Asher's Team:
Lago - Rhydon
Crust - Golem
Sebastian - Nidoking
Selena - Nidoqueen
Seraph - Clefable
Barret - Dugtrio
Sonic - Sandslash
Death - Marowak
Colossus - Steelix
I felt a wave of nostalgia hit me as I took out a pokedollar note and placed it into a vending machine so that I could get myself a can of pop. This world is so much different than mine, yet sometimes it's actually surprisingly similar, I mean I can still go to a vending machine for a bottle of Coca-Cola at least.
Oh wait, it's not Coca-Cola, it's fuckin Poke-Cola, why you might ask? Because Arceus has a shit sense of humour apparently. If you just look around then you'll see that a bunch of regular products are named after pokemon, a Pika-taxi, the Pidgeot express, the Dumpster Rattatas. It was a bit funny at first, but now? It's just dumb.
The vending machine ate up my money and a second later a plastic bottle of black fizzy liquid began to turn as the metal around it loosened for it to drop... only for it to jam.
Well maybe this place is more similar to the regular world than I thought, vending machines are as unreliable as ever.
I groaned at that. It was just one pokedollar, but I can't help feeling like shit about that, I used to basically count every penny that I earned when I was poor as dirt, when I was living off of the cheapest and most bland food in existence. Even if I make a ton of money from being a pokemon trainer I'm not going to just quit my old habit from my shitty, old, cheap, horrible life.
Ahhh, the good old days. I learned another thing about vending machines back then, a little life hack if you will.
The food inside them can be knocked out pretty easily.
I grabbed the shitty machine and started to rattle the hell out of it, if somebody walked by then they would have probably given me weird looks, and maybe someone did in all honesty, I wasn't paying attention. In life you need to grow some thick hide, if you obsess over what other people think then eventually you'll start to water down the way you talk, after that it's the way you think, and before you know it you're an entirely different person. So, it's fine if they stare, just don't start insulting me to my face and we're square.
My shaking did yield results though, the cola did fall out... along with a few other things which include: a Dr Poliwrath, some Wartortle sea salt crisps, and finally a... well a marshmallow Dragonite.
In my old world a lot of companies would be having a field day with the amount of copyright infringement they could gain off of these guys.
After basically stealing from a vending machine I turned around... only to be greeted by the sight of a familiar purple haired psychic girl staring at me with hints of amusement in her eyes.
I saw this and froze on the spot, almost as though I'd been caught stealing from a cookie jar, well I kinda have, but that's not the point.
I held up my hands and spoke with mock defence." Before you say anything, I'll have you know that piece of junk stole from me first."
Her lips actually curved upwards as she let out the most adorable giggle in the whole univer- no wait, multiverse!
She smiled a little at my antics. Sabrina, to put it bluntly, is a strange girl. Ever since we met she has shown to me that she is emotionally... well awkward as all hell. She is mostly expressionless except when I crack a joke, and it really doesn't matter if the joke is shit or not, she'll laugh if you throw the cheesiest and corniest jokes in the world at her, or at least she'll laugh if I tell them.
She's a real gem of a young lady though, and I've never been annoyed by her quirks or her mostly stoic demeanour, it just means that when I can get her to smile it means leagues more than if I was talking to someone else, she's also kind of a genius, my brain probably looks like a bag of rocks next to hers.
Sabrina stopped giggling after a moment and composed herself as she stated." You shouldn't make stealing a habit, it could damage your reputation if you are caught and-"
"I'll give you this marshmallow if you stop lecturing me." I stated shamelessly as I held the wrapper which contained the yellow and sugary duplicate of the Champion's ace pokemon. Another thing that I've learned about Sabrina is that she kinda has a sweet tooth, not gonna lie and say that I don't dig that.
She stared at the marshmallow with a blank look on her face, yet her eyes always gave away that she had a very functional mind, and she wordlessly took the sweet marshmallow out of my hand and quit the lecture, as we agreed.
After our little interaction we started to walk and talk, or rather I talked, she was eating the sweet stuff I'd given her, the thing that you need to understand about Sabrina is that she has a very good reason for being socially inept, she never really had friends growing up, her being a psychic, and her powers being hard to control when she was younger lead to her being very distant from other people, so she never got to practice her people skills until before she met me, if you combine that with the ability to do crazy shit like see the future and read people's minds, well... she never really felt the need to learn social skills in the first place.
She's gotten better, but... well to be honest she's still awkward as all hell. But she's still my friend, and no friend of mine is gonna struggle with social issues forever.
Especially if that friend happens to be a cute girl. Well I say cute, but with the way that she's been developing she's going to be a little more than just cute in a few years time. Is it scummy of me to be attracted to a thirteen year old girl when I'm... well nearly twice that mentally.
I blame puberty.
I subtly glanced at Sabrina with the side of my eye. She was currently wearing some black tracks that hugged the area just above her hips that went nicely with the black leather jacket that I happened to have bought her myself for her thirteenth birthday, although she didn't react much on the outside the fact that she wore it all the time spoke for itself, she looked good, she looked like the perfect combination of badass and adorable. She was chewing on the marshmallow that I gave her when she noticed my stare and I instantly met her eyes, I generally don't like to think of myself as a pervy guy, but I'm still going through 'that' stage of life, at least in body, and Sabrina is a nicely developing young woman so my actions are rather self-explanatory.
I took a sip of my 'Dr Poliwrath' as I tried to move past the fact that I was totally just checking Sabrina out.
Sabrina broke the tension in the air and pulled me out of my own thoughts as she spoke." Are you attracted to me?"
I was caught off-guard as I coughed and sputtered, a consequence of which was my 'Dr Pepper' rip-off spilling everywhere as Sabrina watched this happen with her expression not changing in the slightest. I took a second to try and regain my bearings and then changed my attention to the purple haired girl who very bluntly just asked if I thought she was hot.
I stared at her and just asked." What?" I mean, just what do you say when a girl asks a question like that? It's not like I'm inexperienced, but... well I've never been in this situation before.
Sabrina's facial expression didn't change as she repeated herself." I wanted to know if you found me attractive, the way you were, as you'd put it, 'checking me out' seemed to suggest that you do and I am curious about your answer, I cannot read your mind so asking you is the most efficient way to find out." Her words were calm, almost weirdly so, isn't she at a stage when a girl is meant to be really confused and flustered when it comes to things like this? Then again this is Sabrina. she's probably known about sex and stuff for years due to the whole mindreading thing.
Still though, I ignored the weirdness of this situation and just decided to respond honestly." I am, your an extremely beautiful girl Sabrina, with me being a hormone driven teen and all I'm afraid that with a girl as drop-dead gorgeous as you right next to me it's simply impossible not to sneak a quick peak every now and then."
The best part was, I wasn't even lying.
Sabrina's cheeks surprisingly flushed a pretty pink at my words and she glanced away from me, seemingly not able to meet my eyes. Is- is she blushing, is Sabrina actually acting shy? Did I manage to make Sabrina flustered?
Sabrina, contrary to some peoples beliefs, is definitely not lacking in emotion, no matter how chilling an expression she chooses to wear her eyes can't hide what she feels from me. I've come to learn that the best way to understand Sabrina is to look her in the eyes, they don't lie to you.
Sabrina then turned back to me with her blush significantly reduced, though some pink did linger on her cheeks, and she once again stared into my eyes and stated." I'm flattered that you feel that way, nobody has ever commented on my looks positively before."
That actually surprised me a little, I understand not calling a pre-teen beautiful or sexy or something, but she should at least qualify as cute in any rational person's book." Really? Why is that?"
Sabrina kept her expression the same as she spoke." I never interacted with many people asides from challengers, and many of them didn't like that I was a psychic, so my physical appearance was never thought of much, afterall who would find a freak like me attractive?" She looked down a bit at her own words.
My friends words instantly my heart feel itchy as I responded on reflex and answered." You're not a freak Sabrina, and I find you attractive, anyone who thinks otherwise is a complete moron who can go fuck himself." In that last part I allowed some heat to slip into my voice as I didn't even bother to try and hide my foul mouth. Honesty, I hate it whenever people talk about Sabrina like that, she's one of the sweetest girls that I know, and yet nobody seems to understand that. And, more than anything I hated it when she actually believes what they say.
Sabrina looked back up from the ground at those words, she looks mildly surprised for a moment, but then she gives me a tiny smile at those words and seems to inch closer as we walk until we were practically hugging." Thank you."
I see this and decide that I would act a little bold and wrap an arm around her so that I can pull her in closer.
This is nice.
Sabrina felt a strange warmth in her chest that she couldn't identify whilst she walked with her only friend to another stadium in Indigo Plateau in order to watch the final match of the day. She shamelessly clung onto his arm the entire time, not that he seemed to mind though since he didn't comment on it.
This strange fuzzy feeling that's in her chest seems to happen when she's around Asher, it feels as though there's an itch in her heart that she can't scratch, of course that's not to say that the feeling is unpleasant, her body seems to heat up for some reason, her face and... other areas will sometimes heat up when she sees him in a certain way, be it when they're facing each other on the battlefield, the way he smiles at her or teases her at times, his thick curly hair-
She subconsciously licked her lips when she thought about what he looked like without a shirt on, he is far fitter than any boy his age has any right to be and she's seen what his abs look like when he trains with his pokemon, just thinking about him that way is enough to make her shiver for some reason.
Sabrina placed a hand onto her black leather sleeve and felt the texture of the jacket on her skin. She really loved to wear this jacket, for some reason it's just so comfortable to her, it isn't something that she would usually wear, and to be honest it's not really her style, yet this jacket is so important to her, she knows the reason perfectly well. He got it for her. It has been months now since her thirteenth birthday and she has been finding herself draw to the clothing quite frequently, she has no idea why she would find value in it just because he gave it to her though.
Does it have something to do with the strange fuzzy sensation that she's been feeling in her chest?
She was brought out of her inner musings when he decided to cut the comfortable silence that hung in the air short." Sabrina, what do you want to do when the Conference is finished?"
She heard his question and took a minute to think about her answer. Truth be told she hadn't thought about it all that much, she could return to the Saffron Gym, her father might have been substituting for her until she is finished travelling with Asher, but she could easily return at any time, and she had the intention to one day, but... she didn't know if that's what she wanted. She loved travelling with Asher, the training, the talks that they have, and just the feeling of simply having a friend, and she didn't want that to end.
She answered after some consideration." I would continue to travel with you, I've enjoyed our time together and do not wish to stop just yet."
He smiled handsomely at her words." That's good to know, but what if I didn't go to another region? What if I stayed here?"
Huh? That didn't make much sense to her, he'd often talked about going to other regions to gain experience and catch new pokemon, he's even given her lists of pokemon she didn't even know existed that he wanted to catch and train, what would be important enough for him to give that up?
He answered almost as though he were the mind-reader between the two of them." I know what you're thinking, yes catching a bunch of awesome pokemon would be cool, but I have an idea that could be way better in the long run if I want to rise up the trainer ranks."
Sabrina merely raised an eyebrow at that. Asher is an extremely skilled trainer and that is reflected in the pokemon that he uses in battle, Sandslash, Marowak, Dugtrio, none of these are very rare or traditionally powerful pokemon, and yet he's trained them to the point where they can decimate their opponents with relative ease, and that has drawn a lot of attention towards him due to his power and youth, she has no doubt that even if he were to lose his next round he'd still gain a massive amount of recognition and have people practically knocking at his door to give him sponsorship offers and a whole myriad of other benefits. What else could he do.
"Oh? And what might that be?"
He grinned slightly as he took his finger and placed it over his chin, in a playful and taunting manner, before saying." Wouldn't wanna ruin the surprise."
She merely puffs her lips up and crosses her arms at his words. As much as she likes him, he has a few troublesome habits that annoy her from time to time.
He sees this and pats her head with a playful smile of his face." Oh come on, no need to pout, you'll find out soon enough anyway."
She is not pouting!
One thing that I've noticed is the amount of people who are sending me weird glances, as I walked by anyone in the League hallways someone would be sending me a strange glance, as though they were either scared, weirded out, or just plain old judgemental of me. They usually get a glare from Sabrina and move on though, having a waifu like her as a buddy sure has its perks, besides the eye candy of course.
Maybe it's because I essentially came down on an entire stadium of people and called them all a bunch of idiots, not gonna lie and say that I regret it though, I can speak my opinion just like they can speak theirs, the only difference is that their opinion was very crowd-like, I doubt very many of them would have said anything if they were on their own, whilst my opinion was completely my own.
Maybe this was even a good thing, I could do with a little bit of publicity, and if I won then my words would be taken way more legitimately, it's a win-win either way. I could use a little bit of fanbase for when I put my plan into motion.
It's a real shame that I wouldn't get to travel Johto and Hoenn though, I had a bunch of cool pokemon in mind that you can only catch in those places, such would be the following:
Gligar, Mamoswine, Donphan, Swampert, Camerupt, Flygon, and Claydol.
But, fortunately, it's not like I can't get those guys through other means, buying foreign pokemon is technically an option, but it is expensive, and I'm a cheap bastard that hates seeing his bank account drop, so ideally I would just catch them right from the source. I didn't plan on giving up on finding more ground-types, but my ideas might need to be put on hold for a while.
Me and Sabrina walked by a clock and I noticed the time. 8:30 PM. It's getting late, in fact the match going on in this arena is the last one of the day, and we missed a bit of what was going on, yet I didn't feel like going to be quite yet, so I might as well enjoy some free entertainment.
I just hope that whoever's battling will be able to keep my attention, if they can't then the rest of this tournament is going to be boring as fuck.
"Gyarados is unable to battle! The winner is Electabuzz!" The referee spoke with an even voice as his eyes flew over the electrified water-type and he stated that the serpent needed to be returned.
Clair clicked her tongue in annoyance as the crowd cheered, but all that noise was drowned out into the background. One of her pokemon had fainted, that gritted at her pride more than she cared to admit. Even if her opponent lost a pokemon before her, even if he happened to pick a better matchup to counter her Gyarados, in the end it didn't matter. A loss was a loss, and she had failed her partner by, Gyarados has lost under her command. It was a disgrace.
She clenched her left fist as she returned her fallen partner with a clenched jaw and did her best to restrain herself, she wouldn't embarrass herself on national television. The other Blackthorns would never let her live it down.
She has no doubt that she'll win this battle, she's been training for this since she became a trainer, she's worked hard with her pokemon so that she could stand where she is and say that she was on top of this competition. She wouldn't be leaving this match as the loser. But, it wasn't enough just to win, what she wanted was a complete and absolute shutout. But, she wouldn't be getting that today, all because of her own mistakes.
She pulled out a pokeball. She wouldn't make another mistake today.
"Go Dragonair!" She cried out as she threw her starters pokeball onto the battlefield where it burst open to reveal the majestic blue serpentine figure that was one of her dragon-types.
Her Dragonair let out a shrill to assert his dominance as the alpha on the battlefield. He eyed his opponent critically, and dismissed them as a non-threat due to their injured status, even if he lost her Gyarados didn't go down without doing a large amount of damage on the electric-type.
"Oh, it looks like Clair has chosen the Blackthorn's signature pokemon! Will Dragonair be able to wrap this battle up, or will Lukas go down swinging?!"
Her opponent allowed some sweat to drip down his forehead as he took notice of how injured his Electabuzz currently was, Clair could tell that he was nervous. He should be.
The referee threw his hand down as a sign that the battle resumed. That was all the permission that Clair needed to put that troublesome electric-type in it's place.
"Dragonair get in close and use Dragon Rush!" Her words had a touch of heat in them due to her previous battles frustration at the loss of one of her pokemon. Dragonair seemed to respond to this since he darted across the field at speeds that wouldn't be expected for one such as his's size with draconic aura bursting from his mouth.
Her opponent saw this and yelled nervously." Use Light Screen!"
The battered Electric-type held their arms up and a pink wall of psychic-type energy was formed to create a barrier between their enemy and the attack that they were supposed to launch.
Dragonair was not dissuaded in the least from the obstacle in front of him, in fact he hastened his speed as he burst forward, completely surrounded in light blue draconic energy, and slammed right into the barrier with great power.
The attack packed enough power to make the barrier crack under the pressure, that crack slowly spread with each passing moment, and soon it completely shattered as her starter barrelled directly towards the electric-type and tackled them with his powerful dragon-type move.
The Electabuzz let out a cry of pain as they were thrown back by the impact, and after a few moments of flying through the air they crashed to the other side of the battle court, completely unconscious.
The crowd yelled wildly at the sight and the announcer saw this and yelled with vigour." Wow would you look at that! Clair Blackthorn is truly showing off the power of dragon-types here and today, I don't think that Lucas has a chance of making a comeback now! Not with the way things are going at least!"
Clair allowed herself to smirk at the announcers biased commentary. It felt good for her strength to be recognised, it felt good for her pride to be nourished. She's been told by multiple trainers that her ego is the size of a Snorlax, but it's hardly ego if it's justified. And, she can safely say that it is indeed justified here,
Lucas gritted his teeth in frustration and fear as he returned his pokemon to their pokeball. He stared at it, or more precisely glared at it, and then took a different pokeball from his belt. A great ball.
With a scream he yelled." Get out here Lapras!"
The ball exploded with light as the device released a large aquatic pokemon that had a grey shell on their back which looked perfect for transport, they had a long neck and four flippers as well as a short horn on their forehead.
Clair shuddered at the sight of an ice-type and instinctively took a step backwards at the sight of a dragons natural enemy. She hated ice-types, Dragons had little to no weaknesses, and yet those frail little things thought that they could get the better of them, it was disgusting just to look at one.
Her Dragonair seemed to agree, if the way that they hissed and glared at the water and ice-type was an indication, trying to gain dominance over their natural enemy and antithesis. Though the larger pokemon remained unfazed by the attempts of intimidation as they gazed at their opponent analytically.
"It looks like Lucas has chosen his final pokemon to be a Lapras, will having it's ice-typing be enough to earn them victory?!"
Clair clicked her tongue and ignored the words of the announcer as she looked at her opponent with a hint of caution. She's in a bit of a predicament here, whilst her opponent may be an ice-type, they are also, unfortunately, a water-type, which means her fire-type techniques won't be able to do her much good in this situation. She could use electric-type moves but her starter proficiency in using them isn't actually all that good. What a precarious situation she finds herself in.
No matter.
She cast her hand aside as she commanded her pokemon." Use Dragon Breath!"
Dragonic flames instantly ignited inside of Dragonair's mouth that gushed forward towards her opponent in attempt to damage them with the move.
Lukas countered by stating." Use Ice Beam, overpower it."
His pokemon responded faithfully as a ray of ice was unleashed from Lapras's horn, Clair watched as the rays of ice battled with dragonic flames until her own attack was being pushed back and Dragonair would soon be hit!
She hastily ordered." Dodge it!"
Her partner obeyed as they abandoned their futile attack in favour of avoiding the super effective ice-type move, they succeeded, but soon yet another strike would be upon them. Clair mentally noted to counter the ice-type attacks with fire-type ones if she's ever in a situation like that again.
Her opponent saw this and wasn't dissuaded as they called out." Use Hail!"
Clair went wide eyed as Lapras let out a clear shrill that made clouds appear above the battlefield. After a second tiny chunks of ice were being thrown down onto the battlefield that ate away at her partners stamina.
Clair snapped out of her shock and gritted her teeth at that. Hail would slowly damage her Dragonair as the battle went on. So, if she took her time too much then her pokemon would be damaged.
She tried to counter." Clear it out, use Rain-"
Her opponent saw what she was trying to do and instantly cur her off." Don't give them the chance! Freeze them solid with Blizzard!"
Clair did her best not to real back as she realised what the real reason for this Hail really way. Whilst she has no doubt that chipping away at her pokemon's health was a benefit, it wasn't the main reason that he changed the weather, Blizzard has much more power in the Hail, it also cover a wider area and takes less time to charge up.
She instantly countered by yelling." Try and hold it off with Flamethrower!" She wouldn't fall to an ice-type.
Lapras roared as a wave of glacial frost was sent Dragonair's way, the temperature was so cold that she struggled just to look at it, and in response her partner met the attack with a stream of white hot fire that intended to cut a hole through the, admittedly, impressive ice attack.
The result was... less than desired.
The glacial frost was pushed back by the attack, but ultimately won out over the fire-type attack and her Dragonair was unable to defend himself as he washed away in the icy winds of Blizzard.
The assault did end eventually, but by then the damage was done, chanks of ice were littering his blue scales and his breathing was slightly hagged, yet despite his damaged state he still had enough ire in his heart to glare at his opponent defiantly and puffed their chest out in an attempt to try and look completely fine as Hail continued to pelt his skin.
He wasn't fine though, and Clair knew that.
Lukas gritted his teeth as he ordered his Lapras to continue his assault." Don't let up Lapras! Put that dragon down with another Blizzard!"#
Clair gritted her teeth as she wracked her brain to come up with a solution for her problem. And, thankfully, she had one.
"Use Extremespeed, interrupt the attack!"
Dragonair nodded at her words and disappeared in a burst of speed to prevent the ice-type from unleashing another barrage of winter upon him. Lapras was about to let loose when they were hit with massive power and speed right in the guts.
Extremespeed was a move unique to just two pokemon, the Dratini line and Arcanine, and it was as strong as it was rare. It was essentially a marginally better version of Quick Attack, it was stronger and faster, but the move requires some work to master, however once it is mastered it will be one of the best moves that a pokemon could know.
Unfortunately, it wasn't enough.
The Lapras grunted back in pain, but it didn't break focus as it unleashed it's massive ice-type attack with Dragonair right in front of it. The Dragon was unable to dodge as they did their best to brave out the attack.
Clair watched on in horror as the icy wind whittled away at her pokemon bit by bit, ice slowly appeared on her starter's skin, it slowly spread, bit by bit and little by little until they were frozen in a block of ice!
Clair gaped in horror at the sight of what had happened to her starter. He had been frozen by that Blizzard!
The announcer gazed curiously at the ice, trying to check and see if the dragon was done, but Lucas soon spoke up." They won't be getting out of that, just call it and say they're down, that dragon doesn't have the stuff to take what we've dished out." His words were lazy and mocking, as though he didn't even consider her starter a threat.
That action alone was enough to make her seethe with rage.
Apparently her emotions had shown through her face since he commented with a smirk on his face." What? You can't seriously be mad at me for telling the truth, no weak dragon like that is-"
His words were cut off, and not by her but by Dragonair. From within the ice cube he almost seemed to respond to the condescending words of his enemy, and he shone in a brilliant blue light that made the entire battlefield light up. The ice shattered as he started to grow rapidly, his wings seemed to shift so that they were on his shoulders as his body undertook a significant change in stature, he grew arms and legs, along with antennae that replaced his heads wings, and the light burst open to reveal that her Dragonair had evolved into Dragonite!
Clair's face of displeasure instantly morphed into one of awe at the sight of her starter's evolution. Dragonite were signs of greatness in the Blackthorn clan, if you had one then you were clearly an amazing trainer, and she was one of those lucky few that managed to reach that stage with their dragon partner.
She wasn't the only one that was completely in awe at the sight of a practically legendary pokemon the crowd were gasping and visibly flabbergast, then after a moment they were screaming and cheering in excitement.
"LOOK AT THAT IT'S A DRAGONITE! WE ARE IN FOR A TREAT TONIGHT FOLKS! LETS WATCH THIS LEGENDARY POKEMON DO BATTLE!" The announcer yelled into his microphone with far too much enthusiasm at the sight of a Dragonite.
Clair however, did none of that, she simply met her partners eyes and nodded as a sign of respect and happiness at the evolution of her partner. Dragonite saw this and pumped a fist back at her with a grin on his face as he got ready to face down the Lapras that nearly brought him down before.
Clair smirked cockily at her opponent." What was it that you were saying before again? Something about a 'weak dragon', why don't we show them who the weakling here really is, Dragonite?"
Dragonite agreed as he flexed his new and tiny wings, clearly preparing for a fight.
Lapras and it's trainer reeled back at those words with terror written on their faces, everyone in the stadium knew one thing when they watched the dragon glare at his opponent and he seemed to idly flex his new muscles.
There is absolutely no way that Lukas was walking away as the victor.
If you enjoyed reading this story and want to read more then just head to my P atreon at The Magician 565 to read 8 Chapters in advance.
So yeah, Clair is gonna be a pretty big part of this series. I'm planning on expanding on her character a little bit later down the line, but for now she's just gonna be another competitor for our MC. Also thank you to those of you who joined my P atreon, a financial incentive is a good way to keep me motivated to pump out chapters like I've been doing lately. Also our protagonist has some mutual feelings for Sabrina, but his mental age is kind of making him feel uncomfortable about that fact. Comment above about what you want me to do with them in the future if you want to give your input.
