Chapter 15: The two challenges

The bus waiting for them at the West Gate once he and Mia arrived was almost painfully stereotypical. It was one of those yellow boxes with a flat front and about 48 seats. In fact, this was probably the same bus that had taken Joey to and from courses during his first days of school and trainer classes.

Before he'd decided that he would rather walk and spare his eardrums.

Saffron was a big city, almost half a million people lived in it, and while Joey enjoyed walking, and knew it was important to get his muscles in decent shape now, other children didn't share his opinion. He thought of it as a community service, to free up a spot on the thing.

Today, however, it seemed that the bus would remain mostly empty. He counted only six people waiting for them. Ruth, the old lady who seemed to be the most passionate defender the youngster program had. Her washed-out Butterfree was sitting on her shoulder, seemingly not weighing her down at all. Next to her was a man who could only be a bus driver, and who probably also worked as a gate guard going by the Growlithe at his side. The last adult was some older trainer Joey didn't know. About 17 years old, dressed in a dark green tracksuit and with green hair. He looked serious and there were six poke-balls at his belt. The cavalry, most likely. Even travelling between cities, it was safer to have some real protection around.

There were three children already present, Hitoshi, Michael and Sabrina. The latter was carrying an Abra in her arms, and an Eevee plush was poking its head out of her backpack. Joey hefted his own, which didn't have much, other than a change of clothes, some food and berries, several bottles of water and hygiene and grooming articles.

"You're late," Hitoshi said with gritted teeth once Joey joined the group, but only peripherally. Sabrina, surprisingly, stepped towards him, leaving Michael and Hitoshi alone. The two boys looked at each other and took a step away from each other. "Can we leave already," the karate-gi-clad boy whined, turning to Ruth.

The old woman looked away from the conversation she was having with the driver and gave him a withering glare. "No, we're still waiting for one person. Departure time is in 5 minutes."

Joey scratched his chin, still not finding any stubble there. That frustrated him. He turned to Mia. "Who else is coming? Hitoshi is the only gym trainer eligible for the bus from what I know, and the other youngsters have mostly given up, no?" he asked.

The girl who usually had the answer to his questions, due to being much more sociable and interested in other people looked up, trying to remember who else could be coming, before shaking her head. "No idea, actually. Michael, you and Sabrina are the only youngsters I know who still train regularly and challenge other people to battles."

"Someone's coming," Sabrina said very quietly, stroking her Abra's head with one hand. Her eyes were glowing blue, as was quite usual with the girl. The trio turned around and saw a boy running towards them, emerging from the bustling street of Saffron with its high-rise apartment buildings, into the desolate area around the gate.

He was dressed in a wide-brim straw hat, blue shorts, and a beige tank top and was wildly waving his arms at them. As if they were going to leave while watching him run to the bus.

Joey turned to Sabrina suspiciously. "With this psychic awareness thing you do…" he trailed off.

The girl tilted her head and looked at him.

"Do you also become aware of people when they're pooping on the toilet, or do you blend it out?"

Sabrina stared at him, uncomprehendingly, before promptly turning around and walking away from their little group.

"That was brutal," Mia muttered.

"A man's gotta know what a man's gotta know," Joey defended himself, as the obvious bug-catching youngster finally arrived in the middle of the departing group and bent down to breathe harshly with his hands on his knees.

"Sorry for being late!" the boy exclaimed.

"You're two minutes early," Ruth said kindly, at which the boy breathed a sigh of relief.

"Never seen this kid in my life," Joey said.

"He was at the exams. Took a Caterpie, I think," Mia replied. "Haven't seen him since though."

"Alright, youngsters!" Ruth shouted. She clapped her hands together loudly to get everyone's attention. "Everyone's here, get on the bus!" she ordered, and stood by with the older trainer as everyone took their positions. Joey waited to be the last to get on, which naturally made Mia wait as well. Once he finally braved the iron mesh stairs of the vehicle he sat down in the first row. Hitoshi and Michael both took the last big one, but on opposite sides so they could both stare out of their own window, chin on hand. Very broody and mysterious. The bug-catcher sat somewhere in the middle, nervously fidgeting in his seat, and Sabrina caught Joey looking at her where she was in the first third of the bus. She promptly shot him a disgusted look and teleported more towards the back.

"Weird girl," Joey commented and received a baffled look from his friend.

"You're weird." She released Lil Mouse from her Pokeball and started to groom the purple rat.

Joey did the same with his starter, and the two of them started chittering at each other. Talking about whatever Rattata talked about when they got together.

'I think that you're ignoring the very real possibility of swing votes from the younger parent population turning the tides in the upcoming election. The last mayor's campaign promise is after all directed at such an audience with its base on affordable housing,' he imagined his Rattata saying.

'Alas, my friend, you are suffering under the belief fallacy of the uninformed voter,' Lil Mouse replied. 'Simply because he promised to work on affordable housing, does not mean it is actually possible. Expand? To where exactly? We are surrounded on all sides by protected territory. The city cannot go anywhere, but up. He is claiming to work on something which is a lost cause, the voter base will recognise that and refuse to forgive him for his conservative tendencies, which is he trying to gloss over with this supposed initiative.'

"Heh, politicians," Joey muttered to himself. "Always up to their old tricks."

"So, what's your plan for the Celadon gym, Jonathan," a grey blur suddenly said to his left, causing the boy to startle and turn his head. Ruth had sat down right behind the driver, on the left aisle of the front row. The trainer was standing in the front of the bus, hand on his belt and looking around warily as the iron gate of the city opened and the bus drove out onto the road.

"Well, I have a Metapod with Shed Skin, String Shot, and Bug Bite," Joey answered. "Even if she doesn't manage to knock out his first Pokemon, enough String Shots will slow it down for Rattata." He nodded towards his starter. "After that, it's the basics. Dodge the ranged attacks, get in close and knock 'em dead with a good Hyper Fang or two." He shrugged. "Can't do much else than that."

"Ah, so you caught yourself a Pokemon of the Butterfree line," Ruth said with a sage nod. "Good decision. They're often underestimated because they don't have a speciality, but their variability is incredible. Psychic moves, status effect powders, flying capabilities and bug-type escapades. You can really confuse an opponent with a Butterfree."

That was the end of that, and she stood up to go to the back of the bus, presumably to ask Sabrina the same question.

"She likes you." Mia giggled.

"Well, me and Sabrina are winning her program some badges. She'll probably ask you about your strategy as well when we go to Vermillion on the next bus in three months," Joey said with a laugh.

"You think I can do it?" Mia asked hesitantly.

"You and Lil Mouse have been training for three months now, and you don't have any particular disadvantage against grass or poison-type moves. I don't see why you couldn't," Joey replied and received a beaming smile for his efforts. He'd just been telling the truth, so he didn't quite know why.

The trainer standing at the front of the bus suddenly butted into their conversation, without taking his eyes off the route. "The first badge challenge isn't supposed to be insurmountable. It's almost always achievable with some training. It's after the fourth badge that the difficulty really goes up. You can train all you want then, but you'll need some inspiration to get you through," the boy? Man? Shared.

"I heard the same thing, supposedly we're a bit unlucky with neighbouring Cerulean and Vermillion too. They're both supposed to be really hard, even before that," Joey replied.

"Surge is certifiably insane," the trainer agreed with a nod. "That Raichu of his is no joke. If you want to stand a chance I highly suggest you get a technical machine for Dig. It's an easy ground-type move that Rattata can learn."

"And we'd have three months to perfect it!" Mia exclaimed.

"Thanks for the advice," Joey said. The priority of Dig was raised a bit in his mind in comparison to the other options. It was always important to listen to advice. Although… Maybe he should verify who it was coming from first. "How come you're taking this job. I can't imagine it's the most exciting thing in the world," he asked.

"It's fine," the man shrugged. "I placed top eight in last year's conference, but what really bothered me was the fact that I was short on money during the whole journey. This year I decided to not travel and raise some cash, so I can just fly between gyms and do some serious training in between." He turned around briefly and flashed them a friendly grin.

"Name's Elio, by the way."

"I'm Mia, and this is Joey."

"Nice to meet you, I should probably go back to focusing on the route though. I am getting paid after all. We can talk more in Celadon after your gym battle." Josh said, before turning around again, signalling the end of the conversation.

The bus ride didn't take that long, and due to the constraints of being essentially locked inside the iron machine which drove over a bumpy road, which made looking nauseating, Joey simply spent the time brushing Rattata and chatting away with Mia. It was better than sitting there in silence, which he got to do often enough anyway.

They hadn't been attacked by anything through the whole one-hour journey and had in fact not even seen a Pokemon. Overall, it was a vastly underwhelming experience, and Joey heard Hitoshi complaining that a Ryhorn should have attacked them so that he could have whopped its ass.

Personally, Joey was quite right with not being attacked by any more wild Pokemon in the near future.

They eventually reached Celadon, drove in and just continued driving through the city. It didn't look all too different than Saffron, although there was definitely more green everywhere and the architecture was more traditional. They exited the bus after it had stopped in front of a large Japanese mansion which must have been their hotel, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"I honestly thought we'd just be sleeping in a Pokecentre," Joey said once he and Mia had shuffled off the bus. "I didn't expect the government to be so wasteful with their money."

"Doesn't look like a hotel or an inn to me," the girl said hesitatingly.

"What do you mean?" Joey said while examining the architecture. It reminded him very much of a high-class inn, with only one floor, a zen garden and paper doors.

"There's no sign. I've never seen an inn with no sign on it."

Joey looked again, before nodding. "You're right." He agreed, just as Ruth stepped in front of the group.

The old woman tried coughing a few times to get everyone's attention, which must have been taking too long because she eventually just screamed for everyone to, "shut up!" She had an oddly loud and commanding voice, although any retired trainer likely had a few tricks for sounding authoritative. The kids, Elio and the bus driver settled down, although the latter two hadn't really been making any of the noise. "As you should all well be grateful, rather than the money for a hotel coming from the league budget, which is tight due to preparing something else for youngsters, the gym leader of Celadon has graciously offered us the use of his house." She looked around, trying to measure the general level of gratefulness. It didn't seem to be that high, and she scoffed. "Yes, Jonathan?" she asked once she saw him raising a hand.

"Why are we sleeping over at all, actually. The bus ride just took one hour, we could be back in the evening," he said.

"Are you complaining?" Ruth asked suspiciously, causing the youngster to shake his head.

"No, just curious."

"We're doing it to avoid variables such as wild Pokemon attacking us on the road, delaying our travel. We're doing it so that in case any of the battles runs long, we don't have to go back during the night, which is generally inadvisable. It's better to not risk having to rush through anything," the league official explained patiently, before smiling. "Also, well, it's not that easy to get to other cities before one is a full-fledged trainer. This is seen as good prep for you to explore a new place. After all, after the gym battle you will have the whole afternoon to explore."

"I'm going to win first!" Hitoshi exclaimed. "Then I'm ditching you losers," he said, crossing his arms and putting on an arrogant smile.

"I heard that you could get a Sycther in the game-corner." Joey heard the bug-catcher mutter to himself.

"If you win the badge," he said, at which the boy just shrugged, seemingly confident.

"Anyway," Ruth continued. "Elio, Larry, you're dismissed until tomorrow morning when we go back. The lodgings are ready for you, but you're adults so I'm sure you have your own plans for the day."

"I think I'll take to the training fields."

"The best yakitori in the country is in this city."

The two of them promptly left.

"Alright, they're gone," Ruth muttered to herself, before addressing the kids again. "Just wait here. I'll get the gym leader, you'll drop off your luggage, and then we have a three-hour slot reserved in the gym for all your battles." She went towards the front door of the house and rang the doorbell, at which point she was greeted by what must have been Tadghsiobhan. He was dressed in a green kimono and seemed to be somewhere in his forties, just that he was much better preserved than Kong had been. A wiry physique topped off by a mop of short and messy black hair. A girl peeked out her head from behind him and eeped when she was Joey watching. The sound didn't escape her father, and Erika, the future gym leader of Celadon was promptly pushed forward towards the group of youngsters plus one asshole. She came over with a red face, which complemented her red headband and her red kimono.

"Hello. I am Erika, a gym-trainer. It's nice to meet you all," she said stiltedly when she arrived before the group, committing to an awkward traditional bow.

Knowing that the whole interaction would take too long if he didn't do something, Joey stepped forward, bowed, and introduced himself. "I am Jonathan, a beginning trainer from Saffron. I presume you are tasked with showing us to our rooms?" he asked, at which point the girl brightened up noticeably, smiled and turned around.

"Yes! Of course, please follow me!" she exclaimed and led them past the still-conversing Ruth and Tadghsiobhan, into the house. It turned out that they didn't have to walk far, as the first left took them to a wooden corridor with six guest rooms in it. The corridor faced the inside of the house courtyard, with its traditional stone garden and beautiful assortment of bonsai trees and flowers. A pair of Goldeen were swimming in the large pond and a group of Oddish, Bellsprout and Bulbasaur were all relaxing at the water's edge.

Each one of the five youngsters, plus asshole, dropped off their luggage. The rooms were austere, like the rest of the house, but they were recently cleaned and smelled fresh. Joey wasn't a fan of traditional Kanto architecture in terms of simple logistical reasons, but he had nothing bad to say about the aesthetics.

"You have a beautiful home. Is it generational, or simply the abode of the reigning gym leader?" Joey asked as he dropped off his backpack. Erika had stayed closer to him, likely because he'd been the one to address her.

"Ah, both actually. The gym is on the other side of the street," she explained. "So it is technically held by the league and leased to our family. We don't own it, but we have been the gym leaders since the inception of the word, during the great unification."

"A long and fabled history," Joey commented, causing the girl to blush, she did that a lot.

"And you, Jonathan?" she asked cluelessly, at which the boy just had to mirthlessly laugh.

"I'm an orphan, but so was the hero of this story, wasn't he?" he mused. The man who'd unified the warring clans and established what would later become the league structure. An orphan, like many today. He'd succeeded in making a legacy, but not in his goal of creating fewer orphans.

They just existed for different reasons now.

"Ah, I apologise," Erika said, hand going up to her mouth. Her lips wobbled. Perhaps this was the first time she was being an official role and was afraid of screwing it up?

"Don't worry about it," Joey placated. "How long have you been a gym trainer?" he asked, looking her up and down. She didn't look any older than him, but there was always a lot of variability involved in how one looked. She could have been anywhere from 10 to 14.

"I'm currently interning under my father as a gym trainer for the second year in a row. I will be going on my journey next year if all goes well."

"Oh," Joey said with a raised eyebrow. "Well, so will I. Perhaps we'll meet at the conference. It should be a fun battle, no?" he said.

A competitive gleam entered the girl's eyes and sparks flew between them. Unfortunately, their moment of rising tension was interrupted by Mia suddenly exiting the room she'd been assigned and asking a very important question.

"Excuse me, is there a bathroom here somewhere?" she asked awkwardly, throwing a suspicious look Sabrina's way, who looked outraged at the suggestion, scoffed, and teleported away.

"She does that," Joey quietly explained to Erika once she'd shown the children where the baths were.

-/-

It was half an hour after arriving at the house that the whole group was escorted to the gym. The gym leader walked in front of all of them alongside Ruth, deeply involved in a conversation about some sort of tournament. Erika took charge of the youngsters, plus one asshole, and was an elegant font of historical and architectural information on the very short journey from the house, towards the end of the street, towards the parallel street, and into a gigantic botanical garden which also served as the gym.

Joey couldn't help but be impressed. He usually wasn't such a big fan of glasshouses due to the humidity and the heat that usually pervaded them, but this one was nice and airy. Also large, couldn't forget large. It looked like a paradise, to be honest. All kinds of trees were reaching up to the ceiling, while the berry bushes planted and flowering more towards the ground were all bending under the weight of the fruit they were carrying.

All sorts of grass-type Pokemon scurried around, and at least Mia was completely beside herself at the cuteness of the Oddish and the Exeggcute all staring at the intruders with wide eyes. While Erika explained the names of the trees, and the requirements of their survival and growth, the whole group advanced further and further into the jungle, where they eventually reached a battling arena, with a referee and all. The chequered shirt-wearing man and the gym leader exchanged a simple nod, and the latter calmly walked to the other side of the arena, facing his daughter, the youngsters, Ruth, plus one asshole.

"If you think that this gym badge will come easily, then I'm afraid to disappoint you. The deep jungles are often referred to as the green hell, and that is the experience you will go through battling me," Tadghsiobhan boomed in a loud voice. A clearly rehearsed speech, but it did put a halt to most of the youngsters and even made Hitoshi shut up for a second.

"Who's going to be the first?" he asked menacingly, sweeping back his arm, the wide sleeve of the kimono he was wearing fluttering in the wind that shouldn't be there.

Joey raised an eyebrow, looked around, and quickly spotted a Venomoth buzzing its wings from beneath the crown of a palm tree. It seemed to notice that it was spotted and quickly flew off further into the green. The kimono sleeve stopped fluttering.

Without glancing back to see what the others were doing, Joey stepped forward from the group and unceremoniously stepped into the challenger's corner of the battlefield. He'd been considering what the preferable order would be for a while now, knowing since he'd gotten off the bus that they would all battle after each other, quickly.

Perhaps it would have made sense to go last, make the gym leader exhaust himself, and get used to his style of battling. But, Joey had been preparing for this match quite a while. He'd seen the battles on a screen, he didn't need to see them again. Also, if he went first it was most likely that Tadghsiobhan would use the Pokemon combination that Joey had trained for, an Oddish and a Bellsprout. After all, it's not like any gym had an infinite amount of every single Pokemon. After the first pair of Oddish and Bellsprout became too exhausted to continue, more exotic combinations would likely come out. Quite frankly, with a Metapod on his team, Joey needed all the help he could get and, if any of the others had come to the same conclusion, they would have stepped up by now. Someone had to go first, why not him?

"I challenge you to a battle for my second badge, gym leader Tadghsiohan," Joey said confidently. He took an alarmed step back once the man seemingly grew angry at his words, developing an incessant eyebrow twitch and a serious frown.

"He just mispronounced the gym leader's name on purpose, with the goal of pissing him off enough to get a real challenge. This is what I call the heart of a trainer," Ruth said in awe and he could just hear the other people nodding along as if that made perfect sense.

Joey grimaced and the gym leader gritted his teeth. "I accept your challenge, youngster." He paused. "May you learn a lot from this battle," he finished ominously.

Before the boy got the chance to correct his pronunciation, the referee called for the match to begin. It seemed like they weren't messing around. Tadghsiobhan wanted to get started with the weekend, and five youngsters, plus one asshole weren't going to stand between the man and a well-deserved pina colada.

Joey sighed and threw out the only Pokemon he could really start with, as Tadghsiobhan did the same. A hitched breath signifying relief escaped him as he saw that the man had sent out an Oddish against his Metapod, which made the whole situation somewhat salvageable.

"No wonder he didn't want to battle me. He caught a Metapod," Sabrina grumbled behind him, while Michael and Hitoshi sniggered.

Joey decided to blend them out for the rest of the match, the idiots. They'd see the extent of his genius soon enough.

The referee started the match and Tadghsiobhan didn't wait even a second with his first command. "Prepare the field," he ordered.

"Work your defences," Joey ordered at the same time, knowing what that specific command meant. The enemy Oddish spun in a dizzying circle, spewing miniature toxic spikes everywhere, covering every single piece of grass with the purple hooks. Metapod meanwhile, simply gleamed with a harsh white lustre, increasing her defences.

She got off two more Hardens, while the Oddish screamed its name and cast a Sunny Day, causing the heat and light penetrating the windows of the glasshouse to become incredibly harsh. However, that was when the pleasantries stopped. Tadghsiobhan liked to set up the field. Toxic Spikes so that the next opponent would get poisoned, and Sunny Day so that his next Pokemon could use Synthesis to their heart's content. After that? Well, he went straight for the offensive, "Acid," the man ordered. It was a decisive move, actually.

While Metapod had Shed Skin, the acid would still harm her a bit before the poison was removed from the system. Both grass and poison-type moves weren't that great against bug-type Pokemon, but it was smarter to stick to special poison attacks.

Unfortunately for Tadghsiobhan, this was exactly what Joey and Metapod had trained for. As Oddish spun in place once again, sending an extremely fast and accurate glob of poison-type sludge at Metapod, the latter simply opened her carapaced mouth and fired off a short burst of String Shot. The String Shot met the acid in mid-air, and everyone watched with a certain amount of disbelief as the two attacks met and cancelled out each other's kinetic energy. A mixture of white and purple goop fell to the ground between the two Pokemon.

"Commendable, but simple defence will only take you so far," Tadghsiobhan said with a sweeping arm gesture. Metapod, meanwhile, got off another Harden. "Oddish, Sleep Powder," he ordered, causing his Oddish to scrunch up its face in concentration.

Joey wanted to curse. If the man had used Poison Powder, then he would have told Metapod to tank it in return for getting a String Shot off at Oddish. A reel-in and Bug Bite would have finished the match. But Tadghsiobhan wasn't a gym leader for nothing.

"Wide defence," Joey was forced to order as the Oddish produced a completely insane amount of powder from the large leaves on its head and shot it into the air. The white powder gently floated down on Metapod's half of the field, where the bug-type was waiting with an open mouth, facing upwards. A large, but also insanely thin sheet of String Shot flew up, catching up all the powder directly above his Pokemon.

"Sweet Scent," Tadghsiobhan ordered calmly as the powder fell in a white circle around Metapod.

"String Shot the onion," Joey shouted desperately as Oddish started dancing, emitting a sweet scent from its pores. But the real issue was the wind component of the move, which stirred up the sleep powder and made it fly towards Metapod sideways from all directions. There was no way Metapod could block an omnidirectional attack, so her only opportunity was to hit the Oddish immediately. And she did. All that String Shot training paid off, and she nailed the blue Pokemon right in the face as it was committing to its dance. The grass type became completely covered in white sticky fluid, only the leaves on top of his head staying uncovered. A strong and thick line of String Shot connected the Oddish to the now sleeping Metapod.

"Poison Powder, same position," Tadghsiobhan ordered calmly, unbothered by the scorching sun which was making Joey sweat.

"Wake up!" the youngster shouted as a cloud of purple emitted from the top of Oddish's String Shot free head and descended on his sleeping Pokemon. But it was no use. The poison cloud enveloped Metapod, and it must have been a powerful concoction because she immediately started spasming in her sleep. How strong were these powders? Joey wondered. The sleep powder was strong enough to keep someone down while they were hurt by poison, and the poison could hurt someone who'd done a lot of exposure therapy. "You have to wake up!" he shouted again as he saw Oddish start melting its way out of the cocoon with Acid. Thankfully the string was infused with bug-type energy which was somewhat resistant to poison.

It was at that point that Tadghsiobhan made his first mistake of the match. He was watching the progress his Oddish was making in breaking out of its prison, something he couldn't affect, instead of checking up on Metapod. The bug-type was still asleep, but the poison had clearly been expunged from her system, the tell-tale purple glow leaving her body and the spasming coming to a halt.

Joey knew that Sleep Powder could not be applied ad infinitum, so he was just waiting for his moment, focusing his eyes on a point above the battle so he could keep both Pokemon in his line of sight from the periphery. That's why, when Metapod suddenly opened her eyes and stopped snoozing, he immediately ordered the next move while Tadghsiobhan was distracted looking at his Oddish and the white and purple mixture dripping down its still encased body. "Reattach the string and reel it!" Joey shouted desperately as he saw Metapod look around confusedly for a second. His words refocused her.

While Tadghsiobhan did shout for Oddish to dodge, the cocoon was still there and hampering its mobility. The String Shot re-established the connection which had previously been burned off by Acid. A second of silence passed through the battlefield as Joey and the gym leader locked eyes. A moment of understanding passed between them. Metapod started spinning her web, retracting the String Shot into her mouth. She was the heavier of the two, so it was Oddish who was proverbially picked off their feet and flew through the air in a wide arc towards the Metapod's awaiting maw.

The only thing it could do as it flew was release one more round of Poison Powder to cover the field, before a Bug Bite clenched down on its torso, easily severing the String Shot and digging into the onion's body.

Joey had never understood why bite moves in the game had all been single-use. After all, couldn't one simply refuse to let go? "Bite down like your life depends on it," he shouted encouragingly, while the gym leader screamed his own command.

"Acid! Straight down its throat," he ordered and the Oddish once again started generating the poisonous liquid while the aggressive bug-type energy wreaked havoc on its body. The poison travelled down the Oddish, straight into Metapod's mouth, but the Pokemon simply refused to let go.

Once Metapod was poisoned again, Tadghsiobhan ordered his Oddish to "Absorb," perhaps in a last-ditch attempt to prolong the exchange, hoping for Metapod to succumb to the poison. However, it was of no use, as the poisoned status barely lasted three seconds before disappearing again. The body of the Oddish eventually stopped struggling and went limp. But not before reapplying Sunny Day, bringing the scorching sun which had slowly started to dissipate back to its full glory.

Tadghsiobhan recalled the Oddish, a cocoon of String Shot falling to the ground limply once the thing it was attached to disappeared from its middle. The man looked Joey up and down seriously, framed by various grass types and trees. But Joey wasn't paying attention, to the gym leader or to the loud proclamations of surprise starting to arise from his back. His eyes were reserved only for Metapod.

"I'm proud of you, Metapod. You've come a long way since you hit me in the head with a String Shot that first time," he said. "Have a good rest," he continued, lifting a Pokeball and recalling the Pokemon. She still had a fight in her, but, if the Celadon gym leader battled in the way he usually would, a Bellsprout would be next. An agile beast that would soak up the sun and use Metapod's relative immobility to buff itself up to the absolute maximum. It was better to put his trust in Rattata, and not waste the formative experience of winning a battle against a gym leader on then immediately losing afterwards.

It was a testament to how exhausted his girl was that she didn't protest the decision and simply went back to her Pokeball. She was a Fighter but was also aware of her limits.

Joey looked back up at the gym leader, as the referee waved his flags to signal that Joey had withdrawn his Pokemon. If switching had been allowed, he could have saved her for a potentially exhausted Bellsprout if Rattata lost, but it wasn't. It would only open up as a possibility in future gym-battles.

The two trainers eyed each other warily. One because it was probably the first time he'd lost against a Metapod, and Joey because he was considering the jump in difficulty in comparison to the first badge. There was a definite progression happening. That Oddish alone had been more dangerous than the Mankey Kong had thrown out for his first badge challenge. And it had been just a set-up Pokemon as well. The real challenge came now.

"Trainers, release your Pokemon!" the referee shouted.

That's why he'd saved his ace in the hole for last.

"Rattata, battle station," Joey said as he released his starter. The rat materialised on his side of the field with a fierce growl that reminded Joey of a squeaky door that needed oiling. Luckily he didn't immediately land on one of the Toxic Spikes.

The gym leader, meanwhile, released a Bellsprout, as expected, really.

Once the referee started the match Joey immediately went on the offensive. "Close in, end it quickly but don't latch," he shouted, and Rattata blurred forward in a Quick Attack. It was a straightforward attack method, but sometimes simple speed could win the battle before it could properly start. Some youngsters and trainers in Saffron had learnt the hard way that momentum could be everything.

Unfortunately, Tadghsiobhan wasn't some inexperienced youngster or a fun-loving hobby-trainer. He was a hardened gym leader who'd probably seen it all at least once already. While a Metapod had managed to pull away at the man's footing, a Rattata was a much more common choice. "Leech Seed into Sweet Scent," he ordered.

"Avoid the Leech Seed and retreat further out after," Joey amended. However, what he'd missed was the fact that Tadghsiobhan hadn't ordered his Bellsprout to evade. The youngster and his Rattata were completely unprepared for the Bellsprout running into Rattata's Quick Attack, and taking it head-on. Perhaps they'd gotten too used to representing a serious physical threat others didn't take lightly, but just for a second, the altercation stunned Joey.

Bellsprout flinched back from the damage but managed to spit out a few Leech Seed during the brief point of contact, from so close up they were impossible to dodge. The two Pokemon broke apart, and Rattata suddenly covered in a few seeds already sprouting green vines. Bellsprout looked worse for wear from the powerful impact, but promptly spun around to complete the ordered Sweet Scent.

Joey didn't want Rattata to be disoriented by the move and wanted to interrupt it. "Interrupt the dance," he ordered, but it was here that his hesitation hurt him. Rattata sprang forward in an encumbered Quick Attack just a second too late, stepping on a Toxic Spike which tripped him up, and a ring of pink wind encircled the grass-type, picking up with it, all the poison and sleep powder that Oddish had thrown around earlier. Rattata fell to the floor and slid to a stop at Bellsprout's feet, asleep, and poisoned.

The situation was completely fucked, and to make matters worse, Bellsprout stepped back from Rattata, stretched its head, vines and leaves towards the sun, and began glowing a golden green. It was using synthesis to heal.

The youngster realised that he'd severely underestimated the complexity of this gym battle and that his preparations for Rattata's match hadn't been nearly thorough enough. But, what was done was done, and even if he thought that Tadghsiobhan was going a bit hard for this supposedly two-badge match, there was only one thing he could do.

Shout helplessly. "Wake up! Rattata!" he screamed as the gym leader ordered Bellsprout to use growth, thus enhancing its special attack and worsening the effect Leech Seed was having on Rattata.

Thankfully, being hurt at the same time by the poison and the Leech Seed, Rattata didn't really fulfil the perfect condition to stay asleep for any significant amount of time. He was simply in too much pain. The downside of the reason why he woke up so early was the fact that he looked to be almost out of the game already. Shakily making it up to his feet and glaring balefully, but weakly, at his fresh-looking opponent, who'd healed itself completely and even managed to get a few buffs off.

"Alright Rattata, I'm sorry for earlier. It was a shit show," Joey said in a pained voice. "But now we have to get our head in the game and cage our opponents in." The code-word cage prompted the rat to shoot forward, white energy trailing behind him. A barrage of Razor Leaves impacted the spot he'd just vacated, cutting into the ground violently and making powders and grass fly. It was a fast and powerful attack, but this part, Joey knew Rattata could manage. His starter caged in the Bellsprout like they'd done to the Hitmonchan all those weeks ago. A multitude of white interrupted by the occasional poison or pulsing seed-induced spasm. It was only this weakness that allowed Bellsprout to ward off its enemy with a well-placed Razor Leaf every time it was too close to getting hit.

The two entered an impasse, but by default, such a situation meant Joey was losing. And he quite frankly, didn't have an answer. Rattata didn't have any ranged or defensive moves. He only knew how to dodge, and attack.

Joey's eyes suddenly lit up as he got an idea.

"Detect into the Razor Leaves and cut the vines," Joey shouted and watched with some anxiety as Rattata committed to the order, shooting forward one more time, a barrage of razor leaves meeting him once again. Joey thought he saw a tinge of orange flicker in his starter's eyes as he abandoned the Quick Attack in mid-air to commit to Detect. He spun in mid-air, the sharp leaves seemingly flowing around him as he found the perfect opening. He flew through the storm, trailing small streamers of blood and cut Leech Seed and vines. Bellsprout watched in apparent surprise as someone dared not dodge, but go through its Growth-enhanced barrage.

Tadghsiobhan, however, wasn't going to drop the ball again by focusing on the wrong thing. Uncaring for the sheer elegance of Rattata's dodge and divestment of the leech seeds burdening him down, he quickly ordered a "Vine Whip spin!"

Bellsprout extended its vines in all directions and started to spin, creating a green circle of pain.

Joey was much more scared of the Pokemon's Razor Leaf.

"Hyper Fang through," he ordered and watched as Rattata's incisors started glowing and extended in length. Rather than dodging the rat went right through the vines, sending the green appendages flying into the air as they were cut.

"Bite down!" Joey shouted as Rattata finally closed in on their up until now, elusive foe.

The hyper fang connected with the Bellsprout's head and latched. A barrage of Razor Leaves slammed into Rattata's torso from below. Both Pokemon fell to the ground unconscious. The referee waved his flags as Tadghsiobhan recalled his Pokemon, looking at the ball in his hand contemplatively. Joey did the same once he noticed that his rat wasn't getting up. He'd managed to knock out the Bellsprout in only one move, while poisoned and hurt. All the Hyper Fang training had paid off.

"The victory goes to the challenger!" the referee announced.

Joey looked up in surprise. Hadn't it been a draw? The older man saw the confusion and smiled. "The second battle was a pure draw, but the first was only a technical one. You decided to withdraw your Pokemon rather than being forced to. When the second battle ends in a draw, the result of the first, if it was tactical withdrawal, decides the match."

The youngster nodded in understanding. It did sorta make sense, but still, the decision if the showing merited a gym badge was not up to the referee.

"It was a good match," a voice suddenly said in front of Joey, causing the boy to look away from the referee and back to the gym leader who'd walked through the field filled with powders and sludge. "I was very impressed by the first battle, by your Metapod, so I decided to push up the difficulty of the second battle a bit. One could maybe say that half of today's match was a second-badge challenge, while the other half was a third-badge challenge. Regardless, this means that you've earned the rainbow badge," the man said and handed Joey the octagonal proof of victory.

The youngster took it, looking down at the badge. He didn't quite know how to feel about his win. He'd definitely deserved it, and it made sense now why the battle had appeared so much more difficult than what he'd prepared for. But, was he really so far ahead of the curve that his second gym challenge turned up a notch in the middle?

"It happens sometimes," Tadghsiobhan explained with a shrug, seeing Joey's confusion. "There's no point in wasting a trainer's with a sub-par challenge, even if you did deserve the badge for the level you're challenging at. Anyway, as a little apology for the unexpected jump in difficulty, I usually give out a little something extra." The gym leader pulled out a little case from one of his wide sleeves and handed it to Joey, who took it. "It's the TM for Sleep Talk, I couldn't help but notice you didn't really have a proper strategy to handle the condition. Your Metapod having Shed Skin and your Rattata having Guts is hardly something you prepared, I imagine."

"Thanks, gym leader," Joey mumbled. "I actually hadn't confirmed yet that he had Guts, but I suspected strongly."

"Well, you have two amazing Pokemon. They're just a bit one-dimensional at the moment. I have to continue the challenges now, but you should take your team to get healed," he said, starting to walk back to his side of the field, which was being cleaned of all powder and sludge residue by a team of gloom. "Remember, powder attacks might seem slow or innocent, but you're always just a bit of wind away from being stuck in a poisonous sandstorm."

Joey put away the TM case and the badge. "As if I'm going to forge that any time soon," he muttered and shook his head.

He only got about five steps along before his path was disrupted.

"That, was, awesome!" Mia shouted right into his ear as she caught him in a hug tackle. She let him go to demonstrate a series of questionable power ranger poses and martial arts moves. "Metapod was all like, ssshhhhhhh, pooowwww. And then Rattata did all the peng and I really thought you were on the ropes, but then he closed in and did the paching and kaweng," she blabbered excitedly.

"Yeah," Joey agreed with a small smile. "My Pokemon are pretty awesome, but I have to take them to the Pokemon centre now. Try to go last in terms of matches, I want to catch it," he said. Then he leaned in for a hug. "Good luck.

His friend nodded seriously with a red face.

"Knockemdead, Mia. I know you've been losing faith in your battling a bit recently, but I think anyone willing to apply themselves can at least collect some badges," Joey said instead of a goodbye, as he started towards the exit of the greenhouse, Erika falling in step next to him.

"You leading me to the Pokecentre?" he asked as they escaped the green-house. The black-haired girl nodded, seemingly contemplating something.

"It's not far, you'll definitely come back in time to see the match of your…" she trailed off suggestively as she took the lead and started walking slightly in front of him.

"Friend, she's my friend," Joey said with a roll of his eyes.

"Yes," Erika agreed with a happy nod. "Anyway, I wanted to compliment you. It truly was an impressive match, my father rarely gives out technical machines."

"Sleep Talk will definitely come in handy one day. But right now I will probably have to focus on some other things. Surge is going to be difficult, him and that monster of a Raichu he likes to send out. Need to stack up for some specific strategies. I think just running at him will do even less than with your father."

"There is a grass-type move, Grass Knot. Most Pokemon can learn it," Erika suggested.

Joey considered it. He was still quite undecided but was leaning towards Dig. Rattata was a physical attacker, and the move also served as an evasion method. From what he'd seen Raichu didn't know Earthquake, so it would be a safe bet. "There are a lot of good options, really. The biggest issue is perhaps the fact that I can't guess what type of energy will suit Rattata best. He's been oddly successful with fighting-type energy, but dark has been quite elusive. Strange when you consider that they learn a lot of dark-type moves without even really trying."

"It has a lot to do with parentage and nature, actually. My Tangela is capable of using Confusion due to the fact that its father was bred with an Exeggutor. Perhaps your Rattata has parentage that doesn't mix well with dark-type moves?"

Joey considered the information. Of course, he knew about parentage and personality effects, but it didn't really help him much considering he didn't know Rattata's lineage. His starter was a mutt, essentially.

"Thanks, but, should you be telling me that?" he asked jokingly.

The girl laughed as they arrived in front of the Pokecentre and entered. Seeing his confused look she explained. "Well, knowing my dad's powders, I don't think we'll be having a battle anytime soon."

Nurse Joy apparently shared her opinion, and while she said that Metapod would be a quick fix of about fifteen minutes, Rattata would need to stay longer. Shed Skin had saved his bug-type some additional time at the Pokecentre apparently. Joey sighed and looked around. It was a centre like any other, so there wasn't much to see. People seemed oddly excited, but that was about it. The only difference was that he had Erika with him, and she didn't look like she wanted to leave. Usually, he would check the forums at this point, but that would be rude, so he nodded towards a free table in the cantina area. The two of them got tea and sat down. Joey, like the old man that he was, also took one of the newspapers from where they were regularly updated.

He was glad that he hadn't taken a sip yet as he read the headline, he would have probably done a spit-take. The first page of the paper showed an old photo of Lance, probably from back when he'd won his first conference, after only one year of being a trainer, three years ago. The redhead looked extremely arrogant surrounded by his trio of Dragonair.

"What the fuck," Joey muttered.

When Erika threw him a stern look, he just turned around the paper so she could read as well. "What the fuck," she sputtered, some tea dribbling down her chin and staining her kimono.

Lance Blackthorn challenges the champion gauntlet for the title: Does pride come before the fall?

Many still remember the newly turned fourteen-year-old dragon specialist dominating the silver conference three years ago and breaking the record of the youngest trainer to ever do so. However, many have also gotten the opportunity to forget the young teen, who is now 17 years old, due to his shocking hiatus as a battler.

There hasn't been much news from young Blackthorn since his victory, and his right to challenge the Elite Four has been gathering dust. Most trainers take advantage of the opportunity that winning the conference grants them within a year of their victory, supplementing their training with a healthy dose of rank challenges and private gym-leader matches. The Blackthorn has done none of that, at least to any public extent, and his return came unexpected for all.

Rather than challenging the elite gauntlet, in which the challenger fights their way through the elite four and their five Pokemon each until the champion, Lance has chosen to challenge Bruno to a 6 on 6 match for the man's title. The dragon trainer seems to believe for some reason that he will come out on top in this never-before-seen scenario.

Determining the likelihood of success for Lance has been difficult due to his scarce appearances in the last three years. However, some predictive modelling and the comments of some experts have given us a clearer picture of what to expect from this highly anticipated match…

Erika and Joey finished reading the article, before looking at each other. Vastly different thoughts ran through their heads at this moment. Erika was about to start a very in-depth discussion on how likely Lance was to beat anyone, while Joey was thinking about his trip to the Celadon department store.

His budget for technical machines had just gotten considerably smaller? After all, with Lance throwing down the gauntlet, the betting tables would open. Joey, legally an adult due to his trainer status could participate. And while the institution would likely give Lance abysmal chances of success, this was good for Joey, who hadn't been able to use his knowledge for any significant financial prospecting yet.

Just Lance's first match against Bruno would likely set him up for life. After all, the young Blackthorn wasn't known as the flying-type champion of Indigo for no reason.