It had been a few hours since Indiana Jones and Gold had started traveling towards Kanto, and yet, neither Tibo or the remoraids seemed at all tired.
"No rest for the weary?" Indy asked with a chuckle.
"What?"
"They've been going for hours, you'd think they'd be tired." Indy observed.
"What? Oh, no, they've been through lots of battles, a bit of transit is nothing to them." Gold chuckled a bit. "I told you already, I'm the best trainer there is, so of course my pokemon are the best, too!"
"The best trainer? How many are there?" Indy asked. "No good being the best if there aren't very many."
Gold suddenly burst out laughing. "Hah...ahaha...hahahaha~"
"What?" Indy sounded annoyed as Gold continued to laugh. Was Gold laughing at him?
"Oh, man, that...that's hilarious..." Gold started laughing again for a moment, catching his breath. "Indy, there's trainers running around all over the place in our little region."
Indy looked at Gold, an eyebrow raised. "Let me get this straight. There's a bunch of teenagers...kids running around with supernatural creatures with them? All the time?"
"Lots of people have pokemon with them here, Indy." Gold replied. To him, they didn't seem so much 'supernatural' at all. All a matter of perspective. As they talked, a chain of islands came into view, the first visible landmark being a large, snowy mountain. "Ah, we're getting close, there's Mt. Silver."
"What, is it named after some kid calling himself Silver? Some other trainer?" Indy asked sarcastically.
Gold looked back at Indy, confused. "What? Him? Please. He's pretty good, but not as good as yours truly!"
"So there is a kid calling himself Silver?" Indy snickered a little bit.
"Named Silver, actually."
Indy laughed for a moment. "Hah, good one."
"No, I'm serious."
"Wha-? Someone actually named their kid Silver?"
"Apparently."
Indy buried his face in his hand for a moment. "Why? Naming your child after a color...or metal?"
This whole time, they'd been getting closer to land, Gold pressing his feet against Tibo's wings a little. "All right, time to slow down now, Tibo." he looked off to the side, at a volcanic looking island, with a lone building on it.
"Why is there only a single building there?" Indy asked. It looked like the volcano had erupted some time ago. Years, probably.
"That's the Pokemon Center. Everything else has been gone since the eruption. I still remember hearing about it. Nobody's rebuilt anything since then, that Center was the only thing that didn't get destroyed." he said somberly, then smirked. "Rumor is that was where the cloning experiments took place."
Indy had no clue what Gold was talking about. "Pokemon Center? Cloning? What are you talking about?"
Gold looked forwards as they were slowing down. "Oh, someone needs to tell you about the cloning experiments. As for Pokemon Centers, they're...how do I explain it? Hospitals for pokemon, I guess. Unless it's really serious, they can heal them up really quick. Normal battles, no problem, in and out in a few minutes. Trainers end up spending nights there quite often, too, while they travel."
"How is that paid for?"
"Um..." Gold paused, looking around for a moment. "Hmm...you know, I don't really know, actually."
"Are you serious?"
"Well, I've just never really thought about-"
"Hey!" an unfamiliar voice yelled out.
"What?" Indy and Gold both said in surprise, looking in the direction of the voice. Someone was standing on top of one of the rocks, dressed in a swimmer's cap, goggles...and swim briefs. "Ever heard of swim shorts?" Indy muttered.
This swimmer didn't seem to hear Indy's comment. "I challenge you to a battle!" he yelled out, holding out a red and white ball. A pokeball.
"A battle? Who asks to battle out of the blue like that?" Indy asked.
"Indy, I told you that you'd be feeling out of place. This happens all the time." Gold chuckled, facing the swimmer, still sitting on Tibo nonchalantly. "You sure about that? You know who I am, right?"
"No. Now, come on!" he threw the ball out towards the water, releasing a large, serpentine creature into the water. Blue, scaled, a large mouth with sharp teeth, hostile looking eyes. Indy's eyes widened. This was the biggest one of these creatures he'd seen! It had to be twenty feet long, at least.
Indy spoke, putting extra emphasis on his first word. "Now can I use my revolver, Gold?"
Gold scoffed. "Please, we're not in any real danger."
"What?" Indy yelled, dumbfounded. "Not...real...bu...WHAT?" Now he was sure Gold had to be crazy.
"Please, Tibo can beat that." he turned to the swimmer again. "All right, but I'm in a hurry. One on one. My mantine against your gyarados!" Hearing this, Tibo suddenly looked eager, for some reason.
"Oh, it's on!" the swimmer yelled back.
"Um, Gold-?" Indy started.
"No, we're not going to be on Tibo during the battle. That would be crazy." Gold chuckled a bit. Tibo went towards a nearby rock, Gold walking off onto it, Indy quickly following.
Indy couldn't help but snicker a little.
"What?" Gold wondered what Indy thought was funny.
"You, finally thinking something is crazy. It's amusing."
"Well, we're no pokemon, we don't want to be anywhere near the battle."
Indy paused for a moment. "...what, is there a minimum safe distance for this sort of thing?"
"You'll see why..."
"What in the world do these things do?" Indy asked as Tibo and the gyarados faced each other, staring each other down, the gyarados attempting to intimidate Tibo with a heightened stature. It didn't seem to be working, though.
"Hey, you're the third person here. How about yelling out a countdown for us?" the swimmer yelled over.
"What?"
Gold chuckled. "Yeah, you might as well. You know, third party, no trainer messing with the count."
Indy looked uncomfortable with this prospect. Though, it didn't seem like they'd be moving along until this happened. These two seemed adamant to battle. "Fine..." he shook his head a little, yelling out now. "Three!"
Both pokemon shifted back a little, staring each other down.
"Two!"
The swimmer looked concentrated, whereas Gold certainly looked relaxed, fiddling with a red device, small antenna on top, blue light on the bottom. Not using it, just moving it around in his hand, looking over the two pokemon.
Indy raised his arm up. "One!" Both pokemon stared at each other, looking ready to lunge.
Gold suddenly, though casually, raised his arm up. "Hold that thought..." Gold said to Indy, before shouting again. "Hey!" Both pokemon looked at him, looking irritated.
"Huh...what?" the swimmer looked at Gold. "You chickening out or something?"
"A thousand yen." Gold said, simply.
"Hah, really?"
"I want to make this battle more interesting. Loser pays the winner a thousand yen."
Indy shook his head. "Uh...hate to break it to you, but, let me put it this way; I don't know where he'd be carrying money."
"Eh, they always do." Gold replied back. Indy 'replied' with a little bit of a shudder, though Gold didn't seem to see that, yelling out "You up for it or not?"
The swimmer thought for a moment before yelling back. "All right, then. Prepare to lose your allowance, boy!"
Gold snickered. "Oh, man, he really doesn't know who I am at all. Anyways, go on."
Indy looked at him quizzically before counting down again. "Three!" The pokemon turned towards each other again, looking impatient.
"Two!" The gyarados especially looked ready to lunge already, roaring down at Tibo. Gold turned his cap forward, more for dramatic effect than anything else.
Indy raised his arm up again. "One!" Indy shivered a little, looking at how both pokemon were acting. They were practically staring daggers at each other, the Gyarados almost seeming filled with a sort of bloodlust. Indy felt like he was about to unleash hell. "...go!" he brought his arm down. The gyarados instantly lunged out at Tibo, making a large splash along the water as Tibo dodged out of the way.
"Gyarados, Thunderbolt!" the swimmer yelled out.
Gold let out some kind of nervous groan as lightning shot out from this large creature, hitting Tibo and leaving him rather fazed. "Erk...didn't expect that one..." Gold muttered. Indy was too stunned to speak. These things were shooting lightning now. Next thing he knew, there'd end up being something that could bring the heavens down on someone, Lost Ark of the Covenant style. Still, Tibo shot forward again, moving his wings at such a speed that they slashed into the gyarados, before slamming his head into it, sending it flying into one of the rocks, right next to the swimmer, he jumping back, startled!
"Good to see he's thinking straight after a hit like that. Air Slash and Headbutt."
"Air Slash?"
"Oh, we have names for the different techniques, attacks that different pokemon tend to lean towards. Some people call them out, but I think that's-"
"Hyper beeeeam!" the swimmer yelled out, the gyarados' mouth starting to glow.
Indy snickered. "Over-dramatic?"
"No, tactically unsound." Gold replied, though, then he and Gold both noticed, with the position Tibo happened to be in at the moment, the gyarados charging a Hyper Beam...
"That's pointed-" Gold started.
"-right towards us." Indy finished.
They both looked at each other. "Oh, crap!" they both yelled. Well, Indy yelled something similar in meaning, at least, they both leaping off the rock as the beam shot out, cutting the rock right in two. Gold and Indy both resurfaced, climbing onto the rock halves.
"No real danger, huh?" Indy asked angrily.
"Oh, this fight's done if that missed Tibo." Gold said with a smirk.
"That's not my point!" Indy started to yell before Tibo burst out of the water in front of them, leaping straight into the gyarados with precision, using its body weight to slam it down into the rocks again, swimming quickly around and leaping out of the water again, giving it a precise strike upside the head.
"Take Down and Aerial Ace. Stick a fork in this one, it's done." Gold snickered.
Indy looked over at Gold. "That was a terrible one-liner."
"Eh, I heard it in a game once."
"No! Gyarados, come on!" the swimmer yelled as the gyarados swayed, before falling down over the rocks.
"One! Two! Three!" Gold started counting.
"Come on, that Thunderbolt should've taken that mantine out!" the swimmer yelled as Gold kept counting.
"Four! Five! Six! Seven! Eight! Nine! Ten! Knock out!" Gold yelled, separating the word 'knockout' in his pronunciation for emphasis, turning his cap back around.
"Grr...damn it!" the swimmer yelled, almost growled out, returning the gyarados to his ball. Tibo glided back over to Gold and Indy, they both climbing on, gliding by the swimmer.
"Hey, at least there's a center right over there." Gold said with a smirk.
"Shut up."
Indy chuckled. "See, that line was so much better than your last one."
Gold looked down at the swimmer. "Now, about that thousand yen you owe me."
"Grr..." the swimmer pulled a device out of the bag in his shoulder. Looked a lot different than Gold's device. It had buttons and ports on the bottom, the device sliding out to activate the screen. Indy could see the words 'Pokedex 5' in small print on the back, along with the same logo that was on both of Gold's devices, the one he was holding and the one on his wrist. Indy assumed now that was the logo of the company that made it. Whoever it was, they sure made a lot of things around here, he knew that much.
He could also see Gold's screen pop up as he turned his device on. His opened up in a couple of places, rather than just sliding out. 'Account Access: First National Bank of Johto' was on-screen, along with an amount, somewhere along the lines of a million yen as a balance. It was a different symbol, like a blocky P with two lines through it, but they called them yen. The extra thousand was shown transferring in, adding to what seemed to be an already good total for Gold, before he closed it. 'Pokedex 2', his said on the back. "And that's what happens when you battle Gold!" he smirked, having Tibo glide along the water again.
"Well, that didn't seem like it went at smoothly as you thought it would." Indy observed.
"Didn't expect him to have taught that thing Thunderbolt. Requires equipment to train the dormant traits for that. Still, it was weak, I knew that already." Gold said calmly.
"You knew? How do you just know?"
"Well, Indy, I've grown up with pokemon my entire life. My house was filled with them, and it's basically what I do for a living now. I made that bet because I could tell it was weak, and he was cocky. Now I know why, but, still."
"So, you're sixteen, out on your own."
"Pretty much. Of my own choice, though. It's been, what, four years now? Time sure flies when you're having fun."
"You've been on your own since you were twelve? You can afford it?"
"Oh, sure. My pokemon take care of anything I can't. As for money, well, in between battles, things I've found lying around thanks to my pokemon, and, you know, lack of rent or a house to pay for, I've done all right." Gold chuckled a little. He'd been on his own since he was twelve? Granted, carrying creatures like that around, maybe you didn't worry so much about typical crimes.
"I have to ask, why yen? Just adopt that from the Japanese?" Indy asked.
"I don't know. I guess." Gold replied, shrugging.
"I expected some weird currency, like, I dunno, woolongs or something." Indy said sarcastically.
"Hmm, you know, that doesn't sound so bad." Gold chuckled, taking on a mock announcer voice. "For this prestigious tournament, the grand prize, three hundred million woolongs!"
Then they slowed down to a stop. They'd reached dry land, at what looked like a very, very small town. Only a few houses and what looked to be a state-of-the-art research lab, and that's for where they were. To Indy, it looked like science fiction.
"Welcome to Pallet Town, we ask that you remain seated until the mantine has come to a complete stop." Gold said with a chuckle.