Pokemon Regression

Chapter 39: Camping Comparison

"...The black creature lashed violently against the vines, but they were on too tight, and it had no choice but to stay there until Bulbasaur's leech seed finished it off." I translated with a bit of falsetto. 

As we walked into Route 9, Chee was enthusiastically miming the adventures we'd been on before reuniting with Blue-Of course Blue couldn't understand what she was trying to say, so I was acting as her voice in order to convey the story. 

Although Chee had been rather nervous to hang around with Blue at first, now that he'd calmed down and we were all travelling as a group she'd settled back into a cheery disposition. 

"When we finally defeated it, the fur-ball started glowing, and then it just evaporated!" We continued, which prompted Blue to shoot me a dirty look. "That's ridiculous." He snorted.

I raised an eyebrow at him in return, gently stroking the Rattata resting in my arms. "Don't look at me. I'm just translating. Right Yeller?"

The pampered rodent gave me a reassuring thumbs-up. 

The arrogant boy glanced back over at Chee, who was still excitedly miming the scene of the raticate disappearing into particles of light. That seemed to appease his mood, and he went back to passively listening as we fought off wild Pokemon and advanced deeper into the route. 

Finally, as the sun was beginning to set, Blue came to a stop and glanced around. "It's getting late. Let's rest here for the evening."

"Roger that." I answered, slinging my backpack off my shoulders. Yeller also leapt to the ground stretching lethargically. "Chee, could you go get us a little firewood?"

The black-haired girl mimed a salute before jogging off into the bushes nearby. I was just getting started on raising a tent, when Blue broke the silence.

"So how much of that was true?" He asked. When I met his eyes, they were filled with a sort of dull curiosity. 

"I know it sounds impossible for a Pokemon to just evaporate-" I began.

"Not that." Blue cut me off before I could continue. "The Pokemon with Black fur. Did you really encounter a new Pokemon?"

I frowned for a moment before answering. "Yeah. It looked a lot like a Raticate, but it was bigger, rounder, and the fur was black instead of brown. It also had much thicker cheeks..."

To my surprise I realised that Blue met my every word with undivided attention and a thoughtful expression. When I trailed off he began to mumble to himself, and after a moment he spoke up again. "So it was like some sort of mutated Raticate-Perhaps a new undiscovered evolution?"

I shrugged. "I really don't know. Both our encounter with that Raticate and with the Onix we encountered later were very unusual." 

For a brief moment I considered telling Blue I might be able to let him encounter a strange Pokemon-I had been thinking about taking advantage of Blue travelling with us to fight another area boss- but in the end I decided not to. The biggest reason for that being...

[Route 9 Completion:

- Defeat Wild Pokemon (38/50)
Reward: Spawn Area Boss

- Defeat Area Boss 

Reward: 1 Status Point, Type Proficiency: Flying +50 points]

Based on my previous experiences with the Area bosses, I was pretty sure that the Type Proficiency I received as a reward was based on the typing of the boss itself. If that was the case, this boss would almost certainly be some sort of bird-or some other flying type Pokemon.