Into the Unown (Pokemon Fanfiction OC)

“Aquarium Girl!”
Nina flinched at the sight of the very enthusiastic and very dandy looking man in a gaudy yellow suit who slinked up to her the moment she entered Azalea Gym.
“My, oh my! Sporty and exotic with a distinctly bookish air. So adorbs! The Cerulean Gym really struck gold with you, darling~” With an exaggerated flourish, the flashy man swiped a business card from his chest pocket and presented it to the young mermaid.
“Danny Kitagawa, talent connoisseur extraordinaire and representative of the Good Smile company. Pleasure to meet your acquaintance!” The smile that Danny let loose was so beaming that Nina and her friends had to avert their eyes to avoid being blinded.
“Err… Thanks, Mister Kitagawa. It’s nice to meet you too…” Nina murmured as she gingerly grabbed hold of the card that was offered to her.
“Oh please~ Call me Danny, I insist. I saw you battle yesterday — absolutely marvellous! Aquarium Girl and Brionne, what a superrrb combination. As much as it pains me to admit it, Miss Violet does have quite a keen eye for publicity — no idea how that bitch managed to get her hands on an Alolan starter though…” That last part was said in a whisper.
“So please~ You absolutely MUST collaborate with our Bugsy! The fans will love it! Think of all the publicity, the pure profit!”
Nina’s eyes twitched at the character in front of her. “Right… well, I’m assuming you’re Bugsy’s agent?”
The man nodded with his insufferably bright smile.
“Just so happens, I have an agent too, so…” Nina dug out her own business card and handed it over. “If you want to discuss business, feel free to contact Mizuho.” She said before unceremoniously walking past the guy and headed towards the reception desk.
Nina had explicitly told the Gym that she would be cutting back on her celebrity work during the course of her journey. Didn’t stop those gold diggers from insisting though, so she did have some work scheduled for when she inevitably reached Goldenrod City.
But aside from that, she had no intentions of getting roped into some lopsided commitment with some sketchy, second-rate talent agency. The fact that Bugsy was still so destitute even after all the work he’d done was telling enough.
“Hi, we’re here to schedule a match with Bugsy.”
“Sure, ID please,” said the homely looking girl in glasses manning the reception. “And sorry about Danny, the guy’s a menace but he means well.”
Nina chuckled as she and Kerry handed their Pokedexes over. “No worries, I’m used to it. And I’d like to request for a Star battle if possible.”
“Based on your credentials, I’d say that shouldn’t be a problem. But Miss Joy will have to undergo our screening battles. Would that be alright?”
“A Star battle between two stars! Magnifico!!! This will be an event worth commemorating. Quickly Mimi, we need to start working on the promo!”
“I’m fine with being screened,” said Kerry, blatantly ignoring the words coming from the shiny Rellor right next to them.
“And we’re in a rush, so the soonest availability that Bugsy has please.” Nina chimed. Given that she had no idea how long she would spend in Ilex Forest, she wanted to be as expedient as possible.
“Sure, we can get the screening battle done right now actually. And Miss Jones, Bugsy is doing his rounds in the forest at the moment. But we can schedule you for this afternoon, right before closing time as the last match of the day. Will that be acceptable?”
“Yes, that’ll be fine. We’re not leaving just yet.”
“But Miss Jones, Nina! How could we allow such a spectacle to go to waste?!” Danny exclaimed, getting waaay too close for Nina’s comfort. “Give me three, no, TWO days! And I guarantee you, I’ll pull in a crowd worthy of your splendour!”
Nina groaned and leveled a vicious glare at the tactless moron. And that was the last thing that Danny saw before a greyish blue smog emanated from Nina’s shadow and consumed his figure, leaving the man’s unconscious body on the floor.
“Don’t worry,” assured Nina. “Azzy just put him to sleep. He’ll wake up in an hour or so, most likely.”
Mimi, the receptionist, sighed. “It’s alright, just leave him be for now. We’ll deal with that pile of human Garbodor later. In the meantime, Miss Joy, please enter through that hallway for the screening arena. As for your friends… Unfortunately, we don’t have a viewing area in our screening zone, so please feel free to sit and wait in our reception hall or come back later on. Rest assured that the main arena does have audience seating though.”
“If that’s the case then how about you call us when you’re done, Kerr? Meanwhile, Justin and I will go do some sightseeing in the Slowpoke Well”
Kerry pouted in uncertainty but ultimately nodded in agreement. “Don’t get into any trouble without me, okay?” That was said with a resentful glare at Justin. The girl was still upset that he and Lucy ditched her on their quest for Lapras last time.
Justin laughed boisterously and seemed like he was about to open his mouth to say something. But Nina quickly pounced on the boy clamped down on his mouth. Conventional wisdom dictates that the trouble magnet was about to say something that would jinx them, and Nina was having none of that today.
***
“Phew…” Nina sighed in relief as she and Justin climbed up the ladder leading into the Slowpoke Well. Considering what happened in the games, she was fully expecting to encounter some unscrupulous Rocket types or something. But thankfully, the day remained uneventful.
“That was boring. It was just more caves and water…” Justin whined.
“Yeah… We’ve kind of already had our fill of it in Union Cave huh?” And indeed, the underground area housing the town’s Slowpoke population was just more of the same; rocky caverns and a massive underground lake. But with dopey Slowpokes lazing about instead of derpy Woopers.
Nina had had enough cave diving for the foreseeable future.
It made sense as well, since the Rock and Ground Types burrowing through those tunnels were mostly averse to water.
“No matter, let’s meet up with Kerry for lunch and head back to the Gym. She called and said that she was in the Pokemon Center earlier — managed to get screened for the intermediate challenge.”
Justin scoffed. “Well duh… Did you expect anything less? Honestly, I kind of expected her to take the expert challenge, since she now has that cool looking Marowak and all.”
Nina smiled as she did a little stretch, languidly taking in the fragrant breeze as she walked. “Kaipo is well developed and so is Rocky, but the rest of her team aren’t quite there yet. Maybe someday though… And don’t tell Kerry I said this, but I’m aiming to have her win at least one expert badge before this season is up.”
“Heh. That’ll be fun. Maybe I should try for an all star run too.”
Nina chuckled and held back her reply. She had enough tact to not dash the boy’s aspirations. And who knows? With Justin’s protagonist aura, he might just be able to do it.
***
Justin and Nina cheered as they watched Kerry’s Graveler bitchslap Bugsy’s Scyther across the entire arena. The terrain, once a dense and dark forest, had been reduced to upturned earth and gaping fissures thanks to Rocky’s rampage.
“WOOOO!!! You can do it Kerr! He’s got no more Pokemon to swap with anymore!”
Bugsy’s strategies were notorious among the Johtons. The young Gym Leader specialized in rug pulls and stalling harassments — and not the fun sort that Nina was into.
He would almost always start off with some sort of highly poisonous or very sturdy Bug Pokemon with Protect so solid that even Espy would have trouble breaking through.
Poison, debuff, stall and harass. By the time that Bugsy’s first Pokemon fainted, his challenger would be left either seething in rage or huffing in exhaustion. Then, his Scyther would come out.
And these were Scythers that Bugsy trained to be true to their nature as ambush predators. Silent stalkers that would never confront their prey head on, preferring instead to play it safe and keep to run and gun guerilla tactics designed to whittle down their opponent piece by piece — perfect for Bugsy’s forest arena.
But, if somehow Scyther were to find itself at a disadvantage and on the verge of defeat, Bugsy had a special knack when it came to returning his Pokemon at just the right moment to induce hair-pulling frustration from the other party, swapping them in again when the moment was right instead of completely withdrawing them as a normal Gym Leader would.
In fact, the special rule that all challengers had to contend with when facing Bugsy was infinite swaps allowed.
The cycle would then repeat itself over and over again until Bugsy either ran out of Pokemon or his opponent lost — which happened more often than not since most teenagers had difficulty coping with the emotional abuse that they would be subjected to all throughout the battle.
Case in point, Kerry’s match had been ongoing for a whole twenty minutes now. And she could see that the usually beautiful smile of the Nurse Joy had long since faded. Even the evil grin she liked to put one whenever she was enraged was nowhere to be seen.
And so long as the cocoon Pokemon was still in play, Busy could swap endlessly, pulling his Scyther away just as any one of Kerry’s Pokemon were about to land a fatal blow.
“Urgh. I’m so glad that I didn’t challenge this stupid Gym.” Justin said with a groan when Kerry was finally done with the battle, face full of frustration while gnawing on her lower lip.
“Heh. I wonder how Kerry feels about that autograph now?” Nina mused. “But that’s Bugsy in a nutshell for you. I’m sure he’s not a bad person and I imagine his current demeanor was the result of competitive necessity.” Else, how would he compete with all the other legacy Gyms in the Region?
Nina thought back on all that she experienced in the Cerulean Gym. The logistics of training and handling such large quantities of Pokemon was no joke. Despite what someone like Victor might think, it wasn’t enough to merely be a good battler and Pokemon Trainer.
The Cerulean Gym was in itself an entire enterprise. Even the Pewter Gym had its fair share of troubles during Flint’s era, and the only reason why he managed to cope was because he inherited the Pewter City Military Complex and all of its underlying processes.
Then there was the local politics. Gym Leaders, for better or for worse, represented their respective cities in the League.
“If you think Victor’s bad, then think about how arduous it would have been for Bugsy to inherit the Azalea Gym — minor Gym or not — while he was still a teenager and without the guidance of his dead mentor.”
Nina sighed and got up from her seat. “C’mon, let’s go check on Kerry. I would hate to see her in tears.” And if she did, then Nina swore that there would be nothing but an empty crater left of Bugsy’s Gym once she was done with that femboy twink.
***
Author's note:
Sorry for the delayed release. I wanted to make some last minute adjustments to this chapter.
There'll be another 0.5 bonus chapter tomorrow; Kerry vs Bugsy.