Chapter 5 : Johto Joustin’
The four agents breathed in the clean early morning air appreciatively. The dew still fresh from the night before slightly dampening their boot soles, they happily marched on without incident. They passed a good many towns and people on their way keeping to the side streets and remaining inconspicuous. One trainer who was lucky enough to see them complained annoyingly about not being able to catch any pokemon since the beginning of the month. Like it was their problem! Try harder!
They were making excellent time, when in the heart of a city, as they passed a large stairwell leading down into the ground to their left, they all smelt the most delicious and unbelievably stomach rumbling aroma imaginable. Miguel was first to smell it and the most immediately intoxicated.
“Gasp! Guys, its Pikablu Burger! C’mon, let's stop for a bite! I’m starving!” he almost sounded like he was complaining.
“Miguel, we have rations in our packs. We're trained to survive on wild fruits and in the outdoors.” Erinn replied. The idea of a beautiful greasy Pikablu burger wasn't lost on her. In fact it appealed tremendously. They both looked to Valthor, their mission team leader, for his decision.
“He won’t stop complaining unless we go in. C’mon.” He knew he was going to regret this. They proceeded down the escalators to Pikablu Burger. Miguel led the way hungrily.
They lined up and placed their orders, Miguel ordering five Ka-bluey Burgers with the lot, and sat down to eat in the crowded food court. The place was very busy and most seats were filled with hungry trainers scoffing their faces.
Valthor noticed something. He was happily eating his burger, Miguel was scoffing his down, and even Erinn appeared to be savoring every bite of hers. However Galitas’ attention was definitely focused on a seated trainers' back nearby. Valthor scrutinized who it might be when the man with a Pikachu turned around to look at who was making him feel so paranoid. It was none other than Ash Ketchum, The Chosen One! This could only spell disaster.
Galita lurched out of his seat and bounded in front of Ash. Ash didn’t seem surprised.
“Ash Ketchum! My name is Dave Waveman! You are a great and respected Pokemon Master and I have dreamed of this day for a long time! I challenge you to a pokemon battle!” He shouted the words loud enough for the whole food court to hear and most turned to observe the interruption. Note the use of a fake name. Ash finished the last bite of his delicious burger and passively accepted the challenge. It was very rare these days for anyone to challenge him so confidently. Such was his super reputation.
All filed excitedly outside and onto the street to give the two battlers more room. They both released their pokemon and began the one on one battle. Ash needn’t even bother with his Pokeball since Pikachu was on his shoulder the whole time and simply bounded into the middle of the ring of trainers. The battle was rather long and dramatic. Galitas pokemon, a strong Clefable, fought bravely and downed Pikachu with very little left in reserve himself. Galitas exceptionally powerful pokemon was returned and Ash quickly rushed his Pikachu to a Pokemon Centre in a state of perpetual shock. As he rushed off he smiled to Galita, and said.
“You won because my Pikachu had just finished battling the Gym Leader here. His name is Shibulba and he took a lot of energy out of Pikachu. Shibulba was even tougher than you.” It was a challenge of course. Ash wanted to taunt Galita into doing something stupid. The Dragonagi Lights’ elite training and education would make Galita well aware of this and he’d do the smart thing and gracefully decline to challenge the Gym Leader Shibulba.
“You’re ON Ash! Shibulba goes down!!! Galita never declines an offer!!!” Galita responded. Valthor sighed deeply. ‘Here we go again’ he thought to himself as Erinn, Miguel and he chased the pumped trainer through the neat streets to the local Gym. It was a largish building with Pokemon Gym written in large letters over the door. They stopped and surveyed the square sign outside that gave a description of what’s to be expected inside. It read…
‘Mahogony Town Pokemon Gym
Gym Leader: Shibulba
The super shiny pokemon specialist’
“Cool!” Valthor exclaimed “ Its about time they developed a Gym with this kind of quality.” And the four agents approached the door, where a rather brightly dressed man was blocking the entrance. He wore bright gold and silver sequins all over his gold overalls. He looked very bright and colorful. He seemed to be covered in gold glitter.
“I want to challenge the Gym Leader here please,” Galita asked politely and anxiously. The man turned to them and replied.
“I need to see three shiny pokemon before you can enter. And they had better be yours or…” the guard was rudely interrupted by Galita as he quickly opened three random pokeballs from his pack materializing three happy, healthy shiny pokemon. A Glaily, a Delcatty and a Flygon. Galita felt this was nothing fancy by his standards. Who didn’t have shiny pokemon these days anyway? It was a funny thing to see such shock on the weirdly dressed man. “You may challenge Shibulba, trainer.” The others laughed. Quite pathetic. The man sprinkled glitter on the trainers as they entered. How odd.
Shibulba proved to be a young and wonderful trainer who possessed vastly superior skills to your average gym leader. His chosen pokemon were all shiny and very rare and spectacular. His courage when faced with defeat at the hands of Galita was moving and when he truthfully complimented Galita on his obvious skills he impressed the party of agents very much. It was comforting to see someone striving as hard as Shibulba was. His parting words were strange though. He asked them if they had noticed anything strange about the wild pokemon lately. None of them had tried to catch a pokemon on their journey for the simple reason that the pokemon they had were already everything they needed. But they couldn’t contribute there. So they were content to move on. ‘His shiny pokemon and his training skills will probably land him a job in the agency one day soon.’ thought Miguel, who admired the trainers' skill very much.
It less than three days before they were clear of Mahogony Town and were well on their way to exiting Johto. They reached Goldenrod City and were preparing to board the Magnet train when a woman’s voice called over the din of the train and travelling trainers everywhere.
“Hold it right there!!!” A dark and beautiful trainer cleared a path through the people before her and approached the four agents in obviously dark spirits. They recognized her immediately. It was the Elite Four regular, Karen. She wore a tight fitting and cool black outfit and proudly flaunted her Elite Four badge over her heart.
“I remember you Erinn! You little swine! You were the little girl who beat me and stopped my winning streak! Well, I’ve evolved a lot since then you little cow! You won’t beat me twice! I challenge you!” She was definitely not in a great mood. She unclipped a pokeball from her belt and held it ready, waiting for Erinns’ response.
Erinn quite calmly under the rude circumstances, replied “You are not the only one to evolve Pokemon leaguer. Indeed, nothing stays the same. If you believe I was accomplished then, you will see how highly I rate now.” Karen didn’t know what hit her. Her dark type pokemon and their heavy defenses quickly dwindled before Erinns incredible skill. It was an amazingly easy victory, over a very strong foe. Karen was in disarray.
“No! How could this be!? You beat me so easily! What have I done to deserve this? I am sorry I was so rude Erinn. You are a great pokemon trainer and I will punish those four rats for even telling me you would be here at this time! It is they who have embarrassed me, not you. The dishonorable little f….”
Valthor quickly understood this before the others and politely interrupted.
“Who told you we'd be here Karen?! What were there names?” This was annoying news. He had suspected as much, but not this early in their journey.
“They said they were your foes. They said you were saying horrible things about me and that they would help me defeat you if I helped them. They didn’t even show up, the cowards! I didn’t know who they were, only that there leader was called 'Senga'. One of the two girls accidentally blurted it out. What a fool.”
Valthor and his friends thanked Karen and wished her luck in finding the four liars she vowed to beat. Valthor knew that Karen would never see those four again but it would have been rude to tell her so. They boarded the Magnet train and sped off to their next stop on the way to Gedyn. The Magical land of Kanto.
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