Chapter 9: A Very Toxic Battle.
"So, do you like this one?" Petra asked as she held up a pink sleeping bag to Erick. Who groaned at her ninth attempt.
"I thought you didn't care about how it looked!" he muttered. "Can you be any more irritable at this point?"
"You could argue that I'm just stalling!"
"For what? What could you possibly have to stall for at this point?" Erick muttered. "The more you stay here, the more people will keep looking at you." He looked around, seeing the people around them in the store looking at the princess curiously.
That being said, he had noticed that everyone around here seemed to live in a punk rock style, most people had been looking at Petra with looks that would normally make him worry, but it was clear that Myson was outside, so if someone was going to try something stupid, they wouldn't get very far.
"So, I think I like this one!" Petra said, she took out a yellow sleeping bag on the fly.
Erick yawned and stretched out his arms a little, "Great, can we get going?"
Petra snorted. "Please, I'm still lowly prepared, unless you want to go back to the power plant and catch a fire type, we still need to stock up on matches, as well as ingredients for food! And our own Pokemon still need food."
Erick rubbed his eyes as he threw his head back, thankful that his head was still covered by his black sunglasses.
Petra giggled at his irritated response. "Listen, I'll make this quite simple, you can just walk around with me as I prepare myself better, and then you can go beat up Roxie."
"ERGH!" Erick groaned.
Sunny and Ares looked at their trainers as they walked around the story.
"Is she always like this?" Sunny asked. "Not very princess-like if you ask me!"
"Yeah, that's why the council went into a chaotic state when her brother left the throne," Ares replied. "They've tried formal training, but she's just not into it...she'll curtsey and stuff...act lady-like when someone tells her too. Other than that, chaos on the brig, that's why she needs a knight with her at all times."
"What a joy! Do you think this'll be an issue."
"Eh, maybe if she wears your trainer down enough, then marries him."
"You crazy?!"
"It's just a thought, she does need to marry to produce an heir."
"I mean, I guess…" the White Eevee sighed, "There could be issues with us though...when does she have to get married."
"Technically, she was supposed to marry a while ago…I don't exactly know what happened to him...but she was supposed to marry by now."
"ARES!" Sunny jumped up at Petra's loud voice.
"That's never not going to scare me." The Eevee muttered.
"Eventually, you'll get used to it,"
"What are the Pokemon talking about?" Erick questioned. "Clearly it's intriguing if you're blushing."
"It's nothing!" Petra snapped back.
"Well then, since we're done here, let's go back to the Gym."
"Alright sure, do you even know where the gym is?"
Erick rubbed the back of his head as he and Petra left the store, "No, not entirely, I'm not exactly built for this type of stuff,"
After about an hour of walking around and asking, they finally found themselves outside of a small building, being closely watched by two people with a velvet rope on the outside.
"A...a bar?!" Erick asked. "The gym is in...a bar?!"
"I can see why my parents don't visit here very often now." Petra said, a rather disgusted look on her face, "Pollution seems to be a rather...unfortunate issue...also, why put a gym battle in a bar? That seems unnecessary."
The two of them approached the entrance, where a man wearing a black biker vest with a Garbodor printed on the back stood, he was smoking a cigar with his black spiked hair and sunglasses covering his eyes. He lowered them to peer at the two as they approached him.
"Can I see some ID?" he asked. "You all look too young to be here right about now."
"Um...I was told that this was the location of a gym." Erick replied, rubbing the back of his head. "Is this a location we can get into?"
"Hmm…" The man peered from behind the glasses. "How about you hand me your pokedex?"
Erick shrugged and took out his pokedex, handing it to the man he reviewed over the dex, before taking it to a scanner and placing the screen there.
After a couple of moments, a phone rang and then a man spoke into it. Afterwards, he put his flip phone away and undid the velvet rope in front of them.
"Alright, challenger Erick, you may enter, and, as for you princess, you can enter, but I'd advise you to be careful."
The two of them walked into the club, and it didn't take long for some very drunk idiot to immediately try and grab Petra, only for Erick to sense him and stand in front of them.
"Maybe it's best if you wait outside with Myson." he whispered. "I don't think it's best for you to be in here."
Petra looked curiously around, the smell was certainly, something. The bright flashing lights as well were certainly unlike anything else.
"I'll be fine, I'll just stick close to you, that should be alright."
Erick maneuvered her through the strange nightclub bar, avoiding as many strange drunk people as possible.
"Hey baby, fifty dollars for an hour with me,"
"Oi unt, how bout you shut ya trap!"
"Anyone wanna trade numbers?!"
"How much for twenty minutes?!"
"Adults are children in these places." Erick muttered. "Wait...isn't this supposed to be a bar...why are there…"
"This is what we get when our author gets older and more comfortable with stupid adult jokes." Petra sighed. "Could you imagine the older stories with this type of humor?"
"Moon is alright, I just don't know why he couldn't come up with more original characters?"
"Two years of writing with us, older viewers are more used to us."
The two of them arrived at the bottom, where they found a battlefield in front of a stage. They found a young woman in her early 20s, she wore a torn tattered purple and blue sweater shirt and had short white hair, tied up by a purple peraled scrunchie. She blew a bubble with her gum in her mouth as she picked at her guitar.
"Sup." she said. "I assume you're here for a gym battle."
"I am indeed." Erick replied. "I'd assume you must be Roxie, the Gym leader?"
"Yep, we gotta get this over with, the crowd here gets too rowdy if we've gotta stop." Her eyes fell on Petra, and she gave a nod. "As for you, princess, I'd recommend sitting behind him."
"Thank you," Petra said, doing a curtsey.
"Hmph, no need to be formal, let loose a little."
"So, what're we doing for this battle?" Erick asked.
"How bout we do a double battle, only two Pokemon."
"Fair enough," Erick replied.
"Alright lil wimp, let's get rockin."
Roxie walked around to her edge of the battlefield and took out two poke balls. "Alright, Trubbish, Koffing, Rock and Roll!"
Ericck looked down at his two Pokeballs, then, after careful consideration, put one away and turned to Sunny.
"Alright buddy, show your style." He then tossed the Pokeball up in the air.
"Argon, Battle time!"
The small iron beetle looking Pokemon popped out of its Pokeball and braced itself for a fight.
Roxie smirked as she looked at the steel rock type in the battle. "I see you got prepared for the poison types. Well, this should be interesting."
"I bet anything she's prepared for this possibility." Erick muttered to himself. "I guess it'd be wise to focus on the Trubbish first in that case."
"Go now, Koffing, Gyro Ball!"
"Sunny, use Swift!"
The white Eevee summoned a bunch of stars to fire at the rapid spinning Koffing that had turned to steel. The stars collided and exploded, pushing the ball of smoking gas back.
"Argon, Metal Claw!"
Argon took its nubby hand and clawed at the bag of trash that pushed itself back, catching itself with its garbage-like hands.
"Trubbish, knock em dead with Bulldoze!"
"Sunny, Iron Tail the ground! Argon, use Iron Defense to hold your ground."
Argon's body flashed a steel color as it planted its nubby feet into the ground. The attack shook the ground as Sunny slammed its steel tail into the battlefield. The attack slammed the ground and sent debris backwards.
"Koffing, Smokescreen!"
Koffing blew out steam as it covered the battlefield. Sunny took its opportunity and charged in with a heavy moving tackle as he attacked the Trubbish with a full powered headbutt. The trash bag pokemon stopped its knockback with a heavy attack to the ground.
"Rock on homies! Use a Sludge Bomb!"
Trubbish fired a ball of purple goo from its mouth, the ball of goo exploded on Sunny as the white Eevee attempted to retreat.
"It's getting too difficult to command with the fog." Erick muttered, squinting through the smoke covered battlefield...I know! Argon, use Rock Slide!"
Argon summoned a bunch of large boulders that started falling down from the sky. Koffing floated its way around it through the smoke as the rocks vanished into the fog. Sunny jumped up all the flying rocks as he flipped his way up.
"Sunny, use swift to clear the fog!
Sunny summoned the bright stars from around and fired downwards. The winded glitter from around the stars blew the smoke away, allowing for Argon to get a clear shot and aim a big rock tomb attack from across the area.
Trubbish attacked with a Sludge Bomb from behind. The ball of goo exploded on Sunny as he was pushed back. Erick noticed a few purple bubbles emerge from his Pokemon's fur.
"Gotta wrap this up before they start doubling Argon."
"Sunny, use swift one last time! Argon, cover the remainder with a bulldoze!"
Argon stomped its nubby foot against the ground as it started to shake, Sunny summoned the wave of stars, the stars struck Koffing into the ground as the ground below started to shake once again. Trubbish was knocked off balance as the earth continued to shake.
"Finish it with Rock Slide!"
The large rocks fell from the air above and crushed both Pokemon with a large barrage of boulders. The crash was large enough to knock both Pokemon out with the finisher.
Several loud boos echoed from a crowd watching from above, Erick rolled his eyes from under his glasses.
Petra watched as he walked up to Roxie to receive his gym badge.
"How rude of this crowd to boo at a time like this…" she whispered to herself. "Though, I guess being a famous rockstar like her would give her the fanservice to do so. I wonder how she puts up with it most of the time?"
Erick muttered to himself as he walked back to Petra, placing his toxic badge in its case. "Alright, we're good at the moment." he said.
"Great, so now we take the boat over to Castelia."
"Not quite," Erick muttered. "You see, Roxie's father, who is somehow the only freaking captain, has it in his head that he's going to be a star. So, it looks like we've gotta go to Pokestar Studios in order to convince him otherwise."
"Oooh, a movie theater...that sounds fun!"
"Yeah...sure…" Erick muttered over the booing fans. "I guess we could use a bit of a break."
"You punks better roll." Roxie called over to them as the boos from the crowd got louder. "I can't stop 'em if they start rioting! So I'd advise that you get going!"
Why was Roxie's gym in a bar? Lol, that's a question I've always wondered...Actually, thinking back, I guess it's more of a nightclub huh? Ah well, I already wrote this chapter, so no point in whining about it.
Anyway, next up is Pokestar Studios, that one area in the game where you can go and make short films with Pokemon. A stupid and very unnecessary feature that I guiltily enjoyed quite a lot. I thought it was pretty cool getting to do something like this...even if it was utterly pointless.
You know, I've said it before, but I truly believe that Pokemon peaked with Generation 5. The amount of features and content in Black/White/Black 2/White 2 was incredible! All the little side events you could do, the mystery gift events, Team Plasma, Post-game content legendries. I think the only thing that would've made them perfect, would've been a battle against the protagonist from the Original Black/White. But, you get what you get I guess.
Anyway, leave a review, or you can just say nice chapter, both are greatly appreciated.
PKMN Teams
Erick Heart: Petra Gropius: See you all, next time.
Sunny - Eevee
Nagini - Servine
Slippy - Poliwhirl
Terra - Espurr
Trinity - Toxel
Argon - Aron
Ares - Shroomish.