"Welcome back to trainerTV, viewers! Today, we'll once again be discussing rising stories throughout the pokemon world!" A woman smiled brightly, staring down a camera, "For our first story, I believe it comes from the Galar region, correct?"
"Indeed! To start us off, let's talk about Galar!" The middle-aged man to her side said, glancing over at the rest of the group, "Just a few days ago, a veteran trainer was able to challenge Champion Leon, and nearly managed to knock out his Charizard! According to news outlets in the area, it was an Ace Trainer who nearly pulled it off! It was quite a feat!"
But, as the middle-aged man praised the trainer, nodding in respect, the man to his side was much less impressed.
"Nearly isn't enough," The nerdy man stated, pushing up his glasses as he adjusted his suit, "Leon has been the undefeated Champion for years! Nearly knocking out his Charizard isn't a big deal when he has five more pokemon! On top of that, this was an unofficial match and not part of the Champion Cup. This is barely news!"
As the glasses-wearing man dismissed the story, waving his hand lazily, the middle-aged man glared at him and opened his mouth to shout back.
"But it's still impressive," The woman intervened before a fight could start, holding up her hands placidly at both of the men, "The Galar region's unique method of choosing their Champion has caused many to consider Leon the strongest Champion in the entire world! Galar is also considered by many to be the strongest competitive battling region, so even a close match is very impressive."
"'Many' is being generous, and so is calling it a 'close match!'" The nerdy man shot back, shaking his head quickly, "Different doesn't mean better! Champion Cynthia is still the strongest, and she doesn't need some tournament to prove it! On top of that, I've seen the footage of the battle with Champion Leon! The challenger's last pokemon was knocked out in one hit, so he didn't even come close to beating Leon!"
"Now, now, boys," The elderly man on the edge of the table finally spoke with a calm smile, intervening in the argument, "We're all well versed in the battling scene, so we know that even one hit can make or break a battle! The trainer did great! I, for one, think this challenger is one to watch out for in the future!"
The middle-aged man nodded at him gratefully, "At least you understand! This is a seriously impressive feat!"
"Ha, of course you'd say that," The nerdy man grumbled, glaring lightly at the elderly man, but said nothing more. As the elderly man's calm smile turned less polite, the woman quickly intervened.
"Now, now, let's move on! We have a lot to get through today, don't we?" The woman said, quickly moving on before the fight could continue, and looked over at the elderly man, "We have another rising story, and this one is coming from a familiar face! A few episodes ago, you mentioned a trainer from Kanto who managed to take down two gyms in two days! And, who was also supposedly responsible for the Cerulean City river incident."
"Indeed," The elderly man responded, a proud look on his face as he leaned forward, "It seems that my prediction about a certain trainer from Kanto has come true! You all doubted me, but he's done something more amazing this time!"
"Ugh, this again? I was with you on the last story, but…" The middle-aged man groaned, causing the elderly man to glare at him, "Some rookie from Kanto isn't news! Even if he's a decent trainer, he's in what most people consider to be the weakest region. Two gym badges in Kanto are barely worth talking about!"
"Hah? You're still doubting me, but when I tell you what he did this time, you won't be anymore," The elderly man grunted back, which caused a glaring contest to form between the men. The woman quickly leaned forward, breaking their line of sight as she mediated the conversation.
"Well, then, don't leave us hanging! Tell us what he did!" She pressed, glancing over at the older man, "You're speaking about the same rookie as last time, right? The one with the forming fan club?"
"This is stupid…" The nerdy man simply scoffed to the side, shaking his head lightly as the story switched.
"Yup, the same one," The elderly man nodded, ignoring the middle-aged man and glasses-wearing man, as he grinned widely, "It seems that the prodigy trainer, whom I correctly predicted would be big news, has gone and done it again! I thought the Cerulean City river incident was the biggest news that could come out of him, but he's done something even bigger now!"
"E-Even bigger?" The woman gasped, looking at him with wide eyes, "What could be bigger news than defeating hundreds of pokemon in the Cerulean City river?!"
"I'd like to know as well," The nerdy man raised an eyebrow at the older one, "You better not be exaggerating again."
"Hah, you'll think I am when you hear it, but I'm not! He really did this," The elderly man chuckled, "You remember the running story about Saffron City, a major hub in the Kanto region, being overrun by a criminal organization, right? The criminal organization that even the police in the area were failing to subdue?"
"Of course! It's been the biggest story in all of Kanto for weeks now," The woman nodded rapidly, and the middle-aged man agreed.
"How could we forget? That region barely gets any coverage, but we've been talking about it non-stop," He nodded stiffly, "There were even rumors that the police had contacted Champion Lance to assist with their removal."
"Personally, I think having law enforcement request the aid of the region's Champion for something like this is embarrassing," The nerdy man muttered, shaking his head as he gave his input, "Seriously, skipping the gym leaders and Elite Four to go straight to the Champion for help? This is why Kanto is seen as such a joke!"
"Well, it's not often that a criminal organization takes an entire city hostage. It's a new situation, and I'm sure the law enforcement in the area were doing their best," The woman chimed in, trying to bring the conversation back to the center point as she glanced at the elderly man, "The organization was called Team Rocket, right? They were said to have taken over the entire city!"
"Exactly!" The elderly man slammed his hand on the table again, causing the others to jump as it shook, "But who was it that single-handedly took down the entire Team Rocket organization in Saffron City? Who was it that freed the city from their tyranny? Who was it that became the city's hero overnight?! Who was it that defeated the leader of Team Rocket?! Who took out over a thousand elite trainers?! It was him! That same rookie trainer from Cerulean City!"
"H-He did all that?! That's incredible!" The woman gasped loudly, staring with slightly awe-filled eyes.
"Ha, you really sound insane. You're definitely exaggerating now," The nerdy man scoffed, simply shaking his head in response, "Sindle-handedly taking down over a thousand elite trainers in one day? Defeating the leader of Team Rocket? Calling him a 'hero?' All this for a rookie trainer? Someone that we had never heard of until around a week ago? That's ridiculous!"
"You can say it's ridiculous all you want, but it's true, and it was all him!" The elderly man leaned back, crossing his arms with a smug look, "Well... not just him, I guess. My source says that he partnered with the Saffron City gym leader, Sabrina, to take down the organization! Not only that, but immediately after, he took down Sabrina for the Marsh Badge! His pace slowed down a bit after the first two gyms, but he's still going insanely fast for a new trainer! He's gotten three gym badges in just around a week!"
"What?! Three badges in a week? On top of freeing Saffron City? That's really impressive!" The woman said, her eyes wide with shock, "Sabrina is one of the most challenging gym leaders in all of Kanto! She's respected even amongst gym leaders in neighboring regions! How can he be so strong if he's just a rookie?!"
"Yeah, didn't you say he had a team full of unevolved pokemon just a week ago?" The glasses-wearing man questioned, looking suspiciously at the older man.
"My source says he's a natural," The elderly man explained smugly, "He's got this aura around him that allows him to capture powerful pokemon no problem, and he has this drive to win that's almost scary! He's not just strong, but he's also determined! He doesn't back down from a fight, as he's fought every trainer from Pewter City to Saffron City, and he hasn't lost even once! On top of that, he's a complete genius! The likes of which we haven't seen since Cynthia! He's the total package! A monster of a trainer!"
"Hmph, I'm still not convinced," The nerdy man grumbled, shaking his head, "It sounds like your source had too much to drink last night. This is insane."
"Whether you're convinced now or not doesn't matter! Soon, the entire world will know this trainer's name!" The elderly man grinned widely, leaning forward as his eyes bored into the camera, "Make sure to check out the fan club in Kanto for him, folks! I'm tellin' you, this kid is the real deal! He'll be all over your TV screens in no time! And, don't forget that I was the one who found him first, alright?! When everyone is singing his praises, remember that I was supporting him first!"
"Ha, trust me, you won't let us forget it if this kid turns out to be the real deal," The middle-aged man chuckled.
"And, what was this trainer's name again?" The woman leaned forward eagerly, "I'll admit, I was also doubtful last time, but I won't forget his name this time!"
"You better not," The elderly man grinned widely, "His name is-"
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"R-Red! What do I do now?!"
"Just use a move, damn it!"
"Ok, so now, um… Starmie, use… Water Gun!" Misty shouted, jutting her finger forward dramatically.
"No, not Water Gun," I sighed, shaking my head as Starmie obeyed the orders and launched a stream of water at the Alakazam standing roughly a dozen feet away from it, "You have other moves, remember? Like, Bubble Beam and Swift? But, since Alakazam has a high Special Defense, you want to use a Physical move, like Aqua Jet, even if Starmie's Special Attack is a bit higher than its Attack."
"R-Right… special… physical… jet… bubble…" Misty responded, her head spinning as she tried to keep track of it all, and I just sighed.
"Alakazam! Use Recover!" Across from Misty, separated by only a small, roughly twenty-foot gap, was Sabrina, who shouted dramatically as she pointed at her pokemon. As she did, Alakazam's body glowed with a bright light as its HP was restored.
"I did it!" Sabrina cheered as he did, looking proudly at me as she puffed out her chest, causing her large breasts to jiggle in the process, "Did you see that, Red?! I remembered to use something other than an attacking move!"
"You did, except… you didn't need to yet," I deadpanned across at Sabrina, who instantly deflated at my words, "You should use Recover once your pokemon has taken a lot of damage, or at least, like, half of its HP. One Water Gun didn't do that much."
"Oh… w-well, it's the thought that counts, right?" Sabrina mumbled, looking away as her face turned a bit red.
"Of course! Great move, Sabrina! I would've done the same thing!" Misty chimed in, looking completely genuine in her words, as my eye twitched in response.
Currently, my group, which had added Jenny to it, was halfway through Route 6 at the moment. We had left Saffron City earlier that day, after Jenny had given me the rather generous cash reward, which was nearly 50,000 Pokedollars, and headed towards Vermilion City. Saffron City was actually in a hub-like position in Kanto, as it had roads that could lead you to various different cities, but I had decided to take on the Vermilion City gym first. There wasn't any real, deep meaning as to why, but instead because I just wanted to stick at least semi-close to the storyline of the game. I had already messed up enough by taking on Saffron City first, so I wasn't eager to change the world too much yet, as having a rough idea of events taking place in Kanto would only benefit me. The Team Rocket grunts in Mt. Moon, as well as Team Rocket's occupation of Saffron City, had confirmed to me that I was at least somewhat in the game timeline, even if it definitely wasn't completely accurate, considering Lusamine had randomly been in the Silph Co. building.
But, as we were headed towards Vermilion City, we were taking a short break right now to have lunch. Joy was in the process of preparing it, which was really just using our rather meager supplies to create a bunch of sandwiches, while Jenny was setting up bowls with food for our pokemon, and Jessie was… doing a lot of nothing.
While they were setting up the lunch break, I had decided to take this opportunity to actually teach the two 'students' who I had following me around - that being Misty and Sabrina. Both of the gym leaders were using the 'learning from Red' reason for stalking me, so I decided I'd give them some genuine training. I'd only get benefits from them becoming better battlers, as I could have better training partners for my own pokemon, and there was even a chance that they'd stop stalking me once they became skilled enough! A small chance, especially after Misty's confession the day before, but a chance nonetheless!
Unfortunately, as was evident by the current situation, the teaching wasn't going very well.
"You're not helping," I told Misty blandly, sighing as I gave her another suggestion, "Just attack the Alakazam again, Misty. And make sure it's a Physical move that Starmie actually knows, alright?"
"I know that! I'd never mess up that badly!" Misty huffed, puffing out her cheeks cutely as she did. In response, I gave her a dry look, because throughout our short training session I had learned that Misty trying to use moves her pokemon didn't know was her biggest weakness. Which was saying a lot, because she had a lot of weaknesses.
That specific weakness had been exposed as I tried to convey to the woman the difference between 'special' and 'physical' attacking moves, but she wasn't quite understanding yet. Usually, when trying to sort out which one to use, she'd forget entirely and just blurt out a random move as the pressure got to her - one that Starmie often didn't know. To make Misty become an expert trainer, it would definitely be an uphill battle.
Misty turned back to her pokemon, looking determined again as she shouted, "Okay, Starmie, let's go! Use… um…"
Her determined expression slowly faded away into one of confusion as she seemed to completely blank on her pokemon's moveset.
"How about Swif-" I started to suggest, my arms crossed as I watched the two women fumble through what was supposed to be a simple training match, but Misty interrupted me as a move sprang into her head.
"Bubble Beam! Go!" Misty shouted dramatically, pointing forward as Starmie launched a stream of small, glowing bubbles at Alakazam. They slammed into the psychic-type, and it stumbled backward, looking a bit pained, but not too much worse for wear, as it didn't take much damage from the Special Attack move.
"That's a Special move," I deadpanned at the woman, who blushed as she realized she had messed up again.
"Damn it! It's so hard to remember which one is which!" She groaned, grabbing her head as if she had a headache, but I couldn't bring myself to feel sympathetic to her. I wasn't asking her to remember rocket science - I just wanted her to remember which moves were Special and which ones weren't!
"Ooh! Ooh! I know! Now that Alakazam is weak, it's the perfect time to use Recover!" Sabrina shouted, and I resisted the urge to facepalm, "Recover, Alakazam!"
"No, not now," I groaned, shaking my head again as the Alakazam glowed brightly, "If you use Recover now, you'll just waste all your PP. You have to gauge your pokemon's HP based on the types of attacks it's taken as well as its own stats."
"PP? I-Isn't that…" Sabrina trailed off, looking down at my crotch as her face flushed, and I just sighed as I shook my head.
"Not that kind of PP. It's, like… how tired your pokemon is," I tried to explain, and as she gave me a blank look, I suddenly felt like I was trying to teach calculus to a pair of toddlers, "If you use one move too many times in a single battle, then your pokemon will get tired of using it."
This was something I had tested and had confirmed that it worked just as it did in the games. After ordering my Pikachu to use Thunder Shock a shit-ton of times, the little mouse had started to run out of electricity, becoming entirely unable to use the move. Which didn't really make sense, because when I told him to use Spark right after, he had somehow mustered the electricity inside of him to use it just fine. There was probably some technical, scientific reason for the limitation that I didn't understand, but I didn't need to understand it - I knew how PP worked, and I knew it had real-world applications now.
"B-But… you said when Alakazam is hurt… I should use Recover," Sabrina shot back blankly, and I shook my head lightly.
"…Okay, let me put this a different way," I sighed, rubbing the bridge of my nose as I tried to figure out how to explain this in a way that they could understand, "Ignore if an attack is Special or not for now. Instead, just think of it like this: Starmie used a Water-type move, and Alakazam is a Psychic-type. So, it wasn't super effective, right? As a result, it didn't do that much damage. You should wait until a move is super effective before you use Recover, or until a really powerful one is used on Alakazam."
It was a rough, and honestly not very good, explanation, but I needed to be simple with Sabrina right now.
"O-Oh! So, I should wait until Misty uses a move that's… super effective?" Sabrina asked, looking at me with wide eyes as she understood.
She wasn't suddenly a genius, or even close, as she couldn't understand the concept of Special and Physical attacks, but for now, this was enough.
"Yup! But, Starmie's a Water-type, and Psychic-types don't have a weakness to it. So, that's probably not going to happen," I explained, and Sabrina's face fell.
"S-So… I can't use Recover?" She mumbled, looking down at her feet, and I felt like I was about to get a headache.
"You can, but you don't need to," I deadpanned at her with a sigh, "As in, Alakazam can tank a lot more attacks before you need to use it. Instead of every turn, just use it, like… every three turns."
"Oh! I can remember that!" Sabrina nodded sagely, her face becoming more determined, "Every three turns!"
"It doesn't have to be exactly three turns, but… whatever, just keep attacking. Misty, you use Swift this time," I ordered, deciding to cut my losses and just end this already. I could feel my brain cells committing suicide at an alarming rate, and I'd definitely need some resting time before I put myself through another training session with the two women.
I also felt like I was going to regret giving her a specific number, but for the time being, this was good enough. Her using it on a three-turn cycle regardless of her opponents moves was still better than her spamming it every turn, or not using Recover at all.
"Swift! Right!" Misty nodded, her face determined again as she pointed forward, "Starmie, use Swift!"
Starmie's core glowed as it launched a flurry of glowing stars at Alakazam, which slammed into it and caused it to stumble backward again, this time looking even more pained.
"Alright, now I know what to do! Now I should use… Recover?" Sabrina asked, looking at me with pleading eyes, but recovered before I could lose any more brain cells, "W-Wait! No! Every three turns!"
"I-It doesn't have to be three- bah, whatever, just attack! Use Psychic!" I finally sighed, shaking my head lightly, and Sabrina nodded in confirmation.
"Right! Use Psychic, Alakazam!" Sabrina shouted, pointing forward as Alakazam's eyes glowed, and Starmie was surrounded by a bright pink light-aura. It was lifted into the air and then slammed down onto the ground with a loud 'thud,' unceremoniously knocking it out.
"I did it! I beat Misty!" Sabrina cheered, looking proudly at me as she pumped her fist in the air.
"...No, your pokemon beat her pokemon, because it's a way higher level and overpowered as shit," I deadpanned at her, "And you only won because I told you what to do. Don't get cocky now."
"Hey, a win is a win! I think you did great, Sabrina!" Misty huffed as she recalled her fainted Starmie, "That was a good fight! And, I still think I did pretty good, Red! I remembered to use Swift, didn't I?"
"After I told you to," I reminded her, but she just waved her hand dismissively.
"Semantics," She said, waving dismissively, and I remembered that I really was surrounded by idiots.
"But," I relented, giving them both nods, "You guys did a lot better than I expected."
That was mainly because my expectations were in the dirt, but I didn't need to tell them that.
"You're already better than most trainers I've fought," I continued, not lying this time as they both stiffened and looked proud, "We'll need to keep working on it, but it wasn't terrible. We just need to focus on deciding when to use certain moves for both of you."
That also wasn't saying much, as pretty much every trainer I had battled up until this point was, and this was being generous, absolute dog-shit at battling. It really wasn't a high bar to exceed.
"That part is impossible," Misty shook her head rapidly, looking at me with slightly awe-filled eyes as she finally stopped, "I don't know how you remember all that, Red! HP, Special Attacks, normal Attacks, typings, weaknesses… It's all too much for me! You're just a genius!"
"I agree," Sabrina added on, also giving me a bit of a starry-eyed look, "You're really amazing, Red."
I felt awkward at their words, as their praise was nice and touching, but also… I was just doing the bare minimum that any pokemon player could. As gym leaders, they should already be familiar with the type chart and different types of attacks!
"I… appreciate it," I finally just grunted, glancing away as I felt a bit of heat on my own face. Luckily, I was saved as Joy called out to us.
"Red, Sabrina, Misty! The food's done!" She yelled, waving us over as she had laid out a large towel, and the sandwiches were sitting on top of it.
"I'm done too!" Jenny added in, standing nearby as she stood above a large collection of small bowls, all of which had pellets for our pokemon in them. I nodded at their words, walking over to the group as Sabrina and Misty followed me.
What followed next was a rather pleasant lunch, which washed away the feeling of annoyance that came from trying to teach the two women. In the end, as I genuinely enjoyed myself, I had to admit that I could've had much worse companions.
Were they a bit dim in the head? Yup. Were they a bit annoying at times? Certainly. And, were they stalking me against my will? Very much so.
But, overall, the entire group of women was pleasant to be around, and were all kind. They were also very easy on the eyes, which only added to their appeal.
In the end, while I would never admit it to them, I didn't mind my group of stalkers as much as I thought I would.
In fact, I found that I even enjoyed having them around.
I had yet to get the challenge I strived for, but I couldn't complain too much. I wouldn't trade this life for anything else in the world.
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AN: Thanks for reading! The next chapter will be posted in around a weekish!
Or, this story is updated twice as often on Patreon.com/Koyon ! There's up to chapter 28 on there!