It's now Saturday the thirteenth, ten whole days have passed and today is the competition taking place.
I'm not allowed Tabs since professor Oak is adamant about researching her but I currently have everybody except her and Kakuna since rest of us are planning on doing this competition, which involves speedy movement which is not something Kakuna can do right now. Its not gonna be as impressive as the gym battle that Mirielle and the sibs plan on doing but it'll definitely get the heart pumpin' a whole ton.
Heading to the field a little ways outside the city brought to my attention the abundance of ground types like Diglett and Sandshrew in the area but eventually I did get to the designated registration area.
The rules and races are simple. No using moves to hurt another person, no using moves to buff yourself, and no cheating or sabotage. The race starts with a standard 10 kilometer race before a 5 kilometer swimming race and then another 10 kilometers to the finish line. Since we can swap out between Pokemon and people for the race I'll start this off with Leaf into Pearl and finish the race with Woody, which means that I'll need to let them all out beforehand on their respective areas.
By 1 pm there's a big crowd ready for the race to begin.
The starting lineup has over twenty different Pokemon and six people on their starting line waiting for the match to begin.
When the referee drops her flags feet start moving as fast as possible to get to the swimming section. From the looks of it Leaf isn't the fastest but she also isn't slow, managing a pace that keeps her in sixth place out of twenty six falling behind the really fast Pokemon like Ponyta or Doduo.
Once she reaches the lake that Pearl is waiting at Leaf immediately taps Pearl and shoves her a ways away, its legal since it doesn't break rules but kinda morally questionable when a Machamp does that with an Igglybuff. Pearl then begins moving through the water at a speed that Ralts can't reach even when she uses Calm Mind and Confusion to push herself though Pearl isn't the fastest as that goes to one of the dead last Pokemon's partner, a Sharpedo, but still manages to boost our ranking from sixth to fourth at the end.
Now comes the final part. Woody just has to get over to the end and manage at least twelfth place.
When Pearl reaches the end of the lake she bumps into my Bonsly to begin running which he dutifully does so with gusto. I know he's the slowest of my entire team in this race but since he was dutifully trying his hardest to keep up during running practice I just had to let him have a moment to remember the event by.
My second rock type started behind an Electrode, Rattata, and Tangela and managed to just barely get ahead of the mentioned grass type, though he got passed by six different Pokemon and a lady. By the time he got to the finish line he was in eleventh place.
Yess. That means we qualify to the relay race. I take back Pearl and Woody to get them some seats in the stands since the rest of us will be competing.
The rules of the relay are simple as well. There will be seven laps and after each lap someone else has to switch in, you can switch in multiple times so long as someone else did a lap after you did yours, and the whole no cheating or using moves thing still persists. The lap is only 500 meters.
Logistically, I plan on putting Lupa at the start and second last so that he can recover and do two laps and I'll have Leaf go second and then last. That means Char, myself, and Ralts will only need to go one lap each with the baton. I'm kinda most worried about Ralts since she can't use her psychic energy to help herself move faster but then I remember that I'm a human that's gonna compete against Pokemon and now I've got two people I'm worried about.
In terms of my opponents the only ones I'm really worried about going against is the trainer who used that Doduo and Rattata alongside one of the human only groups. All the others either used Pokemon that aren't really fast or Pokemon who can't hold the baton in any way.
The first lap starts and Lupa is seems to be first only to get out-sped by a Tyrouge and a Pidgey. At the very end he just barely gets past the Tyrouge and lets Leaf take the baton with her tail.
Leaf moves into first past the Pidgey's trainer only to then be second as the Doduo came onto the field this lap. Some of the faster Pokemon came out this round and it's taking Leaf all she can muster to keep second. When she reaches the end of the lap she turns around and lets go of the baton from her tail to let Char get it as fast as possible.
The third lap has some of the slower Pokemon come onto the field, unfortunately that Pidgey is back and now it and the Doduo's team's Pokemon are a little ahead from Char. He can barely keep fourth place before he reaches me and passes me the baton.
Fourth lap and I'm on now, keeping a steady pace and even breathing I can't actually afford to think about how fast I am or who's in front of me. Unfortunately I flag behind a bit at the last quarter of the lap but I manage to get the baton to Ralts.
Fifth lap and it seems having multiple Pokemon to compete was the correct option. With shaky breaths I look at the competing teams and see that the Pidgey and its trainer are exhausted from going in twice, the only teams that might be able to get first is my team alongside the human only group and the Doduo group. Ralts isn't fast at all, being only slightly faster then Woody, but she manages to keep a solid fifth place. When she reaches Lupa she proceeds to use psychic energy to get the baton into his mouth so he can run as fast as possible.
Lupa seems to be fine in the sixth lap, he even runs past one of the dudes from the human team and reaches second place before passing the baton to Leaf.
Leaf runs as fast as she can and runs past the Doduo's trainer.
She pushes herself to get first place but further behind her a white and blue light starts emanating from one of the other team's Pidgey. You gotta be joking. In the middle of the race Pidgey evolves into Pidgeotto and reaches a speed that Leaf can't hope to compete with, getting to the finish line faster than the Doduo was running. To make matters worse one of the other teams switched a Rotom in that moved as fast as lightning.
We came third place.
That's actually okay with me. I wasn't trying to win that badly, I just wanted to compete in a tournament and get at least sixth place like dad did.
The prize I got was an Everstone, a useful but currently unnecessary item. Pretty good all things considered, the winner ended up receiving a Cleanse Tag which essentially acts like a permanent repel for ghost types if you keep one on your person which I really wanted. I also got a neat bronze medal at the end for reaching third.
Competition participated in, I can now focus on training up my Pokemon. Stamina and speed won't be an issue and I'm only planning on using Ralts, Woody, Lupa, and Pearl this time so that gives me more time to spend on the four of them while all my other Pokemon help out.
For now my team deserves some treats for doing so well, an easy fix once we head to the nearest bakery. Receiving some cookies from a Galarian Darmanitan I pay before heading to a park for a picnic, shooting a message on the results of the competition to my friends and mom with a pic of the bronze medal.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Once I get to the park I send out everyone and congratulate them on getting third place. Some of them were more then happy but Chardon and Lupa were a bit glum about not getting first, even if both of them tried to hide it. That just means both get cheer up hugs from Leaf and myself.
Actually...
"Hey Leaf?"
'Eon'
"Uh, I was wondering if you'd be fine with training to learn some moves that Leafeon typically don't really learn."
The grass type quadruped nods her head, which gave a waft of lavender each swing.
I take a moment to enjoy the scent before continuing "Well, since you know Sunny Day and Trailblaze, I was wondering if you could use the two moves together to replace the grass type energy with fire type energy so that you could learn Flame Charge which would be super helpful against ice types and make you more resistant to fire attacks." I take a notebook filled notes on her and her training. "Then I was wondering if you could supercharge Mud Slap and make it really big so that it could turn into Mud Bomb or Mud Shot instead or like try and learn how use psychic type energy from Rest and combine it with Leaf Blade to make Psycho Cut or do the exact same thing with normal type energy from Quick Attack to learn Slash."
By the end of my little rant, the grass type and those listening actually end up really intrigued by the concept. I just think that since Leaf can combine moves to make stronger combo versions of them then it would be entirely possible to combine moves to learn even more moves. What if she could make a fire type Leaf Blade or something like that. Though the odds of something like that are really tiny since there is no fire type version of a cutting move. I'm just thinking of ways to combat future poison, fire, and ice types since psychic, ground, and fire are the counters for each type respectfully.
The pictures I end up doodling of Leaf using different moves has the entire present team interested at the potential moves I can think up for them, like how I thought up of 'Stone and Shield' which is admittedly a really boring and long name so I change it Rocky Guard.
My musings and the picnic were kinda cut off from a random kid appearing.
"Hey mind having a battle?" Looking around I realize that someone wants to battle me.
This just might be the perfect thing to cheer up both Chardon and Lupa so I easily agree. I motion Chardon and Lupa forward as my picks. He then sends out a Krabby and Oddish. hmm.
"Actually, you mind if we do a two-on-two single battle?" I ask
"Yeah sure. Krabby forward-ho!" he shouts out
"Chardon have some fun!" I shout back
Ralts decides to be referee this match and throws a rock in the air.
His Krabby is definitely gonna start with a water move so instead of attacking how about dodging with Smokescreen.
"Char, start just like against Brock okay?" He nods his head in understanding.
The rock hits the floor.
"Krabby Water Gun" just as predicted.
A burst of water is shot out of the little crabs mouth hitting smoke. No cry of pain indicates that the move missed.
"Alright Char use Growl then get out of the smoke, then Tail Whip." "Get in close to use Razor Shell."
Char is far enough away that both Growl and Tail Whip can be used before he has to dodge Krabby. Actually its kinda odd he manages to use two moves and dodge an attack.
"Wait pause," Char cuts off smoke from his teeth, presumably more Smokescreen "how many badges do you have?"
He then shows a sheepish expression. "Oh um. I don't have any badges but I was planning to go to Pewter then Cerulean for easy wins."
"Dude I already have a badge from Pewter." Was he just running around asking for challenges?
His face morphs into understanding before he nods his head. "Then how about we keep battling still? I kinda want to know the skill gap between the two of us."
"I... meh, ok." I shrug
Ralts huffed in annoyance and then picked up the same rock and threw it in the air again. Chardon and Krabby both got ready to move.
It hit the ground. Both jumped.
Chardon spewed Smokescreen once more while Krabby tried hitting another Razor Shell.
"Get back and pepper with E." "Krabby use Water Gun and then get close to use Metal Claw and Razor Shell."
Chardon got hit by a spurt of water more through luck than skill but he didn't let that unbalance him too much as he tried to keep moving on his feet. Keeping his eyes on Krabby as he moved, Chardon kept spraying the little crab with ineffective embers while said crab either moved away or rushed through the attack to get to Char. This little game continued for a few more seconds until Krabby managed to catch up to Char and slammed him with a Metal Claw.
"Now use Beat Up, then Ember point blank." "Finish him off Krabby." Oh my gosh, he only got two hits in and he thinks he's almost won.
The dude was proven wrong when Char proceeded to hit the water type with six hits that connected to the slightly weakened shell of the opponent, who was aiming to use Razor Shell once more. Pushed back Krabby who didn't realize it was almost beaten until Chardon aimed his tail right at its face and blasted it with tiny wisps of flame.
With that his Krabby fainted from getting hit thrice and having its main stats that it uses lowered.
"How about my Rockruff against your Oddish or maybe my Clamperl?" I ask
He returns Krabby and nods his head "I'll fight your Rockruff." Was all he replied with.
Lupa noticeably perked up when he was mentioned and was already between me and him raring to go judging by his yipping. He just loves to fight.
For the last time Ralts got a rock and instead of throwing it in the air with her hands she decided to throw it through Confusion. It was in the air quite a bit but ultimately came down. I almost didn't notice her walk away and shove her face in Leaf's fur.
"Oddish use Growth" "Lupa use Trailblaze"
The little plant bulb grows slightly bigger with longer leaves on its head while Lupa ran towards it in a textbook Tackle, except he had green energy suffusing his body which then boosted one of his stats the second it started.
"Now use Fire Fang" "Absorb"
With the increased speed Lupa managed to be faster then the grass bulb and hit his super effective move causing massive damage before getting hit. Oddish opened its mouth and a slight green energy left its body into Lupa before coming back in greater quantity, no doubt the physical showing of Absorb.
"Bullet Seed" "Snarl then back up and Rock Throw" We would use Fire Fang again but Lupa can't use the move twice in a row for now, so we have to resort to using other moves while he recharges fire type energy.
My rock type already began moving backwards in anticipation firing off Snarl before Oddish could use Bullet Seed. The moves collide, Lupa managed to stop two seeds from hitting him before the dark energy washed over and damaged Oddish, lowering its special attack back to normal. Too bad it wasn't able to stop the third seed that came out of its mouth.
Lupa flew back in pain from the collision of that singular seed, but he managed to stay upright just long enough to use his only rock move clutching the match.
"Oddish dodge." He yelled out.
Too late though. The little bulb Pokemon got hit and fell down back first with the classic whirling eyes, a sign that it fainted.
Wiping off the metaphorical sweat on my brow I blow out air in relief. "That was a really close match dude, I think if you spend a bit more time with Oddish then you could do the Pewter and Cerulean gym no problem. Krabby definitely needs to be more prone to dodging or using its moves to block instead of taking attacks head on, ya know."
The guy meanwhile seems to be paying attention only after he returned Oddish. "Well I haven't really trained with Krabby cuz he usually hangs with my dad but I could definitely do the training with Oddish before I leave. By the way what would you say is the best Pokemon for me to catch right now?"
I hmm a little before replying "Probably a flying type or an electric type since that make your team more balanced and have an easier time against a variety of Pokemon. But there's nothing wrong with becoming a specialist if you feel like you synergise with Oddish more then Krabby. You'll really only find out once you have your journey and catch a couple Pokemon."
He seems to take what I said into consideration. Then he nods his head.
"Alright I've come to a decision."
Oh? "And what might that be?"
"I'll follow along with you and catch a couple Pokemon before challenging Cerulean, then I'll do Pewter and Viridian. Who knows what other gyms I'll do after though."
"That would mean we exchange contacts... Evandros by the way." The last bit was said while pointing at myself.
"Elian, pleasure to meet ya."
And with that I exchange contacts with him before we then hash out plans on how long we might journey. Having a trainer of a grass type help me train while here is a massive boon and no doubt will pay dividends on increasing the defenses for my Pokemon with type disadvantage against the typing.
With pleasantries and planning over I ask him to come along and watch a couple battles that I would do against some trainers, Leaf would be used against this guy with a Ponyta that beat Erika already while the rest would be used against trainers more on my badge level.
Afterwards the next few days would see me solely focus on training Ralts, Woody, Lupa, and Pearl. With the help of Elian from time to time.