Keith's Journey in Johto

Prologue:​

​So before I dive too far into this fanfiction I thought that I should probably make a prologue like thing to show the appearance of my characters (since I haven't really done that yet) and talk about their personalities. I should note that of my current major characters, only one of them is an OC, however all of them have personalities that differ from their cannon Pokémon counterparts.

Keith:

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Keith is an extremely cynical, apathetic and isolated teenage boy. He was originally from the Orre Region but rather recently moved to Johto for as of yet unexplained reasons with his Mother. Thanks to the scarcity of wild Pokémon in the Orre Region, he has had very limited experience with Pokémon. Despite this however, Keith seemed to naturally enjoy the company of Pokémon more so than the company of other humans. Keith's only Pokémon is a Magikarp he purchased as a 10 year old, and thanks to owning it for so long he has grown a deep connection with the Karp.

Crystal:

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Crystal's personality contrasts Keith's as she is rather sociable and cheery. Crystal has been a Pokémon trainer for the past year, and was previously travelling with Gold, a Pokémon Champion. Despite this experience though, she has a rather clear lack of skill. So in order to get better and maintain her pride she had ditched Gold and decided to follow a less experienced trainer so she could somehow learn how to be a better trainer.

Lyra:
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Lyra is a selfish, vain and rude individual. When she was young, her father gifted her an Azurill, and it has since evolved into a Marill and the two have developed similar personalities. She has up to this point never left New Bark Town, so she is eager to leave and see the sites of Johto. Ever since Lyra and Keith were introduced to each other, they have extremely disliked each other.

Silver:

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Silver is similar to Keith in that he is apathetic. He was born in the Kanto region, but has very recently moved over to Johto for unknown reasons. He is an extremely determined individual, who is willing to do whatever it takes to achieve his goals. He despises people who aren't determined, and treats those he doesn't like as less than human.

And I guess that is my little discussion of my 4 main protagonists and antagonists. So yeah....... enjoy I guess.

Chapter 1: Unhumble Beginnings​

Keith yawned as he walked down the road to Professor Elm's laboratory. It wasn't like he wasn't excited about getting a Pokémon, he was just not as excited as most people naturally seem to be. To be fair though he knows more or less nothing about Pokémon, mainly because he is from The Orre region, where wild Pokémon are extremely scarce. Anyway, it wasn't like he was about to get his first Pokémon, he already has a Pokémon in a special golden ball that he purchased from a really nice, quick talking man who talked about how amazing this Pokémon was.

Keith started to smile, imagining Professor Elm's shocked face when he revealed his extremely rare Pokémon. He suddenly heard someone cry out "Hey, can we trust you to own a Pokémon, or are you going to make it evil?" He turned around to see the sneering face of that Lyra girl, with her stupid looking Marill jumping around her legs. Keith didn't respond as she ran up to him. "Keith, can you hear me?" Keith looked up at her and said "You're hair and that Marill makes you look even more stupid than normal. No one is around, you don't need to act like you like me."

Lyra sighed and said "Well, at least my hate for you is justified by that statement." Whilst her Marill just glared at Keith. She was about to say something else when the two reached the door of the large lab Elm worked in. Keith went to open the door when Elm's assistant burst open the door, almost hitting Keith in the face. Obviously overexcited he loudly said "Oh my god, you two are finally here! Come in, come in." And he ran behind the two and herded them in, and pushed them over to Elm who was standing there with three Pokeballs on a table, looking at the group nervously.

Elm nervously smiled he was a rather shy man who contrasted his overly excitable assistant rather extremly. "Ummmmmm, thank you two for coming, well. There is your Pokémon, so go and pick them I guess."
"Ummmm, can we see what is in them first?" Lyra asked.

"Oh yeah, sorry." Elm said and he quickly picked up the three balls and threw them to the ground. And out of the balls popped out an anteater with fire coming out of its back, a baby crocodile and a cute looking plant thing with a leaf on its head. "So, in order these guy are called Cyndaquil, Totodile and Chikorita."

Lyra smiling said "Well Keith, you can pick first." with an evil grin on her face.

Keith acted completely unaware of her obvious attempt to pick the Pokémon elementally stronger than his and walked up close to the Pokémon. First he looked at Cyndaquil and said "This thing seems a bit timid and pathetic. And what is the point of a Pokémon that is on fire, like how would you be able to touch it?" The Cyndaquil glared at him as he looked at the Totodile and said "This thing looks extremely derpy, like it has down syndrome." The Totodile also started to glare at him when he looked at Chikorita for a few minutes. He smiled and said, "Well this thing is really cute, in fact I want it. So I pick Chikorita."

The Chikorita looked shocked and suddenly really happy, and smiled. However it lost it's smile when Lyra laughed at Keith and said "You know that is the worst choice of the three, right professor?"

Elm stuttered and said "Umm..w-well technically it is considered the weakest competitively."

Chikorita looked at the ground upset, mainly because it had experienced this same thing, where someone had picked it but was talked out of it by others. However its face lit up when Keith shrugged his shoulders and said "I don't care. I still want it. The fact that you don't approve of it Lyra makes me want it even more to be completely honest." The Chikorita ran up to Keith's leg and began to nuzzle herself against his leg. Keith smiled and picked up his excited grass type Pokémon.

Lyra just rolled her eyes and said "Well in that case I pick Cyndaquil." and walked over to its Pokéball and retrieved the timid looking fire type. Lyra smiled and said "Thank you professor, and quickly ran outside."
Elm started to mutter something, but coughed and stopped. He looked at Keith and said "You know she picked the Pokémon that has a type advantage over yours right?"

Keith smiled and said "So she thinks, but I already own a really awesome water type. Before waiting for Elm to respond and ask what it was, Keith unclipped his golden Pokéball from his belt and threw it onto the ground, and out of the ball popped out a Magikarp that simply flopped around on the floor.
Elm looked at it and said "Ummmmmmm Keith I am not so sure about how powerful that Pokémon is. I mean Magikarp are renowned for being weak."

Keith smiled and said "Well, I know this one isn't professor. Trust me, he is great, right Magikarp." Keith looked at the fish flopping on the floor as cried out its name every couple of seconds.

Elm shook his head and decided not to comment. He turned around and got an egg out of a machine from behind him and said "Keith, I wanted to ask both you and Lyra for this but I guess you can do it alone." He handed Keith the egg and said "I need you to go to Oak's house on route 30 with this egg, because I think it may contain some amazingly rare Pokémon."

Keith nodded and grabbed the egg and put it into his bag. He returned his Magikarp and said "Ok, then." He reached over and grabbed his Chikorita's Pokéball and returned the very happy looking grass type. He turned around and walked outside.

 

Chapter 2: Phantastic

Keith was slowly making his way towards the exit of New Bark Town, when he heard a shrieking voice shout "HEY KEITH WAIT UP!" which made him turn around. He stared in horror as he saw his Mother sprinting over to him. He was about to speak when his mother started to ecstatically and loudly shout "So Keith honey, I heard the Elm gave you that Pokémon right?" Before Keith could respond and remind his mother that she was the one who set up the meeting with Elm, so she obviously knew that he was getting a Pokémon she continued to shout "So I packed a bag for you with Pokeballs, a Pokédex and your Pokegear. Do you know who to use them?"

"Yes I do, I own the damn things." Keith reminded his mother.

Completely ignoring Keith, she continued to talk for 5 minutes whilst Keith looked to the ground, imagining how good life will be when he is free from his mother. When she finished talking, Keith just smiled nervously and said "Well I need to go, so bye Mum." And before even waiting for her to respond he turned around and walked away, and as he did he heard his loud mother shouting about how she was going to miss him and about how this moment was making her teary.

By the time the shrieks from his mother were out of earshot Keith heard another annoying voice calling him to come over. Keith turned his head to see a schoolkid type person with a Rattata waving to him. Keith simply ignored him but the guy decided it would be best to run in front of him, stare at him and ask "Do you want to learn how to catch Pokémon?"

Keith sighed and looked at the kid, and simply said "No, I'm not an idiot." And walked away before the guy could respond.

As Keith walked away, he realized that he would probably need to catch other things, but he had no idea what to catch. He was known for being extremely picky about everything, and that was demonstrated perfectly when he picked his starting Pokémon. He looked around trying to see any visible Pokémon, and all that he could see was these fat rodent things called Sentret, those disgusting purple Ratatta's that no one likes and birds that were flying way to high in the air named Pidgey. He just shrugged his shoulders, and decided to ignore catching other creatures until he got this damn egg out of his bag.

Half way through the Route Keith reached a fork in the road, and then he realized he really had no idea where he was actually going. Keith paused for a while, shrugged and took the northern path, assuming this would work out. This path lead him to some weird kind of plain, full of other Pokémon Keith didn't really seem interested in. As he was looking at the Pokémon he remembered that his mum had somehow acquired Keith a Pokédex, and quickly went to fish it out of his bag. He got it out and flipped it open, and went around an immediately scanned the surrounding Pokémon. All he seemed to be able to see in the immediate vicinity though was a few Geodude and Spearow, disgusting looking things that he would never want to catch. Keith however for some reason couldn't seem to understand why this area existed, it seemed to be some kind of weird, walled of pasture that seemed to serve no purpose.

He sighed and just decided to cut his loses and leave when he seemed to spot something from the corner of his eye. It was this weird, blue elephant thing that seemed to be battling and beating all of the Geodude and Spearow in the vicinity. Curious, Keith opened up his Pokédex and pointed it at the elephant, and in response it chimed in a robotic, female voice "Phanpy, the Long Nose Pokémon. Despite this Pokémon's compact size, its strength is phenomenal" Keith smiled, he had found something that he liked.

Keith walked up to it, and quickly assessed the situation. The thing was a ground type, which meant that both of his Pokémon typed well against it, however he couldn't use Magikarp, because he didn't want to kill the thing, just weaken it. So he reached to his belt, and threw down Chikorita's Pokéball. Chikorita looked up at Keith and smiled, and then ran towards him and started to rub its head against his leg affectionately and it softly said "Chiko-chiko." Keith just started at it, having no clue as to why it was doing this. Keith just coughed and said "Ummmmmmmm, Chikorita stop...whatever that is and listen to me, because we need to go an capture that." and pointed towards the Phanpy. Chikorita stopped, turned to it and with a determined look in her eyes said "Chikorita."

Keith smiled, and realized that this would be his first wild Pokémon battle ever, which made him nervous. However this nervousness somehow filled him with confidence, which just made him even more nervous. He pointed towards the Phanpy and shouted "Chikorita use Tackle!" and Chikorita immediately responded and charged at the unsuspecting elephant. Phanpy turned its head just as Chikorita rammed itself into him, and knocked him to the ground. Phanpy stood up quickly, and blew on its nose loudly, signalling that it was annoyed. "Chikorita, do it again!" Keith called, as Chikorita ran at the Phanpy again, this time however the Phanpy was ready, and curled itself into a ball and started to roll on the spot, then shot itself at Chikorita, trampling the poor Pokémon. Keith looked shocked, and was about to ask Chikorita if it was ok, but Keith sighed in relief as it got back on its feet.
"You're going to have to use a grass type move idiot."

Keith turned around, to see Lyra looking at him condescendingly. "I was about to do that, so shut up and go away." Then Keith turned to Chikorita and said "Chikorita, use...ummmmmmmmmmmmmmm." Keith quickly looked down at his Pokédex and looked up Chikorita's moves, and ignored the cackling laughs of Lyra behind him. He looked up when he found a move and said "Chikorita, use Vine Whip!" and on command Chikorita's buds around her neck extended out into vines, and whipped the Phanpy that was rolling towards it, knocking it to the ground. Keith smiled, quickly glanced at his Pokédex and said "Now, use Razor Leaf!" and the vines from Chikorita's neck retracted, and it waved its head in circles and leaves shot down to the Phanpy that was still trying to pick itself off the ground, and knocked it down again. Then Keith smiled, grabbed an empty ball from his bag and threw it at the Pokémon. The ball engulfed the Phanpy and seemed to swallow it. The ball started to wildly shake for what seemed an eternity, before it stopped, and a loud ping noise echoed throughout the area. Keith smiled, and walked over to his new Pokémon's ball and picked it up. He look over at Lyra and said "Well, who's the loser now?"

Lyra rolled her eyes and said "You still." and walked away.

Keith didn't bother responding, he was just happy about his capture. He turned to Chikorita, knelt down and said "Good work Chikorita!" smiling. His grass type Pokémon seemed to blush and then ran at Keith and lept into his arms. Keith was really confused about how Chikorita acted, but decided to ignore it and stood up and started to carry his probably tired Pokémon. "Well Chikorita, I need to go and find a Pokecenter to heal you and your new teammate." "Chiko." Chikorita said enthusiastically as the two walked south to try and find the way to Cherrygrove city.

 

Chapter 3: One Annoyance After the Next

Keith found his way back to the fork in the road, however this time he went westwards with the aim of reaching Cherrygrove, so he could heal his hurt Phanpy and Chikorita, the latter of whom was being carried in his arms. Keith had to carefully avoid every Sentret and Rattata in his path, because his only Pokémon that could fight still would be his Magikarp, but that would honestly be overkill on those poor weak normal types.

Within a few minutes, Keith could see Cherrygrove City in the distance. He looked down at his Chikorita who was struggling to remain conscious. Keith decided that this probably wasn't healthy for it, and picked up the pace and ran to the entrance of Cherrygrove. As he was about to enter, some old man ran in front of Keith, grabbed his hand and said "You are new to the town aren't you? Well I have lived here all my life, so I will show you around."
"Ummmm, well I kinda need to go to the Pokémon Center." Keith said, trying to avert eye contact whilst pulling his arm away, but the old man's grip was firm and he would not let go.

"Well I will show you the way to the Pokémon Center!" The old man shouted as he proceeded to drag Keith through town. When they reached the large red and white building the old man pointed to it and said "Now that is the Pokémon Center." And then he pointed towards the building next to it and said "And that's the Pokemart." Then he turned his head towards a nearby lake and said "And that's some water. Now take this map." And he threw a map at Keith's face and ran off. Keith didn't really know what to say, so he just shoved the map in his Pocket and entered the Pokémon Center.

The inside of the building was playing some soft, easy listening music, and was almost disturbingly calm. Keith walked to the counter and put his Chikorita and his other Pokeballs on the table. He looked at the brown haired girl behind the counter and said "Ummmmmm, can you heal my Pokémon?"

The girl simply smiled, picked up Keith's Pokémon and said "OK. This will just take a few minutes." She grabbed Chikorita's Pokéball and returned it back into the ball, then she put the three balls in a machine behind her, which lit up and started to randomly flash. Keith just stared at it until it finished flashing, and once it was done the girl grabbed the Pokeballs and handed it back to Keith. A little skeptic of the validity of this machine, Keith grabbed his Pokémon and walked to the side of the building, sat down and threw out his Pokémon. And once the vibrant white flash of the Pokémon exiting their balls ended, Keith was greeted with his Chikorita, Magikarp and Phanpy all of whom seemed to be perfectly healthy and energetic. Chikorita jumped into Keith's lap whilst Keith moved his head closer to Phanpy and said "Well, I hope you enjoy travelling with us Phanpy." Phanpy blew his trunk in approval. Keith looked over at Magikarp and said "So, how have you been doing Magikarp?" to which Magikarp seemed to reply by flopping around a little faster and saying "Karp. Magi-karp." Keith smiled, his Magikarp was a badass.

Keith was about to say something else when he saw some blue haired girl looking at him inquisitively. When she noticed he was looking at her, she looked away. Keith just shrugged and assumed that she was jealous of his awesome Pokémon. He sighed, and thought that it was time to go and take this egg to that Oak person. He returned his Chikorita and his Magikarp, and looked at Phanpy and said "Well, do you want to walk with me for a bit Phanpy?" Phanpy nodded his head and started to follow Keith out the door.

Keith left the City and walked down to Route 30 with his Phanpy eagerly following him. He was happy, because soon this stupid errand of his would finally be over. He was on the Route where Oak's house was located, and it would only take a few minutes to get there. Keith had a quick glance around at the Pokémon, and could only see a few Weedle and Kakuna around, which he avoided like the plague. He looked at his Phanpy and said "Well, after we deliver this egg we need to battle a fair bit." Phanpy looked excited, and smiled.

All of a sudden, Keith heard someone shout "Hey, wait up." He turned to see the blue haired girl from the Pokecenter running after him. He sighed, and in his head he thought about turning around and running away from this weird looking girl. He couldn't believe how hard it was to do anything without a loud person stopping him. He quickly noticed that the girl had a weird Pokémon floating behind her.

When the girl caught up to him, she doubled over and was panting loudly. She looked up and whilst pantiing said "Hey, you look like you could use some help being a trainer. So I am going to help you be the best." She managed to say whilst she was panting heavily.

Keith looked a her, and asked "Can I decline?"

The girl looked up at him and said "Nope, because I am bored and have nothing better to do. Also, because you are so new you will need a Pokémon veteran like me to help you out. Anyway my name is Crystal."

Keith sighed, and silently swore under his breath.

 

Chapter 4: Another Annoyance

Keith was slowly walking through Route 30, with Crystal still following him. He looked behind him and saw Phanpy staring up at the two. Keith sighed and asked "So why exactly are you following me?"

Crystal smiled and said "Well, as you can probably tell I am a world class Pokémon trainer, and I thought I might as well teach people who are younger than me how to become as good as I am."

Keith looked at up and down at her, she looked barely a year older than he was. "I highly doubt that."

Crystal glared at him, reached for her belt and threw 2 Pokeballs on the ground. Out of the balls appeared a stingray and a small pink humanoid thing, and the weird head shaped Pokémon that was floating behind her floated over next to Crystal's other Pokémon. "So who's the master now?" Crystal asked smugly.

Keith pulled out his Pokédex and scanned the three Pokémon. The Pokédex bleated "Misdreavus, the Screech Pokémon. This Pokémon loves to startle people. It feeds itself on people's fear. Mantine, the Kite Pokémon. If it builds up enough speed swimming, it can glide through the water. Remoraid are often attached to them. Tyrogue, the Scuffle Pokémon. It is famous for its eagerness to fight and will challenge stronger foes to make itself stronger." Keith put his Pokédex back in his pocket. "I kinda don't need help."

Crystal smiled condescendingly and said "Trust me, you certainly do." Then she retrieved her Mantine and Tyrogue, but allowed her Misdreavus to continue floating behind her. The embarrassing thing about Crystal is that she wasn't actually a good trainer, in fact she was a terrible trainer. Despite the fact that she had traveled all over Johto, her Pokémon were all rather underwhelming in the strength department. The real reason she was doing this all was so she could learn how to actually battle by watching someone else do it, whilst still maintaining her sense of dignity.

Keith gave up trying to flick this person away for now. He could only hope that this person wasn't as annoying as Lyra. "Well, if you are going to follow me I need to run an errand that involves dropping off this egg to some geezer so yeah." Keith said as he started walking north again.

Crystal followed him, she was already regretting her decision to follow Keith, someone who seemed extremely antisocial. However it was too late for her to turn around, so she just decided to try her best to tolerate his antisocial mannerisms. She looked over, and saw Misdreavus trying its best to somehow startle or scare Phanpy by randomly disappearing and reappearing. However Phanpy just seemed to stare at it puzzled, unfazed by the attempted frights.

Keith and Crystal were walking through a valley of trees, and at the end of it Keith could see a small house that he could only assume was Oak's home. He picked up the pace, eager to get rid of this stupid egg. When he was within a few 100 meters from it, a young boy stepped in front of the two. He smirked and proudly proclaimed "Hello, my name is Joey, and I challenge you to beat my Rattata!" He then sent out is Rattata without warning, and the purple Pokémon ran into Keith's unprepared Phanpy.

Keith sighed, and knew that he had to battle this guy. He looked at Crystal and asked "Well, if you are supposed to teach me how to be a decent trainer, tell me what to do."

Crystal gulped, she didn't quite know what to say. "Ummmmm, well I would tell you but you need to learn by yourself."

"Well then what good are you?" asked an exasperated Keith. He sighed, and knew that he needed to do this himself. "Phapny use Rollout," The blue Pokémon rolled itself into a ball and charged itself at the Rattata. Rattata sprinted towards the rolling Phanpy, trying to use a Tackle. However Phanpy simply rolled over the purple rat Pokémon and crushed it, causing it to faint immediately. When the fight finished, Joey ran over to his Rattata, picked it up and started running off with the Rattata in his hands, blubbering and crying about how Keith had to be cheating whilst Phanpy was blowing its trunk in celebration. Keith just scoffed and said "People really need to stop annoying me today" as he walked towards that house. Crystal just followed Keith, with Misdreavus following her closely.

When Keith reached the house, he opened the door without bothering to knock and busted into the house. He looked around the house, it had two people inside of it. "Ok, which one of you is Oak?" Keith said, looking at the two.

One of them raised his hands and said "Ummmmm, well I am."

Keith walked up to him, pulled the egg out of his bag and gave it to him "Take that stupid egg. Its from Elm." At the same time, Crystal was staring at Professor Oak in awe, shocked that Keith was not only performing an errand for Professor Oak, but was acting so normal around such a famous Pokémon Scientist.

Keith turned around and was about to start to leave when Oak said "Wait you two were sent from Elm, hasn't he called you yet?"

Keith stared at Oak puzzled and pulled out his Pokegear, to see that it he 5 missed calls from Elm. He started to dial Elm's number when it rung in his hands. He answered it and said "What happened Elm?"

Uncharacteristically Elm screamed into the phone. "KEITH WHERE WERE YOU. EVERYTHING'S GONE WRONG. GET HERE NOW!"

Keith pulled the Pokegear away from his ear, because the Professor was loud. It wasn't on loudspeaker yet Oak and Crystal could hear Elm. "Calm down Elm, what is wrong."

Elm coughed and calmed himself down a little. "Someone with red hair came in here and stole Totodile. I need you back here as soon as possible."

Keith nodded and said "Ok, I got it." Keith hung up, put his Pokegear away and walked out the door as quickly as possible. Once he left the house he started to run as fast as possible, down to Cherrygrove City, leaving Phanpy, Misdreavus and Crystal behind.

Crystal shouted "Wait up Keith" as she, Misdreavus and Phanpy started to run after Keith.

 

Chapter 5: Silver Lining​

Keith made it to Cherrygrove quickly. However after reaching Cherrygrove he stopped running and doubled over panting. He wanted to keep running, but he physically couldn't anymore, he really wasn't very athletic, considering he hated physical exercise. This pause allowed Crystal, Misdreavus and Phanpy to quickly catch up to him, and once they did catch up they also started panting. "Keith, you don't need to run so fast. Getting there faster won't help at all." Crystal said.

Keith stood up, and looked at his Phanpy, who was obviously tired. He returned it, deciding to give him a rest. He sighed and said "Well, I guess you are right. But we need to get there quickly." and started to slowly walking to the other side of Cherrygrove.

Crystal returned Misdreavus into its Pokéball and said "Wait up Keith." and walked after him.

As the two were getting close to Route 29, someone stepped in front of them. The guy had bright red hair, and seemed to be glaring at Keith. Keith and Crystal stopped in their tracks, and Keith coughed and said "Can I help you at all? Because if not I am busy."

The guy continued to glare at Keith and said "That Chikorita of yours... I need it."

Keith looked at him puzzled and asked "What?"

"That Chikorita of yours, you will give it to me." The red head reiterated and sent out a Totodile.

Keith immediately realized who this man was, he was the guy who stole Totodile from Elm. Keith sighed and said "So you are the guy who robbed Elm, and it seems one Pokémon wasn't enough for you. Well too bad, because not only are you not getting Chikorita, but you are returning that Totodile."

The red head shook his head, and said with contempt "I guess I will have to do this the hard way then."

Keith smirked, and said "Too bad for you because I have a Pokémon that will blow you completely away." Keith grabbed his Golden Pokéball and sent out his Magikarp who after being summoned started to pathetically flounder around.

Crystal blushed with embarrassment, she wasn't a good trainer but even she knew how bad Magikarp was. The red head guy just frowned, and said coldly "You're a complete moron, Magikarp is considered the worst Pokémon in existence. You honestly should give up and give me that Chikorita, because I know what to do with it."

Keith just smirked and said "Don't you dare underestimate me. Magikarp, use bounce!" Magikarp then jumped up rather high in the air, as the Totodile kept his eyes on the fish.

"Totodile, just move irregularly." Silver commanded. Totodile, jumped up in the air and then started running around randomly. Thanks to the random running, Magikarp landed right into the ground from the bounce attack, hurting itself. "Now use Bite!" The red head cried, and Totodile bit into Magikarp.

Keith panicked for a little, and pulled out his gold Pokéball and returned his Magikarp. "Damn, you got lucky." Keith said.
"He didn't get lucky, Magikarp is just awful!" Crystal shouted.

Keith ignored her and thought about what his next move would be. He couldn't use Phanpy, because he was still tired, so it was time to show the guy how great his Chikorita really is. "Ok, well its time to show you the Pokémon you will never get. Go Chikorita!" Keith exclaimed as he threw his Pokéball onto the ground, and his grass type Pokémon popped out. When Chikorita got out of the ball she ran up to Keith and started to rub her head against Keith leg affectionately. Keith looked at Chikorita and asked "Ummmmmmm, what are you doing?"

Crystal just looked at Chikorita and smiled. It seemed to her like Keith's Chikorita has a crush on him, which is common for most Chikorita's who have trainers of the opposite gender. Fortunately for Keith they usually grow out of it by the time they evolve. Still, Crystal had only ever read about this, and had never seen it in person.

The read haired person just scoffed, and said "You are a disgrace and an embarrassment to trainers everywhere. Acting like that with your Pokémon, it makes me sick. Totodile, use scratch!" commanded the red head, and his Totodile charged at Chikorita.

Chikorita noticed Totodile charging and quickly ran out of the way. However the dodge was so last minute that Totodile couldn't stop its attack with its swinging claw, and scratched Keith right leg. Keith fell down and grabbed his leg and tried not to shout in pain. His leg was bleeding kinda badly. Crystal looked at the red head and said "Why the hell would you do something like that?! Apologies you moron."

The red head shook his head, and coldly said "He deserved it." Crystal went to reach into her bag for her Pokeballs, to try and send out her Tyrogue.

As this was happening, Chikorita looked at the Totodile in anger. "Chiko" it said, seething. Chikorita quickly extended the vines out from its neck's and hit the Totodile over the head with them, and knocked it to the ground. Then before Totodile could get even attempt to get up, Chikorita ran at it and angrily used Tackle.

The red head's eyes opened wide in shock, puzzled as to why that Chikorita was fighting so passionately, without orders. He quickly shouted "Ok, Totodile use Water Gun!" Totodile then quickly jumped up, and shot a jet of water at Chikorita, which Chikorita took to the face, unaffected by the attack that was elementally weak to it.

Keith still lying on the ground holding his leg smiled and said "Chikorita, use Razor Leaf!" And then Chikorita flicked its leaf at Totodile and a large amount of sharp leaves flew at Totodile, and hit it hard, knocking it down to the ground. Smiling Keith said "OK, now use Tackle Chikorita!" Chikorita then ran at the Totodile, who was struggling to stand up. As Chikorita was about to hit the Totodile, the Pokémon was suddenly returned into its ball. Keith looked up and saw the read head guy putting the ball in his pocket. Keith sighed, "Why didn't I predict that was going to happen?" he muttered.

The read head turned around and said "I underestimated you and I apologize. You deserve to know that my name is Silver. And I am sorry for trying to take you Pokémon, I just need it." Then he turned around and ran off.

Crystal thought about chasing him, but she decided to help Keith instead. She kneeled down and asked "Are you OK Keith?".
Keith looked up at her and loudly said "Where the hell where you during that?"

Crystal smiled, just glad that Keith seemed to be alright. Chikorita then ran to Keith, visibly upset. The grass type ran to Keith's leg, and started to lick his wound in an attempt to heal it. Keith just looked up at the sky, and wondered how he had gotten into this mess.

 

Chapter 6: Mother of Troubles​

Keith slowly stood up, and put a little weight on his foot. It seemed to be fine enough, and it wasn't bleeding anymore. Keith shrugged is shoulders and decided to just keep going. Keith looked down at his Chikorita, and said "Chikorita, want me to carry you?" Chikorita smiled and called out its name as Keith bent over and picked it up. Keith looked around, and wondered where the hell Crystal ran off to.

Crystal was in fact around the corner hiding from Keith. You see as Keith was still down thanks to his scratched leg, she heard her phone go off and was horrified at who was calling her. If Keith heard what this person would probably talk about then her cover would be gone, and he would learn that she really wasn't as amazing as she boasts. So she just ran out of Keith's earshot. "Look I don't need your help, I can do this myself!" Crystal barked down her phone. She didn't want to be rude, but she was sick of Gold trying to help her, her pride wouldn't allow it. "Yes I know, just look I am busy." and Crystal hung up. She sighed, and went around the corner, to see Keith just walking off with a slight limp in his step. "Hey, wait up Keith!" Crystal shouted and ran after him.

Keith turned his head, and saw Crystal run up to him. "I thought I had finally gotten rid of you." He sad as she made it up to him.

"Really? Well without someone like me guiding you, you would be completely lost in your battles." Crystal said smiling cheerfully.

Keith rolled his eyes, and decided against bringing up the fact that Crystal did absolutely nothing to help Keith against Silver, mainly because he couldn't be bothered arguing anymore. The two made it back to New Bark Town rather quickly considering Keith's limp, and walked straight to Elm's laboratory. The place didn't seem much different, just that there was police tape around the building, and a crowd of bystanders gathering outside. Keith saw Elm standing at the front shaking, so Keith walked up to him and asked "Are you ok Elm?"

"Of course he isn't idiot, he got robbed." said a familiar and disgustingly high pitched voice. He turned around and saw Lyra sitting there, looking rather annoyed. Lyra looked at Crystal, laughed and said "Who's this, your girlfriend? Also, what happened to your leg"

Crystal walked over to Keith and quietly asked him "Who is that?"

Keith turned his head to crystal and said "She is just some unpleasant idiot I know called Lyra." Keith turned back to Lyra and asked "Lyra, has some person come up to you to steal Cyndaquil from you?"

"What do you mean?" Lyra asked, puzzled.

"Well as we were walking here someone stopped us in our tracks and tried to steal Chikorita from Keith. As it turns out, it was actually the guy who stole from Professor Elm" Crystal piped up, "And Keith looked like he was about to win, before the guy ran away."

Elm, who was listening opened his eyes wide and asked "Who is he?"

Keith sighed, looked up in the air and said "His name is Silver, and I assume he wants to steal my Chikorita and Lyra's Cyndaquil for some reason." Chikorita then piped up and said "Chiko." Keith smiled and said "Well, everything seems fine now, so I'm leaving. Considering I have nothing else to do I think I am just going to get stronger and force Silver to give back that Totodile. Also, I need to go before she sees me."

Lyra's face went deadpan and asked "You mean your mother right?" Keith nodded, and Lyra said "You know, the only time I have ever felt empathetic towards you is when you are around your mother."

Crystal, confused asked "Ummmmmmmmmm, what's wrong with Keith's mother."

Keith started to walk away, and said "You really don't want to know." Crystal shrugged, and follow Keith.

Just as the pair were about to leave New Bark Town, the two heard a weird shrieking sound. Keith recognized it immediately, and said "Crap!" before he was tackled to the ground by his mother.

After Keith's mother had tackled him to the ground, she started hugging a grounded Keith whilst crying and kissing him whilst blubbering on about how much she had missed her favorite 16 year old. Keith was blushing and tried in vain to push his mother off. After trying and failing he cried out "Help me Chikorita." Chikorita glared at this person angrily for for knocking her out of her trainer's arms. Chikorita, used Vine Whip, and knocked Keith's mother off of him. "Thank you Chikorita, Keith stuttered as he stood back up.

After being knocked off her son, Keith's mother saw the Chikorita, and shouted "Oh my god it is so cute." And picked it up, and squeezed it tightly. Chikorita tried to wriggle its way out of the choking hold, but it couldn't.

Crystal said "Ummmmmm, I think you're choking it."

Keith's mother looked over at her puzzled. Then something in her mind seemed to click, and she dropped Chikorita and ran over to Crystal. "OH MY GOD ARE YOU KEITH'S GIRLFRIEND?" she screamed.

Crystal looked to the side, and said "I wouldn't really say that, would I Keith?" Crystal looked over to where Keith was, and saw that he had Chikorita in his arms and was running as fast as he could away from his mother. Crystal decided that it was best to follow Keith's lead and ran off as fast as she could from that woman. She could hear Keith's mother screaming about something, but she ignored it and caught up to Keith. As the two were running she asked "What is wrong with your Mother?"

Panting, Keith said "Ever since my dad turned out to be part of team Snagem, she kinda lost it."

 

Chapter 7: Miror B Enters the Scene​

​

Keith and Crystal stayed the night at the Cherrygrove City Pokecenter. They were simply glad to be away from Keith's mother. Keith really just wanted this day to end, immediately after his Pokémon were healed he went up to the room him and Crystal payed for. He released his Phanpy and Chikorita, and collapsed on one of the beds, allowing his Pokémon to do as they pleased. Crystal decided to follow suite, letting out her Tyrogue and Misdreavus. Crystal sat on her bed, and the two just sat there in an awkward silence as their Pokémon interacted with each other.

Meanwhile, an extremely tall and shadowy figure was standing at the outskirts of Cherrygrove city, smiling. He was currently experiencing a run of rather bad luck, highlighted by the fact that he was recently kicked out of Team Snagem. However he knew that not only was his run of bad luck about to end, but soon the whole of Johto would fear the name 'Miror B'. The man started to slowly strut over towards the Pokémon Center, knowing that the whimps in this part of the Region would be far too weak to defend themselves against someone with and real skill. As he was walking, he moved his hand into his pocket and switched on his very small but very loud portable sound system and started playing the song that will soon become synonymous with fear.

The man walked up to the Center calmly with the song still blaring. He slowly walked up to the middle of the room and smiled coyly as he sent out two of his Pokémon, and ordered them to attack. The shouts of panic from the people in the lower floor quickly commenced, however they were all blocked out by the weird, samba music Miror B was playing.

Keith suddenly opened his eyes, as he heard a familiar and awful samba style song play. Keith sighed and said with dread in his voice "Oh god no. Not him."

Crystal looked at Keith puzzled. She was wondering what the hell this weird, samba music playing in the background was and meant. "What's wrong Keith?" she asked inquisitively.

Keith looked at the ground, he really didn't want to meet that guy ever again, and thought that he would never need to after he left the Orre Region. However, if that music was playing, it meant he was doing something stupid, so Keith knew he would have to stop it. He looked at Crystal and said "Some moron called Miror B that I had the displeasure of being associated with. Knowing him he is probably doing something really stupid and rather illegal, so I guess we better try and stop him." Keith stood up, and walked out the door and down to the main room, with Chikorita and Phanpy following him closely.

Crystal had no idea what Keith was talking about, but she decided that it would be best to follow him with her Pokémon, and ran downstairs after him.

Miror B was laughing hysterically at the Pokecenter's staff as they offered him all of the Pokémon they had in the facility as his Pokémon proceeded to defeat all of the Pokémon on the lower floor. "Do you really think someone like the great Miror B wants Pokémon this pathetic?" Miror B said smugly. He shook his head, then he smiled malignantly, "No, I am only doing this for my own personal pleasure."

After he said that Keith and Crystal arrived from up stairs and Keith said "Alright B, I think its time you calmed down, and left Johto before you hurt yourself."

Miror B briefly scanned the two, smiled and said "Well aren't you two frightfully pathetic? Are you seriously suggesting that you two would be able to..." Miror B suddenly paused as he realized he knew the boy. It took him a few seconds of searching his memory, until he remembered Keith. Miror B smiled wickedly and said "Oh I remember you. You're that Ein's son aren't you? I assume then that you have you come to apply to become my first ever grunt?"

Keith sighed and said "No idiot, I am here to force you to leave." Keith looked at the Miror B's 2 Pokémon, and pulled out his Pokédex to scan them, but for some reason it had no data on one of them. "Lotad. Hoenn Pokémon. No other data. Nidoran, male form the Poison Pin Pokémon. It scans its surroundings by raising its ears out of the grass. Its toxic horn is for defense." Keith looked at the Lotad, it was some weird blue thing with a lilypad on its back. The Pokédex did at least inform him that it was some kind of grass and water type. Keith looked at Crystal and asked "Do you know what that thing is." pointing at the Lotad.

Crystal shook her head and said "No, I have never seen that."

Keith sighed, he figured as much. His main concern was that this thing was potentially stronger than Keith's Pokémon, except of course Magikarp, but he wanted to use that as a last resort. So he looked at Crystal and said "I will take that Lotad on, you will have to face that Nidoran.

"Go ahead, my Pokémon would be able to beat your pathetic parasties even in a 5 on one situation" Miror B said smugly
Crystal nodded at Keith suggestion. The problem with this though was that it was going to be her first battle for a rather long time, so she could only hope she didn't stuff up. She looked at the Nidoran and said "Misdreavus, use Psybeam!" Misdreavus shot a multicolored beam at the Nidoran, which jumped high in the air to avoid it. "Now Tyrogue use Mach Punch!" and the fighting type Pokémon jumped up and hit hit the mid air Poison type whilst it couldn't dodge, knocking it to the ground. However, thanks to the contact Tyrogue made with Nidoran it got poisoned, and started to feel itself take damage. As it was reacting to the pain of the poisoning, the Nidoran charged at it, and used Horn Attack on the Fighting Type Pokémon, knocking it to the ground, proving just how strong that Nidoran really is. However as it rammed its horn into Tyrogue, Misdreavus shot off another Psybeam, which caught the Nidoran off guard, and hit it hard, knocking it out thanks to super effective damage.

Whilst this was happening, Keith's Chikorita used Razor Leaf against the Lotad, which then used Water Gun and blocked the leaves that were shooting at him with a jet of water. As this was happening Phanpy charged from behind Lotad and used Rollout, rolling into it and crushing it from behind. "Good job Phanpy, now quickly get behind Chikorita." Keith commanded. However Phanpy decided to ignore its trainer, thinking that he was fast enough to hit the Lotad again before it could stand up. Lotad however was faster than Phanpy thought, and quickly got up and shot off a Water Gun at the charging ground type. Thanks to Phanpy's Ground typing being weak to water moves, Phanpy was immediately knocked out in one hit. Keith sighed, and said "Now Chikorita, Vine Whip!" Chikorita extended out vines from its neck and whacked the Lotad's face with them, knocking it out as well. Keith smiled, and looked over at Crystal to see that Nidoran had been defeated.

Miror B smirked, and said "Did you think that you pathetic plebs have beat me? Well my pathetic little friend, you need to learn that you haven't won as long as your enemy can still run." Then before Keith or Crystal could react, Miror B threw down a smoke pellet. By the time the smoke had cleared, he was long gone.

Keith looked around, all of the staff of the Center were looking at him and Crystal still terrified. He sighed and said "I am going to bed." and he returned his two Pokémon and walked up the stairs.

 

Chapter 8: Violet City​

Keith woke up at around 8:00 thanks to an annoying and loud noise. He looked around worried, expecting the noise to signal that something awful was about to occur. Keith was relieved when he saw that it was only Crystal, sprawled all over her bed snoring. Keith rolled his eyes and decided to stand up and get ready for today. As he was getting dressed, he decided he should use this time to plan what to actually do. He wanted to get the hell out of this town as fast as possible, and decided he should go to Violet City and whilst he was there go and obtain a badge. Keith's train of thought however was interrupted by the loud snores of Crystal, so he decided it was probably time to wake her up. Keith walked over to Crystal and shook her until she pushed him away and opened up her eyes slowly. Crystal saw that is was Keith who woke her up, frowned and said "What's wrong with you Keith? Didn't you ever learn to never wake a lady up?"

"You snore to an excessive degree." Keith said in deadpan. "Besides why does your gender matter in this circumstance?"

Crystal didn't answer, but simply threw her pillow at Keith and said "Get out and let me get ready."

Keith sighed and said "Alright I will be outside." and then walked out the door, and down the stairs. He walked through the waiting room, which was still being cleaned up after the events of the previous night. Keith noticed the weird looks people were giving him, but he really didn't care about them. He was about to walk outside when one of the ladies who worked there called out to him. Keith paused for a moment, but decided to keep outside walking, he assumed that the person would have given him a half assed thanks, and Keith wasn't a fan of being thanked. He got outside, leaned against the building and waited for Crystal.

When Keith saw Crystal walk outside, he started walking away, eager to get to Violet City. Crystal quickly ran up to Keith and walked next to him. She had so much she wanted to ask him based on what she learnt last night, but she had no idea how she would ask it without sounding very nosy. After a few minutes of walking, she still had no idea what to say, so she just decided to jump right into it. "So Keith, where are you from." she asked.

"The Orre Region." Keith said coldly, as if he was being forced to remember something awful.

"So, who the hell was the guy last night Keith?" Crystal continued to ask.

Keith sighed and said "I presume this is going to lead to a chain of questions, and if I try to avoid answering these questions you won't stop annoying me about them, so I might as well simply answer them." Keith gulped and continued with "So Basically Miror B is... or was a higher up in a criminal syndicate in the Orre Region. He is known for his stupidity, vanity and his awful taste in music. That music he was playing last night he plays every single time he has a battle. He is a deluded idiot who think he is groovy and acts like he is in the 80's. Anything else you want to know?"

Crystal listened to the scathing review of Miror B, and was curious as to why Keith knew so much about him, and as to why Keith held such a harsh grudge against him. "Ummmmmmm, so why do you know so much about him?"

Keith sighed, and was about to say something in explanation, when he saw Violet City in the horizon. He smiled, hoping that this town wouldn't be as awful for him as the previous one City. "I would love to continue this, but it seems that we are finally at Violet City." He said smiling.

Crystal smirked, it looked like Keith decided to avoid the question after all, even though he himself said that he wouldn't do it. Crystal decided that she should probably wait to badger Keith a little later, and asked Keith "Why are you so happy to be at Violet City anyway."

"Well I really just want to never set foot in Cherrygrove again, and I also kinda want to challenge the Gym Leader here so that I have something to do. I know it doesn't sound noble to want to beat gym leaders for the heck of it. But since when have I ever been noble?" Keith said as he picked up the pace.

Crystal smiled, and matched Keith's pace as the two rushed to the City.

When they entered the city, they looked around for any relevant landmarks. There was a large school like building, a large tower shaped like a Bellsprout and a large blue building that had the words "FALKNER'S GYM." written on it. Keith smiled, pointed at the gym and said "Let's go Crystal." and walked towards the building.

Just as the two made it to the gym and were about to walk inside, some old sage like man grabbed Keith's hand, and said "If you want to challenge the Gym, you need to go an win yourself a pass at Bellsprout tower."

Keith looked at the man and angrily said "You can't be serious!" The man just nodded his head. Keith sighed, and stormed off to the Giant Bellsprout that he assumed was the Bellsprout tower.

Crystal shook her head, this wasn't around when she first went to this gym. However she shrugged her shoulders and just assumed it was a new feature or something, and quickly ran after Keith to the tower.

 

Chapter 9: Bellsprout Tower

Keith was sick of this. Ever since he stepped foot out of New Bark Town he has been forced to do this or that by people he didn't even know. The only reason he became a Pokémon Trainer in the first place was so he could do whatever he wanted, but this so far had been way too much work. Keith was currently thinking about this because he was being forced to trot off to some weird temple before he was allowed to challenge the Violet City Gym Leader. The temple he was forced to go to was shaped like some kind of giant Bellsprout, and seemed to be the oldest building in the city. Keith assumed that it was some sort of tourist attraction, and had no idea why he would need to get a pass from inside of it.

When Keith and Crystal made it to the entrance of the tower, the two walked straight towards an old man in a monk outfit at a desk. Keith looked at him and asked "What do I have to do to get a pass around here?"

The old man looked up at Keith, puzzled. "Do you mean a certificate of the tower?" he asked.

Keith angrily said "I don't care what it is called, I just want to know how and where I can get one."

The man pointed at a ladder and said "You just need to climb the tower and make it to the top, and challenge the Bellsprout Sage and defeat him and his Pokémon."

Keith didn't respond, and walked away towards the ladder, and started to climb up it as fast he could possibly go.

Crystal saw the ladder and suddenly remembered the horrible memory of the first time she climbed this tower with Gold about a year ago. She wanted to stop Keith and tell him how hard the trek would be, but she knew that he wouldn't stop no matter what she said. She looked up at him and said "Keith, I will just wait for you down here, is that OK?"

Keith stopped climbing the stairs momentarily. He sighed and muttered about how Crystal was lazy. "Whatever, I am not in charge of you. Do as you please." He said. Keith shook his head and started to climb the stairs, and that's when he realized he couldn't actually see the end of the ladders.

Crystal smiled, and said "Good luck Keith." then under her breath she muttered "You will certainly need all the luck you can get to survive this climb."

Keith was quickly panting and gasping as he climbed up the seemingly unending flight of ladders. He was never considered athletic or fit by anyone including himself, so he was doing this climb more or less solely on sheer willpower. After what seemed like an eternity for Keith, he finally climbed to what Keith thought was the top of the tower. He pulled himself out of the small ladder hole and fell down onto the ground, panting loudly, not caring about how bad this made him look. After about a minute he had started to catch his breath as he looked around the room he was in. "Shit!" he cried out when he realized the room he was in wasn't the top of the tower. And that there was a sign in front of him that stated "TRAINER, REMEMBER THAT YOU STILL HAVE A LONG WAY TO GO. HOWEVER YOU ARE MORE THAN 50% OF THE WAY, IT WILL BE POINTLESS TO TURN AROUND NOW." And to the left of the sign was a flight of stairs. Keith, begrudgingly picked himself off of the floor, and started to slowly walk towards and up the stairs.

The Bellsprout Sage was sitting down and meditating, when he heard someone panting and moaning loudly. He opened his eyes and stood, ready to greet his newest challenger. The sage bowed his head as Keith walked up the final steps. The second Keith crossed that final step, he collapsed onto the ground again. The sage still bowing his head said "Congratulations for making it this far, worthy challenger. I look forward to my match against you." The sage opened his eyes and saw Keith lying there, gasping. He looked puzzled, surprised that someone so unfit could even make it up to the top. "Are you OK?" he said concerned.

Keith picked himself up and said "Yeah... Now less talky... more fighty... I need to challenge the gym."

The sage simply reached for his pocket and threw out a round Owl Pokémon. Keith pulled out his Pokédex and it said to him "Hoothoot the Owl Pokémon. It has a perfect sense of time. It only stands on one foot at a time." It was a flying type, and Keith knew Chikorita was weak to flying type attacks, and Magikarp is too powerful for something so weak looking, so it was a job for Phanpy. Keith grabbed a Pokéball and threw out his blue coloured elephant. The trainers gave their commands to their Pokémon, and Hoothoot threw itself at Phanpy in preparation to use Peck. However it is a mistake for smaller Pokémon to run head on at Phanpy, as it used Rollout and hit the Hoothoot as it ran at it and crushed it, causing super effective damage. As Hoothoot tried to get up, Phanpy charged at it. However as Phanpy was charging at it Hoothoot used Confusion and picked up the Phanpy with its mind, and made it hover in the air. Hoothoot cried out "Hooooot" and launched Phanpy at the wall of the tower. The Hoothoot followed the Confusion up by running at Phanpy trying to use Peck once again, however Phanpy recovered from confusion and used Take Down, which knocked out the owl Pokémon. However thanks to the recoil damage from Take Down both of the Pokémon fainted simultaneously.

The two trainers returned their Pokémon and Keith sent out Chikorita, whilst the sage sent out Bellsprout. Keith used his Pokédex on the weird plant Pokémon, and it said "Bellsprout the Flower Pokémon. It prefers hot and humid environments, and it loves to eat insects." Keith knew the two Pokémon were both grass types, so grass type moves would not work at all. The two trainers shouted their commands, and the two Pokémon battled it out. Bellsprout began by trying to use wrap, but Chikorita fended off Bellsprout's wrap attempts by extending out its vines from its neck to block it. Then Chikorita ran at the Bellsprout and used Tackle, and knocked it back. As it was being knocked back, Bellsprout used Acid, and shot it at Chikorita. Chikorita stopped in its tracks in pain thanks to the super-effective attack. Bellsprout ran up to Chikorita, and was about to shoot more Acid at Chikorita when she used Ancient Power, and it hit the unsuspecting Bellsprout, knocking it out.

Keith smirked when Chikorita won. He picked up his Pokémon and held it in his arms. He looked at the sage and said "I will take that certificate please."

The sage smiled and said "You are a great trainer, I hope you enjoy this" and he handed Keith a scroll with a weird seal on it.

Keith smiled and said "Finally, I can challenge the Gym Leader."

The sage asked "What do you mean?"

Keith looked at him puzzled and asked "Don't people need to beat you to get access into the Violet City Gym?"

The sage shook his head and said "No... you don't. How did you get that impression?"

 

Chapter 10: High Fliers​

As it turned out, you didn't need to challenge and defeat the Bellsprout Sage at the top of the seemingly infinitely tall Bellsprout Tower in order to enter the Violet City Gym. In fact the old man out the front of the gym apparently had absolutely nothing to do with the Bellsprout monks at all. This was all explained to Keith after he had been forced to climb up the tower and defeat the Bellsprout Sage to get his certificate. Keith was understandably annoyed, since the climb more or less killed him. After shouting a little, he looked at the sage and with dread in his voice asked "Do I have to walk all the way back down again?"

The sage, who had ignored Keith's shouting and had started to meditate again opened his eyes and calmly said "Fear not, for behind you is a slide that will take you back to the ground floor."

Keith looked behind him, and to the immediate right of the stairs was an opening to a slide. He was more than likely too tired to have notice it when he first climbed up. He looked at the sage and said "Thank you." and walked to the slide and quickly slid his way down it.

Crystal was sitting down, still waiting at the bottom of the Bellsprout Tower. She had her Misdreavus out and was just watching it fly around. Keith was taking longer than she did when she climbed the tower, and she was getting rather impatient. She continued to glance over at the right wall, knowing where Keith would exit from. She heard something coming down, and saw Keith fall through the fake wall and face plant the ground. She giggled as Keith picked himself up.

Keith stood up and said "Alright, time to challenge the gym!"

Crystal looked at him and said "I hate to tell you this but it is too late to challenge the gym, it is 6:20pm, and gyms usually close at 50. Besides I presume you had to fight someone, so your Pokémon are probably tired."

Keith sighed, and said "Fine, lets just spend the night at the Pokecenter."

The two went to the Pokecenter for the night, and when the night passed, the two headed out towards the gym. Keith and Crystal saw the fake monk standing at the side of the gym. Keith glared at him and walked up to him. He pulled his Tower Certificate out of his bag and threw it at the guy. He said "Now why did you lie to me?"

The man looked frightened and said "W-well Falkner was sick of battling trainers, s-so he told me to lie to make sure less people challenge him."

Keith sighed, and turned towards the gym doors. "Well, looks like today is his unlucky day." Then he opened the doors and walked into the gym. Keith looked around the large building. It had an extremely tall roof, with all sorts of weird, large bird perches hanging from the roof and the walls. It struck Keith that this place was actually designed to be similar to a birdcage. Keith was puzzled as to why someone would do this, he couldn't fathom someone liking birds this much.

Crystal followed Keith inside the gym, and was reminded of the horrible time she had when she first came here. She really hoped that Falkner didn't recognize her, otherwise Keith would find out about her lack of ability as a trainer.

Keith walked to the other end of the gym, where he saw a guy with weird blue hair lying down on a couch reading some sort of book. He saw Keith approach and say "Why the hell were you let in? I am busy."

Keith sighed, "Don't worry, your subordinate told me about to stupid errand, but I got the certificate anyway. And I wouldn't call reading a book on birds busy."

Falkner stood up, closed his book and started to walk to his arena. As he walked he said "Well I guess I am not allowed say no now that you challenged me in person. So follow me and we will battle." Keith smiled and followed him to a large standard battle arena that was drawn out in the middle of the room. The two stood at the opposing trainer areas at either side of the arena. Falkner smirked and pointed to a stand to the left of the arena. "Spectators can go over there."

Crystal nodded her head and walked to the side of the gym, she was simply glad that Falkner didn't seem to remember her at all.

Falkner lowered his arm, and whilst still smirking said "This will be a 3v3 match. The match will continue until one of us has had all 3 of their Pokémon knocked out. Do you understand?"

"Of course." Keith said with a smirk on his face, seemingly confident in the abilities of his Pokémon.

The two then threw down their Pokémon at the same time, with Keith starting with Chikorita and Falkner using some small, brown bird. Keith scanned Falkner's Pokémon with his Pokédex and it said "Pidgey, the Tiny Bird Pokémon. It usually hides in tall grass, because it dislikes fighting." The two trainers shouted their commands, and the Pokémon reacted. Chikorita started with a Razor Leaf, which Pidgey countered by using Gust, which stopped the leaves that were shooting at it in their tracks, the gust continued to knock Chikorita back. Chikorita followed it up by using Vine Whip, which Pidgey tried to and successfully avoided for a few attempts, however it could not keep up with the dodging and one of the vines hit and damaged its wing. This slowed it down, allowing Chikorita to make its vines grab Pidgey, it then threw the bird Pokémon to the ground, and used Tackle to knock it out.

Keith smiled, and Falkner immediately replaced Pidgey with another brown bird. Keith scanned it, and his Pokédex said "Spearow, the Tiny Bird Pokémon. It flaps its short wings to fly. Using its beak, it searches in grass for insects." Before Keith could think about the fact that both Pidgey and Spearow were called the Tiny Bird Pokémon, Spearow charged at with Chikorita and used Peck. Chikorita tried to use Vine Whip, however it was quicker than Pidgey was, and avoided all Chikorita's the vines with ease and hit Chikorita hard and knocked it down. Chikorita stood up slowly, as Spearow went in for a Fury Attack. However Chikorita managed to quickly use Ancient Power, which hit the speeding Spearow. Despite the large amount of damage it took, Spearow recovered quickly, and it flew into the air again. It quickly used Aerial Ace, and hit Chikorita before she could react and knocked the grass type Pokémon out.

Keith recalled Chikorita, and sent out Magikarp, which proceeded to flop around on the floor. Both the Spearow and Falkner paused for a second and laughed as the fish flopped about on the ground. The Spearow, not taking the Magikarp seriously just charged at it and tried to use Peck, however Magikarp used Tackle on it. Thanks to Chikorita's Ancient Power Spearow was rather weak, so the Tackle managed to knock it out which shocked both Falkner and Crystal.

Falkner frowned, embarrassed that he allowed one of his Pokémon to be beat by a Magikarp. Falkner returned Spearow and replaced it with a bird that looked rather similar to Pidgey. Keith scanned it with his Pokédex and it said "Pidgeotto, the Bird Pokémon. It has outstanding vision. It's able to see its prey on the ground no matter how high it flies." Unlike Spearow, Pidgeotto took Magikarp seriously and used Wing Attack on the hapless fish, and knocked it out immediately.

Keith looked visibly shocked. He couldn't fathom that something was able to take out his Magikarp so easily. He gulped, and proceed to return Magikarp and sent out Phanpy, knowing that it will all come down to how well Phanpy can do against this Pidgeotto.

The battle between Phanpy and Pidgeotto started with Pidgeotto using Wing Attack, however Phanpy countered by using Rollout, which as expected hit the Pidgeotto hard thanks to super effective damage. However it did not get knocked out, and quickly picked itself up and flew back up in the air. At this point Falkner realized that using frontal attacks were completely useless against Phanpy. Phanpy tried to use Rollout again in an attempt to hit Pidgeotto, however Pidgeotto used Gust, which produced wind so strong it stopped the Phanpy in it's track, and blasted it back. Phanpy lept back up and tried to use rollout again, but Pidgeotto counter again with Gust, which was simply too powerful for Phanpy to overcome. So this time, in order to counter Gust Phanpy used Sandstorm, which caused Pidgeotto to get disorientated and blinded from the large amount of sand that had permeated the air. Phanpy took advantage of this and jumped up in the air at Pidgeotto and used Ice Shard. The ice type move caught the flying type off guard, and knocked it to the ground, and thanks to the super effectiveness of the move knocked it out. This of course meant that Keith had won his first ever gym battle.

 

Chapter 11: Lyra Loser​

Keith smiled as the Pidgeotto fell to the ground because of Phanpy's ice type attack. The three seconds that it took the referee to recognize that Pidgeotto was unable to continue fighting felt like the longest few seconds in Keith's life. Keith knew that the maneuver he did would more than likely wouldn't work twice, so this was his only chance to actually beat that Pidgeotto. Phanpy was suffering from a massive type disadvantage, and Keith knew that Phanpy would not be able to continue to withstand the gale force winds for much longer. If this Pidgeotto hadn't fainted then he would definitely lose. However he couldn't help but smirk when Pidgeotto was ruled to be knocked out, which meant he won the match.

Falkner looked shocked, he was confident that his Pidgeotto could have held off Keith's Phanpy thanks to Gust being strong enough to stop its Rollout. However that Sandstorm maneuver was rather intelligent of Keith, which was surprising. Falkner realized he had been underestimating Keith ever since he used that Magikarp against him, which turned out to be a mistake. Falkner smiled and thought that maybe Keith used that Magikarp for the sole purpose of making Falkner underestimate him. This is false, but Falkner didn't know that. Falkner walked up to Keith and pulled a Zephyr Badge out of his pocket. He still smiling he said "Congratulations Keith, you are better than me. As a reward for your superior battle strategy and strength, I present you with a Zephyr Badge." and he handed Keith the badge.

Keith grabbed it, and attached the badge to the inside of his jacket. "Thanks." He said smiling, extremely proud of himself.

Crystal was still pretty shocked about what actually just occurred. She just assumed that Keith was going to lose when he was down to Phanpy against a Pidgeotto. She thought that he was just some idiot that had no way of beating opponents apart from using brute strength. It seemed that Crystal had somehow stumbled into someone rather talented. In fact he was reminding her of a less annoying and much more lazy and unmotivated version of Gold.

Keith walked to the door, and on his way passed Crystal and asked "Are you coming Crystal?"

Crystal nodded and said "Y-yeah sure." and started following Keith out the door. Once the two went outside she asked "Keith, how did you come up with a strategy like that?"

Keith just shrugged his shoulders and said "I don't know, it just kinda came into my head. How does anyone have any ideas?"

"Well however you got that idea, that was pretty amazing." Crystal said in awe, unaware of how obvious it was that she wasn't that great at Pokémon Battling.

Keith smirked, and said "You aren't actually very good at Pokémon battling aren't you?"

Crystal looked flustered, and went bright red. "O-of course I am good at Pokémon idiot! Why do you think I'm not?"

Keith looked up and said "Because you never seem to know what to do in fights, you are shocked that I could come up with a pretty simple strategy to win a battle, your Pokémon seem pretty weak since they took the same amount of time to beat Miror B's Pokémon as mine did. Do I need to continue, because I can?"

Crystal was blushing bright red. She was obviously angry and embarrassed. She looked at Keith and shouted "Shut up, you just don't want me to follow you anymore even though you need me!"

Keith sighed and said, "I can't believe that I am saying this, but I don't care if you follow me. It makes it a little less boring to travel with someone, and unlike some people, I can tolerate your personality."

Crystal cheered up a little from the rather backhanded compliment, and was about to say something when she heard someone say "Awwwww, looks like those lovebirds are having a little quarrel."

The two looked to around, to see the sneering face of Lyra, who was standing there behind them with her arms crossed. Keith sighed, and said "And what do we owe the displeasure of meeting you to?"

Lyra snickered and said "Unpleasant as usual are you huh? Well I was just in the city, and couldn't hep notice the scene you two were making. So what exactly were you two fighting over huh?"

Crystal, who was still a little red said "Shut up, we don't like each other. I think the only reason you are saying that is because you are desperate to make fun of Keith somehow, which really makes you look rather pathetic."

Lyra glared at her, and decided to ignore her and said "Well, Keith I think it is about time I challenge you to a 1v1 match."

Keith looked to his left and said "Ummmmm, you really couldn't have asked that at a worse time, since I just won a badge, so all of my Pokémon are pretty tired."

Lyra laughed, and said "Well, if you can't fight then I will count that as a forfeit, which means you have just lost, loser."
"But I never even agreed to the match." Keith said and sighed.

Crystal smiled, and knew that this was a chance to attempt to prove to Keith that she had some talent. She spoke up and said "Well, if you really want to battle someone Lyra, you could fight me."

Lyra looked a little shocked, but she quickly laughed and said "No thank you, I would never challenge someone who is so stupid they actually follow someone like Keith around." Then whilst still laughing she walked away.

Crystal was about to follow her and had her hand on Mantine's ball ready to send the Pokémon out, but Keith said "Don't bother with her."

Crystal looked at him and said "What do you mean?"

Keith sighed and said "She is a coward, so she obviously saw us walk out of the gym, which means she knew my Pokémon would be weak. She is far too much of a coward to battle people who could potentially beat her, so take the fact that she didn't want to battle you as a compliment."

Crystal, still frustrated said "I hate that girl!"

Keith nodded his head and said "Well, so do I, and now you know why I hate her" He turned around and started to walk towards the Pokecenter with Crystal following him.

 

Chapter 12: Wild Wool​

The next day, after going to the Pokémon Center for the night Crystal and Keith decided that there really wasn't much else to do in Violet City, so they might as well head off to Azalea Town so Keith could challenge Bugsy, the second gym leader. When Crystal told Keith the name of the Azalea Gym Leader, he laughed about how stupid that name actually was, especially considering he was a Bug type Gym Leader. It would be equivalent to a Rock type Gym Leader being called Roark. Sometime in the middle of the day, Keith and Crystal exited Violet City from the South and entered Route 32.

Route 32 was full of Pokémon Keith had never seen before. There was a large group of purple snake things (Ekans), some purple things with leaves on their heads (Hoppip) and a small, blue fish like Pokémon with legs and purple spikes on its cheeks (Wooper). None of these Pokémon actually interested Keith in the slightest so Keith deiced to disregard these new Pokémon. However as Keith was putting his Pokédex back into his pocket, he stepped on something that felt rather soft. Crystal cried out "Keith, look at where you are walking!"

Keith looked down, and his right foot was resting on a small, blue and fluffy sheep. Keith quickly moved his foot of of the cute Pokémon and said "Oh crap! Sorry." Keith quickly knelt down and went to pick up the sheep to try and see if he had done any damage to it. However the obviously annoyed blue sheep immediately used a small charge on Keith which shocked him hard. "OWWWWW!" Keith screamed and moved his hand quickly away from the sheep and fell down on his back.

Crystal laughed a little at the sight of Keith getting shocked. "Are you ok Keith?" she said smiling.

Keith stood back up, and said "Damn it that hurt." he sighed, and looked at the sheep like Pokémon. The thing actually looked really cute, despite the fact that it was glaring at Keith. Keith smiled, it looks like he was going to get another Pokémon on his team. Without breaking eye contact from the Pokémon, Keith reached into his pocket and pulled his Pokédex out of it. He scanned the Pokémon and it said "Mareep, the Wool Pokémon. Its fluffy coat swells to double its size when static electricity builds up. Touching it can result in an electric shock." Keith smiled, according to the Pokédex Mareep is an electric type which meant that two of his Pokémon had favourable type match ups to it.

Keith reached to his belt and threw out his Phanpy. The blue elephant looked at Mareep, and immediately assumed that it was sent out of its ball in order to battle it. Keith smirked and the battle between the two Pokémon began. Phanpy charged at the sheep with Tackle, and the Mareep used Thunder Shock, however thanks to Phanpy's typing the electric attack had no effect on it, and was hit hard by Phanpy. Mareep was knocked back, however when the Phanpy touched Mareep's wool it was immediately paralyzed.

After Phanpy stopped moving suddenly Keith looked at Crystal and said "Ummmmmm, do you have any idea as to what is wrong with Phanpy?"

Crystal shrugged her shoulders, however she quickly remembered something from when she first traveled around Johto. "Oh, I think I remember something. It's Phanpy ability called Static, which means that if a Pokémon touches it it can be paralyzed. You can see the abilities of Pokémon you own thanks to your Pokédex."

Keith turned to Phanpy, and with his Pokédex checked its ability which turned out to be Sturdy, which meant it can not be knocked out in one hit. Keith looked at Phanpy and decided it was best to return his Pokémon and he replaced it with Chikorita. When the grass type Pokémon was sent out it looked at Keith and ran up to him and using Vine Whip lifted itself up to Keith's arms. Chikorita rubbed itself affectionately against Keith and closed her eyes. Keith sighed, and said "Looks like you are still doing that uh. Well ummmmmmmm Chikorita I need you to help me catch that Pokémon." Keith said and pointed at the Mareep.

Chikorita looked at Mareep and jumped out of Keith's arms and said "Chiko". Mareep said "Maaaaaaar" in return as the two cute little Pokémon tried to intimidate each other. Chikorita began the fight by using Razor Leaf, and Mareep used Thunder Shock. Both of the Pokémon jumped out of the way of their respective attack, and then they launched the same attacks again, however both dodged them. Chikorita then ran towards Phanpy, which used Thunder Shock again, and unlike the other two time it actually hit her. However, thanks to Chikorita's typing she took minor damage, and continued to run towards Mareep and used Ancient Power which hit Mareep hard. Thanks to Phanpy's Tackle and Keith's stomp Phanpy did not take the hit very well, and took a lot of damage from the rock type move and fell to the ground.

Keith reached into his bag and grabbed a Pokéball from it. He threw it at the injured electric type Pokémon, and it was engulfed in a white light before it was absorbed into the Pokéball. The ball shook for a rather long time before it stopped, and the ball made a loud clicking sound to show that the Mareep was captured. He smiled and walked up to the ball and grabbed it. He attached the ball to his belt and looked at Chikorita and said "Good Job Chikorita." Chikorita smiled, and ran up to Keith. Keith picked her up, and held her in his arms.

Crystal smiled and said "Nice capture Keith. You really do seem to like cute Pokémon."

Keith just shrugged his shoulders and said "I just catch things I like the look of. Anyway, we need to go back to the Pokecenter now, so that sucks."

"OK" Crystal said, and the two headed off back towards Violet City.

 

Chapter 13: Cowardly Getaway​

Keith and Crystal were walking through Route 32, headed towards Union Cave. Keith was still carrying around Chikorita, and he was still pleased with himself with his capture of Mareep. Keith would be carrying around the fluffy sheep Pokémon if it weren't for the fact that when Keith tried to pick it up, it gave him a rather potent shock thanks to its ability, Static. Keith wasn't too bothered by that, but it was a little lousy. Keith was also still curious about why his Chikorita acted so strange around him, because it doesn't seem to show this much affection towards anyone.

Silver stared right at Keith and Crystal, glaring at them from the shadows of the forest to the side of the Route. "Idiot!" he said in disgust, just furious about how nonchalantly and calmly Keith was acting as a Pokémon Trainer. He turned around and walked away, he didn't have the time to spend stalking those two, he needed to go and locate the one who was given that Cyndaquil. From what he had learnt, the person who owns the Cyndaquil is a female, and is usually walking around with a Marill by her side. He walked away and headed towards Violet City, where she would probably be. He may have failed in his first attempt to obtain Keith's Chikorita, but he wouldn't let himself fail again and not capture this Cyndaquil.

Lyra was sitting outside the Violet City Ice Creamery helping herself to a celebratory large quantity of Cookies and Cream Ice Cream. Lyra was feeling a little guilty about how she was completely going against her strict self imposed diet, but she was celebrating her first gym win so she decided that she would forget about it. However Lyra knew that she would not be able to do this with every win, she didn't want to turn into someone as ugly as that Crystal girl. Lyra was rather annoyed that it seemed Keith had beat her to the punch and defeated Falkner before her, but she knew that this meant that she should just try her hardest to go as fast as possible.

Lyra looked up and saw a really attractive looking guy looking around of something. He had ridiculously cool clothing and very bright red hair. Lyra was about to invite the boy over to her table, but stopped when she remembered her large bowl of ice cream, and moved it to the table to her left. She didn't want the guy to think that she was a pig or something. Lyra stood up, and called out to the boy "Hey cutie, are you looking for me?"

Silver was looking for Lyra all around the city, and he knew that it was probably going to be a challenge to locate her. He was about to walk away when he heard someone's voice, and he turned to the origin of the voice to see Lyra, the girl that was given his Cyndaquil. Silver smiled, this Lyra was as obnoxious as people had indicated. He walked over to her, and sat down next to her smiling maliciously.

Lyra saw him smiling, and assumed that he was smiling that he was being called over by her. "So, what were you looking for cutie?"

Smiling widely Silver maliciously said "I am looking for your Cyndaquil, I recommend you hurry up and hand it over to me."

Lyra looked confused and asked "W-what do you mean?"

In deadpan Silver said "You were given a Cyndaquil by Professor Elm, however he made a mistake giving Pokémon to two incompetent idiots such as yourself and Keith, and I need to use them for something more important."

Lyra was going to say something, when she remembered something Keith said about being attacked by the guy who robbed Elm, and that the guy who did it had bright red hair. She glared at Silver and said "So you are that idiot that stole from Elm. Well considering you lost to someone as incompetent as Keith I highly doubt that you would be able to beat someone with any skill like I do."

"Well I lost to Keith thanks to my own idiocy. I underestimated him going into the fight, and when he brought out his Magikarp I underestimated him further, however I have learnt form that, so don't expect me to underestimate you." Silver said, still disgusted about that loss.

Lyra reached for her Cyndaquil's ball, and said "Well, if you want my Pokémon you will have to fight for it." Lyra knew that it would be a lot harder to defend her Pokémon than it meant, considering she hasn't healed her Pokémon from her battle with Falkner yet. Lyra knew that she was going to lose, so she quickly hatched a plan to get away. She sent out her Cyndaquil and said "Bring it."

Silver could see that Lyra's Cyndaquil was tired, it seemed that she decided to but her enjoyment above the health of her Pokémon. It seemed that whilst Keith cared way too much about his Pokémon, this girl cared way too little. Silver shook his head, it didn't matter because there was no way an injured team could take on his Totodile. Silver frowned as he sent out his Totodile and said "This won't take too long then."

Lyra smiled, and said "Cyndaquil, use Flame Thrower!" and her little ant eater Pokémon cried out and shot out a large blast of fire, however it wasn't aimed at Totodile, it was in fact aimed at the umbrellas above the tables, lighting them all on fire.
"What are you doing?!" cried Silver, as Lyra's Pokémon started a large fire in the city.

Lyra returned her Cyndaquil quickly and said "Well you have a water type Pokémon, you can go and fix it easily." and then turned around and ran away, along with a lot of other people who were chaotically fleeing the fire.

Silver frowned and said "Totodile, use Water Gun and put out that fire!" The Totodile cried out "Toto" and shot a jet of water at the fires, quickly putting them out. Silver returned Totodile, and said "Well, one of my targets is a guy with more compassion than brains, whilst the other is a self absorbed idiot. My acquisition of their Pokémon may be significantly harder than expected."

 

Chapter 14: Mareep Mishap​

Keith and Crystal were walking through Route 32, stopping every couple of minutes to battle annoying people pathetically trying to defeat Keith's Pokémon who continued to get utterly destroyed by his Mareep, Phanpy and Chikorita. Keith was currently battling two people dressed as scouts in a double battle, with the female and male versions of Nidoran versus Chikorita and Mareep. The battle ended with Chikorita using Razor Leaf on the female, and Mareep using Thunder Shock on the male, knocking the two Nidoran out. Keith smirked and returned his Mareep and picked his Chikorita in his arms as the two complained about their loss. Keith turned around and walked away with Crystal.

"Wow Keith your Pokémon are becoming pretty strong." Crystal said

Keith just smirked and said "Well, it was the reason I picked them."

Crystal wanted to bring up the fact that Keith has stated numerous times that he only picked his Pokémon based only their appearance, and that their good strength is a coincidence. However she decided against mentioning it.

Within an hour or two of walking Keith and Crystal managed to reach a small town area with a Pokecenter in the middle of nowhere. It seemed that they were getting close to Union cave, because Crystal remembered this as the travelers rest stop located a few km before the cave that linked Route 32 and Route 33.

Keith and Crystal entered the Pokémon Center, and as Keith went up to the front desk to heal his Pokémon Crystal got a phone call from her parent, and quickly ran out of earshot from Keith. Keith put his Chikorita in its ball and handed them over to the lady at the desk. Keith turned around, and was surprised when he couldn't see Crystal. Keith sighed, and said "Where the hell did she run off to?" Keith turned and grabbed his healed Pokémon, and sent out all of his Pokémon (except Magikarp) and walked outside with them.

"I DON'T CARE MUM!" Crystal shouted down the phone. "Ok I am sorry I am just sick of that guy. Anyway mum I am kinda busy right now." Crystal paused as the person on the other end of the line spoke and replied with "Ok yeah, cya mum. Love you." and hung up.

Keith was sitting outside with Chikorita sitting sitting in his arms, Mareep was lying around sleepily and Phanpy rolling around energetically when Crystal came back. "Hey Keith!" she called out to him.

Keith turned his head around and saw Crystal as she walked up to him. "Where the hell did you go?" Keith asked.

"Oh, you know...places." Crystal replied.

"What kind of reply is that?" Keith pressed

"Keith...you know you need to give a lady some privacy don't you?" Crystal said.

Keith sighed and said "Whatever" in a disinterested way. "We should probably stay here the night."

Crystal smiled and said "Thank god you said that, my feet are killing me."

As the two were talking, Mareep stood up and yawned. It looked at Keith and Crystal and decided to walk away to get away from the noise that the two humans were making. Continued to walk until it got to the edge of the small travelers rest area, and found a large grey sleeping Pokémon. Mareep yawned, and decided that it would be best to sleep against the rather large Pokémon.

The rather large Pokémon turned out to be a Skarmory, which probably wouldn't have even noticed the light and fluffy sheep lying against it if it weren't for the electric shocks that the sleeping sheep was discharging from its wool subconsciously. These shocks woke the wild Skarmory up suddenly, and it looked around and saw what was causing these shocks, it reacted violently by picking up the sheep and flying up in the air.

Keith and Crystal stood up to go to the Pokémon Center to hire out their room for the night, when Keith noticed that his Mareep was gone. With his eyes wide open he looked at his Chikorita and Phanpy and asked in panic "Do you know where Mareep is?" The two Pokémon shook their heads to say no, "Well, we need to find him!" Keith said as he started to look around in panic.

Crystal grabbed her Pokeballs and threw out her Misdreavus and Tyrogue. She said "You two need to go and help look for Keith's Mareep, OK?" The two cried out, and started to look around themselves.

Keith was running around frantically, looking for his Pokémon when he heard his Mareep cry out loudly. He looked around quickly, to find that it was up in the air being carried around by some sort of bird Pokémon. Keith quickly pulled out his Pokédex, and scanned the Pokémon. It said "Skarmory, the Armor Bird Pokémon. Despite being clad entirely in iron hard armor, it can fly at speeds over 180mph."Keith called everyone over to him, and Crystal and the 4 Pokémon ran over to Keith. Keith, looked up at the Steel and Flying type Pokémon and tried to figure out a way to actually attack the Skarmory. Phanpy would not be able to reach up as high as Skarmory was, and Chikorita had a horrible type match up against it. However, Keith had no alternative and said "OK Chikorita use Vine Whip to pull Mareep free!" Chikorita cried out "Chiko" as it sent out its vines from its neck, and wrapped them around Skarmory, and tried to pull it back. However Chikorita wasn't strong enough to pull the strong Pokémon back, and instead began to get pulled along by the bird Pokémon.

Crystal quickly looked at her Tyrogue and commanded "Grab Chikorita quickly!" Tyrogue ran over to Chikorita and grabbed it, managing to stop the Skarmory from dragging it along. There was a brief stalemate between the Pokémon for about half a minute, where the Skarmory tried its hardest to continue flying, whilst the two smaller Pokémon stopped it, just trying to pull its captive from its grasp.

"Come on Chikorita I believe in you." Keith cried, still panicking about what the fate of his Mareep may be. Chikorita heard what Keith said, and determined not to disappoint him started to suddenly glow. The Tyrogue let of of Chikorita in shock, as Keith, Crystal and their Pokémon just started at Chikorita in shock. Chikorita started to grow rapidly and leaf shaped objects grew out of its neck. Then it suddenly stopped growing and glowing, and suddenly looked rather different. Keith shouted out "What the hell?" in confusion.

Crystal, still shocked just said "Chikorita Evolved!"

Keith quickly pulled his Pokédex from his pocket and it said "Bayleef, the Leaf Pokémon. A spicy aroma emanates from around its neck. The scent acts as a stimulant to restore health."

The Bayleef, now significantly stronger continued to pull back with its vines, however now it was pulling the Skarmory backwards, forcing the Pokémon to drop the Mareep. Keith saw Mareep fall, and quickly ran and caught it as it was falling. He grabbed the crying sheep and hugged it, relieved that his Pokémon wasn't harmed. Keith felt a small shock from Mareep, but he didn't let go of his precious Sheep Pokémon.

Bayleef let go of the Skarmory, and started to charge up for an attack. The steel bird, who was now angry at Bayleef started to charge at it and tried to hit it with Steel Wing. However, before it could hit Bayleef, she shot out a large and powerful beam of light from its mouth, hitting Skarmory hard. Skarmory didn't fall, but was stopped in its tracks and took a lot of damage. The Skarmory weighed up its options and groggily flew away, before it could take any more damage from Keith and Crystal's Pokémon.

As this was happening, Keith had managed to calm Mareep down and put it in its Pokéball. Keith looked at Bayleef and said "You performed amazingly Bayleef!" Keith cried out. Bayleef replied "Bay" and ran up to Keith and tackled him to the ground, and started to affectionately lick his face. Keith just smiled, simply glad that Mareep was safe and that his Pokémon had evolved.

About 2 minutes later, the Skarmory landed in order to rest and recover the damage Bayleef and Mareep did to it. About two minutes after it had landed, a Pokéball was thrown at the Skarmory, and thanks to the damage it sustained it was caught. Silver walked up to the ball containing the Skarmory and said to himself "Thanks for that Keith, looks like you gave me a Skarmory along with a Bayleef."

 

Chapter 15: Mighty Miror B

Keith and Crystal rested up at the Pokémon Center, and left rather early in the morning and headed towards Union Cave. Keith, who was still disgusted at himself for letting his Mareep almost get carried away by that Skarmory, was carrying his Mareep in his arms, whilst wearing rubbed gloves in order to avoid being shocked by the sheep's fur. Keith was more than a little disappointed that he could no longer carry his Bayleef thanks to its extreme change in size. Crystal and Keith quickly made it to the entrance of Union cave, and entered it.

Over in Azalea Town, Miror B was sitting down on a chair out the front of a cafe with his trademark music playing softly in the background. He was nodding his head up and down slightly, thinking about his next plan to strike fear into the eyes of the people from Johto. This plan wasn't going to involve massive amounts of destruction like the previous one, it was all about obtaining a large amount of money rather quickly. He had learn from eavesdropping on two losers in unstylish matching outfits with a red R in the middle of the torso that the tails of slowpokes could be sold of a ridiculous amount of money. Those frightfully pathetic plebs detected his eavesdropping, but they couldn't hold a candle against the might of Miror B. Now it was time for Miror B's conquest of the Johto Region to actually begin. Miror B stood up, and started to strut east towards the Slowpoke Well.

Miror B reached the well, and started to slowly climb down it via the ladder. When he reached the bottom of the ladder he looked around and was dumbfounded about how disgustingly dank and dark the bottom of the well was. Water was dripping irregularly all over the place, and the cave seemed unnaturally cold. Miror B decided that he would have to get this done as quickly as possible, in order to avoid causing damage to his amazing attire. Miror B walked through the cave entrance, and entered a rather expansive cave. Miror B smirked and went on the hunt for a few Slowpoke.

Unfortunately for Miror B, he could only actually find unstylish and lame Zubats, which Miror B despises with a passion. They clog up space for the more stylish Pokémon, like Lotad and Nidoran. Miror B looked around for what seemed like an agonizing age. However, he finally found one of those superior Slowpoke. Miror B quickly walked up to the slow and sedated Pokémon and picked it up. Miror B turned the Slowpoke around, to find that the Slowpoke had already lost its tail. Miror B dropped it in panic, and ran around looking for another, which he quickly found. He picked that one up, and saw that it also had no tail. Miror B tried to figure out who beat him to the punch, and then realized that those pathetic losers must have had accomplices who were helping them.

"Hey, there you are!" a voice cried out. Miror B turned towards the origin of the cry to see that the two from before were glaring at him, however there was also a plethora of people wearing the same unstylish outfits behind them.

Miror B stared back at the mob and smiled. He joyfully said "Well, I think I need to thank you boys for giving me the Slowpoke idea, however it seems that you and your friends have gone through the hassle of ripping off the tails for nothing, for I will take those with the might of Miror B." Miror B then sent out his Lombre (his Lotad has recently evolved) and his Nidoran. He grinned, assured of his ability to beat these losers.

The mob then sent out their Pokémon, and Miror B began to battle these people one at a time. Miror B's Pokémon showed off their significantly superior strength to the Pokémon of the mob. His Lombre was firing off his Water Gun, and Nidoran spammed its Double Kick, which quickly finished off all of the Pokémon. One of the Pokémon of the goons, a nice looking Growlithe caught the attention of Miror B. Miror b thought that it was a pretty Groovy Growlithe, so he threw his one and only remaining Pokéball at it in order to steal it. However, thanks to the battle disturbances the wild Zubat in the cave were going wild, and one of these Zubat actually flew into the path of the ball, and was caught by Miror B.

Miror B looked in horror, he actually caught one of those vermin. Miror B picked up his new Pokémon's ball, and shouted loudly. However he calmed himself down, all of the mob had run off after having all of their Pokémon crushed so Miror B was more or less assured to obtain those tail treasures.

However, as Miror B continued walking deeper in the cave, however he soon came across a man with rather groovy green hair, however he was also wearing some awful silver suite with a red R in the middle. Miror B looked at the man and said "Excuse me gentleman, but unless you want to be crushed by my Pokémon, I would move out of the way."

The green haired man smirked and said "You made a mistake going against Team Rocket, you unfashionable loser."

Miror B cracked his knuckles, and said "Well, I guess this won't be as easy as I hoped." Miror B said, then he suddenly remembered what Team Rocket was. Shocked, Miror B said "Wait, y-you guys are-are members of T-team Rocket."

The green haired man smirked and said "Yes, you fool."

Miror B gulped, but then he forced a smile on his face. Miror B did want to eventually overthrow Team Rocket, so he might as well get stated now. "Well, bring it on then." he said.

The green haired man threw down his Pokémon and Miror B commanded his two Pokémon to attack, and the battle between the two began.

 

Chapter 16: Horrible Hiker​

Keith and Crystal were slowly making their way through Union Cave. It was rather well lit, because it was a rather frequently traveled path as it was the easiest way to go to and from Violet City and Azalea Town. Despite how well lit it was Keith was not enjoying it inside the cave. He hated the Pokémon that were inside it, and so did Mareep who seemed to try and hide in Keith's arms each time one of the Rock and Ground type Pokémon commonly found in the cave came too close for its liking. Keith decided it would probably be best to try his hardest not to fight anyone or anything a. Keith turned to Crystal and asked "Can we try to get out of here as fast as possible?"

Smiling Crystal said in jest "Why, are you scared of caves? Or have these vicious Geodude and Zubat scared you?"

Keith shook his head and said "No, but Mareep is." He said, with the Sheep Pokémon trying its best to curl up into a ball in Keith hands. Keith was glad he managed to obtain a pair of gloves from the Pokémon Center, because without them he would have been fried by the Pokémon's electric shocks.

"Yeah-yeah, blame your Pokémon why don't you." Crystal replied. Then again she also didn't love being inside this cave, so she was glad that Keith was prioritizing getting out of here. The two picked up their pace as they headed further into the tunnel.

However, shortly after the two decided to pick up the pace they heard a loud bellowing voice shout "HEY STOP!"
The two turned around, and saw a rather overweight guy in hiking gear with a large beard running up to them. The guy ran right up to the two and stopped right in front of them. He completely ignored Keith and stared right at Crystal and shouted in a loud and deep voice "So, what is a pretty lady like you doing in a daak and scary place like this?"

Crystal leaned back, showing how uncomfortable she was, however the overweight man didn't seem to take any notice to this. She looked at Keith with a facial expression begging for help and nervously said "Ummmm, you know... I'm just walking through."

The hiker smiled and said "How interesting, well whats your name pretty girl."

Crystal stepped back a little, the guys breath stank. She glanced over at Keith again but he wasn't really reacting to what was happening at all, and was just staring at the man. She looked back at the scary man and said "Ummmmmmmmmmmm...Crystal"

The man took a step closer to Crystal "Such a pretty name for such a pretty lady. My name is Daniel." Daniel looked over at Keith quickly and said "So, do you want me to help you to guide you through this tunnel, or are you busy with that whimp?"
Keith sighed, he didn't care that the man that resembled a Neanderthal thought he was a whimp because this mans opinion is irrelevant to him.

Crystal, desperate to get away from the man said "Yeah I am kinda busy with Keith, so sorry." Crystal just assumed that this would be a polite way to get this smelly man away from her.

Daniel scoffed and shouted "YOU DON'T WANT THIS WHIMP TO GUIDE YOU THROUGH THIS CAVE." Daniel thought of a way to convince this pretty girl to go with him. He looked back at Keith and saw the Mareep trying to hide from him in Keith's arms. He smiled, turned to Keith and said "Well, why don't you and me battle over the pretty lady then?"

Keith sighed and said "Why would I want to battle someone like you?"

Crystal looked at Keith worried and said "Keith, can you battle him please? For me."

Keith sighed and said "Well, to be honest I don't think I should. I mean this is your problem, why don't you battle him?"

Crystal looked back at the gross man, and gulped. She reached for her belt and said "Ok then, I will battle you." determined to not let the man spend more time around her.

Daniel started laughing and said "Wow, you have a lot of guts for a pretty girl. But there is no way a girl could beat me. It is a shame that the whimp didn't want to fight me, but then again I guess with his pathetic Pokémon he knew he didn't stand a chance."

Crystal grabbed her Tyrogue's Pokéball and was about to throw it out when Keith grabbed her arm. Crystal looked at him shocked and said "What?"

Keith let go of her arm, and put his Mareep down on the ground. He ripped off his gloves and said "You can disrespect me, but don't you dare say anything bad about my Pokémon." He reached for one of his Pokéball, and threw out his Bayleef. After being sent out, Bayleef rushed over to Keith and tackled him to the ground and started to lick his face. Keith sighed and said "Please Bayleef, we need to battle."

The Hiker smiled, assured of his superiority and sent out his Geodude. Keith stood up after his Bayleef got off of him. He pulled out his Pokédex and scanned the Pokémon. "Geodude, the Rock Pokémon. Mistaking them for rocks and boulders, it is commonly stepped on. If they are stepped on they get angry." Keith sighed and said "Bayleef use Razor Leaf!"

Bayleef responded with "Bay bay." Bayleef then spun its head around and shot leaves at the Geodude, which hit and knocked the Geodude out in one hit. Daniel looked in shock and said "Damn kid, you got lucky." Daniel then returned his Geodude and quickly switched it out with a large rock snake. "Try to beat that you whimp!"

Keith scanned the Pokémon with the Pokédex and it said "Onix, the Rock Snake Pokémon. When it travels underground it causes tremors and earthquakes. It can move at 50 mph." Keith smiled, and said "Bayleef, use Vine Whip!" Bayleef then shot vines from its neck and wrapped around the base of the extremely large snake, then Bayleef pulled at it and made it fall to the ground, knocking it out. Keith just smiled, and returned his Bayleef. He put his gloves back on and picked up Mareep again. "Lets go." Keith said to Crystal as he started to walk off.

Crystal smiled and said "Thanks Keith." and she followed him, as Daniel started crying about how Keith simply won thanks to a fluke behind the two.

 

Chapter 17: Bugsy Bothers​

At around 120, Keith and Crystal stepped out of Union cave, and entered Route 33. Keith and Mareep were both glad to finally be out of that cave. Mareep let out a loud "Baaaaaa" and fell asleep again. Keith smiled and put it into its ball. Keith looked at Crystal and said "Well, we should probably get to the gym and challenge it as quickly as possible."

Crystal nodded and said "Have you ever been told you have a one track mind Keith?"

Keith shook his head and asked "Why do you ask?"

Crystal smirked and said "Never mind. Lets just go." The two quickly passed through the small Route quickly, and on their way they passed some weird looking well that they didn't bother to pay any attention to. The two entered Azalea Town, which was a rather small place with no real landmarks beside the Pokemart, Pokecenter and the Gym. Thanks to the fact hat none of his Pokémon have received any damage since the Skarmory incident Keith went straight to the Azalea Gym. Before they entered the gym they couldn't help but notice that the large building didn't seem to have a roof and that there was a large tree sticking out of it.

Upon entering the large door, Keith looked around the vast room. It was basically a huge roofless greenroom, with the ground being covered with wild grass and exotic plants. There were bug type Pokémon crawling on the ground, and in the middle of the room was a ridiculously large tree. Under the tree was a large group of people, and Keith just assumed that the Gym Leader would be there, so he walked up to the crowd, and listened in to their conversation.

"Are you saying that you aren't going to do anything about those Terrible Team Rocket Thugs? You pretentious pathetic parasite." Miror B asked, with tears in his eyes.

Bugsy, who was sitting down by the tree with his head down said "Look, I'm sorry that Team Rocket took your Pokémon... but I still don't see how that is my problem, you shouldn't have tackled something that you couldn't handle."

The crowd started shouting about how that was no way to treat someone who tried to stop Team Rocket, but Keith doubted that was legitimate. However, Keith knew Miror B wasn't lying about how they took his Pokémon, since he was crying, and despite all of his other flaws Miror B did care for the well-being of his Pokémon. Keith looked to the left of the crowd, and saw a large bug type Pokémon, looking away from the crowd with its sword like arms crossed, visibly annoyed about something. Keith scanned the Pokémon with his Pokédex, and it said "Scyther, the Mantis Pokémon. It is nearly impossible to parry its attacking scythes. Its movements are like a ninja's." Keith looked at the Pokémon again, this Scyther had a visible scar on over its eye, and looked ridiculously tough. Keith shrugged his shoulders, turned and walked back over to the crowd and listened to them again.

An old man shouted at Bugsy "Why won't you go and help, you are a strong enough gym leader aren't you?"

Bugsy, still sitting with his head down said softly, "No, I honestly am probably not."

Keith glanced back over at the Scyther and quickly said loudly so that the group could hear "Well that Scyther of yours looks pretty tough, so why do you think you can't beat them?"

Bugsy coldly said "That Pokémon is strong, but it refuses to listen to me anymore."

Keith sighed, and scrunched up his face. He was confused and curious as to why the Scyther was no longer listening to him, and he was going to ask before he was interrupted by Miror B. When Miror B first heard Keith's voice, he looked up to him and hugged Keith's legs, and still crying said "Please Keith, you're strong. Please help me get my Pokémon back."

Keith sighed and said "Why should I, you are an idiot?" Miror B then started begging incomprehensibly and refused to let go of Keith's legs. Keith sighed, turned to Crystal and said "What should I do?"

Crystal turned to Keith and said, with a hint of sadness in her voice said "Well, how would you like it if your Pokémon were taken from you?"

Keith thought about it for a moment and sighed. He turned back to Miror B and said "Well, I guess I might as well help you. But I hope you realise that I am not doing this as a sign that I like you as a human." Keith looked at the crowd "So, does anyone know anything about this Team Rocket organisation?"

An old man from the crowd walked up and said "Well my name is Kurt, and I am a creator of Pokeballs. Let me just say that I apologize that you need to do this, but no one else in this town besides Bugsy would be able to beat them." He paused for a moment and glared at Bugsy, and continued with "Team Rocket are a villainous team known for their theft of people's Pokémon. They are based in Kanto, but have recently entered Johto. This Team recently decided that they would rip the tails off of the Slowpoke found in this town's famous Slowpoke Well and sell them, since there are people out there willing to pay large amount of money for them. Yesterday, that young man crying on you tried to stop that them, however he got defeated by their leader and had is Pokémon stolen."

Keith looked at Miror B and asked "Were all of your Pokémon stolen?"

Miror B sobbing said "N-no." and reached for his belt and threw out his Zubat which started to fly around quickly. Keith looked at the bat and scanned it, and his Pokédex said "Zubat, the Bat Pokémon. Capable of flying safely in dark places, it emits ultrasonic cries to check for any obstacles" Keith sighed and said "Ok, then I will get your Pokémon back." as he put his Pokédex back in his Pocket.

The old man nodded and said "Well, if you succeed go to my house, for I am sheltering this young man whilst he has no Pokémon. My house is the most western one in the town, so just go there."

Keith nodded and said "OK then." and walked towards the door, with Crystal following him. By this point Bugsy's Scyther was looking at Keith, rather interested in him.

The second Keith left through the door Bugsy said to the crowd "You have your savior or whatever, so get out of my Gym."

 

Chapter 18: Proton's Powered Pokémon​

Keith and Crystal walked out of the large gym building, and went towards the well they passed earlier in the day. Crystal, who was rather surprised that Keith actually accepted the plea of Miror B asked "Keith, why are you doing this? You are not normally this compassionate."

Keith sighed and said "Well, to be honest it seems Miror B's Pokémon actually like him, so I wouldn't want to separate the three. However, the main reason I am doing this is because it seemed like the crowd wasn't going to get lost until the Team Rocket thing is sorted, and I wouldn't be able to battle Bugsy if the crowd stuck around. So I thought I might as well do it myself."

Crystal shook her head, "You really aren't interested in people are you?" she asked.

Keith paused for a bit, and replied with "Not really to be honest."

Crystal, who remembered that she still had questions she wanted to ask Keith continued the chain of questions with "Well Keith why do you feel that way?"

Keith looked over at Crystal and asked "Why do you want to know so badly?"

Crystal shrugged her shoulders and said "Well, I am just a little curious."

Keith sighed and said "Well, would you really like humans if you spent a majority of your time growing up around people like Miror B and Lyra?

Crystal took a moment to remember Lyra, and she shuddered. Crystal had to admit, that although she had only spent a modicum of time in the presence of Lyra she already hated her, and Miror B was not a much better character. Crystal was going to continue with her attempted interrogation of Keith's past, but the two reached Slowpoke Well, and Crystal decided that it would be best to wait until after this thing was done to try and glean more information out of Keith.

Keith wasted no time and immediately climbed down the rather long ladder to get down into the cave. Crystal however waited a bit, debating whether or not she wanted to climb down the stairs and go to into the cave. Crystal did regret not climbing up the Bellsprout Tower with Keith since she was so bored whilst she was waiting, so she decided that she ought as well, and that the cave couldn't be too bad. Crystal shrugged her shoulders and proceeded to follow Keith down the ladder.

When Keith reached the bottom of the extremely long ladder, he jumped off it and more or less collapsed and started panting loudly. He still wasn't very physically fit, despite all of his recent walking and his long climb of Bellsprout Tower. Keith waited for Crystal and thought about how at least he wasn't in as bad of a state as he was when he climbed Bellsprout Tower. When Crystal came down the ladder she also collapsed in a similar state to Keith. Keith waited for Crystal to regain her composure, and then the two headed out deeper into the Cave.

Crystal immediately regretted entering the cave. It was insanely dank, with water dripping from the ceiling, Zubats flying everywhere, puddles of water on the floor and the whole place was an extremely cold temperature. The remains of the battle between Miror B and the Team Rocket grunts were still present, with broken rocks and fainted Rattatas lying all over the place.

Keith didn't pay much attention to the destruction, and just kept walking deeper into the cave. Soon the two came across a man in black clothes with green hair. His back was facing the two, and to his left was a bunch of Slowpoke that seemed to have had their tails removed, and to his right was a pile of those pink tails, and in a cage next to the pile of tails was Miror B's Nidoran and a Pokémon that Keith assumed was the evolution of Lotad.

Upon seeing the pile of disembodied tails, Crystal couldn't help but shudder and whisper "Ewww, gross."

"So would I be right to assume you are the guy that defeated Miror B?" Keith asked in deadpan.

The green haired man heard Keith, and turned around. He smiled, very self confidently and asked "Why do two runts like you care?"

Keith sighed and said "I presume that awful symbol on your shirt is that of Team Rocket's, which means that I need to kick you out of this cave and take those two Pokémon of Miror B's back."

The green haired man smiled "You are one foolish boy, but you do have guts if you are willing to challenge the great Proton of Team Rocket to a fight." Proton then sent out a large rat like Pokémon.

Keith sighed and muttered "I guess I will have to fight you then." and pulled out his Pokédex to scan the large rat. "Raticate, the Mouse Pokémon. With its long fangs, this surprisingly violent Pokémon can gnaw away even the thickest of concrete." Keith reached for his belt, and threw out his Phanpy, who blew on its trunk as it was summoned.

The two trainers shouted their commands, as the Pokémon battled each other. Phanpy started with a Bulldoze, which the Raticate managed to dodge rather easily, and then proceeded to run at it and use Super Fang, which hit successfully and halved Phanpy's remaining HP. Phanpy managed to shake the rat off, and charged at it with another Bulldoze, which the Raticate easily dodged again. The Mouse Pokémon was using its speed to its advantage and charged at Phanpy in order to use a Hyper Fang. However, Phanpy was prepared, and quickly turned to face the Raticate and used Bulldoze again as the Raticate was in mid attack, hitting it hard but not fainting it. Phanpy then went to use Rollout, and Raticate went to dodge, however thanks to the Bulldoze the Raticate's speed was reduced, allowing Phanpy to hit it repeatedly in its Rollout attack, causing the over sized Rat to faint.

Proton frowned, and returned his Raticate. "Looks like I underestimated you, however good luck beating this next Pokémon with a ground type like that." Proton then sent out a purple ball that was emitting a constant stream of gas, that cried out "KOFFING!"

Keith scanned the Pokémon, and his Pokédex said "Koffing, the Poison Gas Pokémon. Toxic gas is contained within its balloon shaped body, so it can cause massive explosions." Keith commanded his Phanpy to use Bulldoze, which the elephant Pokémon tried to do, however the floating Pokémon simply floated up, making the move miss. Then Koffing returned fire by spitting out a large ball of sludge at Phanpy, which hit it, causing it to faint instantly.

Crystal saw the puzzled face of Keith and said "That Koffing must have Levitate as its ability, it makes ground type moves automatically miss."

Keith sighed, and tried to think of something that would be able to beat the Koffing. His Bayleef had a type disadvantage, and Keith felt like his Magikarp was getting a bit rusty, and would under-perform. Keith sighed and decided he had one Pokémon that could do it. He reached for his Pocket, and sent out his Mareep, which upon being sent out opened its eyes sleepily and yawned. Keith looked at the Mareep and said "Mareep, its time to battle." The Mareep cried out, to show it was ready to fight.
The two trainers shouted their commands, and the Pokémon fought. It started with Mareep shooting off Thunder Shocks at the Koffing, who managed to simply float away from all of the attacks, and countered the Thunder Shocks with a Sludge attack which it shot off at Mareep. Mareep managed to dodge the sludge, and tried to use Thunder Wave, but the Koffing just floated away from the shock, and used Poison Gas, which engulfed the sheep, and then whilst Mareep was disorientated in the poisonous, purple cloud it shot off another Sludge at it and this time it hit.

At this point Keith was ready to switch Mareep with Bayleef, however a blinding flash of light emanated from the smoke, and when the smoke cleared, Mareep had changed. It was now pink, and was standing up on two legs. Not only that but the ball on the back of its tail was now blue instead of yellow. Keith pulled out his Pokédex, and scanned his new Pokémon. "Flaaffy, the Wool Pokémon. If its coat becomes charged with electricity, its tail lights up. It fires hair when its tail lights up." It bleated out.

The Flaaffy stood up and shot of Discharge, which caused it to shoot of a few large waves of electricity which covered an area that was far too wide for the Koffing to dodge and resulted in knocking it out in one move. Keith looked up at the Team Rocket member, with a smirk on his face and said "Well, I think it is time for you to go."

Proton returned his Koffing and whilst still smiling said "You think you have won, however you have done nothing but successfully angered the entire Team Rocket Organisation, and we aren't known to forgive people. So enjoy your victory whilst you can you two runts." Then Proton threw down a smoke ball and fled, without saying another word.

Keith sighed as the smoke started clearing and said "Well, that sounds fun."

 

Chapter 19: Bugging Bugsy​

After Proton ran away, it suddenly dawned on Keith that his Mareep had just evolved, and ran over to hi
s Flaaffy. Without thinking Keith picked up his slightly larger and rather heavier evolved Pokémon, without his rubber gloves on. However, Keith was not electrocuted since he touched the rubbery pink skin of Flaaffy, which does not conduct electricity. This however didn't help much because of its rather extreme weight increase, which meant that Keith could no longer old Flaaffy for long periods of time. Keith just put Flaaffy down and sighed, and commanded his Flaaffy to break the cage, which it did with a Thunder Shock and freed Miror B's petrified Pokémon. The Pokémon looked at Keith and Crystal, and cried out their name in thanks, before they ran away, to where Keith and Crystal assumed Miror B was. Keith returned his Flaaffy, and the two walked out of the cave and went to the Pokémon Center to heal Keith's Pokémon and stay the night.

After the two left the Cave, Bugsy's Scyther came out of the Shadows, having followed Keith down whilst Bugsy wasn't paying attention and watched the whole thing. "Scy..." it said, and flew out of the cave to go back to the gym.

In the morning, Keith and Crystal headed out to the large, Greenhouse style building that was the Azalea City Gym. Keith cracked his knuckles, and opened the building's large doors to see the purple haired kid sitting down against the large tree in the center of the room. Keith looked to the side of the gym, to see the Scyther in the same position as it was yesterday with its arms crossed. Keith walked up to Bugsy and coughed.

Bugsy looked up at Keith and with disinterestedly stared at him. "Can I help you with something?" he said sounding incredibly disinterested.

Crystal looked at Bugsy with contempt, she couldn't figure out what was up with him. It was liked his spirit was crushed.
Keith smiled, and decided that he might as well trash talk. "Well, the first thing you can do is just give me one of your badges, and save me the trouble."

Bugsy stood up and said "Please don't tell me this is actually happening, because I really don't want it to."
Keith sighed, "Damn, you are less enthusiastic than I am. Me and you are battling for your badge right now."
Bugsy rolled his eyes and said "Unfortunately, I can't say no to your challenge, so it will be a 3 vs 3 battle, my bugs vs your whatever you have, sound good?"

Keith smiled, and said "Yeah. Where are we battling?"

Bugsy said "Right here." and threw down his Pokéball, revealing a Lady Bug looking Pokémon that was standing upright.
Keith reached for his Pokédex, and scanned it "Ledian, the Five Star Pokémon. It uses starlight as energy. When more stars appear at night, the patterns on its back grow larger." Keith smirked, and sent out his Flaaffy.

The two trainers then shouted their commands, and the Pokémon fought. Flaaffy shot off a Thunder Shock at the Ledian, who flew away from it and used Silver Wind, which hit Flaaffy. Flaaffy, shook off the hit and shot out another Thunder Shock, which the Ledian dodged again. The Ledian ran up to Flaaffy, and used Comet Punch, and hit Flaaffy multiple times. However a few of the punches hit Flaaffy's wool, which paralyzed the Ledian thanks to Flaaffy's ability Static. Flaaffy took advantage of this paralysis and shot out a Discharge at the Ledian, hitting it and knocking it out.

Bugsy didn't react to his Pokémon being knocked out, and simply replaced it with a stag beetle like Pokémon. Keith scanned the Pokémon with his Pokédex, and it stated "Pinsir The Stag Beetle Pokémon. It grips its prey with its pincers until the prey is torn in half. What it can't tear, it tosses."

Flaaffy and Pinsir then started to fight. Flaaffy it the Pinsir with a Thunder Shock, however Pinsir just tanked the shock and charged at Flaaffy, and used Brick Break on Flaaffy's pink body, which caused no paralyzation but hit Flaaffy hard. Flaaffy tried to use Tackle on the Pinsir whilst it was Close, however Pinsir grabbed it with its horns and used Vice Grip on it, knocking it out. Pinsir then threw the Flaaffy to the side.

Keith withdrew Flaaffy and said "Nice job Flaaffy" Then he sent out his Phapny to replace it. The two trainers shouted their commands, and the Pokémon carried them out. Phanpy started with a bulldoze at Pinsir, but Pinsir jumped out of the way and grabbed Phanpy as it was running past and used Seismic Toss. Phanpy quickly jumped back up, and used Rollout. However Pinsir simply grabbed the Elephant with its horns, and tried to use Vice Grip on the Phanpy. However, whilst in the Pinsir's grip Phanpy used Rollout again, spinning itself out of Pinsir's grasp, and hitting it on the head with Rollout. Phanpy then quickly jumped down and hit the Pinsir with a Bulldoze, knocking it out.

Bugsy didn't even react and returned his Pinsir and said disinterestedly "Well I might as well give up now, because that Pinsir was my strongest Pokémon that still actually listens to me."

Keith looked at him confused. Crystal looked at him and said "Seriously? Why do you act like you don't care?"

Bugsy, with that same bored tone of voice said "Because, when Team Rocket first came to this town they bribed me to not act against them, and I accepted the bribe like any sane person would. However, ever since then that Scyther of mine has refused to listen to me, and I don't see the point in trying to battle without it anymore."

Crystal, with an empathetic tone said "Are you saying that ever since Scyther left you, you have been depressed?" Bugsy nodded his head "Well then why haven't you told anyone up until now?" Crystal asked.

Bugsy looked to the side, "That won't change the fact that this Scyther is stubborn, and doesn't seem to understand I had no choice really." he said, and pulled out a badge from his Pocket. He offered it to Keith and said "I forfeit, so take the badge."
Keith, sighed and said "That's a shame. But you could have not taken the bribe you know." Before he could grab the badge however, the Scyther came up and hit the unsuspecting Phanpy with a slash, knocking it out in the one move. Keith looked at it in shock, as it jumped in front of Bugsy, to signify that it wanted to battle with him.

Bugsy, who eyes were now open wide in shock asked "Scyther, are you saying you want to battle with me?" Scyther nodded its head and said "Scy." Bugsy, who was still shocked at Scyther's apparent sudden change of heart smiled and said "Well Keith, the battle is still on."

Keith wanted to point out that Bugsy already forfeited, but he decided against it. He returned his Phanpy, and sent out his Bayleef. The two Pokémon stared each other down, as the two trainers prepared to battle each other for the badge.