章 4: To Rustboro City!

It was early the next morning when I was woken up by my pokedex ringing. I groggily reach over to grab it from the nightstand, flipping open the lid I pressed the answer call button.

"Hello? Isaac, are you there?"

At that I snapped awake. Something about hearing my mom's voice cleared the fog from a night of sleep almost instantly. I quickly said, "Mom, give me a sec. I'm just waking up."

"It's alright Isaac, no need to get up for me. I was just calling to tell you that your dad sent his gift to Rustboro City's Pokemon Center. You can pick it up when you get there."

"Ah, alright mom. Thanks." With that I ended the call and checked the time, only to see that i was actually almost 11 a.m. I slept way too late. I still wanted to go through Rusturf Tunnel and Route 116 today, and I had to speak to Rhyhorn. I quickly rushed through my morning ablutions, returned Sucellus to his pokeball as he prefers to sleep outside of it, grabbed a sandwich from the center's cafeteria and headed to the small yard behind the center.

Once I was outside I released Sucellus and said, "Hey buddy, I'll give you food in a bit. I wanted to let out Rhyhorn and let her know about her current situation. I need you to be ready incase she takes it poorly."

"See-See!"

"Alright." Grabbing Rhyhorn's pokeball I let her out. She looked around a bit noticing she was in a different area than the habitat Mr. Alpin kept for Delilah and any others of the Rhyhorn evolutionary line that he is watching. After a few moments she looked around and saw Sucellus and I standing in front of her. Once I saw I had her attention I said, "Hey Rhyhorn. Mr. Alpin and Delilah decided to send you with me so I can train you to be stronger than Delilah. Is that alright with you?"

Rhyhorn moved towards me and pushed her head against my waist as a sign that she was okay with it. I then continued, "Do you want a nickname?" Rhyhorn nodded her head so I asked, "How does Gaia sound to you?" She started nuzzling up against me meaning she was okay with it. I patted her for a few seconds before I took out food for both Gaia and Sucellus. After making sure they had enough food and water, I ate the sandwich I had grabbed and drank a bottle of water.

Once we were all done eating I explained to Gaia how we were going to train, but told her she would only be doing some minor training until we arrived at Rustboro City where I can then use the training area of the gym to help train her more effectively. Gathering my things and returning Gaia and Sucellus to their respective pokeballs I checked out of the pokemon center and made my way north to Rusturf Tunnel.

Along the way I stopped once when I saw a flyer for an official beginners trainer tournament. It was happening in Petalburg City in a month, but sign ups had to be done a week in advance. I thought about it as I continued on my way and decided that it might be for the best to participate. I was planning on spending a week in Rustboro, then I could spend 1 week training in the Petalburg Woods, and the last week heading to Dewford for my 2nd gym badge before heading to Petalburg City.

Suddenly I was interrupted from my thoughts by a shout.

"Hey, kid!"

I turned to look at the person who was calling for me, only to see a rather large man wearing hiking gear. Once he saw that he had my attention he said, "Kid, how about a battle?"

I blinked before I smiled. I then excitedly said, "Sure! This should be fun!"

"Alright kid. Get ready to tumble. Go Geodude."

"Go, Sucellus!"

Sucellus and Geodude squared up waiting for the go ahead to start fighting.

"Hiker dude, is it cool if I start it off since you challenged me?"

The hiker laughed joyously and agreed to let me go first.

"Alright Sucellus, you know what to do. This will be good practice for when we challenge Roxanne so take this seriously."

With that Sucellus used grassy terrain to flood the area with tall grass, and used the grass to hide so that Geodude would have a more difficult time hitting him.

"Geodude, use rollout. Flatten the grass!"

"Sucellus, make sure you don't get hit. Keep your distance and use growth until you are ready to end it."

"Geodude keep using rollout. Flush him out."

For about 2 minutes Geodude kept rolling around the battlefield, while Sucellus dodged any time he was close. During this entire time Sucellus was constantly using growth to increase his attack power, and still managed to use bullet seed to hit Geodude a few times.

"Alright Sucellus that's enough. Finish this." Sucellus then stopped dodging Geodude's rollout and stood in front of it before letting loose a bullet seed attack. Sucellus used so many bullet seeds that by the time he had stopped Geodude had not only been knocked unconscious, but had also had his rollout forcefully stopped. There were even some cracks along Geodude's body.

"Good job Sucellus!"

The hiker just looked at Sucellus in awe before he chuckled and said, "Well I'll be. That's a mighty strong Seedot you got there. This is your win kid, my other Geodude isn't as strong, and I still haven't done anything to the Seedot."

"Thanks for the compliment." We then walked up to each other and used our pokedex's to register my first official win as a pokemon trainer.

"Wow, kid. That was your first battle? You're gonna go far kid."

"Hehe, I hope so. That means I'm training my pokemon properly. Anyways thanks for the battle, but I need to get going. I'm hoping to get to Rustboro by tonight."

"Alright kid, good luck! Oh, and what's your name kid? I wanna keep track of how you're doing."

"Ah, my name's Isaac. What's yours?"

"Haha, my name's Dan. Perhaps I'll see you around." And with a wave Dan started walking back towards Verdanturf.

Waving back I turned in the opposite direction of him and walked the last couple of miles to Rusturf Tunnel. Before entering however I let out Sucellus and said, "Suc, the tunnel isn't all that dark but it's supposedly a hotspot for whimsur. I'd honestly rather not fight in the tunnel because if whimsur gets loud enough it can and will cause a cave-in, however if we are attacked I want you to put them down fast."

I watched as Sucellus' eyes narrowed in determination as he nodded in acknowledgment of my cautious words. Seeing him ready to act, we walked into the tunnel.

To both of our surprise right in front of us was a loudred and several whimsur. The loudred seemed to be herding the whimsur to a tunnel leading deeper down. Loudred noticing us stepped in front of the whimsur and growled at us threateningly.

I held up my hands and said softly but firmly, "We do not want to fight, and are just passing through the tunnel. If you would like we will stay here while you move the whimsur to where ever you are going, and then continue on our way once you're out of sight."

At my words the loudred stopped growling but quickly shoved the whimsur into the tunnel they were heading towards, then it stood in front of the tunnel's entrance and watched us for a moment before gesturing with its hands telling us to move on.

Having the potential fight handled easily enough Sucellus continued on our way following the signs for Rustboro that had been put up in the tunnel. It took us almost 3 hours to get through the tunnel and we had to stop several more times as the same loudred we encountered at first kept moving what seemed like different groups of whimsur. As curious as I was about the reason why all the whimsur were being moved, I decided it wasn't worth the risk to try and find out.

After exiting the cave it was now late afternoon so I decided to take a break and eat. Letting out Gaia I set up food and water for both her and Sucellus. However, just as I sat down to eat myself I see a kid even younger than myself walking towards me. From the 2 pokeballs on his belt I figured he was coming over in order to battle me.

"Hey, you!"

I looked up from my sandwich and said, "Yes?"

"My name is Joey. I challenge you to a pokemon battle!"

"Sure, I have no issues with that. However, both myself and my pokemon," I gestured with a wave of my arm at Sucellus and Gaia," are eating right now. If you don't mind waiting about 20 minutes so we can finish then I would love to battle you."

The youngster Joey rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment before he sat down across from me and said, "Ah, sorry about that. I guess I was too excited for a battle to even notice you were eating. I don't mind waiting for you guys to finish though."

I laughed and said, "Great!" Joey just sat there and watched us eat for what had to be the most awkward 20 minutes of my life. Having finished I cleaned up and returned Gaia to her pokeball. I then addressed Joey and said, "Alright, let's have that battle. I'll use my seedot, Sucellus as my first pokemon."

Sucellus stepped up ready to battle.

Joey hopped to his feet and jump back away from me. He then threw out his pokeball and out came a Zigzagoon.

I said to him, "Why don't you start first, as an apology for making you wait?"

Joey just fist pumped the air and shouted, "Alright! Zigzagoon use tackle!"

"Suc, you know what to do." Just like in every battle Sucellus used grassy terrain to grow tall grass to hide in, he then followed that up by immediately using bullet seed to push Zigzagoon off target. With some space made between him and Zigzagoon, Suc used growth twice and then hit Zigzagoon, who was still recovering from Suc's first attack, with bullet seed hitting him it hard. In barely a minute Suc had successfully made Joey's Zigzagoon faint.

"Grr. Come back, Zigzagoon. You tried your best." Joey then pointed at me and yelled, "This isn't over yet! Go Machop! Machop use focus energy!"

"Suc, while he is focusing use growth again!"

"Machop use low kick!"

Seeing Sucellus finishing growth as the low kick got too close to dodge I yelled, "Suc harden!"

Immediately after my yell Sucellus used harden and was overcome with a slight grey sheen showing that it worked. Just at that moment Machop's low kick hit and Sucellus was knocked backwards. Luckily, the harden stopped most of the damage Sucellus should have taken, but still that was the first time in a fight that Sucellus had been hit.

"Machop use low kick again!"

"Sucellus keep on the move and use bullet seed. Don't let Machop hit you again!"

It took several minutes of back and forth between Machop and Sucellus for Sucellus to finally knock out Machop.

I ran to Sucellus and picked him while saying, "Good job Suc! That was our toughest battle yet! You did amazing! I also think you're now proficient enough with grassy terrain to learn sunny day and use that too in your starting setup." I then put him down and reached into my bag to take out a pokemon treat for Sucellus, however when I turned around Sucellus was glowing white and becoming bigger. I couldn't believe my eyes, Sucellus was evolving! I knew he was close, but I thought it would take the gym battle for him to evolve. In just a few moments Sucellus went from being an above average height seedot, to being three times the size, even taller than Gaia, nuzleaf.

"Sucellus, congratulations you evolved! Now we can train you even more thanks to the added mobility of arms and legs. You'll need to get used to your new body before we challenge the gym too."

Behind me I hear some coughing and when I turn around I see Joey standing there. I immediately started apologizing for completely ignoring him.

Joey just looked down and said, "It's fine. Congratulations on winning and on your seedot evolving. Did you really mean what you said about that being your toughest battle yet?"

I laughed a bit and said, "Yup! It was only my 3rd battle, but Sucellus didn't even get hit in the first 2. That machop of yours is doing well. If you keep it up I'm sure he'll become a strong Machamp one day. Hey, why don't we exchange numbers so we can fight again some day!"

Joey started bouncing excitedly and said, "Thanks for the compliment!" He then shoved his pokedex into my hands and continued, "Add yourself! Don't forget to register your win too. I don't actually know how."

It took me a few moments, but eventually I had added myself to Joey's contacts and added him to mine. With my win registered too, I waved goodbye to Joey and started heading towards Rustboro City again.

Along the way I had Sucellus continuously fight wild pokemon so he could get used to his new body, we even found out that he could suddenly use the move razor leaf too! I had however refused to battle the 2 school kids that had attempted to battle me, promising to come back to fight then in the coming days.

As per usual once I arrived in Rustboro I made my way to the pokemon center where I gave Sucellus and Gaia to Nurse Joy for a check up. It only took her a few minutes to tell me that both my pokemon were in great shape, although Sucellus was tired and needed rest. After a quick dinner for myself and my pokemon I went up to my room and went to bed.