Daemon stood before the Pewter City gym; the crowd of people gathered outside for a ticket was overwhelming.
Every year, some trainers performed exceptionally well and were dubbed the rising stars of that generation. Some trainers got that title even before their journey started because of how famous they were due to their families.
"That would be ₽50."
The black-haired boy grabbed a ticket for the gym battles that were about to take place back-to-back. Three very famous trainers had started their journey and were about to fight for their first batch on the same day.
He walked past the ticket counter and started looking for a place to sit; the whole gym was filled to a brink.
"That's a lot of people." He muttered to himself at the crowd of nearly 10,000 people that had gathered already, and just as many were waiting outside for their tickets.
Pokémon Battles were the biggest source of entertainment for the people in this world. So much so that no other profession had touched the popularity of it, except maybe Pokémon Contests, which were starting to gain a lot of attention recently.
But that too was only in other regions.
In Kanto, home to people who loved to fight, Pokémon Battles were the niche.
Every man or woman, once in their life, had dreamt of becoming Pokémon Trainers, but only a few had succeeded in it. But even when they retired and pursued other professions, battling never left them.
Even on days when no famous trainer was coming to fight, there was always a consistent crowd of locals in the gym, much more so when three famous figures were about to fight.
"Daemon!"
Suddenly, he heard someone call his name and turned around to see an orange-haired girl waving her hand at him.
"Misty?"
"There is an empty seat over here." The orange-haired girl invited him, and the boy walked over with a smile.
"How have you been?" He asked after they shared a friendly hug.
"Don't get me started." Misty groaned as she slumped down to her seat. "Viridian Forest was a mess. We only reached Pewter yesterday."
"I hope the bug-types did not give you much trouble."
"More than those bug-types..." Misty shivered just at the thought of them before continuing. "It was Team Rocket."
"You encountered them as well?"
"You too?"
"Yeah, they wanted to steal my Pokémon...I ended up defeating them, though I got seriously injured." He pointed at his shoulder. "A Beedrill's lance, straight through here."
The orange-haired girl winced at the thought. "Arceus! Those bastards." She cursed the criminals. "Are you okay now?"
"Nurse Joy saved my life." He looked at the ceiling. While he had stayed calm about the whole ordeal, the fear of facing death so closely had left him rattled. He turned to the girl sitting beside him. "Were you fine?"
Misty could understand his thoughts, and to change the mood a little, shot a fist in the air. "Beat those shits so good, they ran away faster than they came for us."
"How?" Daemon asked with amusement before his eyes landed on the Ultra Ball that was part of the necklace Misty was wearing.
The orange-haired girl grinned as she pointed at the pokeball. "Nayla used [Hyper Beam] before they could even make a ruckus."
"Damn!" The black-haired boy was left surprised.
[Hyper Beam] was among the strongest moves a Pokémon could use. Even if someone learnt it through a TM, the energy required to use this move was too much for even second evolutions of a Pokémon to fire a beam.
So, if this Pokémon named Nayla could use [Hyper Beam] on a whim, then it only meant the said Pokémon was strong beyond belief.
Even for his Ralts, using a [Psybeam] took a lot of energy, while [Psychic], even the weakest version, was barely possible.
"That makes me feel better," Daemon said jokingly before he asked. "Where is Ash?"
Misty rolled her eyes. "He is registering for a gym battle."
"Why the judgmental tone?"
"He has a Pikachu and a Pidgeotto, both weak to Flint's rock-types. Moreover, those two have no move that is even effective, much less super effective, against rock-types." Misty just sighed at the thought. "I told him to skip the gym and train his team. By the time he would reach Cerulean, he would be more than ready, and his Pikachu would have a massive advantage."
"Let me guess, he did not listen."
"Nope!" She said, exaggerating with a 'pop' sound.
"Maybe he has a strategy?" Daemon question, giving the boy the benefit of the doubt.
Misty just shrugged. "I don't know, maybe he does, maybe he doesn't. But his Pokémon are still too weak for the gym battle. At least I told him to use his sponsor money to buy some steel-type moves from the Pokemart."
"That would do the trick."
"Hopefully." Misty clicked her tongue, frustrated because she had only tried to advise Ash, and the boy had not even bothered to give a thought to her words.
She knew the boy from Pallet Town was not a bad kid, but he was too headstrong and refused to listen even when he was wrong. Or maybe that might be why he was so good at battling...she wondered.
They had travelled the Viridian Forest together, and she had seen him fight. The passion the brown-haired boy had for Pokémon was far greater than anyone she had ever met.
Not wanting to think too much of the topic, she turned to the black-haired boy sitting beside her. "When is your gym battle?"
"Tomorrow," he said with a smile and Misty was left wide-eyed.
"You already defeated the gym trainer?"
"It wasn't too hard, honestly." Daemon just shrugged, speaking the absolute truth. "It was a week ago, and since then, my Pokémon and I have been training day in and day out."
Even today, before he had come to the gym to spectate the battles, they had not skipped on the 'training.' And when he thought about it, a smile crept to his face.
After its loss, the Dragon-type became fiercely motivated to defeat the psychic fairy. Pride would not allow it to accept that outcome as final. And just as Daemon had anticipated, that stubborn determination worked in his favour.
With each clash, with each furious charge and reluctant recovery, the dragon was starting to stop looking down on the black-haired boy and listened to his instructions, which clearly helped Deino get an upper hand once in a while over the psychic fairy.
The orange-haired girl gave him a thumbs-up. "Good. I will make sure to come to your match as well." She said excitedly before adding, "And where is your Ralts?"
"She is with Nurse Joy."
"Recovering?"
"Training."
"Huh?" Misty raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"I recently caught a dark-type Pokémon, and since my Ralts knows [Heal Pulse], I requested the Nurse Joy to teach her how to heal the other guy even though he resists psychic-type moves."
"Your Ralts knows [Heal Pulse]?" That was quite shocking to her. "And Nurse Joy agreed to teach her?"
Daemon shrugged. "I got lucky with the TM and Nurse Joy owed me one for exaggerating a few things...though she did it for the good of me."
Misty rolled her eyes. "You think its that easy to make a Nuse Joy help like that? She likely knows about the Viridian City incident...trust me, a favour with Nurse Joy goes a long way. We did a great job standing up for the nurse in Viridian City before Jenny came. It earned us a lot of brownie points among other nurses across the region."
"Really?"
"Trust me. One of my cousins is a Nurse Joy as well, and she told me about how close-knit the nurses are with each other. You help one, the rest will always have a favourable impression of you."
"Then maybe we should thank the Team Rocket for once," the black-haired boy joked
Misty clicked her tongue. "Never!" She then let out a giggle before asking. "What Pokémon did you catch?" She did not know of any dark-type that lived in Viridian Forest, but then again, it was not possible to track every single Pokémon's habitat.
Even though Viridian Forest was primarily filled with bug-types, many other species lived in that forest apart from the latter. Heck, she even knew of a few species rarely found in Kanto living within that forest and a few more in the mountain range that separated Pewter City from Cerulean.
Moreover, since Kanto and Johto were so close, it was not uncommon to find species of their respective regions living in the other. One of her older sisters had even recently caught a Mantine, a species commonly found in Johto.
"I will keep it a secret for now."
"Oh, come on! You can't raise my curiosity and then end it like that."
"I am going to do exactly that."
"I hate you. Hmph!" Misty turned away before her eyes landed on a boy with orange-brown hair, unlike her's that were a brighter shade of orange. "That's Cross."
"Who?" Daemon asked and then followed Misty's finger. "Why does he look angry?"
"That's his resting face." The orange-haired girl chuckled.
The black-haired boy watched the other boy, who was the first challenger he was here to observe, walk up to the arena where Flint was already standing on the other side.
"Welcome, challenger," Flint, the guardian of Pewter City, began in a dry tone, as he probably had a thousand times before. "This will be a two-on-two battle with one switch-in allowed. I reserve the right to use any Pokémon in my arsenal that I deem fit, and killing any Pokemon will get you disqualified from the League Circuit. Now, send out your Pokémon."
Cross was the son of a big corporation's owner based in Alola that provided various leagues with healing potions. It was said that the boy had already taken the Island Trials in his region.
Unlike other regions, Alola did not have a traditional gym challenge or even a champion and an elite four. The governance of that region was quite different from the rest.
Of course, the Island Trials were not so easy, or else Cross, who completed them in his first try last year, would not be so famous.
In this year's Indigo League circuit, the sixteen-year-old Cross Thompson was among the most looked-after trainers. He was one of the favourites to win all eight badges and qualify for the conference.
"Onix, I choose you!" Flint, being the gym leader, chose the first Pokémon.
~Screeeeech~
The massive rock serpent entered the battlefield with a roar that caused every spectator to cover their ears. But right after that, the whole gym erupted in a cheer.
"Let's go! Flint is using his Onix!"
"Finally, a worthy opponent for the beast!"
"Those ₽50 were worth it!"
Rarely did Flint use the rock serpent in lower-tier battles, and so, everyone was quite excited to see the Onix in action.
"What do you think he will lead with?" Daemon asked the girl sitting beside him.
Misty thought for a moment. "Cross wants to be a fire-type specialist, so maybe a dual fire and fighting-type for an advantage? Or something that knows fighting-type moves?"
With an angry scowl on his face, Cross chose a Pokeball and called out his first Pokémon.
"Don't disappoint me, Charmander."
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[Author's Note]:
[1]: We are only four reviews away from 10; please drop me a review if you haven't, so the story can get more reach.
[2]: Last chapter for the week. Hope you guys enjoy the cliff-hanger. LOL!
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