Journey

Death of Duty

Part 1 – The Novice

Boulder

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A trainer's starter is special. — Professor Samuel Oak

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The hallway was dark. It smelled like sweat and blood, crude reminders of what it had taken to reach this point. There was no noise of the crowd, no searing lights for the cameras, just an old loudspeaker that crackled and fizzed as it spat out its call.

"Challenger to the field!"

I stepped forward, my hand dropping to the belt on my side. I only had two balls there, only two pokemon for this battle, but I hoped to all hell that they'd be enough.

I didn't have the luxury of time. There would be no second challenge if I failed here. I'd blown through every scrap of my meagre savings and then more than half a starter training loan in pursuit of this dream. Failure meant crawling back to the smallest speck on the map and staying there for the rest of my life. I'd do what my father wanted, take over the farm, marry a girl of his choosing. Failure meant living the rest of my life in a dreary little village with every second of my life arranged by my father.

I hardened my expression. Like hell I was going back there as anything other than champion. Not after why I had left. Not after what Pa and I said to each other. I'd prove to him that I could do what I wanted. I'd be who I wanted to be.

Yucca village was a small farming community, not even on most maps unless you bought a local regional map from the northern gate of Saffron City and managed to find the smallest dot on it. Our proudest moment was when the hamlet of a half dozen families got mentioned on the evening news one time nearly twelve years back for naming our village after the cash crop we were most known for. Nobody new every came. Nobody ever left. Except for me.

I stepped onto my platform, heart pounding in my chest. I was surprised by the few spectators in the stands clapping for me. I was a nobody, a bumpkin from a tiny stinking backwater that didn't even rate a mention on any local travel guides. I'd be lucky if I even earned a slot in the evening league recaps for my first attempt at a gym challenge. Unless I did something spectacular, of course.

I hoped that it was recorded. I wanted at least some record of this, for my own sense of selfish pride and vindication. I wanted some record of the validation that I was looking for. Maybe I could even pay Brock for a copy of the tape, to send back to my Pa so he could see I wasn't completely full of shit and could actually be a real trainer. For a brief moment, I contemplated if he would even watch something like that, before forcing my mind away from my messy family life to the battle at hand.

The platform jolted and rose towards the hole in the ceiling. I rose above the field, blocking out the stadium lights as my eyes adjusted to the sudden glare. I nervously tapped my fingers against the pair of balls on my belt.

The battlefield was a mess of rocks and sandy dunes, with a single massive rock that had been hollowed out serving as the arena's centrepiece. Many a challenger had attempted to use the hollow network of tunnels and chambers to their advantage and found themselves outclassed by an enemy that knew every corner of the arena as if it were their homes.

Brock was already waiting, standing implacably atop his command platform. He had forgone a shirt, his arms crossed over his chest and clearly flexing to show off his impressive muscles. I wasn't afraid of the bravado, I knew it was for show. He wanted me off balance, fretting over appearances while he picked away at at my team.

I was a novice, but that didn't mean I was an idiot. I'd watched enough of Brock's battles to know his basic tactics. I'd devoured the footage of every single novice challenge to Brock that I'd been able to find. He liked to play direct, while he heckled you to keep you off balance.

Brock was an elite-level trainer, one of Kanto's Gym Leaders. He'd been Pewter's Leader for almost fifteen years, after his father before him. He was a powerful trainer, placing in the top twenty in last year's Pokemon World Tournament and consistently rating in the top five of Indigo's combined circuit.

He was also the traditional first gym of the Kanto gym circuit, a bar that every serious Kantoan trainer had to clear. Maybe Erika would have been an easier first gym challenge for me, but it was probably better if I got Brock out of the way early on. He had a reputation of being one of the tougher intermediate and elite gym challenges.

The referee's voice boomed out through the loudspeakers and I flinched. It was louder than I'd expected. "This will be a novice-level challenge to the Pewter City Gym leader by trainer Marcus Wright, of Yucca Village. Leader Brock will use two novice-ranked pokemon, with no substitutions. The challenger may use as many pokemon as he is able to, with two substitutions. The battle will end when twenty minutes has elapsed or one of the participants is unable to continue the battle."

I nodded, remaining silent and keeping my expression calm. I wasn't giving Brock a damn thing, not false confidence, no boasting bravado. I was a novice, a beginner who hadn't earned a single badge let alone even challenged a gym yet. I hadn't earned any confidence yet, even if I privately thought I had a damn good chance. Brock could have a cocky smirk from me once I'd earned one.

Brock nodded and raised his first ball. I knew it was a geodude before he even reached for the ball. His novice teams were pretty consistent, usually just a geodude and an onix. Sometimes he replaced the geodude with a graveler, but that was usually reserved for higher level novices. Beginners like me didn't warrant that kind of effort, something that I was counting on. He tossed the ball into the air. Sure enough, the little floating rock appeared from the flash of red light.

I lifted my first ball and set my stance. I would start strong, and give Brock a taste of what I was made of. I may have been a novice, but I was absolutely not a pushover. It was important to show that, something Pa taught me on the farm. You couldn't let people push you around. I may not have agreed with my Pa about many things, but he had a point about that.

I tossed my first ball into the air with a firm expression. My starter appeared in a flash of red light. A little vulpine pokemon growled menacingly at the rock opposite it, flaring her tails aggressively. Her opponent had the type advantage, but I had learned the hard way never to count Luna out of the fight.

My vulpix was a tenacious little monster, well used to fighting unorthodox battles in environments that favoured our opponents. Our month spent making agonizingly slow progress westward over the roughshod path that traversed Mount Moon had paid impressive dividends. A geodude should be no problem for her.

"Your move, rookie!" Brock shouted. "Challengers first!"

I nodded. I knew that, of course. I'd been studying training almost my whole life. It had been my dream since the very first Indigo Conference I'd ever watched. So what if it had taken me longer than most trainers to start my journey? So what if I wasn't a fresh faced thirteen year old? I was ready now, there was no backing down.

"Alright Luna, lets get started. Confuse-wisp!"

I saw Brock's eyebrow raise from across the field. He hadn't expected a combo move, not from a novice like myself. Heck, I hadn't expected to have a combo move ready yet either but Luna was a tenacious learner and had proven me wrong to master the combo.

"Don't let it set up!" Brock shouted. "Get in close!"

Luna barked, a burning ball of eerie blue flame erupting out of her mouth. With a flash of her eyes, the flame soared into the air. Wisps of supernatural light followed the flame, dancing across the battlefield towards our opponent.

The geodude wasn't idle, for its part. But there wasn't much it could do. Luna was quick. It was very definitely the exact opposite of quick. It tucked its arms into its body and threw itself into a rollout, a vain attempt to dodge the attack and close the distance between them.

The wispy flame slammed into the geodude mid-roll, doing nothing to affect its momentum but still painting it a glowing red. That hadn't been the intent though. Luna would probably never be able to outright stop a geodude mid-roll, not even once she evolved into a ninetales. Creative evasion and distruption were our only real hopes at breaking through its defence.

"Now, quick attack!" I ordered.

Luna shot off like a rocket, darting out of the geodude's path with practiced ease. The rock type attempted to compensate and follow, but careened off course. It plowed into one of the hundred boulders dotting the arena and cracked the gigantic stone in half as easily as I could crack an egg. I grimaced internally. That would hurt if it landed. Luna needed to be perfect, and the geodude only had to land one solid blow. It was a recipe for disaster.

However, reality proved far less pessimistic than I was. Luna kept up the assault, painting the geodude with eerie wisps of flame and forcing it to fight an uneven battle as we whittled it down. It wasn't the boldest strategy, or the flashiest. Hell, it wasn't even a particularly brave tactic.

That didn't matter to me. It limited how much damage Luna would take. My entire gym challenge hinged on her doing the heavy lifting in this battle and clearing plenty of time off the clock with the first battle. Slow and steady suited us just fine.

The geodude changed tactics, slamming into another boulder and smashing it into pebbles. It didn't look like it had taken much damage at all, but rock types were like that sometimes. Something to do with their heavy outer carapace or something makes them more resistant to physical damage. I wasn't really an expert, so I don't know for sure.

Resistant however, did not mean immune. It had plowed through at least half a dozen of those boulders chasing after Luna as well as taken so many of Luna's wisps that the rock pokemon was glowing bright red. It had to at least be feeling something at this point.

I spotted the opening I had been hoping for. The geodude wobbled slightly and shook the confusion from its eyes. It dug both hands into the ground, tearing loose a slab of rock that had been hidden under the sand and raising it above its head.

"Another confuse ray!"

Another spinning helix of eerie lights erupted from my vulpix. They sank into the geodude's eyes and I nodded knowingly as a slack expression crossed the rock type's face. It's arms wavered and bent as the slab of rock dipped dangerously back towards it.

"Toss it away! Now!" Brock was shouting, realizing the threat. It was too late though.

His geodude attempted to pitch the slab as hard as it could. But its dizzied confusion had already taken a toll. The stone slab slipped free of the geodude's hands as it fumbled the throw. It crashed down on top of the little rock, utterly crushing it and pinning it beneath.

My eager grin probably burned into Brock's mind permanently. I pointed forward with a simple, decisive order. "Incinerate!"

Luna leapt atop the cracked stone slab, hunting for a suitable crack. She found one within seconds, all while we could hear the geodude angrily struggling to break free. She puffed her chest out and inhaled deeply. A torrent of flame poured from my little vulpix, superheating the slab of rock and melting the sand beneath.

Now, I knew that the fire itself wouldn't do much to the geodude. They were practically immune to pain and they'd take more heat to melt than Luna could produce. But that wasn't the point of the attack. I didn't have anything that could hit them effectively. Given time, Luna may have been able to whittle it down, but we had to at least take out one of Brock's pokemon. My only choice was to trap it, so that Brock would be forced to concede his geodude. It was an unorthodox tactic, to say the least, but I didn't have the strength to stand up in a straight up brawl yet.

As the sand beneath the slab melted further, I looked over at Brock. His arms were held calmly at his side. His hands were clenched into tight fists, betraying his outwardly calm expression. He had seconds before the molten sand hardened into a tomb of glass, seconds before his geodude was trapped and I won this round. "Rollout!"

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I grimaced as I played it out in my mind. It could work. "Get clear of it!" I shouted, too late to make a real difference.

The geodude rocketed through the glowing sand, emerging from the ground several meters away. It was bright red, dripping with liquid glass and burning with heat. We had it on the ropes, but now the little ball of rock was gonna try to turn the tables on us.

Luna leapt away from the geodude's attack, barely rolling out of the way as the glowing rock barrelled past. It crashed through another boulder and barely slowed down as pebbles showered down on the battlefield.

"Get inside the big rock!" I ordered, hoping that Luna had enough left to keep the speed up until the geodude ran out of steam.

She turned on her tail and bolted, sand kicking up in her wake. The geodude was coming around, still gaining speed as it looped around the arena.

I saw it coming. Luna wouldn't be quick enough to avoid the geodude. It would smash into her side and the battle would be over.

"Incinerate!" I shouted again. "Melt the sand in its path!"

Luna, bless her little soul, knew exactly what to do. She planted her feet as the geodude rounded the arena and bore down on her. She puffed her chest out and sucked in a quick breath. It wasn't as powerful as the last one, but the jet of flame that she spat was still enough to melt a patch of sand several feet wide into a pool of sludgy liquid glass.

The geodude plowed into the puddle, spewing globs of red hot magma in its wake. Luna dove for the side, too slowly to avoid the geodude. They collided and Luna yelped something fierce as the scorching hot ball of rock tossed her like a flailing rag doll and crashed face-first into the central boulder.

I raised her ball, ready for the end of the round. She'd done enough, and I needed her for Brock's second pokemon. The geodude had to be—.

"Leader Brock's first pokemon has been defeated. The challenger has taken the first round."

I leapt nearly a foot in the air, not expecting the referee's voice to come so soon. I forced down the feeling of elation and recalled my starter, knowing that the easy part of the battle was done. What came next would be immeasurably harder.

Brock smirked and nodded to himself. "You're good, better than I expected for a novice." Now it was Brock's turn to wear the shit-eating grin and he knew it. "Still, this isn't over and we both know that." He lifted another ball off the pedestal on his platform and tossed it into the air. "Let's see how you handle Shale!"

Brock's prized onix appeared with and earthshaking roar. She tossed back her pale green tinted head and screeched a defiant challenge as she stretched up to her full height. I knew what to expect. Shale was Brock's pride and joy, bred from the titanic onix that fought on Brock's championship team. She was a pale green, almost twelve feet long, with flecks of silver metal running through the boulders that made up her serpentine body.

It was a side effect of her parentage, something to do with being the offspring of Brock's first onix and Galar's Raihan's prized duraludon. She would be a monster in a few years, but right now she was just a baby. I was relying on that youth for my plan.

It made for a damn impressive showing. I knew my second pokemon would look downright feeble compared to it, but that's what I expected at this point. It was common practice for Gym Leaders to use at least one pokemon that outclassed anything you could throw at it. Helped you think on your feet and formulate strategies that played to the strengths of your pokemon. It also made the Pokemon League into a true challenge that was not for the faint of heart.

Unfortunately, my second pokemon didn't have many strengths for me to play to. She was nearly useless in battle, even when she did decide to listen to me. It was absolutely hopeless. She just didn't have a violent bone in her body. Even if she could have lifted things fifty times her size, she would never use that strength in a violent way.

But if I presented the battle as playtime? It could work to buy me some more time off the clock. Time that we didn't stand a chance in outright battle. Maybe it was a little unethical, but sometimes League battles involved sneaky technicalities.

I raised my second pokeball and grinned with anticipation. Now I'd earned the right to some confidence. Brock had seen my strength. Now he would see my smarts.

"Play time, Curie!"

My two-foot tall, ball of pink joy materialized on the field and I felt our momentum come to a crashing halt as my precious happiny goo-gooed adorably at the terrifying onix.

Brock couldn't help the burst of laughter that came forth. His rock snake mirrored him, shaking the entire arena with deep rumbling laughter.

Now, Curie might not be a violent soul but she can stall a battle somewhat effectively if she's coaxed into it the right way. She was a baby. All she really wanted to do was play, and if I could present the battle as a game then she'd cooperate for the most part. At least as long as her attention span held out and her opponent was willing to go along with it. I figured Shale just might be young enough to engage in some impromptu play.

So I did the only thing I could. I blatantly lied to my little baby. I got down on one knee, looking down at Curie with a happy smile on my face. "Hey, Curie!" I shouted.

She looked up at the sound of my voice and started hopping happily at the sight of me. It melted my damn heart.

I pointed over at Shale, putting on my playful voice. "See that big mean looking onix?" I asked. "She wants to play!"

Curie hopped up and down on the spot, looking back and forth between Shale and I. She squealed happily and bounded towards the onix without waiting for my command.

Brock stopped his laughing and raised an eyebrow. "Defence curl!" He ordered. Shale rumbled a response and coiled herself around a boulder. My little happiny wouldn't be able to do a single thing to hurt the onix, which was fine by me. That was never the plan anyways.

We had a timer with twelve minutes left on it. All we had to do was run out the clock. I still had two conscious pokemon left to Brock's one. I'd win if Curie could change the terms of the battle itself.

Curie bounded over to the coiled onix, giggling madly. She bounded up Shale's coils and made her way towards the massive serpent's head. She puckered her lips and planted a sopping wet kiss on Shale's nose.

Now it was time for Brock to learn the hard way why I still had confidence that I could pull off a win. Curie might not have had a hope in hell at actually defeating Shale in battle, but she was a charming little angel. Once she sunk her adorable little claws into you, you were completely at her mercy.

Shale raised her head, studying the little ball of joy on her coils. Curie cooed at the terrifying rock monster, melting that stone heart as easily as she did mine. Shale rumbled softly and nudged her opponent with her nose.

"Shale! Knock it off!"

The onix looked back at her trainer and whined, something I had never heard from an onix before or since. She shook her head and looked back down at my gibbering happiny with a fond rumble.

Curie pulled the small, smooth stone from her pouch and held it up towards Shale. The onix rumbled again, low and slow. Shale lowered her head and nuzzled my Curie affectionately.

Brock was absolutely livid at the ploy. He was booming out commands, his face bright red. Shale was completely ignoring his frantic commands, enamoured with Curie's adorable antics. She was nuzzling Curie with her snout and laughing deeply when the little happiny planted another kiss on her.

As I had been expecting, Shale was not immune to Curie's adorable charm. She was a monstrous serpent, a titanic mass of solid stone and yet she was at the mercy of a two foot tall pink blob. Curie had succeeded in changing the terms of the battle entirely.

Minutes passed. The clock ticked down as Brock repeated his commands over and over. There was a small murmur in the minuscule crowd as we passed six minutes left on the clock and Curie started a game of peek-a-boo.

Then, disaster struck at the two minute mark. Shale must have shifted as she laughed, because Curie stumbled on the uneven footing and flopped onto her back. Hard. I winced, knowing that we were all in very deep shit.

Curie's little rock, the one she had offered to Shale, bounced off the onix's coils and rolled into the sand as Curie watched on in abject horror. I plugged my ears with two fingers, waiting for the inevitable outburst.

Curie absolutely exploded with sound, wailing at the top of her infantile lungs. Shale recoiled from the noise, wincing and shutting her eyes. They were across the arena from me, still at Shale's starting position. Curie's agonized wail was still ear-piercing at this distance. I could scarcely imagine the discomfort that Brock was feeling, let alone the punishment Shale's eardrums were enduring.

Shale lashed out, flinging Curie across the arena with a flick of her tail. Curie bounced twice and came to a crashing halt against the hollow boulder in the centre of the arena.

I sucked in a sharp breath, fearing for nothing as my happiny bounced to the ground unharmed. She slumped to the floor and slammed her little feet with a furious tantrum as she screamed at the top of her lungs.

"Curie! Hide and seek!" I shouted, hoping desperately that she would forget the little round stone she had dropped and stop wailing long enough to hear me.

I had no such luck. She just wailed harder, mourning her lost rock with all the fury of a confused infant. With a grim scowl, I lifted her ball off my belt and returned my happiny to her ball. I was proud of my baby girl, but at the same time my entire gambit was now at risk.

I needed Luna to be perfect now, needed my vulpix to run down the rest of the clock. I glanced up. Three minutes left. Three minutes of Luna evading a twelve foot rock serpent in an enclosed arena.

That had been the crux of my whole strategy. Neither Curie nor Luna had anywhere near the strength to bring down Shale. Our only hope at victory was a prayer that we could win on a technicality. If I could outlast Brock, run the clock out without Luna going down, then I would win the match. I still had two conscious pokemon to Brock's one. I would win by virtue of outlasting a titanic onix that I couldn't even scratch.

I lifted Luna's ball and mouthed a silent prayer. There were no more substitutions. It was just me against Brock, Luna against Shale, raging fire against stoic stone. I tossed Luna's ball and breathed deeply as my confidence came flooding back. We could do this.

"Alright Luna, remember the plan." I nodded and looked up at Shale, trying to project some confidence. "Use your strengths and keep her confused. Be fast, be smart, be strong."

My vulpix looked up at me, eerie light already flickering behind her eyes. She knew exactly what she had to do, what I expected of her. She snorted a puff of smoke at me, as if outrunning a 4 ton rock serpent was beneath her.

Brock took the first move, ordering Shale into pursuit of Luna. His onix didn't even wait for him to finish, lunging forward in an attempt to end the battle quickly.

Luna was gone in a flash, bounding out of Shale's path faster than the onix could turn. A barrage of levitating blue flames slammed into Shale's side, superheating the stones and drawing a rumble of annoyance from the onix. It wouldn't do much, but there was a chance it would slow Shale down.

"Quick attack!" I shouted as Shale pivoted on the centre of her body. She swung a bladed tail through the sand, wiping away a pair of small boulders that had the misfortune of standing in the wrong spot. Luna was a rust-coloured blur, dashing out of the way of Shale's tail in a spray of sand.

She was quick, but Shale was faster than a gigantic rock monster had any right to be. Fortunately, we had a way to slow the massive onix down. We just had to land it.

"Confuse wisp!" I shouted.

Luna skidded to a halt, eerie wisps of burning ghostly light conjuring from nothingness. They spun off towards Shale as Luna dashed away from the Onix's descending tail. It slammed into the ground, throwing sand into the air with the impact.

I swore under my breath. Brock had covered his ass well and trained Shale very effectively. Luna was faster, but not by enough for me to get comfortable. The battle was going to come right down to the wire.

"Get clear!" I shouted. "Long range barrage now, confuse wisp!"

Luna scrambled away from the thrashing serpent, kicking up a spray of sand behind her as she went. She skidded to a halt halfway across the arena and spun to face the onix.

Before she could cough out a single wisp a boulder slammed into the ground not three feet away from her. Luna yelped in surprise and dashed away, barely avoiding the second boulder that crashed down where she had been standing mere moments before.

"Top speed quick attack!" I shouted, knowing that Shale held damn near every advantage without confusion muddying her mind. "Find cover!"

Luna turned in a blur, weaving through the barrage of rocks that Shale was pitching at her with ease. She ducked and weaved, cutting and turning just in time to avoid each incoming rock. I felt my pride swell in my chest as my precious little vulpix motored at speeds that would have even impressed an agility boosted mon.

She dashed in as Shale went long, abandoning the confuse wisp for a faster and simpler confuse ray. The spinning helix of ghostly lights sank into Shale's head and the Onix's eyes went dim. Luna doubled back as her opponent launched another barrage of earth, simply scraping up a layer of dirt and sand and flinging it at Luna.

My vulpix retreated beyond the range of Shale's tail and spat an ember of flame that smacked harmlessly against the onix's carapace. She dashed away as Brock ordered another barrage of rocks.

Shale roared in frustration as her last boulder sailed just wide and crashed harmlessly into the sand. She surged forwards as the clock ticked down to the last twenty seconds.

Luna turned as the onix gave chase, cutting close to the massive hollow structure in the centre of the arena. It was a gambit, banking on Shale moving too quickly to turn easily. Shale slammed into the base of the boulder when she cut too closely, shaking the entire damn arena.

Luna was gone, disappeared into the rock. Less than fifteen seconds was left on the clock, but our greatest advantage was nullified in close quarters. All Shale had to do was twitch the wrong way and Luna would be crushed up against the wall.

Ten seconds left as Shale disappeared into the boulder.

Seven seconds left and the arena shook as Shale found her prey inside the rock.

Five seconds left and the arena shook violently with a titanic impact.

Three seconds left and Luna peeked out of the top of the rock.

Two seconds and Shale was following her onto the top of the rock.

One second left and Luna was out of space. There was nowhere to go. Shale was raising herself to her full height. My precious starter was trapped and we were out of options.

The horn blared and I exhaled the breath that I hadn't realized I was holding. I unclenched my fists, breathing calmly as my heart pounded in my chest. It was over.

The referee's voice crackled over the loudspeakers, sounding sweeter than I had ever imagined a bored teen sounding. "After expiry of the timer, the challenger has two pokemon left to Leader Brock's one. Challenger Marcus Wright, of Yucca Village, has been declared the winner!"

I didn't hear the small smattering of cheers from the stands. I didn't hear the referee continue to drone on about my victory. I had won, I had beaten Brock. My eyes found Luna and I didn't care to hide the tears of joy that fell freely. I was a trainer now. For real. And there wasn't a damn thing anybody could do to change that.

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Pokédex Entry #95: Onix

Onix are large, serpentine pokemon that are native to nearly all mountain ranges in the Kan-Jo supercontinent. They serve as the region's supreme apex predator, capable of going toe to toe against any landlocked opponent.

Nearly fifty feet long when fully grown, most onix resemble titanic serpents made from a series of connecting boulders. A few specimens have been comprised of darker, harder boulders. This is possibly a result of the aging process.

Unfortunately, study opportunities are exceedingly limited due to the species' aggressive nature. Most specimens succumb to battle wounds long before they age to maturity, and even fewer survive to old age. Legends persist of an ancient onix comprised of solid diamond, but few credible sources can confirm this with any reliability.

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Novice Trainer, KT#07966101, Marcus Wright

Luna, Vulpix

Curie, Happiny