A Journey of Two, a Pokemon Story

Despite her desire to beat the Viridian Gym as soon as possible, Violet's curiosity got the better of her. Continuing to look into the Odd Pokeball's background was now a priority for her. Sitting in the Pokecenter, Violet placed it on the table. Surrounded by her Pokemon, she stared at it, trying to will an explanation for the Pokeball into being. By now, she had resorted to asking Umbreon if he had seen something like it and the answer was an expected shake of the head.

Writing down the possible options available to her on a piece of paper, Violet circled Silph Co. She had spent hours trying to figure out how Pokeballs work, only to feel her eyes glaze over when she encountered multiple references to obscure fields of quantum mechanics. After which she focused on how much effort it took to design a Pokeball, discovering that the process was both more and less expensive than she thought. It was easy to clone a Pokeball for companies and just change one or two details here and there. While it did leave Silph Co with a few rivals as a result of their products constantly being copied, they were by far the largest supplier due to being the only one large enough to design new Pokeballs. Designing one that had a new feature was incredibly complex, with it taking years and a vast amount of money to do so. It was why Silph Co's Masterball was such a big deal even if they had yet to release it to the public.

It left Violet with one conclusion, somehow, Silph Co had to know about this Pokeball. Chances are they designed it as a step towards the Masterball but chose not to release it to the public due to the controversy it would cause. The relationship between Pokemon and humans was always meant to be a mutual one, and this Odd Pokeball directly went against it. The question then became how a random trainer gets access to it.

An hour later, Violet was sitting at a cafe. Introducing Dragonair to a few snacks, she slowly sipped her hazelnut latte even as she studied the Silph Co office. Annoyingly, it didn't have tours, which made it impossible for her to just sign up for one and see what they had. However, there was another strategy available to her.

An almost nostalgic smile came to her as she observed a scientist taking their child to work. While her parents hadn't done the same, it reminded her of her adventure through the Celadon Hotel with Dratini. It happened years ago, but she remembered that trip fondly. Being discovered by a psychic Pokemon was still possible, but now that she had a dark type, it'd be easier to hide from them.

Based on what Violet saw of the office, the only bit of security was a keycard door. The security guard didn't care who came in. The only limitation was the need to not be an unaccompanied minor.

A chirp from Dragonair distracted her. Nudging her drink, the Dragon Pokemon looked at her with a pleading expression. Violet smiled and ordered another latte for him before returning to her observations.

Taking notes on her phone, after an hour Violet was certain Silph Co was shadier than she had initially expected. While most of the people who went inside were rather normal, there was a small subsection that would look around and try to spot anyone who was watching. One of them even circled the block first before entering.

But the true breakthrough came as Violet was about to leave when one of the shady trainers exited while holding up a Pokeball for examination. A Pokeball that had a cage-like design. Now, Violet had a choice to make.

[] Confront the Trainer - They're unlikely to reveal anything directly, but you may be able to find out more.
[] Sneak into the Building - Tailing a normal worker to get past the keycard before having Magneton steal it would allow you free reign of the building. But it would be risky.
[] Tell Crystal and Ask for Her Help - Asking for help from a Viridian attendant would be the safest route, but based on what you know about her, Crystal would immediately try and sneak in with you. It would be interesting at least.
[] Write-in

I would like to congratulate you for convincing Crystal to help you break into a building. Next up are the totally stealthy adventures of Crystal and Violet.


55 - Underground Storage

Deciding to bring the Viridian City attendant in on the plan, Violet felt slightly nervous at the prospect of the immediate future. Crystal was intimidating, a strong trainer with an incredibly intense stare, it was little wonder that Violet felt her heartbeat in her chest. The gym itself was odd to Violet, with slight incongruities between what she saw on the outside and the rooms on the inside. It seemed that there were a few hidden rooms in it.

A part of her wanted to try and see what was in those rooms, but eventually, Violet's practical brain kicked in. Breaking into a gym would be a lot harder than breaking into an office. Walking over to the receptionist, Violet glanced at the battles themselves, spotting Willow amid a team battle against an attendant. Observing the battle, the shy trainer was rather surprised at the choice of Minun and Heracross for the match, but it worked out very well after the former forced an Encore on a Protect and the latter acted as the main damage dealer.

Just as Willow won, Violet reached the front of the line, where the receptionist looked up at her with a mildly annoyed gaze at having to do actual work. "What level?"

"S-six," Violet replied. "I … I was hoping to face Crystal?"

A mild sense of surprise crossed the receptionist's face before they shrugged. "Alright." They said in lieu of explaining why they thought it was a mistake. "You're in arena 4. Good luck."

Compared to the main arenas, Arena 4 was dimly lit. Used only on occasion, Violet entered the annex to the gym to find Crystal in the middle of training. Her team wasn't what Violet expected, consisting of Charizard, Hitmonchan, Snorlax, Starmie, Raichu, and Nidoking. A rather odd setup for the Viridian Gym, it wasn't that surprising to find her tucked away outside of the main gym. "Huh," Crystal exclaimed when she saw Violet enter. "You showed up."

Crystal motioned with one hand towards Nidoking, gesturing for him to step up to battle. "Uh, before-" Crystal shook her head, gesturing towards the Pokeballs on Violet's hip. "I just-" Crystal stared at Violet, tilting her head in a show of intimidation.

"Battle first kid." Crystal barred her teeth in a rictus of a smile. "Then we talk."

Violet swallowed her nerves down, forcing herself to study Nidoking even as she already knew which of her Pokemon would be sent out. "Dragonair," she intoned with only a slight bit of nerves in her voice.

The Dragon Pokemon emerged from his Pokeball with a pleased chirp at getting to battle. Slithering across the arena, he began feeling the terrain before huffing in approval.

"We start when the coin hits the ground," Crystal said in a tone that brooked no argument before she lazily threw a coin into the air.

Violet's eyes began tracking it immediately. Refusing to blink, she relayed her order to open with an Outrage on her signal. And the instant the coin touched the ground, the order was given. "Now!"

Dragonair shot forward with a roar, bulldozing through the Toxic spray and ramming into Nidoking with the force of a tornado. A thunderous boom echoed across the arena even as the Dragon Pokemon gave chase to the bouncing form of Nidoking. Before Crystal even had a chance to form a response, before Nidoking could even get up from the initial hit, the second Outrage landed. A second later, Dragonair preened in victory, a fierce dichotomy from the Outrage he had used a few seconds before.

"Can I ask my question now?" Violet asked, looking at Crystal with a smug grin.

"...You're a lot more annoying than the other kids I've dealt with," the attendant replied after a moment to process the exchange.

"Can you help me break into Silph Co?"

Crystal blinked, fully thrown off by Violet's question. "Why?"

Violet momentarily faltered at the intensity of the question, but then she looked at Crystal and noticed that most of the intensity was faked to make her answer honestly, "Uh, they're selling the weird Pokeball."

"Cage Balls," Crystal corrected, providing the nomenclature the League used to identify that model. "Do you have a plan?"

Violet smiled and explained what she was and how they were going to break into the building. The single keycard door at the front could be handled by stealing a keycard from one of the office workers, the security guard present wasn't interested in properly doing his job, the guest policy was lax so there wouldn't be any issues if Violet was badged in with Crystal, and most importantly, the office was large enough that it was normal to see new workers.

"...Giovanni wouldn't approve," Crystal muttered after hearing Violet's plan. The intense attendant looked at the younger trainer before a flash of steel crossed her eyes. "I'm in."

The next day, after Dragonair and Nidoking had been healed up, the two girls approached the Silph Co office at mid-morning. Spotting a particularly inattentive office worker who had traveled from across the city to get here, Violet indicated them to Crystal before having Magneton slip the keycard from their lanyard. After that, the worker approached the door, realized their keycard was missing, swore as they thought they'd forgotten it at home, and began the long journey back to their house. Handing the keycard to Crystal, the attendant swiped the card and opened the door for the two of them.

Crystal led the way, briefly waving to the security guard before the two of them entered the lobby. Moving through the building which housed a number of designers, marketers, and other employees, the two of them began trying to find the most suspicious parts of the office. Finding a hallway without foot traffic marked by a lack of proper lighting, Crystal and Violet looked at each other and nodded. Walking through the hallway, they found a staircase that took them deeper into the earth.

Emerging in an industrial-looking basement, fluorescent lights flickered above creating a ghostly glow that illuminated a variety of complex machinery and storage bins. Crystal immediately began taking pictures, gesturing for Violet to stay behind her. As she was doing so, Violet began to hear the clicking of footsteps. "Someone's coming." She urgently whispered, causing Crystal to hide the camera and draw one of her Pokeballs.

An unfamiliar man in a lab coat stepped out from a back office. "It's about time you showed up," he said gruffly, vaguely gesturing toward a set of cages. "Grab what you want and leave."

"And the ball?" Crystal interjected before Violet could say anything. "What's the specs?"

The man grumbled, clearly displeased at his work being delayed. "It doesn't matter who the trainer is, the Pokemon within will obey."

"I see," Crystal intoned, hiding a furious expression by clenching her fists. "Mach Punch."

"What?" The scientists began to say, only for Hitmonchan to land a lightning-fast punch to the jaw knocking him out.

While Crystal booted up one of the computers trying to find the information within, Violet scanned the various Cage Balls spotting a fair few Pokemon. She could take them if she wanted to …

The sudden blaring of an alarm quickly changed that, now on a time crunch she only had time to grab one before a fight broke out.

Pick 1

[] Take None
[] Gengar
[] Lapras
[] Gyarados
[] Alakazam
[] Machamp
[] Charizard
[] Blastoise
[] Venusaur
[] Gothitelle
[] Delphox
[] Chandelure

Alright, I'll be closing the vote here, it seems like Gengar will be joining your team.

To clarify things, Violet is going to be releasing Gengar, this vote was basically me skipping some of the steps and having you vote on the end result. The first step is to release the Pokemon present after which Violet can convince Gengar to join her team.

Next update you get to see the results of that as you and Crystal "accidentally" start a Pokemon rampage.