Pokémon Leah's Grand Adventure

Chapter 16 Aiming For the Ice Pup!

Flare's P.O.V

Today, Gladion is going to challenge the Vermilion City Gym, turns out the gym leader is an electric type specialist.  Gladion states that he'll battle with me for this battle. I attempted to socialize with Gladion's other Pokémon and I got quite close with Silvally, he explained how he can change his type with type disks, it's actually really cool, oh and might I add that Gladion had given Zoroark to Mohn, turns out, Zoroark was actually Mohn's Pokémon all along.  Snowy's angelic voice got me out of my train of thoughts. "Do your best for that gym battle and be careful." She told me.  I blushed and nodded.  "I'll t-try." I stuttered.  Snowy then shoved herself on me to see how I'd react.  I blushed a deep red, darker than my own fur. "Ha! So you do like me!" She exclaimed playfully.  At this rate, I was heating up to new levels of heat that even my Fire Spin couldn't reach.  Eclipse nudged me with her muzzle. "Aw is little Flare crushing on a cute little Vulpix girl!?" She playfully mocked.  "Not funny, sis." I grumbled.  "FLARE HAS A CRUSH ON SNOWY!?" Dawn suddenly exclaimed.  "FLARE HAS A CRUSH ON WHO NOW!?" Mother exclaimed, she sounded angry.  "Yeah he likes Snowy." Dawn casually stated.  I ran to Gladion in hopes he could protect me from this mayhem my family was creating, but Mum picked me up, thus stopping my attempt at escaping this.  "I uh… need to train for the gym battle!" I said.  "Mmhmm." Mother hummed, she wasn't falling for my lie.  "Nngh!" I grunted as  I attempted to escape her grasp, but failed miserably.  "It's time for your bath." Mother told me.  "Mom, Leah can give me a full on grooming, this is embarrassing!" I whined.  I heard my older sister's voice as she mocked me and ruffled the fur on my head with her paw.  "Ha! Have fun with that, Leah groomed me recently!"  Eclipse mocked.  "Easy for you to say, Leah gives you weekly baths." I snarled.  Eclipse laughed as she walked towards her trainer and sighed.  "I'm doing this for you." She told me as she rolled over on her back and begged Leah for a belly rub.  "That's supposed to help how?" I asked in annoyance.  "Shut up and let me do my job." She shot back.  "Leah, can you do me a favor?" Eclipse asked her trainer as she picked me up and brought me to the gingerette's feet.  As if understanding Eclipse, Leah smiled brightly and cheerfully said, "Oh I see, you want me to groom him."  Eclipse nodded. That was quick. "How did you?" I heard Dawn ask Eclipse.  "I have my ways." I heard Eclipse casually say.  

After that grooming session, we walked to the Vermilion City Gym. When we got there, Snowy spoke up, "Don't overdo it, Flare." She softly told me.  "I'll do my very best for you, Snowy." I told her.  Then she snuggled to me.  "I know you will, I just want you to be careful." She told me.  I heard my younger sister say, "Ha! Flare has a girlfriend!"  Dawn mocked.  Granted she's younger and a bit immature, but that's getting old and annoying.  "You'd be better off mocking me, Dawn, I don't have a boyfriend." Eclipse told her.  "Thank you!" I sighed.  "That's because you don't need a man, you can take care of yourself without a man!" Dawn exclaimed as she stared at Eclipse in awe.  Eclipse spoke up, "I just got lucky eh?  If it weren't for Mohn and Pascal, you wouldn't have such an amazing sister to look up to." She boasted.  I then got irritated. "You two are very irritating right now!" I snarled at them, after realizing what I said I cowered behind Gladion.  Gladion noticed and took a quick glance at my two sisters that stared at me, Gladion picked me up and gave me a reassuring smile.  "Don't be ashamed of expressing yourself, Flare, now let's do our best at this gym battle!" He encouraged me. Then I heard that annoying sound, it's called Ash, "Wow, I didn't think that Gladion can be that cheerful." Ash commented.  The Leah smacked him behind his head. Good job, Leah, you saved me some PP. "That was really unnecessary, Ash." She told him. “Most definitely unnecessary.” I told Ash, but as some may know trainers don’t understand Pokemon.  Again like she understood me, Leah nodded as if agreeing with me. If there's one thing sure, Leah can understand Eclipse and I've come to learn that she is afraid of thunderstorms.  

It all came so fast, now I'm standing on the battlefield with a Raichu.  The gym leader is quite rude too, he thinks Gladion is a baby for Arceus's sake.  Plus he made fun of me for being unevolved and stated that Leah was a better trainer because Eclipse is evolved, good thing he hadn't met Romeo, Leah's Growlithe.  His loud and arrogant behavior ticked me off, I took notice that Leah seemed rather uneasy. I wonder why, but I won't dwell on that right now. 

Third P.O.V

The battle began as Flare started it with a Double Team.  Multiple duplicates of Flare appeared on the field. "Good.  Now use Fire Spin!" Gladion encouraged Flare. Flare and the duplicates of himself used Fire Spin, but it turned out to be Flamethrower rather than Fire Spin.  "That was Flamethrower, if I'm not mistaken." Leah stated. LT Surge wasn't having any of it. "Raichu use Thunderbolt to get rid of those duplicates!" He loudly told Raichu, Raichu shocked every duplicates, thus making them disappear, but Flare was not hit from Thunderbolt, the Vulpix took cover in the meantime so he could make his move.  Confused, Raichu looked around it, only to find Flare charging at it using Flame Charge. Said attack sent the electric type flying towards the other side of the field dealing a good amount of damage.  

Right before Raichu could get up, Gladion had activated his Z-Ring which had the Firium-Z and then after posing to execute the Z-Move, Flare, already covered with Z-Power aura, howled loudly to showcase his new power.  "Use Inferno Overdrive!" Gladion called out. Flare howled a second time, his body was surrounded by fire as he sent a powerful fire ball towards Raichu, thus knocking it out and claiming victory.  

Leah got up from her place, with a slightly wavering voice she said, “Raichu is unable to battle, Flare is winner and the victory goes to Gladion!”  

“Maybe LT Surge shouldn't have underestimated Flare." Kaima thought out loud.  "Flare is a brutal and swift fighter when he wants to. Well that's what I've been told." Lillie replied.  Snowy jumped from her spot in Lillie's arms and ran up to Flare. Snowy joyously snuggled Flare.  

And so with his third gym badge, Gladion had proven to have grown stronger as Flare had found himself a mate.  What will happen next? Stay tuned as the journey continues.