Chapter 37: The beginning of the end

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-/-

It was after his victory at Celadon that the Stinky Hobo's life changed forever.

His new stipend was sufficient to fully sustain an adult man even if he had chosen to live in a city rather than being homeless. The desire for more badges thus became more a thing of Pride than a thing of necessity, and due to this, the journey naturally slowed down.

Several months were spent in Celadon, even after the six months that it took to "fulfil" the task of catching the Oddish.

It was a year after having arrived in the city that the Stinky Hobo was finally driven out after too many people had complained about adverse reactions that their favourite pets had to the man.

In this case, the next destination was obviously not Saffron, where he had failed to get a gym badge previously and had been, in fact, beaten up quite badly, but Fuchsia, which at the time was reachable from two directions. For this, the Stinky Hobo could go through Saffron to get to Vermillion and take a ferry, or he could walk through Lavender.

The hobo, naturally still a thrifty man, decided on the longer path and, after several weeks of walking, arrived at Fuchsia, the home of the poison-type gym ruled by the ninja clan native to the region.

Thankfully, there was no such discrimination as had been experienced in Saffron, but the increase and difficulty between the third and the fourth badges were noticeable when the task was given.

-/-

East of Saffron, in a little abandoned village called Constance, Joey was sitting on a large stone overlooking the field in which, a week ago, he had battled Bruno of the Elite Four and gotten absolutely wrecked.

Currently, the field was being used by his three team members, Rattata, Metapod, and Diglett, to train. Additionally, Misdreavus, who was set to join the team provisionally when Joey opened up a slot in his roster by winning the fourth badge, and her current guardian, Golduck, were watching from the side.

This arrangement was mostly to showcase how training was handled since Joey firmly believed that one day of curious observation could lead to bigger training gains in the future, than if one just jumped in and started smacking about. From a different perspective, one could also treat this as a diplomatic approach towards the Golduck, who, if Misdreavus joined Joey's team, would be left behind Constance without his closest confidant. Joey making Misdreavus spectate first showcased that he had a patient personality suited for taking care of this team and also that he could be reasoned with.

The youngster idly glanced at his three team members, observing their efforts. In Joey's opinion, Rattata was currently an absolute machine at the level that the youngster tournament was going to be at. With Detect, he could avoid most ranged moves; with Quick Attack and Dig, he could approach enemies; and with Hyper Fang and Rock Smash, he could knock out almost anyone.

The only thing that his starter lacked was a good move set to deal with what was probably going to be their biggest obstacle, which was Sabrina and her psychic types. For some reason, Rattata had always been more successful with fighting TE than with dark TE, and thus, Bite was still not perfected to the level of Hyper Fang.

It had finally become usable recently, however, unfortunately, this had happened too late to make the next move, Pursuit, viable to try and get down before the tournament. Considering Rattata's struggles with dark TE, he was assuming another six months of practice for that.

This was an issue because while Rattata could technically approach Sabrina's psychic types with Dig and Quick Attack, Pursuit would have been a much better option due to the immunity to psychic type moves that it offered in addition to its closing potential. Bite at the moment could simply be used to break out of a psychic hold or to block an attack every now and again while also dealing super effective damage. But considering that Sabrina's Pokemon were psychic types and Rattata was a normal type, fighting a dark versus psychic energy battle was not likely gonna get them very far.

The reason they were training Bite right now, Rattata gnawing on some trees as he had in the past for Hyper Fang, dark energy erupting through his incisors, was that in case he managed to get close enough to attack it was more likely it was going to be a one-hit knockout. After all, his physical damage was starting to become prodigious. 

Joey's gaze swept to the left where Metapod was running through a random sequence of moves consisting of Poison String, String Bullet, and Iron Defense. There wasn't much that Joey could do for Metapod at this point, and what they had to hope for now was that they could degrade the Everstone in her stomach faster than the schedule. The tactical world would open up for her once she evolved, but for now, she was unfortunately limited to simply working on the transitions between her different moves, trying to shave off milliseconds off of already nearly perfected strategies.

It wasn't Joey's preferred style to work on something until it was perfect, but considering the impossibility of teaching Metapod many new things she could work on instead, they simply worked with what they had. Unfortunately, his Pokemon's foundations weren't strong enough to feed them technical machines for breakfast, even if he now had the money to do that for a few weeks.

Ironically, perhaps due to the Pokemon's newness in the team, their best chance against Sabrina would actually be Diglett. Joey glanced at the mole-like Pokemon and saw how his new acquisition was coating himself quite successfully in ghost TE and shooting through the ground towards imaginary targets. Diglett was going to be their secret weapon against Sabrina for two reasons. Firstly, he seemed to actually have some talent in the usage of ghost TE, which meant that the move Astonish was coming around at an astonishing pace. It probably helped that Joey himself was ghost-typed and could, therefore, explain the move quite well, something he couldn't do for Pursuit. Similarly, in that vein, Misdreavus had also shared a few words with the young Pokémon, after which his practice had become even more successful.

Astonish was in many ways similar to Pursuit, just that instead of having high damage in case it hit the opponent in the back, it could make them flinch. If they ever did flinch, Diglett could follow up the move with a Mud Slap.

Another advantage was the fact that Diglett spent most of his time in a battle underground, which technically made it harder for physics to pick him up both on their radar and literally with the use of their powers. He would only pop up covered in the energy of Astonish and then, if that failed, immediately go down again. All of this also, while in a sandstorm, likely meant that the battle wasn't going to be fun for any Kadabra that found itself facing the ground type.

All was going well in preparation for the youngster tournament, at least as well as it could. Obviously, if Joey got the badge at Cerulean and was then able to immediately catch Misdreavus the whole thing would become much easier. The Pokemon that Joey was least willing to throw out against Sabrina was Metopod, and if he could replace Metapod with a ghost type, then…

The only issue was that while the preparations for the youngster tournament were going well, the preparations for the gym badge could not be measured so easily.

He'd been doing a variety of random jobs in an attempt to prepare himself for whatever randomness may happen, and reading the book of the Stinky Hobo had given him some insight into what might happen and how he should deal with it, but in the end, he simply didn't know what he was preparing for.

Considering how much his chances against Sabrina would improve if he was able to catch Misdreavus, he was even willing to challenge King in case he failed whatever task he was assigned once he arrived there.

However, he didn't believe his chances to be particularly high in that regard. King let his challengers face him on top of big floating platforms, which already invalidated Diglett's chances completely. Similarly, Rattata and Metapod didn't have a lot of good options to hit at the water-type Pokemon which would be popping up from underwater in a harassment campaign.

Metapod could poison the water and Rattata could throw out a Swift or two, however, fighting a ranged battle against Pokemon who were range specialists in the case of Rattata was an attempt doomed to failure, while for, Metapod just because she could poison the water, didn't mean that she would survive long enough to benefit from that.

But all of these considerations were simply flitting through his head to avoid thinking about the elephant in the room, the sponsorship offer that he'd received from the Pokétech Institute.

It had been a few days now since the offer, but he hadn't come any closer to a decision.

In a way, he was happy that his efforts were being recognised enough for people to actually offer him money for his services and his image; however, out of any sort of institution that he would have wanted to get sponsored by, the Pokétech Institute rated at the bottom of that list.

Perhaps he was prejudiced due to how he had seen them in the anime and due to how ineffective their students were. But, he wanted to secure himself some stables where his Pokemon could get a good workout and in comparison to Professor Oak's ranch or the stables of the gyms scattered throughout the region, he just didn't see how the Poketech Institute was the correct choice.

However, it wasn't just about the stables either. The Pokétech Institute also offered him a monthly stipend and the ability to start participating in tournaments in which only sponsored trainers could partake. Additionally, the affiliation would open many doors that had previously been closed, not just in the scene of battling but in the future also in the scene of business.

The exact stipulations he would have to follow had not yet been hashed out, but the offer had been that if Joey attended a winter school at the Institute, they could proclaim him as an affiliate and would then sponsor his journey and his future conference participation depending on his results. They really weren't asking for a lot, in this case simply some image rights for advertising, his appearing in some events down the line and him wearing the school uniform when he participated in larger tournaments. For these simple things, he would get free stabling for up to five years after his retirement from battling, a monthly stipend that ran all the way through his career, unless he choked on the results completely, such as failing to even get into the top 64 at the Indigo Conference for example, and also career opportunities down the line if he ever wanted to do something different.

The offer was, in essence, good.

The issue was just that Joey wanted something better. Professor Oak's sponsorship might have a smaller monthly stipend, but the quality of the stables and the healthcare was superior by far. Similarly, one received access to a Pokedex, and the name of Professor Oak rang loud and clear through the whole world. There likely wasn't any other name that opened more doors.

Sponsorship from the gym leaders was perhaps a slightly different story, considering their type specialisation and how the leaders lost and gained their positions. The stables were of a higher quality; however, they were usually biased towards a certain type of Pokemon. The reputation one gained as an affiliate was directly tied with the reputation of the gym leader, rather than the reputation of an institution such as the school.

In this sense, if Joey signed up to get sponsored by the Pokétech Institute now and, because of this, missed out on getting sponsored by Professor Oak, he would have no one to blame but himself. Sponsors didn't like overlapping, and poaching didn't really exist. After all, sponsorships were there to prop up talented trainers, if a trainer was already getting propped up, then it would be better to find another trainer to increase the overall regional number of people who could defend human interests if push came to shove.

However, Joey's whole battle and life philosophy was that if one stacked benefits at the beginning, one was more likely to win more and gain more in the future. A snowball effect of good things, basically.

He brought up a hand to take down his cap and to ruffle his hair. This really was a mess. In the end, he even knew that there was only one way to resolve it.

He had to try double dipping and delay the discussion with the school. His plan had always been to write an application for the sponsorship from Professor Oak in which he would ask for the Pokedex and the stables, but not for the regional starter since the man only had three, and he gave them to people who passed the trainer, exam, not the youngster exam.

If he didn't get that sponsorship, then he could still accept the one from the Pokétech Institute. The only thing was that he felt kind of bad not giving them an answer sooner since this really was more of a yes or no question.

He sighed. He could think of an excuse to delay, something like that it was best to hash out the terms after he finished the season because obviously, he could ask for more benefits if he finished it with four badges, therefore becoming a historical anomaly rather than three which simply meant that he was very very talented.

Having made a decision and not feeling like giving himself enough time to second guess it, Joey took out his Pokenav to make the call. He wanted to get this over with and get to training Misdreavus. He really hoped that once he had a sponsorship, he could keep it until his retirement so that he wouldn't have to deal with the business matters of being a trainer. It really was more fun to just battle than worry about these things.

The Pokenav rang in his hand once, twice, before the voice of the principal resounded from the other end.

…

"Hey, yeah. I was thinking about the offer and I have a proposition."

-/-

To properly train Misdreavus the first thing that Joey had to do was determine what sort of moves she even knew. Without a Pokedex, this was not necessarily an easy task.

This was because some Pokemon were born with certain abilities that they didn't even know they had until they were asked to perform them.

It was, for example, comparable to someone who perhaps had never fought about what their favourite colour was, having to come up with the answer when someone asked them the question.

It was due to this that Joey couldn't simply ask Misdreavus to show him all her moves but had to compile a list of possible moves beforehand in an attempt to have her use them. It had been a rather tiring process, but he had done it, helped along by some literature on the topic, which was created to help people achieve just this.

So, that was what their first training session consisted of.

He already knew that Misdreavus could use Hypnosis and Psywave, but further testing showed that she also knew the move Nasty Plot, which greatly increased the special attack of a Pokemon. Other than that she also knew Growl and was able to, apparently just from watching Diglett train, perform a rudimentary version of Astonish. Maybe she could pick up Joey's Shadow Ball and Shadow Sneak just as easily in the future?

What she had was, quite frankly, already a pretty good move set for a Pokemon that Joey had just caught. Back when he'd gotten Rattata, the Pokemon had known Tackle, Quick Attack and Tail Whip. Metapod had known Bug Bite, String Shot, Tackle and Harden, and Diglett had known Dig and Sand Attack.

Psywave was a ranged psychic move, and Astonish was a physical ghost one. Hypnosis could put enemies to sleep while Growl could weaken their attack, and Nasty Plot strengthen one's own. In his mind, he was already imagining how to develop Misdreavus into a powerful member of his team. Because he would have her only after he had already gotten the gym badge from Cerulean somehow, he wouldn't have to interrupt her optimal development with an electric-type technical machine like Shock Wave or Charge Beam. Rather than that, Joey would first develop her in a very simple direction, considering her rather peculiar knowledge of the moves Hypnosis and Nasty Plot. There was only one move missing to make her a very annoying enemy to handle. If she could learn Dream Eater, then whoever got caught in the Hypnosis would basically instalose. She could boost herself with Nasty Plot while they slept and then regenerate her health with Dream Eater while also knocking out her enemy.

Considering how perfectly the move would fit into her repertoire, Joey was perfectly willing to plan around its acquisition, even if it would have to wait until he could actually catch her because you couldn't use a technical machine on a Pokemon that wasn't in a Pokeball.

However, one thing that he'd done with every Pokemon that he'd caught so far was to perfect the usage of the moves that they already knew so that they would have a strong foundation to build on.

So that was why, while he was already imagining in his mind how he could wipe someone's whole team with just one quirky ghost, he paired up Metapod with Misdreavus so that the ghost type could practise her Hypnosis. After all, to be a truly effective user of Dream Eater one had to be also very good at putting others to sleep. In the future, this would synergise very well with Butterfree, who could leave Sleep Powder on the field for others to trip into.

Also, it was the least damaging move that they could currently practise, and he didn't want to go too far too fast with his newest acquisition so as to not scare her or her guardian.

If nothing went wrong in the future, then he could imagine creating a more rigorous and exhausting training schedule and rotation for the team of four. Perhaps Diglett and Misdreavus could team up, and then Diglett would have to perform a style of guerilla warfare of popping in and out of the earth while throwing out a Mud Slap whenever he could. Misdreavus, meanwhile, would try to Hypnotise Diglett whenever he came up and would thus improve the move due to the short time frame that she would have to actually do it.

Joey also still had the TM Sleep Talk as well, which was one of the few moves that Metapod could learn. This might become relevant in the future if they completely exhausted her possibilities of progressing. Joey couldn't really imagine a strategy for any of his current Pokemon that needed Sleep Talk, so it would be okay to simply teach it to one of his Pokemon as a precaution against exactly the sort of thing he was planning on making Misdreavus do to others.

His mind whirled, and he was faced once again with the inevitability of the gym challenge he was going to face Cerulean. In all the past gym battles, he'd known exactly what he was walking into, but in this case, he really would be training his ability to improvise. Especially because, unlike the Stinky Hobo, he wouldn't really have six months to complete the challenge in some alternative manner. He would have to solve it fast and hard.

It was frustrating that there wasn't anything he could do, even if he was already doing all he could. He trained his Pokemon, battled, and took a variety of different jobs to try to gain experience and adapt to a variety of situations involving other Pokemon.

In the end, only time would tell if his preparations were enough, and time was quickly running out. The bus to Cerulean was soon, and there was nothing anymore that could obstruct him from the impending challenge he was about to face

-/-

AN: A bit shorter again, I noticed a trend where the chill chapters in between greater gym arcs are shorter. Or maybe I'm pacing myself, I won't spoil why but I think the next three arcs of this fic are going to be some of the hardest for me to write. Read ahead on patreon if you wanna see why I said that haha...