Kanto Ep. 03

Her head looked too big for her thin body, with big triangular ears on top and a slightly long snout. It wasn't that surprising, that brain inside of that big noggin was where all her power rested. In the middle of her forehead, directly over her brow chakra, was a dark red, star-shaped mark.

Cera looked at her hands for a moment, then up at me. "Kadabra?" she begged.

"Um, sure? I guess I can get you a spoon."

******

Four days after I'd last seen her, I thought I was ready to try and challenge Misty again.

My team, all five Pokegirls, were at least level twenty. While the Boulder Badge would let me safely Tame them to level twenty-five, there were two very good reasons to try at that point.

The first was that the S.S. Anne was set to depart from Vermilion City in two days' time, and it was at least a half day's walk from Cerulean.

The other reason was that the wild Pokemon I'd been training my team by battling were too weak to give them much of a fight now. It was just taking too many fights to get anywhere with their comparative levels.

It was okay. I had stronger Pokemon than before, and I had an ace up my sleeve this time.

******

Misty smiled brightly at me as I approached the diving block she used as a platform to battle from. "Ready to try again, Travis?"

I nodded, "Yes. Ready to give this another shot."

I stepped backward a couple of paces as she released her Staryu, Sparky stepping back with me.

I led with a Thundershock, taking more than half of the Staryu's health bar down right off the bat.

The starfish-like Pokeboy tackled Sparky for quite a bit of damage, and I held back my wince. Sparky really couldn't take a hit all that well.

One more Thundershock, and the Staryu redigitized and returned to his ball. Then the big gun came out.

The purple-plated Pokeboy, so strong, so fast, and with such thick armor was still intimidating. He immediately led with a Water Pulse, the rapid-fire assault of water bullets taking most of Sparky's remaining health.

We got a Thundershock on him, and then one last Water Pulse put Sparky out of the fight, down for the count.

I released Bubbles and commanded her, "Bubbles... Bite."

I'd done some information gathering on my Pokedex in the time since I'd last tried to challenge Misty, looking for any weakness in the seemingly invincible Starmie.

His main Type was Water, but he was one of the hybrids. He was also a Psychic-Type.

While that wouldn't have helped me out normally, at Level nineteen, Bubbles developed an attack called 'Bite'.

There were no Dark-Type Pokemon native to Kanto, which were strong against Psychic-Types. That didn't mean that there were no Dark-aligned attacks. Bite was one of those. My leverage over Water-Types was useless here, Sparky just couldn't stand long enough. But I now had leverage over Psychic-Types, and was very willing to use it.

Bubbles lunged forward, her mouth open, and what looked like solid shadows congealed around her head into a large pair of fanged jaws, clamping down on the Starmie and taking a huge chunk out of his health bar.

Misty tried to rally with a Swift Hit, but one more Bite and the Starmie went down.

I jumped on Bubbles, arms around her neck and hanging from her off of the floor. "We did it!" I shouted happily.

Bubbles rumbled joyously, and tried to press me even further against and into her giant boobs.

Bubbles let me back down to my feet, and Misty was behind me, waiting patiently. "I'm so jealous of the relationship you have with your Pokegirls, Travis. Congratulations, Tamer," she finished formally, holding out a small object. "You have earned the Cascade Badge."

I took it into my palm, the small badge a deep blue in color and shaped like a raindrop. I felt around it for the trigger, and then it dissolved into grey dust and sank into my skin.

"That Badge will let you Tame Pokemon up to level Thirty-five. Also, for defeating me, you have earned this," she said, holding out a small metallic gray box with an inverse curve on one side. The label 'T.M.03' was stamped into it.

She nodded at the technique machine. "That T.M. contains the technique for Water Pulse."

This had her Pokemon-wrecking move in it? The T.M. I'd earned from Brock wasn't all that great, and I'd more or less forgotten about it, but this one? Oh was this ever being used.

"Where do I need to go next?" I asked.

"Vermillion City has your next badge. South, on the other side of Saffron."

Well that was fortuitous. That's where the cruise Bill had given me a ticket for was, in Vermilion. "Okay. Awesome. So... how's your Psyduck?"

Misty brightened. "Howard? Happier, I think. I guess only you would know for certain, but I've been taking him out to battle the wild Pokemon just north of the city for a half hour or so after the Gym closes for the night. Howard isn't the only one who missed adventuring," she admitted.

I smiled. "Good for you. Thanks, Misty, for everything."

She stepped close and hugged me briefly. "Thank you too, Travis. Good luck, and don't be a stranger now."

As I walked out of the Gym, one thought bothered me. I thought she was going to give him an awesome name?

Howard was a terrible name for a duck.

******

I made one last stop at the Cerulean Pokecenter, checking out of my room and recharging my girls. Then I sat in a seat far from the service counter and dug T.M.03 out of my backpack.

The machine had one face of its six sides curved inwardly with a cylindrical depression in the very center, the contours exactly matching the surface of a Pokeball.

I unclipped Bubbles's ball from my belt, and connected it to the machine, the multi-button on the ball slotting into the depression in the center of the device with a soft click.

The nearly featureless T.M. had no signal that it was activated, but the black band around the Pokeball began to pulse with a warm red light, the flashing speeding up until it was a solid red, then tapering off in frequency until it was back to its normal black.

I waited for another few seconds, but it seemed like it was done. I was expecting a chime, or some kind of sound, but... nothing. I separated the ball from the now-useless machine, and wondered what I was supposed to do with it.

Whatever. I'd hand it to the Pokecenter attendant, and if the League could put a new technique into it, the attendant could make sure it got where it needed to go. If not, she could throw it away. I wasn't going to trash what was assuredly a complex piece of technology. It didn't seem like it was supposed to be disposable.

******

Getting out of Cerulean to the south turned out to be problematic. There was a border wall to keep out wild Pokemon, and the only break in the thick barrier had a sapling growing in it, preventing us from squeezing through.

Saplings were generally considered to be one of Sukebe's failed biological experiments. They tended to grow in the most inopportune locations, requiring a special Pokemon Technique to cut down, and it seemed as soon as you turned around they grew right back. They weren't dangerous, they were just... irritating.

I eventually found a house with a hole in their rear wall. Passing through, I overheard the owner complaining to the League Officer about how someone from Team Rocket had stolen a T.M. from him, and then left by having his Pokemon simply smash through the rear wall. The homeowner was so animated in his fury that he didn't even notice me sneaking through. Nor did he notice the fuzzy, bright-yellow Pikachu that followed in my wake.

Team Rocket. I doubted this was going to be the last I heard of them.

From the backyard of that house, though, I was able to circle around and get to the other side of that barrier wall, and make my way south to Saffron City.

We called all of our small settlements 'Cities', but the term wasn't accurate. It was actually kind of sad. Saffron was the closest thing we had to an actual city, and was the largest settlement in Kanto.

It had an enormous barrier wall, thirty feet high and twenty feet thick, and that wall surrounded the entirety of Saffron. The more humans you had in one place, the more feral Pokemon were attracted to it, so the wall was very much needed. At the end of the path from Cerulean, which snaked around vast patches of tall grass that hid uncountable numbers of ferals, was a gateway through the wall, manned by security guards.

I stepped to the back of the line, waiting as the guards checked people's Pokedexs before letting them through. I didn't think much about it, until a flash of gold caught my attention.

Around the guard's neck was a golden necklace shaped like a rocket.

What were they looking for? An uncomfortable thought settled in. What if they were looking for me? After the crazy guy had threatened me as he ran away on the bridge, I wouldn't put it past the fanatics to be looking for me. He had my Pokedex info after our fight, after all.

I waited until their attention was turned away, then calmly left the way I came in. I had to get to the other side of this city, and couldn't go through the town-proper. Thankfully, there was another way.

The fact that Saffron was so big, and was so centrally located, meant that it actually had tunnels that traveled beneath the city to the other side, to reduce congestion or something. It was too bad I had to go under, I'd heard that Saffron actually had a shopping mall... with multiple floors.

Multiple floors just in a store! The mind boggles.

I backtracked to the tunnel entrance, took the stairs down, and walked the long, well-lit tunnel to the other side. That bicycle I'd been drooling over in Cerulean sure would have been nice right then. As it was, I had to walk the unchanging path that was so very long that it felt like I was stuck in place. It took hours.

Eventually I did get to the end of the tunnel, and up the stairs on the other side. Another hour of walking a dirt path clear of any Pokemon habitats, and I'd arrived.

Vermilion City. The place with my next badge, and the place where I'd get to take a once-in-a-lifetime cruise. On a real ship!

******

Travis's Pokegirls

Bubbles - Wartortle - Lvl. 22.

Sparky - Pikachu - Lvl. 21.

Pebbles - Geodame(Geodude) - Lvl. 21.

Blaze - Charmeleon - Lvl. 20.

Cera - Kadabra - Lvl. 20.

******

Author's Note: I am very aware that one of the sequels begins in the back of a moving van. As far as this universe is concerned, that thing was silent and powered by a Koffing. Possibly a Wheezing.