Hey Howdy y'all! Hope life is treating you well and if not, I hope I can at least entertain you for a short while. We're coming at you with Chapter 3 baby!! Honestly I tried writing for a bit of a longer stretch with this one and I really enjoyed the pacing of it. I'm still going to have my schedule of two short chapters with a longer chapter but I think I want to make them a bit longer. Hopefully that will make things a bit more enjoyable for y'all!
(As always, I do not claim to won Pokémon. That right goes to Gamefreak and Nintendo. But seriously. Can we find a mechanic and stick it? I enjoyed the variety for a while, but having a new one each generation is kinda whack. Take that time and energy and put it into more designs or developing a deeper story. I dunno. Just my humble opinion.)
I woke up the next morning to the sounds of my alarm and the barest hint of a glow from the sun peaking over the horizon. Rolling out of bed I grabbed my brush and proceeded to brush out any knots from my shoulder-length black hair. After a good five minutes and a glance over, I threw on my travel clothes consisting of black spandex biking shorts (think May's shorts) and a long sleeve burnt orange jacket. I topped off the look by pulling my hair back into a ponytail and throwing on my canvas sports bag that was modded out with foldable space poketech.
Thanks to some amazing inventors out there, we were able to crack the code of dimensional storage. A regular backpack with some good poketech could hold as much as a decently sized wagon. It's an amazing invention in terms of assisting a trainer on their journey. I used to worry day in and out about how I was going to carry enough food for my team. Now with just a sports bag, I have the equivalent of a pantry in my arms.
I grabbed Kong's Pokeball off of my nightstand and raced off to the South Gate towards Route 6.
Saffron City is a bustling metropolis of business within the Kanto region. Being the centermost location and the crossroads between major cities around, Saffron has grown into a largely populated economic center. With places like Silph Co bringing in tech and business ventures, it's safe to say that Saffron is a place where money talks.
It took me about an hour to get to the southern gate due to all of the early morning hordes of people traveling to their local jobs. Once I got to the gate and made my way through, I pulled out my phone to check my specifics and see what other short-term goals I could aim for. Absentmindedly I released Kong and had him follow with an eye out for wild pokemon. I quickly created a note to write down the list of things I wanted to accomplish before I started to look toward the gym circuit.
I quickly wrote to catch Poliwag at the top of the list and put two more bullet points beneath it. I thought for a second and decided to focus on raising Kong's proficiency in his Normal and Fighting energies. Seeing as most of his currently available moves consist of Normal moves, I decided to focus on his Normal moves until he was able to learn a Fighting move naturally.
For the third bullet point, I put down to win 5 battles or to find a third member for the team. Before I leave Saffron I want to make sure I either have the numbers to make up for quality or to get Kong and my future tadpole some experience in battling so they weren't absolute novices.
After jotting down some specifics I decided to check my bank account and see what my funding was going to look like. I had 12,000 pokedollars saved up from working part-time and saving money from holidays and the like. Plus I now had the monthly stipend from my sponsorship so I was currently sitting at a nice 15,000 poke dollars. That should be enough to cover all the necessities for journeys while leaving about 10,000 to use for something for my pokemon.
"Man!" Kong called out that we had reached the edge of a small lake off to the side of Route 6. It was still in the considered "safe zone" for trainers so I decided this would be where I would set up shop. I stopped and pulled my Good Rod from my backpack. After getting a few warm-up casts and getting the proper bait aligned I turned to look at Kong.
"Okay, Kong. We're going to be looking for a Pokemon called a Poliwag. I have hopes for it to be an important member of our team soon so whenever I pull one up I want you to immediately hit it with a Scratch attack. We don't want it to faint otherwise we won't be able to catch it. Any other pokemon that I pull up is a free game to train up your Normal type moves! So practice your Focus Energy and Leer moves on them before dispatching them with Scratch! Got it?"
Kong looked up at me and nodded. He gave a cheer and started training on shortening the time it took to use Focus Energy immediately. I giggled and then got some bait attached to the pole. Hopefully, I would get a bite quickly and start getting Kong some battle experience.
My first bite came twenty minutes after my first cast. I pulled hard and out-plopped a yellow-colored duck. A Psyduck. I quickly pulled out my phone to scan it and yelled for Kong to start combat.
"Kong! Use Leer!" Kong glared at the Psyduck causing it to flinch back at the sudden show of hostility. I knew that Kong had been working on his charge time for Focus Energy so I was pretty sure that the effect was still up.
"Follow up with a Scratch! Make sure to stagger your approach!" Kong grunted and ran around in a zigzag pattern. It wasn't fast by any means but it was quick enough to dodge the Water Gun that the wild Psyduck shot back in retaliation. It slammed past where Kong used to be and he rushed the Psyduck with a Scratch attack. It connected and the Psyduck flew back into the water unconscious.
"Hell yeah Kong! Keep up the good work and we'll have a Poliwag yet!
3 hours later
It took a while but patience always brings its rewards. I had fished up some other Pokémon in the forms of Goldeen and Magikarp but Kong dispatched any unwanted mons with relative ease. I did have to stop and take a break after Kong exchanged blows with a particularly strong Psyduck who knew the move Confusion. Kong managed to tough it out though and with a few Scratch attacks, we had another win for the tally.
It was on my thirteenth cast that my luck finally struck. I heaved back on the pole and out popped the Tadpole Pokémon itself.
"Poliwag!" It landed on the bank and Immediately shot a wave of energy towards Kong. After watching my uncle's Poliwrath fight I recognized it as Hypnosis. If Kong got hit with that we would both be at the mercy of a pissed-off tadpole. We couldn't let it connect or we would be in some deep shit.
"Kong dodge and use Spite!" Kong dodged the wave of energy in the knick of time and growled at the Poliwag. As he did so a miasma of dark purple shrouded Poliwag and entered into it. It suddenly looked as if it had been fighting for a few minutes and paused in its firing of another attack.
"Now! Use Scratch while it's off tempo!" Kong charged in to attack the wild Poliwag. It connected but the Poliwag twirled around and slammed King with its tail in a powerful Pound attack. King rolled back from the impact and quickly hopped back to his feet.
A glance at King told me that he wouldn't be able to fight for much longer. The day had taken its toll on him and he had fought quite a few battles before this. I would have to finish this quickly before his energy ran out. They still had to make the journey back to the city after all and I didn't want to have a tired-out partner and a newly captured pokemon as my only defense.
"Kong! Finish it with another Scratch! Try and whittle it down!" Kong dashed forwards from where he landed and unleashed a flurry of swipes with his claws. That didn't look like a Scratch. Did Kong learn Fury Swipes? The Poliwag took two hits on its back and collapsed onto the bank. I could tell that it was on the verge of passing out so I quickly retrieved a Pokeball and threw it forward. The ball landed and a beam of energy surrounded the Poliwag. After the ball hit the ground I couldn't breathe as the ball shook. And then it shook again. Another time. The Pokeball stilled and appeared back on my bag strap.
I let out a long sigh of relief and fell back into exhaustion. Three hours in the heat combined with a long night researching and creating plans made the exciting moment reveal my body's exhaustion. I took a moment with Kong under the shade of a nearby tree. After a potion and a snack of some Berries, he looked ready to keep slugging away at wild Pokemon.
I decided to take a break and rescan Kong for any changes.
Mankey (Kong)
Gender: M
Type: Fighting
Prowess: B
HP, Attack, Sp. Def and Speed
Ability: Defiant
Moves: Scratch, Leer, Focus Energy, Encore, Spite, Fury Swipes
Type Energy Proficiency
Normal: D
Fighting: F
Ghost: F
So Kong did learn a new move! And his proficiencies leveled up! All of the Focus Energy spam in between catches was worth the grind. And I guess the uses of Spite thrown in the mix were enough to up his Ghost proficiency. While it may not be the exact results I was looking for, I wasn't going to be upset with the progress. It was one step closer to my secret weapon for the Indigo Championship. Gotta love the store of knowledge being a Pokemon fan in my past life. It allowed me knowledge that many on this side of the world would lack. And maybe for good reason too.
The Pokemon World Government is less of a "government" and more of a series of agreed guidelines by all the regions which are then upheld by a very professional and powerful group of auditors. You break one of the rules and you get an audit. If things are found lacking then you can lose your trainer's license and spend some serious jail time. The regions themselves are all governed by their governments and leagues. It's why even though the general minimum age with the PWG's rules was 13, some regions had a higher age requirement. Alola for example has a requirement of 14 and starter pokemon are directly given out by an Islands Kahuna. The added dangers of Ultra Beasts showing up at random on the islands as well as the dangers of supercharged Totem Pokemon, it isn't as stable of a region as others. Plus with all of its instability, there hasn't been a bunch of progress in getting their league set up. They had a few sets of promising trainers in terms of their Kahunas and Captains but they didn't shine a candle to the strength of one of the 8 Shields or a Champion and their Elite Four. There were rumors that there may be an odd twist where they may use the traditional Island Challenge as they're Gym Circuit and had started looking for trainers that could be considered as the first Elite Four. While this is all fine and dandy as everyone gets to play the game how they want, the result is each region has different rules and guidelines that you have to play by to stay out of trouble. Except for Kanto and Johto. With both regions being so physically close together, they had been operating together under the Indigo government for about 300 years now.
This is where it gets tricky. Pokemon from other regions are extremely hard to get ahold of. While all 9 major regions have been found; Alola, Galar, and Paldea have been recent additions to the PWG. Plus they are incredibly far away from Kanto. The regions still mirrored the real-world locations like they were in my past life but safety traveling between did not. Planes existed but were extremely dangerous when flying over a long distance. Most international travels was by sea. Some regions like Kanto and Johto were located near each other and you could fly between them with a good enough Flying Pokemon. There were quite a few Flying Specialists that worked as a transportation service in a region for those who may not have a Pokemon that can fly them around.
That posed a problem for diversifying my team a bit. The further a region is, the harder it is to get an egg or a Pokemon delivered to me. I could eventually take a vacation to another region like Hoenn or Sinnoh for a bit to find some other team members but that was going to be down the road a bit. Travel was expensive and something that was out of my current price range. Sinnoh and Hoenn weren't even that far and a boat ticket costs 20,000 Pokedollars! So having the knowledge that Primeape had another evolution that wouldn't be well known in this part of the world was an absolute gold mine to have as an advantage.
I stopped getting lost in my thoughts and snagged a couple of extra Oran berries out of the pouch as a reward for his hard work. And with most of what I had planned to accomplish today finished, I made my way back to Saffron to heal up my Poliwag and then head back home to meet the newest member of my team.
After a quick trip to the Pokemon Center, I returned home to meet the newest member of my team. At the center, I had learned that my Poliwag was a female so that reduced the names I had thought of by a bit. Eventually, I decided to just let Poliwag decide what her name was going to be.
I went back out into the training area behind the house and released Poliwag.
"Poliwag!". Upon materializing the Poliwag looked curiously around until its eyes settled on me. I knelt to one knee and held out my fist.
"Hey, Poliwag. I hope I didn't ruin your day by catching you but I have a dream of reaching the highest peaks of a Fighting Master. I know that I can help you reach your highest potential. I will need strong teammates to reach my dream and you fought against Kong very well! What do you say about climbing those mountains with us?" The Poliwag sat for a minute as it listened to me speak about my dream. She perked up whenever I mentioned her performance against Kong and her eyes shone with competition. She walked forward and tapped the top of her head against my fist.
A grin spread across my face as I felt the accomplishment of one of my goals flood over me. I sat down and started to think of what I wanted to name her.
"Hmmm…Blue?" At this suggestion, Poliwag gave me a flat stare in disappointment. As if saying "That's the best you can come up with?".
"Okay! Okay! No need to be so judgy about it Miss Polli."
At this Poliwag's eyes shone and she jumped with glee.
"Polli? You want your name to be Polli?"
The now-named Polli nodded fervently in agreement and hopped into the air.
After calming Polli down I gave her a scan before pointing over to the small pond for her to go and explore. I moved over to one of the chairs near the porch and looked at the data for Polli.
Poliwag (Polli)
Gender: F
Type: Water
Prowess: C
Sp. Att, Sp. Def and Speed
Ability: Water Absorb
Moves: Bubble, Hypnosis, Water Gun, Pound, and Haze
Type Energy Proficiencies
Water: D-
Psychic: F
Normal: D-
Ice: F-
All in all, Polli was a pretty good find. Her Water Absorb ability will be a great gimmick to use against the Cerulean Gym. Plus it looks like she had an egg move in the way of Haze. Honestly not what I was hoping for but in all honesty, I'll take it. It'll make it easier for Polli to learn Ice Punch later which is a nice bonus. Overall a bit above average but I'm not complaining. I happily looked away from my phone and watched Kong toss rocks into the air for Polli to shoot down with Water Gun. Tomorrow I think I'm going to spend a little time training and see if I can find a battle at the local battle club. I needed to start raking in some cash and points in order to get a nice cushion for when I decide to head out.
That can wait for tomorrow however because after the excitement of excellent progress with my goals I now had to start thinking about some medium-term goals. Start looking at different ways to go about my gym circuit. But for now all I wanted to do was to play with my new found teammates and relax. I still had a year until the Kanto preliminaries for the Indigo League Tournament. So I had a bit of time to train and get a team assembled for my first bout.
And with that, I quickly ran to grab the hose in order to spray my Pokemon playfully. Today was a good one.
The next morning, I decided that I would spend the day researching and having my pokemon train a bit before checking out the Saffron Battle Club.
After a good breakfast and some small talk with my uncle about training Polli, I headed out to the training yard. After releasing both Kong and Polli, I called them over and explained my plan for training today.
"Alright. So I want to spend some time researching what route we're going to take for our Gym Circuit. I want to take one that gives us some chances at widening our team roster as well since we'll have another slot opening after we get our first badge. I also want to check out the Battle Club later and see about getting some experience before we hit the road." I pulled out a whiteboard and a marker to better illustrate what I had planned for my team members' roles. I looked over at Kong and drew a crude version of a sword and fist on it.
"Kong you have the potential to become a really good physical attacker. I have in mind a Warrior/Monk type of fighting style for you. So I want to work on your ability to get in close with an opponent who likes to fight at range." I erased the board and looked over at Polli. I drew a staff and cloak on the whiteboard and showed it to Polli.
"Polli until you evolve I think we want to focus more on a Mage/Saboteur fighting style for you. I want you to work on maintaining distance and adjusting your attacks to a moving target." I erased the board again and drew a crude representation of both Kong and Polli. At this, they both gave me a displeased look at my poor artistic depiction of them. I gave them a flat stare in response and continued with my explanation.
"So while I'm planning out our next moves, you two will be playing a game of sorts. Kong I want you to try and close the distance on Polli and use a low-powered Scratch on her." I drew a zig zag line towards Polli and showed Kong. He gave a nod and a pump of his fists as he showed that he understood.
"Polli while he's doing this I want you to use Water Gun and Bubble to hit him while maintaining that distance. And make sure to try and lower the power on your moves. I want you to be able to lower and increase the power of your moves. It should help you be able to better control your water moves." Polli nodded and slapped her tail on the ground.
"Kong I want you to try and dodge as many hit as you can while closing the distance. After every three hits from Polli or three hits from Mankey, it's a reset. Once you hit three resets take a five-minute breather and think of different ways you can change your approach. After three breathers take twenty minutes to break or work on honing a move of your choosing. Make sure not to tire yourselves too much since we have the Battle Club to check out." At this, they both nodded and moved off to about 20 feet away from each other. They started with Kong dashing forward in an attempt to close as much distance as quickly as possible.
Polli responded in kind with a spray of Bubbles creating a small wall of approaching obstacles. Kong quickly dashed to the side and pivoted into another dash toward Polli. At this point, he had closed about ten feet and was fast approaching Polli from her right. She turned and let loose with three Water Guns in quick succession. Kong succeeded in weaving past the first two but the last one managed to graze his side before he could fully move out of the way.
Kong quickly dashed back as another wave of Bubbles was quickly approaching him. As I watched I could see the gears turning in his head on how he could maneuver around all of the attacks while still being able to gain ground on Polli.
I nodded after seeing that they had both understood my training exercise and moved towards the shade of a tree to start planning my route through Kanto.
Looking at type advantage alone; Viridian, Pewter, and Cinnabar would be the best options in terms of a victory for my first badge. I definitely wanted to avoid Saffron, Vermillion, and Celadon. With Sabrina and Erika both having a type advantage on my team, I decided I would save those badges until later in my challenge. I could try taking on Lt. Surge but with Polli having the type disadvantage and Mankey still being a relative beginner in terms of battling, I wasn't extremely confident in their ability to combat a Raichu. Even if it would be the only Pokemon we'd have to face, it still packed a big punch, and until we trained a bit we didn't weigh to return that favor.
The problem was that it would take a lot of time and resources to get from Saffron to any of the gyms we had an advantage on. And I didn't have the necessary funding needed to fund that kind of journey. I could take a few odd jobs from postings in the Pokemon Center but I also knew that my current Training rating of F wouldn't land me jobs that paid well. I could acquire enough to feed and take care of me and my Pokémon for sure. But to increase my funding for journeying around the region I would need to battle or find another way of acquiring funds. I had 10,000 right now that I could work with in terms of whatever I needed.
I could look at getting a flier to fly me over to Pewter and that would leave me with 6,000 left to work with. From there I could move down to Viridian and challenge the gym there. And then I could head south towards Pallet and check out Professor Oak's Reserve. He may even have a pokemon egg or something he could be willing to sell which would be a lucky find. After a ferry south to Cinnabar that would land me at three badges, all of which were to my advantage.
The only problem with that was I wouldn't have a chance to add another team member to my team until Pallet town and I'd have two badges to win until then. After a quick check on the Net, I confirmed that the Tyrogue line do live in the forest and grasslands south of Pallet. It would be a lot of work but we could do it. We would just have to be vigilant in the way we trained and look at getting some TMs for some decent coverage until then.
After a quick check on the Net, I also found a few Items that I would need to save up for down the line. The first was acquiring a Water Stone so that Polli could reach her final evolution. In terms of cost however it would be pretty steep. Evolutionary stones came with different ratings attached to them. The higher the rating? The more energy was stored in the stone. This increased the energy gained by a Pokemon using it as a catalyst. Pretty cool right since Polli can get a serious beef up in her abilities but the cost is outrageous. One B-tier Water Stone costs 40,000 a pop! I would have to save up for a while to get one or manage to get lucky and find one. While it might be expensive, I wanted at least a C-tier stone for Polli's evolution. It would help in cutting down the time getting Polli used to a new fighting style while still getting stronger. And if I wanted to be able to take on the Kanto qualifying tournament next year to qualify for the Indigo Championship, time was going to be a precious resource.
There was another selection of items that caught my eye. Those were Type Gems. These were tools that could help a Pokemon develop or acquire a new type of energy quicker. Of course, a Pokemon could learn to develop these energies naturally, but a Type Gem would help to increase the natural progress of developing this energy. Each one cost about 4,000 for a decently graded one. I knew I wanted to buy a Ghost Gem to help Kong develop his Ghost Type energy. I wanted him to develop the move Rage Fist while he was a Primeape as quickly as possible. And raising his proficiency in manipulating his Ghost energy would only quicken that process. Once I was able to get some money I could get more to develop Polli and any future members' growth but for now, the Ghost gem was a higher priority.
After a while of perusing the online marketplaces, I decided to look into what I could do in terms of acquiring new team members. I knew that purchasing an egg or a Pokemon would be a topic for later once I had money so I was restricted to braving the wilds and trying to find another member that way. There was the Tyrogue line that roamed south of Pallet Town but that would be a job for later. It would be a while before I was able to get there so it wouldn't be feasible to rely on finding one soon. I could take a detour to Rock Tunnel and try my hands at a Machop but that would also be a project for later. Rock Tunnel had a bunch of strong Pokemon inside and I didn't want to become a victim to them. There was also a rare chance of finding a Heracross while traveling through Viridian Forest. It would add a bit of type variety and be a good addition to our current roster.
I decided in the end that putting out the cost of getting a flier from Saffron to Pewter would be worth the cost. I didn't want to chance getting lost in Diglett Tunnel and my team was currently too new to make the journey safely. Plus a bit of nostalgia from defeating Brock as my first gym was too good to pass up honestly. Once there I'd try my hand at bug hunting through the Viridian forest for a Heracross. And if I didn't, I was still confident that Kong and Polli would have the skills needed to claim a victory at Viridian.
After a couple of hours of familiarizing myself with a good route and a decent plan set in mind, I decided that we would cut training short and stop for a quick lunch. Afterward, I decided to head out and register myself into the system at the Battle Club. If I was lucky I'd be able to squeeze a battle in by the end of the day. And if not I'll just register myself tomorrow and spend some more time training with Kong and Polli.
Right next to the PokeCenter is a large metal building that contains eight battling courts. Most Battle clubs will only have two to four courts inside them but with Saffron being as big of a city, they developed more courts as the city has grown in population. There were already talks in the news about a proposed plan to expand the building by two courts was being discussed by the city's architects and building companies.
The main lobby is a rather plain-looking room with receptionists and trainers milling about. Some doorways led to the stands and another led you to the waiting room for matches. I made my way over to the receptionist's desk and waited for one to return to her desk.
I didn't have to wait long as a kind-looking middle-aged woman greeted me with a smile and beckoned me forward toward her.
"Hello, Miss! Would you like to list yourself as active for battles today?" Her voice had a kind tone as she motioned for me to scan my ID into the reader towards my right.
"Ah. Can I register myself for the Battle Club? I only just received my trainer ID so I don't think I'd be in the system yet." I pulled out my ID and showed it to her confirming that it was valid.
She took the change in stride and pulled up the waivers and paperwork needed to register onto the monitor. She scanned my ID which auto-filled all of my info into the paperwork needed. "Alright Miss, if you can just sign on this tablet here we can get your paperwork into the system. I see that you are a sponsored trainer so I will inform you that all battles will be based on the roster of the trainer who has the least pokemon up to a 3v3. Your current trainer rank is F. You can increase your rank to D by gaining 500 points in sanctioned battles. Each win gains you 10 points and each loss costs you five. A win in a Gym Battle will provide 50 points to your overall score. Also if you achieve a win streak you will be awarded additional points based on your current streak. Once you rank you will be awarded 10 BP for every rank you climb. Once you achieve C rank you can access other functions of the Battle Club which will be explained upon achieving the required rank." She pulled out a paper with a QR code which I scanned and it allowed me to download the ShowDown feature to my room phone.
"The ShowDown feature will track your battles and award or take away points automatically depending on the outcome. It is also the feature that will allow you to place bets on your matches. Please be mindful of any word-of-mouth betting when battling. There is no guarantee on the funds unless officially placed through the Showdown feature. Now I know it will take a while to get the system updated however there is another F Rank trainer that has been waiting a while for a battle. I can notify them that you are willing to battle and have the battle recorded and the outcomes will affect your rankings whenever you're fully in the system. Showdown should work now since it's tied directly to your trainer account so the only thing you would potentially be waiting for is the point change. If you would like, I can contact and explain the situation to her and see if she agrees?" At this, the lady looked at me expectantly.
In all honesty, I didn't care much about the points right now. My only concern was getting some money and experience for my team so I agreed. The lady took a minute to send off an alert to the trainer and after a few seconds, she informed me that she was agreeable with the terms.
"Alright, Miss Cindy. If you make your way to court seven, Miss Ashley will be waiting for you. I wish you luck in your growth! Take care!" And with that, she pointed me toward the door that led to the waiting rooms. I went over and scanned my ID. After a quick walk towards the end of the hallway, I found a set of doors that lead to the entrance of court seven.
I stood and took a deep breath of air to help calm my rising nerves. This would be my first ever official battle with my very own Pokemon. I knew that Kong would be able to hold his own. He had proved capable of taking a few hits and still being able to press on. Polli, I was a bit more worried about it. I had yet to use her in a battle and this would be her debut to fighting with me beyond sparring with Kong. I knew she could hold her own but I also didn't know how long she could hold up.
I shook my head to refocus and set my best poker face. I was going to go out and let my team shine. Even if we did lose it would be a marking point of how much work we had left to do. No reason to be nervous. I can do that whenever the outcome arrives.
And with that, I pushed the doors open and strode in for what I hoped to be my first victory.
And that wraps up Chapter 3! Let me know what you think in the reviews! As always, take care and make sure to drink some more water! And remember! Be kind!
There was a review that was asking about if Cindy's team is currently decided and I'm going to go with yes but also maybe at this point. I have a rough outline of what I want Cindy's main team to look like but it is also subject to change in the future. And that's also not to say she won't have a few swaps in the stables either. But I can safely say that no, her team will not be limited to only Kanto/Johto fighting types. That will however be a main portion of her beginning team as that's where she's focusing her attention on with her gym challenge. I plan on her utilizing the tools at her disposal to help diversify her team. And she may end up being able to sneak in a quick vacation somewhere if her schedule allows for it!
