Virbank Arc: A Decision
After the treatment, the Pokémon lay side by side on small stretchers in a treatment room. Mari and Jacky walked around the city. "I hope you're not mad," Mari said.
"Mad? At what?" Jacky looked to her.
"At Gabite.",
"It's okay." Jacky shook her head.
Meanwhile, inaudible to the girls, the Pokémon in the treatment room were talking to each other. "I lost to you again, Absol." Kirlia said with a sigh. Absol had curled up, looking at Kirlia. "You were very strong.",
"Ha, you say that so easily... But even having a type advantage against you now, I still am incapable of defeating you. I don't know what's missing...",
"I can say that so easily because it's so easy," Absol replied tersely, and Shinx said encouragingly, "You were great, Kirlia. You beat me just like that, without any effort.",
"You don't need to cheer me up", Kirlia said defensively.
"You're just like your trainer," Absol remarked,
"What do you mean?",
"Once deeply sad, it's hard to get you to be happy again."
Medicham closed her eyes and meditated on the gurney. Kirlia sighed. "Hmm... Could be... What are you doing, Medicham?",
"I'm reviewing my battle and thinking about why I lost," it murmured intently.
"Pah." Gabite crossed his arms. "You know that just as well as I do!",
"Oh, if I remember correctly, it was you who was downright beaten up on the ground by my Psychic, am I not right?" Medicham asked coolly.
"Tch. It's embarrassing that you got knocked out anyway," Gabite countered.
"And you didn't?" A faint smile tugged at Medicham's lips.
"It took me exactly two attacks to finish you off," Gabite said. "And how many did you need? Ten? You could have won, Voodoo wannabe!",
"Now shut up!" Absol growled, putting his paws over his head. "We all lost.",
"Yeah..." Zorua said a bit dejectedly.
"You shut up, Blade!" Gabite hissed at him. Absol was too exhausted to start another argument, so just rolled his eyes.
"Uh, guys... don't do that." Zorua pleaded tiredly.
"Yeah yeah," Gabite growled.
"Zorua's right," Shinx yawned and rolled onto his back.
"Mhm! Of course I'm right! And I hope I get as strong as Gabite, too!",
"Hmph." Gabite just turned his head away.
"I'm tireeeeeeeeeed... I'm so tired, I can barely keep my eyes open!"
"Me too..." Kirlia groaned.
"I'm good to go!" Gabite said, trying to raise an arm, but he cried out as a wave of pain coursed through his limbs. "Crap!",
"Um... are you sure?" Kirlia asked.
"Cockiness is rarely good for you," Shinx puzzled, looking to the dragon. "Right, Absol?" Absol nodded and stretched out. "You took a lot of beating, Gabite. And you beat me," he added. "You better rest and take it easy.",
"Great..." Gabite grumbled. Zorua gave a low whistle as it fell asleep snoring to itself.
"I hope I get better soon," the dragon muttered. "I hate recovery, it takes so long.",
"I'm sure we'll be back to full health soon," Absol yawned, running a paw over his nose. "Your attacks were quite something, Gabite.",
"So were yours. And... hey, Medicham..." He turned his head to the psychic-type Pokémon. "I never thought I'd say this, and I'm most reluctant to do so, but you really got to me!",
"You definitely ate something wrong if you say something like that." Medicham looked at him.
"Pah..." Gabite turned away again.
"I'll do better next time," Kirlia said, bobbing her legs. As she did so, she squinted over at Absol with a challenging look. Absol looked back and nodded. "I'm looking forward to it.",
"I wonder what our trainers are doing right now?" Shinx mumbled.
"They must be in the lobby," Kirlia guessed.
"Hrgh..." Gabite crossed his arms. Shinx just twitched his tail. "They're probably not at the Pokémon- Center.",
"That's dangerous," Kirlia said.
"Huh? Why?" Gabite asked cluelessly.
"Going out without your Pokémon is dangerous. We've had experience with that. Who knows what IT is doing right now.",
"You're definitely worrying too much," Gabite commented.
"Now stay grounded, Kirlia," Absol sighed, "I know we all love each other very much and we only want the best, but isn't this a bit much?",
"Sorry." Kirlia crossed her arms in front of her chest.
"What are you doing, Kirlia?" the dragon asked.
"I'm thinking!" she replied, somewhat annoyed.
"Whenever I think, I eat at the same time." Shinx grinned mischievously.
"You might want to try that, too, Gabite." Kirlia recommended.
"What, the food?"
Absol had to chuckle and Medicham smiled briefly.
"Ugh! You're dumber than a loaf of bread! Honestly!" Kirlia scolded him.
"What?!" Gabite straightened up, but winced in pain. "What do you mean by that?!",
"At least bread isn't hollow," Medicham added, blinking.
"Just airy," Kirlia said. "Maybe you should let some air into your vacuum!",
"Now I'm hungry for bread!" Shinx whined.
"Why don't you ask Jacky if you can get some," Gabite grumbled grumpily.
"If she were here, you stupid breadhead!" Kirlia exclaimed.
"I thought Kirlia said they were gone." Absol growled and exhaled deeply. "You guys are terrible, you know that?",
"Your impartial talk really annoys me, Absol." Gabite growled. This time Kirlia had to laugh. Absol slapped his paws together over his head and sighed.
"Ah, the air feels good!" Mari exclaimed, stretching her arms. Jacky nodded and took a deep breath. "Where is the Virbank Gym anyway?" she asked.
"Uh, from what I heard, it's supposed to be a concert hall. Did you know it's mostly underground?" Mari looked thoughtfully up at the sky, which was sapphire blue and cloudless.
"Concert hall? Isn't it noisy there?",
"Um, definitely." Mari shrugged her shoulders. "Speaking of the gym, when do you think we should tackle it?",
"We should train first, it might be hard in our current state.",
"How right you are." Mari nodded.
"Shinx still needs to get much stronger." Jacky rubbed her wrist. "And Medicham and I have only been a team for a short time, we need to work on ourselves too.",
"Speaking of which, Zorua needs to get better too... And I need to get a handle on Gabite. It's just giving me trouble like that... It's a strong Pokémon, but its ferocity and pugnacity are hard to control.",
"Gabite and you can work it out." Jacky looked to her and smiled encouragingly. "I mean... when we battled, Gabite rarely listened to you and took a lot of things into his own hands. That has to change, and I so hope you guys get it sorted out.",
"Yup, I'll try my best." Mari said.
"Your Zorua is really cute by the way." Jacky fell into a slight gush. Mari had to smile. "I'm curious to see what it's like once it gets stronger.",
"Zorua's evolution form is Zoroark, right?" Jacky asked, taking out her Pokédex and typing in the name.
"Yeah, you can hear that just from the name. But I've never seen one and I don't know what it looks like," Mari said.
"Mh... Here!" Jacky showed Mari a picture of Zoroark.
"Wow... That looks really strong. And extremely cool." Mari smiled. Jacky read the Pokédex entry aloud. "Zoroark- the Illusion Fox Pokémon. Evolution of Zorua. Each has the ability to fool a large group of people simultaneously. They protect their lair with illusory scenery. How cool is that?" She looked up, visibly excited.
"When my Zorua evolves..." Mari was already imagining ideas. "Impressive, really! I didn't even know I had such a cool Pokémon. Whereas..." Her gaze turned thoughtful. "...Didn't Zorua use its Illusion before? In the battle against Cheren, when it took Kirlia's form?",
"Yeah, right." Jacky nodded. "That's Zorua and Zoroark's special ability.",
"One thing I don't understand," Mari muttered. "Why didn't it use the Illusion ability in our battle?",
"Good question." Jacky put a hand behind her head in confusion and shrugged. "Huuuh... I don't have a clue. Maybe you need to tell it who to turn into.",
"Yeah, sounds plausible to me, because in the battle against Cheren, I only had two Pokémon, whereas now, yes, I had three.",
"Maybe... it also had something to do with the order in which you sent Zorua into battle?" Jacky speculated.
"That's also possible. We need to find out just that. It could be very helpful in battle... Do you think I'll be a good battler?" Mari peeked at her friend.
"Sure thing." Jacky nodded encouragingly.
"Thanks." Mari smiled, winked, and gave her a raised thumb. "You're a tough nut to crack... I need to train more, try harder and then, eventually, I'll break your shell apart!"
Jacky laughed and crossed her arms. "That's what I wanted to hear. Questioning yourself like that doesn't sit well with you. But who doesn't ask themselves that?" Jacky smirked and looked away for a moment. "Sometimes you can answer questions for yourself.",
"Hihi... I'm planning to change. You might not have seen it in my face, but in that battle with you when Gabite went nuts and you made me realize what went wrong... For a moment, I toyed with the idea of giving up. Sometimes, I lose the will to fight. That has to change! Yeah, I will never again waste a single thought on giving up and fight to the bitter end!" Mari clenched her hand into a fist.
"My, my!" Jacky smiled and lifted her chin. "Then, we're officially not only friends, but also rivals.",
"You said it!" Mari laughed and looked at Jacky challengingly. "I'll overtake you someday, you'll see! Come on, let's go inside, I'm sure our Pokémon are waiting for us."
After the two friends picked up their Pokémon, Jacky trained near the Pokémon Center for her second gym battle. "Okay, Shinx, now Spark again!" Shinx bristled its fur and dashed forward. It surrounded its fur with electricity and rammed itself against a rock, which shook briefly and then crumbled a bit. "Impressive." Mari stood by and watched them do it.
Suddenly, a figure passed them by. She had very long, caramel-brown hair and wore a long, brown coat. "Oh, you're Pokémon trainers?" the girl asked.
"Yes. I'm Mari. And this is Jacky, my friend."
Jacky looked up. "Oh, hi!",
"You guys haven't been travelling long, have you?",
"No, just took off.",
"I've been on the road a little longer. My name is Kuraiko. How about it, either of you guys up for a Pokémon battle?"
Mari and Jacky exchanged a look. "We could have a fight over that, huh, Jacky?" Jacky nodded. "Oh yeah, we're both in dire need of training.",
"I could battle you two simultaneously, as well," Kuraiko said with a smile. "I've been watching you guys train, and I think each of us needs the training. I already have the second badge, and I want to continue to Castelia soon...",
"Against both of us?" Jacky pondered. "Isn't that unfair? I mean, if you mean a double battle," she quickly added.
"Haha... No, no." Kuraiko shook her head. "It's simple, you each use two Pokémon, I use four.",
"Alright, whatever you say." Jacky put a hand behind her head and nodded. "I'm in.",
"Very well, me too!" Mari and Jacky exchanged a look.
"Good, then it's decided", Kuraiko said. "I'm not going to make it easy for you guys... I'm already lagging behind the others a bit.",
"The others?",
"Yes, my two friends are already ahead of me. We made this agreement that we wouldn't travel together and that, when we meet again in the Pokémon League, we'll show each other how the training has paid off. I'm from Striaton City, and unfortunately, my mom had been having some... difficulties. Because of that, I had to invest some time helping her out, which delayed my progress tremendously. Anyway..." She crossed her arms in front of her chest, "Let's get started."