Chapter 58
Volt's second opponent was large enough to block out the sun. He towered over the Raichu-boy at nearly seven feet tall. The massive human Aggron was covered in what looked at first glance to be Kevlar body armor. But the armor itself was rock-hard, just like the steel helmet atop his head and his thick tail behind him. The giant peered down at Volt with vicious contempt.
"Ah…thank you," Volt sighed with relief, "that damned sun was really starting to bother me." He smiled within the Aggron-man's shadow.
A splash of blood was slowly drying on the side of his face. The last one had been lucky enough to injure him before Volt sent him crying back into his Pokéball. Well, unconscious in a pool of his own blood, but close enough.
"Alright, Granite," the Aggron-man's trainer called, "you can do this!"
Volt doubted that. Aggron was a pretty impressive Pokémon to look at it, but it had far too many flaws to make it a dangerous opponent. If it were a ground-type then maybe Volt would have some issues with it, but its rock and steel typing did not block or even weaken Volt's Thunderbolts. Worse still, Aggron wasn't exactly lightning-quick, and Volt was. He'd be able to dance circles around Granite. It would all be a matter of avoiding its attacks and striking back whenever he had an opening.
"Hit it with an Iron Tail!"
There was plenty of time for Volt to strike before Granite did, but instead he focused on avoiding the first attack. If he started by attacking he would still be well within range of the giant. Granite took one massive step backwards to turn sideways towards the Raichu-boy. The massive Aggron-man did not look quick, but as he pivoted, his tail swung with shocking speed and power.
Volt somersaulted backwards, as the human Aggron's Iron Tail swished through the air beneath him. One-handed, he caught himself and pushed against the ground as he flipped backwards a second time. By then the Aggron was charging after him.
Alright, that looks good, the Raichu-boy thought. Even before Kim gave him the order, he began charging electricity for his Thunderbolt. Truth be told, he didn't need her for an opponent like this Aggron. It was slow and clumsy and its Iron Tail was even slower and clumsier. After one attack, he knew why Granite's trainer had lost in Round One.
Still, like all Pokémon, human or not, he was stronger with his trainer behind him. A Pokémon never fought alone on a battlefield.
Kim shouted her order as Volt fired the stream of lightning at his charging opponent. Granite closed his eyes, gritted his teeth and shuddered as he was electrocuted. But even through all of the damage being inflicted on him, he kept charging at Volt.
"Heavy Slam!" his trainer called.
In a moment, Volt's confidence shattered into self-doubt. Granite charged through his Thunderbolt without even stopping. The giant was stampeding at him with all of the force of a freight train, his massive legs shaking the ground as he ran. He put his shoulder out, meaning to slam all of his weight directly into Volt's much lighter frame.
"Brick Break," came Kim's command.
There was no time for another Thunderbolt, but it wasn't Volt's only weapon against his opponents. Brick Break was an ability perfected by fighting type Pokémon. And fighting type Pokémon were famous for their ability to break straight through any type of ice, rock or steel Pokémon. If Volt was going to break bricks, the ones covering the Aggron were as good a target as any.
Volt stared down the growing giant. He needed his timing to be perfect. If he was off by a millisecond Granite would crash into him, whether his attack worked or not. But he would never dodge in time. Volt had no desire to be crushed underneath an opponent that he had beaten.
At the last possible instant, he leapt into the air. He was just high enough to reach the steel helmet, which he now saw was a white, reptilian skull, around Granite's head. Granite's shoulder rammed into the lower half of Volt's body, but only after he brought his hand down in a swift chop. The concentrated Brick Break cracked the helmet apart, scattering shards everywhere. But more importantly, the force went out of Granite's attack. The well-placed blow immediately dazed him and a moment later, he fell unconscious entirely. His heavy, massive body crashed onto the pavement as Volt tumbled over top of him.
Bruised and winded, it took a long time for Volt to rise to his feet. However, Granite did not do the same.
"Tell me it's over," Volt groaned to the opposing trainer. But he didn't even need to ask; the teenage boy's mouth hung open as he gaped at his fallen giant.
After Granite was back in his Pokéball, Kim strode forward.
"Let's see…" Kim started, her voice all business, "I believe our wager was…five-hundred Pokédollars?"
"Yeah, I know," the boy groaned, "you're a helluva lot tougher than you look, you know. I mean, most girls suck at battling."
"Thank you," Kim grinned, letting the boy's sexist comment slide. But after a moment, the boy stopped counting his money.
"Wait a second…" he pointed, "I know you…" he didn't finish, but his brow furrowed as he tried to remember something.
"Well, I fought in the last tournament," Kim offered, "before it went on hiatus. I made it to-"
"No, that's not it…" the boy cut her off, "you look familiar, too…" he pointed to Volt, but he was far too tired to respond. Whatever he was trying to think of, Volt didn't care if he remembered or if he gave himself a migraine in the attempt.
"That's it!" The boy shouted at his revelation, "You're Sprinkle's trainer, aren't you?"
"What?"
"Yeah," the boy nodded vigorously, "you were the one that flipped out on everybody at the beach last night!" Kim did not appreciate how amused he was. In all likelihood, this kid was one of the people she was yelling at.
"Uhh…" Kim struggled to think of a way to shut the boy up. But if she was building a reputation as "the girl that flipped out" then her usual strategies were limited.
"Oh, God, that was hilarious!" the boy began laughing, but Kim and Volt did not join him, "what was it you said? 'Go away you damned perverts?' Was that it? Classic!"
Kim was just about ready to start screaming all over again. In truth, she didn't remember what she said, only how goddamned furious she'd been. She had forgotten how much she hated the attention that Sprinkle drew to herself. Sometimes she wanted the Vaporeon-girl to be more like Cotton and hide inside her Pokéball.
"Anyway," Volt interrupted the boy's second-hand torture, "you were paying us." He certainly didn't want all of his pain to be for nothing.
"Oh, yeah," the boy began counting his bills again, but he stopped before much longer, "say, do you have Sprinkle with you?"
"What?" Kim asked. Oh, hell… was what she thought.
She did have Sprinkle with her, safe inside her Pokéball, for once. But she began to debate whether or not to lie to the boy. She wasn't here to watch perverts and lechers crowd around Sprinkle, she wanted to train. She wouldn't need it for the match, but after she saw Volt get beaten and tossed aside by Team Deus, she realized she needed him to be stronger. She needed all of them to be stronger.
Kim's match was the last in Round One. She only had one more hour to train before she had to get ready. A trip to the Pokémon Center would eat up enough time as it was. There was no time to talk to perverts and pretend they were her friends.
"I just want to get her autograph real quick," the boy tried to sound calm, but Kim knew the look in his eyes, "I swear, it won't take long."
"Keep the money," Kim groaned, turning away from the boy. She couldn't stand looking at him anymore. She walked off, struggling to keep the anger inside.
This was always how it went. Nobody ever recognized her, they only knew Sprinkle. She wanted to say that she didn't understand it, but she did.
Sprinkle was hot. What other explanation was needed?
Sprinkle was hot and Kim was a mediocre trainer who had lost in Round Two three years ago. She hadn't even been given a shot against one of the Four.
Sprinkle was hot and Kim was her bitchy trainer that told the perverts that she was closed for business. Sprinkle would fawn over them and drink up all their praise while Kim sat at the edges, scowling at them.
And of course, Sprinkle was just hot.
Sometimes she wanted to blame Sprinkle for it. Not just for being hot but for welcoming the flood of attention. But Kim knew why she did it. It was all for Kim. Her own, however misguided, way to draw Kim out of her shell. To help her love again…
"Here," Volt suddenly appeared behind her, "I got the money." He waved the bills in front of her, but Kim only glanced at them, "what's wrong?" he asked, as if he didn't know.
"Take a guess," Kim snapped at him.
"Fine, be that way," Volt waved her off and began stuffing the money into his own pockets.
They walked in silence for a few minutes, vaguely walking towards the Pokémon Center, but Kim didn't care where they ended up.
"I'm not always a bitch," Kim said suddenly. She had no idea why.
"I know," Volt nodded.
"So why does everybody seem to think I am?" she didn't ask Volt. She asked the world.
"Uhh…" there was no way for Volt to give her a good answer, "well, I-"
"Don't answer that," she cut him off, keeping him from saying "I don't think you're a bitch." It was stupid and selfish, but somehow she didn't care if Volt didn't think she was. Of course he didn't, he never did. He was a good friend, but somehow Kim knew she wanted more, right then.
Besides, would he have meant it anyway? He wanted to comfort her and he had seen her at her best and at her worst. But Volt was the kind of friend that would lie to protect her. She didn't want a friend like that. Not right then.
But that just made her more confused. What did she want? Somebody to scream in her face and tell her she was a horrible, selfish, broken, lonely person that didn't deserve to live? But if she was all that, then at least she wasn't a bitch. Silver linings, right?
"I hate my life, sometimes," Kim muttered. Volt heard her, but he didn't know how to answer.
She had a tournament fight in two hours and everybody in the stands was going to cheer for Sprinkle instead of her. Kim was her trainer and her best friend, but nobody would know. Nobody would give it a second thought. Once, just once, she wanted them to cheer for her and only her.
She was going to be alone, again.
"How much time do we have?" Volt asked her, trying to change the subject.
"Two hours until it starts," Kim said automatically.
"Time enough for a phone call or two?"
"Huh?" Kim stopped and looked at her human Raichu.
"I'm sure they'll come, if you ask them," Volt shrugged, "I mean, it's better than fighting in front of a bunch of people we don't know."
"They know us, but we don't know them," Kim sighed as she removed her phone. What was the harm in trying? It was either this or fight alone and she was sick of that.
Cherry had just finished off Aipom number forty-six when Mark's phone started ringing. The noise made what would have been numbers forty-seven and forty-eight run for cover. Mark had even forgotten that he had it.
"Hey, noob," Kim's voice was faint on the other end. Mark put a finger in his other ear to drown out the sound of Cherry's cursing. It was hard enough to hear as it was. He couldn't imagine that Palkia's Woods had very good reception.
"Hey, Kim," he answered, "what's going on?"
Maple edged closer to him, eager to hear what Kim had to say. She had been quiet all afternoon, presumably to make their Aipom hunt easier, but she must have been bored following them around. Mark hadn't been able to think of anything that she could do to help with Cherry's training, either. She looked miserable.
"Oh, not much…" Kim's voice had an uncharacteristically sad tone to it.
"Okay…" Mark didn't know how to respond. He waited for her to continue.
"Hey, listen," she started again, but then she stopped again. Mark was beginning to believe that the connection was broken.
"Yeah," he urged her on.
"Are you guys doing anything tonight?" she almost blurted it out.
"Maybe…" Mark looked back at Cherry. Four more Aipom and they would be finished. It would be a good stopping point. However, if Aurum wanted them to continue, there wouldn't be much room for arguing.
"Oh…uhh…" Kim clearly didn't know what to do with such a vague answer, "well…the thing is, I have a match tonight. And…I was wondering if you guys wanted to come."
"Ah, okay," Mark nodded, "yeah, I think we'll be able to come. Depends on if Aurum makes us stay here tonight and train."
"Oh, okay," she sounded as if she expected something similar, "well, if you can make it, that'd be cool. But, don't stress over it or anything…"
There was something in Kim's voice that he didn't like. This wasn't just an open, friendly invitation. In fact, all of Kim's casual, disconnected attitude was nowhere to be found. This meant a lot to her.
"We'll figure something out," he said, trying to be assertive, this time, "missing one night of training isn't going to kill us." Aurum might hit him with a fishing pole, but it couldn't hurt worse than the first time…at least he hoped not.
"Oh, really?" her voice brightened at that, but she backed off her excitement and composed herself before continuing, "I mean, that's cool," she whispered the next part, "and I think I figured something out about Team Deus that I wanted to tell you."
"Really?" now they were definitely going, "alright, then. I'll see you tonight."
"Cool," she responded, "later."
"Later."
"Well?" Volt asked Kim as she hung up the phone, "was that so hard?"
Kim tossed her head as she thought of a suitable response, "harder than it should have been."
"You're even a bitch to yourself, you know," Volt sighed.
"It's what I am," Kim started walking towards the Pokémon Center, smiling this time, "smartass," she called Volt, casually.
"I love you, too," Volt rolled his eyes as he followed his trainer.
AN: yay! I'm not dead!
Nope, just had another one of those times where work went insane and my free time went out the window along with it. Mostly it was just poor timing, really.
But, anyways, ONE MORE FIGHT AND ROUND ONE IS OVER!
About damned time too, I'm sure. This is what happens when you've never written something longer than a few pages and try to write a novel without editing until it's finished. It ends up being too short, or too long. In my case, it's disturbingly long.
Oh well, it's good practice, at least. Every now and then I reread some earlier chapters and I realize how much better I've gotten. At least, I think I'm getting better. It's hard to tell sometimes.
Anyway, in other news, I posted a second one-shot story called The Children of Jirachi: A Disease and a Disaster. i wrote it in conjunction with KroganThrashballer83, who provided the basis for the backstory (I think I'm repeating myself) and it turned out really awesome. Less violent than usual, but it really wasn't necessary.
So, if you missed me posting that (way back on August 1st) I invite you to check it out.
Unfortunately, I still cannot say that the characters from the one-shots will be able to find a place in the main story. There's already a full cast in the main story and I don't really want to have the one-shot characters show up just to get beaten or for a short cameo or something like that. MAYBE I'll find something, but for now, just worry about what in the world happened in Kim's past…
Also, I trimmed down some old AN. Just trying to get the word count a bit more accurate and cut out my meaningless rambling (like what I'm doing right now).
I guess that's everything. Thanks for reading!