"How are things going for you?" He asks with a big warm smile
"Good, I've got two badges, I signed up to battle Surge in two days too, but being two weeks in its going okay" I say back to him
We have retreated to the back of the Vermillion Pokecenter at one of the booths in the cafe area. Ivysaur sits close by to Callum softly snoozing away while Eevee coos and caws sleeping in my lap
"Nice, I was a bit worried about you to start, lots of people are dropping out of their runs now, I think in the past two days 200 have pulled out of the competition for whatever reason
"200? That means there's only like 120 left in the year, means if we can qualify we can get really far in the final competition, wait what do you mean you were worried about me?" I say shooting him a glare
"No offence was meant" He says with a laugh
"I just meant you spent the first week and a half outside Viridian training Eevee on low level trainers and Pokemon, I thought you were going to be left behind"
I look down at Eevee and stroke her
"It was tough, I had to get her Double Kick or we would have no chance against Brock, that could have been a real hurdle if I didn't approach it the correct way and if I had charge into it and faced Brock without a plan then maybe I'd have got discouraged and it would be 201 people who would have quit"
He laughs and smiles
"Well I'm glad your still going, I want all four of us to make it to the finals
As he finishes his Dexnav on the desk buzzes and blurts with noise
"Another offer I guess" He mumbles checking it
"An offer?" I question sipping at my drink
"Oh yeah, there a trade festival here tomorrow, trainers from all over the world will be attending, granted with being in the junior competition we can only use Kantonian dex Pokemon but there might be collectors who have rarer Pokemon to offer"
"How do you sign up?" I ask
"I'll send you the link, why you looking to trade up something?" He asks tapping the screen
"Well I caught a Chansey" I respond
"There rare but I'm not sure many people wo.." He says as I release Chansey
She pops out with a sparkle and shines a strong green colour as opposed to there normal pink hue, she coos and jumps up in happiness
"Well then, okay maybe you will get some good offers" He chuckles
"She's not much of a battler" I say patting her head
"I sent her out against a Rattata and she ran and hid behind me
"I see, well if she will definitely get a lot of interest"
"I'll make sure I find someone really nice for you Chansey, no matter what they offer you being happy will be the most important thing" I say to the Egg Pokemon with a smile
She call out in happiness at this
"Joes beaten Misty" Callum says looking down at his nav
"No way! Did he catch an Oddish in the end?" I say grabbing my nav
"Yeah and he got some other pretty strong guys now too" Callum says with a tinge of worry
I look down at my nav, Joe had now not only added an Oddish which was now a Gloom but also had a Gyarados and a Kadabra to his side. I took a big gulp thinking about my side. I currently only had two Pokemon on my active roster in Eevee and Nidoking with Chansey taking up a slot even though it wasn't being used
"Damn I need to get some new guys" I say slightly frustrated rubbing my eyes
"Lets head out to the fishing lake" Callum says calmly
I look up to him, he has a steely determined look but a calm manner about him. He had always been like this even since we were kids. We had all met at school, we had been together pretty much since the age of 5, we all got our starter Pokemon the same day as 10 years old and attended the same trainer school in Viridian City
"We could both do with Water types and there will be trainers around there too"
I nodded to him and followed him out of the Cafe
"Well this is super exhilarating" I sigh as Eevee yawns loudly in my lap, I hold the rod in my lap next to her, with my hands behind my back supporting my weight
I turn to Callum who has much more concentration, he's hunched forward and Ivysaur sits next him with his vines out ready to battle at a moments notice
"Wow, you always this intense when it comes to catching stuff" I say with a laugh
"Sh!" he says in a hushed tone moving his hand toward me
I strike a perplexed look but in a moment notice he has struck
"GOTCHA!" He shouts whipping the rod out of the water pulling out a shocked Poliwag
The Poliwag has little time to react before its wrapped in the vines of Ivysaur and pulled onto the land
"Saur use Sleep Powder" He shouts
Ivysaur lunges forward and shoots the light powder all over Poliwag who again with limited time to react promptly falls to its back asleep, Callum launches a Pokeball quickly at the small blue Pokemon
With three shakes its over and Poliwag is caught, I sit quite stunned at the events, in what seems like maybe 10 seconds Callum had pulled it from the water, put it to sleep and had it successfully in a Pokeball
"Great work Saur" He says crouching down and petting his starter
"Man, I always wanted a Poliwag" I say in a petulant manner
As I turn back to the lake my rod begins to move
"Oh crap" I shout as I pull at the rod, I squirm and pull at the weight of the Pokemon attached Eevee is quickly awoken from its snooze and grab to the line with it teeth trying to help reel in the catch, I stumble my hand over to my belt and dropped Nidoking ball of my belt
"Help us out Nido" I say
He plods in and grabs hold helping pull with his superior strength, with a quick tug the catch surfaces
"KING!" shouts out the huge Seaking pulled up from the depths of the lake
"Okay, Nido Poison Sting" I shout
Nidoking leans forward and fires off a flurry of purple darts that pummel the water type
The fish Pokemon shakes it off and descends into the water, it resurfaces and blasts a strong Water Pulse at Nidoking
"Megahorn"
Nidoking swipes at the water orb and slices it in half dissipating into vapour
"Eevee Quick Attack"
Eevee jumps and deftly uses the rocks of the lake to manoeuvrer out onto the lake and slams itself into the Seaking, it bops slowly up and down on the lake surface stunned at the attacks
"Now, Pokeball go"
I launch the ball out at the Pokemon and it skins a bit across the lake, just as its about to hit its intended target
CRACK!
The metal ball is caught between a single pincer sticking up out of the water and with a swift crunch is broken into two halves, in this time Seaking has managed to fumble itself out of being stunned and has descended down into the lake again
"HEY! What the hell do you think your doing!" I shout out to the mysterious Pokeball blocker
With a huge splash the culprit reveals itself as it ascends into the air
"Cooki" It calls out descending with a glowing blue claw attempting to smack Nidoking
Nidoking dodges and slams it away further inland with its tail
Standing with quite a short stature is a Krabby
"Cooki Cooki" It calls out wafting its claw in the air baiting Nidoking to attack it
"NIDO!" Nidoking roars out in retaliation
"Okay Nido, use Thrash"
Nidoking charges in and smacks Krabby with its tail and then twice with its fist, Krabby covers its midrift with its claws sort of enduring the attack before responding with a Crabhammer attack, socking Nidoking straight across the face. Nidoking stumbles back as Krabby leaps up and use Stomp on it. Nidoking falls to one knees and pants hard in tiredness
"Poison Sting"
Nidoking arches and shoots out the purple spines again which slam into the wild Krabby, it cries out at the attack and stumbles poisoned by the attack. Not resting it charge forward and readying a Crabhammer again
"Megahorn"
Nidoking steadies itself and slam it enlarged greenish horn into Krabbys glowing claw, they both shoot backwards skidding to a halt, Nidoking stumbles to its feet while Krabby is stunned
"Pokeball, go" I shout throwing out the ball
Krabby readies itself to stop the ball but at the last second stop frozen as the ball hits and sucks it in.
It falls to the ground and in one shake the ball ding with a star to single the capture.
"A Critical capture" Callum mutters as I jump and celebrate with a tired Nidoking and Eevee
"Guess Joe not the only one to be keeping an eye on"
I release Krabby from its ball as Eevee jumps to the bed of the centre room and curls up
"Cooki!" It shouts waving its claw at Nidoking who is slumped in the corner asleep
The poison type stirs but doesn't awaken
"Hey, no more fighting for today" I say the water type picking it up
"Cooki!" It calls waving its pincers around
"You really like battling huh? Well you're a welcome addition to the party buddy" I say to him with a smile
I place him down again and pull a bowl out filling it with Pokemon food, the water type looks up in confusion
"Its food, for you, I guess your used to having to fight for meals" I say crouching down petting it
"All yours, eat as much as you like" I say with a smile
"Cook" It says softly beginning to chomp on the food, he enjoys the first few bites and begins to devour the whole lot
"Okay, I have one ground rule, no inter fighting unless its training matches. Focus on fighting other guys not Nidoking okay?"
"Cooki!" He calls out nodding in agreement, he quickly wanders over to the big water tank in the front of the room and hops in, he nestles down at the bottom of the tank covering himself in sand and resting up
"Well, he's certainly a character" I say with a sigh checking out his dex screen on my nav
Level 26, moves Crabhammer, Vicegrip, Stomp and Bubblebeam
"Okay not bad, hes only 3 behind you and Nidoking so it won't take much to catch him up" I say stroking Eevee
My nav begins to buzz again as it had almost been constantly going off since I had listed Chansey up for trade at the festival, I had taken a quick look through the offers however there was no way to filter them until the day of the event so I could only see the 10 most recent offers, there were a few rare Pokemon like a Lickitung and Kangaskhan however it was mostly multi offers with a collection of lower level more common Pokemon
"I think its best we put this on silent tonight" I saying clicking the option on the nav and setting on the bedside table, I stretch up and crick my neck giving a big yawn, before retiring for the night I look around at my small team, Eevee and Nidoking had really carried me this far on their own admirably but there were definitely times where they were getting tired or facing pretty bad odds in fights so adding Krabby to the team would be extremely helpful in the long run. Adding a fourth member tomorrow was important, it would possibly be one of the most important decisions as giving up such a rare Pokemon I had to make sure I got something worthwhile in return while also making sure Chansey went to the right home
"Please trade with me!"
"No me"
"Hey I was here first"
I found myself back into the corner of the trade centre surround by lots of similar aged trainers all offering a multitude of Pokemon
"Hey! Look guys I'm sorry but I don't want to trade for anything you guys are offering" I shout
They ignore me and continue you to clamourer and shout all vivaing
Nidoking pops out of his ball and roars at them all, causing them to back offering
I explain that I'm not interested in their trades, they all storm off angry muttering under there breath as they do
"Well then maybe I should make my offer now" comes a voice
I turn to see an older gentleman standing off to the side, he has a large briefcase with multiple golden balls engraved into the side
"The names Jonathan" He says moving forward
"Nice to meet you" I say holding out my hand as Nidoking flanks me
He shakes it in response
"I'm what you call a collector, I work on behalf of Silph Co, we collect rare Pokemon for our nature reserve exhibits and your Chansey would be a welcome addition to it"
I send Chansey out of her ball to meet Jonathan who goes on to explain that Chansey would simply live in the nature reserve, it would be stuck there but the Silph Co had built a nearly 30 mile radius reserve just off the coast of Cerulean City. It would live out it life without any predators or trainers constantly bothering it battling it, all in all it came across as quite a cushy life
"Chansey!" She calls out dancing around
"Sounds like she up for it" I say with a laugh
"Well I should show you what I have to offer" He says passing me his phone
I scroll through his trade offers and there are plenty of strong things on offer, there's many Johto and Hoenn Pokemon on offer by my eyes mainly stick on the Kanto mons. He has Magmar, Electabuzz, Pinsir, Weezing, Arcanine but my eyes are drawn to one thing
"Scyther!" I say aloud without realizing
"I see found something to take your interest"
"I'm happy to tr" I begin before being interrupted
"Sorry to interject" comes a soft voice
"Have you just agreed to trade"
I turn to see a slight and short brunette girl stood before us. She in almost gym clothes and look quite hot and sweaty
"Uh we haven't yet, so you may offer" Jonathan says
"Oh okay, sorry, its just your the only person offering a Chansey and I'm from Johto so they're super rare there and this might be my only chance to get one"
"Okay, well can I ask why your so desperate for one?" I questioning
"Well, I'm a physio student for both people and Pokemon. Chansey is like the perfect Pokemon for healing."
"Thats super cool"
"Thanks" She says with a laughing
"Well could I ask what you have to trade?"
"Uh well thats the thing, not much, however there is one thing" She says releasing one of her Pokeballs
Out plops a small blue eel like creature, it looks up and darts it head about before spotting the girl and quickly slithering behind her for safety
"Dra" the creature says rubbing itself against the girl
"Wow, a Dratini they are increasingly rare, where did you catch it" Jonathan says
"It was up on route 10, there were some shady guys chasing it down and as I was passing on a boat to here I threw a ball and caught it"
"Thats impressive, the catch rate on them are quite low"
"Guess I got lucky" She says with a smile
I crouch down to Dratinis levelled
"Hey there little guy, you seem quite shy, how about you try this?" I say pulling some Pokemon food from my back pocket
It gives a few sniff before devouring the food so quickly
"Wow, that was impressive!" The girl says
"Dragons like super sweet food so these are perfect, plus Eevee loves them" I say throwing one to Eevee whose on Nidoking shoulder now
Dratini has now come from out behind the girl letting me stroke it and even pick it up
"Wow, you're super cool" I say to Dratini with a laugh
"Well Chansey, it's your choice" I say looking to the normal type
"I won't make you go with either, I'm happy to trade for Scyther or Dratini, its whatever you would prefer to do" I say to her with a smile
She looks concernedly between the two of them before coming onto focus on Dratini whose nuzzling against the side of my head
"Chansey" She says affirmatively before walking towards the girl
"Me?" She says excitedly
The normal type nods smiling at the girl
I turn to the older man who has a smile on his face at least
"I'm sorry sir but I always said I'd allow Chansey to choose"
He laughs and pats my back
"Don't you worry, I think Chansey has made a fine decision, I can't say I'm not disappointed but I think the right decision has been made, you make sure you look after that Dratini"
He bids us before farewell as I return Chansey and the girl returns her Dratini
"I should ask your name" I say to the girl as we walk to the trade centre
"Sophie" She says with a smile
"Nice, I'm Ryan"
"Nice too meet you"
In a split second of placing the ball in the trade machine, the trade is done, I hold Dratini ball in my rolling it in my fingers amazed that I have such a powerhouse to add to my team with a little training
"Thank yo so much!" The girl says jumping a hug on me taking me by surprise
"Uh your welcome" I say with a nervous laugh
"Could I get your number?" She questions me
"Um, Uh yeah sure" I respond holding my nav out
She quickly takes the number down and adds it to her Poryphone
"Cool, means I can make sure your taking good care of Dratini" She says with a smile