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The Eroteric Odyssey: Chapter 8: The Hive Badge

by PokeStorm

PokeStorm Dimrill, Mark, and Jenny arrive in Azalea Town with the help of Silver. Dimrill and Mark get to meet Jenny's parents, and they take the gym challenge against the Azalea Gym Leader. Sorry about the very late release, I've been very busy with school, scouts, and work, but I've finally finished. So now I present to you the eighth installment of The Esoteric Odyssey.
The Hive Badge

After my fearful flight in the skies, I began to feel better, so the three of us headed over to Jenny’s house. After what seemed like an hour or so, we arrived at a small blue house. Jenny knocked on the door. “I don’t have a key,” she told us.

A few seconds passed. Then an older woman with brown hair, like Jenny’s, opened the door. She looked at us for a few seconds, then noticed her daughter. ¨Jenny! You're back!¨ she rushed over to Jenny and gave her a huge hug. They embraced for a minute, then the woman held Jenny at an arm's ́ distance. ̈Where have you been?! Your father and I have been worried sick!¨

Then the woman noticed Mark and I. ̈Hello there boys,¨ she addressed us. ¨Did you two make sure Jenny got home safely?¨

Mark and I looked at each other. ¨Actually we met by accident,̈ I said to her. ¨My name is Dimrill, and this is Mark.¨

¨Well, thank you for bringing our girl home. Why don't you come inside? Dinner is almost ready.¨ So the four of us walked inside the house, closing the door behind us.

The right side of the room opened up to a living room with a large white couch and an old TV in the corner. Pictures of a young girl and an older boy, both with the same brown hair. The left side of the room was a small kitchen, in which a middle-aged man with a few gray hairs here and there was cooking dinner. The food smelled like chili, with beef, a variety of beans, and a little onion. Ahead of us was a hallway, which I assumed led to the bedrooms.

¨I ́m so happy you could stop by,̈ Jenny ́s mom said. ¨We ́re having chili tonight. I hope both of you eat beef?¨ We nodded. One thing I should mention. My sense of smell is like an Audino ́s ears. I can pick out individual smells from each other. I guess I have exceptional sense of smell to make up for my nearsightedness and my limited hearing in my right ear.

As we walked in the dining room, Jenny ́s dad acknowledged us. ¨Hey there. I ́m Jenny's dad. I just want to thank you for protecting Jenny for us.¨

We all sat down at the dining table and served ourselves the chili. ̈ ̈Actually, it was Jenny who saved us,¨ I said. Jenny ́s parents looked up.

¨A few members of Team Moon were stealing all the berries in a grove on Route 32, so we battled them,” Mark said. ¨We wouldn't have won if Jenny had not helped us. Together we defeated them and sent them on their way.¨

¨Jennifer Morgan!¨ Mrs. Forno exclaimed. ¨You know you shouldn ́t meddle with those punks. You could have gotten hurt!¨

¨But Mom!¨ Jenny countered. ̈ ̈Mark and Dimrill were in trouble. I couldn't just let them get taken by those goons.¨

Mr. Forno sighed. ̈Alright. But no more, alright?¨

̈Yes Dad,¨ Jenny said and she continued her chili.

Mrs. Forno asked another question. ¨So what are you two doing out here in Azalea Town? I ́ve never seen you around.¨

I swallowed my mouthful. ̈ ̈Mark and I were assigned to collect all the official gym badges around Johto by Master Blue. So we´ve already gotten the Zephyr Badge from Violet City. We were on our way here to get the Hive Badge. ̈ I took another spoonful of chili. ¨You know, Jenny here is really tough. Her Pokemon are strong and she as a person is very loyal to her companions, even though we just met her yesterday. I think she has what it takes to become a great Pokemon Trainer.¨

There was silence. Then Mr. Forno spoke. ¨I was afraid this day would come,¨ he said. ̈Jenny has always been an outgoing girl, and she's always wanted to explore the world. But we want what's best for her.”

Then the silence in the room got awkward. Fortunately Mark and I were finished with our dinner, so we offered to clean up dinner, but Mrs. Forno, declined. “We’re gonna head out to the campground and let you all talk about my offer,” I said to them, and left with Mark.

We headed over to the Azalea Campground to set up camp for the night. As we set up our tents, Mark spoke to me. “Do you really think Jenny should go with us? Her parents don’t seem to want to let go yet.”

I stopped setting up. “Well, you and I as kids never had the problem of wanting to explore our future. Your parents and my aunt knew that the best way for us to find success was to find our own path. I think Jenny would make a great member of our team. She just needs the chance to explore different things and see what she likes and what she’s good at.”

There was silence for a while. “That was really deep bro,” Mark said at last. “With that wisdom you should be the chosen one, not me.”

I took this wisdom thing one step further. “Well Mark, being great isn’t about the beginning, it’s about the journey. Look at Red and Gold. They started from living in a small town, receiving their first Pokemon, then taking small steps to reach their final goal.”

“But I’m nothing special. You’re probably a better trainer than me, and more likely to become the champion at this rate.”

“Well, Arceus chose you for a reason. Maybe you just haven’t discovered it yet. Maybe there’s something I lack that you have that makes you special and unique. The adventures we have together will help all of us unlock our purposes in life.”

I finished setting up my tent. “That’s enough old man wisdom from me, probably for the next ten years. See ya tomorrow.” I went into my tent, let all my Pokemon out of their balls, and we curled up together and went to sleep.



“Alright, we’ve made up our minds,” Mr. Forno said to us in the morning. “Jenny can only travel with you two if you can earn the Hive Badge here in Azalea Town and defeat Jenny in a Pokemon battle. How’s that?”

Jenny looked very happy, yet very nervous at the same time. I could see why. She had a well balanced team, and it would be hard for me or Mark to defeat her. She even had a Vulpix from Alola.

Mark answered, “Yes sir. We can certainly obtain the badge, and then we will return here once we are done.” The Fornos nodded, then Mark and I went over to the Azalea Town Gym. We were about to walk in when Mark slipped a small square yellow candy into my pocket. “Just in case,” he said. I didn’t think much of it, but I shrugged it off as we entered the gym.

It was a small lobby, with a group of boys mostly wearing bug-catching gear surrounding a short dude with purple hair. I assumed they were doing a tour of the gym or something.

The guy with the purple hair noticed us and yelled over the noise, “Do you two want to join on the tour? We’re just about to begin.” Mark and I nodded and headed through the door where the others were going in.

The first room was a hallway, with one wall being a glass barrier for a safe habitat for bug Pokemon like Ledyba, Caterpie, Wurmple, and a few others I couldn’t name. The dude talked about the bugs, their eating habits, and a bunch of other nerdy stuff. The kids were totally loving it, but Mark and I just wanted to challenge the gym leader. Then he opened the door into the glass room and let the kids inside to interact with the bugs. I walked in with them and was amazed by the interest the bugs had in the kids. But what took me back even more was their interactions with the purple haired dude. Then I had a theory. I walked up to him.

“Excuse me,” I said. “Do you happen to be the gym leader here?”

He looked at me blankly. “Of course. Did you come here to battle me?” he asked. I nodded. “Well, I guess that I’ll have to go to the stadium today.”

Twenty minutes later the gym leader opened up the stadium for everyone, and the kids all sat together in the stands. The gym leader walked across the room and sat in his throne. Mark stood by my side.

“Welcome challengers,” the gym leader boomed. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Bugsy, the Bug-Type Master. The bug type is powerful against even the strongest types of Pokemon like psychic and dark. Your first test is to defeat my swarm of Pokemon. You must defeat all of them before you may battle me. Are you ready?”

Mark and I looked at each other and nodded. Bugsy whistled, and all the bugs began crawling from the air vents and charging at us. Mark and I knew what to do. We each grabbed a Pokeball and released a Pokemon from them. I chose Charmander, and Mark chose Mareep. Charmander and Mareep definitely had this battle down pat. Both of them charged up their attacks and blasted them all with fire and lightning. It was a beautiful sight to see indoors. Eventually the Pokemon got overpowered by numbers and were bombarded by the bugs. Then as I lost hope, light began to envelope around Mareep and Charmander, and all the remaining bugs were blasted away. Both Pokemon began to glow white and grow in size. When the glow was gone, Charmander was replaced by Charmeleon and Mareep was replaced by Flaafy. Then both Pokemon fainted from exhaustion. We recalled our Pokemon, and some of the staff for the gym, who I swear weren’t there before, sprayed yellow fluid on the bugs, reviving them. They returned to the vents and I assume back to the glass room.

Bugsy got off his throne and exposed his one Pokeball. He picked it up in his hand and twirled it around. “This one Pokemon has been my ace in battle for about ten years. Not many trainers have defeated my Pokemon.” Bugsy then released the Pokemon, and a powerful Scizor emerged, shining in red armor. Scizor roared to show off his dominance.

I turned to Mark. “You’re the expert in Bug Pokemon. What’s your advice? Cuz I don’t have a fire type anymore.”

He made a funny facial expression, which I didn’t know what it meant until later. “Well,” he said. “Scizor is a strong physical attacker, so if we can lower his attack power. Maybe use Shinx for his ability Intimidate?”

I shook my head. “Shinx’s ability is Rivalry. So assuming that Scizor is male, Shinx’s attack power will increase. So I’ll do that.” I sent Shinx out of his Pokeball. Mark chose Butterfree.

Shinx shot a few Spark attacks at Scizor, while Butterfree sent gusts of wind towards the opponent. Scizor charged at lightning speed and slammed his metal pinchers like bullets into Shinx, over and over, until Shinx had not much energy left. Shinx released his remaining strength by making a Shock Wave and paralyzing Scizor in the process. And then Shinx went down. Butterfree tried to use Psybeam, but Scizor slashed Butterfree twice across the face with a pincher and ko’d Butterfree. Mark and I recalled our Pokemon. I sent out Riolu and Mark sent out his shiny Zubat. I figured I’d use Riolu, since Scizor was a Steel-type.

Zubat may have had the type disadvantage being a Poison type against a Steel type, but he did pretty well. Zubat flew around Scizor and shot a Confuse Ray at Scizor to disorientate the enemy. Riolu charged at Scizor to throw some punches. Unfortunately, Scizor, despite being confused, still had good senses and reflexes. Scizor blocked parry after parry from Riolu, until Riolu went for a Low Sweep, and knocked Scizor off its feet. As Scizor got up, Riolu gave it a drop kick straight to the face. When Riolu went for a Force Palm, Scizor grabbed Riolu by the head, slammed him into the ground a few times, and chucked him across the room to knock him out. Zubat continued to fly around Scizor and shooting Confuse Rays to minimize Scizor’s ability to attack. I returned Riolu and sent out Eevee. Eevee may have been a Normal Type, but I remembered that she knew Sizzly Slide, a powerful fire type attack that always results in a burn. The burn would be useful in the sense that Scizor’s attacks wouldn’t hurt our Pokemon as much.

I assumed Eevee would go for the fire attack to finish it off, but she was frightened of Scizor. She ran away into the corner and got as far from the enemy as she could. I was about to switch to Mudkip but Zubat got an unlucky blow from Scizor’s Bullet Punch, knocking out Zubat. That meant Mark was down to one Pokemon left. He then sent out Mareep, hoping for a knockout. Scizor, no longer being confused, saw Eevee and charged with blinding speed. At the last second, Eevee jumped out of the way and Scizor’s Bullet Punch went straight into the main control panel for the gym, knocking out all the lights in the room. This is where Mareep began to play a key role in this fight. Mareep, being an electric type, used his Thundershocks around the room to disorient Scizor while I returned Eevee. I thought about switching to Mudkip, but Mudkip didn’t really have much of an advantage over Scizor. And I didn’t know how much energy Scizor had left to fight with. Then I remembered Mark slipping a yellow candy into my pocket. I didn’t think much of it then, but I pulled it out. Then I realized what it was - a Revive. This item could restore a Pokemon’s fighting energy up to half of maximum. So I knew what to do. I pulled out Charmeleon’s Pokeball, tapped the Revive on the button of his Pokeball, and watched as the candy dissolved. I hoped for the best, and sent Charmeleon out once again. Charmeleon turned toward the struggling Scizor and roared, getting its full attention. Scizor charged at Charmeleon, but was slightly off course, but with Mareep’s guidance, Scizor found Charmeleon. This was done so Charmeleon could get a clear shot for a K.O. Charmeleon blasted Scizor with a Flamethrower, burning Scizor to a toast. Scizor couldn’t take the heat, and at last fainted.

There was silence. Then murmuring began to arise amongst the children in the stands. Mareep lit up a ball of electricity in the middle of the room, revealing temporary light in the room. Bugsy was jaw-dropped. The children quickly ran down the steps and gathered around Mark and I, cheering for our victory over Bugsy. Bugsy recalled his fainted Scizor and approached us. He reached into his pocket and pulled out two metal pins, shaped and painted like Ledybas. He handed them to us and shook our hands. “Not many trainers have defeated my Scizor, and I am proud to give you the Hive badge. It makes me happy to see trainers who know how to work together with their Pokemon and their friends. I am now inspired to do better for my next gym battle.

Mark and I thanked Bugsy and the children on the tour and exited the building. We gave each other a high five, and headed to the Pokemon Center to heal our injured Pokemon. We chatted about the fight and how we could have done better in the future. Once we healed our Pokemon, I let Shinx out and told him about the battle. He leaped up into my arms in excitement and we walked together back to Jenny’s house.

As we walked up the steps, Jenny burst out of the door and ran us. "Did you guys beat Bugsy?" she asked. After we nodded, she excitedly gave both of us a quick hug. "Let me go tell my parents so we can have our battle." She ran inside and left the door open for us to go inside the house. We waited in the living room until all the Fornos were together once more.

"So," Mr. Forno said. "I heard you blew the lights out at the gym."

"How'd you know?" Mark asked, just as surprised as I was.

"Word travels fast around Azalea. Its a small town, you know."

Mark and I took turns recalling the battle and telling the story. When we were finished, Mr. Forno got up from the table and said," Alright, as we promised, one of you gets to battle Jenny. Let's go to the practice arenas to have the battle. Who's going to battle her?"

Mark and I looked at each other for a while. Finally Mark said, "Dimrill will battle, mainly because he has more Pokemon and he beat me in Sprout Tower. Are you ready?"

I sighed. "Ready as I'll ever be."

We then walked over to the arenas behind the Pokemon Center and once we got there, Jenny and I stood at opposite sides of the arena. Each of us had one Pokeball in hand, ready to begin. At the same time, Jenny sent out her Ponyta, and I used Eevee, just to give her another chance.

Ponyta was a lot tougher than I thought it would be. So again Eevee had another challenge. Eevee went for the Buzzy Buzz at first, but was dodged by Ponyta's Flame Charge. Eevee tried this a few more times to paralyze Ponyta, but it just got faster and easier to dodge the shocks. Finally Ponyta used its speed amd tackled Eevee and knocked her a few feet backwards. Eevee took the chance to use Bouncy Bubble to regain lost energy, and being super effective against fire types, weakened Ponyta. Ponyta tried to finish off Eevee with a Fire Blast, but was taken out by a Quick Attack, ending the fight. Jenny returned Ponyta to its ball and sent out Bulbasaur.

Thankfully Bulbasaur was a little more of a challenge. It started off with a Leech Seed to drain health gradually from Eevee, then shot Toxic sludge at Eevee, badly poisoning her. I didnt know how much more she could take, so I relieved her of battle and switched to Charmeleon. Bulbasaur shot Bullet Seeds at Charmeleon to deal a little damage, but he countered them with a Metal Claw attack. Charmeleon shot his own projectiles and three fireballs hit Bulbasaur, causing it to faint. Jenny sighed and recalled Bulbasaur, replacing it with Pidgeotto.

Each battler had their advantages in this fight. Pidgeotto, being a flying type, could easily hover out of reach of close combat attacks. However Charmeleon could shoot fire long distance, countering the flight. Pidgeotto also had a speed advantage. But each Pokemon did their best in the battle. Pidgeotto stayed a few meters above Charmeleon and shot gusts of wind to deal some damage. Charmeleon tried shooting Embers at Pidgeotto, but the Gust plus gravity caused him to hit himself. He tried a few more times, but he couldn't land any hits. So he sent a stream of purple flames - Dragon Rage, right t Pidgeotto, knock it to the ground. As Charmeleon went to use Scratch and Metal Claw, Pidgeotto scooped up Charmeleon in his talons, and tossed him up into the sky. As Charmeleon fell, Pidgeotto struck him repeatedly with Air Slash. At last, from the fall and the attacks, Charmeleon went down. I removed my fainted Charmeleon form battle and replaced him with Riolu.

You're probably wondering why I sent a fighting type to battle a flying type. I'm not sure why either, but it just felt right. Riolu leaped up high to match Pidgeotto's height, which caught the enemy by surprise. Riolu Force Palmed Pidgeotto in the face a few times, then instead of falling, landed on Pidgeotto's back. He then steered Pidgeotto and crashed him into the ground. Riolu leaped off before impact, so as Pidgeotto lay unconcious, Riolu landed on the ground safely on his feet. Then Jenny sent out her Alolan Vulpix. I knew Vulpix was a fire type, but this one was blue and looked like an ice type. Fighting is effective against ice, so I stayed with Riolu. Later I realized that was a mistake.

Vulpix was an ice type like I thought, but apparently it was also part fairy. So Vulpix charged up a giant pink orb of energy, Moonblast, and Riolu took the oppurtunity to go for a drop kick. Unfortunately he was a little slow, and Vulpix knocked him back with an Ice Shard, the knock him out with the Moonblast. I put Riolu back in his ball and sent out Shinx, hoping he could guarentee a win.

Shinx charged up electricity while Vulpix charged up another Moonblast. They finished at the same time, and they waited for the other to make a move before attacking. There was a silent stand-off for about thirty seconds, then Mrs. Forno coughed, making the two Pokemon shoot their attacks at each other, both getting a direct hit, causing Vulpix to go down, and Shinx to be very weak and tired. Jenny recalled her last Pokemon and walked over to me. She shook my hand and said, "Good battle Dimrill. You definitely have a future with Pokemon. They really trust you."

Mr. and Mrs. Forno cheered from the stands. They then ran into the arena and gave their daughter a long meaningful hug. When they seperated, Mrs. Forno said, "Jenny. We are very happy for you. We hope you find whatever you're looking for in life out there. Our job here to raise you to become the best young woman you can be is finished. Just don't forget we love you, forever and always." The three of them embraced once more.

After a visit to the Pokemon Center to heal our Pokemon, the five of us stood at the west gate, which led to Ilex Forest. The Fornos said their tearful goodbyes, and at last the three of us walked though the gate and into the forest.

"So, Jenny, are you excited to finally see the world," Mark asked.

She turned to Mark. "I don't have the skill or talent with Pokemon battling that you both have. I don't know if I'm ready..."

I put my hand on her shoulder. "Jenny, Pokemon isn't just about battling, and we all know that. We must learn to get along and work together with these creatures. It's a gift we all have to live here with the Pokemon. All we can do is strive to do is to do our best at whatever challenge we face. That's all you have to be prepared for."

Jenny nodded, and gave me a long hug. "Thanks Dimrill. You're a great friend, and I'm happy to be traveling along with you."

Mark cleared his throat. "Well, enough of all this mushy stuff. We got places to be, right?" So the three of us walked through the forest, ready for our next adventure...
RenzFlintrock and Mockingchu like this.
  1. PokeStorm
    PokeStorm
    In the last parts, I accidently but Me feel and not Flaafy, so I'll correct it the next time I'm on my computer. Sorry about that...
    Jun 27, 2019