White 2 Nuzlocke Part 2
Chapter 2: Finding Friends
*Rustle* *rustle* Jacob looked around, positive he heard something scurrying around in the grass. As he scanned the field, he made contact with another pair of eyes locked onto his. As the Patrat jumped out at him, Jacob grabbed the Pokeball from his belt loop, and released the Oshawott. “Enzo go!” The two Pokemon stared each other down.
“Ok, Bianca said I only get once chance to catch a Pokemon on each route, so I gotta make this count if I want to build a team. Enzo, tackle it…but gently”
Oshawott looked confused, but obeyed what his trainer told him. The Patrat looked weakened, only retaliating with a weak tackle of its own.
“Alright it’s weak, let’s hope this works!”
The red and white orb flew through the air from Jacob’s hand, tapping the Patrat on the head. A red beam shot from the ball, as the Patrat turned into white energy and flew inside the ball. One shake. Jacob starred eagerly at the ball. Two shakes. His eyes widened. Three shakes. Will this be his first actual catch? *Click* The ball stopped rocking and locked.
“Yeah!! Great job Enzo we did it!” Jacob exclaimed, and hi five (pawed?) his partner, who cheered happily as well. “I’m going to name her Wendy, she’ll be a great new friend!”
Patrat (Wendy)
Brave Nature
Met at level 3- Route 19
“Great, great! We’re building our team, let’s keep moving.” With a successful first capture, Jacob felt much more confident as he strode farther into the route, head held high. As he reached the end, almost arriving to Floccesy Town, he heard a noise on top of the cliff to his left.
“Hey kid!” A man with wild red hair, a tribal-esque cloak, and a string of 6 Pokeballs draped around his neck jumped down and landed gracefully in front of Jacob, despite falling from over 50 feet. “It seems you have some Pokemon with you, I can sense you have potential.”
“Um thank you? Can I ask who you are?” Jacob stepped back slightly from the odd encounter.
“My name is Alder. My house is not too far ahead; I’d like you to come visit.” With that remark, he turned and walked into the town, vanishing down a street corner.
Ummmm ok that was weird. But I guess we should explore this new city. Maybe we’ll find that guy’s house.
After healing up his team, Jacob headed north, following his map to route 20. “We can get a new team member on the new route! Let’s head up there!” Jacob began running eagerly towards the new route, when he heard a familiar voice shout out to him.
“Woah there young one! Where are you off to? My house is right here, I’d like you to come visit.” Alder was standing in front of a dirt patch that had a battle spot drawn in the dirt. “Sorry but I have an extra town map I need to give to my, uh, friend.” Jacob said, not pausing to talk and kept on towards route 20.
“Well come back once you’ve found him! I have something important to show you!” Alder shouted after Jacob, but the words faded into the air as Jacob was focused on getting a new Pokemon.
“Hey, you’re a trainer, I can see Pokeballs on your belt! Let’s battle!”
“Wait what?” Jacob was confused at the sudden aggression. Before he could react, a Patrat was ready and raring for battle in front of the young trainer across the field of fallen leaves. “Oh man, he’s for real. Ok I’ve beaten Austin once, I can do this again. Let’s go Enzo!”
A quick dodge of the opposing Patrat’s Tackle, and one Water Gun later, and the trainer hung his head, returning his Pokemon to his ball. “Man I really thought I was getting stronger….”
“Hey man it’s ok, just keep training. You’ll get there! I just started training Pokemon so I may have gotten lucky!”
“Ok…” he said between sniffles. “Thanks for the help, at least I got some experience.”
“Sure thing! Good luck!” Jacob ran off, feeling a little bad about dampening the young boy’s spirits by beating him, but he knows that’s what he needs to do if he wants to progress. As he was reflecting on his win, he heard a rustling under a pile of leaves. Approaching slowly, he reached for Wendy’s Pokeball, ready to use his new team member. The pile fell apart as a Pidove flew out the shower of leaves. “Wendy, Bite!” The Patrat sunk its fangs into the bird’s leg, keeping it pinned to the ground. A Pokeball throw later, and a new team member was added. “Ok it looks like that attack made it have a limp. I’lll call him Waddle!”
Pidove (Waddle)
Bashful nature
Met at level 2-Route 20
“Hmmm I think Austin said something about the ranch earlier, he must be there!” Jacob ran north to enter the Floccesy Ranch, spying his friend’s spiky blue hair poking up over a hay bale. “There he is! Austin, hey!”
“Huh? Oh Jacob, hey! I didn’t know you’d be coming this way. You have two more Pokemon? Sweet!” “Yeah thanks, I came to give you the extra town map your sister gave me.”
“Great thank you. She’s always thinking I’m so unprepared for things, so annoying… Hey we should battle! See how much stronger we’ve gotten!”
“Um sure, I can try out my new team members!”
Austin sent out Snivy, leaving no other Pokeballs on his belt.
“You haven’t caught anymore Pokemon?” Jacob was confused, as new trainers only get a finite amount of chances to get new ones.
“Nah, I’ll be strong with just him for now, I’ll get more later. Now let’s go!”
“Ok, I’ll use my newest member, go Waddle!”
Pidove appeared from the ball, walking forward with a slight limp, a bit shy of fighting the grass type across from him.
“Alright Snivy, Tackle!” The grass snake slammed into Pidove.
“Alright, use Gust!” Waddle took to the air, and slung a fury of wind at Snivy, knocking it back.
“Gah, come on, we’ve gotta be stronger than that. Snivy, Tackle again!”
Oh man, Waddle is looking weak. But I can’t switch into Enzo, water is weak to grass. Wait! I have a potion my mom gave me before I left!
Jacob pulled out a tiny purple bottle and sprayed it on Waddle. “There, all better. Now use Gust again!”
Waddle whirled up a tiny tornado again, and sent it flying towards Snivy, leaving him lying on the ground, struggling to get up.
“Hey that’s cheating! You can’t heal in the middle of a battle!” Austin was stomping his feet in disapproval at Jacob’s play.
“I’m pretty sure it’s fine to do that Austin, it said so in the trainer booklet. There are even berries that Pokemon can use on their own in battle to heal themselves.”
“Grrrrr. Fine. Snivy, return!” He grumbled, “I can’t let him faint….” His voice trailed off under his breath.
“Well howdy there! Ya’ll seem to be some fine young trainers.” A rather rotund man wearing overalls over a tattered red shirt and a straw hat walked up, with a tiny woman wearing a green bandana and worn jeans and a Herdier following behind. “Your Pokemon seem a little tattered there. Here, let me heal them up for ya!” He took out a container with a green liquid, and sprayed it over the Pokeballs of Austin and Jacob. The balls held a faint yellow glow for a brief second, and Jacob could feel Waddle’s energy grow stonger from inside the ball.
“Wow thanks sir!” Jacob exclaimed, “that was very nice of you!”
“Yeah…thanks.” Grumbled Austin, still sour from his loss.
“Well actually, I was hoping ya’ll could use those Pokemon of yours to help us out. Ya see, our other Herdier got lost and we haven’t been able to find him. This one here has been rather upset, and we can’t leave him to go look. Would you fine fellers mind searching the ranch here for ‘im? We’d much appreciate it!”
“Of course! It’s the least we can do for battling in your ranch, and of course for you healing our team members!” Jacob turned toward Austin. “Do you want to split up, or search together?” But by the time he looked over, Austin was running into the trees north of the ranch, shouting back.
“We gotta find him, a Pokemon is in trouble!!”
“Wow, uh, ok. He’s moving fast haha. Coming!”
Around rocks, up in trees, deep in bushes. Jacob and Austin looked everywhere they could find. After an hour of searching, the boys were exhausted.
“Do you want to take a break?” Huffed Jacob as he sat against a tree, trying to catch his breath.
“No way!” Austin said, still standing and pacing back and forth. “A Pokemon is in trouble, we can’t let it get hurt! We have to keep searching, let’s go!”
Austin froze, then turned his ear towards the air, as if he heard something. “Wait, I think I can hear it, come on!” And took off running again.
Jacob sighed, grunted while he rose, and followed after Austin. He was several paces behind, but could clearly hear Austin yelling at who knows what. He quickened his pace to see Austin pointing a finger at a person clad in grey and black garb. Their face was obscured with a bandana around their mouth, and a low hanging hat only allowed the eyes to be seen. Behind the mystery person, was the Herdier they have been searching for.
“I’m not going to tell you again, hand over the Herdier you thief!”
“Ughh fiiine, you’re so overdramatic. I guess this one plan has been foiled, but Team Plasma has bigger and better schemes! You’ll see!” The mystery person threw an object at the ground, that exploded into a puff of thick smoke. When it cleared, all that was left was the Herdier, looking scared and cowering in the grass.
“Hey buddy, we’re here to help you, no reason to be scared.” Austin spoke in a gentle tone that Jacob has never heard before. The Herdier started to slowly crawl towards Austin, hesitant at first, but eventually took cover in his outstretched arms. Jacob, who saw the whole thing from behind the trees, stepped out and approached his friend. Just then the owners of the ranch ran up, cheering that their Pokemon was found safe.
“Thank you so much!” The lady said to Austin, tears forming in her eyes. “We had no idea when we’d ever get him back. Thank you!”
“Oh, it was nothing. He needed help.” Austin replied modestly. “Glad we could help. Come on Jacob, let’s get going, you mentioned some crazy guy with red hair wanted to see us?”
“Uh yeah, he did. Well we’re going to get going, see you guys!” The boys waved to the couple, as they went back to hugging their rescued friend.
“Hey,” Jacob turned to Austin while they walked “what did that person mean when they said they worked for Team Plasma? What’s that?”
“You don’t know? They were very present in Unova about 2 years ago. They believed in setting Pokemon free from ‘enslavement’ by trying to steal them away from trainers.”
“And they did this how?”
“By using Pokemon.”
“Wow.” “I know.”
Just then, a rustle in the grass nearby caught their attention. A small Azurill cautiously peered out from the brush, looking quizzically at the pair. “Oh sweet, a new Pokemon!” Jacob said joyously. “Austin, do you want to catch it?”
“Something weak like that? Ha, no thanks, it’s all yours bro.”
“Dang harsh, I think it’ll fit my team just fine!” A quick toss of a Pokeball, and Jacob added another friend to his growing party. “Awesome, I’m building my team more and more, welcome to the team Lure!”
Azurill (Lure)
Careful Nature
Met at Level 3 – Floccesey Ranch
Jacob and Austin walked back through Route 20 towards Floccesy Town, training their Pokemon up a bit on the way. Right before the entrance to town, Alder was there waiting for them.
“Hey, I see you found your friend! Come on inside.” The boys followed, and upon entering the house, two small children stood, Pokeballs in hand. “Ok now children, let’s practice what I told you both earlier.” He turned to the older duo, “I’d like you two to battle these young ones.”
“I’m sorry what?” questioned Jacob. “They’re just kids, won’t they lose?”
“Don’t worry about that, just do a quick battle. Should be easy then, right?” Alder had a mischievous grin on his face.
“Uhh, ok. If you say so.”
The kids each had a Lillipup, and were defeated easily by Austin and Jacob. Yet, they didn’t seem upset.
“Oh man that was fun! My Pokemon did a good job, I’m proud of it!” One of the children exclaimed.
“Umm but you lost, aren’t you upset about it” Austin asked, confused at the child’s enthusiasm despite losing.
“No, we had fun!” The other child explained.
“You see, kids,” Alder chimed in to the two boys “a key part of raising and training Pokemon is not always to just win battles, but to enjoy your time with them. If you aren’t having fun doing what you’re doing, why do it at all?”
“That’s a good point.” Jacob agreed, as he was really enjoying getting to grow his team and learn more about each member.
“But what’s the fun in losing? The most important thing is to be strong, right?” Austin argued.
“I’ll let you figure that out on your own time. Now then, the next step for you two is to face the gym leader! Head back to your home town and then you’ll really start your journey!”
Suddenly ushered out of the house, the two friends, confusingly, made their way home.
“Man that guy is a nut job,” Austin laughed “having us fight little kids like that. Dude’s crazy!”
“Yeah I guess, but he made some good points, don’t you think?”
“Eh whatever, I’m ready to get my first gym badge!”
They made it back to Aspertia City with little incident, discussing more about what Alder told them. Upon arriving, Austin headed back to his house to prepare, while Jacob headed towards the gym, which was currently being held behind the Trainer’s School.
He opened the metal doors, and turned right down the hallway. The school has been closed for some time now, as there was no one to run it. Now that a gym leader has finally arrived, the building has slowly regained life. Still, the cool air down the hall sent chills down Jacob’s spine, as he arrived at a door to the classroom, he saw a sign posted:
GYM LEADER OUT BACK
Following instructions, Jacob headed to the back of the room and opened the door leading outside. Before him stood a giant Pokemon battle field. At the far end of the yard, there was a boy not too much older than himself standing atop a high platform. Jacob had to squint to see, the sun was glaring in his eyes, and could only make out his silhouette.
“Trainers, we have a challenger!” The voice was firm and had authority, yet carried a gentleness to it. He raised his hand and pointed a finger at Jacob. “Beat my two trainers and you’ll get to challenge me. I look forward to our battle. Let the Gym Challenge begin!”
Well, thought Jacob, swallowing his nerves, guess there’s no turning back now.
——————-
Team so far:
Oshawott (Enzo)-Level 11
Patrat (Wendy) Level 10
Pidove (Waddle) Level 10
Azurill (Lure) Level 8
