The Rock Gym!
16: Chapter 16: Preparations!
The Rock Gym!
With the help of road signs and constantly asking for directions, Leo finally saw the huge red building not far away—the Rustboro City Pokémon Center.
Entering the lobby, he handed Onix and Marshtomp’s Poké Balls to Nurse Joy to be cared for.
Leo went straight to the video phone and called home.
“Is that Leo?
No news for so many days, are you okay?
Dad and I were so worried!” Seeing his mom on the screen, his heart warmed.
Leo said happily, “Don’t worry, Mom.
I just stayed a few extra days in Petalburg Woods.
I encountered a lot of new things.
I’ll tell you all about them when I get home!” “It’s good that you’re fine!
Make sure to stay safe!” “I will, Mom!
Oh right, I’m going to stay in Rustboro City for two days to challenge the Rock Gym.
Mom, can you mail those minerals over?” “Going to challenge a Gym?
Okay, I’ll mail them to you right away.
It’s the Rustboro City Pokémon Center, right?
Wait for the delivery!” “That’s great, Mom.
You and ‘someone’ can just wait for the news of my victory!” Deliberately emphasizing the word “someone,” Leo watched his frantic dad in the video and happily hung up the phone once again.
Heading to the restaurant, Leo prepared to treat himself well.
After eating his own cooking for so many days…
hmm…
how should he put it?
It was barely enough to fill his stomach~ After all, boiling noodles or whatever just required having hands; there was zero technical skill involved.
Devouring his food, he returned to the lobby, retrieved his two fully recovered Pokémon, and went to the room he had booked in advance.
He released Onix and Marshtomp.
“Roar~” “Marshtomp!” Seeing both partners looking full of energy, Leo nodded.
“Onix, Marshtomp, we’re going to prepare to challenge a Gym.
This time, it’s different from all our previous battles.
The opponent will be incredibly strong!
So next, we’re going to start special training.
Let’s work hard together!” Both Pokémon nodded in response.
“Great.
Then first, let’s fill our stomachs!” Taking out the prepared Pokémon food and Pokéblocks, he let them eat their fill.
Leo lay back on the bed, silently thinking about the upcoming training plan.
Onix would continue to train its defense and body hardness, improving its control and application of Rock-type energy in the process.
As for moves, it needed to learn Protect to increase its defense, and Sandstorm for crowd control, paired with Sand Tomb.
Its lack of attack coverage was a big problem.
He’d see if there was a chance to learn Dragon Breath!
Once the supplies from home arrived, it could absorb them, and then he could prepare a Metal Coat for its evolution.
Mm, that was it for Onix for now.
As for Marshtomp…
Leo turned his head to look at Marshtomp, who was happily eating its food.
Honestly, this evolution went even better than imagined.
It instantly learned three new moves, showing its talent in move mastery—much better than a certain snake that couldn’t learn Bite or Crunch.
The most important thing right now was for Marshtomp to familiarize itself with its new body and master its newly learned moves.
It didn’t need to learn any other moves for the time being.
Once it was proficient, he’d see if it could comprehend Hammer Arm or Brick Break from Rock Smash!
At the same time, it needed to continue strengthening its power training.
The Intensive Training Device he won could be worn by it.
After roughly considering this, Leo felt drowsiness hit him.
“Onix, Marshtomp, after you finish eating, get a good rest too.
Good night!” “Roar!” “Marsh!” He could finally sleep comfortably.
Everything else could wait until tomorrow!
…
Morning sunlight shone into the room.
The boy groggily opened his eyes.
After a long while, his thoughts returned to his brain, and his eyes gradually gained focus.
“Mm~ I slept so comfortably.
Traveling really is an exhausting task.” Stretching his back, Leo finally woke up completely.
Looking around the room, Onix was coiled up, lying in the living area of the room.
Marshtomp was leaning against the bed.
Both Pokémon were sleeping quietly.
Getting out of bed quietly, he took out Moomoo Milk, placed the Pokémon food and Pokéblocks on the floor for them, and then started making his own breakfast.
Soon, hot milk and toast were ready.
Waking the two Pokémon, a happy day began with delicious food.
After packing up, Leo left the Pokémon Center and headed to the Pokémon Mart in Rustboro City.
If he wanted to buy TM machines, apart from the black market, only League-affiliated Marts had them.
Walking stop-and-go along the way, he arrived at the counter selling TMs.
Looking at the move list on the catalog, he couldn’t help but exclaim, “Sweet baby Arceus!” Ordinary TM disks, like Water Pulse, Dark Pulse, Dragon Pulse, and the Elemental Punches, cost about 100,000 Pokédollars each.
Slightly stronger moves, like Earthquake, Surf, Flamethrower, and Thunderbolt, ranged from 200,000 to 300,000!
Dragon, Psychic, and Ghost-type moves were generally a bit more expensive than other types.
But super-powerful moves, or ultimate moves, like Sheer Cold, Hyper Beam, Giga Impact, Fissure, Psystrike, and so on, required over 300,000 to acquire, and they might not even be in stock.
As for the most expensive, they were status moves like Protect, Safeguard, Swords Dance, Dragon Dance, Petal Dance, or weather moves like Sunny Day, Rain Dance, Hail, and Sandstorm.
Because they were the rarest and hardest to record, they were the most expensive.
TM machines in this world couldn’t just be made easily.
They all required Elite Four-level Pokémon to spend time and energy to record them.
Moreover, a 100% success rate couldn’t be guaranteed!
If interfered with midway, or if the energy couldn’t keep up, any slight mistake would lead to failure!
The Pokémon itself would also suffer an energy backlash, making it highly dangerous.
Therefore, aside from the massive entity that was the Pokémon League, very few people or organizations had the power to record TM disks.
They simply didn’t have the foundation.
When other Pokémon learned moves, they comprehended and studied through the application of energy, rather than simply looking at a TV screen and instantly learning it.
Pokémon moves were formed from various types of energy.
How could they be so easily learned?
Unless there was a predecessor’s experience and comprehension, it was impossible.
This was also why TM machines were so expensive.
Of course, TM disks on the black market were generally of very low quality.
Most were recorded by illegal organizations persecuting Elite-tier or Gym-tier Pokémon.
The quality was terrible; the recording might be incomplete, or the move imprint too shallow, rendering the TM basically useless.
However, occasionally one could find a hidden gem, as the prices were much cheaper.
Leo walked around and only found a TM for Dragon Breath.
Luckily, there was one TM for Protect left!
As for Sandstorm, there were none for sale at all.
He sighed.
Dragon Breath was 200,000, Protect was 450,000.
Adding other supplies, it came to a total of 750,000.
The reward he had just won was gone in an instant.
It really hurt his heart.
Leaving the Mart in pain, Leo could only comfort himself with the thought that it was all to become stronger.
While enjoying the scenery of the big city, he headed toward the northern coast.
According to the information he had prepared in advance, the northern beach had many small hills and mud swamps, making it very suitable for Onix and Marshtomp’s training.
It was an ideal location, and there were also many trainers there, so he could train and battle at the same time, increasing his strength as much as possible to strive for his first Badge.
Thinking of this, Leo instantly felt filled with motivation.
He quickened his pace and walked toward the north side of the city.
Meanwhile, outside Petalburg Woods, a strange man wearing a hood to cover his face and a large trench coat to hide his body, concealed himself in the shadows of the trees, approaching Rustboro City.