Pokémon Crimson Gold
Chapter 13: Fruits of training
After facing off with Team Rocket at the well near Azalea, it had become clear to Ethan that if he wanted to have a beat Bugsy's Scyther he would need more than luck. He would need to spend the next few days training his Pokémon up.
Ethan trained near the Union cave battling wild Pokémon as well as other Trainers. He and Chikorita were about to begin a battle with a tough Trainer.
"Name is Blake by the way, I come here often for training." He told Ethan. Blake had a deep black mullet and wore shades along with a vest. Ethan could tell he was experienced.
"Ethan. I came here from New Bark Town." Ethan said.
"I can see on your jacket the Zephyr badge, only one badge, I can see you're a beginner Trainer." Stewart said.
"Oh yeah, and what about you?" Ethan asked.
Stewart smiled and revealed his carrying case, showing two badges, one being the Hive badge.
"So, you beat Bugsy?" Ethan said. "Interesting, then if I can win this battle here I'll be more than ready to take him on."
"Sure, now go ahead and battle." Stewart said grinning.
Chika began to nudge on Ethan's pant leg, Ethan knew she met business.
"Alright Chikorita! I was going to choose you anyway, now let's go and win this!" Ethan said happily.
Chikorita nodded her head and jumped in front of Ethan, forming a battle stance.
Stewart smiled and threw a Pokéball, releasing a Ponyta.
"Pony...ta!" Ponyta yelled.
"A fire type..." Ethan said, knowing this meant serious business. He readied his Pokédex.
"Ponyta, the Fire Horse Pokémon. It is a week runner immediately after birth. It gradually becomes faster by chasing after its parents."
Crap, a Fire type is one of the worst match ups Chikorita could have, Ethan began to stress.
Chikorita's face lit up with determination, she turned her face to Ethan and smiled.
"Chikorita!" She said, trying to assure Ethan she could battle.
Ethan smiled. But... more important that winning, is practice, Scyther has a two-time advantage over Chikorita, so this will be perfect practice. Ethan finally smiled.
"Alright Ponyta, start with Take Down!" Stewart yelled.
Ponyta began to charge at Chikorita at full power, each stomp it took was enough to crack the ground beneath it.
"Chikorita, dodge and use Poison Powder!" Ethan yelled.
Chikorita managed to dodge to the right, avoiding the attack, but before she could spread her poisons, the Ponyta unleashed a swift, sending the many stars at Chikorita, which it didn't have time to dodge.
"Chikorita!" Ethan yelled.
Chikorita fell to the ground but immediately bounced back on her feet, making Ethan feel relieved.
"Now, weaken Ponyta's attack with growl!" Ethan yelled, to which she did, letting out a big growl.
"No amount of damage reducing will save you from my Ponyta's fire type moves, we'll show you one now! Flamethrower!" Stewart said.
Ponyta breathed a major load of fire, enough so that if there were more flames it would cause a forest fire.
"Dodge it quick! And then use Razor Leaf!" Ethan barked.
Chikorita jumped up, avoiding the blast, and swung her leaf, shooting the Razor Leaves, however, it did close to nothing when hitting the Ponyta.
"This battle is pointless, Ponyta, end it with Flame Wheel!" Stewart yelled.
Ponyta leaped up and formed a ball, flaming with fire, Chikorita was still in midair upon dodging, she couldn't have expected Ponyta's speed.
Boom! Ponyta crashed into Chikorita, slamming the poor grass type to the ground, inflicting Super effective damage.
"Noo!" Ethan yelled. "Are you okay, Chikorita!?"
Chikorita tried to get up, she was shaking and heavily injured after that last attack, one more hit and she was done, in fact, if it wasn't for the Growl which reduced Ponyta's damage, it would have been over by now.
"Should I have Ponyta end it right now with Flamethrower?" Stewart asked, assured in victory.
Chikorita looked at Ethan and nodded her head, trying to tell him it wasn't over, but Ethan walked to her and kneeled.
"Chikorita, you did very well, thanks as always, but I think we should throw in the towel and get you to a center." Ethan told her smiling.
Chikorita looked at Ethan, then looked to the ground with a look of sadness, she wanted to make Ethan proud by defeating a Fire type.
"Chikorita, don't worry, you've already made me proud." Ethan told her, making her look up at him with a big smile.
She leapt and jumped on his shoulder, and licked him on the cheek, making Ethan laugh.
"Alright, you win Stewart, here's your prize money." Ethan said, throwing him some Pokédollars. To which he gladly accepted.
"Hey thanks, I appreciate it." He said, returning his Ponyta to its Pokéball. "If we meet again, let's have a rematch."
"Let's!" Ethan agreed.
"Now, let's go to that Pokémon Center!" Ethan told Chikorita.
It was the middle of the day, the sun was still shining bright, Ethan laid down at the same woods he had fought with the Ponyta trainer in. Ethan was lost in thought.
….
Back on Ethan's side, the opposing Weezing was too strong. It had landed a Toxic attack on Chikorita, poisoning her.
"No Chikorita!" Ethan yelled.
Weezing then, managed to get a direct hit on Chikorita using Heat Wave, unfortunately knocking her unconscious. Ethan ran up and caught her in her hands.
….
"You're making a mistake, right now this battle's only outcome, is my victory." Falkner declared.
"Okay, let the battle continue, go!" The referee said.
I'm so close, I can't fail. Ethan thought clenching his fist.
"Chikorita, we'll start with-" Ethan wasn't even able to finish his sentence before Falkner sent his Pidgeot to use Sky Attack. Pidgeot crashed straight into Chikorita, causing her to fly into the air and then crashing to the ground.
"No Chikorita!" Ethan panicked.
"The battle is over, I win." Falkner said, turning away from Chikorita and Ethan, he faced the referee. "Jeffrey. The battle is over, end it!"
"B-but Falkner, look!" Jeremy pointed.
Chikorita was slowly getting up back on her feet, she was extremely damaged, on top of being hit with a super-effective move. But she was still getting up.
"Chikorita can still batt-" The referee didn't finish his sentence, Falkner raised his right hand, signifying Jeffrey to be silent. Chikorita, fell back to the ground. She was utterly unconscious.
"Chikorita nooo!" Ethan said rushing to her side.
"You should have listened when I told you earlier, this battle was over as soon as you lost your Flaaffy. You've failed you're Pokémon."
….
Ethan couldn't help but think back about all this, he loved Chikorita, and wanted to believe she could win, but he just couldn't, he had Flaaffy, but even Flaaffy wasn't much to the Scyther, and he knew that.
Ethan pulled out his Pokédex and switched to the Kanto dex, and immediately searched for Scyther.
"Scyther, the Mantis Pokémon. It slashes through grass with its sharp scythes, moving too fast for the human eye to track."
"Chikorita's done well with bad type matchups, like when she's beat that Cyndaquil or with Pidgeot in the rematch. But this is different, Chikorita's at a double disadvantage..." Ethan muttered.
It was then when Chikorita came looking over Ethan's head and smiling. Ethan smiled seeing her and grabbed her and held in her in his arms, he sat back up, turning around to see Nurse Joy.
"Your Chikorita is all healed up!" She told him.
"Thank you for this," Ethan told her.
Nurse Joy nodded and waved goodbye before taking off.
Ethan held Chikorita in his arms and pet her.
Most importantly, if I battle Bugsy tomorrow with this mindset, I'll lose, I have to faith in Chikorita! As I always have! Ethan realized.
"Chikorita!" Chikorita said in his arms.
"Alright Chikorita! Let's go train some more!" Ethan happily declared.
"Chika!" Chikorita exclaimed happily as well.
Next chapter Ethan faces off with Bugsy, that'll be uploaded soon...