Massive flames cooked the arena as the two combatants stood in their own sweat. Ray's breath felt like the air from a dryer, except more humid. Blaine stood there in a cool white lab coat, his white mustache pointing away from his face.
"Final chance boy. You sure you want to fight?"
Through the sweat and light-headedness, Ray nodded. Pikachu jumped down into the arena, it's hair matted with sweat.
A Growlithe blasted out of Blaine's pokeball, landing on all fours and stretching its powerful legs.
The battle had begun.
"Pikachu, Quick Attack!"
Before he could finish, the little yellow mouse already reached Growlithe, struck it in the face and raced back towards Ray.
"Good thing you got that hit in, Ray. You won't get another one. Agility."
A purple energy enveloped the puppy, increasing its speed.
"Now, Dig attack."
Ray gulped as Growlithe leaped into the ground, sending rubble and debris into the air.
Ray visibly shook with fear.
"You ready,boy?"
"N-n-no."
"Too bad, then. Come on up Growlithe."
Immediately the fire dog erupted out of the ground, sending Pikachu upwards in a fury of dirt and stone.
"Now, Thunderwave!"
Without a moment to lose, the little yellow mouse turned and shot out a wave of sparks at the puppy, holding it in place. It even whined to it's trainer, who stood fast and kept his hands folded.
"Now, Thundershock!"
"Are you sure you want to do that, Ray," Blaine interrupted.
"Yes, I'm sure. Do it!"
A bolt of lightning left Pikachu's cheeks and coarsed through Growlithe. The little yellow mouse was still heavily damaged when Blaine called for the match to pause. Ray and his pokemon took aback.
"By standard pokemon battle rules, I am allowed to pause the game to heal my pokemon. You should be thankful I'm not using a full restore."
Blaine takes out an orange bottle and sprays liquid repellant onto Growlithe's skin, healing it of it's paralysis.
"Now," Blaine resumed, as he reached the podium. "Tail whip!"
Newly refreshed, Growlithe leapt towards Pikachu to smack it with its tail. It misses, but gets struck by another quick attack.
Ray saw the digging coming and told pikachu to keep moving. To his surprise, Growlithe's dig came extremely close.
"Thunderwave!"
"Ember!"
The two pokemon attacked in midair, sending out devastating attacks towards each other. However the Thunderwave missed, with remnants of the Heal still working on Growlithe's skin. After getting smacked in the face with a powerful ember, Pikachu flopped to the ground and lay still.
No one said a word as Ray called his Pikachu back.
"Are you sure you want to continue, Ray? This battle's been good so far. You can always come back later."
Ray held his next champion, red and white cradled in his hands.
"I could," he began, "but if I didn't I wouldn't let me forget it. Let's keep going!"
With that, the ball was launched into the arena, light exploding in shades of deep blue and loud growls. Ray's wartortle, after more training, looked tense beneath a confident stance. He heard murmurs from the crowd, as trainers recognized his blue trickster.
