“If someone wants to get to the end of the road and become a pokemon master, there is a price to be paid, danger needs to be part of the journey, the training should never stop no matter how tired you are and a healthy dose of fear and paranoia must always make itself present...”
“Are you sure you are not dreaming right now?” Jeremy asked again from the other side of the table.
I looked up at him from where I was eating my pastry and rolled my eyes at him, that joke had gotten old half an hour before.
After being saved from literal kids by the Aggron girl I had walked to the park outside the city as she suggested and had spent a couple of hours training in there. It really was a more calm and relaxed atmosphere even though the pokemon there were bigger, stronger and were testing some pretty incredible moves. The most notable ones were a furious Charizard who looked to be trying to melt a rock with Flamethrower and an Altaria that was practicing Moonblast over a lake.
Every now and then I stopped a little to look as the incredible flying dragon pokemon created a ball of energy that resembled the Moon, pushed it into the sky, and then the ball exploded in a controlled way so that its fragments hit a copy of a Pidgeot created with Double Team, it was a very slow build-up and it often exploded or missed due to the move not being stable enough, anyway, It was breathtaking.
Another thing that grabbed my attention was the contrast between a place that had little kids with small and weak pokemon and more responsible teenagers and adults with powerful but well-trained pokemon. The pokemon park had kids trying all kinds of times all the time and running around the place, which was why I had to search for an isolated area. Here every trainer had a space recognized by the others and stayed within that space for training. It made me consider never using the pokemon parks inside the cities and only sticking with the ones outside.
Two hours later, at the end of our training, I had some observations about my team.
Mesa got forty percent of his tries correct in his puzzle, which showed that he didn’t have any intelligence whatsoever, and based on that it would mean that it could take at least two months until he fully “woke up”, one month for him to develop enough psychic energy on his body to increase his intelligence and then another month for him to awaken his sentience.
Jungle had just done some stamina exercises for me to get a feel about how he would do in a fight which was not good unless he fought a weak pokemon. I told Jungle and Mesa that tomorrow we would be practicing moves, Jungle looked animated while Mesa just looked back blankly.
Cape got to train Aerial Ace on a tree so he was pretty happy.
It was afternoon when we packed up and went to Jeremy’s house to introduce Jungle and Mesa to him and his pokemon, on the way there we picked up some pastry for us to eat together with them as a snack, Jeremy and Fancy loved pastries, we also got some Pokesweet for Taylor.
To say that he was surprised when he saw me with a Bulbasaur would be an understatement. The last time I had talked to him was a fast call asking him to tell his father that a messenger would be going to collect Mesa from the post office in Alph so there was no need for him to pay the transport fee when he went to post the pokeball there.
So when I got to his house and explained to him that, actually, I was being sponsored by the Pokemon Professor Samuel Oak and that it was him who had taken care of the transport. The first thing he asked me was if I was crazy and the second thing was from where I had stolen a Bulbasaur from.
It took a little while for him to calm down even with me showing the letter from Professor Oak and my Trainer Card, which had written behind it that I was being sponsored by Officer Samuel Oak but I didn’t fault him for thinking I had stolen a Bulbasaur as it was a pokemon that only certain people and organizations had access to.
Now Cape, Jeremy, and I were sitting at his dinner table while Jeremy’s pokemon, Taylor the Rhyhorn, and Fancy the Phanpy played with Jungle while Mesa silently floated above the couch and observed the play.
“I am sure.” I finally responded after I took a sip of my coffee.
He took a bite of his pastry. “So that’s it? He just talks to you about your life story asks some personal questions and bam, decides to sponsor you and gives you a Bulbasaur”—he snapped his fingers—“just like that.”
“Actually, after everything was said and done he explained that he had a more selfish reason to sponsor me but also said that he wants to see if I can discover what it is during my journey.”
“What does that make you? A pokemon detective?”
I laughed. “I don’t know, but if I am a pokemon detective the only hint that he gave me is that it has something to do with pokemon journey.”
“…People do always say that pokemon professors are crazy.” He took the last bite and wiped his hands with a tissue. “So what is your plan from now on?”
“Train for the remaining days until the circuit season begins, then challenge Bugsy–”
“Oh yeah, you are a line cutter now.” He referenced the nickname given to trainers sponsored by League Officials since they, I guess we now, have priority when challenging Gyms for the first time. “Are you nervous about your upcoming battle with the Bug Master of Azalea himself?”
“Not really, Cape will sweep him.” The pokemon in question grinned at my prediction. “And after that, I will be going to Goldenrod by the sea route and keep my eyes open for any ice or fairy type pokemon that I can catch.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Dragons?”
I nodded. “Dragons.”
It was no secret that having the biggest and strongest Dragon Clan in the world shows us yearly why dragons are considered the strongest type affected our trainer’s teams. People from Johto searched, and therefore used, more dragons here than in any other region, only losing to Hoenn because of the Draconid tribes they had.
“Damned dragons… Well, you could get a dragon yourself, you know, level the game.”
“Way too expensive, and if I bought one right now I wouldn’t be able to train him in time for the conference, dragons take too long to grow even when well-trained, which is rare because most tend to resist training unless you have techniques and methods that trainers take years to develop.”
Dragon energy was famous for being the most destructive and volatile type energy of them all. It took months for a dragon to control just a single high-level move.
“Hm, speaking of training, have you guys trained yet?”
I nodded at him. “I got Jungle and Mesa today and we immediately went to do some light training.” I decided to not tell him about the situation at the first park.
“Oh, nice, and how was their first training?”
“Good, Bulbasaur will be spending the next weeks strengthening his vines and perfecting Vine Whip, also according to the Pokedex he has, from one of her parents I assume, Power Whip, it is too powerful to use right now and would give him a recoil but in the future, it will become a very powerful weapon, especially when he evolves and gains more vines.”
“And Mesa?” He said.
“These first weeks we will only do puzzles to build up his psychic energy and learn some normal and ground moves. After that, we will focus on psychic energy moves.”
We spent some minutes in silence, just watching our three pokemon playing in the living room from the kitchen.
“…Do you know what you are going to do after you win the conference, Scott?” Jeremy said.
“What?” I asked, wondering at the sudden change of topic, and then grinned. “Are you that certain that I'm going to win? You do know that you can’t bet in Gym matches right.”
“Someone has to believe,” he said with a grin, “but seriously, you won the Conference and are now a professional trainer, what do you do now? Government work? Military? League? You never told me what your endgame was and I'm worried you are looking too close and not seeing the big picture for your future.”
I spent some time thinking about how to respond to that.
“I don’t have one,” I easily admitted, “but that’s the thing, right? The pokemon journey… kids and teens leave their houses because they know that in the future they want to work with pokemon. Because they recognize that whatever they do in the future is tied to pokemon.” I looked at Cape who was looking at me and taking in my words.
“Pokemon trainers don’t know how they are going to live, how they are going to make money, or where they will end up the next year, they can only count on their team and in what they are doing right now, the future is the future… Part of the journey I feel. The routes, the Gym matches, the hard life on the road, is figuring out what you want to do with the power you accumulate.”
And then it hit me. “Maybe that is what Professor Oak wants.”
His eyes widened. “What?”
“He said that he had written thirty questions to find someone to do a job and the one who got closer to one hundred percent was me. He was looking for someone who had the profile to do a job but then easily pivoted to a sponsorship instead and never talked about what the job was supposed to be?”
“Right.” He nodded.
“Maybe the questions and the interview are the first test for the job, and the sponsorship is the second. Maybe if I win or do great on the conference then he will know that I am really the guy for the job and is going to offer a job that matches the person who the thirty questions are supposed to find.”
Jeremy leaned back and crossed his arms in thought. “That is possible,” he said, “well, either way, putting aside our theories about how Oak’s head works. I liked your answer, I guess I forgot that a journey is an expedition of discovery and of finding your purpose in the world. I just thought that you, being older than normal and kind of a planner freak, would have something ready for beyond the conference.”
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“Jeremy, I plan for pokemon journeys, battles, and matches, not for my entire life,” I deadpanned, “And it's Professor Oak for you, punk.”
His eye roll was cut short when we heard a crash in the living room, when we got there to see what had happened we found that while playing around Jungle, Taylor and Fancy had knocked down a vase that rested beside the TV, they all looked at us with wide eyes.
Mesa, meanwhile, just floated closer to the broken pieces of the vase and stared at it, seemingly fascinated. Thankfully no one was hurt.
“I will pay for that.”
“Don’t worry.” He said, looking at the Rhydon and the Phanpy with dull eyes. “I don’t even know why I bother buying vases anymore.”
-
I put my hands in my jacket as I watched Cape come back.
The team was once again in the same pokemon park that we had been going for the last two days, technically it was warm but the place we were in was having a strong wind. These last couple of days of training went well. Mesa began to understand basic commands and was training some easy moves like Rapid Spin and Mud-slap, his puzzle was going the same as always though.
Jungle’s vines were already stronger, when we started training his Vine Whip was not doing anything to the tree we had been using to train, but now, after two days of conditioning and practice he was able to leave a very, very small dent on its bark, in a month, maybe two, he is going to be able to smack them down at this pace.
Today, however, we would start to branch into the Leaf attacks, starting with Razor Leaf.
Cape had focused on his fighting moves for our next gym battle with Leader Whitney for the last two days, his objective right now was to learn Counter for the Miltank that awaited us and if he could, Brick Break. So now, after two days of only training normal and fighting moves, he was doing what he loved the most.
The horned pokemon again pushed down from the ground with his short but powerful legs and his wings began to beat as the characteristic sound of a bug flying filled the plain field.
“Aerial Ace.”
The Heracross’ wings and arms glowed with flying TE, and a strong wind picked up as he flew quickly in a random zigzag pattern, envisioning his enemy’s response to his airborne assault. Imaginary Water Guns, Embers, and Psybeams were dodged and when he got close to his target he cut suddenly towards the ground and rose again with even more speed, almost vanishing from sight.
The only indication that he had passed by his foe was a fairly clean and deep cut that appeared on the side of the tree and joined five others. Perfect, the only flaw was the fact that he gave away which arm he was going to use by overloading one over the other.
Cape flew back and landed beside me, painting from using six Aerial Ace in a row, even if they were at half-strength.
“Good job Cape, you got the timing right nine times in a row,” I said as we high-fived, “The only thing was that one of your arms gave you away, remember to always distribute flying energy to your two arms equally so that they won’t know which you are going to use.”
He saluted and sat down on the grass to rest. Jungle came forward as I knelt to speak to him.
“You turn then, green guy,” I said, patting his head with one hand and neck with another. “I am going to throw sticks into the air and your goal is to cut it with only one leave per throw okay?” He nodded. “Your objective in this exercise is to create a perfect throwing motion so focus on your body and don’t worry about actually hitting it ok, just the general area is good for now.”
He nodded with a smile and then his face twisted into a concentrated look.
I stood up and took the pile of nine sticks that Jungle and Mesa had procured for this exercise, right now Jungle was able to use three Razor Leaf with three leaves each before becoming exhausted so in total he was only able to produce nine grass energy saturated leaves before having to rest, by making him use one at a time instead of all three I was able to extend his training.
“Ready… Go” I picked one and threw the stick forward and high into the air where it began to descend in a curve.
The Bulbassaur locked his eyes into the stick and from his back, in the outside part of his bulb, a single perfectly created leaf rapidly sprouted, he then awkwardly twisted his small body to the side and the leaf sailed through the air, it went into the area of the stick but missed it by what looked like three meters.
Jungle’s eyes widened in surprise and he grumbled. “Buuulba.”
“Don’t worry about the misses, little guy, just focus on your body, if you can make a perfect throwing motion the accuracy will rise soon after okay?”
He stopped, thought for a bit then nodded and put himself into his personal ‘ready’ position again. I was about to throw another stick when someone screamed. “BRACE FOR ONYX!”
Cape and I turned to see from where came the scream when an Onyx erupted from the ground fifty meters from us. It was a trained pokemon if his teeth were any indication, too clean to be a wild one, and was clearly very mad by his eyebrows, glare, and snarling mouth.
He looked around for a second and then began to stomp and hit the ground with its body and tail, I fell to the ground by the shakes as Cape took to the air and stood in front of the three of us ready if the Onyx decided to come here.
The people around the area came running and released or called for various pokemon. They quickly made a circle of pokemon to contain the Onyx. A Camerupt stomped forward with a determined look while a Marowak jumped from a tree, a Rhydon, and a Nidorino followed in front of a trainer and a Poliwrath with a black belt landed from a big jump, together with Cape they formed a cordon around the Onyx, above us an Pidgeot glided in the air.
They were ready to attack but the Onyx didn’t move from his spot and just continued to madly hit the ground with his head, body, and tail.
The Poliwrath trainer, a bulk teenager dressed in a martial arts uniform with ripped sleeves screamed. “To whoever owns the rock! if you don’t control it in the next five seconds I will faint it!”
His frowning Poliwrath lifted his clenched fists and flexed his legs but just as he finished his phrase a Sandslash emerged from the same hole created by the Onyx. She, as I was able to notice it was a she, looked around at the other pokemon and, ignoring them, jumped fast at the Onyx’s head while beginning to spin like a ball, her body took a silver shine and then it delivered a very localized Gyro Ball to the Onyx’s head who stopped moving and fell to the ground.
Everyone froze as a kid ran up to the pokemon barrier, passed in between a Rhydon and Marowak, took a pokeball out, and retrieved the Onyx while the Sandslash walked up to him.
He scratched his head with an embarrassed look. “Sorry, sorry guys, my bad, it was Rage training and he went crazy for a little bit. Sorry.”
The other trainers grumbled, swore, and rolled their eyes, some chastised the kid about letting his Onyx dig away from him but soon enough everyone went back to their training and no one batted another eye. It was, after all, an uncommon but not unexpected situation in pokemon parks, even those outside the city where trainers were more experienced than in the city.
Not as safe as I thought then. I didn’t want to admit that I was a little shaken by the situation.
“Wow, that was a little scary, right,” I said and checked my team.
They looked okay. Mesa just observed as always. Jungle looked just a little wary but was otherwise okay too.
Cape, however, had his eyes fixed on where the Onyx was recalled, I recognized that face, the sight of that battle, as brief as it was, had awoken his hunger, it had settled in his normally gentle eyes and would disturb him like an itch if not liberated.
Maybe it was time to go have some battles? I glanced at Mesa and Jungle, Mesa, in the last two days, was able to use Rapid Spin and was almost grasping Mud-Slap, Jungle’s Vine Whip was packing a little punch and his leaves were sharp enough.
I shook my head. They had made progress, however, they were not ready yet, so it would be just Cape this time, he had fought before but it was high time to make his debut as the pokemon of a real pokemon trainer.
He turned to me, sensing my conviction through the fighting energy that dwelled in his body. His narrowed eyes burned with a determination that I knew I couldn’t contain.
Yeah, it was time to have some battles.
-
“I still can’t believe that we are finally going to have a battle in the Battle Hall,” Alice said, “this is going to be great!”
I smiled at her, it had been a long time since Alice and I had battled.
Alice was a seventeen-year-old girl who had been my senior at our orphanage. Ever since she left the orphanage at fifteen she’s been working at a hotel in the central district and studying journalism, she was going to be graduating from her university next year and wanted to specialize in pokemon related topics, not just about the tournaments but also about wild pokemon disputes, disasters and the plights in the Frontier and the Unknown World.
I remember when she was a ten-year-old kid and became obsessed with journalism. She watched dozens of journalists report and present the news and decided that she wanted to do it too, so she mashed two things that she liked, journalism and pokemon, we had formed our friendship over the latter one while in the orphanage.
Her main hobby, outside of drawing and running, was coming to the battle hall on her day off and fighting with Spike, her Ariados, that she got from Bugsy, and she was pretty good for someone who didn’t train at all.
When I called her and said that I wanted to battle like we usually did at least twice every month, she told me that now that Spike had evolved into an Ariados we would have to fight in the Battle Hall because her poison had become too corrosive to fight in normal parks where it could get in other people and other pokemon due to not having the psychic barriers that a place like Battle Hall had.
We met in the South District, the newest district of Azalea, which housed all the modern buildings, including the Battle Hall, a giant and impressive stadium for casual pokemon battles, It had been created by the Saito Clan, a clan of pokemon trainers based on Fuchsia, in cooperation with the Pokemon League and The Indigo Region, it was created with the idea of giving new trainers and civilians a place to experience battles while inside the protection of cities.
It had been, to say the least, a great idea that bore great success, trainers and civilians loved the first one built in Fushcia so much that it had spread throughout the entire Kanto, then Johto and then Hoenn, and if it wasn’t for the Arena Corporation in Sinnoh, it would have had Sinnoh too, in the last five years every city within the Traditional Eight Gyms in Johto had one.
I looked around the big structure, it was really a marvel of a building, ten standard small-sized battlefields that occupied an entire block, all of them with one battle happening simultaneously. I had never fought here before as a non-trainer needed to pay fifty dollars to fight two battles a day within a ten-minute limit, a pokemon trainer on the other hand only needed to pay fifty poke dollars which meant paying only ten dollars.
“I don’t know why you are so thrilled about this,” I said to the short-haired girl.
“Battling in parks is okay but it just looks like two kids scrapping around, but here in the Battle Hall it makes it look more authentic, like we are fighting in a tournament.” She noticed my skeptical and unimpressed expression. “You will see soon enough.”
I was just messing with her, of course, I could see the appeal of fighting in a true field, with an arbiter and barriers, it would be nice to be inside the fight too for once instead of by the side. “Just so you know, I have something new prepared.”
She groaned “I will have to start banning again. Just to remind you, Cape is already prohibited from using Aerial Ace, “she said while clicking her tongue, “seriously, a bug learning a flying type move should be considered a betrayal of kin.”
“Don’t worry, next time Cape will fight with one claw behind his back.” I laughed at her pout. “But, seriously, don’t let Cape hear you say that you know how he is with that move.”
“Hm… Give me a hint then, a new move or new tactic?” I just smiled, and in response, she stomped her feet. “Ugh, you’re so boring.”
We spent ten more minutes catching up on the line, she talked about what she was learning at her university and on her internship on the local news station and I was doing my best to invent fake stories about my work on the Pokemart and fake complain about the amount of tournaments Azalea was having. When we finally reached the end of the line and were asked to enter one of the five booths, we asked the cashier for a zero badge field token and she asked if we would pay with a Civilian Fee or Trainer Card.
Alice, smiling, took out fifty dollars and gave them to the cashier, and then looked over to me just in time to see me handing out my Trainer Card to the cashier, who smoothly took it and began to process our payments.
She did not freeze, yell, or jump, all things I considered she possibly could do, she continued as normal but now her face was stuck in a creepy smile and her eyes were frozen wide, she took the Battle Hall Token from the cashier and greeted the employee that was going to show us to our field and he flinched a little bit after looking at her face.
While we waited for the other two people still battling at our expected battlefield she turned to me, still with a creepy smile on her face. “You fucker.”
I laughed and the judge waved us to enter the field, a Rhydon was smoothing the field as there were some holes in the soil and a Zubat was flying around holding a machine on his talons that fixed some blurred white lines that denoted the field.
The stands were not that full, at this time of the day most people who frequented the zero badge battlefield or were working if they were casual battlers or training if they were new trainers, but there were some kids and some elderly folk.
The judge recalled the Rhydon and called. “Battlers, please release your pokemon.”
I clicked the button on my pokeball and pointed her to the ground while Alice clicked the same button on her pokeball and threw it at the field, from the two red lights that came out from the pokeballs an Heracross and an Ariados appeared at opposing sides of the battlefield, both glared at each other, two years of rivalry weighted in their eyes.
The judge checked with both of us as the Psychic barriers came up and then raised his hand. “Ready…
“Begin!” He then slashed the air toward the ground and our battle began.