[PKMN FULL] TRAINERS (IC)

[Dragon]

The Super Aaaamazing Noel!
Lavender Town

vs. Lampent II

"It's all over, now!" Jarmie declared. The flames of the fire spin continued to blaze, leaving Amethyst trapped within. Amethyst, shaking like a leaf, could only survey her surroundings. There was no escape, it had completely surrounded her... leaving her in just the perfect position for Lampent to prepare itself for Jarmie's order. "Finish it with Ember!" The Lampent readied its flames from within its body, releasing an endless stream of spit-fire towards its steel-typed opponent, devastating it with each wave of attack. Eventually, the flames gathered, and caused a small explosion from where Amethyst was being shot at.

"Amethyst, no!" Noel cried out, helpless to prevent the damage. After the explosion, there was smoke that eventually cleared, showing the flames have died out. There was Amethyst, on her knees and hands, struggling to get back up... but...

☆☆☆☆☆
"I've done all I can... I'll leave the rest to you... Master."
★★★★★★​

Noel could feel that she had passed on her feelings on to her. Noel had playful a fountain's worth of dramatic tears in her eyes, giving Amethyst a thumbs up. "Ok...! Good Job..."

Amethyst slumped back down, with a small smile on her face, unable to move anymore.

"Mawile can't battle!" the lass announced. "Lampent is the winner!"

"Amethysttttt..." Noel and Luna both clenched their fists, now both having dramatic tears.

This kid is definitely weird... Jarmie observed. ...I don't understand her at all. Is she really a trainer?

Luna made her way to her new fallen friend, Amethyst. She gently placed her hand upon her... and then looked a Lampent back, menacingly. But she then looked away, carrying Amethyst back to Noel's side. "Luna..." Noel said, with Luna responding with a nod. "A being who watched her friend die, now vowing to vanquish the monster responsible for her death... Luna has arrived!" Luna skipped her way to the battlefield, now face to face against her new menace, Lampent. Noel once again made a small frame using her hands and fingers, pointing straight at Luna.

"The credits have rolled on our romance film, so now..."

"...Now, Luna shall journey in her quest to slay the vampire Lampent, who haunts Lavender with its terrifying flame!!"

"This isn't Pokestar Studios, you know!" Jarmie snapped.


The following events are a fantasy within Noel's mind.


*******

Spoiler:

The vampire's castle loomed just ahead for Luna, the young vampire hunter. In her adventure, she had battled countless monsters and demons who worshiped the foulest creature of them all... Lampent, the foul vampire who sat upon his venomous throne. But she was not alone, for she had a partner by her side. Young Noel was a human lady who had been rescued by Luna that faithful night where Luna had also lost her beloved sister... Amethyst the Mawile. Finally, the carriage stops, and the duo made their way into the castle, seemingly unguarded.

No... it was purposely unguarded. He was expecting the duo. The sounds of an organ was heard, coming from up above. After climbing some fragile, unstable stairs, they finally made their way to a spacious room... one where Luna's nemesis sat. Lampent, the lord of darkness. They had reached his throne room. Luna, determined to finally put an end of this saga, stepped forward.

The Lampent had a relaxed gesture, sipping a glass of wine - with his own human partner, Jarmie the wicked witch, who loomed nearby. He gazed at Luna, unconcerned.

Luna had clenched her first, not only representing her disgust of her foe, but to embrace the final hope that the world had placed upon her.

The Lampent had chuckled, now seemingly intrigued by this foolish Clefairy's ideals.

The Lampent had thrown his glass of wine to the ground, shattering it all over the floor. He then rose out of his throne, readying his powerful fire magic. His flames engulfed his entire body, illuminating the dark room with a bright, blue colour. Luna readied her whip, and made battle pose to ready herself for whatever came her way. Noel clasped her hands, making a small prayer as thunder could be heard, and lightning flashed making the room even brighter. The battle between darkness and light had begun...

*******

"Who are you calling a wicked witch?!?!"

"...Clefairy vs. Lampent... let the battle begin!" the lass announced, as the two pokemon on the field stood ready.



Luna's normal type attacks won't work on a ghost type... Noel thought, but had a confident smile. "But, luckily, Luna's powers won't be dismissed as something as trivial as this! Luna! Perform your Copycat!" Luna lit up a bright red. She then sprang up, opened her mouth, and released a spray of flames towards Lampent. Taken by surprise, Lampent was pelted by the flames, causing it to move out of the way out of its position.

"So, it can use Copycat..." said Jarmie. "In this case, since I've had my Lampent use Ember last, it allowed the Clefairy to copy it... heh, not too bad, but that won't work on us! Lampent, counter with your Fire Spin!"

The Lampent used it's stronger Fire Spin attack to repel Luna's flames. The flames spiraled towards back at her, forcing Luna to dodge out of the way. The Lampent was on hot pursuit of Luna as she dodged, however, blasting swirling, hot flames to his opponent. "Don't let her get away!" Jarmie shouted.

Luna hopped, skipped and jumped away with grace, easily dodging his attacks... or so she was made to believe. Eventually, the Lampent had fired his flames right in front of Luna's path, stopping her in her tracks. He then released flames right behind of Luna's path, creating a circle that surrounded Luna.

This was Jarmie's plan all along, to surround Luna with flames just as she did with Amethyst. "Luna!" Noel cried out. She had to think fast, or else Luna will be defeated just as Amethyst was. All she could plan to do was to counter-attack... and to do a little trick.

"Follow up with Night Shade!"

"Use Copycat!"

Lampent used its Night Shade attack, with Luna using her move a split second slower in order to copy it. The two black rays of darkness collided with one another, causing another small explosion that encased the field in a black smoke. Jarmie and Noel covered their faces, trying to protect themselves from all the dust and debris that flew around the field; it was a stronger impact than the attack flew at Amethyst a short while ago. Once again though, the smoke eventually cleared, but this time to Jarmie's surprise... Luna seemed to have vanished.

"Wh-what?" she said, taken by surprise. She and her Lampent surveyed around the room. "Where... where did it...."

"Hmhmhmhm.... kyahahahaha!" Noel was beside herself, cackling away with pride, joy, and with a little dramatic flair. "This is our secret technique, one that has been passed down from monster slayer, to vampire hunter! With this, let all those who rest in darkness tremble of Luna's power!" Lampent then suddenly got hit back the back of its head with something hard. It turned around to see what it was, only to see that nothing was there. Then, it got hit with something else. This time he saw what had hit him: one of the small rocks that came from all the debris from the field.

But, what was doing this... Jarmie frantically searched around too. "What's going on here!?" she demanded. "That Clefairy couldn't of just vanished!" Lampent had turned around again, only to be hit again by a small rock, this time right on the face. That has to have smart - it staggered, covering itself from the blow. But this time, a barrage of rocks started to pelt him.

"Yes... Yes! Yes!! This is the debut of our super-secret-awesome-ultimate technique!" The pelting rocks had a source. It was a small, pink creature - a creature that was all-so familiar. It was Luna, seemingly shrunken down to a much, much smaller size.

"Minimize!!"

Spoiler:

"Minimize...?" Jarmie tried making sense of the situation. "I see... when that explosion happened, that Clefairy must of used Minimize to shrunk down, and hide itself under the cover of the smoke. Ugh, cheeky, pesky thing... is it trying to make us look stupid?!" she then took a deep breath, composing herself to deal with the situation. "We'll just have to flush it out. Lampent! Night Shade!"

The Lampent continuously fired one black beam after another, trying desperately to hit its small target. There didn't seem to be any meaningful results, however.

"Luna! Copycat!" Noel ordered.

The Lampent still tried to fire its attacks, hunting for the small Clefairy, only to be blasted with an even smaller beam of Night Shade, coming from below. Lampent then spun around, and quickly fired his attack right where the Clefairy had fired - only to be pelt again with another one of Luna's attack from another direction. It stumbled back and forth; while each of Luna's attacks didn't do much damage, they slowly added up, racking more and more damage.

"Switch to Fire Spin and let's get this over with!" Jarmie shouted.

"Go Luna!" Luna leaped. As she did, she started to grow, and grow and grow again until she had returned to her normal size. When she grew, she was much closer to Lampent. Right as Lampent had readied his attack, he noticed Luna from the corner of his eye, and spun around to meet her.

*******

The lightning had intensified, and the thunder roared even louder. Luna started to pant for air. This was indeed the toughest battle she had ever fought... with stakes higher than she ever had participated in. If there was any hope...

...It would have to be the final, ultimate attack. She prepared her stance, and readied her magic.


*******


"Now, for a Copycat!" the Lampent was blasted by an even stronger attack of Luna's copied Night Shade, blasting it away a few feet, sending it straight to the ground. After the move, Luna had started breathing heavily. She had been running around, pelting the Lampent with move after move - more moves that she had ever done at once before, so she was pushing at her limits. It was too early for Noel to celebrate, however... as the Lampent eventually had gotten back up, stubborn enough to keep on battling. "That didn't do it either? Man it's tough... so this is the resilience of a Gym Leader's pokemon..."

"You won't beat us that easily now," Jarmie explained. "Your cheap tricks will only get you so far. Unlike what we have, which is experience, and a strong will."

"A... strong will?" Noel asked.

Jarmie in place of a reply, quickly snapped her fingers. "Smog!" Her Lampent released a purple cloud of vapor, that surrounded itself. The vapor started to engulf the field... Luna covered her nose and leaped backwards in order to try and avoid it, but surprisingly, the vapor did not last long, as it quickly cleared up. Lampent however, vanished along with it.

It... it vanished? Noel thought to herself, with Luna looking around for it. How?

"Now do you see, kid?" Jarmie solemnly asked. "You're not the only one who has tricks up their sleeve!" she snapped her fingers again, and then all of a sudden, her Lampent popped up again, right behind Luna.

"W-wait a minute..." Noel realized in shock. "That was... Minimize?!"

"Now go, Lampent! Night Shade!" Luna was taken by surprise as the Lampent use it's ghostly arms to clasp on her head. He then fired a powerful black beam from his eyes, blasting Luna with great might. The blast flew Luna back a bit, landing Luna on her back. She stopped moving after she landed, as she immediately fainted upon impact.

"Clefairy is unable to battle! Lampent wins! The winner of the match is... Leader Jarmie!"

Noel fell to her knees, slumping nearby Luna. "I..." she started. "We gave it all we had... but still was no match..."

Jarmie recalled her Lampent, and turned off the music that was blaring in the background. "You're an interesting girl," she said. She made her way over to Noel, who kept kneeling there, seemingly dejected. Jarmie rubbed her own hair. "Come on, enough of the sulking. You knew already, you and your pokemon lack experience. And hey... You're some sort of... entertainer, right? At least, that's what I'm getting from you. Entertainers need a strong will too, to make people smile, or... whatever. After all, if you're not passionate about the battle, how do you expect others too?"

Noel didn't reply, as she picked up Luna from the ground and stood back up, looking away. There was then a dead silence in the room. But... it was quickly broken by a giggle from Noel. She then turned back to Jarmie, starry-eyed. "...Master!"

"M-Master?!"

"Yes!" Noel gave Jarmie an enlightened, in-awed look. "I decided! With your guidance, Noel Yukino will evolve from the crimson calamity... to the every embodiment of calamity itself! That's why from now on, you're the perfect Master!"

Jarmie sighed. What have I gotten myself into...?



To be continued...

 

[moon]

Ralph Gonder

Lavender Town

Thursday, May 23
Evening, Day 4

The sun was already tired when the pair of trainers emerged from the tunnel. The exit was every bit as non-pompous as the entrance had been, and Ralph couldn't even be bothered to look at it. Her body was sore, her hair and clothes dusty, and she felt like her brain had endured more in one day than it should have had to for a whole month. She didn't even really register Joseph grabbing her upper arm gently as they walked, as if to ensure she wouldn't fall over there and then.

The small downhill road was winding in between cliffs but quickly opened up to a few farms and villas, and then finally with a view over the nearby town below. Joseph nudged Ralph, who gathered her energy and looked up from her feet for a moment. The town didn't look at all as big as Cerulean. It was to be expected, of course. In the east, to the left of them, a dark tower could be seen, and a murky, green area seemingly without houses, near it. In the west instead, there were more buildings, and they looked much more streamlined than the roofs that popped up here and there in the otherwise kind of loose density town.

"I can see the ocean from here! Isn't it beautiful?" Joseph said and nudged her further. "Reminds me of home."

Ralph squinted. There, on the other side of the city, she could see a glancing surface against the darkening sky. The sea. Fuchsia...

A deep yawn from the girl's mouth surprised them both, and made Joseph resume their walking. Ralph didn't register much else until they were suddenly in the pokémon center, getting a room each for the night, courtesy of their trainer licenses. Joseph made sure that Ralph got to her room safely, and she was too tired to wave him off when she fell onto her bed, fully clothed. Joseph chuckled, but then his smile fell; Ralph saw it out of the corner of her eye where he stood in the doorway, his broad figure framed by the light from the corridor. He was like a door, just not door shaped, Ralph's tired mind conjured.

"Why do you care about me?" Ralph asked.

Joseph chuckled again. "You're a mess, girl. A depressed, self-deprecating mess. And, I don't know, you sort of remind me of a kid I used to care about. Although, you are quite different."

"Your kid? And heey! I'm not depressed!" Ralph groaned into he pillow her face was half buried in, as if she just registered that part of his words.

"I hope not. You'll need a cheerful disposition if you're gonna get through this whole journey. And also sleep. I'd tell you to brush your teeth and maybe take a shower, but you're not my kid," Joseph sighed.

"Psh. You're just as annoying as my dad though," Ralph mumbled, eyes sliding shut.

Joseph fell solemn again, even though she didn't see it now. "We had a close call in the tunnel, Ralph," he said quietly. "I'm sorry for not being more careful. I won't leave you to your own again."

What might have been a snore was the only reaction he got from that. He shook his head with a small smile and finally shut the door.

Ralph's sleep was plagued by nightmares of falling from cliffs into darkness.

Greeny

Lv 9 | Sandsy

Lv 17 | Coldy

Lv 13
Edgy

Lv 16 | Softy

Lv 10 | Hardy

Lv 8
Ralph's Profile | Current Chapter

 

[WizardOfOdd]

Richard Wolstenholme​

Lavender Town, May 24^th, Afternoon

​

Chapter 5 - 1
First Day in Lavender​

"Okay so, this is the Pokemon Tower… It looks pretty vintage alright, just like others said." Richard mumbles to himself.

He spent last night mostly compressing his ribs, and thankfully he feels much better because of it. This morning, he instead spent those time by asking for a place to visit and most of the local residents pointed out the Pokemon Tower. Their vigor and 'desperation' were able to be heard from their voices which shows how much they want to revive the tourism industry of the Pokemon Tower.

"Well, I'm here but… I don't know, I can see why people are reluctant to come here just for the tower."

The tower's architecture looks really dated, some people might even find it creepy to come here at day, let alone at night. It'll be hard to attract visitors here, especially those who come with their children. But still, Richard feels that it's a shame that such a majestic monument is in danger of falling to further disrepair.

But enough that thinking, he has a bigger issue on his plate. He doesn't come here to enjoy the dated architecture, he's here to have a battle against Jarmie. Ari already told him that she lost on her challenge, so this won't be a walk in the park.

Wait, how strong is Ari anyway? Richard starts to wonder. He never paid much attention to other people because he was too afraid about making friends, who the hell in their right mind wants to be a friend with a guy like him? That's what made him so insistent on being alone in class, or so he thought back then.

Maybe he's just too naive and what Keith said about it's just him who can't let go of the past is probably true. But, no more of that, this time he needs to change… No, he must change. No more moping around like a dumb idiot he was.

Just as he's about to yell a rousing cry for himself, he notices a girl smiling towards him with a bright smile. A smile that bright when both of them don't know each other? It seriously reeks of trouble.

"Excuse me, may I have a little of your time?"

A young woman inquires Richard with a bright smile plastered on her face. She doesn't look that old, probably around his age.

Richard knows instinctively that there must be something she wants. After all, this kind of smile reminds him very much of the smile given by the saleswomen at Celadon Department Store. With the knowledge in hand, Richard takes a deep breath.

"Sure, what may I help you with, Miss?" He smiles brightly.

"Oh, it's not much… But, may I ask for a bit of your time?"

"Sure…" Answers Richard who is still in doubt.

"Haha, I'm really happy that you would hear me for a bit, so I'm actually from the Pokemon Tower Association… Perhaps you have heard about us before?"

The young man slowly nods at the question given to him with his eyes reflecting his cautiousness. A sign that is easily picked by the girl who tries to attract his intention.

"That's great! Well, I'm here to ask a little bit of your time… Don't worry, it's not going to take long."

"I'm sorry… But I'm in a hurry so─"

"Please, just hear me for a bit… It's all for the sake of the tower. I beg of you."

Richard stops walking as he hears the pained voice of the girl urging him to stop. His brain urges him to flee the scene as soon as possible, but his heart refuses to do so. He takes a deep breath as he laments about the fact that he's too kind for his own good before slowly turning his head towards the girl.

"... Okay."

"Thank you! I'll make sure it ends quick…"

The girl explains the current situation as fast as she can. Basically, all she asks from Richard is signing a signature that will help pressure the league to reverse their decision on making Beaumont as the official gym leader of Lavender Town and appoint Jarmie for the position instead.

However, it's easier said than done. In the end, Richard knows that signing this means that he will sign a written declaration that he's against a decision made by the Trainer Association. There's no way to know how this will negatively affect his journey, but on the other hand─ What she says isn't wrong either.

The blonde-haired teen carefully mulls over what he should do as his eyes focus on the content of the petition.

"...I'm not going to force you to sign it. But if you think what we're doing is not wrong then, please…"

Contrary to what initially expected, the girl's words show much sincerity. It hits really hard on Richard's mind, especially since he's experienced it personally. Feeling bad to reject a pure heartfelt plea, he finally signs the petition.

"Thank you! Thank you very much!"

The girl grins widely at the sight of the signed paper, causing Richard to smile slightly at the sight— Seeing someone happy like that, he's glad he didn't continue to walk away from the girl. It always warms his heart when he sees a happy smile, especially the one he directly causes.

There's going to be a problem somewhere because of this, but he bet that the professor probably won't care much about this… After all, it's Professor Palm. However, he has no time to think about it, because after all he still has Jarmie to focus on.​

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
​

​

 

[moon]

Ralph Gonder

Lavender Town

Friday, May 24th
Night before Day 5

She wakes up with a jolt. It takes a few moments for her heartbeat to slow down and for her mind to remember that she's safe in a pokémon center and not lost in a dark cave. She relaxes and just breathes in the dark room for a few moments before another thought jerks her up again.

"The pokémon!" she exclaims and reaches for her belt.

Six filled pokéballs sit there silently. None of the inhabitants has tried to break out. They must be exhausted too. And here she fell asleep without considering them.

Hating herself not a little bit, Ralph darts out of her room, well aware that she's still got dust in her hair and dirt on her clothes, and likely smells pretty bad too. That's secondary now. The pokémon are primary.

Downstairs, she reaches the pokémon center's front desk where a lone nurse is on duty. He raises an eyebrow when she slams her fists into the counter.

"You look pretty rough," he says. "Are you alright?"

"Whatever," Ralph says with a head shake and pulls all six pokéballs up in front of him. "They're hurt and tired and need help. The Geodude is frozen over and really needs help. Can you help him?"

"Calm down," the nurse says and takes care of the pokéballs. "If there's nothing worse, they will all be fine within the hour. Why don't you come by and pick them up tomorrow morning?"

"No, I'll wait," Ralph quickly says, before even considering it.

The nurse nods and takes the pokémon into a back room, probably to assess their injuries or just put them in the healing machine. Ralph didn't completely pay attention in school when they were told how that worked, but she knows it was something about pokémon being in an energy state within their pokéballs, and while evolving and such, and that it's usually easy to heal their exhaustion levels by just replenishing their energy electronically while they are in their energy state. But actual injuries other than exhaustion and scrapes? She isn't completely sure how that is done. Maybe like with human injuries.

She shrugs herself awake and looks around the pokémon center. It's actually completely empty. What time is it? She glances at a clock on the wall, as she's forgotten her mobile phone upstairs. 2:30 am, wow. No wonder. That means she can't go pester Joseph, even. Not that she'd like to, by the way. Or anyone else for that matter.

Supressing a yawn, she wanders outside. The town square is silent, and a bit eerie, with moonlight watching over it and a slow breeze blowing some petals away at Ralph's feet. She suddenly realizes that there must be more Cape trainers in this pokémon center right now. Aberdeen, probably Ari... Maybe Casey and whoever he hangs out with now, unless he wanted to camp outside for some reason. You never knew.

She comes to a stop in the middle of the town square and quietly looks around. She can see the Pokémon Tower in the distance. It almost looks like there's clouds hanging purposefully around it and nowhere else. Weird stuff. She turns her head to what must then be the west, and sees clouds there too. But these are man-made, and constantly blowing out of tall chimneys. She wrinkles her nose. Weird stuff or not, she thinks she prefers the Tower kind of clouds to the chimney ones.

A noise makes her look up. Something is flying, and straight towards her! It is getting bigger and bigger, longer and longer, until it lands right in front of her in the square with surprisingly little weight. Hardly even a thud is heard as the long snake-like creature raises its head to face her. Even with most of its body curling up on the ground, it's head reaches above Ralph's. And there is another head behind it. Ralph realizes after a few confusing seconds in the murky night light from the pokémon center and street lights, that it belongs to a person.

The person jumps off the big pokémon - which Ralph now finally realizes is a freaking dragon - and he swooshes his cape.

Her eyes widen, and the eyebrows go up.

"You?" she says in disbelief. "What are you doing here?"

The man with the blonde hair looks up as if he just noticed her, and smiles. "Trying to sneak into the city when nobody is awake. Clearly, I underestimated you."

Ralph crosses her arms. "Weren't you going towards Cerulean when I saw you on Route 9?"

"I was. Had to pick up Dragonair from the Cerulean Gym, so she could fly me here."

"Not enough nerve to go through the Rock Tunnel, have you?" Ralph scoffs.

"No," the blonde man says with a strangely sad expression. "I'm afraid of the underground, so I'd have needed you to hold my hand the whole way. Something tells me you wouldn't have been willing."

Ralph is a bit surprised at the ambious mix of genuinety and joke in the answer. This was a random, weird dude she met on Route 9 right before she ran into Ari. His Jigglypuff was rude. But maybe he hadn't really been rude or... Been much anything, really. She doesn't know anything about him, other than that he apparently can get a Dragonair from Hoshi. She relaxes and lets her hands down.

"You could have given me a ride instead," she says, and poorly suppresses a yawn. "The underground didn't do me any favors either."

"Ah, but that would have been cheating, wouldn't it?" the guy answers and gives his Dragonair a scritch on the neck, which she seems to enjoy.

Ralph blinks, too tired to understand the meaning.

"You're a Cape trainer, right?"

"Is it that obvious to everyone?" she sighs. "It's not like I'm wearing a t-shirt with the school brand on it."

"Nah. It's just, I did the journey a few years ago around this time. So I know."

She glances up at him. He's busy looking at his Dragonair with an affectionate smile.

"What's your name?" she asks. "I'm Ralph. In case you were wondering."

"I was, actually!" he responds, and shifts his gaze back to her. "Hi Ralph. Sorry again about Jigglypuff. My name is Marcus, and I'm here to surprise celebrate my friend Jarmie Katalan."

Ralph stood in silence for a couple of seconds, then shrugged.

"Who?"

Greeny

Lv 9 | Sandsy

Lv 17 | Coldy

Lv 13
Edgy

Lv 16 | Softy

Lv 10 | Hardy

Lv 8
Ralph's Profile | Current Chapter

 

[QueenNothing]

How long had Gwen and Bethany been walking through Rock Tunnel? Gwen had no way of knowing, but it felt like six months to her, even if she was just mostly staring off into space. The two trainers mutually decided to tag along with archeologist duo Al and Pal, which probably just made things longer as they were more interested in any ruins that might be here rather than finding an exit. Even if it was for the best, as the girls thought they'd be trapped in the cave if they didn't, they sort of regretted it as nothing all that interesting really happened- With an obvious exception, but not much came from that.

All Gwen could do at this point was stick her head in the clouds, hoping to be pulled back down with some sort of information about an exit, but it seemed really unlikely to her at this point.

All hope seemed lost when Gwen's space exploration had been interupted by another Al discovery, one she was actually interested in this time.

"Oh, would you look at that! We found an exit!"

Gwen's face lit up with surprise and also joy at this. "Hooooooly shit, I'm soooo tired from all this walking!" She yawned as she stretched her arms while not minding that Bethany was standing right next to her.

"Well, I take it you'd like to split as opposed to further exploration?" Al asked. "You are both trainers after all though, so I certainly don't mind." Pal nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, we need to get to Lavender Town." Gwen commented. "But thanks old man, we really appreciate your help! Kind of sucks the only rare Pokemon we found was a Spiritomb that we couldn't even catch."

"Ah appreciate yer help, sairr!" Bethany added. "Wi' thes chav here ah'd hae been lost fore'er!" Gwen stuck her tongue out towards her rival.

Al let out a usual hearty laugh. "Well, we are so glad we could help! But we'd like to part you with something." Pal bent over and handed the trainers business cards. "If you are ever interested in any of our other or future findings please be sure to check out our archeology blog!" The short old man reached his hand out to shake hands with Gwen and Bethany. "And who knows, someday we could see your matches televised! You both have potential to do so, and we are very big fans of Pokemon battles." Pal nodded.

"I bet you'll see me kicking ass on-screen soon enough." Gwen boasted as she made punching motions.

"'At'll be long afer ye see me oan th' telly!" Bethany said trying to dwarf Gwen as she usually would.

"Well whoever gets there first, we sincerely anticipate it!" Al grinned. "It was enjoyable sticking around you both, but we need to continue our discoveries." Pal nodded in agreement.

"Yeah, thanks a bunch old guy!" The two trainers waved as the archeologists walked to their next discovery waiting to happen.

When Al and Pal were no longer visible, Gwen and Bethany both looked at the exit. If they found the exit what felt like was a few hours ago, they both would have been excited to exit, but they were just tired now. They both left the tunnel at the same time, just subconsciously so, since they were too relieved to see the sun setting to be repulsed by one-another.

Of course, it doesn't take either of them long to realize what they were doing. At long last, they could split up, and couldn't wait to do so- Until their splitting was interrupted by a very loud growling coming from close by. Gwen flinched, and looked around to see if the cause of it is due to any nearby wild Pokemon.

"WAH! The fuck was that!" Gwen yelped, having had enough danger for one day.

Another growling occurs, sounding identical to the first. Gwen's reaction to the second growl was a little similar except she turned her head to the source of the unfamiliar noise; Bethany's stomach. Gwen just chuckled.

"Oh, you're hungry. I'd offer to share my food with you, but I'm guessing you don't want my 'Unovian Rubbish', eh?" Gwen smirked.

"Ah'd raither starve than eat yer naf cookin'." Bethany retorted.

Gwen chuckled again, a little more smugly this time. "Hey, if you wanna starve and die, go ahea-" Gwen froze mid-sentence as she had realized something "Hey wait a second, if you didn't eat my curry last night, what did you eat? Or more importantly, what did your Pokemon eat?"

"Ah didnae e'en fin' a bloody Pokemon Center so ah really did starve. Ah wasnae jokin' when ah said ah'd rather starve."

Gwen's expression changed from that of a smug teenager to one of genuine concern, and even slight panic. She held her face with her hands almost as if it would clam her down. "Ohhh nononononono, this isn't good. When was the last time your Pokemon ate?"

"Ah guess they got a wee bit at th' Pokemon Center. There wasnae a lot left."

"You need to be feeding your Pokemon more frequently." Gwen had said dead-seriously "Come on, we can set up camp for a meal and then we can split. I don't care how much you like my cooking, the fact is your Pokemon need to eat."

Bethany, genuinely shocked at the usual ditzy girl being more serious than she was used to, gave in. "Yer right. They got tae be starvin'...But ah still willnae eat anythin' frae ye!"

------

It was nightfall, and both Gwen and Bethany's Pokemon were out and about. Pix and Tusk were playing a game of tag with Tusk being more aggressive than Pix would like, Custard was sitting on the table Gwen was preparing their food at, and Jess just slithered off to somewhere, although Gwen was sure she'd see her again by the time dinner was ready. Bethany's Pokemon were all gathered around their trainer with little interest in leaving her side, although her Eevee seemed a little curious about Gwen's Pokemon, just not enough to act on it. Her Feebas was nowhere to be seen at the moment as she was still in her Pokeball, as Bethany believed this was for the best. Arceus knows what trouble Feebas would bring.

Gwen had finished cooking her curry but with less portions to work with than last night, and was ready to serve everybody.

"Pix, Tusk, Custard, Jess, dinner is ready!"

Tusk jolted towards his meal, with Pix following. Jess had slithered back from wherever she went, ready to eat the curry they all enjoyed so much.

After serving her Pokemon, Gwen scooped some curry and rice into four disposable bowls and headed toward Bethany holding them all. When approached, Gwen set the bowls down on the ground. Eevee, Ponyta, and Vulpix all looked at Bethany almost as if seeking her approval.

Bethany sighed. "Skedaddle aff now. Eat yer food." In response, Bethany's Pokemon gleefully pranced over to their bowls, gladly digging in.

"Hey, where's Feebas?" Gwen asked.

"In 'er ball. Ah dornt feel loch putting' up wi' 'er."

"She still needs to eat." Gwen pleaded. Bethany let out another sigh, releasing Feebas from her ball. Feebas saw a bowl of curry unattended, flopped her way over, and started smacking the food down as she got there with no time to breathe.

Eevee, Vulpix, and Ponyta were all eating their food at a normal pace, taking their time. Feebas however was eating really fast, almost unhealthily so. This even caught the attention of Tusk, who seemed a little surprised how fast the fish Pokemon was eating, giving him a run for his money. Tusk stormed up to Feebas, letting out a very angered "KEW KEW!". Gwen rolled her eyes.

"Oh my fucking-" Gwen complained. "Tusk, not every fucking thing is a competition, give it a rest." Tusk crossed his arms like a defiant small child. He marched away but only to march back shortly afterwards, this time carrying an empty disposable bowl.

"KEW KEW!" Tusk barked, waving the bowl. Gwen knew what this meant.

"I'm sorry Tusk, I can't give you seconds. I needed to make enough for uh...What's your name?"

"Bethany" The Galarian trained moaned exhaustedly.

"Yeah, whatever. I needed to make enough for Galar girl and her friends. There's nothing left, but when we get to Lavender Town I'll treat you to a restaurant."

Even with his trainer offering him something better, Tusk was only further enraged. He started breathing heavily letting out a few more growls, looking almost as if he was ready to attack.

"Tusk, this is ridiculous! Knock it off or you're going back to your Pokeball for the night!"

All Tusk could do at this point was cross his arms again and march away presumably to find something else to do, this time with less confidence.

"He can be a real pain sometimes..." Gwen sighed.

As Bethany observed all this she couldn't help but take in the aroma of the curry. Sure it was the exact same recipe from last night which she had loudly declared as disgusting, but there was something about it this time to where it didn't smell so bad to her. Her stomach grumbled again, and Gwen turned her attention towards it.

"Well, uh.." Gwen awkwardly started, looking around to make sure nobody could hear her. "I might have lied when I said to Tusk there's nothing left. I have a small amount I had left in-case you wanted any. I don't really like you like, at all, in fact I think you're an arrogant, stuck-up bitch, but I'd just feel kind of bad if you didn't eat."

"Ah thought ye didnae care if ah starved?"

"I mean…" Gwen scratched the back of her head "Yeah, guess I meant it when I said it, but I went through the effort of making food for your Pokemon, so like, might as well?"

There was something about the sight of being surrounded by Pokemon eating that made that feeling of hunger sink-in for Bethany. Hell, her own Pokemon ate without her.

"Sure, ah'll eat yer damn food." She reluctantly said. Gwen smiled and walked over to grab both of them a bowl.

After being handed the bowl from the Unovian trainer, Bethany very hesitantly scooped up a bit before putting any in her mouth. When she took a bite, she was surprised that despite being identical to last night's meal, it wasn't so bad. Of course she had no intention of letting her rival know. But even then, she still ate it up at a similar pace to her Pokemon as Gwen watched joyously.

"Ehts goo, isn ee?" Gwen said while chewing on her curry.

"Eh?" Bethany raised an eyebrow.

Gwen swallowed her food. "I said, it's good, isn't it?"

"Nae. It still tastes like shite." Bethany lied before eating another spoonful. "Ah coods easily havenae eaten an' been fine. Ah've gone longer with nae food, jist thought ah'd pity ye."

Gwen raised an eyebrow, not really believing what she heard. "Okay sure, that's why you're eating it without tossing it on the floor. Whatever." She stared off a bit because something Bethany had said stuck out to her.

"Wait, what do you mean you've gone longer without eating? Aren't you like, fucking rich?"

"Nae aye." She said before eating another spoonful. "Ah was in a gang in Spikemuth as a wee lass. There wasnae a lot tae gang around."

Gwen was visibly confused. "Wait, how did you suddenly become rich though? Didn't you say the Maller family or whatever was around for like, ever?"

"Miller family!" Bethany snarled. "And isnae it obvioos? Ahm adopted, ye dobber."

"Oooooh. I knew that." Gwen ate a few more spoonfuls, knowing since she had nothing else to add she was free to take a few more bites.

"Walter Miller, mah adoptife father, isnae loch other wealthy fowk." Bethany went on unprompted. "He's a good man. He saw me on th' streets an' didnae see how grottie ah was or even mah torn-up clothin'. He saw mah potential ah had as a Pokemon trainer. Nae other wealthy fowk woods dae 'at. He was sae prood tae tak' me in." This was followed by a few more spoonfuls of Gwen's curry.

Gwen was still absorbing everything she had heard. "Wow...So you're saying that Walter is like what Jenny is to me?"

Bethany cringed. "Walter Miller is naethin' loch yer sister nobody knows."

"First of all, shut the fuck up about my sister." This was followed by Gwen quickly eating some more spoonfuls. "Secondly, I mean like how Walter took you in when things were looking bad." Gwen sat down on her knees. "Like, my parents kind of fucking sucked, but when things got REAL bad with them, Jenny got custody of me. That's actually why I'm in Kanto right now." The black-haired teenager tilted her head upwards to get a look at the night sky, somewhat staring off into space. "She's just like...The best."

"Mebbe so." Bethany started. "But ye got a lot less tae li' up tae. Walter is as good a ba'ler as he is a father, an' ah hae tae li' up tae his name. Her sister? She's jis' some nobody. She's jist a has-been toornament winner. Not loch mah father. An' ah hae e'ery right tae say 'at."

Gwen groaned. "Sure. Whatever." She was too tired to argue at this point. It was probably a good idea to clean up what mess she had soon since she was almost done with dinner. She just needed to muster up the energy to do so, but was too much effort for her right now.

That was until she heard a very loud and panicked "KEW KEW!" not too far away. Gwen got up, and walking not too far showed what had happened; Tusk was being wrapped by Jess and was scratching and squirming to get out.

The black-haired girl was furious. "Tusk, god fucking damnit! Stop picking fights!" She grabbed Tusk's Pokeball to return him for continuing to misbehave. She had enough of this. On the bright side though, at least since she was up now this was an excuse to clean her mess up before going to sleep.

When she got back to where she had set up her camp, she noticed neither Bethany or her Pokemon were anywhere to be seen. All that was left of them were the disposable bowls stacked up with a single plastic spoon inside the one at the top.

Gwen had no idea where the Galarian trainer was at right now, but didn't really care. All that was know was that Bethany was lost, and this would certainly not be the last time they met.

 

[QueenNothing]

It was 8 am on a Friday. Gwen Alanis woke up in the Lavender Town Pokemon Center, almost as tired as when she went to sleep, if not moreso.

Last night was a bit hectic for the ditzy girl. Initially, she was just going to camp out near the Rock Tunnel exit, going to sleep around 8 pm, but things went astray when she was woken up at 1 am. There was no reason she knew that could have caused this, she just did. Best rationalization she could think of was maybe being woken up by Debbie the night before messed up her sleep schedule, but thinking about it didn't help her situation. Gwen attempted to go back to sleep, tossing and turning in her sleeping bag for about an hour.

No luck.

It didn't bother her before, but for some reason having to sleep on the ground felt really uncomfortable right then. Plus, she really needed to use the restroom.

As soon as she was bothered by the ground the idea that Lavender Town was close by popped into her head. She could probably slide into the Pokemon Center and get comfortable. Besides, she only just realized she hadn't changed her clothes in a few days. She was reluctant initially, but her struggling to fall asleep made it seem very desirable.

Eventually she gave in, packing up her sleeping bag and returning everyone to their Pokeballs, despite how sleepy she was. At a Shuckle's pace, she made her way to the Lavender Town Pokemon Center.

On the bright side of all this, Gwen was glad to at least be able to change her clothes. She woke up wearing a loose-fit, baggy-looking, dark purple sports jersey with a "94" in a black font on that back. The front had a logo with a Gengar on it and in stylized text read "Nacrene City Gym". This was matched by black denim boyfriend shorts she had on.

Gwen stretched her mouth wide as if she was a Loudred, yawning as if she was one as well. As much as she wanted to and loved the comfort of a real bed, she knew there was no point trying to go back to sleep, and decied to get out of bed. She crawled out of the bed the Pokemon Center lent her, stretching her arms and scratching the back of her head once she emerged fully from her slumber.

She turned around to see all her Pokemon all still asleep, except Tusk who was still in his Pokeball because of his misbehavior last night. The sight of seeing her Pokemon sleeping always brought her joy, as they all looked so peaceful.

"Hey guys, it's time to wake up." Gwen urged gently. Unlike their trainer, they all seemed well-rested enough since they had the luxury of traveling in their Pokeballs. The Unovian girl sat down on the bed, pulling hair-ties from her pockets and began to put her hair into her iconic space-buns. "Are you all in the mood for some breakfast?" Pix and Custard simply nodded in response, while Jess didn't seem to care.

"Alright, just let me get my socks on an-" Gwen was interrupted by a Pokeball on her belt she set just tossed on the floor last night shake rapidly, before popping open to let Tusk out. Tusk seemed to forget about last night, because as soon as he got out he jumped with joy and kicked his legs whenever he was in the air.

"AXEW! YEW YEW YEW! YEW YEW YEW!" The dragon type cheered. This gave his trainer a similar expression she had when seeing her Pokemon sleep. Even if she had to go put up with aggressive rivals, shady Pokemon thieves, and even ancient Pokemon attacks to top things off, it was all worth it for the moments like this she could share with her Pokemon, she thought.

----------

Dragging herself to Pokemon Center last night was definitely a blessing in disguise, Gwen thought. Unlike the Pokemon Center before Rock Tunnel, this one was noticeably larger, and that meant a larger cafeteria, which meant more options. Today there was an offer for a favorite breakfast of hers, pancakes.

The black-haired girl took her sweet time eating her meal, indulging in every bite. She had gotten food for her Pokemon too, of course making sure they got something they would enjoy. Custard had also gotten a plate of pancakes, but it was a much shorter stack than Gwen's, having two small pancakes instead of a stack of three ordinary cakes her trainer had.

The way she tried eating involved a small fork she would try to stab the pancakes pieces Gwen had cut up for her. It was a struggle for the electric mouse, but it was worth every bite. Just like her trainer, she loved the sensation her mouth was experiencing, possibly getting more joy out of it than Gwen. Given that she was an Alolan Pikachu, this was to be expected. Perhaps she didn't need a thunderstone, and could tap into her evolution earlier than expected just through pancakes? Gwen doubted it, but couldn't let the idea go.

As for her other Pokemon, Tusk had prepared for him eight bacon slices and a pile of scrambled eggs that looked a third his size, eating it by shoveling his food into his mouth. Pix also was served pancakes in a bowl designed for quadruped Pokemon, although she didn't seem to be as into it as Gwen or Custard.

Jess, however, wasn't eating, since as it turns out, Ekans don't need to eat very frequently. This was something Gwen learned from the Pokemon Center staff. Even with all her knowledge about Pokemon she read in books on, watched battles and documentaries on, or even played battle-simulator games about, there was still a lot for Gwen to learn about Pokemon by interacting with them.

After she finished her delectable breakfast, Gwen sat in the cafeteria seat thinking about what she needed to do next. She knew she needed to go grocery shopping, and stock-up on other supplies, definitely challenge the gym, but she wasn't sure what to do at the moment.

As abruptly as if lighting struck, Gwen's eyes lit up.

"Ooh!" She hopped out of her seat with excitement. "I haven't tried calling Jenny in a few days!" The Unovian girl quickly dashed outside the cafeteria to the Pokemon Center lobby. The nurse took note of this, calling out "No running please!"

Gwen froze in place. "O-oh, haha, right. I'm suuuuuuuuuuuuuper sorry about that. Sorry."

The first thing anyone would notice about the Pokemon Center lobby was the front desk, where the Pokemon nurse would treat Pokemon of trainers who got a little too adventurous. To the left of that were four computers lined up against the wall with dividers between them to give everyone using them privacy. The computers all were set-up on desks that were small enough to fit between the dividers, each one with a stool-like chair built into the floor.

Gwen had left her Pokemon in the cafeteria without really thinking, but given that there was staff around and the security cameras were in-place, they'd be fine.

Gwen slammed her rear into the seat in-front of the nearest computer. It was already turned on, lucky for her, and she booted up the video call app the computer had.

Despite it taking only ten seconds, Gwen was so excited that it felt like ten minutes, spending every second rapidly tapping her foot on the ground.

When it was done loading she swiftly entered her login information followed by Jennifer's contact information. With all the necessary steps taken all she needed to do was wait for her sister to pick up. This was represented on the app through an animation of a phone icon shaking like a Pokeball, and Gwen's foot-tapping got faster during this, only this was starting to feel longer than the app booting up.

Ten seconds had passed. Nobody was picking up.

Twenty seconds had passed. Gwen's anticipation started to morph into anxiousness.

Thirty seconds passed. The app stopped trying to contact Jennifer.

"Sorry." An automated voice from the app said. "But the person you are trying to reach is not available. Please leave a message after the beep."

Gwen disconnected, feeling her heart sink. "Sh-She must be busy with something." The trainer rationalized to herself. "Let me try again."

She repeated the process only to then be met with another automated message. This time Gwen decided to leave her own message.

"Hey Jenny, it's me Gwen! It's, uh, been a long time since you picked up now. I hope you're okay. I tried calling you in Cerulean when I got Tusk and you were busy that time too. And well, I guess you've been busy for awhile now...But I hope you're free soon….But SOOOOOO much has happened since then, I ran into someone who tried to steal a Hydreigon from the Cerulean Gym, but someone who trained at the gym retrieved them, she said she knew you? It was weird. But then I ran into some Galar chick, but she was such a bitch and she beat in a battle, and then I caught an Ekans and went through Rock Tunnel and fought a Spiritomb, it was fucking terrifying!"

Gwen gasped for breath.

"But yeah. How are you doing? How's Krox? Or ShellShocker? Oooooo, or Krona, I haven't seen him in a long-ass time!" The black-haired girl sighed, clearing the enthusiasm she had in her voice. "Well, I hope I'll talk to you again soon. I'll definitely still visit you when I get to Saffron." Gwen nervously laughed before hanging up.

The idea that her sister wouldn't pick up was something she wasn't able to comprehend very well. She sat in the computer seat, dozing off and wondering why Jennifer wouldn't pick up. They always got along really well, so Gwen couldn't imagine a reason why this was happening.

She couldn't have just missed the calls, since Gwen received no missed calls from Jennifer, so that wasn't an option. Despite this however, this is what Gwen would try to convince herself on, because she was absolutely not a fan of the other theories her mind crafted.

Could it be because her sister just didn't really like her? If that were the case, why would she have taken custody of her sister when things got really bad with her parents and enroll Gwen in Cape College in the first place?

Did something happen to her? Was she sick, injured, or possibly worse? This was her least favorite theory, and there was no real way to verify it until she got to Saffron City.

She dozed off for ten minutes, wallowing in her thoughts about this, before someone behind her tapped on her shoulder.

"Uhhhh, 'scuse me bro."

This alarmed Gwen, finnicking about in her seat before slowly turning around. It was someone she never saw, but this person didn't claim he knew her at least. The stranger was visibly slightly concerned.

"Woah bro, sorry. I just wanted to use the computer, bro, and you've been sitting there for like, ten minutes bro."

"O-O-Oh, uh, right! Yeah sure!" Gwen awkwardly laughed in an attempt to try to shake off the embarrassment, and sped-walked back to the cafeteria while looking at the floor to make sure nobody could see her face. The nurse again passively reminded her to not run, although Gwen didn't seem to notice this time.

When Gwen thought she was out of the stranger's sight, she slowed her walk down, still upset by what just occurred with Jennifer. The speculation of what could have happened drove her wild, torturing her a little whenever she thought about it. She even shed a single tear, not something she did often, and especially not something she liked being caught doing.

When she was sure she made it back to the cafeteria, she noticed how many people were seated, which normally could make it difficult to make somebody out. Through some wild coincidence though, while standing in front of the cafeteria doorway Gwen's attention was immediately drawn to the table she was sitting at, and through her watery eyes she noticed all of her Pokemon seated there.

Pix and Jess had been waiting on the floor, with Pix laying down to rest her legs. Custard was sitting at the table who was anxious to the point she was shivering, having been left by her trainer for ten minutes. Tusk however, was just laying on his back with his eyes closed and his belly looking a little bloated. On the table were three empty plates where the Axew was eating.

"Vulpix! Vul!" Pix cheered when seeing her trainer.

"Pi-Pika…" Custard looked somewhat more happy when she noticed her trainer.

Unprompted, Pix pranced her way over to Gwen and sat down in front of her trainer, wagging her tails. Gwen laughed a little to herself, wiped her tear away, and kneeled down to headpat Pix.

Custard took note of this, bolting towards Gwen as soon as she saw her tending to Pix's needs. Gwen laughed again, this time sounding more cheerful than the previous laugh, and used her free hand to scratch Custard's back.

Jess took note of this, slithering across the cafeteria floor to her trainer. She slithered around Gwen's leg, making her way through her torso, eventually getting to her destination being loosely wrapped around the girl's neck. She rattled her tail twice, which felt cold in comparison to the actions of the two mammals, but her trainer still appreciated the sentiment.

"Thanks you guys." Gwen had blinked enough times to prevent herself from crying. "I don't know what I'd do without you." Gwen said while letting out a genuine grin that spread to both her cheeks, teeth exposed and all.

Even with the hardest of trials, the moments with her Pokemon, the closest thing she's had to friends, made it all worth it.

 

[WizardOfOdd]

Richard Wolstenholme​

Lavender Town, May 24^th, Afternoon

​

Chapter 5 - 2
Enter Jarmie​

"Good afternoon! Jarmie? Are you there!?"

"Stop shouting, Laura! I can hear you perfectly… Ugh, so why are you calling me?" A short-haired girl with a black kimono descends from the stairs nearby. With a frown on her face she reluctantly greets the visitor.

"I have someone here who would like to challenge you."

"Challenge? Ugh, hey! I want to ask something first, are you a weirdo?"

"Um… Excuse me?" Richard tilts his head at the randomness of the question.

"Forget it, I just had… Let's say, a weird experience… So why do I have to oblige to your demands? It's my birthday remember? Also, it's a bit late, and I kinda want some rest before engaging in the festivities."

"He signed the petition, Jarmie. Maybe you should do your job… You know as the rightful gym leader?" Laura smiles as she tries her best to entice Jarmie to battle Richard.

"Okay - okay fine, Laura. You're not wrong… Hey, Mav! Mav! Where the hell are you! MAV!" Jarmie turns her back as she tries to call her friend to no avail.

"I can be a referee if you need one." Laura raises her hand while smiling.

"Observant as ever, eh? Ah well, Mav probably went to help Lucretia about the festival… Hey, Laura! Prepare the lights!"

"Roger that!" Laura runs towards the control panel nearby her, wasting no time at all tinkering with the control so the battle can start as soon as possible.

"You know? You should've come sooner if you want to battle me, today wasn't really a good day to do it this late. Well, I guess I'll just have to mop the floor with you as quickly as possible so I can prepare for the party."

"I-I don't mind if you postpone this match, after all, you have to prepare your birthday celebration, right?"

"Are you kidding me!? Urgh… What's your name?"

"Richard, Richard Wolstenholme."

"Look Richard, you should've said those things earlier. But now, it's all too late. Because…"

The stage lights turns on, revealing a battlefield marred with several holes and scattered debris.

"Right now, I'm already in the mood to kick your ass."​

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
​

​

 

[WizardOfOdd]

Richard Wolstenholme​

Lavender Town, May 24^th, Afternoon

​

Chapter 5 - 3
Battle at the Haunted Tower - Part 1​

"So, no more questions right? I've explained the rules, told you the two Pokemon I'm going to use. So no more chit-chat, let's just get this battle rolling. Laura! Hit the music!"

Instead of the music like both competitor expected, what came out from the speaker is a loud deafening buzz causing Jarmie who is already in a foul mood to yell loudly.

"Laura, you doofus! Can't you play the music properly!?"

"Well, sorry! It's been quite a while since I assisted you in the gym." Laura frantically tinkers the speaker settings before the music finally come out properly.

"Hmm… Not bad, I honestly thought you would play something weird like Crasher Wake's theme song or Disco Fever Compilation by Miror B. Urgh… Thinking about it give me the shivers… Well, enough talk, have at you! Go, Sableye!"

"I choose you, Eileen!"

"Pika~" Eileen energetically bolts towards her trainer to hug his legs.

"Ehm… I don't mind being hugged, but don't you realize we're in the middle of a battle?"

"Pi~" The yellow rodent giggled as she jumped from her trainer's legs with a slight tinge of embarrassment towards the battlefield only to realize the eerie atmosphere of the battlefield. She turns her head back towards her trainer with unsure eyes.

"It's okay… I'm here with you."

Jarmie sarcastically claps while rolling her eyes. "So are you here to challenge me or what? Can we start this already?"

"Oh, sorry…"

"Also tone down on the apologies, will you? Sableye, Shadow Sneak!" Sableye grins as her shadow distorts before extending towards the unprepared Eileen in a quick manner, knocking the Mouse Pokemon towards her trainer's side.

"Tch! Eileen, Electro Ball!" Eileen jumps to the air as she prepares to conjure a yellow ball of lightning, but…

The ball suddenly dissipates. Eileen looks confused as the Sableye on the side across her giggling with joy.

"Disable sure comes in handy… Let's wrap this up so I can enjoy my birthday celebration. Sableye, Shadow Sneak again!"

"Tch, dodge with Quick Attack!"

Eileen dashes as fast as she can, dodging the chase from Sableye's shadow. With great nimbleness, she manages to avoid the attack without stumbling through the holes on the battlefield before jumping high to avoid the shadow from canceling her attack.

"Thunder Shock!"

"Pfft… You think. Sableye, Confuse Ray!"

The Darkness Pokemon's eyes gleamed with crimson colored-energy. The rays coming out of it travels in the air before hitting the Mouse Pokemon dead right in her eyes. Causing her to plummet down while failing to hit Sableye with her Thunder Shock that hit the ground beside it.

"Gee, I knew I shouldn't hold back at all, could've saved a lot of time beforehand. Just give it up, Richard. You can't beat me and you know it."

Richard grits his teeth as he looks towards the bleak sight.

"Pi…" Eileen weakly cries as it tries her best to stand up all while Jarmie's Sableye laughing with glee seeing how he manages to dominate the match-up.

What is he thinking? He knew Jarmie was strong, of course, she'll be… How else she could confidently declare herself a gym leader. Meanwhile he… He couldn't even help his Pokemon land a single hit on her opponent. He eventually comes to a realization that...

Maybe he's just not good enough.

"You can do it, Richard! Kick her ass!" Laura yells loudly while raising her hands in support of the young man.

"Laura, you're supposed to cheer for me, not him! Also aren't you supposed to be refereeing this match!?"

"I don't care! Come on, Richard you can do this!"

"Tch, I swear after this… Sableye, Fury Swipes!"

Sigh… How pitiful… I always ran away from my problems… Not back then but even now. The cowardly me always make excuses and justification why I always fail, always surrendering to the pressure I get, but...

Sableye dashes while relentlessly slashing Eileen. Jarmie smiles as her victory in this round are almost guaranteed.

I'm sick of it.

"Thunder Wave!"

Richard yells as hard as he can, causing his Pokemon to emit a powerful jolt of electricity on her attacker stopping the shiny Sableye dead in her tracks.

"Sableye!"

This time I'll fight, not just for those who supported me in my time of need, not just for my Pokemon who has entrusted themselves to this sorry excuse of a trainer, but also... For me.

"Sorry for waiting, Jarmie. But I will not fail that easily." Richard looks at Jarmie with a serious look.

I will never give up… Never again.
​

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
​

​

 

[QueenNothing]

In the Lavender Town Pokemon Center lobby, the first you'll notice upon entrance is the main desk, which primarily functions for trainers of all different walks of life to heal their Pokemon from battle damage they've received. It's quite fascinating when you think about just how many different people, all completely different people who are all working to achieve their own unique goals, all with different Pokemon to help them achieve said goals, can visit a Pokemon Center in a day.

Of course, the ditzy Pokemon trainer from the Unova region, Gwen Alanis, was not thinking about this right now. Gwen instead was sitting on a bench in the Pokemon Center's outdoor area, writing in her notebook she packed while Custard rested on Gwen's right side. What she always tried doing whenever she made it to a new town was plan out her day, but even this could be too demanding of the girl, as her mind would often drift off and she'd spend her time doodling Pokemon, and right now she was really focused on an Infernape drawing she was working out.

By conventional standards, she was a great artist- When drawing Pokemon at least. She could never seem to get humans, plants, machines, landscapes, and such right. Usually she'd just lose interest whenever trying to draw people and just made them stick figures.

The outdoor area of the Lavender Town Pokemon Center was almost like a public park, being equipped with play-structures designed for small Pokemon to play in if they so desired, surrounded by benches for weary trainers to rest at while they monitored their Pokemon. Those who had larger Pokemon that wanted to play would have to look elsewhere.

This was perfect for what Gwen was currently doing, having her Pokemon get their exercise so she could (supposedly) plot out her day. She was fairly distracted from reality being lost in her Infernape sketch, but unlike her regular dozing off, Gwen needed to be focused to get in a drawing mood.

The problem was that Gwen's focus was interrupted by a loud smacking noise that came from somewhere in the outdoor area. She looked around, and to her surprise and relief, Tusk didn't start another fight, but what could possibly be the source of this noise?

The black-haired girl turned her head left as she heard cheering noises coming that direction. She wasn't sure what it was, but it sounded like a Pokemon battle, giving her an urge to investigate.

When she drew closer she noticed it was coming from the outdoor battlefields. It was like what was available in Rock Tunnel's Pokemon Center, but there were about ten courts this time. Also unlike the ones at Rock Tunnel, one battlefield in particular had a crowd around it leaning against the fence, mainly made up of youngsters.

"Winston is the best! He can't be beat!" One of the youngsters cheered.

"They're teaching them well at the Safari Academy!" Another one of them shouted.

"I wanna go to Safari Academy when I'm a big kid!" A little girl spectator cried.

"Damn bro, that bro is something else." Praised a young man in the crowd.

Now Gwen had to see what this commotion was all about. She tried to make her way into the crowd but the people standing in-front of her made it a little difficult to see, forcing her to stand on her toes to get a glimpse of the action.

Inside the fenced battlefield, Gwen saw a tall, thin boy in his late teens on his hands and knees with an Electabuzz lying unconscious on it's front. To the opposite side of the teenager was another teenager, although he looked younger, even more so than Gwen, and as soon as she took note of him he used a Luxury Ball to beam a ray of light at a Pokemon to return it. Gwen arrived too late to see what it was.

The older teenager struggled to return Electabuzz to a Great ball he pulled out of his pocket, shaking as if he was hit by a Thunder Wave. He was still able to return the Pokemon, but as soon as he did he got on his feet while still shaking. The fence-gate behind him was left open, and the older teenager saw this as an opportunity to escape.

"I WAS THE CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMP!!!!!!!!" He yelled, sobbing with total humiliation present in his voice.

Gwen was now able to get a better look at the younger teenager. He was wearing a white button-up shirt topped with a lavender suit jacket with lavender dress pants and a bowtie to match. The cuffs of his shirt were adorned with golden cufflinks.

He swept his posh long, dirty blonde hair away from his face, rather unnecessarily so because he didn't have any that was even in his face. "Well, looks like I'm the Pokemon Center champion now!" The boy flashed a grin, and everyone watching besides Gwen went wild with applause.

This drew attention to how behind the part of the fence that the boy was in-front of was a girl who looked about the same age, who cheered notably louder than her peers, and strangely enough had nobody crowded around her, she had that part of the fence to herself.

"Oh Winston!" The girl cheered adoringly. She held her hands together up to her tea-length cocktail dress that was the same color as the boy she was rooting for, and had a golden locket necklace hanging around her neck. Her light brunette hair was perfectly straight, touching her exposed shoulders.

"Since I now have the title of Best Lavender Town Pokemon Center Trainer, does anyone want to try to dethrone me?" It was clear the applause got to his head. Everyone in and around this fence was so in the heat of the moment they didn't notice a girl with black hair wearing a sports jersey walk through the gate, and onto the opposite side of the battlefield Winston.

"Yooo, I'm in the mood for a good Pokemon battle right now!" This drew everyone's attention to Gwen, and the crowd went silent.

With his right hand on his hip, Winston used his free arm to shield his eyes from what he was looking at.

"DEEEEEEEEUUGHHHHH??" Winston's expression quickly shifted to one that embodied both absolute fear and disgust. Curiously enough, the girl behind him made the exact same expression at the exact time, almost as if they were synchronized.

"My goodness! What are you wearing???"

Gwen casually glanced down at her wardrobe and shifted her head back up. She couldn't seem to find an issue.

"It's just my Nacrene City Gym jersey." Gwen shrugged. "It was pretty expensive, like most gym merch, but I got it on my birthday a few years ag-"

"I didn't ask!" Winston interrupted. "But I will ask you this, and you should be honored that I'm asking you anything, what is your name challenger?"

Gwen smirked, baring her teeth, and punched her right fist into the palm of her other hand.
"My name is Gwen Alanis! I'm a Cape College student on my graduation journey!"

Hearing this, the rich boy and the girl behind him snobbishly laughed in sync.

"PAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The crowd joined in too. Everything was stacked against Gwen.

"Cape College?" Winston uttered. "You mean the school for poor people who can't afford a Safari Academy education?" The boy coughed to clear his throat, closed his eyes and smirked again.

"Well enough of what you have to say. My name is Winston Addington! I'm a Safari Academy student on my graduation journey." He stepped aside to put the girl behind him in view. "And this here is my darling, Lucinda Pendleton!"

Lucinda held her hands tighter up to her chest. "Ooooohhh Winston, darling! Show this Cape filth what it means to be a Pokemon trainer!"

Gwen was not at all amused by the affection on display. "Aren't you guys like, 12 or something?" Gwen asked judgingly.

Winston and Lucinda's expressions both shifted to slight anger. "Excuse you! I'll have you know I'm turning 14 soon!"

Gwen rolled her eyes. "Whatever. Are we gonna battle or what?" She challenged, reaching to grab her Pokeballs from her belt.

The problem was, they felt lighter than usual, and Gwen just realized why.

"Damnit! I forgot my Pokemon!" She yelled out loud. Embarrassed, she scratched the back of her head. "Yeah, could you just wait a sec?"

As she embarrassingly dashed to go retrieve her Pokemon, Winston looked at the crowd. "What more can you expect from Cape students? PAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!" The crowd joined in on Winston and Lucinda's laughing, mostly out of pressure.

-------------

Now that Gwen was SURE she had her Pokemon on her, she was for sure confident in her ability to win.

"Alright, how many Pokemon you have?" Gwen challenged, once again residing on the opposite side of the field to her foe. "I have four on me, what about you?"

Winston held up two Luxury balls, one in each hand. "I only have these two with me at the moment- But I don't need anymore! I'm fine with both of us using all our available Pokemon!"

"It's settled then! Tusk, let's go!"

Gwen threw Tusk's pokeballs onto the ground, opening up to a flash of light that morphed into an Axew. Normally he'd hate having his play-time interrupted, but a battle was always an exception.

"YEW YEW!"

On the other end of the battlefield, Winston's Luxury ball Pokemon was revealed, being a short, blue canine Pokemon that stood on two black legs. It had black markings around it's red eyes, and the "mask" had black appendages besides both it's eyes, looking almost like they could be ears. It stood around pretty statically, not nearly as excited as Tusk.

"Woah! A Riolu!" Gwen gleamed. "Where'd you get one?"

"My father bred it for me!" Winston bragged. "And you'll see how much more difficult that is to battle!"

During all the commotion, few had noticed a girl who had a white, wide-brim, derby hat decorated with three yellow roses crowning her long blonde hair and dressed in a yellow halter summer dress, was making her way to the crowd. Even with the clicking sounds her white heels made with each step, nobody really noted her.

She stood on the side of the fence Lucinda was, which certainly caught her attention and riled her up a bit.

"Excuse me!" Lucinda pouted. "Can you not see you are taking up my space!"

"Shut th' fock up, ah cannae hear shite with yer yappin'." The familiar voice snarled.

Hearing such an accent in such a tone startled Liconda, causing her to flinch and fearfully shift her head towards the fight.

"We'll have to see about that!" Gwen pointed towards Winston, as if she was trying to zap him with the spare energy she had. "Tusk, use Slash!"

The Axew ran straight towards his opponent, bearing his claws on his right hand.

"AAAAAX YEW YEW YEW YEW YEW YEW YEW!" Tusk uttered with every step he took, loudly announcing his assault.

In seemingly no-time, the dragon-type got close enough to Riolu to land his attack. Winston noticed this, swashed his left arm, and gave an order.

"Riolu, attack!" The rich boy simply ordered. Right when Tusk was about to scratch the fighting-type, Riolu bluntly moved his right arm in-front of Tusk, and flashed a blue light, catching Tusk off-guard before he got hit by the light, knocking him back a few feet.

"That was Force Palm…" Gwen muttered to herself. She looked over at Tusk, noticing how he struggled to get back on his feet. She wasn't sure if Axew could take another hit.

Maybe she had bit off more than she was able to chew.

"Getting in there didn't do me much good...What should I do?"

Gwen had managed to drown out the crowd that cheered as Tusk was knocked back, so she could try to salvage the results of this match.

But how could she? Tusk only knew physical attacks...Right?

Just then Gwen's eyes lit up. She just remembered an attack Tusk that they hadn't yet used.

Gwen, brimming with confidence that this was the solution, pointed at the Riolu, ready to give Tusk his command.

"Tusk, Dragon Rage!"

The dragon-type Pokemon turned his head back to make eye-contact with his trainer. He had never used this move before, was now the best time, is what Tusk's expression read as. But upon seeing the amount of confidence Gwen had, Tusk nodded. They both knew what they needed to do.

Tusk opened his mouth, charging a ball of purple fire in it.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" The Axew cried out as the attack was forming. The crowd stopped their chanting, watching in awe as Tusk charged his attack.

"KYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEW!!!!" Tusk's cry echoed through the outdoor battle arenas as he successfully fired off his first dragon rage. When the attack left his mouth, the purple fire formed into the shape of a dragon, and was headed directly towards the foe's Riolu. There was no way this could fail... Although if that was the case, why didn't Winston or his Pokemon seemed intimidated in the slightest?

As Dragon Rage was about to hit Riolu, Winston seemed almost bored. His eyelids were drooping and his hands were in his pants pockets. Right when it seemed Dragon Rage was about to land, Winston yawned, followed by him saying "You know what to do Riolu."

At the last second, Riolu punched through the attack, causing it to disappear. Gwen's jaw dropped, and while Axew tried to keep his cool, he wasn't fooling anybody. The surprise was very present in his eyes.

Dragon Rage wasn't the only thing that disappeared though, because Riolu was gone with no trace. Just as quickly as it seemed the fighting-type disappeared, he reappeared into thin air right in-front of Tusk, and punched him square in the face, knocking Tusk on his back.

Gwen couldn't help but be astonished by what she just witnessed. She was sure that attack was. Bullet Punch, an attack that will always take priority. The Unovian trainer looked over to her Axew, to see that Tusk was knocked unconscious.

"PAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Winston laughed, followed by the audience, cheering and screaming too. Lucinda wasn't exactly joining in for some reason. Concerned, Winston turned around to see why his "darling" wasn't in-sync.

"Lucinda, darling, what's the ma- WHAT THE- WHAT ARE YOU DOING SO CLOSE TO MY DEAR LUCINDA!?!?!?!?"

Gwen didn't notice any of this, instead too lost in her own headspace. She was panicking, her plan totally backfired, out of ideas. This reminded her of the time when Pix was hypnotized by the Alolan Vulpix who belonged to- What was her name again?

"OI, G'ENDOLYN!"

Speak of the devil. Just when things couldn't get any worse, she just had to be here.

Gwen looked up to see that in the area where Lucinda was standing, Bethany was standing right next to her, looking taller than usual for some reason. Lucinda was no longer staring adoringly at Winston, but instead was horrified to the point of shivering. Her eyes seemed watery, as if she was about to cry.

But this time Bethany didn't look antagonistic, or like she needed something, rather she seemed determined this time.

"SWITCH TAE EKANS!!"

Wait, was she... Trying to help?

The entire crowd was silent, collectively all having their eyes on the Galrian trainer. Gwen was baffled at how Bethany wasn't trying to berate her for once.

"ARE YEH CORNED BEEF?!? AH SAID SWITCH TAE EKANS YE CHAV!"

Well, that was the closest she'd get, anyways. Taking her advice, Gwen used Tusk's Pokeball to return the fainted Pokemon.

"You did your best Tusk... I'm sorry we weren't prepared for that "

After setting the ball on her belt. She pulled off another Pokeball, throwing it to the ground, and popping open to reveal Jess.

As usual, once Jess entered the ring, she rattled her tail and hissed at the Riolu. The Riolu slightly shook in fear, and even backed down a bit. This was the first change in expression the Aura Pokemon made. The tide was beginning to turn, and Gwen regained her confidence.

Winston desperately tried to reconstruct his confident persona, although it clearly didn't seem to fit very well this time.

"P-P-P-Pahahahaha!" Winston nervously laughed quieter than he previously had. Half the audience laughed along with him. "You think that's going to weaken my dear Riolu? Nonsense!"

"Jess, use Wrap!" Gwen ordered, ignoring the rich boy's empty words. Jess slithered on the ground, making her way to Riolu. The black-haired girl thought with his attack lowered, she might stand a chance getting in closer.

"R-Riolu, attack!" Winston stuttered. Riolu disappeared and reappeared in-front of Jess, stopping her dead in her tracks, angling his fist downwards, about to land another Bullet Punch.

This time was different however. As soon as the Riolu was visible again, Gwen called out "NOW!", and Jess capitalized on this opportunity to wrap around Jess, starting at his legs, and eventually Riolu was coiled by Ekans, squeezing him more intensely with every second. Riolu struggled, but it was no use.

"UM, UM, UM, UM, UM….." Winston panicked. "R-RIOLU, ATTACK!" His Pokemon was in too much pain to comply.

Jess had been tightening her grasp for about a minute while Winston continuously gave out commands to a Pokemon that clearly was in no state to do so. Just then, Gwen's eyes lit up as she gasped.

Something was not right.

"Hey, wait a second!" The ditzy girl pointed out. "You're not even calling out any specific attacks! Riolu is doing all the work for you!"

The audience started whispering among themselves at this revelation as Winston was frozen silent. There was silence from them for a minute before somebody called something out.

"Why don't you use something other than Focus Palm or Bullet Punch?"

Winston froze in place, appearing as if he were a child being caught stealing from the cookie jar. "W-Well, you see, Riolu uh...I don't know his other moves." The whispering among the audience continued, continuing to get more and more aggressive.

"Like, what a complete phony bro!" A young man in the audience shouted. Others started agreeing with him, and eventually everyone except Lucinda and Bethany began booing him one by one. It was hard to believe the same audience was cheering him on not too long ago. To top everything off, the rich boy's Riolu gave up trying to struggle his way out of the Wrap and fainted.

"This match sucks!" A youngster in the crowd shouted out.

"I didn't know they taught people to be such phonies at Safari Academy!" Joined in another.

"Bro, what a disappointment." The young man mourned.

One after another, members of the audience began dropping out of disappointment. Winston desperately tried to get them all back.

"W-Wait! Don't go!" The rich boy pleaded. "You can't leave just yet! You haven't even seen my next Pokemon!" His attempt was futile, because soon after the only remaining audience members were Bethany and Lucinda. It was unknown if Lucinda stayed out of devotion, or if she was in such a state of shock it prevented her from moving.

Winston returned his fainted Pokemon back to his ball. With his crowd no longer around to boost his ego, Winston's entire attitude changed.

"I-I-I can't believe you just drove away my fans you- you- you FUCKING LITTLE BITCH!"

Woah. That certainly was a juxtaposition if Gwen had ever seen one.

"Take it easy." She used both of her hands to do a stopping gesture. The black-haired girl tried to calm him down, because this drastic mood-shift kind of scared her. "The reason Riolu lost was because you didn't have a bond with him. Sure, he is really strong, but strength alone won't carry yo-"

"I DON'T WANNA HEAR SHIT FROM YOU!" Winston rudely interrupted. "THERE'S NO WAY A DISGUSTING CAPE TRAINER SHOULD BE ABLE TO BEAT ME!" The rich boy aggressively tossed his second Luxury Ball. The light that was released from this one morphed into a creature twice the size of his Riolu. This Pokemon was a green, bipedal insect with two scythes for hands, and four wings to boot.

"SCYTHAA!!" The Pokemon let out a high pitch screech that sent shivers down Gwen's spine. She'd always wanted to see a Scyther in person, but certainly not by someone this maniacal.

"SCYTHER, POWER UP!" At the wish of his trainer, the Scyther struck a pose, facing left, holding one scythe above it's head while the other was by his waist. He had one foot in-front of him while the other was behind him. He shifted his body, making sure to scratch his scythes together a single time before he did the exact same pose facing right this time, almost as if following a rhythm.

Gwen immediately recognized this as Swords Dance, and knew she had to take this opportunity.

"Jess, now's your chance! Wrap!" Jess was closer to Scyther than she was the Riolu, so she had far less of a distance to cover than before. The snake Pokemon had one issue with this creature, being that because Scyther was twice Riolu's height and this Pokemon was moving more , she only managed to get around his left leg. This put weight on that leg, but didn't stop Scyther from completing the attack-boosting move.

"DESTROY HER, SCYTHER!!"

Scyther, now facing forward, stuck out his left leg, and saw the Ekans tightening her grip. His arms were free, which couldn't be said about Riolu, and he swiftly slashed his scythe across Jess' tied up body, causing her to hiss in pain. This was unlike anything she'd felt before, but she really tried to hang in there.

Gwen was concerned for her Pokemon, but she knew it wasn't likely that Jess would be conscious after another hit. She knew she had to get in as much damage as she could.

"Jess, use Acid!" On command, Jess made noises that sounded like she was trying to get something out of her throat. After about three attempts, she hacked up a ball of purple sludge that landed on Scyther's abdomen. This bothered the Scyther, and his response was to just hit Jess with another Slash. The Ekans completely loosened her grasp afterwards, falling to the floor.

Jess fainted.

Gwen, starting to feel hopeless, returned Jess to her Pokeball. Winston laughed, but it wasn't anything like the laugh he shared with his "darling. Instead of sounding snobby, his laughter sounded maniacal, like he was power-tripping from having ownership of such a strong Pokemon.

Even if his Scyther was indeed really strong, it was still clear the two weren't much of a pair. To Gwen, the point of being a Pokemon trainer was to form unbreakable bonds between you and your Pokemon, what she thought made a good trainer, and what Winston lacked.

Even with two of her Pokemon down, Gwen wasn't intimidated, because it was clear the rich kid didn't actually know what he was doing. Not to mention, both of her remaining partners had a type advantage. Although Custard would be terrified of a 5 foot insect who was under the control of someone who was absolutely losing their shit. Pix was the only real option right now.

Gwen plucked Pix's Pokeball off her belt, looking at if for a second, knowing this would be her only chance to take down the bug-type.

"Pix, help me out!"

"Vul! Vulpix!" The fox Pokemon cried out on entrance, followed by the sunlight to appear brighter.

"Pix! Fire Spin!" Pix opened her mouth and spat out a small ball of fire, appearing to be slightly bigger than an Ember, that was directly headed Scyther's way.

"SCYTHER I DON'T CARE WHAT THE FUCK YOU DO, JUST GET RID OF HER!"

Just before impact, Scyther vanished. Was this another priority move? He appeared a split-second later on the right where he was standing, screeching a "SCYTHAA" noise, before disappearing in a blink.

Right next to the spot he was previously in, Scyther appeared and reappeared again, making another "SCYTHAA" noise in the moment that he was visible.

"SCYTHAA!" This time Scyther showed up to left of his initial spot, and yet again, fading away once more.

This process continued only speeding up, and in no-time, Scyther was moving so fast it gave the illusion that Pix was circled around by ten or so Scythers, all screeching out "SCYTHAA!" noise with zero harmony.

"Damnit, it's Double Team!" Gwen agonized out-loud. Of course she knew about it, but she never really wanted to deal with it. But she had to think, and fast, because at any millisecond these Scyther would attack Pix and hit hard.

Just right then and there, she had an idea. This could possibly end up real bad, but she was left with little other options.

"Pix, shoot a Fire Spin directly where you're standing!"

With no hesitation, the Vulpix complied, jumped up in the air and spat a fire ball where she was standing. On impact, the fire ball expanded into a fire vortex that grew with each second, and Pix landed back down to her spot. She was taking slight damage while she stood in the eye of the storm, her typing allowing her to resist the damage of her own attack. Even with some damage being taken, Pix and Gwen seemed to mutually agreed that this risk might be necessary, as the Fire Storm engulfed the Scyther and his clones

One by one, the Scythers disappeared in the fire, leaving only the real one to remain. The real Scyther, looking to be in severe pain, collapsing to his knees, as he couldn't handle being caught in the fire-type attack that was boosted by the sun-rays.

"SCYTHAAAAAAAAA!!" The bug-type screamed in agony, being burnt by Fire Spin.

Of the remaining audience members, Bethany took note of this. This wasn't something she'd expect from her rival, and was even a little impressed.

"SCYTHER WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU DOING!!" Winston hollered at his Pokemon, something that was starting to get on Gwen's nerves. She didn't have time to focus on that, because she needed to end this.

"Pix, ember!" Just as her trainer shouted, Pix spat out a small spark that landed directly on her opponent, this time Scyther had no real opportunity to dodge. The Fire Spin faded, and Scyther fell on his face, now unable to battle.

Gwen was the victor.

Winston dropped onto his hands and knees, almost in an identical position to that of the trainer he previously defeated.

"How could I...How could I have lost?"

Gwen completely ignored this, walked over to Pix, kneeled down to stick her left hand onto her partner's chest, and stood up while tucking Pix's rear between her chest and arms.

"Good job today Pix. That must have fucking sucked." Gwen smiled at Pix, very appreciative of what her Vulpix had gone through. Pix responded by nuzzling against Gwen's arm.

"How could I lose?" Winston said increasingly louder to catch the attention of the duo. "My Pokemon are so strong!"

"I tried to tell you." Gwen said somewhat condescendingly. "Even if they're really strong, you don't have any sort of relationship with your Pokemon. Anyone can catch a strong Pokemon. What matters is how you treat them." Gwen went on. "I mean, your Riolu seemed pretty emotionless. You know Riolu can only evolve if you become really good friends, right?"

"But...but...but…" Winston looked downwards to hide him crying. He had never been so humiliated before. "You don't understand...my dad gave me that Riolu!"

"OOOHHHHHHH, WINSTON, DARLING!" Winston's sobbing was interrupted by Lucinda dashing over to her "darling". Lucinda's voice was enough to encourage him to get back up on his feet, somehow acting exactly like he was when Gwen first saw him.

Winston held onto Lucinda's right hand with both of his, while Lucinda's free hand was on her cheek. "Oh my dear Lucinda, I'm so sorry you had to see that!"

"Oh Winston, darling, to me you'll always be the best!"

Gwen observed this all with disgust. Relationships were something she hadn't quite seen the appeal of, especially not as young as these two were.

Gwen remembered something at that moment. Wasn't there a Copperajah in the room that hadn't been fully addressed?

"Ah'll tell ye why ye lost."

Oh right. That was it.

Bethany approached the rich kid couple, ready to serve them a piece of her mind.

"Ye lack stra'egy. Ye hae strang Pokemon, but there's mair tae battlin' than showin' aff."

Winston and Lucinda simultaneously gave a disgusted expression headed Bethany's way, very similar to what Gwen was treated to when they saw her outfit.

"Oh my, where are you from??" Winston asked.

"Ah'm frae Galar. Born in Spikemuth, but li'd in Wyndon fer puckle years."

"Spikemuth??" Winston mocked. "Certainly shows by that accent, but it totally taints your wardrobe."

"If you want to pretend to be posh, why don't you talk posh while you're at it?" Lucinda smugly added in, clearly trying to provoke her.

"That's true, darling. Why doesn't she just try speaking normally???"

"PAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" The couple laughed in sync.

Bethany, however, was certainly not laughing. The look in her eyes seemed to tell a tale about how infuriated she was, and her face appeared to be turning a shade of red, getting brighter with every second. Her teeth were exposed and looking like they were about to grind, and she had her fists to her side, begrudgingly holding back because she knew the consequences would not be worth the action. Gwen had never seen her this enraged before.

"OI, YE SHUT YER BLUDY TRAP!" Bethany screamed, pointing her index finger uncomfortably close to Winston's face. She was ready to unleash her wrath.

"Ah cannae bludy stand other rich fowk loch ye! Unloch me, ye had e'erythin' en yer life handed to ye by yer bludy ma an' pa an' now as a result ye are absolutely awfy against somebody slightly mair component than ye, but is a complete BAMPOT in e'ery other way!" Her finger was getting closer with every word she spoke. "Ah hate Uno'ian chavs, but the only hin' ah hate mair than that is other rich fowk! Ye are SAAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEE pampered by yer ma an' pa ye dornt ken hoo tae li' on yer own wi'oot yer da's lowie! Yer o'erpriced education was LESS VALUABLE than somebody frae bludy CAPE COLLEGE! Yer lowie means SHITE if ye dornt hae real technique! All ye pro'ed is at ye caught a strang Pokemon. ANY bludy nyaff can dae 'at, E'EN a UNO'IAN CHAV!!"

Lucinda cowered behind Winston's back, her eyes watering as she shivered once again. "Darling, it's scaring me!" Winston didn't seem to be much help, he was shivering just as much as her "darling".

"Me too, darling! Let us make our exit!" Within seconds, the two began booking it out of the battlefield, and far out of sight for the two girls.

"AT'S RIGHT, GET TAE FOCK AWAY!" Bethany shook her first at the young couple escaped the scene.

"Hey uhh…" Gwen whispered trying to get the Galrian trainer's attention. "So uh...what's your name again?"

"It's Bethany Miller!"

"Yeah yeah, that." Gwen made shooing gestures with her hands as if it didn't matter. "Why did you help me?"

"We come bonnie close in battle ance" Bethany crossed her arms and closed her eyes. "Ah'd hate if th' chav ah got somewhat close tae beatin' me tint tae a rich fowk."

Gwen just stood there, expressionless. This didn't seem right to her.

The Galarian girl then faced directly at her rival, hands on her hips and wore her usual irritated expression.

"An' when ah said 'at barin lacked stra'egy, 'at goes for ye an aw, G'endolyn." Ah, there was the Bethany she was so familiar with.

"Hate tae admit, but 'ulpix's usage ay Fire Spin was noteworthy. Yer Axew, howe'er, is jist pure muscle."

Gwen knew she was right. Tusk was very headstrong, but that would get him nowhere without any thought-out way to land attacks.

"In that case, why don't you spar with me and we can work that out?" The black-haired girl's enthusiasm sparked, preparing to grab a Pokeball off her belt.

"Ah cannae dae 'at." Bethany closed her eyes and shook her head gently. "Ah got tae get ready fur th' gym. Ah suggest ye dae th' sam, nae 'at ah hink ye stain a chance."

"OHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHOHO!" The laugh that pierced Gwen's ears had escaped Bethany's mouth, and she walked away, presumably going to be lost soon.

This did remind Gwen she needed to prepare for the gym. Of course she needed to heal her Pokemon first, but once she was done with that she would do what she was supposed to be doing and plan out her day.

Gwen returned Pix to her Pokeball, as she was going to take her friends to heal up. Surely, these Pokemon would have quite a tale to tell to the nurse.

 

[moon]

Ralph Gonder

Lavender Town

Friday, May 24th
Morning, Day 5

The next time she woke up, it was morning, and sunlight made its way through the window onto her bedsheets. She lay still for a while, before checking the time on her pokégear by the bedside. 08:35. It was pretty late, honestly, compared to the times she'd been waking up so far on this journey. Then again, yesterday was a nightmare, and she didn't have a full night's sleep.

Sitting up, she recalled the nightly events. The weird dude called Marcus had told her about the woman in the Pokémon Tower called Jarmie, who apparently tried to set up a gym there. But Lavender already had a gym. Ralph didn't really understand why there would be two, or why someone would want to try to bully another gym out of the business. Humans were so annoying. She bet pokémon in the wild didn't have stupid political disputes like this.

After watching Marcus the Weirdo sneak off, she had gone to fetch her healed pokémon and been able to fall asleep again relatively easily. Now her belly was growling with extreme anguish at her for skipping dinner last night. Breakfast had to happen, and it had to happen soon. As she got herself ready, she caught herself regretting that she wouldn't get a Joseph-cooked breakfast today. Oh well. They would surely camp out again in a day or two. She could live with cafeteria food paid for by Professor Palm until then.

Dressed up in a clean hoodie and de-dusted black jeans, she went down to the lobby. Joseph wasn't there. Well, they hadn't agreed to meet anywhere - he'd really just dropped zombie Ralph off in her room and that'd been it - but she assumed they'd meet up sooner or later. She had his number, in case she wanted to call him and check where he was, also.

Speaking of calling...

Along one wall were a couple of computers, free for use by trainers. They all had contraptions for digitalizing pokéballs so that they could be sent and received, not just sent like the pokédex could do. Ralph only had 6 pokémon currently, so she didn't exactly have any use for that. Unless... The Geodude. Hardy, she had named him, but she felt quite uncomfortable at the thought of pushing him into battle on her behalf. After all, it was her Coldy who had suddenly assaulted him in Rock Tunnel. And she had promised his family to care for him and bring him back. She really, really didn't feel like traveling back to Rock Tunnel today. Perhaps she could put him somewhere else though.

Sitting down at one computer, some seats away from a pretty noisy girl who was apprently calling a "Jennifer" without much luck, Ralph rang her family in Pewter. Video was on. She might as well show her parents that she was alive and well (and fresh, after a muuuuch needed morning shower) and even had long pants on despite Kanto not exactly being cold in May.

It was her Dad who picked up. After a few seconds, video turned on also, and Ralph saw the face of her father for the first time in months.

"Ralph! You're calling!" he said with the surprise not disguised at all.

"Yeah. How are you?" she said nonchalantly.

"We're well! How are you? You haven't called in months! We knew your graduation journey had started, and we tried to get a hold of you but we never reached you-"

Ralph waved off the memory of her phone ringing several days in a row before the day of the journey, and her not picking up. On purpose.

"I was busy. How's Mom?"

"We're fine," Dad repeated and shook his head. "I'm just so happy to see you! How is your journey? Where are you now?"

"I'm in Lavender Town. It's been going... Okay. I have six pokémon already. And one of them shouldn't battle, so I was wondering if you could care for him until I can take him back?"

Dad listened intently and nodded on the screen while Ralph was talking. "I suppose we can? If it isn't a huge pokémon? Can it live in the house with us?"

"In the garden, maybe. It's a Geodude, and his name is... Well, he probably has a name in his wild family. He just needs to have a calm, safe life, okay? Not get mixed up with all the other pokémon at Palm's place."

"Of course! I think we can sort that out. Will you send the pokéball here? We have a receiver at home, you know, since we bought this new fancy video c-"

"Yes, yes, I'm doing it now," Ralph said, eyes rolling.

She took up Hardy's pokéball and gave it a small pat before putting it into the machine. "Sorry," she said. "This'll only be temporary." The machine whirred, and the ball turned into energy and got sucked in. After a few moments, she saw her Dad's face light up and he held the pokéball up on his end.

"All done! It will be nice to get to know him! Now, tell me more! Are you traveling alone? What other pokémon do you have? What's happened so far? Mom went to get freshly baked bread but she will be back in a moment, I'm sure!"

Ralph didn't actually feel like chatting much longer. She hadn't had a great journey. Her pokemon were definitely not the strongest out of the Cape trainer teams so far - they wouldn't ever be, for sure. She had nothing to be proud of, and so there was nothing to really tell her parents. Which of course was why she hadn't called them at all until now.

Before she had to say anything though, she was saved by her traveling companion, who just entered the pokémon center.

"Ralph!" his cheerful voice boomed, and made her spin around. She was actually happy to see him, as he approached her. "Nice to finally see you up, girl. Are you feeling better?"

"Hey. Much," she said, and couldn't help a smile. She was very grateful for how he had helped her get to Lavender safely, and, well, for not dying on her. And for breakfast. And for basically everything. "How are you? How's your head? Did you get it checked up?"

"Yeah, I just came back from a local clinic, to be honest. It wasn't too bad a hit I took, in the end. I think I was mostly just shocked and scared when it happened."

Ralph raised an eyebrow. "You were scared?"

Joseph laughed. "Wildly so. Mostly for you, though."

"Well, same," Ralph said and joke punched him in the belly.

"But I'm interrupting you!" Joseph said, realizing only now that she was in a call with someone and clearly sort of trying to not glance at the screen, probably out of respect for her privacy.

"Oh, it's just my-"

"Joseph?" Dad suddenly said, eyes wide as if astonished.

Joseph instantly forewent all privacy concerns and leaned in next to Ralph at that. "Charles?" he said, his face a look of utter confusion.

Ralph's eyes went from him to the screen and back again. "What-"

"Joe! You're in Lavender! You know Ralph?"

"I do," Joseph responded. "How do you know her?"

"He's my Dad," Ralph said grumpily. "How do you know him?"

"Charles is my big brother," Joseph said, gaze slowly wandering away from the screen to settle on Ralph with a completely different expression, as if only now properly seeing her for the first time. "Which means..."

Ralph's brain was used to planning ahead, even when she didn't mean to. She already knew what this meant for her, even before she had even begun processing the funny coincidence of randomly meeting your uncle on the road and sharing a couple of perilous adventures with him without knowing their relation.

"Oh... If you didn't know, then how did the two of you find each other?" Charles said from the screen, his mind clearly not working as fast as Ralph's. "Come to think of it, Ralph, you were very young when we moved away from Fuchsia, after all."

"Esmeralda?" Joseph tried, still in disbelief.

Ralph instinctively clasped her hands over her face. "Don't call me that!"

"Sorry, I just... That's what you used to be called, isn't it?"

"Ah, she hasn't liked that name for years now, ever since she started Cape College," Charles clarified. "Best not upset her."

"Anything more you'd like to reveal?" Ralph shouted at the computer. "Do I have any cousins journeying from Safari Academy now as well? Or Cape College, even, maybe? Who knows, right? I don't know my own family, because someone never let me visit them!"

Joseph just stared quietly at Ralph during the outburst, with a very sorrowful face.

"I'm sorry, Ralph, baby..." Charles tried, and looked visibly anguished on the screen. "There's history, and I didn't think you needed to know, and-"

"Whatever!" Ralph snapped and abruptly got up from the chair. She rushed for the door: "Why don't you brothers catch up without me?"

And she was out. She didn't really care where she was going, and she wiped furiously at the tears in the corner of her eyes. Her make-up would suffer, and that just made her even angrier.

Of course having a cool, strong traveling companion was too good to be true. Of course her life would find a way to lose him too.

Cape College rules state you're not allowed to have a family member accompany you on your graduation journey.

Greeny

Lv 9 | Sandsy

Lv 17 | Coldy

Lv 13
Edgy

Lv 16 | Softy

Lv 10
Ralph's Profile | Current Chapter

 

[moon]

Ralph Gonder

Lavender Electric Gym

Friday, May 24th
Morning, Day 5

It turns out she went straight west. Before too long, she finds herself in front of a big, modern looking building. Not very fancy or elaborate, but very clearly labeled: LAVENDER TOWN OFFICIAL POKÉMON GYM.

She takes a few deep breaths. Well, then. She is on her own, she is on a journey, and her mission is to battle the gyms, isn't it? She better just go ahead and do that, then.

Ralph enters the building with aim in her step. She spends no time looking around, instead just walks up to the receptionist immediately.

"I'm here to challenge the gym leader, whoever he is," she says.

The receptionist looks her over under her very square glasses. "Beaumont, the electric type gym leader?"

"You have several?" Ralph jeers.

"Not officially. And certainly not here. Just checking that you're well prepared. A gym battle isn't something one should undertake lightly."

"Good thing I'm not a pushover, then," Ralph says, and then follows the steps to complete the registration. It turns out she can go in and battle him immediately.

The arena is much more fancy than the gym from the outside. It is surprisingly big, with spectator rows on each long side of it. They are nearly empty now; only a couple of people sit there and they look like they belong there. Gym trainers, Ralph thinks. The floor is just packed dirt, likely not conducting electricity well. And allowing for ground type pokémon to dig down… On both sides of the battleground, there are huge screens. They light up as Ralph walks out into the lit up area. She turns around to look up at the one behind her. It displays the photo of herself that was used for her temporary journey license (a pretty cool picture with a smug smile, if she may say so herself), and her five pokémon lined up next to it, their statuses denoted. 'Fit', they all currently say.

The opposite screen is dark still, but a character now walks out onto the arena to stand opposite her. He is rather tall, and very pale, with blonde fluffy hair that Ralph would call yellow. A garish yellow, almost as garish as his bright green suit with strangely purple cuff holders and purple streaks down his legs. The tie is even more yellow than his hair though. Who in their right mind would dress like this?

Then, she sees his face, and his smile. It is even wider than Aberdeen's, and looks so plastic that she almost wants to puke. Her instinctive thought is that this is a guy who's in it for the glamour and fame, and that sickens her, although she isn't quite sure why. A lot of pokémon trainers do it for the fame. Not her, of course. She could never become great enough to become famous anyways…

She shakes her head and straightens up, just as the flamboyant gym leader addresses her.

"Ralph Gonder," he says, and his voice is loud and not deep. "A Cape trainer, an underling of the ambitious Professor Palm! Come here so early on a Friday morning. This is your first gym battle, then?"

"It is," she says uninterestedly.

His eyes squint for a moment and he is silent. Is he trying to figure her out? She hates when adults try to figure her out. Like Joseph.

That sends a jolt of anger through her.

"Are we fighting or not? I heard the rules from the lady in the entrance. Let's go already."

Beaumont silently watches her for a few seconds before he speaks again. "Let us indeed go! Emolga!"

He reaches his arm out, holding a pokéball. Erupting from it is a bright light that takes shape into a small mouse-like creature on the ground. The mouse raises its arms and takes a leap up into the air, where it stays afloat, sailing around for a while above them. Emolga. Ralph quickly reaches for her pokédex and lets it scan the pokémon. Beaumont just smiles his weird smile at her and lets her take her time. It annoys her, even if he is being nice.

Electric and Flying type. Dammit.

That means that Sandsy won't be a good choice here. And that was bad, because Sandsy had honestly been her whole strategy since she discovered that the gym was using Electric types. Now, what? She really should have thought things through before coming here. Who would have thought challenging a gym when being emotionally disturbed was a bad idea?

Quietly freaking out a bit, she sends out Coldy. A voice in her head tells her that it's a decent idea. And after seeing Coldy aggressively posing in front of Emolga, her conscious thought catches up with her learned intuition; Ice beats Flying, and Flying won't easily scratch Steel. Alright, let's go!

"Be my guest and take the first move," Beaumont calls to her across the arena, and Ralph notices starkly how his demeanor has suddenly changed. Where did the plastic smile go? She isn't about to squander the offered advantage though.

"Coldy, use Ice Shard!"

The Alolan Sandshrew reacts quickly to the order - perhaps still guilty about the mess in Rock Tunnel? - and flash freezes chunks of Ice from the air around her. They're flung swiftly towards the Emolga, and hits it. Emolga is visibly startled, and falls out of the air, but shakes the shattered ice off of its body before it jumps back into the air again faster than Coldy can reach it.

Ralph looks over at the gym leader, and is surprised to see a smile there again. Not at all the same kind as before though. Does he have a sneaky persona that he changes to when he is in battle?

"Not bad, very swift. Now, Emolga, Double Team!"

Emolga's image suddenly breaks off into two more copies. Three 'Emolga' now circle the arena above Coldy's head. Ralph groans. How annoying. Beaumont doesn't seem to try to make any further move, however, so Ralph just attacks again.

"Powder Snow! Try to hit them all!"

Coldy understands, and spreads her snow as widely as she can upwards. It hits all the copies, and reveals two of them as fake. Since it was so spread out, the small amount that graces the real Emolga doesn't hurt it much, just stings with its cold temperature further. The remaining snow trickles down to the ground, covering it in a thin, white layer.

"You've got your head screwed on right," Beaumont says with a slow nod. "But can you do anything against a direct attack? Spark!"

Emolga suddenly dives down, its whole body crackling with charging electricity. Ralph barely reacts quickly enough.

"Defense Curl!"

Spark attacks, and Coldy has folded herself into a ball in the nick of time. The impact comes, and she is kicked away, past Ralph like a frozen football, almost colliding with the wall behind her before the orb stops rolling and Coldy unfolds again. She stands up bravely, but stumbles when she tries to make her way back to the battle area again.

"Paralyzed?" Ralph says, but it isn't really a question. The pokédex' analysis feature could have told her the likelihood of Coldy's status being paralyzation, but Ralph is attentive enough to see it with her own senses.

Coldy drags herself back to the battle, where Emolga has landed. When they're getting close to each other, the Electric type simply jumps up into the air again, still full of vigor. Ralph feels bad about this situation. But Coldy seems intent on keeping going.

"It's a strategy," Beaumont muses. "To curl up and defend when an attack comes. Another strategy is to move out of the way, but perhaps losing proximity or awareness needed to perform the next attack fast enough for it to matter."

Ralph can't help but scoffing. Is he lecturing her? She isn't going to listen.

"Ice Shard!" she calls out to her pokémon, who tries to perform the order, but is stopped by her periodical paralysis.

"Will you use the same strategy twice?" Beaumont asks, no smile on his lips now. Instead, his eyes look cold and calculating. As if he is genuinely interested in watching what she will do next. "Spark!"

Emolga starts charging its body and dives anew.

Same strategy twice? Maybe. But whatever. If he's desperate for something new, she'll give it to him. "Ice Ball!"

The paralysis luckily doesn't stop Coldy now. She manages to curl up again - but this time she doesn't just stay there. Instead, she simultaneously propels herself forward, and encases herself in a frozen aura in the process. The frozen football and the sparkling squirrel meet in the middle of the arena with a loud cracking noise, mostly from the sparkling lightning. Both bounce back, and neither gets up. Ralph hardly even breathes for a few seconds. Maybe that was a really bad move. Maybe Coldy really got hurt now. Like Geodude in the Tunnel, or like Joseph...

Suddenly, Emolga gets back up on her feet. Shuddering, but awake.

A digital sounding voice seemingly coming from nowhere (yet everywhere?) interrupts them. "Sandshrew is unable to battle! The challenger must send forth a new pokémon!"

On the big screen behind Beaumont, the picture with Emolga still beams strong. Ralph turns around and sees that the picture of the Alolan Sandshrew has received a new status though. 'Fainted'. The pictures of Greeny, Sandsy, Edgy and Softy still shine brightly. On the gym leader's side, there are pictures still shining of several more pokémon as well. Magnemite, Flaaffy, and one Ralph has seen but forgotten the name of. Luckily, the name of the species is listed below the pictures. Heliolisk. What in Kanto is that? She quickly searches it in her pokédex. Electric/Normal.

"Well fought," Beaumont says, and seems like his normal self again for a moment. "How about you choose your second fighter first, and I'll switch mine as well afterwards?"

"How about no," Ralph counters as an instant reaction, then bites her lip. But she doesn't take back her words; instead, she moves forward towards Coldy and looks her over. She's unconscious. Emolga must have been much stronger than it looked... Coldy is returned to her pokéball after an affectionate pat on the head and a murmured 'thank you, and I'm sorry', from the trainer.

Beaumont raises his eyebrows at the remark, and then his strange battling persona is back, watching her tend to her pokémon as he returns Emolga as well.

"Very well," he says, and sends out another pokémon without further ado. It is Heliolisk, of course.

That's more like it.

"Sandsy, go!"

Greeny

Lv 9 | Sandsy

Lv 17 | Coldy

Lv 13
Edgy

Lv 16 | Softy

Lv 10
Ralph's Profile | Current Chapter

 

[QueenNothing]

Friday, 12:00 PM

On the outskirts of Lavender Town and before the Rock Tunnel exit, Gwen and Tusk were practicing an attack Tusk had not yet used. The Unovian girl found a tall and sturdy tree to perhaps practice some of Tusk's attacks on. The trunk of the tree had tons of claw markings on it, indicating that Gwen was far from the first to use this tree as a victim of training. As she gave her commands to the Axew, one sentence lingered on her mind.

"Yer Axew, howe'er, is jist pure muscle."

Gwen very much disliked Bethany, but despite this, she was certainly correct. The encounter with the Riolu had brought to the forefront that Tusk does need some kind of technique. Normally in battle he just kind of attacked.

"TUSK, DUAL CHOP!" Gwen shouted, audibly exhausted.

"KEW KEW!" Tusk charged up to the tree, his hands surrounded in purple lightning to channel the dragon-energy into them, and as he got close enough to the large tree trunk, he slashed it with one hand, buffered a bit, and slashed it again with the other. Once done, Tusk was panting heavily.

Gwen was also panting, not as heavily as her Pokemon, but they had been at this for about an hour, almost right after they got lunch, and it certainly didn't help all they ate was Cup Noodles.

"Damnit!" Gwen held her fists to her side, closed her eyes, and thrust her face downward to hide some kind of shame. "I hate how Galar Girl is right! Tusk, your strength alone won't cut it!"

"KEW KEW!" The dragon-type Pokemon snapped at her trainer. In his mind, it was all he would ever need, even if in reality it cost him a few victories.

"You don't get it Tusk!" The frustrated girl lifted her head back up to face the Axew, her eyes still shut."You ARE strong! But if you don't have technique how will you ever get a hit in!"

"KKYYYEEEEEEEWWWWW!" Tusk lifted his head up, puffed his chest out, and marched over to Gwen. He looked up to make eye-contact and began yelling at her, despite how she couldn't really understand what she was saying.

Gwen couldn't take this. She had a bit of a headache and held her head in her palm. She even felt her stomach hurt a bit from the stress, placing her available hand on it.

"Is your Axew giving you trouble?"

Another unfamiliar voice. As soon as the sentence ended, Gwen flinched and jumped up in the air.

"GAH!" She turned around, slipped, and fell on her rear. The muscular, six foot figure intimidated her, causing her to tremble in her place. Tusk thought his trainer was in danger, rushing in-front of her to guard her from any potential harm, but too cowardly to attack against an opponent this size.

"Oh no no no! I do not mean to harm you!" The figure said using hand gestures to signal his innocence. Gwen stopped shaking as the figure reached out his muscular, warm beige arms to help her up. Gwen reluctantly accepted, and after being gently pulled up, she had gotten a better look at the goodwill in his face that had been growing out a thin, graying, handlebar mustache.

"I apologise!" The figure rubbed the back of his bald head in embarrassment. "I had no intention of frightening you!" Gwen took note of his purple, sleeveless karate gi and that he was completely barefoot.

"Wh-Why are you here?" Gwen stuttered.

The muscular man cleared his throat. "Well, I noticed you and your Pokemon seemed to have a misunderstanding, and I wish to help."

Gwen, still a tiny bit scared, anxiously cocked an eyebrow. "Okay, b-but...Why do you want to help a complete stranger out?"

"My bad!" The man chuckled. "I forgot to introduce myself." He extended his arm, this time offering a handshake, which Gwen accepted, less weary than before.

"I have trained with dragon Pokemon my entire life, and I wish to help any dragon types I come by. Please, call me Doryu." He shifted his views towards Tusk, meticulously examining him.

Doryu put his index finger and thumb up to his chin. "So, your Axew here is upset. He takes pleasure from charging into combat, but you come into conflict with him on this, because this always ends with him losing, and with an upcoming gym battle you desire to win as apart of your graduation Cape College, you are unsure how far this will get you."

Gwen's eyes widened. "W-Wait, how did you know???"

"Because I can speak with dragon Pokemon."

Gwen's eyes widened even further, her jaw dropped, and gasped loudly.

"W-WOW, YOU CAN TALK TO POKEMON??? THAT'S INCREDIBLE!!! PLEASE TEACH ME HOW!!!"

"GAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Doryu burst into a hearty laughter. "That was just a joke. I heard you shout at Axew as I was passing by, and Lavender is close by which has a gym. Many other Cape College students happen to be there, and you seem to be around that age."

"O-Oh, right. I was just joking too." Gwen weakly let a laugh of her own out in an attempt to cover her embarrassment.

Doryu cleared his throat. "But seriously, I do wish to help your Axew. I am a dragon master, so I believe I am well-suited for this."

"A dragon master?" Gwen's eyes lit up with slight intrigue.

"For many years, I have traveled across the planet, trained and lived with every species of dragon Pokemon."

The intrigue in Gwen grew. "So do you mean EVERY dragon type?"

Doryu nodded. "Yes. I have lived in the mountain peaks with Salamence, dwelled in the dark caves with Garchomp, wrestled with many Druddigon in the valleys, swam the treacherous seas with Kingdra, crawled the dry deserts with Flygon, and fought alongside the Kommo-O in the tropics!"

At this point the intrigue on Gwen's face could be seen from space. "DID YOU EVEN MEET RAYQUAZA?!?"

Doryu shut his eyes and smirked. "Of course. I've met the legendary Pokemon Rayquaza many times, even battled it with my own bare hands!" The dragon master swiped his thumb across his nose. "And on every single occasion, I was the victor!"

Gwen, trying her best to contain her excitement and failing, was rapidly bouncing up and down.

"OHMYGOSHTHAT'SSUPRCOOLYOUBATTLEDRAYQUAZAHOWISTHATEVENPOSSIBLE!!!"

Doryu, trying to keep his confident expression, broke and let out another hearty laugh. "GAHAHAHAHAHAHA! That was another joke. There is no way I could ever beat a Rayquaza in battle in my current state."

"Oh, right...Hehehehe..." Gwen scratched the back of her head. "I knew it was a joke."

Doryu cleared his throat again. "Everything besides that however, was not. More than anyone else, I understand the bond with dragon Pokemon, and I see you wish to strengthen your own with Axew."

Gwen nodded. "Yeah. Tusk is really strong but he doesn't have any technique."

The dragon master crossed his arms and closed his eyes to contemplate something. "I might possibly have a solution." He proposed as his eyes opened. "How about we do a little sparring to test the potential of your Tusk here?"

Gwen backed away a little. "I-I don't know, I don't know if Tusk would stand a chance against your Pokemon, they're probably REALLY strong…"

"That's why I would use a Pokemon at a similar level." Doryu assured, holding a Pokeball of his own. Gwen contemplated the suggestion before deciding it was a good idea.

Doryu grinned. "Good decision." His expression then morphed from wise and relaxed to disciplined and determined as he clicked the Pokeball and used that energy to toss it. The ball opened, the white light forming into a Pokemon that Gwen or Tusk weren't expecting to see.

"Ahks-yew!"

"No way! Another Axew!" The Unovian trainer gleamed. She wouldn't have guessed that Doryu brought an Axew of his own, even if it did make sense.

Doryu's Axew, however, seemed different from Tusk. Unlike Tusk, who was very aggressive, this Axew shared an expression with his trainer, very stern and focused.

"Using the ability of my Axew, we shall test the ability of your own." Doryu's harsh expression starred the opposing side down. "Do not hesitate!"

"Looks like we're getting serious!" Gwen pumped her fist. "Tusk, show 'em what we practiced with Dual Chop!"

"AAAAAAAXYEWYEWYEWYEWYEWYEW!" Just as they rehearsed, Tusk began to rush towards the Axew, his hands being wrapped in the same purple lighting. Unlike they had rehearsed, however, the other Axew had his legs parallel to each other, and held his arms out to his sides, not to attack, but it certainly was not expected.

Doryu's Axew then folded his arms inwards, holding one hand into a fist into the palm of his other hand, and took a deep breath. Immediately, Axew stomped into a different stance, this time appearing hunched over, holding both of his arms out, his left arm angled upwards and right arm held out straight with boths hands baring his claws. This was all achieved before Tusk was even close enough to hit.

"YEEEEW!" Tusk announced his attack before it was about to land. He aggressively swung his right arm towards the enemy Axew, but Doryu's Axew countered by using his left hand to grab onto Tusk's attacking hand, neutralizing it.

"WHAT!?!?" Gwen gasped, Tusk gasping as well since he was the one to have his attack interrupted. Doryu was on a completely different level.

Doryu's glare seemed to get more intimidating as this happened. "Axew! Dual Chop!"

Seemingly at the press of a button, Axew's open claw was surrounded in what appeared to be purple lightning. He took advantage of Tusk's neutralized state, and suddenly jammed his claws into his foe's ribcage under Tusk's attacking arm.

"TUSK??? ARE YOU OKAY???" Gwen shouted out, concerned about the state her Pokemon was in.

All Tusk could do was stand there with his mouth wide open, gasping for breath, almost as if he was frozen in pain. Doryu's Axew let go of Tusk, and with no support, Tusk collapsed to the ground.

"TUSK!!!" Gwen, in a state of panic, ran over the dragon-type, and kneeled down to tend to him. Despite the Axews being a similar level, they were clearly unmatched.

Gwen was about to run over to her bag to grab some potions, but when she noticed that it was dark, she looked up to see Doryu standing over her, returning to his relaxed persona, holding a Revival Herb in his palm.

"For Tusk." He smiled. "He needs it."

-----------------------------------

Doryu sat on the ground with his legs crossed with Gwen and Tusk facing across from them sitting in the same position (Or at least as close as Tusk could cross his legs). Doryu's Axew was sitting down next to his trainer as well.

"May I ask your name?" Doryu asked. It was weird to think about, but he never actually got the name of the trainer whose Pokemon he utterly destroyed.

"I'm Gwen! Gwen Alanis!" She boldly stated. "My older sister is Jennifer Alanis!"

Doryu closed his eyes as if to contemplate a thought. "The name is not familiar to me." Gwen lightly sighed. Maybe her sister really was some has-been tournament winner?

"It does not matter to me however." The dragon master continued. "You are not your sister. You are you, Gwen Alanis!"

This seemed a little odd to Gwen. What was that supposed to mean? Obviously she wasn't her sister. She didn't have much time to dwell on this because Doryu went on.

"That is besides the point though. What I wish to discuss right now is your loss. Tell me, why do you think you lost?"

"It's because me and Tusk don't have any sort of technique." Gwen admitted, having gotten somewhat used to their losses being because of this.

Tusk, however, wasn't willing to accept this, as upon hearing his trainer point it out, he crossed his arms and pouted. He refused to believe that just going in for the kill wasn't as effective as he thought, even if he knew it was true.

Doryu took note of both of their reactions. "I can tell you both have a very strong bond, and while that is an essential part of being a Pokemon trainer, Alanis is right."

Gwen peaked over at Tusk to stick her tongue out. Tusk growled a little in response.

"However, not only do you lack strategy, you also lack discipline. Discipline is very important when raising Pokemon, and dragons are no exception. Dragons are some of the most powerful Pokemon known to man, however this comes at a cost of them being more difficult to raise."

"The style Axew used to defeat Tusk was Lung Ying, or Southern Dragon Style. This is a style I teach to all of my young dragons, as demonstrated by my Axew." Doryu's Axew nodded in agreement. "In the wild, dragons are born into very secluded communities of their species where they are raised by the more experienced dragons of the group, and are taught by the older dragons how to live using their natural abilities. Very rarely, however, a young dragon will get lost from it's pack and end up living on their own, hence why Pokemon such as Axew are so rare to come across."

Gwen briefly scanned Tusk. Did Tusk get lost from his family?

Doryu continued. "Sometimes these Pokemon are caught by trainers. Other times, the dragon, with little training on how to take advantage of it's natural abilities, will attempt to survive, and nature takes its course…" Even if he was able to mask it fairly well, Gwen felt the sorrow Doryu contained in the last sentence.

"When a young dragon is caught by a trainer, especially a beginner trainer, the trainer fails to understand how to take advantage of their strengths and weaknesses, usually focusing solely on power. As they evolve, their strength increases, but not much else improves. Think of it like this; Dragons who lack discipline are like Outrage, the Dragon-type attack. Devastatingly powerful- As long as it can hit. Outrage uses all of the power dragons contain, but comes at the cost of control, leaving them defenseless if used poorly. This is how I see Tusk right now."

Lectures usually weren't her specialty, but since the subject was Pokemon, Gwen absorbed this information like a sponge. She recognized every word he was saying was correct. Tusk wouldn't be evolving for some time, and by then all of Bethany's Pokemon would be running circles around Tusk.

"This is why I teach my young dragons Lung Ying, to teach them discipline until they are able to harness their natural abilities as they evolve."

"Alright then." Gwen let out. "Teach this to Tusk."

The dragon trainer once again appeared to be deep in thought. "As much as I would delight from training you both, at the moment you have more immediate goals, such as your gym battle and your graduation journey. What I wish to teach you takes time you do not currently have, however I can attempt to condense the necessary training. Remember, this isn't meant to carry you through your journey, but it will help you learn at least a little discipline."

Gwen again shifted her head towards Tusk. "Whaddya say?"

Tusk knew it was time to swallow his pride. Reluctantly, he sighed and unenthusiastically got on his feet. "Kew kew…"

"Let us begin." Doryu stood up but was a bit confused as to why Gwen was still sitting. She continued to stay seated, looking up after a bit.

"Soooo...What are you waiting for?"

"You." He bluntly stated.

Gwen's eyes widened as she waved her hands around. "M-Me?"

Doryu and Axew simultaneously noded their heads. "In order to strengthen your bond, you both need to learn discipline."

Just as her Pokemon did, Gwen sighed and unenthusiastically stood on her feet. Her training was about to begin.

-----------------------------

Two hours had passed. Gwen and Tusk, panting heavily, did their best to maintain the stance Doryu's Axew defeated Tusk with, even if it was difficult because they had been exhausted by the training.

Doryu sternly examined the duo, contemplating the training. "You have both done well. Let us finish our training." The moment the words left his mouth, Gwen and Tusk crashed to the ground.

"A-Are we actually done?" Gwen had never seemed so relieved.

"Not exactly. What I taught you was basic enough to help you through close-ranged battles for the moment, but you still have a lot to learn." Suddenly his face transformed back into his relaxed self. "But for all intents and purposes, yes."

"Oh, tha-" Gwen needed to interrupt her sentence to pant. "Thank you so much old man."

"Old man?" Again, Doryu laughed to himself. "Please, call me Doryu. Master Doryu."

The Unovian trainer shot up an eyebrow. "Master?"

Doryu nodded. "I shall consider you an honorary student of mine. It is a shame our training is so limited, because I can feel the potential the two of you have. However, if you ever desire to continue your training full-time, I will accept whenever you are ready."

Gwen, still panting, wasn't awfully keen on that offer. "Thanks, but I need to finish my journey first before I can really think about that."

"I am aware, however, once you complete your journey, I hope you shall consider my offer."

This wasn't something she was considering very heavily. Once she got her trainer's license, Gwen figured she'd be on her way to becoming a World Champion.

"Oh, that's right! Before we part, I wish to reward you for your training."

Gwen's eyes lit up. "Sweet! What is it!?"

"Close your eyes first and hold out your hands." Gwen did as her instructor asked, holding out her hands in anticipation.

She was very excited about the possibility of what she could receive. It had to be dragon related, so maybe it was a TM? Or perhaps he was going to leave her with a Dragon Scale or Dragon Fang? Or maybe even a new dragon-type Pokemon to raise? The possibilities made her shake.

What she felt drop into her hands was most likely not what she was expecting. It was very light, thin, and felt like paper.

"You may now open your eyes."

Gwen did so, and glanced down to see what she received. It was indeed all the things she felt, small, thin, and paper, shaped like a bill. It had some text printed on it, which she began to read aloud.

"Pokey's Family Restaurant...Free order of one chicken strip meal…" The disappointment in her voice deepened as she read each word. "What the fuck is this?"

"Have you had Pokey's chicken strips? They're delicious!" Doryu laughed to himself. "Plus, today is Pokemon Eat Free Day! That coupon expires tomorrow, so it would be wise to use it tonight!" Gleefully, the dragon trainer returned his Axew to his Pokeball to head on his way. "Farewell Alanis! Hopefully we shall meet again!"

Gwen was still in disbelief about her "reward". She did remember that last night she promised to take Tusk to a restaurant today, and he deserved it after their training, so at least that was covered.

Now that Tusk knew more than just charging into battle, there was no way they'd be able to lose in Gwen's mind.

 

[WizardOfOdd]

Richard Wolstenholme​

Lavender Town, May 24^th, Afternoon

​

Chapter 5 - 4
Battle at the Haunted Tower - Part 2​

"Finally you show some backbone, I was—"

"Thunder Shock!"

"Tch, Detect!"

Eileen shot a powerful lightning bolt from her body at close range, hitting the Sableye who can't even move her legs due to being paralyzed.

"Damn it, this is more troublesome than I first thought, I guess I'll have to take this seriously… Sableye, Night Shade!"

"Thunder Shock!"

The stream of dark energy manages to overpower Eileen's electricity, but it slightly misses the mark as Eileen starts dashing away from the attack.

"Tch!" Richard clicks his tongue as he observes the situation.

"Oh, you're continuing your run? How futile, Shadow Sneak!"

"Electro Ball!"

Eileen runs to catch some distance before it conjures a yellow ball of electricity, this time she manages to form it easily without any issues. But just as she's flicking the yellow ball, Jarmie's Sableye manages to catch Eileen off-guard using her shadow striking Eileen right on her torso. Even after being paralyzed, Sableye manages to retake the upper ground without much issue.

"Great, now dodge the Electro Ball!"

Sableye tries to jump only to realize that she can't move her limbs at the last moment, causing the ball of lightning to hit right on the mark without any issues. Being paralyzed starts to take its toll on the Shiny Sableye as she flies away by the effect of Electro Ball without able to put up a fight.

"Argh… If only Sableye wasn't paralyzed…"

"Eileen, intensify the assault and use Quick Attack again!"

"Stop that rodent now! Night Shade!"

The Darkness Pokemon shot a highly concentrated beam of darkness from both of her eyes, unlike the Night Shades before, this one hits much wider as Sableye tries her best to muster all of her power into one shot. However, Eileen's agility proves to be a decisive factor as she narrowly dodges the destructive strike before leaping up towards the air to deliver the decisive blow.

'Finish her with Electro Ball!"

"Sableye, Detect!"

Eileen flicks another electric ball towards the Sableye, but Sableye manages to dodge it using Detect. Or so it seems before Sableye abruptly stops due to being paralyzed, causing it to stay inside the blast zone.

"Sableye is unable to continue, this round's winner is Eileen! Yay, Richard!"

"Ehem! Really professional from you Laura, you really show your unbiased side on this occasion." Grumbles the girl wearing the Kimono as she shakes her head in disapproval.

"I know right? Really, if a certain someone would answer my calls, I won't be acting like this in the first place."

"Laura!" Jarmie screams as she turns her head back towards Laura at the control panel. "Let's… Not go there…"

"Um… Should we continue, or?" Richard hesitantly raises his concern.

"...I appreciate your concern, but it's something we'll have to discuss alone without any interruptions. Anyway about your strategy, I guess you can actually back up your bravado, eh? For Sableye to be defeated that way, you're not so bad at all. But you better keep your game up, because the one who will taste defeat is you. Go, Lampent!"

Richard eyes his Pokemon carefully. Even if he manages to beat Sableye while avoiding dangerous damage on Eileen doesn't mean that fighting Lampent is going to be a cakewalk. On the contrary, he cannot shake off the fear that he will slip up and eventually lose.

"Eileen, we're going on the offensive again. Just like earlier, let's ramp up the assault!"

"Meh, just like the lightning won't strike twice on the same spot, the same tactics won't work again! Night Shade!"

"Electro Ball!"

"More of that? Really? You really underestimating me, here… Lampent, Smog!"

Lampent starts producing a dark purple smoke from his body, obscuring his presence from the Mouse Pokemon. The Electro Ball strike through the smoke, exploding before revealing that Lampent already disappears from the vicinity.

Laura stands from her seat after realizing about the smoke. "Jarmie, that move! You have to—"

"Shut up! Let me show you how far I've progressed while you were gone! Will-o-Wisp!"

The Lamp Pokemon surprises the Mouse Pokemon as it returns to his regular size behind her, leaving the Pikachu to eat the full brunt of the blue flames, burning her in the process.

"Eileen! Retaliate with Thunder Shock!"

"Minimize!"

The Lampent reduces his size once more to avoid the incoming bolt of lightning, easily avoiding the attack without much issue. All while Eileen's body turns slightly red as the burn effect starts to take place. Having no choice but to finish the Lampent off quickly before his Pokemon faints due to the burn effect, Richard grits his teeth before ordering a more intensified assault.

"Eileen, Quick Attack!"

"Smog!"

A curtain of poisonous smoke rises once more in front of Eileen's eyes, but this time the Mouse Pokemon dashes through it in hopes that she can catch the Lamp Pokemon off guard, but contrary to her expectations...

"Fire Spin!"

A stream of flame hits her before she realizes what happened, not only trapping her inside the blazing vortex but also the poisonous gas surrounding her. The vortex soon disappears, but so does Eileen's ability to continue battling.

"Eileen is unable to continue, this round's winner is Lampent."

"You did well Eileen, now take a rest." Richard pulls out Eileen's Pokeball as he returns her back inside her Pokeball.

"See I've told you didn't I, he has nothing against me, Laura! Now watch as his last Pokemon go down against my Lampent."

"Jarmie…" Mutters Laura while frowning as she watches her friend from the control panel.​

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
​

​

 

[budube]

Bruno Dillinger
May 23, Thursday

Chapter 4, Part 6: Seven minutes - Part 1​

---

Evening, Rock Tunnel

You run behind Amber and she illuminates the path with her headlamp. She takes you by your arm with a strong and cold grip, and she goes so fast that she is almost dragging you around because your legs are too tired to even keep the pace.

Bumblebee is behind you, Amber's call was too sudden and you couldn't even return him to his PokéBall, and he is slow. The more you run, the lower the sound of his bouncing is, slowly being taken over by the sound of the Tyranitar's feet stomping the ground; Amber was right, the path is wide enough for Tyranitar to follow you without being slowed down much.

Your attention shifts to another sound all of a sudden -similar to the ticking of a clock- and after listening to it for a while, you realize it comes from Amber's other hand. She holds a Timer Ball. That friend of yours, Ben, disassembled one in front of you and explained how they worked, so you know them, and you know how they function, but you're too tired to think about it now. 'Seven minutes', that's the only thing that comes to your head at the moment.

Your legs give up just the moment you two manage to exit the long path, and you roll on the ground, taking Amber to the ground as well, though she is able to stay on her feet. You hear PokéBalls rolling away and instantly look for your magnetic belt and breath in relief once you see yours are still there, which means that they belong to Amber.

Your eyesight is blurry. You turn around and see a greenish silhouette in front of you that slowly shapeshifts into the wild Tyranitar, while Bumblebee is nowhere to be seen. It roars, and it echoes inside the cave scaring off the Zubat hanging on the ceiling. You are too shocked to get up and run, your body won't respond!

"Dillinger, get up!" you hear Amber calling as she tries to help you get up. You can't respond, however.

All of this takes you back to two places. The first one is Cerulean. Since that day you could barely stop thinking about the masked people incident, and now that there is a gigantic and enraged Pokémon in front of you, you can't stop thinking about what those people could be up to by stealing similar Pokémon such as that Noivern from the other day.

The other place you are taken to is home. None of this would have happened if you had stayed home with your mom and Jackpot, waiting for dad to come back, occasionally visiting him, and true to your words of not being interested in Pokémon training. But you had to take the wrong decision, Bumblebee paid the price and it seems as if it's your turn now.

The Pokémon stands before both of you and you see how dust starts accumulating in its unproportionately small hand and starts compacting into a big rock. But the dust also starts rising in the cave violently. and forces you to close your eyes.

Amber stops calling you and she tries to lift you up and take you, but her legs and arms are tired as well. She whimpers and swears quietly but repeatedly as she fails dragging you around until you feel her taking a random PokéBall from your magnetic belt.

The white flash of the random PokéBall she tosses barely fazes you, but you have a totally different reaction when, almost simultaneously, you hear a strong, knocking sound coming from behind the Tyranitar, as if something had hit it with great force, despite it only being somewhat startled.

The big rock that the Pokémon created falls on the ground and breaks into small pebbles. The wild Tyranitar shakes its head and turns around to see that the thing that hit it was none other than your Psychic-type, who managed to somehow avoid being stomped by the green beast.

You aren't any less afraid of the situation you're currently in. However, Bumblebee being alive and well tranquilizes you a bit, and Shir suddenly tapping your leg (although it cuts and hurts a bit), helps you to at least come back to your senses.

An enraged Tyranitar roars at your Pokémon and attempts to strike with an iron-hard headbutt. Bumblebee uses that opportunity to jump on it and use its tail as a slide to get back to you.

Upon missing its attack, the Tyranitar loses its balance, and with all the weight of its body, smashes one of the cave's walls. It doesn't take much time to recover, and as quickly as its short legs let it, it turns back at your group and charges.

Amber is quick to take you and roll behind a rock to your left, but her leg receives a bad wound by the wild Pokémon. Bumblebee manages to dodge the attack a second time, and Shir, on the other hand, is now hanging from the Pokémon's head and is squashed against another wall, from where she falls like a rag doll.

But Shir isn't the objective, no. And it seems as if Amber and you aren't the objective anymore, either.

You try to tend to her wound, but she tells you to pay attention at the battlefield, instead and decides to take care of it herself.

Your first option is to bring Bumblebee back to his PokéBall and run, but you discard that one after realizing that the flash and sound coming from it may attract it back to you. If that happens, you have to run, which you can't because Amber isn't in a good condition for that, you are tired, and the woman's PokéBalls are still somewhere near the battlefield, that includes Shiinotic that is the best lightsource you have.

Your second option is to battle, and while you believe there's a third one, you have no time to think about it; Bumblebee is still able to avoid the Tyranitar's careless attacks and he is careful enough not to land nearby you, but it won't take long for him to get tired and be attacked.

You move your eyes to the right, now. It's hard to see due to the dust raised by the Tyranitar's Sandstorm, but you get to see Shir standing on the same spot she fell. She hasn't moved, but you can tell she wants to fight because she is looking at you showing one of her blades. You nod at her and she climbs up a rock to her left so she can have a better look at the enemy, and then shoots a Razor Leaf that cuts through the Sandstorm that you know scratches the Tyranitar somewhere since you can hear it crying.

---

Bruno's Party:

Bruno art by Aquacorde​

 

[budube]

Bruno Dillinger
May 23, Thursday

Chapter 4, Part 7: Seven minutes - Part 2​

---

Evening, Rock Tunnel

Tyranitar charges against the rock Shir is standing in, smashing it with its head and pushing the Grass-type who once again tries to hold from one of its horns and falls once more.

Bumblebee approaches from behind, jumping on the wild Pokémon's back, but it isn't able to do much other than get the Tyranitar's attention so it retaliates with an Iron Head as he bounces back.

Bruno is barely able to see what's going on while he has his arm covering his eyes, but the image starts getting clearer for him once he feels the dust scratching his hand, all flying in one direction to gather into a single spot, compacting once more into a big rock.

The boy lowers his arm and looks back at where Shir was. She stands near the debris of the smashed rock she was previously attacking from, ready to start another attack. Seeing how she gets in position, Bruno snaps his fingers and with a hand gesture tells her to slow down and wait a bit before attacking, something that, to his own surprise, she actually listens to.

Now that the sandstorm has subsided, Bruno moves his hand to Bumblebee's PokéBall on his belt and tells Shir to hide behind the Pokémon and wait for his signal. Once the Grass-type is in position, Bruno just waits for the right moment.

The Tyranitar gets its attack ready, and attempts to wreck the rock on Bumblebee while he is still on the ground. Bruno is quick to take his Pokémon back to the PokéBall, and at the same time shouts: "Shir, hold its tail!"

The Tyranitar whips its tail with great force once it impacts the ground and Shir is propelled up to the ceiling. She starts spinning in midair and a blizzard of leaves are shot at the Armor Pokémon's head, and concludes with a double Razor Leaf that finally makes it lose its balance and fall.

Shir continues spinning as she lands safely on the ground. She rotates on one leg and finally falls on her back. She gets up almost instantly and after taking a look at the Tyranitar she jumps and turns back to Bruno taking a proud stance with her hands on her waist.

Bruno exhales as if he hasn't done that in a good while. He feels relieved and just lets his legs take him back to the ground together with Amber.

"It's not over yet." the woman says.

"I- I don't… It won't get up right?" Bruno asks, terrified of the idea of having to continue this battle.

"It will. In a bit." Amber answers. She tries to turn around and crawl to the other side of the rock, but her wounded leg stops her, making her snarl in pain and annoyance. "There's a white PokéBall behind the rock. I should've dropped it when I dragged you here. However, my leg is broken and I won't be able to move now, so it's up to you to get it back."

"W-what!? You are going to catch it?" Bruno says. "B-but that's-!" He interrupts himself, not really wanting to discuss now.

He walks quietly at the other side of the rock and he sees the Timer Ball Amber was talking about. His hands are sweating and that just adds to his fear of dropping the ball and messing up, but thankfully that doesn't happen, he can only have so much bad luck.

He hands the ball to Amber, to which she nods and then says: "Good. Now take your Spoink out and I'll also need you to move away with your Fomantis far from here."

"What are you planning to do?"

"I'll use him as bait." she answers. Bruno looks at her and is about to complain, so Amber clarifies her point. "Don't worry, he won't get hurt. I just need someone able to jump high enough to lure it here." She goes quiet for a few seconds, but with her mouth open. "If things go wrong, I want you to get out of here. Don't care about me." she finally says.

That last line worried Bruno even more, but he doesn't insist, he can't do that, and gets moving. He moves behind another rock. This one is smaller, and not even he is able to hide successfully behind it, but that Tyranitar is nearly blind, so he isn't in much danger. He also takes Shir back to her PokéBall and starts breathing heavily and wondering how Amber manages to be calmer than him even after saying that.

He suddenly hears a beeping sound coming from Amber's spot and also sees a red light flashing on the Timer Ball's button, so he remembers that those seven minutes that passed through his head before were just how much they needed to wait for the Timer Ball's alarm to go off and reach its maximum efficiency. That is a dangerous Ball that requires precision, and if used in really weak Pokémon, they can be a certain catch. However, for being so dangerous, they are only sold to professional trainers; but Bruno knows for a fact that Amber is no professional trainer, so how she got a Timer Ball on her hands was beyond him.

Bruno can barely see or hear what's happening behind Amber's rock, so he can't see the Tyranitar get up until it finally gets up. First thing it looks at is Bumblebee, standing at the top of Amber's rock and of course it roars at him and charges at full speed.

It smashes most of the rock with its body, and Bumblebee jumps over him without any trouble.

Amber yells in pain from her broken leg the moment she tries to jump at the Pokémon, Pokéball in hand, and smacks it multiple times with it until it finally opens.

"Stay there!" she yells, pressing on the Timer Ball with both hands so it doesn't open. "Stay there, and don't even think about coming outside!"

Eventually, the ball clicks. Amber leaves it on the ground and rolls on her back, facing at the ceiling now. She smiles, but Bruno can't see that.

Meanwhile, Bruno is looking around the battlefield now. The Zubat started gathering back at the ceiling once more after realizing the battle was finally over. He takes Amber's PokéBalls from the floor and while he is at it, takes her Shiinotic outside again.

He suddenly realizes Bumblebee isn't around anymore, but before going to look for him, he tries to help Amber get up. She gladly accepts the help, but not even with Shiinotic's help she is able to get up.

While Bruno thinks about possible ways to help her get up, he hears something metallic hitting a nearby rock, and then a rolling sound. Hoping it's not more trouble for them, he looks to see what it was and sees Bumblebee following his pearl and one of Bruno's trekking poles on the floor. The boy takes it and gives it to Amber, who groans at him sarcastically saying: "Funny, you shove this in my face when I told you they were useless for this tunnel."

"I try to help." he answers.

"You must be tired from running too much." the woman inquires. "Here, take a seat. It's calm here and already late. We are hitting the main path tomorrow morning."

---

Bruno's Party:

Bruno art by Aquacorde​

 

[Dragon]

The Super Aaaamazing Noel!
Lavender Town

things Kaede hates:

People who are all talk.
Lying-idiots.
Hypocrites.
Myself.
I hate myself.
Idiot.

things Kaede likes:

Cute Pokemon. Cute things. Like Skitty.
Milk tea. Lemon, Blue, Grey... only dark grey.
And...

Me.


------

Noel's Super Special Secret Evil Dark Plan of Ruling Lavender.
Part A: Having Ambitions.

"A festival?' said Noel. She and some of Jarmie's followers were lounging with her, having some idle chat. Noel giggled, which turned into an impish chuckle. "Puhuhu... Puhuhuhuhu!"

"Noel?"

"Hehe... Aaaaahaahahahaha!"

"Are... you okay, Noel?" one of them, the lass who judged her battle with Jarmie was lounging with her.

"Better than okay, my dear!" Noel announced. "Come, my faithful minions! Tonight, our moment of glory shall be realized!"

"How?"

"We are going to... conquer Lavender!"

"Conquering... Lavender?" the lass replied, leaving the rest with the same hanging question.



To be continued...

 

[QueenNothing]

The Lavender Town Gym was a building many Cape College students were visiting today in order to take their first step towards obtaining their trainer licenses. Gwen was no exception, as she nervously yet excitedly made her way into the gym. First thing she did, as any other trainer would do, was walk up to the receptionist to make her appointment with the gym leader.

"Uh-h-I-Co-The gym-I want to-"

Well, at least she tried to.

"Can I-I'd like to-is the gy-" The words were struggling to escape Gwen's mouth. Doing such things were definitely not her strong suit. The receptionist's fading patience seemed to imply this was irritating her.

"Would you like to schedule an appointment with Beaumont?" Gwen was alleviated by the receptionist putting the words into her mouth, even if she did so passive aggressively. She nodded in response.

"Alright then, please hand over your permit and your Pokemon." Eager to get on with the process, the receptionist stared at the challenger, waiting for her to hand over the requirements.

"O-Oh, right! Hehe, my bad, just uh…" Gwen hastily placed her Pokeballs on the desk, and then seemed to struggle with pulling her wallet out of her pocket. When she heard her Pokeballs rolling around on the desk, her attention was promptly drawn to it, and she grabbed them to ensure they wouldn't roll off the desk. She didn't realize however, that she did manage to grab her wallet with her left hand, making it more difficult to actually pick up two of her four Pokeballs.

"Ahem!" Gwen looked up to see the receptionist looking more annoyed than before. Mortified, Gwen handed over her belongings, and turned around to make her way to a seat in the lobby.

"The next spot we have is available right now, just walk this way and you'll be on your way to see Beaumont, it's a 3 on 3 battle against electric-type Pokemon with substitutions allowed, and no items."

Well this only made things more embarrassing. Gwen buffered for a second, wallowing in her humiliation, turned around to grab her permit and Pokeballs, and sped-walk through the hall to the arena.

The time it took her to approach the battlefield gave her some time to come down from her embarrassment. The idea that she was about to face her first gym leader made her a mix of nervous, but very excited. For years, she dreamed of the day she could challenge a gym, however this would be no easy feat. She remembered the stories of gym battles her sister, Jennifer, told her, but those usually ended in Jenny pulling through. A lot more for the young trainer to live up to.

As she arrived into the arena, Gwen was in awe of the room she set foot in. A dirt battlefield, monitors above each hallway the challenger and gym leader would enter from, and an audience, which for better or worse, very few people were among. With the exception of the minimal audience, this was all very standard for a professional battlefield like this, but it was something she could only imagine battling on. One could imagine the excitement she shrieked when she noticed on one monitor her Pokemon were shown on-screen next to the portrait she had on her permit, even if it wasn't a very flattering one, since she was only informed about picture day at the very last second, making her buns look messier than normal while having the appearance of a zombie.

Gwen noticed the other monitor light up, quickly examining the Pokemon on-screen.

It seems they're all electric types with ranged attacks. She noted to herself. I don't think Tusk's training will pay off here.

Her eyes averted to the man below the monitor who was adjusting a yellow tie around his neck. On his head rested big, puffy, light blonde hair while he was wearing a green suit. The colors complimented each other quite well, but nothing matched his outfit as well as his massive smile that must have hurt his mouth from stretching it out so long. Something about it made the Unovian trainer a tad uncomfortable, although she couldn't put her finger on what it was.

Once she got past his grin, the color scheme of his look reminded Gwen of something.

"Wow!" Gwen pointed in the direction of the gym leader. "You look like a Skiploom!" The man wearing the Gulpin-looking suit could only widen his smile.

"Why, that's an awfully adorable observation you have there." He lightly chuckled to himself. "Miss Alanis, is it? My name is Beaumont and, as you probably guessed, I'm the Lavender Town gym leader."

Most of the time Gwen would be unbelievably stoked to be in the presence of a gym leader, but something about this man was...Off. Was it the outfit? It wasn't abnormal for a gym leader to be hyper flamboyant, honestly there were plenty who could put Beaumont's lemon-lime soda suit to shame, so it definitely wasn't that.

"Shall we begin?" Beaumont grabbed a Pokeball, clicking the release button, tossing it into the air letting a white light escape that formed into a metallic, levitating Pokemon, perfectly round with two magnets to its side, with three screws sticking out.

"MAGNEMITE. MAGNEMITE" The Pokemon sounded like it was making a very robotic statement.

"Magnemite!" Gwen quickly reached for Pix's ball, being fully aware of the type advantage she had. More eagerly than the gym leader, she tossed Pix's Pokeball onto the ground to send out the Vulpix. Despite the fact they were indoors, Pix's ability created the mirage of a bright sun looming overhead.

"Vulpix! Vul!"

Beaumont's grin seemed to reset. "Wise choice Miss Alanis. But don't think type advantages alone will be all you need!"

She was somewhat aware of this after a few encounters, but with a steel-type right in-front of her Pokemon it was difficult to not get a little cocky.

"Begin!" An electronic voice announced. This excited Gwen a little, even as she was still trying to figure out what was off about Beaumont.

Is it the smile?

"Pix! Incinerate!" Pix opened her mouth to unleash a slow stream of fire that was aimed at the Magnemite. Unlike Ember, where one Ember allowed for quick movements in-between uses, Incinerate required the Vulpix to be stationary.

The moment Pix unleashed the attack, Beaumont's smile instantly disappeared, his face instead appearing very cold and stern.

Oh yeah, it's definitely the smile.

"Magnemite, Light Screen." Magnemite stuck it's magnets in-front of it, using them to project some kind of force field. The Incinerate wasn't completely blocked by the force field, about half of the attack made its way through, but the damage was still minimized.

This caught Gwen off-guard, but she wouldn't let that stop her.

"Pix, use Will-O-Wisp!" Pix spat out a ghastly fireball, however the attack was too easy for Magnemite to move out of the way of, then followed up with a Magnet Bomb, summoning many metallic orbs thaf violently attached themselves to Pix.

"Damnit! Incinerate again!" The pair copied their last move, and unsurprisingly Magnemite was able to float out of the way. It then shot another Magnet Bomb at Pix.

"This isn't gonna work is it…" Gwen, facing towards the floor, put her index finger and thumb up to her chin, indicating she needed to reevaluate her plan. Beaumont studied the challenger's face.

Suddenly Gwen's eyes lit up. "Pix, use Incinerate!"

Beaumont's smile returned. "Another Incinerate? What do type advantages mean if you can't even land a single hit?"

As expected, Magnemite dodged, however instead of appearing frustrated as she had before, Gwen let out a smirk of her own.

"Now Pix, Fire Spin!"

Right as the Magnemite dodged, Pix shot a fire ball out of her mouth that unlike the Incinerates, was able to connect. On-impact, the ball of fire expanded into a flame vortex, trapping the Pokemon. Magnemite had been baited.

"Pix, Incinerate one more time!" With the Magnemite trapped, Pix shot out a stream of fire that was able to scorch the steel-type. Even with Light Screen still up, the damage of this boosted by Pix's Drought ability stacked onto the Fire Spin damage caused Magnemite to fall to the ground.

"Magnemite is unable to battle!"

Beaumont's grin returned, increasing in size. "My my, that certainly threw me off. Nicely done!" He said as he returned his Pokemon. "But let's see how you can deal with a Pokemon that takes half the damage my Magnemite did, and moves at twice the speed!" Just as he did before, Beaumont tossed another Pokeball into the air, releasing a flying squirrel Pokemon, Emolga.

"Emolga, why don't you greet our guests here with a welcome hug?" The Emolga jumped into the air, just enough to become airborne and to glide it's way towards Pix while sparks were emitting from it's cheeks. Gwen recognized this as Nuzzle. Bad news.

"Pix, Will-O-Wisp!" Pix spat out another wispy fireball, and it was at this moment that Beaumont's grin disappeared again.

Why does he keep doing that?

"Spark!" At the command of her trainer, the Emolga glided out of the way of the purple fireball, changing course to attack Pix from behind and engulfed her body in electricity, tackling the Vulpix and shocking her. After her attack landed, she glided back to Beaumont's side of the field, landing on his shoulder.

Pix was able to stand after the damage, but Gwen noticed static around the Vulpix. She had been paralyzed. Gwen thought it could be a good idea to switch out, but her options were limited. Emolga was certainly too mobile for Jess, and Tusk wouldn't be able to keep up much better. The Emolga's flying typing normally would be an ideal time to switch into Custard, but her electric-typing would resist Custard's own electric moves. It seemed best for Pix to stay in.

"Incinerate again!" With some difficulty, Pix shot out another slow stream of fire, one which Emolga was immediately able to dodge out of the way of, quicker than the Magnemite ever could. Even with this, Pix was able to follow-up with a fireball she shot from her mouth.

"You think the same strategy is gonna work twice?" Beaumont glared, staring coldly at Gwen, his grin gone once again. Emolga then swiftly dodged the Fire Spin, and seemed to multiply. There were now three Emolga, quickly splitting again into five, all flocking towards Pix from different directions. Faster than anyone was able to see, the Emolgas would continuously ram their bodies into Pix.

While not quite on this level, Gwen had experienced a very similar scenario just earlier today. She was prepared for another Double Team. "Pix, Fire Spin like earlier today!"

"Vul...Pix…" All she was able to do was whimper in pain, the paralysis prevented her from using any attacks, and it certainly wasn't helping that she was being swarmed by Emolga clones.

Gwen cupped her hands around her mouth. "PIX! I KNOW YOU CAN DO IT!" She tried her best to cheer her Pokemon on, refusing to give up just yet. "WE CAN'T LOSE JUST YET! USE FIRE SPIN!"

With the encouragement of her trainer by her side, Pix mustered up all her energy to jump into the air and shoot a Fire Spin at the ground. Just like against the Scyther, the fire ball burst into a fire tornado. Pix was trapped in the middle of it, and so were the Emolgas, one by one the clones disappeared. Normally, this would be overwhelmingly positive news, but both Gwen and Pix both noticed something bizarre.

Emolga never stopped flying. Rather instead, she used the flame vortex as an air current to glide through it, gaining more and more momentum, allowing her to zip through the tornado, and as a result was very difficult to see. Emolga was still trapped and taking damage, but she definitely had an advantage.

"I have to admit Miss Alanis, this is an interesting strategy you've had up your sleeve. But never put it past a gym leader to take advantage of something like this. Emolga, let's give her some shock therapy!"

Being too fast to be spotted by the naked eye, all Pix could see was a black blur swirling around that would zap Thundershocks directly at Pix every five seconds.

"Shit, what do I do?"[/] Gwen was beginning to panic again. "Emolga is moving way too fast to properly hit, what even IS there to do, I think I might be screwed-"

"VUUUUUUUUULLLLL!" Her train of thought was cut off by her Pokemon screaming in pain. She had a feeling Pix did this deliberately in-case something like this were to happen. Pix was trying her absolute best to hang in there, but it wasn't looking certain she'd be able to much longer.

"Pix, Incinerate!" Doing her best to fight the paralysis and aim for the Emolga, Pix tried to aim her attack at her opponent, just being off by an inch or two, pursuing Emolga. She did catch up, the attack stopping Emolga in her tracks, but the fire seeped through the same barrier Magnemite put up.

It was around this time that the effect of Pix's ability faded away- As did Magnemite's Light Screen, now with neutral damage being dealt to Beaumont's Pokemon. This didn't stop Pix, as she continued to breath fire at the Emolga until the Fire Spin went out, and so did Emolga, crashing into the ground.

"Emolga is unable to battle."

Gwen, in awe of how much her Pokemon was able to survive the round, jumped with joy.

"That was amazing Pix! You really need a rest right now." She aimed a Pokeball at Pix, but before she could press the white button, the fire-type turned around and shook her head.

"Vulpix!" Her Pokemon barked. Gwen looked quizzically at Pix.

"You really wanna stay in? You need to rest!"

In response, Pix shook her head once more. Gwen sighed. "Well, alright then." Her uncertainty quickly morphed into confidence. "We got this Pix!"

"How charming." Beaumont returned his Emolga, giving another grin which made Gwen shiver a little. "You've demonstrated your skills very well. But let's see how you can do against my final Pokemon."

Beaumont tossed his last Pokeball, letting out a Heliolisk, a Pokemon Gwen had seen before. However, unlike Al's Heliolisk, this one seemed like it was far more capable of defeating foes.

"Vulpix...Vul…" Gritting her teeth, Pix desperately tried to keep her stance. Gwen's confidence was becoming a little difficult to maintain.

"Heliolisk, Razor Wind!" On queue, Heliolisk began to spin in-place, dragging her tail against the floor to whip up a powerful storm.

"This is our chance!" Gwen pointed at Heliolisk, hoping her Vulpix was able to keep up. "Pix, Fire Spin!"

With her remaining energy, Pix spat up a fire ball aimed directly at Heliolisk, too occupied with her own attack to dodge or deflect. The attack did land, appearing to light the cyclone she was wrapping around herself on fire.

"You did it Pix! Great job!"

However, Heliolisk didn't seem to be taking much damage, if any at all. Beaumont's Pokemon stopped spinning, and, much to Gwen's shock, used her tail to launch the Fire Spin-enhanced cyclone towards Pix.

"GAH! Pix, dodge with Quick Attack!" Pix did her absolute best to comply, but she couldn't move. She was fully paralyzed, leaving her in the trajectory of the attack. All she was able to do was stand still, struggling to move. This, of course, left her defenseless when the cyclone knocked Pix against the wall behind Gwen.

"Vulpix is unable to battle."

Gwen, simultaneously in shock while also not at all surprised, returned Pix to her Pokeball. This was to be expected, but to be defeated in such a way certainly was not.

"You did awesome today. Just...Please try not to push yourself next time."

Her first Pokemon was down. Who was there to send out now? Custard's electric attacks wouldn't dish out much damage, and she was unsure if Tusk was able to deal with a long-range attack. That narrowed her choices down to one pick.

"Jess, you're up!" On entrance, Jess hissed aggressively and rattled her tail. Heliolisk winced, but Gwen had the feeling Intimidate wouldn't be super useful right now.

"Heliolisk, Thundershock!" Heliolisk opened the frill around her face, appearing as if she were a satellite. The frill then glowed a bright yellow as she closed her eyes, aiming an electric attack at Jess.

"Jess, get close!" Jess crawled her way to Heliolisk, swiftly dodging the electric attack. She was about two feet away from the Pokemon, a perfect time to launch a ranged attack, Gwen thought.

"Hit 'em with Poison Sting!"

"Heliolisk, I heard that our friend Ekans likes to get dirty. Why don't you go play in the mud with 'em?" Heliolisk kicked up mud from the ground at Jess, dealing super effective damage. Jess was still able to shoot a Poison Sting, but it flew past Heliolisk's shoulder

Damnit, he's trying to lower Jess' accuracy...At least Mud Slap is a weak move, but that can't be how he wants to finish Jess off.

"Heliolisk, use Slam!" Heliolisk lifted her tail up, and was about to crash it into the Ekans. Gwen, however, had a case of deja vu.

"Take advantage of it! Use Wrap!" On-impact, Jess was able to wrap around the tail of Heliolisk, feeling the vibrations of the Pokemon through the ground, and slithered up around her body as fast as she could, wrapping herself around the generator Pokemon.

With a genuine smirk of her own, Gwen made eye-contact with Beaumont. "It's over."

Beaumont was definitely not smiling right now. "You think I didn't expect this? Heliolisk, Razor Wind!"

Gwen flinched at Beaumont having read her as she was. "Wait, wha-"

She didn't finish, as she was distracted by Heliolisk spinning in-place, dragging her tail against the floor to kick up a storm, the only difference this time being that Jess was still wrapped around her.

"GAH! Uhhhh, Jess, use Acid!"

The Heliolisk had started to spin too fast to the point Jess was unable to hear her trainer. Her eyes looked like they would pop out of her head, comically hissing loudly to stop. It was definitely a sight to be seen.

"Come on Jess! You can do it! Poison Sting! Bite! Leer! Wrap! Do something!" Even as Gwen continued to shout commands, this didn't stop the fact that Ekans was being rotated too fast to notice her surroundings.

Heliolisk then stopped, using its tail to unleash the tornado she whipped up. Jess was stuck inside it, curled up and spinning around like a disk, before crashing into the wall behind Gwen.

"Ekans is unable to battle."

"Well well, seems we're both down to our last Pokemon." Gwen really wished Beaumont would drop the smile. "And somehow I don't think you'll be using that Pikachu of yours."

Beaumont was right. Custard would be a guaranteed loss, not only were her attacks ineffective, but also she needed more training before she was truly ready for a gym battle. Tusk was her only hope of winning right now.

Gwen returned Jess to her Pokeball, putting it back, and grabbing her last Pokemon. This would be the round to decide the victor.

"Tusk, I choose you!"

 

[QueenNothing]

Why is his smile back? Why does he keep doing that? It's really giving me the creeps.

Focus.

That's right. I need to worry about beating the Lavender Town gym leader right now. His Heliolisk is something else, never in my fifteen long years if living did I think I'd see Jess spin around like that. I'm down to Custard and Tusk, but Custard would be suicide. Tusk is my only hope.

"Tusk, I choose you!"

There he is, that's my boy. Just like we practiced with Master Doryu, stay slightly hunched, curl your arms and stick your claws out. It doesn't look as fancy as Master Doryu's Axew, but it works. But how useful will that be? Heliolisk mostly uses range attacks, and the few physical attacks she has used are all with her tail, rather than her arms and legs. How will Tusk even approach Heliolisk? What about-

Focus.

That's right. Everytime I worry about these things, my opponent always takes advantage of that. I don't want a repeat of my first match against...

Damnit, I can't remember her name to save my life! I'll just keep calling her Galar girl.

But that's strange...His Heliolisk doesn't look like it's moved an inch. They've gotta be planning something. They always are.

I could have sworn I saw Beaumont squint for a second when I sent Tusk out. I guess it's not everyday you see an Axew trained in martial arts.

"Tusk, Taunt!" With the arm he was raising higher than the other, he's using his finger to make a beckoning motion. Perfect. Now he can't use any status moves or whatever.

His smile is completely gone again. Heliolisk's flap is up again, glowing bright yellow. Another Thundershock.

"Tusk, dodge and get in there!"

Tusk is able to jump out of the way of the attack, and run his way up to Heliolisk. He's able to hold back his desire to just rush in there, but Beaumont has gotta be planning something.

Heliolisk is kicking mud up, another Mud Slap. It sucks some of it has gotten stuck in Tusk's eyes, but we'll live.

Now she's rotating 180 degrees, sticking her tail out. There's no way Beaumont would charge up a Razor Wind at this range. It's Pound.

"Tusk, just like we practiced!" Well, I dunno about just like we practiced, we weren't expecting tail attacks for sure. But besides that, things look like they're going well. Tusk is able to grab Heliolisk by the tail with his left claw. Now to use his right claw.

"Tusk, Dual Chop!" Normally Tusk would use his dragon-energy enhanced hand to punch his opponent in the face by angling his arm upwards, but there's a bit of a height difference here, and she's already facing backwards, so it looks like it'll just hit her in her back. Probably not as effective, but I'll take it.

As Tusk let's go of her tail, Heliolisk is now sliding on the ground from the impact, trying to keep her balance. Great! We got something in, and I swear to Arceus, for a split-second I noticed Beaumont widened his eyes. What could he be planning after that attack…

Heliolisk is opening her flap again, about to hit us with another Thundershocks.

"Get outta the way!" Tusk jumps back to try avoiding the attack, but the mud in his eyes makes it a little difficult, so he ends up getting hit. At least dragons resist electricity.

"Heliolisk, Razor Wind."

Crap, there it is. Seems Beaumont wanted Tusk to put some space between us so Heliolisk can charge up a Razor Wind. There she goes, spinning around to surround itself with a cyclone. What is Tusk supposed to do? I really don't want a repeat of what happened to Jess, so I can't really use any physical moves. Is it worth it to shoot off a Dragon Rage? What if that gets sucked into the Razor Wind, and then launched back at Tusk? That would deal some serious damage because of Tusk's weakness to his own type. What am I gonna do?

Focus.

That's right, there's a Razor Wind being charged. I don't wanna be too distracted tha- OH SHIT, IT'S ALREADY HEADED TUSK'S WAY!

All he can do is shiver in place and look at me for instructions. Damn, this is embarrassing.

It may be a stretch, but this is the closest thing I can do to dishing out any sort of damage. This might bite me in the ass later, but I don't have time to think about that right now. The attack is quickly heading our way.

"Tusk, Dragon Rage!" Tusk looks back to me, dumbfounded.

""I SAID DRAGON RAGE!" Hastily, he shifts his head back at the cyclone aiming about to deal serious damage.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA" Just like last time, he's charging purple energy in his mouth. I'm crossing my fingers, hoping desperately this works.

Unfortunately, it seems my prayers are for nothing. Tusk has gotten swept up into the Cyclone, somehow still charging his Dragon Rage. This is looking really bad right now, I've basically already lost...How would Jenny feel if she heard her sister lost a gym battle? I can hear Galar Girl's voice right now, already laughing and talking in her funny voice. There's nothing that I can do.

GULP

What the hell was that?

Turning my head from the ground to Tusk, I notice something really strange. The Dragon Rage is nowhere to be seen in his mouth, but I can see a purple glow coming from his belly. Did…

...Did Tusk just swallow/I] his own attack?

BWOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

A loud noise seems to come from the cyclone, and it looks like the force of Dragon Rage Tusk swallowed was enough to push him in the opposite direction, and the cyclone got wrapped up in things as well.

I...I didn't know this was possible. I can just feel my jaw involuntarily drop to the floor at the sight of this.

Both are now heading Beaumont's way, and there's Beaumont briefly widening his eyes again. Even he seems to have a hard time hiding his surprise!

The cyclone crashes into the wall behind Beaumont, this one having more impact than the one that launched Pix and Jess.

It's kind of hard to see what's going on now, because that impact created a dust cloud and I can't see either Pokemon.

I don't really know exactly what just happened, but I'm REALLY hoping this counts as a win.

-------------------------

The wall debris settles, showing both Tusk and Heliolisk stuck in the indents their bodies made against the wall. Gwen was trying really hard to process what this meant for the results.

"Heliolisk is unable to battle."

Gwen gets ready to jump into the air as a way to celebrate her first gym victory, but before she can take-off, her action is interrupted by the same electronic voice.

"Axew is unable to battle."

Dumbfounded, Gwen just stared at the wall with her jaw hanging loose. "So...It's a draw?"

Beaumont grins again. "Technically yes, but I'd say with your crazy plan there turning the tides, we could count it as a victory for you."

Overjoyed by Beaumont's declaration and not thinking about how what just happened was a matter of crazy coincidences caused by not paying attention, Gwen jumps into the air and pumps her fists.

"YESSSS! I WON MY FIRST GYM BATTLE! OH ARCEUS, I CAN'T BELIEVE I WON, JENNY WILL BE SO PROUD OF ME, THANK YOU SO MUCH TU-"

She interrupts herself when she realizes that Tusk was still stuck in the indents he created in the wall. Gwen giggles to herself, and returns Tusk to his Pokeball.

"Thank you so much Tusk! I'm really proud of you, and I'll be sure to get you whatever you want when we go to Pokey's tonight."

After Gwen finished praising her Pokemon for their efforts, Gwen looked up to see Beaumont approaching her.

Oh my god, please just leave me alone. She thought to herself.

"I'd say you've done a pretty good job today Miss Alanis." Beaumont's unnerving grin widened. "I'll be sure to let Palm know all about our battle today, including how attentive you've been."

The sight of the gym leader caused Gwen to slowly back away. "Hehe, yeah...thanks so much, I uh...I need to go now." Within seconds, Gwen went from slowly backing away to speedily dragging her feet against the ground to make her escape. Once she exited the building, any thoughts she had earlier about something being wrong with Beaumont were clouded with the thought of her victory. Who cares how weird he was? As long as she won the battle.

In her mind, this would surely be a reoccurring thing when challenging gym leaders. If she could beat Beaumont, there would be no stopping her from stomping her way to her goal of becoming the greatest Pokemon trainer.

 

[moon]

Ralph Gonder

Lavender Electric Gym

Friday, May 24th
Morning, Day 5

The battle between Heliolisk and Sandsy could have been more balanced. Sandsy could have won, using his ground type moves and resisting any electric attacks. Unfortunately, it was a gym leader she was battling. He had encountered this simple strategy before.

Sandsy started off with a big bang, using Magnitude and possibly ruining parts of Beaumont's gym in the process, Ralph feared. But the gym leader didn't seem to be playing around anymore. Heliolisk used Razor Wind in conjunction with Tail Whip and somehow stayed airborne for the duration of the Magnitude by using the Razor Winds as air cushions. Ralph's jaw dropped.

He let her attack again. Sandsy used Rapid Spin and quickly got up close to Heliolisk, about to strike hard. But the speedy gym pokémon used Slam in the nick of time and promptly bounced Sandsy back towards the ground.

The Sandshrew unfolded itself and was given the order to try Fury Cutter. Slashing at the lizard with increased power, Sandsy got in a few good hits until Heliolisk simply used a Thundershock to rattle the mouse and make him back off. Heliolisk then sneakily took the opportunity to fling a Mud Slap into Sandsy's face, which made him stagger backwards even more and try to wipe the mud out of his eyes.

Ralph at this point was starting to feel anxious, if she hadn't already after seeing the power difference between Coldy and Emolga. Gym pokémon really were something different... Beaumont's colorful persona was gone now, and he dished out orders with only a quiet smile and calculating gaze in between. Never too much on the offensive. But almost as if... He wanted to really make her understand just how weak she was.

She stood no chance, did she?

Sandsy produced another Magnitude on his own, and actually damaged Heliolisk, who didn't have time to whip up its Razor Wind defense this time. Ralph saw a spark of a chance then, and ordered Sandsy to use Rock Slide.

That's when the Razor Winds came up, and Beaumont made his pokémon adapt them to be a defense for the rock attack instead, blowing the boulders away as they flew towards the lizard. Turns out Heliolisk was untouchable, after all. And Ralph was not nearly strong enough, at all.

Beaumont seemed to sense her loss of determination, but he didn't give her a cheerful remark about it this time. Instead, he finally ordered Heliolisk to go on the offensive. A few Pound attacks and a Slam later, Sandsy was unable to battle, and Ralph felt guilt rising. Both of her Sandshew had now fallen, because of her incompetence.

"Third battle. I will switch my pokémon if you like?" Beaumont said, still with a weirdly cold grin.

Ralph was too busy self-pitying to object, and simply sent out Edgy without thinking too much. A flying bug against an electric gym, she vaguely heard herself thinking. She really was incompetent.

Beaumont lingered for a while, and then sent out a Flaaffy. Just like with his previous pokémon, he waited for Ralph to make the first move. She knew that the best move at that point would be to just leave the arena. Give up. But something made her stay. Maybe because she felt like she deserved the embarrassment of being utterly devastatingly defeated.

She told a quizzical Edgy to use Poison Sting, and of course Flaaffy was immediately told to ready a defense. Cotton Spore. To everybody's surprise though, the Cotton Spore didn't manage to stop the bug. The stinger burst through the fluff and hit Flaaffy straight on. The sheep pokémon seemed quite hurt already. Was it poisoned?

"Well done!" Beaumont said, his cheerfulness suddenly back up. "Still got some sting in you!"

Ralph looked up at Edgy, who was practically glaring at her as if he was annoyed or angry. With her. He wouldn't let her give up. He was always giving his 200%! Ralph couldn't help but feel warm (and utterly, utterly guilty) at that. Sure. They would give their best.

Edgy used Acrobatics to avoid Flaaffy's wide Thunderwave and then strike the sheep again, square in the belly. Flaaffy quickly retaliated with a Thundershock that easily hit Edgy and nearly made him fall to the ground, but he dodged a subsequent Takedown attack with Acrobatics again; the sheep probably only was so slow due to the poison. He managed to knock his opponent in the back of the head this time.

Beaumont, now perhaps suspecting that Ralph wasn't useless after all, went on the definitive offensive. Flaaffy used Thundershock, which Edgy again could not dodge easily. This time, he wobbled down the ground, and Ralph gasped - was he paralyzed now?

As if wanting to ensure that he truly was, Beaumont ordered a Thunderwave while Edgy was low. Flaaffy charged it up... And time stood still for a while. Ralph had a choice here. She really could return Edgy to the pokéball and give up the match entirely. She didn't want Edgy to get hurt like Sandsy and Coldy had been. Uselessly, because of her stupidness as a trainer. Rushing into a gym unprepared. But would Edgy actually let her do that?

No, he wouldn't.

So Ralph ordered a Twineedle. She felt a pang of guilt immediately, but didn't stop the order. And Edgy took a leap up from the ground and shot off like an arrow, double lances forward. Curiously, the Thunderwave didn't stop him. The velocity carried him all the way to Flaaffy and stung it for what ended up being the last time.

It fell down in anguish, and fainted. Beaumont actually clapped his hands, before returning his fallen pokémon to its pokéball. Ralph blinked for a few moments, not quite grasping what had happened.

"I won?"

She dragged herself over to Edgy, who very slowly rose from the ground. Still standing, but not very fit. He buzzed at her in a way she knew didn't mean that he was angry though. She put her arms around her pointy bug and hugged him tight. If this was caught on any form of camera that anyone could show to anyone later, she would definitely strangle whomever would do such a thing. But in the moment here and now, she didn't really care. She just needed a hug, even if it was from a paralyzed bee.

"I truly enjoyed our battle so far!" Beaumont said.

Ralph's breath hitched. So far? She looked up at the screen behind Beaumont. One pokémon was crossed out there. On her own big screen, two were. And her third was not faring well.

Right. She really was stupid. Edgy would have to beat Emolga and Heliolisk too, for this to be a victory.

"I give up," she said, and stood up properly.

Edgy was starting to protest, but a shudder from his paralysis made him stop without her having to tell him off. She quietly returned him to his pokéball after that, and stroke it gently with her thumb afterwards. To think he had been a silly, feisty Weedle a couple of days ago...

"Are you sure?" Beaumont asked tentatively.

"Yeah. You are way too strong for us. I don't actually have a chance; Edgy, uh, my Beedrill just happens to not know when to stop." She took a deep breath. "But I do."

She hadn't noticed the gym leader walking up to her as she spoke, but now he suddenly stood right in front of her, leaning his head to the side. "That's a very good trait. To know when enough is enough. But, you know what? I don't think Beedrill is entirely wrong either. Sometimes, when life is hard, you need to keep pushing in order to come out better on the other side."

Ralph's bow creased. "You're sounding like Hoshi now. Is this something all gym leaders do, hand out unsolicited wisdom?"

Beaumont seemed a bit taken aback by her words, but laughed it off rather quickly and put his hands on his hips. "It is, actually! It's definitely part of the job description. Or maybe the only people who become gym leaders are insufferable know-it-alls."

"So, is Jarmie like that too?"

Oh, whoops. Beaumont's grin changed character again, from cheerful to oddly cold. "Maybe," was all he said to that, before straightening up, hands along his sides again. "I accept your surrender! Just remember what I said. I think you have the makings of a great trainer if you find the balance between backing down and pushing forward. And I'm sure you will!"

"Thanks," Ralph said noncommittally.

As she healed her pokémon in the gym's facilities and left the building, she pondered this gym leader's words, and the battle itself. She wouldn't get the Cape College award for beating all the gym leaders in Kanto, then. But...

Maybe she shouldn't give up on being a trainer alltogether, just yet.

Greeny

Lv 9 | Sandsy

Lv 17 | Coldy

Lv 13
Edgy

Lv 16 | Softy

Lv 10
Ralph's Profile | Current Chapter

 

[budube]

Bruno Dillinger
May 24, Friday

Chapter 5, Part 1: Lavender Town​

---

Morning, Lavender Town Outskirts - Early Afternoon, Lavender Town

They do as Amber said. By the morning they finally hit the main road and the trail is way more relaxing. Seeing the lamps lighting up the one path to Lavender and the glowing natural light of the wild Morelull that occasionally approach Amber's Shiinotic is more than soothing for Bruno and makes him realize that after all the trouble from yesterday he is finally able to relax. The one day he was stuck at Rock Tunnel felt like a whole year, and the Tyranitar and Larvitar encounter, endless at its moment; but thankfully it is all over.

Obviously, the group has to slow down. Amber's leg is still injured and Bruno has to help her walk with the help of the trekking pole his Spoink brought. But in the end, they make it! They are now outside the cave. Definitely a place Bruno wouldn't like to get through again.

Bumblebee is the first one to bounce into Lavender and take a deep breath of fresh air, followed by Shiinotic and not too far away from it, Amber and Bruno. He is still very tired. His legs and back hurt and he can barely focus on how the city looks because his eyesight is blurry. However, he is able to distinguish the Pokémon Tower. First thing he thinks about are ghosts, and then he remembers the night after his battle with Deborah and Casey and he chuckles.

"Well, here we are." Amber says, interrupting his thoughts. Bruno turns at her and he sees her sitting with her back on Rock Tunnel's walls. "We part ways here, the Pokémon Center shouldn't be too far away… Sorry for putting you through this."

Bruno doesn't talk until much later after staring at her as she looks at her Timer Ball. "I- um… Thank you, but… " She raises her eyes at him, and stares, as if telling him 'Speak up!' "Um… Don't you want me to help you walk to the town?"

"No, I'm good with this." she answers moving the trekking pole.

"Oh… okay." he says and leaves. She'll probably be fine and he doesn't want to stay with her, either. He'd rather go take a good rest at the Pokémon Center for his Pokémon and him.

---

Five minutes have passed. He is looking at the map now, as usual, looking for the Pokémon Center just to realize it was in front of him after minutes of staring at his PokéGear. In his defense, he is tired.

"Rock Tunnel?" the Pokémon Center lady asks the moment she gives Bruno the key to his room. The boy nods. "Yeah of course it was, I see that face everyday. Your room is upstairs, to the left. You can also use the PC whenever you feel like it for free."

"Yes. Thank you."

"Your Pokémon will be healed in a few minutes, however if you have to do something else like… taking a shower or napping you can get them back. I'll just need your name and Trainer ID if that's the case, okay?"

"... Sure." I'm aware he thinks, after listening how the woman emphasized that.

First thing he does after taking a quick shower is put on new clothes… that look exactly the same. He doesn't bring his hoodie, though since he put all of his other clothes to wash.

He lays on his bed and looks at his PokéGear. Deborah had sent a message recently. It's a picture of a Machop outside of Rock Tunnel and it doesn't seem to be in a good mood. Behind is Dukko, facing the floor in the tunnel's entrance and there's also a leaf in the lower right corner of the picture. That is probably her Pancham's, but he can't see him because Deborah had put her thumb in the camera and it's covering him.

"her names m-achoo are u going to the gym btw" the message says.

Bruno has to read that message three times before understanding what it meant. He actually didn't have time to think about the gym since Cerulean, and he doesn't want to think about it now either. "I don't know yet." He answers.

"cool ill skip not feeling well rn" she answers almost immediately.

"What happened?"

"got into a fight" she says. Bruno starts typing, but his friend answers first. "with machoo" she adds, and then: "werlstning"

"You wrestled* with your Pokémon…?" Bruno answers, surprised at first, but then he remembers who he was texting to. "Nothing new."

"true"

A minute of silence and she doesn't say anything else. Bruno tries to relax and nap, but he feels very anxious for some reason. He looks at his watch many times. It's almost lunchtime, but that's not what he is feeling weird about, he isn't hungry.

He still has to decide if he wants to challenge the Gym today -or if he'll even challenge it-, but maybe it's not a bad idea to go see what's up, at least to take some air; being too much time inside Rock Tunnel makes the room feel a bit claustrophobic.

Electric type. That is the specialty of the first leader, if he remembers correctly. He hasn't trained Eterna since Cerulean and she won't be of much help here, so the boy sends her to Palm using the PC before leaving the Pokémon Center.

---

Bruno's Party:

Bruno art by Aquacorde​