Chapter 27: Rematch

Once again Lucas stood across from Barry in the half constructed Gym of Pastoria City. Barry waited with his bright smile and boundless energy while Lucas glared back with gritty determination. The first time these two had faced each other, Lucas had been unprepared. He had no idea of Barry's type specialty or his battle strategy. Though he had lost badly the last time the two faced each other, to a point where Lucas doubted everything about himself, through that loss he had gained a great advantage. Gym Leaders were forced to use a registered team of Pokemon that could not change from battle to battle. Trainers could change their Pokemon teams as often as it pleased them. Barry had assumed Lucas was a poor Trainer because he had underestimated the Leader, but Barry had no idea just how much he underestimated the stubborn, temperamental Trainer from Cherrygrove City.

"I won't go through my spiel again because you've already faced me, but don't forget, I'm no pushover! So make sure you don't make the same mistakes again," Barry quipped with his cheery butter-won't-melt-in-my-mouth tone.

"I promise you, I don't intend on it," Lucas replied darkly.

"Good, because you don't want to come off as worse of a Trainer than you already are," Barry pulled off his Pokeball and with a flutter of his scarf sent his first Pokemon to the field, "Go Tentacruel!"

And once again, the jellyfish Pokemon appeared on the field, causing the scar on Lucas' chest to tingle from the memory of the sting from his childhood, and further motivation for fast and humiliating defeat fueled the sixteen-year-old Trainer. Pulling the Pokeball off of his belt the boy called out his own Pokemon, "Go Sparky!"

The Rotom arrived fully focused on the battle. Lucas wasn't sure if it was because Sparky had finally gotten over his bad habit of wandering around in the middle of a battle until called to attack, or simply it understood how important this battle was to its Trainer. Barry attempted to confuse the Rotom with his Tentacruel's Confuse Ray, but Sparky's cheery obliviousness acted like a natural defense against the attack. It only took one electric-based attack to send the poisonous sea monster into unconsciousness. The teen knew what was coming next, and had a more powerful strategy prepared. In addition to its lack of many weaknesses, Barry's Pokemon put the tank in Skutank. Like the last battle, Barry's upbeat personality didn't waver and summoned his next Pokemon to the field, "Go Skutank!"

"Sparky. Great job pal, but it's time to hit the bench. Return!" the tattooed boy called back his electric ghost and pulled a second ball off of his belt, "Okay, Hotrod, time for Phase 1!"

The large cat-like dark-type glared at the stoic fire lizard. Hotrod wanted redemption and revenge for defeat just as badly as Lucas did, and studied his opponent carefully. He trusted his Trainer to have a plan and waited eagerly for a command. Barry seemed oblivious to the determined clenching of the jaws that both Trainer and the Pokemon shared as he announced his first attack, "Skutank, Toxic!"

"Flamewheel!" Lucas replied. Once again the Charmeleon was hit with full force by the poison Pokemon's toxin, and once again, refused to let the pain affect him. He gripped his claws into the ground and waited for Lucas to call out again. "Flamewheel! Again!"

"Fury Swipes!"

"Flamewheel again!" Lucas repeated the command again and again until the result he waited for occurred. With Hotrod's low health, his Blaze ability kicked in, making his fire attacks more powerful and finally, like their first battle, the Skutank suffered a burn. Now the massive Pokemon would weaken each turn, regardless if Lucas' attacks would hit or not, "That's what we were looking for, Hotrod, that's enough for now! Go! Gabite!"

Over the several days that Lucas had been training, he had added the Gible he caught in a cave outside of Oreburg to his team. The dragon-ground type evolved into Gabite, and became a speedy fighter, that like the Skutank, had very few weaknesses. However, what counted most was that against the Skutank, it had the advantage. Barry's cheery demeanor seemed to shift slightly to his wide-eyed amazement, the look he had when he discovered something new, "Hmm. A Gabite. I had no idea you had something like that. Are you sure you can handle it?"

"You have no idea what I can handle. Gabite! Dig!" Lucas roared as the ground-dragon dove underground as easily as if it was leaping into a pool. The slower Skutank looked around, trying to anticipate where the Pokemon would appear, all the while weakening as Hotrod's burn took its toll. Suddenly the Gabite exploded from the ground, pounding directly into the poison-type. The Skutank teetered slightly, rocking back and forth to try to catch its balance before falling over with a thud that caused a pile of paint cans to topple over. "Yes! That sucker is down!"

Despite his Pokemon's defeat, Barry continued baring his big, happy smile. He summoned back his Skutank, "It's really amazing how you didn't learn a single thing since your last battle with me. I told you not to underestimate me. Boy, you really are a dumb Trainer. Go! Toxicroak!"

Lucas had been so sidelined by the Skutank during his last fight, that it hadn't even occurred to him that his battle with the Gym Leader would involve a third Pokemon. It was a setback, but even so, the teen was not discouraged. In case something went wrong with Gabite, the teen had a backup plan. He met the Leader's grin with his own, "Boy, you really are a dumb Leader. I told you not to underestimate me either. Go Haunter!"

The boy summoned his next Pokemon. This was another of the Pokemon he had trained during his preparations for the rematch, the Ghastly that he caught in the same Chateau he caught Sparky. Like the Gible, after their practice sessions the Pokemon had evolved. And now both the Haunter and her Trainer shared the same mischievous grin. It would be poison-type versus poison-type, but with one major difference: the fighting aspect of Toxicroak would have no effect against the ghostly Haunter. Even so, Barry's bemused grin widened even further, "Suckerpunch!"

"Curse!" Lucas could have anticipated that the Leader's Pokemon would know a non-type attack, but in this case there was no problem. The Haunter lifted high above the reach of the giant toxic frog and completely avoided the attack. A specter of a giant voodoo needle appeared before the ghost, before plunging itself deep into the Haunter's astral body. While it seemed like it was in intense pain from the self-inflicted stabbing, it was the Toxicroak that seemed to bear the most of the damage. Now every turn the poison-and-fighting type would get weaker and weaker, just like it was burned or poisoned. But Lucas wasn't done yet. In the next round Barry once again attempted to damage the now very weakened ghost-type, and once again the Toxicroak missed. This gave the teen Trainer an opportunity to strike another damaging blow, "Haunter! Will o' Whisp!"

A symbolic fire appeared between the ghost's disembodied hands and shot towards the Toxicroak, hitting its mark with ease. Now in addition to the pain of the curse, the fighting frog would suffer a burn as well. For the first time in the two meetings the Trainers had, Barry began to look serious, "Suckerpunch!"

This time the attack hit its target, finally knocking the Haunter painfully to the ground. Lucas praised his Pokemon for her work and pulled the next Pokeball off of his belt, "Go Donna!"

Barry's expression fell to disbelief again, but true disbelief this time, not the amused surprise that Lucas had found so irritating before. Though the Toxicroak used more of its Sucker Punches with its dark-type advantage, the conclusion of the Gym match was all but written in stone. The victory of this match would go to Lucas, and as the Toxicroak slumped to the floor after one of the Espeon's Psybeam attacks, it was the younger boy's turn to sink to his knees in stunned defeat, "How could this happen? You were so terrible the first time! But I lost. I lost against you,"

Lucas drank in this victory more than he had any match before. It wasn't just the feeling of satisfaction that came from winning, or even the thrill of watching the motormouth, hyper Leader be at a loss for words. No, the greatest feeling that came from this battle, this, his fifth Gym victory and his soon-to-be received badge was the wave of relief and weight off of his chest that came from being reassured of his skills. Morgan, Maylene and all the other people who critiqued his battles were right. He was not a great Trainer, at least not yet, not this early is his Journey, but he was a very good one. He did understand type advantages and battle strategy, and his battles were all his own style. But even when he was winning against Barry, there was a tiny gnawing fear in his gut that the Leader may do something to train-wreck his plan and Lucas would still lose. That gnawing was gone now and the teen Trainer from Cherrygrove felt like even if he ever lost again, be it against Trainer, Leader of Elite Four member, that doubt would never come back. It finally felt like the new path he set for himself was real.

The Mowhawked boy was about to say something to the still dumbfounded Leader when a low, gruff voice called out to Barry first, "Barry!"

In the main doorway of the disheveled Gym stood a massive man who was both very tall and incredibly stocky. His most distinguishing feature was the wrestler's mask that covered his face, and through this mask he seemed incredibly irate. Like their were springs on his knees, Barry popped back up to his feet, "Crasher Wake!"

"Barry, haven't you learned a single thing from me! I told you I didn't want to be your mentor, I told you I didn't think you were ready to be a Gym Leader, but you begged and you pleaded and you showed me you were serious about being a League recognized Leader. So I finally relent and take you under my wing and teach you everything I knew about being an honorable Gym Leader. I come to check in on you and see how my old Gym is doing, the Gym I built up after years of dedication and practice of Water Pokemon between my wrestling. And then what do I hear? I hear a Leader tell a Trainer, a Trainer who clearly treats his Pokemon with love and respect and works very hard, that he just about has no right to be a Trainer," Crasher Wake stormed over to the small, skinny adolescent, who now hung his head sadly as he took in his hero's rant, "I couldn't be more ashamed of you unless I learned you started abusing your own Pokemon,"

"But Crasher Wake-" Barry started to mumble, the boy now a complete one-eighty from his personality.

"No Leader, and I mean no Leader, has the right to criticize a Trainer just because that Leader defeated him. This is what separates a Junior Trainer from a Leader. Junior Trainers still believe in that ridiculous battle banter and head games to win. Leaders are supposed to rely on skill alone, to represent their type specialty and the Pokemon League with honor and dignity. What if your criticisms got this Trainer to quit? What if you discouraged some up and coming talent along the way? This Gym has been open for almost a year now, it frightens me not only how horrible this place still looks, but the idea of how many dreams you killed because you still haven't learned to think before you speak!"

By all accounts, Lucas should have enjoyed watching Barry squirm. To see this Leader who had humiliated him and make him feel so badly that he began to doubt everything about himself, look like a beaten puppy as Crasher Wake chastised him, Lucas should have been laughing his ass off. But much to his own surprise, Lucas actually felt bad for the boy, "Hey, cut him some slack,"

Crasher Wake turned away from yelling at Barry to raise a skeptical eyebrow towards who he perceived as the victim in this fight, "Weren't you insulted by Barry and what he said?"

"Hell yeah I was insulted. And you were right too, I almost quit because of him. But he's also a kid, and still new at the Leader stuff. Are you saying that when you first started this Gym you did everything perfectly?" Lucas asked, still shocked he was coming to the aid of someone who no less than six days ago made him question his very existence.

"Of course not," Crasher Wake conceded.

"He made a mistake. Just like I made a bunch of mistakes in my first battle against him. And even if I would have quit, that'd still be my fault and not his. Not being able to handle loss and criticism? That's something every Trainer has to deal with, even Champions. Barry definitely messed up, but yelling as much as you are is as bad as what he was doing to me. Just sayin'," Lucas added with a shrug.

The large wrestler's mood softened as he considered the teen's statements. He turned to Barry, "This kid's got a point. You're still getting the hang of this, but don't do it again,"

Barry looked so relieved that he seemed like he was about to cry, "Thank you Crasher Wake, sir, I won't do it again, sir!" The boy then walked up to Lucas and lost all control of his emotions and began to bawl, "Lucas, I'm so sorry I called you stupid and a terrible Trainer and have stupid-looking hair,"

"You never said I had stupid-looking-"

"Well, I thought it," Barry continued to snuffle, using his scarf like a handkerchief. Lucas could only roll his eyes at the pitiful-looking kid, "But you beat me fair and square, and you really are a good Trainer. You messed up the first time but you came back with a really clever strategy and so I reward you the Fen Badge. With it Pokemon up to level 50 will obey you and you'll be able to Surf on Pokemon outside of battle,"

Lucas looked over the badge that seemed more suited for a Water Gym than a poison one, "Are you sure that this is the right badge?"

Barry slumped his shoulders and sighed, "On top of the Gym being a mess, the League still hasn't sent me my new badges. They are supposed to be Venom badges, but I have to keep giving Crasher Wake's old ones in the meantime. Oh, I also want to give you the TM for Poison Jab. It's a really strong move,"

Lucas took his prize money and TM and looked back on the spastic Leader one last time, "See you around Barry. But don't forget about what you learned today. If Crasher Wake can't beat some sense into you, I can,"

The teen Trainer stepped outside of the poorly lit, half-constructed Gym and breathed in a lung full of the warm, humid air that wafted through Pastoria City. It felt like it was about to rain again and Lucas almost didn't care. As he headed back towards the Pokemon Center, he noticed one of the Pokeballs on his belt was glowing. He summoned out Hotrod and noticed his body glowing and growing like it did in Eterna City. A pair of massive wings and long horns appeared and when the light faded, Lucas' Charmeleon became a Charizard. Lucas stood in awe of his new Pokemon as it blew a celebratory flame into the sky. Despite the glory and dignity the stoic Pokemon exuded, Lucas couldn't resist throwing his arms around the Charizard's neck and hugged it close. Hotrod returned the affection by nuzzling his massive head against his Trainer's check. Lucas remembered the day he met the tiny Charmander, one of the gifts from Professor Oak. As the teen boy continued to hold onto his Pokemon and thought about what he had gone through in the past week, he realized it was moments like this, more than anything, that made the Journey, and life, worthwhile.