Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 10: My Conquest is a Pool of Stars.

After another 2 fights on Nugget Bridge, Red still hasn't lost, but his Pokemon were too worn out to continue, so he decided to visit the Pokemon Center, expecting to meet there Blue.

Although there were many people residing in the lobby, his travelling companion wasn't one of them. He left the Pokemon with the nurse, so she could heal them, while he wondered for a couple seconds what to do with himself, since he didn't have anyone to talk with.

On the way to the cafeteria he passed by the communication machines and remembered something important. He searched his pockets for a phone number and used the device to call the Pewter City Pokemon Gym. Soon, the receptionist who Red met when visiting that place, answered the phone and his face appeared on the screen. He immediately recognized the teenager and told him to wait a little while he would contact Brock. Soon, the receptionist left the seat and, from what Red heard, the room. Instead, the Gym leader arrived in his place.

"Hi, Brock."

"Hello, Red. Since you are calling me, you are probably wondering if I found out anything about Team Rocket?"

"Well..." Red hesitated, since he was previously ordered not to get involved with the criminals "That's half true. I also learned something about them."

Brock gave him a suspicious look "What do you mean?"

"I accidentally ran into them in Mt. Moon..."

"And by that, he means he search for them to get a confrontation." these words came from Blue who suddenly appeared behind Red, startling him enough to jump a little in the seat.

Brock squeezed the upper part of his nose and remained silent for a couple seconds before saying "Ok. I should have known I couldn't have stopped you. Not with that attitude you have. What did you learn?"

"I made a deal with them and since I beat most of them, the guy who was in charge of this group told me about their connection to the Gym in Viridian. That place used to serve them as scouting grounds for new members, since that mysterious Gym leader is also the boss of Team Rocket. But the guy seemed confused why somebody was protecting that place, since they abandoned it some time ago."

Brock tried to connect the dots in his head "That seems to line up with what I learned. I used my authority as a Gym leader to have the police check that place out. They met a couple Team Rocket members there, but since the policemen were more numerous, the Team Rocket members ran away. The only thing they found in the Gym were various documents. It's the only Gym I heard about that kept files on all the trainers who fought against the Gym leader. But this... This makes sense. He created the Gym to test potential Team Rocket members. I will have to contact the other Gym Leaders right away..."

"Wait!" Red yelled.

"What is it?"

"Could you wait like a day or two?"

"Why is that?"

"I want to fight the Cerulean City Gym leader and if you call her, she may become too busy."

"I'm sorry Red, but you know that this could be very important. I can't give you that much time."

"You don't have to." Blue said.

Red looked at her with a confused look "What do you mean?"

She held out her hand, and in it was the same badge that he earlier saw in Green's possession.

"I lied about the reservations so I could get this before you. Sorry."

"Gah!" Red fell from the chair in shock.

"But that means that you can go fight her right away." the girl tried to calm him.

Red quickly got up and looked at Brock "How about it? Give me just an hour or 2."

"Okay. I can do that." the leader answered "Good luck with your fight."

"Goodbye."

"Goodbye."

Red arrived at the nurse's counter after hearing that his Pokemon have been healed and immediately started to walk towards the doors, but when Blue didn't follow him, he turned around in surprise.

"Are you not coming?"

"I have to heal my Pokemon. Besides, I'm rather tired by the fight. You go on your own. We'll meet here later."

"Hmm... Okay. See ya."

. . .

The Cerulean City Pokemon Gym had a blue roof and was located in the middle of a big park. It was elevated a little and Red had to walk up a couple steps to get to the doors. On both sides of the stairs, there were 3 small fountains. This made the boy wonder if each Gym leader was in charge of the placement of their Gym and how it looked from the outside.

As soon as he entered, he recognized that he was in a lobby very similar to the one in Pewter City's Gym. The difference was that this room also had a small fountain, and that the receptionist was a young woman in a sleeveless shirt, and with her hair in a ponytail. She was chewing gum and seemed occupied with something on her computer. She gave Red a quick glance but didn't say anything.

"I'm here to challenge the Gym leader."

The woman remained silent for a long while, still chewing her gum, inflating it to the point that it popped and then chewing eat again. She was holding up her head with one hand while using the other to move and click the mouse rapidly. After some time she stopped with a disappointed look.

"Uh... I'm here to challen..."

"I heard you! Damn it, I lost my game! What do you want from me?! She's in there! Just go in!"

"Okay, okay." Red held up his hands, showing that he meant no harm as he slowly walked backwards towards the doors leading to the next room.

Unlike the Pewter City Gym, there was no corridor so after passing through the automatic doors, he arrived in the place where the battles were supposed to happen. The room seemed bigger than the one at Brock's Gym. There were two platforms for the trainers on the opposing ends, while most of the space was taken up by a big pool. There were 5 platforms floating on top of the water.

Red looked up and saw that although there were no balcony's for spectators, the Gym had roof windows which allowed sunlight to get in. It was bright enough that no artificial lights were needed.

Red arrived on his platform and began thinking about what tactic to use, since he assumed that the Gym leader would be a water type user. Suddenly, something moved in the water. Red didn't notice it before since it was below one of the platforms. It swam in his direction with incredible speed. He jumped back and fell on his buttocks when the thing reached out from the water in his direction.

He was amazed to find out that it was a human hand, which helped the rest of the body get out of the pool after grabbing onto the platform. It was a girl with a slender build and around his age, wearing a navy bikini bottom and top which was like band wrapping around hear breasts and holding them in place. Red's face turned red as he instantly stood up and started backing off.

"I'm sorry! I arrived at the wrong time! I'm gonna go now!" he said as he turned towards the doors.

"No, wait!" the girl stopped him and grabbed onto his hand "It's okay. This is a Gym, but it's also my private pool so when I don't fight I like to relax here. That means that I'm often in my swimsuit. But that won't stop me from taking on your challenge. That's why you came here, right?"

"Uh... Yeah."

"My name is Misty. What about you?"

"I'm Red."

"I can see that, but what's your name?"

"No. I..." Red managed to escape her grasp and turned around, realizing that her comment was about his blushing face "...My name is Red."

"Oh. That's interesting. I fought two other trainers who were also named after colors, yesterday and today."

"That's..." he wanted to explain that he knew them but decided that he would just be wasting the time that Brock gave him "...Yeah. Interesting. So, what is the battle gonna be like?"

"How many badges do you have?"

"One."

"The I will be using 2 Pokemon in this battle. And you..."

"I will also be using 2."

She blinked a couple times in surprise "Huh. That Green guy said the same thing. Although he needed only 1 in the end... Okay, let's get to our platforms."

After arriving at their respective spots, Red grabbed onto one of his pokeballs, after deciding what order he would use for this battle.

"Go, Eevee!" as he threw the ball, he made sure that it would hit one of the 5 platforms.

The Pokemon wanted to run to its trainer to be patted on the head but stopped immediately after realizing he was surrounded by water. He guessed that he could make the jumps between platforms but didn't want to risk falling into the pool before the battle even begun.

"I have to warn you. Your Pokemon is already in a losing position." the leader declared.

Red thought that she was just trying to provoke him, but when she didn't call out her own Pokemon for quite some time, he began to feel that something wasn't right.

Suddenly, his worries turned out to be justified, as from under the surface of the water, shot out something that looked like a star. Before Red or his Pokemon could understand what was happening, Eevee was hit in the face and knocked upwards, while the starlike entity continued spinning while flying through the room before going back underwater, without giving Red a chance to get a good look at it.

Fortunately, Eevee landed on all fours on one of the other platforms. Red quickly pulled out the Pokedex to see that the thing they were facing up against was a Staryu.

As Red had guessed, it was a water type. The thing that amazed him was the blinding speed of the Pokemon. It clearly outclassed Eevee's, and since the speed was the dog's strongest attribute, Red was worried about what would happen if he fell in the water, since that would make him even slower.

Eevee looked back at its trainer and saw the hand gesture that meant that he had to wait patiently while observing his surroundings. Staryu attacked again. It appeared out of Eevee's blind spot and hit him in the back of the head. The dog tried to stop himself from flying off the platform but as it began to tip, he had to jump to another one to avoid falling in the water. The one he was on previously was splashed backwards and hit the edge of the pool. It was too far from the other ones to ever get back on it again.

A normal trainer would have seen it as losing 20 percent of their field but Red was thinking about how this could be to his advantage. He observed the surface of the water when Staryu attacked the third time and Eevee had to jump to yet another platform, and he realized that thanks to the platforms being more spaced out, he could notice hints of Staryu's movements below the surface. When the fourth attack was about to happen, the trainer yelled out "Swift to the left!"

Misty stepped back in shock when she saw that Staryu's attack was stopped by a group of smaller stars hitting him one after another. The water Pokemon was knocked back into the pool and the leader started thinking of another way to continue attacking, since the usual one wouldn't work anymore.

"Water Pulse!"

Staryu began shooting out pulses of energy which created ripples on the surface of the water. The attack reached the platform Eevee was on. Although at first Red was happy that the other ones were knocked away, they would have come in really handy in that moment.

Eevee had nowhere to escape, so when he and the platform he was standing on were sent into the air, he couldn't land anywhere else than in the water. This put right in Staryu's domain. The dog tried to escape by swimming up but when another Water Pulse hit him, he began spinning uncontrollably and finally hit the wall of the pool on Misty's side of the room.

"Rapid Spin!"

Staryu started approaching Eevee with astonishing speed. Red was unable to come up with any order that would save the dog from the oncoming attack, so his Pokemon had to rely on its instincts and after waiting for the right moment, bit in Staryu's direction, managing to sink its teeth in one of the arms of the starlike Pokemon.

Apart from spinning, Staryu didn't have a big range of motions, so what it decided to do, after being stopped in its tracks, was to spin in the other direction. Eevee was dragged under the water, hitting the floor of the pool several times as Staryu made an arch which ended with both of them emerging from water and Eevee being sent flying.

"Swift!"

The dog opened its eyes, which showed that he was on his last reserves of energy and shoot out a barrage of stars which hit the Staryu with such a force that they sent him into the floor of the pool. Eevee came up with an unique idea to use Quick Attack while touching the water and managed to take 2 steps before crashing into one of the platforms and grabbing onto it as to not fall off again.

Something began forming in Red's head. The sight of Eevee saving himself in this way could lead to a new strategy. But it was too late. Staryu quickly recuperated and after receiving a command from Misty, used Tackle to knock over the platform the dog Pokemon was on. It used Rapid Spin again, this time making sure that Eevee would be sent in Red's direction. The normal Pokemon landed right in its trainer's hands, already unconscious.

"You did well, buddy." Red praised his Pokemon even though the dog couldn't hear it.

Staryu shot out of the water and, after taking a trip through the room, landed next to Misty. She patted the Pokemon on the back to congratulate him, then looked at Red with a confident smile "Are you sure you don't want to use more than 2 Pokemon? Many people think that if they just use a grass type, or something fast or strong, they can win easily. But the rules of water battles are completely different. This pool is our territory. Our rule is absolute. That Green guy was rather smart and the Blue girl took on us by using a water Pokemon of her own. I wonder if you have anything up your sleeve."

Misty couldn't have known that her words helped Red figure out what was missing from his tactic. As the plan formed in his head, he was staring forward with a cocky smirk. The girl backed off, creeped out a little. She even began to blush, thinking that Red wanted to intimidate her by staring at her body, but he was thinking about an altogether another female body.

. . .

About 2 weeks earlier, Red and Blue stopped on their way to because the girl complained about being tired. They were fortunate enough to be close to one of the resting spots for trainers. As Red reached into his backpack to get out some berries, he noticed with the corner of his eye that Blue was adjusting her socks. Since they were tight at the end, and loose in the middle, that meant that she could pull them up higher, all the way up to her knees.

"Maybe I should buy thigh high ones..." she muttered with a worried voice.

"What are you talking about?"

"These socks! My Zettai ryōiki range in these is from grade E to C. I think I would look better with B or even A. You would also probably prefer that."

"Zet-wha? Grades? I have no idea what you're talking about." Red answered with a very confused face.

"Look at this." she said while moving her hand over the parts of her legs not covered by clothes "This is Zettai ryōiki. It means "absolute territory". It's the space between socks and a skirt. It's the pathway to a promised land that every man wants to walk on."

"I... I'm not sure I follow. What about the grades?"

"The grades depend on how much of this space exists. The longer the socks, the higher the grade. Of course people have different preferences but I feel like more often than not, they prefer longer socks and a smaller Zettai ryōiki. Especially males." after the last words, she gave him a piercing stare.

"That's... That's absurd! You think you can influence someone with something like the length of your socks?!" Red protested.

"Let's put it to the test then." she said with a confident smile, while pulling her socks down to their usual length "Can I have a berry?"

"Uh... Sure. I don't know what's that gonna prove..." he said while placing one of the berries on the bench she was sitting on.

"Okay. Now..." Blue pulled up the socks to her knees while giving Red a quick look.

He felt something cold run through his spine, but something hot swirling in his chest, while his belly felt like an electrifying hurricane, all at the same time.

"...Can I have a berry?"

"How... How many?" Red said unconsciously, mesmerized by what was presented to him.

In a short moment he came to his senses and looked at Blue with a terrified face.

"You see? Absolute territory is a dangerous weapon, yet it can be controlled. The smaller the territory, the bigger your advantage. Although, I don't think this would ever be useful to a guy... Unless you wanna try wearing my clothes?"

"I don't!" he yelled with his face red like a tomato.

. . .

"The smaller the territory, the bigger my advantage" Red said to himself.

Misty looked at him with concern since he was quiet for almost a minute.

"What's the ruling on giving our Pokemon berries during the fight?" the boy asked.

"Uh... Any berry that doesn't restore Pokemon's strength is fine. But, you didn't call out your second Pokemon yet. Is it already poisoned or something? Or is it just hungry? I don't..."

"And is there a limit to how many I can use?"

"I... I guess no."

"Okay. That's what I needed to know. Now, it's your time, Pikachu!"

The electric Pokemon appeared on the only platform that was still kind of in the center of the pool.

"And now..." Red took on a stance similar to a baseball pitcher "...it's time to raise the grade!"

Red threw one of his berries into the pool, close to Misty. The girl looked at it with confusion, while the boy continued to throw even more berries. Finally, around 30 of them were scattered all around the pool.

"I don't understand what you are trying to do but that won't stop me. Rapid Spin!"

"Quick Attack!"

As soon as Red gave his command, Misty realized what his plan was. It was something she couldn't have ever come up with since it was a tactic not suitable for water Pokemon. Pikachu used the berries as stepping stones during his run. He touched them for such a short time, that they were barely affected by his weight, but still were necessary to allow him to approach the enemy. Pikachu adjusted his path as to not hit Staryu head-on.

"Iron Tail!"

As the mouse was passing its opponent, his tail turned to steel and he delivered a crushing blow. Adding Staryu's speed, caused the attack to be even more effective, and the water Pokemon was knocked straight up. Misty called it back right before it would crush into the roof windows.

"What the hell was that?!" she yelled.

"Well... I made sure that everything I did was according to the rules."

"That's not what I mean! If you have a Pikachu, why didn't you order it to use an electric attack?!"

"Oh... You were just going on about how this is your territory and your rule was absolute. Let's just say I wanted to show you that I could "absolutely" conquer it." he said with a smile, that just led the leader to anger.

"I see..." she gritted her teeth "...Since you won't be using electric attacks and I already know about your tactic, I can leave everything to this one. Go, my steady!"

From Misty's pokeball emerged a Pokemon similar to Staryu, but purple, bigger and with more arms. Red checked the Pokedex to learn that it was a Starmie. The Pokemon jumped into the water, after being commanded. This way, Pikachu couldn't use Quick Attack to reach it.

"But... Since I already conquered your territory, I don't need to prove anything more. Pikachu, use Thunder Shock!"

Before Misty could do anything, the attack was already happening. After electricity reached the water, there was nowhere for Starmie to escape. Pikachu continued without stopping for about half a minute, finally stopping to look in the water. Starmie was laying unconscious on the bottom of the pool. The leader recalled her Pokemon and started making her way towards the challengers platform. Meanwhile, Pikachu used the berries to arrive next to Red, grabbing the last one on his way, to begin eating it when at his trainer's foot.

"Congratulations on your victory. The Cascade badge is yours. I have to say that you were the most surprising opponent I had to face in a long time. I will have to rethink some things about my tactics in case someone comes up with something like this again. By the way, how did you arrive at this idea?"

Red looked at her with a blank stare. An image of Blue's legs formed in his head and he began to blush uncontrollably "I... My friend came up with it."

"Oh. Is that so? Anyway, I wish you luck on your journey. There are still 5 badges you have to get."

"Or 6." Red said while adjusting his hat.

"What do you mean?"

"Brock will call you soon and explain everything."

. . .

On their way to Pokemon Center, Pikachu played around with the new badge. Red was wondering if he should thank Blue for giving him that tactic, but quickly dismissed that thought, when he realized that it would be too embarrassing to explain it. After arriving at the Pokemon Center, he started looking around but Blue was nowhere to be found again. The nurse noticed him wandering through the place and called him over.

"Oh. I have to heal Eevee." he remembered and went over to the counter "Hi. It's me again. Could you take care of my buddy?"

"Uh... Yes, of course. But before that, there is a note for you."

"A note? From who?"

"From your female friend. The girl with the white hat."

"But why would she leave a note?"

"Oh... You didn't know? She said that she has to leave Cerulean City and she did, about an hour ago." the nurse looked worried, and somehow ashamed that she was the one that had to deliver these news.

Red was just standing there, too shocked to even look at the note he received.

This was certainly something. A lot of undertones. This chapter will somehow probably backfire seeing how it's the one showing my weebish nature the most.

I never actually watched Evangelion, although I have it in my plans. I did read the manga. It was cool but there was a lot of stuff I didn't care for. Apart from that, this chapter is probably most influenced by Flip Flappers which I've been watching last week.

Hmmm... After having Red using that tactic, I didn't have a plan for what Misty's counterattack could be, so I just kinda ended it in a silly way. In the games Pikachu wouldn't beat a Starmie so easily, but a lot of what Red does couldn't happen in the games.

I don't know what was my original intention behind splitting up the dynamic duo, but I came up with some kind of new reason. This will also lead to a fated meeting very soon. Probably not next week. I have a lot of stuff to do. So the next chapter will proably appear in like 2 weeks or something.

For anyone who doesn't get the title it's a pun on My Conquest is the Sea of Stars which is a movie serving as a prologue to the classic anime Legend of the Galactic Heroes. I just reached the moment where it seems like everybody is gonna die and I'm consantly on the edge of my seat. I wonder if the new version is also good. Anyway, here are the updated statistics for the major characters.

Red. Team: Eevee, Charmander, Pikachu.

Badges: 2

Green. Team: Ivysaur, ?, Jigglypuff.

Badges: 2

Blue. Team: Bellsprout, Squirtle, Zubat.

Badges: 2

Alex. Team: Ditto, ?, ?, ?.

Angie. Team: ?, ?.

Peter. Team: ?, ?, ?.