11. Battling in Waterworld!
"Finally, we made it. Cerulean City," Danny cheered, while Richard looked back at the thrilling shape of Mt. Moon.
"I'm just glad we made it out of the mountain", Richard reacted. Danny could see the relief written in Richard's eyes.
"I understand."
Richard appreciated Danny didn't feel the urge to elaborate on it. It was best to keep it behind them just like the mountain itself.
"Now, the first thing we need is to find a Pokémon Center," Danny said. "As much as I would like to get to the gym directly, Krabby needs some rest after that battle with Rockney."
Richard nodded slowly, while appreciating the landscape around them.
It wasn't too different from nature on the other side of the mountain. Mostly trees, with grassy patches between them. There were some small hills, but they weren't anything special. The forest looked pleasant. All the green made it look inviting and the sounds coming from it sounded friendlier as well, in contrast to the menacing sounds that came from certain areas in the mountain.
Danny had no eye for the surroundings, only for the city in front of him and the path that would lead him there.
"I hope this gym battle will go as smoothly as the battle against Brock, that battle went really well. I know I can count on Bellsprout, but what about the others? Charmander is weak to water and Krabby isn't able to do a lot either. That leaves Abra and Beedrill. Beedrill might be the best bet here."
Richard snapped his fingers to bring Danny back to the present.
"Earth to Danny, this boy here wants to ask you something."
A young boy, with expensive looking shorts, a black and blue colored jacket and a blue hat, was standing in front of them. Together with some red shoes it didn't look like he was a poor guy.
"Are you two trainers?" He asked. Both guys nodded.
"Then I would like to challenge one of you to a battle!"
Danny looked at Richard. "Do you want to take this one?"
"You should take you, it gives you an extra opportunity to train for your gym battle."
"Yeah okay that's a good point. I'll take your challenge."
The boy nodded happily and stepped back to make room for the Pokémon to do battle.
"Let's go Metapod!"
"Charmander, you go!" But right after sending Charmander into battle, who was clearly excited, he remembered Anthony's Metapod back in Viridian.
"Does this Metapod know any move besides Harden?"
The other guy started to laugh. "Of course it does. It still knows some moves it knew back when it was a Caterpie."
"Okay good, then let's do this. Use Ember Charmander!"
Charmander opened his beak and let out burning embers, his fiery tail wiggling while he did it.
Metapod had no answer to offer and fell down in defeat.
"Wow you are really strong, Metapod return. Pidgey you go!"
"Ready for another round Charmander?"
The fire Lizard nodded, but Richard stopped that fun.
"Do you think it is smart to battle with Charmander right now? He's most likely not going to be battling Misty."
Danny nodded. "Good point, I hadn't thought of that. Charmander, do you think you could give this one to Bellsprout?"
While reluctantly, Charmander walked back. He sat down onto the ground next to Squirtle, who had been watching the battle from a distance. In their own language, they started chatting.
"Bellsprout, you're up!"
Aside from Krabby, the teams were outside of their Pokéballs. Bellsprout had jumped up the second Danny had pulled off Charmander and was now ready for the battle, even if it meant going up against a Pidgey.
No, that just meant it was a challenge.
"Pidgey, use Gust!"
Bellsprout was caught up in the strong winds. He used his vines to grab onto something but wasn't quick enough. The winds created some distance between the two, which really benefited Pidgey more.
Bellsprout climbed back up, not ready to give in after just one move.
"Take revenge with Vine Whip!"
"Dodge them Pidgey!"
Pidgey flew up higher, with the vines following suit. Eventually, Bellsprout ran out of vines and retracted them. Pidgey flew back down to get back into the battle, but that was a mistake.
Not all vines were retracted, Bellsprout had left one in the sky. With Pidgey flying down, it came down onto the Flying-type hard, slamming it from meters high into the ground.
Pidgey got up, but it was barely. This hit came hard and it seemed to be bruised up quite a bit.
Pidgey got back up, but wasn't ready for another round, so it shook his head.
"Well that's that. You are really quite something you know," the boy said. "Your Bellsprout seems to think for itself."
Danny nodded. "Yeah he does that sometime. I hope he didn't hit your Pidgey too hard."
The boy waved Danny's worries away. "When Pidgey learn to fly they fall down from greater heights and they end up just fine. Pokémon are more resilient than we are, and more than you think."
Danny thought the battle was over, but the boy took another Pokéball. "Let's go Rattata!"
"Wow, a Rattata, crazy that I haven't seen one until now," Danny thought while taking his Pokédex to check.
A Forest Pokémon, Rattata. It likes cheese, nuts, fruit and berries. It also comes out into open fields to steal food from stupid travelers.
"That doesn't really sound like a really nice Pokémon," Richard laughed.
"Don't worry, my Rattata isn't that bad, it is a really nice Pokémon."
"Bellsprout return. Beedrill you can take this one."
The Grass-type wasn't happy to leave the field. It didn't help that it was Beedrill who was flying over. Bellsprout walked away, making stinky eyes towards the bee, who didn't seem to care at all.
"Start with a Quick Attack!" The boy ordered. It was a quick and direct hit: Rattata ran off, jumped and hit Beedrill in his center, but Beedrill shook it off like it was nothing.
"Time to hit back, use Twineedle."
With Rattata still so close, there was no way Beedrill was missing. His two stinger-arms smashed into Rattata. The Mouse Pokémon jumped back and shook it off, ready for round two.
"Use Hyper Fang!"
"Dodge that move Beedrill and use Poison Sting while you're at it."
Beedrill didn't need to be told twice. He quickly flew up as Rattata, who's already large teeth seemed to have doubled in size, ran forward to deal another blow.
From the sky, Beedrill was in the clear to fire off the Poison Sting attack. Small, purple pins were fired onto the ground, also hitting Rattata.
The Normal-type fell onto the ground and didn't get back up. The boy jumped forward to examine his Pokémon.
"Are you alright?"
Rattata didn't respond.
"Crap, it's poisoned. I need to get to the city."
"I'm sorry.." Danny reacted.
"Don't be, it's part of the battle right? Anyway you won."
"I've used Poison Sting before but it has never poisoned before. I'm Danny by the way," Danny introduced himself, and Richard while he was at it.
The boy called himself Lionel and said he lived in Cerulean City.
"We're heading there too, maybe we'll see you again."
"Yeah maybe, good luck with your gym battle," Lionel said before running back towards the city.
Richard and Danny looked at each other, before continuing down the path towards Cerulean City as well.
"I did get a bit scared when his Rattata got poisoned," Danny said.
"Yeah that makes two of us," Richard answered. "I'm glad everything will be alright."
As they always did when they entered a city, they returned all of their Pokémon, aside from their Starters, to their Pokéballs.
Cerulean City wasn't as large as Viridian City, it was more like Pewter City. But while that city was filled with rocks, Cerulean barely had any. Instead, there was a lot of water around it. Rivers and lakes surrounding the city, as well as fountains in the city itself.
The two boys walked up to the sign, greeting them a warm welcome into the city.
Welcome to the Floral Lagoon City
As they walked further into this city, they noticed there were small pools near the road for Water types to swim in. Squirtle had trouble to resist jumping in.
As it was a beautiful summer day, there were a lot of people walking around outside. The sound of people laughing and talking filled the air and the two boys immediately felt welcome to be here.
They found the Pokémon Center with ease, as it looked exactly the same as the ones in Viridian and Pewter.
"Hi there, how can I help you?" Nurse Joy asked.
The two trainers happily handed over their Pokémon, so the nurse could heal them up.
Behind her, multiple Chansey were running around, carrying stuff.
"Do you own three Chansey?" Richard asked curiously.
Joy shook her head with a smile. "No these Chansey are the Chansey from Viridian's Joy (the middle one), and Pewter's Joy (the Chansey on the right). The third Chansey is my own companion."
Before Joy was done talking, Danny had already taken out his Pokédex to register Chansey in it.
A rare and elusive Pokémon that is said to bring happiness to those who manage to get it.
Nurse Joy started to laugh again. "It sure brings a lot of happiness to me, even more now there are three of them."
All of a sudden, the phone in the Pokémon Center started to ring. Joy hurried towards it and picked it up. As with all phones here, the person on the other side was visible due to a webcam connection. Richard and Danny were surprised to see the caller was none other than Professor Oak.
"Ah Nurse Joy, I see Danny and Richard have made it here," the professor said.
Joy turned around and gestured to the two boys to come closer.
"I'll give you guys some privacy," she said as she walked away.
"Hi professor, how are you doing?" Danny asked politely.
"Oh I'm doing fine. But how about you? I tried to call you in Pewter City, but I couldn't reach you."
"Oh we're sorry, we didn't spend much time there," Richard answered.
"Well don't worry about that, I just make it a habit to check in on trainers that leave, so I always call the Pewter City Center, around the time you could logically be there."
"Are you so concerned with us?" Danny asked with a smile, but Oak wasn't smiling.
"The reason behind it is actually quite sad."
Danny nor Richard reacted, which gave Oak the possibility to elaborate.
"As you might know, we used to send trainers away when they were ten years old. A few years ago, a trainer and his Squirtle left on their journey. Two weeks later, a call came from the Pewter Gym. Forrest, who was filling in for Brock at the time, asked me if I had only sent out two trainers. So I grew worried."
Oak stopped talking, causing the suspension to grow.
"It would mean that Jason, that's the name of this young trainer, hadn't made it to Pewter City in two weeks. Every trainer makes it there in that time, so I called Viridian and the Nurse there hadn't seen a trainer with a Squirtle coming by either. By now, all inhabitants of Pallet Town were worried, so we made groups that searched between Pallet and Viridian, but after two days of searching we still hadn't found any sign of him."
Oak swallowed, and the two boys could see he had more and more trouble talking as the story went on.
"But we couldn't give up," he continued. "Brock had just returned from a journey and formed a group of Pewter inhabitants, together with my group from Pallet and a group from Viridian, we entered Viridian Forest. We left no stone unturned, but it didn't take us long to find him….. or what was left of him. He had died, we still don't know how. His two Pokémon, the Squirtle I gave him and a Rattata were still alive."
Both Danny and Richard had stopped breathing, but luckily realized in time that they had.
"From that day forward, we all agreed every trainer needed to be at least 15 years old to start their journey. Ten years was too young, Jason was too young." A tear fell down from Oak's eye. "It left a scar on my heart for the rest of my life. I was responsible. I promised myself that no other trainer would ever die under my watch again."
"So that's why I called Pewter City, I wanted to make sure you two made it there healthy and well."
"Professor, are you okay?" Danny asked. Both he and Richard were struck silent by the story.
Oak wiped his tears away. "I'm fine."
"We must have worried you," Richard sighed, as he felt incredibly sorry for the professor.
"No you didn't. When I couldn't track you down I called Brock, who told me you had already beaten him. He also saw potential in you."
Those last words caused Danny to smile.
"But I'm happy to be able to speak to you here. Since Mt. Moon is also dangerous, I was planning to call you here. I'm glad to see you guys made it out alright."
Nurse Joy silently walked up to the two boys to give them their Pokéballs. Danny and Richard immediately let out their Starters, as they were used to being outside.
"Those look like happy and healthy Pokémon to me," Oak said. "Can I see the other Pokémon you've captured so far?"
Danny took the other Pokéballs and let his team out. From left to right: Charmander (who was already out), Abra, Krabby, Beedrill and Bellsprout.
"Well that looks like quite the respectable team already young man," Oak said, sounding proud.
"Thanks professor!"
"And you Richard? Have you captured some Pokémon already?"
Richard let out his Sandshrew, which happily walked up to Squirtle.
"I haven't had the luck to capture more than one Pokémon."
"Well there's no shame in that, it isn't about how many Pokémon you capture. It is about how you raise them and if you are being a good trainer and from what I can tell, you are."
Richard nodded thankfully.
"I suppose you want to challenge the gym leader here, Misty?"
Danny nodded quickly. "That's the plan."
"Then I won't bother you any longer. Good luck!"
"Thanks professor!"
"I'll tell your parents you are okay. They will be delighted to hear it."
With that, Oak closed down the phone.
Danny and Richard returned their teams back to their respective Pokéballs and waved Joy goodbye, before walking back onto the streets of Cerulean City.
Danny sat down onto the bench and Richard sat down next to him. Squirtle immediately jumped into a small pool across the street, which gave Danny the idea to let Krabby out as well.
Neither one of them spoke a word, before Richard decided to say something.
"That was a really sad story the professor told us."
Danny nodded.
"I can't believe that happened. I'm really glad we're in this together."
Richard nodded. "Yeah me too."
The street here was less noisy as others, so the two ended up letting all of their Pokémon out. The nice weather outside caused all of their moods to improve greatly, even Beedrill and Bellsprout got along better.
Sandshrew climbed onto the bench the two boys were sitting on and laid against its trainer, while Abra was already in the dreamworld again.
"You don't really like it here, do you?" Richard asked, looking at his Ground-type buddy.
Sandshrew shook his head.
"Sandshrew probably prefers Pewter City," Danny said with a smile. Spending time with their teams was the perfect method to improve their mood as well, and the sad story quickly vanished into their unconscious.
They sat there for a little while longer as they noticed the sun was already setting.
"I don't think you'll be able to challenge Misty today," Richard noticed and Danny slowly nodded.
"I don't think so either. This day has had enough in it, don't you think?"
Richard nodded. Just that morning, they were on the other side of Mt. Moon. It took them the entire morning and a large portion of the afternoon to get through.
"I agree, I can really use some sleep. To think of it, we haven't even had supper yet."
"Well you guys are in luck! I was about to make something for myself, but you two are welcome to join," Joy said as she walked outside to take in some sunlight as well.
They shared a good-tasting supper together and after that, the two trainers quickly went to sleep. The image of Jason kept spooking through their minds so both slept uneasy and woke up early the next day.
Of course, Danny was the first to wake. He was already eating breakfast when Richard walked in the main hall of the Pokémon Center.
"Good morning! I shouldn't be surprised you are here first," Richard said, still half asleep.
Danny, on the other hand, was fully awake and eager to start his gym battle against Misty.
Sadly for him, he still had to wait a few hours before the gym would finally open.
The gym building wasn't difficult to find. It was a big building, rounded towards the top. The colors of the roof were neon orange and pink, which made it stand out even more. The most attractive part about it was a giant statue of a Dewgong on top of the building. The roof was held up by multiple pillars. All in all an impressive sight.
"Should we go in?" Danny asked.
The gym seemed to be completely void of life and after a knock on the door gave no reaction, the two ended up venturing inside.
"Hello! Is anyone here?"
"I'll be right with you." They heard the voice of a, very young sounding, girl.
They didn't need to wait for long, as a girl, looking like 17 or 18 years old, walked in. She had orange hair and was wearing a green swimsuit.
"You must be here to challenge the gym leader and earn the Cascade badge," she noted, to which Danny nodded.
"I would like you, is the gym leader present?"
He started looking around, which caused the girl to laugh.
"You're looking at her."
Danny's eyes widened in surprise. "You're Misty?"
"Well people tend to call me that so I assume I am," she answered with a warm smile. "And who am I talking too?"
Misty seemed to appreciate confusing the upcoming challenger before the gym battle.
"Oh sorry, my name is Danny Kendall and I've come from Pallet Town. And this is my best friend Richard."
"So now I'm your best friend?" Richard asked with a false grin.
Danny didn't feel like responding, which caused Misty to laugh.
"Follow me."
Both boys followed the red-haired gym leader as she brought them to a room almost completely filled with water. In the water, there were several round plates; two big ones, one of each trainer, and multiple small ones. All together there weren't more than 6, 3 on each side, for the Pokémon to use.
"This is my elder sister, Daisy," Misty said, pointing towards an older girl, probably around her twenties. "She will be the judge."
Both boys introduced themselves properly, with Richard introducing Danny as his best friend, causing Misty to giggle. Danny sighed and finally reacted.
"Will you just let it go?"
Richard shook his head with a smile.
"You never call me that, so no I won't."
Misty sighed and shared a look with her sister, who was completely in the dark.
"Let's get this battle started, shall we boys?" Misty said, with a hint of seduction in it.
While she made her way towards her plate, she couldn't help but remember her own journey through Kanto with her friends. Those were good days. With a small leap, she jumped onto her plate.
Danny started running and jumped onto his plate as well, almost slipping and falling off in the process. He swallowed when he saw his own reflection in the water and barely managed to stay balanced.
"When you're ready!" Misty shouted from the other side, quite enjoying the spectacle.
Danny turned around and nodded, still a bit uneasy. He felt a familiar feeling enter his body. Another gym battle, the last one wasn't that long ago and here he was again.
He had trouble speaking and kept moving around, despite the fact that it was best to not move too much on a plateau floating on a body of water.
"This match will be between the challenger Danny from Pallet Town and the Gym Leader, Misty from Cerulean City. It will be a two-on-two match and only the challenger is allowed to switch. Are both sides ready?"
Misty waved towards her sister, two Pokéballs were already laying on the plateau when she had jumped onto it. She crouched down and took one of them in the palm of her hand.
Danny simply nodded, with a big lump in his throat.
"Then let the match begin!"
"Staryu, I'll start things off with you!" Misty called out, releasing a star shaped Pokémon from one of the two Pokéballs.
Luckily for Danny, he found his voice back just in time to order the first move.
"Beedrill, it's up to you!"
Beedrill flew up high and noticed the water beneath him, not the best battlefield for him.
"Let's see what we're up against." Danny thought.
Staryu, this Pokémon is commonly seen fighting, which it can do as long as it's core is intact
"Staryu, go with Bubble."
"Beedrill dodge it."
Beedrill was barely fast enough, which gave Danny an idea of how fast Staryu was.
"Another Bubble!"
Misty's pressure caused Danny and Beedrill to fall back in defense. Beedrill flew up as high as the roof allowed to avoid the water attacks.
"Try to turn the tides, use Twineedle!"
Beedrill gained a lot of speed by flying in a downwards direction. Staryu was rendered helpless and Beedrill's drills came into contact with the Water-type. Beedrill had to do everything in his power to not land in the water as well, while Staryu was in its element.
A grin appeared on Misty's face.
"Staryu, use Water Pulse!"
Danny instinctively knew Beedrill would never get out there in time, and before he could usher a command, Beedrill was hit by a large blast of water Staryu released from its core.
"Crap.." Danny muttered, as he tried to see where Beedrill had landed, if the Poison-type had even landed at all. As it turned out, Beedrill had managed to find one of the smaller plateaus in his attempt to avoid diving under.
With the water over his wings, Beedrill had trouble getting back up and in an attempt to get his wings to fly, he fell into the water.
"Beedrill!" Danny shouted out in terror.
Daisy had seen enough Beedrill plunging into the water to know it was over and out for the Bug-type.
The announcement was a hard one for Danny to hear. By rules, he had to return Beedrill.
"That Staryu is one hell of a thing. Beedrill was knocked out at once."
"I hope you got a taste of what it means to battle in the Cerulean Gym!" Misty shouted over the water, with a wink.
Danny didn't need a lot to decide his next plan. Charmander and Abra were no good and Krabby wasn't trained enough, Bellsprout was the only and best option.
"Let's go Bellsprout!"
The Grass-type easily jumped onto one of the smaller plates, looking at its opponent with a degrading look. A Water-type was no match for him after all.
"Staryu, attack it with Bubble!"
Danny remembered how he had sent Beedrill into the defense and how that had worked out. No, this time he needed to be more aggressive.
"Bellsprout, counter it with Razor Leaf."
Bellsprout shook his two leaves and summoned a whole army of sharp, edgy leaves. They pierced through Staryu's bubbles and eventually hit the Water-type as well, causing it to fall back into the water.
But one Razor Leaf wasn't enough to take Staryu out. It jumped back onto the plateau with a proud cry.
"Finish it off with Vine Whip!"
"Staryu, jump into the water."
Misty's switch to a more defensive play gave Danny confidence, which spilled over to Bellsprout.
Bellsprout's vines followed the starfish Pokémon into the water and grabbed onto the Water-type's legs. Bellsprout pulled and Staryu re-appeared above the water, this time hanging powerless above its precious water.
Without needing an order, Bellsprout threw Staryu away. It flew past Misty into the wall behind the Gym Leader. That was too much for the Water-type to take and its core started to flicker.
"Staryu is unable to battle, this round goes to Danny and his Bellsprout," Daisy announced.
Danny's heart made a small jump. After seeing Beedrill go down that quickly he had feared a defeat, but Bellsprout showed to be dominant on the water field. There was still a chance he could win this.
"If you thought Staryu was bad, you will not like meeting Starmie," Misty said, with another one of her evil grins. Starmie jumped out with a louder cry. It didn't even bother jumping onto land, it went straight into the water.
"Danny, that's the evolved form of Staryu!" Richard yelled from the side. He had been watching carefully and was impressed by Misty's strength. Not to mention she was using Pokémon that were chosen for a second gym badge. Imagine how much harder future gym battles would be.
"Bellsprout, use Razor Leaf!"
Evolved form or not, being aggressive had worked against Staryu, surely it would work against Starmie as well.
Danny's excitement caused the plateau beneath him to rock, causing him to almost lose balance again.
"Don't get too excited," He reminded himself.
"Starmie, counter that attack with Water Pulse!"
Bellsprout had already released a set of leaves, but none of them could withstand the force of Starmie's Water Pulse, which was surely twice as strong as Staryu's had been. Bellsprout stood no chance and was blasted off the circle with leaves and all.
"Another Razor Leaf, keep up the pressure!"
"Dive down Starmie!"
Starmie went straight down to the bottom of the pool, far away from Bellsprout's reach. The leaves ran their course and fell down into the pool uselessly.
"Stay on guard Bellsprout, don't let it surprise you!" Danny commanded and Bellsprout nodded. It was twirling around on the plate, looking everywhere to catch a glimpse of the Water-type.
Suddenly, Starmie jumped up from the left side of Bellsprout.
Misty, who was seemingly able to track Starmie's movements, let out a small cheer.
"Now use Psychic!"
Danny couldn't believe his eyes. Psychic?!
He wanted to order something but only a small peep came out.
Starmie's core started to glow a deep purple and Bellsprout was lifted into the air, before being smashed back into the ground with that much force that the plateau broke in half. The Poison-type was too shocked to even react to it, but the outcome of this was clear to Daisy.
"Bellsprout is unable to battle. This round, and with that the match, goes to Misty, the gym leader."
Danny returned Bellsprout to his Pokéball and fell down to his knees, the plateau barely staying afloat.
"You did amazing Bellsprout…"
Misty jumped off the plateau with grace, holding both Pokéballs in her hand. Danny had more trouble, as the unsteady underground did not improve his jumping skills. He barely made it, but probably wouldn't have cared if he had fallen into the pool.
"I… I lost.. What now?"
"That was a great battle, you fought well," Misty said, raising her hand.
Danny shook it, but not many words came out.
"You are so powerful," Richard said to avoid an awkward silence.
"Thank you. I kinda have to be, beating a Gym Leader should mean something. A Gym Badge has to be earned."
"Can I have a rematch?" Danny finally said, finding his words back. He shook off the defeat.
"Yes of course! Anytime you want," Misty answered with a wink.
Danny nodded determined. One loss was not enough to get him down.
"Great! But I need to train first. Next time I'll beat you."
"I already look forward to it."
Nurse Joy saw them walking in and immediately knew the outcome.
"Tough battle huh?"
Danny nodded. "That Starmie knew Psychic, my team is not cut out for hers at all."
He gave his two Pokéballs to the Nurse before walking outside to get some fresh air, he needed to think of a new strategy for this gym.