Asher's Team:
Lago - Rhydon
Crust - Golem
Sebastian - Nidoking
Selena - Nidoqueen
Seraph - Clefable
Barret - Dugtrio
Sonic - Sandslash
Death - Marowak
Colossus - Steelix
Alright, I'm battling Falkner in... two hours? Wait no it's an hour and thirty minutes. I'm battling Falkner in an hour and a half.
I already know what pokemon I'm gonna use to absolutely trounce this guy. Flying-types are basically made of glass like 90% of the time, if you hit them once then they're down, but of boy can it be tough to hit them. He's probably gonna try and keep his distance, take me down with ranged attacks, and if he were battling a regular old scrub then that'd probably work, afterall ground-types are known for battling on well... the ground. If he can just keep in the air then he can kick us to the curb, right?
Wrong! I'm basically the king of cheap shots, I've got plenty of ranged options in my team to fuck my opponent over from a distance. If he thinks that staying in the sky will help him then he's dead wrong.
Also flying is... a very vanilla type. Oh sure you've got plenty of variety, at least if you have enough of a head to pick your pokemon wisely, but the thing is none of these idiots are smart enough to pick them. I can literally name a bunch of flying-type bangers off the top of my head. Charizard, Dragonite, Salamence, Crobat, Scyther, fuckin Gyarados! Yet nobody actually has the brains to pick a decent one.
Falkner isn't much different in that regard. I mean he has decent taste at least, I've seen him field Crobat and a Xatu, but the rest of his team I've seen so far? Total sidemen.
But, my thoughts were cut off by something. Namely a grumble in my stomach. Oh right, I didn't actually get any dinner yesterday... or lunch. I mean I got that hot dog but I ate that in like two bites. Did I just completely forget to eat for most of yesterday?
Huh, I might have a tunnel vision problem.
Sabrina noticed this and merely stated." We should find something to eat before your match, I suggest that we go to one of the nearby restaurants. Do you know a place nearby that we could go to?" Her words also held the slightest hints of amusement at my stomach basically growling for nourishment.
I sent her my signature grin as a certain place came to mind. I think I have time for a quick breakfast with a pretty girl. It's almost like taking a girl out for dinner.
Actually I really hope this doesn't count as a first date. I'm not exactly the most classy when I'm hungry.
Sabrina watched on with disbelief as Asher positively indulged himself with great vigour and stacked a third plate that was full of food just minutes ago onto another two he'd already scoffed down his throat.
Watching her friend eat was fascinating in an almost morbid way, she never knew that a human being could be so fast when they ate. It was like he didn't care about the weird looks he was getting or the fact that he was eating entire plates of food in just minutes. She supposes that if you're hungry enough you cease to care about manners.
He finished off a massive egg sandwich in just two bites and seemed to take a moment to digest it before he layed back in his seat. After a few seconds he just said with a clear mouth as he wiped any food off his face with a napkin." So, I didn't realise that you could use psychic-type moves with your powers, can you do anything else, or is it just Calm Mind?"
She took special care to cut her fried eggs with a knife and fork and pop the pieces into her mouth neatly, eating at a much leisurely pace than her friend, before answering." Just Calm Mind, other moves like Trick Room are too energy intensive for me to pull off. Calm Mind is usable because all I need to do is calm myself down, it can be useful in certain situations..." She trailed off slightly at the reminder of what occurred earlier this morning.
Asher grinned slightly and finished her sentence." You mean when you were blushing up a storm because I swept you off your feet like a bride on her wedding night right after I told you how to fu-"
Sabrina covered her ears to shield herself from hearing such a crude term coming out of his mouth. She honestly didn't know why she had been acting so unlike her recently. She's usually the picture of composure, but lately she's been getting flustered so easily. Even now her cheeks felt like they were heating up.
She was beginning to wonder what it was she felt towards Asher. She should be mad whenever he pulls something like he did this morning where he swept her off her feet, however instead of feeling anger she just felt embarrassment and... a strange feeling in her chest. Come to think of it she feels that a lot whenever she's around him.
Why is that?
"Excuse me." Her thoughts were cut out when she heard the voice of a strange aimed at her friend as a greeting. She looked to the side to see a familiar head of blue hair that obscured one half of his face and left his other side open, he had a serious expression on his face and sharp blue eyes that were aimed right at Asher.
The brown haired boy returned his gaze with a friendly smile of his own and greeted him." Hey, you're the guy who's battling me. Nice to meet you my names-"
Falkner cut him off rather rudely." Asher Blight I know, you're the ground-type trainer that I've heard so much about. I just came to say this, I'm going to beat you." His eyes seemed to glare slightly as he said those words. Almost as though he were challenging the golden eyed boy.
Sabrina felt slightly confused at the display. Why would he just say that he would win like that? It wasn't as though he could see the future so why would he be sure of his victory?
Asher just kept his facial expression the same at the words of the blue haired Johtonian and replied." I'm sure you will, but don't think that I'm not gonna make you work for it. Anyway, do you want some bacon or something? I'm always up to chat with a good pokemon trai-"
Falkner just walked away as Asher held up a piece of bacon that he was going to give to the boy. Sabrina might have terrible social skills, but even she could see that encounter went rather poorly.
But regardless, Asher wasn't dejected he just popped the bacon into his mouth and said." He seems like he's got some shit on his plate, hope that being beaten doesn't hurt him too badly." He casually spoke as he chewed the crispy meet inside his mouth.
Sabrina just tilted her head slightly as she noticed that he didn't seemed put down even by a bad interaction." You aren't saddened that he acted so rudely?" She said in her usual monotone voice.
Asher just shrugged at her words" Why would I be sad? He wants to win and so do I, plus I'm eating my meal in front of you. It's kind of difficult to be sad with you around." He once again complimented her without even realising and she felt her heart once again flutter against her will.
Just what is this feeling?
I was sitting down at a bench and thinking about the match I had up coming in just over an hour. Sabrina had gone off to go and get us some drinks and I decided to just sit down and focus on how to best beat that guy.
It really didn't take much thought for me to decide who I was picking for this match against Falkner. I had eight pokemon on me and it's entirely obvious who the worst choices for this match would be. Sonic and Death. They were both very strong, but their fighting style work best when their opponent is on the ground with them, and their movesets definitely make them stand out as close-range fighters. It's doable, but not ideal.
As for who would be best up against these fliers, I would definitely say Lago and Colossus. For one Colossus is a fucking Steelix, when it comes to tanking Wing Attacks and shit it doesn't really get much more bulky than that. He's a hard counter for Falkner's team. Then there's Lago, and well... he's the strongest pokemon I've got, plain and simple.
When it comes to pure power and efficiency I'd give my Rhydon the edge over my Steelix any day. Lago has simply been with me longer, he's trained a lot harder, and he's got a whole bag of tricks in his back pocket. Maybe when it comes to raw firepower he can't match Colossus, I know for a fact that he can't replicate that Hyper Beam that my Steelix used to one-hit that Gyarados. But, in terms of brawling and strength I've gotta give Lago the edge here.
I can only vibrate on the spot at the thought of what will happen to Lago once he evolves. To be fair if we're talking purely on aesthetics then I have to say that Rhydon looks a lot better, I feel like Game Freak were just itching to introduce new evolutions around Gen 4 and decided 'fuck it, we've already given all these other guys an evolution, might as well do Rhydon while we're at it'. It just feels a little unnecessary you know, like Rhydon doesn't need an evolution. It's like giving Golem an evolution.
Still though, I am gonna evolve him. Evolution is like a multiplier, so if I can evolve him then I'll do it. I just hope that Crust can keep up though, if he does evolve into Rhyperior then he'll be a league above Crust just in pure base stats. Cos lets be honest here, Rhydon was about as good as Golem- in Lago's case he's already better than Crust- so the gap between them is only getting larger.
Wait, where was I? Oh yeah, how I'm gonna fuck up Falkner. Well I'll probably try and go for electric attacks with Sebastian and ice attacks with Selena, my team is good at using rock-type moves, plus I could just use Seraph to-
Ohhh, god I am evil. If I actually just used-
"Hey, you!"
I flinched suddenly when I was brought out of my thoughts and saw that a couple of girls maybe a couple years older than I was were walking towards me with a slight strut in their walk. I'd admit that they were pretty good looking, at least on the outside, but I could immediately tell that their personalities weren't exactly the friendliest or the most pleasant. You know that 'I'm a bitch' aura that people sometimes have? Yeah that's what I'm getting from these two.
One of them had long brown hair that went down to her midsection and the other had shoulder length blonde hair. The clothes that they were wearing looked like they could be considered trendy, and expensive, I never really thought about why a person would spend so much on clothes. It seemed like a massive waste to me. I mean I'm a guy who was struggling to get just the barebone basics for literal years until it just became too much and I was out on the road, so I really hated it when money was just thrown away like that
The blonde of the pair spoke with a very teenage girl voice." Oh my god, you're that guy who's made it to the semi-finals! I just wanted to say that I'm a really big fan, and the way you spoke up for that girl was... really hot." She said that last bit with a tone that I could only guess was an attempt at sounding seductive.
It wasn't very effective.
One thing that I've learned about being a pokemon trainer is that if you're good at it then you can make a lot of money; it's a surprisingly lucrative business. And, unfortunately, it seems to me like gold diggers were a foreign concept. Luckily enough, Sabrina was amazing at repelling them. She'd just lean in closer and glare holes at them if they were trying to chat me up and flirt with me. Atta girl. But, unfortunately she wasn't here to save me from these two; well possibly just one, the brown haired one hasn't said anything yet.
I'd have to do this myself. Or just wait till she gets back, either works.
I just smiled in a genuinely friendly manner and replied." Thanks, really didn't think I was famous enough to have fans. Do you want an autograph or something." That was a lie, I was basically famous at this point. Heck, back at that restaurant a group of kids asked for a photo with me, I complied of course. I don't think that mother liked me though, she muttered something about me being a bad influence on them or something.
Which is probably true.
The blonde seemed notice that I didn't seem at all flustered by the blatant flirting. I really hope that she just moved along honestly, I'm not taken or anything, but I value Sabrina's opinion more than two strangers. I wouldn't wanna hurt her feelings or anything, plus the girls themselves might be in mortal danger if they were caught flirting with me by her.
But still, the blonde girl couldn't take a hint and decided to pick it up a notch. She sat down uncomfortably close to my right arm, and spoke with a coy look on her face." I'll take an autograph. Can you put it right here." She gestured to her crop-top. She wanted me to sign her tits.
Still though, I put my acting skills to the test and gave her my best weirded out look before saying with scepticism." Really? Why would you want my signature on your top? You'll ruin a perfectly good shirt and you won't even get my autograph to begin with, and do you even have a pen?" I gave her a look that suggested that she was an idiot and physically strained my face as I struggled not to bust a gut at the frustrated look she gave in the face of my 'obliviousness' halting her attempts to seduce me.
Okay I take it back this was actually pretty entertaining. I was actually wondering what she was gonna do next. Or what her friend was gonna do next for that matter. Who knew that messing with gold diggers could be this fun?
The brown haired one finally made her move by sitting down and sandwiching me as she practically clung onto my left arm. Alright I take it back, now I'm very uncomfortable.
She leaned near my ear to the point where I could actually feel her breath. Personal space much? Once she was basically breathing down my neck she whispered in a weird tone." Wanna do me?"
Wait what?
I was actually really surprised for a moment at how forward this girl was. I had to hold back a cringe at what she was doing. Was this girl really so willing to just throw herself at me like this? Did she have so little self-respect that she's willing to have sex with a guy she knows nothing about just because I'm a good trainer? That I might have money?
Unsure of what to do I just put my oblivious act back on." Do what?" I had to stop myself from shaking to restrain my own laughter as the girl gave me a look of pure disbelief.
"You're kidding me, right? I meant sex. Do you want to have sex with me." She seemed to stress the word so that I knew what she was talking about. My toes curled up as I struggled to maintain my composure at just how annoyed she looked. I must have really been getting to her.
So, in the face of a situation that I couldn't conceivably dumb myself out of I only had one option. To actually answer their question. What will I do when two idiotic dames are practically tearing the hair on their heads out of it's roots at the scenario of the man they're trying to seduce being a dense buffoon and then said buffoon is forced into a situation where he needs to give an impossible answer to an impossible-
"No. Now please stop breathing down my neck and quit groping me you couple of gold diggers." You just tell them to fuck off that's what.
At the bluntness and sudden sharpness at my voice the two actually flinch away, as though they were in shock that I had just rejected them.
I then proceeded to tear the brown haired one's hand off my side and I got onto my feet and started to walk away. The thing about life is that sometimes you need to learn when to walk away, it helps you avoid trouble and puts some distance between you and whoever you need to get away from. Sometimes you just need to stop talking to people that you don't need.
The two girls snapped out of their shock and ran after me from behind, but I didn't give them any mind. Now, just where is Sabrina? Turns out I'm a lot thirstier than I thought and I could use a nice refreshing cup of-
"What do you mean you don't want to have sex with her?" -something fizzy, but knowing her she probably just got juice. That's fine, I should probably tone it down on the-
"Why are you ignoring us?" -pop anyway. I'll admit that something about the cola here is way nicer than in my old world. Regardless I don't wanna end up a diabetic or something.
I stopped walking as I felt a really light pulling force on my back, like a little girl was trying to drag me backwards. I turned around and saw that the two little slags from before were trying to hold me still by hanging onto my shirt.
Really? Right here. I looked around and noticed that several people were looking at me weirdly, and honestly I don't blame them. These two girls are a couple of weirdos.
I grabbed both of their arms and slowly pried their hands off me before throwing them to the ground. I didn't do it hard though, weirdos or not, I can't exactly make myself go too hard on a lass; it's just not my style.
They were thrown to the ground semi-hard and I did my best to ignore both them and the people looking at me weirdly, they don't really matter to me. I just want to go and some damn pop without a couple of sleezy hags hanging off of my-
The blonde suddenly called out in a tone of annoyance." What the heck is your problem?"
I felt a nerve inside of me get struck at those words and I halted my exit at their words. I'm sorry, but where the hell did this bitch get the audacity to-
The other bitch decided to give make her opinion on the matter heard and started to scream like the insane whore she was." Yeah! What the hell are you gay or something?! How the heck could you say no to two total babes like us?!"
An immense amount of rage flooded into my veins all at once at her words and my vision started to haze and dots started to appear in my line of sight. I really hate people sometimes, whilst I can tolerate them at times and I know that you can't live without connecting to others, in general people can be massive assholes. These bitches remind me so much of her that it make my heart pound like crazy. My limit is being stretched and if they utter one more word then I'm gonna-
"Or maybe you're already wasting your time around some slut like that psychic freak you came with!"
Snap
"Ladies and gentlemen, today we are going to be watching the semi-final round between Asher of Viridian City, and Falkner of Violet City! This will be our first six versus six match of the Indigo Conference between two opposites, Ground-types versus Flying-types! Which one of these two masters is going to come out on top?!"
I felt some internal annoyance rise in my chest at the announcers words, but that might just have been a result of the shitty aftertaste that was still lingering from my encounter just an hour earlier. My temper was a little better after completely losing my shit and sending those bitches away in tears, but my mood was still utterly soured by that encounter. I really thought that I was ready to just walk away too, to be the bigger man, to let it go. But I didn't. Because I could tolerate them being spoiled brats, I could tolerate them taking a crack at me! I could even tolerate them calling me gay.
What I couldn't tolerate was them insulting Sabrina. My reputation can go to hell, people can look down on me if they want, but all in all I don't really regret my actions. I'm not the type of guy who'd let a friend be disrespected like that, Sabrina has gotten enough shit from idiots like them, does get enough shit from people like them, and with the whirlwind of emotions I've gone through recently going on top of that?
I just kinda snapped. It almost felt refreshing though, like I'd gotten weight off my chest. Who knew that screaming at a couple whores until you were panting like a dog was therapeutic?
I didn't see Sabrina after that, either she didn't want to see me after I started screaming like a madman, or she just didn't know what to say to me. Or, I messed up and now she thinks that I'm some maniac with anger issues.
Maybe I am.
I shook my head. I can't think about that now. I just need to focus on what's in front of me.
I picked a certain pokeball that I figured would be the best counter for his flying-types. Seraph. This guy is absolutely perfect to fight against a team of fliers, he's a master at the move which is basically their antithesis.
I walked through with his pokeball in hand. Whatever I did wrong I'll figure it out later. Right now? I just need to focus on winning.
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, I wanted to show off that Asher's carefree and crass attitude is just kind of his way of dealing with the insanity which is his life, and he does have his limits to how much he can just shrug off.
