Nessa grit her teeth, digging her heels into the ground. She heaved
and sighed, her vision going blurry. Up above her, electricity
tingled and sparked as her Gigantamax Drednaw was limping, nearly on
its own forelegs once again as its stamina teetered on the verge of
empty. If she could survive this next hit, she just might have a
chance to counterattack.
But
that was a tall order. On the other side of Hulbury Stadium, Bea
brandished her hand forward, wheat-colored hair flowing in the wind
as she commanded: “You can do it! Hit ‘em hard with a G-Max
Chi Strike!”
The
four-armed muscular Pokémon was in complete sync with her trainer as
chi energy enveloped its fists, sending them like bullets one after
another. Nessa’s heart sunk as her Drednaw was blasted repeatedly,
over and over. She prayed, hoping to Arceus that her beloved ace
could take it.
However,
as the dust cleared, the red mist emanating from Drednaw’s body ran
out. It slumped to the ground, defeated, before shrinking back down
to normal size in a series of short bursts.
Nessa
fell to her own knees, punching the ground in frustration. She ripped
up a clump of grass, then… she composed herself. Nessa knew her
tendency to overreact. Losses happen. Beyond that, this was merely an
exhibition match, a far cry from the end of the world. She sat up,
wiping some of the dirt away from herself, and she recalled her
Drednaw back into its ball.
Across
the stadium, Bea was already basking in her victory. Her forehead
glistened with sweat as she struck an intense fighting pose to the
maniacal excitement of the crowd. Nessa’s brow twitched. Try as she
might… no matter how often it happened, losing still sucked.
***
The
crowds were milling out of the stadiums, gradually draining its
contents. The contestants too were returning to the prep areas. Bea
had offered Nessa a friendly handshake at the end of the battle
before retreating to get changed, so when Nessa cut her off in one of
the darker hallways leading to the locker rooms, she was slightly
surprised. Nevertheless, the two had a rapport.
“Oh,
Nessa!” Bea smiled cheerfully, waving as Nessa shuffled awkwardly,
offering a slight wave back. Bea continued, “Did you need
something?”
“I…
no, not really. I just got lost.”
“In
your own stadium?” Bea raised an eyebrow as Nessa’s expression
became more nervous. With great effort, Nessa stepped to the side and
allowed Bea to pass through, which Bea did.
As
she walked on, Bea had all but forgotten about the odd intercession
when the sound of more footsteps from behind proved her erstwhile
suspicions. Bea stopped and turned her head slightly; Nessa had
shuffled behind her yet again. Her hands were behind her back, and
she was looking sheepishly askance. Nessa wanted something,
but she was too embarrassed to come outright and say it.
“Nessa?”
Bea turned. For someone as outgoing and exposure prone as Nessa, she
could be aloof at the best of times. Then again, this was not her
first loss in recent times. “You… you good?”
“I…”
Nessa drew a pattern on the floor with her sandal. “How did you get
so good? At using Dynamax Pokémon?”
“Huh?”
“Your
moves!” Nessa rushed closer to Bea, getting in her bubble. “They
were flawless! Your Machamp could read my Drednaw like a book! You
exploited my every weakness. How were you able to control them so
easily? What’s your secret?!”
Comprehension
graced Bea’s face. Nessa pouted, awaiting an answer, feeling all
the humiliation that came with asking for help. Bea looked to the
left and right. They were alone in the hallway. Then, shrugging, Bea
decided. She lowered her voice and leaned in.
“My
secret? Well, I don’t know if it’s a secret… but when I
practice… I like to train with my Pokémon.”
“Train
with them?” Nessa wasn’t quite sure she got it. “Isn’t that
what most people do?”
“I
mean, literally with them. I fight against them. I spar. I
learn them inside and out, their strengths and weaknesses. That way,
when they’re in the ring on their own, I know exactly how to use
their talents to the best of their abilities.”
“I
see…” Nessa put a hand to her chin. “Do you think I could do
something similar?”
“I
don’t see why not!” Bea grinned. “Was there anything else?”
“No…
I don’t think so.” Nessa smiled. “Thanks, Bea. You’re the
best. And the next time we battle, I’ll be sure to put what I’ve
learned to the test!”
“I’m
counting on it. Later!” Bea waved and trotted happily to the locker
rooms. Nessa meanwhile remained, content. She glanced at her Poke
ball, thinking about what lay ahead.
***
Despite
being Hulbury’s star athlete, there were still rules and
regulations that dictated when the Gym was allowed to be operational
and what was allowed on the premises. Nessa was not immune to these
rules, and so she was forced to execute her super-secret new training
regimen in the dead of night. She ended up having to bribe the
janitor to let her in but made more than enough in modeling to cover
the cost if this were to become a regular thing.
Nessa
stepped out onto the field. Unlike during her games, the floodlights
were turned off. It felt like walking into a sea of inky blackness…
it was sort of creepy. Nessa shuddered, and she reminded herself that
that once the Dynamax was in effect, Pokémon had a natural glow that
ought to be enough to illuminate whatever she needed to for this
size.
Nessa
unclipped her Poke ball from her belt, planting a kiss on it before
throwing it upwards, where it unleashed the glowing-red data that was
her prized Drednaw. It landed on all fours, trotting up to Nessa and
nuzzling her, a gesture which Nessa returned with head pats on its
rough forehead crests. Nessa was already put at ease. Then, she
clutched her Dynamax Band, sighing to herself. “Well… here goes
nothing…”
Nessa
tapped the stone, channeling its energy as she aimed it to her
Drednaw. The Pokémon returned to its ball, a ball that now pulsed
with magenta energy before growing three sizes in Nessa’s hands.
With a smirk, Nessa hurled the newly formed Dynamax Ball out into the
distance, where it unleashed her Drednaw, now clad in a full shell of
armor and standing on two legs. Gone was the fatigue of the previous
night’s battle; Drednaw was ready to fight once again as it
expanded into a kaiju-sized container of marine might.
But
it wouldn’t be alone. Nessa now turned the Dynamax Band on herself,
allowing the excess energy from Drednaw’s transformation to pour
into her. She had no idea what could possibly happen, but she figured
the worst-case scenario would be… nothing.
But
nothing was the opposite of what was happening. Bathed in a dark red
light, Nessa collapsed, convulsing. This was an alien sensation to
her, and she coughed, her body fighting against the impending
metamorphosis. Drednaw looked down at her trainer curiously as Nessa
rolled around on the grass, until finally, Nessa’s stretches and
twitches ceased. She was prone. On the ground, Nessa took a giant
breath.
And
then…
Boom…
It
was a quick burst. Nessa’s body expanded by several feet. She was
now 12 feet tall, more than twice her former size.
“Oh,
my goodness…!” Nessa exclaimed to herself, slowly trying
to get on her feet. She swayed, unused to this body, when another
burst overtook her. She doubled over, clutching her chest as she hit
a solid thirty feet, now roughly at waist level with her stanced-up
Drednaw. She continued to gradually, glacially increase a few more
minor sizes as more growth leaked through, until another massive
burst blazed through her body, and finally, she was brought up
to height. Dynamax energy swirled around her head. Nessa threatened
to open her eyes, and when she did, she was utterly amazed at the
view that greeted her. She was staring face to face with her
Gigantamaxed Drednaw, which seemed to cheekily grin even though it
lacked the muscles to do so. But moreover, she was practically
brushing against the open-air roof of the coliseum. Nessa had grown
to 150 feet.
As
if to punctuate her transformation, a final Dynamax Energy surge
jolted through the air, an indicator the growth was complete. Nessa
was almost too awestruck to even think, or move, or do anything. She
could barely comprehend the scale of everything she now beheld. The
seats were tiny. The grass had congealed into a smooth gradient. She
could see Rose Tower rising high in the distance over the edge of the
stadium walls.
Nessa
finally began to giggle, then laugh. Her laugh was a thudding,
thundering guffaw that was imbued with the power of the ocean itself.
She looked at her Drednaw and nodded.
“Alright,
let’s train! You know what to do!”
Drednaw
nodded in assent. Training was always an amphibious affair when it
came to Nessa’s Pokémon, and if there was one thing the stadium
lacked at the moment, it was water. Drednaw’s shelled armor clicked
and clacked as it unfolded it’s carapace, limbering up as it opened
its mouth before taking aim at the ground. And then…
The
Pokémon blasted out a torrential Surf.
Gallons
and tons of water spewed from its mouth by the second. It soaked the
grass and saturated the seats with spray. But as Drednaw’s release
tapered off, Nessa made a disgruntled noise, squishing her toes upon
realizing she had only created enough water to coat the grounds of
the arena, water that was already quickly dispersing away into the
soil.
“Dang
it… “ Nessa thought out loud. Hulbury was a coastal town, sure.
Its drainage system was top notch, especially here in the stadium
where superpowered displays of hydrokinesis were commonplace. If the
pair wanted to create the Dynamax paradise training facility for them
to practice in, they would need more water. Much more. “Hmmm… “
As
it happened, there was an entire ocean of water almost literally a
stone’s throw away from the stadium. Nessa put her hand to her
chin, curling her face in thought.
“It
would be a good place to train. I do like the ocean! But it's
a bit… public…”
The
Drednaw could sense Nessa’s frustration, and took a few squishy
steps forth to nuzzle up against Nessa’s midriff. She chuckled,
then decided, pounding her fist in her palm.
“Okay,
let's do it. Here, it might be better to keep you inside the ball…”
Nessa’s balls had grown with her, thankfully, and she managed to
corral her Drednaw successfully inside its container, leaving Nessa
alone for the time. She towered above all; clouds of thundering Max
energy still swirled around her temples.
Wow…
I bet I’m the first human to harness the power of Dynamax since…
ever!
This
very thought made Nessa tingle with excitement…!
But
she had to focus. This was for training; if she got
distracted, there was a real risk of this Dynamax power getting to
her head. Nessa slapped herself a few times, trying to expel the
thoughts of using this ability for personal gain. Then she placed her
hands around the rim of the stadium and hoisted herself over
it as though it were a bathtub. She leaned her sternum against the
edge and pulled her legs outside before hopping down, hearing a
metallic cronch as she got her bearings.
“Oh?”
Nessa looked downward. The ticket booth had just been reduced to a
pancake under her sandals. “Oh, so-rry, sorry!” Nessa reached
down and pulled the strip from the sole of her shoe; it was
permanently deformed into a disc of metal and glass. Nessa peered at
it, mystified. She had crushed it into unusable rubble with a single
step!
Nessa
tossed it over her shoulder and looked ahead. The sea was close, and
its surface was illuminated by moonlight, divided into strips by the
swaying water. The lighthouse was a ways away with its beacon lit,
and though Nessa was big, she still wasn’t quite large enough to
overtake the lighthouse in size.
Nessa
unclipped her Drednaw from her belt and gave it an affectionate rub.
“Soon, girl…”
She
sheathed it and began walking.
The
night in Hulbury was still, but the noise of each progressive stomp,
stomp, stomp was enough to entice a few of the
citizens to exit their homes – many in their nighties – to see
what the ruckus was about. Imagine the surprise when one concerned
citizen, a waitress from The Captain’s Table seafood restaurant,
opened her door only to see a colossal foot! It was tinged magenta,
and it stepped thunderously in front of their door, kicking up a
swell of dust before continuing on its way. She collapsed backwards
in shock, yelping as the giant passed by.
Nessa
heard this yelp, and she turned her head down again, seeing that the
apartment complex which was once all dark on the inside had its
lights turned on. Its door was open, and a woman in a pale gown was
sitting in her threshold, panting as she now beheld Nessa looking
down at her.
“Oh,
my bad! Did I scare you?”
Even
speaking low, Nessa’s voice boomed. Its vibrations caused
glass to shake and made ripples in the water ahead swell into
aggressive waves.
“Y-y-yes!
Nessa? What… how?!”
Nessa’s
eye twitched in frustration. She had done this at night to act under
the guise of stealth. But it was hard to be stealthy when your knees
exceeded the height of a two-story house. Those in the units above
were already beginning to stir; some were even glancing out their
windows through brushed-aside curtains.
Nessa
crouched down to the level of the woman in an attempt to ease her
apparent fear, but this only made her even more jittery and shaky,
scooting back into the home. Nessa opened her mouth to say something…
when her face suddenly lit up, slightly confusing the woman.
“Wait,
I… I know you! You work at the restaurant, don’t you?”
“I…
yes…” the woman responded with a shy nod. “W-why do you want to
know?”
“I
–”
Grrrrrwwwwwwlllll…!
Nessa
was glad the magenta Dynamax energy hid her flushed face. Her stomach
had acted on its own, announcing to the entire neighborhood that
something big was really hungry. I guess having a bigger
body means more calories… I’m not gonna miss that once I shrink
back down, but I need food now.
“Well,”
thought Nessa out loud. “You work at the restaurant! I could use a
snack before I head out to train. Do you think you can get me
something to eat?”
“Something
to…” the waitress’s had gotten less jittery, and she was only
interested in pondering Nessa’s proposal. “I… I’m… I’m
not allowed to just give food away…”
“Who
said anything about ‘giving’? I’ll pay you! I’m good for it…”
Nessa winked and flashed a smile, putting on her modeling charm.
The
woman thought about it for a bit longer. At this size, Nessa’s
toothy smile seemed more like a threat than anything. But she was
the local gym leader. She was a celebrity in more ways than one,
and though the woman didn’t understand why or how she’d grown so
big, she felt sure that helping Nessa out could get this waitress the
clout she needed to get ahead in her own life.
“I…
I guess –”
“GREAT!”
Nessa’s rambunctious cheer rattled windows within their panels and
reverberated the streetlamps.
“Oh,
my bad…” Nessa’s attempt to lower her voice still resulted in a
volume that could be rivaled by a brass band, but at the very least
it wasn’t loud enough to maim. “Anyway, up you go~ ”
“W-whoa!”
The woman didn’t expect to be plucked upward so haphazardly. She
tried to hold onto the doorknob but only managed to close the
entranceway before being lifted in front of Nessa’s face and set
down gently on her shoulder.
“Hang
on tight!” cheered Nessa before swinging her million-dollar legs in
the direction of the restaurant.
The
waitress hadn’t the chance to protest. When Nessa got to moving,
she knew that she had to either hang onto Nessa’s flowing cyan
locks or risk falling more than a hundred feet – a certain death
against the cobblestone streets.
“Can
you – agh!” The hapless waitress was jostled and
momentarily lost her grip on Nessa’s hair. In a desperate flail,
the grabbed onto one of Nessa’s giant hoop earrings, which were
more like a novelty hula hoop than a piece of jewelry. The woman’s
momentum yanked the earring aside and took Nessa’s ear along with
it.
“ACH,
geez, what are you doing up there?!” Nessa snapped with a voice
that made the waitress’s blood run cold. The Gym Leader stopped and
turned to glare at the woman on her shoulder who was now jumpier and
even more jittery.
“I-I-I’m…
my bad!” she called back.
“Be
careful!” Nessa chastised. Then she took a deep breath and tried
again to control her anger. They were almost at the restaurant.
Once
they reached the front door of The Captain’s Seat, Nessa raised her
palm in front of her shoulder and created an elevator of sorts for
her passenger to step off from. With utter care and precision, the
water trainer crouched and lowered her hand to the ground, allowing
the waitress to take a few tentative back onto dry land. She was so
thankful she would’ve kissed the ground if she could’ve, but
Nessa’s expectant gaze reminded her of why they were here.
“So,
you ready to find me some grub?” Nessa asked, lowering her pert
buttocks to the ground with a moderate thump. She spread her
legs out in a V on either side of the entrance to the restaurant,
getting a stretch in as the woman now realized she was constrained
from going anywhere else. She chuckled nervously as Nessa beheld her
and walked up the steps to the huge double doors. She tugged at one
of the handles… and came to a disturbing realization.
She
turned back to Nessa. “Well, ah… it seems the restaurant is…
locked…”
“But
you have a key, right?” Nessa asked matter-of-factly, as though it
weren’t even a question.
The
waitress however let out a nervous chuckle. “Um… only… ah, the,
uh, chefs have keys. I’m, I’m, just… you know… just…” She
gave an odd curtsy by pulling at her hand-me-down nightgown. “You
know.”
“So
you’re saying…” Nessa started out, cutting off the waitress in
a tinny eep!. “We came all this way for food… and we can’t
even get inside?”
The
waitress wanted to mention that the trip took less than thirty
seconds but decided now was not the time to be snippy. “Well… no.
B-but I know a great place off Route 5 that we can –”
“Actually…”
Nessa’s voice thundered, and in the shadow, her expression was
uncertain. It was only when another surge of Dynamax energy ran
through her veins and illuminated her blood did the waitress realize
she was giving off an enigmatic smile. “What am I saying? That’s
no problem at all! I can get us in, easy ~”
Then
Nessa stood to her full height, a towering red spire in the darkness.
She recalled how she so effortlessly crushed the ticket booth
earlier. Sure, it was an accident… but Nessa was a growing girl!
Some things were going to get crushed. Who cares? Either way, now
there was a completely legitimate reason to use her newfound
strength, and she wasn’t going to let any pesky morality get in the
way.
The
woman below saw as Nessa raised one sandal-clad foot up, angling it
at the perfect trajectory to shave off the entire anterior face of
the building.
“Wait,
what? No, don’t do that!” yelled the woman, sidling
out of the blast radius before hopping up and down like a cricket to
get Nessa’s attention.
Nessa
deigned to glance a few degrees further down, and she raised an
eyebrow. “Sorry lady, but I’m starving. You can either help me
find a meal, or you can stay out of my way.” Nessa seemed to
inject the final clause with an extra helping of force, and it made
the woman beneath her shiver. But she powered through and raised a
finger to the giantess.
“T-that
place is my job! And if people find out I let you wreck it,
I’ll get fired! Gym leader or not, I can’t let you destroy it!”
“Well…
if you won’t let me get in…”
The
tiny lady gulped as the angle of Nessa’s impending stomp changed.
“I’ll
guess you’ll just have to be…”
Nessa
stopped. Then she chuckled. Then she laughed wholeheartedly. She put
a hand to her bare midriff as her voice carried on in pulses that
almost seemed to match the rate of the cyclic Max energy that
sustained her continued transformation.
“What
am I talking about?” Nessa put her foot down and crouched back to
the tiny’s level. The waitress breathed a sigh of relief, glad she
was no longer the target of the gym leader’s ire. Nessa was a drama
queen, but she knew when to come to her senses.
“I’m
glad you finally –” the waitress began.
“Why
would I need to break down the restaurant when I have an appetizer
right in front of me?”
The
waitress let out something between a gasp and a cough. She found the
strength to muster up a gaze into Nessa’s deep, sea-blue eyes,
searching in them for some indication that this was merely a fib.
Nessa
was not laughing. Her face was entirely neutral. Annoyed, in fact.
“Y…
you can’t… you can’t be serious…!” the waitress tried to
choke out.
“Why
would I joke about this?” Nessa asked. “It’s only natural
someone as big as me would need a lot of food. Why else do you think
I like to fish so much?”
“Well…”
That was a good question. Why does Nessa like to fish so much?
“I assumed it was because of your affinity for water, and… I
guess… a desire to connect to nature and the Pokémon you love so
much?”
“Psh,
yeah, there’s that,” Nessa said, leaning back on her palms. “But
it’s mainly because I love me a good fish fry every now and then!
Krabby are the best! But the occasional Sharpedo-fin soup is a treat
too!”
“O-oh…”
the waitress noted that Nessa was gazing wistfully in the air as she
rattled off her spiel. Now was the time to make her escape. She
readied another question. “I would’ve thought, you know, someone
like you… might not eat so much meat…”
“Well,
I don’t, really,” Nessa said. She tried to count out her
fingers. “I’ve probably eaten meat three… or four times
this month. I usually get the protein from other sources like nuts
and cashews. I have to take good care of my figure for Champions
Monthly. But that’s the thing about fish! They’re deceptively
healthy! And while I’d never eat my beloved Drednaw, I do still
wonder how… w-where’d you go?”
The
woman was gone.
She
had darted to the other side of The Captain’s Seat and flattened
her body against the marble-cut walls. She caught her breath, then
held it. Nessa’s sudden silence meant she had caught onto her ruse.
If she found where she was…
Nessa
poked her head around the building.
“So…
you thought you could run away from me, didn’t you?” Her
giant head seemed to defy gravity as it was suspended in front of the
hapless waitress. She wanted to move, run, do anything. But Nessa’s
stare was paralyzing. It was as though the Dynamax energy running
through her had given her the Pokémon power to inflict Mean Look
herself.
The
waitress had to face facts: her plan failed. She’d been made. And
now, she was about to be made into a midnight snack.
“I-I-I-I
w-w-was–”
“Save
it!” A crack of thunder boomed in accompaniment with
Nessa’s outburst. The clouds swirling around Nessa’s temples
raged in conjunction with her mood. She grabbed the waitress with an
aggressive lunge, holding the struggling woman safely in her
manicured clutches. “I was taught from a young age not to play with
my food… I guess I should’ve listened. And now, you’re going
down the hatch into the S.S. Nessa!”
“N-no!”
the woman shrieked. She was lifted up and in front of Nessa’s
grinning face. Her fate seemed closer than ever. “I’ll do
anything! Please, let me go! Don’t do this! Nessa! Nessa! NESS–”
“Aaaaaa–uhp~
”
Gulp!
Nessa
popped the woman in her mouth, and after only a few licks to sample
the taste, she swallowed quickly without chewing.
“Ahhh…
that hit the spot…” Nessa patted her fleshy belly, feeling the
slight squirms that churned in her gut. From within, Nessa could
still hear her screams of fear crescendo into a high-pitched,
blood-curdling shriek until… suddenly, it stopped. At that same
time, Nessa felt a hot warmth spread out from her core and
into the rest of her limbs. The red tint that colored her skin
deepened for a split second, and her body ached and stretched,
gaining a few feet in height as her clothes became just a hair
tighter than they had been.
“W-whoa…”
Nessa got up and glared at her hands. She turned around in a circle
trying to stare at her ass. It was difficult to notice… but Nessa
knew her body. She knew she had gotten taller.
“I
guess being in Dynamax form makes my body convert energy that much
faster… Hey, I wonder it…”
Nessa
crouched down again. A nearby lamp post was flickering, in need of a
bulb change. It was as good a test subject as any. Nessa easily
plucked it from its station, followed by twiddling it between her
fingers and chewing off the bulb tip. It didn’t taste like
anything, thankfully, though that could’ve been the result of the
Max energy that sped up her metabolism.
Soon
enough, Nessa got a reaction. Her gut exuded a warmth again, but it
was less than earlier. Her body did increase in size by a few
inches. Nessa finished stuffing the entire streetlight into her
mouth, carefully reducing it to saliva-coated bits of metal before
swallowing it all down. Still, after all that, she’d only grown a
foot, if that. Barely a distinguishable difference.
“So,
organic matter makes me grow more than inorganic matter…”
Nessa
pondered this information…
She
looked down to her balls.
The
purpose of this entire expedition was to get stronger at battling
with Pokémon… but now, perhaps “getting stronger” was
beginning to look different in Nessa’s mind…
After
all, as the largest trainer in the world, wasn’t she already
stronger than everyone else?
And…
If
she could get even bigger…
Nessa
looked to the city of Hulbury. It was only just beginning to stir as
the wee hours of the morning came in.
There
was only one path forward to becoming the strongest trainer in Galar.
And if she could help it, the whole world would remember her
name.