Episode 49: The fire type specialist
Niko enjoyed Sunyshore City. A lot. The city rests on the southeastern edge of the entire Sinnoh region and, while being a major port town, is also one of the only main routes to get to the Pokémon League from. However, that's not why Niko enjoyed it.
The city is entirely powered by solar panels.
Every street, house, and building have solar panels installed on them. Niko thought the technology was incredible, and constantly made it known. At least, enough to annoy his friends, who all began walking at a quicker pace in order to separate themselves from him.
After resting up in the Pokémon Center, Niko and Lauren decided to go out onto the practice battlefield for a bit to train. "So Niko, when do you want to go challenge the gym leader?" She asked, walking backwards and facing her boyfriend.
Niko shrugged. "Well, we should probably do it soon. The Pokémon League begins in a week or so, right?" Lauren nodded. "Then how about tomorrow?"
She smiled. "Alright, got it. Hey, there's a lighthouse here. Want to check that out later?"
"Of course! Why not?" Niko said, again eliciting a smile from Lauren. He then turned his attention to his pokémon, sending them all out in turn. "Alright guys, we're going to be challenging the last Sinnoh gym leader tomorrow. Who's ready!?" Torterra, prinplup, luxray, staraptor, and cranidos all cheered. "Great! So, before we challenge him or her, we should get some final training in." Niko then went to work with each of his pokémon in turn, starting with torterra and finishing with cranidos. For some, it was mastering their current moves. For others, it was learning new ones. This was clear with staraptor, who was trying to learn close combat. Often during the training, he would move over to Lauren's camp and practice with infernape, who understood the move quite well.
The training took a couple of hours, and Lauren was working alongside him. With her full team, she worked with each one in turn, honing their moves and making sure that they were all ready for the gym leader.
Lauren also noticed that slowking was getting along with the rest of the team better than she had expected. Knowing that slowkings are exceptionally smart pokémon, she blindly assumed that it would be somewhat conceited. This was quickly proven to not be the case, when the royal pokémon assisted glaceon in using icy wind by throwing a water pulse into it, which burst and strengthened the cold gale. It also seemed to get along well with haunter, who would often joke around, which slowking seemed to appreciate a lot, and understood the gas pokémon's humor better than anyone else in their group.
Slowking also got along well with the other pokémon. He once tried playing a game of "catch" with a water pulse. Prinplup was on the other end, and they would toss it back and forth. At one point, togepi joined in and tried to catch the water pulse, only to end up causing it to burst right in her face, splashing water everywhere.
After training, the two went back into the Pokémon Center to change before heading off to the lighthouse. On their way, they ran into Brittany and JJ.
"Where have you two been?" Niko asked, puzzled.
"The Sunyshore Market!" Brittany said excitedly, pulling a bag off of her shoulder and showing the couple a variety of produce. "It's so great! JJ is going to use some of it to make poffins. Apparently, there's a poffin machine in this center, so we're going to make a bunch for the road ahead!"
"Yeah, we got most of this for a good deal, too." JJ said cheerfully. "Togepi also liked meeting the people who run the stands, and she got to see a bunch of new pokémon along the way" Togepi cooed loudly, standing by JJ's side happily. "Where are you two headed?"
"Off to the lighthouse!" Niko said, throwing his arm around Lauren. "We just trained for a little bit, and now off to relax."
"Cool, I've heard it's great at sunset." JJ replied. "Anyways, have fun!"
Niko and Lauren thanked the two before walking out of the Pokémon Center and towards the Vista Lighthouse. The trip didn't take too long, and by the time they reached the top of the lighthouse, the sun was setting, bathing the west in a radiant orange glow.
"You know, when we first began our journey we would always be so excited to see the ocean." Niko said as they sat down on a bench at the top of the lighthouse. He was trying to hide a smile. "And every time I get to see the sunset like this I have the same feeling, even though I see it every day."
"I'm glad that we get to see it together." Lauren said, leaning into Niko, her head resting against his shoulder.
A few more minutes passed as they watched the sunset in peace. Then Niko began to speak again. "Back when we were in the Distortion World…you said something to me about my…traits, or whatever. Remember that?"
"Yeah…" Lauren replied, looking down as if in shame. "I'm sorry about that. If I offended you, I—"
"It did hurt a little, yeah. But it was true. And I've kind of just been thinking about that more. I need to stop being arrogant, or emotionally unstable, or whatever else you said. It isn't healthy."
"No, it's not. You're totally correct." Lauren said, looking back up at Niko, the orange light pressing against his face and bending around his slightly elongated nose. "But…I should have talked more about the good things about you, not just the negative. And that's my fault, and I'm really sorry."
"Don't apologize. We all have negative parts to us. We all have some sort of dark side."
"What's mine, then?" Lauren asked.
Taken aback, Niko tried to think about it. If he was honest with himself, then he had no idea. After running in circles in his mind, he finally answered. "I don't know you well enough to say."
"What…?" Lauren asked. "But…Niko, I know you pretty well. How do you not know me that well?"
"I'm bad at reading people. Sorry." He admitted. "I mean, I guess you just…bah, I don't know."
"What!?" Lauren demanded. Niko was silent. "Tell me, Niko. I told you what I thought was wrong with you. You should do the same."
"Didn't I just answer you?" Niko replied in question. Lauren seemed stricken. "Exactly. I told you that I don't know. I need to get to know you better."
"You're a smart guy, Niko. You can do better than that." Lauren said in an offended tone. "How can I be a better person for you if you can't even tell me what I need to work on?"
Niko shook his head, frustrated now. "Listen, let's just forget about it and head back to the Pokémon Center. It's about time for dinner, anyways."
"Fine." Lauren said, huffing a little as she stood up. Niko lightly grasped her hand, and the two walked out of the Lighthouse and into the city.
When the two returned to the Pokémon Center, they found JJ and Brittany already sitting in a booth, apparently talking to a tall man with a red afro and a yellow shirt. Upon noticing the couple, Brittany waved her hand about to get their attention.
"Niko! Lauren! Come meet this guy!" Brittany shouted. The couple moved into the booth to greet the guy with the red afro. "This is Flint."
"Hey!" Flint said, thrusting out his hand. As soon as Niko made contact with it, he felt his arm wobbling from the force of the handshake. Lauren felt the same, almost as if he had dislocated her shoulder. "Brittany here's told me all about you two!"
"Oh?" Lauren said, almost blushing a little. "What'd she say?"
"You two want to take on Volkner and the Pokémon League." Flint said plainly. He shrugged. "She says you two are pretty impressive. Is that so?"
"Well, I wouldn't say…" Niko said, his voice drained out by his friends.
"Niko has competed in three Pokémon Leagues so far!" Lauren blurted out. Flint raised an eyebrow.
"Oh? Brittany didn't tell me that. How've you done in them?" He seemed pleasantly surprised.
"Err…top 32 in Kanto, and top 8 in Johto and Hoenn." Niko admitted.
"Not bad, not bad. Shows improvement. I know some trainers who remain stagnant in their abilities as a trainer. It's sad, really." Flint said, looking at the table. "And a lot of them end up giving up on their dreams if they don't see any improvement."
"What kind of dreams do they have?" Niko inquired.
"They all want to be a 'Pokémon Master,' whatever that means." Flint said, shrugging again. "Anyways, I'm actually a close friend of the gym leader around here, Volkner. We go way back. If you're willing, I'd like to test you both in battle in order to see for myself if you're ready for him and the Pokémon League. How does that sound?"
"Really?" Niko asked. Flint nodded. "Then of course. When?"
"How does right now sound?" Flint said, standing up excitedly. "Battles get me FIRED UP!" He shouted with enthusiasm. Niko laughed a little, and got out of the booth with Lauren, while Brittany and JJ exited on the other. The four of them followed Flint out to the practice battlefield. Flint then got on to one end, with Niko moving to the other. "Oh, would you like to do one-on-one battles?" When neither Niko nor Lauren gave him an answer, Flint made the choice for them. "Double battle. You two versus me. Brittany mentioned that you both are a couple, so that'll make this more interesting." He then pulled out two pokéballs, smirking.
Lauren and Niko then stood, side by side, as they each pulled out a pokéball as well.
"Cranidos, let's go!"
"Slowking, I choose you!" Lauren shouted.
Flint nodded. "Interesting choices. Well then…infernape, magmortar, FIRE UP!" Flint shouted, throwing two pokéballs into the air. Out of one appeared the familiar fire monkey. Out of the other was a massive red and yellow pokémon in an egg shape. Instead of hands, it had small cannons. It had a large flame on its head and smaller ones on its shoulders.
"Magmortar, the blast pokémon. Fire type. When launching 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit fireballs, its body takes on a whitish hue from the intense heat." JJ's pokédex read.
"Slowking, water pulse on magmortar!" Lauren commanded.
"Cranidos, ancientpower!" Niko shouted. The headbutt pokémon cried out, summoning ancient fossils from the ground and throwing them at infernape and magmortar. The monkey punched each one, shattering them to pieces. Meanwhile, magmortar raised its right arm-cannon and responded to both the water pulse and ancientpower with a single jet of fire that repelled both attacks.
Niko and Lauren looked in amazement at the sheer power of Flint's pokémon. He certainly wasn't an ordinary trainer.
"Heh. My turn, then. Infernape, flare blitz. Magmortar, hyper beam."
Infernape charged forward, already knowing its target without Flint having to say anything. The monkey charged at cranidos, who prepared to use zen headbutt on Niko's command. The two collided in the center of the battlefield. Meanwhile, magmortar unleashed a powerful orange beam of energy at slowking, who attempted to dodge but got hit nonetheless. The royal pokémon fell to the ground, pained by the hyper beam.
"Slowking, get back up!" Lauren shouted. Slowking turned to his trainer and nodded, smirking a little. He then stood back up and lowered his own head. It began to glow a bright blue as he charged at magmortar.
"Magmortar, solarbeam!" Flint shouted. The blast pokémon raised its arm cannon once more and unleashed a green beam of energy at slowking's head. However, the royal pokémon didn't seem to stop, rather slow down briefly. He collided with magmortar, knocking the fire type backwards before unleashing a water pulse on Lauren's command.
Flint smirked. As soon as the water pulse was conjured, magmortar thrust its arm cannon towards it and unleashed a burst of electricity into it, causing it to explode in both pokémon's faces, repelling them back several yards.
Meanwhile, cranidos was trying to fend off infernape. Occasionally, he would try to look for slowking, but then he would take infernape's mach punch to the face, knocking him backwards.
"Cranidos, you can do this, buddy. Infernape is stronger, but you've got more moxie! Let's keep fighting until the end!" Niko shouted. "Cranidos, let's go!"
The little dinosaur's head burst into a bright blue color before he charged directly at infernape, who retaliated with a flare blitz. The two met in the middle of the field and immediately shot backwards from the force of the attacks. Upon landing, cranidos immediately got back up and tried again, only to meet infernape's fist this time, which halted the dinosaur in its tracks.
"Magmortar, use thunderbolt again!" Flint shouted.
"Slowking, try to evade!" Lauren said. Niko turned to his girlfriend, realizing how anxious she looked. This battle wasn't going as well as she had wanted it to. He felt the same—there was no way Flint's some ordinary trainer. He's something else.
"Cranidos, block the thunderbolt with ancientpower!" Niko shouted, thrusting his hand forward energetically. Cranidos nodded, breaking free of infernape and turning to slowking, summoning a cluster of rocks to protect his teammate. The thunderbolt collided and shattered the rocks, giving slowking enough time to escape. However, infernape lurched forward and slammed its fist into cranidos' side, launching the dinosaur across the field.
"Infernape, thunderpunch slowking!" Flint commanded. The monkey's right fist began to surge with electricity as he burst forward and slammed it against slowking's face, knocking the royal pokémon out.
"Slowking is unable to battle, infernape and magmortar win!" JJ, who was refereeing, declared.
Lauren returned slowking, only to re-summon him on the sidelines where she now stood. She gave Niko a saddened look, as if she felt more than defeated. Niko replied with a hardened look, and then turned to Flint, his two pokémon, and cranidos.
"Can you keep going, buddy?" Niko asked. Cranidos slowly got back up, but nodded while staring down his two foes. "Alright then."
"Magmortar, flamethrower!" Flint shouted. However, shockingly enough, cranidos matched the attack.
Out of nowhere, a jet of fire burst from cranidos' mouth as well. The little dinosaur was using his own version of flamethrower!
"Wha…how…?" Niko asked in confusion. "How did you learn that!?"
"Cranidos watched blaziken and infernape use fire moves before." Brittany replied from the sidelines. "He always seemed amazed by it, and I guess he finally felt like giving it a try."
Niko nodded. "Alright cranidos, keep up the flamethrower!"
Cranidos attempted to, but it was too much energy, and the headbutt pokémon broke the attack, breathing heavily as a result. It then looked up at magmortar, who was about to use another attack, and infernape, who was jumping back and forth to keep in motion.
"Zen headbutt on infernape!"
"Infernape, mach punch! Magmortar, hyper beam!" Flint shouted. Before charging at infernape, cranidos turned to slowking. The royal pokémon simply nodded, as if it could read the dinosaur's mind. Cranidos smiled briefly before charging at his opponent, his head sparking bright blue. Then, as soon as he crashed into the fire monkey, his entire body began to glow and grow.
At full height, cranidos' evolution was about as tall as Lauren, but initially it was hunched over to meet infernape's fist. In all, it looked a lot like cranidos, only far larger and thicker. It has a dome-shaped head that obstructs its eyes. The dome is same color as cranidos'—bright red. There are a variety of spikes along the dome—two large spikes jutting out from the side, and four smaller ones circling around the dome and pointing upwards. It has red stripes, one on its tail and one on each of its kneecaps, as well as spikes on its knees and two on its collar.
"Rampardos, the head butt pokémon. Rock type. If two were to smash their heads together, their foot-thick skulls would keep them from fainting."
Niko looked up with pride. However, shortly after evolving, rampardos was hit in the side by magmortar's hyper beam, which flung the heavy dinosaur a few feet and to the ground. "Rampardos!" Niko shouted. "You can do this, buddy! Get up!"
Rampardos struggled to get back up. Once it tried to stand up in full, it fell forward this time, crashing in the center of the battlefield.
"Rampardos is unable to battle! Infernape and magmortar win! The victory goes to Flint of the Elite 4!" JJ declared.
"Elite 4!?" Niko and Lauren both shouted.
"Indeed." Flint said, approaching the two trainers—and their two pokémon—with his own. "I am a member of Sinnoh's Elite 4 and, as you can see, a fire type specialist."
"But…why didn't you tell us that?" Niko asked curiously.
"Oh, no reason. Thought it'd be interesting to have a battle where there were no expectations of doing well. And it was clear that neither of you knew who I was, because if you did one of you was bound to mention it. I only told JJ and Brittany."
Niko looked to his friends with a bemused look. JJ shrugged his shoulders.
"Anyways, that was a good battle. You're right, Niko: that rampardos of yours does have moxie. I like that. I think with a pokémon like that, you could go all the way."
"You think so…?" Niko asked, turning to rampardos. Flint simply nodded in response.
"But I feel like you and Lauren should be working more in sync. Just taking a pokémon each and bluntly attacking each one isn't going to work, especially if you're at a disadvantage. Type-wise, you certainly weren't, but you were in terms of skill."
Niko nodded, taking all of it in. A lot happened in the previous few minutes. Cranidos evolved and learned a new move, especially one that he had no idea the dinosaur could learn. And he knew Flint was right—him and Lauren weren't working well enough. It reminded him of the first time he was in an official double battle alongside JJ. The two hardly got along that day, and didn't do very well as a result. The same happened earlier with Lauren, when they got into their first real argument.
"Thanks for the advice, Flint. I've heard it before, but I guess I just forgot to apply it."
"No problem, Niko. And hey, if it's any consolation, you both did do well. I think Volkner should be scared of you two." He then turned to look around—during the battle, they had attracted a small crowd. "Speaking of which, would you mind if I sat in on your battles tomorrow? I'd like to see Volkner again, as well as how much better he's gotten since our last encounter."
"That's totally okay with me!" Niko replied.
"Yeah, I'd like that." Lauren said, albeit a little quieter. Flint grinned widely.
"Great! See ya both tomorrow!" He shouted, turning around and walking away, greeting other trainers as he exited the battlefield.
Later that evening, Niko was laying down with Lauren in their bed in the Pokémon Center. "How are you feeling now?" He asked. Niko wanted to know that, after their small argument and their joint defeat against Flint, that his girlfriend was still alright.
"Better."
"Do you want to talk about anything?" He whispered.
"I feel inadequate." Lauren whispered back. "We both had the advantage and lost badly. I wish I could have done better with slowking. I feel like I failed him."
"Oh, please. You didn't. We fought an Elite 4 member! How often do we get that chance? And even he said we were good. Lauren," Niko then turned to face her. "you're going to be just fine. You just have to keep practicing with slowking and the others, and you'll beat Volkner and go far with me in the Pokémon League." He then kissed her.
"Thanks. I also feel bad about our argument." When Niko raised an eyebrow, she elaborated. "I overreacted. We still don't know everything about each other, and I shouldn't hold it against you. That was unfair of me, and I'm sorry."
Niko smiled warmly before responding. "And I should pay closer attention to you. I'll try to in the future. Promise."
They then kissed again and fell to sleep, resting before their final gym battle the following morning.
Author's note: I know, a lot going on here. To be honest, I wanted cranidos-now rampardos-to learn flamethrower. It seemed like a move it should naturally learn. I also wanted to evolve the little guy, too. And a battle against Flint seemed like the best choice. Lastly, the argument between Niko and Lauren kind of came out of nowhere, but i'm trying to show weaknesses in their relationship, or even just small cracks, since no relationship is without arguments or fighting. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed all the same!
