Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, but I would love to.
Chapter 5: Journeys.
Route 5 between Cerulean City and Route 6 was probably one of the longest roads in the whole of Kanto. There was tons of trainers here who wished to train their Pokemon before challenging the gym at either Cerulean or Vermillion. Just like I had in my previous life, I fought a lot of trainers who wished to challenge someone that had earned a gym badge. But I am not complaining. While most of my Pokemon were too high level for gaining levels from battling such small time trainers and their weak pokemon, it was nonetheless a welcome source of exp.
"That was a great battle. As expected from someone who have two badges. " Timmy who was the tenth trainer I beat in a row said as he recalled his Rattata.
"You are a good trainer Timmy. You just need to work on your team more. Try catching six Pokemon and travel around." I gave the lad advise.
"Thank you Ash. I think you should challenge TJ. He's the strongest trainer in these parts. In fact I heard that he is going for a hundred win streak." Timmy said.
"Oh is he. I think it's time for me to give the guy a visit. I might end up learning something. Are you guys fine with it?" I asked my companions who were standing watching the battle.
"Yes Ash. It's a good opportunity for you and Misty. If this guy can win a hundred match, then he's got some skill." Brock was the one who replied.
"I hope we'll meet again somewhere Timmy." I said as we started to move.
Finding TJ's gym was pretty easy. Not only did I know where it was from my previous life, it was extremely hard to miss in the first place. The flashy sign board outside showed 98 Wins and 0 Losses just as it did last time. We entered the gym to find TJ and his Sandshrew doing their weight training.
"Are you TJ? I have come to challenge your gym." I decided to act like it was the first time I was here, which technically was true. After all, the first time I met TJ was probably one of the most embarrassing moment of my life.
"Sandshrew it seems that our next victim has arrived." TJ called out to his Sandshrew which was now rearing for a fight.
"This will be a one vs one fight so send out your Pokemon." TJ didn't even gave a proper greeting, which was irritating to say the least. But I decided to hold back on any snarky comebacks.
"Charmeleon, take stage." I called my starter who was a little bummed that he wasn't in the Cerulean Gym battle. The training we had done after leaving from Cerulean City had led to him becoming Level 30 but it was getting harder to level him up.
"Char." He was all fired up and ready to go and i needed him to be. From what I scanned by Dexter, Sandshrew had a good 6 levels on him which was extremely high in this part of the region. But I wasn't too worried as Charmeleon had naturally higher stats. But caution was mandatory.
"Alright bud, let's start with Scary Face." Since I knew I was in for a longer than usual battle, I decided to do some Status reduction first. Charmeleon was quick in making a terrifying face which Sandshrew with all his Defence training was completely unprepared for which caused a significant deduction in his speed.
"Sandshrew Dig." TJ seemed undisturbed by what I did. Then again, hardly any trainer uses such moves nowadays. The effect of the attack showed as Sandshrew's Digging was slower than what I remembered from the previous life.
"Charmeleon, try to feel where the attack is coming from and dodge." Without any moves like Earthquake or Magnitude, Charmeleon was a sitting Psyduck for the Dig. We needed to get lucky for him to avoid the attack.
Despite my greater hopes, the attack managed to connect with Charmeleon even though he tried to avoid it with all of his might. The super effective attack did some considerable damage to the Fire type pokemon.
"Charmeleon buddy, the next time he attacks, hit him with an Ember attack. This match was more of a Hit and Miss game than the one sided slaughter that I had become accustomed to.
Charmeleon managed to dodge the second Dig by the wire and connected with an Ember which did some damage to Sandshrew.
"Sandshrew attack him with a Rapid Spin." TJ who felt danger for the first time was quick to change the strategy. Sandshrew was slower than usual but he still managed to hit charmeleon who gave a Metal Claw as a counter even without my order. The two Pokemon had done some considerable damage to each other which both of them were unaccustomed to.
"I must say that you are a good trainer but Victory shall be mine. Sandshrew make some distance between you and use Swift." TJ ordered seriously.
"Charmeleon, you can't dodge that so try to get close to Sandshrew before the attack hits." Swift was an attack that never missed so I decided to try and get a hit in on Sandshrew.
Despite his best effort, Charmeleon was unable to catch up to Sandshrew who even with his lowered speed had a lot of weight training experience. The Swift hit him soon and I knew that his HP was now low.
Just before I was going to give him a new order, I noticed something different about him. His entire body had an outline of fire around him and his tail flame was becoming bigger. This meant only one thing.
"You activated Blaze. Great work Charmeleon. Use Ember right now." I decided to not waste any time before giving that order. TJ and Sandshrew was completely unprepared for that attack and Sandshrew could only tank the fire type attack which was more powerful due to Blaze.
By now, both Pokemon were in the red so TJ and both instinctively knew that the first one to get the hit in would win this match.
"Sandshrew use Slash." TJ who sounded really worried called out.
"Match him with a Metal Claw buddy." That was it. Both Pokemon charged towards each other knowing that the one who hits first would win this one. Sandshrew was the first to make the move but due to the effects of the Scary Face, Charmeleon was able to dodge at the last moment and connected the Metal Claw with Sandshrew. The small pokemon soon fainted onto the shoulders of Charmeleon who fell down himself but was still conscious.
"Sandshrew return. You fought amazingly my friend. Perhaps I need more training." TJ said as he recalled his worn out pokemon.
"Charmeleon Return. You were amazing out there bud." I said as I recalled my partner.
"Congratulations Ash. You and your Charmeleon was amazing. I am vexed to have lost but I suppose that was an eventuality. But you were simply too good for me." TJ was honest in his praise.
"Thank you TJ. You are an amazing trainer yourself. I am in no position to give out advise to someone who can train his Pokemon better than me but I think you just need to broaden your horizon a bit more. The trainers in these parts are weaker than you so go out and challenge stronger trainers." I gave him the best advise I could.
"I was thinking about that. Now that my streak is over, I have no need to remain here any longer. I am going to leave this place soon. Since you are going to challenge the gyms, let's meet in the Pokemon League. What do you say?" TJ said.
"Sure. I hope, no I know I will meet you there. Goodbye TJ." I said my farewells before exiting the gym and catching up with Brock and Misty who had exited the gym before me.
"That was a great match Ash." Misty was the one said that.
"Yep. That was a good match. It was the closest call that I ever saw you having up until now." Brock agreed.
"Thank you guys. Let's move on then." I said as we started to move.
With that, one of the most regretted chapter of my life came to a close.
It took us about two more hours before we reached near the end of Route 5. It was getting a little foggy so we decided to camp out until it was cleared. Misty was tasked with collecting water, Brock was cooking and I was tasked with collecting dry wood for the campfire. Although I came across Joe and his bullies like I did last time, I decidedly ignored them and went my merry way. The last time, I didn't gain much from helping them out so I didn't see a point in doing it again. Honestly, dealing with a bunch of spoiled brats was tough even for me. I went deeper into the woods near the Poketech Academy until I came across some good firewood. It was a little damp but Charmeleon could fix that. But as I was collecting the wood, I came across someone who was not supposed to be here if my memory served me right.
Giselle was a beautiful girl even though she was only ten. As far as I remembered, she was my first crush even though I was too dumb to realise that back then. She was walking around and looking kinda lost, a stark contrast to how I had seen her last time. Now that I remembered, Giselle was missing for most of the time I was with Joe in the Academy, so this might be where she had been until she was informed of our arrival at the school.
"Hello miss. Are you lost?" I decided to start the conversation as I was finished collecting wood.
"Who are you?" She sounded surprised.
"I'm just a travelling trainer passing through this Route. Me and my friends decided to camp out until the fog cleared out." I said.
"So you are a travelling trainer? Can you help me out?" Interestingly enough, Giselle was nowhere near as haughty as I remembered her to be.
"That depends on the help. You see, I am kind of in a hurry." I replied.
"I just want to have a battle with you. I need to know how trainers battle outside. Do you have any gym badges?" She seemed a little desperate.
"I have two." I said.
"That's great, then I should in theory be stronger than you. Please have a match with me." She requested.
"Fine. But since I'm busy, let's do a one on one." I replied.
"Thank You. I'll send out Graveler." She released her Graveler who according to Dexter was Level 24.
"Charmeleon, you're up bud." I brought out my starter.
"I'll go first. Graveler, use Magnitude." She was quick at giving the command.
"Charmeleon, tough it out Buddy." Magnitude was nearly unavoidable, so I gave him the order to take it. The attack ended up being considerably powerful so Charmeleon got some good damage. I needed to finish this one quickly so I decided to go on a full out offensive.
"Don't give him time to recover bud. Get close and spam Metal Claw." I ordered. In the end, Charmeleon finished the fight off quickly as he had 6 levels on Graveler. The rock pokemon soon fainted and I had won.
"Thank you for that match. I appreciate it very much." Gisselle said as she recalled her pokemon. She seemed really unhappy, so I decided to ask her.
"Can you tell me what's bothering you so much Miss? You seem really down."
"I don't want to talk about it." She didn't seem interested in talking yet I decided to press on.
"Don't worry too much miss. Maybe I can help you. Sometimes you need to take help from unexpected places to advance in life." I said.
She seemed to mull over it a little before saying, "Fine, I'll tell you. You see, I study at a school called Poketech Academy nearby and am the top student there. But lately I have hit some kind of a slump. No matter how many time I train, I feel like I'm stuck. I do well in simulation, but I end up losing to trainers with real experience like you. Even though I am supposed to be a trainer as strong as someone with three badges, I still lost." She said.
"I see. I understand what your problem is. You are sampling lacking exposure like regular trainers."
"Exposure?" She sounded confused.
"Yes. Think of it this way. When you are at a very low level, type advantage and matchups play the most crucial role in deciding the victory in a match but as your pokemon grows, it becomes one of the factors affecting the result. For example, A level 12 Charmander would surely lose to a Level 12 Geodude but a Level 13 Charmander stands a much higher chance of winning against a level 13 Geodude. Why?" I was on lecture mode right now.
"Because of the move Metal Claw right?" She sounded interested.
"Exactly. Just by increasing it's level by one, we can get a much higher chance of victory. As your pokemon grows stronger, you need to be in close contact with them and their abilities so that you can command them better. A high level battle might be decided by a move as simple as a scary Face or a move a powerful as a Frenzy Plant. The only way to be sure is to understand your pokemon completely. In your case, you lack this factor hence you hit the invisible wall as you did right now."
"I don't get it. Why?" she sounded really confused.
"Travelling trainers like me spend a lot of time training my Pokemon whereas your Pokemon spend most of their time inside their balls. In close battles, you who do not have a full grasp of their abilities, inevitably lose. In fact, this is the main problem behind your school's failure in the League. No matter how high level a Pokemon is, they need experience to match it.
Now don't think that I am bashing what you learned, It's a good thing to know more about pokemon but that should not be limited to the text book. Apply what you learned on training your pokemon. If you are able to do that, you will be better than most trainers your level." I finished my lecture.
"I see. So i have to battle more right?" It seems that she understood.
"Right. You just need to battle a lot of trainers as you progress. Also spend a lot of time with your pokemon. If you can do that, you'll probably go a long way. From what I took from our battle, you are extremely gifted as a trainer." I gave her a compliment.
"Thank you Mr?" It seems that I had yet to give her my name.
"Ash. Ash Ketchum." I introduced myself.
"I see. My name is Giselle. Nice to meet you Mr Ash. I am extremely grateful for your guidance. I need to go right now, but I hope to meet you again."
"Sure. I hope we'll meet again somewhere." For a moment, I thought I had seen a blush on her face, but that was probably my imagination. I took the wood i collected and left towards the campsite, completely unaware that I had made a change that would come and bite me in the ass in the future.
Hence my day ended without any further problems and by the next day morning, we were on Route 6.
That's a wrap folks.
Honestly, I was going to go on a hiatus due to exams but my exams got postponed so I am back with more cringe.
To address some of the reviews, I have to say that I am sorry about the low quality fights. I plan on improving the fights as I get more of a grip on writing things. Also Ash will be pretty OP here so of that is not your thing, please feel free to leave.
Everyone who reviewed have been really kind with me which makes me really happy.
Thank you guys and stay safe.