CH67 (128), Clubbing

The next two days after Pidgeotto's evolution went by calmly the only major progress being that Mothra successfully learned Whirlwind without actually trying to do it.

I had to chuckle a bit when that happened. I really tried to not laugh at the face Butterfree made when Mothra managed to learn the move he was trying to learn before him without actively trying to do so.

I naturally helped him get over the shock, which thankfully was easy since we all were partially used to the brokenness that is Mothra's talent. Then on Palkiday before lunch, another good thing happened.

While I was checking everyone's status to assess their progress, I saw that Nyx had firmly stepped into the (high) bronze stage. All her parameters had reached the C-value, with her agility even reaching the B-value.

Weight training was really helpful, so much so that I was seriously tempted to get myself a Pokemon that was able to learn the move Gravity. The only ones that could learn it on their own that I could somehow get with a lot of luck were Clefairy and Dusclops.

Thankfully, the Jigglypuff, Abra, Magnemite, Exeggcute, Chansey, and Staryu lines could be taught the move as well. So, once I found any of the aforementioned Pokemon with good potential I would definitely catch it for myself.

After lunch we went clubbing, to see the results of our training and to let off some steam. I allocated all my Pokemon to certain aliases depending on their type. The first club I visited was the Bug Club.

My alias for the Bug Club, Meruem, was assigned Mothra, Butterfree, Queen Bee, as well as Weedle, and just as I had previously planned I had researched how rare a royal Butterfree were.

According to what I found, they were pretty rare, but not to the extent that I had to hide her. I found records of sightings in the wild, and 15 registered cases of trainers possessing one in Kanto alone.

Now, while that was actually still a pretty low number, Butterfree, at least the royal gene version, were not as popular as the royal Pokemon (starters) or pseudos.

What this meant for me, was that those who would be a threat to us would not be interested in robbing us or could get one on their own. As for others, that was the reason I used an alias and a different get-up.

My identity would be safe from the general audience and I could either handle any comers myself or I could do a tactical retreat. Still, in the end, the only things she incited were some words of admiration and some questions where I found her, nothing else.

It was actually Lapras and my Magikarp that got greater attention from others, but more on that later. Due to my previous visits, Meruem had already earned the second rank of the club, which was Bug Collector.

On top of that, his record had been 8 wins 0 losses, so he'd only needed 12 more wins in a row to advance to the next rank Bug Maniac. Still, because I did not plan to spend the whole day at the Bug Club I only participated in 4 battles to give everyone the chance to fight twice.

After Mothra's first battle I was surprisingly approached by Kinji or how he liked to be called Samurai. He jovially greeted me and asked me how I was.

We simply talked for a bit exchanging some stories. I obviously did not go into any details but still mentioned some things that I thought were interesting.

From him, I learned that he had already reached the fifth rank, Bug Lord, which was equal to the ACE-Class, and that he was working on becoming a Bug Duke.

After hearing that, I thanked everything holy that he only used his Metapod during our battle. Its evolution was definitely a heavenly reward for him for going easy on me. Yup, definitely.

Anyway, he asked for some info on Mothra, more specifically where I got her. I went with the truth, kinda. I told him that I met her by pure chance, which is true.

Concerning the place, I said that I met her in Viridian Forest, which is technically correct as well since Hope Town was located on the outskirts of the Viridian Forest.

I then gave him an area that he could look into to see if he could find one as well. This was also true because that was the area multiple sources mentioned seeing a royal Butterfree at during my research.

After I told Samurai that he asked me which species I liked more Joltik or Karrablast. I thought for a bit before choosing Joltik and that had nothing to do with the fact that I thought they looked cute.

After receiving my answer Samurai described a location he came across during his retreat in Viridian Forest where a lot of members of the Joltik-line lived. I noted that info down, maybe I would make use of it someday. After that talk, I finished the other fights and left for the next club.

Still, before I entered the Water Club I changed out of the Bug Catcher-like outfit I had worn and changed into my fisher-like outfit. Obviously, both outfits had masks and hats.

The alias I used for the Water Club was Jinbe, and all my current water types were assigned to this alias. Unfortunately, I had not participated in any battles at the Water Club before, so Jinbe was still at the first rank Beach Goer. He had not a single victory to his name.

Roughly 98% of the Beach Goers were Rookies, while the other 2% were strong newcomers that had yet to rank up. What this meant was that nearly all my opponents had iron-stage Pokemon. Furthermore, battles between all Beach Goers (and their equivalent) were 1 vs 1.

Against me and my Pokemon that translated to fast and easy battles. We actually had to hold back enough to not end the fights too quickly, since we did not want to destroy anyone's confidence, too much.

I had noticed that it seemed to be something that everyone who was part of the strong 2% did. As if it was some kind of unspoken rule to not utterly crush the regular Beach Goers, something I fully supported.

I had 8 water types with only Remoraid being at the iron stage, so for everyone else, this was more like a chance to show off. Now, I knowingly had been giving out a feeling of being slightly cold and unapproachable but definitely not edgy, since I entered the club as Jinbe.

I did this in preparation for the reveal of my many variant Magikarp and Lapras, hoping that it would keep most from approaching me. I actually participated in 16 fights so that everyone could fight twice.

After the 15th battle I ranked up to Swimmer, and because of that, the 16th battle was 2 vs 2. I had left that for Lapras second fight and she swept the opponent's Pokemon on her own.

Water Absorb in the Water Club was quite unfair as long as the foe did not learn moves of other types. Stronger trainers naturally made sure their Pokemon had not only water-type moves, but for most Rookies aka Beach Goers, this was not the case.

Now, as one could imagine by the fact that I managed to participate in 16 battles, all of them except for Remoraid's were really short, not that those took long but compared to the others that took less than 1 minute they could be considered lengthy.

What about not destroying their confidence you might ask, but to that, I say less than a minute is still better than getting beaten in one or two moves. The only exception was Stan's first opponent that one we took down in 3 moves.

During the first two battles, I used Stan and after those fights, I learned that there was something enjoyable in beating people with something they underestimated especially a Magikarp.

The first trainer we fought against seemed to be some rich boy, and since I did not want to judge him based on stereotypes I ignored that. When he called out a Spheal I just gave a slight impressed nod since Walrein were really strong and the Spheal-line was not common.

However, after he started talking shit upon seeing Stan he landed on my sh*t list and it had nothing to do with his financial status. Underestimating him would have been alright. I mean he's a Magikarp so that much is to be expected.

I would have ignored it in that case, but that guy started saying things like why are you using this waste of a Pokemon against me. He called Stan useless, weak, and wastemon.

Even his Spheal seemed to look down on us, at least the Spheal just expressed its feelings through its stance but kept quiet otherwise. Nonetheless, I saw and felt Stan's anticipation and excitement turn to sadness at being insulted, which made me mad.

I was mad at the guy but also at myself. I should have talked to all my Magikarp of the possibility of trainers doing that, either because they really thought that, like the young master look-alike, or to rile us up.

It was too late for that now, but I quickly comforted Stan per telepathy and told him we were going to teach that guy a lesson. No need to give them any courtesy time.

After that Stan used Aqua Jet to move below Spheal. Then he used a Hydro Pump to hurl it up and followed behind it with a Bounce. He used his Bounce to slam Spheal into the ceiling before he gracefully landed back inside the pool.

Spheal plopped back a few seconds later as well. It was naturally knocked out but not seriously harmed, since we didn't want to hurt it just teach the trainer Pokemon pair a lesson about underestimating any species.

Ok, it was more about underestimating my Magikarp, but it was still a valuable lesson. That whole sequence took less than 10 seconds and yo ma, which is what I was going to call all young masters from now on, had an incredulous look as if he could not believe what he had seen.

It turned into pure disbelief and then gaping fish look when the referee declared us as the winners. The next one was not impolite even if he seemed to be disappointed at having to fight a Magikarp, so we gave him the grace minute before beating his Pokemon.

For the next two fights I used Medusa, and somewhere around that time, my opponents seemed to have heard about my Magikarp being strong. That was further strengthened when I kept pulling out different-looking Magikarps (variants).

Still, my behavior was enough to keep others from approaching me with questions even if I felt the curiosity of many of my opponents, and they were not alone. I felt the same curiosity in many others in the lobby.

Well, or at least it was enough for them to restrain themselves until I pulled out the 5th variant. After that, some could not hold back anymore and approached me in the lobby to ask me where I got them.

I told them that it was a mixture of luck, hard work, and a lot of time, which was all true. Still, they thought I meant I looked everywhere for them and that for a long time before I got lucky enough to catch them, which suited me just fine.

The fact that they could actually find variants that way of some of them tried it was true as well, so everything was fine in my books. I received a lot of pretty good offers for them, but I obviously declined all of them.

Yet, this showed me that I could in the far off future sell off some of the less than good descendants (light green potential and below) under the right circumstances for a pretty penny.

I naturally would make sure the buyer was not an a**hole, but that much should be easy with my aura and psionic abilities. My answer satisfied everyone's curiosity and they left me alone afterward.

At least they did until I pulled out Lapras during our 15th battle. I had purposefully used her last so that I could skedaddle after her two fights. Still, after her first battle, I once more got swarmed in the lobby.

I told them that I got her from a migrating school weeks ago and declined all offers. I told them I saw them far out the coast of Coast City and that the pod was long gone, which was all true. They would never find the Lapras if they looked there and I told them as much.

However, I still saw some people leave the club after I answered the question. Anyway, I went to the registry and upgraded my member's rank, before signing up for my first battle as a Swimmer. After Lapras won that one as well after a moderately tough battle I got out of the club.

Once I walked a distance I entered a public toilet and called out Xatu so that he could teleport us away. At our next stop, I entered my space and changed into my regular outdoor clothing, before I asked Xatu to bring me home.

The reason for that cautious behavior was that it was a new exposure, where people's curiosity was the highest so I decided to act like that as a small precaution.

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