Story From Long Ago
When I was much younger and I came through Johto the first time, I had a big problem when I faced Morty's gym.
I don't care what the shows says or the interviews showed, at twelve years old, there was just no way I had the trainer ability or the emotional maturity to really deal with loss or going through some of these gyms.
When I was twelve, Morty's gym was big, dark, and scary. I barely fought my way through one of his training assistant when I begged them to show me out (with all of my pokemon KO'd).
I had Steve, he was still a little Waninoko, Double, my Yamikarasu, and Rider, my Ledyba. I thought we would be all right, for some reason I really remember my mother telling me Bug pokemon worked great on Ghost pokemon.
That was a lie, well I don't think I remembered it right.
Truth of the matter was, I ran through Kanto with my mother's secondary Pokemon. She gave me one and I beat a few gyms until I got the right badges, then she let me have higher level ones, and so on and so forth.
I actually only caught my Fearow. I used it a lot during the League battles and with the Elite Four, but when I got to Johto this was supposed to be "my journey" with "my pokemon".
So after my first failure, we trained up and went back. I managed to beat most of the trainer's assistants and was feeling really great. I went to the Pokecenter and I came back and I challenged Morty.
Opposite to popular belief, you can't just run up to a gym leader and challenge them. You have to beat their disciples.
Anyway, it was a horrible battle. Horrible.
Double and Rider and were defeated quickly. I didn't know anything about attacks like Curse or how strong Night Shade or Shadow Ball were. I was totally unprepared. They were fast and I didn't know what I was doing.
I called out Steve and he was just looking at me and I didn't know what to do. At all.
"Try...try water gun!"
He gave me a look that was somewhere in between, "What are you doing?" and "Are you for real?"
"Please?" I asked him.
It didn't matter, his Haunter was on the attack.
Luckily, Steve had really good reflexes. And his water gun was hilariously strong. Haunter got KO'd.
But then he brought out Gengar. I'd seen Gengar before. Agatha had one. I used my mother's Beedrill to defeat it. Maybe...
"WATER GUN!"
I just kept using water gun, but nothing hit and Steve had mostly physical moves. It'd be a much different story today. I'd make Steve Water Tail and Ice Fang them back to the grave.
Gengar could not only use Shadow Ball, it could keep it live on the field and control them. Morty just sat back and watched as his Gengar hit Steve with three Shadow Balls. One knocking him upwards, downwards, and then driving him into the ground.
I starting crying and ran to get my Pokemon.
And this is what he said,
"Maybe you should go back home. My assistants tell me you barely got here. When pokemon keep fainting, they begin to resent their trainers... not only that, your Totodile wasn't taking any cues from you. Your pokemon don't trust you -."
"SHUT UP! THAT'S NOT TRUE! I LOVE MY POKEMON AND THEY LOVE ME! YOU'RE JUST A JERK!"
And then I ran away. I ran all the way back to the Pokemon center.
In those days, it was run by an older Joy-san. It was her and her daughter, with these twin Chanseys Pipi and Mimi. Anyway, I was really distraught and they took my pokemon and Granny Joy kept telling me that it was all right...
But it wasn't.
I got on the phone and told my mother that I wanted to come home and that I didn't want to do this.
"So it's too hard?"
"No, but -."
"You're giving up?"
"No, but -."
"...what's the problem then?"
"We're trying the best we can but it's really hard and none of my moves worked and they're really fast and -."
Trying to talk while crying is never good. I just sat there in front of the telephone crying and crying.
It's not a good look.
Granny Joy pulled me away and I guess she talked to my Mother. I went to go stay in the room where my Pokemon were. They were really hurt.
I slept in there for three days, I didn't even want to eat.
When everyone was kind of better, I apologized. I said I was sorry and that I wasn't a good trainer.
"Maybe we should train more..."
They just looked at me.
"Maybe you should just come back home."
I looked and my mother was standing in the doorway. She'd been a Cool type trainer in her day and still looked the part. She tossed me a pokeball.
"I bought someone to see you."
I tossed it and I heard the familiar shriek of my Fearow. He was huge and I hugged him around the neck.
"Don't you remember what a hard time you had with this guy? When he was a tiny Spearow? Don't you remember how hard it was, especially when I took all my Pokemon back and you only had this one to train with? Did you give up?
He'd been a mean little Spearow... he really had been.
"They're here to help you, but you have to believe in them."
"I do!"
"No you don't. And why do you think you can challenge a gym with only three Pokemon?"
She took my Pokedex from me and checked my pokemon.
"They're all low level. Why haven't you caught a Nidoran? There are Stantler, there are Pidgey. It says here you've seen five Mareep. They say there's a tower on the edge of town that has Poison Pokemon in it."
She gave it back to me.
"You're not trying. Did you think about Ghost types and what moves they have? Which of your pokemon is the fastest, Ledyba should have Reflect, Safe Guard, and Light Screen -."
"But Ledyba -."
"They're all under leveled. You think Morty will give you a badge if you cry?"
I just stared at her. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
"MY POKEMON ARE STRONG!"
"Sure they are. They should be evolved one stage by now. What did you do? Avoid all the trainers and grasses on the way? Been sleeping in Pokemon centers?"
I had no answers.
"If you don't want to do it, I can still enroll you in school. You said you wanted to do this. So do it."
And then she left. Well, she came back to take my Fearow away and then she left.
It wasn't a good feeling to have so many people tell you your pokemon weren't great and you weren't great.
Needless to say I had to strengthen my resolve then and there to train.
She'd been right. I hadn't been trying to catch or look at any pokemon. I trained the three I had and waited, camped outside of Goldenrod for days, trying to find an Abra.
I encountered many Hypnos, all whom I kindly told to go away and stop snacking on my dreams (Get them Ledian!!!) and then on the seventh day, when I was ready to give up, I found a pokeball sitting near be. I looked in and there was an Abra just snoozing away.
It was really lucky.
I battled with it a few times and bought it a spoon, hoping it'd evolve. I think I made it laugh.
Double stole the spoon cause it was shiny and Abra (Snoozer) spent a lot of time sleeping and just when I'd raised everyone up right, Steve was a Croconaw, Rider was a Ledian, Double was getting stronger (they hadn't discovered DonKarasu yet) and had actually learned Night Shade, and Snoozer became a Kadabra.
When they evolve, they get their own spoons. I learned to stop asking about these things a long time ago.
And learned Psybeam.
We were ready.
First, I had Double fill the field with Haze and then switched out with Rider to set up the field further.
His Ghastly seemed at home in the haze and tried to attack Ledian with a Shadow Ball, but it bounced off all the mirrors I'd set up and knocked itself out.
:D I liked that.
Then, I brought out Steve.
Water gun, water gun, water gun. KO'D both Haunters
I brought Ledian out to rest the protections and Murkrow to use Haze. Morty had nothing to say the entire time of course.
He brought out his murder beast, that fucking Gengar, but I was read.
"Snoozer...let's go."
I know how battles look on tv, but in a gym it's different. I had Snoozer teleport around the field and snipe from behind the Reflections and Light Screens. He also used Kinesis to slam the invisible walls into the Gengar.
I didn't know much about Psychic types, but I figured they were all sort of nerdy or weird or something.
Snoozer was twirling his spoon and did a Thumbs Down on Morty.
You can't write that stuff.
I was declared the winner.
I had Murkrow make the haze clear with its wings and then Morty gave me my badge.
"That was a good battle."
"I'll bet."
I took the badge and left.
He's an ass.
You know what, I think I hate Johto... I have a lot of BAD memories here. XD
I don't care what the shows says or the interviews showed, at twelve years old, there was just no way I had the trainer ability or the emotional maturity to really deal with loss or going through some of these gyms.
When I was twelve, Morty's gym was big, dark, and scary. I barely fought my way through one of his training assistant when I begged them to show me out (with all of my pokemon KO'd).
I had Steve, he was still a little Waninoko, Double, my Yamikarasu, and Rider, my Ledyba. I thought we would be all right, for some reason I really remember my mother telling me Bug pokemon worked great on Ghost pokemon.
That was a lie, well I don't think I remembered it right.
Truth of the matter was, I ran through Kanto with my mother's secondary Pokemon. She gave me one and I beat a few gyms until I got the right badges, then she let me have higher level ones, and so on and so forth.
I actually only caught my Fearow. I used it a lot during the League battles and with the Elite Four, but when I got to Johto this was supposed to be "my journey" with "my pokemon".
So after my first failure, we trained up and went back. I managed to beat most of the trainer's assistants and was feeling really great. I went to the Pokecenter and I came back and I challenged Morty.
Opposite to popular belief, you can't just run up to a gym leader and challenge them. You have to beat their disciples.
Anyway, it was a horrible battle. Horrible.
Double and Rider and were defeated quickly. I didn't know anything about attacks like Curse or how strong Night Shade or Shadow Ball were. I was totally unprepared. They were fast and I didn't know what I was doing.
I called out Steve and he was just looking at me and I didn't know what to do. At all.
"Try...try water gun!"
He gave me a look that was somewhere in between, "What are you doing?" and "Are you for real?"
"Please?" I asked him.
It didn't matter, his Haunter was on the attack.
Luckily, Steve had really good reflexes. And his water gun was hilariously strong. Haunter got KO'd.
But then he brought out Gengar. I'd seen Gengar before. Agatha had one. I used my mother's Beedrill to defeat it. Maybe...
"WATER GUN!"
I just kept using water gun, but nothing hit and Steve had mostly physical moves. It'd be a much different story today. I'd make Steve Water Tail and Ice Fang them back to the grave.
Gengar could not only use Shadow Ball, it could keep it live on the field and control them. Morty just sat back and watched as his Gengar hit Steve with three Shadow Balls. One knocking him upwards, downwards, and then driving him into the ground.
I starting crying and ran to get my Pokemon.
And this is what he said,
"Maybe you should go back home. My assistants tell me you barely got here. When pokemon keep fainting, they begin to resent their trainers... not only that, your Totodile wasn't taking any cues from you. Your pokemon don't trust you -."
"SHUT UP! THAT'S NOT TRUE! I LOVE MY POKEMON AND THEY LOVE ME! YOU'RE JUST A JERK!"
And then I ran away. I ran all the way back to the Pokemon center.
In those days, it was run by an older Joy-san. It was her and her daughter, with these twin Chanseys Pipi and Mimi. Anyway, I was really distraught and they took my pokemon and Granny Joy kept telling me that it was all right...
But it wasn't.
I got on the phone and told my mother that I wanted to come home and that I didn't want to do this.
"So it's too hard?"
"No, but -."
"You're giving up?"
"No, but -."
"...what's the problem then?"
"We're trying the best we can but it's really hard and none of my moves worked and they're really fast and -."
Trying to talk while crying is never good. I just sat there in front of the telephone crying and crying.
It's not a good look.
Granny Joy pulled me away and I guess she talked to my Mother. I went to go stay in the room where my Pokemon were. They were really hurt.
I slept in there for three days, I didn't even want to eat.
When everyone was kind of better, I apologized. I said I was sorry and that I wasn't a good trainer.
"Maybe we should train more..."
They just looked at me.
"Maybe you should just come back home."
I looked and my mother was standing in the doorway. She'd been a Cool type trainer in her day and still looked the part. She tossed me a pokeball.
"I bought someone to see you."
I tossed it and I heard the familiar shriek of my Fearow. He was huge and I hugged him around the neck.
"Don't you remember what a hard time you had with this guy? When he was a tiny Spearow? Don't you remember how hard it was, especially when I took all my Pokemon back and you only had this one to train with? Did you give up?
He'd been a mean little Spearow... he really had been.
"They're here to help you, but you have to believe in them."
"I do!"
"No you don't. And why do you think you can challenge a gym with only three Pokemon?"
She took my Pokedex from me and checked my pokemon.
"They're all low level. Why haven't you caught a Nidoran? There are Stantler, there are Pidgey. It says here you've seen five Mareep. They say there's a tower on the edge of town that has Poison Pokemon in it."
She gave it back to me.
"You're not trying. Did you think about Ghost types and what moves they have? Which of your pokemon is the fastest, Ledyba should have Reflect, Safe Guard, and Light Screen -."
"But Ledyba -."
"They're all under leveled. You think Morty will give you a badge if you cry?"
I just stared at her. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
"MY POKEMON ARE STRONG!"
"Sure they are. They should be evolved one stage by now. What did you do? Avoid all the trainers and grasses on the way? Been sleeping in Pokemon centers?"
I had no answers.
"If you don't want to do it, I can still enroll you in school. You said you wanted to do this. So do it."
And then she left. Well, she came back to take my Fearow away and then she left.
It wasn't a good feeling to have so many people tell you your pokemon weren't great and you weren't great.
Needless to say I had to strengthen my resolve then and there to train.
She'd been right. I hadn't been trying to catch or look at any pokemon. I trained the three I had and waited, camped outside of Goldenrod for days, trying to find an Abra.
I encountered many Hypnos, all whom I kindly told to go away and stop snacking on my dreams (Get them Ledian!!!) and then on the seventh day, when I was ready to give up, I found a pokeball sitting near be. I looked in and there was an Abra just snoozing away.
It was really lucky.
I battled with it a few times and bought it a spoon, hoping it'd evolve. I think I made it laugh.
Double stole the spoon cause it was shiny and Abra (Snoozer) spent a lot of time sleeping and just when I'd raised everyone up right, Steve was a Croconaw, Rider was a Ledian, Double was getting stronger (they hadn't discovered DonKarasu yet) and had actually learned Night Shade, and Snoozer became a Kadabra.
When they evolve, they get their own spoons. I learned to stop asking about these things a long time ago.
And learned Psybeam.
We were ready.
First, I had Double fill the field with Haze and then switched out with Rider to set up the field further.
His Ghastly seemed at home in the haze and tried to attack Ledian with a Shadow Ball, but it bounced off all the mirrors I'd set up and knocked itself out.
:D I liked that.
Then, I brought out Steve.
Water gun, water gun, water gun. KO'D both Haunters
I brought Ledian out to rest the protections and Murkrow to use Haze. Morty had nothing to say the entire time of course.
He brought out his murder beast, that fucking Gengar, but I was read.
"Snoozer...let's go."
I know how battles look on tv, but in a gym it's different. I had Snoozer teleport around the field and snipe from behind the Reflections and Light Screens. He also used Kinesis to slam the invisible walls into the Gengar.
I didn't know much about Psychic types, but I figured they were all sort of nerdy or weird or something.
Snoozer was twirling his spoon and did a Thumbs Down on Morty.
You can't write that stuff.
I was declared the winner.
I had Murkrow make the haze clear with its wings and then Morty gave me my badge.
"That was a good battle."
"I'll bet."
I took the badge and left.
He's an ass.
You know what, I think I hate Johto... I have a lot of BAD memories here. XD