There comes a time when every Pokemon Master, such as Ryan, must come to terms with their imperfections. Be them tactical errors, or the sheer lack of talent around them, masters inevitably lose battles. And for those who see failure as merely opportunity, such things are held with light heart. But for those, like Ryan, who see nothing but wasted time in such defeats, there will always, invariably, be another long drop in the crater that once housed his confidence.
Kelly had bought a hotel room, and had gingerly offered Ryan company for the night (on the couch, really). At first, he hadn't known what to say – this girl had not hid her disdain for him prior, so he didn't know why she would offer such a deliberately awkward invitation. Luckily (or not), Ryan had just lost a brutal defeat to master Koga, and his Pokemon were all injured and such, being taken care of in the nearby PokeCenter. So, Ryan hastily declined Kelly's offer, instead propping himself up between two waiting room chairs in the hospital. She had left without another word, which hadn't caused him much concern at the time. He remained there, ever close to his three little Pokemon, and ever waiting for news of their condition.
Needless to say, he fell asleep about twenty seconds after he was left alone.
In the morning, to the good news that his Pokemon were healed, Ryan slugged awake. He had meant to get another look at this city's Nurse Joy, but apparently she was off somewhere else. Darn. She must've been beautiful. And he had no idea what she looked like. Ah, well.
A Chansey with a trolley approached him, where he still lay in his makeshift bed, and handed him his Pokemon. When inquiring as to their exact conditions, well the only response was 'Chansey, Chansey!'. One of these days, Ryan would have to learn some Pokemon languages. It would make this all so much easier. But maybe they didn't have languages. Maybe they just babbled their names to humans and one another for no reason at all. They were Pokemon. Nobody could know. He would tell Professor Oak his theory if he ever met the guy.
He could barely gripe, though. The treatment was free, and Chansey had even brought him some nice fruit bars for breakfast. He sat up, thanking the pink Pokemon before going on his way. Sliding a fruit bar out of its wrapper and into his mouth, Ryan grimaced, realizing that these were apricot flavor. He took it all back. This wasn't worth it at all.
Before leaving, Ryan made way to the free computer and rang for his mother, hoping to see how she was doing. Mother didn't answer. He decided to leave a message.
"Hey mom, it's me. Just, uh, just letting you know I'm still alive! I've been out here catching lots of Pokemon and stuff. I'll have to show you them when I get back… I hope you like them, they have great personalities… Oh, and I got a ba-"
The call cut out, with the time full. He sighed. He hadn't seen the '2 minutes for free calls' sign posted above the computer until just now. That was just great. He grabbed his bag and left.
It was raining, and the road had already become full of mud pockets by the time Ryan set out for the Gym again. This time, he had his PokeDex out, and was punching in various search queries, searching for, well, a strategy to win. He needed the badge quick, for even though he knew Kelly was long gone, he knew where she was headed, and just maybe he could find her again at the next gym… if he was quick enough here. Hopefully she wasn't mad at him for declining her previous invitation.
However, Dex was hardly useful; the only noteworthy thing it told Ryan was that he needed more Pokemon; that his Beedrill was absolutely useless. Well, thanks. He already guessed that with the Kakuna form being as horrible as it was. He turned to focus on the entry for Golduck, and looking over its known moves, he worked to memorize a logical pattern with which to use them for. His one knew blizzard and body slam, and that tail waggle attack. Golduck was easily his best Pokemon, as it had taken the collective efforts of both Abra and Matata to down him. There was no better time than a gym battle to test Golduck for the first time - if he won.
The doors were open, and Ryan was glad that no other trainers had arrived yet. He was slightly embarrassed to fight with other people watching. He stepped into the cold grove that was the battle area, squinting for a sign of Koga. There was nothing, not a single sound, aside from the rain patter coming from the door. Heck, the lights weren't even on.
"Anyone here?" Ryan yelled, his voice echoing several times.
No response came.
Slightly annoyed, Ryan ventured further inside. There was a sort of Japanese-style garden in the next room, with a great number of trees, and benches, and all that crap. As Ryan tiptoed through some tulips, he noticed a man sitting under a tree. There he was; Koga! Booyah, Ryan had passed the test and found him. Right? That's what this was. Right?
"Haha! I found you, Mr. gym leader guy!"
The scream that followed rivaled Ryan's own at Lt. Surge's gym a few days prior. Only it came from a man. A grown man. A gym leader. Koga had just screamed like a little girl. It sounded like a cat that had just discovered water. Ryan's ears were hurting bad, gee golly! Evidently, Koga hadn't expected anyone. Well, that's what he gets for leaving the door open.
"I mean… who's there?" the man stammered.
"C'mon, I'm going to get my badge now, okay?" Ryan said, grinning. "Look at how good I am now. I've really learned!"
The master saw it to be Ryan, who's defeat yesterday was fresh in his mind, "Ah… very well, let me just turn on the lights," Koga scowled.
"Great!"
The two moved out to the secondary battle arena because they battled in the other one yesterday and it would be boring to fight there again. Don't question me! Lining up, the two readied their Pokeballs. Koga yawned. Ryan smiled. He had just thought up a really cool thing to say.
"Don't worry, I'll wake you up!"
Ryan went scarlet faster than… well, I don't have a proper comparison for that. Let's just say that Ryan was mightily embarrassed upon hearing himself utter those words which had sounded so much better in his head. He was grateful that Koga either hadn't heard him or hadn't cared. He couldn't tell which. Koga was pretty stoic, yeah. So, on with the fight. The man threw his ball, and in turn, Ryan threw his. It was time to see how good Golduck was.
Koga nodded to Ryan, "You remember Venomoth."
"No, I don't. They all look the same to me!"
"Well, I'm sure you'll remember him after this! Venomoth, psychic attack now!"
The flying moth of veno-metric proportions flew toward Golduck. Ryan had only a few seconds. He thought back to five minutes ago when he'd looked up Golduck's attacks. That was a long time ago. He barely remembered any of it. But… yes! The most powerfulest attack, he remembered.
"Golduck, blizzard, go! Yeah!"
The time discrepancy caught up to Golduck painfully, as Venomoth's attack had already come flying forward. A flash of light, and Golduck was thrown backward like a turtle on its back. Struggling to get up, Golduck was taking his sweet time. Koga was already shouting out 'Toxic attack!'
"Come on, Golduck…"
But this toxic attack was seen by Golduck at the last minute. The blue Pokemon dove aside, dodging it just in time, and landing right below Venomoth, who helpfully stayed still for Golduck. Then, Ryan's Pokemon began twirling its arms, and like magic, a blizzard just came up out of nowhere. Ryan loved how Pokes could do that.
Soon shards of ice and a full on tornado engulfed the two Pokemon. The Venomoth let out a scream a second later as it was thrown from the Blizzard, and onto the ground. There it lay like a delicious sack of potatoes, all frozen and stuff.
"Venomoth, get up!" Koga demanded. "Sleep powder attack! Now!"
But Venomoth was sluggish, and as it tried to perform a sleep powder attack, it missed again, hitting nothing but the floorboards (who, I'm sure, appreciated the rest).
Ryan grinned. He had them now. Sticking a single finger out in a gesture to the fallen Pokemon, Ryan yelled, "Golduck, body slam 'em. Kay?"
"Gol-duck!"
He sprinted over to Venomoth, and loyally jumped in the air, stretching out his arms and legs in a perfect effort to body slam the poor ugly beast. Well, it looked like more of a belly flop to Ryan. Still, the bone-crunching sound that followed the beat down was assuredly loud, and not even Koga could deny that Venomoth was done. Yes! Finally, a Pokemon that could use its claws. Ryan would have to remember that.
Shaking his head, Koga returned his first Pokemon, and readied his second ball.
But, no no no. It was all wrong. Golduck looked to be in one heck of a bad time. How? He'd just won. It couldn't have been… oh, no, Ryan though. It was a belly flop, yep. Now Golduck was not even looking at whoever Koga had sent out, and was just rolling around on the floor grabbing his poor stomach and screaming out in pain. Shucks.
"Gotta return him, then…" Ryan muttered to the audience.
As he did so, he looked up and saw the new opponent was a Koffing. Aw, heck. Koffings were unbelievably powerful. In all the shows he'd watch as a kid, Koffings were always the bad guys, always the final bosses and stuff. And they wouldn't be if they weren't beasts! He thought to himself for who to use. Well, it was an easy decision. Matata was just a Beedrill. He had Abra!
"Go Abra go!" he spoke.
Abra had learned well from Ryan's style of training. Thank Snorlax. This time he was awake when Ryan called him. To Ryan, that meant the world.
"Ra? Abra'a ra."
"Oh, thanks for telling me, Abra. Now go use psychic on that deadly Koffing!"
"Abra?"
"Come on, just go!"
Abra did so, turning his head to find the Pokemon when Koffing hit him like a train out of Nantucket. It was a pretty brutal tackle. Abra went spiraling, doing several impressive cartwheels before sticking the landing with his face. Ryan was about to interject with his important words of encouragement, but Abra seemed on top of it. He was barely damaged. Abra had rolled over and thrown his clawed hands to the sky. Blue energy formed and shot out at Koffing, who stood there, not even looking at Abra. Couldn't blame him, though. The walls were very interesting.
The blast hit Koffing, and he let out a wheezing cough of surprise. Oh, and then he fainted. Yep, from one attack. Ryan had won this 2v2 battle like it was nothing.
"I'm so good at this!"
Koga jumped forward, returning Koffing in one fell swoop, "Very good match. You have proved yourself to me, and learned well from your mistakes of yesterd-"
"What mistakes? Come on, I want my badge!"
Koga blinked furiously, as if not believing someone so stupid could have just beaten, "Yes, here it is!" he threw the badge toward Ryan, who lunged wild and far and missed it quite acutely. "Your Pokemon are impressive. The Abra must at least be level 25."
Ryan, picking the badge from the ground, looked up, "Huh, what do you mean level 25?"
"Your Abra is highly skilled. To KO my Koffing in one hit like that, he must be very advanced. Of course, using psychic already means he has a TM. You have invested well in him."
"But humans don't have levels… what does that even mean?" Ryan asked, squint-eyed.
"It means he's long overdue to evolve. Most Abras evolve at level 16, unless they refuse… Has he refused?"
"Ra! A'ra abra abra abra! Bra ah!" Abra interjected.
Koga nodded, "I see," and that settled it, apparently. "Well, Ryan, good luck with your journey. If you are heading to Cinnabar Island, you may use the soul badge to give Golduck surf. And then ride him. That's less expensive than buying a ticket on a boat…"
"I can surf on top of Clawey?" Ryan said, barely concealing his pure, unbridled joy. "That's awesome!"
"Clawey?" asked Koga with a raised brow.
"Yeah, that's Golduck's new name. Cool, huh?"
Koga was no master of lying, that was for sure. But Ryan was too happy to notice. He ran out of that gym in chipper spirits, not only for knowing that he'd just bested another leader with his grand ol' skill, but that now he could ride on Golduck like a surfboard. That's all he'd ever dreamt of doing.
No worries. That's what it meant. He had just got his second badge, and now he was walking down an abandoned trail toward the water. Ryan had all three of his Pokes out, like one parades around in a showy tee shirt. There was just one problem. Nobody was around.
Humming to himself, and ignoring the deep philosophical conversations Clawey and Matata were having behind, he came to a break in the road, with a path pointing either way, and a huge tree in front of him. There wasn't just a tree, either. He saw something. It was a Pokemon! All of the others stopped upon seeing it, and Ryan squatted down on the ground. You know, the better to hide from it.
The Pokemon was a long, slender thing. Blue and white, and it had – no joke – wings for ears, and a horn for a nose. Ryan thrust his Dex out to get a reading. But Dex was being difficult, by gum.
"There is no Pokemon in range."
"Dex, I'm looking right at it. Are you blind or something?" Ryan asked.
"There is no Pokemon in range."
"Ahh!" Ryan put the Pokedex away and turned to his spectators. "You guys see it, right? Right?"
"Ra."
"Duck, golduck."
"Eeieineneieine."
Yeah, they saw it. That is exactly what they just said.
Ryan knew what that called for; a Pokeball to the face. Pulling one from his belt, Ryan did a reverse ballerina spin, twirled his arms, and swung back his arm for a fierce overhand throw. He was so good at this. He should be a professional. The ball hit the dang animal directly in the face! But… wait. It didn't capture it. The ball didn't even open. And the Pokemon didn't seem one bit phased by being hit in the face with a foreign object. There was one thing, however. It could just be a coincidence, but as the ball had hit this Pokemon's face, an errant yell rang through the woods. Some little girl was pretty darn angry.
The bushes rustled, and up came the girl. She threw the Pokemon off of her shoulders and sprinted down to the onlookers with a look that could kill a mongoose.
"Hey, what's the big deal? Can't you see I'm tracking Traxus Rex!"
Ryan did not, of course, "Who?"
"Traxus Rex! My Dragonite! I was so close to getting him. Can't you just go away, creep?"
"Hey, I was just trying to catch the snake-with-wings-for-ears… I didn't know you were tracking him."
"That? Oh you mean Percival Scrawnius Tazomarius. He's just a stuffed animal."
"Then why were you going out in public with it?" asked Ryan, innocently enough.
"Hey! Don't question me. I was tracking Traxus Rex!"
"You already said that," Ryan rolled his eyes, rather annoyed. "Look, just move out of the way, little girl, so I can catch ol' snakey."
"He has a name, you know! It's Trax-"
"Yeah, yeah," Ryan waved her away and took up point. He had just seen some movement. The real stuffed animal was on the move. No wait, that wasn't right. Stuffed animals weren't real. He glanced back over to the girl. Well, maybe not for most people. But there was another creature moving and it wasn't the stuffed animal. It had the same ears and nose. This was the real one.
"Hey, hello? Are you listening to me?"
Ryan whispered back at her trying to hide his annoyance, "No, I'm about to catch Thurnax."
"WHAT?" she screeched. "His name is Traxus Rex! You can't change that. I already named him like a year ago. That's not fair!"
"I don't like that name, so it's not gonna be his name," Ryan explained, simply.
"Hey, he's not yours!" she said, pushing out of her way, and running to grab her stuffed animal.
"He will be," Ryan shook his head, and took Dex back out. Now that he saw the real animal slinking about in the brush, he pointed toward it.
"Dragonair. According to a witness, its body was surrounded by a strange aura that gave it a mystical look."
"A dragon! Yeah! All right, let's get it," he said to his Pokemon congregation.
"Oh no you don't," came a voice high and shrill, "I'll fight you to protect him!"
It was the girl.
"Seriously? I've beat two whole gyms. There's no way you're better than me," Ryan countered, proudly.
"I don't care about those. Gyms are for stupid people. Anyone can get all the badges. But my Grandmother says I'm an explorer," she beamed, "so I'm doing things you couldn't even think of! Oh, and I'm Sophia by the way!" she added in a breathless, irrelevant, rage-inducing quip.
She drew her Pokeballs. And while Ryan prepared himself, he could only think of how much he missed Kelly.