Chapter 10: A Lesson Learned

My previously stated thoughts were rudely interrupted abruptly by some nerd in a straw hat.
"People call this the Nugget Bridge." My response of course:
"Did I fucking ask?" He ignored me.
"Beat us five trainers and win a fabulous prize!" What is this, a TV game show?
"You think you got what it takes?" Oh shit, it is ON now motherfucker. I didn't even answer, I pulled out Pidgeotto and sent him out to fight this cocky little bitch's Caterpie. I stood there for a second half-gaping. He wasn't honestly going to even try… right? His Pokémon was gonna get hurt if these two battled. I waited for a second to make sure, and I suppose he took that as a gesture to go first.
"Caterpie, String Shot!" A slim stream of string flew at Pidgeotto. He brushed it off lazily with his wings. Is he serious right now?
"Umm… Gust… I guess…" Pidgeotto hesitated for a second, seeming to be thinking the same thoughts as I was. Reluctantly, he slowly whipped up a Gust attack which almost instantly KO'd Caterpie. Still, he was down and out.

"Damn! Ok then, go Weedle!" I hesitated once more.
"You're joking, right?" He scowled.
"Don't take me lightly! I'm first of five! We'll wear you down slowly if we have to!"
"And how do you suppose you'll accomplish this miracle?" I retorted. He did nothing for a second, shook his head and called for Weedle to use Poison Sting. I sighed deeply, then called "again!" Pidgeotto acted much faster than Weedle, who was also down for the count. The kid sorted through his Poké balls and eventually came to a decision. Next victim: Metapod. That's actually a bit better… assuming it knows anything other than harden.

As a matter of fact, it did not. Sometimes I wonder why these people even bother sending out Pokémon that CAN'T EVEN FIGHT. Back when our story took place I thought it was stupidity, now I think that it's negligence. Pokémon are our precious companions, and all who don't respect that are… that's off topic.

I didn't even bother waiting. "Gust" I commanded with all due sarcasm and boredom. Naturally, it only took one blow. However, this didn't fault his enthusiasm for a fraction of a second. Last was poor old Kakuna. I suppose following the pattern, that wasn't hard to figure out. I decided to show mercy and end it before it began. "Gust." Just like that, it was over, and I'd won. After a quick snide remark and reception of payment, I went on my merry way.

My next opponent on the poorly named (for obvious reasons) "Nugget Bridge," was a young girl about my age, possibly a little younger. Her catch phrase wasn't too inventive. "I'm second! Now it's serious." My initial thought was that I was glad to know that it wasn't serious before, but I couldn't even be bothered being snide. I just pulled out Pidgeotto's ball and threw.

I'm not going to sit here and explain every detail of every fight I had on the Nugget Bridge. Just so you know, yes, she was more challenging than my first opponent, but I had type advantage for almost all of the battle and she didn't even force me to switch. Next was a youngster who used a Sandshrew and an Ekans. I had made the decision before the fight to switch to Butterfree. I swept through him and my next opponent, another young girl who used a Nidoran and a Nidoran with only Butterfree. After those two, I switched to Charmeleon. This next kid had a lone Mankey, which admittedly was almost the same level as my Charmeleon, but Charmeleon proved the better fighter and won handily, enough so that I didn't switch. My final fight on Nugget Bridge was more than a bit special, so I'll elaborate.

After defeating the Mankey kid and receiving payment, I kept walking. That made five, so where's my prize? I saw a guy at the end of the bridge who looked like he was waiting for someone. "Well, that must be my guy" I remember thinking to myself. Which made it all the more dramatic when I saw his outfit. It had a black torso, with a big red R. I remembered all too well what that meant, so I held Nidoking's Poké ball behind my back with my finger over the button, I wasn't messing around.

I didn't particularly care about the prize, so I tried to avoid confrontation altogether by walking across the other side of the bridge and ignoring the man from team rocket. This proved ineffective of course, and he came right over to me.

"Hey kid, you must be pretty good to make it across this bridge."
"Yeah?" I answered slowly, wanting him to get to the point as soon as possible.
"How would you like to join our organization? We could always use more powerful trainers like yourself."
"Thanks for the offer, but I have to be on my way." I cut right to the point.
"Well then you'll be leaving your Pokémon here!" He yelled as he threw out his Golbat.
"I don't think so." I said as I did something that I thought should dissuade him enough to leave me alone. I immediately released Nidoking, who roared at the prospect of combat. The man wasn't fazed however, he just grinned to himself.
"I'm going to enjoy taking this one." I didn't respond, I was focusing. I checked my pokédex. His Golbat was level 22, below that of my Nidoking. Why was he so confidant?

Our commands were simultaneous.
"Nidoking, Thrash!"
"Golbat, Supersonic!" By chance, Nidoking's attack came first, but not by a whole lot, these two had pretty similar speed. He slammed into Golbat, sending him flying, but Golbat miraculously didn't even lose his balance. I checked my pokédex again… He'd barely taken a third damage! That should have done over half! The man grinned to himself once more.
"Now Golbat!" Golbat shot out his supersonic waves and caused Nidoking to lose his footing.

I stared at the pokédex to make sure my eyes weren't deceiving me. I uttered a silent "why?" in confusion, which he apparently overheard. After a small chuckle, he began.
"You ever been to Mt. Silver kid? Of course not, but it's a great place, every trainer in the making should check it out, not that you'd ever get in of course."
"What are you talking about?" I asked slowly. He clicked his tongue and shook his head.
"You know what they say, speech is silver, Silence is golden. I'm afraid I've said too much. I will tell you that Mt. Silver is more than just territory and a tactical position, but a dead little boy doesn't need any more information than that."

I wasn't so confused by the new information to know that I had to give Nidoking another command, or my life would be in danger. I shook my head to clear it of stray thoughts. "Nidoking, continue!" Luckily, Nidoking continued his assault, smashing Golbat right in the chest, once again sending him flying. Golbat quickly recovered however, and on command, used a painful "bite" attack, latching on to Nidoking, causing a pained roar. According to the pokédex, this did more than Nidoking's Thrash did. 'What the hell is going on?!' I thought to myself before snapping out of it. "Come on Nidoking! One more time, Thrash!" But to no avail, Nidoking was too confused to stand upright and slammed into the ground, struggling back to his feet. Golbat continued its relentless assault and before long Nidoking was on critical damage. I winced. "Nidoking! Please, one more time!" But he just couldn't do it. He fell over unconscious.

"You did well Nidoking." I muttered as I recalled him. I quickly found Pikachu's ball by my waist and wasted no time releasing him.
"Pikachu, ThunderShock!" At the same time:
"Golbat, Supersonic!" This time, the level difference was in his favour, if only by one. Miraculously, Pikachu managed to dodge the Supersonic and let loose his ThunderShock, which didn't even finish Golbat, but one more attack like that and he should be a goner. This time, the man decided to forego the hit-and-miss strategy of confusing your opponent, and opted to just use Bite again. I quickly learned that this wasn't to be taken lightly however, as he dealt half of Pikachu's HP in one blow.
"Now finish him Pikachu, with another ThunderShock." At last Golbat was defeated, but my heart sank when I saw him reaching for a second Poké ball.

"Arbok, now!" He called as he released the large snake from its Poké ball. According to the pokédex, this Arbok was the same level as his Golbat, but no doubt even more ferocious due to its more powerful nature. I didn't have the freedom the take chances, so I decided to use my only sure-fire attack.
"Pikachu, Quick Attack!" Sure enough, the attack landed before Arbok could do anything about it, but it barely did any damage.
"Arbok! Finish it!" Without an actual command, Arbok lunged forward and bit hard into Pikachu's skin. I called Pikachu back as quickly as I could, but he was done for the fight.

I gulped. The rest of my Pokémon involved a tired Charmeleon, Pidgeotto and Butterfree, along with a useless Kakuna. I reached for Butterfree's Poké ball, but changed my mind and picked up Charmeleon instead. "Go! Charmeleon!" Deep down, I knew Charmeleon didn't have much of a chance, but he did manage to deal some damage with a quick Mega Punch. Arbok was still on over half health, but barely. Pidgeotto was to about the same effect as Charmeleon, dealing a decent amount of damage with a Gust and a Quick Attack. But I knew my real hope came from Butterfree. Butterfree was on almost full health, Arbok was nearly done for, and Butterfree had type advantage with his Confusion attack.

It all came down to this. We both knew it and I could see the man from team Rocket actually worrying. One last time, we synchronised.
"Butterfree, Confusion!"
"Arbok, Bite!" To my immediate horror, Arbok moved first, however, it wasn't enough to beat Butterfree in the end, and when the confusion attack came out Arbok fell to the ground, unconscious and defeated.

My internal victory lap was cut short when the man yelled "like I'd let a Butterfly stop me!" And came running at me like a madman. He lunged at me, but I managed to knock him away briefly.
"Butterfree! Sleep Powder!" Butterfree quickly whipped his wings and shot the powder straight at the man. In seconds he was passed out on the floor. I released his Pokémon as I had done before and repeated the process of smashing the Poké balls and throwing the bits over his body. I briefly considered killing him but shrugged of the idea immediately. I was no murderer. This was the first, but far from the last time that I had the internal struggle of taking someone's life. This was one of the few times where I chose mercy. Looking back on it now, it would have been better for everyone if I hadn't.