After some hard hours training in a forest along with Reaper, Dumpling succeeded in performing this new strange maneuver. Very tired, but seriously ready he stood in front of me and looked right into my eyes.
"This will be our ace strategy. Remember – right, jump and full left. But first we will battle as usual and improvise, okay?" He nodded in agreement. Finally I returned him to a pokeball.
"That`s great, now have a good rest."
Reaper stood near me, trying to attract some of my attention.
"Don`t worry, you were great too. I will definitely find some use of your skills in this battle." Reaper happily jumped, while I take the pokeball and beam him inside.
This is not going to be easy. We are at a serious disadvantage. But at least we are prepared.
The first point of interest in Pewter City for me was, of course, the pokemon center. With an intention to heal my team and have some rest for myself I started my search. Such buildings are usually easily found because of their big red roof, but when it`s dark night, searches become much harder. It took some time for me to find one, but at the moment I finished this little quest.
As I entered the pokemon center, I momentarily noticed how people inside are spread. The left side consists of lucky trainers that got their Boulder Badge today, and every one of them does not hesitate to brag about it. At least, this side was not so full of people – a gym battle is a gym battle, and only the most skilled of them are worthy of the badge. But another side – the right side one – was literally the land of sadness. So many people came here from all the Kanto just to lose their battle with the local gym leader Brock. I just wonder how did he managed to beat them all just in one day?
Well, it looked like there was no specific place for those who haven`t faced almighty Brock yet, so other people like me fitted in both sides, cheering up the righters or praising the lefters.
After a deep breath, I stepped inside the building and headed to the nice woman behind the counter. At the moment I thought it was Jane again, but that were just my eyes failing me. Nurses` uniform make them look so similar.
"Welcome to pokecenter! Would you like me to heal your pokemon back to perfect health?" This pretty woman said with a big smile.
"Wait a second!"
Some tall guy from the left side shouted at me and in a moment run to the close distance. I already could feel his triumphant view on me. But I do not buy it.
"I haven`t seen you here before. Who the hell are you?" He shouted at me again. His voice sounded quite aggressive and tense.
"Of course, you haven't." I replied. "Because I`m a traveler. And who are you? You`re so good at pokemon training that you literally live in a pokemon center?"
Some people in the center laughed. But not the guy in front of me. Seems I am right.
"How dare you! I am Mark!" He continued to shout and, in addition to that, started to swing his hands. "…and I challenge you.."
"Yeah, sure. They really need it." I turned away from him and replied to the nurse`s question and handed over pokeballs to her. Mark opened his mouth in shock. Nurse gave him a mocking look, making him even angrier.
"How can you refuse a battle?" He raged stomping the floor. "You know the rules!"
"Yes, I know these stupid rules, but you know what?" I made a step closer to him to look more menacing. "I am not just a trainer. I am a smart trainer. That means a trainer that does not battle when his pokemon ARE FREAKING LOW ON HEALTH!"
A minute of silence fall upon the pokemon center. Surprised by such impudence, Mark slowly retreated to his place on the left and sat quiet.
"Bravo, bravo!" Familiar voice reached me from somewhere behind him. A tall figure raised, clapping in my honour.
"Douchebag…"
"This is getting old, loser. Are you here for the Boulder Badge?"
I looked around quickly. Seems like everyone in the hall now was paying attention only to two of us.
"No, why would I bother in that?" I lied artificially. "I have already found a good boulder on my way here, all I really need is just the heart of this lady!" I turned to the surprised nurse and smiled at her. She blushed a bit. "But, actually, you`re partly right for some reason. I`m going to challenge Brock, but I don`t care much about the badges."
The whole hall gasped in shock. I wanted to avoid any other unnecessary questions, and turned back to nurse.
"Do you have any free room for one night?"
"Yes, of course. This will cost you 150 pd."
Without any will to give away my freshly earned money, I managed to overcome my greed and handed over the payment to nurse. She put it somewhere inside the counter and handed me the key.
"Second floor, number 14. Have a good night!"
"Thank you, milady." I took the key and turned back to Douchebag.
"Don`t you even dare to brag about your damn victory, Douchebag. I do not care." I warned him with my forefinger.
"Aw, screw you, I`m outta here!" And he directed to the exit.
"He will be back soon… I guess…" I said to the zonked crowd. "He`s definitely not going to sleep outside."
As for me, I headed straight to my hotel room. Tomorrow will be a long day…
And here I am, in front of a huge building, built out of a solid rock. Compared to other buildings in the city this one looked quite primitive, but I was sure the insides will change this opinion completely.
I was SO right about that. And wrong at the same time… The training stadium inside the building was actually made of rock, like some ancient arena of some sort. But another thing made it look really interesting – everything was computerized. Lights, projectors, healing machines in the corners, a giant screen over the battlefield – despite the outside look of gym, these guys weren`t deprived of modern technologies. All of these components didn`t suit each other at all, but the look of such mix was awesome.
As I entered the stadium, I noticed very interesting structure of the floor – everything was covered in sand and rocks except for a special road straight to the other side. Rock-type gym really symbolizes itself. And at the other side I could see two people: a boy and adult man. It looked like the second was reading a lecture of some sort to the first one. I wonder how they will react to my interruption.
I looked around. Near the door right behind me was some guy that haven`t noticed at first. He was just standing near the door, very bored and, maybe, sleeping. I came closer to him with intention to ask some question.
"Excuse me. Is the gym accepting challengers now?"
After my words guy woke up very quickly. Judging by his happy face, he was waiting for some entertainment for too long.
"Of course, of course, man! You are going to challenge Brock the gym leader?"
"Yes." My reply was solid and full of confidence.
"So what are you waiting for?" The guy gently pushed me towards the direction of the battlefield. "Go and challenge!"
Okay… For a moment I was standing near the ladder down to the field, looking around, exploring, searching for something that can help me. After a deep breath I made my step down the ladder and walked to the other side of gym.
Those two didn`t notice me while I wasn`t close enough. But in a few steps away I was startled by sudden shout of the boy.
"Stop right here!"
He jumped right near me and stared angrily. He didn`t look normal to me at this point.
"You`re light years away from challenging Brock!"
I looked at the adult man near him. He could see my confusion on face, and replied to it.
"The rules state that challenger have to face all trainers that want to challenge him before the gym leader."
Again with stupid rules. Why should I battle this kid? Is he even old enough to have a pokemon in his possession? Looks like I don`t have a choice. At least I will get some experience in this battle.
"Bring it on, kid!" I accepted his challenge. He took the position on one side of the gym, while I had to go back to entrance side. And with this, the battle began.
"Go, Geodude!" Boy sent out his pokemon to the battlefield, looking at me with pride and confidence.
"Aw well, let`s try this… Reaper, come on out!" After that I threw my pokeball on the battlefield, and Weedle appeared. On sight of Geodude he turned his head back to me and gave a suspicious look. "I know, I know, every type is against us, but we`re gonna make it. Believe… And use String Shot!"
Reaper shook his head a bit and turned back to his opponent. With all his will for victory, he spit a large ball of sticky web into the foe. At this point Geodude was a bit wondered, but not took by surprise.
"Is that so?" Opposing boy shouted. "Speed doesn`t matter to us, when we have strength on our side! Geodude, use Tackle!"
Rock pokemon tried to free himself from the web prison, but I couldn`t let that happen.
"You`re not going anywhere, Geo, dude! String Shot him again!"
And another shot was successfully landed on Geodude, almost completely immobilizing him.
"Wait, Geodude! We will outsmart him. Tackle Weedle when he comes close to attack you."
There definitely was something wrong. How is he supposed to outsmart me, when I clearly could hear his plan?
"But he will not come. But Dumpling will, maybe." And at that moment I substitute my Reaper for Dumpling.
"Wha… Okay, doesn`t matter. Stick to the plan, Geodude!" Boy was surprised despite I was definitely allowed to substitute.
"You can wait all day, if you want. We will shoot your pokemon from the distance… With Embers, of course!"
Dumpling really tried to give the strongest ember he could, but still it was not very effective against Rock-type pokemon like Geodude. It did some damage, still.
"No, no, no, you can`t… Geodude, free yourself from this stuff!" My opponent started to worry. His Geodude`s immobility will give me enough time to land some more hits, even not very effective, to defeat Geodude. And his pokemon started to worry too, trying to break through all strings bonding him to the ground.
"No time to waste! Continue with Embers! Aim carefully right into his head, but don`t burn the strings!"
Dumpling jumped closer to Geodude, literally at the distance of arm`s length. Geodude stopped his attempts to free himself and stared at my pokemon with a very angry look. Dumpling spit some small Embers into Geodude`s face, completely making him angry. Rock-faced tried to reach Dumpling with his arm, but strings didn`t let him do that. Charmander stood right at the point where foe can`t reach him, and was… dancing?
Dumpling actually danced right in front of frenzied Geodude. It looked like my partner literally scoffed at that rock pokemon. Maybe, I could even understand that – under normal circumstances, Charmander would never defeat a Geodude, due to the type disadvantage. But now he was having so much fun from this I could barely find courage to stop him.
"Enough of this, Dumpling! That`s… not very nice of you… Come on, give it your best shot of embers!"
Dumpling looked at me sadly for my call-down, but after that made a deep breath and showered his foe with a real wave of embers. Looks like his attack becomes better and better every time. Still being not very effective, this was enough to finish Geodude. For a moment I looked at Brock`s face. He was really interested in what`s happening, and looked quite pleased.
"I can`t believe this! I had an advantage, why?" Boy turned back to Brock, but the man stood still, completely motionless. Like a real stone. Without an answer my opponent soon returned his attention back to the battlefield. "I wonder if you can defeat this guy!" And a in a shiny red light Sandshrew appeared on the battlefield.
At that moment I felt some worry about that. I couldn`t remember what type Sandshrew was and what can I expect from him. I have read a lot about common pokemon like bug families, Geodudes and other in my guide book, but this one wasn`t so common. As for PokeDex, it will not help me – to gain full information about pokemon, I need to catch it and scan the pokeball. Maybe, he`s ground type? Looks like it, but I`m not sure. In this situation… I`m going to improvise again. The risk is very high.
"I`ll stay with my current pokemon." I declared after some time.
"So be it!" My opponent shouted. "Start with Scratch, Sandshrew!"
With his clutches prepared, Sandshrew accelerated in Dumpling`s direction.
"Try to dodge it and use your own Scratch!" I commanded to Dumpling. He jumped to the side from the first attack, but opponent had both of his hands prepared to strike, so he managed to touch my pokemon with his claw. Dumpling felt all the pain and retreated some steps back, but after that he recovered and attacked in return. This Scratch was pretty damaging, even for a pokemon with such solid defense like Sandshrew. Opponent was stunned for a second, but quickly recovered too and turned head back to his trainer, waiting for the next order.
And the trainer was already waiting for this moment.
"Now, initiative is on our side! Use Poison Sting!"
Oh, that is not a good thing, I guess. I wanted to save my Dumpling`s strength for later, and poisoning had nothing to do with my plans for now. Maybe, we can finish this Sandshrew before he manages to his us…
"Stand strong, Dumpling! Use Scratch again!"
My pokemon looked a bit worried because of absence of dodging command, but in that way he could concentrate more on hitting the target stronger. As foe reached close distance, Charmander raised his hand for strike, but Sandshrew was faster, and struck Dumpling right in his stomach. My pokemon quietly whined and retreated. Something was not right in his appearance after that… It looked like he became more purple in color.
Damn it! He was poisoned. Sometimes risk can be dangerous, and does not worth it. I made a mistake, and now my opponent prepared to make another successful move. I knew that a battle against this hard-skinned Sandshrew can take a time, but when my pokemon is poisoned – this is not going to end well, he will faint anyway.
I waited for a moment when Sandshrew will be very close to Dumpling. My pokemon was waiting for the next command, but for now I had another plan in mind.
"Dumpling, return!"
Both pokemon were surprised by this move, so was the opposing trainer.
"Surrendering already?" He asked.
"I had too much of poison in my life and soul to surrender! Reaper, come on out!" With a throw of pokeball, Weedle appeared on the field, rested and ready to battle again.
"Your trick won`t work this time! Sandshrew, use Scratch!"
"Actually I even wasn`t going to repeat…" I waited for his another close-distance attack to launch my own. And when the time was right…
"Use String Shot and dodge to the right!" I repeated.
With a great pleasure Reaper launched a nice pack of strings right into his opponent, binding his movement. Sandshrew was really caught by surprise with this move, and couldn`t stop himself from moving further. By the force of inertia he kept going and crashed on the floor. My trick worked this time, again.
"Nice one, Reaper! Now… Use your own Poison Sting!"
For a moment our opponent was completely defenseless and opened for an attack. And this moment was enough to strike in his softest point. Sandshrew screamed after being hit, and jumped out of strings that remained. But the effect of poison worked again… This time – on my lucky side.
"No, this can`t be it! We had the initiative!" Opposing trainer was screaming. "We won`t go down that easy! Use Poison Sting!"
He had completely lost the control on the battlefield, and Sandshrew shivered in the feel of poison, it made some good damage.
"Reaper, use Poison Sting too!"
Two pokemon rushed towards each other to strike at once. Sandshrew was fast than enough to strike first right after the contact, but Weedle seemed to like it was nothing. He managed to keep his strength after the hit and made his move in return. Our Poison Sting wasn`t very effective too, but one hit after another – and the foe will be defeated. Right now this Sandshrew could barely stand. He shivered again because of the poison effect.
"Let`s do this again, Reaper, while he is not recovered! Poison Sting!"
"No way! Scratch him, Sandshrew! I know you can do it!" The boy screamed.
Opponent`s pokemon could only turn head to the Reaper, accelerating for the final hit. Having absolutely no chance to dodge an attack like that, Sandshrew got another hit by Poison Sting… But survived.
"Yes, Sandshrew, keep yourself in hands! Use…"
Once more the poison struck the ground pokemon, finishing him right where he stood. Sandshrew could no more battle.
"Oh yeah, Reaper, my boy, that`s it! You are awesome, and you are…"
But I was interrupted by loud victorious cry of Reaper, suddenly fading. His body started to glow in some strange blue light. I guess, I have seen this… In Oak`s lab.
"…evolving."
Reaper`s body started to change. He became thicker and bigger, the form became higher and sharper, and when the changes ended, the light faded away. He was Weedle no more.
He was Kakuna now.
I was really amazed by this sight. I took out the PokeDex and scanned Reaper`s pokeball once more. As the connection to the pokemon changed, a new entry appeared in the device.
"Kakuna. A Cocoon pokemon. Almost incapable of moving, this pokemon can only harden its shell to protect itself when it is danger."
The first evolution in our team. One step forward to our goal. And still…
I managed to beat one of gym trainers. But the leader himself remains for now. Not for long…
