The Coumarine City gym was huge, and that's with no exaggeration. A giant tree stood in front of me as I stood in awe at the grassy landscape of the entire building.

"Hmm," Abigail examined the tree, then noticed that it had a pathway swirling around it almost like the tree's very own stairs.

She raced up the stairs in a heartbeat while we followed. She was excited about this as far as I could tell, and that helped lift my spirits a little overall.

I liked this gym so far because of the landscape reminding me of the wild. Annabelle was the only one struggling to keep up, but she kept up anyway, trying her hardest not to trip on any roots or vines.

After climbing up the stairs, we arrived at the battlefield, which wasn't a joke in size, either.

"Wow..." Abigail looked around, then noticed an old man looking up at one of the smaller trees, almost as if studying it.

I wondered if that was the gym leader... but he seemed so... short and normal. He wasn't as intimidating as I thought he would be.

"Um, hey there," Abigail called out, the man turning around and walking over to us.

He wore an apricot colored scarf, a cucumber green shirt, black pants, green gloves and green shoes, as well as a hat that was a darker shade of green than his clothes were. He was also pale and had a really odd beard, one that I hadn't seen anyone else around the city have at all.

"Anether young whippersnapper, eh?" The man said, "My name's Ramos, and I'm the leader of this here gym."

Yikes.

"It's-it's an honor to meet you, sir, my name's Abigail, and I humbly challenge you to a gym battle." She said with confidence in her voice.

"A gym battle?... Oh, right, right, that's what all the young sprouts want, don't they?"

"I'm not a sprout, mister." She corrected.

"Well, show me what yer made of, then." Ramos said, walking over to the left side of the field and stepping into a small square. There were two on each side of the battlefield, as well as one big one and the marking of a Pokeball in the center.

"Come on guys." Abigail motioned over to the right side of the field where the other square was and turned around to face Ramos while we walked and stayed behind her.

"Hey Ramos, where's the ref?" Abigail shouted, smirking, "We can't battle without a referee."

"I'm well aware of that, but he's on break."

"On... break?" Abigail rested her face in her palm and sighed, shaking her head.

Suddenly, a young boy, presumably a late teenager by the looks of it, stepped out of a small blue structure to the side of the field.

"S-sorry I'm late, Ramos, I was on a stroll." He said, running over to the top side of the field and stopping at where the middle line was.

"Yer not late, actually," Ramos replied, "your break just ended."

I was surprised. He could tell time without a watch or a clock?... Maybe he counted the seconds in his head... but that would've been weird. Underestimating this guy could've been risky. I hoped that Abigail was aware of that, too... otherwise we were gonna be screwed.

"Okay, are both sides ready-" The referee stopped talking after seeing Abigail press a button on one of her Pokeballs.

Akira's Pokeball.

She got out and glared at Abigail, then realized where she was.

"Oh, she actually went through with the gym, huh..." She turned to Ramos, then to the referee, observing her surroundings.

"Akira, listen to me for a sec, okay?"

Akira turned her head to face her, looking pissed.

"I know I may have been mad at you, but I know you didn't mean to act this way intentionally..." Abigail's red eyes sparkled in the sunlight, "I would really love to have you battle right now... however I'll give you a choice to just watch, too, if you want to."

She looked down on the ground, then walked away from Abigail and leaned up against a tree, sighing.

"...Um, miss, are you ready?" The referee asked.

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot..." Abigail laughed nervously, "I'm ready."

"Just note that you can only use 3 Pokemon... just like Ramos, and well, you're allowed to substitute Pokemon but he isn't."

"I know the substitute thing already..." She yawned, "heard it a million times before... but three, huh..."

Abigail nodded, "Eliana, you'll go first, okay?"

Eli nodded and ran onto her side of the field, looking fired up for battle. Her spirit sure was something... far greater than mine, which, at the time, was excited, but also still a bit nervous and unsure of what was going to happen.

"I can tell that yer confident in your Pokemon's potential, young sprout... that's good." Ramos smiled.

"I told you to stop calling me that!" Abigail said, crossing her arms in a childish manner, then pointing at Ramos with her right hand, "Just because you said that twice, I'm gonna make sure I beat you, count on it!"

"Heh," Ramos chuckled, "that's the spirit."

"Now, let the battle begin!" The referee announced.

Ramos finally revealed one of his hands that had been closed from the beginning and behind his back and what was inside of it. Three shrunken Pokeballs were there, and he moved one of them to his other hand, enlargening it by touching the button once, then activating it by touching the button once again. I took in all the details of what he was doing, just to get a feel of what was going on.

Glancing at Annabelle for a moment, I could tell she was doing the exact same thing, even though she knew what Gym Battles were like already... I'm sure about that.

"Go, Jumpluff!" Ramos shouted, throwing the Pokeball in the air as the ray from the opened Pokeball hit the ground, sending Jumpluff out. He then caught the Pokeball as it landed from the air without even looking at it and put the hand with the Pokeballs behind his back again in one quick motion, which was just... wow.

I felt like cheering Eliana on, yet I felt as if it may have distracted her, so I chose not to. She was already pretty fired up anyway, so I figured she didn't need any more encouragement.

"I wonder if that's your best Pokemon," Abigail taunted him and laughed a bit, "if so, you're really done for, Ramos."

"Oh, you'll see." Ramos smirked slightly.

"Hmm," Abigail took a quick look at the Jumpluff, then at Eliana.

"Alright Eli, use Spark and charge at the Jumpluff directly!"

Eliana's fur raised, and she became covered with blue sparks of electricity, then started running swiftly towards the Jumpluff like a speeding dart.

"...I didn't know she had that much power-" I said to myself, but then watched carefully at what Ramos was going to do.

"Fly up and use Grass Knot!"

The Jumpluff flew into the air, almost as if gliding on it. It's eyes glowed green, and a huge knot came out of the ground, tripping Eliana in the process.

She fell badly, her weight not doing her any good as it made the fall look even more painful to watch.

"O-ow..." She got up weakly, leaving a small hole in the ground and growled at the Jumpluff, who had a grin on his face.

"Now, Leech Seed, quick!"

The Jumpluff fired seeds from it's mouth at a fast rate, and as soon as they hit the ground, they grew into vines that latched onto Eliana, raising her up from the ground and binding her in it.

"Take that, ya loser!" The Jumpluff smirked more as Eliana growled louder.

Leech Seed was a move that drained the target's energy, that I was well aware of, but Eliana didn't seem to be that affected by it. Abigail noticed this and smiled.

"Destroy the vines with Bite and follow up with a Thunderbolt!"

Eliana grabbed the vines with her teeth and ripped it to shreds, then charged herself up with more electric energy, firing it at the Jumpluff shortly after.

"Jumpluff, dodge it!"

The Jumpluff avoided it at first, but Eliana moved with the Jumpluff and eventually landed the Thunderbolt successfully, the Jumpluff shrieking in pain as it was electrocuted, then fell to the ground, fainted.

"And that's for calling me a loser." Eliana grinned, panting a little. The Grass Knot must've done a lot of damage to her for her to be like this, but at least she had gotten one of them down.

"Good job, Eli, keep at it!" Abigail cheered her on.

Akira scoffed loud enough for me to hear her, then rolled her eyes.

"Return." The Jumpluff was sent back to the Pokeball.

"It's a good thing Eliana learned that move when she was young," Annabelle commented, "otherwise, she wouldn't have been able to pull that off."

"She did?" I asked.

"Well, that's what she told me, anyway. Abigail's mother helped her learn it, behind a past trainer herself.

"...I see." I replied quietly, curious as to what Pokemon would be next.

"Yer really are something to take down Jumpluff in one hit," Ramos said, "but let's see how you handle my Weepinbell!"

He threw a Pokeball in the air again, releasing the Weepinbell.

"Hmph, bring it, ugly." Eliana told the Weepinbell, who seemed a bit intimidated at the size of her, but looked ready to fight.

"Weepinbell, use Grass Knot!"

"Eliana, dodge it!"

Eliana tried to move in time, but she managed to get caught again after the Weepinbell's eyes glowed light green, the vines holding her down instead of tripping her like last time. She struggled to get out, but didn't have enough strength to rip them in time. Plus, it wasn't like the last time with the Leech Seed. There were four knots for each of her legs that sprouted out of the ground, and they seemed to be getting tighter and tighter by the second.

"Now jump up and use Poison Powder!"

"Shit, shit, shit," Eliana tried harder to break the Grass Knot, but it still held her down tightly, not letting go one bit.

The powder came out of it's mouth in a purplish color like a cannon, covering Eliana in it before she could do anything about it.

Eliana coughed, inhaling the poison and still struggling to get out.

"Stay in the air and aim for her eyes with Acid!"

"Eli, try to get out of there now-" Abigail stopped talking as she noticed it was too late.

The acid went directly in her eyes and made her scream in pain, while the Grass Knot grew and began making it's way up her neck, choking her.

"Finish her off with another Grass Knot!"

This time, it was far more powerful than the Jumpluff's own, wrapping around her chest and raising her into the air, the previous knots snapping as the bigger knot slammed her onto the middle of the battlefield, resulting in a thick cloud of dust being lifted into the air, making things hard to see.

I waited there for the dust to settle, and once it did, it was clear that Eliana had fainted... leaving a hole in the center of the field where the impact was. The Weepinbell had already landed back down on the ground. I didn't see what happened, but it probably used its leaves to land safely, given that the height it jumped from was very high.

"Eliana..." Abigail whispered, then seemed to get angry, returning her into her Pokeball, then putting it back in one of the pockets of her dress.

Annabelle stepped up and walked onto the field, nodding at Abigail. Abigail nodded back.

Annabelle formed a purple orb then fired a Psyshock at the Weepinbell without Abigail saying a word, taking Ramos by surprise as the three purple beams flew at a fast rate towards the Weepinbell.

"Block it then attack with Grass Knot!"

The Weepinbell's eyes glowed again and the Grass Knot came out of the ground, just in time to absorb the damage from the Psyshock. The knot was severely damaged afterwards however, and fell down as the rest of it went back into the ground.

Confused, I wondered if Abigail was just letting Annabelle do her own thing, but then I remembered. Telepathy. No wonder Abigail won so many gym battles...

Other than her battling skill, this was a sure-fire strategy of winning. Now Ramos couldn't predict what to do so well because there wouldn't be any commands from her, and he may not be able to react in time like he did before, at least not all the time, no matter how skilled he was.

Annabelle began running around her side of the field with the orb floating around the space in front of her paw, sending more beams straight towards the Weepinbell in all directions.

"Block them all with Grass Knot!"

"Uhh..." The Weepinbell summoned another Grass Knot, this one the biggest of them all as it swayed around, blocking all of the attacks that came its way.

Annabelle jumped to the middle of her side of the field and made the orb disappear with one paw, then moves her other paw and aims it straight at the Weepinbell, firing a multicolored ray of energy at him, causing him to panic even more.

"Block it!"

The Weepinbell tried to summon another Grass Knot as the other one was all holed up, but the Psybeam cut right through the existing knot before his eyes could even glow green again, and exploded.

More dust covered the field after that, but I didn't need to know what happened this time. The Weepinbell fainted in one shot, just as I predicted.

Ramos had a serious look on his face now and returned Weepinbell back to its Pokeball. I wondered if he knew what Abigail and Annabelle were doing, but even if he did somehow, he had to counter it... and countering a strategy like that was something I thought would be near-impossible.

"Now for your signature Pokemon..." Abigail said to herself calmly.

The telepathy must've required both of them to be quiet and clear their heads, because Abigail was so focused that I could actually see it on her face. She was concentrating hard on the battle.

I was curious to see his signature Pokemon too, and wasn't shocked that it was last. I didn't need to wait, though, because Ramos threw another Pokeball up in the air like it was nothing, and sent out his next Pokemon.

A Gogoat.