Dear Mom,
So, Route 12 was uneventful- aside from Abra being a berry thief- due to it mainly being a bridge and most the battles on it were against the occasional wild water type or a fisherman, Route 11 was uneventful because it was a short walk to Route 12 that only took a few days.
Route 13 on the other hand, is actually quite interesting. Firstly, because we saw a herd of Tauros running on a field, and secondly, we went to a place called Sunnytown shortly after leaving the bridge's south side and there were a ton of trainers who mainly had grass and poison types which was great training for both our teams.
Elian really needs the training since he plans on battling Janine the first chance he gets- he even booked the battle online- so Beedrill and Dill would be having double battles against Abra and Paras before Beedrill would battle Dill. Since Beedrill was Beedrill and Dill was Elian's starter it was obvious that the other two were hopelessly outmatched even if they gave a really good try; so we kinda agreed that I would lead Beedrill and Dill against the other two in double and single battles against Elian and his Pokemon so he could understand how the other two should battle against poison types which really helped Paras since he was more frail to the typing than Abra who could use Psywave and blast 'em in a wide cone area.
By the way, we found out that you can use Light Screen at an angle to bounce an attack so Ralts sometimes shapes hers like a spoon to blast Psywave back onto Abra which is majorly funny and ironic at the same time.
Because Elian was practicing against poison types it was practically mandatory for Beedrill to use Poison Sting in every battle just to get the possible poison effect on each of Elian's Pokemon so that they could get used to how painful the attacks and status might be when put up against their resistances and weaknesses which led to my bug type learning Venoshock.
That came as a shock (heh) to me since we were doing a lot of practice with Twinneedle and Harden so I thought his second poison move would have been Poison Jab which is practically mandatory on a Beedrill. Although, its not like Venoshock is a bad move since a lot of the team may start learning how to use Toxic after we get around to the six badge level which Tabitha, Pearl, and Beedrill are super excited about.
Leaf actually doesn't want to learn Toxic, which is fine with me, so instead we just did some rearranging of our callouts again since more than a few people managed to correctly predict what some of her moves would do. Online people call her a monster because noone knows what moves she might use when she does her duos to her quads.
Its also kind of odd that three badge trainers get hit by the duos and the occasional trios when it just takes too long to actually use them against Chardon and the rest without taking a hit, at least, before she boosts herself with Trailblaze.
Something interesting about the town is that they had a bike gang but the gang was one of those good gangs that does community service and not like those guys who tried to steal the egg, Chardon and Dee-Dee back in Hophophop town. Elian and I got to battle the gang leaders in a double battle using Dill and Beedrill.
It started off with Paras getting on Beedrill who used Double Team and Agility to avoid getting hit before the grass type began firing Sleep Powder on the Golem and Cloyster who fell asleep to the white powder which gave Beedrill an opening to trap them in his now becoming his signature on the web Electroweb. Heh, I did a funny.
Ralts agrees since she's laughing where she's sitting.
Anyway, after that Beedrill began using his new move Venoshock once Paras got the now stuck opponents with Poison Powder before using Mega Drain on both of them. They still tried firing with Rock Blast and Icicle Shard but since they were trapped and couldn't really move it quickly became obvious that Elian and I were gonna win the fight; and we did with no major reveal or new move from the opposing Pokemon. Though, Beedrill did have to use String Shot on Golem to keep it more tied up since it nearly broke out of its Electroweb cage.
At the end of the battle we became honorary bike members and for the next couple days we just kinda trained while checking the restaurants they recommended to us like a pretty cheap and tasty burger shop and this cool bakery place with really neat muffins. Both had Pokemon accommodations too so during summer break we could go back and try them out with Striker and Driblim and the rest.
We mainly stayed in town for so long because that freak storm broke the Sunnytown bridge so we had to wait a bit for a boat ride.
You know about how I had to send back Tabitha to Professor Oak since he was still studying her for his project thing...
Wait, if she is a regional variant Pineco then won't she have a different typing than Steel? Oh, or maybe she might even have a mega evolution or third form like the professor said. Honestly, depending on what she turns out to be I might have to change her plans a little like Woody's.
Turns out being a rock type makes you naturally tough and with how doggedly he gets into training to take blows and blast them back at the opponent he might just be a hybrid between an attacker and a tank maybe like a revenge counter character type. It mainly depends on if he learns Endure and Counter since he already has stuff for nearly every type. When I shared my thoughts with him he didn't really seem to get it aside from the fact that he's a mix between his previous role and Tabs' role combined so he's probably my first or second pick in a battle which made him pretty happy and made Pearl of all Pokemon a little jealous.
All that aside, that meant that I got Chardon back since he did need to do some training against Pearl to get himself ready against water types while she needed to be able to withstand his increasingly powerful Thunder Punch. I also finally swapped Beedrill to the ranch; I hadn't done it before since I was worried he'd hurt the local Pokemon or try to run off.
Speaking of Thunder Punch, Ralts ended up managing to blast some electricity to a tree once but it seems like Thunder Wave and Thunderbolt is still gonna be a little far away. So far her attack seems more like a Thunder Shock.
Also, I'm probably just a day's walk away from grandpa's place so I'm gonna visit him but I don't know if I should stay at his place. I kinda wish I called earlier than yesterday but grandpa said he was happy I called to let him know at all and that he's got a room for me and Elian. Is it normal that I feel kinda guilty about that?
I know I don't need to say this, but thanks for checking up on Beedrill and Tabs once every single day. I've noticed that the two really get into training to the point that it stops being helpful to them and ends up hurting them the entire day in a bad way, I've tried to make a habit of them not doing that stuff but Tabitha has pretty low self-esteem and Beedrill is really eager to become stronger and puts 220% of his energy into it when he thinks I'm not looking and the first thing I found out in Pewter was to make sure there was always at least someone more responsible like Chardon or Ralts with them to stop them if they go overboard.
Love you,
-Evandros
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The ding of the computer was all the confirmation I needed that the email was sent so I logged out of my account and promptly shut the computer off. I already looked up all the stuff I needed to, like the price of a deep sea scale in Kanto and information on the two Lycanroc forms, but they weren't all that useful since I most likely won't be able to evolve Pearl until we get enough money to buy a freaking Dawn stone which is mega expensive in Kanto and Lupa seems like he's perfect with either evolution. Plus, Own Tempo was an ability that zero Rockruff apparently had since they already have three abilities with Keen Eyes, Vital Spirit, and Steadfast so I sent a message over to Professor Oak about it and he said he'd try to contact the regional professor of Alola.
This would be so much easier if both of them had just a single evolution they could turn into like literally everyone not named Dee-Dee; and she was an even simpler scenario since she can't give these evolution headaches. One's too expensive to evolve and the other fits both roles too well while having a never seen ability for his species.
Huffing at that disappointing search, I get up and close the notebook I had opened to keep track of this info before putting Ralts on my shoulder since she was more than happy to just read a newspaper of all things; she already filled out most of the puzzle sections even though its only been 15 minutes since I bought it. The egg was safely in my bag in my room since it was too dark to actually travel.
Heading back out to the main waiting room was a pretty quick affair mainly because of the stuff I didn't tell mom. How I'm not gonna challenge Janine, how Leaf is trying to learn moves she shouldn't have access to, how annoying having Tabs off the team right now is for my plans.
How I'm grateful Chardon's back, not as much Lupa. But that was mainly because lighting and stoking a fire for camp was pretty annoying after the tenth time, especially after the freak storm.
Her question was still rattling around my head at random parts of the day which kinda sucks since I've already got my answer when I was in Viridian.
I almost didn't notice myself taking six different balls from a tray and walking over to the battlefield, as a hundred and one different thoughts were buzzing around in my noggin.
It was majorly annoying losing Tabs, even if it was for a valid reason; it felt like I was making a mistake even though I still could use her against Surge and win. She was kinda the lynchpin of the battle, without her there wasn't really a chance I'd win. It was gonna be a three v four with Ralts, Tabs, and Pearl on my side.
Surge would be all sorts of tough with his most likely Pokemon being a Raichu and Magneton, Magneton would be easy if Tabs lands her Bug Buzz and Pounce while Raichu would be manageable with Pearl, but the other two would be wildcards between Electabuzz, Voltorb, Luxio or some other Pokemon he has in reserve. It also didn't help that his would be evolved and none of my options would have that boost, stuck in their weaker forms as they were.
Though evolution wasn't the biggest issue.
The biggest one is the fact that Lt. Surge is known to rile up his opponents any way he can, he'd never cheat but he would certainly skirt around the rules if he saw that it would make the other trainer angry.
Sometimes that meant using Pokemon that were way above the badge level.
Plus his main battling style consists of speed and power so any hit that someone is gonna take is gonna be fast and hard.
So yeah, Surge was probably gonna be a bigger problem than Misty or Janine or whomever I challenge later on and there was little I could do to change that. That was why I made Ralts use Thunder Punch on Tabs and later practice on Pearl before and after she would use her latest move. To make them get used to getting hurt by electricity and moving past that.
But, apparently, it was gonna be a problem for future me.
Oh, wait. I could just send Ralts to the ranch instead of keeping Beedrill there and have her train with Tabitha and it wouldn't be detrimental for Pearl since she can train to take the nastier hits from Chardon now that she's got a workable Iron Defence ready now which is gonna be awesome for Iron Tail training when she evolves. Guess future me came up with a solution for past me.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Sometimes I can be a little dumb.
Relaying to Ralts that she was gonna be sent to keep an eye out on Tabs while the two train together, emailing mom again to stop any misunderstandings, and an apology to Beedrill for sending him away for 4 days with a Pokemon who's relationship with him was only recently cordial which made it kinda a pain for him but the prospect that Beedrill got to battle against Chardon and Lupa again enticed him enough to he not complain.
His last battle against Tabs was a loss for him since most his moves are useless on rock and bug types, or bug types using rock moves, so he's now trying to work out how to use fighting type energy for something like Rock Smash or Brick Break so that he has options for rock and steel types and since Woody is kind of the only one on the team who has a fighting type move its kinda agreed that the rock type will work with him to have options available. I'm personally hoping for Brick Break since the move is known to break screens like those made by a Mr. Mime or ones made using Reflect and Light Screen.
We were really only a day away from Fuchsia now so we could stand to take a more relaxed pace and enjoy meeting the wild Pokemon around here such as Weepinbell and Magby's. After I send over Dee-Dee to be reviewed to the Professor so that he could send her to a specialised Nurse Joy to see whether the psychic types health was improving or declining under my care would I finally have permission to catch another Pokemon and I was practically dying in anticipation on catching either an electric type or a poison type.
It seems kinda silly in retrospect but I wanna catch Pokemon from all 18 typings, though I'll probably do a trade to obtain a ghost type and an ice type respectively.
Plus, I'd at least be able to go to this place in the town labeled as the ninja academy to battle against some former gym trainers and people who want to qualify as a gym trainer to the Fuchsia gym. Winning would mean that I could get a TM which would be huge if it ends up being something like Toxic or Protect or even Poison Spikes.
Okay, so maybe I really wanted a move which causes poison status. It would be perfect against Surge and I'd probably only get to have a week of practicing the TM to normal standards anyway so I'd rather pick a status move instead of an attacking move. On account of staying a full week in Fuchsia and probably challenging the academy sometime in the middle.
See, battling Surge would be like a puzzle.
Do I want to teach Pearl how to use Soak on his Pokémon to punish them in case they use Volt Tackle and Wild Charge? Could I teach someone Encore to force what would no doubt be a Voltorb into using just Rapid Spin or Charge? Would Tabs be able to set up both Spikes and its poison variant freely or would she have to be knocked out and resort to Self-Destruct which he would no doubt be able to predict? Will having Ralts focus on using Psychic to hold her opponents instead of blasting them back really the right call?
I know that I don't have the power or the speed to match Surge- maybe Pearl could but not my other two picks- and having a personal limit on who I use sucks big time.
...Except I also had a limit on who I was using against Brock and Erika when I challenged the two of them as well, it was just that they were more fair compared to Surge otherwise the battles against the two of them would've been impossible.
My notes on what Clamperl are rumored to know has some okay moves. Whirlpool wouldn't be good since they could just shock that instead so maybe focus on improving Confuse Ray with Ralt- no I switched her. Okay, okay, then maybe Muddy Water sinc- no too powerful to get in a week and a half so maybe a move called Brine since the move has been sometimes known to stop electric moves from fizzling into existence when a Pokemon gets hit by the water move on account of the salt or something. It would mainly function as a status move to shut down electric moves like Mud Sport does but if she can get it as an attack then that would be a major boost since its also known to be devastatingly powerful if a Pokemon is even somewhat scratched up from battling.
And with a workable Iron Defence she could withstand electric moves to a certain degree, Ralts could set up screens and debilitate the fast opponents with Grass Knot, and Tabs could do Reflect and handle electric moves due to us working her into having a resistance against them which is great for her future development as well because steel types aren't actually unaffected by electric moves despite common misconception back in Pallet; I blame the Magnemite line because it was practically the only steel type that used to exist in Kanto.
All this strategy stuff makes me nearly miss Elian which would have been a little embarrassing on account of his Abra battling a Skuntank that knew Flamethrower apparently. The battles wrapping up so I head on over to his side and wait a bit.
Lo and behold, Abra teleports to the side of the Skuntank and blasts it with a Psywave in a cone shape which is enough to blow it onto its side and knock it out. Elian wins.
He happily shakes hands with the opponent before walking over to me and then the two of us begin chatting away as we head on over and away from the Center placed on the road and begin heading over to Fuchsia. The reason why its so close to the city is because the Center in Fuchsia is apparently an ancient landmark and- even though the services inside of it function well enough for most medical needs- its the really important ones that get quickly transferred over to this one. Mirielle once talked about it to me in the library at school.
The walk on the road was pretty uneventful since it was mainly just battles against wild Ekans and Growlithe aside from a battle against this one guy who had three badges and was traveling to his hometown. It seemed like he coasted a lot on type advantage to make sure he won his fights since I beat him in a four v four using Pearl, Beedrill, Leaf, and Woody with only half the team being knocked out by the very end with half the fight being in type disadvantage and the other half in type neutral for us.
By the time night had fallen, we were able to see some two story buildings in the distance and we pushed forward trying to reach the town. There's only gonna be so many days before you start dreaming about sleeping in a regular bed and not the hard mattresses that the Pokemon Center uses or the sleeping bags one brings onto the road.
At what must've been around 7:30ish we managed to enter the city gates and marveled at the sight of the traditional town as we followed the foot traffic to the Center in hopes of finding how to navigate to Grandpa's place. Nurses Joy happily gave directions and it turns out that his neighbourhood was only a twenty minute walk away from the gym which was neat for Elian.
As we walked we made sure to take in the sights and even though the place looks historic- with a bunch of old timey pharmacies selling herbs and stuff or like the occasional street vendor- and it clearly has a system in place.
I slowed down to take in the sights because this place wasn't like any of the other towns and cities that we've went through. Celadon and Vermillion were major infrastructures with really high buildings while Pewter was a smaller version of the other two. The closest comparison might be Pallet but we didn't have a lot of people living in town and only one school because not as many people opted to live there.
This place could fit three Pallet Towns and still have space left over.
By the time we came to his neighbourhood I had bought the entire team some dango and had some for grandpa.
Man, I haven't seen him since the new year's festival. I wonder how he's been.
His house was easy to find... on account of him being in front of it and waving at me.
"Grandpa!" I quickly run over to him to give his special grandpa hug and he quickly braces himself for the borderline tackle.
He doesn't prepare for Leaf joining in on the fun.
"Erghh... you two mind letting my back rest. Your shaking up all my sand."
"Bahahah, grandpa, you're not that old yet."
"Hmph, so you think I'm getting there in age? Huh boy."
I nod "Yup, Gramps is a big ol' fossil. Gramps is a big ol' fossil." I singsong.
He clutches at his chest dramatically "Oh the indignity, to be name-called in this day and age."
He takes a moment to get up with mine, Woody, and Chardon's help before addressing the team and Elian "Well, it's useless to just stand around. Come in, come in. Let me make some tea for you all, the good kind and not the one your mother thinks I should be shoveling down. Bah, whoever thought green tea was a delicacy was a madman; of that I can be certain."
We all head in, with me telling the team to wipe their feet on the mat, and we all walk in barefoot; on account of leaving our shoes on the shoe rack when we got in.
Grandpa had quickly herded us to the living room and had put on a kids show- something that Pearl and Leaf were paying full attention to- while Dee-Dee was making sure that Beedrill and Chardon didn't scratch or burn anything; something that embarrassed the two of them immensely when they realized that I noticed.
By the time he came back he already had a tray full of milk tea, his favorite, and some snacks that Abra and Leaf took immediately.
The milk tea was great and by the time I was halfway done grandpa decided to start talking.
"Well, I've heard and seen many things about you both from your mother and what my neighbors have to say, Evandros, but I think I would like to know about your team just as much. Your father and grandmother were always so happy when they talked about them, and right now you've already caught twice as many as they used to have during their entire first year. Though my neighbor Mrs. Anderson seems to think you might need a refresher course on type advantages."
I lay down the cup and sit in a seiza position, something that Leaf emulates and what causes the rest of the team to follow suit "Well, its been great being a lab trainer since I got to meet Chardon," The fire type somehow managed to sit even straighter than before "he's kinda the second in command of the team. I got him as my starter and since then he's faithfully followed me around. He also seems to like bubble baths so I buy bubble mixture just for him."
"Then we've got Leaf who needs no introduction," Grandpa lightly chuckles "she kinda started naturally evolving into a Sylveon but somehow managed to become a Leafeon back in Viridian city. She's still Leaf though but she's kinda stopped being a glutton for food since she can do this neat thing where her fur is now kinda like grass, especially the lavender parts, so she lays out in the sun to photosynthesize; she can still eat a full pizza box though." The little fox wasn't listening, too busy getting scratches from grandpa.
"Next I'd introduce you to Ralts and then Tabitha, my Pineco, but the two of them are currently with Professor Oak right now so I'll move onto Beedrill." The aforementioned poison type was having trouble doing a seiza so he gave up and was merely sitting down. "I caught him back when he was a Weedle back on Route 1 and I still don't know why he was there and not in Viridian forest but at this point I don't think either of us cares all too much, anyway he's kind of a grump but you can bribe him if you promise him a lot of battles and make sure to polish his stingers."
"After Beedrill I got Lupa," the Rockruff was also not paying attention as he was also busy getting scratches but from Dee-Dee "I actually got him after that whole Team Rocket thing happened in Viridian since a lot of the young Pokemon needed a place to stay so I got to keep him. He's also as enthusiastic about battling like Chardon and Beedrill but he can mainly be bribed by good food and scratches."
"A little before that I actually got the egg and I think that it's gonna hatch any day now. I've narrowed it down to Klefki, Mawile, or Tinkatink." Chardon was unconsciously rubbing a hand over it and practically everyone noticed how it seemed to wiggle under his touch.
"Then during Viridian forest I met Woody when he broke this guy who had a Pokemon name's nose," said rock type was bashfully rubbed the back of his head while blushing and Pearl and Dee-Dee were shocked while the rest of the team started laughing at his expense "I don't really think I can explain just exactly why I wanted him on my team, but I did want him so I battled him with Lupa and caught him right after."
"Then during my travel from Pewter to Celadon I researched a little about a local lake in the area in between and how it was rumored to have a Clamperl and other rare water types so I had Ralts use her emotion sense and mind reading abilities to find her and before I knew it I ended up with Pearl joining the team." The water type decided it was prime time to use Water Spray on me. "And as you can see, she's a bit of a prankster. She also likes it when I deep scrub her shell and it helps her use her latest move."
Grandpa was intrigued "Oh, and what move might this be?"
"No spoilers grandpa, you get to find out like everyone else. But I found out she could learn it because a Huntail over in Unova used it in an official match."
"Next, I caught Elian over in Celadon but he doesn't like being in his pokeball so I keep him out most of the time. Between you and me he's not really that good in battles." I stage whisper the last sentence and that got me a good natured Paras thrown in my face. Is Quiet a good nature on a Paras?
Taking the little guy off with a chuckle, I continue "Then I got Dee-Dee in Hophophop town when I was traveling from Celadon to Vermillion and I offered her to stick around until the egg hatches and if she thinks that she would like to stay on the team then she can be a permanent member even if all she does is stick around and help heal the team a little. She hates doing battles so please don't try ask about when I might use her, there were already enough people in Vermillion and Sunnytown who asked that."
"And that's basically the entire team right now, aside from Tabs and Ralts who I'll see if I can show you during the week. Now it's Elian's turn I guess."
Seeing the floor was on him, Elian straightened up reflexively "Well I only really started my journey when I left Celadon three weeks ago but, uh, I think I've been doing really well."
He then points to the Oddish in the room "This little Oddish is Dill, she's my starter and I've had her since I was eight. We've practically become family ever since I got her from my dad." If plants could blush.
"Then I caught Paras- who I just found out makes a good throwing weapon- before we reached Hophophop town and I spent most of the week after making sure he felt comfortable being on my team. He and Dill work really well together since both of them are great at using their powder moves." Said Paras and Dill were preening under the praise as they're talking between each other and Beedrill about something. I don't know since I can't speak Pokemon, obviously.
"Finally we have Abra, he decided to follow us on Route 12 because it was easier to get food but I think he's starting to like being on the team."
Grandpa took a couple seconds to digest the information before chuckling at something and clapping.
"Well, I've heard some mighty interesting things during my life but hardly have I ever heard trainers speak of their Pokemon in such happy tunes. Most trainers would rather pick the shiniest and most powerful Pokemon on the champions team but to hear that you caught an Abra because it was hungry of all things, many trainers wouldn't willing pick a Pokemon who's willing to play pranks on them either. Though the violent one is pretty on track, any so called 'self-respecting' trainer would pick the meanest of the bunch and not to change their behavior as you've done with, um is the name Woody?, your Sudowoodo. Your father and grandmother would have been so proud of you Evandros and happy to see such an upstanding friend in your midst."
By the end of it the two of us were practically red colored lightbulbs. I mean, grandpa's probably saying it because he's grandpa, but nope, just looking at his face its easy to see that he's a hundred percent honest about what he's saying.
That kinda makes me really happy, actually.
Grandpa then started standing up and cracking his back before waving us along. "Now, I know just how tiring a journey can be so how about I show you to your rooms and you both can begin the next day refreshed eh. Evandros, Elizabeth is coming to Fuchsia tomorrow for your dental appointment the day after and I'd really like to spoil the two of you with some ice cream, so would you be a dear and get down some bowls for everyone?"
I don't know what I was worrying about, grandpa's the coolest.