Hello again, peeps. I hope your enjoyed the first chapter, and is ready for the first battle in the story. And looking forward to a deeper dive into how Drake's life was before meeting Lou.
As Drake woke up, on the day of his battle against Toran. He thought "Why did I ever agree to this battle?"
He knew Lou was getting stronger, his opponent had served in the army. So, who knew how strong his Pokémon was. Drake could not back out of the challenge. He had sat the five-day time limit to make sure that Lou would be fully healed, and that they could train a bit.
The training had gone surprisingly well, at least to Drake's standard, for what was good. The last day had been the worst, trying to make Lou think independently had not gone well. Lou had been doing ten different training segments in the span of half an hour. Drake had stopped him, after seeing this and talked with him about focusing on one segment at a time. Lou had tried to understand it, but went straight back to his old ways. Drake knew it would requires months of training, to get Lou to a point where he could train his owns segments.
Drake looked at his watch and realized it was about time, for him and Lou to head towards the arena. Drake, went and woke up Lou from his sleep and told him it was time. Lou's quickly got up and did some light exercises.
Drake and Lou left the Pokémon Hotel after having paid their bill. The arena was in Saffron City's eastern Park. They arrived half an hour earlier than planned to warm up.
Lou jumped down from Drake's shoulder and started doing his warmup regime which also consisted of ten different segments.
Meanwhile Drake looked at the arena. The arena flooring was sandy, and roughly the size of a tennis court. To the left were benches, while there too the right was a high tower with a seat in it. There were no obvious hiding spots. Drake tried to form a plan in his head of how him and Lou was going to fight.
"Hey hero, how are you doing?" a deep voice said from behind Drake. Drake turned around and saw it was Toran. He was wearing the same black leather jacket, he had been wearing the day Drake had met him.
"Can you please stop calling me a hero! I am not a hero" Drake said with determination.
"Cheer up lad, just because you don't mean you're a hero, others do, myself included" Toran said.
Drake turned his back, to Toran and went over to Lou to talk plans with him. Toran went over to the other side and released his Pokémon. A black creature with long claws and a feather on its head came out. It started running around, warming up. Drake looked at is ran around, it was stupidly fast. Lou noticed too, and found the nearest thing he could punch, so he could get Drake's focus back on him. Sadly, the closest thing for Lou to hit, was Drake. Nonetheless that didn't stop Lou from punching him. As the punch landed on Drake, he fell backwards. Lou started giggling as Drake hit the ground. Drake starred angrily at Lou for having punched him to the ground. A deep laughter could be heard from the other side of the field.
"I have not seen something that funny since Lt. Surge got shocked by his Raichu" Toran said while laughing.
Out of a nearby pathway Avian the homeless shelters leader came walking with a lot of people in tow.
"Hello, my dears, you ready for a battle today?" Avian said.
Drake had gotten to his feet by this point and answered Avian's question with a nod. Toran gave a thumb up.
"Then let's get started" she said.
While Drake and Toran got into position on each of their end, the crowd sat down on the benches and Avian climbed the tower.
"This battle is between Toran Crowley of Pewter City, and Drake Clarkson of Saffron City. This battle is a one vs one, once a trainers Pokémon is knocked unconscious or forfeited, the battle is over." Avian said with a big grin on her face.
Drake understood the rules he had after all seen some battles as a child. "Trainers get ready!" Avian yelled.
"I choose you Lou!" Drake yelled, Lou jumped out on the field waiting for his opponent. "I choose you Sneasel!" Toran yelled, the Pokémon that had been running around the side of the field came charging into the field, and flexed its sharp claws. "Trainers let the battle begin!" Avian yelled from the tower.
"Sneasel us fake out" Toran commanded. "Lou dodge it" Drake yelled towards Lou.
Lou did not get the chance to react, cause when he started moving, the Sneasel was already in front of him and delivered a punch to his legs.
Lou collapsed, Sneasel then stretched his fangs ready to deliver a swipe. "Lou defend yourself" Drake yelled.
Lou heard this and grabbed the Sneasel's arm when it began its swipe towards Lou. The swipe connected with Lou's face. Lou however, had gotten a good grip on the arm, he delivered a clear punch into Sneasel's stomach. The Sneasel went flying as the punch connected, as it stood up it threw up. Lou wiped away the blood from his eyes.
"Sneasel don't get to close, use long range attacks!" Toran yelled.
Sneasel started forming ice crystals out of thin air. "Lou try and get close, you have the advantage in close combat" Drake said with a calm voice.
As Lou started moving towards Sneasel, it began throwing the ice crystals towards him. Lou dodge a couple of them, most of them still scratched and made cuts on his arm. The Sneasel started moving out of the way, when Lou began getting to close. The match continued like this for five minutes until Lou was breathing heavily from the damage the ice crystals were doing.
"Lou, change of pace, whip up some sand and block Sneasel's vision" Drake said worried. Lou started digging into the ground and throwing sand into the air. "Sneasel get close you need to find him" Toran said confidently. "Lou think for yourself now" Drake said. The crow looked at him wondering what he meant by that command.
Avian looked down at Drake, wondering why he, was trying to do something only experienced trainers would do. She looked back towards the field, Toran's Sneasel went into the sand cloud. And came flying out again, just like it had when Lou had landed a punch the first time. After getting up Sneasel began breathing heavily. The sand cloud started to disperse and Lou was also breathing heavily, from the hard work of creating the sand cloud, and then also delivering a powerful punch.
"Get in close again and use ice punch" Toran said. Drake said nothing he would let Lou handle it on his own. As Drake was analyzing the battelfield, waiting for the Sneasel to get close to Lou, he noticed it had dropped much of its speed. "Lou, attack!" Drake yelled. Lou began charging forward, preparing his fist to hit with full force. He could feel that he was about to drop, if he did not finish the match soon.
As the two Pokémons met each other at the center, their attacks collide with such force that a dust cloud was created.
Avian stood up from the chair, waiting for the dust cloud to disperse. When the dust cloud dispersed the Pokémons were both on the floor. Sneasel's arm had been twisted and one of its claws had broken off. While Lou's face had been slashed quite badly and had a deep cut. None of them seemed like they were going to get up anytime. As Avian was about to call the match a tie, Lou started to stand up. Drake took the pokéball of his belt and pointed it towards Lou and recalled him. "Drake has forfeited the match; therefore, the winner is Toran and Sneasel" Avian said confused.
Drake quickly got away from the arena and found the nearest Pokémon center.
He was lucky no one was in line for treatment. He went up to the desk and handed over the pokéball to the nurse after having explained why he had no ID.
The nurse went into the backroom, and Drake chose to sit down.
"If Lou had gotten up there, he would have gotten seriously injured. His legs were shaking too much for him to keep his balance." Drake thought.
He remembered why he had never gotten into the hole training world. He had seen plenty of young people die in battle both in a regular field of training and on the war fronts. Those days he hated to remember the most. He had joined the journalist corps of the biggest newspaper in Kanto after he had graduated. He had told his employer, that he was willing to cover military zones, since he had been in the army for four years. As Drake was sitting in deep thought the nurse said something that pulled him out of his thoughts.
"Sir, your Pokémon is ready to be picked up" the nurse said. Drake got Lou's pokéball. She told him that he should take it easy with training for the next two days.
Drake left the Pokémon center and found the nearest park so he could talk with Lou
Lou materialized after Drake had pushed the pokéball. Drake quickly said, "I'm so sorry Lou".
Lou looked at Drake with his shining brown eyes, and released a small cry. The cry was weak. Drake fell to his knee after hearing the weak cry and hugged Lou.
"Lou I'm so sorry, I'm so sorry we lost, I'm so sorry you got hurt" Drake said with tears rolling down his cheeks. Lou released another cry and tears was also building up in his eyes. The two followed along crying and releasing small grunts. After a while Drake wiped away the tears, and stood up. He kept holding Lou in his arms.
Drake started walking towards the alley, him and Lou had met in for the first time.
"Can you remember this place?" Drake asked Lou.
Lou nodded, and started looking around. Drake started walking down the alleyway. The walk was done in silence none of the two said anything, you could only hear their breathing and Drake's footsteps. When they got to the end of the alley Drake said, "I promise that I will never let you get that hurt again Lou." Lou looked at Drake, and gave him a kiss on the cheek.
Two days later.
The sun was high on Route 6, Drake and Lou had chosen to go towards Vermilion City. Drake knew he needed a trainer ID, so he could benefit of free housing in the Pokémon centers around the Kanto region. To do this he would need to get to the registration office in Viridian City. Why he had chosen to not go through Mt. Moon and Pewter City. Was because he had heard about the dangerous wild Pokémon living in the mountain region. Therefore, going southward first and then boarding a ship from Vermillion to Pallet Town had been the obvious choice. The time on the route would also let him and Lou train against wild Pokémon, and do their daily training. Since they were in no rush to get to Vermilion City. Their days began with most of their first hours awake training the basic techniques that they had begun upon in Saffron. The first day on their travels they had kept their training pace slow to make sure that Lou did not open his wounds. Other than that, they had not run into any trainers or wild Pokémons. The second day their pace of training had not gotten faster. Though they did run into a flock of Pidgey. The flock of Pidgey noticed the two of them, and one of them dared to challenge Lou. Drake decided it would be good for Lou to gain some experience fighting other Pokémon that did not have a trainer to assist them.
Lou had decided to use the tactic he had against Sneasel, where he limited vision of him by making a dust cloud. The Pidgey chose to run into the cloud to tackle Lou.
Lou could feel this, but did not know why. He used this strange feeling to predict how he needed to dodge the attack. He then launched a counterattack with 3 quick jabs to the Pidgey's head. The Pidgey dizzied by the punches slammed its wings against Lou. Lou blocked the attack. He could feel that his arms took a heavy toll blocking it. He then decided to close the gap, that was between the two and grabbed a handful of sand while running. In the meantime, Drake was making sure that the other Pidgey did not come their brave comrade to aid. As Lou got in range of the bird he threw the sand at it. The bird blocked it with its wing, but was not fast enough to react to dodge Lou's headbutt. The headbutt connected with such a force that the Pidgey was carried over Lou's back and landed on the ground. The bird was not getting up. Lou released a victory cry that sounded metallic. Drake then quickly recalled Lou to his pokéball and started running from the angry bird flock.
As they had gotten far enough away from the flock Drake released Lou again.
"Good job Lou" Drake said with a lot of enthusiasm. Lou jumped in excitement to show how happy he was. He then found the nearest tree and put a mark into it. "This must be his way of counting his victories" Drake thought. "Well time to get back on the route" Drake said out loud.
Their adventure continued in the same style training in the morning. Then traveling as far as they could get before needing to camp. They continued like this for five more days.
As Drake reached the top of a hill he could see the harbor of Vermillion in the horizon. Cruise ships were laying in the harbor. Drake hoped that there would be a ship that could carry him cheaply to Pallet Town. The supplies they had gotten before leaving Saffron, had cost him most of his savings. Therefor an expensive trip was out of the question and traveling by land would mean a longer trip. Lou sitting on Drake's shoulder noticed the ships and kept starring towards them. He wondered how such a big piece of metal could float.
They started walking towards Vermilion. Drake reminisced over an encounter that could have gone wrong.
An encounter with a Elekid had nearly ended in a shocking end. It had attacked out of the blue when Drake and Lou had passed by. Drake quickly realized that they needed to get out of their and therefore ran as fast as he could. The Elekid did not stop chasing them, luckily for Drake he ran into two rangers that he asked for help to stop the rampaging Pokémon. They did so and saved Drake and Lou from a quick ending to a short journey.
They arrived around noon in Vermilion.
Drake was sweating and Lou weight was starting to become bit of an annoyance rather than a training mechanism. As they got close enough to the city Drake noticed that there only were a few skyscrapers. Most of the town was built in terraced house quarters. Towards the harbors there were big storehouses to store the containers the ships brought in. Drake asked one of the locals where he could find a Pokémon center. The person said he could find the closest one, near the harbor, and that Drake just needed to straight from here and if he did so he could not miss it.
Drake found the Pokémon center quite easily and put Lou in the nurse's care.
While waiting for Lou to get healed up, Drake had asked some of the trainers in the lounge if they knew about any sailors sailing cheaply to Pallet Town. None of them could give him and answer most of them were still children. Drake felt very out of place, being probably more than double their age. There were some teens in the lounge but they kept to themselves and just told Drake to piss off.
"Drake is that you?" someone with a high-pitched voice said. Drake turned around to see a blonde-haired woman in her early twenties. "Rebecca?" Drake said. "Yes, what in the world are you doing in Vermilion?" Rebecca asked. "Eh, that's a long story" Drake answered. "I got time for a story" she answered.
Drake told the story of how he had ended up in Vermilion leaving out some details.
"Wow, that is a wild journey" Rebecca said amazed. "Is there a Drake in here? Lou is ready to be picked up" a nurse said. Drake quickly got to the desk and picked Lou's pokéball up. "Show me you partner" Rebecca demanded. Drake pointed towards the door and walked outside to let Lou out. Lou quickly materialized from the pokéball and noticed a woman to Drake's left side. She was staring at him, Drake introduced the two to each other.
A couple of hours later
Rebecca had invited Drake and Lou into her room at the Pokémon center they had just left. "So basically, all you need is someone to sail you to Pallet Town?" Rebecca said. Drake nodded while he was petting the Purrloin Rebecca had in her room. Lou was sleeping next to Drake. "Do you know anyone that can help me?" Drake asked. Rebecca sat for a bit thinking. "Maybe I do" she answered. She left the room and said she would be back in a bit.
"Prrrruuu" the Purrloin purred. Drake had never seen a Purrloin before. Rebecca had told him that it was a gift from one of her friends from Unova. Drake knew little about Unova other than it was hard for foreigners to enter the country. Rebecca was a well know trainer, and had served in The Ranger Corps in Kanto. Drake had met Rebecca when he was writing an article about said corps. That was roughly 5 years ago. As Drake was thinking about the past the door slammed open and Rebecca came fuming in. "That idiot!" she said angrily. "How does he not get that he owes me a favor!" She said even angrier. "Calm down Rebecca" Drake said with a calm voice. "You want me to calm down, okay Drake battle me here and now!" She said annoyed.
The two of them and their Pokémon went outside to the battle arena build behind the center.
It was getting dark, and Drake had already annoyed Rebecca enough, so he had agreed to her terms. He knew how she was when she was angry. "Lou, you ready for this we can't annoy her anymore by not giving her a good battle, understand?" Drake said calm and collected. Lou nodded and went out on the battlefield. "Just so you know, Purrloin is my newest addition to the team, so I use her against you" Rebecca said with annoyance.
"Lou get nice and close!" Drake yelled. "Be ready" Rebecca said.
The two Pokémon clashed against each other delivering scratches and punches. Purrloin tried to dodge as many of the punches Lou was trying to land while scratching him when he dropped his defense for offense. "Lou don't drop you defense so often, you wear yourself out this way, use special tactic one!" Drake yelled.
"Get back Purr" Rebecca cried out. Lou stopped his offensive, and spun in a circle kicking up dust into the air. "PURRRRRR!" the Purloin cried as it lost vision of its opponent. "Purr use dark pulse to blow the cloud away" Rebecca commanded.
Purr started gathering the darkness in the surrounding area. Drake could not see what was happening since the cloud of dust also limited his vision. Purr released a dark wave of energy in the ground causing a shockwave to appear. The nearby lights flickered as concentrated darkness surged by.
Lou had in the charge up time snuck behind Purr, getting ready to hit her. Sadly, for him the disturbance of the light caused him to lose sight of Purr. "Purr finish him!" Rebecca cried out. From the darkness Purr came out with a claw swirling with darkness. As the claw landed Lou cried out in pain when he went flying from one end of the arena to the other end. "Lou" Drake cried out, while running towards him. Lou tried to get up but the claw had landed on his right leg and caused a massive cut into it.
"Stay down Lou I'm coming" Drake yelled while tears were starting to build up in his eyes. As Drake got close enough to Lou he picked him up and ran into the center to get him healed up. Rebecca quickly recalled Purr, and ran after Drake so she could say sorry.
Rebecca apologized to Drake for what happened while Lou was getting treatment.
"I know this is what I signed up for, when I became a trainer" he said, wiping away the tears. Rebecca hugged him telling him that she was so sorry she did not mean to injure Lou that badly. "Mister your Pokémon is ready to be picked up" the nurse said. Drake was told that Lou would be ready for more action the day after, the cut had not gotten into the muscles. The two trainers went to Rebecca's room to sleep for the night.
Next morning
Drake woke up when he could hear Lou walking around on the floor. Lou was testing out his leg to see how much strain he could put on it. Drake got out of bed to look at Lou training his leg. "Want to go out to train?" Drake asked Lou.
Lou nodded and Drake quickly got into his pants and t-shirt. They asked the nurse on duty where they could train in the city and she told him that there was a training facility under the center he could use. Drake thanked her and followed the instruction she had given on how to get there.
As they entered the facility they saw five trainers already training. Drake was surprised with how little damage the facility had taken since he assumed many trainers used it. Lou quickly spotted the punching bag and started his punching exercise. Drake started doing some light weightlifting.
Hours went by down in the facility, Lou and Drake each did 5-7 different exercises and in the end finished their session up with a punching contest on a machine that measured their punching strength. Drake scored 150 points, and Lou scored 165 points.
"This is where you been hiding" Rebecca said, making sure Drake and Lou heard her. They both turned around sweating from top to bottom. "Eww you guys stink, go get a bath, I found someone that will sail you to Pallet, if you do him a task" Rebecca said worried. "Don't worry about yesterday Rebecca, Lou is already in tip top shape, and thanks for that, see you in thirty" Drake said exiting the facility.
Rebecca took Drake to the harbor where they found a boat saying "Willhelm's fortune".
"Willhelm were here" Rebecca yelled.
And thus, this chapter ends. As you probably noticed Drake isn't the most experienced trainer. Well who would be after 14 days of getting your first Pokémon. We can't all be champions from the beginning. I hope you enjoyed the way I described the battles. I am not inclined to tell you what move the Pokémon's are using, but more trying to let you guess by the description of it. Only powerful moves will be described with a name, just like dark pulse or special moves that does certain things. As in the real world, when you battle injuries are bound to happen. Lou will be getting light injuries for what is happening now while training and battling since he is fighting against equally matched opponents. The Ranger Corps in this story is a militia the Kanto government has created to handle small scales Pokémon rampages. And yes, I know I promised you a deeper dive into the poverty of this world. That will be coming with Willhelm's task for Drake. Thanks for reading hope you enjoyed it, leave a follow or a review if you did.
