Chapter 9:
Hue VS Brock!
Hue's Current Team: Douglas(Squirtle): Tackle, Water Gun, Withdraw, Bubble
Ace(Pidgey): Mud-Slap, Gust, Quick Attack, Whirlwind
Gumshoe(Growlithe): Odor Sleuth, Dig, Reversal, Flame Wheel.
Egg: Occasionally Moves, Could Hatch Soon
As Hue entered the Gym, he was greeted by two very familiar faces.
"Huey!" Diane yelled as she gave him a tackle hug. "You disappeared after your loss at the tournament! I looked all over the city for you!"
"Heheh…" Hue laughed nervously. "Sorry about that. I hit a bit of a wall when it came to my confidence after that loss."
"Hue!" Donovan ran up to Hue and replaced Diane's position in his own tackle hug.
"Dude, I saw you enter the Museum earlier and then so many police followed!"
"It's okay man!" Hue said, embracing Donovan's hug more than his own sister's. "I'm here now!"
"Look at you Huey." Aura said in a sarcastic tone. "Am I going to hear a happy announcement soon?"
"Oh, don't you worry about that." Diane told her. "Huey and Donovan are both survivors of the kidnappings that took place eight years ago, so they've always been that close."
"Oh, I see…" Aura said as she bit her nail and looked away.
"...Good."
Diane began to laugh.
"Something funny?" Hue asked as he and Donovan stopped hugging.
"Nothing really." Diane said as the four of them entered the Gym. "Just that your still so oblivious to everything."
"An oblivious detective…" Hue said to himself as he looked at Gumshoe's pokeball. "I've become an oxymoron."
"Umm...Excuse me?" One more voice asked. Hue turned around and noticed that Officer Jenny had entered the building.
"Oh good!" She said. "I haven't missed your match."
"I...didn't expect you to see it in the first place…" Hue said, wondering why she was interested in it.
"It's for...research purposes." Officer Jenny said as she held up her clipboard. She turned to Donovan.
"Oh, you two know each other as well?" She asked. "Donovan, you said that you weren't given any shots. Did you know that Hue got multiple injections during your time as prisoners?"
"I did not know that." Donovan said, surprised. "We never talked about what happened with each other. Hue hates talking about it."
"Because it was traumatizing!" Hue exclaimed. "I don't think I'll ever get over the fear of needles *or* the claustrophobia I developed because of that…"
"In any case. We're trying to determine what might have happened to him as a result of those injections." Officer Jenny said. "I've already seen him when he's analyzing things, and I thought I'd pay attention to his battle style."
"Makes sense." Diane said, clearly lost behind her comprehension.
"Come on, Huey!" Aura tugged on his sleeve to get him out of there. "Standing around here is boring! I want to watch your match with Brock!"
Hue couldn't agree more.
"Are you ready?" Brock asked from across the battlefield full of rocks. "This will be a one on one match between my Onix and your Growlithe. The stakes are one Boulder Badge. The match will be over when one side's pokemon is no longer able to continue fighting. Do you accept these conditions?"
"You bet I do." Hue said with a grin. He had checked facts about Growlithe as well as Gumshoe's move set on his pokedex prior to entering the gym, and already had a strategy developed.
That was the way Hue liked to battle.
Without relying on type match ups, and rather utilizing the indisputable facts in the pokedex.
After the ref of the match said basically the exact same thing that Brock himself had just said,
Hue sent out Gumshoe.
"Go!" He yelled. "Gumshoe!"
"Onix!" Brock called as he sent out Onix.
Hue tried to remember the attacks Onix had used against Karakara in Aura's battle. It knew…
Rage….
and Bind…
but that was all Hue had seen it use.
"Onix!" Brock called. "Begin with a Rock Tomb!"
Oh shit…
"Gumshoe! Use Flame Wheel to maneuver through the falling rocks!" Hue called.
"Growlithe!" Gumshoe said as he cloaked himself in a wheel of fire and began moving through the rocks at a high speed.
"Hey! Way to go, Hue!" Donovan called from the bleachers.
"Now Gumshoe, Odor Sleuth!"
Gumshoe's flames dissolved as he stopped in front of Brock's Onix.
Hue had won with that move, but he wouldn't let Brock know that.
"Onix, Bind it!" Brock called as Onix wrapped Gumshoe in its body.
"Grooowl!" Gumshoe stated in pain.
"It's fine Gumshoe!" Hue said. "If Onix wants to grab you, it should remember to wear and oven mit! Use Flame Wheel!"
"Growlithe!" Gumshoe cloaked himself in fire again.
"Keep a grip on it Onix!" Brock yelled, but it was clear that the fire Gumshoe was producing was too much for Onix to keep a grip on.
"Onnnniiiiix." It wailed as it let Gumshoe go.
"Onix, use Dig!" Brock called out as Onix dove down into the rock field, leaving a single hole.
"Uh-oh…" Diane said. "Dig is what did in Charolette during my first battle against Brock…"
"Don't sell Huey short." Aura said. "I made him do his research beforehand. His success is a given."
"You sure sound confident about that." Donovan said.
Officer Jenny was scribbling on Hue's clipboard.
"Gumshoe. You know what to do." Hue said.
"Growlithe!" Gumshoe called.
"Onix, now!" Brock yelled as Onix charged up through the ground at the standard fifty miles per hour that Onix was capable of burrowing at.
Gumshoe dodged out of the way with no problem.
"Impossible!" Brock said.
"That's actually completely possible." Hue said. He held up his pokedex. "Tell them Dean."
"Growlithe has a superb sense of smell." Dean's mechanical voice stated. "Once it smells anything, this pokemon won't forget the scent, no matter what. It uses its advanced olfactory sense to-"
"Ahh, we'll stop there." Hue said, shutting his pokedex and putting it away. "There you have it Brock. We got close to Onix not because we were reckless…but because we saw a path to victory!"
"So that's why he used that move…" Donovan said, taking notes. "I should remember this when I battle with Arfy."
"I see." Brock said. "But knowing where Onix is at all times is not a terrible hindrance for me. Onix, use dig at full power!"
"Gumshoe! Dig play number 2!"
"Growlithe!" Gumshoe yelled.
Onix burrowed back down into the ground.
Soon, the ground started to rumble.
"Onix!" Brock called. "Attack it n-"
"Alright Gumshoe, hit it full on with a Dig attack of your own!"
"Growwwwllll!" Gumshoe yelled as he burrowed through the ground and sent Onix flying out of the hole it had created.
"So, he discovered that our standard issue Growlithes know Dig…" Officer Jenny said as she jotted down more notes in her book.
"Now Gumshoe, Flame Wheel! Aim for its head!"
"Growl!" Gumshoe again cloaked himself in a wheel of flames and charged towards Onix.
"Onix, meet it head on with a Rage attack!" Brock yelled.
The two pokemon collided and Gumshoe staggered back a bit.
"Are you still good to go Gumshoe?"
"Growlithe!" Gumshoe said.
"Onix!" Brock called. "Bind it once more!"
Onix quickly scooped up Gumshoe.
"Gumshoe, use Flame Whe-"
"Now Rock Tomb, while it can't move!"
Onix summoned up a large barrage of Rocks and shot them towards Gumshoe.
"Gumshoe! Dig Play number 3!" Hue called.
"Growl." Gumshoe grinned at Hue before Onix covered him in a bunch of Rock Tomb rocks.
As Onix let go of the rocks and they all rolled away,
Gumshoe was scraped but still standing.
"Wh-what?" Brock yelled.
"Brock, did you honestly think I didn't see something like that coming?" Hue asked.
"You said Dig Play number 3!" Brock said. "But your Growlithe is still right there! He didn't use Dig at all!"
"Yes he did." Hue said. "He used Dig, just not to escape. Running away is not something Gumshoe would do." He held up his pokedex again.
"Tell him Dean!"
"Growlithe has a brave and trustworthy nature. It fearlessly stands up to bigger and stronger foes."
"Growwwwlll!" Gumshoe howled.
"Now…" Hue said as he adjusted his glasses. "Take a look at the rocks from your Rock Tomb."
"Wha-Agh!"
Brock noticed the holes in each of the rocks. "You met the Rock Tomb head on with a Fire-type?"
"I met the Rock Tomb head on with Gumshoe. To classify him by his type...I could never do something like that. Gumshoe is himself, he has his own battle style, and it's my job as a trainer to make the best use of it that I can rather than trying to get him to conform to some other strange strategy."
"But...this strategy is strange…" Brock said. "A fire-type pokemon shouldn't still be standing after a rock tomb like that!"
"I think you're underestimating Gumshoe's and my determination." Hue said. "Up until now, we've been taking quite a beating. One attack from you and we're probably finished, wouldn't you agree Gumshoe?"
"Growlithe." Gumshoe gave Hue a nod and a grin.
Hue adjusted his glasses.
Good.
He was waiting for that to happen.
"The hell is he doing?" Donovan asked. "Is he trying to encourage Brock to win?"
"You shush." Aura said. "This is the best part."
"Argh!" Brock said. "Onix, use B-"
Before Brock could tell Onix to do anything, Onix lost control of itself and charged at Gumshoe.
"Onix, what the hell are you doing?!" Brock asked, confused.
"It's using Rage!" Diane yelled.
"Gumshoe…" Hue said.
"Lithe…" Gumshoe panted.
Onix sped up and the second it made contact with Gumshoe…
"Reversal!" Hue yelled.
"Growlllllllliiiiiiiiithe!" Gumshoe yelled as he bit Onix's spike on its head and swung the entire rock snake, slamming it into the wall behind a ducked down Hue.
"O-Onix is unable to battle!" The ref said. "Growlithe is the winner, which means the winner of this match is Hue, the challenger!"
"Onix, return." Brock said as he returned his Onix.
He walked across the field and gave Hue a small grey badge, the same as the one Aura had gotten earlier.
"First Aura, and now you." Brock smiled. "It pleases me to see new trainers without a gym badge already using such complex strategy. A nice change of pace from the super effective move spammers I'm regularly visited by."
"I...I'm at a loss for words…" Diane said as she and Donovan walked up to Hue, who returned Gumshoe to his pokeball.
"Care to explain how you knew that Onix wouldn't listen to Brock?" Donovan asked.
"It was what Dean, my pokedex AI, was about to say earlier." Hue said with a grin as he held Dean up.
"Growlithe uses its advanced olfactory sense to determine the emotions of other living things."
"All that we needed to do was land a flame wheel on its head." Hue said. "Because it wasn't only Growlithe that I did my research on."
"Onix has a magnet in its brain." Dean stated before Hue closed it again.
"Basically, heat up the magnet, you can manipulate the Onix."
"You….did all that research?" Jenny asked before taking a call.
"I had the ability to." Hue shrugged. "If Brock hadn't told me the pokemon we would both be using, I'd have had a much harder time, but he came and told me about everything. I won because I knew both myself and my enemy."
"Great job Huey!" Aura said with a smile. "We've both got a badge now!"
"Ahem." Donovan said as he and Diane showed off their Boulder Badges as well.
"All four of us." Diane said.
"Yeah.." Officer Jenny said into her phone. "Yeah, he did….. And what about-...but shouldn't we keep tabs?...really?...Well good for him….Roger."
She turned to face Hue.
"Congratulations on your win." She said. "I'm sorry, but I've got to get back to the station. You four should go check out the Museum tomorrow. It'll be all cleaned up from today and you can actually enjoy yourselves!"
The next day, the four of them went around the Pewter Museum, looking at fossils and at the Space Exploration exhibit. It was a happy day. The Museum looked as though no crime had ever happened there. The clerk at the counter was the museum worker from yesterday, so he let Hue and Aura in for free, just the once.
Everything was nice and peaceful.
Douglas slept as he rested atop Hue's head.
Karakara looked to be enjoying herself as Aura carried her around the museum.
Diane and Donovan talked to Hue about what they each were up to, and the three agreed to attempt to meet up with each other like this again in Vermillion City, where they apparently held a beach party every week.
If Hue remembered correctly, that's also where the SS Anne was slated to dock for that strong and or rich trainer's party that Davon had won a ticket for.
That's when it happened.
It was only background noise at first…
But there was no mistaking it…
"Anyhow." Someone's voice said. "Apparently the news was talking about it, they think Team Neo Rocket might be causing trouble in ."
As soon as those words were uttered, Aura and Karakara darted out the Museum.
Without saying goodbye to Donovan or Diane, Hue ran after her.
He was halfway along Route 3 when he finally caught up to her.
"Aura!" He said as he grabbed her hakama collar, stopping her from running any further.
"Hue, I need to get to Mt. Moon!" She exclaimed, her dark green eyes trying to pierce his very soul. "I know its dangerous but...Team Neo-...TNR...they...they killed my brother….I...I need to...I need to make sure they end up behind bars! Don't try to stop me!"
"I never said I was going to try to stop you." Hue said. "But we need to think this through. We can't just go rushing into if there really is a criminal syndicate operating there. We have to be careful."
"We?" Aura asked. "You're coming too? No...You need to stay back, if anything happened to you because of me, I'd...Gah!" She went red when and turned away before she finished the sentence.
Hue laughed and nodded. "Of course I'm coming too." He said. "We're partners aren't we? Besides, you going in there alone is something I can't allow. I'd never be able to forgive myself if you ended up getting hurt because I stayed behind."
"Huuuueeee…" Aura buried her head in his chest.
"Calm down." Hue said calmly. "We'll set up camp here tonight, and then we'll continue towards Mt. Moon tomorrow. A good night's sleep will allow you to clear your head."
"Bone…" Karakara tugged at Aura's hakama.
She gestured as though she wanted to be picked up.
Aura wiped some tears from her face and picked Karkara up, kissed her Cubone's skull helmet, and then closed her eyes and collapsed into Hue.
"Gah!" Hue said as he caught her. "Uhhh...Uhh...Uhh…"
He didn't quite know what to do.
The only girl he had ever held this close before was his little sister, but needless to say, this was a much different scenario...
Is Aura okay?
That was the first thing he wondered.
Hue checked for breath and a pulse.
She's just sleeping.
Hue didn't blame her for that.
He set up camp himself that night, moving a sleeping Aura around with him.
After it was all set up, he sat by the fire for a little while longer, and looked at Aura in her sleeping bag.
Karakara was notably not there.
When Hue found her, she was a lot closer to him than he expected her to be. She was looking up at the sky.
"Bone…." She pointed with her club to a shooting star.
"You should make a wish." Hue told her.
"Cubone?"
"When you see shooting stars in the sky…" Hue told the Cubone. "If you make a silent wish and don't tell anyone, it will come true."
"Bone….Cubone…" Karakara looked back up at the sky for a few more minutes before returning to Aura's sleeping bag and snuggling up to her.
Hue thought to himself about what a strange girl Aura was.
He still barely knew anything about her.
She was rather confident in herself and her abilities, and seemed to like calling Hue 'Huey' like Diane does all the time.
That was by and large all Hue really knew.
Aside from that, she remained a mystery, and she didn't seem eager on letting Hue solve it.
Hue didn't know how illuminating this trip would be in regards to learning about Aura's past or her true nature, but he knew that she wanted to go to Mt. Moon and fight Team Neo Rocket with nearly every ounce of her being.
Hopefully some sort of answers would pop up in there...
What would eventually happen in that cave known as though...
...Was something Hue never expected.