Fight

This idea was great and all but I knew I needed to rest up for my challenge in the morning and drove it away to go to sleep. It wasn't particularly hard as I merely needed to create a different thought instead and focus on that. The next morning I woke up and got my workout done before checking the time and seeing i had an hour or so until my challenge. "Alright you three we trained hard for this so I expect each of you to give it your all." I said seriously and Rune , Vulcan and Gaia all answered in the affirmative.-

"The order won't matter all that much in this challenge for you two but Gaia must always go last since she is very weak to fighting type moves." I said to both Vulcan and rune who nodded in agreement. Gaia was a bit upset at being called out like that but facts were clear that she was very disadvantaged against this gym. I set up my battlers like this for the battle with Roxanne as well with Vulcan coming after Gaia since it was disadvantaged against rock types.-

"That said I am going to send out Rune first in hopes the pressure lets him evolve finally." I made clear and while Vulcan grumbled a little about it it didn't protest. With that taken care of I balled my team up and set out for the gym. As I walked I couldn't help but notice that there were an awful lot of projection screens around the city that were blank at the moment. "Hey do you have idea whats going on?" I asked a random guy along the way. "You must not have been in the city three days ago , Brawly said he was super siked for a challenge coming up and wanted to live stream it for everyone to also get pumped." the guy said with a helpless smile.-

I sighed at that as it sounded like the sort of thing Brawly would do when excited about something. Gym leaders were basically local leaders for cities so if Brawly wanted to livestream a battle to the whole city no one was going to try and stop him. The funny party was that if anything the league might actually want him to do it as it worked to boost my public image much earlier in my career than most trainers got the opportunity.-

Contrary to what a lot of people think public recognition is actually very important for ones journey as a trainer as there was a reason people couldn't come out of nowhere and snatch away the champion title. It was a sort of hidden rule that only those publicly known were allowed to hold positions in the league that involved pokemon battles. Even Flannery who very recently took over the Lavaridge gym and came from a long line of gym leaders had a public record and strong evidence of her strength.-

'Whatever , It's fine I guess.' I thought after deciding not to bother about the whole livestreaming thing since it'll help me out. It didn't take me long to get the the base of the steep path to the gym and start traversing it easily. The people nearby saw this and seemed to realize that I was probably the one challenging Brawly and quickly made there way over to the nearest screen. Once I was at the top of the path and outside the gym i wasted no time at all walking through the door. "Good morning Mr. Drake , please follow me." The receptionist said politely the moment they saw me.-

I raised an eyebrow at this but followed none the less. The gym was dark and the path we walked to the arena was the only part lit up so I had no idea what the layout was. Eventually though we reached the arena and there was no lights on at all even after I took my position. "Welcome Alex!" I heard from across the arena from me as all the lights flipped on at once and I had to blink a few times to readjust. There in his position was brawly in his normal outfit along side three pokeballs on his hip.-

"I have been thrashed by the rough waves of this place and grew strong , now it is your turn to crash your power against my own like the waves against the rocky shore!" Brawly said with a wide smile while grabbing a pokeball from his waist. "I'm hoping to see my Charmander evolve with this battle so do give it your all." I said confidently as the Referee took their place at the side of the arena. They went through the rules of the challenge as per league regulation and then swung their arm down while calling the match to start.-

"Rune , set!" I called as I tossed runes ball out after hitting the button releasing him onto the field. Brawly on the other hand didn't call out what pokemon he sent as it made itself known all on it's own. "MACHAMP!" the large four armed pokemon yelled out while flexing the moment it manifested on the field. I examined the opposing pokemon carefully and knew this was going to be a tough battle to win. The Machamp was five levels over Rune and even had a few moves that would be a pain in the ass to deal with for Rune.-

"Agility!" I called and Brawly immediately countered with "Bullet punch!" which caused the Machamp to flicker before appearing in front of rune with a glowing silver fist. I didn't even need to say anything before rune split into two identical images as he avoided the attack with double team. Bullet punch might be a steel type move but it was an excellent way to close distance rapidly even if it didn't hit. "Smokescreen!" I command and immediately Runes real self became clear as one of the identical figures vanished before he spewed out a thick cloud of white smoke.-

It was clear that Brawly hadn't expected this which was fair since as an electric type Rune should never have even had the option to learn a fire type move. That however was when Brawlys eyes widened in realization as I grinned "Thunderwave!" I called before the leader could order the Machamp again. A pulse of electrical energy moved through the smoke unobstructed and struck the Machamp causing it it grunt as it's muscles locked up and paralysis set in. -

"Bullet punch away the use focus energy!" Brawly commanded but i wasn't going to have any of it "Thunder punch!" I called and Rune dashed out of the smoke before the Machamp could break through the paralysis enough to obey Brawly and decked it in the face with a glowing yellow fist. The Machamp staggered from the sudden blow and rune started to rush it with thunder punches. I watched Brawly when I saw this and the moment it looked like he was about the say counter I yelled out "Quick retreat!". Even after Brawly yelled out counter it was too late as rune had already given itself distance by going back into the smoke with a quick attack.