Chapter 12 - Public Arenas

Now that was a gym battle.

The way those pokemon fought showed their dedication and training. The trainers hardly had to give any instructions as the pokemon already knew what to do in most situations.

“Chi!” “Happi!”

“Yeah, that’ll be us some day.” I said, patting my pokemon on their heads.

Ida’s eyes were out of focus, as if thinking really hard. Meanwhile, Elizabeth and Alan were acting a bit subdued. I suppose it was because of Matt’s loss. Although I felt sorry for Matt, I couldn’t help thinking it was due to his lack of a strategy that he lost. Bruno looked to be well trained for power, but didn’t have the means to actually hit his opponent.

I was full of energy now and itching for a battle. Seeing Ida turn towards me, I said, “Hey, guys, why don’t we catch up with Matt and head to the public arenas out back?”

Ida quickly shot to her feet, knocking her fennekin, Ren, to the floor.

“Kiiin!” Ren yowled as Ida picked her up and spouted apologies.

Elizabeth and Alan nodded, so we all got up and headed to the front of the gym to meet up with Matt. I recalled Chaos, letting her know she’ll be back out shortly.

We found him leaning against the wall looking a bit dejected. Elizabeth and Alan hurriedly approached Matt, saying he’ll get them next time.

“Hey, Matt.” I said, “Bruno is looking like a real powerhouse.”

“Thanks, Jason. I thought we were… No, we took it too easy. Let the type advantage get to our heads.” Matt said.

“This is Ida, by the way. We were going to head to the public arenas to watch and maybe have some friendly matches, want to join us.”

“Thank you, but I think Bruno and I need a bit of a break to sort things out.”

Alan and Elizabeth elected to go back with Matt to the pokecentre we were all staying at, so Ida and I headed to the back of the gym where the public arenas were.

The public arenas were open for all trainers under 3 badges. The higher badges trained at the Ranger Complex or in private training arenas. With Silph tech these arenas took up less space in the city than I would’ve thought. There were three arenas in an indoor stadium, where there was a viewing lounge for the trainers to mingle and spectate. Once we entered the viewing lounge, I released Chaos into my hands.

The arenas each had different terrain. There was a grassland, with a pond and some boulders strewn about. A sandy beach with some boulders, with half the arena being water. And finally, a plain arena built of pokemon proof stone.

Ida and I found some seats towards the back, hoping to view a few battles before joining in. The viewing lounge had a couple dozen trainers and there were battles taking place in all three arenas.

I quickly looked over the viewing screens, finding that the battles seemed to be pretty tame compared to the 3rd gym challenge I had just witnessed.

The most interesting battle was in the beach arena, where a horsea was fighting a geodude. The horsea was extremely fast, dodging any stones thrown from the geodude, while occasionally pelting the geodude with a water gun. The geodude would use a curtain of sand to block the horseas attacks, though it took some damage each time before it could block the water gun.

A couple of minutes later, the geodudes trainer forfeited.

Ida turned to me and said, “This is boring, how about we battle?”

“Yeah, but let’s sign up individually. We can just battle each other in the training area behind the pokecentre, I assume that’s where you’re staying?”

She nodded and said, “I’m first.” As she got up to go register at the machine. You could either register with another person, having a battle against each other. Or you could register alone and fight any other trainer that was willing. The crowd here seemed to be mostly trainers with no badge or 1 badge.

Soon after Ida returned, a message came up on the information screen that showed the queue for the battles saying that there was an open slot for a single challenger. We settled in and watched the ongoing battles as we waited.

They were mostly uneventful, but a couple of pokemon stood out. There was a fiesty kirlia that decimated its opponent, a quilladin, through a flurry of attacks. As well as a huge bidoof that stomped its opponent, a mareep, acting as if the electricity running through it was a mild tingle.

Finally, it was time for Ida’s match.

“Good luck!” “Happi!” “Chiko!” We wished them well as they entered the plain arena, lined with extremely strong pokemon proof stone.

I moved to a position in the viewing lounge where I could better spectate her specific arena.

When both trainers were in their box, an automated announcer told them to release their pokemon. Ren hopped onto the starting position.

The opposing trainer, a sandy haired teen girl, released a scorbunny.

A few moments later, both trainers having clicked the ready button, an automated countdown started with some lights like a traffic signal. As the final light lit up, the announcer said, “Let the battle begin!”