Heyllo, folks! Welp, this chapter ballooned out of what was supposed to be the first part of a slightly larger chapter, but I couldn't make myself keep you guys waiting for so long. Even so, I found a pretty cool place to end it and I think you'll appreciate it when you see what the next one brings.
Now, multiple people have asked me about why Mark will have teams for different regions, and some even started to doubt the story because of it. I meant to address this in the last chapter, but I forgot so I'm doing it now. Guys, Mark's the guy who started hating the anime when Ash left Pidgeot and never visited it again. Do you really think he'd just kick his old team to the curb and go galivanting with some new Pokemon without ever thinking about them again?
As I've said multiple times now, there's a plan for everything Mark does. Ask yourselves, why would someone want multiple strong teams across different regions of the Pokemon world and go from there. I've said enough already.
Enjoy!
Setting the Foundation
"Will that be all, sir?" the waiter asked Mark once he placed the desert on the table.
"Yes, thank you. Keep the change," the boy answered as he gave the polite man a 1000P note and smiled at the pleased expression.
'Doubt trainers tip much when they have to save as much money as they can for their journey,' he thought while he eyed the almost empty restaurant at the top of the Pokemon Center. Whether the locals avoided this place because of its ostentatiousness or its prices, he didn't know, but he knew it had nothing to do with the quality of the food.
Mark shook the wondering thoughts away and started on his chocolate sundae with gusto.
After he beat Brock, he brought his Ivy back to the Center for a check-up before bringing his team up to his room to give them food. He left them to rest in the bedroom with an attached bathroom and went to treat himself in the top-floor circular restaurant.
Unfortunately, like most expensive places, it didn't allow Pokemon out of their Pokeballs so he had no one to share the great view with. 'I bet Jessie would like this place. She's all for the glitz and glamour in the show, and it shouldn't be that much different here. I wonder how they're doing right now,' he mused as he studied the distant snowy peaks of the Silver mountain range that surrounded Pewter City.
*Ring!*
The ringing of the Pokegear interrupted his moment of watching the setting sun's light paint the mountains orange and snapped his attention back to the here and now.
*Ring!*
Mark gave the few guests of the restaurant an apologetic look and turned his focus to his wrist where an unknown number showed in the caller field.
He brought it up to his mouth before it could ring again and answered while quickly whispering, "Hello, this is Mark. Please keep your voice down."
The request made the cheery, "Mark, honey!" from his mother get instantly followed up by an even louder whispered, "I'm sorry, should I call you later?"
Mark's hazel eyes brightened at finally hearing from Sarah so he replied, "No, let me finish something here and I'll call you from one of the Center's videophones in a few minutes."
After some shuffling and bumping things around, his mother agreed to his demand in one of her loud whispers.
Once he hung up on her and gave the rest of the restaurant an apology, Mark made his way down to the lobby of the Pokemon Center and called her up on the number he got from his Pokegear.
Sarah answered after only one ring, and Mark immediately wanted to hang up on her.
She still had her pantsuit on, but she unbuttoned a few buttons from the top while her hair remained in the bob cut style she took to in the last couple of years. None of that made him want to end the call then and there and talk to her tomorrow.
Her slightly crooked smile and glazed eyes did. In the few times Sarah drank any alcohol at home, he'd seen that look only once when she had one glass of wine too many and started regaling the family about her glory days before she had kids.
It took him a split second to debate his options and, deciding that her news held too much weight for his future, he settled in to suffer through her happy drunk routine.
"Hey, baby! How did your match go? Did that cutie Ivy manage to handle it on her own?" Sarah asked as she waved at the screen while tilting a little to the side.
Mark ignored her sudden righting of sitting posture and answered with, "It went great, Mom. Ivy won all three of her battles without issue and I won the Boulder badge," he took a deep breath and accepted his mother's exuberant congratulations before he questioned, "How did your meeting go?"
Last night, he'd told his family the rough plan he had for Brock. They all looked skeptical at Ivy's ability to sweep a Gym but still encouraged him to at least try.
Other than that, his mother recounted her plans on leaving for Celadon City and their final contract negotiation session. She'd taken the train with Tom and Michael to Viridian City, and from there paid a fee of 3000P for a Psychic-type Pokemon to Teleport her to her destination.
Most of the teleporters in the business worked for the League so they had a monopoly and all held the same prices. They stated the possibilities of their Pokemon accidentally teleporting into hostile territory due to overexertion as the reason for not lowering their prices, but everyone knew they just liked milking the vast majority of the public who didn't have a convenient and fast option of moving from City to City available to them.
Sarah's bright smile broke Mark out of his ruminations and raised his mood even before she confirmed the good news with, "It went great! We keep the rights, they get a couple of percentages more from the physical sales, and everyone gets rich!"
She started giggling like a schoolgirl for a moment but had to stop it quickly when she again almost fell out of her chair.
This time, Mark didn't fault her as he too couldn't help but laugh at the good news. Prometheus' years of effort wouldn't go to waste after all, how could he not feel relief after everything he promised his bandmates?
When Sarah righted herself once more, she added, "They said it would take around a month or two for the physical copies to be ready for the stores, but they had a sample made for me to confirm," she grabbed her bag from the side and pulled out a CD case from it before she thrust it towards the videophone while shouting excitedly, "Look how cute you all look!"
Instead of sighing like he wanted, Mark forced himself to chuckle and say, "Mom, show it to the camera, not the screen."
Sarah's, "Oh, right," followed shortly after and she moved the case up to show him the cover of their first album.
At the top, in large golden letters, it proclaimed PROMETHEUS, while on the bottom, in silver text, it said The Very Best. In the middle of the cover, there stood their band as Ethan depicted them according to everyone's wishes.
Red's visage replaced Mark in front with an electric guitar while screaming something in the microphone. To his right, standing on a stool, a Squirtle with green eyes grinned while playing the colorful keyboard. On the other side, a mid-sized Snorlax with a lock of black hair covering one of her eyes somehow managed to keep hold of and play her bass guitar. In the back, a Machamp with a pink bow on her head smacked the crap out of the drums with all four hands.
The blond boy still felt strange about Becky and Lilly's choices of Pokemon to represent them, but he let it go since it didn't really matter. They only wanted the image to connect it to the accompanying music video and additional marketing purposes so as long as it had Red and his Squirtle they could go with anything.
Mark enjoyed the image for a few seconds before he said, "It looks excellent, Mom. I can't wait to see it in stores. What happened after you signed the deal? Also, remember not to tell anyone who the people on the cover are."
Sarah rolled her eyes at him once she removed the CD case from the camera and answered with, "I know, I know, you don't have to say it every day. Nothing special happened after the signing. We went out to lunch and had a few drinks to toast the new album. Pretty standard stuff."
'She's talking like she closed deals every week,' Mark thought in amusement, but on the outside, he asked, "OK; did you inform anyone else about this?"
Sarah's face morphed into one of sudden realization as she replied, "No; but I should, shouldn't I?"
Mark quickly waved his hand in negation before he answered with, "There's no need. You better get some rest and leave it to me. After everything you've done, I can at least do that much."
His mother gave him a skeptical look, but she said, "All right, if that's what you want, honey."
After a quick nod and a few more confirmations that indeed he didn't want his drunken mother to call his bandmates and the rest of their family, he managed to end the call without any incident.
According to what he knew of her schedule, she had the next couple of weeks filled with meetings with TV and radio stations all over Kanto to schedule interviews and promotion spots for when the album came out so he didn't want her partying herself out.
Mark spent the next hour talking with everyone related to the album and his family, making their day with the double celebration of the finalization of the deal and his first badge.
'You might be a shitty trainer, but at least you kept your word, Brock,' Mark thought as he studied his League account on which the Boulder badge stood registered. In addition to that, the prize money of 3212P increased his balance from 103 588P to a nice round 106 800P.
The League calculated prize money by the amount of Pokemon you beat in addition to the win/loss ratio of the Gym and the number of the badges you had previously. The pitiful amount he received for the Pewter City badge showed just how low the once great Gym had fallen.
With that finished, he left the computer and walked up to the front desk while Kraven followed from behind.
"Hello, Mark, what can I help you with today?" nurse Joy asked with her practiced smile.
He placed his Trainer Card on the reception desk and said, "I'd like to apply for the Local Pokemon Catching task. Can you give me more information about it?"
Every City had a task like this one since it provided new and local trainers most of their initial funding and kept the surroundings clean of threats. Unlike Viridian, however, Pewter's specifically stated that the trainer should catch Pokemon instead of just bringing proof of its death. Back home, the same task had the Local Pokemon Removal name and it didn't care if you killed or brought it to the Center. Only the monetary rewards changed so most people captured for the larger prize.
The nurse didn't seem to catch the source of his slight confusion as she stated, "Of course. It's a one badge and up task in which a trainer can catch various local Pokemon and turn them in here, at the Pokemon Center, for monetary rewards. You, as a one badge trainer, will be rewarded for capturing Pidgey, Rattata, Caterpie, Weedle, Spearow, Sandshrew, Zubat, Geodude, Mankey, and both male and female Nidoran. If you capture anything other than that you cannot exchange it for a monetary reward without the proper badge number."
Mark wanted to roll his eyes at the clone, but he kept himself in check and explained, "Not that, I read that already from the task's listing on the wall. Why doesn't it allow for killing or poisoning the Pokemon?"
The Joy stared at him for a moment, then she glanced at Kraven, and finally typed something in her computer before a look of realization passed her face which she quickly smothered with her usual smile as she answered, "I can see why you'd ask that with how your brother earned his funds, however, unlike in Viridian City, Pewter City's Gym Leader doesn't allow such things to be done to Pokemon so he placed these restrictions," her eyes turned harder while she glanced at Kraven and then back to him before she declared, "It is against the law to kill Pokemon who are not a threat to your life in this jurisdiction. Am I clear?"
Mark had suffered harder glares from his younger sister so he obediently nodded his head without showing any of his thoughts on the outside. On the inside, however, 'Fucking hippies! I bet he wants to save up money from having to cure the Pokemon and clean the environment of the corpses. Now I have to go buy more balls,' he had a different opinion.
After registering himself for the task for today, he did visit the local Mart to get rid of most of his cash and spent 14 000P to add 70 additional Pokeballs to his remaining 97. This left him with 1000P in paper money for emergencies and battles. He'd need to visit the store again tomorrow morning to restock his supplies, but for now, he got all he needed.
Unlike what normal beginner trainers did where they hunted around the outskirts of the City, Mark followed the instructions from a five-badge task which requested someone to clear out three mountain passes from Pokemon.
Pewter had a lot of passes like these which the local people used to get to other towns and settlements, or just to enter deeper into the mountains to look for valuable items and Pokemon.
He hated not getting paid for his hard work, but he didn't want to spend the day searching around when he knew spots that had infestations of Pokemon already. Plus, he didn't fear anything too powerful appearing this close to the City so he felt confident in Kraven's ability to handle it.
Once he left Pewter, he released Ivy and Ed out of their Pokeballs into the crisp morning air and had them train while they moved. Ed had to fly and dodge in any way he could while Ivy had to keep up and try to smack him with her Vine Whip.
The Bulbasaur still had issues with hitting the right target when the Scyther used Double Team to confuse her, even though Mark could clearly see the real Ed among the other fuzzy images in the air, but he attributed it to some Pokemon energy weirdness and left them to it except for the times when they did something stupid or lazy and he had to correct them.
He spent most of his attention on his marked map and following after Kraven's scouted out trail.
A couple of hours later, Mark stood on a ridge that looked over the dried-up rocky valley which supposedly had threatening Pokemon in it. From his position, he couldn't see anything moving in there, but he knew from experience that the creatures had numerous ways to hide.
He turned to the hovering Kraven and ordered, "Cover the valley in red and only red. We don't want those pussies charging us for accidentally hurting one of their precious predators. Also, no killing. Stick to weaker attacks and let the Geodude that look feisty get a few hits in so I can see what they can do but don't take any from everyone else."
Once Kraven let out a confident, "Free-Free!" and flew off, Mark grabbed the two Pokeballs on his belt and released his Pokemon. He let them rest for the last hour, but now he wanted them to see, for the first time without any distractions, the capabilities of his original partner.
Ivy and Ed looked around in confusion when they saw nothing but rocks around them, but Mark pointed at the flying Butterfree and said, "Watch and observe. One day you will be capable of similar feats."
They both still didn't know what to watch for, but they obeyed and focused their eyes on Kraven's figure.
The Hunter flew off all the way to the other side of the valley and a little to the side to compensate for the wind and started releasing his Rage Powder as he slowly flew over the entire thing.
As the shimmering red substance covered everything, noises of grinding stones started to echo from the valley and reach the observer's ears.
Mark could feel the gaze of his Pokemon switch between staring at the incredible scene and giving him incredulous looks, in Ed's case, and wondrous in Ivy's.
He gave his companions a side-smirk and said, "Keep your eyes on the prize, you two. It's starting."
They followed his gaze and saw Kraven lower himself down to the range of his enemies on their side of the valley. For some reason, Rage Powder only worked if the user kept himself in the target's range, if not it stopped forcing them to focus on him and made them a lot more willing to attack other nearby things.
Slowly, like the earth started giving birth, various Pokemon either jumped out or lodged themselves free from the ground and turned their red eyes towards the uncaring Butterfree.
Mark could see several Sandshrew, a couple of Rhyhorn, dozens of Geodude, and a few Graveler. The Sandshrew, Geodude, and Graveler didn't surprise him since they frequently rolled downhill from the mountains into valleys like these and scared other Pokemon away; the Rhyhorn, on the other hand, did.
From all he knew, the stone-armored rhinos tended to stay in herds in less desolate places. Then again, what the books said and what he saw out in the wilderness often didn't quite match.
'Should I catch them? You need two badges to cash them in, and there's no market for them outside of Kalos. Even there, they come from established breeding houses and not the wilderness. Screw it, they'll do fine as Pokefood,' that decided, Mark refocused just in time to see the first few Pokemon reach his partner.
In the valley, Kraven hovered a couple of meters above ground and watched the oncoming wave of Pokemon with little concern. He barely felt the few thrown rocks the Geodude sent his way, and he easily dodged the attacks of the others. According to Mark, the Pokemon here had weak defenses against his usual attacks and their speed and attacks didn't matter to the boost he got when he performed his dance so he didn't even bother with it.
To his surprise, one of the Graveler used some kind of stomping attack which sent waves of light-brown energy through the charging crowd and knocked almost half of them out. Then, the half that remained started sending their light-brown waves of differing power through the ground and took out most of the rest while everything passed harmlessly underneath him.
Mark stared at the tragicomedy happening in the rocky valley and didn't know whether to laugh or cry. In the end, a Graveler, a Sandshrew, and two lucky Geodude reached Kraven who handled them in short order.
The Butterfree took care of the Graveler with a Psybeam to the face and the Sandshrew with a Confusion-empowered slam against the ground, while he allowed the Geodude to try to Tackle him a couple of times before he finished them off with a simple blast of Gust.
Mark could feel the stares coming from his right like a physical force, so he maintained his serious expression and nodded his head before he declared, "You see, once you reach a certain threshold of power, your enemies will take themselves out for you."
From the corner of his eye, he could see Ed giving him a deadpan look, but Ivy still had stars in her eyes so he felt he accomplished his job well enough.
To get rid of the awkward atmosphere, he coughed in his hand and said, "Cough! Well, let's get to capturing them. We have two more places to visit so we shouldn't waste time."
With that, he started walking down the dirt path into the valley along with his Pokemon.
He took care to capture the two Rhyhorn first so he didn't have to exchange for them later and then poured out a bunch of his Pokeballs out and started priming them as his Pokemon went around and captured the rest.
Seeing Ed maneuver a Pokeball around with his blade-arms did bring some levity to the disaster and allowed the blond boy to refocus his thoughts on how to prevent something like this from happening in their next attempt.
They only left the two Graveler free since Mark couldn't cash them in and his new Pokemon wouldn't want to eat something from its own evolutionary line. He learned that the hard way by testing out that theory on Kraven when he sneaked a few Caterpie food pellets into the Butterfree's bowl and found himself blasted into the back yard for his troubles.
In the end, he caught 2 Rhyhorn, 6 Sandshrew, and 33 Geodude. Feeling satisfied with the haul, although he didn't get to finish the main objective of the hunt, Mark had his group move on to the next spot with even more determination.
It took them another hour to reach the second mountain pass which had a lot more vegetation in it due to a small stream that ran through its length. Even then, the blond boy almost groaned at the pretty sight due to the massive row of boulders trying to pretend they were anything other than an Onix lying in wait for prey at the side of the pass.
'Fucking piece of shit useless snake bastard! I'll make you into a Happy Meal!' Mark raged at the unaware Pokemon because he knew this place wouldn't have even half the population of the first pass due to the major predator living in it.
For some reason, he'd need four badges to cash in an Onix so he didn't even think about anything else than turning it into more food.
This time he didn't wait for Kraven to get started and released his Pokemon immediately.
Mark pointed a finger at the row of boulders as he focused his gaze on his Scyther and commanded, "Ed, you'll go and fight that Onix. Try to draw it to the side of the pass so that Kraven doesn't pull it away. You kept asking me for a challenge, and now you have it. I want you to stay airborne and only use Steel Wing to attack it. Other than that, you're permitted to use anything else to avoid its attacks. Let's see what you've got."
The Mantis Pokemon gave the camouflaged Rock Snake a narrow-eyed look before he returned it to his trainer and nodded with an accompanying, "Scyther!"
Mark didn't wait for anything else as he turned to his starter and said, "Ivy, you'll stay here to protect me and possibly help Ed if he needs it."
He ignored the bristling Mantis Pokemon while the Bulbasaur gave him an acknowledging, "Bulbasaur!" and moved over to him while seriously scanning the green valley for any threats.
Turning to his partner, Mark ordered, "Once Ed draws the Onix away, you will go and pull everything else in the valley towards you. This time, I want you to take out any evolved Pokemon and stop any who try to use Magnitude before they reach you. We're here to find a new member of our team first and foremost, capturing comes second."
He did not doubt that Kraven had enough skill with his powder to avoid the Onix even if Ed didn't move it away, but he wanted to see the Scyther put some effort into something else other than just attacking. Even then, nothing sane would want to live around the Rock Snake so he doubted the Butterfree would find anything there to lure anyway.
Once he received a confident, "Free!" from Kraven, Mark clapped his hands together and exclaimed, "All right, let's get to it!"
Ed didn't need any more encouragement as his wings started buzzing and he rose into the air before shooting off towards his distant target with wisps of white energy from his Quick Attack leaving a trail behind him.
Kraven followed suit and flew towards the other end of the pass in a more relaxed manner. He had no reason to rush and didn't have any nervousness urging him on like the Scyther had.
Mark crossed his hands and kept his focus on Ed while Ivy remained true to her task and scanned the valley for any approaching threats.
The Scyther's wings started glowing with the greyish-white color of his prepared Steel Wing a moment before he slashed his right pair across one of the rocks of the hidden Onix.
A second later, the Rock Snake's dark-grey head burst out of the ground with a roar that resonated throughout the pass, but it failed to catch its attacker because the Mantis Pokemon had already flown out of its reach and towards one of the walls of the valley.
Once the Onix neared him, Ed answered the roar with a challenging, "Scyther!" and dived once again at his enemy.
Mark's eyes kept narrowing as the two combatants exchanged three direct clashes of Steel Wing against Tackle before he couldn't take it anymore and had to shout, "Ed, you're faster and more maneuverable than it. Stop charging head-on and attack it from the sides. Its joints are especially vulnerable."
In response, the Scyther exchanged another blow with his opponent, and when he saw his attacks didn't do as much damage as he hoped they would, spawned three copies of himself around the Onix and flew under its neck to attack a place where two parts of its body met while the copies kept the Rock Snake's attention.
The resulting strike made the Onix buck and scream out its pain as Ed flew up into the sky and Leered down at the writhing Rock Snake while shouting, "Scy-Scyther!"
To his surprise, instead of surrendering, the Onix gathered some kind of white energy in its mouth and released a horrifying Screech towards him. Only his experience in dodging Ivy's Growls made his body react automatically to the oncoming circle of bluish energy and dodge it with the help of Quick Attack.
While he kept his focus on that loud attack, the Rock Snake showed its cunning as it grabbed a bunch of stones its movements dislodged, and chucked them towards the Scyther.
Ed got totally blindsided by the Rock Throw and didn't see the slightly glowing stones coming from the other direction, so when they hit him, he took massive damage and crashed down onto the hard dirt in a heap.
Mark had just started to lower his hands from his ears when this happened and Ivy cried out a surprised, "Bulba!" He saw her give him a questioning look but, once the dust settled, he shook his head and said, "Let's see what he does."
From how the battle went on so far, he could see that this Onix, unlike Brock's, had a lot more combat experience from its constant struggles in the wild so it put up a much better fight than the pet snake. If Ed had battled in the Gym fight, it wouldn't take more than a few direct Steel Wings to take care of that one. Even so, he had faith that Ed wouldn't get taken down with a simple cheap-shot like that.
In the valley, Ed had just managed to get himself propped up on his blade-arms and knees when he saw a wall of stone coming at him from the side. He reacted instinctually at the shouted, "Fly!" that came from somewhere behind him and launched himself up into the air with a mighty push, managing to dodge the attempted Bind from his enemy.
The frustration from his failure to notice the sneak-attack made him want to lash out once the Onix's head came into view in another Tackle, so instead of following his instructions, he gathered his full strength and Slashed at the oncoming Pokemon.
This, unlike their previous clashes, resulted in the Mantis getting pushed back and almost falling for another follow-up Rock Throw while he stabilized himself in the air. However, he learned from his previous mistakes and used a Quick Attack strafe to the side to dodge it.
Mark felt glad that Ed finally managed to employ Slash into his repertoire of moves after trying to learn it for a few days, however, the mistake of using it at that moment annoyed him enough to yell, "Ed, if you don't keep using Steel Wing to attack, I'll make you fly all the way to Cerulean without landing!"
The Scyther didn't know where this Cerulean was, but he knew he wouldn't like flying there so he refocused himself and returned to what worked previously.
It took him another two passes against the Onix's joints for the Rock Snake to fall. It tried to Rage red-eyed at him and employed random movements in its attacks, but it remained too slow and easily distracted by his Double Team to do any more damage to him.
This, in turn, caused Ed to raise his blade-arms in the air and shout, "Scyther-Scythe!" a few times to announce his triumph.
When the large Pokemon fell and shook the walls of the pass, Mark gave the victorious and celebrating Scyther a few words of approval and turned his focus to Kraven.
The Butterfree had a small herd of Rattata, several Nidoran pairs, a few Geodude, and a single Mankey charging at him by this point. When one Geodude tried to smash its hands into the ground and use Magnitude, Kraven's eyes glowed blue and he used the Psychic energy of Confusion to lift the Pokemon into the air enough for it to fail. Once he returned the Pokemon to the ground, its enraged state made it keep charging towards its target without realizing what happened.
Mark could only sigh at the following destruction. Even when Kraven eliminated the rest of the group with a few well-placed concentrated Gusts and Confusions, the remaining Geodude didn't use anything more than a simple Tackle and Rock Throw combo to try and damage Kraven. And when the Butterfree went on the attack with powered-down Gusts, they just stood there and kept trying the same things.
"Finish it, buddy. We'll try our luck at the next one," the boy called out and started moving down into the valley. It's not that he didn't understand that these Geodude didn't know any better, even if they only knew Tackle and Defense Curl he'd still consider them if they stood out somehow, but they all acted the same way when he knew that Pokemon could perform diverse attack patterns while under the influence of Rage Powder from experience.
A couple of seconds later, the last of the pass' defenders fell and the group of four started their capture operation.
Once he had everything totaled up, he calculated that he caught an Onix, 16 Rattata, 10 Nidoran, 3 Geodude, and a Mankey.
When the last Pokeball disappeared in a flash of white light, Mark stretched out before he said, "All right, let's have something to eat and then tackle that last spot. Our luck has to improve there," and started pulling out food.
This time, it took them over three hours to reach the last pass. When he checked the high-badge task which stated where someone could find them, it said that a trainer could skip this one and get half of the payment for the task if they wanted so he left it for last.
Unlike the previous two which led somewhere towards the east, this one pointed directly towards the north. Since the majority of people avoided anything north of Pewter City, for the most part, Mark concluded they used this one to get to more profitable areas of the wilderness.
Once he and Kraven got there, he noticed that the valley here did have the rocky nature to it that his prey preferred; however, the sides of the mountains appeared much steeper than the other places they checked out.
He pushed that to the back of his mind as he released Ivy and Ed before he turned to his first partner to say, "OK, everything looks fine from here. Buddy, keep to the same strategy as previously."
When he got a "Free!" of understanding, he turned to the other two and added, "Keep watch, you two. This area might have some hidden dangers."
The Scyther and Bulbasaur immediately went on high alert and stood on each side of him while scanning the area.
Kraven didn't need any further instructions so he flew off to the other side of the valley and started his Rage Powder run. Everything seemed normal by the time he passed over two-thirds of his path, then things changed.
A deep, rumbling, "Go-Golem!" shook the walls of the mountains before a round Pokemon shot out of the earth and slammed into the ground with massive force. Unlike Onix, Golem had a lot firmer and compact bodies that regularly passed 300 kilos without much issue for their smaller size.
Mark couldn't help the grin which spread across his face at this scene, especially when numerous Graveler started popping out and chasing after his partner. From what he could see, almost every Pokemon in the valley was from the Geodude family, and only a few Geodude remained among the numerous Graveler. This informed him that they stumbled upon a nest of the evolutionary line, which meant a much better chance of stronger Geodude appearing among them.
His grin soon disappeared when he realized that Kraven had no way of taking out all of the area of effect attack users before they started popping them off. A split second later, his face turned determined and he ordered, "Kraven, grab the Geodude and bring them here, ignore the rest!"
The Butterfree didn't need more instructions as his eyes glowed blue and blue outlines appeared around the five smaller Rock Pokemon in the horde. It took a good deal of his Psychic energy to focus on the five different targets, but he managed to lift them in the air just in time before one of the Graveler stomped on the floor of the valley and released light-brown waves of energy towards him. That the waves passed a dozen other Graveler who in turn used their own Magnitude didn't seem to bother it.
Soon enough, the Golem joined in the fun and jumped high into the air before slamming down onto the rocky valley with full force and released a teeth-shaking Earthquake on the pass and anyone in it. The ground seemed to rise with an earthy glow and smack everyone in its vicinity.
Mark's face blanched once he saw the Pokemon launch itself high into the air and even as it landed, he shouted, "Retreat! Kraven, follow us!"
With that, he turned and ran down the path towards the flatter lands around Pewter City with his Pokemon hot on his tail as rocks and boulders started rolling down the mountain walls all around them with deafening noise.
Five minutes later, Mark stood doubled over with his hands on his knees and breathing hard. He didn't feel so much physically tired as he felt mentally from another close call with death so he needed to take a moment to set himself right.
'Do I have to almost die each time I try to catch a Pokemon for myself?' he questioned rhetorically while he listened to the still rumbling sounds coming from the once-pass.
He set such thoughts aside and straightened up when he saw Kraven flying towards him along with the five Geodude in tow. The Butterfree looked a little winded, but Mark knew that he could still keep going if needed.
While the flying group landed, the blond boy checked his other Pokemon out and saw that Ed didn't seem in too bad a shape outside a slightly winded breath. Ivy, on the other hand, tried to hide how she flavored her left side, but he caught it and remembered that in the rush of their retreat she jumped in front of a fist-sized rock headed straight for him.
Of course, he planned to dodge it; however, it didn't matter at that moment so he crouched down next to her and said, "Thank you, girl." After he gave her a few pets, he turned her to the side and saw a small red abrasion just underneath her bulb. He immediately took out a purple and white plastic bottle from his bag before he warned her, "This is going to sting," and sprayed the Potion on the wound.
Ivy let out a soft yelp of, "Saur," but from then on kept her mouth closed and soldiered through it. Mark gave her a smile of encouragement as he said, "This will have to do for now. Once we get back to the Pokemon Center, I'll have the doctors look at it but it should be fine."
The Bulbasaur answered him with an aggrieved look so he acquiesced to a few more scratches behind the ear while Kraven held the Geodude in the air and waited for his attention.
His Berries could usually take care of any light damage and energy exhaustion the team suffered through in the wilderness. However, for things like real wounds and injuries he had a full pack of different Potions and Heals ready and waiting in his Bag just in case something like this happened.
Usually, a Pokemon's energy would protect them from much tougher things than fast rocks without issue, but it only reacted when an opposing energy threatened it or a move was used specifically as a counter to something purely physical. That's why people could still hurt Pokemon even though, in general, they didn't have the pure power to contend with them in a head-to-head battle. A lot of Pokemon still had tough enough bodies to resist such assaults, but a young Bulbasaur didn't.
Mark shook off his thoughts about the frailty of life and straightened to his full height to focus on the eye-level hovering Geodude.
He saw that the effect of the Rage Powder had left them and, by now, they looked quite confused at their current situation.
Walking up to stand in front of them, Mark announced, "I will take one of you five with me out to see the world and battle tough enemies. The training I give you will make you much stronger than that Golem from your home. No one will be able to make you as hopeless as you are now."
He studied their reactions to his words and saw multiple interested rocky faces. Of course, what he said and what they understood differed greatly. With his words, he sent his intentions of greatness and strength that every Rock-type held dear, along with the absolute faith he had in accomplishing his goals. In a certain way, dealing with simple Geodude felt refreshing after the hassle Ed put him through.
After sending a nod to Kraven, he held his position and watched as the Psychic energy disappeared from the Pokemon and they fell the short distance to the ground. The landing more surprised them than damaged since their limited levitation kicked in half-way and deposited them softly down.
"Now, which of you wants to try and win the chance to join my team?" Mark asked once he saw their attention returned to him.
All but one Geodude stayed in place and gave out their own form of, "Geodude!" affirmation. The last one gave him the stink-eye and turned to leave back to the mountain pass.
It didn't make it past one arm-assisted hop before a colorful Psybeam struck it in its back and it collapsed on the ground, knocked out.
'Huh, I guess it didn't have Sturdy. Too bad. But, hey, Kraven's on top of his signals like always. Never mind, I have to focus on my two-bit villain act or these rock-heads will never understand my meaning,' the boy thought as he gave a thumbs-up behind his back and focused his gaze on his dumbfounded audience.
The other four Rock-Ground-types gave a startled look to the hovering Kraven before they turned their accusing black eyes over to Mark.
He responded with a raised eyebrow and, "Did I say that you get to go back home if you don't join me? Everyone who fails will further my goals in other ways."
When it dawned on the Pokemon that they'd have only one chance to have a good ending, instead of blaming him, they started to side-eye their competition.
Before they could start a brawl, Mark clapped his hands and declared, "Well then, you will fight my Butterfree one by one. The Geodude who gives the best performance will join the team. Everyone else gets to find out what the League in Pewter City does with Pokemon caught for their tasks."
He stepped to the side and watched as the bravest of the Rock-Ground-types threw itself towards Kraven.
Unfortunately, for all its bravery, it followed the usual tactics of Geodude Mark had seen a bunch of times over the day. Its Tackles did seem stronger and faster than the others of its kind, and it could throw a rock quite accurately, but it did try to use an unaimed Magnitude on a Flying-type which the Butterfree had to interrupt so it wouldn't damage the audience.
After a quick signal, Kraven's Psybeam and Confusion took it out in short order and Mark threw a Pokeball at it and the previous deserter so everyone else got to see them disappear in a white flash of light.
He turned to the remaining three Pokemon and said, "Next."
They all shot slightly apprehensive looks towards Kraven but still held that self-confident posture only the truly brave or stupid had when faced with overwhelming danger.
A second later, a new Geodude launched itself out towards Kraven and started their battle.
This one tried to spice things up with some tricky Rock Throws and, when it saw that the Butterfree refused to strike back, started doing Defense Curls right in the middle of the fight. Everyone stood around and stared while a soft white energy thickened around the curled-up Geodude.
Mark facepalmed and gave Kraven a look through his fingers. The Butterfree didn't even need the signal this time to shoot his Psybeam and Confusion combo to finish off the Sturdy Rock Pokemon.
When he turned to the remaining duo he made his voice cold as he said, "I'm looking for a warrior, a Pokemon who will hold the line in my future battles, not someone who will stop battling in the middle of a trial to buff its defenses. Especially when that move doesn't mean shit against your current opponent! Am I clear?!"
He couldn't help but raise his voice in his last couple of sentences due to the stupidity he just witnessed. It wouldn't bother him so much if Defense Curl did anything other than buff physical defenses, in fact, he would praise the Pokemon for exploiting the opportunity. However, he couldn't stand such idiocy when Kraven had demonstrated numerous times now that he didn't use physical attacks against them.
The two Geodude gave quick shakes of their whole body and then one stepped out – well, walked out on its arms – without prompting and challenged Kraven with a "Dude!" without jumping straight at him with a Tackle as the previous two had.
Instead, bluish energy sparks started crawling around its body and it made it look a lot more reflective. Mark blinked and realized it just used Rock Polish and continued using it for a few seconds more.
He could praise it on its ingenuity, although he started to wonder if it would ever use that accumulated speed.
Like it could read the boy's impatience, the Geodude did use a Tackle this time and flew like a bullet towards its target. Even so, its new speed didn't help it from missing Kraven by a wide margin as the Butterfree fluttered to the side.
However, it appeared that the Rock Pokemon missed on purpose as it landed among a grouping of loose rocks and started throwing the, now glowing with dark-brown light, rocks at his opponent at great speed.
Mark knew that all Rock-types could use their own energy to create rock-like constructs for their attacks, but if they had a ready source of the real stuff they preferred to use it since it lowered the energy requirements by quite a lot.
Kraven still managed to dodge most of the Rock Throw but, while he did that, he didn't have time to completely dodge the follow-up Tackle of the sped-up Geodude.
He did make sure that his body stayed out of the main boulder's path, but the left arm succeeded in clipping him and somehow bringing him down to the ground.
From the side, Mark saw everything and couldn't help his brows from rising. In that last clash, the Geodude's arm shined yellow for a brief moment before Kraven crashed to the ground. He remembered in the anime that Smack Down did have a yellow hue when used, but he didn't expect this Pokemon to use it with its body.
Kraven looked like he still didn't understand what happened as he righted himself on the patch of dirt he landed on and tried to lift off, only for a yellow energy to surround him and keep him grounded.
In the meantime, the Geodude landed on its arms and turned itself around. It quickly followed that up by raising both arms in the air and smashing them down on the rocky earth making light-brown waves of power shoot straight towards the downed Butterfree.
The Rock-Ground-type surprised Mark once again by managing to somewhat force the Magnitude waves to spread in Kraven's general direction. The point that the Butterfree faced away from the audience helped a lot too so they only felt a slight rumble.
Kraven, on the other hand, felt pissed off by being prevented to fly, and the cherry on that cake came in the form of the Magnitude waves that washed over him. They didn't do much damage to the powerful Butterfree, but they did signify the last straw which made him turn his glare at his opponent and shoot off a full-powered Psybeam at it.
The Geodude seemed like it expected it because as soon as the Kraven's compound eyes focused on it, it tried to utilize its improved speed to dodge to the side. It somehow even managed to only get grazed by the beam, but even then it sent it careening off to the side and rolling on the ground for a good while.
To almost everyone's surprise, it pushed itself off the ground after a couple of seconds while clearly wincing at the pain the Psybeam caused. Even Mark half-expected it to die from that attack, but then remembered a Geodude might have Sturdy as an ability and relaxed.
Kraven, however, found the surviving Pokemon quite an eyesore and prepared to fire another Psybeam off with a frustrated, "Free!"
Seeing this, Mark started to shout, "Buddy, stop!" only for his words to come too late as the multicolored beam shot straight at the wounded Geodude.
A split second before it landed, the Rock-Ground-type managed to cross its arms in front of its face and yell, "Geodude!"
The Psybeam landed with a loud *Boom!* and everyone had to cover their eyes from the resulting dust that flew all around.
When it settled, they looked to the point of impact only to find the Geodude still sitting there with its arms crossed and a red energy crawling all over it.
A second later, it groaned out a "Dude," before its arms fell to the ground and it passed out on the spot.
'Was that fucking Endure?! It can't work like the games since the Pokemon got knocked out in the end, but it can't be anything else. But, how did a Geodude from the north of Pewter City learn it? Holly shit, does it matter? I'll have a Golem with Endure as my tank!' Mark thought in stupefied silence as everyone else too tried to process what just happened.
Kraven, for his part, looked a bit sheepish at losing his temper as he finally regained the ability to fly and moved over to his trainer to apologize.
Instead of that, Mark snapped out of his stupor and turned to the last preparing Geodude to ask, "Do you know Endure?"
When he got an uncomprehending expression in return, a quick signal was all it took for that one to get hit by a Psybeam and pass out. A Pokeball soon followed and transferred it to the Oak Laboratory.
Mark walked to the remaining Pokemon and his future tank before he picked it up and said, "Welcome to the team, Geodude. I think we'll have a grand time together."
Ivy watched the entire process of the competition in slight confusion at Mark's antics but still felt happy that they got a new seemingly powerful addition to their small family.
Ed, on the other hand, felt happy that his trainer decided to challenge his group openly instead of whatever this sham trial by combat turned into.
Soooo, what do you think?
Fun fact, I took the prize money you'd get from beating Brock and his trainer in the game and doubled it to get the monetary reward Mark got in the chapter. That, somehow, made a round number with the one I made up in the last chapter when added up together.
The album finally got the green light and we should expect the mania to begin in a couple of months. Did I design the cover well enough or is it too plain?
Some people asked me how Mark managed to gather so much money when Pokemon should be a relatively finite source of income. In addition to their fast reproduction and development rates, this is the way he did it. I'll go over what happens when people don't control their population in a couple of chapters even more than I have already.
I was all fired up to write my grand battle in the passes with Kraven against hordes of enemies, and then I remembered that most of his enemies had AoE moves that didn't work on him but did on everyone else around them. So, yeah, this happened because of that.
At least I got to have the Ed vs a more competent Onix fight. I enjoy making him fly everywhere because it says in the Pokedex that they hate flying, and Mark thinks that it's a logical tactical choice so we both win.
I had to have that last pass go down on them. Too much rumbling in a too-tight space makes rocks go down. Remember that, kids.
The tournament to see which Geodude won the chance to travel with them was also fun to write about. Most Rock Pokemon are portrayed like such idiots in the anime and games that I wanted to have one with some cunning, but still keeping to its roots so I came up with the new team member.
What do you guys think about the choice? I was torn for a long time between a Geodude and a Rhyhorn, but then I knew that Mark couldn't help himself from evolving the Rhydon to a Rhyperior, and that would kind of ruin his plans for the regional teams somewhat.
Also, Golems are cool and can play a better role as the team's tank.
Do you guys have any ideas about his (yeah, he's male) nickname? I think I have a super cool and cheezy one but want to hear what you guys have in mind.
Cya!