Chapter 10
We made our way up the stairs and out of the bustling tunnel and into an even more bustling city. It wasn't quite as massive or breathtaking like Saffron, a city of massive skyscrapers, had been but it was a really big city none the less. It was a bit more open to the world and you felt like you were outside instead of in a building like in the streets of Saffron, and you could smell the fresh sea air, even though we were a good several miles from the coast. It was a city of bike-riders and skate-boarders so pollution had not tarnished its air. After we exited the tunnel and checked our map we took Raichu Road to the south and then hung a right when we reached Ocean Avenue. We continued heading west on this street until we came to the Pokemon Center, which looked about the same as all the others. We walked in through the glass doors and were met with a bustling crowd of trainers and reporters and just about every other kind of person you could think of that might ever be in a Pokemon Center. We were taken aback by all the activity; it was a whole lot more busy in this Center than any other we had ever been in. We squirmed and squeezed through the throng of people in the lobby and made our way finally over to the front desk. Nurse Joy was behind it looking as calm as could be considering the crazy din that was her Center lobby.
"Welcome to the Vermillion City Pokemon Center! Are you here to register for the Teams Tournament?" she asked us loudly, straining to be heard over the dull roar of the mass of people. Phillip got a semi-shocked look on his face.
"Wait, is registration here?" he asked her. She nodded.
"Yes it sure is. The stadium is closed for final preparations right now so they are holding the registration here at the Center." Phillip and I looked at each other and shrugged.
"Great, saves us a trip somewhere else. We would both like to enter." He told her. She smiled.
"Wonderful. I'll need your trainer cards and Pokemon please." She informed us. We complied by handing them all over. "One moment." She said in a raised voice. Was the crowd actually getting louder? Sheesh. Nurse Joy disappeared into the back room and emerged a few minutes later and began typing on her computer. After another minute or two we were registered. Nurse Joy handed back our cards and Pokemon and then handed us several papers. "Okay these are the rules and other important information; you should take some time to familiarize yourself with them before the tournament tomorrow." We both nodded and thanked her. We checked into a room and she handed us the key. We turned and were about to leave when she called us. "You, you're Brian right?" she asked me with a small smile.
"Yes, that's my name," I replied. "Anything I can…do for you?" She shook her head.
"Oh no, not at all. I heard about you from my sister. She had very high praise of your skills. She is very worried about you, but I'm sure she would love to know that you are competing tomorrow."
"Oh I see," I said with a nod. "Maybe I'll call her then." Nurse Joy smiled.
"I hope you will," She smiled brightly at us. "Good luck you two, we will both be pulling for you tomorrow."
"Thank you so much. It helps to know we have fans out there." Phillip told her with a grin.
"Yes, thank you." I echoed. We left the desk and headed up to our second story room. We dropped our bags onto the floor and I flopped into a chair while Phillip fell onto his bed. We idly discussed the crowd outside and how we thought it was funny that he automatically took the left side bed and I always took the right side bed. Before long we got hungry and decided to head down to the center's cafeteria for some lunch. We locked up the room and walked down the steps. We took the hallway on the first floor to the left instead of right, which would lead us back to the zoo that was the lobby. We reached the cafeteria and stood in the doorway staring at the mob that was there. It seemed to be even larger, if that was possible. There were people everywhere and there wasn't a free table in the whole place. Some trainers were even eating while sitting on the floor. When I say it was packed, I mean it was busting at the seems.
"Holy…" Phillip gasped in a low voice.
"You've gotta be kidding…" I agreed in a whisper. We knew there was no way we were going to eat there so we made our way back down the hallway and out through the multitude of people in the lobby and eventually up ended back on Ocean Avenue. We didn't know where to go exactly so we, being men of course, decided that a map was beneath us and opted instead to wander around in no particular direction until we found a place to eat. We headed west and after a while we reached Sea Breeze street and decided to head south on it. We finally came upon El Pollo de Cabeza Grande, a nice looking if oddly named Mexican restaurant and decided to eat there. It was really a nice place inside; there were beautiful murals painted all over the walls and Hispanic themed decorations all over the place. And of course there was the music. Can't eat Mexican food without proper music now can you? We were seated at a small corner table and our waiter brought us a bowl of chips and some cheap sauce and took our drink orders. I asked for Coke and so did Phillip upon learning that the place didn't carry Root Beer.
"Awww…why do so many place not have Root Beer?" Phillip asked glumly after the waiter had left.
"I don't know, maybe because it's gross?" I replied sarcastically. Phillip gasped.
"What are you saying, are you crazy? Root Beer owns!" I rolled my eyes.
"Whatever you say." I told him, dropping the subject. We chatted about various things before our drinks arrived and ordered food and an appetizer bowl of Chile con Queso to hold us over until the meal arrived. It was now almost two in the afternoon and we hadn't eaten anything since breakfast. We munched on chips and cheese until our food finally arrived. The waiter dropped a steaming plate in front of me; three cheese enchiladas with tons of rice. No beans, who liked beans anyway? But rice, oh yes. And with a little queso dribbled on top? Most defiantly. Phillip had ordered chicken and beef fajitas and the choking smoke that came with them. But it was okay, I was too busy drooling over my own stuff to notice. We dug in and didn't say a word to each other for a good ten minutes while we chowed down. After we had finished the main course it was time for dessert of course; flan. Oh yes, yes indeed. Hispanic people are some of the smartest in the world if you ask me. I savored every bite of the sugary delight as it slipped down my throat and I thought for a moment that I might need to be anchored down so I wouldn't float away. We finished that too and Phillip pulled out the papers that Nurse Joy had given to us.
"Okay, let's check these out," Phillip said, looking at a blue one on top. "Ah, okay, here are the rules." He told me.
"One second," I said, stopping him. The waiter was walking by. "Señor!" I called him. He turned around and I held up the bowl at him. "Màs tostadas, por favor!" He nodded and disappeared into the kitchen. "Okay, you were saying?" I said, turning my attention back to Phillip.
"Right," he said. "It seems that this one is a little different from the Viridian City one we watched a while ago." I cocked an eyebrow at him.
"How so?" I asked.
"Well in that one you picked one Pokemon for each trainer and that was the pair you used for the whole tourney right?" I nodded. "Well in this one you can use up to three different Pokemon each. Only one per trainer per battle, of course, but each battle you can use a different Pokemon, but not more than three different ones, see?" I nodded.
"Oh I get it. Hey that's cool, we each have three."
"Right," he answered with a nod. The chips arrived then.
"Graciàs." I thanked the waiter.
"Dè nada." He answered brusquely before walking off. I picked up a chip and tossed it into my mouth. Phillip continued.
"So, we need to figure out which combinations we should use, you know? Plan out what we need to do. Of course we can always change it last second if they allow us to call second." I nodded.
"There is one bad thing we need to keep in mind though." I told him.
"Really, what?" he asked. I swallowed the chips I had been chewing and took a swig of Coke.
"Half of our Pokemon are part Flying-type. Electric, Rock and Ice types are going to be real trouble for us." Phillip nodded, concerned.
"Yeah, you're right," he said. "Okay, well we need to make sure we don't use two Flyers at the same time then. That means, let's see…" he trailed off, thinking.
"Well I have two of the flyers. That means that my two flyers team with your two non-flyers. Golbat and Scyther with Ralts and Ivysaur, respectively." He nodded in agreement.
"Right. Okay, also, Ivysaur and Scyther shouldn't be on the same team, that's two fire-weak Pokemon. So…"
"So that means Scyther and Ralts, Golbat and Ivysaur and Snorlax and Pidgeotto then." He nodded.
"Sounds good." We started to discuss the remaining weaknesses of the teams. "Now remember that Ivysaur and Golbat are also both Poison, so we then have to watch out for Psychic."
"That's true," I replied. "But Psychic types are pretty rare so it may not be a big deal. Plus Golbat knows Bite and Confuse Ray so he can at least put up a decent effort if it came to that."
"Right," Phillip replied. "Is there something we are forgetting? Pidgeotto's Flying-Type means that that team isn't totally weak to Fighting. Scyther and Ralts seems like it should work okay," he seemed to be getting more confident but then suddenly something struck him. "Oh man." He groaned.
"What? What is it?" I asked him. He slapped his forehead.
"We are going to be destroyed if we face a Steel-Type. Steel is resistant to everyone we have!" I waved him off.
"Bah, Steel is an even more rare type than Psychic. I doubt we will have to face it. But even if we do it'll be okay." He cocked and eyebrow at me.
"Are you kidding? There is no way we could take out Steel-types. We have Grass and Psychic, Normal and Flying and Poison. Oh brother, poison! What are we gonna do?"
"Relax," I told him as he started to sweat. "This is what we're going to do." I told him my plan. He looked at me strangely for a moment after hearing it.
"What, really? How long did that take you?" He asked me. I sighed.
"Almost a whole year. But it has helped me in the past." He nodded.
"Okay then but that is our only chance, you know? It's a long shot." I nodded.
"Yeah, but what else are we going to do?" He nodded. We chomped on more chips for a while we reviewed the other papers about pairings and other technical stuff. It was mostly basic stuff that we both knew but we wanted to make sure that there would be no surprises. We were both stuffed full like…well…like piñatas from all the Mexican food so I called the waiter over and asked for the check. We paid the bill and then headed out of the restaurant and back towards the Pokemon Center. The city was warm and fairly quiet. It was about four in the afternoon now, so we were after the heavy noon-time traffic of people going to lunch and yet we were still a bit to early for rush hour as people began the commute home after work. We reached the Pokemon Center and went inside, preparing ourselves for the mob. But to our surprise and relief, the crowd of people had dissipated considerably. Nurse Joy told us that registration had been closed for an hour so most people had left the lobby area. We made our way up the flight of stairs halfway down the hall and went into our room, crashing onto various pieces of furniture in exhaustion from the walking combined with all the food. We kind of dozed and relaxed there for an hour or so, not really talking but just kind of resting our minds and bodies. Around five thirty Phillip reminded me that we needed to feed the Pokemon at some point soon so we got up and left the room. We headed down the stairs and exited to the outside where there was a fenced in area with a pool and a whole lot of trees and bushes and flowers of all different kinds. It was a really nice place and we were shocked to discover that the place was totally empty. We called out all of our Pokemon and began preparing the food as the hung out or ran around the place.
Phillip:
I was busy rummaging through my backpack and pulling out bowls and food for my Pokemon when Brian came up next to me and handed me a Tupperware container with something in it that I didn't recognize. I popped the lid open and inside was what looked like a bunch of little brown pieces of kibble. They were brown and had tiny specs of color here and there.
"What's this?" I asked Brian, holding the container towards him.
"That," he began. "Is Ralts Pokemon food. You asked me to make something for her right?" I nodded.
"Oh cool, I had forgotten about it. Thanks a lot." I turned around and searched for Ralts. I spotted her near a bed of flowers. "Ralts, come here! Brian made you something to eat!" Ralts looked over in our direction when it heard its name and came over to us. "Here you go." I said gently, handing the little container to her. She held it in her little hands curiously and then took a seat on the ground and placed it in front of her. She picked up a piece of the food and nibbled a little bit on it. After a second or two she took another nibble, then a large bite and then he popped the whole piece into her mouth with a smile.
"Ralts!" she said happily before she began eating the food fairly quickly.
"Wow, looks like you did it Brian. She seems to really like it a lot!" I complimented him after telling Ralts to slow down and actually chew the stuff. She really liked it a lot.
"Awesome. Then I guess you might want these too!" Brian fished around in his backpack for a moment and then produced two more Tupperware containers. He handed them to me. "Ivysaur," he told me, pointing to one of them. "And Pidgeotto." He said, pointing to the other container. I peeled off the lids and served up the homemade food to my Pokemon. They all seemed to be enjoying it more than anything I had ever bought for them.
"Man Brian, you have some skills!" I said, impressed. "Thanks a whole bunch." He shook his head.
"No, thank you for letting your Pokemon be the guinea pigs." I nodded. "I think maybe I'll make a bunch more of this stuff and we can save a ton of money on food." He said, pondering the possibilities.
"That sounds like a plan to me." I replied enthusiastically. I continued to set out dishes and bowls of water for all of our Pokemon as he continued to dig around in his bags, every now and then coming up with another batch of food for one of them. They all began eating and Brian and I sat down by each other on a small bench near the building and he pulled out a recipe book he was working on and started showing me stuff and explaining things that I didn't understand. But he seemed pretty knowledgeable about all of it and he also appeared to be really excited when he talked about it so I figured that my Pokemon would be in good hands with his cooking. After a while though he fell silent and started staring off towards the Pokemon. "Hey, Brian? Are you in there?" I asked, waving a hand in front of his face.
"Of course I am, what, do you think I'd just fall asleep sitting her or something?" he replied, pushing my hand away. "Give me a minute, there's something I gotta do." He stood up and made his way towards the group of Pokemon and walked up to where Snorlax was resting on the ground. He told it to get up and follow him and his Pokemon obeyed. They walked away from everything else and took seats across from each other under a big old oak tree well out of earshot from all of us. Ivysaur came over to where I was relaxing on the bench and lay down on the ground next to me. I reached down and rubbed his head a little but didn't say anything. I was busy watching Brian and Snorlax conversing over by the tree, and although I couldn't hear what was being said, I had a pretty good idea of what was going on. Snorlax needed to be ready tomorrow for the tournament and it wouldn't be able to battle very well if it was still upset about what had happened in Saffron. After about fifteen minutes the sun started to set so I recalled all my Pokemon and stood up preparing to head back into the Pokemon Center. I wondered if I should say anything to Brian or tell him where I was going but I decided against it and just walked back into the center and up the stairs to our room. I took a seat on the edge of my bed and unclipped and pulled off my belt, setting it on the table beside me. Nothing big or horrible had happened during the day, but we had walked a lot and it had been a long one none the less. I snagged a change of clothes from my pack and headed for the shower. When I exited the restroom Brian was relaxing in one of the recliners with his feet propped up on the coffee table, watching some anime on the TV.
"Yo," I said, still drying my hair with the towel. "What's on?" He turned and looked at me with big, happy eyes.
"Escaflowne the movie!" he cried quickly before snapping his head back to the TV, not wanting to miss a second of the action.
"Oh," I responded. "I've seen that before. Pretty good." He nodded.
"This is my eighteenth time seeing it." I looked at him incredulously.
"Eighteen? Seriously? Sheesh…I've never met such a big Escaflowne fanboy before." I joked. He nodded again, too busy being absorbed into the movie to respond more than that. I crashed on my bed and pulled out the issue of Eyeshield 21 I was in the middle of and read that while he was watching his movie. I just love Sena and Hiruma, they're such awesome characters. I finished the volume right around the time the credits for Escaflowne started rolling, so I shoved the book back into my pack and turned over as Brian lowered himself into his bed.
"Night." He said.
"Night." I replied just before he switched off the lights.