A/N: I hope you guys are ready for this super early chapter, cause I know I am.
I do not own Pokemon
An Alternate Adventure
Chapter Seven
Concrete Jungles and Human Zoos
Gary, once again, was walking through Celadon City. Today was the day he would challenge the place's gym, but he couldn't help but examine the place as he walked through. Tall buildings rose high into the sky, some lit up still, even during the day. Workplaces, shopping centers, casinos, if you wanted it, Celadon probably had it. It was all quite a lot to take in. Gary, for one, didn't care for it. The place was just not free enough for him, too many people, not enough… Everything else.
It wasn't all bad, of course. People wouldn't live like this if it were. It just wasn't the life for someone like him. He couldn't live in a place without the sound of the pokemon, were you had to walk half a day just to leave it. He wasn't surprised that his grandfather had stayed in Pallet, after seeing all this.
Pallet Town wasn't small by coincidence, either. Professor Oak, with his connections, had managed to get the whole place labelled a wildlife preserve. You couldn't build on any land that wasn't a natural clearing, and it was a challenge to get even the supplies necessary to build even a house there, much less the towering pillars of buildings that currently surrounded Gary. If you didn't live there, chances were you weren't going to.
Gary, for one, was happy his grandfather had gone to such measures for his privacy. He couldn't imagine what his life would have been like, growing up surrounded by the city that no doubt would have sprung up with Professor Oak's presence and the advantageous location by the sea.
That aside, though, Gary was approaching the gym. It had taken no less than fifteen minutes to walk from the pokemon center to the gym, which, considering the two places' purpose, was pretty maddening. It shouldn't have taken any longer than a couple minutes, but perhaps there was a reason the distance was allowed by the places gym leader? She certainly seemed a gentle type, taking care of her flowers like that.
Gary walked up to the door of the gym and scanned his ID from his pokedex to the gym's security system. The door opened in front of him, and he headed in. Most of the gyms in Kanto had similar systems, as they served multiple purposes. The first, and most well known, was to test new trainers and ensure that they were ready for the Indigo League Tournament. The others, much less well known, included aiding in the defense of the city in case of an emergency, serving as an evacuation point, and serving as a sort of… preserve for pokemon of their type or similar types. Generally the pokemon adopted by a gym were there because of poachers, or some similarly tragic event.
This was also the reason that most gyms were considerably larger than they needed to be. If they were just for challenging new trainers, they could just be a stadium. In most gyms, there was a stadium, as well as several levels or a sprawling indoor area to contain their many pokemon. They also generally had some sort of underground complex, to evacuate people into in case of emergency.
It hadn't always been this way, of course. Before Gary was born, many gyms were in fact just a small stadium, with maybe an entry area and seating. Things had changed immensely after the Great War had ended. The knowledge of the bunkers, of course, wasn't freely available to the public. Gary himself only knew because he'd talked with his grandfather about the gyms.
Gary walked into the main area of the massive gym, perhaps one of the largest in Kanto. The place spanned hundreds of yards in every direction, and was basically a forest in a building. If it weren't for the doors that kept out anyone that wasn't a registered challenger or member of the Indigo pokemon league, it would likely have been filled to the brim with sightseers.
Really, the security system was quite lucky for Gary, it made his request that much easier for the gym leader he was now approaching. Generally, when a challenger was scheduled to battle the gym leader, the doors would be opened and anyone who wanted could enter, with a fee of course. The fees helped fund the gym itself, along with the money the league sent to them. It was likely only due to his family's contributions to the league that had allowed Erika to grant him his private battle. It would, of course, still be aired on one of the city's tv networks, but that wasn't really an issue in this case.
Gary approached the gym leader. "Erika?" The woman looked up at him. "Oh? Calling me by name now, eh?"
"Well, what else would you like me to call you then? Perhaps Ma'am?" Gary smirked cockily at the gym leader. She waved him off. "No, no. Go ahead and continue to use my name. I really don't mind. You're here for your battle then?"
"Yes. Where is the stadium, by the way? I haven't seen one…" The woman turned and walked off, waving her hand as a signal for him to come with. "Follow me, it's over here."
A short walk later and the two were standing in a large clearing in the indoor forest. "Normally, stands would come out of the ground. Clearly, that will be unnecessary, due to your request. The battle will be two on two. I'm sure you know the battle rules the gym uses."
Gary gave her a nod, and she continued. "Since you told me of your pokemon's… nervousness, there will be no in-house announcer. The only announcer will be for the televised version, which will air live as we battle. Are you ready to begin?"
"Yes" Gary gave a nod. "Then go to your own side of the clearing, and we will begin." With that, Erika began to gracefully walk to the other side of the clearing. Gary turned and followed her example, stopping near the edge of the clearing, before turning to face Erika, who was facing him with a pokeball in her hand. Gary pulled his own pokeball out, and Erika rose her hand into the air, three fingers raised. They began to count down. "Three, two, one!" Both trainers released their pokemon into the middle of the clearing.
Gary had, of course, started with Charmander. Across from the small fire pokemon was Erika's choice of pokemon… A bulbasaur. It made sense, most trainers facing her first or second wouldn't be coming from Pallet Town, where Professor Oak kept his preserve of the starters he gave out. It was actually one of the few places that the pokemon still lived, despite the species' power in its later evolutions. There were a few places they still lived north of the Silverpeak Mountains, but that area was largely unexplored due to the dangerous wild pokemon that lived there, as well as the dense jungle and forest that sprawled across the area.
"Bulbasaur, use stun spore." With that, Gary's attention snapped back to the battle as the small plant pokemon released a cloud of spores from its back. Gary briefly considered his options, before realizing the opportunity the gym leader had, likely purposely, given him. "Charmander, use ember on the spores!" Charmander gave an affirmative nod and began launching small fires into the spores, igniting the highly flammable spores and roasting Bulbasaur and briefly filling the air with smoke.
When the air cleared, the grass pokemon was unconscious from the damage it had taken, and Erika recalled it with a respectful nod towards Gary. That had been a test then, to see if he really understood her type's weaknesses. She then released her second pokemon, a Tangela. Gary only knew the relatively rare species due to its native location southeast of Pallet Town. It wasn't really the strongest pick for a gym leader, but it certainly seemed prepared. The tentacle pokemon was calmly standing there, its tentacles slowly shifting as it waited for direction from its trainer. "Tangela, charge it and hit it with vine whip."
And with that, the tentacle blob launched itself across the field in seconds, moving at speeds it shouldn't have been able to with its little feet and throwing its tentacle vines at Charmander. With no time to respond, Charmander was smacked clear of his feet and sent rolling. "Charmander! Recover and hit it with metal claw when it charges you!" Erika, meanwhile, wasn't idle. "Tangela! Get in there and get it with bind!"
Charmander took a few short seconds to recover, and in that short time, Tangela was already on him, its tentacles wrapping around him. He tried to slash at them, but only managed to lop a few off before his arms were wrapped up. "Tangela! Sleep powder and absorb!" With that order, Tangela simultaneously released powder and sucked energy from Charmander, both lulling him to sleep and draining him of his energy.
Gary… Was not ready for that particular strategy. He sighed and waited a few seconds to see if Charmander would wake up, before recalling the small lizard. He looked up at Erika with even more respect than before, before reaching to his belt and pulling out another pokeball. He'd considered using spearow for this battle, but it really wasn't on the poor bird's level anymore. With that in mind, Gary released his next pokemon, Nidoran.
Nidoran had grown considerably since he'd captured the pokemon on Route 22. His legs were more muscular, his body had grown larger in general, the poisonous spines on its body had grown sharper. Over all, he'd grown an amazing amount for just a month's worth of training. He also happened to be the perfect choice for Gary's current opponent, and it showed on Erika's surprised face. "Nidoran! Get in there and hit it with poison sting!"
Nidoran gave a firm nod before he ran towards the grass pokemon. "Tangela! Keep your distance and use growth!" The tentacle pokemon, faster than Nidoran, kept a good distance away while also slowly gaining size. Of course, growing in size also slowed the pokemon down, and once it reached a certain size, Nidoran caught up and launched himself into it horn first, horn dripping with poison. "Tangela! Bind, sleep powder and absorb!" Of course, with Nidoran so close, he was easy to wrap in its vines, the tangela did seem pretty wounded though. "Nidoran! Use your back spikes before you fall asleep!" Nidoran pushed its back spikes out as the tentacle pokemon tightly gripped it, sending even more poison into the grass pokemon's system.
Nidoran, still in the tangela's hold, continued to struggle against the combined forces being used against it, while tangela maintained its hold, the poison not quite enough to slow the powerful pokemon down. Gary sighed, and pulled Nidoran's pokeball off of his belt, ready to try again later.
A glow began to shine from between Tangela's tentacles, slowly growing brighter and brighter. Gary had seen this glow before, at Mt Moon. Gary's eyes moved to Erika, and he grinned. The light dimmed, and Gary gave his command. "Nidorino, use poison sting!"
Nidorino's newly gained, more powerful spikes pierced into Tangela while he thrashed in the pokemon's hold. Soon enough, Nidorino had escaped Tangela's hold and moved a short distance away. The tentacle pokemon wasn't looking too good, wobbling on its feet...
"Tangela, return." A red beam engulfed the pokemon. "Good job, it seems you've bested me Gary Oak." The woman had been walking towards him before recalling the pokemon, and she was already pretty close. "That pokemon was actually from my three badge team, I just wanted to test you with it."
Gary looked at her for a few seconds, before asking. "And how did I do?" The woman smiled and presented him with a badge. "Passably. I'd have been more impressed if you managed without a type advantage." Gary nodded and took the badge. "I could have used another pokemon, but I wanted Charmander to get some experience. Nidora- Nidorino was just the best pokemon for the situation."
"Indeed he was. Just look at him, so proud of his new form." Gary followed her words, and saw Nidorino basking in his newly attained form. The poisonous pokemon was standing around three feet tall now, and had considerably more spikes, as well as larger ears, than he had had before. "He is, isn't he?" Gary let a smirk fall onto his face, and recalled the pokemon.
"Well, it's time for me to go. More badges to win and all that. Dueces." And with that, Gary walked out of the gym.
(-o-)
Ash was up early today. Why is that you ask? Its gym battling day! It was only seven in the morning, and Ash was already running around in the room he'd rented for that night, gathering his things. Once he had everything, he ran over to the still sleeping Mareep and picked her up over his head. "Cmon Mareep! Its gym battling day!" With a wide grin on his face, and shocked and sleepy Mareep draped over his shoulders, Ash ran down the stairs and through the pokemon center doors.
Once outside, Ash booked a left and ran. Weaving through the few pedestrians out this early in the morning, Ash made his way towards the gym. Just a few minutes later, probably record time mind you, Ash was standing in front of the pokemon gym. Ash walked up to the door and pulled on it… It didn't open. "Uhh… How do I get in here again?" Mareep made an uncomfortable noise, still on his shoulders. "Oh, sorry Mareep. Here, down you go." Ash reached up and pulled Mareep off his shoulders, setting her on the floor. The sheep pokemon proceeded to affectionately, but sleepily, nuzzle his leg before moving a short distance away.
"Now…" Ash pulled his pokedex out of his pocket, and began looking through the entry on the gyms. A short bit of searching later, and Ash was enlightened. "Ohh… So I do this." Ash pulled up his ID on his pokedex, and scanned it on the scanner beside the door. He'd been wondering what those were...
With a click, the door unlocked and Ash made his way inside. The inside of the gym was pretty plain, just an entryway with a few door and a counter, behind which was a woman, who was… sleeping, slumped over on the counter. Ash walked up to her. "Hello, ma'am? Ma'am?" Ash shook her shoulder and she shot up. "Wha? I wasn- Oh thank god… Er… How can I help you?" Ash grinned at her. "I'm here to challenge my first gym! Can you show me where the gym leader is?" The woman sleepily blinked a few times, before turning to the computer besides her. "Well, I can schedule a challenge for you if you want?"
"You can? That'd be great! I want to do it as soon as possible!" Ash beamed at her, ready to take on the gym leader right now. The woman turned back to him. "Well, I can get you your challenge today." Ash grinned at her, prepared to charge into the stadium. "At six pm. It's our last one for the day, too. Lucky." Ash deflated slightly. "So… What do I do now then?" The woman looked tiredly at him. "I dunno, explore the city?"
"Exploring it is!" With regained exuberance, Ash charged out of the gym into the city, before stopping and looking around, Mareep catching up behind him. "Now… Where to go? I guess I should just wander around. Gotta avoid the underground like Professor Elm said though… Wonder where that is?" With that, Ash began wandering the city, Mareep following behind him.
An hour or so later of wandering the streets, Ash came upon the Goldenrod City shopping mall. It was renowned as the region's largest shopping center, and it showed. The building was no less than ten stories tall, and took up most of a city block. It also happened to contain one of the things Ash had came to this city for. "Cmon Mareep! Let's go!" Ash rushed forward to go into the shopping center, but was stopped by a security guard stepping in front of him. "Sir. No pokemon allowed in the mall. Please return the mareep to its pokeball, and then you can continue."
"Aah… Okay. Mareep, return." The red beam of a returning pokemon flew into Mareep's pokeball, and Ash was allowed into the mall.
It was just as impressive as the outside would suggest. He could see all the way the the ceiling ten floors above, where a massive chandelier was hanging. Nine floors worth of balconies were above him, each of them hosting its own stores. Just on the floor he was on, he could see no less than fifteen stores, with multiple elevators and stairways leading up to the upper floors. This was a place anyone could get lost in. With a grin on his face, Ash headed into the mall.
Almost ten hours later, at 5:55 PM, Ash was standing in front of the gym once more. He'd had quite the exciting day, running through the mall and looking at all the interesting things it contained. He'd actually found a store that sold fossils. Fossils! They were super expensive though, so Ash had just had to move on. Eventually, he'd found what he was looking for: Stones. Specifically, a Fire Stone. It had cost him almost half the money his mom had given him for his journey, but he'd managed to buy it. Who knew those things cost so much?
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Ash scanned his ID and ran into the gym's entreeway. After running over to the counter, Ash saw it was a different lady there this time. "Hi! I'm here for my gym battle!" The woman gave him a long look. "Alright. Can't believe she gave a beginner the last slot, but… Go ahead, Whitney's in the gym. Go through that door and follow the path to the door labelled 'Gym'." The woman waved her hand at a side door. Ash huffed slightly and walked through the door, he didn't look like a beginner right? I mean, he was but…
Shaking aside his thoughts, Ash found the door labelled 'Gym' and walked out into the stadium. There were stands to the sides, and there was a large crowd of people filling them. Ash had no idea why, of course, but they were there to watch the intense battles the gym usually had. They had no idea that this would be a one badge challenge, normally the last one was an upper badge challenge. Naturally, Ash assumed they were there for him, which wasn't technically wrong of course, and it really fired his spirit up a bit.
When Ash stepped onto the field across from the gym leader, Whitney, an announcer's voice cut through the rumblings of the crowd. "This will be a two on two pokemon battle, between Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town, and Whitney Akane, gym leader of Goldenrod City! There are no switches allowed, and each battle will continue until one pokemon is knocked out or returned!" The crowd's rumblings grew a bit louder. Across from Ash, Whitney looked pretty annoyed. Ash couldn't imagine why, after all, she was about to have a pokemon battle!
"Gym leader, challenger! On the count of three, release your first pokemon onto the field!"
Ash shifted gears from excited to focused, his eyes narrowing at Whitney. "One!" Ash's hand grabbed one of the pokeballs on his belt. "Two!" Ash pulled the ball from his belt, and in the same motion, flicked his hat to sit backwards on his head. "Three!" Ash pressed the release on his pokeball, thrusting his hand in front of him as he released his pokemon, Teddiursa, onto the field. Ash, of course, felt cool as could be whilst doing this.
Across from Teddiursa, Whitney had released a miltank. The pokemon seemed to bounce in place, awaiting an order from its trainer. Whitney, glaring slightly at Ash for giving her such a lame final battle, growled out. "Rollout." With that, the miltank launched, rolling across the field at Teddiursa. Ash's eyes widened, and he yelled out. "Teddiursa! Dodge it!" The little bear pokemon watched the approaching miltank, seemingly unimpressed. Was this supposed to intimidate him? The little pokemon had lived in Dark Cave all his life, and those annoying geodude did this sort of thing all the time.
When the miltank was close enough, Teddiursa simply leaped over it without even taking his honey-soaked fingers out of his mouth. Ash was gobsmacked, who knew Teddiursa could do that? Ash immediately refocused, the Miltank was turning around, speeding up as it did so. "Teddiursa! We need to break it out of that! Use the move we worked on in the forest!" Teddiursa nodded his head and almost immediately had to use the specified move, slamming his glowing black claw into Miltank's side as he sidestepped it.
Miltank crashed out of its rollout, coming to a stop before slowly getting up, shaking its head and turning back to face Teddiursa. Teddiursa hadn't been idle, and was charging the pokemon without needing Ash's guidance, as Ash yelled out. "Hit it with covet!" Teddiursa gave a savage, sharp-toothed grin, and smashed his paw into Miltank's jaw, simultaneously stealing the lum berry the poor pokemon had hanging around its neck as it was knocked onto its back. "Hit it with fury swipes while its down!" Teddiursa maintained the savage grin across his face as he slashed his claws across the miltank's torso, before a red light engulfed it and it was recalled.
"And Whitney has recalled her Miltank! This means the first round goes to Ash Ketchum of Pallet Town, folks!" The spectators, while not impressed at first, were very surprised at the new trainer successfully defeating the well known pokemon, and began cheering wildly for him.
Whitney looked… Both impressed, and upset. Ash had no way of knowing this, but she'd actually grabbed that miltank from her three badge team, the one known for thrashing new trainers. Either way, Whitney pulled her next pokeball from her belt and released it onto the field with Teddiursa.
Standing around a foot and a half tall, a cat pokemon was now smacking Teddiursa unexpectedly in the face with a fake out, sending him stumbling back a bit. Now well aware of the threat, Teddiursa rolled back, gaining some distance and recovering to examine the cat before him. Whitney's choice of second pokemon was, of course, a meowth. The cat was now licking its paw as it stared cockily at him.
"Meowth, get in there and hit him with fury swipes!" Whitney yelled out, and almost before Teddiursa could blink, the cat crossed the distance between them and was now slamming its claws into him. "Teddiursa! Knock it away with feint attack and use fling!" Teddiursa, hearing this, ignored the painful claws and slammed his paw into Meowth's jaw, knocking it away from him. He then threw the berry he'd stolen at the cat as hard as he could, smacking it in the head again.
After that altercation, Teddiursa was breathing very heavily, and was covered in cuts. Meowth, meanwhile, was still pretty fresh. A bit roughed up, to be sure, but the cat was back to arrogantly licking its paw as it watched him. "Meowth, payday." With that order from its trainer, Meowth crossed the distance between it and Teddiursa in the blink of an eye, slamming its paw into him. With the jingling of coins raining to the ground, Teddiursa dropped to the floor, unconscious.
"Ooh… And the Teddiursa is down. That's the second round to Whitney! Does the challenger have what it takes to finish this?" With that question, the crowd roared in approval as Ash released his second pokemon onto the field.
Growlithe looked around excitedly, happy to be in this new environment, and let out a couple excited barks before he noticed Meowth and lowered his body to the ground, his rear end shaking back and forth excitedly. "Growlithe! Keep your distance and hit it with ember attacks! If it gets close use bite!" Growlithe barked out an agreement, before jumping to his feet and launching an ember at Meowth, who casually stepped to the side. "Meowth, get in there with fury swipes!" The cat pokemon ran across the field, charging the slower dog pokemon and hitting it with a few scratches. The dog naturally responded by sinking his teeth into the cat's side.
"Now throw it away from you and use another ember!" Growlithe let out a growl as he tossed the cat away, before spitting an ember at it as it landed. The cat pokemon layed there for a short time before a red light engulfed it as it was recalled, clearly defeated. "And the winner is… Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town!" The crowd let out a roar of approval, the battle had proven far, far better than beginner trainers were even expected to approach, and they continued their cheers as Ash approached the gym leader.
Whitney looked up at Ash as he approached, fairly impressed. She had used pokemon from both her third and second badge teams, and the boy had still won. Not much compared to her best team, of course, but it was still something. "Congratulations." She handed him the badge. He grinned widely at her. "Thanks! That was so-" Ash was cut off, as a voice sounded unexpectedly through the speakers. "Attention, residents of Goldenrod City." The voice even echoed from outside, it seemed to be being broadcast throughout the city. Whitney immediately seemed on guard, this couldn't be good.
"It is our pleasure to announce the return of Team Rocket." The gym went dead silent as the voice continued. "As I'm sure you've noticed by now, our operatives have taken almost complete control of the city. You are surrounded, and there is nowhere to run. We have taken control of the radio tower, and there is now no contact to the outside world. Soon enough, all of your pokemon will be confiscated and all control of the city will be turned over to us. Welcome to the new Goldenrod, or rather, Rocket City."
A/N: And so it begins. I debated keeping this for later, but then I got a really good idea. So here's the wonderful intro of Team Rocket.
Review Responses: Matt Z: I know what you mean. The sixth chapter had a lot more POV switches than I wanted, and way more Gary than I intended. I'm probably going to go back and rewrite it at some point. As you may have guessed from the way this chapter ended, this story is still going to be pretty Ash-centric. The next chapter, for example, will have little to no involvement from Gary whatsoever.
IllMindBrandon: I responded to you personally, but I might as well reiterate for everyone else. Gary has little to nothing in common with Ash from canon beyond one pokemon, and Ash's team is still in its earliest state. As for an actual focus, well, this chapter is where the fun begins, like I told you.
