Joe hadn't seen a move limit in the rules for this tournament, but he decided it was a good approach for a beginner Trainer. It stopped Joe from wasting time scrolling through his phone due to bad memory, or being paralysed with indecision because he had too many options.
Absol knew an array of moves, so Joe picked out a handful and kept them at the front of his mind. Quick Attack for agility. Rock Slide for versatility and damage. Psycho Cut because it was effective against Fighting-type. And of course, Joe still had the image of ice linked to Absol, so Ice Beam was at the forefront of his mind.
Pawmot led with Charge Beam, slapping its palms together and then holding them a foot apart as a wide yellow beam shot towards Absol. She moved aside with Quick Attack and then darted forward before Charge Beam ended, smashing into Pawmot. This highlighted the size difference. Pawmot was two feet smaller than Absol.
The beam passed by Joe and kicked up a wind around him as it broke a shield segment at his back.
Pawmot toppled over and dragged its palms along the ground, glaring at Absol. Absol opened her mouth, three arcs of ice spawning and flew forward. Pawmot's right palm sparked. It clenched its fist. The sparks crackled and turned into a raging fire that wrapped around its hand. It struck Ice Beam with Fire Punch to negate the attack. Pawmot jumped at incredible speed, the fire dissipating and a brown energy taking its place as Pawmot became a blur. It punched Absol in the face faster than she could react. Mach Punch.
Absol skidded to the middle of the arena. She shook her head and looked at her opponent, only to see a massive, blindingly bright ball of fire between Pawmot's hands. Pawmot roared and threw the move upwards. The dense, high-pressure ball of flame shot into the sky and was painful to look at. Pawmot had used Sunny Day, which would boost the power of Fire-type moves for as long as the fake sun lasted. Fire Punch just became a bigger threat.
Perhaps bad manners, but Absol used Psycho Cut immediately after the fake sun was out of the way. Pawmot's hands were pointed to the sky as it pushed Sunny Day up. It had to focus on the sun so it couldn't dodge the pink arc of energy. It stumbled but stood its ground.
Once Pawmot was done, it focused on Absol. It put its palms together and used Charge Beam. Absol summoned chunks out of the ground using Rock Slide. One chunk rose in front of her, absorbing the electricity. Pawmot followed its own beam with Mach Punch active, punching through the rock in front of Absol. Luckily Joe sort of saw it coming, and Absol could sense it, so they both reacted. Absol tossed one of the other floating rocks she'd created. It struck Pawmot in the side and sent it stumbling right before Pawmot's fist met Absol. Absol launched the remaining half a dozen rocks at her opponent now that Pawmot was in clear view and was unsteady.
Pawmot used Fire Punch, this time with both fists. The fire was twice as fierce, channelling up Pawmot's arms as it punched hard and destroyed the rocks that came in from various directions. On the final rock, Pawmot punched through it and immediately cancelled Fire Punch. It magnetised some chunks of stone before they fell and held them between its palms at its side.
Absol used Quick Attack as Pawmot unleashed its improvised rock shotgun. The attack struck Absol, but she powered through and headbutt Pawmot. Absol's feet had fully left the ground, so she went over Pawmot and spun. Didn't want her back to her foe just in case it recovered fast. When she landed, she launched a Psycho Cut. Pawmot was still a little dazed so it got struck before it could stand up.
Pawmot rolled onto its belly and pushed against the ground, jumping up. The moment its palms left the ground, it took a step forward and put its palms together, firing Charge Beam up along the dirt, into Absol, and up the audience shield until it struck the arena's ceiling.
Absol shook off the attack. Joe figured it was time for a curveball. Absol used Stone Edge, summoning a pillar five feet tall from the ground. It struck Pawmot in the chin. Absol darted around with Quick Attack, but Pawmot recovered in time and threw a powered-up Fire Punch from downtown. They were equal in power, causing a clash where neither side budged.
Both Trainers saw it was pointless so ordered their Pokemon to back off at the same time. Pawmot and Absol hopped apart. Pawmot didn't get as far as Absol. It went down to a knee and panted with squinted eyes. Rydell's Pawmot was tough. It was fighting the strain of depleted defence energy. Such pressure created a massive headache. The body was trying to draw on something it currently didn't have, which caused temporary pain.
Even though Pawmot wasn't strictly knocked out, Rydell called it. Brought his Pokemon back and shouted at the announcer. "Pawmot's done. Got it? I just got one Pokemon left."
Large screens around the arena changed, greying out Pawmot. Despite his apparent delinquent appearance, Rydell cared for his Pokemon deeply. Pawmi, the start of the evolution line, was Rydell's first Pokemon. He had encountered it by chance as he rode around on his motorbike. It was out in the middle of nowhere and he felt it didn't belong, so he took it in. It'd evolved into a Pawmo fairly quickly because of Rydell's brawler disposition, and it had become a Pawmot recently because Rydell travelled a lot, giving Pawmo plenty of chances to stretch its legs which was useful for cycling its electricity and pumping up its Fighting-type side.
Beyond his caring side, Rydell also wanted to be fair. He didn't want to mislead people into thinking he had the option of bringing Pawmot back into the fight. Pawmot was done. That was final.
Rydell tossed another Pokeball with a baseball throw, revealing a massive brown bear standing on two feet. It had mighty white claws a foot long and a yellow ring on its belly.
"You okay to continue, Absol?" Joe called out. She looked over her shoulder and barked. Turned back to Ursaring. Joe took that as a yes. Since she was still standing, all she had to do to exit the fight was walk back to Joe's side.
Ursaring started by roaring loudly and smacking its belly repeatedly with both paws. A deep boom rang through the arena and a shock wave could be felt in people's bones like they were at a music concert. Ursaring extinguished some of its defence energy while its offence energy flared, almost like a berserker state. Belly Drum could only be used once per Pokemon per battle, but it was a massive problem and had already sealed Absol's fate.
Ursaring snarled, the edges of its mouth parting to reveal embers. Sunny Day was still active. Joe ordered the use of Quick Attack as Ursaring let rip a mighty fire. A five-pointed Fire Blast burst onto the arena's floor and scorched half of the battlefield with a sea of flames, but Absol had gotten out of the way in time.
Absol charged at Ursaring. The bear raised an arm to cover its face in defence. Absol cancelled Quick Attack and bit onto Ursaring's arm. Swung with the momentum and came around to kick her foe in the face with a back foot as Night Slash activated. Ursaring recoiled but ultimately stood its ground, reaching up to grab Absol with its other paw. It threw her into the sea of flames it'd created.
Absol barked loudly and rushed to safer ground. If Joe were a better Trainer that knew how to react faster and better, then he would've used Rock Slide or Stone Edge to catch Absol so she wouldn't have been hurt by the remaining Sunny Day boosted flames.
Ursaring stomped on the ground, causing a shock wave. Dirt-coloured energy burst out of the ground and rushed towards Absol. She jumped out of the way, only to turn her head and see Ursaring standing beside her. She hadn't even landed yet. Ursaring's hefty paws were engulfed in Fighting-type energy. Bulldoze was just a nuisance move. The real threat was Close Combat. One of the strongest Fighting-type moves.
If Absol had just a moment extra, she could've used Stone Edge as a shield or used Rock Slide under Ursaring's feet to throw its stability off. She couldn't even open her mouth and use Ice Beam fast enough. Ursaring rained punches into Absol, with a final, big tenth strike sending her flying. Absol skid along the ground and reached her Trainer's feet, her eyes spinning.
Pawmot may have been Rydell's first Pokemon, but Ursaring was his Ace. To ensure it could use its strengthened Fire Blast, Ursaring could also use Sunny Day, but Pawmot had wanted to support the team, so they'd worked to have Pawmot learn Sunny Day instead. That freed Ursaring up for the power flaring Belly Drum move, causing Ursaring to rise to rank one of Rydell's roster.
Joe knelt and pat Absol's side. "Good job, partner."
Absol let out a little whine and went into her Pokeball until she was healed. It was only a few minutes, but it was the longest amount of time she'd spent in the ball so far. The artificial sun finally dissipated as Joe rose. He scratched his chin. Threw his hands up in surrender.
"Sorry but my next strongest is Cyndaquil. I'm not putting him into the arena with Ursaring. I forfeit."
Joe had a good run. Three battles using all of his non-Kantonian Pokemon combatants. Higher tier battles were something else. While Joe had his education from Jasmine, and he'd seen his mother battle on occasion, actually fighting with a second to make a decision was tough. But as Joe's instincts improved and his team got stronger, this sort of battle would be one he could win. He had no doubt.
His martial arts training also helped somewhat. He knew roughly when to counter, or back off, or launch an attack. He didn't want any experience to go to waste.
In terms of placement, this was a sixty-four person bracket tournament. Round four was the quarter finals, so Joe was just shy of a titled placement. Top 8 would've been nice. And if Joe and Janine had won their matches, they would've met in said quarter finals. Oh well.
Joe left the arena as Rydell bumped fists with his Ursaring. In a way, Joe was thankful he'd started his Journey as an adult. No teenage angst here. He walked into the lobby with a smile on his face, satisfied he'd done all he could in that battle, and excited to learn and grow in the near future.
Absol stayed out of her Pokeball once she was healed, as expected. Joe spoke to her.
"Sorry. I get the feeling you could've gone further if I were better."
Absol barked. This was to be expected. She didn't hold her loss against Joe. They were getting used to each other. This was nothing more than a friendly match to the shiny. Although considering her efforts against Raikou, yes, Absol definitely could've fought better and gotten further into the tournament had she been acting alone. But Absol and Joe were a team. Joe was her Trainer. She wanted to fit in. Even if Absol had a better idea, she listened to Joe.
Rydell came into the lobby. Held a hand out to Joe out of respect. It wasn't something he did often since it didn't fit his image, but Joe knew his limits and didn't push his Pokemon for his own glory. That alone meant Joe was worthy of respect.
"Good fighting, dude."
Joe shook the hand presented to him. "And you, Rydell."
"Just in case we meet again, I'll tell you now. I'm Kantonian. My name's actually Ryuudokaze." Rydell claimed. He simply fell in love with the greaser look, and he already had a bit of an attitude, so he adopted the look and fake name some years ago.
Joe grinned. Slapped the greaser's arm. "It suits you."
Joe could picture Rydell riding a motorbike or a fancy, fifty-year-old car with no roof, letting the wind rush around him. If Joe's memory served him right, then Ryuudokaze roughly translated Wind Dragon. Citizens of the Triangle may have the same ancestors so they had the same base language, but over time language changed. The Kantonian language was distinct from Johtonian. Joe was raised in Johto so he only vaguely knew his neighbour's language.
"And let me guess, your family name translates to Supreme?"
Rydell broke out into a cold sweat. Joe laughed. Supreme Wind Dragon. Sure, why not.
They walked towards the arena, Joe noticing there was nothing on the back of Rydell's jacket. "You ever thought of getting a dragon on there?" He asked, nodding at the jacket when Rydell looked at him.
Rydell grinned. He knew he liked Joe. The big man had good taste. "Damn straight. My girl's working on a design right now. It'll be the best of the best."
"I look forward to seeing it."
Joe and Rydell separated as their claimed seats were nowhere near each other. Joe sat next to Erika and saw that the arena was spotless. It didn't look like Absol had taken chunks out of it or Ursaring had set it on fire. Similar to a psychic being on standby to shield the audience, there was a Pokemon around that could manipulate the ground, clearly to repair the battlefield. It gave everyone a fair fight.
The rest of the tournament proceeded as expected. Rydell lost to Gloomy. Erika entered the finals with Gloomy as her foe. The name was fitting. He had pale skin and long, black hair. His face was always dour, like someone stole candy from him when he was younger and he'd never recovered from the offence.
Right before the finals, Joe left Janine for a moment. He went outside and grabbed some green pompoms from a stall. The merchant gave Joe a weird look. This brick wall of a guy was going to be a cheerleader? No, no. He must be buying for his daughter or something. But he bought two pairs. The merchant decided not to think about it.
Joe sat by Janine just as Erika stepped onto the field. He grinned. Pulled out two pompoms and handed them to Janine. A mischievous smile crept across her face. Joe pulled his own out. Janine barked in laughter.
"You're not going to join in, are you?"
With a straight face, Joe brought the shakers to his chest and shook them in response. Janine practically doubled over. Erika could hear the girl over the announcer so looked at what had made her laugh.
Joe nudged Janine in an attempt to tell her Erika was paying attention, but the girl couldn't stop laughing. No matter. Joe had this covered. He began shaking the pompoms. "Erika! Erika!"
Erika turned away from Joe's chants, but her ears turned red. Erika had to fight harder than usual, her focus regularly broken by the deep, commanding voice of her new friend cheering for her. Saying she was frazzled was putting it lightly.
Erika somehow managed to beat Gloomy though. When she accepted the trophy from the shrewd businessman, she smiled gleefully. The businessman didn't know why, but he didn't like the look of her smile.
Joe, Erika, and Janine walked outside. Janine stretched her arms above her head.
"It was great seeing you again, Erika. But I'm off now." Janine looked at the sun as it lowered. She was an early riser, which naturally meant going to bed early. It also helped that Janine had been reinvigorated to put some effort into training. She could still relax plenty, but time was ticking.
"And you, Janine. Stay safe." Erika called to Janine as the girl ran off and waved back. Erika saw Joe stick a hand out. She didn't hesitate to shake it, although she put as much force into it as possible. It didn't hurt. A shame. She wanted to get revenge for Joe's cheerleading antics. "It was nice meeting you, Joe. I look forward to you entering my Gym."
Joe grinned. "Do you, though?"
Erika's face darkened. "Oh yes. I will have my revenge."
Joe laughed it off, curious what Erika had in store for him. As he did, Erika put a hand up her other sleeve and pulled out a plush. It was of herself and Vileplume. Some people had asked for autographs throughout the day, and she'd obliged, whipping out a pen that wrote in gold. It'd given her the idea to give a signed item to Joe. She didn't like receiving without giving. Sure, he said the gemstone was thanks for staying at her cabin, but Erika didn't consider those two things equal. So she bought a plush of herself and wrote her name in gold across the headband.
"After your little cheering stunt, I debated whether I should give you this or not. Against my better judgement, here." She pushed it into his hands.
Joe saw the signed gold text. He smiled. "This will sell well."
Erika's mood darkened again. "Seriously, the mouth on you. Just you wait, mister."
"No, seriously, thanks. I know exactly where to put this." Joe had a bookcase of odd trinkets he'd earned over the years. Keepsakes of memories. A signed Erika plush would fit right in. He looked the toy over carefully. Tapped at a beady eye. "It doesn't have a camera in it, right?"
"Who knows." Erika gave a smug grin and walked off. Hopefully Joe would be just a little paranoid. The start of her revenge. "Goodbye, Joe."
Erika didn't go to her cabin. She would be going home to Celadon tomorrow. She thought about Caroline, her young and sickly fan. Erika was inspired to put on a show for the girl when she returned to her Gym.
Joe was about to walk his own way when he heard an engine roar. A motorbike came around the corner and stopped in front of Joe. Rydell pulled his goggles up and patted Pawmot's head. The Pokemon sat in a pouch attached to the frame of the vehicle, arms dangling freely. Rydell gave Joe a salute.
"See you around, bro."
Joe returned the gesture and watched Rydell drive off. The greaser was a decent guy. Maybe their paths would cross again. That'd be nice.
Joe explored the town a little. Walked a road sitting five feet above the beach and looked out to sea. Or was it technically a massive lake? He didn't know much about geography. He could see the rest of Kanto across the water. Could just about make out individual lights of a city.
He reached a hotel. Sat on the bed. Brought Sprigatito out. She sat on the bed and brushed against his leg. Joe was thankful that his cat was in an affectionate mood, because it was time to investigate this potential Lusamine connection.
Joe had his phone in one hand, and with the other he played the claw with Sprigatito. Everyone with a cat had done it at some point. Sprigatito lay on her back and watched Joe's hand intently. Joe reached for her. Sometimes Joe stopped before he grabbed her face. Sometimes he grabbed her and shook her. Regardless of where his hand was, she smacked him, hissed, or nibbled on him gently.
Joe ran through his train of logic as he tapped his phone. His mother was a Gym Leader, so she had ties to Chairman Rose. Joe's mother liked taking her son on vacations around the world, so they'd gone to Alola at some point. Joe had been involved with the Aether Foundation briefly. He'd seen something he shouldn't have, or maybe been directly involved in a serious problem. To protect Joe's mental state, his mother sealed his memories and brainwashed him to not look into his past. Rose spoke publicly on the topic after hearing what his employee's family had been involved with.
As far as Joe was concerned, it was a solid theory.
Joe believed a disagreement between the CEOs of two massive companies was newsworthy. Especially since Chairman Rose of Macro Cosmos was openly hostile towards Lusamine of Aether Foundation.
Despite the public conflict, Joe found very little on the subject. Sure, it happened fifteen years ago, but the Internet had existed for a while by that point. Even if the Internet had been in its infancy, news articles were digitised all the time for archival purposes. Joe should've found way more than he actually did. It had to be a cover up.
The saving grace was that Joe found a video from that time. Maybe the exact one Erika had seen. It lined up with Erika's claim. Rose accused Lusamine of criminal behaviour. The problem was that he didn't elaborate, so Joe had no idea what the event was. Because that was an important detail. What made Chairman Rose believe Lusamine was a criminal?
Joe looked at the Aether Foundation and its CEO. It seemed like a normal company. They researched a variety of subjects like working to improve technology in ways that helped Pokemon. It was why they created their floating laboratory. They could dictate exact conditions for a Pokemon's recovery. But beyond that, Joe found nothing of note. No bad rumours on barely used forums. No news articles with specific allegations. Nothing.
Joe debated it for a moment. He was getting nowhere. He decided to leave it be.
The problem was that Joe's idea was too broad. A quick search about negative events that happened to young boys fifteen years ago returned thousands of results. Joe could be any one of them. He had few puzzle pieces, and in fact one worked against him. His mother taking him on vacations. She took him out constantly, all around the world. Joe could have been in Alola, but he just as easily could have been tens of thousands of miles from Alola, on the other side of the world.
Joe let out a heavy sigh as he pocketed his phone. His bag was in the corner of his eye, and what lay atop it made him smile. His Jasmine t-shirt. He put it on and held his phone out in front of him, making sure to get Absol in the shot as she lay down, chin rested on her front legs. She looked up, curious what her Trainer was doing now.
Joe would gladly embarrass himself if it led to annoying a friend, so he held up a peace sign and winked at the camera. Absol saw it on the screen and groaned. He sent the image.
"Thanks for all the help. Also, I heard from Erika that I'm an idiot. That's not very nice."
"Take that off right now! Don't make those stupid faces! And yes, I remember. Only an idiot charges into a fight without Pokemon. But I see you've got a team going. I think an Absol is a bit much for you right now, but congratulations on the shiny. With some stronger Pokemon around, maybe you'll finally learn to stop pushing your luck. Also, why are you thanking me?"
"Not likely. I'm still getting into fights. And the thanks is for all the information you shared over the years. It's coming in handy."
As per usual, Jasmine tried to cram anything and everything into one message. And Joe wasn't surprised she remembered telling Erika that Joe was an idiot. Jasmine didn't interact with people often and she had good memory, so she remembered something that would probably be obscured to time for a normal person.
They chatted for a while before Joe finally decided to go to bed.
* * * * *
Jasmine stayed up for a time, sinking into a plump bean bag seat, her legs curled up to her body. She messed around on her tablet for a while but her mind wandered back to Joe and his mention of Erika. Jasmine looked up Erika, curious how and why Joe knew her. Was he in Celadon right now? News articles stated that Erika was in a town called Amethyst. She'd entered a tournament. Videos of the tournament were getting hundreds of thousands of views, soon to become millions. Jasmine watched Joe battle, seeing he had more than just the two she knew of. She suspected Joe had some Kantonian Pokemon too, but she didn't get to see them.
She moved over to the Macro Cosmos app. It was used by Trainers and fans of Trainers. Jasmine was interested in the latter. She went to the app's forum and searched for Joe. Sure enough, he had a page. There were so many pages on so many Trainers that the forum had to separate them based on location. Even beginners were noticed, and Joe certainly stood out with his red Absol. He caught people's eye whether he intended to or not.
Jasmine read through comments about Joe. Mainly based on his size and his shiny Pokemon. There were a few mentions that his Pokemon Journey might be worth paying attention to, which was a standard belief for fans of new Trainers. It appeared as though Joe currently didn't have the Macro Cosmos app installed, which meant he hadn't engaged with the Gym Challenge yet. But people speculated that Joe would head North to Viridian and battle Gary. They would keep an eye on Viridian Gym for a while, expecting Joe to appear. This small group of three people considered themselves fans of Joe.
Jasmine was tempted to claim to be Joe's first fan, but she left it alone. If Joe learned of her petty and embarrassing claim, then she just knew he'd tease her about it.