In the morning of the next day, I walked to the Burning Tower as requested by Gym Leader Morty, and it was easy to see the halved tower in the distance. The Brass and Bell towers were made to be seen from anywhere inside Ecruteak, and even after the city expanded, and even after the Brass Tower burned to half its original length one hundred and fifty years ago, they were still visible in the skyline.
The ghost type trainer stood outside the Burned Tower where Lugia once perched after long journeys. He was the exact same as in the videos, blond hair, purple scarf and headband, black shirt and white pants. His face was the perfect example of someone who might surf everyday, but the pale complexion made you doubt he’d ever left his house.
“Trainer Scott Wood, welcome to Ecruteak City.”
“Thank you, Gym Leader Morty,” I answered. “Can I ask why’d you call me here?”
He sighed deeply as he analyzed the Burned Tower, “You’ve made a mistake, Scott Wood.”
“Really?” I asked calmly. “What is that mistake?”
“It’s simple, you’ve come here too soon.” He turned away from the tower and looked in my direction. “You should’ve come here at your fifth challenge, then I could teach you something more unique since, as your fourth badge match, my hands are tied. It will be a worse match than your fight against Trainer George.”
“I see,” I said, not seeing at all. “You can still teach me, and if not with a match, maybe something else.”
“No I can’t.” He shook his head, “The league doesn’t like when we push so much above the expected, and if I can’t teach you that then there’s no need for us to fight. You still need to be tested however, so I was thinking of giving you a challenge as a test.”
I hummed, “Can’t I just have my match though?”
“Of course you can, it’s your right,” he said. “However, do you think I would send a great prospective trainer for the League or Region, a Professor Oak sponsored and the winner of a great tournament, on a quest if it wouldn’t be for his own benefit? To learn something that actually will matter in your career?” He sighed theatrically. “If you want to fight another boring match for the badge like the one against Falkner, however, who am I to stop you?”
“Is it going to take time?” I asked, mulling over the matter.
“Three days if you’re quick,” he said, shrugging. “Follow the road north from the Pokemon Center you’re staying at, it will lead you outside the city. The concrete will vanish at some point but the path will still be there. One of my ghosts will guide you to your teacher when you get near where you need to leave the road.”
“What will I need to do to pass?”
“Just follow the lead of your teacher, who will be a pokemon. You’ll need to use your entire team to complete his challenge. Do you accept this arrangement?”
I crossed my arms as I thought about it. If Gym Leader Morty thought that it would be better for me to do this instead of a match? It might be a good idea, I did agree with him that Falkner’s match was boring. After thinking about it for another minute I decided, “I do.”
“Great, I will be waiting for the good news,” he said, and then turned around and walked towards the center of the city, towards the Gym I wouldn’t fight in. “After you travel through here again, be it from the west or east, come by my Gym, so we’ll have a match for real.” And then he left.
I took one last look at the Burned Tower and walked back towards the Pokemon Center.
-
“He wants you to what?!” Dendra shouted in the middle of the Pokemon Center’s cafeteria. Jess shushed her, making the fighting trainer flush and let out a murmur, “Sorry.”
After I explained once again Aiden commented, “That’s… strange.”
“It’s not that strange, Scott can easily win against Morty if he’s being held back by the League,” Jess said as she leaned on the table on her elbows. “He’s just making sure you’re being challenged appropriately, as is expected of an Official.”
Aiden shrugged and looked at me, “Are you going alone?”
“Yes, Morty said that ‘if I was quick I should be done in three days’.”
“Enough time for us to have our battles,” Aiden concluded.
“That’s one thing I noticed,” Jess said. “Is Ecruteak always this empty?”
“It's a retirement city,” I said, “But usually the movement picks up in the last months of the circuit.”
“Well,” Dendra said as she stretched out.” I have a battle tomorrow so I’m going to get some last minute training done. Good luck, Scott.”
“Thanks,” I said, as Dendra left.
I spent the rest of the morning putting away the things I’d already taken out in our Pokemon Center room, and then explaining what we’ll be doing to the team. They understood the “quest” and didn’t have strong opinions anyway, just nods and shrugs. I guess saying that they’re too strong for a normal match helped ease them into it. Sometimes it pays to put a good spin on something.
We had lunch with the others and left the Pokemon Center. I walked through the east to the north with Cape, following the surprisingly straight road that seemed to cut the city diagonally. We left Ecruteak soon after and just as the Gym Leader had said, the road turned into a barely used track.
After a small pause, Cape went into his pokeball to rest and I walked the rest of the way with a Minccino and a Baltoy.
Suddenly, Mesa spun to the side and glared at the tall grass. I tensed, but then relaxed almost immediately as I saw a Phantump floating from the inside of a tree with big eyes on its face and a smile, it must be the pokemon from Monty. Phantump are misunderstood pokemon, adorable individuals who are also very affectionate, as shown when this little one floated closer to Mesa and latched on his torso like a belt. The confused Baltoy looked up at me, and I smiled reassuringly at him.
A smile that froze as an eye appeared on the tree that Phantump just left. The tree’s eye rotated around as it took in all that was happening and curved into a smiling eye. Arms made of bark left its torso and its roots left the earth. By the time the Trevenant had completed its transformation, the Phantump was back near him, happily floating around its body.
“Huh...”
The giant tree didn’t even let me start. The grass and ghost pokemon turned around and started to navigate deep into the forest. I exchanged a look with Valley and did my best to follow it, but with the help from her and Mesa it was easy to not lose the ghost tree in a sea of other trees.
We walked through the forest for at least half an hour. The wild pokemon of the forest–Rattata, Spearow and Mankey–sometimes glanced at us, but then completely dismissed us and the Trevenant. The grass type stopped when the forest ended and a clearing started. This open space had a wide area that ended against a giant elevation of rocks. And it was clear for anyone with half an eye that the place had been scorched again and again, molten rocks, ashes and burned bark littered the place.
I stopped, waiting for the Trevenant to do something, but the pokemon just turned and walked away, the Phantump latched on its shoulder waved goodbye at us with its black spectral hand. Valley weakly waved back.
Looking around from the forest, I released the rest of my team and together we entered the clearing, Cape taking the lead. The shadow from the stone wall was almost upon us when a powerful fireball flashed towards Cape from the treeline on the other side, faster than most other projectiles we’ve encountered before. Cape was still able to lean to the side and let the attack pass him.
Something flicked out of the grass there and dashed through the air above us to land on top of the wall. The feathered form of a Blaziken stood crouched there, sneering loudly as it checked my team with quick eyes. I could understand why; it fucked most of my team up by his lonesome. Its fire type made it effective against bug, ice and grass types while its fighting type dealt with normal type and indirectly, with Mesa’s rock moves.
It wasn’t hopeless, flying, ground and psychic could work against him, but just by looking at the pokemon I could assume it was very powerful compared to other Blaziken, taller than average by a lot and with muscles twice as big, reminding me of Brian’s Cacturne, an individual so powerful it didn’t even resemble the average specimen of its own line. I knew from one glance that it would have no problem handling Cape.
The pokemon jumped high to land behind us, near the trees. We were against the wall, literally. The Blaziken straightened up, looked us over one last time, and ran forward.
Cape grinned and flapped his wings to meet the fire pokemon with a raised glowing fist. The Heracross swung his fist as soon as they reached each other. The bird pokemon, despite its tall height, somehow crouched the attack and punched Cape’s chin upwards, sending the beetle soaring away. Not a second later, the Blaziken pushed forward.
Mountain floated forward and above while crafting his ice chains. The ten restraints descended like snakes, pouncing at the fighting type who punched them all away with a flurry of fists, before jumping below the ice type, and with a somersault, slammed his heel into the ice type. Cryogonal, plates shifting in pain, veered down into the ground while cracks grew where the attack struck.
“It’s coming.” I said. The Blaziken landed and stared at us, “Work together, Mesa, Rock Tomb, Jungle, Vine Whip. Valley use Swift when they trap him.”
Jungle, Mesa and Valley looked at each other and then towards the now incoming fire type. Mesa glowed and the earth began to rise around the path that Blaziken would take. The pokemon jumped above us and landed on the rock wall behind us. He pushed down, falling down at us. Jungle’s vines lashed out, and were repealed by a single leg kick. Valley’s Swift came next and the stars were easily slapped away.
The fire type landed in front of us, knees bent and legs tensing as it prepared to dash forward, just for his arms to cross to the side to guard a punch from a grinning Cape. The bug type stopped grinning when the Blaziken’s long arm reached out and grabbed its horn. A confused grunt left him, and the taller pokemon pulled down and slammed his face into the ground with extreme force, creating a Cape shaped hole on the ground. The diversion taken care of, Blaziken finally jumped forward from his crouched position, but Cape had given enough time for my other four pokemon to organize themselves; ice chains, green vines, sand and grey stars were launched from the pokemon around and above me.
Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.
The chains reached first and were once again battered away with punches, vines cut by flat hands, stars were kicked to the sides, and Blaziken was in the middle of them, leaving the sand behind. Two kicks and two punches launched the four away from the us. Blaziken’s hand reached towards me but quickly turned around on his heels. He grabbed Cape’s overhead double hammer with one hand and his face with another, and brought a knee up in a flash of red and yellow. The fire type struck the bug’s face, sending him right into the wall behind with a ban, fissures ran up the wall when Cape smashed into it.
Blaziken turned around and touched a single finger to my head.
The pokemon that were running back towards me stopped as if touching me stopped time itself. They were suddenly powerless to do anything when the fire type had a single finger on me, and even I felt like moving was the same as dying. After a minute of my heart hammering in my chest as the giant pokemon loomed over, the giant fire type simply walked away, and it was then that I realized that the fire type hadn’t used any moves.
That was his first lesson for us; don’t let your trainer be caught or both of you are dead.
Thus began what later we would later call five days of dread.
It started after the fire type gave us time to set up a small camp and put our things away, and then he motioned for us to begin again, this time we were attacking him. We planned our approach, our plan, what everyone was going to do but it still went as expected. Blaziken easily threw Cape away when he’d attacked first and then punched down Valley and Mountain who tried to help before running at Jungle and Mesa, as they were far away on support, and kicked them.
After that, he told us to train, and we did. We practiced what we could do better next time; attacking at the same time, coordinating a move after the next, and using the Cape as a placeholder for the fast pokemon to enhance our trap techniques and schemes. Occasionally, Blaziken would roam around all of us until he decided to help someone.
He taught Cape about being unpredictable until the last second of a collision, Valley about flanking and blind spots, Mountain about attack patterns, Mesa about guiding the battle, and Jungle about balancing melee and at distance fighting. Before the sun went down, we tried again two times, defending and attacking. We’d lost both times, but we did get a nod which I thought was important.
On the second day we trained in the morning and fought before lunch. The battle plan this time when defending was to zone out the pokemon, only attack him when he commits to some place, and when attacking, aim for his legs. Both plans failed, but Valley did hit the pokemon, which earned her a raised eye.
In the afternoon he taught us his training regime, run until exhaustion, rest, push ups until exhaustion, pull up until exhaustion, rest. The pokemon who couldn’t do those things we had to get clever, Mesa used psychic power to raise boulders, and Mountain pulled his giant rocks with his chains. He also taught me some things about how to run or hide if needed, by hunting me down and pointing out what I could do better and where I could hide.
The team, including me, was exhausted after this training, but Blaziken made us fight anyway. He was also tired, but it wasn’t close to ours. He beat us even worse. We then rested from afternoon to night, and tried again. This time Cape could predict his movements and react, Valley could actually dodge, Mountain knew where the pokemon was targeting, Mesa knew when he’d switch and Jungle could take a punch or kick.
The first thing we did in the morning of the third day was challenge the Blaziken again, confidently this time. It was clearly the wrong state of mind as the fighting type started using fighting moves. Thankfully not directly at the pokemon, but around them, behind them, in front of them, but that’s the thing; he didn’t need to hit. The wind pressure was enough to hit harder than his direct attacks. He also didn’t use his legs, and he destroyed us. We’d prepared to fight against an opponent without the new range that the shockwaves gave him.
We didn’t give up though, we rested, we trained, and the next time they fought I felt like we were approaching Brian and his team. Not in power, nor in technique, nor in precision, but we had something close to teamwork and that alone already made me feel closer to that fight.
Cape defended against a strike while Mountain attacked. Jungle distracted while Mesa hid Valley under rock from where she could strike like a dagger. It didn’t help much at the end, but it was progress.
On the fourth day, Cape landed a clean and perfect hit. Blaziken took a few steps back as the force behind Cape’s Brick Break wasn’t a joke.
Then the bird-like pokemon brought out his fire. Suddenly, Jungle and Mountain couldn't get close. Flamethrower, fireballs, fire lances, fire punches and kicks. The fourth day was the day that the team learned to cover each other's weaknesses through light burns. That night was dedicated to studying how to deal with your own weakness as a team.
The fifth day, Blaziken signaled that we’d fight one last time, one last chance. He stood in the middle of the clearing. His arms were raised in a guard, waiting for us to attack.
“Jungle,” The Ivysaur’s back glowed and dozens upon dozens of razor sharp leaves were launched at the Blazike like a wall.
The fire type opened his arms and legs, exploded into flames and jumped forward, sending himself straight towards us, cutting close to the ground while burning away the leaves closest to him. Cape disappeared while Mesa, Valley and Mountain blasted their own moves towards the pokemon, Psybeam, Thunder Wave, and a giant Ice Shard from three directions.
Blaziken extended a leg and slammed it down into the ground, the strength sent him soaring above us. Cape appeared on his back while Jungle’s glowing vines lashed from below. The bird pokemon twisted in the air, one leg extended backwards to hit Cape’s shoulder and arms down to deflect the vines, but Jungle swirled his limbs with a precision he didn’t have four days ago. His vines grabbed the pokemon's hands and pulled, and even so slightly Cape dodged the kick, dashed forward, and slammed his horn at the pokemon who dropped to the ground.
The collision was coming but we knew how Blaziken operated, and the four pokemon positioned themselves again like a wall. Blaziken’s leg incredibly absorbed all the impact as he crouched. And then he jumped on the one leg, somehow unleashing all the force of the fall. The fire type twisted around his own body across the air, limbs flailing around like a strange martial art. We’d learn not to try to stop him with melee during that.
Cape slammed in front of us, adding himself to the wall. Together with Valley and Jungle, legs glowing green with Trailblaze, they raced forward.
“Mesa, Mountain, Rock Rain.”
Mesa floated up above the team and slammed down on the ground, chunks of compressed rock hurled from the ground to the sky. Cryogonal flew above everyone, molded his twelve ice chains, and grabbed the rocks with them before throwing them down at the flying Blaziken.
The fire type slapped the ground through his flight and dodged the first, then the second, then the third. Blaziken landed down with a hand as the three pokemon were coming closer and looked up at the rest of the dropping rocks. His mouth open, a massive flamethrower engulfed the rest and hid the sky. Cape disappeared and tried to slam down the pokemon, but the Blaziken grabbed his shoulder and horn and threw him to the side. Jungle came just as the Flamethrower was cut and tried to Tackle the fire type, who kicked him away. The giant green form was leaving the ground when Cryogonal and Mountain attacked from nearby with Night Slash and Psybeam. Blaziken reacted with a flaming kick, sending out a flaming slash that cut through both moves and sent the two pokemon swerving away. Cape tried to tackle the pokemon again, Blaziken began to turn when a small grey blur tackled the leg that supported his whole body. The fire type’s eyes widened as he tilted.
The Heracross slammed into the Blaziken. The fire type reacted instantly, recovering his balance and raising his arm to deliver an elbow down, but ice chains grabbed the arm and pulled back. Cape used Brick Break and drove a glowing knee into his torso. Earth rose and grabbed at the pokemon’s legs just as a grey projectile thrown by green vines slammed into the back of Blaziken’s back.
The fire type burst into motion. Cape was struck by a glowing knee but didn’t let go. A long arm extended and his grey clawed hand slapped Valley away. His other hand blurred into three quick jabs that sent fireballs into Mountain, Jungle and Mesa. The three were close to each other so Mesa raised an earth wall, letting the fire splash on it harmlessly.
Its sharp eyes descended to the Heracross glued to his torso. A flaming claw was raised towards the bug type but was pulled back by vines grabbing its elbow before hitting. Jungle had run around the wall and was holding back the arm, but winced when the flames expanded to cover the entire arm and burn off his vines but the grass type didn’t let go and only pulled harder.
Cape’s arm began to glow brightly with enough fighting energy to alarm the Blaziken, but its reaction was interrupted twice, first by Mountain who grabbed his chest and other arm with his chains and pulled them back. Blaziken’s strength was too much though and he adjusted his balance, only for a bruised Valley to slam his head back with her shining body, leaving the pokemon to shut his eyes as if dizzy. Meanwhile sand had stealthily covered the pokemon’s legs and lower torso, pulling him back and down.
Cape let go of the paralyzed and wobbly pokemon, took a few steps back, and raised his arm high before bringing the Brick Break into the shoulder with the blazing arm.
His hand snapped forward, pulling Mountain with it. The chain locked arm glowed with fighting energy as it received the full strength of Cape’s energized Brick Break. That energy traveled through the giant body and into his other arm. Another pull from his other arm and Jungle’s massive body was hauled through the ground. The pokemon punched Cape and Cape instinctively punched back, using the same move that Blaziken was using right now, Counter. A loop was formed between the two punches.
Fighting energy coming and going from place to place, glowing brighter and brighter with every round. Light shined from inside the loop in bursts as if it wanted to escape the cycle without end. The last thing I saw was Heracross and Blaziken looking down, horrified at what they created, before a brown coloured explosion engulfed all six pokemon.
The first wind whipped out all the dust, sand and small pieces of grass and trees towards me, making me close my eyes and crouch down. The following shockwave took me off my feet and I hit the ground with my back, before rolling around to diminish the impact, something I learned to do when I was a problem child.
I took my hands off the back of my head and looked up from the ground after everything ended, after all the product–the wind, the sound and the destruction–of that looping of moves had settled down. I saw all my pokemon on the ground, sprawled across the landscape, fainted, even the crazy bug was down. Blaziken stood above them, body bent, dazed and with his chest pounding hard. His eyes at first looked as sharp as always, but there was something new. The small widening of surprise, and a little? spark that I recognized as respect.
-
After we rested enough, I saw that the fight had created a crater in Blaziken’s training ground.
He didn’t move anymore from where he was sitting on a rock, just gestured for us to go. We were finally done. We gave him our goodbyes and left without ceremony or even a talk. I thought it was going to be a grand thing, seeing as we had–maybe–earned his respect with that last fight, but no. He just waved us away with a hand after we’d finished packing.
The most injured of the team was Cape, who directly received the impact of holding that loop against a very superior opponent. Thankfully, that power traveled equally throughout his body, meaning he didn’t have anything serious, like a broken bone or bleeding. Everything hurts though, according to him, but two days of rest might be just enough for him to heal. Of course, I would get a second opinion with Nurse Joy. I walked the way back with Valley and Mesa who were somehow the least affected.
Half a day later I was passing through the gates of Ecruteak when I saw a familiar figure in a purple and black attire resting against a wooden beam that held up an ancient house. Morty glanced up at me and smiled, before pushing himself straight.
“So, do you think you passed the test?”
“Yes.”
“And what’s the test then?”
“Earning Blaziken’s respect,” I said confidently.
He laughed loudly and shook his head. I felt my posture drop. “What kind of person would choose such a subjective criteria for a test? No, it's not that. But good for you, not many teams trained by him get that.”
“So what is it?”
“Making him use both fire and fighting type energy in a team battle, which you did. Congratulations on completing that training.”
“Thanks,” I spat through gritted teeth. If I’d known that I could've planned for it and ended it in three days, at least I liked to think that. I put that aside for now. “And the others that came with me?”
“The two girls won their matches, but the Blackthorn didn’t, even though he’s on the right track,” Morty said, grabbing a small thing from his breast pocket and flicking it to me. Mesa used his psychic energy to grab it in the air and put it into my hands, it was Ecruteak’s Gym Badge, the Fog Badge. “They’re waiting for you.”
I had even forgotten about the badge after those five days of continuous fighting and training. I reached into my backpack, opened the badge case and put the Fog Badge into the fourth slot. I smiled as I saw that we were halfway to the Conference. After putting the case away, I nodded to Morty and began to walk towards the Pokemon Center.
“I was serious before,” he said after I passed by him. “When you turn back around to go to Mahogany, come through here. I’m going to give you a better match than the one you got against Agatha’s apprentice.”
I paused for a second before continuing, “I will.”
