Thank you to my New Patrons: A simple Pilgrim, Harry, Matias, Godoy, Erique Cruz, Sigma Team, Luis Ortiz, Prometheus, Lonerl, Opponent, Ciro senese, Robert Lantos, James Seven, True Flame, Jeff Roy, Dwayne Palmer, TimGuyy, sorvol, David Monaghan, Norian, William Anderson, Journeyman_Mike, Southmonk,AN: Probably shortest chapter I've ever written for this story, but, that's why its coming out pretty fast. That last one really killed me. The end of Bruno vs Lance, a pokenet interlude, training, and Joey's return to Saffron.-/-Joey exited onto Route 7 with a smile on his face. He liked going to Constance and playing with the Misdreavus there. He also liked annoying the grumpy Golduck, couldn't forget that. There was just something about the place which brought out his inner ghost. Maybe the fact that so many people had died there, or that it was abandoned by all of humanity.Nevertheless, there he was on Route 7 once again. As always he turned to the left almost immediately after stepping onto the gravel path, which was becoming increasingly empty as the season progressed. There were only really three months left for people to get their last gym badges, and considering it was most popular to take the traditional route, people were now currently fighting it out in Fuchsia and Cinnabar. Some stragglers were still left behind in Celadon and Vermilion. Still, those were the people who weren't going to get all the eight badges this season anyway.In this world, it was actually Kong whom one challenged for one's third badge. The man simply wasn't as good as Sabrina must have been in the future. This made people not skip Saffron initially. They went from Pewter to Cerulean, to Saffron, to either Celadon or Vermilion and then backtrack to the one they hadn't done, then to Fuchsia, to Cinnabar and then lastly, Viridian.Next year Joey's route would consist of Pewter into Cerulean and then the long way around through Lavender to Fuchsia, to Cinnabar and then he would likely not battle Viridian because he didn't want anything to do with Giovanni and just find some other random gym for his eighth badge. This year he was using Saffron as a focal point through which to explore the centre of the region. Next year he would go all the way around it.Just as he was about to enter the forest path, right by the construction site where they were creating the underground tunnel, someone shouted out after him."Hey you up for a battle?" a voice resounded and by an instinct born out of 100 battles at this point Joey turned around knowing that it was him who was being targeted by the exclamation.He found that his challenger was one of those younger kids dressed up like a Boy Scout. Green with merit badges and a barrette. This was generally the uniform of hobby trainers who didn't actually become trainers but went to normal school, university or some sort of apprenticeship, while camping out and training on the side to keep the culture alive. They usually had about one or two gym badges by the time they inevitably retired.Joey ended up walking towards the camper and pulling out his Pokenav to accept the battle request."Finished a really nice hike. Now I'm looking for a way to cool down before I go back home," the boy said. "I'm Ethan by the way," he introduced himself."Joey," the youngster granted and pulled a Pokeball off his belt."Whoa, you have three Pokemon? Does it mean you have two badges?" Ethan asked in a surprised tone as Joey's gesture drew his attention to Joey's belt."Yeah, I just recently got my third as well," Joey said without any hint of bragging. Just stating the fact, sir.Ethan looked like he might ask to rescind his battle offer for a second before he excitedly punched a fist in the air to pump himself up."All right let's do this!" the black-haired boy exclaimed as he and Joey absconded to the side of the route where they turned to face each other with around 80 feet between them."One on one?" Joey asked. He'd recently started taking battles even before his daily trips if they became readily available. Three Pokemon on his belt meant that he could practise or work with Rattata whenever he wanted. Diglett and Metapod could help him with the other stuff, as long as it didn't require opposable thumbs.Ethan nodded at the suggestion of a 1v1 and the two trainers released their Pokemon.The other boy smirked, realising that he'd gotten lucky as Rattata entered the field to face his Mankey.After Joey had gained his third badge, trainer battles had become even less lucrative for him. He was now at the point where he had to pay more if he lost to the people with fewer badges and he didn't gain as much if he won against people who had more badges. But, with his fat bank account, he didn't have to worry about losing for experience since the bets could be as small as he wanted them to be most times. The only thing he'd done with the money had been to give a few hundred thousand of it as an anonymous donation to his orphanage and to order the technical machine for Iron Defence online for Metapod. Otherwise, the money allowed him a nice losing cushion to teach Rattata the way of the warrior in the way suggested by Hitoshi, credible source that he was."All right Rattata," Joey shouted. "As usual, only two moves. The sooner we get this down the sooner we can start on the next thing.""Mankey, rush in with Fury Swipes," Ethan ordered meanwhile, apparently wanting to get this over with as soon as possible.While Joey didn't necessarily understand why the boy had ordered a normal type attack while he had access to a fighting-type attack, this didn't change anything.The plan for Rattata was the same as it had been for the last dozen or so battles over the past week. Joey didn't even have to say anything anymore.As the beige-furred pig monkey rushed in and angrily swiped with its hands at his starter, leaving behind trails of white energy in the air, Rattata channelled his inner Neo. There was a barely perceptible glint of burnt orange energy in his eyes and he simply swayed and bobbed through the entirety of his opponent's move before pausing for a second to channel fighting energy into his right fist. He reared back to strike, but the preparation for the move took too long.Ethan had time to shout his next command. "Dodge back and Screech into Karate Chop," he said enthusiastically.The Mankey hopped back, easily evading Rattata's slow attempt at Rock Smash before opening its mouth wide and emitting a shrill noise that made even Joey's decently distanced ears hurt.Rattata flinched, putting his paws up to his ears to cover them.Detect helped him avoid the upcoming Karate Chop but he was unprepared for the chop to turn into a Low Kick which sent him staggering backwards as it impacted his torso with a meaty 'thwack'. The screech had likely interrupted the concentration he needed to use Detect.The Mankey was fairly well trained actually, Joey decided. It knew how to supplement its trainer's orders with its own ideas."Rattata, uncover your ears and suffer through it. There's nothing we can do to defend ourselves against sound-based attacks right now so we just need to raise our resistance to them," Joey said calmly after his starter removed his paws.The rat nodded seriously, nursing a large bruise on its torso where he had been kicked."Screech again, close in," camper Ethan shouted, causing his Mankey to once again open up its mouth and release a horrendous racket. Screech was actually a pretty good move for a fighting type considering it lowered one's opponent's defence drastically. Could Rattata learn it? Most of his attacks were physical as well.Questions for another time, Joey decided as Rattata flinched his way through the noise and rushed at the Mankey.A furious exchange of fists, and on the Mankey's side, legs, commenced as the two Pokemon fought on equal footing in close quarters. While Rattata's Rock Smash wasn't refined enough to truly hit the monkey, it could be used between short breaks of attack to parry the moves that couldn't be dodged.Burnt orange energy hit burnt orange energy, and the unfortunate reality of the situation was that Rattata's defeat was inevitable. A normal type using only fighting type moves against a fighting type would inevitably lose. There was just nothing to do in that sort of situation.But, as the appendages of the two Pokemon met in the middle of their little improvisational battleground, he could clearly see Rattata's skill at harnessing the fighting type energy increasing. It was minimalistic, at the speed of a snail, but at this point, he was in sync enough with his starter to notice even these slight shifts.That was perhaps the only way they could describe their ongoing foray into Rock Smash. As slow as a snail, but just as steady. He just hoped they'd never have to cross a highway.Thirty seconds or so passed by as the two Pokemon clashed like two katanas, ripping up the grass underneath their feet. Instead of tiring they were both visibly being sharpened by the competition.However, one couldn't avoid the inevitable for long. Eventually, Rattata fell on his knees and Joey forfeited the rat before the last Karate Chop could send him straight into unconsciousness.His starter dissipated into red light and returned to the Pokeball.Joey wasn't afraid that Rattata would be overly affected by the loss. He'd just beaten Surge, he knew that this was just training. Also, he hadn't reacted adversely to the last 12 defeats or so.As Joey transferred over the money for his loss, camper Ethan came up to him, having recalled his own Pokemon with a concerned look."Is your Rattata okay?" the boy asked. "It was only using one move."Joey refrained from rolling his eyes and took the advice as it was meant. Namely, as potentially helpful. Even if it was, frankly, quite useless."Yeah, we're training. Trying to get Rock Smash down. I heard the best way to learn fighting-type moves is to use them," he explained.Ethan nodded in confused understanding. He didn't look like he quite agreed but was mostly just happy for his victory and the few Pokedollars that he'd received."Well, good luck with that. I have to go home now anyway, moving to Celadon soon, going to miss this place," he commented before jogging off towards Saffron.Joey meanwhile called out Rattata once again and applied some potion to his starter as he carried him into the forest, taking the rundown path towards the abandoned village of Constance.The men working at the construction site waved to him as he passed, already very much used to his regular hikes in this direction.-/-The hike to Constance wasn't anything special and if there ever had been aggressive Pokemon on the route, then by now they had gotten firmly used to Joey's presence and tended to leave him alone.In the past, this had been to his detriment. He had after all also visited Constance frequently because he wanted to give himself the opportunity to get a third team member. Sadly it had never happened. And it seemed like the trend would continue.Only an hour after having entered the forest, Joey came out on the other side and beheld the very picturesque-looking abandoned village of Constance with its overgrown vines further taking apart but also holding together the dilapidated houses and the flowers and apple trees and whatnot blooming and throwing down fruit and petals onto the ground.He was curious as to exactly how this place would look in winter. He'd only ever seen it in summer and autumn. Did the Pokemon stay here? It would make sense, the houses would protect at least against the wind.A better question would maybe, he narrowed his eyes as he examined the scene a second time, where were the Pokemon right now?There were always Rattata scurrying around, Pidgey fluttering off as he entered the village and Sandshrew looking at him from behind little mounds of dirt and oddish blending into the foliage.Now there was nothing. It was completely still. Abandoned if he dared think it.Joey shrugged. He wasn't really afraid. He was a ghost type. The moment something bad happened he could sneak away. And, he'd gotten attached to the settlement, the grumpy Golduck and the playful Misdreavus. If there was something bad going on then he wanted to know about it.He started making his way through the overgrown grass fields which he imagined used to be fully functional dirt roads. His goal, his destination, was the little lake next to the church. There he would either find Golduck or find the traces of a battle. That Pokemon didn't like leaving the water or the church and would only do so under duress.It was after passing the first few houses that Joey noticed a large grey stone peeking out from behind one of the holed-in roofs.But it wasn't just a normal stone, it was moving. And, if Joey identified the shape, triangular as it was, correctly, then there was an Onix next to the lake.It wasn't fighting, it wasn't moving erratically, so he continued his calm approach not wanting to spook whatever was there.Finally, after another minute of walking, he passed by the last of the houses putting the clearing that he wanted to reach into view.The church was intact, as intact as it had been the last time he'd seen it. The area was deserted but not destroyed. Next to the lake, there was a slightly nervous-looking Golduck, large as ever and sitting down next to it was a man who had an Onix menacingly erected behind him.Not menacing because the large stone snake was making any frightening movements, but simply because it was just that big and there was a certain atmosphere surrounding it which indicated that it was not particularly afraid of anyone there. Not even of the old and seasoned water type.Joey's breath halted as he recognized the figure sitting down next to Golduck in a lotus position. The two seemed to be involved in a deep conversation, sitting still as they were, but his sense of hearing wasn't able to pick up anything so to him it just seemed like they were sitting down in silence.He recognized the man.It would be impossible not to.After all, he'd won a bunch of money betting on his loss a few days ago and had seen him on live television where the camera had zoomed in on his face more than on the actual battle.It was Bruno of the Elite Four.And for some reason, he was in Constance.-/-AN: Wish I could say we're calming down a bit after last hype-chapter, but no, we're going right back in.
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