The hyper fang that shall pierce the heavens (Pokemon SI)

Thank you to my new Patrons: Qasim Chamra, Cain.Hero.Komisarz, minh huy Truong, JellyNix, Enthessi, camarada fugu, BananaBobert, David Sargent, Jesse, Jimmeuht, Jmatt890, Halleffy Santos, irtzval, Nurim, Dillon, JourneyManMike, SouthMonk

-/-

A few minutes later, after Sabrina had already stepped up to the battle arena to face King, Joey found himself standing outside the gym, looking at the blue sky.

So all this time, he could have simply asked for an appropriate arena to be made, he wondered. The situation, in an odd enough manner, mostly reminded him of university back in the day. He'd never failed because of some grand strategic error or fundamental miscomprehension. Instead, he'd only ever failed when he'd failed to notice the obvious and his misunderstanding had spiralled out of control until it ruined the rest of the test or paper.

For all that, he thought he'd researched a lot and prepared for every gym badge in a targeted, strategic manner… At the end of the day, no one could have a complete overview of any given situation, and little errors like this were always bound to happen. He was sure that later on in his life, when he had a biography about himself in a bookstore, some smart-ass would note that this mistake proved he couldn't have been all that smart. But that wasn't really true, was it?

Everyone made mistakes, and if Joey's mistake only concerned the relatively inconsequential gain of a badge now or later, then it was a mistake he would welcome. He'd made and seen much bigger mistakes in his last life, and this one for that matter.

Regardless of anything now, he had a job to do. He pulled out his Pokenav to navigate the unfamiliar city. Despite how simplistic the design had been in the games, Cerulean was a sprawling metropolis in which several hundreds of thousands of people lived. He couldn't just go north and then either left or right to get to the bridge he'd have to cross.

No, he had to consult a map. After orienting himself, Joey started his walk while thinking about the job's requirements. Five pokémon, three of which had to be water-typed. The gym leader had marked the spot in which he had to catch them on a more precise map already, now the last thing Joey needed was… he paused as he reached a bigger street and saw a store selling fishing equipment.

He quickly walked over and grabbed the first fishing rod that he could see. It was a very simplistic wooden stick with a string and a hook attached to it, some bait, and the fishing hat. It was one of those blue leather things with little clips stabbed through the edge. It was discounted.

"You're not going to get very far with that, you know," a young female voice suddenly said to Joey as he stood at the counter, watching the price of his bulk purchase go up to a place that was neither expensive nor cheap.

The older bearded clerk ringing up Joey's item glanced at the girl, while Joey turned his head to look at her. She was around his age, with honey-blond coloured hair tied in a sweeping braid running all the way down to her hips. She was dressed in a very simple green plaid skirt and blue cardigan combo but she pulled it off to somehow look more mature than she probably was.

"I'm only going to use it once. I don't want to invest," Joey said, justifying his choice. He knew that he was buying the shittiest fishing rod, but it wasn't like he was really interested in fishing, so what was he going to do with it after he finished the job?

"Well, good luck catching anything other than Magikarp with that," the girl muttered.

Considering Joey was strictly forbidden from catching Magikarp, this wasn't a very good sign. "What do you mean with that?" he asked curiously.

The girl put a finger to her pale chin and hummed thoughtfully as if wondering how to explain. "Well, the thing about fishing rods is that the lower quality ones are lower quality and thus cheaper because the catch that they bring in is of lower quality as well. A stick is much easier for a Pokemon to notice than for example a lightweight alloy which is what the most expensive ones are made out of. This means that the fish that will be biting on your thing are those that are either too dumb to see the stick or those who want to get caught. Considering that water Pokemon are the most elegant and intelligent type, they obviously wouldn't go for a trainer who's only willing to invest in such a cheap rod, and neither would they be dumb enough to catch themselves on it. The only exception is Magikarp," she explained with her nose tilted slightly in the air. "I'm Daisy, by the way."

"Nice to meet you; I'm Joey," the youngster said before sighing. "I have this job for the gym for which I have to catch three water-type Pokemon. I'm not really interested in fishing, so if I buy an expensive fishing rod now, then I'll just be wasting my money since I won't use it much in the future."

Daisy's eyes glinted curiously at the mention of the gym but whatever she was about to say was interrupted by the clerk.

"You could also just rent a fishing rod," the man suggested. "Renting the best available model for a week is still less expensive than buying the cheapest one for life."

"That's a good suggestion," Joey muttered. He had wanted to buy one just to have the option of having it in the future, but he wasn't really up for splurging on a good one. Renting would be better. To finish this task, it would be beneficial if he had a fishing rod that was as good as possible. The badge was what was the most important right now, after all.

"I actually have a fishing rod you could use," Daisy suddenly piped up. "There's a Pokemon I've been trying to catch recently to one-up my sisters, and I need help capturing it. If you want to go together, I can help you catch your three requisite water Pokemon, but if we catch what I'm looking for, then I get it," she proposed.

That was a very nice proposition, actually, Joey thought. If Daisy already had a fishing rod, that implied that she was more experienced with fishing than him. This way, he would have someone to help him learn the basics so he wouldn't just flounder about the whole day.

"That's a very good suggestion," Joey said. "Would you really be willing to do that? It has to be done today, so it can't wait."

Daisy nodded her head, her blonde hair flapping about. Meanwhile, The store clerk had a foul expression, likely because he was about to lose business. 

"And then if you really like fishing after today, you can still buy whatever fishing rod you want," the girl said. At Joey's nod, she added, "I think everything's set then. I just have to go get my things. Where are we meeting?"

The youngster pondered the question for a second. "Let's meet at the end of the Nugget bridge; the area where I have to catch the Pokemon is across it."

"Good, see you in a bit then," Daisy said and ran off, apparently excited that she'd found someone to help her catch whatever she was looking for. He wondered what it was before turning to look at the clerk who'd crossed his arms and was looking into the air with a frustrated look on his face. Maybe it was the owner actually, Joey mused. There were a lot more small businesses in Kanto than there had been in the States.

"I'll just take the hat then," he said with a mental shrug. It wasn't like he owed any store his business, even if he'd been interrupted at literally the last step of completing it.

Walking out of the store with a new bucket hat gracing his head, Joey continued towards the bridge.

-/-

Perhaps he was risking something by trusting Daisy to meet him there at an appropriate time, especially considering what he knew about women and how long they took to get ready sometimes. However, for some reason, he got the feeling that she was serious about her offer to help and in the end, if she didn't show up, he could always go back to rent a fishing rod and figure it out himself.

Also, couldn't he just reverse-engineer a basic fishing rod with any wooden stick he found and some string from Metapod? It couldn't possibly be that difficult, right? Well, whatever. He was going to cross that bridge when he came to it. He chuckled at his joke and wondered if the Nugget Bridge already held the iconic challenge of the trainer gauntlet, at the end of which one received the gold nugget. It seemed like it did, considering that Daisy had understood him when he'd referred to it as such when describing their meeting point.

Now, he just had to cross it without getting involved in an endless series of battles which would exhaust his Pokemon to the point that the only thing they could catch would be a Caterpie.

-/-

"Nope, sorry, not interested in battling right now," Joey said to the first of the trainers on the Nugget Bridge who approached him with a Pokeball already in their hand raised high into the air.

"But our eyes crossed," the boy scout complained while lowering his arm and tugging at his green cap with the other.

"They literally didn't," Joey countered from where he was facing straight ahead towards the end of the bridge, not meeting the gaze of his would-be challenger. "Anyway, have fun with that," the youngster said before he continued walking.

A Lass approached him from the left with three Pokeballs at her belt and, from what he could see from his peripheral vision, a carefree smile on her face. 

"Hey, let's battle," the girl said enthusiastically. Joey simply held up his left arm with his palm extended towards her in the universally acknowledged stop sign.

"Nope, not doing this right now," he said decisively and continued on his way as the girl shouted something after him.

"You won't get past me without a battle!" A new voice from what looked to be a flying-specialist with a Spearow on his falconry glove exclaimed from Joy's right.

Joey for his part did exactly that, walking past the boy who approached him without a single glance. "People literally live on the other side of the bridge. You can't possibly tell me that they all battle you every single time they want to go shopping," he retorted, which left the challenger speechless, allowing Joey to escape once again,

The last trainer of the challenge, there seemed to be only four, just shrugged as Joey walked past, apparently giving up on forcing him into a battle.

The youngster didn't really know why this bridge, in particular, was filled with so many trainers who would have liked to not take no for an answer when the rest of the region contained perfectly respectful people who understood that the old adage of 'our gazes crossed and now we have to battle,' was outdated garbage from the past where trainers were much rarer and had to get better for the sake of humanity.

It really was ridiculous that he had to cross the bridge with his eyes pointing straight ahead to draw as little aggro as possible. And because of this exact technique he was utilising, he didn't notice the man sneaking up on him and suddenly grabbing him by the shoulder.

Joey spun around with his forearm up, breaking the hold, and jumped back a small distance. "Don't touch me," he spat as he looked at the man who'd approached him.

It was an older man, seemingly in his twenties or maybe even early thirties. He was dressed in a very weird manner, wearing a large black trench coat that covered him from his knees to his nose, along with sunglasses and a fedora, as one might see in an old detective movie.

"Nice reflexes, kid," the older man said in a voice that insinuated a proudly held smoking habit. "I didn't see any of your battles, but I like your attitude. Me and some friends are looking for talented trainers to join our cause and stick it to the League and their dumb rules. Are you interested? I'll make you an offer you can't refuse."

Joey froze, and his eyes narrowed as he suddenly realised what this was. It seemed like there had been a Team Rocket member stationed at the end of the Nugget Bridge long before the advent of canon, as much as one could actually differentiate that, considering that the anime and the games had very different storylines.

"Sorry, my mom told me not to talk to strangers," Joey replied, trying to blow this over quickly. His feelings on Team Rocket were mixed, but they were decisively fixed in the direction that he didn't want anything to do with them.

The man paused at that answer and looked at him with his shaded eyes for a few seconds. "You're much too old for that excuse if those three Pokeballs at your belt aren't empty," he muttered suddenly in a darker tone than he had used previously. "What part of 'an offer that you can't refuse' didn't you get?" he asked, one hand suddenly going inside of the trench coat to clasp something, probably a Pokeball.

"Hey Joey, what's up?" a voice suddenly called from behind the two of them. They both turned to see a young girl with long blonde hair, a fishing hat, and a fishing rod on her shoulder running towards them.

"Is that?" the man muttered, pulling his hand out of the trench coat and taking a few steps back so he was standing again at the railing of the bridge where he must have been waiting for Joey.

"You do you kid. I guess there will always be predator and prey in this world for it to work out," he said before demonstratively looking away.

-/-

As Joey and Daisy walked to the spot designated on the map, Joey's mind was not on the tactics for catching the requisite Pokemon for the job but on the encounter he had just had at the end of the Nugget Bridge. 

Team Rocket wasn't something he had spent much time thinking about in these past years. Rather, it was something that he had been trying to actively avoid thinking about. After all, being reborn had already been shocking enough. He didn't need to introduce some sort of self-inflicted responsibility of dealing with a large criminal organisation. 

From his perspective, being an interloper in a grander narrative, it was safer for him and the world if he didn't get involved in these things. Ash after all was the prophesized hero and everything that he couldn't resolve with the power of fate standing by his side, Joey would surely be helpless against.

But today's encounter was a stark reminder that, for all that he was living in a fantasy world in which crime was much less prevalent, people were happier and friendlier, and even the food was better, there were still people who sought to topple the order that secured a prosperous life for most of the global population.

However, rather than the grand scheme of things, the larger issue in its immediacy was the fact that before Team Rocket got presumably ganked to death by Mewtwo, he was still cohabitating Kanto with a budding criminal organisation intent on stealing Pokemon and exploiting trainers.

The man at the bridge had left them alone when he noticed that he wasn't travelling solo, which naturally made him less of a simple target, but others wouldn't get that privilege.

Hadn't King warned him of criminal activity in the area? If so, couldn't he simply call the man to tell him what occurred? But if his experience with the law was any indicator, then the fact that the only thing that'd happened was a verbal indication with no violence would lead to no resolution.

In the end, he closed his eyes, losing sight of the beautiful stretch of landscape they were traversing to get to the area which would soon become a hotel complex, and signed deeply.

There wasn't really anything he could do. The police wouldn't be able to do anything for the moment, and it wasn't like Joey was going to go there and bait the grunt into a citizen's arrest. Similarly, they weren't really under any sort of threat because now that they were travelling as a pack, they had obviously become less easy to prey on.

Sometimes, it was better to do nothing in cases like this. Worst case, of course, there was still the option of not going back via the bridge and seeking an alternative route.

"You're a water-type specialist, right Daisy?" Joey asked out loud as they passed the picket fences, which had already been raised in advance to create the perimeter in which houses would be built. Some construction crews were already at work, raising skeleton structures a few dozen metres from the shore.

"Yeah, of course. What else did you think I was?" Daisy replied. Also, what else would I be? They're clearly the best type," she finished obnoxiously.

Joey simply rolled his eyes and continued his line of questioning. "Do you maybe have a Pokemon which we can use to traverse this river to return to the city without having to go to the bridge? It was a bit annoying."

The young girl hummed thoughtfully as they walked. "Well, my Starmie is probably big enough. I think she could fit both of us," she eventually said, to which Joey thoughtfully nodded. 

That was one issue solved, at least.

Now, he could relax a bit and simply focus on the mission that he'd gotten. "So what is the Pokemon that you're looking for specifically, the one that if we hook it, I help you catch?" he asked. It probably wasn't anything too basic, or else she wouldn't need help, so he was quite curious. 

"Promise you won't tell anyone even if we don't catch it, okay?" Daisy said a bit more quietly.

"Sure," Joey said, not really planning on selling any information to anyone.

"I was recently training my Pokemon here to take a bit of a break from the…" she trailed off, "whatever, and I saw a Wartortle playing around in the water. You know that these regional starters are like, super rare. Not even my dad was able to get me one. If I catch this, then I'll be the first one in my family to have a Blastoise."

Joey nodded thoughtfully. "Well, thanks for trusting me. Don't worry, I won't tell anyone, and I'll help you catch it if need be," he promised again.

Daisy nodded at that, throwing him a small smile. "Thanks, but anyway, we've arrived," she said, causing Joey to look around and see that they had reached a fenced-in plot of land that took nearly half a kilometre off the shore and was close enough to the sea that the view was split between two bodies of water.

Joey whistled appreciatively. "That's some prime real estate," he muttered as they looked at the poles holding up a metal wire to designate the area.

"So what, we just crawl under there?" he wondered and looked around to see if there was anyone who'd be confused by their actions if they did that. 

The area was empty. They'd left most of the construction crews behind, and this was far enough that people didn't walk here if they were going for an easy stroll. There were some houses that they passed that had already been built, but they seemed to be mostly empty at the moment. It wasn't the season.

After he'd asked the question, he looked back to Daisy. He smiled when he saw that the girl was already crawling under the fence, and he promptly followed to avoid being left behind. 

Once they'd reached the riverbed, they started walking up to find a good fishing spot. He frowned when he realised that without any tall grass or forestry available, it was very unlikely that there would be any Pokemon here that were not water-typed. Sure, he could catch something a bit outside of these boundaries to fill up the two slots that he had for non-water-type Pokemon, but he liked doing things correctly, even if it wasn't convenient. 

The two of them eventually found a nice spot by the beach, still with a tree stump protruding close by the edge. This meant that at least one of them, the one holding the fishing rod, could sit down comfortably.

While Daisy prepped the bait, Joey released his Pokemon, who curiously looked at him from down below, knowing that today was a big day.

"We received the task of having to catch five Pokemon, at least three of which have to be water-typed," Joey started explaining. "However, the trick is that we can only do this in the area of this fence," he said while pointing out the boundaries of where they were supposed to complete this challenge.

Unfortunately, at this point, the land was already completely barren, making Joey remember the gym leader's words that private contractors had been at work here earlier. It made sense then that the landmass inside the fence was already clean of any habitats, leaving only the river.

He turned to Daisy just as the girl swung back her fishing rod to throw out the hook and hoped there was still some water Pokemon left in this area. He noted that a Krabby was sitting next to Daisy. Probably one of the Pokemon she had out to battle the potential victims of her pole.

"The view is nice," the girl commented as she looked at the sea. Joey agreed. It was a beautifully clear day, although already a bit late in the year to go for a swim. But still, it was nice being at the seaside no matter the time of year.

"What now?" Joey asked. "When you hook something, we fight it?"

"The point of the fishing rod is to bring out Pokemon that can only live in water, like Goldeen, and fight them on land. Alternatively, even if a Pokemon doesn't bite the hook, they still recognise it as the sign of a human challenging them to a fight, so they'll come up and face us. Just be ready if a Wartortle appears."

Joey nodded and sat down next to Daisy on the floor.

He didn't give his Pokemon any training instructions, preferring to keep them fresh for the day ahead, but he did see Metapod sneakily starting to create poison when she thought he wasn't looking.

He turned a blind eye, knowing that the girl just wanted to evolve at this point. He didn't have it in him to tell her to save her energy.

Minutes passed while the river remained placid and uninhabited.

"So, how long does it usually take for you to hook something?" Joey asked.

Daisy shrugged. "Most people need an hour. For me? Twenty minutes to half an hour," she bragged. "Something like that." 

Joey leaned back on his palms and prepared himself for a longer wait.

It was times like this that he wished he had a Pokedex. It was inconvenient to bring books on excursions like this, but the pocket-sized Pokemon encyclopaedia would have been perfect to brush up on some knowledge while he had nothing else to do.

A light splash suddenly resounded through the shore, causing him to look up. Daisy's gaze sharpened as well, and she lightly pulled at her fishing rod, receiving a larger splash in return.

"I got something," she said excitedly, pulling at her light alloy rod.

What commenced was a fight between human and Pokemon that was more exciting than Joey would have suspected. Daisy struggled against the Pokemon in the water but refused his help, until eventually, with one last strenuous pull, she managed to rip a fish-shaped form out of the water and into the air.

"Magikarp!" an orange stupid-looking fish proclaimed as it flew onto land, where it started flopping around aimlessly despite the water it had come out of being only one metre away.

A tick mark developed on Joey's head. "All that suspense just for a Magikarp?" he wondered. "You think it would make sense to release it further away so we don't hook it again?" he asked.

"Yeah, I think so," Daisy muttered by his side. "Can you do it?"

"Sure," Joey said with a nod and went over to pick up the struggling fish with a grimace. One annoying thing about Magikarp was that they needed to be handled with care. He wished that wasn't the case as an orange fin slapped him in the face.

He turned towards the end of the fenced property and started walking, channelling some ghost-type energy to help contain the struggling fish excitedly shouting its name. After a minute, he reached his destination and gently threw the Pokemon back into the water. It swam off, seemingly a bit offended.

Joey was surprised it had the emotional depth to convey that emotion.

He returned to Daisy while shaking his head. He'd probably have to carry more Magikarp away later. It would be easy if one could simply throw them or something, but that risked making them evolve. It was common knowledge to be extra mindful of the stupid but potentially dangerous Pokemon.

"I thought you said that Magikarp wouldn't bite," Joey stated with crossed arms when he returned to Daisy.

The girl nervously laughed before shrugging. "I said that if you have the basic one, Magikarp is the only thing you'll get. They still like to bite even on high-quality fishing rods."

The youngster sighed. "This is going to take a while, isn't it?" he asked, and the girl simply nodded.

"I'll wait one year if it means I get a Wartortle," she said decisively with a glint in her eye. 

Joey, unfortunately, just had a day.

-/-

AN: The job is starting off easy enough, innit? I wonder what could possibly go wrong. You can go read the end of the arc on Patreon, or just support me so you have to grind to recoup the losses.