Chapter 17

"Machop, use Bullet Punch!" Bea calls out the first attack of the match. With her command, Machop dashes across the field in a blur. He appears in front of Dwebble with his fist glowing in a silver light before it smashes into it with a bang and causes it to tumble backwards from the attack.

"Dwebble, Dig." Brock orders stoically. Dwebble responds quickly and starts to dig into the hard ground. While digging, it flings the sand and dirt, which glows in an ochre light, towards Machop.

"Machop, Dodge and Double Bullet!" Machop responds by diving to the side, causing the sand to just miss him as he dashes towards the Dwebble again, both fists glowing silver again. Machop easily reaches Dwebble and drives both of his fists into the back of the pokemon causing it to cry out in pain. In the short time after the attack of Machop, Dwebble attacks with a move that glows in a sickly green and purple mixture that causes Machop to stumble backwards. On closer inspection, you can see a purple tint to Machops eyes indicating that he is poisoned. Machop attacks once more with a bullet punch that Bea called for and successfully knocks out Dwebble.

"Dwebble is unable to battle. Leader Brock, please send your next pokemon." Brock recalls Dwebble and thinks for a moment. He grabs a second pokeball off his belt and tosses it into the field.

"Glimmet, go!"

When the pokemon appears on the field I furrow my brow as I have never heard of this pokemon before. The pokemon is a small, mineral-like creature with a crystalline body. It has vibrant, gem-like protrusions arranged in a flower-like way and a bulbous protrusion at the bottom. I pull out my Pokedex, noticing a few other trainers doing the same thing. I guess they are here to study Brock and his pokemon. I point my phone at Glimmet and read the entry.

[Glimmet, the ore pokemon]

[It absorbs nutrients from cave walls. Glimmet's mineral crystals are made of crystallized poison and look just like flower petals. This Pokémon scatters poisonous powder like pollen to protect itself.]

I glance at Bea on her side of the arena and I can notice a little bit of worry in her eyes as I don't think she recognizes the pokemon either. I decide to cheer loudly for her to encourage her. I see her glance over at us and she gives us a confident smile before returning her gaze to the fight.

"Machop, keep using Bullet Punch! We can win this!"

Machop yells loudly before dashing towards Glimmet. I can tell his speed has reduced from the start of battle and from the poison status chipping away at him. Glimmet just hovers where it is at as Machop gets closer.

"Glimmet, Venoshock."

Glimmet silently looks over at the speeding Machop while a purple energy shimmers around its bulb. When he is close enough that he cannot dodge, the purple energy flashes out in a ring that hits Machop squarely in the chest, causing him to stumble and start to fall forward as he loses consciousness but holding onto his fighting will he finishes the attack called out by Bea, just touching the bulb and causing the pokemon to float backwards a for centimeters. As the attack lands, Machop passes out still in a punching position. There is a beat of silence before the stands erupt in cheers once more.

"Machop is unable to battle. Challenger, send out your next pokemon."

Bea recalls her Machop and takes a deep breath before sending out her next pokemon, a Tyrogue. Tyrogue is a small, humanoid pokemon with light purple skin and wearing light brown 'shorts'. It has a large head relative to its body, with big, round eyes, and a determined expression. It silently looks at the other pokemon, awaiting Bea's order.

"Tyrogue, Warm Up into Bullet Punch!"

Tyrogue nods and glows brightly for a second as it closes its eyes. When it opens its eyes again, they have a calm, sharp look in them. Suddenly Tyrogue disappears from my sight, only to appear with a bang as Glimmet tumbles end over end in the air, one of it's petals seemed to be cracked. When the attack landed, a puff of purple gas came out of the blub hanging under neat and covered Tyrogue. 

"Glimmet, Dazzling Gleam."

The Glimmet stabilizes itself in the air before starting to build up a neon pink energy around it. Bea calls for Tyrogue to stop it and it disappears again aiming to interrupt, but as it appears in front of Glimmet again, the pokemon lets out a blinding flash of light followed shortly after by a bang. The crowd lets out a pained noise from the light, myself included but I recover after blinking twice. Once the light dies down, the crowd goes silent as the arena becomes visible again. Tyrogue is on one knee with it's fist raised like it just finished doing an uppercut and Glimmet isn't visible when looking at the arena. A second later, the sound of something hitting the ground can be heard and I look towards the sound and find an unmoving Glimmet laying there. The crowd is silent for a few more seconds before I lead the cheer for Bea.

"Leader Brock's Glimmet is unable to battle. Challenger Bea wins!" 

As the referee declares Bea's victory, Tyrogue passes out and falls over on the arena, prompting Bea and Brock to recall their pokemon. Once they are recalled, Brock walks towards the center of the arena and beckons Bea to join him. From the screens I can see them talking about something, but it is visible when Bea is handed her the Boulder Badge and shakes her hand with a smile causing another cheer to pass through the stands. A few moments later, I can see Bea heading towards the tunnel she came in from and I grab Flannery's hot hand and drag her towards the exit so we can meet up with Bea.

It takes us a minute before we got out of the gym due to the constant flux of trainers coming and going from the stands. Once we are outside, we are spotted by Bea, who was waiting for us, as she runs towards us and pulls us into a hug. I flush a little as I enjoy the feeling of being in the middle of two beautiful girls before I give them both a hug as well. It seems to have taken Flannery a moment to reboot as she is the last to join the hugging. 

"Congrats Bea! That was an amazing battle!" I tell her, while maintaining the hug. I definitely was not going to be the first one to end it.

"Yeah Bea, you were awesome! Your Machop was like woosh and then bang, bang! Those rock types didn't stand a chance!"

"Haha, yeah it was pretty awesome." Bea and I laugh a little at Flannery describing the fight. "We almost lost the fight with that last pokemon. I have no idea what it was or what it could do. That Dazzling Gleam almost cost me the match. I have to train harder now!" I can see the fires of ambition burning in her eyes as she releases the hug and clenches her fists tightly.

"Speaking of which, we should get your pokemon to the center to heal up. It looked like your Tyrogue stayed up just long enough to be declared the winner." I ruefully end the hug but take the chance to grab their hands and start walking in the direction of the Pokecenter. "We need to celebrate your win though."

Bea thinks for a moment at that and then gives me a big smile. "How about we have a party when all three of us get our badge? That way we are not having to spend more money than we need to."

"I like that idea! The sheer confidence that all three of us will win the first try gets me all fired up!" Flannery agrees. 

We continue to chat about the match as we head back to the center. Seeing as how it is still early in the day, I want to do a little bit of training with Zephyr so I can get used to her changes. Since she has evolved, I haven't had any real battles with her. We fought some wild pokemon back when we were leaving Viridian Forest, but those were not really a fight to begin with. I split with the two of them as they are in a heated discussion about the gym and training and head off to the training fields.

I notice that they are just as full as they were yesterday but that doesn't bother me. I wait for a spot to open up and then join the fun in the field. I let Skadi stand beside me as I use Zephyr to completely wreck my opponents. Before long, I have nearly thirty straight wins and my pokemon are looking rather bored. I'm not sure why, but all the trainers seem to be rather weak. 

After my thirtieth win, I stop battling as there is no challenge. Instead, as the sun is still high in the sky, I decide that going to the outskirts for some specialized training would be a better use of my time. Zephyr had learned two moves that I would love for Skadi to learn. I also want to try out some ideas for custom moves that might give me an edge in my upcoming battle. I have a serious type disadvantage, but this comes with the territory when you want to specialize in a type. Most trainers don't specialize this early, mainly due to the lack of available pokemon to capture.

Once at a nice open area outside of the city, I get Zephyr to show Skadi the moves Frost Breath and Ice Burn. It doesn't take Skadi long to get the basics of the moves down, as Frost Breath is like Icy Wind or Powdered Snow, only through her mouth and Ice Burn is just Frost Breath but much colder. For Zephyr, I get her to work switching between fire and ice in rapid succession. If my memories of high school science still apply to this world, which so far they seem to, then I could leverage the temperature difference to cause massive damage to hard pokemon.

As night began to fall, I got a call from Flannery asking me to join them for dinner. I end the training session and walk back to the center slowly, enjoying the cooler(It's still bloody hot!) night air. I get back to the center just as the sun sets and eat dinner with the girls. I tell them about my streak at the training fields, which causes them to laugh. We chat for a while before heading up to our rooms for the night. Flannery's battle is first thing in the morning so even though it is early, we want to crash early.

Once I am in my room, I strip down and turn on the AC as low as it can go, which is still a balmy 15C. I take my clean clothes from the wash and toss my dirty ones in before starting it. I then let Zephyr out as she likes to sleep with us at night, and even though she used to be a little warm, her new ability actually seems to draw the heat away from me if I am touching her. To me, this is an absolute godsend. I have been suffering with this heat since my arrival in this world. 

I sit myself on the bed and my pokemon arrange themselves around me. Zephyr actually presses herself against my back, letting it feel pleasantly cooler than the rest of my body. I close my eyes and slowly sink into my nightly meditation.