I looked up at the towering building before me.
Giant stone statues lined the path up to marble columns. The glass door reached up 20 feet high, but the glare from the sunlight made it so I couldn't see inside.
Zuko excitedly ran circles around me as we made our way towards the building.
The statues were all etched with incredible detail. A Swampert showed each individual vein on its fins. On the other side was a raging Magmortar. In the crevices of its arm cannons were glass balls. The glass absorbed the sunlight, making light bounce around in an eerie fashion, making it seem like the cannons were charging up to fire blasts.
I continued along the tiled ground. As I got closer to the building, the tile changed patterns. At first it was red and white. Now it was blue and red. Ahead, at the foot of the building, it was black and yellow. The patterns were not the same as they were on their respective pokeballs, but did increase in complexity with distance.
Azula walked up to a Ninetails statue. Each tail was flared up around it, like a giant claw. Azula climbed up the pedestal, getting close to inspect the intricate detail. I noticed one of the tower's guards starting to make his way over, so I quickly snatched Azula from the statue. I held her up so we could both appreciate each strand of hair was carved into the rock to create such a frighteningly realistic depiction.
I figure so long as they don't cause any damage, the guard won't actually get mad at any curious people or pokemon.
I whistled. Zuko perked up from where he was inspecting an Electivire statue and loped over to me. Some people gave odd looks at the yellow Charmander, but most ignored it. I did notice one grizzled trainer's eyes widen at the sight, but he made no further moves.
I'd have to be careful.
Some people would actually be able to recognize a Starfallen Charmander. Even if nobody in Champion's Hold trained one, and no wild Starfallen Zard came this far inland, experienced trainers, especially if they were off duty or retired Rangers, might try something stupid. Whether it was to steal or kill Zuko, I couldn't let it happen.
But I suppose that's why I'm here today.
I stopped in front of the doors and looked up at the massive tower in front of me.
The Champion's Den
This tower was Champion's Hold's premier battle tower. The city had some small battle towers all over the city, but this was the most prestigious. It was also the most public. Nobody condoned the theft or attack of somebody else's pokemon, and hopefully nobody would try it somewhere so public.
Today was the first time I was going to try an official battle.
We had spent two months training in Oak's Lab for this day. There was no way in hell I was letting the world know about Zuko until I thought he was strong enough to fend for himself. Until I thought I was strong enough to fend for myself. I'd asked Ranger Will to come in a couple times to give me and my pokemon pointers. I now know how to properly use a knife, although I probably wouldn't be able to defend myself against more than a wild Rattata at the moment. To be fair, those rats were surprisingly quick.
This building was one of the tallest in the entire city. The higher level that you fought on, the harder it would be. But given how strong wild pokemon are in this region, even amateur trainers were incredibly powerful. There was a wide variety of pokemon too. Professors from all around the world would send pokemon into Starfall whenever someone was willing to make a shipment, so that the Professor's here could study them in different environments and temporal zones and get the Professors of the real world new information.
And there was a very high variety of wild pokemon out there, which the Rangers had to cull or capture to avoid population overflow nearly every day. Especially when one of the warp gates spit out a new batch. Of course, if one of the Kings or its clan was nearby when that happened, the Ranger's would let them take care of it. Or more accurately, they would do anything and everything to avoid getting in the way of a King.
I had to crane my neck up to look to the top of the tower. It was said that Taimu himself had a penthouse up there. That he would take the occasional challenger to make sure his skills weren't rusted. I'd heard rumors that Oak had been one of his challengers. I hadn't been able to get any more information than that. I really wanted to know how it went, but people tended to just give me a skeptical expression. Apparently it was common knowledge that Taimu just didn't lose, so there would be no point in bothering to try and find out. That response didn't satiate me in the slightest. I still had no idea what Pokemon Oak has. Or how strong they are. They must be pretty strong if he got here, and is as renown as he is.
I continued to peer at the tower, taking in every unique artstyle for every layer. Azula and Zuko both mirrored me, with Zuko even standing on his two legs. Azula put her hand to her brow as if peering at something far away, as she'd seen me do a couple times. They both liked to mimic my movements and motions. I'm pretty sure it was to mock me, but instead it turned out to be endearingly cute. Not that I'd ever let them know that.
I looked down to the two lizards with a serious expression. "Alright Zuko, Azula. I'm putting you back in your pokeballs for now. The next time I'm letting you out is going to be in battle. This is the real deal. No screw ups. No mistakes. From this point on, we're fighting for real. Understand?"
Azula gave me a toothy grin and a thumbs up. Zuko merely smirked and dropped back to all fours. He idly licked the claw on his left foreleg as I returned him.
I took a deep breath in, and strode through the doors.
The lobby was unnecessarily extravagant. Two fountains were at both of my sides. They were fifteen feet tall, gushing with water. On top of the fountain to my left was a beautiful marble Milotic statue, majestic in all its grace. To my right was a snarling Gyrados, each segment of its armor sharp and deadly.
Banners hung on the walls, each representing one of the regions of the real world. Kanto, Kalos, Galar, all the rest. Kanto's banner had the three Legendary birds, Zapdos, Moltres, and Articuno as dangerous yellow, red, and blue silhouettes. Johto was a blue and white flag with a side profile of Ho-Oh. Ho-Oh's brilliant golden feathers and blazing red eye stood out amongst the white and blue corona of stripes. The other flags had other depictions of Legendary Pokemon. Some didn't have legendary Pokemon at all. Hoenn was merely red on top with blue on bottom and glowing green lines etched into the middle.
The front desk was marble, like the fountains. There were multiple people working the reception. This was the region's most prominent battle area, after all.
"Hi there, trainer ID please." The lady asked after ushering me over to her spot on the counter.
I handed over my researcher license.
"Wow. A field researcher for Professor Oak! I haven't heard of him taking field researchers here yet. Well, since you have no battles on your record, you'll start on the first floor. Please report to arena 4 in 30 minutes." She had perked up at reading Oak's name, but remained professional.
She then pointed me in the direction of the different arenas. I thanked her, and was on my way.
Past the lobby were giant elevators to both sides. In the middle was a big corridor that continued on for as far as I could see.
The big corridor had a sign at the top.
ARENA 1-8.
Well I guess I'll make my way down then. The corridor was over fifteen feet tall, and plenty wide. There was enough room for an Onix to slip through.
The sides of the corridor were lit up with red torches. They emitted a low heat that was pleasant for my bones.
To my left was a giant door with Arena 1 at the top. There were windows on the left side of the door that I could peer through. The right side must lead into the locker room. I looked through the window. I had time to kill, after all.
The arena wasn't actually very big. I imagine the higher floors had bigger arenas. On the field was a Luxio and an Ivysaur. The Ivysaur flung razor leaves with its vines towards the Luxio. Luxio swatted one aside, but the other glanced off its shoulder. It snarled, and proceeded to charge up electricity.
I moved on.
The other arena's also had windows to look in. Arena 2 had a Pachirisu fighting a Machoke. Arena 3 was empty.
I got to Arena 4 with plenty of time to spare. I decided this would be a good time to regroup. I made my way into my locker room. There were two locker rooms to each arena. For this one, the lockers were for the Green and Yellow trainer. I was assigned to Green by the receptionist. This is also what the referee would call each of us during the battle. I realized then that choosing Red as my name would lead to potential confusion there.
But the color coded trainer names were really only for the lower levels anyway. Once you got higher, referee's actually started using your trainer name. And people might actually start recognizing you.
The locker room was spacious. A fully grown Snorlax would be able to fit under the tall ceiling. There was a bathroom and water fountain that I could use, as well as freshly laid towels and refreshments. Overall, very professional.
I just had to hope Zuko didn't destroy it all immediately.
I let out Zuko and Azula.
"Okay, so it turns out we've got some time before our battle. I didn't actually count on having locker rooms at all, let alone one this nice. We don't know who our opponent is or what pokemon they use."
Zuko immediately ignored me in favor of bouncing across all of the walls. He didn't charge his hands with electricity because he knew better than to leave burn marks. Those many hours of excruciating cleaning had its small mercies. His control had gotten good enough he could concentrate the electricity in certain areas of his body, namely just his leg muscles right now for extra speed.
Azula looked up at me with bright eyes.
"Alright girl. I guess Zuko's gonna have to go without the pep talk. I don't think he needs it anyway." I winced as I heard something crash to the floor in the bathroom. I'd ignore it for now.
"Your fire control has gotten exceptional. Keep your enemies at bay. Don't let them touch you. But don't freak out when they get close." I rapped my knuckles against her head. "Your scales are natural armor. Few things at this level will even be able to hurt you." I grinned. "But that doesn't mean you should give them the chance."
Azula beamed up at me. She threw some shadow punches, and started bouncing up and down on the balls of her feet. She had slacked off on training too many times in favor of watching Ranger Will put me on my ass in the gym. Boxing was hard.
As a blur of yellow zoomed past me I reached out, snagging Zuko by the leg. He was probably about 50 lbs now, so he nearly took me off my feet with his speed. But I had done this before. Too many times. Way too many times. Stray electricity fizzled against my skin. Two months ago, such things would have electrocuted and burned me. Now it just bounced off, like my skin was made of rubber. That wasn't how physics was supposed to work, but I wasn't going to complain. Maybe this Universe worked with different rules? I guess people would have to be more sturdy to even witness some pokemon battles. I'd have to look into it later.
I left him hanging for a second. He merely curled around, looking up at me like a lost puppy. He stuck his tongue out, not in his usual mocking way, but in a playful way.
"Look buddy I know you're excited. But this is the real deal. I'm going to need you to get serious."
I dropped him to the ground. Zuko pirouetted in the air like a gymnast, whipping his tail as a counterweight, and landed on all fours, silent as a cat. He looked up at me and grinned.
The intercom buzzed. "Trainer Green to the arena. Trainer Green please report to the battle grounds immediately."
I smirked back at Zuko. "This is what we trained for. Let's give them hell."