So, chapter 31. I'm pretty behind on my schedule, so I'm just going to go ahead and write it now.
Chapter 31: Battles and Leaders (Cinnabar Island)
"Alright let's do this." Gold smiles as he chooses his 482 CP Typhlosion.
Candela simply chuckles and chooses her Moltres.
"I'm going to make this easy for you. I'll only use Moltres."
Gold shrugs and chooses the rest of his team.
"Whatever."
Battle,
GO!
Gold starts by immediately dodging right and attacking Moltres with his Exbo (Typhlosion), who uses Fire Punch.
This doesn't even faze Candela's Moltres, who starts charging Fire Blast, turns and shoots at Exbo. Exbo loses around 60% of its health, but attacks with Fire Punch again. Moltres starts charging Fire Blast again, but this time Exbo hits Moltres with Thunder Punch and dodges the blast quickly. Its super effective, but the difference in CP is too great for it to make a huge difference. Before Exbo can dodge again, Moltres quickly hits him with Wing Attack. This makes Exbo faint.
"Told you it was a lost cause." Candela smirks.
Still, Gold smiles and switches to his Lanturn.
"Doesn't mean I can't try."
Moltres starts charging Fire Blast but Lanturn hits with a super effective Water Gun and dodges to the left. Lanturn then charges for Thunder but Moltres stands still, charging another Fire Blast. Lanturn unleashes Thunder, which finally brings Moltres' HP down to 75%, but then gets hit by Fire blast. However, the typing makes it so that it only did 40% damage.
Candela frowns and changes her strategy.
Lanturn goes for another thunder while Moltres charges her Hurricane. Lanturn hits first, but then gets immediately knocked out by Hurricane.
"Hmm." Gold keeps smiling and releases his shiny Gyarados.
Candela looks surprised.
"What? Oh that-godammit Spark. I told you not to include Shinies." She sighs and focuses on her battle.
"I was just lucky. Or Arceus really likes me. Or Celebi. Or whatever Legendary gives luck." Gold shrugs.
"Victini!" Black and Nate yell.
The battle resumes and Gyarados starts charging a Hydro Pump. Moltres quickly throws out a Wing Attack and dodges to the left, but Gold guesses right and releases the Hydro Pump to his right, bringing Moltres' HP down to half. Candela scoffs and charges Hurricane. This time, Moltres is faster and defeats the red Gyarados.
"Man, aren't we lucky we had to go through a place filled with water-types before getting to the fire-type leader." Gold wipes off sweat and takes out a Noctowl.
Candela smiles.
"I'm guessing that was your last Pokémon with a super effective advantage."
Gold doesn't respond and instead hits Moltres with a Wing Attack. This time, Moltres starts charging a Fire Blast. Gold manages to hit Moltres with one last Wing Attack before Noctowl faints to the Fire Blast.
"Two left. Come on Crobat." Gold mutters.
A Crobat appears and hits Moltres with a Poison Jab, leaving Moltres at 30% health. However, Moltres took the opportunity to start charging Fire Blast. Crobat manages to hit Moltres one last time but then faints to another Fire Blast.
"Last one."
A Togepi shoots out of a pokéball.
"I got the egg in a Pokéstop in Pallet Town. The ride over here gave me time to hatch it."
Candela nods.
"But it it doesn't have much CP."
Gold shakes his head and starts charging Dazzling Gleam. Moltres starts charging Hurricane. Togepi is fast enough to release Dazzling Gleam and dodge the Hurricane quickly. This brings Moltres down to 25%. Candela rolls her eyes and chooses Wing Attack instead. With one hit, Togepi is down.
Gold lost.
He shrugs.
"It was fun, for a PokéGO battle." He smiles.
Candela smirks and crosses her arms.
"And people say PokéGo battles aren't fun."
"Whatever." Red says as he gets up.
"Let's leave. We don't have time to lose."
Gold readjusts his hat and waves at Candela while heading for the exit.
"Later Candela! Nice meeting you!"
Candela looks surprised again.
"W-wait!"
The Legends stop and turn around to see Candela with another smile.
"I want to go with you. I've always wanted to meet you all and see how you'd react to my PokéGO. Plus, you're probably going to find the other Leaders around Kanto. Blanche was just down in the caves to meet the Articuno down there. She's probably around Pewter City by now."
Red sighs and nods.
"Alright then. Just keep up. You do have actual Pokémon, right?"
Candela nods too and takes out a pokéball.
"Only a Moltres though."
Red shrugs.
"Good enough."
As we're exciting the cave, Nate takes the chance to ask Candela:
"Where's Spark?"
Candela chuckles to herself and looks up.
"He's stuck in Vermillion City. He should explain when we meet him."
We exit the cave and use our flying Pokémon to fly back to Pallet Town.
"Alright. Now we head north for Pewter City." Red says as he adjusts his hat and heads for the tall grass.
We walk along route 1, simultaneously avoiding wild Pokémon battles and looking for PokéGO Pokémon to catch. Candela smiles at our inexperience with PokéGO and Red grumbles about the inaccuracies of catching Pokémon.
Pokémon caught in Route 1:
More of the same Pokémon caught in Pallet Town except for Pikachu, which are absent in Route 1.
"Viridian City." The Kanto and Johto Legends look around. "The place hasn't really changed at all."
"Who's the Gym Leader?" I ask.
Red looks up.
"Uh, Blue, but let's not bother him now. I think it's best we just catch whatever we can here and head for Viridian Forest."
So, we spend about 15 minutes looking for and catching as many Pokémon as we can.
Pokémon caught in Viridian City:
Ekans and Arbok, Tauros, Machop and Machoke, all the Pokémon in the Nidoran evolution line, Sandslash, Duglett and Dugtrio, Rhydon, Ryhorn and a single Persian, which Leaf caught.
"Come on, we have to hurry or we won't make it to New Bark Town 'till sundown." Once again, Red is the first one to head forwards, which Candela is getting annoyed by.
"PokéGO isn't meant to be played in a hurry so you can fight. It's an adventure game. It's all about spending your time with your Pokémon and looking for rare species."
Red shakes his head.
"You think I don't know that? We don't have a choice. Spending all this time in Kanto is already a stretch. You know why we spend so much time up there?"
This time Candela shakes her head.
"We're in charge of welcoming new Legends and keeping them safe from the rest of the world. What if one day, Arceus come to the House with a new Legend and we're not there? What if something big happens and we're all disbanded? The House of Pokémon Legends is all about sticking together and protecting new Legends. We can't do that if we're wasting time out here." Red explains before entering Viridian Forest.
Viridian Forest is exactly as described to me. A huge maze of trees and grass, where you've got to be wary of poison and bug-type Pokémon. However, I'm also been told this is where you catch Pikachu, so it can't be that bad.
"I thank Arceus and the wild Pokémon here for keeping Pikachu safe." Red mutters.
I frown.
"What do you mean?"
"After the TV show's success, the popularity of Pikachu skyrocketed, causing a ton of fans to flood Viridian Forest, looking for their own electric mouse. Thankfully, Viridian Forest is a complicated and dangerous maze, thanks to the numerous bug and poison-type Pokémon that lurk in the shadows of the trees. They're pretty much the only chance Pikachu have of continuing to live in the wild."
Diamond crosses his arms and raises and eyebrow.
"Well that's pretty hypocritical. Didn't you catch one yourself?"
Red groans.
"I caught it before the show. When it was relatively unknown because of its rarity, even within the Viridian Forest. And I only caught one. There already is not many Pikachu around. If people had free access, they'd disappear from the forest. You know how many people would pay for a Pikachu? Not only would trainers come here to catch one for themselves, but companies like the ones that built that tower in Pallet Town would capture a ton and sell them to people who aren't trainers. Think of the starters. It is incredibly rare to find one in the wild, and even if you do, it's a starter that was released by a trainer. The only Charmanders, Mudkips and Chikoritas left are in captivity. However, as opposed to Pikachu, they're not as popular. You see, the starters are now domestic Pokémon. I wouldn't want the same fate given to the Pikachu of Viridian Forest."
He sighs and continues looking around for Pokémon.
Pokémon caught in Viridian Forest:
The Caterpie and Weedle evolution lines, some Pikachu and even a Kricketot and a Shroomish, which Dawn and May caught respectively.
"That's one of the good things about PokéGO." Candela comments.
"Huh?"
"No matter how many Pokémon are caught, they're always going to be more." She smiles.
Red rolls his eyes.
"But they're not real." He mutters. "You can't touch them or treat them like living beings. They're stuck as numbers on a screen that can only be used to look at and battle other Pokémon."
Black lowers his eyes, understanding.
"If we treated Pokémon like that in real life, Team Plasma would have been right."
Candela groans.
"God, you're all such pessimists. Where's the fun in catching Pokémon? Or the thrill of battling someone else? If anything, this should give you more immersion, since you're the one that actually controls your Pokémon. Lighten up and have fun! It's a game! Play it like one!"
This time Candela is the one that walks out the forest first.
Red sighs and follows her.
Next time! I was going to make this longer but I don't have a lot of free time right now. I like Candela, and I'm going to have a ton of fun writing stuff between all the PKGO Team Leaders like I normally do with HOPL. The situation between Red and Candela in Viridian Forest occurred just like the one between Red and Gold in chapter 15.
Anyways, as always, please leave a comment and the next chapter will be next week probably.