Evolution Trials

The Fire Trial

~Flareon, the Flame Pokemon. It stores some of the air it inhales in its internal flame pouch, which heats it to over 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit~

The third floor had a large ditch in the center of the room. From the looks of it, the ditch served as a battle arena of some sort. The walls had smoke and volcanoes erupting painted on them.

Suddenly a haunting howl filled everyone's ears. Maple yelped in fear and hid behind Artemis and Hailey.

Not appreciating that his friend being scared like that, Flick stood in front of everyone.

"Who's there? Show yourself!" he demanded.

From the arena, a Houndoom appeared. He jumped up and stared down at the young Eevee in front of him.

"As you can probably tell, you're now in the Fire Trial," he said to everyone. "The goal to complete it is simple; battle me. If you win then I'll hand over the key you need to move on."

He displayed to the trial participants with a key that had an amber color to it, flame patterns at the top of it.

"I'll battle you." Flick said.

"Then follow me." the Houndoom descended back down into the large ditch. Flick followed close behind him as everyone else watched in anticipation at the edge.

Flick and the Houndoom faced each other once they were at the center of the battle arena. Flick wasn't quite sure if there was a countdown to when they start battling or some kind of cue that he missed to start. All he knew that he was dodging a Fire Fang that Houndoom was lunging at him with. Once there was some distance between them, Flick used Swift.

Houndoom grunted slightly when the star-like projectiles hit him. But as they continued to rain on him, he used Flamethrower. Flick tried to jump out of the way, but the fire grazed his side burning him slightly.

'Let's see if he likes his power thrown back at him.' smirking, Flick used Copycat. His eyes flashed a light blue as he used Flamethrower against Houndoom. But to his surprise, the fire didn't do anything to his opponent. In fact, once the flames had cleared, Houndoom seemed to be smirking at the Eevee.

It was then that Flick had learned that he made a big mistake.

'His ability is Flash Fire. I just gave his firepower a boost!'

This time, Houndoom used Fire Blast, which Flick couldn't completely dodge this time. He took the Fire Blast head-on. The force of it sent him flying into the dirt wall of the ditch.

'Yeah...I definitely gave him a big boost of power...so no more using Copycat for this battle.'

As he slowly got back up, he saw Houndoom coming at him using Fire Fang once again. Knowing he wouldn't be able to dodge in time, Flick prepared a Shadow Ball and then released it right before Houndoom could land his own attack. The Dark Pokemon skidded back a few feet from the force.

Once Flick was completely back up on his feet, he jumped up and used Swift. As Houndoom once again endured the unavoidable attack, Flick ran forward and used Quick Attack. Houndoom stumbled a bit as Flick tried to catch his breath.

"You have a lot of strength and skill for someone so young. You're a formidable opponent, little Eevee. But know that I will do everything in my power to win this battle."

Before Flick knew it was happening, Houndoom dashed towards him and caught him in his jaw, using Crunch in the process. Then he threw him up in the air and used Fire Blast.

Flick landed on the ground with a thud he struggled to get up but only ended up falling down again as Houndoom approached him.

'Have I...lost?'

"Don't give up Flick!" Ellie called out. "You always said so yourself that every time a battle gets hard, all you can do is get stronger from it during the fight. So you should be really strong now."

"Y-yeah. If you're brave enough to stand up to Houndoom when he scared all of us then you can be strong enough to beat him too." Maple added. "I know none of us know Helping Hand or know if it would be allowed...but hopefully just cheering you on will be a good substitute for Helping Hand instead."

Flick smiled weakly at his friends as he found the strength to get back up on his feet.

'So this is what Cora and Dash felt like during their trials when they heard everyone cheering them on.'

"So you are not admitting defeat?" Houndoom questioned.

"Never!" Flick shouted. "It's not over till it's over. I'm coming at you with everything that I got!"

Using the close proximity that they had to his advantage, Flick used Shadow Ball at point-blank range, causing Houndoom to skid back a little. Before he could recover, he used Quick Attack to make him stumble and fall. Finally, as one full-powered attack, Flick dashed forward with Quick Attack as he prepared a Shadow Ball, all the while having Swift surround him. The collision created an explosion.

The others tried to see what happened with all the smoke covering the site.

"I-Is he okay?" Maple asked.

"He's gotta be," Ellie said.

"The smoke is clearing!" Artemis exclaimed.

Everyone watched as the smoke from the explosion dispersed. What they saw was Flick standing over Houndoom who was now unable to battle. They all jumped up and cheered, going into the battle arena to congratulate their friend.

Houndoom slowly got up and looked down at the Eevee, smiling.

"Well done. The key is yours."

"Thank you." Flick said as he took the key. After Houndoom had given him an Oran Berry to regain some of his strength, Flick led his friends to the door and unlocked it. When he opened it, he was greeted with a room just like the others, only with Fire Stones littering the cave walls.

The Flareon spirit in front of them had a Fire Stone. He smiled as Flick walked up to him.

"Young one, your spirit burns just as bright as any fire and you have shown you can properly harness that power within you. The Fire Stone is yours."

Flick nodded in thanks and touched the Fire Stone. His friends watched as he evolved, soon looking exactly like the Flareon spirit once the process was done. The rest of his strength lost from his battle with Houndoom restored after the evolution process had ended.

Before the Flareon spirit could speak, Ellie spoke up.

"Don't worry, we know the drill," she assured the spirit. "The rest of us go ahead and we'll reunite with him at the top. Say hi to Cora and Dash for us okay Flick?"

The newly evolved Flareon nodded. "Got it. Good luck everyone."