To The Top [ Pokemon Fanfic. ]

Chapter 14 - Slight Detour

In the morning, the three of us had breakfast down at the cafeteria of the Pokemon Center. Our Pokemon were seated around us, being as noisy & annoying as ever. Especially Phantom, who thought it would be a good idea to mess with other trainers' & their Pokemon.

"Haunter," beside me, Phantom was carrying a badge case, which did not belong to me. It had six badges in it, so whoever it belonged to must have been pretty strong.

"Hey! That's mine!" I heard a voice huff & looked up to see a blonde girl with crystal blue eyes.

Samantha.

I had just then realized I was holding her badge case.

"Katrina?" she smiled. Without another thought I placed the badge case in her hands. "I see you beat Sabrina." I glanced at her badges. Her face turned into a cocky smirk. "Yeah, I did," she nodded at me, excitement in her eyes. "I see your Charmander evolved," her eyes darted to Charcoal, who was eating sloppily.

This time I smirked & nodded. Cindy, Samantha's Charmeleon appeared, & Charcoal's eyes went wide. He seemed as if he was gonna choke on his food. Cindy went up to him, looking him over & taking in his new evolved form.

"What are you doing in Vermillion?" I asked her, sipping from my juice container. "Well, I'm traveling to Cinnabar. For my seventh badge, then back to Viridian City for my final badge," she was full of enthusiasm.

"That's great!" I applauded her.

After eating breakfast, Samantha & Derek were both ready to depart. Derek briefly said bye to us, gave Brandon his number so they could keep in contact, & left with his Piplup proudly trotting beside him. Samantha left too, & she also gave me her number.

"Hey, we'll meet again at the Pokemon League," she assured me. Before leaving, her Charmeleon quickly planted a kiss on my Charmeleon's cheek, making him blush, even though he tried desperately to hide it. As we watched them walk away, Charcoal looked sad. "Come on, boy. Like Samantha said, we'll meet again at the Pokemon League." I teased Charcoal of his romance with Cindy, & he was without a doubt emberrassed, trying to play if off but he failed miserably.

For the remainder of the day, we trained. We had been in Vermillion City long enough, & we were hoping go challenge Lt. Surge tomorrow.

"Be prepared to fight lightening fast Pokemon," Brandon warned me as we had just released our Pokemon to begin our training.

"He's an electric-type trainer right?" I questioned. Brandon nodded at me.

"Most electric-types are fast. So that's probably what we should be working on today. The accuracy & aim of our moves, so we can hit even the fastest Pokemon, & our own speed, so we can dodge their attacks & keep up with them."

Brandon sounded like a wise old man. I wasn't use to him being so smart. He was usually a cocky idiot.

"Wow," my jaw dropped. "What?" he raised an eyebrow. "That is the only smart thing I've ever heard you say."

Brandon's lips parted to show his pretty smile with perfectly white teeth. "Anyway, let's get to training," I smirked.

The day was awfully tiring. Especially for my slow Pokemon, Relic & Venus. I had Phantom shoot slowly timed & relatively weak Shadow Ball attacks for Relic & Venus to dodge. As Phantom slowly sped up the pase of his Shadow Ball, they found it harder & harder to dodge!

But they did try hard.

As for Charcoal, he was not super fast, but neither was he slow. He was at a good speed. we trained him the same way, with Phantom shooting intentionally weak but mid-paced Shadow Balls.