Chapter 4: Of Battles and Boulders
The Sugureta, what a strange concept. To think that once, a long time ago, people had powers just like Pokemon. And that one guy…Daio I think his name was…I wish I could fly like that.
An obnoxiously loud female voice rang out from within the torrent of thoughts like an over-sized brass bell, “Maverick! Pay attention!”
The aforementioned trainer shook his head and looked straight ahead, only to see a small boy clad in green from head to toe standing approximately one hundred feet away from him with a smirk on his face. In between the two trainers there was a small yellow creature rolled up into a ball, a trail of dust leading from the left side of its body to a small indent in one of the many boulders that littered the dirt covered stadium. He then noticed a cloud of dust hovering around another, as though something had recently smashed it. Once the dust settled, Maverick saw an upturned, red and white crab lying in a pile of rubble where the boulder had once stood.
The small boy, whose name Maverick now remembered as ‘Liam’, looked at him from across the battlefield and boastfully remarked on his recent victory. “You got lucky with Diglett, but there’s no way that you can beat Sandshrew here. Send out your next Pokemon!”
It was then that Maverick remembered what had happened since he had left the museum with Raven and Ivy. They had gone to the local gym and had found only a trio of small boys who called themselves ‘The Triplets’ despite the fact that they looked nothing alike. The three of them then explained that in order to face the leader of the gym, Brock, the trio of rookie trainers would have to defeat them first. Ivy and Raven had already defeated the first two, even though they were harder than they appeared, and he was next in line for battle. He had, like his opponent said, gotten lucky in the first battle, his Krabby had simply avoided Liam’s Diglett until the ground Pokemon was too exhausted to fight anymore.
“Krabby return,” Maverick removed a red and white Pokeball from his belt and pointed it towards the small crab Pokemon. A beam of red light shot out from the button on the front of the ball and absorbed Krabby into the Pokeball. Maverick then took the other Pokeball off and tossed it into the arena.
“Let’s see what you can do Magby,” the ball hit the ground and exploded in a flash of white light to reveal the small magma Pokemon jogging in place and looking
very excited. Magby cried out in anticipation and pointed a small clawed finger towards the mouse Pokemon.
<It's gon' Rain!>
Liam then called out to his Sandshrew, “Alright, let’s start things off with another Rollout!” The mouse Pokemon rolled back into a ball and began to roll towards Magby, slowly gaining momentum as it went along.
Without even a command from Maverick, Magby jumped to the left, narrowly avoiding the yellow blur that was Sandshrew. Maverick pumped his fist in celebration and yelled out words of encouragement to his partner.
“Good job buddy! Now jump onto one of those boulders over there.” Magby nodded towards Maverick and leaped onto the nearest boulder.
Meanwhile, Raven turned to Ivy on the sidelines and nodded his head towards Maverick, “Here we go again; this battle’s over. I’ve seen that look before and this is just like those classes we took.” His mind then began to wander to memories of their first day of school the past year…
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They had just arrived for their final year in the voluntary Pokemon Trainer’s school and the three friends all headed towards their first class: Pokemon Battling. This was a special class that only students in their final year could take and it was always something to look forward to.
When they entered the classroom, the first thing that Raven had noticed was the monolithic machine that sat in the center. It took up about half the classroom and was covered in wires and flashing buttons which Raven was sure that he could never figure out even with his rather high I.Q. On either side of the machine were two Plexiglas-covered pods, one red and one blue, with silver helmets at the top of each and leather backrests. The most noticeable part of the machine was the four large LCD screens that wrapped around the top and faced all sides of the classroom. The rest of the room was covered with small desks and chairs, as well as the teacher’s desk at the head of the classroom in front of the blackboard.
Raven, Ivy, and Maverick took their seats and began to take out their books, all the while staring at the large machine. The bell rang to signify the beginning of class and any kids that were standing returned to their chairs and began to talk to their neighbors. Most conversations, including the one that was going on between Raven and Maverick, were about their teacher, or lack there of.
“Where do you think this guy is Raven?” Maverick inquired.
Raven replied hastily, “I don’t know, but supposedly he’s new so maybe he’s lost or somethin’.”
Right on cue, the door burst open and a very distressed-looking man hurried through the door and right to his desk where he dropped a ridiculous amount of papers and books which had, until then, covered his face. Once the documents were gone, he turned towards the class and Raven laid eyes on his new teacher for the first time.
He was a man in his early-to-mid twenties with relatively tanned skin, dressed in what seemed to be street clothes covered by a long, white lab coat. He wore a loose-fitting black shirt baring a light purple ‘X’ that ran from both of his shoulders down towards his hips. Over his legs he wore a pair of worn, blue jeans that also looked very loose. In fact, if it weren’t for the brown belt he wore, they probably would fall down over his white skate shoes. Because of the loose-fitting clothes, it was impossible to see what kind of shape he was really in, but he seemed relatively well built.
Their new teacher let loose a few pants, straightened up, rubbed the sweat from his brow, and began to speak in an upbeat voice that seemed fitting for someone Raven and Maverick’s age, not a professor.
“Hello students my name is Professor Spencer Sayoria but you can call me Professor Spence. I am here to teach you the art that is Pokemon battling. I am a pretty accomplished trainer myself; I have competed in both the Indigo League and the Sinnoh League. So I will try and pass on to you my special tips and tricks on Pokemon battling. Now, before we begin, are there any questions?”
Raven continued to study ‘Professor Spence’ as he began answering the questions of the rest of the class. He noticed that the Professor had rather long sandy-blonde hair which he wore in an almost ‘messy’ manner. He also sported a pair of metal-rimmed glasses that sat squarely on the bridge of his nose. The rest of his face sported rather proud features that seemed to glow in the fluorescent lighting of the classroom as well as sky blue eyes that sparkled.
“Excuse me Professor, what’s this machine for?” A small girl in the back of the class piped up and pointed towards the mammoth device.
“This, my dear, is a virtual simulator. This is how we will be battling in class,” the professor walked over to the ‘virtual simulator’ and pressed a large red button. There was a few beeping noises and the machine roared to life. The four screens all showed the same menu which read: ‘Welcome to the Pokemon battle simulator Version 6.87 please select your region, battlefield, and number of Pokemon.’ Professor Spence then scrolled through the menu and eventually selected the “rocky area: Kanto,” “one Pokemon,” and “knockout battle” options. The screens then shifted to a scene of an empty, rock-covered wasteland littered by small cracks and boulders. Across the top, bright red letters flashed the words: Please enter virtual reality pods.
The professor stepped forward and spoke out to the class, “Now I’m going to need two volunteers...”
Raven felt a sharp nudge on his left side and turned to see Maverick with his right hand lifted straight up in the air. Raven mirrored his friend’s motion and looked around the room. Literally everyone in the room had their hands in the air and was looking straight at Professor Spencer Sayoria as he looked back at the eager young faces, seemingly contemplating whom he should pick. He then pointed his fingers in the direction of Raven and his best friend Maverick. “You two come here.”
Much to the chagrin of their classmates, the two boys stood and walked up in front of their new teacher and he spoke the duo, “Now I want you two to go into those pods over there and put those helmets on.” The professor pointed at the two chambers and then walked over to what was evidently the control panel.
Maverick and Raven walked to the red and blue pods respectively, settled back in the leather (or at least a material that seemed like leather) interior, and slid the silver helmets onto their heads. Raven looked into the visor that extruded from the top of said helmets and saw the same image which was on the screens which encircled the top of the ridiculously large mechanism. The red words that had lined the top of the screen ever since the terms had been selected by the professor suddenly changed and now read: Prepare for Dive.
Among the whirring of machinery, the Professor’s voice rang out in the same tone he had addressed the class in earlier, “You two are about to participate in a virtual Pokemon battle. The Pokemon will be randomly selected from all of the Pokemon found within Kanto and will both be the same skill level. Their moves will be displayed on the right hand of the screen, but they will also recognize statements other than said moves so be as creative as you want.”
He said this last bit with an anticipatory glint in his eye and began pressing buttons on the control panel. A rather loud noise came from the machine and the Plexiglas doors closed on the potential trainers with a light hiss. The words on the screen began changing again as a pair of Pokemon materialized on the screen:
READY…
SET…
GO!!!
With the final command, the two Pokemon finished materializing and appeared before Raven on his visor alongside a vital readout and the moves for his Pokemon. This Pokemon, he realized, was about three feet in height, if not a bit taller. Its body was yellow and shaped like that of a shrew with a cream underbelly and muzzle. This particular Pokemon was ‘evolved’ which was shown by the several brown spikes jutting out from its back and a rather large pair of claws protruding from its paws. The Pokemon, Raven now remembered, was named Sandslash.
The Pokemon opposite from his looked like a small dinosaur that stood upright almost as high as Raven’s Sandslash. Its body was smooth and dark brown with a light peach underbelly. This peach color ran all the way from the bottom of its chest to the end of its rather short tail, which also sported a pair of small spikes. Its most distinguishing feature, however, was its head which was covered in a large, white skull made from the same hard bone as the club in its hand which resembled a humorous bone broken to a point. Raven looked into its blood red eyes and shivered, this was one of the scariest-looking Pokemon he’d ever had the displeasure of seeing, a Marowak.
Raven, knowing he had to act fast, scanned the list to the right of the screen and yelled out the first attack he saw, “Sandslash, start things off with a Rollout!”
His virtual Pokemon gave a slight nod and curled itself into a spike-covered ball. The shrew Pokemon then proceeded to roll towards Marowak, picking up momentum as it went along. Across the room, Maverick’s lips began moving and he gave his Pokemon a series of orders, none of which could be heard through the apparently soundproof Plexiglas.
Directly afterwards, Sandslash’s attack missed by a mile as the virtual Marowak leapt onto a nearby boulder and cocked its legs, ready to strike. In reaction to its obvious miss the brown and yellow blur turned on a dime and began rolling back towards the bone Pokemon even faster than previously. It was at this moment that, unbeknownst to Raven, a smirk slid across his opponent’s face.
Marowak followed up his previous maneuver by once again leaping in the air, this time even higher than before, and landed on the opposite side of the rolling shrew Pokemon. This time however, Raven noticed that something was missing. Marowak was no longer holding its bone. This realization was followed by his virtual Pokemon spinning violently out of control and smashing forcefully into a boulder, shattering it on contact.
With a gasp, he noticed what had just happened. While it jumped into the air, Maverick’s Marowak had jammed the sharp end of its club into the ground directly in the path of Sandslash. This had caused the shrew Pokemon to hit it and spin wildly out of control. Therefore, not only was Sandslash hurt, but from the vital readings on Raven’s screen, he saw that all of the wild spinning had left it very dizzy and confused.
Sandslash soon emerged from the pile of rubble, looking very dazed and tumbling around quite a bit. Marowak took this opportunity to charge headfirst towards the shrew and head butt it with such force that it crashed through another two boulders with such excessive force that it hurt Raven just to watch it.
When all the dust had settled, Sandslash was laying face-up in the dirt and red words were flashing across the screen:
RED PLAYER WINS!!!
The door to the chamber opened and the silver helmet was automatically lifted off of Raven’s head as he walked slowly back to his desk. The entire class was staring in awe at the screen and Professor Spence was clapping furiously, yelling out comments such as, “Bravo! Magnificent! I haven’t seen battling that good since I retired!!!”
Then Raven’s eyes caught Maverick’s which were glowing with excitement, his brown-haired friend simply shrugged and walked over to the professor who greeted him with a large pat on the back. “It looks like we have one hell of a battler here folks!”
That’s how it had gone for the rest of the year for them. Even though Raven still got the highest grades in the class, Maverick was always the best when it came to battling. He would come up with the most obscure strategies in the middle of battle and would always come out victorious, with Marowak at his side. (Ever since that battle, Professor Spence had allowed them to pick their Pokemon, Maverick always picked Marowak his ‘new favorite Pokemon’).
When asked about his uncanny success, Maverick would always reply with the same answer…
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“It just came to me.”
Maverick he walked towards the other side of the battlefield and stuck his hand out to shake with his much smaller opponent, jumping a boulder or two along the way. His Magby, looking very proud of itself, strode up next to him and leaned up against Maverick’s leg.
“Things like that don’t just come to you!” Liam exclaimed loudly, “How’d you know that that rock would make Sandshrew go out of control like that?!”
“Lucky guess.”
“Fine,” the small trainer, still steamed and not satisfied with the answer he had just received, grabbed Maverick’s hand and shook it ferociously.
“Brock’s through there,” both of the other ‘Triplets’ pointed to a dark passageway directly behind them and went away to go sulk with Liam.
“Alright!” Maverick screamed out with new enthusiasm and returned Magby to his respective Pokeball. He then strutted through the aforementioned passageway, followed closely by his two friends.
Ivy was the next to speak among them, “You know I feel like I’ve seen that battle before but I’m not entirely sure where…”
While she trailed off into a sea of thoughts, Maverick turned towards Raven and gave him a quick wink, which was replied to with a shrug and some muttering. Then, turning to Ivy, Maverick spoke in a tone that bordered on condescending, “I dunno, maybe you’re going crazy.”
Ivy’s face went red with anger and she began chasing Maverick down the passageway screaming, “I’LL KILL YOU!”
Raven simply shook his head and walked silently into the light at the end of the tunnel. This light soon expanded into a humungous stadium that looked quite similar to the one he had just battled on not too long ago, except on a much larger scale. The floor of the battlefield itself was covered in dirt and rocks, and every so often there was a rather large crag that cut across the sea of brown. The boulders in this stadium were much larger than the ones in the earlier one, each was about the size of Raven himself, and he was tall for his age. The most intimidating thing however, was the fact that the arena was surrounded by bleachers, each one absolutely filled to the brim with people screaming and yelling in anticipation of the battle to come.
As soon as this sight reached Ivy, her tantrum suddenly stopped and all of the color drained from her face. “Wow…”
Across the rocky battlefield stood someone who didn’t look that much older than the trio themselves. He had tan skin that contrasted almost perfectly with his spiky, dark brown hair that looked almost like the spikes on the back of a Sandslash. The young adult was wearing a forest-green shirt that was covered by a brown over shirt with an orange collar and rolled up sleeves. He also wore light brown cargo pants that fell right above a pair of brown hiking boots.
The youth looked across the battlefield with a pair of eyes that appeared to be permanently squinting and stared directly at the trio of trainers. He then spoke in a booming voice not fitting for someone his age.
“I’m Brock, welcome to my gym,” this statement was met with a roar from the crowd of people waiting for the battle to begin.
He pointed towards a machine that resembled the healing machines used in the Pokemon Center, “You may use that machine to heal your Pokemon, the first battle will begin directly after that. Each battle will be two-on-two and we will continue until one of us can no longer fight. While you prepare, decide who among you will go first. When you are ready, talk to the official.”
Raven gathered his friends, who, due to Ivy’s earlier rampage, were on opposite sides of him, and headed towards the healing machine. Once they were there, Raven took all five of their Pokeballs and placed them in five of the six slots in the machine. He then pressed a large green button on the left side of it and turned to his friends as the machine started beeping and whirring.
“So who’s going first?”
Almost immediately after Raven had asked, Maverick exclaimed, quite loudly, that he was: “Ready and rarin’ to go beat this spiky haired punk.”
This comment was met instantaneously with a smoothie from the crowd hitting him in the back of the head. This, in turn, was met by a
certain finger on Maverick’s right hand and a string of
certain four-lettered words.
After his Pokemon were finally healed and his dispute with a six-year-old (who had a rather large father) was over, Maverick walked onto the monolithic battlefield amongst a torrent of cheers and boos echoing from the crowd of hundreds. He quickly scanned the battlefield for things that he may use to his advantage, and then turned to the gym leader with a large smirk across his face.
Brock spoke authoritatively, “You’re first?”
Maverick gave a slight nod, unclipped a Pokeball from his belt, and tossed it onto the rocky battlefield, “Let’s see how you deal with Magby!”
The small magma Pokemon appeared in the normal flash of white light and pointed towards Brock, <Eat my shorts!>
Brock, wondering whether or not Magby wears shorts, let out a chuckle and tossed his own Pokeball onto the field. “Your fire Pokemon will be easy pickings for Geodude!”
Brock’s own Pokemon appeared in a similar flash of light and began floating a foot or two off of the ground.
Maverick simply stood there with a blank stare on his face for several moments, until… “It’s a rock…with arms…”
This description was actually true, if not a bit crude. His opponent was a floating rock Pokemon that was about one foot in diameter and appeared to be just another boulder with a face. The feature that most distinguished this Pokemon from the boulders, however, was definitely the arms that stuck out from either side of its body. These arms were both about the same length as Maverick’s own and were, just like the rest of its body, made of a russet-colored rock.
“You really shouldn’t judge simply on appearances…Geodude use rock throw!”
The rock Pokemon suddenly began picking up a variety of baseball-sized rocks and started hurling them towards Magby forcefully. None hit there mark however, as, due to Maverick’s instructions, the smaller Pokemon hid behind one of the many boulders that littered the field.
While the rocks pounded the much larger boulder, Maverick looked around at his options.
Magby’s at the disadvantage here so I’ll just have to be creative…No problem whatsoever.
Maverick toned down his voice so only his Pokemon could hear him, “I want you to grab a rock and throw it up to distract him, and I’ll lead you from there.”
<You got it boss.>
Doing as he was told, Magby grabbed one of the rocks that Geodude had overthrown and tossed it high up in the air. This projectile diverted the rock Pokemon’s attention for only a moment… and that’s all the time that was needed.
“Now jump out from behind the boulder and hit ‘em in the eyes with an Ember attack!”
The small magma Pokemon leapt out from its hiding place and, within that moment of confusion, fired a barrage of orange, flaming pellets directly at Geodude’s body/head. By the time that Geodude or its trainer knew what was coming; Magby’s attack had hit the rock Pokemon squarely in the face, peppering its mouth and eyes with fire. Although it didn’t hurt Geodude’s body that much, the Ember attack had done quite some damage to its eyes.
<Graaaahhhh…> the first thing that Geodude had said the entire battle was a scream of agony.
Brock looked absolutely terrified, “Hey! That’s no way to fight!”
Maverick replied sharply with a malicious glint in his eye, “Whatever helps me win buddy! Magby, follow that up with a big Smog attack!”
<Al…Alright…> albeit hesitantly, Magby let loose a thick, musky smog that had a green and purple tinge to it. This haze encircled the entire other side of the battlefield and left Magby and Maverick’s side clear. The only thing that could be heard was the endless coughing and wheezing of their opponent.
When the smog cleared, Geodude had one hand over its overly-burned eyes and one over its mouth, from which it was profusely coughing. Brock ran out as fast as he could to his injured Pokemon and cradled it in his arms, “Don’t worry…I got you now.”
Then, turning his head up towards his opponent, the Gym Leader spoke, “I can’t fight anymore, so I will have to for…”
“I forfeit.”
Those were the only two words Maverick said before rushing out of the stadium to a chorus of boos and jeers. As he ran past his two friends he tossed them Krabby’s Pokeball and darted out of the room. It was then that Raven saw something that he had never seen from Maverick before…tears.
Ivy turned towards the crowd and spoke for the first time since entering the enormous room, “We’ll be right back…I’m really sorry…” She grabbed Magby from the battlefield and ran out of the building, along with Raven, to chase after their distraught friend.
