Pokémon Red (Book 3)

The Art Of War - II

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Chapter - 27
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Brendan and May had been travelling for almost a month now, they had little to no experience in Pokémon training, and they were going to have their second ever gym battle very soon.

May, being a very technical person, had already studied all she could related to Pokémon type advantages and disadvantages, along with some status affects like paralysis, toxicity and drowsiness. But she did not know anything about the next gym leader.

Brendan and May stood unattended in the middle of a battle arena. The arena was a huge brown patch of dirt surrounded by old expiring grass. The brown patch was circular and had a white chalked boundary.

Brendan looked around, Red was sitting on a park bench in a distance, waiting for Leaf. She had gone to the Dewford Gym to know more about the Gym Leader.

May noticed Brendan staring at Red, she gently tapped his shoulder and whispered, "You wanna go and talk to him?" She asked.

"Should I?" Brendan was not sure if he wanted to talk to Red, but he was curious about him. He knew that there was more to Red than it seemed. "Alright, I should."

Red had a wooden stick in his hand, using which he wrote on the ground. 'Leaf ♡' - it read. He noticed Brendan walking towards him and quickly scratched what he wrote to make it unrecognisable.

"Um, hi." Said Brendan, awkwardly. Red stood up, he was taller, Brendan looked like a baby in front of him. "Can you tell me anything about different Pokémon types? I'm just clueless."

"Clueless?" Asked Red, trying to understand Brendan's situation. "How?"

Brendan frowned. He was a quick-witted young boy, while Red was a more serious and quiet type. Brendan could just ask for anything and Red would do everything in his power to make it happen. They were just so different, and May was fully aware of that. She looked at them chatting, from a distance, then looked elsewhere.

"Okay so, I don't really understand this system, so many types and then every type has it's advantages and weaknesses." Brendan complained. "It's like Game Freak went bankrupt and Satoshi Tajiri decided to create these different types to make Pokémon 'cool', it's just confusing and difficult for newbies."

Red couldn't seem to grasp what Brendan had just said, but understood the problem he was trying to address. "Alright, so. I know remembering all of this is bull sh-"

"Beep."

"Huh. It's not useless though, learning about type advantages would step up your game." Red explained. "It'll become a lot easier for you to defeat your opponent if you knew the types beforehand."

"Can you skip to the part where it makes sense? Because there's no way I can know what Pokémon they're gonna send unless I'm the writer." Brendan complained.

"First of all, stop complaining so much!" Red complained. "Second, stop breaking the fourth wall so much, it's annoying." Red looked around, hoping to see Leaf. "Where is that girl?!" He then turned back to Brendan. "Every gym leader specialises in a particular Pokémon type, so that way you can always know beforehand what kind of people they will send. It's not necessary to know which Pokémon they specifically have, because same types mostly have same attacks."

"And Leaf went to gather some information about the Gym Leader, so that we can plan what Pokémon we can use along with the attacks that are effective." Said Brendan, realising the plan. "Now I get it!"

"You and May should battle each other using those Pokémon only that are effective against the next leader." Red moved his neck around, trying to crack it. It got stiff all of a sudden. "I'm gonna sleep like a snail tonight."

May got impatient, she was bored of standing alone in a ground like a statue. She briskly walked to Brendan and Red and interrupted their conversation.

"Where is she?" Asked May. "Does she have a PokéNav or anything? We can call her if she does."

Brendan smiled. "That won't be necessary." He said in relief. Red looked around and there she was, Leaf walked towards them along with a piece of paper in her hand.

Leaf was continuously reading the paper, which had details related to the Dewford Gym Leader. "You need to see this." She spoke at the top of her lungs. Brendan, May and Red gathered around, Leaf joined.

"I found this page in a magazine at the PokéCenter. It has everything related to the Gym Leader." Leaf explained.

"You tore a magazine page?" Asked Brendan.

"Brawly, the Dewford Gym Leader, specialises in fighting type Pokémon. He is also known for his famous costume parties where he dresses up as Princess Peach?" May read the magazine page.

"Nintendo agrees." Brendan joked. "Does it say what Pokémon he uses?"

Red looked carefully. "Yes, it does." He said. "It says, Brawly uses three Pokémon, a Meditite? A Makuhita? Whatever that is. And a Machoke. It's not gonna be easy."

"Fighting types huh?" Brendan thought. "What types have an advantage against fighting types?"

"Flying, Psychic and Fairy." May answered in a snap. She was proud of herself.

"Stephen Hawking here thinks I own any of these types." Brendan complained. "How do I win?"

"You need a strategy." Red started.