The Long and Winding Road
By: BetterButterBuddha
Chapter: Rencontrer

July 3rd, 2000 Mandarin Island

Overhead, a cloud blew by, and I stuck my fork into the Lo Mein noodles to get another mouthful. Poliwag sat near me, and comically attempted to eat his favorite dish, sticky rice, with his tail; this is hard to do if one does not have arms. Rhyhorn stood on all fours a little farther away from us. He was warily chewing on some stew which I had attempted to make, and which, I think, turned out to be quite good. Even Scyther was out with us, though he didn’t eat much. Before we came to Mandarin Island, I had spent some time studying Scyther on the pokedex. They are omnivorous pokémon, so I fried some fish for him to eat. He was eating it, and by the looks of it, I can deduce that even normally serious pokemon like scyther can appreciate good food.

I had gotten to know Scyther yesterday. He seems to be nice enough, and he agreed to listen to me, fight for me, and be trained by me, but he doesn’t seem to be that enthusiastic about it, either. I don’t think it would have mattered to me whether I caught him or not.

So there we sat, in Mandarin City’s municipal park, enjoying a picnic. I heard her voice while trying to decipher the shapes of various clouds.

“Vincent! Vincent, is that you?” a voice shouted from across the park. It was a voice very familiar to me.

I looked up from my daydreaming to see a beautiful girl about my age standing in front of me. She had blue eyes, and long brown hair. The subtle curves of her face had been seen by my eyes before.

“Harriet! It’s been a while,” I said.

“Yes it has. Whatcha been up to? I see you’ve caught a few new pokémon.”

“Yeah. Harriet, meet Poliwag, Rhyhorn, and Scyther. They’re all quite friendly. Come on, join us for lunch.”

“Nice to meet you,” she said to my pokemon, “I think I will sit down. It’s a great day to be outside, isn’t it?”

“Yeah. I’m just taking a break from training now. What brings you to Mandarin Island?”

“Actually, I’m here to pick up a gift for an aunt who lives back in Blackthorn City. Mandarin Island has some great stores on it. Today there’s an ‘evolution special’ going on at the local pokemart.” She pointed to a tall tan building off in the distance. “They’re selling evolution stones half off. You should check it out.”

“Maybe I will,” I said, “Hey, Harriet. You said you were a pokemon trainer. Would you mind showing them to me? I’d like to see what kind of a trainer you are.”

“I’d love to!” she said. At her belt hung six pokeballs. She took four of them off, and threw them into the air. The balls busted open simultaneously, and out came their precious cargo of intensified laser light.

The laser intensified even further until they became solid, living pokémon with thoughts and emotions just like mine. One was a blue crocodile with a white band running across its torso, totodile. Another was a small, blue, unbearably cute pokémon named wooper. There was also a magikarp, flopping around in its own splash attack. Finally, I saw a small, sheepish pokemon, but it was sheepish in image, not nature. It had yellow fuzz surrounding it, and a short red ball on the end of its tail; it was a mareep.

“You’ve got quite a lineup, Harriet,” I commented. “Here’s a weird idea, what would you think of us having a battle? From the looks of things, there’s nobody in the park’s stadium, so we could probably do it there. What do you think?”

“I thought you’d never ask. I’ve been itching to battle another person for quite a while. You’ve only been a trainer for three weeks now, but I can tell you’re good. Let’s do it!” she said.

With that, we both recalled our pokemon into their balls, and I packed up my picnic. We walked towards the stadium.

***************************************************************

The trainer’s box was small, but adequate nevertheless. Some kids with nothing better to do had decided to take an interest in our little battle. The referee stood on the outskirts of the battle field, and I gave him a quick nod. He then looked to Harriet, who did the same.

“The battle will be between Harriet Gale and Vincent Castaneda. The ante is 200$. Set style battle, three on three, no time limit. Let the battle begin!” he shouted, and with that, my first pokémon battle began.

I threw a pokeball out, as did Harriet. They opened up at the same time, and then flew back to their respective trainers. In the arena stood wooper and poliwag. They both looked ready for battle.

“Alright poliwag, let’s get this battle started. Use your water gun!” I shouted.

“Wooper, counter his attack with your water gun! Intersect it!” she yelled.

Poliwag began first; he took in a large breath and let fly a thing, concentrated stream of water. It almost hit wooper, but it also let a water gun shoot. The two beams hit dead center, and splashed against each other. They stayed there, in mid air smacking against each other. It looked like one continuous line of water, just floating in air.

“Poliwag, this is a waste of time. We need your trump card, so use hypnosis, but keep using water gun too. Don’t let wooper’s hit you!” I shouted.

Poliwag stood there, still spewing water from his mouth. His eyes started to glow an eerie shade of red. Wooper was still shooting water, but it was looking directly at poliwag while it preformed the attack. It just couldn’t help being hypnotized. Both wooper and Poliwag’s water guns gradually softened to nothing, like a hose which has suddenly been turned off. Wooper was still standing, but its eyes had glazed over.

“Great job, now let’s take advantage of the situation. Use double slap!” I shouted. The little tadpole pokemon responded with a nod, and slapped the wooper with its tail. I heard four loud thwacks come from the stadium as poliwag gave a sever beating to the poor water/ground type.

“Wooper… Wait a second! We’ve still got the battle pegged! Use snore!” Harriet shouted.

Then I saw pretty much the most unlikely thing I’d ever seen in a pokemon battle. The small wooper with glazed eyes stood up, still sore from the beating it had taken, and drew in a breath. It then gave out a horrid sound, comparable to a banshee screaming in its misery. The cacophony was unbearable. Snore had been recorded to be at about 120 decibels, and it was at a frequency most harmful to pokemon. Poliwag reeled in pain.

“Hang in there, poliwag. Try a water gun now, it’s still asleep, so it can’t dodge!” I shouted.

Poliwag furrowed its brow, and swelled up, presumably letting water build up in its hydraulic bladder, where pokémon stored water that they had taken from the atmosphere for their attacks. It let out a blast of water which hit wooper in the center of its face in about half a second from leaving poliwag’s mouth. Wooper woke up, but it was too late. It was blown to the trainers’ box by poliwag, and there it stayed after the flow of water died down.

“Wooper! Come back!” said Harriet as she withdrew here fainted pokemon. “Well, you’re a pretty good trainer, Vincent. But how will your water pokemon be able to handle this?” She threw another pokeball into the air, releasing her mareep. “Use Thunderbolt!”

“So you want to know how poliwag can handle an electric attack? Here’s the answer: He won’t have to.” I said. I withdrew poliwag, and threw out Rhyhorn’s pokeball. Her mareep, which had been glowing with electric energy, let loose a huge matrix of static. The bolts hit rhyhorn, but he simply shrugged it off, letting it ground.

“Alright! Now we’ve got the advantage. Use stomp!” I said.

“Ummm…”

Harriet’s hesitation was just what we needed to get in some damage. Rhyhorn stomped on the ground, and this shockwave rushed through the stadium floor directly onto mareep. Mareep fell over, and her overcharged fleece was not an asset to her in getting back up.

“Harriet, I hate to do this but… Rhyhorn, use horn attack!” I said. Rhyhorn rushed the struggling sheep pokémon with its horn out front. Mareep let out a frightened yelp.

“Stop!”

“Huh? Rhyhorn, stop charging. What’s wrong, Harriet?”

“I think that what makes a trainer great is their ability to see when they’ve lost. I don’t want mareep to get hurt, so I’ll just return it,” she said. “Referee, you can count mareep as fainted now.”

The ref nodded and the score line dropped to 3-1, my favor.

“Alright then. I guess it’s time for my last, yet not least pokemon. Watch out, I’ve had totodile the longest. He’s strong,” she warned. Her last pokeball was thrown into the air, and out came a totodile who gave Rhyhorn a fearless glance. Its teeth were very white, indicating a high level. I took out my pokedex to check it.

“That totodile is at level 40. Condition: …” I closed the door on the pokedex. Sometimes it was helpful, but it was mostly and annoyance. I returned Rhyhorn to its ball, and sent out my best hope for battling a high level pokemon like this: Scyther.

The bug/flying let out his signature roar as he stretched his wings and scythes. His opponent, totodile, eyed him up to judge Scyther’s strength, and then stood its ground while staring at my pokemon, fearless. This was going to be a good battle.

“Scyther, let’s begin well. She can’t switch now, so we should use a status changer. Leer!” I shouted.

“We can play that game too. Use Scary face, totodile!” she said.

The two pokemon both stared at each other with unflinching eyes. I could see the sun reflect off of Scyther’s arms, as well as off of totodile’s teeth. They looked like they were performing the same attack, but it wasn’t. As scyther stared at totodile, its defense was going down, but when totodile leered at scyther, it was making scyther release a sedative to calm his otherwise lightning reflexes.

“OK, let’s get started. Wing attack!”

“Slash!”

Both pokemon rushed at each other, with totodile striking first. His claws hit Scyther’s underbelly, but Scyther retaliated with a rush of air which seemed to stun totodile a bit. They seemed to have done equal amounts of damage.

“Bite Scyther!” said Harriet. Her tank top blew onto her figure as she barked her orders out to her pokemon, and as it did, it occurred to me that this battle could still be lost. Rhyhorn would be down in a simple water gun, and poliwag probably couldn’t hold his own against high level pokemon.

“Scyther, use a slash!” I shouted. But it was too late. Totodile rushed up to scyther so fast that I could’ve sworn it was just a blur to my vision. He bit Scyther on the neck, and scyther flinched from the dark energies rushing into his body.

“Hah! How’s your prize pokemon now! Let’s finish this off with water gun!”

Totodile shot a blast at scyther, who was too sluggish from the scary face to respond, and then Scyther was down, and out for the count. I withdrew him.

“Damn…” I said, “This could get bad. Alright, get out there, poliwag!” I threw his poke ball into the court, where it exploded to release my first pokémon.

“Alright, Poliwag. I’m counting on you. Hypnosis probably won’t work on a pokémon like, so we’ll have to do something new. Use Rain Dance!” I said. Poliwag looked at me; this was the first time he’d ever used that attack. His eyes closed, and he started to shudder with thought.

Almost every pokemon has a psychic potential of some kind. When poliwag used Rain Dance, he really just used his psychic potential to condense the particles of water vapor in the air into a cloud. Rain began to fall.

“Totodile, use a leer!” Harriet shouted. However, even thought totodile stared at poliwag with full intention of disabling most of his defense, poliwag simply didn’t notice. The attack did nothing.

“Alright, now we’ve got to hit it where it hurts. Use a Water Gun!” I cried.

“You too, totodile.”

Then the most amazing thing happened. The rain made it easier for both water pokemon to absorb enough water for a water gun, but poliwag did it first. His water gun sprayed with an incredible intensity until it hit totodile straight in the mouth. The alligator didn’t even stand a chance; he began to cough. I took advantage of this, and to full effect.

“Poliwag, use double slap!” I shouted.

Poliwag complied, and while totodile was still struggling to shoot his stream of water, poliwag hit totodile five times with his tail. Totodile tumbled forth, then back, and then it fell over.

Poliwag then looked at me. He seemed content with himself, as if he’d just completed a very great task. Then he began to glow.

The light of his iridescence filled the stadium, and poliwags form began to change. The white figure grew tall, and as it did so, it grew arms. In about two minutes, the process was over, and where poliwag once stood, now stood a poliwhirl. His strong arms and bulging eyes greeted me, and I waved back in surprise.

“You evolved,” I stated with a smile. Poliwhirl smiled back, and I nodded.

“The winner of the match is: Vincent Castaneda. Trainers, please proceed to the trainers’ booth,” the referee interrupted.

We both recalled our pokemon, and stepped off of the box. I met Harriet on the side of the battle field.

“Good Battle, huh?” she said.

“Uhhh… Yeah, I guess. How’d I do?” I said as we walked towards the booth where the ante waited for me.

“Well, if you were able to beat me, then you’re really good. I’ve got two badges from the orange league. You should consider taking the gym challenge,” she said.

“Thanks, but I’ve got some affairs I need to tend to first. Maybe in a year or so.”

“Wow, that’s some errand. But anyway, I’ve been thinking. How are you on trading?” she said.

“What did you have in mind?” I asked.

“Nothing really big, but I’ve taken a liking to your scyther. What would you think of trading it for my mareep? She’s been specially bred to have the technique thunderbolt, so that makes her extra valuable. Whaddya say?”

Scyther was a good pokemon to have, but the offer was tempting. I could turn a mareep into a real powerhouse, and pokémon traded from other trainers gained experience faster. “Alright, I’ll do it.”

We both walked up to the trading machine in the stadium, and placed the correct pokeballs on the platforms.

“Mareep belongs to Harriet Gale. Scyther belongs to Vincent Castaneda. Would you like to trade?” the machine asked. We both pressed a button on each side of the trading machine, and then a line of red arrows flashed across the screen, to indicate that they were being registered as the other trainer’s pokemon. The pokeballs themselves were drawn into laser light form, and taken into the machine. In a moment, they reappeared on different sides, and the trade was completed.

“Alright. It’s been nice seeing you again, Vincent. Take good care of mareep, and I’ll look after scyther. Good luck. As for me, I’ve got to leave now, or I’ll miss my ferry. Au Revoir!” she said.

I collected the two-hundred dollar’s ante from the ref, and walked out of the stadium.

“So now I have my first evolved pokemon,” I thought to myself, “My career as a trainer seems to be taking off. I won my first battle today, too.” The pokemart stood on the horizon in the distance, accentuated by the sun in the background, and I walked on.