Grey's POV
It was a new day, and I got ready to move out of this city and back to my adventure.
The past few days had been something else. First, beating Surge, then the S.S. Anne Tournament where I reached the finals, then getting my back injured and falling into a coma for a week, followed by another week of rehabilitation.
Sigh.
That was certainly an experience.
As much as I had started liking Vermilion City, maybe the trainers avoiding the city after the S.S. Anne incident were onto something. I should probably get out of here now and go explore somewhere safer.
I had my backpack with me, though Exeggutor was carrying it. Normally, I don't like advertising my Pokémon out in the open while traveling, but this was an exception, at least until my back healed completely.
Before leaving, I went to the Gym to say goodbye to Surge. I also said goodbye to Bill, who would be returning to his mansion using Teleport now that I had recovered and was leaving the city.
Before I left, he handed me a new phone.
Apparently, it was so I could keep him updated.
I then left the city through the coastal road leading to Route 6.
My plan was to use the Underground Path connecting Vermilion and Cerulean this time. I hadn't explored that route before, and hopefully I would reach Cerulean City in a few days to challenge for my fourth Gym Badge.
I walked alongside Exeggutor for almost two hours before finding a good spot to stop and take a break.
I released my Pokémon, gave them their Pokéfood, and then ate my own meal while relaxing.
After some time, while I was still eating, a trainer approached me out of nowhere and asked if I was Grey.
I told him yes.
Then he asked for my autograph.
I was honestly surprised by that. I wasn't famous enough to be getting asked for autographs... was I?
After giving him a fake signature—
I wasn't giving a real one. I had no idea if he would use it for some weird or nefarious purpose. At least this one just had my name written in an italic font and nothing else.
—I asked him how he even knew who I was.
He told me that I, along with the other three Top Four candidates, had exploded in popularity online because of the S.S. Anne Tournament.
I hadn't known that.
Then again, I hadn't checked the PokéNet in quite a while, so I was completely out of the loop.
I guess I should start checking it every now and then.
He then asked how I survived the incident and where I had been for the past two weeks. I explained that I had been injured and recovering in Vermilion City.
He seemed sympathetic after hearing that.
Before leaving, he gave me his number just in case and introduced himself as Evan.
After that, I resumed walking.
I wanted to cover some distance on foot with Exeggutor before beginning my daily training, and after another two hours of walking, I was almost at the entrance to the Underground Path.
During that time, I encountered several other trainers.
Unlike Evan, they thankfully didn't ask for autographs.
What they did want, however, was information about the tournament.
Lots and lots of information.
Honestly, it was exhausting.
For an introvert like me, having to talk to so many strangers back-to-back felt like a battle all by itself.
Still, I couldn't exactly tell them to get lost either.
A few trainers also challenged me, wanting to see whether I was the real deal or not.
They lost pretty easily.
Most trainers on this route seemed to be around the two- to three-badge level.
I used Axew at first, and it beat all of their Pokémon without much trouble.
After a while, I switched to Charmander.
To my surprise, Charmander was beating everyone up as well.
How?
I had only gotten Charmander recently.
Sure, it was stronger than the average starter. It clearly had prior training, probably because of whatever investment the Champion had made into it. The fact that it already knew Dragon Dance and Dragon Pulse suggested that either Lance had personally taught it those moves or it had been bred to learn them and received training before I got it.
Still, barely two weeks had passed since I received Charmander.
Yet a Charmander trained for only two weeks was defeating Pokémon raised by two- and three-badge trainers—Pokémon like Nidorino, Farfetch'd, and Spearow—and doing so consistently.
I guess the training with Surge had been way too effective if Charmander had caught up this quickly.
Then I realized I was forgetting something important.
Even though I only had three badges, I was probably already as strong as a five-badge trainer, maybe even stronger now that Cloyster and Exeggutor had evolved into absolute monsters.
So perhaps it wasn't surprising after all.
Just being around such a strong team, receiving guidance from them, and getting pushed constantly by Surge's Pikachu—its training partner for the week—had probably accelerated Charmander's growth tremendously.
"Your thinking is correct, friend Grey."
Exeggutor's voice suddenly echoed inside my head.
I nearly jumped.
"You can read my thoughts?" I asked, annoyed.
Exeggutor sounded far too pleased with itself.
"Only surface-level thoughts," it replied. "But you think so loudly and so often that it is easy to piece things together."
Great.
Just great.
Now I had to learn how not to think on the surface.
The moment that thought crossed my mind, Exeggutor immediately answered.
"That's the neat part. You don't."
Dammit.
I finally gave up on thinking about it and decided to take another break.
Finding a large tree nearby, I sat down in its shade and released the rest of my team.
Today, I decided to make my Pokémon continue training the moves that were yet to be perfected, building upon the training they had done under Surge. For many of them, while they gained a ton of battle experience in a short period of time, they weren't able to dedicate enough time to fully perfect the moves they were working on. That was completely fine by me, as I would take growth in battle any day over simply mastering a move. Even after bringing a move to a high level, it might not end up being that useful in battle, but experience and improvement in battle skill are always valuable.
For Charmander, I told it to continue working on its Dragon-type coverage. While I do find it weird that I now have two Pokémon connected to Lance, and he seemed to have ensured that both had Dragon-type moves, I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth. I wanted Charmander to keep refining those moves. From the battles I had watched between it and Pikachu, Charmander was already very good at using Flamethrower, which it somehow knew courtesy of Lance or perhaps from its previous environment. However, it wasn't nearly as proficient at using Dragon-type energy. That was fine, though, as it might simply be more naturally suited to Fire-type attacks than I initially thought.
Still, having Dragon-type coverage is always useful. Dragon moves can hit most Pokémon neutrally, so if Charmander ever finds itself against a Pokémon where its Fire typing isn't effective, such as Rock- or Ground-types, it can fall back on Dragon Pulse or Dragon Claw. The difference between Axew and Charmander's Dragon moves was also quite evident. Axew performed both Dragon Claw and Dragon Pulse far better, despite only learning them around two weeks ago. Maybe it was because of STAB, or maybe Charmander was simply more naturally aligned with Fire-type attacks. Either way, that worked out well for me. Combined with Exeggutor, it would make abusing sunny weather much easier in the future.
For Exeggutor, I decided to finally give it the TM for Solarbeam and have it begin practicing the move. At the same time, it needed to continue working on its overall control and adaptation after evolution. Learning Solarbeam was the short-term goal. Regaining perfect control over its upgraded abilities was the long-term one.
Its previous moves had become significantly stronger after evolving, but with that increase in power came a noticeable decrease in control. That wasn't unexpected. Surge had already warned me that whenever a Pokémon experiences a large jump in power, it usually needs time to adjust before it can use that power efficiently. Dedicated practice would solve that issue eventually.
For Persian... sigh.
Initially, I had told it to continue searching for useful items. However, it had become annoyingly picky about that job. Nowadays, it either brought back something genuinely valuable or absolutely nothing at all. Thankfully, thanks to Bill becoming my sponsor, money and items were no longer major concerns for me.
Still, I realized Persian's attitude could have become a huge problem if the rest of my team weren't as strong as they were. Yes, for a brief period after evolving, Persian had been the strongest member of the team. But even the cat knew that its reign at the top wasn't going to last forever, especially after seeing what Cloyster and Exeggutor had become.
That was probably why Persian never developed an overwhelming amount of arrogance. Every time it started feeling too proud of itself, reality reminded it that there were teammates capable of flattening it.
At the moment, there wasn't much I specifically wanted Persian to learn. I lacked the TMs needed to expand its movepool with coverage attacks, which was the role I ultimately envisioned for it. In my mind, Persian was a support Pokémon and item finder whose movepool would eventually become so diverse that it could either counter or weaken almost any opponent for another member of the team to finish off.
For now, I decided to have it focus on improving its speed. After fighting Surge's Raichu, it had seen what truly elite speed looked like. While it couldn't replicate whatever secret technique that rat was using, it could at least use Quick Attack drills to push its own speed higher. I also planned to research ways to train Agility in the future.
At the same time, I instructed Persian to continue sharpening its claw-based attacks. Night Slash, Slash, Shadow Claw, and Fury Swipes all benefited from faster execution and better precision, so there was plenty of room for improvement there.
For Axew, the plan was simple. Continue helping Charmander with its training while refining its own Dragon-type moves. While Axew's Dragon Claw and Dragon Pulse were clearly superior to Charmander's right now, that wasn't exactly a high benchmark. It still had plenty of room to improve.
Frankly, Axew didn't need a new move at the moment. Its movepool was already solid for where it was in its development. What it truly needed was battle experience. More battles meant more growth, and more growth meant evolution. Honestly, I felt like evolution was much closer than I initially thought. Axew had noticeably grown larger since the day I received it as my starter.
Finally, there was Cloyster.
Its focus remained the same as before: regain its momentum and recover enough speed to make its previous techniques fully viable again. We would also continue refining Shell Smash and Icicle Spear.
Honestly, Cloyster was terrifying on paper.
If the setup was right, it had the potential to sweep entire teams. One successful Shell Smash and its offensive power became absurd. The real challenge wasn't boosting its strength. It was keeping it on the field long enough to actually make use of that strength.
Unlike in the games, where Pokémon are limited to four moves and creativity is practically nonexistent, battles in the real world offered far more flexibility. The defensive drop caused by Shell Smash could be mitigated through techniques like Counter Shield, Protect, and even evasive maneuvers using Water Gun for movement and positioning.
If Cloyster could regain the speed and momentum it possessed as a Shellder, then many of the weaknesses that came with Shell Smash would become significantly less dangerous. Realistically, the only new attacks it truly needed in the future were Hydro Pump and Blizzard. Everything else was already there.
Just like Exeggutor, Cloyster's development was now a long-term project. Slowly regain its momentum, refine its techniques, and improve its ability to stay in battle after setting up.
With my Pokémon busy training on their respective tasks, I finally decided to sit down beneath a tree and scroll through the PokéNet to catch up on everything I had missed while recovering.
Author's Note: We are back to chapters with thoughts from grey regarding his team etc , some of you were wanting these kind of chapters,some prefer lighter chapters , dont worry this fic has a mix of all kinds of chapters to enjoy, that said the next chapter will be a reaction chapter.