I'm back again still not even getting closer to owning pokemon no matter how hard I try. Well let's begin chapter 10
I was walking the short way between Mt. Moon and Cerulean city with my precious team by my side. Cocytus was jumping around as always until he would suddenly get tired and then sitting on my head until he got some energy back. Ooz was moving around on the road and sometimes eating things he found on the ground, if it were any of my other pokemon I would tell him to stop but as a grimer he has a power immune system. Ceasar was walking close to my feet just looking straight ahead.
The newly evolved Draugr was floating in my shadow trying to learn shadow punch. Shadow punch shouldn't be that hard since it's more or less the same as using lick but with his hands. This exercise is more a way to make Draugr get used to his new hands, it's not easy for any species to suddenly grow a new body part (unless you're a ditto) so getting used to it is the first thing you should do. Typical trainer mistake is believing that a pokemon is immediately adapted to its new body so they don't give the pokemon time to adapt which results in horrible performances.
The sun was close to disappearing over the horizon and I saw Cerulean city in the distance. Cerulean although not as big as Viridian it was bigger than pewter and much bigger than Pallet. The houses looked much more crowded here.
As I got closer to the city I saw a sign pointing at several important directions and decided to try Draugr's reading skills, in my opinion the haunter have made great progress.
"Draugr, can you tell me which of these signs leads to the pokemon center?" I asked the gas pokemon.
Draugr took some time looking closely and after a minute he pointed at the right direction.
"Correct," I told him with a smile.
The ghost type obviously took great pride in his achievement as he was now taking the lead. Before walking into town I recalled the rest of my team as it is not recommended to walk around with more than one (human size or below) pokemon when in a city. We came across three more road signs which Draugr now could easily distinguish as he kept leading the way.
Some people were quite terrified when seing Draugr since he was about ten meters ahead of me and didn't think the haunter had a trainer. After seing the third mother pull their child away I decided to stop this.
"Could you get slightly closer, people think you're wild," I said to the exited ghost/poison type.
Luckily my message came across as Draugr was now floating directly ahead of me.
Although much better it wasn't really necessary since we were now at the pokemon center.
After returning Draugr I left my pokeball's in nurse Joy's care. Although no one of my pokemon took any mayor damage it's allways good to be on the safe side. It's also a good idea to have your newly evolved pokemon checked since they could have evolved wrongly or prematurely which could lead to some damage. Both those cases are very rare but definitely happens in some rare cases.
Luckily for me that wasn't the case with Draugr. Although he evolved a little early it was not a problem at all. With those good news to ease my mind I choose to call home.
First I started with calling professor Oak to let him now about my progress. On the screen appeared the face of professor Oak who had a neutral expression.
"Would you care to tell me why the five of you went after team Rocket?" The professor asked in a tone that held barely restrained rage.
"We thought it was the right thing to do, especially since they had hostages," I answered in what I attempted to be a monotone voice.
"Well I can't say I would do differently in your situation but please don't do it again. If you ever encounter team rocket again just contact the league," Oak said in an almost pleading way.
As I felt relieved that he took it so well I decided to ask a question that's been lingering on my mind.
"What happened to the pokemon confiscated from team Rocket?" I asked.
"Well, most of them were sent to some special facilities the league owns for rehabilitation but a few of them were so mentally damaged that the only option was to put them down for good. One in particular, a rhydon was sent to me since it seems to have some resemblance of a personality. Although not the smartest rhydons are known to be very stubborn so it's no surprise that he wouldn't completely bend to team Rockets will. Normally we give a pokemon we deem rehabilitated two options, one is to get to be set free into nature and one is to be placed in the care of a trainer within the league. After getting a full report on the incident and thanks to my alakazam even got the rhydons side of the story we have decided to give him a third option. If it's okay with both you and Rhydon I would like to give him the option of joining you," the professor said with a slowly growing smile on his face.
I was happy when hearing the news, although not knowing him for a long time I started to like that pokemon. Also it would be a great addition to my team.
"How long will the rehabilitation be?" I asked with great excitement showing.
"I'll go ahead and take that as a yes. And how long it will take is unknown I still haven't figured out just how damaged his psyche is," the old man answered.
"Ok thanks professor, goodbye," I said.
"Bye Ash," Oak responded before ending the call.
I now had one more thing left to do, call my mom. I pressed in her number waiting for her to answer. After awhile she picked up.
When my mothers face appeared on the screen in front of me I got instantly worried. She had an overly sweet smile on her face and although only seeing it on a screen I still felt the malice coming from the woman in front of me.
"Ashton Red Ketchum, would you be so kind to enlighten me why you attacked Kantos most dangerous criminal organization?" My mom asked.
'Using my full name, this is serious,' I thought to myself.
"I just couldn't stand there and watch," I answered. It's only half the truth since another big reason is that I simply hate team Rocket but since I can't even explain to myself why I hate them so much I decided to leave that part out.
My mom sighed before answering, "I cannot say I understand you completely but I understand where your drive comes from. Your father "used" to be just like that," she said sounding very disappointed when she said "used".
She looked at me with almost pleading eyes before before just like professor Oak say, "please just, try not to do it again."
"I'll try," Was the most honest I could be since I would lie if I said that I would never do that again.
My mom gave a small smile before saying her farewell which I answered before we ended contact.
After the conversation I went up to my newly rented room where I released my team. The first thing everyone did was in their own way being impressed by Draugr's evolution. Ceasar looked with some interest before apparently finding more interest in the wall, Ooz made a horrible attempt at acting like he didn't care while Cocytus ran around Draugr taking in every detail of the haunter.
After that everyone started getting comfortable, Ceasar stayed where he was looking at the wall, Ooz was checking the trash can for something to eat only to be disappointed when he learned that it's emptied between each guest. Cocytus was doing his best at cheering up the grimer who started acting like he didn't care about the trash while Draugr was doing something new, he was looking around in my bag. I had some of my bigger things like a tent for colder days hidden in storage compartments that worked a lot like pokeballs but I also had many smaller things that I simply wanted to take in and out quickly in something resembling a normal backpack. It seems getting hands made Draugr more curious or it was simply that he always wanted to see the content of my bag but not wanting enough to bother to ask.
After awhile the haunter found something that caught his interest. It was a book that I was planning on reading during my travel but I never had the time. It was a book about a couple thousand years ago, the main character was a boy who raised a hatchling Moltres and the two became legends. Anyway it seems to have clearly caught the ghost/poison types interest as he was looking at me with an almost pleading look. It was clear that he asked if he could get permission to read the book.
"Sure you can read it. If there is any words that you can't read simply get my attention and then tap the word and I'll read it for you. If you can read the word but don't understand what it means then tap it twice so I can give you an explanation," I answered to the haunter's joy.
After cleaning myself and my belongings which was very needed since Mt. Moon was extremely dusty I went to bed. Draugr was now a chapter into the book and seems to be enjoying it, I must say I really envy a pokemons ability to learn quickly.
I then proceeded to throw away all the soon to be bad leftover food in my living garbage disposal name Ooz. In most cases that would seem extremely mean to say but since Ooz both insist and enjoy eating my garbage I am not one to complain, especially since giving it to him is much better that just throwing it away, grimers can eat almost infinite amounts of food.
After everything that was needed to be done was done I went to bed thinking of how I was going to take on the Cerulean city gym tomorrow.
Well that was another chapter. Now if anyone thinks that I made Ash's mom and professor Oak let Ash get away with what he did a little to easy I agree with you. I simply didn't know how to make them be very mad at him but still have him continuing his journey like earlier. Well with that out of the way time to have your reviews answered.
Neotac: Thank you.
anarion87: Glad to hear.
Muncher50: Well as I explained in this chapter you wish will most likely come true unless something big happens that even I can't predict (happens more often that you would think in this story).
baylay: If you mean SS. Anne I don't see the excitement but I hope my story will reach that point and I simply won't just abandon my work. And I hope Ash keeps rhydon as well.
Amourshipper35: I honestly haven't watched that movie so I do not know what joke I made, please inform me since I'm very curious.
UltimateDeku: Most likely.
1995hzq: Propably.
shadragon: I think so to.
That was all folks. Any question or suggestions or wish to say I made a nice chapter please review or pm me. I hope the next chapter will be done quicker than this one. See you all next time.
-Octopie21