Chapter Text
It had been... around six months since I fell into a hole in the ground. And six months since I have been in the Pokemon world. In Hoenn, specifically. How strange, right? Well, I couldn't say it was a terrible time. In fact, after I had gotten things sorted out it was a rather charming place.
I made some friends(Caught Pokemon) and decided to take on the gym challenge. Unfortunately for me, I was hard stuck at Watson.
"Tch," I groaned as I recalled my last Pokemon. Leaf was my strongest soldier, however Watson's Manetric got the paralyze off at the last moment and that stopped Leaf from throwing a Mach Punch right at it's snout. "Good fight as always, old man."
"Nearly got me that time Jack! HAHAHAHAHA!" Watson crouched down to his Manectric, scratching its head briefly before returning it to its Pokeball. "You're getting better! Still can't believe you started out four months ago!"
Right...
Roxanne? Easy enough. Leaf actually solo'd her team since he was a Grass type(And now, Grass/Fighting!). Brawly? Quite a bit harder. But his fighting types ended up being felled with a tactic of Wing Attacks and Agility spam from Cloud.
Watson though? He was tougher. Not just because of the Pokemon he had being higher leveled and fully evolved in some cases. But because he used status moves like Thunder Wave and moves like Howl. Not to mention he completely countered Cloud before I could even get her to set up. And he countered Larry. Not to mention, he had another Pokemon whereas I only had my three.
"Still hard to believe I've been here for four months..." I sighed before looking at the Pokeball's strapped to my belt. Three in all. "Welp. Guess it's back to the grind," I looked back up at the surprisingly energetic elder before waving. "See ya again soon! Next time I'll take that badge I swear!"
Watson laughed, waving right back. "I'll be waiting! Can't wait to see what you try next time!"
Soon after, I was out of the gym and back in Mauville itself. It was a massive place that was essentially a giant hub for travelers like me. I had been living out of this place too for the most part over the last few months and coasting off some money I got from a tournament. It was a small tournament for New Trainers to get off the ground and me and Leaf swept through it.
Ah... those were the days.
'Technician is OP as shit...' I pat Leaf's pokeball briefly, stirring the Pokemon inside as we made our way to our next destination. The Pokemon Center. It would be our first stop of many today. "We'll get the old man next time, I swear."
And within a few minutes, I was in and out of the Pokecenter and moving out the north. 'We'll just have to train more.'
It sucked that I had lost again. But each loss was a learning experience. And sure, some of those lessons I was pointedly ignoring(Like; GET A GROUND TYPE). But the one I was taking to heart here? I couldn't win without maximizing my resources. I had just enough to catch another Pokemon and to train up my third, Larry.
It was time to grind.
So, Grinding wasn't really my entire plan. I was training my Pokemon on their moves as well, rather than trying to "level" them up.
"Bre-loom!" Leaf shouted, his fist slamming forward at incredibly high speeds to smash into a rock. The rock shattered, revealing nothing inside. A shame, really- that had actually been another way I had made money. Treasure hunting. Most rocks were pilfered over already, but the ones I did find usually had something in them.
Or a Geodude...
Which, might not be a horrible Pokemon to catch.
"Great job buddy! Keep going. We're gonna see if we can't get that to go even faster. Watson won't know what hit 'em!" I encouraged as a shadow loomed over. "Cloud, any progress on Protect?" The Swellow let out a shrill noise which I assumed was a no. "Keep trying then! If we can get that off to block some of that Electric damage, we'll have the bastard on lock!"
My Pokemon's typings were not exactly great for Watson.
The Grass Fighting of Leaf was fine. Pretty good, actually. Just Watson's Manetric had Fire Fang. Unlike in the games, Pokemon could have as many moves as they wanted as long as they could learn them.
Couldn't even hate the old man for it. Good idea.
Normal Flying was well, bad because of flying. Cloud was faster than his Pokemon, yeah. But Cloud couldn't hit hard enough for the speed advantage to be meaningful in time. So, that was why Protect was a priority.
Meanwhile for Larry- "Come on... You can do it!" I cheered on the small Crab as his claw moved. He was attempting to learn Slash. A move that was meant to be an Egg move. But I had faith in the little guy. Energy collected around his claw as it moved, trying to give it cutting power.
It failed.
Slash was a tough move to get down. Not just because it was stronger, but because it wasn't Larry's type. Moves of different typings were harder to learn for any Pokemon. So it made sense that this would be tough.
And Larry knew that. But he refused to give up. That was what I liked about him when we first met. He was serious about whatever it was he had a fixation on, what he wanted to do. So I caught him a few weeks back.
"Corphish!" Larry shouted, raising his claw again. He kept repeating the motion as I moved to sit next to him.
"You'll get it down soon, buddy," Larry stopped briefly, trying to catch his breath as I pat him on the head. "You're a strong little fella after all." Larry preened a bit at that before looking away and beginning to move his claw again. "You'll never get away from positive reinforcement!"
"CORPHISH!"
I laughed as the Corphish weakly slammed his claws against me. "You'll get used to it one day I swear!" There was a slightly harder smack at that and the laughter only went on, this time with Leaf and Cloud joining in, temporarily stopping their training. "You'll never escape from it!"
"CORRRRRRRRRRRR!"
After training, we did actually need to do stuff. Life wasn't all about training and gym leaders here. No. There were still other things I was doing to try and help my team out. For example, fighting other trainers.
"NUZLEAF, USE RAZOR LEAF!" My opponent shouted. A child who had wanted to battle. I was more than happy to fight, and so were my Pokemon.
Speaking of Pokemon, his Nuzleaf moved, conjuring several sharp pointy leaves and directing them at Cloud.
"DODGE AND THEN WING ATTACK!" Cloud listened, swerving out of the way of the leaves and diving down, wing outstreched.
"NUZLEAF, DODGE!" It was too late. Cloud was too fast, too strong. And Nuzleaf was hit with the wing and sent flying back, hitting a tree behind it in the process as Cloud moved back into the air. "Crud..."
Nuzleaf was knocked out, and that had been game.
"You'll get there eventually buddy," I grinned as Cloud came back, landing on my shoulders which really didn't like the extra weight, but I didn't say anything for the moment as the Child, Chris if I was to remember correctly, nodded. "Just gotta get faster."
"Nuzleaf's gonna be the fastest then!" Christ declared, pointing a finger at me. "Then? WE WILL HAVE OUR REVENGE!" With that, he ran off into the bushes with his mother beginning to run after him, shooting me a dirty look for not letting him win.
Not my fault, he was also ignoring type match ups.
"Great job, buddy" I scratched Cloud's jaw and the bird preened before flying off of my shoulders. And with a quick motion, Cloud was back in the Pokeball. "Now we've just gotta do that to Watson..." Easier said than done. But that'd be later.
You couldn't just rechallenge a Gym Leader every day. Well, you could. But generally, you wouldn't do that unless you were stupid or got really unlucky last time somehow. I wasn't either of those... most of the time. I could be stupid sometimes.
Like when I tried to catch a Magikarp but ended up pissing off a Gyarados- Cloud had to work hard to bail me out of that one... and that was just a few weeks ago. Around when I got Larry, actually... Oh how time flies.
Oh how time flies...
'Yeah yeah...' I felt Leaf's Pokeball stir and I shook my head. "Not worth it, I know. I know... We'll just have to keep moving on and hope for the best, yeah?" The goal was Champion. Or at least, Elite Four. Because it would be a really cool title to have.
Once again, I felt my Pokeball stir and this time I rolled my eyes.
"Specializations are stupid... most of the time, there's not even enough Pokemon of a type for someone to specialize! I mean look at Lance? He had to have like... Three Dragonites?" I laughed as I took in the air and began my walking over again. "Variety is the name of the game, I think."
Plus, it meant I wouldn't be locked into any particular skillset and neither would my Pokemon.
'But god it'd be nice to be a Ground Specialist right about now... Then I could leave this place and go to another section of Hoenn..." Going for Flannery was probably my next move, Gym wise... But there were rumors of another rookie tournament going on. This time being ran by the Devon Corporation back in Rustboro... Actually, it might be a good idea to go now- It would be starting in around a week and I wasn't confident I'd be able to beat Watson and get there in time.
Plus one of the rewards was going to be a few random TM's. So maybe I'd get a Ground Move there.
In the end, I decided the best move was to go for the tournament first. But first, there was one thing I needed to do.
Eat.
"Alright guys..." I let all my Pokemon out, food already prepared. Berries and various other things that their diets required were laid out for them. Along with my own dinner, a humble Cup of Ramen with an egg and some pieces of this world's version of Spam inside. "Let's eat!"
"Bre bre!" Leaf immediately went over to his and began eating. Same with Larry. Cloud however laid down next to me before I grabbed my own dinner. As soon as I did that, she began eating. That was how things normally went. Our normal, so to speak.
Leaf and Larry were quick to eat, beginning pretty much as soon as they left the Pokeball. Cloud however liked to wait to eat with me.
It was a nice comforting setting, in all honesty.
And it made the fact that their food was so damn expensive less hard to stand... At least the Ramen in this world was good. Although I imagine fresh tasted way better. 'One day, Jack. One day...' Despite my complaints, I happily chowed down along with my Pokemon.
"Bre-loom!" Leaf finished his first, moving back onto his back with a content sigh. "Bre bre!"
"Glad you're full buddy," I grinned and then looked at Larry who was still eating. "Take your time- don't choke... I'm not sure how to do the heimlich on a crab."
Larry turned, food in mouth. "COR CO-GHK!" And immediately, the prophecised choking bean. Cloud did her best impression of a sigh before standing up and kicking Larry in the back. Larry spat out whatever it was he was choking on, now a mass of mush, and sagged. "Cor Cor..."
"It's okay bud... you still have more," I cackled, pointedly making sure I didn't put any food in my mouth so I wouldn't end up like my Corphish. "Just don't try to shout next time, okay? And thanks Cloud."
Cloud moved back next to me and sat down, going back to her food. Larry rolled his eyes and looked away from me to continue his meal, silently laughing to himself. He'd at least get the satisfaction of knowing I'd have to clean up after him after this.
Oh well.
I had my laughs. He could have his too. Besides, at least he was eating the fresh food... Although, I was really starting to enjoy fried spam in my meals. So I guess I was a winner too.
"Now..." I looked back down at my Ramen cup, only to see Cloud eating out of it.
"HEY! That's mine!"
The quickest path to Rustboro was going through Verdanturf Town and then cutting through Rusturf Tunnel which was clearly named by someone sober. Then it'd be only a few hours until you were at Rustboro. It took three to four days total to make it there via that route.
It was also fairly dangerous. Being filled with Pokemon. Especially in Rusturf Tunnel. But it really wasn't a huge issue. Hell, I might catch a new party member there. See if they'd want to join me or not.
Unlike this swarm of Zigzagoon in Route 117.
"ZIG!" The leader yelled, being faced with Larry. "ZAG ZIG!" It rushed forward in a burst of speed, ready to bite. But unfortunately, Larry shot a pressurized stream of bubbles, right into its face, sending it back into the crowd.
"I think these ones are underleveled..." I watched as they regrouped, this time attacking as one. But this time, they were faced with two of them getting picked off. One from a Mach Punch via Leaf the Breloom and one via a Wing Attack from Cloud the Swellow.
The three remaining paused, including the leader.
"Larry. Bubblebeam." I grinned as the Zigzagoon backed away, slower. But the other two were once again picked off by Leaf and Cloud, leaving the leader to be blasted by a stream of bubbles, illiciting a scream as it was sent flying before being knocked out. "Man... we got lucky there... A swarm of more dangerous Pokemon would have been ugly..."
There weren't too many strong Pokemon here. But there were some here that were totally bonkers compared to other members of their species in the area. Pokemon was still at it's core an actual, factual world.
So Nature was um... Nature.
"Bre Bre!" Leaf puffed his chest out confidently.
"I wouldn't tempt fate if I were you, Leafy..." I backed away from the Breloom as he laughed. Practically a dare to Arceus himself.
"Bre-LOOM!" And there we go- a shadow loomed over the Breloom. The Pokemon's arm glowed pink and I whistled. Breloom turned slowly before being smacked by a Play Rough from an Illumise.
"ooh..." I winced as Leaf's eyes were spirals. Leaf really got it bad there, huh? Also oh yeah- "Cloud, Peck."
"ILU- ILUUUUUUUUUUUMIIIIIIIIII-"