CHAPTER 12
Game Corner
As they entered Route 34, Zora saw to her relief that there was a dirt road going through the entire route, with Goldenrod City at the end of it, within sight. The only thing standing between them and the city were the Trainers standing along the road, eagerly waiting for someone to battle them.
"Well, I guess we can train up some of you as we get through here," Zora said. "Let's go."
Zora let Omelet be in front as they walked along the dirt road. The first Trainer they encountered was a youngster named Samuel who sent out a Rattata to begin with. It was weak, and Omelet took it out with a single Extrasensory. Afterwards, Samuel sent in a Sandshrew, but it too was taken out by a single Extrasensory. After that, Samuel sent out a Spearow, and Zora decided to send in Bambi to get more experience. It was taken out with one Thundershock, and Samuel's last Pokémon was also a Spearow that was taken out in one hit. With Samuel beaten, Zora and the team moved on.
The next Trainer they encountered was a Pokéfan named Brandon. He had two Pokémon, the first of which was a Snubbull. Omelet was intimidated by its appearance and only managed to bring down its health to half. The Snubbull bit Omelet, but it barely did any damage. With another Extrasensory, Snubbull was taken out. Brandon then sent out a Mareep, which Zora decided to send out Kale to take care of. With two Razor Leafs, the Mareep was taken out, and Pokéfan Brandon was beaten.
Zora then decided to have Dingbat out to get more experience. They ran into another youngster named Ian, who sent out a Mankey. Dingbat took it out with a single Wing Attack. Afterwards Ian sent out a Diglett, at which Zora decided to again send out Kale to take out the Ground-type Pokémon with Razor Leaf. Youngster Ian was defeated, and Zora got his prize money.
Zora declined his offer on exchanging phone numbers, and they moved on. However, as they reached a building in the middle of the route, they heard a familiar voice.
"Grandpa!" Ethan shouted from up ahead.
Zora and Dingbat watched as Ethan and his Marill approached the old man standing outside the building they had just arrived at.
"Good work, Grandpa!" Ethan said happily. "The Pokémon you raised for me has been as healthy as can be!"
"You look fit, too!" the old man remarked with a chuckle.
Ethan seemed to notice Zora's presence, as he turned away from the old man and waved at Zora instead.
"Hey, Zora!" he called.
Zora walked over with Dingbat behind her. "Hey, Ethan," she greeted. "Who's this?"
Ethan smiled and turned to the old man. "Let me introduce you," he said. "This is Zora. She's a Trainer. She seems to be getting better at raising Pokémon. Well, not as good as you, Grandpa, of course!"
"So he's your grandpa?" Zora asked uncertain. "What is this, anyway?"
Ethan turned back to Zora with a big smile. "Follow me, Zora!" he said.
Zora and Dingbat followed Ethan and Marill inside the building. An old woman stood behind a desk, at which there stood a computer similar to the ones found in Pokémon Centers. To the right of them was a bigger room with a floor of grass and dirt, with big windows allowing sunlight inside, almost like a tiny garden. Ethan walked up to the desk.
"Grandma!" he greeted. "Let me introduce my friend. This is Zora!"
The old woman smiled and chuckled. "Ah ha," she said. "This is your girl… friend. I see. Hmm."
Ethan seemed to blush in surprise. "What? Grandma…! What are you talking about? She just happens to live nearby…"
"Hahaha," grandma laughed. "I know. I know. Since you took her here, Ethan, you must be sure about her talent. Right, Zora? Come and see us anytime!"
Ethan turned back to Zora with a nervous smile, a faint blush still present on his face. "Well, I better go now… See ya!"
Ethan and Marill walked past Zora and Dingbat, but didn't leave quite yet. "Oh! I almost forgot!" Ethan said suddenly and turned back to Zora. "Here! This is my Pokégear number!"
Zora giggled nervously but nonetheless took out her Pokégear so they could exchange numbers. They put their Pokégear away after it was done.
"You know you can talk to your Pokémon as they follow you?" Ethan asked.
"Uh, yeah?" Zora said. "I've been doing that all the time…"
"They do all sorts of cute stuff on the road and in towns," Ethan continued with a smile. "I'm taking notes every time they do funny things. Give me a call and I'll share some of them with you."
Zora and Dingbat shared a glance… even though Dingbat didn't have any eyes. Ethan looked back at his grandmother.
"Grandma!" he said with a hint of a pout. "Don't you say anything. We are both Trainers, and we are supposed to exchange numbers. That's all."
With that, Ethan left, and Marill ran off after him. Zora turned and looked at the old woman, who smiled mischievously at her. Zora smiled nervously and decided to leave.
As she got outside, Ethan's grandfather walked over to her with his Pokégear out. "I have an idea!" he said. "I'll give you our numbers. Then you can check on the Pokémon we raise for you."
Zora shrugged but nonetheless brought out her Pokégear yet again and registered both of Ethan's grandparents' numbers, giving them hers in return.
"Call us from time to time when you give us your Pokémon to raise," he said. "I'll be happy to have a use for this Pokégear my grandchild gave me."
With that, Ethan's grandfather returned to stand beside the sign saying 'Pokémon Day Care – Let us raise your Pokémon for you!', and Zora made a realization.
"Oh," she said quietly and moved on over to the water.
"What is it?" Dingbat asked.
"This is where Trainers go to breed Pokémon," Zora said. "To get eggs and hatch them."
"Oh," Dingbat said. "That thing we can't do, huh?"
"Yep. Let's move on. Goldenrod is just up ahead."
They continued walking along the road until a camper approached them and wanted to battle. His name was Todd, and he had a Psyduck. Zora checked her notes. Luckily Psyduck did not know any Psychic-type moves at its current level, so Dingbat was safe to fight it. With three Wing Attacks and some bruises from Water Gun, Dingbat managed to take out the Psyduck.
After declining exchanging phone numbers with Camper Todd, Zora decided to put Kale back in the front to spare Dingbat any surprises that might come, also because she missed talking to Kale.
"You've become so big and strong, Kale," Zora said with a smile as her Starter was brought out and Dingbat back safely tucked in his Poké Ball. "Now let's enter Goldenrod City together."
"Yeah!" Kale replied excited. "Let's go!"
As soon as they arrived in Goldenrod City, the first thing they did was enter the Pokémon Center and heal up the team. Afterwards they went to the PC to put Dummy back in the box and put Fly Boy back on the team. Zora logged off again, and they left the Pokémon Center to explore the new city they were in.
Right behind the Pokémon Center stood a flashy building which Zora decided to check out.
"'Goldenrod City Game Corner – A Safe and Sound Playground!'," Zora read out loud. "Ah, this is the place. This is where we can get an Abra without having to catch it. Let's check it out."
Zora and Kale went inside the Game Corner, and only three men were present. She went over and talked to two sitting together by a table, and they turned out to be the ones with prizes. The man to the left sold Pokémon in exchange for coins; Abra for 200 coins, Sandshrew for 700 coins and Dratini for 2,100 coins. The other man sold TMs and items to be held by Pokémon. The TMs available were Substitute, Swords Dance, Rest, Flamethrower, Ice Beam and Thunderbolt, the last three costing a whooping 10,000 coins each!
"Dang, those things are expensive," Zora said. "But then again, they are the best special moves of each their types, taking their power and accuracy into account…"
"Zora, remember why we're here," Kale said.
"Right, right," Zora said and turned away from the prize men. "We need to get an Abra. It's only 200 coins, so it shouldn't be a problem."
"Depends on how easy it will be to get those 200 coins," Kale reminded her. "It's not money, is it?"
"No, I think it's game coins. Let's ask this man, he looks like he runs this place."
They went over to the third man, sitting in the middle of the building, by a large game table with two long sofas on two sides, facing each other.
"Hello," Zora greeted with a nervous smile. "I'm Zora."
"My name is Mr. Game!" the manager introduced. "My heart pounds with excitement when people enjoy my Coin game! In fact, that's what I live for! You look like quite a challenger! Why don't you play my Coin game? You can get fabulous prizes if you manage to collect a lot of Coins."
"Yes, sure," Zora said. "I'll play your game."
"All right!" Mr. Game said with a smile. "Here is your Coin Case!"
Mr. Game handed over a Coin Case to Zora, who put it in her Key Items pocket.
"Show me how you play, and my heart will pound with excitement!"
Zora gulped and went to the other end of the table, sitting down on the other sofa. She had never played this game before, called 'Voltorb Flip', but she had watched videos and read about it online and taken notes on how it worked, so she assumed she was somewhat prepared for it.
It was harder than she thought. Even with the videos she had watched and her notes taken, she failed the first two games she played. On her third try, however, she managed to find all the x2 and x3 cards on the board without triggering any Voltorb cards. She ended up getting 24 coins from the won game, her first victory.
"Yes, I think I'm starting to get a hang of this," she said with a smile. "I'd like to continue, please."
"Very well," Mr. Game said. "Proceeding to level 2!"
New cards were put on the board, and new numbers of Voltorb and points were given. Zora studied the board, first taking all the cards in the column with no Voltorbs in it. Afterwards she marked the cards where the number of points and Voltorb together made up five, having either a x1 or a Voltorb in that column, then she thought hard about what to do next.
Zora chose a card at random. It was a Voltorb, and her coins from that game were taken away. She sighed.
"Ooh, too bad," Mr. Game said and refreshed the cards. "Want to try level 2 again?"
"Yes please," Zora said and turned to Kale. "This could take a while."
Kale sighed too and settled down on the couch, barely able to fit because of his increased size, but just able to.
Zora failed four more games and won three of them before she had finally accumulated 200 coins and thus enough to buy an Abra. However, it was not just 200 coins, but 302 coins she had ended up with after winning three games, and she did not want to stop now. It was fun, and she was getting a hang of it. Plus, other than the Abra, there were three awesome special TMs she could buy for 30,000 coins in total…
Instead of ending right away, Zora spent another hour or two on playing more games, winning a total of forty-four games and losing another fifty-eight games before she noticed Kale had fallen asleep on the couch beside her. That's when she noticed it was way past one in the morning now, and even Mr. Game looked as if he was about to fall asleep. Strange, since gamers tended to stay up really late. Zora thought he would be used to this, but considering how only he and his two employees were present at the moment, perhaps he was not used to be busy like this.
Feeling tired herself, Zora decided to call it a day, waking up Kale and walking back to the Pokémon Center with him, her Coin Case now containing 5,271 coins. She first deposited Fly Boy into the PC again before she returned to the Game Corner, bought her Abra, named him Expeliamus, returned to the Pokémon Center, deposited him, took out Fly Boy again, and then went with Kale to the lounge, where the two of them settled in to take a night's sleep, keeping the rest of the team in their Poké Balls.
The next morning, Zora went straight back to the Game Corner and continued playing another fourty-nine games of Voltorb Flip, losing thirty of them and winning nineteen of them, before she had finally acquired 10,000 game coins. Now she was finally able to afford one of the three elemental special power moves. She did a lot of research before deciding to buy Thunderbolt, leaving her with only 20 game coins left.
As they left the Game Corner building, it was noon. Kale walked slowly beside her, totally drained of energy, just waiting around for his Trainer to be done with that gambling game. Zora wondered if he would be able to enter a battle, even if just to capture a new Pokémon.
"What's up, Kale?" Zora asked as they walked out of Goldenrod City and entered Route 34 to find a Drowzee.
"I'm bored," Kale muttered. "Why did you stay in there for so long? We could have gotten the next Badge by now…"
"I know," Zora said, a bit embarrassed now. "But at least now we've got Thunderbolt. There are no Pokémon in Johto that can learn Thunderbolt naturally. Plus Bambi has amazing special attack."
"So you're not going to try to get the other two moves?" Kale asked hopefully, but with very little enthusiasm.
"Probably not," Zora replied. "I did a bit more research today, and it seems Vulpix is the only Pokémon we can catch in Johto that learns Flamethrower without a TM, and we can get that easily, if we go some other places to catch certain other Pokémon first."
"Of course," Kale replied, his leaf hanging a bit.
"As for Ice Beam," Zora continued, stopping before entering the tall grass, "the only Pokémon we can really get and use for Ice Beam is Seel, but its evolution is not that good. We do have Goofy the Slowpoke though, and either of his evolutions would do great with Ice Beam."
"But Slowpoke doesn't learn Ice Beam by nature?" Kale asked confused.
"No," Zora admitted. "So I might at least do another round to get Ice Beam."
Kale groaned. Zora rolled her eyes.
"But," she then said, "there is a guy in Mt. Mortar who has some strong Fighting-type Pokémon that can learn elemental punches, such as Ice Punch. It's not as strong as Ice Beam, but still pretty strong, so we can get a Pokémon from him and raise it until it evolves and learns the elemental punches. That would do us great."
"Then what about Thunderbolt?" Kale asked. "Thunder Punch is one of the elemental punches, right?"
"Yes, but like I said, Bambi has great special attack, so we should definitely teach him Thunderbolt at some point…" She fell silent for a moment, then added quietly to herself: "…if he survives, that is…"
Kale gazed somberly at Zora, then sighed. "Well, we'll worry about that when the time comes, right?" he said with a smile, trying to lift the mood. "Right now, we should worry about this Gym, right? And our new encounter here?"
Zora smiled back at her Bayleef. "Yes, you're right," she replied. "We'll catch ourselves a Drowzee here, then we'll go fight the Gym Trainers in the Gym, then we'll train you guys until you're as strong as Whitney's Miltank. Then we'll fight her. And win."
Kale nodded. "Well, let's find that Drowzee then!" he said. "I feel better now. I'll do my best to weaken it so you can catch it!"
"Glad to hear it."
Zora walked into the tall grass with Kale behind her. They found a TM in the grass and picked it up, learning it was called Embargo. Zora put it in her bag, and as she turned to the left, a Drowzee appeared out of nowhere.
"Whoa!" Zora exclaimed. "Don't scare me like that… Okay, Kale, use PoisonPowder to weaken it!"
"Got it," Kale said, but missed the attack.
Drowzee used Confusion, but it didn't do much to Kale. Zora sighed.
"Okay, maybe we should have Bambi paralyze it," Zora said. "Step back, Kale."
Kale sighed but stepped back and allowed Bambi to be sent out and face the wild Drowzee. It pounded Bambi but immediately got paralyzed by Static.
"I was planning to Thunder Wave it, but I guess this works too," Zora said with a shrug. "Okay, I'll try to catch it."
Zora threw a Poké Ball at the Drowzee. It didn't even shake before breaking out. Zora hummed but wasn't worried. She had plenty of Poké Balls left, plus a few special ones.
"No worries, Bambi, I'll get it caught in a moment," Zora said after the Drowzee pounded Bambi again, and she threw another Poké Ball.
This time the ball shook twice before breaking free and using another Confusion on Bambi. Zora threw another Poké Ball. It shook three times, then clicked for capture.
"There we go," Zora said, not too concerned, and picked up the ball. "Another female. What to call her… Hmm… I think I'll call her… McGonagall. I think that's a nice name."
After naming the Drowzee McGonagall, the Poké Ball materialized its way back to the PC in the Pokémon Center. On their way out of the grass, they ran into another Drowzee which they just ran away from.
"Well, that went well," Kale said as they entered Goldenrod City again. "What now?"
"Now, we heal up and start preparing for the next Gym," Zora replied.
They entered the Pokémon Center and healed up, even though Kale and Bambi were barely hurt, and then they sat in the lounge to make plans.
"Alright, let's check our items," Zora said. "Plenty of Poké Balls, Potions and other medicine… Ew, we have a Revive, we should sell it right away. And, of course, we've got this Thunderbolt TM, just for you, Bambi."
Bambi looked ecstatic as Zora brought out the yellow disc. "I get to learn Thunderbolt?!" he exclaimed. "Sweet! Can I learn it right now? Can we replace ThunderShock please?"
"Sure thing," Zora said. "I was going to wait until we're ready to face the Gym Leader, but why not? It will only make you stronger. Here, just a moment."
Zora brought out Bambi's Poké Ball and inserted the TM into the currently empty ball. It slid in, and the ball started processing the data on the disc. ThunderShock was replaced with Thunderbolt, and the TM slid out again. Zora took it out and sighed as it broke in half.
"Such shoddy material," Zora commented. "Why can't TMs be of HM quality and not break? Oh well, at least this one got to great use… hopefully. You better not die, Bambi, ever."
Bambi smiled. "I won't," he promised. "Can I get in the ball now so I can learn it?"
"Yes, right away," Zora said.
Bambi returned into his Poké Ball and stayed there for about ten seconds before being brought out again. He seemed to be mindblown.
"This… this power!" he exclaimed. "It's… it's awesome! Are… are you really sure I'm worthy of such power?"
"You definitely are," Zora said with a smile. "You are one of the most valuable players on this team, and I intend to keep you alive and never let you die."
"What about us?" Dingbat asked. "Aren't you gonna keep us alive too?"
"Oh yes, of course," Zora said and smiled nervously at the rest of her team. "You are all valuable players. Bambi is just… I mean look at him! Look at how cute he is! We raised him from an egg! And now he's evolved! And he can evolve again!"
"I came from an egg too…" Omelet said. "Aren't you proud of me too?"
"Oh, of course I am!" Zora said and picked up Omelet for a hug. "I love you too, little Omelet! You are such a powerhouse, I didn't know it was possible! Then again, now the both of you possess really powerful moves at such a young age and low level, you're probably both going to beat most of our opponents easily for the moment. Things will get tougher as we get further on this journey though, so we have to keep training hard."
Zora put Omelet back on the couch next to Fly Boy.
"So what are we going to do now?" Fly Boy asked.
"Well, we should go to the Gym," Zora said, then paused for a moment. "…but I kind of want Ice Beam too…"
Kale looked as if someone slapped him. "No!" he exclaimed. "No more Game Corner! Please! Let's just move on!"
The others looked at him as if he was mad, and Zora looked surprised at him.
"Okay, okay, I can wait with Ice Beam until later," Zora said with her hands in front of her. "Or maybe not at all. We can make do with Ice Punch once we get the Pokémon that learns it."
Kale slumped his long neck onto the couch. Zora smiled and stroke him on the head.
"Come on, Kale, everyone," Zora said. "Let's go fight the Gym."