Play found himself in a huge, rocky cavern with jagged, sharp edges jutting out from all sides. The cave was hollowed and at the end of the cavernous tunnel, was a humming purple light at the end, Play felt drawn to it, like a moth to a lamp, or a piece of metal to a magnet. Before he knew it, his bottom half had taken control, and the dazed Pokemon trainer was walking towards the light. As he got closer, he realised it was fire. Purple fire. In it, was the shadow of a bulky figure with six floating hands, they beckoned for Play to come closer in unison. The figure had several hoop like shapes flying around it, for some reason, he felt like he'd seen it before. Even though, deep down, he knew he hadn't. The figure had a deep booming voice.
"I can tell you what happened." It boomed. "That morning." Play instantly knew what it was talking about, he got even closer, feeling a slap of heat from the flames. He couldn't have gotten any closer otherwise he'd have been scorched. Play noticed that the figure looked quite disturbing, with two horns poking from the side of it's head, a swooshing tail, a vicious jaw full of fangs, and two glowing red eyes.
"Come closer." It whispered. Play reached out his hand, but then one of the floating hands shot out and grabbed him firmly by the wrist, pulling him inside the overdrive of fire.
"Nooooo!" A harsh scream escaped his throat.
Play suddenly awoke, it was all a dream, a stupid old dream. His Prinplup lay in the corner, it shorted sharply as it's trainer woke up. He sat there for several minutes, catching his breath. And took a swig of water on the bedside table next to his bed. He put it back down, and began to calm down. He glanced across the room and saw all his other Pokémon. The large Nidoking was snoring loudly, he'd had to rent an even bigger bed for his now fully evolved poison type. Flaafy was using it's wooly coat as a bed, no need for a rent there. And the small Ralts, sleeping, but rising a few inches off the ground with every intake, and floating gently back down with every out-take. His eyes felt heavy again, and before he knew it. Play had fallen asleep again.
Next morning, Play yawned and got out of bed, with no memory of last night's nightmare, he got dressed and rounded up his Pokéballs, to return his Pokémon ready to start the day. Perhaps enduring Kyogre's origin pulse the previous night and nearly getting blasted by it himself had triggered that vivid dream. Oh, and Tess and joined them, the old man's granddaughter Him and Jake had met at the lighthouse, where Kyogre had appeared. Play sat down for breakfast at the Pokemon centre, along with his Pokémon. Now that Team Eclipse was out of the way (At least for now), he could focus on earning gym badges, today he would prepare for Rosecove gym, a water type gym. Nidoking wasn't that useful anymore, seeing as it gained the ground type. Flaafy would be an excellent choice, being an electric type, and although Prinplup was resisted by the gym, IT also resisted the gym's primary type. The gym leader was called Quentin. Play had no idea what Pokémon he favoured but all he knew was that he had water types. Not a massive amount of info to go off there exactly, especially since Water was the most common type. Finally, Ralts only knew two moves, Psybeam and Teleport, so that would need some work.
"Back to breakfast!" Play thought. Feeling his stomach gurgle. The upcoming day was full of training. He ordered a large stack of pancakes with maple syrup, and medium, small and large for his Pokémon respectively according to their types. Right and queue, Jake and Tess arrived for breakfast. Jake had already combed his hair and sprayed some cologne.
"Someone's falling head over heels." He laughed in his head.
"So Tess?" Jake asked in an overly polite tone. "How many badges have you got?" Tess sat down, and brushed her long purple hair behind her head.
"None." She said. "I'm trying to be a dragon master. Their my favourite type after all." Jake looked thrown off guard for a little moment.
"Like Iris." Play announced. "From the Unova region." Tess snapped her fingers several times.
"Exactly." She said in an excited tone. "I love her, she's my role model." Both laughed, and Jake looked like he was about to stab himself for not knowing that information. He looked like a solider tossed between two sides. A waitress suddenly came over his food, and placed it one the table.
"Speaking of badges." Tess said, picking up a piece of scrambled egg on her fork. "How many do you have?"
"Well I have.."
"Nearly three." Jake said, jumping in. "Me and Play are about to challenge the Rosecove gym." Tess paused for a moment.
"So you have two." She said, her mouth full of food. Jake slowly and embarrassed, nodded his head. Play finished up his breakfast, and headed for the door.
"I'll catch up with you guys later."
"Ralts, GO!" Play called. Only knowing two moves, improvements were definitely needed to be made. A full move-set would be needed before challenging Quentin. Several people were relaxing on the beach, and it seemed like such a shame to disturb their resting, but some of them were budding trainers. A woman in a pink bikini strode up to him.
"Your one of those kids that heroically battled Kyogre." She gasped.
"Not exactly." Play muttered. The woman gawped.
"It looks like you want a battle." She exclaimed. "I'll give you a battle." Before she could decide which Pokémon to use. Play scanned Ralts with his Pokédex. The Pokédex whirred. It found out the rough level of his Ralts and figured out the two best moves to learn at this time.
"Confusion and Hypnosis." The Pokédex beeped.
"Those are the two moves we need to work on." Play told his Pokémon. Ralts nodded.
"Go Staryu!" The woman cried. Confusion was easy enough, it was a less powerful version of psybeam, but with a chance to confuse the opponent. Ralts charged up a psybeam, but configured it to be less powerful, and put in a swirly oomph of power to make it try and confuse the opponent. The better the emotion Pokémon got at this, the higher the chance of the confusion. It shot a beam of psychic that merely dazed Staryu, it resisting it's own secondary type.
Ralts: Moves: Confusion learnt
The next move they needed to work on was hypnosis, but that was easier said than done. Neither Play nor Ralts knew how this was going to work.
"Use bubble beam!" The woman cried. Staryu shot a beam of bubbles at it's target, they did medium damage, but unluckily, Ralts got a speed drop. Play winced at this.
"Use Psybeam." Play said. Ralts shot a beam of psychic at Staryu, it was resisted though. Staryu fired back with swift.
"Teleport." Play commanded. Ralts blinked out of the way, but swift couldn't miss. It changed direction and smacked Ralts in the back of the head. Play's best bet at this point was to try and confuse the starfish Pokémon.
"Use three confusions." Play said. Ralts floated up and shot three balls of confusing power. Staryu used swift to counter. The attacks clashed. Before Play could call it. Ralts used teleport on it's own to get in close and used a powerful psybeam to tide the clash over. Staryu was overwhelmed and hit all at once, knocking it out. The bikini wearing woman didn't look at all surprised. She returned the Staryu and sent out a Seaking.
"Use horn drill." She cried. The fish swam forward and span round.
"Teleport." Play commanded again. Ralts teleported out of the way again and turned round. Seaking had it's eyes closed, and smashed into a tree, dealing unintentional recoil damage. Ralts surged up and put all it's gusto into one psybeam and shot. It created a mini explosion at the tree, and Seaking was knocked out much quicker.
"Good job, I'm not sure what I was expecting to be honest." The woman chuckled, then she walked back to the shade.
"Great job Ralts." Play cheered. Slapping his buddy a high five. It was pleased with itself for those two knockouts, and learning a new move. He decided hypnosis was a much harder move to be learned, and would put that back to later. The rest of the morning was spent strengthening his Pokémon just that little bit more. He was about to wrap up for now and get some lunch, when the sound of people screaming could be heard. He turned around and saw that three blue fins had broken the water. Sharpedo. And what's more, there were three of them, Play could see their long blue snouts now, and glowing red-white eyes glinting. One of the Sharpedo sped up and was about ten feet from the shore, when a huge blue fish like Pokémon broke the surface, it was a simply Gyrados. If people were freaked out before, they definitely were now. It scanned the shore and settled onto the frozen figure of Play, his leg were frozen in fear, and he stared up at the towering beast that glared at him. Then it began charging up the POWERFUL move Hyper beam. Just then, a mysterious figure spoke.
"Huntail, use aqua tail!" The voice commanded. All of a sudden, a strong looking Huntail slithered across the sand like a Serviper, dived into the water and using that momentum, it shot like a bullet into the sky and nailed Gyrados with a perfect aqua tail.
Huntail's presence went unnoticed by people for a long time because it lives at extreme depths in the sea. This Pokemon's eyes can see clearly even in the murky dark depths of the ocean. And it's tail is shaped like a fish. It uses the tail to attract prey, then swallows the prey whole with its large, gaping mouth. This Pokémon swims by wiggling its slender body like a snake.
Gyrados shook off it's head and snarled. Play's head turned round like a clockwork robot and spied a man in a faded green T-shirt and regular jeans, he looked quite casual until Play noticed his face. He wore a massive brown leather hat in all sorts of blue seashells and blue coloured badges, he also wore a deep blue bandana, and two narrow but charming eyes.
"Use Scald, Huntail!" He boomed. Huntail shot a boiling hot steam of water, that left the Gyrados in agony, it wailed in pain and darted back into the ocean, with a huge splash. Everyone was recovering now, Play took several deep breaths, he looked into the trainer's eyes.
"I'm Quentin." said Quentin. "The rosecove gym leader." He pointed to a big blue building about twenty feet of the Pokémon centre.
"That's my gym." He explained. "Come challenge me soon eh, It was nice meeting you." And he seemed to vanish into thin air after Play blinked. He'd nearly left this world training for a gym battle, things were certainly beginning to spice up.
"How'd training go?" Jake asked. "Ralts learn any new moves?" Play had met up with Jake and Tess right in front of the gym, Play was preparing to go inside.
"It was...interesting." Was his reply.
"A little shook up, huh?" Tess said. "I saw what happened with the Gyrados, you nearly got blasted like those Eclipse grunts." Play laughed. And gave her a mocking punch on the shoulder, it was hard not to lighten up at Tess's jokes.
"Well, try not to get killed." She giggled. Jake bit his lip. Play walked up to the doors with his newfound confidence, took a deep breath, and calmly walked in.