Disclaimer: Me do not own pokemon.
This is simply a reupload and the next chapter will be uploaded by tomorrow at least.
Chapter 15: Gym Battle? Sorry you've come to the wrong place.
The battle with Erika was uneventful and was drastically boring. I was too strong for her original team and was too weak for her League provided team. The Battle was pretty short with Charizard making quick work of all three of her Pokémon which included a Level 28 Vileplume, a level 29 Tangela and her Level 35 Gloom. Unlike last time, I didn't get into a fight with them over perfumes, so my challenge went pretty smoothly.
This is my fifth badge and now, it was time to head out towards Fuschia. The Route between Fuschia and Celadon had a lot of smaller towns and cities which meant that camping was unnecessary. Our first destination was HopHopHop town which was the place where we solved the Hypno case. It was a considerable walk which took us nearly four hours to complete, all the while battling many wild Pokémon as well as trainers. The sheer amount of experience that they received, ended up giving every one of my Pokémon a level up, taking them into level 46.
The route which was called Route 16 had a large variety of wild Pokémon which included Rattatas, Raticates, Spearow, Fearow, Doduo and even a few dodrios. Most of them were around level 25 with the strongest among them reaching level 38. They were also not the type to back away just because their opponents were stronger, which made travelling a whole lot harder.
Brock, who was normally pretty free spirited, was also forced to participate in a few battles due to the sheer number of wild Pokémon. Brock had already purchased a few state of the art equipments for cooking Pokémon food which according to him, was one of the best ways to become a great breeder. His Pokémon, while nowhere near as strong as mine, were all near level 35 now. This meant that he could still help with the wild Pokémon problem. We reached HopHopHop Town by the evening, only to find out Officer Jenny blocking our path.
"Good Evening trainers, I apologise for blocking your passage, but have you seen this child?" She said.
"We are sorry Officer, but we have just arrived in here and there was no child like this on the way here." Brock said.
"I see. Thank you for your co-operation. Please feel free to enter the town, but do take care of yourself." She said.
"Thank you Officer. But if I may, may I ask what is going on here?" I pretended to not know what was going on here.
"Since you guys look like capable trainers, I don't see a problem in informing you guys. Several children have gone missing in the past few days. We still have no clue on what is behind this and the parents are now starting to get anxious. It's a total mess right now." She explained.
"Well then Officer" "Arnold!" Before I could finish my sentence, a woman that I faintly identified as the lady that we met in my past life, came and latched onto me.
"Where were you?! I was worried!" The lady started crying.
"Um maam, I think you have the wrong person." Brock was the first person to come to my rescue.
It took her a while before she recognized her mistake and apologized to me. She even gave us a detailed description on what happened before Arnold went missing. Apparently, Arnold started yelling "Bulbasaur" before going missing. This revelation made it easier for me to make a deduction without actually revealing my knowledge of the future or should I say, present.
"Well Officer Jenny, I think a psychic Pokémon is behind this." I started.
"What makes you say that Mr Ketchum?" She replied.
"Before becoming a trainer, I worked or rather played a lot in Professor Oak's lab. One of the things I learned from there was that Psychic Pokémon was capable of hypnotising people into changing their behavioural pattern." Technically speaking, I was not lying since I did indeed spent a lot of time in Professors lab. But the fact that I never actually learned anything should remain a secret. After all, it was easier to blame Professor Oak than to make things up.
"So you are saying that a Pokémon is behind this phenomenon?" She asked.
"Yes. More specifically, it must be a member of the Hypno family. Alakazam's line while capable, hardly ever use Psybeam after reaching a specific threshold. Also, their Psybeam is said to be only capable of putting non Pokémon targets to sleep. Other Psychic types shouldn't be capable of hypnotising people so it should be a Drowzee or a Hypno." This statement that I just said was pretty accurate. Kadabra and Alakazam were unable to change how people act when the used Psybeam but Hypnos and Drowzees could do it.
"So Officer Jenny, is there any trainer that owns a Drowzee or a Hypno in this town? They shouldn't be found in the wild in these parts." I pressed.
"Hmm A hypno you say? Wait! Now that I think of it, the Drowzee in the Senior Citizens club evolved three days ago. That's when the kids started to go missing." She exclaimed.
"Well Officer, we just found our culprit then." Case closed it is. Man, my acting skills are good.
"Alright then Mr Ketchum, Let's head towards their building right now." Officer Jenny said.
The remaining procedures were pretty easy as the absence of Team Rocket made carrying the Drowzee towards the children's location much easier. How did you find the children you ask? Well, I asked Charizard and Pidgeot to fly around the woods and conveniently fly over the location where I remembered them to be, making it look like an accident. Althouh Alakazam coud have done the same, but there was a risk of his superior mind influencing the children which could end up in trouble. Everyone was soon back to normal and we soon returned them to their parents. I could even see Arnold and his mom, which made me remember my own mom for a moment.
Since I had decided to live in the moment, the first thing that I did when I reached the Pokémon Centre was to call Mom. She was happy to get a call. After talking to her for a while, I gave Professor Oak a call. Apparently, Mewtwo has taken his job as Professor's Assistant really seriously and was now starting to micromanage every aspect of his life.
"And then he said 'No more Pizza for you. It's bad for your health.' I am now forced to order Pizza when he's away. It truly is troublesome." I felt bad for Professor. Trying to hide things from the world's strongest Psychic type Pokémon was never a good idea.
After saying good night to Professor, I ate dinner with Brock and we soon went to sleep.
Although it was not a major town, I decided to stay in HopHopHop town for another day. The entire morning was spent training the TM moves and progress was showing. I ended up on a leisurely stroll around the budding town.
The town resembled more of a City than a town with all these high rise buildings, but was not included in the list of major Kanto Cities due to the lack of a defining trait like a gym or a landmark. There were absolutely zero traces of nature other than in the outskirts of the city, but the place had a lot of antique as well as souvenir shops. I decided to visit a few of them for fun as this town was something that I never really bothered with in my past life.
After running through a few shops, I eventually came across an old couple who were selling a Pokémon egg.
"Hello sir, ma'am, can I ask if that egg is for sale?" I politely asked pointing towards the Pokémon egg that was kept in front of the store.
"Hello young man. Are you a Pokémon trainer? Then we would be happy to sell it to you." They replied.
"Yes Sir, I am a trainer." I showed them the badges, which was the easiest way to ascertain if somebody was a trainer or not.
"Very well then son. We shall sell it for 500Pokedollars." The old man who was named Leon, said.
"Are you sure about that sir? Eggs usually sell for much more." I replied as Pokémon eggs were indeed much costlier than this.
"Don't worry about that son. We found this egg in the forest outside town. We are already past the age where we can take care of a young Pokémon, so it's better to let a young trainer like you to do it." The lady, who was called Aria, said.
In the end, I purchased the egg from them and soon returned to the Pokémon Centre to ask Professor Oak to increase my party slot by one. The theoretical maximum number of Pokémon that an active trainer can carry around is twelve. That number itself was only provided to a select few, but increasing the party slot by one or two was possible for ordinary trainers. The only thing that I needed to do this was to have at least 4 gym badges. I never really increased the slot till now as I didn't need it in the first place. Eggs wouldn't be counted as a member of the party, however, once it hatched, it would have to be added to the party, so I decided to increase the slot. I could increase the number of slots once more by beating the eighth gym, which I never really got to do in my last life. The egg itself was white with dark brown and blue spots on it and it was quite large for an egg. I had great hopes for whatever hatched from it. From what I knew, the egg would take at least a week before hatching. I showed it to Brock, who was interested in it as he wanted to be a breeder. However, unlike when I got my hands on Togepi's egg, I insisted on taking care of it by myself. I even purchased a Care Ball which could keep the egg safe while we were travelling.
The Care Ball was technically not a Pokeball as the only function that it had was to store Pokémon eggs and prevent them from being harmed. I would have to take it out often so that the egg could hatch without a problem, but the Care Ball meant that the egg would be safe while we were out in the wild.
The next day, we were out of the town and decided to head towards Salon Town. It was not a long journey by any means as there weren't many wild Pokémon or trainers between these two cities. We did come across a few flocks of Spearow, which became fodder for Pidgeot who ended up gaining another level. It took us just two hours to reach the city, which was said to be the city of Breeders.
Salon City was like a pilgrimage centre for aspiring breeders. The city was separated into several streets which were named after the equipments from a salon like Scissors, Combs, Brush etc... The place was filled with Breeders of all kinds who had all kinds of methods for improving the beauty as well as strength of Pokémon. This place or rather Scissor Street in this city was the place where we met Suzie and her Vulphix. I was sure that Brock wanted to meet her, but I didn't have any interest. So as always, we decided to split up and I decided to have a day of relaxation.
The first place we visited was a Pokémon massage Centre which seemed like it was quite popular. I ended getting a massage for Charizard as well as Pidgeot as the rest were not really keen on having a massage. Blastoise was armour plated, Gengar was a ghost and Venusaur was too large to fit in the building. Even Alakazam didn't feel the need for one. The masseur was crying by the time we were done due to the sheer terror that she felt by standing near Charizard. I was desensitized towards how dangerous he looked as I knew that he was just an old softy at heart but the lady didn't understand that. After paying the masseur double the money promised, we left for another place.
The entire city was pretty much filled with Breeders who were casually exchanging tips with each other. I felt vaguely out of pace, so I decided to move to the Pokémon Centre in the outer circle of the city. The Pokémon Centre was rather empty as trainers rarely stayed in this city. I ended up giving Nurse Joy some company while waiting for Brock. She shared some stories about her cousins from various towns. Since there was nothing to do, I decided to take a stroll through the outskirts of the city for some time.
I returned to the Pokémon Centre by 5 and Brock came soon after. He also got his hands on Vulphix which meant that Suzie had rejected him. We didn't say anything to each other, opting to stay in comfortable silence.
The next morning, we hit the road again and reached Route 27 before noon. There was a lot of fighting type trainers here who were practising for the upcoming P1 championship qualifier. As I didn't have any fighting type Pokémon, there was no way that I could participate in the Tournament like last time. I did however battled many of them due to the fact that Fighting Type Pokémon were rare in Kanto and fighting a trained fighting type was much better than fighting an untrained one. After fighting with around 15 trainers, Anthony and his Hitmonchan finally showed up.
"Hey kid. I heard that you are a tough trainer from some of my peeps. Would you mind fighting this old man?" He said.
"Sure. But I don't have any fighting type Pokémon." I replied.
"Fine by me. Hitmonchan, don't let your guard down okay." He ordered his Pokémon.
"Blastoise, you're up bud." I called my water type Pokémon. Hitmonchan was the defensive Pokémon in the Tyrogue family. It had considerably high defence stats unlike its cousin Hitmonlee which was the attack type. I chose Blastoise for the sole reason that it would be a good practise for him to fight a Pokémon that is defence oriented. His Hitmonchan was a level 34 which was high in these parts and probably knew a few elemental punches.
"Hitmonchan, let's start things with a full power Thunderpunch." He gave his orders.
"Blastoise use Protect." The command was quite timely as Blastoise shrouded himself with a layer of energy which completely negated the incoming attack.
"Do not let him off bud, follow up with a Water Gun." The torrential flow of water from the canons of Blastoise was quick to hit the opposition who was trying to regroup before launching an attack. It didn't do any severe damage as the opponent had a very high special defence.
"Get close to him and use another Thunderpunch, do not let him create a gap between you." Anthony gave a great order given the fact that Hitmonchan simply didn't have any ranged attack in the first place.
"Tank it bud and use another Water Gun." Taking a full fledged attack from a Hitmonchan was not that dangerous to Blastoise who also had a great defence. He did end up losing about five percent of his HP, but that was well within acceptable range. The counterattack given by Blastoise was unavoidable as they were too close to dodge. The power behind the Water Gun was enough to push Hitmonchan back ten feet before it stopped.
"Do not let up, use Mach Punch." Anthony commanded. Hitmonchan quickly covered the distance between the two and gave out an unavoidable punch.
"Blastoise, use Rapid Spin." The colossal water titan withdrew itself into its shell which started spinning soon after. Due to the sheer size of his body, the move took tens of seconds before it was at full speed. The spinning shell soon launched itself towards Hitmonchan who gracefully dodged the incoming attack. But Blastoise pulled itself back into trajectory before long and was soon back on Hitmonchan's tail.
"Hitmonchan, use Thunderpunch on the incoming shell." The command was given and Hitmonchan obeyed it perfectly. However, the damage caused by Blastoise's body crashing onto him was much larger. He lost more than three quarters of his HP from that single attack.
Rapid Spin, for a regular Pokémon was an attack that was used to free itself from wrapping attacks like Bind. However, Blastoise and I devised a method which could use his size to turn the attack into a powerful offence. The cannons of Blastoise, gave out precise pulses which allowed him to move as much as he wanted while spinning. Unless his opposition was someone physically stronger than him like Charizard of Venusaur, they would take massive damage from the attack.
"Hitmonchan, return." Anthony called his Pokémon back as it was evident that he had no fight left in him. "That was a great fight kid. Thanks for humouring this old man."He said.
"No Problem Mr. I also learned a lot." "Dad!" Before I could say anything else, Rebecca's voice ran out.
"Dad, please come back." Rebecca, who finally caught up to us, said while tearing up.
"Go back Rebecca, I told you that I am not coming back until I win." Anthony was firm in his statement.
"But dad. Mom misses you. I miss you. Why can't you see that?" Rebecca was crying now.
"Excuse me sir. If I may." Brock butted in.
"What is it kid?" Anthony was now really unhappy.
"I don't exactly know why you are not going back to your family, but I have a hunch. It's because you want to go back after winning right?" Brock asked.
"How do you know that?" Anthony was surprised.
"My dad was the sae you know. I could understand you wanting to be victorious in front of your family, but please take it from a kid whose parents left him with his eight siblings for many years, it is not worth it." Brock sounded sad there. "I know that you want to win for your family, but it will be a hundred times better with your family. At least that's what my dad told me." He shrugged while wiping a tear from his eyes. I put an arm on his shoulder as a support.
"I see." Anthony said nothing else. We also went on our way leaving him to ponder on his decision. This was the first case that I didn't interfere since returning and was a humbling feeing.
After a couple hours walk, we reached Gringey city and decided to rest for the day here. I even got the TM training done while polishing the egg in the sidelines. Most of the attack were now of considerable power and could be used in an actual battle, but I decided to train them for a couple more days just to make sure that everything was perfect.
Ash' team
Charizard
Level 50 [stats is 32% more compared to a fully maxed out Pokémon of same level]
Moves: Slash, Growl, Rock Slide, Bite, Ember, Metal Claw, Smokescreen, Scary Face, Flamethrower, Wing Attack and Earthquake.
Pidgeot
Level 47
Moves: Tackle, Sand Attack, Gust, Steel Wing, Quick Attack, Whirlwind, Wing Attack, Feather Dance and Double Team.
Alakazam
Level 46
Moves: Teleport, Thunder Punch, Confusion, Disable, Psybeam, Reflect, Recover, Future Sight,Role Play, Psychic, Trick, Toxic, Hyper Beam, Dig and Double Team.
Venusaur
Level 46
Moves: Growl, Tackle, Vine Whip, Leech Seed, Poison Powder, Sleep Powder, Petal Dance, Razor Leaf, Sweet Scent, Growth and Toxic.
Blastoise
Level 46
Moves: Tackle, Tail Whip, Bubble, Withdraw, Water Gun, Mirror Coat, Bite, Rapid Spin, Protect, Rain Dance and Ice Beam.
Gengar
Level 46
Moves: Hypnosis, Lick, Dream Eater, Spite, Curse, Night Shade, Confuse Ray, Shadow Punch, Destiny Bond, Shadow Ball and Thunderbolt.
That's it for today folks. Thanks for reading as always.
Now that the recommendation polls have been closed, let me announce the winner. Deino almost won the thing but out of nowhere, Bagon clinched a win. So he'll soon make his debut, don't worry. I am actually excited for a Bagon and Dratini combo.
Now to address the reviews, To Mr/Ms Valentine Vulpines, Thank you for pointing out the Diantha error. It makes me happy that you guys are actually reading this in depth.
Now that the polls is closed, it doesn't mean that you guys should slack on reviewing. I am the type of writer that posts as he finishes and Reviews are my source of motivation. If I receive no review, Then my update schedule will be slow but If I get more review, I update faster. So now let's get this to a hundred reviews shall we.
Also, any and all criticisms are welcome and any major problems will be sorted out quickly. Also, for the fly issue in the TM, I will do something about it by the time it makes is debut, so rest assured.
Tonikaku, stay safe and review lots.
PS: sorry for the reupload as the old chapter was not really formatted well.