"Oh come on, Cinder. You won't even have to fight much." Jace was busy trying to give his Cyndaquil a pep talk before going into the Pewter City Gym. Cyndaquil was adamant about not going in there though, shaking his head furiously in refusal. Jace sighed as he reached into his backpack.
"I'll make your favorite for dinner tonight…" Jace shook the small bottle of soy sauce. Cinder's determination faltered for just a second, and he looked at the bottle longingly. Cinder groaned a little. Jace perked up as Cinder's head drooped. Jace was extremely confident as he walked into what he hoped would be his first successful gym challenge.
Jace had started his adventure only a week ago. His mom had made him stay in school and learn engineering until he was 16. But now he had a degree and was guaranteed a job after his journey. His mother had run out of excuses, and allowed him to set off.
Jace's first order of business was to challenge Lt Surge's gym before even really bothering to train Cinder. Of course he couldn't even get past the first round of the gym tournament. After suffering his first defeat, his courage did not falter. He simply trained a little and tried his luck in Cerulean, but lost in Misty's gym because of her huge type advantage against Cinder.
Despite Cinder having very poor type coverage for the gyms near his home town of Vermilion city' Jace absolutely refused to catch another Pokémon. Or rather, he completely failed to catch anything else. Jace had failed to catch a Caterpie because it used String Shot on him and he couldn't move. He couldn't catch a Pikachu because he literally couldn't keep up with it. All in all, Jace was a failure of a trainer. He did have one thing going for him though; he had incredible confidence and was eager to learn.
Jace had suffered two huge defeats, but still he pressed on and truly believed he could beat the Pewter Gym. Once inside, he registered for the tournament and patiently waited to find out his first round opponent. Luckily, he found himself facing off against a fellow rookie.
Like Jace, Leroy also had a single Pokémon. The crowd was gathered, the stage was readied and the announcer began.
"It appears that the rookie Leroy may not be a rookie after all. He's brought the grass-type Oddish to a Rock-type gym. I wonder what Jace has up his sleeve. Oh my! He's got a Cyndaquil! This fire type will demolish Leroy's Oddish. But he's going to have some serious trouble if he makes it to Brock."
The battle began, and Cinder's fire erupted. Cinder always looked happy when he was released from his Poke Ball. The Oddish seemed pretty shy though. Cinder looked around at all the rocks surrounding him and his flame died down ever so slightly. However, the second Cinder saw the Oddish his spark returned.
The Oddish started with a poison sting that grazed Cinder's cheek. Cinder retaliated with ember. Oddish quickly jumped behind a rock and the ember broke apart on impact with it. Cinder looked to Jace expectantly. Jace and Leroy were just letting the Pokémon do what they felt like doing so far.
Jace smirked a little. "Cinder, remember that trick we've been practicing lately? Now's the time to break it out." Cinder's fire blasted even more strongly than it did at the beginning. The stadium began to fill with black smoke. Leroy had no idea what to do. Cinder however, rushed to the enemy Oddish and unloaded a powerful ember attack.
"Oh my! I can't see what's going on, there's smoke everywhere. What will Leroy do about this? I suppose we'll just have to wait til the smoke clears to see the victor." The announcer found that his job was suddenly made much more difficult. Cinder ran out of the clearing smoke to Jace happily. Cinder jumped out of the arena's lines into Jace's open arms. Jace hugged Cinder and was praising him highly. But then the announcer began to talk.
"It seems that the smoke is finally clearing up. And Oddish is down! Unfortunately for Jace and Cinder, Cinder left the arena and is disqualified. Sorry Jace, better luck next time."
Jace was disappointed and Cinder noticed. But Jace smiled and carried Cinder out of the gym in his arms happily. "Even though we didn't win, I'm still proud of you buddy. You did great." Jace walked to a nearby motel. He left Cinder out of her Poke ball as a reward for doing so well.
At the motel, Jace boiled some rice and fried some sitrus berries. Mixing them together in the giant stir-fry wok, he reached for the soy sauce that Cinder loved so much. He patted them into rice balls and handed Cinder one. Cinder cooed before biting into the rice ball. Cinder smiled, hummed and started to rock side to side.
"I've got to stop spoiling you… Oh, who am I kidding? Come here and give me a hug." Cinder leapt from his seat into Jace's embrace. After dinner, Jace and Cinder went to sleep. They'd have a bit of training to do tomorrow.
The next morning, Jace awoke fairly early and took Cinder to the Viridian forest. Upon releasing Cinder from her poke ball, Jace started talking. "Smoke screen was great, even though it kinda backfired." Jace chuckled awkwardly at that. Cinder was still yawning, but Jace continued to speak. "Today's trick is gonna involve being really quick on your feet."
Cinder finally realized what was going on, and her flames lit weakly. "Cinder, why do you always have to be so difficult?" Cinder spat a small, weak fireball directly into Jace's face. Jace sighed. "Just run around in a circle for a little bit. And slowly turn up the flames on your back." Cinder reluctantly obeyed.
Slowly, the area around Cinder began to warm until the heat hurt Jace slightly. "Good job Cinder. I think heating up the area will make your fire attacks even stronger." Cinder looked at Jace perplexedly once she stopped running around. Jace was about to explain what he meant, but suddenly a Caterpie showed itself.
The heat made it come down from its tree to investigate. Cinder looked excited at the prospect of a fight. The Caterpie saw Cinder and immediately tried to immobilize it with string shot. However, the air was still hot and the string broke as soon as Cinder moved. Cinder rushed to the Caterpie in a Tackle attack, but was suddenly blown back by a gust of wind.
A Butterfree appeared to protect its young. Cinder and Jace weren't prepared for a 2 on 1, but Cinder didn't seem to care. Without even being given an order, Cinder launched an Ember attack at the Butterfree. Butterfree tried to blow it away, but instead it exploded knocking the Caterpie out. This only served to feed Cinder's confidence and disobedience.
Sadly, Cinder couldn't hit Butterfree with anything since it was flying. Jace suddenly got an idea. "Cinder, use Smoke Screen. Then warm the air." Cinder grunted at the order, but she obeyed. Jace had to cover his face with his hand to protect it from the heat, but he trusted Cinder to know what to do. Cinder used the smoke screen to rush into point blank range of Butterfree. The Butterfree tried again to blow Cinder and the smokescreen away, but instead it caused the ember to explode in its face.
After knocking out the Butterfree, Cinder cleared the smoke and jumped into Jace's open arms. Jace was holding Cinder in his arms as he started to talk to himself aloud. "I'm gonna need some new clothes." Jace placed Cinder on top of his head and started walking out of the Viridian forest. Cinder yawned and curled into a ball to sleep on top of Jace's head. Jace couldn't help but notice that Cinder's eyes glowed slightly purpleish during that battle and wondered what it could mean.
While Cinder slept at the motel, Jace took the opportunity to go to the store to buy some new clothes. "Let's see here; goggles for the smokescreen, fire-proof jacket for when it gets too hot, and some jeans should do the trick." After paying for everything, Jace realized he'd have to win the next tournament he entered or he'd be flat broke.
Jace returned to the motel to see that Cinder had woken up and was entertaining herself with a wooden Skitty doll. "That's not going to end well for the doll, is it?" Jace asked with a slight chuckle. Suddenly, Jace's phone rang. Cinder looked at Jace confusedly as he talked on the phone.
It was Jace's mom, calling to check up on him. Jace had an embarrassed look on his face for the entire conversation. Not 30 seconds after hanging up with his mom, Jace's phone rang again. This time it was his best friend Victor, who was in Pewter and wanted to hang out.
Jace met Victor in front of a restaurant. "You are such a fatty," Jace started to tease Victor while ruffling his hair. "First place you visit in a town is always a restaurant." Victor frowned at Jace's messing up his hair but then smiled at seeing his best friend after a while. Victor then looked down.
Cinder was shyly hiding behind Jace's jeans leg. Jace sighed and picked Cinder up, holding her in his arms. Victor's mouth opened in slight surprise at Jace finally getting a Pokémon of his own. Victor reached to his waist and pulled out a Poke ball. Victor's Eevee started to purr and rub against Jace's leg. Cinder's expression suddenly changed to one of curiosity when she saw Eevee.
Jace let Cinder down, and Cinder and Eevee ran off to the nearby park together. "So Jacey, got any badges yet?" Victor asked. Jace looked despondent at being reminded of his failures. Victor caught on pretty quickly and tried to change the subject. "Your Cyndaquil looks pretty happy with you. When were you planning on telling me you got one?"
Jace chuckled a little and they made their way to a table at the restaurant before saying "I was gonna surprise you in one of those contests you're so fond of. What do you even get for winning those?" Victor's face lit up at the mention of contests.
"I've only won a few, even though I've been at it for a few months." Victor pulled out a box and continued speaking "I won one on Cinnabar, one in Fuchsia, and one in Saffron." Jace sighed because he knew this conversation would last a while. "Each city gives you a different reward based on either the town's history, the gym leader's specialty type, or a fashion trend going on." Jace would mutter words of approval between each sentence, switching between "oh, ah, ah ha, and mhmm."
Victor caught himself rambling just as the food arrived. After lunch the boys decided to pick up their Pokémon from the park. "Cinder, come on. It's time to go home." Cinder perked up and ran halfway to Jace, but stopped and went back to Victor's Eevee. "Ruby, that applies to you too. We've got to get you ready for next week's contest." Ruby started to trot over to Victor and Cinder ran to Jace.
Cinder eyed Victor suspiciously. But Victor reached into his bag to pull out a case. "I won this in Cinnabar, but it won't be doing me much good." Cinder kept his eyes trained on Victor as he wrapped the necklace around Cinder's neck. ''It's a lava pebble, it apparently helps fire-types find their inner flame and makes them much more comfortable."
With that, Victor checked his watch and began to leave. "Later Jacey, I hope you'll be able to watch one of my contests soon." Cinder was playing around with the pebble with her stubby paws. But once he realized Victor was leaving, she jumped out of Jace's arms and chased him down to give him a hug. Victor bent down and patted the happy Cinder on the head before leaving.
Cinder ran back to Jace and started tugging at Jace's jeans leg. Jace followed where Cinder was trying to lead him. The Pewter Gym, Jace looked down at Cinder and asked "Are you sure?" Cinder's nod was the only answer he needed. The next tournament wouldn't be until tomorrow, but Jace and Cinder were already pumped.