Log 2: "This poor city..."
"What is wrong with this city?" were my initial thoughts as I left the Grand Hall to begin my journey. What lay before me was a festering cesspool of crime of toxicity. A cloud of smog covered the city and allowed very little sun to pass through. Street urchins and others begging for money, even trying to take it from me in battle. Lilith handled them all quite admirably, but this city is still in such a horrid state.
Exploring the city, I eventually found the entrance to an old train system running beneath the city. It looked like it had been abandoned for years. The floor and walls were cracked an broken, and it even looked like some pieces of the ground above had caved in, providing very little light for the area. It was in that darkened underground when I felt the first test of my mind's strength. A light fluttering noise echoed throughout the tunnel, enough to make one's hair stand on end. A small swarm of Woobat dove from the ceiling and headed for me.. I and Lilith fended them off, and she got hurt in that ambush. Most of the Pokemon fled, and I was intending to take Lilith to the nearby Pokemon center as fast as possible. But one single Woobat from the swarm remained. It dove behind a rock and returned with a single Potion. I quickly healed up Lilith as it continued watching expectantly. It appeared to have a great deal of respect for me and her and seemed to want to follow us out of the cave. It graciously allowed me to catch it, and I named it Aero. I know not what kind of battler she will turn out to be, but any that can startle me are worthy of a chance to prove themselves.
The people here are lowly thugs, some even belonging in prison. As I left the train tunnel, a loud cry ripped through the air. Three young hoodlums had cornered a Zigzagoon and were about to throw it off the bridge into the toxic water below. I quickly raced over there to save it. The boys claimed that I was interrupting their "fun" and that they were "just playing." They then challenged me to a battle, which proved to be a good test for Aero. Her moves tended to be more reckless than what I normally use, but what she lacked in grace she made up for in power. Aero and Lilith made quick work of their Pokemon. They ran away before I could call the police on them for Pokemon abuse. The Zigzagoon they were threatening to throw over ran up to me and seemed to plead with a helpless look in its eyes. I couldn't turn it away, but I could already tell it was not capable of any mental strength. I sent it to the PC storage system, where it will be cared for by professionals until I call on it. I may not train it or use it for fights, but every one is capable of doing something, and it may prove itself when the opportunity arises.
As I started heading towards the first gym, a bum shambled over to me. He reeked of cheap alcohol and could barely finish a sentence. He mumbled something about the house down the alley and gave me a bag of PokeSnax. Why he had them when he had no Pokemon is a question for another day. But what he said about the house intrigued me. He pointed me down the alley towards the house, then promptly fell over, passed out from the drink. Carefully, I stepped over him and examined the house. It was falling a part, much like many other buildings in this city. The door was unlocked so I went inside, not expecting to find anything. Inside was a small Espurr, staring, unflinching, not moving. One could have even mistook it for a statue by how still and quiet it was. Nothing I did could break it from the trance-like state it was in. As I got up to leave, I heard a noise. It appeared that the Espurr was sniffing for something. Not really knowing what they were for, I took out one of the PokeSnax the bum had given and gave it to the young Pokemon. It snapped out of its trance when it saw the food. Cautiously, it took the food from me. Then it smiled. It started to follow me, and I could sense a very strong mind with this Pokemon. It knew who it could trust, and believed it could trust me. There was no way to betray that trust, so I caught it. A healthy male Espurr. Remembering people's horror stories of battling this Pokemon, especially when it evolved, I gave him a name of another adorable creature notoriously hard to fight. Seemingly perfect for him, he shall be known as Teemo.
There was a note on the Gym Door, also the city's power plant, requesting the gym leader to go to one of the factories to the north of the city. Thinking this would be the best place to find her, I went to the larger of two factories in near the entrance to the Jasper ward. Along the way though, there were a few more trainers just looking for a battle. I did try using Teemo, but he proved not to be that powerful. But male Meowstic are known far and wide to mainly be more for supporting the rest of the team, so he will continue to train under me.
Continuing along the path to the factory, there was another shady-looking character. He was trying to get attention from any passerby that he could, including me. As he approached, my initial thought was that he was either going to beg for money like many others here or challenge me to a battle. There was a sickly sweet smell surrounding him, one that reminded me of the time police came with Growrithe to my school and searched gym lockers. The poor track runner was arrested shortly after, but I digress. He had what looked like a pink balloon floating next to him and offered to give it to me, claiming that it was too much effort to raise. I was not sure what he was talking about until the balloon squealed, revealing it to be a Munna. In all good conscience, I could not leave it with someone who thought it was too much effort to train likely due to smoking some tall grass, so I agreed to take it. The man said her name was Shimmer, told me to keep her safe, and then quickly left. Shimmer looked quite upset, understandably so as she had just been handed off to me, some random trainer she never met. I swore to make good on my word and to train her, make sure she stays safe.
I finally reached the large factory only to see the door locked and a green-clad youth mumbling to himself. No sign of the gym leader anywhere. I spoke to the boy standing there, and he introduced himself as The Swag Jockey Fern. And I am not making that up, he referred to himself as the Swag Jockey. It also sounded like his goal in life was to be as aggravating as possible. He quickly challenged me to a battle, and it appeared he only used Grass types. Lilith and Aero swept him easily. He then mentioned the other factory in the city and essentially told me to "F*** off" and challenge the gym leader. I may be one to try to control my mind as strongly as I can, and I'm not saying that I want him to be hit by a bus, but if he were hit by a bus, I would thank the driver. My next stop is the Electric Gym to hopefully challenge the leader, if she's had enough coffee to be awake.
Oi, writing these takes longer than playing the game, but it's interesting to do. So yeah, most of the stuff is explained in the story above here, except for the part about Shimmer (Munna). I actually caught a Bidoof because I knew I could trade it for Munna, so I actually had to somewhat break my rule of not leveling up Pokemon to be traded, but I think this can be an exception because the dude wanted a Bibarel, but it wouldn't make much sense in the story.
New team members ahead! Roll call!
Aero
Teemo
Shimmer (I know Name Rater can change traded names, but not going to do that.)
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