DISCLAIMER: All Pokémon, places, items, people etc. are owned by Nintendo and Nintendo of America. Only the characters are my own creation.
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AUTHORS NOTE: From now on, I'll post Todd's lineup at the beginning of each chapter
Todd's Lineup:
Houndour 15
-Flamethrower, Crunch, Sunny Day, Solarbeam
Poliwag 15
-Cross Chop, Surf, Ice Beam, Strength
Dratini 15
-Thunderbolt, Dragon Claw, Fly, Wing Attack
Abra 15
-Psybeam, Shadow Ball, Recover, Calm Mind
Bulbasaur 15
-Razor Leaf, Toxic, Sleep Powder, Sludge Bomb
Nidoran 15
-Body Slam, Iron Tail, Rock Slide, Earthquake
Chapter 3: Cherrygrove City - Todd's orientation!
Todd emerges from Route 29 with scratches and blisters all over. His ankles are sore and his Pokémon are weary as well. Clearly the first experience for him wasn't comfortable. What's more disappointing, he hadn't met a single trainer along the way.
He wiped the sweat from his brow and trudged on. At the entrance to a town, he saw an old man gazing up at the sky and wondered what he could be looking for. He decided to chance a question.
"Excuse me, old man, could you tell me where I am and what's in this town?"
"Gladly, traveller. Are you a Pokémon trainer?" Todd nodded and the old man said "Good. Follow me."
Todd followed the old man around as he showed Todd the Pokémon Center, the Mart, the lake, and his house.
"Here, have this. It's a Pokégear, as a reward for the first one to listen to me. It will tell you the time, show you a map, even act as a radio and a cell phone! It is very useful to most trainers. "
"Thank you" said Todd.
He examined the Pokégear and saw the 4 slots at the top. Two of them were full. When he turned it on, he had a cell phone and clock. Magically, his parent's, Brissy's and Professor Cedar's phone number were already installed. The Old Man gave him another chip that Todd inserted. It was a map. He could check where he was at any time, and give him names of the cities he would visit. There was also a smaller map, if he chose to access it , for each town, showing Pokémon Centers and Marts and other buildings.
Todd thanked the man again and, now dropping out of sheer exhaustion, headed for the Pokémon center where he spent the night.
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The next morning, he called his family and Professor Cedar.
"Morning Dad. I got a Pokégear from an old man in, what was it again? Oh yeah, Cherrygrove City. I'm currently at the Pokémon center and I'm doing fine except for a few cuts." Then, Todd wished he brought bandages.
He looked out the window and saw a kid dressed in a black shirt and jeans the were worn below the crotch...
Todd grabbed his now healed Pokémon and rushed downstairs, raring for another battle with Brad but Brad had taken off. He headed back into the Pokémon Center and sat down on his bed. He counted his money, fed his Pokémon ("I'm sorry Houndour, we're running out of turkey." at which Houndour barked loudly)grabbed his things, wiped his Pokégear, brushed his teeth, took a shower and left the Pokémon Center in a flurrying rush. Along the way out of town, he stopped at the Mart.
"I wonder what they sell?"
Todd went in and took in the surroundings. He was standing in a convience store-like area with shelves stocked full of trainers items and first aid items. There were shelves with food, shelves with Pokéballs (not that he needed them, he had the team he wanted) with Potions, Antidotes, Paralyz Heals, Burn Heals, although he didn't know which were which, but he did know what they did. Even different Soft Drinks were stored in a freezer in a corner near the storeroom door. He went up to the counter and asked what the different item looked like. His guides described the properties, but never showed any pictures. Todd had a realization that some of the guides were hilariously short-sighted. They never described how rare or common a certain Pokémon was, not even showing the most important items of a trainer's bag. After learning the difference between Paralyz Heals and Antidotes (Antidotes are pink, Paralyz Heals are yellow.) he bought a few of the much needed items including a few Pokéballs just in case he ran into a very rare Pokémon.
He left the shop and headed north, into Route 30 to see trainers standing around turning their heads here and there. Todd heard an unexpected shout.
"Hey you! Yeah you! The kid with the spiky hair! You wanna battle?"
Todd wheeled around and smirked. This was going to be fun. Todd accepted and they launched into battle mode. He now found a very suave way to pull out his Battle Scanner and did so, to the approval of the boy across the field. The boy sent out a simple Sentret, level 10. Not a match for Todd's Pokémon surely, and with Todd's style of battle, this boy and his 4 Pokémon (Todd checked the Scanner just to make sure) were going to go down. Todd started it out with Abra, a Pokémon he hadn't used since yesterday's warm up. Abra gave a short yawn and stood up.
Sentret looked puzzled at Todd's choice of starting offense, but the boy nonchalantly told Sentret to Tackle away. Todd's strategy sense, no matter how feeble, went off at this point. He had Abra use Calm Mind on the spot, as a building block for later attacks. Abra took a good hit, well into the yellow zone, but he survived, and that was all that mattered to Todd. Abra initiated this turn by attacking with a well deserved Psybeam which knocked out Sentret. It was retreated and replaced with a Rattata, level 12. Todd speculated that this boy's main type of offense is normal types, and switched out his Abra for his Poliwag. Poliwag had 10 Cross Chops at his disposal, and he was going to take full advantage of it. However, things changed dramatically when the boy, seeing his obvious mistake in choice of types, switched his Rattata for a small, innocent looking Pikachu. On the Battle Scanner, it read level 15. Todd knew that switching was only going to waste time and therefore initiated a Strength attack. Pikachu dodged with its high speed and Thundershocked Poliwag. It fell down lifeless.
Poliwag was retreated. Todd was worried now. He had no defense against Pikachu except Nidoran, which knew Earthquake, but the chances of Pikachu knocking it out were high as well. There was no chance to take except that one. So Nidoran was called out.
Nidoran glared at the Pikachu however menacingly as possible and Pikachu reciprocated. Nidoran jumped up high, and pounded the ground, causing a massive Earthquake and knocked the little mouse out and off the field. Now, the nameless boy had two Pokémon, one of which Todd knew was a Rattata.
To Todd's surprise, Rattata made a comeback. Todd took this chance to attack it with an Iron Tail, knocking it out. Now, only the last Pokémon remained. The ball hit the ground and out came a Machop. Machop was a fighting type, which could easily take down a poison type Nidoran. But Nidoran had attacks to beat it. It all came down to which Pokémon was faster now. Nidoran immediately began another Iron Tail, but Machop hit it before its jump with a short, fast Low Kick attack. The boy was happy at his moment of victory but it soon vanished as Todd coolly called his Abra back out. Abra saw his opponent and smiled, preparing itself for a final Psybeam attack. However, Machop Bulked itself Up and flexed it's muscles, raising its Attack and Defense. (Todd discovered the feature which allows you to check stats!) As Abra did perform a Psybeam blast at Machop, it instantaneously knocked Abra out with an outstanding Mega Punch attack, coupled by the Bulk Up performed last turn. Now, Todd had to resort to his second alternative. Use Flying Attacks. As that though ran through Todd's head like a marquee, Todd reflexively picked Dratini's ball and threw it into the air.
Out came Dratini, that little rare dragon that washed fatefully upon the New Bark shore. It was raring to go, after experiencing that terrible defeat at the hands of Brad's Squirtle. When Todd gave and order for it to use Aerial Ace, Dratini striked out in sheer anger, Aced Machop and caused him to fall to finally fall to the ground, twitching and out of energy.
"That was a good battle! What's your name?" said Todd, in all the sincerity he could muster. For all it was, it was probably less than appreciated. His sportsmanship was beginning to wear down because of the amount of new trainers he had fought.
The boy spat and bumped into Todd as he headed to Cherrygrove City.
Todd was tired as well, and saw a house up north. He paced his way through the grass, encountering a Pokémon or two but was basically unharmed. When he entered, there were two men. One in a lab coat, sitting near a computer and a pile of wires, one in more casual dress sitting at the sofa.
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