Thank you to my new Patrons, you are the light of my soul, the muse of my heart: Will, minicheatbook, Andrew, Dem, Jeremy, Lasse, WindowsTacOS, Crimson, Killer Condor, Mathieu
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After awkwardly apologising to everyone in the private viewing box for the incident, Joey finally sat down just as the crowd started cheering for the two members of the Elite Four who emerged from opposite sides of the arena.
It was a standard gravelly battlefield, but the crowd was hyped nonetheless. Large sections were either holding up flags with the fighting-type logo or ones with the fire-type logo. One stand, in particular, was even holding up cardboard cutouts of pixels, which they turned around to show Bruno's or Blaine's face to the camera.
"Not often we get to see two Elite Four members duke it out," Michelle commented with gritted teeth.
She had, in fact, been a bit unlucky. There hadn't been a real challenger or an attempted shift in the positions of the Kanto Elite Four in five years, and now suddenly everything was changing at the same time.
Lance was a new member, Bruno was challenging Blaine, and Pryce's position was looking shaky.
"It's the first time I've seen it live," Joey commented idly as he held up Metapod so she could cocoon herself in the corner of the glass box to watch the battle.
He tapped Misdreavus' necklace, "Can you see?" he asked, receiving an affirmative jiggle in response.
Rattata was already standing on his hind legs with his face pressed up against the glass, watching the two Elite Four members take their positions as the announcer babbled on to distract from the fact that the television had just shown a boy throwing up on the floor in high definition all across the country.
Joey hesitated before tapping the Pokeball at his belt, releasing Diglett onto the non-dirt floor of the private box. The mole-Pokemon shook himself before scrabbling to join Rattata at the glass.
"Your Pokémon will watch as well?" Erika asked confusedly.
"Why wouldn't they?" Joey replied.
"Mine are too big to fit," Michelle muttered before shaking her head and tapping a Pokeball at her side, releasing a large and powerful-looking Girafarig onto the floor. It was already taking a huge amount of space, so Joey could understand her reluctance to release the rest of her team as well. "My starter," she briefly explained at Joey's questioning look.
"Gira, gira," the Pokémon said, briefly before trodding up to the glass wall next to the now somewhat intimidated Diglett to look down at the arena. The dark brown head on its tail grinned nastily at Joey as the Pokémon went down to its knees to sit, before tilting itself to watch the arena.
"Might as well," Erika muttered, unclipping a Pokeball from her belt and releasing a ditzy-looking Gloom in front of herself. She then promptly picked it up and settled back into her seat.
"I bet 350k on Bruno," Joey said idly as the announcer started discussing the odds.
Michelle, who had just taken a sip of water from the glass on the small table between the couches, promptly spat it back out. "What?!" she asked, baffled while throwing him a wild look.
"Old enough to kill, old enough to gamble," Joey replied defensively.
"Whatever he said," Erika complied with a serious nod. "Bruno is a total hun- I mean, he'll win easily. Blaine is super old."
Michelle looked at the two young teens with a far-away look in her eyes. "How did you even get that much money?" she asked. "I didn't have that much saved up till my second year…"
"I won it betting like 100k on Lance," Joey said, causing Erika to grimace. The facial expression didn't fit her elegant kimono, but neither did her weird preference for big, bulky men who looked like they didn't shower.
"That doesn't answer the question…" Michelle muttered painfully before sighing. "I hope Blaine wins, that way my preparations against Bruno don't fly out of the window, but, well, Bruno wouldn't have made the challenge if he wasn't ready."
"It's starting," Erika suddenly interrupted, causing the two other trainers to refocus their eyes on the battlefield where the referee was raising a flag, both members of the Elite Four holding a Pokeball in their hands.
Bruno was dressed in his usual ripped white pants with iron bracelets on his wrists and ankles. Blaine, meanwhile, looked like he was going on vacation with his flip flops, blue shorts and blazing red Hawaiian shirt. His Ozzy Osbourne glasses were as ever-present as they had been during the entirety of his career.
Both of the Elite Four had serious expressions on their faces, and the tension ratcheted up as everyone held their breath for the referee to lower the flag.
"This will be a six-on-six battle with three substitutions each and a half-time break after one side's three Pokémon have been knocked out," the announcer said, prattling on information that everyone knew, just so that there was no peace to be had.
The referee suddenly swung his chequered flag, causing Bruno and Blaine to throw out the Pokeballs they'd been cradling in their hands.
On Bruno's side, an Onix roared its way into existence from the large red light of materialisation. Blaine, meanwhile, had thrown out a majestic Rapidash, which was promptly recalled, stalling out the match.
"He should have expected Bruno to be straightforward," Joey said, satisfied. Rapidash was not the fastest or the most adaptive of the Pokémon on Blaine's team and was thus unsuited to face either one of the Onix that Bruno had been raising specifically for this occasion. "Now he's lost the substitution advantage."
"Keep watching," Michelle muttered with focused eyes, her legs spread wide and her chin resting on the point where her hands meet and her fingers interlaced.
When the referee waved the flag for Bruno to use his free move, the man choosing Rock Polish, Blaine revealed his next Pokémon. A deep orange Charizard roared a jet of flame into the sky as its entrance before promptly starting to circle above the Onix.
"Immune to Earthquake," Erika muttered while squeezing the Gloom in her arms a bit too tightly, if one went by the awkward cough the Pokémon gave.
Bruno apparently thought the same and promptly withdrew his Onix, causing the referee to raise his flag again.
"Blaine tricked Bruno," Michelle suddenly said decisively. Considering she'd been preparing to fight either one of them and wasn't a slouch herself, Joey chose not to discard her opinion.
"What do you mean?" he asked as Blaine ordered a Sunny Day. The rays of the winter sun suddenly became brutal as the Charizard started summoning the heat.
"Bruno is straightforward, so Blaine knew he'd send out an Onix. That's why he sent out something that would do well against a fighting type, just in case Bruno decided to switch it up for once. But, Bruno chose Onix just as predicted, which means that if Rapidash is taken back, Bruno can set up a Rock Polish or a Sandstorm. However, neither of those matters if Blaine chooses Charizard next because Charizard forces a withdrawal of the Onix. Charizard is good against fighting or ground because of the fact that it can fly and thus better dodge attacks from both, the fact that Charizard forces a withdrawal of the Onix means it can get off a Sunny Day, which is an important win condition for Blaine that Bruno would have not let him set up that easily under other circumstances," she explained, before taking a deep breath just as Bruno released his next Pokemon.
Machamp took to the field, proudly roaring its name. It seemed Bruno was going for straight power, his ace more than capable of taking on any non-ace of the other members of the Elite Four. Blaine's starter and ace was his monstrous Arcanine, which…
"Blaine decides to withdraw Charizard after it completes its Sunny Day!" the announcer screamed.
"What the fuck is happening," Joey muttered, frustrated that he didn't understand shit as Charizard disappeared from the field. His review of famous battles in the library had given him the illusion that he understood at least the basics of this level of battles, but now he saw that he didn't understand anything if he had to watch it in real-time.
The referee once again raised his flag.
A zoom in on Bruno's face revealed that he was gritting his teeth.
Machamp punched its four muscular arms into the air, using Bulk Up as Blaine released his replacement. A majestic Arcanine with fire-red and cream-coloured fur was released onto the battlefield, looking intimidatingly at Machamp, who shrank back for a brief moment.
Before Joey could open his mouth, Machamp was recalled and replaced with an Onix while Arcanine committed to another Sunny Day.
"Does Sunny Day even stack?" he muttered as Blaine recalled Arcanine in a move he was beginning to grow numb to.
"It makes it last longer, different Pokémon have different vibrations which can synthesise" Erika whispered with bated breath as Onix went for another Rock Polish while Blaine decisively threw out his third Pokeball to reveal a scarred Magmar which threw an ugly yellow grin at the opposing Onix as it materialised.
Joey wondered if they were finally going to see a battle, and as Bruno swept out an arm, causing Onix to suddenly surge underground, he almost thought for a second that they would.
Then, Blaine's newly emerged Magmar thrust its two fists into the Earth and frowned with a strained face.
The ground beneath it quickly began glowing cherry-red, making Joey realise that it was channeling fire-type energy into the ground.
His description of what happened occurred faster than the events themselves. In the span of one second that Onix sank underground, Magmar thrust its fists into the earth, and suddenly the entire battlefield was aglow with a hideous red going on yellow.
"Lava Plume," Michelle said seriously as the Onix violently re-emerged with a roar of pain, covered in a steaming yellowish red and black liquid. It thrashed around and stayed on the field just long enough to raise a platform of stone from underground before being recalled.
The referee raised a flag to signal that both sides had used up all their substitutions.
"Is it just me or did Blaine just absolutely school the fuck out of Bruno?" Joey asked with a shaky voice, exchanging a slightly dubious look with Rattata. This was the level they had to reach in the next few years?
"Two Sunny Days, a lava field, and one severely burned Onix," Erika whispered.
"Substitution advantage cancelled," Michelle muttered. "Bruno just lost."
Joey suddenly sprang up from his seat and ran to the glass wall to bang on it with his small fists. "Bruno you fucking idiot, grow a brain for fuck's sake. Why do you have such big muscles but no IQ!" he screamed with spittle flying from his mouth and staining the glass.
"That's why I don't gamble," Michelle muttered, looking away in second-hand embarrassment.
Erika suddenly spoke up, turning to Michelle while Joey suffered a money-loss-induced seizure in the background. "I see what the result is, but how did it happen?" she asked.
Michelle shrugged. "Rapidash was a good start for Blaine, it's the one Pokémon he likely didn't want to take on an Onix with due to its unsuited move pool. It can't Dig, it can't use Earthquake, and it can't fly. So, if Bruno had released one of his fighting types, Blaine would have been happy, although Bruno might have switched. Anyway, Bruno released Onix, which meant that Blaine recalled Rapidash. He wasn't afraid of gifting Bruno a move because he doesn't care about Rock Polish or Sandstorm, and I guess he knew Bruno didn't have Stealth Rock up his sleeve. Anyway, releasing Charizard, which Bruno really doesn't want to face with his Onix, forced Bruno to switch, but Blaine has access to better set-up moves with his fire-types, so he put up a Sunny Day. Bruno then makes a power play and brings out his ace. Blaine again doesn't care about gifting Bruno a move and sends out Arcanine, a Pokémon very suited to be fought with an Onix. Bruno switches again, and Blaine gets another Sunny Day. Then, Blaine recalls Arcanine and sends out Magmar. Bruno doesn't know Magmar can screw up Onix by turning the whole field into fucking lava so he makes it Dig, which obviously backfires. He has to recall Onix, sacrificing more of its health to raise a platform for his next Pokémon to fight on."
"Give me back my fucking money you braindead gymrat!" Joey screamed in the background before becoming a frothing piece of incoherence again.
Michelle rolled her eyes and continued her explanation to the starry-eyed Erika. "Blaine got three advantages with his switches. Two Sunny Days and one Lava field, which means Bruno can't use Onix until it cools down. I can't imagine it was easy for Magmar, but even if the stamina burn is real, that's still trading one disadvantage for three advantages. I guess one for two, if you count the two Sunny Days as one advantage."
"I can't believe I ever respected you!" Joey sobbed as he sank to his knees in front of the glass wall. Then, as if repossessed by the demons of gambling, he once again sprang up and banged on the glass with one hand while showing the middle finger with the other.
The announcer's voice suddenly boomed throughout the stadium. "And here we see an ardent fan feeling an emotional response to this fast-paced battle." The large screen in the middle of the arena showed the emotionally distraught Joey pointing a middle finger at Bruno while mouthing some expletives that would have gotten him cancelled from public office if he held one. "A bit too passionate, maybe!" the announcer quickly said as the camera switched back to the battlefield, where Bruno seemed to be thinking about his next decision.
"This is your fucking answer, you stall?!" Joey muttered as he took down his cap and pulled at his hair, ripping out large patches of brown. "You use your seconds of stall to wait for the lava to cool down!" He shouted while choking with sobs. "You fucking moron, upkeeping the lava is ten times easier than creating it! You already got fucked up the ass by an old man, you're never regaining any amount of respect, you're a joke, a fucking joke!"
Bruno finally seemed to decide on his next move, raising his Pokeball right before he would have gotten warned by the referee. A Hitmonlee materialised on the raised stone platform that Onix had left behind, and just as it did, Blaine's Magmar used up its one move, a huge cloud of purple smoke emerging from its puckered mouth to cover the field.
The moves allowed in return for the opponent substituting were status-based and area-based. Smog was both. What people forgot, though, was that some poison moves, especially those used by fire-types who preferred flammable materials, could be very volatile when exposed to heat. So, Smog was technically a non-damaging move that could be used during substitution. However, just because it was a non-damaging move didn't mean that it wasn't also a move that, if it interacted with the correct kind of environment, couldn't hurt anyone. Despite its liquid state, lava was just fire. And when fire met smog, sometimes things tended to go boom.
The battlefield, for lack of a better word, exploded. A gigantic plume of fire whooshed out and seemed to seriously test the psychic barriers protecting the audience as they glowed a violent purple, contrasting the violent red of the fire barely contained inside.
The audience screamed.
Thirty seconds was how long it took for the flames to calm down, as it seemed that Magmar had been feeding the chemical reaction with more Smog the whole time.
As the fire cleared, what was revealed was a post-apocalyptic battlefield glowing still with lava, which now had a bit of black ash stuck to its flowing surface for extra effect. Magmar was on its knees, wheezing, apparently drained from its bossing of Bruno's team.
Hitmonlee, meanwhile, was barely to be seen, cocooned on all three sides by super-heated slabs of rock it had erected from the stone below to protect itself. An imaginative use of Rock Tomb. However, as it stumbled out of its self-made grave, it was obvious to all that it wasn't doing that well. Purple veins ran along its brown skin, signalling that it was poisoned. Patches of flame emerged occasionally as well, leaving behind ugly burn marks.
"Holy shit," Michelle muttered.
"Holy shit!" Erika shouted.
"Bruno you fucking bitch I'll kill you myself just you fucking wait!" Joey screamed incoherently as he restarted his banging on the glass.
The audience cheered, the shouts being loudest from the section holding up the fire-type logo cardboard cutouts. But, high-level battles were decided in seconds, and neither Bruno nor Blaine had any more substitutions to drag out the fight with.
One second, Hitmonlee was stumbling out of its protective earthen shell, and then the next, it had refocused its energy and suddenly appeared in front of the Magmar with its leg extended upwards to its chin. The only reason the moment could be caught by the human eye was because Magmar, for a second, caught the extended spring-like leg in a burning fist. A defensive application of Fire Punch.
But, well, there was a reason that a fighting-type's win condition usually depended on getting close. Hitmonlee easily kicked through the block, causing the Magmar to shoot high into the air. However, Magmar didn't go out without swinging and kept his grip on the leg, thus bringing the Hitmonlee with him.
The two Pokémon, one unable to use a leg and the other an arm, then duked it out in mid-air as they flew ever higher. Hitmonlee spun in place to kick at Magmar's torso. Magmar threw a fire punch at Hitmonlee's face. They exchanged several of those close-combat techniques in a ruthless and lightning-quick scrap. Once they reached their apex, however, their approach changed.
"Seismic Toss," Bruno shouted loud enough that even Joey could hear him through the spitting of the lava covering the battleground and the screaming of the crowd.
"Supernova!" Blaine replied angrily as Hitmonlee grappled Magmar into an immobile position, which caused them both to start spinning down towards the earth.
Magmar, in the middle of its downward spin, suddenly erupted in fire from every part of its body, helped along by the Sunny Day. The two Pokémon turned into a spinning shooting star, which crashed into the raised stone platform, defiantly jutting out of the lava. Upon impact, the stone platform cracked apart in a series concentric circles.
The flames dissipated, revealing a Magmar that had been smashed ruthlessly head-first into the ground and was buried up to its torso in the semi-melted stone. Its legs slumped to the side, and there was no attempt to unbury itself.
The last section of the battle was finally enough to rip Joey out of his hateful haze as he wildly blinked. "That's some Naruto type shit," he muttered as Blaine recalled his Magmar and he switched his gaze to the still standing Hitmonlee.
There was no nice way of putting it; it was poisoned and burned, and now the front part of its body, the brown torso, the springy legs, and arms had locked down the Magmar. They were just charcoal. The burns were bordering on the fourth degree, and boiling blood seeped out through the cracks.
Joey had never seen such viscera because all the battles of this level had been watched on a small screen that didn't show such details.
But Hitmonlee was still standing.
Hitmonlee was still standing.
Joey shouted in jubilation and ecstasy, pumping his arms into the air. "Take that you old fart, Hitmonlee carrying Bruno's dumb ass!"
He suddenly realised something, though. Blaine wasn't releasing his next Pokémon. He was just waiting there with his arms crossed. His shades prevented the audience from seeing his eyes, but everyone could guess his intentions.
"Release," Joey whispered. Blaine continued waiting as the referee counted down. "Release you fucking bum!" Joey screamed. "You're losing your Sunny Day!"
"Hitmonlee won't make it," Michelle said critically as the fighting type started swaying to the left and to the right. Just as Blaine finally grasped his next Pokeball, Hitmonlee collapsed to the ground in a graceless flop and was promptly recalled.
The referee reset the counter and bid both trainers to throw out their replacements. One aid dressed in the League's orange uniform walked up to the two trainers, who promptly gave away the Pokeballs of Magmar and Hitmonlee, respectively, while cradling their next choices. The two fighters likely needed immediate medical attention, Magmar for severe head trauma and Hitmonlee for severe burns.
Not that anyone cared, Bruno and Blaine simultaneously released their next Pokémon.
A Charizard appeared on Blaine's side of the field, immediately flying up, while Bruno's overly bulky Machamp appeared on his side.
"Charizard and Machamp, both third-stage evolutions," the announcer boomed happily. "Who's going to emerge victorious in this battle of titans? Blaine still has the field advantage with the lava and the Sunny Day, but Bruno is starting to prove that brute force sometimes is a solution!"
The battle restarted the second the referee swung his flag.
"Blast Burn!" Blaine screamed, trying to still keep advantage of Sunny Day and reheat the lava floor. Charizard opened its mouth in a scene reminiscent of what Lance had done months back while relying similarly on Sunny Day but also on Charizard having its Blaze activated and thus having its Overheat even more empowered. Back then, Lance had covered the field in white hot flame for forty seconds.
Blaine's Charizard's flames, without Blaze, were blue. Blast Burn? A higher level technique than Overheat. A great wall of blue flame big enough to engulf the entire battlefield emerged from the orange dragon's mouth.
But even if the flames were hotter. Back then, Lance had been facing Hitmonlee.
Machamp was Bruno's ace, and thus, the response to this apocalyptic event that blinded Joey as he tried to behold it was simple.
"Punch it!" Bruno shouted calmly.
Machamp, with its four gigantic arms, for lack of a better word, went plus ultra. The first punch at the incoming fire released a shock wave as it broke the sound barrier. The second continued the ripples. Then, after the second, the speed really picked up.
Machamp was holding its ground facing upwards as its arms moved at supersonic speeds, helped along with a fuckton of incredibly refined fighting-type energy. The unstoppable blue fire met an immovable object; a wall of force in front of Machamp dispelled any fire before it got too close while pushing the rest of it to the side.
One half of the field was taken up by a battlefield-sized cone of blue fire still escaping Charizard's gullet. The other half was a battlefield-sized cone of shockwaves resonating and disrupting each other as the sound barrier was consecutively broken by consecutive simple punches.
It was a spectacle that would have won any contest, a beautiful apocalypse that would crush to dust and incinerate to ashes any lesser Pokémon stuck at its meeting point.
Joey simply watched as the seconds stretched on.
The result was inevitable. Blast Burn was a move that required the user to recharge, while Machamp was matching it by just punching at the air with what was probably Close Combat.
Charizard went on for as long as it could, but the second that it finally couldn't anymore and closed its mouth, Machamp already appeared in front of it.
The longer the neck, the more painful the clothesline. Charizard's neck was long enough for two bulky arms to fit in between the chin and the shoulders.
Machamp zipped past Charizard with its right arms extended, taking the fire-type with it on a journey to break the sound barrier.
Spun around, manhandled, and finally pushed off, Charizard crashed on the stone platform, this time fully breaking it and allowing the hut-sized rocks it had been composed of to sink into the lava.
Well, that would have been the case had there been any more lava. While defending itself from the Burn Blast, Machamp had kicked up such a gale that the wind and sheer power generated had seemingly cooled the lava down to a non-fluid black stone, which was now covering up the battlefield in large, black splotches.
Charizard slowly and laboriously re-emerged from the hole it had been punted into, panting harshly and glaring angrily at the Machamp who gently dropped down to the earth and smiled at its foe cockily making a come-hither motion with two of its arms.
"Will-O-Wisp," Blaine said instead of engaging with the taunt, causing the Charizard to spit out a long string of head-sized purple fires which rapidly flew towards Machamp.
Machamp, for its part, simply weaved in between the attacks, seemingly content with letting Charizard waste its energy. Perhaps there was a glint of Detect in its eye, but that was it.
"Twister," Blaine ordered next, finally using a move that was super-effective against fighting types. Charizard flapped his wings, causing large tornadoes to fly out of them. On the way to the Machamp, the twin tornadoes picked up the will-o'-wisps and turned purple, approaching Machamp from both sides.
The large grey Pokémon seemingly considered for a second, before bending down and picking up a slab of cooled lava stone with each of his four powerful arms. Then he spun like a discus-thrower and hurled one slab at each tornado and two at Charizard.
The slabs of rock impacted the tornadoes, dissipating them and harmlessly extinguishing the wisps. The two slabs that had been thrown at Charizard were easily dodged.
"He's waiting until Sunny Day runs out," Joey realised as he wondered why Machamp didn't finish the fight then and there. By throwing a few energy-less attacks, it would only lose a bit of energy while exhausting the Charizard, who had to do more to keep up. It would make the fight easier while also running down the Sunny Day. If that was indeed the case, then Bruno's next move would be…
"Bulk Up," Bruno shouted when Machamp started getting a bit too unruly and began taunting the Charizard instead of doing something productive.
As the fighting-type crossed its arms and glowed a blazing orange, signalling the increase in attack and defence, Blaine scoffed.
"Sunny Day into Aerial Ace," he ordered, causing the Charizard to once again spit out a miniature ball of light, which intensified the power of the sun. Then it promptly rose once into the air on shaking wings before disappearing from sight and reappearing behind the Machamp who had opted to complete a second Bulk Up.
However, as the Charizard's wing swung down with a razor-sharp edge, the Machamp suddenly spun and caught it with a fist crackling with electricity.
Charizard froze before another Thunder Fist slammed into its torso, and it slumped over, unconscious.
Blaine quickly recalled the final evolution of the regional starter, before seemingly making a decision.
"He's losing Sunny Day, the idiot," Joey crowed happily while flapping his arms. Bruno was ahead now, sure Sunny Day was still up, again, but Blaine had already lost 2 Pokémon, whereas Bruno had only lost one.
"He's thinking if he wants to bring out Arcanine. If his non-ace Pokémon can beat Machamp, an Arcanine can wipe the rest of Bruno's team. Bruno is threatening; however, with the Bulk Ups, if Machamp isn't challenged soon, it'll grow too powerful," Michelle commented on the side, her gaze not shifting from the battlefield for a single second.
"Bruno's got this!" Erika said excitedly.
Joey nodded. "I never doubted him, in fact," he said in a satisfied tone of voice.
Blaine, seemingly finally having made a decision and unclipped a Pokeball from his belt, threw it into the air, and an Arcanine materialised into existence in front of him.
"A battle of aces," the announcer said contentedly. "You don't see that every day, so strap yourselves in because this is going to be a bumpy ride!"
-/-
AN: In this chapter I try to set the ceiling that Joey will have to reach in the future if he wants to compete at the Elite Four and Champion level. Remember Blaine and Bruno are currently the lowest two members of the Elite Four. Agatha is much tougher, as is Lance, at least after he grows up a bit more.
How the power-scaling makes some sort of sense, the supersonic punches are obviously embellishment, but I got hyped writing it so take it as metaphorical hyperbole
Anyway, read ahead on Patreon if you can't wait to see the result of the battle.