Chad eyed his two passengers, making sure they were secure on his back and wearing their warmest clothing. With a solid ‘click’ of the last buckle, Calem gave a thumbs up, firmly gripping one arm around Serena’s waist while the other held on to Chad’s backpack. “How long do you think this trip will take by air?” He asked, securing his pair of flight goggles before tieing up his worn white scarf to cover his mouth and nose.
“I dunno,” Serena responded, leaning forward to lie flat against the fire type’s back. “Depends how fast Chad can fly.” Her own face protection secured, she gave a second thumbs up. Chad simply nodded, and with a simple flap began his ascent. Calem, fascinated and excited, looked over and down as the ground receded, taking note of a pair of magenta wings glowing on Chad’s ankles.
“Does… Does Chad know Agility?” He asked nervously, as the dragon in question looked back with a smug grin. Reading the response, Calem quickly tried to secure himself like his life depended on it.
“I hope so! Show us what you can do, Chad!” She shouted, securing her earmuffs for hearing protection. The trio gently ascended above the minimum safe altitude before a strong flap sent them forward. Sky blue energy began to trail off the large webbed wings as he pushed faster and faster; the endless white of Route 17 beginning to blur together.
Chad glanced around the room, noticing the three humans waiting nearby with knowing smiles. At the center stood a woman with stylized purple hair, in a fancy black dress with a large cape that seemed to float and flutter on its own. On the inside of the cape was a scene of the night sky, with stars twinkling and shining. “Welcome, Chad.” She greeted with a slight curtsey. “I apologize for the subtlety but I foresaw the two of us needing to have a talk before your gym battle.”
Chad glanced around before pantomiming writing something. “No need, I can perfectly understand you. Please, feel free to speak your mind and give voice to your questions.”
“Pardon me for being skeptical, especially since this would be the first and only time.” Chad replied, crossing his arms defensively. “I guess from the fancy outfit you must be Olympia?”
“Yes. Come, we will continue this conversation inside,” she suggests, as she spins to head towards the center of the room with a flourish of her cape.
“Chef de salle, avez-vous besoin d'autre chose?” One of the other two asked, as the woman gently shook her head no.
“How can I-?”
“Understand me? I always have a member of my personal team acting as a translator wherever I go. I find that by not relying on a shared vocabulary, certain concepts can be expressed and understood regardless of how well it could be verbally conveyed.” She interrupted, her words sounding relaxed and almost rehearsed. Upon reaching the center of the room, standing on a detailed circular pattern in the carpet, she vanished. Nervous, Chad followed behind, stepping onto the center of the pattern before he felt himself shift.
Gone was the dusty odd house, replaced with a space that was borderline unnatural. The entire night sky was present here, both above and below, showing every star visible from the planet. Each layer of the structure was like a maze, with dozens of odd lights and cosmic shapes floating about through the air. “Beautiful, is it not?” Olympia asked, waiting for him with pride. “More importantly, this space is disconnected from our world. Which means it will not be able to interfere with your battle today.”
“It?” Chad asked, following behind the gym leader as she began walking the maze.
“The thing following you? Controlling your opponents?”
“Oh, him. The Narrator.” Chad clarified with a slump.
“I have reviewed the footage, spoken with the other gym leaders. Each has felt its touch, noticed the subtle pushes directed to them. Korrina is, so far, the only one of us to battle you without said ‘encouragement’.” She continued, before laughing. “Clemont did try to argue for stripping his badge, but a quick quiz revealed that he would’ve made the same mistake on his own. Alexandre, I believe his name was, is quite the actor.”
Olympia waved at a gym trainer sweeping the floors as the duo passed by. “This entity, I can see that they are not truly evil, nor are they good. Having your first gym battle against a two badge team was rather cruel. Thus, we concluded that you have earned all six badges so far, and you will be allowed to keep them.”
“That’s a relief. Did you know he’s been making it hard for me? Like, intentionally pitting me against gym leaders instead of just gym trainers? In his opinion, if I don’t defeat the gym leader, I haven’t earned the badge.” Chad ranted without fear of repercussion.
“From today on, this ‘Narrator’ is forbidden from interfering with your gym matches, and from involving itself with the Conference; should you qualify.” She stated; a mixture between a command and a statement. “Understand?”
“Yea; not looking forward to informing him of that stipulation.” Chad responded, noticing the two had reached the glowing blue battlefield at the top of the maze.
I can handle that, don’t worry. Just focus on the match.
Chad nodded, as both trainers took their spots on opposite ends of the field. A gym trainer floated towards the referee position, accompanied by a pink fox with a red gem in its forehead and a split tail. “As a final point, this battle will be a four on four match, with two switches,” Olympia stated, her expression hardening in focus.
Immediately, the psychic barriers around the field began to rise, the ref taking up their customary stance. “Ce sera un combat entre la championne du gymnase Olympia et le challenger Chad. Chaque entra?neur aura droit à quatre Pokémon maximum et à un échange. Dresseurs, au compte de trois, libérez votre premier Pokémon. Un, deux, trois, c'est parti!”
Keanu's theme song, inspired by some of his namesake's films, is "Clockwork" by Hyper
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Olympia’s pokeball practically floated from inside her cape, landing on the field and revealing a black sphere flying with a pair of yellow wings, an odd yellow tail, and a singular eye. Chad tossed Keanu’s ball first, as the ghostly owl appeared briefly before fading into the shadows. Immediately, transparent shields began to form around the flying pokemon. Echoing around the room, a bone-chilling deep chuckle resounded in response. “Those won’t save you,” Keanu’s voice commented, as Olympia’s pokemon began to charge its wings with light blue energy.
In a split-second, Keanu appeared and fired a reddish laser at his foe, who launched their wind attack as several light blades scythed across the open field. The laser connected, dazing the flying type, while the blades seemed to harmlessly pass through where Keanu had been before vanishing again. The black ball began to wobble, throwing out a psychic blast almost at random, or another round of the wind blades, never making contact.
Then the small chaotic orbs of malevolent energy began to fly out, impacting on the psychic’s waiting shields and screens, chipping away at their durability. After the fourth hit, the shields shattered, causing the pokemon to send out a giant pulse of psychic energy around it, to no avail. Appearing below, in its shadow, Keanu launched a close-up of the chaos energy before unloading a few of his feathers in an akimbo-style repeated shots. The flyer, unable to respond in time, toppled to the ground unconscious. Keanu, taking advantage of the moment, pumped both of his arms forward, then back, then forward again causing several of his missing feathers to regrow.
“Cryptéro est incapable de se battre. Championne de gymnase Olympia, veuillez envoyer votre deuxième Pokémon!” The ref called, as the fainted battler was returned to their pokeball.
Chad rubbed the side of his head, frowning. “I gotta say, having everyone speaking Kalosian is a bit jarring. I can guess the gist of what humans say sometimes, but that’s only with context.”
Olympia grinned, palming a great ball. “I would think facing a trainer who only said 'Charizard' is quite the similar experience,” she jested, lobbing the blue ball onto the field to reveal a pink biped with a red and white ruff and a massive greyish-blue hat. “Roigada, tactiques anti-guérilla.” She stated calmly, as the pink pokemon seemed to yawn.
This time, Keanu didn’t even bother hiding, immediately firing his feathers at the pink pokemon. Each one was caught or deflected by a psychic force, his foe completely nonplussed by the situation as its head began to glow with magenta energy. “Apologies for dragging this out, I was awoken from a very nice nap,” Roigada apologized, turning their disinterested gaze upon the owl while closing their eyes. There was a slight puff as Keanu attempted to fire more feathers, but found his wings lacking any more. He managed to get a quick pump-reload before a piercing beam shot from his opponent’s crown, coming within centimeters of his head.
The two continued to exchange ranged shots, with Roigada’s barely missing (likely due to being unwilling to see their opponent), and Keanu’s shots being dodged with near-precognitive precision. Chad, noticing the water pooling at the edge of the arena, called out “Careful, they’re setting up a Surf!” Keanu didn’t appear to take heed, as he dashed across the gap with a dark purple blade extending from his right wing. He managed to make contact, swiping the feather-shaped darkness straight through his opponent, before finding himself pinned by dozens of small hands made of translucent magenta.
“Clever, but this will be as far as you go today, young man.” The crowned pokemon turned to face Keanu, eyes still shut, as the water surged across the field. “I look forward to our rematch.” Keanu vanished beneath the waves, held under as the bubbles continued to rise, slowly petering off until a single bubble announced the end. As the water receded, Roigada opened their eyes in shock, with there being no trace of the owl anywhere.
“No need for a rematch,” echoed from behind them, as two ghostly feathers penetrated the pink pokemon from the back. Going from stunned and shocked, to smiling, Roigada stood in place with an ingrained regality. Keanu was panting hard, his feathers completely soaked, coughing up water to empty his lungs. The avian slid backwards when a ring of water formed around the center of his foe, inspiring a ‘tch’ of frustration as the damage began to soothe.
“Daring, and quite risky. Did you believe a double advantage would be enough?” Eyes closed once again, the waters began to still, with a thin puddle covering the entire field. “Now I do not need clairvoyance to know when you are coming,” he remarked with a gentle kick and a splash.
Keanu’s brows furrowed under his hood, as he vanished in a puff of ghostly energy, only for a series of splashes to betray his advance, allowing his foe to lean just far enough back to avoid a shadowy strike to the head. With a flap of his wings, the owl took to the sky, gliding around to try and strike at an unsuspecting angle. Eventually, at the height of his arc, Keanu came straight down on his foe, blasting out feathers on top of his opponent.
No dodging this time, as the pink pokemon simply deflected the shots with a psychic barrier. Though they wobbled as a sphere of shadows, hidden amidst the barrage, slid past the barrier and made impact. Before Keanu could fall directly onto Roigada, he vanished in another buff of smoke, leaving a second orb to slam into his target at close range. Roigada, still calm, simply listened and stood up while tracking where the avian had vanished to; only to jolt upright as another pair of shadow blades penetrated his back. “Quite slippery,” he commented, before falling face-first into the shallow water, unconscious.
“Roigada est incapable de se battre. Championne de gymnase Olympia, veuillez envoyer votre troisième Pokémon!” The ref called, as Chad signaled he would be making a switch.
“I, can, keep, going…” Keanu complained, but a stink eye from Chad had him back down. Vanishing in the return beam, Chad gripped his first teammate’s pokeball, waiting for Olympia.
He wasn’t kept waiting long, as the white and navy blue pokemon appeared rather quickly, the small feline had an air of unwavering confidence in her abilities. Chad didn’t delay, calling out Ginette without fanfare. “Intéressant, je ne vois pas ton avenir. Mistigrix, nous serons dans le noir ici, suis le plan A.”
Ginette's always embodied the 'fun' in the team, so clearly her theme had to spark joy. "Electric Blue Supernova" by Interlunium
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Immediately, both pokemon began to set up; the cat with magenta, Ginette with darkness. The frog threw out several white stars which streaked towards their target, using them as a distraction to create her illusory clones around the field. The feline was unmoved, using a psychic barrier to block the stars before coating her head in another application of magenta.
Meanwhile, Ginette and her backup dancers finished their little show, drawing the attention of dozens of dark clouds overhead to block the night sky and cry upon the field. Frowning, the fluffball fired a ball of psychic energy at her foe, visibly upset over battling in the rain. With her entourage continuing to dance, Ginette seemingly vanished between the raindrops, leaving the ball to obliterate one of the clones.
When she re-appeared moments later, her giant water shuriken was crashing against the cat’s barrier, both pushing for the other to give out first. At least up until the amphibian grinned and stuck out her tongue, dropping an odd dark ball from her hands toward the ground. The feline was so incensed she barely caught the ticking time bomb, leaping backwards to barely escape the explosion of raw darkness in time.
Ginette laughed mirthfully, coating herself in darkness again while her shuriken seemingly gained a white gleam to make it sharper. “I know what you’re thinking, it’s written all over your face. ‘Oh dear, how can this beautiful woman outclass me in everything? She’s fast, trouncing my fuzzy butt, and not even cracking a sweat?!’ Well it’s your lucky day! Because the first thing we need to address is: when was the last time you had fun?” She monologed, launching another set of white throwing stars at the cat.
“That isn’t any of your business,” Mistigrix bit back as the stars harmlessly plunked into her barrier. “What would a mindless cretin like you know about fun anyway?”
Ginette leaned sideways by almost forty-five degrees, tapping her chin with an evil grin. “Oh, plenty! Like last night, I introduced my girlfriend to ________ ____________, which had her begging like nothing else. Between that, _____ ______, Doctor and Nurse, ____, ____ ______, and a whole other slew of things we’ve been having fun almost every day!”
“You have no dignity!” The feline declared, extending her arm and launching a dazzling magenta beam at what appeared to be yet another clone, vanishing in a poof. A jet of boiling water sizzled and flared off her protective shield from her right, spurring the cat to turn and blast yet another clone with the beam attack.
“Oh, I have something better than dignity; I have someone who knows exactly how to ____ __ ___ ____ _____. And then when we ____ _________, she ________ like _____.” Ginette taunted, re-appearing to create both another dancing clone and a flurry of distracting white stars to speed across the field. Said projectiles plinked harmlessly off their target’s defenses, but the twitch of an eyebrow indicated their successful distraction.
“How dare you sully these august halls with such language?!” Magistrix raged, glowing with all colors of the rainbow as she sent out a wide pulse of psychic energy, dispersing every cloud and clone. Breathing hard, her eyes scanning for her dastardly foe, she was smacked from behind as the water shuriken sent her across the field to delicately land in front of Olympia.
“I’m done; I’m going to need therapy after this.” Mistigrix demanded, causing Olympia to frown. Watching the cat walk off the field, the ref made the signal for her retreat from the battle. Frustrated, Olympia threw out her fourth, worn and scuffed, pokeball; appearing from the light was a golden and brown biped, wielding two silver spoons while his long mustache seemed to float of its own accord.
“Oh ho ho, I look forward to experiencing what you can do, young lass!” He called out, his voice clearly aged and likely wisened with experience. As a test, Ginette threw out a handful of white stars, which seemed to curve away and past her new foe. “Come now, no need to be shy. This old man isn’t quite as fragile as he seems!”
Grinning like a madwoman, Ginette was across the distance in a flash, her signature shuriken generating sparks as it was blocked by the edge of a simple spoon. She continued the assault, swinging the weapon wildly and randomly as the Alakazam seemed to predict her every swing. “If you’re so sturdy, why not let me hit you to prove it?” She demanded, attempting to throw a surprise dark pulse in his face only to have it be hurdled to the edge of the arena by a psychic force.
“Oh lass, you need to earn that privilege. Show me something I can’t see!” He called out, as one of the spoons floated on its own to block her attacks while he taunted her with a yawn. “I must say, for a dark type, you sure are an open book.” Ginette frowned at the idea before a glint shone in her eye, and the wise master slipped as his spoon failed to move in time to block the attack. “Oh ho ho, using my mind-reading against me now?”
“Oh no,” Ginette hammed it up, playing the distressed maiden. “This old pervert is reading my every thought; how ever will I punish him for his peeping?” The facade vanished to reveal an evil predatory smile, or at least as evil as a toothless frog could do. His eyes went wide in shock, barely getting up a defensive shield before her shuriken sent him floating across the field.
“I see, you truly have found my one weakness. I suppose there’s no need to hold back!” He shouted, as his spoons became a handle and hilt for a pair of magenta energy blades. He gave them a flourish before vanishing with a ‘pop’, only to appear behind her and swing as the blade swept through the frog. Barely a moment later, ‘Ginette’ lost her color, revealing to be a construct of water which collapsed to the ground. From behind him, the real Ginette leapt from the dark water, foiled as he vanished with another ‘pop’ leaving her only air to cut.
“Fine, old man. You’ve forced my hand; don’t say I didn’t warn you!” She called out, her shuriken seeming to get even sharper with a fine white glow. Launching herself at the psychic grandpa, her attacks continued to be parried by the floating spoons, up until he faltered and an attack barely slid past his defense with a resounding ‘thud’.
“Yes, yes! Push harder!” He shouted in response, as his counter-attack went wide. With each hit that landed, Olympia and Chad grew increasingly uncomfortable. Chad motioned an apology, silently hoping the gym leader would forgive his teammate’s conduct. Olympia pinched the bridge of her nose, waving it off as not his fault.
After almost a minute of the beatdown, Alakazam was on his back panting, spread eagled while Ginette stood over him with her shuriken. “You need a hobby, or a restraining order. Seriously, get help.” She suggested, as he smiled one final time before she smashed him across the head with her water weapon.
“Alakazam est incapable de se battre! Le challenger Chad est le gagnant!” The ref called, as the barriers around the field vanished with a pop. Frowning, Chad immediately returned Ginette before walking across the field. Olympia seemed to leave her fainted pokemon out, until both trainers were within a reasonable distance and he popped up like nothing was wrong.
“Sorry, Mistress. I was enjoying myself a bit too much and let it get ahead of me.” He apologized with a bow, seemingly fine and unharmed.
“I’m betting he’s from your personal team?” Chad inquired, as the psychic pokemon gave him a warm friendly smile. “Yea, makes sense. We’re at the upper levels of badge challenges, and you were unhappy with what the Narrator’s been doing. Did we pass your test?”
“Yes,” Olympia responded, as Chad noticed psychic energy coming from the Alakazam, overlaid over what had likely been Kalosian speech. “You truly are strong, even without a cosmic entity putting their finger on the scales. Now, the Psychic Badge; A testament of your team’s skill, of your power.” She proclaimed, offering Chad the metal pin. With a purple sphere at the bottom, and a wisping winding golden smoke extending towards the top, it was certainly a unique design.
“Thanks,” Chad replied, holding onto the pin until he could place it in his badge case at the pokecenter. “Any reason we didn’t have an audience though?” He inquired, motioning towards the empty stands.
“I foresaw that it would be a bad idea. Your Greninja made that warning a reality. While not normally an issue for most trainers, I must remind you that many of these events have children in attendance, both pokemon and humans with some way of understanding pokemon.” She replied, as her sagely pokemon nodded in agreement, causing Chad to grimace as he visualized any child learning those words or concepts. “As a reminder, your ‘Narrator’ is forbidden from interfering with any and all future formal matches. We will be assigning a psychic to monitor you at both the Snowbelle Gym, and the Conference.”
“That’s fair; will I meet them or is this a silent guardian type situation?” Chad asked, before receiving a pat on the shoulder from Alakazam. “Well that answers that, I guess. Do you have a name I can call you by?”
“If need be, you may address me as Rousseau. Though hopefully my intervention may be limited, if at all.”
“With that, I believe we are done here. Rousseau will escort you out and keep me apprised of your activities. If- no, when you make it to the conference, I wonder how far you’ll go.” Olympia remarks with her parting words, giving a gentle wave goodbye as the psychic type floats the two pokemon. And with a soft ‘pop’ (and an indescribable experience twisting through the back-alleys of space), the two reappear outside of the pokecenter.
“Pleased to meet you, otherworldly one. I am Rousseau and I will be accompanying Chad for the remainder of his journey.” The Alakazam responded with a slight bow, leading Chad inside with a hand on his shoulder.
“He’ll be following us to make sure you don’t control anyone for our last gym battle, or the conference.” He responded, muttering something inaudible.
“Except the region’s strongest psychic, and fortune teller. She specifically reinforced her gym so you couldn’t get inside.” Chad handed over Keanu and Ginette’s pokeballs to the desk nurse before relocating to the lounge area to continue the conversation. “In any case, if you break that rule, Rousseau here is to report it to Olympia, and I’ll be stripped of all of my badges and kicked out.”
“By all means, feel free to walk into her gym to lodge a complaint if you truly feel it is unfair,” Rousseau provided with a ‘what can you do’ gesture. In response, the charged nature of the air faded, the two pokemon waiting in silence.
I’ll talk with him. Maybe use this time to check in on Calem and Serena?
Reminder for the readers: a _ or blank means a word that was spoken that I, Author-sama, censored for your eyes. So you'll just need to imagine what horrible things she was saying.
Dragon Dance, Rest, Agility, Calm Mind, Rock Smash, Fire Fang, Detect, Protect, Bulk Up, Hone Claws, Flamethrower, ??, Roost, Fire Spin
Stomp, Rock Tomb, Dragon Dance, Hone Claws, Rock Smash, Bulk Up, Detect, Protect, Dragon Tail, Ancient Power, Stone Edge, Rock Slide, Crunch, Earthquake
Focus Energy, Double Kick, Dig, Venoshock, Sludge Bomb, Poison Jab, Earthquake, Bulldoze, Protect, Flamethrower, Stone Edge, Power-Up Punch, Bulk Up, Earth Power
Detect, Protect, Extreme Speed, Aura Sphere, Close Combat, Bulk Up, Power-Up Punch, Bone Rush, Metal Claw, ??
Detect, Protect, Swift, Shadow Sneak, Nasty Plot, Phantom Force, Leaf Storm, Synthesis, Leaf Blade, Shadow Ball, Magical Leaf, Confuse Ray, Hex