Special thanks to the folks on pa-atreon for making this possible. Now without further ado let's get into it.
Ino teleported me to the same store as last time. The Fuchsia city gym wasn't challenged by trainers often. At least, as often as some of the others. Koga was not a merciful man. His poison types didn't kill often but his demeanour demoralised trainers even more than Surge's. That made it easy to schedule a challenge for 9am today. I'd watched some of his previous battles but Gyms didn't have fixed teams above the third badge level. He could use pretty much anything.
I'd be ready though. My team was strong. Very motivated too. Quicksilver's death had lit a fire under us when it came to training. We were unstoppable. Koga would be nothing more than a checkpoint on our rise to the top. We hoped that we'd find the Poacher on the way there but if we didn't, we had another plan. I'd become the fucking champion and dedicate as many resources as necessary to find the bastard.
Searching for one person without even a face to go by would be impossible for me. For teams of ace trainers though? Not so much.
We made it to the gym with 10 minutes to spare. Checking in was smooth and seamless. The receptionist guided me down a dark hallway to the battle arena. I was almost blinded on arrival at the stadium. Koga didn't have much of an audience for his lower-tier battles. People dressed in Ninja costumes on the stands. Gym trainers, I guessed. There were a lot of them though. Definitely more than I'd seen in any other gym.
Koga came out once the clock struck nine. He was in a similar ninja costume as his gym trainers. The only difference was that his outfit was purple, while theirs was black. He was silent and still while the referee announced the rules for the match. It was a 3v3 with me releasing first. I only had one substitution, but Koga had an unlimited amount.
The rules were also another reason why Koga's gym was rarely challenged. I started things out with Hashirama. This was to be his first gym battle. He was both advantaged and disadvantaged in this gym. A good first match. Koga released a Nidorino on the field.
I had Hashirama start things out by using sunny day. The already bright arena became even brighter. The heat was sweltering. Fuchsia was humid and the heat wasn't helping. I felt beads of sweat begin to build on my neck. If I was suffering so much in my sweats and tank top, I couldn't even imagine Koga's discomfort.
He showed no signs of that and ordered his Nidorino to use double kick. It jumped towards my Ghost in a weird double jump manoeuvre. Bad idea. We'd spent a long time teaching Hashirama how to use moves with only seconds of preparation. A solar beam smashed into the Nidorino and sent it crashing into the arena's walls.
It wasn't knocked out though and Hashirama sent another beam at it. Koga returned it before the move could hit and released a Muk on the field. "Explosion" Koga spoke out. His Muk lit up and then the arena followed suit. The rocky terrain was devastated. When the smoke cleared up enough, Hashirama was the only one left standing. He was covered in a cracked protect. I was thankful I made sure all my pokemon knew that move.
Koga returned his Muk. It hadn't fainted, which was a huge surprise but it didn't look like it could handle an attack in its present state. The next pokemon he sent out was a giant Crobat. His was the only known specimen of the pokemon in the world.
It sent out a hyper beam. Hashirama countered it with one of his own. The Crobat's move won out and powered through to slam into Hashirama. The move had lost most of its power so all it did to Hashirama was disorient him. The crobat didn't rest on its laurels and used Giga drain on my distracted pokemon.
I could see the leaves on Hashirama's body begin to wither as he got weaker and weaker. "Solar beam" I shouted. He was slower than last time but he managed to send a bolt of light toward the Crobat. It dodged the move with ease.
"Poison fang" Koga commanded in that calm tone of his. The Crobat blurred towards Hashirama and latched onto him. I returned him a second later. He'd done well. That Crobat was heads and shoulders above the rest of the pokemon Koga had used in this battle.
I released Igneel next. He started things off with a Grand fireball. The giant ball of fire must have been too large for the Crobat to dodge because it hunkered down in a protect. The fire washed over his shield and it was sent crashing into the ground a second later. Igneel had followed behind his fireball with a dragon rush.
The Crobat tried to get up from its position on the floor when Igneel hit it with another dragon rush. A flamethrower from Igneel sent the pokemon into the sweet bliss of unconsciousness. The first knockout of the battle.
From there, the rest of the battle was a formality. The Nidorino and Muk were already weakened and fell to Igneel. I left the building with a brand new soul badge. My next destination was the pokemon centre. I checked in after dropping Hashirama off. I needed a hot shower. I hadn't let my hygiene slack while I was in the wild but some comforts of civilization couldn't be emulated with even the most advanced technology.
After my shower, I decided to spend the rest of the day outside. My first destination was the local battle arena. Fuchsia was a very traditional city. It was one of the very few that still had dedicated arenas for trainers to challenge each other.
I needed money to pay for a teleport to Celadon. The arena cost me 300 pokedollars to gain entry but you had to spend money to make money. I registered myself at the front desk and waited to receive a match. Each battle could net me 500 pokedollars if I battled someone at my present level. If I went a badge or two higher, then the prize would be triple.
I waited for almost ten minutes before the announcer called out my name. I got up from my seat in the stands and made my way to the field.
A girl stood across from me. She looked to be about two years older and the screen said she had six badges to her name. That meant I could make about 1,500 pokedollars from this battle if I won. She lost the coin flip and had to release first.
Her first pokemon was a titanic Aggron. It looked to be about the same size as the Aggrons that killed Kenpachi's mother. I had the perfect counter, and he was all fired up from his gym battle. Igneel appeared on the field with a roar that made the audience cringe and cover their ears.
The female trainer and I didn't show any discomfort though. The referee started the battle. She whispered something to her pokemon that had it glowing silver for a few seconds. It glowed again for a second and stopped. 'Fireball', I instructed Igneel through our aura bond. Using aura to send complex messages was difficult but one-word orders were easy.
The giant fireball soared toward the Aggron. The green glow of protect covered it a second before the attack hit and was gone by the time the fire died down. The Aggron was untouched. 'Rapid fire' I instructed next. Igneel sent almost a dozen fireballs screaming at the Aggron. The Aggron was forced to keep its protect up for longer than a few seconds this time.
That made no difference though. The Aggron still emerged unscathed. I grit my teeth. Igneel was pissed to see his moves ignored. I wasn't even surprised when he didn't wait for any more orders and slammed into the Aggron with a dragon rush.
The Aggron tanked the attack and grabbed onto Igneel. It threw him on the ground and stomped hard. Igneel managed a dodge and was able to find his feet. 'Fly' I commanded. Igneel listened to me this time and went soaring into the air.
The Aggron was content to stand there and watch Igneel retreat. Sunny day was the next move I had Igneel use. The reason steel types were weak to fire-type pokemon was that they had no way to cool their bodies. Being surrounded by a thick metal coating created a lot of heat. With sunny day active, we were going to bake that thing in there.
Igneel's solar power ability would also come into play. "Roast it" I commanded out loud. The sight that came next was glorious. The field was washed in flames. I saw the green glow of Protect fade in the fire and the Woman across from me returned her Aggron a few seconds later.
The next pokemon she sent out was a Blastoise. It was a behemoth of a pokemon. Its blue skin contrasted with the brown of the rocky arena. Its shoulder cannons were gleaming in the sunlight. Igneel's sunny day was still active, but the Blastoise seemed keen to remedy that.
The first thing it did when the battle started was to use rain dance. The move cancelled out Igneel's sunny day. The raindrops were an annoyance to Igneel for now. They'd wear on him with enough time. This battle was now on a time limit. "Hydro pump" the trainer in front of me started with.
The blast of water went soaring past where Igneel used to be. She wasn't deterred and the pokemon began to spam the move. Eventually, the Blastoise slowed for a bit. Igneel retaliated with a massive hyper beam. The Blastoise retreated into its shell, making the move ineffective. I gritted my teeth at that. This was bad. Very bad.
I lifted his Pokeball to return him but the look Igneel sent my way was enough to make me reconsider. This was unusual for him. He'd always been well-behaved. I guess a dragon was a dragon and this one was no different. I settled down to watch the battle.
The Blastoise came out of his shell and sent another hydro pump at Igneel. "Surf press" The woman screamed to the heavens while taking on a pose. The Blastoise mirrored her and gathered the water from the floor into a wave that he began surfing on. Igneel dodged his first two attempts but was hit on the third pass. The Blastoise slammed its body into Igneel and my dragon went down.
I thought it was over and was about to return him when he managed to right himself in mid-air. He flew up. Over and above the cloud cover. The referee looked at me, and I just shrugged. There was no altitude limit for flying types in semi-formal battles like this one. Igneel came flying down after a few minutes and just hovered, staring at the Blastoise.
It came towards Igneel for another hit but a few seconds before impact, Igneel opened his mouth and a beam of sunlight came pouring out. The powerful solar beam hit the Blastoise at near point-blank range. It went down in a one-hit knockout.
Its defeat eliminated the rain dance and Igneel let out a roar of dominance. The woman across from me looked like she'd swallowed a lime. She forfeited without releasing her last pokemon.
The announcer declared me the winner after a few seconds and the crowd went wild. I hadn't paid attention to the audience all through the battle. The number of people in the crowd shocked me. I allowed Igneel to bask in the admiration before I returned him to his ball. I walked back into the halls and was met with the trainer I'd just defeated.
Her smile was bright. "Hey, I'm Sarah. That was a fun battle wasn't it?"
I smiled back. "Yes, it was. Donnell Oak" I introduced myself.
"I know. I saw the name on the screen. I knew I was in for a tough fight when I saw it was against an Oak. Your Charizard is awesome by the way. I didn't expect it to breach Aggron's defence. Beating Blastoise was the real surprise though. You must have worked really hard."
She rambled. A lot. I was about to dismiss her after she spoke about my last name but that last sentence made me reevaluate her. I smiled. My first real one since she'd accosted me.
"Igneel is really strong, isn't he? He's worked hard." I said in reply. She started telling me about herself. Her name was Sarah Stark. She was from Celadon. She'd been training for five years now and was working towards her seventh badge.
She also told me why she forfeited. She'd challenged Koga a few days ago for her sixth badge and most of her team was too heavily poisoned to battle. The third pokemon she had for the battle was a Growlithe, but the field wasn't conducive for that kind of pokemon. Her Blastoise had submerged the arena.
We ended up stopping at a bar to get some drinks. My first drink in this body. A few hours later, I got to experience another first.
Name; Donnell Oak
Age; 15
Hometown; Pallet
Next of Kin; Samuel Oak
Account balance; 1,050 Pokedollars
Pokemon.
· Kleavor (Nickname; Broly)- Male. Bug/Rock type
Moves; Signal beam, agility, fury cutter, quick attack, slash, swords dance, protect, stone axe, ancient power, hyper beam, and rock throw.
· Milotic (Nickname; Kisame)- Female. Water type.
Moves; Brine, ice beam, hydro pump, dragon breath, dragon pulse, water gun, protect, recover, hyper beam, iron tail and bubble beam.
· Charizard (Nickname; Igneel)- Male. Fire type.
Moves; Ember, dragon breath, scratch, bite, growl, metal claw, flame thrower, protect, sunny day, solar beam, hyper beam, and dragon rush.
· Pupitar (Nickname; Kenpachi)- Male. Rock/Ground type.
Moves; Tackle, rock throw, bite, crunch, leer, hyper beam and protect.
· Gardevoir (Nickname; Ino)- Female. Psychic/Fairy type.
Moves; Teleport, psybeam, psychic, confusion, hypnosis, dazzling gleam, moonblast, and recover.
· Trevenant (Nickname; Hashirama)- Male. Ghost/Grass type.
Moves; Sunny day, solar beam, protect, hyper beam, wood hammer, shadow claw, and destiny bond.
Thanks for reading. We're already halfway through with chapter 29 on the pa-atreon page. Feel free to join me there if you can. Same username as up here. The link's on my profile.