After King Onix declared that there would be a battle between his generals and my pokemon, all of the surrounding mountain pokemon began to move as they crowded around a raised rocky section that was obviously an arena. May, Lucario and I also moved to stand on our section as the opponents, she with her camera that was still streaming onto Pokevision all the while.
As we got into place though, I also noticed a certain group of pokemon move to the opposite end, all of which were significantly more powerful than the others around us. Among them was a large Golem, Kangaskhan, Primape, Machamp, Magmar, and a large Fearow.
As I quickly swapped out some of my pokemon for the coming battles though, the Machamp on the other side stepped forward and flexed it's muscles intimidatingly.
The Machamp was a powerful and impressive specimen, covered in numerous scars that depicted the numerous battles and hardships it must have gone through to get where it is now. But then it surprised me as it looked at all of the pokemon surrounding us, and did something unexpected.
*STOMP STOMP CLAP!*
"!!!"
*STOMP STOMP CLAP!*
*STOMP STOMP CLAP!*
*STOMP STOMP CLAP!*
Following it's lead, all of the other pokemon began to follow along, stomping their feet or hitting their fists against the ground before clapping their hands. Soon the entire mountain was shaking and shuddering in time with the beat, triggering numerous rockslides and minor earthquakes with the force being created by all of the pokemon.
If it were anyone else in my place then they probably would've been terrified, but I felt my heart rate increase with each passing second that they continued.
"W-what are they doing?" May uttered in a small squeak that I barely heard over the thundering rumbles of their beat, her earlier excitment from my challenge seemingly vanished.
"It's an intimidation tactic." I told her, but it was obvious I was far from intimidated. In fact, the only reason I wasn't singing the lyrics that went with this beat was because no one would even be able to hear them.
Instead I had a massive smile on my face as I began to stomp and clap along with all of the pokemon, surprising them this time when it was apparent I wasn't intimidated by the display.
***
Supernerd765: Am I the only one that thinks this beat slaps? 🎶👏
MuscleGurl345: Some of these pokemon have definitely been in professional fights.
Brawlerguy: FUCK YEAH! I'M GETTING PUMPED UP!
***
The beat continued until the Machamp that started it roared out, and they all fell completely silent now that everyone was in their places. May, Lucario and I on one end of the arena, the generals on the other, and King Onix to the side as the officiator.
"Groooooooooa!" King Onix declared, commanding that the combatants for the first round to come forward.
I waited to see who my first opponent would be as the massive Golem stepped up onto the arena, slamming it's feet down and taking a stance like a sumo wrestler as it did so.
"GOOOOOOOOOOOOOL!" It roared challengingly, while I automatically grabbed one of the Pokeballs on my belt. I knew EXACTLY who I was going to use for this round.
"Go, Wartortle!"
"WAAAAAAAAAR!"
With a cry, wartortle appeared before the Golem appearing equally ready to battle as he stood to his full height of almost six feet. I could tell he was especially ready to go as he recalled the battle against Brock's Golem, which was why I chose to send him out for this round.
"Ready for a rematch?" I asked him, though this wasn't the same Golem.
"Wartortle!" He cried, acting so serious he wasn't even doing his usual bully Maguire dance.
For a moment the two pokemon glared at one another, ready to move at a moment's notice, before another roar from King Onix signaled the start of the match.
"GOLEM!" With a cry, Golem immediately summoned a powerful Sandstorm that swept throughout the entire arena.
'Raindance, and then Hydro Pump.' I ordered Wartortle through telepathy, briefly surprising him when he heard my voice in his head. But to Wartortle's credit he didn't let that distract him too much as he did as I ordered.
Quickly performing his bully Maguire dance, the vortex of sand was replace by fat raindrops that began to pour down on top of all of us, revealing where Golem was within the Sandstorm perfectly so that Wartortle could follow up with his Hydro Pump.
Opening his mouth wide, Wartortle shot out a blast of water that slammed into Golem with enough force that it was pushed back a few inches, before it dug it's feet into the ground to brace against the water.
"Tch."
I clicked my tongue when it was apparent that Golem wasn't taking much damage from the attack, combined with the water from the rain. That must've meant that it had the Sturdy ability, which of course worked differently from the games.
Originally Sturdy was an ability that prevented one hit KOs on the pokemon that possessed it, leaving them with just one health point. In this world however, Sturdy increased the pokemon's defensive capabilities to allow it to take significantly less damage from attacks, especially ones that it would be weak to.
But that didn't mean that the Golem was unbeatable.
Even as Wartortle kept up the Hydro Pump, Golem tucked it's arms and legs in close and started rotating it's body at high speed, carving a trench through the hard stone underfoot as it used Rollout.
'Aqua Jet!'
Wartortle quickly closed his mouth to cancel the Hydro Pump and shot forward as well, water coating his entire body as his speed picked up.
For a moment all we could see was a rocky cannonball, and a bullet of water hurtling towards one another, before they clashed in the middle of the arena. Water and rocks exploded outwards from the point of collision, forcing me to throw up a wall of aura to protect May and I, as well as her camera, while Lucario proceeded to simply deflect them with his paw.
Along with all of the water and rock shards, both Golem and Wartortle were similarly blasted back from the collision thanks to the strength of their respective attacks. I had to admit, I was fairly proud of my not-so-little turtle for going head-to-head with a Golem in terms of strength.
Wartortle managed to twist in midair and land squarely on his feet, sliding back a bit further before coming to a stop. Golem meanwhile tumbled to the ground before using it's momentum to roll back to it's feet as well.
Then, without missing a beat, it reached down and ripped a large chunk of stone out of the ground that rivaled it in size, and threw it at Wartortle.
'Use Aqua Tail to smash it apart!'
"WAR!"
With a cry, Wartortle leapt up as water type energy gathered on his tail, which he swung down in a flip to slam against the rock. The water type energy washed over the rock, weakening it before the rock shattered from the applied force of Wartortle's tail.
No sooner had he landed on his feet did Golem shoot forward to grab onto Wartortle, who reacted just in time to lock hands with it before Golem pushed him all the way to the edge of the arena.
"Hold on Wartortle!" I cried out loud to him. "Use Hydro Pump!"
"WAR!" He cried out in frustration, but, instead of doing as I commanded, something else happened.
Wartortle's entire body was enveloped in light before his figure began to grow, and grow, and GROW. And once the light faded, standing there was my newly evolved Blastoise.
He stood nearly ten feet tall, his shell and body both a darker brown and blue respectively, and now there was a pair of cannons that protruded from his shoulders.
I didn't even realize the smile that had formed on my face until my cheeks started to hurt, and even then I didn't stop smiling. Now I had TWO fully evolved starters, both of which were alphas!
And as if to demonstrate just how good of a thing that was, Blastoise then proceeded to firmly plant his feet at the edge of the arena, and start lifting Golem upwards.
"GOL!?!" Golem exclaimed in disbelief as Blastoise lifted it into the air using the strength developed from our training, before thowing it up high.
"NOW! Hydro Pump!"
"BLAAAAAST!"
Roaring in affirmation, Blastoise aimed it's dual cannons and fired twin blasts of water that put his earlier Hydro Pump to shame. The attack was so powerful, that it blasted Golem clear out of bounds and into one of the surrounding cliff-sides, disqualifying it.
"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhn!" King Onix roared out, confirming Blastoise's victory over Golem.
***
HardasOnix: DUDE! That Blastoise is a monster!
PunchingreignsSUPREME: Go! Go! Master! Kick their asses!
IloveCleffa: Yay! Yay! Lets go May!
***
With our first victory confirmed, Blastoise shuffled back over to me with a proud smile on his face as he stopped right in front of me.
"That was amazing buddy." I told him with pride, patting one of his arms as I did so.
"Blaaast." He rumbled happily from the praise, before I returned him to his Pokeball for some rest.
This was turning out to be a great side-stop! Even if I didn't end up capturing King Onix this was all already worth it.
I then turned my attention back to the arena as the next general stepped forward, a massive Kangaskhan that stood over ten feet tall.
"KHAAAAAAAAAAN!" She roared challengingly at me, stomping her feet as she did so.
"Oh? You think size matters?" I asked with a smirk, already knowing which pokemon I was going to use next.
"Go, PARASECT!" I cried while throwing the Pokeball out, before it opened to reveal a MASSIVE living mushroom that made the ground shudder with each of it's movements.
"SEEEEEEEECT!" It roared in response to the Kangaskhan's challenge, standing at nearly twice her height.
It was followed by another groan from King Onix, and the second match began.
"Khan!" Kangaskhan roared again as she charged Parasect while amassing power to deliver a devestating Giga Impact. It was an exceptionally powerful physical move on par with Hyper Beam, but would render the user unable to move for a brief time afterwards due to the extreme amount of power it used.
But who said I had any intention of letting it hit Parasect?
'Use Bullet Seed!'
"Sect!" Parasect roared as it complied with my command, firing it's massive seeds at the incoming Kangaskhan.
Each one was about the size of cannonballs, and carried enough force that Kangaskhan was blasted backwards when they impacted her. What was normally a devestating attack to begin with was positively horrendous when you considered how much harder those seeds hit with the momntum Kangaskhan had already built up.
The pokemon general hit the ground hard and rolled to the edge of the arena, leaving her battered and bruised as she tried to pick herself up.
"Finish it." I commanded it, and Parasect complied as it unleashed a massive torrent of draconic energy from it's mouth, Dragon Breath.
Still injured, Kangaskhan was unable to avoid the attack as the draconic energy washed over her body completely. And by the time Parasect as finished the attack, Kangaskhan was completely unconscious.
"""..."""
Stunned silence met the end of the battle, with none of the surrounding pokemon, let along King Onix, knowing what to do or say.
***
VibrantDaisy: There's that monster of a Parasect...
ImaSnorlax: Is that thing even a pokemon anymore!?!?!?!?!?
ConfusedCorphish: Dude's got an army of monsters in the making!
***
"Nice job Parasect." I commended my pokemon while returning it to it's pokeball, which gave a quick jerk of affirmation in my hand before I returned it to my belt.
By this point the surrounding pokemon were stupified at how my team had won TWO matches against their generals, and they were starting to get antsy for a win themselves.
"CHAMP CHAMP!" Cried out the Machamp from earlier as it stepped onto the arena this time, flexing all four of it's arms as it did so to show off.
"Want me to wrap this up partner?" Lucario asked as he made to step forward.
"Sorry, but not this time." I told him, wanting to give some of my other pokemon a chance.
"Go Grovyle!"
"GroVYLE!" Grvyle declared to his opponent while flexing his body as well.
'It's got you beat in terms of both strength and exerience, so you have to win through speed.' I communicated to Grovyle via telepathy. He too was confused momentarily from hearing my voice in his head, but focused on the opponent before him.
And with another roar from King Onix, the battle began.
'Agility, and then Leaf Blade.' I commanded through telepathy.
"..."
Grovyle affirmed my commands through a silent nod, before following the former as his body lightened considerably, and then following the latter as he disappeared and reappeared behind Machamp.
"GRO!"
Grovyle cried as he swung the blades made of grass type energy down at Machamp's exposed backside.
"Champ." Machamp smirked as two of his arms moved to block the attack without it even needing to look back.
"..."
I could feel Grovyle's irritation from being blocked like that, prompting him to open his mouth to spray Machamp in the back of the head with a Bullet Seed. But all that accomplished was making Machamp swing it's arms back, sending Grovyle flying back before he landed gracefully on his feet.
No sooner than when he'd looked up was Grovyle jumping back yet again as Machamp lunged at him to strike, one hand covered in flames for Fire Punch, another in frost for Ice Punch, another crackling from the Thunder Punch, and the fourth one with a metallic sheen from Bullet Punch.
"Move!" I shouted at Grovyle as Machamp threw a Fire Punch at him, before following it with a Ice Punch, and then Bullet Punch.
Grovyle was moving entirely on the defensive with Detect as Machamp pressed it's attack relentlessly, never giving him a moments respite as he had to dodge attack after attack.
Maybe I SHOULD have sent Lucario in instead?
But now wasn't the time to worry about that, as I had to focus on keeping Grovyle from getting hit while also finding an opening for him to counterattack. Detect doesn't last forever, and with each attack Grovyle avoided the higher the chance it wouldn't work the next.
'Try and get some distance with Quick Attack!'
"..."
Grovyle silently complied as he pushed his body to move faster to avoid the next attack, and dart around Machamp to try and get away. Unfortunately, Machamp appeared to be waiting for that moment as it swung one of it's fists around at him, and caught Grovyle in the side.
Thankfully it was just the Bullet Punch, which wasn't super effective like the Ice and Fire Punch would've been, but it was still a devestating hit that sent Grovyle flying across the arena to the other side.
"Grovyle!" I exclaimed worriedly.
"Gro..." He groaned painfully while trying to himself up, one of his hands on his side where he had been hit.
"Get out of the way!"
"CHAMP!"
*SMASH!*
Immediately after I tried to warn him, Machamp jumped through the air with all four of it's fists lit with flames to bring them down onto grovyle. Thankfully Grovyle managed to roll out of the way in time, only for Machamp to cave that entire area of the arena in through it's brute strength.
Just as I was relieved that Grovyle managed to avoid the attack, he hit the ground hard again and rolled several times before coming to a stop, allowing me to see the scorch marks on one side of his face. Apparently only three of Machamp's fists hit the ground, while the fourth had swung up to slap Grovyle as he tried to get away.
"Damn it..." I swore as my mind raced to try and figure out how to turn the tables. That Machamp was just too outrageous.
"Get up!" I roared at Grovyle, lest that Machamp try to attack him again.
Thankfully though the Machamp seemed to be taking it's time as it approached Grovyle, having seemingly already won with how one-sided the match had been so far.
"Gro...." Grovyle groaned as he struggled to his feet, refusing to stay down. As he rose though, his entire body suddenly began to shimmer with a green light as his aura started to skyrocket.
"Overgrow..." I uttered as a small hope kindled that we might be able to reverse the situation.
Overgrow was the ability that all grass type starters possessed, which would increase their strength, particularly their grass type moves, significantly when they were close to being defeated. But the surprises didn't stop there.
"GROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOVYLE!"
With a roar unlike anything I had ever heard from Grovyle before, there was suddenly a massive amount of energy being sucked out of Machamp that filled Grovyle's reserves and then some.
"Giga Drain..." I uttered once again, dumbfounded at the new move that he had learned.
While in the game Giga Drain was just a stronger version of Absorb and Mega Drain, in reality it was a move on par with Solar Beam as far as grass type mastery. Though not as powerful, Giga Drain was a double threat in that it not only sapped energy from whatever it was used on, but it also refueled the user's energy and even healed some of their wounds.
We all watched as the scorch marks on Grovyle's face began to rapidly fade, along with the injuries on his side. But the changes didn't stop there.
As the Giga Drain continued, and Grovyle absorbed more and more energy from Machamp, his body was soon engulfed in another brilliant glow that matched that of the glow Blastoise experienced earlier.
We watched as Grovyle grew several feet taller, and a large leafy tail sprouted from his backside, until the glow faded to reveal an entirely different form.
"Sceptile!"
Crying out while flexing his arms, Sceptile took a stance to once again enter the fray with his newfound strength.
"Champ." Machamp growled in irritation after having it's energy stolen from it, before tensing it's muscles in preparation for the next round.
"Alright! Lets go Sceptile!" I cried out in excitment from having yet ANOTHER one of my starter pokemon evolve. Now I had a fully evolved fire, water, AND grass type.
But I would have to wait until later to celebrate as I mentally ordered Sceptile to use Agility yet again. With how high his specs were after evolving, combined with the lingering affects of Overgrow, he should be quite the speed demon by now.
And I wasn't wrong as Sceptile vanished from his place and reappeared behind Machamp, delivering a powerful double Leaf Blade to it's exposed backside.
"Fuck yeah!" I exclaimed from FINALLY getting a real hit in on the Machamp, before Sceptile darted away while using Bullet Seed to pepper it from afar.
After that though, Sceptile used Quick Attack to move in close before Machamp could react and used Leaf Blade yet again, before doing the same a third time.
As I told him at the start of the match, he was using his speed to employ hit and run tactics without giving Machamp the chance to fight back. It also helped that Machamp had a large amoutn of energy taken from it thanks to Sceptile's Overgrow empowered Giga Drain.
But I could tell this match was far from over. The scars decorating Machamp weren't just for show, they depicted the MANY battles it had been in over the course of it's life. Some of them looked as if they even could have been life threatening.
'Don't let up, and don't let it catch you.' I mentally warned Sceptile, while using my aura to help him determine which direction Machamp's attention was focus when he attacked.
For a moment it looked as if we might actually win, which was unbelievable after how one-sided the battle had been earlier.
But then came the next shift.
Right as Sceptile darted into Machamp's blind spot for his next attack, he suddenly lost all of his momentum as two of Machamp's arms grasped him in a hold.
"Huh?" I uttered in surprise as Sceptile suddenly stopped, before trepidation filled me.
"Get out of there Sceptile!" I tried to order him, but Machamp's grip was too strong as Sceptile tried, and failed, to fight it.
Meanwhile Machamp's energy suddenly began to spike as it prepared to deal the finishing blow against my grass starter, and I realized what it had been doing for all this time.
While Sceptile and I had been focusing both of our attentions on the direction it was focusing to make sure Sceptile didn't get hit, Machamp had been purposely letting him attack it while building up energy for a single powerful attack, Revenge.
"MACHAMP!" The fighting type pokemon roared as it swung Sceptile up over it's head so that he was in front of him, before cocking back it's remaining two arms.
I could only watch helplessly as Machamp proceeded to lay into Sceptile with a series of punches that made use of all the energy it had built up from the numerous attacks Sceptile had dealt to it, dealing double the damage it had received in the past few minutes.
When the chain of attacks finally came to and end, Machamp released Sceptile's arms to deliver the last blow, sending him flying across the rings before coming to a stop at my feet. And once there Sceptile did not move.
"CHAMP!" It cried out victoriously, triggering an uproar amongst the pokemon around us as they celebrated their first victory over me and my pokemon. While they celebrated, I quickly let Chansey out so that she could tend to Sceptile's wounds until we could get him back to Joy.
"Take care of him Chansey." I told her seriously.
"Chansey Chansey!" She declared in an equally serious tone, promising to do just that.
"Now is it my turn?" Lucario asked as the Machamp stepped out of the arena, only to be replaced by the Primeape.
"No." I answered him, before proceeding to rip the cast off of my arm as I flexed my hand experimentally.
"It's my turn."