A/N: Northstar Pokeshipper, thanks for pointing that out about the Pokemon Centre near Union Cave. Don't worry, I have an idea for that one. Shadowkat87, I agree, Chikorita wouldn't do so well against a Pidgey and Pidgeotto. But don't forget, she doesn't have to battle two Pokemon with just one Pokemon. Oh, and did I forget to tell you guys? Falkner doesn't have Pidgey and Pidgeotto. I always thought it was weird that the Johto gym leaders don't actually have many Johto Pokemon. So, I changed their teams! Falkner has a Murkrow and a Noctowl. I think it was a good decision because not only do the Johto gym leaders now have Johto Pokemon, but it gives you guys a little sense of surprise. I also don't like it when gym leaders have multiples of the same Pokemon, such as Clair, who has three Dragonairs. Sure, it works fine in a game, but in a story, it would be boring to read about Kris battling the same Pokemon three times in a row. So, no more multiples of the same Pokemon either. Most will still have the same number of Pokemon as they originally had, but I just looked over my plans, and saw that there are actually two Johto gym leaders whose teams have changed a bit drastically. But you'll find out more about them when it happens. In any case, Kris is still overconfidently challenging a flying-type gym with just Chikorita. Let's see how this goes.
Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.
Falkner. The Violet City gym leader. I was still trying to put up a false confident act, but… I didn't know what to say to him.
"Greetings, trainer. I presume you've heard of me. I am Falkner, the elegant master of flying-type Pokemon." As I remembered learning from my battle against Mikey's Pidgey, flying-types are good against grass types. This is going to be a real challenge.
"My name's Kris." I didn't know what else to say to him.
"My gym battle is a 2v2. If you have more than two Pokemon, you will have to choose just two to use in the battle." I froze. Okay, somehow, I had to tell him.
"Um... well, actually I only have one Pokemon." I looked down at Chikorita, who was still standing beside me feet.
"That's okay. You can still challenge me, and I'll just choose one of my Pokemon." He reached for two Pokeballs and after a moment, chose one.
"…Ready, Chiko?" I said quietly, looking down at her. In that moment, I didn't really notice the nickname I'd given her.
"Chiko," she said quietly with a nod. Falkner looked ready. He looked to a nearby man who I hadn't noticed and nodded. I realised he was the referee when he stepped to the side of the battlefield we were standing on. Falkner looked to me and then pointed at the opposite side of the battlefield. Of course, he was already in position on his side of the battlefield. I quickly went to where he pointed.
"Go, Murkrow." Falkner released a black bird Pokemon. I looked to my Pokedex to see that it was a Murkrow, the 'darkness Pokemon.'
"This 1v1 battle between the challenger, Kris, and the gym leader Falkner will now begin." The referee said. Falkner didn't waste any time. He immediately called an attack, but from my position on the other end of the battlefield, I couldn't quite hear him. Murkrow flew forward, and before Chikorita could move out of the way, hit her with its wing, knocking her back.
"Chi-ko!" That's some major damage already. Think, Kris! I realised I was at a disadvantage, not knowing the attacks I was up against. I quickly got my Pokedex to a screen that showed attacks a Murkrow would be able to use, then tried to match what I'd just seen with an attack and decided 'wing attack' seemed like it could have been it. Realising it was stupid of me to look away from the battlefield, I looked back at Chikorita to see her just barely manage to avoid another wing attack. I thought about Chikorita's attacks for a moment. A head-on attack like tackle wouldn't work well on a flying opponent, that much I've learned from battling Pidgeys. So maybe something to knock it out of the sky?
"Peck," I heard Falkner say while I was thinking.
"Razor leaf!" Murkrow flew towards Chikorita, and before she had a chance to use razor leaf, it pecked her, and she was knocked back off her feet after the hit from Murkrow's sharp beak. These flying-type attacks are going to be the death of me. Of Chikorita, I mean. Well, not literally death, but whatever. Basically, they'll make the battle really hard. After a moment of stumbling to get back into focus, she tried to use razor leaf, and finally landed a hit on Murkrow, who didn't seem to be expecting to get hit. It was hit by a few leaves, but then flew lower to avoid being hit any more. I realised, in order to land a good hit, we'd need to knock it out of the sky to be able to land a direct attack. We need to knock it out of the sky, so… "Vine whip!"
"Murkrow, use haze." Falkner said, sounding confident. Hearing his confidence seemed to drain what little of my confidence was still left. Chikorita extended her vines, but then Murkrow opened its mouth and let out a haze of some sort of dark vapour, and the make things worse, it flapped its wings to push the smoke towards Chikorita. She tried to grab, or at least hit, Murkrow with her vines, but I couldn't see where Murkrow had got to, and clearly, Chikorita couldn't see it either. I remembered how my battle with Silver went. This was starting to go the same way. After Cyndaquil had used smokescreen… it was basically over.
"Chikorita, watch out." I didn't know what else to say. What else can she do? I looked on hopelessly as the dark-coloured bird flew out of the camouflaging haze and hit her with a wing attack.
"Chiko!" She fell to the ground. No… can she get up? She did try to get up, and then, even though she wasn't yet standing completely up, she tried a razor leaf, which did hit Murkrow, but barely affected the flying type, which resists grass-type attacks. It must at least be getting a bit tired by now.
"Peck," I heard Falkner say, and he was starting to become visible through the thinning haze. Chikorita was too hurt to try and run away. Murkrow flew forward and hit Chikorita with a peck that pushed her back and sent her collapsing on the floor of the battlefield. I looked to her, then to the referee, who was staring at Chikorita.
"The challenger's Chikorita is unable to battle. The victory goes to the gym leader, Falkner." Part of me wanted to fight. To deny it. It wasn't that I wanted him to allow the battle to continue. It was that I didn't want it to go like this. A small part of me was denying it, but as I walked over to Chikorita, I started to accept that Chikorita had, indeed, lost. I knelt down beside her. I didn't know what to say. So, I didn't say anything and returned her to her Pokeball. I looked up to see Falkner return his Murkrow and walk towards me.
"Maybe you should do some more training, or catch another Pokemon." He said. I nodded, not really taking in what he was saying though. Then, it appeared as if he was waiting for something. "…Your Pokegear? So I can give you the account number? You'll need to pay 400P." Oh, right. Just like any other trainer battle, in a gym battle, the loser pays. And since this was a 1v1, I pay… wait, did he say 400?
"Sorry, did you say 400?" I asked.
"Yes, it's 400. In a gym battle, the stakes are higher, so the prize money is doubled. Didn't the guide tell you? Usually trainers ask the guide about that before their first gym battle."
"No. No, he didn't." I didn't let him. I was too busy rushing into this battle. I set up a transfer of 400P out of my account and let him type in the gym's account number.
"I hope to see you again for a rematch after you've had some more training."
"Thanks, bye." I walked back to the door, trying to avoid eye contact with the two trainers I had to pass on the way back through the path. Not because they'd challenge me, because they wouldn't, and Chikorita couldn't battle again anyway. Just because I didn't want to see any judgement on their faces as I walked away from my loss.
At least, the Violet City Pokemon Centre worker was nicer after this loss than the Cherrygrove one had been after seeing Chikorita after my loss to Silver. She seemed empathetic as she took Chikorita to heal her. While waiting, I got out my container of leftovers from last night's dinner to eat for lunch. While eating, I thought about how the battle had gone wrong. Then I started to think about Falkner's advice. "Maybe you should do some more training or catch another Pokemon." He had said. I haven't even thought much about catching another Pokemon yet. I've just been enjoying training Chikorita and haven't caught any others. I never saw much of a reason. Wait… is he saying Chikorita's weak? That she's not good enough. No, surely, he's not. He's the gym leader, his advice is probably worth listening to. Maybe I actually should catch a different Pokemon. Not to replace Chikorita, but to compliment her. Different Pokemon have different strengths and weaknesses, right? So, I should catch something that has different strengths and weaknesses to Chikorita. While she may not be so good at fighting flying types, that's fine, because a different Pokemon might be able to beat this gym, and Chikorita could do well in a different gym.
After I finished eating, I got Chikorita back before going for a short walk around Violet City. I never really explored the city before, since I just rushed straight to the gym. But now I figured I should give Chikorita some time to rest, and it's fine for me to be alone as long as I stay in the city and not go in any routes.
I found the mart next to the gym, and decided I needed to stock up on food for Chikorita. But then when I found the Pokemon food aisle, I saw so many different kinds, and there seemed to be different food for different types of Pokemon. I saw a sales assistant nearby and asked, "Which food would you recommend? I have a grass-type."
"Well, it depends…" He trailed off. The young adult working in the store wandered the aisle in search of something, before gesturing to two different packets of Pokemon food, both labelled as being for grass-types. I recognised the larger as the one Professor Elm had supplied to me. "Is it a smaller Pokemon, or an unevolved one?" he asked.
"Yes, she hasn't evolved."
"I recommend you use these," he picked up the smaller packet.
"Really? Professor Elm had been feeding her the bigger one."
"Probably because he was looking after multiple different Pokemon. While both packets are aimed at grass-types, the smaller pack contains more nutrients that only grass-types would need, while the larger is more general, meaning since he looks after other Pokemon, he can let them share. Plus, the smaller one is to be given as three meals a day, but the bigger one is to be given as just two meals a day, which is why it's bigger. Since it's more filling, Professor Elm probably used this one, so he would be feeding the Pokemon less often since he's probably busy."
I nodded. "That makes sense." I looked at the prices on the packets. The smaller was 200P, meaning I'd be spending 600P per day. The larger was, like Professor Elm had said when I bought some off of him, 500P, meaning I'd be spending 1000P per day. With the smaller also being more cost-effective, that settled that decision. I decided to buy one day's worth of food (3 packets) for Chikorita, plus I had to grab a packet for her dinner tonight. I looked around and saw some potions, which I decided could come in handy when I'm in a route, battling trainers, and not close to a Pokemon Centre, so I grabbed 2 potions. Altogether, it came to 1400P. I'd better win that gym battle when I re-challenge the gym. The good thing about the prize money being doubled is that it works both ways. If I win that gym battle, I'll get double prize money back. I'm going to need to be consistently winning trainer battles every day in order to have enough to feed my Pokemon. Who knew budgeting is such a major part of being a trainer? Luckily, I'm pretty good at spending money sensibly.
After I finished my shopping, I went back to the Pokemon Centre to pick up Chikorita. Since she was going to now be eating the smaller packets, so that wouldn't be too hungry for a smaller portion at dinner, I gave her the leftovers she didn't eat at breakfast to eat as a snack now. After she ate, we took a walk around Violet City together, but didn't really see much of interest. I once again thought about Falkner's advice. "Maybe you should do some more training or catch another Pokemon." Maybe he's right. So, I should do some more training? I remembered what I'd read about the Sprout Tower in a book at the Pokemon Centre. Remembering how the sages there allow trainers to challenge them. Well, looks like Sprout Tower is where I'm going next.
A/N: I can't believe Murkrow can't actually learn wing attack by level up! At least, not in generation 2. Still I usually go by the generation 2 learnsets to keep things accurate to Crystal, and when I looked it up I was surprised that wing attack wasn't on Murkrow's list of moves to learn by level up, at least on the generation 2 list. But it was on the list of moves for breeding, as well as level up in other generations, so that's good enough for me. Still, thought it was funny to see that in gen 2 a Murkrow couldn't learn wing attack other than through breeding.
I hope my valuing of the Pokedollar doesn't seem off. It's really hard to find a nice balance where things don't seem too cheap but are affordable. Very soon, Kris is going to be feeding two Pokemon, and I've got a third planned, too. I won't say much, but I'll say this much: she'll have at least three by the time she reaches Goldenrod City. Anyway, she needs to be able to feed her whole team, a problem we don't actually have when playing the games.
Shout out to Northstar Pokeshipper, who predicted that Kris would "go into the Violet gym with just Chikorita, lose terribly to Falkner, then go to Sprout Tower to train and potentially catch a new Pokemon" back in a review of chapter 9. I was surprised to see that review, since I'd already had this part of the story planned out since before she even met Mr. Pokemon. I can't remember exactly at what point I started planning things out, but you get the idea. Nice job, Northstar Pokeshipper. Although, does this mean my ideas are too predictable? That's something for me to think about. I'll try to make things more exciting and unpredictable, things you won't see coming.
I was originally planning to save Sprout Tower for after she beats the gym. But then I had to change things around when I realised that the Pokemon I want her to catch only appears at night, so I decided to have her do the Sprout Tower now with just Chikorita, and then it'll be later, and she can catch what I've been planning for her to catch for so long. Then she'll challenge Falkner to a rematch with her team of two. Fun fact: while in Heartgold and Soulsilver, you aren't able to challenge the Violet City gym before going to Sprout Tower, in Gold/Silver/Crystal, you are not required to go to Sprout Tower. You could play through the game without every stepping foot in Sprout Tower if you wanted! So, that something interesting I discovered when looking up Sprout Tower to remind myself of Sage Li's name.
So, how will Kris go in the Sprout Tower? What Pokemon will join Chikorita in Kris's team? How will she go challenging Falkner? Will I ever get bored of writing these teaser questions? Find out in future chapters! Notice how I said, 'in future chapters' and not 'next time'? That's because I don't yet know if the rematch with Falkner will be in the next chapter. Probably not. But it'll happen soon. Anyway, see you next time!
