"Hehe… my boyfriend's about to be the champion…"
"I'm not your boyfriend."
"My boyfriend is going to be so rich and famous after he becomes the fastest champion ever… the other Joys will be so jealous…"
"You're just a stalker, please stop calling me your boyfriend," I sighed, trudging through another section of tall grass. I felt exhausted as I headed for Cerulean City, and my face definitely showed it.
By comparison, Joy was practically skipping behind me, her face bright as if we weren't walking through waist-high grass. The reason for her bright mood was that, in her own words, her 'bet paid off' - with that bet being following me on my journey. She'd already had pretty high expectations for me, but after my effortless defeat of Brock, those expectations had grown even higher.
We had left Pewter City after only one night in the city, where I'd spent the last night in a pretty nice hotel. Joy hadn't been lying, as in a situation that I didn't expect, Pewter City had a genuine hotel, while Viridan City, a significantly bigger city overall, only had an Airbnb-esque staying place. According to Joy, it was because Pewter City was considered the easiest gym, and was the typical starting gym for most trainers - by comparison, Viridian City was considered the hardest. So, a ton of newbie trainers were flocking to Pewter, while most of them wouldn't make it far enough to reach Viridian in the end.
Luckily, I didn't have to share a room with her, as Brock had given me a fair bit of money for defeating him. It felt a bit odd, as I wasn't taking money from the random trainers who challenged me first, but instead from someone whom I had challenged. But I wasn't going to turn down Pokedollars, so I still took them.
"Hehe… we'll be so rich… they'll all be so jealous…" I glanced back at Joy dryly, as she'd been mentioning her massive family, the 'Joy's' - as that was their last name, not first name. She was 'Nurse Joy' in the same way that you would call someone 'Miss Joy,' except I was apparently the lucky trainer who was talking to the most Nurse Joy to ever exist - as in, her name was Joy.
Not just her last name, but her first name. Joy, who made fun of me for naming my Squirtle Bulbasaur, was named 'Joy Joy.' And, on top of being the most Nurse Joy in the whole world, she also had a strange, possibly insecurity-started dislike, or at least rivalry, with the rest of her family. She'd bragged pretty arrogantly to the Pewter City Pokemon Center Nurse Joy about dating the 'future champion,' and as we walked, she seemed to be daydreaming about rubbing my future fame and fortune in their faces.
"I'd be pretty rich right now if you stopped scaring off all the female trainers," I called back to her dryly, to which Joy huffed defensively.
"I'm protecting you! You need to have standards!" Joy shouted back, "It's okay to mess around once you're the champion, because they all do, but not already! A-And, if you do, at least have it be another big-shot, and not those small fry!"
"They just wanted to battle," I replied blandly, "There was no 'messing around' going on here."
I was referencing the few non-bug catcher trainers I had seen on our way out of Pewter, who would fit more in the 'Lass' category. They were essentially women, most of whom looked to be in their late teens, who were barely above the 'youngsters' and 'bugcatchers' that I'd been running into so far skill-wise. The first one I fought only had a single Pidgey, but that had also been the last one I fought.
The combination of the woman's clothing, which was on the revealing side and definitely didn't seem like pokemon battling attire, and her instant awe-filled gaze when Charmander one-shot her Pidgey had caused Joy to become defensive - which I still found strange, because I'd only known her for two days at this point, and I'd consider us 'friends' at best. I didn't know it was possible to turn down trainer battles, as so far all the trainers had been strangely overly insistent to the point that they'd follow me if I declined, but Joy's scary aura when she got angry had done the trick.
"They were hitting on you! You don't get it because you're a guy, but as a woman, I could tell!" Joy didn't back down, "You can barely tell with that hat on, but you're actually really handsome, Red!"
She wasn't wrong, as the Lass's had definitely been eyeing me up, but her worries were unfounded. I had been a young adult before I was brought to this world, and my body right now was one too, so I felt a bit awkward receiving the attention from the mostly younger women. Right now, I was focused on grinding out these gym badges, and if I did take some time to look for romance, it definitely wouldn't be with the, to be frank, stupid trainers in between cities, even if they did look pretty.
"Finally," I grunted, pulling myself out of my thoughts, as we reached the base of a large mountain. It towered far overhead, and could be seen easily from Pewter City - and, even from Viridian City. We had arrived at Mt. Moon.
"I still don't know why we're taking this route," Joy questioned as she paused next to me, looking at the large, open cave entrance in front of us, "You won't walk through the forest because it's 'dark and full of bugs,' but you'll go through a cave? This place will be even darker, and I've heard it has bats!"
The 'forest' she was talking about was the thick, undeveloped treelines that constantly surrounded the paths. For a world where pokemon training and adventuring was a pretty big, if not the biggest, hobby and career choice, there were a surprisingly low number of ways to traverse the region.
The typical routes that most trainers followed were just long, cleared-out stretches of forest, where the trees, but not the tall grass, had been removed. It was like you were walking down a thin, straight line in the middle of a massive forest, so the sides of each route were still filled with darkness and the occasional Beedrill. In the games, these were just the walls to keep the player on track, but in the real world, you could just walk through the forest if you wanted.
Of course, that was only if you wanted to, and no one did. There was no light, a ton of scary bug pokemon, and you'd have no guidance on which way to go. You'd be walking blindly through the forest as human civilization faded away, and I didn't doubt that there were more than a few unfound bodies in there. In comparison to the cleared-out routes, which were brimming with fellow trainers, travelers, and easier-to-handle pokemon, it was a path that no one took.
But, right here, there were probably a few people who would consider it. You would think that at least the early routes, where newbie trainers would have the weakest pokemon and be the least experienced, would be pretty well laid out, but Route 3 was a prime example that it wasn't. The stretch of cleared-out land abruptly gave out, leading into the dark, intimidating forest that you'd have to blindly walk through to find Cerulean City.
Or, there was a small path to the side, which led to what was the intended path by whoever built these terrible routes: Mt. Moon. The dark, terrifying cave filled with Zubat - you know, the pokemon that evolves into Golbat, which literally sucks blood? - was somehow the safest path for newbie trainers to the second gym.
"We won't get lost in here," I explained easily, and then reached into my pocket and fished out two poke balls. I chucked them both on the ground, and a duo of pokemon popped out.
"Charmander!"
"Pikachu!"
"And, these two will light it up for us, so it won't be that dark," I finished, nodding down at Charmander and Pikachu, "And… there's something I want to look for."
Mt. Moon looked more dangerous on paper, but it was the more documented path compared to trudging through the forest, and there were fellow trainers inside. In there, your biggest concerns were being defeated by other trainers and time-wise getting lost, though you could just ask someone for directions. The forest was, in reality, more dangerous because getting lost could mean literally dying.
You'd only have the food and water on your person, and I already found out that 'cell service' was an undeveloped concept in this world. In a major town, like Viridian City, my phone - which, by the way, was much inferior to the modern-day phones from my home world - worked perfectly fine, but after getting only a few hundred feet from it, I couldn't open any of the few apps, and I doubt a phone call would be possible.
But the biggest reason why I wanted to go through Mt. Moon wasn't actually the safety aspect. Instead, it was the pair of fossils that were within Mt. Moon.
I couldn't know for sure if they'd be there, as I didn't know exactly how the timeline of this world worked yet. There was a chance that the 'Super Nerd' you fight in the games to get one had already taken both, or if they were even there to begin with. But, for two fossil pokemon? It was definitely worth checking out, which was why we had barely even used our hotel room as we left early in the morning to head here.
Neither Omastar nor Kabutops were legendary's or anything, but they were both pretty damn powerful, and definitely towards the top as far as Gen 1 pokemon go. They both overlapped with their types, and partially overlapped with my Squirtle as well, but for pokemon that wouldn't take much effort to get?
I wouldn't have to find, battle, and then catch them, but instead just pick up the fossils, and probably pay way too much cash to have them turned into their living forms. So, it was worth taking a look at least, though I wasn't confident enough in finding them that I had wanted to skip the Pewter City gym and then come back.
"Whatever. It's your fault if we get lost," Joy sighed, but strode forward towards the cave entrance. We headed into the dark inside of Mt. Moon, and I quickly felt bad for shit-talking the route builders earlier.
Considering Mt. Moon was the inside of a literal mountain, I had expected a dark, scary path filled with bats, but, for the most part, it was actually pretty well lit. There were various lanterns hanging throughout it, and the paths were pretty straight as we ventured in deeper. I didn't even need Charmander or Pikachu for light, but I kept them out anyway, as they seemed to enjoy being out of their poke balls from time to time.
At first, I thought this would be simple, and we'd get through to both the fossils and Cerulean City without any trouble. Of course, life was never that easy, and the straight path led to a duo of men after only a few minutes of walking.
"Hey, hey, this area's closed off!" I stared blandly as one of the men, who looked pretty normal except for the pure-black outfit he was wearing, which had a massive red 'R' on the front, shouted at us, "The fossils in here are for Team Rocket! Go take some other route!"
I clicked my tongue in annoyance as I remembered this part of Mt. Moon - Team Rocket. In the game, there were various grunts in here as Team Rocket were searching for fossils, but I had hoped that they either wouldn't have gotten here yet, or would already be gone. This did give me a bit of info, as I could now safely assume that I wasn't just chucked into this world at a random time - unless Team Rocket were searching Mt. Moon for a ridiculously long amount of time, I was on track with the game timeline.
"Team Rocket? Didn't that other guy say that too?" Joy asked, looking at me as she mentioned 'John Smith.'
"He did," I nodded, and since I really knew who Team Rocket were, I was able to make a decision without any more dialogue, "Charmander, use Ember."
"Charmander!"
"W-Wait! What the hell are you- ah! A-Are you crazy?!" Charmander's burst of flames shot forward, barely missing the man who spoke as he stumbled out of the way, though his long-sleeved shirt got caught.
"P-Put me out, damn it! Go, Zubat!" He shouted as his arm was consumed in flames, patting at it desperately as the other Team Rocket grunt, who was also dressed in the typical uniform, started slapping at the fire panickedly. He chucked out a poke ball, and a small bat appeared a moment later.
"Z-Zubat, put me out!"
"Zubat!"
"GRAH! Stop biting me! Bite the flames, you damn pokemon!"
"Zubat!"
"Damn it, why did we even steal this useless bat?!"
It seemed that John Smith wasn't the only incompetent Team Rocket grunt, because there was nothing competent about the display in front of me. I watched as the burning grunt tried desperately to smack out the flames, as the other grunt, much less enthusiastically and half-heartedly, helped, while the Zubat bit the grunt's non-burning arm.
"Well, let's get out of here before they put it out," I said casually, striding forward again as Joy looked at me with wide eyes.
"Y-You can't just do that, Red! It's a crime to attack someone with a pokemon! You have to help him!" Joy huffed, gesturing at the pair of incompetent grunts, as the burning one was now doing the 'slam my arm into the rock wall until the flame goes away' tactic. It wasn't working very well, and I suspected he was just adding a broken bone or two to his wounds.
"It's also a crime to steal pokemon and block routes, isn't it?" I raised an eyebrow at her, and I didn't actually know if I was right. But, stealing pokemon definitely had to be a crime, and I doubt blocking newbie trainers with coordinated uniforms was a normal government-approved activity.
"W-Well, yeah," Joy nodded a bit uncertainly, clearly not liking where I was about to go with this.
"Then, we're even," I shrugged, and promptly walked past the two screaming grunts, leaving them to deal with the fire.
Hey, if they were going to block us, then they should've expected some backlash, y'know? That's like protesting on a highway and not expecting a car to hit you - they lawfully and morally shouldn't, but when they do, you're still the moron waving a sign in front of a vehicle going 90mph. In this case, the grunts were the morons waving a sign in front of a fire-breathing lizard.
"I… I guess?" Joy muttered behind me, but followed me nonetheless as we went deeper into the cave. We continued walking for a few minutes, the panicked grunts' voices dying out as we went deeper, and I was actually a bit thankful that they were here.
In the games, this was a trainer-filled path, where you had to take on more than 10 trainers and grunts to get the fossils and then go to Cerulean City. But, as there were two grunts at the entrance to the cave and not just deeper in, they had been keeping out any other trainers - or, we were venturing in early enough that none of the other trainers were out and about yet.
All that was to say, we didn't meet a single soul for the next few minutes of walking. There were a couple of paths that diverted to the sides, and I took them in hopes that I'd find random items lying around. For the most part, there weren't any great balls or potions lying around, as it seemed that littering was probably frowned upon. However, just as I spotted a large ladder up ahead, there was one final path to the right. I glanced down it, and my eyes widened.
Sitting on the ground, nestled between a collection of random rocks - which were pretty common in the tunnels, and made me doubt the infrastructure of this path - was a dark gray, almost green-ish, long stone.
"A Moon Stone," I blinked, surprised as I pointed forward at the stone.
"Huh? What?" Joy asked as she looked past me, but then her eyes went wide, "W-Wait, you're right! That is a Moon Stone! I'm surprised you even know what that is!"
She brushed past me, jogging up to the stone as she bent over to pick it up, and 'unintentionally' showed me a different type of moon as she did. That 'unintentionally' was very intentional, as she reached down, grabbing the hem of her skirt in a way that ensured it flipped over as she did, and then gave me a view of her rather thick bottom, which was covered in just thin white underwear. Then, she wiggled her hips in a very unnecessary way, which caused her cheeks to jiggle at me in response.
Even then, I might've believed it was an accident if she wasn't smirking so widely at me as she turned back to me with the Moon Stone in her hand. I just looked at her display dryly - I certainly didn't mind the view, but there was a time and place, and we were in the middle of a damn cave right now! A cave filled with a bunch of grunts that would come looking for us when they found out I set another grunt on fire!
"This is actually pretty valuable," Joy started, looking far too proud about her display as she pointed at the Moon Stone, "It's hard to find a buyer because Poke Mart's won't take them, but these things go for a ton! They're used to evolve a few pokemon in this region… Nidorina, Nidorino, Clefairy, and… Jigglypuff, I think."
"They go for a lot?" I repeated, raising an eyebrow at her.
In the games, it was impossible to sell a Moon Stone for Pokedollars, likely because the developers didn't want you getting soft-locked out of an evolution, because there were only a certain number that you could get in each game. There were ways to sell it later on, like to the 'Item Maniac,' but not in Kanto.
"Yup," Joy smirked a bit, looking down her nose at me, "As a former Nurse, I know all about evolution stones! In other regions they're more common, but it takes so long and is so difficult to order from other regions that you could sell it for a lot here! Tens of thousands at least!"
Tens of thousands? That could come in handy later on, but for now, keeping it was the better option. Nidoking and Nidoqueen were powerful pokemon, even if they did have a lot of weaknesses, and both Wigglytuff or Clefable wouldn't be bad to have either. I assumed they would be Fairy-type, which was pretty busted, even if they weren't in the original games - because this was a real world, so it wasn't like they'd have different types in this region than in other ones, right?
Either way, the Moon Stone was worth more than money. There was a near-unlimited supply of bug catchers for me to farm money off of, and by the time I beat all the gyms, I would probably be loaded anyway.
"We'll keep it for now," I hummed, taking the Moon Stone from Joy and tucking it into the small backpack on my back, which I had bought yesterday in Pewter City, "Let's keep going."
We quickly walked to the ladder and climbed down it, during which Joy made a very blatant attempt to trick me into looking up, which would've resulted in me staring straight up her skirt, but I stayed locked in on the task at hand. As we reached the bottom, a voice called out to me.
"Hey, how the hell did you get down here?! You aren't wearing our uniform!" A Team Rocket grunt, who looked pretty similar to the other two grunts, yelled out, "Team Rocket is searching for fossils down here, so scram!"
"Y-Yeah! Go, Zubat!" I was surprised as the grunt to his side chucked out a pokemon immediately, not giving me a chance to bust through their poor attempt at blocking us with Charmander.
Throwing out the pokemon first was a smart move, because they were criminals, and shouldn't worry about threatening us. This way, I couldn't just take them out before they had a chance to toss one out. It seemed that not every member of Team Rocket was stupid, even if most of them-
"What are you doing?! It's just two youngsters, you don't need to use your pokemon to scare them off!" That thought dried out as the first grunt yelled annoyedly at the second one.
"S-Sorry, Sir! I-I'm new here!" The second grunt responded, her voice being a higher pitch as she sounded female, and… a bit familiar?
I couldn't see the woman's face, as she was wearing a thick, floppy Team Rocket grunt hat that was more than a few sizes too big for her. It was flopped down partway onto her eyes, and all her hair seemed tied up within it, so I couldn't tell from just her mouth and nose. Either way, I just shrugged, because she was probably some grunt I had seen in the game and subconsciously recognized.
"You can't just attack people with pokemon, damn it! That's illegal!" The man scolded her, glaring at the shorter grunt.
"B-But, I thought we were Team Rocket? Isn't everything we do illegal?" The female grunt made a good point, but it only pissed the other one off more.
"It is, but it's low-brow enough that the authorities won't seriously come after us because of the bribes! If that damn bat kills one of them, then we'd be in serious trouble!" He hissed, and he actually made a good point, "We stole the thing, so it could go wild at any time! You gotta keep them reigned in until an actual fight breaks out!"
I was surprised again, as despite the stupid order not to throw out Zubat, he actually had sound reasoning. Stealing pokemon and blocking routes were definitely crimes, but it wasn't like they'd have wanted posters being shown everywhere for it. As long as they just targeted kids, it was a crime that would just create pissed-off parents and crying kids, but not draw police attention. On the other hand, if they killed someone with their pokemon, then I would assume they'd get more law enforcement attention. At least, I would hope so, especially now that I was in a dark cave filled with likely dozens of Team Rocket grunts.
"R-Right! S-Sorry… sir…" The woman stuttered, looking down a bit ashamedly, "I always mess up…"
"Damn it, always putting me with the rookies… so annoying," The first grunt just spat out, then turned to me and Joy with a glare, "If you know what's good for you, then get out of here! This Zubat will tear ya up if you don't!"
"Pikachu, use… whatever that zappy thing you can do is! Thunder Shock?" I ordered, as I hadn't fought many battles with Pikachu yet, but luckily, Pikachu understood.
"Pi-Ka-Chu!" The small mouse squeaked, it's face tensing as it's cheeks puffed with electricity, and then a massive bolt of lightning shot forward. It crossed the gap between us and the grunts, slamming into the Zubat and frying it before it even knew what happened. The poor Zubat fell to the ground, X's filling its eyes from the supereffective move.
"N-No! Zubat!"
"W-What the hell?! You're really doing this, you crazy brats?!" The older male grunt snapped, reaching into his belt as he pulled out a poke ball, "Fine, then we'll do this! Go, Ratatta!"
"Rattata!"
"That's all you got?" I sighed lightly, staring at the small purple rat. This guy was on the older side of trainers I had seen, so I was hoping he'd at least have a decent pokemon to battle, but it looked like I was back to smushing rats and Caterpie.
"What are you doing, idiot?! Throw out your other one!"
"R-Right, sorry!" The female grunt reached down, grabbing her second, and final, pokeball off her belt, and then chucked it forward, "Go, Rattata!"
"Rattata!"
Really, double rats? Even if there were two, Pikachu wouldn't have any trouble handling them both, and Charmander could join in if needed. However, as Joy reached into the pocket of her skirt next to me, I wasn't going to have to fight them both alone.
"If they want to have a double battle, then we'll show them how synergized we are!" Joy shouted, pulling out a poke ball and tossing it forward, "We're dating, so we'll be great at battling together, right Red?!"
"For the record, we're still not dating," I told her dryly, but she didn't seem to care. Her poke ball hit the ground, then exploded outward, and a pink creature popped out.
"Chansey!"
"Not bad," I grinned lightly, as Chansey wasn't a bad pokemon. It was definitely bad at attacking, but it was a brick wall to special moves, which Rattata had zero of-
"Never mind, that is bad. Maybe one of the worst pokemon in this situation," My face dropped, deadpanning at Joy, who instantly became defensive.
"W-What's wrong with my Chansey?!"
"Chansey is good against pokemon who use special moves, but I doubt either of those two have even one," I said dryly, just causing Joy to look more confused.
"S-Special? Physical?" Joy muttered, her head spinning.
"Stop talking like we're not here, punks! Rattata, use tackle!" The male grunt called out, and his Rattata dashed forward, his body glowing lightly as he lunged head-first at the Chansey.
Luckily, while Chansey's physical defense was terrible, it still had a ton of HP. Rattata barreled head-first into Chansey, slamming into its stomach and causing the Chansey to stumble back a bit, but overall not look all that injured.
"Pikachu, Thunder Shock," I called bluntly, and Pikachu flashed with light as a bolt of thunder shot forward, slamming into the Rattata as it was too close to dodge. It was consumed in the bolt of lightning, but stumbled backward and remained standing afterward.
I clicked my tongue, a bit annoyed that it wasn't one-shot like most things I had fought. The experience gap was starting to show, and it seemed that I would need to put at least a bit of effort into grinding if I wanted things to go as smoothly as they had been.
"N-Nice! Now, Chansey, use… um… u-use… uh…" I looked over dryly as Joy stuttered, her face squished in thought, "Um… Thunder Shock?"
"Chansey?" Chansey glanced back at her, confused at the order, and I couldn't blame the pokemon.
"You were talking about how stupid trainers are, but you don't even know your own pokemon's moves?" I deadpanned, and Joy huffed as she got defensive.
"W-Well, I went to school to become a Nurse, not fight with pokemon!"
"Yeah, but you don't even know one move? That might be worse than not knowing how to do multiplication," I teased her, though I was only half messing with her. Not knowing a single move your pokemon could use was pretty damn bad!
"J-Just tell me what to do!"
"Why are you just standing there?! Tell your damn rat to help!" Unfortunately, I wasn't given time to coach Joy as the grunt shouted again, spit flying as he shouted right in the other grunt's face.
"I-I don't know how! I wanted to be a nurse too!"
"Just tell it to use tackle, damn it!"
I felt a strange sense of camaraderie with my opponent as he went through the same issue I was, but not enough to not kick his ass in this battle.
"Chansey, use Pound!" I called out to Joy's Chansey, pausing for a moment as I wondered if it'd listen. It wasn't technically my pokemon, but we were on the same team, right?
"Chansey!" Luckily, Chansey agreed, probably because Joy had just told it to use Thunder Shock, and lunged forward with its small hand glowing. It swiped downward, slamming the top of the Rattata's head.
"Pikachu, again," I followed up instantly, and as the Rattata backpedal and winced from the pain, but didn't take much damage from the low-attack Chansey, a Thunder Shock slammed into its side.
This time, it didn't manage to tank the attack and fell over after a moment of being shocked with X's in its eyes.
"Damn it, you're so useless! Just tell it to tackle!" The male grunt hissed again, recalling his Rattata as he grabbed another poke ball from his belt, "Go, Zubat!"
Well, for someone calling his partner stupid, he wasn't the brightest either. He just saw my Pikachu use a super-effective Thunder Shock on the other Zubat, and now he's throwing out his own?
"R-Rattata! T-Tackle it!" The woman finally shouted, and the Rattata burst forward, running directly at Pikachu.
"Pikachu, dodge! Charmander, Ember!" I called out in succession, and Pikachu leaped to the side as Charmander stepped forward, and a burst of fire slammed into the charging Rattata.
"W-What the hell?! You cheater! You can't use two pokemon like that!" The man shouted at me, jutting his finger at me accusingly, and I just deadpanned back.
"We're having an animal fight inside a mountain, and you're worried about cheating? You stole those pokemon, didn't you?" I replied dryly, and the man clamped his mouth shut, not having a retort, as I was right.
In a gym battle, or even against another trainer, I had no problem respecting rules and battle etiquette. But, against Team Rocket? These grunts trying to block my path and threaten me with pokemon that they stole? I didn't see why normal rules would apply here.
"Pikachu, finish it," I said bluntly as Rattata stumbled back, surviving the Ember, though it was twitched and looked moments away from fainting. Pikachu finished it off before the grunt could even try to shout another order, sending a stream of lightning at the rat, which caused it to slump over and faint.
"D-Damn it! Zubat, use Absorb!" The male grunt shouted as the female one recalled the Rattata.
Zubat raised its wings, flapping them as a beam of green light surrounded them, and it shot forward at… Chansey?
I didn't know if the trainer was just stupid or if Zubat was stupid, but I wouldn't complain either way.
"This is why you gotta have a good connection with your pokemon," I hummed, nodding sagely as the beam hit Chansey, the special wall themself, and did pretty much nothing. Chansey didn't even flinch, just looking down a bit concerned as the beam slammed into them.
"D-Damn it!" The grunt shouted, his face twisted with anger as his attack did nothing.
"Like we do! Pikachu, Thunder Shock! Charmander, Ember!" I shouted, grinning widely as I felt a bit dramatic. A bolt of lightning shot forward at Zubat, and a beam of fire followed closely behind.
At that moment, I felt like a true pokemon trainer. Perfectly in sync with my pokemon - although I had only known them for a short time, they knew exactly what I wanted with just a word.
"You stole that Zubat, and as a result, it doesn't have a bond with you," I called out, smirking widely as the beams approached Zubat, "That's why you'll never beat me and my pokemon, who built a bond through countless- damn it, Charmander, what the fuck?!"
Right as I was beginning to pat myself on the back for training my pokemon so well, the beams made contact. Pikachu's was right on target - slamming into Zubat, shocking the hell out of him, and causing him to faint as he fell to the ground. In comparison, Charmander's went in a straight line past Zubat.
"W-What the hell!? Put it out! Put it out! Arghhh! It burns!" I watched with lidded eyes as Charmander used Ember on the male grunt, then looked over at me as it gave me a huge, open-mouthed, prideful smile.
"Y-You already won, alright?! Put me out! Arh!"
"I-I'm trying! W-What do we do?!" The female grunt panicked, reaching forward as she swatted at the flames, and I sighed as I pulled out another poke ball.
I chucked it forward, watching as Squirtle popped out, "Put him out, Bulbasaur."
"Squirtle!"
Luckily, even if Charmander was still a work in progress, Squirtle-Bulbasaur was my right-hand pokemon now. He understood me on a deep level, and Charizard was hard for even Ash to handle, so I shouldn't be upset over Charmander acting out a bit. It was his fire-type nature, and definitely not my fault, as shown by the innate understanding I had with Squirtle-
"Damn it, Squirtle," I sighed as Squirtle blasted a Water Gun at the grunt, just as I had wanted, but with a lot more pressure than I had intended. It slammed into him, putting out the flames, but twisting his arm unnaturally in the process.
"A-Arghh! S-Stop! Stop! I get it! You won! You can go through!" He shouted, rolling around on the ground in pain as his arm was both burnt and probably broken from the water pressure. Squirtle cut off the Water Gun, then looked over at me with the same wide, almost mocking smile that Charmander had.
"U-Um, should we go get medical help? W-What do I-" The female grunt started to ask panickedly, but was cut off.
"You can get the hell out of here! I've never seen such a worthless rookie in all my life! This is all your fault!" The man shouted, shoving himself to his feet as he reached forward, grabbing the hat on her head and yanking it off, "You're fired, damn it!"
He roughly shoved her as he did, knocking her down onto her ass ruthlessly. Then, he promptly turned around, stomping away in a huff as he glared over his shoulder at me, "I'll remember you, punks! This won't be the last you see of Team Rocket!"
That wasn't the threat he thought it was, because if grunts like this, which were essentially free exp, kept showing up, then I definitely wouldn't complain.
"Good work, Red!" Joy cheered, quickly recalling her Chansey, though I only recalled my Squirtle and left my Pikachu and Charmander out of their balls, "Man, pokemon battles are pretty easy, huh? I can see how all the dumb trainers are good at this!"
I gave her a dry look, as she'd quite literally done nothing in the battle considering the only move her Chansey made came from me, but I let her have her small victory.
"Damn it… fired again…" I blinked, turning to the other grunt, as I almost forgot she was here, "Where am I going to go now…"
My eyes went wide as I took in the sight of her, as I suddenly realized why she sounded familiar. Now that her hat was off, I could see magenta hair flowing down to her shoulders, and a pretty face that I recognized instantly.
She looked a bit different than I remembered, as instead of long hair that was slicked back so far it defied gravity, she had a pretty normal blob of pink hair that reached her shoulders. Her face also looked a bit younger, likely being in her late-teens, possibly early-twenties, instead of mid-twenties. Her body was thin, and was accentuated by her tight black uniform - showcasing her thin waist, decently large breasts, and thick thighs. Kneeling in front of me, staring at the ground after her travesty of a pokemon battle, was Jessie.
"The fuck is she doing here?" I muttered, looking at the kneeling woman a bit strangely. This world had seemed a lot more on the game side of Pokemon, and I definitely didn't remember her being a part of it.
Though I guess her being a nameless grunt in them wasn't too far-fetched for me to accept. Considering how often she 'blasted off again,' she was definitely nameless grunt material.
I stepped forward, standing in front of the sorrowful woman as she wallowed in misery, muttering rather sad thoughts.
"F-First the nursing school… then I couldn't become an idol… and now I can't even be a part of Team Rocket…" She sighed, looking on the verge of tears, "I can't do anything right…"
"Uh… it's alright…" I said dryly, pulling her attention to me as I gave her a strained smile, "It'll be alright, and stuff."
I leaned down, holding out my hand at her, and for some reason, her eyes went wide with an emotion I couldn't quite read. I didn't know it at the moment, but Jessie was seeing the interaction from a completely different point of view.
As she was at her lowest, having just been fired in an embarrassing fashion from Team Rocket - her last resort of a job, which she only joined after all her other dreams failed, she felt like her life was finished. As she hit rock bottom, she looked up, seeing kind eyes, a handsome face, and a charming smile looking back at her. The light of the lantern overhead shone down on him perfectly, painting him in an illuminated, almost angelic glow.
She reached up, ready to take his hand as a thousand different thoughts and emotions raced through her. For some reason, she felt like, just by grabbing his hand, her whole entire life was about to change. She had failed on her previous dreams, but a new, dream-like life was about to begin-
"I feel kinda bad about this, but you lost, y'know?" And then, her whole world crashed down again as I didn't take her hand - instead reaching past her, sticking my hand down her pocket, and pulling out a wad of cash.
"When you lose a pokemon battle, you gotta pay up. Oh, and your buddy didn't pay before he left, so… I'm gonna just take a bit extra… and by that I mean all of it…" I muttered, glancing down at the stack, which looked to be a couple of thousand Pokedollars.
Hey, I felt bad for kicking the woman when she was down, seriously! But I wasn't some saint, and rules were rules! When you lose a pokemon battle, you gotta pay the price, and that was something I wouldn't budge on.
"W-Wait…" As I started to walk past her, I froze, glancing over my shoulder as she spoke. Jessie stared up at me, tears in the corner of her large eyes as she pouted, looking like a kicked puppy, "Y-You're… not going to help me?"
"Um… you just tried to kill me with a bat," I responded honestly, but her beautiful face looking so sad did pull on my heartstrings a bit, "But… fine."
I turned, leaning forward as I held out my hand again, and Jessie's eyes became even wider as the tears vanished. The light of the lantern shone down on me again, painting my frame in an illuminated, angelic glow.
Jessie reached out her hand, sliding into mine as our skin touched, and her eyes were filled with a hundred different emotions. A spark shot through her as our skin touched, her heart pounded in her chest, and her world was being flipped on its head again-
"A hundred should be fine, right? You can get a decent hotel for that!" I casually placed the Pokedollars in her hand, then stepped back and gave her a quick thumbs up, "Alright, gotta go, but good luck!"
Then, I promptly turned around and kept walking.
"S-Sorry about him," Joy muttered apologetically behind me, giving Jessie a light smile, before she jogged to keep up with me, Pikachu, and Charmander.
As I left, I thought nothing of the encounter. I figured that Jessie would get up, leave the cave, and then go rejoin Team Rocket to continue her grunt career. In fact, I felt like I had even done my good deed for the day by giving her some cash.
However, far behind me, something very different was happening.
"He… he thinks he can just… do this to me?" Jessie muttered, staring down at the pathetic amount of Pokedollars in her hand, "He beat my pokemon… made me lose my job… and left me with a hundred dollars?!"
She pushed herself to her feet, swiped up the poke balls containing her Zubat and Rattata, and then swiftly turned around with a fire in her eyes.
"GET BACK HERE, DAMN IT!"
She sprinted forward deep into the cave, intent on not being left behind. She had nowhere to go, but now she saw a path.
In another strange twist of events, I had found myself with not just one stalker, but two. Surely this wouldn't become a recurring problem, right?
…
…
…
Unfortunately, as long as I was in this world, I never seemed to be right.
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AN: Thank you for reading! The next chapter will be posted in a few days!
You can also read the next 3 chapters right now on Patreon.com/Koyon ! This story is updated twice as often on there! (The highest tier only atm)