Return to Lynwood, Chapter 12

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7
Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10 - Chapter 11 - Chapter 12

For the rest of that day and the first half of the next, they travelled further south, deeper into the ancient Woods. The rain continued off and on, which Isengrim appreciated as it drowned out any scent trail they might be leaving. Nevertheless, he did not see any more V’s slashed into trees. He guessed that Vakhtang probably operated more northward, where there were towns to raid. This increased their chances that the iron-hearted Werelupe hadn’t stumbled upon the artefact—but not enough for Isengrim to stop worrying.

If there was any upside to the situation, it was Connor becoming slightly more personable. Although still quiet and far from chatty, he no longer seemed so sulky, and by the twitching of his ears seemed to actually be listening to the others instead of outright ignoring them.

Isengrim was not sure if the pup had taken to heart his companions’ promise to protect him, but it looked as though Connor at least found them better company than Vakhtang. Although the dark-furred Werelupe could hardly consider that a compliment. He was fairly certain a mutant Kiko with the Sneezles would be better company than Vakhtang.

 

 Aaaaand welcome to Book 2!

I'd been wanting to make a chapter covering the Johto games since the very beginning of the comic; Gen II is my favorite Pokemon generation and Gold/Silver/Crystal are some of my favorite core series games. Unfortunately, at the time, there was a bit of a snag--the Gen II cartridges released in America are notorious for having unusually low lifetimes for the save battery, meaning my games didn't save anymore. 

This was back in the day before virtual re-releases on newer consoles, so I did what any dedicated fan would do: I bought a new battery for my Silver cart and a friend of mine helped me get the cart open so we could replace the battery. Miraculously, that worked, and I was able to have another Johto adventure.

If you know anything at all about those games, you're probably wondering what Kris is doing as the player character when it's supposed to be about Silver Version. I did indeed base these comics off Silver (so no, no Eusine or Suicune subplot here, sorry), but Crystal was the first core series game to allow you to choose the gender of your player character, which, being a girl, I really appreciated. So I decided to honor that by making Kris the main character of chapter 2. (No shade to Ethan, but Kris is kinda more fun to draw anyway.)

So buckle up--the adventure starts tomorrow!

 And thus concludes the Gen I story(?) arc of Trainer Wants to Battle!

After this, I took a break for a few months because the comic was a lot of work and I needed a breather. But this definitely wasn't the end of the story. Nor of Oak's reign of terror over the Pokémon world.

Gen II starts tomorrow!

 I drew this to put on graphics in my stores. Because whenever you say the phrase "dinosaur renaissance" this just keeps popping into my head.

Apologies to Dr. Bob Bakker. But he'd probably like this so I'm not too sorry.

(Yes, I know what the actual dinosaur renaissance is. That's why Deinonychus is playing the role of da Vinci.)

 Oak is a terrifying person to have as a grandfather.

Return to Lynwood, Chapter 11

Chapter 1 - Chapter 2 - Chapter 3 - Chapter 4 - Chapter 5 - Chapter 6 - Chapter 7
Chapter 8 - Chapter 9 - Chapter 10 - Chapter 11 - Chapter 12

The next morning dawned just as cool and foggy as the last. This was usual for the Haunted Woods, and Isengrim enjoyed the frequent cloud cover over the region. Werelupes were creatures of the night, and the sun often hurt their sensitive eyes and overheated their thick-furred bodies. Isengrim and his pack used to be largely nocturnal, but over the past few years had eased into being more active during the day, to better facilitate relations between them and their diurnal allies.

Not to mention his owner was a morning person. By the time Isengrim was ready to open his eyes, Terra was already up and about, nibbling on a bit of bread and dried fruit for her own breakfast before she helped a groggier-looking Pharazon get Gwyneth fed and watered. Suhel and her packmates had gone off on another hunt. Connor was still asleep, while Lexora had been woken up by her own coughing a while ago, and never managed to get back to sleep.

 

 Yeah, no, 10 years old is waaaaaay too young to be coming of age.

Takeshi Shudō, the head writer for the first seasons of the Pokémon anime, wrote some novelizations of the first episodes of the anime where he went more in-depth about the society of the Pokémon world as shown in the anime. In the anime universe as Shudō envisioned it, people were legally considered adults at age 10, which is why Ash and Misty can romp around Kanto without any adult supervision, and why 10 is the minimum age one can be registered as a Pokémon Trainer.