Sorry for the lack of updates, I was fighting a cold and a uni project. This chapter is pretty long though.
So Gupta finally gets a new pokemon! And one which acts entirely differently to Mudkip. In fact, it's just really mature.
There's a lot of random people in this chapter, but I wanted to get in all the NPCs on Route 104, and most of them really are that odd.
Route 104 is going to be split into 2 different chapters with a third for Petalburg Woods in the middle, making the journey to Rustboro City 3 chapters long... Gupta's in for a long afternoon.
Also, Mr Machado's there for a reason. Like almost every character with a suspicious name change, he's an actual cameo. I'd be interested to see if anyone can guess who.
Gupta- Mudkip, level 10
Gupta walked only a few more minutes before coming to a fork in the road. One path led down to the beach and along the coast, while the other led through a patch of tall grass along the cliff, and appeared to rejoin with the coast road on the horizon. Gupta looked down onto the beach and saw at least a couple of trainers waiting along it, almost certainly for people not willing to risk the grass. He decided to take the cliff path.
As though cursed by some divine being to have the worst luck ever (or perhaps due to having too much animal magnetism), a wild Pokémon leapt out at Gupta the moment he set foot into the grass. Or rather, a wild Pokémon swooped down on him the moment he set foot into the grass. The Taillow bounced off of his head before settling onto the grass before him, issuing a challenge.
"Low! Taillow!" It chirped. Gupta couldn't help but feel it was proud of itself. Mudkip noticed the noise and looked up at Gupta questioningly before realising the Taillow was there and had just attacked his Trainer.
"Kiiiip," he hissed.
"Okay then, if you want to fight, let's fight." Gupta decided, setting Mudkip down to face the Pokémon.
"Kip." Mudkip nodded in determination.
"Low!" Taillow cried, racing towards Mudkip with alarming speed and pecking him in the face. The slow Pokémon had absolutely no time to react, but Gupta reasoned even a fairly speedy Pokémon would have struggled. This bird Pokémon was fast!
"Mudkip, use Water Gun on it!" Gupta decided.
"Kip!" Mudkip cheered, spewing water at the Pokémon. It appeared to be quick enough to evade the spray at first, but it eventually got caught up and hit with one of Mudkip's persistent shots of water, falling to the ground.
"Okay, that should just about do it..." Gupta mused, thinking the battle won. Just as he was reaching down to pick Mudkip back up, the Pokémon appeared again, looking thoroughly annoyed.
"Low!" It protested, shaking the water from its feathers.
"You wanted a challenge." Gupta stated. "And you got one."
"Tail..." Growled the soaked Pokémon, who swept back in to Peck Mudkip again.
"Kiiiiip." Mudkip complained.
"Alright, use Water Gun again!" Gupta commanded, as the Pokémon swept around for another hit.
"Mud!" Mudkip agreed, spewing more water at the bird and knocking it out of mid-air. It fell back to the ground, where it struggled to get back to its feet.
"Mudkip... " Mudkip mused, staring at the downed Pokémon.
"That should do it this time." Gupta stated, continuing to move through the grass and turning back to Mudkip when he noticed the Pokémon not moving to catch up with him. "Are you coming, Mudkip?" He asked, clarifying the fact that he was leaving.
Mudkip kept staring at the Pokémon. After a moment, he looked to Gupta with an unreadable look on his face.
"Kip." He emphasised, walking over to the downed Pokémon.
"What are you doing now?" His trainer questioned.
"Mud..." Mudkip replied, moving right over to the downed bird and licking it.
"Mudkip?" Gupta questioned. The Pokémon looked to the dopey thing as if it was mad before looking up to Gupta with respect in its eyes.
"Kip. Mud." Mudkip tried to explain, trying to drag the bird Pokémon to its feet in order to carry it over to Gupta. "Mud."
Gupta wasn't entirely sure what had gotten into Mudkip. Maybe the poor thing had actually cracked?
"Kip?" Mudkip pleaded, looking from the bird Pokémon to Gupta and back again.
"Um..." Gupta tried to figure out what exactly his Pokémon was getting at. Eventually he was left with only one conclusion.
"Do you think we should take it with us?" He assumed.
"Kip! Mudkip!" Mudkip confirmed, jumping up and down. The Pokémon looked at him as if he were mad. It was probably wondering how it lost to such a thing.
"Well... Okay." The human relented, picking a Pokeball from his bag and looking at it. So, did he just throw it at the downed bird?
"Here goes..." He mused aloud, pressing the button on the ball to inflate it before throwing it in the general direction of the Pokémon. It was a good thing that the device didn't need that accurate a throw, as it bounced on the grass a few metres away from the Pokémon before opening and drawing it inside. Mudkip looked towards the Pokeball surprised as the Pokémon disappeared into the ball, despite the fact that he had seemingly wanted this to happen. When the ball hit the ground again, it started to roll, and Mudkip continued to stare at it, tail fin wagging a little and face lit up in excitement. Finally, the ball came to a stop and clicked. Seemingly disappointed it was no longer moving, Mudkip trotted over to the ball and batted it with his paws a little.
"Don't. There's a Pokémon in there." Gupta chided, striding over to his dopey starter and picking the newly caught Pokemon's ball up.
"Well, there's two of you now." He mused aloud.
"Kip!" Mudkip barked in enthusiasm. Gupta sighed and pocketed his new catch before picking up Mudkip and walking back towards Petalburg. It really wouldn't do to leave the new addition injured.
Nobody else bugged Gupta while he was in the Pokémon Centre, and he noticed nobody he recognised other than the nurse, so while he was waiting for his Pokémon to be healed he got out his Pokedex and began looking up his new Pokémon.
He found that its name was Taillow and that it was classified as the tiny swallow Pokémon, but the rest of the information was blank. He realised he'd have to fill it in himself. Great.
Since the first thing on the list to fill was the height and weight of his new catch, Gupta decided to speak to the nurse while getting his Pokémon back. Perhaps she knew, or at least had some scales he could use.
"You want to know the specifics of your Taillow?" She summed up.
"Right." Gupta confirmed.
"Well..." She stalled as she handed Gupta's two Pokeballs back to him. "The Pokémon Centre service does keep notes on each Pokémon they see... Just let me see if I can find the record..." She mused as she dug around on her desk.
Gupta looked at her bemusedly. How had she lost the file? She must have only created it a few minutes ago!
"Oh, here it is!" The nurse cheered to herself as she picked up Taillow's file. "Okay, so your Taillow... Is female, weighs 5.1 lbs and is about a foot tall. That's more or less completely standard for this species." She stated.
"Interesting..." Gupta noted. "How many Pokémon exactly are standard for their species?"
"Oh, most of them," she shrugged off.
Gupta stood there for a moment wondering how that was possible. Surely Pokémon grew just like people did? And surely there would be at least some variation?
"That doesn't mean they aren't all special," the nurse continued, smiling. "Was that what you wanted to know?"
"Yes, thank you." Gupta nodded to the nurse, who waved back at him, before deciding to head back to Route 104.
The same choice between the beach path and the cliff full of wild Pokémon awaited Gupta once he arrived on the Route. Wanting to do something a little different this time, he took the stairs down to the coast path. Almost immediately he came face to face with a girl, and braced himself for battle.
"Oh no," she assured as she saw him and his expression. "I'm not a Trainer, and I don't want to battle you. But you're right, if two Trainers lock eyes, they battle."
"Right." Gupta nodded, moving past her and onto the beach. As he walked he noted that it seemed emptier than it had been earlier. Perhaps some of the trainers from before had gone home? As he wondered over this he wandered aimlessly, and ended up falling straight into the path of an actual trainer.
"Got you!" He yelled as soon as he was aware of Gupta. "Now you have to battle!"
"Okay, fine." Gupta shrugged, prepared for this by now.
"Okay, I'm Billy and I'm going to destroy you!" The Youngster asserted. "Go Seedot!"
Gupta raised an eyebrow at the emerging Pokémon. It appeared to be an acorn with a face. He realised he didn't have long to question it.
"Okay, Taillow, let's see what you can do." He called, throwing his new Pokemon's Pokeball.
"Tail!" Cried Taillow as it emerged.
"See," growled the Seedot.
"Okay Seedot, use Harden!" The young trainer commanded. The Pokémon nodded and appeared to try to draw into itself.
"Okay Taillow, use..." Gupta stopped and realised he had no idea what Taillow could do. He thought back to his battle against the bird and remembered she had jabbed Mudkip with her beak.
"Okay, use... Peck?" He guessed, hoping it would work. Taillow looked back at him and gave him a look that implied he was guessing right, before sweeping back around to charge at the Seedot with beak stretched outwards. As it connected, Gupta saw the enemy Pokémon cringe in discomfort. It really didn't seem to like that.
"Peck again." He encouraged.
"Seedot, Bide!" The Youngster instructed. The acorn like Pokémon nodded, and closed its eyes. Gupta wasn't really sure what it was doing, but Taillow looked a little cautious of it. It gave the Pokémon a wide berth before swooping around to Peck it again.
"Don't give up!" The young trainer commanded his Pokémon. Gupta couldn't help but wonder what the kid was going on about. Don't give up doing what? As far as he was aware the Seedot was doing nothing but stand still... And pretend to be an acorn perhaps.
"Okay Taillow, peck it one more time." He commanded, hoping Taillow was strong enough to defeat the Seedot by itself.
"Low!" Taillow nodded as she fluttered in for the KO.
"Okay now!" The trainer shouted as Taillow was moving in. The bird's eyes widened, and Gupta realised what it had been cautious about as the tiny acorn moved forwards with full power, slamming into Taillow and knocking her out of the air. As she hit the ground, Taillow managed to dig her beak into the attacking Pokémon. Once she had a good grip, she used Seedot as an anchor to roll until she was upright again with the acorn beneath her. The Seedot didn't try to get up after the move, although Taillow herself also looked very tired.
"Oh no. Return Seedot," the trainer grumbled, recalling the Pokémon to its Pokeball. Gupta looked his Pokémon over and decided she needed to rest.
"You come back too Taillow." He mused as he recalled her. She looked back to him and nodded respectfully as she disappeared back into the ball.
"Okay, you may have won that battle, but I will win the war!" The kid mused. "Go Taillow!" He yelled, sending out a bird of his own.
"Okay Mudkip, your turn," Gupta replied, sending out the dopey starter.
"Kip?" Mudkip questioned as he noticed he was back out of the Pokeball. It took him a few seconds to look around and notice the Taillow opposite him.
"Kiiiip." He chortled in realisation. Gupta only hoped he hadn't mistaken this Taillow for their teammate.
"Okay Mudkip, Water Gun." He directed.
"Taillow, Quick Attack!" The Youngster shouted. Quick as a flash, the Taillow swung around and slammed into Mudkip, who staggered backwards before launching a defiant Water Gun towards the Pokémon. It connected, but didn't quite knock Taillow down. Gupta stared and wondered if his Taillow could do that.
"Okay Mudkip, Water Gun again," he continued regardless, wanting to win this battle.
"Peck Taillow!" Billy decided.
"Mud." Mudkip stated as he tried to dodge the incoming Taillow. He ended up hit square on, being just too slow for the task. "Muuud..."
"Don't let it get to you." Gupta advised. Mudkip looked back at him and nodded before launching another Water Gun straight into the face of the Taillow. The Pokémon still remained flying, but appeared fairly injured. Gupta reasoned that resilience was a trait of the species as a whole.
"Quick Attack again Taillow!" Billy repeated, throwing his hand out excitedly as he spoke. Again, Gupta found Mudkip being slammed before he could really react.
"Just Water Gun!" He told the water-type. Mudkip responded to this easily, stepping back only a little before firing another jet of water at the Taillow. This time it worked, as the Pokémon fell to the ground and didn't move again.
"Aw man." Billy whined as he recalled his second Pokémon to its Pokeball. "Guess you won after all... Here." He reached into his pocket and brought out more small coins which he handed to Gupta.
"Anyway," he continued before Gupta had a chance to react. "I'd better be getting home now. Bye!" He smiled and waved before running off towards Petalburg.
Gupta was left staring after him. He looked down at Mudkip, who appeared to be trying to figure out what had just happened. He thought of his Taillow and how tired she looked. He decided he'd have to go back to the Pokémon Centre.
The nurse had mused something about the trainers on the beach and going home in the evening when Gupta had brought his Pokémon back to her, but he hadn't paid any attention. Instead, he'd been planning his walk back through Route 104. As he got to the beach again he noticed it was almost empty, with only one other person standing right at the other end of the beach. He decided to set off towards that person. He had no desire to speak to them, but the beach was otherwise empty, and he couldn't say the same for the cliff path and the Pokémon that lurked on it.
As he walked, Gupta became aware of a house in the distance. As he got closer, he could see that the house was built on the cliff above the other end of the beach, with a pier stretching out of the cliff at the side of the house and into the water. A small yacht type boat was moored at the pier. Gupta wondered who lived there. After all, they could afford a yacht.
While he was pondering this, Gupta walked past the other person on the beach. The young boy stood facing away from Gupta, staring into the sea. Gupta looked around at him and he spoke, causing the teen to jump in surprise.
"The sea... I wonder what it's like at the bottom of the sea?" He murmured, seemingly lost in thought. Gupta stared at him for a moment but got no other sound from the boy and assumed he was talking to himself. Feeling a little awkward, the teen decided to just climb the stairs to the cliff.
Once he had reached the top of the stairs, Gupta found himself staring straight at the house on the cliff. The first thing he noticed was that the door had been left open. Alarmed, the teen moved towards the door to inspect the house. He peered through the opening but found the entire ground floor to be devoid of life. There was a table and a single chair, a few cabinets full of food and other random things and little else. The ground floor was also the only floor. Gupta reasoned that somebody had left in a hurry and left the door open in their haste... Then again, the lack of things also suggested the person didn't have much worth stealing anyway... Whoever they were. The situation on the inside of the house didn't suggest the owner had the money to run a boat like the one outside... But then, maybe they just didn't care for possessions? It was possible the boat was the only thing the person cared about enough to not want stolen. It wasn't unreasonable the keys were with that person if that were the case.
'But then why leave the house in such a rush?' Gupta mused to himself.
The thinking was making his head hurt, so Gupta instead decided he didn't really care as long as there was a high chance the house wouldn't be burgled. Strange things seemed to be the norm in this region. As he leant away from the door to the house and began to walk back onto the path to Rustboro he noticed a strange sign planted in the ground next to the house.
'Mr Machado's Cottage' was written on it.
Gupta really had to think at that, wondering how this Machado guy was famous enough to warrant having a sign with his name on it outside of his house. Did everyone need to know who the cottage belonged to? Deciding he didn't care about that either, Gupta walked off down the path to Rustboro, noticing he had now navigated around the tall grass successfully. Just as he was about to turn his back on the way he had come entirely, he noticed a boy running towards him. Oh no.
"Hey, I can't believe I missed you earlier!" He cried as he ran towards the teen. "I've been standing here all day handing out advice to new trainers and I didn't see you before!"
"Um... Why?" Gupta questioned.
"Because somebody needs to tell all the new trainers what to do! Anyway, today's tip is to always weaken a wild Pokémon before you catch it. Try burning it, paralysing it, or inflicting poison for extra effectiveness." The boy rambled.
"Did you get that from a book?" Gupta dead-panned.
"Yep, it's my adventure handbook," the boy smiled at his own words.
"Thanks, but I already have it covered," the teen stated, holding up his two Pokeballs as proof.
"Wow! You have to be some kind of prodigy or something!" The child enthused.
"No... I just already knew how to catch Pokémon." Gupta insisted.
"Oh. Well, okay then. I guess I'll see you around." The boy grinned for good measure before running off through the grass again. Gupta wondered how he could be so cheerful. And how he could manage to run that far through the grass without encountering any Pokémon. Also, if he knew so much about Pokémon, why wasn't he trying to battle like everyone else on the Route?
After that very strange encounter, Gupta once more began his walk towards the Petalburg Woods and Rustboro City. Along the way he encountered yet another young person wandering aimlessly around in circles. At least this girl appeared to be picking flowers instead of doing actually nothing. As he drew close, she picked herself up to speak to him.
"Did you know Mr Machado lives at the seaside cottage over there?" She asked.
"Well, yes." Gupta nodded. It was written on the sign...
"He was once a mighty sailor you know. He was never afraid of the sea no matter how rough it got." She continued unperturbed.
"Okay," Gupta accepted, continuing to walk past her without another word. Even more strangely, she didn't seem to notice this and just carried on picking flowers.
After a few more minutes, Gupta found some more cleared soil in which berry plants were growing. He picked the berries, not really knowing which they were or what they were for, and planted a few of the berries he had picked in return, wondering how they could possibly grow quickly enough for other trainers to be able to use them. He also wondered how they would grow with no water; the soil was dry despite being close to the sea and Gupta had no way to water it. Deciding it wasn't his problem, he moved on.
Gupta was almost to the woods when he finally came face to face with another actual trainer. The boy had been looking around himself boredly when he noticed the teen, and almost immediately came running towards him.
"Oh finally. Someone's here. I'm bored you see." He stated.
"Too bad for you," Gupta shot back.
"But, now you're here. So we have to battle." The boy carried on.
"Okay," Gupta shrugged, hand moving into his pocket to pick a Pokémon out.
"Okay Zigzagoon, let's go!" The Rich Boy called, throwing a Pokeball at the ground in front of him.
"Goon!" Cried the emerging Pokémon.
"Okay Taillow," Gupta responded, throwing Taillow's Pokeball in response.
"Low!" Taillow called as it came out of the ball.
"Taillow, Peck!" Gupta commanded, knowing in theory that Taillow could learn Quick Attack but wanting to wait to try that until a moment when it didn't matter.
"Low!" Taillow responded, flying up into the air and then down towards the Zigzagoon. It managed to send the Pokémon flying quite a distance as it connected.
"Zigzagoon, Tackle!" The boy replied, causing the raccoon to charge back forwards and hit against Taillow in retaliation. She staggered a little, but still appeared determined.
"Peck again Taillow!" Gupta encouraged.
"Use Tackle again!" The Rich child ordered.
"Goon," Zigzagoon growled as it ran towards Taillow.
"Tail!" Taillow roared as it met the challenge head on, getting a strong Peck into the opponent but receiving some damage from Tackle in response. As the two Pokémon leapt away from each other, both appeared damaged. Gupta remembered how fast Taillow was, and knew he could win if he acted now.
"Taillow, Peck!" He told his Pokémon. Taillow nodded and swooped back towards Zigzagoon.
"Tackle!" The boy cried, but it was too late. Zigzagoon was hit first, and before anyone but Taillow could react the small Pokémon collapsed to the ground.
"Geh, it looks like you won." The Rich Boy conceded as he returned his Pokémon to its ball.
"Low." Taillow nodded in celebration before flying down to land in front of Gupta.
"That was good," the teen told his Pokémon as he returned it to the ball.
"I suppose you deserve this then. Just a small amount of prize, simple change, you understand." The child continued, holding out some sort of note to Gupta. He took the money, looked at it, and had to resist the urge to laugh. This was nearly a month's worth of pocket money. He didn't want to think about how filthy rich the child had to be to consider this 'change'.
"Anyway, I'd probably better be off... Mama does worry when I'm late returning. Good day." The boy nodded once before walking off back towards Petalburg.
"Okay." Gupta mused to himself as he looked down at the money he'd received. As he went to put it away he remembered how tired Taillow had looked and decided to head back to the Pokémon Centre. Again.
"You really have been here a lot today," the nurse shrugged to herself as she took care of Gupta's Pokémon.
"I've been in a lot of battles," the teen replied.
"That is true... Are you still going to head for Rustboro today?" She questioned.
"That is the plan." Gupta confirmed.
"Well you'd better get a move on if that's true." She advised. "It really isn't long until sunset. If you go now you could make it, but if anything else holds you up even a little you'll be walking there in the dark."
"I'll keep that in mind. Thanks," Gupta responded, as the nurse handed his Pokémon back to him.
"Okay then. Good luck." She smiled.
As he wandered back towards Petalburg Woods Gupta noticed the first red rays of sunset shining over the sea and decided to pick up the pace. As he did so he put away his Pokedex, newly filled in after his eventful few hours.
'Taillow, the tiny swallow Pokémon. Height 1ft, weight 5.1lbs. Taillow is very courageous despite its size. This Pokémon will remain defiant against most odds... But I bet it gives up when it gets hungry.' The Pokedex entry read.
