Chapter Eight

Fire Fighting

Everybody wants to be a Master,

Everybody wants to show their skills,

Everybody wants to get there faster,

Make their way to the top of the hill.

Each time, you try,

Gonna get just a little bit better,

Each step, you climb,

It’s one more step up the ladder.

It’s a whole new world we live in,

It’s a whole new way to see,

It’s a whole new place, with a brand new attitude,

But you’ve still gotta catch them all,

Be the best that you can.

<Sam’s Point of View>

There was no turning back now.

That was my first thought as I walked into the Gym. My second one was, it’s hot! Very hot! Panic overload!

I hated heat, and I hated cold. I always had to be comfortable, temperature wise, or I got grumpy.

By the looks of it, I had to cross a puzzle. I don’t know how they make these things, but they do. The stone pillar nearest to me in the lava was blue, and right next to it on the left, the pillar was red. I looked down at the row of pillars closest to me, they were in the order of yellow, green, red, blue, grey and then orange. The next row was the same, except all the pillars had moved over to the right, so where red had been, there was green. The orange one was where the yellow had been. I looked at them all, if it was a puzzle, it was a good one.

I finally racked up the nerve to jump onto one of the pillars, I chose the blue one, and almost yelled when it started sinking. I jumped from it to the grey on beside it, but it started sinking too. The orange one sank before I jumped back to the beginning. Instantly, the pillars rose from the lava. I scowled at them. I looked again at the rows of pillars. There were seven rows in all; the things that stood out the most were the straight rows of yellow, and the almost straight row of orange. I mused on that, wondering if I should jump on one of those, before I remembered that I’d already jumped on one of the oranges. That left the yellow. I hopped onto it, and hopped back as it sank slowly.

I gritted my teeth and tried a different approach. I focused more on the pillars, rather than the colours. I bent over as close as I could to one of the pillars. I frowned at it, willing a solution to come out of thin air, but none came. I sighed, and my eyes dropped to look down at the lava, and as they did, I noticed a design on the side of the pillar. It looked like a lightning bolt. I smiled then, now it made sense! I still had two pillars left to try, so I tried the green one, and, as I expected, it sank. I jumped over to the red one, and sighed with relief when it stayed still. I looked at the three options within my reach now: Lightning, Grass and another Fire. I frowned, and then jumped to the Grass one, and sighed when it held. Now I had lightning, fighting, and Grass again. This one was trickier, seeing as Grass wasn’t really effective against any of them. I thought for a moment, when a picture of a Hitmonchan came into my mind, a Pokemon Card. I grinned, and quickly jumped to the Fighting, and then again to the Dark. I stopped there. The pillars types started changing; now I could see Fire on a blue pillar, and so on. I looked carefully, and then saw an eye on another purple. The symbol of Psychic types! I leapt to the purple one again. The fighting symbol was on the red, and the poison symbol was on the purple one. I looked at each of them, carefully weighing up differences, in battle Psychic was better than Poison, for reasons unknown, I mused. But Psychic was strong against Fighting, because brains beat brawn, I guess. I thought again, and then jumped to the fighting. Psychics were best against Fighting because Fighting usually had low Special Defences!

The next one was the hardest, because I had Ice on the yellow, Rock on the Red and Dark on the Green. I sighed with frustration, this one was REALLY hard! I thought hard, weighing up the differences. Fighting is best against, Rock? No, they usually had high defences. Dark? No, they were usually faster and some of them could even use Psychic abilities. Ice? Usually slower, but had high defences and high special attack. I sighed, and picked one out randomly, and jumped to the red one, Rock.

Once on the large platform, I almost fell over from relief. That was not an experience I wanted to do again, but I’d have to, to get out.

I wandered to the middle of the Pokeball painted on the platform, looking around for a sign of life. When there was none, I shrugged and called out, “Hello?”

The door at the other end of the platform opened, and out walked, no, strutted a guy in his mid twenties. He had red hair, almost as red as mine, he wore sunglasses and lots of leather clothes. He obviously thought he was cool. I resisted the urge to laugh, and said to him, “Are you the Gym Leader?”

“It’s Blair, not Gym Leader, Blair.” The guy said, stepping lightly on his stepping stones to the platform. He did it as though it weren’t boiling hot magma that flowed beneath his feet. When he saw the look on my face, he smiled and removed his sunglasses, showing green eyes. “Don’t worry, it’s just tomato soup, heated of course, but it’s still close enough in look to lava. So, you wanna battle?”

I nodded, the fear in my stomach gone. I knew I was blushing, I’d been afraid of tomato soup! It would have been funny, if I’d known, but, I hadn’t, so there we go.

“Ok, this’ll be a two-on-two battle. I pick my Pokemon first, and I’m not allowed to switch.” Blair said, grabbing a Pokeball from his belt and twirled it on the end of his finger as it enlarged. I raised an eyebrow, unimpressed. I walked to my end of the field, excited. This would be my first Gym battle!

Just as I got to my end, Blair released his Pokemon, a Magby. I looked at it, startled, and then sent Zeus out. I’d have the advantage of flight here.

“Magma, use your Lava Wave!” Blair said. I frowned, I’d never heard of it, but I countered almost immediately.

“Zeus, Rain Dance!” I called. Zeus started glowing, and clouds appeared on the roof, and it started raining, as a large wave of fire started to flow out of Magma’s mouth towards Zeus. The rain making some of the lava turn to rock. “Ok Zeus, shatter it with Thunderbolt!”

Zeus released his thunderhead, with a boom that made me cover my ears instantly. I saw Blair do the same, but he let go of his ears and pointed at the Magby. “Ok, that didn’t work. Sunny Day Magma!”

The clouds on the roof disappeared, and the heat in the room seemed to double. I started sweating, but there should be ways that Zeus could counter this. I wasn’t going to make him use Rain Dance again, because Magma would just use Sunny Day again. “Um, Zeus, Water Gun!”

Zeus obeyed, and shot a stream of water at the Magby. The Water Gun seemed smaller than usual, which must have been an effect of Sunny Day I realised. The Magby was hit full on by the Water Gun, but not much damage seemed to have been done. My mind started racing, I was scrambling for something to do when Magma released another Lava Wave, which hit Zeus right in the middle of his cloud mass. The attack went right through Zeus, but it had hurt him. “Zeus, water isn’t gonna work! Try your electricity!”

Zeus nodded. It was now I realised that he hadn’t spoken to me yet. I wondered why vaguely, but that thought soon went as I went back to the battle. “Zeus, tr Hydro-electricity!”

This was another move we’d invented together, with help from Brendan. Zeus shot a stream of water at the Magby, and with it, a Thunderbolt attack. The effect was usually devastating, if it hit. It was hard to aim, but I had a feeling that Magma wouldn’t expect it. I was right, and it hit, but instead, the electricity seemed to soak into Magma’s body. I frowned, this battle wasn’t going well, at all.

“So, you’re starting to realise why people find this Gym so hard.” Blair called out, grinning from ear to ear. “Why don’t you give up now, and I won’t even take your money!”

I gritted my teeth. Time for an attack that Magma could NOT absorb. I’d only gotten Zeus to use this attack on one other occasion, when battling Hope’s Yoryu. “Zeus, Rain of Lightning!”

The clouds on the roof came back again, fast. A cold wind whipped around the room, pulling at my clothes. Artemis braced himself on my shoulder as the winds came and went. The air in the Gym suddenly seemed to crackle, and Zeus was in the middle of it all, glowing a deep, white colour. The clouds on the roof swirling around, the faster they spun, the stronger the wind, until I was forced to use my powers to stay up right. The clouds had grown large in this time, and suddenly rain was released, hissing whenever they hit the Magby’s body. And with a sudden cracking, the clouds on the roof opened up, and many, heavy, thunderheads hit the floor of the Gym, and started circling around Magma, who was looking extremely worried. And then the thunder started going in closer to Magma, who eventually was trapped by them all. Black lines created by the lightning showed on the floor, spiralling in, I noted. The thunderheads suddenly came together, and released a blinding flash of light. I‘d been prepared for that, so I had covered my eyes, and shut them, which prevented me from being blinded. I opened my eyes and removed my hands, and saw Magma on the ground, knocked out. Zeus was hovering near the roof, panting. That attack had taken a lot out of him. It was like Hyper Beam, after being used, the user had to rest a while.

Once Blair had regained his vision, he returned Magma to its Pokeball and glared at me. “I’m gonna make you wish you hadn’t done that. Go, Volcano!” And from the Pokeball erupted a Magmar, the full grown version of Magby. It stood there, its eyes half shut in boredom as it looked at Zeus. And then, with one punch, fire blossoming around its fist, it felled Zeus.

“Great job Zeus, come back!” I said, holding out his Pokeball. I then turned my head to look at Artemis. “You ready?”

Artemis shot me a funny look, but bounded off my shoulder and into the ring. Volcano looked down at him, looking as smug as a Magmar could be. And suddenly, its fist hit the ground where Artemis had been, making a scorch mark. At this rate, the floor of the Gym was going to be completely black. I was actually surprised that it wasn’t already.

Artemis, having fast reflexes, had dashed out of the way as Volcano’s fist had come down. Now he retaliated by shooting Volcano from behind with a Water Stream attack. Volcano fell forward, but got up quickly and turned, a large stream of fire spilling from its beak-like mouth as it turned. Artemis ducked, and just missed having the Flamethrower hitting him. I winced as well, but called out to Artemis, “Flood Roll!”

Artemis tucked himself into a ball and rolled forward, knocking Volcano from his feet again. Artemis unrolled quickly, so that he wouldn’t get dizzy and jumped up, coming down on Volcano with a Body Slash move, using the water that had been on his body from the Flood Roll to do damage.

“Now, follow that up with a Water Gun!” I called out. I was grinning; Volcano hadn’t been able to land a hit yet.

“Volcano, triple strike!” Blair said, his voice easily carrying over the field. Volcano was suddenly up, and with one hit, it punched Artemis towards the ground, and then up in the air, and as he was coming down, a straight punch that made Artemis fly towards Blair. The tables had turned suddenly. Artemis looked like he’d been seriously hurt, and I didn’t want him in a position where he might be in real danger.

“Artemis, Rain Dance, and then Water Spout!” The clouds reappeared on the roof for a third time, and then Artemis sprayed the whole field with water. There was no mud, the platform being entirely rock, so that meant Artemis couldn’t use Mud Slap. But with water everywhere, Volcano was being hurt by every step it took, and every drop of rain that hit it.

“Volcano, Fire Wheel!” Blair yelled, so he could be heard over the sound of the rain, pattering loudly as it hit the platform. A ring of fire surrounded Volcano, and spread out, drying the rock as it went over the platform, and hit Artemis. Artemis flew back, and landed in the Tomato Soup Lava. I stared in shock, and then made moves to run to where he had gone, when he jumped out of the soup behind the Magmar, and hit it towards the edge of the platform, perilously close.

“Goodbye.” Artemis said, and shot Volcano with a blast of water, sending it into the soup. Just as it was about to hit the surface, a red beam of light hit Volcano, turning it into energy, and Volcano was sucked back into its Pokeball, the one being held by a scowling Blair.

My heart leapt, I’d won my first battle against a Gym Leader. I’d won my first Badge! I stared in disbelief at Blair, but then remembered Artemis. I ran over to him, where he was panting on he ground and picked him up, hugging him. “Great job buddy.” I whispered to him.

And in the middle of all the rain, Blair walked towards me, something red glimmering in his hand. I smiled, and relinquished my strangling hold on Artemis, who clambered up from my arms and onto my shoulder again.

“For beating an Official Gym of Dictioy,” Blair rattled off, in a monotone that showed he wasn’t happy, and that he’d said this speech many times, “I present to you an Official Badge, the Flare Badge. Wear it with pride, and use it to enter the Diamond League.”

I looked at him and raised my eyebrow again. “Thanks.” I said, taking the badge from his hand and looking at it, as rain beat down. It looked like the symbol of fire, but curved around a bit more. I took my pack off and opened one of the side pockets, and took out my Badge Case. I opened it, and smiled as I heard familiar songs playing to me. I gently pinned the badge in there, and then put it back.

Blair scowled at me sourly. “I don’t know how you did it, but you won. And you messed up my hair. You’d better win the League; otherwise I’ll take penance for you messing up my hair.” He said, glaring at me. I couldn’t tell if he was joking or not, so I nodded, and left the Gym, trying not to grin.

<28^th of Echotrance, 11:30 am>

I picked up my pack, and looked down at Nick and Brendan. Today I was leaving, and I had no sympathy for the two of them. They were staying behind; they still needed to recover from their experience. They glared back at me, obviously irritated.

“So, either of you two want to go drinking again?” I asked them pleasantly. I’d already spoken to them about it, and I think I had them intimidated. But just to be sure, I asked them again.

“Yes.” Nick muttered to his wall.

“What was that?” I asked, being loud when I asked him. He winced, still not over his hangover. I’d discovered that Nick in particular hated loud noises.

“No Sam, I won’t go drinking again.”

“Good, because me and Kat aren’t gonna be here to get your sorry butts out of your problems.” I said to them. Kat had decided earlier this morning that she was coming with me. After winning my Badge yesterday, I’d gone shopping, so I was ready to go. Kat had gone shopping, but she’d called my Poke-Nav to tell me she was on her way back. Artemis and Zeus had needed a night to recover after yesterday, but they were back to normal now, Artemis back on my right shoulder.

I’d received word from Aaron that my Mareep was about half paid off, so if I was lucky, I’d be able to get it when we got to Romanc City, or to Rorroh Town. They were both the same distance from here, and they were almost right next to each other, being separated by a small Route.

Katrina suddenly came bursting through the door, and saw the look on Nick’s face at the loud sound of the door slamming. “Oh, sorry. Am I being too loud?” Like me, her voice was being loud just for Nick. With a groan, he lifted his pillow from beneath his head and covered his face and ears with it.

“What was I thinking of, by going there?” I heard his muffled voice saying.

“Physical pleasure.”

“Yeah, physical- HEY!” I grinned and ran out the door, just as a pillow slammed into the wall.

I was finally out of sight of the city, and much happier. I’d felt crowded there, being used to smaller towns. The largest city I’d been in before I’d been to Arw had been Rayquaza City, on Southern Island.

I breathed in deeply; glad to be able to smell fresh air, instead of the smoggy stuff in Arw. Katrina walked beside me, I wasn’t too sure if she was happy or not, but then again, it was hard to tell her moods just by looking at her face anyway.

“Hey, you there!” A voice caught my attention, and I saw a man in his twenties, running towards us. I stiffened; did he want to hurt us? , but he just wanted a battle with Kat. I let her battle, and while she did, I looked at my Pokedex. I hadn’t really taken a good look at it yet, and I decided now would be as good a time as any.

I flipped my Pokedex open, and pressed a grey button inside that made the list of Pokemon come up. I clicked on the first Pokemon, and listened as Tetra, my Pokedex, gave information on it.

Oaseed, the Acorn Pokemon. This Pokemon can be found around oak trees, where they make their homes, waiting for rain. Once it starts raining, they sink their feet into the ground, and start to sprout small twigs and leaves. In this state, they can be easily caught, but it has been found that Floreed caught in this state disobey their owners the most. They have a strict sense of honour, if an enemy is too weak to battle, the Floreed won’t attack. When hit from behind, they will use Rage, and then beat the opponent into oblivion.

This Pokemon evolves into Ocareen, at level 20.

I stared dubiously at the picture of Oaseed. It looked a lot like Seedot, but it was a lot darker, and had several twigs coming out of it. And the cap on its head was a golden colour, not grey. All in all, it looked like a healthier version of Seedot. I wondered vaguely if there were any Oaseed around here, but dismissed that thought almost immediately. There weren’t any oak trees on this Route.

I clicked on the next Pokemon.

Ocareen, the Ocarina Pokemon. After absorbing many nutrients and minerals, an Oaseed will evolve to an Ocareen. This Pokemon seems to be hollow in places, thus making musical noises when there is wind. Ocareen from all over the world gather to a spot once a year, in Autumn, and host the great Festival of the Winds, in Nofiton Town. Great storms happen in Dictioy during Autumn, but during the Festival of the Winds, the Ocareen sink roots into the ground to prevent themselves being blown away.

This Pokemon evolves to Okora at level 40.

That sounded interesting. My only regret about being in Dictioy now was that it was the middle of Spring, and the chances were that I wouldn’t get to hear the Festival of the Winds. I looked up; Drogan was currently battling a Ledyba, the ladybug Pokemon. I shrugged and looked back down at my Pokedex.

Ocareen looked round, its fingers were long and thin, and its stomach had holes in it by the looked of it. Its head looked funny, because it was perch awkwardly on top of the round body. A long tube stretch from the top of its head, and it had a big hole in it. To catch the wind, I guess.

Okora, the Oak Tree Pokemon. It can take up to a hundred years for an Ocareen to evolve in the wild, which is why Okora are rare, but valuable. This Pokemon is able to camouflage itself in an Oak Forest, their preferred habitat, by sinking roots into the ground and shutting its eyes. If it finds a desolate landscape, Okora will shoot many seeds into it, which will grow into Oak Trees or Oaseed, depending on the gender of the parent Okora.

This Pokemon’s special move is Solarbeam.

I could see why Okora were able to camouflage easily; it looked just like an oak tree, but with feet and eyes. I imagined myself climbing a tree in a forest, only to find out it was an Okora. I grinned at the thought. I’d probably be teleporting everywhere. It was a standard psychic’s reaction, when in danger they teleported. Usually only in the same place though.

Some others, like Sabrina in Kanto, or Will of the Kantanese Elite Four, lash out telekinetically. But then again, they were two of the most powerful psychics in the world.

A boom made me look up again. Somehow, Drogan had managed to turn himself red, black and white, the same as what the Ledyba had looked like. Except the Ledyba was an ice blue now. And both were smoking, Drogan fuming slightly as he floated with his small wings. I shook my head and pointed my Pokedex at Drogan. “Conversion, a signature move of Porygon, but can be used by using Metronome.”

Drogan did look funny, the Ledyba just looked strange. I hoped the effects would wear off after the battle.

Firfly, the Fireball Pokemon. This Pokemon is mainly born from volcanoes. They are attracted to high heat levels, which are how many of them; evolve into Flasfire, by four Firfly fusing together in a heat wave. This Pokemon has complete control over fire, control that is only shared by its evolved forms and the Fire Legendaries.

This Pokemon evolves into Flasfire, at level 19.

The battle between Kat and the other guy was nearly over. Drake was out now, using his newly found Thunderwave to paralyse the other Pokemon, a Spinerak; this guy had obviously come from Johto.

Suddenly, Drake slammed into the Spinerak, sending it towards Katrina. Katrina, in turn, looked stricken, and ducked. It landed just behind her, and it turned around to face her. She stood still, frozen on the spot. I watched curiously as the Spinerak ambled past Katrina, and back into the battle. Drake was there, looking pleased with himself, and he used a Dragon Rage attack. Blue flames came from Drakes mouth and wrapped themselves around the Spinerak. When the flames cleared, Spinerak was on the ground, knocked out.

I smiled, and shut my Pokedex with an audible snap and got up. Drake slithered towards me, grinning. “Daddy! Daddy, did you see that? I did good!” Drake said, reaching me and wriggling around. I bent down and picked him up, and laughed as he wriggled in my arms. That tickled!

“Yeah, I saw it. Pretty good.” I told him. I tickled him on the stomach, and then offered him back to Katrina. She took him back, and smiled slightly as he settled himself around her shoulders. “What’s wrong?”

Katrina looked away. “I hate bugs.” She mumbled. “I’m allergic to tons of bug poison; you should see what happens when I get stung by a Weedle.”

I thought for a moment and grimaced. Ani was allergic to Beedrills, the one time she got stung by one she swelled up, like a balloon. “Don’t worry, I’d just never go to Janera if I were you, it’s bug central.”

“I know.” Katrina admitted, stroking Drake’s skin. “I never want to go there, so that’s why I’m never gonna go for the International Championship. What I want to do is better. Become the Dragon Master of the World and show Uncle Lance!” She started grinning.

I grinned too, it was pretty infectious.

I yawned and stretched. We had started to set up camp, now that it was starting to get camp. We’d each volunteered to do certain jobs, so we did them, trying to stay out of the others way. She set up both of our tents, it was a pretty cold night, while I started to try and light the fire. She had finished her tent and had started with mine when I got impatient. I glared at the fire and stretched out with my powers, and got a faceful of ash when the fire roared out of control, consuming the kindling. I felt for my eyebrows, they were still there, and scowled at Katrina, who was trying not to laugh.

“Mental note: Never try that again.” I muttered to myself and went and got some more kindling. We’d already found some suitable sized logs, and had them just waiting to go in the fire. I ended up getting the fire started the old-fashioned way, I used Zeus’s spark. Once we had a cheerful crackling going, I got out of Kat’s way as she started to make dinner. I had to feed all the Pokemon. I muttered to myself the whole time, something about telekinesis should be used for everything, and not make fires blow up. By the time I’d finished feeding the Pokemon; Katrina had started peeling some carrots. A bunch of peeled potatoes were on a plate beside her. Well, mangled potatoes. I shot them a look, and then retreated to my tent to get changed. The tent was fairly light, for a tent. And if my pack ever got too heavy, I’d levitate it. IF it didn’t backfire that is I walked out of my tent, clad in warmer clothes and holding a book. I sat down on one of the logs that were waiting to be used for firewood, and watched Katrina as she tried putting the potatoes, carrots and peas on at the same time as the pasta, IN the same pot. I shook my head, and quickly got some tongs, not overly anxious to use telekinesis right now. All I needed was a potato exploding in my face. I managed to get out the carrots, peas and pasta by tipping them into a large bowl. The potatoes I left in the pot to boil over the fire.

“Kat, a word of advice: Potatoes take longer to cook than carrots and peas.” I told her. “Are we going vegetarian tonight?”

“No, I have some mince here, and some gravy mix.” She said, pointing to the packets beside her. I nearly slapped my head in irritation. She knew nothing about the kitchen that was clear.

“Ok, Kat, you do the washing up, and I’ll do dinner.” I told her, and without waiting for an answer, started cooking the things properly. In the end, we did have what Kat intended, a stew of some kind, WITH mince, cooked in a saucepan. I gave Katrina her plate, after serving it out, and put a pot on to boil so that she could wash up. Artemis and Zeus supplied the water.

“You’ve never cooked before, have you?” I asked Kat, settling down with my meal and started to eat. “B’cause ou don sem very god at it.” I mumbled through a mouthful of food. When Kat gave me a strange look, I swallowed my food and repeated the sentence.

She sighed, again. “No, I didn’t cook that much. The most I ever cooked is popcorn and opened a can of soft-drink.”

“Well, we’ll need to fix that.” I told her cheerfully, ignoring the look on her face. She glared at me, but then turned back to her food. I smiled to myself, but the smile was a fake. Now what have I gotten myself into? I asked myself. I sincerely hoped that Kat was a good cook.

When I finished dinner, I sat among the Pokemon, leaving Kat to do the washing up. Drake slithered into my lap, while I dragged Artemis over to me to get rid of a bit of pond-weed stuck t the bottom of his stomach. Generally have stubs for arms and legs, Artemis hadn’t been able to get it. I grabbed it, and gave it to him. With a yawn, I stood up and made my way to my tent as a scream broke the air…