Note: Some people were confused about why Alexis was becoming a pokemon trainer now that he's 18 and not earlier.

In this story, you can't become a pokemon trainer until you're a legal adult, because would you really trust a creature that can destroy small towns and rip someone's head off in a couple of seconds to a 12 year old? Or even a 16 one?

Not to mention traveling alone across the country/region…

In a more realistic world, most definitely not.

-(=0=)-

Alexis had never felt more nervous in his entire life.

Street 4602 was just a dirty alleyway, the only thing that illuminated it was a purple neon sign that read APHORORA PUB.

Alexis knocked on the door. He was here half an hour earlier, just in case.

A letter plate on the metal door slid to the right and a pair of blue eyes were now locked onto him.

"Yes?"

"Uhhh, the trainer with the Sandile to fight here at 1 AM."

The letter plate slid to the left. Soon after, Alexis could hear a comically large amount of door chains -maybe five or six- being opened.

"Come right in," the man with blue eyes said in a monotone voice, now fully visible. He looked to be in his 40s and had short blonde hair.

What he saw inside the pub couldn't have been more disorienting.

In contrast with the alleyway outside, the pub had a sleek modern design, dimly lit by a plethora of purple lights, with a TV attached to the top of the wall on the right and a bar serving some patrons on the left.

The TV was playing what seemed like one of those music videos where women would twerk and dance erotically, which was thankfully on mute. Instead, a relaxing jazz tune was being played from a pair of hidden speakers behind the bar.

The place also seemed strikingly empty. If the winner of the fight was to be paid that much, surely the audience had to be huge, right?

"THERE HE IS! THE MAN OF THE HOUR!" screamed a voice across the pub. A man sitting at one of the round tables in the company of another two was waving at him. Alexis recognized him as the guy that he'd talked to earlier at the park.

Alexis walked up to the table and took the only seat left between said man and one of the strangers.

"Can I get you anything?" asked the blonde man who seemed to be the bartender of the pub.

Alexis grabbed the menu inside the napkin holder at the center of the table.

Aphorora Pub

Krakka 10$

Mimett 10$

Tantal 10$

Reagen 10$

Curiel 10$

Sylkis 10$

What the fuck was this shit?

"...You got water?"

"Sure kid," the man answered as he went back behind the counter and brought him a bottle of water and a glass filled with ice.

"Thanks," Alexis said before he gulped down half the bottle, not even bothering to drink from the glass.

All three men around him were chuckling. "Don't worry kid, it's on the house. I'm Norman, sorry about not telling you back there," Norman said, extending his hand to Alexis.

"It's fine, I'm Alexis," he said as he shook the man's hand back.

"I'm Benny."

"The name's Malky."

Alexis shook hands with the other two men before drinking the rest of his water. He was starting to feel a little better than before.

"So tell me. Where is everyone? And where am I going to be fighting?" Alexis asked, already a bit impatient.

"See? I told you, kid's stoked to fight!" Norman said with a smile, "see that door over there?"

Alexis looked where Norman was pointing. It was another metal door, just like the one at the entrance of the pub. "That leads to the basement. When it hits 12:45 all of us will go down there. You might want to go to the bathroom before, there isn't one down there," he finished smiling and laughing, his two friends did the same.

It was only now Alexis realized these three were probably a little groggy.

He asked for another glass of water, gulped it all down in one go, and decided to go relieve himself. Better safe than sorry.

-(=0=)-

The atmosphere below the pub was completely different from the one above.

For starters, instead of the nice and soothing jazz music, punk music was being played instead. There was a lot more humidity in the air, as well as a musty smell.

Alexis finished making his way down the stairs. The basement was way bigger than he had expected. In the middle of the large room laid a big patch of fake grass, with a metal-wired fence in the form of an octagon marking the limits of the arena, along with two doors of the same wired metal stranding opposite to each other.

It was smaller than one used in regulated matches, but still big enough for two medium size pokemon to battle comfortably.

Around the arena, a large group of people sat on a series of bleachers that made a circle around said arena. Alexis even caught a glance of someone eating fries from a paper holder. How had all these people arrived here?

Probably another entrance, he thought.

Alexis was about to take a deep breath when someone touched his shoulder.

He turned around and saw the guy with blond hair and blue eyes again.

"You're up in 5 minutes. Go over there and release your pokemon. You may talk with him before the battle as well as command it however you please during it."

Alexis did as told, released Sandile, and took a knee beside him. "Alright buddy, you ready to kick ass?" Sandile nodded repeatedly with a smile.

Alexis rose and looked towards the other door. He saw his soon-to-be opponent talking to his pokemon, the creature had reddish-brown fur and yellow stripes in the shape of a safety vest.

Oh, Arceus. Alexis looked down at Sandile, his eyes had already lit up.

It seemed like his opponent's pokemon was a Watchog, the evolved form of Patrat. The same exact pokemon Sandile had been eating for two weeks straight.

Alexis hoped most people in the audience had a strong stomach or this was going to get ugly.

After the stipulated five minutes passed, all lights except the one illuminating the arena shut down, making the people around them basically disappear. "Both pokemon step forward!" Sandile and the Watchog did, the metal doors closing behind them.

"BEGIN!"

"Tafer, Tackle!" the unknown trainer exclaimed without skipping a beat.

Alexis gave no command. Tafer the Watchog dashed from his position and slammed onto Sandile with full force.

Like they had practiced, Sandile understood that not hearing any orders from his trainer meant he was meant to take the hit. To do this, Sandile had dug his claws into the ground, managing to tank the hit without moving.

"Sandile, use Bite on it, and don't let go!" Sandile followed the command to a T, springing forwards and clamping down on Watchdog's left shoulder, swallowing his entire arm in the process.

"Free yourself, Tafer!" Alexis's opponent screamed.

"Add Fire Fang on top of it!"

Watchog trashed around furiously, clearly in pain. The Normal type started to scream as Sandile's fangs reached peak temperature. Smoke came out of Sandile's mouth, a clear sign that Watchog's skin was being badly burned.

Alexis would have been lying if he said he didn't feel just a little bad for his opponent's pokemon.

"Tafer, use Slam!" to Watchog's credit, it managed to concentrate enough to perform the move.

Alexis watched worriedly as Watchog jumped surprisingly high in the hair and slammed down all of its weight directly onto Sandile. The blow caused him to lose concentration and open his mouth. The Ground/Dark type went rolling towards one of the metal walls of the arena from the impact, almost slamming against it had he not used the claws on his legs to stop himself.

Alexis looked at Sandile as he managed to stop himself and then glanced at Watchog. It was not a pretty sight.

Almost the entire arm had been ripped off thanks to Saddle's incredibly powerful jaw, a process which had only been accelerated by the sharp fangs being red hot.

As it was now, Watchog's left arm was entirely incapacitated and could probably be torn apart from a direct blow, so Alexis ordered.

"Don't lose the momentum Sandile. Use Rage!"

Rage was an interesting attack. A low-powered move that once used the pokemon couldn't do anything else than attack with it until it fainted or was returned to its pokeball.

The reason why Rage was a powerful move when a pokemon was young was because if the user was hit by a direct attack after using Rage, the attack power of the pokemon would increase, which could lead to a dangerous snowball effect.

Just like Watchog before -though not as fast- Sandile dashed with full speed towards his opponent with the intention to slam onto it as hard as he could.

"Tafer dodge and hit it with Low Kick!" to Alexis's surprise, Watchog managed to sidestep Sandile's attack and slam a powerful kick into the right side of his body.

"Shit! That's super effective," Alexis thought. The kick sent Sandile flying, who could not do anything this time and slammed against the metal fence.

Sandile slowly got up, the faint crimson in his eyes indicated that Rage had done its job. They were not done yet. "C'mon Sandile, you can do it!"

"Tafer, use Slam!"

Alexis swallowed hard as he watched Watchog jump and start descending at full speed directly above Sandile. "Meet him in the air Sandile!" Sandile did as told. He crouched his four legs and jumped, crashing with Watchog mid-air.

Sandile went flying down, crashing against the grassy floor with a THUD, raising dust and dirt in the process. Watchog was not spared from the hit, however, flying back up and then crashing down, as it was unable to gain control back and land on its feet.

The arena remained silent as the clouds of dirt slowly disappeared. Sandile had shockingly managed to stand up once again. His legs were shaking a bit but no external damage could be seen on him. The crimson in his eyes was even more noticeable than before, as he was now under the effects of three consecutive Rages.

His opponent, on the other hand, was not looking so good, as it now laid in a pool of its own blood, completely knocked out. As Alexis had correctly predicted, while the hit from Rage had not been as powerful as Slam, the move had still hit Watchog with enough force to fully rip out its left arm clean off and he was now bleeding heavily from the wound.

Alexis looked at his opponent on the other side of the arena, an expression of abhorrence clear on his face, making Alexis feel bad once again.

He looked to his right side, trying to find the blond man from before so he could call an end to the match, yet he couldn't find him in the audience. He did find Norman, however, who was giving him a thumbs-up from the bleachers.

It was only now, after the adrenaline from his first real fight as a pokemon trainer started to disappear from his bloodstream, that Alexis could hear the screams of the people from the grandstands.

Looking back at the arena, Sandile was now slowly closing the distance between him and the Watchog. The Ground/Dark type's tongue was hanging out freely as he positioned himself right above Watchog's unconscious form, opened his mouth as wide as possible -just as he had done many times before with many Patrat- chomped down on the Watchog's right leg and began to slowly munch on it, clearly tired from the fight.

Alexis looked away. To his surprise, the people were cheering.

Fuck, what kind of place had Alexis gotten himself into?

He looked at his opponent again, who was now banging on the metal-wired fence door with tears in his eyes.

Two men in black suits emerged from the shadows behind his opponent shortly thereafter, one put a hand on his shoulder and the other whispered something in his ear. The trainer looked at him with dead eyes and started walking away, disappearing into the dark.

Clapping and cheering filled the room. The lights turned on again and Alexis saw a lot more people than before.

Maybe they had arrived late?

He even noticed that while most people looked happy, they were others that looked angry and even sad. Alexis concluded that it was probably because they had bet on Watchog and not on Sandile.

Norman slowly walked over to Alexis, put his arm around him, and whispered in his ear, "we're going. Get that pokemon back on his ball."

As he returned the Ground/Dark type to his pokeball, Alexis realized that Sandile was not even eating anymore, having lost consciousness sometime after the lights had turned on.

He was going to be pissed about that tomorrow. Sandile hated wasting food.