Chapter 6

After catching Sandshrew, you went on your way again. Continuing on your journey for another hour before finding a good clearing to set up for lunch in, and get some quick training in with your pokemon.

And to your annoyance. Like last night, a certain swarm weren't far behind. Another five Beedrill attack you and your team of four almost as soon as you were done setting up lunch.

Suffice to say, your pokemon didn't take too well to their meal time being interrupted. Especially Krabby, he really didn't like other pokemon bothering you unless you let them. He made for a good body guard.

With Sandshrew now in the mix, even with him still hurting a bit from his battle with Krabby, it didn't take long for all of the Beedtill to be put down and run off.

At the very least, once you were done mopping up the Beedrill, your pokemon eagerly took to their training. And Sandshrew took to it like a Magikarp did to splashing.

And dare you say it, with you feeding him, and training him hard, you think he even warmed up to you a little bit.

Still, as fun as it was training, and you spent a good hour and half doing so with your pokemon, you new you couldn't do so for too long. You did want to get to Pewter City at some point tomorrow after all. Call it petty, but you wanted to stay ahead of the other kids starting out with you like Gary.

Though from what you knew, that idiot was going to be travelling around in a convertible. Stylish yeah, but it wouldn't give him much opportunities to train and the stronger pokemon out in the wild wouldn't be anywhere near a road.

So around three in the afternoon, when the sun was high in the sky, you packed your items up and went on your way again.

Sadly, there weren't many pokemon out and about that you ran into. They probably got scared off by the Beedrill swarm buzzing their way through.

So it was another two hours into your travelling before something of interest finally happened.

The whistle on your lips died as you looked above the tree lines, to see a large stream of fire cut through the air and disappear into the sky, "Hoh?" you hummed in interest.

You quickly made your way over to where the flames came from, and found yourself stepping out into a clearing, where to your surprise, you found an orange haired teenager a few years older than you glaring angrily with his arms crossed. "Pathetic, even with all I've given you, you still had to put that much effort into taking down a weakling like that?" he spat.

The target of his ire, sat atop a rock, panting deeply, and with a morose look on its face.

At the bottom of the rock, a large Pidgeotto lay on its back unmoving. Body charred and smoking in places. It didn't take a genius to put two and tow together and realize the Charmander took the flying type pokemon down.

What a cunt. Seeing the sad look on the Charmander's face made you want to stomp over and smash his face in.

The orange haired teen blinked upon noticing you, before promptly scowling at you when he caught your look at him, "The hell you lookin' at kid?" he growled at you, "Take a hike, I'm busy trying to train this weakling, I ain't got time for a scrub like you to bother me."

You saw the Charmander's head dip even further at that. A scowl split your own lips, and you had to hold yourself back from snarling. Who the hell is he calling a fucking scrub?

It took an extraordinary amount of restraint on your part, to not march over and lay this prick flat with a quick jab to the jaw.

Instead, you just raised your eyebrow, "No need to be an asshole dude, I was just interested to see what was throwing fire around out here in Viridian Forest," you replied. You cast a look at the Charmander, "Pretty awesome Charmander you've got there, if that fire attack I saw a minute ago is anything to go by, is it your starter?"

The orange haired teen scoffed, "That useless thing my starter, as if," he replied in disgust, spitting to the side as if to rid his mouth of a bad taste, "It's just a piece of crap I bought off of some kid last week. I shouldn't have even bothered though, even with me loading it up with a few good Tm's, it can barely even take down trash like that Pidgeotto over there."

"Nothing that can't be remedied with some training though," you pointed out, doing your level best not to insult him. It was very hard to do. "And it's kind of dickish to insult your pokemon like that."

He scoffed again, "I'll do whatever I like with my pokemon kid," he rudely denied your efforts at being nice, "Now buzz off unless you wanna battle me."

Yeah, you know what. You fucking did want to battle this cunt and put him in his place.

"Sure, I'll take you on." you replied with a scowl.

"Now you're talking my language. Oi, runt, get over here!" he replied before clicking his fingers at Charmander, he cast a quick look at you out of the corner of one of his beady little eyes, "Send out whatever pokemon you want kid, we'll make this a 2 on 2, and I'll start off with this useless Charmander."

It kind of disgusted you the way he treated his Charmander. Especially with how it perked up at his call and hurried over. As it took its place in front of the guy, you noted it had a few small bruises and cuts over its form. You bit the inside of your cheek to stop yourself from calling him out.

Well, you want to see more of what your newest pokemon can do in a battle, even if Charmander looks dead on its feet.

"Go, Sandshrew!" you said, releasing him in front of you.

The ground type upon seeing the pokemon facing him, immediately narrowed his eyes, body tensing and ready to move at any moment.

"It's a scrub, just like its trainer," your opponent laughed derisively, earning a hiss of displeasure from Sandshrew. He merely rolled his eyes and pointed at your pokemon, "Let's start already, Charmander, Flamethrower!"

"Swift!" you commanded as soon as he pointed towards you.

Charmander reared back its head, flames spilling from its closed jaw, but by then Sandshrew had already thrown his own head forward, spitting out a barrage of over a dozen tiny glowing white energy stars that rapidly expanded in size as they shot towards Charmander.

Charmander didn't even have time to dodge, busy listening to its trainer as it was, and the barrage of energy stars sliced into its body one after another.

It collapsed weakly to the floor, flames from its mouth puttering out before the last energy star even hit it. You winced as you eyed it, feebly trying to push itself up, earnestly trying to meet its trainers expectations.

"Pathetic," the orange haired teen scoffed, lifting its pokeball and returning it. He sent a glare your way as he took out a different pokeball, "Don't think for a second that counts towards anything, cuz now I'll be using one of my actually strong pokemon and not that piece of crap Charmander. Man I thought the Charizard line was supposed to be powerful, what a waste of money."

He tossed the pokeball in his hand into the air, not even bothering to say anything, and released a tall, majestic and utterly gorgeously furred Ninetales to face off against Sandshrew.

The second it appeared and saw Sandshrew, it sniffed in disdain, turning its nose up at your pokemon. Your eye twitched in affront at its attitude, and Sandshrew audibly snarled at the insult, tiny clawed fists clenching together so hard his arms shook.

"Let's finish this up quickly, Psychic." the cunt didn't even bother giving you any warning to the next round starting. Just snapped off an order. Ninetales eyes lit up with a neon blue power, and Sandshrew was suddenly lifted up into the air, a similarly coloured, thick blue aura suffusing his entire body.

"Fight through it!" you snapped out quickly. You don't have much experience with psychic types even with your lessons under Oak and many practice battles you took part in, they were just that rare. But what you did know, is that they had a limit to what they could hold with Confusion and Psychic. The heavier, or stronger something was that struggled against the hold, the harder it was for them to keep them held.

"SHREWW!" your pokemon hissed and snarled fighting against the blue aura. And for a moment, you saw the blue power around his body waver, and the Ninetales growled lowly itself, legs shaking a bit.

"Tch, a bit stronger than the usual scrub huh?" the orange haired teen clicked his tongue, "You're just lucky Ninetales only learned Psychic not long ago - just smash him Ninetales!"

This guy, is a real cunt. The way he tries to talk you into not reacting.

"Poison Sting!" you countered yourself.

Ninetales jerked its head towards the ground, and Sandshrew was pulled alongside the direction change. But mid-way, he shook his head hard, and from his mouth, spat out a barrage of glinting purple needles of energy.

Concentrating as it was, Ninetales couldn't dodge, and squealed in pain as the barrage of needles stabbed into its snout. And right after, a bolt of purple electricity swept across the fire type's body, and the fur on its face took on a sickly purple hue.

"Lucky, little bastard!" your opponent cursed.

You grinned, punching forward, "Take Down!" you ordered, "Show it what you think of that insult to you!"

With a snarl, Sandshrew obeyed. With the psychic aura disappearing from around his body, he used the momentum of his fall as he rolled into a ball to pick up speed, and shot forward like a bullet, white aura catching flame around his body.

Ninetales again, disoriented from just being poisoned, couldn't react in time. Sandshrew smashed into Ninetales so hard, the much larger fire type was sent flying over twenty feet, flipped through the air twice, and then slammed into the ground face first.

Dig!" you followed up quickly.

Sandshrew obeyed, and the second he came out of his roll, dove into the ground and quickly burrowed down deep.

Your opponent to your surprise barely reacted. "Hey kid, you know what time it is?" he asked, confusing you.

Weird. You eyed Ninetales as it struggled to its feet.

"Like four in the afternoon." you answered back.

The prick shook his heard and smirked, "Not quite what I meant." he replied.

The ground buckled underneath Ninetales a moment later, and Sandshrew launched up from beneath it, driving a glowing fist straight into Ninetales stomach and shooting it up into the air, drawing another squeal of pain from the fire type. At the same time, your opponent raised his hand and pointed at the sun.

"It's late afternoon and the sun is high in the sky." his eyes glinted menacingly, and he clicked his fingers demandingly towards Sandshrew, "Solarbeam, now!"

Ninetales, curled up into a ball when it shot high into the air, and the second its trainer ordered, its eyes snapped open and before you could think of anything, in a split moment, it fired a large, blinding white beam of solar energy straight from its mouth.

Sandshrew reacted before you did, opening his mouth he fired his swift attack into the oncoming beam trying to push it back. But he failed, and the solarbeam swept through the energy stars as if they weren't even there and plowed into your pokemon.

The clearing shook from the force of the impact. And when the light cleared, there was a crater where it struck, easily five feet deep, and in the centre, your Sandshrew lay limp.

"Any trainer worth their salt keeps an eye on the environment," your opponent taunted, as his Ninetales fell and landed nimbly on its feet. It winced as another spark of purple electricity sparked across its body, but its trainer ignored it, "With the sun out, all that solar energy was there ready for the taking. A bit of advice for a scrub like you, in the sun, pokemon that have learned how passively absorb that energy. It's a nice little trick for turning a battle around."

You scowled, "Thanks for the advice." you bit out, raising your pokeball and returning Sandshrew. You'd see how smug he was when you turned things around.