The sun was setting when Gary and Co. had reached Silver Town, sometimes called Jitterbug Town, the home of the next gym within a single day. As they drove through the town, they did notice a building that was definitely built for Pokèmon Contests. After driving for a bit, they finally found the place they were looking for. The town's Pokèmon Gym.
In the parking lot, the driver let Gary out of the car with a smile across his face. "Young master Gary."
Gary nodded, getting out of the car, as did Eevee. The Pokèmon enjoyed the car ride, their tail wagging like crazy, taking in the sight of the gym.
"Time to go earn ourselves a new badge!" Gary smirks, leading the group to enter the gym, only to see a young man leaving the gym, and locking its doors.
"Excuse me," Gary called out, getting the man's attention. "What time will the gym open up tomorrow?"
"I'm sorry, but the gym won't be open tomorrow. It wasn't even open today. The gym leader is currently out," the young man said, sounding slightly annoyed.
It sounded like the gym leader did this frequently, to Gary and the group.
"Any idea when they will be back?" Gary asks and gets a swift reply.
"They should be back in five days, if I recall. Now, if you will excuse me, I must be going. Good evening." And with that, the young man walked off, briefcase in hand, down the sidewalk.
"Five days, huh?" Gary thought about the amount of training he could get done in five days. "That works for me," Gary and company left the gym.
They all ended up taking in the various sights of the town for the rest of the evening. It was the usual things you'd see in a town, and went grocery shopping before calling it a night. They found a nice hotel near the Pokèmon center to stay at. Gary shared one room with the driver, and three more rooms were paid for the girls, as each room could only hold 2.
It was night time, as they were settling in, when Gary left the hotel to take his Pokèmon to the Pokèmon Center to be checked out by Nurse Joy. He would leave them overnight, and return to the hotel for some shut eye.
The next day
Gary told his driver and the girls that he will be heading out to the forest to train his Pokèmon, and catch some more if he gets the chance, after he collects his team from the center. He also learned that the Silver Town's Pokèmon Contest would be 2 days later, so Gary assured the girls that he would take them to go see the contest. It could also prove to be good intel to help in training his Pokèmon.
Gary sent his Pokèmon out to speak with them. They just so happen to be Ekans, Cubone, Rattata, Meowth, Eevee and Growlithe.
"Alright you six, it's time to find some Pokèmon and trainers to battle, and get you guys some more experience," he says proudly, petting each Pokèmon on their head. He looked at Ekans, Cubone, Rattata, and Meowth. "I can tell you four have been training a lot at Gramps place. Today, you are going to put that training to good use."
"I'll see you all later," he bid goodbye to the driver and the girls, returning all his Pokèmon, aside from Eevee.
Some time later, he found some of the local trainers, just outside of Silver Town. They were leaning against the wall and sighed, looking bored. They really looked like they wanted to battle.
"Hey! We haven't not seen you around here before," one said, their eyes piercing through Gary.
"Yeah,I just got to this town. I'm here to train. You look like you'll be a good opponent by the way you are staring at me and Eevee here."
"Vee vee!" Eevee stares back at the trainer, as if they were saying 'yeah bring it on, my trainer and I are not gonna lose to anyone here!'
"Your Eevee is pretty vocal," The trainer held out a Pokèball and threw it.
"Yeah, Eevee is just telling you what they think," Gary responded.
After seeing his opponent send out a Tangela, Gary sent out Ekans. "A Tangela? I faced one of those in the Celadon City Gym. This will be easy!"
Ekans hissed, intimidating the little ball of vines.
"Alright, Ekans poison sting!" Gary ordered.
The purple snake Pokèmon fired small poisonous needles from her mouth. They struck the Tangela, earning a cry of pain from the super effective move.
"Use your vines to Bind the Ekans!" The trainer called out.
Tangela did as told, and grabbed hold of Ekans with its vines! It begins to squeeze the snake pokèmon tightly. However, upon looking up, Tangela noticed the stare from Ekans it was receiving.
"You are going to lose here, kid!" The trainer clicked his fingers. "Bind it even tighter!"
Gary shook his head. "Ekans, Poison Sting!"
The snake Pokèmon fired another attack at her opponent. The attack hit hard, knocking out the Tangela.
"Well, you bested me," the other trainer said, and took the loss in stride as he returned Tangela.
"Like I said, it was easy wasn't it, Ekans?" Gary said, while Ekans slithered up to her trainer's face rubbing against his cheek "Alright, who's next around here?"
A guy wearing glasses, who had watched the battle, clapped his hands at Gary's win. "You won because he was just a regular trainer. You won't best me, on the other hand, because I am a Super Nerd!"
"Ok?" Gary wasn't too bothered
"Wha?! What do you mean ok?! I am a Super Nerd, who rarely loses!"
"Nah, you're just annoying. So beating you will just be another warm up," Gary watched the angry super nerd send out Voltorb!
"Voltorb? That's a great Pokèmon. If I had a water type or flying type out to battle, that is," Gary snickered "Go Cubone!"
It is the first ever battle for Cubone!
At first the Super Nerd shrieked in fright, "A ground type!? This is going to be impossible to win, unless.. Sonic boom!" then he commanded with a 'I gotcha' face.
Voltorb's body begins glowing. It emits a shockwave of energy from its body hitting Cubone. This knocks her backwards to the ground, but she gets right back up, and looks back to see Gary giving her a thumbs up.
"It's alright. You're doing good. Now, show that Voltorb your Bonemerang!"
"Cu cu!" Cubone chanted, throwing the bone. While spinning threw the air, it nailed Voltorb and returned to the ground type.
"It's super effective! Ugh! But you still won't win!" stated the Super Nerd. Showing he really didn't want to lose. "Do another Sonic boom!"
Voltorb sent another Sonic Boom, making Cubone fall down again.
"Final Bonemerang!" Gary called out, as Cubone got up.
She then launched her bone attack at the electric type. The attack struck true, knocking Voltorb out!
The Super nerd huffed, returning his Voltorb. "Like you said, you had a ground type, so you won."
"Well yeah, type match ups are crucial. Anyways, I have more training to do.'' he saluted the super nerd and moved on.
He battled with several other trainers he could find, before leaving for the hotel. It had gotten late around dinner time, his Pokèmon were pretty hungry after all that training.
"You six did amazing," Gary says, petting them before the Driver ordered food for Gary, himself and the Pokèmon. The girls had gotten their own food. "Cubone got her battle debut, and she did astoundingly well. Beating a Voltorb, who used Sonic Boom."
"That is wonderful. No wonder she's eating the food quite hastily there. It must have worked up quite the appetite," the driver said, in amusement.
He wasn't wrong. Cubone was putting away her food at a rate even a Snorlax would blush at. "Cu Cubone!"
"Yeah you've earned it, Cubone" Gary ate his own dinner while watching his Pokèmon.
The next day
Gary was jogging outside the city, near the forest, with his Meowth at his side. They've been at this for a few hours, and were heading back towards the city, until they heard a sound coming from behind them. They looked back to see a Persian was heading in their direction. They would have been surprised, if it weren't for 2 bikers chasing after it. A man and a woman.
Seeing the Persian running ahead of them, and not looking winded, had both Gary and Meowth looking in awe. They had stopped their jog, and turned around to see the Persian making a sharp turn, towards its pursuers, and dashed right past them. Heading back in the direction they came. The two bikers nearly fell over, but were able to swerve their bikes around, and get back to chasing after the Persian.
Gary and Meowth looked at each other, nodded, and took off after them. It took them a while, but they finally caught up to the two bikers and Persian, near the city's park. They found the Persian was backed against a water fountain, and was growling at the two bikers.
Laughing cockily, the bikers threw out a Pokemon each. A Magnemite and a Sandshrew. Before they could issue an order, Gary and Meowth skids to a stop between them.
"Now hold it right there! Two against one isn't fair at all, you know," Gary said, arms spread out.
"Beat it shrimp. This Pokèmon is ours for the taking," the male biker said, looking annoyed.
"We're only taking this Pokèmon, because its trainer refused to pay us protection money," the female said, smirking.
"So, you're trying to steal this Pokemon. Well, that gives me more reason to take you down," Gary announced, and threw out two Pokèballs. "Eevee and Growlithe, let's go!"
The two Pokèmon appeared, and crouched down in a ready position to attack.
"A battle huh? Well, it's your funeral kid," the female responded. "Magnemite, use Thundershock on that Eevee!"
"And Sandshrew, you use Scratch on that Growlithe!"
Both Pokèmon acknowledged the order, and attacked.
"Eevee, use Double Team," Gary calmly said, with arms crossed.
Eevee jumped in front of Growlithe, and made copies of himself, until the two opponents were surrounded by Eevee copies. Sandshrew stopped, and looked around for the real one, distracted from its prior target, being Growlithe. Magnemite blinks in confusion, and fires off its attack at one of the copies. Only that the copy of the Eevee dispersed into nothing. Showing that it missed.
This got a growl out of the bikers.
"Growlithe, use Take Down on Sandshrew," Gary called out.
Growlithe wasted no time, and jumped over the Eevee copies, and landed a hard Take Down on the ground type. Sending it tumbling backwards. Growlithe landed and growled at its opponent, while wincing at the pain it was feeling from the move.
"Magnemite, hit Growlithe with a Thundershock!" the female shouted.
"Eevee, use Swift!"
One of the Eevee copies jumped up and fired a stream of stars from its tail. The attack connected with the electric type move. Never reaching the fire type, who just stood in place. Showing its trust in its teammate to have its back.
Gary smirked at the angry looks he was getting from the bikers. The Meowth looked to the Persian, from the battle, and saw how it was watching the battle with curiosity. But when its gaze met hers, she blushed, and quickly looked back at the battle. Not seeing the Persian was now looking at the Meowth with equal curiosity and amusement.
Sandshrew got back to its feet, but was wobbly. Magnemite cut off the attack, and looked now more cautious at its opponents.
"Time to wrap up this battle. Eevee, use Take Down on Sandshrew. Growlithe, finish off Magnemite with Ember," Gary commanded, enjoying seeing the looks of shock on the bikers faces.
Before they could get word in, to counter attack, they witnessed their Pokèmon going down to the brats Pokèmon.
"Ah, Magnemite!" "Sandshrew, no!" they exclaimed. When the dust settled, both Pokèmon were knocked out, with spirals in their eyes. The bikers growled, and returned their Pokèmon. "Fine! We'll let you off the hook, this time," the male biker said.
"But mark our words, we will get you for this," the female said. They both got on their bikes and quickly retreated.
"Anytime," Gary called back, then returned his two Pokèmon. He turns around, feeling something rubbing against his leg. It was the Persian, and up close, it looked a bigger than what he would assume a normal Persian's height would be. Hearing the strong purring, he rubbed the large feline's head. "Heh, you're welcome there. Do you happen to know where your trainer is?"
Looking up, Persian nodded, and crouched down on the ground. Gesturing for Gary and the blushing Meowth to get on. Gary, having gotten the hint, returned his Meowth to her ball, got onto the Persian's back, and to his surprise was soon riding on the feline's back down the street.
It didn't take them long before they rounded the corner of the Pokèmon Center, and saw an old man sitting on a bench, with a worried look on his face. When he looked up, he smiled brightly.
"Persian! You made it back! Do I have you to thank for helping Persian here, young man?" he asked.
"There were some bikers chasing him. I thought I would lend him a hand," Gary responded, getting off of Persian's back. "And make sure he gets back to his owner."
"Well, truth be told, I am not his owner."
"Say what?" Gary asked, confused.
"He's a Pokèmon that has been keeping me company for a while, but he is really a wild Pokèmon," the old man said, petting the Persian on the head. "He just stays around me, so no one would think of trying to catch him. I think those bikers figured it out, which was why they were so hellbent on taking him away when I refused to give them money for free."
"I see. It's probably best if you get a Pokèball or something, so that this won't happen again, old timer."
"Oh I agree. Which is why I won't stop you from catching him," the smiling old man countered, a stunned Gary. "I think that is reward enough. And I am sure Persian would be grateful too."
Blinking at this turn of events, Gary looked down at the Pokèmon. Persian returned the look, and the two stared at each other for a moment, before they both smirked and Persian nodded. Gary turned to the old man.
"I'll take good care of him, old man."
"Hehehehe I get the feeling you will, young man," The old man smiled back.
Gary nods and looks back to the Persian. "Come on then, let's get some running in, before we get back to my group for some lunch."
Persian, smiled. He gave the old man a farewell lick, got Gary on his back again, and took off running. Smiling at hearing his new trainer's laugh, as he sped down the street, and around the corner.
Eventually, the two would return to the hotel, in time for lunch, and Persian would be introduced to the group and Gary's other Pokèmon. They all ate, and Gary did catch Persian in a Pokèball. With Persian back at his gramps lab, he would exchange one of his Pokèmon for Persian to be brought back to him. And for the rest of the day, Gary would be seen jogging with his Pokèmon around town, and occasionally battling with a trainer or coordinator.
To be continued…
Authors notes: ride pokèmon are pretty great The funniest one is Snorlax
many thanks to my collaborator and friend https//u/1725082/the-black-shinobi