Recommened music: Purely because of the associations made in the previous chapter, the Opening for Sakura Taisen. I like the version from 4 the best.
Pokemon Tales: Red Chapter 27: In Full Gloom.
"You have to break free! Use Mega Drain!" Erika ordered her Gloom which has been captured by Red's Pidgeotto.
"Not so fast. Pidgeotto, let's go!" Red shouted before jumping off the stage.
Unsure of what he was about to do, the crowd parted ways which allowed him to run away from the stage, with the bird following right after him and Oddish also slowly walking in the direction they went.
"Where are they going?" Sumire asked Kanna who was just as confused as her.
Even Erika was so surprised that it took her a while to understand what just happened. Ignoring the worried voice of the announcer yelling at her, she left the stage in the same way her opponent did and gave chase. After running for a while, with various people looking at her clumsy movements since she tried to move her legs more than her kimono would allow her, she saw that Red went through sliding doors leading to a set of stairs. When she reached them, the boy was already out of her sight while she herself was out of breath.
While trying to regain her strength, her fervent feelings kept on pushing her forward. Combined with her wit, they caused her to push aside a couple people while quickly getting on the elevator. Seeing the fire burning in her eyes, the other passengers were too intimidated to try getting off or pressing any button. She determined that the only place that would make sense, if Red wanted to change the battlefield, was the roof, and the elevator should allow her to get there quicker and use the element of surprise to her advantage.
"Wha-? You're already here?!" she couldn't believe her eyes after arriving at her destination and witnessing her opponent waiting for her with a confident expression painted on his face.
"This thing is a lot warmer than I expected." the boy commented while lifting his haori as if he wanted to get a better look at the kimono underneath it.
"Acid!" the girl shouted in order to use Red's absent-mindedness against him.
Realizing that Gloom was about to use some sort of attack on her, Pidgeotto let go of her opponent and tried to dodge it but her wing was still partially hit. The Grass Pokemon tried to position itself in such a way as to not get hurt while landing on the roof but it fell from enough of a high for any maneuvering to be useless. Fortunately for it, Erika took notice of that and pointed a pokeball towards it, returning the Pokemon to safety, before reaching for another one to immediately call out her next Pokemon and continue attacking as quickly as possible while Pidgeotto was still dealing with trying to adjust her flight with one of her wings hurt.
"Vine Whip, Tangela!" the girl shouted.
A blue Pokemon resembling a big piece of seaweed appeared out of a pokeball and immediately shot out one of its many tentacles in Pidgeotto's direction. Red could barely follow the attack with his eyes but he knew that his Pokemon was in immediate danger and reacted accordingly.
"Dodge!"
Instead of trying to struggle by trying to fly to the side or upwards, Pidgeotto decided that it would be in her best interest to close her wings, making her stop flying altogether. By plummeting towards the roof, she was able to avoid the attack which flew right above her head. She didn't expect that her opponent was prepared for such an eventuality.
"You fell for it!" Erika announced with satisfaction.
It turned out that Tangela already shout out another vine right after the first one, this one meant to hit Pidgeotto from below.
"Aerial Ace!"
After receiving this order from Red, instead of trying to avoid the surprise attack, Pidgeotto turned her head towards it and brought her wing even closer to her body, making a much more aerodynamic shape with her body. While keeping herself in such a pose, she spun around and barely avoided the vine and quickly fell towards the roof.
Erika and Tangela both felt shivers run over their bodies since it looked like, instead of fighting, the bird was trying to flatten itself by hitting the concrete.
She was only centimeters from the ground when she opened her wings and, while ignoring the pain, used them to propel herself towards her foe. As she approached Tangela, her flight started gaining an upward motion. The Grass Pokemon tried to protect itself by shooting out additional vines but Pidgeotto was moving so fast that each time an attack would hit, she was already ahead of it. Finally, she reached her target and hit Tangela with her beak. The force of the attack and the way in which she was moving, caused the opponent to be lifted off the ground and thrown, spinning, into the air.
"I won't let him set the pace any longer." Erika said to herself "Sunny Day!"
Although still not being able to stop itself from flying higher and higher, Tangela was able to create an artificial sun above her. The leader was hoping that it would give her Pokemon a chance to gather itself since Pidgeotto would be unable to see Tangela while being blinded by the rays of sunlight.
"This won't work!" announced Red.
Erika realized that the bird somehow wasn't bothered by the light and was quickly following Tangela in the air, preparing to deliver another blow.
Instead of wasting time on trying to figure out how Pidgeotto was able to see her Pokemon, Erika decided to act instantly by yelling "Use Vine Whip in all directions!"
Since the grass Pokemon was spinning, it wasn't certain that one or even two tentacles would do the trick. This was a way of making sure that even if it wasn't able to hit its opponent, it would be able to keep her at a distance long enough to regain the sense of what is up and what is down.
"Keep your distance and get above it!" Red ordered his Pokemon.
The bird judged at what point her opponent would stop going up and start to fall and flew slightly higher.
"Wing Attack!"
Pidgeotto flapped her wings, sending powerful gusts of air which accelerated Tangela's fall. Neither the grass Pokemon nor its trainer had time to react and, about two seconds later, it smashed into the roof. To Red's surprise, it got up fairly quickly. He was sure that it would go down after that combination of attacks so he looked at Erika, wondering if she did something beforehand to prepare Tangela against flying type Pokemon.
"Synthesis!" the Gym leader commanded, hoping to take advantage of the time it would take Pidgeotto to get down to the roof.
Tangela's body started glowing with green light, making the Pokemon look less tired. Since Red had his experience with grass Pokemon, he suspected that the artificial sun played a role in this regenerative process. This made him think that it would be best if he hurried with his next move.
"Aerial Ace!"
He looked at Erika after saying that and noted that the girl remained calm. Pidgeotto was about to sweep Tangela off its feet when the Gym leader revealed that she was preparing for a counterattack.
"Ancient Power!"
Tangela turned towards the approaching opponent and closed its eyes for a moment, after which a ring of floating rocks surrounded by a white aura appeared around its body.
"Pull up!" Red yelled to his Pokemon since he didn't expect this clash of attacks to go well for them.
The Grass Pokemon didn't even need to move in order for the rocks to shoot out towards the escaping bird. As she flew higher, she wanted to confirm the range that the projectiles could reach in order to avoid them in the future but, to her surprise, it seemed like they wouldn't stop until they would reach their target. Oddish, who stood beside his trainer all this time, looked at the boy with a worried expression.
"Aerial Ace once again! Do it fast!"
Pidgeotto turned around and dropped towards the rocks. Her spinning motion made it possible to barely avoid them before they also turned around and started following her again.
"I see what you're hoping for but it's useless! Tangela, Vine Whip!"
"This will be risky but... Pidgeotto, use Whirlwind!" Red ordered while keeping in mind that his Pokemon would have to be able to use the move before Ancient Power would catch up to her.
Pidgeotto flapped her wings in a distinct way and instead of creating waves of air like she would with Wing Attack, her irregular movements caused a spiral of wind to appear in front of her, growing larger by the second, until it was big enough to lift up Tangela and throw her towards her trainer, the pressure being so strong that the Grass Pokemon changed into light and went back inside its pokeball, leaving the Gym leader clueless as to what just happened.
Red couldn't be happy about it since it was just a temporary measure. There was also the fact that although Tangela was gone for the moment, the rocks created by it didn't disappear. They lost their glow and it seemed like they wouldn't be able to change their direction anymore but they were already close enough that it didn't matter. Pidgeotto got hit in the back and had to struggle not to crash into the roof.
"Come back, Gloom!" the leader shouted while throwing a pokeball after coming to terms with Tangela being kicked out of the battle "Acid!"
"U-Turn!"
When the grass type Pokemon shot out its poisonous liquid, Pidgeotto was already gone from the place the opponent aimed for and was flying at it from the side. Gloom tried to block the attack with its arms but it wasn't enough to stop the bird from flying at it and sending it upwards after the impact. Instead of following it to attack, the move Pidgeotto used caused her to follow the path she started on and return back to Red, changing herself into light and going back in her pokeball before the energy carried by her made another pokeball open, revealing that Charmeleon wasn't actually defeated during his earlier fight. He opened one of his hands which was closed at the moment he appeared out of the ball and revealed a Sitrus Berry which he promptly consumed.
"So he also uses items..." Erika muttered while observing if Gloom was in a good position to attack.
"Are you okay, Charmeleon?"
The Pokemon nodded.
"Alright. Use Flamethrower!"
The lizard opened his mouth and released a powerful stream of fire. Erika wanted to try and prevent the attack but after giving it a moment of thought, she realized that using poison type moves in this situation could prove dangerous, with her not being able to tell if Gloom could accurately aim at its opponent. This meant that she had to stand there and witness as Charmeleon's flames surrounded her partner until the moment when the lizard let up and Gloom landed on the roof unconscious.
"That was... You're actually kinda good." Erika commented while calling Gloom back to its pokeball.
"Wait. Don't tell me you though that I was getting so heated up about Pokemon while not actually being at least decent at Pokemon battles."
"Weeell... Let's not get into the right now. I still have two of my Pokemon left and your Charmeleon doesn't look like he can take much more."
"That... That remains to be seen, doesn't it?" Red asked while glancing at his Pokemon, trying to hide how worried he was.
During that exchange, Oddish looked towards the doors which lead to the stairs he and Red used to get to the roof and noticed that the film crew finally managed to find where the two of them went and started recording they battle while trying to hang back as to not get into both trainers' way.
"It's a shame that your name doesn't rhyme with bloom but it's your turn again." Erika said while holding up one of her pokeballs "Go, Tangela!"
"Flame Charge! Don't give it time to move!"
Charmeleon started running at his opponent while setting himself ablaze.
"Tangela! Trust me and use Vine Whip!"
The grass Pokemon was a little hesitant but it gave in and used one of its tentacles to grab onto the lizard's arm. It was hard to keep it there with the flames hurting it constantly and the fact that Charmeleon was almost there to deliver the hit didn't make it any calmer.
"Throw it and let go!" Erika commanded.
Charmeleon was thrown towards the elevator. He disabled his flames since he didn't get a good look at the place they were in and didn't want to accidentally destroy something and cause trouble for his trainer. He tried to regain balance and hoped to stop himself by kicking the wall next to the elevator but Erika planned on continuing her attack.
"Ancient Power! This should finish it!"
The girls prediction proved right when Charmeleon was pelted with a volley of rocks right after succeeding in his plan to land.
Red returned the Pokemon to his ball and thanked him for doing a good job before moving onto the hard decision of who he should use next "That rock move is too dangerous for Pidgeotto, even if the other stuff won't do her much harm. Electric attacks won't be too useful so Raichu is out. Gyarados is part flying but he still doesn't really know anything besides Bounce and it's too dangerous to use it on top of a building. I taught him a water move but that would be even less useful. That leaves Ee..."
The boy felt something nudging his leg and after looking down, he saw Oddish looking at him with a slight smile on his face.
"I..." he wanted to tell the Pokemon that he would not be suitable for this battle since he didn't even consider him as an option from the beginning, but suddenly he came to a realization "Wait... I think I may have got ahead of myself."
"Hello? Are you alright? Is this fight still happening?" Erika asked impatiently.
"Yeah. And my next Pokemon is Oddish!" the boy responded.
"Oddish?" the leader sounded surprised "I mean... I had an Oddish as my first Pokemon so I know that they can be strong if you train them well but this one... It looks like it's lacking something."
"Let the battle decide that." Red said with a smile.
"You're creeping me out. What happened to your previous attitude?"
"Oh. I just came to realize that I was fighting you for the wrong reasons. I got mad at you because I thought about all my friends and what being a Pokemon trainer means to them. But that's not right. They dreams aren't mine so I can't use them as an excuse to get angry over whether you're serious in what you're doing."
"You're making it confusing. What's your point?"
"I don't have a dream I'm working towards. My journey is just a way to see how far I can go and the reason I started is because I like Pokemon."
"I mean... Yeah. I get that but..."
"Even if I win, it would be an empty victory if I don't get the thing I want from every Pokemon battle. That thing is "fun". I was so blinded by my anger that I completely forgot about it. That's why I will fight using Oddish."
"But... What if you lose because of that?"
"Won't matter. After remembering that Pokemon battles can mean something different to each person, I accepted that your reasons for being a Gym leader are valid. If you're still mad at me then come at me with full power but right now it doesn't matter if I win or lose...Which makes me that much more dangerous."
"I... I think I now have a completely different reason for being angry. You didn't stop to consider how I would feel, since I'm fighting you seriously, if I lost against you trying to just have fun? It would be humiliating."
"Then all you have to do is win." he responded while shrugging in an exaggerated way.
"If you say so..." the leader didn't look satisfied with how the boy completely changed in a minute or so, even though him coming to his senses is what she wanted at the beginning "We're going to go all out! Tangela, use Vine Whip to get a hold of it!"
Red didn't give any order in response and simply watched how a tentacle wrapped around Oddish and lifted him of the roof. Tangela retracted its vine so that its opponent was fairly close to it but not close enough to attack with his body.
"You're not going to do anything?" Erika asked "You really intend to piss me off, don't you? Well, have it your way. Tangela, use Ancient Power!"
"Mega Drain!"
As Tangela started to materialize the floating rocks around its body, Oddish started sucking out energy through the vine holding him in air. It looked like her Pokemon was struggling but Erika believed that it could execute the order despite this obstacle.
"That's not all!" Red announced after seeing that Tangela managed to create the rocks and started lifting them higher into air "Sleep Powder!"
"No!" Erika yelled for naught since she already realized what was the boy's plan and that she couldn't stop it.
The only thing she could do is pray that the attack wouldn't take effect but it turned out that she wasn't so lucky. Tangela fell asleep and with that it lost control of Ancient Powers and all the rocks fell on its head. That was enough to immediately wake it up but it also hurt quite a bit and made it release Oddish from its grasp.
"I'm not sure what you did but it seems like you used some tricks besides Synthesis to stealthily heal up Tangela. I had to get ahead for this to be a fair fight."
"It's not supposed to be fair."
"And I said that I'm doing this for fun. It's more fun to me this way."
"You're acting like you could win this any moment." Erika lifted one of her brows while saying that.
"Well, I've got a plan. We'll see if it works out. You're welcome to try and stop us."
"Vine Whip!" the girl shouted, hoping to take him by surprise.
"Dodge!" was the boy's response and his Pokemon easily did what he wanted of him.
"How is he so..." Erika started but, when she remembered the artificial sun her Pokemon created earlier during the battle, she clenched her fists "Of course. His Oddish uses Chlorophyll to double its speed. He messed with my mind so much that I'm forgetting the basics of my own experience as a Pokemon trainer. I won't make the same mistake again. Tangela, use Vine Whip! As many as you can at the same time!"
Red didn't expect her to use something so messy since all her previous tactics seemed well thought out. Nevertheless, her plan seemed to work since Oddish could barely keep up with avoiding the multitude of tentacles trying to hit him, even with his increased speed. But there was someone who could.
"Return, Oddish!" the boy yelled while pointing a pokeball at his Pokemon right as he was about to be struck by a tentacle for the first time "It's your turn, Pidgeotto!"
"This thi..." Erika stopped herself in time since she caught herself about to underestimate Red even though he proved already that he could exceed her expectations and that even though he claimed he was fighting for "fun", he didn't do anything carelessly "Ghh... Don't let up, Tangela!"
The bird raced against the tentacles while trying to get closer to her opponent.
"Aerial Ace!" ordered Red.
Knowing what Pidgeotto was about to do, Tangela prepared herself to be able to stop the attack,
"Or not!" the boy added after seeing that.
His Pokemon listened and flew by her foe without trying to attack it, leaving Tangela confused and Erika wondering if it was a setup for another tactic. She was mad at herself that she didn't immediately realize what it could be.
"U-Turn!"
While still being behind her opponent, Pidgeotto swiftly turned around and flew at Tangela as fast as she could, knocking the Pokemon in Red's direction before returning to her pokeball and causing Oddish to come back out of his.
"Tangela, you have to prepare!"
"Mega Drain!"
As Oddish tried to attack by creating a vine that would suck out his foe's energy, Tangela was already releasing a bunch of tentacles to knock his attack out of the way before he could get even one bit out of it.
"This isn't working out." Red thought to himself "Pidgeotto can deal some damage but not quickly enough since Tangela can regenerate itself at any given moment. Oddish can probably drain it faster than it could heal but he doesn't have any offensive attacks besides Mega Drain and it's hard to even get close with just this. We could try using Grass Knot but it would be pointless if Erika knew it was coming."
Oddish backed off after realizing that his attacks haven't been working and that Red still hasn't given him another order. Seeing that the boy was in deep thought, the Pokemon became worried that it was because he wasn't meeting his expectations. Red was a kind trainer so Oddish never worried too much and just tried to enjoy himself, be it fights, food or sleep, but although it was hard to understand what the boy tried to explain to him earlier during the day, he began to suspect that his serious face meant that he was considering letting him go since he was weaker than all the other members of his team. He even went as far as showing that he wanted to take part in this fight but it seemed like it wasn't enough if he didn't beat at least one of Erika's Pokemon. These thoughts scared him so much that he decided for the first time to go beyond the limit of his own abilities. He couldn't do math but his thoughts were essentially the equivalent of breaking through his 100 percent and try to reach even 101 percent.
"What?" was the only thing Red could say as he was taken out of his thoughts by what was happening in front of him.
Instead of trying to attack and his attempts being deflected, Oddish put himself on the defensive as he ran towards Tangela, trying to knock away its tentacles with his single vine. There were simply too many of them and each step he took, he was knocked backwards by two, finally landing in front of his trainer's feet. After seeing the boy's perplexed face nearing him, he closed his eyes, too afraid of what would happen to him for not reaching Red's expectations. He suddenly felt himself being lifted up by his leaves.
"What the hell are you trying do to? We're a team, aren't we? You can make your own decisions when there's a need for it but usually it works in such a way that I instruct you. Are you that desperate to win that you don't trust me? Well, I've been focusing too hard on how to go about this so I guess it's my fault."
Oddish held back his tears when he heard these words. He realized that he himself put unnecessary thoughts and assumptions about Red in his own head. He gave out a meek sound that meant to signify that he was ready to return to the battlefield, especially since Tangela seemed eager to approach them instead of waiting for him to attack again.
"Hmm... I could..." Red looked at Oddish for a while until a suspicious smile appeared on his face and he leaned back before throwing the Pokemon like a sinker in baseball.
Erika, Tangela and all of the film crew stood there with their eyes wide open in shock which gave the boy a momentary advantage and allowed Oddish to land right in front of the opponent.
"Mega Drain!"
Although Oddish was able to suck out some of Tangela's energy, Erika immediately returned to her senses and gave an order of her own "Vine Whip! Strike it down with a barrage of your tentacles!"
The little grass Pokemon stood there while being pummeled, patiently draining energy as his own was depleted. Erika saw how dangerous that situation was and the only thing both of the trainers could do was hope that their Pokemon would be the one to hold out longer. Seeing Oddish's resilience against a much stronger opponent, the Gym leader began to wonder how it was possible that he still was in his first evolutionary stage.
"We're close! You can do this!"
Oddish never before fought with such passion so he didn't expect how big of an influence these simple words would be on him but suddenly he felt like he could keep this struggle going on as long as he wanted. If Red believed in him, he also had to believe. This line of thought was stopped for a fraction of a second when he noticed that his body began to glow white. He wasn't sure what was happening but he wasn't about to let it stop him from trying to achieve his goal. He was a lot more surprised when he saw that he two additional limbs.
"Did you get that on tape?!" the announcer asked the cameraman with an excited voice while pushing aside one of the other crew members.
"We don't use tape anym..."
"Did! You! Get! That!" the man repeated himself.
"Y-yeah. I did."
"That's great. That's fantastic. We can use that. I can already imagine a commercial for a new perfume! "With this scent, you too can evolve". Catchy, isn't it?"
The cameraman didn't bother listening to him since he was much more interested on how the battle would go after such a game changer.
"I regret thinking that..." Erika said quietly with a worried expression.
Understanding that the situation possibly just got worst, Tangela kept on attacking despite the initial shock. Meanwhile, Red wondered how this surprising evolution could help him increase their chances of winning. He quickly looked through the data on his Pokedex. Although he saw Erika use her Gloom in battle, it wasn't likely that his one would suddenly learn poison type moves since he hasn't used any previously. There was still some hope for them. Since his partner had a new set of limbs an idea appeared in Red's head to utilize them. He never tried it with Oddish's legs since they were too crucial thanks to his ability but he wondered if the arms could be used as conduits for Mega Drain in the same way that the Pokemon would use his vine.
"Use your arms!" he shouted.
Not completely sure what it meant, instead of just trying to hold onto Tangela, Gloom delivered a combination of two punches. To his own and Red's surprise, this attack seemed to have great effect since Tangela stopped her own for a short while to recover.
"What is it?" the boy asked while looking for an answer in the Pokedex "Hmm. It must be this... Drain Punch! Gloom! Keep on doing what you're doing!"
Without giving the opponent a chance to hit back, the Pokemon kept on delivering energy draining punches one after another.
"I don't know what move he lost after learning that but... Use Grass Knot to keep it in place!"
Gloom stopped for a second to bring his food down in an axe kick which caused two grass blades to sprout from the roof and trap one of Tangela's legs, allowing him to keep it at a comfortable distance as he kept on putting on pressure. He stopped when it seemed like the other Pokemon was about to do something but it turned out that Tangela was already unconscious and only the Grass Knot was keeping it from falling down. Seeing that, Erika took out its pokeball and called it back.
"Two Pokemon on his side. Gloom just healed up so he'll probably continue with him. Pidgeotto is the bigger problem but he's already been hurt and doesn't have any regenerative capabilities. I can win this." Erika quietly considered her chances "To your opponents you bring doom! Flourish and bloom, Vileplume!"
Her final Pokemon turned out to be the evolved form of Gloom. Seeing it reminded Red of the box containing the Leaf Stone which would allow his Pokemon to turn into the same monster. He left his backpack together with his normal clothes so he couldn't use it but he was actually grateful for that. He felt like he needed to spend more time with this second stage of evolution and explore all the possibilities it gave them before haphazardly evolving him. If he had it with him, the temptation to use it in a dire moment could be too enticing for him to be able to stop himself from doing that.
"That sun is still up. We have to use it to our advantage while possible." Red said to himself while looking up before turning towards Gloom "Run at it and use Drain Punch!"
"We won't give you a chance!" Erika shouted, finding that she was slowly actually getting excited about the battle "Vileplume, Double Team!"
Gloom stopped running since he got confused who to hit when a bunch of Vileplume's appeared out of nowhere.
"It didn't move! It's still that one!" Red yelled while pointing at the original.
It was already too late since at that moment the group of Vileplume scattered, obscuring the movement of the real one. They surrounded Gloom who tried to remain vigilant by slowly moving clockwise, hoping to see where the attack would come from.
Erika lifted up one of her hands before bringing it down in a swinging motion while ordering "Petal Dance!"
The group of Vileplume's started circling Gloom while also spinning around, shooting out pink colored petals from the flowers on their heads. Each one released around a hundred of them so soon there were more than a thousand of petals in the air. Even though only a small number of them were real, the picture of them swirling around him were enough to intimidate Gloom whose instinct was to try and break free by running outside of the circle. He managed to run through one of the fake Vileplume's and make it disappear but by doing so he exposed himself to the upcoming attack. A storm of petals followed him and hit him with such a force that it lifted him up and carried towards the edge of the building.
. . .
"It shouldn't be much further. That person I asked for the way said that it's close to Celadon Department Store and I'm right next to it." these were the thoughts of Green as he reached the center of the city with the plan of finding the Celadon Palace.
Right as he was about to reach out to someone for more specific directions, since he still couldn't see the casino, he felt something land on his head. At first, he was terrified that it might have been bird excrement but he realized that it was too light. And then a bunch more fell on him and all around. All the people around stopped and stared upwards in confusion as they were showered with pink petals, most of which disappeared on touch
"Is this some kind of advertisement?" he heard someone person say.
When his instinct made him glance towards them, he noticed something else that fell soon after the petals stopped. He didn't want to believe his eyes at first but when he approached it and snatched it away from another person who was about to pick it up, he was sure that it was the same hat Red would always wear. He stood up and looked towards the roof. He could see that someone or something hanging from it and before giving it a closer look, he ran inside the building. It didn't seem plausible that he would get there in time to help but he wanted to believe that his friend was safe.
. . .
"Let go or you'll fall with us!"
Red was barely holding onto one of Gloom's leg after the Petal Dance caused him to break through the guardrail. He himself was also about to fall off but Erika managed to reach them in time and together with Vileplume they held onto the boy's knees but he was too heavy and it looked like they were sliding towards the edge of the roof.
"No way!" she responded.
"I'll come up with something but it will be harder if I have more people to save!"
His words were only partially true. He was sure that he could use Pidgeotto to catch Gloom if they were to fall but the only way he could save himself would be with Gyarados but he wasn't sure he would be able to do it without damaging the building or hurting the people down below.
"Oh no!" Erika cried as she felt her own legs sliding off the roof.
She closed her eyes and it took her some time to realize they weren't falling like she expected. Only then did she realize that the film crew dropped all their equipment and ran to help them. Instead of her being the last link of the human/Pokemon chain, there were a bunch of people holding onto the lower part of her body.
"Pull!" shouted the announcer.
Everyone put in their strength and in one quick motion they managed to get everyone safely back on the roof. Red and Gloom flipped in air and had a hard landing but they were too focused on the fact that they survived at all to care about the pain.
"So... are you ready to continue?" he asked Erika after managing to sit up.
The girl and the film crew looked at him in silence before she stood up and quickly approached him.
"Are you insane?!" she said while grabbing him by his kimono "You almost died! Why are you acting like nothing happened?! Are you really some adrenaline junkie?! After all, it was your idea to bring the fight to the roof in the first place!"
"Welllll... It's not like I did with falling to my death in mind." he said while awkwardly averting her angry gaze.
She let go and sat back down in front of him while letting out a sight.
"That was tiring... I... We could finish this battle another time but I feel like I would completely calm down so it would be different than if we were to continue it right now. So let's say you won."
"Huh?" Red looked at her with a stupefied expression "What did you say?"
"You won." she repeated.
"That's not fair!" he objected "I insulted you. I got over all that stuff when I realized that I was fighting you for the wrong reason but aren't you still mad at me?"
"I feel like I also fought you for the wrong reasons. It felt like I wanted to take out on you all the frustration that I stored up because of my father. But that's just me proving he's right in thinking I'm immature. I'm acting like I can do anything I want but I can't really tell if I would be able to become a model and a Gym leader without him helping me behind the scenes."
"There must be something else."
"What do you mean?"
"Isn't there something else you want to do?"
"I... There is one thing, I guess... I wanted to..."
"Stop!" he said while putting up his index finger "Don't tell me. Don't tell anyone. Just do it. If your father doesn't know about it, he won't be able to help you and then you'll be able to see what you can do on your own. After that, you can show him the fruits of your work and that'll be your proof that you could do all these things from the beginning."
"I don't know. You thought I wasn't being serious since I tried to split my attention between two things but now adding a third..."
"You already proved me wrong. It wasn't your father's money I fought against. It was your own abilities. And you were great. I don't really know anything about modelling but I'm sure you're great at that too."
"Hmm. You make sense." she responded while pondering what he said "If you were a girl, I might have fallen for you."
Red blushed a little and couldn't stop a smirk that appeared on his face.
"Take that grin off your face, you asshole." he heard at the same time as he felt his hat being placed on his head.
He looked up and, to his shock, saw Green who was sweating as if he just ran a marathon. Right after his arrival, Kanna and Sumire also appeared on the roof. Red and Erika gave them an explanation of what happened while omitting some intimate and embarrassing details.
"Why do you always get yourself into this kind of trouble?" Green asked after emptying a bottle of water he took out from his bag.
"Hmm... Because it's fun?"
"I also had fun." Erika interjected.
Her friends still couldn't understand how the leader and the trainer went to being friendly in such a short amount of time, especially with how they acted before. Meanwhile, the announcer was lamenting the fact that while saving the two of them, all the equipment dropped by the crew was damaged and so they lost the footage he wanted to use for promotional purposes.
"But enough about me... We haven't seen each other in quite some time. It doesn't look like you and Erika met before, so what have you been doing while in Celadon City?"
"Oh. Actually, I'm going to a casino to get information on disappearing Pokem..." mid-sentence, Green realized that saying that would definitely make Red want to accompany him and since subtlety wasn't his friend's specialty, he was afraid of how things would turn out.
"Go on." the other teenager said, his eyes already burning with excitement after hearing Green's words.
50 years have passed. I'm finally back with another chapter. It's not just that I have less time to write because of my work, but also the fact that my computer finally broke after a month of acting wonky. Thankfully, none of my files were lost and I even upgraded some stuff while repairing it. So hopefully you won't have to wait a month for each new chapter(maybe for the longer ones).
We finished this Erika mini-arc. I took it in various directions that I didn't expect but it wasn't that hard to arrive at a happy ending where Red, Erika and even Oddish/Gloom were able to learn something about themselves and each other.
There were some things that I didn't have time for but Erika isn't out of the story so maybe I'll be able to have them in the future. I put a lot more thought into her team than the previous Gym leaders and there's various stuff like held items and abilities that aren't directly mentioned but if you pay attention, you can notice when they're brought up.
Red and Green met up after like 3 or so months and they're about to get into trouble again. Chapter 28 will lead into the next major arc. I just hope that I'll be able to pick up the pace and finish that arc during this year.
Edit: It turns out that I really worried too much way back when I wrote that hot springs scene. I've been watching the recent Sonic let's play by Game Grumps and one episode had them reading a Sonic fanfiction. I wondered where they found it and it turns out that it's on this site. I wondered if maybe it was a censored version or something. Nope. Straight up porn. It's 10 times as long as my fanfic and has seemingly tons of people reading it and yet it hasn't been taken down. In the future I won't worry so much about writing some suggestive stuff although I don't think I'll ever write an actual sex scene(Pokemon battles are already hard enough to write while trying not to be repetitive).
Red. Team: Eevee, Charmeleon, Raichu, Gloom, Gyarados, Pidgeotto.
Badges: 3 (Even though he won, he still technically didn't get the badge)
Green. Team: Ivysaur, Nidorina, Jigglypuff, Hitmonlee, Vulpix, ?.
Badges: 3
Blue. Team: Bellsprout(Bell), Wartortle(Tori), Zubat(?), Graveler(?).
Badges: 3
Alex. Team: Ditto, ?, ?, ?.
Angie. Team: Dragonair, Sandslash.
Peter. Team: Dodrio, Haunter, ?.
