Chapter 16: Strategic Preparation

It wasn't really until the next day that we arrived in Pewter City. In fact, I think I recall collapsing upon seeing the city. I was that out of it. And I hadn't gotten a wink of sleep either. Maybe it was due to the fact I was restless. Or maybe it was due to that stupid Sneasel killing himself over nothing. I wasn't sure. What I was sure about was that the next time I regained consciousness, I was back in the clearing right outside of Viridian. I was back inside the dreaded pokeball. But I guess it wasn't all that bad for once. Here I could relax my aching screaming muscles.

My head suddenly shot up, my eyes directly upon the pile of delicious berries sitting next to the tree at the edge of the forest. My stomach growled very hungrily. I ignored the aches and screams coming from my muscles and rushed over to the berries, gobbling them up in less than five seconds. O.K. Ten seconds. I had to stop, chew, and swallow due to the berry juice dribbling out from my mouth. But in less than ten seconds, the berries were all eaten and resting inside my stomach.

"Whew!" I said, burping as I walked over to the lake and drank a couple of swigs from it. Water dripped down from my muzzle after quenching my thirst and grinned, my tail wagging at a good pace. I yawned then, my eyes drooping. I felt my muscles starting to relax, so I took a few steps away from the edge of the lake before collapsing on the ground again. This time I knew I wouldn't get up. My eyelids drooped all the way down until they were closed. With a final yawn, I was out like a light.

When I awoke again sometime later, I felt totally refreshed. Boy that was such a great nap! I yawned before I got up and stretched out my cramp muscles. I immediately realized that all the soreness in them was gone, which would mean that we were at one of those healing places, which also meant that I would be called upon very soon. I also noticed that it was now nighttime within the pokeball. So did that mean that it was nighttime outside or did day and night cycles change faster than that?

My question was answered moments later as the entire pokeball went black and I felt an all too familiar tug bringing me out. I shut my eyes for a moment as my feet momentarily left the ground. When they landed, a whole bunch of noise hit my ears all at once, causing me to flatten my ears.

"You're a terrible trainer," came Laura's voice. I took a look behind me to see Laura and my master standing by the same table that we stood at before back in Viridian. Perhaps all healing places were like this? But as it was, my master flinched as Laura yelled her head off at him, again. "You let our only pokemon almost die and you've only just begun your journey. What kind of trainer are you?"

"I could ask the same thing," my master yelled back. "A responsible trainer doesn't let her pokemon run off and leave us completely defenseless." Now it was Laura's turn to flinch. So my master did have some courage to stand up for himself. I turned my attention away from the two and looked at my surroundings. The building wasn't much different from the last one I was in. In fact, it looked exactly the same.

My attention was turned towards the wall over to my left. Ignoring all the people who stopped and stared, I made my way over to the familiar orange scaled Charmander whose back was turned to me and his head looking up. My tail wagged happily as I walked right up next to him and plopped myself down before looking up at what he was looking at.

The thing we were looking at was some sort of paper or something filled with weird, colorful symbols. Knowing Skitty, she'd go on a nonstop rant about how colorful this paper was. And even thinking about it made me all the more curious as to know what this paper was. Turning to the Charmander next to me I asked, "What are we looking at?"

"If my assumptions are correct, I would say that we are looking at a poster of the Pokemon League," Charcoal said.

"Pokemon League?" I asked, curious to know more about this League thing.

"To put it simple, it's kind of like a tournament between pokemon to see who the champion will be," Charcoal explained to me. "Of course, in order to be champion you have to battle your way to the top. I don't know anymore than what I do know."

I stared at Charcoal, listening to every word he said. As he explained to me what the Pokemon League was all about, my heart began pounding and a smile began to form upon my face. My eyes shone with new interest as I knew what it was I wanted to do. "Then let's go!" I said, grinning with excitement.

"What?" Charcoal asked, turning to look at me.

"The tournament!" I said. "Let's go. It'll be fun to try to become the champions! Oh I am so rearing to go!"

"Hold on now Zack," Charcoal said. "We just can't go to the tournament like we are. The tournament is for the strongest pokemon that have leveled up over the months. And besides, we can't even get into the tournament without gym badges."

"Gym what now?" I asked.

"O.K.," Charcoal said. "I'll explain it to you." He went and opened his mouth to start when he stopped and I think tried finding the words he needed to say. "On second thought, I'll probably just give you the shorter, more simpler explanation to where you'll be able to understand."

"O.K.," I said, not really sure what he was talking about.

"In order for us to get to the Pokemon League and become champions, we have to travel across the region of Kanto and battle eight different gyms," Charcoal explained. "And each gym holds a badge that our trainer needs to win so we'll be allowed in to the League."

"So if we go to these eight gyms and win these badges for our master, we can enter the league and become champions?" I asked.

"That's the gist of it," Charcoal said.

"Then let's go!" I said, my tail wagging furiously. "Let's beat these eight gyms and get into the Pokemon League."

"It's not that easy Zack," Charcoal said. "We have to travel to eight different cities in order for our trainer to receive these badges. It will take months for us to travel through all eight cities and return back here in time for the Pokemon League to start."

"Don't worry about it," I said with a smile. "We'll do what we can and become champions once we're there."

"Zack, you are going to give me a headache," Charcoal said, pinching the area between his eyes.

"Chill out Char-bro," said Ted as he and Skitty came walking up to us. "Zack is Zack and you are you."

"And I'm me!" Skitty said smiling widely, looking at each of us before looking up at the poster. "It's so colorful! I must bask in its beauty of odd colorful thingies!"

We all just stared at Skitty as she marveled at the poster, entranced by how colorful it was. "Crazy," was the thought that came to my mind. But even then, I already knew that she was crazy. But then why did the word come to mind unless it was just delayed for several days and needed time to catch up. But then did that mean I was crazy too? I was glad my master decided to walk over to us at that moment.

"This right here you guys," he said, placing a finger on the poster Skitty was still entranced by. "This is what it's all about. This is why I started my pokemon journey. This is what we're going to train to be in. The Pokemon League."

"Yeah we kind of already know that," I said, even though I knew he couldn't understand what I was saying.

"That's right Zack," my master said. "The Pokemon League. But in order for us to be in it, we have to have eight gym badges from eight different cities. And luckily we're in a city that just so happens to have a gym here."

"Why are you speaking like your a spokesperson?" Laura asked. "You could be on the six o'clock news."

"Aw come on Laura!" my master said. "Why do you always have to mock what I do?"

"I don't know," Laura said, her hands behind her head. "Maybe it's because I like watching your temper flare up."

"Well guess what?" my master said. "I'm going to join in with the Pokemon League and beat all of the gyms."

"Uh-huh," Laura said. "Sure you are."

"You just wait and see," my master said. "We're going to go all the way to the top."

"Whatever you say," Laura said.

"I'll show you then," my master said. "I'm going to beat the Pewter City Gym Leader before heading on to the next gym." That brought a very good question to mind.

"Hey Charcoal. You know what the gym is going to be like?"

"Well, I would think that each gym deals with a different type," Charcoal replied. "You were in your pokeball while we were coming to the Pokemon Center. I took a look around the place and noticed that there were quite a lot of rocks and boulders, which led tot eh assumption that we'll most likely be fighting rock types."

"Cool!" I said.

"It's not cool for Charcoal bro," Ted said. "Fire doesn't do any damage to rock types."

"It doesn't?" I questioned.

"Not a bit," Charcoal said. "My best hopes would be to overheat them and hope they collapse from heat exhaustion, but that could take forever. But even then I doubt that would happen."

"So then what do you plan on doing?" asked Ted.

"My best bet would be to dodge and hope to get lucky as to find a weak point and win a quick battle," Charcoal replied. "Of course Zack won't have much of a problem since he's a dark type and rock pokemon are easily defeated by psychic attacks."

"All right gang," my master suddenly said, snapping our attention to him as he spoke again, all except Skitty. "Charcoal, Zack, let's go kick some butt at that gym and win our first badge for the Pokemon League!"

"This should be interesting," I heard Laura mumble under her breath as she picked up Skitty in her arms.

"I shall return later to bask in your colorfulness," she said as we walked out from the building. The path to becoming champions of the Pokemon League had only just begun. This looked like to be the most fun I could ever have!