A single battle.

There’s no getting away. You feel more confident with single battling. “I guess we can do single battles,” you say looking up at Arthur. The group of guys back away making space for the battle.

“I’ll go first,” Arthur says signaling the others to back away. He pulls a ball from his belt, releasing a Clefairy. You can do this. You reach for Ekans, hoping the poison type advantage would help. “An Ekans, huh? Clefairy use double slap.” The Clefairy dives at Ekans landing a two quick slaps.

“Ekans, acid,” you command trying to gain control of the battle. Ekans spits a purple liquid hitting Clefairy in the body.

“Encore.” You’re confused for a second, but Ekans is compelled to use acid again. The second blast of acid knocks out the Clefairy. “Magnemite, go.” Then it dawns on you, Magnemite is immune to poison and Ekans still has to use acid 2 more times. Ekans spits more acid at Magnemite doing nothing to it. “Spark.” Magnemite coats itself in electricity while hitting Ekans. Ekans looks to be in rough shape before spitting its last **** spurt of acid. Magnemite shakes it off again, “Spark,” before knocking out Ekans.

“Return, Ekans.” You think over your choices. Wartortle would be weak to Magnemite and Magnemite would resist Tingle. “Runt, let’s do this.”

“How exotic. Magnemite use magnet bomb.” A series of steel balls are launched at Runt. Runt dodges it with ease, but didn’t realize that they turned as she dodged and followed her. The balls hit Runt in a series of small explosions.

“Runt, bite.” She shakes of the explosions and charges towards Magnemite clenching her jaw around it pulling it to the ground.

“Use thunder wave.” The Magnemite radiates a wave of yellow energy paralyzing Runt.

“Bite again.” Runt snaps back at the Magnemite knocking it out of the battle.

“Vulpix.” You smile seeing that this is his last pokemon on his belt. “Ember.” The fox shoots a small flame at Runt. Runt goes to dodge but her legs tense up from the paralysis and is hit by the flame. She falls over knocked out from the battle.

Seeing the fire fox in front of you, your next pokemon selection is an easy one. “Wartortle let’s end this.” Wartortle comes from his ball. You catch a quick sign of fear sweep across Arthur’s face before he conceals his emotions.

“Vulpix, will-o-wisp.” A ghostly light leaves his mouth floating towards Wartortle. The light coats Wartortle in a blue-white flame before vanishing leaving him burnt.

“Wartortle use bubble.” He fires a volley of bubbles pelting the Vulpix, knocking it out in a single blow.

“That could’ve gone better, I guess you beat me.” You smile at your victory for a second, before he continues, “So you’re up next Mark.” Then the realization hits that you still have 3 trainers to beat. You only have Wartortle, who is burnt, and Tingle still in fighting shape. You instinctively reach for your bag wanting to use a few healing items, but you remember that you brought a small bag leaving all your items in your room.

The chubby friend takes Arthur’s place, so his name is Mark. Arthur takes a seat on a nearby bench glaring at you. “All right. It’s my turn to clean up Arthur’s scraps.” Mark smiles while grabbing a ball from his backpack.

You take a moment, looking at the other 2 guys approaching Arthur. Mark stands in front of you digging through his bag. You see an opening, you could make a run for it. However you know that would be in violation of League rules. But can you beat Mark with less than half your team in fighting shape? Losing here would be automatic forfeits against the other challengers as well.