A Traveller's Journey
by
Taro MD
Chapter 9
Preparations
Harudo has finally arrived in Pewter after a long walk through Viridian Forest which actually took a couple of days and mostly because I didn't want to post a tense sleeping scene with a deimos that was technically in the woods still, so I figured this was a good time to build up some stories and prepare for the first gym battle.
It's going to be lorebuilding.
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Pewter City, a peaceful quiet city in the northwestern part of Kanto, known as the stone city... this is a surburia that situates itself between rugged mountains and rocks and rests itself at the foot of the great mountain known as Mt. Moon, this is where Harudo currently is situated in after spending a hectic few days going through the Viridian Forest on the back of facing off against three powerful looking Deimos that destroyed the peaceful nature of the land.
Thankfully he was able to secure a hotel for the night and took a long, deserved soak in the bathtub that the room provided and whilst the modern conviences of showers were more appealling, for Harudo there was no better feeling than having a good long soak into some warm water and allowing the stress to essentially melt away out of the body.
"I needed this so badly... nothing like a hot bath to get rid of the stresses."
Around 15 more minutes were needed before Harudo was fully soaked and was now comfortable again after getting into his slacks for the long night in the bed as he layed down on it, feeling comfortable is often one of the lessons that he learnt growing up because often as he could remember, a good night's sleep was always important.
'Right... I'll be turning in for the night, today was long and I can't believe I made it to Pewter after starting my journey... I was expecting to last another week before getting here but things change so much and I can't believe I got roped into this ancient war stuff and I was hoping for a tough time deciding what to use for Brock.'
Being in Pewter City meant taking on the Pokemon Gym Challenge and often the first hurdle of said challenge was Brock or when Brock was not around, his younger brother Forrest was cut from the same build and just as equally ferocius, well that's the stories that he heard at least from trainers school... but Brock has somewhat often taking trips to other regions, he had come back from the Alola region for a training session and from what Harudo had gathered from information, Brock had gotten much tougher.
'If I am going to face off against Brock, I'm going to need all the options I have and that probably means I have to go back to Lavender and assess the Pokemon I left at the House... plus it gives me the chance to assess all the Pokemon I rescued from that deimos attack.'
Harudo finally had the objective to work for tomorrow, thankfully the buses were able to get to the eastern side of Kanto thanks to the dedicated bus network he was able to get to Pallet Town in the first place from Lavender.
'Alright... now for that sleep.'
Harudo immediately went to bed and feeling how nice it was, made it easy for him to immediately fall asleep... meanwhile somewhere nearby in an unknown location, an ancient gem began to pulse lightly and then it stopped... however what did stir was a omnious looking black shadow that seemed to have woken up from it's long slumber.
The next day and up with the early sun was Harudo and he was able to make it to the bus station and catch the earliest bus to Lavender which went according to plan as he managed to get a seat towards the front area and managed to settle down before he noticed that the service's free newspaper was close to him so he took a copy of that and began to read through it, noticing that the lead story was about the ghastly discoverings that were inside Viridian Forest.
'Turns out in the end that there were 15 trainers discovered in the forest mutilated and just as 3 times the amount of wild pokemon that were murdered by those deimos bastards... now those three are in my PC box as a reminder of what I did to save the forest, is this my fate after all... to subdue and capture nor slay ancient threats?'
He thought as he checked through the next pages, realising that it was the usual other stories that held no interest that focus towards popular topics, horoscopes, gossip and then at the back was the sport section where Harudo checked the main story from that which was once again the Flareon team of baseball potentially getting into the playoffs after another successful win against their rivals, the Beedrills.
'Seriously why the Flareon, those guys are literally buying their way in again!'
He thought as he finished reading and placed the paper back into the service slot provided which was then taken quickly by a older passenger who was keen to have a good read as Harudo sat back and relaxed as he was about to take a snooze but then he felt his phone beginning to vibrate before he took it out and checked who was calling and then answered it knowing who called him
"Hello?"
"Harudo my boy how are things?"
"Doing well Professor, how are things with you?"
"Heard about what happened in Viridian Forest... wanted to check if you was doing alright Harudo."
Looking around the bus to make sure no one was paying attention, Harudo then carefully whispered into the phone.
"I'm doing fine Professor Oak but I don't think I can get the incidents in Viridian Forest out of my head anytime soon, the amount of horrors I saw that day would be enough to drive a man to drink... thankfully I was able to stop the incidents and managed to purge the deimons out of the ancient Pokemon."
"A..Ancient Pokemon and you caught them?"
"I did... they are currently in my PC box."
"I must have a look at them immediately Harudo, they might be the link to a long forgotten past that was undiscovered."
"Of course Professor, I was going to send them to you anyway... how is the Fearow?"
"The Fearow's doing well Harudo... I'll send him back to your box as soon as I am able too, if you can send me those ancient pokemon then I can make a start of studying them."
"I'm currently heading back to Lavender Town for a few days so it'll be a few hours before I am able to get to a PC."
"Hmm I see.. any reason?"
"All I gathered whilst I was in Pewter was that Brock went away to this Alola Region for the week with his family."
"Oh that Brock..."
Hearing the Professor chuckle to himself was something that Harudo didn't want to press on just yet... he felt that he was still a stranger although he felt at ease with the creator of the Pokedex.
"Contact me when you get to Lavender Harudo and send me those three Pokemon whenever you can, I'll send back your Fearow in return... I will do so as soon as possible."
"Alright Professor I'll get back to you as soon as I get home..."
"Goodbye Harudo."
Harudo said his farewell just as he turned off the phone and was able to sit back and enjoy the rest of the bus ride.
As the bus arrived at the Lavender Town Bus Station, everyone was glad to get off to get about their day or whatever... for Harudo this was his first trip back home in nearly a week and normally he wouldn't be back so soon but because of Brock not being around in Pewter City for a week and Harudo didn't really feel like spending a week in a city that he barely knew... this was the perfect decision for him.
"Home sweet home, back again."
Harudo said as he got a look around at home now that he spent a week away and luckily for him nothing changed... the gloomy atmosphere which gave the town its reputation felt normal to him as the first business of order before was to the Pokemon Center where he needed to make arrangements to bring back Gastly into the regular team format but also he needed to have a chat with the first deimos possessed Pokemon he saved, Fearow.
'I definetly need that chat with Fearow... and get Gastly just in case.'
Harudo immediately went to the Pokemon Center where this particular Nurse Joy that ran the place was a close friend of his who smiled when he came inside as he walked up to the desk.
"Hi Harudo, back in town?"
"Yeah Joy I'm back for a few days, how have you been?"
"Oh you know, busy with running the place... you know I was really happy that you was able to start your journey last week."
"Well thank you for that Joy... I'm going to need to borrow one of the rooms in the back if that's ok."
"Sure go through."
Harudo thanked Nurse Joy and immediately headed to the nearest back room which after he checked to see if someone was there and thankfully he was usually sure no one ever goes into the back room that he went inside and immediately went to the PC in the corner, logging in his details before everything checked out... he immediately noticed the icon of Fearow which meant that Professor Oak went through with what he said he would do, this meant that all he had to do was to send the three purged Bug types from Viridian Forest to the professor.
"Right... putting Pikachu, Pidgey and Rattata in here for a few seconds, you three can come on out and that should be it for now."
Putting Scyther, Pinisr and Heracross in his team was only temporary but if he forgot this now, he wouldn't hear the end of it so then he noticed the phone transfer machine in the corner and then immediately dialled in the number for Professor Oak, a few rings were then rung before the image of the professor on the screen appeared as he was enjoying a cup of tea.
"Hello Oak Residence?"
"Hi Professor it's me."
"Harudo, I was anticipating your call just now... did you make it to Lavender?"
"I did sir, I was able to get Fearow without any problems..."
"Alright then I'm ready when you are."
Harudo nodded and put in the three Pokeballs one at a time as he was able to transfer Scyther, Pinsir and Heracross over to the lab.
"There we go Professor."
"Right then, I'll make sure to tell Tracy to cancel the rest of my appointments today... you have just made me a very happy and very busy Professor.
"No problem sir, I shall leave you to it."
"Goodbye Harudo and thanks again."
Harudo nodded and ended the call before he made his way back to the PC and then took out Pikachu and then took out Gastly and as he put Gastly's pokeball on his belt, a small noise was heard as the gas Pokemon appeared next to Harudo's head.
'Hello Harudo it's been a while, how have you been?'
"Exhausted mentally but physically i'm good."
'Another encounter with those deimons I take it?'
"Yep."
'Where are we anyway?'
"Lavender Town's Pokemon Center."
'I thought you was heading towards Pewter City?'
"I got to Pewter City, however the gym leader is currently away and I'd come back to make preperations for not only facing him but whatever is hidden in the city itself."
'And I missed all the action?'
"You did and for that I apologise but I needed to train the others first of all."
'That's probably what was important but don't forget about me though, a Ghost type like me has uses.'
"I'll remember that though... anyway we have a few things to do before heading home."
'Home where your Aunt and Uncle are?'
"Correct... being on the road made me miss home cooked meals the most."
Next up on the agenda was the Volunteer House where Harudo had a bunch of Pokemon that he saved from the attack of Route 22 that he needed to see since Officer Jenny of Viridian informed him afterwards that they registered them to his name despite the fact that they were all wild and potentially emotional scarring from the deimon possessed Spearow that evolved into a Fearow currently on his belt.
Soon as he entered the door, he noticed the few care workers that were on duty didn't notice he arrived but that was the flow of the Volunteer House... anyone can walk in through the door and the place would always be busy, so he approached the reception desk where a younger worker with blonde hair that he worked with didn't even notice his arrival.
"Hey Janine."
Taken by surprise, the woman did a short yelp before falling backwards but she was surprised at whom she was seeing.
"Harudo! I wasn't expecting to see you at all."
"Nah, no one ever does and also hi."
"Well hello there young man, I wasn't expecting to see you as a customer."
A older man approached the desk and he was a sort of casual kind of fellow that you would be good friends with.
"Hello Rockwell, how's things?"
"Doing well actually... business has been quiet since you began being a trainer but the peace and quiet is what we needed since the excitement that was last week."
"Good to hear things are relevently normal as I knew it would be... I do have business actually, I'm here to take back the Pokemon I left here... the ones I deposited a week ago."
"Old man Fuji was very adamant in making sure they received the best care since they were your Pokemon after all... anyway I better get back to sorting out the work order of another cilent, it was good seeing you again Harudo, don't be a stranger now."
"I won't Rockwell and nice to see you again."
"And you good buddy."
Rockwell headed through a nearby double door as Harudo then focused his attention back to Janice who was now at the desk.
"So Harudo you want to see how your Pokemon are doing?"
"Well yeah it's why I came here obviously apart from revisiting the place."
"No problem, they had some issues at the start of the week but we worked night and day to make sure all of them were perfectly healthy for you."
"Excellent so I know the old man said he was gonna do this service for me freely but we all know the financial situation this place has so I insist on paying with cash... just don't tell him."
Harudo remembering the rates of this place made him perfectly calculate as he checked the levels before to the levels that they are now and noticed that some had learn some good moves... some that he might want to try and practice for the next few days but then he took out some bills that he had from his birthday gift and some of the money that was won when he battled the trainers in Viridian and the path up from Pallet and handed them over to Janine who accepted the offering.
"I'll keep this from the boss then?"
"Yes you do because he will literally kill me..."
"But you are his favourite worker."
"Exactly which makes it funny... anyway I better get these guys back to my PC and then I shall be on my way."
"Don't be a stranger Harudo."
"Don't worry I don't intend to!"
Harudo was able to get the Pokemon back into the PC from the Volunteer House before departing from his former work place and eventually noticed that the sun was finally going down so he needed to do the last thing he needed and that was to sort out Fearow... which on cue Gastly appeared right beside him.
'Going to assume you are ready to deal with that pokemon?'
"Soon as you are ready to Gastly... let's see how that Fearow is doing?"
Harudo then carefully took Fearow's pokeball out of it's slot on his belt and released it where it proudly stretched its wings a bit before turning around and noticing the human on the ground flew closer.
"Wanted to check on how you was feeling Fearow."
'From that encounter we had in Route 22? I'm over it now... and I realised I wasn't myself.'
"No kidding, you obviously had no idea what was going to happen until it was too late."
'I remember everything I did though... the lives I took under this supposed rage, the guilt I had when that human examined me over and over to check what happened...'
"Assuming you didn't feel too good."
'I was disappointed that I didn't take the tales my elders told of the dark ones seriously and that they were just a myth of the gods...'
"So what are you going to do now that you have had time to yourself?"
'I don't know human, that's the issue.'
"Do you want to come with me to set things right?"
'You mean join you in your quest to defeat those things?'
"Yeah. I know I'm not exactly the kind of person that this legend wants me to be... but right now I won't begrudge you from taking part, I'll even consider letting you go if you don't want to come."
Fearow then had a thought to itself and figured what he was going to do.
"If it is to you human then I would like to join you on this quest... I do owe you a great debt for saving me."
"Alright then Fearow, if that is what you want... welcome to the party."
Fearow nodded as he was then sent back into the pokeball and then clipped onto Harudo's belt... Gastly who watched was impressed with how Harudo was able to talk the evolved flying type into joining his team.
'Sounds like the situation is sorted.'
"Yep, I didn't expect Fearow to join easily even when I gave it the choice... although there is that Spearow that was amongst the pokemon that it tried to kill, it doesn't help to have a strong Pokemon even though it won't work out against Brock."
'Why is that Harudo?'
"Because Rock is super effective against Flying types... so I need to come up with a strategy that involves Grass types and Water types."
'You are the boss after all.'
"Correct. Now then time to head back home and see my Aunt and Uncle... and hopefully they won't be too shocked to see me."
Harudo was able to return Gastly to its pokeball before he decided to head home for the night and for the next few days... where eventually he would need all the tools to defeat a gym leader and get his first ever badge... provided whatever that business with the Keepers and the Ancient Pokemon doesn't pop up first.
To be continued...
(Taro) Well this took a bit out of me because I was in a funk... trying to decide what to do, at one point Harudo was going to release Fearow but I felt that was wrong so he's keeping it... an evolved Pokemon is strong that's what I figured but strong or not, it's not going to be used against Brock because rocks and birds don't work.
Two paths are open... the business with the ancient pokemon and the match against Brock, I'll be brainstorming for a bit but I'm not dead.