One aspect of life that always surprised Joey was how easy it was to fall into a routine.
Wake up, shower, eat, train with Blaine and his team, and go to the gym to clock in. Clock out in the late afternoon, another training session, free time, sleep.
The progress was steady, the vibes were surprisingly good, and the job was at least somewhat engaging.
He'd had worse jobs.
In fact, most jobs he'd had in his last life had been worse.
Except for that one time he'd landed a one-year gig as a luxury resort quality tester.
Working with Pokemon was great. Guiding newbie trainers in over their heads was alright. Filing out a short report after every battle was tolerable.
"I'm almost sad it's coming to an end," Joey said with a sigh as he and Jessie sat on the mansion patio and looked at the sun slowly rising from behind the waves of the sea.
"I'm not!" the magenta-haired girl exclaimed happily. "The contest in Fuschia in two weeks will be my debut. People will write poems about that day in a decade or so. I'm planning on filming it," she explained to Joey, who simply looked at her, confusion evident in his eyes. "You know," she continued. "For the biopic."
Joey clapped his hands together and nodded his head. "Of course, why didn't I think of that?" he said while trying to taper his sarcasm. "How's Happiny's routine going?" he asked to switch the topic.
"Awesome, she's fully mastered Pound, although she's still struggling with Charm."
Joey refrained from commenting that being a massive cunt probably didn't help with moves such as Charm.
"I've taught her a boxing routine, she's going to show off all her power! She even won a battle in the square yesterday. The youngster we beat was shouting something about his pipi. I didn't really know what that was about, but Happiny was very happy about her first win."
"I've noticed that Houndour has been spectating some of your sessions; he thinks he's being subtle," Joey commented.
Houndour had truly found his space in the last two months. He got along incredibly well with Blaine's roster, being everyone's younger brother. He loved the island, the gym battles and the mansion.
His last two psych evaluations had gone extremely well. The Poke-psychologist on the case had been somewhat shocked, in fact.
"Joey!" An old voice suddenly shouted from the entrance of the mansion.
"Gotta go," the boy told his friend before standing up, dusting himself off, and going towards the front of the house, where he found Blaine impatiently sitting on his large Rapidash.
A smaller Ponyta was hooving around next to the pair, obviously impatient.
Joey hopped on unceremoniously, at which the two horse-like Pokemon started off with a trot.
"Last day before freedom!" Blaine announced with a laugh. "The number of challengers has gone down all the way to ten per day!" He turned towards his gym trainer. "Are you happy to get rid of this old man?" he asked jokingly.
"I'll miss this place," Joey answered truthfully. "But the show must go on. I still have two badges to get. Seven months will definitely suffice, but I still haven't seen too much of the region."
"You're still set on the eastern route, aren't you? Fuschia to Lavender, then through the cave to Cerulean."
"Then through Mt. Moon to Indigo Plateau," Joey reaffirmed with a nod. He'd already explored the area around Saffron during his youngster days. He didn't need to revisit the region other than popping in for a short hello at the orphanage.
"Don't know why you want to bother with Lavender," Blaine scoffed. "Horrible place. Bad juju. Cave's alright, powerplant is close to the northern exit. Might find an electric Pokemon there."
"I think I have my hands full at the moment," Joey said with a sigh. "Training five team members plus Slugma. I've come to fully understand why most trainers have to work with a limit of six."
Blaine remained silent for a moment, the only sound on the road being the hooves hitting the dirt road leading to the town proper.
"Have you thought about my suggestion?" Blaine eventually asked.
"I don't really think it's up to me, honestly," Joey answered. "I'll ask him this evening."
"Leaving it for the last minute, eh?" the gym leader offered. "You know my opinion. I've been handling fire-types my whole life. He doesn't have it in him. Slugma, on the other hand? She's got that fire in her."
"It's not an easy conversation," Joey answered as the two of them finally arrived at the gym and dismounted their respective rides.
They entered the gym, nodded at the receptionist before going to split up, Joey with a list of today's challengers and Blaine with some other documents that needed looking at.
"One last thing," Blaine said. "There was some weird guy in an overcoat here yesterday evening after you went back home. Fedora-wearing weirdo looked right out of some old detective show. Was asking about your finances, of all things. Told him to show a badge or fuck off. He chose the latter."
Joey paused mid-step before shaking his head. "I'll handle it when it comes up. Worst case, file a report with the police. I'm starting to have some sway there with the successful rehabilitation."
"Good luck with that, don't get too shocked at your last battle today," Blaine said cryptically before entering his office and shutting the door.
Joey looked through the schedule in his hand. The list didn't have the names of the challengers. Just the badge levels.
His last battle of the day, scheduled half an hour before he was set to leave, was against a 0-badge trainer.
"Why would I be shocked?" Joey muttered to himself, thinking about all the possible challengers he might receive.
The only recurring challenger at the 0-badge level was the youngster with the now really huge Caterpie. Joey didn't understand why the kid didn't participate in one of the League-organised travels to other gyms and kept banging his head on the Cinnabar gym instead.
At this point, Joey had battled the kid five times, so it wouldn't really be a shock. Blaine must have meant someone else.
He put the situation out of his mind as his first challenger of the day arrived. It was a fifth badge challenge, maybe it would be somewhat interesting.
-/-
"Flamethrower," Joey commanded idly, his Houndour spitting out a wide cone of fire to counteract the incoming Water Gun.
The two elemental attacks met in mid-air, causing an explosion of steam to erupt on the gym battlefield.
"Odour Sleuth," Joey ordered next while his opponent shouted something about a Defence Curl. "Follow it with Flare Blitz."
Even through the thick curtain of steam, Joey was able to see the dark Pokemon on fire and blur forward like a runaway train.
A smash resounded through the mostly empty gym; nobody came to spectate the gym trainer.
The steam dissipated to reveal a knocked-out Krabby laying on its back with burns all over its shelled body.
"That Krabby was third-badge at best," Joey commented to the opposing trainer, who simply gritted his teeth and recalled his roasted crustacean. "I'd suggest you keep type advantage shenanigans out of battles that are fifth badge and plus. You'll have more success using a Pokemon you're actually familiar with."
Houndour suddenly erupted in flames as his ability activated.
The dark Pokemon howled as the opposing trainer released a Graveler on his side of the field. Looked stronger than the Krabby at least.
"Look, all you did was allow my Houndour to set up," Joey continued, critiquing as the referee waved the flag for the match to continue. "Flamethrower," he ordered again, and this time the cone of fire that erupted from Houndour's mouth covered the entire field.
"Dig!" he heard his enemy shout desperately.
Joey shook his head.
"Go to the hole and blast it," he ordered.
Houndour promptly ran through the dissipating flames and used another Flamethrower, this time pouring it directly into the hole.
Graveler suddenly emerged with a yelp right behind Houndour, burns all over its body and hit the dark Pokemon with a frontal Mud Bomb.
Houndour, for his part, promptly fell over, pretending to have been defeated.
Joey frowned and recalled him.
He'd certainly discussed with the Pokemon to "faint" whenever the enemy started putting up more of a fight, but Houndour had been doing it too early, far too many times recently.
"Slugma," Joey muttered and released the slug Pokemon on the field.
Lava Plume was available for the fifth badge challengers, so the Graveler promptly found itself being recalled after taking a rather unwanted magma bath.
The last Pokemon was a Pidgeotto, which was a rather decent counter, considering Slugma couldn't dig underground and also couldn't quite hit a flying target that easily.
The hardy slug gave as good as she got, but eventually tapped out when it became clear that Pidgeotto wasn't going to risk a descent anytime soon. Her judgment, as Joey had noted in the last months, was impeccable. She'd exited the match just as Pidgeotto and its trainer had proven that they couldn't be goaded into making the wrong move in a match that was essentially won.
"Good match," Joey told the opposing trainer as they met in the middle to shake hands. "You'll go on to fight Blaine. I'd suggest another month of training, however, maybe that would help Krabby catch up to the rest of your team."
The older trainer opposite Joey simply scoffed at him. "You sure have a lot to say for someone whose Pokemon went down so easily," he said before storming off.
"What an idiot," the referee commented with a shake of his head.
"Tell me about it," Joey replied with a roll of his eyes. He stretched his arms in the air. "Last match of the day," he said with some satisfaction. It was always nice to clock out, even when you liked your job.
"Last match of the season," Tom, the referee, interjected.
"It was nice working with you," Joey said with a nod, receiving one in return.
"You're a professional, I appreciate that," Tom replied. He looked at his watch as a figure emerged from the challenger's tunnel.
"And up next is the amazing, the fabulous, Jessie from Viridian," the magenta-haired girl shouted as she ran into the stadium in a ridiculously large and puffy pink ensemble, a large oval stone tied to her stomach.
"Jessie?" Joey asked in confusion.
"You will refer to me as Jessie the fabulous!" the girl shouted angrily, pointing her finger at Joey.
The gym trainer rolled his eyes. "So Jessie the fabulous will be my last opponent, that's fitting, I guess. Is that your contest ensemble?" he asked. She did look a bit like a Chansey.
"What else!" Jessie exclaimed, before blushing. "Do you like it?"
Joey threw her a thumbs-up. "Great colour coordination, you look like a Chansey all right."
Jessie threw her head back and laughed haughtily. "A bit ironic considering I almost went to Chansey school!" she exclaimed before gripping the one Pokeball at her waist. "But enough talk, let's battle!"
Tom, the referee, laughed and raised his flag.
"Jessie the Fabolous, challenging at the first-badge level!" he exclaimed. "Challenger and gym trainer, release your Pokemon!"
Happiny and Houndour were promptly released onto the somewhat burned and cracked field.
Houndour, realising who his opponent was, yipped in confusion and threw a glance back at Joey.
"First badge," the gym trainer explained with a shrug. "Start us off with a Flamethrower," he ordered.
Houndour nodded and threw back his head, releasing an incredibly weak Flamethrower that covered some of the field in terms of width but probably couldn't have even boiled an egg.
"Rush through and Pound it!" Jessie shouted from the other side of the field, and Joey's eyes widened as Happiny actually ran through the rather painful and toxic flames of his dark Pokemon to deliver a slap right onto the puppy's face.
Houndour seemed equally stunned as Joey, face still pointed in the direction it had been slapped to.
Happiny didn't hesitate, however, promptly delivering another Pound.
"Distance and Flamethrower again," Joey ordered. "Higher concentration." He didn't use Houndour's physical moves much when fighting at the first badge level, other than perhaps the occasional tackle. The flames were already powerful enough to handle most beginners.
Houndour followed Joey's orders and tried to retreat, only for Happiny to jump and clutch the puppy's neck. What happened next could only be described as a series of consecutive kidney shots, which left the dark Pokemon whimpering as the Flamethrower he spewed went right above Happiny's head and only singed the curl on top.
Joey couldn't really order Flame Wheel or Flare Blitz as those moves were much too advanced for a first badge challenge.
"Tackle to the ground," he ordered instead. He needed to get Happiny off before she gave Houndour kidney failure with her relentless pounding.
"Rodeo!" Jessie shouted at that, Happiny spinning in place around Houndour's neck, where she landed like a cowboy while Houndour uselessly slammed the ground.
"Flamethrower the ground beneath you, burn everything," Joey ordered, getting slightly annoyed at the ridiculousness of the battle.
Houndour inhaled into its maw and was just about to spew fire into the ground beneath when Happiny socked him over the back of his head with her fist, causing the Puppy's mouth to close in the middle of the move.
Joey winced as the Flamethrower erupted inside his Pokemon's closed mouth.
A horrible wail erupted from Houndour, causing Joey to promptly recall him.
He nodded at Jessie and the panting Happiny. He was impressed. Obviously, he'd held back a lot, but still. "Your grit and perseverance qualifies you to face the gym leader," he said magnanimously.
Jessie pumped her fist while Happiny closed her eyes on the field and concentrated.
She glowed a soft white, and the burns over her body slowly disappeared, leaving behind nothing but pristine skin.
"No need!" a voice suddenly said from behind Joey, causing him to turn around to see Blaine adjusting his sunglasses in the gym tunnel behind him.
"If the Happiny can ignore that level of fire, she'd do the same to the Ponyta I'm currently using for the first badge challenge. Latch onto the neck when I try to go in close instead, and then beat its head in. I could kite it instead, but that's already a second-badge tactic." He walked over to Jessie and flicked her the volcano badge.
The girl caught it in mid-air and promptly stuck it to the front of her dress before rushing forward to hug Happiny.
"You were amazing," the girl shrieked.
"You two celebrate," the gym leader told Jessie kindly before turning to Joey. "Office?" he asked.
The gym trainer nodded, went to congratulate Jessie on her win, before going to follow Blaine, curious as to what the man had to say to him.
-/-
Blaine's office greatly resembled the man himself. Ordered with an underlying note of chaos. An old cup of coffee hidden behind meticulously ordered documents and a doctorate degree framed on the wall, but crooked by just one millimetre to the left.
"Paper's been reviewed," Blaine said as the first thing after he sat down in the swivel chair behind the desk. He pointed a finger gun at Joey. "Congratulations, you're a published author now. It will appear in the next edition of the Fire Journal."
Joey rolled his eyes. "Being the legal representative of the test subject is hardly a particularly noteworthy accomplishment."
Blaine waved him off with an old and wrinkly hand. "A name's a name and a contribution is a contribution. Second, third, fourth, all look the same when there are only two names on the bloody thing."
"Well, I'm sure the world will be shook by the academic heft of my character," Joey snarked.
"Talking about papers," Blaine muttered and rummaged through his desk before pulling out a USB stick and pushing it over the table to Joey, who greedily picked it up.
"Is this what I think it is?" Joey asked.
"Believe it," Blaine replied. "8th badge access to the League digital library. Same qualifications as a trusted gym trainer, but your new authorship accelerated the process."
"Low classification mission reports, more recent publications and hypotheses," Joey muttered and put the USB stick into his backpack.
"Stick that into any League approved PC, and you'll boot up the library, you'll be able to set your password upon first login." He paused. "Please don't use your birthdate."
"1234 for the win," Joey joked, receiving a pained groan.
"Careful of any Houndour or Houndoom triggering their own Flash Fire from now on," Blaine continued. "Secrets out of the bag, although I already had a hypothesis paper out for a few years now."
"I'll be sure to remain wary of any Flare Blitzing Houndour," Joey said with a roll of his eyes. "In the end, it's just another addition to the rather large compendium of dirty tricks a knowledgeable trainer can pull off."
"Never underestimate their rarity," Blaine warned. "Teenagers with a bare-bones education, an intellectual battle scene does not make."
"Yeah," Joey paused. "About Houndour," he started, having left his Pokeballs outside to be healed by the receptionist, who knew how to use the gym healing machine.
"Honorary Growlithe," Blaine responded before pausing. "Low potential battler."
"Flare Blitz Flash Fire is not low-potential," Joey argued.
"His attitude is," Blaine shot back before shaking his head. "Look, kid, I've raised about a dozen Pokemon to the Elite level. Some of them got there easily, some of them struggled. Your Houndour's not even a struggler."
"The first time I meet someone who agrees with my philosophy of character-based team-building, and they use it against me," Joey huffed and crossed his arms.
"Your Rattata's a fiend," Blaine started. "That thing is a Dragonite stuck in the body of a two-foot sandwich. It's going to become great or die trying, and the healthcare has gotten too good for it to croak from overexertion." He raised one finger. "One thing I'll say about your Metapod. Never seen a more pissed off bug in my life. I get the story, but that character is more than just a circumstantial development. When she evolves, she's going to be murder on the dance floor."
Joey raised an eyebrow. "Just because she's pissed?"
"Being pissed is one thing," Blaine shot back with a shake of his head. "Channelling all that piss into training is another. Can't believe you managed to get such a firecracker to not participate in the gym battle two times in a row. There's a brain behind all that hate, and that's scary." He hummed thoughtfully. "Your Diglett. At first glance, he resembles Houndour a little bit. The only difference is that Diglett's motivations come internally. He's been trying since the day he knew how to spell the word, if he even does, quite frankly, and hasn't stopped since. He's got that low start, high finish energy I appreciate in all my Pokemon. Houndour, on the other hand. He's a people pleaser and wants to be liked. He wanted to be a fighter to feel strong, now he is, why try harder?"
"And Misdreavus?" Joey asked with a quirked eyebrow.
"That ghost gives me the creeps," Blaine admitted. "I have Arcanine protect me while I sleep. Nobody ever's gotten around that. She somehow managed to smuggle a voice recording of her scream next to my nightstand. We both almost shat ourselves. Sometimes I look at her practising her Hypnosis Dream Eater combo and see nothing in her eyes, then a switch is flipped, and she's playing with my Growlithe like she's a newborn. She's a program in the form of a Pokemon, careful with her, never trust a ghost," he warned.
"Houndour is the only Pokemon I didn't catch," Joey admitted with a sigh.
"That's the issue, innit. You pick champions, but take the ability to pick out of your hands, and you're left molding river clay. You'll get a beautiful vase, I'm sure, but it'll crack the first time it drops."
"Houndour would be happier if he stayed," Joey said with a faraway look.
Blaine admitted. "He just wanted to know how to protect himself. Now he knows. Additionally, staying with an elite-level team certainly helps with the anxiety. In the end, he's just a traumatised kid. Rather than throwing him into a high-stakes battle, you're better off just throwing in a normal kid."
Joey pulled a face.
"Horrible analogy, sorry," Blaine apologised.
"Slugma trains every hour of every day," the gym trainer observed. "Why?"
Blaine leaned back into his chair and sighed, rummaged through a drawer and pulled out a cigar. He lit it with a flick of his fingers and took a puff. "It's a stupid story, but never doubt her motivation." He exhaled.
Joey sniffed the air. "Scotch cask?" he asked, causing Blaine to freeze and drop his sunglasses to stare at him with beady eyes.
"I don't want to know," the gym leader eventually decided. "Anyway. Slugma's a descendant of my Magcargo. The problem is, they've never had a good relationship." He gazed into the distance. "Not since… the incident."
"The incident?"
"It was supposed to be a simple experiment, to make some berry ice cream. That way, Slugma and Magcargo would maybe have the food melt to a normal temperature by the time they swallow rather than always eating different flavoured charcoal."
"It didn't work?"
Blaine sighed. "It worked too well. So well that Magcargo ends up betraying his own daughter to eat her portion. She hasn't talked to him or stopped training since."
Joey glared at the man. "Are you serious?"
The gym leader took another puff of his cigar, nodded and coughed. "I'm super serious," he wheezed out.
"So what, Slugma wants to reach Elite level to avenge her ice cream and beat up her dad?"
Blaine somehow managed to stop coughing. "Yep."
Joey paused. "That is the kind of pettiness team Joey can get behind."
"Look, kid, forget the motivation. The thing is, if a Pokemon can trigger such a raging ambition with such a dumbass story, then they were always gonna go all the way."
"She's already seventh badge level," Joey muttered. "She was sixth badge two months ago."
"Smog, Yawn, Ancient Power, Rock Throw, Harden, Lava Plume, Amnesia, Recover. Only way forward is up," Blaine said. "She wants to go on an adventure. I'm not in my adventuring age anymore, and I can hardly give her away as a starter."
"You'd need to take over the task of rehabilitating Houndour," Joey said. "Sign some papers."
Blaine shrugged. "Wouldn't be the first time," he said. "Are we on the same page?"
"There's one person we still have to ask," Joey decided.
-/-
An extra room in the Pokecenter: Joey, former Cinnabar gym trainer, and Blaine, former Elite Four member and current Cinnabar gym leader. Sitting between them on his own little chair, a Houndour. Across the trio, League-affiliated Pokepsychologist.
"So this is what you want, Houndour?" the Pokepsychologist asked in a severe voice, peering at the puppy over her glasses.
"Houhouhou," the Pokemon whined, before nodding resolutely.
"I think that I've managed to instill into Houndour a sense of independence that was previously lacking," Joey piped up. "The offer from Cinnabar gym to work with them opened a different avenue. Houndour feels incredibly comfortable in his new environment, and considering that a sense of stability is hard to find in this world, I think it would be unfair to rip him away from a place that he's learned to call home."
The Pokepsychologist looked at Blaine.
"Ditto," the old man said simply. "He's an honorary Growlithe. I don't mean that metaphorically either. My oldest Arcanine can't see and smell that well anymore. Her mind's a bit spotty, too. She thinks she had an immaculate conception. Considering that my current ace is her grandson, Houndour has become the honourable uncle of a champion-level pokemon."
"That would provide a sense of security that might have been lacking in the past," the woman muttered and leaned back in her plastic chair. She turned to Houndour. "You're alright with staying and not pursuing your desire to become," she paused and looked at her files. "The strongest and most honoured under the heavens?"
Houndour awkwardly shook his head. "Dour," he muttered with a slight tinge of embarrassment in his voice.
The pokepsychologist turned to the Cinnabar gym duo. "He says that he recognises his initial dream as being a childish defence mechanism used to repress and deflect traumatic feelings in regards to his perceived existence as 'weaker' and 'lesser.' Now that he has found a place to call home, he feels he has matured to the level of recognising that his version of fulfilment lies in complacency rather than eternal striving, which makes him incompatible with Mr Joestar's team vision. He is incredibly grateful but knows that a found home is something to cherish."
"Really?" Blaine asked with some surprise.
The pokepsychologist nodded. "He is very articulate," she bragged. "He worked on recognising and expressing his emotions for several months before embarking on this journey."
"I'll visit," Joey said.
"Come before the conference, got some training to do," Blaine added.
"Well, considering the circumstances," the pokepsychologist muttered. "I would say that this is an incredibly good placement. I am very happy with both of your works and have no doubt that signing off on the trade is the correct decision."
Blaine and Joey both stood up and shook hands with the woman before shaking hands with each other.
"You know," Blaine remarked as they exited the Pokecenter after completing the trade. "I think this was the favourite of all my custody disputes."
Joey threw the man a sideways glance. "Ok boomer," he said as the finishing statement.
-/-
Joey ran around the training field with his clothes on fire as Slugma cuddled too close to him during their grooming session. He eventually managed to jump off the cliff into the sea and climbed back up, dripping in seawater.
Slugma hurried over to apologise and accidentally set him on fire again.
Watashitachi wa min'na tomodachidesu
Houndour happily played at the feet of Blaine's ace Arcanine, and when the older Pokemon got sick of his antics, the dark type went to cry to the oldest Arcanine in the clearing whose whiskers were already grey.
Arcanine on Arcanine discipline ensued.
Mitsuketa kazoku wa saikō no sushida
Rattata glared at Misdreavus, dark energy permeating his form. He crashed through the Hypnosis, unaffected and chomped down on the ghost, who suddenly didn't like her chances all too much anymore.
Tomoni tsuyoku nari, jiyū no tame ni tatakau
Diglett and Metapod sat at the edge of a cliff and watched the sunset after a long day of training. These beautiful days on the island. Would it be possible to forget even if they wanted to?
Anata wa watashinotomodachi, watashi no shin'yūdesu
Blaine, Jessie, Joey and Happiny sat on the porch of the mansion as they ate take-out pizza to celebrate their last evening together.
The gym leader opened an old bottle of champagne but knocked himself out with the flying cork.
They had to call an ambulance.
Jiko wa okoru kamo shirenaiga, anata wa watashi no soba ni iru
Blaine and Houndour stood on Cinnabar port, waving goodbye to the departing ferry heading towards Fuschia.
Blaine knelt down and put a pair of dark sunglasses on his newest Pokemon.
They both hopped onto the Rapidash and rode off into the sunset.
Well, they rode off to the nearest ice cream store to escape the scorching rays of the early summer sun.
Anatatowatashi wa, tomoni sekai ni tachimukau!
Joey let Slugma out of her Pokeball on the ship to show her Cinnabar, which grew smaller and smaller in the distance.
Tears came to Slugma's eyes.
Unfortunately, Slugma's tears were made from magma, so when they landed on Joey's shoes, they promptly set them on fire.
Joey jumped overboard.
Tsugi no tabi e shuppatsu suru, tatakainagara
Jonathan Joestar came down with a middling case of Bronchitis from his many unexpected cold plunges and had to spend his first week in Fuschia in a hospital.
The person who fished him out of the water was the ship's grizzled captain, who also had to give him CPR to revive him.
Byōki demo kenkō demo, tsuyokute mo yowakute mo, watashitachiha issho ni sekai o shihai suru
Fighting!
-/-
I noticed recently that due to my summer hiatus this story is like 4 chapters behind where it should be. To make up for that I'm posting some quick updates for this story on Royalroad while promoting my newest original story over there. Basically just milestone rewards once every 100 followers. Anyway, the updates will also be synchronized here since it would be dumb to have one site have more chapters than another. So, if anyone is wondering why this will probably have some extra updates the next few days, this is why.
Anyway, if you like my writing, you should check it out regardless, it helps me a lot. Just google Royalroad Bor902/Re: Villain (to Hero)
AN: Don't worry, don't worry, last time in a while I'm using this montage singing technique to finish a chapter. The Cinnabar arc just had that kinda vibe tbh. Hondour was traded for Slugma, which if you know me was a bit foreshadowed by the fact that houndour has EVs that are a bit too good for Joey's team. Also, honestly, a criminal's rehabiliated pokemon deserves a chill life, they suffered enough. Hoped you liked the Cinnabar arc, lasted what, 20k words, five chapters? Anyway, onwards we go!