Hey everyone... Argh! I'm late three days! I have three good reasons for this three day delay, which everyone would think of these being excuses.
16th January: The network issue of FanFiction happened when I finally could find Wi-Fi for my phone.
17th January: It's Sunday, and I didn't have any internet.
18th January: The computer room in my school closed down for a day for some reason.
Anyways... Sorry!
- Round 20: A Friend in University -
- Celadon City -
It was 9pm when Orange arrived at Celadon City. Due to his eyesight it took him 4 hours to get there. What's worse was that the sky got darker the later it is.
'The gym! Where's the gym? Ugh, I hate darkness...' Orange thought.
Finally, Orange's body gave out. Orange stumbled, falling down onto the flower garden. He hadn't rest for 18 hours straight.
And that was also when he noticed that he didn't have a tent with him. It was with Cyan.
"That Cyan! How long is he going to take to catch up?" He shouted to the starry sky.
Orange sat back up. "I can't just sleep here... I need shelter." He said to himself.
"... I got it!" Orange stood up. "I'm finding Pebbles."
It was no easy task for him, although it would normally be not much of a big deal for most people. Pebbles lives in a house near to Celadon University. She is a student, and she shares the house with her best friend, Ilmia.
"Pebbles and Ilmia's house... There! I found it!"
Orange rang the doorbell. The door opened a moment later. A figure wearing pyjamas came to answer.
"Hello, who are you?"
"You're Ilmia, right? Pebbles know me, you can call her to come." Orange answered.
"Pebbles? She's already asleep! She was busy completing her project and now she's exhausted."
"Well... I'm one of her childhood friends. My name is Orange. I just wanted to come and ask for shelter." Orange explained.
"Hold on! Wait a minute..." Ilmia stopped Orange from continuing. "You're... Orange? The son of the champion?"
"Yeah, everyone refers me to that."
"Hmm..." Ilmia thought for a while. "Pebbles did mention about you some time ago. She said that you have some serious battling skills, and I thoroughly know how well you battle. I need proof that you really are Orange, though. I don't want to end up getting kidnapped." Ilmia joked, but also looked serious in what she said.
"If it's a battle that you want, sure." Orange said. 'The problem, though, is that I almost can't see anything in the dark.' He thought.
"Go, Bugpie!"
"Go, H-plus!"
Orange checked his Pokédex. "Aciquid, FN011, Acid Pokémon. Gives out a sourish stench. A few drops of its liquid, with a pH value of -1, can corrode through a feet thick of metal.
"Negative 1?!" Orange exclaimed.
"Well, for your information, it's actually not too much of a big deal. The 0 to 14 range which is usually thought by most people as the extreme values of the pH scale is a misconception."
'Hmph. I didn't say that I didn't know it, I was just a bit scared of the liquid of that Pokémon of yours.' Orange thought. "Okay, Bugpie, use Confusion!"
The battle continued until Bugpie fainted, with H-plus at a bit lower than half of its health.
"Go, Herba, use Leech Seed!"
"Leech Seed? What are you doing?" Ilmia said, with a suspicious expression.
At the same time, Orange suddenly found out that Herba was taking damage, instead of recovering.
'Liquid Ooze... I didn't know that, it's the first time I faced it, anyways...' Orange thought.
"H-plus, use Sludge!"
"Herba, use Razor Leaf!"
Herba was at half its health, with H-plus close to faint. Although it had Liquid Ooze, that didn't mean that it would not lose health if seeded.
"Retreat, go OH-minus!" Ilmia reacted.
'The nicknames could have been much better...' Orange thought while using his Pokédex again.
"Basiquid, FN012. Has an odour similar to bleach. Having a pH value of 15, it is known as one of the only two natural origins of a substance placed outside the standard pH scale."
'I know how.' Orange thought. "Herba, switch out. Go, Geosnake, use Earthquake!"
"OH-minus, use Bubblebeam!"
Geosnake fainted after another round. "Go, Herba! Use Razor Leaf!"
Both Pokémon battled until Herba fainted. OH-minus, however, was also exhausted.
"My last Pokémon, go, Neupoint, use Pound!" Orange said, looking out of the battle field.
"Are you sure you really are Orange? You only have one Pokémon left out of four, and I still have two. And you can't even see your own Pokémon." Ilmia suspected. "Hmm... OH-minus, Use Surf!"
'Say what you want, Ilmia. You are attempting to hit Neupoint with a Surf move such that you can hit it accurately, huh? Then you have just fallen into my trap. I need to run from that liquid, though; pH 15 is not something that can be played with.' Orange thought, dodging himself from the water wave.
Neupoint hit first, with OH-minus' attack almost knocking out Neupoint.
"Come on, Neupoint, one more Quick attack!"
OH-minus fainted. "Go, H-plus!" Ilmia switched in H-plus, which suddenly became much more energetic for some reason.
"Hey, why is H-plus in full health?" Orange asked, his eyes only able to look at his Pokédex.
"It was useless to command OH-minus, it would surely faint soon anyway. I used a Hyper Potion on H-plus instead." Ilmia explained.
"Well you just wasted it then. You do know that my Pokémon is really low in level, don't you? I would lose after this round, and a single move would never be able to knock your Aciquid out!"
"Perhaps. I just wanted to get rid of you faster, Orange-pretender." Ilmia said, with her face starting to darken.
'Ha! It's so fun to fool people! And she wasted a Hyper Potion!' Orange thought. 'But wait... Maybe not. She was lying on that, I think.'
"Although I can't see it, Neupoint is there, and I believe it. One last move, Neupoint..."
Suddenly, H-plus flew to the direction of the pit of the Earthquake, filled with alkaline water.
"... Body Slam."
H-plus suffered from the neutralization of it's body with the base liquid. The salt formed by the chemical reaction then seeped into the wounds of H-plus, causing it to faint straight away due to the humongous pain, in front of its wordless, clueless trainer.
"... Sorry, Orange! I doubted you so much!" Ilmia collapsed onto the ground.
"Never mind, just do me a favor by giving me a place to sleep, thanks." Orange said cheekily, helping Ilmia to stand back up.
"Your Pokémon... They aren't trained much yet, right? Their level is quite low, you know." Ilmia stood back up, borrowing Orange's Pokémon and looked at them.
"Yeah, my best friend usually was the one who would help me to train them, but for now I don't know where he is." Orange said.
Ilmia nodded and closed her eyes for a while, clutching onto Orange's Pokémon tightly.
"Hey, Ilmia, can I... Sleep?"
Ilmia opened her eyes back. "Oh, sorry! I forgot. Here, your Pokémon. Let's go get some sleep."
Orange took them back, and followed Ilmia into the house.
Ilmia went to sleep before Orange. Orange went into the guest room and put his Pokémon on a desk beside the bed. He looked at his Pokémon one last time for the day before sleeping.
'Wow... You're one of them...'
They were all in full health.
⁃ Round 21: A Love Story -
"Hey... Wake up... Just wake up already!" Orange yelled, shaking Ilmia's shoulder.
"...Huh? What? It's only 6 am!" Ilmia woke up and replied sleepily.
"I can't wait any longer! I need to go and find the gym now!"
"Uh... You do know that you still can't take on the Gyms until 7 am, right?" Ilmia sat up on the bed, with her hair messed up.
"But I need to get there now! I want to be the first person there! And I can't get there on my own in the dark! Come on, please!" Orange begged.
"Um... What's... going on?" Another voice sounded.
"Oh, Pebbles, you're awake..." Ilmia said.
"Wait!" Pebbles shouted in surprise. "Err... Orange, what brings you here?"
"He wants to battle the Gym Leader in Celadon City, and for now he is being... a little bit too enthusiastic." Ilmia explained.
"Haha. Still the same since you were five, Orange." Pebbles smiled.
"Hey, Pebbles, Err..." Ilmia hesitated, but then asked, "Would you mind bringing him to the gym? I really want to sleep for a bit longer. In return I can help you with your project later when I get up."
"Well... Okay, but just give me some hints. I know that you can do all of them easily, being an excellent student in Chemistry, but I need to practice too." Pebbles answered.
"Okay! So it's a deal." Ilmia's said. "Hey... Where's Orange?"
"Hmm... Looks like we talked a bit too much in his opinion. I'll go find him, and thanks for helping!" Pebbles said before leaving.
Ilmia went to look at the project.
"Yes, just as easy as I expected. Looks like I can sleep for a while longer! Although I really do need to give a bit of hints later, though..."
Meanwhile, a shadow was hiding behind the house. "Boss... It should be her..."
"Orange? Orange! Where are you?" Pebbles shouted.
"Err... Hello?" A shadow behind Pebbles said, tapping her shoulder. Pebbles turned around, and saw a figure with a mask and a pair of sunglasses on the face.
"Ah! Go, Krabby!" Pebbles reacted.
"Wait! I just wanted to ask whether you are Pebbles..." The figure said, with a trembling, high pitch voice.
"Hmm... You don't sound like you're doing something bad..." Pebbles thought for a while. "But how did you know my name?"
"I know who Orange is. He mentioned about you yesterday when I met him." The figure answered. "My name is Maggie."
"You know Orange? Hmm... Okay, I believe you, but then I'm finding Orange right now. He wants to go to the gym very badly, so he went to find it himself. He has a poor eyesight, so he must have gotten lost." Pebbles said.
"But why does Orange want to go to gyms that early and fast? He even neglects his own weakness?" Magenta said.
"If you're asking that then it means that you might not have known Orange well enough yet. For your information, Orange is a battle maniac. He likes to battle more than anything else. He has Pokémon battles every second he could. He never declined any battle offered to him, and the scary part is that he never lost to any of them as long as it's possible. And those sentence doesn't even get close to describe his obsession with battling.
"As long as it's possible?" Magenta got a bit confused.
"Well, as long as you don't tell him to do something like battling six level 100 Machamps with a single level 3 Ratatta." Pebbles joked. "In other words, if he can't defeat a team using his Pokémon team, then it is basically impossible for anyone to use his team to do so."
"Oh, I understand now. Hey... I think I heard something, a soft bump." Magenta said, focusing her eyesight on the direction of the sound. "Hmm... Oh, it's Orange! Follow me!"
'Wow... I didn't hear anything, or see anything as well. She sure has some sharp senses...' Pebbles thought.
- Front of Celadon Department Store -
"Ow... My head..." Orange said, after a terrible bump on the entrance door.
"Orange! I've finally found you!" Pebbles shouted.
"Oh Pebbles!" Orange turned to look at Pebbles, with the direction of his eyesight off target.
"Hey Orange! You're okay?" Magenta said.
"... Maggie is that you? I'm... fine! Perfectly fine!" Orange said nervously.
"You don't sound like it, and you don't look like it as well. Your forehead is quite red." Magenta said, crossing her hands.
"Never mind. Pebbles, where's the gym?"
"Let me bring you..." Pebbles said, when she looked at Magenta's handbag, noticing the 3 badges pinned neatly on it.
"Maggie, do you want to follow along?"
"No thanks, I already know where it is. I'll go there by my own, bye!" Magenta said while taking leave.
"Aw man... That makes her the first challenger of the day again..." Orange mumbled. "Oh, speaking of Maggie... She asked me about some information about Misty, your mum."
"My mum? Sure."
- Front of Celadon Gym -
"Misty's your mum? Can you please tell me something about her?" Magenta said to Pebbles, with Orange staring at the door of the gym.
"Yeah, well, yes. Misty is my mum. She is a Gym Leader who specializes in the water type."
"But... How much do you know about your mum when she was younger?"
"Hmm... I don't really know what should I say..." Pebbles said, with her eyes diverting to Orange. "Maybe I can tell you about a love story, which I find it quite interesting."
"Love story?"
"Well, Orange's dad has been the champion for many years, which might have been the reason for him being admired a lot, especially being admired by girls. Before my mum married with my dad, she had a crush on Orange's dad." Orange, stunned by that statement, looked at Pebbles. "But then after Orange's dad had a girlfriend my mum went away and got married. But looks like Orange's dad and that lady broke up for some reason, and then he got together with Orange's mum. If my mum didn't get married that fast she might have been together with Orange's father."
"Wow, and... Who is that lady?"
"I remember it's the mother of Orange's best friend. I don't know if you know him."
"What? You mean Cyan's mother?" Magenta exclaimed, almost forgetting to raise her pitch. Luckily she would normally also raise the pitch of her voice when she is shocked. Orange, hearing the love story for the first time, was stunned as well.
"So you do know him." Pebbles said.
"Oh my, that is one complicating love story..." Magenta said.
"Oh, it's almost 7 am now. I've got to go do my project. Bye, Orange and Maggie!" Pebbles then walked away.
Orange and Maggie both waved hands. They then looked at each other.
"Now... Tell me about your costume."
"This mask is used to cover my nose and mouth from spores and pollen, and I decided to put up these sunglasses because I thought that the trainers would be using Sunny Day to power up their Pokémon." Magenta said, just as the clock stroke 7.
"Hey the gym door opened! Me first!"
"... Good luck, Maggie!" Orange said, this time saying it more willingly than before.
"Thanks, Orange!"
Magenta went into the gym, with the story repeatedly going through her head. "This information... It should be okay..."
Yay! I finally reached the 10th Chapter milestone! (Or perhaps just an inch-stone...) I'm hoping to get at least one review for this chapter.
Expectation date: By 29th January
Pokédex entries
FN011: Aciquid - Acid Pokémon -
Type: Water/Poison
Height: 1' 6" (0.46 m)
Weight: 3.65 lbs (1.66 kg)
Ability: Liquid Ooze
Entry: Gives out a sourish stench. A few drops of its liquid, with a pH value of -1, can corrode through a feet thick of metal.
FN012: Basiquid - Alkali Pokémon -
Type: Water/Poison
Height: 1' 6" (0.46 m)
Weight: 4.00 lbs (1.81 kg)
Ability: Liquid Ooze
Entry: Has an odour similar to bleach. Having a pH value of 15, it is known as one of the only two natural origins of a substance placed outside the standard pH scale.