Vermillion City was a rather widespread city compared to some of the other cities they’d been to that enjoyed high rises and densely packed interiors. Vermillion had wide open areas throughout the city while also a great deal of its infrastructure built along the seaside.
There was a long boulevard that ran with the beach serving as both a tourist destination and a means of traversing much of the city.
Yolanda and Crystal meandered, observing the various people moving around with a careful eye.
The crowd were agitated for some reason.
“Wonder what’s got them so worked up?” Yolanda murmured.
“It would be easy to tell if people got Peddit working again!” grumbled Crystal. “Rumours like this and general happenings had their own major forums!”
Yolanda merely nodded along, having not really been on said pokenet page.
Deciding to solve the mystery by being direct, Yolanda approached a newsstand where she bowed politely to the clerk. “Excuse me sir, I couldn’t help but notice that everyone seems rather agitated. What’s wrong?”
“Ah, you just roll into town?” asked the man in return as he pointed to a gossip magazine.
“League snubs Vermillion once again? Trinity delegation arrives in Indigo?” she murmured, reaching for the magazine.
The clerk coughed pointedly, extending a hand which Yolanda sheepishly filled with a few pokedollars. He handed back her change, and she ducked away while Crystal shook her head. “Gatekeeping the news! You wouldn’t—”
“Oh, give it a rest and read this!” Yolanda said firmly.
Crystal slipped into place at Yolanda’s side and they both began reading the gossip magazine. They both frowned at what they read before flipping through to read most of the magazine, only stopping when it got to the less than useful parts where celebrities suggested various grooming techniques that involved expensive items for pokemon care.
“Huh, so Vermillion residents are annoyed that Fuchsia once more got chosen as the site for the Trinity Nation’s arrival into Indigo?” Yolanda asked.
The clerk, who’d been sitting back watching them read, nodded his head. “Yup! That’s the situation!”
Crystal shot the man an annoyed look. “How come you didn’t just say that?” she demanded.
The man gave her a flat look. “This is a business, young miss. Better to sell then do giveaways!"
“Business been good with the pokenet down?” grouched Crystal only for the man to beam at her.
“You bet it has!” he proclaimed. This would be what Brock deemed ‘having no effect’.
Yolanda huffed at their back and forth only to frown. “But Fuchsia wasn’t chosen by the League the first time. It was just where the Trinity Nations Champions were led to."
She decided not to point out that it was her own mother who’d made that decision, nor that she’d done that as getting past the naval guards to reach Vermilion would have been a nearly impossible task.
“Eh, like that matters to people!” remarked the clerk only to smirk. “Also, it doesn’t sell magazines!”
“Urgh! This is clickbait!” growled Crystal only to get a blank look from the clerk. “Oh, right you’re old which makes you from before the pokenet so that’d go over your head, yeah?”
This time the Clerk flinched and Yolanda imagined Brock striking a pose and shouting ‘Critical hit!’ which made her giggle.
This drew the man’s ire and they were quickly ushered away from the newsstand. Rather than be annoyed, they shared a look only to break out into further giggles.
With the mystery of why so many people were walking around in annoyance, the girls made their way towards the Gym.
“The magazine talked about a delegation of trainers coming to represent the Trinity nations while we were sending some of our own. What do you think of that?” Crystal asked as they walked.
“It’s going to be neat to encounter new pokemon, although I might have to expand my study sessions. Hopefully the pokenet will be up before then or else we’ll be going into a lot of fights quite blind,” Yolanda replied only for Crystal to nudge her. “What?”
“Come on, you can ask your brother for a heads up yeah? Ask him to read up on the upcoming trainers with his Gym Leader access, no?”
“Uhmmm, no that would be unethical. It’s one thing to do it while in the Gym, but to help us out? That would be wrong Crystal,” Yolanda pointed out firmly.
“I mean, would it though? Is it bad when it’s helping us out? I bet there are some people from the Trinity nation getting the same thing!”
“And that’s good for them, if that’s happening, which I doubt. I met Cynthia, one of the champions of the Trinity Nations, and she was extremely kind, smart, and fair. I doubt they’d be setting out to create bad blood with people by making it one-sided.”
“... urgh, I hate that what you’re saying makes so much sense,” grumbled Crystal.
Yolanda huffed as they made their way to the Gym only to find that there was a bit of a wait when they touched base with the reception.
“Two days!?” gasped Crystal. “That’s—”
“Perfectly fine, we’d be more than willing to wait,” remarked Yolanda.
The receptionist grunted and scratched his beard. “Good, otherwise,” he jerked a thumb towards a sign showing children being zapped and thrown into the nearby sea.
“Understood,” confirmed Yolanda as she offered up her pokedex as identification.
The man ran it along with Crystal’s, only to blink. “Oh, you’re the girl Visquez mentioned!” he stated with surprise. “We can fit you in if you—”
“I think I’d rather wait if it’s all the same to you,” said Yolanda, only for the man to break into a large smile.
“Good answer! If you’d mucked up you might have faced a very different team.”
“Oh,” Yolanda said slowly. "Well, I’ll be back in two days, and I’ll challenge the fourth-tier badge level with a Gauntlet.”
“Heh, gotcha, two fourth—”
“Third for me, actually,” cut in Crystal shamelessly.
The man nodded and made the adjustment without comment. "Well, ladies, see you both in two days time. Good luck, Visquez has been waiting for you.” The man paused and gave Crystal a look. “Both of you.”
The girls left the gym only for Yolanda to pause as she caught that Crystal was giving the Gym a conflicted look. “Crys?” she asked.
“Huh. It’s kind of weird to hear someone was looking forward to me… Greta I get cause she’s Oak’s candidate from last year and she’s got a lot of potential… and you’re friends with tons of the Gym Leaders. They know of you. I guess I just… never really expected to have someone want to know about me.”
“Oh,” Yolanda said, watching her friend.
“I like it. I think I want people looking out for me a bit more in future. I’m going to have to get more people to do that.”
“You’ll get there; until then how about we do some training until our Gym match?”
“Sounds like a plan!” cheered Crystal only to give the Vermillion Gym another look. “Damn but this place is swanky. Kind of reminds me of your brother’s gym.”
“That makes sense. Surge was involved in the process of designing the Pewter Gym when Brock was doing it. He came around and pointed out all the little extras that he’d recommend along with Sabrina. When bro fought Lance he bet big on Brock and won enough to completely tear down and rebuild for a greater structure.”
“Oh neat! I seem to recall it being like the third-best gym in Indigo after Pewter,” Crystal replied.
“Yeah, Sabrina’s gym has all the bells and whistles.”
“And it’s got a Ponyta club,” remarked Crystal with a shake of her head.
Yolanda threw her head back and laughed. “It does at that!” she replied with a grin as she began to almost skip towards the trainer fields to get in some last minute growth before she faced off against Vermillion’s best.
_______________________
“Who challenges the Vermillion Gym?” boomed a powerful voice as sparks and electricity arced between several tesla coils.
Yolanda raised her gaze to lock onto Visquez as she stood between two Tesla coils. Lightning arced around her, and light danced in her eyes as she stared down from her position on high.
“I do,” she stated firmly, ignoring the zap, crackle, boom of lightning around her. “I am Yolanda of Pewter!” she added a moment later.
“Hnnn, let’s see if you have the spark to be great!” Visquez boomed, spreading her arms wide, and Yolanda had to admit, she made for an impressive figure with how she was bracketed by literal lightning.
Staying in her place, Visquez crossed her arms and smirked as two trainers from the gym stepped forward.
The first enlarged a pokeball and flicked it out, revealing a Voltorb.
Yolanda narrowed her eyes. That could potentially foul up her plan, and she suspected that Visquez knew it. It was all well and good to have a perfect counter with Terra, but if she could be worn down, then her plan was dead in the water.
“Go Spot!” she declared, sending out her Growlithe first.
The battle began, and Yolanda sent her pokemon into a Flame Charge to build up speed and also put the pressure on Voltorb.
In response, Voltorb began to spark up. At first, Yolanda thought it might be a prelude to Explosion only for the trainer to grin as the light around his Voltorb grew moments before Spot slammed into Voltorb.
An arc of lightning shot out and caught Spot, causing a yelp.
“Hold your ground in close!” Yolanda bellowed as she realised that the plan had shifted. Instead of causing her to be weakened, they were going to weaken her with Paralysis from Spark and Thunderwave.
Instead of backing off and making room, Yolanda had her pokemon stay close, surprising her opponent.
“Flamethrower from in close!” she ordered, and Spot turned his head, spasming and twitching to exhale a powerful wave of fire upon the surprised Voltorb as it attempted a thundershock.
The two attacks slammed into the opposite pokemon and Spot yelped but kept going, causing Voltorb to faint, the first pokemon out of the way.
With that done, Yolanda returned her pokemon and sent out Slash, her Sneasel, and, as she’d expected, another voltorb came out.
Rather than look at her foe as the battle was counted down, Yolanda found her eyes tracking up to Visquez who had a patient smile.
Yolanda grunted. So easy to underestimate, she thought. If this were a straight battle she’d sweep the field with Terra.
“Agility!” snarled the trainer, only for Yolanda to counter with Taunt, causing the speeding Voltorb to splutter to a slow roll.
“Ah, damn it!” growled the trainer.
Yolanda’s hand snapped forward. “Throat Chop!” she ordered.
Her pokemon leapt across the intervening distance with a gleeful look, slamming into Voltorb.
“Sonicboom!” countered her foe only for Voltorb to do nothing. A look of complete surprise appeared on its ball like features at the sudden impotence.
“Again!” Yolanda ordered, and Slash went to work on voltorb.
When Voltorb fainted Yolanda allowed herself a smirk. Her opponent clicked his tongue. “Alright, I missed something. What was it? Taunt stopped it from using an attacking move? Is your Sneasel special or something?” he asked.
Yolanda opened her mouth to respond only to click it shut. “I’ll be keeping that to myself,” she replied as her gaze locked onto her next foe.
She hurried to apply a Paralyze heal onto Spot between her fight and the next as her next foe marched forward.
They too began the match with a Voltorb.
This time Yolanda met them with Slash straight away.
“Throat chop effects-sound-based attacks,” declared her foe as he clenched his fist. “So, sorry about this. Explosion!” he ordered.
Yolanda slumped like she was saddened only for a dark grin to take hold as Voltrob began to flash brightly.
“Protect,” she ordered.
The Explosion washed over her as she watched the shields pop up in front of her. Her hair still ruffled from the air shifting around her, but she held her stance.
When the light and dust settled Voltorb was down and Slash was revealed with his arms crossed cooly.
He lifted his chin and grinned proudly. Yolanda copied him, feeling perfectly in sync with her dark-ice type.
Her opponent groaned. “Damn, you had an answer ready for even that eh?”
He returned his pokemon only to send out a Pikachu that sparked up cutely and bounced on its tail.
Both pokemon locked eyes, and Yolanda felt a metaphorical spark race between them as the Pikachu settled onto all fours.
Slash leaned forward, a leer appearing on his features as he readied to charge.
“Go low,” Yolanda whispered, and Sneasel’s ears twitched to show that he’d heard it.
The second the match began, both pokemon sprang into action, hurtling towards each other with Pikachu sparking up, leaping high, only for Slash to skid low.
It didn’t stop Pikachu from discharging a powerful blast of lightning.
“Dark Pulse,” Yolanda replied and dark energies and lightning clashed only to pass through each other a moment later, sending Pikachu high into the air while zapping Slash.
“Up and Throat chop while they’re in the air!”
“Thunder,” countered the Vermillion Trainer.
Once more, lightning boomed across the stadium, and Yolanda held her breath, knowing that while a powerful move, it wasn’t the most accurate move.
There was a chance…
The lightning slammed into Slash and she groaned as he was hurled back away from the Pikachu.
He hit the stadium ground only to dig his claws in and growl lowly as he held his ground, letting the lightning splashed off his form and run along the ground.
Yolanda’s wracked her mind for a move that she could pull to achieve something that might change the way this fight was going.
“Low kick to the ground,” she ordered, her gaze snapping down at the stadium as an old training adage Brock had taught her came to mind.
When the situation seemed bad… you could always flip the table.
The ground broke, and from the fighting-type move, and while it wasn’t as strong as it might be with making a pokemon’s weight work against it, it was enough to create some craters.
“Rock throw,” Yolanda ordered, knowing it wouldn’t be a proper move, but it would still cause some damage.
“Quick Attack!” snapped the Vermillion Trainer.
“Dark Pulse,” Yolanda replied, causing Pikachu to plunge into a wave of darkness and stagger as suddenly the uneven ground shifted.
Yolanda grinned and she just knew that Slash had the same expression as the Dark Pulse vanished to reveal an off balance Pikachu.
“Thunderwave!” barked the trainer with one final roll of the dice only for Yolanda to commit.
“Throat chop!” she shouted, punching forward as Slash lunged, pushing through the paralysing lightning and slamming the tip of his claws into Pikachu’s neck.
Pikachu went soaring away, skipping across the ground only to fall still, while Slash sank to his knees, heaving in large breaths of air only to spasm and twitch.
“Winner! Yolanda and Slash of Pewter City!” proclaimed the referee.
Yolanda exhaled in relief, knowing that Slash had pulled through with being one of the stronger pokemon in her team.
“Return,” she ordered ,holding up his pokeball and releasing him in quick succession to have him at her side.
He twitched and she smiled as she applied another Paralyze heal on him. She was damn glad she’d bought up the six that she had prior to today.
She suspected she might just need the next four pretty soon.
“Hey, you did amazing,” she murmured, eying his condition only to have to hold back a frown. “I’m not going to ask more of you, as you’re pretty beaten up right now,” she added a moment later.
“Sneasel!” he grouched, only for Yolanda to shake her head.
“No, rest up. The others can take up the load from here,” she said, not wanting to lean too heavily on him. “Trust in Terra.”
That made him nod firmly, and Yolanda smiled as she returned her pokemon. She rose and locked eyes with Visquez who nodded once and marched down the stairs.
It was rather strange to see someone who did much the same routine as Brock.
But it was different being on this side of the fight. Now she was staring up at the Gym Leader as they advanced, their symbol blazing behind them. Lightning boomed and sparked around her, but Yolanda wasn’t intimidated.
It was all flash and spectacle, but damn, did it get her pulse spiking.
Visquez took to the stand and deposited three pokeballs in front of herself on the platform. “You ready for the storm?” she declared with a voice like rolling thunder.
“Are you ready for a shake up?” Yolanda replied, only to blink a moment later. Where had that come from?
Rather than be intimidated or put off, Visquez chuckled. “Good to see you’ve got some gumption, girly pebble.”
“My name is Yolanda,” Yolanda gritted out as she grasped her first choice for this match.
“Hmmm, and I might remember it,” challenged Visquez as she wound back her pokeball for a toss.
Both of them hurled their pokeballs out with practised efficiency with the recall feature seeing them catching the ball right as their pokemon emerged from the red light.
Across the field, Raichu took to the stage, and Yolanda grinned toothily as Terra appeared for the first time that day.
She locked eyes with her foe and grinned.
Rather than be annoyed at this match up Visquez leaned forward as the flags went up.
Yolanda crossed her arms, knowingly copying her brother’s pose as she held Visquez gaze.
“Begin!” shouted the referee for the third time in less than an hour and both of them barked their orders.
“Speed strike!” barked Visquez.
“Sandstorm!” Yolanda answered, ignoring the slight groan from the crowd. They never did like it when their view of the battle was obstructed. It was something that Yolanda had noticed sometimes caused trainers to give up on a rather effective tactic, especially those who wanted to be popular in the mid-tier Ace rankings.
Sometimes it wasn’t about winning or losing, but putting on a show.
In this situation, Yolanda was going for the win.
Even better, she was doing it with the training she’d had Terra working on throughout the recent trips to the burned out fields. Sandstorm training had been easy to work on as she had the perfect conditions with the soft ash. Some might say too easy with the perfect conditions.
It wasn’t the power of the sandstorm that Yolanda and Terra had worked on however.
It was the speed with which they created the Sandstorm.
One day Yolanda hoped to be able to match Titan’s ability to conjure forth Sandstorms, but she knew that was a long way off.
For now, it took five seconds for the field to be blanketed by piercing sands that allowed people to barely glimpse what was going on while Raichu darted around, trying to work with the winds only for it to shift and change, catching the electric type by surprise and stinging it.
“Change of plans!” shouted Visquez causing Yolanda’s stomach to sink at the joy in her voice.
“GLASS IT!” she roared and Raichu suddenly went from darting around to build up speed to building up a huge charge of electrical energy.
She couldn’t allow that. “Earthquake!” Yolanda called, and Terra wobbled in place only to compress into the ground and cause the ground to bulk outwards as sand and ground were blown outwards.
Raichu was hurled back and out of the field by the super effective move and Yolanda sighed in relief, glad that it was—
“Back up and into the fight! You ain’t no quitter!” barked Visquez as her pokemon slid down the wall only to bounce on its long tail and leap back onto the field.
“Iron Tail!” barked Visquez as her pokemon kept its momentum, only to bounce forward with the tail whipping around.
“Stone Ed—” Yolanda tried to order only for Terra to take a glowing tail to the face, which saw her skidding backwards. “—quake!” She adjusted the order, knowing that it would be the best response she had.
And she was proven right when Terra hit back hard.
The Earthquake rocked the field and this time Raichu hit the wall and didn’t bounce back.
Yolanda didn’t relax, instead choosing to watch her opponent closely.
“Saaaaaaaaa,” sighed Visquez. “Rock-ground types, such a drag,” grumbled Visquez as she returned her pokemon and nodded to the referee.
“Raichu is unable to battle!” declared the referee, allowing Yolanda to relax slightly.
Visquez hummed, hand dancing back and forth and it took Yolanda a moment to recall that Sandstorm, unless reenergised, would grow weaker the longer it was in effect.
It would still cause a little damage to whoever emerged but it wasn’t going to be enough for what Yolanda suspect—
“Go Electrode!” declared Visquez with a wide grin.
Yolanda cursed and as soon as the referee's flags twitched upwards she snapped her hand out.
“Magnetic Rise!” “Earthquake!”
Earthquake once more went off and Yolanda leaned forward a small grinning playing out as Electrode began to shimmer, only for the sweeping winds to scour its form and cause it to twitch in pain, delaying it from getting off Magnet Rise.
Right in time for Earthquake to hit Electrode hard.
Visquez groaned. “Shiiiiiit! You did plan ahead girlie!”
“The name is Yolanda! And Again! Don’t let up It’s not out!” Yolanda replied.
“Explosion!” Visquez shouted back and Yolanda felt her breath hitch as the Earthquake rumbled off once again only for a bright light to erupt from the vastly weakened Electrode.
A powerful explosion swept out over the field and Yolanda twitched a moment before the barrier blocked the strike.
Her breath hitched, knowing this time that her pokemon hadn’t escaped the damage that had swept across the arena.
She licked her lips and leaned forward, waiting for the dust to settle.
Electrode was knocked out, and Terra…
A small pile of rocks shifted, and Terra rose up to her full height, throwing them off.
“PUPITAR!” she roared defiantly.
Yolanda felt her heart beat again as she took a breath of relief. She didn’t let herself get swept away with that positive emotion however and instead took stock of Terra, and the field.
Terra was beaten up. A super effective Iron Tail and now an Explosion. It didn’t show unless you looked closely with a Pupitar, but the jets were unaligned and Terra was bracing with the rocks that had fallen off her rather than standing under her own power.
“Return!” Yolanda ordered, pulling her starter back.
A small feeling of betrayal coursed through the bond only for Yolanda to send back a soothing feeling as she brought Yolanda’s pokeball up to her lips. “You did incredibly. Two pokemon down and the field broken up. Now it’s someone else's job to carry the day,” she declared and was pleased when Terra’s discontent settled.
Yolanda relaxed and rolled her shoulders while Visquez raised the last pokemon, a glint appearing in her eyes that didn’t promise anything good.
“Hmmm, starter ain’t going to be able to fight anymore, yeah? And that Sneasel is pretty roughed up as well, no?”
“Slash and Terra still have a bit of fight in them, but I have other options.”
“Same,” Visquez replied as she drew back her final pokeball.
Yolanda’ wracked her mind for what would be best in this instance. Spot, she quickly decided.
Flapper would be a terrible choice with Vermillion basically being a shooting gallery for Flying types, and Tyrunt was far too young, for all that he’d done well in the last few days.
“Got Spot!”
“Go Graveller!” shouted Visquez with a shit-eating grin.
Yolanda blinked, surprise colouring her expression only to harden as she realised what Visquez was doing as a Graveler with small black rocky protrusions around its body formed on the field.
The very broken field…
“Flame Charge to the side!” Yolanda ordered, snapping her hand to the side and sending Spot out of danger with Rock Throw being the opening move from the variant Graveler.
“Rock Polish!” Visquez ordered to give her pokemon a fighting chance at keeping up with Spot’s increased speed.
The only comfort Yolanda could take was that in destroying the field Graveler couldn’t employ a full strength Earthquake that would catch Spot out.
“Flame Charge!” she ordered again, her mind racing to find her way to victory. She could… she paused for a second only to smile, realising she already had the best pokemon to face a rock-electric variant on the field.
“Dig!” Visquez ordered and Yolanda nodded.
“Flamethrower! Melt the ground beneath you! And sit!” she responded. The crowd murmured their surprise at this seemingly odd order.
Spot quickly set to work melting the loose rock, only to sit in the middle without so much as a twitch of annoyance.
Which wasn’t the same for Graveler who had to shoot out of the molten hot rock beneath Spot with a roar of anger.
Yolanda grinned as rather than toss Spot aside the four armed pokemon caught Spot and glowered as molten rock dribbled over its form.
It was only a little bit of damage.
But that was more than enough.
Visquez grinned. “Blow it away with—”
“Double Kick!” Yolanda barked, cutting through Visquez triumph with her order.
Spot curled up and loaded his legs right into Graveler’s stupefied face before unleashing a super effective move from point blank.
Graveler was thrown away and hit the back wall only to slump down, no resilience coming into play with the attacks that had already landed.
Visquez blinked in surprise only to chuckle. “Ah! Damn! I was hoping to get at at least one of your pokemon with this Graveler! Then I’d get to tease Brock endlessly but I should have known better than to use it against a girl who grew up around Rock types!”
“You should have sent it out first, especially if it knows Rock Spikes,” Yolanda remarked easily. Not that it would have mattered much with how Terra had torn up the field with her Sandstorm and earthquake.
Visquez smirked. “Teaching me how to use my pokemon?”
“Merely stating a proven strategy with that line of pokemon. Sanchez pulls it off rather well, no?”
“Heh, can’t argue with that,” Visquez replied as she returned her pokemon and shot Yolanda a thumbs up. “Well, congratulations, Yolanda! You just earned yourself a Thunder Badge!”
Yolanda grinned widely as the platforms lowered. Rather than pose she knelt, knowing that Spot was inbound.
He still hit her hard enough to knock her back where he slobbered all over her in happiness.
She just laughed and smiled through it, not caring in the slightest.
Visquez approached and clapped her on the shoulder. “I know that your friend is still to come, but stick around after for when the Gym is closed. I wouldn't mind talking with you.”
Yolanda nodded, surprised by the offer but still pleased.
Today was turning into a great day.
She just had to hope that the same would be true for Crystal.
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A.N. Thanks go to my patreons for your continued support!
It also goes to Twmmy for proofreading this chapter!