Chapter 4 – The Dratini School Tournament

To say the preliminaries were easy would be a massive understatement. After parting from Professor Oak, brimming with even more questions than when I started the day, Pyra and I were ready to blow off some steam. This was it! Our first tournament! We were both thrilled at the prospect of a challenge! ...Only to be supremely disappointed.

"Welcome to round 65 for the preliminaries. This battle will be 1 on 1 style until a Pokemon is unable to continue or the trainer gives up. Trainer Zeek has chosen Rattata as his Pokemon. Trainer Finn has chosen Charmander as his Pokemon. Round 65, start!"

The announcer was the most hyped person in the room. The rest of the crowd had moved on to more interesting battles, only my parents, Zeek's parents, and Professor Oak remained. Regardless of the less than stellar opponent, this was my first official battle, so I wanted to do it right. I quickly glance around at the open outside grass field. The ring lines have been drawn with white paint and the ground is completely flat with no dips in the grass or rocks in the way. 'No issues here. Let's do this.'  

"Plan A then move in and use Brick Break!" I yell only a microsecond after the start.

Plan A is the first of the tactics I practiced with Pyra during our training and involves laying down a field of Smokescreen between her and her opponent. Speed and clear, concise instructions are the way to win a battle. With short but precise instructions without telegraphing your moves, you can confuse your opponent while still communicating quickly and efficiently. This was the foundation of my training with Pyra and something I learned that most Gym leaders and World Trainers do. We practiced doing Plan A into many other abilities, naming them Plan A-1 or Plan A-2 and so on, but this is one we forgot to go over beforehand. I just taught Pyra Brick Break recently from a TM, so we had very little practice with it.

Rattata is a Normal-type and is weak to Fighting-type moves. This was a sure-fire plan to win. 

Ok, pause. Somethings I need to get out of the way.

TM's in this world are just instructional videos and documents used to teach Pokemon moves. Their cost depends on the move type, complexity, and power and there are far more moves out there than there are TMs. They more so provide a foundation that can be built off of once a move is learned. For example, I could evolve Brick Break into something more powerful, faster, or using something other than her hands, and so on. HM's don't exist here. What would be the point of teaching an already flying Pokemon how to fly or a swimming Pokemon how to swim? There are some exceptions, such as the move Waterfall, but that is a TM instead of an HM. They also are reusable, since they are just videos and guide documents, so 1 TM can be used on any number of Pokemon. They are also bound to a Trainer ID to prevent people from sharing them willy nilly and defeating the purpose of buying them. I had my mom buy the move so it is bound to her Trainer ID. Immediate family are allowed to use TM's like this, according to League laws. 

Another difference is the types of TM's that Pokemon can learn. It more has to do with how you teach it to your Pokemon than if they can or cannot learn it. For instance, you can teach an Ekans Karate Chop, it would just need to use its tail in a similar way to how other Pokemon use their hands. The same can be said for elemental attacks. You could teach a Lapris Fire Blast, but it would use its own element as the basis, becoming Boiling Water Blast. Most just stick to the basic matching types, however, as it is much, MUCH harder to teach a Water Pokemon a Fire move than it is to just teach it Hydro Pump.

Also, Pokemon can learn as many moves as they can remember. Pyra, due to our training, remembers every move she has ever learned and even some more on top of those from the TM's I bought with my allowance. She does up to 20 of each move she knows daily. Basically, she does it until it tires her out too much, rests, and moves on to the next one. This is her warm-up and she does this before we even start practicing tactics and doing practice battles with Lara.

Professor Oak was especially surprised at this method of training and praised me for my forward-thinking. It seems most trainers and Pokemon choose to focus on only a couple of strong moves, usually 4 - thus where that game mechanic comes into play - so that they can hone those abilities and make them stronger, but Pokemon are only limited in their memory and the skills of their trainer. Gym leader teams and the Elite 4 tend to know between 15 and 20 moves, still having them both honed and powerful, and that is what really sets apart the mediocre trainers from the World Trainers.

Resume.

"Um...Rattata, use tackle!" Says the unsure voice of Zeek.

Poor kid. By the time he finishes his instructions, the Smokescreen has already been expelled and Pyra has rushed into it from the left. She emerges from the smoke like some sort of Demon, or that is what Rattata's expression seems to convey as she lands a brutal karate chop on the rat Pokemon's head. 

That was it. The judges all stare in amazement as Rattata is knocked out in one hit and falls to the ground. The battle time was 0:07 seconds from start to finish. 

"Wow...um...ok! Winner, Trainer Finn!"

Pyra rushes back to me and hugs me before the black smoke has even cleared the field. I pat her head and sigh as the adrenalin leaves me. It was a lame fight, but a win is a win. Every journey starts with a single step, so they say.

Zeek is crying over his fainted Pokemon, and I decide to try and be a good winner and maybe even give him some advice. I make my way over before my parents and Professor Oak reach me or his parents can reach him.

"Hey," I say softly as I approach. He raises his head and glares at me. 

"What, here to make fun of me for losing?" He snarls, holding his Rattata close.

"No, not at all!" I say quickly, scratching the back of my head, "I just wanted to say thanks for the battle. I can see how close you are to your Pokemon so I wanted to make sure it was alright."

Zeek looks down at his Rattata and loses his hostility. "Yeah, she will be alright. This is not our first time losing...I just wish I could get her stronger like your Charmander..."

"Well, training is key," I say kneeling down in front of him, "I know that is said a lot, but effective training is even more important. Have you tried working out strategies with her yet? Once she learns Bite and Hyper Fang she will be a force to be reckoned with. You can also train her to use Quick Attack to both reposition and gain the advantage when your opponent is out of place or overextends. And Pursuit and Sucker Punch...they are nastily quick moves that will assure you victory in a lot of situations...what?"

I started getting in teaching mode but was stopped when Zeek stood up, wiped his tears away, and looked at me with hope and sparkles in his eyes. "You're the Professor! I thought I heard your name before! Can you teach me all that stuff? I want to be the best I can be for Tat here!"

I wince at the nickname, but smile and stand up as well. Pyra puffs out her chest with pride, "Of course! Just meet me after school and you can join my training sessions with Lara."

He nodded enthusiastically and thanked me as we looked around to see our parents standing nearby, smiling at us. Zeek runs up to hug his mom and his dad looks over and mouths, "Thank you" to me. My own parents hug me close and tell me how proud they are of me. Pyra gets her fair share of attention from Professor Oak as well. He seems completely enthralled by how well trained and mannered she is, and she quickly goes back to being shy when he praises her too much. She comes and hides behind me and we all laugh at the giant Charmander, who is taller than me. I promise to meet with Oak and go over my strategies and more of my training methods later, but for now, I am going home for a quick nap.

The judges informed us that I will be moving on to the round of 32 and will not be required to battle more in the preliminaries, so I have 4 hours free. The real tournament starts at 5 pm.

* | * | * 

Both Pyra and I are well-rested and ready for the battles to come as we arrive back at the stadium for the first round of the actual tournament. Luckily, Lara and I are on different sides of the tournament bracket, something we didn't even think about. We could have had to fight earlier! Now I am confident we will meet in the Finals.

My first fight is the third of the Round of 32 and I am against Jeremy. Not as epic as fighting against him in the semi-finals, but I still can't wait to rub his face in our training and hard work. Pyra is a bit worried, but I am confident in our abilities. I just rub her smooth scaled head lovingly to ease her tension.

When the time comes, Pyra and I head up to the main stage. She is nervously fiddling with her hands, so I stop her just before we climb the stairs onto the stage.

"Pyra, look at me." She does and her big silver eyes are looking lost and scared. "Do you regret coming with me?" I ask.

Pyra snorts fire at me and shakes her head viciously with a "Char! Charmander!" - 'Never! Don't ever say that!'

"Then do you think that your training was lacking to defeat Jeremy and his Charmeleon?"

She bears her fangs at me and snars, "Charmander!" - 'No!'

I then put my forehead against hers and whisper, "That's right. You are the best and you are gonna show that asshat just what he missed out on. You are going to show him that, together as a team, there is nothing you and I can't do. We are gonna wipe the floor with that Charmeleon and make your mom proud. I asked Ash to bring her out for this battle. What do you think girl, can you do it? For your mom, for me, and for yourself?"

Pyra then throws her head back and roars a fearsome battle cry screaming, "Charmander!" - "Yesssss~!" Then she lowers her head, breathing heavily, and rests her forehead against mine again. "Charmander." - 'Let's kick some rich boy butt.'

I stand up tall and nod to her...she's 7 inches taller than me, dammit... Oh well.

We take the stage, her much more confident than before, and we lay our eyes on Jeremy and his confident looking Charmeleon. And...I can't help it... I bust out laughing. His Charmeleon is like 3 feet tall! Pyra towers over him and he looks like he barely has any muscles, whereas Pyra is rippling with strong, firm muscles. I doubt Jeremy has even trained him a day in his life!

"What's so funny, loser?" Jeremy scowls at me. "Finally lost your mind? So what if you have a mutant Charmander, it can't possibly hope to beat it's evolved form."

The Charmeleon roars but looks intimidated by Pyra all the same. She, for her part, just smirks and shakes her head.

"Ladies and gentleman, boys and girls! Welcome to the 3rd match of the Round of 32 in tonight's tournament!" Cheers answer the announcer's call. "This match is bound to get hot as Trainer Jeremy's Charmeleon is up against Trainer Finn's Charmander. Will the difference in evolution prove to be too much for Finn, or will Pyra and her excellent tactics we saw in the preliminaries win out? Only time will tell! Trainers, shake hands!"

I walk to the middle of the raised stone stage and hold out my hand in the honorary way competitors do in real tournaments - we did this before the fight in the preliminaries as well. Jeremy scoffs and stiffly walks over before slapping my hand away. The crowd boos at this unsportsmanlike conduct, but I just shrug and go back to Pyra and my small protection box outside the ring. She seems ready and I know I am. Can't wait to wipe that smirk off his dumb face.

"Oh! Trainer Jeremy refuses to shake hands, is this some sort of rivalry we are seeing? Either way, we are ready to begin. Trainers, are you and your pokemon ready?" We both nod. "Then let Round 3..."

"Fire Blast!" Jeremy yells before the announcer even stops talking and officially starts the match. Charmeleon does as instructed and lets out the smallest Fire Blast I have ever seen. I think the Flamethrower ability is more powerful than this...You can buy moves, Jeremy, but you can't buy talent.

"...Start..." The announcer finishes, unsure how to react to this blatant cheating. He looks to the judges, some of our school teachers and the principal, who have either facepalmed or are scowling at Jeremy. More boos from the audience rain down, but Jeremy doesn't care with his holier than thou attitude. 

The premature Fire Blast hits Pyra and she barely reacts to it as it washes over her. She smirks at the Charmeleon who now looks very worried and keeps glancing back at his trainer.

"You know what to do, girl. I believe in you."

That was all she needed. Pyra Roars again, even louder than before, and stamps her foot into the ground sending up a massive boulder of stone in front of her. She hits the stone with her powerful tail resulting in a loud "Thwak!" and sending it flying at the helpless and scared Charmeleon.

"Charmander sends out a massive boulder using Rock Tomb! This move is super effective against fire types like Charmeleon! What will Trainer Jeremy do?" The announcer yells, trying to get back into the fight.

This was the first TM I taught Pyra. We trained for this encounter over the last 5 years and her Rock Tomb is a truly savage and powerful move. Fueled by Pyra's anger and determination to win, this one is the largest it has ever been.  

"Charmeleon! Do something!" Jeremy screams, now worried himself.

The poor Pokemon just looks at the kid in exacerbation before trying to launch another Fire Blast. Too little, too late. The huge boulder slams into Charmeleon and the Pokemon lets out a short painful cry before falling to the ground, buried under a ton of stones. The boulder explodes on impact with the stage, sending up small rocks and shrapnel everywhere. They bounce harmlessly off of an invisible shield that was put up by our principal's Alakazam before the match, protecting the trainers and the audience.  

"Charmeleon!" Jeremy calls, but there is no movement from the pile of rocks.

"Charmeleon, get up now! I command you!"

No response.

"I think that is it, folks..." The announcer starts but is interrupted by Jeremy. 

"No! This can't be! He cheated! He used items! I demand a rematch!"

"Dammit, Jeremy, Enough!" Mayor Drex yells as he runs up the stairs and onto the stage. I have never seen him look so angry before. "Call the match, ref." He announces as his wife joins him on the stage and starts yelling at him for not defending their son in a shrill voice.

"Um...Sure... The winner of the 3rd round is Trainer Fi..." But that is all he could get out before Jeremy starts screaming his lounges out.

"No, no, no, no, no, NO! He cheated! He...he...stole my Pokemon from me! Give me back my Charmander! It's mine! Mom!!!"

"..Trainer Finn has won." The announcer finishes finally with a note of defeat in his voice. I ignore the kid now throwing a tantrum and the screams of the 40-year-old woman doing the same and rush up to my Charmander.

"You did it, girl! I am so proud of-" But I am stopped short by her tail waving in a warning in front of me.

"Pyra?" I ask, now worried. She is panting heavily and sweat pours down her head. Smoke and fire shoot out of her mouth and her tail flame is flickering wildly. Not only that, but it seems to be changing. The color of the fire keeps switching rapidly between red, orange, blue, and a light pink tint. 

Pyra grunts and falls to all fours and I try to rush in to help her but I am stopped yet again, this time by a large Charizard landing in front of me and roaring. I stumble back and fall onto my butt as the giant dragon shakes her head and growls. She turns and stands a few feet away from Pyra staring down at her and nodding her head while grunting in their language. 

Pyra looks up at her with a questioning, "Char?" before looking over at me, and then back at her mother. Charizard then lowers her head and breathes a steady flame onto her daughter's tail. I watch in fascination as I am joined by Ash, Lara, and Professor Oak running onto the stage. Lara helps me up and I hold her close as worry and dispair grips my heart.

'What's going on? Is...is Pyra going to be alright? Did I do something wrong?'

Pyra's tail flame burns brighter and hotter, not flickering and changing colors anymore...no...that's not right. It is still changing colors, but very slowly. As Charizard breaths fire onto Pyra's tail, the whole stadium watches in silent amazement as the color changes from red to orange to yellow to white to blue. Charizard's flames seem to be matching the colors and as they shift the stage gets hotter and hotter. The stone under Pyra starts to glow orange from the heat and everyone on stage is sweating buckets.

Charizard stops her flames as her daughter's tail burns a deep blue and progresses to be ever lighter even more slowly. She grunts in encouragement, now obviously a bit winded herself and Pyra closes her eyes to focus and starts a low steady growl.

It starts soft but builds to a crescendo as her tail flame color gets lighter and lighter and larger and larger. Pyra roars out the loudest cry I have ever heard from her or any other Pokemon and starts to glow white. I, everyone on stage, and the entire crowd gasp in realization as we watch Pyra start evolving in front of our very eyes. Her cry lasts for over a minute before cutting off completely as the white light vanishes and there, where my little cute Pyra once stood, is a 6 and a half foot, completely pink Charmeleon. She opens her eyes, her now violet eyes, and stares right at me. Her tail now burns a translucent fuchsia color and the heat it radiates is something unimaginable.

Pyra and I stare at each other for a long moment before I hesitantly break eye contact with her to look up at Charizard for approval. She nods to me and moves to stand next to Ash. I lock my eyes back on my beautiful girl and give her a huge grin.

"You did it," I say as the statement echos around the silent arena. The rest of the stadium is so quiet you could hear a pin drop. 

I walk towards her confidently and hold my arms wide open. "Come here Pyra. You did so well and I am so proud of you. Congratulations, baby girl."

I feel odd stares on me as some in the audience question my sanity for calling a 6-foot dragon "Baby girl."

Luckily, it seems Pyra is not among them as she grins widely and starts running for me. I prepare to be knocked over and possibly off the stage by my giant, pink Pokemon, but a loud grunt from behind me stops Pyra in her tracks.

"Zard. Charizard."

Pyra looks at her mom and then back to me sheepishly. She slows her charge to a gentle walk as she walks into my arms. It is comedic, really, I only come up to her chest. But still, all the love and affection that has always been our relationship ever since she was a tiny newborn is present and visible in that simple hug. She wraps her arms around me and we get lost in our own world as I tune out the applause that has started up strong once again.

I whisper to her, "I don't care how big and strong and intimidating you get. You will always be my cute baby girl. Only now, you get to be the big spoon when we cuddle." I finish with a laugh and Pyra snorts in amusement. 

I reach up and pull her head down to rest it against mine, locking my eyes with her new violet ones. "Congratulations girl. This is the result of all our effort and training, and this is only the beginning. I am so proud of you. You are so beautiful."

Pyra smiles and preens as she stands up straight again. 

"Wow, never thought I would see this again." Professor Oak startles us away from our moment smiling gently. "They need to reset the stage, Finn. Come, I will talk to you, Pyra, and your family and friends about this. I have only ever seen 1 other pink Charmeleon in my long career."

I thank Lara and Ash and especially Charizard for her help as I leave the stage with Oak. Pyra hugs her mom and they grunt and growl softly in their language. Jeremy is still screaming about how Pyra is his and that he wants her back, but he has been pulled aside by the mayor and a very angry momma Drex. Good luck Mayor Drex. I hope the divorce isn't too bad...

* | * | *

The next hour is spent in conversation with Professor Oak about Pyra's unique evolution with only a small break to watch Lara and Grace wipe the floor with their opponent. She looks...a little crestfallen. If her chances of beating me were slim before, they are next to zero now. I feel bad, but I will treat her as a real trainer and not give her a handicap when we get in the ring. She and Grace deserve that from me and Pyra. That was the whole point of me goading her into the bet. We can't let our friendship get in the way of our progress as Pokemon trainers.

Back to Professor Oak, we all gather in a small break room with him, my family, and Lara's family for the explanation. According to him, he has only ever encountered this once before.

"It is a rare and powerful variation from the normal Charizard family evolution line. The only other one I have seen is owned by the recently retired Pokemon Champion Crystal. She and her purple Charizard took the World Championship by storm and she won it two years in a row about 8 years back."

He then says that he will try and get in contact with her to see if she would be interested in meeting with me and Pyra and discussing what she and her Charizard have learned.

Oak continues his explanation by saying that her skin pigmentation is not necessarily the reason why this variation triggered. Plenty of other variant colored Pokemon have evolved normally, just keeping their different colors. It does not usually affect their power or size. He believes that my training methods and our bond may have been more of a factor in this than anything else. He even theorized that by bringing Pyra to her maximum potential, we might have unlocked a new unique form of evolution, not dissimilar to Mega, Z, or Gigantamax evolutions, just on a far lesser power scale and by sheer force of will, not by a special powered stone.

Regardless of how it happened, Professor Oak gives us the great news that based on the increased heat from the flames on Pyra's tail and the massive size difference, we can expect her to be much stronger both physically and in her flame attacks than other Charmeleons. He asked me to come by the lab sometime so we can test how hot her flames can get and what the output is to see the difference from normal Charmeleons. 

He then dropped a bomb that crushed our spirits and gave new hope to Lara. Apparently, recently evolved Pokemon tend to be weaker for a short while after evolution as they need to recharge the energy they expended in the evolution process...looking over at Pyra, curled up and sleeping on the ground, I realize she does look more than a little exhausted. I just missed it before because of how big and powerful she had become. 

I smile sadly at Lara and then ask the only responsible thing a trainer and caretaker of Pokemon should ask after learning their partner needs to rest. "I should withdraw from the tournament, shouldn't I Professor?"

* | * | *

It is about 9 pm and Lara and I are sitting on a bench in the gardens outside her house. She slouches over, hugging a large bronze trophy close to her chest, but doesn't seem at all happy about her victory in the tournament. We have left our Pokemon in their balls to rest and put them on our portable restoration machines in Lara's room.

These machines are a mobile and only slightly less advanced version of what they use in Pokemon Centers. It is a sleek black piece of plastic and metal with 6 divots in its center in a circular formation designed for Pokeballs to rest on. It passively heals Pokemon in their Pokeballs when they are placed on it as long as it is charged or plugged in. It even has solar charging capabilities! I am proud to say that my father, James, was part of the development team 5 years ago. 

Back to the sulking Lara, I put my arm around her shoulders and pull her into me as we rest in silence, enjoying the cool night air.

"I don't deserve this." She says after several long minutes of silence, pouting and holding back tears. "You should have wo..."

"Stop," I say in a commanding voice allowing no arguments. I remove my arm from her shoulder and move to crouch down in front of where she is seated. I stare up at her until she finally meets my gaze.

"Grace would bite you if she heard you say that." I say with a soft smile, "You two have worked just as hard as Prya and I and you deserve every bit of the praise your received today. I don't want to hear my best friend talking down on herself and her hard work ever again." I finish more firmly.

"B-but if we battled, you would have won!" She says, letting the tears go and sobbing. She puts the trophy to the side and reaches out to put her arms around my neck and rest her head on my shoulder as she cries.

"Probably," I say truthfully after a moment and she raises her head to glare at me, so I continue quickly, "But so what? What's so bad about losing? Losing can be the best teacher and can give you the drive to be a better trainer. I lose all the time when I battle my mom and dad or Mr. Rook. Don't obsess over the 'What if's' and, instead, work on what you can accomplish. What you and Grace can accomplish together. You always do your best, Lara. Whether that is in school, your work, or your training. You are one of the strongest people I know and you earned that trophy fair a square." I finish by wiping away her tears and looking up at her as she smiles shyly. 

"...Thanks, Finn. You always know what to say to make me feel better." She sits up straight, wipes her eyes on her arm, and does a guts pose. "If you and Pyra got stronger, it just means that Grace and I will need to get stronger too! Once she evolves she is gonna kick your lizard's butt!"

"Now you are lucky Pyra isn't here. With how big she is now, she could eat you, you know?" 

She stares at me incredulously before we both burst into laughter. I stand up and she follows suit pulling me into a tight hug as we smile at each other's silliness. We stay like that for a while, resting our foreheads on one another and closing our eyes. Enjoying the friendship and trust that we share together.

I break the embrace and step back with a rueful smile on my face. "I gotta admit though, I am a bit scared about what you are gonna make me do when I have to listen to whatever you say for a whole day."

She scrunches her forehead in confusion and asks, "I thought that bet was canceled since we couldn't battle in the finals?"

"Nah uh," I say shaking my head in dramatic and mock sorrow, "The bet was to win the tournament. You won...I will just have to bite the bullet I guess...What will it be? Make me wear a dress and makeup? Or maybe I have to pretend to be your Pokemon all day?" I seriously grimace at that prospect. 

She smiles widely and says, "Nope! All you have to do is accompany me all day Saturday. We will go around town together and I will make you buy new clothes! And we can go to the Pokezoo! And Eat at the new crepe shop that just opened up! And see the new movie Abby is in!" She is getting lost in her own thoughts as she plans out the whole day. 

"Sounds like a date," I say thoughtlessly trying to be funny and immediately regretting it when her smile falters and she lowers her head, her cheeks burning.

"...it doesn't have to be..." she trails off embarrassedly while poking her two pointer fingers together.

'Ok, Finn. Good job, dumbass. The way I see it, you have 3 options. Play dumb, refuse her for some bullshit reason and make it awkward, or just man the fuck up and admit you have a thing for her. I mean...after the birthday surprise, you are only kidding yourself if you think you don't. Everyone sees it, you are just getting hung up over stupid shit. You are not pretending to be a kid, you ARE a kid. These are real feelings and she is a real person with real emotions. This is not a game...come on, dude. Is there really any other option?'

"It's a date," I say confidently and put my hand on her shoulder to reassure her. 

Her head shoots up with a brilliant smile, equally as big and radiant as the one earlier today. She is still red-faced in embarrassment but does some sort of happy dance before jumping to hug me. 

"Thank you," She says simply before pushing me away and spinning around to hide her giant, goofy smile. "I will be there at 8 am, so you better be up and ready, Finn Cambridge!"

"Yes, ma'am," I salute her and smile after her. She starts running towards her back door yelling, "Okay! I'll see you tomorrow at school and after for my birthday party!" She pauses again with the door open and turns to me, her grin never fading, "Thank you again for today. It was the best birthday gift ever." She waves once before heading inside. 

I wait for a moment, and as I expected, -Squeel- "MOM!"

I shake my head in amusement and start heading home. I left Pyra in her room, but I can get her tomorrow morning, I am sure she won't mind a good night's sleep. This brings my thoughts to a sudden halt...

'Where the hell is she gonna sleep from now on?'