Chapter 9 - Evolution Just Around The Corner

After eating our breakfast, & having a double battle with two trainers, we headed to Saffron City.

& in case you were wondering, yes, we did win the battle.

Brandon used Growlithe & I used Venus. We battled against a Rattata & a Psyduck. The trainers were rookies, like us, but much less experienced. We could tell by the way they battled.

We ran into more trainers as we headed to Saffron. Brandon battled two people. A girl with a Butterfree, & another girl with a Gloom.

I battled three people, who had a Geodude, that I took out with Venus, a Sandshrew, which Relic battled, & a strong Charmeleon, that gave Cinder a run for her money. We lost, but she did well & I was proud of her.

Saffron was a big city. Charcoal was by my side as we walked around, passing a bike shop. Growlithe was at Brandon's heels. The first thing we did was heal our Pokemon, & then we explored the city. There were lots of people walking around with their Pokemon.

Charcoal kept his chin up as he walked, as if he was too good for the other Pokemon. "Concieted," Brandon muttered. Charcoal shot him a look that said ,'You shouldn't be talking, pretty boy'.

Charcoal bumped into another Pokemon, twice his size, making him stumble back. He was not happy. He got up & huffed at the Pokemon facing him. It was a Charmeleon. The female Charmeleon looked him over & smirked at him, like he was a baby & she was his mother.

"Cindy! Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry!" a girl cried when she saw Charcoal had fell on the floor. "It's fine. Are you okay Charcoal?" I asked him. He stuck his nose up in the air & nodded. Cindy, the Charmeleon kept following him & sniffing him. He didn't like it one bit.

"I'm sorry. Cindy just always does this when she sees Pokemon smaller than her, especially fire types! She starts sniffing them & acting like she's their mother just because she's bigger," the girl explained. She had blonde hair & crystal blue eyes. She was wearing a blue tank top & shorts.

"It's alright," I chuckled. "Well, we're gonna head to the dojo beside the gym, we'll see you around," she smiled & began to pull Cindy away. "Wait! Did you say dojo?" I asked. She explained to me that there was a dojo beside the gym where trainers trained & battled.

"Can we... Join you? Or at least go see what the dojo is like?" I asked her. Without a second thought, she agreed. "Sure!" she grinned happily. So Brandon & I joined her.

Apparently today the dojo was having a tournament, in which the two best trainers would win a Pokemon. Pretty cool right?! We arrived just in time.

A few minutes later, the door to the dojo was shut. I saw a few rookie looking trainers, & some that looked really tough. There were 16 of us in total.

During the first round, luckily I was not pitted against an incredibly strong opponent. The battles were one on one, & both trainers had to let out their Pokemon at the same time.

In my first battle I used Cinder, & miraculously she was battling against a Beedrill. It wasn't super easy, but it wasn't super hard either. Brandon was using Squirtle, & his opponent was a female Nidoran. Squirtle did well, I could see he was improving & 'coming out of his shell'. He was being a little less timid, & more aggressive in battle.

Cindy the Charmeleon was pitted against a Gloom, & she easily beat it. The Charmeleon was strong, no doubt about it. The remaining eight of us, were pitted again for another round. This time my opponent was a Zubat, & Relic did a very good job. I almost thought he wouldn't be able to handle it, but he pulled through & with a Scratch attack, he beat his opponent. I praised him for how well he did.

Brandon used Growlithe this time, & his opponent was a Clefairy. Growlithe did not have much trouble taking out the Clefairy. The girl with the Charmeleon was faced against a Swellow, a Pokemon from Hoenn. I was happy & shocked to see the Pokemon. In Kanto it wasn't often that you saw a Swellow. In fact, Kanto was the emptiest region. Most trainers flocked to Kalos, eager to catch the new discovered Pokemon there. Kanto Pokemon were considered, not as exciting. I thought it was stupid, & that Kanto Pokemon were just as cool as the rest.

Anyway, Samantha battled against Swellow using a Pikachu, & she won.

This was it.

The last round.

Brandon, me, & the girl with the Charmeleon; we were all in the top four, with some guy with greenish colored hair. I was matched against the girl with the Charmeleon, & Brandon was facing the guy with the green hair.

I used Charocoal, & she used her Charmeleon. Hmm. This battle would be interesting. She started by using Slash on us, but we dodged it & used Scratch. Cindy used Flamethrower, but it didn't affect Charmander much. She came in close for another Slash, but Charcoal used Smokescreen & Cindy couldn't see a thing.

We hit her with some Scratch attacks, while she was stuck in the smoke, but when she got out she landed a deadly Slash on Charcoal. He was weak, I thought the battle was over, but Charcoal stood up, just barely.

Just as Cindy was gonna land another deadly Slash, a purpleish yellowish flame looking substance came out of Charcoal's mouth, knocking Cindy backwards. It was Dragon Rage!

We used our new move, but still, Charcoal couldn't win. Cindy was weak & knocked out seconds after Charcoal did. Oh well, we tried our best. I was actually very impressed with his preformance, & that he stood such a good chance against a Charmeleon.

Brandon's battle was next. His Growlithe was battling a pretty strong Cloyster. Of course, Cloyster won.

Cindy then battled the guy with the Cloyster, & lost. She came in second place in the tournament, so she won the leftover Pokemon. The guy who won picked the Hitmonlee, leaving the girl with the Charmeleon a Hitmonchan. She seemed pretty pleased with herself.

After the tournament, some trainers stayed around to train their Pokemon, including me & Brandon. "That was a good battle. Your Charmander is really something!" the girl I had battled & lost to exclaimed. She introduced herself as Samantha, & I took a liking to her immediatley.

Apparently she was doing gym battles, too. She was planning on entering the Pokemon League. I didn't doubt her for a second. After we stuck around to train for a while, she came to lunch with me & Brandon. We seemed to get along really well. She told me that tomorrow she would be challenging Sabrina, the gym leader for this city. This would be her sixth gym badge.

We talked for a while & even headed to the Pokemon Center together. Her room was down the hall from ours. "Hey, your Charmander is close to evolving," she said as we prepared our good nights to each other.

"How do you know that?" I cocked my head to the side. "Because his tail fire is big, radiant, & beautiful. Also because he learned Dragon Rage. Cindy learned it just before she evolved," Samantha explained to me.

I was excited for Charcoal to evolve, he would be my first evolved Pokemon!

I did the same as Samantha & challenged the gym leader the following morning. Perhaps Charcoal would even get enough experience to evolve. Little did I know that it wouldn't be even half as easy as I thought it would be...