AN: Important/Exciting news at the bottom!
-/-
"Joey said you'd be in Pewter the second you woke up, but I knew you'd come to say good-bye," James grinned at the girl.
"-_-" Sabrina emoted.
Just like Joey, she also had a new fit for the journey. She was rocking pink trainers along with black spats and a purple half-kimono. It was very modern Heian chic.
"It was a good two months," Joey decided. "We made a lot of memories in this place."
He'd had fairly low expectations of Poketech Academy, but in the end, it hadn't been that bad. The classes were interesting and rewarding. The only fault of the academy was that it failed to teach the practical aspects of being a trainer, but well, that wasn't an issue for Joey.
"Like that one time you got full marks on all the exams. You didn't even have to sit them, you're not a student," James grumbled.
"Just testing my knowledge," Joey replied with a shrug. "It was also sort of funny how you got a 0; it was obviously a Jigglypuff, but seen from above. I don't know anyone who would say that's an Electrode."
James slumped his shoulder, and Growlie sneezed a small ball of fire on the ground in front of its trainer, which lifted the mood again. The puppy Pokemon then ran around happily.
"Or that one time with the Dragonite," James sighed with a grin. "I'm not forgetting the volcano anytime soon."
"Don't remind me." Joey grimaced. He'd lost a lot of street cred on that excursion. Nothing quite like getting pantsed in front of your friends by an angry pseudo-legendary.
"The nuclear research plant was the worst," Sabrina eventually muttered, causing Joey to groan.
"It wasn't that bad…" James muttered.
"We almost died!" Joey shouted.
His blue-haired friend raised his hands in an X in front of him. "Objection, we didn't!"
"If Sabrina hadn't managed to teleport away the core before it melted, they would be picking up pieces of our bodies from Mt. Moon." Joey threw up his hands.
Sabrina interjected, confused. "Didn't you say we'd have been vaporised?"
"It's a figure of speech, seriously, read a book!"
The psychic puffed out her chest and took a step towards Joey. She put an arm on his shoulder. "I did," she bragged. "How to win friends and influence people."
Joey grimaced at her and gently extradited himself from her grasp. "Go read it again, please. I'm not sure you understood the context."
Sabrina blinked at him innocently.
"Aw fuck you guys," Joey grumbled. "I'll miss y'all asses, even the mutt," he joked, looking at Growlie.
He received a bark in return and an eye roll from James.
"Walk to Vermillion, ship to Viridian, walk to Pewter?" the boy asked.
Joey nodded.
"I can take you with me," Sabrina offered quietly, only for the black-clothed boy to give her the stink-eye.
"The last time you took me somewhere, I ended up in a girl's bathroom. I trust you with my life, not my dignity."
The girl raised both her palms in the air defensively, and a small grin tugged at her lips. A blue flash, and she was gone.
"Whoever helped bring out her sense of humour deserves execution by firing squad," Joey grumbled.
James laughed awkwardly. "Come on, she deserves a break, especially after…"
A grimace passed over the trainer's face. "You're right," he eventually agreed before shaking his head. "Anyway, I have to scoot now." He held up a palm, causing the other boy to step forward and clasp it.
They shared a moment of non-homoerotic eye contact.
"Keep it real in the hood, brother," James said seriously as they hugged each other.
"Please never say that again, your parents are billionaires."
"Sorry."
The two friends shared a glance before Joey eventually turned around to start walking off.
"Wait!" A female voice suddenly shouted shrilly from behind the two of them, causing the boy to stop mid-step.
He turned around to see Giselle running towards them, waving her hands wildly. Joey let her approach, just to avoid being rude, she eventually came to a stop in front of him in her school uniform, panting harshly.
"You didn't even come say goodbye?" the girl asked shrilly after she finished panting and righted herself.
"I thought I told you not to bother me," Joey replied bluntly, causing the girl to flush in embarrassment rather than exertion this time.
"I just reached level four. You promised me a battle when I did," she insisted.
Joey simply raised an eyebrow. The Poketech academy liked to proclaim that their students often reached the badge-equivalent levels of battling skill through their attendance. When he'd first met Giselle on his first job at the academy, she'd supposedly been a 2-badge equivalent trainer if he remembered correctly. Not that he'd let that stop him from creaming her and her loser friends. Ever since Joey had arrived at the academy, the girl had a fire lit under her ass since she, according to her, didn't want to be looked down on by a pleb.
Slowly collecting herself, the girl eventually calmed down and flipped her hair defiantly. "Regardless, a promise is a promise, although I wouldn't expect a low-life to understand."
"I literally have more money than your parents," Joey muttered, and hadn't that been fun to find out. After doing the job with James, he'd officially become a multimillionaire. There were currently three million sitting on his bank account just waiting for more bets to grow. Being a trainer, especially one who knew the future was a lucrative job. Giselle's parents owned a semi-successful cosmetics company. They maybe had more assets than Joey, but from what James had told him, he outstripped them in liquidity.
Giselle decisively ignored that information, as she did James' quiet complaint of, "you've literally lost 14 battles already, just give it a rest."
"You promised," the girl said again.
Joey had, in fact, made that promise. He'd been tired of the girl's incessant challenges at some point, as repeatedly beating her team of ground Pokemon had eventually lost any training value for Metapod, who he'd been using to sweep her. After his 14th win, he'd managed to extract a promise from the girl to stop bothering him until she became a four-badge equivalent trainer to match his actual four badges.
"Did I promise anything?" Joey eventually said confusedly, before tilting his head and cleaning his ear with his pinky. "Maybe you could help me remember?" he rubbed the thumb of his free arm against his fore- and middle-finger. The universally acknowledged sign for…
"Fine," Giselle said through gritted teeth. "10,000 Pokedollars if you win. I'll just let you know that you're not beating the street rat allegations with your dishonourable behaviour."
Joey shrugged and took a few steps back to make space for the battle. He couldn't challenge Giselle through his Pokenav since the program would pick her up as a hobby trainer with zero badges. Winning that wouldn't get him any money, so informal betting it was. Cash only.
"I'm from the streets and I'm a rat," he said proudly before turning to James. "Officiate?" he asked and got a sigh from his friend.
"This will be an informal match between the two battle morons of Poketech," the boy said in a long-suffering voice. "A three-on-three, please prepare your Pokemon."
"I don't have time for you," Joey informed Giselle as the girl squared up against him.
"I'll crack your Metapod's defences," the girl said through gritted teeth.
Joey simply shook his head and palmed a Pokeball at his belt. "I'm not using Metapod," he informed the other girl. He didn't want to miss his ship, which meant it was time to finish this fast. His strongest Pokemon would take the stage.
Giselle paled but gripped her own Pokeball.
"Release your Pokemon!" James shouted.
"Go, Cubone!"
"End it, Misdreavus."
-/-
One minute later, Joey was walking south towards Vermillion with his hands behind his head while whistling a jaunty tune.
The battle had been easy; in fact, Misdreavus had only used two moves, repeating each three times, once each for each of Giselle's three Pokemon.
There was something delightfully unfair about using Hypnosis and Dream Eater at a low level where people hadn't yet learned to counter such basic tactics.
He'd have to send a thank-you letter to Tobias and his Darkrai for the idea. Or a cease and desist, considering that this time it was him who was going to popularise the move.
Out of all his Pokemon, Misdreavus had grown the most in the last two months.
She'd joined his team last, so it made sense; she was still in that initial gains period.
The only unfortunate reality was that…
Joey tapped a Pokeball at his belt and released his starter.
The purple rat materialised on the dirt path next to him and looked around listlessly before sighing and laying down.
Picking up his starter, Joey placed him onto his shoulder, continuing to walk.
The only unfortunate reality of Misdreavus' progress was that Rattata had lost his position as Joey's strongest Pokemon. A position that he'd held on to for dear life with the work ethic of a shounen protagonist for a year ever since they'd first met.
The last ten matches between Misdreavus and Rattata? 8-2. Absolute defeat.
Rattata had learned Shadow Ball, but Misdreavus could fly. Rattata knew Detect, but Misdreavus had more stamina. Rattata was normal-typed and wasn't damaged by Shadow Sneak, but Misdreavus could still use it to reposition.
Hypnosis and Dream Eater were both psychic moves.
Sabrina had helped somewhat with their mastery.
Until his starter learned Rest and Sleep Talk, which had become a very high priority, he wouldn't be able to do much against his teammate.
"Sulking doesn't suit you," Joey said out loud as they walked.
"Ra," his starter said dejectedly.
Rattata had made incredible progress in the past two months. He'd grown faster, stronger, better. He'd learned Shadow Ball, mastered Counter, and was slowly building a resistance against Hypnosis. But it wasn't enough. Misdreavus had simply improved more.
Even Diglett was now catching up to Rattata, although it hadn't happened yet. Magnitude had evolved into Earthquake, to the detriment of the nature around the academy. The mole-Pokemon's mastery of the ground element had increased immensely, and everything was on track.
Even Metapod had improved, as difficult as it was for her. She'd mostly mastered Sleep Talk, and Joey had ordered her the technical machine for Rest. She was still working on it. Psychic-type moves were hard for her, but while she was still the tank for the team and knew Sleep Talk, the move would be invaluable.
His Pokemon were now all, without fault, well-rounded and capable battlers.
Last year, he'd taken two months between every badge, and the pace had continued. He'd put Misdreavus and Rattata at the high sixth badge tier and mid sixth badge tier, respectively.
Diglett would easily have a good showing against any five badge Pokemon, while Metapod was the weakest at perhaps fourth badge level. Clear strengths, clear weaknesses.
If you ignored Egg, who hadn't hatched yet, the variability in strength in his team wasn't too high. A two-badge margin was alright. The average strength of his team was at the high fifth badge tier. Flint would be doable, perhaps even trivial, depending on which Pokemon the man picked.
Two months training after Pewter, then Blaine. Two months training after Blaine, then Koga. Two months training after Koga, then King. After that, four months to the conference. Easy peasy, right?
Joey's legs ate up ground as he walked.
Getting four badges in a season shouldn't be too hard.
But… For some reason he felt like it would be a challenge. King and Koga were considered two of the more difficult gyms, and Joey was sure that Blaine would also get that reputation. He'd been an Elite Four member after all.
Last year had been easy mode. Kong was a joke, the gym leader of Celadon was ok, the minor gym Joey had defeated had been easy. Lt. Surge had been hard, but Joey had gotten lucky. Last year, he'd had two hard gyms if you included King and three easy gyms. This year, he'd have one easy gym, Flint, and three hard ones.
Vermillion came into view, but Joey just walked through towards the pier.
There was a ferry that regularly took the route to Viridian.
It only cost a few Pokedollars. He got on and sat down on one of the seats on the deck, letting the seawind whip at his clothes.
Rattata remained lying on his shoulder, as if depressed.
Joey tentatively picked up his small starter and held him in his cupped palms. It barely fit.
"What are we going to do with you, huh?" Joey asked rhetorically. "Am I supposed to find a therapist?"
-/-
The ship took three hours to get to the fairly small port of Viridian. Thankfully, there had been no distractions on the way, although a pair of Tentacruel had gotten dangerously close.
They'd been too busy spitting water bubbles at each other to bother with the people, though, likely some sort of mating ritual.
Joey originally hadn't wanted to stay in Viridian for long. After all, this was Giovanni's home turf. He'd caught one of the earlier ferries so that he could immediately go into the Viridian forest and camp there.
It was as he was walking through the streets of Viridian and took a shortcut towards the north that he suddenly experienced a strong sense of deja vu.
Just as he was entering an alley, he was bumped from behind and lurched forward from the force of the push. As he struggled to regain his balance, a pink blur sped away from him.
Joey checked his pocket and realised that his wallet was gone.
He looked at the elaborate and large coil of magenta hair distancing itself from him. He grinned.
He'd known that there was something he was forgetting.
He ran.
-/-
The chase for the thief took Joey all across the city. He refrained from using Shadow Sneak this time since he knew that his wallet wasn't really in any danger, but just temporarily borrowed.
His legs pumped, he was strong, he was fast, but his advantage in speed was offset by the fact that the thief obviously knew the city better than him. They knocked over trash cans to block his way, jumped across fences and wiggled through emergency exits to emerge in a completely different city block.
It was after what felt like an eternity, but was more probably half an hour, that Joey finally cornered the pickpocket on the roof of a dilapidated apartment building.
The magenta-haired prey stood on the railing off the rooftop, looking down at a building that looked like it had been recently demolished.
"Tough luck, but it seems the real estate market didn't agree with your escape plan," Joey said cockily before taking a step forward and extending a hand towards the girl standing on the railing.
Jessie huffed at him, face red from exertion. After a few seconds of contemplation, during several of which she looked like she was actually going to jump and try to land in a trash container, she finally accepted his hand and hopped down from the railing.
She handed him his wallet back, and Joey tucked it away.
"Why do you still keep it in such a vulnerable position?" Jessie asked curiously. "There are inside pockets in your hoodie, I'd know, I gave it to you."
Joey frowned at her. "You stole it for me," he chastised, before grinning. "Thanks for that."
"That doesn't answer my question."
Joey shrugged. "Letting a pickpocket take my wallet isn't that serious if I can always catch them. If I had a frustrating day, I could even beat them up and release some anger," he joked.
Jessie shot him a worried look. She was wearing a pair of jogging pants and a tight-fitting elastic top. It looked like he'd caught her exercising.
It had been a busy time after he'd met the girl, so he'd mostly forgotten that he'd helped her pay the entrance exam fee for nursing school. After all, for him, it really hadn't been that much money. Since she'd never called him, he could only assume that… "You never dropped a line, you failed?" he asked curiously.
Jessie grinned at him and shook her head. Rummaging through her pockets she pulled out a napkin.
It wasn't just a napkin, in fact, but the napkin that he'd written his number on. Just that… Half the numbers were smudged beyond recognition.
"It rained," she explained. "I passed the entrance exam. Then I spent whatever money I had left over trying to call all the possible number combinations. Eventually, I ran out and had to eat canned beans and stale bread for a week before the school dormitories opened." She gave a tinkling laugh.
"Today's the first day of the season, usually a holiday. You're off?" Joey asked curiously. He had suspected that Jessie would pass if she got the chance.
Jessie puffed out her chest. "Nope," she said, popping the p.
Joey raised an eyebrow.
"You got expelled for misconduct?" he asked again.
The girl crossed her arms and glared at him. "Of course not, you idiot!" she shouted. "I graduated!"
Joey's eyes widened. "Wait, wait, wait, I thought the program was supposed to last a year."
"You can take the final exams whenever you want," Jessie said with a smirk. "And if you pass with an active scholarship like I did…" she grinned mischievously. "You get paid out 80% of what it was worth under the assumption that you'd stay for the whole year." Her face grew serious, and she put a hand under her top to pull out a few sweaty banknotes. "Here, I want you to have this. It's what I owe you for the entrance exam."
Joey looked dubiously at the slightly wet money. He wasn't really into that… "It's ok," he said weakly. "I just helped someone in need."
"You sure?" Jessie asked. "This is enough to buy 2670 cans of beans."
Joey looked at the soggy money with a deadpan and thought about the seven figures in his bank account. Did that mean that his assets were worth 2.7 million cans of beans?
No, he refused to count it like that.
"I'm sure," he eventually said.
"Whatever, anyway, what are you doing here?" Jessie asked curiously. "I can treat you to dinner if you want."
The boy shook his head and took a step forward to lean against the railing. The sun was high, but the weather was cold. It was the 22nd of February.
"I'm going to Pewter, actually, gotta challenge the gym there. And you? You finished early. What does that mean?" Joey asked.
Jessie twirled a lock of her hair in her finger. "Well, I have the money to live for almost a year. There are no open internships for nurses since these generally get assigned after the final exams. That means I essentially have nothing to do until December next year. They do it like that so you can get used to the feel of a Pokecenter off-season before it gets flooded later."
"So what," Joey said with a raised eyebrow. "You'll take a year off. Won't you be bored?"
Jessie shrugged. "I worked hard before and after those entrance exams. I haven't had time off in years. I was always scrounging to survive. This is the first time that I feel… free." She closed her eyes. "No obligations, no fear, no past to drag me down."
"You'll probably get bored, but that's a lesson in itself," Joey muttered. "Want to get dinner?" he asked, before being interrupted by a very sudden and very loud crack coming from right behind him.
Right by his ear, in fact.
Eyes widening, Joey took off his backpack and unzipped it, revealing Egg's incubator.
"Egg, it's hatching!" he exclaimed.
More and more cracks appeared in the beige coloured egg with pink spots. Joey opened the incubator and, as instructed by the manuals, took the egg and cradled it in his arms.
Pieces of shell fell off as he rocked the egg back and forth before, eventually, a bright pink appendage forced its way out, followed by another. A small pink Pokemon emerged and triumphantly cried.
"Happiny!" the Pokemon exclaimed.
"Wow, a Happiny," Joey said, almost crying tears of joy. The Pokemon he'd always wanted!
The newly born Pokemon froze at hearing his voice and looked up at exactly whose lap it was inhabiting. The expression on its little face turned to terror, before it shrieked "Happpppppp!" Then it promptly kicked its little legs, coincidentally, right into Joey's little balls, before hopping off his lap and running, tears streaming down its face, to Jessie with her bright magenta hair. The Pokemon suspiciously peeked out from behind the registered nurse's legs at Joey, who was still cradling his broken family jewels.
"This reaction," Jessie muttered with narrowed eyes while putting a thoughtful finger to her chin.
"Have you seen anything like this before?" Joey asked through gritted teeth as pain coursed through his body.
"I've read about it," Jessie said quietly before crouching down to look at Happiny from a lower position. She narrowed her eyes at the Pokemon before looking around the rooftop. She eventually found a discarded magazine promoting swimwear and held up the cover page to the Pokemon. It was a blonde woman with big breasts in a tight white bikini.
"Happiny!" the baby pokemon said happily.
Jessie flipped the page to show a man in brown swimming trunks posing for the camera, 'they could be yours for just 122 Pokedollars!'
Happiny shrank back in fear and defensively held up her little arms.
Woman, happy, man scared, woman, happy, man, scared.
Joey eventually nodded with a sigh. Shit. This Happiny was…
"I think I've figured it out," Jessie eventually said after finishing the magazine.
"I already got it-" Joey started before getting interrupted.
"This Happiny is scared of ugly people!"
-/-
AN: Guys, help me out and check out my new story on RoyalRoad about a stupid mage getting stuck in a time loop! My first time writing something completely original so I'd really appreciate your support.
Also, well, if you like my writing style, you'll probably like this!
Time Looping For Dummies by Bor902 on RoyalRoad