Mars hatched exactly two days after Jiggly (named Iggly at the time) did. And they were… not as helpless as we made them out to be, being babies and all. Iggly was a loud Igglybuff, and she easily won Isidora's heart over. Mars was something I hadn't expected. A Fighting type that looked pretty tough… was pretty cool. He was quieter than Iggly, but sneakier. He'd disappear all of the sudden, then just come up behind me a few minutes later. I dreamt of training him to evolve, and win battles. Isidora on the other hand, though, just took Iggly out shopping all day, every day. She didn't once mention traveling the Johto region as Trainer, even though we both applied for our licenses after I got Mars, just so we can legally have practice battle rounds at National Park. Even so, Isidora wasn't so interested.
Which made everyone spit out their coffee (and lemonade) the morning Isidora announced that she wanted to finally go out and travel with Iggly. And not only was I shocked, but upset when she said she didn't want me traveling with her. I mean, sure, traveling with your sibling is usually last resort, but… She told my parents that I wasn't up for it yet. Which stung, because I knew that Mars wasn't so strong. But I kept telling myself that I'd show her up and become stronger.
The day she left for Violet City to earn the first Badge in the circuit was the same kind of day I left Goldenrod; parents crying, me trying to be supportive, and so on. And the next time I saw her was when she came from Route 34 down south after earning her Hive Badge from Azalea Town.
It was around noon by the time I started my trek on Route 37. This was the first real Route I felt like was really the beginning of my journey. The trails of trees confused me a little, but I soon got the hang of it. I mean, one wrong turn, and I'd be back to the beginning. Or maybe find my way back to Goldenrod. The path was misleading, for one. I told the Blackbelt to follow the trees north… But maybe I just got him lost. On the bright side, Mars wasn't tired.
I checked my Pokégear, and it was already seven, though the sun's lower position hadn't really worried me yet. Just yet. And I knew that I was just starting to get through the route. This meant I misled the Blackbelt when I told him that it'd take five to six hours. Mars was having a blast beating down any wild Pokémon that came our way, though. We were both just gaining confidence that Mars was stronger than those Stantler, Growlithe, and heck, even some Pidgeotto. A Rock Smash followed by a Mach Punch always did the trick.
I faced two Trainers on that Route. One of them was just a rookie thinking they were great just because they beat Falkner in Violet City and challenged us seeing Mars. Mars sized him down with our match easily, and he went back running to the east to heal up a Wooper and Mareep. He probably was going to go challenge the Azalea Town Gym after that. And I soon had the moment that most Trainers didn't really pay attention to. I had won actual prize money from a Battle. And most of it was probably from his Violet City Gym challenge. Maybe it'd be really easy to take down Falkner, even with a disadvantage with Fighting Pokémon. I won the Plain Badge, and since it was the third Badge in the official circuit, the first two couldn't be hard. Not with Mars anyway. Mars was enjoying himself the whole time, practicing his fast punches on any Pokémon that bothered us. If only I came upon a Fighting type sooner, though. I felt shaky when I had to challenge two of Whitney's Pokémon with just one. And the Ecruteak Gym Leader was going to be tougher than her.
The other trainer was tougher than the greenhorn. And yes, I was a greenhorn too. But at least I wasn't an arrogant one, right? That's what I kept telling myself. But this was even harder, because this one had a Psychic Pokémon with him.
He looked like he was coming from around Goldenrod too, and with a Drowzee, I was scared. It'd be my first match with a direct disadvantage. The boy was wearing a teal colored trench coat, and never looked at me in the eye, even when he was talking directly to me. Actually, the whole encounter was bizarre.
"You are a trainer, are you not? I'd like to battle." The boy said. He looked around my age, give or take. He came out of nowhere, and he challenged me out of nowhere too. And his eyes were pointing at my general direction, but they never looked once directly at me. His speech was off too, like he was being either really stuck up, or polite.
"Okay, I only have one Pokémon on me, so is a one-on-one battle okay?" I told him. He nodded, again without looking at me.
"I am okay with that. Remy, go on." He gestured out his Drowzee to take the field. I did the same to Mars.
"Mars, you got this!" I encouraged, and Mars shouted a "chan" while coming in between the Drowzee and I. My first Psychic showdown. I told Mars to use Fake Out, and like always, caused the Drowzee to flinch. Fake Out was the first move I can make sure to use first in any situation. The boy gave his Drowzee a sharp look. But again, it was just to the general direction, and not at the cringing Psychic Pokémon.
"Mars now use Mach Punch!" I commanded. And it hit fast and hard from my view, but definitely not enough to defeat his opponent. The boy didn't look affected by the hit, and neither did his Drowzee.
"Remy, use Hypnosis." The boy said quietly. I hadn't seen anyone look so emotionless while giving a command, and it felt cold. The Drowzee quickly ran up to Mars, to look him in the eye. Mars soon stopped his movements and fell down, asleep. Which was bad. Really, really bad. "Mars, wake up, wake up!" I shouted repetitively, hoping to get some sense into him. But he laid there unresponsive, and the boy smiled.
"There's not point of doing that. Only it can wake up from Hypnosis. Your yelling isn't really going to help him through this." He paused and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath, and opened his mouth.
"Now, Remy, Dream Eater." He smirked.
The Drowzee yelled, and shot some sort of red energy at Mars. The energy soon enveloped Mars, and began its damage. Mars screamed while sleeping, but didn't wake up. It was a super effective hit, and soon ended after Mars stopped screaming. From the name of the attack, I guessed that Mars had its… dream eaten by Psychic type. Mars didn't look knocked out, though, and his sturdiness was even shining through with special attacks. Still, he looked very much pained. So I tried calling him to wake up again.
"Mars, please wake up! You can win this if you can just wake up and defeat that Psychic!" I yelled. I wasn't desperate. I just needed Mars to hear the sound of my voice, no matter how futile the Drowzee's Trainer thought it was. The boy began smirking to himself, and Mars was still in an unresponsive state. Looks like we were going to lose this match now.
"Remy, finish off that Fighting Pokémon, it's just no match for Psychic Pokémon." The boy suggested. And those last words were the one that struck me. I'm not going to mention the fact that the boy showed emotions (albeit rather sadistic ones) for once. What got me was the fact he just told that I am going to be defeated by every Psychic Pokémon I encountered. No matter what. It was the law for Fighting types to lose to Psychic types. All he said was a sentence. But to me, this now became a test for training Fighting Pokémon. And that just upped my will to prove him wrong. To prove him wrong, and pass this test. I wasn't going to back down here. And now I just needed Mars to be right by my side.
"Mars, we're not letting a Psychic type bring us down, you hear me? I know for a fact that you don't want to lose either, and that's why all I'm asking you is to wake up and beat them!" I shouted. The boy glanced over and had a face of 'it's useless' but then he quickly looked at Mars, shocked. Mars was… opening his eyes. And he then slowly stood up. He got back into his battle position, and turned back to give me the most fitting fighter's 'I got this' grin before looking back to our opponents. I did too. The Drowzee was looking back fiercely at us. His trainer was glaring. He was frustrated. He missed my eye but looked at me.
"Did… you just say you were going to beat a Psychic with a Fighting type? Don't make me laugh! The mind of Psychics must always be superior to the brute strength of a blockhead Fighting Pokémon! If I lost, then I'd have no right to call myself a Psychic! Remy, use Hypnosis and put that stupid fighter back to sleep!" He shouted. And I grinned. The supposed calm and collected boy was losing his cool and began to resort to petty insults. That was a good chance to take him out.
The Drowzee began running at Mars once more, but I saw it coming already. It needed to look at Mars in the eye to use Hypnosis effectively. So I began my counterattack. "Mars, use Rock Smash on the ground! Kick up some dirt at it!" I shouted. This was my best chance. This Drowzee relied in the Hypnosis-Dream Eater strategy, and this was how I was going to break it apart. Mars did so, and punched the ground at an angle to hit the Drowzee straight in the face. It winced in the stinging pain and tried wiping its eyes, with no avail, its Trainer clenching his teeth.
"Mars, Mach Punch it until it's down!" I gave the last command. And I visibly saw around four Mach Punches. Which meant around fortyish hits had been dealt. More and more punches were thrown at the defenseless Hypnosis Pokémon, and I wasn't going to call off Mars to stop. And soon enough, the Drowzee collapsed. Mars breathed heavily before groggily walking back towards at me. He was exhausted. I took my Pokéball, and returned him for some well-earned rest.
"Thanks Mars, you were awesome." I returned the ball into my pocket. Then I looked at my opponent still glaring, even while retuning his fallen Pokémon.
"Blockhead, we'll meet again, and I will make sure to put you and your Hitmonchan back where you belong; below Psychics. I hope you enjoy yourself when I bring about your end." The boy announced. He took out a Pokéball and another yellow and brown Pokémon came out. I recognized it as Kadabra. They both looked at me with needles, and I went for Mars' Pokéball, just in case they were going to start something.
Instead, the boy told his Pokémon to use Teleport and bring him back to Goldenrod City.
And I had another victory under my belt. Wait, correction; Mars and I had another victory under our belts. And I knew that we can begin to hold our own against our biggest problem that we were most likely going to face; Psychic Pokémon.
We kept on walking for another half hour before our legs gave out. Plus, it was now really getting dark. I took out a sleeping bag and took out a lighter to begin a fire. Mars helped out collect wood after I got him a Super Potion to make sure he was good to go from our pretty intense battle. In the back of my mind I knew that the Blackbelt from before must have spent a whole day or so traveling through here, opposed to the five-six hours I told him. That made me feel a little guilty, but then again, I wasn't expecting to meet up with him any time soon.
I opened a small bag that had a few sandwiches my mom had prepared for my journey, and I was grateful for that. Because I was starving. I laughed at how much we walked today without break. I thought I'd take a rest, but Mars wanted to keep going further. But now Mars was next to me, tired as I was (probably more since he actually fought), and eating some sandwiches and drinking water. I got plenty of Pokémon food for the road, but I figured Mars deserved a treat. And Mom's sandwiches were going to have to be for the both of us.
The sky looked fantastic. I only have seen the sky being so clean on occasion when Dad would take me and Isidora out far to Route 34 and look at the stars. Far away from the big and bright Goldenrod City. The memories began to fill my head as Mars and I ate quietly. The last time we headed out to Route 34 with my dad and Sister, Mars and Iggly had just hatched, and I needed a good name for my Tyrogue. That night, my dad had gotten a telescope for us took at the stars with for the first time. Isidora just looked at the moon the whole time, and Iggly was really interested in it just as much.
"The most famous sightings for Igglybuff and Jigglypuff are right on the outskirts of Mt. Moon in Kanto, you know? And they get to look at this moon with much more feeling than us, Isidora. "Dad told her.
"It's so pretty! Here, Iggly, you like it too?" She asked her small puffball. It cried a few 'puff' and cuddled up to my sister. It was a nice, heartwarming sight.
"Sebastian, you want to take a look now?" Dad asked. And I was looking forward to finding a UFO or Legendary Pokémon in space or something else that was big and meaningful. I was disappointed when all I saw were just stars, though.
"Dad, these stars aren't really interesting… They all look the same!" I told him. He laughed in a fatherly way that he even does today. My sister giggled and started to play with Iggly, under the moon.
"They're not all the same, son. Some are further from us, other are closer to us… some are different colored, and some are bigger than others… They're like people, Sebastian. You can't say they look all the same, right?" He lectured me. And I couldn't disagree with that, because I didn't. I looked at him and decided to give the stars another chance. I looked through the telescope, and started looking for some interesting stars. Soon enough I found a start that was slightly bigger than the rest of them. Sure, it was way smaller than the moon, but it was a star that stood out to me. I called my dad over to look at it. My Tyrogue too went up to it to look while I did. Tyrogue looked fascinated and went back to me, and my dad took a look through the lens of the large object. He stared at it for a good while.
"I don't think this is a star, Sebastian. It's slightly redder, and looks much closer to us. I'm going to say that is has to be the planet Mars… Nice find, kiddo!" he exclaimed. Tyrogue went back the telescope to look at it. I kinda knew what planets were. After all, Earth was a planet, and we lived on it. But I never really thought about other planets. Still, Dad said that it was a good find. I did find something special out in the telescope, just like I had hoped. I looked over at my nameless Tyrogue looking through the telescope, even though he was much smaller than the object. Mars, huh? A special name for a special Pokémon; my first Pokémon.
"Tyrogue…" he turned away from the telescope to look at me. "How would you like to be named Mars? Isn't it such a cool name?" I asked him. He looked at me and gave me a wide grin, and nodded.
My special Pokémon named after the special planet that I viewed under the telescope that night. Mars the Tyrogue. Dad and Isidora thought it was a good name for him, too.
Mars and I finished our meal, and went to sleep. It was the first night out on the road, but it was a clear night and we were far away from the bright city lights. I knew that Mars didn't sleep for a good hour later. It was alright, because neither did I. And it was because we both gazed at the night sky for the longest time before calling it a night.
I set my alarm on my Pokégear to go off early in the morning, so we can get enough distance in the day. That's what I had hoped, but it just didn't work out as well as I hoped. I was still not used to waking up early, so I did the classic 'give me five more minutes' before. But those five minutes soon became almost an hour. Mars noticed how I was lazing around, and gave a nice Fake Out to get me up, ready and chipper. After getting our campsite cleared up and eating breakfast (which was nothing more than a breakfast bar and some milk from powder) we continued through Route 37. It was a route much larger than I thought, but my Pokégear told me it was going to be just another hour or two when I reach Ecruteak.
Nothing else happened that really should be taken note of. Wild Pokémon started popping up; Mars beat them. We found some berries on trees; we ate them. Mars got hurt from a strong barrage from wild Pokémon; I healed him up. Nothing was too interesting, guess there were no Trainers on this route to battle. Shame.
Later on in the hour we found a group of trees with three different colored Apricorn. They looked pretty good, so I picked one of each. If they weren't edible, I'd just give sell them off. I tried eating the red one. And then I…
Let's just say that I was definitely going to sell them, okay? Mars agreed with me.
I checked my Pokégear telling me that it was almost ten in the morning. But the more important fact, the fact that made me take Mars by the glove and spring forward, was that I had a bar on my Pokégear, which meant we were getting really near to Ecruteak. I soon noticed the green leaves get more orange as we got closer.
And we reached a very old looking arch on the top of a hill, where the leaves were all in a somber eye catching reds, and almost golden orange. Going past said arch, we were soon in Ecruteak City. The city where 'The Past Meets the Present', as my Pokégear indicated. It was a very old city, but it had many modern aspects in the building style. I saw a tower in the distance, as well as some ruins. But before I'd explore with Mars, I'd go to the Pokémon Center and Pokémart to heal and replenish supplies, respectively. So I left Mars behind with Nurse Joy, and went for a small shopping trip. I decided to call the folks too, might as well.
"Isn't Ecruteak just beautiful, Sebastian? Make sure to get an autograph from the Kimono Girls, okay? Both times that I went through Ecruteak, both times they were too busy to do it!" Isidora yelled through the Pokégear.
"Yeah, okay, sure. Actually, they're strong Pokémon Trainers too, right?" I asked. The Kimono Girls were as talented Trainers as much as beautiful dancers, I've heard.
"Well, I wouldn't know, with them being always busy as they are. But you better make sure to get me their autographs, got it? I'll make sure Jiggly sings all the right notes to make fall into a coma if you don't!" she threatened. It made me feel nice. I'd start doing all the things Isidora didn't during her journey. I'd make sure that between the two of us, we'd experience everything that a Trainer should.
"I got it, I got it, Sis. I'll make sure to get you another Eevee too, okay? It's not fair that you had to give yours away to a child who won him in a bet." I said. My sister had an Eevee, rare as it was, in her possession back then. But he was apparently given away before Isidora quit training, so I only got to see him once when she passed by Goldenrod last year. My sister's team was pretty cool back then… for a girl of course. With a Jigglypuff, Gloom, Togepi, and Eevee. She could have gone fully Normal type if it wasn't for the Gloom.
"…Eevee. Nah, I don't want one. I don't want one again ever. They're too good for me. Way too good for me…" she said softly and harshly. And with a hint of depression. I wasn't serious about getting her one, but I guess having your Pokémon taken from you like she did still hurt. So I dropped the subject.
"I'm thinking about heading off to the mountains for a bit to find a Machop. Those seem more out of the way than Poliwag, so yeah. I hope I catch one that can help me bring down the Ghost Gym Leader of this city." I told her. And it was true. I wasn't going to barge into the Gym just to get humiliated with one Fighting Pokémon that can't even touch a Ghost.
"Oh, that sounds good. Make sure to catch a strong one! As for Poliwag, those like coming out at night, I think, so make sure to go at the right time!" She said. Her mood seemed to have gone through a rollercoaster. Still she gave me a good point.
"Okay, thanks sis. I'm gonna go pick up Mars at the Pokémon Center, so I'll call you guys later tonight." I said. It was early afternoon now, so I wanted to go check the mountain nearby, Mt. Mortar. At least know how to navigate in case I have to go back tomorrow. No harm in that, right?
"Alright, take care." She dismissed. I put away my Pokégear as walked back to the Center. Mars still wasn't done, so I went to the Trainer's lounge. There were a lot of other Trainers talking amongst themselves, so I decided to eavesdrop in on them.
"Hey, you know, I would have a Fog Badge too by now if I didn't have my all my Pokémon with Nurse Joy because some freak Psychic made them insomniacs!" A boy yelled at another boy in his group. There were around three boys, and two girls in the group discussion.
"I heard about him. He's been battling Pokémon Trainers left and right, and he's been beating everyone too… His Drowzee eats dreams. Can you believe that?" Another boy commented.
"That's weird; I thought we were the only ones who that guy challenged. You guy noticed how barely looked at you?" One of the girls said, the other girl nodding affirmatively, backing her up.
I took in all the information I was getting here. The Psychic I faced was a strong Trainer, it looked like, and I guess everyone here was beaten by him. 'Mars might have been in the same boat as their Pokémon.' I thought to myself.
"Well, Morty's Ghosts do the same thing, you guys. I didn't get the pleasure of battling that Psychic, but Morty was tough too, you know." He boy said, showing around his new sparkling badge.
That's right, Morty had Ghost Pokémon. I shuddered at the thought of them doing the same thing to Mars as that Drowzee did. I kept thinking, until Nurse Joy called me out that Mars was ready. It was funny too, because even though one can't tell Nurse Joy from town X apart from Nurse Joy from town Y, she can tell apart all Trainers and their Pokémon.
She handed me back Mars' Pokéball, which I glad received. I opened my mouth to speak to her, but she went first.
"Your Hitmonchan… had its dream eaten before you came here, right?" she asked me and I nodded, wondering what she wanted to tell me. "Well, the whole day I've been getting Pokémon who haven't slept at all because of it, but this Hitmonchan recovered quickly and… I was wondering, did you beat the blind Psychic boy that I've been hearing about?" she asked me. But I stopped listening after the blind part. Blind. Now it made sense why he never directly looked at anything. Not at me, nor Mars, not even his own Pokémon. And it was because he couldn't see…? No, he still looked at our general direction when he did glance at us over. I heard before some stories where Psychic Pokémon can see aura or spirit or something that not many others can to identify people and things, but this was my first experience with a human. I nodded at her, and she said that I must have been a great Trainer to do it with a Fighting type Pokémon. I thanked her and left the Center.
And headed towards the edge of the city, and to the mountains with Mars at my side. The leaves turned back green as we walked.
Maybe after an hour of walking, I found the entrance to the cave inside the large range of Mt. Mortar. And then we spent another hour going through with a flashlight, beating all the Zubat and Geodude we encountered. Something that I soon learned was how annoying those two Pokémon were going to become. I think I saw a Marill's tail before in the water, but still, I wasn't interested. No matter how rare and how much my sister would love one. And I was getting ready to leave the cave altogether until I saw it behind a rock.
A small, blue tail. A Machop's tail.
Just for those people that like speculating, a lot of important scenes from this chapter will brought up again later on. This just gives a first glance on 1.) A Rival and 2.) Isidora's journey. Many thanks to RuningWitSizorz and japaneserockergirl for their kind reviews, I do look forward to more reviews and critique!