Single post in Life of a trainer

Chapter 21 – Azalea Town and other noteworthy events Andy’s travel finally brought him to Azalea Town, where the first thing he noticed was how many Slowpoke there were in the streets. He recalled George had said something about Slowpoke being important for the town, but he hadn’t expected to see that many. So he asked one of the older townsmen who was sitting on a bench in the park what that was about, and the man told him about how a Slowpoke’s yawn ended a drought in this very town 400 years ago. The man showed Andy the Slowpoke Well, something he had already heard about, but it was nice to see it for real. After that Andy asked where Kurt the Poké Ball smith lived and the man told Andy where he had to be. Of course it was a house he had passed on his way to the center of the village, so he turned back to the house located near the forest he had been travelling through. Once he had found the house he rang the doorbell and a young girl opened the door. She had her brown hair in two tails on either side of her head and she looked at Andy curiously. “Hello,” Andy greeted her. “I’m looking for Kurt.” The girl nodded and turned her head. “Grandpa! Someone is here for you.” After that she turned back to Andy. “He’ll be here soon,” she said to him with an adorable smile. And sure enough, an old man appeared in the entrance of the house. “Yes?” the man, of which Andy thought it had to be Kurt, asked. “I’m Andy,” Andy introduced himself. “A Pokémon trainer. I spend a while at the daycare of George and Sophia just outside Goldenrod city and he mentioned you.” “I see, how is George?” And with that a conversation started. Kurt invited Andy inside as they talked about George and Andy’s travel so far. Upon request, he showed Andy his tools and how he made a Poké Ball from an apricorn. At one point, Andy showed Kurt his cracked Poké Ball, the one he had used in his first attempt to catch his Hoothoot. The old man just looked at it silently for a moment before he looked up. “What happened with it?” he asked. “I tried to catch a Hoothoot and hit a tree instead,” Andy explained with a shrug. “So the Hoothoot evaded,” concluded Kurt as he took the cracked Poké Ball to inspect it more closely. Andy grinned. “Nope, I just missed and hit a tree instead.” For a moment Kurt was silent, but then he burst out in laughter. “Next time tell people you mistook a tree for a Sudowoodo!” “Good idea!” Andy said, hitting his hand with his fist. “That I didn’t think of that. It will be my story from now on!” Kurt examined Andy for a moment and shook his head with a smile on his face. “No, I think you’re going to stick with the truth. You don’t seem ashamed of it.” “I’m not.” Andy shrugged as he said that. “I missed, it’s not a big deal. But you should have seen my Butterfree, he was laughing so hard he came tumbling down from the sky. I think it was the funniest thing he had seen in ages. He still laughs every time he sees this Poké Ball.” “Do you even want it repaired?” Kurt then asked. “Actually...no. This will be a great memory for later. I can already see children sitting on my knee asking me to tell how I caught Merlin and I will tell them how heroically I entered the battle with Benny and how I threw the Poké Ball and how it slammed against a tree instead of hitting Merlin. It will be a great story to tell.” Kurt laughed and continued working on the apricorn that was lying in front of him. Andy remained with Kurt and his granddaughter Maisy for a couple of days. Kurt shared his knowledge about Poké Balls with him and Andy let his Furret and Butterfree play with Maisy and her Slowpoke. For some reason she was quite fond of the pink Pokémon, Andy couldn’t really see why, it seemed like a dull Pokémon to him, but to each his or her own. If everyone liked the same Pokémon, battles would be boring rather quickly. While he was there, Andy toldMaisy stories, the story about Benny’s evolution quickly became her favorite. It was the first time for the other three Pokémon of Andy to hear it as well and Benny could only confirm what Andy had told Maisy. And when he told Maisy about his attempt to catch Merlin she giggled. While he stayed in Azalea town, Andy decided to challenge the gym leader Bugsy, who had bug-type Pokémon. During the first round Andy had called his Butterfree to battle Bugsy’s Spinarak. Towards the end of the battle the Spinarak had been able to prevent Benny from flying with a well-aimed string-shot, but while he was covered with the sticky substance, Benny was able to finish the battle with a confusion attack. As second Pokémon Bugsy called forth a Metapod. Andy returned Benny and replaced him with his Hoothoot. With the type advantage, it wasn’t a though battle. The tough battle followed when Bugsy called on his Scyther. When Andy asked if Merlin thought he was up for it, the Hoothoot gave him a look that said ‘why are you doubting me, of course I’m up for it’ much to Andy’s amusement. Even with the type advantage, it was a tough battle. In the end Merlin managed to win by using his Echoed Voice for the first time and when the Scyther lay unconscious in the grass, Merlin was surrounded by a white glow and he evolved from a Hoothoot into a Noctowl. After receiving the badge, Andy continued his travel through the Johto region. And, amongst other locations, he visited the Sprout Tower and the Ruins of Alph. While he was in the Ruins of Alph, Andy decided he wanted to visit his older brother, who was attending a university in the Kanto region. His brother had a fascination for history and was striving to be a Pokémon archaeologist. Something Andy wasn’t all that interested in, but as he was standing in the Ruins he recalled his brother had mentioned a field trip to this very location. As he was thinking about his brother and since he didn’t have any real plans, he decided he might as well travel back to Kanto to visit him. A second attempt really, he had tried to visit his brother when he was in the region, but he had arrived at the university when his brother was at this location, so he had continued to Mt. Moon instead. After checking his map, Andy decided he’d travel over Mount Silver back to the Kanto region. The bullet train, even if it was fast, was boring. And he’d be closer to the university if he’d go over the mountain. Of course he could go through the cave system of the mountain, but a cave was a cave and he already had been inside Mount Moon. He really didn’t care that much for caves, unlike his brother. So, the decision was easy, he’d travel to Mount Silver and go over it to Kanto. To reach Mount Silver, Andy had to travel through New Bark Town, where he met with both professor Elm, who owned a lab there, and professor Oak, who was visiting the place. He told both professors where he was from. Professor Oak recalled professor Maple was in charge there for guiding beginning trainers there and asked how she was. Andy spent the remained of the day in New Bark Town and he became more and more interested in the work these Pokémon professors did. But first things first, he wanted to visit his brother, so the next day he continued his travel to Mount Silver, feeling excited about this travel over the mountain.