Chapter 38

With the roar of the crowd, I slowly unclench my hands from the bar I was holding. For some reason the bar no longer feels round. I look down at it and find the bar twisted and crushed where I was just holding it. I blink in surprise before remembering to grab my pokeball for Zephyr and recall her from the slowly dissipating blizzard. Once she is back in her ball, I notice Misty leaving her platform and walking towards me, so I quickly but gracefully step down from my platform and walk to meet her in the middle.

"Congratulations on your victory Frost." Misty said to me as she held out her hand.

"Thank you Leader Misty. You gave me a run for my money and I nearly lost. If not for the last minute evolution I wouldn't be standing here." I reply as I shake her hand.

"Speaking of your pokemon's evolution, I was aware that you had a variant Fletchinder but this evolution seems different. Please make sure that you get it checked over by an expert before your next battle."

"I plan on calling my Grandpa while I wait for my friends."

"Good, Professor Oak will surely take care of everything for you. On that note, I am aware that using custom moves is a good way to break the flow, but if properly trained a pokemon's base moves can be extremely powerful. Custom moves can also have unknown lethality. I warned you earlier about the spear you used but if it was used by a more powerful pokemon or was allowed to grow further it could easily kill a pokemon. If you plan on using custom moves in the future, please make sure you test them thoroughly so accidents do not happen."

I hang my head a little at the reprimand but I make sure to internalize her words. "I understand. I will keep that in mind for future battles."

"Good. Once again, congratulations Frost Oak on winning the Cascade Badge. I hope you can make it to the end." With that Misty hands me a teardrop shaped badge.

I thank her while taking the badge as the arena roars with cheers. I turn on my heel and start walking back to the corridor. My music player takes this time to turn itself up with every step I take away from Misty while playing "Finish Line" by Skillet. A smile threatens to break my mask as my steps feel light as I disappear into the corridor.

I follow the signs for the exit and get my winnings deposited into my account. I look around for a place where I can wait for Bea and Flannery while watching their matches. Unfortunately, I don't have enough time to make it to the stands. I find a room off to the side with a TV on the wall that is currently displaying the gym. It looks like all the damage from my match has been taken care of already so I sit down to wait for my friends on a Wailmer bean bag chair that makes me sink in comfortably. 

I shimmy around to get perfectly comfortable and pull out my cell phone and notice a few messages. My brother sent me a message saying congrats as well as a sticker of himself with a thumbs up and a picture of the third badge in his hand. I reply back to him, a little astounded by the fact that he already has three badges. I wonder how he trained to get ahead of me so quickly even though we left at the same time. Maybe it was my week in the forest. Mentally shrugging I see messages from Flannery and Bea, both congratulating me as well. I let my mask slip and smile happily at their messages before sending a good luck message to both of them, making sure to send something flirty to Flannery.

The three of us banter back and forth until Bea sends a message that it is her time. I watch the screen as Bea walks out with a confident smirk on her face. I know that she is going to do just fine. The one I am worried about is Flannery but I will have some faith in my firecracker that she can win. I watch as they go through the speech at the start of the match and then as two pokeballs fly out, starting the match.

Bea starts with her Tyrogue and Misty sends out a Krabby. I frown a little at the match as Krabby can potentially defeat Tyrogue, but only if it can hit. Misty starts out by firing off water guns that Tyrogue easily dodges as he approaches Krabby. As he gets within two meters of Krabby, Tyrogue rushes in and hits the crab pokemon with a quick punch. Along the bottom of the screen, it shows that the move was Mach Punch. The punch lands on Krabby and lifts it into the air where Tyrogue follows up with a second punch that doesn't connect but I see Krabby bounce in the air from getting hit by something. According to the screen it was a Vacuum Wave. 

Krabby retaliates with its claw shining silver and slamming down hard, which causes its floating body to twist in the air. Tyrogue side steps to avoid the claw but the twisting motion causes him to misjudge and he gets clipped in the shoulder sending him spinning and flying back about half a meter from the unexpected hit. Tyrogue recovers quickly, getting back to his feet the same time that Krabby slams onto the ground, sending small waves into the water from its impact. 

With their positions reset, it doesn't take long before the fight turns into a slug fest of trading low damage, but fast hitting blows. This back and forth continues until Tyrogue unexpectedly blocks another Metal Claw and turns a Vacuum Wave point blank into Krabbys face. The crab pokemon falls to the floor and is unmoving, granting the first takedown to Bea. As Tyrogue lifts its arm in triumph, it starts to glow brightly. As the glow subsides a moment later, a new pokemon is standing in its place. The pokemon is brown and blue with a point on its head and two skin flaps that look like hair hanging off its head.

The screen shows a congratulations message as it displays a pokedex entry for Hitmontop overlaid on the arena as Misty grabs her next pokeball. Bea's next challenge is a Quagsire, something that can take a lot of hits. Hitmontop performs a handstand and then starts to rapidly spin and move around the arena. He approaches Quagsire faster than the pokemon can move away and quickly hits it with a Triple Kick before moving away before it can be attacked. Quagsire takes the hit before it starts slinging mud around at random. A glob of mud hits Hitmontop causing it to slow down some but does not stop the pokemon from moving around the center of the arena.

This back and forth happens a few more times until Bea recalls her battered and muddy Hitmontop and sends out Machop instead. No sooner does Machop appear that he dashes forward with a silvery fist for a Bullet Punch but just before it hits the color shifts to yellow with some sparks flashing around his fist. The Thunder Punch hits, sending Quagsire tumbling backwards until it collapses at the edge of the water. A few seconds pass and the screen says that Quagsire is out, netting Bea one more take down and she still has all three of hers ready to go. 

Misty sends out her last pokemon, a Politoed. As soon as Politoed appears on the stage, the pokemon leaps high into the ware and out of camera view. Luckily, there is a second camera that shows the pokemon high in the sky and notes that the move Bounce is being used. I frown slightly as the move has a type advantage against Machop but I'm not sure if Bea has anything that can counter it. I go through the moves that I know, which are admittedly few, but nothing rings a bell on what could be used to counter it.

I raise an eyebrow when I see Machop setting up a Thunder Punch again, but this time he stands still and is looking up. My jaw drops slightly as I see Machop fire his punch towards the sky as a bolt of lightning shoots out of his fist and slams into Politoed who is still midair. I can see that Politoed is hurt as it hurtles back towards the ground where Machop is waiting in a horse stance. Politoed slams butt first into Machop, causing the pokemon to slide backwards some from the speed and power of the attack. It is at this moment I notice a brownish red energy enveloping Machop as he grabs onto Politoed and slams the pokemon into the ground with a vengeance. A huge burst of dust appears, covering the view of the gym cameras. 

A few seconds pass as the dust settles showing a heavily breathing Machop and an unmoving Politoed. Unable to help myself I cheer loudly seeing that she won with no knock outs which is much better than I was able to get away with. If it wasn't for Zephyr, I might have lost… I need to make sure I train again before the third gym or else I will lose. 

On the screen I can see a smiling Bea as she steps off the platform to speak to Misty. I grab my phone and quickly text her a congrats and where she can find me. It is about five minutes later when a tanned head topped with messy silver hair pops in the door.

"Frost! Congrats on winning!" Bea says as she finds me and walks into the room.

"Congrats yourself. You pulled off a flawless victory." I reply with a big smile on my face.

"I wouldn't call it flawless, there is a lot I could have done better." Bea responds as she makes her way over to the Wailmer chair I am sitting on and flops onto it beside me, causing me to burst out in a fit of giggles. I throw an arm around her shoulder and give her a friendly hug.

"We are all improving, but three-nothing? Comeon, you must be happy about that!"

"Oh don't get me wrong, I am super happy I won." Bea gives me a cheeky grin before continuing. "I was just saying it wasn't flawless. Oh and Congrats on Zephyr's evolution. Did she evolve into a new breed? The screen in the waiting room didn't have any information as your pokemon was already unique before the fight."

"Ah, yeah… I haven't checked yet as she is resting in her pokeball and from what I could tell earlier, she is quite large now so I didn't want to release her while still at the gym." I answer sheepishly. "Speaking of evolutions, I see you now have a Hitmontop. Is that what you were going for with Tyrogue?" 

"I would have been happy with any of the evolutions so I let Tyrogue train how he wanted to and this is the result. Now we just need to get into some heavy training again."

"I'm with you on the whole needing to train part." I sigh and lean back into the beanbag more. "I nearly lost. If it wasn't for Zephyr's early evolution I would have to fight Misty again, but this time I wouldn't be able to catch her off guard with my moves."

Bea makes a sound in agreement before turning to the screen. "Looks like Flannery is up now, I hope she can win, she is at a total disadvantage here."

I look at the screen to see my flame haired friend move to the platform and listen to the rules for the match. "I believe in her, she will dominate the fight just like you did."

"I hope she does! This is going to be a great fight."