Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon.
Chapter 18: Games.
With the entire fiasco with the Eevee brothers behind us, Brock and I soon found ourselves in the road again. The Route we were taking was rather picturesque with the peaks of Mt Silver in the background. The weather was extremely hot so we took rest multiple times during.
"Hey Brock. This place looks great for camping." We reached the woods at the foothills of the mountain which had a river flowing next to it. There was ample shade provided by the trees which made it all the more attractive to stay for a few days.
"Yep this place is perfect. Let's start building the camp right away." Brock replied.
It took us a little over an hour before camp was finally ready. There was a little over Five hours left before nightfall so we decided to make the most out of it.
"I think I'll train Vulphix some more while watching over camp. If you want to go inside the forest, feel free to do so." Brock said.
"Thanks Brock. I'll be back before dusk." I said.
The woods was not really that dense when compare to the ones near Celadon. However, the variety of Pokémon in here was far greater than the ones in Route 8 and 9. There were large hordes of Bellsprout, Odish, Venonat etc.. living here with their evolved forms which made it a nightmare for training water types. However, the water in the river was filled with Goldeen and Magikarp.
The training for today was primarily focused on Magikarp who could actually put up a fight against the low levelled Goldeen in the river. She took a lot of hits as well but was able to win the fights without getting help form Blastoise. Although this gave much higher exp to Magikarp, the amount of fights she could be in was cut down drastically to four or five per hour. However, after four hours of battling, she hit level 20 which signalled what is essentially the most dangerous pokemon evolution on the planet.
When the light died down where the small golden fish was swimming, there was humongous red Gyarados standing there. But the hardest part was what followed. The giant pseudo dragon was looking at me, gauging whether I was worthy of wielding her power. This is the part where most trainers failed so I couldn't take it lightly. I stared back at her face with resolve and we stood there staring at each other for what it felt was for eternity.
But soon our staredown came to an end as she bowed her head slightly, nodding approval for me which meant that I had succeeded. I took out Dexter as usual and scanned her.
Gyarados, the Attrocious Pokémon
It has an extremely aggressive nature. The Hyper Beam it shoots from its mouth totally incinerates all targets.
This Gyarados is a Female and has the ability Moxie.
This Gyarados is currently Level 20 and knows the Moves Tackle and Bite.
I recalled her into her Pokeball so that she could recuperate for the day. Since it was already nearing nightfall, I decided to head back to camp where Brock was already preparing dinner.
"Hey Brock. How did the day go?" I aksed.
"It was great Ash. Vulphix has grown stronger with all the grass Pokémon around here. It was a great experience for Onix who needs to fight opponents that have the type advantage against him." Brock replied while stirring the soup he was preparing. From the smell of it, we were having chicken soup.
"That's definitely a good thing. What about Geodude? Is he ready to evolve?" I asked.
"Nah. He says that he want to stay in this form for some more time. By the way, how did the training go?" He asked.
"It went smoothly. Magikarp even evolved." I replied enthusiastically.
"Seriously?! How did it go? Was there any problems?" Brock was a little shocked as it hsn't been many days since I got my hands on Magikarp.
"There wasn't any problems actually. Since I have always treated her with love, she gave that back to me. I am pretty sure that she is going to be a great part of the team." My confidence was not unfounded by any means. Gyarados were extremely powerful being one of the few Pokémon that have stats that near pseudo legendaries. Having one in the team was something almost every trainer starting out in Kanto dreamed of. Hell, despite being a Dragon Master, Lance had one in his team which goes to show how powerful the Pokémon was.
"I am sure that you guys will be good friends. Now then, why not let her out of the ball so that she can interact with your other Pokémon as I make dinner." He suggested.
"That sounds great. Come on out everyone." I called out as I released all six of my Pokeballs at the same time. The entire team was out and about soon after and when they realised that Magikarp had evolved, they took turns in congratulating her. We soon had dinner after which all of us went to sleep.
The next day was completely for training so I left early in the morning. We decided to go deep into the forest and boy was I surprised at what we saw. There was a large clan of Bulbasaurs and Ivysaurs living here with a Venusaur as their leader.
For today, Training was primarily focused on Gyarados and Dratini as aways but that didn't mean that the others were allowed to slack. Since most of the Pokémon here were weaker, I decided to let them battle on their own for the day and return to me in the evening with results. This allowed me to focus better on the two Pokémon that needed help the most.
Since she had evolved, Gyarados was no longer just a weakling like she had been as a Magikarp. She could now easily hold her own against opponents that previously would have destroyed her in one v one. Due to her high stats, she was able to ignore the level difference she had with the wild Pokémon here. This enabled some pretty quick battles but it was not as quick as I would have liked as she was yet to get fully used to her new body.
"Gyarados use Bite." This was the 30th Gloom to have been victimised by Gyarados who coud easily knock them out with just Tackle and Bite. I made a small mental note to improve her arsenal in the near future but that could wait.
All the battles she had been in helped to increase her level by 5 in just 4 hours after which I decided to rest her for the rest of the day. It was Dratini's turn next.
As a Dragon type Pokémon, Dratini had a really slow growth speed which was reflected in the fact that even after five hours of constant battling, we could only gain 4 levels. He did end up learning Dragon Rage by the end of it so I didn't mind it too much. One of the things we focused on during battles was Dratini's movement. I made sure that he could avoid as many attacks as possible to reduce stress on the small dragon as much as possible. It wouldn't do us any good if he were to evolve prematurely.
Since it was getting late, I decided to call it a day. Although the others did fight a considerable number of Pokémon, they didn't get enough exp for them to get multiple levels. All of them ended up gaining 1 level from the entire day which was not bad at all. We soon went back to camp and after having dinner, it was time to go to sleep.
The next day, we ended up solving the Snorlax problem like we did last time which cost us the entire day. The mayor of that Town gave us free rations as thanks so it was a win-win situation for us. Since we stayed in the Town for the night, we were on the road the next day.
Dark City, this was our next destination. The place was pretty much the same as I remembered from last time, deserted and stagnant.
"This place gives me the creeps. This is the middle of the day and yet there are no one around." Brock said.
"Yeah." I agreed. If I didn't know what was happening here, I too would be creeped out by this town like I did last time.
Soon our isolation was over as a kid ran out of a house screaming happily.
"No get back inside this house right now. What if there are Pokémon trainers around?!" The kid's mom said as she took him back in.
"Why would she be afraid of Pokémon trainers?" Brock was perplexed but it didn't last long as someone started throwing rocks at us.
"Hey you! You don't want me to release my Pokémon here. Get down right now." I roared and the three kids who were probably frightened, fell down from the roof.
"Hey hey are just kids!" Brock exclaimed.
"Yeah. Look I'm sorry but you guys were throwing rocks at us." I apologised to the kids.
"You guys are Pokémon trainers right?" The kid who looked like the leader of the bunch said.
"Yes. My name is Ash Ketchum." I replied.
"My name is Brock." Said Brock.
Just as we finished introducing ourselves, the kids tried to hit us with a bamboo cane which we promptly dodged.
"Hey what's the big idea?!" I asked.
"We don't care about who you are, get out of our Town now if you have Pokémon with you." The leader kid said.
"Look kid, now you're getting on my nerves. Don't make me lose patience." I said.
"Stop it Boys." A tall middle aged man with reddish brown hair interrupted. "I apologise. These children don't mean to cause you trouble. Come to my restaurant and I'll explain everything." He said.
"Well sure I guess." Brock was the one to agree.
We soon entered the restaurant where he told us about the two pseudo gyms in the town. I pretended to listen while Brock was listening keenly.
The storytelling was interrupted by a commotion outside.
"It's them." The leader kid said.
"The Yas and Kas Gyms are fighting again. If you don't want to get dragged into this, you better go upstairs and hide." The restaurant owner said.
"Get ready. We of the Kas Gym will crush you." The Kas gym leader said.
"The Yas gym will wipe you up." The Yas Gym leader said.
They released their Electabuzz and Scyther respectively and started to wreck havoc on the Town. Soon, the people started running as buildings collapsed around them.
"That's it! I'm going to teach these punks a lesson." I said resolutely. Last Time, I was not really strong enough to take on these many trainers, but this was no longer the case. "Are you coming with me Brock?" I asked.
"Hell yeah!" I wanna beat some respect into these punks myself. Giving Pokémon trainers bad name." Brock was all fired up now.
"Wait! Where are you guys going?" The restaurant owner was bewildered.
"We are going to beat up these guys and teach them about being a respectable Pokémon trainer. I mean, as a trainer myself, I can't just let them drag our name into the mud like that." I said and Brock nodded in agreement.
We soon got out where there was a large number of Pokémon out and about, destroying everything in sight.
"Hey Dumbasses!" I shouted out loud. My shout worked as a few of them turned to look at where me and Brock stood.
"Why don't you pick someone your own size." I said as I released all four of my stronger Pokémon. Brock released his Onix who was ready for battle as well.
"Guys listen, I want every single Pokémon in the field right now to be unconscious as soon as possible. I don't care how you do it, just do it." I called.
"That goes to you too Onix." Brock said.
With Five high levelled Pokémon going berserk, it didn't take much time for the field to be cleared. Charizard was burning down anything that moved in his line of sight, Blastoise was drowning multiple Pokémon unconscious with huge jets of water from his trunk. Any Pokémon that got close enough to him tasted the fists of the armoured turtle Pokémon. Venusaur was like a walking forest with vines extending anywhere and everywhere. Any Pokémon unlucky enough to be caught in them were then promptly slammed onto the ground. Pidegeot was tossing Pokémon across town with huge gusts of wind and took down the aerial Pokémon as well. Onix too had a field day as he was throwing rocks at anything he could see and wrapped pretty much every Pokémon he came across unconscious.
The trainers in both these gyms with the exceptions of the leaders were pushovers who failed to make big in the competitive circuit. In just half an hour after starting, more than fifty Pokémon were out cold, sprawled across Town unconscious with just the gym leaders remaining.
"Who the hell are you?" Both the gym leaders asked together.
"Us? We are trainers just passing by. We couldn't just sit and watch you guys wreck the Town could we?" I asked.
"Oh so you are playing hero? Looks like I'll have to teach you a lesson." The Yas gym leader was saying that but his Scyther was not looking happy at the prospective matchup.
"Back off. The Kas gym will take care of him." The other guy was not too happy either.
"Well Brock, looks like we got a match on our hands. I'll take the Scyther, you take out the Electabuzz." I decided to stick to the type advantages for now.
"Great. Onix, get ready." Brock called
"Charizard my friend, we have one more battle in our hands." I called my starter.
The match was not that interesting and pretty much one-sided as the Gym Pokémon were too weak to even put up a good fight The match was over in five minutes and both the gym leaders fell down in despair once the battle was over.
"If you don't mind me asking, what made you think that terrorising an entire town was a good idea?" Brock asked.
"We of the Kas just wanted the official gym position but these Yas losers wouldn't let us have it." The kas gym leader said, recalling his Electabuzz.
"We of the Yas are more suited for being the official gym." The Yas gym leader was not letting up either.
"Are you guys dumb or something? Don't you know that in order to be an official gym, you need the support of at least 75 percent of the Town's Population?" I asked.
"Wait! Seriously?!" Apparently, these guys didn't know it.
"Alright. Let me take over from here. He undercover Nurse Joy who was in the Town said.
"Yas Gym and Kas Gym, due to having terrorised the Town and causing material damages to the townspeople, your applications for being elevated to official gym status is now officially revoked. You shall not be able to make an application for at least one year and any application made after that time shall be met with strict scrutiny by the League. If you want to be recognised, you must ge the approval of the residents of the Town." She said.
"So who's going to be the official gym then?" They asked.
"It depends on how you guys behave this year. Though, it would be better if you guys apply for a double gym." Nurse Joy said.
"Double Gym? What is that?" The gym leaders asked.
"It's a new system where a trainer has to battle with two Pokémon at the same time. Both of you guys can be a gym leader that way. We'll talk about it once you guys are cleared." She said.
The next few hours were spent with both gym leaders apologising to the town's inhabitants. Although it would take a long time for them to bridge the distrust the people had towards them, it was a nice start at least. We spend the night in the Town where we had a huge bonfire to celebrate and the next day, we were back on the road the next day.
Ash' team
Charizard
Level 53 [stats is 32% more compared to a fully maxed out Pokémon of same level]
Moves: Slash, Rock Slide, Bite, Ember, Metal Claw, Smokescreen, Flamethrower, Wing Attack and Earthquake.
Pidgeot
Level 50
Moves: Tackle, Sand Attack, Gust, Steel Wing, Quick Attack, Whirlwind, Wing Attack and Double Team.
Alakazam
Level 46
Moves: Teleport, Thunder Punch, Disable, Psybeam, Reflect, Recover, Future Sight, Psychic, Toxic, Hyper Beam, Dig, Double Team, Rest, Thunder Wave and Psywave.
Venusaur
Level 50
Moves: Tackle, Vine Whip, Leech Seed, Poison Powder, Sleep Powder, Petal Dance, Razor Leaf, Sweet Scent and Toxic.
Blastoise
Level 50
Moves: Tackle, Bubble, Water Gun, Mirror Coat, Bite, Rapid Spin, Protect, Rain Dance and Ice Beam.
Gengar
Level 46
Moves: Hypnosis, Dream Eater, Night Shade, Confuse Ray, Shadow Punch, Destiny Bond, Shadow Ball, Thunderbolt and Mega Drain.
Gyarados
Level 25
Moves: Tackle, Bite, Dragon Rage
Dratini
Level 22
Moves: Wrap, Thunder Wave, Twister, Dragon Breath, Body Slam, Agility.
Holy shi! That was a long time since I wrote a chapter. To be honest with you guys, its not like I don't want to write or that I lost interest, but I recently landed a part time job so I needed time to adjust to the situation.
I'll do my best to update regularly from now but in the worst case, expect an update every Sunday. Anyways, stay safe and healthy.
See ya.