Hmm to be honest I'd thought that was Memento not Curse mainly because when used by a non Ghost type pokemon like Onix Curse is supposed to boost atk and def but lower speed. I'm also not too sure how that was her challenging at the 4th badge lv but also one of the last badges she needs.
Hard Enough - Pokemon SI
- Thread starter Viva01
- Start date
- Users' Choice!
-
- Tags
- pokemon self insert
Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
...so where exactly is that family picture framed and does Surge carry it in his wallet to dab on Flint?
- Location
- Canada
It was sort of explained earlier on that for any badge at 4th level and up, Brock generally pulls from the same pool of Pokemon and then adjusts his own skill level to match the opponent. Hence the miscalls and hesitations we see against Flannery. So "4th badge level" is just shorthand for "use Pokemon from the 4-8 badge roster".
- Location
- Scotland
I'm pretty sure that Brock also explained that for the first three badges, presuming you show enough of the right skills, you can get the badge without actually winning the match but for 4th badge and up you basically have to win. Also, for anyone who's forgotten there is a BIG difference in power between the 4-8 badge Pokemon and even the weakest of Brock's Elite team. This is why in an earlier chapter Brock mentioned that he has remained undefeated in his "Elite" challenge (basically a normal trainer takes a team of 6 against a random single member of Brock's Elite team).
On other notes Empress is going to be a hugely valuable member of Brock's team but first she's going to have to learn at least a modicum of fine control since she has power aplenty. Then I'm looking forward to Teddiursa eventually becoming a mighty AF Ursaluna (and of course seeing how Brock "explains" finding yet another unknown evolution). Finally I'm wondering if that Cradilly might just have what it takes to move up to become one of Brock's Elites, he could certainly use a good Rock/Grass type.
- Pronouns
- Him
Great fight, great chapter loved it.
Dont know if its just a mistake or a in universe change but curse only does damage when used by a ghost type.
Dont know if its just a mistake or a in universe change but curse only does damage when used by a ghost type.
I think that Onix specifically is just built differently. Curse normally works as you say, but what if an Onix is raised in a graveyard and made out of tombstones? Maybe that Onix experienced extreme grief with the loss of its mate? That might change up the move interaction a bit. Though, in all honesty, it could just be a move error, but I don't believe that to be the case. Viva has been pretty on point with move usage, an Curse being brought up twice in the battle must mean that it's intentional.
Obloquy
CrossMyHeart And HopeToDie, StickANeedleInMyEye
- Location
- the Physical Realm
It's an in-universe change, we've seen one of Karen's Pokemon (I think Houndoom?) use Curse with the same ghost-type HP draining effect in a fight earlier.
Great battle glad to see Flannery going out wild and being enthusiastic but also unpolished still.
Chapter 150 - Rock v Rock! Roxanne's challenge!
Viva01
Uncomfortable with all the hugs he is given
- Location
- Australia
Houndoom was a giant puppy. Flannery was on her back being licked to death for all intents and purposes as I approached.
"Do you need help?" I asked semi-seriously as she helplessly batted her hands at the slobbering pokemon.
Houndoom skipped around and narrowed its eyes on me, a small snarl escaped it before Flannery was on her feet, her hand on Houndoom's shoulder. "Hey, no. Calm down. Fight is over boy; we won," she said. Houndoom eyed me for a moment before barking once and sitting down.
"Hmmm, he's well-trained," I said. Flannery nodded before shuddering as she realised how wet her face was.
I raised a hand towards A.J., and he blinked at me.
I made a gesture before sighing when he continued to blink at me cluelessly. "The towels in the cupboard we keep for the water battles, A.J."
"Oh!" A.J. said, turning to the side and grabbing a towel before hurling it at me. Sadly, he overshot and it flapped into Flannery. She still raised a thumbs up to him as she began scrubbing off the slobber her pokemon had left on her.
When she was cleaned up she emerged and grinned at me. "Was that a boss fight? Or was that a boss fight?"
I chuckled. "It was very boss, but I feel like it could have been made easier for you in a few ways."
Flannery blinked at me before coughing, "Oh right, yeah, you kind of schooled me a bit, didn't you?"
I waggled my hand in a so-so manner. "Yes and no. I think you utilised your pokemon very effectively. You had a lot of setups in mind, but you were reckless in relying on power a lot."
I shot her an amused look when she coughed into her fist self-consciously. "There were a few instances where you pushed early in the gauntlet. For instance, you could have entered the match against Rocko with your Rapidash, which would have given you more options later on. Torkoal… was a bit ambitious as well. Camerupt and Blaziken were your aces, and that showed. Houndoom was perfect against my Solrock…" I grimaced and inclined my head to the pokemon in question. "But using Roar against Rocko really bit you in the backside. He wasn't the right pokemon in that instance."
Houndoom tilted his head in confusion, and Flannery nodded.
"Despite that, it's impressive that you had plans for fighting against your typing weaknesses. You got shaken around with some of the tactics I used and the denials I had as well but you were able to emerge victorious. I'd make sure to cover those gaps, however, as others will exploit them. You need a bit more utility in your fighting style. Have you considered getting a Vulpix for some trickery?"
"Ah, you're talking about the more classic style of Ninetales that uses Substitute? Confuse Ray, and moves like that?" I nodded and Flannery grimaced. "Not a style I enjoy using…"
I nodded. "If it's not your style, it's not your style. Might be worth looking into counters, as I think it would be something that would work well against you at the very least," I said.
I rubbed my chin for a moment before deciding to pull the band-aid off. "Where… no, how did you find a Lucario of all pokemon?" I knew where to find one, which was ostensibly in the Kingdom of Rota, but it wasn't a pokemon that was supposed to be found in Hoenn.
Flannery grinned and made a peace sign while sticking her tongue out. "Sorry, that's a secret! I'm gonna be grilled by Brawly over this as it is! He's noticed my training methods with Combusken and always thought it was weird but couldn't work out why it bugged him!"
"Are you talking about me?!" shouted the young man in question as he hopped over the side, Roxanne cradled in his arms. She hopped out of them and dashed forward to wrap Flannery in a hug.
"Congratulations!" she said before jumping back. "Ohmygosh! I might have jinxed you! Brock hasn't given you the badge yet!"
Flannery barked a laugh. "Eh! No fear there! He's giving it to me!"
I narrowed my eyes and crossed my arms without saying anything.
Flannery's smile faltered, and Houndoom whined.
I snorted. "I'm messing with you, you did more than enough to earn yourself a badge, congratulations!" I turned, expecting that I'd need to wave A.J. down, only to find him being escorted down by Rocko while looking rather sheepish.
I shot Rocko a thumbs up as A.J. presented the badge case to me. I took the badge inside and offered it to Flannery officially. "Flannery, I recognise your skill as a trainer and hereby award you the Boulder Badge of Pewter City!"
Flannery took it in her hand and bowed in thanks. "Thank you for challenging me and allowing me and mine to grow," she replied formally.
I tilted my head. "Huh, is that something said in Hoenn?" I asked as a memory from years ago rose to the forefront of my mind.
Flannery blushed while Roxanne giggled. Flannery rubbed the back of her head. "It's an old exchange of respect that some people have when they find that they've had a good match that we do in Hoenn… it's kind of silly."
"Huh, I kind of like it," I said, smiling at Flannery.
She glanced at me for a moment before looking away and coughing. Roxanne stepped forward with a smirk and nudged her friend. "Flannery might like to pretend to be a tomboy, but she has manners and bearing where it matters!"
Flannery glared at her friend. "Oh, wow, faint praise. Thanks Roxy," she said snidely.
She huffed and turned to Houndoom, "I forgive you, though because today has just been that amazing for me." She scratched Houndoom behind the horn. "Well, with you now up and strong, boy I think we're ready to challenge Sabrina!"
I coughed to hide my laugh, but Flannery shot me an unimpressed look. "Yeah, yeah, alright! I'll need more than my boy wonder here," she said, patting her Houndoom.
I nodded. "Just remember that almost all of her pokemon will know Miracle Eye, which will give her a lot more opportunities to impact your Houndoom."
Flannery shot me a sly look and sidled up to nudge her elbow into me. "Are you sure you should be telling me how to beat your girlfriend, Brock?"
I raised an eyebrow at her. "Is that what you thought I was doing?" I said with a smirk. Flannery narrowed her eyes at me which only made me smirk harder. I shook my head and waved for everyone to gather around for Flannery to celebrate her victory.
Flannery raised her hands into two V's towards Rachel, who was acting as a camerawoman.
"Roxanne's gonna get crushed tomorrow! One! Two! Three!" Flannery shouted.
I grinned as Roxanne shot her friend a betrayed expression right as Rachel took the picture. Flannery shot out of the group to inspect the results. "Perfect! Keep it like that, no takebacks!" she said while Brawly laughed aloud.
Rachel, sensing a chance for some hype, pulled out her microphone. "You heard it here first, folks! The Hoenn Stone Maiden versus our Boy! Brock, the Boulder!" she said as I facepalmed.
The crowd murmured at that and I saw a number hustling out to secure their seats for tomorrow. I fully expected a full house tomorrow. Sadly, I could hear a lot of them repeating what Rachel had said, calling me Brock the Boulder.
"Yeah… good job, Rachel, " I said, pleased that she'd hyped up the crowd but less than impressed with the epithet she'd hitched me with.
Rachel knocked on her head with her fist. "Hehehe?" she said trying for a cutesy act as she realised she'd goofed.
I returned my focus to Roxanne. "So? Feel like you're ready?" I said, allowing my eyes to lock with hers. She straightened up instantly.
"I will be leaving with the Boulder Badge tomorrow, Brock!" she said.
I merely nodded, saying, "Alright, I'll look forward to it."
"It's lunchtime! Let's eat!" Brawly said as he wrapped his arms around us. We all laughed, the tension well and truly broken.
The rest of the day thankfully passed quickly enough, and I was more than happy to throw myself into my training with both the Gym's pokemon and my Elite team. I felt like I was making serious progress with Jormungandr, albeit a slow and steady, step by step gradual process.
Empress was getting better at following some of my orders.
I started making her work with me in abstract situations that I'd encountered during my years as a trainer. I had her fight in a thin layer of mud before ordering her to skip stones across the top in an attack pattern while Clefairy floated and danced about, avoiding the attacks with Minimise.
A sweep of a flamethrower over the field and a trade-out so she was facing Knight forced things to change.
Then I swapped out Knight for Hypnotoad, forcing her to advance over broken ground.
"Jump left diagonally and then kick the rock to fire off a Stone Edge!" I ordered making use of earlier rocks that I'd had her set up. She did so gradually, and when we broke for a debrief, she looked frustrated.
"Ran-tar Tyran!" she said animatedly to the other pokemon who looked thoughtful.
I tilted my head towards Titan for a translation, having not grown used to Empress' mannerisms enough to interpret what she said. Titan scratched his chin in thought before pointing at Don. "Tar," he said simply.
Don shot off a Hyper Beam into the air, and when he was done, Titan pointed at his mother. He then pointed at himself and turned, and unleashed a Giga Impact upon a boulder to crush it with his whole body.
I hummed in thought. "She is used to using moves that are more long-range rather than advancing in close?" I said.
Titan nodded, and it was my turn to rub my chin in thought. "Huh, it might be my bias with you coming through… but there's also the standard that most Tyranitar's are physical powerhouses. You're best known for your strong attack and defence more than special abilities."
I waved my hand back and forth. "That being said, you do have the capacity to learn some truly impressive moves… You have Stone Edge, Outrage, Hyper Beam, Dragon Pulse, and Dark Pulse, along with the typical moves such as Crunch, Dig, Tackle and Earthquake…"
"Hmmmm, is it preference? Or do you think you're stronger with special attacks?"
Empress shrugged in a manner I thought was far too casual, and then she nodded firmly.
I contemplated the matter for a moment. "Hmmm it might be that I'm wrong with how I've been using you." Empress blinked in surprise at that, and I smiled. "Don't be like that. It's not that surprising. I'm used to handling Titan and he's a powerhouse physically."
"Ty-ran tar!" Empress said with a firm nod. She then reached over and pinched Titan.
The rest of my pokemon snapped their heads around with such speed that I knew that something had just been said. Don started cackling, while Titan merely rolled his eyes as the others burst into laughter.
I shot Titan another look, and he huffed and mimed a large circle around himself and a smaller circle around his mother. I blinked. "She called you fat?" I said shooting Empress a less than pleased look.
Empress merely shrugged and murmured something that might have been a clarification, but the others were all too busy laughing to listen.
I let them laugh for a while before I whistled sharply, and the laughter cut off. I flicked my eyes about before shaking my head and locking eyes with Empress. "Titan isn't fat. He's thickly muscled, which allows him to end matches with single hits while tanking through those very same hits."
Empress nodded, but I could see some doubt in her gaze.
I waved her and Titan to step up. "Alright, now's as good a time as any to address this. Titan, I'm going to have you spar with your mother."
Titan's eyes widened, and he shot me a questioning look. I raised a hand to forestall his complaints. "She needs to see that what we do has a serious impact on skill, power, and mentality for making better fighters," I said. Empress straightened up at this and started sizing up her son.
With them standing across from each other, the differences were now very noticeable. Titan was thicker and shorter, Empress' age giving her an advantage in height. In comparison, Empress looked lean and sharp with many of her spikes being sharper, more primal.
I slammed my hands together. "We're going to do this simple. Only moves that you both know will be used. The pokemon knocked out of the ring loses."
I snapped my fingers towards my starter. "Titan! Do not go easy on her. If you do that, you're disrespecting her and doing the rest of us no favours. You're representing all of us," I said, gesturing around at the watching pokemon.
Titan looked them over before turning and locking eyes with his mother. Empress perked up, and a small smile split her scaly lips before she inhaled and roared in her son's face.
Titan matched her, and I had to put my hands to my ears with how close I was to the two pokemon.
When they straightened, I raised my hands. "Begin!" I said, slapping my hands together.
Empress surged forward to end the match, a snarl escaping her.
Titan matched her, and Empress had a moment of surprise when his heavier form knocked her back and then carried her straight out of the circle. He then knocked her feet out from under her and roared in her face while she was still recovering.
I whistled and signalled him away. He stepped back and relaxed before turning sheepish. He offered his mother a claw and helped her up. She stared at him as if she were just seeing him for the first time.
"Rhy! Perior!" said Bertha as she stepped into the circle with a grin. Titan snorted and stepped up next to her.
I raised a finger. I hadn't meant for this training to turn into a sumo matchup. Bertha shot me an infectious grin and flicked her eyes to Empress. "Rhy! Or!"
I chuckled. "She can try again next huh?" Bertha shot me a thumbs up with her thumb spinning like a drill.
I chuckled at Bertha and signalled for them to be ready. By the time every pokemon had taken a turn in the circle, I was pretty sure Empress had learned not to underestimate her son, and I had learned some things as well.
I had to admit Teddiursa squaring off against Clefairy was adorable, and Don against Zephyr was particularly memorable with how they battered each other with their wings. I then opened it up to using some moves so Empress could blow people back with her Dark Pulse; she didn't end up ruffling Titan, however, who handled the hit wonderfully and then responded in kind.
Empress lasted longer and longer each time she went into the circle, but after the fifth match, she waved off, sitting to the side with a thoughtful expression.
When I was done being the referee for the unofficial Sumo matches that had broken out, I fetched food for my pokemon. I deposited the plates, and when it was Empress's turn, I smiled up at her. "Alright, so tonight's dish has—" Empress snatched the bowl up and swallowed the meal in a few bites before nodding at me. "—extra spice…" I said before sighing.
"Did you even taste it?" I asked her. She shrugged and watched as Teddiursa tried to copy her only to wheeze when he got a few bites into it. Empress tapped him on the back quickly. I huffed and left them to it before heading home to spend time with my own family.
When it was time for everyone to go to bed, the kids sprinted to get their teeth cleaned, and then they piled into bed. Suzie was particularly happy as she bounced around. "Brock's reading me a story tonight!"
Timmy nodded. "Yeah! He's reading us a story!" he said to the others, who grumbled as Yolanda bundled off the younger kids. Cindy sniffed pointedly while Salvadore happily opened what looked like a new encyclopedia.
I led Suzie and her twin into Suzie's room before plucking two stories for each of them. I ended up reading three and making up another about a cheeky Azelf that wanted to play with its siblings.
That seemed like a good one that Suzie and Timmy could appreciate. Better yet, it had them both falling asleep.
When I carried Timmy back to his room, I found Yolanda and Salvadore resting outside the door.
"Azelf, Uxie, and Mesprit," Yolanda said with a dreamy expression as she stroked the sleeping form of Terra. "They sound like wonderful pokemon." I shot her a smile as I made my way past to deposit Timmy in his bed.
When I lay in bed later, I had to wonder if I hadn't just set future Brock up for some issues. Sometimes during story time, I really needed to think things through better rather than just winging it like I did. I shrugged and shut my eyes.
Eh, it was worth it, and future Brock would be able to handle it… I hoped.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Are you ready for the rock of the year! Nah! The decade!" said Rachel as she hyped up the crowd that had come. I chuckled to myself, word had definitely gotten around, it would seem.
The Gym was packed, with even more people setting up to watch outside. Flannery's match might have been highly watched, but Roxanne's match was going to have every local sitting up and paying attention. The girl herself was waiting in the tunnel, and I watched as she strode forward at Rachel's summons, her head held high and a picture of perfect poise.
Jackson happily marched down to be her first challenge, and I settled in to see what she had.
Today I had Yolanda standing at my side and Crystal acting as the referee for some proper experience.
Crystal raised her flags, and both Roxanne and Jackson selected their first pokemon.
"Go Nosepass!" said Roxanne as Jackson released a Lairon.
Crystal dropped the flags with a grin. "Fight!" she ordered.
Roxanne splayed her hand out in front of herself. "Double Team!" Roxanne said starting off with a good move.
Jackson clicked his tongue in response, and Lairon swept the field with a rock blast that saw shots scattered about and broke up some afterimages.
"Stealth Rock!" Roxanne said, causing a trio of rocky spikes to come from one of the Nosepass.
Jackson instantly pounced on that one. "Rock Blast!" The Nosepass faltered as it was hit and the other Nosepass vanished as its Double Team failed.
"Nosepass! Earth Power!" said Roxanne in response. Her pokemon slammed itself into the ground, and the earth snapped up around Lairon and made the other pokemon groan in pain before slumping.
Roxanne blinked in surprise. "Eh?" she said, tilting her head as Lairon was withdrawn.
"What was she expecting from a fourth-tier matchup against a pokemon I expect she's had for years?" I said to Yolanda.
"Ground-type moves are four times as effective against Steel-rock no?" Greta offered. I nodded and pointed at her like she'd won a prize as Jackson threw out a Golem that landed and shrugged off the rocks that slammed into him.
"Bulldoze!" said Jackson, causing his pokemon to sprint forward before throwing itself into a roll that began picking up speed.
"Protect! Then follow up with Earth Power!" Roxanne said.
"Jump up and perform Focus Blast!" said Jackson. I raised an eyebrow at that call but didn't comment as next to me, Yolanda tilted her head.
Roxanne herself gasped in surprise and swept her hand out. "Abort! Go into Dig! Now!" she ordered, causing her pokemon to break off its attack with Earth Power and instead throw itself into the ground.
Jackson snorted and grinned at her. "Oh man! You're too easy! Golem doesn't know Focus Blast!" He smirked. "He does know Earthquake though!" His Golem hit the ground and made the battlefield rock with force.
Nosepass came up groaning in pain before shaking it off as it rose back up.
"Return Nosepass!" Roxanne said hurriedly.
Yolanda hummed. "She's… not risking her pokemon which is good."
I wobbled my hand back and forth. "She could have won this match much quicker, honestly. She has a pokemon that is levitating so some of the ground-type moves won't work as well against her unless they ground her Nosepass," I said toying with an idea for later. "She's being a bit too hesitant, though. Her Nosepass is strong and could probably take out Jackson's pokemon straight away with some ground-type moves."
Yolanda hummed and nodded. "She is expecting Jackson to match the level of fighting that Flannery faced against you straight away and is instead getting caught out?"
"Yup!" I replied. We watched Jackson go down with his Golem taking some hits from a Graveler that Roxanne immediately used Earthquake with. I noted that her Graveler was nowhere near her Nosepass' strength. When the match was called in Roxanne's favour the Hoenn girl instantly used her potion on her Nosepass as Yolanda stood to dust herself off.
"What should I try against her?" she said, catching me by surprise.
"Ah, I thought Missy was facing her?" I shook it off and waved my hand when Yolanda gave me an earnest look. "Fake her out with some power moves. Go for Earthquake and slash or a fake Fissure and then do a Giga Impact if you're running with a Rhydon."
Yolanda coughed. "I was going to start things off with Izumi… if that's alright?"
I snorted. "Alright, let her loose and go for some head…" I considered the Nosepass, "Or nose shots in her first pokemon's case."
Yolanda nodded seriously only to blush as Rachel started Yolanda's intro. "And now! The gem of Pewter! The strong sibling of our very own Gym Leader! Give it up for the incredible, Yolanda!"
Yolanda coughed and strode down the stairs to a loud round of applause. I grinned and leaned forward. It was going to be very amusing watching Roxanne's reaction to Izumi.
"Release!" shouted Crystal as she dropped her flags.
"Go Izumi!" shouted Yolanda revealing a Geodude who smirked as Roxanne once more released a Nosepass.
Roxanne narrowed her eyes. "Hmmm, those are some rather pronounced forearm muscles, a strong ridgeline above the eyes and what appears to be a hardened rock carapace… you're not a mistake! You're a trap!" Roxanne said as Yolanda clicked her tongue. "Nosepass Double Team!"
"Sandstorm!" Yolanda said without missing a beat. "Then focus your energy on your arms! We're going for Fissure!"
"Fissure will not work on a levitating pokemon!" Roxanne shouted. "Nosepass! Use Lock-On!"
I chuckled. In another instance, that would have been a good move, except I knew that Izumi didn't know Fissure. Instead, Yolanda had used her rather wordy command to hint at what she wanted Izumi to do. Sure enough, a moment later, I saw an Izumi-sized shape leap across the battlefield with her arm cocked back.
Roxanne gasped. "Protect!" she cried out once again. Her pokemon responded, but I noticed it did so barely.
Yolanda clicked her tongue and said, "Argh! Izumi, use Rock Polish!" she said, causing Izumi to gain a sheen as it waited for the Protect to drop.
Roxanne stabbed her hand forward. "Drop into Earthquake!"
"Rise with Brick Break!" countered Yolanda.
Both pokemon slammed into each other, and Nosepass grunted in pain but continued down, causing Izumi to be slammed into the ground and then shaken. Izumi rolled away with a glower, causing Yolanda to hop from foot to foot in excitement as she realised Izumi was still in the match and at close range.
"Break Brick! I mean Bri—" Izumi understood what she meant, and her fist lanced out and slammed home into Nosepass, causing the Hoenn pokemon to be hurled back before it fell over.
"Nosepass?!" Roxanne said in shock.
Yolanda shot me a look that I could imagine should have sparkled with how proud she was to have pulled that off. I nodded, she'd made wise use of an objectively weaker pokemon to win against another. She'd used Izumi's Sturdy ability as well. It was a good awareness of her pokemon's abilities.
Roxanne returned her pokemon and huffed as she tossed out another pokeball. "Go! Solrock!" she said, making me hum with thought. Another Hoenn pokemon, and what I expected would be another strong pokemon.
"Psychic!" said Roxanne with a decisive chop of her hand.
Yolanda didn't bother allowing the hit to connect, instead withdrawing Izumi and signing that she was withdrawing her pokemon. Crystal allowed it with a faux frown and playful finger waggle at Yolanda.
Yolanda rolled her eyes and selected another pokeball. "Let's go Cradily!" she said, surprising me with her selection.
Roxanne perked up at the Ancient pokemon's reveal, and I had to chuckle before she shook her head.
"Sunny Day!" she said.
"Ingrain!" replied Yolanda, more than ready to turn this into a slugfest, it seemed.
"Flamethrower!"
"Solar Beam!" Yolanda said, causing Roxanne to eep and start to abort the earlier command, only for Cradily to do nothing but shoot Yolanda a confused look.
Roxanne clenched her fist. "You're making me look silly on purpose, aren't you?" she said as her pokemon unleashed Flamethrower.
"Brine!" Yolanda replied. "And, yes! Sort of! It's a weakness we noticed! You're too reactive and defensive! You have the answer to the match a lot of the time, but hesitate!" Yolanda clenched her fist. "Cradily use Giga Drain!"
"Fine! Solrock! Psychic!" Roxanne said snappily. Psychic energy built up around Cradily but instead of ripping it up and throwing it about, Cradily held itself firm in the ground. Yolanda smiled. "Sorry! That was the other reason I wanted to use Ingrain! I've seen what a Solrock can do so I wanted to counter that with my setup! Brine again!" Yolanda said with a punch as her pokemon finished draining Solrock with Giga Drain and looked better for it.
Roxanne swept her hand to the side. "Use Flare Blitz to close and then hammer it with Sand Tomb to weaken its grasp and damage it!"
"Giga Drain again!" Yolanda said, perking up even as Solrock slammed into her pokemon. Cradily snapped back into position with a glare and green energy around it.
I chuckled, and when Greta shot me a look, I waved a hand. "Yolanda has remembered something Roxanne's forgetting. Cradily is a rock-grass type, which means that it does normal damage with ground attacks. So despite the Sand Tomb being a good method to weaken the Ingrain, Yolanda is trading and coming out ahead."
Solrock faltered in the air, and Roxanne narrowed her eyes. "Solrock… use Flare Blitz again!" she said. Her pokemon slammed into and dragged Cradily along with it before tossing it.
Cradily stood up shakily, and Yolanda clenched her fists. "Rest!" she ordered firmly.
Roxanne paused at that and sighed in relief. "Recover," she said, causing Yolanda to click her tongue.
"Ah, you have that move?" Yolanda said, which had Roxanne giggle good-naturedly. "Indeed I do. Now Solrock, use Psychic to throw that Cradily around and then hit it with another Flare Blitz!"
Cradily was tossed hard, and then just as it righted itself and awoke, it was slammed into with another Flare Blitz. This proved too much and finally ended the match.
"That Cradily has some serious potential," I said in thought as I watched Yolanda return it. "Yolanda used it well," I said to Greta, who nodded and rose to clap as Yolanda trudged up the stairs towards me.
She smiled hesitantly at me, and I stood to wrap her in a hug. "You did very well out there. I think you did excellently with Izumi, and you worked with Cradily perfectly for what the matchup was."
Yolanda smiled before gaining an impish smirk. "You should call her Ivy."
I raised an eyebrow. "It's not enough that you want to name my Teddiursa? Now you're trying to name my Cradilly as well?"
Yolanda smiled unrepentantly, and I huffed and rolled my eyes at her. She stuck her tongue out in response. I huffed and instead marched to the top of the stairs, watching as Roxanne hurriedly sprayed some potion onto her Solrock.
She'd come through with more pokemon than Flannery had yesterday, but I still felt like she needed to show more. She was falling back on her Hoenn pokemon which obviously came into the circuit with her. With this being a few months into the circuit she could only use a few of them. She'd need to show me some depth before I let her advance.
The usual stomp-stomp-clap heralded my descent and Roxanne snapped her head up to watch me come down like a mountain slowly giving way. She stood up and clenched her fist.
I smiled at her and then, from a few stairs up, leapt. The crowd gasped. This was a much bigger leap than I usually performed, but as Rocko had mentioned, I'd been working out.
I slammed into the podium and rose to lock eyes with Roxanne. "So, you happy with your showing so far?" I said, crossing my arms.
Roxanne nodded tightly. "I still ended up underestimating that Geodude, but otherwise I have remained within expectations."
"Hmmmm, sounds like I'm going to have to shake things up then," I said, selecting a pokeball and enlarging it.
Crystal raised her flags, and I tossed out my first pokemon. "Let's go Quirina!"
Roxanne, who'd left out her Solrock, gasped as I threw out my own Solrock in direct challenge. Then she smiled and raised her chin. "I see your game and shall rise to the occasion."
I smirked at her as the flags dropped. "Gravity!" I ordered straight away, causing a pressure to slam into the field and cast her Solrock into the ground on the first move.
"Eh? Solrock! Use Stone Edge to force it to release you!"
"Drop into the ground and make it shake!" I ordered Quirina, making him drop into the ground, subsequently dodging the Stone Edge and slamming into the ground to unleash an Earthquake.
Roxanne's Solrock was bounced around before it shakily floated up to glower at my pokemon.
"Gravity again," I said.
"Flare Blitz! Overcome the gravity with power like we practised!" Roxanne said, punching forward.
"Spin to the side," I said with a lazy flick of my fingers, making Quirina's barrel roll away before it rotated and oriented itself onto his foe. "Sol!" Quirina growled.
"Tch! Recover!"
"Explosion!" I ordered.
Roxanne to stiffen before shaking it off. "There's no way—"
Quirina detonated himself, and the battlefield suddenly lit up with force. Was it overkill? Yeah, it would also have her second-guessing herself.
When the field was revealed, both pokemon were knocked out. Roxanne stared at me in shock. "But you had an advantage with your pokemon… Why sacrifice it?"
"To teach you a lesson," I said firmly. I could have etched a victory against her in what might have been a slightly longer exchange, but I was starting to wonder if her pokemon weren't the issue for Roxanne. I wanted to see if I was right and, in doing so, get a much more important lesson taught today.
Roxanne returned her pokemon with shaking hands. She selected her next pokemon and I did the same.
"Go Graveler!" she said.
"Go Onix!" I countered.
The crowd that had been stunned by my earlier choice of plays stirred at the pokemon matchup. It must have seemed a poor choice.
"Dip Dig into HH!" I ordered cryptically.
"Earthquake!" Roxanne barked, causing the ground to shake. With the fractured ground, it clattered and shifted a lot.
Onix took a bit of damage before suddenly leaping out of a shallow hole and throwing himself wholesale into the air with High Horsepower to slam himself into Graveler.
"Graveler, Rollout to get room!"
"Rest!" I ordered my Onix, making it shut its eyes instantly.
Roxanne faltered once again, caught by surprise. "Earthquake again!" she said after contemplating for a moment.
"Sleep Talk," I said with an evil smirk as my pokemon's tail glowed before whipping around and slapping her Graveller with a super effective Iron Tail. That was enough to knock it out.
I raised two fingers and waggled a third at her. It honestly had a lot of implications. That was three of her pokemon now out of the match. I knew she'd used two of the three pokemon from Hoenn she was allowed with only one left that she could use.
Instead, she narrowed her eyes and flicked out a pokeball to reveal a Rhydon that snorted and stomped its feet. "Use Earthquake!" she said. The move tossed my still-sleeping Onix. With the earlier damage from Roxanne's aborted Earthquake, that was enough to see my pokemon knocked out.
I hummed and selected my third pokemon. "Let's go Shelly!" I said, releasing my Omastar, who waved merrily to everyone before settling her attention on the Rhydon.
"Surf!" I said.
"Surf back at them!" Roxanne said, surprising me for perhaps the first time in the match.
Both pokemon rose up, and twin tidal waves rushed towards each other.
Roxanne's Rhydon then leapt over the wave. "Ice Beam!" she called out.
I chuckled, knowing she must have picked that up from watching Bertha and I.
"Hop off and use Hydro Pump!" I responded. Shelly hopped off the wave towards her foe and while in the air unleashed a powerful barrage of water.
"Dig!" Roxanne commanded, allowing her pokemon to just dodge the attacks, it popped out a moment later covered in mud and grinning.
When Shelly landed I chopped my hand. "Earthpower!" I ordered, making earth spikes shoot up around the Rhydon.
"Fissure!" barked Roxanne, her Rhydon instantly reared back a fist and slammed it into the ground
"Protect!" I said, deciding I wasn't going to risk it against a pokemon that appeared to be styled after Bertha, a pokemon known for her one-hit K.O. abilities.
Instead of causing the ground to slam together around the protective shell, however, nothing rose up. I clicked my tongue in annoyance. Now I looked like I had overcommitted.
Roxanne, instead of being smug, was blushing. It took me a moment to realise she'd messed up.
Ah, she hadn't accounted for the destroyed landscape from the Explosion, and the mud defusing the Fissure. She needed to let her pokemon build up more power.
"Ah, this is embarrassing," I said laughing at our situation.
Roxanne groaned. "Just… use Thunderbolt Rhydon." Rhydon unleashed a spark of lightning and Shelly took it before shrugging it off, her shell smoking from the hit.
"Hydro pump!" I ordered.
"Thunderbolt again!" Both attacks hit, and once again both pokemon went down, causing me to chuckle as we returned our pokemon. A quick look over the field revealed a muddy, frozen waste. A section of the frozen waves cracked off and slammed into the ground causing me to consider who I'd be sending out as my last pokemon.
Roxanne also seemed to be in deep thought. I held off sending out my pokemon, forcing Roxanne to frown and look worried. I smiled and continued to hold off sending out my next pokemon, pointedly dragging it out and stressing her with each second that passed.
As the countdown reached five, I hurled out my Sudowoodo, much to her surprise, before she grabbed another pokeball of her own just as the count reached three. I hummed as she almost flubbed the throw. She wasn't used to being pressured like this and so heavily ted it would seem.
Her last pokemon was an Onix, which rose up and glowered at my Sudowoodo. "Low Kick!" I ordered.
"Dig!" Roxanne responded, causing her Onix to dodge the attack that would have caused serious damage. "Rise and use Iron Head!" Roxanne said with a rising fist.
Her Onix shot up from beneath my pokemon but I merely chopped my hand downward. "Hammer Arm!"
Both attacks slammed into each other, and my Sudowoodo came off the better with Onix reeling back from the hit. Roxanne grimaced before she perked up. "Use Rock Tomb! Deny it mobility!"
I chuckled as rocks snapped around Sudowoodo's thin legs and held him down. "Rock Throw," I said, allowing her the move and setting the bait.
"Iron Tail!" Roxanne said, making her Onix sweep its tail around to slam into my pokemon.
"Reversal!" I barked just before it could impact. Sudowoodo slammed into it, taking some damage himself but then paying it back. Onix groaned painfully before slumping to the ground.
My twig of a pokemon stepped over him and raised his branches high. I grinned. If Sudowoodo didn't enjoy the fourth tier matches so much I'd have promoted him to the Elite team a long time ago.
Roxanne returned her pokemon and toyed with her last two pokeballs before selecting one. "Go! Magcargo!" she said. The Magcargo landed a good distance from Sudowoodo, but my pokemon leaned forward, more than ready to charge in close.
"Rock Throw!" I ordered. Sudowoodo responded by tumbling forward, grabbing up segments of rock and unleashing them as fast as he could.
"Gyro Ball!" Roxanne ordered her pokemon to tuck into itself and use grey energy to form a ball around itself as it kipped up and began rolling. It powered straight through the Rock Throws and as it closed I could tell it was building up a bit of power.
Heh, Sudowoodo weren't that much faster than Magcargo it would seem.
"Sudowoodo! Reversal!" I said, once again letting my pokemon take the hit before paying it back with interest. Magcargo groaned as it took the hit on its shell. Despite this Roxanne smiled.
"Shell Smash!" she ordered, causing the shell to detonate energy that made Sudowoodo stumble in shock.
Despite that, I knew no actual damage had been done, apart from lowering Magcargo's defences and increasing its speed and power.
"Earth Power!" Roxanne said, with her pokemon in close. Earth snapped up and around Sudowoodo and knocked him flying. When he landed it stayed down and I recalled him.
"Yatta!" shouted Brawly and Flannery straight away standing and leading the cheer for Roxanne. "Way to go Roxy!"
I smirked and reached for a fifth pokeball. Roxanne's face blanched, and I stopped and grinned. "I'm kidding! I only use four pokemon, remember?"
Roxanne drew in a breath of relief, and I toggled the podiums to lower. Greta approached me with the badge case, and I signalled for her to join me next to Roxanne.
"So," I said as we got close. "How do you think you did?"
"I did rather poorly, you worked out a weakness of mine and rather ruthlessly hammered home that I need to work on reading my opponents or preparing for them more. I also need to improve the strength of the team I caught locally, as some moves did not work."
"Uhuh, anything else?" I asked leadingly.
Roxanne squirmed. "I… don't go for the win as quickly as perhaps I could…"
I nodded. "Anything else?"
Roxannee fidgeted and shifted. "I… I" she cast her eyes around. "Don't pay enough attention to the landscape of the battlefield?" she said. I wavered my hand back and forth before raising my hand to stop her.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but Flannery does most of the fighting since you've been travelling together?" Roxanne nodded slowly. "And now that Brawly has joined, would you say you do even less?"
Roxanne's eyes widened. "I'm not fighting very much at all…"
I nodded. "It's an issue when you travel with such loud personalities that they draw the attention and the trainers who are looking for fights. People that are more reserved have a bit more difficulty getting as many matches as people that are outgoing; sometimes they can even take matches from the reserved person without knowing it."
I waved a hand in her direction. "You're a solid trainer, but I think your mental awareness and experience are lacking. I think you should start going to battleclubs specifically for yourself, as just travelling around is not getting you as much experience due to people gravitating to or being dragged into Flannery's pace."
"I've… never considered it before," Roxanne said.
I smiled. "Not many do; I wouldn't comment on this usually, but I know you, and the people you're travelling with, so I can do a bit of a deeper dive. You're good, Roxanne, but you second-guess yourself. Take some of the skills that Flannery has with being aggressive and some of Brawly's slick moves and try to incorporate them. Sometimes you're a bit stiff."
Roxanne nodded at that. "I will, yes, thank you, Brock," she said, offering me a bow.
I grinned and accepted the badge case from Crystal. "That being said, I hereby award you the Boulder Badge in recognition of your skill level as a trainer."
Flannery and Brawly led the applause before hopping down to join us for the photo.
When we were done Brawly clapped me on the shoulder. "Ready for our rematch this friday?"
I tilted my head before chuckling. "Are you seriously waiting until Friday for the tropical day at the gym again?"
Brawly's grin was answer enough.
I sighed but smiled. Hmmm, two down, with Brawly coming around for another run. I rubbed my chin. It would be interesting to see how he performed with his starter back in action and how much of a difference that made.
Friday couldn't come quickly enough.
A.N. Thanks go to my Patreons for their continued support.
Thanks also go to Obiwankentucky for betaing this chapter
"Do you need help?" I asked semi-seriously as she helplessly batted her hands at the slobbering pokemon.
Houndoom skipped around and narrowed its eyes on me, a small snarl escaped it before Flannery was on her feet, her hand on Houndoom's shoulder. "Hey, no. Calm down. Fight is over boy; we won," she said. Houndoom eyed me for a moment before barking once and sitting down.
"Hmmm, he's well-trained," I said. Flannery nodded before shuddering as she realised how wet her face was.
I raised a hand towards A.J., and he blinked at me.
I made a gesture before sighing when he continued to blink at me cluelessly. "The towels in the cupboard we keep for the water battles, A.J."
"Oh!" A.J. said, turning to the side and grabbing a towel before hurling it at me. Sadly, he overshot and it flapped into Flannery. She still raised a thumbs up to him as she began scrubbing off the slobber her pokemon had left on her.
When she was cleaned up she emerged and grinned at me. "Was that a boss fight? Or was that a boss fight?"
I chuckled. "It was very boss, but I feel like it could have been made easier for you in a few ways."
Flannery blinked at me before coughing, "Oh right, yeah, you kind of schooled me a bit, didn't you?"
I waggled my hand in a so-so manner. "Yes and no. I think you utilised your pokemon very effectively. You had a lot of setups in mind, but you were reckless in relying on power a lot."
I shot her an amused look when she coughed into her fist self-consciously. "There were a few instances where you pushed early in the gauntlet. For instance, you could have entered the match against Rocko with your Rapidash, which would have given you more options later on. Torkoal… was a bit ambitious as well. Camerupt and Blaziken were your aces, and that showed. Houndoom was perfect against my Solrock…" I grimaced and inclined my head to the pokemon in question. "But using Roar against Rocko really bit you in the backside. He wasn't the right pokemon in that instance."
Houndoom tilted his head in confusion, and Flannery nodded.
"Despite that, it's impressive that you had plans for fighting against your typing weaknesses. You got shaken around with some of the tactics I used and the denials I had as well but you were able to emerge victorious. I'd make sure to cover those gaps, however, as others will exploit them. You need a bit more utility in your fighting style. Have you considered getting a Vulpix for some trickery?"
"Ah, you're talking about the more classic style of Ninetales that uses Substitute? Confuse Ray, and moves like that?" I nodded and Flannery grimaced. "Not a style I enjoy using…"
I nodded. "If it's not your style, it's not your style. Might be worth looking into counters, as I think it would be something that would work well against you at the very least," I said.
I rubbed my chin for a moment before deciding to pull the band-aid off. "Where… no, how did you find a Lucario of all pokemon?" I knew where to find one, which was ostensibly in the Kingdom of Rota, but it wasn't a pokemon that was supposed to be found in Hoenn.
Flannery grinned and made a peace sign while sticking her tongue out. "Sorry, that's a secret! I'm gonna be grilled by Brawly over this as it is! He's noticed my training methods with Combusken and always thought it was weird but couldn't work out why it bugged him!"
"Are you talking about me?!" shouted the young man in question as he hopped over the side, Roxanne cradled in his arms. She hopped out of them and dashed forward to wrap Flannery in a hug.
"Congratulations!" she said before jumping back. "Ohmygosh! I might have jinxed you! Brock hasn't given you the badge yet!"
Flannery barked a laugh. "Eh! No fear there! He's giving it to me!"
I narrowed my eyes and crossed my arms without saying anything.
Flannery's smile faltered, and Houndoom whined.
I snorted. "I'm messing with you, you did more than enough to earn yourself a badge, congratulations!" I turned, expecting that I'd need to wave A.J. down, only to find him being escorted down by Rocko while looking rather sheepish.
I shot Rocko a thumbs up as A.J. presented the badge case to me. I took the badge inside and offered it to Flannery officially. "Flannery, I recognise your skill as a trainer and hereby award you the Boulder Badge of Pewter City!"
Flannery took it in her hand and bowed in thanks. "Thank you for challenging me and allowing me and mine to grow," she replied formally.
I tilted my head. "Huh, is that something said in Hoenn?" I asked as a memory from years ago rose to the forefront of my mind.
Flannery blushed while Roxanne giggled. Flannery rubbed the back of her head. "It's an old exchange of respect that some people have when they find that they've had a good match that we do in Hoenn… it's kind of silly."
"Huh, I kind of like it," I said, smiling at Flannery.
She glanced at me for a moment before looking away and coughing. Roxanne stepped forward with a smirk and nudged her friend. "Flannery might like to pretend to be a tomboy, but she has manners and bearing where it matters!"
Flannery glared at her friend. "Oh, wow, faint praise. Thanks Roxy," she said snidely.
She huffed and turned to Houndoom, "I forgive you, though because today has just been that amazing for me." She scratched Houndoom behind the horn. "Well, with you now up and strong, boy I think we're ready to challenge Sabrina!"
I coughed to hide my laugh, but Flannery shot me an unimpressed look. "Yeah, yeah, alright! I'll need more than my boy wonder here," she said, patting her Houndoom.
I nodded. "Just remember that almost all of her pokemon will know Miracle Eye, which will give her a lot more opportunities to impact your Houndoom."
Flannery shot me a sly look and sidled up to nudge her elbow into me. "Are you sure you should be telling me how to beat your girlfriend, Brock?"
I raised an eyebrow at her. "Is that what you thought I was doing?" I said with a smirk. Flannery narrowed her eyes at me which only made me smirk harder. I shook my head and waved for everyone to gather around for Flannery to celebrate her victory.
Flannery raised her hands into two V's towards Rachel, who was acting as a camerawoman.
"Roxanne's gonna get crushed tomorrow! One! Two! Three!" Flannery shouted.
I grinned as Roxanne shot her friend a betrayed expression right as Rachel took the picture. Flannery shot out of the group to inspect the results. "Perfect! Keep it like that, no takebacks!" she said while Brawly laughed aloud.
Rachel, sensing a chance for some hype, pulled out her microphone. "You heard it here first, folks! The Hoenn Stone Maiden versus our Boy! Brock, the Boulder!" she said as I facepalmed.
The crowd murmured at that and I saw a number hustling out to secure their seats for tomorrow. I fully expected a full house tomorrow. Sadly, I could hear a lot of them repeating what Rachel had said, calling me Brock the Boulder.
"Yeah… good job, Rachel, " I said, pleased that she'd hyped up the crowd but less than impressed with the epithet she'd hitched me with.
Rachel knocked on her head with her fist. "Hehehe?" she said trying for a cutesy act as she realised she'd goofed.
I returned my focus to Roxanne. "So? Feel like you're ready?" I said, allowing my eyes to lock with hers. She straightened up instantly.
"I will be leaving with the Boulder Badge tomorrow, Brock!" she said.
I merely nodded, saying, "Alright, I'll look forward to it."
"It's lunchtime! Let's eat!" Brawly said as he wrapped his arms around us. We all laughed, the tension well and truly broken.
The rest of the day thankfully passed quickly enough, and I was more than happy to throw myself into my training with both the Gym's pokemon and my Elite team. I felt like I was making serious progress with Jormungandr, albeit a slow and steady, step by step gradual process.
Empress was getting better at following some of my orders.
I started making her work with me in abstract situations that I'd encountered during my years as a trainer. I had her fight in a thin layer of mud before ordering her to skip stones across the top in an attack pattern while Clefairy floated and danced about, avoiding the attacks with Minimise.
A sweep of a flamethrower over the field and a trade-out so she was facing Knight forced things to change.
Then I swapped out Knight for Hypnotoad, forcing her to advance over broken ground.
"Jump left diagonally and then kick the rock to fire off a Stone Edge!" I ordered making use of earlier rocks that I'd had her set up. She did so gradually, and when we broke for a debrief, she looked frustrated.
"Ran-tar Tyran!" she said animatedly to the other pokemon who looked thoughtful.
I tilted my head towards Titan for a translation, having not grown used to Empress' mannerisms enough to interpret what she said. Titan scratched his chin in thought before pointing at Don. "Tar," he said simply.
Don shot off a Hyper Beam into the air, and when he was done, Titan pointed at his mother. He then pointed at himself and turned, and unleashed a Giga Impact upon a boulder to crush it with his whole body.
I hummed in thought. "She is used to using moves that are more long-range rather than advancing in close?" I said.
Titan nodded, and it was my turn to rub my chin in thought. "Huh, it might be my bias with you coming through… but there's also the standard that most Tyranitar's are physical powerhouses. You're best known for your strong attack and defence more than special abilities."
I waved my hand back and forth. "That being said, you do have the capacity to learn some truly impressive moves… You have Stone Edge, Outrage, Hyper Beam, Dragon Pulse, and Dark Pulse, along with the typical moves such as Crunch, Dig, Tackle and Earthquake…"
"Hmmmm, is it preference? Or do you think you're stronger with special attacks?"
Empress shrugged in a manner I thought was far too casual, and then she nodded firmly.
I contemplated the matter for a moment. "Hmmm it might be that I'm wrong with how I've been using you." Empress blinked in surprise at that, and I smiled. "Don't be like that. It's not that surprising. I'm used to handling Titan and he's a powerhouse physically."
"Ty-ran tar!" Empress said with a firm nod. She then reached over and pinched Titan.
The rest of my pokemon snapped their heads around with such speed that I knew that something had just been said. Don started cackling, while Titan merely rolled his eyes as the others burst into laughter.
I shot Titan another look, and he huffed and mimed a large circle around himself and a smaller circle around his mother. I blinked. "She called you fat?" I said shooting Empress a less than pleased look.
Empress merely shrugged and murmured something that might have been a clarification, but the others were all too busy laughing to listen.
I let them laugh for a while before I whistled sharply, and the laughter cut off. I flicked my eyes about before shaking my head and locking eyes with Empress. "Titan isn't fat. He's thickly muscled, which allows him to end matches with single hits while tanking through those very same hits."
Empress nodded, but I could see some doubt in her gaze.
I waved her and Titan to step up. "Alright, now's as good a time as any to address this. Titan, I'm going to have you spar with your mother."
Titan's eyes widened, and he shot me a questioning look. I raised a hand to forestall his complaints. "She needs to see that what we do has a serious impact on skill, power, and mentality for making better fighters," I said. Empress straightened up at this and started sizing up her son.
With them standing across from each other, the differences were now very noticeable. Titan was thicker and shorter, Empress' age giving her an advantage in height. In comparison, Empress looked lean and sharp with many of her spikes being sharper, more primal.
I slammed my hands together. "We're going to do this simple. Only moves that you both know will be used. The pokemon knocked out of the ring loses."
I snapped my fingers towards my starter. "Titan! Do not go easy on her. If you do that, you're disrespecting her and doing the rest of us no favours. You're representing all of us," I said, gesturing around at the watching pokemon.
Titan looked them over before turning and locking eyes with his mother. Empress perked up, and a small smile split her scaly lips before she inhaled and roared in her son's face.
Titan matched her, and I had to put my hands to my ears with how close I was to the two pokemon.
When they straightened, I raised my hands. "Begin!" I said, slapping my hands together.
Empress surged forward to end the match, a snarl escaping her.
Titan matched her, and Empress had a moment of surprise when his heavier form knocked her back and then carried her straight out of the circle. He then knocked her feet out from under her and roared in her face while she was still recovering.
I whistled and signalled him away. He stepped back and relaxed before turning sheepish. He offered his mother a claw and helped her up. She stared at him as if she were just seeing him for the first time.
"Rhy! Perior!" said Bertha as she stepped into the circle with a grin. Titan snorted and stepped up next to her.
I raised a finger. I hadn't meant for this training to turn into a sumo matchup. Bertha shot me an infectious grin and flicked her eyes to Empress. "Rhy! Or!"
I chuckled. "She can try again next huh?" Bertha shot me a thumbs up with her thumb spinning like a drill.
I chuckled at Bertha and signalled for them to be ready. By the time every pokemon had taken a turn in the circle, I was pretty sure Empress had learned not to underestimate her son, and I had learned some things as well.
I had to admit Teddiursa squaring off against Clefairy was adorable, and Don against Zephyr was particularly memorable with how they battered each other with their wings. I then opened it up to using some moves so Empress could blow people back with her Dark Pulse; she didn't end up ruffling Titan, however, who handled the hit wonderfully and then responded in kind.
Empress lasted longer and longer each time she went into the circle, but after the fifth match, she waved off, sitting to the side with a thoughtful expression.
When I was done being the referee for the unofficial Sumo matches that had broken out, I fetched food for my pokemon. I deposited the plates, and when it was Empress's turn, I smiled up at her. "Alright, so tonight's dish has—" Empress snatched the bowl up and swallowed the meal in a few bites before nodding at me. "—extra spice…" I said before sighing.
"Did you even taste it?" I asked her. She shrugged and watched as Teddiursa tried to copy her only to wheeze when he got a few bites into it. Empress tapped him on the back quickly. I huffed and left them to it before heading home to spend time with my own family.
When it was time for everyone to go to bed, the kids sprinted to get their teeth cleaned, and then they piled into bed. Suzie was particularly happy as she bounced around. "Brock's reading me a story tonight!"
Timmy nodded. "Yeah! He's reading us a story!" he said to the others, who grumbled as Yolanda bundled off the younger kids. Cindy sniffed pointedly while Salvadore happily opened what looked like a new encyclopedia.
I led Suzie and her twin into Suzie's room before plucking two stories for each of them. I ended up reading three and making up another about a cheeky Azelf that wanted to play with its siblings.
That seemed like a good one that Suzie and Timmy could appreciate. Better yet, it had them both falling asleep.
When I carried Timmy back to his room, I found Yolanda and Salvadore resting outside the door.
"Azelf, Uxie, and Mesprit," Yolanda said with a dreamy expression as she stroked the sleeping form of Terra. "They sound like wonderful pokemon." I shot her a smile as I made my way past to deposit Timmy in his bed.
When I lay in bed later, I had to wonder if I hadn't just set future Brock up for some issues. Sometimes during story time, I really needed to think things through better rather than just winging it like I did. I shrugged and shut my eyes.
Eh, it was worth it, and future Brock would be able to handle it… I hoped.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Are you ready for the rock of the year! Nah! The decade!" said Rachel as she hyped up the crowd that had come. I chuckled to myself, word had definitely gotten around, it would seem.
The Gym was packed, with even more people setting up to watch outside. Flannery's match might have been highly watched, but Roxanne's match was going to have every local sitting up and paying attention. The girl herself was waiting in the tunnel, and I watched as she strode forward at Rachel's summons, her head held high and a picture of perfect poise.
Jackson happily marched down to be her first challenge, and I settled in to see what she had.
Today I had Yolanda standing at my side and Crystal acting as the referee for some proper experience.
Crystal raised her flags, and both Roxanne and Jackson selected their first pokemon.
"Go Nosepass!" said Roxanne as Jackson released a Lairon.
Crystal dropped the flags with a grin. "Fight!" she ordered.
Roxanne splayed her hand out in front of herself. "Double Team!" Roxanne said starting off with a good move.
Jackson clicked his tongue in response, and Lairon swept the field with a rock blast that saw shots scattered about and broke up some afterimages.
"Stealth Rock!" Roxanne said, causing a trio of rocky spikes to come from one of the Nosepass.
Jackson instantly pounced on that one. "Rock Blast!" The Nosepass faltered as it was hit and the other Nosepass vanished as its Double Team failed.
"Nosepass! Earth Power!" said Roxanne in response. Her pokemon slammed itself into the ground, and the earth snapped up around Lairon and made the other pokemon groan in pain before slumping.
Roxanne blinked in surprise. "Eh?" she said, tilting her head as Lairon was withdrawn.
"What was she expecting from a fourth-tier matchup against a pokemon I expect she's had for years?" I said to Yolanda.
"Ground-type moves are four times as effective against Steel-rock no?" Greta offered. I nodded and pointed at her like she'd won a prize as Jackson threw out a Golem that landed and shrugged off the rocks that slammed into him.
"Bulldoze!" said Jackson, causing his pokemon to sprint forward before throwing itself into a roll that began picking up speed.
"Protect! Then follow up with Earth Power!" Roxanne said.
"Jump up and perform Focus Blast!" said Jackson. I raised an eyebrow at that call but didn't comment as next to me, Yolanda tilted her head.
Roxanne herself gasped in surprise and swept her hand out. "Abort! Go into Dig! Now!" she ordered, causing her pokemon to break off its attack with Earth Power and instead throw itself into the ground.
Jackson snorted and grinned at her. "Oh man! You're too easy! Golem doesn't know Focus Blast!" He smirked. "He does know Earthquake though!" His Golem hit the ground and made the battlefield rock with force.
Nosepass came up groaning in pain before shaking it off as it rose back up.
"Return Nosepass!" Roxanne said hurriedly.
Yolanda hummed. "She's… not risking her pokemon which is good."
I wobbled my hand back and forth. "She could have won this match much quicker, honestly. She has a pokemon that is levitating so some of the ground-type moves won't work as well against her unless they ground her Nosepass," I said toying with an idea for later. "She's being a bit too hesitant, though. Her Nosepass is strong and could probably take out Jackson's pokemon straight away with some ground-type moves."
Yolanda hummed and nodded. "She is expecting Jackson to match the level of fighting that Flannery faced against you straight away and is instead getting caught out?"
"Yup!" I replied. We watched Jackson go down with his Golem taking some hits from a Graveler that Roxanne immediately used Earthquake with. I noted that her Graveler was nowhere near her Nosepass' strength. When the match was called in Roxanne's favour the Hoenn girl instantly used her potion on her Nosepass as Yolanda stood to dust herself off.
"What should I try against her?" she said, catching me by surprise.
"Ah, I thought Missy was facing her?" I shook it off and waved my hand when Yolanda gave me an earnest look. "Fake her out with some power moves. Go for Earthquake and slash or a fake Fissure and then do a Giga Impact if you're running with a Rhydon."
Yolanda coughed. "I was going to start things off with Izumi… if that's alright?"
I snorted. "Alright, let her loose and go for some head…" I considered the Nosepass, "Or nose shots in her first pokemon's case."
Yolanda nodded seriously only to blush as Rachel started Yolanda's intro. "And now! The gem of Pewter! The strong sibling of our very own Gym Leader! Give it up for the incredible, Yolanda!"
Yolanda coughed and strode down the stairs to a loud round of applause. I grinned and leaned forward. It was going to be very amusing watching Roxanne's reaction to Izumi.
"Release!" shouted Crystal as she dropped her flags.
"Go Izumi!" shouted Yolanda revealing a Geodude who smirked as Roxanne once more released a Nosepass.
Roxanne narrowed her eyes. "Hmmm, those are some rather pronounced forearm muscles, a strong ridgeline above the eyes and what appears to be a hardened rock carapace… you're not a mistake! You're a trap!" Roxanne said as Yolanda clicked her tongue. "Nosepass Double Team!"
"Sandstorm!" Yolanda said without missing a beat. "Then focus your energy on your arms! We're going for Fissure!"
"Fissure will not work on a levitating pokemon!" Roxanne shouted. "Nosepass! Use Lock-On!"
I chuckled. In another instance, that would have been a good move, except I knew that Izumi didn't know Fissure. Instead, Yolanda had used her rather wordy command to hint at what she wanted Izumi to do. Sure enough, a moment later, I saw an Izumi-sized shape leap across the battlefield with her arm cocked back.
Roxanne gasped. "Protect!" she cried out once again. Her pokemon responded, but I noticed it did so barely.
Yolanda clicked her tongue and said, "Argh! Izumi, use Rock Polish!" she said, causing Izumi to gain a sheen as it waited for the Protect to drop.
Roxanne stabbed her hand forward. "Drop into Earthquake!"
"Rise with Brick Break!" countered Yolanda.
Both pokemon slammed into each other, and Nosepass grunted in pain but continued down, causing Izumi to be slammed into the ground and then shaken. Izumi rolled away with a glower, causing Yolanda to hop from foot to foot in excitement as she realised Izumi was still in the match and at close range.
"Break Brick! I mean Bri—" Izumi understood what she meant, and her fist lanced out and slammed home into Nosepass, causing the Hoenn pokemon to be hurled back before it fell over.
"Nosepass?!" Roxanne said in shock.
Yolanda shot me a look that I could imagine should have sparkled with how proud she was to have pulled that off. I nodded, she'd made wise use of an objectively weaker pokemon to win against another. She'd used Izumi's Sturdy ability as well. It was a good awareness of her pokemon's abilities.
Roxanne returned her pokemon and huffed as she tossed out another pokeball. "Go! Solrock!" she said, making me hum with thought. Another Hoenn pokemon, and what I expected would be another strong pokemon.
"Psychic!" said Roxanne with a decisive chop of her hand.
Yolanda didn't bother allowing the hit to connect, instead withdrawing Izumi and signing that she was withdrawing her pokemon. Crystal allowed it with a faux frown and playful finger waggle at Yolanda.
Yolanda rolled her eyes and selected another pokeball. "Let's go Cradily!" she said, surprising me with her selection.
Roxanne perked up at the Ancient pokemon's reveal, and I had to chuckle before she shook her head.
"Sunny Day!" she said.
"Ingrain!" replied Yolanda, more than ready to turn this into a slugfest, it seemed.
"Flamethrower!"
"Solar Beam!" Yolanda said, causing Roxanne to eep and start to abort the earlier command, only for Cradily to do nothing but shoot Yolanda a confused look.
Roxanne clenched her fist. "You're making me look silly on purpose, aren't you?" she said as her pokemon unleashed Flamethrower.
"Brine!" Yolanda replied. "And, yes! Sort of! It's a weakness we noticed! You're too reactive and defensive! You have the answer to the match a lot of the time, but hesitate!" Yolanda clenched her fist. "Cradily use Giga Drain!"
"Fine! Solrock! Psychic!" Roxanne said snappily. Psychic energy built up around Cradily but instead of ripping it up and throwing it about, Cradily held itself firm in the ground. Yolanda smiled. "Sorry! That was the other reason I wanted to use Ingrain! I've seen what a Solrock can do so I wanted to counter that with my setup! Brine again!" Yolanda said with a punch as her pokemon finished draining Solrock with Giga Drain and looked better for it.
Roxanne swept her hand to the side. "Use Flare Blitz to close and then hammer it with Sand Tomb to weaken its grasp and damage it!"
"Giga Drain again!" Yolanda said, perking up even as Solrock slammed into her pokemon. Cradily snapped back into position with a glare and green energy around it.
I chuckled, and when Greta shot me a look, I waved a hand. "Yolanda has remembered something Roxanne's forgetting. Cradily is a rock-grass type, which means that it does normal damage with ground attacks. So despite the Sand Tomb being a good method to weaken the Ingrain, Yolanda is trading and coming out ahead."
Solrock faltered in the air, and Roxanne narrowed her eyes. "Solrock… use Flare Blitz again!" she said. Her pokemon slammed into and dragged Cradily along with it before tossing it.
Cradily stood up shakily, and Yolanda clenched her fists. "Rest!" she ordered firmly.
Roxanne paused at that and sighed in relief. "Recover," she said, causing Yolanda to click her tongue.
"Ah, you have that move?" Yolanda said, which had Roxanne giggle good-naturedly. "Indeed I do. Now Solrock, use Psychic to throw that Cradily around and then hit it with another Flare Blitz!"
Cradily was tossed hard, and then just as it righted itself and awoke, it was slammed into with another Flare Blitz. This proved too much and finally ended the match.
"That Cradily has some serious potential," I said in thought as I watched Yolanda return it. "Yolanda used it well," I said to Greta, who nodded and rose to clap as Yolanda trudged up the stairs towards me.
She smiled hesitantly at me, and I stood to wrap her in a hug. "You did very well out there. I think you did excellently with Izumi, and you worked with Cradily perfectly for what the matchup was."
Yolanda smiled before gaining an impish smirk. "You should call her Ivy."
I raised an eyebrow. "It's not enough that you want to name my Teddiursa? Now you're trying to name my Cradilly as well?"
Yolanda smiled unrepentantly, and I huffed and rolled my eyes at her. She stuck her tongue out in response. I huffed and instead marched to the top of the stairs, watching as Roxanne hurriedly sprayed some potion onto her Solrock.
She'd come through with more pokemon than Flannery had yesterday, but I still felt like she needed to show more. She was falling back on her Hoenn pokemon which obviously came into the circuit with her. With this being a few months into the circuit she could only use a few of them. She'd need to show me some depth before I let her advance.
The usual stomp-stomp-clap heralded my descent and Roxanne snapped her head up to watch me come down like a mountain slowly giving way. She stood up and clenched her fist.
I smiled at her and then, from a few stairs up, leapt. The crowd gasped. This was a much bigger leap than I usually performed, but as Rocko had mentioned, I'd been working out.
I slammed into the podium and rose to lock eyes with Roxanne. "So, you happy with your showing so far?" I said, crossing my arms.
Roxanne nodded tightly. "I still ended up underestimating that Geodude, but otherwise I have remained within expectations."
"Hmmmm, sounds like I'm going to have to shake things up then," I said, selecting a pokeball and enlarging it.
Crystal raised her flags, and I tossed out my first pokemon. "Let's go Quirina!"
Roxanne, who'd left out her Solrock, gasped as I threw out my own Solrock in direct challenge. Then she smiled and raised her chin. "I see your game and shall rise to the occasion."
I smirked at her as the flags dropped. "Gravity!" I ordered straight away, causing a pressure to slam into the field and cast her Solrock into the ground on the first move.
"Eh? Solrock! Use Stone Edge to force it to release you!"
"Drop into the ground and make it shake!" I ordered Quirina, making him drop into the ground, subsequently dodging the Stone Edge and slamming into the ground to unleash an Earthquake.
Roxanne's Solrock was bounced around before it shakily floated up to glower at my pokemon.
"Gravity again," I said.
"Flare Blitz! Overcome the gravity with power like we practised!" Roxanne said, punching forward.
"Spin to the side," I said with a lazy flick of my fingers, making Quirina's barrel roll away before it rotated and oriented itself onto his foe. "Sol!" Quirina growled.
"Tch! Recover!"
"Explosion!" I ordered.
Roxanne to stiffen before shaking it off. "There's no way—"
Quirina detonated himself, and the battlefield suddenly lit up with force. Was it overkill? Yeah, it would also have her second-guessing herself.
When the field was revealed, both pokemon were knocked out. Roxanne stared at me in shock. "But you had an advantage with your pokemon… Why sacrifice it?"
"To teach you a lesson," I said firmly. I could have etched a victory against her in what might have been a slightly longer exchange, but I was starting to wonder if her pokemon weren't the issue for Roxanne. I wanted to see if I was right and, in doing so, get a much more important lesson taught today.
Roxanne returned her pokemon with shaking hands. She selected her next pokemon and I did the same.
"Go Graveler!" she said.
"Go Onix!" I countered.
The crowd that had been stunned by my earlier choice of plays stirred at the pokemon matchup. It must have seemed a poor choice.
"Dip Dig into HH!" I ordered cryptically.
"Earthquake!" Roxanne barked, causing the ground to shake. With the fractured ground, it clattered and shifted a lot.
Onix took a bit of damage before suddenly leaping out of a shallow hole and throwing himself wholesale into the air with High Horsepower to slam himself into Graveler.
"Graveler, Rollout to get room!"
"Rest!" I ordered my Onix, making it shut its eyes instantly.
Roxanne faltered once again, caught by surprise. "Earthquake again!" she said after contemplating for a moment.
"Sleep Talk," I said with an evil smirk as my pokemon's tail glowed before whipping around and slapping her Graveller with a super effective Iron Tail. That was enough to knock it out.
I raised two fingers and waggled a third at her. It honestly had a lot of implications. That was three of her pokemon now out of the match. I knew she'd used two of the three pokemon from Hoenn she was allowed with only one left that she could use.
Instead, she narrowed her eyes and flicked out a pokeball to reveal a Rhydon that snorted and stomped its feet. "Use Earthquake!" she said. The move tossed my still-sleeping Onix. With the earlier damage from Roxanne's aborted Earthquake, that was enough to see my pokemon knocked out.
I hummed and selected my third pokemon. "Let's go Shelly!" I said, releasing my Omastar, who waved merrily to everyone before settling her attention on the Rhydon.
"Surf!" I said.
"Surf back at them!" Roxanne said, surprising me for perhaps the first time in the match.
Both pokemon rose up, and twin tidal waves rushed towards each other.
Roxanne's Rhydon then leapt over the wave. "Ice Beam!" she called out.
I chuckled, knowing she must have picked that up from watching Bertha and I.
"Hop off and use Hydro Pump!" I responded. Shelly hopped off the wave towards her foe and while in the air unleashed a powerful barrage of water.
"Dig!" Roxanne commanded, allowing her pokemon to just dodge the attacks, it popped out a moment later covered in mud and grinning.
When Shelly landed I chopped my hand. "Earthpower!" I ordered, making earth spikes shoot up around the Rhydon.
"Fissure!" barked Roxanne, her Rhydon instantly reared back a fist and slammed it into the ground
"Protect!" I said, deciding I wasn't going to risk it against a pokemon that appeared to be styled after Bertha, a pokemon known for her one-hit K.O. abilities.
Instead of causing the ground to slam together around the protective shell, however, nothing rose up. I clicked my tongue in annoyance. Now I looked like I had overcommitted.
Roxanne, instead of being smug, was blushing. It took me a moment to realise she'd messed up.
Ah, she hadn't accounted for the destroyed landscape from the Explosion, and the mud defusing the Fissure. She needed to let her pokemon build up more power.
"Ah, this is embarrassing," I said laughing at our situation.
Roxanne groaned. "Just… use Thunderbolt Rhydon." Rhydon unleashed a spark of lightning and Shelly took it before shrugging it off, her shell smoking from the hit.
"Hydro pump!" I ordered.
"Thunderbolt again!" Both attacks hit, and once again both pokemon went down, causing me to chuckle as we returned our pokemon. A quick look over the field revealed a muddy, frozen waste. A section of the frozen waves cracked off and slammed into the ground causing me to consider who I'd be sending out as my last pokemon.
Roxanne also seemed to be in deep thought. I held off sending out my pokemon, forcing Roxanne to frown and look worried. I smiled and continued to hold off sending out my next pokemon, pointedly dragging it out and stressing her with each second that passed.
As the countdown reached five, I hurled out my Sudowoodo, much to her surprise, before she grabbed another pokeball of her own just as the count reached three. I hummed as she almost flubbed the throw. She wasn't used to being pressured like this and so heavily ted it would seem.
Her last pokemon was an Onix, which rose up and glowered at my Sudowoodo. "Low Kick!" I ordered.
"Dig!" Roxanne responded, causing her Onix to dodge the attack that would have caused serious damage. "Rise and use Iron Head!" Roxanne said with a rising fist.
Her Onix shot up from beneath my pokemon but I merely chopped my hand downward. "Hammer Arm!"
Both attacks slammed into each other, and my Sudowoodo came off the better with Onix reeling back from the hit. Roxanne grimaced before she perked up. "Use Rock Tomb! Deny it mobility!"
I chuckled as rocks snapped around Sudowoodo's thin legs and held him down. "Rock Throw," I said, allowing her the move and setting the bait.
"Iron Tail!" Roxanne said, making her Onix sweep its tail around to slam into my pokemon.
"Reversal!" I barked just before it could impact. Sudowoodo slammed into it, taking some damage himself but then paying it back. Onix groaned painfully before slumping to the ground.
My twig of a pokemon stepped over him and raised his branches high. I grinned. If Sudowoodo didn't enjoy the fourth tier matches so much I'd have promoted him to the Elite team a long time ago.
Roxanne returned her pokemon and toyed with her last two pokeballs before selecting one. "Go! Magcargo!" she said. The Magcargo landed a good distance from Sudowoodo, but my pokemon leaned forward, more than ready to charge in close.
"Rock Throw!" I ordered. Sudowoodo responded by tumbling forward, grabbing up segments of rock and unleashing them as fast as he could.
"Gyro Ball!" Roxanne ordered her pokemon to tuck into itself and use grey energy to form a ball around itself as it kipped up and began rolling. It powered straight through the Rock Throws and as it closed I could tell it was building up a bit of power.
Heh, Sudowoodo weren't that much faster than Magcargo it would seem.
"Sudowoodo! Reversal!" I said, once again letting my pokemon take the hit before paying it back with interest. Magcargo groaned as it took the hit on its shell. Despite this Roxanne smiled.
"Shell Smash!" she ordered, causing the shell to detonate energy that made Sudowoodo stumble in shock.
Despite that, I knew no actual damage had been done, apart from lowering Magcargo's defences and increasing its speed and power.
"Earth Power!" Roxanne said, with her pokemon in close. Earth snapped up and around Sudowoodo and knocked him flying. When he landed it stayed down and I recalled him.
"Yatta!" shouted Brawly and Flannery straight away standing and leading the cheer for Roxanne. "Way to go Roxy!"
I smirked and reached for a fifth pokeball. Roxanne's face blanched, and I stopped and grinned. "I'm kidding! I only use four pokemon, remember?"
Roxanne drew in a breath of relief, and I toggled the podiums to lower. Greta approached me with the badge case, and I signalled for her to join me next to Roxanne.
"So," I said as we got close. "How do you think you did?"
"I did rather poorly, you worked out a weakness of mine and rather ruthlessly hammered home that I need to work on reading my opponents or preparing for them more. I also need to improve the strength of the team I caught locally, as some moves did not work."
"Uhuh, anything else?" I asked leadingly.
Roxanne squirmed. "I… don't go for the win as quickly as perhaps I could…"
I nodded. "Anything else?"
Roxannee fidgeted and shifted. "I… I" she cast her eyes around. "Don't pay enough attention to the landscape of the battlefield?" she said. I wavered my hand back and forth before raising my hand to stop her.
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but Flannery does most of the fighting since you've been travelling together?" Roxanne nodded slowly. "And now that Brawly has joined, would you say you do even less?"
Roxanne's eyes widened. "I'm not fighting very much at all…"
I nodded. "It's an issue when you travel with such loud personalities that they draw the attention and the trainers who are looking for fights. People that are more reserved have a bit more difficulty getting as many matches as people that are outgoing; sometimes they can even take matches from the reserved person without knowing it."
I waved a hand in her direction. "You're a solid trainer, but I think your mental awareness and experience are lacking. I think you should start going to battleclubs specifically for yourself, as just travelling around is not getting you as much experience due to people gravitating to or being dragged into Flannery's pace."
"I've… never considered it before," Roxanne said.
I smiled. "Not many do; I wouldn't comment on this usually, but I know you, and the people you're travelling with, so I can do a bit of a deeper dive. You're good, Roxanne, but you second-guess yourself. Take some of the skills that Flannery has with being aggressive and some of Brawly's slick moves and try to incorporate them. Sometimes you're a bit stiff."
Roxanne nodded at that. "I will, yes, thank you, Brock," she said, offering me a bow.
I grinned and accepted the badge case from Crystal. "That being said, I hereby award you the Boulder Badge in recognition of your skill level as a trainer."
Flannery and Brawly led the applause before hopping down to join us for the photo.
When we were done Brawly clapped me on the shoulder. "Ready for our rematch this friday?"
I tilted my head before chuckling. "Are you seriously waiting until Friday for the tropical day at the gym again?"
Brawly's grin was answer enough.
I sighed but smiled. Hmmm, two down, with Brawly coming around for another run. I rubbed my chin. It would be interesting to see how he performed with his starter back in action and how much of a difference that made.
Friday couldn't come quickly enough.
A.N. Thanks go to my Patreons for their continued support.
Thanks also go to Obiwankentucky for betaing this chapter
. . .I do wonder if the games would be better if you could have a larger movelist with your more evolved pokemon. Or just Pokemon in general.
On the plus side it would mean that enemy trainers could surprise you more, perhaps be a bit more difficult, on the other hand it might make the issue of "The Starter is the only pokemon I ever need" syndrome to become even more prominent.
On the plus side it would mean that enemy trainers could surprise you more, perhaps be a bit more difficult, on the other hand it might make the issue of "The Starter is the only pokemon I ever need" syndrome to become even more prominent.
Ancient snippets leading to results - Semi canon omake by Kamkong
- Location
- Canada
Alright, another omake out of the brain and onto the page. This is for everyone, including myself, who has been hoping for Sabrina to obtain a certain Pokemon, and I hope people enjoy my take on it.
Sabrina greatly admired Brock for many reasons.
His compassion for others was paramount in said admiration, with the memory of him angrily berating her parents forever enshrined as her first impression of him (pointedly ignoring her initial tantrum when she was unable to read his thoughts).
His fervent dedication to ensuring that those in his life were happy and wanting for nothing, primarily aimed at his family, but Sabrina was amongst those blessed by his devotion and attention.
His well-defined back muscles…
Sabrina paused and allowed her face to cool down.
Something that many people found surprising was that Brock had a truly gifted mind, well-endowed with interesting directions of thought. Brock had managed intellectual feats that left her internally gaping in shock. Ranging from simple observations where the significance was only obvious after the fact, to his breeding and evolution experiments with results that had Pokemon Professors singing Brock's praises. His breeding of electric-type Geodudes, his finding the evolution of Rhydon, his discovery of a hidden pocket of ancient Pokemon existed, the list of Brock's accomplishments was extensive and impressive. It was like Brock possessed some form of future sight, knowing before he even started his ventures that they were possible. But Sabrina had been with Brock for long enough to determine that Brock had no Psychic ability.
As much as she was proud of Brock for everything he had accomplished, she could not help feeling irrational envy that she herself had not achieved something of similar value. Sabrina knew factually that, should they both be given an intelligence quotient test, she would be labelled more intelligent than Brock. She was a Psychic master unseen in generations, which had gifted her with flawless memory and enhanced cognitive speed, all supplemented by her connections and support structure from being the heir to the Saffron Gym. And yet, nothing she had attained was to her mind as novel as the many discoveries and innovations Brock had accomplished
Even the new projects she was working on, puzzling out the mechanisms for evolving Stantler and creating an environment wherein Psychic variants would potentially arise through breeding, had been the direct result of Brock starting the work beforehand and providing another of his "observations" which, based on when he had done so in the past, would likely turn out to be correct. Not to mention his gift of both the means and methods of Mega evolution. While Alakazam was thrilled with these projects, turning his prodigious mind to recording, analyzing, and making hypotheses and experiments about the complicated tasks, Sabrina herself could not help but feel a touch of morose that these future accomplishments (she knew that she and Alakazam would not fail in succeeding) would never have occurred without Brock providing the seeds.
Sabrina wanted an accomplishment that was wholly her own.
And in perusing some of the truly ancient information her membership in the Guardians gave her access to, Sabrina believed she had a plausible thread she could follow.
An image from a faded mural found at an archaeological dig featured what was recognizably a Chikorita facing off against a Pokemon with two heads, one light-coloured and vaguely equine and the other with a dark coloration and what appeared to be a hint of sharp teeth in the mouth. And then, thinking of Brock boldly venturing on his ideas, Sabrina made a logical leap as to what Pokemon might have a connection to the the image.
Sabrina released her newest acquisition onto her private training field, watching as it glanced around and whickered nervously under Alakazam's gaze. Sabrina stepped forward and began to gently stroke the head, soothing the nervous Pokemon as it leaned into her touch. Then Sabrina moved towards the back of the Pokemon and calmly matched the stare of the head situated there. Once more, Sabrina raised her hand to stroke, only to pull back as the tail head snapped at her with it's sharp teeth.
"No biting. Friend." Sabrina stated, backed up by an affirmative noise and mental signal from the main head. The tail head sniffed at Sabrina's hand, then relaxed and allowed itself to be stroked with a purr.
Sabrina had never truly focused on a Girafarig before, she hadn't caught any on her journey and the ones at Saffron Gym were obtained by her father. She mainly used them for her lowest-level badge matches as well as for assisting in creating the Psychic environment for the Stantler and Ponyta experiments that were underway. But for the purposes of her new venture, she had gone and obtained one from a breeder that she would be focusing her efforts on. Gently reaching out with her mind, Sabrina psychically connected with the Pokemon, feeling out with her psychic power the sensations of the physical body and mental signature it possessed. The Girafarig's underlying emotions were similar to when Sabrina first observed her at the breeder's ranch, a determination to become powerful, fuelled by stories shared by her sire about his actions during the war. It was this aspect that made Sabrina chose the Girafarig, as her willingness to improve would be an asset towards both becoming part of Sabrina's Elite team as well as potentially evolving.
After observing a spar between Girafarig and Alakazam, Sabrina had a more complete picture as to why Girafarig was not a commonly-seen Pokemon at the Elite level. Physically, Girafarig was far more robust than most of the other Psychic-types in her roster, with Alakazam reporting that her Zen Headbutt and Stomp attacks were quite impressive against his barriers. And the secondary head had also proven formidable, utilizing Crunch attacks to break Alakazam's telekinetic hold on their body and tearing through his barriers with ease.
But this strength in body unfortunately meant a reduction in the overall power of Girafarig's Psychic abilities, as her stronger body necessitated a larger consumption of energy that couldn't be used by the mind. Another draw on Girafarig's Psychic power was communicating with the secondary head which, while able to act independently, was more effective following the directives issued by the main head. This meant that the Psychic presence of the main head tended to be light and almost wisp-like, allowing for fine control but making it easy to overpower. Interestingly, the tail-head had the opposite problem, it's mind amongst the closest Sabrina had ever felt to being "single-minded." With all of its limited brainpower focused on a single subject, it was singularly powerful, but the focus was far too limited and lacking in control to be very effective in battle.
With her analysis complete, Sabrina had devised a plan for Girafarig's future development. Based on the image from the mural, the likely catalyst which would lead to a potential Girafarig evolution was developing and improving the synchronization between the two heads to create equality between them, prompting an evolution to accommodate the new paradigm. To that end, she would be focusing on the move Psybeam, a move which both heads were capable of using that had an easily altered balance between power and control that could be fairly easily trained, which would be essential in bringing the two heads into a equal synchronization.
Weeks had passed, and Sabrina was impressed with Girafarig's progress. The Pokemon had relentlessly followed Sabrina's direct instructions in improving her abilities, with the main head focusing on greater overall Psychic power and the tail head having improved in both awareness and sense of self, producing a far superior Pokemon to where she had started from. Sabrina mentally called for a Psybeam, and observed the improvement. With a spin to her side, both heads of Girafarig launched a wavering and scintillating beam towards Alakazam's barrier, impacting simultaneously. As Sabrina offered advice and encouragement through her telepathy, the two beams smoothed out and shrank down, becoming more homogeneous to each other and pushing harder against the barrier. Then, in a move so sudden it caught Sabrina off guard, the beams flicked off as the Psychic energy shifted and condensed behind both sets of eyes, before shooting out again as four identical finger-thick lasers of Psychic power, their combined force shattering Alakazam's barrier and forcing him to Teleport away. And then Girafarig's body lit up with blinding light. Sabrina watched in amazement as the Pokemon's body shifted beneath the corona of evolution, and then dissipated as her Pokemon revealed it's new form and cried out it's new name in triumph. "FARIGIRAF!!!"
Sabrina slowly approached the Pokemon, marvelling over the lengthened neck and legs, brimming with muscle, and how the equine main head was ensconced within the toothy maw of the tail head. While not what Sabrina had expected based on the mural she had based her venture on, she was nevertheless thrilled with the achievement that she had accomplished. Sabrina's Giraf, no, Farigiraf bent both her knees and lowered her long neck to bring her head down to the same level as Sabrina's, and with a thought the mental connection re-established. The two minds and psychic energies of Girafarig had been brilliantly merged with their evolution, with the iron determination and focus of the tail serving as a solid core which reinforced the formerly wispy tendrils from the head and strengthening them tenfold. Farigiraf leaned into Sabrina's hand with a wicker, the formerly main head closing it's eyes in comfort while the former tail head stared down at Sabrina with joy in it's eyes, a joy matched by the smile on Sabrina's face.
Sabrina greatly admired Brock for many reasons.
His compassion for others was paramount in said admiration, with the memory of him angrily berating her parents forever enshrined as her first impression of him (pointedly ignoring her initial tantrum when she was unable to read his thoughts).
His fervent dedication to ensuring that those in his life were happy and wanting for nothing, primarily aimed at his family, but Sabrina was amongst those blessed by his devotion and attention.
His well-defined back muscles…
Sabrina paused and allowed her face to cool down.
Something that many people found surprising was that Brock had a truly gifted mind, well-endowed with interesting directions of thought. Brock had managed intellectual feats that left her internally gaping in shock. Ranging from simple observations where the significance was only obvious after the fact, to his breeding and evolution experiments with results that had Pokemon Professors singing Brock's praises. His breeding of electric-type Geodudes, his finding the evolution of Rhydon, his discovery of a hidden pocket of ancient Pokemon existed, the list of Brock's accomplishments was extensive and impressive. It was like Brock possessed some form of future sight, knowing before he even started his ventures that they were possible. But Sabrina had been with Brock for long enough to determine that Brock had no Psychic ability.
As much as she was proud of Brock for everything he had accomplished, she could not help feeling irrational envy that she herself had not achieved something of similar value. Sabrina knew factually that, should they both be given an intelligence quotient test, she would be labelled more intelligent than Brock. She was a Psychic master unseen in generations, which had gifted her with flawless memory and enhanced cognitive speed, all supplemented by her connections and support structure from being the heir to the Saffron Gym. And yet, nothing she had attained was to her mind as novel as the many discoveries and innovations Brock had accomplished
Even the new projects she was working on, puzzling out the mechanisms for evolving Stantler and creating an environment wherein Psychic variants would potentially arise through breeding, had been the direct result of Brock starting the work beforehand and providing another of his "observations" which, based on when he had done so in the past, would likely turn out to be correct. Not to mention his gift of both the means and methods of Mega evolution. While Alakazam was thrilled with these projects, turning his prodigious mind to recording, analyzing, and making hypotheses and experiments about the complicated tasks, Sabrina herself could not help but feel a touch of morose that these future accomplishments (she knew that she and Alakazam would not fail in succeeding) would never have occurred without Brock providing the seeds.
Sabrina wanted an accomplishment that was wholly her own.
And in perusing some of the truly ancient information her membership in the Guardians gave her access to, Sabrina believed she had a plausible thread she could follow.
An image from a faded mural found at an archaeological dig featured what was recognizably a Chikorita facing off against a Pokemon with two heads, one light-coloured and vaguely equine and the other with a dark coloration and what appeared to be a hint of sharp teeth in the mouth. And then, thinking of Brock boldly venturing on his ideas, Sabrina made a logical leap as to what Pokemon might have a connection to the the image.
Sabrina released her newest acquisition onto her private training field, watching as it glanced around and whickered nervously under Alakazam's gaze. Sabrina stepped forward and began to gently stroke the head, soothing the nervous Pokemon as it leaned into her touch. Then Sabrina moved towards the back of the Pokemon and calmly matched the stare of the head situated there. Once more, Sabrina raised her hand to stroke, only to pull back as the tail head snapped at her with it's sharp teeth.
"No biting. Friend." Sabrina stated, backed up by an affirmative noise and mental signal from the main head. The tail head sniffed at Sabrina's hand, then relaxed and allowed itself to be stroked with a purr.
Sabrina had never truly focused on a Girafarig before, she hadn't caught any on her journey and the ones at Saffron Gym were obtained by her father. She mainly used them for her lowest-level badge matches as well as for assisting in creating the Psychic environment for the Stantler and Ponyta experiments that were underway. But for the purposes of her new venture, she had gone and obtained one from a breeder that she would be focusing her efforts on. Gently reaching out with her mind, Sabrina psychically connected with the Pokemon, feeling out with her psychic power the sensations of the physical body and mental signature it possessed. The Girafarig's underlying emotions were similar to when Sabrina first observed her at the breeder's ranch, a determination to become powerful, fuelled by stories shared by her sire about his actions during the war. It was this aspect that made Sabrina chose the Girafarig, as her willingness to improve would be an asset towards both becoming part of Sabrina's Elite team as well as potentially evolving.
After observing a spar between Girafarig and Alakazam, Sabrina had a more complete picture as to why Girafarig was not a commonly-seen Pokemon at the Elite level. Physically, Girafarig was far more robust than most of the other Psychic-types in her roster, with Alakazam reporting that her Zen Headbutt and Stomp attacks were quite impressive against his barriers. And the secondary head had also proven formidable, utilizing Crunch attacks to break Alakazam's telekinetic hold on their body and tearing through his barriers with ease.
But this strength in body unfortunately meant a reduction in the overall power of Girafarig's Psychic abilities, as her stronger body necessitated a larger consumption of energy that couldn't be used by the mind. Another draw on Girafarig's Psychic power was communicating with the secondary head which, while able to act independently, was more effective following the directives issued by the main head. This meant that the Psychic presence of the main head tended to be light and almost wisp-like, allowing for fine control but making it easy to overpower. Interestingly, the tail-head had the opposite problem, it's mind amongst the closest Sabrina had ever felt to being "single-minded." With all of its limited brainpower focused on a single subject, it was singularly powerful, but the focus was far too limited and lacking in control to be very effective in battle.
With her analysis complete, Sabrina had devised a plan for Girafarig's future development. Based on the image from the mural, the likely catalyst which would lead to a potential Girafarig evolution was developing and improving the synchronization between the two heads to create equality between them, prompting an evolution to accommodate the new paradigm. To that end, she would be focusing on the move Psybeam, a move which both heads were capable of using that had an easily altered balance between power and control that could be fairly easily trained, which would be essential in bringing the two heads into a equal synchronization.
Weeks had passed, and Sabrina was impressed with Girafarig's progress. The Pokemon had relentlessly followed Sabrina's direct instructions in improving her abilities, with the main head focusing on greater overall Psychic power and the tail head having improved in both awareness and sense of self, producing a far superior Pokemon to where she had started from. Sabrina mentally called for a Psybeam, and observed the improvement. With a spin to her side, both heads of Girafarig launched a wavering and scintillating beam towards Alakazam's barrier, impacting simultaneously. As Sabrina offered advice and encouragement through her telepathy, the two beams smoothed out and shrank down, becoming more homogeneous to each other and pushing harder against the barrier. Then, in a move so sudden it caught Sabrina off guard, the beams flicked off as the Psychic energy shifted and condensed behind both sets of eyes, before shooting out again as four identical finger-thick lasers of Psychic power, their combined force shattering Alakazam's barrier and forcing him to Teleport away. And then Girafarig's body lit up with blinding light. Sabrina watched in amazement as the Pokemon's body shifted beneath the corona of evolution, and then dissipated as her Pokemon revealed it's new form and cried out it's new name in triumph. "FARIGIRAF!!!"
Sabrina slowly approached the Pokemon, marvelling over the lengthened neck and legs, brimming with muscle, and how the equine main head was ensconced within the toothy maw of the tail head. While not what Sabrina had expected based on the mural she had based her venture on, she was nevertheless thrilled with the achievement that she had accomplished. Sabrina's Giraf, no, Farigiraf bent both her knees and lowered her long neck to bring her head down to the same level as Sabrina's, and with a thought the mental connection re-established. The two minds and psychic energies of Girafarig had been brilliantly merged with their evolution, with the iron determination and focus of the tail serving as a solid core which reinforced the formerly wispy tendrils from the head and strengthening them tenfold. Farigiraf leaned into Sabrina's hand with a wicker, the formerly main head closing it's eyes in comfort while the former tail head stared down at Sabrina with joy in it's eyes, a joy matched by the smile on Sabrina's face.
- Location
- Miami
I'm also looking forward to Brawly's rematch. And him waiting for Tropical Friday is great.
It would greatly change things for the competitive scene if nothing else because some pokemon only have 3 good moves so you throw a 4th ok one in such as a hidden power with good coverage or only have 4 good ones so those would feel it a lot. On the other hand tho it would expand the options of ones with great movepools which would be good because there's some with some amazing options but you basically get forced into not using many due to taking STAB moves + coverage ones e.g. Swampart is pretty much always going to have Waterfall + Earthquake + Ice Punch.
Specific setup builds could also really gain for example there's one with Suicune with leftovers where you play a long game using Substitute to buy time to set up Calm Minds and Recover to fuel them which is great I've used it and done right you can take out 3 or more pokemon pretty easily because of how the sp def boost makes the decoys tankier. However, it does have things it's bad against mainly in that Scald becomes your only atk, your physical def is unboosted and certain things like taking a Toxic while the substitute is down or even before you get it up in the first place dooms it or even that a roar or being forced to switch can wipe your set up.
And then Sabrina sends out her new Farigiraf in her battle against Will, surprising him and the audience, but utterly flabbergasting Brock because, to his metaknowledge, Girafarig does not have an evolution. I believe Brock only saw the first SV trailer, so Paldean Pokémon are completely new to him. Personally, I want to see how Armor Tail works in battle and how it will trip up Will if he uses Quick Attack or Sucker Punch or something. Anyways, if Farigiraf is ever introduced into the story, this is canon.
xbox432
Lover of Editing
Ah, Brock really does give out great advice to challengers. I wonder if the three from Hoenn will take inspiration from that as well? If nothing else Roxanne should see the merits of it considering her roll at the Academy, or what it will be when she returns. It really does nicely tie in to her comment in the anime praising the Pewter Gym.
I do wonder if you'll include the bit about "Pewter Crunchies" that she mentions in her Masters Ex dialogue? It might make for a cute scene with her!
I do wonder if you'll include the bit about "Pewter Crunchies" that she mentions in her Masters Ex dialogue? It might make for a cute scene with her!
Oh, that's a really nice Omake! It was adorable to see Sabrina's thoughts like that, and Farigiraf is also a pretty cool Pokemon for her to use.
No recursion allowed!
Did not know I needed a pic of this till now
CrashLegacy14
Giving my Imagination Wings
- Location
- Cajun Country USA
It wouldn't be so bad if there wasn't so many variant moves or moves that are just 'X is Y but better'.
As for over relying on single pokemon ... that wouldn't be an issue if pokemon had one pp pool that all moves drew from or a stamina pool that functioned similarly. That would produce a realistic check.
The classic rich get richer while the poor remain poor problem. Of course in this case, it's more of a general and long lasting balance issues. There's no real reason for poor move pools to be poor move pools.
What about... an overleveled Fire-Type Starter with Fire Blast? Just keep blasting. Cause that's my usual strategy.
CrashLegacy14
Giving my Imagination Wings
- Location
- Cajun Country USA
Agian, I'd have something like stamina/universal pp. Using any move would drain it by varying amounts and you'd need to have enough in the tank to use a move. Moves with low pp amounts would drain signficantly more stamina and moves that have a lot of PP. (So there's a reason to keep lest potent moves in your 'mon's list). The total value of stamina wouldn't be all that high, so if your spamming high pp moves your 'mon would get exhausted.
Lets use your example in a hypotectical scenario. Bob chose a fire-type starter and has decided to challenge a grass-type gym. The gym has, let's say, 4 gym trainers the player must overcome before facing the gym leader. Each with two grass-type pokemon.
Bob's starter has 100 stamina, and their sole fire-type move can one shot any of these trainer's mons, but each use is going to drain 10 stamina. With out recovering stamina, bob's starter will be walking into the gym leader battle at 20 stamina, only enough to fire off two of the moves. The Gym Leader has 3 pokémon.
As for overleveling ... honestly, I'd have trainers increase their level to match the highest mon in the player's party or something. I would also drump a bunch of defense and special defense EVs on gym mon just to make it a bit less likely they'd get one shotted by a punk trying to steamroll with a supper-effective mon.
- Location
- Scotland
So basically you're suggesting using a more standard "magic" system from most fantasy RPG's. As for having the enemy Pokemon change level to match yours I'd be very careful about that as while I've seen one or two examples of it working well I've seen far more examples of it being a complete disaster.
Even if Sudowoodo has no desire to join Brock's Elite Team I do believe he's more then earned himself a nickname. Both Brock's Solrock and Omastar are fourth tier Pokémon and they have nicknames. I think Sudowoodo deserves a nickname and that it should be Groot.
- Location
- Canada
- figure 1: "please don't"
While frustrating, its the economy/calculus/strategy of having to decide on what four moves to have that makes the games 'interesting'. I've heard the core game of Pokemon described as a more
It's as if I asked to for the shortest/easiest path on figure 1 following ⇒'s between B and F -- then started adding game rules when people start to
For example. I've praised DimWood (deckbuilder, roguelite) for absolutely superb style and layered gameplay, as it offers the player dimensions/greater depth to decide how to use their limited options to a gauntlet (that is reasonably competently assembled by the computer opponent).
Dimwood by Inkspinner, rutbny
A roguelike deckbuilder where you venture into the Dimwood.
inkspinner.itch.io
However if we are modifying Pokemon's game rules, I would prefer that players have more flexibility in experimenting-with/developing different move sets without permanent-consequences.
In too many Pokemon-trainer-type games- The permanence of having to forget an ability, combined with the stress of being forced to choose on the spot, strongly discourages players from making anything but the most conservative or optimized decisions - Which has unfortunately encouraged developers (including those of clones/genre following titles) to offer blatant 'easy' choices which are clear upgrades or obsolete previous moves.
Achieving those 'surprise' moves becomes rarer or unnecessarily difficult to achieve when it requires forfeiting a useful ability to keep an earlier one, or a TM/alternate ability source outside of normal development. While this makes for a reasonable explanation for encountering these surprises in game, it does tend to feel unfair when the player hasn't had the same opportunity.
Simply retaining all moves would tend to make these surprises less unexpected, but perhaps some sort of move-shaping (technique variation) system could allow for specific moves to be trained/optimized/shaped to be particularly effective in some respects at the expense of others. (ie: what if speed was favored over accuracy, or damage over range/reach, etc) Or even 'progress'/level existing moves into their stronger variations. Though admittedly I think that such a system would be very difficult to balance without completely rebuilding the library of moves - this
(Using the existing skill library) I'd favor keeping the option to 'focus' on a core set of four moves to use in battle, with the option to 'remember' previously learned abilities. Older remembered skills may which fade with disuse unless 'trained' (in some sort of not-tedious mini-game). -
- So say six moves that don't fade in strength to enable experimentation, but four moves that are actually prepared to be used.
- A penalty to swap these six skills in the middle of battle to soften the cost of changing decision mid battle in response to opportunity or being caught unprepared.
- When exchanging skills mid battle, players lose some modest % of PP
(to represent not being prepared/charged/warmed-up/stretched/postured/etc). - Possibly also allowing abandoning/forfeiting PP from already selected moves to enable depleted moves
(to represent abandoning keeping a guard ready to strike, or shifting balance away from enabling long thrusts to favor shorter strikes) - Perhaps older skills too, at an extreme penalty, making pulling out those 'surprise' desperation moves rarer, but so much more rewarding.
- Probably would need to
increase the penalty VS humans to discourage unfair surprises
decrease the penalty VS AI/computers to decrease frustration and encourage experimentation.
Last edited:
- Location
- Scotland
IIRC in Pokemon Legends of Arceus what they did was that your Pokemon technically kept all of the "moves" it ever learned (through levelling or otherwise) but you could only choose four to take into a battle and could only switch outside of battle. As I said in my previous post what @CrashLegacy14 was talking about was in essence having a standard RPG Skill/Magic system where a Pokemon would have a single "power" gauge for all of their moves and more powerful moves would use up more "power" than others instead of each move having its own dedicated "power points". I know that the more powerful moves in Pokemon already tend to have very limited PP and the most powerful (e.g. Hyper beam and its elemental variants) have other drawbacks such as having to have a rest turn after using them.
What we all really want, however, is basically for the Pokemon games to become less of a "kiddies first RPG" as I heard someone call it. After all the only way to really get a challenge in any of the games is to impose some fairly harsh outside limitations on yourself such as doing a "Nuzlock" challenge or even a "Hardcore Nuzlock".
frozenchicken
Does not have a custom title.
The most comparable system I've seen to what you're discussing would be in the Final Fantasy Tactics Advance series, which had new skills become available from equipment, but if you wanted to retain the skill even when not wielding the equipment you had to train with it for long enough that it was an actual time investment. A further restriction was added that certain skills could only be used when you had their associated class either active or set as a secondary subclass. This enabled experimentation and variability, but also gave developers say over the upper limit of how strong any combination could be (not that this stopped there from being some very broken combinations, but the game wasn't built with PvP in mind).
On the topic of the story, I was kinda surprised Roxanne didn't ask Brock for more specific advice regarding his legion of very interesting rock pokemon.
Pla does work like that but in exchange the total number of moves they learn is a lot less which leads into things like say Hisuian Samurott which is Water/Dark but has the issue of all it's atking moves are either Water or Dark or that out of the 4 Forces of Nature which are all flying types only Tornadus learns a flying move naturally (there is a move tutor). Additionally while you can switch moves outside of battle pp carries over so say you have a move with 10 pp you are using for a research task and then finish it with 7 pp and switch to a different one with 20 max pp it will only have 7 pp for the new move.
I would also say the most of the mystery dungeon games and PLA counts as challenging enough pla's enemy lv growth is pretty fast will significantly outpace you unless you are going out of your way to battle wild pokemon. Furthermore, the Diamond and Peral clan trainers send out all their pokemon at once though fortunately the ones other than their starter are weaker while you still only send out 1. The final boss of the main story also effectively has a team of 8 pokemon so they are a sharp increase of the ones that came before simply because your 6 have to beat 8, 2 of which are Giratina in both it's forms btw.
Chapter 151 - Surfs up watery boogaloo?
Viva01
Uncomfortable with all the hugs he is given
- Location
- Australia
Despite not having a match the next day, Brawly, Roxanne, and Flannery all turned up at the gym. They made for an interesting group. Roxanne looked tired, Flannery was perky, and Brawly was his usual laid-back self.
I led them into the break room behind the reception and raised an eyebrow at Roxanne. "You went straight into fighting at the Battleclub I take it?"
Roxanne nodded, and I chuckled. I wasn't surprised that she'd throw herself right into following my advice. It was what I expected from her. "How many matches did you have?"
"Four today that were worth my time," she said, sighing and leaning back into the couch. I tilted my head, but Flannery was the one to speak up.
"She had a whole bunch of brats challenging her! It was like she was running a kindergarten with how she was schooling them!" Flannery cackled.
Roxanne huffed. "Don't say it like that. They showed admirable courage, and if I want to take over as the Rustboro Gym, it was a good experience."
"So how many did you actually end up fighting?" I asked.
"Ten," Roxanne said with a sigh.
"Good numbers," I said casually.
"Ha! It's probably nothing to what you faced at the start of this circuit!" Brawly said with a laugh.
I shook my head. "The start of the circuit, and by that I mean the first week? It's usually pretty quiet as trainers get familiar with their pokemon. Then I get the usual rush for the first month or so… this season… yeah it's been nuts; it's only starting to slow down now."
I waved a hand around. "I've started blocking out later starts, earlier finishes, and longer lunches, which is so nice after the crunch period where I was pretty much just hanging in there."
"Sounds stressful. We should go surfing," Brawly said with a nod, like that would solve all my issues.
Roxanne sighed, and Flannery laughed. "You say that for almost everything!"
Brawly shrugged but lolled his head around to smile at me. "Come on, admit it; it worked that one time, didn't it?"
I nodded somewhat hesitantly before tilting my head. "I was actually considering going up to Mahogany Town again to do some skiing."
Brawly nodded his head. "Yeah, true. Snowboarding would be pretty choice!" I chuckled, that hadn't been what I said but I decided to ignore it as Flannery looked like she was going to burst.
"None of that matters, though yeah? You're still hoping for that Will rematch yeah?" she said heatedly.
I nodded. "Yes," I said.
Flannery stood. "Then what we need is action! We need to find that punk, make him regret cheating like he did, and expose any ties he has with Team Rocket!"
I raised an eyebrow at her and she groaned. "Or we can wait for him to slip up, I guess."
I waved a hand. "No, no. That look was about your Team Rocket comment. What made you think that?" I said. I hadn't said something in front of them, had I?
Flannery huffed. "The guy is obviously bad news! In Hoenn, people like him are usually linked with Magma or Aqua! In Indigo, you only have Team Rocket, ergo!" she said as though that explained anything.
I raised a finger before shaking my head and lowering it. "We are putting things in place, Flannery," I said, trying to calm her.
Brawly frowned at me and Roxanne tilted her head thoughtfully. Ah, crap, I hadn't refuted Flannery, and while she'd missed it, her friends hadn't.
Flannery grumbled and kicked her feet up. "I know that! It's just! Urgh! It's frustrating!"
I nodded. "Yeah, it really is. I've been toying with the idea of storming into a press conference of his to demand a rematch but…"
"He's a slippery one," said Flannery as she slumped onto a couch.
Roxanne coughed. "It also might be taken poorly…" she mumbled, only to blush as everyone looked at her. "That is, I meant to say it might be best for him to let the other gyms fight him such as Erika, Sabrina, or likewise… He is mirroring the circuit's big gyms, and it might be seen as you not having faith in them if you step in."
I rubbed my chin. "I hadn't considered that but… I'm not too sure it would go like that. Also, I don't think Will is going to try himself against Blaine or Giovanni," I said in an off-hand manner.
That made everyone pause, and I grimaced as I realised I might have misspoken again.
Flannery narrowed her eyes. "Why not those two Gyms? Because they're the last two traditionally?"
"That would make him more likely to challenge them, wouldn't it?" Brawly said with his head tilted to the side. "Before everyone watched your match against Lance, most people would have assumed it was a straight first-to-last Boulder to Earth badge in terms of strength." Brawly pointed out.
I waggled my hand as an acceptable dodge occurred to me. "He also needs to try and beat out others that are going to challenge for the position. Karen started before him and has already knocked over six of the Johto gyms, and she has done so convincingly. I think that if he delays, she's going to make a run at the Elite Four position first and beat him to it."
"Oh!" said the others, nodding along to that. "So he needs to increase his publicity?" said Roxanne thoughtfully.
"And his Ace trainer rating," I grunted, mentally praising myself for the dodge. "He needs to have reached the number one position to at least launch a challenge. Something he has apparently been getting a lot of, but he hasn't been challenging people for big televised matches much. The ones that everyone are showing are the Gym matches, with Sabrina being the showdown everyone is anticipating."
Brawly nodded. "The face-off of Psychic types, huh? Sort of like how you and Roxanne got a lot of attention due to being Rock specialists going head to head."
He snapped his fingers. "Then again, you'd get a lot of publicity with people going for a rematch." He posed with his thumb and forefinger around his chin. "I know we're getting a lot of people's attention with the announcement that I'm having my rematch after all."
Flannery snorted loudly at that. "Please they're just hoping that you're going to dunk water on Brock again so you and he end up fighting shirtless!"
Brawly grinned at her. "You saying you won't enjoy the show?" he said with a wink. Flannery scoffed but a dusting of red appeared on her nose.
Brawly then grinned in my direction. "What do you say Brock? Opening move this time? Wailord sent out for some Surf?"
That made me pause. Around us, others snickered while Roxanny squirmed. I eventually rolled my eyes. "Do what you will if you think it is going to help you. I'm more interested in seeing how things go with your starter this time around."
Brawly nodded his head. "He's fighting fit and so ready for this match! Trust me!"
"Hmmm good. I'll be looking forward to seeing how you fight." I then directed my attention to Roxanne. "Speaking of strong pokemon, when are you thinking of evolving your Nosepass?"
"Oh! I've been having some trouble with that; Usually people think it is best to use a thunderstone, but that doesn't always work."
"Thunderstone or electrically charged environment, isn't it?" I said.
At Roxanne's stunned look I waved a hand. "I've looked into the Nosepass pokemon group before but hadn't been able to secure any. They're not the easiest of pokemon to get your hands on, and they're not super popular. Celia, one of the gym's trainers, has caught one and is looking for another while she's in Hoenn. I've sent her a thunderstone and told her to use it while training near a powerplant or talk with Wattson about using his gym."
"Old man Wattson?" Flannery said, smiling fondly. "He'd be interested in helping her out if she explains herself. He's such a kooky old guy! Great Gym leader, he's one of the most popular gym leaders around, but I think that's more to do with his attitude when dealing with people than how strong he is."
"Rustboro is popular as well!" Roxanne said staunchly before coughing and sitting up straight. "I was actually wondering, Brock, if I might ask to use your own facilities here. I understand that you need an electrical environment for your geodude variants to gain their typing, no?"
I waggled my hand in a so-so gesture. "Among other things such as diet, breeding for certain traits, and such, yes." I smirked as I started to see what her angle was. "Ah, you want to borrow it for evolving your Nosepass?"
Roxanne nodded, and I responded with a nod of my own. "Sure! But I think I better wait until this afternoon." When Roxanne tilted her head, I scratched the back of my head. "This is the sort of thing that would be great for Salvadore to witness; he loves it. I'll tell Bianca about it as well; assemble the brain trust to observe the whole thing."
Roxanne accepted that easily enough, and when the Gym matches were done for the day, I met Salvadore walking into the house. "Hey Brock!" he said as he unloaded his backpack onto the couch.
"Hey, can you come with me? I have a pokemon that is going to evolve, and I wanted to see—" he sprinted away, causing me to grimace as I heard him slam into a few walls on the way to his room. On the way back, he was no less loud. He then skidded to a stop in front of me with his notepad and a camera slung around his neck.
"I'm ready!" he said, rather unnecessarily.
I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed. "No… running in the house, little bro."
He nodded, entirely unrepentant and too excited to care. "What pokemon is it?"
I chuckled and waved for him to follow me. "Come on, and I'll show you."
I led him into the reserve, where we found Brawly paddling around with my Corsola while Roxxane was happily sitting on the side, stroking Tirtouga on the head as Lileep cuddled up to her. Greta, Yolanda, and Crystal all watched on.
I glanced around looking for Flannery, only to spot her wrestling with Cranidos. "Brock! How is this a baby pokemon? It's as hyper as a Pikachu that's been sucking on a power socket!"
I cocked my head to the side. "Is that a thing that happens?" I asked as she was dragged along.
Cranidos crowed happily. He'd been putting on weight, and with how he'd started dashing around to challenge various pokemon he'd been gaining muscle. Muscle that he was now using to drag Flannery around.
"Cranidos! Here!" I said, kneeling down and offering myself as a target. That had Cranidos charging straight at me.
"Brock you big dumb lug!" Flannery howled as she refused to let go.
Just before Cranidos got too close, I shifted and reached out, snagging Cranidos behind the head and twisting my body so that I moved with him before swinging him around me. I then tumbled him over himself, causing him to squeak in surprise.
While he was thrown off balance, I tucked him into my side and locked my elbow in. I made sure to start flowing rock energy through my body as I grinned down at Flannery.
"There, like that!" I said, ignoring how Cranidos was now slamming his head into my side and whining at my not being knocked over.
"Ha ha ha," Flannery said flatly. "Little sucker blindsided me while I was inspecting your Slugma and that hill you're building for him and his fellow."
I flicked my eyes over the 'hill' that was in truth a large earthworks project that even now some of my pokemon were building up under Bianca, Jennifer, and an engineer's directions.
"You must have startled him," I said shamelessly, like it wasn't something he did all the time.
Flannery glowered at me for that, while Cranidos gained a smug look. Then he went back to headbutting me, and with the rock energy protecting my ribs, I barely felt it.
Roxanne rose to meet me with a serene expression on her face. "Brock, I think I'm even more envious of this place since the last time I was out here! You've gained another group of ancient pokemon?"
I nodded. "Yeah, we're working at it. It helps that we have the research lab in Pewter and the League's approval."
Flannery clapped Roxanne on the shoulder. "No fear, Roxy; you'll get there once you're a gym leader! Just give it time!"
"And Money," I said. "Money helps; I'd suggest getting as much built up before you become a gym leader, that way you can snowball it if you need to."
Roxanne nodded at that. "Any advice on how to do that?"
I shrugged. "Win a lot of matches—more than you lose anyway. Fight enough, and you can make some serious money."
I nodded my head towards the cave system. "Shall we?" I then nudged Cranidos off to see if he could beat Knight in a wrestle. The little pokemon charged off, and I chuckled, knowing he had run in the wrong direction to find Knight. I then waved to Bianca, and she joined us to observe the process.
When we reached the electrical cavern, she directed us to a small cupboard that had been installed,holding rubber gloves, shoes, and coats, which we all donned.
"Observation diary one hundred and twelve! Evolution in action!" Salvadore said as he set up the camera to record.
Roxanne released her Nosepass which perked up as electrical energy sparked off the walls. Nosepass nosed at the walls before turning to Roxanne when she whistled for its attention. "Hey boy! It's time to evolve if you're ready?" she said.
"Nosepass!" intoned the pokemon before hovering forward and into the offered thunderstone. Everyone held their breaths as Nosepass touched the stone. The stone lit up, and then a huge spark from the floor of the cavern arced up into Nosepass, causing it to spasm.
The thunderstone clung to Nosepass, and another arc of electricity entered Nosepass making it twitch again.
Before anyone could freak out, however, a glow encompassed its entire body as the evolution took hold. When the lights faded, everyone else blinked their eyes to witness the new pokemon.
"Probopass!" intoned the now much larger pokemon. It had gained a red hat-like structure on its head along with what looked like a moustache under its large red nose.
A digitised voice spoke up. "Probopass, this pokemon is a Rock-steel type pokemon. It was commonly used in sailing expeditions and is a common sight on seafarers that traverse the oceans to this day, thanks to Probopass' ability to act as a compass that will always know where north is.
"Its body is highly magnetised, and the units on the sides and back are considered mini-noses. It is debated whether these smaller features improve the Probopass' ability to perceive its surroundings and make it much harder to sneak up on. It knows Lock-On, Zap Cannon, Stone Edge, Earth Power, Iron Defense, and Body Press."
Greta whistled at that while Roxanne ran forward to hug her pokemon.
"Is that her starter?" I asked Flannery. Flannery nodded proudly and I hummed. It was always a good day when any pokemon evolved, but it was just a bit more special when it was your starter pokemon.
"Well sounds like we're going to have to celebrate then!" I said with a clap of my hands. I happily sent Salvadore off to join the others for dinner as I led my friends to a more upscale restaurant. I messaged Sabrina, and she joined us when we reached the restaurant. I touched her hand as I noticed that she looked a bit tired.
"You alright?" I asked.
"I'm just tired; I've been working with Erika a lot and also with my father," she said, squeezing my hand.
Flannery chose that moment to speak up. "Hey Sabrina! I'm totally coming for your badge next! My pokemon team got a lot stronger after fighting Brock!" she said with a cocky smile.
Sabrina nodded her head. "That is good." Her face lost all emotion. "You will need it."
She then tilted her head as her eyes glowed. "Sadly I see only disappointment in your future." Flannery stiffened at that and opened her mouth only for Sabrina to smile. "The special that you are hoping to order tonight has run out of stock."
"Snrk!" Brawly said. "Hah! She got you there, Flannery!"
Roxanne giggled while Flannery huffed in annoyance but nodded at Sabrina. "Well played." She then deposited herself next to Sabrina and leaned in to whisper about something. I decided to ignore it and instead speak with Roxanne and Brawly about the sort of gyms they wanted to set up. I was rather amused that Brawly was hoping for a small gym while Roxanne seemed frustrated with his lack of ambition.
He merely shrugged. "Eh, I'll see what floats my way," he said, causing her to sigh and shake her head.
The evening passed like that, with suggestions and a few plans tossed around. Brawly tried to get me to go surfing with him, and Sabrina surprised me when she supported the idea.
In the end, I succumbed, resulting in all of us, plus Rocko and Jackson, joining us on the ocean the next morning. Roxanne happily accepted Brawly's coaching on how to surf, while Sabrina merely floated out and ordered a wave for herself.
I chuckled when she stood atop her surfboard like a queen surveying her kingdom. When the wave rose she surfed it without a hint of a wobble, causing me to laugh.
"You know you're supposed to use your balance and ride it, not control the board with your psychic powers," I said, splashing some water at her.
"I like my way," she said simply before smiling innocently as she kicked out with her foot and sent a giant wave to topple me off the board.
Jackson laughed as I spluttered my way back onto the board. I shot a splash at him, and he paddled out to show off his own Orange Island-acquired skills. I hooted at him when he crashed out after riding the wave for ten seconds. Rocko took his own turn and if anything, he'd gotten better since the last time.
Flannery revealed herself to be very experienced at surfing, much to my surprise.
"Thought you were a fire type!" I called out to her as she glided through the water towards us.
"That doesn't mean I can't hang ten!" she called back.
Brawly led Roxanne out into the water, only for her to tip over on the way out to the wave. In the end, he got a larger board and showed her how it felt while holding her steady.
"Oh! Smooth Roxy! Very smooth, the helpless maiden ploy!" Flannery whooped at her friend causing Roxanne to shoot her a heated look only to smile back at Brawly who was grinning.
I chuckled. "Think they're going to date?" I said to Sabrina
Sabrina shrugged. "I'm not sure. I believe Brawly is looking for something casual, while Roxanne wants a boyfriend. I am not certain, but I believe usually the boy caves to the girl's demands in this situation, or the girl's feelings are hurt."
I raised an eyebrow at that. And Sabrina shrugged. "It is my observation from the discussions when I am with Erika. They are quite informative," she said casually, like she hadn't just admitted to listening in on a lot of gossip and what sounded like heartbreak if she'd created a 'consensus' on how these things usually went.
"How's she going?" I asked.
"She is doing wonderfully. I think she will make a good showing of herself."
"Will she win?" I asked, to which Sabrina remained silent. I sighed and took another turn at surfing. I lasted all of three seconds before crashing out. I think Sabrina might have helped me stay on the board even that long with how stable it felt. I shot her a thankful look, and she winked at me.
When it was time to go, Sabrina teleported me and the other Pewter trainers back to the Gym where we had enough time to scoff down some food before meeting the day.
When lunchtime came around, the Gym began to fill up, and Sabrina returned to claim a seat in the trainer's box. She smiled enigmatically at me while holding a large soda for herself and Ralts. I shot her a confused look, but ultimately I shrugged it off, turning to watch as Brawly was announced.
"And now! He's tasted the sting of defeat once before, and now he's come back with a vengeance! The surfer-bro that we all love! Let's give it up for Brawly!"
I watched Brawly step forward. Unlike the last time he'd entered my gym, he did so with a smile and a wave. Gone were the sheepish expression and slightly jittery frame of mind. He strode forth now, chest out, head raised, and a surety in his eyes.
Last time I'd faced him, he'd gone straight into a match against me, albeit at the highest level available.
Today, he challenged the fourth tier with a gauntlet challenge.
Yolanda stood in the middle of the field, her flags at the ready and the barriers shimmering. A.J. stood on the podium, looking slightly nervous but composed.
I frowned, and a vague recollection occurred to me. Last time… it was Daniel standing in as referee. Daniel the traitor.
I felt my mood darken, and I shook it off as A.J. released a Graveler onto the field. Brawly countered with a Machamp.
It landed and flexed, causing A.J. to narrow his eyes and lean forward. Instead of giving an immediate command, Brawly glanced up at me and winked.
Huh, he remembered the first pokemon he sent out last time as well, did he? I chuckled as A.J. decided he'd given Brawly enough time. "Graveler! Defence Curl!"
"Focus Machamp," Brawly said easily, his pokemon raising its hands and holding them palm out to Graveler.
"Tch! Earthquake!" A.J. ordered, causing his pokemon to punch the ground and send out a powerful rumble.
"Leap!" Brawly said, punching his hand up high. Machamp tensed, and then, just before the shockwave hit him he leapt. The jump carried him in an arc up and straight towards Graveler.
"FB!" Brawly ordered punching out and causing Machamp to chamber his fists before unleashing a devasting round of punches with all four fists.
"Dig!" A.J. said. Graveler burrowed, only for the concussive wave of force to hit it just after it disappeared. A.J. himself stumbled, as his podium shook from the force of the blow. Graveler popped out of another hole to the side and shook itself.
It might have gotten away, but it didn't appear to have done it cleanly. "Rollout!" ordered A.J., making me frown.
"Focus!" ordered Brawly again, his pokemon having landed and raised its fists up again. I could see the Machamp's muscles twitching even as it held its ready pose. Ah he was using Focus Energy during those little gaps now? Brawly had gotten wiser.
A.J. waited until his pokemon was right on top of Machamp before he shouted a new command. "Explosion!" he barked.
"Protect!" Brawly screamed, not even hesitating as his pokemon knelt and raised a shield in the face of a glowing Graveler.
Graveler detonated, and it took a few moments for the fans to blow aside the smoke to reveal Machamp had been unaffected.
A.J. glanced up at me and I bobbed my head from side to side. Not bad. It was a good attempt, but it hadn't worked out.
A.J. returned his pokemon and almost stashed it away. Instead, he twitched and flicked his eyes to Yolanda who was watching him intensely. He whispered something to the pokeball, and then put it away earning himself a nod from Yolanda.
He then whipped out his second pokemon. "Go Graveler!" he ordered again. Once more the rocky pokemon landed on the ground, only this time it shifted back and forth with small black spikes on its side twitching.
"Roll!" A.J. said, sweeping his hand to the side.
"Line it up Machamp!" Brawly said firmly, making his Machamp slide his feet and keep a pair of fists raised in readiness.
I leaned forward and watched the Graveler roll, noticing that it was starting to spark up as it did so. A.J. once again chopped his hand in. "Close for Heavy Slam!" he yelled to his pokemon before stopping right as he got close. "Discharge!"
"FB!" Brawly ordered, causing the fists of Machamp to rocket forward, ignoring the lash of electricity that shocked him.
"Roll to the side!" A.J. ordered only for Graveler to not be quick enough. It dodged but was still clipped. "Tch! Again but circle it!"
"Machamp go for CC!" Brawly shouted. His pokemon leapt forward and, with two hands, grasped the sparking Graveler.
The other two fists then slammed into Gravler in a furious tempo that ended the match after a flurry of blows. The Machamp stopped with his fists held in front of the Graveler's unconscious face, threatening to continue but otherwise holding back.
Gravler slumped forward, unconscious, and the Machamp lowered him.
Yolanda raised a flag. "Graveler is unable to battle! This means Brawly is the victor for this round." A.J. returned his pokemon and once more whispered something to it, this time flicking a glance up and spotting Yolanda beaming at him. He retreated up to me amid a smattering of applause, looking like a grumpy wet Meowth.
I waved him close. "Hey, you did good out there. Nice try with the Explosion point-blank. I don't think you had a good match up, but you made the most of it."
"Still lost," he said angrily.
"Yeah, that's true, but remember, the point of being a Gym trainer isn't to win but to challenge trainers and grow. You certainly had Brawly sweating out there with that sequence of moves. He was only a bit more sure of himself on your second Graveler because he knew that he could advance without you exploding due to the rules about last pokemon explosions," I said.
A.J. nodded. "Graveler should have been able to dodge that Focus Blast; it's not the most accurate of moves!"
I wobbled my hand in a so-so gesture. "Yes but also no. It's not normally an accurate move, but Brawly is a type specialist, so with that in mind. He'd have higher odds of hitting a move like Focus Blast. He'd also have had his pokemon train it a lot more, as it's a very useful move for fighting types to have."
I waved my hand. "I think your idea of building up a Charge with your second Graveler was good, but you might have also achieved a better result if you'd used Rock Polish for your hit-and-run tactics like you tried pulling off."
"Hmmm, can I work with these two Gravelers a bit more?"
"Sure thing, just remember that if you evolve them, you should only use one of them during your matches at the fourth tier. We're trying to challenge our trainers, not beat them down."
A.J. nodded and stomped off, causing me to hum. I decided to leave him be for the moment. I'd send someone to bring him back to watch my match against Brawly, though; he might notice something he wanted to copy or expand on after all.
I turned back to find that Jackson had just sauntered down to an extremely popular song while the crowd laughed and sang along. He'd popped the collar on his floral shirt. Brawly himself was smiling and having a great time of it as Jackson danced his way down to the podium.
He then locked eyes with Brawly, and they grinned as one.
"You ready for this, surfer boy?" Jackson said as he expanded his choice.
"You know it!" said Brawly as he selected his own pokemon.
I tapped Sabrina on the shoulder. "Did he do anything with his Machamp during the break?"
"He used a Full Restore on it," she said, taking a sip from her soda.
"Ah, seems he's doing well for himself if he's got that sort of free money," I said.
"He has his seven badges already, having challenged the minor gyms. This is for his eighth." Sabrina took another sip. "Roxanne is very annoyed with him as he plans to just train and surf for the rest of the circuit if he has his way."
"That sounds like him," I said, chuckling.
"He could be a very strong Gym Leader for Hoenn." Sabrina eyed me. "Perhaps even an Elite Four if he tried for it."
I smiled at her and shrugged. "Guess it will be up to him and what he wants. I think right now he just wants to have good times with his friends, which mostly involves surfing."
"Any idea what he will do after that?" she said with a tilt of her head.
"Who's to say? That'll be for Brawly to decide."
I watched as Jackson sent out an Onix only to have it smashed up by Brawly's Breloom.
I snorted as a thought occurred to me. "He must have been winning a lot of fights, having qualified as an Indigo trainer on his first circuit while having a team like he does." I chuckled. "He's one of the only people out there that aren't facing team restrictions."
Sabrina inclined her head. "If he was more aggressive or less honest, he could have amassed himself a lot of wealth."
I hummed, knowing he wouldn't have done any such thing. If anything, he probably helped coach anyone who caught his fancy during this circuit. Still… I watched his Medicham unleash a barrage of hits onto Jackson's Lairon before it smashed it back with an Iron Head.
The thought of Brawly's prowess made me wonder… was I watching the future winner of the Indigo Circuit? He had all the time in the world to build up his team, which was already powerful from his years as an apprentice under Chuck.
If he pushed himself… he could go far.
I shook my head as the match was called, and Brawly waved Jackson off with a laugh. Then he turned his attention to healing up his Breloom.
I straightened up and limbered myself up. "Alright, time to see how much he's changed."
Sabrina nodded and indicated the seat next to Flannery in the front row. "I will cheer you on from up close," she said, standing and kissing me on the cheek.
I tilted my head as she did so. "Uhmmm, it's a Gym match, not an Ace battle, Sabrina?"
She nodded. "Yes, but you're going to try your best." She tucked Ralts into her arms and teleported into the seat with her soda bottle still in hand. I laughed when Flannery twitched in surprise before shaking my head.
That had been odd, I thought to myself.
Oh well. I shook myself out and instead focused on the coming match. I knew exactly what pokemon I was going to use this time, but I wasn't going to play things out the same way.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Brawly has demonstrated that he has shown remarkable growth since the last time he entered Pewter Gym! He has a battle record of two hundred and eighteen victories to fifty-eight losses on the circuit so far!"
I whistled at that. Damn, Brawly was a bit of a silent assassin. That was better than… what? Seventy percent as a win rate? Hmmm, I'd need a calculator to work it out properly.
Brawly was doing way better than I expected. If my match with him and his match against Will were taken away, how well would he be doing? Actually, just retracting his loss to Will would mean that he would not have lost to me. And how many of his losses had to do with not having his starter?
Damn!
Rachel continued to hype him up, and Brawly seemed embarrassed by the praise. I hadn't expected her to do this sort of research on him, but it was a good addition and had the crowd perking up and getting very interested in the upcoming match.
I hummed. Alright, so I could probably stop holding back. I'd known that last time, this time I was going to start out strong.
"—back to face our Gym Leader! Let's welcome him now! Give it up! For Gym Leader! BROCK!" Rachel shouted, swinging her arms around before launching herself into a full-body hop, hop, clap that made the crowd join her.
When they had a good tempo and the air was shaking, I began to walk down, my eyes locked onto Brawly. He straightened up and matched me, his smile holding despite the tension in the air.
As with Roxanne, I leapt from further back and slammed into the podium, rising with a darkness sweeping out from me as I'd done against Will.
"Brawly, welcome back," I said flatly. I enlarged a pokeball and held it out. "Are you ready?"
Brawly smirked as he selected his first pokeball. "So ready for this!" he said.
I whipped my arm forward. "Go Quirina!" I said, deciding to go for my psychic pokemon straight away to counter him.
"Go Wailord!" Brawly shouted.
His giant water-type pokemon landed with a thump that echoed.
I had a sudden feeling of intense deja vu that wasn't helped at all as Brawly's grin stretched his entire face. "Sorry! Not sorry!" he called out to me.
"Wailord! Surf!" called out Brawly.
"Oh you shithead Brawly," I said, knowing this had to be by design as I watched his pokemon call up another gigantic wave all while Brawly laughed like a maniac.
Working on autopilot, I pressed a button on my podium to make sure the barriers were working properly.
Rachel stepped in front of the crowd and smiled hugely, "All crowd members currently in the stands, please be aware that drying facilities are available in the communal parts of the gym and laundry services can be provided. Thank you! Please remain seated and have a nice day." She then scurried to sit next to Sabrina while other people in the crowd whooped and cheered the wave as it rushed onward.
"Protect," I said with the driest of tones possible.
The wave slammed over me, and the world was lost for a few moments of tranquil wailord song that I thought might sound like it was giggling before the wave was drained away through the grills on the side of the battlefield.
When I didn't need goggles to see I waved a hand to Rachel to check that no one was injured or startled by the wave, not that it looked like any action needed to be taken as people were all standing and cheering.
"Take it off!" shouted someone, and I blinked as I realised that Brawly was peeling himself out of his wet shirt. When he was done, he tossed his shirt to the side, raising his arms out wide, and locking eyes with me. Was he making the 'come at me bro' pose?
I shot him a flat look. "Did you serious…" I sighed knowing he had. I turned my head around to find Sabrina watching me with a straw in her mouth as she drank her soda. She wiggled her eyebrows.
Et tu, Sabrina? I thought to myself.
I shook my head and took off my shirt to the cheers of the crowd and more than a little screaming. More than a few cameras started flashing, but I ignored them.
"Alright, you've had your fun," I said to Brawly. "I think that's enough time, don't you Quirina?"
My Solrock responded by unleashing the Solar Beam he'd started channelling as soon as the Protect had dropped away.
Everyone had been a little too occupied with my taking off my shirt to notice how pissed off he was at being dunked on again from the same pokemon.
"Protect!" said Brawly, crossing his arms over his chest as my Solar Beam slammed into the barrier his pokemon raised. He grinned at me, and I nodded. Good, he had thought this through more than just playing around.
"Sunny Day!"
"Rain Dance! Not letting you get that off like last time, Brock!" Brawly shouted as his pokemon countered my environment move. I hummed. Alright, if he's going to do that…
"Rock Polish," I said easily.
"Hydro Pump!" Brawly said, punching forward.
"Rock Polish again, avoid it!" I said forcing my pokemon to spin like a wheel on the loose as it evaded the attack before spinning back to avoid the follow up strikes.
"Close in on it!" I said.
Solrock swept forward and gained a glint in its eyes as Brawly narrowed his eyes.
"Now!" He ordered unleashing a fierce barrage.
"Spin up and come back down!" I said, making my pokemon shoot up. As it did this, I raised up another pokeball. I knew this wasn't a guarantee but it still worked better to have a closer pokeball offered up. Brawly's eyes widened at the pose.
"Baton Pass!" I said, causing my Solrock to vanish and be replaced by a much thinner pokemon.
"Wood Hammer!" I shouted as my Sudowoodo swept down with a glowing green arm.
"Pro—" was all Brawly got the chance to say before my pokemon slammed into Wailord's face with the super-effective move. Wailord wailed in pain at the impact before tilting to the side as my pokemon flipped end over end to land in the middle of the field.
I pumped my fist. Nice! That had been a critical hit, by the looks of things!
Brawly swept a hand through his hair and laughed. "Ah man! This is what it was like last time too!" he said as he returned his pokemon. "I thought I had you back then as well."
I shrugged and smiled. "Eh? What can I say? You bring out my fighting spirit?" I said. I groaned as some ladies screamed with delight. Ah, I'd forgotten to not feed the local fan club. I shot Brawly another annoyed look, but he laughed unrepentantly.
He then gained a serious expression. "Alright, I don't want to play things too much the same way, but my man has been chomping at the bit for this rematch. Let's go Machamp!" he said as he tossed out his Machamp.
Machamp instantly locked eyes on Sudowoodo, and his left and right hands slammed together in a bow that had to be a martial arts pose.
Sudowoodo responded by raising up on one foot with his other in the air. "Wood!" he said teasingly.
Machamp's eyes narrowed, and I knew right away that my pokemon had himself a proper rival.
"Advance on him Machamp!" Brawly ordered.
I knew it had to be a hidden command, so I pointed forward. "Copy him, Sudowoodo," I said firmly.
Both pokemon marched forward, and Machamp had a look of intense focus that somewhat gave the game away of Brawly using Focus Energy as his pokemon stalked forward. In comparison, my pokemon just looked comical, advancing with a smirk on his face while flexing its twiggy arms.
When they were within touching distance, they stopped and glowered at each other. Machamp looked down on Sudowoodo. I could tell he wanted to destroy his rival.
"LK!" Brawly said.
"Quake!" I said, not willing to get stuck in this game.
I'd humoured him last time but I planned to play it smart. As Machamp dropped to one arm to spin about to knock Sudowoodo off its feet, my pokemon stomped its foot and unleashed a close-range Earthquake.
"Kip over into Mach Punch!" Brawly said as his pokemon began to flounder.
His Machamp then twisted and sighted on the ground before unleashing a barrage of punches that slammed into the earth, holding Machamp aloft like some overpowered anime protagonist going turbo.
Sudowoodo had to stumble back in the face of the barrage. "DP!" I said, causing Sudowoodo to leap forward with a glowing arm once more.
"Counter!" Brawly said, making his pokemon sweep its body around once again and catch the punch with its feet before stomping Sudowoodo into the ground.
"Kick it off!" I shouted. Sudowoodo grunted in pain before spinning into a perfectly timed Low Kick that knocked Machamp off its feet. Machamp landed awkwardly this time but bounced up a moment later, already swinging.
"Cross chop!" Brawly ordered, causing his pokemon to slash its hands down.
"Counter again!" I ordered him to make the most of the force of the attack as Sudowoodo danced back only to lash out with a foot into Machamp's face.
"Scary Face!" Brawly ordered, realising how precarious the situation was with my pokemon keeping up and evading so much thus far. Sudowoodo stumbled and glowered only for Machamp to grin.
"Quake!" I said, making the most of Machamp standing up against my pokemon.
"FB!" barked Brawly.
Both attacks were launched, and I saw both impact the respective pokemon. Sudowoodo toppled like a tree, while Machamp was shaken and thrown to land hard once again. Both pokemon struggled into a standing position before suddenly falling to their knees.
"Sudo…" said my pokemon as he fell into the dirt.
Machamp growled and forced himself up into a standing position.He then stood, trembling and defiant, over my Sudowoodo. "Ma Champ!" he said, shouting his victory for everyone.
"Sudowoodo is unable to battle!" Yolanda called out, causing a tidal wave of applause to rise from the crowd at the great match.
I returned Sudowoodo to my pokeball and smiled at it. "You still not interested in joining the Elite team buddy? You'd have a place on there, you know?" I said to him before pocketing his ball.
On the other side, Brawly returned his Machamp with a smile. When he raised his eyes to look at me, he grinned. "Heh! They did great! You shook things up once again!" he said, shaking his head. "Machamp won't be able to come back into this fight and you took out Wailord with that Baton Pass trick… If I don't show some change, this match will end like last time!"
I inclined my head in agreement, and Brawly laughed. "But things are different this time." He raised another pokeball and I mirrored him.
"Let's go Hariyama!" said Brawly, revealing his starter. It slammed down onto the ground and shifted on the still slightly muddy field its eyes shifting before locking onto my pokemon.
"Let's go Quirina!" I said, much happier with this match-up for him. "Psychic!" I said, pointing straight at Hariyama.
"Taunt!" Brawly said. His pokemon twitched as Psychic wrapped around him to throw him about, only for Dark energy to surge outward. Hariyama raised a huge mitt and shook his finger back and forth as Quirina flinched like he'd been stung.
Huh, that was certainly a way to use dark energy defensively. So I couldn't directly grab Hariyama with Psychic then eh?
"Psybeam!"
"Detect!" Brawly said with a grin as his pokemon leapt to the side only for Quirina to arc the beam around and yet miss again as Hariyama dove under the beam and slid through the mud to close in with my pokemon.
"Heavy Slam!" said Brawly with a grin, his pokemon leaping up to tackle my pokemon.
"Protect!" I said, hoping to block the super-effective move. As Hariyama descended I exhaled in relief as a Protect barrier formed around Quirrina just before impact.
"Hariyama! Use Belly Drum!" he said, causing his pokemon to slap its own stomach.
"Hari-yama!" it shouted as it slapped its own stomach. The sound of flesh being struck caused me to grimace. That move came with the issue of lowering a pokemon's health to halfway. Brawly was dancing a fine line here.
"Confusion!" I said, putting my hopes on getting off a quick move as my pokemon's Protect faded. A pink aura surrounded Hariyama and he flinched, but then he merely narrowed his eyes on Quirina and leapt forward.
"Drain Punch!" said Brawly as the move slammed home into Quirrina.
Quirrina was flung back from the power of the attack and fainted as he struck the wall. I whistled in awe.
That was the other benefit of Belly Drum. A maximised increase in attacking power. I raised my eyes to Hariyama as he skipped back and forth with much more energy now.
A Belly Drum into Drain Punch. That was a good combination, if you got the chance to use it.
"Nice work buddy!" I said as I returned my pokemon. I then plucked out another and sent it as far away from Hariyama as I could. I did not want him to get too close.
"Go Shelly!" I shouted, sending out my Omastar once more.
"Headlong Rush!" Brawly said. I hissed in surprise as his pokemon burst into a straight-out sprint at my pokemon before an idea occurred to me.
"Ice beam in front of you!" I said. Shelly fired off an Ice beam directly in front of her and as Hariyama came on.
He leapt to carry himself as far as he could, only to land and instead of cratering the ice, he slipped, causing him to spin off to the side like a loose puck on an ice rink.
"Mud shot!" I said to follow up.
"Detect!" Brawly said, causing his pokemon to once again avoid the attack and advance.
"Surf!" I clicked my tongue in annoyance. I wasn't game to use dig but I didn't have a lot of room to work with due to being forced onto the far right side already.
"Endure it Hariyama!" Brawly called as the wave descended towards his pokemon.
It slammed down and only caused the heavy sumo-like pokemon to rock back a little and when it emerged it was still in good health and now sadly, Shelly was within reach.
Brawly had played that out rather well.
"DP!" he said, ordering another Drain Punch. His Hariyama rocketed forward.
"Dig!" I said, unwilling to not use every chance I had to avoid Shelly being taken out. Shelly dodged under the attack but Brawly merely pointed straight down.
"Stomping Tantrum!" he said. Hariyama stomped and a shockwave of force radiated out.
In another instance, it wouldn't have done much, but with Shelly barely dodging Hariyama's attack, it would have been right on top of her. Sure enough, she crawled out of her tunnel a moment later and wiggled her tentacles weakly. Hariyama knelt and stroked her once while nodding his head in respect.
I returned her and huffed. "You're a different battler with your starter on the field Brawly!" I said, feeling happy despite trying my best to put his pokemon down.
"Hariyama is my main man!" he said, raising a fist to his pokemon who punched back in reply.
I raised my last pokemon. "Let's go Onix!" I said.
My Onix landed and roared in greeting. Hariyama nodded his head but then raised his fist.
"Sandstorm!" I said, making visibility difficult and edging things into my favour.
"Charge in with Detect buddy! Let's end this!"
"Drag it out! Dig buff special!" I said, rolling the dice with a combination of moves while deciding to test if Brawly had anything but Stomping Tantrum to match my pokemon.
Brawly clicked his tongue and shot me an annoyed look. "Return Hariyama! Let's go Poliwrath!" he said, deciding to instead return his pokemon.
I hummed, that would play well in my favour. Poliwrath emerged and groaned as the Sandstorm caused a bit of damage.
"Earthquake!" he said and just as his pokemon started to raise its leg to stomp down, my Onix emerged with an extremely shiny coat.
"Leap forward for Iron Tail!" I said, causing my pokemon to hurl itself across the gap to swing its tail around, thereby avoiding the Earthquake.
"Hammer it with Hydro Pump!" Brawly said, making his pokemon tank the hit but unleash a super-effective move that saw Onix flying back.
Both pokemon stumbled into a fighting stance and groaned. Poliwrath shook itself again as the sandstorm caused more issues.
Brawly bobbed his head from side to side. "I'm game to trade off again, Earthquake!" he said.
"Go for the High Horsepower leap," I said, causing my pokemon to coil and surge over the space between his pokemon and mine with a mighty leap.
Brawly nodded and pointed. "Protect!" he said with a smug grin. I laughed, knowing he had me there as my pokemon slammed into a barrier. Onix took the hit poorly, shaking its head in an obvious sign of distress from missing, only for the protective shell to drop away a few moments later.
"Iron Ta—" I started to say, only for Poliwrath to blast Onix back with a devastating punch that ended the match.
Yolanda raised her flags. "Onix is unable to battle! Brawly is the winner!"
The crowd rose to their feet and cheered. I lowered the podium, and Brawly moved to clap his hand on his pokemon's shoulder. Then he locked eyes with me and walked forward, his hand raised.
I laughed and raised my hand to clap my hand with his in a powerful grasp that echoed as we slammed together. Both of us grinned as our arms tensed up. "Congratulations," I said to him "You have demonstrated more than enough skill to earn yourself the Boulder badge."
"I accept!" he said with a huge grin. Then he wrapped an arm around me and turned us. "Now let's smile and wave to the crowd!" he said
I shook my head but did so. He smiled. "Doing anything tomorrow?"
"For once, I have the morning free."
"Cool," Brawly said, and then, much to my surprise, he said. "We found a Rocket base that could do with some masked good samaritans to kick its doors in before you go and make sure Will doesn't try cheating. You in?"
My smile grew as I nodded. I most certainly was up for some stress relief.
A.N. Thanks go to my Patreons for their support.
It also goes to Obiwankentucky for betaing this chapter!
I led them into the break room behind the reception and raised an eyebrow at Roxanne. "You went straight into fighting at the Battleclub I take it?"
Roxanne nodded, and I chuckled. I wasn't surprised that she'd throw herself right into following my advice. It was what I expected from her. "How many matches did you have?"
"Four today that were worth my time," she said, sighing and leaning back into the couch. I tilted my head, but Flannery was the one to speak up.
"She had a whole bunch of brats challenging her! It was like she was running a kindergarten with how she was schooling them!" Flannery cackled.
Roxanne huffed. "Don't say it like that. They showed admirable courage, and if I want to take over as the Rustboro Gym, it was a good experience."
"So how many did you actually end up fighting?" I asked.
"Ten," Roxanne said with a sigh.
"Good numbers," I said casually.
"Ha! It's probably nothing to what you faced at the start of this circuit!" Brawly said with a laugh.
I shook my head. "The start of the circuit, and by that I mean the first week? It's usually pretty quiet as trainers get familiar with their pokemon. Then I get the usual rush for the first month or so… this season… yeah it's been nuts; it's only starting to slow down now."
I waved a hand around. "I've started blocking out later starts, earlier finishes, and longer lunches, which is so nice after the crunch period where I was pretty much just hanging in there."
"Sounds stressful. We should go surfing," Brawly said with a nod, like that would solve all my issues.
Roxanne sighed, and Flannery laughed. "You say that for almost everything!"
Brawly shrugged but lolled his head around to smile at me. "Come on, admit it; it worked that one time, didn't it?"
I nodded somewhat hesitantly before tilting my head. "I was actually considering going up to Mahogany Town again to do some skiing."
Brawly nodded his head. "Yeah, true. Snowboarding would be pretty choice!" I chuckled, that hadn't been what I said but I decided to ignore it as Flannery looked like she was going to burst.
"None of that matters, though yeah? You're still hoping for that Will rematch yeah?" she said heatedly.
I nodded. "Yes," I said.
Flannery stood. "Then what we need is action! We need to find that punk, make him regret cheating like he did, and expose any ties he has with Team Rocket!"
I raised an eyebrow at her and she groaned. "Or we can wait for him to slip up, I guess."
I waved a hand. "No, no. That look was about your Team Rocket comment. What made you think that?" I said. I hadn't said something in front of them, had I?
Flannery huffed. "The guy is obviously bad news! In Hoenn, people like him are usually linked with Magma or Aqua! In Indigo, you only have Team Rocket, ergo!" she said as though that explained anything.
I raised a finger before shaking my head and lowering it. "We are putting things in place, Flannery," I said, trying to calm her.
Brawly frowned at me and Roxanne tilted her head thoughtfully. Ah, crap, I hadn't refuted Flannery, and while she'd missed it, her friends hadn't.
Flannery grumbled and kicked her feet up. "I know that! It's just! Urgh! It's frustrating!"
I nodded. "Yeah, it really is. I've been toying with the idea of storming into a press conference of his to demand a rematch but…"
"He's a slippery one," said Flannery as she slumped onto a couch.
Roxanne coughed. "It also might be taken poorly…" she mumbled, only to blush as everyone looked at her. "That is, I meant to say it might be best for him to let the other gyms fight him such as Erika, Sabrina, or likewise… He is mirroring the circuit's big gyms, and it might be seen as you not having faith in them if you step in."
I rubbed my chin. "I hadn't considered that but… I'm not too sure it would go like that. Also, I don't think Will is going to try himself against Blaine or Giovanni," I said in an off-hand manner.
That made everyone pause, and I grimaced as I realised I might have misspoken again.
Flannery narrowed her eyes. "Why not those two Gyms? Because they're the last two traditionally?"
"That would make him more likely to challenge them, wouldn't it?" Brawly said with his head tilted to the side. "Before everyone watched your match against Lance, most people would have assumed it was a straight first-to-last Boulder to Earth badge in terms of strength." Brawly pointed out.
I waggled my hand as an acceptable dodge occurred to me. "He also needs to try and beat out others that are going to challenge for the position. Karen started before him and has already knocked over six of the Johto gyms, and she has done so convincingly. I think that if he delays, she's going to make a run at the Elite Four position first and beat him to it."
"Oh!" said the others, nodding along to that. "So he needs to increase his publicity?" said Roxanne thoughtfully.
"And his Ace trainer rating," I grunted, mentally praising myself for the dodge. "He needs to have reached the number one position to at least launch a challenge. Something he has apparently been getting a lot of, but he hasn't been challenging people for big televised matches much. The ones that everyone are showing are the Gym matches, with Sabrina being the showdown everyone is anticipating."
Brawly nodded. "The face-off of Psychic types, huh? Sort of like how you and Roxanne got a lot of attention due to being Rock specialists going head to head."
He snapped his fingers. "Then again, you'd get a lot of publicity with people going for a rematch." He posed with his thumb and forefinger around his chin. "I know we're getting a lot of people's attention with the announcement that I'm having my rematch after all."
Flannery snorted loudly at that. "Please they're just hoping that you're going to dunk water on Brock again so you and he end up fighting shirtless!"
Brawly grinned at her. "You saying you won't enjoy the show?" he said with a wink. Flannery scoffed but a dusting of red appeared on her nose.
Brawly then grinned in my direction. "What do you say Brock? Opening move this time? Wailord sent out for some Surf?"
That made me pause. Around us, others snickered while Roxanny squirmed. I eventually rolled my eyes. "Do what you will if you think it is going to help you. I'm more interested in seeing how things go with your starter this time around."
Brawly nodded his head. "He's fighting fit and so ready for this match! Trust me!"
"Hmmm good. I'll be looking forward to seeing how you fight." I then directed my attention to Roxanne. "Speaking of strong pokemon, when are you thinking of evolving your Nosepass?"
"Oh! I've been having some trouble with that; Usually people think it is best to use a thunderstone, but that doesn't always work."
"Thunderstone or electrically charged environment, isn't it?" I said.
At Roxanne's stunned look I waved a hand. "I've looked into the Nosepass pokemon group before but hadn't been able to secure any. They're not the easiest of pokemon to get your hands on, and they're not super popular. Celia, one of the gym's trainers, has caught one and is looking for another while she's in Hoenn. I've sent her a thunderstone and told her to use it while training near a powerplant or talk with Wattson about using his gym."
"Old man Wattson?" Flannery said, smiling fondly. "He'd be interested in helping her out if she explains herself. He's such a kooky old guy! Great Gym leader, he's one of the most popular gym leaders around, but I think that's more to do with his attitude when dealing with people than how strong he is."
"Rustboro is popular as well!" Roxanne said staunchly before coughing and sitting up straight. "I was actually wondering, Brock, if I might ask to use your own facilities here. I understand that you need an electrical environment for your geodude variants to gain their typing, no?"
I waggled my hand in a so-so gesture. "Among other things such as diet, breeding for certain traits, and such, yes." I smirked as I started to see what her angle was. "Ah, you want to borrow it for evolving your Nosepass?"
Roxanne nodded, and I responded with a nod of my own. "Sure! But I think I better wait until this afternoon." When Roxanne tilted her head, I scratched the back of my head. "This is the sort of thing that would be great for Salvadore to witness; he loves it. I'll tell Bianca about it as well; assemble the brain trust to observe the whole thing."
Roxanne accepted that easily enough, and when the Gym matches were done for the day, I met Salvadore walking into the house. "Hey Brock!" he said as he unloaded his backpack onto the couch.
"Hey, can you come with me? I have a pokemon that is going to evolve, and I wanted to see—" he sprinted away, causing me to grimace as I heard him slam into a few walls on the way to his room. On the way back, he was no less loud. He then skidded to a stop in front of me with his notepad and a camera slung around his neck.
"I'm ready!" he said, rather unnecessarily.
I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed. "No… running in the house, little bro."
He nodded, entirely unrepentant and too excited to care. "What pokemon is it?"
I chuckled and waved for him to follow me. "Come on, and I'll show you."
I led him into the reserve, where we found Brawly paddling around with my Corsola while Roxxane was happily sitting on the side, stroking Tirtouga on the head as Lileep cuddled up to her. Greta, Yolanda, and Crystal all watched on.
I glanced around looking for Flannery, only to spot her wrestling with Cranidos. "Brock! How is this a baby pokemon? It's as hyper as a Pikachu that's been sucking on a power socket!"
I cocked my head to the side. "Is that a thing that happens?" I asked as she was dragged along.
Cranidos crowed happily. He'd been putting on weight, and with how he'd started dashing around to challenge various pokemon he'd been gaining muscle. Muscle that he was now using to drag Flannery around.
"Cranidos! Here!" I said, kneeling down and offering myself as a target. That had Cranidos charging straight at me.
"Brock you big dumb lug!" Flannery howled as she refused to let go.
Just before Cranidos got too close, I shifted and reached out, snagging Cranidos behind the head and twisting my body so that I moved with him before swinging him around me. I then tumbled him over himself, causing him to squeak in surprise.
While he was thrown off balance, I tucked him into my side and locked my elbow in. I made sure to start flowing rock energy through my body as I grinned down at Flannery.
"There, like that!" I said, ignoring how Cranidos was now slamming his head into my side and whining at my not being knocked over.
"Ha ha ha," Flannery said flatly. "Little sucker blindsided me while I was inspecting your Slugma and that hill you're building for him and his fellow."
I flicked my eyes over the 'hill' that was in truth a large earthworks project that even now some of my pokemon were building up under Bianca, Jennifer, and an engineer's directions.
"You must have startled him," I said shamelessly, like it wasn't something he did all the time.
Flannery glowered at me for that, while Cranidos gained a smug look. Then he went back to headbutting me, and with the rock energy protecting my ribs, I barely felt it.
Roxanne rose to meet me with a serene expression on her face. "Brock, I think I'm even more envious of this place since the last time I was out here! You've gained another group of ancient pokemon?"
I nodded. "Yeah, we're working at it. It helps that we have the research lab in Pewter and the League's approval."
Flannery clapped Roxanne on the shoulder. "No fear, Roxy; you'll get there once you're a gym leader! Just give it time!"
"And Money," I said. "Money helps; I'd suggest getting as much built up before you become a gym leader, that way you can snowball it if you need to."
Roxanne nodded at that. "Any advice on how to do that?"
I shrugged. "Win a lot of matches—more than you lose anyway. Fight enough, and you can make some serious money."
I nodded my head towards the cave system. "Shall we?" I then nudged Cranidos off to see if he could beat Knight in a wrestle. The little pokemon charged off, and I chuckled, knowing he had run in the wrong direction to find Knight. I then waved to Bianca, and she joined us to observe the process.
When we reached the electrical cavern, she directed us to a small cupboard that had been installed,holding rubber gloves, shoes, and coats, which we all donned.
"Observation diary one hundred and twelve! Evolution in action!" Salvadore said as he set up the camera to record.
Roxanne released her Nosepass which perked up as electrical energy sparked off the walls. Nosepass nosed at the walls before turning to Roxanne when she whistled for its attention. "Hey boy! It's time to evolve if you're ready?" she said.
"Nosepass!" intoned the pokemon before hovering forward and into the offered thunderstone. Everyone held their breaths as Nosepass touched the stone. The stone lit up, and then a huge spark from the floor of the cavern arced up into Nosepass, causing it to spasm.
The thunderstone clung to Nosepass, and another arc of electricity entered Nosepass making it twitch again.
Before anyone could freak out, however, a glow encompassed its entire body as the evolution took hold. When the lights faded, everyone else blinked their eyes to witness the new pokemon.
"Probopass!" intoned the now much larger pokemon. It had gained a red hat-like structure on its head along with what looked like a moustache under its large red nose.
A digitised voice spoke up. "Probopass, this pokemon is a Rock-steel type pokemon. It was commonly used in sailing expeditions and is a common sight on seafarers that traverse the oceans to this day, thanks to Probopass' ability to act as a compass that will always know where north is.
"Its body is highly magnetised, and the units on the sides and back are considered mini-noses. It is debated whether these smaller features improve the Probopass' ability to perceive its surroundings and make it much harder to sneak up on. It knows Lock-On, Zap Cannon, Stone Edge, Earth Power, Iron Defense, and Body Press."
Greta whistled at that while Roxanne ran forward to hug her pokemon.
"Is that her starter?" I asked Flannery. Flannery nodded proudly and I hummed. It was always a good day when any pokemon evolved, but it was just a bit more special when it was your starter pokemon.
"Well sounds like we're going to have to celebrate then!" I said with a clap of my hands. I happily sent Salvadore off to join the others for dinner as I led my friends to a more upscale restaurant. I messaged Sabrina, and she joined us when we reached the restaurant. I touched her hand as I noticed that she looked a bit tired.
"You alright?" I asked.
"I'm just tired; I've been working with Erika a lot and also with my father," she said, squeezing my hand.
Flannery chose that moment to speak up. "Hey Sabrina! I'm totally coming for your badge next! My pokemon team got a lot stronger after fighting Brock!" she said with a cocky smile.
Sabrina nodded her head. "That is good." Her face lost all emotion. "You will need it."
She then tilted her head as her eyes glowed. "Sadly I see only disappointment in your future." Flannery stiffened at that and opened her mouth only for Sabrina to smile. "The special that you are hoping to order tonight has run out of stock."
"Snrk!" Brawly said. "Hah! She got you there, Flannery!"
Roxanne giggled while Flannery huffed in annoyance but nodded at Sabrina. "Well played." She then deposited herself next to Sabrina and leaned in to whisper about something. I decided to ignore it and instead speak with Roxanne and Brawly about the sort of gyms they wanted to set up. I was rather amused that Brawly was hoping for a small gym while Roxanne seemed frustrated with his lack of ambition.
He merely shrugged. "Eh, I'll see what floats my way," he said, causing her to sigh and shake her head.
The evening passed like that, with suggestions and a few plans tossed around. Brawly tried to get me to go surfing with him, and Sabrina surprised me when she supported the idea.
In the end, I succumbed, resulting in all of us, plus Rocko and Jackson, joining us on the ocean the next morning. Roxanne happily accepted Brawly's coaching on how to surf, while Sabrina merely floated out and ordered a wave for herself.
I chuckled when she stood atop her surfboard like a queen surveying her kingdom. When the wave rose she surfed it without a hint of a wobble, causing me to laugh.
"You know you're supposed to use your balance and ride it, not control the board with your psychic powers," I said, splashing some water at her.
"I like my way," she said simply before smiling innocently as she kicked out with her foot and sent a giant wave to topple me off the board.
Jackson laughed as I spluttered my way back onto the board. I shot a splash at him, and he paddled out to show off his own Orange Island-acquired skills. I hooted at him when he crashed out after riding the wave for ten seconds. Rocko took his own turn and if anything, he'd gotten better since the last time.
Flannery revealed herself to be very experienced at surfing, much to my surprise.
"Thought you were a fire type!" I called out to her as she glided through the water towards us.
"That doesn't mean I can't hang ten!" she called back.
Brawly led Roxanne out into the water, only for her to tip over on the way out to the wave. In the end, he got a larger board and showed her how it felt while holding her steady.
"Oh! Smooth Roxy! Very smooth, the helpless maiden ploy!" Flannery whooped at her friend causing Roxanne to shoot her a heated look only to smile back at Brawly who was grinning.
I chuckled. "Think they're going to date?" I said to Sabrina
Sabrina shrugged. "I'm not sure. I believe Brawly is looking for something casual, while Roxanne wants a boyfriend. I am not certain, but I believe usually the boy caves to the girl's demands in this situation, or the girl's feelings are hurt."
I raised an eyebrow at that. And Sabrina shrugged. "It is my observation from the discussions when I am with Erika. They are quite informative," she said casually, like she hadn't just admitted to listening in on a lot of gossip and what sounded like heartbreak if she'd created a 'consensus' on how these things usually went.
"How's she going?" I asked.
"She is doing wonderfully. I think she will make a good showing of herself."
"Will she win?" I asked, to which Sabrina remained silent. I sighed and took another turn at surfing. I lasted all of three seconds before crashing out. I think Sabrina might have helped me stay on the board even that long with how stable it felt. I shot her a thankful look, and she winked at me.
When it was time to go, Sabrina teleported me and the other Pewter trainers back to the Gym where we had enough time to scoff down some food before meeting the day.
When lunchtime came around, the Gym began to fill up, and Sabrina returned to claim a seat in the trainer's box. She smiled enigmatically at me while holding a large soda for herself and Ralts. I shot her a confused look, but ultimately I shrugged it off, turning to watch as Brawly was announced.
"And now! He's tasted the sting of defeat once before, and now he's come back with a vengeance! The surfer-bro that we all love! Let's give it up for Brawly!"
I watched Brawly step forward. Unlike the last time he'd entered my gym, he did so with a smile and a wave. Gone were the sheepish expression and slightly jittery frame of mind. He strode forth now, chest out, head raised, and a surety in his eyes.
Last time I'd faced him, he'd gone straight into a match against me, albeit at the highest level available.
Today, he challenged the fourth tier with a gauntlet challenge.
Yolanda stood in the middle of the field, her flags at the ready and the barriers shimmering. A.J. stood on the podium, looking slightly nervous but composed.
I frowned, and a vague recollection occurred to me. Last time… it was Daniel standing in as referee. Daniel the traitor.
I felt my mood darken, and I shook it off as A.J. released a Graveler onto the field. Brawly countered with a Machamp.
It landed and flexed, causing A.J. to narrow his eyes and lean forward. Instead of giving an immediate command, Brawly glanced up at me and winked.
Huh, he remembered the first pokemon he sent out last time as well, did he? I chuckled as A.J. decided he'd given Brawly enough time. "Graveler! Defence Curl!"
"Focus Machamp," Brawly said easily, his pokemon raising its hands and holding them palm out to Graveler.
"Tch! Earthquake!" A.J. ordered, causing his pokemon to punch the ground and send out a powerful rumble.
"Leap!" Brawly said, punching his hand up high. Machamp tensed, and then, just before the shockwave hit him he leapt. The jump carried him in an arc up and straight towards Graveler.
"FB!" Brawly ordered punching out and causing Machamp to chamber his fists before unleashing a devasting round of punches with all four fists.
"Dig!" A.J. said. Graveler burrowed, only for the concussive wave of force to hit it just after it disappeared. A.J. himself stumbled, as his podium shook from the force of the blow. Graveler popped out of another hole to the side and shook itself.
It might have gotten away, but it didn't appear to have done it cleanly. "Rollout!" ordered A.J., making me frown.
"Focus!" ordered Brawly again, his pokemon having landed and raised its fists up again. I could see the Machamp's muscles twitching even as it held its ready pose. Ah he was using Focus Energy during those little gaps now? Brawly had gotten wiser.
A.J. waited until his pokemon was right on top of Machamp before he shouted a new command. "Explosion!" he barked.
"Protect!" Brawly screamed, not even hesitating as his pokemon knelt and raised a shield in the face of a glowing Graveler.
Graveler detonated, and it took a few moments for the fans to blow aside the smoke to reveal Machamp had been unaffected.
A.J. glanced up at me and I bobbed my head from side to side. Not bad. It was a good attempt, but it hadn't worked out.
A.J. returned his pokemon and almost stashed it away. Instead, he twitched and flicked his eyes to Yolanda who was watching him intensely. He whispered something to the pokeball, and then put it away earning himself a nod from Yolanda.
He then whipped out his second pokemon. "Go Graveler!" he ordered again. Once more the rocky pokemon landed on the ground, only this time it shifted back and forth with small black spikes on its side twitching.
"Roll!" A.J. said, sweeping his hand to the side.
"Line it up Machamp!" Brawly said firmly, making his Machamp slide his feet and keep a pair of fists raised in readiness.
I leaned forward and watched the Graveler roll, noticing that it was starting to spark up as it did so. A.J. once again chopped his hand in. "Close for Heavy Slam!" he yelled to his pokemon before stopping right as he got close. "Discharge!"
"FB!" Brawly ordered, causing the fists of Machamp to rocket forward, ignoring the lash of electricity that shocked him.
"Roll to the side!" A.J. ordered only for Graveler to not be quick enough. It dodged but was still clipped. "Tch! Again but circle it!"
"Machamp go for CC!" Brawly shouted. His pokemon leapt forward and, with two hands, grasped the sparking Graveler.
The other two fists then slammed into Gravler in a furious tempo that ended the match after a flurry of blows. The Machamp stopped with his fists held in front of the Graveler's unconscious face, threatening to continue but otherwise holding back.
Gravler slumped forward, unconscious, and the Machamp lowered him.
Yolanda raised a flag. "Graveler is unable to battle! This means Brawly is the victor for this round." A.J. returned his pokemon and once more whispered something to it, this time flicking a glance up and spotting Yolanda beaming at him. He retreated up to me amid a smattering of applause, looking like a grumpy wet Meowth.
I waved him close. "Hey, you did good out there. Nice try with the Explosion point-blank. I don't think you had a good match up, but you made the most of it."
"Still lost," he said angrily.
"Yeah, that's true, but remember, the point of being a Gym trainer isn't to win but to challenge trainers and grow. You certainly had Brawly sweating out there with that sequence of moves. He was only a bit more sure of himself on your second Graveler because he knew that he could advance without you exploding due to the rules about last pokemon explosions," I said.
A.J. nodded. "Graveler should have been able to dodge that Focus Blast; it's not the most accurate of moves!"
I wobbled my hand in a so-so gesture. "Yes but also no. It's not normally an accurate move, but Brawly is a type specialist, so with that in mind. He'd have higher odds of hitting a move like Focus Blast. He'd also have had his pokemon train it a lot more, as it's a very useful move for fighting types to have."
I waved my hand. "I think your idea of building up a Charge with your second Graveler was good, but you might have also achieved a better result if you'd used Rock Polish for your hit-and-run tactics like you tried pulling off."
"Hmmm, can I work with these two Gravelers a bit more?"
"Sure thing, just remember that if you evolve them, you should only use one of them during your matches at the fourth tier. We're trying to challenge our trainers, not beat them down."
A.J. nodded and stomped off, causing me to hum. I decided to leave him be for the moment. I'd send someone to bring him back to watch my match against Brawly, though; he might notice something he wanted to copy or expand on after all.
I turned back to find that Jackson had just sauntered down to an extremely popular song while the crowd laughed and sang along. He'd popped the collar on his floral shirt. Brawly himself was smiling and having a great time of it as Jackson danced his way down to the podium.
He then locked eyes with Brawly, and they grinned as one.
"You ready for this, surfer boy?" Jackson said as he expanded his choice.
"You know it!" said Brawly as he selected his own pokemon.
I tapped Sabrina on the shoulder. "Did he do anything with his Machamp during the break?"
"He used a Full Restore on it," she said, taking a sip from her soda.
"Ah, seems he's doing well for himself if he's got that sort of free money," I said.
"He has his seven badges already, having challenged the minor gyms. This is for his eighth." Sabrina took another sip. "Roxanne is very annoyed with him as he plans to just train and surf for the rest of the circuit if he has his way."
"That sounds like him," I said, chuckling.
"He could be a very strong Gym Leader for Hoenn." Sabrina eyed me. "Perhaps even an Elite Four if he tried for it."
I smiled at her and shrugged. "Guess it will be up to him and what he wants. I think right now he just wants to have good times with his friends, which mostly involves surfing."
"Any idea what he will do after that?" she said with a tilt of her head.
"Who's to say? That'll be for Brawly to decide."
I watched as Jackson sent out an Onix only to have it smashed up by Brawly's Breloom.
I snorted as a thought occurred to me. "He must have been winning a lot of fights, having qualified as an Indigo trainer on his first circuit while having a team like he does." I chuckled. "He's one of the only people out there that aren't facing team restrictions."
Sabrina inclined her head. "If he was more aggressive or less honest, he could have amassed himself a lot of wealth."
I hummed, knowing he wouldn't have done any such thing. If anything, he probably helped coach anyone who caught his fancy during this circuit. Still… I watched his Medicham unleash a barrage of hits onto Jackson's Lairon before it smashed it back with an Iron Head.
The thought of Brawly's prowess made me wonder… was I watching the future winner of the Indigo Circuit? He had all the time in the world to build up his team, which was already powerful from his years as an apprentice under Chuck.
If he pushed himself… he could go far.
I shook my head as the match was called, and Brawly waved Jackson off with a laugh. Then he turned his attention to healing up his Breloom.
I straightened up and limbered myself up. "Alright, time to see how much he's changed."
Sabrina nodded and indicated the seat next to Flannery in the front row. "I will cheer you on from up close," she said, standing and kissing me on the cheek.
I tilted my head as she did so. "Uhmmm, it's a Gym match, not an Ace battle, Sabrina?"
She nodded. "Yes, but you're going to try your best." She tucked Ralts into her arms and teleported into the seat with her soda bottle still in hand. I laughed when Flannery twitched in surprise before shaking my head.
That had been odd, I thought to myself.
Oh well. I shook myself out and instead focused on the coming match. I knew exactly what pokemon I was going to use this time, but I wasn't going to play things out the same way.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Brawly has demonstrated that he has shown remarkable growth since the last time he entered Pewter Gym! He has a battle record of two hundred and eighteen victories to fifty-eight losses on the circuit so far!"
I whistled at that. Damn, Brawly was a bit of a silent assassin. That was better than… what? Seventy percent as a win rate? Hmmm, I'd need a calculator to work it out properly.
Brawly was doing way better than I expected. If my match with him and his match against Will were taken away, how well would he be doing? Actually, just retracting his loss to Will would mean that he would not have lost to me. And how many of his losses had to do with not having his starter?
Damn!
Rachel continued to hype him up, and Brawly seemed embarrassed by the praise. I hadn't expected her to do this sort of research on him, but it was a good addition and had the crowd perking up and getting very interested in the upcoming match.
I hummed. Alright, so I could probably stop holding back. I'd known that last time, this time I was going to start out strong.
"—back to face our Gym Leader! Let's welcome him now! Give it up! For Gym Leader! BROCK!" Rachel shouted, swinging her arms around before launching herself into a full-body hop, hop, clap that made the crowd join her.
When they had a good tempo and the air was shaking, I began to walk down, my eyes locked onto Brawly. He straightened up and matched me, his smile holding despite the tension in the air.
As with Roxanne, I leapt from further back and slammed into the podium, rising with a darkness sweeping out from me as I'd done against Will.
"Brawly, welcome back," I said flatly. I enlarged a pokeball and held it out. "Are you ready?"
Brawly smirked as he selected his first pokeball. "So ready for this!" he said.
I whipped my arm forward. "Go Quirina!" I said, deciding to go for my psychic pokemon straight away to counter him.
"Go Wailord!" Brawly shouted.
His giant water-type pokemon landed with a thump that echoed.
I had a sudden feeling of intense deja vu that wasn't helped at all as Brawly's grin stretched his entire face. "Sorry! Not sorry!" he called out to me.
"Wailord! Surf!" called out Brawly.
"Oh you shithead Brawly," I said, knowing this had to be by design as I watched his pokemon call up another gigantic wave all while Brawly laughed like a maniac.
Working on autopilot, I pressed a button on my podium to make sure the barriers were working properly.
Rachel stepped in front of the crowd and smiled hugely, "All crowd members currently in the stands, please be aware that drying facilities are available in the communal parts of the gym and laundry services can be provided. Thank you! Please remain seated and have a nice day." She then scurried to sit next to Sabrina while other people in the crowd whooped and cheered the wave as it rushed onward.
"Protect," I said with the driest of tones possible.
The wave slammed over me, and the world was lost for a few moments of tranquil wailord song that I thought might sound like it was giggling before the wave was drained away through the grills on the side of the battlefield.
When I didn't need goggles to see I waved a hand to Rachel to check that no one was injured or startled by the wave, not that it looked like any action needed to be taken as people were all standing and cheering.
"Take it off!" shouted someone, and I blinked as I realised that Brawly was peeling himself out of his wet shirt. When he was done, he tossed his shirt to the side, raising his arms out wide, and locking eyes with me. Was he making the 'come at me bro' pose?
I shot him a flat look. "Did you serious…" I sighed knowing he had. I turned my head around to find Sabrina watching me with a straw in her mouth as she drank her soda. She wiggled her eyebrows.
Et tu, Sabrina? I thought to myself.
I shook my head and took off my shirt to the cheers of the crowd and more than a little screaming. More than a few cameras started flashing, but I ignored them.
"Alright, you've had your fun," I said to Brawly. "I think that's enough time, don't you Quirina?"
My Solrock responded by unleashing the Solar Beam he'd started channelling as soon as the Protect had dropped away.
Everyone had been a little too occupied with my taking off my shirt to notice how pissed off he was at being dunked on again from the same pokemon.
"Protect!" said Brawly, crossing his arms over his chest as my Solar Beam slammed into the barrier his pokemon raised. He grinned at me, and I nodded. Good, he had thought this through more than just playing around.
"Sunny Day!"
"Rain Dance! Not letting you get that off like last time, Brock!" Brawly shouted as his pokemon countered my environment move. I hummed. Alright, if he's going to do that…
"Rock Polish," I said easily.
"Hydro Pump!" Brawly said, punching forward.
"Rock Polish again, avoid it!" I said forcing my pokemon to spin like a wheel on the loose as it evaded the attack before spinning back to avoid the follow up strikes.
"Close in on it!" I said.
Solrock swept forward and gained a glint in its eyes as Brawly narrowed his eyes.
"Now!" He ordered unleashing a fierce barrage.
"Spin up and come back down!" I said, making my pokemon shoot up. As it did this, I raised up another pokeball. I knew this wasn't a guarantee but it still worked better to have a closer pokeball offered up. Brawly's eyes widened at the pose.
"Baton Pass!" I said, causing my Solrock to vanish and be replaced by a much thinner pokemon.
"Wood Hammer!" I shouted as my Sudowoodo swept down with a glowing green arm.
"Pro—" was all Brawly got the chance to say before my pokemon slammed into Wailord's face with the super-effective move. Wailord wailed in pain at the impact before tilting to the side as my pokemon flipped end over end to land in the middle of the field.
I pumped my fist. Nice! That had been a critical hit, by the looks of things!
Brawly swept a hand through his hair and laughed. "Ah man! This is what it was like last time too!" he said as he returned his pokemon. "I thought I had you back then as well."
I shrugged and smiled. "Eh? What can I say? You bring out my fighting spirit?" I said. I groaned as some ladies screamed with delight. Ah, I'd forgotten to not feed the local fan club. I shot Brawly another annoyed look, but he laughed unrepentantly.
He then gained a serious expression. "Alright, I don't want to play things too much the same way, but my man has been chomping at the bit for this rematch. Let's go Machamp!" he said as he tossed out his Machamp.
Machamp instantly locked eyes on Sudowoodo, and his left and right hands slammed together in a bow that had to be a martial arts pose.
Sudowoodo responded by raising up on one foot with his other in the air. "Wood!" he said teasingly.
Machamp's eyes narrowed, and I knew right away that my pokemon had himself a proper rival.
"Advance on him Machamp!" Brawly ordered.
I knew it had to be a hidden command, so I pointed forward. "Copy him, Sudowoodo," I said firmly.
Both pokemon marched forward, and Machamp had a look of intense focus that somewhat gave the game away of Brawly using Focus Energy as his pokemon stalked forward. In comparison, my pokemon just looked comical, advancing with a smirk on his face while flexing its twiggy arms.
When they were within touching distance, they stopped and glowered at each other. Machamp looked down on Sudowoodo. I could tell he wanted to destroy his rival.
"LK!" Brawly said.
"Quake!" I said, not willing to get stuck in this game.
I'd humoured him last time but I planned to play it smart. As Machamp dropped to one arm to spin about to knock Sudowoodo off its feet, my pokemon stomped its foot and unleashed a close-range Earthquake.
"Kip over into Mach Punch!" Brawly said as his pokemon began to flounder.
His Machamp then twisted and sighted on the ground before unleashing a barrage of punches that slammed into the earth, holding Machamp aloft like some overpowered anime protagonist going turbo.
Sudowoodo had to stumble back in the face of the barrage. "DP!" I said, causing Sudowoodo to leap forward with a glowing arm once more.
"Counter!" Brawly said, making his pokemon sweep its body around once again and catch the punch with its feet before stomping Sudowoodo into the ground.
"Kick it off!" I shouted. Sudowoodo grunted in pain before spinning into a perfectly timed Low Kick that knocked Machamp off its feet. Machamp landed awkwardly this time but bounced up a moment later, already swinging.
"Cross chop!" Brawly ordered, causing his pokemon to slash its hands down.
"Counter again!" I ordered him to make the most of the force of the attack as Sudowoodo danced back only to lash out with a foot into Machamp's face.
"Scary Face!" Brawly ordered, realising how precarious the situation was with my pokemon keeping up and evading so much thus far. Sudowoodo stumbled and glowered only for Machamp to grin.
"Quake!" I said, making the most of Machamp standing up against my pokemon.
"FB!" barked Brawly.
Both attacks were launched, and I saw both impact the respective pokemon. Sudowoodo toppled like a tree, while Machamp was shaken and thrown to land hard once again. Both pokemon struggled into a standing position before suddenly falling to their knees.
"Sudo…" said my pokemon as he fell into the dirt.
Machamp growled and forced himself up into a standing position.He then stood, trembling and defiant, over my Sudowoodo. "Ma Champ!" he said, shouting his victory for everyone.
"Sudowoodo is unable to battle!" Yolanda called out, causing a tidal wave of applause to rise from the crowd at the great match.
I returned Sudowoodo to my pokeball and smiled at it. "You still not interested in joining the Elite team buddy? You'd have a place on there, you know?" I said to him before pocketing his ball.
On the other side, Brawly returned his Machamp with a smile. When he raised his eyes to look at me, he grinned. "Heh! They did great! You shook things up once again!" he said, shaking his head. "Machamp won't be able to come back into this fight and you took out Wailord with that Baton Pass trick… If I don't show some change, this match will end like last time!"
I inclined my head in agreement, and Brawly laughed. "But things are different this time." He raised another pokeball and I mirrored him.
"Let's go Hariyama!" said Brawly, revealing his starter. It slammed down onto the ground and shifted on the still slightly muddy field its eyes shifting before locking onto my pokemon.
"Let's go Quirina!" I said, much happier with this match-up for him. "Psychic!" I said, pointing straight at Hariyama.
"Taunt!" Brawly said. His pokemon twitched as Psychic wrapped around him to throw him about, only for Dark energy to surge outward. Hariyama raised a huge mitt and shook his finger back and forth as Quirina flinched like he'd been stung.
Huh, that was certainly a way to use dark energy defensively. So I couldn't directly grab Hariyama with Psychic then eh?
"Psybeam!"
"Detect!" Brawly said with a grin as his pokemon leapt to the side only for Quirina to arc the beam around and yet miss again as Hariyama dove under the beam and slid through the mud to close in with my pokemon.
"Heavy Slam!" said Brawly with a grin, his pokemon leaping up to tackle my pokemon.
"Protect!" I said, hoping to block the super-effective move. As Hariyama descended I exhaled in relief as a Protect barrier formed around Quirrina just before impact.
"Hariyama! Use Belly Drum!" he said, causing his pokemon to slap its own stomach.
"Hari-yama!" it shouted as it slapped its own stomach. The sound of flesh being struck caused me to grimace. That move came with the issue of lowering a pokemon's health to halfway. Brawly was dancing a fine line here.
"Confusion!" I said, putting my hopes on getting off a quick move as my pokemon's Protect faded. A pink aura surrounded Hariyama and he flinched, but then he merely narrowed his eyes on Quirina and leapt forward.
"Drain Punch!" said Brawly as the move slammed home into Quirrina.
Quirrina was flung back from the power of the attack and fainted as he struck the wall. I whistled in awe.
That was the other benefit of Belly Drum. A maximised increase in attacking power. I raised my eyes to Hariyama as he skipped back and forth with much more energy now.
A Belly Drum into Drain Punch. That was a good combination, if you got the chance to use it.
"Nice work buddy!" I said as I returned my pokemon. I then plucked out another and sent it as far away from Hariyama as I could. I did not want him to get too close.
"Go Shelly!" I shouted, sending out my Omastar once more.
"Headlong Rush!" Brawly said. I hissed in surprise as his pokemon burst into a straight-out sprint at my pokemon before an idea occurred to me.
"Ice beam in front of you!" I said. Shelly fired off an Ice beam directly in front of her and as Hariyama came on.
He leapt to carry himself as far as he could, only to land and instead of cratering the ice, he slipped, causing him to spin off to the side like a loose puck on an ice rink.
"Mud shot!" I said to follow up.
"Detect!" Brawly said, causing his pokemon to once again avoid the attack and advance.
"Surf!" I clicked my tongue in annoyance. I wasn't game to use dig but I didn't have a lot of room to work with due to being forced onto the far right side already.
"Endure it Hariyama!" Brawly called as the wave descended towards his pokemon.
It slammed down and only caused the heavy sumo-like pokemon to rock back a little and when it emerged it was still in good health and now sadly, Shelly was within reach.
Brawly had played that out rather well.
"DP!" he said, ordering another Drain Punch. His Hariyama rocketed forward.
"Dig!" I said, unwilling to not use every chance I had to avoid Shelly being taken out. Shelly dodged under the attack but Brawly merely pointed straight down.
"Stomping Tantrum!" he said. Hariyama stomped and a shockwave of force radiated out.
In another instance, it wouldn't have done much, but with Shelly barely dodging Hariyama's attack, it would have been right on top of her. Sure enough, she crawled out of her tunnel a moment later and wiggled her tentacles weakly. Hariyama knelt and stroked her once while nodding his head in respect.
I returned her and huffed. "You're a different battler with your starter on the field Brawly!" I said, feeling happy despite trying my best to put his pokemon down.
"Hariyama is my main man!" he said, raising a fist to his pokemon who punched back in reply.
I raised my last pokemon. "Let's go Onix!" I said.
My Onix landed and roared in greeting. Hariyama nodded his head but then raised his fist.
"Sandstorm!" I said, making visibility difficult and edging things into my favour.
"Charge in with Detect buddy! Let's end this!"
"Drag it out! Dig buff special!" I said, rolling the dice with a combination of moves while deciding to test if Brawly had anything but Stomping Tantrum to match my pokemon.
Brawly clicked his tongue and shot me an annoyed look. "Return Hariyama! Let's go Poliwrath!" he said, deciding to instead return his pokemon.
I hummed, that would play well in my favour. Poliwrath emerged and groaned as the Sandstorm caused a bit of damage.
"Earthquake!" he said and just as his pokemon started to raise its leg to stomp down, my Onix emerged with an extremely shiny coat.
"Leap forward for Iron Tail!" I said, causing my pokemon to hurl itself across the gap to swing its tail around, thereby avoiding the Earthquake.
"Hammer it with Hydro Pump!" Brawly said, making his pokemon tank the hit but unleash a super-effective move that saw Onix flying back.
Both pokemon stumbled into a fighting stance and groaned. Poliwrath shook itself again as the sandstorm caused more issues.
Brawly bobbed his head from side to side. "I'm game to trade off again, Earthquake!" he said.
"Go for the High Horsepower leap," I said, causing my pokemon to coil and surge over the space between his pokemon and mine with a mighty leap.
Brawly nodded and pointed. "Protect!" he said with a smug grin. I laughed, knowing he had me there as my pokemon slammed into a barrier. Onix took the hit poorly, shaking its head in an obvious sign of distress from missing, only for the protective shell to drop away a few moments later.
"Iron Ta—" I started to say, only for Poliwrath to blast Onix back with a devastating punch that ended the match.
Yolanda raised her flags. "Onix is unable to battle! Brawly is the winner!"
The crowd rose to their feet and cheered. I lowered the podium, and Brawly moved to clap his hand on his pokemon's shoulder. Then he locked eyes with me and walked forward, his hand raised.
I laughed and raised my hand to clap my hand with his in a powerful grasp that echoed as we slammed together. Both of us grinned as our arms tensed up. "Congratulations," I said to him "You have demonstrated more than enough skill to earn yourself the Boulder badge."
"I accept!" he said with a huge grin. Then he wrapped an arm around me and turned us. "Now let's smile and wave to the crowd!" he said
I shook my head but did so. He smiled. "Doing anything tomorrow?"
"For once, I have the morning free."
"Cool," Brawly said, and then, much to my surprise, he said. "We found a Rocket base that could do with some masked good samaritans to kick its doors in before you go and make sure Will doesn't try cheating. You in?"
My smile grew as I nodded. I most certainly was up for some stress relief.
A.N. Thanks go to my Patreons for their support.
It also goes to Obiwankentucky for betaing this chapter!
Last edited: