Chapter Ten
“When your finish taking out the trash, I want you to mop the dining area, wash the dishes, wipe the windows, clean out the AC unit, and then help out Reno with cooking”, said the manager of Pokeburger, since entering Azure city I’ve been reluctantly avoiding the Azure Gym, and took up a temporary job at Pokeburger to increase my cash flow. It has been about a week now; I’ve been staying at the trainer quarters of the Azure city Pokecenter, and making an extra effort at preparing my pokemon for their upcoming gym battle on my off times from work.
At the Pokecenter I got some inside information from fellow trainers about the Gym leader, it turns out that the gym is primarily a water pokemon type gym and the battle is going to be fought over a large pool. Even though junior league gym leaders don’t have to battle exclusively with a specific type of Pokemon, but would often battle with a particular type to gain their Gyms respect of that type of Pokemon.
Quitting time, “Sorry boss, it’s been nice working for you but I’m going to quit now”.
“Yeah, yeah here’s your check”, the Pokeburger manager said, and went back to his office mumbling something about Pokemon trainers. I went back to the Pokecenter to pick up my pokemon; the Pokecenter staff members are looking after them in a huge backfield where they let a trainer’s pokemon play or rest together with other trainer’s pokemon.
“I’m here to pick up my Bulbasuar, Caterpie, Pikachu, Pidgey, and Squirtle”, I asked the Pokecenter nurse.
“Ok, what tag number are they wearing”, the Nurse said, pokemon have to wear tags at Pokecenter facilities to identify which pokemon belongs to who.
“Tag 42”, I answered. “Just wait shortly and we’ll retrieve them for you”.
“Hey Bushy, you having fun with the others”
“Suar suar”, Bushy is the new name of the Bulbasuar I caught. I remember my Dad used to call me that name every time I woke up in the mornings and my hair would get all messed up and bushy.
“Yeah I bet all of you had a great time with the other Pokemon, and its better then being cooped up in a Pokeball the whole day while I work, good news though I don’t have to work anymore and were going to travel again”, they all responded happily, especially Pidgey, since it likes the freedom of flying in the vast outdoors, instead of being confined to the Pokecenter’s backfield.
“Before we head off, we’re finally going to pay the Azure Gym a visit and put of your extra training to work to earn me a Blue badge, lets go”, I told them. As I was about to leave the Pokecenter.
“Hey Peter where you going”, asked David, a friend I’ve met while staying at the Pokecenter.
“Oh, I hi David, I’m heading off to the Azure City Gym, and after that I’m going to continue on with my traveling, say you want to come with me, I could use some pointers from a trainer that already has three badges of their own”, I asked him. “Nah I got that job at the recycling plant in a half an hour, you know I haven’t fought the gym leader here yet, but I can tell you something. All of the Junior Gym leader’s I have faced so far, most of them do battle with a particular type of pokemon, but just watch out when they pull out a different type of Pokemon to use against you. I remember I faced a gym in Glebe town that was mainly a Rock and Ground type gym, I was doing great with my Horsea, you know rock and ground types are weak against water pokemon, but the gym leader pulled out a Voltorb. Luckily I had my own ground type pokemon, Diglett, to help me win a Green badge”, He informed me. I thanked him for the info and headed straight for the Gym.
When I reached the Gym, it wasn’t the most impressively designed gym, but what can you expect from a Junior League Gym. Not like Misty’s Gym in Cerulean City, a gigantic indoor Aquarium that has been said to house all known Water type Pokemon, but it will be a real long time before I get to meet the Red-haired Mermaid of Cerulean City. Man, I’ve really got to stop fantasizing about Misty; I shook off the daydreaming and proceeded in.
“Joule”
“Pi”
“You better hided in my Backpack for awhile, it’s not wise to let the gym leader know what pokemon you have before facing them, I'll call you when I’m ready”, I told Joule, Joule hid in my already cramped backpack and I had already returned all of my other Pokemon to their pokeballs.
“Wow, so this is what I’m going to have to battle over”, I said to myself, the arena was a large swimming pool that had two stationary platforms in the middle. I didn’t noticed at first, but three girls came out of the swimming pool when they saw me enter, “Are one of you the Leader of this Gym, I have come to request a match to earn a Blue badge”, I asked them. “No we’re members of this gym, the Gym leader is in the back, I’ll go get her for you”, one of them answered.
“Well, finally another challenger and a cute one at that”, said the Gym leader.
“Um thanks I guess”, I said blushing before the beautiful Gym Leader.
“My name is Cindy, what’s yours”
“It’s Peter Ketch, from Pallet Town”
“Pallet town huh, hmm”
“What’s the matter”, I asked her.
“Over the past few weeks I lost to three other kids from Pallet, I hope the same won’t happen here. Enough chitchat, lets began, five on five all out battle”, she exclaimed, and surprisingly made the first move by releasing her Horsea.
“I’m starting this battle with my own water Pokemon, Rainer go, I threw the Pokeball onto one of the platforms.
“Aw a Squirtle, how cute I’ve always wanted one”, she complimented.
“Squirtle squirtle”, Rainer said, also blushing before the beautiful Cindy, which got her Horsea quite mad.
“Rainer do what you can to win”, I don’t have much experience on battling over water and trusting Squirtle to battle on its own for now. Rainer dived into the pool with Horsea already in the water.
“Horsea, Bubble attack”, Horsea exhaled bubbles at Squirtle.
“Rainer, withdraw”, Rainer’s shell protecting it from all the popping bubbles.
“Tackle attack”, Cindy ordered, Rainer still withdrawn in its shell waited till Horsea got close enough and timed a Skull Bash attack perfectly.
“All right, Rainer, now the Tackle attack”, cheering him on.
“Horsea Smokescreen”, Horsea spewed out black ink all over the pool, but Squirtle was already locked on to Horsea and slammed the Poke-Seahorse against the side of the pool.
“Horsea return, I choose Goldeen”, Cindy called.
“No wait Cindy, shouldn’t you filter the pool first before continuing the match”, I pleaded.
“Whatever happens the battlefield shouldn’t effect the outcome of the battle”, she informed me.
“Fine then, Rainer go back onto the platforms”, the water was to murky to battle in, Rainer jumped onto the platforms, but was immediately knocked back into the water by Goldeen.
“My Goldeen can navigate through the water with no problem with the aid of using its hypersonic sound waves, now horn attack”, Cindy ordered. Under all the confusion Rainer withdrew into its shell trying to weather out Goldeen’s constant barrages.
“Hang in their Rainer”, I didn’t know what else to due, Goldeens are utterly useless on land, but in the water it’s a whole different story. Finally Goldeen used its horn and jammed the inside of Squirtle’s left leg socket.
“Squirrrrtle”, Rainer yelled, with the rest of its body popping out of the shell.
“Rainer return, Bushy go”, I unleashed Bushy onto the platform, “Bushy watch out for the Goldeen, its in the water somewhere”, I warned. Cindy’s Goldeen jumped from the water at Bushy horn first, with quick reflexes Bushy constricted Goldeen with its vines. “Don’t let it escape”, I told Bushy.
“Goldeen Supersonic now”, Cindy ordered, Goldeen used high frequency waves that only Pokemon can hear to confuse and distract Bushy, it easily wiggled out of Bushy’s vines. “Now Goldeen Water gun the Bulbasuar into the water”, the Goldeen’s water gun attack splashed into Bushy’s face and actually made it recover from the dizziness.
“Bushy, S.L. attack now”, decoded it means Leech seed attack, trainers often battle in codes so as to not let the opposing trainer no what attack they’re going to use. Bushy’s Leech seed immobilized Goldeen and sucked its energy fast. “Bushy hold it down with your vines”, I ordered, when Bushy’s vines wrapped around the Goldeen, the energy that the leech seed drains flowed through Bushy’s vines to replenish its own energy. All Cindy could do was yell, “Goldeen no”, and returned Goldeen.
“Wow, I… I didn’t know Bulbasuars could do that”, I said in shock.
“Apparently they can, go Magikarp”, Cindy called, a Magikarp, why would Cindy send out a useless Pokemon to battle I thought. “Magikarp tackle attack now”, Magikarp leapt from the water and tackled Bushy, then fell over on to the platform and flopped about helplessly. Bushy just looked at me, barely unharmed by the weak attack, didn’t know to attack the Magikarp or feel sorry for it. “Ok, so it needs a little more training, Magikarp return, go Spiral”, Cindy has chosen a Poliwag and this time placed it on the other platform instead of throwing it into the water.
“Bushy, Vine-Whip now”, I ordered, amazingly quick, Cindy’s Spiral evaded Bushy’s whips.
“Your not the only one that battles in code, Spiral H.N. attack now”, from the spirals on Spiral’s stomach, it emitted Spiraling waves that lulled Bushy to sleep.
“Err… Bushy return, now Caterpie go”, after Bushy went down with a Hypnosis attack I sent Caterpie to battle.
“Spiral another Hypnosis attack”
“Caterpie counter with Stringshot”, Caterpie’s Stringshot covered Spiral’s stomach, disabling its Hypnosis attack. “Spiral dive into the water, now water gun attack”, Spiral water gunned Caterpie into the water, luckily Caterpies are pretty good swimmers. They continued exchanging each other’s underwater tackles, Caterpies stringshot doesn’t work in the water, so it cleverly it leapt up back on the platform and when Spiral followed it got completely covered by stringshot. Then Caterpie rammed Spiral back into water, sending it sinking to the bottom of the pool.
“Spiral return, now I shall choose Ekans. It might not be a water pokemon, but Ekans’ are lightning fast swimmers”, Sarah bragged.
“Funny you should mention lighting”, after returning Caterpie, I unzipped my backpack and Joule immediately popped out and dived into the pool. Before Joule knew what it was up against the Ekans was already wrapped around Joule and getting ready for a poison sting attack.
“Ekans, go onto the platform”, Cindy, knowing what was going to happen, yelled.
“Joule Thundershock now”, I commanded, after Joule’s thundershock was done, it left an unconscious Ekans.
“So you had an electric Pokemon all along, how come you didn’t use it in the first place and win an easy badge”, Cindy asked.
“For experience, you can’t rely on just one pokemon to get the job done all the time, so I gave my other pokemon a chance to battle too”, I informed her.
“Very well then, here’s the Blue badge, you earned it”, Cindy gave me a blue badge that was in the shape of a gem and had a “JP” on the front.
“Wow my first badge”, I said in awe.
“That’s only your first, the way you battled I wouldn’t be surprised if you had four badges by now”, Cindy interrupted.
“Thanks”, I thanked her, again blushing, “Can I ask you something Cindy".
“Sure”
“Well I was just wondering, how come you battle with a Magikarp”, I questioned.
“If you’d check your Pokedex by now, you’ll know that Magikarps evolve into one of the most powerful pokemon ever, a Gyarados. I’m trying the hardest I can to train and hopefully evolve my Magikarp but it’s going to take a real long time, only the best of the best trainers have been able to evolve a Magikarp into a Gyarados”, she answered.
“Even if it means losing official matches to trainers like me, when you probably could’ve won with another Pokemon”, I asked again.
“The way I see it, its worth the hard training, dedication, and sacrifices. They say when a trainer has put so much effort into evolving a lowly Magikarp into a mighty Gyarados, the Gyarados becomes so thankful and attached to the trainer that it’ll be its most loyal Pokemon and would do anything for its trainer. So one day I’ll hope to be rewarded with my own Gyarados”, Cindy said.
“I hope you’ll achieve that goal one day, but when you do don’t even bother looking me up for a rematch”, I joked, making her laugh out loud.
“So where you headed now”, Cindy asked.
“I’m certainly going back the Pokecenter to heal my Pokemon, then after that I’ll go to the Scabrous Mountains”, I waved goodbye from the gym and once again the journey continues.