22. I'm Gonna Be a Poison-Type Master
"We really need to decide where we're going." Richard said, as he was holding the map right in front of the others. "I mean, where are we going?" Danny looked over Richard's shoulder, looking at the map as well.
"Well, we got three options, we travel back a little and go to Saffron City, we can travel ahead and we'll arrive in Celadon City, or we take a left somewhere further down the road, cross that lake and head towards Fuchsia City."
"No!" Janine interfered . "No need to go to Fuchsia, right? I mean, I've heard the gym leader of Fuchsia is the strongest Poison type trainer in Kanto."
Danny started to laugh. "Really? I don't think so." Janine looked hurt, but recovered fairly quickly. "O no? Who do you think is the strongest Poison type trainer in Kanto? Definitely not you."
"I might not be the strongest, but I've got three Poison types, and they are pretty strong already." Danny countered.
"Yeah sure, you haven't used Grimer at all and I'm sure my Pokémon can beat Bellsprout and Beedrill easily."
That could have been the start of a big fight already, if Richard didn't stopped them.
"Guys, come on. Danny, you aren't a Poison type trainer, Janine is, and Janine, Bellsprout and Beedrill have worked hard to become as strong as they are. You should both apologize."
"You're right. I'm sorry Danny." Janine said. "Yeah, me to. You and your Pokémon sure are strong." "The strongest?" Janine tried. "Don't push it." Danny laughed.
"So, if where not going towards Fuchsia, where to then?" Richard said. "If I may suggest. You have a Fire type, a Flying type and two Poison types. You can take on Erika from Celadon City."
"That doesn't sound like a bad idea at all." Danny said. "But then I can't use Krabby, and I got the feeling he feels left out due to not being able to participate in a gym match."
"Hmmm, you've got a point there. And knowing Krabby, he probably feels bad about that." Richard said, thinking about the little crab Pokémon.
His thoughts where broken through when a girl came running towards them. Her brown, long hair was waving in the wind as she sped up to get closer.
"Hi, my name is Caroline, and I was wondering if you could help me." The girl introduced as Caroline explained. Her brown sneakers where covered in mud, and the mud reached till her knees, above which she was wearing shorts. To top that she wore a t-shirt with a Venonat on it.
"Yeah sure. I'm Janine, and I really love that t-shirt." Janine said, as she started to smile.
"You do? Thanks. It is one of my favorite Pokémon." Caroline responded. "I have one. If you want to see, I can let her out." "I would love to see her."
Danny sighed and looked at Richard, who rolled his eyes.
As Janine let her Venonat out, Caroline gasped. "Wow. She is sooooo beautiful!" She kneeled down and started cuddling Venonat. Venonat, after being a little weird at first, quickly adjusted and enjoyed the extra attention.
Janine kneeled down as well, smiling as she saw Venonat enjoying the treatment. She knew above all that Venonat liked to be put in the spotlights once in a while, which was a total difference with her Koffing, who just did its duty with battling and nothing more. It was loyal to her, but would never like to get a lot of attention besides the usual 'Well done' and 'Great job'.
"Are you done?" Danny finally said, trying to stop the way to enthusiastic girl talk, which made Janine laugh. "Had a bad sleep?" Caroline joined in on the laugh, while Danny turned around at Richard, and said: "Remind me to never, ever allow another girl to travel with us." Richard chuckled. "Yeah sure."
After 5 more minutes of highly pitched voice making and cuddling even Venonat had enough of the attention, and ran off towards Danny and Richard, knowing to be save there.
"To get to the point…" Caroline started, but was quickly interrupted. "About time." Danny said, after which Janine planted her elbow in his flank, which made him scream in pain.
"What I wanted to say." Caroline continued imperturbable. "I've got a poison type of my own, and I wanted to ask if one of you might know how to raise it properly."
Just before Danny and Janine started their feud again, Richard could just sigh, and do a few steps back, not in the mood to stop them once again.
At the same time, both said: "I can help you, I've captured some Poison types myself and I'm the best around." Followed by: "What? You aren't the best Poison type trainer around, I am." And to end it: "Stop repeating me, poison type trainer number 2!"
Richard looked down at Squirtle, who was quite impressed by Danny and Janine's ability to speak at the same time with exact the same words. Richard kneeled down next to his starter.
"You can be happy you don't need to share your Pokéball with those two." On which Squirtle responded with a smile.
"So, who is the stronger one?" Caroline asked. "I am obviously." Danny said. "I've captured three poison types, and one of them has evolved twice."
"No, I am. My father is…" Janine quickly stopped talking. "Your father is who?" Caroline asked. Janine, knowing that she had almost broke a promise to herself, tried to get out of it as clean as possible.
"My father is a Pokémart owner, and specialized in antidotes. So I know quite something about poisoning and such. And I have Venonat and Koffing to prove I can raise them as well." Good recovery, she thought by herself.
"And you?" Caroline asked curious at Richard, who had held himself out of the discussion.
"I don't train Poison type Pokémon, at least, not until I've captured one. Same goes for Danny by the way. He got those Poison types by luck." Richard smiled.
"Hey, you're supposed to be one my side." Danny said. "I'm completely independent on this one." Richard said back, still with a big smile on his face. Sometimes nothing could beat nagging Danny, and seeing his face, Richard thought by himself.
"Nevertheless, I have captured three Poison types already. That's one more than you." Danny smiled triumphant.
"Why don't we have a battle to fight it out?" Janine said. The high word was out. She knew the answer, and was praying in herself Venonat could take on Bellsprout, as she assumed he'll be sending out Beedrill against her Koffing.
"I'm in. Beedrill, you're up first." Beedrill went out with a red flash, and was surprised to see Janine against him. At first, he thought he was just let out to enjoy the weather, so it flew to the ground and sat down.
"Beedrill, where going to battle!" Richard started to laugh. He almost stopped them from fighting, but he realized they had to have this fight to determine who is the strongest, hopefully it would settle all their disputes.
Caroline, on the other hand, was just happy to be a spectator on a real poison type battle.
"Nidoran, come on out. Let's enjoy a good battle, and maybe you can learn something from it."
A Nidoran appeared, while the Nidoran Danny and Richard had seen back in Cerulean City, captured by the NTR, was completely purple, this one was blue. Indicating that this one was a female.
Nidoran happily responded to her trainer, and gave her pants heads, making sure to not poison Caroline with her spikes though.
"So Beedrill goes first huh, Venonat, let's try a battle." Janine said. She was relieved Beedrill was out of the way, so Koffing could defeat Bellsprout easily, giving her at least one of the two points, the only thing she had to do was winning with Venonat as well.
"Beedrill, start off with Twineedle." Beedrill nodded, as he flew up and charged right at Venonat, who hadn't had much battles yet. The doubt of the little Insect Pokémon was visible in her eyes, and Beedrill knew it could win easily.
While Beedrill stabbed Venonat with its stingers four times, Janine saw her changes drop. Venonat, however, decided to remain standing for now, and used the only move it could come up with.
Venonat started to look like it was surrounded with a small, pink color, and Beedrill became surrounded with the same color. After which, he was smacked against the ground two times, and remained there.
"Beedrill, are you okay?" Danny asked. "That was one powerful Confusion attack." Richard said, but the only thing Janine cared about, was that Venonat had attacked.
"That was awesome Venonat, you smacked it down." Venonat happily started dancing, but due to that, she couldn't see Beedrill charging in from behind with another Twineedle. This time, the stabs where too much, and Venonat remained lying on the ground.
Janine sighed, the victory of Beedrill was a little less now Venonat had attacked as well, but it sure was disappointing. "You did really well Venonat. Now it's your turn Koffing!"
Danny returned his Beedrill as well, praising his fine work, and let out his other Poison type he had on hand: Bellsprout.
"Okay Bellsprout. Let's make this quick, Vine Whip!" Two vines appeared and grabbed Koffing tight.
"Koffing, try to break free!" Janine commanded. Koffing, as much as it wanted to follow the orders, Bellsprout's grip was to strong, and he couldn't break free.
"Now, smack it on the ground." Bellsprout executed with a smirk on his face, as he smashed the Poison Gas Pokémon into the ground.
"Great, now use Razor Leaf." One sharp leaf after the other shot past Koffing, some hitting it as well.
"Time to turn the tables, Koffing, use Sludge." Janine ordered. Even though Koffing was still hold down by Bellsprout's vines, he managed to open its mouth and spit out a combination of black and purple gunk that hit Bellsprout right in his face, making him fall down.
"Now we've got them. Koffing, use Tackle." Koffing fasted forward, and knocked Bellsprout down as soon as he tried to get up again.
"Another one!" Janine felt like she was winning.
"Not so fast. Bellsprout, Sleep Powder!" As Bellsprout released a bunch of blue colored powder out of his mouth, Janine gasped in horror.
"Koffing, get out of there as soon as you can." As soon as Koffing could wasn't fast enough, and the levitating Poison type fell down to the ground, looking peacefully asleep.
"I don't like hurting Koffing when it's a sleep, so you want to quit?" Danny offered, but Janine furiously shook her head. "Koffing will wake up soon enough, but we'll never quit." Danny held up his shoulders. "I tried."
"Okay then. Bellsprout, use Wrap." In contrary to Vine Whip, only one vine was released by Bellsprout, and it was wrapped around Koffing, getting tighter around the Poison Gas Pokémon.
As Bellsprout kept holding his grip and trying to get it even tighter, so dealing not too much damage to Koffing, but enough to make it faint eventually, Janine's brain was working full-on.
"Koffing, wake up. Please!" She tried, screaming as hard as she could, but neither this, nor the wrapping of Bellsprout couldn't get Koffing out of its sleep.
Her voice, however, did get through in Koffing's mind, as it heard the only one who had always stood out for it calling for it. It knew it had to do something, but that sleep was so peaceful, it could really use a nap.
Koffing's sense of duty was fighting a losing battle with its mind, which wanted nothing else than a long nap.
"Koffing. Please." It heard that voice again, and suddenly, its sense of duty broke free, but in another way it had expected.
Janine wanted to try once again to break to that wall that Sleep Powder had produced, when Koffing suddenly started to bright up, shocking everyone around that much, that even Bellsprout lost his focus and let go of the wrap.
While Koffing was still shining completely white, it started to grow, as well as on its side, a second bulge appeared. While evolving, Koffing floated back into the air.
Janine's mouth fell open from amazement. Her Koffing was evolving, the first Pokémon that ever evolved under her ownership. She felt a sense of happiness overwhelm her, as the last sparkles disappeared, and the newly evolved Weezing was looking at her, waiting for commands as if nothing had happened.
But Janine had forgotten about the fight, and jumped forward to cuddle with her Weezing, who wasn't used to this behavior and didn't know how to act.
"Wow, congratulations." Richard said, and Danny repeated that as well. Caroline, who had silently been watching, was amazed as well.
"Wooah. Your Koffing just evolved, that's awesome." Her Nidoran added a happy squeak.
When Janine finally let go of Weezing, the last one seemed quite relieved, and turned around to get the fight going, but then something weird happened: It lost its balance and fell to the ground.
"Weezing!? Are you alright?" Janine jumped forward, running towards her Pokémon, who was now laying down on one side.
"I think I might know how to solve this problem." Caroline said, as she leaned down and took two small stones that laid before her feet.
"What are you planning?" Richard asked curious.
"By putting several little stones." Caroline started, as she sat on her squat and picked up a few more stones. "In a small pocket, and hang it on the left side of Weezing, this way it is more balanced."
Danny slowly nodded. "That might work. But then we'll need to make sure that the stones way the same as its second head."
"That's true. But you'll see when it is, than Weezing will slowly sink in to the other side." Caroline said, scratching her chin. "Then it might actually work."
"I've got a small bag." Janine said, running off towards her tent, and finding a small, purple bag, which she took. Caroline had both her hands filled with small stones.
Janine held open the bag, as Caroline slipped in the rocks.
"Okay Weezing, now hold still." Janine walked up towards her Weezing, and hang the bag on its other side, at the opposite side of its head. The result was that Weezing started hanging little bit to the left.
"Wait a minute." Caroline took the bag off, and dropped 3 stones to the ground, and hang it back. This time, it was in perfect balance.
"So, that's fixed." Caroline said proudly.
"So it has to have that bag for the rest of its live?" Danny asked sarcastically.
"Ehm, I haven't thought off anything thing for that, to be honest." Caroline looked down, embarrassed.
Danny started laughing. "I figured so much. How about this: We slowly reduce the stones, so Weezing can adjust to a little bit of weight each time, how does that sound?"
Janine nodded, and took one stone back out, which was directly visible, as Weezing started to get unbalanced. "Just try to put more weight on your other side." Janine advised, and as Weezing did as ordered, it was back in balance.
They continued this for almost halve an hour, until most stones where gone, and Weezing was still in balance, although the look on its face showed it was still fearing to fall down again.
"So, now that's fixed, how about we teach you something about Poison types." Janine said. "He, we never finished our battle, who says you are the best?" Danny interrupted. "Duh, I evolved my Poison type, I'm the best."
Richard shook his head. "Oh no Janine, don't start this." But it was too late, as Danny had a victorious smile on his face. "Well, guess what. I evolved Beedrill twice, which is a Poison type. Who's the winner now?"
Caroline tried to get between, but it was of no use. Danny and Janine where back on it. "Guys." Richard tried. A Flamethrower of Charmander finally stopped the two.
"Can you please help me?" She asked. "I want to train my Nidoran, so it will evolve one day, but I have no idea how." Janine smiled. "You know, you should go by her strong points first, so you should battle grass types for example, they are weak against Poison types."
Danny nodded. "Then you look at the things Nidoran is weak against, which is out of my head Ground and Psychic, so avoid those guys. The rest is good to go, but just remain careful." Caroline smiled. "That doesn't sound that hard, I don't know why I couldn't figure that out for myself?"
"Sometimes you just need to hear it before you realize it." Danny winked. "Yeah, once you have heard it, you realize it was there all along." Janine added.
Richard's mouth fell open by surprise. "I can't believe those two. At one point they are all over each other, fighting, and now they are the best of friends and both share their knowledge." Squirtle happily nodded, and then walked away to find his buddy Charmander, with who Squirtle always could play with fine.
"Thanks for all of your help." Caroline smiled, as she sat down to pet her Nidoran. "We'll try to find ourselves some Grass types. Cia." She waved as she walked away.
"That must have been hard." Richard grinned. Danny and Janine looked back, confused. "Working together, I mean." Danny and Janine looked at each other, as they realized all of it just now.
"I guess we did, we do make a pretty good team." Janine said. Danny nodded. "Yeah we do." Richard sighed in relieve, but he knew this treaty wouldn't last forever. "I'll go with it." He said to himself, as the sun was going under, and it's last red colored sunlight was coloring the world in a soft also red color.
"This is probably the most beautiful moment of the day." Danny said, as he watched the sun making its last steps towards the end, as the day was done.
Only the red tip was now visible, and the red lights started to disappear, but the sky and its now purple coloring remained, which marked that the next day would also have good weather.
And so, we see our heroes sit down, just before sleeping as the night steps in, and takes control. The darkness quickly covers the summer evening, and temperatures start to sink. Danny and his friends decided to call it a day and went to sleep, as the first stars are seen at the sky, and the moon was doing the job the sun had left.
And they all knew that they were happy.
So I want to explain why I left for so long.
You see, Danny's Journey is currently one of my best things I made on the internet, and my biggest fan was my grandpa. Every time I had wrote a chapter, he would read it first, tell me what to change, and what was good. He even came up with some ideas, like the Diglett chapter and Bellsprout knocking out Starmie due to using its own strategy.
Two months back, my grandpa suddenly started to feel ill, so bad he had to hospitalized. There, he suffered from a heart attack, which he survived. That was about the time the Diglett chapter came out. I visited him as much as possible, and the first things he asked after we had the 'everything's okay?' was how's the journey going? And then I told him I wanted to evolve Koffing, and he was happy to hear that.
His words: That poor guy was in desperate need of some screen time.
So I had most of this chapter finished, when my grandpa passed away. Suddenly, one day he was recovering, and the next he was gone. I remember that day well, 17 June 2016, I went down and my mom was sitting in the main room, crying. Then she told how around 1 a.m. things had gone wrong, and my grandpa had to go to the IC, but no 2 hours later he was already gone. That day is marked as the worst day in my life.
So, if you don't mind, I want to tell something about my grandpa before I continue. My grandpa wasn't the average grandpa. Even when he was in a serious talk, he always made time for us, which sometimes irritated the one he was talking to, but he didn't care. He had only two grandchildren, me and my brother, and we were the world to him. He was always alone, my grandmother died 10 years ago, so we were at his place a lot. We were best buddies, my grandpa and I, and he is probably the only adult that knows more about Pokémon than Pikachu. It was his idea I should write a fanfiction about it, and he would help.
A few days later was the funeral of him, it was really nice to say goodbye to him this way, the funeral was beautiful, nice songs and everything. But it couldn't help that I lost my best friend in the whole world. Every time I opened this document to finish it, I was remembered of my grandpa, and I couldn't continue. This is the first time I ever wrote anything about Danny's journey since he has passed away, I only focused on other projects like the Pokédex, which takes my attention off it.
Now, I will still not directly continue, maybe later but I feel it's still too soon. But I will continue, in honor of my grandpa. The last sentences, about the sun setting, is in his honor already. I hope you understand.
The title is a pun on Ash's first line: I'm gonna be a Pokémon Master.