A Journey of Two, a Pokemon Story

Alright, looks like you'll be headed through the Fennel Valley.


35 - Ghost/Dark type specialist

Violet could tell that the presentation of the Boulder Badge to her was abnormal compared to a normal victory at the Pewter City Gym. Rather than a generic platitude, Brock genuinely considered what he should say and tailored it to her battle. He was rather impressed with Forretress in particular and also used her as an example to the other trainers about the importance of hazards and their prevention. Having been the center of attention for the duration of the battle, Violet was used to the stares she was getting.

Additionally, Brock warned her to expect some of her next gym challenges to begin using items. According to him, it would vary based on the gym in question with Blaine being the only one to use them across his Pokemon for a sixth badge fight. For other gyms, Violet should expect to face at least one Pokemon with a held item.

Following her victory, Violet spent a day at the Pokecenter ensuring her Pokemon were fully healed. Then, early in the morning, she headed towards the southern edge of Pewter City where Willow was meeting her. As the first rays of sunlight began to crest over the nearby mountains, Violet arrived, spotting Willow who had just returned from her adventures in the nearby wilds.

"Hey," Willow waved with a tired grin, having clearly had an eventful few days. "Let's hit the road, I want to make it to the Pokecenter in the valley before nightfall."

Violet looked at her friend and rival with a worried expression, "Are … are you sure?" She hesitantly asked. While hiking to the Pokecenter in Fennel Valley was possible, that was when both of them had enough sleep, not with whatever Willow was operating off of. "I, uh …" Violet trailed off, not sure how to ask if they could take a less ambitious route.

"I'll be fine," Willow said unconvincingly. "Come on, we're wasting daylight."

Violet hesitated for a moment before Willow began to walk south. Forced into action, Violet began to follow. Mentally stumbling over herself, she tried to formulate a sentence in her mind before speaking it out loud. After several seconds, Violet spoke once more. "How were the sights near Pewter?"

Willow didn't reply at first, her body radiating a mixture of discomfort and embarrassment at the question. "Pretty good," she said, interjecting false cheer into her voice. "The mountains are hard to climb, but the view from them is incredible." Slowing so Violet could walk alongside her, Willow showed a set of pictures of her trip. "See, check it out."

Looking through the images, Violet agreed that they were certainly pretty pictures. Taken from the tops of a few mountains, she could see Pewter City through them. Noticing something, Violet frowned. Swiping through the pictures showed that all of them had a noticeable landmark in them. Looking away from the app, Violet noticed a few odd scratches in the case itself. "Willow…" Violet said slowly as if confirming her suspicion before asking. "Did you get lost?"

"No," Willow lied unconvincingly as her face bloomed into a full blush. Violet stared at her, unimpressed. "I … I just saw some unexpected sights?" Violet continued to stare. "There weren't supposed to be Murkrow there okay!"

Violet let out a giggle, glad that her previous worry could now be replaced with humor. Piecing together the story, she asked, "How long did you chase it?"

"I caught them in less than a minute," Willow whined, clearly trying to downplay the story. "Then one of its friends grabbed my phone and I had to chase them."

"How long did that take?"

"A day," Willow groused, causing Violet to laugh at the mental image. "Then after that, I realized I had no idea where I was."

"Which meant you didn't have time to arrive before nightfall yesterday," Violet surmised. Feeling more confident about how her friend felt, she pointed out. "We could stop at a campsite instead of the center, there's bound to be a few trainers there."

"I don't want to be delayed though," Willow replied. "I'll get my next badge next week, which leaves me 9 weeks for three badges. That's so little time …"

"We'll head out before the sun rises," Violet assured Willow. "And you need to sleep."

"Fine," Willow reluctantly accepted, causing Violet to let out a sigh of relief.

After several hours of hiking, the two girls arrived at the campsite in question. Despite the sun still being up, Willow fell asleep immediately after pitching her tent. Unwilling to wake her, Violet simply sat by the fire alongside her Pokemon who were enjoying themselves taking a look at the nearby area.

Unsurprisingly, in a camp filled with trainers, one of them eventually approached her. The only problem as Violet came to find out, was who it was that approached her. "Care for a match?" An older girl with pitch-black hair asked with a cocky smile. "It'll be fun for both of us."

The girl threw out a Pokeball and a Gastly emerged from it. Narrowing her eyes in suspicion, Violet looked at the Pokemon and then back at the girl. Spying an Everstone hidden within Gastly's body, Violet looked closer at the Pokemon in question. Certain now that the girl in front of her simply wanted an easy win, Violet replied. "...No thanks."

Hiding her surprise well, the older girl raised an eyebrow. "What? Are your Pokemon too weak to beat a Gastly?"

Violet momentarily felt a surge of anger. Even realizing the other girl simply wanted to rile her up, it was effective. "Who are you?" She asked with disguised malice.

"Amber," the older girl replied.


Violet's Perceptive Trait Activates!

Gastly will be using a standard stance for everything. Amber will order Gastly to use Will-O-Wisp at the start of the battle, confident that she will have a speed advantage. After this, she'll then have her repeatedly use Shadow Ball unless against Umbreon in which case she'll use Skitter Smack instead.

[] [] [] Refuse to fight Amber
[] Write-in

GrayGriffin said:

Everstone, not Eviolite? Unless those look similar enough at a glance.

Click to expand...

Click to shrink...

Everstone for this. As was mentioned, the two stones are rather different in terms of appearance. Eviolite is definitely the more useful item to have in this case, but Amber doesn't have it for some reason.

Alright, with that I'll be calling the vote for Rest Assured. As it is, this ends rather predictably. The only minor hiccup that occurs is that Gastly doesn't fall for the taunt mostly as Amber didn't really understand the danger that Taunt posed in terms of disabling Will O Wisp. As such, Gastly and her just ignored it. That being said, it still ends with Umbreon one-shotting Gastly with only some very light damage in return.

After the battle, Amber storms away, albeit not before Magneton gets annoyed by her and decides that she's an acceptable target to "borrow" from. Said Odd Pokeball doesn't match any models that Violet knows.

[X] Plan Rest Assured


"So, you in or out?" Amber asked with a smirk, to which Violet had only one response. The older girl had been annoying her significantly, and a humbling was in order.

"Umbreon," Violet pitched her voice so that her Pokemon could hear her from where they were playing.

The Moonlight Pokemon trotted over, a confident expression growing across his face when he realized who his opponent would be.

Amber's smirk deepened as Umbreon took his place in the makeshift arena. "A dark type, huh?" She drawled, waving Gastly forward with a flick of her wrist. "This'll be quick."

Violet folded her arms, suppressing her irritation at Amber's attitude. "You're right," Violet replied. "It'll be quick."

"Will O Wisp," Amber ordered dismissively as the battle began. Violet in contrast didn't have to say a word, Umbreon had been taught what various moves did and he knew not to be caught by a burn if he could avoid it. A shimmering Protect sprang to life while Umbreon began to glow with dark-type energy.

Violet looked at Amber and raised an eyebrow, as if asking 'Was that it?'

Amber's smirk faltered. "Gastly, use Skitter Smack!"

In contrast, Violet's lips curled into a slight smile as she leaned back. While her opponent hadn't mistaken the gathering of Dark-type energy as Taunt, the result was more than acceptable. "Assurance," came the order.

The two Pokemon charged each other, twin strikes landing one after the other. Gastly with her far weaker physical attributes barely damaged Umbreon at all even with a supereffective move. Umbreon on the other hand did far more damage with his move. The dark type attack was incredibly powerful, slamming into Gastly and creating a cloud of dust where the Gas Pokemon was hit into the ground.

Umbreon turned towards Violet with a bored expression. Asking if that was all he was brought here for.

Waving him on, the Moonlight Pokemon trotted over to the rest of Violet's Pokemon apart from Magneton who was oddly absent. Violet's eyes narrowed when she noticed this, wondering what mischief they were up to.

"I…" Amber started, confused as to what transpired. "That's not … I was supposed to win!"

Violet shifted at the rise in volume. Glancing over at the tent Willow was sleeping in, she momentarily thought about asking Amber to keep it down. Violet immediately decided against that, from what she could see of her opponent she wasn't the type that'd be willing to listen. "Do you want a rematch?" Violet asked neutrally.

Amber growled in anger, almost agreeing before biting her tongue. Violet, however, was more concerned with the sighting of Magneton who was behind Amber, and using Magnet Rise to slowly levitate one of her Pokeballs down to the ground. Momentarily frozen with indecision, Violet wasn't paying attention to whatever it was her opponent said. "Forget it," Amber eventually decided, storming away in a huff.

Waiting for her to walk away, Violet immediately pounced on Magneton. "You can't just steal from someone," she explained. "What do I even …" Violet's words trailed off as she saw the Pokeball itself. It wasn't any design she was familiar with, appearing like a regular Pokeball albeit with black lines running across it that looked superficially like a cage.

Magneton, oblivious to Violet's thoughts, hummed in disagreement. She clearly deserved it.

Jarred back to the present, Violet acknowledged the point. "She was mean, but you can get in trouble for this." Pressing the button on the ball, Violet sighed in relief once she realized there wasn't a Pokemon in it. "Take her lighter instead, that'd be a lot less noticeable. And more annoying."

The Magnet Pokemon hummed in surprise at the suggestion. Didn't most trainers also carry matches as backup?

"Most do, but she didn't." Violet had been surprised at the lack of backup equipment Amber had carried. There was no sign that she even had a compass or flashlight. It was almost like she had only received Gastly a week ago. "She … probably bought Gastly from someone."

Violet frowned at that. While it wasn't unheard of for trainers to sell strong Pokemon, it was generally frowned upon due to said Pokemon usually being unwilling to fight under an inexperienced trainer. However, Gastly hadn't shown any signs of discomfort at the arrangement despite the clearly suboptimal battle strategy used. "Magneton, did you sense any badges?"

Magneton's reply of 'no' only made the mystery stranger.

The 37th Week, 1 Locked. Pick 1

Pokemon Actions

[] Catch your Sixth Pokemon - Now that you have five badges, you could catch another Pokemon providing a full team.
[] Train with your Pokemon - All of your Pokemon are skilled in battle with unique skills, but they can see some improvements through practice. Especially with their new moves.
[] Buy and Use TMs/HMs - You're a big enough trainer to afford TMs and HMs for your Pokemon.
[] Buy Items - Now that you've earned the fifth badge, you can start looking into buying items for your Pokemon.
[] Train with Willow- While it would be nontraditional to train with your rival, both of you have unique skill sets that could complement each other.

Battling Actions

[] Challenge New Trainers - Now that you and your Pokemon have developed, fighting a few trainers in rapid succession would be easy.
[] Challenge an Experienced Trainer - There are at least a few experienced trainers around here that may be worth fighting.
[] Challenge a Viridian City Attendant - In order to face the gym leader, you have to first defeat one of the attendants.
[-] Challenge the Viridian City Gym - While you wish to face the gym, you'll first have to face one of the attendants to gain entry for a six-badge fight.

Exploration Actions

[] See the Sights Inside the City - There are several interesting attractions in Viridian City that would be worth exploring.
[] Explore Unorthodox Locations - Viridian City has a lot that you can explore, some of which would certainly be atypical. Who knows what you may find?
[] Explore the Viridian Forest - A thick patch of jungle north of the city home to mainly bug types with a few ghost types here and there, it'd make for a fun adventure for a few days.

Traveling Actions

[X] Head to Viridian City - You spent the first half of the week travelling through Fennel Valley.
[-] Leave Viridian City - Once you defeat Giovanni you plan on leaving the city within a few days. (opens sub-vote).

Social Actions (For socials, it's assumed you keep up a basic level of contact through text, choosing a social means I write it up)

[] Call Your Parents - Your parents would as usual like a call when you're free.
[] Call Tetsuya - Having just earned his 4th badge, Tetsuya is now headed towards Saffron City to face Sabrina.

Other Actions

[] Look into the Odd Pokeball - You've never seen a Pokeball like this nor is there an example available online. Your curiosity drives you to investigate.