Chapter 18

Chapter 18

In the morning, I wake up slowly and glance around the room. It takes me a moment to realize that it was still dark outside despite my ability to see the room perfectly. Seems like my eyes are getting stronger again, at least I won’t have an issue in caves. I go about my morning routine before I recall Zephyr and head down to the lobby to have breakfast with the girls and so that we can go to Flannery’s battle.

We arrive at the gym and find that it is nearly barren of people, unlike Bea’s match yesterday. I think about it for a moment then I realize that most trainers are teenagers. Teens are notoriously bad at waking up early in the morning. The only reason I wake up as early as I do is due to my meditation and out of habit as back on earth I hated mornings with a passion.

I give Flannery a quick hug as she runs off towards the waiting room in the back to wait for her match. Bea and I make our way to the stands and notice that they are mostly empty. There are a few trainers but they either have a match after this one or they are the rare morning person. It only takes another ten minutes before Brock walks out from his side of the arena and Flannery comes out from the opposite side with a confident grin on her face.

“Good morning Pewter City! Is everyone ready for another day of matches?” The Referee calls into the microphone, trying to hype the morning crowd. After a few lackluster or sleepy cheers, he starts to explain the rules of the gym.

“Tough crowd this morning. For those of you that are new here, let me explain the rules! In each gym you are allowed to use one more pokemon than the number of badges you own plus your starter. That means for your first badge you are allowed to use two pokemon, for your second you can use three and so forth up to a maximum of six pokemon in your team. Leaders are limited to a single type of pokemon, so trainers, if you plan well you might just get an advantage. Leaders, as the challenged, are allowed to set the number of switches allowed in a single match. Once a pokemon is knocked out, no further moves are to be used on the downed pokemon or else it is an immediate disqualification for the battle. Any move that will intentionally cause permanent damage or death to a pokemon will cause you to be banned from the gym challenge until you are reviewed by the League.”

“Now without any further delay because of me, let us welcome Leader Brock and his first Challenger of the day, Flannery!”

Brock and Flannery both wave and I cheer and give her a whistle. As the stands are nearly empty, I can be heard clearly which causes the few people there as well as Flannery to look at me. I flush a little under the gazes but I smile at Flannery who returns it with a smile of her own and puffs out her chest in confidence. My eyes linger on her body for a bit before pulling my eyes away and I happen to catch Brock doing the same thing. He notices my look and flashes me a small smile before continuing the match.

“This match will be a two on two with zero switches. Let’s see your skill!” Brock calls out, indicating the match is starting.

“Geodude, go!”

“Mags, time to go!”

As both pokemon appear on the field, the fight starts right away. Mags glows bright red for a moment before sending a blinding orb of light towards the ceiling. As the move reaches its apex, I start to feel the temperature of the stadium increasing slightly. Geodude responds by rubbing its body with its hands until it gleams slightly in the light. Geodude then glows a brownish color and rushes towards Mags while rolling, making the ground shake slightly.

Brock calls for Onix to use Rock Throw to interrupt the attack, but Onix is moving slowly from the last attack. Onix does get a few good hits in, which causes the green light to dim slightly on each hit but the next moment another blinding white beam shoots from Comets mouth and slams directly into Onix. Once the beam dies down, Onix is still standing and staring at Ponyta for a moment before it crashes to the ground.

“Onix is no longer able to battle! Challenger Flannery wins!”

As the referee calls out the winner, I can see Flannery jump in the air in joy that she won. She recalls her pokemon as she and Brock approach the center of the arena. Like he did with Bea, he hands her the Boulder Badge and talks to her quietly. I can see Flannery nod and then look down, seeming ashamed at whatever Brock was telling her. After I see Flannery head back down the Challenger hall, I grab Bea’s hand and head out to go meet with Flannery.

As we step outside of the gym, I notice that it is still devoid of trainers or anyone else that wants to watch a match. I feel bad for Flannery as she had such an epic fight but hardly anyone saw the match. Flannery spots us a moment later and rushes over to us. In her joy, she gives me a tight hug and picks me up slightly spinning me around, much to my shock. I see Bea give us a wry smile before hugging us both. Flannery starts to giggle and I follow suit shortly after as does Bea.

Once she releases me from her hug I finally get to congratulate her as I try to stop myself from giggling at her antics. “G-great job Flannery! Your fight was awesome! I just wish that more people could have watched the fight as well. If only you had a crowd like Bea did yesterday, you might have had a ton of fans!” No sooner do I say that, I get an odd look from both of them. They look at each other and then back at me before Bea speaks up.

“Frost, you know that the fights are recorded right? After your match, it is posted on the Gyms page on the forums. Each year they clean out the unsuccessful battle from the page, but every person who won a badge has their videos saved for others to study.”

I blink slowly as my brain processes what she just said as my cheeks start to blush fiercely. “I-I didn’t know...” I reply quietly as I look away from their eyes as even my ears start to turn red. “A-anyways! Let’s go see what there is to have fun in this city! I don’t have my fight until tomorrow evening so we have all day to have fun!”

I hear Flannery giggle at my attempt to change the topic but allows me to drag them off into the city. We first stop by the Pokecenter so that her pokemon can get healed up while we are out. We stroll along the streets looking at the different shops and boutiques around the city. We stop in a couple of clothing stores and have fun picking out different styles of clothes. I found a lot of cute outfits that I would love to wear, but the moment I tried any of them on I felt like I was boiling. This damn bloodline of mine needs to have an on/off switch. I want to wear cute clothes too!

To ease my poor heart, I enjoy the fashion show that Flannery and Bea put on. Seeing Bea in a lolita dress is an odd sight but her looks complement it well. Flannery on the other hand is trying out all sorts of boyish styles that compliment her curves in all the right ways. I end up buying a couple more outfits similar to what I already have so that I wasn’t wearing the same old clothes I had brought with me. After our foray into clothes, I drag the two of them into a makeup store as I haven’t gotten a chance to buy any makeup since I arrived in this world and I was missing having some. Not that I needed it, but that doesn’t mean I can’t elevate my look more! I want to look cute! Now, I am just going to push how much I just spent on makeup into the back of my mind.

We spend the rest of the day enjoying what the city has to offer before we head back to the Pokecenter for the night. I miss going out with friends like this, so the fact that I now have two new friends to hang out with eased a part of my mind I didn’t know was pressing on my psyche. After wishing the two of them a good night and sneaking in a hug, I went up to my room and went about my nightly routine before settling on the bed and beginning to meditate.

As I meditate, I notice that I can feel the elemental energy produced by Skadi and Zephyr much more clearly than before and my body has a feeling of fullness to it. As I practice my cultivation technique, I can see the interior of my body and it looks to be full of thick mist. I concentrate and try to push the mist along with my technique and I feel it start to move under protest. At first it feels like I am pushing a single droplet of the mist but gradually the rest of the mist starts to swirl and follow my guidance. I guide the mist through my body as the technique says to and gradually, the faint outline of a snowflake appears, covering the entirety of my torso. After the snowflake forms, all the mist disappears and is replaced by a pale blue liquid that continues to trace an outline of a snowflake inside of me.