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Whee chapter 8. This one I was a bit on edge to write. Why? hehe cus well some things that happened I didn't want to happen...but to keep the story going smoothly I pushed on through. This chapter does have significant importance to my Character Flare. this is you could say, the battle that determines all of what he is.

Guest character for this chapter is my good bud  windchillstorm and includes a good number of his Characters. please enjoy this battle as well...while I said there were things I didn't want to happen, overall I am saisfied wth how this all turned out =3

Windchill, Mantle and Nova all belong to  windchillstorm
Everyone else belongs to me
Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Gamefreak
Digimon while none are in this chapter belong to Bandai Namco

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Arctic Wind and the prideful flame


The preliminary matches were going fairly well throughout the day. Each of the four stadiums were packed with fans and spectators who enjoyed each battle that passed. Soon enough, 1 on 1 battles would expand to 3 on 3’s. This was to showcase each trainer’s party and battle style more openly in the final matches in the preliminary rounds, and ensured a more even play field one each team. For Jesse this wasn’t much of a problem. The Grim reaper won each of his matches with Grapple, his Nidoking, all on his own and was the first to be admitted into the final tournament. This was soon followed by Yen who equally impressive, only had to use his Serperior and a Honchcrow. Though it left a sour note to most of the trainers in the final rounds of the competition, as he’d only swapped to the Honchcrow whenever his Serperior was growing exhausted, thus leaving him with a clean sweep without a loss.

The mysterious boy who resembled Max’s grandfather was third to be admitted into the final rounds. He was a wild card among the competitors, as he never used the same pokemon and was often seen going to the transfer station to swap out his team just before his matches. It made it hard to study the youth, and harder to come up with a proper counter strategy.

Max was just finishing up his final preliminary battle himself, though unlike his pal Jesse, just barely managed to scrape up a win. He was grateful for the rest though…He would be allowed to give his pokemon a full day of rest before they began the official competition.

Kevin passed his preliminary matches with Salamence and a new dragon that was under his belt, Druddigon.

Things get a bit more interesting however when the final 3 slots were still left open. Max didn’t know who were in the final two brackets of one stadium, but he definitely knew that Flare was in stadium 3, and he was about to enter his final preliminary battle. Pyre was sitting on a bench, just outside of the stadium, his Charmeleon carrying two soft drinks in his paw from a nearby concession stand and handing one to his trainer. Pyre was just about to take it when he felt a hand patting his back which jolted him for a brief moment. Turning his head back he looked at the towering muscular male human…though if you looked at the red mane that ran along his face, he looked more like a Leomon than man. It didn’t help that his 6’5 height gave him an imposing presence. “D-Dad…Why aren’t you back home taking care of the island?”

The man’s name was Rex. He was a rather tan looking human unlike his son, but they both shared the same hair that shone like fire when the wind would blow over them. To his side was a Charizard of equal height who’s left eye had a scar running along it diagonally, the blue eye within it looking glazed over made it obvious he did not have his full eyesight but the massive fire type never looked fazed by the disability. Rex gave his companion a soft pat on the chest before responding with a low rumbling voice. “You never showed interest in the Johto league before now. And as a gym leader and more importantly as your father, I wanted to watch your battles in person to see the type of man that you’re going to become.”

“The type of man I’ll become?” Flare didn’t know how to respond to that. He finally took the soft drink that Charmeleon was holding for him and turned around to look up at his father. “I won’t disappoint you.” Was the boy’s only response when the intercom went off, calling for him and his opponent to get into the ring. “Well we’re up. Are you ready?”

His question was directed to his Charmeleon, who gave him the best thumbs up his three clawed paw could manage and started walking with him through the hall.

“We have the final battle of the day here people! One of these two trainers will be moving on into the main competition!” The announcer barked over the microphone. “In one corner we have the talented young Flare Bellows! His father is the Bellows island gym leader, Rex. He’s come this far being a Charizard delivery man.” Flare was stepping into his portion of the ring, Charmeleon standing beside him as he took deep breaths to calm himself.

“And on the opposite end is a newcomer whom well…we don’t really have any records for. But he has all of the available Gym badges and so far has won each of his matches with a reasonable lead on his opponents. Give it up for the mysterious Windchill Storm.”

Flare waited in anticipation. He watched as a snow wolf walked out of the halls on the opposite end. Most of it’s body being white furred, but it’s wrists were were multicolored with black, purple, and two shades of blue ringed around each of his wrists and topped off with a pair of grey paws, same with his legs. Those same rings decorated the fur just above his snout meeting up to his forehead. His nose and ears were both the saame light blue coloration as the first colored ring on his paws. Curious enough…he had a compass mark on his left and right cheek. He wore a white shirt with a blue trim, with artwork of an alolan sandslash on the front of the fabric and Grey Khaki’s.

Standing to the wolf’s side was a rather unusual colored Suicune. Instead of the usual white and blue coloration, this one’s blue fur was replaced with red, and diamond shaped marks dotting it’s body. Windchill had placed a hand over his companion’s head, giving her a few gentle rubs. On closer inspection, the wolf’s eyes were a glimmer of red. A feature that didn’t go unnoticed by his Suicune who looked at him with concern. “It will be fine. Go!” Windchill pointed into the stadium ring. The Suicune simply nodding, leapt into the battle and a LED icon of this odd colored Suicune appeared on the stadium’s scoreboard just beneath her trainer’s pokedex ID photo.

“A suicune right at the get go?” Flare asked, getting a tug on his pants from his partner. “Yeah I know…I can’t send you out.” He grabbed a ball from his belt and tossed it into the ring to release his first pokemon. “Electabuzz let’s go!” As the light faded from the ball, an Electabuzz stretched it’s limbs out and roared to it’s opponent in challenge.

“This will be a three on three battle! The trainer who’s pokemon are all unable to battle first will be eliminated. Begin!” The crowd erupted into cheers as the battle could finally begin.

Flare took a breath and decided to make the first strike. “Electabuzz, Thunderbolt right now!”

The Electabuzz’s antenna twitched before forming a circuit between one another and discharged the energy directed at the Suicune. Despite the Suicune’s weakness however, it remained standing and shot daggers towards her adversary.

“Get in up close and use flamethrower!” Windchill barked, his red eyes focused on the battle at hand.

“Suicune doesn’t learn flamethrower…!” Flare exclaimed with shock. He watched the Suicune sprint through the field, his electabuzz leaping over the flames that exploded from the Suicune’s muzzle, just barely avoiding a direct hit, it’s foot however was caught in the fire and it winced visibly.

Flare was concerned, but he couldn’t just stop the match to check on his pokemon. “Shake it off bud! Discharge now!”

Electabuzz shut it’s eyes as it released all of it’s electricity, striking everything in the ring yet some how the suicune was able to maneuver around each bolt. This didn’t go well with Electabuzz who in a rage increased the output of his attack, enveloping the entire ring. This was something the Suicune could not avoid. It remained standing but it’s body was now twitching occasionally due to paralysis taking effect, unfortunately…

Electabuzz fell to the floor in exhaustion. It tried pulling itself up but slumped back to the ground, swirls in it’s eyes from using up too much electricity. There was a ref sitting just between the two opposing sides outside of the battlefield, lifting up a green flag in Windchill’s direction. “Electabuzz is unable to battle!”

When the icon for Electabuzz went dark, Flare recalled it into the pokeball. “You did good. I can see it’s paralyzed…let’s take advantage of that. Hmm?”

Charmeleon was tugging on his pants again, then pointed at the ring. “It’s partly water…I don’t want you getting into that kind of fight…plus we know it’s got that Flamethrower so grass type pokemon won’t be affective…what’s left…”

“You have ten seconds to select a pokemon!” The ref called out to Flare.

“Hmph…guess it’s better than nothing…we need to take this Suicune out first…” He grabbed another ball from his waist and tossed it into the air, releasing a Houndoom from it’s ball. It looked rather annoyed that it was called into battle, until he heard the announcer trying to excite the crowd by announcing it’s presence and understood what it was called out for. It crouched low and growled at the Suicune who was casually padding around.

“Flamethrower!” Both trainers shouted in unison. Both Canines opened their maws simultaneously and shot forth an impressive display of fire that on collision seemed to spark a reaction and left the field in a haze of smoke. “Crunch it now!”

“Dodge!” Windchill commanded. Though this was easier said than done, as the smoke seemed to envelope everything for both pokemon when a sudden yelp of pain came out from among the smoke. As it dissipated, the Suicune was on the floor after a successful bite from Houndoom on one of it’s legs. “Nova you can do this!”

“So that’s it’s name.” Flare muttered, watching the Suicune slowly rising, with some difficulty as it’s trainer’s voice reached her ears. Flare waited until it was back up then his eyes narrowed. “This is crazy.”

Nova shook herself off and let out a small roar in it’s small victory when Windchill yelled out his next command. “Ice beam!” Taking a deep breath while in such close quarters, the Suicune shoot out a beam of ice in the Houndoom’s direction, though it was quick enough that it managed to avoid the first couple of beams. Sometimes even using the pillars the attack had formed to avoid oncomming volleys.

“Fire fang Houndoom let’s-“ He was cut off when Nova had anticipated Houndoom’s next leap and froze him in place. “Houndoom don’t freeze over, get out!”

The whole arena went quiet for a bit. The Houndoom couldn’t seem to break out of it’s prison. After a minute of waiting for a response, the ref held out the green flag in Windchill’s favor once again. “Houndoom is unable to continue battle!”

Flare was recalling his canine pokemon back into it’s ball. He looked disappointed but a legendary pokemon was bound to be difficult either way. He took a few deep breaths and turned to his companion. “I guess you’re up my friend. Let’s at least try to beat that Suicune.”

Charmeleon shot a pretty nasty glare in his trainers direction with his one good eye. He didn’t understand why his partner was so upset. Charmeleon stepped into the ring, mumbling to himself. “Just beating this guy isn’t good enough for me Flare…I don’t want to settle for just winning one battle…Why can’t you see this…”

Nova picked up on what Charmeleon was saying and while she was injured, was vaguely curious. “Show him how you feel.”

When the ref signaled for them to start, Windchill started out his attacks with Ice beam once again, but Charmeleon was determined not to suffer the same fate as Houndoom. He leapt over pillars and when his speed wasn’t enough to get him through, he’d counter with a Flamethrower of his own to counteract the ice beam.

“Charmeleon, get up close and use flamethrower!” Flare called out.

“Chaaaaaar!” Charmeleon roared out as he sprinted past the flurry of Ice beams headed his way and hopped onto Nova’s back. She bucked and ran in circles, tryiing to get the small lizard off her back when a toothy grin spread across his muzzle. He suddenly let out a great flame from his jaws that completely enveloped his foe. Hopping off, he stepped back to admire his work. He turned to look at his Trainer in the eye, his gaze serious as if he were trying to convey a message to Flare.

“Charmeleon…” Flare didn’t understand…not completely…but maybe that was the whole point? Flare didn’t really understand anything right now. But when Nova refused to get back up, from both exhaustion and the wounds she had been inflicted with since the beginning, she was finally able to get some rest.

Windchill recalled his Suicune into it’s poke ball. “Get a good rest, you need it.” He then reached out to grab another pokeball and smiled. “Mantle I choose you!”

Coming forth from the pokeball was an Arcanine. A shiny gold furred Arcanine at that! It stared at the Charmeleon, his tail wagging from side to side until he realized where he was. The big Acanine turned to it’s trainer and realized something was wrong…His scent wasn’t different. But those red eyes of his unnerved him.

“Alright Charmeleon! Get in close and use Slash!” Flare called out, to which he got another glare from his Charmeleon. What was going on…

“Hmph…I’ll do it…” Charmeleon muttered to himself as he charged towards Mantle. The big Arcanine made wide leaps and his slashes were put on halt when the Arcanine melted all of the ice in the surrounding area with a flamethrower. It didn’t do anything to Charmeleon but that wasn’t the point. The resulting mist resulted in a cover up, and when it faded, the Arcanine had disappeared, replaced with a large hole in the ground.

Charmeleon didn’t like that…Because the ice pillars were melted away, he didn’t have any means to avoid what was coming next, and kept staring at the ground beneath his feet for any sign of his opponent. He was too focused however and didn’t notice the ground erupting behind him as a pair of jaws clamped onto his middle. He felt a sharp pain before he was dropped on the ground. The Arcanine had leapt a few feet away so as to give his opponent time to get himself back up.

“It’s alright Charmeleon. You did well.” Flare was about to step into the ring when he got another angry look from his partner. “You don’t have to keep going. You’re injured!”

Charmeleon growled as he pushed himself up to his feet. “If you don’t get it Flare then you never will…” His eyes narrowed as he roared out in pokespeak. “We give it everything we’ve got!”

The sudden shouting ringed in Flare’s ears. Somehow in some way, he understood Charmeleon…not the tone of his voice but rather the words spoken. It was the first time he’d heard his pokemon and he looked like he was ready to cry. But his face suddenly hardened. “You’re right.”

Charmeleon’s head turned slightly to look at Flare. The two of them staring into one another, there was no more animosity between the two of them. Somehow, Flare had heard him…But would he respond. “What are we gonna do partner?!”

“We’re gonna fight!” Flare roared back, his hands clenched into fists. “I’m not a Smithy like Max or Fang…I’m not the son of a big millionaire like Kevin. And I’m certainly not as cool and level headed as Jesse. But I don’t need to be. I just need to be the fire cracker! Let’s turn it up!!” He shouted, roaring alongside his companion. Everyone was quiet…seeming to think that Flare had gone crazy, Even Mantle and Windchill looked as if they thought the pair had lost it…but a sudden fire seemed to burst forth from Flare’s digivice/pokegear. It enveloped him in the warm fires like an aura.

“Hotter…! HOTTER…!” Flare continued to cry out. His entire body flexing as if he were trying to show off some muscles that he didn’t have. The fire around him seemed to respond to him though as it only grew brighter, a brilliant red and orange flame had clearly enveloped the trainer, yet none of his clothes nor his body were being burned. “We won’t quit. Even if we lose, we’ll lose with a flash…!” Flare stared at Mantle and Windchill.

“you got that right…!” Charmeleon growled, as the same burning fire that enveloped Flare, began to take shape over him. The flames however took on a more drastic form. Flaming wings sprouded from his back, a long thick tail formed as well that surrounded the original apendage. The last thing that the flames around him had forged were a pair of horns similar to a Charizards. He didn’t know what to think but he was welling up with power.

“THIS IS OUR POWER!” The duo roared out.

Mantle’s eyes went wide but he looked excited at the same time. Suddenly, Charmeleon would charge at the canine but not by foot…no…those WiNGS propelled him with great force and speed that Mantle was being dragged backwards as he’d lifted his forepaws up to grip at Charmeleon’s own claws.

“We won’t just roll over and give up!” Flare and Charmeleon roared. The two pokemon broke their lock on one another and the Charmeleon suddenly took to the air as he started gathering energy into his muzzle. Mantle began to do the same. In a flash, Charmeleon let loose a hyper beam as Mantle was releasing a Fire blast in response. The two attacks met right in the middle, a great shock impacted the stage and set hats and balloons flying off.

Windchill on his part was bracing himself and digging his paws into the ground when a red shard seemed to snap off the back of his neck and the red in his eyes disappeared. Returning to their normal coloration. When the smoke finally cleared from the resulting explosion. Charmeleon was back to his normal self, the flames having disappeared from both his and Flare’s body. There was a moment of silence, until both Mantle and Charmeleon both fell to the floor in exhaustion. Flare was feeling the fatigue as well but kept pushing his Charmeleon to try and get up. For a moment it looked like it would work, but Charmeleon fell to a slump on the ground.

“Charmeleon is unable to battle! Mantle is unable to battle! Since Windchill still has one pokemon left, Windchill moves on to the finals!” The announcer yelled through his intercom.

The crowd erupted into cheers so loud that Flare couldn’t even hear himself think. He walked over to the ring and picked up his friend and partner, who was now out cold and snoring. “He’ll probably hate me for losing…but we did our best.” Flare was about to turn around and leave when Windchill stepped over to him. “Can I help you?”

The wolf had recalled Mantle into his ball before approach and nodded. “Yeah..I just wanted to say great match…mind if…I take you and your pokemon out for a bite to eat? I’m sure your friend there could use it.”

Flare was surprised by the offer, but then he saw his dad in the stands and shook his head. “I’m gonna have to pass. Good luck in the finals.”

The two of them shook hands, a bright smile on both of their faces, before Flare decided to meet with his dad outside of the ring. That’s when he gave his dad the bomb shell.

“I want to become the Bellows Island Gym leader!” Flare declared, staring up at his dad with a solid, serious expression. “I want to protect the Charizard on the island…their children…and the gym that you worked so hard to build.”

Rex listened quietly, as did the Charizard behind him. “That was an amazing battle son…You have what it takes that’s for sure. I’d say Charmeleon is now as strong as even the wild Charizard on our island! When you’re ready to take the gym…and my title as head of the Bellows delivery service then they will be yours. Until then…” He put a thick hand over his son’s head, smiling. “You focus on enjoying your youth. You didn’t win this year but keep trying.”

Flare nodded, suddenly gripping his father in a hug, who returned the sentiment with a soft expression on his face. Charizard leaned down as well, nudging the young trainer. Flare might not have won the battle, but he definitely won the war that was going on inside him. He found his place, where he belonged.

(To be continued)