"Well look at that," Richard said as he overlooked the ocean. "Hey Danny! If you look close enough, you might even see Pallet from here.
Danny, however, wasn't watching. Ever since he had gotten the phone number of Maisie he had looked at the paper.
"Man she does have cute handwriting."
Janine sighed and gave him a poke.
"Auch, what?" Danny reacted painfully.
"Richard talked to you. Man you are really smitten aren't you?" Janine started to laugh.
"No I'm not. I just noticed she has cute handwriting."
"She gave that to you two days ago and you have stared at it since, how did you just notice that." Janine pointed out.
Danny found no way out so he decided to ignore it.
"What were you saying Richard?"
"That if you look very closely, you might see Pallet Town from here," Richard said. "But for that you need to get your eyes of the paper for a second."
Danny looked up again and looked over the water, but couldn't see Pallet Town.
"I can't see it," He reacted, directly distracted by Maisie's phone number again. Even Charmeleon sighed. The fire-type did a more serious attempt to see his former home, but he too couldn't see it.
"Let's move on." Richard said, a little disappointment by the lack of interest.
Janine gave him a pat on the shoulder. "You tried buddy. If someone's in love you just can't break through to them."
"I am not in love." Danny claimed once again but his companions were convinced otherwise.
"Yeah right." Janine couldn't help but to continue teasing Danny.
Richard, on the other hand, had never found teasing Danny a lot to be fun. A small joke and be done with it, was his opinion on the matter. So he just started walking along the waterline, hoping the other two would follow, which they did.
Since they weren't in a populated area, all their Pokémon were outside of their Pokéballs, which was quite a mass by this time. Weepinbell had realized that Machoke had come back and remembered it's power from earlier. He was determined to battle it and beat it.
While Weepinbell had confidence enough, Krabby felt overshadowed by the amount of strong Pokémon on the team. No matter how often Danny, Charmeleon or Grimer let him know he was strong as well, seeing bigger Pokémon like Machoke join in on their travels made him feel weaker.
Translated from Pokémon language
"Hey Grimer, does that Machoke freak you out too?" Krabby whispered towards his friend.
Grimer looked towards the Fighting type and shook his head. "No I don't. All it does is follow the order's of our trainer's friend. And I have no beef with that guy, so the Machoke won't attack me. Why?"
"Well it's so big and strong." Compared to us, was what Krabby wanted to finish the sentence with, but he didn't wanted to insult Grimer.
"And yet he has been beaten multiple times. That gym leader's Tangela beat it together with us. Nothing to be afraid about." Grimer assured Krabby.
"I guess you are right."
Weepinbell slowed down a bit to level with the other two.
"What are you guys talking about?"
"About Machoke," Grimer answered.
"Ah yes, strong Pokémon. I want to beat him to proof I'm stronger."
Grimer started too laugh. "Of course you do."
Meanwhile, Krabby kept thinking about how strong Machoke was compared to himself.
Back to human language
"What on earth is that?" Richard asked as he pointed towards as big building, surrounded by trees. It was three-story building and completely yellow with red stripes over it.
They walked towards it and read the big words that stood above the small roof that covered the entrance. It read 'Fighting Dojo'.
"I bet you'll like this," Richard said with a grin to his Machoke. The latter showed no direct emotion, but the idea of fighting some tough foes got him warmed up.
Richard knocked on the door. Meanwhile, Janine poked Danny again and semi-angry whispered to him that he really needed to get that piece of paper away.
The door was opened by a middle-aged man with black hair that was wearing a karate outfit with a black belt around his waist.
"Welcome! The name's Kiyo, I'm the Karate Master. The Karate King, any two words that combine Karate and royalty." Kiyo said enthusiastically. His mouth fell wide open when he saw Machoke. He pushed himself passed Richard to look at the Fighting type. "What do we have here? What a fine specimen. Yes, you must compete."
"Wait a minute, compete for what?" Richard asked confused.
"I'll explain everything. Follow me." Kiyo welcomed the entire group inside. "Oh no, let them out, no harm done." He quickly responded to Janine trying to return her Pokémon.
They walked into a big hall with 23 pictures hung on the walls. Each picture showed a Machamp holding a trophy.
"I'll start from the beginning. This entire road used to be a cycling road, a place for those annoying cyclers. Two years ago, the current champion decided to make this a natural road as well. It became a very popular travelling road to get from Celadon to Fuchsia so I decided to take my dojo here."
Kiyo explained. In the meantime, Danny and his friends saw the room the hall went into: a big room filled with chairs, all centered around a semi-small area in the middle. That area was higher and surrounded by robes.
"Here the monthly contest takes place." Kiyo explained. "I started doing this contest with some of the wildlife around here and trainers that pass by and want to try as well." Suddenly, his face started to look a bit sad. "But as you could have seen on the pictures, every edition has been won by the same Machamp. It's a wild one that comes here every month to show off and it beats every contender with ease."
"Where does that hall go?" Danny asked, pointing towards the second entrance to the main room.
"That leads to the restrooms. There are also the pictures of the little cup winners." Kiyo explained. "I can't have little Mankey go up against that brutal Machamp, so little Pokémon have their own cup."
"Can our Pokémon participate?" Richard asked. Kiyo's smile widened.
"Sure! Your Machoke seems powerful. Last time a traveler's Graveler became second, so who knows how far your Machoke will go."
"Some of my Pokémon would like to participate as well," Danny said.
Weepinbell jumped forward, ready to participate. Charmeleon was also eager to do some battling. Grimer pulled Krabby forward as he volunteered, making sure the water type also participated. Squirtle and Sandshrew finished the group.
"Well, the Machoke and Charmeleon can participate in the regular cup, the others are welcome to join the little cup." Kiyo responded, joyful that there were so many fresh participants. Weepinbell, however, didn't agree on his placement and placed himself between Machoke and Charmeleon.
"I think Weepinbell also wants to participate in the regular league." Janine laughed.
"If you think it's not a problem." Kiyo asked Danny.
"If Weepinbell wants to give it a try I won't stop it. That Machamp better look out." Danny laughed. Weepinbell nodded filled with self-esteem.
Suddenly, the doors were slammed open with a loud noise.
"Ah, there are the other contenders." Kiyo explained.
Machamp was the first to enter the room. It saw Machoke and sensed in him a strong opponent, so he showed of a bit and walked to the other side of the room. Following the Machamp were several Mankey, Primeape, Machop and Machoke. Even a Cubone entered the room.
Translated from Pokémon language
"Why did you drag me with you? I don't want to compete," Krabby said nervously.
"I believe in you. It will be fun!" Grimer responded.
"Yeah right, for you it will be. You won't embarrass yourself and our trainer by going out in the first second of the first round."
"And neither will you. Have a little faith," Grimer said with a smile.
Krabby sighed.
Back to human language
"Look at that." Kiyo said happily. "All contenders are here. The first rounds of the regular cup will be this afternoon, tomorrow will be the finals."
Danny looked at his participating Pokémon. "You guys ready to rock this?" All of them nodded except for Krabby.
Danny didn't notice it due to his excitement.
"The first game of the little cup will start in halve an hour, you should prepare your Pokémon." Kiyo informed.
Danny took Grimer and Krabby apart.
"This is going to be a tough one, but I believe in both of you. Have fun out there!" He patted both of his Pokémon on their heads.
"Venonat has no interest?" Richard asked Janine, which made the girl laugh.
"That's not the best idea." Janine laughed out loud.
Danny overheard their talk and laughed as well.
"You see those fighting types, you think any of ours will lift a trophy?"
Richard scratched his chin. "I have no idea, they do look pretty tough."
Aside from the very impressive Machamp, there were multiple strong looking Primeape and Machoke. Other wild Pokémon had arrived as well. A Golduck kept challenging the Machamp and a Poliwrath was eagerly looking at the big, golden trophy. Machamp had lifted that trophy every single time and knew it would again.
Among the smaller Pokémon a Mankey stood aside from all the others. It was looking at one of the pictures of the Little Cup, where a Mankey was lifting the cup. All the others were chatting or training a bit.
Danny saw the Mankey look intensely at that picture and decided to join it.
"That's one tough Mankey, isn't it?" Danny asked.
The Mankey looked behind it with a horrified look and quickly ran away, leaving a confused Danny behind. Danny made a mental note to ask Kiyo about it later.
Krabby got more terrified with the minutes passing. This time, Pidgey saw the stress on the face of the little crab and decided to train with it a bit, something Krabby highly appreciated. Before anyone knew it, the halve hour had passed and the Little Cup would begin.
"First round of the little cup will begin!" Kiyo informed and everybody made their way to the battle area, aside from Machamp who was seemingly not interested in the smaller, weaker Pokémon.
"This first match will be between Sandshrew and Machop!" Kiyo pointed to the two contenders, which was a good thing because three Machop wanted to step forward to fight.
"Quick group chat." Danny gathered the entire squad together. Kadabra was actually giving Charmeleon a little bit of a shoulder massage.
"Whatever happens and who wins, we'll be proud of you guys." Richard said, referring to himself, Danny and Janine.
"That's right. Go get them champs." Janine added.
All Pokémon cheered when Machop and Sandshrew entered the battle arena.
"Quick rule-update. No boxing or kicking allowed, but everything else is. The first Pokémon out of the ring loses the match." Kiyo looked at Sandshrew and after that to Machop. "Contenders ready? Let's go!"
The audience started to cheer when Machop ran forward to get an early assault onto Sandshrew, but the latter was prepared. The ground type stepped aside and grabbed Machop, who lost balance and almost tripped out of the arena.
"That's the way to do it!" Richard cheered.
Sandshrew still had Machop in a tight grip, but the power of the fighting-type started to wear the Mouse Pokémon down. Sandshrew eventually had to let go of Machop completely. The latter used this to its full advantage and managed to push Sandshrew towards the edge. The ground type had a tight grip on the ground but had was exhausted from holding on to the Machop that it started slipping.
"Hold on Sandshrew!"
Sandshrew did his best and even tried to counter, but Machop had more power in it than Sandshrew and the latter eventually slipped off the arena.
"And we are off! The first battle is won by Machop. Both of you did excellent, but only one can win. Machop, we will see you in the next round." Kiyo informed officially.
Sandshrew walked towards his trainer and his friends, where he was invited by sounds of cheer.
"You did well! Wrestling against a fighting type and not go down easy, I'm proud of you." Richard hugged the mouse Pokémon.
Translated from Pokémon language
"Well done friend." Squirtle added to his trainer's response.
"Thanks. I hoped I would be able to put up more of a fight. You beat that thing if you have the chance okay?" Sandshrew responded a little bit letdown.
"You got it." Squirtle winked.
Back to human language
After Sandshrew's match, the first round went by in a rush. Most battles only took a minute or two, with Grimer's match taking quite long. He went up against a Mankey and they went on for 5 minutes before Grimer flew out of the ring. He wasn't too upset though, just happy to have participated.
Squirtle did win his first battle. He went up against a Cubone and after separating the ground type from its bone Squirtle had to trouble with blasting Cubone far into the crowd.
Krabby had to take part in the final match of the first round. He had seen a Machop beat a Mankey in what was the best match of the first round and now he had to up against a Machop as well.
"Don't be nervous, you got this." Danny said.
Translated from Pokémon language
"He's just trying to be nice, I don't 'got this'." Krabby started too gibber to Grimer. "You lost, Sandshrew lost. Even some fighting types that train for this are out. How can I win?"
"Because the Machop won't expect too lose against you." Grimer said as he pushed Krabby forward towards the ring.
Krabby was shaking on the pitch. He was way too terrified to even focus. When he heard Kiyo call out that the match could begin, he saw the Machop circling around it. The Water type heard his trainer cheer for him and he knew Grimer would be sitting behind him with a big smile.
"Afraid little Krabby?" Machop grinned. "You can just walk out you know, give me the win."
Krabby didn't want to give it away, but he didn't want to lose badly either.
"None of your little team will make it through, that Squirtle just got lucky. You are a bunch of weaklings, not fit to be champions." The Machop continued the insults, not noticing something cracked inside Krabby.
The crab Pokémon jumped forward, into the Machop. The Fighting type had no idea what happened and fell down. Krabby got off of him and pushed the Machop towards the line.
"What do you think you are doing?" The Machop was in a difficult position and had no idea how Krabby had hit it so fast.
"You can say I'm weak, you can say you'll win, but you can't insult my family." And with that, Krabby gave the final push that put Machop outside the lines.
Back to human language
Kiyo was entertained completely. "I guess you'll see something new every day. Krabby here with the biggest surprise yet, advancing towards the next round."
Krabby himself was shook as well, he had no idea where he had gathered the strength to beat that Machop.
"That was so amazing!" Danny almost screamed as he hugged the crab Pokémon. Over Danny's shoulders, Krabby could see the proudness in the eyes of his teammates, especially Grimer.
"That wraps it up for the first round. We will see the sixteen surviving contenders back in the second round. Have a break, in 20 minutes we'll be back for the second round."
When Kiyo left the battle area, Danny made his way towards him.
"Kiyo, can I ask you something?"
The karate king nodded.
"You see that Mankey?" Danny said as he pointed towards the Mankey that was, once again, away from all the others.
Kiyo directly recognized the Mankey.
"This Mankey is the younger brother of the little cup winner of a few months ago. That Mankey really had a fighting spirit, but this Mankey isn't as good as his older brother. He tried to, but every month he ends up best 16 or best 8. But he keeps going."
"So in some way he does have a fighting spirit?" Danny responded cleverly.
Kiyo started to laugh. "I guess it does."
Danny said goodbye and walked towards the Mankey, who was directly scared and wanted to run.
"No, no wait." Danny tried to approach as calm as possible.
"Great battle out there. Even though you threw my Grimer out of the competition." Danny laughed to soften the mood and it seemed to work, because Mankey let out a smile.
"Grimer was quite happy that it lasted so long against a fighting type. You are on the other side of the bracket than my Krabby, so maybe you'll face each other in the finals."
Meanwhile, Charmeleon and Weepinbell had started doing a little bit more training, with Machamp looking at them like they were no good.
Charmeleon looked at Weepinbell and both had the same idea, beat the Machamp if possible.
Machoke on the other hand, was just sitting next to Richard, together with all of his Pokémon.
"Everybody gather around. Before the second round of the little cup will begin, we will have the first round of the big cup. It seems like we will have a Machoke show-off in the first round!"
Richard's Machoke made his way towards the arena, where another Machoke was watching. This was one of the fans of Machamp.
"Battlers ready? Begin!"
Machoke directly turned around to look at Richard for orders.
"Come on Machoke, beat that other Machoke!"
That was all Machoke needed to hear. He charged, but the other Machoke simply stepped aside, letting Richard's Machoke trip and towards the line.
"Oh no!" Richard let out.
Cliffhanger. I had to, because I couldn't have the entire fighting tournament in one chapter. The second part will be out soon. I also decided to put in the 'Pokémon Language' thing I had put in during the Celadon City Takeover, I feel like it gives me the opportunity to give the team members some well deserved character developments.