Act I: Chapter 12

Hello everyone,

The stories keep breaking milestones I wasn't sure I'd ever hit. Sure, I wanted to and strove to get this many likes/follows/reviews, but there is a big difference in wanting and actually doing. So thanks!

Last chapter was a fair bit of filler, so let's switch things up a bit, yeah? Let me know what you think about the name reminder right here.

Reminder of pokemon and names:

Hashi - Hariyama.

Minato - Hypno.

Madara - Growlithe.

Shika - Absol.

Follow me on instagram at wtmcdonaldauthor! If you are feeling generous, and wish to donate to my writing career, you can find me at Patreon under Twubs for early access to chapters of The Ladder, Defiant, and Tsunami of the South!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

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Route one was teeming with wild pokemon and even beginner trainers.

The games boasted an extremely low population of humans, like it didn't make sense how low. But this wasn't a game. I didn't know what the global population was, but I knew it was much much higher than the games were. Maybe around the two-hundred million mark? Maybe way above that? I really didn't know.

I looked up at the sky and noted that the sun was about to reach its peak, and it was time for everyone to stop training.

Minato appeared by my side with his back towards me. He had sensed my intentions before I had even given the order.

I reached towards the harness he was wearing and turned the knob all the way down before unbuckling it. He shifted so that I could remove it easily. Then, as usual, he began going through a set of punches and kicks now that he didn't have any extra weight on. It was always disorienting when they took them off apparently.

"Hari." Hashi grumbled beside me, letting me know that he was there.

I turned to the pokemon, who now stood at around six-foot eight, two inches taller than when he evolved. I was way past reacting to the fast growth of pokemon so I just took off of the harness and filed the information away in my mind.

Absol appeared beside me, sensing that we were finishing up. I ran my hand down her head and onto her back affectionately before looking to where the fourth member of my team was still training.

Madara was currently trying to perfect his first move combo, Quick Attack into Bite. He could already summon the dark energy into his mouth and perform bit flawlessly, it was just switching from Quick Attack into Bite that gave him trouble.

I grabbed my backpack at my feet and put it on, ready to take on the world.

"Madara." I said as he finished the moved combo successfully. The dog raised his head and looked at me with a happy look on his face. "Good boy! It's time to get going."

He was by my side in a very controlled use of Quick Attack. I bent down and pet him a little, as was required of me.

"Let's go." I said, leaving our camping spot onto Route one heading towards Viridian City.

I got about twenty feet before I saw the first trainer, and my blood started to sing in my ears at the prospect of a battle. The boy, around eighteen, met my eyes and smiled. I did the same, as I realized he had been waiting on someone, if his relaxed posture up against a tree was anything to go by.

"Battle?" The unnamed boy asked.

"Yea." I said, not bothering to offer how many badges I had. My pokemon were very strong compared to where they were supposed to be. I was still trying to figure that out actually. Why are my pokemon improving by leaps and bounds when the league normally sets aside years for everyone else to reach their level.

"One on one?" The boy asked again as he palmed a ball.

"Fine with me." I said and patted Shika on her side, signifying that she was up.

It was significant, because this was our first real battle together. Madara took most of the fights, as I wanted to get comfortable with him. But now it was Shika's turn.

She stepped forward in front of me, ready to battle. The boy looked at her curiously, but didn't seem to recognize her kind. I frowned, wondering who the hell didn't know about absol's. The boy tossed his ball up and released his pokemon.

Machoke materialized into the world, flexing his muscles in preparation for the coming fight. Mentally, I praised the boy for choosing a type advantage. But then again, he didn't even look like he knew what Shika was.

I said nothing, waiting for him to make the first move, which he did, predictably.

"Get close, Machoke. Low Sweep!" The boy shouted at his pokemon. For what felt like the millionth time, I wondered why trainers felt the need to shout out orders at their pokemon, it made no sense to me.

During my mental rant, Machoke had indeed closed the distance.

I sent Shika a mental picture of the counter to the Low Sweep that was coming her way. She obeyed immediately. My heart started to beat a little faster.

Shika's tail turned from its normal black color, to a silver before her legs bent slightly. She jumped right over the leg that was trying to sweep, and twisted her body.

The iron tail swung at the Machoke, and it's instincts caused it to raise its arms to block the attack. The only problem is that it slid back a few feet in response to the powerful blow from Shika.

I had to give the trainer more props, because he shouted an order quickly. But mental commands didn't take any time to be acknowledged, and that gave me the upper hand.

"Dual chop!" The boy shouted when it was too late.

Shika had used Quick Attack to get behind the muscled pokemon, and her tail was already connecting with its midsection.

The Machoke bent over with a grunt, from the force of the attack and his hands dropped to where she struck him. Shika took advantage of his position closer to the ground and swung her tail towards his temple without command.

The blow connected with a 'smack', and that was it. The Machoke laid on the ground unconscious from the blow for a moment before it dematerialized into its pokeball. My heart started to calm as the battle finished.

'It's not even me fighting and I get a rush.' I thought as I focused on my heart.

"Arceus, you're brutal kid." The boy said as he looked at the pokeball in his hands.

"Yea, I train hard." I said, trying to be a little polite while also waiting for my money.

The boy took the hint and reached into his pocket for the cash most trainers kept on them. I was the same way. I had perfect change in all of my pockets in the event of a loss. It was just quicker that way.

"You headed to Viridian?" The boy asked as he reached his hand forward.

"Yea, gonna see if Giovanni will take a one-badge challenge." I said as I took the cash. The boy snorted at that, and started to walk away.

"Good luck with that."

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"Mr. Giovanni only accepts challengers of at least a five-badge level." The secretary said condescendingly.

My eyes narrowed in anger. It wasn't what she said, it was how she said it. I considered flipping her off and walking away, but I decided that I would be classier than that.

"See you in a month then." I said cockily and turned around.

I heard the typing of her fingers on the key-board stop for just a moment as she processed what I just said. Nobody normally made the jump from one badge to five in that short of a time frame. I may not even do it, but it felt good to say to her.

She didn't bother to respond.

I walked out of the gym with a smile on my face, thinking that I won the little engagement we had, before turning and walking towards my new destination.

Route 2, and then Viridian Forest. I was determined to make it to Pewter soon. It was time to make a name for myself.

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It took me a day to reach the 'official' entrance into Viridian Forest. The truth was that I had been in the forest for most of my journey since Viridian City. Beedrill zipped back and forth around us, too fast to be seen but their wings were loud enough to be heard.

I didn't worry about them, I had three pokemon with predictive capabilities. And I was pretty sure that all three of them could track the fast bugs.

I continued my journey through the famous forest, unhindered for a long time. The forest was honestly amazing.

Some of the tallest trees I had ever seen in either of my lives loomed above me. Their branches spread far and wide too, intermingling with other trees next to them. This was what caused the constant shade in the forest. Hardly no light peaked through to the forest floor.

This caused almost no grass to be growing on the ground. Dirt and fallen trees covered in moss were the main obstacles I had to traverse as I followed the beaten path.

'Turns out the beaten path isn't the one I should be following.' I thought as I looked in front of me.

A wall of trees and shrubbery stood in front of me. I turned around, to make sure that I had stayed on the path, and sure enough, I hadn't strayed at all.

'They don't call this place a maze for nothing.' I thought as I looked around for where to go next.

"You guys wouldn't happen to know where to go now?" I asked my team as they stood around me.

Hashi, Minato, and Shika just looked at me expectantly. And that was when I remembered I had a dog with a particularly strong nose.

"Madara." I said, looking around for the dog.

He popped his head out of a bush obediently. In his mouth was a dead rattata that he had apparently just killed and decided to eat. He dropped the snack and bolted over to my side, ready for orders.

"Do you smell any recent trainers?" I asked the growlithe, while Minato sent him mental images of what I wanted.

Madara barked, and his nose went to the ground immediately. He picked it up, almost immediately.

'A lot of scents.' Minato said, translating the dogs' thoughts to me. 'Most lead straight.'

I looked forward again, as he said that and my brow scrunched together. The trees hadn't moved, there was still a wall of them directly ahead of me.

'Maybe that's just an illusion.' I thought as I walked forward.

Madara was ahead of me, with his nose still to the ground, and moving into the brush. My eyes scanned the ground for any tracks or signal that people actually had come through here. Then I noticed that the ground had a slight hump where the tree line began. It was surprisingly straight, as if it was man-made.

I jumped over the first line of bushes and found what I was looking for. Tracks of fellow humans, heading in one direction.

'Has the League intentionally made this place a maze, as a test for trainers?' I wondered as I looked behind me.

Now that I was on the other side, I could definitely tell that the whole tree line that I was seeing was definitely too perfect to be anything but man-made. Or at least, influenced by trainers sometime ago.

Madara was still sniffing the ground and moving forward when the rest of my pokemon crossed the line. They looked around curiously, just as confused as I was.

'Well, it's not worth that much brain power to be honest.' I decided as I dropped the topic and continued forward, following the nose of my trusty canine.

From that point on, we saw much more wild pokemon in the area. A couple of spearow had challenged us, but a blow from Hashi's steel fist normally sent them retreating. Two Beedrill had even tried their hands, but There was even a bulbasaur that looked at us before disappearing back into the forest. I cursed myself for the limitations I had put on myself for the pokemon I could catch and continued on.

Every time the path would turn, Madara would go the opposite direction, smelling the scents of trainers and pokemon. Every time, I jumped over a bush, to see that it was another man-made diversion. Every time, more wild pokemon would appear on the path, and become bolder. Each wild pokemon was put down by a random member of my party.

This continued for the whole day, and just as I thought it was time to break for camp, something I didn't want to do in the forest, we made it to the official end of the forest. The sign was simple, it was a congratulatory sign for passing through one of Kanto's most intimidating routes.

'Wasn't that hard.' I thought to myself for a moment before realizing something important. Most trainers seemed to be idiots. Everything in this world seemed to cater to beginning trainers.

'I doubt that most trainers would use something like a growlithe's ability to track using its nose to get through a maze.' I thought to myself as I walked past the sign and back into the world.

The sun was setting, so I decided to make camp finally and prepare my pokemon for tomorrow.

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Pewter City was a very industrious city, the most out of any I had visited yet. Many trucks were moving to and from the city, but they didn't look to be transporting people, just supplies.

'With Mt. Moon, and the surrounding mountains, I guess it makes sense.' I thought as I looked out to the horizon and saw the jagged peaks of many mountains. 'Probably a big mining town.'

There was a PokeCenter just as you entered the city, and a map of the city was posted right in front of it. None of my pokemon were injured, or even fatigued. We skipped the morning workout in preparation of challenging the gym today, so I walked right up to the map to see where I needed to go. Then I remembered one important thing I needed to do.

'I need to register Shika to my license.' I thought as I headed in the PokeCenter.

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It turns out, the gym was only a couple of blocks away.

The sun had only graced the world with its light around a half an hour ago, so the city was still waking up. There weren't many trainers out and about just yet so when I walked into the gym, the secretary had a steaming cup of coffee on the desk and didn't seem to be fully awake.

She looked up at the doors in surprise, and I could immediately tell this was one of Brock's siblings. Her black hair was cut short. Her eyes were a shining hazel, and her skin was a nice olive color.

"Here to challenge Brock?" She asked. She may have looked tired, but her voice told me she was wide awake.

"Yes, are there any open times today?" I asked as I approached the desk she was sitting at.

It was different from Blaine's Gym. The desk was off on the left side of the room, not in the middle. And the doors were open, allowing me to see inside to the arena. There I could see the other Gym Trainers doing chores or training their, mostly, rock pokemon. There were a lot of geodudes and gravelers rolling around.

"You're not too late for the 7:30 slot." She said after checking the screen in front of her. "It's the only open one all day."

That surprised me. "This is one of the more popular gyms right?" I was curious as to why there was an open spot.

"Yea, but trainers are notorious for sleeping in. The 8 and 8:30 slots are normally open in the mornings too." She answered, knowing where I was going with the question.

I nodded to her. "I'll take the 7:30." I said as I looked around for a clock. I found one on the wall that read 7:25.

'I guess that means now.' I said, happy with not waiting in line for the battle.

"Ok, first badge?" She asked as her eyes dipped to my belt holding the pokeballs of my pokemon.

"Second." I corrected quickly.

"Oh!" She said, surprised. "Brock will get to let loose a little bit then." The woman said, revealing that it was indeed Brock that ran the gym.

"Scan your I.D. here." She said as she held out what looked to be a credit card reader.

Having been through this process already, I already had it in hand and swiped my I.D. obediently. She looked back to the screen, to make sure I was who I said I was and had the appropriate amount of badges necessary.

Then her eyes widened as she got to my pokemon. I couldn't help but smirk a little bit as she saw the evolutions combined with an absol.

"Oh Brock is going to have fun. Let me call him, you can head inside." She said as she looked away from the screen and turned around to the door.

"Challenger!!" She yelled at the people inside.

I winced as my left ear drum threatened to bust but did as she said and walked towards the arena. As soon as I passed through the door, I was met by a boy around twelve or thirteen waiting on me.

"Follow me." He said before I could even get a good look at him.

He led me down to the challengers side of the arena, where I entered into a door at the base of the challengers podium. Inside was a set of steps that I climbed up a couple of floors. When I climbed up to the top, Brock was already in his spot on the opposite side of the arena.

He was sweating, as if I had interrupted his morning workout. I suspected that was exactly what happened. He was looking down at a screen on his podium.

"Brock, nice to meet you." He called out as he looked at the information on the screen.

Brock looked exactly like what a real life version of him might look, if he was a couple of years older than the anime. Even the outfit was the same.

"Brawly." I greeted as I palmed Shika's pokeball and waited for him to finish reading my file.

"Son of Brody." Brock said as he read down the file. "One Badge." He continued.

Then he stopped and his face scrunched up in confusion. "Your team has changed since you challenged Blaine." Brock said as he studied the screen a little more intently.

Then without warning, he looked up and met me in the eyes. "Let's do three pokemon, yeah?" Brock said with a knowing look.

He knows this won't be a normal two-badge challenge. I thought as I sent him a smirk. Ready, Minato?

Yes. Minato said from his position in his pokeball. It was odd when he connected with me this morning, from his place in his ball. Apparently being in his pokeball didn't stop him from being able to reach me. I didn't even try to make sense of it.

"Works for me." I said and pointed Shika's ball at the field in front of me. My blood pressure spiked, at the prospect of a battle.

She materialized majestically, and let Minato and I in her mind pretty quickly. She tensed her body, ready to move at any moment and waited.

"She's beautiful." Brock said as he palmed his own pokeball and smiled.

Then a massive light filled the arena, and his signature pokemon took the field. Onix materialized with a roar that rattled the windows and my bones before he looked around for his opponent.

Shika didn't seem the least bit worried as she looked at the massive rock snake.

The same boy from earlier appeared in the referee's booth and wasted no time in announcing the start of the match.

"Begin." The boy shouted.

"Slam." Brock commanded almost immediately. Yet it looked like the Onix didn't need the command because it's tail was already soaring through the air.

Shika disappeared from her spot right before the tail hit the ground and reappeared on the left side of the arena. Her unique horn glowed with dark energy ominously before she slashed the air in front of her. The earth shook in response to the slam just as a black wave of energy passed through the air towards the Onix.

Onix watched it come and tanked the move.

"Dragon breath." Brock said calmly as the night slash scratched against the body of his onix.

Onix wasted no time in gathering the energy in his throat. Shika already received her command from me and was carrying it out. Her tail changed from black to silver as she moved forward in a slower but more controlled quick attack.

She stopped just before him and lept. My heart hammered in my ears.

The onix released the dragon type move. Shika's momentum and iron tail cut through the purple beam and continued forward to slap the chin of the Onix harshly.

Onix's head snapped to the side, sending the Dragon Breath away from Shika, allowing her time to come back to the earth without being attacked while in mid-air.

The Onix took a second to recover from that blow to the chin, and looked a bit dazed. Shika didn't come out unscathed though, because my reckless command had caused her backside to become singed from the small amount of the attack she tanked.

Her discipline allowed her to carry through my next command, faster than the onix could react. Another night slash cut through the air, straight to the Onix's face. This proved to be the last straw for the Onix, and it was knocked unconscious.

'Thank Arceus, that was our most intense battle yet.' I thought as I realized the moved pool that Onix was packing. 'If that slam would have connected...'

It dematerialized before it could hit the ground and shake the stadium again.

"Just as I thought." Brock said. "I get to turn it up a little."

'Fuck, I'm in it now.' I thought as I commanded Shika to come back to my side. She obeyed and waited patiently.

Brock moved past a couple of the balls on his belt and chose one near the end. He released the pokemon inside without delay.

I was extremely surprised to see what materialized in front of me. It was a Golem, except that there was an appendage on its head that had some small sparks of electricity running through it.

'A fucking Alolan Golem.' I thought as I saw Shika's opponent.

Then I looked down to her injuries, and could tell it was affecting her the way she was shifting.

'Are you done?' I asked her. I didn't want to force her into a battle if she was injured. She shook her head and looked towards her opponent with intent. She wanted to continue.

'Good.' I thought just as the boy began the next fight.

"Begin."

"Rock throw, get close." Brock commanded.

'Force the issue.' I told her, while sending commands.

'Minato, if he uses electrical attacks, memorize them.' I commanded, recognizing the opportunity this fight was providing.

The first rock that flew through the air was sliced in half by the night slash that met it, but the Golem was already rolling forward towards Shika. He paused just as the rock was cut and threw another one immediately.

'Now.' I commanded.

Shika blurred forward into another quick attack and was already in the air for an iron tail when the alolan golem got out of its roll with a fist covered in electrical energy.

'Fuck.' I said as Shika's tail and his fist connected.

Shika seized up, as the electricity had nowhere to go since she was in the air. When she fell limp, I was already pushing the return button on her pokeball. She dematerialized.

'Fine.' I thought as my battle strategy completely changed due to Brock's intensity. 'I won't fuck around either.'

I grabbed Hashi's ball, instead of Madara's like I had planned. I wanted him to get more gym experience, but it seemed like I wouldn't have the opportunity in this gym.

Hashi materialized onto the field with a furious look on his face that was mirrored by my own. Apparently, Minato had been keeping everyone informed on the state of the gym battle. I felt Madara's disappointment and also acceptance through the link to him missing out on the battle.

"Hari!" Hashi roared as he dropped into his battle stance. One of his palms was facing the Golem on the other end of the stadium, and the other was facing me. His braid twirled around at the movement.

"Oh, did that hit a sore spot?" Brock mocked me from across the stadium. "You thought this would be easy?"

'Well, yea actually I did.' I thought in response but didn't answer him. 'No mercy Hashi.'

Hashi nodded to me as the boy shouted the beginning of the match again. My excitement for a battle from earlier quickly turned into a focused rage.

"Begin."

Brock, for the first time, didn't command anything, because he didn't need to. The golem sent another massive rock flying through the air without warning and moved forward in a roll towards Hashi.

Hashi didn't move from his position and channeled the energy he had been focusing the whole time since he was released into his leg. The rock was right in front of him when he jumped up and kicked the massive boulder.

I could tell through the link that the fighting energy had protected him so much, that he barely felt the blow. The rock was a different story. It shattered. The debris shooting off to the side of the stadium.

I saw the boy that was acting as a referee shocked expression from the corner of my eye. Brock's face scrunched up a bit too but he didn't change his game plan.

The golem jumped out of his roll just as he did before and sent two smaller rocks instead of one big one before getting back into his roll. Hashi calmly watched the two rocks approach and performed an acrobatic maneuver his size shouldn't allow him to.

The rocks were two different heights in the air, and would have proven hard to smack away. It would have also been hard to just dodge, as you would have been off-balance and ready for another attack. So instead, Hashi jumped and contorted his body until it was parallel to the ground.

He passed right through the rocks with a twirl and landed right on his feet in the ready position just as the golem reached his position and jumped out of the roll with the same electric covered fist as earlier.

I could have had Hashi just catch the hand with one hand, and use his newly taught steel move to ground the electricity with his other hand. But I didn't want to give his knowledge of steel moves up just yet. So instead we were going to do it with pure skill.

Hashi twisted to his left as the fist headed his way, and his left hand lightly pushed against the elbow of the golem. This led to him being overextended.

Hashi's right hand, covered in fighting energy, shot forward in an uppercut and impacted the rocky torso of the golem.

The golem grunted in pain, and a crack ran through the stadium at the impact. The golem was lifted off of its feet and the electricity in its fist disappeared.

Hashi wasn't done. 'No mercy.'

He reared back, and sent his fighting energy to his leg and punted the rock pokemon right in the head like a soccer ball. (A/N: Sorry for calling it that, I'm American.)

The Golem didn't shatter like the boulder from earlier, but the blow did send him back at least twenty-feet. Hashi didn't move, knowing that the blow had knocked the pokemon out. He was right.

Once the dust settled from the golem's body kicking up all the dirt in the arena, it didn't move. Brock recalled the pokemon quickly, and moved even further back along his pokebelt to choose his next pokemon.

His face mirrored my own from earlier when Shika had been hit. It seemed like both of us were getting into the battle properly.

Brock released his pokemon, and I decided right then that I wouldn't be surprised at any Gym Leaders pokemon from now on. They earned their positions, for sure.

Aerodactyl materialized in the air with a cry befitting of it's station as an apex predator.

Brock's strategy was easy to see through, but he knew that. He was relying on the type effectiveness against Hashi. Hashi would be weak to flying type moves. I didn't care.

'If he gets close. Steel energy.' I commanded after a moment of remembering that aerodactyl were physical attackers more than special. I counted on that being the case for Brock. If I was wrong, then Minato would have to pull this one through.

"Air slash." Brock said playing it smart.

The aerodactyl flapped twice, and near invisible blades of air shot towards Hashi. Hashi did not stay still this time, he just ran around never staying still. Hashi had to be the fastest of his kind already. We almost never focused on strength, because he had that in abundance and it would only increase with time. So his legs powered him around the stadium kind of like a deer bounds.

His legs were too large to focus on anything but long controlled jumps in a specific direction. His anatomy just didn't let him run properly, but we had found a way around that. Sure there were faults in this type of movement, especially if you could predict where he was going to jump next. But we had one thing that most hariyama didn't.

Detect.

Hashi knew where the attacks were coming almost immediately.

'It's broken actually.' I thought as Hashi continued to jump around and dodge. His excellent conditioning would let him do this all day, and Brock knew it too.

Eventually Brock decided to take the risk of getting into close quarters with my monster.

"Wing Attack." Brock commanded.

The aerodactyl obeyed immediately, and Hashi stopped moving to meet the attack head on.

I got a brief flashback of Brendan's wingull performing the same move and smacking Hashi around before I focused on the battle.

Hashi waited for a moment to turn his energy into steel type so as to not give away our advantage. When the aerodactyl was fully committed, Hashi's head and hands turned into a silver color.

Brock noticed immediately, but it was too late.

"No!"

I smiled as Hashi's steel hand impacted the right wing of the aerodactyl, causing a loud 'Crack' to ring out in the stadium.

The aerodactyl roared in pain for a moment before another steel fist hit it in the head. Hashi actually pulled his punch on the last one, so as not to kill the pokemon. Either way, the aerodactyl quieted immediately and was knocked unconscious.

"Match!" The boy said.

Brock recalled his pokemon and stared at me with a pissed off expression on his face because of the outcome. I knew that he was pissed at me, but he had to be pissed that he fell into my trap also. I recalled Hashi and met his gaze.

After a moment, Brock blinked and just like that, the expression was gone. He turned around and started down from his podium.

I recalled Hashi after a mental applause at his performance. Pride ran through my whole body at his response.

I turned and headed back down the stairs on the podium and only then did I notice the roar of the crowd that was in the gym. I had no idea that we had an audience, but we did, and apparently they loved the battle.

It was by no means packed, but at least two hundred people had filled into the stands and at least ninety-percent of those were trainers. All of them looked at me with intense stares. Some with respect, some calculatingly, some with anger at my brutality in the fight.

'Where did all these people come from?' I wondered as I walked back to the receptionist's desk at the front of the gym.

'Oh wait it's a saturday.' I realized as people parted for me as I walked towards the front. 'What else is there to do in a mining town on your day off.'

As I walked past people, I heard them whispering about the battle.

"Did you see that Hariyama?"

"Forget that, he has an Absol dude!"

"He only has one badge?"

"Brock hasn't let loose like that in a while."

I tuned them out after that. 'It seems like Shika will get some spotlight from now on.' I thought as I remembered I needed to get her healed up.

I walked in the front of the gym and there he was. Brock was standing, waiting for me with a badge holder.

"Sorry about that Brawly." Brock said as he held it out for me. "Your father still has that note on your license not to take it easy on you. I got carried away."

'Damn it, dad.' I thought as I remembered the note. I took the badge, and shoved it in my backpack.

"It's ok." I told the man. "Maybe I overreacted also." I admitted. I had been particularly ruthless when Hashi graced the field.

"Why don't you come back after you clear the circuit, and we can battle it out properly then." Brock offered as an apology. "We can really go at each other then."

I smiled at him. Only in the pokemon world would someone apologize by offering a more intense match than the one we just had.

"That sounds perfect." I agreed and stuck out my hand towards him.

Brock grasped it. "Headed to Cerulean now?" Brock asked.

"Yea, going to challenge it straight away." I confirmed.

Brock nodded at me. "Good, you could probably go for your fourth right after that if you got some more coverage on your team. Whatever you're doing it, keep doing it. That Hariyama is a monster."

I smiled at him. "Thanks." I said.

"Be careful out there. There have been some powerful pokemon disappearing around Mt. Moon." Brock said as he walked past me with a smile, on to the next challenger no doubt.

That sounded very ominous, and I couldn't help but think I knew what the cause of that was. I sighed, hoping that I didn't get involved with the most popular criminal organization from the games.

'Team Rocket.'

I shook my head, deciding to not think about it and started walking towards the PokeCenter to get Shika healed up. Then I remembered a very important thing I hadn't done in about a week.

'Shit, I need to call my mom.'

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A/N: Boom!

Big chapter! For me at least.

Second badge down! A little bit of manipulation by the league within Viridian Forest. Brock has a lot of strong pokemon, and that isn't even his main team. I really feel like he's disrespected in the games because he's always one of the first we fight. So I switched it up.

Team Rocket?

What did we think of the battle? Let's talk in the reviews!