"I challenge you to a Pokemon battle!" a boy much older than me called out in enthusiasm. I quickly agreed and he released his Pokemon.

I looked at the Flaaffy, manually figuring out on how I was gonna deal with it, Electric Types were easy to battle and my Grimer can definitely take it down with one or two digs but Zubat's been starting to feel restless lately and I knew letting her experience what a fair battle against them feels like should relieve some of that.

She emerged from her Pokeball in a bright flash of red, releasing an odd noise that I could barely hear- a normal trait among the Zubat line. With them spending most of their time alone in dark places, as well as being blind, I can see why they'd prefer to release sonic noises that help with echo location rather than saying their name, which could potentially attract attention.

She flew around me before moving over to the front, faced the Flaaffy without showing any signs of fear. Or at least to anyone who isn't used to her regular demeanour- the way her two tails uneasily swayed back and forth as well the twitch of her ears let me clearly see that she feels scared but I knew this wasn't the time to call her out on that.

I bent down and picked up a pebble, "best of two?" I asked, gazing at the other Pokeball on his hip.

My opponent shook his head, causing his cap to slightly sway, "no, I still need him to help me go back to Azalea,"

"fair enough," I threw the rock.

"Supersonic!" / "Thundershock!"

Zubat moved, lifting off for the skies and kick-starting the battle with a visible Supersonic heading straight for the conductive fur of the Flaaffy. She then moved to the right to dodge a bolt of yellow lightning as thick as my arm,

"again," I did my best to minimize my voice, knowing that my Pokemon would be able to hear the command no matter how high she flew.

As Zubat did her best to execute my command, I kept an eye on my enemy, trying to read him as much as I could. He still looked calm, probably because he's fighting a battle with a type advantage.

I placed my focus back on the battle, Zubat is weak, and against a Flaaffy, that weakness only gets worse but the way she quickly dodged another Thundershock showed the results of her daily consumption of Speed increasing vitamins. I knew that as time goes on, she'd only go faster.

"Supersonic!" Zubat flew backwards before closing her wings and letting gravity take hold, she dived from the sky like an eye-brow falcon, dodging another Thundershock nigh effortlessly. Spreading her wings, she opened up her mouth to reveal four sharpened fangs, she screeched, sending out a vibration strong enough to become visible to the naked eye.

As they say, third time's the charm and a grin found itself on my face as I watched confusion take over the eyes of the Flaaffy, "bite, then leech life,"

Zubat was arrogant enough to do a barrel roll as she watched the Flaaffy fall to the ground in confusion, meeting the dirt face first. With her speed, closing the gap didn't take any effort at all and before the Flaaffy even knew it, four fangs that glimmered black bit his back and with practiced ease from living in the wild, Zubat started to suck blood.

She glowed green, then she let go.

"THUNDERSHOCK FLAAFFY! TARGET THE GROUND!" my opponent called out for 4th time in a row, the only real difference that it had this time around would be the fact that his voice was starting to sound impatient and panic. Knowing that I was fighting someone who only knows brute force only made me feel bad and I was genuinely tempted to recall Zubat and release Grimer but the way she's starting to enjoy herself didn't even make me hesitate in what I was about to do next-

"Supersonic!" the moved hit, Flaaffy got even more confused, held its ears with both of its hands, then bent over. Zubat looked gleeful.

"Bite!" like a kid playing with their favorite toy, Zubat carelessly danced around the Flaaffy before getting close and biting, I didn't use Leech Life this time around because I didn't want it to faint but from the looks of things, it wouldn't even be far before it did.

"Bite again," I said, clearly following my opponents battle strategy: hit em over and over again until they faint

.

And, faint they did, because that bite was the last one before the Flaaffy just... gave up and fell over, it's eyes losing focus before eventually closing. Its trainer ran over to him as I recalled Zubat, I walked over and ignored his glare, "sorry about that, I tried my best to quickly finish it but Zubat sort of... you know-"

He visibly calmed down, "yeah, I can understand," he said followed by a sigh, "my ace does that from time to time as well, liking to run around his opponents and playing around before taking them down,"

I took the money, silently thanking Arceus that first guy with an Electric Type I ran into can understand the attitude of my Zubat. And with that topic at hand, the two of us actually talked for a bit and I managed to get to know more about him; he's apparently studying to become a ranger and that he's already finished his journey, managing to collect exactly two badges before deciding that he should just go back home to find a stable job. He told me that the Flaaffy is a relatively new addition to his team and that his remaining two Pokemon were back at his house, helping his sister and mother out with whatever.

"an Ambipom huh? where'd you find its pre-evolution?" I asked with genuine curiosity,

"ah, I found him in Route 32, he's been with me ever since,"

...

Other than that kid, no one tried to battle me as I passed through Route 34. It made the trip quick but I don't know... it feels weird to not have anyone in the Route challenge me for some reason. Maybe I've just gotten used to me finding battles whenever I come here? Maybe not? Honestly I'm not so sure but I still would've preferred to have atleast two Pokemon battles before I reached Azalea, with one of them with me atleast going all out. Getting beaten up whenever me and my Pokemon "train" all day is starting to take a toll on my confidence.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

I turned to look at Alakazam, "can I drop this thing now?" he shook his head in reply, "why?"

'because, Lionel, you need to practice your psychic wield as well as your mental stamina,' - was his reply and I gotta say, hearing the term "mental stamina" takes the cake for the oddest words I've heard in the Pokemon world.

"so, what if I tell you that I'm gonna start carrying something while I stay inside the house?" I could feel him perking up, I didn't waste the oppurtunity, "can I let go of the tarpoline then?"

'I suppose it wouldn't hurt...' I swear if he had a beard he would've start pulling on it when he said that.

"great!" the tarp gently fell from the sky and by the time it arrived in my hands, it was already telekinetically folded and ready to get tied behind my back. The sunlight that hit me afterwards felt harsh but that was fine, I'd rather bear through that rather than the sinking feeling I've been getting from not stretching my battle muscles, "alright, now to find an opponent," I smirked as I secured the rolled up tarp on my belt.

I had no time to tie it behind my back, after all, the world waits for no lazy trainer.

"let's goooooooooo!!!!!!!!!" and I started running into the far distance, rushing to the closest group of trainers I could clearly see.

From where I was, I can tell that they numbered around six and chances are, they didn't see me carrying a Tarp around with Telekinises based on distance alone so they shouldn't be intimidated by me. And with Alakazam dissapearing to God knows where, I had a high chance of being able to battle the trainers in front of me.

"oh? so you think you can beat one of us huh~~" a girl sitting on one of the benches said those amused words with faked sensuality.

I grinned and nodded, "yep! I just want to see how my team has improved after the training we've been put through!" I did my best to put out a childish act, if they want to treat me that way then sure, I'd take the element of surprise they handed me on a silver platter, one of the guys smirked, I continued, "so? how about it?" I took out Magby's Pokeball.

The group, as it was, were composed of actual teenagers that no doubt already finished their journeys years ago and from the research that Dad put me through, I knew that the journeying trainers that come from Azalea Town and GoldenRod City atleast beat two to three gyms before the circuit ends and that means the teenagers here aren't just chumps, they would be able to beat me if I lacked even a single thing in my current arsenal.

And that includes my ability.

-which I've actually started to use lately, but only against people that I knew I couldn't beat normally. Mom said that I can't abuse it nor rely on it so I didn't.

"so? which one of you wants to battle him?" the guy who smirked earlier asked his friends.

All of them seemed to wear stereotypical trainer looks from the games, with slight variations like the girl who tried to tease me earlier and miserably failed- looked just like an atypical "beauty" from Generation 3, with a white shirt, a skirt, as well as blonde hair but that's what the similarities are as far as they would go because she also had jewelries all over her, with a large, very noticeable earring on her left ear, a necklace with a heart-shaped pendant hanging on her neck, and two home-made bracelets made of beads on both her wrists.

The make up though, stayed the same and were as thick as ever. The way her face is unnaturally white yet had cheeks that were constantly red became clearer when I compare her to the other two girls in the group: one is a serious girl that had no make up whatsoever. She looked like an Ace Trainer with the blue jumpsuit, though she did have blonde hair so there's that for a bit of difference. She's also someone that I would prefer to fight out of all of them but if she doesn't want to then I wouldn't mind.

The last girl was interesting to me because she looked like a mixture between a Hex-maniac as well as a channeler, with a purely-black Kimono that had red streaks that went down from her shoulders, collarbones, as well as the center of her chest and into the bottom of her dress. She had unkempt, frizzy hair that made her look crazy, and then two eyes with eyebags beneath them. Out of everyone here, it was only her that I can properly tell that had a specialty in Pokemon Typing: Ghost.

There were two guys as well, one looked like an Ace Trainer but he didn't have the air the girl had, he was also the one who was smirking earlier. I'd be very dissapointed if it was him that I got to battle.

The remaining dude had the look of a camper but with a different hue of color. His clothes were purple instead of the usual green and from the looks of it, he had a sash of camper patches on him as well, it had the usual patches but the glistening, odd shaped objects that reminded me of abstract symbols attached on it couldn't be mistaken for anything else other than badges.

And the guy had 5 of them.

'so he's not someone that I can just battle willy nilly then...' - is something that I came to when I looked at the 5 Pokeballs on his hip. Training that many Pokemon, not to mention raising them to be able to beat the Fifth Gym level ones is taxing finance wise and if he could afford it then that just means that he has a job that helps him do so.

'the rangers?' - the rangers,' - I thought.

"so is anyone gonna battle him?" the Ace Trainer wannabe said, his smirk still on his face. The Hex-maniac stood up and stretched, the others looked indifferent, "oh, this is gonna be good,"

"yep~~~" the beauty said, "good luck!" her voice earned a bit of chip.

"hello," her voice sounded odd, wispy, and it made me take a step back for a little bit, she frowned and asked - "are you sure about this?" - while looking at me in concern, I waved her off to tell her I was fine and more than sure.

"I felt something just now, sorry about that," I answered.

She nodded and I don't know if I saw wrong or not but is she smiling? "very well then, but take note that I will not hold back,"

"okay,"

Red, then a Haunter.

Red, A Magby.

Both Pokemon stared at each other in defiance, each not looking like they weren't planning on holding back. The calm, collected expression of the Haunter was a complete contrast to Magby's serious face but that did not mean that I would just let my guard down.

Possibilities erupted in my head as the Beauty stood up and raised a hand, "if this goes down, the battle starts okay?" I nodded, "good!"

She's gonna use hypnosis first- no, she's gonna use hypnosis first- ghost trainers usually play around with a bag of tricks up their sleeve, and the girl in front of me had very, very long ones that reached her wrists, who knows that's hiding underneath there no- I pushed aside the possibility of the sleeves hiding the scars of cuts no- she's gonna use hypnosis first-

She looks like a Hex-Maniac, Hexes- no, the haunter is lax, his attitude uncaring, that's not the look of someone who'll immediately use tricks, he's gonna try to use a heavy attack first and since the line doesn't have anything that can help with fire-types, he's gonna try to use a STAB move, neutral sure, but it's slightly boosted though- then again, the Hex Maniac is treating me like a proper opponent, she's gonna try to use her bag of tricks to ensure a victory-

No, Channelers go crazy thanks to their preffered type to use and they even have problems of getting possessed so that means-

"what is our bet?" her question cut off my thoughts, so she's curious how much money is on the line- and since I wanna go all out...

"1k," I said simply,

She smiled ominously and the fear that I felt earlier crept back, I pushed it away with my own psychic might, now well aware that she's the source, "very well,"

'she's definitely gonna try to mess with me, is she?'