Episode 13: Pewter City Gym (Part 3)

Turns out worrying about being stuck in Pewter City for two weeks was me overthinking the situation.

As soon as I left the gym, I was harassed by half a dozen trainers who wanted my ticket, my money, or the boasting rights of beating me.

"He's just a kid!" one of the older ones said, mockingly. "I can't believe he beat a coach! I'm sure I can take him on with one Pokemon!" I had Charmander one-hit all of his, instead.

"I'll teach this little brat a lesson," another cocky SOB stepped up. I had Bulbasaur tank all the hits on purpose and then when the opposing Pokemon were too tired, just grab them and throw them into the trainer. Bulbasaur was too op.

I was obviously gentler with the humbler trainers that challenged me with sportsmanship. I just can't stand bullies and assholes.

About an hour later:

"Anyone else? You? No?"

Let's just say that I was richer and my Pokemon were more experienced. I tripled the cash I had on me and even got a chance to use a rotation system to get Caterpie, the two Nidorans, and Pidgey some real battle experience. Each of them was turning into a beast. Caterpie evolved into Metapod after one of the battles and everyone stood in awe. They'd never seen a Metapod that was 10 feet tall. Someone took a picture and later it ended up in a magazine article. The Nidorans were becoming quite the speedsters, and after learning how to tackle from Bulbasaur, they were also learning how to take on opponents much bigger than them. I taught Pidgey to peck and use his talons and not just to rely on gust or flying moves.

In the evening I had some time to train with my main fighting team. Then afterwards, I spent some time testing some theories out. With Pokemon having such amazing inherent abilities, it seemed like such a missed opportunity to not experiment to see if they could be used for more practical, non-fighting purposes.

I had Bulbasaur grab things, hold onto trees and swing himself, roping his vines together to make it thicker and stronger, etc. He could climb tall trees by wrapping his vines around a branch, lifting himself up to it, then repeating the process. Kinda useful if I wanted to hide my bag high up in the tree or something, I dunno. He could even lift me with his vines, although he wasn't quite strong enough to do so with ease. I got half a foot above the ground before Bulby gave up. With smaller Pokemon, he had no problems. Cutting down apples with his razor leaf was a breeze.

With Charmander, I tried different things to make his flames stronger, adding accelerants, feeding him different foods, etc. It seems like the better his physical condition, the stronger his flame. His concentration increased and he learned to control his flame better. I even cooked instant ramen over it. I could definitely survive in the wild. His claws were also really sharp, as I've talked about before. It seemed like every time he sharpened them, they grew out to be stronger than before.

Squirtle obviously was the best when he was near or in a body of water. It turns out like other water-type Pokemon, Squirtle is able to distill water to make it clean enough to drink. I wasn't brave enough to try this, though. His water gun was becoming stronger, more accurate, and prolonged. He can stay below water for long periods of time without coming up, and could even hear me if he wasn't diving too deeply. He could easily ambush anyone walking nearby when he was underwater.

One of my theories was also that HMs were a BS game mechanic and wouldn't exist in this world. I told Charmander to cut down small branches and he did it with ease. Bulbasaur couldn't move a large fallen trunk (there were no large boulders to test), but I could see that once he evolved and became stronger, it would be easy for him (he could also just lean into it with his massive body as Venusaur, I presumed). We found a pond deep enough for me to swim in so I tried holding onto Squirtle's shell, but he wasn't strong enough to carry my weight and kept on sinking. A similar issue with Pidgey who tried to lift me by grabbing a sturdy stick I was holding above my head, but obviously he couldn't generate enough lift to take me off the ground. So obviously, cutting, "strength," surf, and fly were all inherent abilities of Pokemon, but their present physiology and lack of strength was what was stopping them, and not the lack of knowledge.

The next day I went back to the gym, and there was already a crowd. When they saw me, they gathered around me. The ones I've already defeated demanded a rematch, and the ones that haven't seen me battle couldn't believe that a little guy like me destroyed all of the older trainers. I made more money during the next hour. I didn't even need to go back to the Pokemon Center because I kept on winning potions from battles that I used on my Pokemon because I couldn't carry them anyways. Some of the trainers even ran to the Pokemon Center and came back to challenge me again (which I accepted for free money).

The biggest gain was winning a Gym Leader Challenge ticket that was scheduled for the next available date, the day after tomorrow. It came from this especially cocky dude that had a Nidorino. He was able to use the relatively stronger Pokemon to defeat the other local trainers, so he had every reason to believe he'd beat me.

"There's no way you can defeat my Nidorino," he said. "Let's go, one-vs-one!"

We agreed to use only one Pokemon each, and no items. He must've expected me to use one of my starters (which are my strongest Pokemon, let's be real), so the expression of genuine surprise and massive insult on his face was a pleasure to see when I whipped out my hardened Metapod from my pocket.

I had Metapod harden multiple times, and the dude had Nidorino try tackling at first, then charging head-on with his horn until the poor Pokemon's horn broke off. I don't think he knew that on the previous night, I had my Pokemon take turns using Metapod as a punching bag for hours. The Nidorino had no chance.

The other trainers stopped challenging me after this.

I spent the rest of the time leading up to the Gym Leader Battle training my Pokemon and getting them prepared for the battle.