Ch.6

It has been a few weeks since Leo and I have been trekking through the common area of the Viridian Forest. During this time Leo and I have both been improving, me with my psychic/telekinetic abilities, physical strength, and endurance. Leo has been slowly absorbing the energy from Magmar's scale, while also still improving his stats through exercise slowly. 

The battles we have been doing in the forest have given us the much-needed experience to understand better strategies and how battling a trainer is much different than a wild Pokémon. In the wild Pokémon are much more vicious and fight to the death more often than not, while fighting the few trainers we have come across fight for money, experience, or whatever else. 

As we were approaching the outskirts of the common area of the forest, Leo alerted me of something he smelled. From his look and his emotions, I could feel through my telepathy, that it seems whatever it is, is more serious than usual. Giving him a look, like usual we approach the area stealthy and cautiously. 

Making our way there we see a young trainer around my age now dead, along with their Pokémon as the one they fought killed them and is currently eating them. We see that it is an Ursaring, which is not a commoner ranked Pokémon either but a Baron Ranked Pokémon. Seems it has approached the board between the two areas and attacked this trainer killing them and their Pokémon. 

'Leo, we are escaping. Quietly and quickly,' I say to Leo through my telepathy. Leo nods his head to me as we quickly leave the area. 

Once we are a few hundred feet away from the Ursaring, Leo and I take a breath letting out our anxiety from what we just witnessed. I knew this world was much more violent and deadly than what my previous life knew, but seeing it in person was still jarring. I didn't feel sick or anything like that, but it definitely reminded me to not get overconfident as that would mean our deaths. 

"Ok, fuck the Baron area, we are not ready for that," I say to Leo who nods his head since we have been having it slightly easy here in the commoner-ranked part of the forest. 

"Let's see if we can find a small colony of Beedrill," I say since Leo can handle them with his dual-type advantages against them. Along with me learning to defend myself with my psychic abilities. 

My abilities over the years have greatly increased, to the point that I can even use some psychic-type Pokémon moves like Confusion and Hypnosis. It will take me much more time and practice to learn more or make my own. The only ability I was taught due to it being the most basic move for all psychic users was creating an invisible shield that is only a centimeter thick covering my body. Over time it will get stronger and be able to protect me better. 

Leo using his great sense of smell and hearing eventually found a beedrill colony. Thankfully it was a smaller one, as the larger ones are most likely in a deeper part of the forest. Approaching it like usual, Leo jumps out and begins to fight the beedrills. 

"Leo focus on using Flame Charge for now," I say to him after he already charged his leer and howl. 

The beedrills, around five of them, came charging over surrounding us. They all simultaneously attack Leo with different moves, Leo is able to dodge two of them but tanks three hits. Leo is much more durable than he appears, plus the moves are not very effective against him. Meanwhile, Leo was able to connect with one of them instantly knocking one of them out. 

The four others became more pissed seeing this with three attacking Leo as he charges up another flame charge. The other one charges me while I dodge it's drill run directed at me. Leo looks back to see I am fine though targets the one that attacked me tanking the the other three's attacks. 

Leo doesn't hold back on this one killing it as he crashes into it's back. Leo is extremely protective and loyal to me, taking any attack against me as the greatest offense. We are working on him controlling his anger so he doesn't instantly kill anything attacking me. It is a slow process as his loyalty to me clouds his judgment. 

"Leo, focus on the others! I can handle myself," I say to him as he turns around growling at the last three beedrills. However, it seems they are reconsidering continuing to fight us.

Two once again attack Leo together, though Leo is fairly hurt now since he has taken several hits. This time he dodges them, as the third one tries to escape. I focus on it using hypnosis to knock it out as it falls to the ground asleep. If that didn't work and it escaped it wouldn't be that bad, though I'd rather not let it escape since I can have Leo watch it while gathering their honey from the hive. 

Looking back over I see Leo has finally finished up his fight, with many cuts across his body. Though he is still proud of his success, I pat his head while healing his wounds and giving him a treat for his victory. Then he watches the beedrill, as I gather the honey which is extremely tasty and healthy for both Leo and me to eat. 

Once I finish grabbing the honey, we take the parts from the dead beedrill before leaving. As the one would wake up soon and then it could heal its fellow beedrill itself. Like that time flies by in the forest with Leo leveling up several times and finally absorbing the energy from the scale. 

After absorbing the scale, Leo's stats jumped several ranks and increased a lot. Showing just how amazing high-ranked and rare items can be a game changer. If not for how long it takes for Magmar to make a scale for this and the fact it makes him very weak for several weeks, I'd ask my Dad for another. 

"Alright Leo, we spent a decent amount of time here. We should finally head to Pewter City and challenge the gym. We should be prepared enough and since it is our first gym the challenge shouldn't be as hard if we did it later," I say as we finish our morning ritual. We then made our way to Pewter City. 

After a few more days of travel, we finally arrived at the Pewter city outskirts. Outside the city, I can see the signs pointing in another direction for those who want to visit Diglett's Cave. 

"We can visit that cave later. We should get a hotel room and rest in an actual room for once," I say to Leo who barks in agreement. We both could use some modern amenities after spending two months in the wilderness. 

After booking a room, we headed to a restaurant that serves both people and Pokémon. There we ate to our fill until we felt like we were in a food coma, then we went to the gym to book a morning battle tomorrow.  Afterward, we slept in our room and got an amazing night's sleep as we had actual beds instead of sleeping bags. The next morning we headed to the gym. 

"Leo, you ready?" I say to him as we stand outside the gym, both feeling excitement and nervousness. 

"Grow-growlithe!" Leo says puffing out his chest to show he is confident in his abilities.

"Let's do it!" I say feeling pumped up now too. 

Walking inside I see the receptionist from yesterday afternoon. Confirming my appointment once again, I waited a few minutes before being told the gym leader was ready. Unlike the show or games, you just fight the gym leader, and even if you lose, the gym leader could still give you a gym badge if they feel you deserve it. 

Inside I see a man in his late thirties, with very tanned skin, dark brown hair, and very bushy eyebrows that almost cover his small dark brown eyes. He was wearing a light brown t-shirt with the sleeves rolled up and a pair of jeans. 

"HELLO CHALLENGER!! I'M THE PEWTER CITY GYM LEADER, FLINT!!" Flint says almost screaming it at the top of his lungs with his enthusiasm and gusto very contagious. 

"Nice to meet you, I'm Lucas," I say to him as he nods his head smiling at me. 

"Good to meet you, Lucas! It seems this is your first gym to challenge, even still I will not go easy on you! Though I won't use my main team to battle you, so do not worry about losing too badly!" Flint says with a more serious look now, as a woman comes out to be the referee, who appears to be Flint's wife, and it seems his other children are watching in the stands. His kids are cheering for him, as some other people in the city are coming inside to watch the fight. 

It is not that often someone challenges the gyms, and when someone does usually a lot of people will come to watch. Plus the fights are always board-casted locally and can be looked up online. I've looked up some battles in the past for Flint, along with my generation's fighters to see who could be a real challenge to me. Flint's oldest son Brock, was someone who just started his journey like me too. His first gym was Cerulean City Gym, which he lost not very surprisingly, since like his father he specializes in rock-type Pokémon. 

"Challenger Lucas, are you ready?" Flint's wife asks me and I nod my head as Leo is waiting next to me with a serious look. 

"Flint are you ready?" she then asks Flint who nods his head. 

"Then begin!" she says as Leo jumps into the rocky arena, with Flint throwing out his chosen Pokémon. Every gym battle is three Pokémon to fight, so even though I only have Leo, I am confident in our ability to win this. 

Flint's chosen Pokémon is a Geodude, who gives a small battle cry at being released. To save my secret of telepathy, I will be giving Leo commands out loud. My trump card will be shouting commands, but giving the real ones through our connection. However, I will not be using that unless necessary. 

"Leo, use Howl and then leer!" I say as Leo is watching Geodude closely while using his moves. 

"Geodude, use defense curl and leer!" Flint says as his Geodude is also watching Leo closely. 

"Leo, Flame Charge!" I say as Leo finishes his moves quicker and charges at Geodude. 

"Geodude use rock throw!" Flint says as Geodude grabs a rock and chucks it at Leo. 

Leo dodges the throw, as Geodude grabs another rock to throw but Leo's attack connects. Surprising everyone, but Leo and me, it does a lot of damage to Geodude almost knocking it out instantly. Though it seems Geodude's ability is 'sturdy' preventing it from being one-hit-KO. 

"Leo use bite!" I say since he is already close enough. 

"Geodude self-destruct!" Flint says wanting to take out Leo with Geodude.

Right before Geodude can blow up Leo bites into it causing Geodude to be knocked out. 

"Geodude is unable to battle! The winner is Lucas and Growlithe! Flint, please throw out your next Pokémon," Flint's wife says as Leo comes back to our side, with Flint recalling Geodude while giving Leo and me an impressed look. 

"I figured your Growlithe was special, but it appears he is stronger than normal too!" Flint says while throwing out his next Pokémon. 

A Graveler then appears and gives out a battle cry at it's release. Leo and Graveler give each other another look inspecting the other. 

"Begin!" Flint's wife says a few seconds after Graveler appears. 

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AN: I updated Leo's stats and such in the aux chapter.