Disclaimer: Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.
Chapter 14: Ingrained Versatility
Serena stepped off the ferry, grateful to have solid ground under her feet again. The storms had passed without further incidents – and the inkay Max had found had been sent to Hoenn once power had been restored – but the seas were still rough, and the hour on the boat had been a long hour. Everyone on board had been glad to get off, as far as Serena had been able to tell, and some of them were islanders who should be used to it.
Coumarine City looked amazing, though. It was a weird city, built on two levels. The lower section was home to shops, cafés, stuff to do with the sea, and all those things. The higher section, towering over the rest of the city, was home to the largest Pokémon Center – even if Serena could see a small one just off the docks – and both the theatre that'd have her Showcase and the Pokémon Gym. A monorail connected them, and all of them had been interested in riding it. They had time for it, too: the Coumarine Showcase was in eight days, leaving them with plenty of time to see the sights.
She barely heard Danny's Holo Caster go off in the sounds of people moving around, but he apparently had noticed, and he stepped to the side to listen to whoever was calling him. It seemed to make him happy, too, if the sudden wide smile was any indication. "Hey, Max!" he said as he joined the waiting duo. "Guess who are coming to Coumarine?"
"Jane and Keith?" Max said as they started walking, and the names sounded familiar to Serena. She remembered a moment later: they were old classmates of the boys, and had sent birthday presents over. "They're the only ones that make sense, Danny."
She had missed something again, but the disappointed look on Danny's face was amusing anyway. While it lasted. "They'll be here in a few days. They're about halfway between here and Laverre. I got the name of the Center they're in right now. And guess what. They already have four badges. Both of 'em."
Max whistled in appreciation, and Serena wondered how he did that. She could only do it on her fingers. "That's pretty quick. Laverre wasn't a problem, I guess."
"Keith has that golbat, remember?" Danny commented as they left the dock area. "Toxic is nasty for Fairy-types."
"Mawile, klefki," was Max's reply, and Serena realised he'd named Pokémon with Steel and Fairy types, who'd be immune to Toxic. "Can't imagine the Gym Leader not preparing for stuff like that. It's an obvious weakness." He shrugged as they waited for a gogoat-pulled cart to pass. "We'll just ask. It'll be good to see them again."
"What about you, Serena?" Danny suddenly asked. "Do you want to see your friends from school again? Sara and… Louise, I think? You mentioned them."
"They should be in Lumiose next month..." Serena mused. "Sara's qualified for the Lumiose Conference, and that starts on the first Saturday, so that's..." She ran through the weeks. "The fourth. We might be there for that?"
Before either of them could reply, a bunch of children ran past, laughing and cajoling. Most of them dodged the teenagers, but one bumped into Danny, who managed to stay standing and catch the boy who had crashed into him. "Hey, watch it! What're you running that fast for?"
"Sorry!" the boy apologised, stepping back and looking around Danny, but the teen held out an arm, indicating that he wanted answers. "The new Kalos Queen is coming here. There's a parade and everything!" He tried to dart around Danny again, wanting to run after his friends.
Danny let him go, but Serena's brain had switched on. The new Kalos Queen? Here? In Coumarine? She hadn't even known Aria was from Coumarine. "We're going there," she commanded, and the boys fell in line and started walking as well. "Did one of you know Aria was from Coumarine?"
A glance over her shoulder revealed a nay-shaking Max, but a thinking Danny. "Think I heard something about it, but not sure. Maybe I heard it, but it didn't stick?" He shrugged before quickly pushing Serena right to make sure she didn't walk onto the street. "Wasn't she the one with the delphox?"
Serena ignored the blush on her face to answer, even as Danny came up to walk beside her. "Delphox, vivilion, aromatisse," she remembered effortlessly. "It was amazing how they worked together! It was flawless and so easy!"
"It looked easy," Max corrected from behind them. "But I bet there were hours on hours of practice just for that. It's the only way you can get that level of synchronisation. May was putting in at least two hours a day for the Grand Festival appeals, and that was while we were travelling around."
Serena had to ask. "And when you were in one place?"
"At least five. Maybe more. I didn't watch all of it all the time. I still had stuff like homework to do."
"As if that took time!" Danny retorted, and as the boys started bickering about who had it worse for school homework of all things, Serena's mind went back to what Max had said. Five hours a day sounded like a lot, and Coordinators only used Pokémon. They didn't have to memorise dance movements or make-up combinations or anything.
Honestly, she had no idea how May had spent so much time practising. Perhaps she should ask Max to ask his sister...
~~§~~§~~
The day after they had arrived in Coumarine, Serena and Danny were sitting on their beds, zorua to Serena's right, and swablu sitting pretty on her head. She had just told Danny of her plan for a Freestyle Performance involving zorua and swablu.
"It's inspired by that kirlia, right?" Danny guessed correctly, and Serena nodded. "That explains why you want my help. Or whismur's," he added, sending the small pink Pokémon out. She immediately jumped onto the bed next to Danny, and he started stroking her ears. "But didn't the kirlia use its Psychic powers to get the effect?"
Serena had actually thought about that as well. "Yeah, but it was different. This is still a lot like the sleep Sing. It's just less..."
"Potent?" Danny finished for her when she couldn't find the word. She nodded, relieved that he understood. "Good one. You're not going to be able to use it here in Coumarine, though."
She knew that, but she had a Performance with braixen and swablu in mind anyway. "I know. It's for another Showcase. But that doesn't mean I shouldn't start practising now. It takes a lot of work to make it look easy."
Danny chuckled and Serena giggled when both of them looked at Max's pack in the corner of the room. "Well, no time like the present," Danny said, reaching into his pack and taking out a set of earplugs. "Here, catch."
As zorua moved over to Max's bed, Serena gave them a close look. "Do I need to put them in? I need to figure out if it's doing what I want, right?"
"That's for later. First thing is to get zorua to stay awake. Then you," Danny replied as he put his set in. "Ready when you are."
Serena stuffed the yellow cylinders into her ears, having to move her hair out of the way twice before it stopped being caught. The silence, broken by a calm beat, was weird to hear, but the earplugs did sound like they worked. "Go, swablu."
Swablu heard her, and the Pokémon jumped onto the bed to her left, starting to Sing a melody that Serena vaguely heard. It was very far-off, instead of right next to her, but it was pretty soothing. She focused on the melody, trying to gauge its rhythm as zorua yawned, curling up even as he tried to resist the attack. She couldn't blame him for getting comfortable. It was pretty… tiring…
Serena felt herself fall forwards, and her head met the floor. The hard, wooden floor.
Pain shot through a spot above her left eye, instantly waking her up. "Gah!" she yelled, pressing a hand to the affected spot, her eyes closed.
She felt Danny's footsteps, and then his arms as he pulled her up, guiding her back to a bed – hers she thought. He pried at her right ear, removing the plug. "Guess those don't work," he said, stepping back from the sound of it. He opened a pack. "You okay?"
"Not really," Serena choked out. She opened her eyes a sliver, and was surprised when she didn't feel moisture in them. Not a lot, anyway. "That hurts!"
Danny sent froslass out, telling her to quickly freeze something. Probably the gel pack. "Can I have a look?" he asked. "I'll be careful."
Serena parted her hands, and Danny pressed gentle fingers around the place she had hit her head. "And?"
"Didn't even break skin. Might hurt for a few days. Can you look at me for a sec?" She obeyed, studying Danny's face. His eyes were worried, but somehow also relieved. "Eyes look normal. Probably just the bump." He walked back, reaching into his pack and taking out a dishcloth before taking the gel pack from froslass's waiting arms. "Five minutes with this ought to do it."
The cold on her head felt amazing, even through the pain. "Thanks doctor Danny."
"I don't think these were made for blocking Sing. Just insistent noise," Danny said as he held one of the plugs between his left thumb and index finger. It reminded Serena that her left ear still had one in it, and she took the plug out. "And they might not be your size. But still, I could feel the Sing working. Like you wanted it to, actually," he said with a half-smile-half-grimace. "Don't think handing these out to the entire audience is a good idea, though."
Serena giggled softly, not feeling up for more despite how funny it was. "Any ideas for practice?"
She had expected him to come up with an answer, but not instantly. "Two. One: buy other earplugs," he started, returning froslass as whismur prodded zorua into being awake. "Two: shove all the beds together."
"Why's that?" Serena asked.
"So we can fall forward and not hit our heads."
Max looked very confused to see her laughing while clutching an ice pack to her head when he entered a minute later, and that served to set her off once more. Once she stopped laughing, out of breath and feeling far better than she had all day, she noticed that her head was throbbing far less.
Perhaps laughter really was the best medicine.
~~§~~§~~
The Coumarine Gym was something else, Danny felt. Sure, he'd seen the pictures of it, but before they had come to Coumarine, he never would have believed the tree to be this big. The base was the size of an entire street block, and the upper surface – which you had to climb up to using a path on the outside of the tree – was still as big as several houses, and it was over two hundred feet up, and not even close to the top of the vegetation. The tree towered over the city in much the same way as Prism Tower did to Lumiose. Both were amazing to see.
Then the Gym Leader, a gentle old man called Ramos, had set them to gardening before the battle. Gardening! Danny was a lot like his father – he got comparisons to him about twice a month on average from Max or his uncle – but the one thing he had not inherited at all was a green thumb.
That wasn't something he could really say in the presence of the old Gym Leader, though, and he trudged through it in silence before waiting for Max's battle. Danny had offered to stay inside for that, but Ramos had eagerly told him to come watch. "It's your merits that'll see you through a battle," the Gym Leader had said in that almost melodic cadence. "I don't mind people watchin'. I'd rather give 'em another chance to bloom."
On the field, Ramos had been a wily and canny Trainer, using the field and vines above it to constantly try and trip Max up. It hadn't worked, to no surprise at all from either Danny or Serena. Max was used to people throwing him curve balls, and Danny had seen his best friend thoroughly enjoy the battle, as well as the banter afterwards about the final battle of bellossom and vulpix.
Bellossom in heavy sunlight were crazy fast, and Max half-heartedly complained about being on the receiving end of an 'Ash strategy' once Danny joined them down in the arena.
The harsh sunlight had abated, though regular old sunlight still filtered through the trees above. It was surprisingly warm up here, but that was good. It reminded Danny of Hoenn and many, many battles outside, including their Gym Battle for the Meadow Badge.
After what he had just seen, Danny wondered if weather was going to be a factor in his match as well.
The first round would be skorupi going up against a breloom. That wasn't really what Danny had wanted to see. Some breloom healed off of poison, and he'd bet a good part of his allowance that this one did. It made too much sense not to be the case. "Nothing that poisons," he told skorupi. "Start with a Pin Missile."
The Mach Punch wasn't a surprise, but the speed looked manageable, and skorupi avoided it as easily as breloom had avoided the Pin Missile. He jabbed with his stinger, just to annoy the breloom, but missed the tail narrowly. He skittered away, quickly digging into the loose soil to avoid a second Mach Punch and popping up a moment later in the same spot.
This was going to take a while, Danny realised. He wasn't completely sure on what the breloom knew, but skorupi was pretty sturdy, able to withstand simple punches easily, and anything Grass-typed would just… Do nothing. The Bug-type's height helped as well: breloom would have to reach down to hit Danny's Pokémon with punches, though kicks were an issue. One thing was clear, though: whichever Pokémon won this would win by attrition, and would probably be easy pickings for a later Pokémon.
That was something Danny could get behind. Even without Poison Sting or Poison Fang, this was how he liked to battle. "Let it come to you. Be ready to counter."
Breloom obliged, launching a few attacks with its limbs – left arm, left again, right, a foot sweep – that were all avoided by the scorpion. He landed the first real hit of the match in return, stinging the breloom in its hip with a quick jab of the stinger, paying for it as a kick sent him flying a moment later.
The landing was perfect, and skorupi went into a Pin Missile immediately, catching the breloom by surprise and showering it with the attack for a good few seconds before shards of rock tore themselves from the ground to intercept the attack.
Danny groaned. He had not wanted to see Stone Edge. "Dig!"
Skorupi vanished from sight, causing breloom to start moving around the arena in no real pattern Danny could see. He hadn't practised Dig for nothing, though, and when skorupi erupted from the ground, he managed to fling the breloom into the air.
The Seed Bomb formed immediately, barraging skorupi while he was airborne. Three small balls hit, but Danny's Pokémon immediately dug back underground to avoid the Stone Edge that had been breloom's follow up.
The Mushroom Pokémon avoided this attack by jumping at just the right time, landing on top of the skorupi with all its weight. Danny's Pokémon let out a cry of pain, but also latched on to breloom's tail with his stinger. He hung on as Ramos's Pokémon tried to throw him off, eventually letting go and letting the breloom hit itself with a Stone Edge.
After that, breloom proceeded a lot more cautiously, leading to a cagey fight. Skorupi dug underground to try and grab the tail again: Danny had noticed that it was being shielded from anything the small Pokémon did, and Max's Gym Battle in Shalour was still in Danny's mind. Unfortunately, breloom wasn't opening its guard. Pin Missiles were also used multiple times, some of them hitting, some of them being blocked.
The counters were mainly Seed Bombs and Stone Edges, along with punching and kicking whenever skorupi was in close. Ramos had stopped using Mach Punch, and a Headbutt had ended up with skorupi jumping over the charging mushroom and biting down on the tail. Overall, Skorupi was doing better, but Danny was worried. He had no way to finish the fight without poison ticking away, and a good Stone Edge would bury skorupi's chances of winning.
He decided to switch out. Maybe he could use skorupi's poison later on. He didn't want to show froslass just yet, which meant he had to pick his third Pokémon right now. It was going to be either dusclops or spritzee…
A small flying Fairy-type was sent out, tittering happily as she came out.
The breloom immediately launched a Seed Bomb; five projectiles trying to hit, but Danny had seen it coming. He ordered spritzee to go up and forward, which avoided the bottom trio, and the two remaining balls splashed on an advancing Protect as the Perfume Pokémon flew towards the part Fighting-type.
The Fairy Wind was unleashed pretty much in its face, at the exact moment it reared back its head to deliver a powerful Headbutt. The result was breloom falling on its own butt, and from there, spritzee knew what to do.
In short succession, she Sweet Kissed the dazed Pokémon on the nose while emitting a gentle aroma that was great for having an afternoon nap. Breloom didn't fall asleep, but it struggled to get up, nearly tripping over its feet as another Fairy Wind came blasting in, catching its tail.
The Grass-type moved a lot less sluggish after that, but it was still confused. Ramos tried to work around that with his Seed Bomb, ordering breloom to send them in all directions, but the seeds were weak, and spritzee had an easy time dodging them anyway thanks to being able to move in three dimensions.
A third Fairy Wind gave Danny the lead in the match.
Ramos wasted no time in sending out his next Pokémon, and Danny wasted no time either in switching spritzee out as hail started falling around the arena, thanks to abomasnow entering the field.
He glanced over at Max, who was standing in the same spot Danny himself had been standing earlier, and gave a nonchalant shrug. If Ramos was giving him this opening, Danny was going to take it. Besides, spritzee getting in close to abomasnow was a bad idea. She technically wasn't a Flying-type, but ice would bring her down to the ground as surely as it would masquerain.
By the time the battle proper started, the hail had reduced visibility on the field by a bit, and froslass was definitely in her element, sending an Icy Wind at the Frost Tree Pokémon. It probably wasn't going to do much, but if froslass wanted to start with it, Danny would let her.
A Shadow Ball pierced the hail in return. Froslass threw a quick Protect out, quickly flying up as well and keeping the Protect in place to bait out a follow-up attack. It worked; an Energy Ball slicing through the shards of the dissolving Protect literal milliseconds after it fell. "You know what to do."
Froslass flew down, crossing in front of the abomasnow in an effort to draw another attack out, and Ramos's Pokémon took the bait, leading a rapid Razor Leaf into froslass's path. One spade hit froslass, but she ignored it, abruptly shifting direction to fly up high.
The few steps Ramos's Pokémon took in order to be able to actually see froslass cost it, as a Confuse Ray blasted it straight in the face.
Again, a Grass-type started firing an attack indiscriminately – Razor Leaf this time – but again, Danny's Pokémon being able to move up made that fairly useless. Ramos ordered it to stop, and Danny thought he saw the abomasnow punch itself to shake the confusion off, but it didn't matter.
Froslass had been busy up in the air. Dropping the temperature to even lower than it already was, she had been whipping the hail abomasnow had kindly summoned into a fierce Blizzard. Any Pokémon except maybe stuff like articuno would be hurt by that, and abomasnow was no exception, grunting as it weathered the storm. "Nice work. Time to switch it up now."
Froslass dropped at least fifteen feet, as if she had suddenly decided to let gravity affect her, dodging an Energy Ball in the process before letting two Shadow Balls meet, creating an icy explosion, obscuring the view of the green and white Pokémon on the other end of the arena.
Then froslass drooped, gently settling on the ground as some weird lethargy took hold of her. "Get up!" Danny yelled, but as he did that, he heard a vague melody, followed by abomasnow coming into view, a blade of grass glowing green near its mouth as something purple charged in its other hand down by its side. "Froslass!"
The Ice-type visibly struggled to stay awake, trying multiple times to lift itself up into the air to no effect. The abomasnow kept it neutralised long enough to land the powerful Shadow Ball, sending froslass flying back with a powerful explosion, slamming her against the ground near Danny.
Her levitation was shaky, but froslass did manage to rise from her position, quickly Protecting a second powerful Shadow Ball. In the distance, Danny saw abomasnow go for the Grasswhistle again. "Stop it."
Danny saw froslass let out a cry as she launched her own Shadow Ball at her opponent, forcing it to defend with muscular arms crossed. The hail intensified, courtesy of froslass once again, and Danny had only a moment before he lost sight of both Pokémon in the whiteout conditions in front of him.
He turned to Max and Serena, giving them an apologetic shrug, but Max replied with a fierce nod towards the field, and Danny heeded his friend's advice, only to see an Energy Ball impact the ground right in front of him. Other flashes – green from Energy Ball, purple from Shadow Ball, and yellowish white from the two colliding – shone through the blizzard in front of him.
Not being able to see what was going on was annoying, but he trusted froslass. Between her agility and the limited visibility, abomasnow probably didn't stand a chance at hitting her..
Vision became better all the time, though, as the momentary intense snowfall lightened, and soon Danny gained sight of froslass darting to and fro around the halfway point, rapidly shooting Shadow Ball after Shadow Ball. They didn't look powerful, but they were fast, delivered from all directions as the Snow Land Pokémon sent some of them away with a distinct curve to further obscure where she was, even as she moved back towards Danny.
He didn't dare tell her which way to move in order to not give away her position, but as the hail diminished further, he did order one move. "Blizzard, while it's expecting you."
Two Energy Balls flew forward – missing froslass by a mile – as the Ice-type fell back, staying to Danny's left, low to the ground. By the time the abomasnow became visible as it charged in with a green-glowing arm, it was too late for it to stop her.
The tree toppled over in the middle of the field, succumbing to the barrage of attacks.
Froslass wasn't much better: her levitation was hesitant and Danny guessed her breathing was laboured, but it was okay. That one Shadow Ball had done a lot of damage, making great use of Ghost-type energy being disruptive to Ghost-types themselves, and the fact that froslass had been defenceless against it hadn't helped. A few scrapes that Danny hadn't noticed before, mainly on the back of froslass's kimono, suggested that she had been hit at least once or twice while sending out her barrages earlier, but she had won, and anything else she could do would be great.
Ramos's third Pokémon made Danny groan. It made sense, he couldn't deny that, but seeing the ferrothorn drop onto the field was a dent in his chances. Again, skorupi's poison would be useless, and Fairy Wind wouldn't do much either.
Nothing for it, though. It was the risk he had taken by switching spritzee in.
The hail was still going, slowly petering out as abomasnow was no longer present to keep it up, and with how tired froslass looked, Danny didn't order her to reapply it. That didn't mean he couldn't make use of it. "Bliz.. No, Icy Wind to start," he corrected himself.
Blizzard would be too obvious to lead with.
The cold wind blew the Pin Missiles off-course, letting them splash harmlessly on the ground. Ferrothorn took the wind without looking too affected, though, and it glowed green for a second.
It took Danny a moment to realise what had happened. He wasn't completely sure, but he thought he saw thin roots reach out from ferrothorn's belly to the ground, and a gentle pulse of green in that space confirmed it.
Ingrain.
First something that hit hard, then the hail, and now something incredibly defensive? What was it with Grass-types being so versatile?
He shook his head. Now was not the time to think type philosophy. Now was the time to get that ferrothorn. "Try to get a Blizzard in now," he told froslass, who'd been prodding away at the defences with weak Shadow Balls while Danny had been thinking.
Froslass flew up high, gathering all the remaining hail, consolidating the cold into one big Blizzard despite the repeated Pin Missiles hitting her. Danny could see every hit hurt her, but she endured despite it all, and the Ice-type attack was launched.
As much as the Steel insulated ferrothorn, frost still appeared all over, rooting one of its three disk-like feet to the ground. Ramos's Pokémon took a moment to break the appendage loose, and copped a Shadow Ball that clanged the frozen foot and the freeing foot together. "Nice one! Confuse Ray!"
Froslass went into a dive, dipping low to deliver the Confuse Ray in a fly-over like she preferred to do, but too late, Danny realised she had already done that tactic once.
Ramos was prepared, ordering ferrothorn to stop the froslass, and the limb that had been frozen to the ground moments earlier lit up bright pink, violently slashing upwards through the air, encircling froslass and forcing her to the ground with a mighty crash as its spiked foot also slammed into the Ice-type's side.
And then the ferrothorn unleashed a Pin Missile into nowhere, but froslass had been knocked out already. It seemed the Confuse Ray had worked, at least.
Danny threw skorupi's ball onto the field as far as he dared, delivering him onto Ramos's half. "Get those roots!"
Skorupi skittered off, jumping over a flailing leg with impunity and quickly reaching the ferrothorn's belly. He turned on its feet, tail lit up with the black-violet of Knock-Off, and swept it down low. Danny couldn't see if all the roots had been severed, but most of them would be.
The problem with this strategy was that ferrothorn was right there, but a quick and powerful Protect blocked the Pin Missile that couldn't possibly miss, even causing Ramos's Pokémon to have to rebalance itself as the energy shattered right in its face while skorupi dug his way out.
Danny had not expected the Bulldoze. The arena floor turned into the sea of a week back, waves of earth soon sending skorupi up into the sky. Luckily, the confusion meant that an attempt at slamming a limb into Danny's Pokémon didn't work. He landed on his side, but got up. It was a little hesitant, but that was understandable. "Pin Miss–watch out!"
Ramos had ordered ferrothorn to start wrecking the arena, sending Bulldoze after Bulldoze skorupi's way. The small Pokémon had to skitter away to dodge a heap of loose rocks created earlier, and was unable to attack as he ran over the rising and descending slabs of earth, trying to work with the tide instead of against it.
It wasn't enough. His running accidentally brought him too close to ferrothorn, who had taken a few steps forward, and a steel foot slammed into skorupi, sending him flying straight into the shields, from where he almost slid down to the ground straight in front of the referee.
At least the Ingrain had been removed. "Thanks skorupi," he thanked his sixth Pokémon. The skorupi may not have won either of the matches he was in, but not every battle was about winning. Sometimes, it just made more sense to retreat.
Spritzee came out again. "Now to finish it," Danny muttered. "Fly high and keep it busy!" he added as his Pokémon flew out to meet her opponent. "Start with Echoed Voice!"
Much like the start of froslass's battle with ferrothorn, the attack threw the Pin Missiles off target, but they also cancelled out the Echoed Voice to the point of uselessness. It washed over the Thorn Pod Pokémon harmlessly, but that was okay. "Second one!"
It took a little longer to produce, but a more solid-looking circle of sound-based energy flew down. Pin Missiles came within a few feet of hitting spritzee, but they didn't, and they were utterly swept aside by the Echoed Voice. Danny made a note to remember it: a third attack would take too much time for spritzee to generate, allowing ferrothorn to counter. "Hold the resonance. Fairy Wind and move."
It wasn't meant to hurt. It was meant to keep ferrothorn from putting the Ingrain down, and it worked as spritzee flew around the arena erratically. She didn't let Ramos find a pattern in her flight, which was good, because her opponent had grabbed quicker Pokémon than her out of the air. That didn't stop it from making an attempt, but it was an atrocious miss.
Ferrothorn was actually moving to the centre of the field to minimise its distance to spritzee at all times, allowing it to reduce the chance of being hit by a third Echoed Voice. The fact that spritzee could fly behind it faster than it could turn was irrelevant: Ramos could easily tell it where to aim Pin Missiles, which were launched from the iron barbs, and not from the mouth like a Seed Bomb would be. Danny needed to find a way to let spritzee build up a third and fourth Echoed Voice. Sadly, Sweet Kiss required contact, and that was probably impossible.
Or was it? It was worth a shot at least. "Attract!" Pink hearts shot out from spritzee, impacting directly on the Grass-type's body while Danny watched closely, hoping to see effects appear.
They did, and Danny saw Ramos shout for ferrothorn to snap out of it. "Echoed Voice!"
It took a bit longer than he had hoped, but ferrothorn was still trying to snap out of the effect of the Attract. Echoed Voice hit from above, forcing the main part of his body lower, but not quite to the ground. Still good. "Now Sweet Kiss!"
Just as the Attract appeared to have worn off – if the limb lashing out with pink energy was any indication – the Sweet Kiss hit home. Spritzee flew up, and as Danny yelled for her to finish it, Ramos returned ferrothorn.
Why, he didn't know, but a win was a win. Spritzee flew down and Danny caught her in his arms, the fluffy bird chirping happily and emitting a sweet and calming scent as he pet her. He felt his heartbeat slow down as he did. "That was good. Great that you could hold that Echoed Voice for so long!"
"I wasn't expecting a strategy like that when we started, but that was good, Danny Birch," Ramos said as he walked up, hands folded behind his back. "It's not always strength that decides a battle. Disrupting your opponent is a great way to do it, too."
"Why did you return ferrothorn?" Serena asked the question that had been on Danny's mind. He hadn't noticed her arriving, but there they were. Spritzee flew off, allowing Danny to exchange a high five with Max and a short hug with Serena. "It looked healthy."
"Ferrothorn always do," Ramos replied, "but there's one sign that things are goin' bad for 'em, and that's when they start to buckle. Between tha' and Sweet Kiss and the Echoed Voice, I knew I was beat. Now, I know you want your badges, but these battles have made an old man thirsty. Would you like some tea?"
Their time in the Gym ended as it began: doing something completely unrelated to Pokémon battling, but with four Badges in hand, Danny couldn't find it in him to care.
~~§~~§~~
"That's gotta hurt," Keith exclaimed, wincing as Jane's combusken was almost flattened by the Alolan exeggutor using some weird move involving its head. Unsurprisingly, since the Fire-type had already knocked out a weepinbell, it was out for the count, leaving Jane and Ramos both with one Pokémon left. Swellow and tangela had tied earlier. "C'mon Jane. Do it."
"Any idea what she's sending out?" Danny wondered. "I mean, houndour's not going to do much. That thing is actually part Dragon-type." And how that worked, Danny really had no clue about. It was worse than the whole dustox not being Flying-type thing.
He noticed a smirk on his black-haired companion's face. "Oh, you'll see."
Danny sent a glare Keith's way when Jane sent a sneasel out. "I thought you hadn't found one in Frost Cavern?"
"We didn't," Keith admitted. "But this one we found just outside of Laverre. Took a bit for her to win its trust, but Jane won out in the end." He sighed, and Danny caught a wistful look. "Just as she'll win now. Watch."
As sneasel started the last battle by forming a ball of ice before shattering it into tiny shards that flew towards the long-necked Grass-type, Danny tried to make sense of what he had just seen. There was something he couldn't quite put his finger on going on with Keith. Even compared to last week, he seemed happier, more at ease, and it wasn't just the badge he had won.
He put it out of mind as the battle heated up, but the type advantage Jane had ended up being decisive. Sneasel was too fast to get hit by anything heavy-hitting, and the exeggutor's vulnerability to Ice ended up being a huge problem.
Sneasel ran circles around Ramos's Pokémon, getting hit maybe twice before using the vines above to sling itself onto the Grass-type's body, climbing up the long neck before delivering an Ice Punch to the cheek for the finishing blow. Normally, exeggutor were able to throw Pokémon off with their Psychic powers, but sneasel was immune, of course. It was a great counter, and sneasel looked very fresh after jumping off with a somersault.
The four onlookers climbed down from their perches, Danny and Keith reaching Jane a bit earlier because Max had probably helped Serena down, and the two travel companions hugged briefly.
And then Keith planted a quick kiss on Jane's cheek.
Oh. Oh. That explained it.
Red appeared on Jane's face, standing out against her light skin and black hair, but she didn't protest, and the smile as they joined hands was positively big for her.
Max and Serena looked completely unsurprised by the public display of affection, both congratulating Jane on her victory as Ramos waited a few steps away. In fact, they looked way too comfortable with it. "You knew?"
"We told Max and Serena last night," Jane spoke up, louder than Danny was used to from her. "You weren't there. They didn't tell you?"
Danny had been away at a small open-air festival for local bands in the harbour, and had missed Keith and Jane arriving in the Pokémon Center while he was listening and rocking to the music. He'd had fun, even if he only went to bed at half past midnight. "That's my fault," Max said, drawing everyone's attention. "I forgot this morning. My bad."
But his eyes met Danny's, and somehow, Danny knew Max hadn't forgotten. It had been deliberate, done to give him a surprise. He gave a nod, conceding for now, but kept silent, and Ramos stepped in to congratulate them. "Ah, you youngsters. It warms an old man's heart to see it." Ramos held out his right hand, two leaf-shaped Plant Badges lying atop the gardener's glove. "Petalburg must be a good place to learn if you're all here with the skill I saw. Keep goin', and train diligently, and you'll do just fine in whatever you want to do."
~~§~~§~~§~~§~~
Name: Ramos Information:
Age: 72
Type: Grass
Location: Coumarine City
Signature Pokémon: gogoat, victreebel
Typical format: 3v3
From: Poképedia's Kalos Gym Leader Profiles
Author's Note: A bit of Showcase practice, a lot of battling, and meeting up with old friends. Standard chapter, really.