It had been—well, to be fair it had been some time since he’d rotated between his stronger Pokémon—and he did promise this match to a particular one—

Ravana the Charizard was already out on his side of the field, flexing her wings and taking off the moment he’d crossed the arena to take his position.

“Show me what you’ve got!” he called from across the field.

“You get first move.”

And up against a Skarmory, too…

He was pretty sure that despite the obvious type advantage that Ravana had, this Skarmory had something hidden up its sleeve.

There went the Skarmory, straight into the air—it was behaving similarly to a Gale Wings Talonflame, oh he’d seen so plenty of those with some of the other staffers.

In fact, one particular member who hoarded Fletchling like it was going extinct, that crazy guy named Ilima, was planning something that would definitely rival his own horde of Pikipek…

The Charizard followed the speck as it flew skywards, keeping her eyes on the incoming Pokémon before the Skarmory quickly pivoted mid-air and suddenly kicking up a dust cloud as the opponent came in low before lashing out with a Slashing attack in an attempt to catch her off-guard.

The sudden dirt being kicked up in her field of vision caused the Charizard to roar out of surprise, before bellowing and breathing out a wildly-swinging burst of Flamethrower.

The moment the Sandstorm kicked up, he knew he had to end this soon.

“Don’t lose your head!” he called out to the Charizard, who shook her head before keeping an eye on the Skarmory—and watching its every single move.

While the weather change was going to be detrimental to the Charizard in the long run, he knew that she had to end this as quickly as possible—and there was only one attack that could do that. No, wait, maybe two… if Ravana timed her shit right.

Maybe three, but that was wishful thinking.

At least for now, though, the Charizard was now lasered in on the approaching Skarmory before giving the other avian her most terrifying moue in the form of a Scary Face, an attempt to scare the other long enough to hopefully slow down—

And then, should the terrifying moue be effective, a sudden powerful peppered burst of concentrated Flamethrower would be flung, head-on, at the approaching Skarmory.

While the earlier Flamethrower did its job, damn the Skarmory was still standing. How much would it take to bring the metal avian down?

He’d fucked up ever so slightly only having a singular attack effective against the Steel-type, but there was something else he had up his sleeve—to distract the other Pokémon before moving in to force the switch.

A sudden cloud of dark-colored grit was kicked up in the approaching Skarmory’s face, before the Charizard backed away and cut a sharp turn—attempting to reach the vulnerable back side of the steel-plated avian.

Once the Charizard had put enough distance and was estimated close to where she would aim—another sudden, peppered blast of Flamethrower flew from her maw.

The weather was really doing a number on his Charizard, and even she had to squint through the grit as the Skarmory finally fell—only to reveal a Magneton (or was it a Magnezone? Visibility was really fucked up within the swirling grit) as the Charizard felt like there were a bunch of eyes observing her every movement—from every direction, all at once.

“Ravana, be care—” be blurted out, before the sudden appearance of a Zap Cannon came crashing down all around her.

While normally the attack would’ve missed, fact of the matter was that before the Electric-type had come to strike her, there was a Lock-On combination tied to it.

With so much electricity coursing through her body, the Charizard let out a pained roar, before collapsing on the ground. One red beam later, and his next Pokémon was out on the field—and the lone head roared in the Magneton’s direction.

Even if it wasn’t going to be possible to smack the Magneton with Earthquake (much as he was tempted to) the Hydreigon instead went for Working Up his body, psyching himself before quickly exhibiting menace and charging forward with a Dragon Rush attack in the other dual-type’s direction.

It worked, albeit it would take more than that to knock the Magneton down.

Now, Alexei was erring on the side of caution—what if this Magneton could avoid Ground-type attacks? That would be the problem within the equation, and he really didn’t want to risk it however the draconid had other ideas—

The ‘heads’ on its hands roared, before the main head roared itself, and then swung his tail forward, attempting to bonk bash the Magneton down onto the ground where a violent tremor would shake the immediate vicinity in the form of an Earthquake.

While the Tri-Attack would hit, at least none of the potential status changes had stuck, so they were still in the clear—for now.

However, a downed opponent was a dangerous opponent, and therefore in order to strafe away, the Hydreigon then breathed out a burst of Dragon Breath to put some distance between himself and the Magnet Pokémon.

Imagine his surprise when the Earthquake attack actually struck a hit on the Magneton—so it was one of the kind that didn’t have the dangerous move in their move set yet, because once anything got their hands on Magnet Rise had their hands (or claws, or in this case magnets) on the technique in question, then it would be one hell of a time trying to knock a Magneton down.

Luckily for Aaron, the Hydreigon didn’t know Flamethrower; but Alexei was going to be training the Hydreigon after this match (once the draconid had recovered).

Fighting a draconid into a draw was what usually what went down when he used most of his part-Dragon types in gym battles; and this was looking to be one of those matches.

He couldn’t fault the other for facing adversity head-on, so even with the last-ditch Dragon Breath attack from the Hydreigon, a much more powerful one came crashing soon afterward (Steel Beam) and had pretty much cancelled out the Hydreigon’s attack.

The bright explosion of light had made Alexei turn away (as well as shield his eyes) in order to avoid being blinded. Once the dust had settled—the Magneton had fallen on Aaron’s side of the field, and his own Hydreigon was… teetering, as well; before the mighty draconid let out one last roar before crashing down onto the dirt as well.

“Dang,” he began once the dust had cleared, recalling the Hydreigon back into his Pokéball before crossing the debris-strewn battlefield.

“If there’s one thing you should keep with you, it’s the tenacity to never give up in the face of danger; more so when the odds are stacked against you.”

Even if the win had been in his direction; it was still a draw, but the young man had proven himself.

“You’re still young,” he remarked once he’d found what he was looking for while rummaging in his jacket.

“You have so much more to prove to the world. Your limitations are only hindered by your state of mind. There’s an endless sky above all of us, and I know you can reach as high as you want to go.”

He then gestured for the younger man to hold out his hand, and he then dropped something small and cold in it.



“Go forward and face everything head-on, fearless as you are. Congratulations!”