25 years have passed since Ash set out on his journey. Now his daughter and her friends are ready to embark on their own adventures and discover the incredible world of Pokemon!
#60: “Can we just pretend like we’re normal for once?”
“Don’t think, strive!” Aidan flashed a grin and his signature two-fingered salute to his hovering Rotom Phone. “What’s up, trainers? Today, we’re going to be doing the Tamato Berry challenge—with a slight twist! Instead of doing the challenge solo, I thought it would be fun to invite Reid here to make it a competition!”
The Rotom Phone turned to Reid upon Aidan’s words, who was standing by the makeshift table they had set up that was currently hosting a basket of freshly-picked Tamato Berries. Reid offered his own grin to the camera, though his was awkward and stiff in comparison to Aidan’s.
When Aidan had approached him for a PokeTube video, Reid was both eager and wary—eager because the idea of Aidan seeking him out personally for a video caused his heart to flutter, but wary because there was no reason Aidan wouldn’t put him in said video without it being at his own expense.
Reid was going to say yes either way (which was definitely embarrassing), but hearing that Aidan would be joining in on the suffering made his wariness melt away to genuine excitement.
“The rules are pretty simple. We’re going to see who can eat more Tamato Berries first without reaching for a glass of Moo Moo Milk.” The Rotom Phone hovered around the table, zooming in on both the basket of berries and the two glasses of milk on either side of the table.
With a smirk, Aidan added, “But we already know who’s going to be the winner here.”
“In your dreams, maybe!” Reid piped up from behind the table. “There’s no way I’m going to lose to you.”
“Oh? Now that sounds personal,” Aidan egged, giving the camera a sly glance for the theatrics of it. Reid’s eyebrow twitched at such a nonchalant response. “I guess I really gotta give it my all then.”
“Now it just sounds like you’re stalling,” Reid remarked flatly, and Aidan’s smile faltered in a blink-and-you-miss-it moment. The viewers wouldn’t notice it, but Reid certainly did.
“Okay, you asked for it,” Aidan said with a playful smile, but Reid could tell he was restraining himself from making some kind of snapping comment that his viewers would call him out for. It made Reid grin as Aidan took his place next to him behind the table.
“Bzzt. Are both participants ready?” The Rotom Phone asked, hovering back from the table to get a wide shot that fit both boys. Reid and Aidan gave each other a heated glance as they each picked up a Tamato Berry. “On my marks—go!”
On cue, both boys took a bite out of their respective berries. Reid immediately recoiled at the bitterness of the berry, the taste filling his mouth and sitting like dead weight against his tongue. He quickly swallowed so he wouldn’t spit it out in disgust.
In truth, Reid hated Tamato Berries. If a dish of his happened to have even a single small dice of a Tamato Berry, he would push away the entire plate and choose to go hungry for the night. It was something Calla would always scold him for, but she didn’t seem to mind too much when she got to eat his discarded food instead. Sometimes she would even push her own food over to him in a trade.
But this was different. This wasn’t about food—it was about Aidan. Specifically, beating Aidan on his own channel with his thousands of fans to witness it. Eating a few Tamato Berries was a small price to pay.
Or so he thought. Even after just one bite, Reid was gasping in air as he forced himself not to gag. The bitterness had given away to mind-numbing heat, and tears began to prickle at the edges of his eyes as he blinked rapidly through the pain.
Suddenly, the glass of milk in front of him was way more appealing than beating Aidan.
He almost reached for it, too, until he happened to glance over to see Aidan himself struggling with his own Tamato Berry. He looked a lot more put together than Reid did, but his flushed face and quickened breathing were dead giveaways that the berry was affecting him more than he let on.
“You okay over there?” Aidan asked, but it wasn’t out of concern—it was in teasing. Reid glared at him and stuffed the rest of his Tamato Berry out of pure spite.
Aidan’s eyes widened in surprise as he wordlessly watched Reid chew and swallow the berry in one go. Reid was determined to keep his gaze, but after a moment, he wheezed and crumpled in on himself as he held onto the table for dear life.
“Hot, hot, hot—!” Reid panted, crouching further to the ground, his orange hair the only thing peeking out from behind the table.
“Bzzt. Why don’t you finish the rest of your berry like that, too?” his Rotom Phone asked mischievously.
“H-huh?” Aidan asked, caught off-guard. He blinked and looked down at his unfinished Tamato Berry. He glanced at Reid again, who still hadn’t grabbed for his milk despite his obvious pain.
“Are you scared?” his Rotom Phone continued, and that was the final nail in the coffin.
“What? No!” Aidan exclaimed, and then to prove it, he repeated Reid’s actions in stuffing the entire berry into his mouth. Before he could even swallow, he coughed and spit out the berry, frantically grabbing for the milk and downing it.
“Bzzt. The winner is Reid!” The Rotom Phone declared, zooming in on Reid. The shot definitely wasn’t flattering—Reid was crouched down to the ground, his mouth bright red and swollen. But when hearing of his victory, the pain of the Tamato Berry was suddenly forgotten. Reid grinned, bright and genuine, and he shot up from the ground to fist pump the air.
“Yes! I totally beat you! I—” He was interrupted by a cough, and without any more fanfare, he reached for his milk.
“Can’t you guys ever just be normal?”
Reid quickly looked over to see Calla, who was watching them from a nearby tree. He blushed in embarrassment at his sister seeing him in such a sorry state. “C-Calla!”
Aidan looked equally embarrassed as he scrambled to fix his hair and compose himself. His mouth was still red, though. “Hey Calla,” he answered breezily. “How long were you watching?” It was obvious that he was hoping Calla hadn’t seen his spectacular loss.
Reid hoped she did.
“Long enough,” she answered, walking over to the table. The Rotom Phone followed her, still filming. She picked up a Tamato Berry and rolled it over in her hand. Then, without any warning, she took a large bite without so much as a flinch. After swallowing it, she licked her lips before eating the rest like it was nothing but an apple.
“Uh,” Aidan said. Reid couldn’t help but agree with the sentiment.
“Are you guys going to eat the rest of these?” she asked. Aiden just shook his head. With a big smile, she picked up the basket and held it to her chest. “Yay! I was just starting to get hungry from training. Thanks!”
And just like that, she was gone. The silence that followed was deafening—for once, not even Aidan could think of a smart remark.
The Rotom Phone snickered as it zoomed out for the final wide shot of the video.
Aidan frowned as Briar positioned his arm and hand exactly how he wanted. The foam sword he was holding was pointed towards the ceiling, looking particularly pathetic under the bright lights of the living room ceiling.
“Tilt your head this way,” Briar continued to instruct, and Aidan groaned as Briar gently angled his head to look off in the distance.
And if all of that wasn’t bad enough, he was donned in a flimsy cape that pooled at his ankles.
He never felt stupider in his life.
“I immediately regret this decision,” Aidan mumbled after Briar had finally stepped back to appraise him with an approving grin.
“You look great,” Briar assured him as he picked up his sketchbook. “Just hold that pose.”
Aidan sighed, but didn’t protest when Briar began to diligently scratch away at his sketchbook with his ballpoint pen. Normally, Aidan would have never agreed to this—it was just way too cringe—but desperate times unfortunately called for desperate measures.
Internet trends were constantly changing, and if Aidan wanted to stay relevant, he needed to be on top of the latest fad. But for some reason, the latest fad happened to be sibling-related content, much to Aidan’s chagrin. A popular PokeTuber had posted a viral video of him pranking his sister in what was good-natured fun, and now, similar sibling content was popping up all over his feed.
Pranking Briar wasn’t the issue. In fact, Aidan would have been more than happy to pull a fast one over his lame older brother for some easy views. It wasn’t the first time he had made a video like that, and it definitely wouldn’t be the last.
But what really made the viral brother-sister video take-off wasn’t the prank, but the content that followed after—a video showing the siblings partaking in a fun cooking challenge together, showcasing their cheeky familial bond in a way that viewers couldn’t get enough of.
Wholesome, people had called it. It made Aidan want to gag.
So here he was, letting Aidan use him as a life-drawing model for one of his superhero sketches.
“Bzzt. You look great,” his Rotom Phone snickered, repeating Briar's earlier words in teasing as it floated around him and recorded his misery.
Aidan flushed and shot his Rotom Phone a glare. “Shut up,” he grumbled.
“Y’know,” Briar spoke up, clearly oblivious to the ongoing war between Aidan and his Rotom Phone, “This reminds me of when we were kids. We would dress up like superheroes and run around the lab looking for Pokemon to help.” He laughed softly under his breath. “I remember one time, you climbed up a tree so you could reach a berry for a Rhydon. The branch ended up breaking, and I tried to be the cool older brother by catching you, but I couldn’t handle the weight and ended up falling over.” He lifted his head enough to offer Aidan an easy smile. “I must have looked pretty lame, huh?”
Aidan paused at that. He also remembered that day—how scared he was when the branch broke, how he had braced himself to hit the hard ground only to hit Briar instead. Briar’s arm was completely bruised, but he didn’t cry or complain. He just smiled at Aidan with the same easy smile as he did now and asked Aidan if he was okay.
“... I dunno,” Aidan huffed, looking away to hide the way his ears turned pink. “I thought it was. Cool. Or whatever.”
Aidan wasn’t looking, so he didn’t see Briar’s stunned expression at the admission. He just let Briar keep drawing him, deciding that maybe spending time with his older brother every once in a while wasn’t the worst thing in the world.
Emilie slid across the smooth pavement underneath her roller blades, the wind gently tussling her hair with every powerful push. It was rare that she got the chance to let loose like this—as it turned out, being on a Pokemon journey left little room for free skating. It wasn’t exactly ideal to skate around in a lush forest or a rocky mountainside.
So she cherished each time they finally made it to a new city, the tall buildings and the blinding street lights embracing her like home.
It was early enough in the morning that the skate park was empty. Emilie wasn’t usually such an early riser, but the inviting pavement that called out to her made her more restless than usual. Louvel and Nick had still been asleep when she snuck out of their shared Pokemon Center room, but she imagined Louvel at least would be waking soon. He always got up with the sun.
She sighed and closed her eyes, taking a deep breath and letting it fill her. She felt weightless—free. Like she could do anything. Skating was the only thing that made her feel that way.
She felt invincible.
Until the front wheel of her blade cut against a sudden uneven piece of pavement, and she tumbled forward in an ungraceful display of flailing arms and legs.
She squished her eyes closed, bracing for impact, but instead only felt the soft thud of a warm body.
“Whoa!” the body said, catching her tightly, but not being able to stop itself from also falling backwards—Emilie landing right on top of it. After a moment, Emilie dared to peak an eye open, and was shocked to see Nick sprawled underneath her. She gasped and quickly got off him, her face bright red.
“Ohmygosh, I’m so sorry—!” she stammered, her voice high and squeaky. “Are you okay?!”
Nick let out a breathless laugh. It was clear he got the wind knocked out of him, but he didn’t seem bothered by it at all. He sat up without any trouble, and aside from his disheveled hair and clothes, Emilie didn’t immediately see anything out of place.
“Totally fine,” he assured with a grin. Emilie’s heart stuttered at the sight. “Are you okay?”
“Y-yes! I mean—yes,” she said, trying to calm her hammering heart. More coyly, she added, “Um. Thank you for saving me.”
“No problem,” Nick answered, pushing himself to his feet and dusting off his clothes. He then offered his hand to Emilie, who prayed her own hand wasn’t a clammy mess as she accepted it. “When I woke up, you weren’t there, so I got kinda curious—but when I saw your blades were gone, I had a feeling I’d find you here.”
“I-I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have left without saying anything…”
“You should be sorry!” Nick said, and Emilie winced. But Nick was still smiling, and Emilie realized he was only teasing her. “If you were going to the skate park, you should have woken me up! I totally would have gone with you.”
“O-oh, well—I mean—I was going to invite you after lunch, and I—Wait, is that blood?!”
Nick blinked. “Huh?” Emilie was staring at his elbow, and Nick lifted it to get a good look. Sure enough, his elbow was bright red, a bead of blood dribbling down the length of his arm. “Oh. Yeah.”
He sounded so nonchalant about it that Emilie wanted to scream.
“It’s just a scratch,” Nick quickly assured her when seeing the color drain from her face. “I must’ve scraped it when I hit the pavement. I just need a band aid.”
The blood was dripping onto said pavement now. He most certainly did not need just a band aid.
“I’m taking you to the hospital,” Emilie said, pulling Nick’s arm clumsily towards the entrance of the skate park. Nick stumbled along, weakly protesting all the while, but it wasn’t enough to ebb Emilie’s panic.
As it turned out, Nick hadn’t just scraped his elbow—he tore the skin against another patch of uneven pavement and required five stitches. Louvel chastised them both for sneaking off so early in the morning, and Emilie spent a good ten minutes screaming into her pillow before dedicating the rest of her day to being Nick’s caretaker.
Amber woke with a pained gasp. She stared wide eyed at the cave ceiling as she gulped down breaths of air, her heart pounding a mile a minute. It was dark—only the dying glow of the simmering campfire illuminated the otherwise pitch-black cave, and Amber hugged herself tightly, the darkness swallowing her whole and crushing deep into her bones.
She barely registered her surroundings. The cave walls kept closing in on her, the sharp outlines of the hanging stalactites becoming blurred. Still struggling to breathe, she pinched her eyes closed tightly, trying to focus on her breathing—in, out, in out.
“Hey,” a muffled voice called out to her. “Am—ber. Can you—”
In. Out. In. Out. In—
“Amber!”
Amber’s eyes shot open when a large, warm hand grasped at her shoulder. The hand on her shoulder gave a tight squeeze, and the sensation was enough to ground her—just a little.
She blinked a few times until Coda’s sharp features peaked through the darkness. She tried to open her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. It was like her mouth had been stuffed full of dry cotton balls.
“Shit, uh,” Coda fumbled. “Hey. Just breathe, okay? Like this.” He made a show of taking a slow, deep breath in before letting it out in a shaky exhale.
Amber mimicked the motion, albeit clumsily with her still frenzied breathing. Coda continued to coach her through it, but it was his frazzled demeanor that slowly brought her back to reality. It was somehow calming to see Coda almost as worked up as she was.
When Coda was sure Amber could breathe on her own, he leaned over towards his sleeping bag to rummage through his messenger bag. He pulled out a half-drunk water bottle, lukewarm from a day’s worth of travel, but still better than nothing. He unscrewed the lid before gently holding it up to her lips.
“Drink this,” he instructed. “Slowly.”
Amber closed her eyes as Coda tilted the bottle. He watched attentively as Amber wordlessly gulped down the water, panting slightly when he pulled the bottle away. He gently ran a thumb under her chin to wipe away an excess dribble of water.
“You’re okay,” he assured her, voice hushed in the quiet of the night. Allie was sleeping peacefully just a few feet away from them. “You’re safe now.”
Amber hesitantly glanced down at her sprawled legs, but relief soon washed over her face when she felt her toes wiggle.
“Did you… want to talk about it?” Coda asked, somewhat awkwardly. “Or did you want to try and go back to sleep?”
“... I’m sorry,” Amber finally spoke, her voice small and raspy. She hugged her knees to her chest. “It’s been a while since something like this happened, so I thought I would be okay, but…” Her voice trailed off as she looked around the cave. Her eyes soon found Allie, who was sleeping not far from them, her sleeping bag pulled up to her chin.
“Allie was right,” she finished, sounding miserable.
Earlier that evening, when it became apparent that the three wouldn’t be reaching the next town before dark and alternative sleeping arrangements needed to be made, Coda made the suggestion of holing up in a nearby cave to escape the impending rain. Allie had protested, and Amber meekly stood by as the two argued on the ideal place to sleep.
It wasn’t until Amber quietly agreed to Coda’s plan that Allie finally relented.
“No, I wasn’t thinkin’,” Coda said, voice laced in frustration. “I shouldn’t’ve–”
“It’s not your fault,” Amber interjected. “I—”
“Listen,” Coda said, interrupting Amber’s interruption. He placed both hands on her shoulders and gave her a firm look. Amber blinked owlishly back at him. “Just let me talk, okay?” Amber, stunned, could only nod in response. “It was my idea to sleep in this stupid cave. I was just tryin’ to look out for everyone, but all I did was make you…” He huffed and shook his head. “Y’know what? You should just hit me.”
“I couldn’t do that!” Amber said, mortified.
Coda sighed, dragging one of his hands from Amber’s shoulder down the length of her arm. She stiffened as he did so, her tension only rising when he grasped one of her hands and brought it to his face. He gently rapt her knuckles against his cheek.
“There,” he said, letting her hand drop. He still didn’t look satisfied.
Amber quickly snatched her hand away and frowned at him. “You’re being way too hard on yourself.” She rubbed gingerly over the knuckles that were just against Coda’s skin mere moments before. “I’m… I’m used to it, okay? It’s really not as big a deal as you’re making it out to be.”
“You shouldn’t be used to it,” Coda countered.
“I know,” Amber agreed quietly. “But I am. And… it’s probably going to happen again.” She lifted her head enough to offer Coda a small, feeble smile. “So the next time it does, will you be there for me again?”
Coda pressed his lips tightly together, clearly conflicted. He probably wanted to keep pushing her, but Amber could tell that her earnest request was enough to completely disarm him. He then let out a sigh, his shoulders sagging as he did so, and the back of his head thumped against the cave wall behind him.
“... Yeah,” he said. He lulled his head to face her, and despite everything, he offered her a tired smile. “Yeah. ‘Course.”
i feel like such a loser for asking, but i've recently gotten submas brainrot again, so I have to ask; is the battle subway still up-and-running? how are the twins doing? will skye ever challenge the battle subway?
i've never thought about it, but i assume it is! i'm sure the twins still run everything, but it'd be cool if there are two new trainers who handle a lot of the battles--students of the twins of some kind. and of course sky will challenge when she's in unova!
Ash and Misty going on a flying date with their Charizard and Togekiss respectively. Pikachu having a heartwarming reunion with his younger sibling and they team up for the first time to take down Team Rocket.
If you were going to give Skye a Canon Mega Evolution and not a fan-made one being Mega Typhlosion(which I’m saying right now I’m very much NOT against,it’s your story) what would it be since she does have plenty of Pokémon capable of Mega Evolution.
she already has a mega manectric! but if i had to pick non-canon, it's hard to think of any that would be more fitting than typhlosion considering the emotional weight it has on skye's story...
Suggestion: Skye was in danger, but she was saved by a certain Pokemon! When she reunites with her parents, Misty gets immediately sad and happy at the sight of her beloved Togepi, now a fully evolved Togekiss.
How is Dawn’s and Paul relationship currently. Has anything changed with the updated art from blue sky? And also, does Dawn do anything for his birthday or is he still usually out training.
I think it's as okay as it can be, all things considered. Paul often leaves for training because he just can't deal with being around family super well (it makes him think about Austin), but Dawn is actually someone he can still be around and not feel as guilty about what happened. Paul will be able to begin moving on when he finally receives Lizzie's forgiveness.
