28 13 Months
After teleporting to Lavender City, Lukas and his Pokemon spent the next month training there, while also keeping a lookout for a promising Ghost-type Pokemon. Unfortunately, after asking around, he learned that the highest concentration of Ghost-type Pokemon appears during another time of the year.
So, after training for a month, Lukas used the local teleport hub to travel to the next city. Lavender City, in respect for the deceased Pokemon buried in the Pokemon tower, doesn't have a Pokemon Gym.
Nevertheless, Lavender City is one of the few settlements in this world that almost never suffers from Pokemon hordes, since even wild Pokemon can feel the overwhelming aura the Pokemon Tower emits.
During the month at Lavender City, all of Lukas Pokemon made some kind of progress, but none of them reached the threshold for advancement/evolution.
The next City Lukas visited was called Gardenia City and is most known for the Pokemon Contest being held there regularly.
Gardenia City is also home to a Junior Gym using Fairy-type Pokemon.
With Fairy-type moves having reduced effects against Charmeleon and Fairy Pokemon being vulnerable to Lucario's Iron Tail and Bullet Punch, Lukas managed to win his 4th badge with no problem. Afterwards he and his Pokemon spend another month training and fighting at the FC to improve.
While training, Lukas decided to give the last Rare Candy potion to Feebas since her physical training is more difficult compared to Gible. Since she needs a large enough pool of water when leaving her Poke Ball, she had the fewest battles at the FC, which slowed down her training significantly.
After she took the potion, she reached Lukas threshold for advancement. Lukas gave her a mixture consisting of some bronze-rank Fairy and Water-type items before he told her to go ahead and advance.
Aside from the Full Buff trait that all his Pokemon got upon advancing, Feebas received an additional trait called Fable Scales, which reduces the damage Fairy-type move do to her and increases her defense by an additional +5%. Thanks to this trait, Feebas now has a total of 7 resistances and 1 immunity.
Maybe it is because he slowly but surely got used to his Pokemon gaining new traits, but Lukas couldn't help but be slightly disappointed by the in his opinion, lackluster effect of her new trait, not that he didn't think the trait is useful.
Once the month he spent in Gardenia City was up, he returned to the teleport hub to make his way across the Cities along the east coast of Kanto.
At every City that had a Junior Gym, he would stop to train for 1 month before getting his badge and moving on to the next city.
Before getting his 5th badge, Gible also finished his limit training and after holding onto a Silver-rank Dragon Scale belonging to a Gabite he also advanced to Bronze following Feebas.
Gible also gained a new trait after advancing. His new trait is called Rough Scales and has basically the same effect as the Rough Skin ability except that he can choose when to activate it.
The next Pokemon from Lukas team to make progress was Pidgey. She finished her limit training at the Bronze-Rank, so she got ready to advance and evolve at the same time.
Before they parted ways Lukas asked Cindy and her Staraptor for one of his feathers, luckily they agreed, in exchange Lukas only had to give Staraptor some of the special Pokemon food he made for Pidgey. Since that food was specifically geared towards Normal and Flying dual-types, it made sense why Staraptor liked it so much.
Staraptor's feather wasn't of the Gold-rank despite himself being of that rank because he couldn't spare feathers of higher rank since giving them away will hurt him and reduce some of his progress.
Lukas used the feather that reached the Silver-rank and some other items as supplements to create a special mixture for Pidgey.
Maybe it was because of her Shiny trait, but after evolving into Pidgeotto and advancing to the Silver-rank at the same time, she had many changes to her summary.
First, there were the changes all of his Pokemon that evolved experienced so far, namely Full Buff turning into Full Buff II, gaining the Polished Genes trait and consequently unlocking the Strong Blood trait which in her case had the (Flying) moniker added to it.
Next, both of her existing traits got the 'II' suffix as well, changing the effects for Pristine Feathers by increasing the chance to resist status change by 5% turning it from 25 to 30% overall. Adaptive Strength's effect also rose by 5% increasing the effect for all moves Pidgeotto doesn't have an affinity for by +15%.
Finally, she gained a new trait called Ruffled Feathers that increases the power of Flying-type moves by 50% if Pidgeotto is hurt enough during a battle. It basically functions like the ability Overgrow, except for flying-type moves.
Pidgeotto also gained Beginner Mastery over Aerial Ace immediately, despite not knowing the move prior.
After the 5th badge had been acquired, Lukas continued on his way, constantly training his Pokemon and fighting battle after battle at the FC.
Shortly before challenging his 6th Gym, Larvitar got ready to evolve and advance to Silver-rank as well.
Aside from the usual changes such as the added Polished Genes trait and Pure Blood(rock) turning into Royal Blood(rock) he also got a new trait called Brutal Hitter and beginner mastery over Rock Slide.
Brutal Hitter increases the power of all physical moves by +20%.
His trait Hardened also gained the 'II' suffix, whereas Poisoned Fury remained the same.
Unlike Metapod and Kakuna for example, Larvitar's speed did not reduce after evolving into Pupitar, instead he now makes use over his control over Rock and Ground-energy to maneuver over the battlefield.
This method is widely used by Pokemon all over the world and from the Gold-rank onwards it even allows Pokemon to fight on terrain they would otherwise be incapable of fighting on, sea bound Pokemon like the Goldeen-line are one example of this.
After Lukas won his 6th badge, he took a ferry that brought him from his current city south-east of Vermilion City towards the nearest City, north-east of Pallet City.
His destination was called Bay City, and Lukas spent another month there training and fighting at the local FC branch before challenging the city's Gym and getting his 7th badge, leaving him with only one more to go.
Finally, for his last remaining badge, Lukas travelled to Pallet City, one of the most recognizable cities in the whole Alliance. The sole reasoning behind Pallet City being so well known is that 3 former World-Champions originated from this very city.
Yet, despite its fame, Pallet City is not one of Kanto's 8 Major Cities because the Alliance found it unnecessary to relocate one of the Elite Gym's there, considering that the city's safety is all but guaranteed as long as Professor Oak's lab is located there.
Even the Junior Gym of Pallet City is run by Oak's lab. It is also a very special Gym since it doesn't follow a specific type at all. Instead, when challenging the Pallet City Gym, you will always be put against the three Royal Starters of Kanto. Depending on whether you take the easy or hard challenge, you'll have to beat either Squirtle, Bulbasaur and Charmander or Wartortle, Ivysaur and Charmeleon.
In Lukas case, he had to go up against the latter trio.
His opponent at the Gym was one of the many assistant Professors from Oak's lab, whom he beat without much trouble. The opposing Charmeleon lost to Pupitar and his Ground and Stone-type moves, Ivysaur lost to Pidgeotto and Wartortle ultimately lost to Lucario who almost exclusively used Thunder Punch.
Since he was already so close to his hometown, Lukas went and visited his mother at home for a month before he asked her Altaria to take him to Saffron City.
There, at Kanto's FC capital, Lukas spent the remaining 6 months training and battling against trainers.
Eventually, his mother's Altaria picked him up outside of Saffron City to bring him to Indigo City only 2 days before the 1056th Kanto Junior Championship season began.
