A/N Wooo, I finally got another chapter of this posted. I have had major writer's block when it came to this fic, but I got the juices flowing again. I'll definitely be able to get more soon.
The next day, Red and Green were walking along Route 5. As they walked, Red held Blaze's Pokéball in his hand. "Hey Green, you remember what happened yesterday? At the pool."
"You mean when Rika and Blaze started fighting? Yeah, what was up with that?" she asked.
"I don't know, Blaze seemed really aggressive, and so did Rika... you don't think they had a fight do you?"
"Blaze was probably just rowdy after not getting to fight against Misty?" Green theorized, "After all, he was the only member of your team who didn't get to participate in it."
"So, what do you think would help?" Red asked, uncertainly.
"Well, what if the two of them could let off some steam in a more controlled battle? Just the two of us?" she offered.
"Admit it, you just wanted to try battling me, didn't you?" Red said with a smirk.
"Well, kinda, but it won't be a full battle, just one Pokémon each, is that okay?" Green asked as she adjusted her glasses.
"Yeah, Blaze vs Rika, I'll accept your challenge then," he said excitedly as he sent Blaze into battle. Green did the same for Rika and the two Pokémon faced each other across the road. Before any fighting would take place, Blaze and Rika were talking to each other. Red couldn't fully understand what they were saying, but from what he could tell based on Blaze's words, things were not friendly between those two Pokémon. Blaze looked back at him and Red understood. It was time to strike. "Blaze, go for an ember!"
The Charmeleon took in a deep breath before launching a volley of fire towards the Pikachu. Rika tried to dodge out of the way, but the flames were too fast. Rika got blasted backwards by the flames into the ground. Blaze boasted before launching another volley of flames at her.
"Rika, Thundershock!" Green cried out. This time, the flames were blocked by Rika's electricity disrupting the flow of the fire. The air between the two Pokémon became electric as Blaze spat out a blue flame to show he was excited by this opponent.
"So, she can block our fire. Hit her with a Leer attack," Red ordered.
Blaze began glaring directly at Rika. Instead of being terrified, Rika smirked playfully. Her guard was clearly off, which pleased Red despite Blaze not being happy about the reaction.
Across the battlefield, Green smiled as well, "Rika, go for a swift!" Green commanded. The Pikachu's fur bristled and star shaped beams of energy began shooting off of her and towards Blaze. Blaze couldn't do a thing as he got pelted by the stars. The Pikachu began playfully spinning around. It was starting to look like she was trying to aggravate Blaze. Green giggled a bit as the battle continued. "What's wrong? Is Rika too fast for you?" Green asked, egging Red on as well. Red locked eyes with his partner, and the two of them came to the same conclusion.
"Blaze, unleash your rage!" Red commanded. Rika's guard had been lowered by Blaze's, and each hit by Rika now would only make Blaze stronger. Smoke began billowing out of Blaze's snout and his tail burned brightly. He ran towards Rika and slashed at her with his claws. He then quickly added a punch with his other arm and knocked her backwards. As Rika got up, Blaze pounced on her, biting her angrily.
"Rika, use Quick Attack," Green called out in a panic and the Pikachu disappeared in a quick flash before reappearing behind Blaze and rushing into him at lightning speed. Of course, hitting Blaze only increased his rage, a fact which Green had forgotten up until the moment she saw him burn even brighter with fury. "Oh... crap," she said as Blaze began fighting Rika even harder than before. The next hit sent Rika flying even farther. She was starting to look extremely weak. Green was worried for her Pokémon, she knew Nurse Joy would be able to heal all her wounds, or she could use one of the potions in her bag, but that didn't make it any worse to watch them get inflicted. Even Red was starting to look uncomfortable at the savagery that the attack was inflicting, but now that the attack had started, there was no way for him to call it off. Green couldn't bring herself to move as she watched her Pikachu get attacked again and again. The fear was paralyzing her mind. Paralyzing, that's it! she thought triumphantly. "Rika! Thunder wave!"
Rika smiled weakly as she charged some electricity into the air letting it disrupt Blaze's nervous system to disable his movement. Even Red was smiling in relief as Blaze found himself unable to move a muscle. She slowly walked over to Blaze, clearly finding it hard to do so due to the pain from the Rage still stinging all over. Blaze was snarling at her, and although he couldn't move his arms or legs, that didn't change how terrifying he truly was.
"I'm not done with you pipsqueak!" he roared angrily as he tried his hardest to move. "This battle should have been mine to win!"
"You're right, that's why I surrender," Rika replied, bowing her head down submissively, an action that clearly caught Blaze off guard as he unclenched his jaw.
"You're giving up? Somehow that feels worse than losing to you," he said before releasing a puff of smoke, clearly annoyed by this turn of events.
"I mean, if I didn't paralyze you just now, I probably wouldn't have been able to take another hit," she said before wincing as her body jolted from the pain.
"Doesn't change the fact that you did paralyze me. I don't need your pity, you beat me, so finish the job!" he huffed.
"You're not mad about me beating you?" she asked uncertainly.
"Of course I'm mad, but at least I lost to someone strong. Next time we fight, you'd better be ready, because I don't plan on letting you get me with the same trick again." Blaze's mouth formed a determined smile, and Rika found herself smiling as well.
"Yeah? Then I guess I'll need to get even stronger before the next time I beat you, you overgrown candle," she said, teasing him in the same way she did the day prior.
"Heh, watch your mouth pipsqueak, that's what got you into this mess last time," Blaze said, chuckling heartily. His arms and legs were slowly twitching back to action, he might be able to move in spite of the Paralysis soon. Rika looked back at Green who had clearly noticed too. They both nodded before Green gave out the command.
"Rika, thundershock!" As Blaze reached out to claw at Rika once more, the lightning arced off of her body and struck him, sending him into the ground. She looked at her fallen opponent, but there wasn't a hint of anger on his face, which was curved into a satisfied smile. She panted in relief at her victory being confirmed before bowing down respectfully to her defeated adversary.
Both trainers sighed as they recalled their respective Pokémon. In Green's case it was purely out of relief, while in Red's case it had a slight hint of disappointment. "That... got a little intense," Red admitted as he walked over to Green and offered her a potion from his bag. "This one's on me."
"I knew the risks when I challenged you and your Charmeleon," she said kindly, declining his potion. "Use yours on Blaze, I... can't believe I just froze like that," she clenched the potion bottle tightly in her hand. For a second Red thought it was gonna break from her grip. "How do you do it?" she asked, looking at Red with longing in her eyes, "This is the second time I've frozen in battle, yet you always seem calm and collected."
"I've frozen in battle too you know," he said with a smile as he sat down next to her.
"Not being able to stop Blaze's rage doesn't count, once that move is active, nothing can stop it."
"I know, that wasn't the time I was talking about," he said, "When we were fighting those two from Team Rocket in Mt. Moon, and Jessie's Arbok had Rose in its grasp. I just..."
"Rose was being held hostage, it wasn't your fault you didn't attack," she said, crossing her arms and frowning as she defended him.
"Yeah, but I could have had Blaze use a scratch to target the Arbok specifically, or sent out Gabriel and had him use Sleep Powder." He saw Green's glasses slipping down her face a bit and adjusted them for her. "My point is, it's okay to freeze sometimes. Don't beat yourself up over it. Especially since you still won even after freezing in the middle of the fight."
Green's protests had been effectively silenced by that move. When did Red get so smooth? "How'd the boy who needed my notes just to get by in class suddenly learn how to give battle advice like that?"
Red chuckled. "What can I say, losing a battle or two helped me learn how to be better at battling." As the two of them sat there, the sun had begun to set.
"Looks like we're gonna have to set up camp here tonight," Green said with a shrug.
"Oh well, guess that means we have another night of stargazing ahead of us. And to think we could have been staring at the boring old ceiling at the Pokécenter," Red joked.
"Just help me with the sleeping bags," Green said between chuckles.
They had soon set up at the side of the road and settled in their sleeping bags. Red wasn't too sure, but he could have sworn that among the black sky and shining stars, he saw a splotch of pink swimming through the air. Before he could dwell on it too long, his eyelids grew heavy and he began dreaming.
A/N: I'm fairly certain that this is the first time I had Red and Green fight each other all series. Only took 17 chapters.
