Ch.30

The ride to Cinnabar Island took several hours, but we finally arrived back on the island. Leo and I just smiled back home, while Primeape and Piloswine looked around with interest at our hometown. Unlike the others we've been to, this is one of the smaller cities in the Kanto Region. The island is used for tourists mostly and the locals are only a few dozen thousand, much like Hawaii in my old life. 

I walked the familiar streets of my childhood with my team, as Primeape and Piloswine took everything in. Meanwhile, Leo and I just enjoyed being back in our hometown. However, in our hometown, we were even more famous as people came up constantly greeting us and taking pictures with us. 

'I'm okay with them doing it, yeah I'm biased towards my hometown,' I say to my team who is about to try to scare everyone away. 

Just as I started to reconsider letting my team scare everyone away, as more and more people came over to talk with me, Charizard landed nearby. With a growl, everyone quickly backed away and left the area not wanting to piss off Charizard. My Dad's Charizard has a reputation in which everyone thinks he is a prideful and violent Pokémon but is nothing like that at all. 

"Hey Charizard!" I say greeting Charizard happily as his stoic face disappears to a smile looking at me. 

"Char, char," Charizard says nodding his head to me, and then gestures for us to follow him. 

While walking Charizard and Leo are catching up with one another, Leo has grown to the same rank as Charizard. The only Pokémon in my Dad's team who can beat Leo easily is Magmar who is King Rank. Charizard brought us to the gym and not our home, as it appears Dad is currently working. Walking inside I see the receptionist who has worked here all my life. 

"Lucas! How've you been?" Cherry the receptionist says seeing me enter as Charizard walks to the arena and I hear a battle currently going on back there. 

"I've been good and how about you?" I say to her and she smiles nodding her head to me.

"Good, good. I've been good too, your Dad and I have been watching your matches ever since you left. You have certainly grown into a fine young trainer and I can only imagine you will be quickly going places," Cherry says giving me a hug in greeting and breaking it while telling me all this. 

"Dad, currently battling someone?" I say having heard the fighting. 

"Yeah, I believe a friend of yours, says he knows you. Lance Chevalier is his name and another one called Brock Harrison," Cherry says and I nod my head hearing her. 

"Yeah they are friends, mind if I go watch the battle?" I say to her not wanting to be rude by just walking away. 

"Go, go," Cherry says ushering me inside to the arena. 

Walking inside I see my Dad and Rapidash currently facing Brock and Onix. From the looks of it, Onix and Rapidash are currently equal, even with Onix's dual-type advantage. I see the stands are currently half full, but quickly filling up as Lance is the next opponent after Brock's battle. There will be an hour's break between the two battles though, so my Dad's Pokémon can rest and heal up. 

I walk my way to the back of the arena away from the stands, where staff usually are only allowed. But the staff knew me and just nodded their heads in greeting to me, I could see my Dad had noticed me in the corner of his eye. Though he is currently fully focused on his battle right now. I see Lance in the stands watching too, but his Dragonair is keeping people from bothering him. 

The battle was not all that intense considering Brock is stronger than average, but not that much stronger than average. In our generation, Brock might be in the top one hundred in the region, while Lance and I are currently tied for the number one spot. Not that I believe myself to be that good, but if everyone thought Lance was number one and I beat him wouldn't that have made me the new number one. 

Either way, Brock lost as it appeared Onix was his last Pokémon and I knew Onix was his ace. Though Brock looked saddened at his loss, but still didn't show that much sadness and held his head high. My Dad gave Brock a badge though and they talked for a bit, then my Dad handed two Pokémon he used this fight to be healed at the gym Pokémon Center. One of the staff ran off to go heal up his Pokémon, while my Dad turned to me with a smile. 

Many of the crowd left, but some only walked around saving their spots with something for when Lance battles the gym next. Brock walked over to Lance and the two talked Lance glanced to see where my Dad was going and then saw me. Both Lance and Brock looked over and waved at me, walking over but waiting since my Dad reached me first and gave us time to greet one another. 

"Lucas, Leo! I missed you both! Nice to see you two again too, how've you all been?" Dad says to me and Leo, while greeting my other two team members and he gives me a hug which I return. 

"I've been good, did as much training as I could and saved up as much money as I could to help my Pokémon. Though I'm not sure if I'm ready for this tournament coming up yet," I say to my Dad who just smiles nodding his head. 

"I believe in you, I know you are going places. Plus I have a few things I want to give you, but first I want to battle to see how far you've come myself. So after Lance's battle, want to battle?" Dad says to me and I can see that he was been waiting for this day to come ever since I first left for my journey. 

"We're ready when you are," I say to him giving him the same look, as I've been waiting to battle my Dad ever since I left too. 

I was going to wait to fight my Dad last, but since I that Giovani is the secret leader of Team Rocket. I wanted to wait for him last since I was curious how strong he was when not holding back as he would be my last gym and a part of me wanted to follow the games from my youth keeping him for last. 

"Good, then I'll send the word out. As everyone from the town will want to see our fight," Dad says to me patting my shoulder with excitement showing on his face now. 

"Dad, you already met my friends, Lance and Brock. But I figured I should reintroduce them if you didn't," I say so the two can join the conversation now. 

"Nice to meet you officially sir," Lance says shaking my Dad's hand and acting politely like he was raised to be in his family. 

"Thanks for the tips again," Brock says shaking my Dad's hand next. 

"So, Lance you think you can beat me yet?" I say to Lance smirking at him and poking fun at him. Lance, Brock, and my Dad chuckle hearing me. 

"Maybe, though after my gym battle, we could test it again," Lance says to me, while I think about it. 

"No, we should wait for the tournament as that way we can go all out and show the world just how strong we've become ever since starting our journey," I say to Lance who nods his head. 

Over the next hour, we all talked and caught up, then it was time for Lance and my Dad to have their battle. Brock and I took a spot in the stands with our Pokémon sitting in the back behind the arena watching, as they couldn't be in the stands with us. Just as the battle was getting ready to start, the stands filled up very quickly and we could see several million people tuned in on the live stream to watch the battle. 

The arena is a completely barren and open field with only a few large rocks littering the ground. While the outskirts are surrounded by a moat of lava, the whole arena looks like the ground inside a volcano. This type of arena helps Fire-type Pokémon the most for obvious reasons, while also weakening water types, due to the extreme temperatures. 

"Please send out your first Pokémon," the referee says once the time hits for the battle to officially start. 

My Dad sends out Torkoal who yawns right after appearing looking like his normal lazy self. While Lance sends out his Charmeleon who roars upon entering the area and gives a glare at the disinterested-looking Torkoal. Seems Charmeleon is offended that Torkoal does not care about this battle or underestimates Charmeleon. 

"Being!" the referee says seeing everyone ready. 

"Torkoal become a tank!" Dad says as Torkoal uses Iron Defense and Amnesia back to back. This makes Torkoal who is already very tanky even more tanky, next to impossible to hurt. 

"Charmeleon, strength yourself!" Lance says at the same time as my Dad. Charmeleon then does two very specific dances, the two moves appear to be Dragon and Sword Dance. 

'This should be more interesting now, as the two have buffed themselves to extreme levels but in different areas,' I think seeing the two basically counter the other's buffs with their own. 

"Torkoal, take away his buffs!" Dad says as Torkoal begins charging up a dark purple energy in his mouth. 

"Charmeleon, dodge and use Dragon Breath!" Lance says as Charmeleon stares down Torkoal waiting for him to finish his move while charging up his own move. 

Torkoal then rushes Charmeleon, but almost every other Pokémon can outrun Torkoal. So Charmeleon side jumps and rushes around to the back of Torkoal, however, Torkoal is used to this happening. Torkoal has become extremely flexible over the years, almost like an owl, Torkoal turns his head 180° and releases his Clear Smog at Charmeleon. 

Charmeleon was not expecting Torkoal to be so flexible so was hit by the very acidic fog that burned his skin. Charmeleon cried out as the pain hit him, but pushed through and released his Dragon Breath onto Torkoal. Torkoal, however, looked unbothered as the wave of blue fire washed over him. Another thing Torkoal can do most people don't expect is to use Withdraw at a moment's notice, tanking almost any hit without taking any damage. 

Charmeleon then backed away after releasing his Dragon Breath and noticed Torkoal was completely fine with only a small scorch mark on his shell. While Chameleon's buffs were completely wiped and took some damage, Torkoal remained completely fine. Lance looked surprised seeing this but quickly steeled his emotions going back to being serious. 

"Torkoal, smash it!" Dad says taking the moment of lapse from Lance's surprise to his advantage. 

Torkoal then quickly gathers an invisible energy, which I can see as Psychic energy around his head. Then he headbutts Charmeleon who uses his arms to block the hit but still cries in pain as his one arm is now broken. Lance looks annoyed at himself for letting his surprise give Torkoal a chance to land a free hit. 

"Charmeleon, break that shell!" Lance says and Charmeleon gatherers fighting type energy in his one good arm. 

"Endure it Torkoal!" Dad says and Torkoal gathers normal type energy. 

The two Pokémon finish at the same time, with Torkoal using Protect which forms an invisible barrier though I can see it. Charmeleon then strikes down on the invisible barrier around Torkoal with a loud bang the attack strikes the barrier. Charmeleon then jumps back a few feet away from Torkoal not letting him near now. 

The two Pokémon stare down one another awaiting their next commands, while Lance looks agitated that Torkoal is completely fine, but Charmeleon is decently damaged now. My Dad looks completely calm, as he has decades of experience in fighting and shows no emotions on his ace to not give away his thoughts.