Saffron City, was massive. The biggest City besides Celadon in the entirety of Kanto. It was a huge bustling place with streets filled to the brim with busy people going to and from work.
Saffron was intended to be the Metropolis of Kanto. But honestly, it was more like the City where dreams died. People came here because of the abundance of work, when they failed to become trainers early on and pursue the money rich life of a trainer.
To be fair, the things you had to do to actually become a trainer were insanely hard to a degree. You basically had to pass a series of tests. A general pokemon knowledge test. A test on how to look after each general type on average, what they liked to eat. A battle exam, to show you had the wits and talent to actually survive if enraged pokemon attacked you. General first aid and pokemon treatment. The most brutal of all though, despite most thinking it would be the easiest, was the survival exam.
You had to survive five days in the wild without giving up, without any camping supplies, food, or the like. You weren't even given a knife or anything. Just the clothes on your back, and you were dropped into the area you had to survive in.
Honestly, you didn't understand how Gary even passed because of that, but you assumed his other test marks were high enough to let him get by. You know Ash aced it to an insane degree, but got quite low marks on the theory tests.
Becoming a trainer wasn't easy. Despite what most people seemed to think. Trainer's were a league's fighting force and deterent for war.. And what you had found out from Professor Oak growing up, is that, it was a delicate balance. Most didn't realize, but pokemon trainers had a lot of power at their finger tips. They had beasts with powers over the elements, beasts capable of destroying entire buildings with ease at their beck and call. That was why, the league tournament itself was so insane.
The league association needed an overpowered champion to watch over the trainers. They needed a supreme trainer that stood above all others that could crush all of them if they ever rose up against them.
..It was some sobering bullshit when you heard about it. And put how serious being a trainer was in your head. Then you realized you didn't give a shit about that, you were just in it for the high life.
The first thing you did when you got to Saffron, was scope out the Pokemart for any useful TM's. And ended up nearly dropping all of the prize money you from Surge on a few of them. Yeesh. At least as an Adept ranked trainer now with two badges, you got a ten percent discount and saved four thousand pokedollars.
Shadow Ball and Light Screen, you immediately taught to Umbreon on your way to the fighting type gym. While you don't plan to fight the psychic type gym from this city for a while yet, you want your only dark type to be as anti-psychic as possible.
Especially if the rumours you'd heard about the chick Sabrina who ran the gym were true. It was said she was a one in ten million prodigy, with psychic power unheard of before in a human. And she took over her families gym by the time she was eight years old.
"Fuck that shit." you shook your head with a grin as you passed the gym itself, instead walking down the street to where the fighting gym itself was.
You came to this gym specifically for a reason. And not just because of the fighting type pokemon prize. You'd heard that the leader had a Lucario. You wanted to see if you could find out where to find one from him.
You grimaced as you caught sight of a familiar red convertible, loaded to the brim with girls, and another familiar jackass dressed in blue casually leaning on the front passenger seat door while he argued with another girl
"Oh god damnit." you cursed in annoyance, stopping at the back of the car. Gary didn't notice you, but the cheerleaders did, granted other than a few widening eyes, none of them paid him much attention before switching their eyes back to Gary, except Brianna.
"Well, hey there stud." the older woman leaned over the back of her seat to talk to you, and you noted that the small tank top she wore did nothing to hide her abundant cleavage, "Here to give me that rough ride?" she winked.
"Doubt it, I dropped most of my money in the past couple days on TM's for my pokemon," you replied, "Spent over eighty thousand in Vermillion and just dropped another forty thousand as soon as I got here."
Brianna's eyes widened, "Damn, that's a whole lot of cash," she whistled, "I knew you made a ton winning battles, but nothing like that. The brat I'm working for didn't even tell us what he won when he beat the last few gym's he's took on."
She grinned impishly, "You trying to tempt me with money? Cuz it's working." she flirted.
"I'm down to only thirty thousand, though I suppose I could make some extra before taking on the gym here by spanking Gary again." you replied.
"Only thirty thousand he says," Brianna rolled her eyes. She cocked her chin to Gary and the girl he was arguing, "Feel free to smack him around again, you'll have to drag him away from arguing with her. But word of warning stud, he's been stocking up on Tm's by the bucket load, while he probably hasn't trained his pokemon as much as you, or as well, the sheer amount he's given them should offset that."
You looked towards the arguing pair, taking heed of Brianna's advice, but your brain stopped working for a bit as you really took in the the punk ass was arguing with. Tall, with long brght blue hair pulled into a messy ponytail, and wearing the absolute tightest little pink work out top and shorts you'd ever seen. And with how ridiculously curvy the girl was, it made for quite the sight.
"Damn." you whistled. Look at those hips. That was one sporty girl you wouldn't mind 'working out' with.
"I know right?" Brianna stated with a nod, "Look at her. She's practically begging for it."
Your eyes lingered on her hips, and then strayed up to her large breasts that were very vigorously bouncing with her movements as she vehemently argued with Gary.
"You gonna give her a rough ride to?" Brianna asked you with a sly smile, "Or you just happy with me?" she continued, lifting a finger to trail it along your jaw.
You snatched her finger in your hand, "Don't worry, after that little show you gave me back in Pewter, there's no way I'm not gonna mes you up," you replied simply, "Or are you offering a threesome?"
"Who knows," Brianna shrugged, "I'll look forward to your little 'threat' though." There was something in her voice. Maybe jealously that you were giving the other girl a look?
Still, there was something about Brianna that bugged you. While she no doubt failed to become a trainer early on and establish it as a career, once you hit twenty, you could earn a trainer card much easier, because of the advanced age when people were more mature, the tests were much simpler and easier to do.
It usually wasn't something that could let someone earn their place in the league well though. Training pokemon took a lot of time to get anywhere. You just had a lot of luck in studying under Professor Oak and getting a lot of tips from him growing up. Not to mention, the frankly absurd luck you'd had with your pokemon.
Granted at that point, you had to procure your starting pokemon yourself, because the league saw little value in people starting that late, when they were already in need of careers to secure their livelihood as grown adults, and not just an adult by technicality like you.
It was just a gimmick more or less, to get people to have at least one pokemon so the population of pokemon didn't overrun humans as much. They generally got a small starting stipend, much lower than trainers who passed at young ages like you got. Though, the lower their marks, the less of a starting stipend they got.