Chapter 12- Life Moves Fast
Over the next couple of days after our battle, a lot had happened. First and foremost my test for my trainer license was incredibly simple.
Knowing the type chart, a few evolutionary lines. By far the most mentally engaging were the multiple choice questions on which move should be stronger depending on the Pokémon.
The hardest question was whose solar beam would be stronger, a Victreebel, Blastoise, Venusaur, or Pikachu.
A tie is a trick question in multiple ways. Pikachu and Blastoise couldn't learn Solarbeam. But the obvious trap merely hid the second and much more devious trick.
That there wasn't a correct answer, to begin with, both of the grass Pokemon had Identical special attack strengths.
That answer had particularly impressed Elm who was the administrator of my test.
That day I had to shave and trim my hair a bit for my photo on my freshly printed trainer licenses.
By mid-afternoon, I had made my way to the small Poke-Mart right next to a giant red-roofed building, which was my next stop.
My goal at the mart was simple: get my categorized, possibly selling a less than useful one for pocket money and information on what the average mart sold. Among other things.
The true haul of my abandoned Team Rocket facility raid? Well, I wasn't disappointed.
Four T.M 07 'protect' discs, which from what Jeremy the clerk helpfully told me was the most common and readily available technical machine.
T.M 16 and 33. Light screen and reflect decent utility moves.
Things started getting more interesting as T.M. 35 and 25 were identified. The powerful flamethrower and thunder moves were in my hands.
Yet the clerk nearly went bug-eyed as he stuttered over T.M 15 and 29. Hyperbeam and psychic, apparently were among the top 5 rarest and most expensive technical machines.
'Dr. Fuji Miyamoto must be rolling around in money, to leave a haul like this in his desk' I commented to myself as the clerk told me his offer if I'd like to sell my collection.
Protect went for around two thousand each. The utility psychic moves raised that bar to five thousand a piece. The powerful special attacking electric and fire moves went for fifteen thousand a piece. But the most surprising was psychic which went for a whopping fifty thousand and hyper beam which went for sixty-five thousand.
"163,000 thousand poke-dollars would be the best offer I could make you based on the current market," Jeremy said his offer as I tried my best to keep a straight face. 'Maybe Team Rocket might've been a more lucrative option, if I was ok with inhumane experimentation, which I wasn't'
"No thanks, you can take those two utility moves off my hands, need the pocket money," I said with a strained smile as the man nodded, took the two specific , and handed me a small stack of bills. Ten '1,000' notes to be specific.
What I thought would be decent money now seemed to be pocket change to the average trainer and pennies to a professor.
It made me wonder how large of a research grant I would receive, as without a doubt, being a professor who shares his findings with the league as a whole was probably the most important job in this entire world. Of course, it's debatable, but professors here are similar to the great inventors of my world. Invaluable, in furthering society.
Immediately I made a dent in my savings by buying a super potion, and an odd fang that was sitting behind a glass case behind the clerk.
As of now I was pretty much squatting at Elms lab, my room, board, and food were taken care of, on Elms insistence of course. So I didn't mind leaving the mart with a little over a thousand poke dollars. The dragon fang would be a great gift for Noel after her upset against the leafeon.
But it was also a test, like most things I do. Since she already 'held' the dragon scale, could she also hold a dragon fang and receive the boost?
(Dragon Fang- A held Item that boosts the power of dragon-type attacks by roughly 20%)
"Ah there you are, sorry but you'll have to go in your ball for a little bit. Now that I have a trainer license most things at a Pokémon center are free to us." I said as I walked out the door and regarded Minato who was forced to wait outside.
A Pikachu with a crossed-out sign was the reason. I came to find out that most merchant establishments don't allow Pokémon inside, especially psychics. Shoplifting with psychic abilities is laughably easy, guide an ultra through an open window and head around the back of the shop to pick it up.
"I'm in perfect health," Minato said with narrowed eyes.
"Humor me, no reason to not have a free check-up," I said with a half smile, he seemed like he wanted to argue a little more but just sighed and entered his ball that sat at my belt.
'Thanks, buddy' I said through the 'team chat' as I patted his ball.
'Hm,' a curt reply came to me moments after I entered the sliding doors of the Pokémon center.
We had kept the team telepathic link up for so long that even while in their balls we could still talk. This was a great outcome, as I didn't know the exact rules of using telepathy during sanctioned battles.
Now, it wouldn't be as obvious if I kept either Minato or Torrent in their balls during battles. Our seemingly silent battling would be a great strength, especially for the trainers who have more passive and reactive styles. How are you going to react in time without me calling anything out?
Heck, I could even play dirty and call out a protect move but mentally Minato knew I wanted him to blast off a psybeam.
"Hello there, how can I help you today?" a pretty pink-haired woman with a pixie cut asked from behind the large counter.
"Just a check up please, Nurse Joy," I said as I began placing my team's balls onto the plate.
"Sure, I'll just need your trainer ID. Ok, with three of them they should be ready for pick up in ten to fifteen minutes" She said as she handed me back my trainer ID and handed the plate to her assistant Chancey to take to the back.
I would have lied if I didn't flinch when the team link was abruptly cut when the large iron door slid back into place.
For the first time since I arrived in this world, I was alone again.
I gave Nurse Joy a slightly forced smile as I headed out the door, finding the nearest bench I sat back and lit a cigar.
"Barely over a month in this world, and I'm completely addicted," I muttered to myself as any thought of returning home was squashed. Every vague plan I'd made to approach Celebi or the space duo in Sinnoh was scrapped.
Just leaving my team for a few minutes at a center had solidified that truth. It was liberating, but it also made me realize I was seeing roses.
This world wasn't perfect, Team Rocket did exist, they ran the 'underworld' on this entire island and were estimated to be the cause of ninety percent of the crime in the Indigo League. Trainer mortality rates have also risen to twenty percent in recent years. I might be in the anime version of the Pokemon world, but that doesn't mean there wasn't death, violence, and evil people in the world. Heck the movies and even some episodes hinted and outright showed the darker parts of the Pokemon world.
Shitty trainers like the kid who abandoned a young Charmander in the rain. Giovanni tricked Mewtwo into working for him for a time, doing who knew what. Mewtwo himself destroys an entire island filled with researchers, clones and takes Pokemon, and kills Ash in the first movie alone.
Warnings of poachers and Pokemon hunters. There was plenty of implied 'foul' research being done as well.
Yet, even though it was in no way perfect. This place had captured me, pun intended.
I waited for my team, picked them up, and immediately headed back to Elm's lab. Ran to the Pc in my room and began scouring the web, , The official league websites, rumor mills, and any piece of knowledge I might need for my journey was being written down in a notebook.
From every service the Pokemon center provides a 'sanctioned' trainer, to online auctions and prices of various items I'd think I need. Current gym leaders and the elite fours teams. And especially the Indigo Champion Lance, The Dragon Master.
I worried a little for him if I was honest. I had already made a plan for him and his dragons. It was a disgusting setup, but there was no reason to bring that up now. The elite four would be more of a challenge with their diverse teams and the fact you had to fight all of them in two days.
Yet you couldn't even challenge the four without being recognized as an 'Elite' trainer yourself.
Trainers had ranks in this world, a way to recognize status and strength.
A newbie, a kid with a starter.
A Rookie trainer, 3-4 badged under their belt and a few fully evolved Pokemon.
An Ace trainer, someone who's managed to collect eight gym badges.
As an Elite Trainer, things were a little murky on how to achieve this rank but the most straightforward way and what I was going to do to get the rank was place top 4 or better at the Indigo Plateau Conference. They were set to take admission in one year and three months exactly, that was the time I had to train up a league-worthy team and get eight badges.
A Champion level trainer was crowned after defeating any region's elite four. Between Kanto and Johto there were only two people alive with that rank. Professor Oak and Champion Lance.
Yet there seemed to be a flaw in who was the champion in the years between Oak's retirement and Lance's accession. It was a significant ten-year gap, so I assumed they didn't crown a champion.
The current Elite four were Agatha the ghost-type master, Bruno the fighting-type master, and Lorelei the Ice-type master.
No, I didn't miss one, there are only three as of now. Blaine the fire master had just recently stepped down to a gym leader role last year, leaving his spot vacant. However, I remembered that the gym Leader Koga, the poison master would take his place by the time the Conference rolled around.
With my meta-knowledge combined with what I could learn on my journey, I had no doubt I would craft a true step-by-step guide for defeating these titans.
But first, this damn league representative needs to come and give me my damn citizenship so I can move forward on publishing my research and having Elm negotiate the best grant possible. Then the hunt for a murkrow and an Eevee.
A man would arrive two days later, an average middle-aged man dressed in a suit and tie.
Questions about my past, the wormhole, my goal, and my aspirations flew by one after the other for hours. My trivia knowledge about Pokemon Glazed was truly tested when he asked me for the name of the Elite Four, the champion, every town, village, and city. Thank Arceus I played that game seven different times in my life, nearly once a year since it came out.
(Pokemon: Glazed and its updated version 'Blazed Glazed' are great rom hacks with compelling storylines)
Yet it seemed that after six hours I had wholly convinced this man I was from either a parallel universe or an undiscovered region. He signed off my citizenship application that day and gave me all of the information I could need.
"Well that's been taken care of, people being sucked up by an ultra wormhole is nothing new. You're the first case where one fell through. Glad to know that you're a stand-up kid with a passion and drive. Indigo and I are happy to have you here." The man said with a half smile as he got up to leave.
"Thank you, sir," I replied curtly, annoyed and a little tired from being grilled for so long.
"I expect your name to be blasting across headlines in the future. I will leave you with my card and office number if you ever need anything from me. I'm not the Champion or anything but a young researcher like yourself needs a few friends in the league." He said as he placed a black card on the table and left.
I grabbed the card dismissively as I leaned back in my chair and sighed in relief. That was a stressful conversation.
"Retsu Komashi… President of the Indigo League….." I read in stunned disbelief.
'Minato, are you 100% sure that there wasn't a hidden psychic reading my aura and detecting my lies?!' I nearly screamed through the team chat, the recipient, my starter who was in his ball at my hip.
"I'm…. pretty sure. Though if it was an exceedingly powerful psychic Pokemon, like my grandfather….. " He answered as he materialized in the seat the apparent President had just vacated. However, his hesitant response didn't fill me with much certainty.
Well, I'd stay sitting here for another five minutes. Ready to react if men in suits came barging in to take me away. A tentative plan to summon Torrent and charge straight through the glass door formed in my mind.
Half an hour later I still sat there, they never came.