We reached Celadon City nearly at the midnight. The road was long and tiresome, so now we actually had to stop at the Pokemon Center for rest. Maybe not for our own rest but for our pokemon.
Leaf parked her bike near the PC and finally let me jump to the solid ground.
"So, what are you going to do now?" I questioned her. "Will you accompany me to the gym?"
I suddenly caught myself on a thought that I would like to show this girl my battle style. Maybe, even show her how I train… Why the heck did I become so attached to her?
"Maybe, later. I need to do some shopping here. I can look for your… Silph thingy, if you want."
"Oh, that would be cool. You can save me a lot of time, thanks!"
"Then it`s settled. I`ll be nearby if you need me."
And after that she out her helmet on and left me alone, again. Maybe this is better, I can`t get too attached to her, absolutely no time for that. I wanted to shout loudly how the heck I should find her if I actually need her, but she was already gone.
"Well, looks like there`s one way to end this day." I said and headed inside the Pokemon Center.
In the morning my pokemon were completely healed and ready for battle. I took them all to the small woods near Celadon City to train a bit. The upcoming gym battle is going to be serious even if I have pretty good advantage in type over the grass pokemon. My tricks helped me to overcome the type disadvantage in previous battles – how can I be sure that the next gym leader won`t do the same?
We have found a nice lake away from the crowd of people having picnics and battles. In this place I won`t disturb them and they won`t disturb me. This time we really have to do our best as this is not just a gym battle. This will be my first actual victory over the cursed Team Rocket. And to make my plan come true I have to win it for sure.
I carefully released all my pokemon on the ground before me, one by one. Dumpling was still offended after me ordering Quartz to wash him with water, but that was necessary. We`ll deal with it later.
"So, gang, let`s see our new bandit. Caesar the Gastly." I introduced the new pokemon to the others. Dumpling just turned away from him, still being feeling aggrieved. Reaper carefully looked Gastly around, trying to touch his body with a sting. Moment and Harry seemed not to care about him at all. Well, what a friendly team we have here…
But the collective dark mood didn`t interfered with our training. We were crushing rocks, trees and ground; we slightly destroyed the family of hostile Spearows and Fearows and developed two new maneuvers with new moves. Maybe I will have the chance to test them in the actual battle, but right now… All of us are pumped up to win!
And after a good but quick training we returned back to Celadon City. Damn, this place is so huge… I can`t find the gym here that easy.
So I headed to the newspaper kiosk to ask for a map.
"Hello there. Do you have the map of Celadon City?" I asked the vendor.
"Wait a second, I had it somewhere here…" The man replied and started to search in his boxes.
Suddenly my attention was attracted by one of the headlines on the showcase that stated about some pokemon called Tangela missing. A very rich family is ready to pay a lot to the one who finds their pet.
I think I have seen this pokemon. At least, in Bill`s updated database in my PokeDex.
Tangela. The vine pokemon. Its vines snap off easily and painlessly if they are grabbed, allowing it to make a quick getaway. The lost vines are replaced by new growth the very next day.
Wait a second…
I searched through the other newspapers on the showcase with my eyes. To my real surprise, I actually found what I was looking for.
'Koopa the Oddish is missing.'
'Please, return our Bulbasaur back!'
'Exeggutor disappeared from the Pokemon Center.'
'Belly the Bellsprout didn`t return home after a walk.'
'Find our pretty Vileplume! Reward guaranteed.'
Missing grass-type pokemon!
Maybe these weren`t on a big headlines like the first one, but still… All grass pokemon disappear – both wild and tamed ones. This is definitely not a coincidence… For some reason Team Rocket is collecting grass-type pokemon from all over the Kanto. But what for? For selling? For the organized bandits this sounds like a real purpose, but I need to watch over the news now. They can prove my theory or destroy it.
I have to find everything out today!
"Here`s the map. 25 pd." Seller have finally found the map and handed it over to me. I paid the coins, grabbed the map and stepped away from the kiosk, observing the city. Looks like the gym is situated in the south-west part of the city, which is pretty far from here. I reminded to myself about bunch of Team Rockets blocked inside the ghost-filled tower and Douchebag guarding them.
Is he guarding them? I hope so. I could call him by the PokeDex, maybe, but I didn`t want to. And had no time. Rockets and Mr. Fuji are blocked inside the tower without food or water, and I expect to return back before their death from starvation. I have, at least, to save the old man.
So I pulled myself together, found the courage to battle my greed and… took a cab. But even the cab took nearly an hour to get to gym on the other side of city. Damn, this place is really huge!
We passed some attractive places on our way: I noticed a large casino, even larger shopping store and, maybe, Leaf`s bike parked near it.
But the most important thing is that all these buildings are situated on one very long street: Victoria Street. The one that Team Rocket recruiter told me about. The street where Team Rocket`s hideout is! But these bastards didn`t write the actual place. This damn street passes the whole huge city – how am I supposed to find the exact building?
Well, maybe after visiting the gym I will find some answers to this.
In my thoughts I lost the sense of time and didn`t even notice as we actually reached the gym.
This building looks like a huge greenhouse rather than gym… Well, any pokemon gym doesn't look like a usual gym for me. Maybe, just fighting-type gyms do. But this one has gone too far into the grass theme. It`s even colored in green!
Large windows in the walls provide a lot of sunlight inside the building; and even the roof is made of glass. Well, I haven`t seen much of greenhouses, but this one really looks cool. I wonder what plants they grow here. Do they grow plants at all? Those plants that are not pokemon, I mean?
Firstly, I checked the insides of gym through the window, but I could barely see anything as the windows were really overgrown. I seemed to be someone inside, but I couldn`t see him clearly through the dense plants. The main entrance door was closed, but there was no note about whether the gym works now or not.
Suddenly I noticed some strange old man standing there over the corner, pressed to the window and mumbling something. From the distance I could say that he seems to… lick… the window? What? On the closer look I made sure of it.
"Hey, old man, what`s are you doing here?" I approached him and asked friendly.
"Oh, nothing, nothing!" He scared of me and jumped away from the window. His attempts to keep calm and harmless view looked even more suspicious.
"What`s in there?" I approached the window that he was looking into and did the same thing. The view… surprised me.
Well, I could understand him, it`s quite hard to look away. From this point of view I could see that the gym is some sort of sunroom where a bunch of pretty girls in bikini – and some of them even without it – were sunbathing on lounges. The glass windows of this building concentrate sunlight in certain places and allocate it evenly on the body, giving you a perfect tan… When did I start to understand optics and biology?
Maybe, this have to be a gym – and that means all these girls are trainers. I actually noticed some grass-type pokemon walking near the lounges, sometimes enjoying sunbathes on free spots too and proving my theory. But why are they having a rest and not working? Not training?
"Do you have some business here or you`re here just to stare at naked girls?" I asked the old man dourly.
"Me? I… I am… going away already!" He mumbled and quickly ran away. For a man of his age he runs pretty fast, I have to say. Old pervert. Here goes the young one!
On this side of gym I noticed another door inside, and it looked to be opened to my greatest surprise. And so I brusquely opened the doors wide and entered the place.
"Ladies! Sorry to interrupt you, but I`m here to challenge the gym leader!"
Actually I expected them to scream, throw things at me and even kick the hell out of here, but they reacted quite… indifferently. Some of them slowly tried to cover their nakedness, but other literally gave no shit about me storming in. They were too busy with getting a good tan. Just some pokemon actually looked at me seriously, but then noticed their trainers` absent reaction and calmed down.
I just can`t believe these beautiful ladies can be somehow connected to a crazy bunch of bandits like Team Rocket. I looked around trying to see any familiar faces, but I did not succeed, so I just proceeded inside.
Maybe it is the aroma that is responsible for this pacification. Actually I smelled this just when I walked into the restroom, but as I follow the small path to the center, the scent is becoming just stronger. It`s so placatory… And calming. Together with moderately hot temperature here this becomes so… Relaxing. Damn, I even forgot why I came here in the first place…
And actually no one told me anything on my way here. The girls are enjoying their process too much and even a male intruder doesn`t disturb them. Can they be under some sort of… sun.. drug?
In the center of this strange place I finally found the supposed gym leader, a nice blue-haired girl with sunglasses on the biggest lounge, surrounded by a bunch of grass-type pokemon. For some reason I was sure she is the gym leader – there is something… leading about her, I don`t know. Just the intuition.
So I made a deep breath and approached this girl. Luckily she wasn`t naked, otherwise our dialogue would be a bit more… awkward.
"Are you the gym leader?" I asked her.
The girl slowly reacted to me raising her head and lowering down the sunglasses a bit. Some of her pokemon woke up too.
"Yes, I am. What do you want?" She replied to me with so relaxed and slow voice. I really think they all are under kaif.
"I want to challenge the gym! Do you… work today?" I suddenly looked at my watch to make sure it`s not Sunday. It is not. And anyway, I battled Brock on the Sunday, and that means gyms work on weekend too.
"I do not accept challenges that easily." She suddenly replied and rose to sit on her lounge. "I battle only the strongest trainers. Do you have seven gym badges?"
That was actually unexpected. Before this all gym leader accepted my challenge right now and didn`t even demand on having specific amount of badges. What the hell?
"I do not. I have just three." I replied to her sadly.
"Too bad. I like good battles, and I expect to take just really interesting challengers." She smiled cunningly. "But I usually give a chance to other trainers. If you really want to challenge me right now… You have to entertain me. Promise me a very interesting battle. Otherwise you will not get your badge even if you win."
Wow, what a bitch. So supercilious and proud… Now I see that she actually MAY have the connection to Team Rocket. I`m not sure about the other girls here, but she acts really defiantly suspicious.
"Okay. I know how to entertain you, miss?.." I forced her to introduce herself.
"Erika. Erika Anderson." She replied with smile.
Erika Anderson? Erika Anderson… Anderson, Erika! A.E. on the letter! This is more than just a coincidence. I actually got right where I need! But how can I make her talk? Maybe, I have three plans, and the second one is the hardest. I choose this one.
"…Miss Erika Anderson. To entertain you… I offer you a bet. I will defeat you using just two pokemon. So, if I win… you`ll agree to date me tonight…" Suddenly the sleeping girls woke up and exclaimed in shock. Of course, they are listening to us. "And the conditions of my loss… You`ll choose by yourself."
Erika smiles very widely. She was really interested in my offer. The girls started to hum behind us.
"I accept your challenge and your bet." She finally got up from her lounge and clicked fingers. "Girls! Prepare to the game!"
The game? What game is she talking about? I didn`t even had the time to ask as her Vileplume launched a thick red cloud into the air, completely blocking my sight like the smokescreen. I covered my eyes from this and after some time, when the cloud dissolved, looked around again. There was no one.
"Where are you?" I loudly shouted.
A quiet giggle sounded behind me. I turned around to see a pretty brunette girl. She somehow managed to change her clothes to something more fitting for training – I guess, Misty`s assistant Diana was wearing the same clothes.
"Looks like I`m going to be your opponent here!" She said gladly.
Yeah, the whole challenge involves battling other trainers too, again and as always. Stupid League rules…
"Okay, girl. Bring it on!" I shouted to her and made some steps away, making some space between us.
"Bulbasaur, let`s go!" She threw her pokeball on the ground, and her first pokemon appeared on ground.
"A Bulbasaur, heh? We know how to handle this. Moment, go!"
I chose my Golbat as the first battler against the grass-type pokemon. The advantage will be pretty good here. But the first thing I noticed was my Moment`s strange state. He appeared on the field and flew high up, but he was… sleepy? Or just tired?
"Hey, are you all right, Moment?" I carefully asked him. He quietly screeched in reply, stating that he is okay. But still that worried me a bit.
"Let`s start already! Bulbasaur, use Vine whip!" My opponent finally started the battle with her first command.
"Then we`ll start too. Moment, attack the vines with Wing attack!" I shouted my command too.
Moment quickly accelerated to the approaching vines and swiped them with his solid wings, both reflecting the attack and dealing pretty good damage. Opposing Bulbasaur definitely felt the hit on his long vines.
"No way! Bulbasaur, use Poison Powder!"
I was surprised by her suddenly… stupid move.
"Don`t worry, Moment, ignore it and strike this Bulbasaur right in the middle of his eyes with your Wing Attack!"
Girl`s eyes widened as I decided to ignore her move and just attack in return. Her pokemon threw a large cloud of purple powder from the bulb on his back and sent it into Moment`s direction. But I knew that my Golbat won`t be affected by that. Posion-type pokemon can`t be poisoned with this move! And so Moment rushed through the poison cloud like it was nothing and streak opponent very hard, making poor Bulbasaur to fly back and crush into the tree. After two super-effective hits, with the second one being obviously critical, he fainted from the fatigue.
"No, why?" She cried out to me.
"Learn the types, girl. Poison powder does not affect poison types at all!" I explained her with a bit of sarcasm. She angrily looked at me and raised her pokeball to return the Bulbasaur back.
"This one won`t be so easy to beat!" The girl shouted and threw another pokeball on the field, revealing her second pokemon to be a… evolution of Bulbasaur? What is it called? Ivysaur, I think.
For some reason I realized that I want Harry to join the party. Just the intuition again, nothing more.
"Well, this one WILL make it easy!" I returned my Moment and switched him with Harry. My Bellsprout was really glad to see a close grass-poison pokemon, but immediately prepared to battle him no matter what. Ivysaur gave him a serious determinate look too.
"Ivysaur, start with sleep powder!"
OH DAMN my intuition did not fail me again! That was so good I didn`t stay with my Moment.
"Okay, Harry, let`s check your new skills in battle. Use Flash!"
This time Ivysaur used his bud on back to launch a cloud of dangerous green powder into my pokemon. And just as the cloud hit Harry, raised his head to look menacingly at the opponent and then suddenly flashed brightly, blinding the foe pokemon. Ivysaur retreated a bit back, blinking and snorting, but I guess he won`t be able to see normally until the end of battle. As for my Harry… The effects of Sleep powder didn`t work on him either.
"Why it didn`t work?!" The opposing trainer shouted. She repeated almost the same mistake again and couldn`t even understand what she did wrong.
"Sleep powder doesn`t work on grass-type pokemon, my dear!" I smiled again and replied barely keeping myself from laugh. This makes her even angrier.
"Ivysaur, give him your best Vine whip!" She attacked us with all strength.
"Nice! I waited for that… Harry, use Long Knot maneuver!"
The mix of shock and perplexity appeared on girl`s face as my Weepinbell, well trained to perform this maneuver, caught the vines flying at him right in the air with his own vines and tied into the knot. The face of Ivysaur at this moment was literally DESTROYED with extreme surprise when this knot of vines was also thrown back at him. Well, the hit wasn`t that powerful, but it shouldn`t be. This was needed to piss him off, not hurt.
"Wha… how?" The opponent just opened her mouth trying to say something.
"Easy enough. Let`s flood this guy with Acid, Harry!" I commanded to my pokemon as he made a jump forward me, ready to attack for real.
"N-no! Ivysaur, hit him with vines!" The girl shouted. And her pokemon, slowly adapting to the strange knot on his two vines, tried to hit my Harry, but it was useless. Ivysaur couldn`t hit hard in this condition, so Harry barely felt the hit and spit a large poisonous spittle of acid into Ivysaur, and THIS hit was pretty good. Not super effective, but still hurtful. Ivysaur shivered after the hit and I noticed that some drops of acid left on his body. If I remember correctly, this makes him more vulnerable to attacks.
But I wonder why she doesn`t use any other moves. Does she have any other moves than Vine whip and useless Sleep powder?
But she continued to command her Bulbasaur using the Vine Whip again and again. My Weepinbell easily dodged the clumsy attack and counterattacked with his own Acid each time. Sometimes blinded Ivysaur didn`t even try to aim at his target, and the vines were flying in completely another direction giving us even more time to strike.
One after another, attack after attack, the end came for confused and weakened Ivysaur as he finally got the direct hit of Acid right in his face, roared from pain and fell on ground, fainting.
"Great job, Harry! Return now." I beamed him back to pokeball and fixed on my shoulder belt.
"Return, Ivysaur. You did your best…" Very quietly the girl said while returning her pokemon back. I think I could hear a disappointment in her voice. Then she raised her eyesight again on me. "This isn`t over. Even if you manage to win the Game, Erika will defeat you."
"What game are you talking about?" I questioned her, but she just silently turned around and walked away.
"Hey, wait!"
Suddenly bright light appeared over me and even partly blinding me.
"The game… is everything around you!" Loud voice of Erika spread over the whole forest-filled gym from the loudspeakers. "The rules are simple. You can battle me only when and if you actually find me. I will hide… and you will seek. Isn`t this nice?"
Really? Hide-and-seek in a huge greenhouse? Well, this sounds a bit less crazy than seeking switches in electric trash cans. Maybe this isn`t that bad. I think I can find a girl in a forest.
"But beware, because my girls will play this game too. Isn`t it even more awesome? They will be seekers too, but the hider will be you… challenger." Erika loudly announced another shocking rule.
What? This actually will make the challenge more… challenging.
"What if they find me?" I shouted loudly to her.
"You will battle them. One by one. Without any checkpoints and chances to heal your pokemon in our machines until the game ends."
WHAT THE HECK? There were at least ten trainers with her in the gym! If I have to battle them all, without heals, then how long will I hold on? I could try to use potions between the battles, but this won`t be that easy if the others will be seeking for me in the same time.
Damn this is going to be really hard.
"The game… begins!"