On The Road Again

After checking in his newly evolved Storm, Hercule, and the rest of his team to be looked over by Nurse Joy, the boy had rushed over to the video phones to call Marcia as quickly as he could. He had been delighted to find out that he had caught her on a morning where she had not been too busy.

Marcia's eyes had the slightest hint of tears in them as Cinder had delivered the news, but she kept it together as she beamed at her son.

"I'm so proud of you, Cinder! I can't wait to hear from your father when he heard of this! And in only a week! From my experience back in the days that's commendably rare."

Cinder's face mirrored that of Marcia and the young boy briefly feared that his grin would split his face open.

"It was really, really, really tough." He emphasized, feeling the relief washing over him about how the battle was finally over. "There were so many times where I felt like I was going to lose."

"Was he that tough?" Marcia asked, settling down still smiling nonetheless. "What pokemon did he use? Oh! And you?"

"Geodude, and Onix. In that order. I used my Hercule, a Poliwag and Storm, who you already knew, my starter."

Marcia's eyes widened a bit. "Onix? I didn't even realize they had one of those."

"Yeah, I was pretty shocked too. Took everything Storm and I had and more to beat that thing." He grimaced, but then he beamed "However, Storm evolved, mom! It was so fascinating, I can't wait to experience evolution with my pokemon more! Although Storm's ears are probably going to be sore for a while. That thing's roars were loud."

"Really? That's great! Speaking of which, how is your team doing? They're not with you right now, was your starter's evolution getting along smoothly?"

Cinder sighed. "They… got beat up pretty badly. I think Hercule got the worst of it. I owe him an apology for not doing well, Storm is still getting checked by Nurse Joy through it all."

Marcia frowned sympathetically. 'I don't want to sound cynical but… you're going to have to get used to that. These battles aren't going to be getting any easier, your father and I could relate, but for now, you should relax and maybe take a few days off from training, y'know, for things to settle in."

"Yeah, Brock himself said that…" Cinder trailed off as a frown on his own. "I won't last long here in Pewter though, tomorrow I'll hit the road to Cerulean."

What happened to Hercule was pretty much going to become the norm at this point. Even as they grew stronger, their upcoming battles would all grow in intensity. And based on what he knew, Brock wasn't even close to being the most ruthless Gym Leader in indigo. He had no way of knowing just how merciless all of the others were going to be.

Images of Hercule's banged chest flashed in his mind. Moments like that would become the norm. It was a scary thought. Many trainers just couldn't handle it. Especially rookies. It was one of the main reasons why beginners rarely even reached the Conference in the first place.

As if the lack of experience wasn't already disadvantageous enough, the sight of such a brutally battered and beaten pokemon on a trainer's own team was just about as demotivating and morale reducing as it gets. And Cinder himself had almost fallen into that trap.

But he knew that he couldn't let that discourage him. At the same time, however, he wondered how his team felt about that.

Now that the battle with Brock was over, Storm, and Hercule all knew exactly what professional pokemon training was like. Now that they had officially challenged a Gym, they had all officially entered the world of professional pokemon training. Was their resolve any different after finding out about just how brutal that all of it actually was? It was one thing to simply hear about it, but to actually experience it for yourself…

He shook the thoughts from his head. He didn't want to look glum in front of his mother. The woman was already starting to look a bit worried by his saddened facial expression.

"Hey, so you mom wanna hear about how the battle went?" He asked as the smile returned to his face.

Marcia nodded happily, and Cinder began giving her a rundown of the battle. It was all still very fresh in his memory, and he doubted that he'd be forgetting it any time soon.

...

Nurse Joy had given him a rundown on the conditions of his team.

Nurse Joy had wanted to take a look at Storm as a standard procedure after evolving.

There was both good news and bad news to this.

Cinder had been present in the room as Nurse Joy did a few basic examinations of his starter pokemon's body. A few quick X-Rays and reflex tests later, and the young sheep seemed to have a complication regarding his evolution, which was the 'bad news', namely, being famished.

A recent discovery made by Professor Birch of the Ever Grande League was that newly Evolved Pokemon tended to be hungry quite a bit, Apparently it had something to do with the cause of evolution, making the stomach grow to match Storm's evolution. It was perfectly normal, and sooner or later Storm would grow accustomed to the increase in appetite.

Unfortunately, because of this, Cinder was now getting more tight with his allowance, so he decided that they should hit the road after resting here for a day. While the good news is, there wasn't anything wrong with his pokemon, which he especially was worried about for Hercule, the tadpole seemed to recover perfectly healthy after the fight with Geodude, and was even ready to train or resume traveling on the road again.

"...Here you are, Cinder. Keep note that you should give your Flaaffy enough nutrients to sustain his new form, that's the only thing, so here, your pokemon have been fully healed. Congratulations for your win against Brock."

"Thank you, Nurse Joy." Cinder reclaimed the pokeball he had given her. Cinder returned all his pokeballs to his belt.

He thanked the Nurse Joy again and then left the Pokemon Center.

...

The next day.

This was it. His last day in Pewter City.

Over a week as a trainer. Four days spent right here. It almost felt surreal he would leave so soon from what he expected to be weeks of stay.

If he wanted to make it as a trainer. He had to travel. He had to train. He had to battle. He couldn't just stay in one place, it was more good than bad for him that they were going to leave this early, the more time for them to train and challenge the next gym and make their chances higher on participating in the Indigo Conference. It was a harsh reality that he had to face. His little vacation in Pewter City was over. He couldn't grow complacent with the places that he visited, and it was something that he had to accept.

This morning, he had called Marcia to inform her that he was leaving. Although his mother advised he should rest for some time to calm his nerves from the Gym Battle and for his pokemon, Cinder decided against it, they could rest along the way and at the same time maybe even get some battles done, to earn themselves income for supplies on the next city they would visit, which would be Cerulean City, the closest city where he could challenge a Gym and also see what the city has to offer, he was especially expecting the famous performance he constantly heard of by his friend's, Dom, desire and yapping by the sensational sisters.

The outskirts of Pewter City were just ahead of them.

Cinder and his team rested at the waiting place, where Dom and Diana would be meeting him. Both knew that they'd be leaving today, and this was also the day where they were finally going to re-challenge Brock. Cinder had faith that they could win, and looked forward to hearing from them.

During the wait, Storm, Hercule and Fafnir got out of their pokeball to have some time playing. Ever since his evolution, the ovine pokemon was now noticeably much livelier.

As the sheep, tadpole and dragon trio had fun not too far away, Cinder stayed close, keeping an eye out for his pokemon. They had been here for about twenty minutes at this point…

"Hey Cinder!"

The boy smiled as Dom and Diana came running, Diana happily waving her arm in the air with Dom quickly following behind.

Noticing them, Storm, Hercule and Fafnir returned to their trainer's side, offering friendly greetings to the two fellow rookie trainers as they arrived.

Raising a hand in greeting, Cinder beamed at them as they stopped in front of him and his pokemon. "Hey, you guys! How'd it go?"

Diana was positively giddy as she held her hand up towards his face. Cinder immediately saw why as he noticed the Boulder Badge between her fingers. His smile grew brighter.

"Congratulations!"

Diana's grin could have split her face in half. "I know, Thanks!" she was jumping up a bit, as if high on her ecstasy. "The battle this time wasn't against an Onix, lucky for me, Brock instead used a Rhyhorn, which wasn't so smart."

Glancing over at Dom, who didn't seem nearly as overjoyed, Cinder offered his other friend a curious look. "What about you?"

Rubbing the back of his neck somewhat bashfully, Dom offered an awkward smile. "Heh. Sorry." he held up his hand. "Just barley lost by the slightest bit of smidges." he pressed his thumb and index finger together as he said that, as if to emphasize. Cinder frowned.

"Oh… sorry…" he wasn't so sure what else to say. He knew that Dom had been just as passionate about all of this as Diana was. How did he feel, seeing Diana get her first ever Gym Badge when he didn't?

But Dom waved it off rather quickly. "Nah man, it's all fine. I'm just going to keep training for a couple more days before re-challenging him. I'm already right there, so I just gotta break through the edge, y'know?"

He sounded convincing enough, but Cinder could still just barely detect the disappointment in his voice. Nevertheless, the optimism greatly outweighed it.

His attention was brought back to Diana as he felt her hand on his shoulder. "So… I guess you're all leaving now?" Her smile was a sad one. Cinder returned it with one of his own.

"Yeah… I'd love to stay, but that's exactly why I have to leave. If I don't go while I have the chance, I'll never want to. I've grown too complacent being here."

They both seemed a bit saddened by his answer, but understanding was worn on their features as well. They both knew exactly what he was talking about.

"Heh, okay." Said Diana with a sad smile. "Just be safe out there, okay?"

"Especially when you get inside the caves in Mount Moon, don't get lost." Dom piped in.

A light giggle escaped from Cinder's throat. "Yeah, I'll… do that…"

It was a pretty bittersweet moment. Happy to be moving on, unhappy to be leaving everything behind. Not nearly as difficult as leaving Pallet Town, but it still hurts, nonetheless.

Dom and Diana couldn't let out their own respective teams since they were all still recovering from their battles with Brock. So they settled for simply exchanging goodbyes with Cinder's Pokemon.

After exchanging a quick handshake with Diana and a fist-bump with Dom, Cinder waved goodbye as he found himself exiting the city, he recalled all three of his pokemon. The boy looked back at the city fondly before continuing on ahead, keeping his focus on the main road that would take him and his team to Mt. Moon.

So much time spent in that one city. He wouldn't be forgetting it any time soon, and neither would his team.

But for now, the memories would be all that they had.

...

Dom and Diana sat outside of an ice cream shop, sipping their milkshakes (Dom with a rockyroad and Diana with a strawberry) as they watched a few passerby.

It had been a couple of hours since Cinder and his team had left. They were still waiting for their own pokemon to recover from the battles against Brock.

Diana let out a sigh as she took a break from sipping her shake.

"We really should have asked him to stay with us." She gave Dom a look. "Wasn't that your idea, by the way? Why didn't you bring it up before he left?"

Dom rubbed the back of his neck as his face adopted an apologetic look. "Sorry. I was going to ask him, honestly. But then I lost the battle… he'd have to stay here for longer, and I really didn't want to slow him down like that."

She gave a small, sympathetic grin in response to his regretful look. "It's fine, don't worry. I understand." She looked off to the side, in the direction of the outskirts (which weren't visible from here). "He helped us out a lot, though. I'm glad of the time we had with him."

Dom smiled more genuinely this time. "Yeah, same here. He's still probably ahead of us, though. Especially after Storm evolved. We'll both catch up eventually." He blinked. "...right after I beat Brock, of course. Heh heh."

Diana nodded. "Right, I'm sure you can do it. I'll keep helping you train. And then, we can both get out of here, too."

Dom nodded back. "Yeah, thanks."

...

Cinder had already double checked his supplies from what he bought from the Poke Mark while his team was healing. He had everything he needed to get through Mount Moon; rope, flashlight, jacket, and so on.

Cinder walked from the outskirts to the runner entrance about a hundred yards away. He looked up, noting that Mount Moon's highest peaks were hidden in the cloud. The mountain was absolutely gigantic, but he knew it was relatively small compared to some of the tallest mountains discovered in the world. Mt. Silver for one. It was the highest peak of Kanto and Johto, though, even though it was dwarfed by the infamous Mt. Coronet in Sinnoh, which was said to touch the heavens.

As he was walking on the road, he was alone as he had his pokemon rest and had them inside their respective pokeball. However, he still has some matters to attend to.

So, he stopped at a relatively enough clearing and released out his pokemon.

Storm, Hercule, and Fafnir waited for him to speak. Cinder smiled at his three partners. "Okay guys, I've got a couple of things to say. First off, we're going through a deep cave that is inhabited by the Zubat species everywhere, with the occasional rock and ground-types. That's just a heads up so everyone would know what place we are going to. Additionally, Storm has evolved, which is a great occasion."

The sheep puffed up proudly. Hercule rolled his eyes, but nonetheless, had given his own congratulation while he talked with his teammate with some things, and Fafnir began to excitedly look over Storm in wonder. Cinder went on. "We're challenging the Cerulean City Gym next when we pass Mount Moon. The Gym Leader there uses water-types, so Storm you're also gonna be participating. From what I've heard, it's probably going to be a three-on-three battle, since we have earned a badge now. Hercule, you'll be fighting as well. Sorry, but we don't have any other options right now. You two are the only trained pokemon I have, which left us with another spot for a pokemon for the three-on-three, Fafnir, because you are still a newborn, you're out of the question, maybe next Gym, bud."

Hercule grinned, slapping his belly with his tail while shooting a Water Gun in the air, rearing for another gym battle, not at all fazed by the defeat earlier in the day, Cinder was happy at that. The prospect of fighting other water-types didn't deter the water tadpole at all. He swished his fin-like tail back and forth a few times and gurgled eagerly. Cinder smirked at this and nodded. "Glad to see you raring to go. You'll need to be."

"The second thing I have to talk about is our newest team mate," Cinder told them. "It's a Starly - one of the caged pokemon we had saved at the Viridian Forest from the clutches of Team Rocket. Remember?"

Storm and Hercule nodded, though Fafnir didn't because he hadn't been there, but all three of them knew that their trainer got that pokemon as their new teammate from the day the young boy got it, also Cinder occasionally chatted to them about the avian. Cinder held out a pokeball so they could all get a whiff of Starly's scent. "Listen, Starly was abused by its previous owners, so I need you guys to be on your best behavior. If it tries to attack us, restrain it, but don't hurt it. We have to convince Starly that we're its friends, we should show a good impression. If we can't get through to it, Jenny will have to take it away and…well, let's not talk about what might happen if it comes to that."

His team made sounds in a chorus of agreement. Cinder took a deep breath and held his finger over the release button. "Get ready. This probably isn't going to go so well right off the bat."

He set the avian loose.