The two weeks leading up to the auction were a whirlwind of battles and training. With the appropriate rest and pampering for the team, of course. We went to the Battle Arena three more times after our first debut, with days in between to rest and train.
Our second time at the Battle Arena, Hellen held a type advantage against the first two opponents. A rock specialist and ground specialist. She was able to beat their teams while sustaining minor injuries.
The third opponent had a growlithe and vileplume. Hellen was able to injure the growlithe, but I withdrew her when she was caught with a brutal firefang. From there, Drako swept the opposing team. And the next. And the next. But then we ran into trouble against a strong electabuzz. Drako was already tired and had taken some hits from the previous matches, but he gave his all and ended up with a double knockout.
The next day was a rest day and the following day was training. For training, I decided not to try to learn new moves because I was planning to splurge on TMs after the auction. We worked on their known moves as well as physical training. Improving their power, speed, toughness and agility.
What we worked on the most for Drako was aerial dodging and attacking. Meanwhile, Hellen was focusing on defensive battling and holding her ground using her vines and leaves. Though she could use her vines for movement right now, I knew when she became a venusaur she wouldn’t be able to move as nimbly.
The third time at the Battle Arena was similar to the first two. Though Hellen was knocked out in the second battle and Drako only had the energy to beat two more teams before we decided to leave. The opponents were getting stronger.
Our fourth time at the Battle Arena was special. Hellen plowed through a team of grass types and we were on our second match. The opponent was a bergmite who was hurling out ice shards while stationary. Hellen was battering him with her vines while dodging, though she was having trouble doing any visible damage.
She was struck by an ice shard and became enraged, wrapping up the bergmite with her vines and struggling to lift it. With a loud shout of “SAAUUR!”, she began evolving and was able to lift and slam the bergmite over and over until it was knocked out. I recalled Hellen who was tired after the energy burst from evolution and let Drako take care of the following piloswine.
We left right after to get Hellen checked out at the pokecenter to make sure everything was fine after the evolution to ivysaur. After her clean bill of health we celebrated with Hellen choosing a concert to attend. With rapping jigglypuff and wigglytuff. It was surprisingly good even though they could only say their species name, though according to my pokemon the lyricism was outstanding.
Stolen novel; please report.
After Hellen’s evolution, we stuck to just training so that she could get used to her new body which had grown magnificently. She quickly picked up seed bomb while working on her other seed attacks, so I was having her try to mix in seed bombs and leech seeds while rapidly firing seeds.
Drako was mostly working on his control of fire and flying type energies. Using both of them to increase the heat of his flamethrower and embers. Though we kept up with our other training of their moves and physicality.
Now, it was finally time for the auction.
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I dressed up in a charcoal grey suit and made my way to the auction. It was scheduled to start at 10 AM, but I decided to arrive early to see the pokemon. The catalogue of what was being auctioned had already been released and there were some pokemon that I was interested in. I decided to get a psychic type for the ability to teleport among its other qualities. I am most interested in the abra raised by Gym Leader Sabrina, though the beldum from Steven Stone and a solosis with magic guard are appealing. I decided to see them in person to determine which one would fit the team best.
I entered the lobby and was let into the pokemon showcase area after showing my ID. There were hundreds of pokemon up for auction, but a lot of them were together in their rooms if they were from the same seller.
I looked up the location of Sabrina’s pokemon and made my way over. One of the reasons I want abra is because there is a single abra up for auction that is descended from Sabrina’s two bonded alakazam. This abra is sure to be a powerhouse.
Entering the area with Sabrina’s pokemon, I’m greeted by an auction worker sitting to the side.
“Hello, I can provide any information you require on the pokemon here. Which species are you interested in?” Says the young woman wearing a blue uniform.
“I’m interested in the abra.” I say.
“Follow me.” She stands up and leads me into a room, “We have four abra that will go up for auction. Three are the offspring of some powerful alakazam bonded to gym trainers at the Saffron Gym. The fourth is the son of Sabrina’s own pair of bonded alakazam!”
Through some glass I can see the abra playing using psychic energy.
The employee continues, “This is the first of their children to be auctioned. The previous child was given as a gift.”
As I watch, the abra are levitating different cubes and balls. It's easy to see which abra is the child of Sabrina’s alakazam, he is easily lifting triple the amount of objects as the others and with steady control. I watch, mesmerized, as he loops and orbits the objects around him in a captivating pattern.
“Sir? Do you have any questions?” She asks, snapping me out of my trance.
“What kind of trainer does the son of Sabrina’s alakazam want?”
She smiles at me, “He wants to battle. To one day best even his parents.”
I grin back. I think I’ve already chosen my third partner. But to be sure, I look at the beldum and solosis that are up for auction but none of them really inspired me like that abra did. I’ve got to get him in the auction. His starting bid is $1 million and I hope it only goes up to around $2 million.
The crystal onix I submitted to the auction has a starting bid of $4 million. Shiny pokemon, or variant as they are known here, are worth much more than pokemon bred for battle due to their rarity which catches the eyes of rich collectors. With the crystal onix being unique among onix so far and being so beautiful, she would definitely fetch a high price. I visited her earlier before walking to the beldum and she was sparkling.
The variant pokemon were auctioned after all the others, so I only have essentially the $4 million credit to buy the abra. Since my own money wouldn’t even be enough to increase the bid once. It should be enough…Right?
I hope it’s enough.