Chapter Four: Pewter
"Right." I said, rubbing my eyes. We were, at that moment, twenty feet above the ground due to my paranoia, wedged uncomfortably into various nooks on a tree. Let's just say the run-in with a certain something has made me a little paranoid.
A rustling sound came from the branches above, making Charmander and Pikachu stiffen. They relaxed when the feathery shape of Aria glided down a branch. Shoot, if I stay any longer in this creepy forest I was going to go crazy. It's not that Team Rocket gave me a fright (pshaw. Please, that was relatively small fry).
It's just that I am now properly terrified of bug Pokémon (I've always hated most bug species. They seem always to want to latch onto me and not let go). Those ridiculous Wurmples and Caterpies and Joltiks and ugh, that stupid James- he is slimy enough to count as a species of slug.
Viridian Forest was filled with bugs. You name it, and you can generally find whichever disgusting creature you're looking for clinging to your clothes within the next three seconds. I spent most of the day screaming and running around with my Pokémon tagging behind who would occasionally (and only occasionally, those bastards!) help me with my plight. My Pidgeotto generally ended up eating them, which I found rather satisfying (I know I'm cruel), but once she got full even she wouldn't have anything to do with it.
Those useless things.
I packed up my sleeping bags and got ready to go. According to Aria (Nope. I still can't speak Pokémon. We communicated through lots of wing-flapping, cawing, weird gestures, and general misunderstanding), we could make it out of the forest today if we hurried. At this moment, any bug-free place would be a paradise for me.
Just as I made it down, a flash of gold fur bolted past me, and raced around me in circles for a few seconds. The hyperactive fox sat down, and showed me the cutest expression I'd ever seen.
I was surprised. I hadn't seen Vulpix since we got out of Team Rocket's hideout. I had to release him once I realised that yes, taking him with me would count as an act of theft if he wasn't willing to go with me. I was perfectly happy while not spending time with Officer Jenny for stealing, thank you very much.
"Hiya, little fella." I knelt down and patted his head. The fox made a sound almost like a purr and butted his head against my hand. Behind me, I could hear Charmander growling. I got the feeling it was something rude, judging by Pikachu's snickering.
Vulpix snuffled around my pockets and fished something out, before dropping the object at my feet. He sat there patiently as I picked the shrunken Pokéball up.
"Are you sure?" Oh, who am I kidding? Mentally, I was shrieking Yes! Yes! Yes! so loudly I was almost afraid the Pokémon in the clearing would hear me. I wasn't gonna look a gift Vulpix in the mouth any day, nosiree.
I knew the next town was Pewter, and Brock is the Gym Leader there. An infinite supply of Solarbeam uses at my disposal wouldn't go wrong unless the Gym roof got blown off, in which case I'd have to pay the bills.
Look out, Brock. I'm coming for you with an army of magic animals.
I walked out of the TM shop in Pewter feeling satisfied. I'd paid to use a HM Flash on all my Pokémon (Oh goody. Now my oversized pigeon can throw a disco party in a dark cave. Who came up with that idea?).
At least this time I found the Pokécenter relatively easily, with only an hour of searching and walking into multiple dead-ends and Pikachu stealing a guy's- never mind.
"We hope to see you again!" the Nurse Joy said brightly. Why would you want to see me again? The only reason I'd come back here would be because my weird magicky animals got beaten up so badly I had to rush them to hospital. Are you hoping I'd lose all my Pokémon battles just so I'd have to go to the same Pokécenter multiple times?
Anyway...
I'd scheduled a Gym Challenge in about half an hour- yes, apparently you have to make an appointment now. So I took advantage of the Pokécenter's training yard to watch my magical animals beat each other up for practice.
Charmander- Lv.14
Pikachu- Lv.16
Pidgeotto- Lv.20
Vulpix- Lv.16
"Not bad." I say to myself as I snapped my Pokédex shut. I'd worked out a few tricks and strategies with them too. The thing is, I've only just realised that my whole team is weak to Rock Types. Not that it really matters, of course, since all the Pokémon in my team have learnt moves that were super effective against Rock Pokémon. Every time I play Pokémon Red, my Charmander's Metal Claw was always the one to win me Brock's badge.
Charmander looked up from under Pikachu's tail, who in turn was wedged under Aria's left wing, who in turn was being sat on top of by a nonchalant Vulpix, still chewing on the remains of a sandwich.
"When I said I wanted you to fight, I meant by using your moves." I scowled. "Not a bar brawl."
Vulpix leapt off the Poképile daintily and went to find more things to eat. For a tiny, elegant fox, that thing sure eats a lot.
I cleared my throat, trying to get their attention. When that didn't work, I waved a packet of Poképuffs around.
Nope. Shouldn't have done that.
It got their attention all right. As one massive Poképuff crazed heap, they leapt at me and set to devouring the Poképuffs.
I narrowly avoided becoming roadkill and exhaled a sigh of exasperation.
Bastards, the lot of them.
I really need some human friends.
"You guys are not honestly- you know what, never mind."
Pikachu and Vulpix seemed to be engaged in a game of chess. Literally. With a proper chessboard and everything. Vulpix seemed to be winning, with a big pile of Pikachu's white pieces on his side.
I'm just gonna assume they stole the chessboard. That's the most likely scenario anyway.
"C'mon." I said impatiently as I dragged them off their stools and headed out of the Pokécenter. "We're gonna be late to whopping Brock's ass."
After a certain amount of being distracted by various roadside objects and general procrastinating (Vulpix decided to piss in someone's bicycle helmet. I hope it belonged to that smug-faced smartass- excuse me- what was his name again? Oh yeah, Blue), we found our way to the Pewter Gym.
Want me to describe it? Two words: Big, and rocky. And very big, very rocky. It looked like someone was trying to make a cake but failed miserably and ended up with a lump of something so burnt it could possibly be made into a weapon.
A bored lady with glasses sat behind a table.
"Name." she said in a very bored voice. "And the number of Badges obtained."
"Aster Silverwood." I replied, mirroring her voice. "No badges."
"Whatever." she sighed, scrawling something onto an important-looking piece of paper with a red pen. "You're just going to lose like the rest of them, kiddo. Don't get any big ideas"
What is wrong with you, lady? This is only the first Gym! If I lose my first Gym battle I'll write I'm a loser on my face with a permanent marker. Oh yeah, I'll do the same to my Pokémon too if that's the case. Don't forget about them.
She waved me through. "Count yourself lucky if you get through the preliminary rounds, girl."
Never before have I ever wanted to break someone's glasses and and dunk their face into a pot filled with slugs, but that was what I felt like in that brief moment.
Quoting Green from the Pokémon manga: The prelims were a breeze. I'm going to skip the boring details where Pikachu and Aria one-hit KO'ed all the low-leveled rock-types with Steel type moves (Pikachu occasionally resorted to just frying them if they didn't have the Ground-type immunity to electricity- shoulda seen the looks on the trainers' faces).
Apparently the Gym trainers didn't know Electric and Flying types could learn Steel moves. Most of them looked like they'd just seen an old guy showering when their Pokémon fainted. What noobs.
Pikachu had decided to take himself back to the Pokécenter and Aria had gone with him. They were probably going to cause hell for Nurse Joy, but I let them go anyway. I didn't need them for the big fight. That was down to Char and Vulpix.
A certain squinty-eyed teen was waiting in a rocky field with a Geodude by his side. I kinda expected the Onix, so I was pretty disappointed.
The referee cleared his throat loudly. "This will be a two on two battle between Gym Leader Brock and challenger-"
"Wait." I interrupted. "I thought Brock was supposed to make this big speech about rock-hard determination or whatsit."
The teen on the opposite side of the battlefield slumped visibly as I wondered at the scene. The referee coughed in a embarrassed way.
"I've lost three matches today." Brock mumbled. "I'm not in a mood to make a speech. This is my fourth Geodude." he indicated the hunk of moving rock somewhat miserably. The Geodude glared in apparent ill-temper and crossed its arms. Brock slumped even more.
The referee coughed again before Brock could embarrass himself any further. "Let the match begin!" he said hurriedly.
I dropped Vulpix's Pokéball on the ground and he burst out in a flash of light, sending out a wave of heat and light with his Drought ability. Just before Brock called out a command, I quickly returned Vulpix and sent Charmander out instead.
Well, I just showed them my hand. Two fire types against a Rock Gym leader. If Brock was surprised, he didn't show it. I was half expecting him to give me shit for fighting with a type disadvantage, but considering the fact Red probably just passed through here and curbstomped everyone with his Pikachu, Brock probably had nothing to say.
"Defence Curl." Brock called in a dispirited way. The hunk of floating rock curled into a ball and a sheen of light flickered across it before it uncurled.
Charmander eyed it with some level of contempt, then opened his jaws wide. A needle-thin stream of flame that shone with the intensity of a laser shot out and hit the opposing Geodude with the force of a eight-bit drill piece operating at full power. The result was very satisfying.
The Geodude skidded back a good few meters and tried to pull itself back together (Literally. Bits of rock were crumbling away. How Rock-Types do that and survive without apparent crippling is a mystery to me). You could almost see stars in its eyes.
In the background, Brock was yelling incomprehensible orders. I held back a snicker. That little thread of light was actually a Flamethrower- concentrated into a thin laser. With Charmander's Solar Power ability in the Sunny Day that Vulpix's Drought set off powering the move as well, that poor ball of stone really didn't stand a chance.
The Geodude blinked a few times and shakily got its arms up in a wobbly attack stance. It blinked some more to clear its vision-
Just in time to see claws flashing a metallic silver slashing downwards.
Brock sighed and recalled the fainted Pokémon. He didn't seem to be surprised. Charmander landed back in our side of the arena with a somersault, teeth bared in a reptilian grin. The golden flame on the tip of his tail was noticeably bigger than it was a few moments ago. I guess the Pokédex entry on Charmander actually had been researched. Well, a bit of it, anyway.
"Geodude has fainted! Charmander wins. Gym Leader Brock, please choose your next Pokémon." The referee announced.
Brock pulled out a Heavy Ball and dropped it on the ground. There was a THUD and a explosion of light-
I shrieked something along the lines of YIPE, GIANT SNAKE! and dove for cover. After a moment I peeked out from the bench I was hiding under (Thankfully unoccupied. Else I would probably have had to say goodbye to my dignity) to find Brock staring at me with a long face, and the referee gaping. The Onix on the field did not look impressed.
I got out feeling pretty embarrassed, and resumed my place on the battlefield. Brock tapped his foot on the ground and the Onix moved. Before I could blink, Charmander was flying across the arena. I got pretty confused for a while. I was sure Charmanders did not have the power of flight.
Charmander hit the wall and then hit the ground as well a few seconds later. I realised no, Charmander did not possess the power of flight. Onix had simply moved so fast it was invisible for a brief moment.
"Keep to long distance attacks." I said, making an effort to keep my voice calm in the excitement of battle. "Go for the eyes and try to blind it."
Pulling himself up from where he fell, Charmander turned his blue eyes on the huge rock snake. Brock tapped his foot again. The Onix opened its mouth to deliver some sort of attack, and Charmander took his opportunity to strike. He spat a jet of flame- not so concentrated as the one before- and hit the Onix in the back of its throat.
The huge snake roared, head-sized rocks flying out of its mouth. Charmander darted forwards to try and land a Metal Claw. I cried out a warning- too late- as the Onix's tail whipped up and struck the little lizard a glancing blow to the side, sending him into the ground in a tumble of golden scales. Then the rock snake coiled up and spat a barrage of rocks in Charmander's general direction. The fire lizard didn't have the time to dodge them all.
Charmander got up on all fours a little dazedly, looking battered. His tail flame flared up with a dull WHUMP and he stood a little straighter (Still on all fours), his blue eyes burning with unholy fire. His Blaze ability had activated and he sure as hell wouldn't be beaten by this shit-eating snake.
I made a pretty tough decision then. "Char, buddy, come back." I called softly. The lizard in question growled without even looking back at me. I knew he still wanted to fight, but I couldn't have him fainting just yet. If Vulpix's plan didn't work, I was going to need backup.
Brock waited patiently for us. How gentlemanly of him. His Onix still had steam coming out of its mouth and looked like it was itching to smash Charmander into the dirt, but it wasn't going to attack without its trainer's consent.
"Charmander. I'm going to need you if Vulpix can't do it. I can't take the chances of you fainting now. We still have a record to make! Please?"
As silly as it sounds, when Charmander becomes a Charizard, I want to be able to brag 'This Charizard has never fainted before'. Yeah, I know. You people are probably wanting to know which kindergarten I go to. It's quite pointless, I'll admit, but hey, who doesn't want bragging rights?
Charmander slowly turned around, the fire fading from his eyes. Reluctantly, he padded to my side. I picked him up and gave him a hug, stroking his tattered, dirt-smeared scales. "Good boy." I whispered, and set him on my shoulder. I felt him put one little arm around my neck and bury his snout in my hair.
"It is rare to see a Pokémon from the Charizard line behave so tamely to a trainer, especially when requested to back down from a fight with a possibility of victory." Brock remarked quietly.
I smiled to myself. I didn't know where Charmander had come from, only remembering waking up in this world with his ball. Of course he was special. Wait, now I just sound like a proud parent. That's bad.
"Vulpix." I said, clicking the button on his Pokéball. Vulpix sprang onto the battlefield and sat down, starting to lick his chest fur. His Drought ability made the fading sunlight flare up again.
Vulpix fired a Solarbeam, which the Onix dodged. I clapped my hand twice, and Vulpix used Flash. Onix roared, flinching as the bright light stabbed its eyes. A while later, just as the light started fading, Vulpix got the snake with a Solarbeam.
There was some more roaring, but strangely it stayed relatively still. Vulpix used Solarbeam again. And again. Onix, by this stage, looked like it was about to faint. I frowned in a puzzled way. Then I noticed the red aura around Onix's coils.
"Oh shi-" I managed to get out as I realised what it was.
Onix used Bide.
Vulpix didn't even bother to dodge. He simply collapsed after being hit. I cursed myself for not remembering Brock's signature move.
"Vulpix has fainted! Onix wins-"
"Wait." I interrupted. "Hold your call." The referee looked confused. Then the fallen Vulpix shimmered, and faded away. A look of realisation dawned on Brock's face.
"Onix! Move...!" Brock shouted.
A split second later, the ground erupted beside Onix, and a flash of gold leapt out. Vulpix darted up along Onix's coils with the speed of a Quick Attack and jumped as he got to the rock snake's head and did a backflip so he was facing its head.
And promptly nailed Onix between the eyes with a Solarbeam, point-blank.
It was all over after that.
"Substitute." Brock muttered to himself as he recalled his fainted Pokémon. "Of course. When you used Flash, Vulpix switched places with a Substitute and went underground. Clever."
"Yep." I grinned. Vulpix had come up with that one by himself, smart fox.
"Well, I seem to owe you a badge." Brock sighed, fishing something out of his pocket and throwing it across the arena. Vulpix caught it and dropped it by my feet. I picked the Boulder Badge up and stuffed it in my pocket, since I had neglected to get a Badge Case.
As I exited the Gym, I faintly heard Brock mutter:"No wonder the chicks don't dig me." In a very dejected tone.
I am once again, very sorry for the late update. I tend to get lazy during the school holidays.