(｡◕‿◕｡) - power stones
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"Don't be scared, don't be scared! This is a move I just taught you called 'Surf.'
From now on, when you run into Rock, Ground, or Fire-type opponents, you can use Surf to attack them."
Seeing Pichu startled and uncertain after being taught a move for the first time, Caster smiled and quickly stepped forward to comfort it.
"Pichu~"
Oh, so it was the Trainer's doing. No big deal then!
Pichu breathed a sigh of relief, patted its chest, and felt completely at ease.
For some reason, it had an inexplicable trust in Caster.
"It's just a shame that Pichu's still so small, with extremely limited energy reserves.
Plus, Surf isn't even one of its STAB moves [same-type attack bonus], so right now the power's pretty weak."
Thinking back to that puny two-meter wave from earlier, Caster shook his head.
If Gyarados were the one using Surf, Caster figured the wave would be at least ten meters high, easily covering the entire battlefield.
After all, Surf was inherently an area-of-effect attack, and like Earthquake, it didn't discriminate between friend and foe.
But in Pichu's hands, the area attack seemed to become a single-target move, with very limited power.
Unless the opponent was a Pokémon with a quadruple weakness to Water, a one-hit KO would be tough.
"Quadruple weakness to Water? One-hit KO?"
A lightbulb went off in Caster's mind.
He couldn't help but think of Pewter City Gym, a Rock-type gym.
The original Pewter Gym Trainer was Brock, but he was currently traveling with Ash through the Kanto region. Now his father, Flint, had taken over again.
And the signature Pokémon of Pewter Gym were Onix and Geodude, both Rock + Ground dual-types, conveniently all with quadruple weakness to Water.
"If I challenge Pewter Gym with Pichu, most people wouldn't give me a chance."
"Then if I use Surf to one-shot the opponent, the livestream effect would absolutely explode."
Thinking this through, Caster got excited.
After Magikarp evolved into Gyarados, it was already a powerful Pokémon.
Sure, Caster could take Gyarados to challenge Pewter Gym, but even if he won, it would seem pretty unremarkable.
After all, Gyarados had every advantage. Winning would be normal; losing would be abnormal.
But if he switched the challenger to Pichu, then losing would be normal and winning would be abnormal.
If it was a complete one-shot victory, that would be absolutely explosive.
After all, even among Pikachu and Raichu, being able to master Surf was rare, let alone a baby Pokémon like Pichu.
"In that case, the next gym is decided: Pewter City it is."
Caster set his goal.
Sure, there was a bit of "playing possum to catch the tiger" involved, but raising Pokémon cost serious money, and Caster didn't have much choice.
After all, he had to make a living!
However, to be safe, Caster also taught Pichu the 'Agility' move he'd received as a reward for catching Seaking.
This way Pichu's win rate would be even higher!
[Moves: Thunder Shock, Thunder Wave, Flash, Sweet Kiss, Surf, Agility]
Looking at Pichu's move list, Caster nodded with satisfaction: "This moveset is way more impressive than Magikarp's used to be.
It's got crowd control, status effects, stat boosts, and can execute plenty of different tactics..."
Next, Caster released Gyarados, had it consume a Rawst Berry, and taught it the Double Team move.
With all rewards distributed, Caster leisurely returned to the Pokémon Center.
...
After dinner, Caster started editing the afternoon's video and uploaded it to his channel.
"What? Fish kid posted again? Didn't he just livestream the Magikarp high jump competition and Celadon Gym challenge this morning?"
"Productive as a sow, I love it!"
"Time to eat! Time to eat!"
"I wanna see what new tricks this guy's gonna pull off in today's video."
...
Thanks to Caster now having over a hundred thousand followers, the video had barely been uploaded when it broke a thousand views, with plenty of comments and live chat messages.
The video opened with Caster releasing Gyarados into the lake and feeding it pokéblocks.
Next came Gary showing up to challenge, followed by footage of Gyarados battling Nidoking.
"Who's this dude? Is he even a real Trainer? Why's he traveling with a whole entourage of girlfriends? He deserves what's coming to him!!!!"
"Come on, streamer, give that hedgehog-head punk a good thrashing. If the streamer wins, I'll donate ₽1,000 right away, no backing out."
"Streamer, streamer! Please tell that guy in the video there's a Poké Ball with a Dragonite on Route 7 outside Celadon City. Tell him to go grab it.
If he goes, he'll strike gold and soar to the top."
"Gyarados, hit him hard!"
...
Caster hadn't had many battles, but in most cases, his fans didn't think highly of him and would backstab him to support his opponents instead.
But this time, Caster's fans were overwhelmingly on his side.
No helping it; Gary was just too hateable.
Good-looking, rich, surrounded by girls, and strong too. Totally unfair!
How were ordinary guys supposed to survive?
They had to hit back hard!
On the battlefield, when Gary sent out Nidoking, many viewers felt their hearts sink.
Nidoking was famously powerful.
The key was that battling on land put Gyarados at a natural disadvantage while Nidoking had the upper hand.
Plus, Gyarados had just evolved, so no one really knew how strong it was yet.
Fortunately, when Nidoking's Thunder Punch had its Electric-type energy absorbed by Pichu's 'Lightning Rod' ability, Gary lost the match, and viewers immediately cheered with delight.
Mmm~ so satisfying!
Many viewers sent donations, and Caster made a killing off Gary's misfortune.
The video continued. Next came the scenes of Gary and Caster tracking down Pichu together, followed by Caster capturing Pichu.
"Wahhh! Pichu's so tiny and adorable. Oh my gosh, how can there be a Pokémon as cute as Pichu?"
"The streamer's small and cute too!"
"Gyarados: What? I'm big and I'm not cute? So love just disappears, is that it?"
"I wanna pet it so bad!"
"Hey, the person above, do you wanna pet tiny Pichu, big Gyarados, or the streamer who can be big or small?"
"Only kids make choices. As an adult, naturally I want them all!"
...
Pichu's popularity was clearly much higher than Magikarp's, almost rivaling the evolved Gyarados.
Sure enough, this was a world that judged by looks!
In the second half of the video, Caster announced his next plan: traveling to Pewter City to challenge the Pewter Gym.
On this, viewers were noncommittal, or rather, didn't really care.
Because Pewter Gym was a third-rate gym in Kanto; the Gym Trainer wasn't particularly strong, and Gyarados had the type advantage anyway.
Caster challenging Pewter Gym had high odds of winning, so there was no drama in the video.
However, when Caster revealed he was planning to challenge Pewter Gym with his newly captured 'Pichu,' the comments and live chat exploded.
"Pichu: Huh? I'm fighting at Pewter Gym?"
"Streamer, stop while you're ahead! Pewter Gym is all Rock + Ground dual-type Pokémon. Pichu can't win."
"Exactly! Pichu's so adorable, why does it have to fight in gym battles? This kind of rough work should go to Gyarados, shouldn't it?"
"Streamer, streamer, curiosity's fine, but this is just crazy. Please don't make things harder on yourself, okay?
I really don't wanna see such a soft and adorable Pichu get beat up by an Onix!"
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~ Push the story forward with your Power Stones