Chapter 34
Setijin and Winona followed Jasmine obediently along the main corridor of the gym,
continuing to admire the polished surroundings. The deeper they ventured, the
smoother and shinier the walls became, morphing from a white washed brick to a
sleek steel plating, distorting their reflections, shimmering in the strip lightning
hanging from the highly elevated ceiling. Upon reaching an enourmous set of double
doors, Jasmine clapped, resulting in an almighty rumble, both plates grinding apart.
"Welcome to the battle area," Jasmine introduced, leading the pair inside. The room
was massive, the ceiling at least 4 stories above them, the ground sprayed silver, and a
pokémon pitch etched in white paint onto the floor. Littered around were rocks and
boulders of silver, rippling out of the ground, refracting the light beating down on it,
forming a loose path up to the large flight of steps at the far end of the room, a seat
resting on top.
"This place is incredible," gasped Winona, muffling her disbelief with her hand.
Setijin stepped ahead of the other two, peering around the rocks immediately either
side of them. As he walked, sets of trainers came into view, sparring with each other.
To his right he spotted a Lairon, standing strong as a trio of Aron's charged and
tackled it with all their might, and off to the left sat a pair of Magnetite, hovering face
to face with sparks of energy flickering between the poles of their magnets.
"Here we train steel pokémon, and enhance their defensive capabilities. There are few
pokémon types that can even scratch steel types," Jasmine explained. Setijin's shoes
squeaked as they skidded across the floor. Swinging back around, he locked his eyes
on the pokéball in Jasmine's hand.
"Is that…" he began. Jasmine grinned, tossing him the pokéball. In surprise, Setijin
bolted forward, snatching the ball out of the air.
"Cyndaquil's fine," she began. "He's also been spending a little time training
here…he's remarkably tame and obedient, but he has a natural prowess in battle. But
then, Cyndaquil are not pokémon to be taken lightly."
"Thank you so much!" Setijin exclaimed, releasing the tiny mouse pokémon from its
ball, blue sparks erupting from the case, taking the form of Cyndaquil at his feet.
"Quil," the mouse squeaked, sniffing its surroundings. Setijin swept it up into his
arms emphatically, squeezing it fondly.
"You're finally back!" he chortled gleefully, Jasmine and Winona watching
cheerfully.
"Before you get too comfortable…" Jasmine interrupted, "I wish to test a few
things…I want to see how far Cyndaquil has come and how well you do in
battle…Setijin, I challenge you to a gym battle!"
"So, its finally time. I've been looking forward to this day for weeks now…" the boss
beamed. He donned a thick black jacket with overstated and starched, upturned collar
over his suit. On the back was emblazoned a large '0', an 'r' on the left arm and a '1'
on the right. He stood at the outskirts of Olivine City, looking down from the top of
the road leading into town. The route slid down into Olivine, the port-town, sitting flat
at the base of the coastline. The Battle Tower stood directly to his right, nested off
against the corner of the cliff faces, continuing to scale high into the heavens. Behind
him waited a helicoptor, almost exactly the same as the previous one, its rotor blades
spinning to a gentle halt. A trio of men in silver uniforms formed a wall in between
the boss and the helicoptor, remaining solidly still, awaiting orders.
"Sir, when you're ready sir!" they announced almost comically in perfect unison.
"Very well. Let's initiate test number one," he growled, his fingers twisting and
rolling the pokéballs in each hand. With this, the group made their way down the path
leading to Olivine City.
Lucia strode triumphantly as she made her way up the lighthouse. She held her arms
at her side proudly, admiring the surroundings as she climbed higher.
"Three battles, and not a single casualty," she repeated to herself. Not too far behind,
at the foot of the last flight of stairs, the walls were coated in a thick layer of slime,
with small puddles of crystal clear water sitting dormant in little pockets, slowly
letting said slime filter in. Peering around the curvature of the structure, Lucia spotted
no trainers. With this, she slotted her pokéballs back into her pockets, and removed a
small hair band. Strutting further, she flicked her glamorously flowing brown hair,
and lifted it into a neat pony tail, cautiously removing her hands once it comfortably
assumed its position, swaying from side to side playfully.
"…pharos…" she heard off in the distance. Curiosity began to take control, her pace
picking itself up, being drawn ever closer to the source of the call. Climbing yet
another flight of stairs, she accelerated more, leaning against the wall for support as
the staircase's curve grew tighter, spiraling closer and closer together all the way to
the top.
"Wow, a pokémon!" she admired, spying the tall yellow pokémon pacing around the
room where the light of the lighthouse would typically be. She slowly and quietly
crept further into the room, the pokémon still unawares of her presence.
The pokémon's neck was slender and yellow, leading into a rounded white belly with
a series of black stripes traveling down its back. It had flippers instead of arms, and
thick legs, with flat feet, while its head stood tall and proud atop the long neck,
streaming down to a blunt nose, ear like stumps protruding from either side of its
head, and a gorgeously sparkling red jewel embedded into its forehead, which stood
only a short way below Lucia's height. The same jewel rested on the end of its long
tail, the tail growing thicker the closer to the body it was. The pokémon waddled
around the room repeatedly; admiring the city panned out beneath it through the wall
length and height panes of glass.
"Ampharos, pharos," it hummed cheerfully, jumping with shock as Lucia revealed
herself. Screaming in pure surprise, its tail shone a majestic blue, erupting in a flurry
of electricity and sparks of lightening. Although the display did little physically, the
light emanating from it coated the entire room, illuminating the area around the
outside of the lighthouse significantly, even in the beating daylight.
"Calm down! Please!" Lucia begged, calling out above the pokémon's screams.
Steadily slowing down its charge of panic and lowering the light levels of its flash, it
halted, panting and sweating in exhaustion, Lucia cautiously wandering up to it,
gently resting her hand on its head, the pokémon flinching in terror. After introducing
herself to it, Ampharos opened its eyes, and smiled weakly. It flopped down to the
floor, rolling forwards to a sitting position. It looked up at Lucia's sweetly smiling
face, before, leaning over to watch outside once more.
"Pharos…" it instructed. Lucia peered in unison, her eyes twinkling at the view.
"I get it…you stay up here and watch what goes on in town during the day, and act as
a light bulb at night…" Lucia deciphered. Ampharos nodded happily in return,
flicking its tail around, and forcing a focused stream of light from it; the same
brightness as its flash attack. It randomly guided the spotlight around the roofs of the
buildings, Lucia grinning in response. "And you use your tail light as a
spotlight…you're like the ultimate security light!" she giggled.
She continued to watch as Ampharos scanned Olivine city, the light rippling over
roofs, streets and people. Reaching the road out of town, the light beam bent and
skewed, before reflecting back up to the sky at an odd angle. In confusion, Ampharos
hopped up, and pushed its head close to the glass, staring far down at the ground.
Shaking off the sticky texture of the smudged glass, it bounded around the room,
bolting out of the open doorway, hopping up the stairs to the peak of the building,
Lucia obediently following.
"What's going on?" she asked. Ampharos angled its tail again, waving its short,
stumpy flipper back down to the road.
"Amp! Amp!" it called, the beam of light more focused thanks to the lack of glass. At
the same place as before, it skewed off in another direction, the target blurring and
rippling as a result. Lucia gazed down, while trying to keep her balance in the
magnified breezes, holding her hair back, away from her face. Looking down around
the light, she watched as the path warped, as if watched through water. She dropped to
her knees and slung her backpack around off of her shoulders. Shuffling through, she
promptly removed a pair of binoculars, sweeping them up to her eyes, squinting
through the lenses. Carefully examining the warp, she noticed it seemed to be
traveling down the road, towards town. As the light caressed it, the warp appeared to
temporarily divide into smaller sections, shaped individually like blunted statues.
"…Ampharos, try using thunder on it," Lucia suggested, Ampharos leaning
backwards, swinging its tail around. The sphere on the end throbbed with electricity,
sparking impressively as it whipped back around, striking the ground with an
almighty blast of lightning. Lucia unshielded her eyes, and watched as the bolt hurtled
back away from the warp and into the sky above. Examining the ground once more,
she gasped as the warp dissipated, a pack of Wynaut and Wobbufet being hurtled
away, fanning out around a group of black and silver clad men.
"Ros?" it grunted in bewilderment. Lucia gasped as it all clicked into place in her
head.
"They were using mirror coat!" she whispered to herself, continuing to analyze the
'warp'. Looking more closely, she made out individual figures. One man, in an over
exaggerated black jacket walked a few paces ahead of a trio of silver clad men,
another figure walking alongside the jacketed man. "…Medicham?" she recoiled in
surprise.
Medicham walked alongside the man, with a large metal tag, fixed to his wrist. She
also spyed a sixth figure, almost eclipsed by the man leading the group, but before she
could snatch a concentrated look, the Wynaut and Wobbufet regrouped, hopping on
each other, forming a dome around the pack, their coats shimmering before humming
into mirrored view. Before the dome went completely out of distinction, Lucia and
Ampharos made note of its movements, gently turning off of the road, and heading
into the city, in the direction of the pokémon center.
"We need to get Winona and the others!" she exclaimed, charging for the stairs. As
she ran down, Ampharos inhaled, before howling longingly and deafeningly,
swinging its beacon like tail around, light spiraling up and out from it.
"Cyndaquil, use flamethrower!" Setijin called out, the tiny mouse flipping backwards,
skidding on the cold, hard silver floor, its back erupting in a fantastic array of flames
and heat, the air around its mouth blurring from the rising temperature, a thick stream
of fire hailing in a helix towards Beldum, the steel and psychic hybrid pokémon,
screeching metallically as the stream hit, throwing it backwards into a rock. It's eye
fixing spun around in its slot, resting at the top of the pokémon's leg like body. The
red iris flickered weakly as it gave up the struggle, and fell to the ground.
"That was quite some battle!" Jasmine congratulated, returning Beldum to the
confines of its pokéball. Setijin blushed, bending down to allow Cyndaquil to clamber
up his sleeve, hopping onto his shoulder, clinging on with his rear claws. Winona
strode up to rejoin the group, opening her mouth ready to speak, freezing at the order
of Jasmine's hand gesture.
"Wait…is that Ampharos?" she mumbled to herself. "…Something's up. Come with
me," she ordered, swiftly making her way out of the training area, and eventually out
of the gym, Winona and Setijin chasing after her. Emerging from the gym, the pair
followed Jasmine's view skywards, admiring the light sketching through the air at the
peak of the lighthouse, letting it guide their sight down and around, before finally
resting on the blur in front of them. The light fading away, the blur shattered, Wynaut
and Wobbufet leaping aside, revealing the boss, standing proud, with the Medicham
to his right and an indescribable blob to his left.
"Good afternoon," he began. I must say this is a lovely gym you have here Jasmine."
Jasmine backed away undecidedly as he spoke, Winona and Setijin copying. His eyes
fixed on the young trainer and his Cyndaquil. "And you must be Setijin…" he
scowled, his voice jumping from calm and inviting to cold and enraged.
"…buh…" he stammered.
"No need for words…" he snapped. "I'm here for one reason, and one reason only…I
want to test my new toy," he explained, the blob swimming uncomfortably forwards,
wriggling in the center of the group. With this, the Medicham stepped up, staring
blankly ahead, twisting the hand with the wrist tag agitatedly.
"A Medicham?" he murmured to himself, clipping a pair of pokéballs from his belt,
clasping them forwards, ready for action.
"Good luck," the man chuckled, ordering his pair onwards, dramatically standing with
his arm stretched and finger pointed.
Setijin and Winona followed Jasmine obediently along the main corridor of the gym,
continuing to admire the polished surroundings. The deeper they ventured, the
smoother and shinier the walls became, morphing from a white washed brick to a
sleek steel plating, distorting their reflections, shimmering in the strip lightning
hanging from the highly elevated ceiling. Upon reaching an enourmous set of double
doors, Jasmine clapped, resulting in an almighty rumble, both plates grinding apart.
"Welcome to the battle area," Jasmine introduced, leading the pair inside. The room
was massive, the ceiling at least 4 stories above them, the ground sprayed silver, and a
pokémon pitch etched in white paint onto the floor. Littered around were rocks and
boulders of silver, rippling out of the ground, refracting the light beating down on it,
forming a loose path up to the large flight of steps at the far end of the room, a seat
resting on top.
"This place is incredible," gasped Winona, muffling her disbelief with her hand.
Setijin stepped ahead of the other two, peering around the rocks immediately either
side of them. As he walked, sets of trainers came into view, sparring with each other.
To his right he spotted a Lairon, standing strong as a trio of Aron's charged and
tackled it with all their might, and off to the left sat a pair of Magnetite, hovering face
to face with sparks of energy flickering between the poles of their magnets.
"Here we train steel pokémon, and enhance their defensive capabilities. There are few
pokémon types that can even scratch steel types," Jasmine explained. Setijin's shoes
squeaked as they skidded across the floor. Swinging back around, he locked his eyes
on the pokéball in Jasmine's hand.
"Is that…" he began. Jasmine grinned, tossing him the pokéball. In surprise, Setijin
bolted forward, snatching the ball out of the air.
"Cyndaquil's fine," she began. "He's also been spending a little time training
here…he's remarkably tame and obedient, but he has a natural prowess in battle. But
then, Cyndaquil are not pokémon to be taken lightly."
"Thank you so much!" Setijin exclaimed, releasing the tiny mouse pokémon from its
ball, blue sparks erupting from the case, taking the form of Cyndaquil at his feet.
"Quil," the mouse squeaked, sniffing its surroundings. Setijin swept it up into his
arms emphatically, squeezing it fondly.
"You're finally back!" he chortled gleefully, Jasmine and Winona watching
cheerfully.
"Before you get too comfortable…" Jasmine interrupted, "I wish to test a few
things…I want to see how far Cyndaquil has come and how well you do in
battle…Setijin, I challenge you to a gym battle!"
"So, its finally time. I've been looking forward to this day for weeks now…" the boss
beamed. He donned a thick black jacket with overstated and starched, upturned collar
over his suit. On the back was emblazoned a large '0', an 'r' on the left arm and a '1'
on the right. He stood at the outskirts of Olivine City, looking down from the top of
the road leading into town. The route slid down into Olivine, the port-town, sitting flat
at the base of the coastline. The Battle Tower stood directly to his right, nested off
against the corner of the cliff faces, continuing to scale high into the heavens. Behind
him waited a helicoptor, almost exactly the same as the previous one, its rotor blades
spinning to a gentle halt. A trio of men in silver uniforms formed a wall in between
the boss and the helicoptor, remaining solidly still, awaiting orders.
"Sir, when you're ready sir!" they announced almost comically in perfect unison.
"Very well. Let's initiate test number one," he growled, his fingers twisting and
rolling the pokéballs in each hand. With this, the group made their way down the path
leading to Olivine City.
Lucia strode triumphantly as she made her way up the lighthouse. She held her arms
at her side proudly, admiring the surroundings as she climbed higher.
"Three battles, and not a single casualty," she repeated to herself. Not too far behind,
at the foot of the last flight of stairs, the walls were coated in a thick layer of slime,
with small puddles of crystal clear water sitting dormant in little pockets, slowly
letting said slime filter in. Peering around the curvature of the structure, Lucia spotted
no trainers. With this, she slotted her pokéballs back into her pockets, and removed a
small hair band. Strutting further, she flicked her glamorously flowing brown hair,
and lifted it into a neat pony tail, cautiously removing her hands once it comfortably
assumed its position, swaying from side to side playfully.
"…pharos…" she heard off in the distance. Curiosity began to take control, her pace
picking itself up, being drawn ever closer to the source of the call. Climbing yet
another flight of stairs, she accelerated more, leaning against the wall for support as
the staircase's curve grew tighter, spiraling closer and closer together all the way to
the top.
"Wow, a pokémon!" she admired, spying the tall yellow pokémon pacing around the
room where the light of the lighthouse would typically be. She slowly and quietly
crept further into the room, the pokémon still unawares of her presence.
The pokémon's neck was slender and yellow, leading into a rounded white belly with
a series of black stripes traveling down its back. It had flippers instead of arms, and
thick legs, with flat feet, while its head stood tall and proud atop the long neck,
streaming down to a blunt nose, ear like stumps protruding from either side of its
head, and a gorgeously sparkling red jewel embedded into its forehead, which stood
only a short way below Lucia's height. The same jewel rested on the end of its long
tail, the tail growing thicker the closer to the body it was. The pokémon waddled
around the room repeatedly; admiring the city panned out beneath it through the wall
length and height panes of glass.
"Ampharos, pharos," it hummed cheerfully, jumping with shock as Lucia revealed
herself. Screaming in pure surprise, its tail shone a majestic blue, erupting in a flurry
of electricity and sparks of lightening. Although the display did little physically, the
light emanating from it coated the entire room, illuminating the area around the
outside of the lighthouse significantly, even in the beating daylight.
"Calm down! Please!" Lucia begged, calling out above the pokémon's screams.
Steadily slowing down its charge of panic and lowering the light levels of its flash, it
halted, panting and sweating in exhaustion, Lucia cautiously wandering up to it,
gently resting her hand on its head, the pokémon flinching in terror. After introducing
herself to it, Ampharos opened its eyes, and smiled weakly. It flopped down to the
floor, rolling forwards to a sitting position. It looked up at Lucia's sweetly smiling
face, before, leaning over to watch outside once more.
"Pharos…" it instructed. Lucia peered in unison, her eyes twinkling at the view.
"I get it…you stay up here and watch what goes on in town during the day, and act as
a light bulb at night…" Lucia deciphered. Ampharos nodded happily in return,
flicking its tail around, and forcing a focused stream of light from it; the same
brightness as its flash attack. It randomly guided the spotlight around the roofs of the
buildings, Lucia grinning in response. "And you use your tail light as a
spotlight…you're like the ultimate security light!" she giggled.
She continued to watch as Ampharos scanned Olivine city, the light rippling over
roofs, streets and people. Reaching the road out of town, the light beam bent and
skewed, before reflecting back up to the sky at an odd angle. In confusion, Ampharos
hopped up, and pushed its head close to the glass, staring far down at the ground.
Shaking off the sticky texture of the smudged glass, it bounded around the room,
bolting out of the open doorway, hopping up the stairs to the peak of the building,
Lucia obediently following.
"What's going on?" she asked. Ampharos angled its tail again, waving its short,
stumpy flipper back down to the road.
"Amp! Amp!" it called, the beam of light more focused thanks to the lack of glass. At
the same place as before, it skewed off in another direction, the target blurring and
rippling as a result. Lucia gazed down, while trying to keep her balance in the
magnified breezes, holding her hair back, away from her face. Looking down around
the light, she watched as the path warped, as if watched through water. She dropped to
her knees and slung her backpack around off of her shoulders. Shuffling through, she
promptly removed a pair of binoculars, sweeping them up to her eyes, squinting
through the lenses. Carefully examining the warp, she noticed it seemed to be
traveling down the road, towards town. As the light caressed it, the warp appeared to
temporarily divide into smaller sections, shaped individually like blunted statues.
"…Ampharos, try using thunder on it," Lucia suggested, Ampharos leaning
backwards, swinging its tail around. The sphere on the end throbbed with electricity,
sparking impressively as it whipped back around, striking the ground with an
almighty blast of lightning. Lucia unshielded her eyes, and watched as the bolt hurtled
back away from the warp and into the sky above. Examining the ground once more,
she gasped as the warp dissipated, a pack of Wynaut and Wobbufet being hurtled
away, fanning out around a group of black and silver clad men.
"Ros?" it grunted in bewilderment. Lucia gasped as it all clicked into place in her
head.
"They were using mirror coat!" she whispered to herself, continuing to analyze the
'warp'. Looking more closely, she made out individual figures. One man, in an over
exaggerated black jacket walked a few paces ahead of a trio of silver clad men,
another figure walking alongside the jacketed man. "…Medicham?" she recoiled in
surprise.
Medicham walked alongside the man, with a large metal tag, fixed to his wrist. She
also spyed a sixth figure, almost eclipsed by the man leading the group, but before she
could snatch a concentrated look, the Wynaut and Wobbufet regrouped, hopping on
each other, forming a dome around the pack, their coats shimmering before humming
into mirrored view. Before the dome went completely out of distinction, Lucia and
Ampharos made note of its movements, gently turning off of the road, and heading
into the city, in the direction of the pokémon center.
"We need to get Winona and the others!" she exclaimed, charging for the stairs. As
she ran down, Ampharos inhaled, before howling longingly and deafeningly,
swinging its beacon like tail around, light spiraling up and out from it.
"Cyndaquil, use flamethrower!" Setijin called out, the tiny mouse flipping backwards,
skidding on the cold, hard silver floor, its back erupting in a fantastic array of flames
and heat, the air around its mouth blurring from the rising temperature, a thick stream
of fire hailing in a helix towards Beldum, the steel and psychic hybrid pokémon,
screeching metallically as the stream hit, throwing it backwards into a rock. It's eye
fixing spun around in its slot, resting at the top of the pokémon's leg like body. The
red iris flickered weakly as it gave up the struggle, and fell to the ground.
"That was quite some battle!" Jasmine congratulated, returning Beldum to the
confines of its pokéball. Setijin blushed, bending down to allow Cyndaquil to clamber
up his sleeve, hopping onto his shoulder, clinging on with his rear claws. Winona
strode up to rejoin the group, opening her mouth ready to speak, freezing at the order
of Jasmine's hand gesture.
"Wait…is that Ampharos?" she mumbled to herself. "…Something's up. Come with
me," she ordered, swiftly making her way out of the training area, and eventually out
of the gym, Winona and Setijin chasing after her. Emerging from the gym, the pair
followed Jasmine's view skywards, admiring the light sketching through the air at the
peak of the lighthouse, letting it guide their sight down and around, before finally
resting on the blur in front of them. The light fading away, the blur shattered, Wynaut
and Wobbufet leaping aside, revealing the boss, standing proud, with the Medicham
to his right and an indescribable blob to his left.
"Good afternoon," he began. I must say this is a lovely gym you have here Jasmine."
Jasmine backed away undecidedly as he spoke, Winona and Setijin copying. His eyes
fixed on the young trainer and his Cyndaquil. "And you must be Setijin…" he
scowled, his voice jumping from calm and inviting to cold and enraged.
"…buh…" he stammered.
"No need for words…" he snapped. "I'm here for one reason, and one reason only…I
want to test my new toy," he explained, the blob swimming uncomfortably forwards,
wriggling in the center of the group. With this, the Medicham stepped up, staring
blankly ahead, twisting the hand with the wrist tag agitatedly.
"A Medicham?" he murmured to himself, clipping a pair of pokéballs from his belt,
clasping them forwards, ready for action.
"Good luck," the man chuckled, ordering his pair onwards, dramatically standing with
his arm stretched and finger pointed.