Kenta held up three fingers as he addressed the hostess, “A table for three please, with room for four adult dragons and…which other Pokemon did you guys bring again?”
“I just brought Winnie, Kaiju, and Sahara” I replied. My whole team was here minus Winnie’s gang, who were doing something else back at the lab. Hopefully not causing trouble.
“A small Pokemon and a medium sized one.” Justine said.
The hostess quickly calculated the numbers in her head and nodded, picking up three menus and leading us deep into the restaurant and out onto a large courtyard.
There were four large battlefields in the center with tables behind thick protective glass set all around the battlefields so that restaurant goers could watch battles while eating.
The restaurant was called ‘The Fight Club’, and it was similar to the Battle Buffet in that people dining here could battle other diners, but this place had a fancier vibe.
You wouldn't have to battle someone for a meal, but betting battles were allowed, and diners could have battles where the loser had to pay for the winner’s meal. That meant that if you were a good enough battler, you’d never have to pay for a meal here.
The Fight Club was one of the few places in the city outside of the battle dome, contest hall, and Pokemon centers where large and destructive Pokemon were allowed out.
The restaurant was pretty busy and has a nice warm atmosphere, most of the people there were trainers or older folk that were there to watch the battles.
I took out a dusk and ultra ball, letting out Kaiju and Sahara.
Kenta took out three luxury balls and released his Dragonite, Flygon, and a goddamn Shiny Haxorus. One of the coolest looking shinies out there. How the world did he get a shiny Haxorus? Damn he’s lucky.
Justine let out Golett from a colorfully decorated Luxury ball, and a Litwick hopped out of her shadow. Yamask was back at the ranch training with Angela’s Gengar so thankfully we wouldn’t have to deal with him.
Litwick was Justine’s newest Pokemon, and it was currently holding Justine’s pant leg and ogling at everything like a toddler seeing everything for the first time.
Winnie jumped from my shoulder onto the table and pointed at the battlefields, “ooh look! someone’s gonna battle!”
One of the restaurant staff lead two trainers over to one of the battlefields and said a few words before jogging over to the referee box. An Alakazam teleported right next to the referee and raised its spoons up, creating a psychic dome to protect onlookers.
After greeting Kenta’s dragons, Sahara sat down a good distance away from them to watch the fight, and Kaiju sidled up next to her and sat down, though he was facing away from the battlefield. I dunno what he thought he was watching.
I could hear the other diners getting excited for a battle between what looked like two pretty experienced trainers.
One was a brunette woman in her mid twenties, and the other was a man about the same age who looked like he was from Kanto or Johto.
The referee announced a 1 vs 1 battle, the winner paid for the others meal. Both trainers grinned as the referee shouted for the match to begin. The lady sent out a battle toughened Nidoqueen, while the guy sent out a Tyranitar.
Tyranitar roared loudly to announce its presence, its head proudly held up high. Nidoqueen on the other hand stayed silent and concentrated, eyeing its opponent and looking for weaknesses.
“That Tyranitar looks a lot smaller than Leos, doesn’t it?” I commented.
“That’s because it’s newly evolved.” Kenta replied, pointing at Tyranitar, “If you take a closer look, you can see that its hide is a fresher green, and the blue part in the middle is pretty bright. Those are signs that it’s just evolved. Older Tyranitar are bigger and have darker hides.”
Justine chipped in, “It might also be smaller cause it’s a female. Do Tyranitar have size differences between male and females?”
“Yeah, male Tyranitar are bigger.” Kenta confirmed, “But there are a bunch of cases where the females are bigger. In the wild, male dragons can get pretty persistent about killing eggs and dragonlings that aren’t their own, so the females need to be big and strong enough to fend them off and protect her young. Though this isn’t the case for all dragon species. Male and female Kommo-o have no sexual dimorphism to differentiate them.”
“That’s interesting.” I said.
The conversation paused as we watched Tyranitar and Nidoqueen engaged in combat. A sandstorm kicked up thanks to Tyranitar’s ability Sand Stream. Unaffected by the sandstorm, Nidoqueen using its body as a battering ram to charge Tyranitar with Giga Impact, the spikes in its hide glowing a toxic purple from its ability Poison Point.
Tyranitar tried to match the drill Pokemon with its own Giga Impact, but was easily overpowered and thrown back into the psychic barrier as Nidoqueen canceled out Giga Impact right before hitting Tyranitar and used Superpower instead.
The battle went pretty quickly, and it was clear who the winner would be after a few more exchanges. Nidoqueen started strong and never let up pressure on its opponent, continually poisoning Tyranitar with each exchange using a mixture of its ability, Poison Sting, and Toxic.
“Garchomp, chomp gar garchomp.” Sahara commented on the match.
Winnie looked up at her and replied, “but i thought tyranitar would be more of a match against nidoqueen, regardless of experience. it looked pretty powerful.”
I shrugged, “Yeah I thought that too, but being able to abuse poisoning your opponent like that is pretty overpowered, regardless of power level. That’s unless the opponent is a poison type, steel type, or has a status effect curing move like Aromatherapy.”
Did Nidoqueen stack the poison status effect? Well I guess the more poison you get the more potent it’ll be. I’ll have to watch out for that in the future.
“People who abuse status conditions are fucking annoying.” Kenta said with a bit of passion.
Justine scoffed, “You’re just complaining because you lost in you last conference to a poison type specialist.”
I leaned forward, “Really? What did they do?”
Kenta scowled, “They had a Muk and an Alolan Muk that spammed every possible poison type move under the sun while using Minimize, Protect, and Endure to stall and dodge. My Duraludon was the only one capable of dealing any damage but it was taken out by a Salazzle.”
Dragonite patted Kenta on the shoulder, “Dragonite, dra.”
“I’ll admit they were good at dodging. Could barely land a blow on them.”
“That’s rough.” I said. Usually a move like Body Slam or Dragon Rush would be able to hit a Minimized Pokemon, but if they made good use of Protect or Endure it would be a huge pain in the ass to take out.
“Have you thought of any other way to deal with something like that?” I asked.
“Yeah. Keep a safe distance, waste their Protect, and then nuke the field with an aoe move that they can’t dodge.”
There was a lull in the conversation as our food came out and we watched a few other battles as we ate.
Most of the battles were just 1 vs 1’s and were over pretty quick, aside from a match between an Scizor and a Mudsdale, where Mudsdale ended up tanking all of Scizor’s attacks. A well placed Rock Slide and a Body Press finished the bug Pokemon off.
“Alright, I’m gonna put the green flag up. You guys okay with that?” Kenta asked, he was basically done with his meal.
The restaurant had a flag system for diners to let others know about their battle status. Each table had three flags attached to them that the diners could flip up or down.
White meant that they weren’t there to battle and couldn’t be challenged. Yellow meant that they were going to battle but weren’t ready yet because they were eating or something else. Green meant that the table was fair game for a challenge.
Note that diners were only allowed to battle once per Pokemon on their team up to six total battles every time they came to dine. This was to prevent people from abusing the system.
I nodded and Justine said yep. Everyone was done eating except for Litwick and Winnie, the former was just a slow eater and the latter was a glutton whom I had to make sure didn’t overeat.
As soon as Kenta flicked the green flag up, a trainer with blue highlights in her hair, and a fancy blue outfit came over.
“Who’s the dragon type trainer here?” She asked dismissively.
Kenta stood up and raised his hand, “Me, I’m Kenta. You here to challenge me?” He put out a hand to shake but the trainer in blue ignored his hand and laughed,
“I’m here so you can pay for my lunch. One v one, loser pays up.”
Kenta’s smile slightly wavered and he retorted, “Sure, but I’m not gonna be the one paying.” He waved a hand at his dragons, “Haxorus, you’re up.”
The axe dragon stretched before getting up and steadily making its way down to the field. Kenta and the trainer went to their trainer boxes. A staff member in a striped referee’s outfit and an Alakazam teleported into the outlined referee’s box as the center side of the field.
“Good luck Kenta! You’ll need it~” Justine shouted and waved after Kenta, she took out her phone to snap a few photos of him and Haxorus going down to the battlefield.
Sahara, Flygon, and Dragonite crowded the glass window to watch the battle, giving a few cries of encouragement to their fellow dragon.
“hey! move outta the way you lunks! you’re blocking the view!” Winnie shouted, hopping up and down to try to see. Unable to get past the dragons, Winnie climbed up Sahara’s back and used the top of her head as a seat.
Seeing that everyone else wasn’t eating, Kaiju took this opportunity to nibble at everyone else’s meals.
“Kaiju! Leave it!” I sternly said. Kaiju huffed, “Deino.” And walked over to sit next to me.
“Just because they’re not eating their food doesn’t mean that they don’t want it. That’s not polite, you need to ask for things that you want if they belong to someone else.”
Kaiju looked pointedly at his empty bowl.
I sighed, “Look, okay, if you can be well behaved for the rest of this battle, I will give you some of that Herb Mystica you like. You will get more if you keep behaving. Okay?”
Kaiju opened his mouth in a dopey smile, he was already drooling at the thought of the spices. I had no idea why he liked Herb Mystica, I tried eating them by themselves too but they tasted horrible.
Anyways, back to Kenta and Haxorus’s battle.
The lady in blue took out a dive ball, and sent out a chonky Walrein and shouted a command, though the glass was too thick and the battle field was too far away for me to properly hear anyone on the battlefield.
Haxorus stomped its feet and snorted as it analyzed its opponent.
Justine giggled at the challenging trainers Pokemon choice, “Oooooh, she thought that she could beat Kenta with just an ice type~”
“Type specialists usually have counters for the stuff they’re weak against, right?”
Justine nodded, “Yeah, just watch, you’re gonna enjoy this.”
Walrein immediately went for a Blizzard, but Haxorus sent a ball of fire up into the sky.
The heat from the Sunny Day was able to slow down Walrein’s ability to generate Blizzard, and Haxorus dashed forward in a dancing pattern, grass type energy bursting around the dragon’s feet, doubly increasing its speed.
Walrein switched from Blizzard to Surf to move out of Haxorus’s way, but it was too slow. The ice walrus’s trainer shouted for it to use Sheer Cold as Haxorus got near, but it was too late.
Haxorus’s axe chompers glowed white and became huge, Kenta shouted, “Guillotine!”
The axe fell, and Walrein was knocked out cold.
“That was fast.” I commented, “I didn’t know that Sunny Day could be used like that.”
Dragonite turned back to us, “Draaa, dragonite nite.”
“She says that it doesn’t work as well with higher level opponents, they usually use something else.” Winnie translated.
I nodded, “Good to know.”
The trainer in blue gave Kenta a dirty look as she returned Walrein and handed the referee a card.
There was a polite tap on my shoulder and I looked over to see a trainer who couldn’t be older than fourteen wearing a styrofoam dragon skull hat. As soon as he got my attention, he waved an ultra ball in my face, “Stanley the dragon master, challenges you to a battle!”
Stanley the dragon master? Why is he referring to himself in the third person?
I blinked and slowly pushed his hand away from my face, “Umm, okay.” I said, then in a slightly sterner voice, “And for the record, don’t wave things in people’s faces.”
The kid’s bravado wilted a bit, and he apologized in a slightly lower voice, “Oh sorry.” Then he reassured himself, “I mean, I see!”
I stopped the kid before he could run over to the battlefield, “Wait, what rules are we using?”
The kid paused and thought for a second, “Umm, a one v one, and whoever wins gets a hundred dollars from the loser. I’m using my strongest Pokemon, so you’d better use yours!”
I dunno about that, there’s a huge power difference between Winnie and Kaiju compared to Sahara.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
Sensing my doubt, the kid added, “I’m using a fully evolved dragon. So you’d better take me seriously.”
I shrugged, “Okay then. Come on Sahara, it’s time to work off lunch.”
“Garchomp!” Sahara rumbled, I got the feeling that she was finding it a bit hard to take the kid seriously. Well, it would be a good chance to see how much she had improved. It was hard to properly judge that improvement when you fought the same people and Pokemon everyday.
“i’m coming too!” Winnie shouted, hopping from Sahara’s head down onto mine.
The same staff member that refereed Kenta’s match was overseeing our match, “This will be a one versus one battle between Stanley and Azalea, the winner will be paid a hundred dollars by the loser. Standard league rules apply.”
Stanley threw the ultra ball he was holding earlier, “Go, Hydreigon!”
A three headed dragon appeared in a flash of light and roared “HYDREIGON!” Barely containing its bloodlust.
There was a ripple of astonishment from the diners watching.
I raised my eyebrows a bit but wasn’t very impressed otherwise. I don’t think any Hydreigon is gonna be scarier than Kaiju’s mom. I slightly shuddered at the thought of that mama bear of a dragon.
Winnie wrinkled his nose, “wow, that was a nasty thing to say.”
“What did it say?” I asked.
Winnie waved a paw and shook his head, “you don’t want to know.”
“Are the battlers ready?” The ref asked, Stanley and I both declared that we were. “Begin!”
It wasn’t noticeable before, but now that I was closer, I could see the thin and transparent, but powerful barrier that appeared around the battlefield, courtesy of the Alakazam standing next to the referee.
“Set up.” I ordered.
Sahara grunted in acknowledgement and a raging sandstorm swirled to life as she moved through a dancing pattern for Swords Dance.
Stanley dramatically pointed at Sahara and shouted, “Take it down with Hyper Beam!”
Hydreigon roared again and immediately launched into a triple Hyper Beam, one beam per head. Sahara ducked and weaved, neatly dodging all three attacks.
That looks like how Mienfoo moves.
Sahara stomped the ground, a swirling twister of sand burst up from the ground and surrounded Hydreigon, trapping the three headed dragon with Sand Tomb.
A trio of elemental balls burst out of the swirling twister of sand straight at Sahara.
“Block them with Rock Tomb.”
A myriad of boulders spawned from the sandstorm and blocked Hydreigon’s Tri-Attack from hitting.
“Destroy Sand Tomb with Surf!” I heard Stanley shout.
Hydreigon howled and a wall of water built up within the tornado.
“Use Dig, cover up the hole’s entrance, then create a big pit and then drag Hydreigon into it.”
Sahara dug into the ground as the Sand Tomb broke and a all of water rushed out of it, covering the field.
Hydreigon flapped its wings, flying further up to try to spot its opponent.
“Use Heat Wave on the entire field! Maximum power!”
The temperature instantly rose and the barrier became less translucent to block the heat. “Hydreigon!” A wall of fire rose inside the barrier and washed over the entire field.
The dark dragon was just wasting its energy at this point.
As Hydreigon and Stanley were looking for Sahara in the sandstorm, a claw burst out of the ground and grabbed Hydreigon by it’s tail, dragging the three headed dragon into the ground as planned.
Howling, and thrashing, Hydreigon tried to get free and prevent itself from being buried, but Sahara wasn’t letting up.
“Pin its wings with Rock Tomb, then repeated Dragon Rushes downwards to push it deeper into the pit.”
“No you won’t! Get out with Dragon Rush!”
A swirl of dragon type energy gathered around Hydreigon. At the same time, a barrage of boulders formed above the three headed dragon and fell right on top of it, burying in rocks and trapping it even more.
Hydreigon snarled and spat what sounded like some pretty nasty swears at Sahara. I could tell just by how Winnie cringed at the dark dragon’s words.
The landshark didn’t pay Hydreigon any mind as she used Stone Edge to launch herself up, and the dived down in a swirl of dragon type energy, forcing Hydreigon even further into the ground. Wash, rinse, repeat the curb stomping while Hydreigon shot increasingly desperate Dragon Pulses, Hyper Beams, and Tri Attacks at Sahara.
“Grab it with Ice Fang!” Stanley shouted, his bravado from earlier slowly disappearing as he realizes that Hydreigon was too angry to listen to him.
Hydreigon screamed in rage and its eyes turned red as it used Outrage, the extra strength from the move giving the dark dragon the strength to slowly break out of its earthy prison. All the while, it was randomly shooting Hyper Beams at Sahara that went wide and missed.
I sighed, this was disappointing. “Lets finish this, Brick Break.”
Sahara’s claws and arm fins turned a fighting type orange and she karate chopped Hydreigon, hitting it squarely on forehead.
Hydreigon didn’t stand a chance. It was a strong Pokemon, but neither Stanley nor Hydreigon used a single utility move, and I didn’t really see any strategy or plan in use. It was kind of like when I played Pokemon as a little kid and thought that any move that wasn’t a super strong attacking move was useless.
Or perhaps constantly losing to the other members of the expedition team had skewed my expectations for a Pokemon battle.
Disappointed, Stanley returned Hydreigon and walked over to me, taking out a bunch of twenty dollar bills.
“I guess we bit off more than we could chew.” Stanley said with a sigh as he handed over the money.
“Hey, you guys are pretty strong.” I said encouragingly, “You guys would’ve done better if you had gone about it a bit more strategically instead of just using powerful moves. Think about how other moves can be used to your advantage or to hinder your opponent.”
Stanley smiled, “Thanks man, I’ll think about it then.”
Winnie leaned forward and whispered in my ear, “and tell him about his dragon being a potty mouth.”
I nodded, “Oh, and you should probably ask Hydreigon to dial it back on the swears, especially when there are children watching.”
Stanley gave me a confused look but nodded before jogging off the field and back to his table where what looked like his family was waiting.
I fist bumped Sahara on the arm, “Great job out there, you’ve improved so much! Mienshao will be proud that about the dodging thing you did at the beginning.”
Sahara snorted and held her head high, and said “Garchomp.” As if to say, ‘that wasn’t even a challenge.’
Justine was still sitting at our table when I got back, she had pulled out a laptop and was doing some work on it while snacking on new basket of french fries.
I sat down and took a handful of french fries, “You not gonna battle?”
Eyes still focused on her laptop, Justine shook her head, “Nah, probably not. Litwick only knows Ember, and Golett isn’t in the mood to battle. Plus, I gotta get some work done.”
I nodded and gave Kaiju and Winnie each a french fry, “That’s fair.”
Too bad, I kind of wanted to see Golett battle.
Kenta was off with Dragonite battling another against a trainer and their Gigalith while Flygon waited for its turn and chatted with Sahara.
I scanned the dining hall for anyone else with less powerful Pokemon that Winnie and Kaiju could have a go against.
A few tables away, a trainer in pink and black who was sitting at a table with a green flag looked like she was thinking the same and we made eye contact.
I got up and walked over, “Hey, you wanna battle?”
The trainer hesitantly nodded, glancing over at Sahara, “Yeah, but I don’t have Pokemon on the same level as your Garchomp.”
“That’s fine, I’m planning on using weaker Pokemon. Does a two v two sound good? ”
“Yeah, that sounds great. I’m Caroline by the way.” She offered a hand and I shook it, “Azalea.”
“This will be a two versus two, non-betting battle between Caroline and Azalea! No switches will be allowed, standard league rules apply. Ready your Pokemon!”
“You’ll be up first Winnie.” I said. The white fox nodded and leaped from my shoulder onto the field.
Caroline sent out a Sylveon who reached back with a ribbon to touch its trainers arm before the battle began.
Ahh yes, the pink ribbon dog. It’s pretty cute, well, any Eeveelution is cute. Good thing I sent out Winie first.
“Usual tactics.” I said. Winnie grinned and glanced back at me, “already on it boss.”
I tried to see if there was any visible change that indicated an illusion, there was nothing. He sure is getting good at with his illusions.
“Set up Sylveon!” Caroline shouted. Sylveon nodded and spread out its ribbons. A pink mist emanated from the fairy type and spread out around the field.
“Shut down its utility moves before it can use any more.”
Using Agility, Winnie dashed forward and got into Sylveon’s face, muttering something under his breath. Sylveon’s eyes narrowed and its determined expression became one of anger.
Caroline went along with her Sylveron’s aggression, “Play Rough!”
“Dig.” I said, Winnie did a small hop and burrowed into the ground.
“Grab it!”
Sylveon’s ran over to the hole, its ribbons reached in and felt around until it grabbed something and pulled Winnie out of the ground and wrapped around him so that he couldn’t escape.
“Moonblast!”
Winnie gritted his teeth as he took a Moonblast to the face. Sylveon began to prepare another attack, but froze as Winnie burst into tears and wailed.
Looking worried Sylveon and Caroline glanced at each other and then at me. I kept a straight face and simply said, “Full power Hex.”
The fake Winnie trapped in Sylveon’s ribbons stopped crying and cackled. He phased through the ribbons and jumping through Sylveon, giving the fairy type a nasty Leer as ghost type energy wrapped around Sylveon and snapped shut like a beartrap.
Sylveon cried out in pain as Hex did extra damage from the burn Winnie has inflicted on the fairy type right before Misty Terrain activated.
Winnie was able to get another Hex in before a burst of bright pink light emanated from Sylveon and it broke out of Winnie’s attack.
Once it was free, Sylveon frantically looked around for its opponent. It was heavily panting and its ribbons were drooping as it scanned the seemingly empty field.
“What was that?!” Caroline exclaimed, she shook her head and recollected herself, “Use Swift!”
Sylveon jumped and whipped its ribbons around, sending golden stars flying everywhere. The stars flew around a bit before honing in on a spot right in front of me.
“It’s there! Use Draining Kiss!” Sylveon dashed to the spot that Swift hit in a burst
I frowned a bit, I didn’t know that Swift could do that. That’s good to know.
“Get moving, and copy what Sahara did.”
A bunch of fake Winnies appeared and jumped out right in front of Sylveon, who skidded to a halt as it tried to find the real Winnie. The fakes ran around Sylveon, taunting it as they ran around in confusing patterns.
“Light Screen. Then use Swift again.”
A screen of psychic energy appeared in front of Sylveon, then it swung its ribbons around and used Swift.
The golden stars flew around and dissipated each and every one of the fake Winnies until none were left.
Then the ground cracked beneath Sylveon and caved in. Strands of ghost type energy reached out and Sylveon shrieked as it was pulled into ground and enveloped with a dark dome.
A few seconds later, the dome dissipated and revealed an unconscious Sylveon.
Caroline returned Sylveon to its ball and whispered reassurance to it before putting the ball back on her belt.
“I didn’t know that a Zorua would do stuff like that,” Caroline commented as she took out another Pokeball and tossed it onto the field.
A Jigglypuff appeared in a flash of light.
“Jigglypuff!” The round ball of pastel pink fluff shouted, it puffed up its cheeks in an expression of pure rage. Well, about as much rage as a cute pink ball of fluff could express.
I raised a hand and the referee gestured for me to speak, “I’m withdrawing Winnie from the battle.”
“Okay, send out your next Pokemon.”
Winnie appeared out of thin air and shook the dust off of himself before he leaped up onto my shoulder.
“heh, that was a piece of cake.” He said. I scratched him on the cheek, “It certainly looked like it.”
I took out Kaiju’s ultra ball and sent him out.
“Deino!” Kaiju roared, stomping his feet. Caroline looked a bit confused from my choice in Pokemon but shrugged it off.
Dragon type moves were off the table cause Misty terrain was still up, and because of Jigglypuff being a fairy type.
“Sing Jigglypuff!”
“Astonish!” Kaiju rash forward and shouted over Jigglypuff’s attempt to sing.
The pink fluffball flinched from the sudden noise and the deep chill of the ghost type move and scowled.
“Taunt and Thunder Wave.”
“Stop it with Disarming Voice.”
Kaiju screamed “Deino! Deino dein deino!” Jigglypuff looked shocked for a second before puffing up even more and screaming back at Kaiju, sending pink soundwaves at the little dragon.
Kaiju grunted as he took the full force of the four times effective Disarming Voice but powered forward and send a weak jolt of electricity at Jigglypuff.
The fairy type rolled to the side, dodging the attack and scowling and sending another Disarming Voice at Kaiju, who ducked as I shouted at him to drop down, making the move narrowly miss him.
Encouraged by the two successful hits, Caroline shouted, “Hyper Voice! Keep it at a distance!”
“Right back at you, scream your heart out Kaiju!” I countered.
Jigglypuff and Kaiju opened their mouths wide and screamed.
The psychic barrier shook and became more visible as it muffled both Pokemon’s voices. Caroline and I couldn’t do much besides watch and wait for them to finish screaming at each other.
The moment they finished, Caroline shouted, “Ice punch and Play Rough!”
“Protect and Snarl.” I said.
Kaiju created a barrier in front of him that blocked Jigglypuff’s Ice Punch and part of its Play Rough. Kaiju narrowly dodge one hit from the move before Snarling and sending out a shockwave of dark type energy that made Jigglypuff flinch.
“Sweet Kiss.” Caroline ordered. Taunt had worn off by now so the fairy type had regained access to its utility moves, and it jumped back at Kaiju.
I grinned as an idea came to mind, “Kiss it back Kaiju, right on the mouth with Ice Fang”
Kaiju struck and instantly bit down on Jigglypuff’s face holding its mouth shut, continuously using Ice Fang. Jigglypuff let out a muffled cry and flailed about as the ice type energy from Ice Fang slowly began to freeze over Jigglypuff’s mouth.
Jigglypuff let out a bunch of muffled shrieks as Kaiju gleefully ragdolled it around like a dog playing with a new toy. A toy that bounced like a ball of jelly everytime it moved.
“Get away Jigglypuff!” Caroline shouted as she tried to think of a way to get her Pokemon away. Jigglypuff’s main method of attacks weren’t available, and it was currently helpless against Kaiju.
The fairy type continuously struggled and tried to Ice Punch Kaiju, but its arms were too short to reach him.
Then with a frustrated yell, Jigglypuff glowing bright pink as it used a weak Dazzling Gleam. The bright flash from the fairy type move and the quadruple effectiveness stunned Kaiju, making him grunt in pain and release his hold on Jigglypuff.
Caroline looked surprised and then excited, I guess Jigglypuff learned a new move during this battle or something.
Both Pokemon were on low health, the battle would be ending in just a few moves.
“Defense Curl and Rollout.” Panting, Jigglypuff grounded itself, coating itself with protective normal type energy before fully curling up into a ball and rolling around the battlefield, building up as much momentum as possible.
“Work Up until I say to stop.” I ordered.
Kaiju shook himself and began to stomp his feet on the ground, working himself up and getting his blood pumping.
Jigglypuff continued to roll around and around, until Caroline yelled, “Now!”
“Protect.”
Kaiju stopped stomping and created a protective barrier in front of him just in time to stop Jigglypuff from steamrolling over him. The sheer force from the velocity Jigglypuff had built up was enough to push the little dragon back a few inches.
“Head smash.”
A thick layer of rock type energy coated Kaiju’s forehead, and he karate chopped his head downwards, smashing it directly onto Jigglypuff, and hammering the pink ball into the ground.
Kaiju stumbled back a few paces and sat down, shaking his head, and a bit dazed from the moves recoil.
Jigglypuff was laying in a small crater, its eyes spinning.
The referee announced me as the winner, and Caroline returned Jigglypuff before we shook hands and went back to our tables.
I made sure to tell Winnie and Kaiju how proud of them I was for winning as we headed back to our table.
----------------------------------------
“So where should we go next?” I asked as we walked out of The Fight Club.
“The Voodoo Shop!” Justine exclaimed, pumping her fists in the air. Litwick who was sitting on top of Justine’s head wobbled as it tried to stay balanced on her head.
Kenta frowned and vehemently shook his head. “Anywhere but there, we are not going to the Voodoo shop. That place is fucking creepy.”
“It’s a store for ghost types dummy, of course it’s gonna be creepy.” Justine retorted, “If you don’t want to come you can go to that music store that’s not too far away. Didn’t you need to get new guitar strings?”
Kenta nodded, “Yeah I did, and I will. Thanks for reminding me.”
“You play guitar?” I asked.
“He plays a lot of instruments. Kommo-o loves music.” Justine said.
“That’s nice. Maybe I should–hmm?” Someone tapped me on the shoulder and I turned around.
A trainer with a light turquoise hair in a funny bowl cut was standing there. “Hey, I just wanted to tell you how powerful you Deino is. I was really impressed by how it beat a fairy type like that.”
I raised an eyebrow, “Oh. Thanks.”
Without missing a beat, the trainer told me in a matter of fact tone, “Trade that Deino to me.”
My eyebrows raised another notch and I awkwardly laughed, “Nice joke buddy.”
Bowl cut man was serious though, and his smile wavered, “I’m not joking. Trade that Deino to me.”
I put a hand on my, “Hell no. I wouldn’t trade him or any other member of my team for the world. Buzz off.”
The guy’s attitude did a sudden one eighty and he dropped the friendly face, “No, trade that Deino to me kid. That Deino will be lost potential if it stays with a spoiled rich kid like you who doesn’t even battle seriously!”
Winnie jumped out of his place in my hood and onto my shoulder, hackles up and growling, “who does this punk this he is?”
Said punk pointed a finger in my face that I shooed away like a fly. Bowlcut man opened his mouth to say more. I began to interrupt him but was distracted as I felt my watch buzz and begin to heat up.
I glanced at the screen, Activating emergency defense protocols. Goal: Eliminate threat.
Nonononononono. Nope nope nope. I slapped a hand over the the Xtransceiver screen as but Kenta stepped in front of me and pushed the guy back.
I felt a cold chill emanating from Justine’s shadow as she pulled me back a bit. I spotted two red eyes in her shadow staring at the guy like he was a dead frog ready to be dissected.
“Back off dude. Leave her alone.” Kenta growled. I quickly whispered to Glados as Kenta confronted the guy, “No need for emergency protocols, those are only to be activated in life threatening situations, this isn’t one, this guy’s just being an asshole.”
Then I stepped forward and said to Kenta and Justine, “Thanks guys, I got this.”
Bowl cut man crossed his arms and calmed down again, “Fine, lets do a betting battle. You trade your Deino over for free if I win, I leave you alone if you win.”
Is this guy real, or is someone gonna come out with a camera and have this turn out to be some sort of bad prank? I really don’t want to believe that people like this fucking exist.
“No. I’m calling the cops now.” I replied. A few passerbys glanced curiously at us as they eavesdropped on our conversation. Maybe they could help out instead of rubbernecking.
Bowl cut man flinched and looked around at the mention of the police and I smiled at his reaction. Oh, is he familiar with getting arrested?
“Oh, come on! You can afford it! I bet your mommy and daddy can buy you another Deino like how they bought you that Zorua. You’re probably not even old enough to participate in a conference.”
I just raised my eyebrow and held up my phone and began pressing numbers. Where is he making these assumptions from?
The guy growled a few swears under his breath and hightailed it out of there, yelling something at us over his shoulders that I couldn’t make out over the sound of the city traffic.
That was a relief, I didn’t actually know the emergency numbers for any region.
Rubbing the back of my neck, I turned back the my friends and asked, “What the hell was that?”
Justine shrugged, Gengar’s presence had disappeared, “Some asshole who thought he could steal a Pokemon from an easy looking target. Should we report him to the police?”
I frowned, do I really look like an easy target?! Then I though about it a bit more. Yes. Yes I do. I was a four foot nine girl who looked fresh out of middle school. I kept forgetting that I looked younger than I technically was. How old is this body again? Yeah, I should probably keep track of my physical age.
Hopefully I’d grow at least bit taller than I previously did cause I never got above five feet.
Kenta shrugged, “We’ll tell an officer if we see one, if you’re okay with that Az.”
I shrugged, “Yeah that’s fine. I don’t want to walk all the way to the police station anyways, they probably have other things to worry about.”
“Sorry you had to experience that.” Justine said as we began to walk in the direction of the Voodoo Shop. “Maybe I shoulder send Gengar to make sure he doesn’t bother anyone else~” She added with a glint in her eyes.
“Nah, jeez, there's no need to go that far, and there’s nothing you have to apologize for. Cities always have crazy people. We’ll have a fun story to tell when we get back.” I said a bit frantically, the guy was an asshole, he didn’t deserve to get tormented by a vengeful ghost.
Kenta sighed and rubbed the back of his head, “Yeah I guess. This stuff is uncommon but it happens more than it should, mostly to younger trainers with rare Pokemon. I had a similar problem when I was starting out, just keep your cool and don’t be afraid to use Sahara to help intimidate someone into leaving you alone, even if it’s in the city. Law enforcement will understand.”
“Okay, I’ll keep that in mind.” I was skeptical about law enforcement stuff, hopefully police in the Pokemon world were more reliable or at least more competent than the ones I knew.
“Now, what were we talking about again?”
----------------------------------------
In an alleyway near Jubilife’s Devon HQ, four Team Galactic grunts sat next to a dumpster and quietly talked amongst each other. A violet haired woman dressed in a commander’s outfit paced the alley, grumbling something to herself.
The grunts nervously looked at their commander. Jupiter had a nasty temper, and even worse, she was in a bad mood, and none of them wanted to be a stress dummy for her.
Jupiter looked up as a grunt dressed in civilian clothes jogged into the alleyway, panting.
“You’re late! Where the hell have you been!” Jupiter yelled, throwing her hands up.
The grunt recoiled, defensively putting his hands up, “I was gathering information on the these other three kids from the expedition team! Commander Saturn said that he wanted information on the new girl!”
“Saturn’s orders don’t justify you leaving without my permission idiot! You could have alerted our target to our presence!” Jupiter snarled, cuffing the grunt on the head before whipping around to the other grunts, “Am I clear?”
There was a chorus of Yes Ma’am’s.
Jupiter smiled like a Liepard ready to pounce on a Rattata, “Good. Get ready to strike soon, our quarry is due to leave the Devon building shortly.”