TOBIAS
I
The young man sat on the top of a large boulder on a small island. There was extraordinarily little to the island. The only main feature was a small rocky acropolis, sitting slightly off centre. Its where the boulder on which the young man sat on was. There weren't any trees on the island. Only a few ferns spread amongst the menagerie of rocks broke up the mundane scenery. The sandy beach was course and rough. The sand was made up of small broken shells and tiny rocks, not the sort of beach you would walk along barefoot. A small crustacean pokemon scuttled amongst the rocks. It had large red claws in comparison to its small red body. Little bubbles foamed from its mouth as it made its way hastily towards the lapping waves of the ocean as if it were fleeing from something. The man watched the krabby slip into the waves, his gaze shifting towards the commotion that the little water pokemon had managed to avoid.
The kafuffle was being caused from two other pokemon engaged in combat. One was small, roughly one metre high. It had a solid build, quite rotund with two small feet. Its fur was brown with some prominent red streaks throughout its coat. What grabbed immediate attention were the pokemon's claws and head. Each paw had had three large claws that looked wicked sharp, resembling a large drill when the rodent like pokemon had them closed. Not unlike those on machinery. The middle claw on each hand had two razors protruding from the top of it, making it look even meaner. Underneath the large drill like horn on its head was the pokemon's face. It had a narrow snout that was pink at the end where its whiskers grew. The other pokemon looked vastly different. This one was slightly taller, about one and a half metres, with a thin, muscular build with a white fur coat on its body and blue fur on its extremities. Small spikes jutted out above its knuckles, imitating knuckle dusters. A small spike also stuck out from the centre of its chest. The pokemon had a steely gaze, the black fur around its eyes made the pokemon look perpetually serious. The small brown pokemon quickly burrowed underground. The blue pokemon stopped. It tensed up as it eyes scanned the surface, its tall blue ears twitching as it responded to various sounds. The pokemon sharply glanced left as the other pokemon simultaneously leapt up out of the ground with incredible force. Rocks and dust went flying everywhere. Whilst the drill pokemon was moving quickly, the dog like pokemon reacted even quicker. It ducked and swept around ready to face the next incoming attack from the right.
"PHWWWWHHT" A sharp whistle pierced through the air, the pokemon stopped mid blow as they turned to face upwards towards the acropolis where the sound came from. "Righto you two. Calm down. Get up here and come eat your lunch." The two pokemon quickly exchanged glances at each other and each let out a soft growl. The rodent pokemon quickly dived into the ground again, and the dog like pokemon pounced up onto a rock and then proceeded to glide through the air as it leapt from one boulder to another. In no time at all, the two pokemon arrived to the top of the acropolis, and had ran over to the man, just as the other pokemon broke the surface of the ground and magically appeared on the other side of the man. The young man set down his things on the boulder and then slid down on his backside, jumping off as he got nearer to the ground. He stood upright and brushed the dust of his behind. He had only just realised how dirty his denim jeans had gotten from being up on the boulder. "Having fun, you two? Remember, you're not meant to go for blood." The two pokemon traded looks and somewhat shrugged "Heat of the moment huh? Try not to get too carried away. I don't want to have to make an unnecessary trip to the pokecentre. C'mon." He said as he waved his hand forward as he led the lucario and excadrill towards the campfire. The man had short brown hair, he carried himself well and confidently. He stood tall at six feet. His clothing was basic, his boots well worn. Perhaps too well worn. The leather on top had begun to crease and crack a little, and it was starting to split open on the side. Not exactly waterproof. He wore a cotton, grey collared polo shirt. He had obviously lived on the coast; he had a prominent tan line that was visible at the base of his sleeves and the v of his neck.
As he arrived at the campfire, he took a knee to observe the two pots that were cooking. He took the lids off to stir them. Whilst the food smelt great, it did not look very enticing for humans. One looked like a beef stew and the other was marinated insects. He grabbed a ladle and a bowl with the name Ellie on it and filled it with some of the marinated insects. He then grabbed the other bowl with the name Luscious and filled it with some of the beef stew. He sat the bowls down a few metres away from the campfire. The pokemon eyed off the bowls of food as he walked over, the two pokemon started to salivate and become restless. The lucario took one step forward, the man saw this "Ah!" He quickly snapped as he glanced and narrowed his eyes at Luscious "You do that shit again and you'll be getting those dried biscuits you love so much for lunch." Luscious understood this threat and his paw retreated. A glint of worry briefly appeared in his eyes.
The man looked up, scouring the skies. His hand was above his eyes to shield them from the midday sun. He briefly turned around to make sure that Reeva and Luscious hadn't started eating. They stood there resolute, waiting for the 'all clear' to eat. He looked back up towards the sky. He quickly snapped up to the right. There it was. A glint of light from the sun bounced off something in the sky. Whatever it was, it was coming down towards them and fast. In no time at all a large bird like pokemon had landed gracefully twenty or so metres away. Hardly kicking up any dust in the process. It then began trotting over towards the fire. Its powerful claws made it prance effortlessly towards them. It had huge red wings, that looked very sturdy and strong. It had a large body with a thin long neck. Its yellow eyes and sharp teeth made you feel slightly uneasy when looking at it. It let out a high shrilling squawk as it arrived and flexed out its wings as if it were boasting its prowess. The man walked towards the bird with a large bowl full of fresh fish that read 'Raptor' on the side. The skarmory let out some gentle chirps in excitement as he placed the bowl on the ground "Great. Now we just have to wait for the other two."
On the other side of the acropolis a little green bush rustled. In front of the bush was a very large blue pokemon. It had four huge powerful legs with three spikes at the base of each leg for traction. Its big red beady eyes stared intently at the bush as it leaned forward. It extended one of its legs to part the bush to inspect the rustling. As its claws grabbed the bush, a pidgey burst out of the bush, up into the sky. The metagross tracked the pidgey up into the sky. Suddenly a small rubber ball bounced off its big metal body. The metagross slowly turned to face the ball. It stared at it curiously for few seconds, before lifting its gaze at the man waving his hand gesturing the pokemon to come over.
"Over here Morris. Lunch tiiiiiiiime" shouted the man. The metagross lifted its legs, folding them in under it body as it began to hover. It looked at the ball, its red eyes briefly glowed, and the ball began to hover alongside with it. It hovered quickly and silently over towards the man next to the fire. It stopped next to a large pile of fish, the ball also fell hitting a small stone and rolled between Reeva and Lucious. It lifted one of the fish with its telekinetic powers. As the fish levitated, it was quickly struck down by a small beam of ice. The fish clunked to the ground frozen solid. The metagross stared perplexed at the now frozen fish. Its eyes peered to the right looking at the source of the mischievous ice beam. A large bipedal blue pokemon stood there. It had two yellow webbed feet with sharp claws extending from the end. It had a solid round body with two broad flippers that had strong razor-sharp edges. Its sharp beak resembled a crown as three golden points extended above its head from its beak. Its blue eyes returned its gaze with the metagross. The big steel animal's red eyes flashed. A rock came hurtling towards the empoleon. It quickly raised its two sharp filppers into an arrow, the points of the flippers meeting together. It braced itself as the rock struck its flippers. The rock burst into rubble as it connected with the flippers, with the debris flying past the blue pokemon. "Cut it out you two. There's plenty of fish for everyone." The emopleon waddled over to a bowl full of fish that had Arthur written on it. "Okay kids, rip into it." The animals quickly gorged themselves on their food. All the pokemon had their faces buried in their bowls except for metagross, who was using his psychic powers to lift the fish into its mouth. The man went and grabbed two skewers that had fish on them. They had been roasting above the coals of the fire. With his lunch in hand, he went back towards his boulder. He carefully crawled up the boulder, with the hand holding the fish kebabs waving in the air, to avoid getting dirt on them. Once arriving at the top, he sat cross legged and took a bite of his fish before placing his food on his jacket. He picked up the leather-bound book that had Tobias written on it, opening it to a drawing of a floating city. He looked out in front to view the city below and resume his drawing. The buildings sat upon floating pontoons. The centre of town was quite illustrious. Gorgeous stonework bridges connected the pontoons together. However, as you progressed further from the centre of the city, the architecture became a little less flamboyant., the stone bridges were replaced with wooden ones. The city had all the necessities. There was a pokecentre and a pokemart, a town square that was currently occupied with a market. What was particularly unique about the city were two buildings. The large plain white one with 'Refugee Centre' on it that had a stone bridge connecting to the town square and one with a brown roof that had 'Pacificlog City Gym' and a picture with a two metal cogs underneath it.
As Tobias continued his drawing, Luscious and Reeva had finished their meals. Reeva poked her nose at her bowl looking for more. Luscious saw this and picked up both their bowls and snuck over to the fire where the cooking pots were. He pulled the lids off and scooped the bowls into the stews. One in the beef and the other in the marinated insects. He then put the lids back on and walked back to Reeva with his newly obtained goods. Luscious then sat down next to Reeva and placed the bowl in front of her. She let out a small squeal of delight and started eating. The skarmory had finished and was preening her feathers. She had pulled out a feather and it fell to the ground with a thud. Her feathers were heavier compared to most bird pokemon. The empoleon saw this feather and as it swallowed its last morsel of fish, he went over and picked it up with its claws. The sight looked quite comical as the empoleon waddled forwards with its arms outstretched with a giant red feather in between. It had wandered over to its big steely friend, Morris. It started tickling underneath the metangross' legs, goading for a reaction. The metangross didn't flinch, it just continued to levitate fish into is huge mouth. A look of frustration appeared across Arthur's face. He waddled to the front of Morris and shoved the feather in its face, coincidentally knocking the trajectory of the floating fish, hitting Morris in the centre of the big grey steel cross on its face, instead of going into his mouth. The fish fell to the ground. Morris looked at it. Then up at Arthur. Then back at is fish, then at Arthur's feather. It's eyes quickly glowed again, and Arthur's feather was quickly pulled from its hands. The empoleon looked up with its flippers still outstretched as if it was still holding its feather. He watched the feather float off out over the edge of the acropolis, past the menagerie of rocks, out above the waves in the ocean before dropping out of view into the water, sinking below the waves. The empoleon turned to find Morris only inches away from his face, his eyes staring into his own, testing him to try and do something silly again. The empoleon cackled and then waddled back over to the skarmory, meanwhile Morris had already picked up another fish.
Tobias was putting the finishing touches on his sketch of Pacificlog City when he got a phone call. He leaned over to his jacket and pulled his phone out of one of the pockets. The name 'Henry' was displayed on the phone. Tobias dragged the green phone icon across the touch screen and put the phone up against his ear. "Hey, what's up?"
"Hey, sorry to bother you Tobias, I know you've already finished up with us, but a trainer doing the gym challenge has arrived and wants to challenge our gym, but we can't get onto Elise. How far away are you from Pacificlog?"
"I'm just on top of the acropolis north of the city, the one that looks down on it. I can be there in about fifteen minutes." He closed his sketch book and picked up his jacket and started to slide down the rock again as he spoke into the phone. "Gotta pack everything up then get everyone back in their pokeballs."
"Yeah, that'd be great, thanks. Percy will challenge him first, that will give you some time for you to get here, and if the trainer beats him, you can challenge him next, and if he beats you, then he gets to challenge me for the badge tomorrow."
Tobias sighed, "Yeah no problem, I'll be there in fifteen or so minutes." He hung up the phone, holding it tightly as he slid down so he wouldn't drop it "Fucking typical. Of course this happens. Elise must be shopping in Ever Grande City. She was the one meant to be on call." He muttered to himself as he arrived at the base of the rock. He stood up and walked over at a quickened pace "Okay kids, it's time to go. We gotta go kick someone's ass." The pokemon all looked up at Tobias as he shared the unfortunate news "Quickly finish what you're eating, go to the bathroom if you have to and then we're heading back." He knelt down as he tied the pot full of food with rope so they wouldn't spill on the journey home. Reeva got up and drilled into the ground, Luscious picked up both bowls and ran over and sat them next to Tobias before running behind the big boulder to relieve himself. Morris walked over towards a red and white pokeball that was next to the backpack near the fire, waiting to be put back in its ball. "Yo, Arthur, can you water gun the fire for me thanks?" Arthur took in a deep breath before exhaling a steady surge of water over the fire. It was out in seconds. Tobias shoved the pots in his large duffel bag and went over and picked up the four remaining bowls and blanket that the pokemon used to eat off and stuffed them in the duffle bag. He then picked up two pokeballs. He turned around to find Luscious had returned from behind the boulder just as Reeva had jumped out of the ground. "Sorry to cut your play time short guys." He said that as he pointed the two pokeballs at the pokemon and a red beam shout out towards the pokemon as they were quickly absorbed by the red light and disappeared into the pokeballs. The balls shrank, and he attached them to his belt. He walked over to Morris and picked up the ball next to him and did the same thing. He grabbed the strap of his dufflebag and slung it over his shoulder. And walked over to Raptor "Do you want to fly back to the gym? Beats being in your pokeball for the trip home."
"KAAAAAW" she responded gleefully. With that, she ran over towards the edge of the acropolis and jumped off. She sank below out of view briefly before she started soaring up in the skies towards the city.
"C'mon Arthur, lets go down to the kayak, you can pull us home quicker than I can row." Arthur waddled alongside Tobias as they descended down a path to the beach. They soon arrived at their kayak, where Tobias stowed away his duffle bag and strapped it down. He then pulled out a harness and knelt down in front of Arthur. Arthur already had his big steel flippers outstretched so the harness could slide over. Tobias clipped the buckles together of his homemade harness and tightened the straps. Arthur waddled to the front of the kayak whilst Tobias grabbed a cable attached to the front of the kayak that clipped it onto the back of Arthur's harness. "Okay buddy don't go too fast or too deep. We don't want to capsize." Arthur nodded and turned, using another small ice beam to make and icy path along the shallows of the beach. Tobias crawled into his kayak, grabbing his paddle as he sat down. "All good, ready when you are Arthur." Arthur quickly jumped on to his belly to slide across the ice. The cable unspooled as he slid off the ice into the ocean. The cable suddenly went taught, lurching Tobias back as the kayak took off.
It was a little bit challenging getting through the waves that were breaking toward the beach. When Raptor saw any big waves, she would dive down and fly just above the surface, passing Tobias on his kayak and then tackle the wave with tremendous force to disrupt the wave so Tobias could easily pass through without the turbulence of the breaking wave and risk capsizing. Once they got out about one hundred metres, they were past the breaking waves and Raptor took off to skies once again. It was smooth sailing from here on out. It only took Arthur about ten minutes to pull Tobias to the edge of Pacificlog City. The kayak begun to slow down, and the cable went slack. Arthur's head popped up above the surface. Tobias put one end of his paddle into the water to slow down the kayak as he approached Arthur. As the kayak pulled up on and angle next to Arthur, he laid face down into the ocean so that Tobias could unhook the cable. With the cable unhooked, Tobias started ravelling the cable up as Arthur, now floating on his back, soaking up some sunshine waiting for his trainer to start paddling. Tobias picked up his paddle and started rowing either side of his kayak, making his way towards an opening between two pontoons that had houses on them. Arthur swam behind Tobias with his head above the water so he could see the on goings of the city.
They entered the city and went underneath on of the wooden bridges. People walked alongside the banks of the canals as they made their way towards their destinations. Some school children were heading towards the centre of the city. Tobias looked at his watch. It was 1.15pm. They were seniors out on their lunchbreak and were heading back to the school for their final class of the day. Senior students were allowed to leave the grounds during lunch. They would often loaf around the town centre, but with the market being on today, those not wanting to window shop often just went to the edge of town for some peace and quiet, some letting their pokemon out for a swim sometimes.
Flocks of wingull and pelipper flew over the city as the sun shone down, it made for a very pleasant afternoon with the slight sea breeze, taking the sting out of the heat. As Tobias continued his journey back to the gym, he would occasionally pass someone on another kayak or people in gondolas who were transporting other goods or providing a taxi service for other people. They were longer and had someone at the back steering and rowing the boat. It only took Tobias another five minutes to arrive at the gym. He rowed past the front of the gym and moored his boat on the side of the pontoon, out of the way of the busier canal. He unharnessed his bag and threw it up onto the pontoon before he stood up. As he climbed up onto the pontoon Arthur leapt up out of the water and soared through the air before gracefully landing on his two webbed feet. Tobias heaved himself up onto the pontoon and made his way towards the sliding glass doors. As he did, he pulled out a pokeball, aiming it at Arthur. The red light burst out hitting Arthur and the empoleon disappeared into the pokeball.
As Tobias entered the gym, he saw two pokemon battling in the centre of the stadium. A giant snake like pokemon moved around quickly and ferociously. Whilst the pokemon resembled a snake, its body was made up of steel like boulders. The steelix was battling a large bipedal cat pokemon. It was a fire type. The flaming belt around its waist was a dead giveaway. It was quite a muscular pokemon. It had a large chest with huge arms that extended out to five sharp claws. Its large sharp fangs and lustrous mane provided an intimidating sight. Its powerful legs helped it avoid a lot of physical attacks from the steelix. The incineroar ducked, weaved, and jumped as the steelix whipped its tail and tried to constrict the pokemon. The incineroar jumped over the steelix's tail as it swung it around. As It landed back down, it landed poorly on its ankle. The trainer that owned the steelix saw this. "Quickly Behemoth, use headbutt now!" The steelix pivoted on the spot to face the incinerorar whilst it lowered its head, it leapt out, ramming it's head into the incineroar, which consequentially tumbled backwards, yet managed to land on all fours as it slid backwards. An even angrier expression appeared across the big red and black cat pokemon's face.
"Quick Allister, use bulk up!" The other trainer shouted. The pokemon clenched its fist in response and let out a huge roar to psych itself up. Veins began to bulge on its arms and legs, and an aurua invisible to the human eye build around the pokemon. "Now show the big dumb rock snake that taunt I showed you!" Allister extended out its hand signalling the steelix to come and get me, but at the end of it, Allister had his middle claw raised on his paw. It was the same gesture that the humans used when they expressed anger at one another." The steelix must have recognised this form of insult because it charged at Allister with hatred in its eyes.
"NO STEELIX! Don't fall for that!" The other trainer cried out. But it was too late.
"Now Allister, use brick break on its face!" Allister ran towards the enraged steelix. As they drew closer, the steelix lashed out with is big metal tail. Allister leapt high into the air, dodging the swinging mass of metal with ease. The incineroar raised a closed fist as it flew closer to the steelix face. It then brought it down with such tremendous force that the steelix slammed its huge jaw into the ground. The incineroar landed on top of steelix's body. The steelix groaned in pain as it lay there. "Now Allister use fire spin!" the trainer shouted, "Finish him off!"
"NO! STOP!" the man quickly interjected. "You win. We yield. There's no need for further battling." The other trainer signalled his hand telling Allister to stop.
The official standing on the edge of the arena stepped forward raising a red flag in the direction of Allister's trainer "The steelix has yielded and therefore unable to continue the battle! Incineroar wins! Trainer Graham wins two to one!" The small crowd in the gym cheered in response.
The fiery cat pokemon relaxed and jumped off the defeated steelix, making his way over back to his trainer. The losing trainer ran over to his steelix, arriving at the pokemon's big jaws. He hugged the pokemon the best he could "Great job mate. It's not easy fighting a fire type pokemon. You did good" The steelix opened its eyes and let out a soft grunt "Oh come on mate, don't be like that. You're a great fighter. But no matter what sort of pokemon you are, you're going to have a difficult battle when fighting pokemon types you're weak to. Now do you want to go rest in your corner or do you need me to put you in your pokeball and take you to the pokecentre" The steelix let out a sharp grunt and lifted his head. The large pokemon began to float, it must have been using its magnet rise to levitate using electrically generated magnetism. It floated over to its corner where it gently sat itself down and shut its eyes to rest.
The winning trainer approached with an outstretched hand "Well battled Percy. I enjoyed it."
Percy extended his hand in return and gave it a firm shake "Good luck with the next fella, you're gonna need it!" he said as he looked into the eyes of the winning trainer. He walked away and made his way towards a stand where a few rows of seats were. Some people from town had come in to spectate.
So, who's up next? Do I get to fight Henry now? The trainer said excitedly.
"You're battling me next." A voice came from the door, the challenging trainer turned to face the origin of the voice. It was Tobias. As he announced himself to the room. Raptor, the skarmory, had flown in through the opened roof of the gym stadium, banking over the seating area of the gym above the small crowd and landed effortlessly behind Tobias. The skarmory turned to its right and saw the steelix in the corner. It bounced over to it to investigate. Tobias walked towards the trainer "Have you got your two pokemon selected?" The way gyms worked was that each gym had one to three trainers in it that had to be beaten in a row before they earned the right to challenge the leader of the gym for the title of the badge. However, each trainer could only select two pokemon for these fights, except for the battle against the gym leader. The gym leader and challenging trainer could use up to 6 pokemon if they wanted. The reason the gyms have trainers is so that they can weed out the weaker trainers so that gym leaders don't get unnecessarily challenged. It also keeps the standard of the competition high, since it is a spectator sport, they want to have exciting battles so that the public will buy an entry fee to watch the battles. This helps generate revenue for the league.
"I sure do! We starting now?" Asked the eager trainer.
"Yup. Let's go over to the gym official and let them know the pokemon we will both be registering for the battle." Tobias signalled his hand towards a man sitting behind a desk on the edge of the field. The participating trainers in a gym battle – this includes the challenging trainer, the gym trainers, and the gym leader itself – all register their pokemon before battling because they lock in a pre-determined team. This is to prevent trainer's changing their team on a whim so that they get a type advantage. They must pick a team without knowing what sort of pokemon the other trainer will use. The challenger has the advantage since each gym is themed with a common pokemon type. In this case, the Pacificlog City Gym is a steel type gym. This is what the two metal cogs underneath the name outside represents. The two trainers filled out a form each writing down their teams to prevent any cheating. They then handed the forms to the gym official who inspected the teams.
"Everything is in order" the gym official said as he opened a desk draw to put the forms in. He closed and locked it as he stood up "Can the two trainers shake hands and then please take their positions at their respective ends of the battlefield." The two trainers shook hands in front of the gym official.
"Prepare yourself for a whoopin!" the challenging trainer said with a smile as he looked into Tobias' eyes. Tobias responded with a slight smile. They turned and made their way towards either end of the stadium. Now from the outside it looked as if the gym was built on a pontoon. That wasn't entirely correct. The gym itself was built on top of a large rocky island that had been landscaped with a few boulders to be utilised how battling trainers saw fit and the boundaries that made up the battlefield were actually trenches of sea water.
Tobias calmly walked over to his end of the field. Tobias was well aware of his pokemon's aversion to fire type pokemon, but Tobias had an upperhand that the other trainer probably hadn't noticed. He already knew one of his pokemon that he would likely use, incineroar. Most gym challengers have a large variety of pokemon types in their team for good coverage and versatility. So statistically speaking, the trainer has one, maybe two pokemon that are fire types. Tobias had taken all of this into account before registering his team. The two trainers arrived at their end. A bridge extended in front of them from their staging ground out into the main battlefield.
The gym official stood in front of his desk, raising a red and green flag in either hand above his head "This will be a one-on-one pokemon battle! Each trainer has already selected two pokemon to use in battle. Trainers are not permitted to swap out a pokemon mid battle. They can only swap a pokemon if a pokemon faints or if a trainer decides to yield that round, during which case either trainer may use this opportunity to swap pokemon. A winner is determined when a trainer has two pokemon that are unable to continue battling or if a trainer declares forfeiture! Trainers! Choose your first pokemon."
"Let's go again Allister, you can wreck this guy. You're fire moves are gonna melt his steel pokemon!" His incineroar bared its teeth with a wicked smile as it nodded in agreement to the words of encouragement. Allister leapt the water channel in a single bound instead of using the bridge to show off to the crowd.
Tobias reached behind his waist to remove one of the pokeballs off his belt. He lobbed it gently up into the air. It opened up, a surge of red light burst outwards, releasing a lucario. "Okay Luscious, you've got this. We have another fire type pokemon. Big surprise there" Luscious peered over his shoulder as he watched the incineroar walk towards the middle of the field "be careful of his fire moves. He also knows one or two fighting moves so remember to watch out for them. BUT! He's also weak to fighting moves, he's a dark type pokemon, so don't hold back!" Tobias raised a fist in front of him. Lucario raised his in turn and gave a fist bump whilst not taking his eyes off his opponent. With that he walked out over the bridge to meet his foe.
As they both strode towards the centre of the field, the two pokemon never broke eye contact. Both pokemon were quite physical, except Luscious was a bit smaller in size. However, this also made him nimbler in comparison. The incineroar somersaulted into the air as it landed on its little island in the centre. Luscious casually leapt the water on his side to reach the other island. Allister snarled as it jumped from toe to toe, eager to fight. Luscious suddenly assumed a fighting stance. He put his left foot forward, slightly lowering his centre, whilst extending his left arm in front, and his right arm behind him, closing his fist. "BEGIN!" Shouted the gym official from the side of the gym.
"Allister, use flamethrower!" Allister quickly inhaled deeply and followed up with a powerful beam of fire towards Luscious. Luscious quickly jumped up and landed on the boulder that was to the right behind him.
"Luscious!" Tobias shouted, "Jump onto that larger boulder so you're out of range and use focus energy!" Luscious immediately and effortlessly jumped backwards again with a slow rotating somersault, bending its knees as it landed to absorb the impact. Luscious closed his eyes and deeply inhaled and exhaled, his ear twitching to track the incineroar's movements.
"Quickly Allister, use earthquake on that rock that he's standing on!" Incineroar flexed its arms and chest as it raised its knee before slamming its paw into the ground. A small fissure began trailing away from Allister's foot towards the big boulder on which Luscious stood upon. He opened his eyes after exhaling, they briefly flashed blue.
"Use agility to dodge and close the gap then use low sweep!" Tobias yelled. The lucario vanished from the top of the large rock, before it crumbled to pieces. Lucario quickly reappeared in front of the incineroar as if it had teleported, Allister's eyes widened in surprise. Luscious crouched down sweeping its leg out hitting the back of Allister's leg with force. Allister leg gave out and he lost his balance and fell on his back exposing himself. However, the challenging trainer was quick to respond.
"Hurry Allister, use acrobatics to create some room, follow it up with a fire punch" Alister quickly rolled towards Luscious, forcing him to step back. He then quickly used his upper body strength to start twirling his legs around. From a distance it looked like the pokemon was break dancing. Luscious took another step back to dodge the attack but wasn't quick enough to dodge the fiery fist he saw rushing towards his face.
SMACK
Lucario recoiled, the force of the punch forcing him to roll backwards, all four paws digging into the ground to stop him from sliding. Luscious looked up, gritting his teeth. You could see some singed hair on his cheek from where Allister's punch connected. "Flamethrower now Allister!"
"Dodge with quick attack Luscious!" Tobias swiftly responded. As Allister's jaws erupted with a flamethrower, Luscious narrowly avoided the tunnel of fire by ducking underneath with an agility styled tackle. Luscious appeared in front of Allister again, jumping up and ramming his shoulder into his opponent's chest. The flamethrower vanished since Allister was briefly winded, starving the flamethrower from a steady supply of oxygen.
"Allister use fire fang!" He grabbed Luscious by his arms, pulling him closer to his face, his mouth began to glow, just as his powerful jaws came slamming down onto Luscious' shoulder. He roared in pain.
"Luscious, use force palm to get out of there!" Whilst Allister's jaws still latched onto Luscious 'shoulder, Luscious pulled back hands, they briefly glowed blue before he shoved them with immense force into Allister's exposed chest. The force of the impact sent Allister tumbling backwards, ending up near one of the smaller boulders. The pokemon breathed sharply as they took a second to recover.
"Allister another flamethrower!" Allister must have already had the same idea, because as soon as he finished his sentence, another spout of fire came from its mouth, hurtling towards Luscious!
"Luscious use aura sphere!" Thanks to his focus energy earlier, Luscious was able to quickly let out a powerful aura sphere before getting struck with the flamethrower. He was thrown backwards whilst the aura sphere hurtled towards Allister.
"Allister! Run around the boulder and blast the aura sphere with a dark pulse!" Allister started sprinting back towards the rock as he prepared a dark pulse. The blue aura sphere chased Allister as he ran around the rock. As Allister ran out from behind the boulder he jumped up and twisted in the air as he let out a pulse of dark energy towards the oncoming aura sphere. The two collided, sending out a concussive wave of air, throwing Allister towards Luscious.
"Luscious! Quickly use high jump kick!" Luscious used his powerful legs to leap up towards the airborne Allister. Allister couldn't react, the inertia from the concussive blast caused him to spin awkwardly in the air. Luscious' foot connected right into the middle of Allister's back. From the stand where the crowds watched and cheered, the arch in Allister's back from the kick made for a grotesque scene. The pokemon now went hurtling back down towards the boulder that he ran around just moments ago. "Luscious" when he lands release a hyper beam!" Luscious began to prepare a hyper beam. Allister hit the ground hard and rolled. As he started to get up he looked up at Luscious just as he released a powerful beam of energy straight at him. The blast of the beam threw Allister straight into the big rock that was behind him. Small rocks and dust exploded everywhere. As the dust settled everyone could see Allister laying in the rubble unconscious.
The gym official raised a green flag towards Tobias' side of the field "Incineroar is no longer able to fight! Lucario wins!" The crowd cheered. Lucario walked back towards Tobias, his paw rested on his left shoulder where he got hit with a fire fang. Some of his blue and white fur was burnt from the attack. The other trainer sprinted across the field, jumping the trench of water in the middle of the field to reach his injured pokemon. He knelt down beside Incineroar, his left hand cradling the back of his head. The incineroar woke up as he touched him.
"Easy mate, you'll be fine. You did great" Allister winced in pain. His fur coat was a mess, and all covered in dust and rubble "Take it easy now, I'll get you to the pokecentre soon." He pulled out a pokeball and it ejected a red light from its centre, hitting Allister, absorbing him into the pokeball. The trainer stood up and glared at Tobias. He had already returned Luscious into his pokeball.
"Both Trainers, please select your next pokemon." The gym official had once again risen both flags. Allister grabbed a pokeball from inside his jacket. A large pokemon came billowing out. It had a thick orange fur coat, with three blue rings either side. On its back it had two humps that were small volcanos. Its four legs each had a large black hoof to hold up its heavy frame. It was a camerupt. Tobias threw another pokeball up into the air, and out came Arthur the empoleon. Arthur quickly waddled out to the centre of the field where the camerupt was already waiting. Tobias was quite pleased with the turn of events. Whilst empoleon was still susceptible to ground attacks due to its steel typing, fire attacks wouldn't be as effective as they usually were thanks to empleon's combined water/steel type. Plus, with camerupt being a fire/ground type pokemon, it was extremely vulnerable to water attacks. The gym official waved her flags "BEGIN!" she shouted
"Arthur! Dive into the water now!" The empoleon jumped into the water that separated the two pokemon before camerupt and his trainer could react. Arthur had disappeared from view. "Arthur, use ice beam on camerupt's platform!" Arthur had circled behind camerupt,and popped up its head above water and immediately released an ice beam from its mouth. Ice began to freeze over on the rocky platform. Camerupt started to lose balance and struggled to keep its feet on the now slippery surface it stood on. Arthur ducked back below the surface of the water.
"Camille, use lava plume to melt the ice and to get rid of the water!" Camille let out a loud, long grunt as lava began to plume from it's back. It had a special kind of fur that the lava just poured off. It was some kind of heat retardant. The lava made short work of the ice and made its way to the trench of water surrounding Camille's little island. Steam rose into the air as the lava and water met.
"Arthur, get out of there! Use aqua jet to propel yourself in the water!" A huge burst of water sprayed up into the air as a silhouette of Arthur sped through the watery trenches with great haste. Camille's lava that she had excreted from her small volcanoes on her back protected her from the onslaught of water. The water surrounding her trench had disappeared and the laver had turned into obsidian. Camille now had a bridge to leave her small island and now had access to her half of the field.
"This is going to be a pain in the ass to clean the gym up after this battle. More boulders and more water. Plus removing the obsidian." Sighed the man named Henry from the sidelines as he shook his head with a smile as he enjoyed the battle.
Camille shuffled backwards across the obsidian where she would have more room to battle. She keenly observed the water watching for the empoleon to surface for its next attack.
"PPHHEEEEEEWTPFFT" Tobias made a specific whistling sound. Graham and Camille stood there, tense, unsure what the sound meant. The arena was quiet. Another small crowd of people had come in and had assembled on the stands and watched eagerly with anticipation.
SPLASH
"What the-" cried out Graham as the empoleon came jetting out of the water next to the bridge right where he stood.
"Arthur! Use water pulse now!" Shouted Tobias. Arthur was still propelled through the air from when he leapt out of the water. His beak opened as a bulb of light began to form. Water vapour from his body and the air began to pool into the ball of light as it grew bigger and bigger. Camille had glanced back when she heard her trainer cry out and begun to turn around to better protect herself. As she began to turn around, Arthur's pulse had already formed and was blasting straight for her.
"Quickly Camille, use incinerate to evaporate the water pulse!" Camille didn't need to be told twice. She began to exert flames from her mouth and both of the volcanoes on her back. But it was too late. Camille wasn't able to produce enough heat from her flames in time to disrupt the water pulse, and as a result, the powerful jet of water hit her side. The force of the water pulse had pushed Camille back and she dropped to her knees. The water pulse wasn't the strongest water attack. However, it was significantly stronger due to Camille's fire/ground type. Camille groaned, but she endured the hit. Graham could see his camerupt grit her teeth in pain. "Cammy, use yawn to slow your opponent! If we can't out speed him, we'll slow him down.!"
"Arthur! Quickly dive into the water to evade the yawn!" shouted Tobias in response. Arthur didn't hesitate. There was limited time. He had to avoid seeing the camerupt's face, otherwise he would begin to feel drowsy and potentially fall asleep. However, the nearest body of water was between the two opposing pokemon. Arhtur was faster than Camille but only in the water, he wouldn't have the time to turn his back and waddle to a different body of water without copping a flamethrower in the back. Arthur waddled aggressively towards the water. He leapt into the air, going headfirst into the water. As he was about to break the surface of the water, but out of reflex in a fight, he looked at his opponent where Camille was putting on a very convincing and tiring yawn. And that's all it took. Arthur was in the water but feeling tired and sluggish, his swimming technique was slow and sloppy compared to when he was pulling Tobias in his canoe earlier. Tobias saw this, as did Graham. Tobias' jaw clenched in response; he wasn't panicking but he knew that Arthur was in some trouble.
Tobias opened his mouth to say something, but it was Graham who beat him to it "Cammy use earthquake in front of and behind empoleon to trap him." Camille stood up onto her hind legs and then came down with immense crushing weight on the ground beneath her. Two small fissures started spreading out away from where she impacted the ground, racing towards where Arthur was lazily swimming in the water. The earthquake attack hit the water inf front and behind of Arthur. Two geysers of water went flying into the air. Once the geysers and the water spray had settled, jagged rocks could be seen blocking off the stream either side of Arthur, who was now face up in the water slipping into sleep.
"Arthur! You gotta wake up! You're gonna get hit! Wake up!" Shouted Tobias from the side.
"Cammy! Use earth power!" Cammille again reared up on her hind legs again, and again, came down onto the ground with immense force. Instead of fissures coming from her impact, there was a low rumbling that continued for a few seconds. Arthur started to open his eyes lazily, just as an unseen force started rock eruptions from the ground all around the blocked section of the river. Arthur had regained his wits and went to dive down into the water, just as an eruption of rocks hit Arthur square in the stomach, launching him up and out of the water. Arthur awkwardly flailed in the air like a fish out of water. He came crashing down onto the ground, briefly winding himself. Daniel didn't hesitate, "Cammille, use bulldoze to finish him off!" Camille began to stomp on the spot repeatedly. Ripples of earth started to fan outwards in all directions, making it near impossible to evade. Various sized boulders began to be thrown around in the air caused by the unseen force causing the ground to pulsate.
"Arthur!" Tobias shouted, "Protect yourself to endure the hit!" Arthur lifted his steel tipped wings and brought them down with great force into the ground. Arthur's steely wings dug into the ground as he knelt down to stabilise himself from the tremors whilst simultaneously using his strong foreboding blue steel wings as shields. Large rocks flew around from Camillie's bulldoze attack, a lot of the rocks bounced off Arthurs wings, some even shattered upon impact. Although small, some rocks did strike Arthur, but he did protect himself from most off the attack. Arthur panted as the tremors subsided. Both pokémon were fatigued from battle. "Arthur! Quickly use haze to gain the upper hand!" Arthur took in a deep breath, his belly expanding as his lungs filled. Then with a hefty exhale, dense frosty air swiftly expanded throughout the gym's terrain making it incredibly difficult to see more than a few metres in front of you.
"Aw dammit it" Henry cried quietly from the sidelines, "now we can't see anything. Just as soon as things were getting really interesting!" Some nearby spectators nodded in agreement as they kept their focus on the battlefield in front of them, not wanting to miss anything from this exciting battle between two skilled trainers.
FLIP FLOP FLIP FLOP FLIP FLOP
Sounds familiarly close to running could be heard in the haze. Although it didn't sound like normal running, more like flippers hastily hitting the ground, followed by sounds of rushing water then a splash. Unbeknownst to the spectators due to the haze, Arthur had quickly ran towards the centre of the field towards the water where he was swimming earlier. He leapt up into the air diving into the water. As he was airborne, he let out half a dozen quick water gun blasts towards the general direction of Camille. Whilst Arthur used the haze attack to hide his movements, during his sprint to the water, he lost the exact position of his foe.
THWACK THWACK THWACK
THWACK THWACK THWACK
The six water gun jets had made contact. Three had hit Camille. She roared out in frustration, fire coming out of her mouth and nostrils, her volcano-esque humps smoking. The flames caused the haze to slowly dissipate around her. The other three water gun jets missed their mark and emerged from the haze as they slammed into the wall just below some spectators, catching them off guard as they made sounds of surprise quickly followed by cheers as they felt somewhat involved in the battle from the close proximity of the carnage happening in front of them. "Cammy! Use fire spin to get rid of this haze and burn that annoying empoleon!" The other trainer cheered out. Camille must have liked the sound of that, enthusiasm flashed across her face moments before fire erupted from her humps and came spewing from her mouth. Flames started to spew outwards in a whirlpool like fashion, the haze vanishing as the fiery whirlpool took it's place.
"Now Arthur, the Camerupt has given away her position!" Tobias shouted with enthusiasm
"Huh?" a confused expression came upon Graham's face.
"Give it everything you got with a hydro pump! Finish this!" as Tobias pumped his fist in the air
Arthur picked up speed whilst swimming in the water, aiming up towards the surface. Arthur had picked up so much speed that as he leapt up into the air, he had breached through the thick haze and was now above it. Arthur truly looked like a flying penguin above clouds. Arthur quickly locked onto Camille, he had positioned himself behind her as he took to the skies. Camille couldn't see it, but Arthur was preparing himself to unleash a torrential hydro pump. The other trainer watched on in horror as he realised he couldn't do anything. Camille was vulnerable and the roaring flames of the fire spin were too loud for him to shout out a command. A powerful blast of water came from Arthur and effortlessly pierced through the whirlpooling flames and smacked into the back of Camille. The force of the water stream toppled Camille, rolling her over a couple of times. The flames dispersed, the source of the ignition becoming unconscious. Camille lay there in a large puddle of water, not moving.
The gym official watched intently at the fallen camerupt, looking for any signs of movement. None could be seen, he raised a green flag toward Tobias' end of the field "Camerupt is no longer able to fight! Empoleon wins! Tobias is the victor of the gym battle, winning in straight battles!" stated the gym official. The spectators cheered with satisfaction after watching a thrilling clash between two competent trainers. It embodied perfectly what the gym challenge aims to offer as a spectacle. "This brings an end to the gym challenge from Trainer Daniel. A gallant effort from all trainers. This concludes today's battles scheduled for the Pacificlog City Gym." Whilst the battle official shouted, both Daniel and Tobias had recalled their pokemon to their pokeballs and the two trainers had met nearby. Daniel approached Tobias with a friendly outstretched hand. Tobias extended his in return, the two clasped and they shared a firm handshake as they held a gaze.
"Well battled Tobias. Whilst I'm not thrilled about losing our battle, I enjoyed it very much." Smiled Graham "It was entertaining and educational. It seems I have a bit more training to do in the nearby islands before I can try and challenge Henry. He must be a helluva trainer if you're his second."
"I really enjoyed myself as well Graham. You didn't make it easy for me. I enjoy nearly all battles. But I do prefer a battle that are close regardless of outcome" responded Tobias as their handshake ended. "I wish you the best of luck in your future gym challenge battles. Who knows, we might get the opportunity to battle again in the future!"
Daniel raised an eyebrow "What do you mean, won't I battle you again in order to claim the right to face Henry for the gym badge?"
"You could, at our gym, there's actually three trainers in this gym, so you won't always face the same opponents. Make it a bit easier for us to work out times for challengers. We can't just be waiting around for challengers; we all do have lives to live. Which is another reason why any future battles between you and I might be happening later rather than sooner. I'm actually stepping down from my trainer role in the Pacificlog City Gym. I want to go to the mainland again and visit some friends and family, see knew places and pokemon and to also sign up for the Gym Challenge as well."
"You're kidding, someone of your calibre will easily plough through the gym challenge!" replied Danile, a look of surprise on his face.
Tobias smiled back. "Hmmmm, not really. I'm proficient with my steel type pokemon. Ever since the gym challenge reopened, no trainer has cleared all eight gyms, let alone face the league with a monotype team. The degree of difficulty has been overhauled since you and I would have been kids. So I'll need new pokemon and to diversify my team to stand a chance. To be honest, you're probably a better gym challenger candidate compared to me, since you'd have a lot more depth and variety in your pokemon than I do." Graham appeared to have a look of understanding as he listened to Tobias' perspective on the matter.
"Well, I appreciate the battle either way. Thanks for your time. I look forward to our paths crossing in the future." Daniel responded with a smile
"As do I." Tobias replied. The two shared a nod of mutual respect as they walked away from each other. Graham, making his way to the door, presumable to go to the pokemon centre to heal his pokemon, whereas Tobias had started to make his way towards the back to where the gym trainer rooms were.
Henry had climbed down from the grandstands and approached the gym official "Alfred, are you going to be okay with cleaning this mess up from the battle?"
Alfred looked up from his desk from where he had been recording the day's battles into the Pacificlog Gyms' records "Yes Henry, I'll manage thanks. I've got Mack and Cronk to help me out" he had reached down to his belt and had pulled up to pokeballs "Plus its Master Percy's turn to help clean up after battles today. Rather fitting since he caused half the mess. Speaking of where is that young man?" Percy was the trainer that Daniel was battling when Tobias had arrived. Alfred peered around looking for Percy. He spied him near the exit where the crowd slowly began leaving the gym. "Master Percy!" Alfred shouted with authority towards Percy. Percy winced as he froze. He had been caught trying to sneak off and skirt his responsibilities. Percy was a young and aspiring trainer. He was quite a skilful trainer but lacked some patience and his approach was often to just constantly attack. Like a hammer but everything around it was a nail. It was important to make sure that the trainers stationed at gyms aren't the best of the best. They're not meant to be unbeatable. But they're also great opportunities to foster young aspiring trainers, and to keep them on the right path. There was a lot of troubled youths around these days.
Even after the cataclysm that happened 16 years ago, there are still some towns and cities that are less well off and have higher crime rates. Some cities even have organised crime managed by gangs. Infamous gangs such as the more well-known ones like Team Rocket as well as more local gangs like Team Magma and Team Aqua. Most of Team Magma and Team Aqua went into hiding after the large public crackdown, following the wanton devastation that their actions resulted in. Some elements of the former teams disbanded and joined other existing teams, whilst some even went and started their own smaller independent element. Some even going off solo or isolation and taking on new identities to hide from the law.
Percy turned around sheepishly "Of course Alfred. Was just helping and older couple find their way to the exit." Percy lied.
Alfred's eyes narrowed on Percy with suspicion "Sure you were Master Percy. Now get over here and help me clear this obsidian and level out the field again." As Alfred ordered Percy, he threw his two pokeballs up into the air. They grew larger before erupting red balls of light. Two muscley pokemon appeared. One with four iconic large arms and the other was smaller in comparison with purple and beige fur spinning a steel girder around. "Mack! You go and grab the obsidian and load into onto the barge out the back of the gym so we cand dispose of it properly. Cronk, you go around and start breaking up the larger upturned boulders and then focus on levelling out the ground after all of those camerupt attacks." The two pokemon nodded in acknowledgement. Mack steadily walked over towards the obsidian blocks where he picked them up casually. His upper left arm secured a larger one, resting on his shoulder. His lower two limbs cradled some smaller ones in front of him whilst he used his last remaining arm to pick them up. As Mack effortlessly lifted the dense boulders, Cronk had acrobatically made his way towards some large mounds of obsidian. He swung his trusty steel girder, smashing them into smaller, more manageable boulders. Then, using his powerful kicks and punches the small rocks were obliterated into tiny rocks that were filling in the fissures caused by all the battling. Bit by bit, the terrain slowly began to level out.
Back in the trainer rooms, Tobias had gotten out of the shower and began making the way back to his dressing room. He opened the door with "T1" on it. Below that, it said "Tobias". His room was quite simple. It had a chair in front of a mirror and there was a wardrobe there as well, filled with some jeans and grey coloured polos, similar to the one that he wore earlier. Tobias grabbed a fresh set of jeans and put them on. He also pushed passed the grey tees and grabbed a white one from the end and put that on. There was a light pale green long sleeve button up hanging on the back of the door. Tobias grabbed it and quickly chucked it on, leaving it unbuttoned. He grabbed his belt. It was different to your normal belt, however. On a large section of the belt there was a long magnetic panel on the side of it. It was flexible like the belt as Tobias slowly wrapped it around his hips. Once he had done the clasp up, he grabbed his five pokeballs and placed them on the magnetic strip on his belt. A metallic sound of metal hitting metal was heard as the pokeballls stuck to his belt. After that, he quickly gathered his dirty clothes and towel and hurriedly shoved them into his duffel bag and left his room. As he exited the Trainer rooms, Henry waved him over. He was standing next to a vending machine with a lemonade in his hand.
CLUNK
A second lemonade had fallen into the bottom of the vending machine. Whilst Tobias made his way over to Henry, he surveyed the field on whence he battled earlier. It had changed drastically in the short time he had been in his change rooms. The uneven terrain from the ground attacks had been repaired and was once again even. The obsidian boulders were all gone and new large boulders hand been brought out and were positioned into different spots compared to earlier. Tobias also saw Alfred with his two fighting pokemon, giving them some treats, pats and acknowledgement of their labour. The pokemon cried cheerfully in response. Percy was sitting down, leaning his back against the wall whilst drinking a lemonade as well as he smiled at the warming scene depicting the bond between his older colleague and his pokemon. "Here catch!" Henry said. Tobias quickly snapped his neck towards Henry, his hands outstretched as he saw the lemonade already in the air. His duffle bag slipped off his shoulder, the straps grabbing Tobias' legs. He staggered and almost tripped as he caught the lemonade. "Sorry Toby, didn't mean to catch you off guard."
"All good mate" Tobias replied "Thanks for the lemonade, appreciate it."
"No worries, it was well deserved. You had a great battle there. Arthur had his work cut out for him against that Camerupt. I almost thought I would be facing a challenger."
"Yeah, you're not wrong. That bloke had some skills. I was incredibly fortunate that I had some good counter types with his fire pokemon. You don't always get that lucky against opponents who normally already have the type advantage over you!" Tobias took a sip of his lemonade. "It's surprising how tiring a pokemon battle can be when your pokemon exerts more energy battling. As a gym trainer facing constant challengers, you tend to get sore throats from all the shouting."
"True. Although I imagine I will be battling him in the next week or so after he's finished some training and reevaluated his team a little." Henry took another gulp of his fizzy drink "And you'll no longer be with us. It will be down to Percy and Elise."
"Well,
you do have to battle sometimes" Tobias said with a grin "you are a gym leader after all. Us gym trainers can't do all the work." Tobias took another sip of his refreshing lemonade "We battle the challengers more than you! Plus, Elise and Percy will benefit more from battling than me since they haven't been trainers for as long"
"Again, True. But I'm sure someone as talented as you will be responsible for a badge as well in the near future." Henry had finished his lemonade. He crunkled up the can in his hands as he spoke and then threw it at a bin a few metres away. It went in. "The League will surely notice your skills even more now that you plan on taking the gym challenge yourself!"
"I wouldn't get too ahead of yourself. I've got a long way to go." Tobias smiled at the compliment "You've illustrated that to me numerous times when you have beaten me in training and battles."
"That'll change pretty quickly I reckon! Do you plan on attempting our Gym as your first challenge now that you've signed up?" Henry asked as he raised an eyebrow.
"I've thought about that, and I don't think I will. I'm thinking of catching the ferry. I don't know yet if I will go to Lilly-Cove Bay or New Slateport. I want to see some different regions and add some new flavour to my pokemon team. I love my steel type pokemon, but I wouldn't mind a little more variety in my team." Tobias patted his pokeballs containing his companions as he spoke.
"Yes, that is fair. It is limiting, but it's a great opportunity to learn. You learn a lot when you are at a disadvantage. Not just about pokemon and battling, but about yourself as well. I'm sure you will go far and have some unique experiences along the way. So, what now then?" asked Henry
Tobias stretched his back. He was feeling a bit stiff after the events of today. Might have irritated something when I was paddling earlier, he thought. "I'm going to go home after I say my goodbyes here at the gym. Have a meal with the family and an early night before I head to the port."
"Well, I won't hold you up anymore. Thank you again for volunteering your time here at the gym the pass year. We have enjoyed your company and vigour here. We look forward to battling you here when you challenge us." Henry opened up his arms, gesturing a hug. Tobias smiled and took a step towards Henry. The two briefly embraced, patting the other one on the back. They stepped away from each other, Henry took a few steps back and waved as he began to turn around "See you soon Tobias. Call us if you ever need help or just to chat. Stay safe out there, it's not the same Hoenn it used to be."
"I will!" Tobias also turned around and made his way over to the Alfred and Percy. Tobias' skarmory, Raptor had also joined them and was socialing with Mack and Cronk. As he made his way over there, he finished his drink and put it in the same bin as Henry did earlier and grabbed Raptor's pokeball to put him away.
Roughly 40 minutes had passed by, and Tobias had finally walked out the main entrance to the gym after saying his final goodbyes. The evening sun was out, the glare briefly blinding him. He turned around up at the gym's sign where the two steel gears were. He smiled as memories of some of his memorable battles flooded into his mind as he walked over to his kayak. He untied the ropes at either end and gently climbed in, not wanting to get wet. He grabbed his paddle and used it to push off from the pontoon. As he did a blue and red pokemon bobbed next to as it swam past. It was a tentacool. It wasn't uncommon for wild pokemon to behave calmly in populated areas. Ever since the events of The Clash, wild pokemon had found a refuge in the near surroundings of most populated areas. The tentacool paid no attention to Tobias and just kept swimming, enjoying the water.
Tobias began to paddle, as he did, he looked around. It was after 4pm now, the remainder of the day had been quickly spent at the gym. It was about a twenty-minute trip home by kayak. Would have been a few minutes if he used Aruther but decided that wouldn't be necessary after his battle earlier. This would also be one of the last times in the unforeseeable future that Tobias would be in the canals of Pacificlog City. Besides, you can't have your pokemon doing everything for you. Sometimes it's refreshing to do some things without them.
It wasn't as busy as it was earlier. Whilst he had been battling, school had finished and most of the kids were home now. The supermarket was busy. People finishing work and getting food for dinner. Tobias weaved his way through the floating pontoons, gently passing under stone and wooden bridges. He saw many pokemon in the water on his journey home. They made the trip home entertaining. Some interacted with his kayak or swam with him a little. Other pokemon were too busy playing with others or going about their lives in the water. Before he knew it, Tobias had arrived home. He moored his kayak next to another one, as well as a larger fishing boat that could comfortably hold half a dozen or so people in it. He grabbed his duffle bag, and threw it up onto the fishing boat, he carefully climbed up the fishing boat to get to the pontoon. He was back on dry land, slung his duffle bag over his shoulder and walked towards the door.
Tobias slid his key in and opened the door. The smell of a home cooked meal hit him causing him to smile. He loved a roast meal. His mother knew that this would be his last night in the house for some time, so she was pulling out all the stops to say goodbye to her little boy. Toby had entered the kitchen "That smells unreal mum" Toby said looking at the roast in the oven.
His mother turned around surprised. She mustn't have heard him enter the house. "Oh? You're home in good time. Dinner won't be ready for a bit over an hour. Your father should be home by then." His mother was cleaning up some dishes and putting them a way as she talked "How was your day off?" She added.
A little blue pokemon with a tail as big as it's body came bouncing over to meet the person that it heard come through the door. "Riilll." It greeted Tobias with much enthusiasm.
"Good to see you too Penn" Penn, or Pennelope was a friendly azurill. She was technically a wild pokemon having never been captured in a pokeball but had lived in the area for the past couple of years. Pennelope had slowly garnered confidence from Tobias feed her some treats most nights after cooking food for his pokemon, until one day he hadn't fed her treats yet and she came bouncing through the window demanding to be fed. Ever since then she declared this her new home. She would come and go as she pleased but would always come back home at night.
Toby had already begun unpacking his duffle bag, pulling out the food that he had prepared earlier for his pokemon when he was out on the island. "Yeah, it was good up until after lunch. The gym couldn't get hold of Elise, so they called me up to fill in when a challenger arrived." Tobias had grabbed some containers to put the pokemon food in from the pot "Normally the challengers notify us in advance and schedule a day to challenge, but I don't think this guy did, and we didn't really have anything going on, so they did an impromptu challenge. No big deal." He continued to ladle the stews into the containers.
"Oh, that was good of you to come in. Especially since it was your last day before you left. I love how you're always so happy to help out with almost anything without a fuss" His mum said smiling whilst she dried a pan. "Did you get to have a good battle at least?
Tobias continued to divide up the leftover food into the plastic containers. "Yeah, it was a challenging fight, but I was lucky to have a type advantage that allowed me to pull away with a quickish but hard fought win. Arthur and Luscious were in fine form today." Pennelope could smell the food that Tobias was handling. She jumped and pawed on his pants, making sure he knew she wanted some. Tobias grabbed a bowl and put some of the food in there and put it down next to him. Pennelope jumped on it. She let out little sounds of delight as she munched on the yummy food.
"Well, that sounds lovely, nice way to wrap up your time at the gym" Tobias' mum smiled at him before bending down to check the roast in the oven. "You go have a quick shower now before your father gets home and we can have our last family meal for who knows how long."
"Already had one at the gym, but I will go upstairs and double check to make sure I have everything. Won't be a good start to my journey if I get to the next city and then have to use Raptor to fly me back because I forgot something." Tobias had walked out of the kitchen, as he did, he could hear his mother humming a tune as she continued to cook. When he got upstairs to his room, there was clothes and equipment in various neat piles waiting to be packed into a couple of bags. Tobias put his headphones in, knelt down and went to work.
Tobias was putting all his bodyweight down on the duffle bag to get the zip closed. It had taken him nearly an hour to meticulously pack everything. He thought "It's going to get old real quick if I have to do this every time I leave camp in the morning." He took his headphones out and went back down stairs. As he rounded the bottom of the staircase into the archway, he bumped into someone. They were of similar height and build as one another.
"Hey! Careful there boy" The man said with a threatening voice. Tobias was a little startled, mostly because of unexpectantly bumping into someone. They made eye contact with one another before the man let out a little chuckle, as he lightly elbowed Tobias' waist. "Thanks for saving me the trip upstairs. C'mon, the roast is ready." It was Tobias' dad. He was a reasonably fit man. Most people in Pacificlog City were. He had brown hair that was probably more grey than brown, and starting to recede ever so slightly. Tobias' father, Mark, had aged rather gracefully. He was well tanned just like most of the other locals and had already changed into shorts and flip flops and finished off with a dorky beach floral shirts tourists at a beach would wear.
They had all sat down at the table, "Make the most of this Roast Toby, this is gonna be the last decent feed you get in a while, especially if that's what you plan on eating. His father gestured towards the few plastic containers of pokemon food that Tobias had organised earlier.
Toby rolled his eyes "Hil-arious dad." Tobias sighed as he poured gravy over his meal "I'm still unsure if I'm going to miss your humour or not yet dad. His parents both chuckled.
His father briefly got up to the fridge and grabbed two beers from the fridge, placing one in front of him and one in front of his son. "Your mother filled me in on today's battle. Sounded like you earnt it." Mark gestured towards the beer, the two beers fizzed as the screw tops came off. "You all good to go? Got everything packed?
"Sure do. Just finished it before I bumped into you. I'll be as quiet as possible when I leave since the SS Voyager is departing at 5.30. I probably have to be there at 4.30 to check-in my luggage." Tobias shoved a fork full of roast in his mouth "To save time I'll just fly on top of raptor in the morning." He said with a full mouth of food.
"Good to hear you're all organised. But you're not as organised as you think. Theres one thing you haven't packed." Mark said as he then also continued to eat his dinner. Tobias had a puzzled look, darting his eyes between his parents. He was going to say something, but his father beat him to it. "Relax. You couldn't have packed this. And that's because its a present that your mother and I got you. We'll get it for you after dinner and after you've washed up. Might be your last meal but this could also be the last time you wash the dishes for us a while."
Tobias smiled as he stood up to collect his parents' finished plates. "Make the most of the slave labour whilst you can Dad." He walked over to the sink and started running the hot water.
Tobias' mother stood up from the table "I'll be right back. Honey, carry the last of the dirty dishes over there for Toby." Mark smiled and stood up to collect the remaining dishes. "And after that put the condiments away handsome." she yelled from another room. Tobias and Mark continued to tidy up the kitchen. Just as they finished, Tobias' mother walked in holding a wrapped present and put it on the table.
Tobias and Mark had turned around after putting away the last dishes. Mark smiled at his wife, "You give it to him Helen, it was your idea to get it."
Helen picked up the present and passed it to Tobias with a big smile on her face. "Here you go Toby. I'm sure this will come in very handy on your little adventure."
Toby began to open up the present. As some wrapping paper fell to the floor, what was left was not one but two Iridium Extreme 9575 satellite phones. "This is amazing. Thanks, mum. Thanks dad." Both Mark and Helen had large smiles on their face, "This is great, but do you really think that I'm that bad at losing things that you bought me two?"
Mark laughed and slapped his son on the back, "No Toby, one is for you, and the other is for us. We just wrapped them together so you wouldn't accidentally find one." Pennelope had jumped up onto the table to inspect the box. She sniffed it and gave it a tiny kick, moving the box ever so slightly.
"Thanks dad. Thanks mum." said Tobias as he hugged his parents. "I'm sure this will get plenty of use."
Helen grabbed the box that held Pennelope's interest. Pennelope wasn't impressed, she was still investigating. "It's a nifty bit of kit," Helen began to open it up. Pennelope's eyes widened as she watched the unboxing, eager to see what mysteries it held. "You can call and text anywhere, although I'm not sure how well it works in caves. It also gives you your GPS coordinates, so that will be handy in an emergency." Helen paused, realising what she said "Gosh, I hope you don't need it for anything like that."
"Don't stress mum. It will be fine. I won't do anything stupid, and if anything does happen, I now have this to help me." Tobias gestured to the satellite phone that his mother now held after pulling it out of the box. Pennelope's eyes were locked onto the device that Helen now held.
Mark grabbed the other box and began to open it "It's also got great protection against water and dust. As well as being incredibly drop resistant. I wouldn't go swimming with it though, at least not too deep. These sat phones make the old pokegear look pathetic!"
"I hope you two are enjoying opening my presents" Tobias said flatly with a slight smile. His parents stopped and looked at each other then laughed.
"Whoopsie" laughed Helen. "Guess we got a little carried away." She passed the one in her hands to Tobias "Here. You get familiar with it". As Tobias reached for it, a flash of blue had intercepted and the sat phone was gone from Helen's hand.
"Oi Pen! Give that back now!" Cried out Tobias "That's expensive!" Tobias chased after Pennelope as she hopped around on her ball like tail."
Mark laughed at the scene before him as Pennelope jumped on the couch, across the coffee table and onto Mark's armchair. "She's just checking the quality of it. If it can't handle Penn, we will have to return it!" Mark continued to laugh until Helen slapped him across the shoulder and scowled at him. "What was that for?" queried Mark as he rubbed his shoulder.
"Don't just stand there!" Helen was not impressed "Help Tobias! If Penn breaks that, there will be hell to pay!" Mark rolled his eyes and went to help his son. "Oi! Don't you roll your eyes at me mister. You know I'm right!"
Mark walked into the lounge to help, but already found Tobias had a firm grip on Pennelope and was trying to wrestle the sat phone from her mouth. As tenacious as Pennelope was, Tobias soon had recovered the sat phone, albeit covered in Pennelope's slobber. "Lovely" Tobias said unimpressed. He passed Pennelope to his father and went to clean his birthday present"
Pennelope, now in Mark's hands looked up at him chirping and feigning innocence. Mark wasn't falling for it. "You're naughty" he said quietly, giving her a little bonk on the head with his index finger. Pennelope wrinkled her face in response. Mark gently placed her down and went back to the kitchen. Pennelope watched him before hopping along behind him. "Is it alright Toby?"
"Yeah, its fine. It passed the 'Penn Test'." Tobias said sarcastically as he looked at Pennelope. She looked at him as if she had no thoughts behind her eyes.
"Good," stated Helen. "Now go and pack it away before you forget and before that little shit takes it and actually does damage it!" Tobias laughed and made his way towards his room. Pennelope followed, her interest now back on the sat phone that Tobias held. Helen turned to face Mark "Cup of tea dear?"
"Would love one. I'll go turn on the tv." Mark spun on his heels to go back into the lounge.
Soon enough Tobias was back, Pennelope was in tow close behind him. He joined his parents in the room for what would be his last bit of family time for a long time. He sat down on the couch. Pennelope jumped up on his lap and started to nest. Tobias carefully reached over to pick up his tea that his mother had made for him. He had a sip, whilst patting Pennelope who chirped with delight before falling asleep. Tobias smiled and had another sip as he thought "I'm going to miss you guys."
Pennelope looked up the stairs with a hint of determination in her eyes. She wriggled on the spot before jumping up the stairs, clearing three steps at a time as she bounced on her tail. She got to the top of the stairs and jumped over towards a closed door. Pennelope eyed the door handle. She jumped up and bit down on the door handle. She held onto it as her weight pulled down on the handle. She used one of her feet to push off the door frame to open the door. The doo swung in. Pennelope had done this before. A light thud was heard as Pennelope let go and bounced over towards the bed. Tobias laid in bed, undisturbed by the noises made from Pennelope's acrobatic entrance. She jumped up on the bed, careful not to touch Tobias. She cautiously navigated around him until she got to the head of the bed. She watched Tobias for any signs of movement before she looked up at the head of the bed, preparing to jump. She leapt up, soaring in the air. Until she wasn't. Two hands had grabbed her mid-flight "RIIIIIIIILLL!" Pennelope screamed. She'd been caught.
"Nice try Penn," Tobias was half awake as he clutched the squirming azurill "You're not waking me up with a body slam today." Tobias laughed in triumph as he looked at the defeated Pennelope. He rolled onto his back and sat Pennelope down on his chest. "Twas a valiant effort though. You were almost there." Pennelope gently bopped him on his forehead with her tail. Before jumping off the bed. Toby got up, rubbing his eyes. He looked at his watch. It was 3.30 am. He had 30 minutes to get to the dock and hopefully enough time to get some breakfast. Tobias liked to leave a little bit early in case something happened, he'd still have time to make it to the docks. He quickly got dressed and went downstairs. His hiking boots, duffle bag and backpack were sitting next to the door waiting for him. Pennelope had followed him down and observed Tobias putting on his boots. He went over to her and picked her up giving her a hug and a pat. "I'm going to miss you Penn. Maybe not the body slam wake ups, but everything else I'm going to miss." Pennelope nuzzled into Tobias' neck as he hugged her. He pulled away and gently placed her down, scratching her head one last time. He put his backpack on and picked up his duffle bag and looked down at Pennelope one last time. "See you soon bud." He quickly left through the door, shutting it behind him, leaving Pennelope looking at a closed door. She let out a sad, quiet 'rill' as she hopped closer towards the closed door.
Tobias marched towards the bridge connecting his pontoon to another, passing by his kayak in the process. Tobias couldn't take his kayak because there would be no place to tie it near the city's major dock and also, his dad would have to come and get it. Tobias decided he didn't want to use Raptor to fly to the dock. He wanted to walk through the quiet morning streets of Pacificlog City one last time. Most of the city was devoid of all human and pokemon life this early in the morning. Tobias could occasionally here a distant caw of wingull and pelipper, but mostly could only hear the gentle lapping of the water hitting the pontoons. As he walked, he could make out the sign of the city's gym in the distance. The steel cogs catching the moonlight. He rounded the corner of the Pokecentre and could see the dock with a large, formidable ship looming behind it. It was the SS Voyager. A large ship that mostly transported shipping containers from the mainland to the island cities and towns.
There were quite a lot of large cities out in the ocean these days since a lot of people fled the mainland during The Clash in 2004, particularly the northern cities. The volcano erupting and spreading molten lava and deadly fumes nearby. The ocean was comparably safer even with the powers of the legendary water leviathan wreaking havoc. A lot of the aid went to Ever Grande City and Mossdeep City. Sootopolis City was annihilated due to the extinct volcano the city resided in was no longer extinct when Groudon and Kyogre shared one of their many battles.
Tobias approached the sliding glass doors, entering as they quickly parted. He looked around. There were about a dozen or so passengers waiting to board the SS Voyager. When container ships were coming in, they would often have a small of rooms for the public buy if they needed to go somewhere. Tobias approached the ticket booth. He brought out his smart phone and showed the man a QR code on his SS Voyager ticket. The man in the booth yawned and unenthusiastically scanned the QR code. The scanner beeped in a positive fashion and the man nodded his head towards the group of people waiting to check their luggage.
The check in and security was quick and painless. Only sixteen people ended up going through to wait for boarding. Tobias went over to the kiosk. There were some sandwiches that looked like they had been in there a little longer than they should. That was a hard no. And there was a meat pie. The four AM check-in time didn't allow travellers a large variety of food. The lady tending the kiosk was about as enthusiastic about life as her colleague in the ticket booth. "Morning," chirped Tobias. His cheeriness was not contagious. "Can I please have the meat pie."
The lady touched the screen in front of her a couple of times "$6.70, only accepting card."
Tobias whipped out his phone and tapped it on the eftpos machine. It beeped, a green tick illuminated on the screen. "Thank you" Tobias left and immediately started to sink his teeth into his pie. Tobias walked over to the handful of seats where everyone was waiting and sat down in the end seat. As he continued to eat, he pulled out a little white case and opened it. In it was two earpieces. He took one out and put it in his right ear to deter the man from next to him from talking to him. It was too early for trivial chit chat. Opening his phone, Tobias started to play some music. He looked around at the people waiting. There was a young couple with what looked like two twins. They were each holding a child that had passed out. Four o'clock morning starts were apparently too early for the little tykes. Next to them there was an older couple holding hands. The lady was resting her head on the older man's shoulder as she slept. There were a couple of sailors who stood waiting around. One sailor was twirling a cigarette in his hand as a he agitatedly looked at the no smoking sign.
A PA crackled to life "Good morning everyone. This is the call for all passengers boarding the 4.30 departure of the SS Voyager, please make your way to the door. We will be checking your boarding passes. You can then proceed to step out onto the dock and cross the gangway and board the ship. There will be staff to help guide you."
The people stirred in their seats as the woke up from their sleep. The sailor holding the cigarette and his three colleagues strode over to the lady checking the boarding passes. She scanned them and they wandered through. Tobias had risen and was making his way to get his boarding passed scanned. "Morning sir. May I see your boarding pass please?" Tobias brought out his phone again and showed another QR code to the lady. She scanned it, followed by a beeping noise resonating from her computer. The lady glanced at the screen seeing Tobias' name. "Thank you for travelling with us Mr Slater. We hope you enjoy your journey."
Tobias nodded "Thank you, looking forward to it." He exited through the door and made his way towards the gangway where he saw the sailors crossing it. Excitement started to build withing Tobias. It was all finally happening. New experiences, new pokemon, new people. A new challenge. Tobias couldn't help but grin "It's go time."
