Chapter 14: Swimming

The next day the rain had stopped and we could move on. The grass was still wet and there was a nice smell in the air, the one you always had after it rained.

Jess continued training Kathie against wild Pokémon, but we soon encountered some trainers on our way. Kathie was now better trained than on her last fight with trainers, so she was now able to win her battles. Travis and I fought some battles as well, neither of us having any problems at all. Soon the way we were walking on parted. One way was leading along a small cliff, the other one was leading down the cliff to a long bridge by the sea.

"Which way should we go? My map sais that both ways lead to the Union Cave."

I looked at both paths. The way that leads along the cliff seemed to offer a beatiful panorama over the sea, but the way across the bridge would bring us directly to the sea, and I always wanted to test how fast I could swim. So I pointed to the path with the bridge.

"So you want to go to the ocean, Nick?"

I nodded.

"Are you ok with that too, Travis?"

He nodded as well.

"Fine then let's go!"

We headed down the cliff to the bridge. When we arrived there, I jumped right into the water. Just like the rain yesterday it felt great to me. I dived down, already knowing that I could breathe underwater. Now I wanted to try how fast I could actually swim. Since the toes on my feet were connected with web, I could go rather fast alone by paddling with them, but my tail being rather flat helped me speed up as well. I swam faster than I ever did, and it was an amazing feeling to do so. I soon returned to the surface, where Jess and Travis were already waiting for me.

"Guess you're having a lot of fun here, go enjoy yourself, just try to stay nearby ok?"

Fine! I replied with a smile before I dived underwater again.

I started to explore the surrounding waters. I saw a lot of different Water type Pokémon swimming around, many of them escaping quickly as they saw me. I soon knew why everyone was hiding when they saw me. Dewott are well known for their great fishing skills, so they thought that I was going to catch and eat them. Well, that's too bad, but it can't be helped I guess.

I returned to the surface every now and then to check on where Jess and Travis were, before I continued exploring the world below the surface. It was a great experience, as I hadn't seen anything below the surface before. When I was just swimming next to the bridge I saw fishing-hooks just below the surface.

'Some people must be fishing for Pokémon here…' I swam towards the hooks.

'Hmm should I play tricks on them?' before thinking twice about it, I carefully grabbed the hook to not hurt myself, and pulled it down a little before I let loose. The hook was quickly pulled out of the water, followed by a disappointed cry of a fisherman. I couldn't really hear what he said because the water dampened it. I repeated that little trick on some other fishing rods, always being careful to not get caught. I didn't even know why I had so much fun doing this. I don't even like pranks, but for some reason I did it anyway. I swam away from all the fishing hooks and wanted to look where Jess and Travis were, as I just saw them heading towards the group of fishermen. I decided to return to them now, so I swam to them and jumped out of the water onto the bridge.

"Ah welcome back Nick, so did you have fun out there?"

I smiled and nodded.

"That's great. So let's move on, I want to reach the next Pokémoncenter before it get's dark."

While we headed towards the fishermen, Travis asked me about what it's like down there. So I told him about everything I saw and experienced. He listened very closely, but I didn't get to tell that much as we arrived at the fishermen's place, and one of them challenged Jess to a Pokémon battle.

He grabbed a Pokéball and in the water before him a Goldeen appeared.

"So this will be a water-battle huh? That's your battle Nick!"

I nodded and jumped back into the water now facing the Goldeen.

"Use Horn Attack Goldeen!" - "Use Fury Cutter Nick!"

I grabbed one of my scalchops and waited for the Goldeen to come closer to me. It charged full speed at me trying to ram me with its horn. When it was just before me I hit it with my scalchop, but not enough to stop it and it hit me with its horn. It hurt, but I could take it.

"Use Peck now Goldeen" - "Another Fury cutter Nick"

I prepared my scalchop for another attack, this time it would hit double as hard as the last one. Fury Cutter is a strange move that becomes stronger if you use it again and again. After using it twice, it won't become stronger anymore, but therefore it hits harder than most moves do anyway.

The Goldeen charged at me again so I waited again until it was right before me to hit it again with my Fury Cutter, this time knocking out my opponent.

The fisherman called back his Goldeen and sent in a Poliwag.

"Another Fury Cutter Nick!" - "Use Bubble!"

The Poliwag shot bubbles towards me. I charged right through them, not even bothering the move and hit the Poliwag with my now fully powered Fury Cutter, taking it out in one hit.

The fisherman called back his Poliwag and surrendered the battle.

"It's not my day, haven't caught anything and then I get beat up by a trainer…"

Some other fishermen also challenged us to a battle. Jess let Kathie do the rest of the battles, as she had a typing advantage against all the water types they used. Most of them weren't even really good with Pokémon battles. They just enjoyed catching them with their fishing rods. One of them even used only Magikarps that only knew Splash. After defeating the last of the Fishermen, Kathie suddenly started glowing. I already knew that this meant that she's evolving. When the glowing faded she stood there as a Flaaffy.

Well, congratulations Kathie. See? You can totally become a lot stronger with a trainer guiding you. I told her with a smile.

Well…thanks…So you're not angry at me anymore?

No, why should I? You just pissed me off, so I told you what I thought about that, and your behaviour has changed to the better, and you apologised; so there's no reason for me to be angry at you.

So we can be friends?

Of course we can. I wanted to be your friend when you joined our team, you just acted like a bitch back then.

What's a bitch?

Err…never mind. 'I better don't tell her that…'

After we passed the fishermen, the bridge came to an end, leading back to the road right next to a Pokémoncenter.