Pokemon Regression

Chapter 17: Arrival at Pewter City

Day 45

Chee joined in as I did my morning stretches, doing an exaggerated version of the movements I was making, as if she found it fun to imitate me. I'd been a little worried about her after last night, but she seemed to be back to her cheery self this morning.

"Feeling better?" I asked, and the girl nodded cheerfully at me.

Yeah, I'm fine now. She placed a hand on her chin. I don't know why it was so hard, I've never had this much trouble catching Pokemon before...

I sheepishly rubbed the back of my head. "Hey Chee, did I ever tell you how I caught Yeller?"

Slowly, I retold my tale of trying to capture any Pokemon other than the Rattata, until the night was almost over, and how I was only able to catch my partner because he agreed to join me.

"...So basically, what I'm getting at..." I reached my conclusion. "Is that having my help to capture a new Pokemon is probably just making it harder. I have no catching luck at all."

Chee was thoughtful at this, her head tilted forward.

"Would you like to try catching something without me?" I offered. "I can stay at the camp and wait for a while, if you'd like."

Slowly, the young girl shook her head. No, I'd rather stay with you.

"Alright." I smiled at the girl. "We'll head for Pewter City then."

...

Day 46

The rest of our journey through Viridian Forest had been largely uneventful, with neither of us wanting to risk accidentally summoning a boss Pokemon on the way. After camping one more time near the exit, we were back on the other side of Route 2.

The path to Pewter City was much more paved and clean than the road through Viridian Forest  or the road from Pallet Town had been, with all of the grass for wild Pokemon kept clear from the road by at least a few feet. 

As Chee and I got closer to the town however, we began to spot more and more frustrated trainers sprinting back and forth between the fields, battling wild Pokemon, and doing other odd exercises.

Chee frowned at them, her eyes filled with confusion. What on earth are they doing...?

"Shall we go ask?" I offered, and she hesitantly nodded, sticking to my back as I walked over to one of the older trainers who seemed to be taking a break.

"Hey!" I hailed the trainer, a boy who appeared to be in his teen years. He regarded me with a frustrated glare. 

"What do you want." He spat. 

"My friend and I are new in town," I began, ignoring his bad attitude. "and we were wondering what everyone is doing? I haven't seen anything quite like..." I gestured to the people running around aggressively. "This, before."

"It's freaking nonsense dude." The teen growled, placing his chin in his hand. "The Gym Leader here won't let you pass unless you pass a physical test that has nothing to do with Pokemon!"

As the boy spoke, I quietly drew my trusty notebook and pen from my bag, realising I had a source of information on the Gym Leader in front of me. 

"You have to do all this physical activity alongside your Pokemon, and then even if you DO manage to get through all that... When you do get to fight him, his Pokemon just don't go down!" The teen shook his head. "It's like trying to fight a brick wall! That's why everyone here is training to get through his stupid tests."