Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon.
Chapter 17: This is going to take a while.
I don't know why, but I had a sinking feeling that I was stuck in Fuschia for a long long time but anyways, now that I had caught Dratini, there was nothing much left for me to do in the city. Even so, we did end up touring the whole place just for the heck of it. I even ran into Lara and her Ponyta but the race had already finished a month ago, which in all honesty made sense as I was way behind schedule compared to the last time. We ran into the old Warden who discreetly asked me to take care of Dratini while apologising for his earlier behaviour. While I had no idea how he found that out, I decided not to look deep into that.
Brock ended up meeting a lot of Breeders of the Safari Zone who were more than happy to give a few tips to an aspiring breeder. From what he told me, they let him in on a few secrets about some peculiar Pokémon. I had no idea that Tauros went into mast before mating season which was a learning experience. With that done, we decided to head towards Cinnabar Island which was the next gym.
The path between Cinnabar and Fuschia was one of the longest roads in Kanto. In fact, it was much easier to leave for Cinnabar from Pallet Town than it was to leave from Fuschia. However we decided to take the long way as I needed time to train my new captures. Our next destination was Happy Town which was just across the Sunny Town Bridge which opened three weeks ago.
The Bridge itself was quite spectacular one and was apparently modelled after the Skyarrow Bridge in Unova. They even had the same engineer as the Skyarrow Bridge. The entire bridge was easily the longest in Kanto with a length of over 2KM. It was built over the Gulf which separated the two masses of land. We walked slowly, enjoying the spectacular scenery that was the ocean. It took us over an hour, but we eventually made it to Sunny Town.
Sunny Town, despite the Town in its name was more of a city than a Town. There were some impressive looking skyscrapers here and there were a lot of buildings. Even so, a large number of trees could be found between the buildings which reduced the feeling of suffocation that most cities brought. The Town itself was established long ago but the modernisation of it was done rather recently when the decision to make the bridge was passed. Before that, I heard that it was a quaint little own like Pallet. Since it was a newer city, it didn't have any speciality of its own. The newly opened up shopping malls sold a large variety of goods. We ended u stocking our grocery for the next week as there was quite a distance between this Town and the next human settlement. We slept in the Pokémon Centre and the next day, we left the city which brought me to my favourite activity, Training.
If you ask some random trainer about bringing a Magikarp to a higher levelled area for training, 9 out of 10 times, they'll say that you are an idiot. In my case, that very well may be true as I had brought a level 10 Magikarp to an area where the average Pokémon were level 25 or more. In my team, both Dratini and Magiakrp were severely underlevelled as compared to the rest, so I had to give priority to them. Now, Dratini was more of a long term project as Dragon types were rather notorious for taking their sweet time in growing. But I needed to get Magikarp to level 20 and fast at that.
In order to accomplish my goal, I decided to buddy Magikarp with Blastoise, who was more than happy to help the poor fish out. Hell, they even ended up forming some sort of a pseudo sibling relationship in the short window of time they were together. It took us five hours to get her to level 15 which meant that she learned Tackle and could finally participate in an actual battle which was sure to improve her share of the exp. However, that had to wait as I needed time to get acquainted with Dratini and she needed rest.
Dratini as a species were ridiculously weak compared to their counterparts in the other regions at the very least. They were so weak in fact, that till the discovery of Goomy, Dratini were often called as the weakest dragon type. However, what most people didn't know is the fact that there was a reason why Dratini were so weak. Among all the pseudo legendary Pokémon, Dratini by far was the most unbalanced when it came to their internal energy. Dratinis spent most of their time keeping their rampaging draconic energy in check which gave them little to no time for battling just like an Abra.
However, as compared to a Magikarp, Dratini was still easier to train. The wid Pokémon in this Route were commonly over level 25 with the strongest reaching level 40. We chose to stick to the weaker ones even so, Dratini ended up needing help from Venusaur who was made his partner for training. As a tank, Venusaur could take a lot of hits which helped Dratini to go on the offensive without worrying about defences. Out of all the attacks that he knew, Dragon Breath and Twister were his favourite along with the occasional Body Slam. However with the involvement of Venusaur, there was no way he could monopolise the exp gain from the wild Pokémon. This, coupled with the Dragon types naturally slow growth meant that I was lucky to have gained 3 levels in the four hours that we trained before finally calling it a day.
The next morning, we decided to cover some ground before training. As the wild Pokémon were growing stronger each day, Brock too had to step up his training. By now, Onix had already reached Level 36 which was an impressive figure considering the situation that Brock was in. Geodude was Level 30 now but had refused to evolve, the same as Zubat who was now level 28. Cubone was never really trained as he was a baby Pokémon and Vulphix had no interest in battling which meant that Brock only had three combat ready Pokémon in his hand.
We ended up covering a large distance through the forest before running into the gang of wild Pikachu from my previous life. Since I didn't have Pikachu with me, they were quite wary of us. But Brock ended up catching one after he fed it some of his cooking. It was a strong looking Pikachu at level 26 which was a high level for a wild Pikachu. After having lunch at the edge of the forest, we eventually came across a huge valley between two gigantic hills.
Both of the hills were absolutely massive and were wedged between the mainland and the ocean. Although it may not seem important, there was something here that I needed to get my hands on. I ended up leaving Brock to set up camp for the day and headed out to the base of the valley and soon enough, I found what I was looking for. There was a small cave hidden from plain view by some massive boulders. This place should have been discovered five years from now by a team of archaeologists who were searching for the ruins of an ancient settlement.
In contrast to the small opening, the cave itself was quite wide. The insides were a labyrinth of sorts and unfortunately, I didn't know the correct path to my destination. I weaved through the complex and interconnected pathways for more than an hour before finally coming across my target. Just like the previous shrine of Mew, there was a shrine complex in here.
However, this temple was smaller as compared to the Mew one which indicated that the ones that worshipped here might not have been as influential as the previous one. It didn't take me long to find what I was looking for. In the Central Temple, there was a big statue of a man-dog hybrid creature holding a sceptre with a shining blue stone in its head. The researchers who came here had eventually identified this stone as a Blastoisinite which was then bought by Lorelei of the Elite Four. While I could use this, it would require me to go to Kalos to get the key stone ready which in all honesty was not a priority. Mega Evolution was only great if we have strong Pokémon who share a strong bond with you.
Getting out of the cave was harder than getting in as I kept running in circles for a long time. In the end, I managed to get out after two hours and went back to camp which had a stunning view of the valley. Since it was getting late, I decided against training for today.
We left camp early in the morning as there was a lot of ground to be covered from here. After we passed the valley, the terrain was relatively flat which made it easier to cover more ground. This area was a thriving plain with lots of wild Pokémon which meant that there were a large number of trainers here. I ended up battling most of them to get some cash in my account, which made the journey that much slower. The battles were nothing to write home about as most of them went down in three or four moves. Even so, most of my Pokémon ended up getting a large amount of exp which improved their levels.
Pidgeot was the one who was used the most so it was inevitable that she would gain the most levels. While the level up itself was a welcome bonus, it was not my primary aim. I needed to see the newly learned Double Team in action. Everything went according to our calculations and Pideot was easily able to pull off ten afterimages without a hitch. She ended up gaining 3 levels after battling about 15 different trainers, taking her to leve 49.
Bastoise and Venusaur both gained 1 level after battling about 6 trainers taking them to level 47 and 48 respectively. They were fully able to utilize their new moves in battle without any mixup and in Venusaur's case, we even started using the stronger moves like Petal Dance.
After travelling for about six hours, we eventually came across a wild eevee. Just as I was about to battle it, Brock stopped me.
"I think that Eevee already has a trainer. It has a collar in its neck." Brock pointed out. Now that I think about it, I do remember something similar happening in my previous life. As I recalled the events, I finally remembered about the Eevee brothers. Compared to some of my more dangerous adventures, this one simply didn't stick with me that much.
After checking the address tag on its collar, we decided to take it to Stone Town where the Eevee brothers lived. It took us about an hour to reach there and when we reached the place, there was a huge party going on.
The High Society of Kanto is a general term used to describe the descendents of the old Kantonian nobles from the previous few centuries. While this was more of a moniker than an actual title, these guys took it really seriously. One of the things that they were known for were the frequent parties that they hosted like the one we walked into. Compared to the normal parties thrown by normal people, these parties often employed the best elements in the business. The food was prepared by five star chefs, century old liquor was served and every one of them had a rather strong looking Pokémon with them. Personally, I felt that this was a waste of time but for these guys, it was the norm. This was one of the reasons why I rejected an honorary position in the society in my previous life.
From what I remember, this place was located at the base of the Evolution Mountain which was the prime producer of evolutionary stones in Kanto. The Eevolution Brothers were the newest in an old line of nobles who were the ones in charge of the mountain so it was common sense that they would have a lot of evolution stones to spare. The entire garden was filled with Pokémon who evolved using stones like Poliwhirl and Staryu.
Anyways, as we were standing in front of the entrance, the three Eevolution Brothers quickly took notice of us and came to us.
"Eevee ! There you are." They quickly came to us.
"Thank you for finding Eevee for us." They thanked us.
"Hey this is great. We got our star, now we can go on with the show." They announced.
They quickly called for Mikey who collected Eevee from his brothers before getting lectured on the importance of Evolution by them. The Brothers invited us to join the party which we accepted.
"Hey do you have any Pokémon that needs a stone? We have got a lot of them." Pyro, the fire brother asked us.
"Well I got a Vulphix that'll evove into Nine Tails." Brock said.
"Well then, here's a Fire Stone." Sparky, the electric brother tossed a fire stone to Brock.
"Well, what have you got Ash?" Rainer, the water brother asked me.
"Who me? I'm sorry but most of my Pokémon are fully evolved already." I replied.
"Oh is that so? That's a great thing. See Mikey, even a travelling trainer evolves his Pokémon." Pyro said.
After the brothers moved on towards some other trainers who wanted to evolve their Pokémon, Mikey moved towards a fountain and sat there looking dejected and all. Unable to see the kid looking so down, I decided to help him out.
"Yo kiddo. What's bothering you? It doesn't seem like you don't want to Eevee to evolve." I asked.
"You are Ash right? Well, my brothers doesn't care about anything other than battling. I just wanted to hide eevee for today. So no one could force me to evolve her in the party." He said.
"But she looked very lonely out there." I said.
"I was going to get her later. I really don't care if Eevee evolves or not. I just want us to be good friends." He said with conviction.
"That's a good thing kiddo. So what's stopping you from doing just that?" I asked.
"Well my brothers want me to evolve her before my first battle. They even pressured me by conducting this party." He replied.
"That's a narrow minded way of thinking. Come with me for a minute." I took the kid with me before calling Brock who was flirting with some random trainer over. After he came over, we walked over to the Eevolution Brothers.
"Hey guys, do you mind if we could speak in private for a few minutes? I need to ask you guys something." I said.
"Sure. Let's go to the backyard." They replied.
The backyard if we can call it that was filled with a wide variety of garden bush and flower gardens which indicated how wealthy the owners were. We walked to the shade of a huge tree before finally coming to a halt.
"So what do you want to talk about Ash?" Pyro asked.
"I heard that you guys want Eevee to evolve right?" I replied with a question.
"Well yes. We think it's best that Eevee evolves before battling." Rainer replied.
"Well, I cannot deny the importance of evolution, but before we talk any further, Mikey what do you feel about evolving Eevee?" I asked to the kid who had gone quiet.
"Who me?" He stuttered.
"Go on kiddo. Tell them how you feel." I gave him a push.
"I don't want her to evolve just to battle. I want her to evolve because she wanted to evolve." He said.
"Good job Mikey. There you have it. Your little brother doesn't want to evolve Eevee." I said to the three brothers.
"We're sorry that we ignored your feelings Mikey but how are you going to battle without evolving her?" they asked.
"Let me interject in here guys. In the first place, you guys are going at this in the wrong way. Why limit him to only three of the eight eevolutions?" I asked.
"Pardon? Eight?" The three of them asked together.
"Well yes. Eight. Don't tell me you guys don't know that?" I asked. Well, there wasn't anything wrong with them not knowing about it as the other Eevolutions were yet to be discovered by the general populace of Kanto.
"Can you please elaborate more on that?" The three brothers asked together and even Mikey looked interested.
"Sure. You see, before I became a trainer, I used to help Professor Oak out in Pallet Town. I learned from the Professor that there were eight identified evolutions for eevee.
In Johto, there's Espeon and Umbreon who are Psychic and Dark type respectively. They do not require any evolution stones but needs to have a good bond with their trainer. The happier the Eevee, the higher the chance of it evolving into one of these. Espeon is a special attack based Pokémon with considerably high speed and Special Defence. They only evolve during daytime. Umbreon on the other hand is a tank with a stacked defence stats and a wide variety of status moves. Opposite to Espeon, Umbreon can only be evolved during night time.
In Sinnoh, there's Leafeon and Glaceon who as the name suggest are Grass and Ice types respectively. Both of them can be evolved in only select locations like Twist Mountain or Eterna Forest using the latent energy in the environment. Both has high physical defense with LEafeon being a physical attacker and Glaceon being a special attacker.
And finally, there's Sylveon in Kalos which is a Fairy type. Nothing much about it is known other than the fact that it evolves using the bond between trainer and Pokémon." I said. I lied about the Sylveon part as nothing much about fairy types are known to the world right now, not even to the regional professors.
The brothers sat down on the base of the tree looking like they needed some time to process what just happened. Mikey was looking really happy at having his horizon broadened and even Brock was impressed with my knowledge.
In the end, the brothers decided to visit the other regions along with Mikey so that they could know more about the different eevolutions so that Mikey could make a decision. I recommended the Kimono girls to them as they were certified Eevee trainers. Eventualy, their decision was announced in the party which was met with a warm welcome. We decided to stay with them for the night as it was already late and the next morning, we were ready to leave. Just as we were leaving, all four brothers came to us.
"Go on Mikey. Say what you want." Rainer nudged his little brother.
"Thank you Ash for helping me." Mikey said before bowing to me.
"Also, thank you Ash for broadening our view. We will never look at things so close mindedly ever again. We know it's nothing much, but please take this as a token of our appreciation." They said and handed over a box which contained one of all four Evolutionary stones.
"No problem guys. Also Mikey, I hope you and Eevee can become a graet team in the future." I said and soon after, we left the town to head towards our next destination. I felt satisfied that I was able to help the kid out, which made me look forward to the next adventures.
And that's it folks.
It's been a long time since I last updated which means that this chapter is probably sub par due to me not being in the groove. I hope u guys will be patient with me until I can get my mojo back.
Anyways, I decided to stick with the original series which made this easier to write, something i'll be doing frequently from now. There will be differences but the overall plot will be similar.
Anyways, please review cause I don't have any idea how this turned out. I was supposed to update last week but my exams were changed due to the virus so.
Thanks as always I guess. Stay safe guys.