Red the Conqueror 25

Somewhere between Saffron and Lavender, a traveling duo who had long since departed the entertainment hotspot of Kanto was engaging in some good old population control.

"Have you ever wondered what happens to all the Wild Pokémon we knock out?"

Red turned from where he was overseeing the destruction of the ecosystem and the slaughter of thousands of innocent birds and rats, whose only sin had been to be the most obnoxiously tenacious critters the world ever did see.

He looked at her, raised an eyebrow, then shrugged.

"Yeah me neither," Blue agreed, taking a bite of her sandwich, swallowing, then raising a hand. "Alright, that's enough of a break, want to keep going?"

They were going to Lavender to visit the Pokémon tower, one of Kanto's weirdest tourist attractions. Why, exactly, what amounted to a gigantic graveyard had become a tourist spot was anyone's guess, but well, at least the upper levels of the tower were kept explicitly for mourners only, and it was a cemetery exclusively for Pokémon which gave it some degree of novelty.

Luckily, crossing through Saffron made the journey a lot faster, because the city of Saffron had pretty good public transportation that saw them from the west end to the east end within minutes, and while there were some suspicious folks moving about, nobody tried to start anything with the two trainers as they went past the city. It was quiet, a little too quiet, near the center of the city, which should be bustling with business.

Something to perhaps keep in mind later, but at that time, they were both focused on something else, and in particular, they were focused on getting out of the city so they could let their Pokémon out and engage in the wanton slaughter of the local flora, fauna and floral fauna.

The seemingly endless flow of rats that were getting slaughtered by a rotating series of Pokémon, mostly their first partners, by now Charizard and Venusaur as they had achieved their final forms, was finally starting to slow down, and the fliers had stopped flying directly towards their slaughter as well, which was definitely a good thing considering there wasn't much that the pokémon could get in terms of experience from opponents that weak.

"Oh! That's a big one!" Blue yelled, pointing at the sky, where a bird, bigger than all the others, seemed to be flying high above, high enough that it was just a dark silhouette against the light of the sun. "Sauria! Can you hit that with Solar Beam?" she asked.

A growling roar followed, and Blue pointed high at the sky, directly at that bird flying high. Hitting them before they swooped down to attack would catch them by surprise and knock them out of the air, solving the problem before it became one. Weak though the grand majority of Wild Pokémon around Saffron's immediate surroundings might be, if there was a random Fearow flying about, it had to be more powerful than the rest.

Dropping their guard and taking an opponent lightly was a good way to get yourself humiliated, in Pokémon battles, and while Blue was open to exploring many a different kink, she didn't seem to think "losing to weaker opponents" was one of them.

Sauria began to charge energy at the top of the large flower on her back, bright white light loading up directly from the sun itself, and even as all other creatures started to flee the scene from the display of power, the big bird continued to fly like it just didn't care.

It seemed to only notice it was about to be hit when Sauria took aim and then fired.

The bright white laser of condensed and concentrated sunlight tore through the air with all the speed you'd expect of a laser, and with the unerring accuracy that came naturally to Pokémon when they weren't suffering from some sort of ill effect, cutting through the air and even a lazily drifting cloud to impact the flying bird, and then promptly explode.

The bird suddenly became two separate things falling, one on each side, and as the two looked up and saw what was happening, Red immediately threw a Pokéball in the air, from which the Red Eon Dragon, Latias, emerged.

Blue, following his cue, did the same with her own half of the duo, sending Latios out.

Red pointed at the falling bird, and then gestured at Blue.

"Got it. Latios, save that bird, use your psychic powers to slow down its fall and then catch it, bring it down gently!"

Red gestured up and Latias created a sonic boom as she shot into the air like the jet she resembled, followed shortly behind by her brother Latios, separating roughly halfway into their ascent, the blue dragon heading towards the bigger of the two falling objects, and the red dragon, to the smaller one.

Both used their psychic powers to slow down the fall of what they were catching, and then slowly, much more gently than the spiraling fall they were in, caught the falling Pokémon and what was very quickly and noticeably proving to be its trainer who'd been riding it, who looked to be in a bit of shock.

As the two dragons came back down, they deposited their cargo on the ground with their psychic powers, then approached their trainers.

"Good, well done," Blue cooed, handing Latios a berry from her pack, and then approaching Sauria. "That was a fantastic shot," she said, giving another berry to Sauria.

Red, for his part, touched his forehead to Latias', who crooned softly, before returning her and his Charizard to their Pokéballs.

Blue did the same, and then, together, they approached the trainer and Pokémon that they had knocked out of the sky, even if inadvertently.

Luckily, they didn't seem to be wounded, either of them. The attack was very powerful, but it was shot from the ground into a very high altitude, and it had lost a lot of its potency before it had struck the flying pokémon.

Said pokémon was a large white bird with a yellow beak and blue plummage near its breasts that looked quite a bit like-

"Say, Red, is it just me, or does that bird have breasts?"

Red raised an eyebrow and looked at Blue.

"No I'm not making a joke - look, I don't know what this Pokémon is, alright?" she asked.

Red pulled out his Pokédex, which didn't throw up any data. Either a new species altogether, undiscovered, which was unlikely given someone was riding it, or it was from far, far away. Like, another region far. Possibly another continent altogether.

Deciding to ignore that for the moment, Red turned to the fallen trainer. She was wearing a now a little charred flight suit, covering her from head to toe in baggy brown, on top of her head there was a flight helmet, and a set of big goggles and a mask covering her face, and she wore thick looking boots and gloves in the same brown leather of her hat.

Blue turned to the trainer then. "Hey... she, uh, you don't think she's dead do you? Please tell me I didn't accidentally kill someone, I'm going to start freaking out if-"

Suddenly, the trainer sat up.

It was immediately obvious that she was a woman, because as she sat up, the thick flight suit she was wearing kind of fell apart from the damage it had taken and almost fell off of her. Her arms had most of the sleeves on them still, but her suit still fell apart a little, revealing pale, pink skin, as she moved to get her gloves off of her hands, revealing thinner blue gloves underneath, tossing both of the thick leather gloves away, and then grabbing her hat and goggles and pulling them off, shaking her head to and revealing long red tresses, tied into a high bun, offset from the center, though it fell apart and her hair became loose.

"What just hit me!? And how am I alive?! Swanna was fainted while I was riding her, and at that height- did you guys save me? Did you see who shot me?"

"I, er- yeah that, that was me, that's my bad, I'm sorry," Blue said. "I'm so glad you're alright and didn't get hurt."

"Didn't- that was dangerous, so dangerous, do you just shoot anything that moves or something?!" the redhead accused, "this is why I should've flown commercial, I'm lost, I have no idea where I am, Elesa's probably just as lost as I am and I'm never going to find her, ugh, I should've listened to Drayden!" she cried out, shaking her head.

"Uhm- did you say, Elesa?" Blue asked. "I'm sorry I'm a little lost, who are you?"

The woman huffed, then got up. "My suit is ruined too, that attack must've been very strong," she said. Once she was on her feet it was immediately obvious the suit was completely ruined, and she didn't seem to be too keen on keeping it on, pulling it apart the rest of the way and stepping out of each pant leg, the only remaining bits of it that hadn't been destroyed.

She was... actually quite impressively hot.

And she clearly had no issues showing it. She wore matching blue boots to her gloves under the flight suit, and skin tight hot pants and a similarly skin tight top, in light blue, with dark blue belts accented with chrome steel buckles. The belts were clearly designed to evoke the same look as a flight suit, but obviously a top that thin and booty shorts wouldn't help combat the icy cold of the skies.

"My name's Skyla," she said, smirking, "I'm a gym leader from Unova!" she said. Then she stopped. "In training," she admitted, coughing into her fist as if trying to hide that. "Anyway!" she put her hands on her hips. "Who are you guys? I mean, if you're gonna knock me out of the sky I think I at least deserve to hear your names."

"Right, uhm, sorry about that, my name's Blue, and this is Red," Blue explained.

Red waved.

"We're trainers on our League Challenge," Blue continued, "and we were training against Wild Pokémon, I thought you were a big Fearow preparing to dive bomb."

"Oh. Ooooh, yeah, that makes sense, there are big birds around this area huh?" she muttered.

"Pidgeottos and Fearows mostly," Blue supplied.

"Well, I guess from below Swanna wouldn't look too distinct huh?" Skyla muttered. "Alright, this is partially my fault, I shouldn't be flying over the roads either," she admitted, scratching the back of her neck. "But I'm really all new to Kanto, and, uhm, as it turns out pulling out a map while I'm on the back of a Pokémon flying at high speeds is a really terrible idea!" she said with a bright smile on her face.

Red palmed his face. Then he poked Blue and gestured near his ears before pulling down as if to mimic something dangling long.

"Oh, right, Elesa- you mentioned Elesa, you know her? We met her some time ago!"

Skyla smirked. "That's right! She's my bestest friend in the world!" she said.

"Ohh! You must be the girl that she was talking about! Right, Skyla, that was your name, it slipped my mind until just now," Blue said. "Wow, man isn't that- wait, why are you here and not in Unova? Aren't you guys from Unova?"

"Well, yes! But!" she cleared her throat. "I'm allowed to travel to expand my horizons and get stronger before returning to take over the Mistralton City Gym!" she said, "and I heard Elesa was coming here to receive training so I figured, I could take a train ride from Johto..."

Red hummed, nodding.

"Oh, okay... but then you should be going to Vermilion."

"I'm... not going towards Vermilion am I?" Skyla asked, placing her hands on her cheeks, rubbing her temples with her fingers. "I lost my map when I started flying and then the sun was in my eyes and then SOMEONE shot me out of the sky," she said.

"I'm sorry I-"

Skyla sighed. "No, no no, don't worry, it's partially my fault too, I'm just a little bit frustrated," she said. "It's just, nobody was any help in Saffron, and the guard at the entrance checkpoint was the worst, and- even the Gym Leader here didn't even let me in to ask her for directions, I'm, I'm just reaching the limit of my patience. I really need to find a place to crash for today, I'm just so tired."

"I... don't think your Swanna's gonna be able to fly you anywhere," Blue said, cringing a little since it was her who'd caused that.

Skyla moved to her pokémon, crouching down beside it and running her hands down the plummage of the bird that should've been majestic. "She's fine, but, yeah, after taking a hit like that she's gonna need a day of rest at least, Pokémon are pretty durable but they're not invincible," she mused. "Your Pokémon must be very strong to hit me from the ground and knock out a Flying pokémon in one hit... what did you hit me with anyway?"

Skyla took out her pokéball and returned Swanna to it, then stuck the Pokéball to her belt.

"It was a Solar Beam from my partner, Sauria - a Venusaur," she explained.

"Oh! it was like a surface anti-air defense laser," Skyla said, "it terrified me when I noticed, I didn't even have time to evade!" she said, laughing a little. "Good thing you guys caught me when you did," she said, reaching into the remnants of her flight suit and taking what looked to be a backpack, removing a bunch of charred fabric from it, and raising it. "These things are super expensive," she said, shaking it a little.

"What's that?" Blue asked.

Red hit his palm with his closed fist, then he mimicked pulling at something under his left arm, like he was wrapping his finger around the ring of a cord.

"That's right, it's an emergency parachute!" Skyla said, winking and raising the square pack in both hands, "if this little device here," she explained, pointing at a strange device, "detects that I'm falling too fast all of a sudden it'll automatically deploy a parachute," she said, "but it's only good for one use so man I'm glad you caught me," she said.

"Well I'm also glad," Blue admitted.

Red nodded, he too agreed.

"Anyway, we're traveling to Lavender right now, but honestly after this much excitement, I feel we could set up camp nearby and hit the sack for the night, if you want we can escort you to Saffron to find you a place to stay, it's expensive though!"

Nodding, Skyla turned back to the pile of charred clothes that used to be her suit. "No worries, I've got my purse right-"

She pulled a black, burnt thing that might've been a purse at some point.

"Oh. Oooooh that's, that's really bad," Skyla said, her eyes widening as she tried to open her charred purse only for it to basically shatter into a pile of ash, revealing only an identity card that was a little misshapen and a single coin. "That's... super bad."

"I- ergh, this is really my fault, I'll give you what I've got so-"

"No no no, don't worry," Skyla said, raising her hands and waving them, "I'll just rough it for the night, I've had worse, I- Ohhh this is gonna suck..."

"Well, you can always make camp with us. I mean, I know we're strangers but," Blue turned to Red, "it's fine right? She's a friend of Elesa..."

Red nodded. He gestured to their packs, not too far away, and the fact that they had enough supplies and equipment for Skyla as well.

"You would help me like that?" Skyla asked.

"Well it's the least I can do since I owe you for all this, we'll, uhm, we'll help you get to Saffron and then it's easy to Vermilion," Blue said, "plus I'll find a way to make it up for this!"

"You really don't have to, if I'm being honest with you in Unova I would've been the one blamed for the incident, laws are really strict about unauthorized flying and I'm not the leader yet," she mused openly, "so really you don't have to worry about it, I should've known better," she said, placing her hands on Blue's shoulders, "you're far too pretty to be worrying yourself into early gray hairs for my sake," she spoke, tilting Blue's head up and looking deeply into her eyes.

Laughing a little nervously, Blue shook her head, placing her hands on Skyla's wrists. "Okay, I'll stop bringing it up, okay?" she said.

"Good!" Skyla agreed.

"Alright, then what do you say we set up camp and rest for the day?" Blue asked.

"Sounds good to me, I need a break and to relax a little. Say, you wouldn't know if there's a place I can get good clean at nearby? A river will do, I just want to wash my hair and skin."

"Sure, there's a little pond nearby," Blue said. "C'mon, I'll take you there," she said. "Are you coming, Red?"

Red nodded, then he pointed at himself with his thumb, and at his eyes with two fingers.

"What's that mean?" Skyla asked.

"He's saying he'll take first watch so we can bathe, then we'll take the watch so he can bathe, there's wild Pokémon around and it seems no matter how many we defeat they just keep coming," Blue explained.

"Oh! I guess it pays to travel in a group," Skyla said nodding, "man, you two must be a really close pair of siblings to go do your league challenge together!"

"Do we look like that?" she asked, looking at Red. "We're, uhm, we're not siblings. We're, sort of dating I guess?" she asked.

"Oh, there go I opening my mouth," she cleared her throat, "sorry about making assumptions, it's just- I figured if you were traveling with a younger man..."

Red looked quite bemused.

"... don't tell me, you're the older one here and I just made an ass of myself?" Skyla asked.

"Won't be the first, won't be the last, though knowing how tall Unovan men are compared to Kantonian men, I guess you have an excuse," Blue said, laughing.

Red huffed, crossing his arms and looking a bit upset.

"Sorry!" Skyla repeated.

"See, now you're the one who's worrying herself into early gray hairs," Blue quipped.

Red allowed himself a smile.

The trio then picked up their stuff and began to travel closer to the nearby pond so they could wash up before setting up camp, in the wilderness between Saffron and Lavender.