Pre-chapter A/N; Since everyone is asking for one of these, here's a breakdown of the character names before we get into things
Broly - Kleavor
Quicksilver - Pidgeot (dead)
Kisame - Milotic
Igneel - Charizard
Kenpachi - Tyranitar
Ino - Gardevoir
Snorlax - Snorlax
Tsunade - Clefable
Gai - Hakomo-o
Magnezone - Magnezone
Now, let's get into the chapter without further ado.
"Snorlax, tank it and mega punch" I shouted to my pokemon as I watched a burly Dragonite slam into him with a dragon rush. Of course, the dragon type was holding back. It was the only way for this to even resemble a fair matchup, and we were still getting toasted.
Igneel intervened by burying both pokemon in an avalanche of flames. Snorlax took the attack with only a huff and the Dragon type was even less scathed. Any other pokemon would have been badly burned, but Oak's ace dragon acted like it was nothing but a light tap.
The gap between elite pokemon and my team had become even more apparent in the last three months. With less than half a year till the conference, my nerves were slowlty building up to a breaking point. The conference was the thing. I would win it, and challenge the elite four shortly after. That was the plan in my mind, at least. I needed to be on that level in a few months, and the gap only seemed to be getting wider.
Broly weaved around the Dragonite's tail at extreme speed and rolled up for a stone axe. The Dragon type caught the move with the same tail that had been out of position only a second ago and sent Broly flying. Hashirama's attempt to entangle the psuedo-legendary proved fruitless as it chased after Ino who'd been wearing it down with increased gravity since the battle started.
The trap I'd been preparing was sprung when the Dragonite overextended itself in its chase and was swallowed by a tidal wave of water. It rolled into a water prison and Magnezone struck the water with a bolt of lightning so bright, I could see it even with my eyes closed.
When I finally opened my eyes, it was to find the Dragonite standing perfectly still and intact. The bolts of electricity arcing across its body might be enough to deceive the uninitiated that the pokemon was paralyzed, but I learnt the hard way that Oak could teach his pokemon to ignore status conditions like paralysis. Bloody hacker.
Gai slammed into the Dragon with a kick that sent a shockwave across the field. He'd been on the sidelines combining all the status buffs he could. Chaining together dragon dance and belly drum could be devastating. Whenever he used this combo, I felt nothing but hunger for his evolution. With clangarous soul, this move would become orders of magnitude more dangerous. At that point, I was sure even Lance's dragonite wouldn't stand a chance (provided he somehow got to charge up the buffs).
Dragonite remained standing, but was forced a few steps back. More than anything we'd tried so far at least. Two more punches had the Dragonite's head moving along with the motion of Gai's hands. He reared back for a punch to the psuedo-legendary's mid-section and the beast somehow caught it with its tail. From there, it grabbed Gai and slammed into him with a body press.
From there, the beat down was total and complete. A mega punch sent Gai into Morpheus' realm and the Dragon decimated the rest of the team soon after. Even Ino's attempt to slow him down with Gravity became ineffective as the Dragon decided to hold back a little bit less.
"And what did you learn today?" Oak asked with that insanely smug smile on his face.
"Dragonite is fucking broken. That's what I learned" weeks of sparring with the dragon-type pokemon, and everyday he found a new way to beat the shit out of my team. This time, I even thought I'd have the advantage since one of the rules was that he wouldn't be using any long-range moves. Dragonite was a terrifying physical specimen, don't get me wrong, but he truly shined as a long-range attacker.
Hyperbeams worthy of the name, that could destroy entire cities were child's play to the borderline-legendary pokemon. If Oak's ageing dragonite was this powerful even while holding back, the thought that Lance would have three of these beasts both excited and terrified me.
"Today's lesson was about one thing and one thing only. 'Learn when you're outmatched.' I've pitted you against Dragonite everyday for weeks now, and not oce did you attempt to cheat or skew the odds in your favour. It says a lot about your sense of fairplay, but remember that fairplay isn't worth your life. Remember that, my boy" Oak almost looked fatherly as he placed a hand on my shoulder. I smiled up at him and nodded.
After healing my pokemon, I was going to be heading off today. Speaking of healing my pokemon, I turned to Tsunade and nodded at her. My adorable fairy type moved in to begin healing the team. She'd fessed up and said she wasn't too interested in battling about a month ago, so she'd begun receiving healing lessons from Oak's own chansey. She was a natural, if I do say so myself.
I nodded at Oak's words, and extracted myself from the awkward situation to walk towards my recovering team. Tsunade's skill already allowed her to heal Broly and Kisame before I'd even gotten to them. They were the least damaged so it wasn't too surprising.
A roar sounded across the clearing, and I saw the Dragonite take off to his habitat as Oak finished talking to him about something. I prepared myself to begin cheering up my team. We'd normally focus on an after action report and highlighting all the places they could have done better, but I'd leave that for later. They were almost perfect, and Dragonite was so far beyond them that even if they'd executed every move with perfection, they would still come short.
XXXXXXXX
"Remember my terms, Donnell" Oak said as I prepared to climb on to Igneel's back. I nodded at his words and took off to Cinnabar. Oak's words had been clear. 'Stay away from Viridian'. He'd even promised me a special item that was guaranteed to impress me if I managed to avoid Giovanni intently. I accepted the deal because very little was going to make me face down Mewtwo a second time. Once was enough, thank you.
WHat that meant though, was that I had to get my final trophy from either a Johto gym or one of the minor gyms in Kanto. My choice there was obvious. WHat I had to decide was which Johto gym I'd be heading to.
Since I was avoiding the strongest gym in Kanto, my pride would let me do nothing less than take on the strongest in Johto. A toss-up between Mahogany and Blackthorne. Clair and Pryce. Claire was Lance's cousin, an elite level trainer by any metric while Pryce was actually a former elite four member himself. The strongest of the elite four that served under my father. Both were powerful trainers, so it was a question of which I felt more prepared to take on; Dragons or Ice-types.
Igneel's roar jolted me out of my thoughts and I noticed him flying towards a fearow. I reached out to him and sensed that the flying type pokemon had managed to annoy him in some way and he was intent on teaching it a lesson.
I held on tighter to the saddle and decided to let Igneel do as he wished. He banked around all the Fearow's attacks and finally slammed into it with his impressive bulk. The pokemon went careening off and could barely regain control of its descent before it hit the ground. I prevented Igneel from moving in for the kill and we continued our journey to Cinnabar.
Common sense told me to take Pryce and save my dragon-killing strategies for Lance, but pride reminded me that most of Pryce's team was aged. Would he give me a good fight? Hell yes, but the fact was that Clair's team was stronger. She was in her prime, and I couldn't say the same about Pryce.
We arrived at Cinnabar as the sun began to set. I found myself missing Quicksilver for the upteenth time. We made good speed but Igneel clearly wasn't made for this. He was already beginning to tire. We booked a room at one of the multiple hotels on the Island, and I began to run over my strategies for my gym challenge tomorrow.
"Welcome to the Cinnabar gym. A seventh badge challenge, is it?" Blaine was nothing like I expected him to look. Logically, I knew we were ways off from the anime, but seeing the man with a head full of red hair, and completely clean shaven threw me off a bit.
"Yes it is" I replied after a few minutes. I wasn't even surprised that he figured out my intentions so quickly, or even the number of badges I had. I'd booked my challenge after all, and landing a Charizard in the middle of town was the exact opposite of subtle.
"This will be a six-on-six battle. As customary for my seventh badge challenge, I will be using two pokemon from my own personal team, and four from my sixth badge level gym team." I smiled and nodded at him.
Blaine's challenge was famously difficult. After all, he was once in the Elite four, two members of his original team could decimate most trainer's entire teams in seconds. He and Pryce had been the cornerstones of Oak's elite four, so them retiring as he did wasn't a surprise to any in the region. The three of them had a bpond that most suspected the nature of. A bond that had the three of them coming together to perform some of the most heinous acts in the last Johto rebellion. When the dragons of Blackthorne had decided to secede from the league, it was Pryce who'd held dozens of children and civilians hostage, it was Blaine who'd massacred a hatchery of dratinis, and it was Oak who'd authorized it all while slaughtering his way through the best trainers Blackthorne could throw at him. Even now, none of them were welcomed in one of the League's biggest towns. More reason why I'd avoid Blackthorne like the plague. The dragons didn't blame children for the sins of their fathers but they might just make an exception for the son of Oak the Butcher.
"Donnell Oak. I'll be ecpecting a lot from you, so don't expect me to hold back" He said after teleporting to the other end of the arena.
"I'll release first. This pokemon hasn't had a real challenge in an eternity, so do well to impress me." I scowled at the Arcanine that appeared on the field. Blaze. His famous starter. There were very few known Arcanine in the world; Oak's and the one in front of me were by far the most impressive.
Blaze, the powerful legendary pokemon that had shown the world the power of the rare evolution. Extreme speed, prodigious control over the fire element, and enough endurance to run to Johto and back. I was in for the fight of my life.
"A battle of the starters, then" I said in reply as I sent Broly out to the field. My rock type had grown a lot in the past few months. With a specialised diet Oak had managed to figure out for his species, he was even bigger than he'd been after his evolution. At least, a whole foot taller, and with greatly increased mass.
Blaine hadn't bothered with a referee, as I doubted there was anyone willing to stand in the active volcano Blaine had chosen for the arena. He didn't have any spectators either. The match was being live streamed at every bar or hotel in the city, and on multiple public billboards. I'd had to sign a few waivers to allow it to happen, and I was getting a measure of the revenue.
The fight began when the Arcanine went sailing through where Broly used to be. I'd told him to avoid being hit already. THe Arcanine was much stronger and larger than Broly was. A direct hit might as well spell the end for even a rock type as durable as he was. The Arcanine turned on a dime and started the fastest game of keepaway I'd ever seen. Broly's use of extreme speed had come a long way. He was fast enough to avoid the best of the Arcanine's attacks, even if only by the skin of his teeth.
"Dig" I said out loud like Oak had started training me to do. I needed to give some orders out loud, or I'd gather even more attention than I already had. Nobody had noticed yet, and those who had, simply attributed to Oak training my pokemon so well I didn't need to order them around. If I wanted to avoid rumours like that spreading even farther then I needed to be seen commanding my pokemon.
Broly disappeared into the ground between one second and the next.
"Do it" Blaine said and I watched his arcanine practically saunter over to the hole Broly had left behind. As the arcanine prepared to unleash a firestorm into the hole, Broly executed the next half of the plan I'd come up with weeks ago.
The legendary pokemon took a deep breath in and in the next second, all that air was driven outr of its lungs as Broly came flying out straight from underneath it. It was sent flying and I smiled in pride. Oak had shown me countless videos from his older battles, and even his actions during the Johto rebellion. It was in one of those videos that I saw Blaine use the tactic he was just about to to roast a steelix alive within the ground, and completely destroy the field to allow his Camerupt steamroll the rest of the opposing division near singlehandedly.
I smiled as I could practically hear Blaine grinding his teeth from across the room. Broly didn't allow the pokemon even a second's respite as he gathered the requisite ground type energy and tore the field apart with an earthquake. The Arcanine had no hope of avoiding the move, and was forced to take the brunt of the attack. I smiled at that. At least, I smiled until the dust cleared and the Arcanine was left standing with only a few bruises and scuff marks. Broly dug into the ground as the fire-type went sailing through were he'd been seconds earlier.
This time, Blaine didn't use the same strategy. He whispered something I couldn't quite catch and a massive sunny day lit up the volcano even more than the lava around us already did. The next thing to happen had my mouth wide open in shock.
His Arcanine unleashed the largest flamethrower I'd ever had the pleasure or displeasure since it was being used against me, of seeing. The shocking part was how it curved and bent to fly into the hole Broly had left behind. I felt the fire begin to affect my starter, and he had no choice but to surface after less than a minute of the unslaught.
The monster of an arcanine didn't even look winded. It just turned to me with a smug smile before continuing it's game of keepaway with Broly. 'Think. Think. Think' I muttered at myself as I tried to come up with a way to avoid the entire mess I'd found myself in. The Arcanine was relentless. It was getting even faster as the battle went on instead of slower. A true beast of a pokemon.
I sighed as I returned Broly to his pokeball.
"You've used your only switch. Wise choice. Your pokemon was fantastic, but Blaze is a few levels beyond him." He said while laughing a full belly laugh that brought a scowl to my face.
I prepared my next pokeball. I hadn't expected to be forced to use my ace so early in the battle. If any of my pokemon had grown in the last few months, then it was Kenpachi. Months of training with Oak's Nidoking and Charizard had refined him to a monster a few steps beyond the rest of my monstrous team. There's a reason I had him sit out the battle against Oak's dragonite yesterday. He usually ended up carrying the battle alone, and not giving the rest of the team the chance to fail or succeed on their own merits.
He appeared on the field with a titanic roar. Larger, stronger, more terrifying than he'd been at the point of his evolution. An apex predator if I'd ever seen one. The Arcanine sat up at his presence on the field, and even Blaine straightened up.
"A truly impressive specimen. I've seen a few Tyranitars, and yours does them no shame" I bowed my head at the compliment. Any Tyranitars he'd seen were probably at elite-level, so saying Kenpachi matched up was a compliment I was happy to receive.
Kenpachi started off the battle with a shadow beam that tore the arena in two as he chased after the fleeing arcanine. It was fast, but few things could outrun the speedy mass of darkness. I smiled at seeing the move. An original one we'd created by combining the concepts of the shadow ball and hyperbeam. The legendary fire type managed to outpace the move by the time Kenpachi tired and stopped firing. It took the opportunity to charge straight at him. Kenpachi didn't even bother trying to dodge and took the attack head-on.
He didn't budge, and used the opportunity to grab on to the fire hound's tail before it could escape. He tightened his grip and used the tail as leverage to slam the legendary pokemon into the ground repeatedly, before sending it flying off into another corner of the field, and following it up with another shadow beam.
A/N; Thanks for reading. We're about halfway done with chapter 39 (Seven chapters ahead of this one) on the pa-atreon page. Feel free to join me there if you feel like supporting my work. Same username as up here. The link's on my profile.
Ending this chapter here because I feel like. This one is mostly for the people who thought Donnell was getting too overpowered. There's a gulf between the rest of the world and the truly elite trainers. Donnell is nowhere near crossing that chasm. He's strong, but even the weakest of the Elite four would have no trouble whooping his arse.
In case, you're confused about me continuously referring to Arcanine as a legendary pokemon, then don't be. The pokedex entry refers to it as one, so Donnell does too.