Joseph arrived at Goldenrod City. It was big, enormous! He took out his Pokémon for them to enjoy the city. Delibird was the one who enjoyed it more, but Dragonair was also excited!
"Cross..." For Heracross, it was a bit difficult to adjust.
"Pikapi..." Pikachu was weirded out as well.
Joseph understood them, as Heracross was more used to the forest and Pikachu was from the past, before modernization was that widespread. He encountered a library. He read that Pokémon were allowed to be outside! Thus, they all entered.
"Welcome to the Pokémon Goldenrod library!" A woman said. "Pokémon are allowed as long as they mantain silence. There are books adapted for them, if you want"
"Thanks!" Joseph said.
"Hmmm...! Do you like libraries?" SmartRotom asked.
"I love them!" Joseph said. "In Blackthorn there is a smaller one filled with Johto legends, it's so cool!"
Joseph went on to read some books of legends. He skimmed through Ho-oh and Lugia's legends, as he was so exposed to them back home. He read about Groudon, Kyogre and Rayquaza, creators of earth, water and sky... But what really sparked his interest were the legends of Sinnoh's ancient times.
"So... Mesprit, Uxie and Azelf are the legendaries of the Spirit. Emotion, Wisdom and Willpower" Joseph said, while reading the books. "Together, they can make the Red Chain, which will allow to quell and control the legendaries of time and space, Dialga and Palkia. There was a third legendary, Giratina, who was banished from this world, as its domain of distortion made their coexistence with our world truly difficult"
Pikachu and Dragonair listened, while Delibird, Heracross and Ursaring read some books of their own, adapted to them.
"The legend of the Sea Prince" Joseph then read. "In the Cobalt Coastlands of the Sinnoh of Old, a man who had a Qwilfish with big spikes, a Mantyke and a Buizel crossed over a big rock three times at sunset, and the prince agreed to see them. Cool!"
It was so informative! Joseph was truly excited about that library. But he suddently remembered that Goldenrod had a Gym Leader, Whitney, who had been portrayed as a really formidable foe.
"I must fight against her! It shall be easy enough!" Joseph smiled. "I'm having a good track record with these gym battles"
He put his Pokémon in their PokéBalls, with the exception of Dragonair, and went on to face Whitney... when he read that the Pokéathlon had opened its doors.
"Pokéathlon... a competition for Pokémons that does not measure their skill on battle nor their beauty, but their physical aptitude..." Joseph said. "Oh, this is so interesting! Do you want to try, Dragonair?"
"Drago!" It nodded, smiling.
Joseph went to the Pokéathlon Stadium, around of which people were training everywhere! There was a girl who was training with a Butterfree, a Hoppip and a Sunkern.
"Hey!" Joseph smiled. "Who are you?"
"Hm? Hi! My name is Ai!" The girl said. "Are you new around here?"
"Yeah, I don't know what this Pokéathlon thing is..."
"Ah! We test physical aptitudes of Pokémon" Ai said. "It's different than Pokémon battles"
"So that's why you got such weak Pokémon?" Joseph asked.
"So weak, huh?" Ai asked. "You feel so high and mighty because you have four Badges, huh?"
"I-I..." Joseph sttutered, surprised.
"You wanna do a competition?" Ai asked. "I specialize in speed, so let's do that!"
"Alright!" Joseph nodded.
They went to make a competition of speed that other two people joined. Joseph selected a team. They went into the Stadium.
"Alright, folks! Welcome to the 3rd Pokéathlon Speed Competition of today!" The commentarist said. "My name is Jack Athlon, and I'm the one who's commenting this competition! Team 1 is composed by Hank with his Teddiursa, his Meowth and his Growlithe. They're the Warm Mammals!"
Hank celebrated the cheer of the fans.
"Team 2 is Fang with Pidgeotto, Noctowl aaaaaand Spearow! They're the Birdies!" Jack Athlon said. "Team 3 is Ai with Butterfree, Sunkern and Hoppip, the Windy Pals!"
Fang, a man who wore a long cloak that hid his face completely, and Ai celebrated the cheers.
"Aaaaand in Team 4, the new athlete that has never participated before, Joseph, and his team that consists on Ursaring, Pikachu aaaand Heracross. We call him... the Badge Earner!" Jack laughed.
They all booed and cheered and laughed at Joseph. He turned his head to see Ai.
"Why are they booing at me?" He said.
"We have kind of a tradition to laugh at badge earners, that's what we call newbies that started travelling to earn badges and found the Pokéathlon stuff by chance and went to try, thinking it would be easy. Quick spoiler, badge earner, it's not" Ai said.
The first competition was to jump obstacles. The rules were fairly simple: The Pokémon had to run in a straight line with their eyes covered with a head visor, and their Athlete would have to warn them to jump obstacles with three red buttons that would make electric discharges to their heads to warn them to jump.
"You won't win" Ai said. "These rules are too complicated for the Pokémon to understand in their first day"
"Do not understand my bond with them!" Joseph said, looking at his Pokémon, who let themselves be put the head visor.
But when they began to run, Joseph found himself in a difficult position: Pressing the buttons at the right time was so difficult...! Ai, Fang and Hank were expertly doing it, but Joseph had trouble with that... and worse of it: He felt a pinch each time his Pokémon tripped with the obstacles. Usually, his bond with them helped him go through everything together... but that same bond was pinching him, making him uncomfortable in a situation where he had to make active choices. At the end of the race, his Pokémon went last.
"What a shame! The badge earners have lost the race!" Jack Athlon shouted, excitedly.
Joseph fell to the floor. Ai and Hank looked at him with pity, but Fang got towards him.
"Are you okay, Joseph?" He asked.
"My Pokémon... they were hurt... and it hurts me as well" Joseph said.
"People call you a badge earner because they assume you're arrogant. But people who earn badges... they can be strong as athletes as well!" Fang took out his cloak.
"...! Falkner?!" Joseph shouted.
"WHAT?!?! FANG REVEALED HIMSELF TO BE FALKNER, VIOLET CITY'S GYM LEADER!!!" Jack Athlon shouted. "IT IS ON OUR DATA THAT HE LEFT THE GYM AT HIS PUPIL'S HANDS TO EARN BADGES ALL ACROSS THE REGION!!!"
"You... you did?" Joseph asked.
"Yes" Falkner smiled. "You have something in you... I don't know how to express it. When you left the gym, I had a burning desire... to win!"
"I... I have this desire too!" Ai shouted. "I can't let a Gym Leader and a badge earner to barge in and steal my dream! I have to win everything to become the best!"
"You guys are crazy!" Hank shouted. "This is a low level competition! Ai, this is beneath us!"
"If you consider this beneath you, just give up!" Ai shouted.
Joseph's resolve burned bright: Falkner and Ai wanted to win, and that made him want to win with all of his strength. He would use his bond... to win!
The following game was to catch flags, they could hit other Pokémon to make them dizzy. Joseph used his bond to command his Pokémon... but he was still bad, and went last.
"Oh..." He said, a bit down.
"Don't worry" Falkner said. "Hank and Ai are competing against each other, so let's watch them and learn"
Joseph didn't really have hopes to win, and Falkner didn't take an effort either. The competition was between Ai and Hank... but Ai's Pokémon were far superior. Ai's Pokémon did 15 leaps, which was amazing.
The end of the competition ended with Ai first, Hank second, Falkner third and Joseph last. Ai smiled at Joseph.
"You have a great resolve. You're still wide-eyed, but if you gave it a little practice..." Ai smiled.
"Nah. I just wanted to try" Joseph smiled. "I'm happy just earning badges"
"Alright, suit yourself!" Ai smiled. "Have you earned Goldenrod's?"
"HECK!" Joseph shouted. "I completely forgot!"
He put his Pokémon on his PokéBalls and scooted off to Goldenrod City to try and earn Whitney's badge.
And the story goes on!
To be continued
Joseph's Team
Dragonair (Male) — Level 38
Delibird (Male) — Level 34
Heracross (Male) (Alpha) — Level 71
Ursaring (Female) — Level 34
Pikachu (Male) — Level 36