Chapter 17

The winnings I earned from Samurai weren't all that great to be honest. A mere three hundred pokedollars, but I suppose it was much better than nothing considering that the battle took such a short amount of time.

It wasn't long after Samurai slinked off to fix up his Pinsir that I packed up camp fully and continued on my way through the forest. I kept Pidgey, Spearow and Rattata outside their balls to let them continue their training while I travelled.

Pidgey and Spearow were my definite go to's for Brock's gym and Rattata made for a light companion on my shoulder to keep me company and ward off any of the trepidation I felt travelling through a forest filled with super powered mystical animals.

He might have only spent a few hours in total training with me, but most of that was spent under intense gravity pressure and being healed, so even just since we left the Viridian Pokemon Centre, the little rat has grown in leaps and bounds, and I've noticed a definite size increase in him. Before he was just about as long as my wrist to the tips of my fingers, not counting his tail, but he'd gained a good inch or so since I caught him.

Spearow himself was definitely trying hard. His pride had been smarted with the fact that Pidgey already had Steel Wing down and almost had Rain Dance down as well, and Rattata had Rain Dance and Water Gun down and was making good progress on Iron Tail. Spearow in contrast while having made some progress with both, hadn't gotten the hang of either yet. And it definitely bothered him.

We continued on for a good few hours of walking, right up until passed twelve before we stopped for lunch and to get some extra group training in. Plus, my feet were hurting like hell. I was getting way more used to these long treks and my body was beginning to get conditioned at a rapid pace, but it was still a pain in the ass to get used to even with Chansey's help.

I sat on my backpack after we ate and watched my pokemon go at it. Chansey at my side held her hands out, the familiar black power of gravity shimmering around her paws. The air in front of us shimmered with increased density and weight, and within the confines of the shimmering air, five of my pokemon sparred.

Rattata shot forward Quick Attack boosting his speed rapidly even under the weight now that he was much more used to it and jumped into the air, flipping over his head and flinging his tail out, a shimmer of silver energy surrounding it.

"Poli!" Poliwhirl grunted, throwing his arms up into a cross block and guarding against the Iron Tail attack. The force of the blow had Poliwhirls feet sinking into the grass but his impressive musculature held strong and with a jerk of his arms he thrust up and threw Rattata into the air.

Then with a hip thrust, he fired a large jet of water from his stomach at the airborne normal type. Rattata gave a shout and swung with his tail to pull him back around to face down at Poliwhirl and his attack before cocking his small head and spitting a similar, albeit smaller lance of water from his own mouth.

Both Water Gun attacks slammed into each other in a spray of moisture that rained down atop the grass.

But my attention was then captured by Spearow giving a piercing cry and speeding forward with his beak glowing. He slammed into Beedrill's stomach like a bullet pushing the larger bug pokemon through the air, but a familiar shimmer of golden light around Beedrill caught my eye as the momentum pushing him back slowed to a crawl. Then with his body still glowing gold, Beedrill lifted one of his lanced arms and smashed it into Spearows back flinging the small red winged bird down towards the ground.

Beedrill had no time to rest though, as Pidgey dived down from above like a speeding rocket, wings glowing white. Pidgey showed his superior strength to Spearow as his Wing Attack struck home and tore Beedrill from the air, slamming the bug and poison type right into the ground alongside Spearow. Though the force behind Pidgey's blow had the bee pokemon bouncing off of the ground, skipping across the grass like a thrown pebble across the surface of a lake.

Beedrill was hit so far he came to a stop just beside me and Chansey, right outside the shimmering field of gravitational pressure. Pidgey barked proudly and shot down towards Rattata and Poliwhirl, intent on taking them down as well.

Before he could though, a small red and brown blur smashed into him and pushed him back higher into the air, both of them breaking apart a moment later to reveal it was Spearow just as his wings erupted with silver energy and lashed out at Pidgey. Pidgey copied him, using his own Steel Wing and the two small birds began to have a serious try hard duel right in the middle of the air, slashing and clashing wings rapidly against each other.

Beedrill at my feet buzzed angrily, pushing himself back up and about to fire himself back into the fray before I reached out and touched my palm to his shoulder. "Bzz?" he turned to look at me curiously with big red gem like eyes.

"Hey buddy, do any strong pokemon live up there?" I asked and then nodded my head towards a large towering tree a few hundred feet away that stood out like a sore thumb from where I am in the forest. I'd seen quite a few of them in the distance, but this was the first point I've gotten so close to one. Generally you'd expect some pokemon to have taken such a place as their living space.

Beedrill followed where I was looking and stared at it for a few moments before turning back to me and nodding his head once. "All right then," I grinned, and stood up, "All right guys, let's call it for now!" I shouted.

Immediately Chansey let the gravity fade away and she sat down to catch her breath for a bit while the rest of my pokemon all returned to huddle around me within a few moments. "Lookin' good lads," I praised them, "I'd have been glad to let you go on for a little while longer if Beedrill didn't let me in on a little tidbit of interesting information."

Spearow perked right up in interest, while Pidgey just looked bored. Rattata listened eagerly while Poliwhirl just stared at me unblinkingly. I pointed up at the massive towering tree, drawing their attention towards it, ""According to Beedrill there's a tough pokemon living in that tree," I explained and couldn't help but lift my fist up in excitement, "Let's go take it down and catch it!"

While Rattata and Chansey didn't react with much at the news, the other four practically began to vibrate with excitement. Spearow and Beedrill were easy to notice and Pidgey lost his bored look, but the way Poliwhir's eyes narrowed and gleamed as he pumped a gloved fist into the air told me all I needed to know there.

He really only got excited for training and fighting. He's definite Poliwrath material if there ever was one.

I turned to Chansey, noting that her deep breathing had lessened somewhat, "Hey girl, can you heal them up?"I asked, "After you do, you can take a nice long rest in your pokeball."

She nodded pushing herself up and beamed affectionately at me, "Chansey chans!" she said, raising her hands up and conjuring the ever familiar aura of pink healing light from her paws.

Man Chansey is such a great pokemon. I need to make a note to spend more time with her when we hit Pewter City. I mean, she's constantly in my company when out of her ball, but she's mostly just helping a lot and healing us all after we exercise ourselves into the dirt. I should try and find out what she likes to do outside of being helpful once we get out of this forest and I earn some money from taking down Brock.