Episode 36: Elliot again!
In the aftermath of their battles at the Fuchsia City gym, the group decided to travel to Cinnabar Island, which was the southernmost point of Kanto. It also was the site of their seventh gym battle against fire type specialist Blaine. To get to the island, they would have to travel by water on Fay's gyarados for the following week.
Riding gyarados was not as easy as it might sound. It took a few tries for JJ to get it right. After falling off the atrocious pokémon—both onto the sandy beach south of Fuchsia City and in the water on route 19—he finally got it right around midday on their first day of the journey. Fay even tried buying seats from a store in the city to put on his pokémon to make the trip more comfortable. However, he only found two, and so the group elected to switch after every stop. JJ, unfortunately, was not one of those people on the seats.
Around sunset on the first day, the group rested on a small sandy beach island to have dinner and let gyarados rest for the night. Sitting around a campfire, the group broke into conversation about their journey thus far. They had been travelling for months together and, through thick and thin, they somehow managed to make it this far.
"I'll be honest guys, I'm surprised that I've gotten this far," Niko mentioned with an air of humility.
"I didn't think you'd have problems," Fay replied as he pet charmeleon's horn. "Plus, you've got your pokémon to help you out. And all of us!" JJ and Brittany nodded while Niko smiled softly.
"That's true. I don't know, I guess I get nervous sometimes. Worried that something will go wrong and I won't know how to fix it."
"Well, if that's your problem Niko, then again, you don't need to worry about it! We'll always be here to help you out whenever you need it!" Brittany responded, feeding some burger pieces to tangela, who seemed to love it.
"You guys are right. Thanks."
"Anytime uh buddy," JJ responded. Moments later, the group finished dinner, wartortle extinguished the campfire and the group went to bed.
The following morning, Niko was the first to get up. He collected his stuff and packed it onto gyarados. As he did so, he turned around the atrocious pokémon to see the sunrise on the ocean. From Niko's perspective, it was one of the most beautiful sights he had ever seen. He looked down as shellder sat at his feet, also looking at the sunrise.
"Have you ever seen something like this, shellder?" Niko asked.
"Shell…der shellder," The bivalve pokémon responded.
"No idea what you said, but I'll take it," Niko looked down at his newest pokémon and smiled. "We've got two gyms left, and I hope that we can beat them both. We're going to get stronger, together, right?"
"Shell!" Shellder responded happily. Niko laughed, and returned the water type to its pokéball and put it in his backpack. As he was finishing up the packing, Fay, JJ, and Brittany were already up and packing up their own things as well. Half an hour later, they all got onto gyarados and continued south along route 19.
Several hours later, they stopped along another small island to have lunch. However, as they did so they saw a familiar face sitting along the opposite end with his nidorino, watching a scyther practice a slash attack. Leaping off the gyarados, Fay began walking over to the boy.
"Elliot! Hey!" Fay yelled out across the island. Elliot looked up, waving as he also stood up to meet his family member.
"Fay! What's up?" Elliot said, shaking Fay's hand. "Where are you guys headed to?"
"Cinnabar Island. That's where our seventh gym badge is. What about you?"
"Oh, I've got all eight of my badges now. I'm just training with my team for the next month until the pokémon league. Say, you guys want to have lunch together? Nidorino and scyther are pretty hungry now."
"Yeah, sure why not!" JJ exclaimed. "Nice to see you again uh Elliot. How're you?"
"I'm doing alright JJ…how're you?" Elliot said, trying to gaze away from the curly-haired trainer in a gray sweater. "How're you pokémon doing?"
"Oh they're doing great actually! Growlithe is getting much stronger actually!" JJ said cheerfully. "How're yours doing?"
"They're doing alright…getting stronger. I think we'll go far in the pokémon league."
"Well, you're going have to beat us first!" Niko declared as he and Brittany joined the group.
"Oh, sup Niko. Hope all is well with you, too."
Niko nodded. "It's been pretty great so far. Hey, after lunch do you want to battle?"
"Sure, why not?" Elliot said, shrugging.
The five trainers and some their pokémon then sat down to eat some of the fish Elliot had caught and made with his scyther. Fay also contributed some of the group's snacks. After lunch and some light conversation—essentially a retelling of their adventures since their last outing. Elliot also regaled them in some of his own, particularly his gym battles.
"So you've fought Blaine already?" Niko wondered.
"Oh Blaine? Yeah he was pretty easy actually. Don't listen to that silly pamphlet, whoever wrote that didn't know what they were talking about, clearly."
"Anyways, Elliot," Niko began, standing up, "ready for our battle?"
"Sure, of course, Niko. What do you want to do, three on three?"
"Yeah, let's go for it!" Niko said excitedly, returning his pokémon and running to the other end of the small island. He pulled out one of his pokéballs and turned to Elliot, who had also returned his pokémon and stood up with one of them in hand.
"Go, nidorino!"
"Hitmonchan, come on out!" Niko declared, sending out the punching pokémon. "Let's start off with comet punch!"
"Nidorino, use double kick!" Elliot commanded. The two fighting attacks collided, with nidorino blocking every comet punch with a double kick. Elliot then ordered his pokémon to then use horn drill.
"Block it with firepunch!" Niko yelled out, and the fighting type lit its fist on fire and slammed it into the spinning horn. Nidorino recoiled for a moment, the attack clearly failing. "Use comet punch one more time!"
Hitmonchan slammed its fist multiple times into nidorino's head before taking a poison sting to the chest. The punching pokémon took a few steps backwards, recollecting itself before taking a horn attack from nidorino.
"Hitmonchan, let's experiment a little. Use thunderpunch!" Niko commanded. Hitmonchan seemed confused for a moment, unsure of how to use this move.
"Niko, why are you trying to learn a new move now? Isn't that what training is for?" Elliot began, "Battling is for putting what you learned into action. Nidorino, use horn attack!"
The poison pin pokémon rushed at hitmonchan with incredible speed, crashing into the fighting type and knocking it onto the ground before the latter could muster a thunderpunch. Niko returned hitmonchan.
"Thanks buddy, we'll work on that thunderpunch. Great job," Niko pulled out his second pokémon. "Come on out kadabra! Let's use psybeam!"
"Nidorino, dodge and use horn attack!" Elliot commanded. The unusually quick poison pin pokémon evaded the beam of psychic energy.
As nidorino rushed towards the psi pokémon, Niko directed it to use teleport and follow up with a confusion. Kadabra disappeared and reappeared behind nidorino and proceeded to pick it up with a confusion attack and aggressively throw it across the island.
"Don't give up, nidorino. Use dig!" Elliot ordered. The poison type dug a hole into the ground and disappeared, only to reappear directly behind kadabra. "Use horn drill!"
"Kadabra, turn around and use psybeam!"
The psychic type focused its energy on its spoon as it whirled around quickly and used a close-range psybeam on nidorino, causing the poison pin pokémon to collapse on its side, defeated.
"Return, nidorino. We'll work on your speed." Elliot muttered. "Alright then, you're getting better, that's for sure. Go, poliwrath!"
Elliot threw out a pokéball that contained a large bipedal blue pokémon with two large fists encased in white gloves and a black and white swirl on its chest. Niko pulled out his pokédex:
"Poliwrath, the tadpole pokémon. Swims powerfully using all the muscles in its body. It can even overtake champion swimmers."
"Alright then, kadabra, let's be careful. This thing is pretty powerful." Niko muttered. Kadabra nodded in response. "Use psybeam!"
"Ice beam poliwrath!" Elliot commanded. The two beam collided with a small explosion. Kadabra then teleported out of the way and came up behind poliwrath. As it was about to use another psybeam, Elliot directed poliwrath to use mega punch. The tadpole's fist began to glow white, and it smacked kadabra with incredible strength and speed, launching the psi pokémon out into the water on the other side of the island.
"Return, kadabra. You did great, buddy. We'll beat it next time! Let's go, ivysaur!"
"Ah, I see your bulbasaur has finally evolved. Congrats."
"Thanks, Elliot. Ivysaur, use stun spore!"
"Poliwrath, ice beam again!" The ice beam quickly froze the yellow spores and proceeded to strike the seed pokémon. Ivysaur yelped in pain as its feet froze up. "Follow up with mega punch!" The tadpole pokémon then rushed at ivysaur, fist glowing white. As it was about to slam its fist down on the grass type's head, the latter released a stun spore, immediately paralyzing its opponent.
"Great job ivysaur! Now use razor leaf!" Niko yelled out excitedly. The seed pokémon unleashed a stream of sharp green leaves at poliwrath, quickly overwhelming the tadpole. It fell backwards onto the grass underneath it.
"You can get up, poliwrath," Elliot yelled out. "The stun spore doesn't last too long."
Elliot was right. After the razor leaf ended, with ivysaur still unable to move, poliwrath slowly got back up and proceeded to use mega punch. The powerful punching move was met with a fury of razor leaves, which poliwrath blocked with its glowing fist and then slammed it down onto ivysaur's head, ending the battle.
"Return ivysaur. You did good buddy, I'm proud of you," Niko said as Elliot returned poliwrath and walked up to him. "Hey Elliot, thanks for the battle."
"You still have so much to learn. You had the advantage so many times, with both kadabra and ivysaur, and I still was able to beat you," Elliot said in a slightly condescending tone. "Listen, if you want to win the pokémon league, you're gonna need to train way more than you are right now. And just be lucky that we don't have to face each other."
"Wow…" Niko began, "Well, I guess you're right, Elliot. I'm not as good as you are, and I certainly don't know as much as you do. That's for sure."
Niko walked back over to their lunch spot and began packing up. JJ and Brittany helped him while Fay talked with Elliot, scolding him at one point for giving too much grief and promising to beat him in the pokémon league if they ended up facing each other. Elliot nodded and, after saying farewell to the gang, hopped on his poliwrath and swam off in the direction of Fuchsia City.
Fay put a hand on Niko's shoulder. "Hey, man, don't worry about Elliot. He's full of himself, you just have to get used to it."
"You battled really good, Niko, don't sweat it!" Brittany said encouragingly. Niko smiled softly at the complement. Shellder, who had been watching the battle, turned on its side and clamped its trainer carefully. Niko got the message, and thanked shellder while returning it to its pokéball.
"You might be right, but so was he. I have so much more to learn and practice. I have to do better," Niko said, having finished packing his bag. The group threw everything back on a well-rested gyarados and began heading off west, now on route 20 and on their way to Cinnabar Island for their next gym battle.