Wha... What happened.
Oh right... that Weedle managed to use a Poison Sting on me. And then I blacked out.
Man, that sucked.
For now I look around and try to make sense of what's happening.
In front of me is my tent, shoddily made to the point that a stiff breeze actually managed to tumble it down. Next to the tent are Leaf and Ralts who looked surprised that it fell down, with Ralts looking both embarrassed and frustrated at it.
On my right is Chardon with his back facing me, peering over his shoulder it looks like he's checking the second book given by professor Oak in an attempt to understand the darn thing. Right now he's just leafing past the 'Paralysis on Human & Pokemon' section if the title on the last page means anything.
On my left meanwhile is Tabitha with the Weedle, they seem... to be talk...ing.
"Why's the Weedle still here?" my question ended up spooking everyone in the clearing sans me.
They all spin to look at me before Leaf instantly tackles into me nuzzling me while tearing up a little.
"Hey, hey don't worry," in the most soothing voice I can muster I try and ease Leaf "everything's fine okay."
That seems to mollify Chardon and Ralts, with Ralts poorly hiding her relief and Char looking like this was obvious, but Tabitha still looks oddly scared as she seems to be trying to relieve her emotions by using the Weedle like a punching bag. Still...
"Guys I still don't know why the Weedle's still here." Tabitha stops her attempted murder of Weedle, much to the poison types relief, and instead moves towards me before poking my right hand. Which has a poke ball.
Wait~
"Weedle's joining the team?" This time they all nod much to Tabitha, Ralts, and Weedle's displeasure. "Well cool, how about we start walking towards Viridian City."
They all seem happy with this and soon after a power nap- I was still very tired- the team trails along with me towards the city. Though I'm now conflicted about Weedle, if it really doesn't want to be on my team then I'll need to take it to Viridian Forest to be properly released.
Well at least nothing that big'll happen while I walk... I hope.
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Yup. Nothing happened. I'm now at least an hour's walk away from Viridian City and nothing important happened the entire time.
If I didn't specifically wish for the rest of the route to be boring I doubt I would've even still been sane.
The barest of things happened, just a couple more battles against some Pidgey's and every night my team had to send some Rattata scampering. The only slightly interesting thing that happened was a Spearow that wanted to fight me but even that ended quickly with a two hit KO from Chardon using Beat Up and a well placed Ember. I didn't even need to show off my new ball throwing skills or use any of my tactics I've hashed out with my team.
In terms of training I'm thinking of having Char use both Tail Whip and Dragon Dance at the same time since they seem to mesh well together but my lizard can't seem to use them both at once in an actual battle since the completion time is ten seconds, too long for an actual battle.
Meanwhile Ralts and Tabitha still haven't learnt any new moves, though their mastery of their current moves is going well with the exception of Self-Destruct which I won't really use in battles anyway, Explosion is agreed upon to be the better of the two. I'll need to get TM's for them.
Leaf seems to be using Quick Attack even better than before with the way she seems to decelerate and accelerate in the blink of an eye, though she needs to still learn how to moves in tight corners. Maybe some battles against other trainers will help.
Weedle... isn't listening to me unless I make him battle one of my other team members. It's fine since we sped up his charge rate and size of String Shot and Electroweb but I can't seem to get it through his head that he needs to practice just like the others. I'll have to make him battle in some un-winnable situations to get him to realize that he needs training just like the others.
Oh, speaking of Weedle, I asked the little poison bug if it wanted a nickname but he looked at me like I murdered a pack of Growlithe so I took as a no.
I've gotten to about half the way before something seems a little odd... seems like a bunch of Pokemon poachers are on the south-east of Viridian City about a while away. They're on the right of Route 1 which seems to be cordoned off for some reason.
I'll tell mister Blue about it when I visit the Earth gym, not to battle, as my excuse for meeting the second strongest trainer of Kanto alongside being my senior lab trainer. I think professor Oak is the third strongest but the only time I've ever seen him battle is when he used his Exeggutor to stop an unruly Electabuzz of some trainer who was using the ranch space.
I head near the city and immediately ask for directions to the Pokemon center from the Officer Jenny who was sitting in one of the three Viridian police stations. I then walked at least ten more minutes before I started seeing buildings, and another fifteen minutes before I came in front of the center.
Heading in everyone seems to be hiding because my fellow lab trainers are behind the counter probably waiting to surprise someone. So I decide to say hey.
"Hey guys," they get a bit spooked... why? "you can come out the desk now."
Slowly they all stand up looking a bit dejected. Suddenly a pop noise sounds out causing me to yelp out in surprise.
"Eep" the noise seriously spooked me to point I jumped.
A second later I realize it was just a party popper that Amy had behind her back. The biggest clue was the way Mirielle was glaring at her but the confetti behind the red headed Primeape was a pretty big giveaway.
I just inhaled through my nose, put my face in a neutral look, walked right in front of the three, and then gave them the biggest hug they have ever gotten, my laugh quickly following. That really startled everyone most of all Mirielle who needed to sit down a bit for some reason. I hope I didn't hug too hard.
"An~yway, I'm gonna check out the gym in the city before I take a room, anyone wanna come." They all agree and before I go I give my team to the nurse Joy who saw everything unfold, the evidence being her tittering laughter and the Chansey next to her openly guffawing.
Before we go I hand my poke balls of my team to the Chansey who brought out a metal tray and is pointedly aiming it at me. Then we all head back out to walk in the city. A-after we turned back and asked where the earth gym is.
We all took about twenty minutes to go to the gym mainly because all of us were gawking at the tall buildings and how many people and Pokemon there are on the streets. I mean, I've seen how big cities are but usually that was with dads Salamence before they...
Well... its been a long time since I've seen a city.
Anyway, we all move along and come infront of the Viridian gym to check the place out. The lights are on and a receptionist is there but there aren't a lot of people inside.
When we head in the receptionist motions for us to go to him which we do.
"Hello there, are you all trainers?" Mr receptionist, oh his name tag is Bradford, says. We all nod and upon seeing this he continues by saying "Then we apologize but mr Oak will not be available for any gym battles until the league year starts."
"Oh no sorry, um we're here because we wanna talk with mr Blue because we're also lab trainers." I say hurriedly
"Yep/Yep/...Yes" the trio behind me has spoken, and Mirielle took two seconds less time to reply to an unfamiliar adult. Yay.
"Then please show your pokedex for ID," I hand Bradford my pokedex and upon verifying he types on the computer in front of him "in that case mr Oak will be available in about two hours. Is that acceptable with all of you."
We all give our chorus of acceptance and start exiting the gym before suddenly being stopped by a dude maybe a year older than us.
"Hey!" Loud "How come ya guys get to meet Blue and we can't, I've been waitin' for a gym battle since yesterday!" It seems his accent has him say ya instead of you. Either that or he's snubbing us.
"Sorry about that but we didn't ask for a gym battle though," James FTW "we're actually from pallet... and professor Oak's newest lab trainers." nooo~ James that pause caused dramatic effect dude.
A few people who were looking at us due to the commotion we ended up causing weren't really paying attention but the instant James said who our sponsor is the gazes immediately took a sharper tone.
Guess I have to say something. "We actually plan on starting when the league year officially starts," good I properly set our boundaries, but still gotta be friendly "but if anyone asks I personally am down for a quick battle m~aybe tomorrow. We'll see."
And with that we all head out again only to be stopped again. UGHHH. Anyway its the same older kid who's name I don't know but he's now holding a poke ball in his right hand.
"Yeah right, ya probably have an in with Blue that's why that receptionist is lettin' ya go through no prob. I can't stand kids who just get whatever they want so I'm gonna put ya through the ringer." *Sigh* Maybe this is an opportunity to test out my team. Yeah let's call it that. And if the kid ends up putting his money where his mouth is then obvi I'm wrong about him.
"*Sigh* Yeah sure, but I gotta get my team from the center," end this with no negotiations "I'll either accept a one v one or a two v two for now though."
The kid seems mollified for now and we head over to the Pokecenter to get my team and use one of the back battlegrounds each center is mandated to possess.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
"One on one brat." Gosh is he trying to ruffle my feathers, or maybe Rufflet my feathers. hehehehehe
My laughter seems to have ticked him off even more now, seeing him look as angry as an Annihilape really is funny. But I should be focused so I put on my neutral face and enlarge one of my parties ball. Now he's looking shocked and a little spooked before he enlarges his ball.
As one both of us press the button but where he keeps it in his palm I threw it in the air before both open up shooting out a bright white light, after all, I did learn how to throw and catch a poke ball for battle use; I just can't do any fancy tricks okay.
As one both lights fizzle out revealing the Pokemon on the battle field.
On his side is a small purple creature with a round body sans its large ears, its feet, and the little nubs that are its arms, with both the end of its ears and feet are highlighted by a yellow section. Its little eyes are like an unfinished plus sign and its mouth seems to be set in a constant whimper.
On my side is my first partner, one who's yellow flame becomes noticeably brighter in anticipation of a real fight. His smooth red scaled body is just raring to fight with the way he keeps clenching and unclenching his muscles, with three sharp claws for toes and four clawed fingers, Chardon is ready for a challenge.
A nearby trainer kindly sent out a the evolution of that Unova Pokemon Gothita which promptly set up a barrier looking like the act was nothing of importance, said trainer then asked if both of us were ready which got affirmations from both sides.
"3,2,1" Whismur and Charmander lock eyes right then "Go"
"Whismur use Pound" "Char use Smokescreen"
Both Pokemon spring into action with the Whismur running to Chardon to let out its physical attack, unfortunately for it Chardon used a moved to take away the little whisper Pokemon's accuracy.
"Char after DD use Growl." Already my little lizard is using dragon energy, anticipating my move usage seeing how I drilled it into him how to properly set up. Later I'll need to inform him when and where this Strat is viable but for now newbie and beginner rank battles don't have moves like Defog or Haze used in them.
"Whismur get outta there." Bad move from him seeing how his Whismur is literally a sound based Pokemon. A proper sound move would still hit Char, since the only way sound moves would miss is if the opponent is far away.
Just like I was saying Whismur almost got out only to be... not affected by Growl? A quick show of using my pokedex says that Whismur commonly have the ability Soundproof which is basically self explanatory. Internally I smack myself for wasting an opportunity but externally I just continue the battle.
"Whismur use Growl" the purple opponent straightens its ears in anticipation of using a move.
"Char use Ember instead," soon a staccato of little fireballs hit the opposing Whismur who gets thrown back before using an attack "now use Tail Whip."
That status debuff works and from the look on the dudes face he wasn't expecting the battle to go like this.
"Whismur use Echoed Voice." Shoot that's a bad move for us. My face turns into a slight grimace at the normal move.
Whismur straightens out its ears to inhale from the holes hiding underneath and then bellows out one of the biggest screams I've ever heard. Unlike Disarming Voice which lets out a charming cry that's soothing to the ear, this is just plain screaming using normal type energy.
Char grimaces while covering his ears and looks at me, good, another tactic which is for when he can't hear a command is to turn to look at me.
I nod. Just a plain up and down of my head.
Char then lets go of his ears and moves to Whismur who still hasn't finished the move, judging by how the energy is so visible from Echoed Voice it seems that the move turned into a critical hit. Right when Chardon is next to Whismur the little thing runs out of normal energy and has to stop to recover. This was enough to seal the deal with one good Beat Up.
One hit turns into two which turns into three which turns into four and by the fifth Whismur gets knocked back again and this time stays down.
After ten seconds have passed the Gothita trainer then signals that I've won and with that I take off my neutral face into a joyful one. I walk up to Chardon and give him a big hug.
The fire type still in my hands I look back to the trainer who had challenged us only to find him leaving. A few people look at me funny when I go to him and ask for a shake of hands for a good battle.
The only response I got was "buzz off brat." Rude till the end.
I ask around if anyone knows who that kid is and apparently the guy is called Will Ganto. Apparently he's also a newbie trainer as he's also starting this league year.
After getting my info and putting Chardon into his ball I ask if anyone else wants to battle and there's a guy who looks like he's fifteen that wants to do it. Seems he's really confident since he says I can use all my Pokemon against his two. Judging by the dirty looks adults and kids alike give him he must be a newbie crusher but I said alright to it.
The Gothita user still hasn't moved from her position and instead keeps using the Gothita... actually.
I send out Ralts from her poke ball and she looks around before disregarding everyone around us.
"Hey after this do you think you could help teach Ralts how to use Light Screen and Reflect." I already knew that Ralts was trying to learn those moves but wasn't able to grasp the basics of either move even when training with the Sunflora a few days back. The trainer nods her head and gives her phone number for messaging before asking both of us to get into position.
The newbie crusher sends out a Nidorina which raises it barbs in anticipation of a good battle. He also seems to be nervous when I put on my neutral face... why? Never mind, gotta focus.
When the battle begins Nidorina immediately uses Toxic which Ralts dodges by using Teleport.
"CM into C Ralts" the empath Pokemon understands and stands still to quickly charge up a Calm Mind before being hit by a Double Kick, good thing Ralts is resistant to fighting moves otherwise she would've been knocked out. After being thrown back Ralts used Confusion which was stronger with only one boost, the Nidorina then got blasted back with Confusion but is still standing despite being a mono-poison type right now.
"Nidorina use Bite" "Ralts repeat" Nidorina runs to Ralts in hopes of landing the dark type attack only to hit nothing.
This time Calm Mind was helping already as the Teleport was even further away then the last Teleport and Calm Mind was used with Ralts being too far away to get hit by an attack from Nidorina, which gave Ralts barely enough time to use another Confusion against the poison type before Nidorina got too close and managed to knock the opponent Pokemon out.
Before the newbie crusher can send out a new Pokemon I instead switch out Ralts for Weedle while the opponent sends out a Swellow. He seems to smirk but I put Weedle here for two reasons.
Reason 1 is because I need the bug to listen to me.
Reason 2 is to make sure I win.
When the battle resumes we quickly spout out our orders.
"Swellow use Pluck" "Weedle 'bag and tag'" please listen Weedle.
The Swellow gets in close not bothering to get ready to dodge as its a flying type and the opponent is a bug, it definitely will win against Weedle. But I'm gonna make sure its a pyrrhic victory for the opponent, at least before I crush him.
Weedle in the last second tosses out an Electroweb that locks and lowers the speed of Swellow who fell to the ground only a foot away from my Pokemon. Before using Poison Sting right onto its exposed back.
"String Shot" "Get outta there Swellow"
Weedle's bug move hits the flying type causing the Swellow to be further locked in place making it even harder to struggle out of the trap its in.
"Now move back and use Electroweb once more" "Use Aerial Ace or something Swellow"
This time Weedle takes a second to debate that order and instead uses Bug Bite, the flying type took the opportunity and used Aerial Ace to break out of its cage and hit Weedle with what I understand is Pluck and definitely not an Aerial Ace. Weedle didn't stand a chance and was promptly defeated by one hit from the flying move.
I return Weedle, knowing that this battle will have curbed his doubt in my abilities so long as I win it, and promptly send out Leaf with no order. In reality that was an order to ready up a Quick Attack instead of 'Battle Position' which is to ready up a Swift.
Just as fast as she came Leaf was on the other side of the arena with a knocked down Swellow.
"Duo 3" "Wing Attack"
Swellow gets up and tries to move in close to hit a Wing Attack but due to being slowed down twice by Weedle it wasn't able to dodge a Quick Attack & Iron Tail combo to the face. Quickly sending it down into the ground with an audible thump.
That seemed to throw off the newbie crusher even more and that gives me valuable seconds to order a new command.
"Switch into Duo 2" "HUH"
Leaf aborts her current steel energy and shifts into a normal and fairy energy combo. Before the Swellow can look away, its promptly gets its attack stat lowered twice by Growl and Baby-Doll Eyes before it can run away.
The trainer seems to be even more thrown off and didn't give an order to the likewise shocked Swellow.
"Duo 4" "Swellow Air Slash quick!"
Leaf then turns off the fairy energy and instead a grass energy while the normal energy shifts back around her body before she began running towards Swellow who managed to get off the ground.
The Swellow then charges flying energy and shoots lines of powered up wind towards Leaf who just keeps on running and dodges the attacks before jumping and slamming into the flying bird once more.
This time only one of them gets back up.
Seeing Leaf win this fight I motion towards the trainer who was being the referee. "Gonna call it?" shifting my face back into the regular look of a normal grin on it, the question made me notice how quiet the areas gotten and only after I say something does the trainer get knocked out of her stupor and motions that I win.
Leaf upon hearing that the battle is over runs up to my open arms and jumps right into a big ol' hug. After heading to the guy and getting paid money I moved back to my fellow lab trainers. Who look surprised by something?
Hey... since when did Shadow come out.
I gently put Leaf onto the ground and she immediately runs over to Shadow to give the older Eevee a big hug.
"What... was that?" Amy asks
"Was what?" I rebut
"You know, the off color Ralts, the Weedle that knows Electroweb, Leaf over there used two moves at the SAME TIME! THRICE!" Gosh she really is dumbfounded by my team huh. She's shouting.
"Oh well, I found Ralts who lost her home to a Scyther so I went and beat it up with Leaf, Chardon, and Tabitha- a Pineco that I caught; Ralts beat the Scyther and I sent it to the rangers before continuing on and going to a flower field with an uber strong Vileplume and Bellossom that trained Leaf; I found out there that she can use upto, like, five different moves at the same time and on like my sixth day on Route 1 I found and caught Weedle." A basic summary but a useful one.
I then head back inside to give Ralts and Weedle to Nurse Joy who... also looked a little dumbfounded by Leaf. I get the feeling this'll cause an even bigger impact than I believed it would.
Anyway I spend the rest of the day with my team and introducing all of them to Mirielle and James since Amy wanted to have a couple battles herself.
The trainer with the Gothita came over to me and soon we talk about the type of training we use for our psychic Pokemon, I explained about how Ralts increases her energy reserves by using psychic energy to lift up nearby rocks to levitate them and how she sometimes uses the energy while she reads- sometimes as a nightlight when its time to sleep. The- I now find out is a Gothorita- trainer, who told me that her name is Cherry Louncrest, told me that she uses Reflect and Light Screen to both master the moves while using intense amounts of energy to increase reserves and recharge rate.
"I just can't believe that I didn't think on using classic psychic energy before Gothorita learnt either of those moves. Her overall energy would've been way higher before she evolved." Cherry very nearly facepalms herself while saying that, only stopping due to a purple glow on her hand. "You won't even let me lament my failure huh partner?" the eyes of the psychic type lose their energy and she does a curtsy nod at that "Well, I'll try to make less mistakes ok." This cracks a smile on the aloof Gothorita.
After giving some basic instructions on getting started on Light Screen and talking about what we want to do when the league starts and which Pokemon we wanna catch next Cherry decided to head to a nearby store since her mother asked her to get groceries back to their house.
About an hour later we all head over to the earth gym, Amy rejoined us about ten minutes after Cherry left looking confident as she beat two different people with Squirtle and one person who recently hatched a Shinx with her Fletchling she caught before coming into Viridian City. Mirielle then said that she caught a Rookidee alongside Amy's catch since the potentially flying steel type Pokemon had a broken wing. It's also why she won't be able to use it in any battles until a week later.
We get into the earth gym and are moved into an empty battlefield with only one other person inside.
Blue
"Hey there kiddos, how's it going," spoke the grandson of Oak "hope gramps didn't bother you too much before you became trainers."
"Oh no," spoke Amy looking a little flustered, did she always have thin eyebrows "the professor only talked about the things we wanted or needed to know so he wasn't a bother at all."
"Well then how may I help you." Blue asked
We all then started asking questions about how being a trainer on the road feels like and questions similar to those. Amy did sometimes ask questions about what Blue's favorite food and things are though but I didn't really pay it any mind, James looked had a little smirk though so something is obviously there that I'm missing.
Eventually after 15-20 minutes of asking questions all of us start heading out.
Oh right I almost forgot.
"Um mister Blue I have to tell you something."
"What is it kiddo."
"I saw some poachers southeast of Viridian City. There seemed to be more than fifty of them in the cordoned off area on the right of Route 1- um left if you head to Pallet- just wanted to let you know."
And with that I jog to catch up to my friends.