’t just appear on its own.”

“If it’s a woman with green hair, I’d presume it was Lin,” I replied.

“Lin?” Charlotte asked for confirmation. “That is a gross name.”

Though I didn’t know much about the details, it seemed that Dr Connal and the kids from the orphanage had some recollection of the name, though perhaps not of the woman. Lin isn’t that uncommon of a name, so I imagined they were confusing Team Meteor’s leader with someone else. Not that green-haired Lin wasn’t disgusting by herself.

“This Lin appears to be the true leader of Team Meteor. She’s feared by all and has a reputation for being merciless,” I explained all that I knew about this new character. “Since they already know we’re hidden here, I’d recommend moving out to another place.”

“Um, Charlotte. You said this is y-your vacation home, right? Um, what about moving to, um, your main residence?” Shelly suggested with much hesitation.

However, the suggestion somehow did not sit well with Charlotte. She looked at Shelly as though she were in the presence of the devil itself. Laura also captured her sister’s sudden ill mood and tried to return peace to the group.

“I’m sorry, Shelly. Unfortunately our main residence was… burnt… and so we only have this place.”

“Ah, I’m s-sorry for asking,” the shy girl said and shrunk, avoiding to meet eyes with Charlotte.

“In any case, I refuse to move out of here until we get news from Saphira or she comes back,” Charlotte said, trying to hide her irritation without success.

The conversation met its end there and we sat there in silence, waiting for someone to start a new one. I saw Laura unable to decide where to place her gaze, and looking at everyone’s faces by turns. Shelly just looked down on her thighs, and Charlotte just crossed her arms as though she were deep in her thoughts. Noel was indifferent about the silence, but Anna could barely contain herself. As I thought she would, she broke the silence when it had barely started.

“What about we have a Gym match for Vanilla while we wait for Saphira?” she suggested? “After all we have two Gym leaders here, and it’s best for her to get some more training, right?”

“I don’t dislike the idea,” Charlotte shrugged. “But I’ll pass. Vanilla isn’t on my level yet.”

Though the comment intuitively annoyed me, I had to admit that it was true. After all, I had seen Charlotte fight, and in turn she had seen me fight. There was no counter argument.

“I will fight her then,” Noel agreed. “Let’s go outside?”

I looked out of the window, and saw that it had started raining outside.

"Give me a minute to get my team ready," I said.

Noel nodded and told me he'd be waiting. The others, too, went outside despite the rain.

The reason for my concerning about the weather was that I knew Noel was a Normal-type leader, and hence I would have trouble if I accidentally set up the Rainbow Field. From prior experience, I knew that Anna's ability would create that field when it was raining, so I had to make sure she had Flash Fire instead. It hurt having to use an Ability Capsule just for this, but well, this was one of those things I could easily predict and correct.

Everything else would have to be left to the unpredictable battlefield.

 

Outside, I saw that Shelly had volunteered to be the referee, which rather surprised me.

When Noel and I took our places to start the battle, Nilla stood in front of me as though she believed she was going to battle with my team.

“Come over, Nilla,” I called. “Unfortunately you aren’t going to battle.”

The firefly looked at me with puppy-eyed disappointment. Perhaps she thought I would give in if she flew around me in circles all the while keeping that face, but the rules I had made for myself were set in stone. I was going to clear the league using my 12 teammates, who would also come back with me to Everland and be my allies in a bet of life-or-death.

“Nilla, don’t inconvenience Vanilla,” Shelly told her, and Nilla sat down next to me, pouting.

“She’s a lively pokemon, isn’t she?” Noel chuckled. “Now, shall we start the battle?”

“Of course,” I replied, sending out Kame.

Spoiler

On the first trial - for it took me three to beat Noel - I managed to defeat five of Noel’s pokemon, but then he pulled a stalling strategy with his clefable at the very end. Since the only remedy against fairy-types is Golden Key, who doesn’t have offensive stats one could boast, I was left with a hyper defensive monster in front of us. The second trial was the same, but it was because I had thought of using a combination of Will-O-Wisp and Heal Block, but realized too late that clefable had Magic Guard, an ability that made it immune to burn damage. It had also been the ability of PULSE Abra, however, so I already had a strategy under my belt. The third try was definite, thanks to Bambi’s Worry Seed changing the pink pixie’s ability to Insomnia.

 

“Nice job,” Noel said as his clefable fainted. “But don’t deny that it was a challenging battle.”

“No, I won’t deny it,” I agreed.

After all, it had been the first Gym battle that I couldn’t beat on the first try.

Noel gave me his badge and the TM for Hidden Power. It was this move which his clefable used and was super-effective against steel type Golden Key. Noel followed with an explanation that this move changed types based on individual pokemon. I guess I’d have to wait to meet someone who could tell me what my pokemon’s hidden power types are, so that I could consider making a strategy around it.

“What are you planning to do now, Vanilla?” Laura asked me.

“I’ll go find the next Gym leader,” I said. “I think the closest one is Radomus in Vanhanen Castle?”

“Oh, that weird guy,” Charlotte commented. “I’d heard about him from my pare… never mind that. But apparently he’s a pretty unique sort of guy.”

I wondered if any of the Reborn Gym leaders had any right to call any other leader ‘unique’.

“If you want to get to Adventurine Forest,” Laura explained. “You should go through the path on the right when you go into Tanzan mountain from here.”

“If you happen to cross paths with Saphira, tell her to come over, alright?” Charlotte added. “And good luck on your journey.”

I doubted I would have good luck, but I accepted the good wishes with a nod.

“We’ll miss you, Vanilla,” Anna said, running over and hugged me, her twin tails tickling my chin.

“I doubt it’ll be long until I see you again,” I said. It was a way to avoid lying without perhaps disappointing the little girl.

 

Noel and Laura waved hands and joined Charlotte and Anna in going back into the house. Only Shelly remained, perhaps waiting for everyone to leave because she was shy to say goodbye to me in front of them.

“So, um, I…” she started, getting more nervous with every uncoherent word she uttered.

I guess she’d never be able to speak to me without being so afraid, unless I stopped reminding her of Cal, which was outright impossible.

“Do you want me to return Nilla to you? I don’t know how long it’ll be until I see you again.”

Shelly looked up at me just with her eyes, and then shook her head with a lot of force.

“N-no, you can keep her. I h-hope she’ll be a good c-companion,” she stuttered.

“She's been rather pleasant,” I replied with honesty.

Right then, I happened to glance to the pink-haired siblings’ house, and saw Charlotte peeking at us from in between the curtains on the window. What even was she doing, I pondered, but Shelly brought my attention back to her.

“Um, I was wondering if, um,” she started, but shrunk so much that I couldn’t see her face with all her fringes covering it. “So, what I w-wanted to say is, I’d like t-to.”

All this talk was wearing me out, and I didn’t know how much longer it would last until Shelly managed to bring her thoughts together to form an intelligible sentence, so I completed the sentence for her with what I guessed she wanted to say.

“Wish me good luck?”

Shelly looked up at me and I realized her face was red. Her eyes, opened widely as though in surprise, seemed to be in the verge of tears.

Goodness, this girl really has severe social anxiety. I shook my head internally, but decided against talking it over with her.

“Um,” she said after a moment, and took a slow breath. “Yes, that’s what I wanted to say. G-good luck.”

For some reason she looked disappointed, but I doubted I could successfully drag out what was bothering her. I glanced at Charlotte, who rolled her eyes at me and moved away from the window. It appears that Shelly’s made a unusual friendship with the little punk, so perhaps she’d be able to help her.

“Nilla, say goodbye to Shelly, for you won’t see her for some time,” I told Nilla, and she instantly flew over to her trainer and nuzzled her.

“I’ll miss you, um, Nilla,” Shelly smiled. “Be helpful to Vanilla, ok?”

The firefly buzzed loudly, though I wasn’t sure whether it was a ‘yes’ or a ‘no’. Nilla came back to me and started singing with her buzzing sounds.

“Fine, you can stop singing now,” I said, patting the illumise. “Take care, Shelly.”

“Y-You too.”

So I carried on with my journey onto Vanhanen Castle.

 

Everything seemed quiet and peaceful, until it wasn’t anymore.

Just when I was going into Tanzan mountain, I heard a loud explosion and saw smoke coming up from the peak. Whatever had caused the explosion wasn’t the question, however.

“Let’s go to Adventurine Forest as fast as we can. I don’t know if the mountain might collapse onto us.”

I grabbed my bike and started pedaling like my life depended on it. Like she had done previously when we were fleeing the Team Meteor base, Nilla flew very close to me and matched my biking speed.

“Laura said the path to my right, so I guess it’s this one,” I said and made a sudden curve. I found the path, but to my surprise, there was a metallic gate which had been destroyed much like Saphira’s dragonite had done the one leading to Team Meteor’s base.

That is why, when I found Saphira resting on one of the rocks further down, I wasn’t surprised whatsoever. Her clothes were all torn and she was bleeding in some parts, but it appeared there were no severe wounds.

“You escaped death,” I commented.

Saphira raised her head in alert, perhaps thinking I was a Meteor grunt, but just sighed when she saw it was me.

“Did you seriously think I would die that easily?” she asked with a mocking tone.

“No, you didn’t seem the type,” I replied. “But there are a few children who do, so I’d advise you to join them if you can walk.”

Saphira stood up and walked in my direction, likely to prove to me that she could.

“Are you leaving for Adventurine Forest?”

I nodded.

“Luckily for both you and me, I need to continue the League Challenge,” I said. “It’ll probably be some time until we meet again.”

“Luckily for you,” Saphira corrected. “For I have changed my mind about you. I’ve decided to consider you part of the team.”

I tilted my head.

“Why the sudden change of mind?”

“You followed my orders, despite it causing Team Meteor’s temporary demise,” she explained. “For now I’ll think that as the evidence that you aren’t a spy.”

I shrugged. It was irrelevant to me what she thought.

“Don’t think my mind can’t change back, though.”

“Whatever. Just go back and try to keep those children from getting themselves into trouble,” I said and tried to pass her, when she grabbed my arm.

“What is it now?”

Saphira took out a ring out of her chest pocket. I had yet to see it up close, but I intuitively knew this was Heather’s Ruby Ring. The large gem engraved onto the silver ring was such a bright red that it almost looked like it could glow on its own.

“I wasn’t able to retrieve Anna’s pendant, but I think it would be best if you took this with you,” Saphira said, and forcefully shoved the ring onto my palm. “At least that way they'll know that we don’t have the artifact they’re looking for, which will keep our party safe.”

What a novel, creative idea to use me as a bait for Team Meteor. Regardless of how that got on my nerves, it was also true that I needed Team Meteor close by so my team and I could get stronger.

“Fine,” I said. “Beware of the Doctor, then.”

“He’s not a threat. The next time I see him might be his last,” Saphira said, clasping a fist in her palm.

I smirked at her gesture.

 

Moments later, the two of us walked away in opposite directions without even saying goodbye.

 

VANILLA RATES: REBORN CHARACTERS

Spoiler

• Shelly (+1): 7/10 Guess she's still a shy defenceless kitten but at least she doesn't run away from her fears. Effort point.
• Saphira (+1): 2/10 She's apparently reasonable and strong, even if she only has her sisters in mind.

 

QUICK LINK TO NEXT EPISODE

[SilverAngelus]

Poor Shelly  

I hope Vanilla and Charlotte help her overcome her social anxiety... 

I wonder what she really wanted to say when she looked disappointed about something.

[J-Awesome_One]

Another great update! But that also means I'm prob gonna have to go back to my ManlyLocke Run so you know what happens in the next couple of scenes. xD So it's weird but I feel like Vanilla and Sapphire are like really buddy buddy but like in a... Show offy way? Idk if that's the best way to describe it but yea. Although, I do have an idea for Nilla if you'd like to know? But yea. Good episode as always! Can't wait for the next 1.

[Candy]

52 minutes ago, SilverHelio said:

Poor Shelly  

I hope Vanilla and Charlotte help her overcome her social anxiety... 

I wonder what she really wanted to say when she looked disappointed about something.

I could tell you... but what's the fun in that?

 

20 minutes ago, J-Awesome_One said:

Another great update! But that also means I'm prob gonna have to go back to my ManlyLocke Run so you know what happens in the next couple of scenes. xD So it's weird but I feel like Vanilla and Sapphire are like really buddy buddy but like in a... Show offy way? Idk if that's the best way to describe it but yea. Although, I do have an idea for Nilla if you'd like to know? But yea. Good episode as always! Can't wait for the next 1.

Idk if I'd call them buddy-buddy but guess they're starting to trust each other a little more. And fire away, for I don't quite have concrete plans for Nilla yet

[seki108]

1 hour ago, Candy said:

Nice image work.  I had to re-check once I read to see if Charlotte really did peek out the window.   Ok, I legitimately didn't notice something else until typing this........now I don't know if that's something you edited in or a new bit with E17.

 

 

Vanilla's first gym loss.   Moving on to the big leagues from here.

 

Poor shy Shelly.  May your tongue be looser next encounter.

[J-Awesome_One]

Whoa. I didn't even notice that! That's awesome!

[Candy]

3 minutes ago, seki108 said:

Nice image work.  I had to re-check once I read to see if Charlotte really did peek out the window.   Ok, I legitimately didn't notice something else until typing this........now I don't know if that's something you edited in or a new bit with E17.

 

 

Vanilla's first gym loss.   Moving on to the big leagues from here.

 

Poor shy Shelly.  May your tongue be looser next encounter.

As far as my editing skillz don't fail me, I'll edit to my heart's content xD

Honestly I was wondering if anyone would notice Charlotte peeking out of the window hahaha

And Vanilla's face when she saw Charlotte would be a lil anime-esque but that's a limitation of my editing skillz...

 

Yup this is where stuff starts getting real for Vanilla (and me behind the screen rip)

 

And if I may say so myself... my extra Shelly episodes make her look even cuter than she already is <3

(tfw Candy is a Shelly fan)

[Q-Jei]

Hey! Good job with this episode! Shelly is even more attractive than usual in your story, I even feel sorry for her  Also, I watched all your battle sequences so far. Don’t give up, you did it very well  Also, I wonder what could possibly be this Mimikyu on one of your pictures... Shade’s spy?

Edited March 11, 2018 by Q-Jei

[GenEric]

pyrous mountain?

dont you mean chrysolia mountain?

[Candy]

15 minutes ago, ArcherEric said:

pyrous mountain?

dont you mean chrysolia mountain?

I'm friggin mixing my mountains man xD the correct answer is Tanzan mountain I believe

[GenEric]

oh shit my memory

[Candy]

From Everland to Reborn ~ Episode 31

Another filler-ish chapter? Well I think there's something a lil satisfying about this one at least

 

“So, all you want me to do is ask her that question? Alright~ Leave it all to me~”

The conversation was already over when a petite blond girl came out of the castle.

“Gardevoir, what are you doing there? You should’ve taken an umbrella if you were going to come outside,” she said, offering Gardevoir a pink umbrella with laces.

“Don’t worry about me, dear Luna~” Gardevoir smiled. “I’m still a pokemon and I love rain! I love the sun! I love all weathers~”

Even then, the tall pokemon accepted the umbrella to please little Luna.

“I thought you were talking to someone,” Luna said, looking around but finding no one. “Who was it, Gardevoir?”

“Well~ it was a little shy friend, but he’s already ran away.”

“Oh poor thing. You should have invited him in. I’m sure master wouldn’t have minded.”

“He said he will come in when no one is watching,” Gardevoir chuckled. “So let us remove ourselves from here so the little guy can be comfortable coming in and avoiding the rain~”

The two ladies went into the castle, leaving the rain and moist ground behind.

***

 

Outside of Tanzan mountain was Adventurine Forest - the largest forest in the Reborn Region, according to the guide book. The type of grass that you could find here was different - among patches of the regular tall grass that seems to be abundant in this region, there were also patches of pointy and higher tall grass, which just seemed like green walls from afar. I thought biking would be the easiest way out of the forest, but I was wrong because of this reason: this type of grass appeared to have a knack for getting tangled onto a bike’s wheels.

Forests were my least favorite places to be in, for the reason that I could never get out of them swiftly. Even with a compass and years living close to Red Riding Hood Forest back home, I was never able to navigate the place. Wolfie, on the other hand, perhaps had a sixth sense or just had remarkable sense of direction. She knew every small path and every corner of that forest.

“Well, she also lived in the forest, while I lived close to it,” I commented.

Nilla buzzed at me with curiosity, since she evidently had not been following my train of thought.

 

Eventually, however, I made it out of an opening onto a grassland. From where I stood, I could see several bull pokemon pushing head to head against each other.

“Interesting sight,” I shrugged.

However, another thing caught my eye as I inspected my surroundings. A green figure was walking towards me, but when he also noticed me, he started walking with long strides and excessive movement of his shoulders.

“I thought I heard a bug or something crawling around over here,” Fern said, and lowered his glasses a little to look at me with his bare eyes. “Guess I was right.”

“What do you want,” I asked, but I already had an idea of the answer.

“You came to challenge the Gym?” Fern asked, beating the bushes needlessly. “I already got that badge and I’m on my way to battle some kid that is the normal-type leader.”

“I already beat him, but I’m not inclined to give you advice.”

“Ha, like I’d need advice from someone who’s falling behind, despite starting the league challenge before me,” Fern laughed.

“You know, you’d be more likeable if you’d only keep your mouth shut,” I said, taking out a pokeball.

“I can return the same exact words to you,” Fern smirked and moved to make space for the battle.

Fern sent out a Fraxure, apparently the final addition to his team. I’d heard dragon types tend to be strong, but this one, perhaps because it was just in its second evolution, wasn’t that hard to beat. In fact, all it took was two Play Roughs from Golden Key (Klefki), who doesn’t even have stellar attacking stats. Later on, though, I could sense that it might become a threat.

The rest of Fern’s team was roughly the same as the last time I met him at Aya’s Gym. After the Fraxure, he sent out his Roserade, which, thanks to the boost from grassy terrain, almost knocked out Aladdin (Medicham) with a single Giga Drain. However, Aladdin managed to stay awake, and revenge killed with Psycho Cut. The next foe was Scyther, who had time to set up Swords Dance thanks to the rain weakening Anna’s (K-Ninetales') Heat Waves. Yet, Fern commanded it to use Wing Attack, which didn’t do as much damage as he expected. Despite the rain, Scyther went down to one more Heat Wave. I had changed Anna’s ability for a previous fight, but I made a mental note to change it back to Drought so I could prevent future crippling due to rain. Against his Rhydon, I sent out Kame (Blastoise), but Muddy Water just had to miss, and the foe’s Stone Edge had to critically hit. Despite all odds, Kame hung in there, and knocked out the foe with a single Muddy Water. In this aspect, I was glad for rain because it cancelled out the debuff from Grassy Terrain. Fern then sent out his starter, Decidueye, before his last pokemon. I thought I could take care of it with Heat Wave, but I miscalculated how strong its Spirit Shackle attack would be, and Anna fainted. Well perhaps it was naive to think that an already tired Anna could compete with a freshly rested pokemon, regardless of type advantage. Since ghost type attacks are ineffective against normal type, and the other typing of decidueye is grass, I sent out Bambi (Sawsbuck). He fainted the ghastly owl with two Megahorns. The last pokemon, Krookodile, didn’t even get to do anything against a field-boosted Horn Leech from Bambi.

 

With a clear victory on my side, I wondered again why this sassy kid kept challenging me to battles he was sure to lose. I didn’t voice my thoughts, but Nilla buzzed and made silly faces at Fern, which in a sense said everything I would’ve wanted to say.

“Whatever, not like this matters,” Fern muttered. “We all know who the real top dog is. You’re just a lucky noob that uses cheap tactics.”

Then he stormed out with his fainted team towards Tanzan mountain, but before he did, I stuck my leg out for him to trip. The grass was wet and the ground softened by the rain, so he got his clothes all muddy. Too bad he didn’t get some on his face too.

“What was that for, ya wanna fight?” Fern said, standing back up.

“Everyone else might be scared of you for no reason, but I am not,” I said, cracking my knuckles. “Stop acting like a douche and learn to measure your pride, for f*ck sake.”

Fern tightened his lips and sent a punch flying to my face, but because he hesitated for a second, I could easily predict what he was about to do. I jolted my head to the side, making him miss his attack.

“If you want me to destroy you every time we meet, that’s up to you,” I spat. “But if you are disrespectful, don’t expect me not to act in retaliation.”

Fern glared at me with contempt.

“It’s not called ‘being disrespectful’. It’s called ‘stating the facts’. Sorry to burst your bubble, but you only win because you use cheap tactics to hide your lack of real skill, and that’s that.”

I didn’t reply to that, because I realized that no matter what I said, it would just be a waste of time. As long as he believed I was the one rejecting the facts, he’d keep rejecting them himself to preserve his fragile ego.

“Well then. I’ll leave you with a useful ‘fact’,” I sighed.

Then, with a quick switch of stances, I punched him from the right side of the face, knocking him over once again. Fern looked up at me with displaced glasses.

“If you’re going to punch someone, don’t hesitate even for a moment.”

Then, I turned my back on him and biked away. Nilla, though, took a moment to laugh at his face before making a U-turn and following me.

 

After biking for some time, actually in the wrong direction without knowing, I ended up in a different part of the forest. A few thick spider webs hit me on the whole face, but the result was I think worth it. Though it was not the Gym that I was looking for, it was an icy cave full items and with an especially useful thing: an ice stone.

“Finally my Elsa will be able to join the team not as a sub-member, but as a main input,” I told Nilla, who buzzed with excitement.

On another side of the cave, I also ran into a magenta ball, which color just was too bright to miss in the background of white ice. I grabbed the orb, though I had little idea of what its use could be.

After collecting everything that looked like could be useful or sold for money, I exited the cave. Since this was clearly not the place I was searching for, I walked the way back out of the forest. The rain was already nearing its end when Nilla pulled my sleeve and pointed to the continuing grassland path.

“Let’s see,” I nodded and biked away again.

There were quite a few trainers here and there, with whom I battled to gain experience and money. They also told me that I was biking in the correct direction this time, but also told me something similar to what Charlotte said.

“So you’re going to battle Radomus?” one trainer said. “Yikes. He’s a weirdo and super shady. Good luck with that.”

“Come on, he isn’t that bad. You’re just jealous because he’s stinkin’ rich. The guy’s certainly eccentric, but that’s probably because his brain operates differently to ours, not because of any inherent immorality,” the other trainer added.

 

I really could not imagine what sort of person this Radomus would turn out to be, other than that he was probably going to be a pain in the neck.

 

Radomus’ castle was located in the easternmost side of Route 1. It fashioned a large labyrinth, which did highlight his “stinkin’ rich” status even before meeting him in person. I know making the gardens look like mazes still is a popular decoration technique among nobles and the wealthy since my residence back in Everland also had one, but I really couldn’t understand why anyone would want to decorate their home with something so inconvenient. I could maybe see a protective purpose for it back in the day when there was a chance of getting attacked by a cavalry; however, now they did little more than puzzle the benign visitors.

It took me a while to get through the bends and dead ends, but I eventually found myself standing in front of Vanhanen castle. I knocked on the door, and waited for someone to allow me inside.

The gates squeaked when they opened, and a girl peeked out. Though she was, to my surprise, shorter than me, I could tell she was at least in her mid-teens from her prominent hourglass shape.

“Hello, might you be a challenger to master Radomus?” she asked.

I assumed from her mannerisms and her black dress that she was a housemaid of this castle.

“Yes,” I answered.

“Please follow me.”

I walked inside, and the gates screeched as they closed behind me.

 

VANILLA RATES: REBORN CHARACTERS

Spoiler

• Fern (-1): -2 When will he learn?

5,000 views and counting frens~ Thx for taking interest in this

 

QUICK LINK TO NEXT EPISODE

 

[J-Awesome_One]

Ahh. Fern getting punched in the face. So satisfying. The 1st part of this episode confused me but I figure that you're setting something up for the future? Anyways, can't wait for the next 1. You're doing great!

[Candy]

1 hour ago, J-Awesome_One said:

Ahh. Fern getting punched in the face. So satisfying. The 1st part of this episode confused me but I figure that you're setting something up for the future? Anyways, can't wait for the next 1. You're doing great!

(Hardy's mind) Fern getting punched in the face is even better than him getting wrecked in battle which beats coming all the way from Agate to the Wastelands xD And yep, the first part is a snippet of info you might need for the continuation of the story

[Q-Jei]

45 minutes ago, Candy said:

...

Then he stormed out with his fainted team towards Tanzan mountain, but before he did, I stuck my leg out for him to trip. The grass was wet and the ground softened by the rain, so he got his clothes all muddy. Too bad he didn’t get some on his face too.

...

Then with a quick switch, I punched him from the right side of the face, knocking him over once again. Fern looked up at me with displaced glasses.

“If you’re going to punch someone, don’t hesitate even for a moment.”

 

 

Finally, somebody did this! And glad to see Vanilla again!

Can't wait to see her meeting our favorite chessmaster Radomus

[Candy]

1 hour ago, Q-Jei said:

 

Finally, somebody did this! And glad to see Vanilla again!

Can't wait to see her meeting our favorite chessmaster Radomus

Yes!!! Someone has to put Fern in his place after being a jerk everytime we met him lol

And Radomus is going to confuse Vanilla big time xD

[seki108]

1 hour ago, Candy said:

Another filler-ish chapter?

This does describe most Fern encounters perfectly.

 

1 hour ago, Candy said:

Well I think there's something a lil satisfying about this one at least

And what a cathartic moment that was.  Too bad he's too delusional to be anything but an annoying prick.  wonder if Ame will change that by the end.  Basically Fern's attitude without any of the redeeming qualities:

Spoiler

 

 

I see you spying, cute little guy

[GenEric]

vanilla should’ve pushed fern off beryl bridge