Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon, or any of its affiliated companies. The characters in this work are all loosely based on those created by Pokemon and its companies, and this story will never by no means be used to make monetary profit or gain.

CHAPTER EIGHT

It's All Relative:

"I don't know if you remember, but-"

"That you kicked my butt last day at the tournament? Suuure I remember. How'd you find me?"

"Unimportant and irrelevant. I want a trade."

"Uuuh, really? I mean, that's actually what I hoped for when I entered, but... Anyway, what's your offer? Can I have your pikachu?"

"..."

"Geeez, just a joke. What else you got?"

"Something other than a pokemon to trade."

"Credits? Sweet, I can work with that. How muc-"

"No, I currently don't have money."

"Then you can turn away and leave pal because I ain't interested in selling for free. I mean, OK, honestly, he's useless, but not that useless."

"My name."

"Uh, what?"

"Here's my license. My name. For a guarantee."

"...Oh. Oh. Yeah, sure. I've heard of you. Mew my luck, going up against you at the tournament, geez."

"..."

"Right, you were saying?"

"My name. As a guarantee. That I will win. Again."

"So... You're thinking some sort of split the profits sort of scenario. I lend him to you, you win, if you win, we split, what fifty fifty?"

"Yes."

"..."

"..."

"Sixty forty. You're good, but the first time might've been a fluke, your name isn't guarantee enough you'll win a second time. Plus, from what I understand, you desperately need my guy. So, sixty forty, or no deal, take it or leave it."

"... Deal."

"Cool. When's the match? I gotta watch this one live. Even if only to collect my interest."

))(())((

"Hello, you're back again! I have to say, Misty was furious when she heard you were here but didn't schedule a battle, and she has a tendency of taking out anger on the aides, so please tell me you're here with a date in mind."

"Two weeks. Any time after two weeks."

"Allllright, I booked you on a Saturday, fifteen days from now. Good?"

"Good."

"It's also adapt time for advertising! This battle is going to attract lots!"

"..."

))(())((

It did.

Unlike my battle with Brock, the Cerulean City Gym's seats were mostly full. An enthusiastic crowd was cheering, meaninglessly increasing the noise, making any lesser trainer more likely to be distracted. I pulled my cap down, blocking my eyes, making it sure the crowd could never get a clear view of my face. Ironically, the more I tried to keep myself hidden, the more people began chanting my name, probably in hopes of a simple greeting, a wave or a smile.

I gave them none.

I glanced over the arena, it was incomparably different from Brock's. Instead of solid ground, the battlefield this time was a floating platform surrounded by pool water. It was expected of a water type trainer like Misty to build an arena that would work so advantageously for her, and I had prepared some counter measures against this.

Misty still hadn't shown up, right now she was late for exactly thirty-three minutes. I wondered if this was a deliberate tactic from her, to stress her opponents before the match even began. Heh, actually, not a bad ploy, I thought, as another minute passed, the timer on my pokedex showing the numbers thirty-four. Too bad it won't work on me.

Pikachu gave an unpleasant growl between my legs, and I reached down to scratch his back. His growls softened, but still had an edge to them. I could guess why, he wasn't happy with today's strategy, mainly because he wasn't going to be a huge part of it.

With my other hand, I lightly tapped the other two pokeballs on my belt. One belonged to Callidora, who had turned out to be quite the battler and a delightfully easy pokemon to train. Her fighting style was pretty dirty, with an end-justifies-the-means sort of quality to it, which I attributed to her life on the streets. During mock battles against Pikachu, she would feign defeat then attack from Pikachu's back, or taunt Pikachu to get close and blast him with itchy spores from her bud. This would happen more than often, because being a grass type, her body was not that much conductive and could take bolts from Pikachu all day. Having no other choice, Pikachu would have to move in close to attack physically, only to fall in to one trap or another, either a carefully placed hidden vine to wrap him up, or leech seeds to latch themselves on and drain his energy.

Needless to say, Pikachu and Callidora didn't like each other that much, which was common in teams that didn't share the same type, so I wasn't bothered. Besides, a little sibling rivalry would do them both good, Pikachu, who liked the direct approach more, could learn to broaden his view, and Callidora needed to increase her physical power, because the few times Pikachu had managed to pass all laid traps, he'd gotten his revenge. Badly. Callidora still had a nasty bite mark on her left foreleg.

Nevertheless, despite only having Callidora for two weeks, I was confident she could do her job today. I hadn't even needed to teach her much, her only major problem was taking aim against fast moving targets, and I was still working on correcting that, but if the first part of my plan against Misty went well, it wouldn't be an issue in today's match.

My fingers stopped on the second pokeball, containing my third pokemon, who was today's secret weapon, despite the fact that during the match, he would be literally doing nothing. I was banking a lot on this pokemon, and even owed sixty percent of my winnings from this match to his original owner. But the trade had been worth it. I had had my suspicions about this pokemon the first time Pikachu had gone against him, and it was rewarding to see them proven right. He was gifted with an ability rarely seen in his species, which opened up the possibility for a not that uncommon, but mostly never expected strategy. To execute it perfectly though, I had been training him specially these past two weeks in the forests of Route K24, where I had made camp since I didn't have the money to afford lodgings in the city.

Meaning, if I lost today, I would be under a lot of debt.

I stopped patting Pikachu when I heard the cheers from the crowd increase: The twin doors across me on the other side of the arena opened. I straightened up, put my game face on, and checked my pokedex, it read thirty-seven minutes. I reset the timer to zero.

Misty entered, a smile on her face so wide I could see it from here. She was wearing a baggy blue sweatshirt and mini shorts; as she moved, her shirt pulled up, making me see the two pokeballs. I tensed on the inside, which of her two monsters had she brought with? Relax, I tried thinking. One of them is definitely the quagsire, she'd be stupid not to use it knowing I have Pikachu. And the other is either her starmie or blastoise, in her other battles she's led with these two eight out of ten times. Why should she change now, and even if she did, my strategy applies to all of her team.

But I was lying to myself. Truth was, though my plan could be applied to her other pokemon, it worked best against only the starmie or blastoise lead, and in a match where a badge and my good name was on the line, I could only be comfortable in working the best frame.

"Laaadies and gentlemeeen, welcome to the Cerulean City Gym!" The aide's booming voice amplified by a microphone echoed in the gym. The crowd cheered even louder.

This is it. Across me, I saw Misty waving towards me, and mouthing the words 'good luck'.

I did not return the gesture.

"Allow me to introduce you today's challenger, you might have heard of him on your TV, your radio, your dextops; a seventeen-year-old mysterious trainer from the sleepy suburbs of Pallet, a one badger who broke the Indigo record, and wielding the fiercest pikachu this nation has ever seen... Ladies and gentlemen, I. Give. You. Pokemooon Trainer Reeeeeeed!"

The crowd roared. I couldn't help but think, if they were this excited for me, how did they behave when the more experienced trainers came to challenge, those with at least five or six badges won by combat. Then again, those were older and more experienced trainers, they had made their names through hard work and years of battle. Me, I was in the first sixty days of my trainer's career, and had already defeated one leader. Now this crowd was here to see if the first time was luck, or if I had some talent in my bones after all.

In other words, I was fresh meat to them.

Pikachu was circling around me, the atmosphere had excited him greatly, he was longing to battle. I pulled his tail sharply, I needed him calm. Making a grumbling sound, he sat on his bottom. The disappointed look on his face almost made me feel bad for him.

"And facing against this rookie trainer is: The Queen of Cerulean City, the Tomboyish Mermaid, the Pearl of our Lagoon... Let's hear it fooor, Gym Leader Mistyyyyyyyy!"

And the crowd exploded, if I thought they were loud before, it was nothing compared to the support they were giving now to the pride of their city. Even Misty looked embarrassed by their cheers, she was blushing as she waved back at the crowd.

"Today, Trainer Red will be challenging Leader Misty for his second badge. The rules of this gym for a second badge are simple. Single battle, where Misty will be using two of her pokemon, and the challenger Red will be allowed to use up to three."

It's not like I have more than three, I thought grimly.

"So, without any further ado, trainers, pick your pokeballs, take aim, aaaand three, two, one, throw!"

As if a curtain had been dropped down, the crowd, their noise, all of it disappeared in my head. I was focused on only the little red ball Misty had thrown into the arena, and I swore I could hear the locking mechanism pop open. Red energy poured out, and thoughts ran through my head at light speed.

Whatsitgoingtobepleasebetheblastoiseorthestarmiepleasetheblastoiseorthestarmie...

A golden crown, atop which a red jewel was placed. A set of five tentacles surrounding the gold core and another set semi-attached on its back, making a total of ten violet colored arms.

The mysterious pokemon...

"Misty's choice is her ace pokemon, Roulette the starmie! Whereas Red's choice seems to be, uh, his slowbro?!"

I had almost forgotten that I too had sent out a pokemon, so relieved I was that Misty had led with her starmie. Without a doubt there was reason for that, she knew none of my pokemon, except Pikachu, and against him she had to have picked her quagsire. It made strategic sense to conserve the quagsire last; since she did not know what other pokemon I was bringing in, if she had started with her quagsire and lost it early against something unexpected, there was a chance for Pikachu to sweep her team. So, sending out a strong scout was the smart choice, and after watching her other battle videos, I had learned that she usually led with either her ace or starter in such situations, either her starmie or blastoise, and I built my counter strategy with these two in mind.

Now, against Misty's ace, her strongest pokemon, her biological impossibility, against Roulette, stood my slow, fat, and dim pokemon, Paul the slowbro, which I had only known for two weeks.

I could see the insulted look on Misty's face. She was an expert of water types, nothing I could do with a slowbro could surprise her, there was no way of winning against her using Paul.

Which was why I was going to do nothing.

I clicked the timer on my pokedex. Now we wait.

Over the past two weeks I had trained Paul to only do one thing.

And also to try to survive as long as possible while doing it.

The crowd and commentator grew silent, no doubt they were expecting some hidden gem to come out of Paul, who looked so ridiculous compared to Misty's majestic Roulette, flying and shining seven different colors at once. Even Misty had a tense look on her face, no doubt she was expecting something theatrical and grandiose based on my first league match.

Nope, I had nothing. But passing time was to my advantage. I checked the timer, I was thirty seconds in. Let's see how long that will last.

Finally, at the forty-five second mark, Misty gave up on waiting. She didn't have to issue any type of command, that was the advantage of working with a psychic type, you could give orders by using your mind without your opponent noticing patterns.

Roulette opened up with a small, same type attack, telekinetically lifting up water from the pool, she hit Paul dead on with a moderately powerful stream of water. The force made Paul take two steps back, but otherwise he stood unaffected. His species had a hard time of sensing pain due to their slow metabolism, making them defensively good pokemon.

How good though could he fare against a leader's ace? I didn't have my hopes high.

My counter showed one minute.

A giggling sound from the seats interrupted the silence of the battle, a second one joined the first, and laughter being the contagious disease it is, soon spread to every spectator. I didn't blame them, this had turned out to be a pretty dull start to what was promised an epic battle.

Misty's brows were risen, and I knew she was pondering on an important question: Did I actually have a hidden strategy that she couldn't see, or was I really just a onetime lucky trainer? The look on her face showed that she was still leaning towards her first guess, she was suspecting something, but hadn't quite figured out what.

Meanwhile my timer showed one minute and fifteen seconds.

Roulette stopped midair, and its crown jewel blinked rapidly. The second set of arms on its back began whizzing and whirling, spinning three hundred sixty degrees at an incredible angular speed.

I knew what was coming, and only hoped Paul had braced himself too.

Though I doubted it.

The space surrounding Roulette began crackling, and I could see my guess confirmed when Pikachu sniffed the air hungrily between my legs. The ends of Roulette's front set of arms tipped at their edges, all five tentacles taking aim at my slowbro.

And then thunder was sent loose.

The blinding flash of electricity stopped the crowd's laughter and hurt my eyes for a stunning second. Even Pikachu looked impressed.

The high voltage electric attack, generated from the rotating arms of the starmie and the energy stored core, hit Paul so hard that he was sent flying out of the battlefield and splashed into the water. I leaned down frightened, was he, was he dead?

No, well, no, not yet. The slowbro, in spectacularly slow motion, swam near to the battle platform and climbed up. The entire front side of his body was blackened, the thunder had burned him hard. I was thinking that perhaps his body was actually lifeless but his mind had not caught up to it yet.

But Paul took one glance at Roulette, opened his wide mouth, and gave a loud burp.

I was sure this would be Misty's breaking point.

I was right.

"Enough scouting!" Misty snapped - I realized she was angry enough that she actually worded her command.

And Roulette unleashed hell.

I had to shield my eyes, the dancing color show in front of me was too bright. The sheer strength of Roulette's attacks was pushing me back on my platform, I had to grasp the metal bar in front of me to avoid being blown away, while the lighter Pikachu was clinging to my left leg.

I dared spreading my fingers and peek at the battlefield. Paul could not be seen through the rising steam of water, but above, Roulette was clear as crystal. Its core flashing every color on the spectrum, lightning bolts were raining down from its arms, not to mention flash energy pouring straight down the jewel. I could see the water on the left side of its target area frozen still, while on the right-side bubbles were dissolving and rising rapidly, icy water telekinetically shot in multiple streams from the left, and boiling water from the right. Occasionally, from the tip of one of the rapidly spinning set of arms a starry beam would be emitted, one which had a striking resemblance to the moon beam the clefable in Mt. Moon had used to cut boulders.

This, this was Roulette, the monster, the ace in Misty's sleeve; a water type pokemon so fast that it could send attacks rapidly and make it seem happen all at once, so deadly that it could switch between many elemental attacks and perform them just as well as their own pure respective typed species could. Thunder rained hard as if an electrivire had sent it, moonblasts mimicked those of a togekiss, water cooled and heated to temperatures only seen done by jynx and magmortar before, and flash energy sent in such intensity that one would suspect a magnezone behind it.

This was Roulette, and this was its true power. There was no direct counter to it, for how could one prepare against this laboratory bred monster that wielded not one, not two, but seven different elements? No one could.

Except maybe me.

I have to get Paul out of there, I thought and slammed the button signaling my wish to recall my pokemon.

Just as quickly as it had begun its onslaught, Roulette paused. The lights its body was emitting dimmed, and the second set of its tentacles stopped spinning.

After the smoke and steam cleared, Paul was finally seen. He was a mixture of red and black; any part of his body that wasn't burnt black, was bleeding profoundly. It was unbelievable, but he was still standing, only thanks to the trademark pain receptors of his species', the signals they sent to the pokemon's brain arrived so late that it would take sometimes nearly an hour for the pokemon to actually feel hurt.

But regardless of him feeling pain or not, there was a limit to his body, and with his flesh torn and skin ripped, his body shocked, frozen, and burnt, Paul had way exceeded that limit. My admiration for the pokemon grew as he managed one last defiant look at Misty before falling face down.

I calmly recalled him back and gave the ball to one of the waiting aides. The aide rushed out of the arena to get Paul quickly to a pokecenter. If he was quick, Paul would survive this encounter.

The atmosphere of the stadium had changed noticeably, the cheerful attitude of the crowd was long gone and if I listened carefully, I could even hear the voice of someone sobbing. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a large group of spectators aiming to leave and across me Misty was had a disappointed look on her face, as if I had somehow let her down.

I could understand why everyone felt like that, nobody was unfamiliar with death in this sport, but it was one thing when two giants clashed at their best and the winner stood above the corpse of its opponent after a hard-fought battle, and a totally other thing when a seemingly incapable trainer sent a pokemon to its death against a far more superior foe and order nothing. Human hearts tended to root for the underdog, in this case Paul, and when the crushing heel of power stomped the weak so easily as Roulette had done this match, well, it tugged on the heartstrings of the lesser minded.

I for one shared no such sentimentality, for I could see what others could not in defeat. My experiences in Mt. Moon and with Blue taught me that sometimes, in order to win the war, you needed to lose the battle, sometimes even deliberately.

For I could see on my pokedex's counter that, despite being injured critically, Paul had survived a total of two minutes and thirty-seven seconds, and if he had done the single thing I had ordered him to do the entire time he was out on the field, Misty and Roulette were about to feel my heel this time.

I threw the ball that contained Callidora.

"Trainer Red's second choice will be his ivysaur." The announcer's deadpanned voice carried none of the enthusiasm from before.

Compared to Paul, who had just stood still and tried not to die the entire match, my ivysaur made a better first impression both on Misty and the crowd. The first thing she did once sent out was fasten her stand on the battlefield, because if Roulette managed to knock her into the water, there was no way she could survive a battle there against a water type. So she extended two large, thick vines from her back and wrapped them around the edges of the floating platform.

Unfortunately, this meant her speed would decrease greatly, there was no way she could keep up her mobility while being loosely tied by both ends. Not to mention her not being the most agile pokemon around, she might have been a sitting ducklett to Misty's blindingly fast starmie.

Which was obviously what Misty thought too when she ordered her starmie to attack directly. Water telekinetically rose from the pool, crystallized, and turned into large ice shards right in front of everyone's eyes. Going directly for the type attack, I thought. She must want to end this.

The thick icy spears lunged themselves at my ivysaur, almost as fast as the lightning Roulette was throwing earlier. I briefly caught the look Misty had on her face, she was bored, she felt cheated from the battle she deserved. Those ice spears would definitely connect and pierce my pokemon, killing her.

She looked so confident of the outcome, that I couldn't help breaking my character. Just before the tips of the icicles connected, I grinned and leaned forwards to my microphone, only to whisper "My turn."

I didn't know what I enjoyed more; the shocked gasps nearly a thousand viewers gave at the same time, the fact that Callidora was suddenly on the other side of the battle platform, directly under Roulette and far away from its target area, as if teleported there, or the number of razor sharp leaves sent from Callidora's bud splicing four of Roulette's arms off its body, showering the waters in blood.

Acting like the experienced trainer she was, Misty didn't hesitate giving a retreating command. She knew something had changed the tides of this battle, and until she figured out what, Roulette had to keep her distance from my ivysaur. Roulette let itself drop midair, and tried aiming for the water, where in the depths it could safely cover and wait for its trainer to come up with a strategy.

As if I was going to let that happen.

All starmie were fast, they were probably one of the fastest pokemon species in Indigo. And Roulette was extraordinary even compared to its own kind. There was just no way it could not make that drop into water, ivysaur were slow pokemon, and Callidora was no exception, there shouldn't have been anything I could do to stop Roulette from retreating.

Which made it all the more satisfying when multiple vines extended from Callidora, grabbing Roulette towards herself, changing its trajectory, and making it slam hard against the solid platform. At the same time more leaves were sent, two more of Roulette's tentacles were ripped off, and the pokemon gave out a gurgling cry from its core.

I tapped my microphone twice. Go for the kill.

Cheers from the spectators increased as they witnessed a tugging war occurring in front of them; tangled in Callidora's vines, Roulette was trying to free itself and reach the safety of water, while Callidora was towing it towards herself. Pulled close enough, the mingled starmie gave out odd cries of pain when Callidora's bud opened and launched multiple seeds that quickly clung to the still remaining arms of Roulette, feasting on the pokemon's remaining energy and growing larger and heavier.

I checked Misty, all the while her pokemon was being slaughtered, she had this concentrated look. How close is she to figuring it out? I wondered.

It turned out not to be that long. Having made her mind, I saw Misty's expression soften as she gave a silent command. Roulette, despite still being at the receiving end of my pokemon's attacks, flashed its core so bright that I had to close and shield my eyes again. Callidora also kept her eyes shut, but maintained the tight grip she had over the starmie.

What's she doing? Is she trying to drain her pokemon more?! What good is that doing, that won't make Callidora let her pokemon go, unless...

Unless it's a distraction.

Pikachu under me gave a warning growl.

Cursing my stupidity, I blindly tapped my microphone once. Dodge. I didn't know what, but something was definitely coming.

And come it did.

The bright flash died, and I looked upon a picture of horror: Hundreds of icicles hanging midair, above and covering the entire battle platform. The split seconds Callidora and I had spent distracted were enough for Roulette to raise and freeze an unbelievably large amount of pool water into giant frost spears. And enough for it to let them drop.

Under normal circumstances, no pokemon I had could survive this. But Misty had probably guessed there was a chance that no pokemon on the battle field was under the effect of 'normal circumstances', which was probably why she had decided to test her suspicions with this abnormally large area attack.

And mew damn it, she was right.

Callidora let go of the starmie, and seemingly danced around each falling icicle. She was moving fast, too fast, incredibly fast for any ivysaur to move; she managed to dodge all of the larger falling ice pieces while her two extended vines were slapping the smaller ones away so quickly that it looked like there were hundreds of vines coming out her back. In the end, although breathless from effort, she survived this wailord of an attack despite the size of it.

And the reason how she had done that was now clear to even the most thickest of spectators. The reason why Callidora looked as if she was moving so fast was not because she was actually doing so.

It was because the ice spears themselves were moving and dropping slow. It was because Roulette itself was moving slow. In fact, right now in the battlefield, pretty much everything compared to Callidora was at slakoth pace. I had taken the greatest advantage Misty's starmie had over my ivysaur and made it mine to use: Speed.

And it was thanks to my slowbro, Paul.

It had all started during the Nugget Bridge Tournament, when I had noticed Paul the slowbro dodging Pikachu's thunderbolt. To put it simply, that was impossible to happen. Except it had just did. Meaning that there had to be an explanation behind it, and I could only offer one: Somehow, Paul the slowbro was born with an extra abilty not seen in his species', either due to an unusual parentage or an unknown past laboratory experiment.

Somehow, Paul had the ability to create a "trick room".

A trick room was normally a strategy a steel or rock core trainer would adopt. These types of pokemon were physically both tanky and strong, but lacked the essential agility to reach their enemies, making it easier to tire them out. In order to avoid that, a few capable trainers came up with the idea of supporting their slower teams with a psionic pokemon that could alter the dimensions in a limited space, like by using a porygon or a bronzong, they would be able to create a small "room" where speed would be relatively reversed.

Meaning slower would be faster, and faster would be slower.

And that was essentially Misty's team's weakness. Except for her quagsire, whom I was sure she wouldn't lead with, every single one of her pokemon was faster than mine, with her starmie and blastoise being noticeably the two most fastest in her team. That was why I had wished for her to start with either of these two, because I knew these two would be the most effected in a trick room. That was also why I had needed Paul on my team, no matter the cost, because I knew I wouldn't be able to defeat Misty without tweaking the conditions a bit, without setting up in advance.

Like Melanie had said, I had needed a strong bench pokemon. If Paul lived after Roulette's attack, I knew he would never make it to the dream main team I hoped to have, during my two weeks of training him I had realized the pokemon had no offensive presence, limited psychic ability, and only above average defensive traits. But he made an exceptional back up pokemon with his species' trademark durability and his own unique trick. He was the perfect mon to train against my main team and support them when necessary.

Like he had during this match. There were time limits on created trick rooms, and complex math formulas to calculate how long they would last, but generally, the longer the pokemon concentrated on creating and maintaining one, the exponentially longer the room would exist. It had taken two weeks of me training Paul to perfect his hold on the room, and today he had lasted two minutes and thirty-seven seconds doing nothing, not even defending himself, but building the room. At the cost of his own safety, and if my calculations were correct, Paul had granted me roughly the equivalent of ten minutes and seven seconds where the speed dimensions would be altered.

Ten minutes where the versatile arsenal of Roulette could do no harm, because every blindingly fast thunderbolt, moon beam, and flash cannon it could throw at Callidora could be avoided with ease.

Ten minutes where Roulette's own speed would do itself no good, because no matter in which direction it would try to run, fly, or dive, Callidora could catch it, attack it, hurt it.

Ten minutes where Callidora, normally the slower one, was now the faster one.

Ten minutes of which five had passed and Roulette still held on.

If it manages to survive another five minutes, the trick room will dissolve, and then...

I tapped my mic twice again. Kill it!

Roulette had escaped Callidora's grip during the flash it emitted, but it didn't have the time enough to get underwater. Callidora's vines extended fast like bullets and dragged it back on ground. This time she pulled the starmie directly under her and began pounding on it with her vines while also cutting it with her leaves; soon the only thing left of the starmie was the bloody red core.

It surprised me that Misty wasn't ordering her pokemon anything, it wasn't struggling or trying to dodge, it just laid there taking the punishment. I couldn't understand what she was thinking.

But then the starmie's jewel glowed, and the ripped-out tentacles near its body reattached themselves. I couldn't believe it, in mere seconds, the starmie looked almost as good as it first begun this battle.

How? Recovery processes are never this fast, this isn't a snorlax, there's no way it could heal so quick-

...

Oh fuck.

I had fallen on my own sword, and the cocky grin Misty threw at me showed she knew it. Starmie were pokemon with remarkable healing prowess, every good trainer knew that. The slight problem was that it normally took time for an effective recovery to happen.

Time I had granted Misty by creating the trick room. The slow recovery process of the starmie now happened at a too fast pace.

Misty's plan wasn't doing nothing, it was stalling. Stalling until the room's effects ended, and then in a normal one on one match against Callidora, Roulette would definitely win.

I gritted my teeth. I could never allow that to happen. I tapped the mic twice again, but this time more rapidly. Give it everything you have and more.

Callidora extended two, three, four more vines and she began hitting the starmie with all of them like a hammer, I saw Roulette's jewel crack. Thorns grew from each of the vines, leaving scratches and cuts on Misty's pokemon's body. The fronds on Callidora's back pointed upright; every single razor leaf she had, she was unleashing them all, the limbs of the starmie were cut off almost instantly as they grew back. Callidora's bud was launching numerous seed bullets mixed with leech seeds, and she was also getting physical now, biting the starmie with her poisonous teeth.

But no matter how hard Callidora hit, the damned core of the starmie kept shining, albeit dimmer than before.

Neither Misty nor I had anything else left to do, the rest was up to our two pokemon. Either the starmie's energy would expend, making me the winner of this battle but not the match, or the starmie would hold out until the room faded, wipe the floor with Callidora, and then leave Pikachu alone to deal with her second pokemon.

A minute passed. The crowd was enjoying the violent beating, their roars echoed in the arena.

Another minute passed. Callidora still kept her tempo, the entire platform was covered in leaves and the bloody appendages of Roulette. Both Misty and I were leaning down expectantly.

One more minute. Pikachu gave a sound that was half a growl and a weep, if Callidora lost this one, he too knew we would lose the match, and there wouldn't be winning a second one, not with my tactic exposed. I couldn't keep my eyes away from my ivysaur.

The last two minutes until the room ended. Even the spectators were silent now; most of them not being trainers hadn't caught up upon my strategy, but still understood that the match had entered a crucial point.

The final sixty seconds. The blows Callidora were delivering had lost their earlier impact, my ivysaur was visibly panting from effort. Likewise, the jewel of the starmie flashed its colors only briefly now, having no energy left to spare.

Ten. Nine. Eight...

Callidora was spasming. Roulette's jewel had lost all color.

Three. Two. One...

Nothing happened, Callidora still kept hitting. Had I calculated wrong? Maybe the room would last longer, I felt my chances of winning rising-

A blast of psychic energy threw Callidora into the air. Losing her balance, she fell just at the edge of the platform sideways, a nasty crunching sound coming from her left hind leg. She screamed out in pain.

Roulette rose into the air, though it too was in no good shape. Only three of its ten arms remained, in the places of the remaining seven were ugly wounds. Its core was scratched and the jewel was shattered, but still, the pokemon was floating, and judging from that kinetic blast, seemed to have enough to keep fighting.

Callidora couldn't get up on her feet yet, she was still in shock from pain. It was hopeless, all the hard work, all the planning was for nothing, I was going to lose-

The starmie fell back down on the platform. Its whole body was pulsing and the core was shaking violently. The remaining three arms twitched once, twice, then exploded as vines vigorously grew out of them from the inside, leaving the main jewel naked and without protection. The light blinked once, then died.

A stunned silence followed.

Misty recalled her pokemon, and gave the pokeball to a waiting aide, who disappeared from sight. Only Callidora was left on the battlefield, one leg broken and her side bruised.

I was speechless.

Misty cleared her throat with an audible "eh-hem" while looking at the announcer. The announcer, too stunned to speak, caught on late.

"Oh. Oh. Yeah, umm, ladies and gentlemen, Misty's starmie Roulette is unable to battle!"

The crowd, returned to real life by that booming voice, cheered loudly. They applauded both Misty and me, I could hear our names chanted over and over again. My interest laid elsewhere however.

I looked curiously at Callidora, who was trying to stand on three legs. Had she thought of planting some seeds into the starmie's body as a backup on her own? I didn't have any other explanation for that last-minute win.

My attention shifted when I noticed Misty throwing her second ball. Damn it, that's right, one more to go.

"Misty's second pokemon will be Sponger, her quagsire!"

I sighed. Although her quagsire was the only sure pokemon I knew Misty would have brought to this match, and I had already planned some counter measures against it, at this point I would have preferred her to bring another water pokemon so that Pikachu could just sweep.

Not my lucky day apparently.

The electric blue pokemon rose his head and his eyes focused immediately on my wounded ivysaur. The quagsire looked quite large compared to my shriveled pokemon, and his entire body was toned and lean, there was no sight of the traditional flab of fat its lazy species normally had. Misty had worked this one well, and without a doubt he was monster.

But still, compared to Roulette, he looked almost as harmless as a caterpie.

Misty tapped her microphone once - now that her pokemon on the field had no psychic link, she had to actually give orders. Her pokemon, hearing the sound, charged towards Callidora.

I took a silent note in my mind that one tap meant "get close" for Misty.

I didn't give any command, we had trained for this beforehand with Callidora. She just braced herself and waited for Sponger the quagsire to get close, then tried binding him with vines. The quagsire just snapped them apart and kept moving, its physical strength was too great for the thin vines Callidora produced. With now about a third of the distance between the two left, Callidora shot her last remaining leech seeds, and half of them were swatted away by one giant meaty paw. The others however latched themselves on, but the quagsire rolled on his back without losing momentum, and when he got back up again I saw most of the leech seeds had fallen, only a handful remained attached, not enough to stop the quagsire's charge.

Misty had trained him well against grass types, none of the usual tactics worked. I had no doubt if rested Callidora would prove a suitable challenge for this gym monster, but tired and weakened, she had nothing to do but wait for Sponger to come close and attack.

Which was exactly what I aimed for.

Just as Sponger rose his body to drop on my pokemon, Callidora lunged forward and bit the stomach of the quagsire, hard. In pain, the quagsire stopped his body slam attack and instead knocked my ivysaur out with one curled paw, hitting her in the face.

Callidora was unconscious, but the damage she had done remained, I spotted purple goo oozing out of the wound on Sponger's belly. I pressed the button in front of me, wishing to recall my pokemon. "Good job," I muttered to Callidora's pokeball before giving it to an aide.

I nudged Pikachu forward. He semi enthusiastically jumped into the arena.

"Trainer Red's third and final pokemon is his starter, his pikachu!"

Everyone in the audience clapped and hollered on their feet, they knew Pikachu and how he had faced Diamondback the onix from videos, and they were expecting a grand battle.

I was going to disappoint them. And Pikachu wasn't happy about that either, I could see his frown. I couldn't help smirking; this was my starter, so passionate about battling, he would rather lose a match than win one unfairly.

It was a good thing I was the trainer and he the pokemon, and not vice versa.

Misty tapped her microphone once - charge, I remembered. I tapped mine twice. Dodge.

I almost thought Pikachu wasn't going to obey, but he sighed heavily, and backed away, keeping his distance. The quagsire tried increasing his speed, but Pikachu, using his superior agility just jumped around him to the other edge of the platform.

Misty caught on my tactic - it was simple really. Callidora had sunk her venomous teeth in Sponger's flesh deep, he was poisoned. All Pikachu had to do was to avoid getting hit and wait for the quagsire to fall. It didn't matter when exactly it would happen, no doubt a leader's pokemon had a strong constitution, but there was literally no way for Sponger to catch Pikachu, he was too fast and agile. Furthermore, Pikachu was conserving energy by not dishing out thunder; I had ordered him not to do that knowing it would fall without any effect on the quagsire.

It was a boring tactic, there was no fight involved, but it was a sure way to win. My only concern was that Pikachu would lose himself in passion and disobey orders, but he seemed to be doing well for now, running around and keeping his distance from Sponger.

Misty tapped her microphone three times - a new order. I watched her quagsire closely, what would he do?

Sponger moved closer to the edge of the platform, and dived in the pool. A minute later his head reappeared on the opposite side of Pikachu, his body still submerged, he shot a jet stream of water from his mouth at my starter. He would probably hit any lesser pokemon, but to my Pikachu, avoiding that attack was like taking a stroll on a sunny day.

I gave the breath I was holding in relief. If this was the best Misty could do with her quagsire, then the match was mine.

Apparently Misty thought so too. She ordered her quagsire the same tactic from different angles a few more times, but when Pikachu dodged all of them, seeing no sense in continuing a match she would eventually lose, she signaled her defeat, and recalled her pokemon.

"Trainer Red has won the battle!"

The crowd clapped politely, this second battle was less entertaining than the first, but I got the feeling they were happy with the outcome. I too was happy and even Misty looked satisfied with the way the battle had turned out.

Pikachu was probably the only one who hated this match though. He was growling and frustrated when he came near me. I chuckled and picked him up, then dropped him again forgetting how heavy and big he had gotten. "Don't make that face," I said. "Maybe tonight if Callidora won't need to stay at the pokecenter, I'll let you take a go at her."

That promise indeed made Pikachu stop growling. He still frowned though.

"C'mon," I said, hiding my laughter. "Let's go get our badge."

))(())((

Pikachu and I were in a small office, with Leader Misty herself right across us. Apparently, it was going to be a tradition for me that gym leaders themselves showed up to give me my badges.

"My aides have called - you should know your slowbro is in critical condition, the doctors have mended the wounds as much as they could, but the pain has finally hit the brain, your pokemon is in shock. They have hope though that after the feeling subsides, he will regain his health. They still advice a week of pokecenter stay though," Misty said. She was sitting on a chair with her feet up on the desk between us. "Your ivysaur is much better, only needs two days of rest and sunshine, thank Arceus, grass types and the sun, am I right?"

I nodded.

"Also - here, yours." She lazily threw a small object at me which I caught in the air. I looked at the Cascade Badge in my hand.

Six left.

"As per your earlier request, sixty percent of your reward has been transferred to a trainer Mia," Misty continued. "She the original trainer of that trick room bro?"

I nodded again.

"Yeesh talk about getting a mon for free. That much credits is nothing compared to the curve ball you threw at me today. Really, I'm impressed, didn't expect you to win at all," Misty kept talking. "Two badges in fifty-nine days as a trainer. You're really something."

"Which is why I'm going to make you the same offer Brock did. Stay here at my gym. Study and learn more kid. Because I can see you aiming high, but you're kind of a one trick ponyta, aren't you?" Misty asked nonchalantly.

I tilted my head. What?

"I mean you prepare, you prepare hard, but that's pretty much it. Parafusion against Brock, trick room against me. OK, I admit, these are cool strategies and the way you execute them is unexpected and perfect, but you can only win so many matches without power on your side, and maan, do you seriously lack power. What would happen today if your room calculations were off and it ended earlier? What would happen if your ivysaur hadn't thought of planting those seeds, and don't tauros shit me on that, I know you didn't order her to do it, she did it on her own," Misty explained. "So, like I said, same offer as Brock. Take the badge, but stay at my gym."

I shook my head without thinking. Even if I did consider studying at a gym, it would not be at Misty's, Brock was much nicer and fairer when he made his offer.

"Suit yourself." Misty shrugged. "There's a back door at my gym if you want to avoid the media - you seem like the kind of guy that would do that. Ask Ethan at the desk, he'll show you the way."

She waved goodbye at me "See you around Pokemon Trainer Red."

))(())((

It took a week for Paul to recover, and even after that he still supported nasty burn marks that would be permanent according to doctors - I would love to test that claim with a certain fountain I knew of but didn't want to spend any more time wasted. Callidora was healed fully, she had no permanent damage, and now out of her ball, she was sitting next to me under the bridge Melanie used to call home.

Pikachu was on my other side. Him and Callidora still only tolerated each others' presence, and that was fine, as long as they knew when to act like a team. Last week's victory against Misty was only possible through teamwork, Paul with his trick room, Callidora with her poison, and Pikachu with his speed had all contributed in winning.

Now that I was done with this place, and wanted to move south to Saffron for my third badge, I felt like visiting this place one last time would be the right thing to do. After all, it was only thanks to Melanie I met Callidora.

I was still thinking on her last words when both Pikachu and Callidora began growling at my sides. I stood on my feet, what was happening? Both of them were facing the canal water. I braced myself, had the "rockets" found me?

No, but what came was more shocking. In fact, it was impossible.

A pokemon was walking on water, one I saw only in children's story books. It traveled on four legs, and was blue with white diamond shaped patterns on. A violet mane and two white tails came from its back. It looked at me with cold, calculating eyes, then carried on north.

My heart was thumping loud, my mouth was dry. I knew what I just saw and almost wished I hadn't. That was something that wasn't supposed to exist, it couldn't.

But the very panicked reactions of both Callidora and Pikachu proved it was true.

I had just seen one of the legendary beasts.

I had just seen Suicune, the aurora pokemon.

My brain flashed in realization.

The aurora is what made Melanie, Melanie.

I made my mind too quick.

"We're following it."

))(())((

Author's Note:

Hope you all remember last chapter when I described how Roulette could use so many attacks. Also, the girl with the slowbro from two chapters ago, bet you didn't expect that to make a comeback, did you?

Paul the slowbro is a reference to my favorite poketuber. Let's hope he doesn't sue me.

Trick room is an awesome strategy. In the games it reverses the speed order while keeping the priority attack order. In here, I changed it a bit, but kept the main idea the same.

Trivia for clever readers:

Some might have noticed the nicknames trainers give to their pokemon follow a certain pattern. Samuel Oak is a normal type trainer and names all his pokemon after Ancient Greek myths and deities: Ares, Hermes, Dolos, and Talos are the ones you've seen. Brock a rock trainer, uses a two-word naming system: Diamondback, Shatterstone, Graniteslice. Misty a water type trainer gives hints to her pokemon's abilities in their names: Roulette - a mixture of multiple attacks, like real life roulette, you don't know what's coming, Rainy - her blastoise is a swift swimmer, hence the name, and Sponger - the quagsire is a water absorbing mon, like a sponge. The reason why I wrote it so that these trainers use patterns is to underline them being mono core trainers. Red and Blue for example, don't follow any rules when naming, Pikachu, Callidora, Paul, and Hope, Invictus, Partner, Sky, all random names, because they use mixed cores. Keep an eye out for further pokemon nicknames!

Next update: 29th of January. Take care y'all!