Happenings Between Goals | By : GreatMasterM Category: Pokemon > General Views: 1715 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0 |
Disclaimer: The Pokemon franchise isn't mine. The whole thing belongs to Gamefreak, The OC human characters are mine, though, so no stealing. Any resemblance to real people, live or not, is coincidental. I make no profit from this. |
So, yes, this was supposed to come out on Jan. 1, but I had just come back from vacation and it was a long drive and I was exhausted. Then I played video games all of the next day. So here it is now. This was originally two chapters, but I combined them into one when the second chapter became too short to really call itself a chapter. As always, reviews and constructive crits are welcomed. And now, some vital Pokemon information. FF11: Mewtwo is widely believed to have been a hoax cooked up by Team Rocket in order to instill fear in the Kanto population ("We have such a powerful Pokémon at our disposal, you can't possibly stand up against us!"). FF12: Voltorbs and Electrodes are used to create explosions in action movies. Zoroark are used to portray realistic murders in horror movies. LEPT (League for Ethical Pokémon Treatment) argue that this is animal abuse. Directors counter that Pokémon used are treated according to set standards. FF13: When someone wants to make a reference to how quickly something lasted, they say "Even Blue's time as champion lasted longer than that!"
Chapter 6: The Evolution of Friendship
We had reached Sandgem Town just before the sun went down and managed to get a room at the Poké Center. We left our Pokémon with Nurse Allison and went to the Poké Mart to get some cheap food. Is it sad that we’re already starting to worry about money issues? I’d expect there to be more beginning trainers around here, but that hasn’t been the case. Perhaps there’s some sort of trainer recession going on?
~~~
The next day, we managed to make it back to Jubilife City by noon. However, where we wanted to go wasn’t in the city, so we just took a bus to get from one side to the other. At the northern entrance to the city, there were two paths to go by: one led through Oreburgh Gate and to Oreburgh City, and the other through the Ravaged Path and to Floaroma Town. Considering that the gym was located in Floaroma Town, that’s where we wanted to go.
~~~
I hate Route 204. What I said earlier about there not being any trainers around? I take that back. They were ALL hiding on Route 204. Everyone who had a Pokémon and only one badge was hiding in the bushes, the tall grass, or under the pond. Strangely, they didn’t seem to want to battle each other, just Greg and me. It’s like there was some evil exes coalition and they were all signed up for a battle to the death against us specifically. What’s even worse…
“Alright, Nidoran! Use Poison Sting to finish it off!” ordered Greg.
“Nido!”
He charged at the Cherubi, still weakened from the last attack, and sent it flying. It clearly wasn’t going to get up from this one.
“Aw man! You done got lucky ‘cause you got a poison type!” said Cherubi’s redneck trainer.
Suddenly, Nidoran started to glow a bright white. Everyone’s attention was immediately turned to it. The grass underneath Nidoran’s feet began to bend away from him. The white light slowly changed shape. Greg couldn’t have looked more proud even if it was his Geodude that was evolving. The blob resumed a new shape and started to dimmer, revealing a fancy, new Nidorino, who cried out its new moniker triumphantly. I was slightly impressed as well, so I guess seeing an evolution is fascinating to everyone no matter how many times they’ve seen it happen.
But can you believe it? Greg’s Pokémon evolved before any of mine did! Granted, Nidorans are known to evolve early, and now Greg needs to miraculously find a Moon Stone to evolve Nidorino again, but still! Greg looked at me with a smug expression on his face. Going through all of my Pokémon in my mind, I deduced that my Pidgey would likely be the first to evolve. Those are known to evolve early, too.
~~~
“How many Potions do we have left?” I asked.
“Not many,” Greg answered.
“Should we turn around and head back to the Center?”
I was concerned that our Pokémon wouldn’t be able to make it through the Ravaged Path and beyond, all the way to Floaroma Town. I especially didn’t want to become stranded in a cave, waiting for someone to accompany Greg and me out of there. I fished out the atlas.
“I don’t want to walk all the way back there and have to come all the way back here. There’s nothing stopping all those trainers from healing their Pokémon, too, and just battling us again whenever they see us. Though that would be good experience for our Pokémon, it’d just get repetitive. I want to become the Pokémon Champion before I turn sixty.”
“Well according to the map, if we can get through the cave, there will be a clean path to Floaroma Town, so we won’t have to worry about wild Pokémon. Hopefully there aren’t any backwoods serial killer trainers on that path as well.”
“I say we chance that and go through the cave. We’ll just have to ration the Potions more carefully. And not use Beldum.”
“Beldum’s going to pretend you didn’t say that. It needs experience to evolve, too, you know.”
Greg was already walking into the cave.
“I hope there’s a Nosepass in there that’ll stomp your Igglybuff flat!” I yelled after him.
~~~
There was dead silence in the cave. The sound of our own footsteps echoed throughout the corridors. There weren’t any signs of any Pokémon living here. Lights had been strung up to guide people through the caves. Some were broken. It’s hard to tell whether it was from human carelessness or by irritated Pokémon. I thought the place would be swarming with Zubats or Woobats, but I guess the lights kept them at bay. So much for worrying about tiring out our Pokémon. There was a sign near the entrance that we came from that pointed in opposite directions. To the left, the cave continues deeper and no lights will be hung so that wild Pokémon are more likely to wander about, which helps trainers train their Pokémon. Also, the path loops around on itself, so there’s no exit going that way. To the right, there is a lighted path with the exit to Floaroma Town at the end.
“So I’ll go right, and you can go left, and we’ll meet each other at the exit,” I said. “That way we’ll cover more ground.”
Greg looked at me.
“If you lose me, you lose most of your spending money AND half the Potions. This really doesn’t work out in your favor.”
I sized up the situation, trying to figure out whether I could go on without him or not.
“With my team, especially Beldum, at my side, I don’t think I have to worry about losing anytime soon.”
“That trainer with the Shinx gave you trouble!”
“What are the odds that someone will come at me again with an incredibly strong electric type?”
“High!”
“It’s not that high,” I replied, walking to the right path.
Annoyingly enough, Greg followed me. Fifteen minutes later, when the exit was near, we were still bickering.
“I’m trying really hard right now not to challenge you with Nidorino and just leaving your dumb carcass here to fend off the wild Magikarps that’ll be too tough for you to beat,” Greg warned.
“What’s that? Challenging me with a poison type against my steel type?”
“A poison type that knows a fighting attack…”
“What’s that? Trying to use a fighting type move against my psychic type?”
Greg grabbed Nidorino’s Poké Ball and enlarged it.
“Your Beldum’s not gonna live to know what it’s like to use more than one kind of move!”
“Ah! It IS you!”
We both turned around to find the green-haired guy from Veilstone City standing near the entrance, the light shining behind him as if to further emphasize that he is the Avatar of Arceus. He walked up to me.
“You know him?” Greg asked.
“He was the guy I was telling you about that battled me but didn’t register it in his Pokédex so I didn’t get any money,” I explained.
“Do you remember me from Veilstone City?” he asked. “I see you’re traveling with someone else now. But I thought you would be better than this. Solving a squabble with pointless Pokémon battling? Against each other with no one else around to help protect you from other Pokémon and trainers when all of both of your Pokémon have fainted? In this cave, with so much further to go until you safely reach the next town? You’re having the wonderful creatures you captured against their will fight each other to solve your own petty problems, and they don’t have any choice in the matter. Why is it up to them to beat each other up for your sake? Why can’t you solve this without harming your friends? Do you even see your Pokémon as friends?”
“You’re talking a mile a minute and acting like I’m not here,” informed Greg. “And I’ll have you know that my Pokémon are quite capable of defeating Eric’s Pokémon and defending me from harm until I get to Floaroma Town. In fact, I’m sure that they’ve come to see sparring with Eric’s Pokémon as something akin to a game.”
“Your Pokémon…” I started.
“So fighting with the intent to harm is a game now?” Natural interrupted. “Something that you taught them? That’s just sick. Are you even thinking about your actions? You’re teaching your Pokémon to enjoy committing violence!”
He turned to me.
“Eric, do you agree with what this man is saying?”
Oh great. Put ME on the spot.
“Firstly, his Pokémon would go down faster than a Snorlax at a buffet. Secondly, our Pokémon aren’t cold-blooded killing machines. Battles have been going on forever now, and you still see more human-committed crimes than Pokémon-committed crimes. Wasn’t this your hot-button issue back in Veilstone? Of wishing for Pokémon and humans to become separated?”
He smiled.
“I’m glad that you remembered. I want to see things that no one can see. The truths of Pokémon inside Poké Balls. The ideals of how trainers should be. And a future where Pokémon have become perfect. Do you feel the same? I cannot see the future yet. The world is still to be determined.”
He whipped out a Poké Ball.
“I’m sorry if this looks like I'm being hypocritical, but I think my friends and I should test you to see if you can see this future, too. They know that right now, we aren’t strong enough to save all Pokémon.”
“Whoa, hey. At least register this in your Pokédex first so that one of us gets money out of this.”
He glared at me with a steely glint in his eyes.
“I despise Pokédexes,” he uttered, before sending out a Pokémon. “Let’s go, Taube!”
The crazed man sent out a Pidove.
“Pidove!” it cried.
Seeing as I wouldn’t be able to get past him without fighting him, I decided that I didn’t have much of a choice but to fight him without reward.
“Fine. Poliwag, let’s do it!”
“I see you’ve captured new friends. Though seeing as you’re a trainer, I shouldn’t be surprised.”
“Beldum’s fine company (more so than Greg), but it would still get awfully lonely with just it around.”
“I agree. My friends keep me company for as long as they wish. Taube, use Leer.”
“Use Hypnosis!”
The bird fixed a stare at Poliwag as he chanted a strange sound at the bird. Luckily, the closeness of the cave walls allowed the signal to bounce off them, ensuring that the Pidove would hear it.
“Oh no!” said Natural.
The avian Pokémon started looking drowsy and fluttered down to the ground.
“Now use Water Gun!”
Poliwag shot a stream of water out at the lowering bird, sending it back to Natural. It collapsed to the ground, wet and asleep.
“Taube, return.”
He took out another Poké Ball.
“Help me out, Renacuajo.”
This time, a Tympole came out to greet me. Fighting water with water isn’t the best idea. I don’t recall if Tympoles have that ability that absorbs water attacks or not. I’d better switch.
“Good job, Poliwag. Return. Let’s take them out, Shelmet!”
“Shel…”
“Use BubbleBeam, Renacuajo.”
His tadpole spat out bubbles at rapid fire, hitting Shelmet in the face. They seemed to be more of a nuisance to her than painful.
“Shelmet, use Struggle Bug!”
She marched over and slapped that thing across the face with her iron tail.
“So are you going to help me fight our way out of here, or are you just going to stand there?” I asked Greg.
“This seems rather personal,” he replied.
I sighed. Of course he would say something like that.
“Renacuajo, try to use Supersonic.”
The Tympole opened its mouth and emitted a piercing scream centered at Shelmet.
“Hide in your shell and use Bide, Shelmet!”
She did just that as the noise reached her.
“Use BubbleBeam again, Renacuajo.”
The tiny tadpole started pelting Shelmet with bubbles again. Since she was in bide, she couldn’t do anything else but take the attack. I was confident that she would pull through, though.
After taking one too many bubbles, Shelmet opened up her helmet and charged at the Tympole, slamming into the thing with all her strength.
“Poooooooo…!”
Again, a Pokémon was sent back to Natural’s feet. I’m sure he wasn’t liking that.
“You are very strong,” he said, returning his Tympole and taking out yet another Poké Ball. “But I must persist. For my dreams. For my Pokémon’s dreams.”
He threw the ball out.
“Help me, Vechter.”
Now a Timburr faced me. I recalled Shelmet. She isn’t the best choice for this battle, and Beldum may not be able to handle a fighting type after all the battles it went through today. The best choice would be…
“Pidgey, let’s go!”
“Pidge!”
“Gust!”
“Use Bide.”
The strange canine-looking thing braced itself with its log as Pidgey flew up and started flapping her wings quickly, building up a good wind to take out the fighting type. The small bits of dirt lying on the ground flew up as well, making a semi-transparent mini dust tornado, moving steadily at the Timburr.
“Timburr Tim!” it said.
“No, don’t!” Natural yelled back, raising his voice for the first time in awhile.
The thing tried swinging its log at the tornado, probably trying to dissipate it. It was no use, though. The storm came right to it and began spinning it around and around, all the while hitting it with clods of dirt from every direction. Soon it was completely dizzy and dropped its log, then slumped to the floor.
“Vechter, return,” Natural said, recalling his Pokémon.
How many Pokémon does he have? Am I going to have to fight another 6-member battle?
“You win,” he stated simply.
“You aren’t going to use your Purrloin?” I asked.
“Annerire?” he enquired, smiling warmly. “She is no longer with me. Soon after our battle at Veilstone City, I told her that she had helped me more than what was expected from her, and that she was no longer obligated to help me further my own dreams. So…I released her.”
A flashback of him asking me if I was going to release Beldum briefly played through my head.
“I freed her from my own selfish ways. She is no longer bound by me. She is free to live how SHE wants. I know that is what she wants in her heart. That is what’s in ALL Pokémon’s hearts! Pokémon liberation! My friends that just battled you…their fate that’s intertwined with mine is, too, coming to an end.”
He stared at me, contemplating.
“Our battle…maybe I can’t solve the equation that will change the world. Not through these means. Not alone. What I need is power. Power enough to make anyone agree with me. What holds that much power…I don’t know yet. But I will find it. And then the world will see my ways. Your Pokémon spoke at great lengths to me during our battle, coming to your defense, but I’m still not convinced of their words.”
And then Pidgey, who was perched on my shoulder, started glowing.
She hopped off and landed on the ground as we all shielded our eyes from the blinding light. As with Nidorino, the dirt beneath her was swept away from her as her new form started to take shape. When she fully matured, the light dimmed and the newly christened Pidgeotto spread her wings wide.
“Pidgeooooottooooo!”
Natural looked amazed at her. Then she fixed a glare at him.
“Pidge pi otto pid pi…”
She spoke to him, gesturing with her wings. It was something I had never seen before. Pokémon don’t lecture at humans; at least, not in what appeared to be long, structured sentences. Going by Greg’s expression, it seems like he hadn’t seen such a thing before either. Maybe it was because this Natural guy claimed that he could understand their speech as if they were talking our language?
Natural himself seemed to be surprised at whatever Pidgeotto was saying to him. He probably had never had a Pokémon subject him to such a long spiel before. He reacted with surprise, bewilderment, anger, confusion, puzzlement, introspection, and finally seemed to accept Pidgeotto’s words.
“I see,” he finally said, after Pidgeotto was done talking his ear off.
He looked up at me.
“It saddens me to know that you didn’t truly understand what she was saying. But if she is being truthful, I believe that you have a sense of her general emotion that she was conveying. I have a feeling that your other friends have similar beliefs.”
He turned back to the exit of the cave.
“I must be off now. I must find that source of power so that all will come to think the way I do. I believe, when that happens, that you can be by my side.”
What?!
He ran out of there.
“Wait!”
I ran out of the exit to catch up to him with Greg and Pidgeotto following behind me. However, once we reached outside, we could find no trace of him. He had simply vanished.
“How did he get so far away so quickly?” I wondered out loud.
“Maybe he just climbed one of the trees very quickly…and silently,” Greg jokingly offered.
I turned to him.
“What did he mean, ‘be by my side’? Did I come on to him and no one thought to tell me?”
“He totally wants in your pants,” Greg replied, cracking a smile.
We started walking on the pathway leading from the exit of the cave to Floaroma Town. I recalled Pidgeotto.
“And another thing,” he said. “He simply ignored me. Pretended like I wasn’t there. It was like a special conversation just between the two of you, and I was privy enough to snoop in on it. You were lucky that I was there. If he wanted his way with you, you wouldn’t be able to physically resist him. He’d have you pinned down faster than an Olympic Machamp.”
“Screw you. He’s far more delicate than I am. Plus, I still had four Pokémon able to take him on, and he had none.”
The look on Greg’s face soured.
“From the sounds of it, he will have none in a short while. Why would he release all of his Pokémon? How will he catch new ones? If he’s out there in the wild like we are, how is he going to defend himself? Does he know what he’s doing?”
“You’re concerned about his well-being? Not about the fact that he was clearly saying ‘I’m gonna take over the world!’? I thought the guy was nuts when I met him in Veilstone, but I had no idea he was this crazy.”
“Crazy seems to be the best word to describe him. The way he thought he could understand Pidgeotto’s words…”
“He said that about Beldum back in Veilstone as well.”
“Beldum can’t even speak.”
“That’s what I told him!”
Beldum suddenly appeared from its Poké Ball. It hovered up to my face and stared at me.
“Whoa! Beldum, don’t do that. It’s rude.”
Beldum continued staring.
“What is it?”
Beldum’s gaze was unblinking. Probably from the use of its psychic powers, I got a vague sense of condition from it.
“I don’t have anything on me, Beldum. The next Poké Mart isn’t until Floaroma Town, unless we hit it lucky and find a hot dog stand somewhere nearby, which I doubt, and even if we DID find one, I don’t think they’d be selling metal rods on a bun for you.”
Beldum wasn’t buying it. In fact, I think I only encouraged it.
“No, Beldum. If you have such strong psychic powers, you would know that there’s nothing edible in our bags. No, you can’t eat the compass. You can eat Geodude, though.”
“Hey!”
Beldum hovered over to Greg and pleaded with him.
“No you can’t eat him! Eric, call back your little eyeball before I show it why it’s weak to fire!”
I laughed.
“It only wants a nibble.”
“Eric!”
“Beldum, come here.”
It did as it was told.
“Go back inside your Poké Ball. You’re probably less likely to become hungrier in there, especially if you’re using less energy. I promise that as soon as we find suitable food for you, we’ll feed you. Okay?”
Obviously, Beldum didn’t say anything back, but it held no resistance when I returned it to its ball.
“Hey there! You guys look like you’re itching for a battle!” shouted a young boy, running up to us.
~~~
Within half an hour, we were wondering if we would get less battling by just walking through the forest rather than keeping on the pathway. Sure, we might encounter strong Pokémon that we weren’t prepared for, but all the other Trainers seemed to wish to battle us and all had the same idea to stick to the pathway. We were also down to our last Potion between us.
“You know, if you used your Igglybuff in battle more often, maybe it would get to like you well enough to evolve,” I playfully suggested.
“I thought we already established that having your entire party knocked out would be bad for you,” he returned.
I held up Beldum’s Poké Ball.
“Beldum’s still got some fight left in him.”
Greg held up a Poké Ball of his own, most likely Geodude’s.
“Not for long.”
“Beldum, let’s go!”
“Geodude, smash it!”
“GWWWWAAAAARRRRRRRRRR!!!”
A beam of energy whizzed past us, hitting both Beldum and Geodude. The two dropped to the ground, fainted. We looked to where the beam came from. An Ursaring appeared from the woods. Greg quickly called back his pebble.
“Crap, we must’ve made too much noise for it! Time to go!”
He took off sprinting down the pathway. I called back Beldum as well, trying to run past Greg. That enraged Ursaring could only eat one human at a time, and I was going to make sure that it was Greg.
“RROOOOOAAAARR!”
I heard another beam being fired off in our direction along with the stamping of very strong feet. It was quickly gaining on us. The beam flew past us and caused some trees to the left of the path to explode, flying high in the air and in every other direction. They just…splintered into pieces. Just like Greg if I can get him to slow down. Maybe I could use Pidgeotto to use Whirlwind on him, blowing him back towards the Ursaring.
We ran past a trainer in a weird, sagging, white hat and green headband, and some red and black outfit, who seemed to be oblivious to our plight. He looked surprised that we were running his way. Greg managed to shout “Ursaring!” before we ran past him. I certainly wasn’t going to stop running to take time to explain the situation to the poor guy. As we were running away, I heard someone call out a Pokémon.
“Sceptile!”
There was soon a massive explosion behind us. I stopped to look back at it. Was the guy okay? He was in the warpath of that Ursaring. Greg came up to me and grabbed my arm in a hurry.
“We can’t do anything! We just have to hope for the best and keep moving! If we’re lucky, that thing won’t bother us if we can make it to some kind of civilization!”
He pulled me away from the scene. I didn’t have much choice but to agree with him. I didn’t see how many Pokémon the guy had with him, but if one of them was a Sceptile, then I’d wager a guess that the rest of his Pokémon were equally powerful and he could take care of himself and hopefully, for our sake, the Ursaring. Otherwise, I’m gonna blame Greg for the murder.
~~~
We stopped running and started catching our breaths once we were sure that we were a safe distance from the Ursaring. The teachers back in school warned us that this might happen during our journeys, but I didn’t think it would happen so quickly! Aren’t those things supposed to wait until a trainer is strong enough to beat them to attack them?
“Just so you know *huff huff*, this is…*pant pant*…your fault…” I said between breaths.
“MY fault?!”
“If you weren’t so eager to *gasp* lose to me and made such a fuss about it, that Ursaring wouldn’t have *swallow* become upset.”
“That’s a load of Bouffalant.”
I collapsed onto the ground. I needed to be returned to a Poke Ball of my own. Why didn’t a Hippowdon or a Fearow appear before me and let me catch them so I can ride them to wherever? Greg sat down with me.
“So you think he survived?” I asked.
“The guy we ran past? I hope so.”
“That’s good.”
We fell silent after that, still resting and catching our breath. After several minutes of that, we got up and decided to keep moving forward.
~~~
“Why is this path leading us towards the mountain?” I asked.
It had been another hour’s worth of walking steadily uphill.
“Hmm…perhaps that’s just the way the path was made. I haven’t seen any forks in the road, have you?”
“No…”
~~~
After another half hour’s trek, we came upon a sign.
‘Route 206: 2.5 miles
Eterna City: 20 miles’
Out came the atlas again. Greg peered over my shoulder. I located our current position.
“What the hell! We’re nowhere near Floaroma Town! We passed it, like, an hour ago!” I yelled.
I turned to Greg.
“YOU told me we were on the right track!”
“I DID think we were on the right track! We didn’t see any other paths coming this way, did we!”
“Well there must’ve been SOMETHING we missed! I don’t think they really expect us to instinctually know to wander off the beaten path to get to a major town!”
We stared angrily at each other for a few more seconds before admitting cosmic defeat, turned around, and walked back the way we came.
~~~
“Wingull, use Water Gun on Igglybuff!”
“Buneary, use Pound on Shelmet!”
“Use Mega Drain on that Wingull, Shelmet!”
“Use Copycat! Copy Buneary’s Quick Attack!”
A kaleidoscope of different events happened, with Pokémon flying every which way. It was hard to tell who was friend and who was enemy, or even which whirling blob was my own. It was a double battle with Greg and me on the same team. The two trainers had ambushed us, pestering us into battle, though we managed to get them to agree on a 1-per-person battle. Problem was, we were tired out from all the training we did today, and it appeared that the trainers and their Pokémon were refreshed.
Igglybuff flew through the air, dodging the water attack from Wingull, and delivered a flying kick to Buneary, who was running less swiftly towards Shelmet, knocking Buneary off its course and tumbling to the ground. A green beam came from Shelmet and hit Wingull, which cried out in pain as its energy was sapped from it.
“Oh no! Use Supersonic, Wingull!”
The bird faced Shelmet and emitted a high screech. Shelmet became too distracted to keep up the Mega Drain.
“Use Sweet Kiss on that Buneary while it’s down!” Greg said.
The little puffball ran up to the downed bunny to kiss the crap out of it.
“Now use Jump Kick!” Buneary’s trainer ordered.
I turned to look at where their fight was going on and saw the Buneary suddenly pick itself up, jump high in the air, and crash its foot violently into Igglybuff’s head.
“Use Wing Attack!”
I turned back to my fight, only to see Shelmet get hit pretty hard with one of Wingull’s wings.
“Buneary, Wingull, Quick Attack!” the trainers yelled in unison.
Shelmet never knew what hit her.
The battle was over. Greg and I recalled our Pokémon and forked over our petty cash. The trainers tried to convince us to use our other Pokémon, but we declined. We continued on our way to Floaroma Town, each with only two Pokémon not fainted and no Potions at all.
~~~
Greg was, as usual, trying to get me killed. As the sun was going down and we were starving and the town was supposedly only several miles away, Greg and I were walking on the pathway when suddenly he was overcome with electricity. Seeing as he was walking so close next to me, I felt some of the surge as well and quickly backed away. Then Greg was flung to the side. The spot that he had stepped on smiled. It then dusted itself off, revealing the ugliest fish I had ever seen, and I had seen pictures of Feebas. I pulled out my Pokédex and scanned it.
“Stunfisk, the Trap Pokémon. Type: Ground/Electric. It conceals itself in the mud of the seashore. It smiles when transmitting electricity.”
Well that would explain it. But what was it doing so far from the sea?
“StuuuuunFISK!” it shouted, whapping its tail on the ground before launching its electrified self at me.
I managed to dodge in time. This one wasn’t going to let us run away.
“Poliwag, go!”
“Kill it, Lombre!”
I looked behind me to see an incredibly pissed off Greg looking at the Stunfisk as if deciding how he wants to cook it. Poliwag was exhausted as is, so I wasn’t going to complain about a 2-on-1 wild battle.
“Use Water Gun!”
“Nature Power!”
Poliwag sprayed water at the ugly fish, which took the hit, as Lombre started to glow. Then it slammed its hands on the ground, which sent a minor tremor straight to the Flounderp. It went flying into the nearby grass. Then it turned the exact shade of green as the grass around it before sending off a bout of electricity, hitting both Poliwag and Lombre. I ordered Poliwag to use another Water Gun, but the attack only seemed to cause the fish to start smiling at us.
“What move did it just use, ‘Masochism?’” I asked Greg.
“I’d look through my Pokédex to find out if it weren’t BEATTING US!”
“Poliwag, use Rain Dance!”
He concentrated and clouds quickly began to form over us. I put the hood of my jacket over my head. Greg put on his cap.
The damn thing kept spamming Thundershock, and Poliwag and Lombre were doing their best to dodge it. However, the attacks were coming so rapidly that neither of our Pokémon had time to launch an attack of their own. However, the rain soon came down, and I knew that Lombre would heal up because of that. Too soon, however, another Thundershock hit Poliwag, who was then knocked out. The smug fish had the gall to smile when it noticed.
“Use Fury Swipes!” Greg yelled.
Lombre came up close to the Stunfisk and started slashing away. Unfortunately, the scratches didn’t seem to do much, and the Stunfisk repelled Lombre with a blast of electricity, fainting it as well. We recalled our Pokémon and sent out our last remaining Pokémon.
“Pidgeotto! Use Gust!”
“Nidorino! Poison Sting!”
Pidgeotto flapped her mighty wings, causing a mini-typhoon to form thanks to the rain. The storm hit the Stunfisk, sending it skywards. Nidorino jumped in the air and struck the fish-thing square in the middle with its horn. For whatever reason, the Stunfisk showed more pain from receiving those attacks than when we had used water attacks. The devil fish fell to the ground, finally knocked out. The rain started to let up. We both reached into our bags for a Poké Ball. As it turns out, Greg didn’t have any and I only had one left. It was drilled into our heads in school that you should always have at least one usable Poké Ball in your possession at any point in time in case a strong Pokémon attacks you. That way, you could throw the ball at the Pokémon and, as it’s in the Poké Ball, even if it only shakes once, that gives you enough time to get a head start on running away as quickly as possible.
Screw that. I chucked the last Poké Ball at the Stunfisk. I was gonna make it a part of my team. If it could take down Poliwag and Lombre, and potentially Geodude and Pidgeotto as well, then it belonged with me, where I can sic it on Greg whenever I want.
“Hey!” shouted Greg.
The ball shook once, the ball shook twice, the ball shook thrice…
And then the son of a bitch popped out of the ball and materialized back into the grass, rendering our last Poké Ball useless. The sleeping, smiling Stunfisk laid there, ripe for the catching, but there was nothing I could do about it.
“Serves you right,” said Greg. “Didn’t they teach you ANYTHING in school, or were you just too stupid to comprehend it?”
“You’re just jealous that you couldn’t catch that thing for yourself.”
“I wouldn’t want that thing on my team even if it melted your Beldum down into a nickel.”
The flat fish started to stir.
“We better get out of here before that thing takes out Nidorino,” I advised.
“It’ll massacre Pidgeotto first,” Greg replied.
We backed away and ran in the direction we were heading in before the Stunfisk attacked us.
~~~
The moon was hidden behind clouds when we finally reached Floaroma Town. A bright, reddish glow could be seen on the horizon over some lifeless buildings. Music could faintly be heard coming from the glow along with the sound of people’s voices. What was happening wasn’t important right then, though. My Pokémon needed to be healed, and for that to happen, we needed to find a Poké Center. As official Map Person, I located the site on the atlas and led Greg and me to the place. Walking there, we noticed that almost all of the buildings were without light, neither electrical nor candlelit. They seemed pretty vacant.
Upon entering the Center, we noticed that it, too, seemed devoid of people. Fortunately, Nurse Allison still seemed to be on the clock.
“Good evening. Do your Pokemon need healing?”
“Yes, they’re all pretty banged up. We had a long day and got lost along the way, so we haven’t been able to heal them properly today,” Greg explained.
We handed her our Poké Balls.
“Potions will be vital to your journey,” she said.
“We ran out after we got lost,” Greg replied.
“Well the Poké Mart is closed for the night due to the festival, so you’ll have to wait until tomorrow to buy some more.”
“Festival?” I asked.
“Yes, the ‘Floaroma Fantastic Festival’ that’s being held at Floaroma Meadow,” she explained whilst evaluating our Pokémon. “It’s an annual event that’s held here every year to celebrate Shaymin’s blessing of this land. It’s quite a popular event here in Sinnoh. It draws many out-of-region visitors to it, which is unfortunately why we cannot house you two tonight.”
“You’re full?” Greg asked incredulously.
“Yes. You might be able to find a hotel room for the night, but I’d hurry. They’ve been filling up fast because of the festival.”
She looked at the computer monitor.
“Because of your Pokémon’s condition, you won’t be able to retrieve them until tomorrow morning. They’ll need the full night to recover.”
Great. So we had no room to sleep in and no Pokémon. AND we still haven’t found a place to eat yet.
“If nothing else, you should go see the festival. It only happens once a year and is quite spectacular,” she offered.
“Okay. Thanks,” Greg said, turning around to exit the Center.
Once we were outside…
“So exactly how many times are we going to be without Pokémon?” I asked. “You know, us Pokémon trainers? That train Pokémon? Which usually involve having Pokémon?”
“It’ll become less common when we catch more Pokémon. Once we get more than six, then we can start rotating them around.”
“But this is happening far more often than it should.”
He didn’t say anything. Then he tried to change the topic.
“We should go see what this festival is all about. They might have food there.”
He started walking toward the glow. I followed.
~~~
We found out upon arriving that the glow was caused by a huge bonfire. The area surrounding the place was decked out in floral arrangements, with the artificial decorations all some shade of green. People were dressed like they were Sevii Island natives; flowers in their hair, girls in short skirts, guys in unbuttoned loose shirts with floral patterns on them, everyone wearing open-toed sandals or flip flops. The sounds of the voices we heard were the people clamoring about, chatting excitedly about this and that. It had the feel of a family reunion to it. The music was live, instruments of all kinds played by musicians. To one side of the festival, there was a long banquet table full of food. I immediately made my way there, starving after having not eaten in a long while. Greg walked over looking less obvious that he was famished.
I piled a plate full of food, some grapes spilling over the edge and falling to the floor. A small Pokémon I didn’t recognize came up and ate the grapes before I even had the chance to pick them up. It looked like a small, quadruped Grumpig, if it was a fire type. It looked up to me to see if I would continue feeding it.
“No, this food is mine,” I told it, holding my plate closer to my face. “Go evolve into something taller and get your own.”
The Pokémon looked sad and walked away.
~~~
The festival was really enjoyable. We mingled a little bit and after I cleared my plate, I went back and filled it up again. I was slowly starting to realize that big amounts of free food were going to become a rare and most wonderful event in my life. It wasn’t until my third trip that I thought about scanning the food table for anything Beldum might eat. Well, it might eat the table itself, but I don’t think the owner would like that.
“When you’re done eating everyone out of house and home,” Greg had said to me, “we should get going. We need to find a place to sleep for the night.”
When he thought I wasn’t looking, he went back to the banquet for a second helping of free food.
~~~
We did finally manage to find a place to stay for the night at one of the motels. They offered a discount for trainers and had a room left available. Even with the discount, though, it managed to put a dent in my wallet. Also, the room only had one bed, and Greg didn’t want to sleep on the floor, so I had to share it with him. We were both uncomfortable.
~~~
The next morning, we went to the Center to pick up our Pokémon. On our way there, we passed by the festival site and saw some people already cleaning up the place.
“Good morning. I hope you found a place to rest last night,” Nurse Allison said when we arrived at the Center.
“We did, thank you,” I replied.
“That’s great. Your Pokémon are ready for you now. Let me go get them.”
She went into the backroom and soon came back with our Poké Balls.
“Here you go. Have a good rest of the day.”
We thanked her and left the counter. We stopped by the Poké Mart to restock our supplies, once again being reminded of just how little money we had. We couldn’t afford any Revives or Full Heals, so we had to stick with basic potions, Paralyze Heal, and Antidotes. We needed to start becoming more proactive in seeking trainers to fight.
“The gym leader here uses grass types, which is good for me since everyone but Poliwag has some sort of an advantage over grass types. You, on the other hand, have Nidorino and that’s about it.”
“And I can see how this will all play out: you standing there, your Pokémon laying crumpled on top of one another, thanks to a Hoppip that you just couldn’t defeat, and then there’s me, blazing through with Nidorino, toppling everything she throws at me.”
“…I hope she has an Exeggcute. That’ll stop your horny bunny cold.”
“A Sunkern. That’s what she’ll use to do you in.”
As we bickered, I put more thought into challenging the gym leader. Perhaps my Pokémon aren’t strong enough to take her on. It’s the second gym leader in Sinnoh. They’re bound to stop pulling punches eventually, and the second leader seems about the right time to do so. Greg faced a fully evolved Pokémon in his first gym match. I perhaps got lucky that mine was more of an endurance match. Now that we were within safe distance of a town, we could afford to go out and battle more trainers and wild Pokémon, at least more recklessly than we had been. There was no need to rush this, after all (except for getting the badge before Greg does, of course). As we exited the Center, we decided that it would be best to train some more before challenging the gym (and for me to catch some more Pokémon to use against Greg).
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