Episode 46: Eve of Indigo
"So, JJ, how long does it take to get to Indigo Plateau from here?" Niko asked in the midst of their breakfast. His curly-haired friend pulled out his trusty map of Kanto to find the answer.
"Looks like a day or two. It isn't too far, just west of Viridian," JJ answered quickly before putting his map back in his bag and continuing to eat.
The previous day, Niko and Fay had defeated Giovanni and received their eight—and final—gym badge in Kanto. This qualified them both for the Indigo League, which was set to begin in a week's time.
The group finished their food and left the pokémon center immediately to get a headstart on their journey west, having bought food at the farmer's market to get them through the days ahead. During the day, they took a few stops so eat and train a little.
Their first was in the middle of a small canyon just west of Viridian City. Here Niko began to train with his shellder and magnemite, Fay with his charizard, dragonair and gyarados.
"Shellder, use aurora beam! Magnemite, counter with thundershock!" Niko said as he directed a battle between his two pokémon. The bivalve pokémon unleashed a powerful rainbow-colored energy beam that was evaded by the magnet pokémon, who retaliated with a relatively weak thundershock attack. "Shellder we need to work on your focus. Your attacks keep missing for some reason. And magnemite, you need to gather up more of your energy, buddy. We can't go far in the Indigo League if your thundershock is not strong enough. Try again, please!"
"Charizard, dragonair, gyarados, keep up the dragon rage! You're all doing great!" Fay said encouragingly. "Just like Lance taught us, Find the rage within you and unleash it that way. Yeah, you got it, dragonair!"
Brittany and JJ watched several yards away as the two trainers practiced with their respective teams, and noticed a distinct difference in training styles. For whatever reason, Niko seemed to be more demanding all of the sudden. Normally, he doesn't act like this around his pokémon, Brittany noted to JJ.
"Might be the stress that's got him, not sure. I don't think he has been in this kind of high-pressure environment before, and it's getting to him."
"That would make a lot of sense, actually," Brittany replied, petting her wartortle's shell as the turtle pokémon was sleeping on a blanket. "I just hope it doesn't affect his overall performance."
JJ nodded in agreement. "Yeah, knowing Niko I hope it doesn't."
Shellder and magnemite fell down onto the ground exhausted. Not wanting to push them any further, Niko picked them up and carried them over to their campsite. However, he looked more stressed than tired or pleased.
"You okay buddy?" JJ asked as his friend sat next to him.
"Yeah, I'm alright. Just worried that shellder and magnemite aren't giving it their all," Niko said before realizing his two pokémon were sitting right in front of him. "I—I mean…sorry…" He dropped his head in shame, realizing that he had insulted his pokémon.
Shellder and magnemite, looking dejected, turned away and watched Fay's pokémon train. They seemed more content with their trainer, and less stressed out. It must have felt nice, they both thought.
"Guys, return. You did a good job…" Niko eventually said, returning his two pokémon. For the next half hour, he just sat there, thinking about what he said. Eventually Fay returned from training and the group ate lunch before packing up and continuing on their journey.
Later that day, around sunset, they began training once more, this time on the edge of the canyon they spent the day travelling through. Fay continued his dragon rage training, and Niko worked with kadabra and pidgeotto, using psybeam and quick wing attack respectively.
It was during this training that JJ began to help Niko out a little. "Pidgeotto, use quick wing attack once again!" Niko commanded. The bird pokémon shot right at its target—kadabra—with its full body glowing.
"Niko! Niko wait!" JJ said, running up to his friend, pamphlet in hand, "Check out this move I saw. It's actually pretty similar to your quick wing attack combo. It's a powerful flying type move that pidgeotto can learn, called sky attack."
"Sky attack?" Niko inquired curiously.
"Yeah, the user flies high into the air and shoots back down with the full power of its body. It's basically what you've been doing all along, but just a different way of commanding it."
"Alright, I'll try it out. Thanks, JJ!" Niko said before returning to his bird pokémon. "Alright, did you hear that, pidgeotto? We're going to try out a new move! Use sky attack!"
With that, pidgeotto shot into the air as if it was using quick attack on the sky. Once it was a couple hundred feet in the air, it arched back downwards and, full body glowing a bright white, launched back towards the ground, as if it was using quick wing attack.
"Kadabra, stop it with confusion!" Niko yelled out, afraid of seriously harming his pidgeotto. The psi pokémon luckily grabbed onto the flying type with its mind, halting it in midair. "Pidgeotto, that was great! I can't wait to see what it looks like in an actual battle!" Niko said, praising his pokémon.
For the next hour or so, the two trainers kept at it, eventually retiring to their campsite to sit with Brittany and JJ.
"Wow Fay, it seems like you've really got dragon rage down now," JJ commented.
"Yeah, it's definitely getting easier. Dragonair still has some difficulty, but that's okay. We'll get through it. How's the training going for you, Niko?"
"Fine. Pidgeotto is learning sky attack right now, and kadabra just needs to get better at focusing its psybeam, but we're almost there."
"And what about shellder and magnemite? Weren't you training them earlier?" Fay asked further.
"Yeah, well…" Niko hesitated, looking down at his food, "I…kinda insulted them earlier, and I think they're mad at me…"
"Oh, I see. Well, I hope you can resolve that…" Fay said, continuing to eat.
The rest of the group went to bed, leaving only Niko awake. After the day of travelling and training, he was certainly tired, but the stress was getting to him. He decided to send out ivysaur.
"Hey buddy, sorry for waking you up," Ivysaur looked at its trainer sleepily before blinking a few times and smiling happily. "Tomorrow we'll reach Indigo Plateau, and the pokémon league will begin in a few days. I'm not sure if I'm ready…"
"Ivy…?"
"Yeah. It's weird, I thought that, after beating all of these gyms, I would be strong enough to take on the pokémon league, but I'm starting to second guess that now. And it stresses me out. I lashed out at shellder and magnemite earlier, did you know that?" The seed pokémon looked a little shocked at this admittance, but continued to listen. "I feel terrible, and I wish I could take it back. If I ever do that to you, please slap me with vine whip, okay?" Ivysaur nodded, albeit a little concerned. Niko continued his stream of consciousness.
"I just don't know if I have what it takes to be a great pokémon trainer. I don't just want to be good, I want to be great. Maybe, maybe even the best. And, now that I think about it some more, that doesn't seem possible. Heck, I can't even beat Elliot, and I know he isn't the strongest out there. So…who am I kidding?"
Ivysaur patted Niko on the shoulder with its vine to reassure its trainer, giving it a determined look.
"Ivy! Ivysaur saur!"
Niko then snapped out of his funk, and looked back at his starter pokémon. "Of course, I know you're not going to give up! You never have, not even when you were blinded. You stood up to Sabrina's alakazam and fought it like your life depended on it, blind and not. And I'm very proud to be your trainer. Thanks, ivysaur, for making me realize that."
The two, trainer and pokémon, then hugged before heading to bed. Unbeknownst to the both of them, Brittany was awake, and quietly listening to the entire conversation. Assured in the fact that her friend was feeling better, she went back to sleep.
The following day, before heading off to Indigo Plateau, Niko and Fay did one final round of training. This time, Niko used ivysaur and hitmonchan, and Fay used hitmonlee, electabuzz, and primeape, having all three work on close combat moves such as mega kick, thunderpunch, and "double karate chop." Niko focused on increasing the speed and volume of ivysaur's razor leaf, and perfecting hitmonchan's thunderpunch move.
"Hitmonchan, try to remember the feeling of holding Nidoking's thunder in your gloves. Imagine the electricity flowing through them. Maybe that will help?" Niko said as he began to notice the punching pokémon was having some difficulty. Hitmonchan closed its eyes for a moment before creating small electric sparks in its gloves. "Excellent! Now use thunderpunch!" Niko cried out. Hitmonchan's fist lit up with electricity, but before he was able to use it, the sparks disappeared. "Alright…well, try again!" Niko then turned to ivysaur. "How're you doing, buddy?"
Ivysaur looked up at its trainer after practicing its razor leaf one more time. It smiled eagerly, noticing that it was making some progress. It used razor leaf one more time, demonstrating to its trainer that it was improving. There were significantly more leaves shooting out from its bulb this time, although they were moving slightly slower.
"Alright, it looks good so far, but we need to increase the speed of them. Can you try that?" The seed pokémon nodded happily before continuing to practice.
Meanwhile, Fay's pokémon seemed to be getting their moves down. Electabuzz was practicing close combat with primeape while hitmonlee kept kicking a tree, using it as a punching bag for its mega kick. After a while, it seemed to get the move down. Fay looked pleased with the results.
"Alright guys, time for a break! We're heading off to Indigo Plateau in a bit!" He said, returning his three pokémon. Niko did the same with his two.
After another hour of walking, they finally saw the Pokemon League building in their sight, just beyond the hill that they were standing atop.
"We made it!" Brittany cheered out. As she looked to her friends, she noticed Fay smiling in success, but Niko was slightly more solemn. She could then tell that his talk with ivysaur didn't completely eradicate his stress.
