Chapter 7: Firebird Suite
"WAKE UP!"
"No..."
"I SAID WAKE UP!"
"I said nooo..."
"Well, then, you asked for it."
Risa screamed as the blanket covering her sleeping body suddenly disappeared. She cringed, kicking her feet wildly, but realized it did no good.
She sat up, looking down at the floor of the small Pokemon Center room. On it stood her small cyndaquil and her blanket. "You need to get up now," Heat stated, his paws on his hips. "We need to go to the gym now."
Risa rubbed her eyes. "But our appointment isn't until noon. What time is it now?"
"I don't know." Heat narrowed his eyes. "I don't know how to read clocks. That's for you to do. I just have to battle and beat up everyone else so we can become league champs."
His trainer yawned and fumbled for her cell phone. "Heat, it's only seven. I wanna sleep another hour..."
"No."
"But I'll need rest if we wanna get the gym badge -"
"No."
"Heeeee-eat," Risa whined. "I'm tiiiiii-ired."
"I don't care. Sleep during the gym match. When you wake up, I'll have our gym badge for you. NOW LET'S GO I WANNA BEAT THE GYM LEADER."
As Risa stood up and started tugging off her pajamas and tugging on her day clothes, she wondered aloud: "Heat, do you even know what kind of gym leader is in Violet City Gym?"
"Yeah, of course I do. I'm not stupid," the cyndaquil spat as he faced the wall, giving Risa some privacy. "It's a human one. Duh."
Risa rolled her eyes. "I mean what kind of pokemon he uses. D'you know?"
"Of course I don't! But it doesn't matter. I'll beat 'em up so quick, they won't know what hit 'em."
He turned around and gave Risa a squinty-eyed stare, one that probably meant to be reassuring at some level. But all Risa could think about was that Heat didn't know what kind of pokemon they were going up against. She'd read that Violet City Gym specialized in bird pokemon and was officially listed as a flying-type gym, but didn't remember much more than that.
She also realized as they walked downstairs to get breakfast that she only had one pokemon. With under five hours until their appointment at the gym, she didn't have enough time to catch and train a second - and didn't all gym leaders fight with at least two pokemon? And even if she did have enough time, she couldn't think of any pokemon she saw on the way to the gym that looked like it would be strong against birds.
As she sat down with Heat at an empty table, she mentally sized up her pokemon. All she had was a tiny fire-type with squinty eyes and an exploding back.
The Violet City Gym leader probably had at least two gigantic predatory birds with talons the size of Heat's head.
Yep.
She was doomed.
---
"Are you nervous?" the attendant asked as Risa sat in the waiting room.
"N-no," Risa lied, shaking as she said it.
The attendant, a young woman with jet black hair and tan skin, smiled. "Don't worry. It's your first gym badge, right?"
"Y-yes..."
"Everyone gets nervous during their first gym match. Just believe in yourself and remember to breathe," the woman advised. "My first match was against Brock in Kanto. I managed to beat his onix with my butterfree. If I could do it, you can do it against Faulkner. Although," she added, "I wouldn't go up against Faulkner with a butterfree."
"I'm not," Risa said, clutching Heat's pokeball and remembering how he had insisted he take on all of Faulkner's pokemon by himself. (She had suggested running out and begging a wild pokemon to help them with the battle when she had a minor mental meltdown after breakfast.) "I d-don't have any bugs."
"That's good. Oh!" The attendant looked at her screen. "Risa Miyamoto, we're ready for you now."
"Great..."
The attendant lead Risa into an elevator and pushed one of the buttons near the top. "The arena is on the gym roof," she explained as they went up. "We're one of the few Johto gyms that fights outdoors. Isn't that exciting?"
Risa nodded, trying to smile politely while praying that it wouldn't rain.
Sooner than she wanted, they were exiting the elevator and walking out from under an awning onto the rooftop arena. A fence ringed the huge battlefield with bleachers on either side, but most of what she saw was a large blacktop with easy access to the huge blue sky above.
At least there are no clouds, Risa thought, grateful that at least the weather wouldn't be against her.
On the other side of the arena she saw a young man with black hair and traditional birdkeeper's attire step into the opposing trainer's box.
"Welcome to the Violet City Gym!" an announcer said over the loudspeaker. "This match is between Violet City Gym Leader Faulkner and challenger Risa Miyamoto for a standard grade, first level Zephyr Badge. Two pokemon will be allowed," Risa's stomach flip-flopped at learning she'd be outnumbered, "and the match will end when both pokemon on one side are unable to battle. This will be a single battle, traditional-style, no items allowed and switch-ins only allowed on the challenger's side."
Risa's head swam, suddenly forgetting all the battle terminology she had learned. What did a single battle mean? And traditional-style - what was that? And what switch-ins - she only had one pokemon!
"Trainers, are you ready?"
Faulkner nodded. "Ready on our side."
"Ready!" Risa squeaked after realizing they were waiting on her to say something.
"Release on my count," a referee standing on the edge of the battlefield ordered. "Three...two...one...release!"
"Go!" Faulkner shouted, throwing a pokeball out onto the field and releasing a pidgey.
Risa took a deep breath. A pidgey. She could fight a pidgey. She and Heat had fought many pidgeys on their way to Violet City. Granted, they hadn't defeated all of them, but he'd been getting better at it. "Go, Heat!"
Her cyndaquil exploded onto the field, his back already on fire. "Aw, yeah!" He grinned. "Let's do this!"
"Challenger gets the first attack," the referee stated when he realized nobody was fighting yet.
"Oh! Right! Sorry!" Risa looked onto the field. "Start it off with an ember attack, Heat!"
"Up," came the order from the other side as Heat dove forward, spitting fire from his mouth.
The pidgey's feet caught the brunt of the embers, and from Risa's point of view, they looked somewhat burnt on the bottom. That means it can't land, she realized. But it's a bird! That won't matter!
"Tackle from the air," Faulkner said, noting the burns on his pidgey but not reacting outwardly. The bird dove down onto Heat, slamming into the right side of his head and knocking him sideways.
Heat rolled, skidding a bit, but got back on his feet without much difficulty. Without waiting for an order from Risa, he blew another ember at the pidgey, but he blew it too low again - it only hit the pidgey's foot.
"Again." The pidgey dove again, knocking its body into Heat's head. Heat tripped, falling onto the blacktop and wobbling when he got up.
Risa bit her lip. "Try your own tackle!"
He glared at her. "I can't reach that!"
"Try..."
But before she could give an order, the pidgey blew a steady stream of sand into Heat's eyes. "A sand attack," Risa groaned. Now Heat would have an even worse time seeing the opponent. But... "Wait - Heat! Try your smokescreen attack! Make it as wide-spreading as you can!"
Heat took a deep breath and blew. A cloak of black smoke spread over the battlefield, masking Heat's location from the pidgey as the bird flew higher to avoid getting trapped in the smoke.
"Now they both can't see each other," Risa mumbled. Of course, she couldn't see Heat either, but she figured it might help somehow. She had no clear strategy in mind; her panic at challenging the gym leader seemed to have sapped her brain of any sort of critical thinking and intuition.
All she had was hope.
Faulkner squinted against the smoke. "Gust - blow it away and hit the cyndaquil."
"HEAT JUMP UP AND EMBER!"
As the pidgey beat its wings to spread the smoke, Heat launched himself up from the blacktop and spat flames against the pidgey's unprotected stomach.
The bird squealed and dropped out of the air onto Heat, landing on Heat's neck. He grinned, tossed his head back and ignited the flames on his back.
Faulkner's pidgey rolled right into the flames, and by the time he rolled out of them and onto the arena floor, he was unconscious.
"Pidgey is defeated, round goes to the challenger's cyndaquil," the referee announced after a quick inspection.
"Yes!" Risa couldn't believe it - they had defeated a gym leader's pokemon! Maybe they could actually win this badge!
Faulkner didn't seem too bothered by it. He returned his defeated pidgey and took out another pokeball. As the announcer explained that the gym leader had one pokemon left, Faulkner released his second fighter.
"Pidgeotto."
Risa's expectations of defeating the gym leader disappeared as she saw the large bird land on the arena. The new bird stood at least twice or three times the height of its predecessor, and it had sharper talons and a sharper beak. Not to mention its eyes looked a whole lot meaner and more calculating - smarter. Definitely smarter.
"Gust."
The bird launched into the air, flapped its wings, and slammed Heat into the arena.
He groaned, tried to stand, and then fell.
The referee bent down to see if there was any sign of movement, then straightened. "Cyndaquil is defeated, round goes to the gym leader's pidgeotto."
Risa stared at the match, her mouth open. She couldn't believe how quickly Heat went down against Faulkner's second pokemon.
"Um, Risa," the attendant from before said. "You should release your second pokemon now."
"I - sniff - I d-don't have a - sniff - second p-pokemon," Risa stuttered, her eyes beginning to water.
"Match goes to the gym leader," the referee said with a sigh. Risa was sure she heard him mutter, "crazy kids. Going up against Faulkner with only one pokemon."
She watched Faulkner return his second bird and leave the arena in slow motion, her own sense of time suddenly wrenched out from under her. Her hands fumbled for Heat's pokeball, and she found herself returning him. It seemed surreal, walking out of the gym and over to the Pokemon Center, but she made it.
She left Heat's pokeball with the nurse at the front desk and ran up to her room. The door slammed, she threw herself on the bed, and for some reason she couldn't place, began to sob into the pillow.
Twenty-five days left.
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Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon.
Author's Note: Please review?