8 Ch.8

After leaving the city and entering route three, I decided we would head directly to the Proficient Trainer's recommended area. I am now a Competent Ranked Trainer, though Leo is stronger than that area's commonly seen Pokémon. So we would be heading into the area that would give us a challenge. However, we would still treat every battle with caution. 

As we traveled through the forest we passed many low-level bug types, flying types, and normal types of Pokémon. Until we reached the area where we intended to spend our time, unlike the video games or anime, to reach Cerulean City you didn't need to pass through Mt. Moon. Route Three and Four were connected and led straight to the city. I was still considering entering Mt. Moon, if I felt we could handle it. Though its lowest area was for Proficient Trainers. 

We spent the first week in the forest doing what we did the last time we were in the wilderness. Training, battling, and exploring the forest, plus so far we found no Pokémon that gave us trouble. 

"Grow-growlithe," Leo says alerting me that he caught a new smell nodding my head we follow it. 

Upon arriving at the area we see a small Flock of Fearow fighting, killing, and eating a small group of Mankey. All the Mankey are fighting to the last of their ability refusing to give up, that, or their anger blinded them to their natural enemy. Leo and I watched this fight with fascination, while I scanned the Pokémon present to see if maybe one of them was worth saving. 

As I was scanning the Fearow were all yellow ranked, except one was orange ranked. Then I scanned the remaining three Mankey with two of them being yellow ranked. While the one fighting the hardest had red-ranked potential. 

'Shit! Leo! One of them has Red Ranked Potential!' I say through our connection while gesturing to the one Mankey fighting the hardest. 

'Growlithe,' Leo says back sniffing towards the Mankey. 

'We are going to save that one, the other two are not a priority. So whatever happens, we focus on catching the red-ranked one,' I say to Leo who nods his head as he prepares his moves before jumping out and attacking the Fearows. 

Leo used his wild charge to close the distance and hit one of the five Fearows, taking it down instantly. Making everyone look in surprise at the sudden appearance of Leo and me. This gave the Mankey we wanted to land a hit on one of the other Fearows making it cry out in pain. 

The battle then quickly turned into chaos, as the Mankeys' rage made them blind to their surroundings. Making them attack everything, even the inanimate objects like trees and rocks. However, the red-ranked one seemed smarter than the others and was able to control its rage to a certain extent by focusing on its enemies. 

As the battle raged on as Leo was focusing on attacking the Fearow and avoiding the raging Mankeys. One of the Mankeys died by raging indiscriminately and getting a super effective hit on it from a Fearow. This made the red-ranked one almost lose itself in rage seeing another of its group die. 

I was directing Leo to take out the remaining Fearow quickly, as I distracted the other completely enraged Mankey. Leo nodded his head but looked at me with worry. Though he'd not disobey my order unless he felt my life was in danger. 

"Hey, ugly pig-faced fucker! Come to me!" I say to the already insane Mankey as it looks over at me and I mock it. This made it even more enraged as it charged me. 

"MANKEY!!!" the little rage machine screeches before charging me. 

'Oh shit….' I think as I use my psychic abilities to chuck rocks at it and other loose things around me. Though it seems to have no effect on the raging Mankey. 

I then began running around dodging the little crazy thing as Leo finished up removing the Fearows. The other Mankey we wanted seemed to understand Leo and I were assisting it, so it helped Leo with its extremely well-controlled rage. 

Just as the Mankey grabbed a rock to chuck at me all of a sudden it froze in place before collapsing on the ground. I slowly approached the little Mankey and saw it died from over-exerting itself. 

'Stupid little angry fuckers,' I think as I look over to see Leo and the one I want to catch have finally finished up. 

"Good job Leo!" I say petting him and giving him a treat as the Mankey we want to catch is looking around the battlefield of dead Pokémon with a face of mixed emotions. It seems to have heavy sorrow and anger mixed together as it looks around. 

"Mankey, I want you to join me and become one of my partners. I will make you the strongest out of all your species, that is my promise," I say to it as it looks over to me before giving me and Leo a look over. Then it gets into a battle stance. 

"Leo, ready for another battle?" I say as I don't look away from the Mankey with Leo growling in agreement. 

"Leo use Flame Charge!" I say as Leo charges the Mankey covered in fire. 

Mankey stays unmoving and just as Leo is about to connect it moves just out of the way and lands a low kick on Leo who grunts in pain. The move was super effective but Leo has a very high pain tolerance now, showing that it didn't hurt as much as it really did. 

"Leo use Flamethrower!" I say this since Mankey appears much more in control of itself than its kind is normally. 

This time Mankey jumps out of the Flamethrower's reach trying to land Cross Chop on Leo as it lands. Though Leo cancels his move and uses Head Smash against it making the Mankey cry in pain and surprise as its move is overpowered by Leo. Head Smash is Leo's ace move and strongest one too. 

Mankey crashes to the ground and gets up though I can see the anger in its eyes as the last hit was a critical one. Apparently, this Mankey's ability is 'Anger Point' meaning on a critical hit, its attack stat skyrockets. 

'Shit!' I think seeing that it could now potentially win this since its attack just went above Leo's most definitely. 

"Leo finish this quickly! With another Flamethrower!" 'Use another head smash as it tries to dodge your Flamethrower like last time,' I say to Leo with the second command through our connection. 

Seems Mankey bought the trick as it dodged Leo's Flamethrower but ducked under it instead of jumping over it. Though Leo was better prepared this time and already charged it with another Head Smash. Mankey it seems was a quick learner too, as it prepared Focus Punch. 

'Shit!!' I think though Leo was able to hit before Mankey was able to land it's hit. Leo was just slightly faster, giving us the win as Mankey flew back and crashed into a rock nearby. 

Leo let out a howl of triumph as Mankey was unconscious on the ground. I gave him another treat as I threw a Pokéball to catch the Mankey. Without any struggle, Mankey was caught. Unlike registering Leo with a bunch of paperwork, as an official Trainer, all I had to do was place the Pokéball near my Pokédex then click to confirm its registration and it would register it to me officially. 

After registering the Mankey, I could check all the information on it. From everything I saw, it seems this Mankey is a rare catch. I was excited about the future even more now that my Team is growing with strong Pokémon. I then left the area where all the dead Pokémon were after collecting the parts that would sell. 

Once I found a suitable and relatively safe place, I released Mankey and saw it was still heavily injured though awake now. Leo stood by me while watching the Mankey closely, since even after catching a Pokémon, especially more rody types like Mankey, it could attack the trainer that caught it. Mankey however, stood there unmoving while giving Leo and I another careful look, as if judging us on whether or not we are worthy of it's presence. 

"Mankey, I am going to heal your wounds," I say bringing out some supplies to heal it. Mankey nods its head while watching Leo back closely, the two are now in what appears to be a staring contest. 

"Anyway… now that you are a part of the team. There are some rules and things I will expect you to follow. For starters, I am your trainer, Lucas and this is my first partner, Leo," I say introducing us to Mankey who finally removes his stare from Leo to look at me nodding its head. 

I then explain to him what I expect from him, what his training will be like, and how I expect him to act around others. Though from what I thought would be a long time of breaking his natural habits, this Mankey really does seem different than normal. Much more calm and relaxed, while taking what I say with earnest attention. 

"Good, unless you want to be in your Pokéball or if I have to put you in it, you can remain outside it," I say since we are in the wilderness and because I have only these two Pokémon so it won't be a big deal once we get to the city. 

It's a rule across the League that you cannot have more than two Pokémon outside their Pokéballs or if they are too big in the major cities. Pokémon like Onix, Steelix, Garados, etc. In towns, the rules are different depending on the policies in place there, whereas major cities follow the rules directly in place from the League. 

We then spend the next few weeks roaming the forest around Mt. Moon training, battling, and exploring. With both my Pokémon leveling up, both Leo and Mankey entered the next stage of Pokémon, the Baron Rank. Though I told Mankey to hold on evolving until I told him he should. I was able to have my Dad send me Everstone, I paid him for it and I gave it to Mankey as a belt. 

This allowed him to not worry about stopping his own evolution as the stone would do that for him. Mankey also grew very close to Leo and me, fairly quickly coming to see us as his new 'colony'. However, he saw Leo as more of a rival, which in turn made both Pokémon train even harder and gave them both a reason to get stronger. 

"So, do you guys want to travel through Mt. Moon to our next stop, or should we just stick to the Routes?" I ask my two Pokémon who both give me a determined look. 

"Mt. Moon it is," I say knowing they both like battling and seeking new challenges. 

We then start our course to spend the last few weeks traveling through Mt. Moon to Cerulean City. Arriving outside the designated entrance to Mt. Moon, I give my Pokémon one last look to see if they are ready. They both nod their heads with determined looks. We then descend into the fairly light cave entrance of Mt. Moon. 

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AN: If you want to see all of Mankey's info, check the 'Pokémon Team' chapter. Moving forward every time a new Pokémon is added to the team, their info will be added to that chapter so look there for more info.