I pushed my feet deeper into the wet and hard sand.
Beaches for me always were places that my classmates went to during the summer break. Not everyone went to the same beaches of course. Rich parents took their families to the amazing beaches of Hoenn, Alola, or Unova on airplanes and humbler parents took theirs to good ones in Cianwood or Cinnabar by ships.
Azalea’s founders had placed the city in the middle of the peninsula to avoid the attacks from the deep water pokemon at the time when we hadn't dominated the nearby waters yet. That unfortunately made it so that the distance from there to every beach around was at least two weeks of travel. That meant that the city council wasn’t eager to send orphans on an expensive four to six-week trip. Just for them to see the beach.
So this was the very first time that I saw a beach in person and my opinion is that it wasn’t that impressive. It wasn’t bad but it was just like I saw on the television, a lot of sand, the sun, the ocean, and the waves. Maybe that is why I wasn’t a water-type trainer or maybe the famous beaches were somehow better.
I looked around and saw that almost no one from the city was here on the beach, I couldn’t fault them since the water was cold from what Jess told me.
We had reached Briny Town yesterday after three days of walking west from Timber Town. It was a small fishing town of about five thousand people. It had a small pokemon center that was not Joy-affiliated, a small port, a Community Center, and some years ago, a pokemon park had been built for the trainers that used the sea route. It also had a small garrison of rangers who routinely went out into the sea to bat away some aggressive pokemon such as the Sharpedo and Crawdaunt.
I was sitting on a towel and relaxing while looking at the waves. At my side, sitting on a rock and frowning her big eyes was Valley. She hated the beach as she was from a pokemon line that zealously liked clean things, she could probably already imagine herself finding sand in our things even months later. I had offered to return her to the pokeball but she rejected it as always. I thought that maybe she was developing a fear of missing out or of rejection.
So why was I on the beach? Training on one side and Jess on the other.
Jess wanted to catch a water pokemon. I also wanted to if I couldn’t find an ice-type that is, but it was not like we would find impressive pokemon in here, at most, a lost Magikarp which was fine if you were really confident about having a Gyarados in the future but even then it wouldn’t help this year or even the next. They were almost as slow as dragon type to evolve.
At fifty meters away Cape was doing his favorite thing, training Aerial Ace.
In the last two days that was all that he was training. As I had guessed his fully powered Aerial Ace had become too powerful for him to use reliably, so he was in remedial training to get it back under control.
Mesa was near us and was using this opportunity at the beach to improve his sand control. He couldn't produce as much sand or soil from the ground yet, but soon enough he would, and then would run into control issues so he was already playing around with having a vast quantity of it. Right now he was trying to make a copy of himself but way bigger and was… not completely failing at it.
It had arms at least.
Jungle meanwhile was enjoying the sun, and in that sense, he was somewhat being productive since one day we would like to also exploit the Sunny Day and Synthesis combo that made grass-types a pain to battle against. Learning how the sun felt and understanding how your grass-type body interacted with it was, funnily enough, working.
At least thirty meters in front of us and near the ocean were Jess and her pokemon. She had her feet on the water and sported a fishing rod. She had already waited thirty minutes for her line to move and I was actually surprised at her patience.
I adjusted the cheap umbrella that Jess had bought to cover me and decided to lie on the towel to relax a little.
Some minutes later I decided I had already relaxed enough. I sat down and opened my laptop to do some research to decide what moves my pokemon would learn next. I felt the judging eyes of Valley follow me but I ignored it and focused on my laptop.
Cape was easy, Pin Missile and Brick Break, long distance and more power at close distance. Jungle needs to learn Sleep and Poison Powder, Mesa needs to learn Psybeam and Rock Tomb, which he will then teach Cape. Finally but not least, Valley will learn Echoed Voice, Sing, Swift, and on the side Charm and Play Rough.
After I had noted it all I couldn’t resist and opened a new tab and a news site on it. I didn’t need to search as on the front page was an article detailing news about Bugsy’s battle with the Coalossal. The article began with setting up the stage for what had happened. A Coalossal mysteriously appeared in the middle of Ilex Forest and, after finding itself in a confrontation with a swarm of the Yanma line, began to burn down the forest and many of the pokemon inside it.
The journalist, Alex Wilson, decided to spend some paragraphs talking about the Coalossal and what the League was able to discover about it. Apparently, it was a hundred-year-old Coalossal, a very powerful specimen who knows fire, rock, normal, and ground moves. Samples from him show that he was from the Unknown World of the Western Continent.
That information made the League discard the possibility of it being the fault of a reckless young trainer since there were just under a thousand people in the entire civilized world who could even enter the Unknown World, let alone capture such a pokemon from there.
The League and the Indigo Government were now investigating the possibility of it being a terrorist attack.
Then the article jumps into the battle, assessing that the League suggested to Bugsy to wait for reinforcement but he, seeing the forest fire growing out of control and with the possibility of it reaching Azalea or another town nearby, decided to engage the Coalossal.
Then the article goes into much speculation about what the fight would have looked like. I didn’t pay attention to that and jumped right at the end. Where it said that Bugsy ended up losing his first Scizor, who was the mate of his first Scyther, and also his first Shuckle, the fourth pokemon that he caught. His starter, a Forretress, endured a lot of the flames and was so burned that he was in intensive care.
“Minccino.” I looked to the side. Valley was pointing forward to where Jess should be. I looked forward and saw that Jess was in a screaming match with another trainer.
I sighed and got up “Cape.” A bunch of sand blew up near us and my starter was now by my side. Valley was furious as the sand from his landing almost reached her and her seat of stone. “Take care of our things, the rest stay here and train.”
I walked forward through the hard sand and against the wind that came from the Whirl Islands. I, again, knew that this beach was not a good example of what a beach could be. Alolan beaches had very thin sand, good sun, and rarely experienced too much wind.
Professor Oak would probably be experiencing them right about now.
I reached the kids. “Jess, what is going on?”
Both turned to me.
“Scott,” she said. “I found a Tentacool and now this guy is saying that it’s his.”
I looked to the ground nearby where the mentioned Tentacool was sitting on the sand and relaxing. Not a worry in the world even with the screaming match nearby.
“You reached it first but I saw it first.” The boy, same age as Jess, pointed to her, pointed to himself. And then pointed to a high dune away from here. “I saw it from there and was running here where you almost tripped on the Tentacool.”
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
“It’s what I call destiny, dumbass.”
“Dumbass!? Who are you—”
I tuned out both voices and approached the Tentacool.
“Hello, do you want to be caught?”
The Tentacool’s eyes moved at me and it seemed to shrug with its two tentacles.
I nodded and pointed to the two kids. “Do you have a preference for one of those two?”
The Tentacool turned its body to look at the kids. It spent some time in silence, glanced from one to another screaming child, and then shrugged again. Not very picky then.
I walked back to the glaring kids. “All right, break it up, I guess no one wants to give up the Tentacool?”
They both turned to me.
“No!”
“No way.”
“Then we will decide this the trainer’s way—”
“A coin toss?” The boy said and we both turned to look at him with stunned faces. He scratched his head with an arm.
“…With a battle,” I said slowly, “we will decide it with a battle.”
-
We had prepared a space on the beach for the battle for the Tentacool.
If we were in the town we couldn’t have done this but the beach was far away enough from the town since there were times in the year in which the Whirl Islands caused great waves and tsunamis on the western coast of the peninsula. Anyone trying to build a truly coastal city would be in for a rude awakening in the Summer.
Jess was on one side, the boy was on the other. I was in a familiar spot in the middle, as an arbiter, and the Tentacool was by my side, sitting in the sand like a prize that he was. I explained that it would be a two on two and gave the call to release the pokemon. Jess released Velocity, the Starly, and the boy released a Weepinbell.
I confirmed that they were ready and then gave the sign to start.
The Starly spread her wings and flew high while the Weepinbell released six tentacles and prepared to dodge any incoming attacks.
“Double Team and harass it.”
The Starly began to glow in grey energy and then it separated into three copies that flew around and encircled the Weepinbell. It did not panic though and I hummed. That calm… Some grass pokemon just by hearing flying types already enter in panic.
This battle might be complicated.
“Poison Powder all around.” I blinked in surprise. That was the beginning of a well-known anti-double team strategy. The question was now if the boy knew the rest or if he was just using a move. Another question of course was if Jess knew of it.
The purple mist began to expand from the Weepinbell’s mouth. “Bat it away.”
All the copies batted their wings and the poison flew away in a direction.
“Wrap.” Two tentacles of the Weepinbell shot up and firmly wrapped around one wing of the surprised Starly. Another one batted the other wing and the Starly went down.
“Growl to weaken him.”
Thankfully, Weepinbell didn’t learn Absorb but the battle was as good as over now. The Weepinbell tried to bring the Starly to near itself. It ended up suffering a lot of Growl from that but was able to bring it close enough to use Stun Spore and Sleep Powder.
Velocity soon enough fainted.
“Starly is unable to battle,” I said and Jess glared at me. What? I'm just doing my job here. “ Trainer send out your next pokemon.”
She returned Velocity and released Quake. The boy’s eyes widened and I could sympathize. It wasn’t every day that one saw a Hippopotas and, of course, they were fighting on a beach, the perfect terrain for him.
“Growth, Bell.” Vines began to pierce the sand and the grass and poison pokemon began to slightly glow and grow as the soil’s nutrients were used to strengthen him.
“Sand Attack.” Vast quantities of sand around the Hippopotas rose like a wave and flew forward to engulf the Weepinbell, who stopped Growth and jumped over the fast-approaching wave of sand using its tentacles. Meanwhile, a little sandstorm had begun and I became thankful that we decided to do this battle away from our things. I would never hear the end of it from Valley otherwise.
The Weepinbell dodged almost all but one Mud Shot glazed it and threw it away. When the Weepinbell began to stand normally. It saw that Quake had disappeared and then noticed that it was beginning to sink into a Sand Tomb. It tried to get out with its tentacles but was hit by a Mud Shot from one side, and retaliated with a fast Vine Whip that hit Quake but soon enough the grass type began to drown in sand.
It would be able to hold for some time but the boy decided to return it. Quake had really shown how terrifying a fight against a Hippopotas could be. It was a pokemon that instantly initiated a Sand Storm, hid with Dig, and attacked at a distance but also could do a close ambush. A real predator.
And in a sand arena even… I would be feeling even dirt if the boy hadn't said that it was all right with him to fight on the beach.
“Weepinbell was forfeit. Trainer, send out your next pokemon.”
He threw a pokeball and the big pink pokemon that got out of it gave me pause. It was a Lickitung. That was interesting. Well, how would I fight a Lickitung in Jess place’s? Lickitung are considered the light version of Snorlax, juggernauts o steamrollers that would flat you with physical might if you get too close to them. The difference is that Lickitung had the addendum of having a member that can hit at a distance, their tongue.
If it was me and I had Quake to use against a Lickitung I would first use Sand Tomb to lock the Lickitung down and maintain my distance to try and assault it just like Jess had done with against the Weepinbell.
“Sand Tomb.” Good call.
“Rock Tomb to make a platform.” The Lickitung that had been sinking into the ground rose. The sand under its feet had condensed and transform into a rock plataform.
So it knew Rock Tomb. One of the interesting things about types like water and ice or ground and rock was their interaction. Water could become ice and ice could become water. In the same manner, ground could become rock and rock could become ground. Lickitung was not a ground type, but it seemed to have enough practice with Rock Tomb to the point where it could bat away Quake’s energy influence at a distance.
Well, back to the drawing board. There was only one way that Jess was going to win this, going to the unintuitive route of close combat.
Usually, it was not recommended to fight a Lickitung at a close distance. They are way stronger than they look and their tongue can be used as a third arm to strike in a close fight. Their versatility as normal types also made them a pain in close combat. But that is the only chance that Jess has if she wants to win this battle since the Lickitung has a powerful long-distance weapon.
And this ended up as a test for Jess. As a trainer, could she discard the previous plan and try something new? It was tempting here to do the same thing that won the last fight. But the pokemon changed and this one seemed to have the tools to make what you did before obsolete.
“Mud Shot and Sand Attack, take it away from the platform.” Well, a miss. I took care to not let any emotion show on my face but I was a little disappointed.
The Hippopotas began to sand swim around the Lickitung trying to knock it down from the Rock Tomb platform that grew by the second, creating a little island to the Lickitung in the middle of the sand, which in turn forced Quake to get close to try and transform the rock back into sand.
The Lickitung attacked. The head moved back and forward and its tongue moved with an impossible precision to hit Quake’s head. The hit was so strong it echoed through the beach, it looked like it was harder than a punch from Cape. Quake began to slow down in pain, maybe even had a headache.
“Rock Slide and Rock Smash.” The boy said. The Lickitung jumped to the border of the rock and that part cracked itself from the rest of the platform and slid towards Quake with the Lickitung surfing on it. The Lickitung arm began to glow with an orange glow.
So that’s why he wanted to fight on the sand.
“Dig, Quake!” Jess shouted. The ground type seemed to awake but the Lickitung leaped from the sliding rock and gave a Rock Smash fist to Quake’s face, who flew up from the sand floor.
Sand immediately began to react to try and enclose the Lickitung who began to once again try to make a rock platform. Quake tried to run away but the pink pokemon took hold of one of the Hippopotas’ hind legs and its tongue wrapped itself around his neck while glowing with the lavender color of ghost-type energy, Lick.
The fight turned into minutes of grappling and struggle of strength and endurance as both pokemon were trying to see who would give up first. Exhausted, Quake finally fell to the sand and the Lickitung delivered a Stomp on his snout to faint him.
Well, Jess was soundly defeated.
The now cheerful boy returned the Lickitung and strolled down towards the Tentacool and me. Jess returned Quake, crossed her arms, and slowly moved towards us.
“The winner is trainer…”
“Joshua, thank you,” said the boy who was approaching with a drawn pokeball. He presented it to the Tentacool and it moved one of its tentacles to click on it. The water pokemon was then sucked into the pokeball, which didn’t even twitch and soon gave out the sound of a capture.
He grinned at the pokeball and turned to Jess “Good fight…Jess right?”
“Yes.” She said tersely.
“Well, Jess, Scott” the smiling boy turned to me, making it clear that he remembered my name but, surprisingly, didn’t remember Jess’ name. “It was a pleasure to meet you guys, goodbye.”
He then ran away towards the tall dune that he had come from.
Jess and I stayed in silence for some minutes when finally she sighed.
“All right, what did I do wrong?” She rolled her eyes.
I glanced at her and smiled. “Today you have some self-evaluating to do. Tomorrow we will analyze the battle together and do some planning on how to eliminate what you did wrong.”
“Urgh. That sucked. I lost a Tentacool.”
“There will be many other water pokemon on the sea route but that was a great battle. It showed you weak points, and what you have to work towards, and will make it so that next time you are better. In my book that is worth a Tentacool.”
She rolled her eyes and we began to make our way back to where my pokemon were securing our things. I looked at them in the distance. If there was one thing that this battle reminded me it was of one thing.
I saw Cape, Jungle, and Valley admiring Mesa’s sand statue, this one much, much better than the last. At this stage in both our journeys, which were admittedly more advanced than most beginner trainers, we had to rely on our strengths, impose them on our opponents, and trust in our pokemon.
It was time for me to sharpen those strengths in my other three pokemon.