It revealed a familiar and bruised Emolga, still reeling from it's battle with Pidgeotto.
The battle that came after was a bit faster than expected. "Frogadier! Round!"
Almost out of nowhere, Frogadier opened it's mouth and unleashed another very loud and a high pitched note from it. The Emolga tried to glide away, it did, but the speed of sound is not to be underestimated, especially in it's battered state.
The moment it turned around to try and glide away, was the moment it got hit by the high pitched note and it's ears began crying out at the painful nose scraping at it's eardrums.
The Emolga went down in a ball of fluff and just laid there unmoving, mumbling something incoherent to both trainers.
Julia just sighed, pulling out Emolga's Pokeball wordlessly. "Emolga, return!"
Alice knew how this will go, not unless she decided to sent out her ace at this moment instead of another one of her weakened Pokemon. She couldn't help, but feel Julia's pain.
But a battle is still a battle, after all. She knows that Julia knows that as well, she is not a gym leader for nothing.
With less excitement Alice wouldn't think possible for a cherleader, Julia threw another Pokeball. It revealed the heavily battered second Voltorb, which dropped down onto the floor and ready for another fight.
Julia wouldn't let this go down like before either. "Emolga, you still got this! Thundershock!"
The Voltorb unleashed yet another one of those Thundershocks like most of Julia's Pokemon. It came unnervingly fast, but again, Frogadier easily flicked her head aside, only grimacing a bit when static electricity stung her ears.
"Quick Attack! Get close!" Alice countered.
The Frogadier disappeared from view.
"Emolga! Spark!"
"Round!"
Just before it could, however, Frogadier showed why that wouldn't work in the form of a blur coming down upon Emolga. It was quickly revealed to both trainers that Frogadier had brought forth her Round straight on Emolga's face. That sound grated it's ears so loud that it swore that it could have bled.
The pain got too much and the Emolga lost all consciousness as it's eyes rolled toward the inside of his head. It began to fall toward the earth
A red beam recalled it back to it's Pokeball, belonging to Julia. The cheerleader look sadly at the Pokeball before pocketing it.
Now they are both down to their last Pokemon. The next round with decide who will be the victor. And Alice knows it better be herself. She came too close to lose now.
Despite her earlier tantrums and frustrations, Julia couldn't help, but bring herself to smile."Wow, Alice. Not many managed to actually get through my entire team. You're impressive, I give you that, ya know!"
The smile, the sudden praise, Alice noticed both. While she found Julia's earlier frustrations a bit of an inconvinience, she, like all people would feel proud if she was to be praised by someone of high status.
Alice just nodded along with a smile. "Thank you, Julia."
"But I still," Pulling out her last Pokeball, she showed toward Alice's direction. "Won't go down without a fight! This is still a gym battle!"
Alice nodded again, she wouldn't expect anything else from a gym leader. Again, she wouldn't feel satisfied if the opponent doesn't give her a good fight even if she won.
"Alright, alright, alright! It's time for the grand finale! Ready, Alice?" When the cheerleader saw Alice nod, she grinned. Pulling her arm back and threw her final Pokeball. "Electrode!"
Out of the sailing Pokeball, came the evolved form of Voltorb. More bigger and more lethal and much more powerful electric sacs. An Electrode.
Frogadier simply looked on at the grinning Electrode. Electric-types or not, she will have it go down before the end of the day. As it is her trainer's will.
Alice bit her lip in slight nerveousness. This was it, she brought Julia down to her last Pokemon. It would be a shame if she somehow fails now, so she have to make sure she doesn't.
Julia, meanwhile, grabbed her pom-poms and made a pose. "Don'tgoboom, don'tgoboom, don'tgoboom, don'tgoboom, don'tgoboom, don'tgoboom!"
Alice...didn't know what to think about that. Nor does she want to, preferring to remain on guard. She can only hope that Julia didn't mean all of that literally.
Pointing at the Frogadier, Julia yelled out. "Rollout!"
Quicker than any of the previous Voltorb, the Electrode almost literally threw itself in an attempt to run the Frogadier over.
"Dodge and counter!" Alice commanded.
The Frogadier jumped aside easily enough, causing the runaway Electrode to miss her by an inch at most. Once she is safe from being run over, she quickly fired a quick Water Pulse that struck the still rolling Electrode's back.
"Electrode! C'mon, Rollout again!" Julia yelled.
Once again, the still rolling Electrode turned around in the direction of the Frogadier in order to try it's luck again at running Pokemon over.
Frogadier readied herself to dodge the Pokemon again as the Electrode closes in like a runaway train.
Alice knew she can pull this off like this. Electrode cannot learn Shockwaves at all, in other words, it has no way to hit the agile and evasive Frogadier. As long as Frogadier can keep this up, victory is within sight.
"Oh no, Alice!"
Alice looked up at Julia, who had just called out her name. "Excuse me?"
"I won't have you defeat Electrode that easily!" Pointing at the Frogadier, Julia exclaimed. "Eerie Impulse!"
Alice could only stare at Julia for that, before promptly snapping her eyes toward the direction of the moving Electrode.
Just as said Pokemon nearly ran the Frogadier over, it had stopped rolling all of the sudden, revealing it's face, and therefore, it's mouth that had been charging for electricity for sometime. Without warning, it fired a weak pulse of electricity directly at the frog.
The pulse of electricty washed over the Frogadier. She reeled back from the electricity, but she is otherwise fine, except for all the tingling in her arm as electricity mostly run through them instead of her body. Thought, however, she could feel her ranged attack power have decreased immensely.
Alice realized that was her own fault, her habit of having her Pokemon dodge at the near last second had allowed Julia to unleash the Impulse with impunity. Point blank attacks executed up close are just nearly impossible to dodge.
But that doesn't necessarily mean that it was her undoing, however. Alice knew she could still pull through.
Julia saw the Eerie Impulse struck, she couldn't help but grin immensely at her success. "Alright, now Swift Electrode!"
"Use your frubbles! To the eyes!"
Now that Frogadier had stopped reeling back from the attack, she quickly grabbed the frubbles that is her scarf and pulled out a sizable chunk of it. And she quickly chucked it.
This had the effect of sticking into the Electrode's face like a glue, especially it's eyes, causing the imminent Swift that was fired from it's mouth to miss the Frogadier wildly. Thought, they had quickly turned aroud to try again.
"Electrode!" Julia called out in worry. "You okay?"
"Now, hide behind it!"
"Wait, wait, wait, what?" Julia sputtered.
Closing her eyes, Frogadier felt the Swift start are closing in behind her back. And she jumped up, landing right near the backside of the blinded Electrode. Without so much as a fanfare, Frogadier pushed the Electrode forward with a kick.
The Swift that had followed had struck their own owner all across it's body in an attempt to
"Electrode!" Julia called out, it twitched and began to look around blindly. To her horror, there are still frubble stuck where it's eyes should have been. "Oh no."
Now with Electrode like that, and the lack of arms to remove it, it would be completely blinded for the rest of the battle. Trying to rid of it by rolling over would work, but it would probably take more than on try as frubbles are quite the sticky susbstance. Alice felt confident enough that it wouldn't be able to retaliate at all that accurately...hopefully.
After the last Eerie Impulse that caught both her and Frogadier off guard, she won't take the chance again. She knew it's time to end this battle as quickly as possible.
"Alright now, Pound! Downward chop!"
Frogadier immediately jumped, arm held back in preparation for a Pound.
"Electrode, she's up there! Charge Beam!" Julia almost pleaded.
The Electrode, however, didn't know where the attack is supposed to come from, so how would it know where to attack? Instead, all it could do is to look around blindly.
Frogadier saw this and moved in for the blow and she chopped downward. The Pound had landed right in the middle of the Electrode's head.
"Rrrr, Spark!"
Wise enough to know when she had overstayed her welcome, Frogadier flipped of the Electrode, almost as soon as it had shrouded itself in electricity again. She landed right in front of her trainer.
Electrode, meanwhile, was still looking around blindly, wondering if that Spark of his struck home against his attacker.
Julia was getting frustrated enough already, that she is literally grinding her teeth. "C'mon, Electrode, Swift!"
Not knowing where to fire, the Electrode stopped rolling about and ended up facing the wall as it fired the homing stars out of it's mouth. But they don't need to be aimed, as they starting to home in on the Frogadier.
"Round! Wait until they get close!" Alice countered.
Frogadier waited, just as her trainer commanded her, even as the dangerous homing missiles that is Swift is closing in on her. Once they were literally only inches away from striking her with all the fury in the world, she opened her mouth and shouted.
The soundwave that occured causes the bunched up Swift to self-destruct prematurely and it traveled onward across the battlefield.
The attack next struck the Electrode, with less power due to the lingering effects of Eerie Impulse. But they had the intended effect of sending the Electrode skidding backward just a bit.
Alice now had a handle of how to Swift work. As long as Swift bunched up like that in preparation for their collision, then taking care of them would be easy.
Julia pouted, the situation seemed hopeless for her. The Eerie Impulse hit sure, but for her troubles, the Electrode is blinded. Sometimes she wished that Electrode had an arm at least. And now she couldn't use Swift to try to at least bring the tempo of the battle back in her favor that Round itself gets in the way. As a soundwave, it doesn't need at all to be aimed most of the time.
Then that left only one thing for her to do.
"Sorry, Electrode! But you know what to do!" Julia called to the Electrode.
The Electrode just nodded.
Alice just looked in confusion, but remaining on guard. What does she mean by that? Did Julia still have another ace up her sleeve?
"Sorry about this in advance, Alice!" Julia apologized from across the arena.
Alice can only tilt her head in confusion at what Julia said.
"Oookay! Then, it's time to go..." Crouching down low, arms at her chest, she was like a spring ready to uncoil itself. The cheerleader then jumped, arms spread out. "BOOOOOM!"
Alice could only have a wide-eyed expression at that.
Looking back at the Electrode, it was glowing. Now her worse fears come true, it was about to literally Self-Destruct. She thought foolishly that it won't have that move earlier.
Alice couldn't help, but shudder and took an instinctive step backward. She didn't want to be near the explosion at all.
Frogadier glanced back at her trainer in concern, awaiting her command. Seeing the fearful expression that her trainer have, she wondered if her trainer was afraid of explosions.
"Fro!" She called out, hoping that her trainer would snap out of it.
"Dier! Frogadier!" She called out again. Unfortunately, Alice wasn't paying attention to her at all.
She looked at her trainer sadly. The Frogadier knew that the rest is up to her, as her trainer is currently out of commision.
Looking at the Electrode with a determined expression, she pulled out yet another chunk of frubbles and began chucking it. Twice, she did it. Thrice, she did it. On and on, she kept on chucking the thing at the Electrode in hopes that it might just reduce the blast enough for her to hold on.
Alice could only hopelessly shudder at the thought of another imminent explosion assaulting her senses and driving them wild. She wanted to back away as far as she could in hopes that the explosion won't hit her again.
"H-hey! What are you doing!?"
She could only blink the next time when she saw the glow slowly, but surely beginning to gradually die out. Alice looked and found out that the Electrode are nearly covered from it's head to it's non-existent toes in frubbles.
Alice saw that the one responsible had been her Frogadier. She kept on chucking and chucking frubbles after frubbles toward the now massive puffball of an Electrode.
The blonde trainer knew that Frogadier had taken the iniative in the time she had been paralyzed by fear. She couldn't help, but felt shame at leaving her Pokemon hanging like that.
She bit her lips just a bit, and clenched a fist. "Frogadier, keep doing what you're doing"
Frogadier glanced back and smiled. It seems her trainer had finally snapped out of it. Nodding, she kept on chucking the frubbles like no tomorrow.
Almost without warning, there was a sound of static electricity sparking within the frubbles that contained the Electrode. Then it exploded.
Ten seconds felt like an eternity to Alice who had dived for cover again. Once she had mustered up enough courage, she opened her eyelids in order to see the carnage that followed.
Glancing back, unsurprisingly, the Electrode, now freed from the frubbles laid on it's back, staring upward into the ceiling with black soot all over. It is unconscious.
Alice took a deep breath and looked at her own Pokemon. The Frogadier was there, near where she had taken position during the battle. It was lying face down on the tile. It seemed to have lacked the soot that Electrode sported, but the electrical discharges that sparked marked that the Electric Self-Destruct struck.
Alice could frown at that, it seems she won't be earning the badge. Draw is not considered sufficient for a badge.
Getting up, she brushed herself off again. How many times she had dove for cover the day before and now, she didn't want to know.
"Fro-"
Then hope sparked in her eyes. She looked up again and found that the Frogadier is getting up.
Looks like it was a success, the explosion radius was reduced enough that Frogadier could survive the imminent impact from the blast. The fact that it had Protean helped. It is not a Water-type at the moment.
Looking back at the Electrode, it was still unconscious. Not one recorded Pokemon can use Self-Destruct and Explosion and somehow still held on.
Alice could looked on in wonder. Does this mean she had won?
"Fro...gadier..."
The trainer looked at her Frogadier and found that she was looking at her with a smile. What Alice didn't expect was to be given a thumbs up.
Alice closed her eyes, smiled and nodded at her Frogadier. They had won, and it wall thanks
Frogadier couldn't help, but be happy at the approving expression that her trainer gave her way. Now she can rest easy, knowing she had drove her trainer toward victory. And so, she collapsed onto her back.
"Frogadier!" Alice called, running forward and checking up on her.
To her relief, the Frogadier was just unconscious. She and all of her Pokemon will need immediate check-up after all this in the Pokemon Center.
Pulling out her Pokeball, she returned the now-unconscious Frogadier back into it. She looked at the Pokeball and smiled, it had done well.
"Huh?"
Only now did Alice remember that Julia was still in the room. Pocketing her Pokeball, she looked back at the Gym Leader.
Julia made an expression that simply says that she hadn't expected that kind of results at all. In other words, dumbstruck.
The cheerleader's shoulders slumped almost as if against her will. "I lost already?"
Alice simply looked at Julia, at this point, she knew about Julia just a bit. She waited for any further...'explosive' reactions from her before she decided to talk back.
True enough, Alice could hear growling from the cheerleader.
"Mrrrrr..." Julia then stomped a few times, eyes clenched shut. "That's not fair!" She exclaimed.
Alice just sighed. This is a battle, she knew there are ultimately only two results. Winner and loser. You just have to accept it if you lose in the end. That's just the reality of Pokemon battling.
Once Julia was done throwing a tantrum, almost as if she had lost her energy, she dropped onto her backside. Alice briefly winced. "Whateverrrr, I'm gonna go take a power nap! That means you too, Electrode!" Pulling out it's Pokeball, she returned it to it's domain until it can wake up.
Alice waited again...and waited until at least ten seconds passes by in a flash. There were no further reactions from Julia until even the twentieth second passed by.
So Alice decided to ask. "Julia?"
"...hmmm?"
"My badge?" Alice finished.
Julia just pouted. "...fiiine." And she tossed something.
Alice saw it and made to grab it in mid-air as it closed in. Once she had it safely in her grasp, she found that it is Julia's badge that she is holding and officially, her first badge of Reborn League, shaped in a pattern similar to a ligtning bolt.
"Take it, Alice. The whatchamacolit badge!" Julia tentatively put a hand underneath her chin. "What was it named again?"
Alice just sighed, how could a gym leader forget the name of their official badge is beyond her. Nonetheless, pulling out a badge case, she gingerly put it in the upper left corner of the box.
17 badges left. She knew she still had a long way to go before she can even think to challenge the Elite Four and Champion of this region.
"Oh by the way! That thingmagigger badge makes a lot of things happen, you know!" Julia said with a grin.
Alice rolled her eyes, that much was already obvious to her.
"Aaaand, it allows you to use the thing!" She continued on.
"...what thing?" Alice asked eventually.
Before Julia could say more, her eyelids starting to droop over in drowsiness and her head itself began to tilt over. "I need coffee..." She muttered tiredly.
Coffee. Was that the reason why she looks like she's on permanent sugar high all the time? Drinking too much coffee? Even Alice knew that wasn't healthy.
Alice shook her head, Julia haven't answered the question yet. "Julia." She called out.
"Oh!" Her head snapped up again once she realized that she almost fell asleep. "It allows you to use the TMX Cut, outside of battle! Pretty cool, huh?"
"...TMX?"
"You didn't know?" Julia saw Alice shook her head. "Well, lemme put it this way. You can just make your Pokemon forget moves the simple way, no need to go to any Move Deleter anymore!"
Alice digested that information and nodded, that does certainly prove to be useful. At least she didn't have to travel back and forth anymore.
"Also-also! With my badge, now your Pokemon won't disobey you for a while in case they get too powerful! And also-also-also!" Julia pulled out something again, it was round in shape. "Take this!" And she threw it like a frisbee.
Alice deftly caught it. Looking it over, she found it was a TM, marked with the label 'TM57, Charge Beam'. She couldn't help, but nod in satisfaction, now she just needed a compatible Pokemon.
The blonde trainer smiled at the gym leader. "Thank you, Julia."
"No problemo! Consider thanks for the help yesterday! It doesn't go boom, but it's sure is a useful move. Anyway!" The cheerleader collapsed onto her back. "Sleepies...goodnight, Alice..."
Alice promptly heard snoring. She just facepalmed at that. Who fell asleep at the drop of a hat on the floor of a power plant?
Regardless, Alice had what she had came for her. She battled and won against Julia, earning her badge and her TM. All in all, it was a success.
A part of her still couldn't believe that she had been victorious against Julia, but another part of her said, that fact is to be believed. Reborn Gym Leaders are difficult, but not impossible to defeat.
Alice knew she couldn't relax yet thought, there are probably other leaders who will be more difficult than Julia. And this is only the first gym, the second gym awaits her.
Taking a look one last time at the slumbering Julia, she just chuckled before turning around and made her way out of the gym.
Exiting the power plant turned gym through the double sliding doors, Alice spotted someone near the fenced area entrance. Said someone who Alice now recognized as Victoria from the dress and hairstyle alone had also spotted her and immediately waved at her.
"Hey, Alice!" Victoria called out at her in excitement.
Alice waved back sedately and walked over to the other girl. "Hey, Victoria."
"You just left the building. Does that mean you earned your first badge?" Victoria asked.
Alice simple respond to that was a smile and the eventual nod.
Victoria couldn't help, but smile at her friend's success. "That's great to hear!"
"Should I assume you're here to challenge Julia too?" Alice asked, assuming it was that way as Victoria was standing around in front of the building.
Victoria nodded. "Yes, I was thinking about challenging Julia." Then her expression turned into a frown. "But I heard something awful before I got here."
Awful was not the word Alice expected. Alice didn't know something that could be described as 'awful' had happened in the time taken for Alice to battle and defeat Julia.
Alice had to ask. "Did something happen?"
Victoria slumped at that, knowing she will have to tell Alice sooner or later. "Yes. Appareantly something weird happened in Obsidia Ward."
Alice raised an eyebrow at that. The previous day, Florinia said she had something to take care of in Obsidia, Julia mentioned it was something to do with giant plant and now, Victoria said there's trouble happening in Obsidia. That's the third time this was mentioned.
What did some plants have to do with troubles? A trouble that expands to cover an entire city block no less?
"Alice?" Victoria coughed.
Shaking her head, Alice knew she was musing again. "Sorry."
"Well, like I was saying. Something weird is happening in Obsidia Ward. Everyone was saying that the plants are coming to life and are attacking people!" Victoria said in disbelief.
Alice blinked. Plants coming to life and attacking people is unheard of. Plants are alive, yes, but not enough that they could suddenly assault human beings.
That answers the question about Julia's statement regarding the 'giant plant thing'. But that doesn't answer why did it go and attack people all of the sudden. Without a doubt, Alice knows this is the action of some Pokemon. Humans can do it as well...provided they have some sort of technology to do it.
Alice could only nod at the absurd statement.
"As soon as I heard, I knew I had to go down there and see if I can help!" Victoria continued. "But...I was also about to challenge the gym, so I was stuck."
"We aren't supposed to go down there in the first place." Alice said simply, she knew where Victoria is going with this and was secretly hoping that Victoria can get the hint. At times, she knew it's better to avoid ttrouble.
"Well..."Victoria was uncertain of that, but ultimately relented. "...you're right about that."
Alice sighed in relief, now she knows that Victoria knows better.
Until she suddenly declared. "...but I can't just leave all those people be!"
Alice almost facefaulted at that, trying to maintain what remains of her composure.
"Sorry, Alice! I would stay and talk more, but I need to hurry!" Without much warning, Victoria turned on her heels and ran toward the left turning. "Bye, Alice!"
Alice was...dumbfounded to say the least. Victoria had left her behind, just like that. And that's not mentioning she is about to run headlong into trouble.
That's what brought Alice back to the real world. Victoria is going to put herself at risk and Alice can't have that on her conscience knowing she could have stopped her.
"Victoria!" Alice called out frantically toward the retreating figure as she rounded around the corner. "Victoria! Wait!"
As Alice turned the corner, she spotted Victoria is already running towards the Opal Ward direction, judging from the way she is near the coastline and immediately turned left toward the Grand Hall.
Sighing, she went after Victoria.
...or that's what Alice would have done, going after Victoria if she hadn't alraedy remembered something crucial that needs to be done right now.
"...Pokemon Center, right." She muttered mostly to herself.
Her Pokemon are injured and most of all, drained of all their bodily strength from the fight with Julia. They need immediate medical attention before she can continue on her journey somewhat unhindered from danger.
Rushing in headlong into danger going after Victoria with injured Pokemon won't help things either, she must heal them up first before she can focus on her.
With that in mind, she turned around toward the direction where the Pokemon Center was and made her way down the street.
She can only hope Victoria hadn't put herself into danger in the meantime. Or better yet, see reason.
Author Note :
Phew, writing a challenging gym leader is not easy, I tell you guys that. I hope this shows that Reborn League are definitely not for the faint of heart in-universe. Just a single one of these gym leaders are competitive-level hard. Requires the most dedication to beat.
Hope you guys enjoy, stay tuned for the next part!