Chapter Nine
The town by Crystal Loch wasn’t much of site, it was so small it didn’t have a Pokecenter and only had one small Poke Shop. After passing through I headed straight for the Loch, where I’m currently stalking a group of Squirtles behind some bushes, after an hour of so I finally concocted a plan with Pidgey, Joule, and Caterpie on how to capture one. The Pokedex wasn’t much help, it strongly advised me not to try and capture any pokemon when they’re in groups, since it could be really dangerous. After all, there were four Squirtles in all and I only have three pokemon.
Tired of waiting and watching the Squirtles sunbathe on the rocks, I told my pokemon the plan, first Pidgey will fly in and Sand-Attack all of the Squirtles, then Joule, after it has charged up, will thundershock a Squirtle, after I capture it, I’ll make a run for it, here goes. Whispering, “You ready Pidgey, remember fly in like you’re just minding your own business, try to get close enough without provoking them, at the first sign of hesitation, give them your sand-attack”.
“Pidgey pid”, Pidgey chirped, somewhat understanding my lengthy orders, since its just used to simple attack commands in battles.
Pidgey flew to where the Squirtles were, trying to pass itself as an ordinary wild Pokemon searching for food. One of the Squirtles decided Pidgey was getting too close to their territory and confronted Pidgey.
“Squirtle squirt Squirtle”, said one of the squirtles.
“Oh no this is bad”, I whispered to myself, Pidgey was scared and nervously swooped down for an attack, which got all of the Squirtles attention. They all started blasting water streams at a frantic Pidgey, managing to dodge them. “So much for the plan, Joule, Caterpie attack”, I yelled, jumping out from the bushes. Joule already charged up, totally knocked out one of the Squirtles with its thundershock, two of the Squirtles ganged up on Caterpie and water gunned Caterpie into submission, and the other Squirtle still tried to shoot down Pidgey.
The three remaining Squirtles regrouped, and started to focus their efforts on attacking Joule and I (by then I had already returned Caterpie). Nothing like getting hit square in the gut by a high-pressure water gun attack, Joule protecting me, spread out a thundershock at all of the Squirtles. Not really hurting them much, but distracted them long enough for Pidgey to finally execute a sand-attack, I took the opportunity and captured the Squirtle that Joule had fried earlier, returned Pidgey, grabbed Joule and made a mad dash out of there, before the Squirtles could recover from the sand-attack.
I ran and ran till I couldn’t run any more, and fell over exhausted, surviving the most dangerous situation as a pokemon trainer yet, but to capture a Squirtle was worth it. Releasing all of my pokemon for healing, I started to try and console a nervous Squirtle, “I know it must’ve been tough being separated from your group, but you got a new group to be a part of"
"Meet Joule"
“Pikapika”.
" Caterpie"
“Pieecater”
"And Pidgey"
“Pidgeygeypid”.
After awhile of conversing with Squirtle and letting it play with all of my other pokemon, it suddenly struck me, Ash has a Squirtle too! Maybe I’ll catch up to him one day, and have a battle to see which one of are Squirtles are better, but to challenge his Squirtle now wouldn’t be such a great idea. Knowing Ash, I bet he trained his Squirtle real well, and I haven’t even begun to train mine. One more thing, before I moved on, “Hey Squirtle”.
“Squir Squirtle”, it answered back.
“I know this is a rather predictable name for a water pokemon but I’ve always like the name Rainer”, I suggested. Squirtle gave a big smile and nodded confirming its new name would be Rainer, I still haven’t thought of a good name for Pidgey or Caterpie yet but I guess that it could wait.
I was really hoping to capture more then one water pokemon at Crystal Loch, but didn’t want to risk running in to those other Squirtles, as usual with all of my pokemon out of there balls (mainly to keep me company), I forged on to Azure City. I looked up the name of the city that has the blue badge gym, when I was at the towns Poke Shop and bought a better map, rather then relying on my ancient map that barely noted anything outside of Pallet. Just then something crossed our path.
A group of three Bulbasuars stumbled upon us. The middle one was large compared to the two little Bulbasuars that it was with. Instantly they started to growl at us.
“Bulbasuar suar bulba bulbasuar”, the large Bulbasuar told the two smaller ones something and they both ran off. I found that to be awkward, I thought wild Pokemon stick together when they sense danger, not wanting to miss out on this chance for a Bulbasuar I ordered my pokemon to attack at once.
Joule started things off with a thundershock, but it barely dented Bulbasuar as it ran through the electricity and tackled Joule. Pidgey swooped down for an attack that’s when two vines popped out from its side, grabbed Pidgey in mid-air and slammed Pidgey hard to the ground. Rainer got in a tackle; Caterpie came up from behind and sprayed string shot all over the Bulbasuar and sticking it to the ground, but that didn’t stop the Bulbasuar. It wrapped up Rainer with its vines and slammed the tiny turtle into a tree, then squeezed Caterpie with the other. I told Pidgey and Joule to try and get up for another attack. Pidgey tried to fight back, but Bulbasuar with its other vine grabbed a hold of Pidgey.
“No Joule don’t”, I yelled, but to late, it thundershocked Bulbasuar again this time the electricity flowed through Bulbasuars vines, which was still latched upon Pidgey and Caterpie, and shocked them all. “Pidgey, Caterpie, return, alright Joule Quick attack now”, the Bulbasuar being worn downed by all the attacks left itself open for Joule’s attack. Joule went full speed ahead and slammed into Bulbasuar, but it being stuck to the ground by Caterpie’s string shot, the attack recoiled back at Joule.
I thought that would be the final blow, which left both Joule and the Bulbasuar weak, and got my Pokeball ready for the capture, but persistently the Bulbasuar still had some fight left, wrapped up Joule with the Vine whips and knocked out Joule by slamming him against a tree.
“Joule no”, I ran up and picked up Joule sensing the next vine whip was aimed at me.
“Squirtle squirt”, Rainer to the rescue, it got in a devastating blow that finally defeated the Bulbasuar. I thanked Rainer and caught the Bulbasuar, that’s when the rest of them showed up.
“Whoa”, the two little Bulbasuar has come back with reinforcement of three other Suars. Reacting quickly I returned Rainer and gave chase to the Bulbasuars. They eventually ran me up a tree; I climbed higher and higher to avoid the painful vine whips, until they could no longer reach me. Elated with joy that I’ve managed to capture and outrun the Bulbasuars, I shouted out to the world.
“Huh”
When I looked down at the Bulbasuars, they were all crying and weeping uncontrollably. I finally got it through my thick head why they were so sad, I captured and abducted one of their own kind, but what am I supposed to do, I have to have more Pokemon to become a better trainer. They’ll never see one of their members again because of me.
“I’m sorry”, I yelled out repeatedly to the Bulbasuars, with tears of my own. No one ever mentions this side of Pokemon training, I considered releasing my Bulbasuar so it could rejoin its clan, but selfishly, still convinced myself that there is no other way to become a great trainer, if I didn’t have more Pokemon.
As the last of the Bulbasuars finally gave up and walked away I yelled back to them.
“I promise you Bulbasuars, that I’ll train and protect your Bulbasuar with all of my might and to treat it like you would, I… I promise”. I spent the night still up on that tree, just looking up at the stars and thinking to myself. I made a promise not just to the Bulbasuars, but to the Squirtles also, and to every other pokemon, that I’d be kind and fair, and treat them as equals, because in this journey we are all partners.