Shining Shadows
Will the Charizard
Chapter 8: A Rock and a Hard Place
This took way too long, and it is nowhere near sufficient, I don't think, but hey. I'm back. School's out, so I'm going to have some more time for writing. I might start up a new story this summer, can't decide what I'm going to do. Blah blah blah. I'm done, here's the story.
"Here it is, the Oreburgh Gym." The huge brown-red building stood, imposing, right in the middle of town. We had trained for this moment for the past few days, going to the local mine and battling all of the mine workers and wild Pokémon inside. My bag full of potions and all the Pokémon at full strength, we entered the Gym for our first real challenge.
For a huge building full of people, the Gym was surprisingly quiet. You could still hear the sounds of the fights going on, but it was much less than I expected. All the noise from the battles seemed muffled, like the room was padded, or something. Wouldn't there be a lot of people training or challenging the leader at a Gym than that?
"What are you waiting for, pinky?" Jet asked sarcastically. "Leader's right there, let's go." She started towards the man obviously in charge, until she was stopped by an older man in a business suit.
"Whoa, there kid. You can't just fight a man like Roark unannounced and unworthy. You have to face the 'gauntlet' first." He had a sharp, sarcastic Hoenn accent and could obviously see the confusion on our faces, because he just laughed and explained himself. "You see those four trainers over there? Those are the gauntlet. Defeat all four, and you can fight Roark."
"That great, sir, but, you see, who are you?" And why is he at this level of a gym?
The man laughed. "I look for new talent in the battling world. So, kid, you impress me here, I could help make you very, very rich. You can't do that standing here, though, so go fight, kid!"
And with that, he shoved us toward our first fight, against a heavy looking man in a mining uniform.
"Alright, challenger, let's see what you got!" He threw his pokéball, releasing a Geodude. The Geodude smashed its fists together, trying to look as threatening as it could. "Jet, you first." I wanted to see how tough these people would be before I sent Will or Charlie in there.
"Geodude, use rock smash!" The Geodude started picking up any nearby rocks and throwing them at Jet as hard as he could. Jet just rolled her eyes, and sidestepped each predictable rock, occasionally looking back for any commands from me.
"Faint attack, Jet." She nodded, and then she vanished. The Geodude, looking confused, continued to throw rocks at nothing, until Jet ran into him from behind. The Geodude rolled, then got up, yelling minor obscenities at everyone, its trainer, Jet, me. Thank Mew I put Charlie in her ball.
"Someone's got issues. And Will, never say any of that stuff around Charlie." The Charmander looked at me and gave a little salute. "You got it, boss." Even though he had gotten a bit of a sarcastic streak going, he seemed to have good intentions.
The Geodude, at its master's command, curled into a ball, and started its rollout attack. It charged at Jet again and again, each time growing speed.
Jet, get closer to the edge of the battlefield!" She nodded, focusing on the Geodude all the while, which was getting closer to hitting her each time. She backed up straight to the edge, and the Geodude charged again. At the last second, she jumped, springing off the Geodude, which slammed into a wall, knocking it out cold.
The man looked unfazed; this was his job, really. He waved us on to the next fight, another Geodude. It did seem a little stronger, though, and its trainer more experienced. The Geodude began the fight with throwing rocks, so I had Jet side step them all. The Geodude wasn't stupid, though, and began predicting Jet's movements. Jet was getting closer to being hit every time, until one landed, a straight blow to the chest, sending her sprawling.
"Stupid piece of…" Jet got back up muttering.
"Faint attack!" This strategy worked last time, so why not this time? This one was smart, that's why. It looked like it was deep in concentration, hovering with its fists together, until it suddenly pulled an uppercut out of nowhere, it's fist glowing red, and landed it straight into Jet's jaw, sending her back a few feet.
How the hell did he do that? "Jet, shadow ball! Keep your distance!" She began firing at the Geodude, but the Geodude simply curled into a ball and took the hits. There's no way we can break through that, not without taking up all our time.
Once there was a break in the attack, however, the Geodude began rolling at Jet, glowing white. She jumped to the side, but not soon enough to miss the attack the trainer used.
"Geodude, use self-destruct!" Oh shi-
That's all I could think as a blinding flash and a thunderous boom flew through the arena. The effect was instantaneous; I was seeing stars and heard a faint ringing noise in my ears. I got it easy.
Jet, who, due to being a Pokémon, had enhanced senses, had taken the blast point blank. She had been thrown to the side into a boulder, and was lying in the field, groaning. I wanted to help, but stepping on the field would be an instant loss, and I didn't want it to be for nothing. The second I was allowed on, though, I rushed to her, Will at my side.
She was still conscious, somehow. She looked bad, though. Her chest, slightly burned, would defiantly be bruised, possibly worse, her leg looked almost broken, a lump on the fur and skin sticking out, and she could barely speak.
She opened one eye and asked, breathing heavy, "Did we win?"
"Yeah, we won." I said. She, naturally, tried standing up. "Mew, that hurts!" (Mew like the Pokémon equivalent to a higher power, not the noise cats make) "How bad is it?"
Will, with a stunning show of affection, said "You look like you just got ran over by a bus. And you smell even worse than usual." She did smell of burnt hair.
"You're lucky I don't want to move my leg, or I would kick your ass." Jet said, wincing at the strain of shifting to face him. "Hey, don't you have stuff to fix this? A potion or one of those things."
"I don't think a potion will cut it, I'll try a super potion, but you'll still need a Pokémon Center." I sprayed the healing medicine on her heavily injured points, leg, chest, a little on her head. You could see the skin on her leg sink back down a little, a few smaller burns on her chest receding, her jaw shifting to a better position. Still, there was no way I was going to let her fight again today.
"Challenger, are your Pokémon fit for battle, or do you wish for assistance getting them medical care?" The people at this gym seemed to actually care about Pokémon, whether or not they know them. She probably still needs a doctor… The look Jet gave me, though, said otherwise.
"I think we're going to make it, thank you." I replied, and so the gym member sent us to the third fight.
The third member of the gym seemed like a talented trainer, just the way she held herself, plus she was the last battle before the leader.
She sent out a Bonsly, and Jet started forward. I put a hand on her neck and sent Charlie out instead. Should be an easy win, right? "Try a slam, then follow up with dragon rage."
"Use Bide, Bonsly." The trainer seemed calm, really sure of herself. Why doesn't she want it to dodge? And what does Bide do? I should've paid attention in our offensive classes.
Charlie began a beat down on the Bonsly, but it didn't seem to do anything but sit there. Wait, it's glowing, and it gets brighter every time it gets hit…
Charlie, after a conformation nod, repeated the sequence, using slam and dragon rage twice more each before backing off. Shit, that Bonsly's bright.
"Sam, pull Charlie out" Will sounded concerned. "You know what Bide does, right? It'll do double whatever you hit it with, so either switch her out or faint it NOW!"
"Charlie, twister!" The lizard next to me looked at me like I had gone insane right then, but Charlie did as I asked.
The dragon type began drawing circles in the air with her tail, gradually getting faster, with little visible effect. Then the dust around Bonsly's feet began spinning, faster and faster, expanding, picking up small rocks and small pebbles as it picked up enough speed. The Bonsly started rotating, lifting off the ground a little, pelted by all the loose pieces in the twister. Suddenly Charlie stabbed her tail forward, sending the twister flying in every direction, along with all its contents. Mid-air the Bonsly released its energy, sending it in every direction, but none of it making contact. The Bonsly tried to get back off the ground, but every time it stood up, it stumbled back over.
Both Will and I were ecstatic. "Yeah, Charlie! Nice job!"
The trainer had other ideas, though. "What makes you think you're done, child? I still have another Pokémon. Nosepass, go!"
The Nosepass was probably the weirdest Pokémon I'd ever seen in real life, like a living rock statue. Maybe I should put Will in instead of Charlie. He needs practice, plus Charlie could use a break.
"Charlie, come on back. Will, you're up." I had confidence in him; he knew what he was doing.
"Child, are you sure you want to do that? I will have a type advantage, and we are very motivated. It will not be easy."
Will responded before I had any time. "I have motivation. I'm going to show this Hoenn bastard who's boss." And with that, he full on launched himself at the Nosepass with a metal claw.
The Nosepass cried out with each successful slash, and swung wildly to knock Will off it. The Charmander jumped off its back, and then breathed fire in its face until he had to dodge a rock throw. "Come fight me, Magikarp bait! You couldn't hit me if I wanted you to!"
The Nosepass grew enraged, and charged at Will, using rock throw to keep him from attacking. It leapt and tried a take down, but Will jumped on top of its head and began riding it. He would hit it on the side of the head with metal claw every time it tried to throw him, which was almost constantly.
"Nosepass, use rockslide on yourself" the trainer called. "Will, run!" I yelled to Will, who jumped off the Nosepass and ran away from the trail of rocks cascading from it as it chased him.
Until he leapt on top of a rock and clotheslined it, knocking to the floor, out cold.
Will stood on the Nosepass's chest and placed his foot on its face, hands on his hips, looking as if he were posing as a hero. It was even funnier when the trainer returned the Nosepass and my friend fell flat on his face, getting a mouthful of dirt.
"Challenger, you may now fight our leader" The trainer waved us through, into a separate room, where a man stood at one end of an arena.
"Are we ready guys?" I asked Charlie and Will.
"Oh yeah, ignore the Umbreon with an injured leg. I'm obviously useless now." Jet had been grumbling about not being able to fight ever since I'd told her, but I still couldn't let her be injured any further. "Jet, I still don't know if your leg's ok, so no, you can't fight."
The leader, a man possibly in his 20's with a red hard hat, approached us then. "My name is Roark, Are you ready to battle, challenger?"
"My name's Sam, and yes, I believe we are ready."
"Well then, let us begin."
Roark started with a Geodude, I with Charlie. The Geodude began, scattering pointed stones around the entire arena. Charlie approached the Geodude with little caution, we knew how to deal with those, and it was dispatched with ease, a simple twister followed up with a slam won the battle.
"Impressive, I see you know what you're doing. Now let's see how you do against my Onix!"
That Onix was the biggest thing I've ever seen.
Over 25 feet tall, there was no way it would fit in the building extended all the way up. Each massive boulder was probably half my size; it could probably kill anyone in the room if it wasn't careful.
"Charlie, you got this, or do we want to quit?" I really want to win, but I don't want anyone getting seriously hurt.
"You got this Charlie!" Jet and Will were yelling encouragingly from the sidelines, apparently I was the only one that thought this could be dangerous. Not sure blind faith is the best approach.
"I got this!" Charlie seemed confident, so I let her fight. Fortunately, the rock snake only had one move, unfortunately that move involved it hurling rocks across the room.
"Charlie avoid those at all costs, and see if you can hit it with dragon rage, if you get an opportunity." Oh Mew please don't get hit.
It was all up to her, mostly. If she could avoid the Onix's attacks long enough, and attack it while she was at it, we could win. If she got hit, we would probably lose. She was doing fantastic, though. She would dart away from every rock, jump over every sweep of the Onix's tail, even hitting it with an attack once. It looked tiring, but I believe she could do it.
The Onix wound up having much more stamina, though, as I could clearly see Charlie slowing down, looking tired, as the Onix keep going with its attacks. We need to end this, before that thing hits her.
Charlie began a twister around herself, sucking in any rocks that flew near her, as well as the dirt from the arena. All of the Onix's attacks were sucked in, the twister growing in size.
Roark's Onix caught on quickly, though. I lifted its tail and drove it down on the twister. At that moment, when the Onix's tail hit the funnel of wind that Charlie made, the twister blew apart, sending the Onix's heavy tail flying back into its head, the resounding crack, along with Roark recalling the Pokémon, confirmed the win.
Charlie looked exhausted, almost collapsing on the arena herself. I quickly recalled her and gave her a potion, then sent Will out to finish the fight.
"A Charmander? In my rock type gym? You are making a grave mistake, Sam" Roark gave me an evil smile, and then released his final Pokémon.
It was clearly prehistoric, and didn't seem very bright. It looked at Will and I with confusion, like it hadn't seen many Charmander before.
"All right, Will you know the drill. You have one attack that's strong against it, use it. Also, I've heard of this one of his before, I think. If I'm right, it has no rock type attacks." Will nodded, and stared down the Cranidos with a look of disgust on his face.
"Cranidos, head-butt." And it tried. Over and over again, that was really all it seemed to do. Every time it charged by, Will would punch it in the face with metal claw.
"Pursuit, Cranidos!" As Will tried stepping away, the Cranidos hit, and it looked strong. That just made Will appear more angry, though, and he slashed away at the Cranidos's head.
After a minute or two of this, though, it was obvious that the top of the Cranidos's head was impenetrable. It should've been obvious earlier, being a bright blue, different from every other part of it's body.
"Will, aim for the body, not the head" I ordered. The Charmander kept on slashing at the top of the Cranidos's head though, still with no effect.
"What the heck is he doing? Did he not hear me?" I wondered aloud. Jet heard, though, and understood perfectly fine.
"He doesn't care" was Jet's reply. "If you haven't noticed, that Charmander doesn't like Pokémon from Hoenn or Sinnoh."
And so Will the racist Charmander continued on, catching the Cranidos's occasional head-butts and taking the opportunity to beat on its face. Roark couldn't have his Cranidos do anything, Will wouldn't let it move, and calling Will off would mean defeat for me, so it continued, until one final metal claw-enhanced punch sent Cranidos flat.
After Will was pulled off and returned to a pokéball, Roark congratulated us on the win and sending us on our way forward with a shiny new badge and instructions to get to the next gym. First, though, we needed the Pokémon center.
It is finished! I really didn't like this chapter, and I think it's nowhere near sufficient after that long of a wait, but there it was. Will is racist, that's not just something I used as a one-time joke. I'm tired, Will the Charizard, out.