3,000 Pokedollars! That's how much the league felt my victory against Flint was worth. In case you're confused, I'll explain. The league went through every gym victory and then decided what to reward the challenger with. It was based on several factors like the number of badges the trainer had, the type of pokemon used, even the win ratio of the gym in question. The awards ranged from a low as 20 pokedollars to as high as 10,000. It all varied.
The fact that the league felt my victory against Flint was worth that much was probably because of the type of pokemon I'd used. My pokemon were part- flying types so that would have been an important consideration. I'm also sure the fact that the pokemon Flint used were beyond the one-badge level mattered a lot to the league.
Anyway, before I let myself get distracted by the dex, I was up to something important. I've been in the mountain for the past two days. So far, I've managed to find squat. Nothing. Nada. Zilch. In case you can't tell, I'm a bit bored. I couldn't train my pokemon in these caverns. Broly was off searching ahead. Quicksilver hated being underground, so he was in his ball. I had nothing better to do than allow my mind wander and think about the past couple days.
Immediately after my challenge, I made my way to the markets. Something that came to mind on the way here was the fact that Pewter was a mining town. In a world where evolution items aren't even a dream in the craziest man's mind, priceless evolution catalysts would probably be sold as trinkets.
My goal? A metal coat. That's what I was searching for. I avoided the bigger stalls and the food huts. I focused on the smaller sheds probably run by miners' wives. I almost gave up after searching a couple if I didn't notice something in one of the last stalls. She had a whole section dedicated to weird baubles and junk.
In the middle of the junk, I found my prize. After a closer look, it was more like prizes. She had a moon stone and a protector. The Protector was placed on a shelf and seemed to have gathered dust. The moon stone was just placed on a stand. I looked around her store for something else, and when I'd found it, I moved in. "Good afternoon" I began. "How much would it cost me to take that jacket off your hands?".
"Oh dearie, welcome to Grandma Wanda's shop" She seemed to have one of those weird smiles every grandma did. The kind that just seemed to make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside. "The jacket costs 30 pokes". She finished. Seemed like a fair price for a jacket like that but that wasn't what I was here for.
"30 pokes?" I exclaimed in shock. "That is simply too much for such a jacket. It should cost no more than 20". Good old-fashioned haggling.
"20 is simply too little. This jacket belonged to my dear son James. He wore it all the time before he died. It's of sentimental value, you see. I can't let it go for anything less than 28 pokes". She played the game well. I doubt she actually had a son named James but let's play along.
"Since it was so special to you, I guess I can take it for 30 pokes. But only if it comes with those two baubles. They'd look great on my desk". She wasted no time in accepting my offer. And that's how I got two rare evolution items for the price of a second-hand jacket.
I wasted no time in packing up the purchases and leaving. You're probably wondering why I went through all that trouble if all I wanted were the evolution items. The issue is they're junk. They look like junk and are practically worthless to the seller. If I just came in and bought both items, there's no way she'd ever forget the guy who came in to buy the weird stuff and nothing else.
I knew that when I eventually started walking around with rare pokemon evolutions no one knew how to obtain, the league and everyone else would be investigating my previous movements. That woman wouldn't remember me. I was one of the dozen trainers who bought something from her shop. There was nothing memorable about our interaction at all. It was all planned.
With the protector in hand, I knew I wasn't going to waste time capturing a Rhyhorn. I'd go straight for a Rhydon. With Broly and Quicksilver, I'd probably have no issue catching one from the herd. And then, all I had to do was evolve it when I was sure of its training and loyalty.
A Rhyperior on my team would be a fantastic addition. The kind of addition that would allow me to hang with the top trainers in the region in a few months. The kind of pokemon that could take me to the top of the league.
That's what brought me here. I couldn't find any Rhydon grazing outside the mountain, so I decided to try my luck inside the mountain itself. I'm ashamed to say that it took me less than a couple hours to get completely lost. I'd been stuck here for the past two days because of that. I couldn't retrace my steps and I strayed from the league-monitored route a few minutes after I entered.
This was hands-down the most stupid thing I'd ever done. It also helped me confirm something. There had to be some bits of Donell left. This kind of recklessness was par for the course for him. For me, it was a completely new experience. I'd always been a planner. Meticulous and cautious. This was as far from cautious as I could get without jumping off a plane.
I wandered down the path I'd been on for a few minutes before Broly came back to tell me he'd found something. I cautiously followed him till I was met with a cavern filled with Rhydon. They seemed to be fighting. Challenging each other for the position of top-bull. Haha. Top-bull. I'm so funny.
Never mind all that though, I had a pokemon to catch. I wasted no time in jumping down towards the pokemon. They ignored my presence, but the shift in their stances told me they knew I was there. I noticed that there was one who didn't have any challengers at this moment, so I instructed Broly to rush him. My monster wasted no time in charging in with a quick attack and letting the swords fly. The Rhydon didn't even move. He ignored the attacks and have Broly a single punch in his chest that sent him right back at me. It didn't end there, he stomped the ground once and created an earthquake that sent me off my feet and prevented Broly from rising.
I heard a familiar cry of rage and looked up from my position on the floor. Broly had found his feet again and rushed at the Rhydon at even greater speeds with a steel-wing. It proved just as useful as the last attack as the Rhydon once again ignored the hits to lash out at Broly's chest. When Broly went down again, the Rhydon followed him.
He then did something that I had never expected. He grabbed Broly by the wings and fucking broke them. I screamed, my pokemon screamed and I could swear the Rhydon was laughing. I fumbled in my belt for his pokeball, returned him and ran. I didn't care where I was going to, all I wanted was to get away from those fuckers. Those monsters.
My mind was filled with pain and my eyes with tears, so it was no surprise that I didn't pay any attention to where I was going and promptly fell in a hole I didn't see coming. I landed in a pool of water and was barely able to keep my head up for a minute before I passed out.
I woke up groggy and confused. I'm ashamed to say it took me a couple minutes to figure out what happened and to notice that I was floating in a pool of water. I quickly jerked up at that and opened my eyes. I then noticed that I was in a cavern surrounded by Clefairy. The moon was beaming down on me through the hole that I fell in which seemed to lead all the way to the top of the mountain. The Clefairy paid me no attention and danced around a stone in the middle of the water which I reasonably suspected of being the moon stone. It was beautiful. The dance was enchanting and something I could not understand told me to release Broly right into the water with me.
I did it and felt incredibly stupid immediately afterwards. My pokemon could not swim. He formed out of the red light and seemed to have no trouble staying afloat in this pool. I also noticed that I wasn't even trying to float but it just happened.
The fairy type Pokémon's dance became more frantic as I released my injured pokemon into the pool. The glow of the pool seemed to intensify at that moment, and I could not even begin to describe what happened next. I passed out again and woke up on the stone floor.
I was alone with Broly, and we were both healed of our injuries. After checking on my pokemon I took stock of our surroundings and noticed that this cavern was quite different from the one I woke up in the first time. There was no pool, no skylight and more importantly no Clefairy. I got up. I was quite done with this place.
"Hey Buddy" I called out to my monster. He looked at me, he'd been avoiding my eyes since we woke up. "We lost today" I admitted sullenly from the look on his face I could tell he wasn't happy with me pointing that out. 'We underestimated our opponent. It won't happen again. I can't promise that we'll always win but I can promise that we'll become so strong no one can ever spit on us like that again' at the end of my statement, I'd begun to shout but the determination on Broly's face made the cringe worth it.
'Now let's get out of here' I spoke finally. I asked him to scout ahead for an exit point. It seems the Clefairy had dropped us close to the exit because it only took us about 20 minutes to find our way out of the mountain. Finally. The sight of the sun gave me more joy than I've ever felt before. I opened up my dex to check my map to see where I came out from, and I let out the kind of words that would see me banned from every high-class restaurant. The exit I used led towards Pewter and not Cerulean.
I was, quite literally, exactly where I started. At least, this time I wasn't going Rhydon hunting. I'd had quite enough of that species. I released Quicksilver and got out my saddle. He was elated to be out of his ball, and I could tell he was dying to stretch his wings. I didn't have it in me to keep him waiting. I returned Broly and climbed on the speedster. A quick flex of my aura had us heading straight towards Cerulean. The mountain was huge, but Quicksilver cleared it in less than an hour. We flew and found ourselves in Cerulean in no time.
I got out and returned my pokemon to his ball. The first thing I did was check in at the pokemon Centre and drop my pokemon off for checkups. I headed straight into the town. I had a lot to do and not a lot of time. I had scheduled my challenge with Aaron, the Cerulean gym leader for three days from now and I had to get my third teammate. The first thing I did was head to the jewellery store. Cerulean had tons of them.
I found my query after a few minutes of looking. It was a simple bracelet with a prism scale at the center. I picked it up and headed to the counter. I left the store a good 200 pokedollars lighter. I put on the bracelet and went to my next stop. A fishing supplies store. I bought a simple rod and bait. I didn't need anything fancy since I was going to be catching one of the most common pokemon in the sea.
There were tons of good fishing spots around the outskirts of Cerulean, but I searched for one that was out of the way and deserted. That took a while, but I eventually succeeded. I set up my line and bait and begun to meditate as I waited to get a bite.
I waited for about 10 minutes before I got a bite. I checked up on it and it was a magikarp. Didn't need one right now so right back in he went. I kept waiting and decided to experiment with my aura a bit. I tried using my aura to sense into the water to find the pokemon.
It didn't work. My aura remained stubbornly stuck in its core. I couldn't do anything with it. My method of communicating with my pokemon required manipulating the streams that were already flowing towards them.
My aura had grown though. Not sure how I could tell but I could. I had more aura today than I did three weeks ago when I first found it. No idea how I was going to eventually empower my body and fire off focus blasts if it just stayed stubbornly where it was.
Three more magikarp catches later and I got something interesting. A feabas. The pokemon I came for. The games definitely didn't overstate the ugliness of this fish. I never thought fish could be pretty but this one was all new levels of ugly. I wanted the evolved form though, so I grinned and bore it. The problem was this one was simple. The look in its eyes told me all I needed to know so I threw it back in. You're probably confused as to what I mean by simple. To put it simply- Ha simply. Get it? Well, to put it simply, pokemon were divided into two categories. This is beyond type classifications or anything like that. There are simple pokemon and sentient ones.
Simple pokemon were often used as food. They had little capacity to learn or grow mentally. They were just like animals from my old world. Sentient pokemon were the types you'd see in the league or with trainers. Pokemon that could grow with their trainers. I kept waiting after that and two hours into my stay, I found my quarry. A sentient Feabas. I brought him out of the water and held him up to have a conversation. "Hey little guy" I began. His wiggles of affront told me that this little guy was a little girl. "Please accept my apologies, my lady. One such as I should never have mistaken your beauty and feminine charm" I declared grandiosely. Her giggles and the bubbles she let out made me making a fool out of myself well worth it. I continued-
"I am a pokemon trainer. My chief desire is to make it to the top of the nation- to stand above all others. To do that, I need strong pokemon like you to join my team to help me. What do you say? Are you interested?" She looked conflicted and undecided. I decided to throw in my trump card, "If you join my team, I'll help you evolve into the most beautiful Milotic in all seven seas" She perked up at that. I'm sure she had no idea how to evolve but she felt the potential to do so within her.
She chirped excitedly and wiggled out her affirmation after another minute of contemplation. So, I had to do this right now. I decided to give her the prism scale and moved back a little bit. I took off the bracelet and ripped off the scale from the center before putting it back on. I had no idea how this was supposed to work or what I had to do.
Turns out the answer to that question was nothing. The moment I dropped her down and put the scale on her head, she erupted into a bright white light. After a minute of shielding my eyes, the light died down and out came my Milotic.
The articles that called it the most beautiful pokemon in the world definitely weren't overstating things. She was glorious. A cream body, ocean blue tail and red hair. She was also incredibly large. Her body was almost as long as that of Flint's Onix. She was a fucking work of art. There was nothing more beautiful on this part of the planet. I knew that for a fact. You see, after I captured her, I'd be the only trainer in all of Kanto or Johto with a Milotic. If anyone else had one, I'd probably have heard of them. At this time period, this pokemon was incalculably rare. I'd steamroll the cerulean gym with this beauty on my side.
Well, that's enough patting myself on the back. I walked straight towards my new pokemon. "Hey girl, you're so beautiful. Even more beautiful than you were" She snorted in joy. "I've got to catch you in this pokeball and take you to the centre so you can get a checkup" She seemed pretty chill with that, so I took an empty pokeball from my belt and pressed it against her. She went in quickly and the pokeball didn't even blink before it clicked to indicate my successful capture.
Well, it was getting late, so I got up and headed straight back to the Pokemon centre. I got in and dropped off my newest acquisition for an overnight checkup and massage. I picked up my two rascals, headed up to my room and went straight to bed.
My sleep was disturbed by the incessant ringing of my pokedex. I finally gave up on trying to go back to bed and checked on the dex. I saw that I had about 21 messages from Oak. He'd deleted most of them but the final one said to call him now. It was in all caps, so I knew it was urgent.
I dressed up and headed down to the centre's call centre. Finding his phone number took no time at all and it didn't even ring twice before his face popped up on my screen. He looked incredibly excited.
"You caught a Milotic" He announced proudly. I think this might be the very first time he ever felt proud of me. I didn't reply, he was yet to ask a question after all. "Where did you find one?" He finally asked.
"Ahh here and there" I replied vaguely. Using my eyes to tell him I wouldn't be volunteering that information. He'd normally find out from tracking my dex. The problem with that was that I turned off my dex when I got to Cerulean and only turned it on right before I slept.
He'd obviously know it was somewhere near Cerulean, but this was a big city with lots of water bodies.
He glared at me and sighed. "I can offer you a lot for that knowledge". He finally relented. Seems like the old man can play the game.
"Like what?" I replied. The first rule of negotiation was to always find out what your opponent is willing to offer.
"Money, special training techniques, maybe even a single favour to be used later. I am well connected, you know?" The incessant urge to brag. The thing is I didn't need any of these things. I could make money from battles, if Oak trained me then it wouldn't be me winning the league conference, it'd be Oak's son. A future favour is much too vague.
"Increase my carry limit" I finally demanded. He looked shocked. I had no idea why. An increased carry limit was pretty much the holy grail of rewards. Pretty much everyone had a carry limit of six pokemon. The only way to get to carry more was to become an ace trainer, gym leader, elite four or champion. The thing is Oak was a former champion who was never truly dethroned. If anyone could do it, it would be him.
"An increased carry limit is quite a request to make" He stated. Another negotiating tactic. I guess it's time to sweeten to pot.
"If you increase my carry limit to Eight pokemon, I will tell you where I caught my Milotic and even what pokemon it evolves from" I laid out my cards.
"Milotic evolves? You are sure?" He was gob smacked. I knew he'd be interested. "You have a deal" He finally said after getting over his shock.
"I caught her at fishing lane 29 after I watched her evolve from a Faebas" I disclosed. After I said that his mind started running. I could see the gears turning in his head.
"Do you know what prompted the evolution?" He finally asked. This was the part I was going to fib a bit. I wasn't just going to give away that information.
"I have no idea" I said as calmly as I could. From the way he looked, I could tell he didn't see anything off. I'd always been a bad liar, but it seems like he wasn't even paying enough attention to me to tell.
He told me my carry limit would be expanded by the end of the week since he'd be registering me as a research assistant and ended the call abruptly.
Ahh. I forgot to mention. As the region's pokemon professor, Oak pretty much had unlimited power to do whatever the fuck he wanted (within reason, of course). I had a look at the act that established the position of regional pokemon professor in Kanto. Oak's powers were very far reaching and had very few checks. It makes sense since it was one of the last things he did before he retired.
I left the private call room I'd gone into and went into the centre itself. I stopped over at the Nurse's desk to collect my pokemon and made my way outside.