Ch.16
There's no I in team
Pokemon and the reference to a certain movie are the property of their respective owners
Dmitri, Maris, and Luxio moved forward intently, determinedly, and with no sound being emitted from either from them. Dmitri looked to his right and saw Maris with a dead serious expression on her face as her fists were clenched tightly and her eyes glaring menacingly as she continued to not look at either of her companions as her attention was solely focused on the hallway in front of her. Looking to his left he saw Luxio with an angry expression on her face as each step she took static electricity radiated and sparked violently under her feet as she glanced at Dmitri and nodded quickly before turning her attention back on the dark hallway in front of her filled to the brim with fossils.
Externally, the young battle ace put on a façade of bravery and smiled awkwardly as he put his hands in his pockets which caused Maris to briefly glance at him and look at him suspiciously before turning her head.
"(You're shuddering,)" Maris deadpanned as she glared at Dmitri who was unconsciously trembling at the many scenarios of the upcoming battle resulting in a loss for them.
"No, I have to be strong! For everyone who has ever believed in me! Delia, Mom, Stephanie, Maris, and…"
"Dad…," Dmitri muttered sadly as Maris stopped dead in her tracks and looked at her childhood friend sympathetically and put one of her paws on his shoulders and gripped it tightly.
Maris then cupped his chin her paw and glanced at him with cool, calm eyes while Dmitri looked at her with uncertain, scared ones.
"(Dmitri, you can't falter, not now. If you hesitate in the slightest we'll all go down. I can't beat the leader of this gym, not alone. We need to do this together,)" Maris told her childhood friend determinedly as he looked back at her optimistically.
"The first gym leader usually doesn't have very strong pokemon though so I know you can do this on your own," Dmitri rebuked which caused Maris to laugh mockingly at him.
"(Do you honestly think that your mom didn't phone in ahead of time and tell the gym leaders of our arrival and told them to up the ante against us?)" Maris asked him matter-of-factly which caused him to go wide eyed in shock before nodding begrudgingly at the hard truth.
Releasing him, Maris folded her arms and stared at her companion while he looked down at the tile floor and put his hands in his pocket.
"(What will you do now?)" Maris asked him sharply as she glanced at the door that separated them from the inevitable challenge.
Growling lowly and clenching his fists, he looked up at Maris with renewed willpower and smirked.
"I'm going to give it all I've got and prove that I'm not some third rate trainer to all those who said I'll never do anything special with my life!" Dmitri shouted angrily as Maris grinned widely while Luxio smirked and nodded her head.
"(Who were those people Dmitri?)" Maris asked him enthusiastically with a cheshire grin on her face.
"The Queen of Fire, all my classmates except Delia, and Zach! I'll show them! I'll show them all!" Dmitri thought bitterly as he remembered all the hurtful comments they said to him.
"Hey baby, how bout' you ditch this wimp and hang out with a real man."
"What a loser! How can someone so pathetic be related to someone like Mrs. Long?"
"Shame Karen had to waste her cells creating something like Dmitri."
"He'll never be a great battler if he's still afraid of his own shadow in 9th grade for Pete's sake!"
Clenching his fists and wiping away some tears away with his forearm he stomped toward the door intently with white hot fire in his eyes and threw it open, startling the gym leader who was talking to the referee at the time.
"Wow, another challenger! Didn't expect to battle again so soon and just a few hours after a great battle against another young trainer!" the gym leader cried out while Dmitri's eyes widened in shock.
"He couldn't possibly mean…"
Pushing this thought aside for now he looked the gym leader over and saw that he wore a red mining cap over his dark red hair. He also had some soot covering the majority of face, but either didn't notice or was too excited to care as a wide, confident smile never left his face when he sized up his new opponent. He also wore a short sleeved shirt underneath a black under shit and had matching pants with the same yellow streaks on the sleeves. The pants were unusually baggy (too Dmitri), which he figured were for mining that this city is famous for.
Looking at the gym leader dead in the eye, he put his hands on his hips and shouted with pride:
"My name is Dmitri Long, 9th year student at Unova's Battle Academy, and I challenge you to a battle for your gym badge!"
"Ah, Karen's son! I've been informed of your arrival and I've been told to hold nothing back against you. As the gym leader, it's my duty to test trainers starting out in their journey and I gladly accept your challenge!" Roark shouted back as a pokeball enlarged to the size of a baseball in his hands and tossed into the middle of the battlefield.
What materialized from the flashing light was a hulking boulder of a pokemon with jagged stones attached everywhere around its body and it had four small, yet muscular rocky arms on it. Maris's eyes nearly flew out of their sockets when she saw this and angrily growled under her breathe.
"(Oh c'mon! I already fought a huge a** pebble with arms! The cycle is broken!)" Maris exclaimed irritatedly as she hopped onto the battlefield and sized up her opponent.
"(Jeez, you sure are an ugly one. No offense,)" Maris told Graveler offhandedly as she adopted a fighting stance and narrowed her eyes at him causing Graveler to smirk at her.
"(No fair! I called dibs on the first opponent on the way here!)" Luxio roared angrily at Maris who waggled her finger at her and resumed her fighting stance.
"(Sorry kid, but I don't recall you ever doing that,)" Maris responded simply as blue electricity started to pulsate and burst dangerously around Luxio's body as she gnashed her teeth.
"(I called it in my head!)" Luxio shouted back as she crouched down as if she was hunting something.
Maris chuckled under her breathe and refocused her attention on her foe as the referee entered the referee box and raised his hands into the air.
"This battle between leader Roark of Oreburgh City and challenger Dmitri Long of the Battle Academy will be a three-on-three battle with no time limit! Battle will be decided when either side is out of usable pokemon or when either side forfeits the match! Are both sides ready?" the referee asked them causing Roark to grin and tip his hat in response while Dmitri just gave a respectful nod in return.
"Battle begin!" the referee yelled.
"Maris use force palm!"
"Graveler dodge and use rock polish followed by rollout!"
Maris immediately shot out a powerful, golden chi wave that left an afterburner effect as Graveler crossed his arms as if to defend himself from the attack and let out a loud shout as a blinding, shiny light encompassed the battlefield causing all the spectators (except for Roark) to cover their eyes with their forearms. Quickly sidestepping to avoid Graveler coming towards her like a bowling ball, she looked at Graveler in surprise and admiration. Maris noticed a slight burn mark on her foe's side and smirked to herself as she noticed her opponent winced in pain as he walked towards Maris.
"(Faster than I thought. I'll have to be careful as rock polish increased his speed,)" Maris thought to herself as she narrowed her eyes in concentration before letting an evil grin come onto her face.
"(Come at me bro!)" Maris urged her foe as she got into a horse stance and let her arms fall to her side comfortably.
"Graveler, stealth rock!" Roark commanded as Graveler levitated huge boulders near him and with a war cry chucked them near Dmitri's side of the field causing Luxio to mewl in fright and jump into her trainer's arms.
"What the…what did Graveler just do?" Dmitri said confusedly as he stared at the boulders near his side as his eyes quickly flashed back and forth between them.
"Now Graveler, use magnitude!" Roark demanded as Graveler put one foot up before slamming it back down on the ground sending an ear crippling sound wave throughout the surrounding area as Maris yelled in pain and clutched her ears. The unsuspecting Martial Arts Pokemon was then knocked into the air as the shockwave of the attack finally reached her and with sheer iron will, managed to right herself in midair despite the blaring sound wave and landed on her feet.
"(Damn, what the flip was that?) Maris snarled as she put her right foot forward and put her hands up, bracing herself for another attack.
"Graveler, use rock blast" Roark quickly said to his pokemon as Graveler narrowed his eyes in intense focus as white orbs suddenly were around his body before they solidified into white, solid glowing rocks.
"(The hell is this?)" Maris contemplated to herself before she suddenly had to duck as Graveler threw one of the glowing rocks right at a surprised Maris as she looked back at her foe with a "wtf!" face.
"Maris, combine dual chop and drain punch together again to turn those stones into dust!" Dmitri quickly shouted to his friend who nodded eagerly as she turned her head sideways to avoid another rock flying straight towards her head.
Tensing her muscles and crouching down, Maris let out a war cry as a light green and azure aura covered her body before she growled like a wild beast as she condensed her aura into her paws. Grinning from ear to ear, she held out one of her paws contemptuously and easily caught on of the boulders thrown at her and crushed it into a million pieces; causing Graveler to look at her in shock.
"(Ready or not, Here I come!)" Maris yelled like a madman as she charged at Graveler who desperately threw more jagged stones at her to keep her at bay to no avail.
"Darn, Graveler is going to lose at this rate. I was hoping that I wouldn't need to use this move, but it seems like there's no other choice," Roark pondered bitterly as he clenched his fists and saw Maris jump high in the air to avoid another boulder thrown at her only for her to strike Graveler hard right in the face with a well-placed kick that made Graveler's vision become blury.
Maris then followed up with brutal punches and chops that chipped off some rocks from Graveler's stony body as Roark shook his head sadly before saying:
"Graveler, self-destruct!" Roark ordered as Graveler crossed his arms in an x as he blocked a strike from the crazed Mienshao; making all of them nearly go numb as his body was covered in a bright orange light and with one final cry in pain he threw his arms outward.
A massive explosion rocked the entire arena sending Dmitri flying off his feet and off his trainer platform as he desperately searched the battlefield, which was now entirely covered by a huge dust cloud, for his trusted friend who could be injured, or worse.
When the dust cloud finally settled, Dmitri's eyes brightened in relief as he saw Maris crouching down on one knee and having her side to her opponent; her arms crossed in an x. Maris panted heavily as her body was covered in burn marks, but other than that, she was fine, as she stood up on her feet and glowered at Roark.
"(Whew, close one. Good thing Graveler was at low health or else…I don't even wanna' think about it,)" Maris stated in shock at how much energy was put behind the attack.
"Maris, you barely managed to defend yourself from that last attack. Return for now and rest up ok?" Dmitri told her firmly as Maris shook her head and gritted her teeth.
"But-"
"No buts!"
"(Heh, heh, butt,)" Luxio snickered childishly.
"(Oh grow up!)" Maris roared furiously at her teammate.
Maris glowered at Roark viciously and to Dmitri he knew it meant "You got off easy." Back flipping gracefully, Maris landed on Dmitri's right and nodded at him politely.
"Luxio, you ready to go?" Dmitri asked his companion who simply roared in response and leaped onto the field, only for the boulders on his side to rumble violently and then come straight toward Luxio.
Luxio snarled angrily and in a split second smashed them all to bits with a simple wave of her iron tail.
"How did those boulders do that?" Dmitri asked Maris bewilderedly as Maris looked at him with one eye brow raised.
"(You're flipping askin' me how they did that?)" Maris responded bluntly as she clutched her stomach and slowly sat down crossed leg next to him as she winced in pain from the movement.
Refocusing his attention back on the battle, he saw Roark reach for another pokeball on his belt and threw it onto the field causing a huge rock-like snake to emerge from it and glare menacingly at Luxio who didn't back down and fought back with a mean stare of her own.
"Luxio, iron tail!"
"Onix, use slam!"
Luxio quick as lighting struck out with her metal solidified tail causing Onix to howl in pain, but nevertheless he managed to raise his mighty tail and bring down it down on Luxio.
At least he tried as Luxio managed to jump to the side and avoid the attack as the ground from Onix's strike managed to send gravel and rocks flying in every direction. Onix then began to swing wildly at the elusive feline pokemon who narrowly dodged, ducked, dipped, dived, and…uh…dodged, all the attacks except for one lucky strike that managed to catch her when she was a too slow to react. Luxio cried out in agony as she was sent flying back from the strike and crashed unceremoniously on the wall next to her trainer causing it to crack from the impact.
"(Sh**,)" Maris muttered as she looked at her companion in concern while Dmitri just returned her to her pokeball, thanking her for her valiant effort.
"Challenger, please send out your next pokemon," the referee ordered Dmitri as he turned to Maris and their eyes met briefly before she sent him a quick nod and patted his shoulder as she walked slowly onto the battlefield with a slight limp causing Roark to shake his head in disdain.
"Your pokemon is obviously in no shape to continue so why continue fighting with this one? Just send out your other pokemon unless…oh, don't tell me you came here thinking you could defeat me with just two pokemon? For a son of a heralded champion, the apple falls very far from the tree," Roark stated contemptuously as Maris snarled at him and dropped into a fighting stance with Dmitri clenching his fists and staring determinedly at Roark.
"We've come too far to lose now, and if I walk away Maris would never forgive me. So were going to see this through to the end." Dmitri rebuked as Maris wearily grinned and bounced high in the sky so she and Onix were staring at each other dead in the eye.
Onix couldn't get over his initial quick enough as Maris smirked and waved goodbye to him as she snapped her leg up and kicked him right under the chin causing the massive rock snake's head to snap back and then it was painfully shifted to the side as Maris struck him with a devastating right hook on his rocky cheek. Onix bellowed in pain before finally collapsing on the ground in a large heap, causing Roark's and the referee's eyes to widen in shock.
"R…Roark, please send out your final pokemon,"the referee stuttered as Roark returned Onix and thanked him for his efforts as Maris and Dmitri held up their firsts gave each other an air fist bump.
"Alright then, since you won't give up neither will I! Rampardos, go!" Roark shouted as he tossed his last pokeball onto the field and with a mighty war cry Rampardos materialized from the light and glared at Maris with her returning the favor.
"Maris, you got my message on what to do?"
"(You mean when we looked at each other before I knocked out that overgrown rock worm? Yeah, I got it,)" Maris replied hurriedly as she never took her eyes off her new foe.
"Rampardos, use focus energy!"
"Maris, close the gap!"
Maris quickly rushed the head butt pokemon just as his cranium started glowing white and forcefully tackled him to the ground; knocking the wind out of him. Maris mounted her foe and started pounding away with her fist covered in green energy as she threw hard punches and crippling elbows at her foe who was disoriented from the strikes and started seeing stars as Roark paled at the sight. Luck seemed to be on Rampardos's side as Maris threw a wide haymaker to end the fight quickly and seeing his opportunity, shifted his head to the side and with his head covered in a bright blue light, head-butted his opponent who howled in pain as she was sent flying back from the strike and landed on her back; clutching her head in pure agony.
"MARIS!"
"(I'm fine! Oh gosh, my head feels like someone took a bunch of hungry, ravenous sharpedoes and stuck them in my head!)" Maris grumbled as she got to her feet slowly and briefly stumbled around while still clutching her forehead.
"Do you still want to continue?"
"(Are you still going to ask me stupid questions?)" Maris snorted curtly as she circled her foe carefully and quick nod from Dmitri wildly charged at her opponent who fired a stream of hot flames at her and with expert timing, managed to slide under the attack and uppercutted Rampardos.
Rampardos growled in pain as he felt himself lifted off the ground for a second due to the force of Maris's uppercut and cried out in pain when he felt Maris hammering his midsection with knees and hook punches while her fist was still surrounded in the same bright green energy that seemed to spark violently in her paw.
"Drain punch again!" Dmitri yelled as he saw Maris's previous injuries heal and saw the crazed smirk she grew on her face with each successful blow.
Rampardos ducked under an attempted strike on his head and fired a scorching flamethrower at Maris scoring a direct hit on her midsection causing her to clench her teeth and fall on one knee.
"Rampardos, zen headbutt once more!" Roark demanded as Rampardos growled in concentration as his head was once again surrounded in a bright blue light and with a war cry charged at the downed Mienshao who could only bring up one of her arms in defense.
A large explosion rocked the area as both Dmitri and Roark stared at the dust cloud interestedly until two figures suddenly burst out of the mushroom cloud with Maris fending off Rampardos's super effective with her paws on his solid cranium as her feet dragged on the ground causing Maris to scream in pain.
"(Not…d…done…YET!)" Maris shouted determinedly as she kept one paw on Rampardos's head to keep him at bay while the other hammered away at Rampardos's ribs with chi blasts and drain punches and due to Rampardos's lackluster defenses he broke off the attack. Rampardos held his side tenderly while Maris wheezed and groaned as her arms fell to her side as she struggled to stay conscious. After what seemed like forever, Rampardos finally fell flat on his back with an audible thud while Maris wasn't too far behind as she quickly collapsed on her side; breathing heavily.
"(W..won…)" Maris whispered to herself triumphantly as she finally closed her eyes and went to blissful sleep.
"Due to Rampardos falling unconscious first this makes the challenger the winner of the match!" the referee yelled as Dmitri rushed onto the field and cradled his childhood friend's head in his hand as she regained consciousness and looked up at him with a cheeky grin.
"(…D…did…it,)" Maris breathed out as she put a paw on Dmitri's shoulder and grasped it firmly causing Dmitri to shake his head and smile kindly at her and he helped her too her feet with her arm wrapped around his shoulder.
"We did it," Dmitri restated causing Maris to cough up some blood, but wiped it away like a bug as she returned his smile with an exhausted grin as they both saw Roark approach them with a wide smirk on his face as he held an unidentifiable, metallic object between his fingers.
"After all that training, and I still get beat by a kid. Oh well, rules are rules so it's my honor to present you the Coal Badge," Roark said as he handed it to Dmitri who had to hold the back the urge to snatch it out of his hands and calmly took the badge.
Dmitri's whole body shook with excitement as he stared at the badge and couldn't help but laugh heartily at his accomplishment causing Maris to follow suit with a tired laugh and quickly regretted it as she held her side and clenched her teeth. Taking notice of this, Dmitri bide a hasty farewell to Roark who grinned and waved goodbye to them as they exited the gym and headed towards the Pokemon Center.
"You worked hard Maris and I'm so proud of you and Luxio. I never could have done this without you guys," Dmitri praised his two companions as the pokeball on his belt faintly rumbled while Maris closed her eyes and used her spare paw to pat him on the chest.
After getting them healed they decided to head back to their rented room for the day. Dmitri lay down on the soft bed that made him sigh in relief as he set Shinx's pokeball on the counter next to his bed and reminisced about today's events.
"One step closer to getting to the Pokemon League and proving my strength to my mom that I am worthy to face her," Dmitri thought to himself seriously as he turned on his side and pulled the blanket closer to him.
Shutting his eyes, he decided to get some rest and snuggled up close to his pillow and let himself fall into a deep sleep. Maris, however, couldn't rest as she paced around the room while inhaling and exhaling silently before she finally sat down on a chair with her face in her paws. Looking down at the ground with a sad expression, she finally tightened her fists and thought to herself determinedly "I'll do it!" Staring at the clock on the wall her eyes widened in shock as an hour had passed since their battle and she rubbed her temple irritably with her paw as she whispered the words stupid to herself.
"Dmitri…" she muttered softly as she turned to face him and her heart sank as she noticed he was already fast asleep.
Fighting back tears that were dangerously close to being let out, she crawled into bed next to him and rubbed his head gently as she stared up at the ceiling downcast as she put one paw on her chest.
"I can face any opponent without fear, but I can't even admit my true feelings to my most trusted friend who raised me like a sister.