Chapter 19:New Names for Dratini
Phillip woke up early and ran a few laps with Tyrogue. Everyone else was still asleep. He called out all of his Pokemon. He had Tyrogue and Wooper training together, Mareep and Pidgey training together and both of his Dratini training together. His goal was to strengthen his Pokemon's weaknesses. As he was calling out to his Dratini he was having a hard time communicating with them. If he would give a command to one, they both would do it. He really wanted to have two of the same Pokemon with very different move sets and type strengths to throw his opponents off.
Milton woke up and saw him training and struggling. He went out to him.
"Well, ain't you the early bird!?"
Phillip laughed.
"It's the only way to become great right?"
"My kind o' kid!"
There was a short pause. Milton spoke up again.
"Dratini sure is a beautiful Pokemon. They mighty strong too."
"Thanks."
"Did y'all know that we have a name rater on the way out the city?"
Phillip shook his head.
"His name is Grady. He might be able to help y'all out wit' your two Dratini there. You seem to be strugglin' wit' tellin' 'em apart."
Phillip considered it for a minute. He had never thought to give them nicknames, but if he was going to train them together that made perfect sense to him. Kathy and Whitney came out together. They stood around and waited on Nathan for an additional 20 minutes. They all said goodbye to Milton. Whitney walked with them towards the city until she got near her gym.
Phillip, Kathy and Nathan continued on for another hour. As they reached the end of the main road in the city they began to see signs for the name rater. Phillip knocked on the door. No one answered. Phillip gently pushed the door open. Nobody was around. It was quiet and Kathy began to question if they should try to come back another time.
"It would be out of the way to have to come back." Phillip said.
All of the sudden a loud crash came from the back room of the shop. Kathy clutched her egg. Nathan jumped behind Kathy. She looked at him.
"Really?"
"What? It was a natural reaction."
Kathy rolled her eyes. When she looked back at Phillip he was going into the back room.
"Phillip! You don't know what's back there!"
She looked back at Nathan.
"Do we have to? I mean… he has Tyrogue."
"Come on!" She yelled as she pulled him with her free hand.
Phillip stopped once he passed through the door he saw a man in a bright purple suit rummaging through paperwork and cabinets.
"Are you okay?"
The odd little man popped up from behind a desk.
"Oh yes, yes… I'm just looking for… wait… who are you? What are you doing here?"
"Are you Grady? The name rater?"
"Yes I am. And you are…?"
"I'm sorry. My name is Phillip. I have two Pokemon that I was hoping you could help me rename." He said as he extended his hand to shake.
Grady grabbed his hand and shook it.
"Pleasure."
"Can I help you with something Mr. Grady?"
"As a matter of fact you might be able to… I use a digital encyclopedia to help me rename Pokemon. I seem to have misplaced it. Perhaps you could help me find it."
"Sure thing."
Phillip had experience in helping find things. Professor Elm was always a mess and was always misplacing things. He spent several hours a week trying to help Professor Elm find things that he had lost or misplaced.
"When was the last time you remember seeing it?"
Grady began to stroke his chin as he was trying to remember.
"Yesterday I had two clients. One was a cute little girl with a Ledyba. She was going to be entering in the bug catching contest at the National Park that's coming up and wanted to rename her Ledyba, Beatrice. It was a lovely name… but didn't quite fit her Ledyba, but she had her mind made up. After her… ah yes… a nasty boy wearing a green sweater by the name of Gary. He had a scar over his right eyebrow."
Kathy and Nathan crowded around Phillip. Phillip leaned in towards Grady.
"Tell me more about him."
"He was tall… maybe a little older then you… yes… yes… he had an Ekans that he wanted to name Python. It was fitting, but he was extremely rude. Yes… I left it on my desk… came to the back to grab something and he was gone."
"Did you see the encyclopedia any time after that?"
"Come to think of it… no I don't believe I have."
"So this guy stole it?" Nathan asked.
"Do you know anything about where he might be headed?" Kathy chimed in.
"Come to think of it… he may have something about heading north to the forest as well. Oh my… my entire life's work is on that encyclopedia. I must get it back."
"We'll look for this Gary Mr. Grady."
Mr. Grady leapt at him hugging him.
"Thank you! Thank you!"
The three of them left the name rater's shop. Kathy looked at Phillip.
"So how are we going to do this? Why are we going to do this? If it was stolen, shouldn't we just tell Officer Jenny and let her catch them?"
"Or… We can look for this digital encyclopedia, find it, learn what goes into naming a Pokemon and increasing their happiness and be able to do it ourselves later on."
Nathan whined.
"Why do we always have to be learning something? Can't we just battle trainers and win badges?"
Kathy rolled her eyes and turned after Phillip who was walking away, ignoring Nathan's comment completely. As they headed up Route 35 they encountered several picnickers and bug catchers preparing for the National Park's bug catching tournament. As they neared the north-western part of Route 35 they were just outside the Pokeathlon Stadium, when they saw a tall teenager with a green sweater picking on a young bug catcher. He stole his hat and was waving it in the air so the bug catcher couldn't get it.
The three of them ran up to kid in the green sweater. Phillip was angry with the kid. He was nothing but a bully. He shoved the kid and grabbed the hat from him. As he handed the hat to the bug catcher, Kathy and Nathan urged him to run away. The tall kid grabbed Phillip's shirt and pulled him towards him. He shouted at him as he swung at Phillip with his free hand.
"Why you little!"
Phillip ducked under the punch and kneed the kid in the stomach dropping him to the ground. He looked up to Phillip revealing the scar over his right eyebrow.
"What's your problem!?" the kid yelled.
"Why are you picking on young kids just trying to have fun?"
"Because I can. Why do you care?"
"Well Gary… you have something I need."
The bully's eyes grew large.
"How do you know my name you little chump!?"
"The name rater sent me to find you."
Gary stood up straight and laughed.
"Oh, that old kook."
Gary reached into his pocket.
"I guess you're looking for this then."
He pulled the digital encyclopedia out of his pocket and tossed it in the air and caught it. Phillip gritted his teeth.
"As a matter of fact I am."
"I'll tell you what chump. If you can beat my Ekans in a battle I will give it to you and you can go your own way."
"Deal!" Phillip yelled.
"Not so fast…"
Phillip crossed his arms and looked at Gary sideways.
"…if I win. You give me your bag and everything in it."
"I'm not giving you my Pokemon."
"You can keep your Pokemon. I just want your stuff to pawn off."
Phillip stood up straight and less defensive.
"Do you need money or something? I can help you wi-"
"-Shut up loser! Go Ekans!"
"Go Dratini!"
Before Dratini was even fully out of his ball, Gary ordered an attack.
"Poison Sting attack Ekans!"
Phillip gasped.
"Roll out of the way!"
The flying stingers just missed Dratini.
"Agility attack!"
Dratini recoiled and summoned more speed.
"Screech attack!"
Dratini absorbed the attack.
"Bite him Ekans!"
"Now Dratini! Jump up!"
Ekans flew right under Dratini. Dratini was directly above Ekans looking down on him.
"Fire Spin attack!"
A mighty fire engulfed Ekans. It began to burn him.
"Jump after him Ekans!"
As Ekans neared Dratini Phillip shouted out to him.
"Dragon Tail attack!"
Dratini smacked Ekans back down to the ground. Ekans slammed onto the fire.
"Again! Fire Spin!"
The fire made a direct collision with Ekans. Gary recalled Ekans and dropped to his knees.
"I'm sorry Ekans I tried."
Phillip ran and hugged Dratini.
"Good job buddy."
Gary looked up to Phillip and handed him the digital encyclopedia.
"Here you go. I'm sorry. My mom is kind of sick right now. I used my money to buy her some medicine. I didn't have enough to rename my Ekans. So I stole this encyclopedia hoping I could learn to rename him myself."
"Why can't your dad buy it?" Nathan asked.
"He's off on some journey. I haven't seen or heard from him in a year. I had to get a job to help my mom out. This was the only way I thought I could help her."
Phillip had compassion on Gary. He knew exactly what he was talking about. Phillip reached his hand out.
"Tell you what. Why don't we go back to the name rater together and I'll pay for you to rename your Ekans."
Gary's mouth dropped.
"You sure?"
"Of course."
Gary grabbed Phillip's hand and pulled himself up.
"Thanks. Sorry about all this."
Phillip shrugged his shoulders.
"Let's go."
Together the four of them went back to Grady's shop. Once Phillip told him the story Grady offered to name all their Pokemon for free.
"Now this is a one time offer. After today I will charge all of you."
Phillip nodded his head and looked at Gary.
"Go ahead."
Gary enthusiastically asked Grady to name his Ekans Python. After a few minutes of going through the process Phillip witnessed how to name a Pokemon. Grady then looked at Phillip.
"What about you?"
"I have two Dratini. I would like to name one Delta, and one Charlie."
"What about Beta or Alpha?"
Phillip smiled.
"Well, I'm the Alpha. Beta is for another Dratini."
"But you only have two? You're going to have three Dratini!? Do you know how rare they are?"
Phillip smiled again.
"I know. Don't you worry about that."
After a few minutes Phillip named his fire breathing Dratini Delta, and his thunder striking Dratini Charlie. After having witnessed the name rater change the names of his Dratini he was confident he could do it going forward. He didn't plan on doing it often, but if he ever needed to, now he knew how to.
Gary invited Nathan, Kathy and Phillip over to stay the night. He made dinner for them and his mother. They would head to the National Park next. For the time being they were feeling pretty good about themselves. They accomplished their mission and made a new friend in the process.
To be continued…