Battle against Brock

I decided to battle Brock first since Ash actually listened to Misty and took her up on her offer to help him. Walking into the gym it's pitch black before all the light come on at once showing Brock waiting for me.

"So, another challenger." He says

"Yes."

"Very well this will be a 2 on 2 match, Pokémon league rules."

"Very well then."

With that I sent out Ignea and he sent out Onix just like he would have with Ash.

"Charmander, huh? You're confident aren't you."

"Yes."

Now the battle begins with Ignea rushing in for a metal claw. We had went over this battle before hand since I knew what Pokémon he had, and now that I'm not restricted by how the game features attacks I could get a little creative.

While she's charging she also starts spitting embers at Onix's eyes to obscure its vision or hopefully impair it. It seems to be working as Ignea reaches Onix as its shaking its head back and forth. Running up it's snake like body Ignea leaves Metal claw marks up it's body as she reaches the head where she slams both her claws down on the crown of the Onix causing it rare back and roar in pain.

It recovers and goes for a bind, but I warned Ignea about this, she quickly evades the constricting tail and hits back with her own tail right on Onix's face. It's clear Onix is very weak at this point and Ignea goes for another double metal claw, but was just too late and got smacked back by Onix's tail into some rocks. Damage evident, though it seemed to only make Ignea angry rather than pain her. With a chuckle I call for her to end it which she does by repeating the ember strat, but this time running behind the onix rather than the front. Jumping up she delivers a brutal iron tail to the back of Onix's head KOing it.

After Onix collapsed Ignea started to glow from her evolution into Charmeleon. A feeling I wasn't used to welled up inside me, pride. It felt good to defeat someone especially a gym leader while I'm technically at a disadvantage. It felt good to see Ignea, my first Pokémon, evolve after all our hard work on this journey. I did something I hadn't done genuinely in a long time. I smiled. A genuine smile. Not one that feels forced to make other people feel good, not one that you use because it's expected, but a real smile filled with joy. It was brief however because of how strange and foreign it felt. It made me feel stupid for getting so happy over something.

Quickly dropping my smile I efficiently command Ignea, now a Charmeleon, to easily wipe the floor with Brock's Geodude. Claiming my badge, I recall Ignea and head back to the Pokémon center to let her rest. I guess she knew something was wrong because she popped out of her Pokéball in front of me, staring intently at me. With a sigh I stroke her head.

"You did great Ignea, truly a great battle. I'm glad to have you as my partner." She didn't budge though, no matter if she was happy to be praised by her trainer. It seemed she wouldn't accept it until I was alright.

"You're such a worrier already Ignea, really thank you. Maybe another time I'll tell you everything, but for now let's get some rest because we head for cerulean city tomorrow." I give her a slight lip raise that I suppose symbolized a smile. She acquiesced, although begrudgingly with a side eye that pretty much yelled this will be discussed one day before getting back in her ball.

The night came and went, it seems even with Misty's help Ash still lost his first match to Brock. Not surprising since he really doesn't have great Pokémon for this first gym. This does however give me a chance to leave them behind, and get a free Cerulean gym badge. This way I won't have to worry about Ignea having to battle a water gym alone.

With my mind made up I left in the early morning for Mt. Moon which separates Pewter and Cerulean City. I won't lie, there was a slight tugging in my chest leaving them behind, but I've always been a loner. It would only be a matter of time before I drove them away unwillingly, at least this way it can be on my terms. I'm sure I'll meet them again anyways.

In the show Team Rocket is here, but I guess I got here soon enough to avoid them. We used Mt Moon to train Ignea as we made it through. Her Dragon claw was coming along nicely, and we were already planning around her newly learned smokescreen as well. This will give us more strategic options. Now to just start getting to Flamethrower which shouldn't be too much longer.

Exiting the cave we came across a forest, and as we were walking a Bulbasaur walked out of the woods. Finally I can add my second member to the team. Calling out Ignea we make quick work of the grass type and I capture it easily in the Pokéball. Naming him Mortiflos, which is just a combination of Flos Mortiferum, Latin for Deadly Flower. I'm gonna call him Flos for short though.

Making it to Cerulean I head straight to the gym since I know I won't have to battle them, after getting my badge from them in between shows I head to the Pokémon center to rest Ignea and Flos. With that out of the way I can rest the rest of the day and begin my journey to Vermilion City in the morning. I'm gonna take it slow and try to evolve Flos before I get there, or close to it and let him battle Surge's Pokémon. Gonna have Flos be a heavy poison type and just wittle down Surge's Pokémon with poison and then grass moves from a distance.

I did come across AJ and beat him, it was a tough match though. Vine whips from Flos weren't really effective because of Sandshrews training, but with poison powder and razor leaves I slowly chipped away at him. We didn't see it in the show but he sent out beedrill next, which after a tough battle resulted in a double KO of the beedrill and Flos. Both down to our last Pokémon, he only had a rattata though, so Ignea easily wiped the floor with it.

He let me rest at his training facility while Flos recuperated from the battle. This proved to be the wrong move though because that's when Ash and gang showed up. Sigh. I guess I was taking too much time, not to mention resting here for a couple hours. I guess it's just meant to be.

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Author's note: I would say this is going to be the length and the typical story formula. I was gonna have him stay separate until St. Anne, but when I thought about it they were never that far behind. So with MC taking his time and resting for a few hours, they were bound to catch up. Plus how else is MC gonna get a squirtle lol.

The battles have been one sided so far, and honestly it just seems like that because I'm writing from what's going through MCs head. Brock did have counter moves I just didn't know how to write it all where it would make sense and not take the whole chapter on it's own. I'll try to get better about it though.

Even though I didn't need to I kinda forced a Bulbasaur here, and there's gonna be a squirtle coming up soon from the squirtle squad. MC will also catch the Gastly from the episode with the "ghost of the woman who was waiting for her love to return from the war". That's all for spoilers though on when I'll get the rest of my Pokémon. Though one of them is pretty obvious where I'll get it. I mainly spoiled squirtle and Gastly because I'm thinking of skipping those episodes and going straight to Vermilion and St. Anne for the next chapter.

Current team

Ignea - Charmeleon F

Mortiflos(Flos)-Bulbasaur M

Thanks for reading

-TaediumVitae