Kurishimi woke up slowly and felt the stiffness in her back from sleeping on the padded bench the night before. She rolled onto her side subconsciously, but since the couch she had been sleeping on wasn't very wide she ended up falling onto the floor instead. She sat up, now fully awake, and rubbed her face just as the nurse came in.
"I heard something fall. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, just found a better morning pick-me-up than coffee is all," Kurishimi replied groggily as she pulled herself back up to sit on the edge of the cushions. "I'll be fine, don't worry."
"That's good to hear. I don't see your friend that you came in with last night. Did he sleep in the bedroom area?"
Kurishimi thought for a moment, then remembered that her companion, an older man named Akuma, had left the Pokémon center last night soon after they'd arrived. He'd said he was going to do a job, but left before she had the chance to ask anything about it.
"No, he left the building soon after we arrived," she explained to the nurse. "He was probably out all night assuming nobody saw him come back in. We'll meet up again later."
"I'll keep it in mind if I see him then. Do you want some breakfast?"
"Actually I've got to be going. I'll get something on the road. Is everyone else ready to go?"
The nurse smiled as she spoke. "They've been waiting in the lobby for you for a few minutes actually. They're anxious to go."
"Well then I'd better not keep them waiting," Kurishimi said happily.
She stood up and began adjusting her clothes so they wouldn't look too obvious that she had slept in them. After straightening her knee-length blue skirt and righting her red jacket she walked out to the front entrance where she spotted five Pokémon waiting for her at the front doors. Like most people her age, Kurishimi was attempting the path of a Pokémon trainer. She had chosen the way of the warrior as Akuma called it, which was to battle some of the most powerful trainers around the world known as gym leaders and collect badge symbols as proof of her victory. She had already beaten two of these people: Brock of Pewter City, and her friend Erika from her hometown of Celadon City. Today she would exercise her skills again to claim a third.
As soon as she was noticed, her Pokémon quickly ran over to greet her. First in line was a small red fox with six tails called Vulpix; one of her earliest team members. After Vulpix followed Jigglypuff, a pink balloon creature with magical round eyes which seemed to bounce toward her instead of running. Third was a purple snake with a yellow collar pattern around its neck named Ekans that she had captured the day before. Behind Ekans was a large gray bird whose coat of feathers seemed to catch the light reflectively almost as if it was a robotic creature; a proud Skarmory. She greeted them cheerfully and after a moment with each she recalled them into their pokéballs. Then she looked toward the one remainder that had stayed waiting for her at the entrance. It was a blue cat-like creature with a white collar and a tail reminiscent of a mermaid; her closest companion, Vaporeon. Even before she had become a trainer the two of them had been together for years. In fact this Vaporeon was one of the rarest and most sought after Pokémon types in the world because this particular one could speak the human language.
As her trainer came closer Vaporeon addressed her by name, "Are you ready to go, Kurishimi?"
"As ready as I always am. I hope we can win again this time too."
"Considering how much you've improved over the past few weeks I'd say you might be ready for a lot of things, but don't be overconfident."
"I've heard that line too much from Akuma, Vaporeon. Don't worry about that being a problem."
Vaporeon gave a small smile, "Yes, I suppose you might have. Well let's be off then."
"Yes. We'll do our best this time too," Kurishimi said with a firm nod. "Wait, why were there only five of you waiting for me here?"
"Oh, that's because our sixth member was too big to come inside if you remember."
"Ah yes, silly me. I forgot. Well get in your pokéball now and we'll go!" Kurishimi opened Vaporeon's pokéball and the water Pokémon disappeared with a flash of light into the small container. She walked outside and as she appeared into the light she heard a deep roar. Kurishimi looked up and witnessed a towering pile of massive rocks stacked on top of each other end to end where a head shaped rock with a long horn rested at the very top. She waved at the ominous creature as the head bent down to let her climb on top.
"Good to see you too Onix," she said as she leaned against the horn for support. "You ready for another gym battle?"
The giant rock snake roared in approval and walked, or rather moved, down the unpaved street toward the city center where the leader lie in wait for the next challenger.
After coming to a part where the road was paved she dismounted her Onix and recalled it so it wouldn't tear up the pavement. She had come from Mt. Moon a day ago with Akuma after they had done training in the wilderness for two weeks. During their trip through the mountain interior though, a Bellossom, a grass type Pokémon that looked very much like a flower with a grass skirt, had poisoned her and Akuma when she'd tried catching a Clefairy in the tunnels. Akuma recovered quickly, but for her the poison had lethally spread and might've killed her if not for the appearance of a bizarre creature that she'd never seen before which instantly cured her. Akuma had confirmed it to be a Pokémon, but seemed disturbed at its appearance and was reluctant to share any further details. But that was how he usually acted anyway, and she hadn't expected him to tell her anything more than he did.
Actually it was rare for Akuma to give out information of any kind. During their training sessions he'd given her good lessons and tips, but no more than that. He was obviously an experienced combat veteran which was why she'd kept with him for such a long period of time, but there were many times when she'd wished he'd say more than he did if only to satisfy her curiosity. While she was taking the combatant's path and collecting badges she had no idea what Akuma's choices were. He was more than dangerous in battles, which was obvious, but she had never seen him in possession of any badges and he showed no interest in gym battles when the opportunity presented itself. To the best of her knowledge, the paths were battler, contester, breeder, researcher, and master, the last of which few were able to achieve. Akuma on the other hand, didn't seem to fit any of these categories other than the path of battler, but without gym battles it didn't seem like he had a part to play in the standard make up of things.
Her thoughts were interrupted as she found herself finally before the Pokémon gym of Cerulean City. Without hesitation she marched through the front doors and found herself standing before an indoor pool. There were floating walkways across the water on one side so that a path seemed laid out to take her to someone at the other end of the pool who she assumed was the gym's leader. She read the nearby statue and found that her final opponent's name was 'Misty: the water maiden' who specialized in water type Pokémon.
"Like that isn't obvious," she said to herself as she looked at the water lapping the edges of the pool. She removed her pokéball containing Onix and spoke to it sadly. "Sorry Onix, I don't think you'll be able to fight in here; not without putting yourself at a major risk anyway. I know how much you were looking forward to it too."
After she'd read over the names of other trainers who had previously conquered the gym this year, she reached into her pocket and withdrew a small palm sized computer called a pokédex. In addition to being her trainer's license, it also functioned as a Pokémon encyclopedia for trainers. She pressed a white button on the keypad and after some work she sent a signal to someone to trade out her Onix for another Pokémon more suited to a water area. She didn't know how it worked, but it was a great convenience for trainers everywhere. Ready for the battle, she stepped on the floating mat and walked along the path toward the end. On her way she heard someone call out to her. She looked to her right and saw someone swimming towards her at a rapid pace. When the figure caught up to her it pushed up its goggles and she found it to be a male swimmer.
"You can't go right through to the end without a warm up first," he said. "Before you fight Misty you should try battling me!"
Kurishimi sighed and pulled a pokéball from her belt locks. In gyms there were usually other trainers meant to filter out challengers so that only the strongest would fight the gym leaders and keep the leader's Pokémon rested up for the toughest battles. The trainer kicked back into the water a bit and released a red and white fish with a small horn on its head. Kurishimi recognized it as Goldeen; a basic water Pokémon that was easy for even inexperienced trainers to handle. She released Vulpix from its pokéball onto the floating mats as the Goldeen charged forward through the water to attack.
Akuma checked his notes again and confirmed that he'd found the address he had been looking for since last night. Located in the southwestern part of town, the house was a wreck and the windows were boarded up. The entire area around it was a mess and it was obvious that nobody was trying to maintain the house for beautification purposes. Still, in some ways he found it kind of homey.
Akuma pushed open the gate and was almost surprised that it moved so smoothly. He walked over the overgrown weeds and kicked away the blown in garbage that littered what was left of the lawn until he came to the front door. Instead of standing in front of it though, he stood to the side and leaned up against the house. He pulled out a blue pokéball with two red bumps on its surface and released a purple cloud of smoke with a black head and face in the center. This was Gastly: the gas Pokémon; a common ghost type Pokémon.
"Head in and see if there's anything I should know about," he said quietly. Gastly immediately disappeared into the house by moving through the walls. Moments later it reappeared and in an otherworldly voice it said, "Gas gastly."
Akuma sighed and recalled his Pokémon, then removed two more pokéballs from the strap across his chest. This time a red six-legged spider appeared from the flash of light along with a six foot tall monkey with flames coming from the back of its head and neck. Akuma pointed to one of the blocked windows and the fire monkey, whose name was Infernape, punched its fist through the window and made a hole big enough for his other Pokémon, Ariados, to crawl inside. The spider crept in silently while Infernape tore the remaining debris off so its trainer could climb inside before Akuma recalled it to its pokéball. He kept the pokéball in hand instead of replacing it on his chest straps as he climbed in the window following Ariados. Ariados was not recalled, but instead crawled onto the room ceiling to provide support in case it was needed.
The interior of the building was just as bad as the outside. Paint was peeling and there was a thick, visible layer of dust coating everything. Almost everything, that is. Leading down the hall and into one room was an obvious trail of footprints in the dust. Moving as quietly as he could manage over the worn floorboards, Akuma made his way down the hall and crouched next to the slightly open door so he could peer inside. He could see four familiar people within wearing black outfits and a letter 'R' insignia on the shirt fronts who were inspecting the contents of some boxes. He gently pushed open the door so he could hear the words of the people inside.
"…émon we stole from the house on the cape. Supposedly there were some rare ones in there, but the rarest one I think we found is Lanturn. From the information we got I had assumed there would have been some better ones."
"Think for a second, Kyle," he heard a second one say. "If he actually did have rare Pokémon they wouldn't be lying around waiting for us to come pick up would they?"
"Perhaps not," Kyle said, "but this is all we found and there should have been more we walked away with after our failure at the museum. I don't think Mandy will like what we've got to show for it."
"He's got a point," a third one said. "Even if he was to make his entire collection invisible she'll agree that we should've come out with more than what we have right now."
"That's easier to fix than you would think," the fourth one finally said. We're in a city where a gym leader is. There are going to be some trainers coming through here that could have strong enough Pokémon to be worth the trip."
"We won't be able to steal those kinds of Pokémon though," said the second person again. "If they're strong enough to defeat a gym leader then they're probably strong enough to defeat us as well."
"You should show a little bit more confidence, Niklos!" the third one shot back. "We just need to attack them after they've completed the challenge when their Pokémon are all weak and it'll be an easy catch. We won't need to do very much at all if we set up an ambush."
The fourth one was about to reply again when they heard a popping sound behind them. They turned around and saw Infernape appear in a flash of light. He quickly dispatched the closest three with rapid punches before they could call out their own Pokémon for defense, but the fourth one had enough time to release a brown tree shaped creature named Sudowoodo. Despite its tree-like appearance it was a rock Pokémon and difficult to damage with regular attacks. It swept itself toward Infernape with a faint attack which hit him hard, but Infernape could fight with all five limbs at once and was incomparable in terms of speed. It quickly dispatched Sudowoodo with a close combat attack. Before the Rocket could call out another Pokémon he joined the others on the floor after a mach punch from Infernape.
Akuma came through the door to congratulate his Pokémon before recalling him. He walked around the room and looked through the contents of the boxes that the Rockets had been inspecting. He found that all boxes contained pokéballs containing various Pokémon; probably stolen. Further investigation revealed that each pokéball contained the mark of a genius who lived a short ways away from Celadon named Bill who was responsible for creating the Pokémon PC storage system that was now used worldwide.
After checking each crate Akuma searched the rocket's Pokémon and found that each was carrying one of Bill's Pokémon as well. He took each one and put them in a pocket of his vest which had more than enough room for the four compact pokéballs. Akuma ordered Ariados to restrain the thieves while he made a phone call. The bug Pokémon created a thick spider web rope with the pincers on its mouth and wrapped the four inside cocoons. While it was doing this, Akuma called the police and gave them instructions on how to find the house and what he'd found. He took only a moment longer, then hung up, recalled Ariados, and left the house before the police could arrive.
Kurishimi had finally defeated all of the trainers and now only Misty herself was left. The only Pokémon she had used to win were Vulpix and Skarmory, but the gym leader was much tougher than any of her underlings would be. Feeling confident she approached the leader and said, "I've proven I'm better than the rest, now let's do this."
Misty smiled with satisfaction and agreed to do battle. "We'll use all six of our Pokémon to fight," she said stating the terms of battle. "If you can knock out two of my Pokémon you'll win the cascade badge."
"I'm sure I can do that," Kurishimi said in agreement.
With no more words to say, Misty threw out her first pokéball and it released a blue seahorse Pokémon called Seadra into the water. Kurishimi responded with Skarmory. The metal bird struck first with a drill peck attack that forced Seadra to dive underwater before it could hit. Skarmory was hovering over the water's surface waiting for its opponent to reappear when Seadra leapt out of the same place with a dive attack and knocked Skarmory back almost into the water. Before it could regain its balance Seadra fired an ice beam attack and knocked it out cold. Kurishimi recalled her Pokémon as she heard Misty declare, "Water Pokémon perform their best in the water. You've got to pick up the pace if you want that badge!"
Kurishimi carefully went over her options, Jigglypuff would be outclassed immediately by a Seadra and Ekans wasn't experienced enough to face an opponent of this level yet. Vulpix would have a hard time battling an underwater enemy, so… she sent out Vaporeon. As it appeared she caught a glimpse of Misty's face and recognized a sudden interest in the battle. As soon as it hit the water Vaporeon used the water absorb ability to become one with the water itself. Seadra dove under again, but instead of surfacing it was searching the water for signs of its opponent. It didn't have to wait long. Soon after it started looking a rainbow beam shot through the water and badly damaged Seadra. Before a second aurora beam could be fired, Misty recalled Seadra and released a Vaporeon of her own which in turn melted into the water. For the next few minutes it was an underwater game of invisible hide-and-seek as both trainer and Pokémon guessed at where the other was. After one aurora beam from Kurishimi's Vaporeon lanced through the water Misty ordered a quick attack from her own Pokémon. It sped through the water and cut through the very spot where Kurishimi's Vaporeon had just fired. It reappeared after being hit, and Misty retaliated with a vicious bite attack that left a bad wound on Vaporeon's side. Even though it was too hurt to continue the battle right now, it could return at a later time if it was really needed even though it might not last long. Kurishimi recalled her Pokémon then and tried to think of another good counter.
She had two plans actually, but when it came to which one she would use she was unsure. Finally she decided on her second choice and released the Pokémon she'd swapped out Onix for into the water. Immediately the water turned dark and murky before the Pokémon had even fully appeared. Vaporeon quickly swam away from the dark cloud and watched the glow of light reveal itself to be a Grimer, a Pokémon that was made entirely of highly toxic sludge and industrial waste. As it sank to the bottom of the pool the water surrounding it became poisoned from the sludge Pokémon's presence. Vaporeon sped in for another quick attack and connected perfectly, but as it sped away its movements slowed considerably and it retook its solid form. When it appeared, Grimer fired an ugly poisonous ball of waste through the water as a sludge bomb attack. The poison seeped through Vaporeon's skin and poisoned it immediately. Grimer sped after it as Vaporeon climbed out of the water onto the floating mats. Grimer quickly surfaced and finished it off with a normal sludge attack before it could be recalled, fainting Misty's first Pokémon.
As Kurishimi recalled Grimer Misty complemented her on the performance. "That was a good strategy using Grimer's physical makeup to attack Vaporeon without using any attacks yet."
"It was Grimer's idea actually," Kurishimi stated with a sense of pride for her Pokémon. "We had the same problem when we tried to capture it for ourselves."
"And you did a great job using that against us too; a brilliant strategy. But it seems like the home field is in need of maintenance now," Misty said as she motioned to the sludge infested pool of water.
That's another strategy I thought of after you mentioned that water Pokémon need to be in water to perform their best."
Misty laughed as she realized that she'd lost the home field advantage and her first Pokémon in the same strategic move. "You've certainly earned the right to the cascade badge now. Whoever taught you to think outside the box must be a very skilled opponent."
Kurishimi's thoughts flashed back to her numerous training sessions with Akuma. "Yeah, I had a really good teacher, but I'm not even close to his skill level. I won't even begin to compare to him for many more years now."
"That's something to drive you towards a goal then," Misty said as she saw the look in Kurishimi's eyes. "But, we're not done with our battle yet. You've still got one more victory to achieve."
"That's right. Whose turn is it, mine or yours?"
"Unfortunately you've cut down on my choices as to what Pokémon I'm able to use now that an underwater match is out of the question. And I was hoping to use my Seaking too. Well it seems like I've only got one more I can use effectively, so we'll have to make this a land battle."
"Sounds fine to me," Kurishimi put some distance between her and the red haired girl and released her Ekans to fight. It was the snake's first real trainer battle and she was hoping Ekans would do well. When Misty released her Pokémon though, Kurishimi was in shock as she saw a Pokémon that she'd never seen before. It resembled a blue squid, but it had a spiked shell on its back similar to a hermit crab. Not having the time to guess at what it was, she pointed the sensor lens on her pokédex at the creature and the small computer identified it as Omastar: the spiral Pokémon. She assumed it was a new discovery, but found it to be among the original 150 that were first classified. She scanned through the information hoping to learn as much as possible before fighting and discovered that it was actually a previously extinct Pokémon that could only be resurrected from a fossil. Since it was so difficult to obtain, there was very little information available and all she really learned was that it was a dual type rock and water.
"When my Pokémon train together Omastar is at the same power level as Gyarados," Misty said as Kurishimi reviewed the data. I usually save it as a last resort, but this time there isn't really much choice."
Kurishimi chewed her lip, a habit she had whenever she got nervous. After another second she ordered Ekans to attack. The purple snake dashed forward toward the extinct creature like a predator closing in on its prey and just as it was about to connect it stopped. This was a good move since Omastar shot a mass of mud at the place where Ekans had just been. After the attack had finished, Ekans fired a poison sting at Omastar's exposed body. Before it could hit though, Omastar shielded itself by withdrawing into the shell and escaped completely unscathed. Kurishimi thought it would reappear momentarily, but it started to roll toward Ekans instead. Ekans moved aside easily, but Omastar spun around and came back even faster the next time. Kurishimi recognized it as the rollout attack and yelled for Ekans to be careful. The next attack was also avoided, but just barely. The third attempt hit Ekans hard unfortunately, and just before the rollout hit it a fourth time Kurishimi recalled her Pokémon.
"Ekans needed some battle experience," she explained to Misty. "That last attack would have knocked out Ekans so I won't bring it back into battle again. You can count that one as a victory on your part."
Misty nodded understandingly and Kurishimi sent out Vulpix to do battle against the ancient Pokémon. Kurishimi commanded an ember attack followed by an intense flamethrower. The flying embers were endured for a moment, but eventually Omastar got annoyed and withdrew into its shell for another rollout attack. As it rolled toward Vulpix the flamethrower pushed against it and held it back; it even pushed Omastar away for a while. But as the rollout attack continued, Omastar rolled faster and faster until its power overcame the flamethrower attack and rolled through the flames to hit Vulpix hard. Vulpix got up quickly and Kurishimi switched her tactics to ensure damage by ordering an overheat attack. The temperature of the room grew to intense and nearly unbearable temperatures as the attack took its toll on Pokémon and trainers alike. Some people watching on the sidelines began to leave the room as the surrounding water began to boil. Eventually Omastar couldn't bear it anymore and came out from inside its shell to cool down. When it did, Kurishimi called back Vulpix and sent out Vaporeon again. Kurishimi quickly ordered an ice beam which Vaporeon was more than glad to do to cool things down even partially. The attack hit Omastar and the Pokémon briefly enjoyed the brief drop in temperature, but soon felt a nasty sting from such a sudden temperature drop and began trying to desperately avoid the deadly ice beam. The attack struck Omastar another time or two, and Kurishimi recalled Vaporeon again.
During this entire process Misty was baffled at what Kurishimi was trying to accomplish and saw the added effects of ice beam, but was confused again when Vaporeon was suddenly withdrawn. Now Kurishimi sent out her final Pokémon, Jigglypuff, to fight. Again Misty was confused at the other girl's strategy since normal type Pokémon like Jigglypuff had a disadvantage against rock types. Kurishimi ordered Jigglypuff to direct a double-edge attack on Omastar's shell which seemed to do surprising damage despite the hardened defense the shell had previously offered. It was then that Misty saw what Kurishimi's strategy had been.
First Vulpix heated Omastar's shell to a high level and brought it out so there was less mass inside the shell. Then Vaporeon used an ice beam attack to drop the shell's temperature to subzero levels and cause cracks to form in the otherwise impenetrable armor and lower its durability. Finally the high pressure impact from double-edge damaged the shell badly enough to almost completely lower the defenses it offered. Omastar was now as defenseless as a Pidgey with a broken wing.
Misty called for Omastar to fight back with an ancientpower attack which was a very difficult attack to avoid. But before Omastar could comply with its trainer's commands, Jigglypuff scored a successful pound attack on Omastar's weakened shell with its forearm and broke a large section of it into a shattered dent. Omastar was in critical condition, but not out yet. It retaliated with ancientpower and large rocks rose up from the water to barrage Jigglypuff. The balloon Pokémon struggled to stay in the fight, but it was forced to back away from Omastar, unable to deal the finishing blow. Eventually the attack stopped, but Jigglypuff was too far away from Omastar to successfully get closer without its opponent using another attack before it could get within range.
Misty had been panicking when Omastar was about to fall, but when she saw Omastar gain the advantageous position she felt confident that she had another chance. Omastar couldn't use rollout anymore, that was a given, but it was a water type as well as a rock type Pokémon, and water types were her specialty. She called out for Omastar to fire a hydropump which was not only a distance attack, but could also do enough damage to badly wound Jigglypuff, if not finish it off. Omastar fired a blast of water that sped toward Jigglypuff at an intense speed; too fast to avoid. But before it hit the balloon Pokémon Kurishimi ordered Jigglypuff to use its new attack. Jigglypuff gave an earth shattering scream that dissolved the water blast in midair and rattled the room. It was a rare attack known as hyper voice. Omastar was shaken and lost its balance. Before it could regain its stance, Jigglypuff had closed the distance and was preparing to attack again. It was too far to ensure another physical hit, so it screamed again and the blow knocked out Omastar.
Kurishimi had won the match.