Chapter 116

Alex wandered around the valley for a long time. He saw dozens of Machop, all scattered in small groups everywhere. He scanned all of them for their potential. Most of them were yellow and orange, with a few green scattered here an there. There were no blue potential ones, the minimum Alex had thought of for his Machop.

"Well, I guess these can be called good potential Machop, considering most of the Pokemon found in the wild are red. I guess I have different standards of acceptable potential than most people" thought Alex.

He then decided to walk back to Nathaniel's house and bid farewell to him and leave.

"Hey Alex! Did you catch one yet?" asked Nathaniel excitedly.

"No I didn't" said Alex.

"Why not? I was hoping to have a Machop vs Machop with you right now?" he asked.

"Well, how do I put it, I didn't feel a connection with any of the Machop in there you know?" said Alex, as he couldn't tell him that he could see their potential and none was up to his standard.

"You are not going to be refunded the Poke you already paid, so you might as well catch one" came a voice to the left.

"Grandpa!" said Nathaniel to the old man who had approached them.

"Well, it's okay sir. I would rather not catch a Pokemon I don't have a connection with" said Alex.

The old man nodded and said, "Everyone had their own path and persistence as a trainer. If you don't feel a connection, you don't. Maybe you will feel a connection to a Machop in the wild some day.

" Alright then, if it can't be Machop vs Machop then lets have a Machop vs any other Pokemon you have!" said Nathaniel.

"Well. That's a problem. My young Pokemon are too young to fight, and my older Pokemon are at the Elite stage. Hence, I don't really have suitable Pokemon to be your Machop's opponent" said Alex.

"Wow! You have Elite stage Pokemon? That is so awesome! You said you were from Pallet Town. Does that mean you are sponsored by Professor Oak?" asked Nathaniel.

"As a matter of fact, yes" replied Alex.

Nathaniel kept asking about Pallet Town, and invited Alex into the house for some lunch. Alex accepted the invitation after some insistence.

After all of them had lunch, Nathaniel went to feed all the Machop, and Alex decided to go with him for some time.

They went all across the ranch, feeding Machop and Machoke. Nathaniel told that they also allowed trainer who exceeded their carry limit to store their Pokemon of the Machop line here, and many such trainers were participating in the Machamp festival the next day.

While they were getting closer to the central area, they saw a huge circle of Machop seemingly cheering and heckling a few Pokemon in a brawl.

"Guys! What are you doing? Break it up!" yelled Nathaniel. All the Machop looked at Nathaniel, and fled fast. Only one line Machap was left in the middle. It seemed badly injured.

"Oh no! These Machop have bullied this poor guy again. We should take him to the Pokemon Center" said Nathaniel.

"No need" said Alex, as he tossed a Pokeball.

"Chansey" said the Pokemon, as it looked around. It spotted the injured Machop in the ground and rather toward it, and sent a Heal Pulse. Machop visible injuries slowly started receding, and it's eyes started to flicker. Chansey helped it up and conjured some Life Dew for it to drink.

"Wow! So you actually have a Chansey? That is super awesome. Hello Chansey!" said Nathaniel.

"Si Chan" greeted the Pokemon, waving at Nathaniel, as it patted the groggy Machop.

"Machoooop" cried the Pokemon softly as it opened its eyes. It looked around, then at the two boys, and then at Chansey. It nodded at Chansey, turned away, and started punching the air, as if practising it's moves.

Alex decided to check out it's stats.

Machop

Gender - Male

Lvl - 19

Type - Fighting

Held item - None

Ability - Guts

Moves - Bullet Punch, Leer, Low Kick, Focus Energy, Revenge, Low Sweep, Knock Off, Bulk Up, Close Combat, Brick Break, Super Power

Nature - Adamant

Training - None

Potential - Blue

"Wow! A blue potential Machop with an Adamant Nature, and it knows the egg move Bullet Punch" thought Alex, his eyes shining with desire.

"Hey Nathaniel, whats the story with this Machop?" asked Alex.

"No idea. It was wandering around Viridian City without a trainer, so grandpa brought it here. It doesn't get along with the other Machop for some reason,and always gets into fights with them. Grandpa tried to get it to open up, but it is doens't seem to work. It is undoubtedly the strongest Machop we have however, and many tried to catch it. But it refused them all without exception" said Nathaniel.

"A Machop with a strong potential is too good to miss. I should try to catch it" thought Alex.

"Hey Nathaniel, the fee I paid applies to catch this Machop too right?" asked Alex.

"Good luck with that. It doesn't listen to any trainer for some reason" said Nathaniel.

"Even if they subdue it by force?" asked Alex.

"Yeah. It totally refuses to interact with those who forcefully subdued it. Hence those that tried usually release it into the wild after a while, or bring it back here. It found its way back here after being released in the wild though" said Nathaniel.

"Have you tried to find out why it's behaving this way?" asked Alex.

"What could we do? My grandfather tried talk to it and keep it company, but it refused to open up anyway" said Nathaniel.

"Did you try using Psychic types?" he asked

"Of course not. Where would we go out an find Psychic types? asked Nathaniel incredulously.

Alex was speechless. He had forgotten how rare trainers capable of subduing Psychic types are.

"Well, then I would like to try" said Alex, summoning Abra from its Pokeball.