Wednesday, September 6th, 2017
The first thing that I did after waking up was to check the forecast for the next few days. I figured that it would take a bit less than a week for us to reach St Cloud and wanted to make sure that we wouldn't have any surprises along the way. Thankfully, it looked like it would be perfect weather for the entire trip; there were a few cloudy days in the forecast, but there wasn't any rain and the highs were in the lower to upper seventies the entire time. As long as we all stayed hydrated, it didn't seem like there would be any problems with the first leg of the trip north.
Pleased with the prospective weather for the next week, I pulled myself out of the tent and was followed slowly by a yawning Peren. Fletchling had opted to spend the night nesting on a nearby tree branch and as soon as we emerged from the tent, the flying type squawked and flapped his wings at us. I was unsure if the gesture was intended to relay a greeting or impatience, though I decided to assume the former.
"Morning to you too," I mumbled as I began to work on dismantling the tent. "Do you guys want to head out right away or eat breakfast first?" While Peren just shrugged at the question, Fletchling immediately took off from his branch and flew over to one at the edge of our campground. Once perched on the new branch, he shifted his feet impatiently while staring directly at me. I rolled my eyes before returning my attention to my task, "I'll take that as a vote for let's go. We'll head out as soon as I'm done."
About ten minutes later we had left the campsite and found a trail that followed the Mississippi northwards. The trail was obviously well-traveled, though I suspected that wouldn't be the case for too much more of our journey. We would likely need to start cutting cross-country once we had officially left the cities, but for now, I was definitely grateful for a maintained path. Peren and I leisurely strolled down the path while Fletchling flitted from tree to tree ahead of us. Immediately after landing on his newest perch, the flying type would turn to watch our approach until we got close, which would then prompt him to take off towards the next branch.
As we walked, we occasionally heard or saw wild Pokemon but none of them ever approached us. The closest we ever got to another Pokemon was when Fletchling landed on a branch that there was a Caterpie already sitting on, though the wild Pokemon was closer to the tree's trunk. As soon as the bug type noticed Fletchling's approach, it used String Shot to escape to another tree further away from the trail. Fletchling watched it leave with a curious look but after a couple of seconds, he returned his attention to Peren and me rather than chasing the potential prey. We saw even fewer humans on the trail than wild Pokemon, and in each case, there was no interaction apart from a quick 'hello' or simply a nod.
A few hours later, I began to notice that Peren had started to slow his pace and Fletchling had likewise changed his movement habits. While he had previously been flying to the furthest branch away that allowed him to still see us, now he was only moving about twenty feet at a time during each of his repositions. I frowned slightly at the idea that they were both already starting to tire, though I had to admit that my expectations probably weren't fair to the two Pokemon. From what I could tell they were both fairly young, and even if that wasn't the case, a human's overland endurance was hardly a reasonable benchmark.
"Do you guys want to go back into your Pokeballs for now? I can keep going while you rest." I wasn't positive that staying in a Pokeball really counted as resting since I didn't know the devices worked, but it seemed like a reasonable assumption. While I was musing on the mechanics of Pokeballs, Peren emphatically shook his head no and Fletchling followed suit a split second later. I was a little surprised by how against the idea they were but simply conceded the point with a shrug. "Alright, how about we stop for lunch then? It's getting close to that time anyway."
This time, both Pokemon agreed to my suggestion, so we moved off of the trail and into the first clearing that we came across. Peren and Fletchling's lunch was once again the dried pellets that they seemed to enjoy despite my own misgivings about the quality. Meanwhile, my meal consisted of crackers and some jerky that a quick check of the packaging had revealed to be Tauros meat, which answered my question from a couple of days ago. I was still mildly uncomfortable with the idea of eating Pokemon, but it was obviously something that I would have to get used to sooner than later.
Partially to distract myself from overthinking my meal, I decided to bring up a topic that I had been considering during our walk so far today. Looking over to where the Pokemon were eating, I asked, "Hey Fletchling, do you want a nickname too?"
The flying type paused from his meal to turn towards me and make a slightly muffled squawk at me through his still full mouth. Peren also stopped eating to frown at Fletchling before giving me a curious look. I decided to take their reactions as a go-ahead and proposed, "How does Blitz sound?" Unlike Peren's name, I didn't feel like this one really needed any explanations.
Fletchling's reaction was to immediately take flight and quickly fly several tight loops above the small clearing. I raised an eyebrow at the overly energetic reaction before laughing when I saw Peren roll his eyes at the scene. Seeing that he had my attention, the Deerling gave me a small nod which was wholly unnecessary given Blitz's obvious approval of his new name.
Once my new Pokemon had finally calmed down, the three of us finished our meals and returned to the trail after I'd put away the leftovers. As we resumed walking I made a conscious effort to shorten my stride so that I wouldn't outpace the Pokemon nearly as much for the second half of the day. Slowing down meant that it might take an extra day or two to reach our destination, but I figured that would be fine. After all, it wouldn't do us any favors if we arrived at a gym but were exhausted upon arrival.
Friday, September 8th, 2017
It was a little after ten in the morning when I heard an odd buzzing noise. After I spent a few seconds looking around for the source, Peren softly headbutted my left leg and when I looked down I realized that the sound was coming from my pocket. With a small frown, I retrieved my Poryphone and a glance at the screen showed that I was getting a call. Despite the fact that the device had 'phone' in its name, I hadn't given any thought to using it as such for the simple reason that I didn't have anyone that I could call.
It took another second before the phone's caller ID kicked in and the screen updated to display Molly Tamarack. In retrospect, it made sense that the person who gave me the Poryphone would have the number, which left me with a simple question: Should I answer?
On one hand, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't paranoid that I'd been found out. If that turned out to be the case, then I was sure that I would answer the phone and immediately be yelled at and threatened to return Peren or else. I had no idea what the 'or else' would be, but I was confident that it would be very bad for me. Plus, it was possible that if I did answer then they would be able to track me down, assuming that they didn't already know where I was.
On the other hand, I didn't know the details of whatever agreement I'd made when I got a Pokemon from the lab. Maybe check-in calls were part of the deal and it would put more suspicion on me if I didn't answer. There was one other factor that came to mind, which was that I had specifically asked the professor if there was something that I could help her out with. It wasn't completely out of the question that she wanted me to look into something that would ultimately lead me to a way back home.
With that slim hope, I made up my mind and I pressed the answer button on the Poryphone seconds before it stopped ringing and the choice was made for me. I quickly brought the phone up to my face and tentatively asked, "Hello?"
"Thomas!" Tammy's voice came warmly from the speakers, "How are you doing? I meant to call earlier, but there's just been so much to do. I hope I'm not interrupting anything."
I breathed a silent sigh of relief at her tone before I assured, "No, you're not interrupting. We're just hiking right now." Well, to be precise, we'd been hiking up until I stopped to answer the phone. A decision that wasn't completely well received judging from the evil eye that Blitz was giving me from a nearby tree.
"Oh? Whereabouts are you hiking?"
I had an errant thought about the possible dangers of revealing my location but quickly squashed it as being a bit too needlessly paranoid. "We're heading up the river. We're uh," I trailed off for a second as I tried to remember what I'd estimated for the first leg of today's journey, "a couple hours away from Elk River."
"You've made pretty good progress then," Tammy said approvingly, "Are you planning on hiking everywhere for your journey?"
I didn't think it would be a very good idea to flat out say that I didn't have any other options, so I simply said, "Yeah, that's the current plan at least." As I spoke, I moved to the edge of the path and leaned against a nearby tree.
"That's very respectable. There is definitely something to be said about taking your time and really being able to connect with your Pokemon. That said, be sure to be extra careful the farther away you get from cities. Wild Pokemon that don't see humans often can be more aggressive than you might think."
Once again I held back from saying that taking my time was the last thing that I wanted to do. There were a couple of seconds of silence before I realized that she was waiting for me to respond to her warning. "Got it. Will do."
"Thank you. It makes me feel a lot better knowing that." With that matter addressed, Tammy's tone shifted and I could almost hear her smiling, "Now, did Cait manage to find you?"
"Uh, yeah. She was the one who recommended I head up towards Brainerd actually."
"And I assume that advice came after she challenged you to a battle?"
"Yeah, how'd you know?"
Tammy laughed softly at my confirmation, "She helped me at the lab every once and a while when she was at the U so I got to know her fairly well. That girl is too excitable for her own good when it comes to Pokemon, so I thought it was a safe bet. I hope Houndy didn't hurt Peren too badly."
I instinctively shook my head and then remembered that the professor couldn't see me. "No, Cait actually called off the match as soon she saw how one-sided it was."
"That's good. Well, I've taken up enough of your time. Real quick though, I also wanted to congratulate you on catching Blitz."
"Oh, thanks," I replied, and when I looked over at the aforementioned Pokemon, he had settled into his branch while waiting for our conversation to finish. He still looked annoyed about the stop, but I had a feeling that he was glad for the short break. Peren meanwhile had curled up next to the tree that I was leaning against. "And no problem at all. It was kinda nice to have something break up the walk."
"Well thank you for that. Would it be alright if I called again next week to check in as well?"
Somewhat surprisingly given my reluctance to answer the phone in the first place, I found that I didn't have any issues with that. Given that I also would have felt incredibly rude saying no, I replied, "Yeah, that would be fine."
"I'll talk to you then in that case! I hope you have a good rest of your day."
"Thanks, you too," I hesitated for a second before adding a somewhat awkward, "Bye."
"Bye!" Tammy cheerfully answered back before I heard the click of the call disconnecting.
I sighed as I returned the Poryphone to my pocket. Tammy hadn't given me any new leads after all, but it had still gone much better than I had been afraid of. I briefly considered continuing our break for a little bit longer but decided against it and addressed the Pokemon, "You guys ready to keep going? It's not too much further to Elk River and then we can get lunch there." Peren slowly pulled himself to his feet and Blitz flapped his wings as if to show he'd been ready to go the whole time. I smiled softly and the three of us eagerly resumed walking up the path.
A few hours later, the trees and bushes around us started to become more sparse until the path split off into another one that went towards the town. Even though I was incredibly hungry, there was another stop that we had to make before we could get lunch or restock on groceries. Thankfully, our destination was on the south end of town so, with a little help from the map app, it didn't take long for us to reach a small building that had 'Vigoroth's Rest' printed in large red letters across the front entrance.
"I'll have to return you guys for a bit," I said to Peren and Blitz as we stood outside the building, "It shouldn't take long though, and then we'll get lunch." Once the two Pokemon had reluctantly agreed and been returned, I pushed open the doors to the building to reveal a short hallway with three doors on each side. All six of the doors had a card reader next to the door handle and a dimly glowing green light above the frame. The only other thing of note in the hallway was what looked like a vending machine at the far end, which I immediately made my way over to. I was far from happy about it, but fed one of my last twenties into the machine and then grabbed the small card that was dispensed. Moving over to one of the doors, I scanned the card and then opened the door after I had gotten a soft beep of confirmation.
When the door opened, I saw that there was a small sitting room that had two other rooms attached, which matched the description that I had read online. In one of the rooms would be a washer-dryer set along with enough detergent to run a few loads. The other room was what concerned me more at the moment, as it was a full bathroom complete with a shower and tub. After spending the last four days outside, even I could tell that I absolutely reeked, which I supposed was probably why the entire building was self-service.
Fifteen minutes later, I stepped out of the shower feeling better than I had in days. I had wanted to bask in the hot water longer, but ultimately I didn't want to leave the Pokemon waiting too long and was further incentivized to leave by my own rumbling stomach. After drying off, I changed into the spare set of clothes that I'd purchased back in Blaine before redonning my backpack and leaving the small room. As I closed the door behind me, I heard it lock and the light above it turned from red to orange, signaling that I had finished and the room was ready for cleaning. While I made my way back toward the building's entrance, I added the card that I'd purchased to my wallet. Since I'd only used the shower, I would still have most of the credit on the card for the next time that I stopped by a VR. The company's website had boasted a location in every major city and most of the minor ones around the state, so I would have plenty of opportunities to do so.
I sent out Peren and Blitz as soon as I stepped back outside and we made our way over to the closest restaurant. As we walked through town, I noted the location of the grocery store since that would be our next stop after eating. Thankfully, the store sold dry Pokemon food as well as human food, so we wouldn't have to walk all across town to get what we needed. During our short walk, we also passed a used bookstore and I had to force myself to remember the decision that I had made a couple of days ago. As nice as it would be, I just didn't have the money to spend on frivolities like a novel.
A couple of hours later we finished our meal and errands, and once again resumed the journey north.
Saturday, September 9th, 2017
At nineteen years old, there were many things that Cait was still discovering about herself. One of the many reasons she had always been so fascinated with Pokemon and the idea of going on a journey was so that she could grow and become the very best that she could be. However, on her very first day as a Pokemon trainer, she had learned something about herself that she would have rather never found out.
Catherine Lewis was a bully and a coward.
After going to the lab and receiving Houndy, she had been ecstatic to finally start her journey after having to wait an extra year. Her excitement had only grown when Prof had mentioned that the first trainer that had been in that morning had also been from Blaine. Whatever plans Cait previously had for the rest of the day immediately shifted to finding and battling this other trainer. Every story that she had read about legendary trainers claimed that they had a rival from the same hometown and the first thing that the pair had done after receiving their Pokemon was to battle. Cait had never dreamed of becoming as famous as those trainers, but at the same time, there had been no way that she would willingly pass up such a blatant opportunity to follow in their footsteps.
With no leads on how to find her fated rival other than his name and starter, Cait had driven back to Blaine like a madwoman and had parked at the strip mall since that would be the easiest place to start tracking down a lead on her rival's whereabouts. Fate had once again appeared to be on her side since it had taken less than a minute for her to spot him. What little restraint Cait normally had all but disappeared and she had interrupted Thomas's meal in order to bully him into a battle. At the time, her excitement hadn't even allowed her to take the time to notice how despondent her supposed rival looked before challenging him.
The battle, if you could call it that, was an absolute disaster. Houndy had an obvious advantage over Deerling, and Thomas was clearly outclassed by Cait's experience after years of participating in rental battles. But did she offer pointers to the boy with less experience than her? Of course not. She had berated him until he had justifiably snapped at her. Cait's excitement had disappeared in a second after learning about Thomas's situation but once again she did nothing to help him. She had only offered meaningless platitudes before fleeing with a flimsy excuse.
Cait lay on her bed with Houndy curled up next to her and for the umpteenth time, reran through the events of the previous Monday in her head. Like every time before, she couldn't find anything that detracted from her conclusions about her own faults. No matter how she looked at it, she had pressed someone into a battle when she had every advantage while there was clearly something bothering them. Once she had learned about the horrible thing that had happened to him, she had offered help in the most milquetoast way possible before fleeing when he had declined.
Nobody accepts help the first time it's offered. Cait knew that, which made the fact that she had only asked Thomas once before leaving condemn her further in her own eyes.
"Cait!" Her recollections were interrupted by her mother's voice calling from downstairs, "Are you going to just laze around all day? I thought you were excited to be a trainer!" There was no malice in her mother's words, just the simple teasing that Cait was so accustomed to hearing from her mom and dad. Once again, she felt beyond grateful for her own parents. They had made her go to the U for a year before getting a Pokemon, but Cait was well aware that they had been watching out for her. Besides, when she compared them to whatever monsters had raised Thomas only to kick him out at the first convenient opportunity, any complaint she might have had about her parents vanished instantly.
Realizing that she still hadn't answered, Cait rolled off the bed and called back downstairs, "We'll be down in a bit!" She had briefly considered talking to her parents about Thomas's parents but had decided against it. Legally speaking, they hadn't done anything wrong, though Cait had to admit to herself that it was far from the only reason that she hadn't brought up the topic. To do so would have meant admitting to her parents that she had met someone who had been kicked out of his home, done nothing to help him, and then only brought it up days after the fact. Whether she mentioned it or not, Cait knew that it was nothing but further proof of her cowardice.
Several minutes later Cait rushed downstairs with Houndy hot at her heels. After saying a quick goodbye to her parents, she went out the front door and immediately made for a nearby trail like she had done for every day the last few days. Cait hadn't done any real training this past week since she didn't see how she could possibly be an even passible trainer with her current amount of self-doubt. However, she also hadn't wanted her parents to worry about a sudden change in disposition, so she and Houndy had been going for long walks every day. They gave her time to think and Houndy clearly loved the outings.
The only disruption from her daily walk had come yesterday when Prof had called. Cait had completely forgotten about the scheduled check-in call and had initially stammered after answering. Thankfully, Prof had assumed that she had just lost track of the day because she was so engrossed with training, which was a notion that Cait did nothing to try to dissuade. Prof had also teased her about immediately challenging Thomas to a battle, but Cait had just been glad to hear that Thomas had apparently talked to Prof so he was at least safe. Cait thought about asking Prof how he was doing, but she couldn't think of a good way to ask before Prof said that she had to go. The last thing that Prof had said before hanging up was how much harder it was around the lab without her favorite assistant.
Prof's farewell had only increased Cait's doubts and made her start to wonder if it would have been better to stay at the U and finish her degree as a Pokemon researcher. She loved Houndy, but so far she'd done next to nothing to train him in almost a week. Would he have been better off with a different trainer?
Cait's pained musings were interrupted by a yip of excitement from her side and she looked down at Houndy to see that he was intently staring at something off to their right. When she followed his gaze, she spotted that there was a stream of bubbles coming out of one of the small man-made lakes that they passed on their walk. Houndy clearly wanted to investigate immediately, but thankfully the one thing that she had successfully taught him was to wait for her okay before running off.
She briefly considered denying him permission because of the evident typing at play but decided that she had already limited her Pokemon enough. "Go ahead," Cait said softly and before she had even finished speaking Houndy was already halfway to the water's edge. She slowly followed behind but stayed far enough back to observe the scene in front of her.
Shortly before Houndy reached the source of the bubbles, they cut off before reappearing a second later on the other side of the pond. Houndy swiftly ran over to the new source of the bubbles but once again they cut out shortly before his arrival and then reappeared near Cait. As with the previous two times, the bubbles stopped abruptly at Houndy's approach, but this time they didn't resume at a different part of the lake. Instead, a solid stream of bubbles blasted the fire type in the face.
Cait immediately cried out in alarm and rushed to her Pokemon's side, only to find him completely unharmed apart from some water that he was trying to shake off of his coat. Satisfied that Houndy was alright, she curiously peered into the water in an attempt to see the source of the bubbles. Cait spotted a Poliwag floating a couple of inches below the surface before yet another stream of bubbles emerged from the water and engulfed her.
After she had wiped the water out of her eyes, Cait wasn't surprised to see that the Poliwag was gone and was even less surprised when another stream of bubbles came from a different part of the lake. With a light laugh, Cait jogged after Houndy as he bounded towards his new playmate.
And for the first time in six days, Cait forgot all about Thomas Fitzgerald.
Sunday, September 10th, 2017
It was a little after nine in the morning when I trudged across the bridge to cross over into Monticello. I had assumed that as we continued traveling, we would start making more progress each day as our endurance started to build. So far that hadn't been the case. I felt drained at the end of every day, and in the mornings it had become a struggle to start back up. While tiredness was certainly a factor, the main reason was that I was just so bored.
In the day and a half since we had left Elk River, we had seen nothing except for the Mississippi, foliage, the occasional human, or the rare wild Pokemon. Back home, I had never had any issues with the general flatness of southern and central Minnesota, but now it was just so painfully repetitive. I couldn't even talk to pass the time since I was completely unable to understand my Pokemon beyond yes and nos.
The evenings hadn't been much better than the days. Before and after our meals, I had started trying to train the two Pokemon but my complete inexperience with how to handle real-life Pokemon meant that I was at a loss for how to proceed. So far the only progress that we had made was that Peren had learned Sand Attack when he put out a particularly large ember that had escaped our campfire. I wasn't entirely sure that kicking dirt should count as a move, but since the Pokemon app counted it I had decided to take the win.
Meanwhile, Blitz still hadn't used a move other than Quick Attack. I was starting to wonder if I had made a mistake with his name and the flying type was taking it as a challenge. While I was confident that a Fletchling should at least know Growl or Leer, he didn't seem willing to even attempt them. It had gotten to the point where I had loaded up the Pokemon app every time he did something that even remotely looked like another attack, but so far the 'Moves' line of his entry had stayed tauntingly static.
My disheartened musings ended once we finished crossing the bridge and stepped into 'downtown' Monticello. I'd never been to the small city before, but had the feeling that it was even smaller than what it was back home. The town in front of me reminded me of some of the ones that I was used to seeing far up north in that it didn't contain much beyond a couple of restaurants, a grocery store, a church, and a tiny library.
The only things that would have been out of place back home were the local Vigoroth's Rest and a Pokemon Center, both of which I decided to skip. Other than a quick resupply at the grocery store, I wasn't planning on spending any time in town and didn't want to waste any of the credit that I'd purchased. Given that it was a Sunday, I was mildly interested in visiting the church to see what they were like here, but the idea of checking out a church like I was a curious tourist rubbed me the wrong way. I was pretty sure that the phrase didn't apply here, but I decided to chalk it up to Catholic guilt nonetheless.
As I made my way to the store, the reminder of religion made me return my thoughts to things that I had done my best to suppress over the last week. Was I dead? Was this the afterlife? If it was, then I could confidently say that every theologian and philosopher in history had been pretty far off the mark. I had my doubts that was the case given that I could still feel tired and hungry, both of which I wouldn't expect to be present in the afterlife. Though I had to admit that my missing sense of taste was a mark in favor of that theory.
I mechanically returned Peren and Blitz before going into the store and continued thinking as I went through the store to get the essentials for the next couple of days. If for no reason other than my sanity, I refused to believe myself dead. With that possibility eliminated, that meant that something or someone had brought me to this world before I could get hit by that truck. The fact that I'd avoided that fate and had been provided with my backpack, an ID, money, and meager survival gear implied that whatever force at work was benevolent. As reassuring as that was, I still had no leads on my theoretical benefactor other than a vague idea of keeping an eye out for the supernatural. I just hoped that whoever or whatever was responsible would be able to send me back once I was eventually able to track them down.
When my shopping had finished, I winced slightly at the sight of my emptying wallet as I paid the cashier. I was still fairly confident that my funds would last me to Brainerd, but it was definitely going to be closer than I would like. If it came down to it, the only possessions that I could afford to part with were the extra Pokeballs I'd gotten from Tammy, but that seemed like an absolute last resort. Grateful that I wasn't at that bridge yet, I exited the store and sent out my two Pokemon while I packed our new supplies into my backpack.
I had just about finished my task when I saw someone approaching out of the corner of my eye. I pivoted slightly to make sure that I wasn't in the way of the entrance to the store but to my surprise, the newcomer stopped in front of me. When I glanced up, I saw a guy who looked about my age. Well, my mental age.
"Hey there," he greeted amicably with a friendly smile.
At a loss for why a stranger had approached me, I hesitantly replied, "Uh, hey."
"Don't want to bug you if you're busy, but would you be up for a Pokemon battle? I always like to challenge traveling trainers if they've got the time."
My instinctive reaction was to decline but I stopped myself before responding. I had just been grousing that I was bored and wasn't doing a good job of training my Pokemon, and a friendly battle sounded like the solution to both issues. Hopefully, I would at least be able to figure out how far behind I was on their development. I glanced at my Pokemon to get their thoughts and wasn't surprised to see them both nod, Peren reassuringly and Blitz enthusiastically. "Yeah, sure," I replied with a small smile.
The other trainer returned my smile eagerly, "Awesome! I know a good spot nearby if you're available now."
"Just one second," I replied before finishing packing up my groceries and throwing the plastic bag in my backpack for good measure. After zipping it up, I stood and slung my pack back onto my shoulders before nodding my ready at the fellow trainer.
"There's a park just a few blocks away that we can battle at," he said before offering his hand. "I'm Hans by the way."
"Thomas," I replied as I accepted the handshake. I supposed that I could have given him my real name since I doubted I would ever see this guy again, but that would be a dangerous habit to get into. It was safer to be consistent.
Shortly after the two of us started walking northwest, Hans spoke up and asked, "So how long have you been a trainer?"
"Just under a week," I admitted.
"Newbie, huh? No shame in that. I'm not as serious about it as a lot of other people, but I've had my partners for a couple of years now." He paused to give me a wide grin, "I'll be sure to go easy on you."
"Thanks," I said wryly, "Any tips you want to give me?"
He hummed for a second and dramatically stroked his chin like he was some wizened sage. "Well, the thing you'd probably care about the most right now is that casual battles almost never have a prize aspect. Lotta newbies think that they need to fork over cash whenever they lose, but that's Tauroshit and don't let anyone tell you otherwise."
"Good to know," I answered appreciatively. I hadn't even considered that and the last thing I needed was someone trying to shake me down for money after a battle. Given that my main source of knowledge was the games where you won or lost money from every fight, I probably would have fallen for that line.
Hans didn't have any other immediate pieces of advice so we finished our walk in relative silence. Upon reaching the small park that was our destination, Hans gestured for me to stay where I was before walking to the other side and retrieving two Pokeballs. "How about two Pokemon each, and I'll let you pick who I send out first."
"Sounds good to me," I called back. With a smile and a nod, he pressed the buttons on both of his Pokeballs and after a paired flash of red light, a Totodile and a Growlithe materialized at his side. I took a second to wonder if everyone here had a dog Pokemon before speaking up, "Blitz vs Growlithe first." As soon as I said his name, Blitz rushed past my head before stopping to hover about a foot in front of me.
"Had a feeling you'd say that," Hans chuckled and then nodded at his Growlithe, who likewise took his place on the field. "Let's get this started with an Ember!"
This wasn't my first time going against a fire typed dog using Ember, and I liked to think that I had learned from the experience. "Dodge out the way and then attack," I ordered. Given that Blitz only used Quick Attack, I didn't see much point in calling out his move and hoped that it might give me the element of surprise.
Without waiting for Blitz to start his approach, Growlithe spewed flames out of his mouth, but Blitz easily dodged with a burst of speed. Once he was clear of the Ember, Blitz angled back towards his opponent, though he had to alter his course one more time to avoid another stream of Embers. Blitz reached Growlithe just as the fire type was starting to take another deep breath to attack again.
"Bite!" Hans urgently ordered, but the command came too late for Growlithe to switch its attack. Blitz landed a clean hit on the other Pokemon's side before looping back around for another strike. The force of the blow forced Growlithe to release its breath and some small Embers flew out of its mouth before getting scattered to the wind. With a small frown, Hand called out, "Howl and then Bite when it gets close."
Growlithe leaned back its head and gave a short Howl before returning its attention to the quickly approaching Blitz. I stayed silent as I watched the battle unfold in front of me, not knowing what useful information I could possibly pass onto my Pokemon. Blitz put on a final burst of speed in hopes of avoiding the dog Pokemon's attack and while he was able to hit Growlithe with another Quick Attack, the dog Pokemon bit down harshly on Blitz's wing as he tried to fly away.
The two Pokemon struggled on the grass for a few seconds as Blitz tried to free himself until the Fletchling managed to slap Growlithe in the face with his free wing. The unexpected wing to its face made the fire type loosen its jaws enough that Blitz was able to get free and fly off while I made a mental note to check to see if that had been a Wing Attack. Blitz hovered in place for a moment before starting another divebomb, though this one was noticeably slower due to his injured wing.
Hans must have noticed Blitz's reduced speed as well since he quickly called out, "Back to Ember! It'll have a hard time dodging now!" Growlithe switched back to its original attack which forced Blitz to reduce his speed even more in order to get out of the way of the Embers. Once they had been safely dodged, Blitz reangled himself towards Growlithe only for another stream of fire to appear in front of him.
I decided to finally break my silence and yelled out, "Power through it! Quick Attack!" If he had to keep dodging, Blitz would never be able to get close enough to hit Growlithe and the longer he stayed on the defensive the more likely it was that he would eventually be hit. If we were going to take some damage, it only made sense to return the favor at the same time.
Blitz thankfully listened to my command and this time he maintained his divebomb directly at Growlithe. Since he wasn't changing directions anymore, he was able to increase his speed as he passed through the flames before reaching Growlithe and hitting the fire type directly in the center of its forehead. Growlithe staggered backward from the force of the blow before crumpling to the ground, knocked out. Blitz wasn't in much better shape as he landed on the grass a couple of feet away. The flying type preened triumphantly for a moment before wincing and falling over as his legs gave out.
"Good fight!" Hans offered as he returned Growlithe and I retrieved Blitz's Pokeball to do the same for him. Once Growlithe had been returned, he continued, "You've done a great job of training your Fletchling for it to be able to go almost a full battle without any commands!"
"Not really, he's just that willful," I admitted as I returned the Pokemon in question. "Ready for round two when you are." As I spoke, Peren moved forward from my side and onto the grass field.
Hans chuckled before nodding to the Totodile at his side, "I know the feeling. Let's get this started off with Leer!" Totodile narrowed its eyes at the command and gave the two of us a disconcerting glare.
Figuring that the effectiveness of the status move would be reduced with one of our own, I called out, "Sand Attack!" Peren immediately turned around and started kicking up grass and dirt at the other Pokemon with his powerful hind legs. Some of the clumps of dirt made it all the way across the small field and hit Totodile directly in the face, making the water type break off its glare as Peren turned back to face it.
"Rage!" Hans called out and Totodile abandoned its attempts at a staring contest to dart towards Peren.
I grimaced, without access to any Grass moves we didn't have a way to end the battle as quickly as I would like against Rage. "Tackle hard! We have to end this fast!" Peren gave a curt nod and then took off running at his opponent. The two Pokemon met in the center of the field and thankfully Peren seemed to come out on top as Totodile was knocked back from the force of the blow while Peren looked barely phased. We would have been in really poor shape if we were already losing trades before the water type started powering up.
Hoping to ensure we didn't get hit by those empowered blows, I ordered, "Sand Attack again!" This time Peren didn't turn around because of how close his opponent was, but he was still able to dislodge some dirt from the field that once again hit Totodile in the face. I hoped that no one would track us down to pay for disturbing the field, though that concern was driven from my mind when I saw the look of utter fury on Totodile's face. While I had assumed that Rage would tick up whenever it was hit by a damaging move like in the games, I was starting to suspect that our opponent would get angrier after being hit by any attack. Totodile shook its head for a second in an attempt to dislodge some of the dirt from its eyes and then once again charged for Peren.
"Dodge and then Tackle," I quickly said and watched as Peren stoically stared down his opponent. When Totodile arrived, Peren wasn't quite quick enough to fully dodge the swipe of claws that came and he got a glancing blow to his hind leg. Before Totodile's momentum could carry it away from Peren, the Deerling turned and landed a full-body Tackle on the other Pokemon. Unfortunately, Totodile wasn't even phased by the blow and spun around to rake its claws across Peren's side with an empowered Scratch.
I sympathetically winced as Peren grunted and then danced backward to avoid getting Scratched again by the frothing mad water type. "Get some space and then charge," I ordered while impatiently waiting for the day when my battle strategies would shift away from charging at my opponent really fast in a straight line.
As it turned out, it was better to not try to fix what wasn't broken. I wasn't sure if it was because it still had dirt in its eyes or because of the very Blitz-like burst of speed that Peren put on at the end of his charge, but either way Totodile wasn't able to bring its claws down before it was hit. Once again, Totodile was knocked backward from the force of the blow, but this time it staggered before collapsing to the ground.
Relieved that the fight was over, I rushed to Peren's side while Hans whistled appreciatively. "That Deerling is pretty tough. Not too many Pokemon can go toe to toe with Totodile like that," he said as he returned his second Pokemon.
This time I didn't try to deflect my opponent's praise and nodded as I scratched Peren behind the ear while he stood proudly. "Thanks, he hasn't let me down yet." I certainly didn't remember Deerling being a physically defensive species, but it definitely seemed like Peren knew how to take a hit.
"Well, congrats on winning. I'll bet you're wishing we were fighting for cash now," Hans said with a laugh. "You been to a Pokemon Center yet?"
"Not yet," I replied while ignoring his other comment. I certainly didn't want to give away just how desperate I was for a bit of extra cash.
"Let's get these guys all healed up then. I'll show you the ropes."
"If you don't mind," I replied while I grabbed Peren's Pokeball and returned him. Despite the fact that he was still standing strong, I didn't want to make him walk the few blocks to get to the Center with his injuries.
"Not at all," Hans assured, "I'm heading there anyway after all."
I nodded appreciatively, "Thanks then. Lead the way."
The two of us walked in companionable silence until we reached the Monticello Pokemon Center. Hans confidently walked through the building's automatic doors while I hesitantly followed behind. Inside was what looked like a waiting room with a currently vacant receptionist counter. The only other notable things were two machines about the size of an oven that lined the left and the right walls. Hans made a beeline for the closest of the machines on the left side while I hastened to follow him. When I got closer I saw that the top of the machine had six indents the size of a Pokeball and all six of them had a small display next to them.
"These are the self-service machines that you can use for no charge. They'll take care of most injuries your Pokemon might get," Hans explained as he placed his Pokeballs in the leftmost spots and gestured for me to do the same. "If your Pokemon do get seriously hurt, then you'll want to check in with the nurse for treatment."
I nodded absently as I placed my two Pokeballs in the right slots and looked inside of the red and white containers. The miniature image of Peren was standing within his ball as he stifled a yawn, while it looked like Blitz was still napping off his injuries. Once both Pokeballs had been placed, Hans pressed a large green button on the top of the machine, causing it to start humming and all four of the displays next to the occupied slots to light up. Each of the displays showed an outline of the adjacent Pokemon along with a timer that immediately started ticking down. Peren's picture was a little less than half filled in and there were only a few minutes left on his timer. The other three Pokemon's pictures were completely blank and their timers were starting from eight minutes.
"Really Hans?" A teasing voice came from behind us, "It's not even noon." Hans and I spun around to face the speaker and I saw a woman who was instantly recognizable as Nurse Joy from her uniform and bright pink hair.
As soon as he had heard Joy's voice, a large grin had appeared on Hans's face, "Ah, you know how it goes. I found a traveling trainer and just had to challenge him before he could head out of town." His smile didn't fade as he gestured to me, "This is Thomas, he's a new trainer but he beat me pretty bad."
Joy's attention turned to me with a bright smile before I could protest that it had been a close match, "It's nice to meet you Thomas. Is this your first time using a Pokemon Center?"
"Uh yeah, Hans is showing me how it works."
Her smile turned mischievous, "It's good to hear that he isn't completely useless," she said while ignoring the overly-dramatic look of pain that crossed Hans's face as he clutched his chest. Instead, she put a hand into one of the pouches in her scrubs, pulled out a small purple spray bottle, and held it out to me. "Since this is your first time, take a free Potion. Have you used one of these before?"
I didn't think that using a countless number of them in the games counted. "No, I haven't," I said as I gingerly accepted the bottle. Thankfully it felt like it was plastic instead of glass so I wouldn't have to worry about it shattering in my backpack.
Hans had apparently gotten over his grievous verbal injury since he chimed in, "They're about as easy to use as can be. If a Pokemon gets really badly hurt, just spray the full bottle on the injury."
"Yes, but they're not a cure-all," Nurse Joy cautioned, "A Potion likely won't be enough to completely heal any wound that warrants its use."
"Right," Hans interrupted with a mockingly solemn nod, "In that case, you need to bring the Pokemon to a Center so that the resident Nurse can take care of them. If you're lucky, you won't have to deal with a Joy who, like this one, is anything but."
I was deeply uncomfortable with their flirting or whatever this was so I quickly interjected before Joy could give her rebuttal, "So it's just a temporary fix, good to know. And thank you both," I finished with a nod to the space between them. I stole a glance at the machine and internally despaired when I saw that while Peren's timer had finished, Blitz's still had several minutes left.
When I looked back up, Joy was shooting Hans a death-glare that was instantly replaced with a sweet smile when she saw that my attention had returned. "It's no problem at all Thomas. I have some work I should return to in the back. Good luck on your journey!" With that, she stuck out her tongue at Hans before spinning on her heel and made for the doorway next to the receptionist's desk.
"Thanks again!" I called after.
I returned my attention to Hans who was chuckling softly before ruefully saying, "I'm gonna pay for that later." He coughed before continuing, "Seriously though, that was a good battle. I'm looking forward to seeing you battle on the big stage someday!"
That wasn't really in my current aspirations, but I still nodded graciously and thanked him. Once Blitz had finished healing a few minutes later, I grabbed both Pokeballs and then left the Pokemon Center after thanking Hans one last time. As soon as I stepped outside, I released both Pokemon and praised Blitz's battle prowess since I hadn't been able to do so earlier. Once he had finished preening over the complements, the three of us resumed our journey north towards Brainerd.
Tuesday, September 12th, 2017
It had been almost a full week since we had left the Coon Rapids Dam, but we had finally arrived at St. Cloud. Now that we'd arrived, it was all the more obvious just how big of a difference it was going to take us to get places walking compared to a car ride like I was used to. Back home it was barely over an hour drive to St. Cloud, which was a speed I would have definitely preferred over a week-long walk.
Our arrival to the outskirts of the city came during the late afternoon and luckily there was a public park on the south side that looked like it would be a decent place to spend the night. I decided not to pitch the tent immediately though since there were a few things that I wanted to do first. Our first, and arguably most important, stop was at a Vigoroth's Rest where I happily washed off the grime that came from hiking for four days straight. It felt a little wasteful to do a load of laundry with only two pairs of clothes, but it had gotten to the point where I didn't have much choice other than to use those facilities as well.
Once I was clean and had fresh clothes, I consulted my Poryphone to see where the gym was located and began heading over. My current roster didn't give me any real expectations when it came to being able to defeat a flying gym but I still wanted to check it out. Many other things had been slightly different from what I had expected, so I wanted to at least get an idea of how gyms worked before I arrived in Brainerd for my serious challenge. Figuring that I would need to return my Pokemon anyway when I arrived to scope out the gym, I decided to leave them in their Pokeballs when I started walking over.
It only took about another ten minutes to get to the gym from the VR and just as the building came into sight, the doors slid open and a young man exited. Despite the fact that he had my full attention, he didn't seem to spot me and instead paused outside the gym to sigh deeply before heading west and further into the city. I cautiously walked through the automatic doors when I reached the entrance to the gym, and for the third time since I'd arrived in this world, I was greeted with the sight of a small lobby and receptionist desk.
"Welcome to the St. Cloud gym!" The man behind the desk said brightly as I entered, "Are you here for a gym challenge?"
I nervously scratched the back of my head as I moved towards his desk, "Maybe? Honestly, I'm not really sure if I'm ready. I'm mostly here to see how it all works, I guess."
The receptionist's smile didn't fade at my uncertainty, "That's perfectly alright. I take it that you don't have any badges yet then?" He continued once I'd nodded, "There's no penalty for failing a gym challenge so I'd encourage you to give it a shot. What do you say?"
I mulled it over for a couple of seconds before nodding once again. If nothing else I could always use the practice battling against other trainers. "Uh, sure, can't hurt I guess."
"That's the spirit! Now let me just get you in our system so we have a record of your challenge," With that, he turned his attention to his computer and muttered a couple of things that I didn't catch as they were typed in. There was a brief pause before he spoke up again, "Name?"
"Thomas."
He looked up at me with a wry smile, "Just Thomas?"
"Oh, sorry. Uh, Thomas Fitzgerald," I clarified, then added, "From Blaine."
The receptionist nodded amicably and entered a few more things, then his smile turned to a small frown as he turned back to me. "Well, you're all set to go Thomas, but it looks like all of our gym trainers that could battle you have already left for the day." I must have looked a bit lost since he clarified, "Almost all of the gyms have some sort of challenge that you have to accomplish before you can face the leader. Ours is simple enough, just beat one of our gym trainers, but that means that one of them has to be available. I'm terribly sorry for the inconvenience, but would you be able to come back tomorrow?"
I shrugged, it meant that tomorrow's departure would be a bit later than expected but I was fairly sure that the delay would be worth it. "Sure, that works. Any specific time?"
"Anytime before four should be just fine. That's normally when people start heading home for the day."
"Sounds good, I'll probably stop by in the morning," I said and then paused awkwardly for a moment. Nothing else came to mind so I simply offered, "Have a good one," and then made for the exit once he had likewise said goodbye.
I released my Pokemon once I'd left the building and from the annoyed looks that they both gave me, I started to wonder if I was spoiling them by leaving them out of their balls all of the time. Hoping to distract them, I quickly suggested, "Let's go find some dinner!" Blitz especially seemed placated by this plan and Peren seemed to do the same after he lightly headbutted me to make sure I was aware of his displeasure at being in a Pokeball for almost a full hour.
About a half-hour later we returned to the campsite that I had scoped out earlier along with a carry-out bag from Combusken's. At the Pokemon's urging, I decided that we should eat before I set up the tent, so I laid out their poffin packs for them on the ground, being sure to give Blitz the one that contained a pink poffin. As usual, I found my food to be lackluster but the otherwise dull meal was enhanced when we finally figured out what flavor of poffins Peren liked. Blitz had gotten a blue poffin in his pack and Peren took a bite after the flying type had refused to eat it. The Deerling's eyes immediately went wide when he bit into it and a look of pure bliss came across his face.
Peren was so enamored with the flavor that he didn't even notice when Blitz scarfed down the yellow poffin that had been in his teammate's pack.
A/N: One of my goals has been to treat this as a fantasy novel where there's a map in the front. Flipping to the front occasionally to look at the map can be helpful, but it's not necessary to enjoy the story. In this case, the map is google maps open in another tab. That said, it's a bit hard for me to know how well I'm doing in that regard since I already know all of these cities are, so I hope that I'm meeting the mark.
Thanks to Star for betaing the chapter and also for naming Hans. My outline just referred to him as rando but I had a lot of fun writing him.
After a week of traveling, we've made it all the way up to St. Cloud and the first gym. The gym challenge is next, though there will be one small detour first with Chapter 6: A Ruff Matchup.
