"The gym battle between the gym leader Blaine and challenger Vengeance is about to begin!" The loud voice of Ivan announced. Thank God, I was so glad to hear him. In this battle my biggest fear was to hear Zac as the announcer. "The battle is going one-on-one with four pokemon from the leader side and up to six from the other. Only challenger is allowed to substitute. Begin!"
"Go, Growlithe!" Leader Blaine released his first pokemon.
"Let`s go, Loser!" I did the same thing and quickly looked around. The people of Cinnabar Island actually gathered here to look at the battle between the man that saved them all… and me. That`s fine as long as they all forget about me.
Except for one guy. Douchebag was in the front row, staring at his ex pokemon with some interest. Loser was so focused on the opponent to notice his previous master.
"Let`s start with Bite!" Blaine commanded, throwing his fist forward.
He begins with the big guns now… Super effective and super dangerous move. We`ll work with that.
"Loser, today we are practicing our last lesson right in the field! Shadow Fury, phase 1!" I grinned cunningly giving an order.
While the puppy pokemon was running to my Gengar, preparing his fangs to attack, Loser turned into a shadow and jumped closer to him, interrupting the attack and throwing back. Growlithe howled and retreated back. A perfectly executed Sucker Punch.
"Oh, you and your tricks… Growlithe, Bite it again!" Blaine made a grin too, knowing that I will not repeat it again. And I will not.
"Now, Loser, Shadow Fury, phase 2!"
Let`s see how this goes. I threw a quick glance on Douchebag again – he looked really interested now. Watch and learn, king of assholes.
Now both pokemon rushed to each other for an attack, and that looked great. Loser punched Growlithe in the face right before the puppy pokemon bit his arm. That`s some battle I would like to watch, brawl-style!
But a super effective hit on us is not a very good thing. And our next step is going to be really risky…
"Shadow Fury. Phase 3!" I gave the order.
"We`re breaking through! Hit him with Fire Blast!" Leader Blaine shouted very determined.
Loser began to cast his dangerous ritual of Curse, creating a dark magic cloud around the foe. This also hurt him badly, and right after that the flaming missile from Growlithe came, hitting my pokemon even more. Now he is weakened and opened for attack. And so does our opponent… Getting the damage from his Curse once again.
But this is only the beginning.
"Finally, Shadow Fury, Phase 4!"
"Quickly, Growlithe, finish it with Bite!"
He is eager to win, and that`s his weakness. Nothing can stop us now. Loser is faster and during this phase – even faster. He jumped into the shadow to overcome his opponent and launch a powerful Sucker Punch to finally end the miserable sight of Growlithe before us. Damn, I sound just like that guy from the book…
"Growlithe is unable to battle. Gengar is the winner!"
Gengar is the winner, but in this state he won`t last much longer. This maneuver drains almost all power and is supposed to be used on stronger opponents. Well, at least, field practice was successful!
"Nice, I expected something impressive like that." Leader Blaine said while returning his pokemon back. "And I learn from that. Next one will be not that easy to take. Ponyta, go!"
Now he released another flame horse pokemon on the field, a less evolved form of Rapidash. It looks not that strong, but we need to weaken it for the next of my gang.
"Ponyta, finish it with Fire Blast!" Blaine fiercely shouted.
"Okay, Loser, you know what to do. Shadow Fury, Phase 1!" I decided to last as long as I can and keep the opponent at bay.
Once again, he turned into a shadow and teleported to opponent to make a nice punch in the back. Ponyta was thrown back and unable to create a Fire Blast.
As for my Loser, he looked very tired and torn. Now I doubt he will be able to do any more Sucker Punches – I used too much of them.
"Prepare yourself, Loser. An use Curse!" I said to my pokemon with a tone like saying a goodbye. I was.
"Fire Blast!" Blaine was yelling, really angry that this Gengar lives too long for a ghost.
We managed to lay a curse on the opposing Ponyta, but the Fire Blast finally ended the battle for my Loser.
"Gengar is unable to battle, Ponyta is the winner!" The loud announcement sent watchers to joyful scream.
"Return, Loser. You didn`t lose at all…" I tried to cheer the fallen ghost that already don`t hear me. "Now… for the big guns!" For a moment I interrupted myself and thought deep. Earlier Dumpling was my big gun, but now I have Lei Sheng that is almost twice bigger in height and almost triple bigger in length. "Well… moderately big guns. Dumpling, it`s your stage!"
And from the thrown pokeball the monstrous Charizard appeared, hovering in the air and then making a circle around the battlefield, collecting the ecstatic cries from watchers. Looks like he already made some fans.
For some seconds my eyesight was attracted by a Vulpix also cheering from the top row of tribunes. And when I looked closer at this pokemon… then I noticed the owner.
Jane.
What`s she doing here? Came to visit the gym battle or me specifically? Eh… I guess, there is no point in running away anymore, I should catch her after the battle and talk.
But now my Dumpling heavily landed before me and launched a flamethrower right into the air. The star that shines brightly…
"Finally, an opponent I like!" Leader Blaine was extremely glad to see a fire-type of my own. He seems to like battle fire pokemon and battle WITH them too. "Let`s start with Fire Spin!"
He`s up to that tactic too… In this situation it can be worse, despite the type effectiveness. Let`s try our oldest trick.
"Iron Rogue maneuver, Dumpling, 2.0 version!" I shouted with joy. He barked the same and launched a massive Smokescreen cloud that enveloped the whole battlefield.
It was too hard to control the battle in such state, but at least I could see the distorted silhouettes of pokemon. I could see how my Dumpling tried to fly over Ponyta and strike from behind, but… the opponent turned back and launched flaming attack of his own. Damn, being a big loud Charizard has its disadvantages… Now he is trapped in fire vortex and the enemy is blowing away our smoke with his attacks! Smokescreen is our friend no more…
"Let`s Fly high up!" I shouted to Dumpling and pointed my finger to the ceiling. Charizard quickly rushed up with all the fire storm around him and spread his wings, ready to attack.
"Jump and return this creep to the ground with Stomp!" Blaine commanded. His pokemon reacted immediately, leaving the nice smoke cloud and heading to us in the air.
Just as I need.
"Sky Rage!"
With the power of his mighty wings, Dumpling rushed towards the approaching Ponyta, collided with her and together they crushed into the ground, causing all the smoke to clear the area. As a winner, Charizard stood from the ground… Ponyta could not do that.
"Ponyta is unable to battle, and Charizard is the winner!" Another Ivan`s announcement caused the loud humming from watchers. They seem to really love Dumpling! I never thought that battling with watchers could be so… alive? I never liked to be watched. This causes paranoia.
"Awesome, pal!" I gave my Charizard a high-five, and he landed near me with his hands crossed, proud of himself and ready for another challenge.
"You two sure are good fighters." Leader Blaine admitted and changed the pokeball in his hand. "Let`s see if you are good enough for my next pokemon."
In a flash of light, Rapidash entered the field. He saves his strongest pokemon Arcanine for the last… Well, I have a weapon too… not secret, but still effective weapon.
"So, it`s better and better each round, heh? Good for me." I commented this new powerful pokemon that I have already beat. "Dumpling, let`s start with a nice Fly!"
"Heh… Rapidash, use Bounce!" Leader Blaine cunningly said.
Damn, what`s this Bounce move? Doesn`t sound too dangerous. Let`s see what it is.
My Dumpling ascended up to the ceiling and prepared to attack the opponent, waiting for a perfect moment. But opponent didn`t give us one, and jumped so high that even broke the glass ceiling and flew even higher.
"Wow…" I could not keep my excitement from this. "That`s really cool."
That was cool and unexpected. The long absence of Rapidash made us worry and lose focus, and that`s when she came back - falling from the sky, breaking the ceiling and crashing Dumpling into the ground. That… was unexpected.
A break in ceiling let the extremely strong sunlight fall upon the battlefield. It`s still a real drought outside… and we can use it to our advantage! Fire-type moves become stronger in sunlight and, despite being not very effective against both battlers, can do some real damage! All we need now is to combine Flamethrower with Fly to launch some really powerful attack. Eh… too bad we don`t have any maneuvers with these two moves in combo…
My Dumpling still suffers from the painful fire storm surrounding him, and that`s bad. He feels worse and worse every move. We need to do something. What mistake did we do now? We could not see the opponent coming because Rapidash was somewhere higher than roof, and ceiling was blocking the view. Leader Blaine sacrificed his own ceiling for this as now it is partly destroyed. Let`s check if he can do the same thing again.
"Dumpling, get high up with Fly!" I repeated the command.
"Okay, you didn`t get it first time." For some reason Blaine reminded me of lieutenant Surge with this tone. Bounce, Rapidash!"
Charizard reached the ceiling and stood right under the hole, where he can observe the falling Rapidash. This time we will be ready to catch her!
The opposing pokemon bounced high in the sky and fell down, dangerously approaching my partner. Everything goes according to plan…
"Flamethrower!"
Charizard released a huge stream of fire at Rapidash, but… it didn`t stop her, and both of them fell down on ground again. Dumpling got a beat down again, and our opponent is completely untouched! On the contrary – the flame enveloped her and somehow made.. stronger! Brighter!
"What the heck…" I confusedly swore. Rapidash just absorbed our fire to empower herself! How is this possible?
And that`s not the worst thing – my Dumpling is almost on the edge. He got up from ground, roaring wildly and blazing like a sun by himself, but… what`s the point in our stronger fire moves if all fire moves make our opponent even stronger?
Damn! And we can`t use Steel Wing because of weakness. Only Fly is available to us, but we can`t use it, because Rapidash is faster! Rely on bad luck?
"Use Smokescreen, Dumpling!" I carefully gave the order, already expecting it to fail.
"Yes! Yes!" Leader Blaine was shouting like wild. "Finish it with Fire Blast!"
His Rapidash instantly created a fire figure before her and sent into my Dumpling. Empowered by absorbed flame AND the shining sun this weird missile passed through the smoke veil he had time to create and massively exploded.
After some seconds even through the thick smoke we could see how my Charizard falls on ground, being unable to get up again.
"Charizard is unable to battle, Rapidash is the winner!" This announcement exploded the audience with screams, screeches and cries. This quickly stopped being fun when it began to interfere with my thoughts.
Ugh… I`m making the same mistake over and over again. Overestimated Dumpling`s strength… My strength.
"Return, Dumpling. We still have so much to learn..." I sadly addressed him and returned back to pokeball.
So, now I face an extremely powerful and even more powered-up Rapidash. I can use Reaper and Harry just to delay time – they won`t do much here, and Harry can also be very… unpredictable. Unstable. I need a new plan.
This creature likes to fight in the air? Then we`ll give her the air!
"Moment, I choose you!" I fiercely threw pokeball into the air and released Golbat. "Go into the Matrix Mode!"
"That won`t help you, boy!" Leader Blaine looked up at my Golbat, pathetically hovering in the air. This blood hunger makes him weaker and weaker every time. Maybe it was a mistake. "Fire Blast!"
"Moment, use Confuse Ray!"
My pokemon faced the blazing threat coming at him and even tried to dodge it, but he was too weak and so slow. The fire symbol collided and exploded once more – maybe, even stronger. Golbat was knocked down to the ground where he immediately went off…
"Golbat is unable to battle, Rapidash is the winner again!"
It WAS a mistake. Damn! I need to find the solution to this problem as soon as I can, but I still have no adequate idea.
"Return, Moment. I`m sorry." I sent him back and now grabbed the last capsule I have among the rest. I still have two more pokemon, but if this one fails – everyone fails.
And I silently released my main star today – Lei Sheng.
"He-he…" Leader Blaine chuckled with determination. "Now it`s REALLY for the big guns!"
He thinks he can defeat a water-type. But he can`t defeat Lei Sheng! Even his Rapidash shivers in fear before our intimidating power. What could possibly go wrong?
"Rapidash, use Fire Blast!" Our opponent fiercely commanded.
So, he`s going to continue using it? Awesome!
"Lei Sheng, extinguish this crap with Hydro Pump!"
Again, the blazing fire clot in X-form appeared before Rapidash and rushed to my pokemon at the extreme speed. But Lei Sheng was ready – he launched his own attack, piercing through the dangerous missile and leaving just some embers that reached him.
Rapidash gets weaker each time she uses Fire Blast… It`s a powerful move that exhausts pretty quickly. All previous sacrifices were not for nothing.
"And now we use Dragon Rage!"
"Rapidash, Stomp!" Leader Blaine began to notice fatigue of his pokemon and now switched the strategy.
This time the fire horse pokemon went to close combat, making a really painful stomp at Lei Sheng`s tail. But even that didn`t stop him from charging the destructive beam of pure dragon anger and unleash it upon Rapidash. Well, it`s not that powerful as could be, but we finally get the initiative back!
"Rapidash, use Bounce!" gym leader gave the command.
"And we will look up to use Hydro pump…" I smiled and retreated back myself.
Foe pokemon made a high jump again into the sky just to crush on Gyarados next turn, but we were watching over her through the broken ceiling. And when she returned within our reach…
"…but first – intercept with Bite and then - Skyrage!"
A sharp rush from my Gyarados caught Rapidash off guard, letting him to grab the opponent with his powerful jaws, make a spin right in the air and throw his prey on the ground with doubled strength. And after that he didn`t wait for the foe pokemon to get up, pressing her to the ground with a strong stream of water. Completely.
"Rapidash is unable to battle, Gyarados wins!" Ivan somehow gladly announced this, obviously excited to see the final confrontation of strongest gladiators.
Rapidash is really powerful pokemon, but not very enduring. I knew I can use it in my favor, and it worked really fine. I still feel sorry for sacrificing Moment just for this, but the victory will go to him too.
Leader Blaine silently returned his fallen comrade, really excited to see the finale. As now his last pokemon comes into the battle. Brightly, as always, the magnificent Arcanine! But also really fierce and intimidating, this really made effect on my pokemon too.
"So, the real battle starts now!" Leader Blaine announced by himself, raising his hands high up and causing the crazy wave of fan screams. This man really loves the attention… and a bit wasting my time.
"Get on with it!" I interrupted him and returned to battle. "We have an unfinished business!"
"Let`s show the battle to be proud of! Arcanine, use Take Down!" Leader Blaine shouted with such tone like he`s going to finish my Gyarados with one hit.
"Oh! Lei Sheng, come on, use Leer!"
The extreme speed of Arcanine let him reach my pokemon in a moment and hit him hard with his head. Then after a second of recovering the eyes of both fighters contacted and the scary look of Lei Sheng made opponent retreat back.
Okay, we need to weaken him first. Our main weapon is Hydro Pump, but it is too energy-consuming to keep using – I can already see how tired Lei Sheng is, he may be able to do it one or two times. I better not to get him to complete exhaustion. Hydro Pump will be the final strike, now we need to watch over Blaine`s strategy and look for Arcanine`s weaknesses. I already had an idea, based on my previous observations when we protected the city together, but I need to make sure it works.
"Arcanine, let`s go now with Bite!" Leader Blaine proceeded with the battle, pushing even harder.
"You know what? Bite him too! In the leg!" I grinned while giving another command, and Lei Sheng was really glad to execute it.
Blaine frowned, hearing that. He realizes that we aim to hurt his speed and grinned too while adding:
"Attack the center from above!"
That`s how he solved my strategy. Clever. Let`s see whether it works.
And it worked pretty fine – Arcanine jumped on my Gyarados, pressing him to the ground and made a painful bite in his back flipper. A hurt pokemon could not reach opponent that stands right in the middle of him – the trick I did to Brock in the beginning.
"Okay, let`s risk it. Throw him down with Hydro pump!" I furiously gave the command, swinging hands in the air.
"Ha! Arcanine, jump to dodge that and repeat the Bite from above!" Blaine sounded really confident in his strategy so he repeats it. Fine. Exactly what I need.
My Gyarados turned his head aiming at Arcanine on top of him, but the opponent jumped high up at once.
"Wait for my command…" I stopped my pokemon from launching an attack immediately. I needed a specific moment when our opponent rushes down and accelerates as much as possible. "Dodge!"
Gyarados immediately rolled his long body aside, making the angry Arcanine crush into the solid floor and remain opened for an attack.
"Now!" I finally gave my signal to launch the powerful water stream at the opposing pokemon, knocking him down and throwing back. That was some real power, some real super effective hit, but Blane`s pokemon is not that easily beaten.
"Grrr… You really want to act hard? Fine! Arcanine, use Roar!"
"Awesome! Lei Sheng, use Dragon Rage!" I even got my mood better from another prediction.
A loud powerful roar of Arcanine waved through the whole gym, making everyone close his ears. In normal circumstances this move must force the active pokemon to return back to pokeball and be replace with another one… But for me today there is no another ones! So this had absolutely no effect on us, and Lei Sheng easily could launch his dragon-powered beam at Arcanine and get us closer to victory.
"So, that`s it! All or nothing!" Leader Blaine shouted in fury. He feels the close end too. "Use Take Down from above!"
Am I just that lucky?
"Lei Sheng, get all your strength for one last Hydro Pump… On my mark!" I asked my exhausted pokemon to withstand some more. I need it. We need it.
And so the Arcanine rushed to Lei Sheng with all his speed, with all his might and jumped to the very ceiling to perform the strongest Take Down he could ever do… to crush on us like a meteor. It`s again the matter of one single move.
"Hydro Pump!"
My Gyarados gave his best too. The strongest water stream he could do struck poor Arcanine right in the air and sent him flying even higher, losing the balance. He suffered the pain from super effective hit and tried to gain some control over the flight, but… water stream caught him again and pressed into the solid ceiling, keeping in this position until the end.
Lei Sheng coughed loudly, breathing very heavily, having no more power to attack. But at that moment the body of Arcanine, no more supported by water stream, fell down the ceiling and crashed on the ground. Fire pokemon roared one more time before finally blacking out.
"Arcanine is defeated, and Gyarados wins! That means the whole match goes to challenger Vengeance!" The voice of Ivan, full of pride for so impressive battle, announced my victory over the gym leader Blaine.
The old man approached his last fallen pokemon and petted his head.
"Still, you did well, my old friend…" He addressed the monster. From this kind words Arcanine even slowly regained conscience without any medicines. "You showed a great battle. Now you can have a rest."
Blaine returned Arcanine back to his capsule and got up, looking at me.
"Looks like it was me who was burned to nothing…" He let himself a small ironic smile. "Or should I say… cleansed? Not even ashes remain." Blaine made a deep breath and took a small shiny red symbol in a form of fire from his pocket. "You have earned the Volcano Badge!"
I silently took it from his hands and nodded, thanking.
"And also I should give you this TM." He also gave me the small red disk for new move. "As you can see, Fire Blast us the ultimate fire technique. Don`t repeat my mistakes. Don`t waste it on water pokemon."
"Thank you, leader Blaine." I shook his hand and nodded again. "It was a pleasure to work with you and battle with you. But I will also need you… for a couple of words. May we?"
"Sure! It`s not a problem, we may have a talk during our small celebration this evening. You are our special guest." He seriously said and put hand on my shoulder.
A small party could be useful, I will need to give my guys some rest anyway.
"I`m in! When and where?" I replied with more questions.
"Come here at seven, it`s going to be great."
Hm… Maybe I should spend a couple of hours checking around this place before going to party. I don`t want to be ambushed while being drunk… I might accidentally kill everyone. I dropped that bad habit.
"See you then, leader Blaine!" I waved my hand and approached my big blue beast breathing heavily. Yuck, he may need a toothbrush. "So, big guy, see this? We won it. You won it." I showed him the newly acquired badge. Gyarados gladly growled and fell on ground, not even able to keep his head. "Yeah, I see that now you are more concerned about having a nap than making a career…"
I decided not to torture my pokemon anymore and beamed him inside the pokeball. With nothing more to do here, I headed back outside.
Oh… What a day. What a challenge… What a battle! But for me it looked… Not hard enough? Not challenging enough? Well, after lieutenant Surge all gym battles feel different, but this one was… especially different. Did I grow up? Did my pokemon get stronger? Did I get more experience from battling here and there, chasing Team Rocket and all that?
But that is my main goal! I train pokemon at gyms to battle Rockets, not the other way!
"You look depressed." Suddenly some female voice interrupted me. I didn`t even notice how reached the entrance to gym and Jane standing near it. "You won, didn`t you?"
"Yes, I did." I answered shortly and carefully.
"Then smile!" She gladly cheered me and spread her hands. "What bothers you?"
I looked at her brutally, wishing to say that it`s she who bothers me, but didn`t say.
"Do you know this feeling when you work so hard for reaching the goal… And you lose the purpose when actually reach it? Feel no sense anymore?" I tried to confuse her with sudden psychological revelation.
"Did YOU reach your goal?" She didn`t buy it and seriously asked in return.
"No."
"Then what`s the problem?"
"I do it for so long I start to forget what my goal is." I calmly answered and headed outside. The stubborn but cheerful Jane followed me.
"At least, you have the purpose." She positively said to me.
"What do you need? Your debt?" I tried to get rid of her carefully.
"No, not yet… But very soon I`ll need you." Jane smiled. Knowing what this woman`s real nature makes her look pretty creepy. "I wanted to look at one of your gym battles and tell some news."
"You came here just to see my battle?" I asked in surprise.
"Ha! You wish. I am on vacation here. You and your Ditto invasion spoiled it, by the way." She accused me without any negativity in her voice. "But watching you battle… Really turns me on!"
She suddenly grabbed my hand and pushed to herself.
"What news?" I lightly changed the subject, returning my hand back to me.
"Oh, that will be interesting to you. The Viridian City gym is opened again! It`s leader is back, so you can finish the circle of challenges and get the final badge for you!"
Wow, that sounded really cool! If it`s true, of course… Jane doesn`t have a reputation of trustable woman. But the thing is… she never lies… She passes over in silence. She always tells the truth or passes over in silence. THAT`s what made me not to like her.
"Will you come to watch my battle there too?" I asked her.
"Maybe. What are your plans for the next few days?"
"I don`t know. Give my guys some rest, observe a couple of places, then pay a visit to professor Oak and, MAYBE then go to Viridian City gym." I teased her a bit.
"Don`t you afraid of missing him again?" Jane tried to warn me. "You should know his work clock are really tough…"
"Why should I?" I stopped and smiled. "Even if I miss him again, then I will not cry. Because he is NOT my goal. My goal is a completely different man."
I turned around and headed away from Jane. Through a small reflection in my glasses I could see her… strangely disappointed look. But I don't care.
I completely do not care.