The sun baked down on the blood soaked grass covering the arena on the south side of the city. A crowd of Pokémon watched on all sides of the quadratic area that was raised up higher than the ground itself. Johnny stared across to the other side of the platform to his opponent; a large orange dragon who bore the species name of Charizard.
The Pichu’s opponent was unscathed as far as anyone could see; not even a scratch could be seen on its skin. He, on the other hand, was kneeling on the ground while holding a gash on his left pectoral. It was dripping blood from deep cuts within it. His left eye closed in pain, and he struggled to keep his right eye from closing as well; a sign of fighting the urge to curl up in a ball and sleep off the fight.
“I can’t give up,” Johnny panted, shakily getting back up onto his two feet. “Not after coming this far.” With a quivering grunt of effort, he stretches his left arm out in front of him. The movement inevitably caused slight discomfort from his gash, but he determinedly beared through it.
The female Charizard gave a snort of contempt as she watched him struggle to stand, the wind made vein attempts to consume the flame at the end of her tail. She crossed her arms before asking; “Why keep fighting, kid? You know you can’t possibly win! All you’re going to do is get yourself even more hurt than before!”
Johnny simply stared at the woman in front of him, a bit of fury as well as thoughtfulness evident in his expression. “Why is she so familiar? I’ve never seen her before,” he asked himself as he stood up straight in a fighting stance.
“I’m fighting for my friends, because they all fought hard to get to where I am now, and now I’m here to fight all the way to the top.” The Pichu suddenly shot out his arm and pointed it at her challengingly. “Your streak of wins ends here, Climatus!”
Climatus looked on with new-found hostility, thinking to herself; “Where did this sudden surge of courage come from? Johnny seems more serious about winning now! He wasn’t like this before!" She looked a bit taken aback at this realization. She unfurled her arms and bent her knees in preparation to fight. “Let’s see what you got, kid!”
Both fighters stood in silence, the two sizing each other up as they slowly circled around the center of the arena they stood in. Mere moments later, the two nearly circled fully around the middle when Johnny suddenly dashed at Climatus. The Pichu quickly charged up an Iron Tail attack, his tail turning metallic in color and form as he ran up to the much larger Pokemon. With a swift jump he reached above her head and spun around sideways to create more momentum for his swing. He was interrupted when her thick tail stopped his attack dead in its tracks.
“You’ll have to try better than that to hit me!” She gloated. She soon realized she spoke all too soon as she found that she was having difficulty pushing him back; some strange force was pushing his tail down harder on hers.
With a sudden burst of strength, Johnny managed to swat her tail away and quickly spin around again, slamming into her face with his metallic tail. He grinned when he landed back on the ground to see that the Charizard’s face was now glowing red from the slap she had just received. Climatus rubbed her cheek gingerly before growling at the boy and charging him hastily. Johnny wasn’t given the luxury of bracing himself this time as he was hit hard across the field with her tail, she even managing to burn him with the flame on the end of her tail mid-hit.
Johnny tumbled across the arena, finally sliding to a halt just before falling off of the raised platform. He grimaced as he felt the singed fur on his stomach and chest. The hit hurt, but the flame and burned him and it pained him greatly. Climatus laughed as she watched him tentatively touch his burned fur and body before preparing for another charge. “You had enough yet, squirt?” She asked, smiling devilishly.
Johnny panted and simply shook his head, grinning to himself. “Hell no,” he replied, out of breath. “I’ve only just gotten started.”
