Chapter 7: Wildflower
I made my way back into Jublife to heal Rose before diving into some light training with her. I wasn't planning on keeping her on the team full-time since Franklin was a grass-type, but since I didn't have that many pokemon, I decided the best option was to keep her around until I get a full team. Before I left the city again, an item shop caught my eye, specifically, the Quick Claw on sale in the window. I shrugged, deciding to buy it on a whim. Franklin needs a way to move faster anyway I thought to myself as I purchased the claw. I put it on a string and hung it around his neck. It looked pretty ridiculous, but at least he'd be a little faster now.
I decided that I should train Rose on Route 218, mostly because I hadn't explored it yet and was curious. After passing through the checkpoint, I found that I wasn't missing much. The route was taken up mostly by a large river. Thick trees ran along each edge, preventing me from traveling along the banks. There was a rather large pier set up on this side, but it didn't go very far downriver. At the other end of the pier, a man in a red vest was fishing. Or at least, he was trying to fish.
"Goddammit, every fucking time with these Magikarp!" he shouted, bodily throwing the poor orange fish as far downriver as he could. "I know for a fact that there's more in this damn river than that, so why am I only catching fucking-Magi-karp!?" he stomped the pier at the end to prove his point. I cleared my throat, making my presence known. The fisherman glared over his shoulder at me before packing up his fishing gear and grumbling to himself. After a few minutes, he stalked over, shoving the fishing rod and tackle box into my arms. "Here." he grunted. "You take the damn thing. I'm done with fishing." and with that, he stalked off, back through the checkpoint.
I stared at where the fisherman had left, then glanced down at the rod in my arms. I was beaten to hell and back, and was barely more than a stick with some line attached to it. Well, beggars can't be choosers I thought, putting the tackle box away in my bag and walking down to the end of the pier. I released Rose from her pokeball and sat on the wooden edge. "C'mere, I want to talk since we might be here a while." I said, patting the space next to me.
The small plant pokemon stared at me for a while before sighing and walking over. She plopped herself down at the indicated spot and stared out across the river. I cast the line out and we sat in silence for a while, the afternoon sun slowly rolling by above us. Eventually, I decided to speak up.
"So here's the gist of it Rose." she glanced at me after mentioning her new name but otherwise didn't react. "My name's Nick. I'm your trainer now. Now here's where it gets weird. I'm doing a challenge. It's very high risk. You can die. Seriously. I just want you to know that I'm going to do everything I can to keep you alive." I looked over at the grass-type. "And don't freak out to much about it. I mean, not to be rude, but I plan on using Franklin as my grass-type so I'll probably box you the first chance I get."
The little pokemon was silent for a few minutes. "Anything's better than the wild for me." she muttered darkly. I was taken aback by her attitude. Shouldn't grass-types be sunny and happy? I thought.
"Why's that?" I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.
The Budew stared at the water. "I'm not actually from here. My family lives on the other side of the mountain." I gawked at her. She walked all the way across Mt Coronet? What a badass little Budew! "My paw's the leader of the group. He says we have to avoid trainers, can't trust 'em. We have to stay in the forest, don't go into the tall grass unless we have to. But I didn't want to stay stuck there forever. So I just left. Didn't think nothing of it. Didn't end well for me either." The little Budew looked up at me. "Do you know how many fire-types live on this side of the mountain? A lot."
That seemed to be all Rose was going to say since she went silent after that. Not long after I caught my first Magikarp and had Rose take it down. We went through the pattern for a while. Hook a Magikarp, Rose uses Absorb until it faints, throw it back in and wait for another one. It would almost seem cruel if I didn't know that the Magikarp were fine. Once the sun started to set, I packed up and recalled Rose, now even in level with the rest of the crew according to my PokeTech. I walked back to the PokeCenter alone, mentally preparing for the next day.
I woke up the next morning expecting to go through my new morning ritual of waking everyone else up before cleaning up myself. Imagine my surprise when I saw Rose already up and about, prodding Franklin awake with her vines.
"What are you doing up so early?" I asked, getting to my feet and moving over to wake Sora and Mufasa.
Rose made a face at me. "Some trainer you turned out to be. Don't even know Budew are active mostly in the morning." I shrugged and set about getting ready for the day. A short while later, I checked out of the PokeCenter and made my way to Route 203, hoping to get to Oreburgh before nightfall.
Of course, the trainer who stood in the middle of the path before me seemed to have other plans.
"Hey Nick, what took you so long?" Barry asked, a challenging grin on his face and a pokeball in his hand. "I told you that the next time we meet we'd battle." he said, holding the pokeball up.
I sighed. "Dude, did you camp out here and wait for me? That's kinda creepy." I said, grabbing the first pokeball I found. I was still a little groggy from waking up, having never been a morning person.
Barry and I tossed our pokeballs at the same time. I was surprised to see it wasn't George to emerge from Barry's ball, but a Starly. The brown bird was fairly large for his species, and he ruffled his feathers in preparation for the fight. I was so tired and focused on Barry's pokemon, I didn't notice who I had sent out until she spoke to me.
"Uh, didn't you say something about trying to keep me alive yesterday boss? 'Cause this sure doesn't look like my kinda fight." Rose said, backing away slowly from the large bird.
"Oh shit! My bad Rose." I said, recalling her quickly. I double checked the next pokemon before sending her out. "Alright Sora, let's go!" I called.
"Not so fast Nick, you left yourself open!" Barry smirked. "William, use Quick Attack!" he ordered. The large Starly took off, circling around before charging down out of the sky and slamming into Sora. She seemed fine, getting to her feet quickly, but I could tell that William had a lot of power.
"Sora, we can outspeed him. Quick Attack!" I shouted. Sora launched into the sky, hurtling after William as he tried to escape the smaller bird. Just as I thought, Sora was to quick and caught him in the side.
"Use Growl William!" Barry called. The Starly shrieked at the top of it's lungs, sending Sora flying away in fear.
"Snap out of it Sora, Quick Attack!" I said. She shook her head, clearing her thoughts and sped after the larger bird again. She hit, but I could tell that she hesitated slightly and did less damage. The fight went on like this for a while, Sora attacking William at every opportunity and the other bird retaliating with growls to lower her strength. Eventually, it wasn't enough and William fell to the ground, exhausted. Sora flew down, still ready to fight, the only injury the hit form the beginning.
"Good job Will, you did your part." Barry said, comforting his pokemon as he returned it. "Let's finish the fight George!" he said excitedly, releasing the fire monkey.
"Come on Sora, I want to get to Oreburgh before nightfall. Quick Attack!" I ordered. The little bird sped across the battlefield. George put his arms up in defense and Sora slammed into him. However, the orange monkey smirked and flung Sora back, barely damaged from the attack.
What the hell? I thought. Oh shit! The Growls from earlier are still affecting Sora! She can barely do any damage! I quickly recalled the flying-type. "Come on out Mufasa!" I said, releasing the electric-type. He circled around George, who had his arms raised defensively, the intimidating glare from the Shinx doing it's work.
"Two can play at that game. George, use Leer!" Barry called. George made his own intimidating face, causing Mufasa to stop his slow pacing, his fur standing on edge.
"Come on Mufasa, use Tackle!" I cried. He charged forward, slamming into the Chimchar with a shoulder tackle, sending the little monkey back a respectable distance. We fell into another pattern, just like before. Barry's pokemon spamming status moves and Mufasa continuing to deal damage again and again. I was worried that with all the Leers, Mufasa wouldn't be able to take any attack George decided to make, but before he even got the chance, Mufasa hit him with one last Tackle and won the match.
"Aw man, that sucks." Barry pouted, returning his pokemon. "Why can't I beat you? I mean, I am the greatest trainer in Twinleaf Town! So what happened?" he asked himself, a sad look on his face. I walked over to him and patted his shoulder.
"Look man, if you want my advice, stop using status moves all the time. You're never going to get anywhere spamming Leer and Growl. You need to attack once in a while too, y'know?" I said, comforting him the best I could. Am I seriously giving advice to my rival? I thought.
This seemed to brighten him up a bit. "You're right Nick! I just need to change my strategy a bit! I'll get you next time!" he shouted, running off down the path to Oreburgh.
I shook my head and looked down at Mufasa. "What is wrong with that guy? He's always on the move." The cat merely nodded and we continued down the path. I spotted a small patch of tall grass up ahead and moved towards it. I wonder what kind of pokemon live around here I thought. I got my answer when a familiar brown ball of fur stumbled into sight. Well great. Another Bidoof. I groaned as I sent Mufasa in after it. A short while later, Rebecca became the newest member of the group. "I hope you last longer than Brittany did." I said sadly to the pokeball.
I moved down the path, battling the occasional trainer that crossed my path. The battles were fierce, and more than once I had to use some of the Potions I had bought for emergencies in order to keep going. Rebecca proved to be a much better fighter than Brittany was. She was just as lazy, which I was beginning to notice was a trend with all Bidoof, but she made up for that by trying her very best, no matter the opponent. By the time we had arrived at the tunnel to Oreburgh, she was already leveled up with the rest of the team.
Walking into the cave, I noticed that it wasn't nearly as dark as I thought it would be. Lights lined the ceiling, wires nailed into the rock above to help travelers see where they were going in the cave system. As I started down what seemed to be the right path, a voice called out to me.
"Hold on there sonny, you don't want to go that way." a gruff voice said to my left. I looked over and saw a rather large stout man with a full beard and hiking gear sitting with his back to the wall, a small blanket spread out before him and various foods laid out on the blanket. "That's the path deeper into the mountain. You look like you're one of them trainers that're headed to Oreburgh. The city's that way." he said, pointing behind me.
I turned around and sure enough, there was another path through the rock up ahead. I turned back towards the hiker and his picnic. "Thanks man. What're you doing in here?"
The hiker chuckled to himself. "I'm havin' myself a picnic boy, can't ya tell? But no matter, I'm actually workin' right now. See, the Gym needs people like me to come in here every once in a while and direct traffic for the challengers. Also, they need me to hand out these." he said, reaching into his pack and withdrawing a brown CD case. He handed it to me and I noticed a small indent in the case itself, shaped roughly like a circle, but with the bottom cut off.
"What's this?" I asked stupidly, pocketing the case anyway.
"That there is a Hidden Machine, or HM fer short." he answered. "You can't open it 'til you have the Gym badge. That'd be Roark's badge." he clarified. "It'll teach yer pokemon Rock Smash, so you can go deeper in caves and get passed obstacles like fallen rocks. Now go on, I know yer anxious to get to the gym, just like the others." he said kindly, shooing me away with his hand.
What a strange guy I thought to myself as I left, waving at him over my shoulder. As I moved down the path, I spotted two trainers up ahead, the both of them looking up and down the path. "Great, more trainers." I groaned. I didn't want to get into another battle, so I stepped off the path and sneaked around them. It almost worked perfectly, if I hadn't disturbed a group of sleeping Zubat.
The screeching was amazing, echoing off the walls and in my ears. I clapped my hands over them in an effort to keep from going deaf as the bats started flying all around the cave. I noticed the two trainers I was avoiding run off away form the swarm. They flew around and around, before one of them seemed to notice me. It flew right at me, maw open, ready to latch onto me. I reached down and released Rebecca, yelling for her to use Tackle and hoping that she heard me over the racket the Zubat were causing.
She seemed to get my drift since she launched herself into the air, knocking the offending Zubat down to the ground. The rest screeched in alarm and flew away, going farther into the cave system. I noticed that the one I knocked down was still there, trying weakly to get airborne again. I quickly tossed a pokeball and caught it. "Guess that's another one for the box later. Good job Rebecca." I muttered, putting the ball away for now and focusing on getting the hell out of this cave. The Bidoof nodded, following me at her own leisurely pace.
After a short march, I arrived at the exit to the cave. The sun was beginning to set again, another day lost to battling and traveling. I decided to find the nearest PokeCenter and just shut down. Stumbling down the steps to the city proper, I asked for directions until I found the center. Checking into the room, I automatically released everyone and fell onto the bed, immediately falling asleep.
So that's one thing I always wondered about the pokemon games. Why do you need the badge to use the HM out of battle? I know that for gameplay purposes it's to lock you out of certain areas until you beat the gym, but what about the people that don't use pokemon, or the trainers that don't care about the gyms? Food for thought.
And another thing. Some of the held items are extremely awkward for certain pokemon to use. Like the Quick Claw. It looks like a severed claw. How the hell does this help my pokemon move faster? And how do pokemon even use it? Does it fit over one of their claws? What if the pokemon doesn't have claws, like Franklin? This universe is full of plot holes and bullshit. Isn't it grand?