Pokemon: Mega Tactics - Chapter 2.2

You were led deeper into the building, into a new wide open room. It was more like a massive greenhouse than anything else, filled with tons of different plants, bushes, trees and more. And all throughout the grassy area you could see dozens of different types of bug pokemon. Ledyba, Ledian, Caterpie, Butterfree, Kakuna, Wurmple, even a Pinsir sleeping against a tree.

And in the middle of the room, down a staircase from the entrance into the room was a large battlefield.

"Alright, since I'm in a rush today, I don't really have one of my referee's on hand," Viola shouted over to you from the other side of the battlefield, "The rules are pretty simple, this will be a one on one battle and I as the gym leader will release my pokemon first, when one of our pokemon goes down, whoevers it is, loses!"

"That's fine with me!" you shouted back.

"Great, now again since I'm in a rush, I'm not going to take it easy on you Cobalt," Viola teased you, reaching into her capri pants pocket and pulling out a pokeball, "Come on out Dustox!"

In a flash of bright light, the green winged bug and poison type Dustox appeared flapping its wings above you in the air.

You grabbed one of your own pokeballs, "Come on out Charmander!" you released your own pokemon.

The small fire type appeared on the field before you with an excited cheer.

As soon as Viola called begin, you were already barking orders, "Smokescreen then Dragon Dance!" you shouted.

Charmander threw his head forward and opened his mouth, releasing a massive cloud of black smoke that engulfed the battlefield in moments.

"Gust, blow it away Dustox!" Viola countered.

"Tox!" Dustow began rapidly beating its wings as they glowed blue with flying type energy. In seconds, it kicked up a massive gale that swept down and blew the entirety of the dark smoke apart.

Charmander was not where he was previously. When the smoke cleared, Charmander was already charging through the gale force winds with brute force, halfway across the battlefield, his body engulfed in an on orange aura shroud of power.

"Flame Charge!" you shouted.

"Grab it with Psychic!" Viola countered.

Dustox stopped its Gust attack, the glow fading from its wings, to be replaced a cyan blue glow in its eyes. Blue light swarmed into existence around Charmander, but just as it was about to grab him tight fully, a tower of blazing hot flames erupted from around his body and he shot forward rapidly, jumping into the air, his speed enhanced with Dragon Dance and then further with Flame Charge proved too fast for the Psychic attack to grab quick enough.

Before Dustox could react, Charmander slammed into the fully evolved bug and poison type hard and ploughed it out of the air, its body smoking.

"Cover the field with Electroweb Dustox!" Viola commanded.

Body smoking as it fell, it didn't stop Dustox from aiming towards the ground and spitting a large web of electricity from its mouth that splattered against the field and spread out over its entirety, layering the field in a current of crackling electricity.

The force of firing the attack off even pushed Dustox back up a bit into the air and allowed it regain its balance in the air and continue flying.

"Follow it!" you ordered, "Hit it with Ember!"

"Char!" being propelled through the air like a rocket by an armour of flame, Charmander did as you said and shot through the air down towards Dustox, firing off a barrage of dozens of small bullet like embers.

"Take it and Hyper Beam!" Viola countered.

Spinning, Dustox turned to face your Charmander rocketing through the air towards it, grunting in pain as the bullets of flame slammed into it, but withstood them and began compressing a large sphere of black energy at the front of its mouth.

Your eyes widened.

"Protect!" you shouted before you even realised you were doing it. This morning, before heading to the Santalune Forest, you'd taken the time to use your TM and teach all three of your pokemon the attack.

Charmander cut off his Flame Charge and you saw him thrust his clawed arms out, conjuring a green spherical barrier around his body just as Dustox unleashed its Hyper Beam attack in the form of a large beam half as big as you were tall.

The room thundered and shook from the collision of the black beam and Charmander's barrier.

Moments later just as the beam's power dwindled, you heard a sound reminiscent of glass smashing and Charmander dropped through the air, while Dustox heaved deeply, its wings barely keeping it afloat with how much power it just rapidly expended.

"Ember!" you shouted quickly.

"Charmander!" Charmander tried to roar, though it sounded squeaky and cute instead of intimidating. It didn't stop the little fire type from firing another continuous barrage of small flame bullets the entire way down.

All of them washed over the immobile Dustox and burned into it, drawing a craw of pain. Charmander joined it seconds later as he landed on the battlefield, atop the Electroweb covering the battlefield and his body was lit up with sparking electricity.

Charmander screamed as he was thoroughly electrocuted, but didn't stop and continued attacking with Ember. And finally a few moments later, Dustox's wings gave out and the bug pokemon fell from the air to the ground unconscious, its electric attacking fading away alongside its consciousness.

Charmander fell to a knee as he was released from the attack, panting deeply, but he turned to you with a small grin on his face, "Mander!" he flashed you a thumbs up.

"Return Dustox." Viola said, drawing your attention to her, just in time for you to see Dustox be returned to its pokeball. She looked over at you and Charmander with a smile, "Well, that was quite impressive, that's one strong Charmander you've got there Cobalt."

"Well he is my starter pokemon after all," you lightly bragged as you walked over to the little fire type and lifted him up, ruffling his head fondly, "Great job buddy, you really pulled through there."

"Char char charmander!" Charmander beamed with pride.

You heard a click and looked over to see Viola with her camera in her hands and aimed at you, "This is a nice shot," she complimented with a light chuckle before walking over to you and pulling something from her pockets and handing it to you, "Here you go, as the Santalune City Gym Leader, I'm proud to present you with the Bug Badge for winning our battle."

You accepted it gratefully. One out eight. 'Only seven left to go!' you cheered mentally. And to think, you'd only started your journey yesterday.

"Now don't go getting a big head cuz you beat me, Dustox is the weakest pokemon on my team and I'm the weakest Gym Leader in Kalos." Viola teased you.

"Still a gym leaders pokemon," you shrugged, "A win's a win." besides, it was only thanks to Flame Charge and Protect Charmander didn't get done in there.

'Using attacks to turn the battlefield itself against the opponent huh? I'll need to keep that in mind.' you mused. That Electroweb on the battlefield stunt was a nasty little surprise.

"That it is I suppose," Viola nodded, "Now give me a minute and I'll get your winnings sent through to you okay?"

"Okay." you agreed.

______________

You got a mind boggling nearly twenty thousand pokedollars for winning against Vioa. Putting your total up to nearly a full forty thousand! Honestly, while your uncle made a ton of money through his profession and put what you had now to shame, it didn't change the fact that you currently had in your possession, enough money to buy a house!

It hadn't really hit home for you just how much money trainers could make, despite objectively knowing it.

You honestly returned to the Pokemon Centre to get Charmander checked up in a bit of a stupor. Suddenly it occurred to you, that being a trainer wasn't just a dream anymore, it wasn't just something to aspire to. It was a full on career. You were considered an adult now. You could drink alcohol, drive a car, own your house, get married even!

It was almost funny in a bemusing way that you currently had more money than most working adults made in a year. It hadn't even occurred to you before, that if you lost battles, depending on trainer ranking, you could be paying out a lot of money yourself.

You decided then and there to train even harder with your pokemon! So that you didn't lose much money at all! And so you could win even more from others!

You were broken from your 'evil planning' of 'super communism' by Nurse Joy calling out to you over the intercom an hour later to tell you that your three pokemon, Charmander, Pidgeotto and Heracross were fully recovered and ready for you.

You accepted them from Nurse Joy gratefully, and stepped out of the Pokemon Centre, idly thinking on what to do next. But as you did, you bumped into someone, a girl.

"Whoa!" she cried out as she stumbled back and almost fell down the stairs. Would have, if you didn't reach out quickly and grab her hand, helping her keep her balance.

"Sorry about that." you apologised, "My head was in the clouds a bit." you noted then, that number one she was taller than you, by a head, since you had to look up and meet her eyes.

And number two, she was very good looking. A tall curvaceous girl with long honey blonde hair, dressed in a sleeveless tight black top that positively molded to her large breasts and a short red pleated skirt that barely went down over her thighs.

What caught your attention most though, were her eyes. They were a bright, clear blue that glittered like expensive sapphire gems.

"It's alright," she smiled prettily at you, clasping her hands over the one you grabbed her with to stop her from falling, and releasing a sigh of relief, "Thank you for catching me, that would have been a nasty fall."

"It was my fault in the first place, you don't need to thank me," you replied as she let go of your hand, "Sorry again, I was too busy day dreaming since I just won my first badge."

"Like I said, it's alright, no harm done," she laughed a bit, waving your apology off, "You're a pokemon trainer?" she asked, her eyes going down to your belt and eyeing the four pokeballs strapped there.

"Yeah, I just started yesterday." you replied

"What a coincidence, I just started today," she replied, "Or well, I will once I get over to Lumiose City so I can pick up my starter pokemon from Professor Sycamore, I was just coming into the Pokemon Centre to ask Nurse Joy if there's anything I should keep an eye out for on Route 4 since I don't have any pokemon right now."

'She just started today?' you thought as you looked her over. No matter how you sliced it, she looked a good few years older than you.

She rolled her incredibly pretty blue eyes at you, "I know, I know, I'm starting really late. I just didn't have much of an interest in a journey until recently, thankfully my mom made me take the trainer exams years ago so I've been eligible to become one since then," she explained, before blinking and smiling sheepishly, "Oh, I'm Serena by the way."

Well, that explained why she was only starting now. And to each their own as far as you were concerned. "I'm Cobalt, nice to meet you," you replied, before a thought occurred to you, "If you want, you can travel with me to Lumiose City, I'm just heading back that way now since I've got my gym badge and what I wanted from the forest just outside the city."

"Really?" Serena clapped her hands together and leaned forward excitedly, you did your best to keep your eyes from dropping to her abundant chest. You managed...mostly, "That would be perfect, thank you Cobalt!"

It was probably helped by the fact her eyes were so beautiful to look at.