I'm very sorry for how long it's been since the last upload. Things have been slowing both Jamie and I down a bit recently. The story is still planned to be completed, but it may take another while for the next update to come after this one. At the end of the day, We're both really happy that you continue to read with us, and it's also super awesome to see this story getting read by so many people. We couldn't be happier. We hope that you're ok with the slower uploads, but again, we still 100% plan to finish this story.
The battle arena was set up on a raised platform, built high up in the gym. There were construction workers everywhere, with every bit of internal structure in the gym seeming to be made out of steel platforms and beams.
The outer wall of the gym locked like it was carved out of rock, in a similar fashion to the internal design of Oreburgh City's gym.
Espir couldn't help but be furious. He would've been angry anyway for being forced into a Pokéball, but to only be released during a battle? Alexis had pushed him too far. He wouldn't fight under these circumstances. If he was going to fight anyone, he would be fighting her.
Espir turned from the arena and started advancing towards Alexis, who stood overlooking the area from her side.
"Too scared to face me?" A deep voice rumbled from the opposite side of the arena, reminding Espir that- even though he truly wanted to attack Alexis- there was still something wanting to attack him, too.
Espir rolled his eyes and turned back from Alexis, choosing instead to face her after they weren't in such a pressing situation. She would regret putting him in that Pokéball, he would make sure of it.
The first Pokémon heckling Espir for attention, was a Bastiodon. Stout and heavy, it looked like it was made out of multiple planks of wood, or a shield, or a bit of both. It had a tan-colored body with thicker dark brown coatings to its spine, legs and tail, as well as its large, square head. There were bone spikes protruding from the top of its head and along its spine, along with have four large tusk-like teeth coming from its lower jaw and horizontal bones coming from its large nose. Yellow and black eyes were mimicked by two more sets of yellow and black patterns going up the length of its face. Those eyes regarded Espir with a minor sense of distain as the two Pokémon eyed each other up.
"Better," the Bastiodon chuckled, "but you'll have to actually try to fight in order to impress me. I'll try not to put you down too quickly."
"You have a big ego for a gym Pokémon," Espir called back. "Think of how many people end up getting badges from here- that means you lose a lot. I guess that means today is business as usual, for you."
Espir's words elicited a deep growl from the Bastiodon and he charged towards the smaller Pokémon. Espir was more than ready for the attack attempt, however, wanting to get through this battle quickly, but also in one piece- so that he could expend some of his energy on teaching Alexis some manners.
Espir wasn't sure what was truly effective against steel-type Pokémon, but he vaguely remembered fire might have some use, so he set his mind on avoiding the lumbering Pokémon and slamming into it with a Fire Punch whenever he got the opportunity. It wasn't the most powerful move in the world, but he hoped the type advantage would make up the difference.
Espir had speed on his side and that had always proven to be enough of a helping hand against his foes. In the games, it purely meant he would be able to hit before they hit back, but now it meant that he could run rings around the other Pokémon without giving them a chance to hit back at all.
Desperate and furious, the Bastiodon eventually snagged Espir with one of its tusks and attempted to slam him into the ground with a Takedown. Unfortunately, for the Bastiodon, Espir easily allowed the large creature to slam itself into the ground while he stepped out of its grip, his ghost-type proving to make the Takedown totally ineffective.
Espir kept taking glances over at Alexis, trying to judge if she truly couldn't comprehend that what she had done was wrong in any way. As she was ever so slightly grinning while watching 'her' Pokémon beat up on another Pokémon, he assumed she truly didn't see what was wrong with what she did to him and Shane.
"I'm coming for you soon," Espir muttered to himself, staring at Alexis while barely even trying to defeat the Bastiodon- it was simply outclassed by him in every way.
There was little to nothing that Alexis was going to be able to do to make it up to Espir this time, he decided.
As Espir's frustration increased, so did the Bastiodon's defenses as it started to repetitively use Iron Defense in order to hopefully wait out the onslaught of flaming fists from Espir.
The more Espir punched, the less effect they did upon the tough hide of the Bastiodon until it was like he was just normally punching a brick wall. While this would have normally worked, Espir was in no mood to give up so easily. He now had a living punching bag standing before him and he went to work wailing on the Bastiodon- which had already taken a beating before its defense was high enough to withstand any more. Espir slammed into it time and time again, giving it no time, no moment to recover. His fists were slowly starting to glow with what he assumed was heat from the consistent Fire Punches. The hide of the Bastiodon was slowly doing the same, like metal under intense heat, as Espir worked away at it, as if he were hammering in a forge.
It was only once the red flash engulfed the both of them and retracted the Bastiodon that Espir realized it had fainted and he had been beating an unconscious Pokémon, for him to straighten back up and return to staring furiously at Alexis. He wanted her to know he was going to give her hell the moment he had an opportunity to.
The next Pokémon to appear before Espir, with the gym leader looking frustratedly at Alexis, as if to warn her to restrain her Pokémon from causing more harm after each round was concluded, was a Bronzor.
A small, floating disc with a face that would normally be more cheery, but right now was set with determination in its yellow eyes. Six balls were stuck along the circumference of the disc and- other than the eyes- every part of the Pokémon was a different shade of dark blue.
Espir tried to remember back to when he played the games and he half remembered that a Bronzor was a steel-psychic type Pokémon. Psychic meant that he, as a ghost-type, would be able to really take advantage of the fight.
He turned back away from Alexis, scowling the entire time, and began advancing on the levitating disc.
As Espir advanced on the Bronzor, he felt wave after wave of different psychic attempts to affect his mind, but due to his sheer focus and fury, whatever the Bronzor was attempting to do to alter his thought patterns, it wasn't working. It was hard to do any moves like Shadow Sneak, due to how bright the arena was, lit up by construction lights to avoid anyone falling over any metal railings. Instead, Espir chose to attack with a Shadow Punch, aiming to draw on his own reserves of shadows, instead of using Shadow Sneak, which would need a darker area to sneak into and out of.
As Espir focused, his arms almost grew heavy and then, as usual, he propelled himself into the air to take a swing at the Bronzor. His ever so slightly enlarged shadowy fist slammed into the disc and Espir made sure to punch it down towards the floor of the arena, so that he could continue his assault when he, too, landed.
Espir held onto the Bronzor, which tried to spin away like a frisbee. He held on tight and continued to punch into it. He wasn't very imaginative with his attacking style, but it was working for him and he was too infuriated to change it up.
Due to the type disadvantage, and Espir's ruthlessness, the Bronzor did not last as long as the Bastiodon did- though Espir did relent once he realized it was unconscious. He noticed the gym leader eyeing him angrily, so he flipped him the bird in return.
"We done yet?" Espir shouted at Alexis, "cause you and I-"
There was a third red flash. Of course, there was. Alexis had put him out first, likely to try and show him who's boss. Espir groaned as he turned back around to see what he was facing, thinking he was just going to have to crush yet another Pokémon to make a statement.
He looked across at the Pokémon he was meant to be facing, then began to start looking upwards, looking up further, and further, until he finally saw the head of the giant Pokémon, leering down at him menacingly.
This was not going to be as easy as the first two, that was for sure.
"Just send out Letos," Espir called at Alexis, "he would crush it. No? I'm the only one thinking with common sense? Lovely."
Espir flipped Alexis the bird, too, and turned back around to see the large steel tail of the Steelix slam into him with full force, sending him hurtling across the arena.
Like the Onix he had faced oh, so long ago, this Steelix was a mismatch made in hell. Espir would have to be as quick as he could to try and whittle this one down, but it was larger and stronger than the Onix was. His quick, dagger-like moves would barely tickle such a creature. Letos was a water-type Pokémon, but of course, Alexis was resorting to her old tactic of just throwing whatever she had at the enemy until it collapsed.
Espir was already tired from how much energy he had exerted when beating up the previous two Pokémon. His knuckles throbbed in pain and, now, so did the rest of him as he dragged himself back onto his feet.
"You should watch where you're standing, little one," the Steelix goaded, as Espir recovered from the hit he had received.
"You should watch your giant mouth, you fucking worm," Espir grumbled, stretching for a moment and then slowly starting to walk towards the Steelix, knowing he wasn't going to get out of this fight unless he, or the beast, went down.
It was at that moment, that Espir's game plan went out of the window. Provoked by Espir's words, even if they were in response to the Steelix's taunting, the Steelix opened its huge mouth and began to glow, from about midway up its length, towards its mouth, the steel started to heat up, before the Steelix let loose a fierce torrent of blue flames. It was using a Dragon Breath attack.
"What the-" Espir began to say, as he had to move as fast as he could in order to keep out of the way of the worst of the flames, scorching even the metal floor of the arena.
Espir ran as quickly as possible, being forced to dance around in circles by the larger Pokémon, purely to avoid the worst of the burns- but he was still taking damage as he could feel the Dragon Breath attacks licking away at his back, scorching him as they were the ground.
He needed to go on the offensive soon, otherwise he would be taken out by this thing before he even had a chance at a decent attempt at a comeback. Was this how other Pokémon felt when they faced him?
Even though he was still furious at Alexis, he was too desperate to avoid the attacks to think about it at that point, his mind was taken up entirely with thoughts of simply dodging and evading, sprinting and rolling.
The Steelix was toying with him. He could tell. Espir had nothing that he could readily use to harm the larger Pokémon and it was only a matter of time until he tired enough to succumb to the flames, or get beaten back by its large tail. Exhausted and defeated, Espir didn't even try to fight back, in the end. He just stopped running and let the flames engulf him as the Steelix gruffly laughed, though he couldn't hear the laughter over the roar of the attack bearing down upon him.
He turned, to make sure that he was staring out, at Alexis, when he fell and once he was visible to the onlookers again, he was lying down, prone and unconscious.
Back into the darkness once more…
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It had to be done, though he fought phenomenally. Alexis was certain she would reward Marshadow when he was in a better mood. He dispatched two gym Pokémon like they were nothing, and likely tired out this final Steelix for Letos to finish off. He was a good team player, that Marshadow, and Alexis would make sure he knew it when she was able to get him healed up.
For now, however, there was a battle to be won. Alexis returned Marshadow to his Pokéball and took out Letos' ball, releasing the water-type Pokémon onto the arena to finish off with the steel-ground type Pokémon. Letos would be able to cakewalk this final round, hopefully.
Letos appeared out on the arena floor and immediately looked up, having to lean back to properly take in the enormity of Steelix. He then, shocked, stared back at Alexis.
"Are you serious?" Letos asked and Alexis shrugged in return.
"Water should work well!" She said, allowing Letos to improvise with what he had.
She watched him immediately begin jetting water out at the larger Pokémon, which screeched as the water connected, the impacts stinging much more than it expected.
Before the Steelix could muster up a second helping of Dragon Breath, Letos had shot gunned so much water at it that it was now working on its own defense, unable to take the time to charge up a Dragon Breath. With Letos standing in the center of the arena, and the Steelix curled widely around him, all Alexis could see were errant bursts of water coming from within the maelstrom of steel, until finally, one burst of water struck the Steelix square in the forehead and the giant Pokémon reeled back, stunned, before entirely keeling over, unconscious.
Alexis waited for a moment, just to make sure that she had won. Byron, the gym leader, returned the downed Steelix to its Pokéball and started walking over the metal arena to talk more with Alexis.
"You did incredibly well," Byron said. "I felt that your first Pokémon was a little… how do I put this politely… overzealous? But my trusty Steelix certainly repaid the favor. You won, fair and square, and decisively, which pains me to say. What doesn't pain me to say, at all, is how deserving you are of this. The Mine Badge."
Byron handed Alexis her sixth gym badge and she couldn't help but keep staring at it, memorizing the cool design of the pattern and absentmindedly patting Letos on the back for his role in her victory.
"I'm going to remember this victory, believe me," Alexis said, shaking Byron's hand gratefully.
She and Letos left the Pokémon gym and started walking towards the Pokécenter to get Marshadow all healed up.
She truly hoped the Marshadow would see sense when she next tried to release it. Perhaps putting it through the Pokécenter might cure him of whatever ailment had been causing the madness he'd been exhibiting back in Jubilife City. One thought did occur to her, however, and she was in two minds about it.
The next city she needed to be in was almost twice as far away, up north, from where she currently was, in comparison to where Eterna Forest was. Would Marshadow react better or worse if she simply kept him in his Pokéball until they reached their next destination, or would he appreciate being let out around Eterna Forest more? She wasn't sure which would prove more beneficial to the group in the long-term, but there was a tiny voice in the back of her mind, urging her to keep the Pokémon in the Pokéball, to avoid any drama until she'd gotten her next gym badge. How could that be so wrong? Marshadow wanted her to succeed, right? It felt like the best course of action and she knew, if Marshadow were conscious at that moment, he would agree.
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Darkness yet again, darkness and eternity, all wrapped up in a little bow.
How far does the abyss reach, how far down does the pit go?
A tricky little problem, a prison with no doors,
What to run on, when there are no floors?
Madness comes knocking, in the absence of light,
So tempting, but you stave it off with all your might.
For when alone, tickling away at one's solitary mind,
The only method of relaxing, is for one to unwind.
Espir found peace in the deep black sea, casting blind eyes around to pick up on the nothingness of the space around him. Nothingness, that allowed him to be at peace with just how furious he was with Alexis. Yes, she had betrayed him. Yes, she had violated his rights. Yes, he would get his own back, in time. From that fury, a spark. Brief, lost between the start and the end of an instant, but the spark was there. In such a dark expanse, that flicker of light, illuminated the universe.
Espir had hope. More than that, possibly the cause of that, he had a way out.
Johnathan-Mandrake: Based on the outcome of this chapter, you're definitely on the right path of thinking haha. I wonder what'll happen next...