"I don't think the Chimchar is winning this. It doesn't have any advantage in this match, add that to not having a trainer to guide it." Lazarus says.
"Let's see." Mike says, and then the match starts.
Piplup, a purple cyan penguin like pokemon with two fins for hands and a yellow beak, looks around the ruins. The Chimchar has already hidden itself behind one of the many pillars scattered through the arena, and unlike the Chimchar who is swift and agile on its feet, Piplup's short flipper like feet make it hard for the water pokemon to traverse the cracked and jagged floor below.
So, it decides to wait instead of running around and deplete its stamina trying to find the Chimchar, it has the type advantage after all. A few jets of water is all it's going to take to bring the Chimchar down.
Chimchar climbs up the stone pillar, knowing full well that the Piplup can't reach it there, it's the only place that felt safe to it. After it climbs on top of the pillar, Chimchar lays down carefully and decreases the the intensity of its flame tail, making sure the Piplup doesn't see it up there.
The Piplup indeed can't see the Chimchar, but Piplup's trainer from outside the dome sure can.
Piplup pretends to not know Chimchar's location and keeps looking around the arena.
Chimchar eyes the Piplup from above, it's aware of its predicament. Its fire is not going to have much effect on the water pokemon, and the environment won't help power its flames either, and if an attack from the Piplup hits it then it making flames will be hard.
No one moves for a minute and half, but then the Chimchar decides to make the first move, it jumps as high up in the air as it can and spews Ember at the Piplup below.
Piplup isn't threatened by the Ember, it's already prepared for something like this to happen so dodging the Ember is no problem. The Ember hits the cracked stone of the floor where the Piplup was standing seconds before, the stones catch fire for a few seconds and then the flame dies off.
After the dodging the attack, Piplup uses all the energy it has been gathering since the match started and uses Water Gun at Chimchar who is surprised at the swift response. Chimchar tries to leap away from the pillar, it barely makes a few centimeters off before a huge jet of water drenches the entire pillar wet and the floor below it.
Chimchar falls to the ground drenched in water. Its flame tail is extinguished. And the Piplup gathers energy for another attack.
Chimchar is quick to get back on its feet and quickly jumps away from there, and finds another pillar to climb. Piplup doesn't want to let the lead it has go to waste so it races after the fire pokemon.
Chimchar re ignites its tail flame to dry itself off, while the Piplup fires another beam of water at it. Chimchar dodges this one completely, but the pillar it's climbing is wet. Chimchar climbs up the pillar despite the wet surface, and prepares for an attack of its own.
When done, Chimchar unleashes a flamethrower at Piplup who counters the flames with a jet of water.
The flamethrower and the water gun collide against each other which results in a cloud of mist and moisture, making it even harder for Chimchar to generate fire.
This same dynamic continues throughout the match, Chimchar gets drenched in water and then runs away from the Piplup. It jumps from one pillar to another and uses its flames to dry itself, and then does a flamethrower which the Piplup always counter with a water gun.
Chimchar gets wet countless times, spends half its energy re igniting its flame tail to dry itself. Mid jump it gets hit by a water gun and falls to the cold hard rocks below time and time again, but the fire pokemon always gets back up to put up a fight, no matter what.
And since Piplup doesn't have any powerful move that can knock the Chimchar out in one single move, the match eventually ends in a draw.
—
"That was surprising. I didn't expect to see that level of intensity from the Chimchar. How did its previous matches go?"
"Not a lot of wins, as you'd expect from a pokemon without a trainer to guide it. But the Chimchar has also never gave up, it got hit many times but always got back up. The only times someone has been able to defeat the Chimchar was by using a lethal move and forcing the the dome safety system to end the match in their favor."
Lazarus nods, the Chimchar's tenacity sure is impressive, "Why doesn't it have a trainer by the way? That feels weird to me."
Mike shakes his head and sighs, "Well, the truth is… the Chimchar did have a trainer before. Two months ago a trainer came here with it. The Chimchar didn't preform well in the matches so he just abandoned it here. Probably hoping to make the it someone else's problem."
"What?" Lazarus frowns, "Is that even legal? Abandoning a pokemon just because it didn't win a match."
"Unfortunately, yeah it's legal. If you let the league know about it beforehand then you can abandon your pokemon at a battle arena or a pokecenter. It's not exactly common but it's not rare either, sometimes trainer do abandon their pokemon if they don't live up to their expectations. The league doesn't exactly encourage this but it's better than having trainers abandon their pokemon out in the wild on its own. At least here we can find another trainer for the it and hope the next trainer treats it better."
Lazarus clicks his tongue in contempt, "That is such loser behavior. Whoever that trainer was shouldn't have accepted the Chimchar as his own if he couldn't take responsibility for it."
"Well, some people do just see their pokemon as nothing more than a tool. Unfortunately we can not change their mind, the best we can do is protect the pokemon the best we can."
Lazarus shakes his head, still angry about the situation, "So, what happened to finding a trainer for it? I don't think there are many trainers who would refuse the Chimchar. Why is it still without a trainer?"
"I'm told the Chimchar was approached by a dozen or so young trainer in the last month or so, some of them were quite promising as well, but the Chimchar refused to go with any of them. Apparently the Chimchar still believes that its trainer will return for it. The staff tried to convince it to start again with a new trainer, but it refuses to accept the situation and just keeps training day and night."
That makes Lazarus massage his forehead, "The more I hear about this, the more pissed off I become."
Kamish and Aurora look at each other, this is the first time they have ever seen their trainer get angry.
Aurora pats his hand with her paw, Lazarus looks at her worried eyes and says, "I'm alright. You don't need to worry. It's just that when I think about the Chimchar wasting its life away hoping for something that will never happen, it makes me annoyed."
Then Lazarus turns to look at Mike who is smiling, "Is this why you wanted to me to see this match?"
Mike nods, "Yeah I hoping you would talk to it. Who knows you might be able to convince it to come with you. And you do need a fire pokemon on you team, might as well get that done as soon as possible. I think Chimchar would be a good fit for your team. It might not compare to the genetic potential of your two pokemon but I it has a good heart and will work hard for you if you can convince him that you worth following. Will you give it a chance? Why don't you take some time and think about it."
Lazarus takes a deep breath and nods, "I don't need to think about it. My answer is obvious. If the Chimchar wants to come with me then I will gladly take him as my own. And I think you are mistaken about what I am trying to do with my pokemon team. For me it was never about gathering the most powerful pokemon in the world, It's always been about building a family and doing something good for the world alongside them. And besides, I don't think I need to rely on the genetic potential of a pokemon to make it strong.
I don't believe in a hard potential ceiling anyway. Aurora and Kamish have a better head start than most pokemon because of the talent they inherited from their parents but that doesn't mean they will never be defeat or surpassed. My mother taught me that any pokemon can reach great heights if they have someone who can bring out the untapped source of power hidden within them. And I have enough faith in myself as a trainer to do be able to do that."