The next hour was spent in the administrative part of the complex, where the ownership of Eevee was officially transferred to me, had her registered to my license, received her pokeball, got a brush that was specifically designed for Eevee's fur, some food, and where I got the means to contact Miss Showers or someone else who was working here in case I had any urgent questions. She also reiterated that they were expecting monthly reports, which didn't need to be 20-page essays but rather a collection of notes about the developments and experiences I would make with her.
She also promised that I did so diligently, and she would contact me for some higher-level odd jobs if I was in a suitable location where she needed something done. The same deal I had with Professor
Oak, basically. Red, Blue, and I were free to capture as many pokemon as we like, and the Professor would take care of them on his premises, which were large enough to house them, alongside dedicated supporting stuff he was already retaining for his other countless pokemon. In return, he might also contact us from time to time, to run a few errands.
Agreeing was a no-brainer. It would be beneficial to maintain good ties with both of them, not to mention they had helped me, so paying them back was just basic decency. Miss Showers had even offered to let my pokemon make use of their in-house healing facility, which had refreshed Magikarp and Squirtle in a few minutes.
After Eevee had said goodbye to her family, and after I had briefly introduced them all to Squirtle and Magikarp at the pond, I was now leaving the Nursery, with Eevee sitting on my shoulder. Once I had taken my bike out, I placed her in the small basket that was attached to my bike and started to cycle away. Neither Squirtle nor Magikarp were well suited to sit there, but it was perfect for Eevee, and given her sounds of joy, she was having a good time.
My destination was clear now. I would go East-North-East as much as was possible with my bike, following the needle on my compass that was attached to the handlebar, before continuing on foot once the forest became impassable by bike, until I hit the ocean, in which case I would be traveling directly north, following the coast until I reached Hop Hop Hop Town. There was supposed to be a village somewhere on the way, so I might stop there for supplies, but otherwise, it would be a slow and leisurely trip, with plenty of time for training. Now that I had three pokemon, it was time to take the whole training thing seriously. I had talked big to my pokemon and now it was time to step up.
For over an hour, I was riding the bike along the small dirt path leading into and through the forest, enjoying the fresh air and the sun, while seeing the occasional pokemon scurry away. Eevee was meanwhile taking everything in. There were a lot of pokemon one would expect to find in forests and a few from grasslands who would occasionally wander in.
Some Caterpies, Metapods, Weedles, Kakunas, Ledybas, and Spinaraks in the trees, Paras, and Bellsprouts in the underwood, and a few Pidgeys screeching from the branches. I was surprised to see so many, and it made me wonder how many there were in Viridian Forest since that one was famous for its bug pokemon. But it also had rare specimen, like Scyther, Pinsir and since some had immigrated a few years back, even a few Heracross, which were absent in other forests.
None of the pokemon I saw really tempted me as of now, maybe that would change if I interacted with a particularly impressive specimen, or my circumstances changed, but right now, I was more focused on covering as much ground as possible.
After I started to feel my legs getting heavier, I decided for a break. Next to a big tree, I had a small bowl that was divided in two, so I could pour both, some food and water in it without those two mixing, and Eevee started eating and drinking immediately. I also drank some water and ate a cereal bar and closed my eyes for a bit, resting without sleeping. Eevee, after she was done, leaped on my lap and snuggled into me, and I started to slowly brush through her fur with my fingers. It was relaxing, pure happiness but after thirty minutes of excessive leisure, I decided that we needed to actually do something.
I also released Squirtle and looked at those two, who were watching me rather intently.
Checking the time, It was noon, and I felt we could get two hours of training in before I would travel for a few more hours.
"Okay, gang, we are going to do an hour of individual training first. Squirtle, the same as yesterday. You saw how useful both, your dash and your Water Gun were. I need you to improve both of them, and your stamina, before we try any other fancy tricks. You will do three sets, take a break afterward and then do three more." He nodded and started to do so with a tree a bit further away.
Turning to Eevee, I paused to think a bit. I had checked her with my pokedex after I got her, and while still young, same as Squirtle, she was also ready for battle. She even knew Quick Attack already, which I was happy with since that would be her main bread and butter for the foreseeable future.
Eevee were all-rounders, in their general capabilities, although they were mostly geared for close combat. You could teach them a few ranged attacks with TMs, but that's not really something I can do at this point in time. They weren't super-fast, super-strong, or super-sturdy, mainly good enough to get the job done, average even. They had a lot of potential with their evolutions though, and it was tricky to manage that. You needed to expose them to the stone of your choice, which meant owning a stone, which could be expensive, but you also shouldn't evolve them too quickly. If I had a water stone right now, I wouldn't evolve her since they needed to build up a solid foundation as Eevee first before an evolution improved upon that.
That meant, since she was small, I wanted her to be quick and agile. Eevee would never be a tank, so her strategy could not involve getting hit too many times. She lacked the sturdy shell Squirtle had. She could run faster and leap higher than Squirtle though, so it would mean to exploit her speed and small size to avoid being hit, hit the enemy in turn with Sand Attack in order to blind them and reduce their accuracy and reaction speed and use that time to reduce their attack power and defense with her status moves.
I wanted Eevee to be able to counter and all times, to dance around the enemy and bring it down that way, and to do that, I needed her fast and nimble.
So, when I explained that to her, she seemed pretty psyched, so I had her start by running a few laps around our small clearing. It wouldn't take her long, just get warmed up, really, but I took that time to collect a few small pieces of wood and ram them into the ground in a line with roughly 15 cm between them. I did so with ten, and once I was done, Eevee was awaiting me.
"Okay, you will run through this, without touching the small wood sticks, and at the end, I want you to use Sand Attack and hit the tree. You need to be able to dodge, and maintain your speed while dodging and executing your main attack. You will do that three times in a row as well."
That was how we spent the first part of the training session. I watched over both pokemon, since I couldn't release Magikarp in this environment, corrected them when needed, and was overall rather satisfied. I also wrote down their times and feats in my journal, alongside some commentary that caught my eye, like how Eevee tended to take left curves better than right ones, or that Squirtle's accuracy dropped more than expected once he was tired, which needed to be corrected since that could spell defeat against a serious enemy.
After that was done, and I had provided them both with water, a very light snack, and a fifteen-minute break, I started the part where they trained together.
"Okay, so I know you guys are a bit tired by now, but that's when things get tough in battles and you need to power through and still show consistency. Still, this is the first time, and you two are my only pokemon that can fight in the forest, so we won't be going too hard just yet. For now, we will start with a bit of a mock battle, but it will be done by taking turns, so each of you can try out what you were practicing the last hour against an actual opponent.
"So, first off, Squirtle will shoot Eevee with Water Gun and Eevee will try to get closer by dodging, until she is in range to hit Squirtle with Sand Attack. Everybody clear?"
Both nodded and made themselves ready. They were standing ten meters apart and the training so far had shown that Eevee's range was at most two meters. If she were to launch her attack from further than that, her accuracy suffered or, as I suspected, the sand would just be too spread out and not do its intended effect.
At my signal, they started. Eevee started dodging the second the water left Squirtle's mouth. Both were equally tired, although Squirtle did have that one match of experience more, so, I was curious to see if that would be enough to overcome an enemy that was even more agile than the one he had struggled with this morning.
So far, Squirtle hadn't landed one hit and Eevee was dodging and weaving her way through the short water bursts until she reached the point she decided she wanted to go for, a bit to the right of Squirtle, just after he had shot his 7th small Water Gun and slammed her tiny paw against the ground, which in turn shot forwards a cloud of sand. Faster than Squirtle could react, he was hit in the face with sand, making him let out a cry of distress.
"Well done, Eevee, and good effort Squirtle. Now, stay calm, lift your head up so that you are looking at the sky, and let out a small burst of water, but not with much force. I want the water to fall back on your face and wash it clean."
Squirtle did, and it took a few tries to fully get the sand off his face. "A lot of pokemon can use Sand Attack or similar attacks and as a water pokemon, you do have the option to clean yourself this way, although be careful. It does leave you open, so we can't do this carelessly. I still want you to practice this since it can be useful."
He gave me a serious nod, and we continued our training.
We did several runs, and by the third run, Squirtle actually started hitting Eevee. We then switched things around, this time Squirtle trying to rush Eevee, and Eevee trying to dodge in close combat.
While his legs weren't the fastest, Squirtle still was able to hit Eevee with his arms a few times, which in turn spurned Eevee on to dodge more or even try to parry with her own Tackle.
The timer I had set rang, and I stopped the training for today. I praised them and provided them with food and water once more. While they were eating and drinking, I packed everything up again, since now it was time for me to put in the physical effort again. Fifteen minutes later, after I also had eaten another cereal bar, with Squirtle back in his pokeball and Eevee resting in the bike casket, I started to ride on. Within minutes, I heard soft snores coming from Eevee.
xxx
I kept to the pace of two hours of biking and half an hour of resting, in order to power through the rest of the forest. I had decided to take the faster way out of the forest by heading straight east, rather than the longer but ultimately faster path of north-east to Hop Hop Hop Town.
By the time it was starting to get dark, I had actually arrived at the ocean, and I was looking at the large body of water, leaning on the handles of my bike, and Eevee was doing so as well.
She was happy because she got to fight a few times, mostly against a few wild Weedles, who had been too slow to hit her and had been scared away after one hit each. One did manage to poison her, but an anti-dote had taken care of that, and she had gotten plenty of rest. Still, there would be no more training tonight. Instead, I released Squirtle, since I was still too high, on what was basically a cliff, with the water being at least 50 meters down. I then built my camp for tonight and enjoyed the now star-filled night sky with my pokemon and some decent curry and rice.
xxx
The next day, after an early start, I started biking north, but this time, Eevee was no longer sitting in the saddle but instead was running alongside me. It wouldn't be for long, but I wanted her to get used to this since I wanted her to increase her stamina and leg strength. The explosive speed she needed to pull off in order to dodge enemy attacks and close the distance between them would only benefit from this.
I was going slower though since I didn't want to lose Eevee. After twenty minutes, I stopped and her jump into her basket, before continuing with my usual speed. Roughly 40 minutes later, I finally made it to the beach, and this time, I released all my pokemon.
After feeding and some fur brushing, while Squirtle and Magikarp were playing in the ocean, I got up, pulled out some rope from my backpack, and started to look around the beach for things I could use in training. Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything suitable and decided I would buy something like an empty barrel from the first village I saw.
I changed into my swimsuit and instructed Eevee to wait with my backpack and other things, so she could keep watch. I put on my swimming goggles, looped the rope around my arm, and dove into the waves. The cool water was almost a shock, but after a few seconds of swimming, I got used to it.
I also checked the pokeballs that were attached to my swimsuit, since I needed to bring them with me. You could never know, after all. I had checked previously, and as long as one didn't swim too far out, there weren't any dangerous currents. Still, having two water pokemon with me was as good of a safety net as I was going to get.
"Okay, gang," I said, unraveling the rope until I was holding both ends, "we'll be doing some strength training first. Magikarp will pull me, and Squirtle, you will swim around us, providing protection. Do warn me if you see pokemon who are out for trouble."
They both nodded, and the training started. The fact was, there weren't that many options to train a Magikarp, which is why not that many people bothered, ultimately. Still, this was oddly fun. I had to make sure to turn my head right so I could breathe without swallowing salt water. Squirtle seemed to be having fun, and thanks to my goggles, I could see a few Goldeen and Magikarp swimming around, alongside a Krabby scurrying on the ocean floor, which right here wasn't particularly deep down, only three meters or so, and if I wanted I could dive down and touch it.
Which was ill-advised, mind you, their scissors were rather strong. It was a neat pokemon, but one I didn't particularly want either.
We continued this training with frequent breaks for an hour, before I called it, and we swam back to shore. I got out, feeling the burning sun on this hot day, and it made me glad I was here. I fed my pokemon and ate the leftover curry and rice from yesterday evening.
Enjoying the sun, with my hat on, of course, I pulled out my pokecom and wrote a quick message into the group chat I had with my parents, giving them a quick overview of where I was and what I had done. I wouldn't be getting a reply any time soon, since both were Rangers on duty, and their job made it hard for them to immediately answer. Unfortunately, both were stationed around Mt. Hideaway at the moment, so I wouldn't be able to meet them.
I also did the same for Professor Oak. I doubted the professor needed something done here since this was still relatively close to his lab, only a few days out and he had a lot of assistants who were ready to go here and then also back.
From him, I surprisingly got a quick answer, congratulating me on my Eevee and Magikarp. He didn't have a job for me at the moment though, so I put it away again and after twenty minutes of rest, I packed things up and started walking, wearing my backpack, and my bike shrunken and packed away. I even took off my swimsuit and attached it outside of my backpack, so it would dry off during my walk and I could put it away later.
Eevee was walking alongside me, while Magikarp and Squirtle were swimming. Not much happened in the two hours I was walking. An hour in, I had recalled my pokemon, except for Eevee, who had jumped on my shoulder to take her rest there. It took a bit to get used to her weight, and despite the heat, I quite liked her presence there and endured it. I occasionally stopped to sit down for a few minutes on a convenient rock and to take a few sips of water, but otherwise, made some decent headway, but of course less than what I would have made on my bike.
Wiping the sweat on my brow, before putting my hat, which I had just splashed with some water for added coolness, back on, I let out a long sigh. It was still fun, but tiring.
xxx
Over the rest of the day, I didn't encounter many humans. I saw a few boats passing by on the sea, and one trainer riding her Lapras. Once Squirtle evolved, that would be me, relaxing on my Blastoise, clearing through the waves.
I wondered how Red and Blue were doing. They might have reached Viridian, by now, depending on how fast they were. They both had bikes, although I knew Red often preferred to walk. Blue also liked the bike, same as me, but he had boasted that he had plans to go to Terracotta Town first because there was something of interest for him there. He probably arrived there by now or should be arriving at least. It is roughly the same path I took, only instead of east, he went west, to the other coast, with Red going through the middle.
Funny, how things worked out that way.
xxx
I made it to the small village at around half-past seven in the evening. It wasn't very big, only a dozen or so houses, but it had a small outpost that served as the HQ for the local Rangers who were currently posted here and also as the makeshift Pokemon Center since it had a regeneration station, a Nurse Joy and a Chansey. It was smart, to combine the two buildings for a village this tiny, with not even a hundred people living there.
I had my pokemon treated, and thankfully there hadn't been anything serious, since they only had a few battles that couldn't even be called that since they mostly just scared away local, wild pokemon on occasion and the rest was just training.
Still, it was important to make sure no one pulled anything or took it too far. It was also very nice to be able to sleep in a real bed and take a real shower. The breakfast next morning, with pancakes and honey, was rather enjoyable as well.
I also visited the local Pokemon Mart, which was also a convenience store and bakery, oddly enough. I bought a few more pokeballs, stocked up on food, for myself and my pokemon, got a few more anti-dots and potions, and even managed to talk the employee into selling me an old, small barrel they weren't really using any more for chump change.
Alongside the three balls, I had left that Professor Oak had initially handed out, I had three more now. That seemed like it should be enough for a while.
After everything had been done, I had left the village, this time on my bike as there was actually a well-done cycling road along the coast. It wasn't asphalt but at least the ground was even and solid, without any roots or big holes.
Eevee was running alongside me again, and Magikarp and Squirtle were once again swimming but this time, I had filled the small barrel, roughly the same size as Squirtle was, about a third with sand and tied it to Magikarp and had her pull it. Squirtle, once again, was on lookout duty and supposed to periodically accelerate, fire a Water Gun in the air, fall behind Magikarp and fire another Water Gun into the air.
Once in Hop Hop Hop Town, I would be staying there for a few days and plan my next steps. Until then, I was satisfied with the pace we were going and how much training we were doing.
I looked down next to me, to see Eevee running along, a determined expression on her face.
I felt myself smile as I accelerated a bit.
xxx
It took us two more days to crawl along the coast, crossing a river later on, and tracking half a day through another forest, before we finally made it into Hop Hop Hop Town. It was a weird city because, despite its stupid name, it was actually a city rather than a town. With hundreds of modern apartments, houses, and skyscrapers, with a population of nearly a hundred thousand souls, plus a lot more pokemon, it was an active, crowded place.
I didn't have a Gym though. Not an official one, anyway. I think there had been one before either Surge or Koga snatched the title away. Despite its size and activity, it wasn't particularly interesting for pokemon trainers who focused on battle, or even researchers and academics. There were a few opportunities, but this was mainly a city all about trade and commerce.
The one unusual aspect of Hop Hop Hop Town was that while Drowzees and Hypnos were found in all major cities, this town was said to have a higher number of them than most. That was an interesting tidbit, but also not something that interested me too much since it wasn't a pokemon I particularly cared about, although its psychic powers were supposed to be formidable.
Making my way to the Pokemon Center had actually been a bit annoying, given how many people were wandering around. I had even returned Eevee to her pokeball, simply because I feared the noise would be a bit much for her. She should probably get used to it, but there is time for that later on.
xxx
Later that evening, after taking a long shower, and having all my clothes run through the washing machines in the Pokemon Center, I was lying on my bed, with Eevee curled up on my pillow, while Squirtle was snorting in the middle of the bed, leaving me effectively no space.
I didn't mind though, as I was sitting on the window sill, with my journal open, looking out. I was chewing gum again, and playing with the pencil between my fingers, thinking.
In front of me, was my pokecom, with the map of the region open. My initial plan had been to head to Celadon City as fast as possible, but by now I was thinking that it would be better if I took my time a bit more, and got some training in, maybe even catch another pokemon. Magikarp was just not ready to fight yet and wouldn't be for some time, and challenging a Gym Leader with only two pokemon would be…bold. Not to mention I would be going for the Rainbow Badge, and Erica, the Gym Leader, was a grass-type specialist, so Squirtle would be facing quite the uphill battle. Hell, even if Magikarp could battle, he would be facing the same disadvantage.
Now, I didn't want to build my team solely based on countering Gym types, but I did need some variety because while I love my Eevee, and I have a lot of faith in her, I don't think she is at the level yet where she could solo a Gym Leader, even if Erika were to use two low-level pokemon.
Of the local pokemon I had seen so far, there hadn't been anyone I had considered a must-have, or one that would be particularly useful for Erika in particular. This is where my unusual route was biting me in the ass. If I had gone for Brock and Misty first, well, Squirtle would have gotten in quite the battle experience and would be better equipped to face grass pokemon. I would probably also have more pokemon.
I let out a sigh, no use in crying over spilled milk. I still believed this route was the correct one, so what if this made Gym battles a bit harder?
I checked the calendar again, and yeah, I had almost nine months until the Conference. More than enough time that I didn't need to rush. And not reaching the Conference this year wasn't the end of the world either, since the badges were good for two years, as far as using them to qualify for the Conference went, so I could still participate in the one next year.
Only it would actually kill me if Red and Blue participated, and swept the whole thing, without me present. I don't think Blue would ever let me live it down.
So, no, I had to make it this year, but that didn't mean I had to stupidly rush things. So I will stay for a while, to really train my team. Then, I would travel through the Sunny Forest, without stopping in Sunny Town, and head directly to Celadon.
There were other notable locations in the range, I could go to in the same amount of time. Gardenia City was mainly a hub for coordinators, so I didn't really have a reason to go there. Carmini Town was mainly known for its Battle Tower, and that was something one needed quite a few badges to be allowed entrance in, so while technically interesting, it was also something not really accessible to me for now. Lastly, there was Commerce Town but that was basically another Hop Hop Hop Town, so unless I had a lot of money to make use of its trade facilities, which I did not, it wasn't really useful to travel there.
So Celadon it was. I guess I could head to the marshes first, to capture pokemon there. That said, I could also try to capture pokemon that were known to wander in urban settings. Abra was a famous one, and those who were able to train their Abra until it evolved ended up with a psychic powerhouse. Unfortunately, at this point, I didn't want to add another member to my team who would be almost entirely useless now and would remain so for quite some time. Abra, very famously, also barely fought and instead preferred to either sleep, eat, or teleport away. None of which made for great use in combat.
It would be irresponsible if half of my team was unable to fight for weeks, if not months.
There were other pokemon though. Grimer and Koffing were known to be easily found in certain sections of cities, but they were hard to raise and often didn't quite mesh well with teams. Not to mention that in short term, they would also not be super useful against Erika, whose pokemon utilized poison a lot as well.
Ralts could be found, very, very rarely, since they were native to Hoenn, and while it was not impossible to stumble upon one, looking for one in the wild, in Kanto, was foolhardy at best.
Mr. Mime was found a bit more often than that, but it was also notoriously difficult to find a cooperative one, and I had read many reports, where Mr. Mime just made the lives of their owners unnecessarily hard.
So, probably stick with pokemon outside of cities. Ideally, I would still love either a Vulpix or a Growlithe. Both were useful in similar, but distinctly different ways. Growlithe, especially later as Arcanine, offered a lot more direct combat potential, as it was quick, ferocious, deeply loyal, and had an impressive ability to burn things with its powerful fire. You could also ride on, as a mount, and that appealed to me greatly.
Vulpix, on the other hand, was just as strong, but it could be used a lot more cleverly. It had access to psychic and ghost moves, alongside fire moves, and once it was a Ninetails, it got a lot stronger and a lot more mobility as it could make long leaps quite easily. They got more prideful, though, and plenty of trainers had come to regret not showing their Ninetails enough respect. While I didn't think I would intentionally offend one, they didn't necessarily share the same sensitives as humans.
I closed my journal, turned off my pokecom, and got up, stretching. I would be training and exploring the surrounding area. Maybe I would find something, maybe I wouldn't, but right now, we were past the planning phase and I needed to act. Being paralyzed by choice and indecision wasn't particularly helpful.
It took a few minutes to move my sleeping pokemon around so I could fit into the bed without waking them, but soon enough, I was out like a light.
