• A new LGBTQ+ forum is now being trialed and there have been changes made to the Support and Advice forum. To read more about these updates, click here.
  • Hey Trainers! Be sure to check out Corsola Beach, our newest section on the forums, in partnership with our friends at Corsola Cove! At the Beach, you can discuss the competitive side of the games, post your favorite Pokemon memes, and connect with other Pokemon creators!
  • Due to the recent changes with Twitter's API, it is no longer possible for Bulbagarden forum users to login via their Twitter account. If you signed up to Bulbagarden via Twitter and do not have another way to login, please contact us here with your Twitter username so that we can get you sorted.

Chaos Theory (SE1)

Re: Chaos Theory (11)

And so the training begins normally fics tend to do this later but it was still good. Ramsey is a weird character but not everyone can be super smart and normal right, plus I think this training might actually be good for Chaos.

Your chapter was good this time the paragraphs weren't too long and there was enough description to make it interesting it was really good and I read it in one sitting too.
 
Re: Chaos Theory (11)

I figured Chaos would need the training early since he knows little about battling, that and he is a trainer now.

Also, glad you could read it in one sitting, that's one of my goals with chaps, I want them to be readable in one sitting since it makes it easy to remember where you left of.
 
Re: Chaos Theory (11)

Awesome work. I just caught up.

I love how detailed and deep you've made the game story. Your detail in your writing and the storyline is awesome, especially the narration of your battle scenes. I enjoy how you describe them.

Anyways, keep it up :)
 
Re: Chaos Theory (11)

Chapter Twelve: Clowns, Clocks and Paths

“Takedown!”

Terrum was knocked onto the ground by Splat as he tried attacking. Cosmic already lay on the ground, too exhausted to move, and now Terrum was knocked unconscious. Chaos waited a second and knew what had happened as he braced himself. Within seconds the paper fan hit him in the back of the head. He then proceeded to remove the bandage and look at the field. There were various holes and craters covering the side of the field where they had been fighting, and in the midst of all this destruction Splat stood without a single scratch.

Chaos stood up as he returned his team to their pokéballs and proceeded to use the nearby machine to heal them. He had already learned everything he needed for the test and no longer had to do the running drill, but he still wasn’t any better at hitting Splat. It had been six days of training, Cosmic now understood most of what he said which made leading the duo as a team much easier, but the problem was that he still wasn’t a good leader. They were lasting longer and longer, but to no avail.

Removing his pokéballs from the machine he sat on the bleachers as he watched some large pokémon scurry about the field fixing the craters and filling up the holes. After asking around he had learned that the field was one of the most advanced in the area, having small force field generators underground to protect the spectators and trainers from stray attacks. The teachers had some machokes which would use their massive strength to repair any damage done to the field, while the teachers themselves would make sure the machines were running smoothly. He was about to stand up after a few minutes of contemplating where he had gone wrong when Ramsey plopped down next to him.

“You’re improving, but your battle style still doesn’t feel natural-gunk. Tell me, which path do you follow-gunk?”

Chaos immediately sighed, each day throughout the year Ramsey had asked him about his path each day, and each day he responded the same way.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Ramsey stood up once more, normally this was the moment when he got smacked once more, but instead he walked up to the machokes and helped fix up the field.

“You honestly don’t know do you-gunk? I figured you would have found it in one of those books you always seem to have you nose in-gunk. The paths are the three disciplines of battling, mind, body, and spirit. Few people are able to use all three of them so they focus in just one, which is why people refer to them as paths-gunk. Mind means you focus on strategy, body is raw power, and spirit relies completely on emotions and instinct. Most people stick to either mind or body since few people can get by just winging it-gunk. Guess which path I follow-gunk!”

Chaos sat there and let it all sink in. He had never actually watched him battle, having had the blindfold on each time they faced one another. He tried to think about the commands he had given Splat each time, but realized he had never said anything when they sparred. A style where no orders were given, it couldn’t be mind.

“You use the body path don’t y-“He didn’t get to finish the sentence as the paper fan flew through the air and smacked him on the face, causing him to fall back onto the floor.

“Wrong-gunk! If you’ve ever seen me battle then you’d know I follow spirit, now tell me which path you follow-gunk!”

As Chaos rubbed both the front and back of his head, he thought about it. He had fought Barry using two different styles. First he had tried to be strategic and fight by the book but it had failed, causing Cosmic to lose. He then tried charging in head first and lost once more. Then he remembered his first battle, against Dawn. He didn’t think about what to do next, he had let his emotions guide his next move. He had let whatever attacks that popped into his head become the next move, but he had lost.

“I-I guess I don’t follow any path, I tried each one and lost either way.”

Ramsey seemed a little disappointed at this. He slowly walked over to Chaos and stared right into his eyes. Suddenly, with absolutely no warning he jabbed him in the stomach, causing Chaos to bend over in pain. For a little guy he sure was strong.

“W-what the hell was that for?”

“A test, you definitely aren’t of the body path-gunk…” Ramsey Immediately began to look around while Chaos tried to catch his breath. He still wasn’t used to taking hits despite all the bruises he had developed thanks to Ramsey’s training style. He was slowly getting to his feet when Ramsey came running towards him.

“Come one, let’s go outside-gunk! There’s a guy talking about giving away free stuff-gunk!”

The very concept of getting free stuff got Chaos’ attention. He had been receiving plenty of free stuff since the day he became a trainer. The only things he had had to actively work for were the food and room here at the school which he had been paying for by cleaning, and Terrum, which was the reason he was on this quest in the first place. He quickly ran after Ramsey, quickly making it outside of the building. When he looked around, there seemed to be a brown haired man standing near a fountain yelling something about free tools and giving out fliers. Naturally the two approached the man.

“Come one, come all, to the first and possibly only, Annual Pokétch Clown Hunt! Will you be one of the lucky few who can get a free pokétch today? Just get the three coupons from the company clowns and you get one of these amazingly shiny and sparkly watches!”

Chaos and Ramsey both took a flier from the man who obviously seemed plump, and sat near the fountain to read over the rules. There were three clowns hidden in Jubilife City, and all one had to do was find each clown and receive a coupon from them. There was a catch though; they had to fulfill a task which the clown was to decide. The two looked at each other with a grin. Chaos had done some research and had learned exactly what a pokétch was. It seemed to be a watch designed for trainers, capable of downloading various applications should you use one of the cartridges. Each application was designed with trainer’s in mind, having developed some for type match ups, maps, and so much more. He had also found a very special piece of information, they cost much more than he could possibly hope to save up, this could be his only chance, and Ramsey seemed to be thinking the same thing.

“These things are as good as ours!” the two of them proclaimed as they both raised a hand towards the sky, and of course Ramsey threw an additional “gunk!” into the exclamation. The two immediately ran off in a random direction, having absolutely no idea where to start looking. Within minutes the two were back where they started listening to the man continue his speech. They lay on the ground and stared up at the sky when they saw the man’s bearded face looking down at them.

“Giving up already? Here’s a hint, there are three clowns, and three paths.” He then proceeded to walk away and continue to proclaim the news of the free pokétches, despite receiving minimal attention.

Chaos sat up as he thought about it. Three paths, and three clowns, what did that mean? Suddenly, Ramsey jumped up and started pointing towards a large building off in the distance.

“That means that each clown is somewhere having something to do with a path-gunk! So there has to be one at the GTS-gunk! There are plenty of people who go there to watch powerful trainers battle-gunk!”

Immediately Ramsey ran off towards the building, with Chaos trailing close behind. He was curious as to what the GTS was; if there were plenty of strong trainers then it had to be full of amazing pokémon. He could probably study a few of them and help fill up the pokédex and thus prove to be much more useful than the others would have expected.

After running for a few minutes, they finally reached a large skyscraper which seemed to have a large antenna on top. Said antenna was covered in various satellite dishes. At first Chaos was curious as to what Ramsey had meant about powerful trainers when he heard the sounds of a pokémon battle. There were commands being thrown through the air, as well as the sounds of rocks being torn apart. The sounds seemed to be coming from within the building, so he charged straight in. Upon looking around though, he was disappointed. Instead of the battles he imagined taking place, there were various large screens showing battles. At the bottom of each screen there were names and locations, as well as showing a number of pokéballs above each name. There was a man sitting at a counter selling tickets which were then used to go past two large doors. Ramsey ran up to the man and handed over some money in exchange for two tickets and handed one of them to Chaos.

“Come on, I bet he’s in here-gunk.”

The two walked through the doors and looked around. There were various doors leading to different rooms. Each door read a different name on top, and Ramsey quickly pulled Chaos into one of the rooms. He had managed to read what it said, ‘Byron vs Roark’.

When they stepped inside, Chaos jumped at what he saw. There were two large serpents battling against each other, one of them made of metal while the other was stone. They continued to collide time and time again, the sounds of the crashes filling the air. Suddenly one stone one smashed the ground with its tail, sending large chunks of stone flying through the air. Chaos quickly covered his face as one of them sailed towards him, but instead of hitting him, it simply passed through him. Ramsey continued to watch the battle as he explained between chuckles.

“The GTS is the Global Trainer Sector; on each floor there are different attractions which showcase the world of a trainer. Third floor is the contest viewer which lets you watch contests from around the world, second floor lets you trade pokémon around the world and this floor is the battle viewer. Here you can see different battles which have been recorded using the holographic projectors. It’s really cool since you can see it happen in front of you.”

Chaos simply let his mouth hang open as he watched the two serpents continue their struggle. So these two were trainers which had faced in the past and they were watching a recording of their battle. It seemed so real though, it was hard to believe it was all just holograms. Suddenly the large metal serpent opened up its jaw as its teeth turned a bright blue. Vapor could be seen coming out of it as it lunged forwards and bit the stone one. What really shocked him though, was watching ice spread from the bite area, covering the stone serpent, rendering it unable to battle.

Immediately the crowd began to roar as the holograms began to fade away, and Chaos quickly ran forwards. Ramsey had been right, one of the clowns was here; he had been posing as the trainer with an orange helmet and brown tattered clothes. He hadn’t noticed the face paint before, but it was obvious now that the holograms were gone. Not thinking clearly, he tackled the shocked clown who in turn began to let out a laugh.

“Pretty clever aren’t you? How’d you know that I, the clown of body, would be posing as one of the most body oriented trainers around? Even better, how’d you know that your task was to defeat me in combat?”

The clown continued to laugh and laugh as he handed over coupons to Chaos and Ramsey.

“Ramsey’s the one who figured out where you were, and I don’t know why I tackled you, wasn’t thinking straight.”

The clown stared at Chaos for a minute but then began to laugh as the two left and another battle began. Despite however much Chaos wanted to watch, they still had two more clowns to find.

*********************************​

The duo stood in front of a large building. It had an enormous screen which was showing various trailers for upcoming shows, none of which Chaos was paying much attention to. This was apparently the Jubilife TV station, headquarters of Sinnoh’s most popular television network. Few people went their entire lives getting hooked to at least one of their programs. Chaos was searching wildly for the clown, according to Ramsey this was the most emotion filled location in the city, meaning the clown of spirit just had to be here.

As he searched through the crowds of people who frequented this popular place, Ramsey was searching from atop of a nearby tree. Unlike with the GTS, they had absolutely no idea what the clown could possibly be doing at this location. At least they didn’t until Chaos decided to sit down at a nearby bench and look up at the screen.

“Ramsey! The screen! Look!”

Ramsey jumped down from the tree as he watched what was on screen. Chaos on the other hand stood up immediately and ran to the younger trainer. On the screen was a commercial about the contest they were participating in, and throughout the commercial a clown was shown running around on screen. Chaos quickly looked through the window of a nearby electronics stores and watched the commercial on those screens. Nothing, it was normal without the clown, though when he looked back at the large screen the clown was clearly seen running around.

Chaos and Ramsey both took off and ran inside of the TV station and looked at a nearby map. They spent a few minutes looking and then took off. They ran past various people but kept their eyes on their destination. At the end of the hall was the room they needed, the room in which the controls for the television were located. Once they reached the door they tried with all their might to open it but to no avail, it was locked.

“Whahahahahaha! You found me, but you have to open the door to get your coupon!”

“Out of my way-gunk.”

Ramsey pushed Chaos out of the way with his arm as he got a good look at the door. He had a stern look on his face as he suddenly clasped both hands in front of him. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His eyes opened up, revealing a look of pure determination, and then charged at the door.

“Brick Break!”

He swung his right arm with all of his strength, quickly colliding with the door. There was a loud thud filling the air as he stood there, a peaceful expression on his face. Chaos simply stared at him completely bewildered at what the young boy had just done. Ramsey immediately began to start hopping around, rubbing his hand as he let out a loud yelp. Chaos let out a sigh as he walked up to the door and inspected it. Where his fist had been, a small crater was located. Putting his own hand against the crater he gave a firm push, causing a chunk of wood to fall through to the other side. He then slipped his hand through the hole and managed to unlock the door from the inside. As the door opened, he stood triumphantly as the clown of spirit stared at the duo with his mouth wide open. It seemed he hadn’t expected anybody to enter through the door, considering there had been a rope ladder hanging from the window…

*****************************​

Chaos and Ramsey were walking back to the school, it was late now and they were almost out of time. They had checked so many places and had finally realized where the final clown was. He had to be at the school, it was the only place a trainer to go to study and strengthen their mind in the entire city. They were too tired to run though; all they could do was walk at this point. The school was quickly within view, but they had realized one thing. They had been at the school all morning and hadn’t noticed anything strange. Did that mean that the clown wasn’t here?

Feeling defeated and too exhausted to run around, the duo sat on the sidewalk and watched the man continue to spread the awareness of the contest, despite there being little hope for anybody to find all clowns within the time remaining. Noticing the two, the man smiled at them as he walked over to them.

“What’s wrong? Couldn’t find any of the clowns huh?”

“Nope, we actually managed to find body and spirit-gunk. It’s just there isn’t enough time to find mind…”

“You shouldn’t feel so down, I’m sure the clown of mind is somewhere nearby, you mustn’t give up!”

As Ramsey and the man spoke, Chaos sat there staring at the man while ideas began to fly around in his head. They had already decided that the clown had to be near the school, but they hadn’t noticed any clowns here before. This man was supposed to be spreading the word about the contest, yet they hadn’t seen anybody else doing so. This man was also remaining here, which was strange considering if he wanted to spread the word then he should have gone somewhere with foot traffic.

“Give us our coupons.”

The man looked confused at Chaos’ demand. He stood there with his hand outstretched, completely confident that he would receive that which he had asked for.

“You heard me, give us our coupons, or is there something you expect us to do?”

The man began to chuckle as he stood there. That chuckle quickly escalated into a much louder laugh.

“And here I thought I had picked the perfect strategy! Tell me, how did you know?”

“Not sure, the thoughts just sort of popped into my head and then all the pieces began to come together.”

The man just smiled as he, instead of handing out coupons, took the ones they had already collected. He then walked over to a pile of flyers and looked back at the two.

“Tell me, do you want a pink one or a blue one?”

“Can’t I get a purple one? Or maybe black, or maybe a croagunk one!”

“Sorry, but we only make them in pink and blue.”

Ramsey seemed disappointed at this; it seemed he really liked croagunks for some reason. Ignoring this, Chaos answered for the two of them.

“We’ll take some blue ones.”

After hearing this, the man moved the flyers revealing a pile of pink and blue boxes and picked up two of the blue ones. He handed them over to the duo and smiled. Ramsey and Chaos each took theirs with a wide grin. They had gotten their prizes, and they felt amazing.

**********************************​

Chaos and Ramsey were sitting in the battle room watching the machokes repair the area again. Chaos had just tried, and failed, once again. It was now late, too late to go another round. Ramsey was staring at Chaos, when he suddenly spoke up.

“Today, you tackled the first clown and said it was instinct didn’t you-gunk? You also told the last one that the ideas had just popped into your head… I think I know what you should do-gunk. Tomorrow before we leave, we’re going to try once more, but this time, I want you to do what you did today. Rely on your instinct, I bet you’ll do better this way-gunk.”

Ramsey then got up and walked away, heading towards the rooms in order to rest up. Chaos remained on the bleacher, thinking about what he had said. Rely on his instinct, he had done that in only one battle, and it was against Dawn. That was also the battle which had shown Rowan his potential. Maybe he should try it, strategy and brute strength had failed him each time he tried. Then a thought popped into his head as he took off after Ramsey.

“What do you mean we?!”


Author's notes: This chapter was longer than I had intended, but it was fun turning the little clown hunt into a learning experience. I guess that's what the game tried to make it, so I figured I'd do something similar. With each chapter, I feel that this Sinnoh is turning more into my own version, and not the game's. I also want to say thanks for all the reviews, they've been helping me find my faults so that I can fix them, while knowing what not to mess with.
 
Last edited:
Re: Chaos Theory (12)

I actually liked the length of this chapter you were able to put a lot more content into it. Also I really liked how you gave your own spin to think by introducing the paths of Body, Mind and Spirit and I bet Chaos will be in spirit actually. Also it seems like Ramsey will be travelling together with him xD
 
Re: Chaos Theory (12)

Chapter Thirteen: Badges and Goals

Everyone was sitting at the bleachers, ready to watch Chaos’ final attempt at the blindfold test. Ram had told everybody that this time Chaos would amaze them. Many of them were a little unsure as to his claim, having seen him try the test a few times nobody thought he’d do anything special. At most they expected him to succeed, perhaps due to Ramsey going easy on him, so they weren’t too interested. They mostly wanted to be present for Ramsey’s departure; he had been the second best trainer this year. Ram was standing on his side, tossing his pokéball in his hand, waiting for Chaos to put on his blindfold.

Chaos was looking at Cosmic and Terrum. The two were standing in front of him, fully aware that this was to be the final attempt, the sole redeeming moment. He slowly put on his blindfold as he took a deep breathe. He was not to think about what he’d do, he was not to charge in, he was to rely on instinct, let whatever popped into his head escape as a command.

“Listen guys, I might yell out some strange things, but please just listen to the commands and trust that the pieces will all fall into place…”

The two pokémon nodded their heads as they turned around. Chaos then focused for a moment as he cleared his head. He didn’t need to think, all he had to do was react.

“Double tackle!”

Immediately both Cosmic and Terrum charged at Splat, trying to knock her down straight away. Ramsey sighed, Chaos had already tried this a few times and it had been easily deflected by having Splat simply side step it.

“Cosmic jump, Terrum dig!”

As the two ran, Cosmic jumped up into the air while Terrum began to dig under Splat. Splat simply stood there for a minute as Cosmic passed over her and Terrum’s tunnel proved to be too strong to collapse under Splat’s weight.

“Cosmic, slam your tail down!”

Cosmic quickly twisted his body as he brought his tail down, preparing to hit Splat. Splat reacted by charging forwards to get out of the way, and managed to avoid Cosmic. Upon Cosmic hitting the ground, it began to crumble. The very tunnel underneath was collapsing, causing the ground to become uneven. At first it looked like only Terrum would be in trouble, but as the tunnel collapsed, Cosmic began to fall in. The rest of the tunnel also fell into the ground, including the parts Splat was running on. As it caved in, Splat shot a water gun at the ground and used it to propel her up, avoiding the destruction.

“Terrum, up then hyperbeam! Cosmic charge!”

Everyone began to chuckle at the very idea of a turtwig being capable of such a move. They watched as Terrum burst out of the ground a few feet from Splat. Terrum seemed to have a small yellow orb in its mouth as he aimed. Everyone seemed shocked; he was really going to do it. Even Ramsey was amazed, this was the first time he had seen him use it. Suddenly, a bright yellow flash extended from Terrum’s mouth as the energy was unleashed. Splat was caught completely off guard as she fell to the ground in order to avoid it. That was deemed a useless move as the energy dissipated after traveling for a few inches.

“Discharge, full power!”

Everyone looked around for Cosmic; he still hadn’t come out from under the ground. The ground began to tremble as occasional flashes were seen coming out of the cracks in the ground. A large burst of electricity suddenly burst out from the ground. Splat continued to lay on the ground, unable to get up quickly as the large amounts of electricity headed her way. After a brief second of panicking, though, she struck the ground with her tail, causing mud to rise up and block the electricity. Once the two collided large amounts of mud were splattered everywhere within the field as the force field kept everyone clean, except Chaos whom was inside the field.

“Leech seed everywhere!”

Terrum began to violently shake its head as seeds quickly shot out in every direction. Splat acted quickly and made sure to avoid contact with the seeds as several of them ended up falling to the ground harmlessly. The seeds soon began to grow into vines which began to spread around through the mud. Splat continued to run, avoiding each vine and smirked as some of the vines grew out from the hole Terrum had made. Cosmic was entwined in the vines and seemed to be getting weaker with each passing second. Chaos could hear Cosmic crying out in pain and frustration and grit his teeth. He had to think fast, no, not think; react.

“Cosmic! Bite the vine then use discharge! Terrum, razor leaf at Splat!”

Terrum looked at Splat as he began to shake his head, throwing the leaves at his target. Splat of course continued to jump around, avoiding the leaves but then something unexpected happened when Splat landed onto the mud. Splat slipped. As she fell, her leg became entwined with one of the vines and was unable to run. As this went on Cosmic did as he had been told and bit into the vine and fired off a discharge.

It was much weaker than the last one, as the electricity failed to hit Splat. When of the leaves headed towards her she quickly lifted the vine using her foot in order to let the leaf slice it, when it happened. A burst of electricity suddenly was released from the vine as it was sliced. Splat had no time to react, she hadn’t expected anything like this. The electricity quickly hit her, causing no real damage thanks to the mud, but a hit was still a hit, and Splat knew that. Once the electricity was gone, Splat’s eyes began to water up as she sat down and began to cry. She knew she had lost.

“I guess that means I win.”

Chaos slowly took off his blindfold as he looked at the field; it was in such a mess. Running up to the vines in which Cosmic was entwined. Grabbing hold the vines, Chaos began to rip them off as he began to feel a strange exhaustion falling over him. Within a minute Cosmic was free, and both he and Chaos seemed to be having difficulty standing. The two walked their way over to the bleachers and sat down.

“You shouldn’t touch those vines you know, within minutes they make people pass out-gunk!”

Chaos let out a small yelp as he turned around. Ramsey was right behind him, hadn’t he been standing on his side of the field?

“W-when did you get there?”

“I got tired of standing during the training so I decided to sit down and watch the match from there-gunk. That was really clever, how’d you know the vines would let the discharge flow through them-gunk?”

“I-I actually didn’t. It was just something that popped into my head. I figured that if the vines could carry a pokémon’s energy away then they should be able to handle other forms of energy.”

Chaos let out a nervous laugh as he spoke. He realized his last move had been incredibly risky, had his guess been wrong who knows what would have happened. He let out a sigh as he watched Terrum slice up the vines making it easier for the machokes to carry them away. Splat was still sitting in the ring crying though, had the attack really hurt that much? Or was it just upset that it had lost? Ramsey broke the silence.

“Yup, definitely spirit-gunk! Relying on impulses and poor logic with little to back it up, that’s what the path of spirit is all about-gunk! Though don’t let passing this test go to your head, had I actually given her any commands you would have lost right away-gunk.”

Chaos nodded as he admitted to the reality of the situation. This test had been nothing like a real battle. In a real battle both sides would have equal amounts of pokémon out, both sides would be issuing commands, and it wouldn’t end with simply one blow. On the other hand, he wouldn’t have had to wear the blindfold which might have given him a higher chance of actually winning. It didn’t matter though, all that mattered was that he had passed the test and now had to head out. The others were waiting at Oreburgh and he had to hurry.

“Well, it’s time to head off-gunk! Hurry up, heal and say good bye, we have to leave soon-gunk!” Chaos let out a slight sigh; at least he would have company.

********************************************​

“Walking through the trees, the trees, it makes me feel so free, so free!”

Ramsey bounced along the path as they continued to walk. They had been traveling for a little over an hour and he had been singing all that time. He pushed a branch out of his way and let go of it as it swung back and nearly struck Chaos in the face. He had ducked under it and smiled as he kept walking. Lucky for him, he had seen plenty of adventure movies and knew to keep an eye on the branches the guy in front was moving. As he walked he swore he occasionally heard a rustling in the bushes but shrugged it off as being wild pokémon.

“Ramsey, mind if I call you Ram, everyone always makes a big fuss over how you have a badge, why’s that?”

Ramsey suddenly stopped as he let go of the branch he was holding, letting it fly back and smack him in the face, knocking him over to the ground. He quickly shot up and looked Chaos in the eyes, revealing how much bewilderment was in them.

“Y-You don’t know about badges-gunk?! What about gyms, elite four, any of these sound familiar-gunk?!”

Chaos slowly shook his head as he stared at him. “They sound familiar, but I have no idea what they are. I think they were used as plot devices in some games I played a while ago.”

Chaos stared up at the trees as he thought about it. He had read a few comic books where they were mentioned but the most notable thing from the comics he could remember was the dialogue and battles which occurred when fighting evil, and barely anything about badges. Understanding that he had little to no understanding on the subject, Ramsey decided to fill him in.

“All over the world, there is a competition called the Elite Four Challenge, it is basically the pinnacle of battling-gunk. You travel around a region and fight the eight gym leaders, taking their badges as proof of your accomplishment. If you manage to collect all eight in a year then you’re able to take place in the Pokémon League, a grand tournament where the best trainers duke it out-gunk. The winner gets a huge cash prize and the chance to take the real Elite Four Challenge where you face the four amazing trainers in a series of four days. After beating them you get a shot at the title of Champion by facing the current champion in a battle to the finish-gunk!”

As Ramsey gave his little explanation he jumped around and threw various punches into the air and ended by shooting his fist up into the air. Chaos was in awe, such a tournament existed? Why hadn’t he heard of it? Chaos decided to let his thoughts out as he asked, only for Ramsey to suddenly look at the floor and walk forwards. Chaos quickly sped up in order to keep up with him as he listened to what he said.

“How far the sport has fallen…You see, lots of years ago it used to be such a famous tournament, and everyone wanted to be a trainer to try to win. People all over Sinnoh spent years trying, until they saw just how hard it really was-gunk. Many of them gave up and stopped having hope. When they grew up they passed those feelings onto their children and now….nobody wants to be a trainer…You saw how old the school looks. It’s because the school is gonna close soon, there aren’t enough kids who want to study to become trainers so the school can’t pay all the bills-gunk. Me and the other kids overheard the teachers talking about it so we decided we would do our best to get the money somehow. The others have been doing bake sales and doing chores to try to get as much as they can, but me and another kid, we’re gonna win this and get the prize money! I have to, I love that place!”

As he said that last sentence, Chaos could hear a few sobs coming from him. He really was upset about the school closing down. He took a deep breath and quickly caught up to him, placing his hand on his shoulder.

“I want to help! I’ll get those badges and take up another slot in the tournament! Even if I lose, I’ll still make is so someone trying to use the prize for other reasons doesn’t get in.”

Ramsey looked up at a smiling Chaos and began to smile. The funny thing about smiles, they’re contagious. He began to get his bounce back in his step as he ran forwards, Chaos right behind him.

“If you want to get them all, first you have to get your trainer’s license, and before that we have to get past….”

Suddenly he stopped moving as a large wall of rock appeared before them. It was much too large for them to climb over, and too wide to go around. They didn’t have to worry about how to get past it though, as the answer glared right at them. There was a massive cavern before them which had an old sign hanging above it. Chaos simply stood there staring at the massive thing, not sure what to make of it. Part of him wanted to avoid it at all costs, but something else inside of him wanted to charge in.

“….the Oreburgh Gate-gunk!”


Author Notes: This chapter was supposed to be them actually going through the cave but the test sort of ran longer than I expected and then it felt like a good chance for Ramsey to talk and give Chaos a reason to actually want to get the badges. Thanks for the comments guys, they really help.
 
Re: Chaos Theory (13)

Chapter Fourteen: The Meaning of Chaos

Chaos stared at the large cavern which stood before them. He then stared at Ramsey for a moment as he stood there, hands outstretched towards the cavern. After letting out a small sigh, he walked past the young trainer and picked up a small rock, tossing it into the cave. He listened intently as he heard the echo of the stone reach him. He had no idea what that meant and had done it only out of curiosity. He turned towards Ramsey, wide grin across his face.

“We’re going to go through this aren’t we?” Ramsey gave a slow nod.

“Yes! This is gonna be fun!”

Chaos began to walk into the cavern, not sure how close Ramsey was to him. He wasn’t sure why he felt this way, like this would be a fun and grand adventure. He was normally a bigger coward than this, was it simply a spur of the moment, or was it that he felt stronger having Ramsey nearby.

Upon entering the cave, the light from the sun seemed to weaken, until it was no more. Despite the darkness, they continued to march onwards. Every few steps, one of them would trip and fall, or bump into a wall. It was beginning to annoy Chaos so he decided to do something about it as he reached for one of his pokéballs. He tossed it to the ground, filling the cave with a bright flash of light, long enough to blind Chaos when the ball bounced back to him and hit him in the face. He ignored the pain as he smiled.

“Cosmic, can you hear me?”

He waited for a few moments before he heard a scared little yelp, quickly followed by something small and furry getting near his leg. Putting his hand down, he stroked Cosmic’s fur gently as he tried to calm him down.

“It’s okay, it’s okay, we’re in the Oreburgh Gate. I know it’s dark, but we need you to make a light for us. Do you think you can use your electricity to light the way?”

A moment went by before a small amount of light began to emanate from Cosmic. At first it was barely visible, but after a few moments it became as bright as a lantern. Instinctively, he reached over to pet Cosmic for having done a great job, but immediately pulled his hand back when he felt an electric shock. It seemed he wouldn’t be able to touch him for a bit. Ramsey simply stared with awe at the trick Cosmic had performed.

“How did you know he could do that-gunk?”

“When I first met him, I saw a flash coming from a bush. A few moments later I realized it came from Cosmic, so I figured if he could do that, then he should be able to do it again.”

Ramsey smiled as he thought about it; he figured the flash was an electric attack, though now Cosmic seemed to be using another attack to light the way. The small group continued to walk they began to jump from stone to stone. There were various large boulders in this cave, boulders which made great stepping stones. They had grown bored of simply walking and had decided to make it a bit more interesting. That was when Ramsey decided to ask.

“Everyone back at the school said you had picked a stupid battle name, I think it was Koz Kringle?”

Chaos let out a small chuckle as Ramsey butchered the name he had chosen. He did have a point though, Chaos Christopher was a stupid name, but he couldn’t think of anything else.

“It’s actually Chaos Christopher; I picked it because Christopher is my name, and Chaos my nickname.”

“So….why is your nickname Chaos? You seem pretty organized to me.” The response to this was another chuckle.

“Well, Flash was the one who gave me the nickname. My nickname was actually supposed to be Chaostheorist, but we decided that was just too long so we shortened it. You see, I’m a believer in chaos theory.”

He noticed that Ramsey seemed a bit confused, and didn’t blame him. Flash had been confused when he told him about the concept, it couldn’t be helped that his mother had always given him different books to read in an attempt to make him find an interest that wasn’t pokémon. Jumping from his boulder, he grabbed a small hardened piece of dirt and tossed it up and down as he continued to explain.

“Chaos theory means that there is a pattern to everything. It doesn’t matter how random something might seem, there is a pattern to it. The weather, the wind, the way the magikarp jump, it’s all predictable…” He threw the dirt clod at the wall and watched the now separated dirt drift around, eventually getting to the wall. “Chaos theory states that it would have been possible to know exactly where every one of those specks of dirt would have fallen; though that’s not the only reason he wanted to give me that nickname. He was thinking of dubbing me Murphy simply because…”

As he said that he jumped from the ground onto a pile of rocks and was about to jump towards another when the stones he stood on began to fall. Quickly losing his footing, Chaos slipped and fell to the ground. “…of how his law applies to me…”

“So why did he pick Chaos-gunk?” Ramsey and Cosmic had stopped to wait for Chaos whom had gotten back up and ran up to them. Ramsey didn’t seem worried about the fall, but Cosmic ran around him, searching for any injuries. Upon assuring himself that his master was not injured, Cosmic went back to leading the way.

“You see, people tend to think that Flash is the one that gets me into trouble, but the reality is that I’m the one that normally comes up with the plans which get us in trouble. Flash just, well, when I’m near him I feel like my plans might actually work so I get the confidence to try them out. Guess it’s just because he’s always so strong and confident, it sort of just rubbed off on me. Well, all of my plans and ideas involve me making predictions about things we shouldn’t normally be able to predict. I don’t actually ever have things to back up my predictions, I just use…”

“Instinct-gunk!” Ramsey interrupted as he landed on the ground and began to walk near Cosmic in order to observe the electricity. While Ramsey did that, Chaos let out a small chuckle. Ramsey was younger than him, but was about as confident and strong as Flash. He wondered how somebody could be so confident and sure in themselves when he was always filled with doubt. Maybe if he hung around Ramsey and Flash for more time he’d find out why.

That was when they saw a large worn path in the stone. It was an enormous thing, too wide to have been done by people, and it was also too deep. Chaos stared at it for a moment, noticing how it seemed to start from a large hole in the side of the wall. He tried to see just how far the path went, but only saw it head into the darkness ahead.

“W-what could have made this?”

“Probably an onix-gunk. They say the Oreburgh Gate was created by a group of onix that burrowed through the large rocks-gunk. Don’t worry though, the onix here don’t bother anybody as long as you leave them alone-gunk. Trust me; I’ve been through here twice already-gunk.”

“O-okay..” Chaos began to run after Ramsey whom was already ahead. Cosmic seemed to be walking behind him now, obviously scared of something.

“D-don’t worry, you heard Ramsey. The onix in here rarely bother travelers, so we’ll be fine.”

He bent down and pet the little guy, despite the pain from the electricity. It hurt, but he pet him not only for Cosmic to feel better, but also to convince himself that there was nothing to worry about. That courage and enthusiasm from earlier had vanished now, leaving only doubt and fear. He did his best to give him a smile before he stood up and began to walk, with Cosmic following nearby. He took a deep breath, trying to calm down, when he noticed that Ramsey was standing still. He figured he was just waiting for him, but suddenly he stuck out his arm, holding Chaos back.

“Listen….”

A frown spread across his face as Ramsey gave the order. He listened closely to any sounds in the area, unsure as to what he was listening for. All he could hear was water dripping somewhere, an occasional wind, and a strange sound. It seemed so familiar, like something he had heard before….a xylophone? He felt the ground shake, and as it did the sound seemed to get closer. Both he and Ramsey opened their eyes in shock as a large serpent appeared from the darkness ahead. It had a gray color to it, with its body seemingly made out of connected boulders. Atop of its head was what looked like a large fin, and there seemed to be a large burn mark on its left eye. There were various scratches covering the beast, but what got Chaos’ attention was standing next to the fin. A kricketune stood there, emitting the strange xylophone-like sound.

“Don’t move-gunk. If we leave it alone then it won’t do any-“

He was cut off by the sound of the rumbling earth as the creature attacked. Acting quickly, Chaos pushed Ramsey out of the way as the beast rammed its head where they once stood. Large chunks of earth were sent flying in every direction as the beast burrowed beneath the earth. Looking around, he managed to find an injured Cosmic lying near the edge of the new hole. Cosmic slowly stood up and grit his teeth, he had been able to jump back, avoiding the blow, though one of the stones had hit him.

Chaos quickly ran around the hole got near Cosmic. That thing had attacked without warning, who knew where it was now though. The ground began to shake once more, and the two looked down in alarm as they noticed that the ground was beginning to crack. They quickly began to run, when the pokémon burst out from the ground. They had managed to make enough distance, and were merely sent flying towards the cavern’s wall. Cosmic quickly stood up, and began to run, leaving Chaos lying on the ground. He didn’t get far though, as the pokémon moved in Cosmic’s path.

“Brick Break!”

Ramsey’s shout was clearly audible as he flew through the air. His fist quickly struck the serpent, though it seemed to do nothing. Then came a blur which crashed into it, causing it to crash into the wall. As the smoke cleared, Ramsey appeared, rubbing his fist, and Wazu was standing at his side.

“Stay down, bad onix-gunk.”

Chaos grinned as he stood up, but suddenly heard various other xylophone-like sounds. He immediately charged towards Cosmic, not knowing why.

“Lights out!”

Cosmic immediately stopped using his electricity to light up the cavern, immediately filling it with darkness. Chaos squinted, trying to make out the shape he wanted, and scooped Cosmic into his arms as he jumped. On the ground where Cosmic had been standing, he could hear the sound of something crashing into something else. As soon as he landed on the ground, he let Cosmic down and waited for him to use his electricity once more. He grinned as he saw that where Cosmic once stood, three kricketots lay on the ground. The three quickly got up and charged at them, though Ramsey jumped in their path this time. He punched each one out of the air, and sent them hurtling into the wall.

Chaos let out a sigh of relief, until he saw the kricketune dashing towards him. Remembering back to what Dawn had done, he raised his foot and attempted it stomp on its arm. As soon as his foot connected, he was thrown to the side. Having thrown him out of the way, it ignored him and began to smack Cosmic using its long arm. It repeatedly struck him, not giving him a chance to fight back. Seeing this, Chaos charged towards it once more, and tackled it onto the ground. He held on to it with all his might, despite the pain from the sharp stones. Ramsey and Wazu quickly ran to try to help, when a loud, high pitched sound suddenly came from the kricketune. Wazu and Ramsey fell to the ground in pain, small amounts of blood beginning to come from their ears. Chaos let out a scream from the pain of being so close to the source of the sound. He did his best to continue to hold it, but failed. Kricketune forced itself out of his grip and immediately began to run.

At first, Chaos was not sure why it was running, but then he felt the earth beginning to shake once more. He looked behind himself and felt his heart stop. The onix was charging right towards him, and his body didn’t want to move. He looked around, but Cosmic had already fled, his electricity barely lighting up the cavern now, and Ramsey and Wazu were far too disoriented as they were struggling to stand up.

Chaos was about to close his eyes, afraid of the inevitable, when he saw a bright blue glow. He wasn’t sure what was going on, as it all moved so fast. One moment the onix was charging at him, the next it had stopped, some smaller blue pokémon holding it back with its head. It looked like some kind of reptile, with powerful hind legs and short arms, as well as having small spikes around its head. He noticed something falling besides him, and immediately recognized it as the kricketune. Looking at where it had come from, he saw two people standing there. One of them, a young man wearing tan clothing along with an orange miner’s helmet covering his dark red hair. At his side was a familiar girl. She said something, but he could barely hear it, perhaps due to his ears still recovering from having been so close to the sound.

“You better not be making a habit of this oh damsel in distress…”

Chaos felt his face turn red, though he immediately collapsed, the adrenaline from the situation wearing off. Yes she had insulted him, but more importantly, she had helped him once again. He had to get stronger still, perhaps all his training had done nothing at all…
 
Last edited:
Re: Chaos Theory (14)

Chapter Fifteen: The City of Smoke

“You got lucky again, you realize that right? I was researching the pokémon here and Roark was helping me out. We heard the strange noises and decided to investigate. That was when we saw some bright flashes and heard the battle. A few seconds later and you’d be dead.”

Chaos looked at Dawn, trying his best to make out what she was saying. His ears hadn’t fully recovered, and the sound of the ground moving underneath was distracting. He watched the cave walls whiz by as he felt the onyx’s stone body. Dawn was sitting atop of the large pokémon’s head, and occasionally pet it. Farther towards the tail, Ramsey and the man were talking about something, though he couldn’t make it out.

“It’s okay Org, you can calm down, those mean bugs won’t hurt you anymore.”

“Org? Who’s that?”

Dawn looked at Chaos with a smile on her face.

“Org, is this onyx’s name. Flash and I named him when we first went through the gate. He was a little upset that we woke him up, but Flash got him to calm down.”

She let out a soft chuckle as she motioned towards Org’s eye, the one Chaos had noticed had a burn mark. It was likely Pyrus, but to be strong enough to burn stone already? Just what kind of progress had they made in this short time? He had thought that maybe, just maybe, he had caught up to them, but it seemed like they were still far above him.

“Where’s Flash anyway?”

“He stayed at the gym to train some more before heading out towards the next destination. Did you know that Flash didn’t have a trainer’s license yet? I was a little shocked, but even more surprised when he managed to get his after taking the test once.”

Chaos let out a soft chuckle and closed his eyes. His hearing had almost completely recovered and he could hear what Ramsey was saying.

“..has shown a lot of progress-gunk. I wouldn’t be surprised if he managed to beat you-gunk!”

“Oh, that hurts my feelings. Am I really thought of as that weak?”

“Well, you were ranked the weakest gym leader-gunk.”

“It’s not my fault I always get paired up against someone with a type advantage over me!”

“So do you have a license?”

Chaos was pulled back into his conversation with Dawn. He let out a nervous laugh as he tried to concentrate. If he had heard Ramsey correctly, the guy whom had saved them with Dawn was a gym leader. Such power, could he really take him down? That was a trial which would be faced later, for now he had to find a way to explain his current status as a trainer to Dawn without angering her. They were starting to get along, the last thing he wanted to do was to send himself back to square one.

“You see, I have to…..what’s the word…..renew my license. Yeah, that’s right, I’ve had it for a while, it just expired.”

“Oh, that’s no problem, I actually had to have mine renewed while Barry took the test. It should only take you ten to twenty minutes, unlike the test which would take you around an hour.”

Chaos just smiled for a bit, until something landed on him, causing him to lie face down atop of Org’s back.

“I thought you told me you hadn’t gotten your license yet-gunk?”

Ramsey was sitting on Chaos’ back as he spoke. Of course he would quickly show that he was lying. Chaos let out a soft sigh as he struggled to get up, to no avail. Seeing him struggling, Ramsey quickly got off of him and let him sit up. When he finally sat up, the first thing he saw was an annoyed Dawn.

“L-look, I know what it looks like and it’s not what you th-“

“Don’t bother explaining. As soon as I tell you that it looks like you lied to me about your license, you’ll probably say that it’s exactly what I think, laugh, and act like everything is just peachy.” Dawn grasped Chaos by his collar and stared into his eyes. “There are three things I cannot stand; insulting my mother, a trainer mistreating his pokémon, and somebody lying to my face, understand?”

He slowly nodded as he stared at her smiling face. Something about just how unthreatening she looked made him feel even less inclined to ever do any of those things on her list. Upon seeing his response, Dawn let go of his collar and looked towards where Org was taking them.

“Well, taking the test would be a great idea, so we’ll wait for you while you take it. I just hope you pass it on your first try, though if you’re anything like Flash, I’m sure you’ll do fine.”

Chaos looked at Dawn for a moment when he realized something. She was calling Barry Flash. He had never told her his nickname, yet she seemed to know it. Right before he opened his mouth, he was blinded by a bright light.

“Okay, everybody off!”

After a few minutes of blinking, his eyes managed to adjust to the sun. It seemed to be high noon, which was strange considering how they weren’t supposed to make it to Oreburgh for a few more hours. Looking around, he noticed that everyone was getting off of Org, so he began to get off, only to slip fall off. It would have been a painful landing, had the helmeted man not caught him. After a nervous laugh, he quickly got back on the ground and ready to walk.

Once everyone had gotten off, Org smiled at the small group, before turning around and heading back into the cave. Dawn and Ramsey both started waving as the serpent faded away from view. Chaos paid them little attention as he took in a deep breath of fresh air. He had been in that cave far too long as far as he was concerned. Something was strange about the air though, it felt so…so…dirty. He immediately began to violently cough as he turned around. His answer looked right at him.

Before him stood another city, only this one was much different when compared to Jubilife. While Jubilife seemed vibrant and full of life, this city seemed dull and miserable. The clouds overhead seemed to be much darker than normal, and there was plenty of dust covering everything. What was most noticeable was the air, it seemed to be filled with smoke and dust, which made breathing very uncomfortable. After coughing for a few more minutes, the man pat him on the back gently.

“Don’t worry; I’m sure you’ll get used to the air soon. It shouldn’t take you more than an hour worst case scenario.”

Chaos just smiled at him, doing his best to hold back his coughs. The only thoughts flowing through his head were of how anybody could breathe this air, and more importantly, why anybody would want to live in such a city as this.

Before he could comment on it, Dawn pulled his hand and forcing him to run. He could feel his lungs burn as he ran, not just from some lingering exhaustion, but from the air. It seemed to make everything much more difficult. He was shocked to see how accustomed Dawn had become to it, and even more so when Ramsey kept up with their pace without a single problem. Perhaps the man was right about how quickly people could adapt.

As He did his best to run with Dawn, he saw how everybody seemed to be unaffected by the air. They all merely went about their normal business. There were children outside playing, mothers carrying groceries towards their homes, and street vendors trying to sell their wares. There also seemed to be a large number of men wearing green uniforms along with bright yellow hard hats with head lamps. They all seemed to be heading towards the same part of town. Most of all, though, he noticed that plenty of people seemed to be carrying inhalers.

After a few minutes, they came to a large building which had a large pokéball painted onto the front side instead of having a sign. The trio walked inside, and Dawn motioned Chaos towards a nearby chair.

“You sound tired, go take a seat while I sign you up for the test.”

Chaos walked over towards a chair near the wall and looked around. This place seemed so sterile and clean, and there was the scent of medicine replacing the previous smoke. There were various people walking around wearing what looked like hospital uniforms. There were also other people sitting in other chairs nearby, and some of them seemed very worried.

“This is a Pokémon Center-gunk. Not every person has a healing machine or enough supplies to care for their injured pokémon, so they take them here-gunk!”

Chaos jumped from his seat, having been completely caught off guard by Ramsey. He had once again appeared out of nowhere. He tried his best to calm down, and then looked around the place. Pokémon Centers, he had studied them before and had learned about how the government funded them. They were free to use by anybody with a trainer’s license, though everybody else still had to pay, which was one of the reasons most people made sure to get their own license.

After a few seconds, Dawn walked back up to him with a smile.

“Chris, I signed you up for the next test. It’ll be in half an hour so you have some time to explore if you so please. I’m going to head over to the museum.”

“I’m gonna go to the gym and do some training with Roark-gunk!”

Chaos looked at the two and thought about what he’d do, “Me, I’ll just walk around the city for a bit.”

They all nodded and immediately left to head off in their own directions. Chaos didn’t pay them much attention, and started to aimlessly walk around. He spent his first few minutes thinking about the contents of the test and whether he would be able to pass it or not. As time passed, he began to think about this city and why anybody would live here. The smoke, the dust, the air, the stench, the very atmosphere, it all repelled him.

Then he saw it. There was a massive truck which seemed to be getting loaded with something. He didn’t care what it was; he simply wanted to be closer to the truck. He rushed over to it and stared in awe at its massive size. This was the first time he had seen something like this, the laws in Sinnoh made it quite difficult to get a license to drive anything with more than two wheels. Those laws were in place mostly to keep the roads smaller and thus lower the impact on the environment.

“Amazing huh? I gotta tell ya, I’m jealous of the guy who drives that thing.”

Chaos turned around and looked at the man. He was wearing the green uniform that he had seen so many people wearing, along with the helmet. He seemed to be quite strong and in his mid thirties, though his face seemed old and worn. His eyes, on the other hand, were vibrant and full of life. Then curiosity got to him.

“Um..sir, why does everyone seem to have that uniform?”

“Oh, this? It’s the uniform we miners wear. I reckon near everyone works either at the Pokémon Center, museum or mine.”

“Mine? Is that why the air is so dirty here?”

“I’m afraid so, but it’s not like we can just stop mining for the coal.”

“Why not? Are you guys just afraid to be jobless?”

“Well, I reckon some of us might be, but the reason most of us mine is cause we gotta. This city relies on the coal we dig up for most of the energy, and the people at Snowpoint, they need our coal the most. It’s so cold there year round that if they tried to heat their homes with wood, Sinnoh would run outa trees in no time. That’s why they need our coal, it makes sure they don’t freeze to death. We aren’t just mining for coal, we’re mining for people’s lives!”

Chaos stared at the man with his eyes full of admiration. So that was why so many kept working here, that was why they didn’t just shut down the mining operations, that was why they chose to live with the struggle. Mining for lives, it just seemed so noble. He smiled as the man began to leave. It seemed he had to get back to work. The man simply tipped his helmet towards him and gave him a knowing look. Chaos simply walked back towards the Pokémon Center, unsure as to how much time had passed. The first thing he noticed was the clock. Time sure had flown by, in fact, an entire hour had flown by!

Chaos rushed up towards the room where he had been told the test would be held and barged in. Everyone was sitting at a desk, hard at work, and the instructor smiled at him.

“Can I help you?”

“Y-yes, my name is Christopher Combete and I was supposed to take the test with this group.”

The instructor looked over a piece of paper and gave him a stern look. He handed him a scantron sheet and a pencil then motioned towards a desk which had a booklet on it.

“You think that just because your father was a great trainer this test will be a cinch? I still expect to receive your test at the same time as the others.”

Chaos gave the man a simple nod and ran over to the test and began to get to work.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

“Time’s up, turn in your tests.”

The words sent Chaos into a panic. He still had ten of the hundred questions left to answer. He had already rushed through it, and was unsure about his responses, but he knew he wouldn’t have time to look over the next ones. Acting quickly, he began to fill in the bubbles, until the instructor took it from his hand. A sigh was all that escaped Chaos’ mouth as he thought about the final question he hadn’t had time to answer. He wasn’t confident about his score in the slightest, he had expected an hour to work, not thirty minutes.

The instructor sat at a desk and pulled out a small machine. It had a slot for inserting something, and also a small display screen. The instructor took the first scantron and inserted it into the machine, and a number appeared on the screen.

“Zatch Zou, a perfect score, you pass.”

One of the boys sitting near the front smiled and shot out of his seat. He grabbed a piece of paper the instructor handed him and ran out of the room. It seemed he would be reading their scores aloud. The seconds ticked away as he declared each score, and whether it meant pass or fail. The scores seemed to be ten to one hundred and everything in between. Soon Chaos was the last one sitting in the room. He anxiously watched as his went into the machine, and awaited the score. When the number appeared, Chaos felt the Earth stand still as he awaited the verdict.

“Christopher Combete, seventy-four, fail, and by one point too.”The instructor gave him a sly smirk as he began to stand up. “Maybe next time you’ll show up on ti-“

“The last question!”

“Huh?”

Chaos was standing up, both hands firmly on the desk. He was staring intently at the instructor as he spoke.

“Ask me the final question. I didn’t even get to look at it. If I get it right, you pass me, if not, you fail me.”

“Fine.” The instructor had a smirk on his face as he picked up a spare exam. Every year there were a few people who just refused to accept defeat. He was sure giving this kid this chance would make little difference; he was already so close to passing anyway.

“Question one hundred, what is the penalty suffered by the trainer and pokémon should the pokémon attack a human without being provoked? A, the trainer must pay for damages, B, the trainer receives ten years in jail, C, the pokémon must be put in quarantine to see if the behavior continues, or D, the trainer must kill the pokémon.”

Chaos felt himself take a step back. This law, he remembered it, right away. It was something every trainer had to be well aware of. Chaos tightened his hands into fists as he boldly answered, “D”

The instructor seemed shocked at first, but then smiled. He wrote something on a piece of paper and walked over to Chaos. He placed the paper on the desk and put a hand on his shoulder.

“Christopher, you pass. I expect to see you show up on time for the renewal though. I hope you can become as strong as your father was.”

He then proceeded to walk out of the room as Chaos read the paper in his head over and over again.

‘Christopher Combete has scored a 75 on the trainer test and has proven to have sufficient knowledge of pokémon ownership laws and responsibilities. He legally qualifies as a trainer, and with it all the responsibilities and privileges apply to him.’​

He had a wide grin on his face as he picked it up and prepared to leave, when a thought suddenly reached him.

M-my father was a great trainer? Just how good was he?


(author's notes: This one took a while because I had to deal with writer's block, lack of motivation, then when I finally got over that stuff I had little time. Hope this one is better than my last chapter, which I thought wasn't as good as it should have been)
 
Re: Chaos Theory (15)

I liked how you showed Oreburgh in this chapter because it was original compared to what other people have done, no one's bothered to point out the cons of living in a town that specializes in mining coal and you also referred to why they can't do anything else. Essentially you made your Sinnoh look different from all the other fics that have used it. Also I liked how you showed the test, I thought it'll be a battle xD though I think the last part when Chaos got the last question right was a little bit lackluster.
 
Re: Chaos Theory (15)

Thanks for the review :D

When I tried to imagine myself in Oreburgh, the first thing which came to mind was the coal mine and I suddenly realized that the air around there would most likely be polluted which is why I added it. Then I considered the people of Oreburgh stupid for doing something which was harming them, but then I realized just how cold it would get in Snowpoint (especially in the winter) and that sorta went from there.

As for the test, my original idea was to have him deliver a pokémon to somebody in the mines, or some kind of battle, but then I realized that a trainer's licence would be needed in any job which required more than two pokémon, so I thought of it more like a driver's licence. As for the last question, yeah, it was a little anti-climatic, but I needed a way to mention that law because it might actually become important down the line. Red Herrings are the best fish.
 
Re: Chaos Theory (15)

Chapter Sixteen: The First Gym

Chaos stepped out into the main room of the Pokémon Center as he looked around. He was thinking about his father while he continued to walk. Just what type of trainer had he been? This man had recognized whom his father was based solely on his last name. He was suddenly filled with so many questions which he would have loved to ask him. What path did he walk? How many badges did he get? What was his team?

“SURPRISE!!”

Chaos jumped back as Dawn and Ramsey jumped out from behind some of the seats they were hiding behind. They both seemed so happy as they ran up to him. Dawn took his hand and helped him up as she smiled at him.

“It was Ram’s idea to surprise you. We didn’t have enough money to buy anything big, but here.”

Ramsey took out a box and opened it. Inside of it was a small cupcake with the frosting taking the shape of a pokéball with ‘congratulations’ written on it. He handed it over to Chaos, whom took it with a smile before handing it back to Ramsey.

“I might have a license now, but it’s not over yet. I’ll take that cupcake after my first gym match.”

Ramsey smiled at him and began to walk towards the exit. Chaos grinned and began to follow when Dawn pulled on his shoulder and motioned towards another door.

“Actually, you don’t have a license yet, you still have to go get your picture taken.”

Chaos blushed at this; he had forgotten to actually get the license he had earned.

---------------------------------------------------------------​

Chaos stood before a massive building with Ramsey and Dawn at his sides. The large building had a strange symbol with no words on the front. It seemed to look like a pokéball, only it seemed to be a dull black. The only evidence that was visible as to this being the gym was a small sign nearby which read ‘Oreburgh Gym, Face the strength of the earth!’.

Chaos reached towards the door, and suddenly couldn’t move. His hand was trembling as he thought about whether to face this challenge or not. All of the battles he had lost up until now quickly passed through his mind; did he really stand a chance at winning? He turned towards Dawn and Ramsey, doubt clear in his eyes. They each returned his wordless plea with an understanding nod. With confidence renewed, he gripped the door’s handle, ready to face whatever trial awaited him.

At that moment, the door burst open, tossing the trio onto the ground. The person responsible looked down at his handiwork with a smirk on his face.

“My bad, you know how I hate waiting. Ramsey told me you were on your way so I decided to wait, but you were taking too long.”

Chaos smirked at Flash, he couldn’t blame him for being impatient this time, after all, he had waited a whole week for him. Quickly standing up, he greeted him with a high five, both of them knowing what was about to happen.

“Hurry up and get in here, Roark’s been waiting for you.”

With a determined nod, Chaos stepped into the gym behind Flash. He was shocked by the inside, as the walls all seemed to be made of stone. It almost felt like he was back in the Oreburgh Gate, except for the large bleachers and various screens in the room. Flash pulled Chaos towards a small computer and motioned towards a slot. Looking at it carefully, Chaos realized he had to insert his license, though the labels really helped speed up the process.

Once he inserted the blue piece of plastic, his face appeared on all of the screens. Below it, a single line appeared, ‘Christopher Combete Trainer Debut’. Chaos was about to stand from the computer when he noticed a dialogue box appear on the screen.

‘Would you like to select a moniker?”

Chaos grinned as he selected yes and quickly typed in the moniker he wanted, Flash smirking at the choice. With that put in, Flash pulled Chaos’ license out and led him towards a large group of rocks near the center of the room. Once he was near enough, he could clearly see that the rocks were in fact a battle field. The familiar chalk symbols were on the ground, clearly showing the limits to the field, though the rocks did a better job. Looking around, Chaos noticed that the bleachers were nearly empty. He spotted Dawn, Ramsey, Flash, some man wearing sunglasses, and a group of four old men.

“So, are you ready for our battle?”

Chaos quickly looked at his opponent, the same man from the gate. He was smiling as he looked at the bleachers with a smirk.

“Man, our audience is twice as large today! Hope you don’t get nervous.”

Chaos took a step back. This was twice as many? Ramsey wasn’t kidding when he said people didn’t really care about battles that much anymore. Then he noticed a few numbers coming up on screen, and then realized what they were, odds. From his spot, he couldn’t make out the exact numbers, but a few of the old men started writing down various things and putting money into a hat lying besides them. He was curious as to whom they were each betting on, though in his gut he knew they were likely betting against him.

Then suddenly one of the men’s eyes opened wide. He pointed at the screen with a smirk and suddenly tossed a few more bills into the hat. The numbers on the screen hadn’t changed, but the only thing which had changed was the words underneath his picture. He knew what it said; it was pretty obvious that it read, ‘Christopher ‘Chaos’ Combete’. Maybe it was just his moniker that impressed him.

“So, since this is your debut match, I have to explain the rules in case there is anything you did not know. Our match will be three of my pokémon preapproved by the League against up to six of your pokémon. The battle will go on until either one of us has all of their team defeated. The rest of the rules follow regular regulation rules.”

Chaos let out a nervous laugh, he was hoping the explanation would be a bit clearer than that, but it seemed he’d be left to guess at what the regulation rules were. He remembered some of the basic ones, but couldn’t remember the more complicated rules. He simply pushed the thought out of his mind; there was nothing he could do about it now.

Roark grinned at him as he pulled out a pokéball and tossed it onto the field. With a bright flash, a large rock was revealed. It simply lay there on the ground, before it started to float up into the air. Two eyes and a mouth quickly became visible as it looked at Chaos. On its side were two arms, both of which looked strong. Chaos took a deep breath and reached for one of his pokéballs and threw it onto the field. Once the bright flash was gone, Cosmic stood on the field. He heard a few sighs and laughs from the bleachers, but training with Ramsey had taught him not to let what the audience said get to him.

“Force field up! The battle may now commence!” A voice declared from a loudspeaker up above.

Paying little attention to it, chaos was ready to make this battle end quickly, he knew that his opponent had the numbers advantage against him, so maybe he could get by using overwhelming power.

“Discharge!”

Cosmic complied as he let out a blast of powerful electricity heading in every direction, making sure that his opponent would have no way to avoid it. Roark let out a soft chuckle at this, and Chaos quickly realized why. One the electrical attack struck the pokémon, it didn’t even flinch. Nothing seemed to have happened as it stared at Cosmic, obviously awaiting an order.

“Geo, rollout!”

The stone pokémon immediately responded by crashing into the ground and rolling towards Cosmic at a rapid speed. Cosmic quickly jumped over it and watched as it crashed into a large rock behind him, reducing it to rubble. Within a few seconds, the pokémon quickly rolled towards Cosmic once again, causing him to dodge time and time again.

As the battle went on, Chaos grit his teeth trying to figure out what had happened. Last time and electric attack had proven futile was against Splat, and that was because she was part ground type. Did that mean that Geo was part ground type as well? There was only one way to find out.

“Discharge again!”

Just as Cosmic jumped over Geo once more, he let out another burst of electricity, only for it to have absolutely no effect. Yes, it was safe to assume that electric moves would be useless. What else could he do? The rest of Cosmic’s attacks relied on physical contact and there was no way he could safely strike Geo now that he was rolling all over the place. He had just started and was already at such a drastic disadvantage.

Then Cosmic failed to jump over Geo. The blow sent him flying into one of the large boulders on the field. Cosmic slowly stood up as Geo quickly moved towards him once more. Chaos was out of ideas; there was nothing he could do. Cosmic was forced to run out of the way, just barely avoiding Geo. It was obvious that he was tiring out; he just didn’t know how much longer he’d last.

Then he remembered his last resort. He quickly grabbed his backpack and opened it up, pulling out a book. The librarian at the Trainer School had let him take it with him, claiming that they had multiple copies. This was the same book he had used when fighting Flash, and he could only begin to imagine just what he’d say at this. Flipping through the book, he came to the page mentioning all of the attacks a shinx could do. He read it over quickly, noticing that everything was either an electric attack or required that Cosmic physically attack Geo. Chaos was about to give up, when he noticed a small note.

‘There are some which are capable of using other moves, though these attacks are hereditary and cannot be taught; only inherited.’

Looking at the list, he found the only move which looked promising and looked up to see an exhausted Cosmic just barely avoid being struck once again. This time, instead of rolling towards him again, Geo started to float once again. Both pokémon seemed tired, and the fact that he had stopped spinning meant that it was much more likely for his plan to work.

“Tackle!”

Geo quickly flew towards Cosmic, ready to try to finish their battle. Chaos grinned at this, it gave him the chance to use this new move.

“Ice fang!”

Cosmic suddenly stopped moving as his eyes widened. This was all the opportunity Geo needed to strike Cosmic into the ground. Chaos frantically tried to see what had happened as the dust cleared. It was likely that Cosmic did not know this move, or maybe he just didn’t understand him? That had happened before, though he had no idea this time. Once the smoke cleared, the first thing he saw was Geo on top of Cosmic. Then his eyes widened as a blue glow came from Cosmic’s mouth. He ferociously bit Geo as ice quickly spread from the spot, covering him. Cosmic then proceeded to crawl out from under the now frozen pokémon, panting from exhaustion.

“Geo is unable to battle!”

Various shouts and hollers came from the bleachers as Roark returned Geo to his pokéball. Chaos looked towards the bleachers and noticed some of the old men staring in disbelief while one of them seemed to be raising his fists in victory. This gave Chaos some confidence, it seemed at least one of them had bet on him. Hearing the sound of metal hitting stone, Chaos turned towards the field and saw a large onix staring at him and Cosmic.

“Force field up! The battle may now begin!”

Force field up? Did that mean that when one of the pokémon was knocked out the force field went down? He didn’t have time to think about it now; he had to focus on the battle. He grinned as he pointed at the onix as he declared his move.

“Ice fang, one more time!” Cosmic charged towards his opponent, nervous look in his eyes.

“Tail whip, Aster!”

Just as Cosmic neared him, Aster swatted Cosmic away using his tail. Cosmic slid across the floor, barely being able to stand back up.

“You caught me off guard last time, but I know how to deal with ice fang!”

Roark looked at Chaos with determined eyes. Looking at him, Chaos remembered what he had seen in the GTS. There had been a battle between an onix and another pokémon, the onix had lost after the foe used what must have been an ice fang. The one the clown had been dressed as, it had to be him! The clown had told him about his style, he was a follower of the body path. That meant that most of his strategies and lessons would come from combat experience, meaning that if he really had dealt with ice fang before, it would prove difficult to win using just that. He was about to declare his next move when Roark gave out his order first.

“Stealth rock!”

Aster immediately began to glow as he smashed the ground, sending various now glowing stones into the air. The glow had faded from him, but the stones continued to glow as they floated around Cosmic. Cosmic was shocked, and stopped moving, though the rocks did nothing to him. Chaos, not quite knowing what the move did, decided to flip through the book while watching what happened. A few seconds went by with none of the pokémon moving, and the stones remaining in orbit around Cosmic.

Then Aster smashed the ground once again, this time doing nothing more than making noise. Cosmic took a step back, and one of the stones began to move forwards, only to stop mid-air. Upon seeing this, Chaos realized what the stones did.

“Cosmic, don’t move!”

Cosmic was about to nod, but instead remained absolutely still while Aster began to slither around the field while remaining at a distance. The pressure was building, and it was obvious that it was getting to Cosmic as he began to tremble.

“Screech!” Aster let out a horrifyingly loud yell aimed towards Cosmic, causing him to begin to shake uncontrollably.

“Don’t move! Trust me!” Another screech came from Aster, causing Cosmic to become obviously terrified. Chaos was thinking as fast as he could, trying to find a way to get him out of this mess.

“Just a little longer! Trust m-“

Another screech cut him off, this one being much closer than the others. Cosmic immediately broke down and began to run, horror in his eyes. As soon as he took three steps, the stones around him all flew into him, crashing into his body all at once. The stones held him in place and floated up into the air a bit higher, before separating and releasing Cosmic from their crushing grasp, letting him fall helpless to the hard stone below. A soft thud was heard moments later.

Chaos looked at the motionless Cosmic on the floor, fear in his eyes. He couldn’t control himself as he walked onto the field. He could barely hear the loudspeaker declaring the obvious. Step after step, he silently walked past the stones which had harmed his little friend. The stones were no longer floating and lay on the ground, but as soon as he neared them they shot up into the sky. Ignoring them, he continued to walk, despite how they inched closer and closer to him. He scooped Cosmic up in his hands and he held him close to his chest. He was covered in bruises, nothing to major, and he could feel the soft beating of his heart. That filled him with relief as he felt something on his sides. He noticed that the stones had reached him, but they hadn’t slammed into him, was it because of how much slower he had moved?

He didn’t put much thought into it as he walked out of the field slowly, moving out of the stones’ paths and watched them return to the ground. As he walked, he softly whispered to the unconscious Cosmic, “Why didn’t you listen, you didn’t have to suffer so much…”

Once he reached his position, he gently placed him on the ground next to him, and tossed Terrum’s pokéball onto the field. After the flash, Terrum stood there staring at Aster, ready to fight.

“Force field up! The battle may now continue!”

Before any words could be said, the stones flew back into the air and surrounded Terrum, ready to crush their next victim. Terrum stood there calmly, watching the stones carefully.

“Terrum, no sudden movements!”

Terrum, gave no response, which Chaos assumed meant he understood. Aster immediately began to issue his screeches. Terrum simply stood still, completely unaffected as he stared at the stones. Chaos smirked at this, Terrum would likely be able to handle this. After a few seconds of Aster trying to scare Terrum into moving, Chaos finally got an idea.

“Razor leaf at the stones!”

Terrum quickly swung his head, sending a leaf at a stone, slicing it in half and letting it fall to the ground. The other stones refused to float idly as they each flew towards Terrum, whom in return used razor leaf to slice them apart. After the last one fell to the ground, Terrum looked towards Aster with a sly look on his face.

“Smack down!”

Aster charged Terrum as he raised his tail, ready to crush the smaller pokémon underneath. Chaos simply grinned; this was a good chance to try out one of the moves he hadn’t used yet.

“Absorb!”

If he was right, this would severely weaken Aster and give Terrum more juice for the final round. Terrum immediately opened his mouth and began to inhale as hard as he could. Small glowing green orbs seemed to fly off of Aster and into Terrum’s mouth, but it wasn’t just that. Aster began to get slowly pulled towards Terrum, causing him to struggle against the force. Chaos was shocked at the power behind the move, there was no way that this was a simple absorb, could it be one of its more advanced forms? Terrum was always full of surprises.

Terrum suddenly closed his mouth and smiled as he watched Aster fall to the ground. Aster did not move as the familiar voice declared, “Aster is unable to battle!”

Roark smirked as he returned Aster to his pokéball and held up another one.

“Not bad, but I doubt you can take down this guy. Crush, it’s smashing time!”

He threw it onto the field and the usual flash revealed a familiar face. Standing before him was the same pokémon which had saved him back in the Oreburgh Gate. Chaos gulped as he thought about just what it had done back at the gate. Did he really even stand a chance in this battle? No, he shouldn’t think that way, he should focus on the battle. The voice repeated its usual phrase as the battle began.

Without a single order, Crush charged Terrum and used its blue head to smash him into the ground. Chaos flipped through the book as he tried to find something on the pokémon, but let out a frustrated yell as he tossed the book aside. It wouldn’t help him this time.

“What are you doing!? You need that thing!” Chaos turned towards the bleachers and saw Dawn yelling at him.

“It’s useless, it has nothing on that pokémon!”

“Of course not! Cranidos have been extinct for thousands of years! The Oreburgh Museum just recently discovered how to revive fossils, but you can use the book to determine the moves its descendants can use and then predict what it can do!”

“Don’t waste time with the book! Just hit it hard and fast, that worked for me!” Flash was now standing on the bleachers trying to get his attention.

The two of them began to argue over whether to use the book or not as Chaos watched Terrum trying to avoid Crush’s headbutts. He didn’t have time for this; he had to think of something fast. Then Ramsey jumped up between the two and smacked each one on the head.

“Don’t listen to them! Show them the meaning of chaos!”

A smirk spread across his face as he remembered their conversation in the tunnel. Yes, he had to use his instinct now, all he could do was hope that his ideas would work.

“Razor leaf!” Terrum quickly turned around and sent various leaves flying towards Crush, whom simply jumped out of the way.

“Flamethrower!” Crush opened his mouth as a blast of fire shot out, burning away all of Terrum’s leaves. As the flame flew forwards, Chaos got an idea.

“Dig!” Terrum dug down into the ground, narrowly avoiding the flames.

“Nice try, but there’s a flaw to your plan! Crush, flamethrower into the hole!” Crush ran towards the edge of the hole as he prepared to unleash a torrent of flames into the hole, and Chaos grinned as he did so.

“Absorb now!” Immediately, the green orbs began to fly off of Crush as Terrum’s attack began to pull him towards the hole. Being forced to struggle against it, Crush shut his mouth and tried to move away from the hole, only for the ground beneath him to break and cause him to fall into the hole.

“Get out of there and quickly hit the sides with razor leaf!” Within seconds, Terrum jumped out from the hole and upon landing on the ground used his attack, causing the hole to seal up as dirt and stones buried Crush beneath the earth.

“Looks like your pokémon just got fossilized.” Chaos had a goofy grin on his face as the sudden urge to put on sunglasses shot through his body. Roark responded to this by chuckling as he looked down at the ground.

“That was an awful joke, but that’s not even the best part. Did you really think you could defeat a rock type by burying it? Zen headbutt.”

A soft blue glow began to emanate from where the hole had been as the ground began to shake. In a flash of movement, Crush blasted out from the hole, head giving off the glow, and charged Terrum. Before he could do anything, Crush had already struck him with the attack sending him flying into one of the boulders. Just as Terrum stood back up, Crush sent him flying once again with another powerful strike. Chaos stared in awe; was this the attack which had stopped Org before? Blow after blow, Terrum kept standing back up. Chaos tried his best to come up with an idea, but all he could think was that they were going to lose now.

After slowly standing back up from a slightly more brutal blow, Terrum began to give off a green glow. He glared at Crush whom had stopped moving, waiting to see how to respond to this. As the glow surrounding Terrum began to strengthen, Chaos began to reach towards the book on the floor hoping to find out what was going on. Then a bright green flash filled the room. Once the light had faded, were Terrum once stood, a much larger pokémon was there. It had a similar shell on its back and stood on four legs, but instead of having a small twig on its head; it had a massive tree on its back. It’s body had various spikes extending from it, and it let out a powerful roar which caused everyone, even Crush ,to flinch. Staring at it, Chaos was unsure what to make of the situation, but something inside of him told him it was his chance now. All he had to do was declare an attack.

“Hit him with everything you’ve got!”

The large beast roared once more as it began to shake the tree on its back. Various leaves began to fly into the air as they gave off a green glow. The leaves began to fly around Crush, surrounding the pokémon and making sure it could not escape. Once again it roared as the leaves picked up speed and then fell to the ground, revealing an unconscious Crush lying on the ground. It gave off one final roar before it began to glow once again, and after another flash, Terrum stood on the field once again looking like normal.

The room was silent as what had just happened began to sink in. The silence was broken as a surprised voice declared, “Crush is unable to battle, the winner is Christopher ‘Chaos’ Combete.”

Chaos simply stared at Terrum for a moment as he tried to figure out what had just happened. He felt something on his leg and looked down to see Cosmic standing again, pointing towards Roark whom was walking towards him. Roark had a confused look in his eyes, but his mouth was in a large smile. He grabbed Chaos’ hand and placed something in it. Once he moved his hand, Chaos could see a small metal object which matched the symbol on the front of the gym. Various people were cheering on the bleachers, especially one very happy old man.

“Congratulations, you just earned the Coal Badge.”

Chaos simply stared at the badge and then at Terrum whom was slowly walking back to him. Terrum and Cosmic had both surprised him today, just what other skills were they hiding from him?
 
Re: Chaos Theory (16)

Based on first impressions, you've managed to capture the beginning of D/P wonderfully. I assume Flash is the Barry counterpart? (if so, you did nicely at establishing him as his own character and not a Barry clone) I also liked Chaos getting tangled in the TV wires (I've done the same thing, but with computer wires)

Overal, I'm intrigued at what's in store for Chaos on his adventure.
 
Re: Chaos Theory (16)

Ok, I've been thinking for a while after I read up to this point recently and here's my thoughts of this fic:

I like the various characters and their development in the story. For example, Dawn acted initially cold towards Chaos in the beginning, but have sort of warmed up to him at this point, similar to the way a tsundere would act. And Chaos is beginning to learn the ropes of Pokémon battles after some (cruel) training in the trainer school, as well as befriending Ramsay, who is, if I might add, a very unique character.
However, 16 chapters into the story, and Chaos only just got his first badge. The slow pacing is in my opinion your fic's weakness. That said, don't blame the length of the chapters, because I like that they aren't too long.

Overall, I enjoy reading it and I'm keen to see how things will go for Chaos and co.
 
Re: Chaos Theory (16)

Thanks for the reviews!

Getting tangled up with the wires was something that just happened when I was writing it, I just figured that it would help show how he is unable to completely avoid trouble better than me saying it.

I actually try to plan out my character's personalities and try to have as few as possible having close personalities, I've even come up for reasons as to why they think/act that way, including Ramsey's obsession with croagunk. As for the pacing, yeah, when reading back I notice that I keep the pacing moving a bit slow, but hopefully it'll start to pick up a bit since now virtually all exposition based things are out of the way, though don't expect very sudden bursts of speed.

Story wise, I think I came up with some interesting plots for up ahead on the journey, I just have to hope that they're interesting enough.
 
Re: Chaos Theory (16)

Well I was finally able to read this chapter, sorry for the wait.

I relly like dit actually, normally your battles have the problem that they some times lag around at some parts but this battle was kept interesting and kept me on edge. Not just that but it was Chaos's first win to boot. Though the Ice Fang thing was a little too convinient.
 
Re: Chaos Theory (16)

Chapter Seventeen: Splitting Paths

“Aaaaaaaaaand there!”

Dawn pointed towards the computer monitor. On the screen was Terrum after he had transformed during the gym battle. They were all in the Pokémon Center once again, this time using one of the computers. Dawn had connected her pokétch to the computer and was replaying her recording of the battle.

“I am positive that Terrum somehow evolved into a torterra at that moment. What I find odd about it is that he skipped grotle and the usual white glow was green.”

Dawn continued to stare at the screen while deep in thought. Nearby, Ramsey was playing with Terrum, Cosmic, and Splat. Terrum and Cosmic had already been treated and were doing well, after the treatment and a little bit of rest, their bodies had fully healed. Chaos sat next to Dawn as he watched them play. He was eating the cupcake the others had gotten him as he thought about Terrum’s transformation.

He was familiar with evolution, the process of a pokémon moving onto the next stage in its life once it became strong enough. What Terrum had done raised so many questions in his mind, specifically why he had changed back. He had always thought that evolution was a permanent process from which there was no return, but here was Terrum who had been a torterra for a short while only to become a turtwig once again.

“This is virtually the same as what happened with Pyrus…”

Dawn quickly disconnected the cable from the pokétch and connected it to her pokédex. After a few seconds of loading, Pyrus came up on screen. Chaos watched curiously as the video progressed slowly. They seemed to be in a cave, perhaps it was the Oreburgh Gate. Pyrus began to give off a red glow, and then after a bright flash, he had changed into a larger creature. His head seemed to be on fire, and the body was still simian in appearance. He had a long tail, and seemed to have white fur on his body, making him look as if he was wearing a shirt. Pyrus then proceeded to release a large torrent of flames from his mouth. The flames struck an onix square on the face, causing it to fall backwards in pain. Chaos immediately recognized it as Org.

Chaos pulled out his book and began to flip through the pages. Pyrus and Terrum had both done it, and if Terrum’s transformation was anything to go by, Pyrus should be a chimchar once again. This meant that perhaps it was something that chimchars and turtwigs could do. Once he reached the page, he carefully read a little section about abilities. He could see various abilities, but the one that caught his eye for turtwigs was overgrow. There was a similar entry under chimchar, blaze.

“Overgrow boosts the power of all grass type moves when in danger, and blaze boosts the power of fire type moves…”

Dawn sighed at his comment. “It can’t be either one of those. Rowan and I studied those abilities before and nothing like this ever happened. I’m not sure what to make of this, but maybe you should watch Terrum closely and see if he does anything else ‘unique’.”

Chaos nodded, but then jumped up as he felt a hand on his shoulder. After turning around, he saw a man wearing sunglasses. He seemed to be the same man from back at the gym. The man smirked as he passed his hand through his brown hair.

“Combete right? Name’s Dee, I work for Dashers and I liked the way you battled. Nobody really imagined you’d take after your old man so much, but I have to admit that I’m pleasantly surprised. I wanted to ask you if you’d be interested in a sponsorship. No real strings attached, you get money and free gear in exchange for you using only our products and battling in a couple tournaments for us.”

Chaos stared at the man in disbelief. His first victory and he was being offered a sponsorship? Before he could talk, a voice shot through the air.

“You want him? He barely won his battle! If it’s because of his father’s reputation, my dad has an even bigger one!”

A red faced Flash was standing at the doorway. He moved towards the man and grabbed onto his blue shirt’s collar. The man simply let out a sigh and calmly responded.

“I’m not denying your dad’s reputation, it is very impressive; it’s just that you lost how many times against Roark before you won? Combete here won on his first try, the fact that his dad was a big name just adds to the reasons I think he’d be great.”

Flash sighed as he let go of Dee’s shirt and the red on his face changed from one of anger to one of embarrassment. Chaos looked at his friend for a moment and then turned towards Ramsey. He closed his eyes as he smiled before shaking his head.

“I’m sorry, but I’m not interested. You said that I’d have to compete in tournaments for you, but I can’t do that. I have to focus on the Pokémon League. Besides, the reason I’m doing the League Challenge is for a friend, not my own interests.”

Dee sighed as he opened his mouth, only to close it. The way Chaos seemed when he answered, he was so serene yet determined; nothing he could say would change his mind at this point. Dee merely turned around and began to leave when he stopped right before walking out the door.

“If you change your mind, there will be a tournament in Jubilife to determine who will be sponsored shortly. I hope I can see you there.”

With that said, he left the group of trainers. Dawn went back to her work and Ramsey to playing with the pokémon. Flash, on the other hand, walked up to Chaos and gave a weak smile.

“I-I’m sorry for losing my cool back there. I guess I’ve just been a little on edge being so far behind schedule and all.”

“Behind schedule?”

“Y-yeah, it’s been spring for a few days now, and I’ve only got one badge. I should be half way towards Eterna by now.”

“Eterna?”

“That’s where the next badge is, it’s north of here but….I, uh, have to head back to Twinleaf to see my mom for something.”

Flash seemed to be sweating a bit, but quickly ran out the door shouting back at the others.

“I’ll see you guys later! Dawn, don’t kill Chaos if he screws up, remember what I told you!”

Chaos just stood there staring at the closing door. He slowly turned towards Dawn, confusion in his face.

"W-what did Flash tell you?"

Dawn let out a light chuckle as he began to pack her things and headed towards the door.

"He told me that you always try to do what's best for others instead of yourself. That even if you screw up, it’s because you're too busy thinking about other people." She had her eyes closed as she spoke, a strange smirk slowly spreading across her face as she seemed to blush. Her eyes opened as she left. "Well, I should get going now, Rowan wanted to talk to me about something..."

Chaos simply stood there staring at the door as it closed. Dawn had acted strange.

"Gunk"

Chaos let out a yelp as he noticed Wazu next to him. He was caught off guard but managed to keep himself from doing anything stupid.

"He said that she likes you-gunk."

This time Chaos fell to the ground in shock. Not only had Ramsey appeared out of nowhere, but the words which left his mouth. Why would she like him if she had previously hated his guts? Wait....which type of like was Ramsey talking about? Was it just like, or was it like-like? He was about to ask when Ramsey starting skipping around him.

"Chris and Dawn, sitting in a tree. K-I-S-something-something gunk."

Chaos at first began to blush but then stood up and returned his pokémon to their balls and began to walk out.

"Hurry up and get ready, we're moving onto the next gym now, Flash said we're behind schedule so no time to waste."

Sure he didn't want to start traveling now, but it was the only way to change the subject. As he walked out of the Pokémon Center, he looked around, not sure where to go to next, but Ramsey shot out the door and began running. Not wanting to be left behind, Chaos bolted after him, doing his best to keep up with the much faster kid.

----------------------------------------------------------

"So...where....are....we going?"

Chaos was doing his best to catch his breath. They had run all the way to the outskirts of Oreburgh and a large hill stood ahead of them. Ramsey smiled as he ran towards it then jumped around until he got towards the top. Having seen how easy it was, Chaos charged up the slope, only to slip on mud and fall back down. He tried multiple times, only to continually fall back down.

"What are you doing? Jump on to the stones and get up here-gunk."

Chaos, now covered in mud, looked at the slope and searched for the stones. They were so small and far apart, he knew there was no way for him to make the jumps, he just wasn't agile enough. He took a deep breath and decided to try anyway. He ran as fast as he could then jumped....and missed the stone completely. He landed on his face, crashing into the slope and sliding back down. It was then that various rocks began to roll and fall down the slope, making it even more difficult to climb.

"Sorry...but is there another way to the next gym?"

"We could go to Jubilife and head north from there, it’s a lot longer but it should still get us to Eterna."

Chaos smiled as he stood up and looked at Ramsey.

"Listen, you're already up there, so you take that path to Eterna. I'll take the longer road and meet up with you later. Don't wait for me, instead keep going. I promise to catch up to you, even if I don't see you for a while, I will see you at the League."

Ramsey looked at Chaos and smiled.

"Okay, but you better not make me wait too long or else I'll punch you in the stomach!"

The two smiled at each other as they both began to walk. They didn't bother waving good bye, they knew they'd see each other again; it was only a matter of time.


(Author's comments: and with that......END OF PART 1. Next chap will be something special, and also about my plans with this story.....read this That's about it for now, pacing will be speeding up, just not as much as I thought I'd need to)
 
Last edited:
Re: Chaos Theory (17)

The chapter was mostly a transition chapter since it was the end of part 1 but now I am completely interested in what happened with Terrum and Pyrus and how they were able to evolve to their final stage in one jump. So with that in mind how different will Part 2 be compared to Part 1?
 
Re: Chaos Theory (17)

Well, I know I call them parts but in reality they are just something a bit bigger than an arc. Where part 1 focused on the starting up portion, part 2 is more advanced things and how pokémon(and other beings) use attacks. Things of course get rougher for the heroes and of course those of you who play the game will know that Galactic comes in soon, though I hope you guys like my depiction of them :p

Also feel free to say this chapter sucked, I wasn't really feeling it and I've sorta been struggling with writer's block as of late
 
Re: Chaos Theory (17)

Special Episode One: Good Morning

A little girl was running through the swampy area laughing as she followed a small wooper despite the thick fog. As she joyfully ran, she heard a rustling in some nearby bushes and turned to look. In that moment, she lost track of the wooper, so she sighed and decided to check out the bushes instead.

She walked slowly and carefully, not wanting to let whatever was in there hear her and then run away. She took careful step, after careful step, until she reached the bushes and slowly parted the leaves. She smiled at what was found, a small nest with a few eggs in it, and one of them had recently hatched as there was a baby skorupi looking up at her. She was about to reach down to pet the small insect-like pokémon, but then remembered what she had been taught. With a small grin, she simply watched the baby walk about inside of the next.

Then she heard another rustling.

Thinking that perhaps there was another nest nearby, she turned towards the bushes, only to scream. From out of the bushes a larger version of the skorupi shot out. She had seen pictures of it in her mother's books before, a drapion. It lashed at her with its large claws as it snarled. The girl scrambled to her feet as she began to run away from it, but felt her foot snag on a root. She fell to the ground and grabbed her ankle, it hurt so much. She grimaced as she saw the pokémon's claw begin to glow a dark purple before quickly moving towards her, then everything went black.

She felt nothing, no pain asides that of her ankle. Curious as to what was happening she opened her eyes and saw a woman standing in front of her. Her white lab coat stained with red and purple as she held on to the drapion's arm. The claw was inside of the woman's side, but the woman hadn't made a noise.

"It's okay, we won't hurt you....just calm down..."

The drapion looked into the woman's stern eyes before pulling its claw out from the woman's side and going back into the bushes. The woman then sighed as she turned around and looked at the girl. The young girl was in shock until she recognized the woman and grabbed onto her leg, tears in her eyes.

"I-I'm sorry for wandering off mom....are you okay? I-I hate that pokémon. W-why did it have to hurt you?"

A loud smack filled the air as the girl felt the red spot on her cheek.

"Don't you ever say that again. No pokémon are to be hated, they are to be respected. She only attacked you because she thought you were going to hurt her child....just like how I was scared she would hurt you."

A smile spread across her face as she checked on her daughter's ankle, sighing when she discovered nothing was broken.

"So Dawn, want to help me bandage up?"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

beeep beeeep beeeeeeep.......beeep beeeep beeeeeeep.....

A young girl opened her eyes as she strained to see with the sun's light filling the room. She pulled the pink covers over her head. After ignoring the horrid sound for a few minutes, she gave up and slammed her palm down on top of the small electrode alarm clock. After looking at the time for a second, she sighed and got out of bed. Not wasting any time, she quickly jumped out of bed and began to get dressed.

She changed into her white sleeveless shirt and placed a black shirt on top of it. After digging through her closet for a few seconds, she pulled out a pink miniskirt and put it on. She looked at herself in the mirror and smiled, until she realized how unruly her long blue hair had become during her sleep. Sighing, she picked up a brush and began to tidy it up, keeping a sharp eye on the time.

After a few minutes she gave up on ever getting her hair just right and simply grabbed her white hat and used it to hide the messier portions of her hair. Once the hat was in place, she attempted to make the pink pokéball on her hat was perfectly straight, though she found it was impossible to do while concealing her bed head.

Looking at the time, she quickly put on her long black socks and her pink boots, after which she bolted out the door. Quickly rushing down the stairs, she made sure not to crash into an even younger looking girl at the bottom of the stairs.

"Calm down, you have plenty of time before Mr. Rowan has to meet with you..." The young girl rubbed the sleep out of her eyes as she looked up at the other girl.

"Ever heard of being early? It shows how responsible I am, maybe when you figure out how to show how responsible you are dad'll get you your own room!" The older girl quickly rustled up the younger girl's short blue hair.

"S-stop it Dawn! You don't like it when I mess up your hair!" The girl quickly pushed Dawn's hand back as she glared at her.

"Fine Sheri, though I better hurry...."

Dawn immediately dashed into the kitchen and tossed some bread into a toaster while she poured herself a glass of milk. As she shut the refrigerator door she almost dropped her glass when a black haired man wearing a white lab coat appeared behind the door. The man smiled at her and pushed his glasses up as he spoke.

"It's almost time to decide which assistants will be sent off to update the pokédex, and I have a pretty good feeling that one of them will be you, after all, isn't that what you have spent so many years preparing for?"

Dawn began to blush at the man's words as she looked out towards the window.

"Yeah Dad, I really hope I get chosen. After all the hours I put into preparations, I'm sure after the professor sees me in action at the lake, he won't be able to say no!" There was a fire in her eyes as she looked up towards her father, whom in turn simply placed a hand on her head.

"I'm sure she'd be proud."

Dawn nodded as she looked at a nearby clock and basically poured her milk down her throat before placing the glass into the sink. She then headed towards the door before a voice stopped her.

"Don't forget these, and it's still pretty cold out despite it being spring."

Dawn looked over towards her father whom was holding out her red coat along with her white scarf. She smiled as she put them on, her father had always watched over her for so long ever since that day. Once she was prepared for the cold outside, she noticed that her father was also holding a plate with some toast before she remembered what it was from. She took it from the plate as she walked out and ran towards the nearby beach.

Sandgem Beach was always so empty during this time, despite the water being warm thanks to various ocean currents from the south. Dawn finished eating all but one of her slices of toast as she neared a few trees and sat down before a stone. Carved into the stone were a few words which had been weathered by time and the elements. She smiled at an old picture at the bottom of the stone. The picture was of that woman in her dream.

"Morning mom, today's the big day I've been waiting for. I hope I get picked for the journey, you know how long I've been dreaming about this, a chance to meet so many different pokémon and learn from each one. When I finish, I'll make sure to come tell you about it."

Dawn wiped a single tear which had rolled down her cheek. It had been so long since she had heard her voice, but it still rang so clear within her head, her memory, her heart.

Remembering the time, she quickly stood up and walked towards the waves.

"Poseidon! We have to go soon!"

After a minute of standing there, a piplup swam to shore. He seemed to be tired, and quickly nabbed the toast away from Dawn and gulped it down. He then looked up at Dawn and smiled, before she pulled out a pokéball and shot a red beam, pulling him into the orb. Dawn smiled and quickly began to leave the beach, but not before taking one last look at the grave before running towards the lab.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

An older man walked before a group of scientists. Everyone in the group was wearing a lab coat, everyone except for Dawn. The man took a deep breath as he looked at the group, his stern eyes staring them down. He let moved his hand through his short white hair before he began to speak.

"You have all been waiting for this day, the day we commence the greatest project we have undertaken thus far. As you are all aware, many years ago I, along with a few youths, traveled Sinnoh and amassed what information we have on the pokémon of this region. It is quite obvious that said information may have become out of date, and therefore useless, in that time. Today I shall select three of you to travel this land and record the information in these pokédexes."

The man paused as he help up three devices.

"The journey will no doubt be perilous, so those to be chosen will have to be intelligent, strong, and have the determination to keep going when things get difficult and most importantly, the desire to learn more about pokémon. After weeks of careful consideration, I decided that the ones to work on this special project are Dawn-"

"YES!"

The man was cut off as Dawn jumped for joy. The instant her feet touched the floor, she was already shoving past the other people until she was at the man's side.

"You made a wise choice Rowan."

"I truly hope I did.....Anyway, the other two have yet to be decided. You all have wonderful qualities and are qualified for this project, but you are all needed here. You are all already working diligently on various projects which I believe could prove to be revolutionary. You have all put so much time and effort into your projects, I wish for you to see the fruits of your labor. Later today I shall announce who the other two will be, but for now I will head out into the field to more research on the pokémon of the lake. Please do not take it personally if you are not chosen."

The various scientists each scattered throughout the lab, each heading towards their own projects, some depressed, but others excited for the things to come. Rowan immediately walked towards a closet and pulled out a long brown overcoat and put it on as he picked up a nearby briefcase. He turned towards Dawn and motioned for her to follow him, which she did with a smile on her face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dawn and Rowan were sitting at the edge of Lake Verity. Dawn was holding a fishing rod and seemed to be intently concentrated on it. The red bobber floating in the water suddenly began to shake slightly before completely submerging. Dawn quickly pulled the rod back as she began to rapidly reel in her catch. Within moments she managed to catch.....a magikarp.

"Another one, that means the magikarp population here is very strong."

Rowan nodded as he wrote some notes down on a clipboard before putting it down and smiling at the work they had done. He stood up and patted the back of his pants in order to knock off the dirt from having sat on the ground for so long.

"Well, it's starting to get late now, I guess we should head back and file away the results. Still, it is a shame that we couldn't catch anything but magikarps today."

Dawn sighed as she gently put the magikarp back into the water and then followed Rowan whom was already leaving the lake grounds. Once she caught up to him, she smiled at him before making her move.

"Um...professor, about the other two that would come with me, did you decide on whom yet?"

Rowan let out a sigh. He had expected as much from her.

"I...have yet to decide. Nobody else at the lab looks like they would be able to handle the journey both physically and mentally. Some of the more determined ones are too weak physically, while the strong ones already have commitments which I do not think they should ignore."

"Then....when are you going to decide?"

"I plan on telling them whom tomorrow afternoon at the latest. I pray to Arceus that I can find the two best suited."

"I'm sure you'll make a great decision. After all, you picked me!"

"Yes, but that was the obvious choice." Rowan let out a small chuckle as he spoke, only for that expression of joy to fade away. "Besides, I'm sure Mary would have wanted you to go."

Rowan smiled at Dawn, how much she looked like her mother had looked those many years ago when she had asked to work at the lab. It was a shame she had begun her work until after they had finished the predecessor to the project Dawn was to undertake. Perhaps if Mary had begun to work for him sooner, she could have gone along and prevented what had happened....

"Um, where's the briefcase?"

Rowan was pulled out of his thoughts as he realized Dawn was right, he had likely forgotten the suitcase back at the lake, another piece of evidence that he was aging.

"I think I forgot it at the lake, if we hurry maybe we can retrieve it and make it back to the lab before it gets too late."

The two quickly made their way towards the lake, only this time the entrance to the lake grounds wasn't clear and open for them. The entrance was blocked by two green-haired men, each sporting what looked like black and white astronaut uniforms. Most curious of all was a single 'G' on their chests.

"Excuse me young sirs, but would you be please move so as we may enter the lake grounds?"

“Sorry, boss’s orders, nobody is allowed in while he carries out his research. He’s afraid the presence of others will affect the results.”

“This won’t take long, we forgot something important. We have to get it back.” Rowan's voice still full of patience.

“Sorry, no can do, you’ll just have to wait.”

“Listen here! We were in the Lake before you goons showed up and now you’re telling us we can’t go back to get something?! Nobody owns this lake, it’s a public area! Would you let us through already!” Dawn interjected before Rowan could respond.

“Dawn! You know better, we will simply have to wait until they are done before we are able to enter.” Rowan had his eyes closed as he began to chastise her.

“But professor!”

“No buts, we just have to wait, we aren’t the only ones who need access to the lake for research.”

Dawn knew the tone the professor had taken on. Letting out another sigh, she shot a quick glare towards the two men before walking back a few paces. She hadn't noticed how close she had gotten to the two men.

"Dawn, you have to get better control over your emotions. If you don't, then one day it will get you in trouble."

Dawn smiled at him. His tone had changed from one of anger, to one of worry. She had to admit, he was right about that. There was a reason most of her research was done aside Rowan, nobody else was willing to put up with her personality.

The two simply began to walk around the area for a bit, simply waiting for the men to tell them it was alright to enter the lake grounds. Te only things on Rowan's mind were not of getting his briefcase back, for he had nothing of real value in there besides some data he had collected recently, but for whom he was to send on the journey to aid Dawn. Little did he know, things had a habit of working out in unexpected ways, and that when he got the briefcase, he would also find the two perfect candidates for the project....


(Author's comments n stuff: Well, hope you enjoyed the little special episode. I have a couple of these planned out throughout the series, and I have them in order to show more depth and personality to the characters which you might not otherwise see since the story is told in the limited third person, being limited to whatever and where ever Chaos is. You can consider this chapter filler if you want, and I know that by doing this I probably ruined what pace I had left since I actually moved backwards a bit XD. So, now you have a slightly better idea of how Dawn thinks and stuff, and the next chapter will have us back where we're supposed to be in the timeline. I actually was thinking of saying something else, but I sort of lost my train of thought, oh well XP)
 
Please note: The thread is from 12 years ago.
Please take the age of this thread into consideration in writing your reply. Depending on what exactly you wanted to say, you may want to consider if it would be better to post a new thread instead.
Back
Top Bottom