As the deadline for the next gym battle approached, Joey nervously started to consider the possibility that he would be facing Surge with just two Pokemon. No matter how open he tried to be to the idea of a new team member, he never quite managed to meet a Pokemon that really fit his idea of what a professional battler should act like. Unwilling to compromise on this issue he simply put himself more and more into the training of the team that he did have.
Missions became a useful source of money, which was immediately put into the pot for Lance's victory over Bruno. Leisure activities such as visiting Constance and playing with the Misdreavus served as brief interludes in between the gruelling switches between training, battling and working.
"Come on Rattata, dig, dig, dig" Joey encouraged as his starter, after two months of trying was finally beginning to achieve a level of the move that would actually be useful. The rat could now burrow underground in a moment's notice, almost as fast as if it initiated Quick Attack, and then came out from underneath just as quickly and accurately.
"No!" Joey screamed, correcting himself. "I want you to swim! The earth is simply a body of water which you are traversing as if you were a fish," he called enthusiastically as Rattata frantically moved through the earth of the training ground, turning into a swamp. The session eventually concluded with the rat lying on his back and staring at the sun, completely exhausted, but satisfied.
Joey went over and force-fed his starter a concentrate of oran berries, sugar and proteins. A workout milkshake essentially.
"15 minutes of rest, then again," he commented, receiving an exhausted nod.
Joey turned towards Metapod and watched as she swung from tree to tree in a slow, but controlled fashion. Brief flashes of Harden interspersed the movements when she was in the air without being attached to anything. Turning her into what was essentially the bug equivalent of Spider-Man, or a morning star. It was definitely still a work in progress. Joey knew, however, that with the bug's limited move pool, making her dodge one move that she otherwise couldn't, would be a victory in itself.
If she managed to accurately throw herself at an enemy with her hardened body, then that would just be the cherry on top.
However, that was still a long way off. For the moment he was satisfied by the fact that her poison TE practice was still at the stage where her skill grew steadily. She was still only dissolving organic material in her mouth, but much faster now. The bullet seed hardened string was also getting somewhere and was starting to break the things it hit.
Like branches, and discarded beer bottles.
The youngster watched his team giving their all and bit his fingernails at the fact that without a third team member, his previous plans for the next gym might very well have to be thrown out.
He wished that he could function as a third team member himself. He did train his ghostly powers almost daily now. Koga had with his explanation of the poison type reignites the passion for his own exploration of aura, however, this would not help in the gym battle. He couldn't compete.
If he actually wanted to stand a chance against Surge's Raichu in a 2 vs 1, then he would need something special.
-/-
There had been little change to Joey's schedule in the past months, however, there was one significant thing that had to be mentioned. Instead of going to the job board during the day after a training session or before a battle he had started doing so first thing in the morning. This was because it was in the morning that the person responsible hung up on the board the jobs that had accumulated in her registry on the previous day. This meant that on a first come first serve basis, the best jobs were often gone by the time he'd gotten there during the past. He was done making that mistake.
The issue was of course that he wasn't the only person with this idea.
If he'd thought that the League season was popular before. All the trainers running from the gym and to the Pokecentre, and the trainers that hung around the routes surrounding Saffron challenging everything that moved and breathed to a battle, and the general business of the public battle square where fights were easier to get than fresh air. Well, trying to get a good job from the board so early in the morning gave him a whole new appreciation for how many people were attempting the circuit every year.
He used his small size, and not so rarely, his ghost TE slightly boosting his physicality, to get ahead in the rumbling mass of youngsters, trainers, and general poor people who surrounded the job board every morning. He shoved his way, as was common, past a slightly chubby man in jogging clothes who he knew only trained Spearows, and a green-haired girl with an electric yellow tank-top and shorts, to briefly read through the listings.
There weren't many jobs that interested him, by default of them either not paid well enough, or not even offering an interesting experience which consisted of either a cool challenge or leaving the city and still allowing him to find a third team member.
Briefly scanning through the jobs he discarded all of those which were to take place in Saffron and all of those which were not likely to take him off route. There was one, however, in the quickly dwindling pile on the corkboard wall that grabbed his attention.
On route 6 towards Vermillion, there was apparently a group of Diglett who were terrorising the local community, eating vegetables off farms and being general nuisances. The poster of the job notice wanted someone to go and beat them in a battle, which according to him would make them return to their cave. Joey grabbed at the notice, he was after all quite confident in Rattata. However, just as his hand came into contact with the notice, another hand joined his, shocking him with a bit of electrical static. He followed the hand up to the forearm to the elbow and the shoulder and the curve of the neck to the face of a green-haired girl who looked to be a year or two older than him, cradling a hideously twitching grin on her face.
"I was there first," she said with a growl and pulled at the paper which they had both managed to take off the board with their combined efforts. Joey for his part wasn't about to get bullied and similarly pulled at the paper.
"Younger people first," he said.
"Older people first," the girl brusquely replied.
"I saw it first," Joey argued.
"With how short you are, I sincerely doubt that," the girl retorted.
"With how old you are I doubt that you were even able to make out the words before I was already finished reading," Joey shot back.
"Shouldn't you be in kindergarten right about now?"
"I'm sorry, should I call the retirement home to come and collect you?"
Sparks flew between the two of them, not the nice ones. They both pulled one last time, ripping the paper clean down the middle.
"You know," Joey said with a hateful frown. "There's not really a limit on how many people can try to do this job." He didn't want to team up, there was just something about her that triggered him, something about her frowning lips, and her yellow and black colour scheme. Perhaps it reminded him of a Pikachu. With how much he'd been preparing against Surge, anything even remotely resembling the species likely elicited an aggressive response at this point. Nevertheless, he was willing to compromise.
"I'm not sharing the mission with some brat." The girl frowned, apparently unwilling to compromise.
"You took the words right out of my mouth," Joey cursed, retracting his previous offer. "It was never going to end any differently," Joey said. "I challenge you to a battle. Whoever wins gets the job."
"You're on, kid."
Joey sent out the challenge request on his Pokenav as the two of them extradited themselves from the large crowd surrounding the job board to take this outside. He noted on his Pokenav that she had three badges. The Boulder badge, the Cascade badge, and the Dynamic badge. She must have been in Saffron as a transitory phase between either Celadon or Vermilion.
"Only two badges?" the girl said with a laugh. "This will be too easy."
"Only three badges?" Joey asked with a laugh. "The season's already been going on for almost 6 months. That's just sad."
Serena, which was the name of the girl, sent him a glare as the two of them exited the Pokecentre and took up space in the battling field behind it. The gravelly small square of white chalk in which Joey had lost his first battle against that guy with the Pidgey, whatever his name was.
"You're going to have to put your Pokemon where your mouth is before I start caring about your insults, brat," Serena said as she started throwing a Pokeball up and down.
Joey noted that she had three on her belt.
"2 v 2," Joey said and pulled out a Pokeball. He was thinking of leading with Rattata this time. The girl looked like she might have an electric type and he didn't want to miss the opportunity to let his starter train his Dig in a real scenario. If he sent out Metapod, he was genuinely afraid of wiping the girl's team before he got the chance to give his starter any match time.
He threw out the Pokemon as his opponent did the same. A Rattata and a Pikachu emerged onto the field. He grinned. This was the perfect practice match, in fact.
Instead of any notions of chivalry or mutual respect standing in between him and victory, Joey shouted his first command while the Pikachu was still looking around verifying the fact that it was indeed in a battle. "Rattata, Quick Attack!"
"Pikachu, respond with your own Quick Attack," Serena said in reply, causing rat and mouse to shoot at each other, trailing white energy and screaming their respective names.
While it looked like a typical test of strength, Joey knew that Serena's attack was a trap. The danger involved in physical contests with electric types was getting paralyzed. Pikachu, especially, often had the ability Static. Assuming similar physical strength and attack usage, it would always come out on top.
"Slip underneath," Joey ordered right before the collision. One moment Rattata was there, the next he wasn't, disappearing underground.
Serena frowned while her Pikachu aborted the attack and looked around. It went on its hind legs and seemed to be wary of the now underground Rattata.
"Thundershock when it's out," Serena ordered.
Joey meanwhile, grinned. He and Rattata had gained enough experience using Dig in battles that they'd worked out a code to communicate while the rat was under. Supposedly ground types were able to hear well enough even when underground, but Rattata was a normal type so he wasn't quite there yet. The youngster tapped both his heels on the ground at once. The signal for Rattata to wait for a few seconds before initiating the attack.
Serena's frown grew more severe with every second that Rattata failed to appear, and her Pikachu started looking around nervously and jumping in little circles in an attempt to dodge what wasn't coming.
"Did your rat run away?" she asked Joey derisively to the laughter of some people from the crowd.
The youngster, for his part, immediately tapped the ground once when she opened her mouth. She'd distracted her Pokemon by speaking, which allowed Rattata to burst out of the ground underneath it in an explosion of ground-type energy and smack the Pikachu straight into the air.
The Pikachu sent out a Thunder Shock, bright yellow electricity striking out from the pouches on his cheeks and travelling through the air towards Joey's starter. However, the latter was already underground again. It was here that the girl's inexperience started showing and she started fretting in place while her Pikachu nursed its wounds.
If one didn't have an answer for an opponent going underground, one could hardly defeat them. It was similar to how the Celadon gym leader had lost to a Pidgey by the latter simply staying in the air and not taking any risks.
Joey wasn't feeling particularly merciful today and wasn't going to make this into anything but an efficient and brutal takedown.
He tapped his foot on the ground and Rattata once again emerged, striking at the Pikachu. However, this time Serena seemed to have an actual answer prepared.
"Latch on!" she shouted and Pikachu through the pain of being struck in that single brief burst of contact between the two Pokemon grabbed its enemy and without having to be ordered, unleashed its next move. A point-blank Thunder Shock.
"Dig!" Joey shouted, not wasting any time trying to figure out a counterstrategy. What went up, had to come down. Dig involved striking the enemy into the air which had happened, the next thing that had to happen was the two Pokemon falling to the ground, lighting up with electrical discharge. Rather than wasting trying to remove himself from the hold, Rattata simply channelled ground-type energy and submerged himself and the Pikachu underground on impact. This was probably the only thing that allowed him to survive the consecutive voltage being channelled into him, the electricity getting grounded slightly. They didn't go all the way through, Rattata being too weak to bury both of them. They were just stuck together in a hole.
"Hyper Fang," the youngster said mercilessly, causing his starter to bite down on the Pikachu still entwining him in a hug, trying to charge up another Thunder Shock.
It would never come. The Hyper Fang was enough to make the electric type fall unconscious and Serena recalled it seeming thoughtful.
The crowd muttered appreciatively at the tactics, but none of them probably knew how close to losing Rattata had actually been. Joey's starter did not have particularly amazing defences against what had just happened, and if he had been unlucky enough to be paralyzed by Static he would have become unable to execute Hyper Fang. The match would have ended right there.
Joey didn't like to rely on luck, but this was still a win in his book. He smirked arrogantly at the girl, feeling like he probably had this in the bag.
His smile lasted just until Serena revealed her next Pokemon.
A Magnemite.
The girl grinned sadistically at her choice, likely patting herself on the back at the strategic value of the pick. Her Magnemite in contrast simply floated around aimlessly waiting for the match to reconvene.
Both trainers knew what this match-up meant, and while Rattata stood arrogantly on the field, Joey knew that that confidence would soon disappear. A Magnemite was one of the worst possible matchups that they could encounter, right after perhaps a Magneton, its evolution.
The issue was that Rattata was still a purely physical attacker. He didn't really have any moves with which he could use to harm a steel type. In addition to that, every touch of an electric type was a dangerous flirtation with paralyzation and a quick counterattack. In fact, Joey could count himself lucky that Surge's third badge challenge only consists of a Raichu, and not of his wide selection of Magnemite and Magneton.
"Aw, are you scared? Winning against Pikachu was just a fluke. You obviously got lucky not getting paralyzed," Serena said and flipped up her green hair so that it rested on her back as she struck a pose, drawing a few jeers from the people spectating the match.
Joey scoffed. He wasn't afraid of losing, but in this case, a loss would hurt more than usual.
"Rattata, use Quick Attack," he ordered without much preamble.
"Magnemite, Thunder Shock," the girl ordered. The grey floating ball of steel sparked up sending out a fizzle of electricity towards Rattata who was attacking one directionally.
"Dodge using dig," Joey ordered and the rat slipped under the ground. Just because the ground-type move would likely never reach Magnemite due to the fact that it was floating in the air, did not mean that it was not still useful as a method of dodging. His right foot slid to the side, digging into the gravel and Rattata emerged to the right of Magnemite who was spinning around its own axis in search of its enemy.
"Quick Attack," Joy ordered undeterred by the fact that even if he managed to get in close, neither Hyper Fang nor Bite would truly damage the Pokemon. The only thing he could hope for was dragging the Magnemite to the ground somehow and hitting it with a Dig.
However, he wouldn't get the chance.
"Metal Sound, as loud as possible!" his opponent shouted. Magnemite started emitting a horrible screech at the order, the move penetrated not only Rattata's ears but also Joey's.
The youngster grimaced as his starter stopped its attack and crouched down in pain from the sound waves assaulting his sense of hearing. Was there even a point in ordering something? Could Rattata even hear him? He had to try, didn't he?
"Cover your ears and Quick Attack, get it to the ground and Dig!" he shouted as loud as he could, projecting some TE through his voice.
The rat seemed to hear him and put up its paws to its ears from where it was rolling around in the ground in pain. It sprang at the Magnemite again, much slower this time due to only using his hind legs. However, it was here that the frustrating strategy already used by Pikachu resurfaced.
"Meet it head on Magnemite. Tackle into Thunder Shock."
Joey cursed internally, and almost futilely called for Rattata to Detect, as the two Pokemon met in midair with their normal type moves. However, while Detect was an incredibly useful move in their arsenal, it wasn't really something that could help them dodge a mid-air wave of electricity, which sacrificed all its power to be faster. The two Pokemon collided, neither getting much damage from the exchange of Quick Attack and tackle. Magnemite didn't even wobble in the air, but it did eject a stream of electricity which caught Rattata in its path no matter how hard the Pokemon tried to dodge.
It became apparent to Joey, as his starter crashed on the ground, muscles twitching wildly, that he needed to teach the rat a ranged move as quickly as possible. Swift would have perhaps somehow been able to block that misfortunate Thunder Wave.
"Sonic Boom!" his opponent ordered. Magnemite stopped in place and from its x-like mouth a concentrated blast of air was ejected.
"Dig," Joey tried to order, getting sick of this match. It didn't look like they would win this one, but perhaps if he exhausted the Magnemite enough then maybe Metapod could make it.
However, any thoughts of exhausting Magnemite suddenly disappeared as Rattata seized up in the attempted dodge. The Sonic Boom hit him frontally and threw him back, tumbling along the floor.
Before the rat could regain his bearings and dig on their ground, a Thunder Shock aimed straight for the head almost reached him if it hadn't been for the red light of the recall button.
"I'm forfeiting Rattata," Joey said as he considered his next move.
Serena's smirk faded as she realised that all she had left on the field was a slightly tired Magnemite on the field, while Joey still had one fresh Pokemon.
It really was an unfair Pokemon, Magnemite, Joey considered. The steel typing and electric typing made it vulnerable to ground, however, it levitated bringing it out of the range of the effect of moves such as Dig and Earthquake. The electric typing even countered the steel's weakness to fighting, considering that with every touch it was possible to paralyse an opponent relying on physical attacks.
The only downside of the whole thing was the fact that Magnemite wasn't known to be very affectionate, considering their simplistic personality. They obviously had some emotions, but in comparison to organics, they were harder to motivate and to build a connection with.
"Any day now?" the girl shouted. It was funny how someone trying to specialise in electric types was impatient. Truly specialisations told much about a person. Or did people mould their personalities towards their specialisations?
Joey sighed and threw out his next Pokemon. Metapod materialised on the field and immediately started to synthesise poison TE. Joey couldn't blame her, considering that this was usually their training time and this was the first priority of the day, but this was not the time to waste unnecessary stamina.
"We're in a battle Metapod," he said, causing the Pokemon to stop in her training and glance around confusedly at the crowd of people jeering at her and at the floating grey magnet Pokemon looking at her curiously.
"Really? That's your pick?" his opponent asked derogatorily, but Joey only rolled his eyes. He and Metapod had already heard it all before.
Their only chance to win this battle was for Metapod to somehow exhaust her opponent with String Shot and finish them off with consecutive Bug Vites. A very unlikely possibility, but they had to try where they had to try.
"Metapod, String Shot, weigh it down!" he shouted. A barrage of String Shots exited Metapod's mouth like a machine gun.
Magnemite, for its part, simply dropped its levitation, falling a bit to the ground and avoiding everything in a very elegant manner.
Joey didn't care. He was too busy staring at the purple colour of the String Shot that had just left his Pokemon's mouth, which fell to the ground uselessly and unleashed a slight sizzling sound as the residue poison TE burned at the gravel and the earth.
Was this? Toxic Thread? Joey asked himself. The move mostly reserved for the Spinarak evolution line? Well, not necessarily. The Pokemon world was much more complicated than a simple TV show or a video game could showcase. Why couldn't a Pokemon who knew String Shot and knew how to channel poison-type energy create their own variety of the move?
"Sonic Boom, rapid-fire," his opponent ordered.
Magnemite jerked back, before surging forward and ejecting a multiplicity of shock waves.
Joey was distracted, but not distracted enough to not know the only option he had available to him.
"Wide-field String Shot into Harden," he ordered. A not-purple anymore blanket of strings was shot in the air capturing and dissipating the Sonic Booms. Metapod started glistening a white light indicating that her physical defences were getting higher. It wouldn't defend her against the electric attacks, but at least Sonic Boom would be counteracted if it ever hit.
A small stalemate developed between the two pokémon, as ranged attacks were exchanged and were all either blocked or dodged.
Metapod was showing herself fully capable of cutting off the String Shot in mid-air, so the electricity wouldn't travel through it. This led to Magnemite exhausting itself with futile attacks, while Metapod pushed her hardening further and further.
However, while this could have maybe ended a battle in the wild, Magnemite was still being ordered around by a trainer of at least below-average human intelligence. The girl noticed that at this point it would be a double knockout from exhaustion, and ordered another, "Metal Sound!"
The horrible screeching commenced, however, the decision had been wrong. Metapod didn't have such sensitive ears as Rattata did, and the short break allowed her to get off a few Hardens.
Naturally, however, Metal Sound was also a stat-afflicting move, which lowered Metapod's ability to resist special attacks. But, there wasn't anything they could do about that. If only Magnemite hadn't been a steel type, then perhaps playing around with the idea of Toxic Thread, would have gotten them somewhere.
In the end, the battle ended in its inevitable conclusion. Joey lost, swept by a Magnemite. The little magnet had never bothered risking itself by flying too close to Metapod who for her part couldn't even attach a String Shot to her enemy for fear of getting electrocuted.
The girl smugly announced her victory and took the job that they had fought over, running off.
However, it was Joey who was the real winner.
He'd always known that a Magnemite would be a big issue for his team as it was currently, and this gave him some valuable experience in case he ever had to face the Pokemon again when stakes were actually on the table.
Also, he's been complaining recently about the fact that without a third team member, he would be severely disadvantaged against Surge. However, the discovery of the fact that Metapod could poison her String Shots opened up a new strategy against Surge.
If they could poison the man's Raichu, then perhaps Rattata hiding underground and not taking any hits could simply exhaust the Pokemon.
Overall, Joey wasn't that butthurt about losing the job. The possibility of developing his own take on Toxic Thread was much more important than any amount of money, and he was slowly developing the solution for his inability to find a proper third team member.
Strengthening the team that he had right now became a much higher priority.
He had two weeks before the bus left for Vermillion and during this time he would have to teach Rattata Swift, to give the rat at least some range possibilities and train Metapod as hard as he physically could in her new ability.
-/-
At the end of the day, after a hard training session and some more battles in the public training field, Joey was once again at the Pokecentre. Ironically enough he ended up in the queue in front of the desk right next to the girl who'd beaten him in the morning. She crossed her arms and refused to meet his gaze, admitting with a grumble at some point that she failed the job and that it might have been stupid of her to challenge a group of Diglett with a team full of electric types.