Well, this has not been the start I had expected to my trainer career.
I have battled about 15-16 wild Pokemon, losing to about 12 of them. I was running back and forth to the centre on Route 111 to heal up, because I couldn't afford to use potions on the road. Not when I only had $500 (I lost a few bucks to Alex when he beat me).
I set up my tent on the route, exhausted from all the trips. I still had my potions and revives.
'Should not have bought those damn revives' I muttered to myself.
After setting up camp, me and Alex collected some wood and used Torchic's newly-learned Ember to light a small fire. Mudkip had learned mud-slap too, but it's not as powerful as I would have liked. It also didn't seem any friendlier towards me, which was worrying.
"Torchic seems very friendly towards you" I said, sipping from my disgusting canned soup. "Ugh the soup is horrible!" I said, almost spitting it out.
"Yeah" replied Alex, making a face as well. "But listen, don't worry about mudkip. Maybe a battle after dinner will cheer him up. I want to test out my new capture too." He said, drawing out a Pokeball.
"You caught a Pokemon already?!" I said, really surprised. I became a little nervous.
"Yeah. You'll find out who it is when we battle."
"Not for money though. I'm almost out of cash now."
"Come on, dude. Just $100"
We eventually set the price at $50 for a win. After (barely) finishing our soup, we stood across our camp, with the small fire as the only source of light.
"Ready?" I said
"Yes. Go!" he yelled, as he sent out his Pokemon. A bright light erupted, lighting up the campsite for a brief moment. After it subsided, a round blue creature appeared on the field.
"Marill, huh?" I said. "Okay, go, Mudkip!". The mud fish Pokemon also appeared.
"Let's start off with Tackle!" I yelled
"Use bubble to slow him down, Marill!" he countered
"Avoid them, Mudkip!"
Marill let out a small stream of bubbles, but Mudkip easily circumvented those and tackled marill, sending it flying.
"Tackle again, Marill!" ordered Alex
"Hit it with mud-slap!" I ordered back.
Marill recovered and charged towards Mudkip again, However mudkip spat some mud straight into Marill's eyes, causing it to lose sense of direction and miss Mudkip.
"That's it, now tackle it again!" I ordered, feeling enthusiastic.
Mudkip slammed into Marill. The impact threw it back. However, this time it couldn't get up.
"Yeah!" I yelled, pumping my fist. "Nice job, Mudkip!"
"kip" it responded, with more enthusiasm. I returned it to its ball after healing it with a potion.
"Well, I'm really sleepy. Goodnight." I said, yawning. Alex nodded, withdrawing his Marill into its pokeball. I headed into my own tent.
The next day was much better. This time I only battled novice trainers like me (no badges) and refused all other challenges. Sure, I had a few losses as well, but now I was winning as well. Mudkip seemed to trust me more and that felt good.
Alex was doing even better. He'd won every single battle, and his Torchic was looking fearsome and Marill was catching up too. I decided to catch another pokemon as well.
"Hey, wanna battle?" a weird purple-haired girl asked Alex. He accepted, and soon a battle began between them. I headed out into the small forest nearby. While I was wading through it, I felt a hand strike my shoulder with some force. I fell to the ground, holding my shoulder in pain.
"Machop!" the small blue humanoid pokemon said, assuming a battling position.
I decided to catch it.
"Go, Mudkip!" I yelled, using my other hand to send him out while still on the floor
"Kip!" said the pokemon, appearing ready for battle.
"Use Water ow-gun!" I yelled. My shoulder still hurt by the machop's Karate Chop attack. I got up, still clutching my injured shoulder.
Mudkip shot a stream of water at the Machop, hitting it squarely in the chest and sending it backwards. Machop recovered though, and used Low Kick on mudkip and brought it crashing down on its own weight.
"Kip!" Mudkip said, getting up. "Now use mud-slap!" I commanded.
The mud-slap was another direct hit as it got into Machop's eyes. Machop seemed slightly disoriented by the mud, but successfully hit the mudkip with a Karate Chop.
"Right" I muttered to myself. I drew a Pokeball from my belt and sent it towards Machop. Machop was transformed into red light and drawn inside the ball.
*Wobble*
I held my breath
*Wobble*
And then it stopped. "YEAH!" I yelled causing the girl battling Alex to throw a glance at me. I then realized that Alex had finished his battle, and I went over to where he was.
"I lost" said Alex, sighing. "It had to happen, right? And I guess you caught a Pokemon! Show it!"
"It's a machop" I told him. But let's get refreshed at the Pokemon Centre near mount chimney first. Then I'll show him to you."
The journey towards the mountain was short, with no trainers on the way to battle. However, as we approached the base of the mountain where the centre was, we were attacked by a couple of Taillow.
"Ow!" I yelled, as a Taillow pecked my arm. I just threw my pokeball on the floor and shouted "WATER GUN!". Mudkip obeyed, shooting embers at the Taillow and pushing it back. I looked over to see if Alex was alright, and saw him fending off the tiny swallow Pokémon with Torchic's ember attack as well.
"What's this?" said a deep male voice. At its source were a couple of tall, muscular men who looked like thugs. They were wearing green outfits with a large black 'D' printed on them
"What the hell?!" yelled Alex "Who the hell are you? And why did you attack us?"
"It isn't important to you, kid." The man answered "Just stay away from this centre."
"Use Water Gun, Mudkip!" I suddenly yelled. I wasn't going to let these two people bully me.
My mudkip shot small flames one of the taillow. It dropped on the ground, unable to move.
"Now get out of our way." I said, trying to make my voice sound threatening.
"Taillow,Return!" the other man yelled, withdrawing his injured pokemon. "Stay away, if you know what's good for you."
Well, I wasn't going to stop, so I headed towards the centre.
It was under attack by people in those same green uniforms.