Chapter 9 – VS Learning

Lapis is in the Pokémon Centre healing Shae and Coy. "So, it's not a big issue… thank goodness." Lapis looks at his Pokédex. "It only affects the battle."

"Yeah, though I'd like to ask who gave that item to you?" Hunter arrives in the Pokémon Centre asking Lapis about the Pokédex.

"You mean this?" Lapis takes out the closed Pokédex, and Hunter nods. "I received this from my mother… she received it from an acquaintance." Lapis puts away his Pokédex.

"Your mother?" Hunter looks at Lapis confused, knowing that no researcher in the Eriden region specialized with the Pokédex, unlike researchers in other regions. "Do you happen to know who the acquaintance was?"

"No…" Lapis looks at his Xtransceiver. "I could ask."

"No, there's no need to. She's probably a researcher and also busy with her research." Hunter looks at Lapis having no idea as to why such a weak trainer could possibly receive a Pokédex.

"Is that the boy that took the Slowpoke? He's so violent." A girl from across the Pokémon Centre gossips with a table of other trainers. "Why is the gym leader talking to him anyways?"

Hunter hears the girl talking about Lapis. "You had a Slowpoke? Why didn't you use it in the gym battle? It'd be very effective against Ekans."

"Huh?" Lapis takes out Slowpoke's Poké Ball from his pocket. "Well… even if it was. It's not even mine; it belongs in the wild at Route 51."

"Why'd you say that?" Hunter looks at the Poké Ball containing the Slowpoke. "Hang on… I think I recognize this Slowpoke…" Hunter looks at the Slowpoke and recognizes it from a previous gym battle earlier on in the day. "It was completely battered and bruised. I thought this was from continuous training and battling. I told the trainer to let the Slowpoke rest."

"The bruises aren't from battling." Lapis says to Hunter rather silently. "They were from the trainer abusing his Pokémon. He was about to cut it with a pocket knife before I stopped him." Lapis' Xtransceiver starts calling, Lapis finds that it's from Prof. Corymbia and picks up. "Mum?"

"Ahh! Lapis." Prof. Corymbia relieved to have reached her son. "So, how did the gym battle go? Also, how is Slowpoke doing at the moment?"

"I lost, and I'm letting the Slowpoke rest." Lapis replies to his mother. "Is there anything else you called me for?"

"Hey, are you the person who gave this kid a Pokédex? May I just ask who the acquaintance was?" Hunter walks up behind Lapis talking to Prof. Corymbia.

"Oh, Professor Oa-" Prof. Corymbia is cut off by Hunter smiling and looking at Lapis.

"So, you have been recognized by Professor Oak." Hunter looks at Lapis. "I guess it must've been your care for Pokémon." Hunter smiles, and continues. "Though you might not be proficient in battle, I guess it's worth training you for battle."

"k…" Prof. Corymbia finishes her sentence, shaking nervously having heard 'recognized by Professor Oak' from Hunter. "Well, Lapis, why don't you go and learn from the nice Gym Leader here how to battle. I'm sure it'd be useful in your journey."

"Umm… sure." Lapis says quietly as Prof. Corymbia hangs up on the call, and Lapis is dragged to Hunter's gym.


Meanwhile, in Shadepond City's Pokémon Centre (above Route 53). Garnet is going to the Pokémon Storage System and taking out two eggs from the storage system and talking to his parents through the Xtransceiver. "So you want me to hatch these eggs right?"

Mrs. Carper nods to Garnet. "It'd be wonderful for you to hatch your own Pokémon. I'm sure it'd be a nice experience for you to raise two Pokémon from eggs. I heard you had a trade with Amber, what did you give to Amber?"

"A Magnemite… I got the Nidoran she was going to give to her mother in return." Garnet says sighing, relieved to have saved the Nidoran. "Is there anything else you wanted to tell me?"

"Nope, not really. Good luck in your next gym battle!" Mrs. Carper smiles and hangs up the Xtransceiver waving goodbye to her son.

"Ok…" Garnet gets up and walks outside the Pokémon Centre and walks to the gym. Over at the gym he sees Amber fighting with the gym leader already with her Magnemite. The gym is a pool of water on one side and sand on the other.

"Thundershock on Lapras." Amber commands her new Magnemite against her opponent's Pokémon. "Bite on Chinchou. Fake Out on Lapras." Amber gives the commands to her Seake and Quitten respectively.

Lapras is about to fire a pulse of water at the Magnemite but is stopped by Quitten clapping its front paws together in front of it. Lapras flinches and stops the attack. Meanwhile, Carvanha charges at the Magnemite with its fangs and this the Magnemite. Seake then charges at the Chinchou and its mouth bites onto the Chinchou which then fires a ball of electricity at Seake.

"Eck… I have a severe disadvantage even with Magnemite…" Amber struggles with commanding all three of her Pokémon at once against the opponent. "Alright… Thundershock on Lapras again, Bite on Chinchou and Fury Swipes on Lapras." Amber looks at the Lapras which she finds as a large threat. "Seake is going to faint this turn due to Chinchou's attacks… Lapras isn't going to faint due to its steady defences."

"Is this all you've got?" The opposing gym leader; wearing green eyes, blonde hair, black goggles, a light blue tank top and aqua coloured swimming tights; says with a relatively bored tone. "Lapras, Water Pulse on Magnemite. Carvanha, Bite on Magnemite. Chinchou, Electro Ball on Seake. You're going to fall behind this turn."

Lapras fires a pulse of water at the floating Magnemite, which hits the electric type Pokémon. On the other hand, Lapras is then hit by numerous attacks from Quitten's claws. Magnemite manages to make an electric type attack on the Lapras defeating the giant water type Pokémon. Magnemite is then knocked out by Carvnha's bite attack. Seake manages to knock out Chinchou with its bite attack before it can be knocked out by the latter's Electro Ball. The two trainers return their fainted Pokémon.

"Damn it… my efforts to take out Chinchou are for naught." Amber looks at her field of a weakened Seake compared to her opponent's Carvanha. "I haven't damaged Carvanha at all this battle. Carvanha will probably use a Water type attack on Quitten so that Quitten will knock itself out due to Carvanha's ability." Amber having analysed the field decides on her strategy. "Seake, use Tail Whip on the opposing Carvnha. Quitten, Fury Swipes on the Carvanha."

"Carvanha, take out that Quitten with your Aqua Jet." The gym leader's hand gesture gives off a 'It's over' to his Pokémon. "Your Seake doesn't have any sort of move to use against Carvanha, and Quitten will take itself out."

Carvanha makes a giant dive at the Quitten with water streaming behind it as if it were a meteorite surrounded by water. The attack hits the Quitten knocking it backwards heavily, while Seake wags its tail back and forth in front of the Carvanha. Leaving Quitten to attack furiously at the Carvanha with consecutive attacks using its claws, with each hit Quitten's paws are hurt damaging the cat Pokémon.

"I'm sure you've already noticed, but Carvanha's skin is rough and any physical attack would leave the opponent with scratches." The gym leader commands his Pokémon to make the final attack on Quitten. "Aqua Jet, knock it out now."

"Seake use Poison Tail against the Carvanha." Amber gives out orders to Seake but gives none to Quitten, Quitten looks back at Amber and just turns back to Carvanha to get hit by the attack. Amber returns Quitten to its Poké Ball after it fainted.

Carvanha is hit by Seake's Venomous Tail leaving Seake damaged from the rough skin of the Carvanha. "Carvanha, Bite."

"That means the one who is left to decide is the fastest, and that… would be ME!" Amber commands her Pokémon to use Poison Tail. Seake follows the orders and strikes first with its tail, defeating the Carvanha but damaging itself in the process.

"She really is ruthless…" Garnet comments on the battle style of Amber. Amber takes her badge from the gym leader and leaves preparing to head back towards Fuet Cave.

The gym leader turns to Garnet, "Are you the next challenger?"

"Yes… but I think I might come back another time after I've finished training my Pokémon." Garnet leaves the gym knowing he doesn't have a Pokémon with a type advantage against the Water Type Pokémon or Pokémon that are strong enough to fight with the Gym Leader.

"Very well then." The leader replies heading back inside the gym.

Garnet leaves the gym and sighs reading the sign at the front, Hayden, being the leader's name. "Well… time to get stronger." Garnet walks over to Route 53 to train.


Hunter looks at Lapis' three Pokémon: Shae, Coy and the Slowpoke. "Hmm…" The Slowpoke seems to walk up to Lapis sitting down and reading a few books on Pokémon Battling and make the same gesture as it always does with what seems to be out of complete lack of intelligence.

"What is it?" Lapis looks at the Pokémon not knowing what it wants.

"I actually think it wants to join your team rather than return the wild." Hunter looks at the Slowpoke. "You've told it to go back to the other two for a while now and it's just been walking up to for something. I think it might be trying to convince you. It seems like it's managed to heal quite well after the battle with me."

"Is that it?" Lapis asks the Slowpoke but the latter just makes the same gesture with a tiny hint of a nod. "I guess I'll take that as a yes?" Lapis looks to Hunter for guidance.

"I don't know, I'm not a Pokémon mentalist." Hunter shrugs, "In any case, it seems that the only training you need is mental training to do with battles. Which is ideal, I don't like training my Pokémon either. They normally get tired after the gym battles." Hunter points to a line in the book to do with Grass-type Pokémon. "So, have you memorized the type advantages of your own Pokémon yet?"

"I can remember a few…" Lapis looks at his Pokémon. "Coy is good against Water and Ground types. That's about all I can remember for Coy. Shae doesn't have type advantages but can resist Ghost-type attacks."

"Well, if I keep teaching you the basic type advantages. I'm sure you can learn how to battle properly in no time." Hunter looks at the Slowpoke. "By the way, your other two Pokémon have a name. Have you thought of giving your Slowpoke a name?"

"I might think of one later." Lapis smiles looking at the Slowpoke. Slowpoke then slowly walks back to Coy, Shae, Relamperro and Ekans.

Featured Character:
Name: Hunter
Age: ?
Pokédex Caught: N/A
Pokédex Seen: N/A
Badges: 0
Party:

Relamperro (f) – Level 13
Electric/Poison Type

Ekans (m) – Level 11
Poison Type

Featured Pokédex Entry:
Species: Slowpoke
Type: Water/Psychic
Pokédex Information: Slowpoke uses its tail to catch prey by dipping it in water at the side of a river. However, this Pokémon often forgets what it's doing and often spends entire days just loafing at water's edge.
Habitat: Route 52, Route 57, Route 60, Victory Road