NOVEL NEXT Chapter 5: The hills we must climb are ever growing larger
Joey and Rattata entered a certain routine after that fateful encounter with Michelle. They trained Detect in the mornings, not having to move out of their backyard to do so. Then they eventually left for the clearing they'd first started training in a week ago. There they worked on perfecting moves such as Tackle and Quick Attack. While also having Rattata bite into trees with as much anger and hate as the rodent could muster. Joey was trying to teach his starter Bite, but so far the move just wasn't clicking. Dark-type energy was a big ask for a Pokemon that hadn't even mastered his natural normal-type energy after all. However, Joey considered it to potentially be the simplest secondary TE to learn for a Rattata, considering that a convergent line of them was actually dark-typed. In Alola, if he remembered correctly. Of course, he was also trying for Hyper Fang, which was being attempted with normal-type energy, but he would continue with whichever came first before focusing on the other.
The Caterpie that they'd fought on their first day out remained in the clearing but didn't bother challenging them anymore. It just watched them from its perch in the trees, annoyed at their presence. Other Pokemon simply went out of their way, whenever they traversed the small amount of forest they were allowed to. Either because there was no real interest present from either side or because the routes next to big cities like Saffron were the most meticulously patrolled by rangers.
Considering that Saffron had very short routes, encircled by other three big cities, Vermillion, Celadon and Cerulean, it was probably the safest place to be a Youngster.
Sadly they were unable to find another high-level trainer to battle. Likely a result of Joey being confined to such a small space of exploration. It was quite lucky of him in hindsight to have even been capable of reaching where Michelle had been training, considering the restrictions that he faced due to his license.
To combat this lack of experienced trainers to lose to, Joey supplemented his battles on the lower levels. After finishing up his training he usually went down to the big battling field of Saffron, where trainers hung out when they wanted to battle. Usually, there would be the retired trainers of the city, stretching their muscles. People Joey would have liked to challenge. But over his years living in and running around Saffron, trying to fill up the endless void that was his curiosity, he had observed an interesting phenomenon. The first month or two after a new batch of youngsters and trainers were sent out, the public fields were overrun by young kids loudly screaming and all the adults that had been using the fields disappeared. To be fair, while he understood the desire to not have to listen to several dozen screaming children at the same time, he was also a bit frustrated at the lack of good competition.
Thankfully he could visibly observe the situation improving over time as he frequented the place. The trainers started getting frustrated with their losses to Kong and left for greener pastures, or managed to scrounge a victory, which led to the same result. Joey had started coming here a week after getting his starter, regularly seeing about 20 trainers running around, showing off their Oddish, Bellsprout, Sandshrew and Krabby. The 1-tier Pokemon most commonly handed out in Saffron.
The rich kids had Growlithe or Vulpix bought for them by their parents, and almost exclusively left the quickest, towards Celadon, where they expected an easy victory. Overall, while two weeks after the licensing one could have seen 20 trainers, now there were maybe two or three regular visitors. Two with an Oddish, one with a Krabby. All three of whom Joey had already beaten.
The situation with the youngsters was similar. While there had been about twenty of them in the beginning, that number had slowly but surely dwindled down to five. One might wonder how that happened, as youngsters weren't allowed to really leave the city or its surroundings. And the sad truth was simply that they'd given up. Most had challenged Kong a few times and lost all motivation after their losses, others had their Pokemon taken away because they hadn't been taking care of them properly. The last and perhaps largest group had been a group of angry Pidgey mongers who'd kept challenging Joey and losing. The sheer rage of being deemed inferior to a Rattata by the objective ruling of a win-and-loss ratio had seemingly been too much for the kids, and they'd all collectively stopped coming. Joey didn't know if they'd cleared out some turf to train and battle in without Joey, or if they'd just hung up their youngster hats to go back to school and become cashiers or something. The fact was, there were few youngsters left three weeks after the start of the circuit, and only one of them had a Pidgey. Michael, who, for all his weirdness, apparently didn't know how to give up. An admirable quality.
Overall there were only two people who'd recently started training that were worth anything in Saffron. Sabrina, with her Abra, who'd been beating on everyone the first week that Joey hadn't been in the fields, and Hitoshi, the asshole son of the gym leader, who'd apparently been busy getting private tutoring from his dad during the break the man had after kids had given up on challenging him so much, and those from other cities hadn't arrived yet.
Three notables, if you counted Joey, which he didn't.
The entire thing was getting utterly boring, and no matter how much of a grinder he was, something needed to change. Two weeks of mostly repetitive training and matches that he dominated more and more with each day, getting his match history to go from 1/2 to 23/4, were killing his nerves. And most importantly, killing his gains. There was nothing to gain from beating on the same people every day, and Rattata needed a hill to climb. Finally feeling like he'd imparted the basics into the rat, it was time to visit the gym and surpass their now solid foundations. Detect was coming along slowly but steadily, and while there was no TE in the incisors yet, regardless of type, the trees could attest to the fact that it was starting to hurt. It honestly seemed like Rattata would develop Hyper Fang earlier since his success with normal-type biting had been just a bit higher. Perhaps a gym battle would be the final push needed for all three of the moves.
"You going to finally go fight the gym?" Mia asked curiously from where she was sitting next to Joey on the bench overlooking the sad state of the battling field. Both of the youngsters had Rattata in their laps and were grooming them with brushes. "I think you're the only youngster who hasn't challenged Kong yet, actually," she said while tapping her chin. She shivered, causing her brown ponytail to vibrate. She was probably remembering her own failed attempt.
"I don't know why all youngsters are in such a rush, honestly. It's already considered a great success if a youngster can get two badges by the end of their starting circuit. That means one badge every four and a half months. That's the amount of time they should train before even thinking about it, honestly," Joey commented.
"But you're thinking about it after only three weeks?" Mia asked, tilting her head questioningly. "Of course, if it's you, you can definitely do it. You're the strongest youngster I know," she said with stars in her eyes.
"I'll probably go look at a match first, then put a week aside for training-specific scenarios," Joey muttered. "Also, I'd probably still lose to Sabrina. She's been training that Abra for hers for a while now. Do you know where she is, maybe? I haven't seen her around in a while."
Mia considered for a moment. "Well, I heard she just goes out every day. I think I heard someone say that they found a trail of knocked-out Mankey once, leading deeper into the woods."
"Trying to get her Abra accustomed to fighting types then. It's a good strategy."
"Are you going to do it as well?" Mia asked curiously, looking like she was going to offer her assistance, but Joey just shook his head.
"All the wild Mankey she's fighting will lull her into a sense of complacency. Kong's will be much stronger than any wild Pokemon and if he uses his Machop instead of his Mankey… Sabrina's Abra is going to have a hard time differentiating the instincts it learned by fighting Mankey and the strategy needed to fight a Machop," he theorised.
"But you've been mostly fighting Pidgey here?" Mia asked as if wondering if Joey's logic also applied to himself.
"Most wild Pokemon fight the same, especially angry ones like Mankey. It's just a full-frontal assault with Fury Swipes and the occasional Low Kick or Karate Chop. Trainers bring in some variability and it's good practice to beat as many different ones as you can." Joey paused. "Also, they were all really annoying," he said, causing Mia to laugh out loud.
She was the girl in the yellow sundress who'd been beaten by Hitoshi behind the Pokecentre all those weeks ago. She was also the only other youngster who'd taken a Rattata from the enclosure and had named the Pokemon Lil Mouse. Having seen Joey use his Rattata to curb-stomp all the youngsters with Pidgey and Caterpie, she'd come up to him to ask him about his training routine.
He'd told her, not having anything in particular to hide, but didn't offer to train together. Mia wasn't an overly good trainer he thought he could learn anything from, and even training her Rattata with his regime, she had only gone from bad to mid, for her age. She was nice company though. Most of the kids at the orphanage were weird, their lack of parents had given them some issues to work through, which made them even harder to connect with. Mia came from a normal home with two parents and was relatively pleasant and well-adjusted. Not that motivated though. She would likely only finish her youngster tenure with one badge.
"Any news on when the Celadon gym bus is going?" he asked curiously, as they started walking towards Kong's gym, making the battlefields even more barren than they already had been.
Mia tapped her chin in thought. "Well, it's only youngsters who really need it, as trainers are just able to walk. I talked to the lady at the League and she told me that it would leave in two months and a week. She said that the League didn't want to encourage youngsters challenging gyms without some training time with their starters. Vermillion is three months after that, and cerulean is three months after that."
"Three badges in one circuit, four if you count the home gym," Joey mused, causing Mia to laugh.
"You could also just take public transport to other cities as well," she offered. "Do all eight big gyms while being a youngster."
Joey just shook his head mirthfully. "And miss the opportunity to have the League organise my match, one-day lodging and ride. Also, to pay for it all? No thanks. One trip would wipe my monthly budget, and that's without sleeping over."
"You're going to come to Celadon as well then?"
"Yeah, I guess. There are lots of grass types around here. Bellsprout and oddish. Let's see if I beat Kong, then I can start training against them."
"You could even catch one!" Mia said excitedly in her naturally shrill and young voice, causing some adults walking around them to cringe away from her. Her brown ponytail hopped in her excitement. "With one badge you can catch a second Pokemon. I already know I'm going to get an Oddish, they're so cute!" she exclaimed.
"You're confident in winning Celadon?" Joey asked curiously. When he'd met Mia, she'd been quite downtrodden. She'd only ever won a few battles against the youngsters with Caterpie, or those who'd been dumb enough to evolve their Caterpie into Metapod and thus ended their careers early. How were they going to win a gym badge with a Pokemon that couldn't move? The only way to win a battle with a metapod was if it knew bug-bite and the enemy just randomly chose to get close to it instead of ending it with ranged attacks.
Their only chance was to release the metapod, use the loophole that they had a license, but no Pokemon, to exit the city and catch a new Pokemon. Naturally, again only one of the 0-tier. This basically put them back into choosing between Pidgeys, Caterpie, Rattata, Magikarp and Meowth. Nobody was lucky enough to get an Abra. And nobody dumb enough to catch a Slowpoke. Pidgey and the Meowth were probably the best choices on the surface, the issue being that Pidgeys were usually kinda stupid, and Meowth too fancy to want to train, their inherent arrogance making them think they could win a battle just by showing up. Caterpie and Rattata were actually the best choices in Joey's mind, as they were a good combo of intelligence, attitude and potential. The best would be a smart Pidgey, a non-battle-avoidant Abra, or a motivated Slowpoke, of course. But those were about as rare as a shiny Charizard.
"Lil Mouse has been getting really good at dodging. I went to the library as you suggested and looked at some previous matches of Celadon. It's mostly Poison Powder, Vine Whip and Razor Leaf. Once you get close it's generally over. Seeing you beating all those other trainers made me think that Rattata can do anything," she said.
"With an Oddish you could have a good chance at Vermillion and Cerulean as well," Joey suggested, and considered the logistics of getting a grass-type. He was sure he could beat Celadon if he trained for two more months. Any grass type he caught afterwards would be resistant against Surge's electricity, King's water and super effective against Flint's rock and ground types when he started the traditional route. In a way, it was the optimal choice.
"Ah, I don't know about Surge," Mia said shakily, and Joey agreed with her. The man was a known try-hard and his Pokemon for second-badge challenges often knew Mega Punch. Inversely, however, challenging the man never got any easier, so it was probably better to get him out of the way early.
"Well, even if you only do Cerulean, where you could just have Oddish poison the water with his spores, that's still two badges. It would put you amongst the most successful youngsters, maybe keep the program running for another few years before politics decides it's too dangerous in the end," Joey mused.
"I don't know what the difference between twelve and thirteen is anyway," Mia grumbled.
Joey desperately wanted to say that there was a difference. Every year in teenagerhood was the equivalent of three years in adulthood, in terms of development. But he kept his mouth shut.
"It sounds like something exciting is going on," Joey remarked as they arrived in front of the dojo and heard the cheers from inside.
"Maybe it's a higher-level challenger," Mia guessed and the two youngsters looked at the towering building that exhibited traditional Kanto architecture with its wooden panelling, paper doors and stylised Kanji proclaiming fighting types to be ever-victorious.
"Only one way to find out," Joey said and the both of them went through the unguarded main entrance. It was actually Joey's first time inside the building. Fighting-type specialists usually weren't his biggest fans for some reason, maybe instinctively feeling that he was a ghost and then recoiling in disgust, like Sabrina had when she'd first met him. However, despite the unfamiliarity, the structure was quite self-explanatory. Right after the main entrance were two paths, which led to two of the same stacked-up bench arrangements. In the middle was a largely wooden surface, at the ends of which two trainers could face each other. The way that they came in saw them facing the back of the current challenger, an older boy whose Squirtle had just gotten knocked out by a Tyrogue.
Joey gestured that they should go to the left, which they did and coincidentally sat down next to Sabrina, who, with her Abra in her arms, was analysing the fight. She sneered at the two of them as they sat down next to her. It wasn't like there'd been a choice really. The stands were full for some reason.
"And, David from Pewter, the first trainer to have made it out of their starting town loses his first Pokemon, Squirtle. What will the prodigy sponsored by Professor Oak send out next?" the commentator, a buff man in a karate gi, said into a microphone from where he had a little desk set up.
The referee raised a flag, signalling that the victory went to Kong, a severe-looking man in his forties with a pencil moustache and shoulder-length black and grey hair.
David recalled his Squirtle, said something unintelligible for the crowd to the Pokeball in his hand and sent out his next Pokemon. "Go, Nidoran!" he shouted, sending out the spiky purple biped with large ears. It awkwardly bent down into a fighting stance, pointing the horn on its head against the somewhat out-of-breath Tyrogue.
"That's pretty smart," Joey mumbled. Wondering how he would go about beating a Pokemon like that.
"What do you mean?" Mia asked curiously, tilting her head at the two circling Pokemon. "I know poison types are resistant to fighting, but that's not enough to beat two Pokemon, right?"
"Well, that's one part of it. The other one is that Nidoran can quite easily learn Peck and Poison Sting. The former is a flying type move and thus very effective against any Pokemon Kong decides to send out, while Poison Sting is ranged and can thus keep a tired Pokemon like Tyrogue at a distance while it slowly succumbs to poison," Joey explained, somewhat prophetically, as they watched the Nidoran do exactly that.
A barrage of Poison Stings kept the Tyrogue at a distance and no matter how perfectly it seemed to dodge the little purple pins, which then crashed harmlessly on a flashing blue barrier, it could only do so for so long. It got hit, and the battle was quickly won afterwards. Tyrogue succumbed to the wounds and exhaustion he'd suffered beating Squirtle and the poison now afflicted onto it.
"In a way, it's the Nidoran that's the ace of the fight, then," Mia shrewdly observed.
Joey nodded. "It's almost like Squirtle was only there to soften up the first Pokemon, make it possible for ranged attacks to take it out. Now it's basically two fresh Pokemon battling, and Nidoran has the definite advantage. Especially with its ability," he said.
Kong sent out a Machop at this point. It was a big and mean thing. Mia audibly gulped as it appeared. "That's the same one that I lost too," she said unerringly, causing the boy sitting next to her to thoughtfully scratch his chin.
"Maybe it's gotten too strong to be used in first-badge matches," he guessed. "It has been getting a lot of battle experience," he said and they both focused on the fight.
Battle experience or not, the biggest advantage that Machop had over the fallen Tyrogue was that it was fresh. When the Nidoran predictably started the fight with another poison sting barrage, it was able to gracefully dodge its way towards its enemy, trying to close the distance. However, David didn't seem particularly bothered by the idea of close combat and when the Machop surged forward with dark energy on its fist, he ordered his Nidoran to meet the attack with, "Peck!"
"Damn," Joey murmured, "this kid is good. Makes sense if he's on his second badge after not even a month."
Fist and horn clashed, and it was clearly Machop who got the worst of the exchange. Sucker Punch wasn't that much more powerful than Peck, but the latter was a flying-type move and thus super effective. By the way the fighting type was now gripping its fist, it might have even gotten poisoned. Joey sighed as he watched the fight develop from there. Nidoran kept the Machop on its toes with Poison Sting, and when it managed to close in to retaliate, it just met it head-on with Peck. Sure, the Machop was more experienced and occasionally managed to hit its foe without being hit in return… But the matchup was just too favourable.
Eventually, the Machop succumbed to its wounds and poison, leaving a bruised and exhausted Nidoran on stage. For all the disadvantages, the fighting type had given as good as it had gotten and if it had been facing any other Pokemon it might have won. Joey thought back to Michelle's words, about how sometimes one needed to just accept a type-check battle. His Rattata was currently in a similar situation to Machop when it came to a Nidoran's natural advantages. It only knew physical moves. The only way to win would be to damage the Nidoran so much at once, that the poison that would inevitably be inflicted wouldn't have time to spread.
"Can I get out," Sabrina suddenly said from the left of Joey, causing him to look at her. She'd gotten up and was looking intently at the badge hand-over that was currently happening between a surly Kong and a beaming David.
"Today's the day, huh?" Joey asked as he and Mia stood up to let Sabrina squeeze out of the tight stands, and onto the field, where she waited intently for David to leave. "I'll go quickly catch a word with David," he told Mia, who simply nodded.
Joey exited the gym, along with some other people who left after seeing that the next challenger would be a youngster, even if that youngster was Sabrina. They'd regret it years later. They would have had the chance to see their future gym leader beat the former one for the first time, foreshadowing the future. An iconic moment, perhaps. It wasn't long before David exited the gym as well, a bit after the crowds.
Unceremoniously Joey stepped up to the thirteen-year-old boy and addressed him. He didn't look like anything special, with his ratty jeans, white t-shirt and brown hair, but Joey was impressed, and he wanted to communicate that. "It's impressive how hard you checked Kong. Nidoran is actually a better counter than a psychic, a ghost or a flying type since he has specific counter-strategies against people who think it's going to be that easy," he said and stretched out his hand. "My name is Joey, by the way," he introduced himself.
David looked at the offered hand in confusion for a moment, as if unsure how to react, before he gripped it and firmly shook it. "I'm David, and thanks. The moment I met Nidoran I knew that he would be perfect for this gym," he admitted.
"You planned it out then?" Joey asked curiously. "Squirtle for Flint, Nidoran for Kong, maybe an electric type for Cerulean," he prompted.
David blinked in surprise, before quickly nodding. "I never really understood the traditional circuit route. We have trains and buses now. I have a team of Pokemon which I think would work well for the conference, and the one I find and catch first determines what gym I go to," he admitted matter-of-factly.
"That's a good strategy," Joey said, "I think it has a fatal flaw though."
The trainer furrowed his brows at Joey's words, seemingly not happy with the critique. "I don't need your advice. You're a youngster, no? Professor Oak said that the program is so bad it's about to be abolished. Get a badge and then talk," he said harshly.
"Oh, you don't want to hear it?" Joey asked curiously. "Can I show it to you then, in a battle, tomorrow, if you're still here?" he asked, but David just shook his head.
"I'm going to the centre and then I'm leaving. Goodbye," he said, before promptly rushing off.
Joey tilted his head and watched the boy run off. Maybe Joey was wrong, and David was right. Maybe catching specific Pokemon with specific moves for each gym was a valid strategy. Maybe what Joey was doing, challenging a fighting-type gym with a normal-type Pokemon was idiotic.
But. While one could prepare very well against the public figures that were gym leaders, this could potentially lead to problems later on in the conference. After all, if one never learned to think on the fly, or from a point of disadvantage, how was one supposed to win the uphill battle that was the conference, where one faced a new opponent with an unknown team almost every day?
Joey shrugged and went back inside, just in time to see Sabrina win her battle. Kong was using a Mankey since apparently, his Machop had gotten too strong for the first-badge challenge. In a way, the girl had gotten lucky, but her manner of dealing with the Mankey was also quite ingenious. Her Abra simply wrapped the little ball of anger in confusion and let go when it started channelling a Sucker Punch to get out. Since Abra was using a move of its own typing, which it was very proficient in since it was its main avenue of attack, it simply had more stamina than Mankey, which was using a dark-type move it was probably quite unfamiliar with. Since Abra always let go before the move fully formed and then teleported away, Sucker Punch never lead anywhere and dissipated uselessly. After Mankey became too tired to use a Sucker Punch again, Confusion simply wrecked it, twisted its insides and slammed it into the ground.
Kong didn't look too happy with the way he'd been beaten but gave Sabrina the badge without complaint. The girl took it and left without saying anything to the man, forcing her way past Hitoshi who was trying to angrily speak to her, apparently present for his father's match.
"I would have just disabled the Sucker Punch," Joey said with a smirk as the girl walked past him. Her pink eyes fixated on his brown ones. Her face was blank when she delivered her next words.
"I wanted to make a statement," she said, before teleporting away in a blue flash.