The Pinkan Island Arc
Chapter Two: The Coral Eyes
The group finally made it to Maikan Island. They got off Lapras, and Glacia put it back in it’s Pokeball. Brandon, Sparks, Glacia, and Aaron then made their way to the gym. They found it near the west side of the island, and started to walk towards it when a girl with long brown hair and blue eyes came walked out of it. She was wearing a black tank top and a pink skirt that went down to her knees. The girl walked up to them and asked them if they were challengers.
“Hey, you all wouldn’t happen to be here to challenge the Orange League, would you?”
“Me and this guy are,” Brandon said as he pointed to Aaron. “I’m Brandon Birch, and he’s Aaron. Are you a member of the Orange Crew?” The white haired boy took the liberty of introducing his friend, and then asked who the girl was.
“That’s right. I’m Sissy of the Coral Eye badge. Just so you know you can only use water Pokemon at my gym.” She told her two challengers and they looked kind of disappointed.
“What? That’s pretty lame but oh well. I only have one on me.” Brandon replied to the Orange Crew member.
“That’s fine; it’s not like there’s going to be a battle or anything.” Sissy told the green eyed boy. Brandon argued with her about how he was going to get a badge if there was no battle. Sissy informed the two that in the Orange League, you earned your gym badges by beating the leaders in certain tasks like a race or target practice, though you might also battle.
Meanwhile, Aaron was talking to Glacia about how he only had one water type Pokemon.
“The only water Pokemon I have is Feraligator. I’m sure he could do the target practice and battle but…”
“Don’t worry; you can use Lapras for the race test. The first two tasks are target practice. I’ve watched people challenge her a lot. Look…” Glacia told Aaron, then pulled some pictures she had taken a while back that showed people battling Sissy, and the other Orange Crew.
“You’ve done this before?” Aaron asked the purple haired girl.
“Not exactly, I didn’t follow any of the trainers around. I just went to the gyms when I had time.” Glacia informed Aaron and reminded him that she was a photographer after all.
“All right let’s go in the gym guys.” Brandon said to his friends and they followed Sissy into the gym. They could have sworn she said something about how Brandon was more annoying than her little brother. When they walked into the gym, there was a huge pool in the center of the room, and some water Pokemon were playing in it.
“All right guys, time for a battle,” Sissy said and she recalled her Pokemon to their pokeball’s. “The first round is target shooting. You have to shoot down the targets as they come up. I’ll use Seadra, so who’s up first?” Sissy asked whether Brandon or Aaron would go first as she enlarged a Pokeball and sent her Seadra into the pool.
“I’m up first of course! I’ll use Corphish for this thing.” Brandon said as he ran up to the pool and released his crab like Pokemon into the pool.
“Alright, here’s the first stage… Shoot the non moving targets,” Sissy said and she pressed a button and a panel rose up on the opposite end of where they were at. It had eight targets on it, and they seemed easy enough to break with a water gun or bubble beam. “Begin!” Sissy said and then Seadra started shooting at the targets with water gun. Corphish began shooting them with quick and surprisingly fast bursts of its bubble beam. Glacia took out a small camera and took some pictures; it had a strap on it so she put it around her neck when she was finished.
About a half a minute later, Corphish narrowly shot down the last target just before Seadra. “Well looks like you win five to three, good job kid. Next up is the moving targets. Can you hit them faster than my Seadra this time? There will be 8 targets in all, and they’ll shoot out at random holes that you just made from when you broke the previous ones, got it?” Sissy explained to Brandon as she got ready to press another button.
“Got it, let’s go!” Brandon said, eager to wrap up his gym ‘battle’. Sissy pressed the button and the match was on. The two Pokemon shot at the targets as good as they could, about a minute later it was over. Corphish had somehow triumphed again.
“Wow that was pretty good actually; well you beat me twice so I now present you with the Coral Eye Badge. You earned it Brandon.” Sissy took a pink, shell shaped badge that had yellow circle around it and a blue dot in the middle and she handed it to Brandon.
“Now I only need three more badges and then I can face the champion, awesome!” Brandon exclaimed as he put the badge up in a case. “Well, you’re up Aaron. Hurry and show us what your made of.” Brandon said after he put up the badge.
“We’ll do a race this time. Then we’ll do a battle afterwards, hold on and let me tell my brother to fix the targets for me.” Sissy told the group to wait and she then went off to get her brother, she returned soon and the four of them walked out to the beach. Brandon was complaining about how he should have gotten to battle her but Glacia hit him and told him to shut up.
“Okay, do you see that big rock sticking out of the water there?” Sissy asked Aaron as they got to the beach and he said yes. “We start out on opposite ends, go to the rock, and then come back here on the other side, get it?” She continued to explain to the black haired boy as he listened to her.
“I’ll be using my Blastoise, okay, what about you?” Sissy asked Aaron and then Glacia took Lapras out of its Pokeball. She told it to obey Aaron for now and it nodded when it understood her.
“I’m going to be borrowing her Lapras for now.” Aaron said as he climbed on to the giant water type. Sissy said okay and she sent out Blastoise and climbed on to it.
“Ready, set, go!” Sissy counted down and then the two sped off for the rock. Aaron telepathically told Lapras to fire an Ice Beam in Sissy’s path and it obeyed. But Sissy wasn’t going to be stopped that easily.
“Use Hydro Pump to blast the ice out of the way!” She told her Blastoise and it shot two powerful blasts of water from its cannon’s sending the ice block flying out of the way. The two then made it to the rock and turned, and then a big wave appeared behind them. Glacia got her camera out again and started to take more pictures. Aaron has Lapras freeze it with Ice Beam, but the one on Sissy and Blastoise’s side hits them. Sissy falls off, but quickly swims back to Blastoise. Aaron then has an even better idea once he sees them catching up, he has Lapras freeze them a path, and then it climbs on to it. They slide all the way to the finish line with Sissy coming in a few seconds later.
“Whoa, those were some pretty good strategies you came up with out there. Let’s move on to the next one, the sumo match. I’m using Blastoise again.” Sissy complemented Aaron and they moved further down the beach. Aaron thanked Glacia for the use of Lapras and said he couldn’t have done it without her after he gave it back to her.
“No problem, but I doubt it could of came up with those ideas on its own. It was mostly your own skills that helped you win. Your Feraligator should be able to win this sumo match.” Glacia complemented Aaron also as they moved to the final arena.
“Hey, how do you know what Pokemon he has?” Brandon asked as they were walking.
“We talked while you were sleeping on the way here, and when you argued with Sissy about how you thought the Orange League rules were lame. You took an awful lot of time doing that you know.” Glacia informed the hot headed and overconfident white haired trainer.
They soon reached a place where someone had drawn a huge circle in the sand. In the center of that circle was another smaller one, and there was a line going through the middle of it as well. Sissy’s Blastoise walked into it and stood on one end of the smaller circle.
“Alright, I suppose you know how a sumo match works right? Because then you’ll know what to do.” Sissy asked Aaron as they arrived at the arena. Aaron shook his head and then enlarged a Pokeball. He threw it up in the air and out came a Feraligator. Aaron’s giant blue crocodile like Pokemon walked into the ring and stood on the opposite end of the small circle.
“Okay, begin!” Sissy announced the start of the next event, and both Pokemon tried to grab each other but Feraligator had much longer arms. Blastoise couldn’t even reach the crocodile like Pokemon, and was pushed out of the ring with ease. Sissy’s mouth hung wide open; she had just suffered a total defeat so she had no chance but to hand over the Coral Eye badge again. Glacia clapped for Aaron but Brandon and Sparks were too busy laughing at how Sissy had totally gotten whooped. Sissy returned Blastoise to it’s Pokeball and then gave Aaron his badge.
“There you go Aaron, good job. I’m sure you’ll both beat the others with ease. Except the Champion of course, no one has ever gotten a total victory against him before. See you later!” Sissy bid them farewell and they said goodbye as well. The trio walked to the Pokemon Center in town and they gave their Pokemon to Nurse Joy and then sat down at a table while they waited.
“So, what Pokemon do you have anyways Aaron? I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.” Brandon asked his quiet traveling companion and he responded.
“Okay fine, I have a Feraligator, Scizor, Tyranitar, and a Salamence. I want to leave my part open a bit so I can have at least one Pokemon from every region. I hear there’s supposed to be some island in the Orange Archipelago where all the Pokemon on it are pink and I want one from there too.” Aaron told Brandon as he probably wasn’t going to stop asking him until he did.
“Oh, you mean Pinkan Island? Your in luck, I think they said just made a new rule. Anyone who can get to the island by a way other than flight is permitted to catch one Pokemon there now apparently. But it’s kind of hard because the island is surrounded by whirlpools. I’ve always wanted a pink Pokemon too… there so cute.” Glacia told them dreamily.
“Cool, knowing me I’m sure I’ll find some way to get us on that island. By the way, my Pokemon lineup consists of Sparks here,” Brandon started naming his party, and he looked at his Pikachu when he said his name. “Munchlax, Corphish, and Blastiodon. I also have a Flygon who’s hanging out back at my house in Hoenn. I wanted to give my newer Pokemon a chance to get stronger because I’ll probably use them in Sinnoh. But I didn’t want to be completely out matched here so I brought Sparks & Munchlax.”
Nurse Joy brought back their Pokemon and they got up and walked to the beach while Glacia started to tell them her line up. “I’ve only got Lapras and a Seel.” Glacia told the two boys. She wasn’t really a battler so she didn’t even need Pokemon except for traveling. Once they got to the beach, Glacia threw Lapras’s Pokeball up in the air and she appeared. The trio then climbed on and headed towards Pinkan Island.
“Hey, we are going to Pinkan Island, right?” Brandon asked Glacia just to make sure.
“Yeah, it’s pretty close so you’d better start thinking of some way to get us past those whirlpools.” Glacia told Brandon as they sailed along towards Pinkan.