Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, or any of its affiliated companies. The characters in this work are all loosely based on those created by Pokemon and its companies, and this story will never by no means be used to make monetary profit or gain.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
On the Road Again:
During the early years of Agatha's reign, Indigo underwent a period of industrialization. Economy was stable, wild attacks had been cut to an all-time low by in most of the people's opinion the strongest league government ever built, technology and scientific research were prospering thanks to the then young bright minds of those such as Samuel Oak, Ken Fuji, and Marcus Gideon, and foreign policy was handled delicately via the diplomatic skills of Elite Four members Pryce and Giovanni. In short, Indigo's capital was growing, and I supposed it showed the quality of Agatha's leadership when she decided to invest all that money in advancing society and easing her citizens' lives instead of, well, embezzling, or waging war.
It would be a lie denying the fact that the greatest advancements and discoveries our nation made were during the time of Agatha. Great mining facilities were opened in Pewter and Olivine where the carved or dug out raw materials would be sent to Saffron and Goldenrod for processing and then eventually off routes for construction. Great factories and power plants were built, and mass production of many products which eased humans' lives began. The first automobiles and steamships were assembled during these times, and the connecting magnet train between Indigo's two realms' capitals made transportation between cities commonplace rather than a luxury. The invention of guns was revolutionary in the fight against the wild, later it became mandatory for patrolling rangers to carry sidearms along with their trained pokemon. And as our means of self-protection grew, so did our need for more space, more land to fit everything that was ours. In just a few years, areas that were previously inaccessible due to the strengths of the wild pokemon dwelling there became conquered and tamed. New settlements and routes to connect these were built, more factories and power plants were erected, and for a decade, Indigo was on a good path as an ever-growing, bountiful, and powerful nation in peace.
Too bad it all only lasted a short while.
Nobody knew what tipped them off, but in hindsight, it was predictable as it was inevitable; if mankind ever did stand a chance to prosper on its own, it would have already become the dominant species already. And during Indigo's industrial revolution we actually believed we were exactly that, until the truth reminded itself harshly.
There were no words to describe that period of our history, except for maybe a loosely defined term to summarize it all: The wild. Every book I read on the issue elaborated the causes of the disaster differently, and I remembered once asking my mother for details of those days before my time. She had dropped whatever she was working with at the moment and told me quietly that even though she was a little girl when it all happened and barely recalled much, the horrors of those days were better left not mentioned. I hadn't pressed further; I knew she had a tendency to keep to herself and spare me painful memories of hers, but my curiosity had been peeked. At the next visit of mine to the Oak household, this time I had asked Blue's grandfather about it, he was sure to know about it being at the center of it all. The image of his first few seconds of silence, then him stroking his chin and harshly uttering the words "We made a mistake", refusing to say more on the matter, was still burned to my mind today.
From what I could gather, what happened was simple. Mankind was at a point where he was self-sustainable. He could grow, feed, fight, and build on his own. And if we lived on any other world, that would have been enough. But we didn't, we were in a world of pokemon. And by being self-sufficient, we betrayed the age old agreement between man and beast: Man offered pokemon strength through bonding and training, pokemon offered servitude at man's needs. Once we were close for eliminating our need of them through the means of technology, the other side brought down its wrath: The wild came down in all its glory. Hordes and hordes of monsters were unleashed until it came to the point where we were out of bullets and outnumbered. Our champion, four, and leaders could not be everywhere at once, our rangers and trainers were killed by numbers, and every newly built settlement and factory was lost. We were at their mercy, they kept slaughtering us and trampling our buildings, and their rampage only stopped once all our production facilities were down.
A good chunk of the population was lost, but for those remaining a lesson, no, a law of nature was taught, a law equally as unbreakable as those of physics. If there was any chance of growth for humanity in this world, it had to be with pokemon. Our two species had to walk towards the future together, otherwise nature would catastrophically balance itself. The great minds of that era humbly bowed their heads and reorganized their plans for Indigo's future accordingly.
That being said, there did still today remain some remnants of that era. True, all weapon and automobile factories were razed by the wild's rampage and were never rebuilt again, but now and then you could still see a car or old pickup that had survived those times. In the news, you would still hear officers busting criminals carrying or dealing remaining firearms. And for some inexplicable reason the magnet train was spared, so we still had that. But perhaps the largest and still used relic of them all stood in front of me: The entrance to Kanto's underground highway.
Positioned as a giant crossroads in the middle of Kanto, the underground connected the four main cities surrounding Saffron for drivers who once wished to avoid its crowded traffic. Now that there were hardly any vehicles left, it still served the same purpose, except this time for pedestrians and bike riders. It was not a popular choice of route, with cars gone, so was Saffron's traffic and basically the need to use the underground at all, but it had been regularly maintained and properly lighted by the league government for reasons unknown, and it was still open for public usage. My guess was the league hoped it could remain useful as a bunker for civilians in case of war, but nowadays the only proper time the underground was appreciated was when if for some reason Saffron's gates were closed.
Like today.
Pikachu and I had managed to sneak out of the city without drawing attention to ourselves and traveled all night on route K05 until we reached the point where the entrance to the underground was visible. During the walk, in hopes of capturing something, I had journeyed off route for a while and was rewarded with a feral persian hoping to make a meal out of me before Pikachu shocked it unconscious and also an abandoned poochyena cub crying. Both of them were now in pokeballs and clipped to the left side of my belt, where trainers traditionally hung the non main team members of their team.
Despite having not slept the entire night, I didn't feel tired; I had rested plentiful at Bill's the day before and done nothing except fiddling on my dex yesterday. Pikachu too seemed at full strength, so it was time for me to handle something I had long avoided, something I would rather do before entering the underground and risk harming innocents.
It was time to introduce the new recruits.
"Stay still now," I warned Pikachu as I first released Callidora. My ivysaur greeted me with a pleasant growl but hissed towards Pikachu - they were never on friendly terms, and I imagined Pikachu sending a bolt at her face during the whole rockets shenanigan didn't improve their relationship. To my surprise, instead of his usual aggressive response towards her, Pikachu kept quiet. I guessed he knew he was at fault for his last attack on her and him bottling his battling instinct was a form of apology. But Callidora was still glaring nastily, and I saw Pikachu's tail twitching.
Ignoring those two's bickering, I next let Paul out. I couldn't help but feel sad at the sight of my slowbro; his front body was covered in burn marks from Roulette's attacks, the smooth pink skin on his back had a visibly large scar from Rex's crossbow, and I did actually feel a twinge of guilt when it came to how I had treated him so far. He however yawned happily when he saw me and waddled his way on his two feet to take a spot next to Callidora. As far as I could tell, he harbored no hard feelings for me, which was probably because he was too dim to comprehend I had used him so far as nothing more than a meat shield to take hits.
Smiling a bit too tightly, I scratched the top of his head affectionately as he walked past. I did take notice though he had chosen to stay closer to Callidora than Pikachu, subconsciously probably deeming her a better friend, teammate. It wasn't all that surprising considering it was these two and their joint training that had defeated Roulette, Paul was more familiar to her than Pikachu, but I didn't really like that lines were beginning to be drawn too clearly, too early in my team. Pikachu's low, but proud and challenging, growl, and Callidora's smug face also proved they too were feeling a power balance and hierarchy being established in the team.
Truth be told, there was nothing I could do to avoid this. This inner fighting was the reason why most trainers went with a type core, same type pokemon always got along better and were easier to train. I made a mistake, I admitted to myself. I should have thought more on team building. It was a lacking on my part, long term preparation was not my forte, that was more up Blue's alley. Even during our training school years, I had always focused more on the battling aspect and individual strengths of pokemon rather than them acting as a cohesive unit covering each other's weaknesses. Which was why I had always wanted to avoid Surge's gym.
No use in whining now, I thought as I stared at my three pokemon I had won my second badge with. Let's get out of our comfort zone. "Stay back for this one," I warned my older team members and then threw the pokeball that used to belong to the late Trainer Nolan.
A roar echoed, and Dante the charmeleon, his skin beautifully red and his tail flame bright, straightened up, looking me directly in the eyes. Good, I thought. Shows confidence. I could hear Pikachu's surprised growl and Callidora's annoyed whimper behind me, but I would deal with them later. Right now, I had to win over this pokemon whose owner was killed.
"Funny this is the first time we properly meet." I knelt down on one knee to his eye level - though shorter than me, Dante was surprisingly tall for a second stage evolution. "I am Red."
The answer came in him puffing smoke; the light color showed me he was not in a hostile mood and that my initial suspicions were correct, this was indeed a pokemon who was obedient and trusted easily. But a closer examination of him also confirmed my other suspicions, Dante was not really that strong of a pokemon. His body was tall yes, but he was too thin and lacked muscle. I wondered if this was an outcome of him being hooked on drugs, he had never had the need to strengthen his body naturally after all. And though I did not know much about the rockets' drug "ex", I knew it was strong, which brought a possibility for Dante to suffer from withdrawal. Though I had definitely made my mind on keeping him, I wasn't really sure of how much he would help me in my goals, and that did worry me.
Until maybe I saw his eyes.
A moment of understanding passed between us, similar to when Pikachu had shocked me five years ago, similar to when Callidora and I were under the bridge. Eyes were the windows to the soul, a common saying only partially true. Partially, because for me it was absurd to assume eyes could reflect an entirety of variety of emotions, the whole vast spectrum of character, the defining traits of one's self. No, in my opinion, eyes were extremely good at faking hate, faking fear, and most definitely faking love. Eyes were never meant to be the see-through glass most people assumed them to be, but there was one case of exception, one state of mind that no matter how good you tried hiding under your behavior and body language, the eyes would always betray.
Desperation.
An overly attached monster like Dante needed purpose in his life, craved for it. He was a lab mon, he was not like Pikachu grown in the wild, not like Callidora from the back-alley streets. He was bred for a purpose: To become a starter. He was taught a purpose: Obedience. He was trained for a purpose: Victory. Victory at all costs, no matter the self-harm inflicted by drugs, no matter the incompetence displayed by the master. Survival was second, self-importance nonexistent. A soldier following his incapable commander through hellscape to suicide, that had been Dante's life. A life that had ended with Nolan being mauled by those marowak. A life that had been reignited by my call.
The desperation Dante had was the dread he felt from me possibly rejecting him. I didn't know if he was already born naturally too dependent and submissive, or if was made this way under Nolan's upbringing, but the truth was, I was sure if I were to leave him here, not take him with me, or release him, he would most probably lie down and wait to die. It was fucked up, but that meant right now there were no measures Dante would not take, no lines he would not cross to get me to accept him.
And it was that desperation for approval of his that convinced me he would in fact aid me on my journey and not be a liability.
"Okay then," I said, standing up. "I hear you Dante. You are mine." Dante roared back at me, and behind I heard both Pikachu and Callidora's protesting squeals. "You will be on bench for now with Paul though. We'll see how you grow from there," I continued. "That's Paul by the way." I pointed at my slowbro who greeted this newest recruit with a happy burp. "Pikachu. Callidora. Meet Dante." Their greeting growls were not as friendly; Callidora as a grass type was instinctively already wary of fire types, and Pikachu hadn't really gotten over losing against him. Moreover, they both associated him with the troubles we had encountered with the rockets.
It was interesting how team dynamics quickly shifted. Callidora and Pikachu were ready to brawl a minute ago, now they stood a united front against a common threat. Dante though seemed to ignore all of them, it was as if their growls were falling on deaf ears, and that seemed to infuriate my two pokemon more. I had some guesses to why he was behaving like that, but I needed more time knowing him to confirm them.
The reveal of the poochyena was less dramatic; the minute he was released he began crying so loud that Pikachu immediately collapsed on him and pinned his head to the ground. The poor pup was terrified dead and instantly quieted. Satisfied, Pikachu backed down, and surprisingly the poochyena followed and stood next to him, head always lowered and tail tucked.
The poochyena and mightyena line were pack animals in the wild, the fact that I found this one alone proved he had probably been kicked out due to weakness. He would do me no good as a trainer's mon, but I still wanted to train him and get him familiar to human speech so I could sell him as a pet in Vermilion. Plus I wanted to pit him against Paul, I wondered how he would fare against a dark type. I didn't bother with naming him, once named by a person, pokemon had difficulty adapting to a new name if traded or sold to a new owner. I just took the final remaining pokeball and let the wild persian loose.
This caused a short fight, which was what I expected and was the reason for me releasing the persian last. Unlike the meek poochyena, this mon was a grown, adult female, a predator and hunter, a true wild pokemon. Once released, she would of course try escaping captivity, and her species' being known for their incredible speed, I wanted my full team out to corner her. Before she could even move, Callidora's vines tripped her legs and Pikachu shocked her senseless. A surprising contribution came from Dante, who whirled around himself and slapped the persian on her face with his flaming tail. The persian mewled in pain and laid still.
I carefully examined the beaten into submission persian. Her muscles were toned, her body was lean, and her claws were sharp. She looked strong, I was sure she could rip through my team except for Pikachu and Callidora. This pleased me, for I had actually caught this persian to test my training skills. Up until now, almost all my pokemon had been handed over to me, already familiar with human speech and accustomed to orders. Pikachu was my starter, Callidora was Melanie's pet, and Paul and Dante belonged to other trainers, as did Poka... My track record with my in wild caught pokemon was honestly, pretty bad. My first wild caught pokemon zigzagoon was so weak training him did not count, venonat and butterfree were bug types that shared an aptitude to hierarchy, and my mankey had hated me and abandoned me at the first sight of trouble. Just like how I trained my pokemon to overcome their weaknesses and sharpen their strengths, I too needed to improve constantly, and this persian would serve as an experiment for me, to see if I could finally make a loyal trainer's mon out of a beast from the wild.
Plus, we were about to enter the underground, where the only wild pokemon lived were the mice. Rattata, sandshrew, and pikachu roamed there, and persian were these pokemon's natural enemy. I didn't expect anything, but my adventures had made me paranoid, and with my luck, if for some reason the underground was shut down while we were down there, having a mon that could hunt meat would be a bliss.
The glare Pikachu gave me meant he probably had guessed my line of thought and was not quite happy with it, though I doubted he was happy about anything that went down today. As if Callidora one upping him and the inclusion of Dante to our merry band were not enough, he now had to deal with a predator to his species on the team. Well, he's going to like what comes next even less then, I thought.
"Okay, everyone knows each other now, right? Great," I addressed my group of six pokemon. "Let's move."
It took a brief moment for my pokemon to understand what I meant.
And then they went crazy.
I sighed and sat down, waiting for their fight to end, remaining objective. This was necessary if we were ever going to win against Surge, and I would rather have this dealt with now than later.
Of course the first thing my persian tried to do again was escape, but a bolt from Pikachu, this time not holding back, dropped her. The slight pause Pikachu took to shock her however was an opportunity for Callidora to wrap him up in vines, when an unnaturally brave biting attempt from the poochyena, who I suspected somehow accepted Pikachu as his pack leader, distracted her enough for Pikachu to let loose thunder aimed at her face. The vines loosened, and Pikachu broke free to circle Callidora, seeking a weak point in her defense, but my ivysaur was too smart to give him one; four vines were whipping all around her, and the bud was sprouting random powders and leeches, keeping Pikachu away and denying him physical contact. This did not stop Pikachu however, and in my opinion what was a genius move, he began slowing down, just barely dodging her attacks, tried tricking Callidora into following him, aggravating her and goading her to act offensive.
It worked, and when Callidora aimed for Pikachu with all four vines at once, Pikachu suddenly moved quicker and dodged the blow with ease, but the blow's momentum could not be cancelled, and the impact hit Dante, at full speed, knocking him down.
Brilliant, I thought to myself. Pikachu had brought Callidora into a position he had wanted, and now the previously only observing charmeleon was forced into fight, a fight Callidora was suddenly disadvantaged in. Dante roared and spit his hot flames towards Callidora. The ends of her vines caught fire, and she put them out by hitting them on the ground multiple times. This of course left her defense open, and Pikachu was already in the air, fur crackling and jaw snapping, and was just about to land on Callidora, when-
Aha. Magnificent.
Callidora avoided Pikachu at point blank range and even landed some leech seeds on. Normally, Pikachu's agility and speed should have prevented this outcome, but Callidora was not without allies of her own. Paul's eyes were glowing, a trick room was in place, and now the slower team of Paul and Callidora had an advantage over Dante and Pikachu. Then again, the room wouldn't last long, Paul hadn't had that much time to build it. Only his concentration was holding it in place, and that broke when suddenly out from his own shadow jumped the poochyena, biting him by the leg.
The split second before the room broke Callidora tackled Dante, knocking his physically weak body out. At almost the same time Pikachu sent a bolt to Paul, paralyzing him still. The poochyena was also down, before Pikachu's attack, a whip of Paul's shell covered tail had done the job.
The only two pokemon on the field in front of me still standing were Callidora and Pikachu, panting from effort, growling at each other. Deciding it was enough, I stepped in.
"Good. Got it out of your system. But my decision is final. This is how it's going to be. Don't like it, you'll have plenty of opportunities to dish it out on the way." I raised my eyebrows, challenging them to disobey me. "Any objections?"
Slowly, Callidora retracted her vines while Pikachu stopped crackling his fur. They looked at each other displeased, but stopped otherwise hostile actions.
"Great." I applauded. "We'll wait till the others wake up. Then we're on the move. All of us." I accentuated on the last part.
They growled, but otherwise did not object to the order that had prompted the fight. I looked to the entrance of the underground, on foot, it would take near twenty days to reach Vermilion.
Twenty days where I would not keep my pokemon in their balls. Twenty days where they would all be out in the open, most likely to repeat today's drama. I gritted my teeth, I did not like having to do this, but it was absolutely necessary in order to defeat Vermilion Gym's challenge.
Let's just hope this works.
))(())((
Surge, I read his bio. Often referred to as Lieutenant. Early graduate from training school, Surge studied at Olivine, Fuchsia, and Vermilion gyms, and afterwards joined Indigo's military. Exceptionally talented in strike operations, Surge retired when during the Sevii uprisings a stray nidoqueen dart hit his left eye, permanently blinding him. His exceptional service record was enough for the league to appoint him Vermilion's Gym Leader. His main team consists of: Ampharos. Electrode. Magnezone. Raichu. Electrivire. Jolteon. His signature pokemon: Ira the Raichu. His starter: Acedia the Elekid.
I switched to the second tab open on my dex and read for the umpteenth time the single line written there that explained Vermilion Gym's rule. For all challengers, regardless of their badge numbers, 3vs3 triple battle.
This was the horror of Vermilion Gym: Team battles. Single battles were already hard enough for most trainers, yet alone double or triple battles. Whenever the number of pokemon on the field increased so did the parameters that needed to be taken into account. Not only did the trainer have to act cautious against the many opponents across, plan and coordinate strategies accordingly, the trainer's own team had to be managed as well, otherwise it was possible for team members to turn on each other. To win a team battle, the pokemon had to have incredible type synergy and coordination with each other, a significant quality right now my pokemon team lacked, and one I wished to overcome by forcing them to travel and train out in the open, together.
It wasn't going great, but at least walking in the underground was nothing like tunneling through Mt. Moon. Here, though the road was old and had holes and cracks, it was at least wide. Moss covered the walls and there were some signs of plant life, so the air was relatively fresh. The ceiling stood high, we had a clear sense of space and of night and day, for once the clock hit seven thirty pm, the side lights on the walls would automatically switch from bright white to dim red. Also, there was the comforting presence of the occasional other travelers we saw; a wagon pulled by two tauros had passed us the day before, a group of trainers had walked with us a while the first few days but with Paul slowing our tempo, they had eventually gone ahead, and just today we saw a couple on a pair of rapidash galloping ahead. We usually kept to ourselves, because the road was so wide we didn't need to interact much, and we were almost always too busy training anyway.
The wild pokemon here minded their own business, at most we would see a rattata jump in front of us and then dart away scared. It was hard to reign back my persian during those times, she would eye her prey, longing to chase after it, then hatefully mewl at Pikachu who always kept a close eye on her. It wasn't as if I never let her hunt, it was just she was only allowed to at a time of my choosing, and with always either Callidora of Pikachu accompanying her. I disliked keeping a leash on her freedom, but I knew otherwise she would just run off. Her training wasn't going well either, I usually pitted her against Dante against whom she always won, but never through the usage of tactics I tried imparting on her. Her wild instincts told her to attack from her opponents' behind and she was fast enough to find a suitable angle to do that, but a charmeleon's back was as dangerous as its front, a swing from Dante's tail would needlessly injure her. The only reason for her victories was her superior strength.
Dante's own training was surprisingly going well, he was by far the most obedient of my pokemon, and the effort he put in was second only to Pikachu. Even in the short amount of time passed, he had improved greatly, he now executed the usage of his tail, claws, and fangs in battle much better thanks to my instructions, and we were working on increasing the destructive effect of his flames. I kept sprinkling dusts of charcoal over his meals, and there were long, infuriating exercises where I ordered him to burn piles of rocks I gathered. The task was of course impossible, but it served the purpose of testing his upper limit and endurance.
Despite his growth, he was by no means a good battler yet. Although he dittoed my commands perfectly and was genuinely giving his best to obey my training instructions, that was all he had for himself. He showed zero initiative when battling, and his instincts were dulled, even if he could catch the scent of an attack from the persian I put him up against, he usually didn't know how to counter and swung wildly. He was almost similar to writing a dex program in that manner; he executed the typed in commands perfectly but crashed when something unexpected came into play. Furthermore, he had great issues with muscle training, he was almost on par with the poochyena pup when it came to strength, so weak that I never understood how Nolan had managed to evolve him from a charmander. All I could guess was the ex drug he was hooked up on had to have some sort of metabolism boosting effect.
And that brought us to his greatest problem: He suffered from withdrawal. Ex might have been a drug able to pass through chemical tests undetected and had no visible side effects, but it was apparently meant to be taken regularly. The first visible symptoms hit two days after entering the underground, the whole day he was sweating profoundly and acting overly aggressive, and near morning, Pikachu on guard duty woke me up early, growling. At first, I didn't quite get why, but then I noticed his eyes were fixed on the charmeleon curled tight and shivering as if cold. I couldn't see Dante's face from the position I was in, so I stood up and walked around and saw a pair of wide open eyes, from what I understood, Dante hadn't slept at all.
This wouldn't do, and from there on out, every night I made Callidora put Dante to sleep with her sleep inducing pollen grains she was newly beginning to produce. I knew these were non-addictive, and a regular dosage of them could help Dante get much needed sleep. Unfortunately, there was nothing else I could do for his day time symptoms, but at least I was always keeping him busy with regular exercise, keeping his body on the verge of exhaustion so he wouldn't concentrate much on his need for drugs, and Dante on his part was doing his best by giving all of his focus to his training. Maybe I could have dropped Dante off at a pokecenter before entering the underground, in fact, I should have, but I highly doubted they could do anything I couldn't; ex was an unknown drug, making treatment risky, and Bill had told me he had made a detailed blood analysis of us all while we were with him but hadn't mentioned any sort of abnormality in Dante's, meaning he could detect nothing - he was not one to shut up about it if he had found something. I was willing to bet a chemical compound able to slip under Bill's advanced machinery would pass through any pokecenter's blood test undetected, meaning this intense training right now was the best and only treatment I could think of for Dante. At least his nights were peaceful thanks to Callidora.
Speaking of Callidora, she was growing magnificently. She was physically much larger since I saw her for the first time a month ago with Melanie, her bud's color was lively, vibrant, and now secreted various pollen grains, a sign she had entered a growth spurt. Previously all she had as means of attack were her toxic fangs, extendable vines, and the seeds she launched, but now the powdery substances from her bud introduced the possibility of exciting, deeper strategies. I knew some variant of her pollen could be used to put opponents to sleep, and after some self-experimenting, I noticed another type of her pollen numbed my hand, that type likely paralyzed the nerves. She still couldn't secrete the poisonous ones that were the signature ability of the venusaur line, but it didn't matter, her growth in such short time pleased me greatly, there was yet time for new abilities to come and go, I was in this for the long haul. After teaching her the basics of effectively using her powder - using the sleep inducing ones on larger, stronger pokemon and the paralyzing ones on the faster, glass cannons like Pikachu - she became easily my best fighter at mid-range combat.
She still had shortcomings though, mainly her aim. Without the aid of a trick room, there was no way of her hitting Pikachu at a distance whom I usually made her spar against. Deeming Pikachu too fast, I once tried Dante, but even he managed to evade most of the bullet and leech seeds she was sending. She had a crippling weakness against long distanced attacks like Dante's flames or Pikachu's thunder, I currently had no idea how to overcome it, she had no talent when it came to shooting accurately. Although annoying, this didn't bother me too much, if there was a thing like a single mon with no flaws, there wouldn't be a need for a team, which on an unrelated note I was sure would actually please Pikachu immensely.
These days Pikachu was mostly grumpy, he disliked the need for journeying together, he had gotten too used to it being just me and him. There was also the fact that he had become slightly alienated in the team; the trio Dante, Paul, and Callidora had gotten closer recently, Callidora helping Dante rest every night had put her more at ease next to him. The three pokemon's closeness didn't really surprise me, their typing had a synergy between each other, grass fire water cores were most popularly used in the competitive arena after all. If Dante and Paul weren't so useless in battle I would even consider a strategy based on them to counter Surge's team, but no, currently the only one who could hold her own was Callidora in that group. That being said, Pikachu was still my heaviest hitter.
Pikachu's mastery over his static fur was increasing, and I was turning the defensive strategy we once used, making contact to paralyze and then dodging, into a more offensive one, much to his liking. He always enjoyed getting close to his targets, which I repeatedly found odd for a supposedly frail pokemon, but his way above average bulk at least justified his inclination. Our new tactic was him charging himself, fully activating his fur's static electricity, and then just crashing on to the opponent. It was more like a high voltage tackle, a "volt tackle" we called this move, and it was great because it not only suited my Pikachu's physical nature but was also unexpected; nobody would guess such a high power attack coming from a mere pikachu. We only tested it against Callidora, who was resistant to electricity, but the sheer force the attack generated pushed even her back. The downfall was the energy needed to boost his speed and charge his fur left him exhausted and vulnerable, and when hitting a heavy pokemon like my growing ivysaur, I could sense there was some recoil damage Pikachu was trying to mask. But overall there was nothing we couldn't fix by applying more training.
I too was almost as exhausted as my pokemon during their training sessions. I had to carefully keep watch over the mock fights between Dante and my persian to avoid the feral cat injuring my charmeleon seriously. The Callidora-Pikachu duo were also stressful to keep under control, their battles tended to escalate until the other members joined in and forced Pikachu to retreat; aside from the poochyena, the others sided more with my ivysaur than Pikachu. I usually let this happen to an extent, I wouldn't tolerate bullying, but Pikachu needed to know just because he was my first and arguably best pokemon, he wasn't the leader. Also, it made good exercise for situations where he would be outnumbered. I sometimes tried grouping my other pokemon against a single one aside from Pikachu, but due to the slowbro ivysaur charmeleon core never really going full out against each other and Pikachu's usual unwillingness to cooperate, those sessions never went well.
Aside from training my pokemon and constantly working my brain to find a victory plan against Surge, I also had to deal with cooking, healing, and grooming. With different types in my team, I had to prepare different meals; Callidora was strictly on a vegetative and water based diet, the poochyena, persian, and Dante only ate meat, and Paul and Pikachu had pretty much no reservations when it came to food. I never gave them anything fattening or without nutritional value, but delicate meals required time to prepare. My schedule was constantly busy, I was the earliest one to wake up and the latest one to sleep, and my attention had to spread over each of them accordingly.
I might have not managed all of this if I was the same trainer from months ago in Pallet, but the constant movement I was in had kept me in top shape. I had never flown or ported since the beginning of my journey, my travelling had always been on either bike or foot and many times through rough terrain; off routes, through forests, or in caves. Two gym victories had rewarded me with an enough amount of cash that I could afford the best in meals, and as a result my body had grown into more athletic proportions. I was never really scrawny, there were mandatory physical tests in training school we had to take, ones impossible for not-in-shape prospective trainers to pass, but now I was downright muscular. Not too bulky, a lean and toned body instead, and flexible.
The only time I could relatively relax was after me and my team's late night training with Paul. I didn't bother training Paul physically, him walking the underground and trying to keep pace with us was taxing enough, but before dinner time, I made him try breaking through the entire team's mental defenses, an exercise I had overlooked since I had traded my butterfree. Paul's mental probing was of course much more intense, and often left headaches on us, but this was absolutely necessary. Psychic types were the offensively most dangerous pokemon, and when trained, they were near unbeatable, able to predict attacks, plant future suggestions, create confusions, or outright wipe one's mental state. Pikachu was the best at defending against him, followed by Dante, but my persian and Callidora had outright problems. Then again, one was a wild mon with no experience in the area whatsoever and the other a part poison type, holding mental barriers was not their kind's strong suit.
I thought I fared better in this task than my pokemon, naturally I too tested myself against Paul's mind. He never could dwell deep in my head, but I believed that was a sign of Paul's ineptitude rather than my own strength, he really was offensively below average. I did like having Paul on the team though, even if there was no sign of any improvement from him, he was a semi defensive pokemon with an unusual trick up his sleeve, a good support. I even sometimes made him build rooms so the others could practice in them, I wanted them to be ready in case the same strategy was used against us.
After everyone had eaten and we were done practicing against Paul, I would check my pokedex for any news of interest. Thanks to a useful extension cord gifted to me by Bill before departure, my pokedex was now never out of battery. When I was low on charge, all I had to do was plug the cable and make Pikachu bite on the other end, and the device would quickly reach full power again. A slightly demeaning task for a trained starter, but Pikachu didn't seem to mind.
According to what I read, the two snorlax were spotted last heading southwest, in between Lavender and Saffron. Bruno was still on the hunt, but rangers suspected the danger Saffron was in over, the city gates would stay closed for a while as a precaution, but were likely to be opened in a week. There was a small complaining article criticizing the overreaction of shutting the doors of the largest city in Kanto and how this had affected the economy, but I dismissed it quickly. Whenever a natural danger of sorts would loom near, the league always paid for the extra fees needed for businesses to transfer goods via porting and shadowing so the gates could stay closed. The alternative would be otherwise catastrophic, I shuddered at the thought of two wild snorlax making their way in to Saffron.
Unfortunately, the league offered no such compensation for travelers as myself, Saffron was still shut to the likes of us, making the underground journey I was having still necessary. But even if this trip wasn't the shortest way to my battle for a third badge, I admitted I might still have undertaken it. Multiple tabloid sites were reporting of the crazy organization ongoing for the party Obadiah Silph was hosting, and I was curious myself if the rockets were indeed planning something to sabotage it. As every day passed and brought us closer to said date, I felt the invitation letter in my bag grow heavier and heavier.
There was some small gossip about who would replace Will of the Elite Four, who had officially resigned from the position a few days back due to familial reasons, but otherwise, well, everyone was still talking about me. After DJ Ben's broadcast, a reliable battle commentator had taken it upon himself to explain both strategies I had used during my gym battles, parafusion and trick room, to the common viewers, providing extensive commentary and praising my genius on such choices.
As always, public opinion on me had suddenly divided. Once my plans were explained in detail, like a magician whose trick had been exposed, the shock value of a pikachu charging an onix or an ivysaur ripping a starmie to shreds also lessened, and brought some questions of morals and ethics, which were hard not to scoff at. But nevertheless, I was remarked by the extent people would go at to gain some more information on a young - I hated the word - celebrity like myself.
Reporters from a site called "All About That Trainer" had apparently gone to Pallet to shed some light on the mysteries surrounding me, the article read: "...Though we've interviewed every person in Pallet Town to gain some insight on the suddenly infamous young trainer known only as Red, it surprised us that no one was willing to speak up - this reporter thinks that Trainer Red may be more influential and nefarious than initially thought, without doubt he has some sort of hold on the citizens of this sleepy town famous for hosting the Oak household. We have tried reaching Professor Samuel Oak on the matter of course, but he has stated he was too busy..."
I snorted, whoever these reporters were, they were obviously not that good at their job. Pallet wasn't like Viridian or Goldenrod, it was a small town with a tight community. Although I wasn't the most liked child, neighbors got along with my mother just fine, and no one in such a closely knitted circle would betray the privacy they knew me and my mother valued so much. And not even in my wildest dreams would I expect the professor to give an interview to such a trash site. Nevertheless, I had never been so thankful for the league's trainer database that protected individual trainers' personal history, the media would never have their hands on my real name or who my mother was, last thing I wanted was to have them bother her. All the media had at the moment were my trainer's name and the town where my trainer's license had been issued, nothing much to go on.
Maybe influenced by DJ Ben, but another popular radio host from Goldenrod named Buena had decided to do short segments about me too. At the end of her show "Buena's Password", she would dedicate the last few minutes on interviewing nationwide famous trainers on if they had watched my battles and what their thoughts were. What surprised me more was that some of these trainers were actually willing.
"A very, very interesting battler." was Trainer Naomi's comment. I knew Naomi was a young, at her mid to late twenties seven badger and wielded a very strong fire type core with her rapidash and ninetales. If I remembered correctly, she was from Cinnabar but had studied under Violet and Ecruteak City Gyms for her first two badges, both had taken a few years to earn. Her next badges were won through combat though, and she had held a steady, reliable pace of one badge per year. "And either extremely smart or has been preparing for this for a long time despite his youth - it's not easy to come up with strategies like trick room without studying under gym tutelage which he has skipped. A better battler than I was at his age," she admitted. "But he is young, very young, no doubt he'll go far, but I don't think we can see him winning further badges at this pace... Don't get me wrong, he's definitely victory road material, I'll bet we can see him in the next championship - no, not this one, the following one."
Well, fair commentary, I thought. Except missed the mark with which championship I am aiming for. My interest unwillingly peaked, I next clicked on the link which featured Trainer Vincent, a trainer with ten badges who had gone through victory road twice but lost consequently against the Elite Four, known best for his GyaraVire core.
"He's doing everything wrong. Everything. I don't understand why he is so hyped, his mind gets fixed on one strategy and follows it no matter the cost. I can't even begin to- look, everybody in the business knows, you don't get physical with an onix, much less with a pikachu! And that poor slowbro of his... Roulette is no joke, that pokemon could almost die. Granted, trick room is a good strategy against Misty, I'll give him that, but you want to set it up with a bronzong or porygon-z, a slowbro is simply a mismatch against a starmie. From what I can tell, he's quite the one-dimensional trainer who has relied on nothing but luck and leaders' underestimation so far, there's no way he'll make it to v-road."
I couldn't help but smile at his online raging. Maybe there's a reason why you're almost forty and still haven't gotten past through one of the four Vincent. Lack of imagination. Lastly, I clicked on Trainer Alexa, a five badger and one of the few trainers who didn't hide her real name - I believed it was Alexandra Wiseman or something - and came from a background similar to Blue's. Her grandfather was the founder of a popular chain of department stores with direct ties to the Devon Corporation in Hoenn, which made her family one of the richest in Indigo. As if her familial status wasn't enough, she had proved herself a capable trainer at a very young age, in fact it was her record that I had broken. Only three years older than me and Blue, after studying for half a year under Jasmine of Olivine for her first badge, she had repeatedly won her next four in a quick two years. I knew she had a strange combination of a mainly fairy team backed up with a SkarmBliss core, and I admitted curiosity in what this trainer who used mainly defensive tactics in her battles had to say about me.
"Look, we can argue whether he's a genius, or a lucky, stubborn idiot all day and not reach a conclusion - the truth is the kid has two badges in less than half a year's time, all by combat. That's unheard of and deserves appreciation. My problem is different: His attitude. I still remember the stone-cold face he had when he sent his slowbro to near death - you'll say it was his game face but that fight was the real deal, he could have lost a mon right there and then. And the way he treats his fans, even leaders themselves - it seems he doesn't respect them at all. Now I may be wrong about him, but it's not like he's going to come up and give an interview, introduce himself, is he?" She took a deep breath before continuing. "Look, all I'm saying is, what we do, it's important. Us young trainers represent something: The future of this country. I think anyone who denies that this Red, in a couple years, will be at least leader level is biased and crazy, he has such obvious talent. But I'm not sure if I would want a leader, or a four, or, heh, let's go crazy, a champion like him. What would this country do with a leader who inspires nothing but stoic arrogance in the people?"
It appeared that Trainer Alexa was also an idealist like Blue who gave too much thought on what the 'ordinary' would think of; what was it with the elite families of this country breaking stereotype and actually caring? Her video was a total waste of my time and also the last one I had watched before deciding it was time to sleep. Tomorrow would once again be a very tiring day after all.
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It took twenty-two days to reach route K06 and exit the underground, two more days than I had estimated. That was mainly because of Paul, but I didn't blame him, the extra days of training did us good. I was fairly confident in my team now, even the persian was beginning to learn and obey some words, and the poochyena pup had no problems with simple commands like "Sit". There was the inkling of a strategy forming up in my mind against Surge, though it mainly depended on which three pokemon he would choose for battle.
The underground's exit was closer to Vermilion's northern gate than I had initially thought, so it only took an hour's journey to reach it. Meanwhile, it was only Pikachu and me since a long time, the others were in their balls once again, and Pikachu couldn't be more than happy about it. I still didn't know if these joint training sessions had done any good, as far as I could tell, aside from a slight friendship brewing between Callidora and Dante, the team had many inner problems that needed worked out. During our journey, almost every three days a major group fight had happened, spearheaded usually by Callidora and Pikachu. The power struggle between my two best pokemon disturbed me, but at least experience showed me when it truly mattered, these two were capable of working together, like with our time against the rockets; and when it was just us three, they did behave themselves and tolerate each other's presence. But I really didn't know if their partnership extended only to life and death situations, and if they would be capable of cooperating against Surge.
I walked past the stammering idiot of a guard who handed me back my trainer's ID. "You- yo- you're Trainer Red!" I heard him speak behind me. Not minding him, Pikachu and I kept going. "Wait, wait! Are you here to challenge Surge? Are you?" I ignored the excitement in his voice, but his question did worm his way in to my head.
I didn't really know, was I? Despite our twenty-two day long intense workout, never had I been less prepared to face a gym. Even though I would probably still have at least a week's more time until an opening in Surge's schedule would show up, that extra amount of time for training might still not do. Saffron's gates were still shut, so it had made sense for me to not waste time and journey here, but if I was being honest with myself, the secondary reason for me being in Vermilion was peaking my curiosity more and more; the media's interest on this gathering of the wealthiest and most influential families of Indigo on the S.S. Anne was growing every day, and now the rumors had updated from tabloid gossip to actual news. Were the rockets really crazy enough to crash this party? I would learn the truth in four days' time, when the party was due.
The final call of the officer I left behind interrupted my thoughts. Since the distance between us had grown, he shouted the words loud and clear, free for all to hear. "Welcome to Vermilion City!"
Welcome, indeed.
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Author's Note:
So, almost a month of no updates, buuuut a double chapter and editing all the previous chapters free of grammar mistakes (NOTHING story-wise has changed, only the punctuation and spelling errors). Not a bad trade I think.
SkarmBliss in the games stands short for a skarmory-blissey core, which if you've played pokemon competitively the first two generations, is also known as the most annoying spawn duo of Satan birthed in hell and released upon our world to agonize those who wish more from pokemon battling than toxic substitute protect with the best def. and spdef. walls in the games. No, I don't have trauma, why do you ask? (Nowadays we have toxapex, which in a sense proves we should never say never, because I never thought I'd hate any pokemon more than blissey and skarmory, but what do you know? A poison water dual type with regenarator and above 100 in defensive stats each that has access to haze, tspikes, and recovery? Congrats Gamefreak!)
GyaraVire, similarly named, is a gyarados-electrivire core where you'll switch an electrivire to an upcoming electric attack on your gyarados, get the speed boost, eliminate all opposing pokemon that counter your gyarados, and then die to let your gyarados set up some dds and wreck havoc. Was a pretty popular strategy when I played competitive during the gen 4-5 days, don't know how viable it is now.
Next update: Mid-April, another late update, but unfortunately midterm season has come upon me.