Ch 3: Peltagrow Gym
I was wrecking every fucking trainer who passed by me in the Gord Woods, child and adult (though it was mostly child). I don't know what it was, but my team of 4 ragtag pokes (an aggressive Skorupi, an eggheaded Togepi, a confident Spearow, and an overly-friendly Emolga) was doing work.
My Skorupi had Poison Fang, Bite, and Leer for moves. Was still waiting on it to learn something actually powerful like Knock Off or Poison Jab, but what can you expect. He was clearly the powerhouse of my team, him having the lowest loss ratio and being a very hard hitter during battles. One battle, he went HAM on a Spinarak, stabbing into it with its stinger and chucking it so far across the battlefield that one of the bugs legs snapped off after landing on an awkward angle. The fact that he had a poison move for all the annoying grass types in the Gord would have been nice enough, but him being a poison/bug typing gave him a nice resistance to the plethora of bug, grass, and poison pokemon crawling around.
Togepi, as I predicted, was as useful as a Rattata. The only useful thing it did was catch my far superior pokemon, Spearow, and that was just dumb luck with a random Metronome. I had given up on involving her in battles, as she could only Metronome, and the only time that had ever grabbed my attention was when she Metronome'd a Self-Destruct. But, she had done it while the Metapod went for Protect...after that, I had resorted to just letting her gather wood for nights when it got cold. She got lost a lot at night though, to which I would have to send Spearow to find her.
Spearow. My flier. My scout. Unfortunately, he had a shallow movepool of Peck, Fly, and Quick Attack. But he made up for that in that he was also a hard battler, like Skorupi, but much more calm about his battling style. Skorupi gets frustrated when he begins to struggle in a battle against a tough opponent, so he starts going crazy with the spitting and hissing and the poison splashing all over the arena, and just attacks in his own way, ignoring my orders. Spearow remains collected and quiet during battles, never once speaking out his name, just silently following the orders I gave him. He trusted me. Which felt kind of...whatever. It's just a Pokemon.
Last of the bunch was my sole Electric type, the flamboyant Emolga. Emolga was always smiling and flying around like a gnat in my face. She would have gotten on my nerves much more if not for the fact that she somehow had a decent movepool. Luckily, one of her parents must have been a competitive Pokemon, as her moves were far beyond that of the kind you'd see of random Pokes in the Gord. Thunder, Acrobatics, Quick Attack, Roost. It was a pleasant surprise when I'd told her to use Thundershock during her first battle against a Surskit and she used Thunder instead, as the difference in power was evident. She had great moves, but she didn't take battling seriously. She would sometimes not listen to me, and nearly cost me games so she can show off some fancy Acrobatics move, after which I'd yell at her until she cried.
I had seen no other Pokemon that caught my eye during my stay in the Gord. Not that I was content with these 4 losers, but they seemed capable of beating a gym against normal Pokemon, which I assumed the leader would use crap like Eevee or Lillipup. My Skorupi or Spearow alone could probably take down the gym.
It was with that in mind, deciding whether I wanted to solo the gym using either Skorupi or Spearow, that I made my way to the Vendor's Market of the woods, which was located in the very center, where the trees were at their thickest and the Pokemon were most competent. My pockets were full of cash from the dozens of trainers I'd wrecked over the two months I had been in this shithole. The woods had a perpetual smell of some dirty, wet animal that I associated with Pokemon, and my head had grown light-headed with it. Pokemon were constantly Leering at each other all over the Gord, with their battles over food or trainers battling each other for cash, so my eyes constantly were dancing with stars. The grass was covered in Sticky Webs and String Shots, so my shoes were constantly sticking to the ground, which disgusted me and only reminded me of Evan's bedroom and so I hated it all the more. It was a constant headache in this place, and the only reason I stuck it out was to save up and to train up these mons in a relatively easy setting seeing as there was little competition.
Hoothoots were poking their heads out of the holes high up in the trees, watching curiously as I strutted confidently down the well-trodden path with one aim in mind: find out which path takes me to Peltagrow City so I could finally get out of this place.
At the Vendor's Market, I asked the soda salesman which way would lead me to Peltagrow before he charged me 200 dollars for a few sodas as he pointed me in the direction north. Thanking him, I turned away from the Vendor's Market for the last time, and headed in a direction of the Gord that I hadn't gone before. Sometime during the journey, I let Spearow, Togepi, Emolga, and Skorupi out of their pokeballs, just to give them a pep talk and prepare them so that they didn't embarrass me at the gym.
Emolga wasn't flying for once, she was walking beside Togepi, who she got along with best. They were holding hands and walking in stride with me. Togepi had her eyes closed as she was so happy to be out of her pokeball, which normally would have led her to stray and hit a tree, but Emolga was keeping her close. Spearow was flying from branch to branch, briskly, searching for lunch and terrifying a family of Ekans from what it sounded like. Skorupi was on my shoulder, perched like a guardian angel, watching the edge of the treeline that touched the path, waiting for random pokemon to strike out I guess.
"Alright, guys, listen up," I started. "I've beaten every trainer I've bumped into in the Gord. I haven't lost a single match. So, that's awesome. But now I have to face the gym leader of Peltagrow City. He's got only normal pokemon. So, as long as we don't have to beat a Snorlax or something, it all should be good. I'm pretty sure I'll only need to use Skorupi and Spearow, so...I don't really know how this is all gonna go. We'll wing it, but just know that this is the most important match to date. It won't be too hard, cause I've got Emolga in the back, but just put your best effort into it, and I should win."
It was a long, dizzying, sticky path, but I had finally done it: I was at the end of the path, outside of Gord Woods, standing in front of an old sign that read Welcome to Peltagrow City.
It wasn't the bumbling metropolis that I had expected; it was a small town just like Lunaris. Calling it a city seemed to be a misnomer. It had that small town feeling, as multiple people were poking their heads out of their front doors and windows as the new stranger in town walked down the middle of the street. The gym was easily identifiable: it was the biggest building in town, and it had a large, white roof that sparkled in the glow of the sun. It stood right next to the Pokemon Center. My Pokemon hadn't battled all day, so there was no need to stop there.
As I entered the gym, a redheaded receptionist woman greeted me. I explained that I was here to win the Normal Badge. She had me sign in and told me to have a seat in the waiting room and the leader would see me shortly. I flirted briefly with her, confidently, asking her to just give me the badge so that I don't have to waste the leader's time. She just laughed.
After a brief wait, she told me to enter the nearby double doors. I did as instructed, and found myself standing in my very first gym field.
There were white chalk blocks on each side of the battlefield, signifying where the battler was to stand. Then a white Pokeball-shaped chalkmark in the center of the arena. There was a cleanliness to it that was so refreshing after living like a hermit out in the Gord for what seemed like years.
"You must be Adam," a man's voice spoke from the other side of the field. It was startling, hearing my name out loud for the first time in a while. I'd forgotten how it sounded.
"Yeah. Sorry, I'm not familiar with yours. I'm not from here." I said, as if that was an excuse.
"Not a problem. I'm Zach. I'm the normal gym leader. Are you familiar with the gym policy?" He seemed remarkably nice, which is something I hadn't witnessed much of in the Gord. The woods just hardened you. He was even walking across the arena to shake hands with me.
"Kind of, but not really. Refresh me." I answered as we shook hands. He seemed right around my age. Just a guy in his early twenties probably.
"It's three versus three. Both trainers may substitute Pokemon freely. If you lose, you aren't charged like you would a regular battle; however, if you win, you are rewarded money and the Normal Badge. The battle is over once either 3 pokemon on either side have fainted, the trainer, that's you, forfeits, or the gym leader deems it necessary to end the battle."
"Well, that won't be necessary, but I'm just curious. What kind of reasons would you have to end it? Like, you're losing and don't want to be too embarrassed?" I smiled at him, showing him I was half-joking. He laughed.
"No, no. It's for special circumstances. Like if we deem the trainer as unfit, like he seems to be abusing the Pokemon. I doubt we'll need to go through that, won't we?"
"I don't hit them," I said, my memory briefly flashing to catching Skorupi and chucking a rock at him. That didn't count, I think.
"That's good. Then, do you have any more questions? Or are you ready to battle?" Zach asked with a sweeping gesture toward the arena. He was pumped for this, too. I had Butterfrees in my stomach. It was a weird mixture of nervousness, and confidence, and excitement all at once. I knew I would win, but there was just something so epic about facing a gym leader for the first time.
"No, I'm ready to get my first badge. Let's do it." I even pumped my fist into the air. Wow, I'm fucking lame.
"Awesome," Zach chuckled as he moved back to his side of the battlefield. "It's standard that the gym leader chooses the first Pokemon so I-"
"I already picked my Pokemon," I reassuringly said, taking my pokeball out of my front pocket. "I choose Spearow." I threw the ball forward, and that comforting red light erupted, as Spearow soared straight up, spreading its wings, showing off its speed. Nice. I felt my battle mentality settling in, and the rumbling in my stomach started to relax. I looked toward Zach to see how impressed he'd be by my Spearow's speed, but he had an odd, quizzical look on his face that I couldn't read.
"I choose Diggersby." A Diggersby came out of his pokeball, its gigantic ears pounding into the floor like a drummer, looking like he was shaking dust off of himself after being in the ball for so long.
"Ready, Adam?"
"I'm ready, Zach."
"Let the battle begin."
It was a fucking disaster.
Spearow was using Fly to keep high out of Diggersby's reach. I was trying to think of the best plan of action to beat this thing when Zach interrupted my thoughts.
"Smack Down!"
Next thing I knew, Diggersby was chucking a small boulder with its ear at my Spearow's wings. It was a direct hit, and it was as if gravity just doubled. Spearow cried out in pain and went sailing straight down, despite flapping his wings. As he landed on the floor, before I could even react to this move I was unfamiliar with, I heard Zach cry out once more.
"Bulldoze!"
Diggersby charged at my Spearow, using his gigantic ears like a wrecking ball, dragging them along the floor, and then batting my Spearow across the field with one of them. Spearow's head smashed into the wall, and he sunk to the floor, knocked out.
Zach suggested he pick his Pokemon before I did this time. I silently agreed. He chose a Heliolisk. I chose Emolga, simply because I knew his Heliolisk would outspeed my Skorupi and just keep hitting him with electric moves. My Skorupi was foreign to fighting special attackers, he was used to winning with brute force against another physical attacker. My Emolga couldn't touch him, but it was the only thing I had.
Emolga did only slightly better. She also took to the sky as a form of protection while Heliolisk stood in the center of the field, watching her. Emolga used Thunder, which thankfully didn't miss, Heliolisk used Thunderbolt. Heliolisk fired it from his mouth, while Emolga's fired from the ceiling. Both electric beams exploded upon contact. I told Emolga to go for a Quick Attack. Zach had Heliolisk use Hyper Voice. Emolga sailed toward Heliolisk to get a direct hit in. His Hyper Voice, which was like a cone of power erupting from his mouth, struck Emolga right before she got to him. She screamed, sailed toward the ceiling of the gym auditorium, and smacked her back against it, being held there against her will. Once Heliolisk let up on his Hyper Voice, she fell to the ground, unconscious.
"Okay, battle's over," Zach called his Heliolisk back, and approached me as I returned Emolga, embarrassed. I could feel my face bright red. All that confidence I'd accumulated in the Gord was dead. "Adam? What the hell are you doing here?"
I didn't know what he meant. I had come here to win and got my ass destroyed. I stayed silent, thinking he was being rhetorical.
"Why did you bring baby pokemon to a gym battle? Were you trying to lose?"
"...I didn't know your Pokemon would be so strong."
This seemed to only set him off more. He seemed furious at me. Even more so than my father had been the day he kicked me out of my home in Lunaris, which seemed almost preferable to what I was going through right now.
"'Didn't know they'd be so strong?' Am I hearing this right? This is a gym! What did you expect?"
I had nothing.
"I don't know what kind of ideas you had about winning gym badges and how easy all of this would be, but I can tell you right now, it isn't easy. It takes time to train Pokemon. It takes time to teach them the proper moves, and bond with them, and create strategies with them, and develop the kind of synergy with your team that every great trainer needs." Zach couldn't take his eyes off me as he gave his passionate display. He was upset that I wasn't replying to him, but I didn't know what to say.
"To think that you came here with a Spearow, and an Emolga, and tried to beat a gym leader. What other Pokemon did you bring with you?" His eyes fell to the backpack resting against the wall. He began moving toward it, that angry jolt in his step. He grabbed my pack from the floor, wretched it open dramatically, and pulled out the other two pokeballs. He then released my other 2 embarrassments from their balls, Togepi jumping into the air for no reason, waving her hands sporadically and Skorupi sleeping.
"A Togepi and a Skorupi. More babies." Zach shook his head. He remained silent for a few moments, which was worse than the yelling. Then he returned his gaze to me. "Do you really want to be trainer?"
"No. I have to be." I finally spoke.
"What does that mean?"
"My parents kicked me out my house and told me I have to be a trainer. I have to get all the badges to get back home. I have nowhere else to go and nothing else to do but be a trainer. I don't want to fucking do this, man, but I have to."
Zach didn't even flinch. "And that's the excuse you're going to go with? Fuck your parents. Who cares what they say? You think even if you do get all the badges in Ilragorn that will change anything? You're on your own now. So either get a job in the city doing something you'll actually apply yourself in, or be a trainer. You don't have to do any of this. You don't have to face gyms if you don't want to. But if you realize you do want to, then now's the time to actually try, Adam. Because if you're going to stay the kind of trainer who brings pokemon like Spearow and Togepi to a gym battle, you're never going to get a single badge. This isn't the little league. This is the big boys. So make a choice. Be a trainer or don't. But no more excuses."
He returned Skorupi and Togepi to their pokeballs and placed them in the backpack
before throwing it at me in disgust. "You're banned from this gym until those Pokemon evolve. This isn't a little kids show. It's not that easy. Now go."