Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.
I broke out into a run and ran and ran into Route 30. I ran up the small hill to go past the cliff. I stopped for a moment to look at the house of the man who had given me one of his berries. "Feel free to pick from my tree whenever you're nearby." Was what he had said. So, I suppose I should take a berry from his tree? He told me I can, so I guess I should… help myself? Slowly at first, I reached for the tree, which had re-grown the Oran Berries that had been picked yesterday. Suddenly, some sort of instinct seemed to kick in and I picked a berry and put it in my bag. Besides, I heard most people grow berries to help out trainers anyway. Take one and only one as you pass by a berry tree. That's the unspoken rule everyone knows trainers follow.
As I walked through the grass beside the house I was attacked by a white-spotted red insect. Pulling out my Pokedex I learnt that it was a Ledyba, the five star Pokemon. 'Five star'? So, does it eat at restaurants and sleep at hotels? Only in five star restaurants and five star hotels of course. Of course, I had to think of a dumb joke because my thoughts are dumb sometimes. Anyway, while these dumb thoughts were running through my head, I had pulled out Chikorita's Pokeball.
"Go Chikorita! Use razor leaf!" Is that becoming my go-to move now? Weird.
"Chiko!" Chikorita used razor leaf as soon as she came out of the ball, but the Ledyba created a pretty but powerful burst of wind that blew the leaves back at Chikorita and knocked her off-balance. She fell down but then stumbled back onto her feet and tried once again to shoot leaves at the Ledyba, which still didn't go so well.
"Um… use vine whip to knock it out of the sky." Chikorita extended one of its vines and tried to hit the small, flying target above her. When hitting seemed difficult, Chikorita switched tactics and tried grabbing, extending a second vine to trap the Ledyba between them. The vines were wrapped around it, which stopped it from creating the wind that had been damaging Chikorita so much. It must have been of a super effective type against a grass type like Chikorita, I thought, remembering that some types were more effective against certain types. The Ledyba was trapped in the vines, but it wouldn't stay in there forever, so I had to come up with an idea before it got out. Checking the list of attacks Chikorita could use on my Pokedex, I considered a few, before deciding on a plan. And just in time, too. The Ledyba fought its way out of the weak vines that were struggling to hold it still and then flew towards Chikorita to try some sort of direct attack. "Try poison powder," I said. As the Ledyba got closer, Chikorita released some sort of purple dust. After the Ledyba inhaled the powder, it seemed to be moving slower and didn't quite land the hit it intended to. "Tackle," Chikorita hit it with a tackle and the Ledyba was defeated, and it flew off to get away. In the direction of Mr. Pokemon's house, I noticed. "Nice job, Chikorita." I returned her to her Pokeball and kept walking, keeping the Pokeball in my hand.
I was soon met with the split path which I knew led to Mr. Pokemon's house on the right. Remembering there being a dead end behind Mr. Pokemon's house, I knew that the only thing to do was to take to left path. I noticed a few trainers scattered along the path and hoped I could just walk past them towards Route 31. I looked at my Pokegear map and saw that while Route 30 and 31 weren't separated by a town or any such landmark, but Route 30 became 31 when the path turned left near Dark Cave. I recognised the one nearest to me as one of the two trainers who had been battling and blocking the path yesterday. In a strange way, he helped me, I realised. He forced me to go the other way, which was actually the right way to Mr. Pokemon's house. I walked on along the path, and nearly jumped out of my skin at the sudden voice.
"Hey, you're a trainer, right." He said, saying it as if it weren't really a question, as if he already knew the answer. "I challenge you to a battle." Darn it! Chikorita's Pokeball was still in my hand, so I couldn't deny it. What am I afraid of? It's a battle, it's what I'm supposed to do as a trainer. What did I think I would end up doing at those gyms? And it's not like it's my first battle either. Though that's just it, my first battle didn't go so well. "Girl, calm down, you look worried. And what's your name? I'm Joey." He extended his hand, probably realising an introduction would be less nerve-wracking for me than an outright challenge.
"Kris," I said, shaking his hand. "And uh, I've only got one Pokemon, so uh-" I'm glad he then interrupted me, because I have no idea where I was planning of going with that sentence.
"Me too, let's battle." I felt a small wave of relief when I realised that this guy was probably also fairly new to this.
"Okay," I agreed. "Come on out, Chikorita."
"Chiko!" She said happily when she came out of the Pokeball.
"Go, Rattata." He said, grabbing a Pokeball of his own. I watched as a small purple creature with red eyes and two large front teeth came out of the Pokeball. Remembering what he'd just called it, I looked for 'Rattata' in my Pokedex to see that it had in fact been added to the list now that there was one in front of me. He sounds pretty excited.
"You sound excited," I said, while quickly looking at information on Rattata before switching back to the list of Chikorita's attacks. Why did I say that out loud? He smiled.
"Well, I lost my battle yesterday, so today I've been training against wild Pokemon because I want Rattata to get stronger." I could tell he really wanted to win this. But so did I, I realised. Some instinct inside me seemed to be telling me, you can't battle any differently just to be nice. That wouldn't be the right thing to do. He wouldn't really be winning if he won when I wasn't giving it my all. So let's do this! I looked at his Rattata, then back at Joey, and realised that even though we had already sent out our Pokemon, we hadn't actually started battling yet. He must be new to this too. Joey seemed to notice the awkward silence and spoke up. "So… ready?"
"Ready!" I tried to sound enthusiastic. I realised that the best thing to do might just be to drown out my thoughts and act on instincts. Somehow when I'm battling, it all works out okay in the end, so maybe I should just go for it. Realising I could now make a move, I tried to do just that. "Chikorita, tackle!"
"Rattata, you tackle too!" The two Pokemon collided head on. Rattata jumped back and shouted, "Ratta!" "Quick attack!" Joey shouted. Chikorita tried to dodge, but Rattata was faster this time and landed a perfect hit on her before jumping back to prepare for another attack.
"Chiko!" She shouted as she was hit. But then I had an idea.
"Poison powder!"
"Quick attack again!" Joey shouted at the same time as my command. His voice was louder than mind and for a moment I wondered if Chikorita heard me, but then I knew she had when I saw the purple powder land on Rattata. At first it seemed unaffected and quickly ran forward for another quick attack. But then I realised that Rattata was moving slower and Chikorita managed to dodge out of the way this time.
"Great, now use vine whip," Chikorita extended her vines, wrapped two around Rattata and threw it ahead, Rattata landing on its four feet but sliding along the grass. It seemed to be getting more tired by the second, probably from the poison.
"Uh, um, tackle!" Joey said, sounding more panicked.
"Razor leaf," Rattata ran towards Chikorita for a tackle, slower than it was moving before, I'd noticed, but was hit by Chikorita's razor leaf. Defeated, Rattata's legs gave out and it fell to the grass. Joey looked down to see if it was okay before returning it to its Pokeball.
"Well, congrats, Kris, you win." He said, grabbing out his Pokegear. "I heard 200P is suitable for a 1v1 battle, right?" I shrugged.
"I don't know," I said quietly. "If you think that's fine, I'll trust your judgement." I really need to learn more about the value of a Pokedollar, so I don't end up getting stiffed by any not-so-pleasant trainers I might go up against.
"Okay, have you got the Pokegear banking app? Just type your account number here and I'll send it through." I quickly checked my own Pokegear to remind myself of my account number before typing it into his. Within a few second, I saw the 200P appear in my account, totalling as 3200. That reminds me, once I get to Violet City I should look through a mart and stock up on some food for Chikorita and see what other items they have. "Hey, wanna register our phone numbers too? Then once I train Rattata a bit more I'll call you, I want a rematch." Joey suggested. The idea of a rematch actually sounded pretty fun, battling someone I already knew and seeing how much we'd improved since the first battle.
"Sure," I said, and we registered each other in our Pokegears.
"I'm gonna head back to Cherrygrove to heal, then I'll head back into the grass for some more training. I'll call you when I want a rematch." Joey said before walking off towards Cherrygrove City. I looked to Chikorita, who I realised must be tired after battling Ledyba and then Rattata.
"You tired?" I asked. "I have a potion if you want it."
"Chiko," she nodded. I looked through my bag until I found the potion Professor Elm's assistant gave me yesterday. I had seen how it worked from the times when I would be helping at the lab while the Professor is taking care of a Pokemon. I sprayed it over Chikorita until it was all gone, then returned her to her Pokeball. It's like taking medicine when you're sick. You can't just take half the recommended dosage and expect to feel a little bit better. You're supposed to take all of what is recommended and then it'll make you feel better. It won't work properly if you take less. It's the same with potions. If you only spray half, it won't do its job. You have to use it all to get the desired effect. I put the empty potion canister back into my bag for now until I could put it in a bin.
I walked a bit further along the simple, linear path, and noticed another boy nearby. I recognised him as the boy Joey had been battling yesterday. Should I challenge him to a battle? That's what trainers are supposed to do, right? Although, Joey did say he lost that battle, so this guy's probably pretty good.
"Hey, you! I saw your battle against Joey. I challenge you!" He shouted. I smiled and forgot about my earlier worries.
"Well, you're definitely enthusiastic. Sure. I'm Kris, by the way."
"The name's Mikey. How many Pokemon have you caught? I've got two." My worries came back as I realised I never really knew what happens when one trainer has more Pokemon than the other. Do they still battle, with one trainer using more? No, that wouldn't really be fair though, would it? I decided to just tell him I only had one to see what he'll say to that.
"I've only got one Pokemon. I haven't caught anymore yet."
"Okay, then it'll just be a 1v1. It'll choose…" he grabbed two Pokeballs from his pocket and looked at them for a moment before deciding. "This one," he said, putting one back in his pocket.
"Go, Chikorita," I said, sending her back out.
"Go, Pidgey," He said, releasing a Pidgey from its ball. I've battled two Pidgeys before, so maybe this won't be so hard. But then as I check the information in the description of the flying type in the glossary, I realise the flying type attacks are super effective against grass types. Uh oh. But yet, I managed to beat Pidgeys before, so maybe Pidgeys are just a weak enough flying type that it won't matter. Or maybe a Pidgey trained by a trainer will be harder to beat than the wild ones I've fought off. So, don't let your guard down. Just go for it! Luckily it wasn't until just after I finished my little mental pep talk that Mikey called an attack.
"Quick attack!" Knowing how fast quick attack usually is from Joey's Rattata, I knew Chikorita wouldn't have enough time to dodge out the way. Just in time, I thought of a counterattack.
"Use vine whip to block it," Chikorita seemed to understand what I wanted her to do and so, instead of using her vines to grab the opponent like she's done before, she held her vines in front of her, creating a shield of vines that Pidgey flew into. "Now tackle," She retracted her vines and then tackled the surprised Pidgey which fell to the ground.
"Wing attack!"
"Razor leaf!" Chikorita prevented the super effective flying-type attack by shooting leaves which hit Pidgey before it had a chance to hit Chikorita. It once again fell to the ground and stayed down this time. Mikey looked shocked for a moment before speaking up.
"Well, nice job. You seem pretty experienced actually." Me, experienced? But I'm not, I just started. So, somehow, I seem more experienced than I am. Maybe because he saw me beat two trainers in a row? I'm not going to win every battle though, that was just… a fluke. Yeah. I'm not as good at this as I pretend to be. He returned Pidgey before reaching for his Pokegear. "Account number?" He asked, holding out the Pokegear for me to enter my number so he could transfer the prize money. I typed it in, handed it back and then checked my own Pokegear to see that another 200P had been added to my balance, totalling 3400P. Good, I thought. I'll need to be consistently winning enough battles to have enough money to have food for Chikorita every day, plus buying food for myself, and then there could be any items I should get, like more potions or something. I should check out the mart once I get to Violet City.
"Thanks," I didn't really know what else to say to Mikey. I returned Chikorita to her Pokeball. I was starting to get used to this.
"I think I'll do some training," he said. "Or maybe I'll give Joey the rematch he asked for, even though I won last time. He's always boasting about that Rattata of his, but I hope he will have caught another Pokemon before I rematch him, 'cause then we can have a 2v2." I assumed '2v2' was a phrase that trainers used. Backtracking on what he'd said, I figured out that he meant a battle in which the trainers used 2 Pokemon each, unlike the one-on-one battles I'd had so far. I remembered Joey mentioning that he'd heard that 200P is "suitable for a 1v1 battle." So, does that mean there's more prize money when there are more Pokemon involved in the battle? That's good to remember for later.
"Alright, good luck with your training," I said, starting to walk off, backwards, still looking at him. Why am I walking like this?
"See you around, Kris," he said as I kept walking. I turned around to see that there was a girl just in front of me. I looked at her for a moment, unsure of whether to challenge her to a battle. She wasn't holding any Pokeballs, though. How do you really know if someone's a trainer? Well, most people wouldn't be out in a route like this one where wild Pokemon could attack unless they had Pokemon with them. But that doesn't necessarily mean they're a trainer. Someone could just be making their way from one town to another, protected by a Pokemon to fend off wild Pokemon. That doesn't mean they're a trainer and want to battle and train their Pokemon. So how do you know? Is it just some instinct trainers get, allowing them to recognise others like them?
The girl probably noticed me staring, so she said, "No, I'm not a trainer. But yeah, if trainers lock eyes, it's the unspoken rule that they then battle, so watch out. Any trainer who sees you will probably challenge you." I nodded and thought back to Joey and Mikey challenging me, noticing how she seemed to be accurate.
A/N: I've been writing quite a bit recently, so I'll try to have more up soon. But the problem is, I'm currently trying to write the Violet City gym battle, and let me just say, battles are hard to write. I've been trying to keep them interesting, but there's so many of them that it's hard to make them all interesting, which is why later on some not-important-to-the-story trainer battles may be skipped or just mentioned but not described in detail. Anyway, you can see for yourself how writing trainer battles went in this chapter during which Kris makes her way through Route 30.
So, I hope my value of the Pokedollar doesn't seem off. Instead of trying to find out exactly how much prize money the game would give you/make you pay in each trainer battle, I've created my own little system. As we saw in this chapter, the prize money for a 1v1 is 200P. It's 200P for every Pokemon each trainer uses, so it would be 400P for a 2v2, 600P for a 3v3, and so on. So, the more Pokemon you use in the battle, the higher risk you're taking because it you lose you'd have to pay more.
One more little battle rule I need to mention: I know in the games you just battle an NPC with whatever you've got in your party, meaning you could go up against a trainer who only has two Pokemon and beat them with your team of four. But realistically, that's not fair, so if trainers don't have the same amount of Pokemon, they still have to use the same amount. So, for example, in the games youngster Mikey has a Pidgey and a Rattata, but Kris only has one Pokemon, so he chose one. And of course, I had him choose Pidgey because we just had a battle with a Rattata so that would have been boring. Of course, gym battles are the same way. Just like in the anime, gyms have their own set of rules, such as the Petalburg gym, which was a 3 on 3, which was why Ash didn't get to have a proper gym battle with Norman the first time he got to Petalburg, because he had left all but Pikachu with Professor Oak when he came to Hoenn. But I'm going to be nice and say if a trainer doesn't have the required amount of Pokemon, most gym leaders will be nice enough to use less, although I do have one or two gym leaders in mind who won't want to change their gym rule, but you'll find out about them when that happens. But generally, gym leaders will be fine with bending their rules a little.
Now that Kris is winning more money and accumulating items, I have gotten really organised with my planning. No joke, I have an Excel spreadsheet that I use to track how much money Kris has as well as how much of each item she has. I've used an autosum to make it automatically add up the numbers, so for example when she beat youngster Joey, I typed '200' and then the total automatically updated itself. I guess it would be easier to understand if you could see it, but anyway, take my word for it, it's helping a lot. This way, I know exactly what's in her bag, so I won't accidentally have Kris use an Oran Berry when she already used her last one, or something like that. I've also been writing down every Pokemon Kris has seen, so that when the time comes for her Pokedex to be evaluated, I'll know exactly how many Pokemon she's seen and caught. Sure, it gets annoying remembering to write them down, but it's also helpful. When I see a Pokemon's name on that list, I am reminded of exactly how she encountered that Pokemon. That was how I remembered that she'd already battled Pidgeys, meaning I was able to mention that when she saw youngster Mikey's Pidgey.
So, in the next chapter, Kris finally gets to Violet City. Will she do more training before the gym? Will she catch any new Pokemon before the gym? Will she be able to do well in a flying type gym with Chikorita? Find out in the next chapter!
