After leaving Briny Town, Jess had one fishing rod broken by a Corsola and another by a Krabby, until she was finally able to fish a Mantyke.

She spent the next two days gushing about the ever-present cute smile on the pokemon’s face. While she didn’t catch Valley, she’s been jealous of how cute the Minccino was and spent a good amount of time with her, even though Valley didn’t like her back.

Mostly because the pokemon couldn’t handle the mess that Jess called camp.

Valley, again, was very judgy about cleanness and, after learning the word for it, organizing. She had even invented and then seized the role of camp manager.

The normal pokemon even declared that Mesa would be her second in command. The Baltoy liked to help her to practice his telekinesis, but I was also beginning to suspect that Mesa genuinely liked to organize. And if that was true it would be great since it was indicative of a forming personality.

Nevertheless, Jess now had a cute pokemon of her own to fawn over and I was glad for her.

However, for me the Sea Route was a disappointment.

In our four-day walk through the route, we had yet to catch even a glimpse of an ice-type pokemon. We didn’t even see a pokemon that would evolve into an ice type, even Shellder, the most common one, hadn’t shown up on the shores of any of the beaches that we explored.

I almost gave up and caught a Corphish since a pokemon like that who, on top of having a dark type in the future could also change from a physical attacker to a special attacker on the fly, would be a great addition to the team. The only thing that stopped me was the incoming winter, where ice types would be a lot more common, especially in the north.

That, and the fact that Crawdaunt were difficult pokemon to train also contributed a little.

Now, after four days of travel, the sun was setting as we finally dragged our tired and sweaty bodies past the entrance of Oliver’s Town. We slouched on a nearby bench and watched as the people, mostly trainers and their pokemon, walked in and out of the gates.

We spent some time just resting and then released some pokemon to accompany us. Jess released Velocity and I released Mesa. The forms of a Starly and a Baltoy materialized in front of us.

They greeted us and looked around at the city. Mesa looked particularly interested in the blue and gold banners and flags that depicted some water pokemon. These articles decorated the whole town and were impossible to miss.

I briefly leaned forward and explained to him that It was all related to Champion Oliver, the ninety-seven Indigo Champion that was born in this very town, and that while the water-type Champion only stayed two years with the title, it had been enough for his hometown to change it’s name in his honor.

Jess, with her kid energy, stood up and gestured for me to follow. I unwillingly stood from the bench and followed her while Velocity settled on her shoulder and Mesa floated after us.

We had rushed in the afternoon to get to the city before nighttime, we just had to reach the Pokemon Center, get a room, and sleep.

We reached the main street just as the lamp posts suddenly lit up and pushed away the shadows. I smiled since it was nice to see again the older models. I had always liked their design and had been dejected when Azalea changed to street lights.

I looked around the main street now that I could see clearly again, and what drew my attention was a chatting Marril and a smiling Delibird trailing a man. Well, I could also catch both a water-type and an ice-type.

I was still debating if I should catch just six pokemon and focus on a main team or catch eight pokemon who would be slightly weaker but would give us an advantage in flexibility at the Conference. There were good examples of both approaches working out, so I guess it would depend on whether we would encounter an interesting pokemon after we catch our sixth member, and the progress that the team would make until February.

And thinking of that, I made a note to make a reunion with the team today to discuss what each would want to do here in the town.

Now that we were in Oliver’s Town, the biggest town in the entire length of the east of the peninsula, we finally had a Battle Hall to practice. Cape and Valley would probably like to battle more while Jungle and Mesa would maybe like to work on their moves and strategies. It was not good to assume, however, and I —

I felt a hand grab my arm and pull me back as a dashing troupe of screaming little kids playing tag passed by.

“I know that you like to get lost in your own head, Teach,” said Jess, “but maybe wait until you are out of the street.”

“Yeah, good call.”

Soon enough, after walking to almost the end of the main street, we reached the front of the Pokemon Center and got in the large line to register for rooms. The line went from the reception, at the back of the hall, to the street corner. This Pokemon Center was five times bigger than the small one in Briny Town and was Joy-affiliated, but it looked like that wasn’t enough to deal with the needs of the trainers that the Sea Route brought here.

What probably worsened the situation was that the majority of trainers that used the Sea Route had three or more badges, and four-badge battles were where difficult-to-treat wounds started to happen, things like spinal cord injuries and, in the case of a battle against pokemon who specialized in cutting like Scyther or Skarmory, loss of members.

I’m not too proud to admit that I will probably freeze the first time I see an amputation. Thankfully it was not as grim as when we didn’t have the incredible medicine of today, but regrowing limbs put pokemon in Centers for almost a week, which debilitated them by occupying the space that could’ve been used for many lightly injured pokemon who could have healed in two or three hours.

My fingers twitched and I was thinking about pulling out my notebook to write something when Jess, who was in front of me in the line, looked back. “So Scott, after you get an ice pokemon do you have another specific pokemon or type in mind?”

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I dodged her eyes and thought about my list of almost a hundred pokemon. “… Not specifically, why?”

“I was thinking if we could, after we leave Goldenrod and if we became strong enough of course”—I smiled—“take a detour to the mountains to the east to catch a fire-type pokemon.”

The mountains in the east of Goldenrod would be a good place to train our more powerful techniques and start practicing my strategies for field manipulation, especially for Mesa and Jungle.

“That could be arranged,” I said. “At the rate that we are going, it will be easy to scare away wild pokemon and catch a fire one… If I catch an ice type that would go smoother though.”

“Is it strange that we didn’t find ice types yet?” Jess asked as she, being from Sinnoh, didn’t have a reference to compare to.

I hummed. “More or less, in this region sometimes it just comes down to luck, and I’m having a bad one.”

The almost elderly man dressed as a hiker in front of us, though not elderly enough to use the special line, turned back. “My apologies, I couldn’t help but overhear that you are having a difficult time trying to find an ice-type pokemon, is that right?”

We looked at each other and I nodded to him. “Yes, sir.”

“Well, I have traveled these parts for many years now,” He smiled and gestured to his pokemon belt which had three great balls. “And I learned some things, let me tell you younger ones about a place where I think you could find a frosty, do you have a map?”

I took my map from my bag and the man, named Spencer we learned, marked on our map the location of Gray Lake, a lake east of the town following the road. He told us that by October it was already way colder than some lakes were at the beginning of December, and that some ice types usually waited for the winter there. We thanked him and talked a bit more until his turn came.

The next two days we rested our legs and mostly battled the trainers that passed through Oliver’s Town in the Battle Hall. As predicted, Cape and Valley wanted to fight and Mesa and Jungle favored working on their moves.

Valley learned Echoed Voice and liked it very much. Echoed Voice created a concentrated tunnel of sound that not only stunned enemies if used on their heads, but also was strong enough to cause a weak physical blow, and since Valley used it while running around her enemies, they tried to unconsciously knock her away leaving openings for her to attack with a strong Pound tail. As I used her mostly against weaker one or two badge level pokemon she had come out with a record of five to two.

Cape struggled but was jollier than ever. His record of two and five would look bad without context, but it made sense when looking at who he fought against. He had fought four badge level pokemon, and his losses were against a Fearow, a Pinsir, a Nidoqueen, a Primeape, and a Hitmonchan.

With his new mastery of Counter, generous use of Harden and Endure along an outstanding deflect technique he managed to keep out the injuries that plagued the fourth badge level battles.

He even used Counter in creative ways.

In a battle that he won against a Rhydon, the rock pokemon had restricted him to the ground because he had an electric move. Cape received a strong punch and used Counter to move the force to his leg, and broke the ground below the pokemon, which destabilized and locked down the Rhydon in a crater to take hit after hit until it fainted.

That clearly showed me, again, that what Cape was lacking right now was a way to knock down his sturdier opponents. Stacking hit after hit was not for a strong pokemon like Heracross so I decided to leave Pin Missile for later and focus on Brick Break for now.

While Valley and Cape were recuperating in the Pokemon Center I took Jungle and Mesa to a battle session of their own. Even if they favored move training that didn’t mean they shouldn’t fight a little and they did as well as Valley.

Jungle was a defensive fortress. The grass pokemon had put on mass and muscles and now only heavy-weight pokemon could move him. His sturdy vines were able to knock away long-ranged attacks that were thrown at him. Razor Leaf’s control had also improved and getting close to him meant suffering bloody cuts.

He ended up with a record of three to one and his one loss was against a Larion that he couldn’t cut or smack. But we were already training Sleep and Poison Powder for that scenario.

Mesa meanwhile started to exercise his new moves. Quake had taught him Sand Tomb and Dig, two moves that, while not mastered, were already showing results in his battles. He also got the hang of Confusion, which caused him to win two battles. On the training side he began to learn Psybeam and, after what we saw from the Lickitung, Rock Tomb.

Soon enough he will be what is expected of a normal well trained Baltoy. A controller who could switch rock to sand to mud and to rock again, all the while hitting hard with psychic moves.

These two days filled with rest, training, and battles ended, and after resupplying at the local Pokemart we finally left the city and began our walk on the east road towards the interior of the peninsula and Gray Lake.

-

It was the night of our second day traveling to Gray Lake. It was a different night than usual. It was colder for one, and the light from the moon and stars was dimmer than normal so we made a big fire to deal with both problems.

The only thing that we could hear was the crackling of the campfire and the clicking of Cape’s camera as he tried to get a good picture of the camp as it was brightened by the flames.

Tomorrow morning we would reach the lake and camp there for at least three days to train and catch an ice type. Jess, Valley, Mesa, Quake, and Velocity were out of the pokeball and around the fireplace finishing the tasks that Valley had given us. Jess and I were tired of the trek today and were ready for bed.

The distant crack of a stick breaking washed away our drowsiness. Our pokemon tensed and I picked a lantern that I always left hanging from my belt at night. I turned the light on the place where the stick broke.

It didn’t help much but we were able to cut a figure on the dark and green background.

Between the tall grass was a man who was slowly approaching us. He was dressed in black and purple clothes that almost blended in the shadows. I noticed that he was as pale as the barely visible moon and had a thin body like he had not eaten in months. His face sported the most vacant smile I had ever seen in my life.

A lot of pokeballs painted in black decorated the belt that he wore. No, not normal pokeballs, Ultra Balls.

I quickly shut down my lantern and put it on the ground.

“Good night, kids,” He nodded, still mostly shrouded in darkness. “Since this night is dark and cold might I partake in the warmth of the campfire?”

I thought fast and decided that denying the man would be a mistake, maybe my last if he was not the nice kind of master or didn’t have a good head on the shoulders.

“Of course you can, sir.”

“Ha,” he began to walk and spoke to something at his side. “You hear that? This one has good eyes and knows the importance of respect.”

The shadowy vegetation moved. Yellow eyes materialized from the dark and I felt my body lock itself at the sight. Jess gulped loudly as a green body seemed to detach from the plant life and walk closer to us, in pace with his trainer.

A Cacturne, and not a common one.

Of course, Cacturne is not a common pokemon, but this one’s body emanated dark energy with every step that he took. It had a darker shade than the normal green of his line and his physique had more in common with a fighting pokemon than a grass one. He looked more like a younger Electivire than a typical Cacturne.

They both sat side by side on green stumps that rose from the ground as they leaned back. The master put his hands near the fire for warmth but the Cacturne almost seemed to turn into a statue as he looked to the ground. We all stayed in silence.

I glanced to my side and saw that Jess had frozen since the visage of the tall, thin, and pale man, together with his dark clothes and attitude cut a frightening figure.

I decided to probe a little, if I was going to die here I might as well know why.

“So, sir,” He looked up at me with a smile. He seemed more like a corpse who had died with a smile. “By any chance could you tell us your name?”

His smile widened a bit but it didn’t make him seem any more alive.

“They call me Brian.”