A Master in the Making: Part 8: Just Warming Up!
by Zeth Raltier
"Why do people always seem to build cities at the bases of inactive
volcanos?" Zeth stood in front of the Ruby City Pokémon Center, looking up
at Mt. Ruby, the volcano he had almost crashed into earlier. Turning, he
entered the pokémon center, where there was yet another Nurse Joy sitting at
the front desk. [How many Nurse Joys ARE there in the world?] Zeth
wondered. "Excuse me, Nurse Joy?"
The pokémon nurse looked up. "Oh, hello, can I help you?"
"Yeah, I recently arrived... by plane... and I was hoping you would
check out my pokémon to see if they are ok."
The nurse looked puzzled. "By plane? But Ruby City doesn't have an
airport!"
"Yeah, I noticed... I take it that you don't have time to watch the
news."
Joy smiled, "No, not really."
"I thought as much. Well, let's just say that I crash-landed a jet in a
nearby field, and I've finally managed to escape the media." Zeth handed
his pokéballs to Joy, and repeated his request. "Here, I just got my
pokémon back from Team Rocket, so please make sure that they are all ok."
Joy stared at him incredulously. "You're kidding, aren't you?" Zeth
shook his head. "Oh, my! How did you manage to do all that?" Zeth sighed,
then began his story yet again......
In the meantime, Duke and Kat were bracing themselves for their report
to the Boss. They gulped as Giovanni's face appeared on the screen. "Well,
what do you have to report?" The Boss looked a little upset, and the two
wondered if they had caught him at a bad time.
"Sir, we have some bad news." Kat began.
"Not more bad news... I have enough with Jessie and James."
Kat broke a weak smile, "No, sir, it's not that bad. We just had some
problems with our flight."
"You had better not be calling me about bad service!"
"No, sir, we just... crashed..." Duke mumbled weakly.
"You WHAT?!"
Kat cut in, "It's not as bad as you think! The plane is barely damaged;
the only thing that broke was the flight controls. The problem is that the
Ruby City police impounded it."
Giovanni calmed down. "That's not a problem. You two go to Obsidian
City, and I'll take care of the rest...."
"What's this?" Zeth had finished his tale, and was examining at a
poster on the pokémon center's wall. "The Obsidian League, do you have what
it takes?" he read. "Nurse Joy, is this a poster for this area's league?"
"Oh, yes, it is. There are ten gyms in the Obsidian League, including
the one here in Ruby City. To compete in the league, you need badges from
eight of the gyms. Here, I'll give you a map of the Obsidian League area."
The nurse rummaged around in her desk until she found the map.
"Thanks, Nurse Joy. You said there was a gym in Ruby City - can you
tell me what type of pokémon they use there?" Zeth asked.
"They primarily train fire-type pokémon at that gym, and their pokémon
are quite strong too, as far as I can tell. I've become an expert on burn
therapy since I became nurse here."
"Fire-types, huh? Well, I don't know if I stand much of a chance
against fire pokémon, but I'll take a shot at it. Who knows, maybe I'll get
lucky."
Zeth gazed up at the Ruby Gym. [I didn't have to ask Nurse Joy about
the type of pokémon they train here, the building would have been enough of
a clue!] The building was a perfect recreation of Mt. Ruby; even the doors
looked like they were part of the mountain. Fortunately, they weren't
actually made out of rock, or Zeth would have never managed to make it
inside. The inside of the building was much less volcano-like though. A
well-lit hallway led out to the main room of the gym, where a man wearing a
bright red shirt was speaking to a group of young children. [Probably
future trainers getting a lesson on training pokémon from the local gym
leader.] Not wanting to interrupt the children's lecture with a pokémon gym
challenge, Zeth decided to take a seat behind the group and wait.
The man noticed Zeth's arrival and interrupted himself in mid-sentence.
"Now the most important thing to remember about training pokémon is - May I
help you?"
Zeth felt a little embarrassed, even though he had tried not to
interrupt. "Yeah, I was looking for the leader of this gym, so I can
challenge him to a pokémon battle. Would that be you?"
"Yeah, that would be me. My name's Cal." He shook Zeth's hand, then
glanced down at the children. "Okay, kids, clear the field so we can have a
battle."
"I really should let you finish your lesson first. The battle can wait
until you're finished."
"Don't worry; it's not a problem. The kids will enjoy this and I needed
a break, anyway."
Zeth waited at the edge of the battlefield for Cal to chose the rules.
Sunlight shined down from the "volcano's" now-open ceiling, making Zeth
squint. "Okay," called Cal, "We'll use two pokémon each. My first pokémon
will be... Charmeleon!" The red fire lizard appeared with a flash of light.
"Go, Sting! Twinneedle attack!" The bee flew at the Charmeleon, but
was driven back by a blast of fire. Cal shouted for his pokémon to use
Flamethrower, but Sting managed to fly away from the column of fire. The
insect swiftly circled the fiery pokémon for a few moments, then dove at it,
bowling it over. "Good hit, Sting! Now use Double Team!" The dazed
Charmeleon jumped to its feet, and blinked in surprise at the three
Beedrills that it appeared to be facing.
"Charmeleon, use Fire Spin!" Cal shouted. The lizard spat out a huge
column of fire that engulfed the "trio" of Beedrill. As the flames died
down, only one Beedrill was still there, wobbling unsteadily. "Now finish
it off with a Mega Kick!" The lizard stepped back, then launched itself at
the weakened bug.
"Sting! Pin Missile!" The bee shot the missiles at the same moment the
Charmeleon connected the kick. Both flew back, but only one got back up.
"Sting, Return! Now I choose you, Eva! Use Take Down!" The little fox
slammed into the weary Charmeleon, knocking it down and out of the match.
"Very good, but your Eevee won't be able to take this! Go Flareon!"
Zeth gulped as the fire Eevee-lution popped out of the pokéball. The two
foxes stared each other down, waiting for their orders. "Flareon, Leer!"
The Flareon's eyes started to glow blue, mesmerizing Eva.
"Eva! Don't look at it's eyes! Use Skull Bash!" The little Eevee shook
its head then dove at the fiery pokémon. The Flareon did not even bother to
move. Instead, it flicked a pawfull of sand into the Eevee's face as the
smaller pokémon rammed it. Eva yipped, and rubbed at her eyes with one paw,
only to get a big, bushy Tail Whip in the face. "Your Flareon fights
dirty," Zeth commented. "Eva, Bite!" The little fox was happy to comply,
dodging around the Flareon and biting whenever it got the chance. At first,
the Flareon treated it like a joke, but when Eva nipped it in the ears it
howled angrily.
"Don't play around, Flareon! Use Fire Blast! The Flareon flashed a
look of pure evil at Eva, then spat out an inferno of fire....
Zeth covered his face as waves of heat ripped past him from the blast,
then looked over to see if Eva was ok. One glance was all it took to show
that this match was over. The Eevee had been thrown back five feet from the
sheer force of the attack and was now laying in a smoking heap, badly burnt.
They had lost....
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