I glanced over my team and nodded at the fluffiest one, “Valley.”
The Minccino smirked and nodded back before jumping into the hole. The Charizard teacher eyes Valley and points to one of his students, one of the smallest. The little fire pokemon grumbles but falls into the hole.
Valley is almost trampled down by the fast lizard as soon as the battle begins, but sidesteps the attack. The red pokemon pivoted and lunged down, but the Minccino jumped at the wall and bounced out of it towards the Charmeleon, a twist of her body and a glowing tail pounds into the pokemon’s head, sending him sprawling through the ground. Wincing but not particularly hurt, the pokemon stands up and growls before throwing himself at Valley once again.
The battle continued like that for a time; Valley dodged charges and counterattacked with melee strikes that didn’t cause much damage. Valley couldn’t use long distance moves because the Charmeleon didn’t give her time, but her size and speed guaranteed her victory, or at least I thought so, until the pokemon landed a hit on her.
The Charmeleon started to swing wildly after the tenth time it was hit, and one of its arms was lucky enough to slap Valley away. The little grey pokemon flew across the air and slammed into the wall before sliding down. She didn’t faint but didn’t get up, and that seemed to be enough for the Charizard to declare the Charmeleon the winner of the bout. Valley weakly protested with a squeak from where she laid on the wall.
“Mesa, bring her up, please.”
The ground type was already looking down at the battle and simply nodded before the earth below the Minccino rose her up like a chair until she was outside the hole. I crouched down near her and took the little grey ball into my arms. The normal type protested for a bit before giving up and settling down.
“Mountain, revenge?”
The ice plates of the pokemon shifted humorously and the pokemon floated down at the hole. An exchange of Charmeleon later and a new battle started. This time the Charizard, not only the teacher but Isla’s and the others around showed their skepticism and worry in certain mannerisms, raised eyebrows, crossed arms and swung tails. Isla glanced at me.
“Are you sure bout that?”
Dendra giggled, “That ice type might surprise you.”
Charmeleon opened his mouth and spewed forth flames towards the ice type. Mountain’s edge shined and he spun to the side, following the contour of the circular hole as he dodged. The fire type was about to swing his head and the flames at Mountain when an ice chain wrapped around his leg and threw him high in the air. The Cryogonal swooped past him, rotated above the gawking fire type and slammed the Charmeleon down with a brutal Take Down. The Charmeleon slammed down, breaking the ground and staying there.
Dendra gasped, “Really Mountain!?”
“Yes, did you have to do the poor fire type so bad?” Jess mocked, which took out a good natured scoff from Isla and her Charizard.
Cryogonal floated up and leaned its body to the side in curiosity, a habit learned from seeing confused people. As he did that the Charizard teacher softly stepped forward and used Rock Tomb to take the unconscious pokemon from the hole and fix it, all the while giving Mountain a side eye.
“Don’t worry. These Charmeleon proved to be sturdy enough to warrant the force you used.” I said, softly petting the bruised plates from Take Down’s recoil. Praise is a good way to diffuse a situation after all.
The Charmeleon around us approved, nodding and puffing their chest even as they tensely checked on the fainted one. The Charizard grinned and huffed at seeing their young falling for faint praise.
Cape also scoffed and made to go next but I pulled him back by his horn with a smile, and despite being much stronger than I could ever be, he relented, “You’re last crazy bug.”
Jungle took that as a cue to jump in. The group of Charmeleon on the other side scoffed until the Charizard gave a low groan and said something that made them pause. He chose a Charmeleon that I would guess is middle of the road in strength.
Flames immediately burned towards Jungle. The Bulbasaur turned around, jumped on the wall and bounced up, above the center of the hole. Three seeds the size of my fist struck the Charmeleon’s head down when he tried to raise his head. Imitating Mountain, Jungle’s two vines left his back and whipped at the fire type with a strength I’d never seen before, the impact left the lizard wheezing in pain at the two lashes crossing his body. He wasn’t out though, and was on Jungle as soon as the pokemon landed.
Jungle leaned away from one glowing claw, dived below another one, and pushed forward on his four legs to slam at the Charmeleon’s armpit with Tackle. The fire type groaned in pain and instead of standing his ground, he allowed himself to be pushed back, which gave Jungle the space necessary to swing his whips one last time at the lizard’s head.
The Charmeleon slammed his back into the stone wall and slipped to the bottom unconsciously. Jungle’s whips traveled upwards and were caught on Cape’s hands which allowed the Bulbasaur to walk in the wall until he left the “arena”.
As soon as he was out I crouched, mindful of Valley, and squeezed him into a one armed hug, “That was incredible Jungle.” The pokemon gurgled happily and smiled with his long mouth.
Mesa went next. His opponent rushed forward and was immediately trapped in rock.
The Baltoy floated away from the hole and also deposited the trapped Charmeleon outside before dismissing the matter he used into the ground. Charizard teacher hummed from his chest, and I smiled at the nonchalant attitude of Mesa as he stopped by my side.
Cape crossed his arms as he stared at me, “Now you can go Cape.”
The bug type jumped inside. Charizard looked him over and pointed to the other side of the cave, where an even bigger Charizard was sitting down with four Charmeleon, also bigger than the others in the cavern. Dendra and the others gasped when the one he pointed out stood up. We admired the fire type as he walked near us before also jumping in the hole.
Cape was bigger than an average Heracross, standing at one and sixty centimeters without his horn, while most young Heracross found in the wild have one and fifty centimeters with their horn of about twenty centimeters. My Heracross even looked down at Dendra and Jess. His size, however, still left him short of the Charmeleon. The fire type stood at one and eighty, just ten centimeters shy of the Charizard teacher. The Charmeleon smirked down at Cape who brisked at the disrespect.
The battle began and the Charmeleon ran forward, swinging his glowing claw the size of my head at Cape. Cape dodged low and punched the Charmeleon under his mouth. The lizard's head whipped backwards and its body twisted around in the air before slamming into the ground.
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Nobody spoke for a few seconds, before the Charizard looking laughed wholeheartedly while the Charmeleon around him gawked.
A brief step and the gigantic Charmeleon was outside the pit, and in his place stood Charizard teacher, smiling down at Cape and speaking something at him. The Heracross nodded and put himself in a fighting stance.
Before the fight began however, the Charizard slowly expanded the weight and height of the hole, giving us a chance to retreat.
Cape slammed a leg on the ground and burst forward. The Charizard took his punch on his three clawed hand and twisted his hand back with no problem. The bug type pushed off the ground following the twist and stomped on his head. The fire type felt the hit but didn’t release his hold. Instead he rotated around his tall and buried Cape on the wall on his back with a mighty boom before a flap of his wings gave his opponent some space. Cape grabbed the rock outside the outline he left in stone and pulled, freeing himself from the wall. He looked at the Charizard with razor sharp eyes and pushed forward again.
The Heracross unleashed his fists and Charizard slashed with his claws. Both dodged the incoming attacks to attack the next instant, always changing and flowing. Sometimes the Charizard introduced his tail and sometimes Cape used his horn. A few hits flew close but not one hit.
Cape, frustrated, accelerated his rhythm and the Charizard finally struggled to accompany him. Inch by inch, the fighting type pushed the fire type back, until, with a mighty charge, Heracross’s horn slammed into a cross guard and the Charizard smashed into the wall behind him. The group of Charmeleon gawked.
Cape smugly smirked at the Charizard who huffed a smoke cloud before smiling back. That smile was hidden by the flames that erupted from his body, heating the already hot cavern and making the shocked Heracross take a step back.
Cloaked entirely in flame, the Charizard blitzed forward, invading Cape’s space and bringing fire. Now, every strike from the fire type carried danger beyond its skin, Cape had to open his wings and fly away before a claw or head or tail could even come close to him. His eyes sparked fear for a few minutes before he reaserted himself and landed a hand on the ground to use Rock Tomb to push away the giant lizard. The Charizard smirked at the attempt and responded with his own Rock Tomb, batting away Cape’s and flowing around him.
The wall behind Cape moved and pushed him forward towards the Charizard fangs, which burst into flames, showing the Charizard’s mastery as he maintained three moves at the same time. Cape’s was preparing Aerial Ace, but he couldn’t use it in such a closed space.
Then everything ended. The flames cloaking the teacher and the Fire Fang snuffed out. The wall behind Cape retreated, leaving him to support himself before the bug could fall down. The Charizard stepped closer to the Heracross and said something to him that made the bug type thoughtful for the rest of the day.
Cape left the hole and Aiden released his Gyarados. The fight was short and the Charizard and Charmeleon were left disappointed by the Atrocious pokemon, which Aiden noted that it was fair.
We had spent less than an hour watching our pokemon fight, most of them bowed out after that but Cape, Valley, Quake, Blade, Swablu and Dendra’s entire team continued to fight, rotating around. Some returned to their pokeball like Mesa and Mountain and others found ways to entertain themselves like Jungle, who managed to catch the attention of a Charizard and show to him his work on Sunny Day, the Charizard took a knee and decided to give the green pokemon some pointers.
When we left the mountain for lunch, the pokemon who were fighting were extremely tired out and spent the rest of the afternoon resting while we worked with the others on moves and tactics.
The sun was setting now and I was sitting on a rock just outside the village. Those fights had given me an incredible wealth of information about my pokemon. It gave me an idea of how much further we could take training the body so I was writing my observations on my laptop.
Valley and Jungle were pokemon who occasionally would have to use their bodies in a fight so their training should reflect more of that. I adjusted to having them do strength-based exercises; squats, pushups and weightlifting. I would have Cape also do those exercises but he’s basically cheating with how every once in four fights he gets pushed to another level of strength.
Mesa was ready to stop training rock and ground moves for a bit. After he finishes learning Shadow Ball, our focus should turn to psychic energy, which would help him evolve faster.
Mountain was, incredibly enough, my most complete pokemon or second at least, all the moves he knows work cohesively as they were picked up by the necessity to fight wild pokemon. I was hoping for him to learn Water Pulse also, but maybe he just needs to focus on mastering the moves he already knows. If he could do that, he might be able to use three moves at the same time, just like that Charizard.
A buzzing sound made me look back in the direction of the village. Cape was flying frantically in my direction so I quickly turned to him, “What happened?”
The bug type gave out an urgent cry and turned around, flying directly at the village. I cursed, stuffed my things in my bag and rushed after him. It was apparent that Cape was leading me to the house where we’d be staying today–courtesy of Liza. I got closer and saw that everyone and their pokemon were around something, even Liza and some other Charicific trainers and their Charizard. Aiden saw me and shouted, the rest eerily opening a way for me.
I could now see what was in the middle of the crowd, my team, and in the middle of them, Jungle. The grass type was curled on itself and faintly glowing, “Jungle!?”
He opened an eye and sneaked a glance, before closing it and exploding in white light. I closed my eyes as the grass pokemon evolved. A minute had passed until the white spots subsided enough for me to get a look at the new Jungle. The pokemon had more than doubled its mass. Seconds ago he was reaching my thigh and now Dendra could reasonably ride the pokemon seeing as he was almost coming up to my belly. His green colour had grown darker as was usual of his line and his bulb was now pink with fronds at the base surrounding a very short trunk coming out of his back. It was, with no doubt, an Ivysaur.
Jungle stood up and looked around, taking with wide eyes the fact that everyone was shorter than usual before staring to the horizon, towards the fading sun. It let out a mournful cry, but not even the lack of sunlight would let him not explore his new found power. The grass type reared up, stood there for a second, and slammed his front legs into the ground. His bulb twisted open and a ball of orange light soared high, everyone following the projectile. It wasn’t the cannon-like image that I’d seen in Conference matches, but as the new star in the sky shined, turning the Valley back to day with the power of the sun, I knew that it was Sunny Day.
-
The rest of the night continued like a small party. We’d broken out the great food that was reserved for special occasions like birthdays or the days of homesickness, and the village of trainers and their Charizard complemented the portions with their own.
I asked about it and Isla clarified that even though evolution wasn’t rare here, what with all the Charmander and Charmeleon evolving all the time, a pokemon from another line evolving in the Charicific Valley was pretty rare. Liza even checked some records and declared that Jungle was officially the sixth pokemon outside of the Charizard line to evolve inside the Valley in its almost one hundred years of history, something that made the Ivysaur very excited.
Everyone from the Charicific Valley had left when I noticed that Cape wasn’t among us. I walked out of the bundle of people and pokemon outside the house we’d be staying in and found the bug type sitting on a rock to the side of the house. He had his back to me and I could only see that he was staring intensely at his lap where his hands were together.
I approached from the side and called out to him, “Cape?”
The pokemon turned around and I was able to see what was on his lap. His right hand was above his upside left hand, in the middle of them was a brown coloured vortex, the wind forming it came from outside the palms to congregate inside it in a rotating sphere. I recognized that move, one of the signature moves of the Lucario line, Vacuum Wave. If Cape released that ball, it would expand as it traveled before collapsing and exploding into sharp slashes on an opponent.
“Did you just now learn Vacuum Wave?”
The Heracross face crouched and he shook his head before turning back and raising the ball to his head with both hands. The fighting type let the ball leave his hand and dissipate into his right side, forming some kind of net of wind. Cape then punched and I could see the wind briefly follow his hand before dissipating. Cape then made a sequence of gestures and sounds that made me recognize his intent; he wanted to fight the Charizard again. I finally understood what he just did.
I wanted to say no and hide what he just discovered to use at the Conference but I couldn’t resist. I also wanted to see it in action after all.
“Okay,” I said to him and then we both walked back towards the house.
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Teams:
Scott Wood:
Cape/ Heracross: Tackle, Harden, Leer, Fury Attack, Endure, Arm Thrust, Aerial Ace, Horn Attack, Counter, Brick Break, Pin Missile, Rock Tomb, Vacuum Wave.
Jungle/ Bulbasaur: Growl, Tackle, Vine Whip, Razor Leaf, Bullet Seed, Leech Seed, Power Whip, Poison Powder, Sleep Powder, Sunny Day, Seed Bomb, Acid Spray, Trailblaze.
Mesa/ Baltoy: Harden, Mud-Slap, Rapid Spin, Sand Attack, Confusion, Sand Tomb, Dig, Psybeam, Rock Tomb, Rock Slide, Double Team, Ancient Power.
Valley/ Minccino: Pound, Baby-Doll Eyes, Echoed Voice, Charm, Sing, Play Rough, Swift, Mud-Slap, Dig, Bullet Seed, Trailblaze, Thunder Wave.
Mountain/ Cryogonal: Bind, Ice Shard, Rapid Spin, Icy Wind, Mist, Slash, Body Slam. Take Down, Substitute, Night Slash.
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Dendra Navarro:
Chopper/ Hariyama: Tackle, Feint, Arm Thrust, Fake Out, Whirlwind, Detect, Force Palm, Focus Energy, Sand Attack, Bulk Up, Mud-Slap, Mud Shot, Swift.
Cross/ Hawlucha: Tackle, Hone Claws, Wing Attack, Detect, Aerial Ace, Feather Dance, Encore, False Swipe, Swift,
Ress/ Krokorok: Power Trip, Leer, Sand Attack, Hone Claws, Sand Tomb, Scary Face, Bite, Torment, Dig, Swagger, Sandstorm, Mud Shot, Mud-Slap, Rock Tomb
Twirl/ Tyrogue: Rapid Spin, Tackle, Fake Out, Swift, Feint, Detect.
Teddiursa: ?
-
Jess Brin:
Quake/ Hippopotas: Tackle, Sand Attack, Bite, Yawn, Sand Tomb, Dig, Crunch. Sandstorm, Take Down, Rock Smash, Mud-Slap, Rock Tomb, Bulldoze, Rock Slide,
Velocity/ Staravia: Tackle, Growl, Quick Attack, Wing Attack, Swift, Aerial Ace, Whirlwind, Acrobatics, Air Cutter, Swift, Agility
Blade/ Zangoose: Scratch, Leer, Fury Swipes, Quick Attack, Metal Claw, Hone Claw, Slash, Power Trip, Agility, Rock Tomb, Icy Wind
Wave/ Mantyke: ?
Soot/ Torkoal: ?
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Aiden Hagashi:
Gyarados: Splash, Tackle, Bite, Ice Fang, Crunch.
Gyarados: Tackle, Twister, Whirlpool, Ice Fang, Brine, Scary Face, Waterfall, Crunch.
Swablu: Peck, Growl, Fury Attack, Round, Take Down, Protect, Aerial Ace, Dragon Breath, Dragon Pulse, Agility.
Horsea: Water Gun, Smokescreen, Focus Energy, Water Pulse, Twister, Agility, Dragon Breath, Agility.
