Chapter 20: Facing a future member of the Elite Four

It wasn't long before Joey emerged onto Route 8. The same place that he'd left it in fact, at the construction site of the underground tunnel. Although, now that it was the afternoon the construction crew had finished working. The hole was closed off with a large round iron cover.

The route was also less busy than previously, although some trainers and youngsters were still roaming around and battling. That would likely end soon as well.

Trainers who travelled usually followed the same schedule. They'd train in the mornings, travel during noon and then battle on the second half of their journey as they did so until they couldn't anymore or found their next sleeping spot.

The reason why there were fewer trainers around was that those too weak to handle the heat had already gotten their teams knocked out, theoretically only leaving the strong. One of Joey's hands subconsciously moved to his belt, resting comfortably on Rattata's Pokeball.

It had been a nice break for his Pokemon, no matter how little anyone likely appreciated it. But, seeing everyone else battling it out recklessly on the large dirt road connecting Saffron and Lavender. It just made him want to join in as well. He looked down the road, the area close to the gate currently being occupied by a youngster with a Pidgey battling a trainer with a Spearow. In other words, boring.

The more impressive battles were happening further down the road. The energy that always came around at the start of the season hadn't subsided yet, and new trainers were battling for their lives. They hadn't found a tempo yet, and just recklessly threw themselves into any challenge.

Joey walked further down the route, passing a Magmar grilling a Gloom, a Sandslash battling a Pikachu and an Eevee fighting a Golbat.

Any one of the trainers would have been an interesting challenge, although he certainly would have preferred the black-haired girl with the Pikachu. After all, its evolution was what he would face in Vermillion.

He was even tempted to wait out the battle which the Pikachu was winning through skilled use of Iron Tail, but then he saw HER, and all thoughts of waiting for a battle to finish to challenge someone who likely wasn't interested, more preoccupied with getting to a Pokecentre, fled his mind.

She didn't have the mature style that she would acquire in the future, wearing a pair of black leather platform shoes, black shorts and an ice-blue crop top, but Lorelei walked down Route 8 as if she owned it. Her long red hair, bound in a ponytail swayed to the left and to the right as she passed the battles happening all around her, not deigning to give them even a look.

For all intents and purposes, the future Elite Four member looked like she was the main character of her own fanfiction titled "Reborn as an ice princess in this beautiful world." She'd just placed highly in the Silver conference and was now going to Saffron for her third Kanto badge, seemingly having taken the Pewter, Cerulean, Lavender route.

Joey's eyes narrowed as a battle-lust that he hadn't experienced before welled up inside of him. His heart was beating a mile a minute and his palms were sweating. He'd met characters who would go on to become gym leaders. Erika and Sabrina. Koga would join the Elite Four. He'd even met someone who would become champion, the mirror in his bathroom. But… Lorelei was fated to become an ice-type master.

The Elite Four weren't something that the average idiot could beat, unlike in the original games. They were the unsurpassable goal. The conference was basically designed to confer the privilege of breaking one's head against the mountain they represented. They rarely lost, and they lost their position even less often. There was a new member on average every five years and every single person who belonged to the exclusive club was a legend in one way or the other.

To be a master was a badly defined concept, usually conferred by beating another master. It was widely understood, however, that at some point in one's training, one simply passed over some sort of barrier. One's Pokemon became more, for lack of a better word.

As Joey stepped in front of the fifteen-year-old girl, feeling for all intents and purposes like Icarus about to have his wings melted, he realised that he wasn't facing Lorelei the Elite Four member, but Lorelei the teenage prodigy. The first indication that this was the case was the fact that she was startled by his appearance, revealing that she hadn't been purposefully striding, led by fate and confidence, but that she had simply been lost in thought. The second indication was the fact that the girl wasn't wearing glasses and that the way she looked slightly to the right of Joey indicated that she had bad eyesight.

In the end, Joey didn't know if he preferred getting his ass beat by an Elite Four member or a teenage girl still stuck in that particular stage of insecurity where she refused to wear her glasses. But whatever the case, he would still like to get his ass beaten, and by this particular woman, every day of the week if need be. He knew of course that someone of her calibre didn't need to accept his challenge, so he decided to throw out an iconic line famous for riling up even the most ice-blooded trainers. "You look weak, let's battle!" he shouted enthusiastically, pointing a finger at Lorelei and taking a wide-stance as if to block her escape.

The girl startled again, pointing a finger at herself and looking around confusedly. "You mean me?" she asked, before pausing. "Wait, aren't you a bit young to be out here?"

How did the girl know his age if she couldn't even see properly? Joey wondered.

Anyway, all trainers and youngsters were young by default. The Pokemon world had an odd relationship with age in comparison to Joey's old world. After all, it would have been completely ridiculous on Earth to send anyone into the wilds with only one battle monster for protection regardless of age. Especially if the person in question was 12, 13, 14, or even 15.

This was because the people of the Pokemon world were actually quite spoiled regarding how safe everything was. Sure they didn't feel especially safe because this was the only context that they knew. Also, well, Joey himself had been attacked by a wild Arbok not too long ago. However, Pokemon for the most part had moral values which rejected murder, theft, battery and assault. If a wild Pokemon encountered a crime, they would likely help the aggrieved victim. The sense of morality had trickled down to humanity at large, making heavy offences much less prevalent. It was probably more dangerous to walk down the average street in New York than to walk the routes and even some of the deep forests in Kanto.

Having digressed Joey refocused his gaze on his enemy, of which the identity differed depending on the time and weather. "My age has nothing to do with the beating I'm about to dole out on you and your team," he said confidently.

The confidence was fake, of course, he just needed to make sure that Lorelei would want to battle him. It was similar to how he had to provoke that old gentleman with the Growlithe back in the days before his first gym badge. There were some people that Joey really wanted to battle and he wasn't really willing to give them much of a choice in the matter.

As expected from his well-thought-out provocation, Lorelei's face ran a bit red from what he presumed was anger. Not very cool for an ice-type trainer, he thought. She proceeded to point a finger at a position that was around half a metre to the left of him. "You talk a lot of game for someone who doesn't know the depths of the waters they're trying to swim in," she said. It sounded like a rehearsed phrase she stole from her great uncle Pryce, the current champion of the Indigo League.

Not for long, if Lance had anything to say about that, but for the moment it likely entitled Lorelei to a lot of privilege. Like having an absolutely garbage battle start catch-phrase, apparently.

"The river may forget the name of the drowned, and a blizzard might make all traces of an unwary traveller disappear, but the point of battling is to test your mettle and to try to ascend peaks that you've previously thought impossible," he answered. Of course, he failed to mention that he knew that he did not have a sliver of a chance against the girl's team and that he was only challenging her to get crushed and to see how higher-level trainers battled on his own skin, or a rather, the skin of his Pokemon, something he was much more willing to risk.

"If it's a challenge you're seeking, then it would hardly be nice of me to refuse!" Lorelei answered. "But, be warned, I finished top eight in last year's silver conference." She pulled out her Pokenav and sent the challenge, it was thankfully, due to her lack of glasses, a tool that one only needed to aim semi-properly.

Giddy with excitement at the thought of battling a future member of the Elite Four Joey accepted the challenge, and since they were on the route and quite close to the gate and then by default the pokecentre, he set the challenge to a two on two which was his prerogative as the less accomplished trainer in the match.

His plan was simple, similar to how he'd handled Celadon. Metapod would go first and hinder Lorelei's first Pokemon. Then Rattata would come in and hopefully knock it out. Joey wasn't delusional enough to think that he could actually win the match, but beating one of the girl's team members would be an accomplishment in itself.

"All right, let's do this!" he shouted excitedly and held up his bug-type's pokeball.

Lorelei matched his pose more loosely as if to signal disinterest. "Let's get this out of the way. I have places to be."

They both released their Pokemon at the same time and what came out was probably somewhat anticlimactic to any observer.

Joey's Metapod found herself facing a Slowpoke.

He wouldn't underestimate it, however. He would take this as seriously as if it were a gym-battle

This was a simple match on a route so there was no particular decision on who got to start, so the moment that Joey saw his opponent he immediately ordered a "String Shot!" This was because he knew that Slowpoke were generally slow and that he could get the first move advantage if he moved fast enough. A white String Shot from Metapod's mouth already at the first syllable out of Joey's, the two of them being perfectly in sync after so long training together.

However, if Joey and Metapod were in sync, then Lorelei and Slowpoke must have been telepathically connected because without even uttering an order, the Slowpoke opened its pink maw and shot out a highly pressurised stream of water which hit the String Shot in mid-air. Contrary to Joey's general experience with ranged attacks, namely that they were cancelled out in scenarios like this, Slowpoke's Water Gun did no such thing. In other words, it shot through the string as if it was made of paper and the highly pressurised water impacted Metapod's shell not a second later, never allowing the youngster to even respond to the move.

At the end of the day, a Water Gun was simply an application of kinetic force, something which exhibited itself in the way that the attack picked Metapod up when hitting her and threw her at Joey who, in lieu of trying to catch the gigantic beast that he'd grown, simply ducked underneath the flying green crescent.

Upon looking back from his newfound position crouched on the floor, he discovered his Pokemon to be unconscious, swirls in her eyes and one last groan coming from her mouth.

"Metaaa."

"Fuck," he muttered quietly as he recalled her. He didn't have a lot of time to think about his loss, but several thoughts nevertheless flitted through his mind.

Lorelei meanwhile, stood there surprised at the easy victory and crossed her arms in confusion as Joey reevaluated.

How was it that one Water Gun had managed to knock out Metapod? Bug types weren't particularly vulnerable to water and Metapod was quite used to being hit with large amounts of force. Was it possible that the Water Gun had simply been mastered to such an extent that it packed the power equivalent of a higher-tiered move? Or had Slowpoke used something other than a Water Gun, but simply held such mastery over that move that it could manipulate the shape?

The empty pink face of the Pokemon, hinting at nothing happening behind that pink forehead, held no answers. Whatever the case, Joey didn't have much of a choice in holding up Rattata's Pokeball. The unfortunate circumstance that the opponent they would face now was not tired in the slightest, simply yawning there, a snot bubble forming from its left nostril, was just something they'd have to deal with.

"That was quick," Lorelei said. "Are you perhaps trying to use this match as a training tool for your weaker Pokemon?" she asked, clearly unable to make out the fact that Joey was a youngster. However, if she did indeed know his identity, then her words were an effective piece of mental warfare because even if Joey was used to losing to older trainers he still had a somewhat decent opinion of his tactical acumen. Although to be fair, calling out String Shot and then immediately getting knocked out didn't really give him much of an opportunity to show anything. Metapod only knew four moves anyway, and Tackle was currently unusable.

"I'm sorry, but Slowpoke is actually my youngest team member," his opponent said. "He still fought in a conference, though. "

"You're just going through with your original team then? Joey asked. "Not interested in catching any Kanto Pokemon?"

"My granduncle always said that there's not much of a point in expanding a team of six until that team has stopped progressing quickly enough to need perpetual involvement in their training process," the girl replied.

Joey mentally noted that down, unwilling to let the advice of the current champion slip through his fingers. Partially he was of the same belief already anyway. After all, Pokemon needed to be well trained, and it was this attribute of being well trained that elevated the team, not any sort of diversity of tactics, move sets, or typings. Every single member of the Elite Four was a type specialist. This was because type specialists took advantage of the fact that it was easier and more efficient to train up a team of Pokemon of the same type than it was to spread one's focus on a variety. Almost every Pokemon needed individual guidance specific to their species. With Pokemon of the same type, there was at least some overlap in training methodologies and move training. In other words, type-specialists streamlined the training process.

Joey himself was walking the road of the generalist, but as the world would soon find out with the ascent of Cynthia and Leon, widely considered to be some of the strongest champions in the world, if not the strongest, being a generalist was a harder start but also offered a ceiling that was elevated in comparison to that of a type specialist.

Not wanting to stall anymore and having calmed himself down somewhat from the expected loss, but the unexpected way it had occurred, he sent out his next Pokemon. Which, considering that he only had two anyway was not much of a mystery. Rattata took the field and before the oddly autonomous Slowpoke could attack his starter with one of its deadly Water Guns he ordered his rat to advance. "Advance slowly, but cage it in," he shouted.

His starter shot forward in a white blur barely avoiding a very accurate Water Gun which lived up to its name of gun with how fast it shot from the Slowpoke's mouth. Thankfully Rattata managed to clear the distance after one dodge, and it soon became apparent that Slowpoke was more of a ranged beast than a melee one. As Rattata ran increasingly tight circles around it, creating the scenario for the perfect strike, the Slowpoke couldn't do anything but confusedly turn in circles and shoot out a Water Gun every now and again in a futile attempt to ward off the much faster adversary.

It was clear, however, that while Joey had outsmarted the very basic intelligence of the Slowpoke, the trainer behind the creature was not so easily overwhelmed. As Rattata jumped in for a quick attack at the Slowpoke's behind, which would hopefully turn into a Hyper Fang Lorelei interjected.

"Disable," she ordered calmly.

"Switch to Tackle!" Joey desperately shouted, but it was already too late. Similarly to how the Slowpoke had not been particularly slow on the uptake earlier, its eyes quickly glinted with a menacing white as it turned its head. Joey's starter stumbled to a stop, the white cage he'd started creating around Slowpoke dissipating into motes of light.

Regardless of the setback, however, Rattata was close enough.

"Hyper Fang," Joey ordered almost deliriously and Rattata was a mere millimetre from clamping down on the Slowpoke when Lorelei sealed their doom.

"Confusion into Yawn," she ordered and a purple light enveloped Rattata, held him up and threw him back in one simple motion, not even aiming at holding him in place and harming him. The rat spun in the air, away from the Slowpoke, as the pink creature yawned, a visible vibration of sound going through the air and hitting Rattata before it even hit the ground.

"Rattata, get in and Bite," Joey ordered desperately as he watched his starter yawn at the oncoming tiredness clouding his eyes. Would they really be beaten by a stupid sleep effect? Rattata's fangs erupted in dark unstable energy, signalling that the Pokemon's grasp of the move was still quite shaky. However, this was the only way Rattata could currently approach Slowpoke without suddenly being picked up by Confusion and thrown back until he fell asleep. While previously quick attack had kept his starter at a too high velocity to be picked up by confusion, now they could only rely on cheap tricks.

Rattata surged forward.

Lorelei answered with one simple command. "Headbutt," she ordered.

It didn't matter at this stage if Slowpoke harmed Rattata enough to prevent him from falling asleep. Going by the strength of the previous Water Gun, a Headbutt would similarly be enough to knock out Joey's starter.

However, ordering a physical move had been the first mistake that Lorelei had made during the entire battle and Joey wasn't someone who was going to let that go unanswered. An idea flew through his mind as Slowpoke committed to the Headbutt, slightly more slowly than it had to the previous ranged attacks.

"Drop Bite, Detect out of the way, bite yourself, then Hyper Fang!"

The thing about Yawn on and why it wasn't the best sleep-inducing move in the game, despite its area of effect sound wave, was that unless the move was practised to a frankly ridiculous level, a Pokemon affected by it could harm themselves enough to release the incoming sleep effect. Rattata, bless his little heart, was a Pokemon trained for speed and had gone through countless drills for the small move-set that he did have. Joey's orders were executed cleanly, precisely, in one second, the time it took for Slowpoke to barrel forward with a glowing head that looked like it could fell a tree.

The rat dropped the Bite, channelled fighting-type energy to dodge perfectly, purple and pink fur almost brushing against each other. As it spun back in place Rattata bit himself in the tail hard enough to draw blood and then shot forward, eyes wide awake growing and fangs glowing a luminous white.

"Protect," Lorelei ordered and the Slowpoke immediately dropped its physical attack and concentrated on creating a blue-green shield around itself.

Rattata bounced off harmlessly, and despite being one of the most speedy Pokemon in Saffron, the rebound from failing a physical attack on protect stunned him for just long enough for a Water Gun to impact his torso and throw him back straight off the route where he slammed violently into a tree. The impact was hard enough for the whole thing to shake and leaves to fall on the ground.

The timing of the Protect had been perfect and showed exactly the difference in experience if not wisdom between Joey and Lorelei. She'd ordered the move, seeing Joey's previous fast reaction, just in time for the youngster to be unable to react and to cause Rattata to be stunned for barely a second.

The youngster sighed and recalled his starter, noting on his Pokenav how a minuscule amount of pokédollars was withdrawn from his account and another loss was added to his record. He hadn't expected a win, but he'd at least hoped that he would get one hit in.

"Well, you got me good," he said to the red-haired girl who just handed him his ass on a silver platter.

Lorelei for her part congratulated her Slowpoke with an enthusiastic, "well done," before recalling the monster.

"I have to ask though," Joey said. "How did you get a Slowpoke to react so quickly?"

"While Slowpoke can sometimes take several seconds to even notice that they've been hurt, the training of their psychic potential and experience in battle are two effective ways of improving their cognitive ability," Lorelei explained in a voice which hinted at the fact that in the future she would look like a teacher and also offer classes on the orange Islands, where Joey thought that she was from originally. "Naturally putting so much training into bringing reaction speeds simply to an average, would in other Pokemon constitute ascension into a level considered quite good. It is at this point that it is the job of the trainer to work with one's Pokemon and to make up for their shortcomings."

Seeing as Lorelei seemed to be in an explaining mood, Joey decided to be forward and ask a question. "What else could I have done?"

The girl shrugged with unfocused eyes. "If you had a ranged attack to trigger Protect, you could have used the refractory period to maybe get a hit in," she thought out loud, before startling. "I really have to go now though, I want to finish the gym circuit quickly so that I can go train and prepare for the conference. Have a nice day!" she said in a friendly tone and in an attempt to rush past Joey almost ran straight into the boy if he had not dodged he watched her go with a contemplative face. Her form quickly disappeared into the gate building and into the city beyond as he stood there thinking about his future plans.

It had obviously been a good idea to challenge someone very likely to win the conference this year. After all, now he knew what kind of level he had to achieve to even think about getting anywhere. However, while this experience was valuable, he still had to focus on Surge and the youngster tournament first. Maybe it would be smart to teach Rattata Swift as soon as possible. The minute dig was up to a high enough standard and the period of recommended rest after a TM intake had run out.

For the moment he had something even more short-term to do though. Having just done battle with a future member of the Elite Four, it was now time to go to another one for training.

In other words, it was time to call Koga.