Past Friends and Future Foes! Ned and Akuroma Meet as Common Pokemon for the Last Time!?

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Akuroma panted, a mint green light fading off his arm. A tree in front of him looked like part of it was repeatedly hit with a long blunt object, but gave no sign of falling. He pulled the hood of his Raging Storm Cloak off of his head before leaning against his knees to catch his breath. He'd been training for the past half hour or so on perfecting his newest move, Psyshock. It felt so strange, focusing his psychic energy into something that would do physical damage. It was quite a change from Confusion, where he simply had to control someone's, or something's, movements with his mind.

When he finally caught his breath, he straightened himself back up and began focusing his psychic energy back onto his arm before swinging it down, sending the wave of energy into the tree. When it made contact, the tree gave a loud groan, and began to lean backwards. For a moment it looked like it was about to stop, until it's own weight finished itself off, a loud snap echoing through the woods before the tree fell down.

12/23 Energy

Akuroma's close combat tactic seemed to work. The Flabebe couldn't use it's Fairy Wind or Vine Whips with the Ralts punching at it with a Thunder Punch. Akuroma was actually a bit surprised at how long it was holding out. Even if it wasn't too far from his own strength, he'd have expected the Fairy type to have gone down within a few punches. Instead it was taking them on like a champ.

It still didn't last long, a well placed, close range Psyshock flung it back into a tree, where it floated to the ground before Akuroma turned towards the Exeggutor and Ned, the former of which was seeming to dance around as it tried to shake off the smaller Pokemon.

While the Eseggutor was shaking around wildly, Ned was clinging onto its leaves, desperately trying not to be shaken off. While he did so, the Bug type once more released his silvery powder, not even needing to create a breeze to launch it this time. The foilage of the attacked Grass type was more than enough to create a sufficient gust of wind. The only problem was situated in the loss of control Ned had over his attack this way. Without this control, it was impossible to aim the powder, which spread out across the entire area. The Psychic type winced in pain as it tumbled around, finally tripping over a root and landing face-first on the ground. Well, one of its faces landed first at least.
The Nincada however was not able to hold on anymore, being launched quite a distance away before hitting a tree mid-flight.
Dizzily Ned tried to stumble back to the scene of the battle.

Akuroma held up his right arm, a mint green force field spreading out from it in a shield shape to protect him from the spreading Silver Powder. As he saw Ned fly towards a tree, Akuroma tried to use Confusion to stop him, but realized he was unable to use the move anymore. Though he had definitely gained more power with Psyshock, the move was unable to aid him in situations such as this.

"U...urgh...d-did we..banana it?"
Obviously the impact hadn't done Ned any good, which was now clearly visible as he stumbled directly past Akuroma further into the forest before spinning around on one of his legs and skittering back.
"I-I would like to get off of this ride now, please."
Hopefully the concussion would only be temporary as it was obvious, that the Ground type would not be of much use in his current state.
And things like these were the reason he preferred to remain hidden.
At least the Bug type managed to survive.

Akuroma bent down in front of Ned and tapped on his head, "Hey, no time for you to be losing your mind," he said. Sighing, the Ralts stood up and looked around, sadly seeing no sort of herb or berry that could help the Nincada. He groaned a bit. This wasn't the first time a traveling companion of his was incapacitated and he had to fix it, though last time he just happened to have the cure.

"I...what? Sorry, guess I got hid on the head pretty hard. Well, at least this battle is over now. Hopefully I won't have to go through something like this ever again."
The Nincada tried to hide, that he was blushing. Once more he had demonstrated his obvious weakness. A true adventurer and explorer wouldn't have let themselves be incapacitated that easily.
Ned sighed.
He still had a long way to go before he would be able to truly help someone else.
But he wouldn't give up.
No matter what, he would wait until he would have become strong enough.
And if it would take an eternity, then he would wait an eternity.
Eventually the day would come...

Akuroma chuckled before he said, "If you want to be an explorer you'll probably have to go through things like that a lot. I've been incapacitated like that and I've had traveling companions who've gone through it as well." He hefted his bag a bit before walking towards to two knocked out Pokemon and searching the two for items. He frowned a bit when he only found a Blast Seed. It could certainly be useful, but he was hoping for something a bit more immediate.

"Well, not neccessarily. Both my evolutions do not take hits all that well, but have developed alternate strategies for dealing with enemies. So should I ever manage to get myself to evolve, I shouldn't have to worry about stuff like that too much anymore. But first I have to evolve of course."
As he had done already many times before, the Nincada thought of the evolved members of his species.
How would they feel? Were they proud, that they had managed to evolve?
Did they feel strong now? Powerful?
Or did they believe themselves to be weak still, yearning for the elusive day they would finally be classified as "strong"?
Ned would probably never know.

"That's what evolution's all about, finding ways to become stronger and survive," Akuroma said before he sat down against a tree and sighed.

"But I can already tell I'm near evolution, and I'm wondering what it's like, and if I want it to happen," Akuroma said as he sat there. His horns' emotion sensing capability was getting much stronger, to the point where even dark types weren't immune to it. Soon the things would begin to glow like Rudolf the Deerling's nose until he finally evolved into a Kirlia. He's never seen a Kirlia in real life. Only in pictures and written descriptions.

"Yeah, but there's something, that's bothering me. If evolved Pokémon are stronger than unevlved ones, wouldn't natural selection dictate, that all Pokémon would be born in their final forms already? What is the point of these, frail, weak bodies we have to deal with now?"
Why couldn't the Ground type simply have been born in his evolved form? It would make so many things so much easier. No self-doubt, no worrying, whether one would ever be able to accomplish anything, no hiding until one would finally be able to brave the challenges of the world.
But no, he had to have been born a Nincada and he would have to wait for an eternity before he would be even remotely useful.

"No, evolution takes energy, when you hatch, you have very little energy, and must gain energy in order to evolve. If we were in out final stages at birth, where would all that energy have come from? Certainly our mothers couldn't have produced it all. We expel more energy when evolving than our mothers could hope to produce when making us," the Akuroma explained. He wasn't happy to have been born as weak as he was, but he understood why he was. Besides, there is a greater sense of accomplishment when one achieves evolution on their own than begin born evolved in his mind.

"Still, I do believe, that it would be possible to wager investing more energy into one's one spawn to heighten their chances of survival. It just sounds like a more effective strategy to me. And furthermore accomplishment isn't really of the matter here. At the core of everything it is about survival and being born in a stronger form would make surviving far easier."
Why had nature made Ned so weak? Why couldn't he have been born as a stronger species? It wouldn't have to be an Onix or something, but why not a Pikachu or a Vulpix or something? No, he just had to be this weak, pathetic and useless Bug type. But obviously there was nothing he could do about that...

"Yes, being born stronger would make surviving easier. However, most bug types survive through sheer numbers instead of individual strength. As I've seen, the bug type has taken the 'sacrifice the few for the good of the many' all the way into the way they breed. My evolutionary line is born quite weak, but the reason why we're not very plentiful is because the stronger parents protect the children until the children become adequately powerful. Other Pokemon use trickery, such as Abra, to survive. While there are some that use pure strength, such as the Charmander, Riolu, and Torchic lines," Akuroma explained. He knew it would've been easier to be born strong, but if everybody were born strong, then there would be no need for communication and cooperation. The would would simply be senseless violence as Pokemon killed each other simply for being strong.

"Hm, I do not believe, that that would be the case. If everyone would be born strong, then noone would attack anyone out of fear of retaliation. It is the difference in power, that serves as the root of this entire problem. With the system in place as it currently is, the strong attack the weak and the weak can do nothing to defend themselves."
Once more Ned sighed.
"Just why did I have to be a pathetic, ölittle Bug type? Strength in numbers is a broken concept to begin with. Sooner or later differing opinions will form, eventually resulting in an argument and the breaking up of the group. In the best case at least. Worst case everyone will attack each other to prove for their opinion to be the best one. Individuality and equal strength are the only option by which peace could truly be achieved."

"Peace is something that is impossible to keep. However, evolution doesn't strive for peace. It strives for perfection, as the perfect creature can survive anything and everything without any effort at all. That itself is an impossibility," the Ralts said before he began reaching into his bag and taking out an oran berry.

"In either case, I don't find this conversation truly going anywhere. Plus I don't think either of us feel like angering the other," he said, smiling a bit at the Nincada before eating the berry.

(14/25 energy)