Hey hey hey, sorry for the delay. I had two more exams, but guess what? I'VE FINISHED SCHOOL AND I LOVE EVERYTHING. Next week is graduation, and then the following week is my birthday...and then the following week I have to do my swim teacher training course! NO MORE SCHOOL IS FANTASTIC :D

The strangest thing happened the other day. My aunty is quite a famous poet where I live (though I don't know if she's any good), and in the English Literature exam they have to analyse a poem and write about it. And the poem this year was by my aunty and was about my cousin. I was weirded out completely :S

Oh yeah, the people who review, can you do me a favour? In your review, could you say whether you are a girl or a boy (if you don't want to say, that's okay)? I want to know who reads this more :D OH MY GOD, THIS STORY GOT PUT INTO THE TV TROPES RECOMMENDED FANFICTION. THIS IS BEYONG EXCITING. I LOVE EVERYTHING EVEN MORE NOW!

Anyway. Hmm, is it too late to make Mia into Leaf? Because I realllllly wish I hadn't created an OC now, and she totally doesn't fit with the story at all. Maybe Leaf could be her nickname? Anywhoser, that's just me lamenting. Enjoy this chapter!


Chapter 46: Number Two

Lorelei smiled, obviously thinking back to certain events. "I knew Red was better than all the other trainers the first time I met him on that island. He just had this different look about him, you know? I think most good trainers have it, but its something you don't often come across. I think what I was most happy about though was that he was going to go beat Bruno, because that man needed to be taken down a few pegs,"


Red smiled and waved at Lorelei once more before walking through the second door. There was no waiting room this time, but instead he stepped right into the arena. He was half expecting to have to mill around in a bare room with photos again, and was a little surprised when he found himself standing in a very large...place, for lack of a better word. There were boulders littered around the room following no pattern whatsoever and the ground was dirt. Like actually. So much so that Red kicked it and the end of his shoes became covered in orange dust. He briefly wondered whether they'd just forgotten to build a floor, or they'd had the dirt imported in. Either way seemed kind of silly. But whatever the reason, the arena was quite different to the one he'd just been in.

He looked around and ended up staring straight at a man sitting cross-legged across the other side of the room. He figured that this was his next opponent, but unfortunately he hadn't met this one. He didn't look like much of a talker though (but Red really had no right to complain about that), and it was always a little awkward when neither of them wanted to say anything. He'd struck up quite a rapport with Lorelei, but he should have figured all his battles wouldn't be that friendly.

The man didn't seem to have noticed him standing there yet, but instead seemed rather involved in tracing his finger along the ground. Red watched him for a moment, hoping that he'd look up and see that he was here, but after doing that for about five minutes, he gave up and stepped backwards to lean against the wall. If he couldn't get his attention, then he might as well just relax. He'd have to notice him sooner or later, wouldn't he? Whatever he was drawing on the ground must have been utterly enthralling though - he may have been silent, but his steps certainly weren't.


Bruno traced the final word into the dirt with his finger - Hitmonlee. He'd been mapping out his strategy for the next battle after his loss to that pretentious kid with brown hair and the massive smirk. He was rather sore about that, his opponent hadn't deserved to win, and it wasn't as if he hadn't put up a fair fight either. He'd knocked out three of the kid's pokemon, but he defeated all of his. It wasn't that bad of a loss, but for someone who prided himself on his extreme training methods, it was a harsh blow. So he'd spent the remainder of the day drawing up a plan because he figured going into a battle unprepared was what had caused his loss.

Onix

Hitmonchan

Machamp

Onix

Hitmonlee

He nodded in satisfaction at the order he was going to battle with his team, it was a good variation and hopefully his opponent would be taken completely by surprise. That's if he had an opponent, after all, Lorelei was pretty tough and usually he had a maximum of one challenger a day. Sometimes he didn't have any because not a lot of trainers made it past Lorelei. They'd done a good job putting her first, she really upped the reputation of the League as being the "best" in the region. It had been a smart move, because then everyone else got challenged less and only the truly skilled could make it past. Though he didn't want to admit it, but she was maybe just a little bit better than him.

Now that he was finished, he could actually write it down on somewhere more permanent than the ground. He looked up, fully intending to locate a pen and paper but instead came across a kid across the other side of the room, leaning against the wall awkwardly. Bruno felt a twinge of guilt run through him, how long had he been standing there and why hadn't he said anything to get his attention? Oh well, at least he could put his plan into action now.

He stood up and stretched his arms out before proceeding to walk to the middle of the room to greet the kid. Said kid promptly followed and they met halfway. They hovered for a moment, Bruno was waiting to see if he would reach to shake his hand, but when he didn't he was forced to himself. Not that he minded, he just always preferred it if someone else instigated whatever he was going to do.

"I'm Bruno of the Elite Four," He said, shaking hands with the kid. "And you are?" He didn't answer, but instead just stared up at him from under the brim of his hat with wide eyes. Bruno frowned a little at this, there was something unusual about him, but he couldn't work out what. He just seemed too quiet. "What's your name, kid?" He tried again, but it ended up sounding a lot harsher than what he meant. The boy didn't flinch though, but instead gestured to his throat and shook his head. Bruno realised it then, this guy was Red. All the gym leaders had been talking about him, saying how he'd beat them easily despite not being able to talk. He hadn't paid much attention to what they had been saying even though Blaine had remarked that the League hadn't ever experienced a phenomenon like this ever.

Apparently he'd been on the news for defeating Team Rocket in Celadon and Saffron, but Bruno didn't watch a lot of television so he hadn't seen it himself. Of course there was that other kid that had beaten him earlier, but he was just an average trainer so he hadn't heard anything about him. It was only Red they were all interested in.

"Let's battle then," He suggested, walking back over to where he had been sitting. "I specialise in the Fighting type, and I've both lived and trained with them," He continued, reaching down and grabbing a pokeball from behind one of the rocks. "Get ready, Onix!" He released his first Onix out in front of him and it roared loudly, making Red jump a little. Anyone would think that it was being aggressive, but being its trainer for so long Bruno understood that it was just happy to get out.

He looked towards Red and saw that he was bent over and fishing around for something in his bag which was now at his feet. His briefly wondered what he was doing, but then got an answer when Red pulled out one of his pokeballs and released a Blastoise. Damnit! He should have waited for Red to choose his pokemon first, now he had a huge advantage. Usually there wasn't an issue with that sort of thing because both trainers would talk at the same time, but Red could just slip through undetected and wait. This boy was good, he could tell that already, and he knew that Onix stood no chance.

No joke, it actually wasn't going to get anywhere. Water and Onix did not mix whatsoever, but he had to give it a shot.

"Use your Iron Tail attack, Onix!" He commanded, pointing towards its opponent. It moved closer towards Blastoise who was standing firmly in place and did not appear daunted at all with the difference in size. That bugged Bruno a little, usually he could count on its foe being intimidated aby the sheer size of his Onix to make the battle easier for him, but Red and Blastoise weren't fazed at all. That was the sign of a good trainer, but he didn't like to admit that this kid who was so much smaller than him could possibly be so much better. Okay, so he was a sore loser, he'd admit that.

Onix reared up and just as it was about to throw itself down onto Blastoise Red moved his hands quickly and swiftly, catching Bruno's attention and distracting him from the battle at hand. He'd been told that the kid used sign language, but he'd never really believed it because it seemed pretty unfeasible. Now it was obvious that he did, but that brought about another question - how? Just how were his team able to see everything he 'signed' to them? It's not like there was sound or anything...

Speaking of sound, Bruno's attention was soon directed off Red's gestures when a loud crashing noise echoed around the arena. He looked out in front of him and saw Onix sprawled across the ground, attempting to stand back up. What the hell had just happened? He'd been so intent in watching Red's sign language that he hadn't even noticed his pokemon being attacked. The kid must have commanded him to use some water move! Okay, Bruno, concentrate.

"Come on, get back up!" He yelled and watched Onix squirm around, trying to sit. Just as it managed to lift itself up a little, Blastoise hit it with another attack which was more than likely Hydro Cannon due to the force of the water. There was no way that it would survive that, the first one had been bad enough (even if he had no idea what had even been used then). And not to his surprise, when Blastoise stopped, Onix's eyes were closed. "Return," He mumbled, recalling Onix back into its ball. He threw it back behind the boulder and picked up another - Hitmonchan. Blastoise didn't have an advantage over this one, so hopefully he'd have more of a chance.

He noticed Red sign something, and it was here that he noticed how his pokemon saw what he said. They would turn slightly whenever an attack was finished or something new had happened, watching for orders. He'd trained them so specifically that they even knew when to move! Though his training methods probably weren't as extreme as his, but hey, his had to be, he was a fighting specialist! Okay, Bruno was impressed by Red, but he'd never tell.

What was most frustrating though was that he had no idea what Red was going to do next. They were on uneven ground here!

Said sign before seemed to once again be for Hydro Cannon, as Blastoise was sending large jets of water across the arena. Bruno watched for a moment, waiting for what was going to happen next and well, the water was falling short of Hitmonchan. What? Was it already tired out?

His questions were answered soon enough though, as Blastoise stomped down hard on the ground with its foot. Almost automatically the water is had been projecting out shot upwards and started swirling around, hitting the roof as it did so. So it was Whirlpool, not Hydro Cannon. It was now totally cloaked in the water and couldn't be seen at all, that was real helpful. It started to walk forward, the typhoon moving with it, getting closer and closer to Hitmonchan. For a moment, Bruno was frozen and his mind would not allow him to figure out a way to combat something so big. He stared up at the attack and shook his head, trying to collect his thoughts.

Slowly, a smirk began to form on his face. He'd just thought of the perfect thing to do. "Use Thunder punch now!" He shouted, a little concerned that even though it was a brilliant plan, he'd left it too late. Hitmonchan drew its fist back, sparks beginning to fly around it and ran forward, forcing it into the Whirlpool. The water began to crackle and Bruno could swear he saw Red's eyes widen in surprise. He bet he'd had no idea his pokemon knew that.

He held his breath in suspense, waiting to see the outcome. This could either be awfully good, or Red's pokemon could be trained so well that this didn't affect them at all. He sincerely hoped for the former. A few seconds that felt like a few hours later, the cloak of water suddenly enveloped in sparks and then dropped and hit the floor with a close to deafening splash, soaking Bruno's feet and the ankles of Red's pants (and washing away his plan in the sand). This was followed by another crash as Blastoise fell down to the ground, almost unconscious.

Red was gesturing something frantically, but Bruno just shook his head. "I think it's done, kid," He felt a little odd addressing Red and even though he knew full well that he could hear him, he felt like he couldn't and had the urge to speak slowly and loudly. He had to mentally stop himself and it was quite frustrating. Not only that, but this was the first time he'd met someone less talkative than him, usually he was the quiet one.

Red nodded and then turned to ruffle the fur on his Pikachu's head, whom then decided to jump off from his shoulder and into the area in front of them. Said area was still ankle-deep with water, and Bruno suddenly had a thought of what Red had in mind. Though wouldn't it be dangerous to both of them as well? Surely he wouldn't be willing to risk their health and safety to win a battle? That didn't demonstrate a mature trainer, which is what the League liked to strive for. All his worried were soon dismissed though, as the kid clambered up onto one of the boulders scattered around the field. He followed, finding one that was opposite and taking a seat on it.

"Hitmonchan, charge forward and use your Mach Punch attack," He called. "And if Pikachu evades, follow with a Sky Uppercut,"


Red had found this battle surprisingly easy so far, if he was perfectly honest. He was much more familiar with the fighting type than he had been with ice, and he didn't know Bruno, so there was no shock like there was been with Lorelei. He'd lost Blastoise (but he had a Revive for that later so he wasn't stressing), but with that, had flooded the arena which later would prove to be mighty helpful. The bottoms of his pants were soaking though, and that was rather uncomfortable. Oh well, some things had to be sacrificed for others.

Right now though, he had to concentrate on Hitmonchan's coming attack. Pikachu was watching him in concern, not wanting to be punched, and with fair reason too. He frowned, remembering that unfortunate incident in Pewter City all those months ago. He'd been so stupid, but hadn't learnt his lesson and perhaps found himself even more inclined to give the finger. 'Pikachu, start running circles around the arena, alright? Try and leap from rock to rock as well, really confuse your opponent,' It commenced with the attack, sloshing through the water until it came across the closest boulder, Hitmonchan chasing it the whole time. From an outsiders perspective, it would not have looked like a battle.

The full speed chase continued on for a few seconds until Hitmonchan, being about three times the size of Pikachu and all, managed to catch up to the little mouse and execute its attacks perfectly. Red gasped quietly, watching Pikachu fly across the arena. It landed with a splash and a thud, due to the water not being very deep, but once the surprise had worn off, he could tell that it was quite alright. Pikachu was a fairly nimble thing after all.

Though his plan hadn't gone off all that perfectly, he had still worn out its opponent, so now would probably be a good time to put into action what he'd originally thought of. 'Quickly, buddy, use Thunder on the water!' It began to spark, and soon the whole pool was flashing and crackling.

"Fire Punch to the ground now!" Bruno roared, obviously nervous as he was running on borrowed time. The two of them were totally fine from the electricity that had been sparking around the room, and as was Hitmonchan. It had been subjected to the attack for a second or two, but had managed to evaporate the water and had sustained minimal damage. Red frowned, it seemed that evaporating the water was a very common technique, he'd never realised that. But now he had to think of something else to do.

Hitmonchan appeared a little distracted from the previous attack, hopping from leg to leg. Maybe he could use that to his advantage, but how?

"Stop screwing around," Its trainer yelled, balling his fists up. "Run to that Pikachu and use your Fire Punch and Thunder Punch at the same time, one for each fist," Wow, could it do that? Combining attacks at the same time had been something Red had never tried, nor thought to try. Though maybe it wouldn't be a bad thing to have a shot at. Not now though, he couldn't risk anything at the moment. Hitmonchan began to charge towards his Pikachu, who tensed up and looked towards Red, worried about being hit.

'Stay right there, buddy,' He commented. 'Endure the attack, and when it contacts you, grab a hold of its glove and use Thunder,' It nodded, the angst one its face changing into one of determination. That was awfully reassuring, because if Pikachu felt comfortable with it, it had to work, right?

Hitmonchan struck the mouse with a harsh fist, and for a moment Red was convinced it was going to go soaring across the arena and be knocked out. But at the very last moment, it clutched onto the fist that had just struck it and began to spark. Hitmonchan stopped in its tracks and began to shake - it was working! The attack began to subside, and it dropped to the floor, unable to even move the tiniest fraction.

"I knew you were going to try something, but I couldn't anticipate what," Bruno remarked, recalling his pokemon. "So I wasn't fast enough in getting Hitmonchan up onto a rock," He revealed another pokeball from somewhere behind his rock and released a Machamp.

'Come back, Pikachu,' The little mouse stared at him for a moment, considering whether to disobey Red and keep battling, or to listen to him. Obviously it didn't want to stop, but he was thinking that the best way to defeat Machamp would be with more force, ergo Snorlax. What he was hoping though, was that Pikachu wouldn't be disobedient again like it had yesterday, that was the last thing he needed right now. He was a good trainer, there was no reason for his team to was to disobey him! It couldn't happen, not now!

But luckily for him, it didn't and he'd found that he'd completely overreacted. Pikachu turned itself around and bounded back up to Red, nudging his legs for attention. 'You did well,' He chuckled silently. 'And you will get to battle later, I promise,' So with that, he pulled out Snorlax's pokeball and released the giant creature out in front of him. Fortunately it wasn't asleep, but tilted its head in confusion as to where it was. He had no idea why he was using this creature, but he blamed the fact that he wanted something larger than its opponent. The only issue was the training, he'd used it...once?

"Lift up one of the rocks near you and throw it at your opponent," Bruno shouted, pointing out into the arena. "Once its dazed, jump up on its stomach and hit it right in the face with a Cross Chop attack," Wow, he really didn't do things lightly, did he? The Cross Chop attack was one thing, but Snorlax could be seriously injured from the rock, those things were not light. But how was he supposed to avoid it? Snorlax wasn't exactly the fastest creature...

Of course his mind decided to blank out at this moment, and he watched in horror as Machamp easily picked up one of the boulders and hurled it right towards Snorlax. 'Step out the freaking way, jeez!' His signs were over the top and melodramatic and when he'd finished speaking, he found his arms completely a moment after he'd given the command though, he wondered whether Snorlax had been acting on its own accord until he noticed that he had in fact commanded something.

As he had mentioned before, Snorlax wasn't very quick at all and this certainly played to its apparent disadvantage when it had a huge rock hurtling towards it. It attempted to rotate itself around to avoid the rock and Red watched on nervously as it moved slowly. Of course it wasn't fast enough though, and the object struck it right in the stomach. Red chewed his lip, anxious and disappointed - its totally done for, ran through his mind.

But then something quite remarkable happened. Snorlax pushed its stomach out and the rock bounced right off it and ended up hitting Machamp. It wasn't with as much force as it had been thrown, but it still knocked it over and slowed the battle down for a moment or two. Looking back, Red was glad that the rock had ended up hitting Snorlax, because if it had moved it would have landed on him and that would not have been very pleasant. He probably would have ended up in hospital, actually.

'Now Snorlax, use Body Slam against it!' The one thing that Red knew that Snorlax could do was fall down and totally crush its opponent, as this had been demonstrated to him in two unfortunate other incidents. Though the second one had been in his favour, it wasn't a nice situation. It looked at him, blinking slowly and then instead of falling forwards onto Machamp, it fell backwards and curled up, fast asleep. Fan-fucking-tastic. 'This is no time to be sleeping!' He stomped his foot on the ground, but he knew it was useless, there was no way it could see him with its eyes closed. He was so close to returning the damn thing, he should have know better than to use it in the first place.

Bruno was smirking at him from across the arena. "Submission attack, Machamp!" The creature walked up to Snorlax, wedged its arms underneath it and easily lifted it up into the air. Meanwhile Snorlax was none the wiser and continued to snore peacefully, unaware that it was possibly going to lose consciousness any second. What was most curious though, was that with each step Machamp took, the snoring got louder. It was in the middle of raising its arms to throw the large creature when it began to shake. At first it was just a little, but then it got larger and at this point, the snores were almost deafening.

Not only that, but a strange yellow sort of glow was emanating from underneath Snorlax and travelling down Machamp's arms. Red's eyes widened, that was its Snore attack! So it going to sleep hadn't been stupid and useless after all! The shaking spread and within seconds, Machamp was shuddering all over. It wobbled slightly and then its legs buckled, sending Snorlax crashing down onto it, still fast smiled at this, maybe there wasn't really any reason to be frightened of this giant creature, it didn't seem to want to hurt anyone on purpose.

"Return, Machamp," Bruno huffed, somehow recalling his pokemon from underneath Snorlax's massive body. "You got lucky with that, kid," He grumbled and Red chuckled silently, Bruno didn't really like losing at all, did he?


"Having lost, I have no right to say anything," Bruno mumbled, extended his hand for Red to shake. He'd won again? No way, that couldn't be right. The Elite Four were the best in the region, he was just another trainer, yet he was technically halfway through them. Maybe he had just been really lucky after all. "Go face your next challenge," And with that, he took a seat back on the boulder he'd been sitting on and stared out at something invisible in the distance. Well, this was certainly awkward, he couldn't go through to the next arena yet and Bruno was no where near as hospitable as Lorelei had been. Oh well, he might as well use that Revive on Blastoise.