Episode 8: The rental rumble!
"There it is…the Battle Factory." Niko said as he threw an arm around Lauren and looked on ahead. In front of them, roughly fifty yards ahead, stood a massive structure in the shape of the top half of a hexagon. There were two larger plates—also in the shape of a half-hexagon—attached on each side, with what looked like fans extending out of the bottom. A conveyor belt lay at the base of a tunnel that presumably took challenger inside, into the facility. "You ready?" He asked his girlfriend.
"Mhmm. Ready when you are." She said with a smile. Niko nodded, and the five walked in.
The inside of the Battle Factory was far more impressive than the outside was. Inside, stainless steel covered the walls and floor. Conveyor belts were littered all around the main room, usually leading to elevators that would take visitors to a litany of unknown destinations. Niko and his friends approached the desk in the center of the room. A young woman sat at it, presumably the receptionist.
"Hello, how may I help you?" She asked in a polite, yet oddly cold, tone.
"My name's Niko, and Lauren and I would like to challenge the Frontier Brain here." He said. The woman nodded, spinning around in her chair to grab two small devices.
"Please enter your information on these. The Factory Head will review the application and get back to you as soon as possible."
"Thank you." Niko said, nodding and walking with his friends towards a nearby steel bench. Sitting down, he typed the answers to his facility application, as did Lauren. While they did that, Fay and JJ took a look around the main room of the factory, while Brittany sat there reading a book she picked up in the Fight Area ("A History of Pokémon Coordinating").
As soon as Niko finished, he took Lauren's finished application and returned the devices to the woman at the front desk before turning to look for a pokémon transfer machine; the one he had used to transfer venusaur and glalie over to the Fight Area from Pallet Town. After a minute of searching around, he found one in the corner of the room. He walked over, turned it on, and pulled out one of his pokéballs—luxray's, to be exact, and turned on the video calling function.
"Hello?" Niko said into the machine. Suddenly, his parents both appeared on the screen.
"Niko! What's going on? Where are you?" His Mom asked with a mix of curiosity and caution.
"The Battle Factory. Listen, I'm sending luxray to you guys. I just caught a new pokémon last night, and since I already have a full team, I can't use the new one. Do you mind taking in another one?"
"Oh, no worries son!" Dad said with a smile. "We'd be happy to take luxray off of your hands. Going in to another Battle Frontier thing?"
"Yeah, my third one—the Battle Factory. I think we can only use rental pokémon for it, but just in case, I'd like to be able to use my new pokémon. Thank you!"
"Anytime, son. Bye, love you!" Mom said.
"Love you too, Mom. Bye!" Niko said before turning off the machine and pulling out magmar's pokéball. The ball was no longer red, but instead its regular red and white colors. "Alright, now I can use you, buddy. But only if I have to right now."
As he spun around, he saw a short young man standing in one of the elevators. It opened, and the young man turned to Niko with a cold stare. He had dark gray hair that was combed up and to his left. He wore a black vest with a silver tie and a long-sleeved white dress shirt underneath. He had forest green shorts that fell below his knees and a pouch on his belt that held two of the same devices Niko and Lauren typed on. To complete his odd look, he had a light green cap on the back of his head.
"You must be Niko. Welcome to the Battle Factory." He said with a tone as equally cold as his expression. "Where is Lauren as well?"
Lauren turned from reading Brittany's book to see the man staring at her. "Here!" She said cheerfully, waving her hands.
"Excellent. Both of you, come with me." He said. Just as Fay, JJ, and Brittany began to follow, he held out his hand. "Only the challengers may follow. Beth will escort you to the stadium."
The lady at the front desk then got out of her chair and motioned for the other three to follow her while Niko and Lauren followed the short man. They all fit into the escalator, which took them deep into the factory. After half a minute, they stopped, and the man walked out into a massive room filled with pokéballs.
"The Battle Factory uses rental pokémon. To challenge the Factory Head, you must choose three rental pokémon. If you want, you may also choose them at random." He explained. "Also, you'll find the list of attacks of each pokémon on a card under their pokéball."
"How long do we have?" Niko asked.
"As long as you please." He said, nodding before turning and walking away.
Niko turned to Lauren and shrugged. "Guess we just choose three each, right?" Lauren nodded, and then turned to look for some pokémon. Niko did the same, only he chose pokémon at random. After a few minutes, the couple met back up at the start, where the young man was waiting for them.
"Have you chosen your three pokémon?" He asked. Niko and Lauren both nodded. "Very well. Now, let us go to the stadium. It's time for your frontier challenge." He led them back into the elevator. This time, they didn't go all the way up. Instead, they only went halfway up towards the main lobby, arriving instead at a giant stadium, complete with stands and a battlefield. The young man got off first and, when Niko and Lauren did the same, turned to face them. "You will now challenge me. My name is Thorton, and I am the Factory Head."
Niko and Lauren, slightly shocked at the revelation that this young adult was in fact a Frontier Brain, both nodded. Niko then stepped forward and took the first battle. Meanwhile, Lauren found her way into the stands, where she sat with Fay, JJ, and Brittany.
Thorton and Niko took opposite ends of the field and, once the referee explained the rules of the battle, they began.
"Sudowoodo, you're up!" Thorton shouted.
"Err…toxicroak, let's go!" Niko commanded. He tried to remember what toxicroak's move card said. "Use cross chop!"
"Block with rock slide." Thorton declared. The rock type conjured dozens of rocks, each varying in size, and hurled them at toxicroak, who slashed and chopped at each one before running at sudowoodo and landing a well-placed cross chop on the top of the head. Sudowoodo backed up a little before charging forward, its arm glowing bright white. Sudowoodo then raised it with great difficulty and slammed it down on top of toxicroak, who cried out and retaliated with poison jab.
It was almost as if Niko didn't have to issue any commands. The toxicroak was fighting sudowoodo perfectly fine on its own. But Niko still wanted to partake in the fight. "Use nasty plot, and then sludge bomb!"
Toxicroak smirked, looking up at sudowoodo. It then opened its mouth and unleashed a flurry of inky black spheres at sudowoodo, hitting the tree in the chest and knocking it off of its feet. Niko then commanded toxicroak to use cross chop. The poison mouth pokémon leapt into the air with incredible strength—similar to Hunter's toxicroak—and slammed down its hands, which were glowing white, onto a now poisoned sudowoodo.
"Sudowoodo is unable to battle, toxicroak is the winner! Factory Head Thorton will now send out his second pokémon!"
"Wigglytuff, let's go!" Thorton shouted. "Use hyper voice!"
The balloon pokémon leapt out of its pokéball and immediately screamed out at an ear-shattering pitch. Niko, toxicroak, and Thorton all covered their ears from the sound, but the poison mouth pokémon was the most affected by it.
"Toxicroak…poison jab!" Niko said, trying to regain his hearing. Toxicroak, now on its knees, slowly got up and ran at wigglytuff, who leapt into the air and slammed down on an unsuspecting toxicroak, knocking the poison type to the ground.
"Wake-up slap!" Thorton commanded. Wigglytuff then grabbed toxicroak and began slapping the poison type's face back and forth before throwing it to the side. "Hyper voice again!"
"Cross chop!" Niko commanded, but it was too late; wigglytuff was already bellowing out at an unsafe decibel. But then Niko saw toxicroak get back up, shaking its head. It's hands both glowing, toxicroak charged forward and slashed in wigglytuff's face in an "x-like" fashion, launching the balloon pokémon across the field. "Now, sludge bomb!" Niko shouted, thrusting a fist forward.
Toxicroak opened his mouth again and unleashed a flurry of black spheres, which wigglytuff repelled with hyper voice followed by a gyro ball. Niko commanded toxicroak to dodge and use poison jab. The poison type nodded, leaping over the spinning gray sphere and landing a purple-glowing hand on wigglytuff's head, knocking the normal type to the ground.
"Finish with cross chop!" Niko said, making an "x" motion with his hands and slashing forward, just as toxicroak did. This time, wigglytuff was out of the battle.
"Wigglytuff is unable to battle, toxicroak wins! Factory Head Thorton will send out his final pokémon!"
"Dustox, you're up!" Thorton shouted. "Let's turn this around! Use psybeam!"
The moth-like pokémon's eyes began to glow light purple, and twin beams shot out of it and towards toxicroak, making a direct hit. The poison mouth pokémon was repelled backwards, rolling across the field before exhibiting signs of defeat.
"Toxicroak is unable to battle! Dustox is the winner! Challenger Niko will now send out his second pokémon!"
"Err…mawile, let's go!" Niko said, shuffling through his three pokémon. "Use iron defense!"
The deceiver pokémon began to glow a bright gray color, indicating that it was hardening up. Niko then commanded mawile to use faint attack, while dustox used bug buzz. Just as mawile disappeared into thin air, the bug buzz struck, hitting the steel type upon returning to the field to strike dustox. Both pokémon fell to the ground, with dustox immediately getting back up and using psybeam, which mawile responded by flipping its venus fly trap head around to take the hit and land an aggressive crunch attack, throwing dustox through the air in the process.
"Dustox, silver wind!"
"Mawile, use iron head!" Niko shouted. Mawile's fly trap head began to glow bright gray as it charged forward at dustox, throwing the entire weight of the head at the moth pokémon, and slamming it into the ground. "Now, use faint attack!"
"Dustox, psybeam!" Thorton shouted. The psybeam certainly hit, but it wasn't enough to take on mawile. The steel type reappeared out of seemingly nowhere and once more threw its head at dustox, slamming into it like a baseball to a bat, and launching it into the stands opposite Niko's friends.
"Dustox is unable to battle, mawile is the winner! And the victory goes to Niko from Pallet Town!" The referee declared.
"Wow…great job there, mawile." Niko said as the deceiver pokémon turned to face him. "Thank you for battling with me. I really appreciate the effort. You and toxicroak."
Mawile nodded appreciatively before returning to its pokéball, which Niko pocketed. He then turned to see Lauren looking up and smiling at him.
"Good luck." He said, kissing her forehead. Lauren smiled and nodded before facing Thorton, who, since he was using rental pokémon, he didn't have to heal, was ready to go. The referee explained the rules of the match once more before Lauren and Thorton began once more.
"Abomasnow, you're up!" Thorton commanded.
"Miltank, I choose you!" Lauren shouted. "Use rollout!"
"Wood hammer, abomasnow." Thorton said. As soon as miltank made it to abomasnow, the large ice beast slammed its spiky arm into the cow, forcing her to roll in another direction and hit the wall underneath the stands. "Now, razor leaf!"
"Miltank, err…milk drink!" Lauren shouted to a now stumbling miltank. The cow nodded, beginning to glow a pearly white as sharp green leaves slammed into her. However, it wasn't enough, as abomasnow then pelted miltank with ice shard, forcing the milk cow pokémon to the ground. "Rollout!"
"Finish miltank off with blizzard!" Thorton said. However, the attack didn't seem to have much effect, as miltank rolled right into abomasnow, knocking it over. Lauren then commanded miltank to use body slam. "Razor leaf!"
Miltank slammed down on abomasnow's chest just as a torrent of leaves hit her, knocking her off of the ice beast and onto the battlefield. Thorton then commanded his pokémon to use blizzard, which finally managed to finish off the milk cow.
"Miltank is unable to battle, abomasnow wins! Challenger Lauren will now send out her second pokémon!"
"Ludicolo, I choose you!" Lauren shouted. "Use zen headbutt!"
"Abomasnow, ice shard!" Thorton commanded. The latter attack hit, which gave time for ludicolo to focus its thoughts. Once Lauren saw the blue sparks emitting from the carefree pokémon's head, she knew the attack was going to work. Ludicolo charged forward, slamming into abomasnow, nearly knocking it over.
Then, Lauren remembered something one of her friends mentioned, when they were discussing pokémon abilities one day. Does ludicolo have the Swift Swim ability? She thought to herself. "Ludicolo, rain dance!"
"Use wood hammer!" Thorton commanded. Abomasnow's spiky arm began to glow bright green as it attempted to strike ludicolo, who simply dodged the attack while leaping around the battlefield, summoning a rain storm.
"Now, use zen headbutt!" Lauren shouted.
"Ice shard!" Thorton commanded. The ice shard landed, as expected, but ludicolo charged across the wet battlefield with increased speed, slamming into abomasnow and dragging it through the rain into the wall behind Thorton.
"Finish it off with hydro pump!" Lauren commanded, throwing a hand down through the air. Ludicolo opened its mouth and shout out a powerful burst of water up close, launching itself backwards but also harming abomasnow in the process. Ludicolo then stood in front of Lauren, looking rather proud of itself.
"Abomasnow is unable to battle, ludicolo wins! Factory Head Thorton will now send out his second pokémon!"
"Jynx, you're up." Thorton said coldly. "Use lovely kiss!"
The human shape pokémon winked to ludicolo and blew out a kiss in the shape of a large pink heart. Ludicolo quickly evaded the move via swift swim and responded with nature power, summoning three spheres in front of it—one made of fire, one made of ice, and one made of electricity, and shot it at jynx, successfully hitting it.
"Now, zen headbutt!" Lauren shouted, feeling confident in ludicolo's ability to land a swift attack. The carefree pokémon charged forward. However, Thorton commanded jynx to use psychic in response. The human shape pokémon's eyes began to glow bright purple, and ludicolo found itself floating in the air.
"Bring it towards you and use ice punch!" Thorton commanded. Jynx thrust ludicolo forward, its fist ice cold. Jynx then slammed it into ludicolo, releasing the grass type from psychic and repelling it backwards. Ludicolo hit the ground hard. "Now, lovely kiss!"
Once more, jynx threw a kiss towards ludicolo, and it landed successfully, instantly putting the carefree pokémon to sleep. Thorton then commanded jynx to use avalanche, and out of nowhere snow collapsed on top of ludicolo burying it.
Moments later, Lauren saw her rental pokémon remove itself from the snow, but collapsed instantly.
"Ludicolo is unable to battle, jynx wins! Challenger Lauren will now send out her third and final pokémon!"
"Ludicolo, return. Wormadam, I choose you!" she shouted, throwing out the bagworm pokémon, which was covered in gray-colored trash. "Use metal sound!"
"Lovely kiss!" Thorton commanded, but soon realized that his pokémon was too busy defending its hearing to use a move. "Blast it. Use psychic instead!"
"Wormadam, use psybeam!"
"Bring it forward and use lovely kiss!"
"Iron head instead!" Lauren commanded. As wormadam found itself being thrust forward towards its opponent by psychic, it's head began to glow bright gray before slamming into jynx…and then being put to sleep.
"Psychic!" Thorton shouted, and jynx immediately took control of wormadam, throwing it into the air and tossing it around the room. "And again!" He repeated, enough times to ensure his victory. However, after a few psychics, the wormadam woke up. "Lovely kiss again!"
"Dodge and use iron head!" Lauren commanded. Wormadam nodded and charged forward, hovering across the field to attack jynx. This time, it was successful, and the bagworm pokémon landed the steel type move on jynx, effectively knocking it out of the match.
"Jynx is unable to battle, wormadam is the winner! Factory Head Thorton will now use his third pokémon!"
"Dusclops, I choose you!" Thorton said with a smirk. "Use will-o-wisp!"
"Block it with metal sound!" Lauren said. The metallic sound waves emitting from wormadam were strong enough to force the small wisps of blue fire to burst before hitting their intended target, which seemed to infuriate Thorton. "Now, use psychic!"
"Shadow punch!" Thorton shouted. Dusclops stepped forward and shot out a spectral punch before getting enveloped in wormadam's psychic grip. Lauren and wormadam threw dusclops around, but the attack didn't seem to be having much effect, since as a ghost type dusclops hardly seemed affected by solid objects.
Lauren grit her teeth. "Metal sound!"
Dusclops tried to cover its ear (or whatever it used to hear sound) from the awful metallic noise emitting from wormadam before unleashing small blue wisps of fire in return. This time, the attack landed successfully, burning wormadam. Thorton commanded dusclops to then use future sight, a move Lauren hadn't dealt with yet.
Frightened by the prospect of future sight, and from the burn mark wormadam now held, Lauren commanded the bagworm pokémon to use metal sound once more. "Now, give it everything you've got, wormadam! Use iron head!" She shouted, thrusting a hand forward.
Wormadam's entire body began to glow bright gray as it charged at dusclops. The metal sound must've had some effect, since the iron head hit dusclops enough to knock it over. Lauren commanded a psybeam up close, and aimed at the single eye on dusclops' face. The attack also landed successfully, and dusclops was defeated.
"Looks like dusclops is unable to battle, wormadam wins! The victory goes to Lauren from Canalave City!" The referee declared.
Lauren ran up to hug wormadam, careful not to touch the burn mark. "Great job! You defeated two of Thorton's three pokémon! I really appreciate your help, and I'm glad to have battled with you, wormadam." Lauren said with a smile. The bagworm pokémon nodded as well before being returned to its pokéball.
Niko and the rest of the group joined Lauren and Thorton on the former's side of the battlefield. The Factory Head then pulled out two small gold pieces, each with the shape of the Battle Factory etched onto them.
"Niko, Lauren. Well done." He said in his ordinarily cold and robotic tone. "You have both earned the Factory Print, as proof that you have defeated the Frontier Brain in this facility. If you're looking for the next nearest facility, I recommend either the Battle Hall in the Survival Area, or the Battle Castle in the Resort Area."
"Thank you so much, Thorton. We appreciate the opportunity to challenge you." Lauren said with a bow. Niko concurred.
"It was no problem. Now, if you would like, I can take your pokéballs from you and return them to the storage room." Niko and Lauren nodded, surrendering the rental pokémon that helped earn them their second prints. Thorton then showed the group of five to the elevator door, and allowed them to ride up to the main lobby before he went to the storage room.
As the group exited the Battle Factory, they all looked around. It was evening, and there wasn't any sign of civilization in sight, except for the Battle Factory.
"So…what now?" JJ asked, turning to Niko and Fay.
"I guess we head to the Resort Area, then? That's where the Battle Castle is, right?"
JJ nodded, pulling up a map. "Yeah, looks like it's a little under a week to get down there. That'll be fun…"
Niko nodded, looking up at Stark Mountain, a stream of smoke rising from within. With Lauren, Fay, Brittany, and JJ by his side, he felt better about his prospects in the Battle Frontier, and was ready to continue on towards the next facility.