Finding My Voice

Better Have a Burn Heal!

We turned in for the night, and I felt myself having a strange dream. This time, I was in Cerulean City and everything was drained of color once more. There was some voice calling to me from the cave. "Free me... free me!" The voice boomed.

"H-how?" I wondered. Somehow, my voice had returned. I took a step forward, but the dream began to fade once again.

I shot up in my bed. What was that about? I wondered. I tried to speak, but no sound came out.

I tried to put the incident out of my mind. It would only upset me if I thought about it too much. The next day rolled around, and so I got ready and met up with Daisy and Bill. We walked to the Cinnabar Island Gym, now reopened.

We entered the gym and were hit with a blast of heat. The air was dry and warm, and a geyser of fire shot into the air from the battlefield. In the back, there was a man standing around looking at his watch.

The battlefield was decorated with white square tiles. The tiles would shoot up blasts of fire for a few seconds occasionally, before dying back down.

The man looked up from his watch. I now recognized that he was Blaine, the Gym Leader. "Welcome to my gym! Oh, it's you kids from yesterday!"

"Yep, we're here to take on your gym!" Bill announced.

Blaine rubbed his hands together. "Alright, alright! Thanks for your help yesterday. I do gotta warn you, though, I won't go easy on you! See here, in this gym I rigged the lava to add something extra to my gym and to reduce the risk of eruptions! Fire will shoot from the tiles at random, letting out the lava and adding spice to my battlefield all at once!"

"Whoa! That is amazing!" Bill awed. "A succinct and clever solution,"

"Who are you, again?" Blaine raised his eyebrow.

Bill put his hand to his heart. "Bill's the name, being a genius scientist and a soon-to-be champion is my game!"

"I'm pretty sure Yellow is going to beat you." Daisy reminded him. "She's probably already gotten her eighth badge by now."

Bill's smile didn't waiver. "Well, at least I have being a genius scientist to look forward to."

"Uh, so which one of you is battling?" Blaine cleared his throat.

"Oh, that'll be Red!" Bill answered and shoved me forward. I stumbled and almost fell onto my face.

A referee walked onto the battlefield. "This'll be a three-on-three battle! Neither side may substitute their Pokémon, and the match will be over when all Pokémon on either side are defeated!"

Blaine threw his first Poké Ball into the air. "Hope you have a Burn Heal, kid!" From the ball, a large red horse landed on the battlefield. The Pokémon banged its hooves against the ground as its fiery mane roared to life.

I wouldn't be able to switch out a Pokémon after I sent them in, so I'd have to choose wisely. I decided to lead with Charmeleon, and he landed on the battlefield and started to bang his claws together.

"Rapidash, run in and use Stomp!" Blaine's Pokémon charged across the battlefield and raised a foot over Charmeleon. Use Slash! Charmeleon lashed out with his claws, swinging them into the beastly foe.

Blaine's Pokémon slammed its foot into Charmeleon's head has he dragged his claws across its body. Charmeleon winced from the blow while Rapidash took a few steps away. Use Flamethrower! Fired surged from Charmeleon's maw, and he launched it into the opposing Pokémon.

Rapidash absorbed the fire and Blaine grinned. "Take this! Fire Blast!" Blaine's Pokémon fired a gigantic flare into Charmeleon, blowing him back. "Ole Flash Fire means that any flames Rapidash comes in contact with are just added to the system!" One of the tiles on the ground started to heat up, and fire erupted into Rapidash.