Completely ignoring the fact Black had what was basically a brand new bike; he began to explore Nimbasa City on foot. With him he had Kenny and Fenrir, having come to enjoy their company a lot. In addition to them, he had decided to spend more time with Nuts, and she too was walking around with him. She didn't seem too thrilled about it, but it was the only way try and get closer to her.
The first place to be explored was Battle Subway. A quick look around and a few questions being asked told Black all he needed to know about the place. While it sounded like it would be a lot of fun to compete in, it also sounded like a perfect place for his Pokemon to die. He left the station without participating at all.
Next up was the Musical Hall. He met Bianca outside, and she dragged him in. A man greeted the two and told them of the wonders of dressing up Pokemon in flashy outfits. He gave them both a pink box to keep these decorations in and insisted that the two dress up their Pokemon right there and then. Nuts turned away from the offer, and Fenrir growled when Black looked at him. Kenny on the other hand was eager to try it out. After putting a grass skirt and hat on her, Black completely lost any interest he might have had for the Musical Hall. Bianca seemed to like it, though.
Upon leaving the place, an older man approached them. It was Bianca's father, and he was dead set on taking her back home. Black separated himself from the two as they began to make a scene right there on the street. Bianca's father shouted about how his daughter wasn't experienced enough and would most certainly suffer hardships if she continued. Bianca on the other hand insisted that she was old enough and wanted to see for herself what the world had to offer no matter the consequences. Black was just about to leave the two to their own problems when a young woman in yellow approached.
"Sweetie, you keep going on your travels." She said as she got within earshot of the shouting pair. Bianca's father glared at her.
"And just who are you?" he asked.
"My name is Elesa. I'm this town's Gym Leader. I also happen to be a model." The woman stated with a smile. She continued to address Bianca's father, saying there are many kinds of people, and how each of them has their own way of thinking. Yes, they were likely to get hurt, but that was okay. She said that trainers especially should be encouraged to think differently because they always had Pokemon by their side. They would help their trainer and you could always depend on them. Black looked down at Nuts, who was entirely disinterested in what was going on.
Bianca's father frowned. In the end he allowed his daughter to keep going with what she was doing and left. Elesa then turned to Bianca and Black.
"He must have been a trainer in the past." She said. "Did I meddle unnecessarily? You looked troubled."
Bianca shook her head. "No, thank you. I think I'll keep traveling until I find out what I want to do with my life." Bianca stated.
Elesa smiled. "By the way, if you're trainers, please stop by the gym. I'll teach you a little something about how tough a journey can get." And with that she turned and left the two.
Bianca wiped the tears from her eyes and turned to Black excitedly. She exclaimed how this city had so much to offer and then decided to go sightseeing for awhile. Black watched her go before kneeling down to Nuts.
"Can I count on you to protect me?" he asked, smiling.
Nuts twitched her tail and turned away from him even more. Black chuckled and pet her head. She stiffened up at the contact, but after a moment relaxed.
"…Yeah. I'll battle for you." She mumbled.
"Thanks. That's all I need."
The rest of the city proved nothing of interest to Black. The Sports Domes events might have been worth a go, but as no one was around to directly tell him what was going on with them, he chose to be lazy and not give it a shot. The Battle Institute wouldn't take him in, and so he left it almost the moment he walked in the door. All that was left was to return to the amusement park where the gym was located. He cringed at the memory of what had happened there just the day before, but brushed the thought from his head.
As usual, the gym had some weird gimmick he had to get through in order to even lay eyes on the leader. This time it was in the form of pressing switches to change the way the cars on a "roller coaster" followed the track. The gym trainers disappointed Black, as they only had two species of Pokemon at their disposal, and despite their levels being roughly the same as Black's, their teams went down without much trouble. The only thing that gave him problems was the fact that nearly every foe paralyzed his Pokemon. After defeating each of the gym trainers, he left to get a complete recovery at the Pokemon Center and to stock up on healing items.
While he was resting, he thought about what he was about to go up against. No doubt Elesa would have at least one emolga and a blitzle, as those were all the trainers had used. After thinking about it for a moment, it struck Black that Ashley was quite near evolving, and because of that, Elesa would probably have a zebstrika. Kenny and Fairy were both basically useless this time around. Maria, too, would not be a wise choice as Black was well aware of flame charge's existence. In the end he decided the only way he would be able to go was with Nuts, Fenrir, and Ashley.
"Okay, Fenrir, Nuts, I'm trusting you two to do most of the work here. Ashley, you're resistant to electric attacks entirely. Can I trust you to stand up to a zebstrika long enough to heal these two if need be?"
Ashley looked down at her hooves, thinking this over. "…I think so." she nodded and gave her trainer a confident smile. "I'll do what I can." She told him.
"Alright. Let's got to this!"
*.~.*.~.*
Leading the charge of Black's fourth gym battle was Nuts. For Elesa one of two emolga was sent out. Annoyingly enough, she insisted on using volt switch to flip between the two flying squirrels. Nuts super fanged and crunched her way through one of them, despite Elesa's use of a hyper potion. Admittedly Black had to pump several super potions into his Pokemon in order to make it that far. As the other emolga was released, Black switched the tired watchog out for Fenrir. The dog got one good tackle out before the foe once again used its volt switch. Just as Black had predicted, Elesa possessed a zebstrika, and it was sent out. Thanks to a second hyper potion under her belt, Fenrir proved unable to stand up against the large zebra. Healing him was mostly useless, as he would be dealt an almost equal amount of damage right afterward.
It was time to call in the backup he had planned for. He swapped Fenrir for Ashley, and sure enough the first attack she got struck by was spark, doing no damage and instead boosting her special attack. While the boost meant nothing for the battle as Ashley's only special move was spark, it gave Black a chance to recover Nuts. Ashley only stood up to a single flame charge due to her low defense, but that was all that was needed. Upon the next turn, Ashley was once more recalled and Nuts reentered battle ready to finish things. Her teeth did not fail Black, and her super fang brought down the highest leveled foe. Following it, the half-beaten emolga stood no chance as Nuts' teeth chewed right through it once she was healed up again.
Black barely had enough time to wipe the sweat off his brow when he realized the battle had eaten through most of the potions he had just stocked up on. Thankfully he had way too much money. In fact, he wasn't sure if he was supposed to have that much or not. He began to think on this, but was of course interrupted by Elesa giving a typical end-of-battle speech that seemed mandatory for all gym leaders.
What surprised Black was that she stumbled over her words as she spoke to him. "My, oh my… You have a sweet fighting style. I mean, you're a great trainer! Excuse me, I uh… Oh here! I want you to have this!" she said as she thrust a bolt badge and TM into Black's hands. She couldn't seem to look at him as he took the items and put them away, ignoring her odd behavior. Nuts on the other hand, raised an eyebrow at her.
"Uh, you realize she's blushing, right?" Nuts asked her trainer.
"Yeah. I know. I'm trying to be polite about it." Black replied, causing some confusing as Elesa could not hear the Pokemon's voice. "Oh, don't worry about it." He told her. "That was to Nuts."
"Right..." She said, taking a breath and regaining her calm and cool demeanor. "You want to go to Driftveil City next?"
"I think so?"
"Of course. There's a Pokemon Gym there, after all." A thought seemed to strike her. "Oh… I bet you won't be able to get there. You know what? I'll fix it so you can cross. Wait for me on Route 5." She told him.
With a shrug, Black picked up Nuts, which greatly confused the Pokemon, and took the last of the roller coasters back to the front of the gym. Outside he set her up on his shoulder, which she did not object to, but had to wonder what was going on.
"You okay, Black?" she asked.
Black smiled fondly at her. "Thanks for today." He stated. "You're welcome to cling to me whenever you like, no matter how heavy and big you are. I hope you stay on the team for a long time."
Nuts fell silent. She then looked away in a huff, but it was different from earlier. To Black it appeared she was more annoyed at her lack of words than angry with him.
A quick stop to the Pokemon Center to get his team healed and another thanks given out to both Fenrir and Ashley, Black decided it was time to get out of the city. Routes 5 and 16 were both connected Nimbasa, and according to Elesa, the former was where he should be heading. So naturally he decided that would be the last way he would go. After all, Route 16 might have another Pokemon waiting to be captured!
First of all, nice to have you reviewing again, hawkfire111. I actually did skip over your advice for the gym until I went to do all the pre-post write-up stuff I do down here. I'm not so much afraid of spoilers as I don't want more prior knowledge to this run than I already have, if that makes any sense. Part of the reason I went with Black version (which I'll get into more much later on) is that I really have no clue what I am in for. So little things like how to defeat gym leaders easier is something I don't want to learn beforehand because it will influence my natural learning of the game. (I'm right about to go to bed as of writing this, so I am not sure how much sense I am making. I apologize.)
Um, I don't really have all that much to say about this particular chapter aside from it took way too long. To be honest I don't care about all the extra stuff that got put into this city. At all. I never have been interested in the contests and whatnot in previous games. So if I do try anything out, it will be after I beat the game. Meaning you are not likely to see any of it.
I suppose I could say for the sake of adding to my word count and making it seem like this chapter was more productive than it probably was, I cannot stand Bianca at all at this point in the game. She's just too whiny and every time I turn around I either have to fix or witness a problem of hers, it seems. And I don't actually know what they were trying to do with Elesa after the gym battle in her dialog, but it sure sounded like she was flustered to me. So I just went with that. (Similar can be said for N in the previous chapter. No, seriously, is there a reason he gets so close to Black as he speaks or why he would go through the trouble of taking him on a Ferris wheel in a Japanese game other than he likes the main character?) Also, am I the only one who reads everything Elesa says in a southern-belle voice/accent thingy? Yes? Thought so.
And before I ramble on too much more, I'm going to end with something I think will actually be of interest to you, the readers! Because I am now on even ground with my game, I can now say exactly what my team is like as far as levels, evolutionary stage, and attacks. So I think after major events (like gym battles) I'll post that info for anyone interested. As of defeating Elesa, and not taking a single step after, my team looks like this:
Kenny the Level 26 Female Dewott- Tackle, Water Pulse, Water Gun, Razor Shell
Fenrir the Level 26 Male Herdier- Tackle, Leer, Crunch, Bite
Ashley the Level 26 Female Blitzle- Spark, Flame Charge, Pursuit, Shock Wave
Fairy the Level 26 Female Tranquill- Gust, Air Cutter, Leer, Quick Attack
Nuts the Level 26 Female Watchog- Tackle, Crunch, Bite, Super Fang
Maria the Level 26 Female Cottonee- Razor Leaf, Leech Seed, PoisonPowder, Giga Drain- Holding a Miracle Seed
(Yes, I am still an "old-school" Pokemon gamer who pays no attention to EVs, natures, stat-effecting moves, etc. Deal with it.)