Chapter 6: Fire in my pants

"Alright, recruit. You know now what we're up against," Joey said as he released Rattata into the clearing they usually trained in. His Pokemon, as always, seemed mostly undaunted by any type of odds, and just excitedly shadow-boxed in the air against an imaginary fighting type.

In a way Rattata exhibited the behaviour of a fighting type himself, making Joey curious as to what kind of life his starter had lived to gain such an attitude. Or maybe his parentage was special in a way? After all, some Pokemon had latent potential due to having a parent not of the same species. Perhaps somewhere out there, there was a Machamp violently and sexually in love with a particularly elegant Raticate? Or maybe, the other way around? Joey cringed at the imagery he'd created in his mind and wiped the last five seconds of his memory. Pokemon didn't breed, they just magically appeared as eggs after their parents held hands. Yeah, that was it.

"We're going to be most likely dealing with a Mankey. It's going to know moves that use its legs like Low Kicks, and moves that utilize its arms like Karate Chop or Fury Swipes. It's going to know Leer, which decreases your defence by interrupting your TE strengthening with a foreign injection and last but not least, it's going to know Sucker Punch." Joey paused, as he considered how to communicate the strategy that they were going to use. It wasn't very complicated, as Rattata as a species simply didn't have access to a diverse enough move-set for him to come up with anything exotic.

It was inadvisable to give such young Pokemon technical machines either since they first needed to learn how to deal with their own energy.

"It's going to be very much like that battle with the Tyrogue," Joey eventually said. "Probably a bit tougher, since Kong actually specializes in the fighting type. The good news is that we almost won that fight, and that was two weeks of training and approximately 20 battles ago."

Rattata puffed up at the remainder of their changed luck when it came to winning battles. Joey didn't know how to tell him that youngsters really didn't count. They'd probably swing right back into a negative win-loss ratio when the more experienced trainers came out of the bushes again. In terms of improvement, it made much more sense to challenge those.

"The bad news is the fact that, similarly to how we lost against the Tyrogue, Mankey also needs to land maybe two moves to win the battle. We on the other hand have to hit about 10 Quick Attacks, or fifteen Tackles to really get anywhere. Very unfair, when you think about it, especially since this Mankey knows Sucker Punch, which means it has an effective close-in method. Thankfully, it's a dark-type move, so the damage should be at half of what you would have suffered from a fighting-type move," Joey mused and noted, that as he spoke in more detail, and longer, he was losing his starter. His eyes were glazing over. Tail twitching erratically. In the end, it didn't matter, Joey told himself for the umpteenth time. Rattata just needed to listen to Joey's orders, in training and in battle, and he would be fine. Joey hoped, however, that the next Pokemon he caught would perhaps have a bit more tactical understanding. Or intelligence in general. Although with knowledge came fear, so if he wanted an unafraid battler, maybe he needed to look for a stupid Pokemon?

"The battle is in two weeks, I booked us a slot. We'll be working on Detect, as usual, on Bite and Hyper Fang. Then, we'll be working on speed mostly, as all you need to do to win is not get hit. Tomorrow, we will go out into the wild to hopefully find and fight some Mankey. Training and battling, alternate that for six days a week. One rest day, then repeat," Joey said, before going to his backpack and taking out a blindfold, some earplugs and a longish stick he'd found in the forest one day for this particular purpose.

Rattata grimaced as he noticed the utensils that his trainer was approaching him with. The Pokemon didn't enjoy being blind and deaf. But, the issue that Joey had noticed when training his starter for Detect was that the rat had a very good sense of hearing, which meant that he had started dodging stones by that alone, not actually using a move to do so. So, now, it was time to block off more than just one sense. "Honestly, you almost have it," Joey said to the rat as he closed his eyes. "Just try to find that fighting-type energy and try to focus some of it in your brain." Plugging the ears as well, Joey took his position behind the rat, which was now sitting down in a lotus position, hind legs crossed. Joey started lightly whipping the stick in the air, occasionally letting it whizz down to lightly smack the Rattata on a part of its body, mostly focusing on the head, the two shoulders and the two sides of the torso. By focusing on five different points Joey hoped to make sure that he knew when Rattata started using a move, instead of just randomly dodging. If the Pokemon just guessed where it would be struck next, that guess would have a 20% chance of being true. So, if Rattata's dodge rate went above 20%, then they would know that they were getting somewhere.

Which they were, already. But just not fast enough. Currently, Rattata's dodge rate was 30%. Good, but not usable yet, and the rat didn't quite know how to use the move and was just working off instinct. Joey assumed the move would come at 70%, and then need some practice, but he didn't know for sure.

What he did know was that the only remedy for failure was training. While it wasn't pleasant to essentially beat on his Pokemon, it was working, and it was necessary. He wasn't inflicting any actual injuries and a few spritzes of a normal potion would set the rat right immediately after.

However, perhaps someone didn't share his opinion or didn't understand that Rattata was going through all of this voluntarily, because only a few minutes after starting the session, Joey found himself side-stepping a String Shot being sent directly at the arm holding the learning stick. Already quite used to dodging String Shots from random trees in this particular clearing, Joey simply dodged the string but watched as it flew forwards and was about to hit Rattata right in the back of his head, only for the Pokemon to dodge at the last second.

Joey suddenly received a revelation, right around the same time that he received a flying Caterpie to the head. "Caterpiieeeee!!!" it screamed as it initiated the Tackle from high up a tree. Joey, more by instinct than by conscious thought, let the distortion always tickling at the back of his mind suffuse his flesh and blood body and shift it to the other side. In other words, he went full ghost.

He watched semidetached as the bug flew right through the side of his head, and like the String Shot earlier, was almost about to hit Rattata. Only for his starter to jump out of the way, blindfold and earplugs still firmly attached.

Joey shifted back as the Caterpie roughly tumbled to a stop on the ground and shouted its name again, facing him. For some reason, Joey got the impression that he was the villain in this story. He put up his hands, "I'm innocent, I swear," he said. But Caterpie seemed to be a proponent of unnecessary police brutality and wanted him to stop resisting. At least that's what the next Tackle, aimed right at Joey's crotch communicated. Joey shifted again, but this time he fell backwards into his own shadow, using it to travel to his starter, who had sat down again and seemed to be waiting for the next attack. Exiting his starter's shadows Joey needed to stay corporal to pull off his starter's blindfold and earplugs with his right hand, while his left blocked another String Shot.

"Please tell our friend that what we were doing was just training and that I'm not abusing you," Joey pleaded, before shadowing away from another Tackle.

His starter nodded, misunderstood his command and Quick Attacked Caterpie in the back as it was contracting its caterpillar-like body in preparation for another Tackle. The bug Pokemon was flung to the side by Joey's now quite decently strong starter and tumbled to a stop against a tree. It laboriously stood up, as much as a Caterpie could stand up and turned to face Rattata with tears in his eyes.

It was at this point that the two started having an actual conversation.

Joey didn't understand a single word but decided to create a non-age appropriate translation.

The ghost energy was messing with his sense of humour.

"Caterpie, pie, pie!?" (Why are you defending that monster. He was abusing you!)

"Rattata, ttata, ta, ra!" (It was consensual, you just don't understand our love!)

"Ca, ter, pie!" (BDSM is a fetish grounded in sexism. The unhealthy power dynamics it creates in the erotic context inevitably spill over into the rest of the relationship, shifting it towards something horrible and exploitative. Don't go down that path, I implore you)

"ta, ta." (Stop kink-shaming me. So what if I like BDSM (Boy.Do.Smack.Me), I just want to become the strongest Pokemon and this is the path to getting there)

"Cat, te, te, pie, caca." (The only thing you're getting is a concussion, don't you see that he's selling you training that is actually only a way for him to fulfil his sick and human desires of hitting others with a stick)

"Ra,ra." (He's not like that!"

"Ca." (Is)

"Rata." (Is not)

"pie." (Yes)

"tta." (No)

"pie." (Yes)

"tta." (No)

"pie." (Yes)

"tta." (No)

"pie." (Yes)

"tta." (Yes)

"pie." (No)

"tta." (haha)

"Caterpie!" (Go fuck yourself then!)

Anyway, after a lengthy discussion which doubtlessly involved very fascinating topics such as morality, psychology and the merit of being hit with a stick for training purposes, Rattata and Caterpie were successfully able to solve their differences, although the latter was still giving Joey the stink eye. Although, to be fair, considering what kind of relationship the people and Pokemon in the clearing had.... The youngster and the rat infringing on the bug's territory, and then occasionally beating it up in an impromptu sparring match, spraying it with a potion to repeat the cycle…

"Wait, Caterpie," Joey said, gaining the bug's attention, just as it was about to slink away to one of the trees it liked to rest on during the day, balefully glaring at the training session below.

"Caterpie?" it asked.

"We're trying to teach Rattata a move that involves supernatural dodging abilities. To learn it he needs to dodge attacks, but as a weak and pathetic human, I can only physically attack him. You know string-shot however, which doesn't really harm him. Just makes him need to clean it off. Would you maybe be willing to help us? That way I wouldn't have to hit him with a stick," he proposed.

"Pie?" the bug asked with a tick-mark on its forehead and down-turned lips. Joey could easily interpret that one. Caterpie was asking what was in it for them.

"I'll give you one berry a day," Joey proposed, at which the Caterpie only scoffed and made to leave. A hard negotiator then. Joey narrowed his eyes. "I'm not made out of money, you know. I can get you two berries a day, take it or leave it," he said, at which point the Caterpie finally nodded, satisfied. It was getting a good deal, really.

Pokemon didn't only appreciate having a trainer to help them grow stronger because of the bond that was created, but also because the human could allow easy access to resources, knowledge, facilities and other Pokemon for sparring purposes in the form of trainer battles.

Wild Pokemon who wanted to get stronger had a tough road ahead of them. They had to forage for food, defend their territory, run away from predators, make shelter, upkeep shelter and all the other activities involved in living in the wilds. When they trained they were never able to do it until exhaustion, as this risked them being defenseless in the wild. It was a tough grind, mostly reserved for the proud, the anti-social, and the family-focused.

Caterpie not having to forage for food, but receiving it as a tribute for essentially training its String Shot, was the best deal it was likely to get without getting caught by a trainer.

"Rattata, I'm sorry," Joey said, turning to his starter after Caterpie had agreed. "I didn't create the training in the most efficient way possible. It makes sense in hindsight, but Detect probably works best against moves infused with TE, me hitting you with a stick is doing it the hard way. You were able to dodge the String Shot and Tackle much more easily than anything I've been doing, so let's collaborate with Caterpie on this, alright?" he proposed.

His starter simply nodded, his fate in Joey, the youngster who'd gotten him a 15-win streak, apparently unshaken. Joey went over to the rat and once again attached the blindfold and the earplugs. Then he went over to Caterpie and explained to the little bug what was necessary. "Alright, let's start with you aiming with a thin String Shot at the more protruding body parts so that he can dodge more easily. Later we'll start aiming more centrally," he said, getting an annoyed nod. Without much further ado, the Caterpie turned away from Joey and blasted Rattata with a thin line of string, directed at its head. This time Rattata failed to dodge, causing Joey to have to walk over and clean up the rat before training could continue.

After the two Pokemon had found some sort of rhythm, Joey picked up the stick he'd been using and curiously weighed it. It wasn't very heavy. Useless now he threw it over his shoulder and into the forest. The wonderful thing about being an aura-user was that he could also create an attack that would hopefully trigger Rattata's burgeoning detect. Unfortunately, with Rattata being normal typed, none of Joey's attacks, which were all ghost-typed, would trigger any sense of urgency in the rat. Ghost-type moves had no effect on normal-type Pokemon after all.

Nevertheless, he could see if even a harmless attack would trigger Detect. Perhaps it would work out well and the attack only needed to have some energy, no matter which.

With this in mind, Joey started trying to channel distortion into his right pointer finger. He knew how to do so for a fist, but if he managed to minimise the surface, but increase energy infusion then perhaps it would be a better training tool.

Occasionally Joey had to stop his experiments to go over and clean up Rattata from Caterpie's sticky white fluid, which sounded very wrong.

In the end, it was Caterpie that proved to be the weak link in the training chain. This made sense as String Shot was a move that used up nutrients from the Pokemon and only later infused it with bug-type energy. After two or three hours, the bug was lying on its back, a dreadfully thin husk. It didn't even have the energy to be angry anymore.

Joey respected the integrity, it hadn't been that easy striking a deal with the Caterpie, but once the deal had been struck, it seemed to stick to its guns. Deciding to reciprocate the gesture, he force-fed the Caterpie some of Rattata's pellets along with three oran berries he'd brought with him to reward his starter. After the food, the Caterpie already looked much better and slowly retreated into a tree to rest.

Rattata was divested of his bindings, and, since his part hadn't been as exhausting as Caterpie's, he was given a new exercise. "Alright Rattata, for the moment we worked on Detect as much as we could, you improved a lot. I think the dodge rate was 50% at the end there? But now it's time to continue to work on Bite, or Hyper Fang, whichever comes first. So, pick a tree and start going at it. One set of channelling normal-type energy to your teeth, and one set of trying to create dark-type energy. Whatever happens, you're training your jaw muscles to make the move more deadly for when you've learned it, so don't get discouraged," he said to his starter and sent the enthusiastic rat towards a tree on the opposite side of the clearing to where the Caterpie was resting.

Meanwhile, he continued working on his finger gun. Pointer finger crackling with black and purple energy. His "move-pool" was actually quite small. Limited to turning incorporeal, travelling through shadows and enhancing his basic physique. Perhaps it was time to work on himself as well, now that he was setting out for his journey in less than a year.

-/-

Joey exited onto route 7 with Rattata already out of his Pokeball and looked around. He'd only done the north and south gate up until this point, so it was the first time he was exiting Saffron from the west to the route that led to Celadon. It wasn't anything special, really, just a beaten path winding its way through forests and clearing. If Joey squinted he could even see the outline of a few skyscrapers.

Quite frankly. Routes 5, 6 and 7 were the most boring in Kanto. They connected four big cities, Saffron, Celadon, Cerulean and Vermillion. They were the most used routes by trainers and convoys requiring the protection of trainers, and thus the wild Pokemon incidence rate was the lowest in the region. They were also the shortest routes available, and Joey could have walked each one to the next city in just a day. Or less, if he had a bike; but those were expensive.

It made sense to ban youngsters from travelling too far out, Joey thought, not looking forward to the fact that he wouldn't be able to do so even after he won his first gym battle and upgraded his license. But, still, the limitations made it hard for youngsters to train against specific wild Pokemon.

Today Joey was traversing the areas he could access to search for wild Mankey to battle, as it would probably be the Pokemon Kong would use against him. But with the small amount of land he was actually allowed to cover, it wasn't that likely that he'd actually find them.

Joey turned north, where some tall grass plains blocked the way towards a set of small scraggly hills. Only a few trees disturbed the otherwise flat landscape every now and again.

Mankey preferred to run around in the open, rather than the forest, so this was the habitat where he was most likely to find the little balls of anger.

One might think that it would be dangerous to walk into the territory of a type of Pokemon known for its anger issues, however, Saffron was home to a fighting-type gym. Kong likely caught all Mankey with actual potential for his badge challenges and gym trainers. It's likely where his son's Mankey had come from as well unless it had been bred. All that was probably left were the untalented dregs.

"All right, you know the plan," Joey told his starter as they stepped into the prairie. "We stop at every tree to give it a few attempted Hyper Fangs, this should get the attention of the local Pokemon. I specifically checked and there are no Spearow or Beedrill currently in the area, so there's no need to be afraid of a swarm," he said, parting some waist-length brown weed and finding himself face to face with a little fox-like yellow Pokemon.

He blinked, and the Abra disappeared in a flash of teleportation.

"Good start," Joey said and continued leading them to the first tree interrupting the landscape. On the way there they had to shoo away some Oddish who had been playing catch with each other, and a lone Meowth, who'd simply slinked off when it had seen the pair of Joey and his top percentage Rattata. They arrived at the tree without having gotten into a single fight, which was a bit disappointing.

"Maybe the Pokemon who just want to relax move more towards the cities?" Joey wondered. "Would make sense if the rangers drive away the more aggressive Pokemon from here every now and again. They're creating a safe zone."

Rattata emphatically shrugged his shoulders, eyeing the tall pine tree towering in front of him. It didn't look like it was inhabited by anyone, but maybe bringing it down would attract some Mankey. As fighting types, they were more likely to charge towards conflict, than away from it.

Also, Joey was allowed to go into the wild and wreck some trees. It wasn't something that one immediately considered, but grass-types could reforest entire islands in very little time if given the correct resources. So unlike in his last life, going into nature and destroying it was a-ok. How else were fire-type trainers supposed to train? Naturally one did so at one's own risk, as one never knew if a tree was inhabited by something. But, well, Joey was spoiling for a fight. "Bite it, Rattata," he ordered and watched satisfied as his starter built up some normal energy in the general area around his large incisors and jumped forward to bite a decently sized chunk out of the tree. Naturally, for him, a decently sized chunk was leaning more in the direction of one ball of ice cream, but progress was progress.

"Again, until it falls," Joey ordered and watched as more and more of the tree disappeared.

Rattata was a beaver, and Joey was the beaver master. Pine needles were raining down on the two of them as the tree shook with each attack, and Joey saw some curious Pokemon watching them out of the corner of his eye.

Two Bellsprout, excitedly wiggling their vine-like arms at the destruction they were witnessing.

More chunks flew, and Joey told Rattata to step aside as the tree started swaying left and right, before finally crashing to the ground in a dramatic faint. Its branches smashed down a second after the trunk, stirring up dust and pine needles. Joey confidently climbed on top of the felled tree and used it as a way to gain some elevation and get a better look. He saw nothing, as the felled tree was too low for him to get a good view. The only thing he saw were some Pidgey to the west flying out of their nests to check up on the commotion, before settling in again.

He struck his palm with a fist in a moment of realization. "I should have climbed the tree to get a better view before felling it."

"Ttata," his starter muttered awkwardly.

Joey turned in a circle, found the nearest tree and started walking towards it. It was a nice big apple tree that had not started blooming yet, and in front of it, standing on all four paws and looking at him aggressively was a Vulpix. It growled at Joey, which was completely uncalled for.

"Vulpix, pix, pi," it yipped, causing Rattata to respond with some of his own chitters.

"Is your burrow in the tree?" Joey asked curiously, causing the fire-type to narrow its eyes at him and slowly nod.

The youngster put up his hands placatingly. "Relax, we're not here to wreck the tree, and I don't appreciate the insinuation. We're the least suspicious pair on the planet, alright," he said. "I just want to climb it, see if I can spot some Mankey. Little angry fur-balls? Have you seen them around anywhere?" he asked.

The Vulpix stepped to the side, letting Joey approach the tree as it nodded its head, raised a paw to its eyes and pointed it at the boy. The message was clear. 'I'm watching you.'

"Stay behind Rattata," Joey said as he approached the tree, seeing the hole burrowed in between its roots. Jumping to grasp at the lowest branch he pulled himself up and started climbing, grateful that his shoes had a good grip. He quickly found himself emerging from the tree-crown, after having his sight completely obscured by freshly grown new leaves for a few seconds.

Adjusting his cap he started looking around.

Turning to the south he saw nothing but the route that he'd come from. To the east, there was a big plain with a pack of Growlithe attentively looking in his direction, and to the north, he spotted some beige fur-balls jumping around and chasing each other, punching and kicking rocks and such on the scraggly hill. Narrowing his eyes Joey tried to estimate the distance from the gate, which was already a bit far away, to the Mankey, before coming to the unfortunate conclusion that they were too far for him to really reach.

But the view was great, he could get used to climbing trees to scout the surroundings. It was fun!

Climbing down wasn't as much fun, but he managed. He quickly bid his starter to leave the little clearing with him, so the attentive Vulpix could relax. After a few steps, they crouched down together to plan their next move.

"The Mankey are a bit too far for us to really go there. But, it's good to know that there at least are some. It's not like we really want to walk into a clearing full of them anyway, they like ganging up on opponents when they get mad."

"ta," Rattata nodded in agreement, before extending a paw to mimic a hitherto motion.

"It would be nice if we had a way to lure one of them towards us, away from the group," Joey agreed. "But how exactly?" he asked, at which Rattata could offer only a shrug, before suddenly perking up, apparently having received an idea.

"Rattata," it chittered confidently and pointed to Joey's rucksack.

"My bag?" Joey asked curiously as he put it down and opened it, letting his starter dive in and look around for a few seconds, before a purple head emerged from the yellow backpack, holding an oran berry in his mouth, carefully not eating it, but covering it with saliva.

"Of course," Joey muttered, looking at the Oran berry. He'd started purchasing them in bulk from the Saffron markets after it had come out that this cheap berry was also Rattata's favourite. After the episode with Caterpie, he'd started carrying even more of them, to be able to bribe wild Pokemon if needed.

"Just eat it," he said in an amused tone of voice, watching the struggle in Rattata's eyes as the teeth holding the berry vibrated in place from excitement. Not having to be told twice the Pokemon gobbled it up, licking its lips.

Joey pulled out another berry and held it up against the sun. "But how do we draw one of them in?" he mused as he scratched his smooth chin. "If we can make sure that only one of them sees it, it will definitely come over, not wanting to share. But how do we show it, and then drag the Mankey far enough that the battle doesn't alert its friends?" An idea suddenly entered Joey's head, likely from the same source that Rattata had gotten his, going through the backpack he quickly pulled out his survival kit, removing a spool of fishing line from next to some painkillers and disinfection wipes.

"This can't possibly work, can it?" Joey muttered, as his gaze switched between the wire and the berry.

-/- George the Mankey interlude

George the Mankey was living his life as any proper Mankey should. Kicking and punching boulders, getting incredibly angry at every minor inconvenience and fooling around with his group of friends.

However, his departure from this blissful and simple existence was more imminent than he'd ever considered. And to think that all of it had started with a simple oran berry he saw on the ground, right in front of where the tall grass started. He'd acted selfishly, looking over his shoulder to make sure that none of the other fighting types had seen the berry. Trying to keep it all for himself.

A feat of selfishness he would bitterly regret in the future.

But the berry was so tantalizing, so juicy, so fragrant. George couldn't resist himself. After making sure that nobody else had seen it he snuck off from the general roughhousing that made up a Mankey's life. Slowly, cautiously, looking over his shoulder.

However, just as he bent down to grasp it, the berry hopped away from him! He raised an eyebrow, and a tick mark started developing on his forehead. Berries weren't supposed to hop, or move at all for that matter, he thought, before taking another step and trying to pick up the delicious treat. It hopped away from him again and he started chasing it. That only seemed to make it go faster, though. "Man, mank!" he cursed as he chased the berry, more out of principle than any sort of desire at this point. When it reached a large rock, it seemed to suddenly get stuck on the ground somehow. Mankey jumped forward, sailed through the air and finally managed to nail down the berry between his two outstretched hands. He quickly gobbled it up, before it could decide to forget that it was a berry again and start moving. It tasted delicious. Sweet, sour, with a tinge of victory.

"Hey!" a human voice suddenly called from above him, causing George to raise its head and look up at the rock jutting out of the high grass. He squinted his eyes, trying to make out the figure standing atop it, looking down on him.

Slowly the image came into focus, as his eyes adapted to the sun-light of midday. A young human, wearing a cap which shaded his face. At his feet stood proudly, a Rattata, glaring at George as if he was nothing more than a nuisance.

"I challenge you to a battle," the human said arrogantly, and a tick-mark began growing on George's forehead again.

Did the boy really think Mankey cared enough about some human and their pet rat to actually battle a weaklin-

"Quick Attack!" the human commanded, and a white energy enveloped the Rattata. Before George could blink the rat was flying at him through the air, streaming energy as it went.

Deciding that dodging was for morons, George put up an arm and threw it downwards violently in a Karate Chop. His palm and the Rattata's head were on a perfect collision course for a second, before the energy surrounding the Rattata suddenly faded and the Pokemon deaccelerated while still in the air. George's Karate Chop harmlessly struck the ground, throwing up a little explosion of grass and dust. The Rattata landed on all fours, dug its feet into the ground and before George could re-position, its Quick Attack hit him right in the stomach.

He threw himself backwards to minimize the damage and rolled to a stop after hitting a bush. He promptly jumped up, furious and glared at the duo that had ambushed him. They were both smirking, stupidly. The tick-mark on his head grew and he found himself giving into the rage.

"Mankey!" he shouted as he sprung forward with a strong barrage of Fury Swipes crisscrossing the air in front of him.

Rattata dodged to the side and tried to Tackle him, but George spun out of the way, lashing out with a Low Kick.

The two combatants disengaged and glared at each other.

Oh, it was on.

George the Mankey - Interlude - End

-/-

It was a minute later that a panting Rattata was victoriously standing over the defeated form of a Mankey, who was comically laid down flat on its face with its limbs splayed out in all directions. "Good job, Rattata," Joey called out to his starter, causing it to perk up and bound back to him, taking great care to trod its little paws on its defeated foe as much as possible while it did so. The trainer bent down and sprayed the forming bruise on the Pokemon's head with a potion. Rattata had taken only one hit during the entire fight, a karate chop to the head. But that had already almost been enough to end it right then and there. However, while this Mankey was similarly strong as Michelle's Tyrogue, it simply lacked the battling intelligence necessary to play to its strengths. It had resulted in a mostly one-sided match, other than some nail-biting moments and quite frankly, Joey thought that they were fresh enough to take on another Mankey.

"How do you feel?" he asked, causing Rattata to flex its bicep at him. "Other than victorious, I mean," he said with a chuckle. "Think you can take another one? We have berries, we have wire," he proposed, and Rattata was just in the middle of a very rigorous nod when a rather unfortunate sound entered the clearing.

"Mankey?" a Pokemon said questioningly as it lazily toddled into the clearing and saw its fallen brother lying flat on the ground. It hurried over to prod at the unconscious form, and when it didn't respond it began angrily screeching.

It was a horrible noise that made Joey wince and he watched in compassion as the Mankey lamented the fallen form of the one they'd beaten.

However, his compassion lasted just until he heard a cacophony of screeches coming from the steppes. They all sounded incredibly fucking angry. And they were getting closer.

"Change of plans," Joey said as he started retreating backwards, the grieving Mankey lifting its head to stare at him with its teary red eyes. He pulled out Rattata's Pokeball and recalled his starter, before promptly turning around and running away at full speed.

Joey didn't feel like getting the shit kicked out of him by a cartload of Mankey. Maybe he would feel like it tomorrow, but for now, it was time to beat a hasty retreat. The screeches got closer, and he was almost afraid to look back, but he had to. A short glance over his shoulder, as he rushed through tall grass and over sandy dirt revealed a veritable armada of Mankey chasing him. They seemed hopping mad, chasing him in great leaps and bounds. A sea of tick-marks on furrowed brows.

They were gaining on him, and Joey sighed when he realized that he didn't have a choice. He channelled distortion through his entire body and contracted himself to fall into his own shadow. Just in time, as the Mankey descended on his now gone form, starting to kick and chop and swipe at the middle of the hill composed entirely of Pokemon bodies. As the screams slowly grew less furious and the kicks less ferocious, the Mankey dispersed, revealing a blank spot of ground with no human in sight. For the entire time they'd been enraged, the only entities to have suffered from their beat-down had been themselves.

A troop of bruised and offended, still angry Mankey sullenly started making their way home again.

Meanwhile, a few hundred meters off, under the shade of a conveniently placed tree, Joey exited the shadows. His ears and eyes ringing from the transition between worlds. He held a hand up to the tree to steady himself and tried not to throw up. That journey had been more difficult than those that he'd experimented with in the past on his lonesome.

It had taken more energy. He looked down at his Pokemon belt, which was holding up his blue trousers.

"Carrying another living being," he muttered. "Didn't think it would make it so much worse," he said, before promptly throwing up all over the ground.

"Vulpix," a voice said unamusedly, and Joey looked up with a sweaty face and matted hair to find himself a little firefox with six tails, glaring at him balefully, fire beginning to spill forth from its mouth and onto the floor. He looked down to check where he was and realised that he'd just puked right in front of the fox's burrow and that some of his sick was starting to sicker down to invade the living space. Like a particularly affectionate muk.

"I can give you berries," Joey offered as a peace offering, but Vulpix remained undeterred.

The youngster found himself dodging embers all the way back to the gate.

"Holy smokes kid," the gate guard exclaimed as he saw Joey walk in. "Did you sit on a campfire?" he asked jokingly.

The youngster grimaced. "No, but I did throw up in a Vulpix's burrow," he explained.

If he had been hoping for sympathy, he would have been sorely disappointed.

The guard laughed as if he'd just heard the funniest thing in the world.

Joey ran red in the face and quickly exited the gate. Somehow, he knew that the blue-uniformed guards had a list of the stupidest situations that younger trainers had gotten themselves in. And he knew, similarly, that he'd just earned a spot on said list.

-/-

"Hey Joey, what happened to your shorts?" Mia asked as she plopped down next to him where he was sitting in the stands of the public battling field, watching some youngsters and trainers duke it out. It was boring, but he'd trained after getting back from the Mankey baiting and didn't feel like seriously sitting down and reviewing high-level battles. This was the best alternative.

The pants? Well. "They got ruined in the wash," he lied, looking down at the red pair of shorts he was wearing. The market had been out of the colour blue. Red had been the next best option, even though he thought it looked horrible.

"Oh, that sucks," Mia said, commiserating. "I keep losing socks. Where do they go?" she wondered.

"I honestly wouldn't be surprised if an undiscovered ghost Pokemon were living in every washing machine, stealing socks. I've just started buying only white ones, so it's not noticeable if they came from different pairs."

Mia tapped her chin. "Thinking about the way that Pokemon entries are written in the encyclopaedia: Sockgorm, the sock Pokemon. This ghost has emerged from the lost hopes of socks thrown away in clothing stores when nobody wants to buy them. It haunts washing machines, stealing the left pairs of all owned socks in an attempt to prevent the creation of another of its kind," she said in an oddly robotic voice, mirroring, perhaps unknowingly how the Pokedex sounded like in the original anime.

Joey cracked a smile. "Its ability would be Intimidate and it would mostly rely on ranged attacks," he added, but got distracted from creating Nintendo's next Mon by an old gentleman idly watching two trainers, one with a Krabby and one with an oddish, battling

It was one of those old men with a brown tweed suit, whatever the weather, and a handlebar moustache. What was catching Joey's interest the most, however, was the Pokeball that the man was rolling around his fingers. "Wait a second, Mia. I think I see a potential challenger," Joey said.

"That old guy?" she asked curiously. "I think he has a Growlithe, but I'm not sure. They all look the same to me," she said dismissively.

"Damn, burn, ok," Joey said with a laugh as he stood up and approached the man. His feet carried him and he tried to project an area of maturity. It had been a while now since the season had properly started. The native youngster and trainer population had dwindled like snowflakes in summer. It was about time that the casual battlers of Saffron started visiting the public battlefields of the city again to get their game on. Since these people were all more experienced than any trainers below the fourth badge level that Joey could face, he needed to make a good impression so that they would be willing to continue battling him. For better or worse he was stuck in this city for another 11 months.

"Heya mister," he said when he finally reached the man, causing him to startle out of his intense viewing of the ongoing match. "You look like you're itching for a battle. My name is Joey. Wanna have a go?" he asked.

The old man crinkled his eyes and turned to look at Joey. He thoughtfully adjusted his hat. "Good day young Joey, my name is Clifford. Ah, you read me correctly, I have been feeling a bit restless, but the fields are always too busy to enjoy properly at the start of the league season," he said, but the gaze that passed over Joey was, while friendly, mostly dismissive in terms of actual battling. Joey needed another strategy.

He laughed arrogantly. "Yeah, it was annoying when all those other youngsters were still here. I beat most of them and they quit training though. Or went somewhere else. I have a win ratio of 23-4, make that 24-4 when the two of us are done," he said, causing Clifford to startle and look at him with new eyes. Some spark in them.

"Oh, ho, ho," he softly muttered. "Perhaps we should have that battle then. See if you're as good as you think you are. I'm afraid I don't have that fancy Pokenav with the challenge program however, the ratio will have to exist in your mind. I don't bet, either."

Joey shrugged. "That's fine by me. A wins a win. How about we take that big field and show those other losers what's what," he suggested, and the two of them set off towards the middle of the dusty arena. It was the older following the younger this once, creating an interesting role reversal of who had tricked who exactly.

"You certainly have an inflammatory personality," Clifford said once they stood across each other properly. "Let's see if that allows you to deal with being under fire." He released a well-groomed Growlithe on his side of the field. The dog Pokemon shook, lolled out its tongue and looked at Joey with big and innocent eyes.

"Go Rattata, let's show them who's boss!" Joey shouted and threw out his starter, who chittered angrily at the dog, which simply tilted its head. He heard a cheer somewhere from where he'd left Mia. It was good to have some support because this was probably going to be a bit tough.

"Let's start shall we?" Clifford asked, before dramatically sweeping out his arm. "Show them your Tackle, Growlithe!" The dog ran forward at a fast pace, and for all that it probably lived a sedentary lifestyle, Joey was impressed with its speed. However, if it thought it could hit Rattata with such a slow attack it had another thing coming.

"Show them our technique!" Joey shouted encouragingly as Rattata squared up and right as the Growlithe tried to crash into it, dodged to the side. He dug his paws into the earth and started building a Quick Attack, something that took less than half a second.

However, Clifford wasn't old for nothing and apparently knew a thing or two. "Fire Spin!" he shouted, at which Growlithe immediately encased itself in fire and smoothly turned to meet Rattata head-on.

"Abort," Joey shouted. It was a testament to the synergy he'd built up with Rattata that the rat Quick Attacked backwards at a moment's notice, dodging as a flame-covered dog spun through the air to crash-land in the position it had just finished occupying. A small cloud of dust was kicked up, and before Joey had any respite…

"Ember, wide cone!" The bright red and orange fires surrounding Growlithe quickly crept up into its mouth, where they gathered between white teeth and strong jaws. It reared back, before spitting out a fire-ball barrage of epic proportions. Big enough that it covered the entire half of the field that Rattata was occupying, with Growlithe in the middle. The rat was fast but not fast enough to ditch the area behind completely, so there was only one thing to do.

"Detect, Rattata," Joey shouted, and somehow, from somewhere, they were smiled upon by Arceus, because Rattata encased himself with the prerequisite fighting-type energy, focused mostly around his eyes, just in time to dodge the first ember by throwing himself to the ground. The second by rolling over, the third by scrambling wildly and the fourth by jumping.

The embers dissipated harmlessly in the air once they passed a certain distance and a small pause occurred in the battle as both trainers considered their options. "Quick Attack," Joey commanded when he looked at the Growlithe and saw that it seemed a bit tired from that impressive move. It was time to go on the offensive.

Rattata shot forward leaving behind him a white blur, putting down its head to strike at his enemy. However, Clifford's next command disrupted the attack.

"Roar, Smokescreen," the gentleman ordered, and Growlithe howled loud enough for even Joey's ears to hurt. Clifford meanwhile looked fine. Near deafness, a benefit of old age? Rattata stumbled on the ground, being forced to combat his flight instincts at the horrible sound. He lost the concentration needed to use Quick Attack. Growlithe then belched a large amount of black smoke onto the ground. It spread quickly and soon both the Pokemon were completely enveloped, nowhere to be seen.

"Close your eyes and dodge. The Growlithe is wasting energy like crazy, outlast it!" Joey shouted into the smokescreen, straining to see anything.

"Odour Sleuth and Fire Spin!" Clifford commanded from the other side of the smoke screen and Joey cursed. Odour Sleuth would help Growlithe find Rattata, and his starter only had an imperfect Detect to rely on. Bright flashes of fire jumped out from the smoke at Joey's eyes, and the whole affair lasted longer than he'd thought. But the end result had been clear from the beginning, Rattata was hurled out of the smoke and rolled to a stop at Joey's feet with singed fur, a bruised torso and swirly eyes.

Joey sighed and recalled the rat as the smoke cleared, revealing a panting Growlithe lying on its back and looking like it had run a marathon. It eventually managed to get up and slowly walk to its trainer, where it got some head pats and belly rubs.

Clifford eventually recalled the dog and walked over the battlefield to Joey. "That was a good battle," he admitted. "Me and some friends will start coming out to the fields again soon, find me for a rematch once you've taught Rattata some ranged moves. Doesn't seem to have an answer for a physical threat that is on fire yet." He paused. "Rumours say that Blaine is retiring soon, another one of the old guard gone," the man said with a sigh. "If you're unlucky enough he'll go be a gym leader, and then you kids are going to be really toast," he said with a laugh. And with that horrible pun, the two said their goodbyes and went their own ways.

Joey trudged back to Mia, who had been watching the battle attentively. "That was awesome," she said sadly. "But that guy really lit up the field, it was like fireworks with that ember barrage. I have no clue how Rattata managed to dodge it all. You're going to the Pokecentre now?" she asked.

The boy nodded. "Can't get around doing that, I guess. You?"

"You got me all fired up," Mia said with a smirk. "I think I'll get into a battle of my own. Lil Mouse's Quick Attack has almost gotten as good as yours recently. I've been focusing on it a lot."

"Good luck," Joey said earnestly and clapped her encouragingly on the shoulder. "You need experience to beat Celadon. So battle, even if you lose, you need to battle," he said wistfully and left, after sharing a serious nod with the girl.

Thankfully the Pokemon centre wasn't far from the battlefields. It would have been a critical urban planning error if it had been. Joey was there in less than five minutes, however, when he entered the building all that he found was chaos.

More trainers and people were milling around than he'd ever seen. The cacophony of noise hit him like a train. In the back of the crowd, by the front desk were two rangers, distinguishable by their orange jackets and tough attitudes. Joey didn't see the reason for the commotion and he walked up to a random adult that he'd never seen and asked them what was going on.

"Apparently the Ekans weren't fully cleared from the north. Well, at least one of them managed to get away and evolve. The Arbok attacked a group of young trainers coming from Cerulean and managed to kill some of their Pokemon before the rangers arrived and captured it," the man briefly explained, while standing on his tippy toes and trying to see over the crowd and into the area behind the nurse's desk, where a frantic nurse Joy was blocking off the view into the emergency room and its accompanying waiting area with her body. "Get this, apparently the Arbok was already registered to a Pokeball. The rangers couldn't capture it and it was flown in by two Fearow. Police should be here any second." Joey backed off from the crowd, whose questions he was now beginning to understand.

"Was this an intentional criminal act?" "Who does the Arbok belong to?" "Think about the children!" Joey thought he saw some reporters in the crowd, apparently trying to get a fresh scoop. It seemed like the story would be in the newspapers tomorrow.

It was a horrible thing that had apparently happened, and Joey understood the outrage, the fear. Wild Pokemon had mostly been pushed back from the routes, and it was scary to consider that the area between Saffron and Cerulean wasn't safe. Worse yet was the fact that the Arbok that had done the attack had been captured already. This raised the question if it had been abandoned, and as it was common for poison types, held a bitter grudge. Or, if this was some sort of terrorist attack. The biggest defence that young trainers had against wild Pokemon that were too powerful were Pokeballs. You could throw it at a Dragonite and it would manage to suck it in for a second, even if the capture wasn't successful, that one second could very well save someone's life.

But since all Pokeballs ran on a program that refused to interact with other already captured Pokemon, that made a captured attacker a much bigger threat.

Joey turned around and left. He wasn't going to get treatment through that crowd, and Rattata would be fine with getting some sprays of potion and some burn salve. Others needed the medical facilities more today.

People thought that humans and Pokemon lived in harmony. This was undoubtedly the case for the most part, but when you considered how many Pokemon lived in Kanto… Well, there were always going to be incidents. Generally coming from ghost, poison or dark-type Pokemon. It's why the types were discriminated against to a certain extent.

Joey was just grateful that he'd gone to the west gate that day, not the north one. He decided that he was going to stick to Saffron for a few days. He would challenge the hobby trainers apparently returning to the battling square.