Pokémon Scarlet

Chapter 25: Third Time's the Charm

(Victoria Larson)

Victoria quickly decided that incurable insanity was one of the job requirements for Gym designers. The Saffron Gym sported large, swooping metal arcs that she strongly suspected were gold, or at least gold-plated. The base of each plate came to a precarious little point, and the architectural enigma hurt her brain. "How does this whole place not fall down?" Beth muttered near her ear, once again demonstrating her sibling superpower of reading Victoria's mind.

"Beats me," Victoria said, but Jason had adopted an airy, tour guide tone and was reading off his Dex, which was held aloft and pointed at the Gym.

"The Saffron City Gym is one of the city's most exquisite architectural feats, a true testament to… blah blah blah," he abridged, scrolling. "Ah, here. The delicate design was made to encompass the poise, focus, and balance needed to master Psychic Pokémon." He put his Dex down and Kaylee nervously giggled, something she'd been doing on-and-off for days.

"The building needs 'poise and focus' to stay upright? Not comforting."

Beth chuckled at that, and Victoria allowed her eyes to wander down the considerable lines of hopeful trainers queued outside the doors. They'd arrived in little clusters, dividing themselves up at random. Jason seemed entirely unperturbed for being the only Initiate in their posse of four.

Gav was in the line to their right, a backwards baseball cap clipped surreptitiously to his hair, which was tucked up and away. The light brown fake ponytail that hung out the back looked a little unwashed and unkempt, and he had dressed to match, modeling Gina and Victoria's "grunge" effect handiwork. It was utterly disorienting seeing him so mussed and disarrayed, but it looked natural. For their return to Saffron they had pulled out all the stops on their disguises.

Gav turned, scanning the line with a bored gaze, but Victoria caught the way he kept his eyes shut a little too long on a blink. He had to be half out of his mind with apprehension. Her heart went out to him and she earnestly wished she could send him a comforting text—with just a touch of snark, of course. They had decided to forego electronic communication as much as possible, not completely sure that Saffron was free of phone-tapping technology. Their neurotic obsession with precautionary measures was leveling up more than their Pokémon these days.

When the person ahead of Gav disappeared inside the Gym though, he turned to look at her. It was quick, and Victoria was glad she had a reassuring smile ready for him when he met her eyes. The smallest quirk at the corner of his mouth expressed both his trepidation and his gratitude, and a second later he, too, was beckoned inside.

Kaylee's giggles had ceased abruptly about five trainers ago, and she swore softly next to Victoria. Victoria reached out and took her hand, giving it a short squeeze before letting go.

Their line felt like it was only shifting forward a few inches an hour, but Beth and Victoria arrived at the entrance quicker than she strictly wanted. Beth was in front of her and Victoria's stomach tensed as the bored-looking man at the door glanced them over. "You a group?" he asked blandly.

"What's the trainer cap?" Beth asked instead of specifying the number in their party.

"Three," the man said, "but I'd recommend no more than two. Takes forever usually, otherwise."

Beth and Victoria glanced at one another, then at Kaylee and Jason. Jason was looking down the line next to them at Gina and Amaris, who seemed to be in a position to enter the Gym doors at the same time as he would be. Victoria wondered if Jason would hop in on their group, team up with Kaylee, or go it alone.

Kaylee smiled, looking a little ill, and shook her head. "Rather do this solo, if it's all the same."

Beth nodded and Victoria frowned, concerned, but there was no time. The man stamped the backs of their hands like they were entering an amusement park and ushered them in. Victoria cast a final glance back at Kaylee, who offered her a smile that failed to communicate anything other than dread.

At first Victoria thought there was some sort of test being given to them. The room they entered was extremely small, and it appeared there were no doors leading anywhere, except the doors they had just entered through. Her confusion must have shown since the sole other occupant of the room, a girl who was also dressed in the golden-yellow Gym uniform, started rattling off a canned speech.

"Please note that this Gym utilizes teleportation technology in the form of tele-warp pads, as seen here." She gestured with her foot at a large floor tile Victoria had not previously seen. "If you experience or have ever experienced health problems related to teleportation technology, please see our HR department around the side of the building before continuing."

The girl sounded just as bored and sucked dry of any enjoyment as the boy outside had. Victoria tuned out her continued talk about liabilities and puzzled instead over the warp tile. How odd that both Silph and this Gym used the same technology, and yet nowhere else in the region seemed to have it yet. Victoria wondered if it was still in a prototype phase, and how much it differed technologically from the Initiates' Dex teleporters.

Though she had tuned out a fair chunk of the Gym employee's speech, Victoria realized with some surprise that she was still going. No wonder these lines took forever to move anywhere.

"This Gym is also full of psychic energy from our many trainer rooms which are connected through the series of tele-warp pads. If you've ever experienced an adverse health reaction due to psychic type energy, please see our HR department now, around the side of the building, before continuing on."

Victoria sighed softly and rubbed her forehead, but thank goodness, the girl seemed to be wrapping up.

"It is up to each challenger to find the Gym Leader through the maze of inter-connected tele-warp pads. If you decide you no longer wish to challenge the Leader, simply notify the trainer in the nearest room and he or she will send you back here. Any questions?"

"Nope," Victoria said quickly.

"Then please step forward onto the tele-warp pad and enjoy your time in the Saffron City Gym." It sounded like the girl tried to inject a little more enthusiasm into that last sentence, but she was largely unsuccessful. The sisters cast each other a glance, then stepped forward as one onto the tile. Tingles shot up Victoria's body, and a moment later they were gone.

The battle room they appeared in was much larger than the cramped little lobby, and it contained two trainers who were watching the girls keenly.

The first trainer was a tall girl, almost old enough to be called a woman in Victoria's mind but not quite there yet. Her face was set in stern lines, her features a little exaggerated, and Victoria could frequently see almost the entire white ring of cornea around her dark irises. She was off-putting, to say the least. The other trainer did most of the talking, smiling at them from behind a considerable beard. It didn't really match his skinny, short frame, and Victoria was struck by the impression of a little kid playing dress up with a Halloween costume. His voice was also extremely deep, which just threw her off more. Both of them seemed to fall somewhere in the middle section of the Venn Diagram between adult and child.

"So, is this your first time at the Saffron Gym or have you been whooped here before?" he asked, and Victoria felt a twitch of affront in her chest.

"First time," she said, mentally placing and arranging the chip on her shoulder just so. Wanting to cut to the chase and skim off any small talk or posturing, she asked, "So, two Pokémon for each of us?"

"If that's what you want," the man-boy said, to all appearances unperturbed by her pushiness. "But usually the way we run it is that, between your team, you get four. You can divvy it up 3-1, 2-2, or 1-3."

"Fine," Victoria said, not caring, and felt more than saw Beth moving into position beside her.

"Good choice," the guy said, also backing up a little as the girl to his left sized the sisters up. "You'll be less likely to completely lose with that option."

Victoria rolled her eyes and looked imploringly at the ceiling for a moment, trying to invoke whatever deity usually dealt with insufferable braggarts. Flashes of red erupted around the room and a moment later Victoria and Beth (as well as Weepinbel and Poliwhirl) were facing down a Golduck and a Kadabra. Victoria always thought the subtle differences between Pokémon of the same species were fascinating; Amaris' Kadabra looked different from Jason's, which looked different from this one. The Kadabra across from them could only be described as the Pokémon-equivalent of a body-builder. It stood in front of the girl trainer, its expression as intense and slightly-manic as hers.

"Ready?" the guy asked, and Victoria fought back a sigh and nodded.

It was her first Gym battle, and suddenly whatever lingering disrespect she had for Initiates vanished. This would be beyond difficult. The Golduck was impossibly fast, responding to a command Victoria hadn't even heard. The blue Water-type shot forward and Victoria braced herself just as her Pokémon did. It didn't physically hit, though—instead a high-intensity, short concussion blast of energy rushed across Weepinbel's body and her Pokémon toppled over backwards, upturned. Alarmed and not at all sure what had just happened, Victoria spotted Poliwhirl dodging a Psybeam to her right. Holy crap.

It was their turn, and it looked like their opponents were seconds away from going again if they didn't decide quickly.

Beth called out "Double-slap!" right as Victoria called out "Stun Spore!" not caring which of the psychic Pokémon hers aimed the powder at. When Weepinbel took up its stance and proceeded to stand there doing nothing for a beat, Victoria did a double-take.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately, since she was informed what the hell was going on) the guy had seen her confusion. "That's Disable!" he explained in a pedantic way, shifting away from Poliwhirl, who had overshot its attack. The Kadabra had apparently teleported away to dodge.

Perfect, Victoria thought venomously, remembering that Disable usually only affected part of a Pokémon's performance. Weepinbel was not completely useless, but she'd have to use a process of elimination to determine which attacks it could still use. In the meantime Poliwhirl dodged the Kadabra's Psychic attack, but only just—the Kadabra had reappeared extremely close to it and Poliwhirl was hit by some stray tendrils of fast-moving energy. Victoria had just worked out her next plan when the Golduck let loose a huge ray of what felt like heat waves. Victoria stumbled away from the area of effect, feeling a shaky weakness threaten her balance, and a moment later her Pokémon hit the ground heavily, unable to dodge due to its new handicap. Victoria stared in disbelief, willing it to get up, but it did not.

"Oh, Critical Hit, from the looks," the guy narrated, and genuine fury flared in Victoria's chest, though it was mingled with a good amount of cold dread. Her strongest Pokémon was out two turns in.

She couldn't lose any time, though; Beth's Poliwhirl had just hit Kadabra with Water Gun, but she couldn't afford to have both opponents focused on her. Victoria tossed Oddish's ball out into the field and shouted "Stun Spore!" the second it appeared. Even given its lack of agility, Oddish was remarkably quick with its reflexes and responses, and a moment later sticky seeds sprayed out all over the Golduck. Victoria felt a bitter surge of vindication that was intensified as the Golduck missed its next attack.

The Kadabra teleported away from them and into the far corner of the room, and Victoria stared at it, not understanding, but her attention was grabbed away a second later when Poliwhirl slammed straight into the Golduck's back. The Water-types skidded across the floor, Poliwhirl half-wrestling it as they went (something truly impressive for a creature shaped like a disc.) When Beth's Pokémon jumped up and away, the Golduck was twitching ineffectively against the tile.

The boy trainer took a moment to analyze it thoughtfully, and in the meantime Victoria clued in to what the other Pokémon was doing—she'd never seen Recover before, as neither of her friends' Kadabras had learned the move yet, but she had to admit it was very impressive. White-hot whorls of power circled around its form, appearing to sink into its skin and surge in and out of its body as easily as a hand passing through water.

The end result was both of their opponents temporarily tied up, allowing Beth and Victoria a breather. Not sure how long it would last; Victoria took a deep, shaky breath and planned her next move carefully. It was an unspoken rule that no one would attack a Pokémon that was in the middle of a heal cycle, so long as the heal cycle didn't span multiple turns (like Rest.) In the interim the guy recalled his Golduck and Victoria executed a little fist pump in her head.

The Kadabra was done, and the second it opened its eyes Victoria shouted, "Vine Whip!" Her heart sank as it teleported away with ease in spite of the fact that it had been in deep meditation mere moments before. Victoria was starting to really understand the strength of that one Pokémon in particular, and pegged it as her focus unless the boy's next choice was something worse.

Victoria thought she was seeing double, or had travelled back in time when she saw the Golduck back out on the battlefield. It leapt forward at Poliwhirl and Oddish, and both Pokémon braced themselves, unable to get away from such a fast charge. The Golduck didn't hit them, though it came very close—it executed a cutting combination of a back flip and roundhouse kick, the sharp edge of its tail grazing both of their Pokémon for a heart-stopping moment. It took Victoria an embarrassingly long time to realize it had been Tail Whip of all things, and in the meantime the Kadabra had landed a Psybeam to Poliwhirl.

"Poison Powder!" Victoria called to Oddish, coming to a second conclusion as the purple stuff exploded in the surprised Kadabra's face—the Golduck was not the same one from before. It had to be a second one—this one was larger. How lame, Victoria groused inwardly, already nursing a grudge against the ducks and not excited to see another.

Beth recalled Poliwhirl for a Super Potion and Victoria felt a surge of relief. She hadn't thought her sister would take a risk with another attack, but it was still nerve-wracking when one fought on a team. Your partner was completely under their own jurisdiction and Victoria knew she would never concede to team battling with anyone other than her sister, and perhaps Gav or Kaylee, if she could help it. While Beth hurriedly sprayed her Pokémon down, the girl whistled in a sudden, shrill blast. Victoria jumped, but the Kadabra teleported to her side, obeying the cue. The boy laughed at her twitchiness and Victoria ground her teeth. It was worsened by the realization that the girl was using an Antidote on her Kadabra. Damn you for being a responsible trainer, she thought viciously.

She'd lost track of whose turn it was since each move was executed with such furious speed, often overlapping each other's. The answer was supplied in short order when the Golduck leapt forward and slashed its claws against an unprepared Oddish. Oddish squeaked in pain and Victoria cringed, but Poliwhirl was back with a vengeance. It leapt forward to help, not simply smacking the Golduck—Double-slap had turned into Double-backhand-of-righteousness. It only managed to get two in before the Golduck tumbled away, but Victoria was ready. Oddish was finally able to do what Victoria had been trying to achieve the entire battle—execute a devastating Plant move against the Water-type. It was just a run-of-the-mill Absorb, but against the Golduck it might as well have been a Gigadrain. It hit the ground so fast it was comical.

Victoria couldn't resist: "Perhaps third time's the charm?"

The boy didn't look so smug this time, but a second later Victoria's smile fell off her face as well. "Really?" she asked, scarcely believing it. A third Golduck stared menacingly at them from across the field. What was with this guy?

She had no time for her chagrin, though. The Kadabra let loose Psychic again, and Victoria knew it was bad before the roiling waves were done coursing over their Pokémon. Poliwhirl was staggering, holding itself and shaking, but Oddish was down. Even the energy it had just gained from the Golduck wasn't enough to withstand that.

Victoria cursed under her breath, the implication of her loss hitting her now that her part of the battle was over. She'd be sent right back out, and waiting in that long line again—she'd never get back in on time, and would be utterly unable to assist with Whittaker-Cheng. She couldn't understand why Beth was staring at her expectantly, though…

"What are you waiting for?" her sister hissed, taking as much time as she possibly could to heal Poliwhirl. Victoria seriously wondered if all the psychic energy had gone to her sister's head, and she stared at her out of the side of her eye, worried.

"I'm out of Pokémon," Victoria said after a pause, but it hit her just as her sister said, "No, you aren't."

"Oh no," Victoria said, putting her hands up desperately. "No, you can't seriously mean that. That's—no way."

"Do you want to be disqualified?" Beth countered in a tone that was surprisingly close to snappy. The battle was clearly weighing hard on her nerves too.

"But—" Victoria lowered her voice, "it's just delaying the inevitable. And I seriously think that's some kind of punishable Pokémon-abuse offense. There's no way I'm gonna last."

"You kind of don't have a choice," Beth said peevishly, getting to her feet and speaking in a rushed whisper now that she was very obviously done with her turn. "I'm not letting you forfeit."

"What are you waiting for?" the boy asked, intolerant as always. "I see a third Pokeball at your belt."

"God," Victoria groaned under her breath, unclasping it from her belt and staring down at it miserably. "I am so, so sorry."

A moment later Metapod sat on the gold tiles, looking like the most out-of-place thing Victoria had ever seen. There was a beat of silence.

The girl spoke up for the first time since the battle had begun. "Is this some kind of joke?" Victoria violently wished it was.

"Uh… okay," the boy said, apparently too thrown off to make a snide comment. He exchanged an incredulous look with the girl trainer, and before Victoria could decide if forfeiting and hauling ass away from here was the better choice, the battle resumed.

The Golduck shot forward and Victoria's sucked in a pained breath as it landed a devastating Scratch attack to Metapod. She cringed and shut her eyes for a moment, insides writhing with guilt and sympathy, but in that moment the Kadabra landed a Confusion hit on Poliwhirl. Beth swore under her breath beside her and shouted, "Water Gun!" at her Pokemon, which miraculously still hit target even while Poliwhirl swayed on its feet, obviously disoriented.

"Healing!" Victoria shouted over the fray, not wanting anyone to skip over her turn. She dashed over to Metapod, which was sporting three angry, red lines on its front, and kneeled beside it.

"Some trainer I am," she muttered quietly to it, swallowing around a lump in her throat as she sprayed its wounds down with Super Potion. "I should just let you go, huh?" She rubbed the Potion into the wound and watched as it grew less vibrant and noticeable under the hasty work of the medicine. "Just try to last through this one ordeal and I'll find you a great place to live. I promise."

"Done with your pep talk?" the boy asked, arms crossed over his chest. "There are a ton of challengers waiting outside, in case you didn't notice." Victoria looked up at him, red-faced and seething, but said nothing. She didn't want to give him the satisfaction. Instead she got up and took her place next to Beth, holding her breath as the battle resumed.

The Golduck leapt forward at Metapod while the Kadabra and Poliwhirl squared off against each other. Victoria winced in preparation for the second hit, but to her immense shock Metapod rolled out of the way at the last moment, sustaining only a minor nick to the tip of its cocoon. Victoria's mouth fell open at the dodge, by far the most she'd ever seen that Pokémon move. The Golduck looked scandalized, and to its left Poliwhirl and Kadabra both failed at hitting each other with their various attacks. Psybeam and Water Gun went wildly astray and the boy and girl trainers had to dive aside to avoid a deluge of water.

"Uh—Harden?" Victoria called, lifting her hands up as if she could pull a better idea out of the air around her. Her Pokémon shifted and made a rustling, settling sound, and a moment later its glossy green skin reflected the light like a suit of organic armor.

Victoria braced herself for another attack from the Golduck, but it seemed done with her Metapod. The boy ordered a Scratch to Poliwhirl, and unfortunately this one hit target right across the blue Pokémon's spiral-swirled belly. Before Beth could call an order for her Pokémon to retreat, a second Psybeam hit it dead-center as well, and Victoria fought with everything she had not to drop her face into her hands.

"Healing!" Beth shouted, though both of their opposing trainers didn't look surprised at all that this was her choice. Both had adopted relaxed, cross-armed stances and appeared to be waiting for the sisters to regroup. Beth darted over to Poliwhirl, and Victoria didn't need a Dex viewfinder to see that it was within an inch of its health. With both of their opponents focusing on Poliwhirl versus Metapod, this battle would enter the death row cycle immediately, and once Beth ran out of Potions and Poliwhirl was dispatched, Metapod would be easy game. Beth looked up at her sister from over her Pokémon, which was struggling to stand, and their look communicated the knowledge they both had: it was only a matter of time now. There was no way they could win this match.

When the battle resumed Poliwhirl managed to dodge a Scratch from Golduck, but those waves of disabling energy from Kadabra hit it square. Beth, to her credit, didn't let this stop her plan of action. She shouted, "Double-slap!" almost before the Disable was done washing over her Pokémon, and Poliwhirl somersaulted forward and laid some amazing smack-down upon the Psychic type. The Kadabra was clearly not expecting a full-frontal assault so soon after its partner had landed a hit, and when the Double-slap hit five times in a row the Kadabra skidded to the ground in a messy heap. Victoria's eyebrows shot up as she waited on tenterhooks to see if the Kadabra would get up. When it didn't appear like it was going to she almost forgot to shout out her next command to Metapod while the exhausted Poliwhirl and the last remaining Golduck duked it out.

"Harden!" Victoria shouted again, wishing direly she could toss a Potion at Beth's Pokémon, which definitely needed it. Poliwhirl dodged a Psychic attack but missed horribly in its next Body Slam and flew past its opponent.

When she looked back at Metapod, she did a small double-take. It didn't look any different at all from the way it had been before. She wondered if it had somehow missed her command, which was the only move it actually knew, but it seemed to be stubbornly remaining where it was, unmoving and still as shiny as ever. There was perhaps some slight shifting under the cocoon's surface, but that was it.

The girl, who was now officially out of the battle, was watching the fight between Poliwhirl and Golduck with a neutral, closed expression. Victoria could scarcely believe they were still in this fight, but it didn't look like it would last much longer; Poliwhirl was looking as haggard as she'd ever seen it and the Golduck, though also worse for the wear, was tenacious and didn't leave a moment for breathing room. Victoria turned to Beth, opening her mouth to suggest a heal break, but then a wrenching, cracking sound to their right arrested her attention.

"What?" the boy asked, doing a double-take to Metapod, and before Victoria could figure out what was happening, Metapod broke in half. A thrill of horror erupted in her core, but a moment later Beth was leaping up and down beside her.

"Ohmigod!" she shouted, and in the moment of confusion Poliwhirl blasted the Golduck in the face with Water Gun and rolled away from it frantically.

"No way," Victoria said, but her eyes apparently weren't lying to her. Covered in cocoon goo and flapping its young wings furiously, her new Butterfree emerged and let out a shrill insect cry.

The Golduck was waiting a command from its trainer, and when the boy stammered out, "Psychic! On the new one!" Poliwhirl tore after it as Butterfree flew messily into the sky to avoid the attack. The Golduck's energy blasted through the remnants of the Metapod shell and Poliwhirl tackled it from behind, their two forms crashing through the cocoon debri.

"Are you serious?" The boy asked, sounding a bit angry now. "You know if your Pokémon evolves mid-battle you can't use it for attacks anymore!"

"It didn't attack," Beth called out, pointing at her Poliwhirl which was now standing on the final fallen Golduck. "It just dodged out of the way, and if I'm not mistaken—"

"You're down to zero," Victoria finished, and Poliwhirl hopped down off the motionless Golduck to return to Beth's side.

"That doesn't count as a win!" the boy protested, but the girl trainer rolled her eyes and let out a terse sigh.

"They didn't break any rules and everyone knows Pokémon evolve whenever the hell they want to. Plus, you're the one who gave a battle command to attack it before we decided whether it was a legitimate battle contender. This one's on you. Let it go, we've got a long day ahead of us."

The boy turned to her and spoke in low, mutinous tones, jabbing a finger at Butterfree and Victoria, but Victoria was tuning him out now. Butterfree had landed back on the ground, obviously still getting used to its new body, and Beth was healing up Poliwhirl.

"I don't understand," Victoria said, dropping down to the ground and holding out her arms so her Pokémon could come over to her if it chose to. She wouldn't have blamed it in the slightest if it snubbed her after the sheer neglect it had endured over the years, but the Bug-type flapped over and landed awkwardly in her lap. Victoria rubbed her hands over its wings, deceptively frail-looking, but they already felt firm and smooth as glass under her fingers. "I didn't train with Metapod... like, at all."

"Wow," Beth said, kneeling down beside her sister and reaching out to tentatively brush at some of the stringy white residue on Butterfree's head. "It must have been right on the verge of evolving this whole time."

Butterfree flapped its wings experimentally and shook out its head, cocoon dust drifting away in little puffs of displaced air, and Victoria started to chuckle quietly, shaking her head and putting a hand over her face. She felt like perhaps the stupidest, but luckiest trainer in the world.

((Author's note: To answer a reviewer's question, which was a good one to clarify, I intend on finishing this entire story, with all its multiple arcs, through to the end, not just Scarlet :) Chapter 31 is done in its entirety, as are bits of chapters 26-30 in between, but I need to connect the dots and spruce up the text before posting.))