Chapter 78: Daredevil Pt1

"Here coooomes…!" Gym leader Iono pulled both of her hands back. "The thunder!"

Iono shot her hands at Kai, and a thunderbolt flew straight at him. Kai stood still and watched the bolt of lightning come his way…

And took one step to the left to dodge.

A look of confusion came to Kai as the thunderbolt flew by him and flew upward into the air and exploded- shocking (no pun intended) everyone in the area save for him, Nemona and Geeta.

A single thought came to Kai's mind after he dodged Iono's attack. It was slow.

Really slow.

"All right- how about THIS!?" Iono clapped her hands together and slammed them onto the ground- sending a massive electric current toward the ground that spread across the entire Arena- save for the spectators' spots. Kai leapt into the air quickly.

After noticing how long it took for the electricity to fill the ground, Kai eyed the viewer count. It was still a pretty decent number, 1,200.

"Get ready for a SHOCK!" Iono shouted out. Kai's eyes darted at the gym leader as she fired a Charge Beam attack directly his way. Kai twirled and dodged the attack, dropping his rapier and using it as a surfboard as he darted toward the ground. Before touching the ground, he grabbed his rapier which floated to his hand, and landed with a roll. Kai stood up and then scratched the back of his head, looking genuinely confused.

"Are you taking this seriously?" He asked.

"Huh?!" Iono cried. "Of course I'm taking this seriously! Everyone's watching- so I'm giving it 110%!"

"Really? Cause- uh… no offense… but uh… your attacks are slow. Like, really slow."

"What?! Whuddya mean- slow!? That was literal lightning that came after you!" Iono shot her finger at Kai. "There's no way that was slow!"

"See- if you're not going to take things seriously…"

Kai took one step and moved too quickly for Iono to keep up- and within a blink of an eye, the tip of Kai's rapier was pointed at her- inches away from her face.

"...I could just end it right now."

Everyone in the crowd gasped. Even Geeta was surprised. Nemona smiled.

"Nemona, you said you went all out against him, right?" Geeta asked. "How often did you do that?"

"Uh... I lost count."

"Can Kai keep up with you?"

"A little bit, yeah." Nemona said.

Geeta's eyes widened. "You do realize what that means, right? If Kai can keep up with you, even a little bit- that means that his strength...has far surpassed Iono's...!"

Iono took a step back from Kai's blade. "H-How…how are you this…fast..!? You- you only have one gym badge!"

Kai began to smirk. "I've dodged moves faster than yours- so much so that watching your attacks is like watching someone move in slow motion."

"Sl-Slow motion?!" Iono cried. She began whirling her arms as her long coat sleeves flew spun rapidly. "Nonononono- that's impossi-never happened to me before! This is definitely going to go on my top 10 worst Iono let down moments!"

"Did- did you just say top ten- y'know what- never mind," Kai said, lowering his blade.

This wasn't very interesting to him right now. Kai expected more. He looked up and saw Iono's viewer count rising. On the left side of the viewer count, he could see hundreds of commenters chatting and donating to her stream. Most of the commenters were against Kai- saying mean things like…

'Wow, this guy's arrogant!' and 'I really don't like this guy! Go Iono Go!'

Kai's grin widened as an idea sprouted in his mind.

"I've got something to tell you," Kai said.

"What is it that you have to say?! I need to know- the world needs to know!" Iono cried.

"Nononono- shh! Come here- come here." Kai said, motioning for Iono to come closer to him with his hand. Iono tilted her head. "C'mon!" Kai cried. "I'm just gonna whisper something to you."

"You're not gonna pull a fast one are you?"

"Naaah," Kai said.

"You suuuure?"

"I'm sure."

"Positive?"

"Yup."

"Ookaaay~ if you're lying you're SO gonna get it!" Iono shouted. She came closer to Kai, and Kai went to her side and began whispering.

Everyone in the crowd watched in sheer confusion.

"Never in my life have I seen a challenger and a Gym leader having a secret discussion during the fight." Geeta said.

"Well… first time for everything?" Nemona replied.

Iono's eyes widened.

"GAAAH- HOW DARE YOU!" Iono cried. She turned to her phone and pointed at Kai, who puffed his chest and smiled arrogantly. "You guys want to know what he said!?" Iono cried. "He said that he could beat me with his hands and legs tied, while BLINDFOLDED! Can you BELIEVE this guy!?"

"I'm just telling the truth," Kai said, shrugging. "It's not like you can touch me anyway."

"How DAARE YOU!" Iono cried. "I'm gonna knock you out!"

Iono's fists began to pulsate with electricity. "Here I COME!" Iono rushed toward her challenger as Kai began to pull out his phone. He stared at it while effortlessly dodging Iono's every attack.

As soon as Iono saw Kai pull out his phone- her eyes widened in surprise. "HOW DARE YOU!" She cried. "HOLD STILL!"

Iono threw a final punch, and Kai appeared behind the gym leader while staring at his phone.

"Wanna see the pictures I took?" Kai said, turning and showing Iono his phone. Kai showed Iono briefly all of the pictures he took, all of which he put two fingers up to make the peace sign. He kept scrolling to see every picture he took. "I like this one the most." Kai said.

Kai looked up at the viewer count, and saw that it was rapidly increasing. Another smile came to his face, even as more hate comments flew his way.

"THAT'S IT!" Iono raised her open palm in front of Kai's face, who still was looking at the viewer count. Iono then shot a point-blank Charge Beam directly at Kai.

Once the beam faded Kai was nowhere to be found.

"Yeah, I'm in the middle of a gym battle," Kai's nonchalant voice made Iono turn her head and widen her eyes as her jaw dropped. Kai was not only unharmed, but he was on his phone talking. "Yeah, yeah, I know I shouldn't be calling you, but I'm bored, y'know?"

"KAI!" Aeon's loud frustrated roar could be heard through Kai's phone. "WHY ARE YOU CALLING ME?! FOCUS ON THE FIGHT!"

Kai chuckled. "I hear you, I hear you. Love you too, Aeon- bye!" Kai turned off the phone. Then, he looked at the viewer count.

The viewer count had exploded- there were now 10,000 viewers. Kai grinned widely, then turned to Iono, who began grumbling and trembling with rage as static electricity began rising within her. "HOW…DAARE…YOOOOOOU….!" She cried. "TAKE THIIIIIIIIIIIIIS!"

Thunder shot out of both of her hands, and Kai dodged quickly out of the way, shouting "Whoa!" as he did so. He turned his head and saw the lightning bolt fly upwards toward the sky, and saw as the clouds began to go black.

Kai's plan had worked out. He acted like a complete and total jerk on purpose to provoke Iono- and more importantly, provoke her viewers. He did it knowing that if the viewers had a villain to root against, that the viewer count would increase dramatically- and so would Iono's power.

Of course, he felt bad about how much he disrespected Iono just then. He was going to apologize to her after the fight- but there was something he noticed. He couldn't help but feel like he got a rush from doing what he just did. Throughout his entire life, Kai had always wanted to be immensely disrespectful to the point of enraging his opponent. And now he was achieving his life-long dream. He truly felt like the coolest person around.

This was just like the time he fought against Mela, when he purposely powered her up for the sake of being ballsy. The excitement Kai felt was so great that he no longer cared about winning or losing. He didn't care about the worries that were clouding his mind about the opinions of the viewers or people around him. His rapidly beating heart and grinning face made him want more. He wanted to provoke Iono more just so he could have the greatest, most explosive battle of his life.

Kai began to chuckle to himself. He began laughing loudly and proudly as Iono's viewer count began to rapidly rise even more. 10,000…11,000…13,000… The comments raced faster and faster. Iono's power became so violent that her eyes began to glow white.

Kai whistled. "You're getting stronger than ever before...! I'm loving it!"

"Everyone- I can feel your power…rising within me!" Iono shouted as she floated into the sky.. "It's time… to put down the challenger and show him what the Iono zone is all about!"

"Yes, yes, YES! That's what I'm TALKING ABOUT!" Kai cried. Kai's weapon began shining in response, showing that Quaquaval was getting excited along with his trainer.

Kai entered a battle stance, staring at Iono as she ascended to the sky.

Her viewer count had hit 100,000.

Iono grinned and raised one arm over her head. The thunder clouds above her parted.

"Here comes…THUNDER!" Iono shouted.

A massive thunder bolt that rivaled the size of a meteor flew down where Kai was standing at incredible speed. Kai's grin suddenly turned into terror.

"OH JEEZ-"

The power of the attack was so great that everyone in the spectators fell onto their backs as the entire stadium began to tremble. The horrible loud sound of thunder made the entire city look up as collective gasps filled the area. Everyone watched as what looked like a tower of electricity struck the top of the stadium rooftop where the battle was taking place. Once the light faded, Kai was nowhere to be seen.

Iono took in a deep breath and grinned. "Got em'," She said.

"No you didn't!"

Iono spun her body around and saw Kai standing on top of a building that was taller than the gym stadium. His arms were crossed, and his rapier was on his hip. He smiled wide. "I'd say I'm a pretty decent actor. Although your power's a biiiit explosive. I think we should take this outside the city."

"I have to agree!" Iono cried. "The power of my viewers is making me super special awesome to the point that I could explode the entiiiiiiire city by accident!"

"I mean, it's a bummer that the entire city won't be able to see you lose to me… so-"

Kai yelped and hopped away as Iono shot a tiny thunderbolt directly in front of him- it was almost too fast for him.

"Y-You wouldn't just…blast me while I'm on this building here, right?" Kai asked.

"I'm gonna give you ten!" Iono cried.

"Uh, Ten what?"

"NINE!"

"AHHHHHHHHH!" Kai spun and leapt off of the building he stood on, landing on the pavement floor of the city. He began sprinting as fast as he could as Iono kept counting down from Nine.

Geeta sighed to herself, watching as she slapped her own face.. 'Ladies and gentlemen…' Geeta thought, That's the savior of this timeline. Hooohhh boy…'

"We'd better follow them!" Nemona cried, standing up from her seat.

"Yeah. We should." Geeta said.

Kai's Pawmo gasped for air as he woke up with a start, turning his head back and forth as he realized that he was laying on a hospital bed.

Why was he laying on a hospital bed? Pawmo put his hand on his head. The last thing he remembered was fighting to protect Tinkaton and the others. Against that monsterous Slaking. Now he was here on this bed...

He turned to his left and saw Tinkaton, who was laying right beside him and staring at him in surprise after being woken up by his loud gasp.

Then- Pawmo began to scream. Tinkaton began to scream as well. Both Pokémon fell to the ground immediately. Just as Pawmo hit the ground, he leapt back onto his hospital bed and went over to the other side, where Tinkaton was groaning as she rubbed the back of her head.

"WHO ARE YOU!?" Pawmo cried. "WHY ARE YOU HERE!? WHERE'S KAI!? WHERE'S TINKATUFF AND THE OTHERS?!"

Tinkaton slowly stood up. "P-Pawmo-..?" Tinkaton said. "Did- did your memories come back..?"

"Memories!? What do you mean-!?"

"I- it's me! I evolved! You went unconcious before you saw me- but it's me!"

"Huh?" Pawmo's eyebrows rose. "I lost my memory- Wait- if I lost my memory- and- you know who I am- and- wait-...Are you-..!" Pawmo began to blush. "You're- you're..!" Pawmo began to realize that the Tinkaton he was talking to was indeed the one that used to be the Tinkatuff he knew. And-...

Pawmo began to remember that upon waking up he saw her sleeping right beside him on the hospital bed.

As Pawmo's face began to turn bright red at the thought- a puff of white smoke came from the top of his head. He then slowly fell on his back.

"PAWMO! NOOOOOOO!" Tinkaton cried.