Like No One Ever Was

Did you hear?” Cyan asked me out of the blue one morning while we were having breakfast.

“Hmm? What?” I asked, still a little confused and waking up.

“About Tera Orbs! They’re the-”

“Turo finished it?!” My sister blinked at my abruptness. “Ah sorry, you were saying?”

She let out an exasperated huff of air at my interruption while I just shrugged. “Probably should have realized you would already know about it. Got your little boyfriend to tell you all about it, huh?” Her teasing tone made me retch internally at the insinuation. Eww. Not my age, not my type.

“He’s not my boyfriend.” My tone was as deadpan as it could be.

"Whatever you say," she taunted again, before giving up when I didn't respond to her prodding. I think she's just looking for something, anything, to tease me about.

Things have gotten better with us hanging out more and working on comics together, but that just means I have to deal with the standard big sibling teasing inherent in having a big sister..

It was certainly a different dynamic to deal with. Back in my first life, I was the one with the younger sister. My situation being reversed meant I didn’t fit into the role well and was still trying to figure out how my new dynamic sometimes worked.

“Hello?” Her voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

“Ah, sorry about that.” I said, scratching the back of my head. Hmm, my hair’s getting long, should probably get it cut soon. “You were saying?”

She shook her head, her white bangs falling around her face. “Arceus above, I swear your head seems stuck in the clouds sometimes. Yes, the Tera Orb! Professor Turo just unveiled it as his newest invention. The news said it was going to revolutionize battles or whatever, but I guess you know all about that already.”

“No, I really don’t. Turo told Arven barely anything.” Technically true, and that’s really stretching ‘barely’ from the pretty much nothing he told Arven. Still, I don’t need Cyan questioning Arven about that at some point when she sees him. “Please, tell me about it.”

“Fiiiiiine.” She groaned and acted like it was a big deal but quickly scooted beside me, directing her own Rotom Phone to show us the news. A quick glance at the time showed it really was recent. This happened fifteen minutes ago?! Of course I hadn’t heard of it yet!

In the video, Turo looked a little bit more haggard than I’d seen him before, but that was mostly concealed by the sheer exuberance and energy he had, unveiling his new device.

"The Tera Orb is my team's creation to harness the natural power of Terastalization! The ability to change a Pokemon's type at will, a marvelous new advancement in battling! All in the palm of your hand." He lifted his hand out of his pocket at that moment, revealing the shiny black orb.

With his free hand, he held a Pokeball and released a Porygon Z from it. Then, taking the Tera Orb, he threw it above the Porygon where it burst into light and the Pokemon was transformed. Crystal energy surrounded it and on its head, in the shape of a large gem with a few smaller gems sticking out, was a crystalline crown. “The future is here, and I can’t wait to share it with all of you.” His speech dramatically concluded, the reporters burst into a stream of furious questions.

“Wow, that’s pretty incredible.” I said, half-tuning out the rest of the interview.

Cyan frowned. “You don’t sound like you think it’s incredible.”

“No no, don’t get me wrong, this is huge. In terms of battling it adds a whole new dimension onto how you fight. A couple of dimensions, really. Defensively you can change your typing to completely flip the script on incoming attacks, and offensively everyone knows how much of a boost Terastalized Pokemon can have in the wild. There’s also the question of duration, how long it lasts, when will be the best time to use it-”

“Ok ok, no need to nerd out on me you Pokefreak.” I puffed my cheeks out at that. “So you think it’s big news you just… weren’t surprised by it.” I’ll have to be careful with the things I let slip, Cyan’s actually quite intelligent herself.

“I guessed about as much when I met Turo. The rest I just studied up a bit on my own, but there’s still too little information to say how this will affect things,” I hedged. I had some theories of my own, like how it might lead to increased trade and tourism with Kitikami, the only other region that had Terastalization naturally, but that was mostly due to my unique knowledge.

Our attention was suddenly caught by something Turo said as the press conference was wrapping up. “... I’d like to give a big thanks to my team for their tireless work on this project, I couldn’t have done it without them. We also could not have achieved this without the work from generous sponsors, like Billy & O’Nare Glitterati.” Mom, Dad, just how much did you give him? Am I going to have to worry about him getting his ‘time machine’ up and running ahead of schedule?

“Wow, that’s our parents for you, always knowing the best projects to invest in! That’s their Glitterati brilliance.” I cringed for a moment before I saw Cyan giggling, revealing she was just doing a bit, not actually trying to copy our parents like that.

“Geez, don’t worry me like that! You were acting so cringey,” I said, now laughing as well. We both fell into hysterics for a bit, just laughing at their mannerisms. If it had been anyone else, I might have been upset by them making fun of my (admittedly goofy) parents, but it was something we could share as sisters.

I wonder how my real- first life family is doing? I don’t remember death or the like, so it could just be my memories and mind implanted in Nemona’s head, but maybe I did die. If I did, I hope they managed to move past it. It wasn’t the first time I’d had such thoughts, but it intruded like an ice cold knife cutting through my cheer in the moment.

“C’mon, do you really think I’d be that bad?” Cyan asked, and I did my best to pretend like everything was still fine, and that I wasn’t for reasons utterly unexplainable to her, terribly sad.

“No, no, you just did a really good job in your impression.” I quickly changed the topic, trying to use forced enthusiasm to cover up my sudden melancholy. “Hey, want to see what Dun can do? He’s gotten really strong, and I can’t wait to see him battle.”

My sister rolled her eyes. “Don’t you battle with Arven tons? I saw those fights.”

“You saw one fight- not even! You left halfway through!”

She looked sheepish at that. I will not call it Mareepish! Sheep actually exist here! And Mareep are much tougher than them. Wool is pretty tough, and an even greater deterrent when electrically charged too, something wild Mareep knew. Plus,such packs often had more experienced Flaffys or even Ampharos leading them.

“Alright fine, I’ll watch you and Dunsparce train a bit.”

“Excellent!” I cheered, scarfing down the rest of my breakfast. We raced outside and down the stairs, my sister outpacing me with her longer legs. The shore was as gorgeous a sight as ever. Sparkling blue ocean stretching out as far as the eye could see, soft golden sand beneath our feet. Chatots chattering away above us.

“Haha, I win!” Cyan said. I opened my mouth to argue that we hadn’t ‘officially’ declared a race, before thinking better of it.

“All right, here’s your prize. Let’s go, Dunsparce!” I declared dramatically as I clicked open his Pokeball.

“Aren’t you supposed to throw it?” My sister (un)helpfully added as Dunsparce reared up and… yawned lightly. I was excited for a split second before realizing that wasn’t the Move, he was just a little sleepy.

“Hush you.” I said to her before bringing up Rotom to record this. “Can you help us? I want to show off what we’ve been practicing.” My sister kneeled down and scratched the top of his head, something Dun leaned into a bit. He hadn’t been as big a fan of hers at first, but I realized that was because she tried to hug him, and he only accepted hugs from me. Anyone else trying to hold him like that got him agitated. Once I told her that, she made sure to respect his boundaries and appreciated the head scratches.

“... Of course, bzzt. You two have been working really hard.” Rotom replied hollowly. Hmm, something is definitely up with them. I’ll talk to them about it after.

“Thanks! Now, Dunsparce, time to really show Cyan here what you’re made of. You ready?”

“Sparce!” He affirmed, instantly shaking off the sleepiness, a fire in his eyes. Cyan took a few steps back to give him room to show off the fruits of his labors.

“Alright, let's start off with a Poison Jab on that tree.” I pointed at one of the palm trees standing about three times my height. Dunsparce eagerly slithered ahead, spinning around and jabbing it deep with the point of his tail. The purple ooze that coated his tail right before the impact spread quickly through the tree, giving it a withered look as it started to turn gray.

“It’s weakened, follow it up with a Body Slam!” Sure, Dunsparce already knows it’s weakened from the attack, but the commentary helps when showing off.

He wrenched his tail out, then threw himself into an all-out slam into the poisoned tree, smashing it to bits. I raised a hand up to shield myself from the splinters as it cracked and broke into a thousand pieces.

“God job, now finish things off with your biggest move. Earthquake!” I made sure to point at a boulder that was sitting on the beach (and may have been there from our efforts training days beforehand, breaking off a chunk of the cliffs nearby).

Giving a small trill of victory, Dunsparce raised himself up into the air on the tip of his tail before flopping down. The impact was much heavier than one would think was physically possible however, the Ground energy was infusing the blow. The sand rippled violently beneath our feet, sending Cyan stumbling, and then falling as the aftershocks hit. I was a bit more prepared for it, managing to ride it out by lowering my center of gravity moving with, not against the waves. We weren’t too close to take any major impact from it though. The boulder on the other hand? It was right beside Dunsparce, the waves spreading from the sand straight up through the rock, breaking it apart with ease.

“Th-that was…” Cyan said, shakily getting up.

“That was awesome! Great job Dun!” I ran over to give him a big hug, ignoring the sand that had been kicked up.

“Dun dun!” He wiggled gladly in my arms, puffing himself up a bit with pride. He should be proud, it took a lot of work to get to that point. We’ve been training for months now, getting him used to different terrains like earth and rock vs sand. He could do more damage to the ground/anything on solid ground at first, but could spread the effects further and faster with the sand. Now he’s about on par with both and I think I can say he’s entirely proficient with the Move. Same for Poison Jab, and while it isn’t as ‘flashy’ as the other two, I think he’s mastered Body Slam.

I turned around to Cyan to show off how great my Pokemon was some more, maybe demonstrate some of the more finicky maneuvers we were working on, but I saw a look of shock in her eyes at something behind me. She raised her hand to point at it as I was already whirling back around. There was movement and an angry screech from the rubble, then a burst of rock and water sliced through it and towards me.

My vision spun around me, the impact leaving me dazed and confused. I could barely tell that I was laying on the ground. A pained yell from Dunsparce caught my focus, ignoring the aches and what felt like a scrape above my eyes.

Wrenching myself up from the me-shaped divot in the sand, I saw the battle at hand. Sand and water were kicked around as Dunsparce interposed himself between me and three red squiggly worms poking out of a rock. What? Wait, that’s Wugtrio!

My starter wasn’t doing well, not using Moves beyond the occasional Flail as it panicked. My head was still spinning, Cyan screaming her head off in the background didn’t help but I pushed that aside as I rose on shaky legs. I was still trying to put the situation together, but one fact was clear to me was that Dun would be in trouble if I didn’t give an order to my Pokemon immediately. “Body Slam!”

Dunsparce stopped thrashing about in confusion and launched itself at the wormy trio, slamming hard into them. Wugtrio recoiled, shifting back and I used the opportunity to steady myself. What the heck is going on here?! We were just training and suddenly this wiggling menace appeared. It- it hit me. I wiped away a small trickle of blood dripping down towards my eyes. I’ll deal with how this happened later, I can’t let Dun lose!

Wugtrio approached again, rearing back to slam its heads onto Dunsparce. “Roll away!” I called out and Dun avoided the blow. One Wugtrio head turned to glare at me, recognizing me as a potential problem, while the other two were focused firmly on my Pokemon.

“Follow it up, Body Slam again.” I shouted, and Dun tried to do so, but Wugtrio easily circled around him, firing off rings of water. The problem made itself apparent, clumps of sand sticking to his scales and slowing him down. Some of the thin mucus surrounding the Wugtrio had stuck onto Dun from his contact and dragged him down, more sand sticking to him. The frequent water blasts didn’t help either, making him flinch and making more space between the two.

What do I do? My mind froze, for some reason stuck on the screams Cyan was making. Tearing my eyes away from the scene for a second, I yelled out to Cyan. “Go inside, get help!” Cyan cast one fearful glance back at me and bolted, running up the stairs. Good, that’ll keep her safe and I can focus. And if I fail, we might need an adult here.

“I- I’ll go help the Young Master!!” Rotom said, floating after my sister.

“Right, good,” I called back, distractedly, turning my attention to the fight. At least they’ll be safe I thought as I saw the beatdown that was taking place. Dunsparce was still valiantly trying to get close, but Wugtrio was running literal circles around him, blasting him each time as he went. Dammit, he can’t take much more of this! I instinctually moved towards him, causing two things to happen.

First, Wugtrio immediately stopped, trying to backpedal at my approach. Right, it still sees me as a threat! Better not get close though, it hit me pretty hard last time. The second was that getting a better look at Dun, I could see that he was actually doing a lot better than I thought. It still wasn’t great, he was bruised in more than a few places, but I could tell he could still take a few shots. The Water Pulses aren’t hurting him much! Wugtrio must not be a great special attacker.

My brave land snake used the opportunity Wugtrio’s sudden stop had given him to try and close the distance. I could already tell it wouldn’t be enough though, Wugtrio was still too fast and Dun too slow. “Jump up and drift!” We haven’t perfected that yet, but he’s already close. Just need the Wugtrio to back up and not try anything tricky.

Dunsparce launched itself through the air, leaping towards Wugtrio. Off the ground, the mucus didn’t have anything to catch on to and slow Dunsparce down. It also meant his move was very telegraphed, the three heads of Wugtrio giving something near a scoffing sound as it backed up and to the side slightly. Which is when Dunsparce flapped his little wings as hard as he could! Gliding and curving through the air, he fell on Wugtrio with a heavy Body Slam.

The aquatic Pokemon gave an enraged screech, suddenly changing tactics. Instead of backing up, it charged ahead, a jet of water propelling it past Dunsparce, knocking him on his side. He easily rolled back, but Wugtrio was on him again in an instant.

Rocketing around, Wugtrio kept on striking at Dunsparce, much faster than he could react to, circling around and striking him from a new angle each time he tried to get back up. Damn, is that a Priority Move? I can barely keep track of him with my eyes… Eyes that’s it!

“Glare then jab when he closes!” I shouted as quickly as I could. We’d practiced the maneuver enough that Dun knew what to do even while getting battered. He opened his eyes fully, staring with all his hatred at all three pairs of eyes atop its wobbly heads. The Wugtrio involuntarily halted its approach, its muscles seizing in fear as its momentum carried it closer to Dunsparce without any of the usual power behind its Moves. Spinning around, Dunsparce tried to Poison Jab it with his tail, purple energy surrounding the appendage.

Wugtrio managed to still pull off a speedy reversal - of direction and speed, not the Move, but still ended up grazed by Dunsparce’s tail. Not Poisoned though, it still looks too hearty for that.

“Wugtrio!!!” All three heads shouted angrily as it renewed its assault. This time it was keeping a close eye on the tail, which meant it would sometimes abort its attacks early or only strike grazing blows. It was still enough though, Dunsparce was heavily panting between taking blows, and Wugtrio’s speed was too great even with the Paralysis.

Sand sprayed near my eyes a few times, but otherwise the battle was kept away from me, letting me think and evaluate the conditions. That mucus keeps on slowing him down too…Wait I’ve got it! There was one surefire way to get rid of a debuff like that. It’s risky, but I can’t let him keep on getting hit like this!

Holding up my Pokeball, I recalled Dunsparce. His opponent disappearing in a red beam of light confused Wugtrio for a second, which was all I needed to release Dunsparce again, right beside Wugtrio, free of any mucus.

“EARTHQUAKE!” I yelled as loudly as I could, as if that would enhance the move, then jumping into the air. I think he’s resistant to it, but there’s no dodging this one. Dunsparce performed the move without question, slamming into the ground multiple times and kicking up massive waves of sand, like miniature tsunamis radiating out through the beach.

Wugtrio was already moving away, but caught off guard so close to Dun, it wasn’t able to escape the wide-ranged attack. The Move bashed it around, causing the three heads to smack into each other repeatedly. It swayed around as the Move subsided, one head dropping limp, then the second, and finally the last, draping over its rocky body? Shell? In any case, we had defeated it.

Despite the fact that I hadn’t been involved in the fighting, I was panting nearly as hard as Dun was. I can’t believe that just happened! It was moving so fast and we barely- that Earthquake was amazing, I can’t believe it did that much damage to a Water Type. Wait, are Water Types not resistant to Ground? Damn it, they aren’t! To forget something so simple… I had panicked so much I forgot basic facts like that. Definitely something I have to improve on.

Shaking aside those thoughts for later I rushed over to Dunsparce. “Buddy, you ok?”

“Spar! Un.” Dunsparce responded, still warily eyeing his fallen foe. He still placed himself between me and the fainted Wugtrio, breathing heavily and seemed pretty bruised up. Nothing worse than that though, nothing permanent, I think. Pokemon are really tough, he should be fine with some time to rest and some Potions. The Wugtrio too.

“I think he’s beaten.” Sure, I couldn’t see swirly eyes like in the anime, but it looked pretty thoroughly defeated. Dun nodded, slithering back to my side. He glanced up at his Pokeball but made no other moves towards it, desiring to remain on-guard while the Wugtrio was still near, even if it wasn’t conscious.

A few seconds later, others arrived. Staff members and Cyan were rushing down the stairs to us, my sister giving out a cry for joy when she saw that Dun and I were alright.

“You’re ok?!” My sister cried out, running over to hug me, eliciting a small ‘oof’ from me.

“Yeah, we won!” I gave a weak cheer. I’m really happy, but boy was that stressful and painful. I hope we don’t have to do anything like that again soon. Leah and the others soon surrounded me too, fretting over my wounds. They pulled out handkerchiefs to dab at my cuts, poked and prodded to check for other injuries and generally ignored my attempts to wave them off. I know I look like a mess but I’m fine now!

“I can’t believe that monster attacked you!” Cyan said, stomping over to the downed Wugtrio. If it wasn’t for two of the staff accompanying her, Pokeballs at the ready, I might have been a bit worried about the Wugtrio possibly getting back up while she was too close. “We need to have it-”

“Safely relocated!” I interrupted her.

“Why? That thing attacked you for no reason!” She demanded and I blinked, caught off guard by her anger before seeing the worry behind her anger, biting her lip and hands clenched into fists. She saw her little sister just get hurt and couldn’t do anything about it, of course she’s upset.

Recognizing that, I discarded any high minded, philosophical arguments on why not to hurt a downed foe. “I don’t think they did attack us for ‘no reason’.” Very rarely was a Pokemon so aggressive, and even the ones that were more violent tended to be more on the highly territorial side than actively malicious. So why would it have jumped out from- oh.

“They were probably living in that boulder there.” We had knocked it down several days ago, so it wasn’t hard to believe that another Pokemon could have taken up residence in some nook inside the big rock. “When we destroyed it, they saw us as attacking them and destroying their home.”

“I- fine,” she crossed her arms. “But let’s make sure it’s placed far away from here.”

“No disagreements here.” She was still frowning, but there wasn’t anything I could do about that. Her and the others were worked up into a frenzy worrying about me and it would take a few minutes to calm down. I was helped by the fact that I saw the battle end, but I’d still probably have the jitters for a few hours.

So close to serious injury over an accident. I wonder if I might have been able to communicate with them, if we could have worked this out without a full fight… but then again, if I’d tried to hold off on fighting back, Dunsparce might have lost too.

I resolved to worry about could-have-beens later, and for the moment just be grateful that everyone was alive and well.