A Pkmn Story: Chapter 5 - Gengar

A Pokemon Story

Chapter 5
Gengar

Chris didn’t hear the speaker at all. The humidity of the stadium by now had gotten to him and he was feeling cold. The Kingdra had almost fainted and he had just one pokemon left. With a weak movement he called his Espeon out for the second time. The enemy Kingdra, being exceptionally faster and with a massively boosted attacking stat, hit it hard and made it faint in a matter of seconds. The speaker shouted the winners name and the crowd cherished Dan with screams and whistles and by chanting his name loudly.

He had proceeded to the finals.

Dan glanced over to his opponent. Chris had kneeled over his Espeon and brushed its wet fur with his fingers. The Espeon was breathing heavily but looked okay. It started purring, feeling the tender touch of its trainer.
‘It’s alright Espeon. We couldn’t beat him. Maybe next time though.’ he murmured and returned it to its pokeball.
‘Good game, Chris!’ Dan shouted from across the field. The rainclouds had scattered and the bright stadium lights lightened up the place. Chris refused to pay him any attention and left to the trainer’s room to wait for the winner announcement. Dan shrugged his shoulders and followed him, waving to the pleased crowd. 

Commercials hit the screens, while the crowd was calming down for the next semifinal-match. 

He hadn’t cried for a while. He needed to get out all this tension building in him from the beginning of the match, all this moments that made him feel weak and uneven with his opponent. And he didn’t even misjudge his foe; he wasn’t arrogant about his skills, just about that Dan guy, and in the end not just lost his title but also his dignity and figure in front of his entire team. What if they now overlooked him because of that devastating loss?
It wasn’t his first one; it was the first one in some time though. And he thought he had acquired a skill level up to par with anyone around. He had to become stronger and gain more knowledge on species from other regions too. He had a lot of work in front of him, he probably should go home. First thing first, he would apologise to his team for that letdown of his part. 

A girl entered the bathrooms and stopped suddenly as she noticed she wasn’t alone. ‘You are the guy who just lost the battle before aren’t you?’
Chris wiped his wet cheeks quickly and left.

Just as he was about to leave the stadium Dan stopped him. ‘Where do you think you are going? You still have to battle for third place, friend.’
‘Your accent starts to get on my nerves, seriously.’
‘I just wanted to tell you-‘
‘Enough. You said enough. I heard enough. From you, that is. Take your stupid accent and go drown yourself in some pond of your goddamn rain!’
He walked past his bemused enemy and ran to the trainer’s room. 

The television screen just announced the rankings, with four pixels for each finalist, each of them whirling around the screen and meeting in the middle. Dan and the girl with the Garchomp continued to the big final and he was grouped with a girl called Irene, obviously the one he hadn’t noticed before. 

And to his surprise and horror she was the girl he ran into at the bathrooms, standing there all smiling and rejoicing even though she had already lost her chance for the title.
Chris was holding more tears in, as Dan’s accent was still echoing in his head. Irene sent her Gengar out on the battlefield and made a good luck sign to Chris which made him rage even more. He knew they were all watching down on him, the referees, the crowd that expected another ‘great’ battle for them to see, the other trainers(most of them knew him) and of course Dan.
‘Togekiss, go!’