Well, I'm glad I could be of help! I'll read your new chapter tonight and leave a review. I was actually inspired by another fic (much better than this one) called Lull by an author named Breezy. Although the dream in that story was a bit more-shall we say-"intense" than mine. Anyway, I've been writing it for three days now, but here it is:
Chapter Seven: Money, Meatloaf, and Other Useless Inventions
“Wake up, Christy! We’ve got work to do.” Jake was sitting at the table with Stinger and Tails next to him.
Looking out the window, and then at the clock, Christy began fuming with anger. “ARE YOU KIDDING ME? IT’S FOUR THIRTY IN THE F***ING MORNING! WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND GETS UP AT FOUR THIRTY?”
“Someone who wants to be the first to sign up for a battle at the Striaton City Gym.” Jake grabbed his bag and walked towards the door.
“Don’t I get a say in this? We haven’t even had breakfast yet!” Christy yelled.
“We don’t have to. The Striaton City Gym doubles as a restaurant. We’ll eat there.” Jake reached for the doorknob, but was stopped again.
“Have you forgotten that we don’t have any money? How are we supposed to buy food?” Christy had calmed down a bit, but was still angry.
“That’s what I’m trying to fix. The prize money for winning the gym battle is five hundred dollars each. We’d have plenty of money if we spent it well,” Jake explained.
“Well what are we going to eat now? Even if we win, we can’t use the money before we get it.” There was no way Christy was going to go without breakfast.
“We’ll just eat the free mints at the counter.”
“Won’t that get us kicked out?” Christy asked.
“Probably. If we need to, we can always have George cook up some berries on the way.” With that, Jake walked out the door with Christy behind him.
“You know, that whole discussion about breakfast sounded like something a lazy author would throw into a bad fan-fiction just to take up space,” Christy pointed out.
Thinking for a moment, Jake replied thoughtfully. “Wow. You’re right.”
Quiet enough so that only those who were listening could hear, an evil chuckle came down from the sky and spread across the city.
***
The automatic doors to the gym opened up to reveal the lobby of a generic restaurant with a red curtain with a flame pattern on the back. Jake and Christy walked up to the desk in the front of the gym.
“Welcome to the Striaton gym and café. Would you like to be seated?” The woman at the desk smiled in that way that waiters and waitresses do that says ‘I’m required to smile at you, but I really just want to go home. Why the hell didn’t I go to college?’
“No thank you. We’re here to sign up for the gym battle.” Christy smiled back in that way that says ‘I see right through your fake smile, but your poor decision making skills aren’t my problem.’
“In that case, you’re going to need another partner. The gym is a triple battle where each challenger is allowed to use two pokémon.”
Just as the waitress finished talking, a boy of about the same age as Christy and Jake walked into the restaurant. He had spikey blonde hair and wore a gray *** shirt. “I’m here to sign up for the gym battle.” It was then that he fist seemed to notice Christy and Jake. “Do you two need a partner?”
Annoyed with the new kid’s ostentatious attitude, Jake was about to respond that they would find someone else, when Christy responded first. “Yeah, thanks! We just signed up.”
Seeing that Jake stopped when Christy accepted his offer, the kid laughed. “Do you let your girlfriend make all your decisions for you?”
“She’s not my girlfriend!” Jake was really getting pissed off at this point.
“Well is she available then? My name’s Leo, by the way.” Leo winked at Christy.
“No! Well, yes, but-”
“Don’t I get a say in this?” Christy said, amused at the boys at each other’s throats.
“NO!” both boys yelled in unison.
The waitress that everyone had seemed to have forgotten about spoke up. “Your gym battle’s ready now. You just have to solve a little puzzle to get to the back of the gym. Step on the symbol on the floor that’s super effective towards the one on the curtain. And don’t bother trying to walk through. The door behind the curtain won’t open until the puzzle is solved.”
Jake rolled his eyes as he stepped on the water symbol, and walked through the door. A waiter was waiting for him as the others followed through the door.
“Hello children! Would you like to try our meatloaf?” the waiter asked them.
“No thanks.” Christy walked towards the leaf symbol on the floor, as the next curtain had a water droplet on it.
“Are you sure? The meatloaf is really quite good.”
“We really don’t need any meatloaf.” It was Leo who spoke this time.
“This meatloaf is truly the best in Striaton-no, Unova-no, the entire world!”
“WE DON’T WANT YOUR MEATLOAF!” the trio yelled in unison. Christy stepped on the leaf symbol, and the door opened.
As they walked into the next room, a waitress approached them. “Have you tried the meatloaf?”
Before the waitress could ask again, Leo jumped on the fire symbol and the group ran through the door. They finally reached the final room, and saw the gym leaders Cress, Cilan, and Chili, whom they recognized from TV.
“Good morning, trainers,” Cress said.
“Are you here for a battle?” Cilan asked.
“Have you tried the meatloaf?” Chili had to duck as a conveniently placed brick flew at his head. “A simple ‘I don’t like it’ would have been fine.”
“We’re ready for our gym battle.” Leo’s impatience really got under Jake’s skin.
“Then let us begin! Go, panpour!” A blue and yellow monkey appeared in front of Cress.
“Pansage! Let’s do this!” Another monkey, this one green, came out of Cilan’s pokéball.
“Come on out, pansear!” Chile yelled as a pokémon looking just like George appeared on the scene.
“I choose you, Stinger!” Jake decided to keep Tails as a reserve. Stinger squealed in terror when she saw the opposing team. She jumped onto Jake’s face and clung on for dear life. “Come-on-Stinger! You-can-do-it!” Jake encouraged his pokémon, prying her off of his head.
“Go! Leaf!” The snivy came out of her pokéball and smirked silently at her enemies.
“Come on out, Leroy!” Leo threw a pokéball at the ground, and a larvitar popped out.
“Leroy?” Jake chuckled.
“Shut up! I was five when I named him.”
“I was four when I named Tails. At least I came up with something better than Leroy.”
“Both of you shut up! We’re not battling each other! Leaf, use vine whip on the panpour!”
“Stinger! Poison sting on pansage!”
“Leroy, use rock slide on the pansear!”
“Panpour, use water gun on the gligar!”
“Pansage, vine whip on larvitar!”
“Pansear, let’s see an incinerate, and center it on that snivy!”
Leaf was the first to move, hurling her vines at the panpour and squeezing. As she was doing this however, flames burst from the ground at her feet, and at the pokémon around her. While Leroy and Stinger were able to get out of the way on time, the attack hit Leaf head on. She screamed and let go of the panpour, freeing it to use water gun on Stinger.
“Quick! Stinger! Use steel wing to block the water, and the hit pansage with that poison sting!” The flying scorpion’s wing glowed silver as it covered her body. The water gun bounced off harmlessly as she flew towards the pansage.
“I’m sorry about this! Please don’t be mad!” Stinger jabbed her tail into the monkey’s forehead.
“AHHH! GET IT OFF OF ME! OWOWOWOW!” The pansage tried to shake her off, but she held on and kept injecting poison.
Tearing himself away from the spectacle, Leroy focused on the ceiling, and portals appeared, boulders falling out of them and onto the pansear. It took massive damage and began to look tired.
“Panpour, use lick on the snivy! Finish it off!”
“Leaf! Try using tackle before it can reach you!”
The panpour stuck out its tongue, which grew to enormous size. Leaf tackled it and it flew backwards. “This is disgusting.” Leaf gagged as she was covered in the monkey’s saliva.
As this was going on, Stinger was still stinging the screaming grass monkey’s face. “GET THIS THING OFF OF ME! OH MY GOD! Night, night, Mommy…” The pansage fell flat on the floor, knocked out cold.
“Pansage, return! Go, leafeon!” A green, fox-like pokémon emerged from Cilan’s pokéball.
“Panpour! Try water gun on the gligar again!” Before Stinger could make any attempt to avoid the blast, a spray of high pressured water hit her, knocking her out with a super effective attack.
“Stinger, return!” Jake pulled out the pokéball that had returned to his hand somehow, and a red beam of light shot out and Stinger disappeared back into it. “Go, Tails!”
“Let’s do this!” Tails exclaimed loudly as he appeared from his pokéball.
“Leaf, use vine whip on the panpour again!”
“Leroy, try rock tomb on pansear!”
“Tails, let’s get a leer in here!”
As the first to move, Tails’ eyes glowed red as he stared evilly at the opposing pokémon. “Scared of a little treecko, huh?” Tails continued to stare down the other team. While they were distracted, Leaf and Leroy used their attacks. Leaf’s vines gripped the panpour, and more portals appeared over pansear. Boulders encased the monkey, and its head was all that was still showing. It was clearly unconscious from the attack. Leroy winked at Leaf, who rolled her eyes and removed one vine from panpour to slap him.
“Pansear, return! Go, flareon! Use ember on the snivy!”
“Panpour, try to break free using scald!”
“Leafeon, use razor leaf on the larvitar!”
Boiling water began shooting out of the mouth of the water monkey, causing Leaf to recoil in pain as it burned her vines.
As flareon shot a ball of fire at Leaf that would most likely knock her out, Christy’s eyes lit up as she had an idea. “Use toxic on the ember attack!”
Jake caught on to Christy’s plan and shouted out to Tails. “Use energy ball to push the attacks back, but at leafeon this time!” The pokémon both nodded, and two balls of energy appeared in front of Tails and shot forward to both hit leafeon, exploding as they came into contact. The grass fox fainted instantly from the explosion.
“Take that! Who’s awesome? We’re awesome. Suck on that!”
“Tails,” Leaf said.
“Yeah?”
“Shut up.”
“Okay.” Tails looked disappointed.
“Panpour! Use water gun on larvitar!” Cress looked scared that they were losing, as did Chile, and Cilan simply pouted in the corner as he was out of pokémon.
“Leaf! Use tackle to stop it!” The snivy hurled itself at the monkey, but it was too late to stop the attack. The stream of water hit the dinosaur-like pokémon, causing it to faint from the super effective attack with a power boost from torrent. Panpour fainted as well.
“Leroy, come back! Come on out Philly!” A ponyta appeared from the ball.
“Philly? You haven’t gotten much better at nicknaming either.” Jake smirked at Leo.
“You can shut up! I don’t-”
“Can you two quit bickering for long enough to finish a battle?” Christy seemed genuinely annoyed at this point.
“Panpour, come back! Let’s win this, Vaporeon! Use water gun on the ponyta!”
“Philly, charge through it with flame wheel!” The fiery mane of the ponyta flared up and covered the horse’s body. As she ran through the blast of water, it evaporated before it even touched her. “Now try stomp on the flareon!”
“Leaf, use tackle on it!”
“Tails! Bullet seed on vaporeon!”
The combined attacks hit the flareon, and it was weakened drastically. Seeds shot out of Tails’ mouth and hit the water fox at supersonic speed.
“Flareon! Use ember again to stop that treecko!”
“Philly! Jump in front of him!” The fire horse leaped into the path of the fireball, but instead of hurting the pokémon, it seemed to make her stronger.
“That’s Philly’s flash fire ability,” Leo bragged. “Fire attacks actually heal her.”
“We know how abilities work.”
“Do you know how magnets work?” Leo grinned.
“Sure, they boost electrical- Oh dammit!” Jake cursed.
“Vaporeon, Use ice beam on the snivy!”
“Flareon, use bite on the treecko!”
“Leaf, try to dodge, and use leer!”
“You too Tails!”
“Philly, use tail whip!”
Jumping out of the way of the beam of ice, Leaf’s eyes glowed red and she stared maliciously at flareon and vaporeon, while Philly whipped her flaming tail around in a threatening manner. The eeveelutions looked intimidated and let down their defenses in their panic. The fire fox ran forward and clamped its jaws onto Tails’ leg.
“GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF, GET IT OFF!” Tails cried as he shook his leg. “OH MY GOD THIS HURTS!”
“Get rid of it by using quick attack on vaporeon!” Jake yelled to his treecko.
“OWOWOWOWOWOWOW!” screamed Tails as he ran at astonishing speed towards the vaporeon. As he crashed into it, both it and the flareon biting his leg flew at the wall. Both foxes fainted as they fell to the ground.
“Well, you won.” Cress smiled at the trio.
“Here are your badges and prize money,” Cilan said, handing each of them a small pendant and a wad of cash.
“Yes! We won! We did it!” Christy ran up to Jake and hugged him. “Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t-”
“That’s okay. It’s-”
“Hey. Christy, isn’t it? Do you want to ditch this loser and come with me? You’re too cute to be with a moron like that.” Leo winked at Christy. He winced as she slapped him as hard as she could.
“Go to hell, Leo,” she said cheerfully. “You’re a smug little *** who thinks he can get anything he wants just by asking. Jake’s my friend, and I’m not going to leave him for a jerk like you.”
“Ouch,” said Leo, smiling as he walked out the door. “You’ll come around.”
“So I’m your friend now?” Jake chuckled as he and Christy walked out.
“Don’t get used to it, psyduck boy. That kid just needed his ego readjusted.” Christy looked surprised that Jake didn’t seem to be annoyed at his old nickname.
“Whatever you say, stupid.” Jake ducked the mallet heading his way and was hit by the second again. “You’re gonna give me a concussion one of these days.”
“One can only hope.”
And there it is! The longest chapter so far! And in the next post is the special chapter about Stinger!