Adventure Reloaded - Chapter 2 Preview (Patreon)

It was as he and Machoke both made their way into the Viridian Forest that Ash noticed something odd. He’d been going through all the information the pokedex had on the Machop to Machamp line, researching all he could about the species as a whole when he saw it.

The entry on the Machoke himself. At first, it looked all fine. Listing the details of his pokemon such as his height, weight, moves, being registered under himself as his trainer but then he found a little something extra at the bottom.

Pokemon Species - Machoke

Nickname - N/A

Gender - Male

Height - 5’08

Weight -  183.6 lbs

Attacks Known - Low Kick, Karate Chop, Seismic Toss, Knock Off

Ability - Guts

Level - 14

Level!?

As far as Ash was aware, a numeric value for a pokemon’s strength level was completely fictional. The only place that still used used such things were places like Poketech Academy, and only for the general point of maturity a pokemon could learn specific attacks and such.

That was completely stupid.

Giselle way back then had harped on and on about about Pikachu having to be at least level twenty five to learn Thunderbolt. Except, Pikachu had known Thunderbolt since the moment they met. And according to her starter pokemon were always level five.

That was the last he heard about it.

But really, level 14? That was a bit insulting for a Machoke wasn’t it?

He remembered playing the old pokemon games where you went through Kanto starting from Pallet Town. Getting a starter of either Squirtle, Charmander or Bulbasaur.It took like ten minutes to get to level 14 after you beat up a few Metapod or Kakuna.

And he had a Machamp once in the game. He knew Machop didn’t evolve into Machoke until level 28, so what the hell?

Speaking of Machoke - a deep hiss of annoyance behind Ash caught his attention. Turning his head so that one amber eye peered back behind nim in curiosity, he watched as the Machoke struggled to contain a small ball of flame between his large hands. Every moment or so it would fluctuate, spreading across one of his hands before beginning to putter out, causing Machoke to hurriedly center the flames in between his muscular hands once more.

“Still not much luck eh?” the raven haired trainer questioned with a smile.

Machoke looked up at him from his intense concentration on the flickering flames between his palms before grunting and getting back to work.

He’d come to realize Machoke wasn’t much of a talker. They got along pretty well and Machoke himself was actually outside of fighting a rather kind pokemon. Last night the pokemon had even offered to sleep beside him and share body heat since the gym was so cold.

Until he made a fire at least. That was when he told Machoke the attack he wanted him to learn in preparation for the forest. They’d work on the electric variety on their way to Cerulean.

Fire Punch was what he was trying to teach the fighting type. It was a bit of a bother though. Since he had no fire types or fire attack users on hand, he’d had to through his own effort make a campfire and get Machoke to collect some of it.

The task was to get a feel for the inner energy of the flames yet at the same time hone his control over those flames. Using his inner energy to nurture the fire, keep it from growing too big, yet at the same time keep it from pittering out. And in the meantime, try spreading it across his hands so the fighting type could actually shape it over his fist when the time came.

Plus, it would help for later on when Machoke went to learn Flamethrower.

Ash wondered what he should teach the fighting pokemon next after Fire Punch and Thunder Punch, ‘Mega Kick?’ Machoke had little experience using his powerful legs despite their potential. Teaching him Mega Kick and getting him used to fighting with both upper and lower body would much better prepare the fighting type for when Ash got around to teaching him Close Combat.

The odd thing though, was that Viridian Forest was pretty much dead. They hadn’t run into a single wild pokemon. And any sounds were rare if there were any at all.

“Where are they all?” Ash wondered to himself aloud. Usually you  couldn’t go two minutes without tripping over a Caterpie or Weedle. Finding grass types like Oddish and Bellsprout happily prancing around or finding a hiding spot to wait out the inevitable buzzing sound head in advance from an approaching Beedrill swarm.

Beedrill were everywhere in this forest. By far the most abundant pokemon. Butterfree were much more peaceful and usually migrated out quickly after evolving. Meanwhile Beedrill’s just swarmed together in massive groups and controlled the territories were they lived.

That was too bad. Ash had been hoping to catch one while they were in here. Beedrill were decidedly average like most bug type pokemon, but while browsing through their pokedex entry one day he’d come up with a plan to make one quite the formidable battler.

Their main aspect lay in speed. They were very fast. Then while their muscle and attack power wasn’t that high on the list, the piercing power of their needle like hands was unmatched. A Beedrill lance could pierce steel even after just evolving. Really besides being average at best in all aspects, their biggest problem lay in defence.

They were glass cannons. Their fine bodies could not take damage well.

But after a bit of research, Ash had learned that not only could they still use Harden, they could actually learn Iron Defence. Capturing one and having it master Iron DEfence would make it not only very hardy, but make their lances stronger as well when used in conjunction with the defensive technique.

A cry of triumph behind him made the raven haired boy turn around. He whistled slightly, impressed when he saw the sight of Machoke with one arm raised high and the fist in the air encased in a billowing cloak of red and orange flames.

A perfect attack to be used against most pokemon in the forest.

Then the flame flickered and die out moments later.

Machoke sunk to his knees in an instant, head bowed towards the ground in shame and Ash couldn’t help but chuckle in amusement. He made his back back a bit and pat Machoke on the shoulder comfortably, “Don’t worry buddy,” He consoled his newest pokemon,”You almost had it there which is amazing considering you only started with this about two hours ago.”

Which was true. They’d spent the night n the ruined Viridian Gym. For twelve hours they’d trained together to be perfectly in sync to get the Z-moves down. And while right now they were far from perfect, Ash was satisfied for now that they were use able.

Afterwards he’d set up his sleeping bag, and made some food for them both.  In his case a few sandwiches and his pokemons, a in of Brock’s patented fighting type muscle building chow. Machoke had loved it.

Then this morning they had set off, heading towards Pewter City. His plan was to take on Zapdos. So hi best bet was to catch more new pokemon and train them up. Get them used to fighting high level opponents in gym leaders, get them experience and such, then go after Zapdos.

Machoke sighed slightly but in the end grinned broadly, showing off those sharp and powerful teeth hidden behind his reptilian snout, jumping back up to his feet and ready to continue onwards.

‘Still,’ Ash mused, the biggest question was at the moment still - where the heck were all the pokemon of the forest?

They were nearly half way through the forest according to his pokedex map. They’d been walking through the forest for a good six or so hours, and it was already starting to get quite dark.

Something very odd was happening here.

Ash was just about to tell Machoke they were stopping to set up camp and that they’d make the rest of the way to Pewter tomorrow. That and that he’d likely be fighting the gym battle for the boulder badge by himself.

That was when he heard it though. The loud ringing noise, the tell tale sign of something hitting against metal and being repelled.