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Bug Catcher Terry - A Pokemon Fanfiction
3. Reaching the Starting Line

3. Reaching the Starting Line

“It’s right there, sitting in the case, shining with all of its glory, and I still can’t believe it’s real.” Maizie said, without breaking eye contact from the Hive Badge. She spoke so quietly that no one else at the table was quite sure whether she was speaking to them or herself. The proof of her victory had her completely entranced.

“It’s very impressive Maizie, have you selected a dish yet?” Kurt replied flatly while clicking the bottom of his menu on the table.

Kurt and my parents decided to take us out for lunch before setting out. We were at a small local favorite, Monty’s Grill, which was popular for using Azalea’s famous Charcoal. The five of us sat at a circular table discussing the previous match and our immediate plans for our journey.

“I already picked out both mine and Terry’s.” She stuck out her tongue at her grandfather. “I’m getting the 20oz. Tauros steak, and he’s getting the non-specific seared fish.”

When we were younger our parents would make jokes about ‘picking food for your boyfriend,’ but they had long adjusted to my idiosyncrasies, knowing that browsing the menu listing a variety of pokemon species to be devoured would leave me entirely unable to order anything.

“Fine. Stop being rude and make conversation, it’s unbecoming to bask in one’s own greatness.” Kurt scolded, trying to save face after clearly not expecting Maizie to have already made a selection.

‘Kurt, you old softy, we all know you just disguised that compliment as admonishment.’ I kept my observation to myself, knowing he had no qualms about tearing me to shreds with his barbs.

Lunch flew by once Maizie joined the conversation. We had a wonderful time but there was an undercurrent of both excitement and melancholy echoing from our guardians throughout the meal. It was while I shoveled Honey (courtesy of our farm!) Ice Cream into my gourd for dessert that Dad cleared his throat, loud enough to get the entire table’s notice.

“Well, since it seems we will be wrapping this up soon, I think now would be a good time,” he reached under the table and pulled out 2 small gift boxes, a wide grin spreading on his face. Dad was always excited to give out presents. “For us to give you guys these! I know you both have your sights aimed high, so these are basically a requirement.”

We both hollered with glee and began tearing into the boxes, though we both knew there was only one thing they could contain. I threw open the cardboard lid and there, nestled in a lot of bubble wrap, was a small red device with a rectangular black screen: The Pokedex.

“THANK YOU GUYS SO MUCH!” We both squealed in delight. The Pokedex was an essential tool for any trainer worth their salt. The machine helped identify wild Pokemon, offered deep information on the specific members of its assigned team, functioned as a map with GPS location, and enabled internet access almost anywhere in the world.

“I expect that you will use that to contact us, calls only work in cities but you can email from almost anywhere.” Kurt reminded us, eyes on his granddaughter.

“That goes double for you mister!” Mom pointed at me.

“Yes, Mom, I’ll try to remember.”

She laughed and wrapped me into a hug. “You won’t get the chance to forget! Email works both ways and I will be checking in on you regularly.”

Dad took the opportunity, as he was wont to do, to turn it into a group hug, rousing even the grumpy Kurt into joining. “We will miss you both so much, but we also know how important this is to you. Your dreams are big, and they may change as you grow, but we all know that you will make us proud.”

After a few more hugs, some tears, and a lot more promises to stay in contact, it was finally time to depart. Me and Maizie double-checked that we had everything we could possibly think of, and set off for the checkpoint into Ilex. When we arrived I took one look back at the town I had grown up in.

The scent of charcoal in the air. The dense forest that surrounded most of its perimeter. The people relaxing with their Slowpoke. The distant buzz of my family’s Beedrill farm in the background. This was home, and up until now I didn’t truly appreciate it.

Azalea was beautiful. It was a part of me, and I a part of it. I wondered, as I took it all in one last time, about my return. After a long journey, could it somehow change, be different from how I saw it at this moment? Or could I be too different to ever see it the same way?

I wasn’t sure which of the two was scarier. The thought sent my stomach crashing into a pit, and my pulse quickened.

A hand clasped my left shoulder and I felt a tightening on my right.

“We can do it, Terry.” I turned as Maizie spoke confidently and with an encouraging expression, her long hair fluttering in the wind.

“Pede.” Stovetop sounded with an affirmative nod.

I felt the stress evaporate from my body, and a smile form on my face as I wiped the sweat off of my palms and gripped my net with newfound resolve. Even if we or the world around us changed, I knew I had the support of these two, and that counted for more than I ever could have known.

x-x

“He has the Gigantamax factor?!” Maizie gasped and backed away, hand held to her mouth in shock at the revelation. We had been walking for a few minutes before we remembered to test out our new Pokedexes by scanning our pokemon. Maizie had peered over my shoulder as I went over the more in depth details about Stovetop.

“Oh, uh, yeah! Nurse Joy mentioned it.” I shrugged, not really knowing much about the phenomenon.

“You have a Pokemon capable of something comparable to Mega Evolution and you don’t care?” Maizie gaped and then gave me a light smack on the shoulder. “I know you haven’t had a battle yet but surely you must be able to see how having access to such an edge is a big deal?”

“I heard that it might not be only in Galar anymore, but is that true? I thought the whole thing was tied to the land or something?” I waved it off.

“Not anymore, you dunce! You need a Keystone and some special kinda silver and you can Gigantamax just like a Mega Evolution!” She countered.

“What kind of silver?” I asked, Gigantamax suddenly gaining my attention.

“No idea, I barely paid any attention to the details because Sunday can’t do that.” Maizie admitted sheepishly with a giggle.

“I’ll look it up later, in the meantime let’s check out these moves!” I browsed through Stovetop’s information. He knew only the moves Ember, Smokescreen, and Wrap and had the Flash Fire ability, which allowed him to absorb Fire Type moves and use that energy to power up his own. Overall, a relatively average starting point for a Sizzlipede.

“You up for testing these moves out for me buddy?” I asked the Sizzlepede after browsing his information.

“Sizz.” The flat red bug gave me an affirmative nod and once again adopted a serious stance.

“Hey, we are just checking stuff out, no need to go all killer mode right now. I just wanna see what you can do.” I tried to reassure him, but he glanced away.

“Pede, Sizz, Sizzlipede.” He let out a longer series of vocalizations motioning at the surrounding forest and then himself before staring at me with sadness in his eyes. The realization suddenly clicked in my head. We were in Ilex, the place he had been abandoned.

“I don’t care how good you are at using them. Whatever your baseline is, I just want to see it so that we can build from there. Ilex is just the first step on what is going to be a long journey together. I promise.” I rubbed the spot on the center of Stovetop’s head once again and his mood was lifted, letting out happy little hisses.

With his spirits up, Stovetop was ready to show off his current capabilities. I had already seen Ember, but for good measure I had him shoot a burst of flame at a small boulder nearby. A small ball of flame, roughly the size of my fist, left smoke spewing off of the boulder, along with a small scorch mark, but did no damage otherwise.

Next I pointed to a fallen branch a few inches thick, “Stovetop Wrap that branch.” The bug obediently coiled his body around the large stick and squeezed, after a few seconds i heard a *Crrrack* as the branch snapped. Stovetop looked down at his destruction and then back up at me with a smile. He followed that up by doing a happy little dance where he would favor one side of his legs and then the other while intermittently hissing.

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“Great job!” I cheered, recognizing Stovetop’s apparent need for consistent encouragement. “Now, last thing,” I pointed to Maizie and Sunday, who had trailed slightly ahead of us as we practiced, and lowered my voice to a whisper. “Smokescreen on Maizie while I sneak up on her so that we can scare her.” Stovetop gave me a mischievous grin and the plan was set.

I crept off the path, into the thicker brush, and quickly tried to catch up to Maizie on her left while Stovetop hurriedly pushed its many little legs to do so from behind. When I was comfortably creeping at her side from a few feet away I looked back and saw that he was also entering position, so I threw him a thumbs up.

Stovetop did a deep inhale and *Boosh* a cloud of smoke rushed out of his coils in every direction. I chose that moment to jump out at Maizie with a deep “BOO!” and immediately a fist collided with my face. At the same time Sunday, reacting to a perceived attack, fired a small Water Gun in the direction the smoke came from.

The smoke cleared as the prank ended with our loss, both of us on the ground, cringing from the blows received.

“What the fuck, Terry!?” Maizie shouted, not at all apologetic that she had just cold clocked me. Her blue eyes shifted from a glare to a look of satisfaction as she saw the red mark left on my cheek. “That’s what you get, we are in Ilex Forest, I know you grew up in this but I’m not nearly as comfortable here as you are. We shouldn’t be playing around.”

We continued walking through the woods as I defended my choice of joke. “Ilex isn’t that dangerous, especially with a partner. The pokemon here are pretty docile.” I declared with a cross of arms and a sagely nod.

“Piiiine.”

We looked up to see a Pineco glowering down at us over its blue armor, seemingly debating whether or not it should ruin our day. Maizie shot a glare at me that I swear should have caused physical damage.

“Okay, those are dangerous. We need to back away slowly and stay quiet.” I whispered to her and, though her glare remained unbroken, she followed my lead. Luckily, the Pineco seemed to take our actions as non-threatening as it did not drop on us as we made our exit.

“Not dangerous my ass.” Maizie huffed once we were a decent distance away.

“Okay, you were right, no more jokes.” I promised, simply thankful I hadn't had to brave another Self-Destruct.

We continued onwards through Ilex, chatting about our plans for training, pokemon we wanted to catch, and things we wanted to do/buy in Goldenrod, which would be our first destination. The hours passed peacefully.

Not long before sunset we set up camp in a clearing, we still had a full day’s travel before we would be out of the woods. Prior to dinner we spent an hour with our Pokemon and had them practice their moves. Maizie offered a sparring match between Sunday and Stovetop , but I politely declined. I had seen the Slowpoke in combat and definitely didn’t want our first taste of the battlefield together to be against that thing.

The next morning we ran into a pair of trainers. They were a set of blond brothers, one our age, the other a few years older. We hadn't seen any others so far because I used my own routes through Ilex that were faster than the more well-trodden ones. Then I noticed the nets in their hands.

I looked around for any catch they might be going for and, seeing nothing shouted out to get their attention. “Hey guys, find anything good today?” I waved at them with my net. The brothers, recognizing me as one of their ilk, came on over for a chat.

“Nothing nearly as interesting as that Sizzlipede on your arm.” The older brother’s eyes gleamed at Stovetop.

“Thanks, found the little guy here in Ilex actually, lucky find.”

The younger brother’s eyes went wide at that “Are there more?” He asked with baited breath.

“No, sorry, I’m pretty sure no one's gonna find a Sizzlipede in this forest again for a long time, he isn’t from here.”

“Well,” the older brother spoke again, “it’d be a shame not to at least see him in battle, care to go up against my Butterfree?”

“Uhhh, do you have any badges?” I asked cautiously.

“Just one, Goldenrod.” He answered casually, though a bit of pride leaked into his voice anyway.

I had flashbacks to Sunday flying across the arena and smashing into that Spinarak, felling it in a single blow. One badge was one too many for me right now. “I’ve actually never battled before, so I’m not sure it’d be the experience you’re looking for…”

“Oh perfect!” His face lit up as he turned to his brother. “Hear that Greg, just what you’ve been looking for!”

The younger brother, Greg apparently, eyed Stovetop like a Contest Judge and gave a nod. “I’ve also never had a battle before, would you be willing to battle me and my partner Stinger?”

“Of course!” I responded to his challenge with a grin. This was a perfect opportunity, as Greg was obviously going to use a Bug type. My first battle was going to be against someone who also hadn’t battled before and I’d have a type advantage? Thank you Ho-oh for this blessing.

We stood a little over a dozen feet apart, with Maizie in the middle; her having elected to be the referee of our battle. Greg’s brother stood behind him, ready to give advice. I motioned Stovetop towards the ground and he slithered down to the ground before trotting towards the center on his spike-like feet.

Greg pulled a pokeball from his belt and yelled. “Go, Stinger!” A red beam expanded into a familiar form, a line of interconnected ball-like segments, a Weedle. Excellent.

“This will be a one on one battle, with no switches. The first trainer to withdraw their pokemon or if their pokemon is unable to continue, loses. Any questions?” Silence filled the air as me and Greg locked eyes and nodded at each other. This was it. “Begin!”

“Poison Sting!”

“Ember!”

We shouted our initial commands at the same time but Stinger was quicker on the draw, firing a poisonous barb at Stovetop before he could launch Ember. The barb connected, sticking into his raised underbelly, and I saw him wince but he kept his move going and shot back a small ball of fire that grazed the Weedle. Immediately after, I saw a small purple pulse under Stovetops wound, he was poisoned.

“Good job Greg, now he’s on a time limit!” The older brother cheered.

Greg looked back at his brother. “Thanks!”

“Stovetop, charge that Weedle” I commanded, while Greg was distracted.

“Stinger, hit him with your tail spike if he gets close.”

Stovetop rushed towards the small worm and as he started to get within range, my experience with catching Weedles reminded me, “The tail needs to aim in a direction and then strike, keep it out of line with your body and he can’t touch you!” I wasn’t sure Stovetop could follow more complex commands but he nodded and continued his charge.

Every time Stinger tried to make a shot, Stovetop was long gone by the time the tail launched out towards him, circling around the bug until an opportune moment came.

“Wrap and squeeze it!” I commanded when a dodge and a missed strike put Stovetop right behind the wide open Weedle. He dove in and coiled his body around the orange pokemon using all of his muscles to squeeze it as much as he could.

“Break free Stinger, I know you can do it!” Greg cheered his pokemon on and the Weedle, with nowfound resolve, began to bend its body and try to break the hold. I could see Stovetop struggling to hold on, poison making his muscles weaker by the moment, breaths getting ragged.

“Heat the pan!” I shouted, desperate that he would understand my meaning. Luckily, Stovetop was more clever than I gave him credit for and he recognized the instruction instantly. The coils that were currently wrapped around Stinger poured out as much heat as Stovetop could sustain.

“WEEEEE” Stinger shrieked and then disappeared in a beam of red light.

I won. My first battle had been stacked in my favor, sure, but victory still tasted sweet. From here it would only get harder, and we would need to rise up to match it.

“I withdraw Stinger.” Greg said sadly. But then he looked up at me, “Great battle, you sure know a lot about Weedle.”

“Ahh, yeah, sorry. I’ve caught a few for my family before so I'm quite familiar with them. Thanks for that though, it was fun!” I gave Greg a smile and a pat on the arm.

He smiled back at me and seemed to cheer up a bit. Maizie and I chatted with Greg and his brother for a little while about our Pokemon and what to expect in Goldenrod but we eventually parted ways.

“See! You and Stovetop have nothing to worry about, you guys ate that Weedle for lunch!” Maizie cheered once they were a good distance away.

“Please, defeating a Bug Catcher with a lone Weedle does not mean we are anywhere near ready for Sunday” I replied flatly, knowing her angle immediately.

“Woah, was that Bug Catcher slander I just heard?” She put a cupped hand to her ear and wore a mocking smirk.

“He kept his Weedle in a pokeball, obviously he hasn’t fully committed to the lifestyle.” I responded flippantly.

“Pokeballs have recall functions to get your team out of danger. As far as I know, you have to scoop them back up in your net.”

“There are trade-offs to every tool.”

“There are no trade-offs to a pokeball, it’s a straight upgrade from a Catcher's Net, that’s why few Bug Catcher’s use them as anything more than an accessory.” Maizie scoffed.

“I actually catch pokemon, for one.” I responded dryly.

“You actually think everyone who uses a pokeball didn’t catch their pokemon?” Maizie said in disbelief. “I know you’ve always been resistant to them, but I honestly just thought you didn’t trust the one’s I made.”

“Well no, I’m not that extreme, but you’ve gotta admit it’s not really the same thing.” I prompted her.

“How?”

“Well, when a trainer with a pokeball catches a pokemon the ball does all the work, and from afar. You just throw it, maybe you weaken it with your partner first but the whole process just seems so detached. Whereas I need to learn my catch.” My heart began racing just relaying the concept to my friend. “I need to learn how it moves, its habits, it’s capabilities. And then I need to conquer it and catch it with my own two hands. The feeling of satisfaction when I out-maneuver a creature that could kill me, and it falls into my net, that can’t be matched by a pokeball.” I was staring out now, into the forest beyond her, eager to feel that victory once again.

She was staring at me, mouth agape, wind blowing at her billowy skirt. “You know Terry, you can be kinda cool sometimes.” she grinned. “But recall is still important.” Her hand slapped my arm again. “What if, Ho-oh forbid, you drop him off of a cliff or something?”

“Then I guess I’ll have to jump off too and catch him” I shrugged and performatively swiped with my net.

“But then you’re both falling off the cliff!” Maizie scolded.

“I’m sure that by then you’ll have a Flying type that can catch us.” I grinned at her, only annoying her further.

“What if I don't want a Flying type?” Maizie grumbled.

“Then I guess we go splat, huh buddy?” I looked to Stovetop, who had returned to his perch on my shoulder and he gave an affirmative hiss in response.

“You guys suck!” Maizie whined as we both burst out laughing, which made his little whiskers of flame hop along to the beat of our chuckles. And that made me laugh even more.

Journeying together was going to be a great time.