This one is very different as opposed to the rest of the series. but it was fun to write none the less! ^^ A little something I managed to write and work on before the Mardi gras weekend next week.

All Character's are © me

Pokémon Is © Gamefreak and Nintendo

Digimon is © Bandai

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Instruction

Jesse was sitting down on a chair in what looked to be an underground bunker, swirling it around as he watched Delta, the midnight blue-furred wolf, type on his computer, the tapping getting on the trainer's nerves, along with Nidoking, who stood outside of the room, eliciting a low growl in annoyance. “Hey, Delta, what is it you're here for exactly? Like… Why are you even part of this group…? Why did you form it?”

The wolf perked his ears up when he heard the question being asked of him and turned to face his comrade with a calm and sincere smile. “Why? Let's just say someone urged me to do so. The last group I was a part of didn't do many things I agreed with, so I left.”

The two of them heard the familiar shuffling sound out of the room indicating someone had located their base and watched an angry black guilmon step into the room. “Hey, what was all that about?! Ya nearly got me killed!”

Chaos's roar startled both the wolf and trainer and it only seemed to get worse as Nidoking grabbed Chaos in a headlock. “Easy there, friend. Start storming into the place and you might get your head knocked off that shoulder of yours,” Nidoking growled out.

The hold was only released when Delta lifted a paw up, indicating for Nidoking to let him go. “You were in no harm. Max isn't fully aware of his powers. I doubt a human would cause you any trouble.”

Chaos's eye twitched once and he walked over to Delta, but stopped just a few feet away after a quick glance at Nidoking. “Yeah, well, he wasn't a human! He transformed somehow, and had a beelzemon with him too. What's the big deal here?”

Delta looked intrigued by this information. “Ah, so he transformed... He’s developing faster than I expected, likely due to the imminent threat in front of him. Pretty soon he'll be coming after us at full power.”

Jesse stared at Chaos, then turned his attention to Delta. “You don't seem all that worried. Wasn't the whole reason behind sending Chaos and Duke to Goldenrod so that he couldn’t reach his full potential?”

“You misunderstood the purpose of our trip completely. I never expected Chaos to succeed. At least not entirely. What I wanted was to do a little reconnaissance; to study our enemy’s strength… And a beelzemon certainly does not fit in with our reports. Regardless, as a rookie-level Digimon, he poses no threat whatsoever. I think it's about time you make your appearance to your old friend, Jesse.” Delta laid out every word flatly.


“So, since our newcomer couldn't do the job you're sending me in to pick up his mess. Fine... The beelzemon might very well be Leo's brother, Bang. He's a loner, so I doubt he'll be hanging around Max. My job should be simple enough.” Jesse climbed out of the chair and made his way towards Nidoking.

“Oh...one more thing...” Delta stared at Chaos, inquisition in his incandescent eyes. “How did you find our hideout? I never gave you that bit of information.”


Chaos grumbled, snapping a claw. “Duke gave me the general description of where it was located. All I had to do was sniff out your scents.”

With a nod, Delta turned back to his PC, the earlier tapping returning within the room. “Ah, I should have guessed. I'll have to go bail Duke out, I guess. I assume he's been apprehended.”

Jesse rolled his eyes and stepped out of the room with Nidoking, the large Pokémon lumbering behind him as they stepped out of the base. Jesse took a deep breath of the fresh air and started walking down the dirt road. “Let's get this over with.”

Nidoking, however, wasn't so sure. He glanced at his trainer with a worried expression on his face. “If you wish. But, are you sure you can really kill your best friend?”

Jesse hesitated in his response, but never once stopped his stride. “We're about to find out aren't we? I can understand Chaos being unable to get the job done, but I won't get so sidetracked.”

Max took a deep breath. He was in his guilmon form and standing opposite of Charmeleon, who looked kind of irritated by the trainer. “Come on! You have it in ya, so why don't you let it out?!”

Max patted his gut and shook his head. “I don't know how to breathe fire, Charmeleon! I keep telling you and Pyre that I have no idea how this works!” he exclaimed as he flailed his arms.

Pyre was sitting in the background, watching the fight as it unfolded. “Max, you have the capacity to breathe fire, you just have to learn how to do so. Every guilmon has a flame sac within them. It's only a matter of you learning how to access it.”

Max nodded, looking at the massive arcanine. “Fine, teach me how to use it then if you know so much, because I obviously haven’t a clue how!”

Charmeleon smacked his clawed paw to his head in a facepalm. “I guess it would be hard to understand given the circumstances. You're a human, so you've never been aware of your ability to breathe fire. But, to start things off, you should feel a fire in your belly. Search for that fire and let it out in an explosive burst!”

Max looked at Pyre, then when the large canine didn't bother to correct the lizard he tried feeling for something, anything. Then opened his mouth, though all that came out was a belch. “Whoops... Heh, I don't think that's the fire you're necessarily looking for, is it...?”

Charmeleon grumbled and opened his mouth, breathing a flamethrower at Max's toes, making the dino dance around. “It should come as simple as breathing, Max! Okay...let's see...” He grumbled, rubbing his temples.

This time, Pyre did interject, opening his mouth and expelling his own flames into the air before snapping his jaws closed, then spoke, “It should be as simple as exhaling, just like Charmeleon says, Max. Try to think of it this way: Your flame sac should work pretty much like your lungs, except you can turn the valve on and off. Imagine flipping a switch or turning a valve and let it out,” Pyre instructed calmly.

Max nodded slowly. “Good thing we tackled the gym before starting my instructions, otherwise I never would have earned my fourth badge...”

Charmeleon waited patiently. “You have the potential. You wouldn't have the same concentration you have now if your mind was focused on the gym battle.”

Max took a deep breath and opened his mouth, letting loose a few embers. “Urk... That was so tiny...a charmander's tail flame is bigger...”

Charmeleon and Pyre both laughed in unison, the latter responding to Max's comment. “It's a start. Most fire Pokémon don't breathe their first fire until a year or two after birth. You've only just started exploring your digimon nature. We didn't expect a full blaze to come out of you, so you did great.”

Max grumbled, opening his mouth to try again. The embers were a bit larger this time, but other than that he couldn't sustain the flames. “Then why did you push me so hard if you knew I wouldn't be able to do it as well as you guys?”

Pyre stretched out his limbs and yawned. “We wanted you to learn how it feels to breathe a flame. Your flame sac will continue to develop as long as you use it. Keep practicing every day and soon you'll have all the fire you could ever want without having to light a match.”

Charmeleon nodded in agreement. “Eventually you'll be able to sustain it. Now that you understand how your flame breath works, let's work on your combat skills.”

Max rolled his eyes, not looking forward to this. “Is this the part when I get a lot of bumps and bruises? Can't we skip that?” Albeit, even as he spoke, he got into a battle-ready stance.

Charmeleon held his claws forward, growling. “Oh, hush! We go into battle all the time for you humans. Learn what it's like from our perspective for once. Besides...your foes won't always let you settle your disputes in a Pokémon battle.”

“That is true...” Max muttered to himself. “Fine, I'm ready, Charmeleon. Gimme your best shot!”

Just as he said that, Charmeleon came charging towards him, claws out in front as he aimed right for Max's head, which would have been nailed if he hadn't ducked in time to avoid the attack.

I thought this was supposed to be a friendly battle, Max thought quietly, using a clawed foot to sweep over Charmeleon's legs, caught off guard only when the fire lizard leapt over his leg and planted both feet right in Max's face, knocking the trainer on his back with two paw prints stamped on his mug.

“Tch, tch, tch...” Charmeleon waved a claw around in a disappointed manner. “Gotta be quicker than that. Now, again!”

When Charmeleon came at him this time, he was prepared. He saw those feet coming down to stomp on his head while he was on the ground and rolled out of the way, watching dust spread out from the charmeleon's stomp and curled his paw into a fist to smack at the fire-type on the cheek, only to have his strike cut short as its tail wrapped over his paw.

“Uh oh...” was Max's first response. However, he then wrapped his other paw around the tail and started spinning Charmeleon around just like Mario does to Bowser in Super Mario 64.

“Ack! This isn't gonna be fun...” Charmeleon growled as his tail's grip loosened and he soon found himself flying into a bush next to the Pokémon Center.

Flare's eyes went wide, going over to help his friend out of the bush but was cut off by Pyre who lifted a paw in front of the boy’s path. “No. He's fine. Max needs this training as does he.”

Max took a few deep breaths, trying to stop his world from spinning and growled out. “Know what...I don't think I'll be doing that maneuver again.”

Charmeleon slowly pulled himself out of the bush, rubbing his head. He was grateful that Max decided to land him in a soft patch of bushes instead of the hard concrete. “Not bad at all. I think we're both a little dizzy from that...but let's keep going until battle seems second nature to you!” Charmeleon grumbled out, shooting a flamethrower at Max who just narrowly dove out of the way.

Max tried to do the same thing to Charmeleon. This time, however, a single ball of fire was sent flying at Charmeleon. However...given its baseball size, it wasn't going to hit its mark with Charmeleon simply sidestepping away from the flame’s path. “Nice try! But, you're getting the hang of your body, that's good!”

Max didn't have a whole lot of time to respond, Charmeleon was going full sprint at him, balled up paw smacking him right in the gut, causing him to double over.

Rubbing over his stomach, he tried to banish the pain from his thoughts and swiped a paw where Charmeleon was standing, sending the guy stumbling backwards.

This was Max's chance! While Charmeleon was regaining his balance he leapt into the air and attempted to slam his paw into the Pokémon’s head. What he did not expect, however, was for Charmeleon to curl up into a ball and roll to the side.

What happened next startled everyone: When Max's paw impacted the ground, there was a small crater left where it landed about the side of his fist. “Um, that's not supposed to happen, is it?”

Pyre shook himself out of his surprise first, with a rumbling sound in his throat indicating laughter from the powerful canine. “Your father informed me you might learn this attack. It's called the Rock Breaker. It's a powerful attack from your paw capable of shattering stone. Guilmon excel more in close combat than they do in long range.”

Max rubbed over his paw. It felt numb, yet, no bones were broken at all! From a hit like that he expected his knuckles to be cracked in several places. “So then, I'm better off getting up close than I am using my fire?”

Pyre gave a short nod, walking over to the two combatants and tapping both Max and Charmeleon with a paw, knocking them on their backsides. “Most guilmon attacks are physical-based, yes. Your Pyro Sphere, which is what your fireball attack is called, is powerful too, if used correctly. Though, since you're a hybrid I'm sure you can be a little more creative than your feral counterparts.”

Max smiled, thinking about everything that was happening. “Pyro Sphere and Rock Breaker... Pyre! Did my dad mention anything about...evolution?”

Pyre tilted his head, nodding. “Yes he did. Why do you ask though?”

“As I was growing up he was always this massive dinosaur! He was nothing at all like the guilmon I am,” Max commented, rubbing over his paws.

Pyre nodded, taking a deep breath as he sat down carefully, making sure nobody was behind him as he did so. “You have a right to know. Yes, there is evolution in your line. What you are currently is what your father called the ‘Rookie’ stage of evolution.”

Max looked stunned, but it did make sense. Given his form and then his father’s, there was definitely a big difference in their strength. “How many...’stages’ are there exactly?”

Pyre pressed his nose into Max's chest, chuckling. “I was getting to that. Your father explained it pretty plainly. There are six stages of evolution and they are, ‘Baby’, ‘In-Training’, ‘Rookie’, ‘Champion’, ‘Ultimate’, and ‘Mega’. You are in the ‘Rookie’ state right now, as is the base form of most digimon. Your father was a Growlmon, which is the stage higher in the ‘Champion’ level.”

Max nodded, feeling Pyre's warm breath washing over his smaller frame as the canine spoke. “And, how does one evolve exactly?”

“Well...” Pyre took a deep breath, trying to figure out the right way to put it into works. “It varies on the personality of the Digimon. What works for one may not necessarily work for you. The only advice I can give you is to not rush it. If you rush into it, you'll evolve incorrectly and corrupt your data. Worst-case scenario...you’ll destroy everyone and everything you care about.”

Max and the rest of the team all gasped when they heard that. Max looked down over himself after Pyre removed his head and smiled. “Then I won't force it. Thank you for telling me about this. I take it my fire breathing training was purely for me to learn the Pyro Sphere attack, right?”

Pyre nodded, standing upright. “You catch on quick, Max. Yes, we were essentially training you, like you'd train any Pokémon you capture. It's the same thing for Digimon who are unaware of their own capabilities.”

Charmeleon started cleaning off the dust from his body. His face holding a big grin as he walked over to Max and hugged over his waist. “That was great, Max! You mastered two of your species’ attacks in one day! It takes a Pokémon forever to learn a brand new move!”

Instantly, Max began blushing and hugged the reptilian Pokémon back, laughing. “I don't think it's exactly the same...but it's thanks to you. You and Pyre are great teachers!”

Charmeleon looked up at Max, a glint in his eyes as he let go of the trainer and got off of him with a smile. “Um...I'm sorry for my first attack...I figured you'd see me in time so I decided to go for it. After all, if your enemies are like Duke they won't exactly play fair or go for the non-lethal approach. Go ahead and punish me if you want.”

When Charmeleon closed his eyes Max was actually surprised, he tapped Charmeleon's nose and grinned. “Fine... I'll cut your dinner tonight by one burger.”

Charmeleon's eyes went wide when he heard that and flailed his arms. “Aww come on! Anything but that! I want a burger!”

Max laughed, walking with his friends into the Pokémon Center. “Well...it depends on how many Flare lets you buy tonight...minus one.”

Fang was holding Max's new clothes in his paws, neatly folded as his brother walked into the restroom. “Here, Max, you're gonna need these...”

Max took his clothes with a nod, and stepped into the bathroom stall. From here, he could become human again and change without anyone seeing him naked.

Once he was done getting dressed, he walked over to the mirror in the bathroom and smiled. “So my dad had some tricks he didn't share, huh? This will be fun...Rock Breaker and Pyro Sphere...” With one last glance into his reflection, he walked out of the bathroom and turned off the lights to go meet up with his friends at the restaurant they were eating at tonight.

To be continued…