Chapter Eleven: Squirtle

Tony, Iris and Jonathan floated down the river on Jonathan's Lapras heading from Pewter to Cerulean, while bypassing Mt. Moon, due to the sudden shut down thanks to the reemerging Team Rocket. During this time, Ahmed, Arthur and Ash were making their way out of the cave towards the Cerulean exit. Tony knew his pokemon were probably strong enough to take on Victoria at Cerulean Gym, specifically his Pikachu who had the elemental advantage, but that didn't really mean much considering the remaining six gym leaders were sure to be stronger. Tony needed to train. He figured having Iris with him would help them train together.

"Look," Jonathan said quietly, pointing to a group of little shells floating down the river in their direction, but a little faster, passing Lapras up. "Squirtles."

"Nice," Tony said. "I'm gonna catch one,"

"A fine choice," Jonathan said. "Squirtles are excellent beginning pokemon. Best of luck to ya."

"Good luck, Tony," Iris grinned.

"Thanks," Tony said, tossing out his first pokeball, his Slowpoke, into the water. Slowpoke swam over to the squirtles and smacked one of them on its shell with its tail. It jumped up, out of the water and into the air in the most adorable rage you've ever seen. The rest of the squirtles continued to float along, completely disregarding Slowpoke, but this one stayed to fight. It shot out a Water Gun at Slowpoke, who took the hit and shrugged it off, while swimming closer to the Squirtle and hitting it with its head. The squirtle was able to hide in its shell and take barely any damage from the hit. Slowpoke continued to hit it but to no avail. "Damn, fool, use Confusion or some shit, it'll bypass that defense."

Slowpoke moaned a weird noise and concentrated real hard to hit Squirtle with its Psychic powers! The squirtle began floating, face up, along the river, all fainted and whatnot. Tony tossed a pokeball and it sank to the bottom after sucking up the squirtle inside. "Yo, Slowpoke, think you could go grab that for me?" It sighed, moaned, grunted or something, I don't know, but then swam underwater, and came back up with the pokeball on its nose. It climbed up on Lapras, who didn't seem to mind the extra weight at all.

"Good work, Slowpoke," Tony said, petting his bud. "Sweet, I got a squirtle."

"Would you like to give a nickname to Squirtle?" Jonathan asked.

"No." Tony said. "I'll just call it Squirtle."

"Congrats, Tony," Iris said. "We should battle once you get it healed. I think the rest of your pokemon are too strong for me, but I think that Squirtle would be a fair fight for one of mine. I'll catch up eventually, though, don't you worry."

Tony chuckled, "I'm sure you will."

"This is where we get off, guys," Jonathan said. "You go down this path here, cross that bridge, and you'll be in Cerulean."

"Thanks, Jon," Iris grinned and hugged Professor Oak's assistant.

"Preciate it, bro," said Tony, shaking his hand and the two hopped off the Lapras. Slowpoke followed, but was taking too long, so Tony just recalled it back to the pokeball. Jonathan pulled out another pokeball and tossed it onto his Lapras. Just as a Fearow popped out, Lapras returned to its ball, and Jonathan and Fearow flew off, likely back to Pallet Town to help out Professor Oak some more.

They walked through the grassy area, when Iris stopped suddenly. "What's up?" Tony asked.

"Look," she said, pointing in front of her. Tony shuffled some of the grass over (it was very long) and saw a little Abra, sleeping or meditating or something. "I want to catch it," she continued quietly. "But I need you to be really quiet so it doesn't wake up and teleport away." With that, she tossed out her Ekans, a little purple snake. "Use Wrap," she whispered to it.

It quietly slithered over to the Abra and, quickly, wrapped itself around the little guy. Abra began to struggle, but couldn't teleport out. "Now use Glare!" Ekans moved its neck around so its head was in front of Abra's. Their eyes seemed to meet, and Abra stopped struggling. It just sat, completely motionless. It didn't need physical movement to teleport, though, so she made sure Ekans had a strong hold while she got out a pokeball and tossed it.

Abra went inside. The ball wiggled twice and then stopped. It was captured. "Wow, good job," Tony said. "My pokemon may be stronger, but you have some good techniques up your sleeves."

"Well, I did study up on pokemon before I started, you know." Iris laughed. "Not sure if it'll be enough to take on the Cerulean Gym Leader. What's his name?"

"Her name is Victoria," Tony nodded. "And she is pretty tough. I'd recommend catching a pokemon from the power plant about a mile east of town. Just ask the guy at the front desk, his name's Steve, if you can go to the basement to find some pokemon. They're all electric types, and should be pretty useful against Victoria's water types."

"I'll do that," Iris said. "Thanks, Tony,"

"Sure thing. While you do that, I'm gonna go ahead and start my battle with Victoria."

Tony walked inside the gym after healing up at the pokemon center. It was just a giant pool and, on the opposite side of the door, was Victoria. There was no ceiling to the gym so the sunshine was shining through just like an outdoor pool. But it was inside. There were a few people swimming in the pool, and a few pokemon as well, but Victoria was just chillin' in a fine bikini. Tony walked around the pool and approached Victoria, his arm outstretched, hoping she'd accept his battle.

"Do I know you?" she asked, pulling down her shades. Tony paused for a moment. "Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't mean for that to sound condescending. I just mean, you look familiar."

"Oh, you've probably seen me around town," Tony said. "I live here."

"Oh, I get it," Victoria said. "You work over at the plant, right?"

"Yeah!" Tony said. "You've seen me there?"

"No," she replied. "But I've seen you coming back from there in your little hard hat. So you're doing pokemon now, huh?"

"I wouldn't saying I'm doing them," Tony said. "That's a little..."

"Shut up," Victoria laughed. "You know what I mean. So, are you here for a battle?"

"Actually, yeah,"

"Okay then," she nodded. "Let's head outside, so all the spectators can watch."

They walked outside, shook hands, and then stood a good fifteen yards away from each other in front of the gym. A crowd emerged pretty quickly, when Victoria tossed out her Starmie. Tony followed suit by throwing out his Pikachu.

"Starmie, Swift!"

"Thundershock, Pikachu!"

Small bolts of lightning and a little beam of stars passed each other quickly. Starmie, shocked, fell to the ground, and Pikachu was hit pretty hard by the stars. Then, Pikachu charged forward as Starmie was struggling to get up. "Use Recover, Starmie," Victoria said. As Starmie charged energy for a Recover, Pikachu slammed into it, knocking it down.

"Here comes Wartortle!" Victoria said, recalling the fainted Starmie and tossing out another pokeball. Tony took this moment to pull back Pikachu and send out Squirtle. "What an odd choice," Victoria said as Wartortle, essentially a bigger, stronger and faster version of Squirtle, popped out. "Oh well. Wartortle, use Bite!"

"Withdraw!" Tony shouted, and Squirtle hid in its little shell. Wartortle's Bite was still pretty hard, and Squirtle took some damage, but it stayed in battle. "That's enough, Squirtle, head back in there, Pikachu!"

Pikachu came back into the battle. "Shit," Victoria shouted. "Wartortle, Withdraw!" Wartortle withdrew in its shell, just as Pikachu let off a small jolt of electricity. It was Thunder Wave, and it paralyzed the Wartortle. "Oh," Victoria sighed as Pikachu began to blast Thundershock after Thundershock as Wartortle took forever to move out of its shell. "Watergun, Wartortle! Watergun!"

It couldn't get off a single Water Gun before it took so many Thundershocks it finally just fell to the ground, exhausted. Victoria called it back and sighed. "I guess you've earned the Cascade Badge. Congratulations. Um, I never actually got your name."

"Tony," he grinned.

"Well, congrats. And here you are." She approached him and held out her hand. As Tony shook it, he felt the badge, and took it as they stopped shaking hands. "You're a good trainer, Tony, and you have some really strong pokemon. I think they'll grow really fast, and I...Well, would you look at that?"

Tony looked to his left, where Victoria's eyes were, and saw his Squirtle concentrating very hard. It suddenly withdrew into its shell and the shell began to grow very quickly. But Squirtle never returned from the shell. Instead, a large, darker, angrier head emerged. It had evolved into Wartortle.