(One month later...)
Ummm... hello.
I've written a chapter!
Hope you enjoy, it's a long one!!
Disclaimer: I have sooooo many Pokémon cards now... I'm not addicted I swear...
——&@&@&——
"Greeting students, welcome to the happening and passing city of Fuchsia.(1) Here we will be visiting the gym, the zoo and the safari zone. We've also set up a surprise activity for tonight, it's really exciting! We'll have plenty of time to go shopping before we leave too, so make sure not to spend too much before then." The teacher for one of the other classes/groups said expressively.
'Well at least now we're finally given part of the itinerary for our trip.'
The exit from the 'bus' was relatively painless. Students sticking to the rules expressed by their respective leaders. After the machine had been emptied of students, Pokémon, minders and luggage, it left as well.
All the students were then lead into our lodgings for this trip. The hotel was very average and stereotypical of what a normal high grade hotel looks like. In my opinion it was very out of place in this city and reflected only some of what I had seen from the window of the 'bus' before. Mainly in it's decor rather than the construction or layout.
Traditional paintings, small trees and employees wearing kimono's and... Er the male equivalent... Haori...? That was about it though, the rest of the hotel was still very 'English' with the open space and the brick/ marble build. There was even gold edging in some places...
After waiting about twenty minutes for the excitement of landing and picking rooms to calm down, everyone was finally gathered together into the hotel's hall.
We were given some worksheets to complete and an overview of the activities we'll be doing over the course of today and tomorrow.
From my quick glance at the sheets it wasn't too excessive.
- The name of the city.
- The name of the gym leader.
- Name a couple of the Pokémon you saw in the zoo/safari zone.
- Etc, etc, etc.
Easy.
"Today we will be visiting the gym, perhaps we will even see a gym battle! Tonight we will be doing a surprise activity. Yosh! exciting! The Fuchsia city Gym Leader specialises in Poison Types. Does anyone know a Poison Type Pokémon?" The teacher continued, excitedly encouraging the students to respond.
Many kids replied with their guesses, some being well informed and others... well... not so...
After the replies whittled down the other teacher spoke, decidedly not sounding a exuberant as the first.
"Yes, yes and tomorrow we will be visiting the zoo and safari zone in the morning, in the afternoon you will have time to shop. After that we will be boarding the bus again to return to school. It's going to be a long day... sigh..." I'm pretty sure we weren't meant to hear some of that sentence, especially considering Mrs. Chér looked like she wanted to cuff him on the back of the head.
A strained smile appeared on her face as she drew the attention of the audience to herself. "Yes! We're going to have a very fun, jam-packed time. Again make sure you stay with your assigned buddies at all times. For the next hour or so we will be getting settled. During this time I recommend releasing your Trustee and introducing them to some others. No fighting please, we have just arrived. If you want to have a practice battle today, then it will be while we're at the Gym under the supervision of the Gym Leader and Gym Trainers. You should also have some time for some late breakfast so I suggest doing so. That's all for now." Her smile was much more natural by the end of her speech, creasing her eyes in a friendly way.
"Yosh! Ok Class-Lee! Follow me!" The teacher that had spoken first said at a higher volume, throwing his arms up. This caused Mrs Chér's smile to become strained once again. Some of the students of 'Class Lee' let out sighs as they stood up to follow their teacher who had already 'exuberantly' rushed out of the room.
"Sigh... I could use a nap..." the second teacher said, slowly walking out with a slouching gate. More, louder sighs were heard from the students of his class, as they too left the room following after their teacher.
Mrs Chér was struggling to keep the smile on her face, but it was a bit of a lost cause, as it already resembled more of a grimace.
'Poor Mrs Chér, stuck as the project leader, with two others that might be more of a hindrance than a help.' I sigh internally, remembering some group projects I was part of in pre-incarnation-high school.
Our teacher visually rains in her frustration remarkably well and directs the rest of us to the hotel restaurant for food. After supervising our purchases she then takes us to an outdoor eating area to sit and eat, before leaving us to our own devices.
"Done James?" I ask a little while later, as he is still nibbling on his portion, I had finished mine already.
"Yeah, I'm full." He says, pushing his mostly finish plate away and stretching in the process, obviously contented by the warm weather and a fully belly.
I look around and see that most of our class has split away to do their own thing, some dragging reluctant buddies with them. James, myself and two more pairs had stuck around, out in the sun.
I noticed the lazy teacher asleep by a tree in the hotel's rather large back garden. Another pang of sympathy strikes thru me for my teacher, but I shake it off.
'I'll help her myself, if and when she needs it.'
While not a teacher I did have a lot of babysitting experience from my previous life. I was pretty much forced to learn with so many younger siblings.
"Do you wanna meet DeVil then?" I say preemptively taking his Pokéball off my necklace and enlarging it with a click.
James sits up straighter, having almost looked like he was about to join that lazy teacher in the land of dreams.
"Yeah! Growlie can meet him too. Let's go to the field out back." He says standing up, palming his own Pokéball he pulled from his pocket.
The hotel, while not encouraging battling so close to it, did in fact have its own battle field. Multiple in fact. You didn't run a business, where people could stay and not have somewhere where people could train too. You would lose a lot of business only catering to Pokémon-less people in this world after all.
James released Growlie first, a large grin on his face as he did so. After a brief shake of the black-striped, cream and orange coat Growlie barked and proceeded to tackle James to the ground, liking his face excitedly in the process.
'Really James? If you let him do that all the time, when he gets bigger it's gonna cause you some trouble.' I think in amusement, before a giggle escapes. 'Well I guess it's already to late, considering, I'm pretty sure all his Pokémon did that to him pretty consistently in the anime. With the exception of probably Kofing. But then again Kofing just didn't have any arms, so that could have been why he didn't.'
I frown though as another thought sneaks up on me. 'James probably projects an aura of 'I need a hug' to his Pokémon and that's why they respond like that... hmm, that's kinda sad to imagine...' I try not to think about it further, as James rises having pushed his overly affectionate pup off.
"Hey Growlie!" I say, receiving a greeting bark in return. "Alright my turn. DeVil, present!" I say, chucking his ball up and catching it after he'd been released.
The Houndour followed the Growlithes' actions of giving a quick coat shake and bark, before giving me his full attention.
"Val I'd like to introduce you to James and his partner, Growlie."
He barks his greeting at the pair, which receives a quiet "hello" from James.
Growlie reacts much more enthusiastically.
He immediately runs over to greet the Houndour more closely, and to get his scent memorised in the process. His fluffy cream-coloured, tail is sweeping side to side so quickly its blurring. His friendliness gets him a bit too close, causing Val to lean back and take a step away. The Houndour eyes the other pup with some hesitance, but his own tail starts to beat too.
After Growlie is satisfied with knowing the other dogs smell he backs off and gets into a play mode. Barking at Val and jumping away to run a short distance, only to turn around and bark again.
DeVil glances toward James and I first, before looking back, barking and following the orange dog across the field. A brand new, game of chase begins.
"Well... you didn't get to meet him for long but that's my pup." I say, watching the two puppies running back and forth.
"Haha, it's alright I'll meet him better later, I'm just happy their having fun. I haven't seen Growlie this excited in a while." He says with a large smile, laughing again when one of the pups trips causing them to tumble into a pile of excitement, only to be up again seconds later.
"Who's doggie is who's then?" A voice interrupts our concentration on the game a few minutes later. It really was entertaining to watch the puppies play, we lost track of time quickly.
Glancing over I see four more of our classmates coming to join us on the grass, to the side of the battle field. Three young boys and a girl.
"The Houndour is mine. The other bundle of fluff is James's." I say, standing to greet them.
"Hmm. Do you mind if I let my trustee out here too? She wasn't allowed on the bus." The first boy asked holding his Pokéball up.
"Me too." The second and third boys ask with similar timing. The fourth child, a girl with light brown hair, was standing just behind them clutching a Rattata to her chest, obviously one of the few that had matched the requirements for our earlier travel.
"No I don't mind at all, Mrs Chér even said we should introduce our trustees to each other anyway. What about you James?"
"Yeah l'd like to meet them please." He smiles a bit hesitantly from beside me.
With our permission the three students released their Pokés onto the field too.
First to appear was a bipedal yellow and white mouse. It's back was patterned with what looked like a brick texture and it had large blue almond-shaped eyes. It's front claws looked pretty sharp, but at the same time pretty harmless on its chubby looking body.
The Sandshrew barely acknowledged the child that released it before fixating on the game of tag still being played by the pups on the field. Glancing back for barely a second it immediately ran off to join in.
Next up, a stumpy grass type appeared. It's blue green skin contrasted heavily with the red leaves and brownish flower on the top of its head. The petals of the flower were spotted with multiple white dots. Not gonna lie... it looked pretty dopey with its eyes half closed and drool dripping from it's mouth.
'Huh? Another tokémon... Er I mean weed Poké- No! Gloom! Its a Gloom.'
"Gloom~" it said lazily, looking around in a daze.
It sunk down on the grass, obviously ready to chill out absorbing the sunlight streaming from above. Some of the 'drool' from its mouth dripped to the ground.
'Gross...'
Finally the last Pokémon was released.
A shiver immediately ran up my spine at the sight.
Five of the six children took a simultaneous immediate step back. Myself included.
The Pokémon held to the chest of the girl squeaked loudly, before losing some of the purple colour in its face.
Growing up in Australia I had seen my fair share of these.
A snake appeared...
A large one...
Well more like a cobra...
But... y'know backwards... and with a K...
It was a solid pure purple colour, contrasting deeply with its current surroundings, and built of pure thick muscle. It's hood flared as it got comfortable in the light, letting out a satisfied hiss. The large snake turned its head to look at the little snacks now in front of it, exposing the grinning fire-eyed, patten on its front. Its tongue flickered out, past its sharp teeth, to scent to air.
"Char, boc." The Arbok said.
"Woh..." I said, not expecting that at all.
"This is Wally! Isn't he great! He's my dads Pokémon." The boy that released said snake stated, waving at it.
'Er what? Wally... who names an Arbok Wally?' I thought disjointedly.
'Wally' looked at the kid that introduced him then huffed, flexing his hood and straightening.
"Wally is super quick and dad said he beat a gym by himself once! My starter is going to be one of his kids." The kid said rubbing his nose with his finger, grinning in a smug way.
The snake rose higher, it's hood flaring out more.
'Wait I know that expression... It's preening... for that little bit of praise... wow, just wow...'
The smug snake flickered his tongue again before losing interest in us, it looked at the playing Pokémon before choosing to move away. It started to circle the field, flicking his tongue from time to time.
We all watched, quietly as he moved about. Stopping every now and then before moving on. He was very fast, when he stopped it was immediate and when he moved again it was really sudden.
After deciding that there was nothing of major note in the area, the Arboc returned and settled on the grass beside us, to curl up in the sun. It's final movement before seemingly falling asleep was to let out a yawn, with what I would call, an impressive display of fangs.
'However... now it kinda reminds me of a cat more than a dangerous, poisonous predator... Still...' I take another step closer to the other Pokémon, who have now changed their game to 'chase the rolling mouse', not even really noticing the change of atmosphere.
"That's... awesome... Are these Pokémon going to be your guy's starters?" I ask the other three newcomers, subtly trying to change the subject while keeping an eye on the big purple beast.
The two kids with 'mouse' Pokémon, reply with a shaky nod to the question. The third replies with a quiet "no".
"Ok then... what's your Pokémon's names?" I ask, trying to calm the hearts of the other kids, as well as my own.
I look toward the girl with the Rattata first. If memory serves me right she is actually the Rebeca that liked Roselia's from my first class introduction. Apparently she's three for three for alliteration.
"This is Neo." She says holding the pale rodent close, and breaking the chain in my mind. The Rattata's ears twitch at its name but for the most part, it's pretty focused on the settled serpent.
"My Trustee's name is Bobby, he's my sister's gloom. He use to be called Betty but then he evolved and she found out he was a he so... yeah." The boy said, finishing awkwardly. I can't remember his name but I think it started with an S.
'Huh... all their Pokémon names are pretty unique so far, even the Arboc's.' My eyebrow twitches with the thought.
"My Sandshrew's called Sandy." The final boy says.
'...and there it is, I spoke to soon...'
The last boy to speak this time was the first one who asked us if they could release their Pokémon when the kids first walked over. Meaning that the Sandshrew was female. I think his name started with a T. Tom maybe? Tim?
"That's cool, my doggo is called DeVil, he's gonna be my starter."
James speaks last with a slight nudge from me. "The Growlithe's name is Growlie and he'll be my starter too."
With introductions made, even if I still didn't really know all the kid's names, and having successfully distracted ourselves from the purple-poison-type, we set out to play our own game of tag while we waited for the teachers to call us in.
I hadn't played tag in an age. It was fun to let lose a bit.
I kept an eye on the snake during the game, but apart from opening its eyes every now and then, and scenting the air with its tongue, it didn't move much. The Gloom even chose to go and sit next to it, and stare off into space. Maybe it found the sun warmer there, than where it originally seated itself. The cobra barely acknowledged it, not even shifting.
Time moved quickly and we were soon recalling our Pokémon to gather and board another bus. An actual one this time, even if it was a bit on the fancier side than usual.
The trip to the Gym was uneventful, if a bit long, with having to exit the town we had just arrived in. During the bus ride we were told about the Gym, it's Leader and the type of Pokémon he trains.
'Great even more of Australia deadliest...' I shivered again.
The list included snakes, spiders and scorpions. My thoughts made the bats and moths into a footnote when compared to the other more 'exciting' creatures described. Not even mentioning the other categories of life Poison-Types could inhabit. Or un-life if the case may be...
When we arrived we're greeted with a young man dressed in very stereotypical ninja garb. His clothes were mostly coloured in greens and dark browns, probably to blend into the surrounding forrest.
He lead us into the Gym, guiding us in a very round-a-bout way through the seemingly normal, traditional building. I think, if I remember the anime correctly, there might have been a few traps hidden about in the halls we avoided.
We eventually arrived in the main building where the Gym's field was. The young man told us the Gym Leader was waiting for us, before appearing to disappear.
Very confused and excited by the sudden disappearance of our guide, the kids immediately started to gossip with each other. Growing louder when trying talk over others.
I was in the process of warily looking around.
Assuming this gym leader was actually a ninja, like he was in the anime, game AND manga, he might already be here. I calculated that him being a ninja meant he was probably already watching us and if he was a good one he would be well hidden.
I don't know if I was the first to notice the (out of place) shadow in the top corner of the room, but when I did notice it nothing immediately happened. I watched the spot and it stayed there for a good few moments, before something changed... it moved. The shadow dropped from the ceiling landing in the front of the room, startling the students not paying attention. Which was pretty much all of them...
The shadow rose, revealing another youngish looking man in ninja garb accompanied by a large bat-like creature. From a quick observation I knew this was the Gym Leader we had come to see.
This time the man was garbed in purples and blacks. The stereotypical ninja suit was mainly purple with a darker edging and a lighter purple cloth tied around his waist as a belt. He had a protective mesh shirt on, peaking out from under his short sleeves and low neck line. His hands and feet were well armoured with a black leather like material, allowing free and easy movement, while also offering a layer of protection. His hair was a teal coloured and his eyes were a deep piercing, black. Finally a long, blood-red scarf was tied around his neck and flowed down his back, arching slightly as if caught in a small gust of wind. The two ends of the scarf almost touched the ground, hovering just above his heels, and completing the look.
The bat that emerged with him was mostly blue with a purple membrane on the inside of it's wings. It's large mouth gaped open, displaying some very vampire-like teeth, eclipsing most of it body and making it look more like a mouth with wings than an animal. I recognised it as a Golbat, and a pretty healthy and strong looking one at that. It wrapped it's wings around itself covering its mouth, vaguely reminiscent of a Dracula behind his cape.
"Greetings, young warriors. I am Koga, the Pokémon sensei who holds the Soul Badge. (*2) Welcome to my Gym." He said with a deep, toned voice.
'Wow~... Hot... I think I've just developed a crush...' I thought with a blush rising on my cheeks. I began to fan my face with my hand, hopping to cool down. 'Who knew I had a thing for ninja's, certainly not me...'
——&@&@&——
I watched the twenty-something, handsome ninja-man, as he greeted everyone, and began outlining some of the lessons we were going to spend our time learning while at the gym.
It looks like we're going to be doing a little bit of ninja training, as well as some practice battles with the Gym Trainers supervising us.
After Koga had finished introducing himself, and a few of his Gym Trainers that had also appeared at some point, they led us outside the main building and into a large training ground. The space was made up of about four Pokémon battlefields, an elaborate looking jungle-gym and a partial forest that obscured the walls that I assumed surrounded the manor/Gym.
We were then split into different groups across the space. Some were directed to the jungle-gym/ obstacle course thing, and others, surprisingly enough, were guided into the trees.
My group ended up at the exercise course first. Each student had a turn to run the obstacles with or without there trustee. We were each timed on our run. It was basically a fun little race between each other.
Most of our group did well, the only mishap worth mentioning was one of the kids I'd met earlier face planting into a mud-trap. His trustee, the Sandshrew 'Sandy', turned around and snickered at his misfortune. Which resulted in the boy flicking mud at the yellow mouse in annoyance. The Pokémon was so stunned it just blinked back, incredulously.
After each student had, had a go running the course at least once, we were directed into the trees to swap with the other groups. There, we had a quick couple of games made up of a combination of hide'n'seek and tag. When they deemed us done with that, they guided us around pointing out both poisonous and edible flora that was native to Kanto.
First thing to note was that all berries and fruit in the Pokémon world were considered edible. Some might not be as appetising as others, but you could still eat them.
Next to note was that while fruit and berries were somewhat abundant, that's not all that was out there. Some plants could be eaten too, and unlike my previous world, where I couldn't identify a deadly plant over a safe one to save my life, it was very easy to distinguish a difference here.
Does anyone remember being told when you were young that bright coloured frogs were poisonous and dull coloured ones weren't?
No? Just me? Huh... I don't remember where I heard that... whatever...
Anyway... that was sort of how it was here, just with a little tweak. Warm colours, such as oranges, and reds were the poisonous ones. Cold colours such as blues and greens were safe. The switch-up came with what was left over. Yellow plants were the best in terms of nutrition and the purple flora were the most toxic.
This sort of matched up with the typing of Pokémon being that most poison types were purple. I don't know how it works with the yellow ones... electricity maybe? Where natural energy comes from?
Eh?... Either way it was easy to understand and simple to remember, which was a good thing to note considering they were teaching this to kids so young.
After that everyone was gathered together for a quick lunch. Which was also good, because it had been a couple of hours since we had eaten breakfast. It had now reached 1o'clock on the first day of our trip.
Finally everyone was gathered and moved onto the battlefields to allow us to have some supervised battles.
Here trustees that hadn't been released yet now appeared, and we were now divided depending on our Pokémon. They placed us based on what they judged our Pokémon's experience was.
Again I was placed with James as our pups were similar in weight, type, size and experience. Thankfully the Arboc was in a different category, looking much more intimating when it was surrounded by other similar sized Pocket Monsters.
We then began a small quick tournament for each of our groups. Getting the chance to have our very own, very first, supervised practice battles.
When my turn to battle rolled around I was super excited but at the same time pretty focused on not wanting to embarrass myself. Koga had been supervising the battlefields, and was commenting on or complimenting the young trainers though-out their battles, if some of them could really be called that.
However, as soon as I through DeVil's ball onto the field my nerves vanished and my focus immediately narrowed. It was a strange experience. Like everything outside the lines of the field had disappeared.
I had only ever felt a similar sensation when working on my art, when time just... moved on without me. But this felt different... more. It usually took me a moment to lose myself in my works. This... within what felt like a single breath... I was there and nowhere else...
When the battle was called to begin, my hand started to rap a beat on my leg. It was subtle but it matched with the beat of my heart that had started to pulse louder in my ears.
DeVil shifted on the field, bracing himself, maybe noticing the change in me at the same time. He definitely heard the tapping if the swivel of his ears indicated anything.
"Howl." I said in time with my own beat. I don't know how long I had been silent before the command exited my mouth.
It can't have been that long, as the other trainer-in-training and her Pokémon had not moved yet. I only now register the unfortunate type disadvantage I'm in for my first battle, as a Krabby sets itself up opposite us.
I don't hear the other student say anything, probably a combination of the tapping, the howling and the blood pumping through my ears.
"Move." I say, as soon as I see the red aura now steaming off the Houndour. While DeVil and I hadn't done much training battle-wise together we have had a chance to do some stamina and speed training. This was why I could use the command "move" and he would.
The Houndour began to dart about, zigzagging here and there, hardly slowing for the turns. I dont know if he noticed but his paws started touching the ground in time with my beat, flicking up small puffs of dust in the trip. As he moved I realise the opposing trainer has called her crab to attack with Bubble.
It was a good choice typing wise but... The attack moved so slowly, and hit the ground, my pup had already long vacated.
"Up front, Leer." With how slow that move was, I pretty confidently told my pup to move in close and lower the crabs defence. We would need all the help we could get considering the only reliable, damage dealing, attacks Val knew were fire type.
The pup darted in front of the Krabby, sliding to a stop and conjuring the blue glow from his eyes. When I saw the blue glow begin to appear on our opponent's shell I re-issued the command to move.
However before Val could gain any distance, water shot out from the red crab's claws, clipping the black pups side.
'Water gun? Damn...'
The attack was much faster, but looked less powerful than Bubble. I knew Water Gun was usually a more powerful move, as Pokémon generally learned it later in the games, after Bubble. Which makes me believe the crab hadn't completely mastered it yet.
"Fire Ember." I say quickly, noticing my tapping beat had stuttered with the unexpected attack. I proceeded to make it rhythmic again.
The Houndour recovered and fired quickly, barely missing a step. The crab brought its claws up, blocking the hit slightly, but the attack left a blackened mark where it made contact.
"Harden Kara!" The opposing trainer shouted.
'Damnit! What now?'
A metallic sheen washed across the crab's shell. The blue glow originally surrounding the Krabby went from floating off it like fog to rising like steam.
"Well if we can't lower your defences will raise our attack. Then we'll do a strat change." I whispered to myself, probably loud enough for my pup to hear but he didn't react this time. "DeVil, Attack, repeat. Fog when ready."
During the time I did have to train with DeVil and we weren't focussing on resistance, stamina or speed, I had mainly focused on training his intelligence. Subtle things though like making predictions of opponents movements (so he could hit moving targets or judge how/ when to dodge attacks), finding weak points on the body (like wings, joints or injuries) and what I used now... coding commands.
It's something I felt was important. If the opponent knew your next move then they could counter it, and if you were shouting it out across the battle then... duh...
I admit I might have been going a little overboard with this training, but Val seemed to understand and keep up with my lessons so I kept giving them.
'Attack' could be actually attacking... if I specified a type first. I.e. Fire attack, Poison attack, etc... however when I just say 'Attack' I'm actually asking for him to boost the stat instead.
'Repeat' is just obvious. To repeat the move until either the boost is completed or the move used is making an effect.
And finally 'Fog'.
This command is less clear cut in actual direction then the others. This call basically means to hamper the opponent. Usually with obscuring their vision somehow. For example moves like Sand Attack, Dazzling Gleam, Smokescreen etc... however the command could also mean 'attempt to give the opponent a status condition'. Examples for this would be Thunder Wave, Sleep Powder and Confuse Ray.
And in this case it was sort of a combination of both, Smog.
By the time the red glow of Howl was practically swirling around the Houndour, he was starting to slow down. While being a puppy afforded you a lot of natural energy, it wasn't infinite and the lack of long term training was starting to show.
DeVil began to close the gap between the Krabby and himself, circling closer each time. When he deemed himself close enough he started to exhale the poisonous purple gas known as Smog. While not mastered enough to send the move across the field, being close and circling the opponent defiantly boosted the move enough to work.
Disorientated the red crab began to fire random Water Guns and Bubbles from the purple hazy cloud.
Again, and unfortunately, one managed to hit DeVil. Pushing him away. But the damage had been done. The purple colouring of a poisoned Pokémon appeared, tainting the Krabby's face.
DeVil stood up from where he had been pushed back, now stationary for the first time since the battle started. His breath, still slightly purple, huffing out of his chest in large puffs.
For a moment nothing happened apart from the continuous tapping of my beat. In that moment my Houndour used the time wisely to even his breathing. Soon the Krabby raised its claws again, preparing to fire off another water attack at the command of its trainer.
The Bubble was fired from its claws and with the distance Val had, he easily side stepped it. The crab flinched, the bubbles escaping from its mouth were now tinged purple. The battle was pretty much decided as long as my pup didn't get to close.
'Still that may take awhile... that's one hard headed crustacean...' I thought as the crab got up again.
"Fine. Fire Ember DeVil, then move in again and try a fang Attack." I commanded, speeding up the rhythmic beat still tapping away against my thigh.
The fiery sparks bounced of the crabs claws again, as it attempted to block the attack, leaving it unaware of the black dog closing the gap. DeVil took a chance to bite down on the Krabby with a Fire Fang first, being more confident with that move than that of the more effective lightning type.
The attack caused the Krabby to shout, obviously much more damaging than usual with the raised physical attack Val had been accumulating throughout the battle.
DeVil backed off quickly knowing how water-shot-happy the crab was. When it attempted to catch the close-up pup again, it winced and spat out more poisoned bubbles from its mouth.
The battle was pretty over now, with the poison effecting it and the burn now appearing on its carapace the Krabby wouldn't be able to go on much longer.
That was something else? Status apparently stack in this work! OP man!
The supervisor of our battle seemingly agreed with me, seeing the same thing I did.
"Alright that's enough! Good battle girls. Houndour wins this round." The man said halting the battle.
"I won?..." I mumbled blood cooling down and the thumping in my ears slowing. "Wait I won? DeVil! We won our first battle!" I cheered in excitement. Rushing over to the ruffed-up-pup to take him up into a hug.
He barked his excitement too, but it was a bit more subdued than usual because of his exhaustion and injuries. He really did run rings around that Krabby, both physically and figuratively in my opinion.
After congratulating my pup, I went to the opposite end of the field to thank my opponent for the battle. I wasn't going to be one of those unsportsmanlike dumbbells.
"Thank you for the battle, it was really fun." I say.
"Yeah... Congrats on your win, but just know, I'm winning next time! Kara just needs to train her Water Gun a bit more then you won't beat us." The girl replied with a smile.
"We'll see..." I smile back.
'By then Val should have mastered Thunder Fang, so the tides will turn in my favour again I think.'
"You should also train your Krabby to move about the field a bit more, he was pretty still most of the match, making him a bit of a target." I suggested trying not to sound like a know-it-all.
"Thanks, I think I will."
"Excellent work young students." Koga's deep voice interrupted our conversation.
'Oh wow Ninja up close...' I thought blush rising again.
"Thank you, Sensei." We both reply.
"Evasion training is a good suggestion, but just know that the Krabby line are generally bad at moving around to much. Their strength usually lies in there heavy attacks and strong defence." Koga explains before handing my opponent a spotted-pink, heart-shaped berry. I guess he deemed the burn at the end of the battle to be less important than the poisoning.
"Thank you, Sir!" The girl says smiling. She re-releases her Krabby, having recalled it when the battle finished and feeding it the berry.
"You have a very interesting battle style." Koga says turning toward me.
"Thanks. Sir." I say smiling, looking away embarrassed.
"...But you need to work on it more. There are still many flaws."
'Ouch...' I winced. 'My heart...'
"While barely getting hit, your Houndour was worn out quickly, because of all the unnecessary movement. If your opponent this time was faster or had use of another move you might not have won the match. You must also remember that in some of your future battles one Pokémon might need to battle multiple opponents in a row. Making your Pokémon exhaust itself before the true battle begins can be mean the ending of the fight will appear that much more quickly." He lectures.
'Harsh... but probably true... still I don't think it's wrong yet... I just think we need to constantly work on our stamina building. Or possibly learn some speed tricks like Agility or Doubleteam.'
"Thank you Sir..." I say accepting the criticism.
"Hmm... otherwise I look forward to battling you myself when you do the gym circuit." He says grinning over his scarf.
'Ouch... My heart~' I sigh.
"Yes, Sensei!"
"Excellent! Then who is next?" He asks turning to the students who have yet to battle.
Before the next match-up can be decided an explosion blasts from the direction of the house we were led through earlier.
It causes some of the students to shout in worry. They are both startled and scared.
Smoke begins to billow from the roof in one section.
"Hmm." Koga doesn't react to strongly to the fact that part of his gym now appears to be on fire. "Well students it looks like I have a gym challenge today... who would like to watch?" He says casually.
——&@&@&——
Wow so many words...
Season Greetings peeps!
Yeah... so even though I haven't been working for the last month or so, I've not really done any writing. Sooo much anime and manga to catch up on y'know... And sure I wrote this chapter but it took a few false starts. I'm not sure if I'm truly happy with it still...
I'll see how it's received...
(1) When looking up this city on bulbapedia these are the words they used to describe it.
(2) This is actually one of Koga's scripted lines before you battle him in one of the games... I think Pokémon Puzzle... I can't remember/ can't be bothered looking it up again...
The 'skool trip' was meant to only last one chapter but as I edit and write it just kept building. It might fill out three yet... also sorry for how many words that are in this chapter. I usually try to limit my chapters to four thousand, plus the authors note. I think this one is about six and a half... I just didn't wanna cut it... :(
Hope you enjoyed my first attempt at a battle... next chapter there will be another one.
Also I wanted this to be out on Christmas Day as a present to the people! But... it was Christmas... so it was a time for family and friends, not fanfiction.
For the choices of 'Trustees' in this chapter I actually went onto the 'Random Pokémon Generator' website and clicked the generate button after limiting the selection to Kanto-mons... results were these... interesting no?
Thank you for reading.
Hope you enjoy your Seasonal Holidays!
And for those who celebrate, Merry Christmas!
Ciao for now! :)