WelI don't have much to really say, enjoy.
The four trainers were approaching the Saffron City Gym. The day was bright and the sun was shining, Diego and the twins looked eager to get their fifth gym badges. To their surprise however, the gym leader seemed to be closing the gym!
"Hey, what's going on? Is the gym closed?" Diego asked.
"Hm? Oh well kind of, I was going to take a break at a cafe nearby. My name is Martha by the way, I'm the Saffron City Gym Leader."
"Oh, we were hoping to challenge you." Renée added.
"All four of you wanted to challenge me?" Martha asked.
"Oh no, not me!" Yuki replied. "I just came to watch the battles, I'm more of a coordinator than a battler."
"I see." Martha noted. 'These must be some of Jack's friends, he did say I would get more challengers soon.' She thought to herself. "Tell you what, why don't you come with me to the cafe and we'll battle there."
"Huh? Didn't you leave your badges inside the gym?" Julia asked.
"A good gym leader always has a spare case of badges and TM's on hand." Martha explained.
The five of them entered the cafe where Mr. Armstrong was happy to greet them all.
"Martha! Glad to see ya'! Are these friends of yours?" Armstrong asked.
"These trainers wanted to challenge me, so I thought I bring them here to spice up the battles a bit." Martha answered.
"Hahaha, we'll why don't I battle with you! It's been a while since I've battled!"
"What do you say? Will you battle Armstrong and I for the badge?" Martha asked, to which the three quickly agreed. Yuki was quick to let Armstrong know that she wasn't up for a battle.
"Well that's not a problem! Why don't you sit with my associates and watch the battle."
Yuki sat down with Armstrong's associates, Diego and Martha took their places on the cafe's battlefield.
"Let's make this battle a two-on-two battle, okay?" Martha announced, Diego nodded and reached for his pokeball. The two of them sent out their first pokemon, Diego sent out Charmeleon while Martha sent out a Deino.
"Make your move whenever you're ready." Martha said.
"Alright, Charmeleon hit it with a Draco Bullet!" Diego ordered, Charmeleon charged at Deino, but the little dragon dodged the attack with an almost unnatural level of agility.
"Ok 'Deino' use Nasty Plot!" Martha commanded, Deino became charged with a dark aura, increasing it's strength.
"Charmeleon, use Flamethrower!" Diego exclaimed, the others seemed surprised that he would use that move.
"What is he thinking? Doesn't he know that Fire-type attacks don't work well against Dragon-type pokemon?" Yuki pondered.
"Hehehe, actually it's not as bad of a move as you may think." Mistral responded.
"What do you mean?" Yuki asked.
"Just keep watching." Samuel stated. Yuki looked back at the battle, even more confused than before. Charmeleon showered the Deino with flames, after Deino took damage it began to transform into a Zoroark.
"What?!" Diego said in shock.
"A Zoroark?! I should've known!" Yuki noted. Renée scanned the Zoroark with her pokedex.
'Zoroark, The Illusion Fox Pokemon: Each has the ability to fool a large group of people simultaneously. They protect their lair with illusory scenery.'
"Looks like my Zoroark Illusion plan didn't work. Oh well. Zoroark, use Shadow Ball!" Martha ordered. Zoroark, formed a black and purple ball in its hands and threw it at Charmeleon, the attack caught the lizard pokemon by surprise, causing heavy damage. Charmeleon began to burn with a fiery hot aura, Charmeleon himself then began to evolve!
"This couldn't be any more perfect! Alright Charizard, burn him down with a Fire Fang!" Diego commanded, Charizard flew towards Zoroark at breakneck speed, gnawing on it with its fangs, now laced with burning flames. The attack caused Zoroark to take enough damage to faint.
"Hm, looks like Charizard has a lot of power behind it. But my next pokemon is sure to give you a run for your money. Meet my ace in the hole, the real Deino!" Martha announced, sending out an actual Deino.
"Alright Deino, let's turn it up with a Dragon Pulse!" Martha ordered, Deino breathed out a purple beam of energy at Charizard.
"Charizard, fly around it and use Dragon Breath!" Diego commanded. The newly - evolved pokemon flew around the Dragon Pulse and let out its Dragon Breath attack at point blank range to Deino.
The attack was enough to cause Deino considerable harm, but not enough to take it out.
"Hm, you're pretty good, but let's see how you handle this! Deink, use Dark Bomb!"
Deino launched a large, dark mass of energy at Charizard, the attack connected, causing some damage and leaving behind a dark cloud of energy.
"You can work past this, Charizard! Use Flamethrower!" Diego commanded, Charizard tried using Flamethrower, but it couldn't see where it was suppose to aim, causing it to just spit out streams of fire into the air.
"Deino, use Crunch!"
Deino leaped into the cloud and bit Charizard's wing, causing the lizard pain.
"Come on Charizard, you can do it! Use Dragon Breath!" Diego ordered. Charizard looked in the direction of Deino, it had some trouble as it could barely see anything in front of it, but nonetheless it used Dragon Breath either way. The attack struck Deino dead on, knocking it out.
"Well, I guess that settles that!" Martha said with a smile. 'Jack was right, he is pretty strong!' She thought to herself. Armstrong applauded the battle.
"Hahahaha, this is what battles are about, two trainers doing their best to come out on top. It makes me yearn to battle again!"
"Well girls, which of you wants to battle Mr. Armstrong?" Martha asked.
"Do you want to battle him, sis?" Julia asked.
"There's one problem with battling him though, we don't know what pokemon he's going to have..." Renée answered. "I'll take the chance and battle him, I just hope I made the right decision."
Renée and Armstrong took the stage, Armstrong looked excited to begin the battle while Renée looked rather nervous.
"Let's make this battle simple and make it a one-on-one." Armstrong said, the two of them sent out their pokemon. Renée sent out her Growlithe while Armstrong sent out a Lucario.
"A Lucario? I wasn't expecting that..." Yuki stated.
"Hah, Steve's always the type of guy to hit hard and fast. Lucario was the pokemon he felt fit that description the most." Arnold explained. Diego looked around the cafe for a bit, everything seemed normal to him except for one thing. Everyone there was dressed in the uniform of a villainous team that had been around years ago.
"Hey, why is everyone wearing these old uniforms from villainous teams?" Diego asked.
"Oh, many of the patrons of this cafe use to be members of these teams back when they were still around. We have former members of Team Rocket, Magma, Aqua, Galactic, Plasma, and Flare. They don't usually wear their uniforms but today is Throwback Thursday, we encourage everyone to wear their old uniforms." Lorraine explained.
"What about the leaders of those teams? Do they come here?" Julia asked.
"Occasionally, but they usually keep watch over our other branches in other regions. However we don't know where a few of them are." Lorraine continued. Yuki was about to ask another question when the battle regained their attention.
"Now Lucario, Mega Evolve and use Drain Punch!" Armstrong commanded, he reached into his pocket and pulled out a Key Stone that was attached to a pocket watch. A pink and purple cocoon formed around Lucario. After a few moments, Lucario broke out of the cocoon, now in the form of Mega Lucario. Mega Lucario's fist began glowing brown. It charged at Growlithe and punched it. Growlithe took a considerable amount of damage, it was on the verge of collapsing, but Renée didn't look worried. In fact, she glad to see Growlithe in this condition.
"That's what Mega Evolution looks like?" Yuki asked in awe.
"Wow, I bet it's super strong!" Julia added. Diego was in pure shock at the sight of Mega Evolution.
"Growlithe, end this battle with Reversal!" Renée announced. Three light blue spheres formed around Growlithe's body, the Puppy pokemon then charged at Mega Lucario, smashing it's body into it. Being on its last legs of strength, Growlithe's attack was at full power, just enough to take the Mega Lucario down.
"Hm... Haha. Hahahahaha! It looks like I'm a bit rusty when it comes to pokemon battles. If a Mega Evolved pokemon can go down that easily then it looks like I need more training!" Armstrong said with a cheerful grin.
'He says he needs more training, but that was probably the toughest battle I've ever had, even without it Mega Evolving!' Renée thought to herself.
"So it's down to just Julia. Do you want to battle her Martha? Or do you want me to stay? Either option is fine with me." Armstrong said.
"I appreciate it Mr. Armstrong, but I'd like to battle Julia."
"Well best of luck to both of you! I can tell that this battle will be a good one!"
The last battle was just about to begin. Just like Diego's battle it was 2 vs. 2, Martha sent out an Absol this time while Julia sent out her Kirlia. Just as the battle had begun, Diego talked with Steve.
"Hey Mr. Armstrong, who owns this place anyway?"
"That'd be me, my boy!"
"If you don't mind me asking, why'd you make this place so welcoming for people who use to be in villainous teams around the world?"
"We don't judge people by where they came from or who they were involved with. Plus, I use to be a member of Team Rocket myself."
A bright light caught the attention of everyone. Julia's Kirlia was evolving into a Gardevoir!
"This is perfect! OK Gardevoir, use Draining Kiss!" Julia ordered. Gardevoir gave Absol a soft kiss in its cheek, an orb of energy came out of Absol. This orb transfered itself into Gardevoir, healing the damage that Gardevoir had taken. This attack was more than enough to defeat Absol. Martha sent out her Deino next.
"Looks like we're in a bit of a bind here. But don't think Deino is defenseless. Deino, use Iron Tail!" Martha exclaimed.
'Ok, I hope this works!' Julia said to herself. "Gardevoir, use Dazzling Gleam!" Gardevoir's spike began glowing bright pink, an intense flash of light with small black blades within it. This light seemed to cause immense pain to Deino, which easily took it down.
"Wow ok, um... taken down in one hit. That's kind of embarrassing... but I know how to take a loss. You won fairly, all of you won fairly." Martha admitted.
Some time later, all three trainers were on the stage, Martha and Armstrong had the TM's and badges that they had earned.
"Congratulations to the three of you, you've all earned the Shadow Badge." Martha said, Armstrong handed them their TM's. "These TM's contain the move Dark Bomb, it's a bit tricky to master, but once you do master it it can turn the tide of battle."
"Thanks so much Martha!" Julia said, accepting the rewards.
"There's one more thing I need to tell you." Martha said, she sounded sympathetic which gained the curiosity of the trainers. "I met up with Jack yesterday, he's doing just fine and even though I can't really speak for him, I know he really misses you. My advice would be to find the people who started this problem and take them down. Then everyone will know the truth." Martha explained. The main trio nodded in understanding and left the cafe.
"Did Jack really do what the news stations have said?" Yuki asked.
"Of course not! Why would Jack do something like that?! You know that's not something he would do Yuki!" Diego said, quick to defend his best friend.
"I know but... how can we catch the people who framed him?" Yuki added.
"I don't know, but I'll find them and I'll make them pay!" Diego said.
"I know you're angry about all this Diego, and we'll make things right!" Renée replied.
"Are you going to stay with us Yuki? We would love to have you travel with us!" Julia said.
"I'm sorry... my next Contest is in Celadon City. You guys need to head South to Vermillion." Yuki answered, she waved goodbye to the group and headed East...
And the main characters have obtained their fifth badge of the Kanto League! But what adventures will come next?
New moves:
Dark Bomb
65 power
80 accuracy.
The user bombards the foe with a cloud of darkness, may lower accuracy.
