Pokemon: Crimson and Azure

Chapter 8.1: Azure's painful gym battle

Azure was still running towards the town and the Pokemon center, tears streaming down her face and flying off behind her, sparkling in the summer sun's rays of light. It felt like ages had gone by, even though it literally took her not more than 10 minutes to reach town. Her pace finally began to slow down as she entered the outskirts of town. She didn't want people thinking she was some sort of a weirdo or crybaby, after all. She was strong, and she knew that...
Her pace finally slowed down to regular walking. She was still sniffling at the time, but managed to at least rub the tears away. It wasn't the loss that bothered her … it was the way she treated her newly caught Pokemon… her friends… It was her fault they fainted so quickly. If only she wasn't so lazy and had done more research on them … if only …
The thought kept bothering her even in the Pokemon center. As she watched her Pokeballs being put in the machine, she couldn't help but remember the cruel way Crimson's Pidgeotto took down her Abra…
Speaking of which, what was up with that weird crimson-haired girl? She obviously had the same goals as Azure, but was she evil or good? The way she smirked at Azure when she knew Azure would lose … that evil grin… that grin that would stay imprinted in Azure's memory for such a long time …
One thing was for sure, though. At least that Crimson girl knew how to raise her Pokemon. She actually did proper research, unlike Azure. That might be why Crimson would always be better … but no. Azure wouldn't give up. Not yet. She promised herself and her Pokemon, she'd get revenge. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but one day for certain, she'd avenge her Pokemon's sacrifice during that harsh and ignorant battle.
While waiting for her Pokemon, Azure finally opened up her dex, looking up all the Pokemon she caught, and reading not only their moves, learnsets and evolutions, but also less important information, such as their usual habitats, what they prefer eating etc. I guess you could say she was just scared of not doing the same mistake again … but she had to move on. She was strong, and wouldn't want to disappoint her father like this. There's no way she would lose to some know-it-all. With better strength and determination, Azure got up from the couch, picked up her Pokemon and went outside. She released them from their Pokeballs for a while and had a quick talk with them, apologizing for her ignorance earlier. The poor things seemed awfully forgiving.. but she still wasn't sure whether she deserved their forgiveness or not.
After getting her spirits up, Azure stopped by at the Pokemart to stock up on supplies, and then headed straight to the gym.
The trainers there were weaklings. Or maybe they weren't. Maybe she did so well because she finally knew her Pokemon better. Feeding them earlier only made things better, too.
Since the gym was full of water type Pokemon, it was a bit tougher for her Squirtle to pull through. But eventually, she beat the leader, Misty, and felt better than ever. Especially with the evolution of her Squirtle. It was now a Wartortle, and even learned a new move: water gun, which equals a powered up bubble beam.
Azure was proud to exit the gym with her second badge. Slowly but surely, she was catching up with her rival. And by the looks of things, she would reach the next town first. Seeing as there was nothing else in Cerulean City for her, she instantly set food for Vermillion City. However, on the way there, she ran across a house that has apparently been robbed. She felt bad for the people inside, and decided to comfort them, seeing as the guard was taking a nap.
They complained that the police were overreacting and weren't allowing anyone in, and also wouldn't listen to them. Azure decided to help. If she made her Pokemon miserable, she could at least help others.
Heading back outside of the house, she tried to explain the situation to the guard first, but he said orders were orders. In the end, they ended up battling. Azure ended the battle with a win for her side, and sent the cop back to the police station to face his boss and explain it all to him, as he was apparently too scared to do so in the first place.
The family were so grateful to her, they gave her a free ticket to the S. luxury liner, which was setting sail from Vermillion City the very next day. Since Vermillion was her next destination, she was pretty excited. Of course, she couldn't just leave the Kanto region like that. She was far from finished here, but she could at least check it out and meet loads of new trainers, and hopefully make a few new friends along the way. Bidding her farewell with the nice family, she set foot towards Vermillion, as the sun was soon about to set.
A little down the road out of Cerulean, there was a daycare center, where she could leave one or more of her Pokemon to be raised. Although she didn't really like the idea, she gave away her Abra, as it would be too difficult for a rookie trainer like herself to train in to grow into an Alakazam and finally learn some new moves.
Along the way, she also caught a few new Pokemon, such as Venonat and Bellsprout, adding more pages to her dex.
By the end of the day, she found herself standing on a hill, with the shore of the vast sea and the silhouette of Vermillion City down below. The sun was setting on the horizon and reflecting in the water, making for quite a beautiful and memorable sight. Again, as usual, she decided to spend the night outdoors again. The air outside was always fresh, especially close to the sea or ocean. After a quick training session, Azure and her Pokemon were already sound asleep at only 10PM. Tomorrow was a big day for our hero, after all. The gym battle wouldn't be the only thing that awaited her… she had a ship to board, too. A gosh darn big one, at that. She managed to get a glimpse of it from behind the houses. Only it's front looked big enough from up afar. It would take her all day to explore it, so she needed to get up extra early to save some time for her gym battle as well.
That night, she couldn't help but get nightmares from her loss the previous day, and also Abra, whom she gave away at the daycare, and then completely forgot about it. That one managed to wake her up, but thanks to that, she promised herself to never forget about it. And after that comforting thought and promise, she managed to sleep like a baby all the way through the remainder of the night…

/ I apologize for the lack of activity last week. I was actually quite sick, and didn't have the strength to do any of the things I was planning to do. Writer, study, clean, it all went to waste thanks to that. But I'm all better now, and hopefully for a while. Next chapter should be up next week.

Next time: The road to Vermillion City