Chapter 13: Ch.13
Leo immediately used Leer and Howl, like our normal intros. With Alakazam using Reflect, Calm Mind, and Kinesis. Showing how much more experienced and strong it is than Leo, using three moves back to back in the same amount of time Leo used his two.
'Leo try your best to close the distance and use Crunch. Our only hope is for you to land as many super effective moves as possible,' I say to Leo who charges Alakazam with Flame Charge to close the distance.
Alakazam sidesteps Leo just as he arrives using Future Sight right before Leo even moves, then uses Psycho Cut as Leo arrives at him. This hit Leo sending him crashing onto the ground with a loud thud with Leo crying in pain. Alakazam is in no way a physical fighter, the fact it is a much higher Ranked Pokémon shows just how much of a difference in strength there is due to the Rank differences.
"Don't push yourself too much, Leo!" I say since I don't want Leo to go as crazy as Mankey who would probably fight until he dies.
Alakazam then teleported away from Leo using this moment to Disable Leo's Flame Charge. Leo then uses Wild Charge to close the distance, but Alakazam uses Psychic before Leo can even make it a few feet. Once again Leo cries out in pain falling to the ground extremely injured now. Leo is struggling to stand as he looks on the verge of passing out.
"Leo, return! I forfeit," I say putting Leo into his Pokéball, so he doesn't try to convince me to fight any more than he can handle.
I know it is slightly hypocritical for me to let Mankey fight until he was extremely injured too. But I have an extremely close bond with Leo and I didn't think Solomon would be so petty to use one of his main team on me as I don't even have enough badges to justify the use of them. I thought Mankey could give Leo the chance to take the victory in the end, but it turns out we never stood a chance.
"Trainer Lucas has forfeited the match! The winner is Gym Leader Solomon!" the Referee says though I can see even the Referee was surprised at Solomon's last choice.
While the rest of the crowd also seemed to understand that Solomon was being unfair, but that is life. The only person in the crowd that seemed happy was Sabrina, Solomon's daughter. I was tempted to flip her off but held back my anger to leave with some dignity.
'We'll come back here once we are much stronger,' I think to myself as I turn to leave the Gym.
"Lucas Brinton, why are you leaving? Don't you want your gym badge?" Solomon says to me as I turn to leave. I turn around giving him a confused look, as the original face of anger towards me is no longer there. While his Alakazam is talking to Sabrina's Kadabra since the two came down from the stands, most likely to talk with her father.
"What? Why are you giving me a badge? I lost," I say to Solomon with a confused and suspicious face. He could give me the badge if he felt I did well enough even though I lost, but I was still confused since I thought he hated me.
"Why… Because you did extremely well, I never expected you to win against Alakazam. But still, you tried and knew when to withdraw your Pokémon before they took severe damage. I was worried at first since you let Mankey fight until he couldn't, but seeing that you used him to clutch the Gym, plus Mankey wanted to fight… Seems you aren't a total fool. Plus your Dad asked me to show you one of my Main Team if you managed to beat two of my other Pokémon," Solomon says to me while his daughter gives a surprised look while looking at me like she is trying to figure out who my Dad is.
"My Dad did?... Huh… I guess I can understand why he did that," I say thinking why my Dad asked Solomon to do what he did.
"He wanted to make sure you didn't become overconfident and learned you are still a newbie in the grand scheme of things. Plus it is a safer environment to fight very strong Pokémon in a gym, than in the wild where anything can happen," Solomon says while handing me the Marsh Badge and a TM.
"The TM is Future Sight, I'm sure you already know what the move does," Solomon says to me.
"Though you won't be getting any money, since you didn't win," Solomon continues before I can thank him.
"I understand, thank you either way," I say taking the TM.
"To be honest I thought you hated me, because of your daughter," I say to Solomon as he nods his head, then looks at me confused.
"Wait… What? Why?! Are you two together?!!" Solomon says looking over to his daughter who is listening to the conversation a few feet away. Then he looks at me with a now very annoyed look.
"WHAT?!?! NO!! I would never date someone like… like… like him!" Sabrina says while giving me a disapproving look.
"For once we can agree on something," I say nodding my head as I quickly leave. Sabrina looked ready to attack me, with Solomon very confused while trying to piece together what was happening.
I then rushed to the Pokémon Center handing over both Leo and Mankey as I waited in the waiting room. There I called my Dad to confront him about his 'talk' with Solomon. After a few rings, he finally answers and from the look on his smirking face, I can see he already knows what I want to talk about.
"Why Solomon?... Just why, him out of all the gym leaders?" I say to my Dad with a sigh since Solomon's daughter hates me and the feeling is becoming mutual.
"Because I knew that you'd go after his gym next instead of another, plus Solomon already owes me a few favors," Dad says while I hear his Pokémon training in the background.
"I saw the fight, I hope you learned a few things from it," Dad continues while I just sigh.
"I definitely did that is for sure… Though I already knew I wasn't the strongest out there, he didn't have to beat me that badly," I say as my Dad's tone turns slightly more serious.
"Lucas listen to me carefully, I know you have an understanding of power dynamics and where you possibly stand in it all. But in the last several years more and more organized groups across the world have been appearing. Slowly antagonizing the Pokémon League and attacking people for various reasons. I'm just worried you might come across them at some point and fight someone who is much stronger than you. And instead of running, you would try your hardest to beat them. I don't want to lose my only son and family… Plus it goes without saying to not tell anyone this, as this is not public knowledge just yet… The league is still trying to find more out before making a public statement, I just hope it is sooner than later," Dad says to me as I listen to him and sigh internally thinking that Team Rocket and some others have finally started to show themselves to the world.
"I get it… though how could I escape them if they are that much stronger than me or if I am in the position of fight or die?" I ask my Dad who goes quiet and sighs hearing my question.
"You… You are not wrong… I just wanted to make sure you understand just how much of a difference between your Pokémon are currently and someone who has been a Trainer for years. All I can do is try to prepare you the best I can and send me an SOS immediately if that should happen. I will do everything I can to protect you," Dad says to me as I nod my head to myself understanding his worry and happy that my Dad cares this much about me.
"Thanks, Dad, talk to you later," I say as I see Nurse Joy motioning to me that my Pokémon are finished healing.
"No need to thank me, I'm your Dad and that is my number one priority. One day you will understand when you have kids," Dad says to me before we hang up.
'Kids?! I'm too focused on becoming stronger, let alone finding a girlfriend to eventually have kids,' I think to myself as I grab my Pokémon from Nurse Joy and thank her.
Unlike the anime or the games, not all Nurse Joys are related, as it is a University that trains them to be a Doctor or Nurse. The University is called 'The Joy of Healing' which made everyone who graduated be called a Doctor of Joy or Nurse of Joy, or just Doctor Joy or Nurse Joy. They do wear name tags on their shirt telling people their name, but most people just refer to them as Doctor Joys or Nurse Joys.
"You guys did an amazing job, I know we lost, but you both still did an amazing job. Mankey, you showed the world that even being at a major disadvantage you can still pull through. While Leo showed the world that even though we were outmatched he still was determined to win no matter what," I say to my Pokémon once I let them out of their balls outside the Pokémon Center. As they both looked disappointed at the loss, Mankey must have learned it from Leo who seemed the most disappointed.
My words seemed to lift their spirits slightly, but their egos took a big hit today. That though is just part of life and they will learn we can not win every battle. However, that doesn't mean we won't try our hardest to pull through.
"Today we will relax and talk about what we can do better next time. We still got the gym badge, but I am sure the other gyms will be much harder on us moving forward. Tomorrow we will challenge that Fighting Dojo, so I hope you both are ready for that," I say to them as we relax the rest of today before challenging the Dojo tomorrow.
"Growlithe!! Mankey!!" they both say with determination back on their faces to show they haven't given up.
The next day we woke up early to head to the Dojo, where I asked to challenge the Dojo. At the Dojo, it is first come first serve for challenging them as they don't do reservations like the Offical Gyms of the Pokémon League do.
"I have a question before we begin," I say to the receptionist who places my request which was answered immediately that they will prepare the Dojo for the challenge.
"Sure!" the receptionist says with a friendly smile.
"If I win, can I choose a different reward instead of a Pokémon?" I say to her since I didn't want another Pokémon and Mankey was already the Fighting Type of my Team.
"I can ask the Master of the Dojo… you are the first to ask that… Uhm give me a minute please," the receptionist says before getting up and heading inside the Dojo's battlefield area.
After a few minutes, she comes back, gesturing for me to follow her. I see a middle-aged man with short black hair, a very muscular body, and brown eyes, wearing a dark red Gi, a blackbelt around his waist, and weighted wristbands and ankle bands.
"Hello, I am Master Cheng. What did you want instead of a Pokémon?" Master Cheng asks me with a curious look.
"Instead could I ask for an item of equal value as the Pokémon you would give me?" I ask him wanting to get an item for Mankey to help him.
"Depends, what item are you asking for?" Master Cheng says while considering it.
"One to help my Mankey increase his stats," I say while pointing to my Mankey who is looking around this place with a curious and excited look.
"Hmm… Sure, if you win, I will give you something to help your Mankey," Master Cheng says to me nodding his head as we shake hands on the deal.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone