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"Hey, Rival, I challenge you to a Pokemon battle!" Byeongkwan stands atop a hillock of grass, framed by the setting sun. His arm is stretched forward aggressively, and he's holding up a baggy pair of shorts with his free hand. Yuchan tackles him to the dirt. It's super effective!
"That's not even a real pokeball!" Yuchan laughs, "Help me set up the tent before it gets dark." Byeongkwan wrestles Chan off of him. "This is so exciting! Your Dad is sure it's safe for us to camp out here all night?" Yuchan asks.
Byeongkwan grins, "Yeah! These are the Pewter City Gardens, so any untrained Pokemon we see will already be ha-hab-habitwaited to humans!"
"Woah," Chan breathes in awe. He watches Byeongkwan pull out a lantern as it gets dark. "Wild Pokemon were just everywhere in the Orange Islands. They didn't ever get used to strangers."
Byeongkwan shrugs. "Even if there were wild Pokemon, I could take 'em."
"No way!" Chan shrieks with laughter.
"Look at these guns!" Byeongkwan argues, "I'm buff! Swole!"
"You won't even get a Pokemon League License until at least a year," Chan argues, " Jason ."
Byeongkwan sticks out his tongue. "I didn't want to give out my real name to some random school pen-pal; what if you were a freak?" He dodges Chan's halfhearted attempt to elbow his gut. "And I think you mean two years. You won't turn thirteen until then, and it would be unfair to get a headstart on my rival!"
Victory Road is a mazework of tunnels digging over, through, and under Mt. Silver. Most trainers that can get past the swarms of strong, territorial Pokemon and victory-hungry Ace Trainers inside of Victory Road reach the Pokemon League. The trainers that spend all day and night on Victory Road survive by a mix of camping or commuting. The strongest trainers on Victory Road make it to the end of the path and the outpost buildings clustered at the entrance of the Pokemon League’s official building. The Pokemon League is a grand tournament hall. Traditional stone pillars separate high-ceilinged hallways and carefully updated rooms for the treatment and care of competition level battle pokemon. Name brand Pokemart vendors occupy their own carefully marketed space with cardboard cutouts and plastic customer service smiles.
Outside the dazzling building of the Pokemon League is a small town of local business and residents. The main street holds a handful of businesses, and on either side are several small homes with twisting alleyways carved into the rock of the mountain. The local general store sits across from A.C.E Chicken, which is the only restaurant in the town. The smell of fried chicken and cheap beer float out the open door, and ne of the windows is replaced with cardboard and duct tape. Most visiting trainers avoid the restaurant. The locals - a collection of service workers, league trainers, and the broadcast crew for the league - know that the chicken restaurant and the dirt field behind it are the best location for a quick meal and pickup battle.
That dirt field is where Chan and Byeongkwan stand. They are standing across from each other with excited smirks and ready pokeballs. At Byeongkwan's feet is a round ball of pink fur with large blue eyes. The jigglypuff sticks out its tongue at Chan. Chan laughs and the long eared dog at his own feet growls tauntingly in return. Chan uses his foot to keep his eevee from jumping onto the field.
The two trainers countdown with old familiarity, "3, 2, 1!" Byeongkwan sends out a beedrill and Chan sends out his slowking. Like all of Byeongkwan's pokemon, the large wasp is native to the areas surrounding Pewter. Chan's slowking was a trade he got from another islander. The beedrill charges forwards through the air. His large arm stingers glisten with poison. The slowking lifts his arms in the air and summons globes of water that try to chase the beedrill down or push it back. Chan loses the first round.
They both return their pokemon. Chan and Byeongkwan already agreed to keep jigglypuff and eevee out of this skirmish. He knows that means Byeongkwan will use either clefable or porygon-z. Chan knows his hitmontop would be the more reliable choice to break down Byeongkwan's defenses. This battle is for fun, though. Chan grabs the pokeball that holds his scizor.
The large bipedal mantis is covered with a bright red exoskeleton as hard as iron. It screeches in excited challenge. Byeongkwan's pokeball opens with a bright flash. He sends out his clefable. The pink moon gremlin flutters vestigial wings and twitches delicately furred antennae ears. Chan's scizor darts forward with a right punch that shines with metallic energy. The clefable dodges out of the way with a weightless jump. The punch leaves a small crater in the dirt, and the scizor flares its wings to pivot and land facing the clefable.
The clefable's innocent smile stretches into a sharp toothed grin. It swings its arm in a circle with a snap to spark up a small flame in preparation for a full flamethrower.
"I said no flamethrowers!" Junhee shouts out the back door. He purses his lips as the clefable pouts and clenches its tiny fist. The prepared flamethrower goes out with a quiet hiss. "Also, your order is ready." Jun says with a smile. His bright smile is gone in a second to go serve the next table, but the door stays open. It is being held open with the outstretched vine of Jun's bulbasaur.
Byeongkwan and Chan sit across from Sehyoon. The folding table is balanced using a stack of folded cardboard. They eat their beer and chicken with messy enthusiasm and quietly chat. Sehyoon's xatu and smeargle are arguing on the other side of the bench.
Byeongkwan points at them with a chicken wing. "What's their problem?"
Sehyoon chews and thinks over his words. "Creative differences," he says, "Smeargle wants to use more imagery in our next painting, but Xatu says blindfolds are too blunt."
Chan nods. That makes sense with how opinionated he knows psychic pokemon can be. Byeongkwan just looks confused. Neither of them know what new painting Sehyoon is working on; he never shows his works until they are done and signed "WOW".
"Different question," Byeongkwan changes the subject to keep the conversation moving. "Why are you here with all us battle trainers when you're a successful artist?"
The question is blunt, but the three of them have been eating lunch together for several weeks now. Sehyoon is the one who convinced Byeongkwan and Chan to try out A.C.E chicken.
Sehyoon smiles, so he must not have taken offense. "I like double battles." He reaches into his pockets and pulls out two pokeballs. They are each marked by some of smeargle's green paint in distinct patterns.
Sehyoon points to each one, and says "tyranitar and cacturne". Tyranitar is a well known species of rock and dark type pokemon. The powerful bipedal lizard thrives in dangerous mountains and sandstorms, and is notoriously difficult to raise. Cacturne is less familiar to Byeongkwan and Chan.
"Cacturne is a desert scarecrow," Sehyoon explains when Byeongkwan and Chan ask. "A grass and dark type from Hoenn."
They finish eating and hang around to chat. There is supposed to be a storm blowing in tonight that will stop Byeongkwan and Chan from training on Victory Road. Eventually, the kitchen door opens and Donghun walks out while stretching.
"Kitchen is closed," Donghun announces. His apron is stained with grease and his face is flushed from the heat. "Is my sudowoodo still doing door duty?"
The front door is propped open by an old plastic crate filled with rocks. To one side is a weird smooth brown statue with two arms that end in green balls.
"I only see a tree," Byeongkwan says dramatically. The statue wiggles and giggles as the sudowoodo thinks it successfully tricked Byeongkwan. Donghun gives Byeongkwan a droll look. He steps outside to return the pokemon to its pokeball.
There is a crashing noise from the studio above the chicken shop. Junhee lives up there, and technically owns the whole building. Donghun snickers as Junhee's yelp filters down the stairs. "Do you need help?" He shouts.
Sehyoon waits for Junhee to shout back down before speaking up. "Xatu hasn't predicted any lost hikers or other disaster for this storm."
Donghun shrugs. "I think he just likes the excuse to wrestle his arcanine and granbull into their rescue vests." The two canine pokemon are well trained to help Junhee in mountain rescues, but they have a lot of energy. "It's your choice if you wanna stay here or head back to your house," Donghun offers, "You know my espeon has the range to connect telepathically with your xatu in the town."
Sehyoon shrugs. "I don't plan on going back tonight, if that's okay. How is your sunflora handling the storm?" He asks.
Donghun pats his apron pocket. "Pouting," he explains. "Junhee's quagsire is excited, though."
"You have more Pokemon," Chan interrupts, "I thought you just." He stops himself and blushes bright red.
Donghun raises a judgemental eyebrow. "Junhee is just a rescue worker. He only has his work pokemon and the pokemon that kept following him after he rescued them from a storm." He finally explains. "Sehyoon and I actually started as battlers," he says, "but working in the kitchen pays better more consistently." Donghun pulls out an old and faded pokeball. "The only one of mine you haven't met or heard of yet is my Charizard." The statement is purposeful. The fiery dragonoid pokemon have their own well-documented weaknesses, but they are so rare to successfully raise to adulthood that most people accept it as a mark of a successful trainer.
Chan and Byeongkwan look at eachother with identical manic smiles. They know what their next training challenge will be.