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Sadly, the sequel never had an official release outside of Japan.
Eventually, a fan-made English translation surfaced and now it is possible to experience the game even if one does not read Japanese! The game had a host of new cards and characters beyond the original game making it the best way to experience the card game in its original form.
The story was very simple: in the first game, which takes place on TCG Island, you compete with your rival, Ronald, to gather the eight master medals from various clubs like the water or fire clubs, and then compete against the grand-masters to earn their legendary Pokemon cards: Dragonite, Zapdos, Moltres, and Articuno.
Below is the map of the only island from the original game as it appears in the second game: TCG Island.
The sequel greatly expanded upon the first game by adding many more cards, locations, characters, music, and a continuation of the story from the original game which revolves around Team GR invading from a new island to steal the cards of everyone on TCG Island, and your journey to stop them. It also includes much more post game content allowing play against a variety of powerful card duelists known as ghostmasters.
Below is a map of the new land introduced in the second game: GR Island
Even with the sequel, the story is still very basic and much is left to the imagination of the player for how their world really works, hence the playground for writing fan fiction!
Our story follows the protagonist as he seeks to duel opponents with only common cards(aka no uncommon cards, rare cards, or promo cards!).
As an optional enhancement for the story, each number in parentheses is a clickable link to music on youtube, soundcloud, or bandcamp which functions as a soundtrack for the story. Each track is intended to be played or repeated until you reach the next point in the story where a link for another track is included. Here is one as an example below!
If you are curious what kinds of tracks you can expect from the soundtrack, just see below!
I follow this basic logic/flowchart:
Do I know of a track from the Gameboy Color TGC games that be used to fit the scene? If no, go to the next question.
Do I know of a retro track from anther Pokemon game or a remix of a track from the TCG games that can be used? If no, next question.
Do I know if a remix of a track from another Pokemon game that can be used? If no, next question.
Do I know of a chiptune track from another game series or a track from a chiptunes artist that can be used? If no, next question.
Do I know of a non-chiptune track without lyrics from another game series or music artist that can be used? If no, next question.
Do I know of a non-chiptune track with lyrics that can be used? This includes anything in mainstream media at this point as well.
In this way, I try to keep the general feel of a retro Pokemon game, but I am not afraid to branch out when I feel something different would be worth diverting the style for. In general, I think I try to follow a similar path as Undertale did for its soundtrack as it had a mix of chiptunes, piano, and guitar. Tracks with lyrics will be almost unheard of. In fact, they will be so rare, you should assume there will be none.
Suggestions for tracks to use are welcome.
Listed below are changes to the story of the original games and important context for our adaptation:
1. All duels mentioned in the fic were played by me in the actual game using the actual results. As such, the story doubles as a lets-play in written form. For some duels, I went back later and made up some details to add in without changing the end result of the duel. The level of details included for the various duels depends on the opponent and the stakes involved. The story generally focuses on the outcomes of the duels more than the duels themselves in order to appeal to a wider audience, but I am open to improving the details if any are especially bothersome.
2. Author's Notes hidden behind spoilers are included at various locations in the story which help describe TCG rules, mechanics, and general information pertaining to the TCG games for anyone who hasn't played the games or the Pokemon TCG, for anyone who is curious.
All forms of feedback are welcome, but with two stipulations:
1. For concrit, please try to balance it with non-concrit in reviews. I'm all about improving the fic, but 85% or more of a review being concrit is more discouraging to me than it is helpful.
2. For concrit regarding my current writing style, please try to provide examples. Saying something like: "This line is sloppy and needs to be tightened up.", doesn't help me figure out how to fix it unless it's a recurring thing that you already provided enough examples to me on.
Rating: T
Drinking. Drunkenness. Nudity. Mild physical violence. Effects of gambling addiction. Mind-replacement without consent. Abduction. Drug use to cause unconsciousness. AI death.
Content warnings currently pertain to the entire series.
Speaking of which, this is the first book of what will be a book series!
Updates:
As of 4/12/25, Chapter 12 now includes what used to be Chapter 13. The final regular chapters are now 13 and 14. Those chapters used to be 14 and 15.
As of 5/2/25, Chapter 2 is now split into 2 parts. With it being in two parts, picture space was freed up allowing for more pixel art from the game to be added to both parts.
As of 5/11/25, Chapter 1 is now split into 2 parts. With it being in two parts, picture space was freed up allowing for more pixel art from the game to be added to both parts.
As of 5/20/25, Chapter 5 is now split into 2 parts.
As of 8/1/25, the original prologue has been removed and is being replaced with a new arc. All of the chapter numbers will be updated accordingly. (Updates coming soon will post the chapters one at a time for the new arc and eventually the remaining chapters beyond.) Original prologue can be viewed here in the old/original version.
As of 8/8/25, I have decided to split the story into multiple books. This thread only will pertain to book one. Update's prior to 8/1/25 refer to the updates to the old version prior to posting this newer version.
First, I want to say thank you! Each one of you has contributed ideas, advice, and encouragement. Without it, I never would have made it so far in so short of a time span!
The new prologue you see here is much shorter than the original. This is because the remainder of the original prologue has now become the chapters in all of Book One! The new prologue below only shows up until the Gentleman is about to embark on his quest to play duels on TCG Island. Chapter 1, in this Book One, is the start of that quest.
So, if you have reviewed the old prologue, you should proceed to Chapter 1 including if you are here for a catnip review or a review tag! If you want to go back and compare to the old prologue for reference as you read through the various chapters in Book One, the link is here.
I’m now officially the TCG Island champion! After winning card duels in the Pokemon Trading Card Game against countless opponents on our island, I proved my worth and then some. The tidy sum that I picked up from everything didn’t hurt, either.
Apparently being this good at the Pokemon trading card game is not something that is easy to emulate! Perhaps graduating with highest honors from Pokemon Card Elite University gave me an edge?
My unrestricted deck, 'Mystic Fire' was a force to behold indeed! It was crammed full of the best cards, several of which were uncommon or rare. It used Arcanine with its high 100HP with support from the legendary Moltres and Alakazam. Once set up, I could keep energy on Arcanine and keep damage off of it. My foes stood virtually no chance of victory after I had completed my setup during a game.
For my 28th birthday this year, I was able to purchase a home in an upper class neighborhood with the money my dueling earned me! I also purchased this fancy red formal-wear suit. Of course I had to visit the barber to trim my hair, beard, and mustache! Seeing myself in the mirror, I think it all comes together quite nicely. My light skin contrasted with my brown hair, brown eyes, and my red suit. I'll need to look my best for the tutoring session with Billy, the 6 year old boy. His prestigious parents sought me out to help him with the most important part of growing up in our world: how to play the Pokemon Trading Card Game!
I believe my late grandfather would approve! He always did stress speaking well, dressing well, manners, and kindness. He may not have been the TCG Champion, but at least he was able to see me attain the rank. I've always strived to make him proud and I don't plan on failing the expectations he had for my life!
Speaking of expectations, this is my first time writing in this diary. My grandfather had mentioned this is a family heirloom and that it is meant to be used. As it is now mine, I will carry on the tradition of writing in this diary until it is time for me to pass it to a future child or loved one. I shall keep it with me at all times! I even plan to include some pictures!
Wanting to keep a record of my tutoring, I shall spare no detail in this section! As usual, I tend to jot things down shortly after they occur. That combined with what I have been told is a good memory allows me to keep highly accurate diary entries!
Now, some may question why a champion such as myself would stoop to taking on a tutoring job. In truth, I had grown bored with beating opponents on our Island, so it seemed like the perfect diversion!
I arrived at Billy's Mansion and introduced myself to his parents. It seems my appearance was suitable as they made no mention of it. Good thing I always strive to look my best!
As for the mansion, it reminded me vaguely of the house I grew up in with my grandfather before he sold it to obtain the funds to send me to the private university...
The instructor, Dr. Wem, had the most amazing insight into the game I had ever seen. She regarded me as her very best student; someone able to play the Pokemon TCG on her level. Part of my lessons included playing the TCG against her. It took me a long time, but once I finally started winning games against her, everything started to click. Despite the wins, I always felt she was holding back against me somehow...
I once asked her why she didn't try to become the champion. Her answer: She didn't like all the attention and found it tedious. Sure, that may be true, but I don't think I've ever met another person who shared her view on it...
Shortly after my graduation, I heard she moved to Neo Island. I'm not sure how she managed it with how strict they are on travel, but I supposed she had connections.
But enough about ancient history!
After being introduced to Billy, we relocated to the study where we began.
"Billy, do you know why I am here today?"
"Sure Mister! You're here to teach me Pokemon Cards!"
I nodded. "Do you know what it looks like to play the Pokemon Trading Card game?"
"OH! I know! You wear duel disks on your arms and call out these monsters that are holograms and play shadow duels!"
I shook my head, "Sorry, you must be thinking of some card game you saw on TV."
Billy looked profoundly disappointed. "Well there's still holograms in it right?!"
"There are no hologr-"
Billy leaped up from his seat and stamped his feet. "I WANT HOLOGRAMS! THAT'S HOW YOU PLAY CARDS!"
Tutor kids, they said. It would be FUN, they said... It was at this point I decided on no more tutoring sessions... even if it was for wealthy patrons...
The kids these days! All they seemed to care about were holograms! Still, I was here to do a job, and I wasn't about to give up now that I was there!
Billy and I had a long chat about expectations but he eventually calmed down and understood the game was played without holograms...
"Ok, Billy. Before I go over Pokemon cards, lets have a quick geography lesson!"
"Aww do we have to?"
First holograms, and now he wanted to skip geography?
I waggled my finger. "Now I'll have you know that geography is important! Its hard to understand the context of our world without it!"
Billy sighed. "Okaaaaay..."
I hadn't realized how thankless such a job like this would be. Then again, if Billy were simple to teach, I doubted his parents would have sought out a tutor to hire...
I held up my finger as I closed my eyes to deliver a short speech: "Our world has 3 islands: TCG Island, where we are now; GR Island is to the east; and Neo Island, which is between the other two, but far north of them. The rest of our world is nothing but ocean."
Billy crossed his arms. "Doesn't our world seem kinda small to you?"
"Compared to what?"
"Like the TV show I watched with the Holograms!"
Oh dear Mew... not THAT again!
I smiled. "Ah, Billy, worlds that big are a fantasy! Giant islands called continents are a fun concept for a story, but I'm afraid our world is not that large. "
"Awww... I wanted continents."
Billy then made an o-shape with his mouth as he remembered something, "Hey, Mister! How did you get good enough at Pokemon Cards to come and teach me to play 'em?"
Ah, finally a positive direction for our lesson!
I grinned. "Well, Billy. I actually got started not unlike you! I used to not know the first thing about card games, but I started out battling duelists on our island at my local card club. Eventually, I became skilled enough to become a club member.
Billy's eyes widened. "Woah! That's so COOL! What club were you a member of?"
I held a hand to my chin as I smiled. "The Fire Club, of course!"
"The Fire Club? Why would you join that one? I wanna join the Fighting Club!" Billy then threw a punch in a direction away from me.
I smiled. "That's the beauty about becoming a club member. You get to choose. If you want to join the Fighting Club, you can!"
Billy crossed his arms, closed his eyes, and nodded. "That's right! I'm going to be the best fighting type user ever! Oh, but what happened after you became a crumy Fire Club member, Mister?"
Crummy?! You would think he would have at least a little respect for the club the champion came from!
I crossed my arms, tapping a finger on one with my eyes shut. "After I was done being a crumy Fire Club member... I improved my skill at the game dueling various opponents. Eventually, I attended the Pokemon Card Elite University until I earned my degree there. Most of my duels were against the other university students at the time."
Billy jumped up on the sofa and crossed his arms. "More school is for wimps who can't FIGHT! I won't need it because I'm going to fight real good!"
I brought a hand to my face. This kid was really something else... He had a point though. Most girls could probably win a fistfight with me...
I placed my hands on my hips. "Different people are good at different things. Fighting isn't better than thinking, it's just different."
Billy shrugged. "If you say so. Did you at least graduate?"
At least?! Why was I feeling judged by a child?!
Resisting the urge to roll my eyes, I settled for gritting my teeth. "Yes, I did... After that, I traveled far and wide over our island dueling all opponents including in the various clubs. After beating the club members, I earned the right to duel the club masters and defeated them too!"
Billy furrowed his brow. "Weren't you like a grandpa by then?"
Children could be the most fearsome of foes! I attempted to reassure myself by remembering what a twenty-eight year old felt like compared to me when I was nine. Even so, grandpa was a bit much...
I waved my hand dismissively. "Oh, I wasn't THAT old! There are many people who don't even become parents by my age of twenty-eight!"
Billy's eyes widened. "WOAH I thought you were forty-five!"
Oh my poor ego... forty-five?? It must be the way I dress and my facial hair...
Forty-five...
Billy looked up at me curiously. "Hey, Mister. What's wrong? Do you have a tummy ache?"
I must have looked visibly ill. Such was his super effective existential attack...
I forced a smile. "Oh, no. I'm FINE. Thank you for your concern."
Billy smiled, completely oblivious to the hyperbeam to my ego... "Ok! What about the rest of the story then?"
I closed my eyes and cleared my mind. "After I defeated all of the Club Masters, I gained the right to duel the champion in a two out of three match. I won that match and the champion title with it."
Billy brought a hand to his mouth. "Woah! That's so COOL! Did you have to beat the grandmasters too?"
After grandpa, I'd take anything!
I chuckled a bit. "I would if they were real, but you must be referring to one of our old legends. Who knows, maybe we will create a team of grandmasters one day."
Billy frowned. "Well, that sounds too easy to become a champion then!"
And now the boy belittled my achievement... Did his impertinence know no bounds?! Still, he was not without a point...
I looked up and to the right in thought. "You know... you might be right about that. Now that you mention it, it has been very easy for me to win games against the duelists here..."
"It must mean you ARE a champion though! If you beat everyone easily, that must mean you are amazing!" he said with eyes full of wonder.
Amazing? Was my skill at the game really that hard to attain? It was almost as if the other duelists were just there for kids to craft decks against and beat. They all seemed to have at least a basic knowledge of the game, but their tactics were predicable and limited... They also didn't seem to grasp the concept of optimizing their decks. Such a perplexing phenomenon...
Billy poked me to bring me out of my thoughts. "Hey, Mister! I'm ready to learn Pokemon Cards Now! Make me the very best!"
Well, at least the child had some ambition...
I snapped out of it and grinned. "That's the spirit! So, you know how I said the game is played with cards?"
"You mean not-holograms?"
Well, at least holograms weren't grandpa...
I rolled my eyes. "Yes, not-holograms! That's the same thing as cards."
"What about it?"
"There is one species of Pokemon that actually lives in our world with us instead of only being in cards!"
"OOO! What is it? What is it???"
I replied with a confident grin, "That my boy, would be Doduo."
"Oh! I know those! The turkey birds that run around!"
Turkey birds? At that point, I gave up...
"That's right, the turkey birds."
Billy was jumping back and forth from one leg to the next. "Oh! What about shiny ones??"
Why Billy? Why did you torment me with these questions?!
"Sorry, this isn't Neo Island, they might have shiny ones over there since I have heard they have shiny variants of cards, but we don't get those over here."
Billy stopped hoping back and forth and sighed. "Okaaaaay... well can Doduo at least evolve then?"
How did he do it? How did he zero in on everything that forced me to answer in a way he didn't want?!
"Doduo can evolve in the card game, but the Doduo in our world can't seem to evolve into Dodrio."
"Why is that, Mister?"
"Well, no one knows!"
Billy scrunched up his face. "Then what good is Turkey-bird!"
Tutoring... NEVER again!
I waggled my finger. "Turkey-bird doesn't have to evolve to be useful in the card game, its fighting resistance is powerful and it has no retreat cost!"
"Ooo! Those sound good! Tell me more!"
"If you have a Doduo companion and are using one in a duel, your real-life Doduo will take attacks from your opponents cards!"
Billy looked confused. "But how do card attacks hurt it? IS IT HOLOGRAMS?!"
Please Billy... for the love of Mew...
I shook my head. "It is not holograms. The cards don't affect us or the world, but they do affect Doduo! Doduo can also feel its attacks upon Pokemon that would be from the cards! Its like Doduo has magic battles with Pokemon we can't see or touch!"
Billy looked up at me. "But why does that happen, Mister?"
I shrugged. "No one knows."
Billy stuck out his bottom lip. "But turkey birds live all over the place! I can't believe no one knows!"
I nodded. "True, Doduo are common. Even to the point that all buildings are constructed to be Doduo-freindly with scratch-resistant flooring!"
Billy smiled. "That's why buildings have Doduo doors! Its for the turkey-birds!"
I smiled. "Quite right!"
Billy squinted. "Wait a minute! How come there are only turkey-birds but no other Pokemon in our world?"
I brought a fist to my chin. "A good question. According to history, Doduo just appeared one year a long time ago. There was no historical record of them prior to that point."
Billy nodded to himself. "You know. I think I figured it out! They must be aliens from outer space!"
I laughed. "Oh, Billy. You've been watching too many shows. Psychics determined aliens don't exist centuries ago."
Billy stuck out his bottom lip. "Darn! I was so sure... Hey, Mister. Why is everyone into the Pokemon Trading Card Game?"
I held up a finger. "Everyone important plays the Pokemon Trading Card Game. Do you know how you stop a bully from picking on you?"
Billy tilted his head. "I dunno, maybe get a turkey-bird to peck them?"
I shook my head. "Even if that were a solution, Doduo rarely inflict violence on anyone other than themselves or other Doduo. Try again."
Billy turned to the side in a direction away from me and threw out a punch like he was boxing against an invisible opponent. "Ok, then punch the bully in the nose!"
I was now desperate for this child to get something right. Anything!
I was mortified. "Billy! No! We do not do that! You have to settle disputes with the Pokemon Trading Card Game! If a group of foreigners invaded our land, held our people hostage and stole most of our cards, the only way to stop them would be by playing the Pokemon Trading Card Game!"
Billy held his head in both his hands. "But that doesn't make any sense!"
That was it. That was the last straw. Clearly there were some things I just couldn't teach...
I shrugged. "Maybe once you turn 7 you will be old enough to understand. Just trust me that the way you stop bad guys or make anything important happen is with duels."
I am adding this line here to denote that this section pertains to mechanics of how to play the Pokemon Trading Card Game. If I do not want to read how to play it, I should skip this section and begin reading again after the line below.
"Okaaaay. So Mr. Are you going to teach me how to play with not-holograms now with turkey-bird?"
I smiled. "I am indeed Billy! In the Pokemon TCG, you flip a coin to see who goes first."
Billy smiled. "Oh wow! That's exciting!"
I held up my finger as I lectured. "After that you have a hand of 7 cards. From this hand, you need to select at least 1 basic Pokemon. If you don't have a basic Pokemon, you shuffle and draw another 7 cards until you have at least 1. A basic Pokemon is an unevolved Pokemon. You cannot play evolved Pokemon by themselves. To play an evolved Pokemon card, you first must have had a basic Pokemon in play for 1 turn. When you play a basic Pokemon, you can put it in the active spot or the bench. Active is where a Pokemon can generally attack and receive attacks from the opponent in return."
Billy leaped a fair distance across the room. "Ooo! Attacks like from turkey-bird!"
"That's right Billy. Once a turn begins, the player whose turn it is draws 1 card from their deck. The main types of cards are: basic Pokemon, evolution cards (to evolve basic Pokemon with), energy cards, and trainer cards. Trainer cards are used for a 1-time effect and then are discarded. They can do a variety of powerful effects and any deck is improved by including at least some. You can have no more than 4 of any 1 kind of card or Pokemon. Example: if there are different versions of Ponyta, you can only include a total of 4 with as many of that 4 being whichever ones you choose. Most of the most powerful decks contain roughly half of the cards as trainer cards."
"Thanks Mr! Can you tell me what the best cards are?"
I nodded. "There are four different card rarities: Common, Uncommon, Rare, and Promo. Booster packs give primarily commons, some uncommons, and 1 rare. Promo cards do not come from booster packs and are the most difficult cards to obtain. You get them from special trades and events. Generally, the rarer a card is, the more effective it is."
"But how do I get booster packs?"
"To get those, you have to win duels! That's another reason you should build good decks and be good at the game!"
"Oh ok! So how do I make turkey-bird attack?!"
I held up my finger with my eyes closed as I explained. "Attacks require energy. To get energy, you have energy cards. To use the energy cards, you attach them to your Pokemon. Energy costs for attacks typically range from 1-4. You can only play 1 energy card per turn. Unless otherwise specified, energy you attach to your Pokemon stays attached to it so you can build it up over several turns to be able to attack. Each Pokemon has up to 2 attacks it can use, each with different energy requirements. Most attacks require at least some energy of that Pokemon's type."
"That's kind of confusing, can you give me an example Mr?"
"Sure Billy! A fire type might need 2 fire and 1 colorless for an attack for example."
Billy nodded.
I continued my explanation, "Any attack requiring colorless Energy can use colorless energy to satisfy the requirement or any other kind of energy. Pokemon have HP that is reduced by attacks. Attacking ends your turn. Attacks and evolution cannot be done on the first turn of the game for either yourself or your opponent regardless of who goes first. If you bring an opponent's Pokemon's HP to 0, it is knocked out. Once that happens, your opponent discards their Pokemon and all cards attached to it to their discard pile and then then move one Pokemon from their bench to their active position. You then pick up one of your prize cards."
"Ooo! I want prizes! What kind of prizes?"
"Prize cards are cards from your deck that are set aside in a separate area before the start of the game and determine how long the game will be. The more prize cards are used, the more opponent Pokemon you will need to knock out to win the game. The number of prize cards is determined by your opponent but stronger opponents will typically mean needing to pick up more prizes."
"Ok cool! So how do you win?"
"You can win in 1 of 3 ways: by claiming all prizes, by your opponent not having a Pokemon to place in the active position after one of their Pokemon was KOed, or by your opponent being unable to draw a card from their deck at the start of their turn if they already drew all the cards in their deck."
Billy raised his hand. "Mr! Where can I find opponents?"
"To find opponents, clubs are the easiest way and contain duelists that specialize in decks that their club pertains to. The grass club has decks with grass energy for example. Each club as a leader/master. Each club also has a lobby where you can talk to NPC's sometimes trade cards, and sometimes find opponents to duel. Clubs are located on TCG Island which is our island! GR Island has its own clubs which are called fortresses. Clubs only have 3 rooms and have fairly straightforward simple designs and decor while fortresses have several rooms and are more complex in design and decor comparatively."
"But Mr, how do you know about GR Island?"
"I read it in a magazine once!"
"Ok so whats the easiest way to make an opponent lose?"
"To do that, you should construct a good deck which uses types to target your opponent's weaknesses."
"How do I do that and what's a weakness?"
"Not to worry, Billy! I'll teach you both about weakness AND resistance!"
Billy clapped his hands excitedly.
"Most Pokemon have a weakness. Some Pokemon have no weakness. If a Ponyta which is a Fire type with a Water weakness takes an attack from a water type such as a Squirtle attacking for 10 damage, weakness means that the opponent will take double the damage and the Ponyta would take 20 instead of 10. Exploiting weakness is one of the best ways to increase damage against opponents. Having a variety of decks to take advantage of this, is a good strategy for beating most opponents. Some Pokemon also have resistance. A Pokemon most commonly has no resistance, but some Pokemon have resistance to Lightning, Psychic, or Fighting. Resistance will always be -30 which means attacks that Pokemon takes from a Pokemon who's type they resist is reduced by 30. This means damage of 30 or less is ignored entirely. Resistance is a powerful defensive capability."
Billy gripped his arms. "But what if my opponent is targeting my weakness! What do I do!?"
"Ah, that would be a good time to swap your active Pokemon by retreating or switching your Pokemon! You can retreat your active Pokemon with another Pokemon from your bench after you pay the energy cost for retreating. The retreat cost can range from 0 to 4. Paying the energy cost means discarding a number of energy cards equal to the cost to retreat. Retreating can help to clear status effects and end some kinds of effects from attacks made by your opponent. You can also use some trainer cards or Pokemon powers to switch!"
"Thanks! So, what types are Charizard and Muk?"
"There are 7 Pokemon types: Grass, Fire, Water, Lightning, Fighting, Psychic, and Colorless. Charizard is a Fire type. Since there is no poison type, Muk is a Grass type."
"Ok! So, how do I play Charizard?"
"After evolving a Pokemon, you cannot evolve it again in the same turn. A Charmander cannot evolve into its stage 2 evolution Charizard but must first evolve into Charmeleon and then into Charizard after at least 1 turn has passed. Pokemon Breeder is a trainer card that allows you to bypass this restriction and evolve a Pokemon directly to stage 2."
After an in depth lesson on how to play the Pokemon Trading Card Game, I could tell the boy was spent, so I bid my farewell to Billy. At least teaching the mechanics went smoothly...
On my way out, I collected my fee from his parents. Thankfully, they had only requested a single session. While it did provide some funds, it wasn't nearly as lucrative as dueling.
I learned a valuable lesson though. Rather than side-gigs, I should just do what I do best and play duels to make money!
It's been a while since my last entry. That past two weeks have been abysmal. I've noticed duelists agreeing to duel me less and less! Searching for willing duelists had left me with considerably less time so I haven't been writing as much. At this point, I don't think there is a duelist left on our island willing to duel me! They all keep telling me that my deck is too strong and they can never win!
Unfortunately I had been running up a bit of a credit tab this past month. It normally would have been no big deal, but without a constant stream of duels to boost my funds, I found myself short!
I had little in the ways of liquid assets, so the only thing I could quickly tap into was my vast collection of rare and uncommon cards! If I had known I was going to need more money quickly I would not have paid my mortgage off last month! Unfortunately, I had not seen my current predicament coming...
Good thing paying off a home lets it permanently belong to you! Could you imagine having something like a real estate tax? The idea of having no money to pay the tax would mean the government could just steal your entire house away! All from failing to pay a tax a mere fraction of the total value! What a horrible world that would be to live in!
Running out of money would still be a problem though as there would be no more working utilities and then there is the matter of food... I will need to find a solution to this predicament!
May 1st
After pondering things for a while, I came up with a plan. I wasn't even sure it would work. It sounded completely ludicrous... But I was determined to do it anyway! My wallet demanded it!
From that point on, I would use only common cards in my decks!
That meant no uncommon cards, no rare cards, and no promo cards! Over half the cards in the game, most of which are the strongest cards in the game, would be unavailable! Sure, I could have allowed myself to at least use uncommons, but I doubted it would be enough... It needed to be absurd... It needed to be completely unprecedented and insane!
No one would refuse to duel me if they knew I was using all common cards! The embarrassment of being scared to duel an all-common deck should be too much for any duelist...
Besides... IF such a plan were to work, how impressive and prestigious would that be? No other champion in all of history had done anything like it... When I thought about it that way, I started to feel a genuine sense of excitement again! After becoming champion, I wasn't sure I would feel that way again... There was no talking myself out of it now... I owed it to myself to try! I needed to see just how far my skill at the Pokemon TCG could really take me!
So, I decided to use the remainder of the day pouring over cards in an attempt to craft the best all-common card deck I possibly could...
May 2nd
I have constructed my very first all-common deck! As with all decks, it needed a name. With lightning and fire being prominent, I have dubbed it "FlashFire!" The list is as follows:
4 Energy Removal
4 Energy Search
4 Pokemon Trader
4 Bill
4 Bill's Teleporter
3 Gambler
3 Gust of Wind
3 Switch
2 Nightly Garbage Run
7 Fire Energy
7 Lightning Energy
Voltorb. Thundershock: Flip a coin. If heads, the defending pokemon is now paralyzed. Group Spark: Does 20 damage plus 10 times the number of Voltorb in play. Retreat Cost: 0. Weakness: Fighting. Resist: none.
Ponyta. Kick. Fireworks: Flip a coin. If heads, discard 1 energy card attached to Ponyta. Retreat cost: 0. Weakness: Water. Resist: none.
In game, Pokemon Trader is a common card rather than a rare card as its real life counterpart is. No more card pictures can be posted due to a 10 file limit for images so they will have the effects listed as spoilers instead.
Draw 2 cards.
Flip a coin. If heads, draw 4 cards.
Shuffle your hand into your deck. Flip a coin. If heads, draw 8 cards. If tails, draw 1 card.
Choose 1 of your opponent's benched Pokemon and switch it with his or her active Pokemon.
Switch 1 of your benched Pokemon with your active Pokemon.
Choose up to 3 basic Pokemon cards, evolution cards, and/or basic energy cards from your discard pile. Show them to your opponent and shuffle them into your deck.
FlashFire! uses Porygon to switch weaknesses of opponents Pokemon to increase damage done by Voltorb and Dark Rapidash.
Porygon could then retreat for free on the following turn with its zero-energy retreat cost to swap in a Pokemon that the opponents Pokemon would then be weak to!
In my dueling experience prior to crafting this deck, I noticed opponents did not react to weakness shifts from Porygon, which made it perfect for surprise KOs! Such a curious thing, but a thing I intended to take advantage of to the fullest!
Doduo had fighting resistance which allowed it to defeat a variety of opponents of that type. Porygon also had Psychic resistance.
Lightning resistance from opponents would greatly diminish the value of Voltorb, but Porygon could change the weakness of ground type like Diglet to anything... Even lightning! Resistance applied after weakness, which would allow Voltorb to defeat mon that resisted it!
With that, my deck should avoid being too weak to any one type and could dish out large amounts of damage with Voltorb! I could even boost my damage further with Porygon!
As with any deck, trainer cards that allow you to draw more cards from the deck were essential. With only common cards to work with, the best options for this were 'Gambler' and 'Bill's Teleporter'. Both cards unfortunately required a coin-flip to be successful.
'Gambler' and 'Bill's Teleporter' were unique. They were the only cards tied to Bill Inc. Bill owned a Teleporter that was somehow responsible for the coin-flip results of the 'Bill's Teleporter' card. 'Gambler' was tied to the local gambling wing of Bill Inc. For gambling, a coin-flip was understandable, even if it was irritating... But a monthly subscription for automatic heads for 'Bill's Teleporter' was completely uncalled for! (I signed up for it anyway because I needed my card-draw!)
May 3rd
I intended to take things slow, at least for a while. As such, I planed to visit the various clubs and duel all their club members. If I could handle them, I would attempt to defeat the club masters as well!
For my first club, I decided to start with the Grass Club. It was within walking distance of my home, and would be weak to my fire type, 'Dark Rapidash'.
As for the remainder of the day, I cleared my mind and relaxed. The next day would be the start of my new adventure!
Apparently it is possible that actual Pokemon roam the islands in the games but you never see any. I took this concept and applied it only to Doduo for the story.
The gameboy color games can save the game, but it calls the ability to do that the "diary". Thus when you save the game the game indicates that "Insert Protagonist Name" wrote in the diary.
Only the Prologue is written in a short diary format. All the remaining chapters will continue to have dates assigned and have much more details.
The light of the day carried through the gaps in the blinds beckoning my mind to consciousness.
Today would be the day I would set out to turn things around.
I glanced at my clock and confirmed the time: 10:32am
I never was much of a morning person. My best deck ideas had a tendency to come at night once all was quiet and the passage of time could escape my notice. There, I could be fully immersed in honing my deck-building craft.
I had never used an all-common card deck before and considered that I might lose more duels than I would win. If that were the case, my plan to earn money dueling would fail. I was going without several powerful staple cards such as Professor Oak and Computer Search. This would make drawing additional cards difficult... But I had made up my mind to give it my best shot! If it resulted in failure, maybe my opponents would accept if I used only commons and uncommons instead?
As I laid in bed, I considered the space of my new home. It certainly gave room to breathe, but had a certain... emptiness about it.
Perhaps these halls would someday contain a family I would make? I certainly wasn't opposed to the idea, but alas, I had never had a girlfriend in my youth and found the concept of romance to be somewhat alien and inscrutable. Indeed, I had never even kissed a girl before...
I hadn't the faintest clue of how one would go about meeting a woman to love, but I remembered my grandfather used to tell me that the love worth pursuing is the love you don't go looking for.
It was a paradoxical kind of wisdom, but he had always had my best interests at heart, so I would continue on in life, open to the possibilities of the unknown.
But to the matter at hand, my funds were low, and they certainly would not replenish on their own!
After a leisurely breakfast, proper grooming, and dressing in my usual red suit, it was time to set out on my newest escapade!
Armed with my 'FlashFire!' deck, the members of the Grass Club should make for the best test run since fire would give me the advantage.
Since the Grass Club was within walking distance, I decided on a mode of travel that I rarely selected: walking! My array of transportation options were largely to blame for the novelty of walking...
The brisk morning air and glowing rays of the sun welcomed my immersion into the outdoors as I set about my tiny trek to the Grass Club.
It was a fine day for a new adventure!
As I strolled along the sidewalk, I enjoyed the various landscapes of the other properties in the neighborhood. The trees were somewhat disappointing considering how small they were, but it was a new neighborhood, so it couldn't be helped.
I soon arrived at the walking trail which was also a shortcut to the Grass Club!
The trail cut through a thick forest with grand, proper trees, unlike the ones form my neighborhood...
Sunlight would occasionally filter down on spots along the path, ever changing with the slightest of wind pressure.
I knew I did not get outdoors nearly as much as one should, but that did allow for a profound appreciation of the outdoors on the rare occasions it occurred.
The others in the neighborhood presumably all had busy lives, jobs, and families to care for, which lead to the use of the trail being particularly sparse. That suited me just fine though. A quiet and peaceful excursion never hurt anyone. Sometimes it was good to get away from the hustle and bustle of being a prominent public figure, such as myself.
As for the trail, it was just dirt, but there were the the small occasional wooden plank bridges over the variouos creeks that ran through the forest which added to the character of it.
Sometimes one would even catch wild Doduo cutting through! There had been one recently, judging from the tracks across the path.
I soon arrived at the fork in the trail. After taking the path to the right, it wasn't long until I was met with a break in the trees and a view of the side of the Grass Club! It had a simple brick exterior and standard roof like one might expect a home to have.
The various clubs on the outside were never anything special. I supposed they didn't need to advertise since the Pokemon TCG was already the biggest source of entertainment and way of life in the world. Instead, they focused on interior decor.
I circled around to the front and took out a handkerchief to dust off my shoes from the small amount of dirt from all but the soles. Being dapper never hurt anyone, and I wasn't going to have the ladies in the all-girl club put up with anything less than my best.
Attire in order, I crossed the threshold of the Grass Club.
In the lobby, I could see they had recently replanted the flowers in the flower-beds in the corners. The floor was still bare dirt with a brick path leading straight to the main chamber and off to the left to the lounge.
Would it not be better if they planted some grass in this dirt? Perhaps they did not want to maintain an indoor lawn in both this space and the main chamber...
Ignoring the brick path to the lounge, I forged ahead to the main chamber of the club where the usual duelists would no-doubt await me.
Everything as it always was.
A brick path leading to a large fountain in the middle. A grass path around the perimeter of it lined with fenced-off bushes. The path circled around to the back of the fountain where the brick path continued to meet the back wall. Along the back wall were small pine tree's behind more fencing. The ceiling was a glass dome to allow in natural light.
I began to glance about the room.
I first noticed Brittany.
She was wearing her usual green collared shirt and green hat with a pokeball symbol on it. Her hair was its usual neck-length. She was easily the most tom-boyish of the three girl members of the club. She is age twelve as I remembered.
I'm not sure why, but I've always had a keen eye for ages and for remembering and keeping track of them. Even when meeting new people, I seldom get an age wrong! (Come to think of it... I can't recall the last time I DID get one wrong!) I've never understood why I was so good at it, but it's become a bit of a game for me at this point. A little internal amusement that only I am aware of.
Brittany appeared to be busy laying down some mulch in the fenced-off bushes near the entrance.
I remembered during the last time I set foot here, Brittany was the first to boldly challenge me. That was back when I was still using my fully powered deck: 'Mystic Fire' on the road to becoming the TCG island champion where I had defeated all the members here including their leader, Nikki.
Unfortunately, my great success that day was where my trouble began with getting opponents to duel me...
Next, I noticed Kristin.
She was wearing the standard green Grass Club collared shirt and had her black hair in a ponytail with a green scrunchie. She should be age fourteen according to my memory.
Kirstin was taking a hose around to the various bushes to water them.
Last, I noticed Heather.
Easily the most feminine of the girls in the club. The spitting image of her mother Nikki, when Nikki was her age; nine.
She was sitting on the edge of the fountain reading a gardening book. I was taken back to days long-past when I saw her.
It's a curious thing. She brought so many feelings to the surface; adoration, nostalgia, hope... and deep regret.
I may not have had a girlfriend growing up, but I was not without the ability to have a crush. Nikki had filled that role for me, once...
Back in those days, I was so driven to become the very best duelist there ever was. I remembered the times her and my best friend at the time, Isaac, played the Pokemon TCG together.
Those were the best days of my life. So full of possibility and wonder, yet without the full weight of responsibility.
Nikki was only a grass club member back then and Isaac, a lightning club member.
My thinking back then was so narrow-minded; to have the life you want and the girl you want, you have to become the best at the Pokemon TCG!
I wanted to ask Nikki out back in those days, but how could I? Surely only the very best would do for such a lady, and, talented as I was, I had only attained the lowly rank of fire club member.
It was many years away from my graduation at the academy... let alone becoming the TCG Island champion!
As the years went on, I engrossed myself in my card journey.
Nikki and Isaac were talented in their own rights. They eventually became the club leaders of their respective grass and lightning clubs after all! I think the games we played together helped them grow.
But regardless of their prowess and aptitude, they were no match for the speed of my improvement...
Before I knew it, we were playing the Pokemon TCG with each other less and less.
I also noticed Nikki began to feel more distant. Had she hoped I would ask her out and been left disappointed?
Flash forward years later from those days and I learned a sobering truth: Nikki and Isaac... had been dating each other.
At that point, I knew our childhood days together had come to an end...
Nikki had moved on with her life and had chosen Isaac.
In my pursuit of her... I had left her behind.
With my only friends lost to the ravages of time and change, I plowed ahead full force, throwing myself into my studies and learning everything I could about the Pokemon TCG.
Years after that, I had learned yet another fact: Nikki and Isaac were getting married.
We hadn't spoken in years at that point, so the fact that I had received no invitation to their wedding was not unexpected, but it hurt in a way I hadn't felt since the day I learned they were dating.
I've often daydreamed what things could have been like had I just a bit more wisdom and courage back in those days...
In all my years, I had felt nothing for the other women of the island like I did for Nikki. They simply couldn't compare...
After the last vestiges of hope for a chance with Nikki had died, there was only the solitary road ahead leading to my recent title of champion.
And I'd be a Doduo's backside feather if I was going to let any duelist stop me.
Perhaps after becoming champion, women would approach me and the rest would fall into place?
Alas, if only it were that simple. If anything, my power at the game only served to alienate me further from the bulk of society. I was even approached by some women, but I could tell that what they wanted was the champion rather than the man inside.
My grandfather's words yet again rang true: That it is not the destination in life that is important... but the journey.
With my all-common deck, I was determined to dedicate myself back to that journey once again.
It didn't take long for the girls to notice me.
Heather was the first to notice me after looking up from her book.
She walked up to me.
"Um... Mr Gentleman, as we mentioned last time, we can't duel you anymore. None of us can win against you anymore..."
It was like looking at the embodied disappointment I imagined Nikki had for me all those years ago...
I'm here for a reason though! Dueling is how I make money, and this is the best place to test my new all-common deck.
Smiling was something I learned to do when upset, hurt, or scared. Confidence was its own sort of power.
I gave my best confident smile. "Heather! Today things are far different! I am not looking to become champion a second time! I already have the title! Today I am here to give your club the first crack at winning against my new all-common card deck; 'FlashFire!'
Upon hearing this, Heather immediately perked up.
She gazed at me with a hopeful expression. "All commons? You mean you have no rares or uncommons in your deck?"
Ah, what I wouldn't give to be in the past with Nikki looking at me that way again even once...
I nodded. "Correct! This will make me far weaker than I was the last time we dueled! Today I am looking to duel all three of you with my new common deck."
Heather asked me to hold on, while she walked over to Kristin and Brittany on the other side of the fountain with them having paused in their duties. They huddled together whispering.
Nikki was tending bushes at the far end of the room as she watched me discretely peering through the fence. As I took a quick glance, our eyes locked for but a moment.
Ah, Nikki always was a shy one. Perhaps that was part of what I had found so appealing about her. Even now she had a way of captivating me. But it was of no use... She was already light-years away now... bound to another man...
I examined the state of the room, the immaculately trimmed grass and bushes. The cleanliness of the fountain. She knew how to care well for the club and its members. No-doubt she made a great mother for Heather... and a great wife for Isaac...
Suddenly Brittany approached and held out her deck. "You're on Mister!"
As usual, we sat down directly on the floor to play.
With my fine attire, I would never be caught without my red compact tarp, which I unfolded and spread over our duel area. As a matter of respect to my opponents, my tarp was always big enough for both players and their cards.
I sat at one end and Brittany took the other side.
She looked off to the side. "Thanks, Mister Gentleman. I wish everyone offered tarps to sit on like you. My pants usually get pretty dirty by the end of the day..."
I held a hand out towards her with my palm up. "Far be it from me to refuse courtesy. You are most welcome."
Brittany gazed into the sky through the glass roof. "Someday... I hope to be skilled enough to sit at tables for dueling again."
I chuckled. "Ah, missing the old and familiar duel table from the lounge? Well, even the champion takes to the floor for most duels. If I had an office or challenge hall to myself, I would gladly make use of a duel table, but alas, no such place currently exists."
Brittany sighed. "I was a beginner for a long time and got used to it. I sure was surprised when I learned that, past beginner-level, almost all duelists play on the floor!"
I nodded. "An understandable reaction. I believe Rock Club Leader, Gene put it best: 'To truly show ones resolve at the Pokemon TCG, one must endure the hard ground. Only when one reaches the heights of skill should they return to the tables as a symbol of honor. Even us leaders dare not presume to use a table commonly.'
I looked off to one side. "Besides... Sitting on the floor discourages duelists from creating those dreadful stall-out decks..."
Brittany cringed. "Yeah... I guess that's one reason to prefer the floor... Those stall-out deck noob-bashers always duel at the tables where they can tolerate sitting longer. I'll take a sore butt ANY day over having to deal with another one of THOSE duels!"
We both had a good laugh before entering our duel.
Brittany used a deck with Beedril, Victreebel, and a variety of other grass types. My Dark Rapidash easily ruined her chances of victory. She wasn't able to fully evolve any of her mons, due to how fast I burned through them.
Not too shabby for an opening duel! At least my new deck seemed able to trounce things weak against it!
Brittany was upset after the duel.
"So I lost to a deck of all commons?! Are you here just to make fun of me?!"
I reassured her that I was certainly not here to hurt any feelings and that this test of my deck likely means it would do well against the other members of the club too.
That seemed to help her feel a little better at least. She then went to get my next opponent: Kristin!
"Even though you won against Brittany, its STILL a deck of just commons! I'm sure you just got lucky! Pretty soon, I'll be able to say I beat the champion!"
From my memory, Kristin used Ivysaur, Venomoth, Tangela, Scyther, and a slew of normal types in her deck. The duel with her went much the same as it had with Brittany! Dark Rapidash burned through her mons one at a time until the final prize against her was claimed!
It seemed anything weak to my new deck stood no chance against it! Quite promising indeed!
"What IS this?! How can I lose to a deck of ALL COMMONS!"
As she walked away, my final opponent here approached: Heather!
"Um, I know you might have beat the other two, but I still think I have a good chance to win!"
It was like a carbon copy of my other duels, except the mon I burned through were different. Her deck employed Vileplume, Parasect, and Weepinbell.
"Oh... ok... I had hoped I might win since you were so heavily restricted, but your fire types were too tough to beat with my grass types. Did I at least help you test your deck?"
It was like hurting Nikki from the past. It felt awful even though I had done nothing objectively wrong...
I replied back softly. "Of course. All three of you have been helpful! If all goes well, I'll also test my deck against your mother."
My time in the club was short indeed. All-commons or not, type advantage is type advantage. They were crushed by my Dark Rapidash, but not nearly as badly as when I had used my old unrestricted deck. They at least had a theoretical chance against me using 'FlashFire!', but not when I used to play with Mystic Fire.
Before I left the club, I caught sight of Nikki with a determined look upon her face. Now was not the time for our duel though...
I wouldn't be satisfied until I had first proven my deck's worth vs the members of all the other clubs.
To arrive at my next destination, I found it easier to use the light rail public transit as the water club was in close proximity to one of its stops.
The water club bordered the great forest of our island on the southeastern corner of our island. Surrounding the Water Club on all but one side was one of only two curious bodies of water in our world: a lake! The other lake in our world was on Neo Island, as I recalled form my time at the academy.
The side not occupied by water was a natural bridge containing a long concrete path complete with rails on the sides. Every so often a pier would jut out.
The light rail had a stop next to the bridge, rather than the Water Club itself, but it was only about a ten minute walk to the destination. There was far more water stretching outward from the sides the bridge was not on.
The sky was partly cloudy today, but there was still plenty of opportunities for the sun to beam down.
The water of the lake glistened in the light. A hearty breeze was blowing today. Had I been wearing a hat, (not that I would be caught dead in one) it might have blown away!
As usual, there was the occasional fisherman angling for some fresh-water fish. Quite the rarity. Fishing was greatly limited on the lake to preserve the species of fish in it. If one was skilled, they could make quite a living that way, I heard. Hopefully I would not have to find out by experience...
The lobby was just as I remembered, with teal polished porcelain square tiles and fish tanks with coral lining the walls. The fish inside leisurely swam about in them. They certainly did know how to set up an atmosphere in there.
As with all club layouts, the lounge would be to the left with the main room of the club directly ahead.
I proceeded further in.
I still marveled at how they had a full indoor beach and wave pool in here. The glass dome roof let all kinds of natural sunlight in as well. They even had palm trees and beach chairs!
It was the girls of this club that had wanted to 'date the champion'.
Each of them had amazing figures and their swimsuits left rather little to the imagination... I'm sure that just for that reason alone, most men would be ecstatic at the prospect of dating them. They all flirted quite well too...
But underneath, I could sense it. They only wanted prestige. No-doubt if I ever lost the title of champion, these 'amazing girls' would drop me like a bad card from their decks...
Was it bad that I often found myself confused at which girl was who? I suppose it isn't totally bad seeing as two of the club members are twin sisters...
A grim thought entered my mind. I may have the mental fortitude to hold off their flirtatious advances now, but what if that fortitude were to erode over the years? Would I let one of these prestige-diggers attach themselves to me? But that was a concern for another time... I still had much of my life yet ahead of me after all!
I cast my gaze to the various members:
Amanda,
She is the twin sister of the other girl member of the club, Sara and I believe is age 20 if I am remembering correctly.
She was wearing her white swim cap with her goggles resting on her forehead with her usual green one-peice bathing suit.
The moment she caught sight of me, her expression changed as she leaped from her reclined beach chair and ran over to greet me.
Why must these women be such eye-candy?! I found myself rather transfixed as she approached.
"Mister Gentleman! Hi!" Amanda hopped as she greeted me to throw me further off balance.
She immediately grabbed my left arm with both of hers. "Did you come back here just to see little ~ ol ~ me?"
I was never great at handling these kinds of situations. What DOES someone do about this anyway?!
My eyes were closed as I smiled and rubbed the back of my head with my other hand. "Ah, Amanda I had contruct-"
Amanda made a shocked face. "Mr gentleman! I'm not Amanda, I'm S-A-R-A! Remember? I can't believe you forgot my name!"
Not good!
"Ah! Sara! Please don't be upset! You know I have a hard time telling you and Amanda apart!"
She sobbed. "I suppose you WANT me to be Amanda don't you?!"
What on earth is happening...
"Wait, no, that's not it!"
Just then the REAL Amanda approached.
Great, now BOTH my arms would be disabled!
Sure enough, Amanda was now clinging to my other arm!
"Oh my, Mister Gentleman, you always have such discerning taste when it comes to women. Look at these firm arms and hands of yours! The way you hold your cards is also so stable and manly..."
I didn't remember them being this pushy... What did they do, rehearse this?!
Am-SARA was pouting. "Aaaaamaaaandaaa! That's not fair! I was here first! I get dibs!"
Just then, the last of the terrible trio arrived!
The club leader, Amy!
She was wearing her usual purple one-peice bathing suit and I believe she is twenty-four years old.
"Enough you two! Go on and get off his arms! Have you no shame!?"
Amanda and Sara reluctantly let go as Amy took my left hand in both of hers.
"Mr Gentleman, I'm so sorry for the way my club members have harassed you, is there any way I can make it up to you?"
She looked up at me with big doe eyes.
Ok I would say that confirms that they rehearsed thi-
Now Amy grabbed my right arm as she spoke. "Oh I know! Why don't you come over to one of our recliner chairs in the back, I can give you a personal message..."
There was no way I could take much more of this. I had to act FAST while I still COULD!
I held my deck up in the air. "Duels! I am here for duels! I am testing an all-common deck that has FIRE types in it! I bet it would be SOOO weak against your water decks!"
All three simultaneously turned to look at me.
All three then called out a name at the same time: Joshua~!
Joshua was the only guy in the club. He was younger than them, barely eighteen with a small stature, waxed for extra mobility in the water, and clean-shaven. I imagine he thought the idea of this place was quite nice for a young guy like himself. The poor fool...
"Yes ladies!?" He froze on the diving board having been caught before he could make his escape.
Amanda grinned at him from across the room. "~Joshua, we have a new opponent for you!~"
His only escape having been thwarted, he dismounted the diving board. He was clearly wondering just what the three were about to get him into THIS time...
Sara called out next.
"~Joshua dear, you are always such a good little assistant!~"
He cringed as he spoke. "Wh-what can I help with this time? I just gave you a full-body massage ten minutes ago and I got all seven of the drinks you wanted!"
Amy spoke next.
"Joshua, what are we going to do with you? You need to be polite at all times, we ARE ladies you know! The better you treat us, the more we like you. You DO want us to like you... right?" She gave him a mischievous smile.
Amy pointed towards me as the others turned towards me.
"We would like you to duel, Mister Gentleman here."
Joshua looked mortified having seemingly remembered the LAST time they threw him under the bus to duel me first, so they could scope out my deck.
"The champion?! You can't be seriou-"
Amy crossed her arms and gave him a rather ominous look.
"I-I mean of COURSE I would like to duel him for you!"
Amy smiled again.
"That's our Joshua! You are so cute and dependable!~"
When the others weren't looking I could see Joshua's eye twitching. I gave him a small nod to acknowledge his predicament.
Joshua was unable to claim a single prize against me. My deck MAY have fire in it, but I neglected to mention the other half was lightning! My Voltorb ripped his mon to shreds in mere turns. I think maybe he had a Golduck and a Poliwag or something. They got KOed so fast that I hardly noticed them.
"I-I did my best!" Joshua looked up afraid to meet Amy's gaze.
"Yes you did, my little Joshiepoo! You did very well! You can go swim now!" Amy waved her hand dismissively.
Joshua bolted pretending to be excited and happy to swim. The giggling of the girls was a dead give away that they saw right through everything he tried. The poor fool...
Amy redirected her gaze to me with a mischievous smile on her face again. "Well! That sure was interesting. I've never seen someone win with an all-common deck before! Are you planning to take on the club leaders with it?"
I spoke as I picked up my cards. "Well, its largely untested, I am dueling the club members first to see if its plausible."
Amy nodded and sauntered towards her reclined beach chair in the back. Making calculated use of her curves as she walked, she called out to the others as she waved a hand dismissively.
"You girls duel him and tell me how it goes. I'm going to go catch some rays."
I wasn't about to fall prey to more tactics, so I demanded the two flip a coin to determine which one dueled me first.
It was Amanda! (The actual Amanda this time! It certainly didn't help matters that the two liked to swap hair dye with each other every now and then either!)
This duel went much as it had against Joashua, but I think maybe she had a Staryu and a Shelder or something. Again, they didn't last long enough to really make much of a memorable impact.
"Oh Mister Gentleman, you meanie! I can't believe you would crush a young girls heart so mercilessly! Now SARA is going to win and keep you ALL to herself!"
What on earth were these women talking about?! I was not a prize to win! Though... it was nice they saw me as a prize I suppose... UGH what was I thinking! The sooner I got out of there the better!
Sara sat promptly down with a smile. "I know what you are doing, Mister Gentleman. You must have dueled hard to win so far because you wanted to lose to me, right? You must have decided to date me!"
The weapons these women wield are sharper than a Doduo's talons!
I coughed loudly. "I don't recall saying anything of that nature! I am simply here to duel!"
Sara gave me a knowing glance. "Well, we ALL know how good you are at the Pokemon TCG, so if you lose, a girl can only assume one thing..."
Yet another laughably simple duel. She only had a Squirtle out and I ended it with Voltorb on turn two.
"Oh I'm SO sad, Mister Gentleman! You don't know how long my heart has YEARNED for you! I guess you must be after AMY then! Of course you would with her being the club leader! AAAAAMMMYYY!! You better treat him right once he dates you!"
I put both my hands on my head. "No one has agreed to date ANYONE!"
All three girls started to giggle.
I started to wonder how Joshua had survived here for so long. Then again, he was only a water club member. Probably not influential enough to catch the interest of these girls...
Just then, I started hearing... music? It sounded like it might be from a boom box or something.
The music was slowly growing louder. The rest of the ones in the club room started to hear it too. Suddenly a black carpet unrolled from somewhere in the lobby and reached all the way out to where I was standing!
I then saw... the super musical star Imakuni?!
What was someone like HIM doing here?
Wait... how old was he? He defied categorization! There was no way I could get a read on him!
The music was coming from a speaker embedded in his black fuzzy suit! He looked like he might be an animal character at an amusement park except his suit opened up to reveal only his face and hands!
A random Doduo also trotted along behind him. It appeared to be attempting to mimic Imakuni's dance moves throwing its feathers about everywhere as it danced!
After Imakuni had finished singing and dancing he challenged me to a duel!
His Snorlax was a fearsome foe but I had my Porygon and Voltorb team up to take him down! I would zap all I could away with Voltorb by itself and for bigger targets, I would first convert weakness to lightning with Porygon!
Once my duel with him was complete, he began to dance his way out picking up the throw rug as he went.
I turned to my left and noticed that his Doduo was just standing there.
It wasn't going to follow him? Rather odd. As I went to leave, I noticed the sounds of an extra pair of feet as I walked.
I paused. The feet stopped.
I started walking again. The feet resumed.
I then turned around and found the Doduo was following me! No matter. These birds are known to follow people on occasion after all. Perhaps it didn't even know Imakuni.
Little did I know, that Doduo was going to follow me the entire way home!
As I approached the door to my house, Doduo simply stood outside.
It wasn't going to attempt to follow me into my house?
Having had enough for one day, I didn't think too hard about it and left it outside. I was sure it would just go find someone else to follow.
Back in my house, I decided to bathe. Though I usually prefer to shower, today I decided to relax in my jetted tub. I hadn't tried it out yet, and found it to be quite nice.
The day had been taxing in several ways despite the duels themselves being simple, so I decided to take the next day off. Though I needed money in the long run, things in the short term could be flexible.
Imakuni?! is a joke duelest the game included with a weird battle track for any duels. He is one of the weakest duelists and plays badly. You can easily earn cards by defeating him, but he travels around the various clubs and fortresses so it can be hard to find him.
After having taken a day off, I was feeling refreshed and ready to resume my challenge of the clubs!
As I stepped out of my front door, my eyes landed on a particularly rotund Doduo. Clearly it was the one that had followed me home the day before yesterday!
It was asleep with both its heads!
But didn't Doudo sleep with only one head at a time?
Pah! No matter.
As I turned to close and lock my door I heard a sudden ruffling of feathers. Curious, I glanced over my shoulder to see Doduo had jerked awake.
It looked about frantically until one head noticed me. It then pecked the other head causing it to turn towards me too as they both sighed in a way that I thought might be relief!
I had barely even met the bird and it already seems inordinately concerned with following me!
I turned around and faced it.
It looked at me. Its eyes were vacant and its faces wore rather dull expressions.
"I don't know why you are following me, bird, but I am not currently in the market for a pet, nor do I have the funds to spare on food for you!"
It simply continued to stare at me.
Rightfully so. I spoke to it in the same manner I do when I am alone: without expectation of a reply.
I glanced about the yard. I had been distracted before, but now that I had a moment, its feathers... They were EVERYWHERE!
In the bushes, in the newly planted yard tree, all over the lawn, and they spilled over into the neighbor's lawns as well!
It's a good thing Doduo feathers are not on the list of prohibited yard debris for the homeowners association...
I recall their last visit to be particularly unpleasant. Apparently my Scyther-themed mailbox was not on the approved list of mons for the neighborhood! Now all I have is that dull Doduo mailbox in its place...
Shifting my focus back to the feathers, I was immensely relieved that I did not invite the bird inside the house.
Clearly the bird is so lazy that it rolled about my yard for an entire day! There were few other ways to explain the sheer volume of feathers I was seeing...
A fat, lazy, dumb bird...
If it causes people to take duels with me less seriously, I reasoned it would likely reduce the chance of opponents refusing to duel me...
Very well! Since I stand to benefit from this arrangement, I suppose I can tolerate it following me about if it chooses to do so.
Just then, I caught sight of what appeared to be collars on Doduo. One on its left neck and another on its right neck.
I brought a hand to my chin. "A collar? Could you perhaps belong to someone, bird?"
Doduo looked up in a way that displayed the collar more prominently.
Taking the opportunity, I knelt down to inspect the left one first.
Doduo appeared not to mind and stood there patiently.
The collar was old and worn. Dirt encrusted every inch of it. If it had a color before, it was certainly brown now. It had a dog-tag attached, and even though it was worn, I was able to make out letters on it: 'go'. Go? Go where? I turned it over to find a male symbol on it.
"Ah, it seems we share a gender, dear bird."
Out of the corner of my eye, Doduo appeared to have... grinned for a moment? Perhaps it was my imagination.
I next inspected the right one next and found it in similar condition to the first one. This one had the letters 'tan' on it. The back of this tag was empty.
Well, I supposed Doduo is rather 'tan' in color as a whole and it's certainly a creature that 'goes' and quite fast, at that!
I then had an idea! If this bird should follow me about everywhere, I may as well give it a nickname!
I looked Doduo in the eyes and grinned confidently. "Very well, bird, I now know what I shall call you!"
Doduo looked at me with both heads wide-eyed and... eager?
"Gotan!" I smiled while crossing my arms proudly.
Gotan's heads tilted as its eyes seemed to squint for a moment with a flash of... bewilderment? -or at least I thought he might have, perhaps it was my imagination?
I tilted my head. "Can you... understand me, Gotan?"
Gotan simply stood there with a blank vacant stare.
Of course that bird couldn't understand me... What an absurd notion! I turned my thoughts to more productive matters.
If Gotan had an owner, it must have been from too long ago to expect to find them again. Judging from the collar's condition, the one who placed these collars on Gotan was not Imakuni.
"So, it seems like you have been without an owner for a long time, huh?"
Gotan's eyes began to shimmer slighty. Were its eyes... watering?
Before I could contemplate the matter further, Gotan suddenly broke into a roll in the grass sending feathers into the air as it went.
"Well, from now on, I'm going to call you Gotan. At least, until you get bored and find someone else to follow."
Gotan stopped rolling and I almost thought I caught him squinting at me, but on closer inspection, it was his usual dull vacant expression.
Wanting to waste no more time chasing idle flights of fancy, I looked over the yard again and thought about cleaning the feathers, but decided that would be a problem for future me instead.
My next destination would be the science club. After my suffering at the hands of the opposite gender, a currently all-male club would be a welcome reprieve.
I opted to take the bus to see how determined that bird was to follow me.
Sure enough, that bird followed me all the way to the science club!
He didn't even appear to have even ran close to his top speed.
Clearly, that bird would be following me until it found someone more appealing.
I suppose I could attempt to sneak away when he slept, but that would only leave him in my yard and accrue even more feathers in it...
As I entered the science club, Gotan trotted right behind me. Feathers fell off the bird like the leaves of an autumnal tree.
There was one hanging in every club. It read: 'Doduo owners are responsible for the cleaning of any feathers left behind. Violators will be prosecuted.'
Obviously I was NOT this bird's owner, but with him following me around everywhere, who would believe me? Besides, I suppose I DID nickname him...
I lamented the fact that I would soon be routinely cleaning his feathers at any club I visited...
Had I the funds, I could pay a lawyer to fend off the lawsuits, but the problem would still remain that it would look like I disrespected the clubs by allowing my presumed Doudo to leave his feathers about. As a champion and a gentleman, I had to hold myself to higher standards than that!
At least I wasn't planing to visit the lounges, so the feathers could all be contained to the entrance and main room of each club...
The entrance of the club was unchanged from my last visit since clubs almost never redecorate.
The floor had a large square light purple tile in the middle with the TCG Island science symbol on it. The symbol itself looked rather strange now that I was looking at it closely. Almost like some kind of mechanized Mew.
The remainder of the floor was some sort of light green metal tiles. One would assume this building was brand-new with all the technology it contained, but these light-green metal floors were actually among the oldest structures on our island. They also seem to be impervious to all forms of damage. Perfect for an experimental building that may contain the occasional chemical explosion. I had the lectures from my academy days to thank for that information.
Blue diamond patterned rugs adorned the floors in the hallways leading to the other rooms.
The walls were all covered in light purple ceramic tiles.
In the far left corner of the lobby were two large cylinder objects with steps leading to frames on either of them that looked to be a sliding door of some sort. It seemed like something a person could crawl inside of.
In the far right corner was one of the science club's quantum computers. It may have been old technology, but few households had their own quantum computer due to their cost and bulk.
As Gotan and I entered the main section of the lab, I noticed the majority of the room was unlit, with only the separate room in the back with the light on. As I stepped into the room, the automatic lights kicked in, revealing the usual decor.
There were three large wooden tables in the main section of the room with laptops, beakers, flasks, and various notes scattered about.
The wall that formed the separate room towards the back left, was lined with two shelves with various chemistry supplies. Finally, there was a large hall off to the right leading to two more quantum computers at the back. Seeing no one in the main section, I made my way to the smaller room in the back.
I could hear a voice mumbling to itself in the back.
"...but what could I use for testing this? Our stock ran out just yesterday... If only we had some Doduo feathers laying about... They are getting so hard to come by these days... Another shipment of them went out to Neo just last week... I thought they hated those birds..."
I coughed loudly from the other room.
A head poked around the corner.
"Well! If it isn't the Gentleman!"
His gaze shifted to Gotan.
"Ah, very good of you to bring a present! Well, come on then! I have work to do!" He stuck a hand out around the corner beckoning with a wave.
I glanced at Gotan. He seemed to be... afraid? I didn't know he could be afraid of anything!
Rick always was an odd one. More interested in science than the Pokemon TCG. It was hard to believe that he was Nikki's brother. Even when we were kids, he was always holed away in his room working on Mew knew what.
Now that he was leader of the science club with tools and quantum computers at his disposal? I had even less of a clue what he was up to.
Since he appeared to be the only one here for the moment, I figured I may as well see where the club members were.
As I entered the back section, it was as I remembered: the two quantum computers in the right corner were lit up with a variety of flashing lights. The small workbench in the far left corner that Rick was standing at had a variety of flasks and notes strewn about. Two more cylinder objects like the ones from the entrance loomed in the corner to my left.
It was a wonder that Gotan wasn't wrecking things in here or the previous room. If I didn't know better, I'd say he almost seemed respectful!
Speaking of the bird, Gotan followed, but was cautious. Using both heads, he eyed the surroundings and Rick carefully.
Rick was busy pouring some chemical into another flask with his back turned towards me. He was wearing a long white lab-coat.
"Well! Don't just stand there! Bring the bird over. Hurry!"
I approached and so did Gotan. Still cautious, but less so at this point.
Perhaps the bird found my presence comforting at an otherwise scary situation? Not that I could see what could be so scary about this room in particular.
Rick grabbed at Gotan's feathers and took a decent clump of them. "Ah! Excellent!"
Gotan had a stupid grin on his faces. Apparently he enjoyed having his feathers forcefully removed.
I held my chin with my right hand. "Do you always collect feathers that way? Were Gotan a woman, you would likely be missing your hand right about now..."
Rick chuckled. "Oh trust me, I've dealt with enough Doduo to understand they PREFER it that way! They also tend to yield more feathers with such an approach. I don't pretend to understand it, but it is an observable law of Doduo."
I chuckled a bit as I shook my head.
What is wrong with these birds?
He then placed the feathers on the workbench and pulled a single feather from them to drop into the chemical he was holding.
The feather rapidly dissolved with a hiss and some light smoke as Rick turned to face me.
"Unlike quantum phenomena, watching the feather dissolve does not change the behavior of the process. Curious things, Doduo are. Unless the old tales of the three legendary Pokemon gods are true, they are the only Pokemon to inhabit our world."
Rick held the flask up. "Mew of Neo island, Ho-oh of TCG Island, and Lugia of GR Island. I am not one to trust superstition though. If there are other Pokemon, we have yet to find any scientific evidence to support that hypothesis."
An odd diversion, but Rick was the type to be helpful after indulging him in conversation that interested him.
I crossed my arms. "Where would one find such evidence I wonder?"
Rick suddenly appeared more focused and confident. "For Ho-Oh, The Legendary Rainbow Palace may hold clues, but no one has seen it in over a century. Historical accounts from multiple eye-witnesses have been compiled on it. Is it truly a miraculous place, or does it simply involve technology beyond our current understanding? We know it employs anti-gravity to float in the sky. Anti-gravity is not new technology, GR Island's blimps use it, but we do not know the source or specific means that the palace utilizes."
My arms still crossed, I impatiently tapped my finger on my arm. "Yes, I too have heard of such a place. My late grandfather, Jack, had told me stories of it that he had heard from his grandfather."
Rick grinned. "Indeed! The eyewitnesses are numerous! Those accounts also refer to a temple dedicated to Ho-Oh within the palace. Perhaps it contains some artifact or clue on the matter. Unfortunately no one knows the current location of the palace or how to get it to appear again, if indeed it ever does!"
As interesting as this all was, it had nothing to do with what I was here for, so I swooped in to change the subject.
I waved my hand dismissively. "Perhaps if it appears again, you will find something interesting to study. For now, I am here seeking duelists to test my new all-common card deck against!"
Rick raised an eyebrow. "All-common? How fascinating! It's been a while since I've had the opportunity to collect duel data on such a unique concept! However, the club members are currently at the TCG Island science symposium and will be occupied for the next month... I could briefly recall them one at a time, but I would like something in exchange."
Rick peered at Gotan intently. "Feathers. I need more of them! Your Doduo appears to produce them in abundance!"
I smiled. "Well, if that's all you want, I'll give you as many as I have! I have some at my home I can perhaps bring by tomorrow."
Rick frowned. "Tomorrow?! I need those feathers ASAP! Where are they at?"
I held my arms outward. "At my house! This bird has been camped out there for days! You wouldn't believe how many of them there are!"
Rick lit up. "Ah HA! That settles it then!"
I fully tilted my head this time. "What does?"
Rick grinned. "I shall come with you back to your house and gather the feathers myself! I have a method of procurement that ensures quality and freshness!"
Free lawn care? Did my ears deceive me?!
I nodded. "Very well, you may accompany me and I will permit you to gather them!"
Rick smiled broadly. "Excellent! Do you have a spare bedroom?"
I furrowed my brow. "Why do you ask?"
Rick rolled his eyes. "Well I'll need a place to crash for the night! Also, being around Gotan will give me the opportunity I need to collect the most fresh feather specimens! I do hate manual labor, but I can tolerate it... if you have some beer."
I laughed. "Well, yes I do. I don't find myself partaking it in much, but I keep a supply for guests."
Rick looked me in the eye. "Not bad, but do you have enough... for two?"
After poking around in the lawn for over an hour, Rick finally set his Feathermaster 5,000 near the door and slumped in my comfy recliner chair in the living room. The sun had almost completely gone down.
I raised an eyebrow. "Did you get a bountiful haul, my good man?"
Rick appeared to be barely holding back a laugh. "It sucked."
I rolled my eyes.
He now had a hand over his face. "The vacuum! You get it?!"
I rolled my eyes harder as he was now laughing.
He then squinted at me. "Heyyyy... you haven't had any BEER yet!"
I looked at him and considered the options.
Sit here and listen to him drunkenly ramble about things, or join him in the rambling...
Rick was failing to laugh properly as he finished recounting what he had witnessed. "AND THEN! The instructor poured out the vial into the TRASH compactor!"
We were both laughing so hard that I somehow wound up on the floor.
I eventually picked myself up and got back to the couch, but it wasn't very comfortable.
"Dude. That's the table, man. Couch that way." Rick pointed before he started giggling.
No wonder it was so hard!
NOW I moved to the couch. "You know, I've only been drunk once before but I don't remember much about it! I always thought you were supposed to speak improperly when drunk with slurring of words and such, but look at me! I can speak perfectly normal! I must be special!"
Rick was smiling stupidly. "You ARE special, you idiot! You're the TCG Island Champion!"
Somehow, this was obscenely hilarious.
We were both full-on laughing before it became more painful than enjoyable to continue.
Rick then looked me in the eye still part smiling, but clearly trying not to. "What made you become champion anyway?"
I hadn't anticipated needing to watch my words, so I answered with the worst possible answer: the truth!
"Nikki. I did it all for Nikki."
Rick had a confused and unamused look. "My SISTER? Dude! Why?!"
"Just because she's your sister doesn't make her bad for others..."
Rick nodded as if he had just learned something profound. "Dude... your right! It's like when you look through a kaleidoscope or something!"
"Yeah... Nikki is so perfect. I had to become champion so I could be worthy of asking her out."
Rick acted like his hands were an explosion coming out from his brain. "DUDE! What the MEW! Nikki kept saying the SAME KIND OF CRAP!" he then started talking in a voice meant to poorly imitate his sister, "oh the gentleman is so amazing! He's so good at the Pokemon TCG! I need to get better at it so I can catch up to him or he won't want to ask me out!"
I looked at Rick. "What... are you talking about."
Rick held his head in his hands. "MY DUDE! YOU ARE THICK AS A TREEEEE! Nikki would NOT shut UP about you! Do you know how annoying it was?! I almost went and told you to date her and I was in the middle of my SCIENCE PROJECT!"
I started crying. Nothing to be done about it now. It had happened.
Rick was quiet for a moment. "Dude... that is SO messed up. Its like a sad drama or some crap... You want her, so you get better at cards. She wants YOU and chases you, but can't get there!"
I could feel the tears continue to flow. "Then why did she MARRY ISAAC?!"
Rick looked up at me over his glasses. "Dude, you serious? What have you been drinking?"
"Beer." I immediately started giggling as the tears kept falling.
Rick started laughing again too before regaining some semblance of composure. "DUDE SHE DIDN'T WANT TO MARRY HIM! She settled for him, man. But she was all upset she couldn't catch up to you! Isaac had a crush on her for years too. It's not like anyone else was knocking, man, so she opened the door, man, she OPENED THE DOOR!"
My tears still weren't letting up. "THEN WHY DOES SHE STAY?!"
"Dude. Nikki's always been traditional n crap, man. Ever since she was little, she said she would never divorce. She ain't going nowhere, man... Sorry, dude..."
I gripped the sides of my head. "Why am I even here?! I got this Champion title that was supposed to MEAN something but I have NOTHING!"
Rick was spacing out. "Dude, I don't know. That's pretty deep, man. Like, you can have all this stuff and title, but if it doesn't make you happy, like what's the point, man? I don't really what I'm doing either... I just research crap. It's cool figuring stuff out. Somehow I get money for it."
I was now feeling full-on sad and getting sleepy.
Rick stumbled over from the recliner and plopped down next to me on the couch while putting his arm on my shoulder. "You know, dude? You're alright. You did all that to try to make Nikki happy. Ima be your wing-man ok? I need more feathers from that crazy bird of yours, so Ima just follow you around and pick up feathers, but if there's a chick you dig, I use some science or crap to get her to notice you..."
A voice called out. I recognized it as Rick. "OK! That's quite enough! I can't believe I passed out drunk on you! UGH this hangover is awful!"
Awareness seeped back into my mind. In the waking world, I realized to my horror that I was NOT spooning Nikki in bed... but RICK on my couch!
I quickly let go of him so he could get up as I made a silent vow NEVER to drink that much again!
I sat up wiping the drool from my cheek. It was all over the couch pillow. My hair was a mess, and my poor suit would need cleaning after sleeping in it. Luckily, I had spares. My side felt terrible from the awkward sleeping angle I had been in. To top it all off, I had a hangover of my own to deal with...
I heard rummaging in the kitchen. "UGH where is the coffee!"
I was stretching carefully to avoid more pain. "Hold on! I'll be in there in a moment! You DO know coffee does NOT cure a hangover right?!"
"Like MEW it doesn't! Get in here!"
After coffee, breakfast, letting Rick shower and then showering myself, I was back on my familiar couch with Rick on the recliner.
I looked at Rick. "I don't think I feel like going out today."
Rick looked back at me. I could tell he was beat. "Yeah, me neither. Want to just crash here for the day?"
We spent the rest of the day watching movies and relaxing. We even ordered delivery pizza.
May 9th
Rick had arranged via his phone for the first member of the science club, Erik, to return from the science symposium for one day to duel me.
I'm not sure why I assumed Gotan would still be outside after us being cooped up in the house for probably thirty-six hours, but my assumption proved correct!
Rick had used his back-pack style vacuum, the Feathermaster 5,000, to suck up the feathers outside earlier before we were ready to leave. Still wearing it, now he would only suck up the occasional feather as Gotan molted them.
I had no idea how that bird molted so frequently, but was pleased not to have to pick up feathers.
Rick also intended to record the data of my matches.
Back in the science club main room, Erik looked up from from some notes he was jotting at one of the large tables.
He had a frown as he placed his finger on the bridge of this glasses to push them up some. "Champion. I'm only here because of Rick's orders. I am MISSING part of the science symposium for this, but I heard you are supplying Doduo feathers and that Rick can collect data, so lets get this over with."
Straight to the point, as usual.
I took my seat and smiled. "Very well! Lets see if today is the day I lose with this all-common deck!"
His deck used Nidoran and its various evolutions as well as some normal types. Unfortunately for him, many of his attacks required successful coin-flips and this would prove to be his undoing, or at least make it much faster.
During the battle, I noticed something I had never seen before. The Doduo I played appeared connected to my real-life Doduo next to me! It was taking attacks by Erik's Pokemon cards! Each time he was hit, Gotan would smile as his feathers went everywhere. This crazy bird loves being attacked!
The feathers would cause Rick to make a gleeful noise as he swooped in with the feathermaster to suck them up, sometimes right out of the air before they could land!
Rick peered intently while scribbling notes down in a flurry. "Ah! Such an interesting phenomenon! I don't often witness this happening. In conjunction with your all-common deck performance, this is positively riveting!"
The duel soon ended in Erik's defeat.
Erik's frown was unchanged. "Yes, yes, you're amazing. Bravo. I'm glad Rick finds me losing duels to be riveting. I'm heading back to the symposium now. I'll be sure to tell David to head back here for tomorrow."
Since it takes a while to get out to the Science Club, I decided it was ok to just have one duel for the day. I returned to the house with both Gotan and Rick tagging along.
Today I traveled yet again with Rick and Doduo to the science club for my next opponent: David!
He was standing where I had met Erik before, but he looked like he had been patiently waiting for me with no distractions.
David peered confidently at me. "So, Mister Gentleman. We meet again! I hear you are using an all-common deck that you even defeated Erik with! I'll be quite curious to see what you have managed to achieve with those common cards. In fact, I'd say this was WORTH missing a day of the symposium for!"
I smiled confidently in return. "Well, I would be more than happy to oblige!"
David was still using a variety of grass types such as Bulbasaur, Nidoran, Golbat, and Venonat. The duel against him felt similar to the one against Erik. David was unable to keep up with the damage output of my Voltorb. The duel ended in his defeat.
He held a fist with a furrowed brow. "Commons... I lost to a deck of all commons. You certainly are something, Mister Gentleman. Well played."
I nodded respectfully towards him.
Rick smiled. "Fantastic duel data! Not a bad haul of feathers either! I'm fortunate that you run Doduo in your deck. Without it, I would not benefit from the additional feathers Gotan throws about when taking attacks from cards!"
Gotan seemed to wince upon hearing Rick call his name.
Probably just a coincidence.
At any rate, I was starting to get used to having that bird and my eccentric house-guest around!
May 11th
Back at the science club again, now for my final opponent here for now: Joseph!
"So, I've heard how both Erik AND David lost to you, but surely you just got lucky. It IS a deck full of just commons after all! I'm ready!"
I confidently crossed my arms. "Very well! I'm always eager for new opponents to test this on!"
Joseph's deck contained more evolutions than the other members. He had Arbok, Nidoking, and Weezing. I kept him locked down with Energy Removal and chipped away at his mon one by one with my Voltorb. Before long, he was defeated.
After the duel, I could hear him muttering. "Commons... The whole club... How?"
Rick chimed in with a smile. "How indeed! This is the kind of thing that's worth investigating! Joseph, I want you to run the club for a while. The other two can handle the symposium."
Rick took a large bag out of his Feathermaster 5,000 and held them out for Joseph. "Take these feathers and continue the research project involving them. This is an excellent chance to show me what you have learned recently. As for any botched experiments, you need not worry since I will be collecting more feathers."
Joseph nodded and accepted the feathers.
Rick turned to me with an eyebrow raised. "Took down all the members of my club! We may not be as serious as some of the other clubs about the TCG, but considering what you are working with, it's quite fascinating! I trust you have no objection with your 'wing man' joining you on your little expedition around the island?"
I chuckled. "Free feather clean-up and an entertaining house guest! Why not?"
Gotan made a clicking sound as he looked away.
Was it my imagination or did Gotan seem disappointed by this turn of events? I reasoned that would be ridiculous and that I read entirely too much into that dumb bird...
I decided I had been slacking too much lately and since the Fire Club wasn't terribly far away, I decided to pay my old stomping ground a visit.
Ah, the Fire Club. Much of my early days with the Pokemon TCG were spent here. Back then, "Mister Gentleman" had been more like a way to appear more important than I was. Amusingly, it seems I grew into it rather well!
I stepped into the familiar lobby of the club. Everything was as I remembered except for a small vending machine in the corner full of small electric handheld, fans!
Peering through the glass, I could see they had two themes in stock, Doduo, and Scyther. There were considerably less Scyther fans remaining than there were Doduo.
I was tempted to buy a fan, but I figured I wouldn't need it. Just a few duels spent here and I would be on my way. Not enough time for the usual high temperature of the club to truly bother me.
With my curiosity satisfied, I took in the familiar decor of the club entrance room.
The floor was obsidian.
There were a couple of small fire bowls in both of the far corners with lit flames dancing and crackling.
A young boy nearby was about to reach out and touch the flame, but Gotan made a dash and touched the fire first with one of his heads! He then screeched, running around with his head on fire before beating it into the floor to put out the flame.
The kid started laughing and forgot all about wanting to touch the flame.
Gotan appeared happy. Was it from lighting his own head on fire or was it from potentially helping a child? Likely the former... Dumb bird...
I resumed my inspection of the room.
The rugs that connected to the lounge and main club rooms were red and orange with diamond-shaped patterns. There was a large square symbol for fire in the center of the lobby in the same way as the other clubs. The walls were dark orange at the bottom and gradually shifted to yellow towards the top.
Since the days from childhood, the club members had rotated out. Ken, my old rival, led the club now. His dedication to fire surpassed my own, but it came at the cost of overall effectiveness thanks to his stubborn reliance on it. I never HAD to use fire in my decks, but it was a familiar and fitting choice to utilize at least some.
Nowadays, our rivalry was one of mutual respect. I believe my tendency to use Fire in my decks helped.
I entered the main hall with my entourage of Gotan and Rick trailing behind me. Rick occasionally activated the Feathermaster 5,000 to pick up feathers along the way.
As I entered the main room of the club, Ken looked up near the back on the raised golden-colored stage reserved for the leader. He was wearing his usual purple suit.
The stage had four steps leading up to it and had four small fire bowls in the corners. On separate small platforms on both sides of the stage were a row of large torches. The first two had flames and the last one had a large glass orb with the TCG symbol for fire. Even further on each side past the torches were kind of like oversized shelves. You could fit two people standing on them, but since there was no easy way to get to them and nothing was displayed on them, they had always felt a bit tacked-on to me.
Leading to the stage was one long rug. It was the one that began in the hallway leading to the main club room.
Under the rug in the center of the room was a large flame-like icon that was symmetrical and almost too geometric to be recognized as flame.
Along the sides of the icon was a row of small fire bowls.
The roof was always interesting as it had been styled to resemble the inside of a volcano leading up and with a small round opening enclosed by glass.
The club was on one of the relative corners of our vaguely square shaped island. It was also attached to the side of an actual volcano, the only one on TCG island, in fact!
While the volcano always had lava inside and rings of smoke that would rise from it, there was no historical record of it ever having erupted. The same held true for the one on GR Island as well as the one on Neo Island.
According to deep sea scientific discoveries, only deep-sea volcanoes ever had any evidence of actual eruption.
Scattered about the club were all the various current members whom I had recently defeated in my run for Champion.
Ken, called out to me from the stage in a loud bold voice. "Mister Gentleman! We meet again!" He leaped from the stage into a jog until he reached me.
I nodded. "Ken."
Ken looked at Rick and then back at me. "Why is Rick here? I don't think I've ever seen you go places with him before! It's just like this crazy tabloid!"
He held out the tabloid as I took a couple minutes to read it:
Sixth Sense
Sensational Secret Scoop
Broke Champion Takes Up Side-Gig of Doduo Feather-Collecting To Pay Bills!
The Champion was sighted on main-street with Science Leader Rick in a sad and desperate attempt to make ends meet!
Their plan? To shadow a random Doduo all day to collect feathers to sell!
Rick was hard at work with his vacuum trying to train the Champion on vacuum techniques!
Our Champion, full of despair that no one will duel him anymore, barely had his heart in trying to learn...
To donate to our champion relief fund, please contact our office. Operators are standing by.
Of course the stupid tabloid would include pictures to try to substantiate it out of probably hundreds taken...
Somehow, I imagined I would never see any of those 'relief funds'.
Whatever organization or person is behind this, they don't even TRY to get things correct! They just try to stir up the biggest scandals possible!
Rick hadn't a care in the world for his reputation and found it almost as funny as Ken did...
I sighed and explained the events that lead to Doduo and Rick accompanying me.
Ken laughed. "So now you have this guy following you around recording your matches and sucking up Doduo feathers?! That's hilarious! Well, if you are here to duel the club members, you might want to know that we've been training pretty hard lately. You might have some trouble with John and..."
His expression became intense as he leaned in closely and whispered, "I think Johnathan recently surpassed me. As leader I cannot let that become known, so I tell him that I go easy on him when we duel, but I need to knock him down a peg... Do an old buddy a favor?"
I laughed before whispering back. "Things sure do change don't they? I bet if you told the old you that you would be asking me for a favor, he would have set the whole club on fire! You're in luck though. I AM here to beat everyone without losing any games, if I can manage."
Ken's gaze softened. "Thanks, pal. I'll owe you one."
I smiled. "Well, I still have to duel them first. My deck is still in the early stages of testing, but it HAS gone undefeated against members of three clubs already, so I'm feeling optimistic."
"Listen up, club! Today we have the rare opportunity to duel the Champion using a deck of all-commons! He's taken down three clubs so far using it without a single loss and wants to do the same to us! Are you guys gonna take that?!"
Adam was the first to speak up. He was wearing the standard Fire Club reddish-orange tracksuit with a yellow zipper.
I remembered many days of my youth were in a tracksuit just like that.
He spoke in his usual nasally tone. "You may have beat us last time, Champion, but we've been training! I'm finally going to beat you!"
The next to speak was John.
He stared eagerly. "All-commons? Is that some kind of joke? No one can beat me with all commons. Not even a Champion! I look forward to seeing you try..."
Johnathan had waited to speak last.
He looked calm and collected. "This should be fun."
My first duel commenced against Adam. He used a deck that ran the same types as myself, with Pokemon like Ninetails, Raichu, Magneton, and Rapidash. And yet, despite him using an unrestricted deck, it paled in comparison to the speed and power of my own. It wasn't long before he was overwhelmed and defeated by attacks from my Voltorb.
Adam frowned. "I guess even if you are using all-commons you are still the Champion. You are also the most powerful fire duelist in apparent recorded history. I accept my defeat."
High praise! I tried to think of a way to humbly refute it, but everything he said was technically the truth!
I crossed my arms. "You had a good run and even knocked out a couple of my Voltorb in the process. Good game."
I held out my hand and Adam shook it.
The moment our shake ended, John spoke up. "I'm not surprised that you beat Adam. He's always been weak. Unlike me! All my training has paid off in spades and its time for me to end your all-common reign!"
I fought back the urge to roll my eyes. This guy is a bit too full of himself. Very well... let's get this done with...
John used Arcanine, Ninetales, Rapidash, and Magmar.
The setup of the game went poorly. I had no viable attack options and was left with only Doduo, Porygon, and one Voltorb to work with. My gambler card malfunctioned resulting in tails for the coin flip needed to make the card work so I was unable to draw enough cards. I eventually took down his Magmar, but he had built up too much momentum on his field by that point and I simply was not drawing enough cards to compensate for it. He whittled me down faster than I could do so to him and the game resulted in my first loss with the deck.
Jonathan chimed in. "I wouldn't get too full of yourself there, John. Do you really think that's what the Champion's deck is made of? I think it's pretty obvious how unlucky he was in that match. If you want to brag, do it after beating him two more times in a row."
John looked down with a serious expression. "Full of myself you say... fine then. I'll beat him as many times as it takes for you to understand my power."
That Jonathan fellow had a keen eye! The luck in the duel was absolutely dreadful! In any normal game John wouldn't have accomplished much against me with what he had.
Our next match did NOT have me running into such atrocious foul luck! I crushed John without him even claiming a single prize that time.
John was quiet. He simply shook his head and walked away after picking up his cards.
I would have said something, but I reasoned it would embarrass him and I am not one to steal away the dignity of others. So, I let him walk away in peace and silence. I was confident he learned his lesson on being cocky.
Jonathan now stood before me. He appeared unbothered by the losses of the other club members.
"So, Mister Gentleman, looks like it's time. I've been watching how you play to get a feel for your deck. I look forward to our duel."
Something about his demeanor... it was kind of like me when I was that age. It was unsettling...
I smiled confidently. "Very well, Jonathan! Lets see how much you've improved!"
My opening hand only had one valid card to play, a lone Ponyta. To make matters worse, it had no energy, so I couldn't attack with it! Running out of mon would mean defeat!
I knew the solution to both my mon AND energy shortage would be to draw more cards. Luckily, I did have two Bill's Teleporter in hand which would have allowed me to draw four cards each, if only the coin-flip for each of them hadn't failed!
Cards that do nothing just for failing a coin-flip! My old unrestricted deck NEVER had to resort to relying on such inconsistent garbage to perform well!
The rest of my hand was two Pokemon Traders- useless on their own, one switch- also useless if I only have one mon in play, and a Nightly Garbage Run- ALSO useless early on in the duel!
Johnathan played a Charmander and went first, attacking me for 10 damage bringing Ponyta to 30/40HP. This particular Charmander with ONE more energy attached could attack with ember for 30 damage which would knock out my Ponyta.
I knew I only had ONE chance to turn this around and it all depended on my next card. I drew my card for the turn: Gust of Wind. Normally Gust of Wind could buy me time since it switches the opponents active mon to one of my choosing, but if the opponent only has one mon... it does NOTHING!
Now my only hope was that Johnathan had no energy.
He immediately played one and attacked KOing my Ponyta. With no mon in play on my side to replace it with, the duel was lost.
Rick frowned. "No feathers in this game, huh... What an abysmal performance too. If you hadn't won so many games with it already, I never would have guessed you were the champion..."
Glancing to my side, Gotan appeared to be spacing out. He looked terribly bored.
Johnathan winked at me. "Oh oops! Looks like you ran into some bad luck there huh?"
I raised my eyebrows with a somber look. "Some bad luck? I can hardly imagine it being worse!"
"Oh, can I take that to mean we can have a rematch then?"
I furrowed my brow. "Yes... But first I have a related phone call to make..."
Johnathan was now gathering his cards. "Cool with me. I'll be around."
I gathered my cards and took a look around.
Gotan was now sprawled on the floor fast asleep with both its heads yet again.
I wondered how that bird could fall asleep so easily and why he wouldn't sleep like a proper Doduo with one head at a time instead of both. I concluded the bird must be too dumb to understand the concept...
Looking around a little more, I caught Rick chatting with Ken. It was about Volcanoes from the sounds of it.
I stepped outside the club for my phone call.
'Bill Inc.' A mega-corporation with ties into just about every aspect of modern life. As of late, it had acquired gambling institutions on both TCG island and GR Island. It's only real competitor, 'Eyetech Inc.', in Neo Island, played a relatively minor role comparison.
For some reason, Bill Inc. is responsible for the results of coin flips for the Pokemon TCG cards: "Bill's Teleporter" and "Gambler". Without successful coin-flips, these cards fail to perform their effects. There are other cards that require coin-flips too, but only these are affected by Bill Inc.
As for the coins flipped, they are always performed with special official Pokemon TCG coins. These coins have a wireless internet link which serves to monitor coin-flips to prevent cheating and link to Bill Inc. for the cards I had already mentioned. Bill Inc sends a wireless signal to the coin to trigger the micro anti-gravity device in the coin to influence the way it lands when using "Bill's Teleporter" and "Gambler".
Bill Inc. offers a prepaid service that advertises 100% successful coin-flips on all uses of the "Bill's Teleporter" card. Clearly there must be some sort of issue with this 'service' as it failed twice in a row despite my monthly paid subscription!
There is a machine dubbed "Bill's Teleporter" that is responsible for the coin-flip results of the "Bill's Teleporter" card. Obviously teleportation was science fiction, but the machines effects on the card had been tested and proven.
Now it was time for perhaps the least fun aspect of being an adult... calling a business with phone prompts and hold times...
After being on hold for several hours with Bill’s company, I finally obtained an answer for my complaint. Despite a team of IT working around the clock, there is an on-going malfunction in the machine that was expected to continue with no current time-frame for it to be fixed. I also learned that dueling after 7:00pm was often met with more success for some reason. I imagined it may have been due to fewer users since it was later in the day.
When I inquired about a refund, the rep informed me it was handled by another department, had a required mail-in form that cannot be sent electronically, and had a turn-around time of three years!
Apparently once the process is started, the subscription itself is cancelled and cannot be activated again until the refund is paid out!
I wanted to take the matter up with a manager, but I knew enough about Bill Inc. at this point to know the futility of that action. Just like my faulty coffee-mug warmer, the rep would no doubt tell me they could only involve a manager by means of a call back. They would make it sound all promising and sincere. Maybe they even thought it would result in my problem being resolved. But inevitably, no one would ever call back.
Calling them back would only play out the same way, except then I would be required to repeat the entire problem to the next rep. It was a vicious never-ending circle of torment and not one I intended to experience again.
That coffee-mug warmer complaint was about the principle of trying to make that corporation take some responsibility. I even thought about taking my deck out to their HQ and dueling my way through their staff, but since they had hundreds of employees, I knew I would never make it to their senior management and CEO, Bill, before they would no-doubt evacuate to their rooftop corporate blimp.
Were Bill Inc. just a local company to our Island, it would have fallen under TCG Island law and I could have filed a lawsuit against them at the very least. But being a multi-island corporation, they have what's called 'corporate immunity'. While it IS theoretically possible to successfully prosecute them, the vast majority of cases are thrown out without even a second glance by most judges.
So here I was, champion of TCG Island, being tossed around again like trash from this overly-bloated scummy corporation. My disdain for large companies was profound indeed...
I took out my pocket-watch to check the time: 6:30pm. The sun had started to set, but thanks to my ruling as champion, clubs were open late and closed late too!
One of the perks of being Champion meant I got to set when the workday hours for the clubs were! As one who loves to sleep in, this was one of the best things about becoming champion.
Now the clubs opened at a reasonable 11:00am and closed at 8:00pm.
The former champion, Ronald, was my nemesis: a morning person. He would have clubs open at 5:00am! They would also close down at 2:00pm! As a recent academy graduate back then, trying to wake up before 2:00pm was sometimes a challenge...
Ronald and I may have been on good terms in general, but we would never see eye to eye on when to wake up.
Just as I was about to head back inside, Rick and Gotan approached!
Rick had a box of pizza, and two large soda drinks!
Rick smiled. "I thought you might be hungry, so I picked us up some grub!"
Rick set the drinks on the ground and opened the pizza box to reveal a deliciously cheesy, thin, and hot pepperoni pizza.
Now normally a gentleman of my caliber wouldn't do something so pedestrian as tear into the meal right then and there... but hunger is as hunger does... grandfather would understand.
Since we had extra, I offered a slice to Gotan.
I noticed his eyes started to water a little.
He brought his beaks closer to the slice and sniffed it. He scrunched his face as if lifting a heavy object and looked at the slice intently.
His demeanor then changed as he started dry heaving with his face scrunched in a way I would assume is normally associated with pain. I saw a few tears fall from his eyes as well. He then turned around and burred both his heads in his mass of feathers going completely silent.
I stood there and blinked for a moment wondering what just happened.
Rick stopped chewing his pizza and somehow spoke clearly with his mouth full. "How curious! Doduo hate human food, but I have never seen one act like that before. You have a really weird Doduo! Gotan looked to me like he wanted very badly to eat that pizza despite how he could clearly not even come close to tolerating it.
Rick swallowed his bite of food and took another, chewing as he spoke. "But why would a Doduo want to eat something they so clearly hate?"
I shook my head. "This bird is a mystery. He even sleeps with both heads at once instead of one at a time!"
Rick's jaw dropped. Thankfully, he had just finished swallowing his bite of food. "Such a unique specimen! I believe I will collect data from Gotan as well as his plentiful feathers!"
Feeling refreshed, I returned to the club for my rematch.
Gotan moved along beside me as Rick followed behind to suck up feathers with his glorified vacuum.
I glanced to my side to see Gotan had frowns on both faces. His eyes were half closed focused ahead without looking around at all as he slapped his talons haphazardly against the floor as he clawed his way forward.
If not for the Doduo-resistant flooring, he might have left scratches.
He appeared to be a fowl in quite a foul mood indeed.
As we approached Jonathan, his frowns slowly faded and his eyes opened just a little more. Once we reached Jonathan, he shook feathers from his body like a dog drying off, as he tilted his heads up with his eyes shut. The bird then lowered both heads in Jonathan's direction as he opened his eyes.
Jonathan cracked his knuckles while stretching. "So... I've already won a game. What would you say to a little wager... unless you are too worried you will lose?"
Worried? ME? I may have using a common deck... but to back down on a wager against the likes of that pompous little growlithe... No. I would certainly not back down.
I raised an eyebrow. "What did you have in mind?"
Jonathan smiled. "If you win either of the next two games against me, I'll throw in enough cash to be worth an extra two booster packs for each game you win. But if I win them both, you will sponsor my education at the TCG Elite Academy you attended."
The audacity and gall of such a request... The value he would gain far outweighed what I stood to gain, but the point is that he is cocky enough to bet his own money that he will win. This kid knew exactly how to get under my skin.
I smiled broadly. "You make this too easy! You should have asked for my house too! I accept!"
The next duel with Jonathan had him set up one of the most versatile fire Pokemon: Charmeleon. With it's slash attack for 30 damage, he KOed my Dark Rapidash in two hits and took down a Doduo with one with flamethrower! I was now down to my last mon, Voltorb. The only way out would be to draw more cards. I activated my gambler card... but the result was TAILS! Jonathan finished me off on his next turn and because I had no remaining Pokemon on the bench, I lost YET AGAIN!
This was EXACTLY why I loathed using cards with coin-flips! If I didn't NEED to include them in order to have enough ways to draw cards, I'd drop them in a heartbeat!
Johnathan winked again. "Oh no! More bad luck there! So unfortunate. You know, you really should probably not rely on coin flips too much. I've got to say, that Professor Oak I used to draw seven cards in our game was preeety nice considering I didn't have to flip a coin for it! Just let me know when you are ready to lose your final duel against me mkay?"
I knew exactly what he was doing. Trying to throw me off my game. Frankly, it was working, but I couldn't let him see it.
Rubbing it in my face how he doesn't have to resort to coin-flips to get his 'Professor Oak' cards to do what they are supposed to do! Yet, this pompous windbag would no-doubt join in with everyone else in refusing to duel me if I DIDN'T debilitate myself in this way!
If only I could duel him with my old unrestricted deck... He probably wouldn't even claim a single prize against me with THAT. But then he would just refuse to duel me and I would be getting nowhere...
But I had more to consider than that now... the funds it would take to sponsor an academy education... I shuddered to think of the price. Normally, education on our island is given to our citizens freely, but this was a special private academy with tuition paid without financial assistance...
The other members of the fire club were rolling their eyes, clearly unhappy with being shown up by Jonathan.
Ken had his face covered with his palm.
No doubt Jonathan beating me in yet another duel was NOT helping his case.
Gotan... was that bird snickering? I looked closer and he seemed his usual clueless self. Must have been my imagination... At the same time, I noticed his charred feathers. Must have been the flamethrower he took.
Rick was shaking his head jotting down notes. Just what WAS he writing about me anyway?
I turned my attention back to Jonathan and grinned. "Congratulations Jonathan! Charmeleon is indeed a good card and you were fortunate to draw the Professor Oak that you played that game. I shall return again after a brief intermission."
So... gambler did not pay off. I wasn't too surprised considering it WAS fitting for a gambling-themed card to be a risk, but I wondered if there was some way to improve the odds. Perhaps another subscription from Bill Inc. would work? I reasoned it at least wouldn't be connected to that glitchy janky 'teleporter'.
Before long, I was back outside on the phone with Bill Inc.
This time, I got a female rep.
"Thank you for calling Bill Incorporated, this is Stephanie, how can I help you?"
My jaw dropped. "Stephanie from the TCG Island Psychic Club?!"
"...That's right. This job lets me work remotely and I get to chose my own hours. What better way to pick up some extra cash, eh?"
I squinted my eyes. "What about your work at the club?"
"Oh that? I'm just using my lunch break for it. I had a... feeling it would be good to be working right now... and I know exactly what you want."
I tilted my head. "Another premonition?"
"You catch on quick. Give me a face-time call on my personal cell, it's 555-555-5555. I love that number. It makes it so easy to... facilitate things."
I hung up and called her back on her cell.
Stephanie smiled slightly. "There we go. Now we can... conduct business. You want your gambler card to work. There is no monthly subscription you can pay to make it work. However... for the right price, I could be persuaded to alter the coding in the system to put the odds in your favor..."
I closed my eyes and found myself nodding. "Very well, name your price."
Stephanie maintained her smile. "I won't be asking anything too high, but I want 25% of all your winnings from selling cards won from booster packs from your duels. I already know that's the highest you will go to still be willing to deal, so you may as well agree."
What could I say? She was exactly right.
I could feel my eyes rolling back in annoyance. "No use trying to negotiate with you, as usual. Fine, I accept."
I then checked my phone and found a cash app request from her. I accepted. Proceeds would transfer automatically.
Stephanie dropped her smile. "Oh, and this won't be perfect. Sometimes I won't be able to rig it. It just depends on how much they are supervising me. Lucky for you I always know when they are watching... but you have a duel to play, don't you? See you around..."
*click*
Anything to keep that blasted Jonathan from winning in yet ANOTHER duel against me. I refused to have my common card tour be ruined by the likes of him!
Now both the teleporter AND gambler cards should function properly. It was about time I reminded the dreaded Jonathan of the difference in our skills!
Bad luck couldn't hold out forever, and I had stacked the odds in my favor... But the prospect of having to pay for a private education for him was something I had to actively try not to think about. If I did and it caused me to lose...
As I approached, Jonathan, he smiled. "Alright now it's time to see just how far I'll go. I've got to say I wasn't expecting to win two games in a row against the champion. Wouldn't that be something if it were three?"
I smiled back. "It sure would, but luck only takes one so far..."
Underneath my smile I fought desperately to subdue the sinking feeling in my chest. I knew no matter what I had to win this!
The next three duels in a row against Jonathan were ALL victories. All of my coinflips worked flawlessly and I found myself with access to all the cards I needed to ensure my victories. I had Energy Removals to keep his mons suppressed, multiple Voltorb to strike hard and fast, plenty of energy, and Gust of Wind to hit whatever I wanted. I would tank hits with Doduo while setting up Voltorb to attack and boost my Voltorb damage with Porygon as needed.
The amount of relief I felt after winning the first of those three games...
Jonathan frowned and shut his eyes. "Ok that's enough. No more duels for me tonight. You win, 'champ'. I'll be training, so don't think you can stay ahead forever..."
Ken looked profoundly relieved. "As expected of our champion. Do let me know when you are ready for our duel later. I look forward to a heated battle!"
I nodded respectfully before surveying the room.
Rick was scribbling notes furiously on his note pad with one hand. His other arm was propping the notepad up while directing the vacuum to suck up feathers from Gotan. At the same time, he hopped on one foot to keep from getting tangled in vacuum tubing. He somehow did all of this while only looking at his notepad.
His ability to multitask was admittedly impressive.
Gotan was looking rather battered from the attacks he had endured, with ruffled feathers and swelling in various areas. He kept adjusting his body so the battered parts got disturbed by the vacuum.
And he couldn't have looked happier about it.
Crazy bird...
The other members of the club NOW started trying to say how good Jonathan did and that winning even one game against me was a big accomplishment.
Of course they were happy now that he lost and was no longer making them look even weaker. Club politics... Not something I missed.
I remember the other members in my childhood including Ken getting so angry when I would win. But of course, I never held back. They would have got even angrier if I had...
As I turned to leave, Rick started following me while he continued to write. How he managed to avoid tripping or running into things while doing this was beyond me.
Gotan scrapped himself off the floor. He followed me with a limped hobble that would be considered slow by his standards but still easily able to keep up with me.
A quick glance revealed he was hobbling not to avoid pain, but to seek it out! Stepping awkwardly and directly on the bruised parts of his talons. Smiling all the while... the lunatic.
After spending so much time in a club, I was getting pretty hot so, on my way out, I stopped by the handheld fan vending machine to pick up a nice Scyther-themed fan... only to find they were sold out?! Oh why had I not purchased one sooner!? Now all they had were those dumb Doduo-themed fans!
But my need for a nice breeze won out over my despair of missing out on a cool Scyther fan.
I reluctantly purchased the Doduo fan.
Gotan seemed smug about this as he danced about gleefully.
Thankfully, the fan came with batteries in it and it did feel quite nice!
At this point, I had built up a decent supply of booster packs from my victories. Every victory earned a couple of them from every opponent, after all!
Having had a good haul for the day, I stopped by my local card shop to sell the booster packs for money. Since I was only using common cards and already had a full set of all of those, I had no need for anything the booster packs might contain.
It was good to get some money into my bank account.
I then noticed an incoming call: 555-555-5555. I picked it up, because why not?
"Bingo. That's another reason I love this number... I noticed some of that sweet money came in from you. Nice going, Mister Gentleman. I trust you are satisfied with the results?"
I smiled. "Indeed I am!"
"Splendid. Keep up the good work. Oh, and make sure you pay our club a visit next. Fortune will favor you if you do and I wouldn't mind raking in a bit more of that nice cash of yours..."
*Click*
She never was much of a conversationalist. Would saying 'bye' really be that hard? No matter.
What DID matter was that I was now getting the results I deserved! Coin-flips to make a card do anything at all... Few things were worse than that. Granted, failing the flip for 'Gambler' did still allow ONE card to be drawn, but it was a poor consolation prize, at best.
Regarding my next destination, it would obviously be the Psychic club! Free money is free money, after all!
May 14th
I took the subway to the Psychic Club. It even had a designated area in each section for Doduo. I decided to take a seat near it so Rick could gather feathers from Gotan while we traveled.
On the seat next to me was today's newspaper.
I recently cancelled my subscription to conserve funds, but I found this the perfect opportunity to catch up on things.
UBI Cap Increase Universal Basic Income. A wonderful fact of modern life. Set in place by our oracle centuries ago, this one social reform has virtually eliminated all poverty for TCG Island citizens for several generations.
As we have come to expect from the oracle, when inflation gets a little too high, the UBI is increased. Let us be thankful for our benevolent AI ruler, the oracle. Let us also not take for granted the modest houses, food, water, healthcare, and UBI granted to all our citizens as basic human rights.
The latest increase in UBI will continue to safeguard our way of life and help ensure the happiness and well-being of all our citizens.
Ah, so there would be yet another increase in the UBI. Even the wealthy benefit from it. Anyone could struggle with rising costs depending on how stretched their budget was, but the Oracle sees that no one need worry about such concerns.
In theory, I could sell my house, downsize, and not need to go earn any money at all, but where would be the fun in that? I enjoyed my fancy home and extra spending money too much to just let go of it.
I continued reading.
Where have all the Doduo gone? Until the past few years, we have all enjoyed the Doduo of our island. People have them as pets, and their antics never cease to amuse. They are great with children too. But lately, the number of Doduo has drastically dropped!
Our reporters even investigated GR Island to discover the same phenomenon there as well! What could this mean? To report relevant information, please call 222-222-2222. As this case is ongoing, publication will continue.
So, Doduo were disappearing? If they weren't here and they weren't on GR Island, then perhaps they were being moved to Neo Island? But Neo had always been an odd place that kept to itself...
I scanned through several more sections to find another that caught my interest:
Immigration Uptick The latest world population statistics indicate a in influx in immigration from Neo Island to GR Island. The cause of this is speculated to be GR Island's king seeking cheap labor as he is known to be frugal.
As TCG Island does not allow for immigration except by special permit, marriage, or adoption, GR Island is the only place citizens of Neo Island could generally formally move to.
Not all immigration is legal, however. Reports indicate GR Island is also engaged in deportation of immigrants that have not gone through the proper channels. Failure to return undocumented immigrants to Neo Island is a hot diplomatic topic lately on the world stage. Neo Island does not tolerate when their citizens leave Neo Island illegally.
Neo Island had always been strange about its emigration policies, but to create diplomatic incidents over it seemed more firm than usual. Perhaps GR Island had a better standard of living than Neo? Of course, I was sure it had nothing on TCG Island. I had always been proud to call TCG Island my home.
The subway was nearing our stop, so I set the newspaper back where it was for someone else to enjoy perusing.
After a brief walk we reached the Psychic Club.
Being told ahead of time by a psychic that I would win all my duels at a club had a certain excitement about it. I strolled inside as Rick and Gotan followed.
May 14th
I entered the lobby of the Psychic club and briefly glanced about.
The place had its usual purple square tile flooring with the large purple glass lamps on either side leading into the main room of the club. The middle of the room had the large square plate with the TCG Island psychic symbol of an eye, which was of course purple. The walls, were painted - you guessed it - purple!
It was like a giant kid had ripped off the roof and poured a giant can of grape soda all over everything inside.
The purple rugs separating the rooms at least had a white pattern mixed in...
I couldn't understand how the club members did it. If I worked at a place like this, I would probably get ill at the mere sight of the color purple.
Rick paused from collecting feathers to survey the room. "You know, its been a while since I was last in here, but I swear it gets more purple every time I visit!"
Gotan yawned widely with both heads as he dragged himself along.
As I emerged from the threshold into the main room of the club, I was reminded of the decor in here as well. A giant psychic symbol purple rug in the middle of the room laid over top of the white and purple rug that extended from the entrance. Eight more large purple lamps surrounded the large rug.
Murray, the psychic leader, was sitting cross legged in the far left corner STILL trying in vain to bend his favorite spoon with his mind. He should be forty-six, I believe.
I remember the old psychic leader from my youth had a trick spoon she showed me once. She would press a button and it would bend. The button was cleverly hidden. While making it bend with the button she would pretend her psychic powers gave her telekinesis and that only the best psychics could ever hope to achieve it.
I learned about the spoon by asking her to explain how she did it if I beat her in a duel. I was only a Fire Club member at the time, and she was so confident she would win that she didn't even bother using her psychic power to check before agreeing to our duel...
I couldn't remember her name... I think it started with a C... it was kind of short too... was it Cloe? Perhaps Candy? Whoever it was, she was probably somewhere in her 60's back when I last saw her as a kid.
Last I heard, she moved to GR Island. Why anyone would want to leave TCG Island to live somewhere else was beyond me...
So, as I had learned, telekinesis wasn't a real psychic phenomena, but good luck explaining that to Murray now...
Murray was so fanatical about his predecessor that he wore his hair long just to make it look more like hers...
I hadn't the heart to tell Murray the truth, but the longer it went, the more awkward it became. I don't know how long Murray spends per day trying to bend that blasted spoon with his mind, but I cringe every time I think about it.
Robert and Daniel were playing a duel against each other on the giant rug in the middle.
Robert was laughing. "All right!"
Daniel whined. "Nooo! Not again! How can I fail so many coin-flips that my Pokemon stays asleep FOUR TURNS IN A ROW!!!"
Leaning against a nearby lamp with her arms crossed, was Stephanie. Her age was probably the only one that threw me for a loop. She was either eleven years old or she had a petite frame and could be any age ranging from that to twenty-one.
She grinned. "Nice suit there, champ. Looks pricey."
I smiled. "What can I say? I enjoy the finer things in life."
She held a hand up near her face to examine her nails. "You speak my language... Oh, and don't worry about dueling me. I forfeit. Here are your booster packs."
I furrowed my brow. "Pardon me?"
She held her hands out with the packs. "Well duh, why would I waste my time losing a duel with you when I could be spending that time on more... productive things? Besides, once you sell those packs, I get a cut of the profit anyway per our... arrangement."
Did everything she say always have to sound so illegal?
I stuck out my bottom lip. "Well! I have to admit that was the easiest duel I have played yet! I'm curious though, if you knew you were going to lose, why would you not just refuse to duel?
Stephanie rolled her eyes. "We can't be the ONLY club to refuse to duel your all-common deck. We do have some pride."
I nodded. "I can relate to that. I'm curious, though. What WOULD you have played in our duel?"
Stephanie smiled. "I would have played with my usual cards, Alakazam, Gengar, Jynx, Mewto, and Mew. I would have even used Pokemon Breeder to bring out Alakazam on turn two, but your Porygon would use its psychic resistance to tank until your Voltorbs would do more damage than I could mitigate."
I shrugged. "Well who am I to argue with making money even faster? Very well then, I suppose I'll go and duel the other two now!"
Stephanie turned her head to the side as she was walking away with her hands in her pockets. "Yeah, just don't forget to sell your booster packs later. Oh, and hit up the lightning club next. Gotta keep that sweet cash coming in... See you around, champ."
Rick frowned. "Aww... how can I collect extra feathers if Gotan isn't getting hit?!"
Gotan yawned again.
I approached right as Robert and Daniel finished their game. They were both eight years old.
Robert looked up at me. "Oh, hi mister Gentleman! I already know you are going to win. My ghosts can't get through your Porygon, so I forfeit!"
Daniel laughed. "Yeah, I forfeit too! I just want to keep playing Robert here since our psychic powers cancel each others out and we can't tell who will win in our duels with each other!"
I scratched my head. "Well... erm... alright then! Have... a good day?"
The two of them apparently hadn't even heard me and were already busy shuffling their cards and setting up their next game.
Murray was still over there in the corner focused intently on his spoon.
At that point, I figured I'd just let myself out... At least I got my booster packs for 'winning'.
May 15th
Today I planned to visit the Lightning Club.
Gotan was rolling around in the grass while somehow managing to bounce on his blubber at the same time.
No doubt that bird WANTS to get zapped by lightning attacks that he is weak to! I put a hand to my face, shaking my head. This bird...
Rick was geared up with his Feathermaster 5000.
Right as I was taking my first step off of my front porch, my phone rang! It was a video call from the former champion. My friend Ronald!
I picked up and smiled. "Well look who it is! I was just about to head out for the day!"
Ronald gave me the kind of look that usually meant he had an idea. "Good morning there, buddy. Or that's what I WOULD have said if it weren't already 12:30pm. Seriously man, when are you going to get your time turned around? You're setting a bad example for the younger generation of duelists!"
I rolled my eyes. "Oh not THIS again. MUST you always attack when I choose to rouse myself for the day? I finally have the freedom to sleep in until when I want and I'm going to enjoy it to the fullest! Especially after your rein of early-club-opening tyranny!"
Ronald laughed a bit. "Good to see you enjoying yourself at least. And, hey, it's been a while since our last chat. I heard you are using an all-common deck now!"
I nodded as I raised my eyebrows. "Correct! After everyone started refusing to duel me, I was left with little choice!"
Ronald wagged a finger. "Now, see there? Isn't that what I told you about making a deck that was too strong? I probably could have pushed myself to improve my own deck a bit, but there was no need. Well, at least until YOU came along anyway!"
I grimaced. "It was so unfair! My MysticFire deck was the culmination of my skill at the TCG! Rather than the other duelists being inspired to improve themselves, they all just collectively gave up on trying to beat me! Why?"
Ronald's expression ceased as he looked away from the camera. "Well, I did a little digging... It turns out that the notion of 'not dueling you' originated from the Lightning Club. It happened almost simultaneously at the Grass Club and then spread to the other clubs soon after."
I furrowed my brow. "The... Lightning Club?"
Ronald looked me in the eyes without amusement. "It first started... with Issac."
My old best friend... Issac? I knew our friendship had long since died... But why would he do such a thing? Isaac was already married to Nikki. I would have gladly traded my success if it meant I could have her by my side.
I felt some of the fire fade from my usual demeanor. "Ronald... do you know why he did it?"
Ronald shrugged. "Unfortunately, not. I think you should assume he has it out for you though. Don't be surprised if he tries to goad you into a duel wager. My advice: don't take it. You're using an all-common deck. Honestly I'm surprised you have been able to keep going with it even this long."
I crossed my arms. "Well, I'm certainly not planning to back down from him! I intend to see this challenge through to the very end! Whatever that end might be!"
Ronald sighed. "I had a feeling you might say that. In that case, why don't I come over and help you test your deck some more? Don't expect me to hold back, though."
I nodded. "Very well. I'll be waiting."
Rick smiled broadly. "Ah ha! This will make for some fine data collection indeed! Can you imagine how riveting it would be if you WON??"
Before turning around to go back inside, I caught sight of Gotan.
He was frowning and staring holes in me.
I rolled my eyes. "Oh FINE then! Come on inside... you dumb bird..." I opened the door motioning for him to enter.
Gotan smiled with both heads as he lightly trotted inside the house.
I supposed I wouldn't have to worry about feathers with Rick around, at least...
Ronald soon arrived and we set our decks up at the duel table in the dueling room in my house. We had agreed to a two out of three game match!
Ronald was smiling much as he did the time I challenged him to the championship match. "Lets see what you got, Mr. Gentleman!"
I was getting excited. I suspected this would prove to be the hardest match I had ever agreed to. "Yes! Let us see!"
I opened with Porygon to buy some time. I held Voltorb back in my hand to keep it a surprise. I suspected Ronald did the same as he played only a Lapras. It was the weak 60HP version.
Ronald really should have been running the 80 HP version as it was better. Things like that were why he lost the championship in the first place...
Ronald won the coin-flip to go first. Alas, he was able to put Porygon to sleep with sing! It was no matter. It was only there to stall... I also had 'Switch' in my hand in case it was held down for too long. I played Voltorb to my bench and started powering it up. Only one more energy and it could one-hit KO Ronald's only Pokemon!
Ronald powered Lapras up more with another water energy and took down most of Porygon's HP with surf.
On my turn I played another Voltorb to the bench in order to power up 'Group Spark' which does damage based on the number of Voltorb in play. I then retreated Porygon which had just woken up.
I attached another energy to Voltorb and smiled. "Group Spark for 40 damage doubled to 80 due to Lapras's lightning weakness! Since you are out of Pokemon, I win!"
Rick had a big smile on his face as his was scribbling away furiously in his notepad. For now, he was focusing only on his writing. I imagined he was probably planning to vacuum all the feathers at the end.
Gotan had been looking over the game the whole time. I don't think I had seen him take such a keen interest in my games before other than the pain he could bask in from opponent card attacks.
Ronald was scowling. "Oh, COME ON! Now, that was a cheap shot, Mr. Gentleman."
I held my arm up to scratch the back of my head as I smiled. "I admit, it was pretty lucky that you only had one mon out. Most unfortunate that it was a Lapras. Still, I can't fathom why you still use the weak version in your deck."
Ronald squinted at me. "I like the art. It's cute. And you did 80 damage, so it wouldn't have even MATTERED! But I don't think you will see another game go like that..."
As it turns out, he was right. In his next game, he had the single biggest threat of all: Hitmonchan Lv33. A fighting type that could attack the weakness of both Porygon AND Voltorb.
Do not let it's seemingly low level deceive. Level was usually only a good indicator vs other cards of the same mon, other Hitmonchan, in this case. Compared with other mon, looking at level was only an apples to orange comparison.
Hitmonchan, had a high HP of 70, a 20 damage attack for only one fighting energy, and an even stronger 40 damage attack for three energy. Sure, evolutions of other mon were stronger, but they required evolution cards for each stage and often could only attack with many energy attached. Weaker evolutions typically only had 50HP at maximum and were easier to KO unless the opponent could evolve them.
Taking all that into account, Hitmonchan Lv33 was the ultimate foe.
To make matters worse, I had no Doduo's in the opening hand to hold it off with their fighting resistance. I didn't even have Ponyta. All I had were two Porygon and one Voltorb... I went ahead and played all three, to stave off running out of mon as best I could.
I went first and I changed its weakness to lightning using Porygon's conversion attack.
Hitmonchan attacked with Jab for 20 which was doubled to 40 against Porygon KOing it immediately.
I brought out my next Porygon to active to buy another turn while I started powering up Voltorb with lightning energy. He knocked that one out too.
Now the only mon left was Voltorb. I fully powered it, but in order to win, I would need one more Voltorb out to bring the total damage after weakness to 80 in order to one-hit KO Ronald's Hitmonchan.
I flipped my coin for Gambler. Hopefully Stephanie's hacking would come through for me.
Tails.
Poppycock.
The single card I drew for it was not a Voltorb, to my dismay.
I attacked anyway with Voltorb's groupspark, leaving Hitmonchan just 10 away from KO.
Ronald attacked back to finish off my last remaining Pokemon.
Ronald smiled confidently. "Now THAT'S what I'm talking about. How did you like my Hitmonchan, Mr. Gentleman?"
I raised an eyebrow. "You DO realize I was only 10 damage away from KOing it, right?"
Ronald 'tsked'. "I suppose you have a point there. Looks like we will just have to settle this with the final game in our match!"
In my opening hand, I had three Voltorb, one Fire Energy, one Lightning Energy, an Energy Removal, and a Nightly Garbage Run.
Ronald led with Hitmonlee, went first, attached Fighting Energy, and passed. It needed two energy to attack.
I attached energy to Voltorb, played another Voltorb to my bench, used Energy Removal on HItmonlee, and attacked with Thundershock paralyzing the Hitmonlee.
Ronald attached energy to Machop. Machop was almost as big of a threat as Hitmonchan. It had 50 HP and a one energy 20 damage attack.
I started to stall out. No more lightning energy. I did have a Dark Rapidash in my hand, but no Ponyta yet.
Ronald next played a Chansey with a monstrous 120 HP to his bench. He attached a water energy to Hitmonlee. Mostly pointless. I wondered what he was thinking...
Bills Teleporter was drawn but the coin-flip failed. It wasn't late in the day, so I wasn't too surprised, but I wanted very badly for it to work in such a momentous game...
I attacked Hitmonlee yet again chipping away at its HP.
My turn came around and supplied me with a much-needed 'Bill' card! It netted me a Fire Energy and a Pokemon Trader. I had reserved a Voltorb in my hand for this purpose, so I used Pokemon Trader to swap Voltorb back to my deck in exchange for Ponyta! I immediately attached a fire energy to it and attacked with Voltorb again.
NOW Ronald discarded the Water Energy from his Hitmonlee to retreat it to bring out a Machop that promptly was supplied with fighting energy and 1HKOed my Voltorb.
Ronald smiled as he claimed one of his prize cards.
I brought Ponyta out next, attached another Fire Energy to it, and Evolved it into Dark Rapidash. I brought his Machop to 20 HP with Flame Pillar for 30 damage.
Ronald then played 'Gust of Wind' to pull out my other Voltorb. He then One-Hit KOed that as well and claimed his 2nd prize... I still had yet to claim even a single prize...
Now my only remaining mon was Dark Rapidash. I drew a Porygon, but it made no sense to play it, lest Ronald find a way to KO that mon too in one hit... I attacked to bring down his first Machop. The prize card I claimed was just a Lightning Energy. Not helpful for the current situation.
Ronald smiled yet again and played the dreaded Hitmonchan to his bench. He even attached a Fighting Energy to it.
Finally I drew another mon, a Ponyta. I played it and put a Lightning Energy on it. It was better than nothing... I finished the turn attacking the Machop he had just attacked my Dark Rapidash with.
He continued attaching energy to Hitmonchan.
I realized his Chansey was my best bet to attack. It was still two energy away from using the only damage attack it had. I played 'Gust of Wind' to bring it out and attacked it.
His Hitmonchan was now only one energy away from being fully powered and he prevented damage with Chansey as his attack, so I passed my turn.
Ronald continued to load his mon up with energy, but at least he failed to prevent damage this turn.
I played Porygon to my bench and attached Lightning energy to it. I had to deal with Hitmonchan now or this game was as good as lost. I used another 'Gust of Wind' to drag it out and converted it's weakness to fire as a sacrificial play.
Ronald was all-too-happy to oblige as he took down my Porygon and claimed his third of six prize cards.
Finally I drew another Fire Energy on my turn. I attached it to Ponyta and evolved it right away into another Dark Rapidash. I then attacked with Flame Pillar for 30 damage boosted to 60 for weakness! Unfortunately this still left HItmonchan at 10.
I discarded a Fire Energy to finish off his Hitmonlee on the bench to claim my second prize card: a much needed Energy Removal!
To my relief, Ronald retreated Hitmonchan and brought out Machop to attack my Dark Rapidash for 20 damage. I used my Energy Removal to disarm the Tentacool he had just played. I then reatreated and brought out my other Dark Rapidash attacking with Flame Pillar to finish off Machop and discarding a Fire Energy to finish off his Hitmonchan as well! I claimed two more prizes: 'Gambler' and another 'Energy Removal'. Now I was ahead on prizes!
He evolved Tentacool to Tentacruel, attached water energy and failed to confuse Dark Rapidash with Supersonic.
I played a Voltorb, powered it up, succeeded on my 'Gambler' coin-flip, and now I was poised to take control of this game! I retreated Dark Rapidash for Voltorb and attacked with thundershock, paralyzing his mon.
Ronald attached another water energy to Chansey and played a Shellder to his bench. I could see he was aiming for its 80 damage Double-Edge attack. He passed his turn.
My next turn, I succeeded on coin-flips from TWO 'Bills Teleporter' cards. NOW I had the POWER! I used another Energy Removal to bring Chansey back down to two. I powered up my Voltorb and brought down his Tentacruel claiming my fifth prize.
Now there was only ONE more remaining!
Ronald brought his other Chansey out with no energy on it. Clearly he intended to hide behind it as long as he could.
I wasn't going to give him the chance. "Gust of Wind! Bring out your Shellder. Now Voltorb, finish it with your mighty GROUP SPARK FOR 100 DAMAGE!"
Ronald nodded and took off the gloves he was wearing.
"That's it. THAT'S the potential I saw in you when you first defeated me and became champion. All this with just a deck of common cards. You have all the skill you need, my friend. Now get out there and show us why you are the best! I look forward to hearing of your victories."
Rick was trembling as he wrote. "I can scarcely believe it! The former champion... defeated in a two out of three match against a deck of ALL-COMMONS?! This data is... AMAZING!!"
Gotan looked dumb-struck. If I didn't know any better, I would say that bird actually understood the greatness of the match he had just witnessed!
For the remainder of the day, Ronald and I visited the official Pokemon TCG website on my desktop computer and poured over all the common cards in the game. We collaborated to brainstorm various strategies, including an idea to replace the fire in my deck with grass. Specifically, with Venomoth.
The day grew late, however, and we hadn't had a chance to put together a proper prototype of the deck. I did however come up with what the deck would be named: 'MothZapper'
Perhaps I would finish planning the deck at a later date when Ronald had some more time. It just wouldn't have felt right to finish it without him.
When I retired for the evening I found my thoughts fixated on the Lightning Club... and Issac.
Travel to the Lightning Club was too far on foot, so today I decided to take my posh Scyther-themed SUV.
There was a light breeze and not a cloud in the sky...
I looked at Gotan.
Gotan looked at me.
I looked at the car and popped the hatchback trunk.
Gotan looked at the car and back at me.
I motioned inside the vehicle.
Gotan tilted his heads and then started rhythmically pecking the air in front of him. He then trotted up to the car and leaped!
Well, he got about half way in, but the rotund body of his was now stuck... his legs haphazardly kicking about in a way that made it look like he was having fun playing with the air.
If any creature could have fun in such a fashion, it would be Gotan...
I walked around to see his heads.
He was smiling like he believed he made it all the way in...
I brought a hand to my face and sighed.
After several minutes of Rick tugging on one leg and myself tugging the other, we FINALLY managed to pull Gotan free.
The inside of the SUV now looked like a Doduo bed with feathers everywhere.
Oh well, at least I had Rick with me.
Now what? Should I tie Gotan to the roof?
I grabbed some rope from my garage and brought it out.
Gotan looked at the rope and then at me.
The next several minutes had me running around the yard like a madman failing miserably to lasso Gotan...
I finally gave up and dropped the rope.
Once I started driving, it turned out Gotan was able to easily keep pace with my vehicle even when it was driving on a high-speed highway.
We soon reached the end of the forest, putting both my neighborhood and the Grass Club far behind.
Trees lined both sides of the vehicle forming something akin to a tunnel with a light at the end. Soon we passed through into the blinding light.
As my eyes adjusted, I was met with a view of the great plains. It was a vast ocean of grass that seemed alive as the wind blew along it in gentle waves.
Sometimes, I enjoyed traveling. The road was fairly straight with minimal obstructions like traffic lights or stop signs. Even the speed limit seemed reasonable.
Rick, unable to collect feathers while we traveled at such a high speed, had finished vacuuming the back. He then crawled into the front passenger seat and opted to strike up a conversation as I drove.
"So, Mr. Gentleman. When was the last time you saw Isaac? I'm not talking about during your bid to become champion. I mean before that."
My gaze was towards the long road ahead. "It was long ago... I was barely a teenager at the time. Isaac had put together a new deck. According to Nikki, he had worked a very long time on it and was winning duels against the other members of the Lightning Club left and right with it."
"I suppose Isaac challenged you with it?"
I nodded. "He did, but he wasn't able to claim a single prize against me after five games. After that, he told me he was done playing the Pokemon TCG with me. Nikki didn't want to play anymore either. She preferred grass types which were weak to the fire I used. Since we had nothing else in common, we stopped spending time together."
"Do you regret beating Isaac so badly?"
I paused a moment, soaking in the silence. "...I've never been one to hold back, but losing their friendship was unacceptable. I wish I had been wise enough to understand how to avoid it..."
"That must have hurt, given your feelings for Nikki."
I frowned. "I would have liked a way to spend time with her after that point, but things had ended a bit awkwardly and I didn't know what else I could suggest... I hadn't intended for us to go so long without spending time together," I felt my eyes begin to water, "One week became two. Two weeks became two months... As the length of time increased, so did the awkwardness of trying to break the stalemate... Before I knew it, we had gone years without meeting up..."
"That sounds like it was about the time she started dating Isaac."
I nodded. "Once I heard that... there was no going back. It would have been too painful for me... What would we have done together at that point anyway? I regretted the fact that I was not already the champion," I frowned, "I thought if I just had enough skill, I could have sped it up and I wouldn't have lost her OR him. From then on, I didn't just study and play the Pokemon TCG... I breathed it, and devoted all my time to my academy studies."
"You graduated top of your class in an unmatched record standing, yes?"
I sighed. "I did. I had always assumed becoming champion would lead to a happy romance for me, but here I am and there's no romance," I smiled bitterly, "Not that any other girl had caught my eye like Nikki. Even now, no one catches my attention. I'm not sure if I have high standards or if I am just too particular when it comes to women..."
"Perhaps you should travel then?"
I scoffed. "And leave TCG island? No thank you. The other islands sound like barbaric places that even allow poverty to exist. Our Oracle never dies and has helped us to live under the best government in recorded history."
"What about a vacation then? Have you never wanted to test your skills at the TCG abroad? I realize that Neo Island uses entirely different cards, but surely you could find some interest in GR Island, at least?"
I squinted. "Hmmm... perhaps. It would be nice to be able to use my MysticFire deck again..."
The grass gradually gave way to more and more dirt.
I looked out the window past Rick to see Gotan speeding along totally unfazed.
Just how long could that bird RUN?
Not long after, we arrived at the lightning club.
Gotan came to a stop and wasn't even winded.
I opened the door of my SUV and was immediately met by a blast of hot air. It had to be at least a hundred degrees out. Fortunately the Lightning Club would have AC...
From the entrance doorway, the Lightning Club looked unchanged from my last visit.
The lobby had a spotlight shining in the center of the floor where the lightning symbol was. I could also see some of the yellow tiles around it. The rest of the floor was unlit, as usual.
The walls were lined with two rows of large lights in the shape of stars that alternated with one half lighting up and then switching to the other half so that no two lit stars would be horizontally or vertically beside another.
In the darkness, I could make out the rugs leading to the lounge and to the interior of the club.
Gotan was in-tune with the timing of the flashing lights with his movements.
The bird didn't have a care in the world, as usual.
Rick smiled. "It's been a while since I last saw my niece. I wonder how little Jennifer is doing?"
Jennifer was Isaac and Nikki's second daughter. She was only seven years old and going through a huge 'Pikachu' phase. For whatever reason, it was a thing I saw happen all-too-often with little girls on our island.
I had a phase too growing up. It was an Arcanine phase, though considering my old MysticFire deck, perhaps I never grew out of it?
It then suddenly dawned on me that I was currently going through... a Scyther phase?! That revelation was more unnerving than I had expected. I made a mental note to downplay my adoration for Scyther going forward lest anyone draw such a comparison...
I followed the rug on the far wall further inside.
As I walked through the hall, the only thing I could see was the spotlight where the hall opened into the main room of the club.
Isaac always did have a flair for the dramatic. Whenever the club was empty of challengers, he had everyone use night vision glasses instead of turning on the lights. Then, when a challenger would approach, the lights would be carefully controlled to add to the effect. I wondered what I could expect from this visit.
I soon stepped into the light with Rick and Gotan.
From the silence came a familiar voice. I knew it all too well. It belonged to my former best friend in the whole world...
"So. You're back again, I see."
I called out to the darkness. "Do you know why I am here?"
The voice scoffed. "Of course. How could anyone not know what our 'esteemed' champion is up to?"
I crossed my arms. "Then show me my first opponent."
There was a moment of complete silence.
Finally a light switched on further in the room, revealing my first opponent. At the same time, several more alternating lights came on similar to the ones in the lobby.
There was now enough light that I could see the rug I was standing on stretched all the way to the base of the stage at the far end of the room. It had four steps leading to the top.
Flanking the rug on both sides about five feet away and stretching almost to the steps to the stage were two small raised platforms, each lined on top with two rows of heart-shaped lights alternating in the same way as the lights from the lobby.
On the far end of the room at the top of the steps loomed the shadow of a man, lit from behind by a long small platform along the back wall with both stars and hearts lights. He leaned against the small platform with his hands in his pockets... Isaac.
But he was not my focus today. Instead, I shifted my gaze to my first opponent who was standing in the 2nd spotlight: Brandon. He wore big square glasses with rounded edges and a standard Lightning Club yellow t-shirt with white sleeves. His hair was spiked downward in various directions.
Brandon focused on me without blinking. "Mr. Gentleman. After the beating I received from you last time you were here, the chance to beat you while you are weakened by your all-common deck is just too tempting to pass up."
Gotan yawned with both heads.
I smiled back unwavering. "You are certainly welcome to try! Lets get this going, shall we?"
The duel went well. All he had was a Pikachu which I denied energy with a couple Energy Removal cards and an Eevee which I took down in a single Group Spark attack.
After the duel, I caught Brandon muttering as he walked away! "So much for getting a raise to double my pay..."
It would seem Isaac was willing to do anything to get me to lose...
I noticed Rick had left my side and was talking to Jennifer about Pikachu in the dark.
It sounded like he was listing off all kinds of facts about Pikachu cards and speculating on how an actual Pikachu would act if they existed like Doduo does in the world.
I supposed Rick was content to vacuum up the feathers after the duels here were complete. He didn't seem particularly interested in collecting data here either, but I figured he had a soft spot for Jennifer. I couldn't blame him.
Jennifer hopped up and down with a big smile. The lighting was just right for me to catch it.
She was wearing a full yellow shirt as well as a yellow Pokemon hat with a white frame with a pokeball symbol on it. Her hair was in two short spiky ponytails. She even had face-paint on to resemble Pikachu cheeks. It was admittedly adorable.
Nikki always did have such cute kids... I imagined they filled her life with purpose and joy to raise...
Suddenly reminded of Jennifer's father, I glanced towards Isaac at the stop of the stage. He appeared to be staring right at me. It was difficult to gauge his expression with the lighting.
The next spotlight then illuminated another opponent: Nicholas. He looked to be ten years old and wore a standard Lighting Club t-shirt. His hair was spiked upward.
He gazed at me brimming with excitement. "Mr. Gentleman! I'm going to have to beat you here. No hard feelings, ok?!"
I wondered what Isaac promised THIS young fellow...
I gave a slight bow. "En-guard."
Nicholas gave me a run for my money, but not in the way one would think...
As expected, the failure to draw a lightning energy for fifteen turns was slightly more than an inconvenience! Yet, somehow his tactics were lacking so badly that it didn't matter! Once my Voltorb did enough thundershocks to his Zapdos, he no longer wanted to attach energy to it and started loading up his other mon instead. Once I got my energy I was able to turn things around and come out on top.
Brandon frowned. "No!! Now how am I supposed to get a full play-set of legendary Zapdos cards for the legendary Zapdos deck I was going to create?!"
Was Isaac serious? Did he really have a full play-set of those? I had my doubts... They were among the rarest Pokemon cards in the world!
Before I had a chance to think any further, the next spotlight clicked on. It sounded like the switch was pressed with more force than needed.
Jennifer jumped again with that cute smile of hers. "Oh! I'm up! Will you let me win, Mr. Gentleman? Pleeeeease? I want daddy to take me to the amusement park!"
I was unaccustomed to being asked to lose in this manner. What kind of a gentleman would I be if I wasn't willing to throw a game once in a while? It sounded like little Jennifer would have such a nice time if I lost... Could I really be ok with upsetting such a perfect little angel? Surely not...
I smiled gently. "I would be honored to duel you, my lady. We will see about who wins. Are you ready to play?"
She kept her positive energy on full-tilt. "Yes!!"
In this duel, I simply couldn't bring myself to win. She had me wrapped around her finger and probably didn't even know it. I put on a token show of things, being careful to avoid KOing any of her Pokemon. Before I knew it, the duel ended with her claiming the final prize.
Jennifer held her hands high. "YAY!! I BEAT THE GENTLEMAN! DADDY! DID YOU SEE? DID YOU SEE???!!!"
Suddenly all the spotlights in the room focused only on me with several more turning on to join in. I was blinded from all directions. The lights obscured even Jennifer from my vision even though she had only been a few feet away. I could hear Isaac call out.
"Is this your idea of being funny?"
I held my arm above my eye's trying in vain to see past the lights. "I beg your pardon?"
I could hear the voice circling around me like a vulture. "The champion not even claiming a single prize in a game? Do you take me for a FOOL?!" the voice snarled.
I could hear the sounds of small feet moving away. It seemed this was scaring Jennifer.
I continued to shield my eyes turning about in vain trying to face his direction. "I'm not sure I see the problem..."
The voice laughed incredulously. "Oh that is rich coming from you, champion. You've been going around all the clubs winning games against the other members with commons. I guess that is how little you think of everyone, don't you?"
I crossed my arms abandoning the struggle to try to see and left my eyes shut. "Well, how else am I supposed to make money dueling when no one will duel me!"
The voice chuckled. "Yeah, that's not so fun, is it? Almost feels like being left behind, huh? It's exactly what you deserve."
I unfolded my arms and balled fists at my side. "How do you figure, oh leader of lighting?"
"This isn't anything new we are seeing here. Your goal has always been to humiliate others with your skill at the Pokemon TCG. Being able to do it with commons? What better way than that? You're just a noob-basher who is throwing a temper tantrum that you can't keep noob-bashing."
He said it. He ACTUALLY said it! The most grievous insult someone could POSSIBLY throw at me. The gall and nerve! All from someone who undeservedly used to hold the title of 'best friend'!
I scowled. "Yeah, well desperate times call for desperate measures when I have someone gossiping about me behind my back getting everyone on board not to duel me! Yeah, that's right! Did you think I didn't KNOW about the twisted game you've been playing... ISAAC?!"
I had no idea where Gotan was. Rick was oddly quiet too.
From Isaac's voice, I could tell he was now standing in one place. "I don't know what you're talking about. Clearly you are paranoid and delusional. Unfitting of your title of champion."
He had the NERVE to deny it?! I could feel the heat radiating throughout my body now.
I barked back. "I'll NOT suffer lies to my FACE, you CUR!!"
"Yes, lets talk about lies. Like how you lied about winning against Jennifer."
I could hear Jennifer speak up. "Daddy...? What do you mean?"
"My poor little girl... He didn't duel you seriously. He was making fun of you. Since you didn't really win, I can't take you to the amusement park now. I'm sorry sweetie, It's out of my hands now. If you're upset, I understand, but don't blame Daddy, ok? It's the Gentleman's fault."
I couldn't believe my ears...
Jennifer stepped into the light facing me. Tears running down her face removing the Pikachu face-paint from her cheeks in the process.
"I... I just wanted to see Pikachu... at the park... I just wanted... why are you so mean?! WHAAAAAA!!!" Jennifer turned and ran crying out of the room.
Before I could say anything, Isaac jumped in. "You see, you monster? Making my little girl cry... I ought to beat you like a Doduo punching bag..."
My anger finally passed the threshold.
"YOU!!" I swung a punch in the direction his voice had most recently come from.
Suddenly I felt a fist hammer right in my gut. Anger replaced with pain as I fell to my knees cradling my gut.
The voice spoke louder so the other members in the club could hear. "You all saw it. He struck first. I was merely defending myself from this violent man. He didn't like being called out for his rampant noob-bashing, so you see what he resorts to!"
Finally Isaac stepped into the light as he loomed over me.
Somehow, he had a look of genuine disgust. "It all makes sense now..."
Isaac made a fist and caught it with his other hand. "You must have come here to try to make me look bad to my little girl. Maybe drive a wedge between Nikki and I?"
What on earth was he talking about?!
Isaac pointed at me. "I've noticed how you have stayed single all these years. So, whats the deal, champion? Are you just waiting for me to die?!
Isaac lowered his hands and clenched his fists. "Maybe that way, you could add mykids andwife to the DIGNITY you stole from me!"
I was too nauseous to stand, but I'd be a Doduo's backside feather if I was going to remain silent...
I squinted up at him since he was blocking some of the lights. "What kind of a father uses his own daughter to tear someone else down?!"
Suddenly a large shadow leapt in front of me!
I heard a light 'thud'.
In between the shadow's legs, I saw Isaac lowered his own leg back to the floor.
He had meant to KICK ME, the SCOUNDREL!
The shadow was confirmed to be Gotan. One of his heads went limp with a smile.
If it weren't for Gotan's known love of pain, I would have suspected he had stepped in to help!
"OUT OF MY WAY YOU DISGUSTING BIRD!" He continued kicking Gotan in various places as the bird reveled in it.
I heard Isaac's voice from the other side of Gotan as he stopped kicking. "I don't know why anything would want to protect you, champion, but you had better be grateful this disgusting creature won't move..."
Unbelievable. Saved by Gotan!
Isaac spoke louder making sure the members of the club in the room could hear. "From now on, you are banned from this club. I'm not about to have an abusive and immoral man like you as as guest here and I don't care WHAT your title is! If you don't like it, I'll permit ONE two out of three game match against me at a later date, but ONLY if you use your current deck UNALTERED. If I win, you must step down from your title as champion... permanently."
I snarled. "Well if I win, you will refuse to defend yourself in a defamation lawsuit!"
I barely noticed the scenery or the passage of time on the ride back.
Rick offered to drive, so I took him up on it. Apparently he could tell I wasn't in the best mental state for driving.
The entire ride was silent as I stewed in my thoughts.
Rick seemed understanding, so at least it wasn't an awkward silence.
The sun had already set by the time we got back to the house. Rick had excused himself, mentioning he needed to take care of some things at home, but would meet up later.
I fumbled with the keys to open the door to the house and noticed Gotan had laid down on the grass to go to sleep.
He seemed reserved, almost respectful.
It was his usual sleeping position with his legs tucked under his mass of feathers and his necks curled in one direction around where I imagined his belly to be.
For most creatures, such a position would be natural; protecting the vital and sensitive areas.
For a dumb bird who wants to be injured? It seemed the opposite of what he would crave... Odd creature...
I shambled up the stairs and didn't even bother changing into pajamas.
I fell face first on my bed and passed out wishing the entire day had never happened in the first place...
May 17th
I woke to a ray of sun sneaking past the blinds directly onto my right eye. My eyelid did little to help as I was dragged awake by the obnoxious light sooner than I would have liked.
I removed my suit and took a shower.
The hot water soothed the aches from my awkward sleeping angle, but I was unable to avoid the oppressive cloud of unpleasant thoughts.
How could Isaac do those things to me?
I wasn't there to make fun of anyone!
I couldn't believe that he would use his own daughter as a way to attack me!
Did he honestly think... I wanted him to die?
...It's like he wasn't even the same person anymore... My friend Isaac from long ago was gone! In his place was something completely unrecognizable... Something dark...
I figured Jennifer now hated me.
And what would Nikki think?
I didn't even get a chance to defend myself...
All she would hear was the one-sided version of events from Isaac...
Between a crying daughter and an adamant husband, what chance did I realistically have?
It wasn't fair...
It wasn't right...
What could I have done to deserve this?
If Isaac didn't want to fall behind, he could have asked me for help! He could have kept playing against me to learn! I would have helped him!
It didn't have to be this way...
And noob basher?
It's not like I had a row of worthy opponents lined up to duel me!
What was I supposed to do, stop playing the TCG and eek out an existence on UBI?
He married Nikki and even had a family with her... Why did he hate me so much?
I closed my eyes as the water continued to attempt to soothe me.
If a man couldn't cry in his own shower, where could he?
I let the tears flow, knowing I could keep them to myself.
I turned up the heat a bit and lingered in the water for a while...
I didn't particularly care much for that day, so I opened my fridge and started drinking.
It wasn't often that I drank... When I did, it was only socially and never for effect. The only times I had drank for effect was today, recently when Rick had first come over, and ONE other time...
It was the last time I had seen Nikki outside of duels to become champion.
About ten years ago...
I was eighteen years old. Drinking age.
Things were going well for my skill at the TCG... but Nikki was dating Isaac.
She had picked him over me. Not that I had even seen Nikki in years at that point...
I lamented that I might never understand women...
My mission that day: To use my newfound age to try drinking my sorrows away...
I wasn't sure how long I was there at the bar, but I definitely felt a bit different than usual. My words were blunt, less guarded. My mind felt like it was wearing a warm fuzzy blanket. Deep thought was not very easy in this state, but somehow... I didn't mind.
After all, if my brain was able to solve my problems, well, they would have been solved by then, wouldn't they?
I had been facing towards my left to see the TV, but was distracted when the person immediately to my right got up to leave.
I tossed a delayed glance in the direction of the now vacant seat and my gaze was immediately stolen by the next seat over.
Perched atop the bar-stool was most beautiful girl I had ever laid eyes on...
What's more is that I RECOGNIZED her!
My eyes went wide. "Nikki??"
Nikki looked like she had seen a ghost. "M-mister Gentleman?!"
The way she looked at me, was she about to run away?
The way she matured since I last saw her... she had only grown more beautiful with time...
My gaze softened. "Nikki... it's been so long since I last saw you. How... how have you been?"
Nikki was now looking directly at the table with flushed cheeks. "Ah... um... fine?"
I had thought it was the alcohol, but knowing what I now know from Rick... It must have been a sign of her crush on me!
What a fool I was!
She was telegraphing it right in front of my face!
She fidgeted a bit with her glass. "Um... so what brings you here Mister Gentleman?"
I grinned as I picked up my glass and chugged, placing the glass down with slightly more force than needed. "This, my dear, Nikki. Thought I'd give alcohol a spin, now that I'm eighteen!" I leaned in and raised an eyebrow. "From the looks of it, I'd say you had the same idea!"
Nikki's face brightened up as she began laughing. I'm pretty sure I was staring at her... Rather, it was like everything else in the world melted away to the point that the only thing in the universe was her...
She took a swig of her martini and set it down extra-delicately. "I'm glad to see you still have your sense of humor Mister Gentleman! You caught me! That's what I'm here for... Yep!"
Thinking back... this was most certainly not what she was there for!
But if not drinking to test it out... Could there have been something else she was upset about? ...Something like having a crush on someone she thought she couldn't have?
Someone... like me?
At that point, she began mesmerizing me again with her laughing...
I smacked myself on my head to snap out of it. It was the first chance I had to chat with Nikki in years, and I was just sitting there dumbstruck?!
I placed an elbow on the table and rested my head in my hand. "Nikki... I've been thinking about you."
Nikki went wide eyed again. Her face seemed to be turning completely red...
My own eyes went wide in response. "Oh! I-I mean you and Isaac! Yes!"
Why couldn't I have just told her how I felt?! I had even been drinking and I STILL didn't have the guts to do it!
Nikki's expression softened. "Oh! We still play the Pokemon TCG together! We've been getting a little stronger... but we still don't quite compare to you, Mister Gentleman."
I felt pride swelling as I smiled. "Well, Nikki! There is no one better than me when it comes to helping others improve! I was even on the cover of TCG Magazine as the most improved duelist in a years time! They are even speculating I could someday become our new champion at the rate things are going! Would you like me to show you some tricks?"
Nikki's face went red as she started fidgeting again with her glass. "Really? You would be willing to? With someone... like me?"
I took Nikki's hand in both of mine. "Nikki, you have always been dear to me. If I can help, I am happy to do so!"
It had been about time I was able to do SOMETHING right...
Nikki smiled serenely. "Well... sure! I would love to learn some tips from you! It's been so long since we spent time together... Oh!" she pursed her lips looking down to the side, "Uh... I think we may have had a bit too much to drink for that tonight!"
I smacked my forehead with my hand. "DUH! I'm not real used to this whole 'drinking' thing, if you can tell!" I started laughing.
Nikki joined in as well.
Once we both calmed down, Nikki looked me in the eye with a mischievous grin. "Well... hey, if we can't play cards... You wanna drink some more?"
The next thing I knew, we had plenty more to drink and I was walking Nikki home from the bar.
I wasn't about to let her go out at night defenseless! Who knew what kind of bandits may attack her if I wasn't there!
Not that our island HAD any of those...
We were both stumbling so we ended up holding hands the whole way to maintain each other's balance. I wasn't ABOUT to let her fall down! I'd go down a HUNDRED times before I would see it happen!
Thankfully, no one fell over and we made it back to her place.
She gave me that look again. "Hey... I've got the good stuff in my cabinet, you probably shouldn't be walking alone at night anyway with how wobbly you are. I saved you eight times from falling over!"
I stuck out my bottom lip. "More drinking?"
Nikki quickly nodded twice with a smile. "More drinking!"
I smiled as she led me inside. I nearly face-planted on the stairs but managed to hold her hand and the rail just in time.
Once inside the house, she pulled out two small bottles of something that she said would prevent the worst of most of the symptoms from too much drink!
Apparently the medicine was designed to be kept in small separate containers to make taking the correct dose easy even for one who was drunk.
We both took the medicine.
She then got a bottle of something good and very tasty. We took turns drinking, each one egging the other on. Until...
The next thing I knew, I was laying on something very soft. A comforter?
It was so bright... must have been morning.
There was some kind of material hugging my frame. Smooth and cool... silk?
If only my head wasn't pounding...
I opened my eyes to unfamiliar surroundings. There was a bookshelf in one direction, crammed full of gardening books along with some on the Pokemon TCG.
Some kind of plant structure was above me... no, wait... it was fake vines. They were strung along a wooden fence looking thing. I then realized it was a top part for a four poster bed.
My eyes went wide and next to me I saw the most beautiful woman in the entire world, sleeping serenely among a pile of fluffy pillows, white sheets, and an extra-fluffy comforter.
It was Nikki...
Entirely naked!
I was transfixed...
Looking away took every ounce of my willpower... But I did it... Anyway!
I glanced down to myself.
Only boxers!? What happened?!
I started to panic. If Nikki were to wake up now, what would that mean!?
I had to get out of there... FAST!
Thankfully, a quick glance about informed me that my clothes were likely all in this room even though they seemed scattered about haphazardly.
I quickly darted around gathering clothes.
I then caught sight of something that should have been adorable, yet the context of it filled me with dread!
Nikki was clutching my shirt... In her sleep!
...In retrospect, it was adorable...
I leaned in to try to remove it, but it was no use! My eyes wandered with a will of their own back to the perfection of her body!
There was NO way I'd be able to remove my shirt with her laying there completely exposed like that!
But, I needed my shirt! If I left something of mine behind, it could have somehow lead back to me!
How it could lead back to me, I wasn't sure, but I was convinced that it would!
I needed to cover her!
The bed sheet was loose on the end I had been sleeping on so I quickly but carefully concealed her beauty with it. It was barely enough to cover what I needed it to.
In theory, waking up in bed with Nikki should have been a dream come true, but not when neither of us remembered it!
Not when she was dating Isaac of all people!
Now that I could will myself to focus, I grabbed one of the sleeves of my shirt and gradually pulled harder until it started to slide.
Gently...
Halfway there...
I heard a groan!
QUICKLY, I DUCKED DOWN FLAT ON THE FLOOR!!
I waited, holding my breath, daring not to make the slightest sound...
I could hear breathing...
Good... It was steady.
I slowly rose myself off the floor to continue the extraction.
My nerves felt like the were on fire as I slowly pulled the remainder of the shirt away.
A pure white cat with blue eyes was trotting over to me.
Apparently, it had just finished jumping off the kitchen counter!
It quickly reached me and started rubbing itself against my leg as I breathed a brief sigh of relief.
I loved cats, but this was NO time for kitties!
It was...!
I found myself petting it.
It's fur was simply divine.
I was already downstairs, what could a moment hurt?
I took a look at it's tag: "Sir Pounce"
I had to cover my mouth to keep the noise of my chuckling down.
I always knew Nikki fancied herself a princess, but to name her cat "Sir Pounce"...
He just kept rubbing against my leg as I got dressed as if begging me to stay.
But I would not stay, not even for Sir Pounce.
Once dressed, I peeked out the door to make sure no one was watching, and I made my escape!
And that was it. That was the last time I saw Nikki outside of dueling to become champion or dueling after becoming champion.
In light of recent events, I should have stayed there that day... If only I had known how she felt... I wouldn't have tried going the long and ultimately futile route to reach her... perhaps I would not have become champion... but it would have been worth it to me.
I drank the rest of the day away hoping for a better tomorrow. I would get back out there and continue to duel with my common card deck. To do otherwise would play right into what the darkness enveloping Isaac wanted...
I had the urge to fly today, so I took to my personal passenger Scyther-themed drone from my drone pad on the back balcony of the home.
Ok... I suppose Scyther themed was an understatement... I may have had custom alterations done to it to make it look close enough to a real Scyther that people might think it WAS a Scyther...
As the drone ascended, I could see Gotan still sleeping in the yard.
Drone flight was, perhaps, my favorite way to travel. You never had to deal with traffic and could fly in a straight line to the destination to save time. Not to mention the incredible view from the large panoramic glass window. Part of the window extended down to me feet allowing me a partial view of the area I was flying over.
I liked to pretend I was a Scyther flying high in the sky when I rode in it.
It didn't make for a great transit method in a storm or an especially windy day, but today wasn't one of those days.
The fighting club was almost as far as the lighting club from the house, but my drone could reach anywhere on the island with more than enough power left to get me back home as well.
I enjoyed using its auto-pilot function as I gazed upon the clouds and all the little houses dotting the landscape below.
For once, I didn't have to put up with a dumb bird's antics. I may not have had Rick with me today, but it suited me just fine as I wasn't always in the mood for company.
The noise reduction glass made for a quiet and peaceful trip, as usual.
I found the ride to be most relaxing and therapeutic.
Before I knew it, I was already descending towards my destination.
I emerged into the lobby with my hands in my pockets.
I took a quick glance about to confirm the decor.
Large stone tiles comprised the floor.
There was, of course, the usual club symbol in the middle, a closed fist. It was as large as sixteen of the stone tiles making up roughly 10% of the floor.
Equal in size to that were four bright yellow pads separated from the walls by only a single row of stone tile. The pads were outlined in bright red and had large dark red symbols on them. The writing was unmistakably Neo Island's traditional style.
As for the walls, they were simple vertical wooden planks.
Red and white rugs connected to the other rooms of the club.
As I entered the training room, where the duelists would be, I took a brief look around. This room always confused me. The walls were filled with small platforms where various exercise equipment were on display as if it were a museum for a Neo Island dojo.
The first fourth of the room had hardwood plank flooring, but beyond that, it was covered by an interlocking light-green padding.
You would THINK that everyone in the club would wear traditional Neo Island training garb: a short robe with a sash along with slacks made in the same style and material.
Disappointingly, the two male members just wore basic brown t-shirts.
At least Chris tried a little with a headband... He was short with a broad jaw and short bushy eyebrows. He looked to be thirteen.
Michael, on the other hand, appeared to put minimal effort in... He looked to be twelve years old. Everything about him was plain, boring, and unassuming... It's not that he looked ugly or anything, it's just that there was nothing about him that really stood out in any meaningful way...
One of the members, Jessica, understood the assignment. She wore a red bandana and a light-blue traditional Neo Island training garb. She even had her hair in pigtails to avoid it getting in the way. She looked to be thirteen.
Their leader, Mitch had a traditional white training garb. His dark hair was spiked in various directions. He looked to be forty-five years old. As expected, his focus was on me.
"Ah, Mr. Gentleman. Previously we had opted not to duel you again, but we are no cowards. We will not refuse to fight your common card deck. Come and step onto the mat! We shall honor you with the fists of our cards!"
In reply, I performed a traditional Neo Island fighting bow while maintaining eye-contact as Mitch did the same. I then stepped onto the mat and went for my first opponent: Michael.
Micheal sighed. "Mitch won't let me not battle you. I know I'm just going to lose anyway, but I still have to go through the motions. Lets get this over with..."
It was hard to understand why such a pessimist could become a member of a club. Perhaps he was here to try to better himself?
I grinned. "Don't be so down, Michael! Last I checked, you do not have psychic powers to know the outcome of a duel! Let's have a good game together!"
He stared at me, scoffed, and then pulled out his cards.
Our duel didn't go very long. I had Doduo out and was impervious to his attacks with its fighting resistance while I chipped away at the HP of his mon. I also targeted his energy with Energy Removal. After I played the third one against him, he forfeited.
Michael gathered his cards and stood up. "Yeah... I'm done here."
He then left the club.
It was most unfortunate that he chose to become a member of the fighting club. Losing badly to a Doduo, of all things, did NOT look like a fun experience...
Mitch closed his eyes in shame. "Ah... Michael-san. He lacks discipline. I have been trying to train him as a favor to his mother... She has a very nice rack."
I hadn't realized Mitch had such a one-track mind. I brought my hand to my face. So much for 'honor'.
After thinking a moment, I convinced myself that a 'rack' was some kind of exercise equipment. For his display... Surely that was it...
Snapping out of it, I now set my sights on Chris.
Chris looked determined. "With our match, I will restore the honor of our dojo!"
Somehow, Chris was able to start with the one Hitmonchan level 33 in his entire deck. It was the same Hitmonchan card Ronald, the former champion had used to win a game against me. I had no Doduo or Ponyta against him and he proceeded to wreck me with it. I lost within four turns.
Chris smiled. "Honor has been balanced, but now I want to tip the scales in our favor! Will you honor me with another duel?"
Such a lucky game for him getting that Hitmonchan when I had nothing to properly fight it with. There was no way he would repeat such a feat.
I nodded. "Indeed."
In the next duel, he used Sandslash, Hitmonlee and Machop, but I had Doduo out again and trivialized his damage. I alternated attacking with Doduo and Dark Rapidash to bring him down. In the end, he did claim a couple prizes against me, but only for the calculated sacrifices I made to speed up my victory.
The poor chap was crying. "INSTEAD OF ADDING TO OUR HONOR I HAVE BROUGHT SHAME TO OUR DOJO!"
He left the training room and I noticed he hung a right down the hall, meaning he was probably headed to the bathroom to compose himself. Poor guy...
Mitch frowned with his eyes closed again. "Ah, Chris-san. He lacks commitment. I have been training him as a favor to his mother... She has very nice padding."
I raised both my eyebrows. Just how did these double meanings keep happening?!
Surely, he must be talking about floor padding though...
Before I could look about for Jessica, there she was right in front of me!
She threw a punch in the air a few feet away from me. "Mr. Gentleman! Thank you, SIR, for appearing at our dojo again! Master Mitch won't let me duel your unrestricted deck anymore! I find that a shame, SIR! I wanted to learn from you, since you are the best, SIR!"
Jessica's fighting spirit was top notch. I couldn't help but admire it. If I was ever to take a pupil to train under myself, it would no-doubt be her. Such drive, passion, and enthusiasm! Why couldn't everyone be more like her?
I grinned. "So you are ready for our fight, then?"
She smiled. "That's right, SIR! Hit me with everything you got!"
Jessica did not use any rock or ground types that might have lightning resistance. She used a mix of normal and fighting types Like Raticate, Machoke, and the occasional Doduo or Mankey. I was able to stall long enough with my own Doduo and then proceeded to sweep her team with my Voltorb.
Jessica covered her eyes with her bandana. "Master! I have lost! I shall increase the difficulty of my training and play duels blindfolded! But first, I will raise my fighting spirit... By shadowboxing!"
She the proceeded to punch and kick in various directions.
If she ever became my pupil, one of the FIRST things I would point out is how NOT to train to get better at the Pokmeon TCG...
Mitch resumed the same pose he had with the losses of the others. "Ah Jessica-san. She has much spirit but lacks skill. If only I was granted the proper time to help hone her duelist skills. Still, it is good she is a member of the club. Dealing with her mother has been challenging... but doable."
And just what was THAT supposed to mean?!
At that point, I honestly had no idea if Mitch was a proper club leader, or a wanton pervert chasing after multiple probably-married women!
How...? How was it not clear which it was?! I couldn't even ask him about it, because if I was wrong, what would that say about me?! No... It was better to leave well enough alone...
With that, I took my leave.
As I flew through the sky in my drone, I considered that I only had one club left to defeat the regular members of: the Rock Club!
Typing would be an issue as they can hit many of my cards weakness. It would also be harder to damage them with lightning as they tend to have resistance to it.
Still, if I could win there too, I should be strong enough to challenge the club leaders with my all-common deck!
After I had roused myself and showered for the day, I received a phone call from Rick!
He informed me he would like to accompany me again today.
Since he was coming over, I decided it was ok to let Gotan inside the house. After all, that's where we would all need to be!
And a good thing too! There was a dreadful storm going on outside that was expected to carry on for most of the day.
In retrospect, I was extremely fortunate that Gotan appeared to be house-trained. He avoided damage to anything in the house and even walked on the joints of his talons to avoid scratching the floor!
Rick raised an eyebrow. "So, what is this transportation method you speak of?"
We were standing in my garage with Gotan as well.
With a flourish and bow I pressed the button on my remote. Mechanical arms lifted the concrete slabs of the garage to reveal a large capsule with a hole to the side of it.
The magnetic field kept the capsule levitating.
I smiled. "THIS, my friend, is our ticket to the HYPERLOOP!"
Ah, the hyperloop. Such a magnificent feat of transportation. You sit in a capsule held in place by magnetic forces and are propelled along an extremely long underground pipe devoid of air to cut down on motion resistance. The pipes are kept at low-pressure to aid in speed as well. In theory, the capsule can reach over 700 miles per hour! The Hyperloop entry-point below my garage connects to the central hub. From there, one can visit any club in a matter of minutes!
Gotan squeezed in the back of the capsule. He had to prevent his legs and necks from extending to fit. He looked like a ridiculous massive ball of feathers, but he made it work.
Rick and I had the comfy seats in the front.
I pulled a lever to seal the capsule, another one to seal the garage and extract the air, yet another to open the seal to the tunnel, and finally the last lever to engage the drive!
After connecting to the hub, we were redirected to our destination.
Our capsule emerged from where the Rock Club symbol in the lobby would normally be. It had slid to the side to let us in. That was how it worked for all the clubs.
To return, I would only need to revisit the lobby and recall the capsule with the app on my phone. Alas, it did take a few minutes or perhaps longer if others were using the hyperloop, but the wait always paled in comparison to conventional travel time.
I stepped out of the capsule onto the gravel floor below. They had large bonsai plants in the corners, which they kept immaculately trimmed. Nearby the floor was comprised of large stone slabs of varying shapes and sizes decoratively placed to somewhat fit together.
The base of the walls were lined with a stone veneer and above that, the walls were smoothed stone. It looked as if the entire club was carved out of an enormous boulder.
Green rugs with red edges linked the lobby to the lounge and the main room of the club.
Gotan appeared to enjoy the tactile sensation of his talons digging into the gravel as he walked. It didn't look painful, but I suppose he was capable of enjoying more things than pain.
As for Rick, he was sucking up stray feathers, as usual and then paused. "Ah, the rock club. I do have a passing interest in geology, but perhaps the most notable thing here is their commitment to a Neo Island vibe."
I nodded. "Indeed. Those bonsai must have been imported. We used to have them on TCG island, but they went extinct here centuries ago."
Rick brought a hand to his chin. "Yes, it is a shame we must resort to imports for them, but my favorite part of this club is the main room with the rock garden!"
I smiled. "It really is something, isn't it? Such a simple concept yet, so tranquil!"
I strolled along like a man on vacation.
Emerging from the doorway, I paused and took in the decor while ignoring anyone who was there.
Where the rug ended was a path of stone fragments pieced together. It stretched all the way to a slightly raised platform of wood planks. Flanking either side of the platform were tall boulders.
All the rest of the floor was sand.
Other large stones were scattered about the room as well.
Each rock had rings etched in the sand around them. Each ring slightly farther out than the next.
It created the effect that what we saw wasn't sand at all, but water.
The 'stage' wasn't a stage at all, but a raft.
Each stone sang with its own unique voice. Together they created a marvelous chorus of harmony and peace.
Out of all the clubs, I would say the Rock Club had the most exquisite design. There was something to be said for Neo Island aesthetics.
I was going to convert my own back yard into a rock garden, but unfortunately, that was around the time my funds ran dry...
I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath through my nose, holding it a moment.
I slowly exhaled through my mouth and opened my eyes. The club leader, Gene, was standing in the back on the wood planks.
He wore a slate-gray traditional Neo robe and looked to be perhaps 65 years old. His hair looked like a war between salt and pepper. The 'salt' had the advantage by far.
Gene had been the Rock Club leader for as long as I could remember. Even back to my childhood.
Gene had a stoic expression. "Mister Gentleman. Taking the time to admire the decor? Not many have the eyes to experience it the way you do. It brings a smile to this old man's face every time you do it." He smirked.
I leaned forward to bow over my right arm with my legs standing straight. "There you go again, Gene. I never did understand how you could always tell it was me.
Gene held his hand out as if offering something to me. "Listen long and hard enough and you will know all kinds of things. Sight holds back the development of other senses."
Gene was the most capable 'disabled' person I had ever met, to the point that even the word 'disabled' seemed a ridiculous word to describe him with. His blindness never seemed to hold him back from anything.
I nodded. "Indeed. I still remember the days in my childhood where you provided advice to me. Your unique perspective on things enhanced my sense of imagination."
Gene let out a laugh. "Yes! It seems it served you well considering you have taken to using a deck of all-commons to win duels now! How about that?"
I held my chin in one hand. "Ah, news indeed travels fast. It wasn't my preference, but at least it gives everyone incentive to duel me again!"
Gene nodded. "Far be it from us to refuse your challenge under these conditions. And please forgive our prior disengagement. It was never personal. Your deck had just become so powerful that it proved bad for morale... Please, duel any of our members as you see fit."
Rick had his notepad and Feathermaster ready to go.
Gotan was hoping from one foot to the next and was dancing. I think he knew that his fighting resistance would mean he would be taking several hits from opponent card attacks...
For my first opponent, I set my sights on Ryan. He had a simple haircut, wore large round glasses, and had a simple purple t-shirt on with a small white collar. He looked about 9 years old.
He was amicable, as usual. "Hi Mister Gentleman! Thanks for handicapping yourself. It's not much fun losing all the time. I look forward to our duel!"
The only problem with the duelists of our island is that they are content to stagnate... Why do they not try to improve themselves? There were so very few duelists that really seemed to have the capacity to take things to the next level...
Early on in our game, I had Doduo out. Ryan was using things like Graveler, Sandshrew, and Cubone. He was having a very hard time breaking through Doduo. Before he could, my Dark Rapidash engaged him. It wasn't able to stop everything on it's own, so once Ryan KOed it, I swapped to Porygon and converted weakness to lightning.
The handy thing about this trick is that resistance is applied AFTER weakness. This means my Voltorb could potentially do 120 damage reduced to a more-than-sufficient 90 after resistance!
Unfortunately, Porygon IS weak to fighting types and only had 40 HP, so it was a sacrificial play. I did not mind such plays as long as they netted me the victory, though!
Ryan had tears rolling down his cheeks. "Aw man... I never win!"
He then left the room. The poor guy...
Rick had just finished jotting down notes of the duel with an amused 'Hm!' and began vacuuming Gotan's stray feathers.
Doduo was looking particularly satisfied with all sorts of minor cuts and bruises all over. If I looked closely, I could actually see the cuts slowly sealing themselves!
My next opponent was Andrew. He had a gray t-shirt and it seemed he had dyed part of his black hair gray. He looked to be eleven years old.
He smiled as we made eye contact. "Mister Gentleman! I'm so curious to see your all-common deck in action! Seems cool!"
I smiled back at him. "Well, not quite as cool as you look! Going for the stone-gray, eh? Not too shabby!"
He was now grinning ear to ear. "Well I do try! Kind of helps get me in the mood to play with my rock deck!"
After Ryan felt so bad, I had wanted to help someone here feel at least a little good... Besides, I DID find thematic apparel to be in good taste!
I waved a hand over my suit. "Right back at you on that. This red isn't just because it's cool, its because I've got fire types in my deck!"
Andrew held his deck up. "Alright, Mister! Let's duel!"
Andrew played Ryhorn, Omanyte, and Kangaskhan in the duel.
I had Porygon and Voltorb in spades! Though I did have to use Pokemon Trader to swap Dark Rapidash from my hand to access one of those Voltorb.
He led with Kangaskhan with 90HP to spam "Fetch" attack to draw cards over multiple turns. I led with Porygon and attached a Fire Energy to use "Conversion" to switch his Kangaskhan's weakness to lightning.
He continued to draw cards while loading up energy. I loaded up energy on Voltorb. The moment Voltorb was ready, I had 2 others benched as well! Several of my draw cards such as "Bill", and "Bill's Teleporter" were working as well.
I slammed into his Kangaskhan with a 50 damage "Group Spark" attack boosted by weakness for 100 damage to OHKO the 90HP.
Not realizing the danger, Andrew had been stacking energy on it! He next brought out Rhyhorn with 70HP but it only had a single energy on it! He played another on it, but still was unable to attack. I retreated Voltorb for Porygon and switched weakness again to lightning.
His turn came back around and he supplied his Rhyhorn with the 3rd energy needed to attack for 30 damage, boosted to 60 due to Porygon's weakness, KOing it.
I brought Voltorb out and "Group Sparked" it for 50 damage boosted by weakness to 100 minus 30 for resistance for 70 damage to KO it!
He then brought out Omanyte. With no energy on it and only 50 HP, the game was soon brought to a close by my Voltorb.
Andrew frowned. "Beaten by a commonlighting type? I thought I was at least better than that!"
I shook my head. "No, your deck has plenty of things to help against lightning. I just have ways of boosting my damage beyond what your rock types can withstand. The Voltorb I use can be very powerful, but come at the cost of very low HP. Don't be so hard on yourself. I am the Champion after all!"
My pep talk seemed to have worked.
Andrew's frown vanished. "You're right. Leave it to the Champion to pull off something amazing like that! You fought against your fighting weakness AND my lightning resistance and still won! I can only imagine how badly you've been beating everyone else!" He was then laughing again.
We then shook hands and Andrew wandered off to the lounge to get a snack.
It was nice to see someone have a positive outlook from suffering a loss against me.
Gotan was frowning with both heads and was squinting. It would seem his 'fun' was squandered by me not having a Doduo to play that game.
Rick was STILL jotting down notes from the duel!
I turned back towards the room and caught Matthew, my final regular club member opponent standing right next to me!
He had a confident smile. "Well well! Mister Gentleman! We meet again! I've been playing more games and have decided that I will become the next Champion! I'm going to start my journey by beating YOU here!"
It took some serious effort not to roll my eyes. This fellow always seemed to have misplaced confidence. If his skill at the game matched his confidence, he would no-doubt already be Champion...
He had a brown shirt with a cape, of all things... He looked to be twelve years old. His hair was a light gray-blue and was spiked to the sides. He was short and stout with particularly bushy eyebrows.
Even so, I had to admit he ran a slightly better deck than his peers. Taking into account weakness and resistance, it was certainly possible he could give me some trouble.
I grinned. "A high self-esteem as always, Matthew! I'm ready when you are!"
The duel ended in my defeat.
My draw cards failed and I was left with only one Voltorb and one Porygon, both weak to his Diglett. Once he attached the second energy to it, he started using Mudslap for 30 damage boosted to 60 from weakness. It's low HP didn't even matter due to its lightning resistance.
He was grinning. "OH YEAH! You see that?! I'm gonna be CHAMPION!"
I gave a small bow. "Well played! Surely you can win more than one game against me in a row, yes?"
He sat up straight. "Well obviously! I'm glad you asked! If you didn't I was going to!"
This next game proved to be much different. I had two Doduo to work with. All he had were fighting(specifically rock) types in this game. I proceeded to use Doduo's "Fury Attack" that only required one energy. It did 10 damage for each of two successful coin-flips. I used it over and over and over until all his mon were KOed.
With that, my deck had finally defeated all the regular members of the clubs!
Matthew closed his eyes and frowned as if doing so might make the loss he just suffered disappear. "I-I don't know what happened there! It was just a fluke! It's just DODUO... Ugh, I'm never going to become Champion if I lose to something like Doduo..."
It was hard to keep from laughing. THIS is why one does NOT run a fighting/rock type deck! Fighting resistance. It decimates them! To the point where even Doduo beats them easily!
I smiled. "If you really want to become champion, you may want to look into ways to deal with fighting resistance."
Matthew groaned. "Ugh! But I DO have some fire types in my deck, I just didn't DRAW any!"
I raised an eyebrow. "Well how many draw cards are you using in your deck?"
He looked back at me with full confidence. "Not one... but TWO Bill!"
I blinked. "And?"
He smiled. "And that's it!"
I scratched my head. "Matthew... you do know you can run four Bill, don't you?"
Matthew looked at me like I had just slapped him. "FOUR?! I couldn't do THAT! I already determined that TWO is the PERFECT number for them!"
I could feel my eye twitching. "Well... what about Professor Oak then? It allows you to discard your hand and draw a new seven cards!"
Matthew gave ME a look of pity?! "You mean to tell me that as the Champion you actually use that card? It discards cards! You can't use discarded cards! Professor Oak sucks! I would NEVER put one of those in my deck! No wonder I'm eventually going to become Champion!"
This was what I got for trying to be charitable... He just called the single best card in the entire game sucky... Clearly, I was wasting my time with this lost cause of a duelist...
I smiled. "Well, I look forward to your rise through the ranks... Without Professor Oak!"
I'd be shocked to my core if he ever became even a clubleader at this rate...
Matthew packed up his cards and mentioned he was going to see Andrew in the lounge to boast about his 'impressive' win...
Gene had been listening and was smiling. "Well done, Mister Gentleman! I thought for sure your common deck would be stopped cold by our club's members! Considering what you are running, I am most impressed! I look forward to seeing what you can do against the club leaders!"
I nodded. "As do I, Gene. Until next time!"
With that, I turned about with Rick and Gotan following behind.
Rick nodded while smiling. "Fascinating! Only a single loss against the members of the rock club! And so many feathers too!"
Both of Gotans heads were smiling despite the various bruises and cuts everywhere.
It was hard to tell if he preferred getting hit by a few strong attacks or many tiny ones.
We soon arrived back in the lobby and I brandished... the remote!
Within minutes our ride had returned! We loaded back into the capsule and set out to return home.
I could still hear thunder outside the house. Such a good little hyperloop!
Rick looked at me with his eyebrows raised. "Yeah, I'm NOT going back out in that again. Getting over here was bad enough. You ok with me crashing here again tonight?"
I held my arms out. "With all the feathers you prevent me from needing to pick up after Gotan, I have no problem with that! Besides, I'd rather not send you back out in that storm anyway..."
Gotan looked longingly at me.
I raised an eyebrow. "What is it, Gotan?"
Gotan tiled both heads to one side much like a dog when asked a question.
I put a hand to my chin thoughtfully. "Are you wanting to take shelter from the storm inside tonight?"
Gotan squinted at me.
I smacked myself in the forehead. "Ah! Of course! You want to go out in the storm, is that it?"
Gotan started running around in tight circles, so I opened the garage door with the automatic button.
He ran outside and began leaping around madly.
I promptly had the garage door reseal itself off.
With the lightning attacks I had seen Gotan endure at the lightning club, I doubted even a bolt of lightning from nature would end him.
I furrowed my brow. "Rick... have you ever heard of a Doduo having died before?"
Rick raised his eyebrows with a smile. "Oh-ho! What brought this question on? Was it the storm outside?"
I nodded. "Precisely. From what I can tell, I don't think I have ever seen or heard of a Doduo succumbing to death before."
Rick held up a piece of chalk. (I had no idea where he got it from.) "You are not the first one to notice this oddity! The idea of any creature, even a Pokemon, being immortal is a ridiculous concept! They simply all look alike and, like a cat, it is believed they wander far away when death calls them. That way, they do not burden anyone they are close to!"
I crossed my arms. "But you have never seen a Doduo die or heard of one perishing before, right?"
Rick crossed his arms too. "This is correct, but how would anyone witness the death of a Doduo when they run so fast and presumably so far away to do it?"
I brought a hand to my chin. "You make a good point there. I'm not sure how anyone would catch one if it didn't want to be caught."
Rick held his chalk up again. "It is also suspected they are sneaky about it! There have been no confirmed incidents of someone catching on to a Doduo running away to die! No one has ever discovered a Doduo corpse or remains either!"
I put my hands in my pockets. "It seems we will never know the answer to this mystery."
Rick rose an eyebrow. "I wouldn't quite say that. I hear there is a Doduo research facility on Neo Island. Perhaps it is getting to the bottom of things? Maybe we will have answers in our lifetime."
Scientific progress in the world always seemed to go so slowly. I supposed it was either just too complicated or there weren't that many scientists. My history classes from the academy taught how technology improved at incredible rates in certain parts of history. I figured the current age is just slow to advance.
Today, I made phone-calls to the various clubs to schedule duels with the leaders.
I was in the living room on the couch with Rick sitting across from me.
As usual, the receptionists of the various clubs handled those kinds of things. Each of them all had a thick Neo accent.
I supposed they must have obtained work visas since they would not be able to legally immigrate here or become TCG island citizens.
Come to think of it, I can't remember the last time I saw a Neo Island immigrant hold any prestigious position for a job...
I scratched my head. "Hey, Rick..."
Rick looked my way with an eyebrow raised. "Oh! You look like you have... an idea!"
I shook my head. "No, not an idea, but I AM wondering something..."
Rick smiled. "You've been wondering quite a few things lately, haven't you? All good science starts with curiosity. Ask your question and this scientific mind shall do its best to answer!"
I stroked my chin with my left hand. "Well... why do all the immigrants from Neo have such basic jobs? Any ideas?"
Rick looked dismayed. "Ah... matters of population and the job market are outside my area's of expertise..."
Rick then smiled confidently. "However! I CAN speculate! Immigrants from Neo probably need to obtain work visas to move here legally. To move here illegally would run afoul of Neo Islands emigration policy, which they take very seriously."
I put a fist in my hand. "Ah! I see where you are going with this. The oracle only allows visas for jobs that TCG Island citizens don't want. No one wants their kid to have to work as a lowly receptionist after all!"
Rick nodded. "Exactly! This frees our citizens to do work that is more fulfilling and challenging. It provides incentive for our young to aspire to higher education. If one of our citizens lack the intelligence or motivation, they can always live on UBI. As for the Neo Island immigrants, they are always free to return to Neo Island whenever they want. The oracle even stated it would pay for their airfare."
I tilted my head. "I don't think I have heard of an immigrant ever requesting to go home, but I suppose they kind of all look and sound the same, so maybe I wouldn't notice if one was suddenly gone..."
Rick frowned with wide eyes. "That is a horrible thing to say! ...It also happens to be exactly what I was thinking even if I wasn't going to say it... They really DO all sound alike and look similar! Are we a couple of racists or something?!"
I furrowed my brow. "WHAT?! Surely not! But no matter how hard I think about it, I can't think of anything that sets one apart from another!"
Rick looked down at the table. "We can come back to that in a moment, but I think I just realized something else too!"
I tilted my head. "Oh?"
Rick nodded. "When was the last time you saw anyone from Neo participate in a Pokemon TCG duel?"
I scratched my head. "Oh, well... um... huh. Never. I've NEVER seen one duel! Not ONCE!"
Rick and I sat in silence for a bit, but it was clear neither of us were coming up with any ideas why they never seemed to participate in duels.
We then returned our focus to the mystery of why they all looked the same. The next few hours were spent sorting through magazine clippings looking for any pictures we could find of Neo Island immigrants.
After a while we had several lined up side by side.
Rick was looking over them with a magnifier glass. "...Unbelievable! Even looking at them THIS closely, I CAN'T TELL THEM APART!"
I furrowed my brow. "What does that MEAN?! Are they some kind of androids or something?!"
Rick shifted his eyes to me. "Really? First racism and now you don't even think they are human? Besides, we don't have technology sophisticated enough to create something like that. NO WHERE in the world does!"
I started pulling my hair with both my hands. "Hey! I am NOT racist and YOU admitted you thought the same thing!! What do YOU think the reason is then?!"
Rick looked at the table. "I don't want to alarm you... but I think... they are clones."
My eyes went wide. "SAY WHAT?!"
Rick shook his head. "No, really. Think about it... They can't be androids and we can't tell them apart no matter how hard we try! What other alternative is there?!"
I looked up at a random wall in the room. "What is going on over there...? Are they just cloning people and loaning them out as workers?!"
Rick looked up at me. His expression blank. "...I don't think so. I've never heard of Neo Island charging GR Island or TCG Island any fees for us to get immigrants from them..."
I put both hands on my head. "So what's going on then?! They just grow people and let them wander around?!"
Rick looked down and to the right. "Maybe this is why they have such strict immigration policies?"
Neither of us had anything to say for a while after that.
Finally, Rick spoke up. "We can test this theory."
I tilted my head. "We can?"
Rick nodded. "Yes! All we need is a DNA sample from two separate immigrants. A single strand of hair would do."
We spent the next few hours asking random immigrants for strands of hair. It helped that Rick had his lab coat and that we needed the hair strands 'for science'.
Once we collected the hair, we asked a male immigrant to duel us in the the Pokemon TCG. We gave him Rick's deck and I opted to play against the immigrant.
Rick waved his hand dismissively as small light on the device turned green. "Irrelevant! We now have our answer."
I was on the edge of my seat. "What?! What is it!?"
Rick dropped his smile. "From all seven DIFFERENT samples, three male and four female... The results came back and they are all... identical. All the females have the same DNA as the other females. The same is the case for the males."
My jaw dropped. "SO THEY REALLY ARE CLONING PEOPL-"
Rick shoved a pillow from the couch in my face. "SHHH!!!" He was now whispering, "Stop talking so loudly!!! We have just somehow stumbled upon some kind of GIANT conspiracy!!!"
My eyes went wide as I placed both hands on my mouth.
Rick glanced quickly to both sides and whispered more. "This was NOT that hard to figure out... I can't IMAGINE we are the ONLY ones to EVER do so..."
I looked back at Rick with wide eyes starting to feel a sense of panic, whispering back. "...Then what happened to the others?"
Rick looked at me with the most serious face I had ever seen from him and whispered back. "They must have been silenced. Either voluntarily... or more likely... by FORCE!"
I grimaced. Anxiety levels rising rapidly. "Who would FORCE it??"
Rick looked to his sides again and leaned into my ear. "It must be operatives from Neo, TCG Island, GR Island, or maybe ALL of them combined! There could be some kind of shadow government pulling the strings! Most likely, if we breathe a WORD of this to ANYONE, we WILL be targeted and go MISSING just like ALL the others who figured it out!!"
At that point, Rick and I made a solemn vow n e v e r to speak of our findings to anyone. We may not have had all the answers, but we had FAR more than enough!
From this point, I had had my fun with a variety of transportation methods. Now it was all business: Hyperloop time!
As is customary with a scheduled match against a leader, regular club members get the day off if they have already been dueled by the challenger.
Rick elbowed me lightly in the side. "So... do you like Amy?"
I furrowed my brow. "I do NOT want to like Amy. She is relentless in her pursuit of my prestige. Prior to becoming well known, she had NO interest in me whatsoever!"
Rick raised an eyebrow. "Ah, so you find her to be a threat to your overall dignity and you feel that dating her would be settling for someone? I take it you find her physically appealing but lacking the other qualities you desire?"
I scrunched my face. "Yes? I suppose? Something like that?"
Rick nodded. "Very well. In that case, I shall be your anti-wingman here!"
I had no idea what Rick meant by that, but it sounded helpful, so I nodded.
Gotan was dancing along as we walked. It was almost as if he could sense things were about to start ramping up against the leaders...
As we entered the main room of the club, Amy was laying on a beach chair tanning. Rubbing lotion slowly and deliberately down her bare legs... She then turned towards me and brought a hand to her mouth.
"Oh... my. Mister Gentleman... you've caught me in a tender moment... I feel so exposed..."
She definitely planned it this way...
Rick peered intently at Amy and spoke in a voice more nasally than how he usually sounded. "Hey, Amy... nice legs... you missed a spot... can, I... assist?" He then started breathing heavily.
Amy blinked and then cringed. "Oh... uh... ew... I was just finishing..."
Rick turned towards me and gave me a wink.
It would seem Amy didn't go for a club leader if it was a club weaker than hers. Perhaps she didn't go for the nerdy types either? Whatever the case, clearly she was NOT attracted to or interested in Rick...
Amy sat up. "Mr Gentleman... why is that dweeb with you?"
I put my arm around Rick. "You mean Rick here? He's been great! He follows me around and cleans the feathers Gotan leaves behind!"
Amy glanced towards Doduo. "Isn't that the Doduo that was following Imakuni around? Why is it now following you?"
I scratched my head. "Well... erm... I have no idea! But he spreads his feathers around like a plague when hit by opponent card attacks. I would have lost SO much time cleaning his feathers if not for Rick, here!"
Gotan did a fancy twirl throwing some feathers about in the process.
Rick struck an exaggerated pose with his vacuum and was showing off his feather vacuuming skills from the ones that were still falling.
Amy was now cringing with her eye twitching. "Please... get that creature out of here!"
I tilted my head. "What? How would one even go about making a Doduo go anywh-"
Amy waved her hand dismissively. "NO! Not Doduo! I don't care about that bird, I mean your cringe hired-hand, Rick! You don't have to pay him for his services!"
Amy put both her hands together pleading as she faced me, "Just send him away and I'll pick the feathers up myself... for free!"
Rick started laughing intermixed with snorting.
Amy held a hand to her chin and frowned. "I don't see what's so funny, you dumb geek! I'm going to REPLACE you! FOR FREE!"
Rick gave big toothy grin back to her. "Oh I don't think that will be happening... You see, I am not being paid for my services, except by Doduo feathers! Helping is it's own reward!"
Amy face contorted in disgust. "Don't you have a smelly science experiment to go conduct somewhere? It's hardly appropriate for a club leader to just go wandering around everywhere!"
Rick smiled back smugly. "Actually, I collect duel data as well! This advances both the science of my club AND the Pokemon TCG! Sorry Amy, but I'm here to stay! And you're one to talk regarding appropriate behavior for club leaders..." Rick was now wiggling his fingers in a disturbing fashion towards Amy.
I almost felt sorry for her. Almost... I believed she was counting on me being alone and all her carefully laid plans had now come unraveled...
Unable to deal with Rick any longer, Amy's composure finally broke.
Amy twisted her eyes shut and balled her fists at her hips. "FINE J-JUST DUEL ME, MISTER GENTLEMAN! HURRY!"
Well, that was easy.
Throughout the duel, Rick circled around making all kinds of dumb faces at Amy and commenting every time she had a setback in the duel.
Amy was getting her attractive butt handed to her that game.
My Voltorb were ripping her mon to shreds with weakness-boosted 80 damage, starting from turn two!
Soon, both my deck and Rick overwhelmed her. It was unclear which was more effective...
Amy looked towards Rick with a mortified expression. "OK! OK! NO MORE! NO MORE! I FORFEIT! EEK!!"
She then ran out of the club room in a panic, bare-foot, and presumably towards the lobby.
She left the booster pack prizes for beating her and even her own deck behind!
Meanwhile Rick was loudly laughing like a mad-man.
He then abruptly stopped and looked me in the eye. "So... How did you like my..." he raised an eyebrow, "interference?"
It had to be one of the stupidest things I had ever seen!
I started full-on laughing while Rick joined in.
As for Gotan... wait a second... was he laughin- oh. Perhaps not, I guess he was just choking on... something? How odd.
May 23rd
This day, I opted to be lazy around the house.
I kept days open in between the scheduled games against the leaders in case any needed to be re-scheduled.
Rick returned home for the day, mentioning he had some more things to take care of.
Feathers would be easier to accumulate in-doors so I let Gotan join me inside.
Sometimes it almost seemed as though Gotan were watching TV with me, but that would be ridiculous, of course.
May 24th
Today Rick came over to duel me. There was no need to schedule duels against him.
Rick brought over some insane-sounding music to duel to. I don't think I had ever heard anything quite like it! He also drank a couple beers.
During our duel he was bobbing his head to the beat of it. I think he knew he was going to lose and wasn't concerned in the slightest.
Tango looked to be enjoying the music. He wasn't doing much with his talons, but he was bobbing his heads like Rick.
Indeed he did lose quite badly! I had a full spread of Voltorb to hit him with 60 damage starting from turn two! It ripped through his low HP mon like Ekans, Zubat, Grimer, and Koffing.
"Well..." Rick belched loudly, "That was something!"
I rolled my eyes and started laughing.
Rick left his music playing and Tango was still dancing to it...
Rick smiled. "I lost even worse than expected! This is shaping up to be the most interesting series of duels our island - no THE WORLD has ever witnessed! Club members AND leaders being bested by a deck of all commons! At this rate, you could have become CHAMPION using ONLY COMMONS!!"
I chuckled. "Yeah... I suppose so! ...Huh..."
I leaned back and looked up at the ceiling.
It was a sobering reality...
If I was good enough to become champion with allcommons, it meant that I trained considerably more than I needed to become Champion...
It meant I might have had enough time to have a chance with Nikki before she was married...
My eyes caught me off-guard with how fast they started to water. I rubbed my eyes pretending they were too dry.
I knew the time would soon come that I would duel Isaac and Nikki.
For now, I still had some more duels with the other leaders to get through...
I soon found myself in the Fire club facing down Ken.
Gotan and Rick were nearby, of course.
He brought a fist up towards his shoulder. "Ah, Mr Gentleman, I never doubted your expert use of fire would pit us against each other once again!"
I rubbed the back of my head with my eyes closed as I grinned. "Well... actually it's mostly my Voltorb that do the work, but I'll admit there are times when Dark Rapidash does great taking point."
Ken crossed his arms. "Hump! I suppose you DID always like mixing other types with fire. I wonder what YOU would do with an all-fire deck?"
I tilted my head looking up and to the right. "I'm not quite sure! I don't often try to create mono-type decks. I find most play better with at least a dash of some other types as well. Perhaps someday I'll make a mono-fire deck just so you could see what I would run."
Ken laughed. "Well! I look forward to it! Coming from you, it would likely be the best mono-fire deck the world had ever seen! I would love to wield such a deck."
Ken was one of my fiercest supporters these days. Both because I became champion using fire types and because if I didn't become champion, I surely would have taken his place as Fire Leader. No-doubt if that somehow happened, I would be the strongest of all the club leaders by a wide margin. He'd never take it back from me and I believe he knew it...
Ken stared at me intensely. "But enough idle talk. Now, we test if your skill is so legendary that you can beat me with just commons!"
I put a fist out in front of me as I used to do so often in my youth as a fire club member. "Alright, Ken! Let's do this!"
Ken's deck surprised me! He was running not only fire types, but normal, fighting, and even WATER! For the longest time he had been so focused on only fire and now he was branching out!
During our duel, I used Voltorb to take down a Seel, a Dodrio, a Growlithe, and even a Hitmonchan! He seemed to have plenty of card-draw with multiple "Bill" cards as well as a "Professor Oak"!
He took down one of my Porygon and a Voltorb, but he ran out of mon before I did, and the duel ended in my victory!
Ken's gaze softened. "Ah, Mr Gentleman. I had hoped the surprise of the other types in my deck would give me the edge to defeat you, but you have bested me again. Indeed, you are the best." He then offered his hand.
I returned the offer and shook his hand. "Ken, you both surprised and impressed me with that. I never thought I would see you mix another type with fire, let alone two! And that isn't even counting the colorless types! Thank you, for the stimulating game."
Ken gave me a bow, which I returned as well.
Rick smiled. "Took down the Fire Leader already! You have already almost defeated half of the leaders! Not to mention Ronald the former champion... Watching you win so much with this deck... It's like history in the making!"
I nodded. "Just having the opportunity to do something this crazy is fun! Even I don't know what will happen, but I look forward to the conclusion!"
Gotan was dancing as he followed us out. Could it be that bird was cheering me on?
For my next opponent, I revisited the Purple Palace. Erm... I meant the Psychic Club.
My usual entourage of Rick and Gotan were with me.
In the center of the room sat Murray. He was at it again... still trying to bend that spoon...
Murray smiled at me. "Welcome, Mr Gentleman! I will now reveal the fruits of my training!"
Murray then held his spoon out in front of him and strained as if he was lifting an object with every once of his strength.
To no one's surprise, the spoon remained upright.
Murray then scowled. "YOU STUPID SPOON! BEND I SAY! BEND!!! ARGH!!!" He then bent the spoon with his hands...
Murray threw down the spoon and raised his hands to the air. "CLAIRE!!! I DON'T KNOW HOW YOU DID IT, BUT I HAVE HAD IT WITH THIS USELESS PIECE OF METAL!!"
I put my hands together and tapped my thumbs against each other. "Erm... I was hoping we could have our duel?"
Murray whipped around to face me and then signed. "I had hoped I would be able to finally bend the spoon with the power of my mind in front of you. You would have made for a credible witness. As for a duel... I already know I will lose against you... but I won't do that bad either... Come then! Let's play it out! I could certainly use the diversion!"
As Murray had foretold, this duel was not an easy one. His Mewtwo proved most troublesome. It was aided by a version of Mr. Mime which prevented all weaknesses and resistances from functioning.
This meant I could not rely weakness conversion with Porygon and Porygon's usual resistance against psychic did nothing!
Since I was unable to bring down Mewtwo with a single hit, it was able to KO multiple of my mon before I brought it down! Even then, Murray still had his Kadabra to fall back on. He almost claimed the win against me, but I was able to bring down Kadabra just in time.
Murray smiled. "Well, I may have lost, but it sure was satisfying having you on the ropes. Be careful in your future duels. Not all of them will end... in victory."
One should never take lightly what a psychic says. If duels against Isaac should fall within the range of duels I would lose... I'd lose my title of Champion permanently...
Murray then looked wide eyed at Gotan. "THIS... THIS DODUO... WHAT AM I LOOKING AT HERE?! WHAT IS THIS BIRD?!"
I scratched my head. "Uh... he's Gotan?"
Murray put his hands on his head. "NO!! ABSOLUTELY NOT! HE IS NOT GOTAN... HE IS... TANGO!"
I furrowed my brow as it dawned on me I had read the dog-tags of Gota- TANGO backwards!
I closed my eyes and grit my teeth. "That... does make some sense!"
Rick put a hand to his face. "Ugh... I knew that name was really weird... Go figure... not Go tan..." he then started snickering to himself.
Gota-TANGO looked up towards Murray smiling with both beaks.
Murry squinted at Tango. "...There is more to this bird than his name... He is unlike other Doduo..."
Tango's eyes went wide.
Perhaps Murray's psychic power had an effect on Tango?
I brushed aside my thoughts. "How is Tango different?"
Murray continued to squint. "...I'm not sure... But there is more to him! Of that I am sure!"
Just then, I thought I caught Tango sighing in relief, but when I looked directly at him, he seemed his usual vacant self.
I brought a hand to my chin. "Fascinating. I wonder what Tango's deal is?"
Murray looked to me and smiled. "I do not know what Tango hides, but I believe you will find out someday."
I rubbed the back of my head. "Well! Thanks, Murray! Who knows how long I would have been calling that bird 'Gotan'!" I started laughing.
Rick had just finished scribbling down notes from the duel. "Your duel was particularly interesting. Such a close game!"
The time was fast approaching for my duels against Nikki and Isaac. I decided to put them off until the last moments with Isaac being last.
Next on my list was Mitch.
The hyperloop once again made short work of the travel time.
I arrived in the training room of the fighting club for my face off against Mitch. Tango and Rick were with me.
I noticed the room had changed since my last visit. The padding in the room appeared to be thicker and there was a display rack now added to the corner with Neo Island katanas in it. There was also a Neo Island clon- I mean immigrant woman kneeling down scrubbing in-between the hardwood floorboards.
Mitch had his back turned towards me. "That's the way! Push harder! Really get down there and work it! I will pay you well for your service!"
I brought a hand to my face.
Was Mitch's wording intentional? Perhaps he enjoys messing with folks...
Rick was snickering.
Tango...! I turned to look at him and thought I caught some kind of expression shift. If it was, the bird was too quick to be sure...
But of course, such things are an absurd flight of fancy... Those birds can't understand speech, let alone humor. Still... Tango is supposed to be different in some way. I wondered what the difference could be. He seemed like an ordinary Doduo to me... not that I have spent a great deal of time around other Doduo, but surely if the difference was significant or obvious I would have caught it by now...
Mitch turned about and nodded to acknowledge my arrival. "Ah, Mister Gentleman. I had hoped to have a little more of my renovations completed prior to your visit..."
I tilted my head. "What's all this you have here, Mitch?"
Mitch gestured towards the katanas. "Authentic ornamental katanas, imported from Neo Island. Michael's mother is a fine artist who specializes in woodworking. This rack was custom made for my efforts to take Michael under my tutelage."
So, THIS is what he meant by 'Michael's mother's rack'!
Mitch raised a foot and stomped down. The stomp hardly made any noise and left an indent in the padding that was quickly reconstituting itself.
He then looked up and smiled. "This padding is far more comfortable to sit and play duels on!"
Unbelievable! This must be what he meant by 'very nice padding'! Somehow this was turning into a case of just a big misunderstanding! Though, he may want to be careful about making the floor too comfortable as that would invite the dreaded stall-out deck users! NO one wanted THAT!
He then held up a balled fist with his eyes shut. "It also helps prevent Jessica from hurting herself when she shadow boxes while blindfolded... Regrettably, I have yet to break her of that habit... her mother gets very upset when her daughter gets bruised as a result of falling over during it. Explaining the injuries has been difficult, but I do it because of the potential for greatness I see in Jessica."
And just like that, Mitch's name was cleared. All was right in the world now so I could call it a day! ...Except I was here to duel, so perhaps not quite yet...
I smiled. "I can certainly understand wanting to train Jessica. Her fighting spirit is top-notch! It's great to see you keep your club in good condition and search for ways to improve it too! The kids in your care as members of your club deserve no less."
Mitch laughed. "You always did understand club vibes and aesthetics. Fitting qualities for our champion!"
Mitch now had a determined glare. "But you are here for our match. Let's see if your common deck can handle the might of my fighting types!"
We then both bowed to each other while maintaining eye contact and took our seats upon the mat to duel.
The mat really was more comfortable! A welcome reprieve from all the hard floors I've dueled on lately and no need for my tarp either!
The game was off to a promising start. Three Bill's Teleporter in hand! Surely at least one would work and allow me to draw four cards!
To my dismay, all three failed...
At least I had Doduo as my active mon...
Speaking of Doduo, Tango was beaming with both heads like a kid at a candy convention!
For the first good while, I was using Doduo to tank against Machop and the same version of Hitmonchan that was the bane of my deck's existence...(The one the former champ, Ronald, used against me.)
I kept attacking over and over with Doduo. Thankfully, Doduo was able to KO both Machop and Hitmonchan, but Mitch now had a Kangaskhan out and used it to finish off Doduo. I brought out Porygon and converted Kangaskhan's weakness to lightning.
I drew 'Gambler' and won the coin-flip to get a new eight-card hand!
I started setting up multiple Voltorb and attaching energy while Porygon tanked hits from Kangaskhan.
It wasn't long before Mitch played Mr Mime of all things! It was the one with the power to cancel out all resistance and weakness! So much for weakness conversion...
Mr Mime proved to be a double-edged sword, however, as it also prevented weakness from affecting my Porygon and Voltorb for any more fighting types he might have played.
After enough turns elapsed, I assembled several Voltorb on my bench and began zapping away. He managed to take one down with Kangaskhan, but once I KOed that, the rest of his mon offered little resistance.
Mitch laughed. "Would you look at THAT! Everyone on the entire island has been keeping an eye on the news lately of your victories."
I grinned. "Oh? Making waves, am I?"
Rick put his notepad away. "Indeed. You now only have three more leaders to go before you will have beaten us all with ONLY commons!"
I pocketed my deck. "Well, this challenge isn't complete yet, but I'm confident that whatever the outcome is, it will be one to remember."
Mitch nodded. "I look forward to seeing how far your power will carry you. Go beat the remaining leaders!"
Tango was so badly bruised that he had taken to rolling along the floor with the usual dumb smiles on his beaks. His sense of direction appeared to be either severely dampened or being completely ignored as I watched him tumble into various walls and corners along the way...
Rick was stepping awkwardly to try to account for the odd shifts in direction from Tango, sucking up feathers with the Feathermaster as he went. Eventually he started predicting his movements!
I wasn't sure what was more ridiculous; the deck of commons I was using to beat all the duelists on TCG Island, or my entourage...
Having felt confident at this point in my ability to win AND the speed of travel via hyperloop, Mitch wasn't the ONLY leader I had scheduled to duel today!
Mon that use fighting energy are either weak to psychic or are weak to grass and resist lighting. The later is what my next opponent would use.
He was potentially the strongest opponent vs my current deck.
But I needed the strongest. Especially with what would be on the line in my inexorable match against Isaac.
My next opponent: leader of the Rock Club, Gene!
I soon found myself with Rick and Tango across an almost empty rock garden in the Rock Club.
At the 'raft' at the far end sat a lone figure with closed eyes.
Apart from his mouth, his body was still as stone. "Mister Gentleman."
I smiled. "You could tell it was me from all the way over there, Gene?"
Gene shook his head. "I do have keen hearing, but the scraping of talons from your Doduo, the sound of a pair of dress shoes, and steps from specialized slip-resistant sneakers was rather unmistakable. That, and I have had my whole life to practice."
I chuckled. "Your sense of hearing never ceases to impress me. You've never let a lack of sight stop you. The way you have held position of leader for so many years... well, it inspired me to say the least."
Gene laughed. "Helping to inspire our champion when he was young. I'll add it to the long list of things I was never expected to achieve."
I crossed my arms. "Gene. I need you to do your best to give me a thrashing in a duel. I need to make sure I am ready for what's ahead."
Gene tilted his head. "Ready? You find yourself unable to rely on your wit and proven deck?"
I shook my head. "It's not enough. The stakes are higher than ever."
Gene chuckled. "Got yourself in some trouble, eh? Let me guess, it's something to do with Nikki, isn't it?"
My jaw dropped. "W-what?! I... How did you know?!"
Gene waggled a finger. "The way your movements changed around her, it was unmistakable to me. You were in love with her. You never did end up with her and there is something very much unresolved between you. Throw in your old best friend who married her, and it's a disaster. I've been around a long time and have developed a keen sense for these things."
Hoping for some advice, I described to Gene everything that happened between Isaac and myself lately.
Gene furrowed his brow. "I see. That is quite the predicament you have found yourself in. Even if you win against him, I have a feeling it will be far from over, but perhaps at least Nikki will hear you out if you can win against them both. Surely you don't intend to sue Isaac..."
I hung my head. "No... I said that to him in anger. Suing him would mean suing Nikki and I can't bring myself to do that."
Gene crossed his arms. "Well, don't let Isaac know that. For that matter, don't let Nikki know either. Your anger for Isaac could help shake her confidence in Isaac's side of the story. If you win, let one of them 'talk' you out of the lawsuit. Perhaps then, at least one of them can be reasoned with."
Rick raised an eyebrow. "I agree with Gene, here. We can't afford to fight fairly against Isaac. Let's use every advantage we can short of cheating in the Pokemon TCG, of course. Above all, you are not in the wrong here, Mister Gentleman. If anyone is, it's Isaac."
Hearing those words from Rick helped me far more than I expected. Despite being Nikki's brother, and in a position predisposed to taking Isaac's side, he had my back...
I had to will back some water getting in my eyes as I turned to Rick. "I'm not exactly sure why we became friends, but I'm glad we did. Thank you, Rick. That means a lot to me."
Rick rolled his eyes. "Ugh... Don't ruin it by getting all mushy! And just so you know, I will NOT be getting drunk and passing out on your couch with you again!"
I brought a hand to my face.
Gene smiled. "Ah, a round of drinking has a way of breaking through barriers. You end up doing and saying things you normally hold back. It can leave you closer or farther from those you know. My drinking days from long ago taught me that much. I'm happy you seem to have found a good friend."
Rick may be a little rough around the edges at times, and was quite a bit odd, but Gene was right. He was a good friend.
Rick was now focused on scouring the floor for as many and ANY feathers he could find. He seemed to have an acute urgency about it though he had none of his usual amusement about it...
Tango was grinning as he rolled around in the sand. Somehow, he managed to not disturb the rings around the various stones almost as if he had planned it! Actually... he looked to be creating giant rings farther out than the ones already there!
Could it be... THAT TANGO UNDERSTOOD ROCK GARDENS?!
I quickly dismissed the idea. A dumb bird who perfectly understands the concept of rock gardens, but little else? Ridiculous! Perhaps it was his house-training coming into play mixed with sheer coincidence...
It was a pity I didn't get the miraculous spectacle on camera. No one would ever believe me without it!
Gene pulled out his sleeved deck from his robe. Each sleeve had a unique pattern of braille so he could tell each card apart. Since everyone would always announce what actions they take in duels as was the world-wide custom, Gene was always able to easily tell what was happening in a duel. It also didn't hurt that his memory skills were sharper than a Doduo's talon...
The first half of the game was a struggle as I had only one Voltorb to rely on! Surviving meant praying thundershock kept his Ryhorn locked down long enough to pull other mon from my deck. One hit from it would be all it would take to KO Voltorb...
Thankfully, I was able to hold out long enough to get Ponyta to the bench. I even managed to load it with enough energy and evolve it into Dark Rapidash before Gene managed to KO my Voltorb.
Ryhorn's HP of 70 and attack of 30 made it quite a troublesome opponent for Dark Rapidash, but thankfully I was able to disable it with two Energy removal cards long enough to KO it. It still managed to hit Dark Rapidash once, however.
Next Gene brought out Geodude and Dark Rapidash traded blows with it until it emerged victorious, but with only 10HP remaining. The coin-flips required for Geodude's attack to hit, proved to be its downfall.
By that point, I had drawn and played a Doduo to my bench!
Good thing too, because he had out another Rhyhorn and defeated Dark Rapidash with it!
From then on, it was Doduo vs Ryhorn and then vs Gene's last remaining Pokemon: Onix!
I kept attacking and slowly whittling down it's HP. Gene wasn't drawing any more mon to set to his bench and I managed to KO Onyx before he could draw any!
And so, with only 4 out of 6 prizes claimed, the victory went to me!
Gene placed his hand of cards down. "Good work here, Mister Gentleman... Do your best out there, and good luck."
