Authors note: Sorry for the long wait everyone, I got carried away with this chapter and I believe it's by far the longest yet. I also know some of you wanted some action, so I have that later on in the chapter. However, I promise you the next chapter will have a LOT of action. Since I had two chapters ready as well, that means I'll be making the next chapter in the coming days so stay tuned. Other than that, have a good day!
Hey! It's been a week or so since I posted this chapter, I said I'd publish the next chapter within the next few days, but I actually had some other stuff I had to take care of. Still as of now the same 'excuse' applies, so I won't be able to post the next chapter until a few days- at most the next chapter will be out within the next week, sorry for the delay!
So.. my first city in Te aeternum? I'd rate it 10/10. Fenrir followed close behind me as we both explored this relatively MASSIVE city known simply as Sinope city. Currently it was late night , and yet the activity of the city was still bustling.
People and their families were all casually strolling down the street, past marketplaces, shops, and a few interesting attractions. In the main street of the city held a large fountain with 5 levels, beautifully decorated.
Benches lined the walking places and main square. From a quick look around, many pokemon of all shapes and sizes were either roaming the streets as a wild pokemon or with their trainers hand-in-hand. It was crazy how different each one was though.
With one glance, I could spot a trainer with 4 eevees all cuddled up with her on the bench, a single sylveon lingering nearby to keep watch of what I assumed was her children.
But then a quick look to the right and suddenly I can see a tiny child with an electivire and his dad all walking and laughing. A small smile formed on my face. I realized only now did I truly love being in this world. Beforehand I just loved the idea of being in this world, and as much as I've already had to endure you think I wouldn't like it.
But that's far from the truth, in reality I love this place. I've never felt so alive and I've never had as much passion as I did now. Whoever brought me here, WHATEVER brought me here… I need to thank them. This is a dream come true.
Whilst I was in the middle of my inner monologue however, I had failed to notice Fenrir was digging around in a trash can to my left until I heard a sudden THUNK. Looking over, I laughed as I witnessed Fenrir, my Rockruff, digging around in the trash only for it to knock over and roll around. I quickly hustled over and grabbed him out of the big tin can, putting it back in place.
I winced as I had failed to notice I was holding Rockruff under my arm, with a part of my arm digging into his neck- made out of pure rocks. I quickly changed positions and held him up like a dog in front of me, with him wagging his curled tail and his tongue hanging out. "RUFF!" Barked the tiny doggo. I chuckled, this guy really was full of energy, but I don't mind.
Once again, while in a state of happiness, I had failed to notice another thing going on. More particularly that when Fenrir barked he dropped a small disc that quietly hit the ground. I only really noticed when I was putting Fenrir back down on the ground.
Questionably, I picked up the disc that was very obviously found in the garbage can. Turning it back and forth, it reminded me of a TM. more uncommonly known as a Technical machine, its a little nifty thing that holds a move. The move is different depending on the TM type, which can be somewhat distinguished by the color of the disc.
The more I looked at it however the more I realized it didn't fully resemble a TM. Usually TMs have a full disc color. But this one is mostly black with a reddish coloring in the middle. Odd, perhaps I'll figure it out later? Whatever the case is, I'm currently low on cash and I'll take the resources I can get; so while no one was looking I slipped it into my pocket.
I just hope this experience doesn't force me to look through all the trash cans now like the pokemon games, which was a bad habit of mine. I squinted, looking around at all the trash cans.. Hopefully I didn't have any urges.
Finally, I brushed myself off and continued to explore with Fenrir. After a while of walking I finally found a Pokemon Center, although the fact that I missed it for this long was just unbelievably sad. Entering, I found that similar to the other Pokemon Center, this one was just as cool.
However, this Pokemon Center was also much more massive and different compared to Woodrow's. More specifically, this one one was plastered with brick walls, had two employees for the mart rather than just one, two nurse joys, and even two coffee shop employees too. I guess because this is a city and vastly bigger then Woodrow town that means the demand for even the simpler necessities like coffee is bigger.
That made sense, but what was also interesting was that behind the nurse joy's weren't just a healing station but a door that I assumed led to their surgery areas. Kinda like how the bigger a hospital is the more rooms for healing there are.
Speaking of rooms, there was also a large staircase in between the coffee shop and the main healing station. I assumed those led to rooms that trainers could rent out or something. Wait.. SWEET! Maybe they have a shower or something, I really need one.. So does Fenrir.
I walked up to the healing center and suddenly had an idea. I pulled out Fenrir's Luxury ball and put him back in it. "Hello, how may I help you?" Chimed one of the Nurse Joy's. "Oh uh… I have a few questions". "Okay, what is it?" she asked. "Well, I was wondering when I give you my pokemon to heal them, is there also some sort of way they get cleaned?" She paused for a moment, looking me up and down. "Oh.. you must be a new trainer. If that's the case then yes, whenever we put pokemon in the machine it doesn't clean them, but after they're healed we take them out and clean them up for a small fee. Most trainers prefer to just clean them by themselves though."
Huh.. I wonder if I need a kit or something to clean them up? "So does that mean I need some sort of kit or tools to clean them? If so, where can I get one?" She continued to smile whilst replying "Simple, you can buy one from the employees for 100 pokedollars. That's also the same price for us to clean them after we heal them." I sighed.. I still only had 500 pokedollars, so I had to be careful with my money.. And yet, I was absolutely way too tired to clean them now.
"Well, okay. One last question, how much is it to rent a room?" She pointed to a sign to her left that had the rules, but still replied anyway;"For a single night it's free, but for more consecutive days the price varies. There's also a waiting list, but that's only if we're booked fully. As of right now, we have some open spaces so you're welcome to spend the night." Finally, some good luck outta this whole situation.
"Okay, I guess I'll take a room then, do you mind healing my pokemon for the night and cleaning them afterwards?". She took my pokemon saying "It'll be my pleasure". I then proceeded to hand her 100 pokedollars and bought a cleaning kit from the pokemart guy for another 100 pokedollars. Now I'm only down to 300 pokedollars... Guess I need to find some way to get more cash soon. But, I'll figure that all out tomorrow, for now I need some rest.
I trudged all the way up to my room with the key the Nurse gave me and headed inside. It was a relatively small room with a single normal-sized bed, a small nightstand, and a computer facing opposite the bed on the other wall. There was also another door which I assumed led to the bathroom. I would describe the room more, but I'm very tired so instead I just locked the door, took a quick shower, and went to bed.
Stirring awake, I found myself comfortably rested, for once. Perhaps it was because this was the first night of genuine sleep that I had that didn't involve me coming to an inevitable downfall/recovering from injuries. Speaking of my injuries, my smaller cuts and scrapes have healed really nicely. But I still have a bit of a nasty Dragon Claw cut from that Turtonator as well as the claw marks on my legs..
Speaking of Turtonator, I wonder what happened to that guy? I never saw him in Woodrow, so he must have either recovered and left or he ended up flying off somewhere way different. I guess there's not much concern there though, since as long as he's not causing any trouble it's all good.
Anyway, something interesting I found while staying here was the bathroom also had a washer and dryer. In my tired stupor I forgot to mention it, but it just kinda sat there. So I changed out into a new pair of clothes, putting the old ones in a wash. Now you didn't get this from me, but I may or may not have raided Amber's closet before we left for another pair of clothes. Luckily, she had some casual clothing, although it was a bit tight on me.
I smiled for a moment, until I realized thinking about Amber made me.. Well… THINK about Amber. I moved on though, there's other things I have to focus on right now and I can't let my mistakes get the best of me.
While waiting the full hour for my clothes to both be washed and dried, I decided to check out the computer. Surprisingly, I found that everything was just about the same. As generally expected people in this world don't live like cavemen, but to find out they have literally everything my world has is a bit interesting.
Of course, it wouldn't be any different if it didn't have the subtle but very different names for the same thing. Like Youtube here is called budew-tube and snapchat is called snapchatot. I'll admit the snapchat one sounds clever, but still.
Just like real life, I had accidentally enveloped myself on the computer for over 30 minutes, so I quickly switched the clothes over and resumed my browsing. Curious, I quickly searched up maps of the world. Interestingly enough, According to the computer this world was just one massive connected landmass-pangea of sorts.
What piqued my interest the most however was that all of the regions from the pokemon games appeared to be included in the map. Checking them all, their general structures all looked highly the same as the game ones, meaning that regions were near identical here.
But, more importantly, the area I was located in wasn't a region introduced yet. It was a rather circular region, that was in the direct center of all the other regions, essentially being the no-man's land that you wouldn't have access to in the games. I sighed, knowing that because I was in an unfamiliar region I wasn't going to have nearly as easy of a time as I would if I was in the other regions.
Being the curious person I am, I continued to research this place. Until suddenly, I had a bright idea; search for the champion. I was in the process of doing so until I heard the sound of the dryer completed. I'm not one for cliff-hangers, but I figured as much as I spoil myself here that I may as well just figure out later who it is.
I moved on, internally wishing I could just quickly see for myself but knowing if I did I wouldn't have nearly as much fun as opposed to if I didn't search them up. With that, I cleaned up the room a bit so whoever had to come in to clean it wouldn't have as much as a hard time. I packed up all that I had and headed downstairs.
Entering the main area, I greeted the Nurse Joys by the healing station. "Oh good morning sir! Your Rockruff is doing really well, however I regret to inform you we'll have to take a second look at your Riolu". I froze, I didn't expect them to double check, but they were professionals, so Leo's best bet would be to rest up. "A-Alright. How long should I expect him to be here?" I questioned honestly, and yet with a bit of fear in my voice.
News like that is never a good sign, but it was best to stay strong and just hope everything turns out okay. "Well, I'd say 10 hours or so. I promise he's not in any serious danger, but our system detected a few things that we wanted to run through a few more times to be thorough". "Okay, well.. I trust you, just please be careful with him." She nodded, simply saying "Will do sir". I sighed, even more time without Leo, I just hope nothing drastic happens in that amount of time.
I moved on begrudgingly, since I had to. I needed to figure out a way to get more cash, so going around town to ask people or search is all I've got so far, since I can't be too far away from the city.
On my little journey, I talked with many people and got to learn a lot more. Thankfully, these people are a lot more friendly than the ones from Woodrow; I assume this has to do with the fact that their city is constantly bustling with travelers unfamiliar with many things, and because of that the city's people had to adapt and learn to be communicative, similar to my world.
Although, frankly that isn't the case in some cities in my world, like New York in America. I figure that it might be similar for at least one other city here as well, so I mentally took a note to prepare myself for when I get to that city.
Besides that, I actually learnt information that wasn't just me analyzing. Turns out there's a GYM here. Yeah, like pokemon gyms from the games. I could barely contain my excitement. After all, gym's are super cool and great places to train/hone your skills. Also, I figured that if there was gym, that means there's a league- and therefore a chance to become a champion.
Although.. I haven't even fought a real trainer yet, so my ambitions are still quite high. Whatever the case is I headed towards the Gym, which from what people said was behind the pokemon center? Honestly I can't believe I never saw that either but I guess I'm just not always 100% observant.
A quick walk led me to the stadium. Interesting, so I guess the Gym's here favor the idea of large stadiums? It was a massive dome shaped stadium, similar to the ones in Sword and Shield.. Which I guess means that those pokemon are here too? I'll hold my tongue on that, since even I don't know everything about those games yet.
Anyway, walking up to the front entrance I noticed a few things. Firstly, there were two desks of what looked to be gym trainers. One desk had a sign that was held very high that said 'Sign up for your Gym Challenge here, as well as to watch the performances'. That particular desk was crowded to the brim with people all trying to get in.
The other desk was barren and empty, with a single sign saying 'help wanted!'. The gym trainer there looked as though she were about to fall asleep. I found it a bit odd that no one wanted to help the gym. Figuring I had nothing better to do, I walked on over to the help desk, curious.
"Hello. What kind of help do you need?" The women snapped awake, confused that someone was here. "W-Wait. Are you sure you aren't just lost and confused? The sign up desk to watch gym challenges/compete is over there." She pointed to the other desk, expecting me to leave. "No Ma'am, I wanted to help out. I was wondering do people get paid for their services helping out? I don't mind either way but it would be cool if I did get paid, since I'm kinda broke."
She froze for a moment, glancing at me to see if I was joking or not. "Well, you're certainly a first. We don't get a lot of people offering to help, let alone those who aren't exactly in the best shape, no offense. By the way we do pay for the help."
Now I was the one who had to think. I mean obviously she jabbed at my weight there, but that wasn't really the issue here. Why do so many people not help out if you get paid to do it? "Before I help, I have a question. Why are there so many people who want to watch and compete rather than help out the Gym?"
The woman sighed, clearly this is a topic that comes up a lot. "Well, most of those people are fanatics for our Gym Leader Otrera. They're all such fans that they'd rather just see her and meet her then help out the gym. Especially since she usually almost never has the chance to help out herself."
"Okay, well I don't really know who she is, but I'd like to help regardless. Helping is the best way to experience things. At least, that's what I think anyway." The lady looked at me and smiled. "Good to hear, we need all the help we can get before each challenge. By the way, my name is Lily!" Lily shook my hand, to which I returned the favor. "It's a pleasure to meet you Lily, my name is Bahamut."
"Alrighty Bahamut, right this way." And with that, I followed Lily into the Gym. I was quite right with my predictions too, the inside was massive compared to what it looked like on the outside. Upon entry I noticed the thousands of spectator seats all circled around one main field that stretched out to what felt like the horizon. Lily first introduced me to everyone else who was working for the day to help set up. Apparently our job was to help set up.. Obstacle courses? But the oddest part was that it was in pairs of 2's, as though 2 people had to run through a single portion together.
Whatever the case was I moved on to focus on my work. The work itself was the usual, moving boxes from one place to another, hoisting certain objects. At one point I had to hoist a big wall with a few others. The work itself felt really rewarding and refreshing, but it was also absolutely painful. The amount of work here reminded me of those drills I used to do when I was in football.
Finally, the day hit mid-afternoon, and it looked like our work was done. Lily thanked all of the volunteers who weren't Gym trainers and paid us all a hefty some of 20,000 poke dollars EACH?! She explained to us the amount of money we got changed each day depending on how many volunteers there were. If there were a lot of volunteers one day the amount we would receive would get rationed. But since there weren't many today we got a lot. Thank god, now I wasn't broke.
"Good work all of you. You were able to finish on time." Everyone looked up towards the voice coming from the rafters. A woman was hanging on by one of the Steel bars and swinging wildly. She swung herself off one of the bars onto another, and then shimmied herself to the end of a bar next to a wall. Then she hopped off the bar and started to climb down the wall like some sort of Assassin. Everyone stared in awe, this lady was insane!
She finally got to the floor and jumped a few feet down, landing with a big thud, bending her knees to take the impact better. She stretched herself out and stood tall. "Hello! Again, thanks for helping set up. My morning training sessions are always intense!" The lady smiled nonchalantly, as though she didn't just parkour the ceiling and walls of a stadium. Lily turned towards her and said "Oh hello Otrera, we were just about to call it a day." Otrera, the parkour women, looked towards us all.
Otrera was a giant amazoness of a woman. She stood what looked to be 6'5 tall. Her entire body was fully muscular and she wore simple sports clothing. On top of that she had wild flowing blonde hair, which contrasted surprisingly well with her overall highly tanned body. "Good work then. I certainly like the style of this course. I also notice some new faces around here, like you. You're not a regular here, right?" She then pointed to me.
"Yes Ma'am. I'm just a traveler that wanted to help out. My name's Bahamut." Her eyes twinkled for a moment, looking me up and down. "Good to know. My name, obviously, is Otrera, I'm the Gym leader here."
We shook hands, except it felt more like arm wrestling because of just how muscular she was. I respect the grind though, it must have taken a lot of time and dedication to achieve that amount of work.
"Hey Bahamut, you look like the challenger type, do you have a pokemon?" Otrera asked calmly. "Why yes I do. I actually have two but one of them is in the pokemon center right now recovering from a battle he had with a pack of mightyena and poochyena" I explained casually. "That's a shame really. I guess that explains why you aren't challenging my Gym then. But hey, since you're here why don't you and all the other volunteers watch my matches today for free? Perhaps it would give you a fighting edge whenever you try to take me on too" Otrera coolly said. Everyone excitedly agreed and hurried into the stands before the spectators filled them up.
What I found the most interesting about Otrera's offer though was that she was fully okay with letting challengers analyze how she battles before they even challenge here. She was fully aware that I could use what I see to my advantage, but her confidence in her abilities to still beat me with that disadvantage was simply awesome.
Anyway, we all settled down and watched as the spectators started to funnel in, somehow slowly filling up the entire stadium. Once everyone was settled, the 16 trainers slowly came into the stadium to compete. Interestingly enough they came in pairs of 2's. Something was going on here but I just didn't know what…
Otrera was on the other side of the stadium opposite the challengers. She stood on a large Podium, with a microphone in one hand. Behind her were many screens capturing her face. "Welcome Challengers! I am Otrera, the Gym Leader of Sinope City! As you know, my Gym theme is Double battles. In order to challenge me you need another partner to compete together, you also may only carry 2 pokemon each. The task for my Gym is simple; you and your partner must work together through the obstacle courses. However, you must work together in harmony if you want to stand a chance to compete. If you leave a partner behind, you both fail. This is a team effort.
Secondly, as part of my gym instead of fighting the Gym 'Trainers' you must actually fight the other challengers. As I only allow 16 trainers per day, that means you will be fighting with one another over and over. If you lose, you forfeit the challenge, meaning only ONE pair may reach me and challenge me. This is an elimination Gym, so tread carefully.
The obstacle course has been split into 4 sections. With each section there are less obstacle courses, until only one obstacle course remains. And that one leads directly to ME! One last thing, the last team that makes it to the next portion gets eliminated, meaning at least one team is going to get a pass and move on to the next portion during each one exception is the last battle between the challengers. All teams moving forward must be present and ready until they move forward to the next section. Battle quickly if you want to catch up and guarantee yourself safety. Good luck challengers, you're going to need it.
As much as the rules were far from simple, I was still in shock. This was a DOUBLE'S Gym… Now this challenge caught my attention. I know from setting up the course that it's rightfully fair but just overall challenging, so I'm interested to see how this plays out. Although a big thing that is going to be my setback is that I'd need to find a partner, since I don't have Amber. That'll certainly be a chall-BEGIN!
I failed to notice, but while thinking about what I was going to do later the challenge had begun. I cleared my head and moved on, watching the challenges. The challenge went smoothly, similar to how Otrera explained it. All the teams raced towards the obstacles and began to compete. The first obstacle was a sandpit, which took a lot of time to set up with the team.
We all hid a single empty sport ball inside the sandpit. Each team had to dig out their ball and move on to fight. The crowd cheered as all the competitors were shaking trying to find their sport balls. Finally, all of them found them and moved aside from one team, who had to forfeit since they were last. Then the battles commenced, 3 battles were taking place while one team was catching a breather.
I was paying particular attention to one battle with a girl and boy against two girls. The boy and girl were using electabuzz and Magmar, while the girls had two eevee's. "Electabuzz, use Thunder Punch on the Eevee facing you!" The boy shouted. "Magmar, use helping hands on Electabuzz!" The Magmar nodded and clapped, cheering on Electabuzz and boosting its attack. The Electabuzz, fully charged and boosted, launched its attack at the Eevee which made it faint instantly. The other trainer took the opportunity to attack. "Eevee, use Swift on both of them!" The Eevee lashed out and shook its body, releasing a wave of star-shaped energy that hit both Magmar and Electabuzz, who both barely clung on.
The fainted eevee trainer sent out their last pokemon which was a Dustox. "Quick, Electabuzz use Discharge." "Magmar, use Protect!" The Magmar protected itself for the round; allowing the Electabuzz to release a wave of Electric energy that bounced off the magmar, Dustox, and Eevee. Only the Eevee fainted, but because Magmar used protect it was fine. That was a genius play on their part. The Dustox barely clung on. If it had been a fire move from Magmar that could have been the end of it.
The trainer who just lost an Eevee sent out their final pokemon, a Beautifly. "Magmar, use Lava Plume!" "Electabuzz, you know the drill, protect!" Their strategy was pretty clever. With both pokemon using protect it allowed for the other to go all out with their attack. The Magmar released a wave of heat that erupted onto all 3 pokemon. The Dustox died and the Beautifly, due to its weak defenses, also fell. What an invigorating battle..
All the teams finished their battle and took a quick breather, stepping up to the next portion. A horn sounded signaling them to continue on. The next portion involved the team using the Sports ball they found in the previous section. The objective was simple, all they had to do was throw the ball into a hole on the makeshift wall; which then had to be picked up by the other partner who wasn't throwing, handing it back to you. Each partner had to make it twice before a gate next to the wall opened.
The crowd, ever so convenient, screamed at the top of their lungs as the challengers went about their course. The team I had watched win earlier was doing good. So far they already made the holes once each. A bit of time passed by until finally the team I had my eyes on finished and moved up. Another straggler team failed to complete it, this team a punk boy & girl. They were absolutely livid about it and were arguing as they had to be escorted away… this place sure was intense. Similar to how the last battle played out, the Electabuzz and Magmar Duo (Who at this point I figured were a picnicker couple) did the exact same strategy as their last battle, and successfully wiped the floor with these two guys who were using psychic and fighting type pokemon.
Finally only two teams remained, the couple I was rooting for and another girl boy pair; these ones seemed to look like professionals. The second to last part of the course was a 3-legged race- should be simple enough. Both teams wrapped their legs together and started to run together. This time, both teams seemed to struggle just a tad when it came to working together. The Boy picnicker would tell the girl what to do, but it was less of teamwork and more of following orders. I guess not everyone is perfect at being perfect…
Anyway, both teams finally made it to the near stretch. The final battle, similar to the last few, went exactly as before. The Electabuzz and Magmar Combo were just too strong against the other team's Indeedee pair (One Female and Male). The most informative part about this is that Sword and Shield pokemon DO exist here… which means I'll certainly have to try harder now to be the best.
With that, the Rag-Tag duo were the final challengers, but they still had one more obstacle to overcome. This time it was a giant wall, the one I mentioned earlier. It took multiple people to hoist that bad boy, since it was solid and REAL heavy. The trickiest part of this one was that it was too tall to climb separately. Rather, the pair has to hoist one person up, and then the person who's on top of the wall has to hoist up the person at the bottom; then they slide down the ramp connected to the back of the wall. This one took some thought, but they agreed that the boy most likely needed to be hoisted up first. It was a solid few minutes of struggling from both of them, and I'm sure having this large crowd didn't help at all.
Finally though, there was progress. The female gathered all her energy and jumped while holding him, allowing the boy to quickly cling to the top of the wall, slowly hoisting himself over. They took a minute breather before he grabbed for her hands and slowly pulled her up. With a moment's rest, they both nodded before sliding down the ramp to meet their final challenge.
"Welcome! Took you long enough to get here. It's time for you to meet your opponent, and decide if you have what it takes to earn the Sinope city BADGE!" Otrera flexed and posed to the crowd, garnering a large amount of cheers and applause; I chuckled, she sure was a crowd pleaser. Otrera jumped off her Podium, pokeball in hand. "Let's get this show on the road!"
Otrera threw out her two pokemon… a spritzee and a meditite? That was super odd considering those weren't commonly used pokemon for gyms. I guess the theme IS teamwork and doubles, rather than a single typing. On top of that, they weren't evolved either.. I wonder how this'll go down. "Magmar, use helping hands on Electabuzz!" The picnicker girl shouted. Magmar rushed towards Electabuzz and cheered it on, clapping to gather its strength for its attack. Otrera smirked.
"Meditite, fake out Electabuzz." In a blaze of unprecedented speed, the Meditite shot forward and quickly hit the Electabuzz by slapping it as though it were clapping. The Electabuzz, stunned, wasn't able to continue its powered up attack for the turn. "Now Spritzee, kindly use Trick Room". The Spritzee floated up and suddenly was engulfed in light. Then, the stadium started to inverse in colors, as walls of energy encompassed the battle within the stadium.
Looking at the picnickers, they were obviously very nervous. "Keep this in mind trainers, just because you use the same tactics because they worked doesn't mean I won't catch on." Otrera boomed over the mic, gaining another round of screams and applause.
"Electabuzz, use protect!". Otrera smiled, "I figured you'd do that. Meditite, Use Drain Punch on the Magmar, and Spritzee use Wish on Meditite!" The Spritzee went first, Wishing for her ally to be healed, while the Meditite sprung into action. The Meditite ran straight in front of the Magmar, Hitting it square in the jaw with a clean punch. Then it backed off into its original spot.
Due to Meditite not being hit yet, he didn't gain any health, rather he just got a good hit in. The Magmar was rubbing its jaw in pain. "Quick Magmar, now use Lava Plume!" The Magmar, in a state of rage, concentrated hard before piles of Lava seeped onto the field attacking both the Spritzee and Meditite. The Spritzee surprisingly held on, while the meditite looked like another one would end it. And as quick as the lava appeared, it dissolved into the floor.
"Return Spritzee!" Otrera said, pulling her pokemon back and switching it out for a Porygon2. "Meditite, use protect!" the meditite pulled itself together and protected itself. "Magmar, use fire punch on the porygon2!" "Electabuzz, Discharge!" The girl picnicker looked up, confused at her partner. Clearly one of them messed up.
Before either trainer could retract their statement, Magmar flung a punch at the porygon2, injuring it only slightly. Meanwhile, the Electabuzz flung a Discharge that landed on both porygon2 and Magmar. The Porygon2, likely having trained to take hits, barely held on. The Magmar fainted. The girl looked over at her partner and started arguing. "Relax trainers, you must focus on the battle, not your mistakes" Otrera replied. Finally, the picnickers calmed down, but the girl still looked upset.
The girl then sent out her final pokemon, a Nidoqueen. "Now we're talking, something I haven't seen yet, this should be fun!" Boomed Otrera, once more switching from the mic back and forth. "Now's my turn though, Meditite Return!" Otrera once more pulled out her pokemon, swapping it for a Mismagius. "Porygon2, use Psychic on Nidoqueen!" The Porygon2 concentrated and attempted to lift the Nidoqueen up, but due to her natural bulkiness could only lift her a few feet off the ground.
Porygon2 however still managed to throw the Nidoqueen a few ways away to a nearby wall. Nidoqueen shook it off, getting into position ready to wait for an order. "Nidoqueen now's your chance, USE EARTHQUAKE!" The boy picnicker looked at her surprised, but all too late.
The ground violently shook as it rumbled back and forth. The ground shook and thrashed before flinging both the Electabuzz and porygon far into the air before they both crashed down; Mismagius avoided all of this due to her Levitate ability. Both pokemon had fainted. The boy picnicker, furious, quickly swapped out his Electabuzz for his last pokemon, a Nidoking.
Otrera smirked, collecting her Porygon2 and replacing it. She breathed in, relaxing herself. "Meditite, use Ice Punch on Nidoking. Mismagius, use confuse ray on Nidoqueen!" Both pokemon did as told, with the Meditite enveloping his fist into a frozen fury of hurt and punching the Nidoking square in the stomach, leaving him keeling over; meanwhile the Mismagius had summoned confusion around the Nidoqueen.
"Nidoqueen, use Thrash" Nidoqueen attempted to follow orders, but unsuccessfully did so, instead hitting herself square in the face. "Nidoking use Earthquake!" The picnicker boy shouted. Before anyone had time to react Nidoking screamed as the ground exploded into another shaking earthquake, thrashing about but only hitting the meditite and Nidoqueen. Similar to the last earthquake, the Mismagius evaded it because she was levitating, and both Nidoqueen and Meditite went down. The girl was arguing with the boy as she returned her pokemon.
Otrera, realizing an opportunity had risen, quickly replaced her meditite with her Spritzee. "Mismagius, USE SHADOW BALL ON THE Nidoking!" Mismagius floated up and gathered a dark sphere of energy around her mouth, blasting it forth towards the unprepared giant. Before the boy had time to react, Nidoking was hit. The purple pokemon stood there, seemingly about to take the hit… before it slowly fell backwards and fainted, crashing on the ground.
The crowd erupted as Otrera did her final move. She had successfully beaten the challengers. I'd be lying if I said I also wasn't cheering and hollering. The picnicker couple, who had seemingly been in perfect sync before the match, were arguing back and forth between each other.
Otrera quickly turned to her microphone. "Now challengers, relax. You lost because you were too reliant on a single strategy. On top of that, you lost faith in your partner halfway through the battle, and so you suffered. Perhaps this is a lesson to all of you, so you may all hear my warning." Otrera seemed to be saying this to the crowd, but I also noticed her slyly turn and look directly at me, winking.
I guess Otreara really meant business. Anyway, since the battle concluded that meant everyone had to leave, so the crowd shuffled out. I followed quickly behind. Once outside, the crowd started to slowly disperse into the afternoon resuming their usual business.
I pondered, taking in all I witnessed. Now I know Otrera's team but beating it will still be a problem I'll have to solve soon. I also have the issue of finding a partner. Looking around, I noticed many trainers of all shapes and sizes just hanging around. I guess I know what I had to do next, which was finding myself a partner.
"Hey Bahamut, I hope you liked the match. I've given you a taste of what you'll have to deal with when we eventually compete." I looked behind me, Otrera had appeared from the Gym. "Oh hey Otrera, awesome match. I'll have to figure something out to really beat you." She chuckled. "Well, whatever it is you figure out you'll have to try tomorrow. The Gym's closed now."
I blinked, the Gym was closed? I just figured that the Gym's were open at all times. But I guess it made sense since the Gym Leaders had lives too.. "Well alright, I just have a few questions then." She stood straight, replying "Ask away"."Well first, I was wondering what hours is the Gym open, and secondly how come people have to always help set up the obstacle course before a challenge, can't you just keep it up at all times?"
She blinked. "Huh.. you really ARE new to this concept Bahamut. You must have lived under a rock or something, but I'll cave. To answer the first question, Gym hours are different depending on the leader; but for me I usually have them open everyday monday through friday during the afternoon hours. Secondly, the reason I don't keep the courses up is because my job is to single-handedly put it all away. That's how I got the physique you see today from yours truly".
"Okay well, I guess I have another question now. Why do you put them away all by yourself?". She froze, saying "Woah… okay. I was joking about the whole living under a rock thing but I guess you really must have lived under a rock… I'm a professional athlete, and I have rigorous training sessions almost all day everyday. When I'm not at the Gym I'm almost always preparing and honing my body. That's also why I have such a large fan base; although all Gym Leaders have that regardless."
Huh.. go figure, I guess that means Gym Leaders really do have lives. "Okay well, that's all I wanted to know, I'll leave you to your work." Otrera smiled "Alright cool. Good luck finding a partner, and I'll see ya soon!" She waved goodbye and headed back into the Gym. I sighed looking around…. I really need to find a partner.