"And with your victory I award you the boulder badge" Brock says as he hands me the small grey pin
"Thank you sir" I say taking it as Eevee and the newly evolved Nidorino stand in awe
"You had great strategy for a beginner, using Eevee's speed to overwhelm my to Geodudes and using the venom excretion of Nidorino to slip out of my Onix's bind are quite complex strategies" He affirms handing me a TM for Headbutt aswell
"Thanks, I would like to say its something we planned but the venom was on the fly" I say with a laugh
"I see, the junior competition is in for some excellent battles this year if you and your friends are anything to go by"
The mention of my friends clicks something in my head, I need to get to Mount Moon as soon as possible
"I gotta go, I need to get through Mount Moon today, thank you for the battle again, come on you two!" I say to my party as I begin to sprint out the door
Got to get to mount moon I think repeatedly in my head as I charge towards the ensuing mountain. I get challenged a few times along the way but deftly ignore them as I go pursuing the goal of catching up to my friends, after about 30 minutes of a mixture of running and quick walking I manage to make it up the trail to the mountain.
"Yes! We made it and its not even 10 yet!" I shout gleefully before turning to my two partners, they are panting and sweating profusely from the run especially after such a demanding gym battle. I look at them sadly in my quest to catch up to my friends I had forgotten about them.
I walk to them and crouch down
"Lets get you too rested up, we can give it a bit before plunging our way through the cave system" I say with a smile
I return them both to their balls and walk up to centre, the automatic doors slide open and I walk to the main centre desk.
"Good Morning, can I put my Pokemon in for healing please?" I say to the Nurse behind the desk
"Of course" She nods happily and takes them
"By any chance are you Ryan?" She responds after depositing Nidorino and Eevee balls into the machine
"Uh yes, why am I in trouble?" I ask nervously
"Oh no no, quite the contrary, I have a gift for you" She says stooping down below the counter
She plops down on the desk in front of me a rod used for fishing up water type Pokemon, I look to the note that is attached to the outside
"Sorry we couldn't be there for when you set off, but just know we are rooting for you all the way, love G&G"
I smile down at the note and pick up the folding rod
"Did they drop it off in person?" I ask
"Yes, caused quite a commotion I must say, they were going to wait for you but after the mob settled they thought it best that they didn't" She says with a smile
"I'll call them when I'm at Cerulean to thank them"
DING DING DING
The nurse turns to the console and collect my parties balls
"Nidorino and Eevee are all fully healed now, good luck through the cave, I would advise to stock up on some potions as the next centre isn't till Cerulean"
"Thanks Nurse, can I get 10 potions and 2 Super Potions please?" I say holding up my trainer card scanning against the payee machine
She smile and hands me the potions, I nod my head in thanks packing the potions and my new gift it my rucksack, I hitch it up onto my back before venturing out and into Mount Moon. As a junior competitor I have to stick to the guided route where only low level Pokemon reside, it was carved out a few years ago by member of the Elite Four in partnership with the Pokemon Battle Association to try and avoid as many incidents as they could. Along the way I battle a few trainers here and there, managing to win all of them although Eevee got into a very tight battle with Lass's Meowth. I kept checking my nav for the time as I had forgotten to check the locations of my friends and in the cave the GPS wasn't working, I would also have to call my mum when I got into Cerulean as I had forgotten too when I arrived in Pewter. I had just descended the last ladder before exiting the cave I could also smell the fresh grass of Route 4 on the other side
"HEY! You can't just take that" I heard from inside the cave
I turn to see a boy and a girl berating two older men, I stopped in my tracks looking at my dexnav but listening in to their conversation secretly
"We beat you fair and square seeing as your not on the battle league we'll take these fossils instead of prize money" the one older man laughed
"Thats not fair, we found these fossil fair and square and we didn't even agree to battle you, you just attack our Pokemon without saying anything" The girl shouts pointing at the fainted Grimer and Jigglypuff behind her and the boy
In an act of defiance she moved to grab the white sack which I assume held the aforementioned fossils, the silent older man pulled it away while the other pushed her to the ground with a thud
"Eevee, Quick Attack"
Eevee darts in and plunges its back legs into the chest of the man holding the sack causing him to fall back, catching hold of to sack with her teeth. She dart back to me with the sack in hand, as I release Nidorino too
"HEY! What do you think your doing kid!" The one shouts at me as the other scrambles back to his feet
"You can't just take things which aren't yours" I shout back as the boy and girl run toward me
"We won those so you better give them back or else" They shout as they move toward us
"You want them? Come and get them!" I shout sprinting out of the cave along with the girl and boy
After moving out of the cave into the openness of the route I throw the sack to the girl
"You two keep going, we'll keep them busy" I shout and turn to face up to our pursuers
The two man stop in the tracks and smile with a wide grin
"Oh so you think your strong enough to take us on without blind siding us now" The one chortles
"Nido!" Nidorino shouts moving forward followed closely by Eevee
"Machop I choose you" The one shouts as the silent one throws out his ball revealing a Sandshrew
"Machop, low kick"
The small Machop speeds in and attempts to kick at Eevee who deftly jumps to dodge
"Horn Attack" I shouting
Nidorino charges in and slams Machop in the midrift with its horn causing the fighting type to skid back
"Swift"
Sandshrew jumps in the air spinning firing off multiple white starts that slam into the pair of my Pokemon which pushes them back
"Mega Punch"
Machop jumps forward and slams its fist into Eevee who is flung back into my arms unable to go on after the battles in Mount Moon
"What a weak little rat, couldn't even take a super effective move"
"Mega Punch isn't super effective dumbass" I shout back
"That makes it even worse!" He retaliates as they both begin to laugh
I grit my teeth and tense in anger
"Nidorino Poison Sting"
Nidorino shoots multiple purple spikes from it back straight into the face of Machop who stumbles back in pain
"Now Horn Attack"
Nidorino Sprints forwards grazing Sandshrew as it descends but in it eagerness it sprints straight into the rock face of Mount Moon
"Ha, you can't even stop you Pokemon running into walls"
"All part of the plan" I shout with a sly smirk
"You what now!" He shouts turning to me
"Do you know what Mount Moon rockfaces are made up of?"
"Whats that got to do with anything" He shouts in anger
"Well I'll tell you! Moon Stones and do you know what evolves Nidorino?"
"Ah crap" he mutters as he turns to see a bright flash of white and blue light as Nidorino is enveloped twisting and changing with the light, in another flash of light it emerges and turns in defiance in its new form of Nidoking
"NIDO!" It roars out causing both Sandshrew and Machop to flinch
I scan it with my dexnav and get to see any new moves
"Nidoking, use Thrash!"
Nidokings sprints in and grabs the two Pokemon and pummels them over and over before throwing them at their trainers knocked out. It floors the two of them who quickly stumble to there feet and with another roar from Nidoking turn face and book it back into the tunnel as quickly as they can
I sprint up to Nidoking and jump on him
"You were amazing buddy!" I shout as he wrestle back at me with a hug calling out in happiness, Eevee pops out of her ball and joins in before our sort victory dance is cut short
"Well Ryan, looks like you doing well" I hear a voice say
I look to see the boy and girl from before but this time they are accompanied by my friend Joe, he stands a little short than me with dark brown hair
"Joe, great I've caught up!" I shout jumping down
"Nice to see you too" he says with a smile
"Uh yeah sorry, its great to see you too" I say putting my hand out and shaking his
"Uh excuse me?" The boy says moving forward
"Thanks for chasing off those bullies" he says shifting his glasses
"It's no worries, Vee and Nido did all the work" I say assuring towards my two Pokemon who were still celebrating
"I want you to have one of these, as a thank you" he says holding out his hand
"There fossils apparently if you take them to Cinnabar there's a lab that restores them" he says
"Two of them are really rare"
I look down and see a domed fossil and a swirling one aswell as a small amber
"Are you sure?" I say
"Well if you" the boy begins
"Of course, we'd have lost all three if not for you" the girl pipes up
I look to the boy who looks pained by doing this
"Is this the least rare one?" I say picking up the amber
"Uh yeah, you find loads of them by the entrance to Mount Moon"
"I'll take this one, you worked hard to get the rare ones, its only fair you keep them" I say with a smile
He nods and happily stuff the two back into the sack, myself and Joe accompany the two back into town before separating from them at the Pokemon Centre of Cerulean, by now its gone 3pm and battling Misty today is out of the question as she only battles until 4pm
"So Callum and Tom are gone?" I ask
"Yeah, Tom headed to Lavender Town as he's going to try to go to Fuchsia for his third badge as Surge and Erika are a little too strong for his team right now. Callum decimated Misty with just Ivysaur and he's already on his way to Vermillion."
"And you?" I ask
"I tried battling Misty twice, Charmeleon can just about beat Staryu but both him and Mankey go down to Starmie"
"Oh I see, aren't there wild Oddish up north you could catch?" I respond
"There are I was planning to catch one but I wanted to see what your party looked like before I did, I think the no catching the same Pokemon thing is a dumb now though, Callum got four Pokemon now and he's taking all the good ones"
I scramble to my nav to look at everyone profile, Callum now had an Ivysaur, Pikachu, Pidgeotto and Graveller all around the level 26, he had stopped just short of Vermillion City for the day and had set up camp from his post on social media. Tom was in the Centre outside Rock tunnel, He had his Wartortle, Weepinbell but had newly added a Rhyhorn and Machop to his team today
"Wow Tom just caught two new ones too" I say showing it to Joe
"Man I really wanted a Rhyhorn!" he says frustrated
"Its cool, you can take an Oddish" I say to him
"Really? Thanks Ryan, but how are you going to get past Misty?"
"With this" I say showing him my dexnav hovering over Nidokings moveset
"Wow, that could work actually!" he exclaims
"Nidoking, Megahorn"
Nidoking charges in slamming Misty's Starmie flinging against the back wall of the gym, the water slides down the wall face and slumps to the ground in defeat, she sighs as Nidoking roars out in celebration quickly joined by Eevee who jumps all over the Poison type
I stroll out to the pair and pat them
"Great work you too" I say to them as Misty arrives at us
"I award you the Cascade badge" she says with a smile handing me the pin
"Thank you" I say nodding in affirmation taking the pin and placing into my badge case
I chat some more and I ask her a good place to get a water type, she advises the route just north of Vermillion has a fishing lake with lots of different water types in there. I thank her again return Nidoking before setting off with Eevee toward Vermillion tunnel, I walk with a spring in my step knowing I had overtaken Joe and I was right on the tail of both Callum and Tom. It would take a few days to travel southward to Vermillion even with the connecting tunnel but that would give me time to train Nidoking and Eevee before Surge
"AND WHAT HAPPENED TO CALLING ME WHEN YOU GOT THE PEWTER!" the lady on the video phones shouts at me
"I'm sorry I was in a rush to catch up to the other guys, I sent you a letter"
"Well I didn't receive it" She retorts
"I guess it got lost" I say shooting a quick glance to the letter I had wrote the night in Pewter but had forgotten to send
"I had a feeling you'd be like this, anyway as long as your okay"
"I'm fine Mom, I'm 16 now I can look after myself, plus I'm doing really well, I've got two badges and look I even caught a shiny" I say gesturing towards my newly captured Chansey
"Where on earth did you find that?" She asks
"In Diglett cave it was being chased around by some Dugtrio and I thought catching it would help, then they turned on us but Vee and Nido dealt with them"
"Nido?" She questions
"Oh yeah I forgot you didn't get the letter" I say moving the camera onto Nidoking who is stretching himself out
"Wow, a Nidoking already, maybe you did inherit some skills"
"Oh that reminds me, if you see them say thank you for the rod, they left it at one of the centres as a gift"
"I will, well when you get to Celadon, call me understood?"
"Yes Mom, I promise, I'll see you soon" I say as I end the call
I breathe out a sigh of relief before returning Chansey and Nidoking to their balls, I hitch up my bag and move toward the exit
"Off to fight Surge?" I hear a voice say from behind
I turn and see a sleight, light browned haired boy accompanied by an Ivysaur
"Callum!"