File type: Text File (.txt) [Download]
-----------------------------------------
Hoenn Saga (S1)
Next City Arc (A2)
Chapter 8: Blindsided by a Challenge

The group had to walk only a few blocks down the street when they found themselves in front of the arena that Honoubushi described. It was a large, boxy building, with a high, gabled roofline. Most pokémon centers have a stylized pokéball as their logo on the front; this place had an open pokéball held up by silhouettes of two pokémon. The front door was very large and inviting and built for larger and smaller pokémon alike, with a pair of more human-sized double-doors in the centre of a much larger pair of doors that stretched wider and higher.

They were guarded by a nidoking and a dragonite that stood outside, waving at people and pokémon as they passed by. They happily waved Honoubushi and the others into the arena, the dragonite opening the door for them. As the group passed by, a trainer tried to sneak in behind them. The guards stepped in to block him. "Hey! I wanna go in! Those're my pokémon!"

Iri stopped just then and spun around on his feet with a glare. No one had ever tried to claim his own pokémon belonged to them before, and he suddenly felt a familiar spark of protective instinct ignite within. "Excuse me!?"

The human froze on the spot with a deer in the headlights look the moment he saw the angered charizard. The nidoking looked over his shoulder at Iri. "Is this human your trainer?"

"Pardon me for a moment," Iri said as he squeezed between the guards. He approached the trainer with a deep growl and picked him up by the collar of his shirt. "Don't you dare try to claim someone else's pokémon as your own!" He didn't care that the human could only hear a blood-curdling snarl coming from him--he still needed to say it.

"Shit, shit!! Put me down! Please god don't hurt me!" the other trainer begged as he flailed in Iri's grip. "I'm sorry! I'm sorry! I didn't know they were yours!" By now several people had stopped on the street to watch the exchange, some fearing a fight was about to happen.

"Bullshit!!" Iri spat out as the flame on his tail's tip grew slightly bluer.

He was interrupted when he felt the nidoking's heavy hand on his shoulder. "We'll take care of him. It's what we're paid to do."

"Fine. Here." He roughly shoved the human into the nidoking's waiting arms and walked back into the arena. As Iri turned, the human smirked to himself, having gotten a good look at the very person he was looking for. Kadir stared at Iri with wide eyes, having not seen his trainer so easily infuriated. He looked back at Kadir and smirked. "I wasn't going to hurt him. Much."

"Don't you think you overreacted a little bit?"

"No. It's bad form for a trainer to claim another trainer's pokémon without a fair trade. And I'll never let something like that slide. And you're my family. No one's going to take that from me. Ever." The memory of those Team Rocket grunts trying to separate him from his family was still fresh on his mind, and he felt even more protective of them for that.

"I wouldn't blame ya if you beat him up on the street," Honoubushi said. "I've had to beat down my fair share of people who thought they could just claim me as theirs. Happens sometimes." She turned and walked deeper into the large building. "People like him don't last long as trainers. Their lack of respect means their own pokémon don't even respect them. They're not even worth wasting your energy on. They're already wasting enough of the world's energy."

Iri decided that Honoubushi's advice was sound and followed along behind her again. "So, what all's in this place?" he asked.

"Well, they try to maintain facilities for all types here. Fire types are a bit difficult to cater to, though. There's a main arena in the very center where anyone can spar with each other, and smaller type-specific sparring rooms around it." The hallways of the arena were very clean and well-kept. The floors were composed of granite tile, meant to be resilient against a magmar's body heat. The hallway was fairly short and ended in a pair of double-doors, which opened up into the arena field. There were a few pokémon already in the arena, wrestling and throwing each other around. The arena space itself was massive and contained four tournament-sized battlefields, one of which was entirely underwater. The ceiling lofted high overhead, giving more than enough room for flying types to soar overhead.

Iri could see a few pokémon of opposite types fighting against each other, and this gave him an idea. "Hey, Dallas, Kadir. You wanna trade blows?"

The swampert chuckled, "Sure, why not?" He didn't have much to fear from a charizard, and for a good reason.

Kadir mirrored the chuckle, but only nervously. He had more to worry about himself, due to a similar weakness that Iri would have against Dallas.

"Now, before you guys start having fun, you need to learn the ground rules here," Honoubushi said as she turned to face the group with her talons on her hips. "First and most important rule we have here is no knockouts and no causing severe injury. Nurse Joy is already kept busy enough by trainers making their pokémon fight until they get beat up. The folks who run this place don't want to be an extra burden on her. Got it?"

Everyone nodded as they listened on. "Second, no random attacks. If you wanna spar someone, ask first and wait for a yes or a no. There's nothing that sucks more than getting blindsided by an attack from someone who didn't ask if you wanted to fight. If you're caught doing it, you'll be kicked outta here and banned for a week. This place exists to be a positive outet of energy for pokémon who live in the city. Not for settling disputes."

"Sounds fair. Can we go have some fun now?" Iri asked with a grin.

"Yeah, those are the only rules here." Honoubushi then pointed a finger squarely at Cahira. "Now, then. I've been itchin' to fight a strategist. The only pokémon I get to fight these days are other fire and fighting types, and they just go for brute force. You, me, that field over there," she declared as she pointed to an unused battlefield.

The sudden challenge caught Cahira off guard, but she couldn't resist facing against a dual-type that she simultaneously possessed weakness and resistance to. "Don't be afraid to draw blood from me," she challenged back. "I live for the rush of battle."

"Then that makes two of us," Honoubushi replied back as the pair took off towards the battlefield to spar. They didn't even get halfway to the center before they were already trading attacks with each other. The crack of the blaziken's kicks impacting the scyther's armored exoskeleton echoed around the arena.

Iri smiled and let out a roar and a spit of flame into the air. He took off and flew a lap around an empty field where Dallas and Kadir teamed up to wait for Iri to strike first. Seraphine just sat back to watch over the next couple of hours while the others sparred against each other.

By the time Cahira and Honoubushi finished their fight, they were bruised all over and breathing heavily. Cahira had a few darkened patches on her body where Honoubushi landed a few fiery attacks, and Honoubushi herself sported a few cuts under her red feathers from Cahira's scythes. Iri and the others were in much better condition by then as well as Iri finally flopped over with a satisfied sigh. "Oh man, that scratched the itch right on the spot."

Honoubushi chuckled and sat down beside him. "Needed some action, huh?"

"I just needed to move and do something. And now I wanna go back to the pokémon center and nap for a bit."

Kadir looked about as singed in spots as Cahira did as he sat next to Iri with a huff. The tip of his head-leaf was still smoldering a little bit, and he took a brief moment to put it out. "You're too fond of that fireball move that Seraphine taught you."

"Well if you're up against another fire breather, they're gonna use a lot more against you," Iri said.

"Or you could just do the smart thing and recall me whenever that happens, like you've done before."

"It would be a wiser strategy, for certain," Cahira stated.

Iri just shrugged and lifted himself up to his feet. "Eh, true. Well let's head on back. I'm hungry again."

"Already!?" Honoubushi exclaimed. She looked at the others as if there was an explanation for Iri's appetite, and they all just shrugged as if it were normal. She sighed a bit and then regained her composure with a grin. "Well, I do have to hand it to ya. Your pokémon are impressive. Cahira's the first one ever to draw blood from me in a sparring match."

"You should see them when they're fighting in a team battle," Iri said with a grin as he started walking towards the arena's main doors. "You should come with us and see for yourself."

"Wish I could, man. But I got a job here and bills to pay," she said with a slightly depressed sigh.

"You can't just pack up and skip town?" Iri suggested.

"Well, I mean, I could if I wanted to. I'm just rooming with someone else and all I have for myself is a bed and that's it. I spend all my time out around town already."

"Just don't want to go through the trouble?"

"Yeah, you could put it that way I guess." By then, they were striding past the dragonite and nidoking that were still standing guard outside the arena, and they waved to the group as they passed by.

No sooner were they back out on the streets and just outside of the arena, than something struck Iri hard in the back of the head and knocked him forward. He stumbled and tripped down to the sidewalk as they heard a voice behind the group. "Good Bonemerang-Fling!"

Iri quickly righted himself and spun around to glare back behind the group. "Who attacks someone out of the blue like that?!" he demanded as everyone else turned to see where the attack came from. His eyes widened just as he saw the human from earlier, with a marowak standing in front of him. "You!!"

The human sneered with a cocky grin and jeered at Iri, "Yeah, that's right! You threatened me right in front of that pokémon only arena! You're weak, you know that?"

Iri snarled again and glared at the other trainer, his tail flame growing brighter and hotter once again.

He pointed at Iri and taunted, "And I know you wanna fight now! You're too easy to get riled up! Thirteenth and Greenwald streets! Be there in two hours!"

Iri didn't even have time to react when Seraphine blasted a flamethrower towards the trainer. His marowak stepped in front to protect him from the flames, using its bone club to part the spit around its trainer. By the time Seraphine stopped, the trainer had already recalled his marowak and was running away from them. "Thirteenth and Greenwald!" he shouted over his shoulder.

Iri was visibly shaking by the low-brow attack on the streets, and his eyes were glowing with an ominous red aura. He took a step in the direction the other trainer ran and unfurled his wings to fly after him. Seraphine grabbed him and dug her claws into his shoulder. "He's not worth it."

He closed his eyes for a moment and shook his head a few times, and his tail's flame returned to its normal size. "Wha? What did he say?"

Seraphine looked back at the others with a worried look, and Cahira and Honoubushi both shared her concern. She turned her attention back to Iri. "You didn't hear him?"

"I think I was zoned out a bit..."

"He said to be at someplace on Thirteenth and Greenwald in two hours," Cahira stated. "Presumably, it would be safe to conclude that he has challenged you to a battle, and done so in a dishonorable manner. The blindside attack is meant to attack your honor as well." She looked back in the direction the trainer ran and glared. "You're under doctor's orders to avoid stress. You shouldn't let this insult cloud your judgement."

Iri growled and glowered down the street. "I don't think I've ever felt this pissed off. What would you do?"

"Do you want an honest answer?" Cahira asked as the others listened on.

Iri nodded without saying a word.

"We go there. And crush him. And make his defeat swift and as humiliating as his challenge on us."

"Cahira, you're not thinking clearly either," Kadir said. "This is not a smart move by a longshot."

"Kadir, would you honestly take something like this lying down any other day of the week," Cahira challenged.

The grovyle didn't answer at first. "Iri, if you want to go through with this, I'll stand right beside you." He looked over at the rest of his teammates. "I think we all will."

Iri turned his head to look over his shoulder to see the others just as incensed as he was. He grinned and spoke again, "We're going. And we're going to fight him with everything we've got."

"We'd better get moving, then," Honoubushi said as she took the lead. "Only way you're getting to Thirteenth and Greenwald in two hours is to fly or take a bus."

"That's no problem at all," Iri said as he recalled his team back into their pokéballs. "Hop on."

"Wait, what?" The invitation to climb up onto another pokémon's back caught Honoubushi off guard. She hadn't been up in the air on another pokémon before.

"I said hop on. We're flying there."

She wasted no time climbing up onto Iri's back, and he pumped his wings hard to go airborne. Honoubushi gasped at the sudden take-off as the powerful charizards were already flying well above the tops of the many towers in the city. She looked around in wonder and admired the bird's eye view.

The irony of the moment struck her, being a bird-like pokémon that couldn't fly at all. But now she was, and the expansive and commanding view that she had over the whole city was breathtaking. "Dude, this is amazing!" she shouted over the rushing wind.

"You're sitting where I used to sit on Seraphine's back," Iri said as they settled into a stately glide over the city. "Almost every day would be like this. And I'd get to see this amazing view all the time. I don't need Seraphine to see this view, but now that means I always want her with me to see this view."

"You guys love each other, huh?"

"A lot. By the way, where are we now?"

"Uhh..." Honoubushi leaned over Iri's shoulder to look down at the rest of the city. "Crap, I'm used to seeing everything from the ground. Gimme a minute to figure out where I am." She looked around to identify a few familiar buildings that she would see on her commute to various places around town. "Aha!" She pointed her talon past Iri's face. "About ten more blocks that way and we'll be over Thirteenth. Then take a sharp turn towards downtown to follow it."

Iri followed his rider's directions and soon made a turn towards the city center. Their destination quickly became obvious, as a tournament arena drifted into view. The structure was absolutely massive, and the stands beheld a very small crowd of a few onlookers.

"So you knew there was a battle arena here as soon as he told us this block?" Iri asked.

Honoubushi nodded. "Yeah. It's the only tournament arena in town that lets trainers in to hold one-on-one challenges on a regulation size battle field. Most of the smaller battle fields in the city aren't in pristine shape, and the ones that are are in constant use. This one usually doesn't have much of a wait compared to the others."

Iri and Seraphine both landed in the massive plaza in front of the main entrance and made their way through admissions. Once inside, they followed the signs to where they were supposed to wait for a turn to battle. The trainer that blindsided Iri earlier showed up almost two hours later--just as he challenged--and smirked. "I wasn't even expecting you to show up. Figured you'd turn tail and run out of town."

Iri glared at the other trainer--his new enemy for the moment--and approached him with a deep growl.

"Kicking your tail to the ground is gonna be so fun," he jeered. "Here's a fun bet I think you'll like. If I win, which I guarantee you I will, I get to capture you."

Seraphine's eyes lit up with rage just then and she stomped forth with a deep snarl. It was Iri's turn to hold her back and he gave the trainer a nasty glare.

"No? Too afraid to raise the stakes a bit?" he taunted. "Fine. We'll have it your way. Seems you don't have enough pride to lay more on the line anyways. You're gonna have none left after this."

Iri could feel his body starting to shake with rage, but he had to keep his head level while they were inside. The time to unleash everything would come soon enough. He mustered up enough composure to retrieve a number with his challenger. After that, they exchanged a final electrifying eye-lock with each other and turned to sit on opposite sides of the waiting room.

"Iri, I want to go first and put him out of commission," Seraphine grumbled.

"I'd rather defer to Cahira's advice for this," Iri said. "If I start with you, he'll know what we're capable of."

"Fine. If you're gonna start with someone else, then put me on a leash so I don't go flying across the arena to maul him."

"I hope you're joking about that."

"I'm not. Put me on a leash before we go out there, and keep me on it until you're ready for me to unleash hell." As she said this, her dark glare never wavered from its focus on the other trainer.

"Well, we don't have a leash, so you're just gonna have to hold yourself back," Iri said.

Soon enough, their number was called, and it was time to leave the waiting room and out onto the battlefield. Iri kept himself between Seraphine and the other trainer as they walked along the hallway in silence. Once outside, they parted ways to stand at opposite ends of the arena.