{Game} Crystal Caves Battle Arena V.3 [MA]

[Wolfsong]

As promised i have your rating up before the day is through. If jeff doesn't get your story by tuesday then i'll get it. Take 14 ccps. I love to read your stories, especially the descriptions. I especially liked how you described the way Omega's body was preparing itself to evolve. Summer seems like an interesting character. Will we be seeing her any more in the future?

[The Blue Avenger]

Hannah, take 15 CCPs for Omega's RBG. That... was an astounding story. Very edge-of-the-seat. Excellent shift in tone from the beginning of the story to the battle. I also think that not identifying the Aerodactyl as such helped create a feeling of suspense. Just in general, very well done.

[The Blue Avenger]

Before story thoughts...
This is the story that will introduce the twin Tyrogues, Homen and Hoborg. I switched things around a little, in that even though I technically caught Homen first, I am writing this story as if I caught Hoborg first. It just works easier. Also, I’m switching Homen’s location of capture to the South Caverns, again because it makes things easier. With that said, allow me to begin.

***

For Blue, the morning started as it normally did: waking up slowly and staying in bed for a little while, relishing the peace and quiet that filled his small house. The sunlight streamed into his room through the windows, coating the room in a faint yellow glow.

The serenity, however, was not to be long-lived. From the living room blared a familiar (and yet grating) fanfare, announcing the beginning of the local news show. The volume was turned up enough that Blue could hear the top news story.

“Breaking news!” the anchor began in a deep voice. “We bring you live coverage of the South Caverns, where a rogue band of Pokemon has seemingly gone insane...”

That made Blue sit up and take notice. No fewer than five of his team – Vivian and her daughter Dolce, Righello, Fiamma, and Lento – had been captured in the South Caverns, so naturally the place was fairly important to him.

“NO!” a different, higher-pitched voice cried out from the living room. Blue recognized it as the voice of his newest teammate, a Tyrogue named Hoborg. He jumped from his bed and hastily threw on some clothes. Blue slammed the door open, only to see the front door slam shut, a Jynx and a Smoochum watching it.

“What happened?!” Blue exclaimed.

“Blue!” Vivian started, snapping suddenly to face him. “We were watching the news broadcast on this pack of Pokemon causing trouble down at the caves, and suddenly Hoborg flies out of the door!”

Blue sighed. “Did he say where he was going?”

“No, but I’d assume the South Caves – that’s where the camera crew on the news was when he left.”

“Okay...” Blue frowned. “I need to go find him. Where are the others?”

“I think mostly everyone is at the Eevee House downtown.”

Cursing under his breath, Blue slammed his fist into a nearby table. “We don’t have time to go round them all up...” He looked towards the Jynx. “It looks like it’ll just be you, me, and Dolce. Let’s go.”

Vivian nodded and picked up the Smoochum sitting next to her. Together, they dashed out the door.

***

Meanwhile, after using several different shortcuts to get to the entrance of the South Caves, Hoborg stopped to catch his breath. He stared into the inky darkness that dwelled within the cave’s opening.

It can’t have been him... Hoborg thought to himself. He would never do something like that... He cradled his head in his hands. What’ll I do? What can I do?

A loud, deep roar from inside the caves interrupted his thoughts. It was very quickly followed by the sound of a piercing scream.

Okay, that settles it, Hoborg thought while getting to his feet. Whether or not any of this is related to me, I have to go help. He stared at the entrance to the caves for a second longer. I just hope what I saw on TV wasn’t true... Hoborg shuddered. I also hope I don’t run into the psycho Alakazam they were talking about. I’d stand no chance...

“Well, well, well... What do we have here?”

Shoot. Hoborg looked up to see a young Totodile staring him in the face, his fangs glinting in the sunlight.

“What’s wrong, little guy? You lose something?” the Totodile asked condescendingly.

“Oy, don’t talk down at me,” Hoborg growled. “I’m looking for my brother.”

The Totodile’s expression softened. “Sorry. Where did you lose him?”

“We were separated when I was captured...” Hoborg replied.

“Captured?” the Totodile repeated, a manic glint in his eye. “You mean... you’re a captured Pokemon?”

“Yeah, what’s the problem?”

The Totodile didn’t reply, instead choosing only to snap his claws. Suddenly, from the ground, rose a Houndour, a Houndoom, and a Sableye. “Traitor!” the Totodile howled. “Get him!”

Before Hoborg could react, the Sableye grabbed him as the Houndoom blasted him with a gout of fire. He felt a vague sensation of being carried somewhere as the world blacked out around him...

When he woke up, he found himself surrounded by several vicious-looking Pokemon, including the Totodile and his cronies. They initially seemed to be scattered in a random pattern, but upon further inspection, Hoborg realized they were all clustered around one abnormally large Growlithe.

“Sir!” The Totodile said sharply, saluting. The Growlithe turned. “This Tyrogue is captured – and he tried to walk right into the caves. It’s obvious that he was trying to infiltrate.”

“Is that so?” the Growlithe replied, smirking. “Then it’s obvious what we must do. This Tyrogue, as penalty for his arrogance, idiocy, and weakness to be captured by a trainer, must be... eliminated. Make it so.”

The Totodile nodded and gestured to Hoborg. “You heard the dog, folks! Have at him!”

Hoborg scowled. “Not so fast!” He sprung high into the air and landed hard, sending a quick shock wave rippling through the cavern. A loud rumbling filled the chamber as rocks bounced across the ground. Several cracks alerted Hoborg to the loosening of some stalactites on the ceiling.

“No!” the Totodile howled. “You fool! You’ll kill us all!”

Hoborg grinned. “Try and stop me,” he said while sending another shock wave through the cave, sending the group of Pokemon scattering.

Battle time! Hoborg the male Tyrogue versus the male Totodile!
Hoborg – “Just give up now!”
~
Totodile – “You fool!

Before the Totodile could follow up on his statement, Hoborg held out a fist and glowed for a split-second. Faster than any eye could follow, Hoborg suddenly appeared at the Totodile’s side and socked him hard on the side of his jaw. Despite the attack, the Totodile grinned.

“You idiot. Did you honestly think you would have the upper hand?” he growled. Without a further word, Totodile clamped his jaws around Hoborg’s fist.

Hoborg screeched loudly and flailed his arm, but the Totodile held fast. He could feel the blood dripping from his arm as the teeth dug further into his skin.

And then the pain became excruciating. A sharp burning sensation filled Hoborg’s arm, and then slowly spread throughout his body. With every passing second, the pain got sharper and sharper, until the Totodile deemed it time to release his hold. As the jaws unclamped themselves, Hoborg watched as a purple, sludgy ooze rolled off of his arm. As it landed on the ground of the cavern, it sizzled, burning away the dirt until it revealed sheer rock.

“You can’t win,” the Totodile said snidely. “That Toxic will leach away your health until you are no more.”

“There’s...” gasped Hoborg, holding his chest and falling to his knees, “...one thing you forgot, though...”

“Oh? What’s that? Your secret technique of ‘sit there and bleed to death’?”

“No...” replied Hoborg, an expression of determination crossing his face. “I’ve got Guts.” He slowly climbed back to his feet, ignoring the throbbing pain aching in every part of his body. “And I’m willing to bet you’re not as strong as you think!” Hoborg, without a moment’s hesitation, charged the Totodile again, this time ramming him hard with his shoulder. The Totodile flew across the cavern and impacted hard with the wall. Quickly, Hoborg jumped in the air again and landed hard, creating another centralized Earthquake. The attack bounced the Totodile around, slamming it into another wall. As the rumbling ceased, Hoborg carefully walked over to his fallen foe and confirmed his suspicions: the Totodile was out could.

Battle over! Hoborg is now level 10! Hoborg learned Hidden Power: Steel!

Hoborg sat down quietly and closed his eyes. The poison was still raging through his system, and he knew quite well that if he didn’t get help soon, the odds of him surviving were slim to none.

“Why did I come here?” he muttered softly. “I shouldn’t have come here without my trainer.” Hoborg frowned. “So that’s it. With the number of Pokemon in this cave pissed off at me, I can’t leave... I guess... I’m not getting out of this one...”

Suddenly, a chorus of loud screams tore through the caves. Hoborg looked up to see several of the Pokemon he had seen earlier shoved backwards forcefully into the walls of the cavern, propelled by some unseen force.

Then a familiar voice echoed from around the corner. “Hoborg, sweetie? You in here?” Hoborg painfully stood up just as a Jynx rounded the corner, carrying a Smoochum in her arms.

“Vi-vivian...” Hoborg mumbled as the Jynx rushed over to him.

“Oh, you poor dear...” Vivian soothed as she reached him. “You’re poisoned, aren’t you?”

Hoborg nodded weakly, the poison continuing to sap his strength away from him.

Vivian smiled slightly. “Blue anticipated something like this. He sent me with some antidotes.” She pulled a few small vials from up her sleeve and handed them to the Tyrogue, who slowly drank the contents. He sighed deeply as he felt the poison evacuate his system.

“Now,” said Vivian cheerfully, “let’s get you healed up and back to Blue. Here, let me use a Wish...” Her sentence was abruptly interrupted by a loud cry of “INTRUDER!” and a small brown thing flying at Vivian’s head. It connected, and the sheer shock of it sent the Jynx toppling over. It went on to tackle her and Dolce, the two landing in a pile, both knocked out.

Hoborg took a moment to train his eyes on the object as his strength slowly began to return to him. As soon as he saw what it was, he gasped. It was a Tyrogue.

“...Brother?!” both Tyrogues asked quietly. Hoborg started to hug the other Tyrogue, but the latter pushed the former off.

“What are you doing here, Hoborg?” he asked. “Weren’t you captured?”

“Yes, but I came here looking for you...”

“That doesn’t matter! If they see me here talking to you, they’ll kill me! You’re the exact kind of Pokemon that they want to keep out of the caves!”

“Hold on...” Hoborg said. “Who’s they?”

“The Alakazam in charge here!”

“You’re with him?!” Hoborg said, eyes wide. “How could you?! I mean, I thought when I saw you on the news broadcast... It has to be a mistake!”

“No...” said the other Tyrogue, shaking his head. “The reason I joined the group is because you... my best friend... were taken from me... Just like a callous human to do that.”

“Hey! Don’t talk about Blue like that! And don’t talk about callous after what you did to Vivian!” Hoborg scowled.

“Who? ...Oh, right, the Jynx. Look, like I said, I’m just doing my job here!”

“Homen, just because they recruited you doesn’t mean you can’t leave!” Hoborg countered.

“Oh yes it does,” a sinister voice called out from the edge of the chamber. A large Growlithe slinked over to the pair and growled. “You, Tyrogue, have been nothing but trouble since you got here. And Homen, I expected better of you.” Homen looked at the ground, but said nothing. “What are you waiting for, Homen? Eliminate him!”

Homen continued to look at the ground. “No,” he said quietly.

“What was that?”

“I... said... NO!” Homen yelled.

“Well then... I have but one thing to say to the both of you,” the Growlithe sneered. “Die.”

Battle time! Homen and Hoborg, the twin male Tyrogues, versus the male Growlithe!
Homen – “We're unbeatable!”
Hoborg – “Just give up now!”
~
Growlithe – “Die.”

“Let’s go, Hoborg!” Homen called. The pair charged towards the Growlithe and slammed into him, but he held his ground, pausing only a moment before releasing his counter-attack: a giant ball of flame that expanded into the shape of a Japanese character. It billowed forth, catching the brothers and shoving them back, leaving several scorch marks on their skin. The fire abruptly disappeared, dropping Homen and Hoborg to the ground.

“We can’t afford another attack like that,” Hoborg panted.

“So let’s get him now,” agreed Homen. Hoborg nodded and, in the blink of an eye, appeared near the Growlithe. He wound up and delivered an uppercut that sent the unprepared Growlithe into the air. Homen jumped into the air and propelled himself down, focusing his energy into his foot. He caught the Growlithe at the arc of his flight, sending the dog straight into the wall. The Growlithe slumped and whimpered.

“Nicely done,” Hoborg said as he turned to his brother, grinning.

“Same to you,” Homen replied.

“Honestly...” called a voice from behind them. “Do you think this is over?”

The brothers turned around, only to be greeted with a jet of fire shooting past them, narrowly missing its targets. The Growlithe got back to its feet and howled sharply, the noise ringing through the cavern.

“Oh, so that’s how you’re playing, is it?” Hoborg shot back. He and Homen dashed back to the Growlithe and took opposite sides: in perfect synchrony, the two Tackled the Growlithe on both sides of his body, following that up with a quick Mach Punch/Hi Jump Kick combo to send the puppy skidding across the cavern floor.

“Now, Hoborg!” Homen yelled. Hoborg nodded, and the two, again in perfect unison, leapt into the air and fell back down with a savage blow, sending a fierce Earthquake ripping through the cave. The quake knocked the Growlithe off of his feet again and bounced him around, eventually smashing him against a rather large boulder. The Growlithe fell to the ground, unmoving.

Battle over! Hoborg and Homen are now both level 11!

Hoborg smiled at Homen. “Thanks for your help,” he said quietly.

“There’ll be time for thanks later,” Homen said, frowning slightly. “We need to get your Jynx friend out of here.”

Hoborg looked at Vivian. She was still unconscious, but she didn’t appear to have suffered any of the attacks from the last battle.

Suddenly, a voice interrupted their thoughts. “Hoborg!” it yelled joyfully. Turning around, Hoborg saw the familiar face of Blue running toward him. As he approached, he deftly recalled both Vivian and Dolce into their Pokeballs.

Blue lifted Hoborg up into the air. “Man, I’m glad to see you fared okay.” He glanced at Homen. “Who’s your friend?”

“That’s my brother, Blue,” Hoborg replied. “Homen.”

“Well, Homen,” Blue said. “I’m sorry I separated you from Hoborg when I caught him. Actually, if Hoborg hadn’t run out today, we probably would have gone looking for you,” he added as an afterthought. Blue set Hoborg down on the ground and held out an empty Pokeball. “What do you say?” Blue asked. “Do you want to come with me?”

One the one hand, Homen thought, glancing between the faces of Hoborg and Blue, he did separate me from Hoborg. But... going with him would mean that I wouldn’t have to work for Alakazam any more... and I’d get to be with Hoborg from now on. Homen looked toward Blue and nodded silently.

Blue grinned and tapped the Pokeball to Homen’s head. With no resistance, Homen disappeared inside.

Blue caught Homen, the level 11 Tyrogue!

[*Murkrow]

Jeff~ Nice, if brief introduction. Hoborg standing off against the Pokémon using Earthquake was a neat touch. Good description of the poison, and it activating Guts was a surprise. Interlude where Vivian healed and the reunion with Homen seperated the battles well. The two teaming up to take out Growlithe in the second battle fitted well. Both battles were short though; slightly increasing the length could have helped pad them out a bit more. The end was good.
Take.....13 CCP's.

And completely off-topic, but I just noticed that your ASB Smeargle has the best nickname ever xD *Random*

------------------------

New scenario coming soon.

[Wolfsong]

Edit: Thanks to Hannah for the scenario.

With spring approaching and getting closer by the day, the Crystal Caves inhabitants are finally breathing a sigh of relief. With winter now all but over, and the renegade Pokémon seemingly dispersed, if but temporarily, it seems things may finally start to bear some resemblance to normality again.

Looking forward to warmer days, it unsurprisingly comes as something as a shock to wake up one morning to discover a sudden cold snap has descended during the night: the streets are covered in a layer of ice while the surrounding mountains are once again supporting snowy caps. As the inhabitants grumble and return to bundling up to keep warm, news begins to trickle in of a new sport that the wild Pokémon have developed.

Eager to discover what it is, some trainers risk the cold to investigate, and return with the news that the Lake is entirely covered in a layer of ice: using this, the wild Pokémon have eagerly found an unusual battlefield and are eager to test their skills out.

The field: Ice entirely covers the entire Lake, but beware; the thickness varies, and in places some of the more heavier Pokémon may not be able to move safely. Although the thicker patches are identified by their darker blue colour, a battler must be wary of the slipperiness of the ice: one wrong move could send them accidentally slithering onto a fragile patch.
Currently happy with their new toy, none of the wild Pokémon are ready yet to see it destroyed and will repair any holes themselves, using an ice attack, regardless of whether or not something is still floundering in the hole it made. For this reason, Dig and Dive are banned from these matches, and any tremor attack (Earthquake etc) should be used with care.
It also should be noted that Pokémon with the ability to fly are much frowned upon- they may participate but preferably battling directly on the ice like the others. Taking to the air may be seen as an acceptable diversionary technique, but the flyer should be aware that spectators may attempt to help their friend by driving the Pokémon back down to the ice in their own ways.

List of challengers

L5-L10

L5 Smoochum +1
L10 Swinub +2

L11-L15

L11 Wooper +1
L15 Spheal +2

L16-L20

L16 Seel +1
L20 Snorunt+2

L21-L25

L21 Sneasel +1
L25 Delibird +2

L26-L30

L26 Cloyster +1
L30 Milotic +2

L31-L35

L31 Vaporeon +1
L35 Sealeo +2

L36-L40

L36 Octillery +1
L40 Dewgong +2

L41-L45

L41 Corsola +1
L45 Mantine +2

L46-L50

L46 Walrein +1
L50 Lapras +2

L50+

L51 Slowking +1
L55 Kingdra +2

[*Murkrow]

I hadn't originally intended to write this using Omega (I wanted to write with Ry and Si battling)...but then I realised that I wanted to get this damned thing over. I couldn't be bothered to write four more battles when I could get it done in one (well, two...). So here it is, pretty much a culmination of nearly three years of writing here at the Battle Arena.

I have wrapped some things up: some of my additional characters are probably going tobe gone, so this might contain the last, incredibley brief references to them. And Rage needed sorting out, so I've wrapped his relationship up (pretty badly, but I'm really past caring as I type this). xD

Random comments:

The feather I mention is Omega's hold item, the Rainbow Feather. It draws from Ho-oh's natural attacks when used; I've been planning on using it in his last battle since I got it. Guess what an attack is if it doesn't seem to fit what a Shelgon can know.

Stuff in italics are thoughts.

The presentation is crap, I know. Too many paragraphs, plus I haven't entirely checked to make sure stuff is spelt correctly (beyond what spell checker can do), or little things such as adding the é. I might go back later and sort all of it out.

And having said all that......yay!

----------------------
‘So, is the little dragon all rested and ready to battle?’ Rage asked with a malicious smirk as the assembled group stared out at the frozen scene before them.
‘Rage, for the last time, I am warning you,’ Omega hissed back, ‘if you value your life even a little bit, you will shut up and bugger off somewhere.’
‘Oh, aren’t you the hard man, Omega? I’m not going anywhere, anytime soon, buddy, and if you believe that you can get rid of me yourself…well, I’d like to see you try.’
‘Give me, oh, I don’t know…..ten minutes, and I’ll prove it to you if you like.’
‘Omega, you are not going to beat two Pokémon in ten minutes.’
‘Despite the fact that I am a very experienced battler, who just so happens to have an advantage?’
‘Omega, they’re ice types. They will slaughter you. And needless to say, I’ll be cheering them on.’
‘And they’ll no doubt be cheering me on when I blast you out of the sky,’ Omega responded with a smirk. ‘A dragon versus a puny little bird; who do you think would triumph?’
‘The very experienced at aerial battles bird with the razor sharp wings and beak, as opposed to the podgy, never-flown-before dragon who has never heard of aerodynamics.’
‘I’ve heard about aerodynamics; what’re you on about?’
‘Win you battles then take a look yourself, pal.’
‘You are still not making an ounce of sense, bird.’
‘Well, then-’
‘Guys, could you possibly, you know….shut up?’ Ryau interrupted, glancing at them both in turn. ‘This is really embarrassing.’
‘Why are we embarrassing?’ Omega asked her incredulously; Rage started to nod in agreement, realised what he was doing and contented himself with glaring.
‘Well, everybody is waiting for to get a move on, Omega, yet the two of you are just completely wrapped up in your own little world.’
‘What are you implying?’ Rage asked suspiciously, staring at her.
‘Nothing. Just that if you two are going to stand and shout at each other all day, me and Ry will gladly take your place, just as we were originally going to be doing,’ Sianna put in gently, exchanging a smug look with the Pidgeotto.
‘NO! No, er, ok, I’ll get to it,’ Omega hastily put upon seeing the looks of their faces. Trotting away from Rage, he headed towards the lakes edge, where Hannah was waiting, looking very irritated by now at hanging around so long. Jock and Flash were standing either side of her, using their internal heat to provide at least some comfort from the cold.
‘Oh, and Omega?’ Ryau called from behind him.
‘What?’ he yelled over his shoulder.
‘Don’t call use birds puny!’

Omega laughed to himself, then skidded to a halt next to his trainer, glaring across the ice to where his two opponents where: two Lapras’s, already settled onto the ice and regarding him with annoyingly superior looks plastered on their faces. He snarled at them, even as elation bubbled through his body.

He’d been wrong. He’d believed that when he would next see his friends he would have evolved, that the voices greeting him would have been those raised in shock and amazement. They had been raised in shock, but not in the way he had been hoping.
After the adrenaline from his battle with the Aerodactyl had started to die away, common sense –and instinct- had gradually flooded back. He had registered the amount of blood on the floor, and the overwhelming throbbing in his sides. His surroundings had started to waver and sway long before he had reached home: Rage had intercepted him just before he had collapsed, carrying him the rest of the way as he slept. He still wasn’t quite sure who had tipped Rage off; whether it was Rénar or Salcafar. He knew that both of them had sent him the opponents to fight. And Rage wouldn’t say. Indeed, Hannah had had no idea what he was up to until he turned up clinging the Crystal Ball inside which he slept.
Worry about his injuries had meant that he had visited again the clinic, where a familiar nurse had examined his back and sides, pumped him full of drugs and hooked him up to a drip. She hadn’t been that pleased to see him, which Omega wasn’t too surprised about: the bite marks from when he had last met her where still visible.
Not that he was in a much better state. After a couple of days, he was back home, where –under observations made by Rage- he had truly began to realise just how much his body would look to an outsider. The old, thick scars that criss-crossed his left leg were plain to see, remnants of his battle with the Feraligatr, when the beast had sunk his teeth into his leg. His shell was cracked and shattered: small shards would fall off under the slightest of movement, while on either side of his body, two massive indentations highlighted the spots where the Aerodactyl had gripped him. The flow of blood had stained the sides of these indents, giving him permanently darker marks on his sides. He was prone to sudden fits of tremors that would jolt his body: he presumed that the claws had hit and damaged some nerves, or else maybe it was just yet another sign that his body was struggling to keep going in this battered state.
Shielded as it was, his face had luckily managed to avoid taking on many injuries, though his other legs were battered and marked with cuts and bruises.
But on his right fore-leg, there faintly lay the outline of feather. He had never noticed it before until he had returned and was confined to bed-rest at home again. Permanently faint, it nonetheless seemed to shimmer when Omega tilted his leg and allowed sunlight to fall on it. What it was, he had no idea, but part of him liked it, especially for the speculation it allowed him to consider, which helped him when he was bored from just plain resting.
He’d passed Christmas resting, finally being allowed to get up and about in January when the tremors and spasms had started to fade and his legs no longer shook when supporting his weight for a long time.
Then the cold snap descended, and the news of the new battlefields had been brought to them by Rage who had learnt it from someone or other. Ryau and Sianna had been the first to eagerly volunteer to battle on this interesting new course, but Omega’s competitive spirit had re-awakened. Neither the Bayleef or Pidgeotto could bring themselves to stand in his way and had agreed to hand over their battle claims to allow him to fight and finally to achieve his long standing dream.

And so, here he was. The cold was making his wounds ache, and the scene was wavering before his eyes, but he wasn’t going to back down. Excitement and adrenaline was coursing through him again as he stared at the two Pok€mon he had to defeat.
‘You beat them, Omega,’ Jock said quietly: Omega glanced behind him and saw them all, watching him silently. A smile flickered across his face as stared back and he nodded, knowing he didn’t have to say anymore.

He turned and ran onto the ice.

A roar rose immediately from the spectators, which culminated into sniggers and laughter as Omega slithered, caught his balance and charged on. The ice lurched and cracked, tiny splinters embedding themselves into his feet as he ran. His two opponents stared back: one, nothing more than an ordinary Lapras; the other had a faint pink tinge to her skin, which contrasted vividly to the fire in her gaze. She and her mate exchanged contemptuous glances as Omega slithered to a halt in front of them, his legs instantly beginning to slide apart on the slippery ice.
‘Your trainer doesn’t seem to have much sense,’ the male commented with a smirk.
‘Indeed; sending a dragon out to face us?’ laughed his mate. ‘How stupid.’
‘For your information, I was the one who chose to battle, ‘Omega snarled back, ‘and I’ve defeated many opponents where I should have had the disadvantage, so don’t you even dare to think that just because I’m a dragon, I’m not worthy to fight you.’
‘Putting words into our mouths, are you now?’ the female chuckled. ‘Very well, if you wish to be defensive about it, we won’t draw this out. But common courtesy dictates that we should at least have a semblance of being civilised; I am Rose and this is Ness.’
‘Wow. What original names,’ Omega laughed, ignoring the glares instantly directed at him. ‘Though there is no doubt that simple as they are, they at least fit remarkably well. I am Omega.’
‘Well, Omega. That is neither original nor fits you, so I believe that awards us the victory in this particular case,’ stated Ness with a simpering laugh.
Omega blinked. ‘You have just lost me.’
‘No wonder, seeing as we are the intellectual superiors, along with everything else,’ Rose smiled. ‘Now, are you ready to fight, Omega?’
‘Why would I be here otherwise?’ he responded with a smile.
‘Good,’ she said with a spark in her eyes. ‘We will try to make your humiliation quick and simple.’
‘As I will to yo-.’

Omega’s speech was cut short as his stomach lurched and vertigo swung around him as his body was flipped backwards: Rose had ducked her head and slammed into him, the smooth ice giving her freedom of movement almost exactly as she would normally have in the water. She was chasing him, now, laughing as he bounced onto the ice; feeling it shudder underneath him, he rolled over hastily, instinctively trying to spread his weight more evenly. His feet slithered out from beneath him, and he felt- or sensed- the cracks slowly appearing in the thin film between him and the water.

He should have been watching.

Pain exploded through him, a numbness unlike anything he’d experienced before: Rose’s ice beam had struck him directly in the face, stabbing daggers into the one sensitive area of his body. He couldn’t see: blue-white colour flickered before his eyes, which were screaming out in agony. The frigid ice was freezing the moisture inside of them, so he could feel the extra weight slowly building inside his sockets.

His mouth dropped open, instantly being engulfed by the cold; his teeth, his tongue, all numbing instantly.

No. I’m not going to!

The same passion that had awakened in him in his previous battle, the same burning instinct to survive stirred again. And something else. A warmth slowly rising on his left leg, an itch of heat flickering slowly to life.

Fire rose up and exploded from his mouth, deflecting the attack away; sprinkling him with drops of moisture as the ice evaporated on contact with the raging flames. Blinking frantically, he struggled to stand upright, yet even as he did so he could feel the warmth spreading, until his body throbbed with it: glancing down, he saw the feather marking on his leg glowing softly. Strength seeped through his body-looking up, he saw both Rose and Ness staring at silently.

A smile flickered across his still numb face.

Gathering his energy, he exhaled and let the flames shoot across the ice, not caring whether or not the heat melted their support, watching with a smug feeling as the two separated, his mind already pondering who to take on first.

Rose spun round to face him, her mouth sliding open as the orb of ice in her mouth gathered energy and streaking towards him. He dropped his attack and kicked off, sliding in the opposite direction, only to find himself confronting Ness. The Lapras had lowered his head, his horn spinning with a piercing whir; gathering his energy, the monster slithered forwards, his body shaking with the backlash of his attack. Using this as his advantage, Omega splayed his legs out, cutting his speed, and skidded to the left. Ness attempted to follow him, but the force of his attack was too much to allow himself to move that easily.

Hearing the ominous crack, Omega lunged forwards and slammed into Ness’s side, making the Lapras yelp in pain, then alarm as the ice shattered and he half-plunged into the water. The whirring horn cut out and he began to thrash, in a failed attempt to drag himself back onto land. Omega held on tightly, scrambling forward to grip one of the protruding spikes from Ness’s shell as he focused inwardly.

Electricity coursed through Omega’s body, transferring immediately into Ness, who convulsed in pain. Above the crackle of the attack, the shrieking Pokémon’s agony could be heard as he wailed and sobbed. Omega held on for dear life, feeling Ness’s body convulse more, then almost lost his grip as something hit Ness hard. And again, and again. Something was rapidly hitting Ness; as Omega registered it, he heard the cries alter. Still pain filled, still in agony, but almost as if more bearable, and no longer rising in intensity.

He opened his eyes as another of the blasts hit the male Lapras. Water. Letting the ebb of his attack decrease, he swivelled round and glared at Rose, who was firing a continuous volley of water at her mate. Not enough so that the electricity could pass back to her, but enough so that…..

Shit. He gritted his teeth as he remembered how some Lapras could exploit water to their own gain, using it to heal themselves.

Rose’s attempt was obviously working, as Ness suddenly roared and bucked his back. Caught by surprise, Omega lost his grip and tumbled to the side, landing in the small gap created by Ness falling through. The Pokémon instantly went for him, smashing his fore-head against Omega’s body and knocking him underwater. Omega snarled and kicked upwards, taking his chance to bite Ness’s nose as his face surfaced again.

Ness snarled and shook his head, throwing him loose, then lurched away, hauling himself back onto the ice. Omega had a good enough idea of what to expect next, so he paddled forwards and grabbed the edge of Ness’s flipper, using the momentum to drag himself out of the water as well; sure enough, the second Ness was clear, another beam shot past, closing up the hole.

Omega let go and skidded upwards, hauling himself back onto Ness’s shell, causing him to the grunt in irritation. Almost immediately, the beam diverted and slammed into his body, with enough force to knock him completely off of Ness’s back. He crunched onto the ice and scrambled upright, digging his claws in to gain a better grip. The pay off for this meant that the ice instantly weakened, but he ignored it and focused on breathing out draconic flames at Ness who slithered to the side, deliberately turning his head to catch Omega’s eyes, his own glowing with a purple aura.

Omega’s mind went blank; he stopped his attack and dazedly stared around at his surroundings. Why was he on some ice? What as he doing? Why was his leg glowing like that? Confused, he stared at the glowing feather and snarled, unable to remember a time when it had done so before.

Get rid of it.

Instinctively reacting, he lifted his leg up and bit down on the glowing area, shuddering as pain shot both through his leg and his mouth as it burnt the delicate skin. The pain smacked his conscious mind, shouting at him to let go: he did, only to be blown backwards as something solid crashed into him. Smashing against the ice, he blinked and shuddered, hissing at Ness who was panting heavily, the exertion required to use the attack leaving him momentarily helpless. His mind fully clear and restored to normal, Omega stumbled up, making a mental note to prevent himself from catching their eyes again; he had no real desire to be tricked into attacking himself again.

As if in response, the feather flew brighter: a thin green aura shimmered around his body, then vanished as a dark burn began to creep up his leg from the shimmering patch. At the same time, a wave of fatigue swept through him, and he felt a stab of alarm. Where was his energy going?
No time to sit and consider it, however: Rose was obviously eager to make up for her mates brief period of incapacitation and was shooting across the ice towards him, her eyes narrowed. A light mist began to rise around them, obscuring his vision as it thickened and clumped around him. He snorted and blew out more flames, watching where the shadows fell, and listening intently for the tell-tale sound of something scraping over the ice.
There.
He whirled round and lashed out with his claws, feeling the blood spurt over the front of his body as they dug into the side of her lower neck. She whimpered and tried to pull away, but he held on, seeing her more clearly as the obscuring mist rose rapidly and vanished. Digging his claws in deeper, he dragged himself closer to her, then levered himself onto her back as she whirled her head round to hit him. Ducking, he focused and electrocuted her, just as he done to her mate.

Hearing the enraged bellow that rose up, he knew immediately that Ness had recovered enough and was back in the fight. And sure enough, the angry Lapras was slithering closer, his eyes glaring at Omega, a look of hate etched across his face. Omega had an idea of what was coming next: as Ness focused, he knew he was right and leapt behind Rose.

Two jets of pure water tore towards the pair, a spiral of water encasing an ordinary beam, combining to form an attack that for most water types would be seen as the pinnacle of their training to obtain. Hidden behind Rose, Omega dodged the main blast, watching as her body shook with the force of the impact, thought the cooling waters provided some much needed comfort from the injuries he had just dealt her.

Then he electrocuted her again, the charge coursing through her, into the hydro pump, and back to Ness, who cut off his attack with a yell of alarm. Sniggering, Omega dug his claws into the ice to stabilise his body, felt the ice give and lunged forwards, smashing into Rose’s side with all the strength he could muster. As the force of his impact sent her skittering over the ice, he bounded onto her back again, at once shooting a mouthful of draconic flames at the approaching Ness who ducked his head to avoid the majority, but could not help getting struck by the remnants that encased the main pillar of the attack.
Rose whined: she seemed to have been winded by Omega’s attack, so he decided to use his advantage. Dropping the attack against her mate, he extended his claws and smashed them against the back of her neck, gouging easily into her flesh. As she screamed in pain and began to shudder, he again let his hidden power rip into her body, the open wound elevating the effects as it coursed easily against her exposed muscle. Ness roared in anger and Omega felt the ice shake as the Pokémon charged forwards: knowing that the best tactic would be to retreat, he let go and darted off of Rose’s back, catching his balance on the surface and pushing off….

The hydro pump caught him full on, knocking the wind out of him and blasting him across the ice with sickening speed until the ice shuddered and collapsed, sending him crashing into the chilly waters below. Struggling to breath, he floundered, hearing the angry murmur’s developing as he coughed and spluttered in his efforts to stay at the surface. Any second now, one of them would start to refreeze the hole, and he’d be stuck in it, forced to forfeit to prevent himself being frozen in and drowned.

‘Bloody hell, ‘Meggy. I’d never have expected you to give up like this. And you were doing…well, not good, really, but something’s up with you. You shouldn’t even be able to use Safeguard, but you already did. Yet you’re just going to sit and let some random fools beat you just because you cannot get yourself out of a little hole? Bloody hell, that’s disappointing. Way to let us all down and show us up at the same time, Omega.’
‘Rage, what the f*ck are you doing? This is a battle.’
‘I’m a flying spectator, stupid. I’m not the one doing the battling so they have no reason to intervene. And I wanted to get a good view of watching the first sculpture of a Shelgon in ice being created.’
‘Go to hell, Rage.’ The Skarmory stared down at him, silently, then looked away.
‘They’re ready, Omega. Any second now, one of them’s going to attack and you’ll be done.’
‘Over my dead body,’ Omega breathed, kicking out viciously, forcing himself to breathe deeply as he lunged for the edge.

I’m not giving up, not now.

His claws grasped the splintered ice and he hauled himself up, even as the air around him chilled and the water churned as something hit it, freezing it solid. He dragged himself forwards, collapsing onto his front as the pool completely re-froze. He could hear Rage laughing as the Skarmory circled away, and he felt a small smile flicker across his face.

Then he looked up. Ness was nuzzling Rose’s unconscious body, his whining audible even across the distance between them. Omega got to his feet slowly and uneasily. His body shook and his breathing was ragged: his leg itched, as the burns the heat was generating consumed his flesh. Thankful that his solid shell was providing a barrier to the burns, he inhaled, ready to scream out his continued challenge to his opponent.
He didn’t need to. A roar rose from the surrounding crowd, and Ness’s head shot up, his eyes blank, then rapidly being consumed by anger. Lowering his head, he nuzzled his mate once more, then turned and slid slowly away, facing Omega head on. His whines intensified, rising in pitch disturbingly rapidly, his eyes becoming blanker and blanker as rhythm slowly began to manifest into his whines, so that, gradually the pain filled moans were transforming, into a….

Omega felt something cold hit his heart. Perish song. Three minutes. Three minutes to hit an opponent who had barely any damage, and beat him. He had to. The song was already rising, becoming wilder, even as Ness stopped singing. It was inside his mind now, working its way into his mind, so that it echoed painfully, never ending, never stopping, until the song consumed him, knocking him into a stupor that would signal the end of the battle.

Ness smiled across the distance between them; he knew as well what would happen, knew as well the chances of Omega overwhelming him in the little time left.
Overhead, a familiar jeering caw echoed down. Omega tensed, feeling his body began to shake as emotions churned to life within him. Ahead, Ness was lowering his head, his horn beginning to spin again. He was going to come right at him, mixing kamikaze attack with kamikaze attack.
Warmth flowed through his body. I can beat him.. He dug his claws in and ran forward, as Ness moved off. In a straight line, they charged, ready to meet each other face-to-face; the triumphant look that was slipping over the Lapras’s face told that he was predicting the results of their charge. Omega knew too, that contact with the whirling horn would mean it as over-the speed it was spinning would tear through even his shell, ripping through his nervous system and leaving him spasming on the floor, dead to the world.
The ice was shaking as the force of their movements ricocheted through it. Cracks shivered through it; splinters cracked. Omega stared ahead as he ran, seeing Ness approaching through a haze.
The whirring of the horn was audible now, even through the screaming rhythm in his head that was nearing its climax.
He leapt, digging in his claws to give him power. Ness plunged his head down; Omega sank his front claws into the Lapras’s nose to give him a boost of momentum, and shot over horn by inches. For a second or so more, he seemed to hover over Ness’s back, staring at the rough shell, before his churning emotions exploded inside of him.
Fire. Burning, exploding heat that erupted around him, tinged with gold light that rippled across the surface. It ran over his body, consuming him until nothing was left but light, no thought flickered through his mind, as his conscious mind vanished.
Gravity dragged him down and he smashed into Ness’s back, fire burning into the rough shell, the unbearable heat reaching out and gripping Ness’s mind, dragging it into oblivion as his body was enclosed in a ball of fire, the ice melting beneath the pair, sending them sinking into the water.
Then nothing. The fire shivered and vanished. Omega crashed onto Ness’s unconscious body, his breathing harsh, his limbs shaking and his eyes staring at nothing.

Gasping, he dragged himself to his feet, urgency channelling through his body: stumbling off of the Lapras’s back, and clumsily leaping over the water and back onto the ice-it snapped beneath his weight, but a rush of wind and two sharp claws pushed him forwards, where he fell forwards roughly, coughing.
‘None of that, already,’ Rage’s voice snapped from behind him. ‘If we can’t stand round and smirk in pride, then we may as well have not come.’
‘Pride?’
‘Yes, pride. You make us all look good, pal, and don’t you ever dare forget it.’
‘I won’t.’
He shook as the Skarmory slammed into his back, knocking him forward over the ice, again and again. As the shore grew closer, the Shelgon’s mind began to relax, focusing inward, where the all consuming fire still burned.
‘……Rage?’
‘Yes?’
‘Promise me you won’t leave the team? Nobody would ever care half so much about training if there wasn’t a chance that they could show you somehow.’
‘By nobody, you mean you, right?’
‘I’ll never tell.’
‘I guess then I’ll have to do some more training myself. No point me not being able to defend my honour if everybody else can walk all over me.’
‘Indeed.’

Omega opened his eyes as he slithered onto rough soil; shakily dragging himself to his feet once more, he slowly lifted his gaze, staring at each one of his friends in turn. Ry was crying already; Jock was gazing at him with an smile on his face; Flash and Si were both beaming and shaking with suppressed energy. Hannah walked forwards and placed a hand on his shell. He could see the pride in her eyes. Then Rage stuck his head into his field of vision.

‘Well, what are you waiting for?’

He closed his eyes and fully relaxed. The fire inside of him expanded and consumed him: his body contorted and grew. His shell shattered, the pieces disintegrating; his legs thickened, growing sharp, permanent claws. He felt a tail grow and fall heavily to the ground, felt his head extending upwards, sharp spikes exposing themselves on either side of his face. And his wings. Ripping from his shoulders, arching over his body, temptingly shifting even as his body settled down again.

A sob shook itself free and he let his eyes open slowly, trying to prevent himself from breaking down. He was now at eye level with Hannah; taller than all of his friends bar Rage, who smiled and stretched out a wing.
Omega smiled back and lifted his right leg in response; as he reached out to shake Rage’s wing, he noticed that the feather mark was etched deeper, covered in a film that shimmered permanently with a life of its own.
‘I wasn’t going to shake hands with you, you know. I was just pointing out how right I was about those damned wings not having anything aerodynamic about them.’
Jock coughed in an effort to suppress a laugh: both Flash and Si giggled and Ry hicouped and glared at Rage who smiled benignly back. Hannah smiled and rolled her eyes at Omega, who laughed aloud, surprising himself at how deeper his voice was.
‘Of course you were.’
He looked at Hannah for a few seconds, then turned and lowered his wing.
‘Come on. I want you to be with me.’
She stared at him for a second or so more, then smiled sadly.
‘Of course, ‘Meggy.’
She rested her hands against the pure muscle of Omega’s back, then jumped, putting her foot onto the base of his wing and swinging herself onto his back.
‘You know, I never really believed that I’d be doing this,’ she whispered, settling herself into a more comfortable position. She looked up. ‘Ready, Omega.’

He nodded and took a deep breath. Turning away from the lake, walked slowly over the flat land of the shore, running his eyes over the surface, evaluating its condition. Pleased with what he saw, he settled down; perched on his back, Hannah felt his muscles tense up as he sank into a crouch.

A few seconds of utter silence.

Omega lunged forwards, his wings sweeping through the air, his legs pushing him onwards; a sob wrenched itself free as he bounded forwards, his wings beat down and his reaching claws scraped the ground. Tears freely running down his cheeks, he tilted his body upwards, hearing his friends screaming and cheering below, accompanied by Rage’s harsh caws.
Beating hard, he copied what he’d seen the birds do numerous times and spiralled gently into a circle, gaining height with every turn.

And he gazed out. Gazed at the rippling scenery beneath and around him. At the icy lake directly below, at the river, snaking its frozen path down from the falls where the Suicune stature overlooked the world. Ahead, they could spy the town, dark roofs glinting in the pale sun. Beyond that, the thick canopy of the forest stretched, seemingly never-ending as it stretched back to the crystal mountains. To their left the meadows were spread out before them, a plateau of white tinged with blue, with green sprouting throughout as the grass pushed its way through the ice. To the right, signalled by the heat haze, the desert stretched away, the looming shadow of the volcano visible as a dark patch within the haze.

They stared down, before Omega’s eyes wandered up again, staring directly ahead, at the single tree, perched near the pinnacle of the crystal mountains. The place where they’d battled before, had stood and behold Ho-oh. Something sparkled- he thought he saw two figures fly briefly through the air, before one swooped down and vanished and the other faded away against the shrine. Rénar and Salcafar again. Something told him he’d never see them intentionally again, but he still smiled.
Then he flung back his head and roared into the open air.

I’m not going to give up.

Never.

-----------------------

[b]Omega grew to L50 and evolved into a Salamence! He learnt Scary Face and Fly by level, Hyper Beam as his free TM and Cut (SM), Aeroblast, Substitute and Earthquake (all TM's I bought/won)

[Wolfsong]

Hopefully soon, I will get a chance to write. In the meantime, I'd like an rbg for Ranec my L.39.5 Umbreon please *pays*

[*Murkrow]

He'll battle a L40 Sharpedo at the Lake.

Also, may I have a refund for Omega's rbg against a L46 Baltoy, please? I'm not going to be writing it.

[The Blue Avenger]

Refund it is. *hands over 7 CCPs*

[Wolfsong]

All right, thanks to an idea that i had and *crosses fingers* hopefully the randomizer will cooperate I will ask for one last rbg before i get started writing. I'd like an rbg for Dakota my L.27 Mightyena please *hands over 7 ccps leaving me wtih 20*

[*Murkrow]

He will be battling a L27 Shuppet.

[Wolfsong]

Congrats to Omega on his evolution. As usual, I loved reading your story and you didn't disappoint with the great descriptions. I liked how in the intro you had Rage and Omega arguing. I didn't particularly care for Rose and Ness and I was rather happy when they were knocked out. I really liked how you worked with the rainbow feather. Take 28 CCPs.

[Wolfsong]

*pays* I'd like one last rbg before i get to work writing on it. I'd like one for Zale my L.19 Shiny Male Vaproeon please ^^

[The Blue Avenger]

Zale will fight a Houndour in the West Caverns.

[Skye]

Okay, I know for certian I had an RBG for Nuka, and I would like to refund it. I also may have had an RBG for Senshi or some other of my team, but I cannot find proof. >.<; So... Up to you. Refund(s) please. x_x;

[*Murkrow]

*Gives 14 CCPs* I remember you getting an RBG for Senshi.

[Wolfsong]

Before story notes: I recently bought Zale a Protect and a Double Team TM. I also bought Sunita an earring and a dragonbreath TM. Lastly Phoenix is a pidgey that I bred for and is the daughter of Hannah’s Pidgeotto Ryau and her Skarmory Rage. I gave her a hidden power Tm or rather Aiko unknowingly gave it to her before she evolved (Aiko) at the Eevee House. I still haven’t’ introduced Hinto yet, but that will come in time. I recently made a huge purchase at the Kiosk where Aiko received a Sleep Talk TM, Ranec received Mud Slap, Kumar received Double Team, Jovi received Charm, Laila got Façade, Lani got Dig, Dakota got Swift, Zale got Crunch from the EMT, Wildfire got Submission from the EMT, and I also bought Angel a Shock Wave TM. Anyways, here are Zale, Dakota, and Ranec’s RBGs. I chose to have them all happen at the lake although the opponents were all spread out. I had a bit of writer’s block when I first started the story and apologies if some of the battles were short.

(Zale’s POV)

“So Dad, when are you going to let me have a battle outside of the Battle Tower?Angel asked.

“Soon enough,” I replied.

Angel rolled her eyes. “You always say that, and I’ve yet to test my skills against a wild pokemon of any kind.”

Luckily, I was spared from having to reply because we had arrived at our destination. We were at the Lake. Amy thought that having a picnic at the Lake would be a nice departure from the normal take out at home. I looked around and saw that Angel had run off and was coaxing Aiko into a game of tag. Not that the Delcatty ever needed much coaxing to play. I looked around and saw that Ranec, Kumar, and Amy were spreading out. Phoenix was perched on Amy’s shoulder. The pidgey was the newest to the team and also the youngest. She had already captured the entire team’s hearts, and surprisingly that included Willow. Speaking of Willow, he and Jovi went to the Meadow. They both went looking for battles and I was sure that Willow could find one even if he wasn’t looking for them. Sometimes his mouth got him into trouble because he said things before he even had a chance to realize how they might sound to a stranger. The rest of the team, which was Wildfire, Sunita, Laila, and Lani, had chosen to go exploring in the North Caverns instead of having a picnic.

Speaking of Aiko, despite evolving, she kept her limitless energy. I still got worn out just by watching her. I sat down and just watched Angel and Aiko playing together. Soon, I was joined by Dakota and the two of us watched the kids playing while Amy finished getting things ready so that we could eat.

* * *

I don’t know what restaurant Amy had ordered lunch from but it was definitely some of the best around. After everyone had eaten their fill, Amy cleaned up and then pulled a book out of her bag and started reading. Aiko and Angel were not having a competition of sorts. They were trying to see who could shoot their water pulse the farthest. Phoenix had fallen asleep, nestled comfortably in Amy’s lap. Kumar had disappeared but I knew that he would be back before Amy was ready to leave. Ranec had chosen a secluded spot near the water’s edge where he was practicing his attacks. I looked around for Dakota and saw that he wasn’t too far from Angel and Aiko. He saw me looking and gave me a nod letting me know that he’d watch the kids and make sure that they didn’t get into any trouble. I smiled, and gave my head a nod to let him know that I understood.

The crystal clear water of the lake was beckoning me to dive in. I hadn’t even taken a single step when a Frisbee sailed over my head. A few seconds later, a houndour slammed into me, her eyes intently focused on the Frisbee. It took us several minutes before we managed to untangle ourselves. As soon as we were free of each other, the houndour apologized as she picked up her Frisbee.

“Artemis what is taking you so long?” a voice from behind me asked. I spun around and saw a teenager approaching use. He was about 6 feet tall already and he had jet black hair. I quickly glanced over at Amy who had pt her book up and was walking this way carrying a sleeping Phoenix in her arms. I also noticed that Kumar had reappeared as well.

It was at this point that the young man noticed us. Artemis had returned to her trainer’s side. “I see we weren’t the only ones with plans to spend the day at the Lake.” he observed. The boy then took a step towards Amy and held out his hand. “I see that you have already met Artemis. Please allow me to introduce myself. I am Brian.” “Nice to meet you Brian, I’m Amy.” Amy then smiled, looking at the houndour. “Interesting name for your houndour, but suitable I have to admit. Artemis, the Greek goddess of the hunt.” Brian looked surprised. “You follow Greek Mythology?” he asked with a smile. “Some.” Amy replied. “I took AP English in high school and we studied Greek mythology during the course of the class.”

Brian nodded his head in understanding. I could see him looking at each of us. Amy must have seen it as well because she spoke up. “This is only part of my team, two other groups chose to explore different areas.” Brian didn’t say anything but he seemed to become even more interested, as Amy proceeded to introduce us. “The umbreon is Ranec. He is the strongest pokemon on the team. He was also the very first pokemon that I caught. Amy slowly made her way through all of the pokemon that were at the Lake with her, finishing up with Phoenix who had just woke up and was looking around curiously. “This is my newest and youngest pokemon, Phoenix.”

Brian looked impressed as he reached for the two remaining pokeballs on his belt. “Since you were kind enough to introduce me to your team, or at least the ones present, let me return the favor. Amy I would like for you to meet the remainder of my team. Hades, Poseidon come forth!” In the air in front of Brian, the shape of a shuppet materialized. That must be Hades, I thought to myself as I looked around for Poseidon. I didn’t find him until I looked over at the Lake. It wasn’t hard to miss him. Poseidon was an enormous sharpedo!

Amy was impressed. “How did you get your team so strong?” I could understand where Amy was coming from. She had been training for years to her team this strong. Brian smiled shyly. “I work for one of the Gym Leaders. Alana of the Dark Gym to be more precise. She keeps us on our toes with training sessions. Today is my day off.” Brian seemed to get a twinkle in his eyes. “I don’t suppose you’d be up for a three on three battle, one pokemon out at a time?” he asked. Amy looked at each of us in turn, to see if there were any objections. When there were none, Amy turned to face Brian. “We accept your challenge.” Brian nodded, as Amy gave me a nod. I could tell that she knew that I wanted to battle. I stepped forward as Brian smiled. “Artemis, you’re up! She may be the youngest on my team, but don’t underestimate her.” I knew that I had to be careful even though I had the type advantage. She was bound to have some tricks that I didn’t know about. Artemis had a confident smile on her face, and it was then that I noticed that she was wearing an earring which made me thankful that I had my beach ball with me. “May the best pokemon win,” she said, taking a battle stance. I nodded my head in agreement as I took one of my own.

Zale L.19 Shiny M Vaporeon Vs. Artemis L.19 F Houndour

Artemis wasted no time in getting started and soon I was staring at six houndours. I smiled in amusement. “What is so funny?” the houndour asked. I didn’t bother replying. Instead, I began to dace about in a manner that was designed to bring rain. As I finished the steps, a pale blue light shot up into the sky, and the floodgates opened. As the rain pelted down, Artemis’s clones disappeared. I heard groans coming from the team, and I smiled apologetically at them.

Inhaling deeply, I exhaled a jet of bubbles that were pressed so close together that they formed a beam. Artemis threw back her head and howled a spine-tingling melody. As she finished, a beam of red light shot straight up into the sky causing the sun to com out and the deluge of rain to stop. I snarled, as the sun weakened my bubblebeam.

Artemis was now grinning mischievously, and that was making me nervous. She glanced over at Brian who nodded his head in an affirmative manner. The next thing I knew, I was crying out in pain as electricity coursed through my body. My eyes narrowed, as I spit a glob of toxic goo all over her. Artemis yelped as the toxins slowly worked their way into her blood stream.

“Again Artemis.” Brian encouraged her. This time, I was prepared. I was already concentrating on my hidden power as well. At the exact same time that Artemis released her hidden power, I released mine. The two beams of electrical energy pushed against each other, before mine pushed through and slammed into the houndour causing her to cry out in surprise.

“Zale!” I heard Amy call out. “We need to end this fast. Use Hydro Cannon.”[color=royalblue] I was confused at first, because Amy rarely gave us orders during our battles. Then, I caught a glimpse of the look on Angel’s face and immediately I understood where Amy was coming from. She looked scared. It must have been because of that first hidden power electric attack that caught me off guard. Unfortunately, my opponent used my momentary distraction to her advantage. She shot a huge jet of flames, powered up by the sun, at me. I tried to dodge them by turning, but I just wasn’t fast enough. The flames slammed into my shoulder, leaving an angry red burn that was already leaving blisters. Gritting my teeth in an attempt to ignore the pain for the time being, I took as deep a breath as I could manage. Then, calling upon every ounce of the water stores that I had in my body, I exhaled a powerful blast of water that pushed Artemis backwards until she slammed into her trainer. She was out like a light and I was so tired that I could barely move. I gritted my teeth as my shoulder still hurt because of the burn.

I won!
I grew to L.20!
I learned Hyper Beam as my free TM

(Dakota’s POV)

Amy was about to recall Zale when he shook his head no. He then limped over to Angel and nuzzled her. I guess he wanted to let her know that he was okay even though he had a rather nasty burn on his left shoulder. When I saw it, it was all I could do not to wince, because it hurt just to look at it.

I waited a few minutes to see if anyone else was going to volunteer for the next battle, and when no one did I stepped forwards. Brian didn’t even hesitate. “Hades!” he called out. The shuppet floated forwards giving off an air of superiority. I snorted. We’d see about that. I took a deep breath, before releasing a mighty roar. The shuppet hesitated for a few seconds, before floating forwards again not looking like he fet superior anymore.

Dakota L.27 M Mightyena Vs. Hades L.27 M Shuppet

For a while, neither Hades nor I moved. It was obvious that neither of us wanted to make the first move. Finally, it was Hades whose patience ran out first. He slammed into my neck hard enough that it caused the clasp on my collar to come undone and drop to the ground useless for the battle. Immediately, I began secreting toxins from my teeth as I jumped forwards clamping my teeth into the shuppet and holding on tight. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a flash of yellow and pink. Aiko must have fetched my collar for Amy,, I thought to myself.

I didn’t release my grip until Hades hit me square in the jaw with a shadow ball. Instinctively, I leapt backwards releasing my hold on him. Unfortunately, the attack failed to poison Hades. Quickly, I began tunneling underground. Pretty soon, I was safe in my tunnel and listening intently on what was going on aboveground. Waiting for the perfect moment to strike, I remained still. Now! I saw Hades staring into the hole that I created. Charging forwards, I slammed into the shuppet sending him flying.

Hades quickly righted himself, as he glared at me. I raised an eyebrow at him before creating three clones. Hades cackled like a maniac before sending a wave of electricity that tore through my clones and slammed into me.

Snarling in annoyance, I charged forwards my teeth crackling with dark energy. When I reached the shuppet, I clamed my teeth down and bit with all the power that my jaws could muster. Hades cried out in pain before his eyes flashed green. The next thing I knew, there were literally thousands of tiny bugs swarming all over me getting under my fur and biting down. Yelping, I immediately began rolling around on the sandy Lake shore trying to get them off.

I stood up, shaking the sand from my fur when I had finally succeeded in getting rid of those annoyingly painful bugs. Soon, I was aware of the fact that someone was laughing. Turning around, I saw that it was Hades. My eyes narrowed, but before I could do anything, I was staring at two shuppets. Snarling, I pounced on one sinking my teeth into thin air. It was the wrong one. Spinning around to face Hades, I began to concentrate. As I did so, an orb of ethereal energy began forming in the air in front of me. My opponent’s eyes widened as he tried to put as much distance between the two of us as possible. I wasn’t about to let him avoid my attack that easily. I released my hold on the shadow ball and watches as it hurtled into the ghost. The shuppet crashed into the ground and I waited for him to get back up, but he was out cold. Grinning, I hurried over and took a seat between Zale and Aiko.

I won!
I grew to L.28!

(Ranec’s POV)

I watched Zale and Dakota’s battles with interest. I enjoyed watching my teammates battle almost as much as I enjoyed battling myself. They each had their own tricks and unique style of battling. I soon found myself observing the sharpedo. It was obvious that he was a strong pokemon. In fact, out of our whole team there were only two of us that even came close to what I estimated his level to be. I glanced over at Kumar. He bowed his head graciously, allowing me the opportunity to battle. Brian thanked his shuppet for doing his best before recalling him. Then, he turned to face Amy. “Who will be your last battler?” he asked with a smile. “That would be me.” I said, jumping off the rock that I was sitting on and walking to stand by Amy’s side. “Very well,” Brian said with a smile. “Poseidon, do your stuff.”

Ranec L.39.5 White M Umbreon with Black Rings Vs. Poseidon L.40 M Sharpedo

I looked around the Lake, but the sharpedo was nowhere to be seen. The surface of the lake was as smooth as glass. The Jaws theme was going through my mind as I cautiously padded forwards, peering into the crystal clear water of the lake when suddenly, it exploded. I heard Angel scream in surprise, but I was quickly dragged underwater. Struggling, I managed to break free from the sharpedo’s grasp as I raced to the surface to get a mouthful of the blessed oxygen. I broke the surface gasping for air. Sighs of relief from my teammates also greeted me.

Poseidon surfaced in front of me. “Out of your element, aren’t we?” he asked mockingly. Baring my teeth and growling loudly, I answered him. “I’ll have you know that this isn’t the first time that I’ve battled a water pokemon in the water.” Still snarling, I narrowed my eyes. The sharpedo laughed as if he didn’t believe me completely unaware that the air around me was crackling with electricity. Once I felt that I had enough electricity stored, I released a wobbling orb of electrical energy. I held my breath as I watched it zigzagged towards Poseidon. My luck held true as the Zap Cannon slammed into the sharpedo eliciting a cry that was a combination of both surprise and pain.

I glared at the sharpedo and the air around him began to waver as he was surrounded by a sickly purple glow. Unfortunately for me, paralysis didn’t render Poseidon helpless this turn as I was quickly pushed underwater by a powerful blast of water.

Fighting my way back to the surface, I steadily swam towards my opponent. Thankfully, the sharpedo was right where I left him due to his muscles locking up. I slammed into him with all the force that my body could muster while swimming, unfortunately I had forgotten about how rough a sharpedo’s skin could be. The sandpaper texture of it left scratches everywhere that my body had made contact.

Suddenly, vines began wrapping themselves around my legs trying to pull me underwater. Instinctively, I bit at each of the vines and succeeded in keeping myself from getting pulled underwater. Poseidon was glaring at me looking almost as worn out as I felt. I began concentrating on my hidden power and as I did so, a brown orb appeared in the air in front of me. As I continued to concentrate, its shape slowly shifted from that of an orb to one that resembled a human fist. Smiling, I released my hold on it and watched as the attack slammed into the sharpedo. I held my breath but Poseidon was out cold.

I won!
I grew to L.40.5!
I learned Dream Eater as my free TM

I slowly paddled my way towards the Lake shore. Once I was out of the water, I shook all the excess water from my fur. I heard a snarl and realized that I had accidentally gotten Aiko wet. “Sorry Aiko,” I called over my shoulder.

I made my way over to Amy’s side where Brian was shaking her hand. “Why don’t you come and challenge Alana?” he asked. Amy rubbed the back of her neck with her hand. “I’ll have to think about it and discuss it with my team. Brian nodded, understanding where Amy was coming from. “Well, here is a map to her gym if you decide to challenge her.” Amy took the map from him. “Maybe we can have a rematch sometime?” she suggested. Brian smiled. “I’d like that.” The two of them said their good-byes and we made our way to the nearest pokecenter.

[*Murkrow]

Amy~ Very nice intro, and I liked the introduction to Brian and his Pokémon. Loved the nicknames as well xD Some interesting descriptions in the Zale/Artemis battle. I liked the way Dakota lost his collar for the fight. Ranec's battle seemed more rushed than the others, but it was still enjoyable. I liked the foreshadowing at the end as well. Let's see....18 CCPs.

[Wolfsong]

I'd like a refund for Willow's RBG please ^^; Between computer troubles and eerything i just don't have time to work on it. I might get him another one later but for the time being i just don't have the time.

[Dark Dragonite]

Ok Amy, you get your 7 CCPs back
And for those awaiting CCCC updates, it's coming, I've just had a lousy weekend...let's leave it at that...

[Wolfsong]

All right, now that i'm feeling better, i need to get caught up with things, so that means tryign to get back into writing as well. I'd like an RBG for Angel my L.14 absol please. *hands over 7 ccps*

[The Blue Avenger]

Angel will fight a Sneasel in the North Caverns.

[Inferno_Dragon]

I might be new at this but I can certain give this a try. I would like RBG for Lucky, my level 9 Seedot. *hands over 7 CCPs.*

[The Blue Avenger]

Lucky will fight a Sableye in the South Caverns.

[Wolfsong]

I'd like an rbg for Tiana please. *pays*

[The Blue Avenger]

Tiana will fight a Chimecho in the South Caverns.

[The Blue Avenger]

Pokemon to be used: Homen (level 12 Tyrogue), Hoborg (level 12 Tyrogue), Lento (level 20 Slowking)

---

“Oi, Jeff. We just got a message from Christian’s gym.”

“Oh? Christian? I haven’t seen him in ages! How’s the guy doing?”

“Not too well, apparently. Christian was just defeated in battle.”

“No kidding!” Jeff shook his head. A tall, willowy man with shaggy brown hair and wide eyes obscured behind large sunglasses, Jeff struck a sharp contrast to the person he was talking to: his gym’s assistant, a short, squat boy named James. “Defeated? Really? Even with that crazy ghost of his?”

“Yes sir,” James replied. “According to the log he sent us, the challenger identified himself as Blue Avenger, and he used a Slowking, an Aerodactyl, and a Tyranitar.”

“Blue Avenger, eh?” Jeff looked to the ceiling and put his hand to his chin. “Why does that name sound familiar?”

“I dunno, Jeff. I’ve never heard the name before.” James shrugged and shook his head.

Jeff frowned. “Oh well. I’ll figure it out eventually. Any challengers on today’s schedule?”

“None yet.”

“Right-o. I’m going to go take a nap. Wake me up if something happens.” With that, Jeff departed from his office to the small lounge behind the main battle room.

James busied himself by pulling open a filing cabinet and sorting the papers inside, but before he had made too much progress, he heard the front doors to the gym slam open very loudly. He rushed into the main room and saw the source of the offending noise: a man, roughly Jeff’s height, wearing a blue suit, a black tie and white gloves. His face was exposed, revealing a pair of small glasses and a shock of thick brown hair. The first thought that crossed James’ mind is how similar the visitor looked like Jeff.

“’Scuse me?” the man spoke, looking at James. “You the leader here?”

“Oh!” James started. “No, sorry. I’ll go get him.”

“No need,” called a voice from behind him. James turned around and saw Jeff, rubbing his eyes and still looking rather sleepy. “I’m here. You’re a challenger, right?”

“Indeed,” the visitor said simply.

“Right then,” Jeff said, pausing to yawn. “This is the steel-type gym. My name is Jeff; you’ll have trouble getting past my Pokemon’s iron-hard defense, so on and so forth. What do you go by?”

“I go by many names,” the visitor said. “People have called me the Azure Knight, the Cerulean Crusader, and bizarrely enough the Hypotenuse Man. Mostly, I call myself Blue Avenger. Blue for short.”

Jeff paused for a second, and then chuckled. “Oh yeah! Okay. You’re the guy who just took Christian down, eh? Crazy. Then I guess I shouldn’t underestimate you… no matter how goofy you look.”

Blue scowled. “What do you mean? I’ll have you know that this is the very height of fashion!”

“Where’d you hear that?” Jeff grinned. “No, wait, lemme guess. Bluemingdale’s?”

“Shut it!” Blue yelled. “I came here to battle! Not listen to some hick insult my taste in clothing!”

“Fine, fine,” Jeff said. “Nobody appreciates a good bon mot anymore. Right-o, well, let’s get this over with.”

Battle! Blue versus the unshakeable Jeff!
Blue’s Pokemon: Hoborg, Homen, and Lento
Jeff’s Pokemon: Scizor, Aggron, and Steelix

Both trainers adjourned to opposite sides of the arena, a room filled with stalagmites, stalactites, and rocky outcroppings growing from the walls and ground. Both Blue and Jeff hurled out their Pokeballs, revealing the form of a small Tyrogue and a fierce Scizor.

Homen versus Scizor!
Homen – “We’re unbeatable!”
~
Scizor – “Stop bugging me.”

Homen looked at the lithe form of the steel insect in front of him with determination burning in his eyes. “No matter the obstacle,” he said quietly, “I will overcome it.”

Scizor grinned. “Heh. Big words from such a tiny Pokemon. I don’t think you know what you’re up against.” Faster than Homen could blink, Scizor was mere inches in front of the Tyrogue. “No challenge at all,” Scizor said, raising his claws. He brought them down diagonally, slamming them into Homen’s chest hard and sending the young Tyrogue flying back.

Homen grunted and picked himself up, looking warily at the X-shaped slash mark on his torso. “No matter the obstacle…” he said again.

“Homen! You okay?” Blue called. “Don’t let him faze you! Remember your strengths!”

Homen nodded and closed his eyes. I cannot let Blue down, he thought. Without opening his eyes, Homen leapt backwards into the air, making a neat three-point landing. A shockwave exploded forth from where he landed, ripping up the gym’s floor. Scizor, not expecting the attack, had no time to lift into the air and was thrown to the ground, the Earthquake shaking him violently.

“So there is some fight in you…” Scizor groaned, standing back up. Despite the fierce attack, the only evidence of damage on Scizor was a small bruise here and their on his otherwise shiny coat. He shook his head and began beating his wings. “But this is as far as you go!” A fierce wind began to pick up in the gym, focusing itself into a small, localized whirlwind near Homen. Before Homen could react, the whirlwind drew him in, the force of the wind opening small cuts on his skin. Before long, the vortex threw him unceremoniously skyward.

“Peh,” Scizor said, brushing some dirt off of his arm. “Not even worth fighting.” He glanced around the arena. “…where’d he go?”

“Up here!” a voice called from the ceiling. Scizor looked slowly upward, where he saw Homen hanging from a stalactite, grinning. “Don’t count me out just yet!” Homen dove from his perch, foot first, and slammed into Scizor’s head. Scizor stumbled back, groaning. Before he could regain his composure, Homen jumped into the air again, his landing setting off another Earthquake. The shockwave once again slammed hard into Scizor, sending him to the ground.

“No!” Jeff howled. “This can’t be! Scizor! Get back in the game!”

Scizor nodded slowly and assumed a lotus position. A glow surrounded him and he stood back up, looking none the worse for the wear.

“Geez…” Blue groaned. “Lemme guess. Feather Rest?” Jeff nodded, smiling. “God, does every gym leader do this? How cheap can you get?” Blue shook his head. “Don’t let him intimidate you, Homen! You can do it!”

“Heheheh…” Scizor chuckled, drawing Homen’s attention again. Homen gasped: where there was previously one Scizor, five more had taken his place.

Blue chuckled. “Honestly, Jeff, that’s such an overused strategy. Homen can pierce your Scizor’s façade in a flash.”

“Is that so?” Jeff replied, smirking. “I think he’s having a fair bit of trouble, myself.”

Indeed, Homen was running as fast as he could, as each of the five Scizors was trying to dive-bomb him.

“Ugh…” Blue groaned. “I never told him… Hey, Homen!” Homen turned to look at Blue, narrowly dodging one Scizor’s pincer. “You remember the TM I gave you yesterday? Use it!”

Homen nodded in comprehension and spun around on the spot. He put his arms out and summoned a flurry of bright yellow stars out of nowhere. As if possessed, the stars immediately homed in on the real Scizor. They deflected neatly off of his metal hide, but the shock caused all the fake Scizors to disappear immediately.

Scizor growled. “You swine… take this!” He hovered above Homen and plunged one pincer down, then the other. Homen rolled out of the way of the first one, but the second blow caught him on the side, tossing him backwards. “You can’t win!” Scizor sneered.

Clutching his side and wincing, Homen stood back up. “I’ll never concede to you,” he said simply and drew one foot up. Without hesitation, Homen stomped down, sending out another shockwave, throwing Scizor back, this time against a wall. The Tyrogue jumped into the air and whipped his foot around hard into Scizor’s head, the impact knocking Scizor back again and leaving him slumped on the ground. Homen landed, panting.

Jeff applauded slowly. “Good show,” he said somberly. “Come on back, Scizor.”

End Round 1! Winner: Blue and Homen!

“What do you think, Homen? Can you keep going?” Blue asked.

“Yes. I will fight,” Homen replied simply.

“Well then,” Jeff said nonchalantly. “Let’s bring out the big guns.” He tossed another Pokeball onto the field. It opened, revealing a giant snake-like rock beast that easily took up most of the arena.

Both Blue’s and Homen’s eyes widened.

“Let’s go, Steelix! Crush them!”

Homen versus Steelix!
Homen – “We’re invincible!
~
Steelix – “Heh heh heh…”

Homen took a hesitant step forward before Steelix dove down at him, a stream of turquoise flames spewing forth from the serpentine Pokemon’s mouth. Homen prepared to dodge, but in doing so, aggravated the wound on his side. He winced and dodged a moment too late: the fire surrounded the Tyrogue as he let out a cry. As the Dragonbreath cleared, Blue somberly recalled his fallen Pokemon.

End Round 2! Jeff and Steelix win!

Blue frowned slightly before selecting a Pokeball off of his belt and tossing it to the field. The light dispersed, revealing… another Tyrogue – Hoborg.

“Oh, good choice, you,” Jeff said sardonically. “Your last Tyrogue did so well against Steelix.”

“Come off it,” Blue replied. “He beat your Scizor’s face in, didn’t he?”

“Err, Blue?” Hoborg asked quietly. “What does this guy mean, ‘your last Tyrogue?’”

Blue’s expression changed to one of regret. “I’m sorry to say, Hoborg, that this Steelix beat Homen pretty badly. In one shot, as it happens.”

“What?!” Hoborg howled. “Nobody gets away with that! Steelix, your head is MINE!”

Blue smiled victoriously at Jeff. “See what a little motivation does?”

Hoborg versus Steelix!
Hoborg – “You can’t win!”
~
Steelix – “Heh heh heh…”

Hoborg began quickly, rushing over to Steelix’s side and punching one of the many rocks that made up the snake’s body.

Steelix blinked. “Was that supposed to hurt?” he asked, seeming genuinely puzzled.

“Err…” Hoborg grunted. “Try this!” He planted another lightning-fast punch on Steelix, then another, then a third.

Steelix looked down at him. “Look, you’ll need to do better than that. See?” He dove down at Hoborg and slammed into the young Tyrogue with his head. Hoborg grunted as the air was forcefully pushed out of his lungs and flew back, impacting hard with the wall.

“Uggghhh…” Hoborg slowly rose to his feet. Okay… Mach Punch obviously isn’t affecting him that much, he thought. Let’s try a different tactic. Just as his brother had, Hoborg jumped into the air, his landing causing a massive shockwave. It traveled across the arena, shaking Steelix slightly.

“Hey buddy,” Steelix said, “I said you’ll need to do better.” He slammed his tail on the ground, creating a far larger earthquake that threw not only Hoborg but the two trainers to the ground. “Now that’s an Earthquake!” Steelix grinned. “Now, sorry about this, but I have to take you out.” Steelix began to grin even wider, revealing that his teeth were glowing a bizarre shade of blue. He dove at Hoborg, who had barely a chance to stand up before Steelix had him in between his teeth. Steelix bit down even harder, forcing the ice aura under Hoborg’s skin.

After what seemed to Hoborg like an eternity, Steelix spit him out. The Tyrogue slowly stood, shivering. What can I do? Hoborg thought. Nothing I have has had an effect. I doubt Tackle’ll work, and Hidden Power won’t do anything… He bowed his head.

“Hoborg! Don’t throw in the towel!” Blue called. Hoborg lifted his head and looked at his trainer. “When all else fails… well… just introduce a little chaos to the system, you get what I mean?”

Hoborg snapped his fingers. “Yes! Okay! I get it!” He faced Steelix again and began to wiggle his fingers back and forth. A loud ‘click’ reverberated throughout the arena, and Hoborg felt compelled to lie down. As he did so, a mysterious glow enveloped him and he began to feel invigorated.

“I’m guessing the end result of Metronome was Slack Off,” Jeff said emotionlessly. “Wasn’t it you, Blue, who said that recovery moves were cheap?”

Blue said nothing.

“Oh well. Your advantage won’t last. Steelix, use Iron Tail.” Steelix nodded and brought his tail down hard at Hoborg. Hoborg, fully refreshed, sprung to his feet just in time to avoid the massive attack. Steelix scowled, but didn’t manage to move his tail quickly enough to prevent Hoborg running up it. Soon enough, Hoborg had reached Steelix’s head.

“What now, Mr. Big Bad?” Hoborg called, staring straight into Steelix’s eyes. Steelix responded by breathing a stream of turquoise flames straight up. Hoborg leapt back not a moment too soon. “Whoa!” he muttered. “I guess I shouldn’t taunt this guy… Let’s get in with it, then.” Hoborg brought his foot up and slammed it down on Steelix’s head. The shockwave began small, but quickly grew to epic proportions, spreading throughout Steelix’s body and eventually bringing him to the ground.

Jeff groaned. “That… was a good move,” he admitted, looking at the ground. “But it’s not over yet! You’ll have to get more than one shot in! Steelix, use Gyro Ball!”

Steelix slowly rose back up, tossing Hoborg off. Hoborg landed neatly on his feet and looked up at the steel behemoth. Steelix reared back and released a shiny silver orb from his mouth that fell straight to the ground. He whipped it with his tail, sending it sailing at Hoborg. The Gyro Ball hit home, impacting hard with the Tyrogue and leaving him panting.

“Now, Steelix, finish this! Use Giga Attack!” Jeff called.

Steelix reared back again and flew straight at Hoborg. Hoborg sighed. I won’t get another shot… he thought. I’ll put all my hopes in this last attack! He began to wave his fingers again. As Steelix drew closer, Hoborg began to glow red… as the two Pokemon made contact, Hoborg released a veritable explosion of flames and smoke, concealing the two fighters. It took moments for the smoke to clear, but when it did, only one remained standing…

…Hoborg.

End Round 3! Blue and Hoborg win!

Jeff sighed. “Return, Steelix…” he said, holding out a Pokeball. Steelix disappeared as Jeff carefully chose his next Pokemon.

Blue knelt down to Hoborg, who looked in severe pain and was smoking slightly. “Hoborg,” he said quietly, “you did well, but I know you cannot keep going. I’m going to recall you.” Hoborg nodded wordlessly as he disappeared into his Pokeball.

Both trainers decided on their next Pokemon and released them at the same time. On one side of the arena stood an oblivious-looking Slowking, while on the other stood a menacing Aggron.

Lento versus Aggron!
Lento – “…Oh, it’s my turn?
~
Aggron – “This is it!”

Both trainers gave their orders as their Pokemon charged into battle…

---

Right, so my last remaining Pokemon is Lento, facing Jeff’s lv. 40 Aggron. Here’s Lento’s information:

Name: Lento
Species: Slowking
Gender: Male
Trait: Own Tempo
Level: 20
Moves: Curse, Tackle, Yawn, Growl, Water Gun, Dive (SM), Psychic, Confusion, Surf, Hidden Power: Ground, Iron Tail

[Wolfsong]

Notes: It’s been a while so I’m a little rusty in both writing and rating but here it goes… Also, I finished this up at like 2:45 AM. Take 23 CCPs for the battles. Homen and Hoborg each grew two levels. The battles were interesting. I especially liked how Homen took advantage of Scizor not being in the air to hit him with earthquake. Sorry that it took a year for it to get done but here it is…

* * *

The final battle between challenger and gym leader was now underway. Each person had recalled their previous pokemon and had sent out a fresh battler to take their place. Twin flashes of light revealed their choices.

On the challenger’s side was the bipedal pink Slowking. He gave a cursory glance around the arena noting the lack of water and abundance of rock formations as well as the stalactites and stalagmites that were scattered throughout the arena. On Jeff’s side, an immense steel dinosaur emerged with a look of fierce determination on its face.

Blue’s L.20 Slowking Lento Vs. Jeff’s L.40 Aggron

Aggron made the first move. After taking a deep breath, he let loose an ear-splitting roar that shook the arena and left the ears of both trainers ringing as well as causing some of the stalactites to shake rather dangerously. With a satisfied look, he glanced over at Lento expecting to see him cowering in fear. Instead, the water-psychic didn’t seem the least bit impressed. Much to the behemoth’s frustration, Lento had the audacity to simply yawn in response.

It is a well known fact that yawning is contagious and Aggron soon found himself discovering this the hard way. He couldn’t help but yawn as he stormed over to where his annoying twerp of an opponent was standing staring at him. As he reached the Slowking, Aggron lifted his leg up in an attempt to stomp him, but Lento had other plans. His eyes taking on a slightly blue tone, the bipedal dinosaur was enveloped in a similar glow where he was shoved backwards.

As soon as he was released from the psychic hold, Aggron prepared to rush forwards. He managed to make it one step before he hit the ground hard with a loud clang. Lento made an expression which, if he had had eyebrows, would have been equivalent to raising one. The slowking inhaled slowly and deeply before spitting out a powerful concentrated spurt of water at the sleeping monstrosity.

“Nice work Lento.” Blue congratulated his pokemon. Now that he’s asleep, you know what to do.”

Jeff smiled. “Not so fast. Just because he’s asleep doesn’t mean that he is helpless. You would be surprised at how many times I’ve encountered this particular strategy. Aggron Sleep Talk.”

The behemoth of a pokemon mumbled something unintelligible as he slowly stood up and half-walked, half-staggered over to Lento. Aggron then swung his right fist which was crackling with electricity and hit the Slowking in his stomach knocking the breath out of him. Stumbling backwards from the force of the punch, the smaller pokemon thanked his lucky stars that he wasn’t paralyzed. After taking a couple deep breaths to recover from having the air knocked out of him. Lento knew that he couldn’t take many more of those attacks so he was going to have to end this as quickly as he could. Frowning, deep in concentration, the slowking tapped into a long dormant power and slammed his tail into the ground eliciting a tremor in response. The tremor grew stronger as it raced towards the sleeping aggron.

As they watched, brusies appeared on his steel body, which had been nice and shiny at the beginning of the battle had now turned a rather dull color. Aggron muttered something again and let loose another ear-splitting roar. Lento rolled his eyes in a way that hinted at been there done that. The bipedal psychic simply inhaled deeply once more and shot aggron with another water gun. The shock of the cold water was enough to wake the steel beast up and he was now angry.

Aggron snorted loudly and pawed at the ground before charging forwards with a surprising amount of speed as he slammed his bulk into the smaller slowking. Lento tried to slow down the huge brute’s charge using his psychic powers but he didn’t have much luck.

Lento knew that he was going to be sore in the morning but now was not the time to dwell on that fact. Tapping into his hidden power once more, the earth beneath the aggron once more began to shake violently. The huge metal pokemon staggered forward one step… two steps… before swaying and collapsing to the ground.

Lento won and grew two levels.

Congrats you have beaten the Steel Gym Leader Jeff and his pokemon.

Jeff sighed deeply as he recalled his fallen pokemon. After taking the time to secure the pokeball, he pulled a pair of items out of his pocket.

“I knew that I shouldn’t have underestimated you. Take the Iron Badge and The Whirlpool SM.” After handing over the items, Jeff turned and exited through the rear door of the arena.

Just to be safe, i'd like an extension for the scenario please.

[*Murkrow]

^^ I love it when inspiration strikes. Gym Leader match ahoy!

----------

The wind whistled around us as Omega hurtled out of the sky. Clinging to his neck as tightly as I could, I closed my eyes and tried not to think about the drop below. Since his evolution, Omega had spent barely any time on the ground, choosing instead to spend hours upon hours soaring through the skies, and mapping the entire Caves area from the skies. In the evenings when he returned home, he would happily launch into long accounts of the different places he’d seen; a hidden lake high up in the mountains where he swore he’d seen a Dratini vanishing into the water; of flying down into uncharted stretches of the forest or gazing out as the desert stretched out beneath him. Sometimes he had company on these excursions; Rage or Ryau would choose to accompany him, but soon found that his constant exercise had strengthened his flight muscles so much that keeping up with him when he got going was a struggle, even for them. His wandering nature also made the outings seem rather random, and inability to converse well added another negative. For the rest of us, these trips had the extra thrill of having to ride on his back as he shot to whatever location he felt like. As a result, he was spending most of his time alone, although we all figured that if it started bothering him then he’d do something about it.

Given his wandering nature, if was thus a bit of a surprise when news of a new structure arrived in the forest arrived, not from him, but from Rage when the Skarmory had gone hunting for the day. He had returned home as fast as he could to make sure that he was the one who told us about it- he may have warmed up to Omega, but he still blatantly enjoyed getting one over him. He got his wish this time, so when Omega returned that evening it was to face an irritatingly smug Rage.

Since hearing what Rage had reported, I had spent the day doing some research, drawing up strategies and making sure that my Pokemon were fully equipped. I’d been out of the battling loop for a fair while by then, but I was confident that things would naturally begin to come back. At least my Pokemon had been keeping themselves active and I was confident that they could hold their own. While I was browsing through the information I’d found, I was accompanied by Aviata, my newest captured Pokemon. A shiny Murkrow, I had been delighted to find him at the Shrine of the Sun- and even more so when he joined my team without a fight. However, it quickly became apparent that he was much more wild than any other Pokemon I’d met before. He didn’t mind being in his Ball, but releasing him outside was a sure-fire way of seeing a small purple bird vanishing into the sky. Neither did he talk, and if he actually understood what was being said to him then he made no indication although he seemed to be picking up on ‘no’ gradually. Beyond that, he had tamed quickly and so I’d taken to keeping him on a harness, which allowed him to have a bit of freedom without the risk of him disappearing and having to be chased down by one of my other birds.

As I sat outside, Aviata on my shoulder, Ry the Pidgeotto was preening herself nearby. She was what I was going to be focusing from now on, I’d decided. Flash and Sianna, my other two middle-evolution Pokemon were quite happy as they were, but I knew she was longing to evolve to her last stage. She’d been staring at Omega every chance she could get, and the look in her eyes was obvious. Despite providing some amusement at how irritated Rage got when he noticed her looking at the Salamence, I figured that letting her achieve her goal was more important.

Hence that evening, Omega found himself being informed that the next day he was going to be roped into ferrying me around for a few hours; knowing how good a first impression can be, I thought that turning up on the back of a fully grown Salamence would make a very good one. Exactly what one needs when challenging a Gym Leader.

----------

We were up and out early the next morning; my inquiries the day before had revealed that challenges were being accepted from early morning onwards, but getting there as soon as possible had been the agreed vote. An observer may have pointed out that holding back a day or so would have been a good idea so that we could work on our strategies and spar a little to doubly check that my battlers were in shape…but in the absence of a concerned observer, we were going ahead anyway. I’ll also admit that having Omega around provided a strong sense of confidence; if things went wrong, then who better to step in and rip apart the opponents than him?

Getting to the battle ground had been an experience. I returned all of my Pokemon bar Omega so that everything else I owned would be a surprise, and clambered cautiously onto his back as paced around, anxious to get back into his beloved sky. He barely gave me enough time to get a firm grip before he’d hurtled into his take-off run. As the wind picked up and the ground dropped away, I’d bent against his neck in a rather futile attempt to feel safer and spent the trip alternately opening and closing my eyes depending on what direction we seemed to be travelling in, and what speed we were going. In parts, I did find myself enjoying the trip, and it made me aware that getting Ry evolved wasn’t fully for her benefit. Omega was obviously not the best candidate for riding, and Rage wasn’t either; he was not too thrilled to have somebody on his back unless he had to, and his armour was not very comfy. But Ry was calm, friendly and more importantly, comfy. Exploring the skies from her back would be a nice experience, I reckoned.

Despite my fears- especially in Omega’s last plunge towards the ground, the journey was over quickly, and it couldn’t have been past nine in the morning when Omega carefully landed one of the platforms that had been erected. I leapt off as he finally skidded to a halt, his claws gripping the platform edge. He grunted and roared to announce our presence while I surveyed the arena. Peeking over the edge, I could see the struts and beams holding the whole thing up. It was an awful lot of metal for what was, in essence, a simple battlefield. There were two platforms at either end, presumably where the trainers were to stand; we were on one of them. Between these were five other, smaller, platforms arranged in a diamond structure, with three in a straight line in front of us, and one on each side. Small walkways connected each platform to each other and to the main ones.

‘Couldn’t tell that this is the flying gym, could you,’ Omega muttered, ‘but surely this counts as cheating in someway? Anybody with a heavy, non-flying Pokemon would be screwed. Plus it’s a long way down.’
‘I know. Guess it’s a good job that everyone I plan on using would be alright in this sort of battle.’
‘You hope. He may not act like you expect him too.’
‘Why are you taking so little faith in you team-mates? That’s Rage’s job, not yours-’
‘Christ, is that YOUR Salamence?’ We glanced in the direction of the voice, and found a young-ish, dark haired girl racing over, ogling Omega.
‘Yes, he is. Do you like him?’ I patted Omega on the neck and he growled in amusement, before reaching out to sniff the hand that the girl reached out to him. She giggled, then began to scratch under his chin.
‘He’s nice; I’ve been tempted so many times to try and catch one for myself, but I always think it’d be so much work, raising one and bonding to it and getting it all ready for battles. Mind you, I think that about every flying Pokemon I don’t have!’
‘Believe me, I know the feeling! Though I have a bit less self-control than you do; I’ve caught loads of Pokemon that I don’t have any more.’
‘Really?’ Her tone of voice altered and I rolled my eyes inwardly. Admitting you used to be a rather fickle person was not a good idea ‘Well, that was quite a while ago, and I’m very happy with the eight I’ve got now.’
‘Hmm. Are they all flying or dragon types like this guy?’
‘Most of them are flying, but I’ve got a few others.’
‘So close! I guess you’ve got too many Pokemon anyway. I’ve been waiting forever to find somebody who only focuses on a few Pokemon of a single type. I feel like I’m in such a minority at times. I only have three Pokemon and they’re all the flying type!’
‘Yeah, I saw that when I was deciding whether or not to challenge you. Don’t you find it a little limiting? Especially as it must be easier for others to find out about your strategy that way.’
She winked. ‘There’s no such thing as just a single strategy! I’ve got lots up my sleeve, just you wait and see! You obviously know that I’m Tori, but you are?’
‘Oh, I’m Hannah, and this is Omega.’ He snorted and nodded his head, accidentally smacking her hand but she just giggled again.
‘Great! Well, you’re here now, and I know you didn’t stop by for a friendly chat or to show off that lovely. So….shall we begin?’

She didn’t wait for an answer and ran off, racing over the walkways towards the other large platform. Upon reaching it, she rummaged around on what looked like a blanket right at the edge which I hadn’t noticed before, then gleefully jumped back and came to stand facing me across the gap.
‘This is a three-on-three battle, no time limit, understood?’
‘Sure,’ I shouted back, before whispering to Omega. ‘Wonder how surprised she’ll be when she realises I’m not using you?’ He bared his teeth in a grin, then leapt off the platform to glide over the top of the battlefield. Tori waved at him, then flung the ball she was holding out; it opened with a flash, and a totem-like bird appeared and hovered in an eerily motionless way over the first small platform. I nodded to myself, then selected my first candidate. Rage. Knowing that he preferred to fight by his own steam, I sat back to see what he’d do.

Fight!
Rage (L21 M Skarmory) Vs Xatu (L30 M)

As I expected, he launched straight into the offensive. Tori’s Xatu had the level advantage, but odds were, Rage was going to be resistant to all of his attacks. I figured Tori would know that- well, she was the flying gym leader, she should know that- so I was a little apprehensive about how she’d counter this.

A roar like a plane taking off filled the air as Rage poured his energy into an Aeroblast, that shot across the field and straight into the motionless Xatu. I saw Tori backing away, dropping to the floor and grasping what looked like handhold in the floor. I glanced down and saw a similar one on the platform next to me. Making a mental note to be wary of what could end up knocking me about, I looked back to the battle as the roar faded away. The Xatu had been knocked back and was clearly battered as it floated to his original spot, but even as he did so, he began to glow white and a shooting star materialised out of nowhere and sparkled round his body.

Rage was having to take a second to recover his breath, which worried me slightly, although he didn’t seem to be having any other difficulties. Seeing the glow, he tensed, then shot forwards, his beak whirring, clearly wanting to finish this before the Xatu’s Wish worked its magic. His opponent simply watched him approaching, then-

He vanished. Rage barely cut his speed, beginning to turn into a loop. He must have assumed, as I did, that this was simply Teleport, but we were both in for a surprise as Xatu materialised right next to him, and slammed him with his wing, with a force that was enough to knock Rage sideways and out of his attack. As the Skarmory flapped hard to straighten himself back up, I chewed my lip nervously. That must have been Sucker Punch. I knew that there had been a spate of new attacks that Pokemon were able to learn (from where was unknown) and I’d researched into what new ones my lot could learn, but I’d completely forgotten to take into account the fact that my opponents may have developed strategies using them. Now what was Rage to do? If he stayed on the offensive then he could face that attack each time he tried to attack! I figured there was only one option he could switch to now…

Sure enough, as he swooped back round, tiny drops began to fall from his claws. He shot at the Xatu, who had just began to glow again as the star shot past, wrapping itself around his body. He watched Rage approaching and began to chant softly. Rage seemed to hesitate a second, then barrelled onwards. He shot past the Xatu, raking hs claws over his head. Immediately, dark blotches appeared over Rage’s body, but they vanished just as quickly. Chuckling to himself- audible even across the arena-, he began to loop back, as the sky above seemed to ripple. Huge shapes began to become visible in the sky as Rage’s body seemed to reflect an unseen light. He soared above the Xatu and shrieked. Xatu watched him calmly, then vanished, re-appearing right next to Rage. Before the Skarmory could react, he struck him once, lightly, so Rage didn’t even move, nor did his attack falter.

Next second, however, Xatu’s body turned red and he burst into a stream of light and shot back to the Ball that Tori was holding out. No sooner than he had vanished, then she flung the second one she was holding. Out emerged a second Skarmory, clearly stronger than Rage, and he accelerated upwards with a determined look on his face.

Fight!
Rage (L21 M Skarmory) Vs Skarmory (L40 M)

Rage looked surprised, then a disturbing grin split his face and he screamed. His attack broke through the barrier, shot through him with no effect, and then smashed into the bird rocketing towards him. I could hear Omega growling from somewhere, but before I could look to see what had caught his attention, a black glow erupted from the area where the Meteor Mash had connected with Tori’s Skarmory. With a delighted screech, her Pokemon burst back into view, a black aura writhing around his body. We had a split second to stare at him, before the aura exploded towards Rage, blasting him with a force that sent him spinning. His opponent was on him in a second, shooting past him in a blur, righting himself, then crashing down. He rammed into the still disorientated Rage, pushing him down and in an instant they were both going into free-fall; Rage was shrieking and clearly trying to pull himself out of the fall, but his opponent was holding on fast. They shot through a gap in the platforms and walkways, and me and Tori instantly flung ourselves forward to gaze over the edge; Omega was following the fall, still growling. I couldn’t judge their distance from the ground, but suddenly Tori’s bird let go, and I saw a flash of steel energy as he blasted Rage with it so that my Skarmory lost all chances of regaining his balance in time. From below, came a dull thud. Omega was already swooping towards the spot where he’d fallen, which I took as an opportunity to shout across at Tori.

Rage lost!

‘You could have broken his neck, or his back…or anything! Are you trying to kill your opponents or something?’
‘Don’t be stupid! That’s the most obvious strategy in the world! Don’t tell me that you’ve never fought a battle like that?’
‘Not with such a large drop!’ I broke off saying anything else as Omega flew over the edge, gripping one very battered and unconscious Skarmory in his claws. Not being very well versed in Pokemon health-care, I quickly returned him to his Ball. ‘If he has problems after this, I’m coming after you,’ I bellowed at her, before unhooking another Ball from my belt. Omega was looking at me with worry.
‘Are you sure you want to use him? He’s got an advantage, sure, but you’ve never used him or seen him in battle!’
‘Then if it goes wrong, you’re subbing in for Ry.’ I countered, then tossed out the ball. It broke open and a black dog with white armour and long, curled horns landed gently on the first platform in front of me.

Omega was right. I’d never actually used Jock, my Houndoom and the first ever captured Pokemon I’d got. He’d always been content to sit on the sidelines and cheer his team-mates on. Recently, however, he’d changed. There had been an….incident before Omega evolved, and the Houndoom had become very silent. He didn’t go off on his own, he simply sat, letting conversations go on over his head.

That’s not to say that I figured his attitude to battling would be any different; I’d merely selected him as the third most ideal candidate to use in battle. He had simply nodded when I’d asked, but deep down I was interested to see what he’d do, even if I probably should have chosen a less pressured debut battle. As Tori’s Skarmory flew back to her side of the arena, I tried to ignore the drop and ran over the walkway and bent down to whisper something in Jock’s ear. He swished his tail and said nothing. Omega look irritated as I returned to his side and gave Tori the nod.

Fight!
Jock (L17 M Houndoom) Vs Skarmory (L40 M)

Her Pokemon didn’t hesitate, immediately flapping his wings fast an sending a barrage of fast-moving air darts at my Pokemon, who darted to the side and bounded over the walkway to the next platform like the drop didn’t exist. Skarmory followed him, getting closer with each slash of air. Jock was racing at full speed now, darting across the walkways and the platforms, before he suddenly feinted; instead of continuing forwards as he hit one of the side platforms, he skidded round and charged back to the centre, putting him right under Skarmory. As the steel bird attempted to quickly lock on to him again, Jock spluttered and sent out a large Smog cloud that obscured him, and began to float up to Skarmory. The Pokemon cawed and flapped his wings, driving the fog down again, but only making it harder for him to spot the Houndoom in the thick cloud. Hissing, he flung a glance at his trainer, then looked back at the cloud and sent another blast of his Flash Cannon, which smashed through the fog and into the platform Jock had been standing on. The whole structure shook, and sections of the platform began to drop out from under the cloud.

Omega launched himself into the air again, circling down in an obvious attempt to intervene if Jock started to fall. Skarmory flung him a glare, before changing tactics. The cloud showed no sign of disipatting, so he knew that Jock was still there; angling down, he dove, his beak whirring with the same attack that Rage had attempted to use earlier. With his wings stretched out on each side, he easily covered the whole platform, and as he swooped down to skim over the walkway edge approaching the cloud, I seemed obvious that he would either strike Jock or get him running again. Watching him, I smiled to myself.

Skarmory shot through the cloud, and had a second or so to look confused s he emerged before Jock burst out of thin air behind him, and grabbed onto his back. As the portal to the alternate world he’d hidden in closed behind him, Jock let loose a stream of embers onto the metal birds back, causing the armour to burn. As the Pokemon screamed, Jock sprung off, landed on the nearest walkway, spun s he landed and launched himself once more at the bird, his eyes glowing purple. As Skarmory looked round to keep him in his sights, he blinked and his eyes began to close. Wobbling as sleep began to grasp him, he began to drop, allowing Jock to bound off of his back and onto the next platform. The Houndoom hadn’t won yet, though; perhaps responding to his trainers yell or to his own persistence, the bird was still flying, dozy, but not fully asleep….but he was still vulnerable. Instead of going the obvious route, Jock concentrated, as the air shimmered around him and ghostly apparitions mimicking each of his team-mates materialised. At a nod from him, they all lunged forwards, striking the bird one after the other. Fully awake again, he hissed and began to glow with the same black glow that had helped defeat Rage earlier.

Staring at him, Jock seemed to hesitate, but then snarled and began to tremble. Me and Omega exchanged a glance; Jock knew what could be considered the ultimate fire attack, but if it failed to wipe out Skarmory then the countered damage would be easily too much for him. Skarmory was glaring at Jock now, the burn smouldering its way through his armour. Fire began to flick over the Houndoom’s body and the air began to shimmer; alarm crossed the Skarmory’s face and he flapped his wings hard, sending scythes of air rocketing towards Jock, who tensed, letting each hit slam into him. Blood began to trickle onto the surface he was gripping with shaking claws, but the same surface looked like it was beginning to melt…..

He looked up, his jaw dropped, and the fire erupted around his body, condensed into a ball, then exploded out into a thin jet of fire that ripped towards the Skarmory. He pulled his wings in and dropped to try to escape it, but Jock lowered his head to follow his movements. The heat hit the bird first; he faltered, then the fire struck him and he screeched so high that my ears rung. He went limp and began to fall until Tori shakily held out the Ball and recalled him.

Jock won!

As my Houndoom dropped shaking to the ground, Omega flew back up to my side, looking awe-struck.
‘I thought I’d seen it all!’ He whispered, shaking his head, ‘but that-’
‘Do you think I should pull him out?’ I muttered back, looking at the Pokemon, who was still gasping but beginning to show signs of trying to get up. Beyond him, I could see Tori tossing a Poke Ball into the air, watching us. As soon as she caught us looking back at her, she flipped it up and out of the light flew a rather familiar Pokemon. Her Pidgeot hovered in front of her, looking at Jock with a disinterested look playing across her face. The Houndoom lifted his head and gazed back at her; staring at him, I shrugged.
‘If he wanted to stop then he’d have indicated by now. Just make sure you keep close so if it looks like he’s going to fall then you can catch him.’

Fight!
Jock (L17 M Houndoom) Vs Pidgeot (L50 F)

Pidgeot reacted first, swopping towards the still sprawled-out Houndoom, who watched her approach impassively. She must have decided that he was no threat and wasn’t even worrying about the possibility of an attack on his part. She was partly correct; Jock didn’t retaliate flat out….but as she neared him, he suddenly flung himself back, gripping the platform for dear life as she barely shot over his head. She rolled round and lunged, extending her talons, but his body flashed red and she was knocked back by his Counter. Grumbling audibly, she wheeled round, looking a little ruffled but not hurt. Landing close to him, she tilted her head, then began to flap her wings hard, while digging her talons into the surface. The whole structure, already weakened, began to shake and Jock began to slide further over the edge. He whimpered, which seemed odd as I’d never before seen him in a situation where he’d react like that, and I reached for his Ball just in case. Pidgeot paused, blinked, then leapt off the walkway; Jock spat a mouthful of tiny embers at her, which she easily dodged, then flapped her wings hard, buffeting him back until-

His grip failed and slid off. Omega lunged forwards, but needn’t have worried; showing a little more concern than her Skarmory companion, the Pidgeot snatche jock out of the air, gripping his head in one claw and his back in the other, and letting out a trill to me. I understood and returned him, accepting the forfeit.

Jock forfeited!

I was down to one Pokemon now, and I was well aware that I was taking a risk. Omega really did seem like the safe choice, but I’d accepted this challenge with her in mind, and I wasn’t going to back down.

Ryau shot into the air from her Ball, looking impressed by the sight of a full-grown cousin right in front of her. The two regarded each other as I sneaked a glance at Tori, what from what I could see, looked very surprised. I couldn’t blame her much, and even felt sorry in a way that I’d turned down the chance to put our best Pokemon to the test.

Fight!
Ryau (L26 F Pidgeotto) Vs Pidgeot (L50 F)

Ry had a single advantage in this battle; she was smaller which meant that she was going to be a much harder target to hit, although this was a Gym Leaders Pokemon and I knew that it was only a minimal advantage. She must have been thinking along the same lines as she immediately launched into an Extremespeed, blurring to the side in a similar manner to Jock racing over the walkways. Pidgeot turned her head, and the air shimmered around her.

Next second, a wave of fire exploded from around her; me and Tori dropped to the floor instinctively although they were high enough above us that we received only a minimal amount of heat. Ry soared up, white orbs surrounding her body, which she sent shooting at the fire heading towards her. Seconds before impact, the orbs collided with each other and sent a wave of sparkling white water sizzling through the fire. Ry followed, braving the heat of the fire on either side as she manipulated the water to carve a path to Pidgeot. The larger bird abandoned the attack and darted upwards; lowering her head, she ripped out a large beak-ful of feathers from her chest and flung it at the approaching Pidgeotto. The feather glimmered as they flew, and spiralled round to encase Ry in a sphere that disintegrated almost immediately. She blurred again and darted down; Pidgeot followed her, keeping pace easily without having to resort to any actual moves. Ry must have glanced round, as she suddenly vanished into a dark shadow that appeared out of nowhere. Pidgeot pulled up and began to circle warily, turning her head constantly. She was rewarded when the same shadow burst open by her left side and Ry shot out. Pidgeot whirled round and snapped her beak at Ry, successfully grabbing her right wing; jolted, Ry nonetheless shrieked- and knowing her, in a move that must have taken a lot of will-, she pulled back, bringing her claws up and slashed at the Pidgeot’s left eye.

The larger bird cawed in alarm, allowing Ry to pull her wing back, dart up behind her and bring a Steel Wing straight onto the other birds’ head. Pidgeot faltered, but she was made of tougher stuff than that and rolled round, bringing her claws up to snatch at Ry. The two tusselled in mid-air, sending clouds of feathers in all directions, before Ry plunged her claws into Pidgeot’s breast. From the birds wail, it was obvious that this was no ordinary attack and as the two parted, a black substance could be seen leaking through her feathers. The poison would take a long time before it brought her down on its own, though, and Ry would not be able to rely entirely on it alone.

Pidgeot looked pissed now, and the air began to roar again as she summoned a giant Twister that ripped at the structure and dragged Ry into its centre. Unable to do anything against the force of the wind, she was flung round and round, her screech muffled by the noise of the wind. Pidgeot watched her, before pulling her wings in and lunging forwards as the Twister died down suddenly, leaving Ry still floundering in the air. I watched her with a sinking feeling in my stomach. So much for winning my second badge.

But even as Pidgeot neared her, a blue shield flickered around Ry and the attacking Pokemon merely slid past, her body covered in bloody marks where the force of her own attack had hurt her body. Ry wheeled round and followed her, a little unsteady, but mainly unhurt. Her opponent glanced over her shoulder, then whipped round and darted, head-on. Ry flew to the side immediately, before turning and plummeting towards the ground. She shot past the main battlefield and into the structures scaffolding. Pidgeot followed her, but instantly seemed more cautious. This was a big structure so the scaffolding was well spaced out, but it was enclosed and she was wary. Ry flew round and latched onto one of the support beams, and the two birds stared at each other. Then Pidgeot seemed to make her mind up; she ruffled her feathers and a cloud drifted down as her wounds began to slowly close up over her back and front, although the poison stain still glistened.

Ry shot upwards; Pidgeot leapt back and raised her wings, to reveal that her primary feathers had been among those that fell out. Even though they could be seen quickly growing back, for the time being, she was grounded and vulnerable. Ry burst out and sent another wave of water smashing into the bird, who couldn’t avoid it in time. Turning her head to prevent her vision getting affected, she took her eyes off of Ry, who slammed into her neck again, knocking the Pidgeot off balance. She flapped her wings, managed to right herself as she teetered, then snapped at Ry as the Pidgeotto darted around her head. Her wings were nearly fully replenished but at the same time, the poison was begin to trickle down her chest again. Gasping, she began to lift off, before snatching at Ry again. Getting a weak hold, she clutched at her prize, leaning down to tear at Ry’s head and neck, before dropping down to slam her into the walkway. Ry gasped, then her wings glistened like steel again. Using the one between her and the walkway as a strong prop to propel herself up, she brought the one between her and Pidgeot up and into one of the claws holding her down. There was a snap and Pidgeot flapped to one side, hissing, her claw red. Ry followed her fast, her wings still shining; head on, she shot at her opponent; the bird lunged and snapped at Ry’s head. Ry ducked; Pidgeot seized her crest, and Ry brought her wings together, smashing them both into the sides of Pidgeot’s head. The force of the impact jerked the bird, and with a rip Ry’s crest was ripped out, leaving her with blood spreading down her back. Pidgeot tumbled backwards, flailing and disorientated. Ry dropped after her, ripping at her with her claws, again and again, shrieking, before a beam of red light caused the Pidgeot to vanish.

Ryau won!

Tori nodded at me, then held out Xatu’s Ball.

----------

Here is Ry's info:

Ryau
Pidgeotto
L26 F
Trait: Keen Eye
Moves: Tackle, Sand Attack, Steel Wing, Double-Edge, Extremespeed, Faint Attack, Hidden Power: Water, Toxic, Curse, Protect, Gust, Sky Attack, Aerial Ace, Quick Attack, Return, Attract, Fly (SM), Substitute, Whirlwind, Featherdance
Wearing: Pokémon Collar

I'd also like a rbg for her please. *Pays*

[Wolfsong]

Notes: My new houndour puppy, who will be introduced later, is the son of my vaporeon Zale and Knight of Time’s houndoom. Storywise, he will be the son of Zale and Artemis (formerly a houdour met in a previous story). I also bred Tiana with Hinto, who I gave to Hannah, though storywise he will be a wild pokemon. It will be a bit before that storyline even comes into play. There are a bit of future story plans that may be hinted at. I bought Angel a fury cutter tm a long time ago and more recently an icy wind TM for Angel as well. The absorb TM that I am giving willow came from the EMT. This is where I’m mentioning it I’ve already added the moves to their info. P.S. the second move that Wildfire sleeptalked was metronome and it turned out to be sweet kiss.

Next up on the agenda is your gym battle Hannah. I had started on it when the inspiration to finish this scenario battle struck though I admit Kumar’s battle was a bit rushed…

(Amy’s POV)

Over the past year, the team and I had slacked off on our training. Lately, everyone was getting restless and wanted to resume their training. Luckily, winter was just about over and spring was just around the corner so it was the perfect time. With the gradually increasing temperatures, I made the decision to resume training and the team welcomed that decision. Especially Wildfire, who was still anxious to evolve into a blaziken, despite Willow’s taunting that she would stay a combusken forever. Therefore, getting her evolved was my number one goal.

* * *

Imagine my surprise when I woke up the following morning to see that everything was covered by a blanket of pure white snow. Angel was already outside, playing in it. Zale, was gone again. This wasn’t a huge surprise, because all winter he had been coming and going. The longest absence had been two days straight a little over two months ago.

Recently, Tiana had been disappearing here and there as well. Unlike her brother, she wasn’t as secretive about where she had been. When I asked her, Tiana said that she’d been hanging out with Hinto. Further questioning revealed that Hinto was a friend that she had made with a pokemon in the wild. She refused to say anything else on the subject.

Laila, Sunita, and Phoenix were all content to stay inside where it was nice and warm. They were watching the game of tag that Angel, Jovi, and Lani were playing. I had just joined the group that was staying inside when suddenly I had an espeon land on my head. “Tiana, what’s going on?”

Sorry, meant to land on the couch.” She looked around and smiled. “I guess I did after all, technically. You are sitting on it. I’m getting better.”

”Tiana, you must have seen or know something important for you to risk teleporting home to get here so fast. So, care to clue me in, what is it?”

“I found Zale, and he has some news for you, but that’s not what I wanted to tell you.” She took a deep breath before she continued. “The Lake is completely covered in ice, and it has attracted a lot of different ice and water pokemon. They’re using it as a training ground and are challenging each other as well as trained pokemon to battles. From what I’ve heard, Dig and Dive are banned.”

“It sounds promising. Is there anything else that I should know about?”

“They don’t like fliers. It’s mainly because of their ability to take to the air and avoid the slickness of the ice, or so I gathered. Are we going to go?”

“I guess so. Ti, could you go outside and ask the others to come in please?”

“Sure thing.” With that, she closed her eyes and disappeared. I ran over to the window and looked out in time to see her land on Jovi. Her sudden appearance surprised Jovi, causing him to fire off a thunderbolt at Lani. Her quick thinking saved her from a nasty shock. She quickly threw up a protect shield. Tiana mumbled something to the three of them and they trudged back inside.

Once inside the team had gathered around, I quickly informed them about what Tiana had discovered. Wildfire as usual was all for it since she wanted to evolve. Kumar mentioned that he would like to battle as well. In the end, Willow, Sunita, Laila, and Phoenix all decided to stay home and the rest of the team, minus Zale who evidentially was already at the lake, had decided to come along and support their teammates.

* * *

Upon arriving at the lake, the first thing that I noticed was a familiar looking teenager sitting down staring at the lake. He had aged somewhat from the last time that I had seen him, but it was definitely Brian. Lying beside him was a houndoom with Zale curled up next to her. Evidentially, Artemis had evolved. They hadn’t seen us yet, their attention was focused solely on the Lake. I followed their gaze in time to see Hades finish off his opponent, a dewgong, with a powerful thunderbolt. Before the shuppet could get off of the lake, he was enveloped in a brilliant, dazzling white glow. As I watched, the ghost grew taller, arms appeared as well as legs. When at last, the glow faded, a Banette stood in his place.

As I watched, Brian congratulated his pokemon. I waited until he was finished before making myself known by giving the ghost a round of applause. When Brian turned around and saw us, he smiled as he waved at us. Zale smiled sheepishly, jumping to his feet before giving the houndoom an encouraging lick on the cheek. Artemis, at Zale’s encouragement, slowly climbed to her feet, looking embarrassed. As the three of them drew closer, it became rather obvious that the houndoom was pregnant.

“Amy, you’re just the person that I wanted to see. I was hoping that you would be here.”

“Nice to see you again, Brian. I guess I now know where Zale’s been disappearing off too. I hope he hasn’t been causing too much trouble.” The vaporeon in question glared at me when he heard that.

“Not at all. In fact, he’s been a huge help when my team was sparring against each other. In fact, he’s even given us a few suggestions which have helped us out in the long run.” At that, Zale stuck his tongue out at me.

“I see.”

“I… um…” Now, Brian was a little nervous. “I was wondering if you could do me a big favor.”

“It depends. What is it?”

“Well, Alana’s sending me off on a month long training exercise. As you can see, Artemis isn’t up for it. She’s got another month before her pup is due. I was wondering, if you could take care of her until I get back? I’d be happy to pay you. Or if you’d rather you could have the pup when its born. Artemis and I talked and we would like you to take him or her in. The only condition is that we get to see the baby on a regular basis.”

Now I was glad that I had a couple of free slots on the team. I had been thinking about going to hunt for a new team member but I never got around to it. Brian was looking at me nervously as I thought about my answer.

“I don’t mind. Are you sure? If you are serious I’d be happy to take the pup in. You’d be welcome to come and see the baby whenever you want.”

“I am serious. I normally wouldn’t have offered, but Zale has proven that you are both a good and caring person.” Brian’s voice drifted off for a few moments before he started chuckling.

“What?” I finally asked when it became apparent that he wasn’t going to let me in on what he found so amusing.

“It seems that your combusken finally got tired of waiting and has already found herself an opponent.”

“Yep, that sounds like Wildfire. She’s good at that, especially with the fact that she seriously wants to evolve. Proving Willow wrong would be a nice bonus to her.”

“Willow?”

“Sorry, forgot that you still haven’t met him yet. He’s my Bayleef.”

“What other pokemon do you have? I’ve met Zale, of course, as well as Tiana, your pidgey, absol, mightyena, persian, and umbreon.”

“In addition to those, I have a jolteon, larvitar, arcanine, combusken as you noticed a bayleef, and a dratini.”I noticed his eyes widen at the mention of a dratini but he didn’t comment on it.

“Nice variety, but I couldn’t help notice that you’re a fan of dark and fire types.”

“Those types have always fascinated me.”

(Wildfire’s POV)

Amy was busy talking with another trainer. I had no idea who he was, but she seemed to know him. At first I waited, but when it looked like she wasn’t going to be stopping anytime soon I decided to go and see if I could find myself a battle.

I took a step onto the ice and almost went sliding headfirst into a group of pokemon that were standing together close to the center of the ice. Barely managing to keep my balance, I slowly made my way over to where the delibird and two sneasels were standing.

“Can we help you?” The bigger of the two sneasels asked as he examined his claws.

“I was looking for a battle.”

“Why didn’t you say so, I’d be happy to battle you.” The Delibird spoke up suddenly.

“I just said so.”

“Ignore him. Sammy’s a little dense sometimes, but don’t let that fool you. He’s a great battler.” The younger sneasel explained as the two of them gracefully skated off the ice in order to watch the battle.

Wildfire L.23 Female Combusken Vs. Sammy L.25 Male Delibird

As soon as his friends were off the ice, Sammy attacked. He quickly opened his sack and pulled a present out. After taking aim, he launched it, aiming for my head. I ducked just as it exploded. I avoided most but not all of the damage. Narrowing my eyes, I concentrated on my hidden power. Almost immediately, I could feel the air around me becoming charged. As soon as I felt that I had enough energy gathered I released it, and let the electricity fly. I couldn’t help but grin when the delibird squawked letting me know that my attack had scored a direct hit.

“So that’s the way you want to play?” Sammy asked as he glowed briefly before splitting into three delibirds. I groaned. Double team was an annoying, but useful move that I needed to get. It was also one that I didn’t have a quick means for dispatching either. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath and told myself to focus. As I concentrated, I took a couple of slow but deep breaths. When I opened my eyes, I was more focused and ready to battle.

Thankful that I had my matches with me, I once more took another deep breath. This time, instead of slowly letting the air out, I exhaled a stream of flames. As I watched, they hit one of the delibirds, and with a slight flicker he blinked out of existence. The remaining two cackled loudly and I couldn’t help but think that it would have made a mad scientist jealous. I shook my head. Wonderful, I had been hanging out with Kumar too much. Sammy, then proceeded to gag, before he spat up a vile looking liquid and sprayed it all over me. I tried to dodge but ended up not only sliding into the delibird but also covered in toxic goo. The only positive thing was that the remaining clone disappeared when I slammed into the real Sammy.

I winced as I felt the poison starting to affect me. On the plus side, the clones were long gone. Before he could get away, I kicked out at him twice. Sammy retaliated with blasting me with a blast of freezing cold water. ‘It figures that he would have a water-typed hidden power.’ I muttered to myself.

Before Sammy had the opportunity to make any more clones, I decided to return the favor. Immediately, I began to gag and pretty soon I had retched up a vile-tasting, thick, slimy goo that I spit all over my opponent. It scored a direct hit, as another wave of pain from the poison assaulted me.

The poison was steadily getting worse and I was going to have to get rid of it soon before it caused me to faint. I had an idea, but I wasn’t sure of how well it would work. I winced as I channeled some of my health into creating a very lifelike doll. I knew that this was a risky maneuver, but it was my one chance to turn this battle around as well as keep an element of surprise. As I was focusing on creating my doppelganger, Sammy reached into his sack and pulled out a large chunk of ice before hurling it high into the sky. As id in response, the sky quickly grew darker and the chunk of ice fell back down to the ground to land with a loud thud. A couple minutes later another fell until pretty soon it was hailing pretty steadily.

Wincing, I curled up on the ice and tried to go to sleep. As I slowly drifted off to sleep, the last thing that I remembered was the pain of the poison lessening.

(Angel’s POV)

I was watching Wildfire’s battle with interest. Both the delibird and Wildfire were great battlers. It was interesting to watch and both were giving as well as receiving. Then, suddenly, Wildfire just stood there. I frowned, unsure of what was going on. I glanced over to my right and saw Ranec. “Ranec, what is she doing? How come she’s just standing there?”

“Things aren’t always what they seem. Just keep watching.” He answered, only taking his eyes away from the battle long enough to give me a wink.

Ranec’s answer didn’t make any sense to me, but I trusted him. As I watched, I heard a mumbling sound coming from the ice but couldn’t see where it was coming from. Shortly after the mumbling, there came a loud, disembodied growl that shattered the silence. The delibird didn’t seem all that bothered by it and instead inhaled deeply before blasting Willow with another jet of water. I couldn’t help but shriek when Wildfire shattered into hundreds of tiny pieces. Once that happened, I noticed a mound of orange and red feathers. As I looked closely, I could tell that it was Wildfire and that she was sound asleep.

“See, not everything is as it seems.”

“How?”

“It’s a move called substitute.”

Before I could ask him anything else, another round of murmuring earned my attention. I looked over in time to see Wildfire sit up and move her arms back and forth in a motion that reminded me of windshield wipers. She then sat up, jumped to her feet, and ran towards the ice bird where she… kissed him? Apparently, I wasn’t the only one that was confused by her actions. The delibird just blinked as Wildfire suddenly woke up.

(Wildfire’s POV)

When I woke up, I was mere inches from Sammy’s face. He looked worse than I felt before going to sleep. As I watched, the delibird reached into his bag of tricks once more before removing another present. However, instead of tossing it at me, he dropped it on the ground where it exploded upon contact leaving him blackened. I grinned and decided to add to his darkened state. Inhaling deeply, I blew out a stream of flames at Sammy. Once they dissipated, Sammy was collapsed on the icy pond in a blackened heap. Bending down, I gathered energy in my legs and jumped off the pond back onto the shore where the team was waiting.

I won!
I grew to L.25!

(Kumar’s POV)

I extended my claws as I stepped onto the ice. I could feel my claws digging into the ice as I slowly made my way forwards. This wasn’t my first time battling on the ice, nor likely would it be the last. At least, I knew what to expect unlike Wildfire in addition to having four paws. Sometimes it was a blessing to be a quadruped. One paw hit a weak point in the ice and went through the cold water effectively jerking me out of my thoughts. Hissing, I pulled out my paw and shook it dry.

Annoyed at myself, I headed back for the more sturdy sections of the ice. When I came to a complete stop, I was face to face with a vaporeon. I was about to ask him if he wanted to battle when I was greeted by a water gun to the face.

Kumar L.33 White Male Persian with Black Stripes Vs. L.31 Male Vaporeon

Hissing from the rude greeting, the gem on my forehead began cracking with electricity. My opponent’s eyes grew wide as he glowed briefly and split into two separate vaporeons. I picked the one on the left and let the thunderbolt fly. Of course, it struck the clone and he blinked out of existence.

I frowned, I knew that I was a little rusty but I didn’t expect this. No matter, I knew what needed to be done. I stalked up to the vaporeon before pouncing on him and pinning him to the ground with the full weight of my body. He struggled, but I wasn’t in the mood to just let him up and thankfully, I had the bulk to hold him down. The water eeveelution bit down on the first thing that he could find which was the paw that had broken through the ice. My paw was still numb, but the attack still hurt and wasn’t enough to cause me to get up off of him.

I decided to go with a move that had worked for me in the past as well as proving useful in Wildfire’s most recent battle. Gagging, I retched up another mouthful of toxic goo and spit it onto my opponents exposed neck frill. He quickly rolled onto his back, which I wasn’t expecting him to do, and launched another ice beam which scored a direct hit with my chest. Instantly, I leapt off of him biting my jaw to keep from yowling in pain and surprise.

“Is that the best that you can do? Come on, there is a much younger vaporeon than you on my team and he’s a heck of a lot more talented now than you will ever be.” I taunted him, but meant every word I had to say. The truth was Zale was really good at battling. I braced myself as soon as I saw my opponent tense up. As expected, he spun around and nailed me with yet another ice beam.

I faded into the shadows as I watched the vaporeon spin in circles looking for me. I waited until his back was turned before emerging from the shadows and pouncing. My opponent cried out and I was zapped by a strong electrical current coming from the vaporeon.

“Enough is enough.” I growled as I once more concentrated on charging up a thunderbolt. I could feel the boost that my earring was providing as I released the energy. It sailed straight from the gem on my forehead into the vaporeon beneath me. Immediately, he collapsed into a limp bile and I jumped up off of him and stalked back to where my team was waiting

I won!
I grew to L.34 !

Tbc…

[Wolfsong]

I hate being sick. Apologies if this isn't as good as usual but been taking allergy medicine. First off, take 22 CCPS for your battles. Jock gained two levels from his battle and Ryau also gained two which go into effect after this gym battle is over.

Ryau Vs. Tori's L.30 Xatu

In a flash of red, Tori's Xatu emerged from his poke ball the dark blotches still present on his head. The psychic bird and the pidgeotto glared at each other. After a moment, Ryau took to the air. In response, the Mystic Pokemon disappeared in a flash reappearing beside her hitting Ryau as he appeared. Although sent off course, the pidgeotto rolled and managed to strike out at him with her talons. The xatu coughed as the poison worked its magic.

Suddenly, the Xatu began to glow yellow as his feather began to crackle with an electrical current. With a loud cry, Ryau darted up in the air and created a protective shield around herself. The psychic pokemon let out an angry growl that turned into a pained one as the electrical energy slammed uselessly into the shield.

Ryau spread her wings and rose higher breathing heavily as she did so. Suddenly she was halted midair by a powerful unseen force that was slowly but steadily pulling her towards the green bird. The younger pokemon took a deep breath and focused her attention on opening the portal in front of her. She had to time it just right or it would fail. Ryau managed to open the portal in front of her just as the Xatu continued to reel her in until she disappeared in side and it closed behind her. With a puzzled squawk he looked around, and was suddenly slammed from behind as the pidgeotto emerged and raked her talons into his back.

The Xatu concentrated on his hidden power once more and this time managed to catch Ryau with it. She gave a painful squawk as her wings took on a metal glint and she brought them down on him. The Xatu staggered backwards on the platform before coughing as the poison finally brought him down.

Ryau gained another two levels to reach L.30. (L.31 after the bt battle win)

Tori recalled her fallen pokemon, before glancing upwards to look at Omega who was still flying. Ryau quickly returned to her pokeball as well.

She cleared her throat. “You have won so in accordance to the rules of the match I confer upon you the Fly SM and the Feather Badge. Although you have beaten me, if you would like a rematch I’m always interested.

As far as her rbg: *randomizes an area and gets south caverns* Ryau's opponent will be a ponyta.

[*Murkrow]

Thanks Amy! Ry will get Captivate as her L30 TM. I'll get your story rated by Wednesday at the latest.

Edit: Take 14 CCP's for your battles. I liked the continuity in bringing back Brian and how you set up your eventual Houndour into the story. Wildfire's battle was good and Substitue/Rest is a strategy I can't remember seeing in a battle here before. Kumar's battle was decent. Also, I'm glad I wasn't eating when your Pokemon were using Toxic. Eew.

(And on a side-note, I think a new scenario would be a good idea soon.)

[Wolfsong]

Here is my gym battle. I bought the Shadow Ball TM for Tiana. The following TMs were EMT moves that I received: Razor Wind (Phoenix), Helping Hand (Wildfire), Supersonic (Sunita), Faint Attack (Phoenix), Fire Spin (Wildfire), Stone Edge (Angel), Tailwind (Phoenix), and Teeter Dance (Wildfire). I had also bred Tiana with Hinto a while back this is getting that eevee’s introduction set up. This month I also received a screech tm (EMT) that I am giving Ranec and a crunch tm (EMT) that I’m giving Tiana. I also bought a Toxic tm for Dakota.

(Amy’s POV)

I sighed, not at all surprised to find Tiana curled up in a ball on the couch. She had been moping for the last week and a half since she had learned that her friend, Hinto, had been captured. She had been going out each day searching for any sign of Hinto but having no luck. Lately, I noticed that her appetite had disappeared as well.

“Hey,” I said softly as I sat down beside her and scratched her between the ears. The only response that I received was the espeon lifting her head, looking at me, before lowering it again. “I just got back from giving Ranec, Wildfire, Phoenix, Sunita, and Angel some TMs. I have a couple for you as well.” I told her as I sat the boxes down beside her. “It’s Shadow Ball and Crunch. They should be helpful should you have to battle another psychic or a ghost.”

She nodded as she pawed at the boxes and accepted the TMs.

“You know, I was thinking about taking Wildfire and a couple of the others to challenge one of the gyms. Do you want to come with us?”

“No, I think I’ll go check out the South Caverns instead.”

“Do you think you could take Phoenix with you? I wanted to ask Sunita and Angel but they already left for the North Caverns.”

She didn’t say anything but she did look up. “Zale is staying behind with Artemis and you know he’s a bit distracted now.” I added, holding my breath.

“Okay,” she agreed as she stood up. “Where is she?”

“She’s outside practicing her new moves.” I have expected to see Tiana attempt to teleport outside and end up on top of Phoenix, but instead she left by the door. I sighed before I went off to round up Wildfire, Dakota, and Ranec.

(Dakota’s POV)

I was outside relaxing in the sunshine with Ranec as we watched Kumar and Wildfire spar. Although the two of them knew each other so well that they avoided the other’s attacks more often than not.

I heard the back door open, so I lifted my head and looked. It was Amy and she already had Laila, Lani, and Jovi’s pokeballs on her belt.

“What’s going on?” Kumar asked as he dodged a rolling kick from Wildfire.

“How do you guys feel about challenging one of the Gym Leaders?” Amy asked.

Ranec stood up and stretched. “I thought that you were going to wait until Bryan got back before you challenged the Dark Gym?”

“I am.”

“Then what?”

“Lani managed to discover the location of the Fire Gym. So she volunteered to carry Ranec and myself. The rest of the team will be in their pokeballs. I only know that I’ll be using Wildfire but I’m not sure who else will be battling just yet though. Are you all uyp for the challenge?”

“Yes,” the four of us agreed in unison, before Amy recalled me into my pokeball.

(Ranec’s POV)

As I watched, Amy recalled Dakota, Wildfire, and Kumar before she released Lani. The arcanine emerged with a roar, causing me to smile. “Nice roar you have Lani.”

“Thanks,” she replied with a smile before lying down so that Amy could climb up on her back. Once she was situated, I took a running leap and landed in Amy’s lap.

“You two ready?”

“Whenever you are.”

As soon as Lani heard that she leaped up on all fours and took off. I blinked at first because I had forgotten that she had been gifted with a high speed stat. Once she had settled into a fast pace, I sat up on Amy’s lap and watched the scenery speed by in a colorful blur.

Before I knew it, we had arrived at the gym. Even from the outside, it was impressive. On either side of the doors were a pair of life-sized Charizard statues, their tails were actual torches.

I was distracted briefly by Lani lying down. After giving my head a brief shake to redirect my attention, I hopped off of her back.

(Amy’s POV)

I carefully climbed down off of Lani’s back and, after thanking her for the ride, I recalled her before taking a deep breath and slowly letting it out. I glanced at the charizard statues on either side of the door before pushing it open and entering with Ranec by my side.

If the outside was impressive, then the corridor between the entrance and the actual gym was even more so. There were statues of all of the known fire types on either side of the pathway. I paused at the Arcanine and Blaziken statues admiring them before pausing once more at the Ho-oh statue. I had to admit that it was impressive as well. Although it was nowhere close to the real thing. I smiled at that thought, wondering where Hannah was now.

I reached down and scratched Ranec between his ears before I opened the door and stepped inside. Ranec followed at my side as we entered. It had felt comfortable when we had entered the building but once we had entered the gym area it was sweltering hot.

“I noticed that you paused in front of the statues. What did you think of them?” A voice from the shadows asked.

“They were impressive.” I admitted.

“My favorite is Ho-oh. Too bad no one has seen it.” The speaker admitted as she stepped out of the shadows and I took a step back as Ranec stared.

I blinked but the person in front of me stayed the same. She seemed a little surprised as well. I had heard that everyone had a double somewhere but I had never believed it until now because I was standing there looking at mine. I cleared my throat, deciding now wasn’t the time to say that I had seen Ho-oh and in fact had to battle him along with a friend. “Are you the leader?” I asked instead.

“That I am.” She answered stepping closer and into the light. “My name is Nuria. Are you interested in challenging me?” Her hair was a little longer than mine was and unlike me Nuria chose to wear hers loose, hanging down. I noticed that there was a single streak of gray down the middle of her dishwater blonde hair. The ends of which were died red

I reached back and tightened my ponytail. “That’s why I’m here. What are the rules?” I asked trying to steer the conversation back to the reason that I was at the gym in the first place.

“It’s a three on three pokemon battle with one pokemon out at a time and there is no time limit. Also no moves are banned.”

“That’s fine with me,” I agreed, climbing up the steps that led to the arena. Nuria did the same at the other end. As soon as we had taken our places the area past the left and right boundaries slid back revealing lava.

I blinked at that. “Lava?”

“It makes for an interesting challenge.” Having said that, Nuria reached for one of three pokeballs on her belt and tossed it in the air. The pokeball opened with a flash and a shiny Flareon landed nimbly in the middle of the arena.

I took a deep breath as I thought over before choosing a pokeball off of my belt. I tossed it and Dakota emerged with a loud roar landing nimbly as he stared at down at the flareon.

(Dakota’s POV)

Dakota L.28 M Mightyena Vs. L.30 Shiny M Flareon

I was surprised when I felt myself being released, but I didn’t let it show when I emerged. I gave my best roar before landing on all fours and glaring at my opponent. After a brief hesitation, the bronze colored flareon took a deep breath before shooting a stream of flames at me. Instead of trying to dodge them, I lunged forwards, poison dripping from my fangs and I managed to latch onto his front leg.

I backed away my fur smelling slightly singed but thankfully I hadn’t been burned. He smirked at me and the next thing that I knew I was staring at three flareons. I couldn’t help but smirk as I had the perfect move to get rid of them. Taking a deep breath I exhaled a stream of star shaped missiles that honed in on my opponent’s heat signature and slammed into him ripping through the clones destroying them in the process.

The flareon growled loudly when that happened, and I just stretched and yawned loudly. I watched as the small white cloud floated over to him and dissipated right in his face. He sneezed and shook his head trying to wake up.

Despite his sluggishness, the smaller fire type was still faster than I was and had managed to launch another flamethrower at me. I snarled and opened my mouth concentrating on gathering enough energy. I knew the attack I was concentrating on was a gamble, but my opponent had collapsed in a heap sound asleep. The ball of energy slowly began to get larger and it was harder for me to keep a handle on it until I could hold it no longer and the beam shot out of my mouth and slammed into the flareon.

The only response was a loud snore that hurt my ears causing me to wince. I could only stand there panting from the energy that it took to launch the hyper beam.

I continued to pant trying to catch my breath as I was hit by the sound waves from another extremely loud snore. When I finally felt that I could move, I ran forwards and jumped up and slammed myself on top of the flareon. I heard a muffled yelp as I stood up and backed off.

The flareon had woken up and tried to stand, but after a couple of failed attempts he fell to the ground and didn’t get back up.

I won!

My opponent was recalled and I gave myself a full body shake as I waited for my next opponent.

“Tiger, you’re up!”

I heard a loud roar as a massive arcanine appeared right in front of me. I couldn’t help the small whimper that escaped as I tucked my tail between my legs.

Amy tried to recall be but I shook my head and stood back up. I was still scared of the arcanine don’t get me wrong but I was not going to let my fear get the best of me if I could help it.

Dakota L.28 M Mightyena VS. Tiger L.40 M Arcanine

The huge fire dog saw my reaction at his appearance and smirked. I was slowly secreting the toxins that I normally used with my poison fang attack, hoping that the newest TM that Amy had given me would prove to be just as useful. He lunged aiming at my throat and I dodged, but my rear paws slipped off the edge of the arena. My front legs were all that was keeping me from falling into the lava. While I struggled to hang on, the huge bully just laughed. I spit out the toxic sludge that had been gathering in my mouth and I heard a yelp that ended in a snarl indicating that my attack had hit just as I managed to drag myself back up on the platform.

I panted from the exertion, still tired from the earlier use of the hyper beam. The arcanine took advantage of my weariness and inhaled deeply before exhaling a star-shaped blast of flame. I yelped in pain as the fire blast nailed me before darkness closed in.

(Amy’s POV)

I had winced when Nuria had sent out an arcanine knowing about Dakota’s fear of growlithes and arcanines. I had tried to recall him but the mightyena didn’t want to even though he was scared and tired.

He had managed to posion the arcanine before he was taken out but a massive fire blast. I recalled him, making a note to stop by the Pokecenter once this battle was over. I didn’t have to think about who to use next. I reached for Wildfire’s pokeball and tossed it into the arena. She emerged with a loud squawk before landing gracefully on one leg.

Wildfire L.25 F Combusken Vs. Tiger L.40 M Arcanine

(Wildfire’s POV)

I looked around and spotted the arcanine almost immediately. He was huge but didn’t seem to bothered by me even though he was poisoned. The massive fire dog took one look at me before tilting his head back and howling loudly. Wonderful, I thought to myself. He was still faster than I was with my matches. I took a deep breath, focusing my mind on the battle I had ahead of me.

Without hesitating, he charged forwards and crunched down on my left arm, I quickly kicked him twice in the face causing him to let go. I could see the posion was starting to show signs of weakening him.

The arcanine roared loudly trying to intimidate me. This time, I decided to try another tactic. I began to release pheromones as I blew a kiss at the fire dog. He paused, tilting his head slightly as he continued to stare at me.

His trainer, the Gym Leader, groaned at that. “Double team.” I heard her order. He glanced over at her before nodding and soon I was staring at three arcanines. I would have smirked if I could have. I had been watching him carefully and I was able to perform a perfect mirror move and soon I had three clones.

My opponent’s tail began to wag slowly back and forth when he saw that there was four of me. “Tiger, impress her by showing her your hidden power.” He whines softly but looked around and threw his head back and released a stream of water that went up in the air and came down on the clone that was at my right. It blinked out of existence but the water also hit me causing me to stagger backwards as the rest of the clones disappeared.

Tiger whined softly, not liking that he had hurt me. I shook my head and channeled some of my health into making a lifelike doll that drew his attention. I took a deep breath and curled up and went to sleep.

(Amy’s POV)

“Tiger Crunch her.” Nuria instructed her arcanine. He just whined and shook his head. When Nuria made no move and just stood there I had a feeling I knew what combo she had used but until I heard the disembodied snore coming from who knows where I hadn’t been sure.

“Tiger, I want you to impress her with your acrobatics. Show her you’re aerial ace.”

I winced at that, knowing that the substitute would be unable to handle that attack. Sure enough, I saw the massive orange and black form leap into the air, perform a flip and land on the Wildfire that we all could see and it shattered into hundreds of tiny pieces revealing a curled up mound of feathers that snored loudly casing the arcanine to shake his head as Wildfire woke up jumping to her feet. Tiger growled at that hating having been tricked.

(Wildfire’s POV)

“That’s right. Show them it’s not wise to play tricks with your heart. Crunch her hard.”

The huge striped dog leapt at me, but I was ready for him. I could also see that the posion had done a number on him during our battle so I needed to end this. I grunted when I felt his teeth latch into my arm refusing to give him the satisfaction of hearing me cry out. I curled my right hand into a fist and slammed the sky uppercut into the underside of his muzzle not only loosening his grip but with the help of the toxic poisoning succeeded in knocking him out. I stood there over him as he was recalled waiting to see what my next opponent would be.

I won!

I groaned when a flash of red revealed a powerful charizard.

Wildfire L.25 Combusken Vs. L.50 Charizard

I stared at him in admiration for having fully evolved for a moment until I remembered we were supposed to be battling. As I watched the charizard began to spin around in a circle and I groaned. He was using Swords dance to increase his attack. I knew it was a gamble but I started to move my arms back and forth as I used metronome. The next thing that I knew I felt really funny and then there was a loud BOOM and everything went black.

(Amy’s POV)

I winced and dove for cover as Wildfire’s Metronome turned into an explosion. When all the dust had settled, I stood up and recalled her noticing that although blackened, the Charizard still seemed to be itching for a fight. Without any hesitation, I looked around for Ranec and found him at the bottom of the steps where he took cover when we realized what was about to happen. He was unscathed. His psychic abilities had alerted him before the rest of us. “Ranec,” I began, “you’re up.”

Ranec is my L.40.5 Male White Umbreon with Black Rings. He is holding a Pokemon Collar which is a 50% Physical attack boost and his ability is Synchronize (when the Pokemon becomes poisoned, paralyzed, or burned, so does the opponent). He knows: Tackle, Tail Whip, Sand Attack, Psychic, Growl, Pursuit, Body Slam, Hidden Power Fighting, Bite, Shadow Ball, Toxic, Double Team, Helping Hand, Quick Attack, Headbutt, Iron Tail, Confuse Ray, Zap Cannon, Mean Look, Faint Attack, Hyper Beam, Charm, Night Shade, Torment, Facade, Yawn, Baton Pass, Focus Energy, Odor Sleuth, Taunt, Mud Slap, Dream Eater, Screech.

[The Blue Avenger]

Entirely too late on this. My bad.

---

Nuria laughed. “Looks like it’s down to one on one!” she said. “I haven’t had a challenge like this in a long time. You know what to do, Blitz!”

The Charizard nodded, and before Ranec could react, he slammed a series of strikes into the Umbreon’s side. Ranec gasped for breath and skidded back several feet before rising back up; his eyes widened and a brilliant cone of light shone down onto the field like a spotlight. It centered on Blitz, and his eyes began spinning. He stumbled in a small circle, holding his head.

“Confusion? Not a bad strategy,” Nuria grumbled. “Snap out of it, Blitz!” But that was exactly the wrong thing to say to the Charizard, who wheeled around, neatly dropping off of the battlefield into the lava. There was a tense moment; all eyes were on the spot where Blitz had disappeared.

It didn’t last long, however; Blitz burst upward out of the lava, steaming slightly and looking tremendously furious. He flapped his wings, shedding molten rock over the battlefield.

“Be careful!” Amy yelled. “Don’t get near it!”

Ranec nodded and took a few careful steps back. He looked up at Blitz, then yawned widely, his mouth gaping open. Blitz blinked, then yawned quite involuntarily himself. He shook his head to clear his thoughts, then spun in a circle, breathing a stream of flames. The fire cloaked him, and he barreled straight at Ranec. The Flare Blitz hit hard and Ranec found himself barely able to catch his breath. It was fortuitous, then, that the Yawn kicked in right about then; Blitz’s eyelids drooped and he fell asleep on the spot, falling to the ground.

“Now, Ranec! Let’s end this quick!”

Ranec squinted, taking aim at Blitz; the Charizard wasn’t moving in his sleep, thankfully, and so it was easy to get a bead on him. With the last of his energy, Ranec fired a slow-moving orb of electricity that zig-zagged lazily until it hit the prone Blitz. The Zap Cannon fried the Charizard, sending him spinning backwards a few revolutions before coming to a complete stop. Blitz failed to move afterwards.

Nuria sighed. “Yeah, that’s game.”

Battle over! The challenger wins!
Dakota gains two levels!
Wildfire gains two levels!
Ranec gains two levels!
The challenger gains 25 CCPs!

Nuria recalled her fallen Pokémon and walked across the battlefield, neatly avoiding the pools of spilled lava. She shook Amy’s hand, and when her hand withdrew, Amy was holding a small badge and an SM. “Congratulations,” she said, “and I really mean that. That battle got my heart racing, I’ll tell you what!” Nuria laughed. “Best of luck in your travels!”

Amy grinned and waved to Nuria as she walked out of the gym, new badge in hand.

[Skye]

I'll ask for an extension >.> Even though the current scenario is so old... I need to finish my other battles before I can write on this one.

[Wolfsong]

You can have the extension. I'll try to figure out a scneario.
Dakota's free tm for reaching L.30 is going to be Snarl.

[The Blue Avenger]

BAM!

---

The building was, as was probably appropriate, dark. The only light came from a series of candles, one in each window. The overall effect was somewhat on the occult side, but then, that was how Alana liked it. Her room, however, was completely dark – there were no windows to the outside, and hence there were also no candles. She sat, cross-legged, on the floor. Her eyes were shut, and her hands were folded in her lap.

Then her concentration was wrecked in quite possibly the most efficient way possible. There was a loud slam as the doors to her gym flew open. She grimaced and stood slowly, leaving her inner sanctum to enter the arena proper.

A man was standing in the entrance. He wore blue slacks, a blue long-sleeve shirt, and a blue ski mask, and altogether he looked like the most likely candidate to rob an art museum of just their Picassos during his blue period. Alana clutched her robe around her, making sure the hood was down over her face. “You’re a challenger, then,” she said simply.

“That I am,” the man said, looking around the arena. “Hey, you think we could turn the light on or something? Because-- ”

“No.”

“Oh… well, all right then. Yeah, I’m challenging you.”

Alana stood up straight. “Declare your name for the annals of history!”

“The what? Listen, are you sure you’re--”

“Your. Name.”

“Oh. Yeah. I’m Blue. Blue Avenger.” Blue puffed out his chest, really getting into the swing of things. “Some have called me the Cerulean Crusader, some the Azure Knight, some have even called me Maurice--”

“Prepare for battle,” Alana said simply. She threw off her robe, revealing clothes so dark that they seemed to fade away in the low light of the gym entirely. She pulled three Pokéballs off her belt. “I shall be using three Pokémon. So shall you. Make your selection.”

“All right, all right, sheesh,” Blue grumbled, palming three Pokéballs as well. “Let’s get it on!”

STRIFE! Blue versus Alana!
Blue’s roster: HOMEN, HOBORG, RIGHELLO
Alana’s roster: ULTIMA, HAVOC, COURSER

The two threw their Pokéballs at the same time. On one side of the field emerged an Umbreon, her rings glowing in the dim light, and on the other emerged a… Tyrogue. Small and unassuming.

Round 1! Homen (lv. 12 Tyrogue) vs. Ultima (lv. 30 Umbreon)! FIGHT!

Blue took a glance around the arena. It was hard to tell with the condition of the lights, but it looked like… the battlefield was a large rectangle, and on the borders was just… nothing. A big gap between it and the wall. Weird. Oh well. “Homen! Give it your best!” he called.

Homen nodded. “Right.” With a blinding display of speed, he darted over to Ultima and slapped her in the face. The Fake Out did its intended job, and Ultima flinched away from the move; this didn’t stop her from finding some sand somewhere and hurling it in Homen’s eyes. He growled and started trying to rub it out of his eyes.

“Don’t let it faze you, Homen! Keep going!” Blue called. Homen took a few hesitant steps backwards before firing a volley bright yellow stars that homed in on Ultima’s location. It didn’t bother the Umbreon a whole lot, but it let Homen, through watery eyes, track her location. Ultima responded in turn by opening her mouth and letting lose a shriek that had everyone in the room (save for Alana, who looked curiously unaffected) covering their ears.

“Screech,” Alana said simply. “You should know better than to bring such a weak Pokémon to a gym match. Now, it will take but a single hit to bring your Pokémon down.”

Blue glowered at her. “Well then, we’ll have to make sure that doesn’t happen! Homen! On the offensive!” Almost before they could react, though, Ultima disappeared from view. Homen closed his eyes and listened. There it was… a slight footfall to his left! He leapt into the air just as Ultima reappeared, and let gravity aid his Hi Jump Kick. He landed, foot outstretched, straight on the top of Ultima’s head. Ultima howled and scrambled backwards as Homen neatly rebounded, making a three-point landing.

Homen met Ultima’s eyes. “There’s more where that came from,” he said calmly, trying to ignore the grittiness in his eyes.

Ultima refused to rise to the jab and instead dashed straight at Homen, her speed almost too fast to react to. Homen ducked and rolled, but he wasn’t fast enough; the Quick Attack hit him in the side and he stumbled backwards.

“Homen, no!” Blue yelled. Homen felt his heel hit the boundary of the arena…

It was like time had frozen. Everyone watched as Homen’s arms wheeled around, his balance not coming back to him. After what felt like a year, he tumbled over the side of the arena.

Blue groaned and rubbed his temples. What came next, though, wasn’t something he was prepared for: Homen fell from the ceiling, landing roughly on the arena floor. Blue gaped and looked at Alana. “Explain that, please?”

“It’s a trait of the battleground,” Alana said. “Finish him, Ultima.”

Ultima smirked and opened her mouth wide, beginning to charge up a ball of ethereal energy.

“Homen! Can you keep going?” Blue called, keeping his Pokéball at the ready.

“I… think so…” Homen struggled to his feet. “I’ve got one more shot in me…”

“Then do it quick!”

Homen nodded. He crouched, timing the arrival of the Shadow Ball… at just the right moment, he sprung into the air, the Shadow Ball barely grazing him, and brought his foot down on Ultima’s head again. Two concussions were apparently too much for Ultima to take, and she slumped over.

Round 1 over! Homen wins!

“Good job, Homen,” Blue said. “Come on back for a breather.” Homen nodded and limped over to his trainer, taking a seat behind him.

Alana recalled Ultima without a word and replaced her on the field. The next Pokémon was small, dark, and had a set of very large claws; he adjusted the feather growing from his fur before aiming a sneer at Blue.

Blue tossed a Pokéball back and forth between his hands a few times before tossing it to the field. “Hoborg! This one’s you!” A second Tyrogue appeared, and he turned and grinned when Homen began cheering for him.

Round 2! Hoborg (lv. 12 Tyrogue) versus Havoc (lv. 40 Sneasel)! FIGHT!

Havoc laughed. “You’re the best your trainer can do? Really? I could crush you by sneezing.”

“Do not underestimate us,” Hoborg said, grinning. “Looks like my bro already did a number on your teammate.”

That had the desired effect, and Havoc scowled. “This is a battlefield,” he said, “so let’s fight.”

“You got it!” Much like his brother had, Hoborg darted to Havoc’s side and smacked him, making him flinch. He followed the Fake Out up with a lightning-fast punch, driven into Havoc’s side. Havoc skipped back nursing a growing bruise.

“Okay, those were kind of impressive,” Havoc said. “But that’s all you get.” He gestured to Alana, and she threw out her last Pokéball; a Houndoom appeared, and together the two of them surrounded Hoborg. They threw a flurry of blows, beat up the Tyrogue from both sides. When the attack was done, Alana recalled the Houndoom, once again leaving only two Pokémon on the field.

Hoborg groaned. “Cheap shot!” he said weakly, lurching to his feet.

“And that was my weakest attack,” Havoc said, idly tapping his claws together. “You don’t stand a chance.”

“Hoborg! Maybe you need to shake him up a little!” Blue called. “You know what I mean?”

“Got it!” Hoborg began waggling his index fingers left and right. There was an audible click as something tweaked in his mind, and he rushed Havoc, landing another punch in his side. This time, his fist was coated with a silvery energy, which, upon impact, coalesced into small steel shards and drove into Havoc’s side as well. The Bullet Punch a success, Hoborg nailed him with another Bullet Punch, then skipped back, keeping his fists up in a boxer’s stance.

“Bring up the tempo a bit, Havoc,” Alana said calmly.

Havoc grinned and, somehow, managed to burrow underneath the arena.

“You know what to do, Hoborg.”

Hoborg jumped into the air and landed far harder than something his size had any right to. The ground shook violently, and within a moment, Havoc had struggled out of the hole he dug, looking annoyed. “Fine!” Havoc hissed. “You want to play like that? Then I’m going to deliver the pain!” He began preening over his claws, running them down each other until they gleamed, visibly sharper.

“If he hits you,” Blue said, “we’re done for.” And if I could go through a match without having to say that, it’d be great, he added mentally.

“Then I’ll keep him off balance,” Hoborg said. He waved his fingers around again, and this time, the Metronome gave him a decidedly different result: he began beating his chest, the act pumping him up, even though each blow hurt.

“A Belly Drum? It’s far too late for that,” Alana said. “Havoc. Finish him.”

“You don’t need to tell me twice!” Havoc made a fist, ice crystals crackling around it, and rushed at Hoborg. Hoborg, in turn, balled up his own fist and ran at the oncoming Sneasel. The two Pokémon collided, meeting each other’s’ fists, but the Mach Punch, after a brief moment, broke through, and Havoc fell to the ground.

Hoborg stumbled back, panting hard. He hadn’t escaped the maneuver without harm on his end.

Round 2 over! Hoborg wins!

“Take five, Hoborg,” Blue said. Hoborg nodded and joined his brother on the sidelines.

“Then it’s down to our last Pokémon,” Alana said.

“Sure looks that way, hoss,” Blue said, smiling. He tossed his Pokéball to the field at the same time as Alana. He already knew what was coming – a Houndoom – and sent out Righello to meet it. A sandstorm whipped up inside the arena as both Pokémon took their places…

FINAL ROUND! Righello (lv. 21 Tyranitar) versus Courser (lv. 50 Houndoom!)

---

Okay, my final Pokémon is Righello, my level 21 male Tyranitar. He’s not holding anything, and his moves are Dragon Dance, Thunder Wave, Leer, Sandstorm, Screech, Scary Face, Bite, Aerial Ace, Fire Fang, Thunder Fang, Ice Fang, Rock Slide, and Shadow Punch.

[Wolfsong]

I'll get to your story soon. thanks again for getting mine. New sscenario ahead.

After the ice melted, it was quiet for a while. The wild pokémon attacks against trainers were becoming increasingly rare once more and for that everyone was thankful. As the days passed, the inhabitants of the Crystal Caves began to get bored, the Gym Leaders included.

Then, there came word that strange, new pokémon were appearing in the caves and surrounding areas. Curious, volunteers were sent to look and their return was eagerly awaited.

When the volunteers returned, they had captured some of these pokemon, while others had been persuaded to come and enjoy a celebration celebrating their discovery with the possibility of battles.


List of challengers

L5-L10

L5 Dwebble +1
L10 Maractus +2

L11-L15

L11 Deerling +1
L15 Tirtouga +2

L16-L20

L16 Litwick +1
L20 Liepard+2

L21-L25

L21 Frillish +1
L25 Pignite +2

L26-L30

L26 Larvesta +1
L30 Emolga +2

L31-L35

L31 Zebstrika +1
L35 Servine +2

L36-L40

L36 Musharna +1
L40 Samurott +2

L41-L45

L41 Deino +1
L45 Golurk +2

L46-L50

L46 Darmanitan +1
L50 Mienshao +2

L50+

L51 Mandibuzz +1
L55 Braviary +2

[Wolfsong]

Jeff, great story. I enjoyed reading it. Take 24 CCPS. A couple of things, I noticed. First, I think that you meant her eyes were shut and, I also think that you meant And if instead of id. I liked how you described the gym, as well as the nicknames of Alana’s pokemon. Interesting how the concussions took the umbreon out. Homen and Hoberg both gained two levels.

Righello L.21 Tyranitar Vs. Courser L.50 Houndoom

The brewing sandstorm further obliterated what little visibility that there was in the darkened gym. Courser snarled and shook his head as the sand irritated his eyes. The devil dog, threw his head back and howled. Righello, meanwhile, was focusing on an intricate dance that he had inherited from his ancestors. As he performed the steps, he could feel himself getting faster and stronger.

Courser flicked his tail from side to side with a smirk as he narrowed his eyes before fading into the darkness as Righello continued his dragon dance. Courser silently stalked the tyranitar from the shadows waiting for the perfect moment to strike. It came just before Righello finished his dance. The houndoom emerged right in front of his opponent’s legs and caused him to stumble.

Giving a loud roar of frustration, Righello spun around and launched three electrical rings at Courser. The houndoom was caught off guard by the tyranitar being just as fast as he was now. With a low growl as he felt his muscles tighten as paralysis set in and before he could even think of using his hidden power they locked up completely, while the sandstorm continued to chip away at his health.

The armor Pokémon smirked, as he stomped the ground. In response, several rocks appeared in the midst of the sandstorm and slid down on to the still immobile houndoom.

Not wanting to give his opponent anytime to regroup, he stomped over to prone houndoom and picked him up biting down on him with his fangs crackling with electricity. Courser, winced as he felt his muscles unlock and exhaled a stream of watcher at Righello’s chest courtesy of his hidden power.

The attack caused the tyranitar to drop the houndoom onto the gym floor. With a grunt, Courser scrambled to his feet as he was pelted by another rock slide. He tried to endure the attack, but his muscles froze up leaving him vulnerable once more.

Righello waited but, when his opponent didn’t emerge from the rubble, he cautiously headed over as the sandstorm died. Shifting some of the rocks aside, revealed the unconscious houndoom.

Righello won.
He grew two levels.

Alana’s eyes widened, but she quickly put on a neutral expression as she recalled her fainted pokemon. Without saying another word, she moved silently through the darkness. Approaching Blue, she took his hand giving a mandatory shake, leaving behind the Opaque badge and the Fash SM before disappearing back into the darkness.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

*hands over 7 CCPs* I’d like an rbg for my Combusken Wildfire from the east caverns please.

[The Blue Avenger]

Thanks. I appreciate the stamps and the conclusion.

Wildfire will fight a Meditite.