Into the Unown (Pokemon Fanfiction OC)

“Aquarium Girl, I challenge you to a Pokemon battle!”

Nina sighed at the petite girl who ambushed her at the Gym’s entrance and was now pointing at her with a ridiculous pose. “Good to know she has something in common with her friend I guess.”

The girl who was being challenged looked towards the sky and checked the time on her Pokegear. Nina had asked to be let off early today because she wanted to go visit Bill. “I guess, I can spare 10 minutes…” She muttered, before gesturing at Lucy to follow her.

“Come on, I’ve got stuff to do today, so we’ll battle elsewhere.” Nina just kept walking to her designated bus stop without bothering to check if her stalker had bothered to follow suit.

“Hey Mr Norm.” Nina greeted when she got on the bus. Espy had already gone ahead and secured their usual spot, not that she needed to since the bus was empty as usual around this time.

Nina took out boxes of snacks from her backpack and handed it to the bus driver. “I got you some souvenirs from Vermilion City.”

The silent bus driver nodded in response while flashing the girl a thumbs up and a smile.

Nina paid her fare and continued into the bus to see that Lucy was already seated in the opposite aisle and staring at Espy in fascination. Her Charmeleon was out as well and sitting right next to her.

Nina was tempted to ask if she could pet the Charmeleon, but she expected the other girl would probably ask to pet Espy in return. And from the looks of it, Nina’s princess did not like their tagalong very much. So she opted not to, and just sat next to Espy to silently read an ebook on her Pokedex.

She could tell that the other girl was fidgeting awkwardly in her seat, but Nina could not be bothered. She was too tired from a day's worth of work to entertain the girl. 

***

“Nair!” Nairy cried out excitedly at the sight of their usual fishing spot outside the Sea Cottage. 

Nina chuckled and called out to her partner. “It's been a while huh, buddy?” 

“Nair!” The Dragonair looked at Nina with sparkling eyes and she could tell that her oversized noodle boy was itching to get into the water. 

“Alright Nairy, you have until Brucey is done with the battle. Make sure to come back when you hear me calling, otherwise I'll have to sic Espy on you.” 

Nairy let out one more excited cry before rushing to dive into the water. 

“I wanted to fight that Dragonair!” Lucy exclaimed. But Nina just ignored the girl and found a relatively flat space to have their battle. 

“Well too bad.” Nina retorted. “You're the challenger, so I get to decide the terms.” She then turned to Espy. “Espy, do you mind being the ref?” 

“Wait, so if you're not gonna use your Dragonair or your Espeon, then what the heck are you going to use?!”

In response to the girl's query, Nina simply released her mischievous Golbat onto the field. “If you can beat Brucey then I'll consider letting you fight Espy. Honestly it's a good thing we're doing this out of the public eye ‘cause Brucey needs to practice his new move.”

Nina glanced towards Brucey who simply acknowledged her intent with his usual unsettling laughter. “Kukuku…” 

Lucy frowned. “So it's a one on one then?”

“Nope, feel free to use your full team.” 

The blonde girl scowled in response to her belittlement. “I'll make you regret looking down on Lucy Yokarashi! I'm the girl who's going to be Kanto’s first female Champion!” She declared. 

Nina nodded in approval. “A worthy goal,” she thought. “It’s a shame that Lilian will probably beat her to it.”

She then signaled for Espy to start them off, which the Pokemon did by tossing a stone into the middle of the field. 

Oddly enough, Lucy’s first pick wasn’t her Manectric as Nina was expecting, but a Rhydon instead. 

“Rock Blast, Rhydon. Bring it down!”

Rhydon stomped its feet and began blasting loose gravel onto the sky which eventually rained back down to pelt Brucey on both sides.

“Ahh… so she wanted to use the terrain.” Nina was honestly quite impressed by her ingenuity. “Sorry Professor Oak, I take back everything bad I said about you.” 

Unfortunately for Lucy and her Rhydon, Brucey was quite adept at dodging random projectiles at this point thanks to all the training Nina put him through, so majority of the Rock Blast missed its mark. Though the few that did hit, was able to do a fair bit of damage, as Brucey’s flight pattern looked a bit more disorientated than usual.

However, Nina’s Golbat wasn’t just idly taking damage. While Rhydon was busy with its barrage of projectiles, Brucey was sneaking in Supersonics every chance he got, causing the Rhydon’s spray to become wider each time. Sometimes even shooting blanks because the bipedal rhino had scooped up sand instead.

At one point, the Confusion became too much to bear as Rhydown stepped into a divot that it had unknowingly dug and tripped on its face.

Lucy cried out in alarm, but that opening was all that Brucey needed to stretch his dominance. Beginning with a loud Screech to further overwhelm the Rhydon and swooping in with a Kage Bunshin.

Brucey was only able to create eight clones from the attempt. But all the clones impacted the incapacitated Rhydon with a loud crash while the Golbat took advantage of the chaos to sink a Poison Fang into Rhydon. Unfortunately, the poison did not take hold, since Rhydon’s hide was too thick.

Seeing that his Poison was ineffective, Brucey swooped back up to the air to continue with his Supersonic harassment mixed in with the occasional Shadow Ball that he learned from Itachi the Crobat.

Rhydon was completely at Brucey’s mercy as Lucy gritted her teeth in frustration. Everytime that the Pokemon broke free from its Confusion, it would just be put right back into the state again. 

There were also a few times where Lucy tried to get her Rhydon to buff up and hunker down to wear out the harassment, but a few timely Taunts from Brucey put a stop to that.

Eventually Rhydon wore itself out by spamming indiscriminate Hyper Beams into the sky in frustration, which Brucey just handily dodged around. It was just a straight line of Energy after all. 

No more than three Hyper Beams in and Rhydon was panting in exhaustion, the Pokemon’s appalling state further compounded by the poison inflicted from a couple of Sludge Bombs to the face. And after letting out a feeble roar, Rhydon finally wobbled and fainted from the exhaustion.

“You should have used Sandstorm,” advised Nina. “That would have been enough to give you the edge.” But Lucy just scowled and returned her Pokemon. Nina didn’t blame the girl, Sandstorm wasn’t a very popular move because of how messy it was. Not being able to see through it also gave most trainers a lot of anxiety.

Brucey was looking a little weak as well, but Nina judged that he could still go a few more rounds. That was unless Lucy’s Manectric, which she sent out next, managed to take down her Golbat.

But when the new round began, Nina understood why Lucy didn’t send out the Electric Type earlier. Her Manectric was clearly more conditioned towards being a physical attacker as evident by the limited range of its Thunderbolts.

By the time that the bolts of lightning reached anywhere near Brucey, their force had largely dissipated and would cause minimal harm even if Nina’s Golbat hadn’t dodged out of the way. It was a far cry even compared to the Thunder that Lilian unleashed with her Dratini.

A Screech, another barrage of Supersonics, a couple of Sludge Bombs and a few experimental Kage Bunshins later, and Manetric was down for the count.

Nina shook her head. “I understand wanting to cater to your Pokemon’s preferences and strengths. But Electric Type moves are some of the easier ones to train among the elements. It doesn’t hurt to expand your Manectric’s arsenal a little bit.”

The next Pokemon to be sent out was a Pidgeotto, a species that naturally preyed on Zubats. A shame the bird could barely maintain its flight after an omnidirectional Supersonic from Brucey. “A Pidgeot probably would have been able to overwhelm Brucey, but it can’t be helped. No point forcing an Evolution just for a win.”

While Lucy did indeed have five Pokemon, the fifth was a brand new Magby that she caught recently. So realistically, her Charmeleon was going to be the last.

Charmeleon had been by Lucy’s side the entire time, watching in barely contained frustration as every one of his companions got taken out by the insidious Golbat. So by the time that he stepped onto the field, the fire on his tail was blazing hotter than ever.

“Oh boy, we’re gonna see some shonen level shenanigans aren’t we?” Nina mused.

And sure enough, the moment that Espy signaled for the match to begin, the Charmeleon let out the biggest blast of Flamethrower that Nina had ever seen. Big enough to qualify as a Fire Blast, were it not for the lack of density and destructive power.

“Kukuku…” Brucey let out a strained laugh as he struggled to fly high enough to get out of the way. Hot air rises after all, so there was no escaping from the wave of heat that enveloped the Golbat. And for the first time since the match began, Nina called out an order. 

“Don’t bother, Brucey. Try to get close! Send out clones ahead of you and dive down. See if you can circulate Air Cutters around you as a shield as well.” Nina hadn’t been with Brucey long enough to develop code words and tacit understandings, so she had no choice but to give clear instructions.

Brucey did as he was told, a bombardment of Kage Bunshins plowed through the flames, and paved a perilous path for Brucey to go through. However, the flames were too strong and destroyed the flimsy clones midway through, subjecting Brucey to the full wrath of Charmeleon’s Flamethrower with only a thin stream of air to shield him. But even that flimsy barrier was quickly consumed by the flames

Brucey made it through in the end, but looked severely charred from the ordeal. Nina called for a Sludge Bomb, which Lucy countered by telling Charmeleon to use Fire Spin all around him.

Nina could have ceded the round and called it here. But figured there was no harm in pushing Brucey to his limits every once in a while. “Uproar,” she called, as the girl tightened the earplugs in her ears and returned Espy to her Pokeball.

The indiscriminate blast of sound was powerful enough to dispel the flames, causing both Lucy and her Charmeleon to cover their ears in pain. 

Wild bird Pokemon flew into the air in the distance from the sudden barrage of noise. Even Nairy poked his head out of the water to see what was going on.

But instead of succumbing, Charmeleon let out a roar of its own and began glowing. Nina grinned at the sight, thinking that this was truly an anime moment, having already accepted her loss.

Charmeleon grew; wings formed behind its back, tail extending and neck protruding. Its fire blazed hotter than ever as it roared out in triumph. 

“CHARIZAAARD!!!”

Lucy looked at her newly evolved partner in awe, tears welling in her eyes from the deluge of emotions she was feeling at the moment. 

One Fire Blast later and Brucey was down for the count. Nina smiled and returned her Pokemon. “Congratulations. That is an absolute beauty of a Charizard,” said the girl, as she couldn’t help but admire the smoldering sheen on the pseudo-Dragon’s scales. “Absolutely incredible…”

Charizard huffed in pride, evidently still ready for more as the Fire Pokemon roared out in a challenging tone, and looked towards Nairy who was watching from the water.

Nina chuckled at her opponent’s enthusiasm. “What do you say, Nairy? Wanna show Charizard what a real Dragon can do.”

“Nair!” Her happy-go-lucky partner responded in a jovial manner as he swam towards shore and entered the field.

“Now that’s what I’m talking about! Show that Dragonair who’s boss, Charizard!” Lucy yelled in excitement.

“Char!!!”

Nina let out Espy again and waited for her to call the match.

One. That was the number of moves it took for Nairy to put an end to Charizard’s celebration. A single Double Pulse, Nairy’s special concoction of Dragon Pulse and Water Pulse, was all it took.

Charizard didn’t even stand a chance as it tried to unleash a Fire Blast onto Nairy, only to find the blue and purple bolt of condensed Type Energy easily punching through the flames and slammed right into its face. The newly evolved Charizard unceremoniously tumbled onto the ground without even so much as a whimper.

Lucy stood frozen on her side of the field, unable to get over the whiplash from how quickly things ended.

“Right, that’s it then I guess. Let’s get your Pokemon healed up.” Nina declared. “It’s quite a ways back to the city so I’ll take you to Professor Bill’s place. They should have medical equipment available in the lab.”

***

Author's Note:

Not entirely happy with this chapter. In particular, the battle scene. So any feedback is appreciated.