Chapter Four– Preparations
I stepped out of Dr. Georgio's apartment more motivated than I've been in months; the chance to make my own discovery has my mind racing with possibilities. But before any of that can happen, I need to prove myself as a trainer that can withstand the dangers of traveling between regions. The fact that I've already been to three different ones already is apparently irrelevant, but I have to play by the rules if I want this to go well.
I make my way down the apartment stairs and back onto the street below, and I decide it would be best to get a little practice in before jumping right in to fight the gym leader. It would be embarrassing if I had all this excitement and motivation only to get flattened by the first gym challenge I attempt. Thankfully this apartment complex is relatively close to the southern exit of the city, and the path leading under Cycling Road is well known for being a place to find people eager to battle. I take off running, too energetic to take the bus out of town, and it doesn't take long at all before Toothpick and I find ourselves at our battling destination.
Five minutes don't go by before I find this youngster almost as eager as me to get some practice in, and he comes up to me with a frustrated look in his eyes.
"Hey! You're not wearing shorts! What's wrong with you!? Let's battle, I'll prove how powerful these shorts make me! Come on out, Bladewing!"
Oh, he's one of those kids. Why is it that in every single place I go I find kids that are obsessed with short pants? With zero hesitation or remorse, I send Toothpick into the fray, and apparently Bladewing is his Taillow. That's an oddly intimidating name for such a little bird.
"Bladewing, fly up high and show him what you're made of!"
The Taillow takes off with a surprising amount of speed, making all sorts of aerial maneuvers before dive bombing my Sandile from above. Without my instruction, Toothpick darts out of the way and tackles the bird with precise timing, latching onto the Taillow's wing with all the tenacity I fully expected from my partner. Bladewing at this point has trouble getting free, so I take the opportunity to point Toothpick in the right direction.
"Don't let go of that wing, and burrow underground! Take the fight to your territory!" I direct him, and he follows my instruction with perfect accuracy. He digs under the path we're standing on quickly, before popping back out a few feet away with no bird in sight and a smug grin on his face. The little menace left Bladewing underground where he can't get free. Why didn't I think of that?
"Come on Bladewing, you can get out of that! I know you can!" The youngster pleads to his Pokémon, hoping for a miracle.
"Don't give him the chance, Toothpick! Use Bulldoze!"
He leaps into the air and slams himself into the ground, collapsing the tunnel beneath him. We all hear a muffled squawk, and the youngster's Pokeball goes dim, signaling Bladewing was knocked out underground. The youngster sighs and recalls his unconscious Pokémon, the beam of light penetrating the soil with minimal difficulty, before grabbing his second ball and calling out his final Pokémon.
"That won't happen a second time! Monstro, it's on you!"
A Snubbull is sent out this time - why does this kid use such menacing nicknames? I decided to recall Toothpick for a job well done and I send out Saul in return. The last thing I want is to enter a gym battle with a Pokémon I've never used in battle before. My Nacli appears on the field with his usual blank expression, and when Monstro attempts to threaten and intimidate him the way Snubbull are prone to doing, Saul just sits there motionless and entirely unaffected. I'm starting to think this aspect of Saul is something we can use to our advantage going forward; if he's not going to be afraid of anything, I feel a lot more confident using him in battles with the larger, scarier looking opponents.
"Alright Monstro, take the initiative and use Crunch!"
I take the kid's inexperience as my own opportunity. Considering I hardly know a thing about what Saul is capable of at this point, I decided to go with a vague command for telling him how to respond.
"He's going to bite you, make him regret it!"
I catch Sauls's eye momentarily, before I see what looks like a mirror shine from him immediately before the canine bites down. Monstro yelps in pain, a small bit of blood trickling from his mouth from where he broke a fang on Saul's rock-hard body. I'm going to take a guess and say that was an Iron Defense technique, based on how it seemed there wasn't a single scratch on him after that attack. Monstro looked back at him after that, an enraged expression on his face, before charging again.
"Take the initiative Saul, show him what you're made of!" I directed, continuing the plan of nondescript instructions so I could keep learning what he was capable of.
My Pokémon rolled back a few feet before launching a stone directly into Monstro's face, knocking the Snubbull back farther than he was before charging in the first place. Saul rolled back into his position, sensing an opportunity to finish things and looking at me for guidance.
"Alright, let's end this in style!" I called out, a smile on my face at how incredibly well this had gone so far.
At that moment, Saul's eyes shifted from the normal orange to a bright purple glow, before pulling stones out of the ground with some sort of psychic power and hurling them at the Snubbull with immense speed. My jaw dropped a little bit at the sight. Was that Ancient Power…? That's an incredibly rare move, but it would make some sense for Saul to have it considering where I found him. Baltoy and Claydol are two species that are fairly well known to have the ability, and even though we didn't see any during our visit, I definitely remember the Baltoy carvings in the tower walls. If they still lived around there and Saul's been there for years with them, I wouldn't be surprised if he picked up a couple of tricks.
The stones slammed into Monstro one after the other, leaving the Pokémon bruised and unconscious after the forceful encounter. The youngster frowned, seriously upset, before recalling his Snubbull and running up to me, pushing me away and running off with tears in his eyes, leaving a handful of money in my hands after the fact. I almost felt bad for him, he was way in over his head here.
Almost.
I was too excited seeing how powerful my new friend is to give the kid a second thought though, and i swept him up in a big, stony hug. Ew, there's Snubbull drool on him. I wiped it off quickly, then set him back down and pulled out my berry pouch, giving Toothpick another of his favorites and letting Saul have his pick of the bunch. I might be spoiling him a little, but this is one of the easiest ways to determine what his preferences are. He waddled his way in and snagged a Persim berry, nibbling on it as he looked up at me. All in all, I'm incredibly satisfied with my team's capabilities, and I think Wattson and his Pokémon should be prepared to be shocked when we roll up. Ha, shocked. I crack myself up. I recalled Saul to his ball and started making my way to the city gym.
I should know better than to get my hopes up like that, though.
About half an hour later, my team and I pulled up to the Mauville City Gym, and lo and behold, there's ambulances and emergency service vehicles outside. I hop off the city bus and rush over to ask someone what's going on. I approach one of the gym trainers, a young man with bright dyed red hair, since he seems to be more informed than the other bystanders about the circumstances.
"Oh, you didn't hear? Wattson collapsed. He's not looking too good; they're taking him to the hospital now. I'm going to take a guess and say you're here for a gym challenge. Right now might not be the best time, but if you're absolutely set on it, you can wait in the lobby and I'll talk to you about your options once everything clears out here."
Well, this is unfortunate. Not to sound cruel, but I'm in a bit of a rush here. I take his advice and step into the gym, taking a seat on a bench in the lobby. This might take a while.