Pewter City

"Finally!" I breathed out with Joker, who floats next to me, chortling in amusement, while my Larvesta chitters excitedly from its place upon my head, looking this and that way with a fire of curiosity burning fiercely in its beady eyes.

"Lar, Laar!" he then cries out, and after glancing up slightly to confirm in which direction he looks, I follow his gaze and quickly discover why he was so jumpy right now, besides the usual excitement he possessed naturally.

Far of in the distance, I could faintly make out the contours of a couple buildings, which means it was not that much longer until we would arrive at Pewter City.

Obviously, this explained why my little fiery friend was even more excited than was usual for him, as Joker had rigorously explained to my Larvesta how Gyms worked and what we had been chasing after so diligently with our near permanent training montage that usually lasted the whole day.

But unfortunately, I would have to disappoint my little friend, for once. Cruel, but necessary I'm afraid.

"Ahh, I can see why you would be so fired up, buddy. Unfortunately, we will not be fighting for our first badge in Pewter City but instead rest for a day at the local Pokémon Centre before descending down into the Diglet's Cave. Furthermore, you won't be fighting in any Gym battles anytime soon, sorry." I could practically wilt Larvesta upon my head, causing me to sigh in sympathy. But what could I do? He just wasn't ready yet. Not to mention that he only just hatched from his egg two days ago.

"I know buddy. But it cannot be helped. You are still so very young and have not yet trained to a point where I would consider you ready for a Gym battle. After all, you need to understand that the Gym leaders are generally speaking the strongest trainers beneath the Elite Four of the Pokémon League. With exceptions of course. And even though they do not use their real teams for any trainers under six badges, the lack of their real teams does not diminish their abilities to command their Pokémon in the slightest. They are still incredibly good at fighting. Of course, they aren't going at it full throttle against newbies. But still, they are not to be underestimated." I explained to him, making him perk back up a little at the thought of someday fighting somebody of such capabilities. I could empathize.

"But don't worry, you'll get your chance. Be patient and you'll see that you'll grow into a Pokémon to be feared as an opponent in time!" I continued and it seemed that my attempt at motivating Larvesta had kindled, as it cried to the high heavens a challenge. If a little squeaky and cute, but I thought the intention mattered more than the execution.

And with that reaffirming of our solution to continue going full throttle, we were off again. Larvesta on my head, blubbering and chirping at practically everything in excitement, and Joker floating silently next to me, completely engrossed in his training of his inner energy.

We had been making good progress, and so it took us no more than two hours of walking to finally reach Pewter City.

After returning my friends to their Ultra balls I finally set foot into the city I had only ever seen on a screen before, and it was pretty much nothing like the real deal. Surprising, I know.

Pewter City was by no means a small city, although it could clearly not compare to a metropolis like Viridian City, but that was to be expected.

Still, both cities were pretty impressive, as far as impressiveness for cities goes. While Viridian City was a hub of elegant modernity and an excellent example of how a city could operate the most efficiently, Pewter City instead was a city that clearly valued its history and long perfected routine of how to run a city.

Pewter City was, in a short summary, old. Its buildings were carved out of rock and chiselled both through handcraft and the influence of the weather but still looked as though they had only just been built. Paradox as that is.

Of course, the city was not completely without modern inventions and comforts, as the city still possessed electricity and roads but it still carried an air of ancientness, which surprised me quite a little, considering the technology even the lowest of the low trainers carried around with him on a daily basis. But I digress.

While curiously looking at all those rock-like buildings framing the roads and living areas of the city, I slowly but surely made my way to the local Pokémon Centre, where I luckily managed to get myself a room still.

After all, I had not expected the Pokémon Centre to nearly be bursting with newly arrived trainers who all, no doubt, were aiming to take on Brook in order to begin their race for the top spots in the coming Pokémon league.

After storing my backpack and bedroll up in my room, I decided to exploit the opportunity and refill my cash reserves a little, as Joker hadn't had a good battle in quite some time since his last one with that fellow Aurelius. Not counting the wild Pokémon, obviously, as they had been nowhere near when it comes to difficulty.

Thus, I marched back down into the main lobby of the Pokémon Centre, where most of the journeying trainers usually converged, be it for trading Pokémon, grooming them, prestige at showing their partners of, information gathering, looking for battles, or if only to chat and eat in each other's company.

Reaching the lobby, I couldn't help but compare the lobby to an active beehive, as trainers and their released Pokémon were hustling and bustling like busy bees all over the place, while a dome purely made of the accumulated sound hung excitedly in the air above them all.

With my head swivelling this and that way, I soon managed to make out where those that were looking for a battle were converging and quickly made my way over there in order to earn myself some cash.

"Any of you wanna battle? I'm in dire need for some money!" I called out to the rather large group, once I was in reach, causing a few heads to turn my direction.

"Hell ye, I'll take you on!" A youngster promptly called out, a grin plastered on his face while already having taken out and enlarged his Pokéball.

"Woah! Easy now, pal! Let's do this outside, alright?" I called back over, chuckling slightly under my breath at the eagerness displayed before me.

And so, after he nodded, we marched out of the front door and made our way to the back of the Pokémon Centre where usually the arena is located. Surprisingly, a small hubbub of other trainers were following us, silent as a grave all the while. Not gonna lie, that creeped me out a little bit.

Once we reached the arena and took our respective positions, I also took hold of Joker's Ultraball and enlarged it inside the ball of my hand.

"One on one alright with you?" I called over, to which he nodded. That was good for a couple of reasons. One: I had only one battle ready Pokémon currently. And I will not endanger Larvesta's future development for either my pride or some bills of paper!

Two: I was short on cash. Let me explain. Back in Viridian City's Pokémon Centre, I had obviously used the chance to look up information on trainers and how battling worked in this world. After all, even though nature supplies very well with berries for both Pokémon and trainers, necessary equipment for trainers, such as Pokéballs etc., still cost a pretty penny.

Hence, I inquired how the trainers earned themselves money. Turns out, if they had not received a sponsor ship from either their families, gyms or the local professor, they could make quite a bit of cash by battling each other.

Depending on how many Pokémon and badges a trainer possessed, the amount varied. The more Pokémon were used in a battle, and the more badges a trainer possessed, the higher the money exchanged. Pretty simple. But to make sure none of the trainers were scammed, which rarely happened but was still possible, the authorities even developed a small pamphlet with the different prices according to their respective levels.

And as it so happens, I still have enough cash in order to battle an opponent also looking for cash, since we were only going to use one Pokémon each. That only left the question of how many badges we each possessed, which is why I promptly called over before we would finally resume our battle:

"How many badges?" and just as quickly received the reply:" None. Just started my journey and will be taking on Brook tomorrow. Is that okay with you?" he asked back, to which I nodded. That was the signal, and we both summoned our Pokémon onto the field.