What did it mean to be a pokemon trainer? That you trained pokemon, of course.
But what did "training" a pokemon actually entail?
To help them learn new moves and decide which ones? To make them fight other trainers and gym leaders so they could become stronger? To bond and have a deep friendship with them? which would help them become more powerful, as some people theorized.
Alexis didn't fully believe in "the power of friendship" idea, but he could stll see that a pokemon that liked its trainer and enjoyed spending time with them would be more motivated to train and battle.
Besides, why wouldn't you want to be nice to your pokemon and be friends with them? If everything went south, they would be the ones you could rely on the most.
Another way someone could train their pokemon was weightlifting, in fact, a large number of intermediate trainers did as such, as it helped pokemon look bigger and more menacing, but Alexis knew better. All you needed to do was look at the pokemon champions, elite four members, and the real pokemon gym leaders used outside of Gym Challenges and you would realize why it was a waste of time.
None of the pokemon they used did weightlifting. Why? Because the muscles pokemon would develop from weight training were not worth it, as the muscles they developed from battling were more than enough and extra muscle would just slow you down.
But fighting and training were different things, right?
So what did training one's pokemon look like? Was it what he'd done with Sandile for two weeks in Route 4? Practicing a move -Fire Fang in this case- over and over again until your pokemon got it right and could perform it like it was part of his very being?
That sounded about right but seemed too simple for Alexis.
Back at the orphanage, he'd read a bunch of books about raising and training pokemon, ones with extensive information about type advantages and disadvantages, pokemon with dual types, and encyclopedias about moves, abilities, and stats, as well as what kind of roles certain pokemon should be used for, etc.
But every book about training Pokemon had always seemed too simplistic and lacking in quality information.
If it were assumed that fighting was the best way for a pokemon to increase its strength and power, would it make Sandile and Pawniard better fighters if he made them spar every day?
That then posed another question: how far should one take this idea?
The line between training and torture could seem blurry at times for experienced pokemon trainers. What if he ordered Sandile and Pawniard to spar with everything they had, actively trying to kill each other? What if he trained Sandile's weakness to water by having him stay in it for long periods of time? Or make him stay out in the snow during winter to develop a resistance to Ice type moves?
Alexis didn't know, but it did not truly matter. He had barely even begun his journey. There would come a time -after Sandile became a Krookodile and Pawniard a Bisharp- where he would perhaps have to subject his pokemon to that type of hellish training regimen, but that would be years from today.
"No point in thinking about things so far ahead…" Alexis said out loud, as he stared at Pawniard trying to teach a happy-looking Sandile Assurance.
Maybe this was what a pokemon trainer should do, take two pokemon that would have not gotten along in the wild and make them help each other become stronger and happier pokemon, Alexis thought with a smile.
-(=0=)-
Alexis and company quickly made their way to Nimbasa City by not battling any trainers, which in turn made them reach the city in only a week.
The reason for this was that Alexis was starting to become really sick and tired of the scenery of Route 4, more specifically, of the sand that kept getting in his boots.
It was early in the morning when they reached Nimbasa. He debated whether or not to visit Norman but ultimately decided against it, choosing instead to make his way to Route 5 without stopping by, hoping to reach Driftveil City before sunset.
Route 5 was a strange one, unlike many others, it was rather small and had a paved road. This was because it connected Nimbasa and the Driftveil Drawbridge, as well as being a place where artists would often perform in.
They soon reached the end of Route 5 and saw the Driftveil Drawbridge. The huge red bridge was truly awe-inspiring. Alexis looked up to see many Ducklett and the odd Swanna flying above, casting huge shadows on said bridge.
Our protagonist continued walking until he had to stop himself from stepping on a shiny feather. He bent down and grabbed it to take a better look, it was a shiny white feather with a red circle at the bottom. He carefully put it in his left pocket and continued walking, maybe it was worth something?
-(=0=)-
Driftveil City; a City of Billowing Sails. A port town that distributed many goods, and a gateway to the Unova region, as well as where Clay, the leader of the Driftveil City Gym, could be found.
Since it was almost night, Alexis decided to make his way to Route 6 and sleep there tonight. The place was rather beautiful compared to Route 4 and 5, with trees as far as the eye could see and a river deep enough that one could dive in it and be fully submerged.
Alexis released Sandile. Pawniard was already out of his pokeball, having spent the whole day walking beside Alexis as he spoke about his thoughts in an attempt to form a connection with his new pokemon.
He told them to go hunt for dinner and got ready to go to sleep inside his comfy sleeping bag. He fell asleep almost immediately, tired from having walked all day long.
The next morning, Alexis devised a training regiment for the upcoming week, which was centered around battling other trainers with Sandine and specifically with Pawniard so he and Alexis could get accustomed to each other's flow of battle as he'd done with Sandile, as well as to get some cash to keep saving for a Pokedex.
"Hey, wanna battle? 1v1," Alexis asked the first trainer he found.
"Uhhh, sure," responded the red-haired guy.
"Awesome, how many badges do you have?" Alexis asked as he took a few steps back so their pokemon could fight.
"Two," he responded. Alexis nodded and looked down at Pawniard, signaling with his head that he would be the one fighting.
The red-headed man also released his pokemon, a Golett of a similar size to Pawniard, making a cocky smile appear on Alexis's lips. Golett were part Ghost type, so Pawniard should be able to make easy work of it.
"Alright, let's begin!" Alexis screamed. "Golett, use Iron Defense," his opponent said.
Golett's body was enveloped with a bright light for a few seconds, signaling that the surface of its body had hardened.
"That's just annoying," Alexis thought, the move would only drag out the inevitable. "Pawniard, use Assurance!" Alexis had thought of using Fury Cutter first, as it was still a super effective move but it wouldn't hit as hard as Assurance, but his opponent's use of Iron Defense had basically forced his hand.
Pawniard closed his eyes, letting his Dark energy spread throughout his body. He then opened them and dashed forward, "tank it Golett!" his adversary said, not even trying to have his pokemon dodge the incoming attack since Golett was way slower than Pawniard.
Golett successfully held his position after receiving the attack, "Golett, Shadow Punch!" purple energy surrounded Golett's fist, who then landed a powerful uppercut that sent Pawniard flying.
Pawniard did a flip in mid-air then successfully landed with both feet beside Alexis, who noticed that Pawniard didn't even have a scratch on him thanks to his resistance to Ghost type moves.
"Let's see how many hits it can take…" "Pawniard, use Metal Claw," Pawniard rushed towards Golett and successfully slashed at his chest with an X movement. Golett did not even seem to react, "Golett, use Mega Punch!"
"Pawniard, back away!" too late. Alexis looked as Pawniard went face-first into the ground with a harsh thud sound due to the powerful right hook.
Alexis winced at the sight of Pawniard lying on the ground, his body twitching slightly from time to time. Pawniard's Steel type led it to naturally resist Normal type attacks, but even then, Mega Punch had to hurt due to the power behind it.
"I don't think your Pawniard is able to keep fighting," Alexis' opponent stated with a coprophagous grin plastered on his face.
"Oh, you'd be shocked at how resilient Pawniard can be," Alexis said with a smile. His partner had already set in motion the plan he and Alexis had been discussing all day yesterday.
Feint Attack.
The Dark/Steel type rocked his head back and position his feet up in the air, he then quickly stood up and stabbed the main blade on his head -which was currently being powered by the Dark energy of Feint Attack- straight into the center of Golett's body, piercing almost halfway through.
As soon as Pawniard removed his blade from Golett's stomach it fell backwards, motionless.
"AAAHHH!" the redhead bolted towards his pokemon and knelt beside him. Alexis jumped at the sudden sound and raised an eyebrow as the man who seemed to be about to start crying.
"You killed my pokemon!" he screamed, his voice filled with despair.
"Huh? No I didn't. Golett are able to move due to the Ghost type energy that burns inside them. Pawniard simply disrupted said energy with a Dark type attack that Ghost energy is weak to, but it should be able to get back up in like... half an hour, at worst," Alexis explained to the man.
"Also, it's a Ghost type. You can't kill what's already dead," Alexis finished saying with a deadpan tone. Seriously, why did he, someone who wanted to become a Dark type specialist, knew more about the Golett species and Ghost types than someone who was training one?
"Oh, ok..." the man said as he returned his pokemon and got up. "Here you go," he said as he pulled out his wallet and handed him two ten-dollar bills from it.
"Look, what I said is true, but the wound that Golett received won't heal that fast, so you probably wanna take him to a Pokemon Center," Alexis said as he grabbed the money.
The redhead simply nodded and walked away swiftly.
Alexis looked down at his pokemon with a smile and patted him on the head.
"The first of many, soldier," Pawniard looked at him with a small smile and then confidently nodded.
-(=0=)-
The next seven days were a whirlwind of action, with Pawniard and Sandile fighting two trainers a day each. Alexis was proud to say that the two of them had absolutely dominated the trainers they'd fought, this was because Alexis had picked trainers based on how young they looked, choosing to stay away from the slightly older-looking trainers.
Why start battles you could not win?
He did have to admit that he'd chosen the wrong trainer once and had been destroyed by a girl with five badges. Oh well, you win some you lose some.
With 380 dollars more to his name, Alexis walked to Driftveil City with a skip in his walk. He made an appointment at the Driftveil City Gym for a fight the next day and strolled to the Pokemon Center.
Once in his room, he released both of his pokemon and spent the rest of the day watching reruns of the Vertress Conference from five years ago with the excuse that his pokemon deserved a day of rest before fighting with a Gym Leader.
After a couple of hours, Alexis ordered a pizza for dinner. When it arrived, he gave Sandile and Pawniard a portion to see if they'd like it. While Sandile made quick work of his portion and liked it so much he ended up eating a quarter of the entire thing, Pawniard seemed to dislike the taste.
-(=0=)-
Alexis made his way to the Driftveil City Gym. A large man who kept looking at his watch from time to time wearing a big cowboy hat and a brown sleeveless jacket and pants seemed to be waiting at the entrance of the gym, "You must be Alexisis, correct?" the large man asked.
"Uhm, Yes. Mister Clay? What are you doing outside the Gym?" Alexis asked in return.
Clay crossed his arms. "I'm waiting on you, son. I put on hold an important mine operation at the edge of town, so we better make this quick," Clay said as he entered the gym at a rapid pace, Alexis following suit.
He looked around once inside the Gym, like yesterday, he noticed how the table and the desk at the reception seemed to be gold-plated and probably very expensive. Alexis followed Clay as they both walked into what could best be described as a platform elevator that started descending.
Alexis had heard stories about the Driftveil Gym and it seemed they had been true. This place was both a Gym and a mine.
After what must have been a full minute of descending, Alexis tried to do a bit of small talk with Clay, after all, It's not every day that you get to talk to a Gym Leader.
"So, I have a Sandile, think you could give me your opinion about him?"
Clay looked at his watch once again, "sure. If you win, I'll give you some tips," he said without taking his eyes off the watch.
After another minute or two, the elevator finally stopped and both walked into a room that consisted of a simple battlefield with some large rocks here and there.
"The gym battle will now commence," Clay said to him as he walked across the arena and got into position. "We'll both use only three Pokemon. The battle will be over when either of us is unable to continue. As you know by now, substitutions are not allowed. You will have the first attack." Clay finished explaining.
"No referee then huh," Alexis thought.
Both threw their respective pokeball onto the field. Two Sandile.
"Uhhhh... I haven't given Sandile a nickname! Have you?" Alexis screamed from his position.
"That's why nicknames are recommended! My Sandile is named Sam, so just start already dammit!" Clay screamed back at him.
"Alright, Sandile, use Fire Fang!" Sandile dashed towards the opposing Sandile, orange flames enveloping the fangs inside his maw.
"Rock Tomb!" small rocks started circling around Clay's Sandile, which were then flown towards Sandile.
"Dodge!" Sandile managed to, sidestepping what was sometimes referred to as poor man's Stone Edge, and continued running towards his opponent.
"Sam, use Dig," before Sam could fully submerge himself in the ground, Sandile got close enough and snapped his jaws around Sam's upper body. He dragged the other Sandile out of the ground and started shaking it like a wild beast.
"Sam, Payback, now!" "Use Bite!" Both Gym Leader and trainer screamed.
Sandile's fangs dug deeper into Sam's hard skin, who returned the favor by smacking him with a Payback-infused tail behind his head, making him open his mouth and setting his opponent free.
Alexis looked at Sandile, Payback had hit hard, but Fire Fang and Bite had done more damage. Sam was already bleeding a little.
"Use Dig!" "Dig!" Both trainers screamed in sync as the two Sandile disappeared from view.
Alexis looked at Clay, the arena had become awfully silent. "They're duking it out down there, did you know it's a common thing to do between growing Sandile?" Clay explained/asked.
After a few agonizing seconds, both pokemon reappeared on the battlefield, both had scratches and small wounds all over their bodies, but it seemed that Sam had taken more damage.
"Sandile, use Assurance!" Sandile propelled himself towards Sam, Dark energy flowing throughout his body and ready to tackle his adversary.
"Let's meet them, use Assurance!" Clay's pokemon did as Alexis's.
As soon as both got close enough, they jumped and clashed in the air. There were a few seconds of struggle before Sandile successfully overpowered his opponent, sending it flying.
He landed on his feet, yet his opponent was not as lucky, crashing forcefully onto the ground with a dull thud. "Don't let it get up Sandile, use Dig and Fire Fang!" the trusty combination worked once again.
Before Sam could react, Sandile burst beneath it and bit it with Fire Fang, then dragged Sam down beneath the earth with him.
Sandile came up from the ground a minute later and released the unmoving Sam from his jaws onto the ground.
The red shine from Moxie in his eyes was not visible thanks to his sunglasses, but it was there.
"Not bad son. Let's see how you handle the next one," Clay said as he recalled Sam and threw his next pokemon onto the battleground. A blue, ovoid Pokémon resembling living loudspeakers.
Palpitoad, a Water/Ground type.
Alexis tsked, he hoped Sandile could take this one out or at least do enough damage so Pawniard could finish it quickly.
"Palpitoad, Bubble!" the blue pokemon's cheeks were filled with water before a spray of countless bubbles jetted out of its mouth toward Sandile.
"Dodge it with Dig!" The Ground/Dark type did as ordered, successfully avoiding the surprisingly quickly approaching bubbles.
"Get ready Palpitoad!" Clay screamed. To Alexis's shock, Palpitoad managed to jump just in time as Sandile came out of the ground, avoiding the attack.
Alexis moved his head up to keep with Palpitoad, who apparently could jump incredibly high. "Now, use Rock Smash!" Alexis's face turned white as he heard the name of the next attack and saw Palpitoad position himself upside down and start falling much faster than before, "Sandile, get out of the way with Dig!" Alexis screamed.
Since Palpitoad being able to dodge Dig and knowing a Fighting type move wasn't enough, Sandile decided it was now a good time to disobey his trainer's commands.
Instead of dodging, he flexed his frontal and back legs and jumped with the intention of pounding Palpitoad out of the sky.
Alexis threw his hands on his head as he saw Sandile jump, a flash of red in his eyes as he did, signaling that he was using Rage.
Palpitoad and Sandile crashed in the middle of the air, only for Sandile to be sent flying back down, crashing against the ground and making a cloud of dust.
"Moxie defiance. Very common in Sandile," Clay said as he shook his head.
Alexis glared at him for a second before looking back at where Sandile had landed. If he was still able to fight, Rage should have increased his attack power after being hit.
He just hadn't wanted Sandile to take the risk! Rage was not a very powerful move by itself, and most pokemon did not have the necessary skill to stop using Rage after using it once, something that Sandile high on Moxie was definitely not capable of, meaning that the battle was all on Sandile's hands now until he fainted.
An expression of relief spread through Alexis' face as the cloud of dust disappeared and he saw Sandile still conscious, though heavily damaged.
While Palpitoad had won the exchange, Rage had still propelled it upwards, making it lose control and fall without hope of landing correctly.
Sandile attempted to dash towards Palpitoad again, yet stopped due to the pain in one of his legs, making him limp. A consequence of having been hit with Rock Smash.
Sandile forced his body to move, his eyes flashing red once again -the red shine now visible through his sunglasses- and ran at his opponent with everything he had.
Palpitoad was left unable to defend itself as a triple-boosted Sandile smashed onto it like a truck, sending it flying and crashing into the wall next to Alexis.
He smiled at Sandile, certain that Palpitoad had been knocked out, only for a strong wind and a blue blur to pass right beside him and smash onto Sandile, sending him flying into the wall behind Clay this time.
Alexis looked behind him in awe, the cracked wall had been used by Palpitoad to jump off and propel himself forward to strike back at Sandile with a crazy amount of force.
It seemed that Alexis had underestimated how tanky a Palpitoad could be.
He recalled Sandile and looked at the battlefield for a few seconds. Sandile's last Rage might not have knocked out the Water/Ground type, but it should have done enough damage for Pawniard to easily take it out.
Pawniard was released from his pokeball with a powerful throw.
Alexis could feel his blood flowing and his heart pumping.
Yeah, this was it. This weird feeling of freedom he always felt when he got to fight against a strong trainer. When he could forget about everything else and only worry about the battle.
"Yes, this is it!" "Alright Pawniard, let's show 'em what you're made of!" Alexis shouted as a vicious smile spread through his face.
Pawniard growled in agreement, "Metal Claw!" Pawniard lunged at the stunned Palpitoad and slashed at it, Clay screamed something but Alexis didn't even hear him.
After the third slash, Pawniard stabbed the Water/Ground type and lifted it above his head, then threw Palpitoad to the ground as hard as he could.
Alexis looked at Clay with a smile on his face. Maybe he was enjoying this a bit too much.
Clay recalled Palpitoad. He whispered something to the Pokeball and then looked up at Alexis. "Well then, last pokemon," he said as he threw his last pokeball. A blue and black pokemon appeared with a flash, the previous evolution of Clay's main pokemon, a Drilbur.
"Pawniard, rush it with Metal Claw!" Alexis ordered. Pawniard ran toward the Drilbur at a quick pace with his blade hands ready to rip and tear.
"Drilbur, use Metal Claw too," both pokemon locked themselves in a flurry of attacks, each one trying to slash away at the other.
Alexis noticed that Clay was indulging him, as each hit from Metal Claw would hurt Drilbur much more than they could ever hurt Pawniard, since Drilbur was only a Ground type, unlike his evolution who was Ground/Steel.
Or maybe he was indulging himself, something a businessman and Gym Leader like himself rarely got the chance to do
After a minute of slashing at each other, Alexis ordered Pawniard to back away, having suffered little damage thanks to his metal exterior and Metal typing, something that could not be said for Drilbur, who was now bleeding from various small wounds.
"Pawniard, Assurance!" "Dodge it with Dig!" Pawniard almost got close enough, but Drilbur still managed to dodge the attack by going underground.
"Pawniard, get ready to use Torment!" Alexis screamed, yet before Pawniard could get ready, Drilbur busted from the ground and hit Pawniard with a very effective Ground type move. The Dark/Steel type went flying from the blow, in spite of that, he managed to perform a backflip and land safely on his feet.
"Drilbur, use Dig!" the Drilbur disappeared from view once again.
Drilbur busted from the ground a second time and attempted to hit his opponent. This time Pawniard was prepared and delivered a kick-powered Torment to the Ground type's face before being hit.
Pawniard went flying once more, this time in too much pain to gain control of his flight, hitting the ground with a harsh clunk sound.
Despite that, Torment had made contact with Drilbur, who had now been bleeding for a while.
This was going to be their only chance.
Alexis ordered Pawniard to use the most powerful move in his arsenal: Assurance.
Pawniard ran toward Drilbur with a scream of war, Dark energy flowing through every part of his body as he prepared to deliver what Alexis hoped would be the final blow.
"Drilbur, use Metal Claw to defend yourself!" Clay screamed, a bit of despair clear in his voice.
Pawniard smashed against Drilbur, who even though had done as his trainer had commanded, couldn't handle the attack from Pawniard and went flying backward, falling on its back.
"Don't let it recuperate Pawniard, use Metal Claw!"
Pawniard jumped and came down on Drilbur hard, stabbing the two blades he had for hands deep into Drilbur's skin, who let a terrible shriek as the horrible pain from being stabbed registered.
Pawniard pulled out the blades he had for hands from Drilbur and got ready to stab his opponent once again but stopped as he noticed the pokemon underneath him had passed out from the sudden pain and extensive blood loss.
Clay quickly recalled Drilbur and made his way to Alexis, a small smile clear on his face.
"You got a great fighting style, kid! The type that gets the blood flowing, y'know?" Clay said, congratulating him as he flicked the Quake Badge at him.
Alexis cached the badge from the air and got a good look at it. It was shaped like a vertical piece of earth, the top half of which was cracked and slid out of place, resembling the result of an earthquake.
"Thank you very much, sir. It was a great battle," Alexis said as he recalled Pawniard, a smile bright on his face.
"Let's get on the elevator. I gotta meet with some people in 30 minutes, so I'll give you some tips as we ride up."
Alexis listened closely to Clay's advice when it came to Sandile, which could be summarized into two things: he needed to teach him Rock Tomb, and work on having him follow his orders when he was under the influence of Moxie.
After leaving the Driftveil City Gym, Alexis entered the Pokemon Center and requested a room for the next two days, left his pokemon with nurse Joy for the night so they could be healed, and went to his room.
Alexis lay down and tried to sleep but couldn't stop thinking about the last piece of advice Clay had given him.
"I looked at your data and noticed you don't have any pokemon besides those two. The first three or four gym battles are pretty easy compared to the last four. The fourth Gym you challenge will use three pokemon and the fifth will use four. I strongly recommend that you catch one or two more pokemon," Clay's words rang in his ears. It was true, he needed more team members.
But Alexis was picky, not to say obstinate and prejudiced.
He remembered the list he'd made back when he was seventeen of possible Dark type pokemon that he would have liked to have on his team and a list of the ones he simply did not like or considered too weak.
He wasn't going to catch a weak pokemon or a non-Dark type just to have the numerical advantage.
Alexis let out a long, slow sigh and turned off the lights. He would think about it tomorrow.
He did not, in fact, think about it tomorrow. Instead, he slept all morning long, picked up a healed Sandile and Pawniard from a smiling Nurse Joy, and made his way to Route 6. Only stopping when he walked into a small clearing in the middle of the forest.
Pawniard and Sandile were let out of their respective pokeball with a flash soon after. They looked around and relaxed as they saw no opponent they had to fight.
"Excellent work against Clay yesterday you guys, you two were spectacular, If I do say so myself," Alexis said with a smile, Pawniard simply nodded with his eyes closed and a serious face, while Sandile let out a happy bark with his tongue out.
"Tomorrow we'll start traveling Route 6 and try to reach Chargestone Cave in reasonable time. I've heard at the Pokemon Center that it's pretty easy to get lost in Chargestone and that even if you don't, it takes a while to traverse through it since it's a huge cave, so I want you two to be ready to not see the sun for a couple of weeks if not a full month," Alexis finished explaining his thoughts about the next step in their journey, both pokemon seemed excited at the chance to journey to a cave.
"Today I'm going to buy supplies for 3 months just in case. You two have the rest of the day free to do whatever you want, just make sure to return to this spot by sunset," Alexis said as he looked around.
Pawniard nodded again and started walking away at a slow pace, Alexis suspected he would hunt for a bit and then train. Pawniard just seemed that committed to getting stronger.
Before Sandile could leave, Alexis kneeled down beside him so they could be closer to each other when he spoke, "look Sandile, the way you disobeyed my orders yesterday was not ok or safe. When I don't give any commands, you can do what you think is best, but when I do, it is imperative that you follow my command. That Rock Smash could have hurt you really bad if it had hit you slightly differently," Alexis said. Sandile looked down with a bit of shame in his eyes.
"Hey, don't stress about it, ok? You didn't know better, and I know it wasn't 100% your fault. Moxie has a very powerful effect on pokemon, especially young," Alexis said as he extended his hand to scratch below Sandile's chin.
Sandile smiled and purred for a bit before Alexis got up from his position, "Now go hunt and have fun."
-(=0=)-
Alexis walked the streets of Driftvei towards the Pokemon Center. He'd already bought the necessary supplies and was currently carrying them in his backpack, which he wanted to leave at the center before going to pick up Sandile and Pawniard.
He thought about his financial situation as he walked. Supplies for three months had cost him a whooping 700 dollars. This time it had been specifically expensive due to having to buy not only enough food to last for 3 months but water too since that was a rare commodity in caves.
Alexis had calculated. He usually walked almost all day long and drank 2 liters a day. 3 months = 90 days. That meant he would drink 180 Liters in 90 days. Since he was buying bottles of 5 Liters each, all you had to do was divide by 5 and you got... 36 bottles.
That's how much water he'd bought.
Now, since a Pokecapsule could only carry up to 100 kilograms (220 pounds) inside it, Alexis had to buy 3 more. Two for the water and two for the food.
He thanked Arceus for the 20% discount trainers with three badges received, as the price of the three pokecapsules had dropped from $510 to $408.
Not much, but when you were trying to save money, every penny counted.
As he walked, he thought about what Clay had said yesterday. He needed a third member for his team, and it wasn't like he didn't want one. Dark type pokemon were just rare on this side of the country.
He perked up. Maybe he could cal-
Alexis fell to the ground, almost slamming his face against the floor if not for his quick reaction.
He had tripped.
He got back on his feet in a flash and looked around.
No one had seen it. Good.
He glanced downward, it seemed he had stumbled on a branch. Strange, considering Alexis had been looking down as he walked and was pretty certain there had been no branch there before.
He looked around once again. The street was indeed empty, maybe too empty. Hell, this place was in complete silence, yet mere seconds ago, Alexis could have sworn he'd heard people talking not too far away.
"Hello!? Anyone there!?" Alexis screamed.
Only silence and the echo of his voice answered him. Something was obviously wrong her-
"Hey dude, you ok? Why are you screaming?" "AAAHHHH!" Alexis turned around to look at a man standing right behind him.
"How long have you been standing there?!" Alexis yelled at the man, putting some distance between the two.
This situation was really freaking him out.
"Been standing here for a while, I'm waiting for my girlfr-"
"This guy was definitely not here a second ago, I swear!"
"Whatever man," Alexis interrupted the confused fellow, who just stared at the panicking trainer as he ran away as fast as he could.
XXX
A/N: I know the pace at which Alexis has been getting badges might seem too fast, but after this one, he'll start to get them more slowly.
I've written it this way to indicate how getting your first three badges is pretty easy in this world.