Critical Hit: Kanto Adventure
Part 1: The Insanity Begins!
"Leaf."
Who the heck was calling me? Can't they see that I'm sleeping? Inconsiderate assholes. I was having an awesome dream of publicly humiliating Douche by having Static electrocute him. Hehe… Serves him right for— Holy crap! I can't breathe! I suddenly sat up, looking around in a panic. Red stood beside my bed, looking at me with a slightly annoyed expression.
"Red? Why are you here," I asked, taking in my surroundings. "And where the hell am I?"
"The Pokémon Center, remember? We came in here last night to sleep and heal our Pokémon."
"Oh, yeah," I said, feeling a little embarrassed that I forgot. "Hold on a second. Why are you in my room?"
Before he could answer, I gasped.
"You were snooping through my stuff, weren't you," I yelled accusingly. "Trying to do a panty raid or something?"
"Believe me. You're the last person I would ever do that to," he said, looking rather disgusted. "I only came in here to wake you up so we could check out the gym. But, you wouldn't wake up so I pinched your nose to keep you from breathing."
"What? You didn't have to do that! What if I suffocated in my sleep?"
"I'm not so dumb as to kill you in your sleep."
"Okay," I said, not sure if he'd kill me when I'm awake. "Could you get out? I want to change out of my pajamas. The sooner you leave, the sooner we can see the gym."
He quickly turned around and walked out the door. Talk about eager… I lifted the bed sheets and got out of bed, picking up my bag that was near my bed. I looked through my bag until I found what I was looking for: Another identical pair of the same clothes I wore the day before. And why did I have identical clothes you ask? It's all thanks to my crazy mother. She had gone shopping in Viridian and saw a great bargain sale at a clothing store. The idea of variety didn't occur to her, being that she bought a whole bunch of matching shirts and skirts for me.
I confronted her about this and she told me, "That was all they had for the sale." Either that was the truth or a very elaborate lie. It didn't matter though… I was stuck with all these clothes. But it gets freaking annoying when people ask me if I wore the same clothes yesterday, especially the ones I have explained this wardrobe predicament to.
Anyway, I quickly changed into my clothes, stuffing my pajamas in the bag. I slung my bag over my shoulder, walking out of the room. I walked through a short hallway, and went downstairs. I could already see Red waiting impatiently for me. It seemed that he got his Pokémon back, being that there were pokéballs on his trainer belt. I ignored him for the moment, instead turning my attention to the nurse behind the front counter.
"Excuse me," I said, getting her attention. "Are my Pokémon all healed?"
"Why, yes, they are. What was your name again," she asked me.
"Leaf," I replied. I highly doubt that there were other people with the same name as me.
"Oh, now I remember," she said, looking a little embarrassed. She looked behind the counter, and took out a tray with three pokéballs in it.
"Thanks," I said, clipping the pokéballs to my belt. I then turned to Red, signaling him that I was ready to go. We walked out of the Pokémon Center, and scanned the area for the gym.
"Found it," said Red, pointing to a building that was behind the Pokémon Center. How did we miss that when we first arrived here? We walked down the street, following the path that leads to the gym. My mind was busy thinking of the possible types of Pokémon that the gym leader might use. Maybe it will be bug-types. Yeah… That will definitely be an easy win. Flare and Breeze will take them out in five minutes. I snapped out of my musings when we stood before the gym. There was a rather large sign outside, and the possibilities of an easy victory were crushed before my eyes.
"Rock-types," I yelled, catching Red by surprise. "This gym uses rock-types?"
"Obviously," said Red, pointing at the sign. "'Brock: The Rock-Solid Pokémon Trainer.'"
"I know what it says! I can read!"
"Why are you so angry?"
"I thought that he would use a different type of Pokémon! With the team I have now, I can't face him yet."
"I see… What about me?"
"What about you?"
"Can I challenge him now?"
"You idiot! Of course you can! Bulbasaur can easily beat him! Don't you know anything about Pokémon types?"
One look from him said everything. Unlike me, he didn't read up on Pokémon. Although I only read up on types, that alone helped me figure out what kind of types are Pokémon just by their appearances. So far, there have been no mistakes. But, that didn't matter now. What mattered was that my team wasn't ready to fight against a bunch of rocks. There's something about that sentence that sounds rather pathetic.
"I'm off to train," I huffed, walking away from Red. I walked through the streets until I left the city, going back to that short road that leads to Viridian Forest. That field of grass will definitely help make my Pokémon stronger. Static needs the training more right now, especially since he was recently caught. I tossed out his pokéball, and he appeared, giving me a curious look. Then, our training started. There was a slightly different variety of Pokémon in the field. Proof of that would be that there were Caterpies and Weedles there. Whoop-dee-freaking-doo.
An hour went by until I was sure Static's strength could match up with the rest of my team. I called back Static, and focused my attention on Flare. It was his turn to get some training, and when he has received enough training, Breeze will be next. It's going to be a lot of hard work but it'll be worth it in the end. However, there is still the issue that Brock uses rock-type Pokémon. None of my Pokémon can match up to that. Rock-types are weak against water, grass, ground, fighting, and steel moves… Damn it. I don't think my Pokémon can learn any of those moves either.
"Hey," said a voice behind me. I turned around and saw Red standing on the side of the road.
"What are you doing here," I asked him, walking up to him.
"I have to do some training myself," he replied.
"What? Did you lose against Brock?"
"No, I won the gym badge already. I'm just here to train Pikachu."
"Oh," I said, my heart sinking a little. He waved at me, and then went to Viridian Forest. This sucks ass… Red won the badge and all I'm doing is training Pokémon that won't stand a chance against Brock. There has to be a way around this. My stomach growled loudly, and Flare looked up at me with a smirk on his face. That smirk disappeared when his stomach growled as well.
"Guess it's time to take a break," I said, walking back to Pewter City. Flare walked close to me while I searched for someplace we can eat. I spotted a PokéMart not too far away from us. Surely they have food, right? We quickly walked over there, and went through the glass door. The mart had a wide variety of items. Pokéballs, potions, escape ropes, repels… Everything except food. That's just great. I looked over at Flare, who was wandering off. I followed him to make sure he wouldn't get lost. Well, not that he can get lost. The mart was rather small.
Anyway, Flare went to the last aisle in the back of the mart. To my amazement, there was food there, both human and Pokémon. I quickly grabbed a bunch of instant ramen while Flare grabbed a couple bags of Pokémon food. We carried our goods to the register in the front while the clerk gave us some strange looks. I dumped my food on the counter, and then put the bags that Flare carried on the counter as well.
"Jeez," said the clerk, ringing up the purchases. "Do your parents starve you or something?"
"No, I just forgot to eat breakfast earlier," I replied, feeling a little embarrassed.
"That'll be $150."
I reached in the side pocket of my bag, and grabbed a handful of cash. I was so glad that all that food wasn't too much. However, it did take a good half out of it. I handed the clerk the required money and started stuffing all the food in my bag. We walked out of the mart and went back to the Route 2. We sat down near the fence, and took out our newly bought food. I let out Breeze and Static so that they could enjoy the meal as well. I opened the bag of Pokémon food and evenly divided it among the three of them. They immediately started eating, leaving me to prepare my own food.
Luckily, I had brought two plastic water bottles with me before I started this journey. Although, it will be very difficult to bring a bottle of water to a boil without melting it. Hm, there is one way but it's a long-shot. I took off my hat, using it to grab the top of the bottle, and held the bottle over Flare's tail flame. Was it bad to use my Pokémon as a stove? Maybe, but Flare wasn't complaining… Or so I thought. Flare noticed what I was doing and growled at me.
"Hey, I need to eat too, you know," I told him. He seemed to reluctantly accept my reason, and went back to eating. I guess he still isn't quite used to me… Can't blame him, though. It would be difficult to be attached to someone in one day. I looked at the water bottle, noticing that it had started bubbling. Wow, that was fast. I carefully put it down and opened up one of the ramen cups. With my hat acting as an oven mitt, I poured the water into the cup, and covered it up so that it can cook the noodles.
I looked back at my Pokémon, who had already finished their meals and looked very satisfied, and put my hat back on. They were staring at me, which I thought was really weird. A Charmander, Pidgey, and Pikachu… How much stronger can they become? I don't know if they were capable of evolving or not, but I was going to do all I could to help them get stronger. And to see if we can get stronger, we have to take on Brock. I checked my ramen, which were now cooked, and grabbed a pair of chopsticks I kept in my bag. I ate my meal quickly, feeling great resolve to continue training my Pokémon. I had to beat Brock; one way or another, I had to beat him. When I had finished eating, I picked up the mess and put it in my bag. I'll throw it out later.
I returned my Pokémon back to their pokéballs, and went back to the field. It was going to be a while before I take on Brock, but it will be worth it in the end. I set to work on training, and spent almost the whole day doing just that. During that time, my Pokémon had learned some new moves, specifically the Metal Claw move for Flare. But, I had to stop training them around sunset. They were exhausted and so was I. I looked in the direction of Viridian Forest, wondering if Red would show up. I hadn't seen him since this morning.
As if on cue, he appeared out of the forest's entrance, looking rather tired. I waved to him to get his attention, which successfully worked. He walked over to me and sighed.
"From the look of it, you still haven't challenged the gym," he said, looking at the setting sun.
"Hey, I'm just training my Pokémon so that challenging him will be a cinch," I said, putting a hand on my hip.
"I see. Any progress on that?"
"Of course! Flare knows Metal Claw now! I'm going to keep training him so that he won't be beaten by a bunch of rocks."
"At any rate, we should head back to the Pokémon Center. The sun's setting, and it wouldn't be wise to stay up all night training."
"Yes, since you obviously know what's best."
He sighed again, walking by me. I chuckled a little before following him back to Pewter City. We went back to the Pokémon Center, and left our Pokémon with the nurse behind the counter. We ate dinner mostly in silence since contributing to a conversation is asking too much from Red. At least Blue, despite being an ass sometimes, talks back to you if you ask him something. I wonder how he's doing now? Wait, what do I care? I went to my room and changed into my pajamas. As I lay down on my bed, I had a feeling that tomorrow would be the day that I would challenge the gym. I'm just going to train my Pokémon a little more and then go get that badge.
….
"C'mon, just a little more," I said under my breath, watching Flare take out another Pidgey with Ember. The Pidgey fainted, and I picked up Flare to congratulate him.
"Good job, Flare," I said to him, hugging him. "I think we're ready to challenge the gym now."
I heard a strange sound coming from him, and I held him at arm's length to see what was wrong. His body began to glow a bright white color, causing me to quickly put him down on the ground. I watched as his figure began to change from his familiar look to something a little different. A bright, blinding light shone, making me look away from Flare. When I looked back at him, Flare was no longer there. Instead, a different kind of Pokémon stood before me.
It still kind of looked like Flare except that a horn had grown out of the back of his head, and that his claws had grown bigger. And he was a lot taller. From the look of it, he grew a whole foot taller and some inches, now waist-high to me. I was rather proud that I had helped him evolve into this different appearance.
"Congratulations," said a monotonous voice—undoubtedly my Pokédex—that came from my bag. "Your Charmander evolved into Charmeleon."
"Oh, we are definitely ready for the gym now," I said, looking at Flare. "Not only that, but you look a whole lot cooler, Flare."
He growled at me, and I realized how insulting my statement was.
"That is, you went from 'cute' to 'cool,'" I explained. He huffed, probably reluctantly accepting my excuse again. I returned him back to his pokéball, and I walked back to the city. I dropped by the Pokémon Center to quickly heal up my Pokémon. When that was done, I made a beeline to the gym. When I had arrived, I was surprised to see Red there.
"What the hell are you doing here," I asked him, causing him to look up. "You already got the badge!"
"I know that, but I just wanted to see how you'll do," he replied. "Also, I came to warn you that you shouldn't try to punch Brock when you defeat him. The gym leaders have to give you winning money."
"Oh, okay. Thanks for the warning." I walked through the gym's doors, my heart beating so fast that I thought it was going to burst out of my ribcage.
"Nervous," asked Red, looking straight at my eyes.
"As if," I replied, dismissing the question with a wave of my hand. "By the way—and this is out of curiosity—have any of your Pokémon evolved?"
"Yes, Bulbasaur did. He evolved when I defeated the gym trainer here."
"Gym trainer? Is that like one of Brock's minions or something?"
"Not really. They just train under the gym leader."
"Sounds like a minion to me."
"Hold it right there," yelled someone, making the both of us turn to the source.
"Speak of the devil," I said under my breath, watching a kid run up to me.
"Why are you here," asked the kid. "Do you really think you can defeat Brock?"
"Duh, it's not like I came here to ask him to take a survey or anything."
"Well, you're not even in the same class as Brock! You're light-years away from him!"
He tossed out a pokéball, and a Geodude appeared from it. I tipped my hat a little before sending out Flare. He made short work of Geodude, using only one Metal Claw move to knock him out.
"What was that about me not being in the same class as Brock," I asked the gym trainer.
He looked like he was thinking about something before he finally answered me.
"I just realized that light-years are a measure of time, not distance," he replied.
I slapped my forehead at what he said before moving on. Now wasn't the time for him to be talking about physics or whatever. Brock, who had been watching the previous battle, was standing close by, arms crossed over his chest. He wore a black shirt with an orange and black vest over it. His pants were a dark green, and he also had black shoes. His hair was brown and spiky, and he had his eyes closed. How could he see with his eyes like that?
"I see you've made it past my gym trainer," said Brock. "I'd like to welcome you to—"
"I'm leaving now," I said, turning around.
"What," said both Brock and Red.
"I'm going to heal my Pokémon before I fight you," I explained, pointing to the exit.
"Isn't that cheating," asked Red.
"No, it's only cheating if you do it in the middle of a battle. I'll be back in a few minutes!"
As much as I'd love to explain the wonderful tale of me going to the Pokémon Center, healing my Pokémon, and going back to the gym, I'm afraid that it will be a little time consuming. So, let's just jump ahead to the action, shall we? I stood before Brock, making sure that my determination was obvious to him.
"So you're here," he began, a small smirk on his face. "I'm Brock. I'm Pewter's gym leader. My rock-hard willpower is evident even in my Pokémon. My Pokémon are all rock-hard, and have true-grit determination. That's right—My Pokémon are all the Rock-type!"
He laughed a little after that, and I just rolled my eyes. I already knew what kind of Pokémon he had… No use in telling me that again.
"You're going to challenge me knowing that you'll lose," he asked. "That's the Trainer's honor that compels you to challenge me. Fine, then! Show me your best!"
I giggled a little, making him raise an eyebrow in confusion.
"Why are you laughing," asked Red, who was standing off to the side of me.
"Because earlier he said 'rock-hard.' I thought that was pretty funny."
"This really isn't the time to be thinking about that."
"I guess you're right about that," I said, looking back at Brock.
"Can we get on with the match," asked Brock, looking a little annoyed.
"Yeah, sorry about that. I just remembered something funny," I explained. "Anyway, bring it on! Go, Flare!"
We tossed out our pokéballs, a Charmeleon and Geodude appearing opposite of each other.
"Use Metal Claw, Flare," I said, watching him perform the move. I was glad to see that Flare's speed had increased as well, probably from evolving. He successfully hit Geodude, making the opposing Pokémon very weak. It used Defense Curl, which I thought was rather late for it to use. I had Flare use Metal Claw again, successfully making Geodude faint. Brock returned his Pokémon and sent out another, which was Onix. I wasn't sure why, but I had a feeling that this was going to be a lot tougher than a Geodude.
"Metal Claw," I told Flare, who used the move again. Although, this time, it didn't seem like it affected Onix much.
"Onix, use Bind," said Brock. The large rock snake Pokémon wrapped itself around Flare, trapping him with its body. It seemed that the only way for Flare to free himself is either by chance or by fainting Onix. I'll go for the latter.
"Another Metal Claw, Flare."
"Rock Tomb," ordered Brock as large boulders crashed around Flare. The move weakened him, and yet he was still hanging on. Damn, just one or two more hits from that Rock Tomb move will be too much for Flare. Even though I want to knock out that Onix quickly, Metal Claw is all I have at the moment, and it would be a while for that move to weaken Onix.
"Just keep using Metal Claw," I told Flare, who nodded quickly and did so.
"Finish it with Rock Tomb," Brock told Onix. Shit, I think that's it for Flare. I would think that if it weren't for the boulders completely missing Flare. I guess luck was on my side. Flare used another Metal Claw, despite the fact that he was clearly being hurt by Bind. Onix used Rock Tomb again, greatly weakening Flare. I quickly used a potion on Flare, as did Brock for his Onix.
Flare finally freed himself from Onix's Bind, but I noticed that he seemed a little slower than before. It must have been Rock Tomb that affected his speed. Onix used Harden, which was just my luck. Metal Claw wasn't as strong as it was before, thanks to Harden, but I had to keep going. Onix retaliated with a Tackle, which didn't hurt Flare much. I had Flare repeat the same move, but this one seemed a little different. It looked like it inflicted more damage than usual. Onix used Bind again, wrapping its large body around Flare. Flare used another Metal Claw, and the Onix now looked very weak now. It used Rock Tomb, but it missed again. Sure enough, that last Metal Claw made the Onix faint.
"Oh, thank God," I said, getting on my knees. That was the most stressful battle I've had so far. I returned an exhausted Flare back to his pokéball, and stood up when I noticed Brock approaching.
"I took you for granted, and so I lost. As proof of your victory, I confer you this," he said, revealing the badge in his hand. "The official Pokémon League Boulder Badge!"
I gasped as he put the badge in my hand. My first gym badge… The feeling of pride, accomplishment, and joy filled my body. It was amazing. The battle was a tough one but I managed to get through it and win.
"Oh, and take this as well," said Brock, handing me a case with a cd in it. "It contains the move Rock Tomb. But, be careful because you can use TMs only once."
"Um, okay, thanks for that," I said, putting away the TM in a case I had.
"There are all kinds of trainers in this huge world of ours," continued Brock. "You appear to be very gifted as a Pokémon Trainer. So let me make a suggestion. Go to the gym in Cerulean and test your abilities."
I nodded, and looked at Red with a smile.
"Well, looks like we can finally move on," I told him as we walked out of the gym.
"Finally," he said in a low voice. I punched him in the arm for that remark.
"Yep, let's heal up our Pokémon first so that we can be prepared for whatever's ahead!"
"It's strange though…"
"What is?"
"Brock said the exact same thing to me. What he told you just now, that is."
"Heh, really? I guess these gym leaders prepare a speech to tell everyone who manages to beat them."
As we walked to the Pokémon Center, I felt nervous, and yet excited, of what has yet to come. Considering how much I've struggled with the first gym leader, I get the feeling it's only going to get tougher from here on out. It doesn't really matter though… I can take whatever gets thrown at me.
Please, please, forgive the tardiness of this chapter. College had kept me so busy lately that I was lucky to find the time to write. But, as long as I updated, it's okay, right? Right? Anyway, writing the chapters for this story is making me feel like starting a new game on FireRed... But, at the same time, I really don't want to. Strangely, the only game I like to restart on is the Sapphire game. Mt. Moon is coming up next, which is quite exciting. I mean, I want to update a little quicker so I can get ahead of the "Super Effective" comic. Why? Because I really want to resist the horrible temptations of using the comic's jokes. So, if I'm ahead, it will all be original. Okay, this author note is dragging on longer than I wanted. Feel free to review and make me happy.
