The Pokemon Master - Chapter 8 Interconnected With Pikachu....what Exactly Was In That Lightning?

“Growlithe, ember,” Vex yelled as he continued running, pointing at a target. Sweat poured down his bare back as he continue to jog long laps around the clearing. Growlithe responded by shooting red hot flakes of fire straight at the target Vex pointed at, hitting it almost dead center.

It was around 9 in the morning and the sun was now high in the sky, sending down waves of heat as Vex and his two pokemon continued the training schedule he had been planning out in his head. The first part of the training session was a simple one, running laps, with a little twist to it. Before starting the runnning Vex had asked the girls to carve out X’s into some of the trees nearby, creating a makeshift target for his pokemon to hit. The running wasn’t a problem for Vex, but nailing the time for issuing commands to his pokemon was definitely something he had trouble with.

This was only the first part if the training that he had planned, meant for him and Growlithe. The next part was something that he had recently thought of to increase Pikachu’s agility and reflexes. Of course if he wanted to train Pikachu, he had to get through the first session that had been going on for nearly two hours. Vex had been running for so long that he had to take off his sweat soaked shirt because it was bothering him, leaving his skin at the mercy of the sun.

“Woo, keep it up Vex, get yourself in shape!” Yelled Beatrice as she rummaged through Vex’s bag in search of food. Sh eventually pulled out the container of rice and a fork, ready for her morning meal.

“Why does he even have to get in shape?” Misty asked as she watched him stsrt yet another lap. “One doesn’t need to be in shape to become a Pokemon master, only a connection with other pokemon and the skills as a trainer.”

“Well, maybe he just wants to look good for us,” Beatrice replied as she swallowed a mouthful of rice. “Guys typically want to look nice for the girls he likes. To be honest, I do love a man with a bit of muscle on him.”

“Could you both shut up,” Vex snapped, his breathing rather ragged as he kept on running, now starting his 37th lap. “I’m sure as hell not trying to look good for the two of you girls. I like women with better personalities and the two of you don’t fit the bill.” The amazong part of this was how he was able to say all of this when his breathing was so irregular.

Vex wasn’t training with his own Pokemon for the hell of it, but rather because he wanted nothing more then to be able to kick ass. In this world, Pokemon may have been a means to battle others, but in Vex’s world, strength of one’s own body and mind always earned one more respect then anything else. He guessed that most people in this world didn’t handle anything with their fists and that gave him a distinct advantage if he could raise his strength and his stamina up. However he had to be careful or he would risk overexerting himself and do more harm then good.

“You don’t have to be so rude,” Misty murmured as she pet Pikachu’s head as it sat in her lap. Pikachu wasnt needed in the exercise just yet so Vex assigned Pikachu to be a lookout and let him know if any trainers arrived. “I know you dont like me already but you could at least try and act like you care just a little.”

Vex laughed a little before slowing down to a full stop, his eyes gazing at Misty before drifting over to Pikachu who appeared to be napping. “Oi, werent you supposed to be keeping watch for trainers.” He picked up a nearby rock and chucked it, intentionally missing Pikachu and hitting Misty instead, who jumped up and dropped Pikachu from her lap.

Pikachu snapped awake the moment it was dropped and landed safely on the ground, clearly offended by having been so rudely woken up. It looked over at Vex, shifting the blame over to Vex, blame that was actually correctly pointed at him.

“Its time to train Pikachu so you have to get your lazy butt up. Growlithe, use tackle on Pikachu, give it all you got.” Vex grinned over at the small mouse before shrugging. “Pikachu, your job is to avoid whatever attack Growlithe throws at you, but your not allowed to fight back.”

Growlithe clawed the ground before pushing off and rushing straight at Pikachu, clearly giving it all he had. Pikachu however easily dodged it by jumping to the side, escaping by a hairs breadth. Growlithe however didn’t give Pikachu a chance to think as it tried to tackle him once again. This kept up for a couple of minutes, with Growlithe attacking over and over again, Pikachu dodging constantly and always barely succeeding. However, during one of its attempts to dodge, Pikachu slipped up and instead of dodging, it was thrown backwards by a fullbody tackle from Growlithe.

The strangest thing happened though when Pikachu got knocked back, and that was a sudden pain hitting Vex hard in the stomach, completely knocking the wind out of him. Bending over, Vex coughed twice before the pain eventually subsided, but the question was still there…..what in the hell had caused it?

“Pikachu, Growlithe….take a quick break to recover your stamina. After that we’ll get back to physical training and speed training.” Vex rubbed his gut before turning around and walking back to the girls together with his pokemon. He truthfully no longer felt like training, but he wasn’t about to tell the girls that or they would see him as weak.

Vex’s mind was now in turmoil, completely confused. The pain in his gut had happened just as Pikachu had been hit, and it had probably been around the same place. He wasn’t stupid and could easily put the two together, no longer believing in coincidences. However this brought up another question, why was their pain interconnected?

It would be all too easy to blame the lightning strike for this phenomenon, but at this point Vex felt that it was something bigger. Beatrice had been brought here by the lightning strike and she reported that she didn’t have any special powers, abilities, or abnomalities. Yet here he was with not only the ability to talk to creatures known as Pokemon but also feel the pain of his pokemon partner Pikachu.

There were three possibilities running through Vex’s mind. The first one was that the mysterious lightning strike had given him his abnormal abilities, this seemed to be the simplest conclusion and answered more questions then it raised. The second one was that he had always had these abilities and the lightning strike had simply awakened them when he was transported to this world, but this was rather unlikely. The final one was that someone or something had GIVEN him his powers upon entering this mysterious realm. This one was the one that raised the most questions however, like who sent him here, why did they give him powers and not others, what did they hope to accomplish by sending him here?

All of this ran through Vex’s minds as he neared the girls, his brain mulling over each idea at rapid speeds, but gave up after each one kept raising questions. If he shared pain with Pikachu then he wouldld simply have to train Pikachu harder to dodge better and counterattack with pinpoint accuracy. As far as he was concerned, if there wasnt pain involved then it wasnt real training.

“Okay, so we have snacks over here,” Misty said as she dug through a bag, tossing Vex’s beanie onto the ground. She kept rummaging until she found pokemon food near the bottom of the bag.

“Hey,” Vex said in protest as he walked over and snatched the bag out of her hands. “Learn to ask before you touch. Also dont treat my beanie with such disrepect, its the only one I have!!” He knelt down and picked up his cap, dusting the dirt off its black surface.

“Why do you even wear that?” Beatrice asked as she crossed her legs while sitting on the ground. “I think your white hair looks nice and fluffy, you should keep it off, it makes you look handsome.”

“I would take that as a compliment except that I kinda dont like you as of yet.” Vex said as he put on his beanie and readjusted it. “My hair had always gotten me picked on back in elementary school until I put on this very same beanie and became average, just one of the crowd. This beanie has been with me for years and its very important to me. Only people who I deem worthy are allowed to wear it, or even hold it for that matter. So keep your hands off.”

“I didnt ask for your life story,” Beatrice responded bitterly as she looked away, flipping her hair over her shoulder. “You should learn to just take a compliment when its given instead of running off at the mouth.”

Vex decided to ignore her completely as he took the pokemon food from Misty and took off the cap. Digging around for an empty bowl and finding two dark grey ones, Vex fillled it up with the pokemon food. After he finished, he took out a small container and placed it on ground, filling it up with water from his large canteen.

“Wow, you really know how to take care of Pokemon,” Misty muttered as she watched Vex work, clearly impressed.

“Your kidding right?” Vex asked with a small laugh. “This is nothing compared to thebworld I come from. You have no idea what it’s likento take care of two really big Alaskan huskies.”

“Whats a husky?” asked Misty, ignoring his remark about being from another world. It was clear that she still wasn’t ready to accept it.

“You saw Vex’s fluffy hair right?” Beatrice asked Misty. Misty nodded and Beatrice continued,” Well imagine that creature you call a Growlithe with that kind of hair, but completely white and black and a much larger. Thats a husky.”

Vex nodded after picturing it in his head. “Thats actually a pretty good description Beatrice, good job.” Beatrice smiled at him, and Vex looked away and stood up. “I’m going to go look for a nearby spring to wash up in, dont wait up.”

With those words, Vex headed off into the woods, with Pikachu deciding to follow close behind him.