With no clue where Morty could be, the only place I have yet to explore in Ecruteak is the burned tower... Surely, a Ghost type aficionado would have better, less clichéd things to do than to hang around a dilapidated ruin, right? It was a dark and stormy night as I entered the tower...
I did find Morty inside, along with a fellow named Eusine.
They told me they were in here searching for legendary Pokémon. What is it with everyone's obsession with legends? Eusine is one thing, being named after Suicune, I get it. But should Morty be letting it effect a dereliction of a gym leader's duties? They wouldn't leave, so I decided to explore further in. With Grade the Diglett's Rock Smash, I found a couple spare Pokéballs and an antidote.
Deeper in the maze of the broken-down tower, I encountered Silver, who I wouldn't have expected to be a fanatic of this sort. Even so, he was in the Burned Tower hunting down legendary Pokémon. Good grief.
After our battle, which literally rocked the house, I made a false step on a broken board and plunged straight down into an unfinished cave-like basement level.
I was okay, but I didn't see a way back up. I was about to Dig out of there with Grade's help, but something caught my eye over the nearby rise. I went up the incline to investigate. There were three of them, half canine half feline. Three great beasts of Pokémon, sleeping together in the cave. I was lost in the grandeur until I heard another crash behind me.
The three sleeping Pokémon heard it too, and they each fled in a different direction. Going back down the rise, I found that the cause of the noise was that Eusine fellow.
He left in a hurry, claiming he was after Suicune. Yeah, Okay. Good luck with that. Sometimes I wonder if people are really stupid enough to believe that there's only one individual legendary Pokémon of each kind. They're not immortal. Like every other species, there must be more of them, somewhere.
Well, without further ado, I went back to Ecruteak City Gym and waded in. It was tough going, but nothing my team and I couldn't handle. I led with Cloud, who was immune to most ghost moves, and then pivoted to Naesthes and Embers, to give them both more experience battling Pokémon that use what we trainers call special attacks. A bunch of the sages and mediums in Morty's Gym had underleveled Haunters, which seemed to me to be not the most responsible way to do it.
Eventually, I got to Morty.
Morty told me that there is a legend that a rainbow Pokémon would appear to a strong trainer, which was exactly the same thing Eusine told me, that Suicune specifically would appear to a strong trainer. Having seen a Suicune myself, and knowing they're not rainbow colored, I have to laugh.
Next Morty told me he has been training relentlessly in pursuit of power, so that the Rainbow Pokémon will appear to him. That's when it all clicked for me. This guy's cracked in the brain pan. It's not that the Gym leader for the city was off chasing delusions, it's that a Pokéfan with delusions became Gym leader. His underleveled Gengar proved it to me, that that's where the members of his gym got the ideation that it's okay to push their Pokémon so hard.
Coincidentally, almost ironically, my Gastly Naesthes started evolving when I beat Morty. I urged them not to feel pressured to push forward just because the competition is doing so, and only evolve if it felt like the right time and at the right pace for Naesthes, and they stopped evolving of their own accord. After all, we have a lot to learn about ourselves just the way we are.
Like all Johto Gym leaders, Morty was giving out a promotional TM along with his badge, the Fogbadge. It was, in this case, Shadow Ball. I'll tuck that one away for a clutch moment.
I don't know what's on the horizon, but one thing's for sure: My team and I will face it together. If the rest of Johto's gym leaders are as sloppy as the first four, we're well on our way to being the best, like no one ever was!
By Arceus, only Whitney had exactly one Johto Pokémon so far!
