A run-in with some Trainers.

“I am starting to genuinely just fucking hate bats.” Daniel grumbles as the three of you recall your Pokémon again, having dealt with the seventh Zubat swarm of the day. You give him a pat on the shoulder, and Kayla squeezes his hand. “Don’t fucking patronize me!” He shouts, and you all share a laugh as you continue your trek.

It’s been several hours since Orion’s forfeit and the ensuing blowblang, and you’ve made steady progress through the interior of Mt. Moon. You stopped for a quick lunch earlier, and decided not to get too frisky during that so as not to tire yourselves out like you did yesterday. The cave has been growing steadily chillier, and both you and Daniel have joined Kayla in wearing light jackets to keep warm. Yours is a simple thin red coat, while the blonde’s has an earth-toned camo print to it.

Thanks to your map the three of you have no trouble navigating the stony corridors you’re traveling through, easily picking the correct path whenever you come across a split. There are actual path markers too, but some are old and faded, easy to miss. You can’t help but imagine Silver trying to make her way through here… It may be for the best that she wound up in Diglett’s Cave. That’s a straight line, whereas Mt. Moon has twists, turns, and branches, some of which are dead-ends or completely unexplored areas. She may never see the light of day again if she winds up in here… How many people have just never gotten out of here?

With that morbid thought sending a chill up your spine, you continue walking alongside your friends. Thankfully you seem to have gotten your energy back after eating a big lunch provided by Daniel. You must have just exerted yourself a bit too much yesterday, with the hiking and the threesome. Though you suspect that that wasn’t the only time you will be joining the Vermillion pair for some fun. It’s not like you’re going to say no if they offer, tiredness be damned. You’ll just have to see if you’re as tired tomorrow after whatever you do tonight, to confirm whether or not that was what caused it.

“Hey, guys. Company.” Your blonde friend says, grabbing your attention. As you pull yourself out of your thoughts, you look up to see a trio of men in their thirties approaching your group. They’re smiling, and one of them waves casually, but they move towards you with purpose.

“Hi there you three! Heading towards Cerulean?” The frontmost stranger, a black-bearded man, asks as his group stops about fifteen feet away from yours.

“Sure are. You all heading to Pewter?” Daniel speaks up for your trio, smiling casually.

“Not quite. See, me and my buddies here stay in this cave a lot of the time, looking for folks to have a good time with. And I’d definitely say you fit the bill.” The man makes no effort to hide his wandering looks over Kayla’s body. The shy girl steps behind her master slightly, averting her gaze. The other two men, one with brown hair and the other with red, are also eyeing the slim brunette hungrily.

Before you or Kayla can respond, Daniel speaks up again. “Well, I never say no to a good time. There’s three of us and three of you, so whaddya say to each pairing off and battling?”

The bearded man smirks. “You and him are gonna be knights in shining armor, huh? Fine, fine, if you wanna be that way. Could’ve been one hell of a gangbang if you’d just played along though.”

“No thanks. I’ll be challenging you by the way, beardy. As for the other matchups…” The buff blonde looks at you, indicating that you should pick next.

Looking at the other two men, they each have two Pokéballs on their belts and look to be about the same age. It’s hard to say if one is more experienced than the other, so you aren’t sure which would be best to take on. Just have to pick one then. “I’ve got the redhead.”

The man you picked scowls, and the remaining one grins. “I get the girl then.”

“No fair, man! You were the only one who managed to beat the last chick that came through!” The redhead whines, and your ears perk up. Could he be talking about Blue? She should only be a day or so ahead of you guys, so there’s a good chance. If it is, sounds like she avoided a fourway with these guys, at the very least.

“Well that’s just the way the cookie crumbles. Win your match if you want a chance to have a go at her.” The black-haired leader says as you all spread out around the larger section of cave. From this angle you could try and keep an eye on your friend’s battles out of your peripheral, but it’s probably better to focus on your own opponent. You need to beat this guy so that he can’t challenge Kayla!

You and the redhead, who introduces himself as Tim, stare each other down, each gripping your first Pokéball. It’s hard to say how good of a trainer this guy is; sure he’s older than you, but he only has two Pokémon, and he doesn’t give off the aura of a powerful trainer. You’ve felt that aura before, from trainers like Silver or Nate, several others as well. He just feels like… a dude.

“Rattata, go!” The dude’s partner makes its appearance.

“Charmander, I choose you!” Your starter takes to the field, his flaming tail helping to illuminate the darkness. This should be easy. “Ember!”

“Quick Attack!” As your partner spews a small blast of flames, the other man’s purple rat dashes around them and slams into Charmander.

As your fire type staggers back, you shout “Metal Claw!” The lizard obliges, his claws extending slightly and gleaming silver as he rakes them across the normal type’s flank. The rat shrieks in pain as it gets slashed, looking seriously hurt. You’re expecting a command from your opponent to come soon, but when you look at the man he’s just floundering, seemingly unable to think of his next move while he panics. He’s… kind of pathetic. “One more time, Metal Claw!” You order, and Charmander repeats his strike while the ill-trained Rattata just sits there. This spells the end for the small normal type, as it is knocked out by the second blow.

“Uh… oh, uh… Hype- oh shit.” Tim blinks in surprise as he realizes his partner has already fainted. “Well then, um… your turn!” The… frankly awful trainer recalls his first Pokémon and throws out his second, a small insect with mushrooms on its back. A Paras. “…Fuck.” The redhead says flatly, once he notices the type matchup.

“Yeah. Ember.” You say, honestly kind of disappointed by this turn of events. Tim doesn’t even try to tell his partner to dodge, he just lets the poor bug and grass type get engulfed by 4x super-effective flames and be knocked out. “Well… I win. Um, goo-“

Before you can lie about the quality of the match, a bright flash catches your eye. Charmander is glowing white, and growing in size. He becomes taller and bulkier, his snout growing as well as a horn out of the back of his head. The white light fades, revealing the red body of your freshly evolved Charmeleon.

The fire type lets out a triumphant roar, spitting a gout of flame into the air. You rush over to him, ecstatic to have had him evolve, even if it was after possibly the lamest battle of all time. “Way to go buddy!” As you go to give him a hug however, he holds out a hand to stop you. “Huh? What’s wrong?” The fire lizard shakes his head, then grins at you and holds out a clenched fist. “Oh… Alright.” You fist-bump your starter, who nods and pumps his other fist in the air. Apparently he’s happier with that than a hug, for whatever reason.

After congratulating your evolved partner, you collect 120 PD in prize money from Tim, bringing you up to 1,920 PD. You also notice on Pokétracker that your starter learned Smokescreen at some point without you realizing, whoops. Pulling your attention away from your phone and your defeated opponent, you turn your attention to your friend’s battles.

Kayla is directly to your right, in the middle of this trio of clashes. “Thundershock again!” She orders her Pikachu, and the yellow rat does as it is told, knocking the opposing Spearow out of the sky. “Woohoo! I win!” The Vermillion girl hops up and down happily, having already knocked out her foes’ first Pokémon when you weren’t watching.

“Damn it… this is why we need to let Ed battle the girls.” The brown-haired man mumbles as he recalls his partner and pays your friend her prize money. So that’s how it is, like a mini Overlord situation. Though, according to Tim, this guy was the only one who beat the last woman who came through. Maybe she beat Ed and Tim, but her Pokémon were weakened by the time she got to… what’s this dude’s name? Doesn’t matter.

“Nice work Kayla! Way to go!” You walk up and high-five the green-eyed girl, who beams up at you.

“Thank you! I’m guessing you won too?” She asks.

“Yup! And Charmander evolved!” You gesture towards your still-out starter, who waves up at the mousy girl.

“Oh, wow! Congratulations! And look at you, Charmeleon! So handsome.” Kayla pats the red lizard on the head, which he pretends to just tolerate and not enjoy.

“Hope you guys are enjoying yourselves, because blondie over there sure isn’t. Once Ed’s done with him, he’s gonna beat you too, girly!” The brown-haired man growls, causing you and Kayla to whip around and watch your third group member’s battle with concern.

“Drowzee, Hypnosis!” Daniel cries, his psychic type responding by unleashing a swirl of purple energy.

“Dodge and Bite it, Krokorok!” Ed shouts, and his bipedal crocodile does so with ease, sidestepping the Hypnosis and chomping down on the psychic type, causing it to crumple to the ground. The Vermillion City blonde returns his partner to its ball with a grimace. “And that’s that. Good match kid. Now pay up, so I can challenge your little girlfriend.”

“Shit…” Daniel spits, fist clenching. He quickly pays his loss fee, then spins around to look for you and Kayla. Seeing that you’re both finished already, he locks eyes with you, and you both have the same idea.

Before you can speak though, Ed cuts in. “I challenge you, little girl.”

The brunette’s eyes widen, but she takes a deep breath and nods, a resolute look on her face as she readies herself to take on the real challenge here. Shit, if only he hadn’t beaten you to the punch, you could have challenged him first, and at least softened him up a bit. You give both of the Vermillion trainers an apologetic look, but Kayla just shakes her head at both you and the golden-haired boy.

“It’s fine. Thanks for trying, boys.” She smiles at you and at her master, who tries his best not to look dejected.

“You got this, Kay. Good luck!” The blue-eyed boy winks at his ****, forcing a smile as the two of you stand aside, giving her space to battle. Tim and that other guy stand behind their boss, who squares off against your shy friend. He didn’t seem to have a ton of trouble with Daniel… will she be okay?

Word from the author: You all probably noticed a certain gen 5 Pokémon making an appearance here. That’s because I plan to stop sticking to using mostly gen 1 Pokémon from now on. I did it at the start just to make things simpler on myself, since this is my first ever writing project. But I’m comfortable enough now that I feel like I can abandon that. It will mostly be trainer’s Pokémon that have later gen Pokémon, though I may work in some wild ones too sometimes. Expect gens 1-5 mostly, as that’s what I’m most familiar with. I’ll try and get even later gen Mons in on occasion too though. Probably still be gen 1 Mons most often, but I’ll be branching out.