The very next day from the dinner conversation on switching the team around and Woody evolving started off with me having an extra battling filled day where the entire team minus Dee-Dee got to battle.
And I mean the entire team.
Currently Pearl is using Rapid Spin to get away from a very angry Elekid, giggling as the Thunderbolt the electric type fired off missed its mark entirely, before her increased special attack boosted her Water Gun into something near the baby stages of Hydro Pump and fired off a powerful concentration of water which knocked out the fairly battered battery Pokemon. Heh, wordplay.
With a grand total of thirty three wins and two losses I finally decide to quit while ahead and mosey on over to Leaf and the others with a very smug Clamperl on my head, Tabitha in my arms since she was my first choice that did some set up and baiting before being returned in case the water type I had might faint against the flying and then electric types.
Halfway through my matches I went over to the Center pc and placed my starter and rock pup into the transfer slot and ran back onto the field outside with the two choices, which confused more than a couple people as I ended up battling in two v twos instead of one v ones today which meant twice the actual battling in the one afternoon. Some battles even had three v threes which was where Tabitha really shined and most people became even more afraid of my Clamperl, Ralts, and Charmeleon not understanding that it was the Pineco that was the scariest one to face.
I also got to battle Landon. He's got a really neat Buizel that beat Lupa before it and Poliwhirl got knocked out by Beedrill who was really thankful that he didn't skip out on runs when his wings got too soaked to fly.
Elian was over by my team with his own, busy with cleaning up the dirt and grime that Paras had accumulated in its match against a Rhyhorn while Dill was being checked over by the Nurse Joy from Vermillion.
Actually arriving got me tackled by my only grass type as she felt particularly in a hugging mood, one which Woody shared in since he had the incredible ability called 'having arms'. Then for fun, Tabs and Pearl to joined in the group hug; with Tabitha exiting her pokeball.
The rock type was especially excited with battling today since he had both a new body but also two new moves with Thunder Punch and Hammer Arm, I still have the renewable TM available for future teammates with arms.
Tabitha was similarly excited when she used Pounce on an unsuspecting Flareon before firing a Struggle Bug at the then slowed down fire type, debilitating the Pokemon's fighting ability even more. A lot of people thought it was scary how a common bug type shut down an Eeveelution so easily but, honestly, this is the kinda stuff that's expected of my team from me nowadays and Tabitha's got one of the most important roles in the team; its a lot of pressure but she's willing to handle it. I still praised her for it, since she did a good job and all.
Honestly, with the whole being in an actual city thing the entire team’s given their all into working themselves to the bone and even now Dee-Dee had to give a Sitrus berry juice over to Ralts who saw the most use in these battles as the secondary Pokemon held, something that people noticed and tried to account for so I would use some random Pokemon after a bit which would frazzle my opponents.
Elian chuckled at the downtrodden expression on the other guy "Man, it's still funny seeing people get all destroyed when they lose against you." Which had me curious enough to look over.
Looking back at the other guy and my friend was right; before the battle he was bragging about his Elekid and its super powerful Thunderbolt only to now stomp over to the doors into the Pokemon Center.
I didn't re~ally care but that was probably a good a reason as any to stop battling and prepare for Fuchsia which went really easy since all I had to do was pack some extra supplies and get a little bit of experience with my fire starter kit since Chardon wouldn't be in this leg of the journey. It was pretty neat how Absorb and Mega Drain could dry leaves so that they were just right for burning. Probably should teach that to Leaf more for camping’s sake than anything, but a Leafon able to use Mega Drain would be a massive thing.
Dee-Dee still hasn't given me an answer on what she wants to do but that's alright, since she's a non battler I asked her if she could learn a healing move and she was more than fine with practicing a move that had practically zero harmful potential. I think she might go for Heal Pulse but she did talk to Ralts so it could be possible that she practices Life Dew but they could have also been talking about how to use Psychic so I don't really think Life Dew might be an option.
I wouldn’t really know, I can be kinda dumb sometimes. Amy told me that when we got our test grades before our journey and I was confused on why I got a really bad grades... before helping me study up on history class.
Once we had prepped we both started heading to Route 11 which would lead over to Fuchsia City and we would inevitably face off against Janine. The other way to the city was closed off for now.
It was also interesting to note that a lot of other people were not going to be heading to the gym holding the poison type specialist since it's labelled as an extremely hard to beat gym, to the extent that most people held off until the sixth badge normally so if I wanted to make waves I could enter at the gym for my third badge but if I do really well then I could get a quick pass into some of the more extreme medicines for Pokemon like Max Restores or at least Hyper Potion's so I should probably hold off... maybe for the fifth badge then. Plus Pokemon in the southwestern area of Kanto were typically tougher and more prone to violence than in places like Route 1 or Viridian forest.
Its just a little unfortunate that I don't have an electric type like Mirielle has Pikachu, then I'd at least have some better options than having Ralts use Thunder Punch on Tabs and Pearl for my training plans going forwards. With some luck she might even turn it into a Thunderbolt or something while she practices on learning Thunder Wave.
But moving on, the road was pretty bare since not a lot of trainers want to frequent the hilly and somewhat dry place, the trees being quite spaced apart from each other and preventing themselves from becoming a part of the forest that is near the traditional town that we're heading to.
Tabs gets plenty of time practicing how to use Reflect while Ralts gets to practice Thunder Punch as one hammered at a dark purple wall of psychic energy while the other renewed and strengthened it regularly. Since Surge uses physical moves more often, it was practically a no brainer to focus strengthening up Tabitha's only way to withstand attacks better. And even if an attack got through the barrier it would be severely weakened and my bug type was tough enough to shrug off the electricity with ease due to the less than powerful punches from the unfortunately weak body of Ralts, since most fairy types are almost always less physically inclined alongside the Pokemon being a first stage form.
Pearl also gets to stay out as my new hat since I don't actually remember where I left my last one... probably all the way back in Viridian if memory serves right.
Anyway, the little prankster got to show off Rain Dance and soaked my clothes so I thought it to be a fair punishment to keep her on my head. That meant she could only use the weather move on Elian and Dee-Dee but since I expressly stated that those two were off limits, she decided it would be a perfect time for her to learn Iron Defense. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, I reluctantly held her on my head so that Tabs and Ralts don't simultaneously get hurt when Thunder Punch gets fired off; turns out water can conduct electricity back onto the users if they aren't careful with their usage. Sad news for my neck, I know.
The walk also had Woody being used as the training ground for Tabs, Ralts, and Paras who was on the rock type's head trying to copy the move Struggle Bug from Tabs now that he was less paranoid of Elian and myself. The rock type was out so that he could test out his maraca orbs as we walked which was perfect with some flamenco music I downloaded on my nav.
Moving onto Elian, my pal from Celadon was having a little discussion with myself, Dee-Dee, and Dill as he talks about caring for eggs. Turns out that his dad, who is a farmhand, occasionally helps take care of eggs that the owners of the farm find on their grounds so he and his dad have experience on the subject.
After a couple days, we ended up in front of the area of Route 11 that has Diglett cave, which is a major shortcut that someone can take to go to Saffron without setting foot in Vermillion or Lavender Town, but since we were going to Fuchsia we didn't need to enter it.
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We still did a short walk inside the cave.
It was a little uneventful aside from the gang of Geodude and Graveller we fought before finding some rubies. I gave half of my share to some Aron that were brave enough to walk up to us as a little snack for them before we left the place.
Then a day later a flash flood happened with a massive thunderstorm out of nowhere. We took shelter near a cave while Ralts and Dee-Dee would occasionally psychically grab some Pokémon stuck in the rapid river near us. Ralts managed to snag free a couple more Pokemon using her emotion sense compared to Dee-Dee who unfortunately doesn't have the ability to sense emotions or the ability Telepathy which notifies Pokemon about any Pokemon within their radius.
I was soaked from playing out in the rain and most our pokemon that weren't the psychics were playing outside with me, the least surprising was Leaf who loved rainy days as much as I did while the most was Woody who found out that he didn't have to worry about overfilling with water anymore since he became a Sudowoodo. Elian and Beedrill, like Ralts and Dee-Dee, opted out since they wanted to stay dry.
Other than that, the walk through Route 11 was pretty uneventful but at some point we ended up on Route 12.
The biggest clue was the Silence Bridge, a long wooden construct that starts from Lavender to the ends of Route 13.
It was also directly underneath water so I had the executive decision to send out the entire team and have a break near an area which could classify as a beach before we went onwards. I was also smart enough to buy an inflatable ball and pretty soon we were playing keepy uppy. I was the best at it, naturally, but Ralts was a close second since she would use her psychic energy to slow the ball before bouncing it in the air.
Though, the one who won was actually Leaf. I called hax but Dee-Dee would neither confirm nor deny the allegations.
Ironically, Ralts learnt Psychic after that. The move of concentrating a ball of psychic energy, not the thing all psychic types could do with training version.
We actually got to meet a couple fishermen who live on the bridge or at least somewhere near it and had more than a couple battles. Elian also noticed that we somehow lost a couple fruits and other edibles but since no one walked up it could only be chalked up to a bird Pokemon or a psychic type. Hopefully not a ghost.
"Wait, do you have phasmopokephobia?"
I kinda blushed unintentionally at that before nodding "and cryopokephobia. But only wild ones, it's mainly trauma from when some Pokemon attacked me when I was five."
Elian took a long look at me "... so your biggest fear is Froslass?"
"... bruh, you did not just say that."
Needless to say, we both agreed to steer clear of Lavender town and just head to Route 13 as we spent only a little time after the stolen fruit case trying to catch the perpa- perpitr- the thing that stole the berries.
The bridge was nice and it was pretty cool how a couple water types would land on the bridge just to fight us, most those battles were split between Beedrill and Elians team since Woody mainly wanted to do some training with Pearl and whatever trainer we came across.
I also had the pleasure of watching how Dee-Dee cared for the egg since I could recognize how she held it carefully and walked with it like the pamphlet I got about eggs says someone should do. It was funny how she would get all defensive when we stopped on the bridge to train or have a battle with wild Pokemon or fishermen, as if I was gonna use her or the egg in a battle if... actually that's kinda worrying now that I think about it... and it doesn't help that Ralts and Leaf always look at Dee-Dee with worry whenever she goes all defensive.
"Hey Dee-Dee, if you're uncomfortable then return yourself into your ball. I'll hold the egg until the battles finished okay?" She hung her head at being caught out but she puffed up before shaking her head. So she wants to stay out and face her worries head on; that's pretty cool.
Most of the fishermen had really strong Pokemon so most of the time we had to tell them our badges before they would send out a Pokemon but even then they would send out something a little too strong for our teams so Ralts got really good at Life Dew and Dee-Dee got the hang of Heal Pulse, once I told Ralts that Life Dew could be used on herself as well she became happy at the thought of having some sustain. I also had to explain what sustain meant in non-game terms.
Paras also learnt Pollen Puff so Elian considered it a major win, I heard that the move was a staple in most bug teams alongside Bug Buzz and Quiver Dance and when I relayed that to him he was really proud of his bug type.
Our berries keep being stolen though. Ralts says that whoever does it blips into her emotion radar and then the next second is gone so it's either a Pokemon using Teleport or a ghost.
"Hey Evandros, how about using something like Sleep Powder on our berry pouch to sleep whatever is stealing them?"
"Well it's not like we have anything that knows Mean Look or Disable. Maybe if we do that then Beedrill can set an Electroweb on whatever it is that's taking them. And if it doesn't work then we know that its a psychic type so we probably could saturate the field with dark energy."
"Magic Guard?"
"Magic Guard."
Plan set up, the berry pouch in our bags would become filled with Sleep Powder to catch whatever is trying to take our stuff.
It was only on the second day of waiting that something tried again.
Ralts was on my head with her little cap while Leaf was carrying Dill on her back as her superhero cape billowed in the air; Beedrill was the only other Pokemon I had out so that whatever that was stealing our stuff wouldn't be able to run away.
The egg was kept close to me as my other psychic type was in her ball so that whatever that comes out won't try and harm her.
"So I was thinking for Tabs that after she perfects Reflect and could use it to help herself and Woody by doin' that thing we-"
Ralts suddenly yanked my hair and I swiveled onto our bags which showed a sputtering-
Abra...
We were being stolen from by a freakin Abra!
While I was stuck being all surprised by the psychic type, Beedrill decided to continue with the plan and fired an Electroweb that pinned the yellow Pokemon to the ground.
Elian had the perfect shot to make his Pokemon attack but he stopped for some reason and pointed at the Abra and-
"Oh, it's already asleep." I stated which made me deflate even more.
Elian replied "All Abra need to sleep a lot so it probably just stole from us since it was probably easier than finding berries in the wild."
"Well maybe it'll be fine with being caught then. Hmm, Ralts could you talk psychically with the Abra and see if it wants to be caught."
The emotion Pokemon moved over to her fellow psychic before her horn flashed purple as she had a mental talk with Abra, her Telepathy ability coming clutch otherwise we might have needed other ways to communicate.
After a bit her eyes and horns stopped glowing and she nodded her head in our direction.
"Well, I know I can't catch it; its only been a little less than two week since I got Dee-Dee and I'm still not allowed to catch another Pokemon until another weeks passed." Stupid capture rules based on Pokemon with more than just issues.
Elian then realized that that meant that he was the only person who could catch a Pokemon and then pulled Dill and Paras aside to have a talk; having understood the value of a good conversation.
He came back after a while had passed and I had made some simple food for our team and the wild Pokemon, whether he got caught or not didn't really matter as much as being nice. I also made some cold egg and mayo sandwiches, considering that two of us were humans.
He took a deep breath before looking at Abra and pulling out a pokeball and calmly walking over to the yellow fox thing, gently tapping the red and white ball on the psychic type before it got sucked in.
It rolled once.
Then it stopped and made a ding noise, signifying that someone successfully caught the Pokemon.
Elian then flopped onto the floor while I wordlessly handed him his sandwich.
"You didn't tell me that catching a Pokemon without battling it would be more stressful than with battling." He accused while still lying on the wooden bridge.
I laughed at that before shooting back with "But it's funny."
He shook his head while chuckling before getting up and sending Abra back out. The Pokemon apparently startled awake by whatever happens from being turned into hard light and sucked into a ball, which now that I say it like that seems really scary.
Elian motioned to himself with a finger "Hey Abra, just to reiterate I'm gonna be your trainer alright." I gave him a bowl filled with psychic type chow which he wordlessly took before placing it in front of Abra.
The Pokemon simply nodded and began slowly munching on the chow, his eyes glowing a little purple like Dee-Dee and Ralts whenever they're out of their pokeballs, before opening its eyes in surprise and chowing down with gusto, and his eyes look a lot like slits once the glowing stopped. I think he wasn't prepared for how tasty chow can be, especially the ones made for specific typings.
By the time he introduced the new Pokemon to his team, and my own a little later, it had already turned nighttime so we agreed to go sleep a little bit off the bridge.
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'Woody'
That was his name.
He doesn't remember why he said yes to the nickname but it probably doesn't matter.
He loves his name. It reminds him that his trainer wanted him and would keep him for as long as the rock type wanted.
His feet were touched by the lapping waves of the sea, the night making it difficult for his eyes to follow the movements.
When did he stop being afraid of water?
Any Bonsly knew that if they didn't filter out water on a daily basis then they would die. He had even seen it happen on rainy days in the forest for those unlucky few that didn't enter a cave or a burrow fast enough. How the water filled their systems until they couldn't function.
Until they couldn't live.
But somewhere along the way he stopped being afraid of it, just like how he stopped being afraid of real grass types.
He had fought a Poliwhirl, three Krabby, a Goldeen, and his teammate Pearl. And he battled with Pearl regularly.
Great Mew, when did Pearl stop being 'Pearl' or Tabitha stop being Little Bug.
And there it was, his trainer had made this the new norm for him.
Fight Pokemon he was weak to and help his teammates move past their own weaknesses. He got cut a hundred times from grassy blades, sprayed a hundred more, and if you asked him he was willing to do it all in triplicate.
Because it wasn't a burden nor was it a punishment from the gods; it was him and his trainer believing that these were just obstacles to his growth and that soon he would progress to the level where these weaknesses were negligible at worst.
Because his trainer believed in him.
Because he believed in himself.
A clamshell tapping into his feet had brought him out of his musings. It was a peculiar shape, enough to cause him to hold the shell and take it back; his trainer always accepted anything they wanted to keep from Lupa's mildly amusing rocks to the interesting sticks that Leaf brought along.
This would be his first... and probably not the last.