Day 45
Chee joined in as I did my morning stretches, doing an exaggerated version of the movements I was making, as if she found it fun to imitate me. I'd been a little worried about her after last night, but she seemed to be back to her cheery self this morning.
"Feeling better?" I asked, and the girl nodded cheerfully at me.
Yeah, I'm fine now. She placed a hand on her chin. I don't know why it was so hard, I've never had this much trouble catching Pokemon before...
I sheepishly rubbed the back of my head. "Hey Chee, did I ever tell you how I caught Yeller?"
Slowly, I retold my tale of trying to capture any Pokemon other than the Rattata, until the night was almost over, and how I was only able to catch my partner because he agreed to join me.
"...So basically, what I'm getting at..." I reached my conclusion. "Is that having my help to capture a new Pokemon is probably just making it harder. I have no catching luck at all."
Chee was thoughtful at this, her head tilted forward.
"Would you like to try catching something without me?" I offered. "I can stay at the camp and wait for a while, if you'd like."
Slowly, the young girl shook her head. No, I'd rather stay with you.
"Alright." I smiled at the girl. "We'll head for Pewter City then."
...
Day 46
The rest of our journey through Viridian Forest had been largely uneventful, with neither of us wanting to risk accidentally summoning a boss Pokemon on the way. After camping one more time near the exit, we were back on the other side of Route 2.
The path to Pewter City was much more paved and clean than the road through Viridian Forest or the road from Pallet Town had been, with all of the grass for wild Pokemon kept clear from the road by at least a few feet.
As Chee and I got closer to the town however, we began to spot more and more frustrated trainers sprinting back and forth between the fields, battling wild Pokemon, and doing other odd exercises.
Chee frowned at them, her eyes filled with confusion. What on earth are they doing...?
"Shall we go ask?" I offered, and she hesitantly nodded, sticking to my back as I walked over to one of the older trainers who seemed to be taking a break.
"Hey!" I hailed the trainer, a boy who appeared to be in his teen years. He regarded me with a frustrated glare.
"What do you want." He spat.
"My friend and I are new in town," I began, ignoring his bad attitude. "and we were wondering what everyone is doing? I haven't seen anything quite like..." I gestured to the people running around aggressively. "This, before."
"It's freaking nonsense dude." The teen growled, placing his chin in his hand. "The Gym Leader here won't let you pass unless you pass a physical test that has nothing to do with Pokemon!"
As the boy spoke, I quietly drew my trusty notebook and pen from my bag, realising I had a source of information on the Gym Leader in front of me.
"You have to do all this physical activity alongside your Pokemon, and then even if you DO manage to get through all that... When you do get to fight him, his Pokemon just don't go down!" The teen shook his head. "It's like trying to fight a brick wall! That's why everyone here is training to get through his stupid tests."
"I see I see~" I happily responded, scribbling in my notebook.
"What makes it worse is that stupid kid who passed through here the other day. Apparently he cleared the entire gym in a few hours!? Freaking nonsense that is. I bet he's actually Brock's nephew or something, pretended to get the battle so he could go on to the next Gym." The teen shook his head in dismay.
Chee and I looked at each other, the same thought running through our heads. Looks like Blue beat us here.
"Hmm, well that aside..." I mused, reviewing the notes I'd made so far. "Do you know what Pokemon Brock uses?"
"When I passed the physical, he fought me with a Geodude, but he told me he had another-Hold on, are you also taking the Gym Challenge?" The teen's gaze tightened on me. "Where are you from?"
"That's right. The two of us are from Pallet Town." I smiled, pointing to myself and Chee.
"Puh." The teen spat on the ground in front of me, then stood up to leave.
...?
Chee and I looked at each other again. What was that about?
"I don't know..."
I tried talking to the other trainers, but I got similar results once I mentioned Pallet Town. Eventually I gave up, and we finished our journey to Pewter City. As I consulted a map to lead us to the Pokemon Centre, I couldn't help but notice a poster posted nearby.
The poster pictured a shirtless man flexing his six-pack at the camera, with bold text all around it. 'Abs as hard as rocks, mind as tough as steel! Gym Leader Brock shares his workout tips in this special issue of Pewter Fitness Monthly! Get your copy from your local vendor today!'
"I guess Brock is a bit of a celebrity around here, huh?" I mused, turning my attention to Chee, who didn't seem to be particularly enamoured with the poster.
She shrugged at me slightly. I don't get it.
"What don't you get?" I asked for clarification.
Why people are obsessed with 'working out' to get stronger. Getting strong isn't that hard, you just do the things you wanna be stronger at.
"...I'm just gonna let you know before you upset someone, I don't think that's true for most people."
Chee tilted her head at me with surprise. Really? But you got stronger too, right?
I blinked at her a few times. "What?"
When we played together, you got better at whatever we played.
I was quiet for a moment. It was true that despite my daily training, my stats had barely increased, but when I was playing with Chee after arriving at Oak's lab my stats had been raising nearly every day, sometimes by multiple points at a time. Since I'd gotten her to focus more on battling with me, they hadn't risen at all.
"...Maybe your games are actually really good workouts?" I suggested, but I honestly wasn't that certain myself.
Maybe?
After the subtle reminder that I was travelling with a genuine natural genius, I changed the subject. "Well, since it's not that late yet, shall we go check out the Pewter City Gym?"
Chee tilted her head in thought, looking up into the sky. After a moment she returned her gaze to me and nodded.
The Pewter City Gym was an impressively large modern building, the front of which had been stylised to look like a cliff-face with a door in it's centre. When we stepped through the doors, I was blown away by the sight from inside.
The entire building was like a gigantic hallway, with a handful of trainers milling about the floor. The first quarter of the building was filled with various pieces of workout equipment, ranging from a large set of weights, to treadmills, stretching machines, and other devices I'd never even seen before.
A further third of the building was home to what appeared to be some sort of massive obstacle course, which you could traverse to get to the other side, where a large battlefield filled with boulders-Some of which appeared to be heavily damaged- stood.
"Ah, you kids here for the Gym Challenge?" A deep friendly voice called from behind.
I turned to see who it was, and was greeted by a set of talking abs.
"If so, you'll need to let me know your names so I can check the record." The abs said, and I nodded at them. Looking up, I saw the black-haired man that the abs belonged to. The Gym Leader of Pewter City, Brock.
"Hello sir!" I began. "I'm Cyan from Pallet Town, and this is my friend Chee-Or Green, rather." I corrected myself, remembering ever so faintly that Chee wasn't her real name. "We were sponsored by Professor Oak."
"Ah, more of Oak's kids huh?" Brock rubbed his stomach thoughtfully. "My mons are still recovering from the last one who came through. You can go through the challenge today if you'd like, but you'll have to wait until tomorrow if you want to battle with me."
"That's okay." I waved dismissively. "I'm not quite ready yet, I wanted to learn more about the Gym Challenge before we start!"
Brock smiled heartily at me. "Alright! Let me walk you though it then!"
In a dramatic motion, Brock lifted both Chee and myself onto his shoulders. "Every Gym along your Gym Challenge will consist of three parts. A test, a battle, and a rule." Then he pointed to the huge obstacle course. "For our Pewter Gym, the test is a test for your body! Without the help of your Pokemon, you have to be able to clear the entire obstacle course and pass a basic strength test! If you can't do that, you'll never be able to defeat all the Gym Leaders."
He then pointed to the workout gym at the front of the building. "If you're unable to pass the obstacle course, you can still work with our training equipment to build muscle for a small fee! That way you'll have a rock-hard set of abs like me!"
He flexed, flashing me a smile.
"Once you're done with the obstacle course, you can fight me on the battlefield. Clear all three parts, and the Pewter City Gym Badge is yours!"
Brock knelt down, and gently placed us both back on our feet on the ground. "Any questions?" He flashed us a cocky smile, as if to say My coverage was perfect, so you shouldn't have any questions! or something like that.
"I have three starting questions." I answered immediately, and I watched as his face twitched in response. "First of all, you mentioned a rule but you never said what it was. I'd like to know what it is."
Chee nodded as I mentioned that. Looked like it was bothering her too. I drew my notepad again as I awaited the answer.
"...The rule only applies when you get to the Pokemon Battle. Why don't you kids try the obstacle course first and-"
"I'm here for intel today." I cut him off before he could begin his sales pitch. "Please tell us what the rule is."
He seemed to glare at me-I suspected the rule was some sort of loophole he often used to catch out trainers who thought they would be able to defeat him. But I was also pretty sure he actually had to tell me the rule if I asked, which is why I made a point of asking so directly.
"...The battle has a time limit. If you can't defeat both of my Pokemon before the time runs out, you lose the battle." He begrudgingly told me.
"Okay. Second, I already heard you have a Geodude, and you say you have two Pokemon. What is the second Pokemon I have to fight in the battle section?"
Brock seemed slightly frustrated, but he was clearly happier to answer this question than the last one. "My Onix is the second Pokemon you have to face!" He crossed his arms across his abs, posing dramatically. "Onix is a huge rock snake, you'll need to be a pretty exceptional trainer if you want to get past it!"
I nodded thoughtfully, jotting that down as an addition to my notes. I underlined 'Practice battle with giant foes' on my to-do list.
"...And your third question?" Brock asked, back to his earlier gentle demeanour.
"Ah yes-You mentioned that trainers who fail your Challenge are encouraged to train in the Gym, yet I've seen twice as many trainers on Route 2 training for this challenge as I see in the entirety of the building. So... Why is no-one using it?" I laid out my thought process aloud, and Chee's eyes seemed to widen as she turned to confirm what I'd just explained.
Ooo now that was a dirty look from Brock. He seemed throughly upset that I'd confronted him on that front. He folded his arms and clicked his tongue, turning his head away from me. "Well, who can say." He spat dismissively. "Maybe they're all just too lazy for a real workout."
I examined him for a moment, then wrote 'don't use the exercise equipment' onto my notepad. "Thank you Brock, that's all I wanted to ask you at the moment." I put away the notepad and pencil, turning to Chee who seemed distressed by the atmosphere in the room. "Shall we go get some rest, Chee? Seems like we'll have a busy day tomorrow."
She looked back and forth between me and Brock a few times before nodding hurriedly.
On my way out of the building, I took one of the free pamphlets from the front desk and began to examine it. Once we were back on the streets walking to the Pokemon Centre, Chee pinched my arm a few times to get my attention.
What was all that? Why did he get all upset with us?
I turned to look behind us at the Gym. "...Ah, I asked him questions he didn't want to answer. That's all. Particularly about the equipment." I continued to scour the pamphlet, and spotted a suspect piece of text.
"Look here." I held out the piece of paper to Chee, pointing to a line hidden in the print. "It says you can only use the equipment if you pay a membership fee, and over here-" I pointed to a different piece of text on the same pamphlet. "-It says that you can't earn the badge if you are currently a member."
Chee trailed behind me, dumbfounded. But... Then why would anyone pay the fee?
"Nobody is. You saw, the Gym was practically empty." I declared defiantly. "But I'm not sure why he was being so deceptive, it's not even well hidden..."
Chee was thoughtful for a moment, then tilted her head at me. Maybe he needs a bunch of money for something? There was that magazine too, right?
"Magazine...? Ah, the 'Brock's workout tips'?"
Chee nodded. That was also pretty recent, so maybe he really needs the money at the moment.
We put our heads together after that, but we didn't make any further headway with ideas, so we returned to the Pokemon Centre to get our rooms. We made a call with Oak to confirm we'd arrived safely in Pewter City, and then after doing a bit of research, I took Chee with me to the Centre's public use battlegrounds. A few of them were already in use, but we luckily found an unused one that suited my purposes.
Chee tilted her head at me. What are we doing? Are we gonna battle?
"Chee, how confident do you feel about winning Brock's battle challenge?" I asked.
She formed an ok sign with her hands, signifying victory. No problem. Bulbasaur will destroy him.
"That's great, but I'm feeling less confident." I leaned over to the Rattata by my feet, giving him an affectionate rub on the cheek. "Yeller has gotten a lot stronger, but both of Brock's Pokemon are rock types. You know about type effectiveness, right?"
Chee nodded vigorously, her eyes almost seeming excited. Certain Pokemon moves are super strong on some Pokemon, but super weak on others!
She immediately followed it up by making an imitation of thunder striking by shaking a whole bunch, then posing like a bird that had been struck by lightning, with a squawk-like squeak to back it up.
"...Uh, yeah. Like that." I responded, not wanting to dampen her enthusiasm too much. "Anyway, Yeller's only practiced using normal-type moves, and Brock's rock-type Pokemon will resist those. So I'd like to practice some techniques, and also practice battling with a giant Pokemon if we can figure out a way to do that."
Upon reaching Level 10, Yeller had learnt how to use a new move-The Dark type move 'Bite'. If I was going to stand any chance of beating Brock, I needed to make sure I'd figured out it's properties, and that Yeller could use it proficiently.
With our goal assigned, Chee and I settled down to train.
...
After plenty of experimentation, I felt that I'd more or less wrapped my head around how Bite worked as a move. I went over my notes as Yeller practiced evading the mock-onix that Chee's Bulbasaur had constructed from vines and a handful of boulders.
-Bite
A physical dark-type move, Bite causes the Pokemon's mouth-specifically the teeth- to fill with a dark energy, and a large pair of teeth will appear in front of the Pokemon's mouth, biting down when the Pokemon themselves does.
If it hits, it sometimes causes the Pokemon to flinch.
If it were a normal type move, it would likely only work through direct contact, but because it's a dark type move it ends up being a pseudo-energy attack. The disappointing part is that the move seems to lack any accessible cancel points.
When the move is cancelled, the energy jaws immediately dissipate, with no permanence at all.
Interestingly however, the energy jaws are directly linked to Yeller's actual mouth and body, meaning that if he turns his head, the jaws follow. Similarly, if the jaws are deflected, so is he. Because of this, it might be possible to grab things that would normally be out of reach, although I wasn't sure how useful that would be...
I sighed, leaning back on the bench. I was hoping a reanalysis of bite would give me a clear path to defeating Brock, but I wasn't really seeing it.
I spotted a flash of black and light blue in the corner of my vision, and turned to see Chee was leaning over to look at my notepad. She furrowed her brows, then pointed to something on my page.
What's this?
I looked down to see she was pointing at my note about a lack of cancel points. "Are you wondering what a 'Cancel Point' is?" I asked hesitantly, and she nodded with curiosity filling her eyes.
I sat upright again, formulating the explanation in my head. "Well... You know how move cancellation works, right?"
She shook her head again.
"Er... Okay, so-Say your Bulbasaur is using an attack like Tackle, but you want it to stop doing that. If your Bulbasaur stops without finishing it's attack, that's a move cancellation." I started to explain, using my fingers to represent a Bulbasaur stopping before hitting another finger.
"But if instead of just stopping, you want your Pokemon to use a different move instead, that's a more advanced version of cancellation called 'Override'." I mimed the finger Bulbasaur stopping and swinging a vine. "Do you follow so far?"
Chee nodded intently, her eyes gleaming with interest. Interesting!
"But not all moves can be cancelled at any time. Sometimes they have leftover effects, or it's impossible to immediately end them- Take Quick Attack as a more forgiving example. If you cancel Quick Attack, the momentum from the move doesn't leave immediately, so your Pokemon can be left with the power of the attack without any way to control it. Alternatively some moves just can't be cancelled at all, unless it's at a cancel point. Razor Leaf or Ember are good examples of that."
Chee nodded some more. So what's a cancel point?!
"A cancel point is the part of a move where what happens when you cancel it changes, or where it can be canceled safely." I explained carefully. "Some moves have multiple cancel points, and some only have one, or none at all. Also, not every cancel point can be used for an override."
Chee was thoughtful at this, placing a gloved hand on her chin.
"Tail Whip has two cancel points, for example. One before the hit lands, and one after. Only the second one allows override, but both completely stop the move. By contrast Quick Attack only has one cancel point, before the attack lands. However it doesn't get rid of the energy immediately." I grinned, explaining my strategy to Chee. "Quick Mode takes advantage of that by Overriding back into Quick Attack, allowing for an instant redirect."
I leaned back on the bench, letting my back flop onto it as I stared up to the sky. "I'm disappointed with Bite because it only has one cancel point, and it removes all effects of the move instantly." I sighed.
I lay there quietly with my eyes closed for a few moments, feeling the gentle air flowing through the cracks in the bench as the sounds of rocks crashing into the battlefield while Yeller tried to dodge the fake Onix rang in my ears.
My relaxation was broken by Chee poking me repeatedly in the shoulder. I opened my eyes to see she was holding my notepad. ...But isn't that perfect?
"...What? Why do you think that?" I asked, confused.
Look, you could do this! She handed me back the notepad, where she'd scribbled a diagram of a way to use bite in battle. I looked at it incredulously, expecting to immediately point out a flaw that would render the strategy unusable, but...
I sat up abruptly, glancing over the diagram again. "Chee, you're a genius!" I exclaimed.
She squirmed a little at the sudden burst of praise, her cheeks reddening slightly as she looked around to make sure nobody else had been drawn by our sudden outburst, but she smiled at me nonetheless. Glad I could help.
"Yeller!" I called to my partner. "We figured out a new strategy, we're gonna have to practice hard to make this work~!"
With this strategy, beating Brock wouldn't be a pipe dream after all!