Been awhile! I have been bad with updating lately, which I apologize for. Been doing a lot of traveling lately due to work, and will be again later this week. But this time I will be bringing a laptop to write on since mine broke! So hopefully a few updates next week. (HOPE!) Enjoy 3
The next few days were rather uneventful, as the boys just spent time training their pokemon and relaxing on the beach. Further north in the city they found a much larger park that provided enough room for Chance to even work with his onix, which he was very pleased with. His newly captured staryu was also fitting in pretty well with his team. The pokemon was quiet for the most part, but showed a lot of energy whenever it was training or battling.
Adrian spent his training sessions allowing the majority of his team to just work on powering up their attacks, while he worked with elekid on trying to produce electricity. The baby pokemon had started to show small sparks between its horns, but nothing that could do any damage in a battle yet. Throughout the training his cyndaquil was showing vast improvements with his flame wheel. The power of the attacked seemed to almost double during the past week, as the wheel was about twice the size once it was produced.
Each day the boys checked the gym at least twice. Once right in the morning, and once just after lunch. Thus far they were met with disappointment each time they visited, which they kind of expected. It was up to Chance to keep their spirits high, pointing out how much stronger their teams were already looking with the extra few days of training. They hadn't trained this hard since their journey began, and it really was showing off.
On the fifth day of their stay in Goldenrod City, they decided to head just north of the city and visit the National Park. The park was home to a large variety of bug and grass pokemon, which the boys were more than willing to check out. However, the biggest draw was that it was kind of a haven for trainers to stop, train, and battle with each other. The two boys had done some practice battles over the past few days, but they had only been battling each other, which was becoming stale by now.
The group made their way to the large park in late morning hours, hoping to spend the majority of the day battling and training. They were in luck, as when they entered they saw many trainers scattered about the park. Some of the trainers were battling, some training, and others were just relaxing with their pokemon and having a pleasant morning. The boys would have plenty of trainers to challenge here.
Adrian wasted no time challenging his first trainer. A girl just a little older than himself, named Lacey, would be his opponent. She chose to use her sunflora, allowing Adrian to counter with his cyndaquil. Adrian had the type advantage, but he was nervous about fighting a fully evolved pokemon.
"Alright, Sunflora, let's get this started with a razor leaf!" Lacey called out. The sunflower pokemon swung each of its arms, hurling large leaves at the fire mouse.
"Cyndaquil, dodge it and use ember, quick!" Adrian countered. The little fire pokemon jumped over the leaves as they approached, spraying embers from its mouth towards its foe as it landed. The grass pokemon took the attack head on, causing a lot of damage.
"Sunflora, set up a sunny day!" Its trainer ordered. Sunflora's petals began to glow for a second as the sunlight above seemed to intensify. "Now use synthesis!" The pokemon responded by glowing a bright green as it healed the damage cyndaquil had caused it.
"Cyndaquil, we have to stop it! Use flame wheel!" The fire mouse charged its foe, building up the flames that surrounded its body as it ran.
Lacey grinned as she saw her opening. "Sunflora, grass knot!" Cyndaquil was suddenly sent rolling across the ground and past its foe. Neither cyndaquil nor Adrian had seen the small tangle of grass appear and trip the fire pokemon, leaving both a bit confused about what had just happened.
"Cyndaquil, you have to get up, quick!" Adrian yelled out to his pokemon.
"Don't let it! Use mega drain!" Green tendrils of energy appeared from the grass-type that quickly latched onto cyndaquil and began to drain energy from it. The little pokemon yelled out in pain as the energy was sucked from its body.
"No good… We can't over power it… That's enough! I surr-" Adrian was cut off when cyndaquil began to glow a bright light, reminiscent of when elekid hatched from its egg. Adrian watched in awe as his cyndaquil grew, almost doubling in size. The bright light suddenly faded, leaving a newly evolved quilava where cyndaquil had stood. Both boys, as well as Lacey, stood in a stunned silence for a moment.
"That doesn't change a thing! Sunflora, finish it off! Petal dance!" Lacey commanded.
"Not so fast! Quilava, use your flame wheel once more!"
Quilava's body suddenly erupted into a blazing inferno as it turned and charged its foe once more. It was about halfway to the grass-type before a shower of glowing flower petals began to berate its body, however, the large flame wheel acted as a barrier, burning most of the petals to ash before they made contact. Quilava leapt into the as it drew near, slamming into sunflora's face with a full power flame wheel. Sunflora was instantly knocked out of the battle, much to Lacey's chagrin. Lacey recalled her pokemon and approached the victorious boy.
"Not bad." She said as she offered her hand. "If it wasn't for evolution and quilava's blaze ability I would have had you though." Lacey laughed and flipped her hair over her shoulder at this.
"Yeah, for sure!" Adrian smiled as she shook her hand. "I was ready to call it quits because I didn't want cyndaquil to get any more hurt. I really wasn't expecting it to evolve." He bent down on one knee and began to rub his starter pokemon's head. "I'm very proud of you, buddy."
The group celebrated quilava's new evolution for a bit longer before moving forward to find their next battle. Soon, Chance found himself in a battle of his own. He found himself battling a young boy and his yanma. Chance chose his hoothoot to match the bug-type pokemon.
The battle lasted longer than Chance had assumed it would, given the type advantage he and hoothoot had. However, yanma's speed proved to be troublesome for the owl pokemon. Although they ended up with a victory, hoothoot had trouble keeping up during the battle. This battle showed the two that they needed to begin training hoothoot's speed more in the time they had left before their next gym battle.
The next few hours continued on in this way. The boys each fought several trainers, allowing each of their pokemon to get some more training in. Chance was especially thankful for the battles he got in with his new staryu. The water-type was fast and boasted a decent set of moves. The battles that it participated in generally didn't last long.
The boys soon decided to take a break with their pokemon and enjoy a quick lunch by the pond in the center of the national park. Several other groups of trainers had the same idea, creating a peaceful atmosphere. The calm water and the gentle breeze helped their pokemon relax after their battles, giving them some much needed time to rest. Snivy took the chance to sneak in a quick nap, curled up on onix's head.
As they were laying in the grass and enjoying the peace a harsh laugh cut through the air, instantly catching the attention of both boys.
"Ha! Look at these losers and their loser pokemon. Laying in the dirt where they belong." The boys sat up to see Ian and his friends standing a few feet away. Ian had a large smirk across his face as he taunted the boys.
"Ew! They even have that weak onix with them!" Jade laughed as she flipped her hair out of her eyes and over her shoulder.
"Well, pitiful trainers need pitiful pokemon, I guess." Ian laughed once more. Jade joined in with a cackle of her own, while a small laugh escaped from Ryan, who stood behind the two.
"Come on, do we really want to waste time with these kids?" Ryan said plainly.
"What is the problem with you guys?" Adrian barked out as he got to his feet. "Didn't we beat you bad enough the last time we saw you sorry excuses for trainers?" His blue eyes filled with anger.
Onix began to stir from behind the boys, letting out an angry moan as its trainer ran to stand beside it. Chance placed his hand on onix's side as he stared down the trainers before him.
"You guys really should back off. We beat you once, and this time we won't be nearly as forgiving." The redhead warned as his pokemon gathered around him.
"You talk big, but can you back it up?" Ian scoffed as he reached for a pokeball attached to his belt.
"If we are going to do this, how about we make it a fair fight this time?" Chance said as he stepped to Adrian's side. "Double battle, each trainer gets two pokemon each."
"That means one of us would have to sit out!" Jade scoffed loudly. "Not a cha-"
"You're on!" Ian yelled, cutting his friend off. "Ryan, let's do this." Ryan stepped to his friend's side, much to the annoyance of their female companion. "Go, croconaw!" Ian yelled as he tossed his pokeball into the air, revealing his now evolved starter pokemon.
"Let's go, ariados!" Ryan yelled, releasing the large, red spider pokemon onto the battlefield.
Chance turned and nodded up at onix.
"Don't worry, buddy. You're the closer here. Start us off, hoothoot!" Chance called as the owl pokemon flew past him and onto the battlefield.
"And I'll use nidoran!" Adrian said as the little purple pokemon ran past him.
"Pathetic as ever." Ian sneered at the boys as he threw up his hand. "Croconaw, use water gun on hoothoot!" The water-type shot a burst of water from its mouth at the small owl pokemon, who took flight to dodge the move, however, it was quickly hit with a barrage of purple needles.
"Careful, the first attack was just a distraction so ariados could sneak in its own attack." Adrian mumbled to his companion. "Nidoran, hit ariados with a horn attack!"
"Hoothoot, you use peck on croconaw!"
Both pokemon charged their targets, but were met with a large amount of confusion as the four pokemon ended up in a jumbled melee. Croconaw worked to dodge pecks while returning bites and scratch attacks, but kept backing into the large spider by its side. Hoothoot continued its assault, but was limited in its dodging due to the nidoran at its side. Ariados and nidoran traded horn attacks and bug bites, much to the same success as their counterparts.
"I can't even tell what is going on in that mess" Chance mumbled, staring at the dance of melee attacks that was ensuing. "Hoothoot, tackle ariados out of that mess! You have to break it up!" The small owl pokemon dove past the crocodile in front of it and slammed into the bug-type, launching it several feet out of the jumbled mess of a battle.
"Nidoran, keep up the pressure, hit ariados with a horn attack!" Adrian shouted, taking advantage of stunned spider.
The poison-type charged at its foe with its horn glowing once more and slammed into it, throwing it to its trainer's feet. Ryan recalled the spider and quickly tossed out his second pokemon.
"Geodude, take them down!" The brunette yelled as the pokeball burst open. "Use rollout!" The rock-type shot towards hoothoot, who was currently dodging water gun attacks, and launched into the air, smacking into the flying-type and bringing it crashing to the ground. Geodude kept up the attack as it spun around and went back towards nidoran, slamming into it as well and launching it towards its trainer's feet. Nidoran was able to stand back up slowly, but hoothoot was down for count.
"You did great hoothoot." Chance smiled as he recalled his pokemon. "Your turn, onix." He yelled up to his giant pokemon.
"That pokemon is still a loser, just like you!" Ian yelled to his foe. "Water gun, take that thing down!" Croconaw launched a powerful stream of water at onix, who retaliated by quickly burrowing underground to dodge the attack. "Fine then! You can hide all you want. Croconaw, take out that other sorry excuse for a pokemon!" Croconaw turned its attention towards nidoran, who was busy trading blows with geodude. Nidoran traded double kick attacks with rock throws and tackles from the rock-type. The water attack caught the poison-type off guard and made a direct hit, taking it out of the battle. As this happened onix exploded from the ground beneath croconaw and slammed into it hard, throwing it up into the air. The water-type took a lot of damage from the impact, but even more when it came crashing back to the earth below. Each trainer was down to their final pokemon.
"Nidoran, take a long rest, buddy. Let's go, quilava!" Adrian shouted out, calling out his final pokemon.
"Beedrill, end this!" Their blonde foe shouted as he released his giant bee pokemon.
Onix and quilava stood across the field staring down the geodude and beedrill across from them. Neither side was fully ready to make the first move.
"Enough waiting! Geodude, rollout on quilava!" Ryan commanded.
"Onix, don't let it! Protect quilava and use bind!"
Geodude sped towards the fire-type but soon hit a hard rock wall as onix wrapped its powerful tail around it, halting the rollout attack.
"Beedrill, twineedle attack on onix! Take that thing out!" Ian ordered.
"Quilava, don't let it!" Adrian shouted out.
Quilava jumped up on onix's back and ran down the length of the giant pokemon while igniting its body in a flame wheel. Beedrill charged towards onix's face with its large stingers ready to assault the giant pokemon, but was met with a fireball that rocketed over the rock-types back. Quilava slammed into the bug-type and continued pressing its assault until beedrill slammed into the ground. Both pokemon slowly got off the ground and prepared to clash once more. Beedrill slowly started to move forward once more before onix threw the rock pokemon into the bee. The two pokemon once more hitting the ground.
"Are you serious?" Jade laughed from behind her friends. "You guys can't seriously lose to these two kids." She grabbed a pokeball from her belt and tossed it out as her friends recalled their injured pokemon. "Ekans, let's show them how to do this right." She said to the purple snake that emerged from the red energy. Her two friends each threw out their own pokeballs as well, revealing wooper and a mankey. The three pokemon began to charge into battle on their trainer's orders, but were met with a powerful gush of water that threw all three back towards their trainers.
"If you can't battle honorably then don't battle at all." A black haired trainer said as he approached with a vaporeon at his side. "You lost the battle so walk away. Or, if you'd like to continue then I will join their side to make it an even 3-on-3." He stated plainly. The three trainers glanced at each other before recalling their fainted pokemon and retreating across the park.
"This isn't over!" Ian called over his shoulder as he ran down the road.
The black haired boy patted his vaporeon on the head before turning towards the two boys behind him.
"Long time no see, Chance." The boy smirked.
"Blake?!" Chance exclaimed the moment he saw the trainer's face.