Chapter 25: Electric Feeling

Thank you to my new patrons: Grissa, Dejan, Zahir Nahasamapetial, Danie Quigley, Rairarku, Amonre9, Jorge Hevia, Daspon Dayus, Redmc143-/-There wasn't anything inherently special about Vermillion or its architecture. Thus, as Joey made his way from the north side of the town to the south, he did not find a single reason to stop his walk and delay his arrival at the seaside.There were no particular shops that he didn't already have at Saffron. Even the seafood hardly lost its freshness after being transported to the next city over. If one of the city's biggest attractions was a Pokemon fan club, then that said very obvious things about the availability of other interesting things.It was only twenty minutes after leaving the racing track behind the motel that he arrived at the seaside. Once there, he first stopped at the sight of the rolling grey waves, closed his eyes and breathed in the fresh salty smell of the sea. It had been way too long since he'd been able to enjoy this luxury. Similarly, it would be way too long before he could level up the luxury of actually swimming in the sea. It wasn't really safe with all the Gyarados and Tentacruel and whatnot. He needed to wait until he had his own powerful water-type Pokemon to defend him as he swam.The port actually ended up being surprisingly busy, several times more than he expected it to be. Naturally, it made sense that there was more than just one ship docked here, instead of the single St. Anne in the games, however other than the ferry boats between Fuchsia and Cinnabar there were also cargo ships, tourist ships and small fishing boats milling around everywhere.Joey walked from the dock to the east until he came to a small beach which had a few fishermen sitting in front of the waves with their fishing lines extended in the water. The youngster sat down on the ground, not caring that he would probably be picking sand from his ass for the next 5 months from doing so and relaxed.Ship horns blared in the distance ruining the tranquillity, and the fisherman he was sitting next to chatted with each other, filling his ears with a continuous low buzz of activity. Regardless of any of this, this view that he had, across the strait where he could sort of see the start of the safari zone far in the distance, was still one of the most beautiful ones he had the privilege of experiencing in this Pokemon world.He was sure that he would be able to see more after he started travelling next year, but moments like this had to be cherished regardless. He sighed constantly as he looked out. He really was an old man. Just a good view was capable of distracting him for several minutes. He even felt like composing a poem or painting the landscape. The sun was casting its shine over the water making the whole body of it glitter a beautiful white.However, just like all beautiful natural phenomena, after a while one did tend to get bored of it. After half an hour or so of simply sitting there and thinking about life, a feeling of ennui started to emerge in Joey's soul. Several of the fishermen took turns battling each other with their teams full of Magikarp and the occasional Goldeen and it was getting a bit too exciting for him. He couldn't allow himself to battle today so it was better to leave this place behind before he got too infected to stop himself.He was developing into a bit of a maniac, wasn't he?Just as he was about to stand up, however, the horn of a ship ripped through the previous bustle, several times louder than any other ones before it. He looked around to find a gigantic passenger ship, dwarfing all the other small fishing vessels and ferries next to it by at least a factor of three times as it drew into port. It seemed to have four rows of floors, visible by the amount of windows and he was pretty sure that he could see some fire and electricity in the distance signalling that it even had a battle court on its uppermost layer.It was as big as many he'd seen in his previous life, even if not a proper giant yet. It was a bit surprising really, what use did the Pokemon world have for such a gigantic ship with such a comparably low population?He turned to an older man who was fishing next to him, sitting on his little tripod collapsible and putting different meats on his hook for bait as he pulled out fish after fish."What's that ship?" Joey asked curiously.The man looked up and squinted his eyes underneath his orange cap as if he'd never seen it before, probably just too used to it all at this point."Oh, that. That's one of the passenger ships between Vermilion and Viridian. It's much easier to get between the two cities like this, considering how Mount Moon separates the two parts of Kanto," he eventually said.Joey nodded, even if Viridian hadn't had a port in the games, it very obviously did in this world. After all, why wouldn't it? It was an important city. The last before Victory Road. Still, considering that other options for travel were available, the ship did seem ridiculously big."What about the Diglett tunnel?" Joey asked. "Isn't that a bit, I don't know, cheaper for most trainers and travellers? It spits you out almost in the middle of Viridian forest and you can just walk the rest of the way."The old man picked at his nose. "Well, that's the issue, isn't it? You still have to walk a bit and Viridian forest ain't no joke. Damn Beedrill everywhere." He paused, as if ashamed to have cursed in front of a child, before continuing. "Anyway, on a boat you can still do the usual things. Sleeping, battling, training, whereas if you're in the Diglett tunnel you're just wasting a lot of time and repels, or otherwise fighting off those little ground rats like there's no tomorrow. I would say the ship isn't too expensive so it's still the better deal overall. Of course, the downside of that is that no one is culling and catching the Diglett and Dugtrio, which makes them come into town sometimes to wreak havoc or look for trainers or whatnot. I think there was a particularly idiotic one a few weeks or months ago, I can't really remember. Someone ended up taking it in. These problems are quite self-sustaining and self-correcting, really." He stopped talking after that and went back to fishing as if he'd finished his dialogue options for the day.Joey meanwhile started walking off thinking about the low respect apparently given to Digletts around here. Old people were often the true way to judge a culture and their preconceived biases."What's wrong with Digglets anyway? This city has an electric-typed gym", he asked before he left.He turned his head to see the old man shrug. "Have you ever seen anyone win anything but an ugliness contest with those things? Never trust something which hides half its body is what I say."Now that was thatThe old man demonstratively went back to fishing and Joey left the beach.It was an interesting conversation, discussing which Pokemon were or were not popular. While Diglett had never necessarily been a part of Joey's dream team, his training philosophy also firmly rejected the idea that one could not train up any Pokemon if one managed to meet one with an appropriate personality.Similarly to one's love life, where one only got to meet people one was truly compatible with every few years, it was completely stupid to know the grasp that opportunity as hard as one could.Rejecting a species outright, was a very dumb strategy. The only thing that Joey himself would be reluctant to do would be to catch Pokemon that he already had. The world wasn't ready for a team made up of six Rattata.Similarly, he was a bit hesitant to catch a Pokemon of a type that he already had.His first experience with Pokemon had been in the form of video games which most of everyone had played as a generalist. After all, in the games one could just level up and learn moves, the player didn't have the specialise to avoid spreading themselves too thin.In reality, being a generalist was hard.Nevertheless, Joey was more happy to be one. Perhaps it would have been perfect for him to become a ghost specialist, with his gift. But just because he was a ghost type did not mean that he would necessarily find it easier to train the type.Despite all of this, even though he wanted to build a team which covered each other's weaknesses, he would still be open to the idea of catching another normal, or a bug-type Pokemon if the correct attitude presented itself.This was why he often left conversations with the denizens of the Pokemon world and other trainers completely stumped. He just didn't understand how in a world which basically ran on friendship, people could still hold such prejudice in their hearts.He shook his head as he started on his way to the gym. He'd just gotten the idea that if he was here early, he might as well use the opportunity to spectate a few of the Surges' battles. After all, this might help him win his own.While he had watched some of the man's battles online, a real-life experience was always very different. The gym loomed in the distance, a large structure that seemed to have been constructed with very militaristic ideas of architecture. Gray mostly, with splashes of yellow which depicted usually lightning or some sort of electricity. Not necessarily the prettiest place, but definitely imposing.-/ -After having entered the gym, passing by an incredibly buff receptionist, even more so than the ones at the fighting-type gym, Joey sat in one of the empty spots in the stands. Surge was currently battling what looked to be a fifth badge trainer, a Magneton on his side of the field, facing the challenger's Marowak.Joey quirked an eyebrow when he realised that he actually recognized the trainer challenging the big blonde gym leader dressed in camo and shouting orders louder than a megaphone.It was David, the boy who had beaten Kong by type-checking the man with a Nidoran. It had known Peck and its Poison Pin ability had prevented any of the fighting types from really hitting it without getting poisoned in return. It seemed like the boy was continuing his trend of catching type advantages against gym leaders and structuring his travels that way. Marowak was a ground type, making it perfect against Serge's electric types.Joey leaned back in his seat wondering if it was really going to be so easy though. After all, if all one needed to do to beat the gym was catch the appropriate typing, then everyone would be doing it. However, David was also a decent enough trainer which was probably the other part of the equation."Magneton, Sonic Boom barrage," Surge shouted as the two Pokemon circled each other.Several Sonic Booms, each louder, bigger and more damaging than the last, escaped the Magneton's mouth area. It was definitely a more impressive specimen than the Magnemite that Joey had lost to in Saffron. He was really quite lucky that Surge didn't use a Pokemon from the Magnemite line of evolution until the fourth badge. Until the third, the man just liked to throw out his Raichu as often as he could."Dig Marowak," David shouted. It was the obvious move in this case.That was in fact the best strategy for the boy. Dig removed the possibility of being hit by electric attacks even if this didn't matter in this case as much and removed the Marowak from the field.Joey could see Surge frown from his position. He was a big man, with a big mouth. He probably had to deal with this tactic a lot. However, he seemed to have an answer."Magneton, start using Double Team," he ordered, and the grey accumulation of metal balls and magnets started flickering about the field creating after-images of itself. Soon enough there were several of them just floating around in the field.The doubling wasn't to prevent Dig hitting, after all, magneton floated. Marowak couldn't find it anyway. It was likely to avoid the inevitable Bone Rush that would occur after Marowak came out of the earth.Joey didn't quite know how David was going to resolve this. The boy seemed prepared, however, because his order came very quickly after the Double Team."Marowak, come out and use Sandstorm to dispel those afterimages," he called. The bone-wielding Pokemon immediately jumped up from the earth in a great burst of energy and started channelling a Sandstorm. Motes of dirt started spinning in a circle around the battlefield.That was when the Magneton images floated closer to the Marowak from all sides. It seemed that the Pokemon was using the second between Marowak using Sandstorm and likely going under again to follow Surge's next command."Explosion!" the lieutenant ordered, drawing some gasps from the audience. Then the entire field exploded in fire and brimstone. A shockwave slammed against the psychic barriers protecting the audience and both trainers had to put their arms in front of their eyes to prevent the dust kick from getting into their faces."Interesting," Joy murmured, impressed by Surge's tactical acumen.This was indeed one of the weaknesses of someone like David. If he came into the gym thinking that one Marowak would sweep his enemy, thus making everything afterwards easy, then a quick Explosion would very simply equalise the battlefield and the generalist would have to start throwing out Pokemon that weren't necessarily that suited for the matchup.David didn't seem all too happy about the explosion either, and Joey suspected that he didn't really have another ground type. This meant that what would have to be coming out next would be... Either the Nidoran or another Pokemon. The boy must have a team of four if he was fighting his 5th challenge.The gym leader smirked in a very evil fashion, as the referee called for the two trainers to summon their next Pokemon. It seemed like the Magneton versus Marowak match had been the first matchup of the battle. A big strategic mistake on David's part in Joey's opinion. Sending out your best-suited Pokemon first allowed for exactly this buffoonery to happen.The next Pokemon were called out onto each side of the field. Surge fielded a mean-looking electrode, a Pokemon coincidentally also known for its use of Explosion. David meanwhile summoned a Magmar, to the surprise of the crowd. It was a pretty rare Pokemon.Joey leaned back and started taking mental notes. It seemed like it had been a good idea to come here. He was already getting a deeper impression of Surge's strategies than he had when he'd simply watched the battle recordings.He wondered if one day when he had a psychic type he could simply teleport around and prepare like this for every gym leader? Wouldn't that be something?-/-It was two hours later that Joey left Surge's gym in a contemplative mood. The gym leader would probably be in a bad mood by the time that he would be facing the youngsters. Battle in, battle out. Non-stop, all the way. Did the man get breaks?David had ended up losing, Electrode had exploded in the Magmar's face and the next Pokemon, Raichu had soundly beaten the Nidorino that David had sent out next. The trainer sponsored by Professor Oak had left in a huff while the gym leader had laughed boisterously at his victory.The next few challengers hadn't really fared much better. It seemed that Surge's strategy at the higher level was very much adapted to each opponent, even if there were similarities. He liked blitzing the threats of a trainer's team, and then beating the Pokemon they were most reluctant to send out with his Raichu.An annoying strategy, more fitting for a ghost-type specialist using Destiny Bond and whatnot. But, Joey couldn't really fault it. Other than a general cultural disdain for causing one's Pokemon to explode and sacrifice themselves like that, he could see that there was a certain elegance in the solution.Out of the five challengers that Surge had faced while Joey had been there, only one of them had won a badge. A girl challenged the man for her second badge. The gym leader had sent out a Pikachu and had allowed the challenger the use of two Pokemon.As the hotel once again came into view, Joey wondered what his contemporaries had been doing in their time off. Was Sabrina finally going to use the opportunity to look for a Pokemon that wasn't an Abra? Was Michael being an absolute idiot somewhere? All important questions.As Joey approached the hotel from the side, which also brought the racing track behind it into view, his contemplations had to be paused as he tilted his head in surprise.The Diglett was there, on the racing track. Running around and around and around and around, seemingly all on its own. There was no old man to coach it, no Pokemon to race it, and no spectator to cheer it on.It was just an utterly repetitive and exhausting-looking slog. Joey stood there for a few minutes, to see if the Pokemon would stop anytime soon, but he waited in vain. 5 minutes, 10 minutes, 15 minutes. Diglett continued doing the exact same thing. Running in a circle.The youngster shook his head and turned away to enter the building. Perhaps the Pokemon has some sort of mental damage. The training looked utterly boring and pointless. He didn't know if he could have done that for even five minutes. He needed some obstacle courses, some breakpoints where he had to use a move to keep himself interested. Just running didn't do the trick anymore.The old man beamed at him from behind the counter where he was sitting behind the computer terminal as Joey entered the reception hall."The prodigious son returns," the old man crowned with a happy smile which stretched across his wrinkled face to his eyes."I was able to catch your battle in Celadon. It was very well thought out. I never knew a Metapod could fight that well!" he said excitedly.Joey smiled, it was nice to get complimented every now and again. "Thanks, we trained a lot for that one. The gym leader certainly didn't make it easy for us."He'd even upped the difficulty in the middle there, making Joey worried for nothing.The old man laughed. "I could see that he wasn't, hahaha. I wasn't able to find the gym battle in Saffron though, it seems like they may have forgotten to upload it.""Yeah well, you know how it is with technology. Just going to a store and getting the VHS tape is still a more reliable method of getting anything done," the boy joked, getting a serious nod from the older man."Indeed, indeed. All this technology, but it only makes our problems happen at home instead of elsewhere.""I saw Diglett training outside, does it do that a lot? it looks sort of boring," Joey asked.The old man took a second to process Joey's words, before looking down and sighing."We watched your gym battle in Celadon together", he eventually said. "I think it might have gotten him fired up, "Joey quirked an eyebrow. "That must have been hours ago?" he said more than asked."It's the only thing we know how to do, just say run and he'll go for hours and hours.""It's an admirable work ethic. If only it was applied to something that Diglett actually wanted to do," Joey said. It was a weird situation. A Diglett who wanted to battle had given up and decided to become a Poke athlete being trained by a man who didn't know how to train Pokemon."He's a genius of hard work, but sometimes it seems to me that neither he nor I have any talent," the old man admitted with a sad sigh, before standing up and walking towards the back entrance of the hotel. A nondescript wooden door.Out of interest, Joey followed. The two of them went out into the racetrack where they found Diglett still running circles."Stop Diglett," the old man shouted. "You're overtraining!"Diglett didn't listen."Dig, dig, dig, dig, dig," it rattled off as he ran circles around the track. It looked utterly exhausted, sweat was forming beneath his eyes as he ran and trailed in the air behind him, glittering in the rays of the setting sun. The movements were too mechanical to be anything but an unconscious mechanism."What exactly is the issue anyway?" Joey asked. "Why can't you train him? Just make him use the moves again and again until he gets better at it. It's not the best tactic but it is a tactic.""I don't know any fancy method of finding out what moves he can learn and from what I can figure out he only knows Dig and Sand Attack. No matter how much we train those two moves we never manage to win a battle," the old man replied bitterly."Shouldn't he also know Scratch?" Joey asked. "It would give him one more avenue of attack I guess.""Is what I was able to figure out from the library and from talking to people, but we've never been able to make it work. Hell, I don't even know if he has claws honestly," the hotel-owner admitted."Interesting. I'm quite sure that there would be several battles I'd be able to win with just digging alone if it's trained to a high enough level. In fact, a team member like that is basically exactly what I'm missing to win my battle against Surge.""You're not confident in winning?" the old man asked, surprised. "But you did so well in Celadon!""The issue I have now is that I haven't truly found a third team member. Since the challenge is going to be based on me having three Pokemon, we're fighting a pretty uphill battle," Joey explained calmly, but not happily. Why was it that he hadn't been able to find a third team member? Were his standards too high?"Diglett?" a voice suddenly asked from in front of their feet and the two humans looked down to find that Diglett was there staring at them intently, or more specifically, staring at Joey intently."I think he wants to know what you mean. You need a Pokemon like him to win the gym battle?" the old man interpreted, being more familiar with the Diglett due to being its trainer.Joey shrugged and decided that there was no point in not explaining his strategy. Diglett was motivated. Did it want to be a part of his team? "Well, my Metapod has a poison attack. Since Surge only sends out one Raichu through for the entirety of the third badge challenge, if we can manage to poison it then Rattata can then simply use his own Dig to run circles around it until it faints to the poison. It's a cheesy tactic, but you have to win in whatever way you can win. The only issue is that if Rattata doesn't manage to outrun the Raichu for long enough, we're not going to have a third team member to try again. Diglett are ground-type Pokemon so they're already immune to the electric-type attacks, but its Dig could also help it evade the attacks for quite a while. We would just have to make sure to pop up often enough so that the referee doesn't give us a technical knockout.""Why didn't you just catch one then?" the old man asked. "I can't imagine a trainer like you wouldn't manage to catch a pokémon. ""I don't really believe in catching a Pokemon just for a specific gym battle. I would rather catch a Pokemon which I think fits into the team personality-wise and with whom I think I can work, and then create a strategy for the gym surrounding their abilities rather than the other way around. I think simply catching Pokemon for specific challenges is a shortcut that harms trainers in the long run. Also, I imagine it's less fun having a dysfunctional team.""Dig, dig," Diglett said, now directed at the old man.The hotel owner stood there in silence for a few seconds before turning slowly from Diglett to Joey."You don't think Diglett are weak Pokemon? It seems to be the general consensus that I was able to find."Joey laughed at the question. "There are no weak Pokemon, only bad training. No offence."The old man awkwardly rubbed the back of his head. "Can't say anything against that.""Dig, dig, lett." Diglett was looking at Joey as he slowly moved towards the boy. Parting grass and earth as he did so."Well, if that's what you think. Are you willing to back up your words and give this little fella a try?" the old man asked, nodding at his Pokemon.Joey blinked and was surprised. Perhaps there had been a blind spot in his thinking through which he hadn't really considered taking the Pokemon of someone else. After all, they were unavailable. It was useless to think about it. From what he'd seen, the Diglett did have a winning attitude and had managed to train his most important skill to a very high level."We won't really have time to synergize our commanding and executing in battle before the gym battle. We might still lose," he admitted."And then what?" the old man asks suspiciously."Then we just train for another few weeks and do it again. I think the only reason I would lose if I had Diglett on my team would be because we weren't familiar with each other yet. If that's fixed for some bonding then it would probably be an easy victory.""Dig, dig," Diglett said and Joey didn't need an interpreter to understand what was being communicated.The Pokemon was essentially telling him, 'I'll do anything it's necessary to win this battle.'Joey had spent months going to all sorts of places to find a team member. He was flattered that the team member had come for him instead.A grin hushed over his lips as the slight tension of facing Surge with only two Pokemon left his stiff shoulders."If we're doing this, we have to start now. No time to rest. Just because losing isn't the end of the world doesn't mean we should strive towards it," he said getting on his knees to face his new member. "Are you ready to face the world?"Diglett nodded solemnly, before rushing forward with tears in his eyes and nuzzling Joey's knee with its wet face.That's how Joey found out that Diglett, like humans, also secreted snot from their nose.He was oddly happy at having found out that new knowledge. If a bit grossed out. -/-An: Third team member acquired. What think? Was fore-shadowed, I like fore-shadowing. I think its a waste to use the "go to area catch dratini," trope. How about you check if the Pokemon is a good fit first, idk? Anyway. Get a bit of a prelude to the gym battle this chapter, and then Surge vs. Joey match of the century is happening next chapter. I'll warn you, it's probably going to be different than what you think ;)​Btw, if you want to read this whole thing earlier you can become my patron. I think the next few chapters are very hype, because immediately after the battle its Lance vs Bruno, so if it was ever worth it to splurge to read 2 or 5 chapters ahead from the lower tiers its now :P. Or not, maybe you like the tension of waiting