Pokemon: Crimson and Azure

Chapter 3: Learning the Basics in Viridian City

In This Chapter:

~Viridian City Arrival-Pokemon Trainer's School-Viridian City Gym-An Unexpected Encounter~

~Viridian City Arrival~

The Eternally Green Paradise!

It was now noon, the sun was in it's peak, shining down upon the Kanto Region like a single lightbulb lighting an entire basement. The heat was getting stronger and stronger, and Crimson grew to missing the cold morning hours. She had finally reached her destination: Viridian City. At the gates of town, there was a large sign welcoming new trainers and travelers with the following message: "Welcome to Viridian City, the eternally green paradise!" Crimson went through the gates. The "City" was only slightly bigger than Pallet Town. Or so it seemed. The Pokemon Center was about 350 meters away from the main gate. Crimson went straight in. It wasn't as crowded as she thought inside, there were a few trainers here and there, but mostly, the place was empty. There was a kind looking nurse standing behind the counter, with a Chansey keeping her company. Crimson approached the nurse. "Excuse me …" She said politely "I'm here to heal my Pokemon and register for the Indigo League."
"Ah, of course." The nurse replied with a smile. "First, give me your pokeballs"
Crimson nodded, handing over her three pokeballs to the nurse. The nurse then turned around and placed them inside the machine. "That should take care of that, as for the Indigo League registration, I'm going to need your Dex."
"Certainly." Crimson said, pulling it out and handing it over to her.
Taking it, the nurse put it in a special slot in the computer, and began copying Crimson's ID Info to the main Indigo League registration drive.
"Aaand… all done! You are now registered for the Indigo League Challenge." She said, pulling out the Pokedex from the computer slot and returning it to it's rightful owner. "The League Challenge will be held in the Indigo Plateau which is to the West of our very own city." She began explaining whilst smiling. "However, in order to enter the competition, you must first get the eight Kanto gym badges. There is a gym in every town up ahead. You must defeat the gym leader in order to acquire the specific badge for that gym. The competition will begin in 6 months, so you have plenty of time to go around and get all the badges. "
Crimson was listening and nodding along the way.
"For more information on the subject, as well as basic battling techniques, go and visit the Pokemon Trainer's School right around the corner!" The nurse finished right before a beep could be heard from the machine with the pokeballs. "Oh! All set!" She took the pokeballs out of the machine and handed them over to Crimson.
"Thank you very much." Crimson bowed politely, then began to search her bag for money. A kid near her noticed that she was about to pull out her wallet, and hurried to stop her. "Hey, you don't need to pay anything! All of the Pokemon Centers are fully free of charge! Only staying in a room for the night costs a bit of money!"
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know that …"
"It's okay." The nurse replied softly. "We get this a lot, seeing as we are so close to the starting town for a lot of trainers."
Crimson nodded, then bid her farewells, and exited the building.

~Pokemon Trainer's School~

No matter how good we are at something, we were all once a beginner…

Stretching a bit, she decided to head to the Pokemon School the nurse told her about. She was already pretty experienced in battling thanks to all the shows on television she saw when little, but she decided to check it out just in case. As the nurse guided her, the school was right behind the Pokemon Center. It was a small and cute building, only able to hold up one class. She entered it and was instantly greeted by the sound of a teacher explaining basic battle techniques to a few students taking notes on their desks. She didn't have a notebook, but she decided to sit down and listen. Mostly it was stuff she already knew, how Pokemon level up by battling, how they can learn new moves with enough training etc. However, something that was on the board caught her attention. "Pokemon Types" was written on the board, and had a following of 16 different types: Normal, Fighting, Fire, Water, Grass, Ground, Rock, Ghost, Dragon, Bug, Poison, Flying, Ice, Electric, Psychic and Fairy. Just as she was wondering what that was about, the teacher began explaining. "Now we shall talk about type matchups. There are 16 different types of Pokemon, some have advantages over others. Experienced trainers utilize those advantages to make a battle easier for them. For example, a fire type pokemon, such as Charizard, is weak against a water type pokemon, like Blastoice. Every Pokemon type has a weakness, which is why there is no universally strong Pokemon. Normal type Pokemon are only weak against Fighting type Pokemon, and immune to ghost type Pokemon. Some Pokemon also have two types, such as Charizard, which is a fire and flying type, or Onix, which is a rock and ground type. These Pokemon have double weaknesses or resistances, depending on the current situation. For example, Onix, being a dual rock and ground type, has a double weakness against grass, ice and water, as all three of those types are super effective against both rock and ground types, thus resulting in a double weakness against them. Is all of that clear?" All the students nodded. "Good. And that concludes our lesson for today. Those of you who have Pokedexes can access the Type Matchups application through the main menu. On the other hand, those of you who do not have a Pokedex, can take one of these cards here" she held an A5 notebook-sized card in her hand whilst speaking "On these cards you will find all of the different type matchups, much like on a Pokedex! And they are free of charge too! You can take one on your way out, they are on that pedestal near the door. " She said, pointing to a pedestal with a whole bunch of those cards on it. Thankfully, Crimson didn't need to take one of those. She was always bad with papers and cards like that, as she would always loose them somewhere. Instead, she took out her dex and managed to find the application showing all of the type matchups. "Now this could be useful …" She said to herself, quickly glancing at it, before locking the device, and returning it back to her backpack. "Class dismissed!" The teacher said, as a bell rang, and all the students got up and started packing their things. Crimson wasn't even noticed, as this was a school where no registration was necessary, due to all the new trainers passing by the town every day. She got up and headed outside again. She began walking down the main street, looking around all the pretty houses. Then, one building caught her attention. She was suddenly reminded of the boy that gave her a free potion back on Route 1. He was advertising the Pokemon Mart in Viridian City, which she was now standing in front of. Seeing as she had a lot of money, she figured she could enter it to have a quick look at their merchandise. She entered the store, there were a few people shopping things not only for their Pokemon, but also for theirselves. Other than Pokeprodcuts, there were also groceries in this store. How convenient! She thought to herself. She picked up a basket and starting browsing the small store. She picked up a few already pre-made sandwiches, as she was no cook, didn't have enough room in her bag for too many groceries, and was too lazy to make a sandwich herself. Then, she went over to the Pokemon Section. They didn't have a very big selection, all they had were potions, pokeballs … and something odd, an "Antidote". An Antidote for what? She thought. Seeing as she still had three pokeballs, and a potion, she decided to buy another potion, and also took one of those antidotes. She then approached the cashier and asked him. "Excuse me, what is this antidote for?"
"Oh, you must be a rookie! How cute .. Well, it's for against poisoning. You see, some moves have a chance of inducing an effect on your Pokemon. Those effects include sleep, paralysys, freeze, burn and poisoning. Obviously it depends on the type of pokemon you are battling, and on the type of move it uses. We only have antidotes here, because in the Forest up ahead, there are a lot of poison type bug pokemon, so trainers should carry at least one of these antidotes at a time. They are really handy. Just use it as a spray like you would with a potion. Obviously, there are other heals for other statuses/effects, such as burn and paralysys heals, but we don't have any of those at the moment."
"Okay then, I'll take one." She said
The shopkeeper nodded and marked all of the stuff she was buying. "Let's see … That will be … 550 Pokedollars please!"
"Here you go." She said, handing the money over to him.
"Thank you very much, have a nice day!"
"You too!" She said, stuffing all the stuff in her bag and heading out. She looked at her digital wristwatch, it was past one PM already. She headed further down the main road. Suddenly, she was stopped by a peculiar old man. "Hey you, missy! You're a new trainer right?"
"Uhm … yeah, why?"
"Oh, I remember back in the good ol days when I was a hotshot trainer! Hey, I bet you don't know how to catch Pokemon yet now do you?"
"Uhm, actually, I already have caught two Pokemon, see?" She said, pulling out Ratatta and Pidgey's Pokeballs.
"…. NONSENSE, COME HERE!" the old man yelled and grabbed her by the wrist, dragging her over to a nearby patch of tall grass. "Okay…" He said, pulling a pokeball out of nowhere. "The trick is to weaken the target pokemon and then throw your ball PRECISELY." He said. "OH MY GOD LOOK A WEEDLE! GO POKEBALL!" he yelled and startled the poor weedle hiding in the tall grass, throwing the pokeball at a tree, then falling asleep on the spot. Crimson just rolled her eyes, but then noticed something glistering in the tall grass. She bent over to see what it was and saw a dropped, half-filled potion bottle. Somebody must have dropped it on the way to the forest … she decided to take it and keep it. The old man was still sleeping, which was her chance to escape. She continued a bit further down the road, now approaching the edge of town, when she noticed a large building in the distance. As she got closer, she could see it was on a small hill. She climbed up it and walked through the courtyard. The building was in a brownish color, and reminded her of a school gym. Then she saw another old man standing near the entrance, next to a sign saying "Viridian City Gym" The old man noticed her and began blabbering. "This Pokemon gym is always closed! I wonder who the head is …" He said. She shrugged, then approached the doors just to make sure. The old man was right, the doors were locked. She sighed and figured she might as well head back. On the way back, she saw the same old man with the pokeball and weedle sitting on a bench, now awake. He noticed her. "Ah, did you catch a pokemon yet, young lady?" She just rolled her eyes and passed him. "OH, WAIT!"
"Huh?" She turned around, the old man was slowly approaching her. Her then pulled out an electronic chip and gave it to her. "This here, missy, is an extension to your Pokedex. It will display a map of the Kanto region. It isn't a detailed ap of all cities, but it will give you a general idea … of how long you have to travel to the next town. Just slide it in the top slot and you will see a new map icon on your main menu … or so does my grandson say, I had to remember all of that and give it to somebody as it was of no use to him anymore."
"Oh, okay … thanks." She replied, taking the chip happily. "Don't mention it missy!" he said and laughed, slowly turning the laugh into a cough. She got away from him whilst he was coughing. When he finally calmed down and looked around, seeing the girl had escaped him again, he mumbled to himself. "I miss my wife .."

~An Unexpected Encounter~

Guess who ….

Crimson opened up the map and decided to check it out. It was a basic map of the hoenn region that she had in her room back in Pallet Town. Not so useful, seeing as she already knew the region pretty well. But it was something nonetheless. She then decided to head towards the indigo plateau a bit, to see if she could find any new Pokemon in that area. As she was walking, she saw a figure headed her way in the distance. As it got closer, she could make out it was a girl with long twintails. Finally, she saw it was none other than the same girl from earlier this morning, Azure. The girl she had creamed in front of Prof. Oak.
"Hah! Well what do we have here … Crimson, was it? I bet you were going to the Indigo Plateau! LOL, what a noob! Didn't you know you need eight gym badges to enter?"
"…says the one who's returning from that place."
"uh … I got turned around, okay!"
"How can you get turned around when there are signs all over the place. Look." Crimson said, pointing towards a sign near them saying "Route 24-Indigo Plateau Ahead"
"Well, I took a back route, and guess what! I caught myself a new Pokemon! Hey, did you catch anything? Let me see!"
"No."
"Oh come on, don't be shy!"
"I said, no."
"Okay then, well how about we have a battle? I just had my Pokemon healed at the Pokemon Center in the Indigo Plateau, so I'm ready to kick your ass and get my revenge!"
"… you're on."
Azure grinned and pulled out Spearow's Pokeball.
"Go! Spearow!" She said, throwing the ball up in the air as it released a bird Pokemon that was much different than the Pidgey Crimson had.
"So… a flying type, huh?" She said to herself, pulling out her dex and opening the type matchup app.
"Hey, what are you waiting for? Fight me!"
Crimson just ignored Azure's blabbering and looked up the flying type. It's weaknesses were Electricity, Rocks and Ice, none of which she had, so she figured she'd have an advantage with Pidgey. "Okay then, go! Pidgey!"
"About time …" Azure said. "Spearow, use peck!"
Her spearow roared and launched an attack straight at poor pidgey, pecking at it's head. "Darn… that thing is fast … I have to think this through …" Crimson thought to herself, grinding her teeth. "Pidgey, fly up as high as you can and try to escape Spearow!"
"Kuro koo!" her Pidgey flew straight up into the sky.
"Follow it, Spearow!" Azure said. Crimson followed Spearow's movements carefully, then got an idea. "Pidgey, stop!" She yelled. Her Pidgey stopped and flapped it's wings, staying in one place, looking down upon the charging Spearow with feat in it's eyes.
Azure grinned. "What a looser … Spearow, use peck!"
Crimson then grinned back at Azure. "Pidgey, fly back down and get behind Spearow!" She yelled so her pidgey could hear her, now being high up in the air. Her pidgey did as told and flew down, passing by spearow with higher speed due to the descent, then stopping in one place right below the Spearow, which was still charging upward. "What …? " Azure just watched in awe. "Now use tackle!" The Pidgey launched a straight tackle attack at Azure's spearow.
"SPEAROW LOOK OUT!" Azure yelled but it was too late. Her Spearow turned around just to get a direct hit by Crimson's Pidgey. But that didn't damage it much, as it quickly flew back up.
"Heh, good job Spearow! Now make me proud and peck that thing out of here!" Azure commanded, her Spearow launching a peck attack at Crimson's Pidgey with high speed, knocking it down. "This isn't good …" Crimson thought to herself, returning Pidgey to it's pokeball.
"Great job Speary! I'm proud of you!" Azure smiled up at her Spearow.
"It's your turn … go, ratatta!" She threw ratatta's pokeball on the ground, as the rat came out.
"Hah, a mouse vs a bird? This is gonna be easy! Spearow, charge straight at it with peck!" Her spearow did as she said. "Ratatta, concentrate on Spearow's movements and be ready to strike!"
Crimson's Ratatta was in an attacking position. Just before the spearow was about to hit the poor mouse, Crimson yelled out. "JUMP! NOW!"
The ratatta did as told and jumped up. "Now use tackle!"
The rat Pokemon launched a tackle attack just after the spearow hit the ground by the unexpected dodge it's enemy managed to pull out, knocking it down.
"How did you …" Azure just stared at her rival, a little impressed and a little angered at the same time. "Urgh, spearow, return! You did well." She said and smiled at the pokeball in her hand, then pulled out her final Pokemon. "Go! Foamie!"
"A normal type against a water type shouldn't be too bad …" Crimson thought to herself. "Okay Ratatta, tackle!" She said, as her ratatta launched a swift tackle straight at Azure's squirtle.
"Dodge it!" Azure commanded her Pokemon, as it did so, and moved out of the way swiftly, as the rat missed it's attack. "Good, now you use tackle!"
Her Squirtle charged straight at Crimson's ratatta, landing a direct hit, knocking it out in one hit.
"Yeah!" Azure jumped up, just as her Pokedex vibrated in her pocket. She pulled it out and saw a notification saying that her Squirtle had learned a new move: Bubble.
"Hehehe …"
"… Ratatta, return." Crimson retrieved her pokemon. "You did good out there, I'm proud of you." She smiled at her Pokeball, then looked at the giggling Azure. "What's so funny?"
"Oh, nothing. Just the fact that, I'M WINNING!"
"Well, not for long!" Crimson smirked and pulled out her final Pokeball. "Go! Flare!" She unleashed her Charmander.
"A fire type against a water type is a poor matchup … but it's all I got left. " Crimson thought to herself. Just afterwards, the dreadful name of a water type move struck her. "Foamie, use bubble!"
Azure's Squirtle started shooting out bubbles towards Charmander. "Shute… FLARE JUMP OUT OF THE WAY! If that hits you, you're a goner!"
Thankfully, Crimson's fiery lizard was swift enough to easily dodge the Bubble attack without even a scratch. "Good, now use tail whip!"
Flare began whipping it's tail back and forth, confusing Foamie. "Foamie, stay focused and use bubble!" Azure's squirtle snapped out of the trance at that moment and shot fast moving bubbles, hitting Flare and knocking it down to the ground. "Shute …Flare!" Crimson approached it, it wasn't knocked out yet but it was badly weakened and wounded. She then pulled out the half empty potion bottle and sprayed the whole thing on Flare.
"Oh come on, that's cheating! You know you don't stand a chance! Go, Foamie, teach them a lesson with tackle!"
Crimson moved away quickly, but Flare wasn't as fortunate. Until it managed to get up, it got hit hard by Foamie's hard shell. It was still better than getting hit with bubbles though. "Stay strong Flare! "Crimson then noticed it was her chance. Foamie was standing really close to Flare. "Flare, use your tail to trip foamie!"
Flare did that in the blink of an eye, quickly tripping the turtle on it's back so that it couldn't get up so easily.
"What!? Oh come on that's not fair! Get up Foamie, I know you can do it!"
Crimson chuckled seeing her nemesis' squirtle struggling like this.
"Flare, use scratch!"
Her charmander then jumped up and scratched at Squirtle's cheeks and then shell, knocking it down.
"I… I lost? Again…? " Azure fell on her knees, dumbfounded.
"Foamie … return …" She said silently, returning her Squirtle to it's pokeball. She thought she had the clear advantage, but it wasn't the case. "Flare!" Crimson ran towards her charmander and hugged it. "You were awesome!"
"Char char!" She then felt a vibration in her bag. She pulled out her dex and saw that her charmander had learned a new move: Ember. A strong fire type move.
Azure got up and approached Crimson. "You cheated! You shouldn't use potions in battle!"
"Who said that? It's not against the rules, look it up. Also, my reward?" Crimson smirked devilishly, returning her starter Pokemon to it's Pokeball.
"Urgh… I hate you I hate you I hate you! Baka! Azure stomped her feet cutely, then threw 600 Pokedollars at her. "I'll get you next time, I swear!"
"Suure …" Crimson just smirked, putting the cash in her wallet.
"You'll see!"Azure smirked at her back, then ran towards Viridian City to heal her Pokemon. Crimson sighed. And got up. After using that potion on her Charmander, she decided to look around in the tall grass for any new species of Pokemon.
At first all she could find were ratattas, but eventually, she ran across a rare pokemon, for this area at least: a Male Nidoran. She called out her Charmander and tested out her new fire type move. With one hit she managed to nearly knock out the Nidoran, capturing it quite easily. With two pokeballs left, she decided to start looking for the Female species, and after about nearly an hour of searching, she finally ran across one and captured it just as easily. Afterwards, she headed back to Viridian City to Heal her Pokemon. In the meantime, the two newly caught Nidoran were stored in Crimson's PC Box. The nurse was kind enough to show her how that's done, through the public PC. Apperantly there was one in each Pokemon Center that Crimson had never noticed before. The reason she wanted to store those two pokemon was simple: She wanted to focus on evolving her current Pokemon first, and also free up space for new Pokemon in the upcoming Viridian Forest. She saw her Charmander had grown from level 6 to level 9 in a series of Pokemon battles. "Not bad …" She thought to herself whilst exiting the Pokecenter and looking at her digital wristwatch. It was now 3 PM. She figured it's about time to get moving. On the way to Viridian Forest, she stopped by at the gym again, to find there was still nobody inside. What a shame, she thought. The crazy old man from earlier was long gone at least, so she went straight out of town, heading towards the bug infested forest up ahead.

Next time: Viridian Forest