Chapter 34-35

After all that hype, I found myself somewhat excited to see the last pokemon he was going to unleash on the field. Both the Arcanine and Magmar had been monsters. While the thought of facing a third pokemon of that level didn't bode well for my chances of leaving here with a gym badge, it still excited me. This was what I'd become a trainer for, after all, wasn't it? This thrill. Placing yourself against the best the world had to offer and putting it all on the line. This is what it means to be a pokemon trainer, and I was never more grateful to be one.

He picked up a ball from within his lab coat. I was too far to see much detail about the ball, but I could still see that it was more faded than any I'd gotten the chance to personally examine. Even Oak's balls were less aged. Fuck. That sounded weird. Never mentioning that thought anywhere.

The Charizard that came out of the red light announced its presence with a roar. 'Prepare yourself, Kisame. This one will be tough.' In between blinks, the Charizard had sent a massive flamethrower at my seasnake. She easily blocked it with a wave of water but that was only the first prong of the attack. The fire dragon sped through the steam with the green aura of Dragon rush only to crash into Kisame's protect. I smiled at the sight and sent my next orders through the bond. For this fight, I wasn't going to be taking any risks.

Kisame intensified the rain dance, and the Charizard roared at her before retreating as she gathered more water towards her. Once she was safely ensconced in her 'water prison', we started working on the second part.

At least, we were about to. Until the heat around the charizard intensified and began evaporating every drop of rain that got within a few feet of it. After that, it charged at Kisame again, only to be forced to abort by multiple tendrils of water that lashed out at it.

"Blizzard" I barked and the change the field took was slow and methodical. The winds around both pokemon intensified, and the cold came with it. In the next few seconds, the rain from the rain dance began to freeze as it fell, and it joined the icicles floating around in the Blizzard.

The Charizard floated, almost unbothered, within the storm. The heat shield around its body seemed to have gotten a bit smaller, but that could have just been wishful thinking.

"Light it all up" Blaine commanded with a wide smile I could just barely make out with the poor visibility. The next thing that happened had both Kisame and I reeling in shock. The charizard snatched rain dance from Kisame with a powerful sunny day. The clouds cleared up near instantly, and it flapped its wings twice to create a counter current that turned into a mini hurricane. It didn't do any damage to Kisame but Blizzard was now gone. What kind of monster was this?

It sped at Kisame again, and although she managed to ward him off, I could see that losing her environmental advantages so quickly had affected her.

"Calm down, girl. We still have this" I said with a confident smile even though that's the exact opposite of what I felt at the moment. 'Hydro pump. Make it rain' I told Kisame with the bond, and she sent blast after blast of water at the fire dragon. It managed to dodge them all by weaving around the attacks and allowing some of them to crash into its heat shield and evaporate instead. That was strange, I thought.

Oak had spent a good deal of the time we had together working on my ability to notice things like this, so the second time the Charizard dodged out of the way of a hydropump, I figured out what was wrong. The Charizard dodged some hits. Why would it do that if its shield could take the blasts of water with no difficulty.

"Water prison" I shouted at Kisame. She nodded imperceptibly and sent massive tendrils of water at the Charizard. Whenever it dodged one, she was there with the next one. At the end of the day it was only a matter of time. Of course, the hacked pokemon had to disagree with that.

Even with all Kisame's attacks, it managed to charge straight at her from an angle. I could see that she wouldn't be able to react in time to avoid the hit, but she could still do some damage before being knocked out. As the Charizard's fist buried into her midsection, a massive wave of water crashed into the both of them. It was sent with little control, and a lot of power, so there was no way the Charizard was getting up unscathed.

I returned Kisame to her ball and whispered my thanks to her before preparing my last pokemon. When the steam cleared up, I was proven right. The charizard was banged up, a few bruises littered across its body. By far the worst piece of damage it had suffered was the broken wing on its back. I smiled at that and changed my choice.

This might piss off Igneel a bit but Gai needed a gym battle of his own. I reared back and tossed his ball into the field. My Hakomo-o took his place with an air of nobility that none of my other pokemon could match. He looked like royalty as he walked towards the Charizard. The massive fire dragon ceased roaring in pain to look at his new opponent, and that's when Gai struck. A fist went sailing straight at the Charizard's head. While it managed to dodge that, it didn't manage to dodge the kick to the stomach. It didn't budge, but the roar it let out told me it felt it.

I smiled in anticipation. This was going to be fun. Very fun. Gai didn't let up his assault at all. Oak had an entire ecosystem of fighting types on the ranch, and they'd taken Gai as one of theirs. His skills had shot through the roof in the past few months. Not just stronger or faster, but smarter, more technical. He was well on his way to being a complete powerhouse. The only thing holding him back from matching up to the rest of the team's powerhouses was his evolution. As powerful as he was right now, both Snorlax and Kenpachi could stomp him with apparent ease.

While I hd my internal monologue, Gai enjoyed himself at the Charizard's expense. Without the benefit of flight, there was little the dragon could do against my fighting type. Gai weaved through whatever attacks it attempted, and struck with devastating strength. At this point, the only thing keeping the Charizard in the fight was sheer stubbornness. It just refused to stay down. Gai hit it everywhere and anywhere, only avoiding its broken wing out of a sense of honour that I couldn't fault in this fight. I'd be much less tolerant of such frivolities if we were even close to losing this one. 'It was already decided', I thought and that's when shit hit the fan.

Gai moved in for one more punch to its skull, and the Charizard suddenly caught it. I watched in shock as its tail flame turned blue and it roared in triumph before tossing Gai straight out of the ring.

Gai panicked for only a second before calming down and sending two punches at the lava underneath him. The force split it and forced him up. He did the same to the air behind him and managed to generate enough force to send him crashing back into the field. Pokemon physics was bullshit.

With the sudden boost in power and strength, the dragon roared and ran straight at Gai. They reared back and tossed their best punches, the arena shattered around them, but neither of them budged. From there, they started an exchange of fists I couldn't keep up with. All I knew was that Gai was enjoying himself immensely. Enjoying himself and losing apparently. My eyes were able to pick out more and more of their fight and I could see that he was taking half again as many hits as he was dishing out. That was made even worse by the fact that he wasn't quite as durable as the dragon across from him. He might have only been taking half again more hits, but he was probably taking at least double the damage. This was unsustainable. "Belly drum" I shouted at the field and Gai performed admirably. He disengaged quickly and suddenly with a few backflips and once he felt far enough, he began banging on his stomach with those powerful fists of his. The sound sent shockwaves across the arena and I had to readjust to ensure I kept my footing. Blaine didn't even look bothered by the vibrations. A red aura slowly built up around Gai and the Charizard stood still waiting for Gai to finish his buff. Dragons were prideful creatures, and I guess Blaine's Charizard was no exception to the rule.

When the move was complete, both pokemon rushed at each other once again. Their fists tore the arena apart, and this time, Gai clearly had the advantage. The Charizard didn't let up though. It kept going till the very end. Giving and taking punches with tremendous force. After a few minutes, I began to fear that the pokemon would never go down, and then, it let out a roar before flying into the sky with its broken wing. I looked on in shock as the green energy of dragon dance surrounded it, and the sunny day above both pokemon grew even more intense. 'Protect', I ordered Gai, sensing that what was coming wouldn't be very good for his health or my chances of victory. I watched as the fire-type pokemon began building up what was perhaps the most powerful fire-type move ever, blast burn. Even after only a few seconds, it already surpassed what Igneel was capable of with the move. The dense ball of fire was warping the very air around it, turning the heat up from mere sweltering to roasting. Parts of my skin were already beginning to redden. There had to be some end to this.

Maybe Gia sensed my discomfort, or maybe he decided sheltering in a protect wouldn't be enough, or maybe he just got tired of waiting, but Gai left his shield and charged straight at the fire type. The Charizard could hardly manoeuvre in the air with a broken wing, so Gai was able to get his first punch in with little difficulty, and from there, he kept going. Eventually, the move the Charizard was trying to build and control blew up in both their faces.

With all the damage it had already taken, the Charizard was unconscious before it even hit the ground. Gai, on the other hand, was able to recover and land on his feet. He wasn't unscathed, don't get me wrong, burns covered his body and he was barely able to keep to his feet after landing. Blaine returned his unconscious pokemon with a smile on his face.

"Thank you for giving her a fight like that. She's never going to forget that dragon of yours now." I only nodded and returned Gai to his ball.

"Congratulations, Oak. I expected nothing less." He shouted across the field before he teleported right next to me. I barely managed to avoid screaming in shock as his voice suddenly came from right next to me. "Here's your seventh badge. You've proven yourself worthy of it." I advise you take a bit of time to train up your team before attempting an eight badge. Something tells me you'll only be challenging the pinnacle gyms for that and both Blackthorne and Viridian are well-known for breaking eight-badge challengers. Evolve that dragon of yours. It's more than ready. Focus on grass type moves for that ghost of yours. You've already hit the limit of what it can achieve with the ghost typing." I nodded at his advice. He was probably right.

"Thank you, Gym leader Blaine" I said with a bow.

"None of that. For a son of Oak, I'll always be Blaine. Now, get going. See to your pokemon."

I nodded at his words and made my way out of the gym. Heading straight for the Silph research centre in Cinnabar.

Cinnabar was a true tourist trap. Since I'd left the challenge with Blaine, I'd spent my time simply wandering around the Island after dropping my pokemon off at the Silph research centre. There were two things I could have been doing right now. I could either take team members I had left with me on a training session for the few hours I had to wait just waste all the time browsing the various tourist attractions.

To nobody's surprise, I was going to be spending my time doing the latter instead of the former. In my defence, Cinnabar did have quite a few interesting attractions. The hot springs were particularly refreshing, and since it was almost winter season, I would probably have been forced to check them out sooner or later. It was cold. So fucking cold.

After almost boiling to death during the gym challenge, a little cold was just what the doctor ordered. Quite literally.

As a silph trainer, I had to get a mandatory physical exam when I dropped off my pokemon to make sure I wasn't about to keel over after the ordeal Blaine had put me through. Speaking of Blaine, I'd had to talk to Oak about the man the moment my challenge ended. He'd been insistent on me calling him once I finished at the Cinnabar gym and giving every little detail about my interactions with Blaine.

I had to explain that the man and I barely spoke about anything beyond pokemon. He also asked about evolving pokemon and my stance on the evolution principle. The evolution principle. An idea some interesting young trainers had come up with a few years ago and it was all the rage in the last few conferences.

Evolve pokemon as quickly as possible and stuff them to the gills with ™ moves. The main goal of the strategy was to get the users to place as highly as possible in their first tournament. The most standout example of this was a first year trainer who made it to the top 16 in his very first conference. He held the record for the youngest trainer to ever actually make it that far.

Even Lance fell short when it came to that record. After all, he'd won his very first conference, but he'd only gone to the conference after four years as a trainer. Still young, but not nearly as young as the trainer I speak off. Since that time, the evolution principle was one of the most popular strategies for young trainers who wanted to make it far in the conference. Especially those who were less well-off and in need of sponsorships.

Any first year making it to the top 128 was practically guaranteed a sponsorship, and those who got to the top 64 could even expect a good one. The contracts weren't really anything to write home about in terms of things like freedom and opportunity to leave or even grow as a trainer, but they paid well. Something lots of trainers valued more than I'd ever thought.

I hadn't actually given the principle much thought beyond recognising its existence as an option. It hadn't taken me much time to rule it out. Even as effective as it was, those who used it barely ever made it out of the qualifying rounds. The number of experienced trainers just meant that pokemon evolved in a rush were more likely to be stomped on by their more seasoned counterparts.

After all, a rushed charizard would lose out to a well trained Charmaleon more often than not. Same with almost every other pokemon species out there. The gap created by evolution could be closed with enough skill and experience. Blaine had agreed with me and had been especially critical of the method and even quoted me a study showing that pokemon forced to evolve so quickly were exponentially more difficult to control and train than their counterparts. They were also dramatically weaker.

There was a reason trainers who used the principle tended to swap out their teams once they got the sponsorship they'd been aiming for, with only one or two of their old team being able to compete at the higher level sponsored trainers had to play at.

I felt another vibration in my pocket and scowled in irritation. I'd neglected to wear the Silph battle uniform in my gym challenge against Blaine and as if the dressing down I'd received at the Silph research centre wasn't enough ,my pokedex was being swarmed with emails from the Silph marketing team. I understood their anger, but ranting at me wasn't going to accomplish anything. I'd already apologised, and it wasn't like I'd done it purposefully. I'd legitimately forgotten about the silph battle costume.

Ignoring the vibrations, I continued my sightseeing. My next destination? A pawn shop on the side of the street that claimed to sell both antique and modern goods. Looking at the state of the place, it had clearly seen better days. Most of the platforms were dusty as hell and the rest of the place didn't look much better. There were cobwebs on practically every corner of the room, and if I focused enough, I could see a few Ratata running through the corners of my eyes.

There was no one inside, and I kept walking in and looking through the place. Nothing. No one. I don't know when exactly I noticed that something was off, but it was clearly too late.

I turned around to look behind me and found the door I'd walked in through missing. There was nothing there, just an empty stretch of wall. What the fuck? I moved to grab Ino's ball from my belt but felt my hand clench around thin air. There was nothing there. I looked around frantically, and could just barely spot my belt on the floor before it disappeared in its entirety. Fuck.

My heartbeat went through the roof. I'd never actually been this alone before. The rest of my team were at Silph and those I had with me just fucking disappeared in some sort of freak happening. I turned to the wall where the door once was and started feeling across it to check if there was any sign of what was going on. This was an illusion, wasn't it? It had to be. I had to be trapped in some sort of illusion and my mind started running through the pokemon that could do something like this without Ino even noticing from her ball. Any sufficiently powerful psychic, ghost or dark type pokemon would fit the bill, and even just thinking of the ones native to Kanto left an abundance of pokemon. Too many for me to narrow anything down without any further clues.

After I was sure there was no way of finding the door that should be right in front of me, I turned to look through the rest of the room. It had changed around me once again. From an empty abandoned shop, it had become a dark hallway. A dark small hallway, at that. This was just ridiculous. Now, I had two options for what to do next. I could stay here and wait out the illusion. No pokemon could keep up something like this indefinitely, and when they tired, holes would begin to appear. The only problem with that was that I had no idea what pokemon it was so it might end up taking it hours or even days to tire and waiting here for that long was impossible, even beyond that, something in me just wasn't comfortable with sitting still for so long. With waiting here for something to go wrong. This is probably the course of action Oak would have recommended. I had no pokemon, and no real means of defending myself, so going ahead into the obvious trap would be stupid. I was feeling stupid right now though. I didn't want to sit still while my team were god-knows-where, going through only god-knows-what.

My only other option was to follow the hallway and see where it led. I took a deep breath and my first step came easily. "Into the breach we go '', I said to myself.

THE POKEMON HUNTER

A completely new region, huh. Sinnoh, they call it. I guess its time to get on with it. The submarine we were on was making good speed towards our destination. The Rocket boss was very sure about the information he'd gathered. Apparently, there was a huge gathering of powerful fighting types somewhere on the Island we were heading to. It made no sense to me. If the region was just being discovered, then how the hell did Team Rocket already have so much information about it. Enough information that I was already beginning to suspect that they had to have very close ties with the Indigo league. Perhaps an elite four member was a rocket, or the president, maybe even the Champion himself.

That last thought almost made me laugh out loud. There was no way an egotistical bastard like Lance would ever content himself with waiting in the shadows and leading an organisation like this one. He was just too self-righteous and arrogant to be anything less than the boss in whatever organisation he joined, and I was certain he wasn';t the boss of Team Rocket. He'd be more likely to kill me than add me to the organisation if he was the one in charge.

Even ruling out Lance didn;t really reduce my number of suspects by much. There was still the elite four, and even the administrative arm of the league. I couldn't tell who, but I'd figure it out eventually. I'd get to the roots of who was behind Team Rocket, simply because I was too curious to allow such a mystery to stay as one for very long.

My curiosity was both my greatest strength and flaw. It was that curiosity that led me to finding more about myself. To finding out the information that led me to this life. To finding out the truth of my family.

The unconscious scowl that built across my face at the thought of those who would call themselves my family was wiped away by the announcement that we would be surfacing soon. That meant that we were, at the most, only an hour or two away from our destination. Almost Game time.

XXXXX

I was unsurprised to note that we ended up making land at one of the deserted areas of the Island. We could see signs of habitation in some of the areas but we were careful to avoid them. I wasn't much involved in the decision making process of the ship but that didn't worry me. After all, I was here to get some pokemon to fill out the holes in my team and a fighting type would be dead useful. I'd never forget that Oak boy. He'd robbed me of some of my most useful pieces and I'd get my revenge for that sooner or later. First of all, I'd stock up with more pokemon though.

Draco was strong, but I had doubts he'd prevail against the entirety of Oak's team alone, especially with his grandfather at his back. It had been a mistake for me to wait so long before unleashing Draco and I was never going to make that mistake again. "Archer, you know the plan. Do your part" I scowled at the commanding tone from the woman that called herself Ariana. She'd recruited me and seemed to have been chosen as my handler. I'd obey for now though

We were close enough to the reported habitat of the fighting types that I felt comfortable releasing Psycho.

"Find their camp" I ordered and waited for a few seconds before I received a nod and waited for him to teleport me in their midst. I didn't even waste a second to take stock of my surroundings before releasing Draco from his ball. His roar drew the attention of all the pokemon around us and I took note of their unique appearance.

Bipedal, vulpine pokemon with uniquely large ears and metal spikes in their palms. Definitely fighting type pokemon to be sure.

Draco wasted no time in getting things started. With the green glow of Dragon rush around him, he flew through the clearing and slammed into two of the fox pokemon.

"Lucario" Several of them shouted at once and rushed at Draco with impressive speeds. Lucario, huh? That had to be their name. Their attempts to overcome Draco very quickly failed as he drew upon extreme speed and wove through their moves with ease while sending them reeling with powerful punches, claws and swipes of his tail.

I could see one of them jump at him with a punch only for him to dodge and send it crashing into a tree with a swipe of his tail. I smiled at watching Draco dominate the pokemon around him. He stepped forward to put down the pokemon he just hit but was interrupted by another punch heading straight for his head. As he dodged that one, he was forced to dodge a kick and a bull rush from two others. They coordinated masterfully and slammed into him in a carefully designed avalanche of punches, kicks and swipes. He was keeping ahead of them and my pride in him grew with every dodged punch. He'd come a long way from the newly-hatched Dratini given to me by my father's assistant.

The fight had drawn the attention of even more of the 'Lucarios'. They started coming out of the forest, but were content to watch Draco fight the five we'd met when we teleported into the clearing.

One of them swept a kick at his head but Draco only smirked and redirected it at another of the fox-pokemon. They might have been powerful fighting types, but they showed none of the instinct Draco had from experience. It was clear to see that these pokemon hadn't gotten much experience in true life or death battles. They lacked a certain ruthlessness. A certain je ne sais quoi that marked Draco as completely different from them.

It showed when one of them overextended their attack too far and Draco wrapped his tail around its neck. A second later, and a crack sounded across the clearing. It slumped to the ground. Dead.

Draco took a deep breath to let out a roar of dominance, but he was quickly interrupted. I couldn't see what happened next. All I knew was that Draco was sent crashing into the forest, bowling though tree after tree. Where he once stood was another of the Lucario. It stood there with an outstretched fist and it took me no time to figure out what had happened. It was quite a bit different from the ones Draco had been dominating. Clearly older and more bodies were mostly identical, but the way it carried itself made this pokemon look completely different from the rest. It had to be the one in charge, and the thing had to be fast to take both Draco and I by surprise like that. This was going to be interesting at the least.

I smiled when Draco's roar echoed across the Island and I could make out his form flying back here at extreme speeds. He was heading straight for the fighting type pokemon, and I scowled at the way the clearly experienced pokemon moved out of the way with barely any difficulty. This time, it was Draco going on the attack and being unable to find purchase with any of his moves. If Draco were any less hardy than he was, this fight might already have been over. The Lucario parried and dodged Draco's swipes and lunges, only to counter with impossibly precise punches and kicks. It was dominating Draco and the thought of watching my Dragonite lose again brought a scowl to my face.

"Retreat and Dragon dance" I said after a bit of thinking. Perhaps the boost from the move would let Draco regain the advantage. He executed the move perfectly, using his wings to fly backwards without giving any sign in his body language or even turning around. Just leaving his pokemon looking in confusion. As Draco started to build up the glow of Dragon dance, the Lucario decided it wouldn't be having any of that though and fired a focus blast straight at him.

I scowled even harder as Draco was forced to tank the attack to keep on building his move. Dragonite were some of the most hardy Dragon types, so I knew he was safe to take a few attacks without much negative effect. The dragon dance was complete, so Draco rushed straight at his opponent. I smiled in anticipation, waiting to see Draco dominate the fight, overcome this monster of a fighting type and show his superiority. The Lucario didn't even look fazed by Draco's increased speed, strength and agility. It just continued to weave around him with no difficulty and continued lashing out like a cobra.

The fight kept going and was slowly turning even more against Draco when the plan finally came into effect. With most of the pokemon now out in the semi-open, the rocket soldiers began their phase of the plan. A giant Pidgeot flew straight into the clearing and at the Lucario that had been beating Draco. It somehow managed to dodge the move by jumping into the sky, but Draco was waiting and slammed into it. As they landed, my monster wasted no time in latching his teeth around the pokemon's neck and preparing to break it. It was to no avail though. It somehow managed to worm out of the hold with a few powerful punches to Draco's midsection that had him stumbling back to take a breath. I watched it look around and see the rest of the herd being attacked by Rocket pokemon and its next actions made me lose all respect I'd been building for it.

It completely ignored Draco and sped to deal with the pokemon attacking the rest. A rocket Kirlia found its head caved in, and a Muk was splattered into a million pieces within the same second. An Alakazam barely managed to teleport out of the way of a powerful kick, but the Golbat next to it almost exploded from the force of the punch that smashed into its midsection.

The thing just kept going. I'd thought the pokemon was hesitant to kill with how it approached the fight with Draco, but now, I was forced to reconsider my previous stance. Every single one of the rocket pokemon it came across was killed so coldly and efficiently, that I'd be surprised if this monster hadn't somehow gotten to fight in a war of some sort. It held and carried itself like a spectre of death. It as like the fucking grim reaper, reaping souls wherever it stepped.

It tore an Arbok in two before I finally decided to have Draco interfere. In the time the monster spent taking out the small fry, Draco had been charging up a move of his own. One that should let him turn the tide, hopefully.

A red aura surrounded my proud dragon and he rushed to the Monster that was busy tearing apart the cannon fodder. For the first time so far, I saw the pokemon take a hit straight to the chest. It went flying back but returned fire not even a second later. This time I couldn't even keep track of the exchange. All I saw was a blur of red that followed them as they fought across the clearing. I couldn't even tell if Draco was the one with the advantage this time. I hoped so, but if the past few minutes had taught me anything, then it was that this pokemon wasn't to be underestimated. I was proven right when every once in a while, one of the cannon fodder that got too close to their exchange found itself turned to pulp and every one of the Lucario was miraculously whisked away. Even with outrage, this pokemon was still essentially running circles around Draco. A true monster, indeed.

The woman's pidgeot finally came into play by rushing straight at the Lucario once again. This time, it didn't bother dodging and just caught it mid-air. Draco didn't waste the opportunity and wailed on it while it was distracted. Between the two of them, they were finally making the pokemon give ground. It wasn't enough though. Things had finally slowed down enough for me to be able to see more than just blurred outlines, and that allowed me to see the Lucario snap the Pidgeot's neck with a powerful kick.

It didn't even celebrate its kill before moving for Draco once more. Ridiculous. I could see the red aura of outrage beginning to fade, and once that happened, there was very little chance of Draco even surviving this battle.

"Psycho, get in there " I commanded the Alakazam that had been at my side since the beginning to interfere and salvage this battle somehow. He teleported into the fray without even acknowledging my request and let loose with two psychocuts that the fighting type was forced to dodge, giving Draco some breathing room.

The monster adapted to having another opponent easily enough. Psycho and Draco had never got to fight with each other so their teamwork wasn't much to write home enough. The monster weaved around their attempts to hem it in but they were good enough to prevent it from gaining enough leverage for a true counter-attack. Stalemate. My two strongest pokemon working together and a stalemate was the most they could accomplish. Psycho wasn't even keeping a veil around my face anymore, so he should have been more than strong enough to tango with the strongest psychics out there.

The battle seemed to be going nowhere till we heard a roar from the forest and another of the woman's pokemon stepped into the fray. A massive Ursaring.

Now three-against-one, it was forced to pull out more and more to stay ahead. It wasn't enough though. Nowhere near enough. The Ursaring was at least at Draco's level and Psycho was putting his all into the fight. Speaking of Draco, things suddenly took a turn when the red aura that surrounded him faded. I couldn't get out my pokeball to return him fast enough. The Lucario let loose a massive punch strong enough to kill most pokemon, but luckily for me, it was only enough to knock out a pokemon as hardy as my dragonite.

I returned him to his ball and watched with gritted teeth as he began to overwhelm Psycho and the Ursaring. It was a beatdown. It wailed on the normal type without pausing for a second, and even when Psycho managed to force it to dodge or block an attack, it went right back to where it started from. I started resigning myself to defeat when things took a sudden turn. A Blastoise and an Electabuzz came out of the forest with matching smirks. The woman must almost be finished disabling the rest of the Skulk.

Both pokemon wasted no time involving themselves in the battle. I had Psycho teleport back to me once it became clear that he wouldn't be of any use in the ensuing chaos.

All three of her pokemon worked like a well-oiled machine. The Ursaring kept it busy in the short range while both the Blastoise and the Electabuzz kept at it from the long range. A symphony of chaos that only a practised eye would truly appreciate. It was beautiful.

I wasn't surprised when they finally scored a hit against the monster. It was a graze from a hydro-pump that barely fazed it, but it was still proof that the pokemon could be touched.

From there, they slowly wore away at it till there was very little it could do. A massive hydro-pump hit it centre-mass and a bright bolt of yellow followed it very quickly. So quickly, that it looked like the Electabuzz had predicted that the water attack would hit and even knew where it would send their adversary. Fucking Unreal.

From there, the battle ended with little fanfare. The Electabuzz hit it with three more thunderbolts and a few thundershocks before it finally stayed down for good. Knocked out.