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[Chapter 11: Power like the Sun]

The next installment of Steps to Simplicity ist auch!! I've added more "real-world" things and kinda mixed up some things a bit!

Chapter 11: Power like the Sun
   After healing Lapras from the gym battle, I decided to set out into Veilstone City to explore the city. I stocked up on some supplies at the Department Store. It was Free TM day in the store, so they kept on handing me all these TMs that I probably never would have used. I spent the entire day exploring the city and its environs, so I ventured out of the city into the hills, only to find trainers. People were surprised that a person who beat Maylene would be busy battling against others, but I just kept on saying that Maylene was a hard obstacle to overcome. They all challenged me to a battle after that, and Piplup constantly took out their Pokémon, and by the end, I should say that Prinplup, and Shinx was able to get a few punches in there and managed to evolve into a Luxio. It was a great day, coming back with two newly evolved Pokémon and discovering a quite impatient Professor Araragi pouting with her legs and arms crossed in the front lobby of the Pokémon Center. “What did I do?” I asked innocently. “You missed dinner,” Professor Araragi said quietly. “Well, I was out training. Piplup and Shinx evolved after knocking down seven trainers,” I explained myself. “THAT STILL DOESN’T GIVE YOU THE FREAKING REASON TO MISS FREAKING DINNER,” Professor Araragi erupted. “YOU SHOULD HAVE KNOWN I HAD SOMETHING IMPORTANT TO TELL YOU!” Everyone was looking at Professor Araragi now. “You know you have to not become attached to me whenever you want to eat something,” I said and stormed into the room and got on the computer.
   I told myself not go on a certain website that I was once addicted to. I sat in front of the computer with the browser displaying “Wikipedia” right in front of me, I clicked the URL bar and entered “facebook.com” into the bar and logged in. There in front of me showed a war zone. I had over 100 new notifications, mostly wall posts and pokes. Everyone was wondering where I was since I was alone. I also forgot to mention that I had a bunch of new friend requests, namely from Maylene, Erika, Professor Elm and Professor Oak. What was really funny, right when I accepted Professor Elm, BOOM, his little chat box came popping up. He asked me what I was doing and I responded plain and simple, “Get off your computer, Professor Elm. I believe your kitchen is on fire.” I wrote a nice note to all my friends living in Pallet Town, Viridian City and everyone back home, saying that I was now in Sinnoh and I promised a bunch of pictures. So now, I had to find a camera and start taking pictures of my travels. Pokémon Trainers don’t really focus on pictures and more on Pokémon, but I just want to be that guy who wants to catalog his journey and to make sure I can reflect on my memories twenty years in the future, since things only happen once.
   After going back out to escape Professor Araragi’s wrath to go to a nice restaurant for dinner and working with Munchlax to curb the eating habits like I did a few years back. Let’s just say it didn’t end well, but on the plus side, I get to buy a bigger backpack! I went out of the Veilstone South Gate and found a trainer who wanted to battle and Ponyta took the brunt of the battle and really worked hard. Munchlax just wandered off to find a berry tree during the battle and by the time I found him, only half of the tree didn’t have fruit. Maybe I actually got to Munchlax (or maybe the synthetic fibers that made up my backpack were wreaking havoc on his stomach)! I returned back to the Pokémon Center to find a passed out Professor Araragi with a couple of empty Wine and Tequila bottles on her bed. I went to sleep, laughing at what I just saw.
   Well, maybe I was either super tired or didn’t notice anything, but Professor Araragi made a huge mess with the contents of her suitcase. I had the nice pile of stuff from my backpack in the corner and I placed the pile on my bed and rushed out. I went to the Department Store, where I found a nice camera and backpack in the Trainer Apparel section. The instant I got back, the room was tidied up and my stuff was neatly laid out on my bed, Professor Araragi on her computer working endlessly trying to send an email. “You know, you have to access your email account first before you send it,” I told the professor. “I don’t know how to use this system, usually the email comes straight to my computer,” Professor Araragi answered. “But this isn’t your computer and it isn’t set up like it, I’m guessing,” I answered. I proceeded to open up a web browser and went to her email site, and I left again with my Pokémon. The sun was shining brighter today; the gray veil was lifted over the city. I decided to walk around. There was another casino type building like the one in Celadon, so I decided to head towards that part of the city. On my way towards that area, Maylene ran straight into me not looking where she was going, knocking me to the ground.
    “Oh, Drew, I am so sorry,” Maylene answered. “I was actually heading to the Pokémon Center to see you.” “You were?” I asked. “Yep,” Maylene replied. “I have a favor to ask of you. It seems one of my Pokémon had an egg and it finally hatched, and I can’t take care of a baby Pokémon, but since you’re travelling across Sinnoh, I thought it would be better to go with you.” “But, I am not sure if I can take it,” I answered. “Since I have restrictions on what Pokémon I can carry.” “I don’t think it should be a problem. You don’t have a Fighting type, correct?” Maylene asked. “No, I don’t,” I responded. “See, you should be fine.” Maylene said handing me a Poké ball. “And if you have 6 Pokémon, you can catch whatever you want, just as long as it is not in your party. Well, that’s what Cynthia said.” “Well, thanks Maylene!” I exclaimed. “I really have to go, but maybe I’ll see you again!” Maylene yelled as she took off heading for that casino place. I threw up the Poké ball and out came this tiny Pokémon. It looked like a fox, but it was blue. I opened my Pokédex and it said, “This is Riolu, the Emanation Pokémon. He has an Impish nature and knows the moves: Counter, Force Palm, Crunch and Drain Punch.” Riolu just sat there looking at me. “Well, it looks like Maylene wants me to take care of you,” I said. I picked up Riolu and walked him back to the Pokémon Center. Riolu was a bit shy at first, but he warmed up to me and kept on wanting to stand on my head. Professor Araragi smiled as I walked into the foyer of the Pokémon Center. “So this is the Riolu that Maylene was talking about. Well, aren’t you a cutie,” Professor Araragi said pulling his cheeks apart and making goo-goo noises at Riolu. “Professor, Riolu is a Pokémon, not a chubby baby,” I said. “Oh, right,” Professor Araragi said. “I do have good news. Get packed, because we leave for Lake Valor immediately, and then we should be able to reach Sunyshore City from there.” “Is that where my next gym battle is?” I asked. “No, duh,” Professor Araragi said. I ran into my room and shoved all my stuff into my pack and ran back outside, where we proceeded to get on our bikes and continued south out of Veilstone City.
   Riolu was riding in the basket, since Prinplup almost got stuck in the basket, and Prinplup took Luxio’s spot, because Luxio was just too heavy for the back, and Prinplup was a little heavier than Riolu, so it was kind of hard to get going after a rest stop. We continued for another seven hours, stopping every hour or so. Luckily for us, Route 214 was a steady decline into some lowlands with some hills. Lake Valor was in one of the larger valleys with a large resort resting atop the hills surrounding the lake. There were some larger villas and houses on the north side of the lake. People were enjoying the day, and were either sunbathing, out in the water or just having lunch in cafes along the lake. It reminded me of the French Riviera, but it was in a colder climate, yet it was usually warm for this time of year… when there was snow in Veilstone City, there was 70° weather just 100 miles south… yes, we spent 6 hours going south, but we were going almost 20 miles an hour, since the decline from Veilstone, which I learned was almost 4,000 feet above sea level. We stayed the night in a small villa overlooking the lake and I decided to go into the lake side to let Lapras out and Prinplup to have some fun in the water. I sat there sitting with Ponyta, Luxio, Munchlax and Riolu just talking to them and Luxio still slept on my lap, even though he weighed nearly 60 pounds.
Munchlax proceeded to search for berry tree, and managed to climb one and he nestled himself in the tree. I then discovered his place, tried to get him out, but I discovered shaking the tree jarred him from tree, making him land with a seismic THUD. An idea popped into my head, as did one in Munchlax’s. He discovered that when I shook the tree, it caused all the Pecha berries to fall off the tree, so now he can just shake the tree. My idea is that I might be able to teach Munchlax Earthquake, like I did with Blastoise. I took Munchlax to the top of the hill and I proceeded to instruct Munchlax how to make an earthquake. Munchlax was a bit different from Blastoise, he had to jump in the air and focus his energy on the ground, which worked after a few times, causing a small crack to from down the hill and when it hit the concrete sidewalk at the bottom of the hill, it caused a small, pointy upheaval in the ground, just missing Luxio. I tried to pick up Munchlax, but man was HE heavy. He probably weighed more than I did. I returned to the bottom of the hill, took some pictures of the area and of my Pokémon having fun and preceded back to the villa, where I found Professor Araragi sleeping in her lab coat and in a strange position, so I took a picture of her and went to bed.
The next morning, we were off on Route 222 and it was in major contrast to what landscapes I saw. There was the beach off to the right of us and some hills with pine trees to the left of us. Trainers kept stopping us, asking for me to battle, so it took us three hours to go the 20 miles we needed to go, but Munchlax put up some great fights, as well as Ponyta. I liked this route a bit, it felt calming because you had a beach, which meant relaxation and hills with trees, which can show quietness in certain instances, but right when we passed through the gatehouse into Sunyshore, and there was a big contrast from what we came from. The city was high tech, laden with solar panels and large walkways suspended over the city, connecting the tall hills of the city together. The city was extremely clean; there wasn’t any smog nor was there trash on the ground (which was alleviated by solar powered trash cleaning robots). We arrived at the Pokémon Center, a large building that looked like the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, but covered with solar panels. We walked inside, and a voice greeted us and directed us to the front desk, where three Nurse Joy worked. “Good Afternoon Professor and Drew, welcome to Sunyshore City.” the middle Nurse Joy said. “I am the head nurse here, and you can tell me apart by the Blue cross on my hat.” “Well, thank you,” Professor Araragi answered. “I can tell you apart from the others another way!” Nurse Joy blushed when she looked over at me.
She stood up and came out in front of the desk and then I saw it. Nurse Joy was a little fatter than the others. “So, how long do you have left?” Professor Araragi asked. “Almost a week left!” Nurse Joy said elated. “I’m training my replacement right now, and we have someone else to cover her job here, since Sunyshore only has one Pokémon Center, but we’re the largest in the country.” I just ignored what they were saying and asked one of the other Nurse Joy where the gym was, and left the Pokémon Center. I was planning on using Munchlax, and luckily for me, he didn’t incur any damage from the battling that I did with the last three trainers. I arrived at the gym, where the doors opened and greeted me like the Pokémon Center, except there were some large lounge chairs in the room and the gym told me to sit down. The moment I sat down was the moment the chair began to move forward into another room, which then took me on a short rollercoaster ride, and dropped me (literally) into a large gym. There was a battle going on, so I just sat to the side and waited. The challenger lost against the leader’s Raichu. He did use a Vaporeon, however, so I wouldn’t blame him. I walked down to the floor where the leader walked up to me. “Good Afternoon and welcome to the Sunyshore Gym. I am Volkner, the leader here. Do you have an appointment?” Volkner asked. “No,” I answered. “Well, I am sorry, but I am booked up for the next month for gym battles,” Volkner said. “You can make an appointment with the computer in the front lounge.” “You don’t understand, I’m here on special circumstances,” I answered. “Well, I would too if I was here to obtain my eighth badge, too,” Volkner said and proceeded to walk away. “I’m here challenging the Verdant League,” I called out. Volkner stopped in his tracks and turned around. “Then I accept your challenge,” he said.
“We’ll use two Pokémon for this battle,” Volkner said. He threw up a Poké ball, sending out a Luxio. I sent out Ponyta, just to get things going. Luxio started off with Thunder Fang, and Ponyta dodged it and used Stomp right where Luxio screeched to a halt. Luxio landed another quick Thunder Fang on Ponyta and Ponyta was able to escape its grasp after some time. Ponyta used Flamethrower and was countered by a Discharge attack. They neutralized each other, causing a large explosion. After the smoke cleared, Luxio came charging with a Headbutt attack, and Ponyta was able to torch Luxio as it came charging at Ponyta and it did deal some damage, but Luxio was so resilient that he followed through with the attack and knocked out Ponyta. I sent out Munchlax next, who was a secret weapon in a way. Volkner instructed Luxio to use Iron Tail, and Munchlax knocked him back with Zen Headbutt. Munchlax used Earthquake next, which caused some upheavals in the gym floor to hit Luxio after dodging the attack and thus made him faint. Volkner sent out Magneton next, and Volkner showed a devious smile. He didn’t know that Munchlax could use Flamethrower. Munchlax was able to start moving toward Magneton, who started using SonicBoom attacks, and Munchlax was able to push on, this meant taking a few hits. Once up close, Munchlax landed a nice Lick attack and then went for a double whammy with Flamethrower, much to the shock of Volkner, whose eyes were beginning to come out of his skull. Magneton used Charge Beam, and it hit Munchlax, but just powered through and knocked Magneton to the ground with a Flamethrower. Munchlax used Earthquake for one final blow and knocked out Magneton after that. Volkner just stood there, shocked that someone with my experience beat him.
“Well, congratulations Drew,” Volkner said. “It takes a lot to beat someone like me.” “Well, I definitely had a harder time than my battle with Maylene, which was pretty hard as it was,” I answered. “At least you aren’t the flaunting type if you win something, huh?” Volkner asked. “You can say that!” I answered. “Well, I would like to give you the Beacon Badge as proof of beating me,” Volkner said. “You can take this Thunderbolt TM with you, as you may need it sometime in the future.” Volkner handed me back my badge case with a shiny lighthouse looking badge added to the bottom of the triangle. “Your journeys may take you places that make you wonder about the significance, but I know you will continue forward through your journeys. Go forth; your next gym leader awaits you.” I went toward the entrance and by the time I reached the door to the hallway, Volkner was gone. The moment I got out, I called that strange woman. “Hello Mysterious Person, it’s Drew and I just shocked Volkner,” I said. “Well, congratulations Drew,” the woman said. “You know, your next battle may leave you with a chill down your spine, as she might leave you feeling cold if you don’t use the right tactics.” “Sounds like a challenge I am ready for,” I replied. “I think I have prepared myself for the worst.” I continued walking toward the Pokémon Center, making sure Riolu, who was walking with me didn’t do anything mischievous. “You know, Drew, this leader has some tricks up her sleeve,” the woman said. “Oh, I’ll be ready,” I answered. “I have some tricks I have been teaching my Pokémon to outsmart these leaders.” “Well, good luck to you Drew,” the woman said. “See you later!” and she hung up right after that.
I continued back to the Pokémon Center to find the entire place cleared out, except for a single Nurse Joy sitting there. “Oh, hello Drew,” Nurse Joy said. “I’m afraid the Professor had to step out with the head Nurse. She went into labor, so they went to the hospital on the other side of town.” “Oh, so THAT’S why she was fat,” I thought to myself. “Well, tell the Professor I will be out on Route 222 practicing,” I said and I left with my bike. I wanted to train Riolu and Lapras a little bit, even though Lapras was at a higher level than any of my Pokémon. I went into the woods and saw some many Pokémon, namely a Glameow and a Stunky who followed me around while I found some trainers to battle with. Riolu did a great job with his first few battles, really getting into it, down and dirty. His speed was impeccable and he was able to Force Palm his way to greatness against a Bibarel, a Staravia and a Girafarig (well, he had to use Crunch at times there). Once I left the woods, I sat down on a tree stump to eat lunch and the Glameow and Stunky were still there. “Do you want food?” I asked. I threw some food over to them, but they just ignored it, so I had Munchlax clean it up. Riolu could since what they wanted and hugged my leg as some sort of sign. “Were you abandoned?” I asked. They stepped closer to Riolu and I, while Munchlax tested his new idea of shaking a tree for berries, except a wild Burmy fell on his head. I brought Glameow and Stunky close to me. “I wish I could care for you, but my party is already full. If I just caught you, you would be sent back to my hometown in Kanto, a place far from here, where you would be on the Professor’s Ranch,” I explained. They came up even closer and cuddled in on my lap. Somehow these Pokémon were abandoned and felt distraught, so I decided to call the one person who would know what to do.
“Hello, Professor Oak,” I said speaking into my Poké Gear. “It’s Drew.” “Why hello Drew,” Professor Oak said. “How are your journeys in Sinnoh?” “They have been great,” I answered. “I just beat Volkner, so I have two badges left and then it’s off to Merin.” “Well, congratulations,” Professor Oak said. “Well, I am not calling just for chit-chat,” I explained. “I have a dilemma here. I was on Route 222 having some training sessions and a Glameow and Stunky followed me around. They seem distraught about something, and they have seemed to be abandoned. They are somehow finding security in me, and I told them they can’t travel with me, yet they still want to stay close.” “Well, that certainly is a dilemma,” Professor Oak responded. “They can sense the compassion coming from the Pokémon beside you and how you act with them. Go on and capture them, and they will have a great time here.” “They’re here right now,” I said. I showed Professor Oak to them. “I’ll catch you guys and you can stay with my friend, here and then I can come and visit you when I am back in Kanto. Who knows, you might be able to stay with my Skitty and Growlithe at home.” They smiled. “I’ll get them over immediately. I’ll call once I am in Merin and see how they’re doing.” “Have fun with your last two battles, Drew. Good Luck!” Professor Oak said and hung up. “Have fun with Professor Oak, guys. See you soon,” I yelled. I threw Poké balls at them and they were captured instantly. Right after they were caught, the entire ball began to glow and then it disappeared in a ray of light pointing to the sky. Professor Oak sent me an email saying that he got them and I walked with Munchlax and Riolu back to Sunyshore City.

==End Chapter 11==

Chapter 12 is coming fast (and it should be done before I leave on the 12th... haha)
Coming Soon: Chapter 12: Fleeting Chills and Snow

Awesome man.. Thanks for sharing entire chapter.. It was so exciting.. I would like others to read and appreciate it.