I tried to avoid all unnecessary thoughts about a pile of lies around me, of betrayal, and certain death. I was so happy when I met Misty and spent some time with her, but just now the truth was opened to me. All that paranoia was not groundless. They actually were looking for me. They were watching for me, hunting for me. I am not as crazy as I thought, as I hoped… How funny…
But someday they will return. And they will try to get me, any possible way. They will threaten me with anything. Like in the movies, they can… capture Misty and demand an exchange the case for her life. Too bad if I will not have it in the first place. So I need to find my case, and now I have just Bill`s one that can lead to mine. But will this be a fair and bloodless exchange? Maybe I should prepare myself not only to face Team Rocket…
It was already nearly the noon when I finally reached Pokemon Center in Vermillion City. I felt myself like shit after a night like this, but wasn`t going to return back to my room for rest. I don`t want to cross my way with Leaf. That girl has lost my trust completely, and now I don`t even wish to encounter her again. At least, we can make the work for seekers harder if we are not together. This will be better for both of us.
For now, I will just take back my healed pokemon and go challenge the gym. Then I`ll see what to do next.
So I thanked the nurse for well-done job, paid for the room and then soon left the Pokemon Center. I cautiously hid the device case in the old rotten tree trunk nearby the PC, naively hoping no one will ever check it.
The events of this night quickly became the first news in television but hopefully no one told about two people running across the sea by a broken conveyor belt. This was my luck, and, I guess, those workers actually keep their mouths shut. For the price of me being low on money again.
For some reason I wanted to spend some more time on training and preparing for battle with lieutenant Surge instead of charging right into it. This would be smarter to sharpen our skills near the lake on Route 6. Lieutenant is one cunning son-of-a-bitch, and should not be underestimated. I know that better than anyone. And also I will give Leaf more time to leave the city and not encounter angry me.
With that in mind I went the North of Vermillion City for some more training. Beware, wild pokemon of Route 6!
That was an intense and interesting training. Each time we do this I learn a lot of new things about my pokemon. This time is no exception. We have found another secret of Dumpling`s body and Harry seemed to learn a new move. I remembered to scan each pokeball with my PokeDex and register their species in the database. Too bad I forgot to do this when Moment was a Zubat, and so I have just Golbat from his family in my portable encyclopedia. But as for all the rest of them I learned a lot of new things.
PokeDex states that Bellsprouts have very thin and agile body that easily dodges almost anything. To my surprise, this was not that easy for Harry. Maybe it was just his pride not to allow him just to dodge Embers flying at him, but we will continue the work later. In the electric gym he will be not very useful. At least, he can withstand the electric-type attacks better than others because of typing.
The device also said something interesting about Moment too.
"Its fangs easily puncture even thick animal hide. It loves to feast on the blood of people and Pokémon. It flits about in darkness and strikes from behind"
What a dangerous guy appeared to be with me. But his back-stabbing tactics could be of use to me too.
After that I checked Reaper`s record too. The PokeDex states that his best attack involves flying around at high speed, striking with poison needles, and then flying off. Hit-an-run strategy, that`s something I could definitely use in my own maneuvers.
I thought about a good use to these special skills of my wards and we trained a bit more to check out these skills. I also invented a couple of new maneuvers, based on it. Have to say, the training time was paid off.
And after all that settled, we had a bit of rest in the shadows of forest, ate some fruits and chocolate bars, and finally moved on, back to Vermillion City and back to Vermillion City gym!
It`s getting late a bit, I hope the gym isn`t closed yet. On my way there I visited Pokemon Center to check the moves of my pokemon. The machine scanned my Bellsprout`s pokeball… And I was right; he did learn a new move! But he forgot another one. I wonder if there any portable device for it? It would be very useful to control the things they learn and forget. I remember about the nature rule of only four moves at once, and no one can learn more. Even a super-smart Alakazam. I should ask Bill about it later.
I spent nearly an hour on my way to the gym. I was already late, but the lights inside the building were still on. I came to the fence and saw lieutenant Surge standing near the entrance – which was already overgrown again – and smoke cigar. When I approached closer, he noticed me and waved with his free hand.
"Greetings, soldier! Not too late for visits, huh?"
"Are you still opened?" I asked him hopefully.
"Well, we have one more hour, but I doubt there will be any challengers for you to look at." Surge threw cigar into a trash bin near him and slowly headed to the small guest gate to open it for me.
"There will definitely be at least one!"
I proudly stepped forward and undid my greatcoat, revealing four pokeballs on my shoulder belt. The shocking look on lieutenant`s face amused me a lot.
"YOU? A pokemon trainer?" He was bursting from a huge pile of emotions at once. He wanted to laugh, he wanted to scream, he wanted to cry from the amusement. This something I never saw in him before.
"Many things changed since we last met, lieutenant. And even more things changed when we last met before that. I became Vengeance not because of events of war… I became Vengeance because of its consequences. But now it is in the past, and you are no longer my commander… Surge. You are a barrier on my way. And so… I challenge you to a battle!"
I think this could sound much better if there were no an overgrown fence between us, almost blocking the sight of each other. But lieutenant seemed to be impressed by my determination as he crackled his fingers, then – his neck and then – his back and came closer to me, narrowing his eyes in an evil manner.
"You want my badge, soldier? You have to earn it with sweat and blood!" He laughed really dark. "But first you have to get to the gym itself!"
"This is a part of the challenge, huh?"
"Yes. My gym is special. You need much more to prove than just beat my boys." He connected his hands behind the back and slowly started to walk along the fence. "For some reason a lot of grass-type pokemon start to migrate from the North. They live under the city, in the sewers. This causes a lot of vegetation to grow around there. We tried to cut it – it grows again. We burn it, we freeze it, we send hungry bugs and birds on it – it grows again. But then I have an idea. To prove himself worthy of even entering the gym, challenger has to pass this gate first!"
I wasn`t surprised by neither of this things. I guess, the reason of migrating was high activity of specific hunters in that woods around the Cerulean City, and the lieutenant`s ability to use everything at hand taught me a lot too.
"So, I just need to find a way to destroy this thicket, and that is all?"
"Don`t underestimate old Surge! Do at least this and we will at least begin." He simply turned away and went back to his smoking spot, where he took another cigar.
Well, destroy the grass? Easy!
"Dumpling, come on out!" I took my first pokemon and released him before me. He was feeling rested after the training, already warmed up and ready to battle.
"Dumpling, use Ember!" I commanded to him and pointed at the large plants. He took a deep breath to burn everything in front of him, but sudden quiet laugh if lieutenant Surge distracted him and me too.
"What`s funny?"
"Your… Dumpling… knows just an Ember move? No Flamethrower, for example?" He explained through the laugh.
"This will come eventually. Our Ember is exactly what we need right now. Continue, Dumpling!"
Dumpling mistrustfully shook his head while looking at lieutenant Surge and then turned back to the grass block and spit a large pack of embers into it. This could be very good to use in battle itself, but the first challenge was already harder than that, as the plants were barely burned.
Surge`s laugh became even louder.
"Really, soldier? You would be dead if someone was chasing you right now. You`re in a trap!"
Looks like the power of my Charmeleon is not enough. Maybe Surge is right, we need to learn new powerful moves to stay strong. But this can wait for now.
"Reaper, Moment, help him!" I sent two my pokemon to help Dumpling in this hard challenge. "Reaper, use Twineedle on this thing! Moment, use Wing attack!"
"Ahhahah! Really? A basic bug and an irritating flying type? Do you know you came to an electric-type gym?"
He makes me even angrier than before. Surge always puts his soldiers on limit, I know that. Another challenge, as always. But this won`t work on me!
Reaper charged into the vegetation and did a nice hole in the thick vine. After that Moment strike with his powered wings and cut it in pieces, opening a pathway for me. But the edges started to slowly restore.
"Dumpling, burn it with Ember!" I commanded to him and run right into the point, until it's overgrown again. Some small embers hit the plants right in front of me, temporarily stopping them from growing back and letting me some space to move, but also I felt a couple of them on my back. Hope they didn`t burn my awesome greatcoat.
At least, I had enough time to pass the entrance gates before the vegetation had overgrown it again.
"Well done, soldier…" Lieutenant clapped to me. I could feel a lot of sarcasm in his words. "Usually trainers teach their pokemon a move Cut and use it there, but you managed to do it otherwise… Maybe you actually learn something. How many gym leaders you already beat?"
I returned my pokemon through the fence back to pokeballs and turned back to Surge. "Two. I beat Brock from Pewter City and Misty from Cerulean City."
"Ha! These two are no match for me! I battled that girl before, and won! And Brock was defeated even by her…"
"Type advantages, no?" I hinted some sense to him. He didn`t reply immediately and just continued walking back to his gym.
"Too bad I can`t have a full-scale battle with you. I can use just three pokemon against you, but I will let you use as much as you wish. But beware! I will let you see my buddy Raicher!"
Oh, great. The famous Raicher was almost the second-in-command under the Surge, just another war forged veteran. This will not be easy.
He led me into the main hall of gym - the large stadium inside a building. There were even more electronics than in all previous gyms – and that`s not surprising. But the thing that really surprised me was the whole bunch of metal trash cans placed all around the field. Some guys were walking near the cans, looking around it and doing something with its side.
As I raised my eyesight higher I could see another field – on the further part of gym, and the ladder to it was blocked by a real lightning bolt. And, of course, large screen over the field was handing right in the center of second field. I guess, the real battle is actually hold right there, on the second field.
"So, soldier, are you impressed?" He slapped my shoulder with his large hand. "Welcome to my kingdom!"
"Holy shit, lieutenant. What`s with the trash cans?"
"Ha, this is the second challenge!" He made some steps forward to the field. "It`s simple. There are two switches in the cans. You have to find the correct two, and the way to the main field will open."
This time he actually surprised me. Digging the garbage to find some questionable switches? This is far beyond my imagination.
"Are you sure the garbage cans are necessary for this challenge of yours?" I questioned him.
"I test the challengers for courage, impartiality and determination!" He replied loudly with his strict and straight voice. "If you can`t throw your feelings, doubts and principles away, you can`t become a pokemon trainer! You can`t become anyone! Self-control and confidence – this is two things you need to pass this test."
"You said - two switches. But there are fifteen trash cans. What if I will choose the wrong one?"
"Then you will be electrocuted. And challenged to battle by one of my boys." He said with a grin smile.
How amazing. I have to choose the trash bin, dig into the garbage in it, hope to find the switch in it, repeat the whole process at least twice, and just then I will be able to face lieutenant Surge? Sounds a lot crazier than I would expect.
"And… the League… approves all these your… challenges here?" I questioned lieutenant Surge.
"This is my gym and I do whatever I want. They don`t care as long as it isn`t dangerous for life. Not FATALLY dangerous for life." He intentionally made an accent on 'fatally' to encourage me even more. But now he put me before a choice. From the one side I would want to battle these three trainers in order to learn more about electric-type pokemon and gain some valuable experience for my team. From the other side, I definitely don`t want to get electrocuted three times for this!
"So, if you have enough courage to proceed, go to the field. I will watch over you from my 'throne'. Good luck, soldier. You`re gonna need it." He tapped me on shoulder and walked away through the door nearby.
I made a step down the field and looked around. I doubt he would let the challengers rely just on the intuition and luck. He is a smart ass, so the correct cans have to be marked somehow. Or, maybe, the trash inside them has to mean something.
I looked inside one of the cans. The garbage inside it was more of metal shavings. Putting a hand in this could mean just a teared hand and a can full of blood. Knowing Surge`s strange sense of humor, I doubt this one is correct, despite some of shavings actually being red. That lieutenant Surge…
Slowly walking from one can to another I observed each one of them and noticed that all of them have metal shavings. Some of them have just this; some of them have also wires, broken gears and other mechanical crap. I think this narrows my searches just to five of them. Or otherwise. Damn, he had to think about it a lot! Surge was definitely drunk when he invented this shit.
Well, I can`t wander around them forever and have to make a choice someday. So I looked inside the nearest can to me that I considered appropriate and carefully put my hand in it. Thanks to my gloves, my hand wasn`t scratched too much, and I managed to dig my hand deep enough to get to something… wet?
A strong electric charge immediately struck my hand and the whole body. It wasn't enough to make me fall and squirm in paralysis, but was hurtful enough.
"Great choice, my dear Vengeance. Baily, he is yours!" Loud voice of lieutenant sounded from the higher field. A man sitting on the bench nearby, wearing a uniform of a repairman of some sort, stood up and headed to me, gladly smiling and taking out his pokeball.
"Surge didn`t tell you about another rule of our gym. When the battle starts, ALL cans start to conduct electricity!"
Lieutenant Surge, you crazy bastard! You shocked me, and now you want to shock my pokemon? Well, that makes the challenge… more challenging.
"Bring it on!" I shouted to Baily and directed to the point at the beginning of field. On the other side, engineer Baily took his position of my opponent and prepared his first pokeball for the battle.
"My first pokemon will be Voltorb!" He shouted and threw the capsule on the ground. The bright energetic light erupted from it, started to form… a sphere. Which then became a pokemon. An ideal round-shaped pokemon with red top and white bottom. And a very angry look.
I have never seen this pokemon and so have no idea what it can do. Some people mentioned that they sometimes explode – that`s all I know.
"Okay, let`s see what you can do here. Harry will be my answer!"
I threw my pokeball on the ground, releasing the Bellsprout outside. Maybe, Dumpling would be a bit better choice, but right now I want to train this guy a little bit more.
"This is going to be interesting…" Lieutenant Surge said while wiping his chin. "Let the battle begin!"
"Okay, Voltorb, begin with Tackle!" Engineer Baily started with a simplest attack. His Voltorb hopped on place and then rushed to my Harry for attack.
"Oh no, you don`t! Harry, Back Vine maneuver!"
As always, everyone around seemed to be surprised by my strange battle style, except for lieutenant Surge. He was just standing there and seriously looking at us. Maybe he started to take me seriously.
Harry stretched his vines to wrap quickly approaching Voltorb, but suddenly the opponent easily escaped the grip. His round form makes it extremely hard to keep. He slipped away from vines and tackled my Bellsprout, throwing him back on one of the cans. An electric shock went through his body, dealing additional damage, although not very effective. These guys were serious about that.
Damn it, I absolutely didn`t expect such well-trained maneuver to fail. There was no place in my plan for getting additional damage from just one Tackle. And if I will do the same trick, he will get not effective damage too, because all their pokemon are electric type. And what if any of them has something like a Motor Drive as ability…
But right now we have to think out how to beat this Voltorb here that have just got a command to use Screech. And he didn`t hesitate to use it right now.
A loud and horrible cracking sound literally tore my ears. Harry was much closer to its source and it was much worse for him. This really caught him off guard.
"And now use Tackle again!" The next command from opponent came quickly.
"Concentrate, Harry, and swipe it to the left with Vine Whip!"
Right now my Bellsprout has just two actually damaging moves, and we know that Wrap will not work on a round Voltorb well. Just Vine Whip remains and we will use it in full.
Accelerated Voltorb quickly approached Harry, but a nice smack with vine sent him flying to the left, touching some electric cans on his way and getting a nice electric shock from each one of them. Our opponent was pressed into the wall so powerfully he even left a dent in it after falling out.
But this was not enough as the ball pokemon raised his angry view back to us.
"Now, Voltorb, use Sonicboom!"
Okay, what`s this time? Another new move for me, great. Let`s see what it does.
"Wait for my command, Harry…"
The ball pokemon hopped in place quickly and emitted a soundwave of some sort, distorting the air around the wave itself. This wasn't the horrible screeching sound that I use to hear too often recently, but it hit Harry and knocked him off to the ground. The damage seemed to be not very strong, but at least I got some info about it.
"Now, Harry! Hit him with the Vine Whip again!"
"Tackle, Voltorb!"
Two opponents rushed to each other in a deadly attempt to finish each one, with Voltorb trying to hit my Bellsprout and my Bellsprout trying to smack opposing Voltorb as strong as he can. Our small advantage was in the distance as Harry managed to hit the opponent with his vines even before the collision. But the other thing is that the Voltorb is pretty fast pokemon, and by inertia even after taking the last hit it continued to move forward and crushed into Harry, dealing the final damage to him too.
Both Voltorb AND Harry were fainted.
"Heh, looks like you managed to beat my Voltorb after all." Engineer said with grin. "But the next pokemon will show you the real power! Magnemite, I choose you!"
He revealed his second pokemon to be a Magnemite. That flying steel ball with magnets… The one I saw at mount Moon under the ownership of some crazy archeologist.
I could use some time to train my Moment against it. Training to dodge electric attacks and all. But despite the large excitement growing inside me, I wished to finish this battle already and go to the dessert… To the lieutenant Surge himself.
So I didn`t waste any more time and sent out my Dumpling.
"This is a match for you!" I said while releasing the Charmeleon on battlefield.
"Now we`re talking!" The type disadvantage seemed to provoke my opponent even more. "Magnemite, use Thunder wave!"
Oh crap, what`s this thing? Sounds not very good to me.
"Dumpling, dodge it and one-shot it with Ember!"
The opposing pokemon directed two of his magnets at my partner and created an extremely fast spark that reached my Dumpling immediately, making him fall on ground. Some small electric charges appeared on his body, and he started to shake a little, like he was under some sort of… paralysis?
Dumlping`s movement became very tough and slow, but despite that he spit a large ember into his opponent, hitting foe Magnemite with a super effective hit and making him fall on ground.
I was glad to see such easy victory, and Dumpling turned back to me to give a high-five, but suddenly very angry and alive Magnemite rose behind him.
"Supersonic!"
We both were too distracted by the fake victory so opponent used this moment to attack. Another screeching sound reached me, making my head spinning. But that is not me who is the target, Dumpling is. And after that he was feeling a lot worse.
He was both paralyzed AND confused.
My Charmeleon started to slowly spin around, doing… whatever he does. The paralysis made him very hard to move at all, and confusion made him move into completely unpredictable direction! Very dangerous electric trash cans, for example.
I guess Baily planned this from the very beginning. All I can do now is just hope Dumpling will snap out of it and continue battling despite the paralysis. Our opponent somehow survived a super effective hit, and is very weak by health too, so one lucky move can finish this.
"Dumpling, come on, stop it! Use Ember and finish this!"
But he didn`t listen to me. Of course, he tried to do something, but it happened so he made a deep breath, leaning back too much to fall right near the electric barrel behind him. Just a few centimeters left – and he would be shocked. In all meaning of this word.
"Ha-ha! We don`t even need to continue, your pokemon will finish it by itself!" Bailey laughed at us. Nothing in the whole world can angry me more than mocking my pokemon! Looks like I have to do it the hard way.
"Dumpling, stand still. You hear me? Stand. Still! Don`t move!" I shouted to him. To my surprise, he actually got up from the ground and tried to stand still, but the body paralysis sometimes made him twitch a bit to the side.
"What are you doing?"
"I`m doing bad things. Dumpling, hit the midair on the left with Scratch!"
Through the hardly controllably body, my pokemon raised his left arm and let out his sharp claws. Maybe he didn`t understand what he is doing, but he trusted me. And so he swiped the left can standing right near him, getting a powerful electric shock. Judging by my opponent`s face, not just my pokemon was shocked by the sight of this.
My Dumpling barely stood in his feet after that damage. That was hurt, but, at least, a powerful electric shock helped him to return back to senses. The paralysis remained, but the confusion has gone.
"Good job. And now Ember that thing!" I commanded to continue.
"Thundershock, Magnemite!" The opponent replied with the same.
Both pokemon stood in their place, preparing to launch an attack. Magnemite rotated his magnets, generating a powerful electricity before him, and Dumpling took a deep breath for his Ember attack. The Thundershock and Ember stroke at the same time, hurting each battler.
The only difference – my Dumpling survived this.
Barely standing, all body twitching, and heavily breathing, but he survived. Magnemite just screeched quietly and fell on ground with his only eye blanked.
"Oh well, boys, that was definitely something." Lieutenant Surge appeared again to cheer both of us. "Smart thinking for each one of you. Baily, you MAY have your vacation tomorrow."
"Thank you, sir!" The man saluted to lieutenant and got a salute in reply. After that he returned his fainted Magnemite back to pokeball and headed away.
"Wait a second… Why did your Magnemite survive my Ember?" I stopped Baily to question him a bit. "I fought a Magnemite before, and he was defeated just with one shot from us."
"Maybe, that Magnemite was weak as hell…" He replied to me. "Or maybe it`s just because my Magnemite is STURDY as hell!"
"What does that mean?"
"Oh, you don`t know about his ability?" Lieutenant asked me surprisingly. "You have defeated two gym leaders and still don`t about pokemon abilities?"
"Actually, I have heard something about that." I admitted. "But I always thought this is to be the same as moves."
"No-no! Abilities are completely the other level!" Baily actively explained the theory to me. "Every pokemon specie has its own ability, and maybe even more than one. The ability of my Magnemite is called Sturdy. That means it can`t be defeated with just one hit, if it is fully healed. Of course. No matter how strong the damage was, it will always find a bit more strength to continue the fight. Simply put, he is always protected from One-hit-K.O. moves."
"That sounded pretty interesting. Every specie has a special ability… What if…" I stopped myself right on place as I understood my own thought. I found the explanation to what happened during the training.
"Don`t lose time, soldier. I want to see you and your pokemon right here on my main field in ten minutes! That is an order!" Lieutenant Surge loudly shouted at me with his habitual manner. Just like before.
"There are still more cans to check, lieutenant… People to beat…" I dropped a hint.
"I don`t care, just execute the order, soldier!"
Ugh, it`s like I will be court-martialed if I fail. But he is right, I want to battle him already, and I want to do this quickly.
"You know what? You`re damn right, lieutenant. There is no time to spend on cautiously looking over this shit. Just courage, stupid risk and a whole bunch of luck will do the trick."
I proudly replied to him and without looking dig my hand deep into the nearest bin…