Magikarp Situation

Despite the poor conditions of Pawniard's training, it managed to grasp Tier 2 Iron Head by the end of the day for a split second.

While the training wasn't as efficient as it could've been, the combination of his desire to not have a chipped blade and the stamina and aura refiling effects of Leppa berries made for one hell of a training session.

Nova's only reason for stopping the session was because of his own exhausted body and the fact that Pawniard passed out the moment it realized it reached Tier 2 for the first time.

However, in the morning when it tried Iron Head again, only a very bright light appeared instead of the lustrous metal that was present the day before.

Something Nova didn't notice that morning was the sigh of relief from Pawniard when he said they won't be training.

At the moment, Nova and Pawniard were sitting on a rooftop while Nova played with his Pokegear. Staring his Pokegear with furrowed brows, he kept zooming in and out on the map app.

To his side was a Cubone skull. He didn't know if it was an actual skull or just a mask. Without asking the clerk anything about it, he bought it because he needed a way to hide his face.

Nova did remember that Cubone skulls were valuable in Kanto for some reason according to the anime and games, so if it was one, he'd keep it.

Disregarding that, the reason for his confusion could be found in the things he was muttering under his breath.

"4th street... east ward of Reaversand. Between prosperity… knock on reality. The fuck does that part mean?"

He was stumped, as the first part of the sentence he now knew was a riddle made no sense on the map. After all, there was no 4th street. Only 3rd and 5th street. At least, there was no 4th street in the east ward of Reaversand.

'Wait a minute…'

Staring at the three different streets in front of him, he squinted. There were two buildings that stood out to him immediately. One was bright green while the other was red.

Jumping off and climbing down the fire escape, he safely and quickly maneuvered himself to the spot right in front of those two buildings.

Nova re-looked over the riddle and stepped his way into the alleyway between the two buildings

The 4th street was literally just the street between the 3rd and 5th streets. There wasn't officially a 4th street but that's what the riddle was talking about.

The space between prosperity was just the alleyway between the emerald and ruby apartments. That's literally what they were called.

Now the only thing left was to knock on-

'Reality.'

The bricks at the end of the hallway were all a dark silvery blue akin to a blueberry. A single brick was completely black with a word scribbled onto it. 'Reality.'

Nova looked at Pawniard and had a silent conversation with him by just looking him in the eyes. Pawniard understood but didn't like it while Nova was apologetic but also thankful that Pawniard was so understanding.

Returning his Pokemon into the Pokeball, he gave the brick three knocks.

The moment his knuckles made left the brick after the first knock, he was in a completely different place. There was no indicator or feeling, he was just suddenly there and then suddenly somewhere else.

Standing in a seemingly random room, he looked around. There was a door in front of him while the room was very clean and empty besides a blue carpet that led from where he stood to the door.

Behind him was a red button on the wall with the word 'Fantasy' written on it in black sharpie. Quietly, he stepped through the door. Seeing the sights around him, his eyes slightly widened.

It was like a piece of the city had sunken underground. The slums under the slums.

The streets and buildings looked similar to Reaversand in that it was rough, rugged, and worn down. Frequent cracks in the streets and janky roads made for an image of extreme disarray. Trash was strewn everywhere and Pokemon could be seen freely roaming, but careful not to get too close to any humans.

Nova could confidently say this was worse looking than Reaversand. At least there it didn't blatantly smell of death and rotting. Though it wasn't worse by much.

But the most distinctive difference was the many stalls that were set up on the sides of the streets. Some shops sold TMs, others sold illegal Pokemon eggs. There were even some that sold Pokemon in cages.

This was definitely the Black Market.

Nova began to walk down the streets casually, noticing that his Cubone mask seemed to be common here. 'The guy who sells those masks must make a fortune. And unless this is a real skull he won't even get arrested for doing so.'

Suddenly a loud voice started screaming to Nova's left.

"I saw it first, fuck off!" A giant of a man wearing a tank top roared at a much smaller man.

The smaller man obviously didn't care about the size difference, retaliating instantly. "You lookin' down on me 'cuz you're bigger? I'll kill you and your whole family!"

Clearly, they were fighting over something, but Nova couldn't see exactly what. Not wanting to get involved with that, he took a step back to the right of the road.

Immediately after doing so, he felt a spike of danger as he was pulled into a tent that was most definitely NOT there before. The second he entered it, his life didn't feel threatened anymore.

Inside the tent were a carpet and an old man wearing a cloak while sleeping on a stool. His light snores could be heard as Nova held Pawniard's Pokeball tightly, not once letting his guard down.

The old man snapped awake with a confused look around the room before stopping and looking at Nova, a disgusting smile appearing on his face showing his yellow and crooked teeth.

"Oh ho! A customer… I've got just the thing for a young one like you. But first, you keep up with current events?" the gross-looking shopkeeper began.

That seemingly random question floored Nova for a second before he actually thought about it and realized he knows nothing about what's going on in the world. He was never one to care about things if it didn't affect his own living space so he never got into the habit of looking at the news.

Deciding not to speak, he shook his head in response.

"Mmm yes of course you don't. It's the same old thing, Kanto and Johto are at war. Again. Meaning you can't go there without risking getting hurt. Or worse." he muttered that last part and stared at the ground, going silent.

Nova stood there for a good few awkward seconds before stomping on the ground twice to get the old man's attention again.

"Huh? Ah, right! I've got a deal just for you. A powerful Pokemon from one of those regions, one you won't be able to get for years to come, I've got one for you for only 500! And I can guarantee its power, it even has two of those evolution things."

A Sableye suddenly phased into reality and placed the Pokeball in front of the old man, presenting it to Nova.

Nova momentarily thought about how that Sableye could've just killed him or robbed him while invisible and he probably wouldn't have been able to dodge, not knowing where it was coming from.

'Is this another Magikarp situation where the guy sells an extremely powerful Pokemon for cheap because he doesn't know it evolves into something monstrous?' Nova pondered.

He also couldn't think of any three-stage Pokemon from the Kanto and Johto regions that weren't at least decent. Even a Wigglytuff or Beedrill would be a steal for just 500 pokedollars in his eyes.

So, he nodded.

The old man's face split into a grin that was almost too wide for his face. Without a word, he raised his hand and snapped, making Nova blink.

When Nova looked around him he noticed that the Pokeball for the mysterious powerful Pokemon was in his hand and when he went to check his pockets he already lost 500 pokedollars.

That confirmed it. The man could've just robbed him blind but he decided to make a deal with him for some reason. Why? He didn't know and he didn't care.

No use complaining about a good thing.

Continuing to walk, he took his Pokegear and pointed it at the new Pokemon's ball he just got. The scan function actually worked through the Pokeball if it was close enough.

<Hoppip (♂)>

<Type: Grass / Flying>

<Level: 1>

<Potential: C-Rank>

<Ability: Chlorophyll>

<Moves: Splash, Cotton Guard>

'…Fuck.'

Nova stopped walking and just stared at his Pokegear for a full minute before putting the Pokeball in his pocket and continuing to walk.

He was furious to the point of blind rage for a second there, but after thinking about it thoroughly the situation could've gone much worse.

For one, Hoppip did have a higher rank than Pawniard. If his research bore no results and potential truly couldn't be raised, it'd have the highest chance of becoming an A-Rank or even S-Rank Pokemon because it had more evolutions.

Plus, Jumpluff was only terrible because Pokemon was a turn-based game, making any viable strategies fail instantly. The games were glorified slugfests and Jumpluff just couldn't hit hard enough without quite a bit of preparation.

The real issue lay in the fact that it was Level 1 without any attacking moves, making it inept. 'I did say it was similar to the Magikarp situation…' he noted with a slight chuckle.

And to add on to that, it was only 500 pokedollars. He could get that by doing kitchen duty. Something he didn't want to do, but he would if he had to.

'I should probably look for some TMs for the little guy…' And so, he spent the next few hours walking through the black market, buying different TMs for both of his Pokemon.

He only had a small amount of money left but he managed to buy a few TMs at a discount of 75% off. That was because he didn't actually buy them.

Since TMs weren't a one-use item, he just convinced people to use their TMs for a discounted price. He'd get the TM and they'd get a new idea for business while keeping the TM itself for later.

For Pawniard he picked up Thunder Wave.

And for Hoppip he bought up Seed Bomb and Grassy Terrain.

Not the best moves but Thunder Wave would be immensely useful later down the line and Hoppip sorely needed the extra damage and healing boost. Its stats were abysmal.

He did see Sunny Day and Sandstorm, the TMs he was planning on buying, but even discounted they were too expensive after his earlier purchases. By the end, he was only left with 1200 pokedollars left.

Carefully, he made his way back to the exit while trying not to disturb anyone or make it obvious that he was an easy target. A level 6 and a level 1 weren't exactly powerful, after all.

Sadly, it seemed that he failed as he noticed two men following behind from afar...

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A/N: Second chapter, as per usual.

I guarenTEE nobody thought his second Pokemon would be a Hoppip. Although I've got his team generally figured out, I'm open to suggestions. Nothing broken op tho, im not just gonna hand him a Tyranitar or something.

Also, for anyone wondering how Pawniard learned Tier 2 Iron Head in a single session, I rolled a 100-sided dice to see how well the training would go and it landed on 100 so I just gave it to him. He will only be able to use Tier 2 under stress though cuz just giving it to him is an asspull and a half.