[System Text]
"Spoken Word"
(Pokémon Talk)
Chapter 4: A Pair of Badges
Once I had trained my new team line up all trained up to around level 20, I planned to go into the gym. I got fed up with trying to grind the levels of my Pokémon very quickly. I only managed to get most of my team up to level 17 while Venus was up to level 18. With Blaze in the lead of my party I entered the Gym and went straight ahead ending up facing Bugsy's first apprentice, Al, as a result. Al led off with a Level 16 Caterpie that quickly fell to Blaze who used Ember. Al followed that up with a level 16 Weedle who also fell to a single ember from Blaze. After that I had to backtrack a little bit before advancing on another path.
This second path led me to Benny another one of the apprentices of Bugsy who led off with a level 11 Weedle. Weedle quicky fell to Blaze with an ember before Benny sent out a level 22 Beedrill. The Beedrill quickly used twinneedle on Blaze and poisoned him before he was hit with an ember. Beedrill did not stop with that and used twinneedle again to which Blaze responded with another ember to knock out the Beedrill allowing him to level up. Bobby sent out his final Pokémon a Kakuna. I gave Blaze some energy powder to heal the poison before Kakuna hardened up his carapace. I used a super potion on Blaze to get him ready for the next fight as Kakuna continued to harden up. With Blaze fully healed he used ember and finished the fight. I then faced off against Josh who only had a level 18 Paras that went down to Blaze's new attack of flame wheel. Following that I ran into the twins with imperceptible names in a double battle with an Ariados and Ledian both level 18. Blaze and Sonic quickly demolished them with a few wing attacks and Flame wheels. With that done I only needed to face Bugsy and the Hive badge would be mine.
I led off with Ruby to meet his level 24 Scyther. Scyther started off the battle with a focus energy so he could land critical hits easier to which Ruby threw a rock at him. Scyther at a sitrus berry to recover some health before using U-turn causing Ruby to faint. I sent out Roxie to meet Bugsy's level 22 Yanma. Yanma used detect to avoid Roxie's first rock throw before using bug bite before the second rock throw took the dragonfly Pokémon out and leveling Roxie up. Bugsy sent out a level 21 Butterfree that survive Roxie's first rock throw only because it used the move harden to start the battle. Bugsy used a super potion which restored most of Butterfree's health, but it was pointless as Roxie's rock throw knocked Butterfree out going up to level 19. In response Bugsy sent out his injured Scyther who knocked Roxie out with a U-turn before bringing out a level 21 Skorupi. I sent out Sonic who met the acupressure of Skorupi with a wing attack. After two more repeats of that Skorupi used poison sting followed by bug bite before falling to Sonic's continual wing attacks. Bugsy had no choice but to send out his Scyther once again as it was his last Pokémon. Scyther set up with a focus energy only for Sonic to bite him. Sonic survived the quick attack from Scyther only to reply with a wing attack to knock out the Scyther and level up to level 19 earning me the Hive Badge. Bugsy graciously handed over the badge before giving me TM 89 that held U-turn.
After that I went back to grinding and caught a Shellder that I named Clam. With my team set as Clam level 18, Roxie level 20, Blaze level 20, Sonic level 20, Dolly level 17, and Venus level 18 I moved to leave Azalea Town and head into the Ilex Forest before I could make it out of the town I was stopped by the red head Tsubaki who challenged me to a battle after complaining about me being the one who took down Team Rocket. He led off with a level 20 Happiny Clam used icicle spear to which the Happiny used wish. After another icicle spear Happiny used sweet kiss to confuse Clam. Clam then hurt himself in his confusion before Happiny set up another wish as I switched out Clam for Dolly. Dolly used thunder wave to paralyze Happiny. Happiny used sweet kiss to confuse Dolly and I switched her out for Blaze who tanked a seismic toss and retaliated with an ember only to be confused by a sweet kiss. Blaze hurt himself in confusion as Happiny set up another wish. I switched out for Roxie as the paralysis stopped Happiny for a turn before setting up Wish as Roxie knocked her out with a Magnitude of 7. Tsubaki sent out his level 24 Marshtomp and I recalled Roxie for Venus who was hit with by pair of mud bombs knocking her out before sending Clam back out into the battle. Clam tanked a mud bomb before retaliating with icicle spear. Clam then used protect to save himself from Marshtomp taking a bite out of him. Marshtomp then knocked Clam out with a mud bomb and I foolishly sent out Dolly only for her to also fall to another mud bomb. I sent out Sonic as Marshtomp yawned and Sonic let out a supersonic screech. Marshtomp hurt itself in its confusion as Sonic used wing attack to damage them before falling asleep. Marshtomp hurt itself twice more before biting Sonic twice before I could give Sonic a super potion. A water gun from Marshtomp followed by another bite woke Sonic up so he could use a wing attack before I needed to give him another super potion only to be bit again. With a final exchange of another bite and wing attack Sonic finally knocked out Marshtomp. Tsubaki replaced his starter with an Eevee who tickled Sonic as Sonic used a supersonic screech. Eevee proceeded to set up a Wish as Sonic knocked himself out. I sent out Roxie who used magnitude, but it only had a rating 4 as Eevee set up another wish after hurting himself. Eevee proceeded to tickle Roxie only to faint from Roxie's magnitude with a rating of 10 ending the battle.
After the battle Tsubaki complained that his Pokémon were weak and left me alone to go back into the heart of Azalea Town and stay another night in the Pokémon center's hostile only for another swarm of Zubat to attack me. After yet another night I was finally able to head out into the Ilex Forest beyond the town. For the most part the forest was uneventful for me except I did see all of the grass type starters there but could not manage to catch any of them and saw a weird rotund guy bashing trees with his head. He even offered to teach my team how to preform the move headbutt which most of my team did replacing their previous normal attacks that were weaker than headbutt. I then went ahead to let them train by smashing trees and defeating whatever Pokémon came out with the exception of Sonic after he evolved into Golbat and a Pineco that I caught naming him Tank. Also, while in the forest I caught a Shrumish I named Kinoko that I knew would be helpful in the next gym. Before I could set up my yurt, I was again attacked by a swarm of Zubat. I knew that I would have to deal with all of these stupid Zubat from the start, but I still felt it was worth it. I took my time as I moved through the forest making sure to level up my team as much as possible.
After getting out onto Route 34 I found that all the Pokémon here were just escapees from the daycare as they were all baby Pokémon that I took pleasure in catching two Tyrouges. One that had a Bold nature that I named Hit while the other I named Spinner hoping to get a Hitmontop, but his Adamant nature caused him to become a Hitmonlee when he evolved. I made sure to train my team properly this time and not allow anything to stop us with only Sonic falling behind as I took the time to go north of Goldenrod City past Route 35 to the National Park just to collect the soothe bell so that I could give to Sonic. With Sonic holding the bell his friendship level rose faster so that he could evolve into a Crobat quickly. Hit became a Hitmonchan and learned the three elemental punches that I knew would come in handy later on, but he knew no actual fighting type moves which upset me and I went to see if there was any way to fix that issue. While trying to find a fighting type move to give Hit a stab attack, I found the name rater and renamed both Hit and Spinner into Boxer and Kicker.
After all of my training I had a decent team to take on the gym in Goldenrod City with Tank now a level 31 Forretress in the lead to setup spikes, Kinoko my level 31 Breloom, Blaze who was now level 30, along with Boxer at level 31 and Kicker at level 29, while Sonic was with us just to raise his friendship level. I first was challenged by a snotty brat of a Beauty who led off with a level 23 Meowth. I had Tank start by setting up spikes only for the Meowth to use payday. With a layer of hazard set up I switched Tank out for Kicker only to be bitten. In response to the damage Kicker used hi jump kick to knock out the cat Pokémon. The beauty then sent out another Meowth who was only level 16 and after taking a bit of damage from the spikes Kicker once again used hi jump kick to knock out another cat Pokémon. After that disappointing battle I had to face a lass named Carrie who only had a level 22 Snubbull. The first thing I did was switch out Tank for Kinoko only for the bulldog Pokémon to put on a scary face. Kinoko did not take that well and used force palm to knock out the other Pokémon and end the battle. With that done I next faced another lass named Cathy who actually had three Pokémon. She led off with a level 22 Jigglypuff. I had Tank start to setup spikes so that the other two Pokémon would not be at full health once they enter the battlefield only for Jigglypuff to start to use rollout. As Tank continued to set up another two layers of spikes and be hit by Jigglypuff in a second rollout before the third pass missed. With the field all set Tank used bug bite to knock out Jigglypuff. Cathy sent out a second level 22 Jigglypuff that took a quarter of its health in damage before fainting to another bug bite from Tank. Cathy's last Pokémon was a level 22 Wigglytuff that Tank ate up with a bug bite that along with spike damage finished the battle. With all of the understudies finished off I headed to face Whitney the gym leader after giving a simple potion to Tank.
Whitney seemed to be very bratty as she led off with a level 27 Clefairy. As has become my strategy Tank spent three turns setting up spikes. During the first turn Clefairy used double slap that hit Tank three times with very little effect. For the second turn of Tank's setup Clefairy used metronome that actually copied Tank in setting up some spikes. In the third turn of setup Clefairy once again used metronome which became magnet rise lifting Clefairy off the ground away from the three layers of spikes that Tank had sent out. With a simple bug bite Tank, one shot the Clefairy before Whitney sent out her ace a level 30 Miltank. After taking a quarter of its health in damage Miltank stomped on Tank before he could use bug bite to hurt the cow Pokémon. After that Miltank stomped on Tank again only for Tank to use payback to hit the pink cow quite hard. Whitney gave her Miltank a super potion before Tank could finish it with a mirror shot that lowered Miltank's accuracy. Miltank then stomped on Tank again before Tank retaliated with payback. With Miltank weak I thought Whitney would heal her Pokémon again but instead Miltank stomped on Tank only to receive a bug bite that knocked the cow out. With that Tank leveled up to level 32 as Whitney sent out her final Pokémon a level 26 Munchlax. Tank used bug bite to greatly weaken the little muncher as it cursed itself. Whitney then used a super potion that I had not expected as Tank used bug bite again the drop its health back down, but it survives thanks to the defense boost from the curse. With a final bug bite Munchlax was knocked out and Whitney was defeated by Tank solo.
The brat started crying after her loss and Cathy told me to give her a minute to calm herself down before Whitney would give me the Plaine Badge. I did as the little lass suggested and waited for Whitney to calm down. Once she was calm the brat gave me the Plain Badge and apologized for the scene she was making before giving me TM 45 attract. After that I made my way out of the gym and over to the Pokémon center to heal up my team for the night before I head out again and travel north planning on making my way up to Ecruteak City. Before leaving Goldenrod City I tried my hand at Voltorb Flip and ended up winning big so much so that I got a Dratini that I named Drax and trained him up to match the others as a level 30 Dragonair.
Current Team
Tank: Level 32 – Forretress
Moves: Spikes, Mirror Shot, Bug Bite, Payback
Blaze: Level 30 – Quilava
Moves: Quick Attack, Ember, Headbutt, Flame Wheel
Sonic: Level 22 – Golbat
Moves: Wing Attack, Leech Life, Confuse Ray, Bite
Boxer: Level 31 – Hitmonchan
Moves: Fire Punch, Ice Punch, Thunder Punch, Dizzy Punch
Liberty: Level 30 – Bronzor
Moves: Rock Tomb, Extrasensory, Hypnosis, Confuse Ray
Drax: Level 30 – Dragonair
Moves: Slam, Thunder Wave, Twister, Dragon Rage