3,000 Pokedollars! That's how much the league felt my victory against Flint was worth. In case you're confused, I'll explain. The league went through every gym victory and then decided what to reward the challenger with. It was based on several factors like the number of badges the trainer had, the type of pokemon used, even the win ratio of the gym in question. The awards ranged from a low as 20 pokedollars to as high as 10,000. It all varied.
The fact that the league felt my victory against Flint was worth that much was probably because of the type of pokemon I'd used. My pokemon were part- flying types so that would have been an important consideration. I'm also sure the fact that the pokemon Flint used were beyond the one-badge level mattered a lot to the league.
Anyway, before I let myself get distracted by the dex, I was up to something important. I've been in the mountain for the past two days. So far, I've managed to find squat. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. In case you can't tell, I'm a bit bored. I couldn't train my pokemon in these caverns. Broly was off searching ahead. Quicksilver hated being underground, so he was in his ball. I had nothing better to do than allow my mind wander and think about the past couple days.
Immediately after my challenge, I made my way to the markets. Something that came to mind on the way here was the fact that Pewter was a mining town. In a world where evolution items aren't even a dream in the craziest man's mind, priceless evolution catalysts would probably be sold as trinkets.
My goal? A metal coat. That's what I was searching for. I avoided the bigger stalls and the food huts. I focused on the smaller sheds probably run by miners' wives. I almost gave up after searching a couple if I didn't notice something in one of the last stalls. She had a whole section dedicated to weird baubles and junk.
In the middle of the junk, I found my prize. After a closer look, it was more like prizes. She had a moon stone and a protector. The Protector was placed on a shelf and seemed to have gathered dust. The moon stone was just placed on a stand. I looked around her store for something else, and when I'd found it, I moved in. "Good afternoon" I began. "How much would it cost me to take that jacket off your hands?".
"Oh dearie, welcome to Grandma Wanda's shop" She seemed to have one of those weird smiles every grandma did. The kind that just seemed to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. "The jacket costs 30 pokes". She finished. Seemed like a fair price for a jacket like that but that wasn't what I was here for.
"30 pokes?" I exclaimed in shock. "That is simply too much for such a jacket. It should cost no more than 20". Good old-fashioned haggling.
"20 is simply too little. This jacket belonged to my dear son James. He wore it all the time before he died. It's of sentimental value, you see. I can't let it go for anything less than 28 pokes". She played the game well. I doubt she actually had a son named James but let's play along.
"Since it was so special to you, I guess I can take it for 30 pokes. But only if it comes with those two baubles. They'd look great on my desk". She wasted no time in accepting my offer. And that's how I got two rare evolution items for the price of a second-hand jacket.
I wasted no time in packing up the purchases and leaving. You're probably wondering why I went through all that trouble if all I wanted were the evolution items. The issue is they're junk. They look like junk and are practically worthless to the seller. If I just came in and bought both items, there's no way she'd ever forget the guy who came in to buy the weird stuff and nothing else.
I knew that when I eventually started walking around with rare pokemon evolutions no one knew how to obtain, the league and everyone else would be investigating my previous movements. That woman wouldn't remember me. I was one of the dozen trainers who bought something from her shop. There was nothing memorable about our interaction at all. It was all planned.
With the protector in hand, I knew I wasn't going to waste time capturing a Rhyhorn. I'd go straight for a Rhydon. With Broly and Quicksilver, I'd probably have no issue catching one from the herd. And then, all I had to do was evolve it when I was sure of its training and loyalty.
A Rhyperior on my team would be a fantastic addition. The kind of addition that would allow me to hang with the top trainers in the region in a few months. The kind of pokemon that could take me to the top of the league.
That's what brought me here. I couldn't find any Rhydon grazing outside the mountain, so I decided to try my luck inside the mountain itself. I'm ashamed to say that it took me less than a couple hours to get completely lost. I'd been stuck here for the past two days because of that. I couldn't retrace my steps and I strayed from the league-monitored route a few minutes after I entered.
This was hands-down the most stupid thing I'd ever done. It also helped me confirm something. There had to be some bits of Donell left. This kind of recklessness was par for the course for him. For me, it was a completely new experience. I'd always been a planner. Meticulous and cautious. This was as far from cautious as I could get without jumping off a plane.
I wandered down the path I'd been on for a few minutes before Broly came back to tell me he'd found something. I cautiously followed him till I was met with a cavern filled with Rhydon. They seemed to be fighting. Challenging each other for the position of top-bull. Haha. Top-bull. I'm so funny.
Never mind all that though, I had a pokemon to catch. I wasted no time in jumping down towards the pokemon. They ignored my presence, but the shift in their stances told me they knew I was there. I noticed that there was one who didn't have any challengers at this moment, so I instructed Broly to rush him. My monster wasted no time in charging in with a quick attack and letting the swords fly. The Rhydon didn't even move. He ignored the attacks and have Broly a single punch in his chest that sent him right back at me. It didn't end there, he stomped the ground once and created an earthquake that sent me off my feet and prevented Broly from rising.
I heard a familiar cry of rage and looked up from my position on the floor. Broly had found his feet again and rushed at the Rhydon at even greater speeds with a steel-wing. It proved just as useful as the last attack as the Rhydon once again ignored the hits to lash out at Broly's chest. When Broly went down again, the Rhydon followed him.
He then did something that I had never expected. He grabbed Broly by the wings and fucking broke them. I screamed, my pokemon screamed and I could swear the Rhydon was laughing. I fumbled in my belt for his pokeball, returned him and ran. I didn't care where I was going to, all I wanted was to get away from those fuckers. Those monsters.
My mind was filled with pain and my eyes with tears, so it was no surprise that I didn't pay any attention to where I was going and promptly fell in a hole I didn't see coming. I landed in a pool of water and was barely able to keep my head up for a minute before I passed out.
I woke up groggy and confused. I'm ashamed to say it took me a couple minutes to figure out what happened and to notice that I was floating in a pool of water. I quickly jerked up at that and opened my eyes. I then noticed that I was in a cavern surrounded by Clefairy. The moon was beaming down on me through the hole that I fell in which seemed to lead all the way to the top of the mountain. The Clefairy paid me no attention and danced around a stone in the middle of the water which I reasonably suspected of being the moon stone. It was beautiful. The dance was enchanting and something I could not understand told me to release Broly right into the water with me.
I did it and felt incredibly stupid immediately afterwards. My pokemon could not swim. He formed out of the red light and seemed to have no trouble staying afloat in this pool. I also noticed that I wasn't even trying to float but it just happened.
The fairy type Pokémon's dance became more frantic as I released my injured pokemon into the pool. The glow of the pool seemed to intensify at that moment, and I could not even begin to describe what happened next. I passed out again and woke up on the stone floor.
I was alone with Broly, and we were both healed of our injuries. After checking on my pokemon I took stock of our surroundings and noticed that this cavern was quite different from the one I woke up in the first time. There was no pool, no skylight and more importantly no Clefairy. I got up. I was quite done with this place.
"Hey Buddy" I called out to my monster. He looked at me, he'd been avoiding my eyes since we woke up. "We lost today" I admitted sullenly from the look on his face I could tell he wasn't happy with me pointing that out. 'We underestimated our opponent. It won't happen again. I can't promise that we'll always win but I can promise that we'll become so strong no one can ever spit on us like that again' at the end of my statement, I'd begun to shout but the determination on Broly's face made the cringe worth it.
'Now let's get out of here' I spoke finally. I asked him to scout ahead for an exit point. It seems the Clefairy had dropped us close to the exit because it only took us about 20 minutes to find our way out of the mountain. Finally. The sight of the sun gave me more joy than I've ever felt before. I opened up my dex to check my map to see where I came out from, and I let out the kind of words that would see me banned from every high-class restaurant. The exit I used led towards Pewter and not Cerulean.
I was, quite literally, exactly where I started. At least, this time I wasn't going Rhydon hunting. I'd had quite enough of that species. I released Quicksilver and got out my saddle. He was elated to be out of his ball, and I could tell he was dying to stretch his wings. I didn't have it in me to keep him waiting. I returned Broly and climbed on the speedster. A quick flex of my aura had us heading straight towards Cerulean. The mountain was huge, but Quicksilver cleared it in less than an hour. We flew and found ourselves in Cerulean in no time.
I got out and returned my pokemon to his ball. The first thing I did was check in at the pokemon Centre and drop my pokemon off for checkups. I headed straight into the town. I had a lot to do and not a lot of time. I had scheduled my challenge with Aaron, the Cerulean gym leader for three days from now and I had to get my third teammate. The first thing I did was head to the jewellery store. Cerulean had tons of them.
I found my query after a few minutes of looking. It was a simple bracelet with a prism scale at the center. I picked it up and headed to the counter. I left the store a good 200 pokedollars lighter. I put on the bracelet and went to my next stop. A fishing supplies store. I bought a simple rod and bait. I didn't need anything fancy since I was going to be catching one of the most common pokemon in the sea.
There were tons of good fishing spots around the outskirts of Cerulean, but I searched for one that was out of the way and deserted. That took a while, but I eventually succeeded. I set up my line and bait and begun to meditate as I waited to get a bite.
A/N; Nice place to end this chapter, don't you think? The next three chapters are on my pa-atreon and I'll have more up there by tomorrow. Feel free to check it out if you want to.