Broken Souls

Whispers From The Shallows

I don't want to go, so I book us another night at the hotel with the prize money automatically transferred to my account from winning Surge's gym battle. The EXP points alone were more than worth the challenge, but I'm not shy about taking a little bit of financial compensation.

"So," I ask the team, who look up with a mixture of boredom and indifference, "Looks like we have a free day."

"The end of the world is coming up on a few months. There are no free days." Minerva informs me, though she's glaring at the whole group out of the corner of her eye. "I'd be up for grinding the next route. Who's with me?"

No one is with her.

"Fine, see if I care when all of you guys get pounded by Sabrina's gym. This goes double for you, Fang- don't think your Dark typing is going to save you." she scoffs, heading towards the door outside. "Ashley's going to back me up. Just you see."

I look to the rest of my assembled Pokemon, then back to her, and mutter, "I admit I'm a little scared about the next few gyms. This is uncharted ground for me. We should all be in our best possible form in case something goes wrong." I swing the door open and a blast of fresh fall air sweeps the whole lobby, the city scents mingled with the distant promise of sunshine. "Plus, it's nice, isn't it?"

As we approach the next route, which bridges Vermillion and Saffron, I realize that Kanto's routes aren't so much actual paths through the wilderness as tidy little places for trainers to face off. The grass is clipped to a precise height, the path is short, and trainers mingle the road in alarming frequency. The whole thing makes me feel like I'm some kind of bizarre theme park instead of walking between two legitimate cities.

A Meowth sticks its head out of the grass, eyes darting from patch to patch, then it makes a run for it across the path on all fours.

"Catch it!" yelps Minerva, and before the poor kitten can run away a Great Ball hits it in the side of the head and it clicks at once.

I wince, hoping I haven't hurt the poor thing, and walk to pick it up. Minerva scans the area, ears perked, but I sense frustration emanating from her. As the Pokedex pings with the new information I frown. "That can't be right."
"What?"

"Level fifteen. He's level fifteen." The Pokedex pings again, asking for a nickname. 'Cream', I decide, putting it away for later stashing in the PC. "Are they all like this?" I ask the team.

Reginae squints at the scrawny Pokemon of the area, heads hardly scraping the top of the grass. "Yep."

"How are we supposed to grind for a level fifty and up gym in an area with wild Pokemon capping at fifteen?" Minerva asks, practically burning up with aggravation.

"I think it's on purpose," I tell her, pointing to the trainers. "We're going to have to fight them."

Several people turn at the word 'fight', Poke Balls bared. I feel a ripple of energy through my team, an electric surge of excitement linking all of us. "I think we can handle this." I tell them.

Trainers come up one at a time. We're more than happy to brawl with all skill classes and ages, although it pains me to see how many of the younger trainers are making do with two Raticates and nothing else. The reasoning behind it, even more disturbingly, seems to be that these Pokemon are easier to replace.

At least, that's what I figure, given that not one of the people I fight that day has a single Potion on hand.

My Pokemon, on the other hand, need constant healing despite having taken the 'best possible form' bit to heart. I spend most of my time spritzing on Potions or taking notes on their form, trying to find weak points for us to improve on in the future. Reginae's stamina is lacking, and he keeps trying to experiment with his Reflect to the point of overusing it. It's not Protect, it won't block everything, and fire attacks are generally completely unaffected. Still, I watch as he slams aside Raticates by blocking them and swivelling the barrier around to hit them, and I can't help but feel a bit of pride.