I won the Dynamo Badge after two weeks of training in Mauville.
The gym trainers weren't too hard to handle, considering I had Bigblue, who is now a part-ground type. Unlike the previous two gym challenges, I didn't use Flamel to sweep through the gym trainers, but sent out Bigblue instead. Bigblue is simply better suited to take out the whole lot of them than Flamel for this gym challenge.
Another major factor on why I chose to use Bigblue instead is also because of money. I had no doubt that Flamel is equally capable of taking out the gym trainers alone at the novice trainer level, but I will have to spend a whole lot more of my money on extra potions and paralyse heals on him throughout the battles before facing Wattson. Flamel is susceptible to electric type attacks. Bigblue, on the other hand, is immune to electric type attacks. This factor alone severely limits the options that Mauville gym trainers have when facing him in battle, and allowed Bigblue to have his way with them. None of the gym trainers have pokemon that are able to effectively counter a ground type at the novice trainer level, allowing Bigblue to rampage through the gym relatively unscathed, and needing lesser potions to heal up by extension.
I'm starting to realise that it is equally important for trainers to have some skills in financial planning. It is just not possible to complete a gym circuit without any money, and not having any plans to earn or save money during your journey is a big no-no. Without money, trainers cannot buy training essentials like potions, and no one is capable of finishing a gym circuit without potions no matter how strong they are.
As the saying goes, money makes the world go round.
There is one thing that Wattson said during our conversation in the eatery that caught my attention. He mentioned that the pokemon that gym leaders use isn't a big secret and that I have a chance if I did my homework. It got me thinking. Every trainer can only have so many pokemon realistically, including gym leaders. It would not be hard to find out the pokemons gym leaders usually use if I asked around, right?
It turns out, there are forums and even strategy guides by various trainers on all gyms, including those of regions outside Hoenn, and they are readily available on the internet. I cannot help but berate myself for not thinking about this possibility sooner. The information would have made my life at the previous two gyms a lot easier.
I ignored the strategy guides and simply focused on the pokemons that the various Hoenn gym leaders are known to use. If I want to win, I would win it my own way instead of relying on a tried-and-tested method derived by the populace. Relying on these guides may help me win my gym battles, but I will not go far in my Ever Grande Conference by depending on it. The forums are actually very detailed on the pokemons used by gym leaders, which is the only information I'm interested in. Any other information about their known moves and battle habits were ignored by me. I have my own pride as a trainer and I wish to win my battles fair and square. The only fact about my gym battles that the other gym leaders knew are the lineup of pokemons that I have on my team, and it is not like I would be stupid enough to use the same strategy repeatedly in the other gym challenges. Hence, for the other gym leaders, knowing the moves of my pokemon serves as a rough gauge of my pokemon's strength at best. If the other gym leaders that I am going to face in the future knew what pokemons I am going to use in their gyms, I think it is fair enough that I know what they might possibly use too.
When I checked about the pokemons that Wattson normally use against novice trainers, I find out that voltorb, magneton, and manectric (which are the pokemons that he said he is going to use against me) are pokemons that are almost regularly used by him against most novice trainers. This is also a common knowledge among the locals in Mauville. Basically, the information he gave me is near useless as long as I bothered to even ask a single Mauville local. Confirming the pokemons that we are both going to use against each other is more of an advantage to him than me, since usually the challengers are the ones with the element of surprise.
Sneaky old man.
The battles I faced against Roxanne and Brawly made me realised that while my pokemons are pretty good at going on the offensive, they are pretty much average in skills when it comes to defending themselves. That is not acceptable, and it is going to be a glaring problem if we do not rectify it soon.
With that in mind, defence training became our main focus for the two weeks of training in Mauville. We practiced on how to block, defend, dodge, and how to minimise the damage taken if we have absolutely no choice but to take the attack head on. The move that we practiced the most within the two weeks is Protect, which I taught to all three of my pokemons when I bought the reusable TM in Dewford. It is a worthy investment. Protect is an interesting move. To use this, the user have to stay still and focus on creating an impenetrable shield made of energy. The more you use it repeatedly, the harder it is for the user to keep the focus needed to use it consecutively. There are ways to minimise the focus needed, which is mainly achieved by reducing the size and surface area of the shield. The smaller the shield produced, the easier it is to reproduce it again at a quick notice, although the success is not 100% guaranteed. We experimented on this idea, and I am glad to say that although none of them are masters in the move yet by the end of the training, they are at least proficient enough in it.
I tried to create a new move with Flamel by attempting to use Protect like a shield in front of him while he is running at top speed. The idea is to turn Flamel into some sort of battering ram. It didn't work, of course, the focus needed to maintain Protect while running is too much for Flamel to handle. It would be so damn cool if we pulled it off, since Protect is impenetrable and there are very little moves that are able to get pass it. Anyone would be hard-pressed to stop Flamel if he ever pulled it off.
I supposed I can't always get what I want in life, but I want to try this idea again when Flamel evolves into a rapidash in the future. I think I may have hit onto something here.
After knowing the pokemons Wattson is going to use against me, I began to plan out my strategy against him. Bigblue alone would have very much guaranteed a win for me at this stage, to be perfectly honest. Having the type advantage is important, but I don't want to win my gym battles simply because I always have the type advantage against the type specialty of the gym leaders I'm facing against. I may not be aiming to be the strongest trainer, but I want to at least hold my own against most Elite trainers, a title I know I will most likely obtain in the future. Any decent Elite trainer would have their own ways to combat against any type disadvantages they may face. You will be digging your own grave if you simply think that using type advantages is the best way to win battles. I need to learn how to fight my battles without type advantages, together with how to work around type disadvantages as early as possible. The battle with Wattson is the best opportunity I can ask for, simply because I can prepare against him. It is better to make mistakes and learn from it early on during the gym circuit, than to fail later when the environment is less forgiving.
Hence, I plan to only use Bigblue against Wattson if, and only if, he is the only pokemon I have left in my battle against him. I will try to only rely on Flamel and Dolly to take on Wattson's team. Practical reasons about money aside, another reason why I let Bigblue take on the gym trainers is because I do not want him to think that the training that he had been through the last two weeks is for nothing. Each and every single pokemon on my team needs to grow, and I will try to allocate every learning opportunities we have among them as equally as possible. I am not a fan of favouritism. I will always try to spend an equal amount of time and attention on each of them, although I'm not sure if I can manage it when we have more members on our team in the future.
So that leaves me with the question on how I am going to battle Wattson, whether I should start the battle with Flamel or Dolly. I decided on using Flamel as my lead pokemon in this battle. The reason for my decision was that, if I was Wattson, I would probably not start off the battle with a pokemon with the strongest fighting prowess. The opponent will have ample opportunities to adjust the tactics used to bring down your strongest pokemon when all pokemon on the opponent's team is still in good fighting condition. For this battle, Manectric would be his strongest pokemon no matter how you look at it. This means that he will likely start off his battle with his voltorb or magneton. The only concern I have for voltorb is that it can reach high levels of speed if it wants to, and the well-known self-destructing tendencies that its species is so famous for is also something to look out for. I would not worry too much if he starts off with his magneton, due to the type advantage Flamel have against it. I know I said that I wouldn't depend on type advantages to win my battles, but if Wattson knowingly decides to use a steel type against me when I have a fire type on my side, then that's his problem. I know he had other options such as plusle, minun, electrike and a few others after looking through the forums. It could also be that his magneton is so well-trained that type disadvantages is not an issue, but I highly doubt it would be the case for a challenge at the novice trainer level.
Between voltorb and magneton, the only real threat for Flamel is voltorb, with its speed being its most deadly asset, other than its exploding powers. Luckily, Flamel had just managed to learn Agility shortly before reaching Mauville, and it would be what we need against voltorb. Reaching the speed granted by Agility is not hard, whether you can effectively use the increased speed after using Agility is the key. To master Agility, the user have to make sure it possessed the necessary reaction speed to attack and defend itself when moving at high speeds. The reaction speed has to be trained, there is no shortcut to it. Otherwise, without the needed reaction speed, the user will simply run headfirst into the first obstacle it faced. To help Flamel with mastering the move, I let Bigblue and Dolly use Flamel as target practice while Flamel tried to defend himself from the onslaught of attacks after using Agility. Currently, Flamel only has the reaction speed to handle two uses of Agility, and he actually got good enough to launch a few counterattacks of his own eventually. I told Flamel to hold off on using Protect in the battle as long as possible, as it would be our trump card in successfully defending ourselves from voltorb's Self-Destruct, and would be most effective when they are not expecting it.
Dolly doesn't have much to learn about defending herself simply because her species is not built to take hits. The only thing I could help her with is to increase the number of successful use of Protect. Once that is done, we focused more on honing existing moves that we can use for this gym battle. Dolly had gotten pretty good with her ghost type moves like Shadow Sneak and Shadow Ball, which is not only her bread and butter, but also her preferred moves. I decided to try and hone her skills with Toxic. Although Toxic is an advanced move she learnt from her previous trainer, it has a far lesser chance on backfiring on her compared to the other moves that were taught to her, as it requires mastery of the move rather than the need for raw power. We also created a combo of Toxic/Will-O-Wisp followed by Hex. Hex is a move that deals more damage if the target has a major status ailment like burnt, poisoned, paralysis etc. The effects of Toxic is pretty well-known and self-explanatory, Will-O-Wisp creates fire to give their target a nasty burn. It is not hard to see the beauty of this combo when Dolly knows all the moves to pull off an effective Hex attack. Dolly had also somehow managed to learn Curse on her own, a high risk, high reward move that works very differently for ghost type pokemon, inflicting a great deal on the user to deal damage over time to its target. I was sure that she did not know how to use this move back when I met her on Dewford, and have no idea how she managed to learn such a dangerous move without me knowing when she spent the majority of her time with me. I decided to train her in using it properly under my supervision, just in case she decided to use this move without my consent in the gym battle. For ghost type pokemon, improper usage of Curse can cause fatal harm to themselves, and I do not want that to happen to Dolly.
Bigblue is no longer as quick and nimble he used to be the moment he evolves into a marshtomp. Unlike Dolly and Flamel, Bigblue's physique is designed to take a lot more punishment. I had to find information from the internet on the best ways for his species to learn to defend itself, which I then taught to Bigblue. After seeing Bigblue's proficiency with rock techniques and his love for it, I had trained him on how to use it better with a few helpful tips from Roxanne. He can now summon rocks of various sizes with nary a thought, although he still doesn't possess the power to create really big ones. Most of the rocks are at least big enough to cover him, and he learnt how to summon rocks to shield himself from attacks. His mastery and usage of could probably rival those of a rock type pokemon eventually, and he did look the part of an earthbender from Avatar while using rock techniques, discounting the fact that he is not human.
Once our training was done, we wasted no time in attempting the Mauville gym challenge. You can see the thought that Wattson put into designing the layout of the gym the moment you stepped through his gym doors. Once again, the layout of the gym is those of a maze (why are gym leaders so fond of mazes?), and you have to find your way through it by turning off the correct electric fences that form the walls of the maze. The switches needed to turn off the fences are cleverly disguised as floor tiles and you have to squint really hard to even notice them. The only one among our team who had fun trying to find the correct way out of the maze is Dolly, and since she is good at finding the correct floor tiles, we simply gave the job of finding the correct floor tiles to her.
After defeating all seven gym trainers in the Mauville gym, healing Bigblue with potions, and failing to straighten my frazzled hair thanks to the static in the air, we made our way to where Wattson is waiting for us at the back of the gym.
As I expected, Wattson's voltorb was the first pokemon he used in battle. Flamel unleashed a large AOE attack by bathing the entire arena in flames with usages of Fire Spin and Flamethrower, its effects boosted by Sunny Day. Flamel's use of Agility also negated any speed advantage that voltorb had over Flamel. Voltorb was quickly overpowered. When I saw voltorb quivering uncontrollably, and glowed unnaturally bright, I knew it had decided to take Flamel down together with it by using Self-Destruct. I simply ordered Flamel to use Protect to shield itself as practiced.
One pokemon down.
The next pokemon we had to face was manectric, who started off with a Rain Dance. I was impressed by Wattson's quick thinking. With a single move, he doused the flames on the arena and created an environment that increases the accuracy and power of electric type moves. I could try and take back the advantage with another use of Sunny Day, but there is no point in it since Wattson's manectric can do the exact opposite with Rain Dance.
I decided that I do not need a re-enactment of the historical battle between Groudon and Kyogre.
I recalled Flamel, and sent out Dolly. I had planned on pitting Dolly against his manectric anyway. Both Dolly and Flamel are not able to match manectric in a contest of power yet, especially when manectric is a fully evolved pokemon. What made Dolly a more suitable candidate to challenge manectric is that she is extremely tricky to deal with, and is able to dish out unexpected moves against her foes.
I cannot wait for the day when she finally master her whole arsenal of moves when she evolves into a banette. I am sure it will be a spectacular sight.
Dolly dove into the shadows upon entering the battle and got in a sneak attack with Shadow Sneak, followed by poisoning manectric with an unhealthy dose of Toxic. Manectric howled in pain, and attempted to crush her with its jaws with Bite. Dolly waited for manectric's jaws to close around her, and used Protect around herself at the last minute. Manectric howled in pain once more from the hurt its teeth experienced when clashed against the shield created by Protect.
Wattson did say he wanted something shocking. Here it is. Newsflash, Protect can actually be used offensively if applied correctly. I hope he wasn't disappointed.
Taking advantage of manectric's temporary distraction due to its pain, Dolly attacked manectric with Hex, dealing a lot of damage. Manectric retaliated with a Shock Wave, a move that cannot be avoided. I ordered Dolly to use Protect again, which she did, only that the shield produced was much smaller this time and that it only covered the area that Shock Wave was supposed to hit. Dolly immediately went on the offensive again, she recognised the danger that Shock Wave presented and knew that she cannot block it with Protect every single time. She unleashed a barrage of Shadow Balls, forcing manectric to be on the defensive. The individual size of each Shadow Ball she used for a Shadow Ball barrage is smaller than an ordinary Shadow Ball she usually produce, but the speed of production of the smaller Shadow Balls together with the sheer quantity more than made up for the deficiency of power should she produce a normal one instead.
Dolly and manectric exchanged a series of attacks while we waited for Toxic to run its course in manectric's body. Dolly followed my teachings in not overextending herself the moment Toxic hits its target, and only pressed her attacks when she is sure that she is safe in doing so. When Dolly was battling manectric, she dodged any attacks by hiding in the shadows. If manectric attacked with Shock Wave, Dolly would interrupt it with a Shadow Ball, or use another Protect if it cannot be interrupted.
"Manectric, Flash! Full Blast!"
Oh shit.
With a roar, manectric emitted a blinding light from its body, and I had to cover my eyes, trying to peek through the gaps between my fingers. The sudden increase in light removed any nearby shadows that Dolly can hide into. Rain Dance is still active and I can hear the crackling of ozone, double shit.
"Dolly, Protect, NOW!"
We were too late as manectric's Thunder attack came crashing down onto Dolly, defeating her in a single move. However, manectric was also well-spent from using such a strong Thunder attack while being badly poisoned, and fainted right after. I have to give it to Wattson. This is the second time he and his manectric managed to turn their disadvantages around to their advantage with a single move. The first move was the use of Rain Dance to douse Flamel's flame and to force me to switch him out, while giving him a better environment to fight in. The second was the use of Flash to get rid of the shadows on the arena, taking away Dolly's best defence. The Flash also provided a brief opening for manectric to use Thunder, with Rain Dance still active, on Dolly, who is now defenceless without any shadow to fall back on.
He truly lived up to his reputation and title as a gym leader.
"WAHAHA! That's it! I give up! You won this match, Velda! Congratulations!"
I blinked. This wasn't what I was expecting when I recalled Dolly. I was on the verge of sending Flamel out into battle.
"Why are you so surprised?" Wattson commented as he walked down into the arena and recalled manectric, surveying the aftermath of our battle. He beckoned me to come down from my challenger box into the arena, which I did. "You are left with two pokemon who are still fresh, not to mention that they both have type advantages against my only remaining pokemon, magneton. Your type advantages would mean nothing to my magnezone, but the fact remains that it is not my magnezone you are facing, but my magneton, who is not yet experienced enough to effectively deal with its type disadvantages." He placed a large hand on my left shoulder, and gave me a megawatt smile. Damn, his taste in bad puns is starting to affect me too.
"Let this be a lesson to you, young Velda. Pokemon may fight for us, but they are our friends first and foremost. If you are fighting a losing battle, sometimes it is better to cut your losses to not let our pokemon friends get hurt unnecessarily. Of course, it would be a different story if you are engaged in a life-or-death battle, but I don't think you will see one of those unless you plan to join ACE. Those kind of battles are rare even in the Rangers and LSDF." He rummaged through his pockets before giving me the Dynamo Badge and a TM. "The TM is a reusable TM containing Shock Wave, and I think you saw for yourself how useful this move is. It does not pack a lot of power, but its accuracy is top-notch." He began his signature 'WAHAHA' laugh before continuing. "Keep it up, Velda. You just got yourself a supporter in me. This is my personal contact number." He handed a crumpled slip of paper with a series of numbers written on it. "Remember to give me a call before you compete in the Ever Grande Conference, I want to watch your battles. I'm feeling I'm forgetting something...OH! Good job in using that Protect of yours! I haven't seen a Protect that was used offensively in that manner! A truly shocking experience indeed! WAHAHA!"
I gave him the cutest smile I can manage. "I aim to please."
Wattson laughed even harder.
Wattson cannot help but agree with Roxanne's and Brawly's assessment of Velda as he saw her exiting his gym through the gym doors.
He was shocked when he first saw the video that Roxanne shared on the gym leaders chat group, the strategies that Velda employed with her ponyta in the battles with the gym trainers (yes, those are recorded too) is by no means the level of a novice trainer, it was those he would expect to see from an intermediate trainer. Her battle with Roxanne's nosepass showed that Velda is capable of thinking many steps ahead in her battles against her opponents, and that she is the type to always have a backup plan for every single possible scenario from her use of Counter. It is a risky move, but he can tell it was a calculated risk she took together with her pokemon.
It caught the immediate attention of the gym leaders. Velda is not the only talented trainer they have met. But none of them knew of anyone who managed to show such level of skill on their first gym challenge, and completed it with only two pokemon on their team. Velda even managed to beat the gym leader, even if she pulled it off by the skin of her teeth.
Watson and Flannery were the first to respond and shared their opinions, as they are the most talkative among their colleagues. Tate and Liza responded shortly after, they are easily excitable due to their age and they are excited of the possibility in facing someone near their age with such level of skill. Since Tate and Liza are in charge of the seventh gym in the gym circuit, most trainers that managed to reach them are often older than them by a fair bit. They have been looking forward to facing younger challengers ever since they took on their shared position of gym leader. Juan and Winona were also surprised that a novice trainer had displayed such alarming potential. Roxanne simply cannot stop gushing at Velda and lamented at the fact that she declined to train under her as an apprentice.
Wattson had heard from Noel that Steven had shown similar potential with his first gym battle, but even then he was a full two years older than Velda, and used more than two pokemon in his gym challenge.
When Brawly sent his video a day later depicting the battle between him and Velda, Wattson could feel the excitement sparking while watching the video.
Her battle with Brawly did not show anything flashy other than her ponyta's liberal use of fire type attacks. Her moves are a lot more calculated now, and her pokemon had certainly grown a lot stronger between the Rustboro and Dewford gym challenges, together with Velda's skills as a trainer.
While watching the video, Wattson could not help but laugh at Brawly's grimace when Velda sent out a shuppet against his makuhita. He could understand the feeling. It was the same feeling that he had when he faced ground type pokemons from his challengers when he first became the gym leader of Mauville. He grew out of it after awhile, and he is sure that Brawly will do the same in time. Wattson also got more excited at the prospect of facing such a young and talented trainer, his anticipation of facing Velda in battle growing every passing day. Similar to him, the other gym leaders should have also realised that Velda could have possibly defeated all three of Brawly's pokemon with her shuppet alone. The fact that she did not do that displayed a level of pride that she possess as a trainer. Velda is someone who will not take the easy way out.
He wasn't expecting their first meeting to be at his favourite eatery. He ordered his favourite plate of chicken chop as usual, he greeted the people there as usual, the eatery was as crowded as usual, so it wasn't hard to spot the only unusual occurrence in the eatery.
The unusual occurrence was a young girl with long blond hair, with her back facing him on the far side of the room. She was eating with her pokemon, which consists of a ponyta, a marshtomp and a shuppet. There's currently only one trainer in Hoenn he knew of that had that exact pokemon in their team, and the girl fits the description to a T.
Wattson knew at the moment who that young girl was. He could wait until their gym battle to get to know her, but he could not resist the temptation of getting to know her earlier after seeing her past performances in her gym battles. Before he realised it, he had already placed himself in the seat next to her. Despite already knowing her name, Wattson used the pretense of introducing himself to get officially acquainted with Velda for the first time.
Their first meeting went better than what he expected it to be. Velda may be young, but she has potential, something that any experienced trainer can pick up on after seeing her in battle. Meeting her in person confirmed his thoughts about her as a trainer. He was surprised that Velda had really managed to tame a ghost type pokemon so early on in her journey, and that the two of them shared such a close bond. He was pleased to see that Velda is a trainer that cares for her pokemon.
Velda gave him the most electrifying battle he ever had in a while. The battle with his manectric showed him that Velda is a trainer who is worthy of deserving his Dynamo Badge. Wattson had been a gym leader for nearly 40 years, and had watched numerous trainers come and go. He could still remember the times the new batch of Hoenn gym leaders came into his gym as a trainer for a gym battle, and now they are his colleagues, who had attained power to rival his own. Every time a trainer he had previously battled in his gym made a name for themselves in the world, he felt like a proud parent, even if he never had a child of his own.
His wife died from an incurable sickness before they had the chance to have one. He missed her.
Wattson sighed. Ella would have liked Velda, and he would find time as soon as possible to visit Ella's grave to tell her all about the electrifying battle he just had.
I stayed for another two weeks to visit the nearby Verdanturf town and to also experience life in New Mauville. Verdanturf town had nothing worthy of note except for their beautiful flowers. I suspect the reason for this is due to Verdanturf's geographical location. Verdanturf is located near Mt Chimney. The ashes from Mt Chimney most likely drifted through the winds and some of them was deposited into the soils of Verdanturf, making Verdanturf's soil suitable for growing plant life.
I also passed by the Wildvolt's farm on the way there, who is the only major competitor in my family's business. Their farm is located between Mauville and Verdanturf, similar to the daycare center in pokemon emerald. Unlike my family, the Wildvolts did not specialise in pokemon breeding, even if they do provide that service. They provided services in both pokemon breeding and pokemon daycare. My family's farm did accept some request for pokemon daycare from time to time, but those are uncommon. The Wildvolts on the other hand, decided to focus on both services, with more emphasis on pokemon daycare services. Hence, while my family is known for our expertise in pokemon breeding, the Wildvolts are known as the best in Hoenn for their daycare services. The pokemon daycare service is basically a service for trainers to deposit their pokemon when they do not wish to carry their pokemon with them, or incapable of taking care of their pokemon for a short period of time, or simply a place for trainers to house their pokemon when they do not have the space to house them in their own home. Not every trainer has my luxury of owning a big house with a backyard large enough to accommodate many pokemon, and a farm for them to explore. This is where the daycare services comes in. Pokemon daycare service helps to take care of trainers' pokemon for a fee. If the trainers' pokemon found a mate and produced an egg at their stay in the daycare, the fee can be waived, partially or wholly, depending on how much the daycare think the pokemon egg is worth. It is an option that most trainers took, and is why the Wildvolts are our family's largest competitor. The staggering amount of trainers who deposited their pokemon there had gave them a wide variety of pokemon eggs. There are many other places that provided pokemon daycare services other than the Wildvolts in different parts of Hoenn, but none of them have the same reputation that the Wildvolts have.
New Mauville is the highlight of my two extra weeks of stay in Mauville. Unlike the games from my previous life, New Mauville is an underground city that was the brain-child of the most brilliant of minds that ever existed in Hoenn. A group of scientists and engineers had dreamt of building a city to prove that humans and wild pokemon can live harmoniously alongside each other. The concept of New Mauville was birthed about 30 years ago, but due to the limits of the technologies back then and the uphill battle that the scientists faced in convincing the Hoenn League to approve of such an ambitious project, the project had to be put on hold. It was only 20 years ago that the needed technologies to build New Mauville was invented that the Hoenn League gave them the green light to attempt this project. Land scarcity is a major problem in Hoenn, and the team of scientists and engineers eventually decided to solve it by building their dream city underground right beside Mauville. The project was named "New Mauville", and was completed after another ten long years. The eventual successful completion of New Mauville caused a huge uproar across the world, and inspired many subsequent projects that encouraged the co-existence between humans and pokemon.
Compared to Mauville, New Mauville is a bustling city that is active 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is a city full of life, a city that never sleeps. Wild pokemon can be seen wandering the streets and interacting fearlessly with humans on their own accord. Children would play with wild pokemons in the parks. Aspiring trainers in Mauville would try to find their starters in New Mauville by asking wild pokemon if they would want to follow them on a journey. Walking through New Mauville is like experiencing the life of living in a utopia. The heart of New Mauville is a large electric generator that is well maintained and heavily guarded. It is the most technologically advanced electric generator in the world, being able to supply not only both New Mauville and Mauville with power, but also help Slateport and Verdanturf in meeting their energy demands. All of it is done without pollution to the environment, making the energy produced by the generator a clean energy source. Sadly, visiting and viewing of the electric generator is not open to the public, and thus I did not have the chance to see the generator with my own two eyes.
My curiosity sated, I decided to continue northwards in my journey, and attempt to traverse one of the most perilous location in Hoenn.
Nothing I could do can prepare me for the desert in Route 111. I could choose not to travel through Route 111 in the desert, but I wanted the experience. Not only is the desert in Route 111 one of the longest route in Hoenn, it is dry, hot, and half of our time in the desert is spent on finding shelter to hide from the short but frequent bouts of sandstorm. My journey through the desert had to be done on my own two feet, as Flamel's physique is not suitable to carry me across the desert. I have Bigblue constantly at my side, and Dolly decided to hide in the shadows of one my backpack's side pocket so that she can view the desert without being exposed to the harsh conditions of the desert. I had filled my backpack with large amounts of water and food to sustain our journey, and relied on my compass to navigate through the desert. We would not have made it out otherwise. All you can see everywhere are rocks, the occasional cactus, more rocks, the rare sightings of pokemon, and even more sand. The lack of landmarks made it hard to ensure that you stay on the right track, and the heat during daytime is so hot that travelling during nighttime is our only time we can travel across the desert if there are no sandstorms brewing. Bigblue was our MVP in ensuring that we made it out of the desert alive in one piece. His head-fin can accurately sense the sandstorm long before it hits us, and his mastery in his rock techniques enabled him to create temporary shelters out of rocks if we cannot find a place to hide from the sandstorm in time.
The one place I was determined to visit in the desert is the desert ruins. No one knew exactly which time period the ruins was built. Even the archaeologists did not manage to pinpoint the exact time frame, nor the ancient civilisation it belonged to. The mystery of the place is alluring to me, and I wanted to visit it at least once in this lifetime.
I was on my way to the desert ruins when I met the next member of my team that will join me on my journey.
Bigblue had alerted us to an approaching sandstorm, and we managed to find a small cave by the side of a large rock plateau that separated the desert region from the non-desert region in Route 111. The cave is narrow but long, extending a long way into the side of the plateau, and we did not bother exploring the deeper parts of the cave. It seemed like a passageway of sorts. We just stayed neared the entrance of the cave and we were fairly comfortable inside. The cave was large enough for me to let out Flamel out of his pokeball for him to spend time with us until the sandstorm subsided. I adjusted my clothes that I was wearing, which was bought specially for the journey across the desert, and leaned against the side of the cave. Bigblue had blocked the entrance of the cave with rocks to prevent the impending sandstorm from invading our cave, only allowing gaps big enough for air ventilation. I spent the next hour trying to teach my pokemon how to play a game of tic-tac-toe on the sandy floor of the cave, and the four of us played happily while waiting for the sandstorm to pass.
Bigblue suddenly went on full alert halfway into our game, turning towards the deeper parts of the poorly lit cave. Dolly and Flamel followed suit, staring intently into the darkness of the cave. Dolly suddenly dashed past us into the darkness, and I could not help but let out a cry of worry. The darkness may be Dolly's domain, but there is something in the cave that Bigblue had deemed to be potentially dangerous. I have the right to worry.
I heard Dolly's excited chattering after a short moment. That means that the unknown threat is most probably a pokemon, and is probably harmless to us if Dolly finds it friendly enough to have a conversation with. I heard a continuous snapping sound that snaps in irregular rhythm in reply to Dolly's chattering, and it got me wondering just what pokemon Dolly met in the cave. My question was answered shortly when Dolly reappeared in tow with the mystery pokemon. It has four short stubby legs and the largest jaws I had ever seen. It was so large and disproportionate to its entire body size that I wondered how it could have supported its jaws and walked without losing balance. Almost the entirety of its body is a light brown other than the white on the underside of its body, where its belly is.
Dolly's mystery friend was a trapinch.
This trapinch is definitely larger than the other trapinchs I had spotted in the desert. Closer inspection reveals that it is a male, and already showing the signs of evolution that I had read in books about its species. It would probably not be long before it evolves into a vibrava from what I can tell. I offered a handful of pokemon food as a way of saying hello, and we soon had another player in our game of tic-tac-toe.
When the sandstorm finally subsided after two hours, Bigblue took down the rocks he used to barricade the entrance, and we packed up to continue our journey towards the desert ruins. Dolly went up to trapinch, and I presumed she want to say her goodbyes to her new friend she met in the unforgiving desert. I do not know exactly what she told trapinch, but she pulled Bigblue and Flamel into their conversation and seemed to try very hard to discuss something with them. The four pokemon began their impromptu discussion while leaving me, the only human, to listen into their conversion without a clue as to what they are talking about.
When they were finally done, Bigblue got behind me and gently pushed me to where trapinch is. Trapinch and I stood face-to-face with a distance about a mere foot apart. Dolly is flying her loop-de-loops around us, an action that she usually did only when she is excited about something. I still have no idea where this is going.
Bigblue interrupted my staring contest with trapinch by gently pulling on my pants. He pointed to the pokeballs on my belt, before pointing to trapinch. On cue, trapinch took a small step forward and began to snap its jaws. I widened my eyes in surprise, and turned to Bigblue.
"Are you saying that trapinch wants to follow us on our journey?"
Bigblue nodded, while Dolly began to increase her speed in doing her loop-de-loops while shouting in delight. Flamel snorted once in confirmation and trapinch just stood in front of me while giving me a determined stare, snapping its jaws every now and then.
I knelt down to trapinch's height, and spoke.
"My wish is to travel the world. If you wish to be the strongest pokemon, then I'm sorry, I'm not the trainer that you should be looking for. I can train you to be strong, strong enough to reach your final evolution and a little beyond that, but that's about it. The only promise that I can give you is that I will try to be the best trainer for you if you decide to join us. I am still new in this whole training business, and you will need to be patient with me at times. Even so, do you wish to travel with me?"
Trapinch simply stared at me for another short moment as if replaying my words in its mind. He gave a single snap of its jaws, which I took as a sign of confirmation.
I smiled. I had already decided on a name for trapinch in the short moment when he was mulling through my words. I think it is an apt description of him, if he decided to accept that as his nickname.
"I gave every pokemon I have a nickname. Ponyta's name is Flamel, marshtomp's name is Bigblue, and shuppet's name is Dolly. I was thinking about calling you Snap, since you were constantly snapping your jaws during our time in this cave. Do you like the name?"
Trapinch gave another single snap of its jaws.
"Welcome to our little family, Snap."
AN: I'm unsure if I should include Wattson's pov in this story as that part is poorly written in my opinion. But I still left it there as there are points in there that I could use to build up the later parts of IJWTTTW, and to provide a better picture of the pokemon world that I built in this story. Writing about Velda's experience in Mauville is my biggest challenge so far as there is nothing critical in Mauville that contributes to her growth as a person and as a trainer other than the gym battle. If I was writing a mc whose goal is to conquer the gyms and aim to be the strongest trainer, similar to most pokemon fanfics out there, I would not have hesitate to skip to the desert arc the moment the mc wins the gym battle. However, the concept behind this story is different. The mc, Velda, just want to travel the world. There is a very big difference behind her motivations in being a trainer, and thus it will lead her to do different things out of the norm. She will take her time exploring Hoenn, not caring much about the amount of time she takes to complete the gym circuit as long as she managed to qualify in competing in it at the end. I cannot simply skip on writing her journey in Mauville and Verdanturf.
The concept of an underground city at New Mauville was inspired by the portrayal of New Mauville in the Pokemon Adventures manga that I read as a child. In the manga, New Mauville is a huge underground playground that the ancestor of the Trick Master designed and built when he anticipated that Hoenn will face a problem of land scarcity in the future. To ensure that children of the future have places to play and enjoy, he built New Mauville. I simply expanded on this idea, and turned the playground into a city.
I also have to confess that I am not the person who first thought of the idea of using Protect offensively in fanfics, although the battering ram idea was my own. The credit of an offensive Protect belongs to someone else, and the problem is I do not know who is the original creator of this idea so I cannot credit him/her properly. I have read a few fanfics that depicted fights when the mc met opponents who used protect offensively, although I cannot remember which fanfic(s) exactly. I suspect that one or two of the fanfics that I had recommended in the first chapter had used the same idea, but I cannot be sure, and I do not have the time to reread every single one of them to try and determine who was the original creator. The next best thing I could do is to post my confession here, and if you know who the original creator of the idea is, do give him/her your support.
Personally, I am still not pleased with how I wrote this chapter, especially Wattson's pov. Although all the ideas are how I wanted it to be, I keep feeling that the entire chapter can be written better, but I don't know how. I promise that the subsequent chapters will be better. I have ideas for almost every single city that Velda will visit in Hoenn, although I am still unsure about Sootopolis and Pacifidlog. Pacifidlog has nothing special other than the Sky Pillar and the possibility of going to Mirage Island, which I have never managed to enter when I played pokemon emerald.
If you are wondering about Velda's possible love interest, I have a possible candidate in mind while I was working on the first chapter of the story. The candidate had already been introduced into this story, and I can continue writing IJWTTTW with or without a romantic partner for Velda. But even if I decide to write about Velda falling in love, it won't happen anytime soon. She's only 11 currently, and have the mindset of an adult. It will be hard for her to adjust to the idea of falling in love with someone from the pokemon world.
I had also updated the chapters before this, correcting any spelling, grammatical and any other form of errors that I can find. The content is still the same, so don't worry about that.
Last but not least, thank you for your support thus far. I hope you continue to enjoy IJWTTTW.
Character and Pokemon List:
Velda Vera, Age: 11, Female, Pokemon Trainer, Reincarnated Soul (to be kept a secret until the day she dies again)
Pokemon on hand:
1) Ponyta (Flamel), male
2) Marshtomp (Bigblue), male
3) Shuppet (Dolly), female
4) Trapinch (Snap), male