Episode 29: Evolution heals all wounds!
The road back to Saffron City didn't seem to take as long as before, since the group made it back by sunset. After having dinner at the pokémon center, they headed straight for bed, exhausted from walking all day. Niko, in particular, needed the sleep, as did his pokémon.
The next day, Niko was up the earliest. He was outside with kadabra, pidgeotto, and a still blind bulbasaur. Before breakfast, he asked them all to do about 10 minutes of exercises: bulbasaur with its stun spore; pidgeotto with gust and its speed; kadabra with focusing its psychic energy to use psybeam. While they did that, Niko began coming up with a strategy.
So generally she will use Mr. Mime first. If she does, I send out pidgeotto. If she sends out venomoth, I go kadabra. Either way, I can substitute if needed. If alakazam comes out second, I will either use pidgeotto or bulbasaur. I just don't want kadabra to fight it—won't be nearly as effective.
Sitting down on a nearby bench, watching his pokémon while pondering strategy, he noticed Brittany walking towards him and deciding to sit down next to him.
"How's it going?"
"Fine, got the team working on some exercises before breakfast. I'm trying to come up with a strategy to beat Sabrina, since I think that's the only way I'll win," Niko said, looking down at the ground. Brittany put a hand on his shoulder.
"You're gonna do fine. I think that because you're so nervous. You already beat another gym leader and spent the past day and a half training. Sabrina won't see you coming!"
"Thanks, Brittany. I'll be inside in a few," the brunette nodded as she got up and walked back to the center. "Alright, guys, come on in," Niko beckoned his team. The three pokémon walked up in front of him (kadabra helped bulbasaur find its way). "How are you three feeling?"
His team cheered loudly, bringing a smile to their trainer's face. "That's great to hear. Now I think I have a strategy for how we're going to beat Sabrina. Kadabra, whatever order she send her pokémon out in, you'll fight venomoth. You have the best chance of beating it. Pidgeotto, you'll fight any of her pokémon, and I plan on using you first. Bulbasaur…you're my trump card. You'll be fighting alakazam. Are you ready for this?"
The seed pokémon nodded, no emotion in its face. Niko returned the expression, and then put his hand in. Pidgeotto put its wing in, kadabra its hand and helped bulbasaur put a paw in. The four then cheered, and Niko walked inside with them, bulbasaur in his arms. His friends were already midway through breakfast by the time Niko started, but they finished at roughly the same time. As did his pokémon, who seemed more determined than ever to win.
The walk to the gym took forever, but for Niko it seemed to go by in a matter of seconds. His mind was completely preoccupied by the upcoming battle. Walking into the gym, he noticed Sabrina was sitting in her rather large chair at the end of the room, as if waiting for him.
"I once again foresaw your arrival," Sabrina said, getting out of her chair and standing up, "You're here for a rematch, is that correct?" Niko nodded, only to elicit a smirk from the gym leader. "Very well. It will be a three-on-three match. Whenever you're ready, Niko."
Fay, JJ, and Brittany sat up in the stands, hitmonchan and magnemite also present. They wanted to cheer on their trainer and his team as well. The judge threw both flags up, indicating that the match was ready to begin.
"Pidgeotto, come on out!" Niko yelled.
"Mr. Mime, I choose you!" Sabrina commanded.
"Let's not waste any time here, use quick wing attack!"
"I see you aren't changing tactics. Very well, Mr. Mime use barrier!"
The barrier pokémon built up an invisible wall using its psychic abilities, causing the bird pokémon to crash into it. However, this time pidgeotto rushed back into the air and repeated its combination move, again slamming into the barrier, but causing it to crack a little.
Niko smiled. "Pidgeotto, use quick attack!"
"Mr. Mime, confusion!"
"Switch to gust instead!"
Pidgeotto halted its movement as it then flapped its wings aggressively, trying to catch the barrier pokémon off guard. The attack succeeded, and Mr. Mime fell back onto the ground.
"Now, use quick attack once more!"
"Barrier!"
Mr. Mime could not erect a barrier fast enough, and was struck by the flying type in the chest, knocking it back over. Pidgeotto then rushed high into the air, pleased with its success. However, Mr. Mime then used confusion and, before Niko and pidgeotto could respond, the latter found itself crashing into the ground.
"Now, Mr. Mime, let's finish pidgeotto off. Psywave!"
The psychic type then moved its hands in circular motions, creating a wave of psychic energy that crashed into the bird pokémon. Pidgeotto flew backwards and landed on the ground in front of Niko. Clenching his teeth, he commanded pidgeotto to use quick wing attack.
"Mr. Mime, barrier!"
"Don't let that stop you, pidgeotto! Give it all you've got!" Niko screamed. Pidgeotto was able to move through the invisible psychic wall and crash into Mr. Mime, sending the two into the wall behind Sabrina.
"It…it looks like Mr. Mime is unable to battle! Pidgeotto is the winner! Sabrina may now use her second pokémon."
"Venomoth, I choose you!" Sabrina commanded.
"Pidgeotto, return," Niko said. "Great job buddy. I'll need you later. Come on out kadabra!"
Sabrina smirked slightly. "I see what you're doing, Niko. Using some sort of strategy now. That won't get you far. Venomoth, use psybeam!"
Before kadabra could see it coming, it was struck with a stream of psychic energy, knocking it over and onto the ground. Niko encouraged it to get back up as soon as possible, but it found itself back down again immediately. That venomoth is faster than I remember seeing it.
"Venomoth, use poisonpowder while its down!" the gym leader commanded. The poison moth pokémon then fluttered its wings, releasing little speckles of poison dust in the direction of kadabra. The attack landed unfortunately, and the psi pokémon struggled to stand, feeling the poison draining its energy.
"Kadabra…you have to focus…try to focus on venomoth…" Niko said softly. "I know you can do this…stay strong…"
Kadabra closed its eyes, trying to feel the psychic energy inside of itself and all around the field. He felt a strong amount of energy coming from the other side of the field, in both venomoth and Sabrina. As the gym leader was commanding another psybeam, kadabra felt how it moved inside of the poison type pokémon. And then it took the hit a third time.
But the psi pokémon didn't fall backwards. Still feeling the poison weaken it, kadabra managed to stay afoot this time, digging its feet into the ground below it. Bracing itself, kadabra gripping its spoon with two hands, summoning all of its psychic power into the single spoon. Opening its eyes, it released psybeam.
The attack hit an unsuspecting venomoth square in the chest, launching the moth pokémon several feet backwards. Niko pumped his fist, realizing that kadabra had finally figured out its new move.
"Yeah kadabra! Let's follow up with a teleport!" Niko commanded, now fired up. Kadabra disappeared, only to reappear behind venomoth. "Use confusion!" the psi pokémon grabbed venomoth with its mind and tossed it into the stands opposite his friends. "Now, finish it off with psybeam!"
Before kadabra used its new move again, it felt the pangs of the poison once more, dropping to one knee and gripping its torso. Sabrina and venomoth took the opportunity to use psybeam to finish off the psychic type. In response, kadabra lifted its spoon and also used psybeam.
The attack collided, creating an explosion of dust in the air. Venomoth and kadabra were once again on each other, both surviving the attack and both using psybeam once more, this time up close. The attacks landed in a burst of psychic power, ending the battle.
"Kadabra and venomoth are both unable to battle. Both trainers may now send out their next pokémon," the judge proclaimed.
"Pidgeotto, I choose you!" Niko yelled out.
"Alakazam, let's finish this!" Sabrina said, throwing out her third pokéball, unleashing her most powerful pokémon.
"Pidgeotto, I know we can do this. Don't get intimidated, and don't give up," Niko said as they both looked across at their opponents. "Now, use gust!"
"Alakazam, use psychic!"
The psychic pokémon's eyes began to glow, as it summoned a massive amount of psychic energy to grab hold of the bird pokémon and launch it into the ceiling. Pidgeotto came crashing down. Niko ordered his pokémon to use quick wing attack. The attack landed, and alakazam stepped backwards, clutching its chest. As pidgeotto was flying back to repeat the move, the psi pokémon used psychic once more, throwing the bird pokémon into the same stands venomoth had been launched into earlier.
"Pidgeotto, one more time, quick wing attack!" Niko commanded. The bird pokémon managed to hit alakazam, but as it did, Sabrina commanded it to retaliate with psywave, which sent the flying type as far back as where Niko was standing.
"Now alakazam, use recover."
"Pidgeotto, can you get up?" Niko asked. The bird pokémon tried to stand upright, but collapsed a second time. The battle with Mr. Mime had done too much damage already.
"Pidgeotto is unable to battle, alakazam wins! Niko will now send out his final pokémon."
Back in the stands, his friends were worried. Niko only had bulbasaur left, who was part poison and therefore vulnerable to psychic type moves. In addition, alakazam could use recover. Hitmonchan and magnemite began cheering loudly for their trainer as he summoned his last pokémon.
"Bulbasaur, let's go!" Niko screamed, and out popped the seed pokémon. "This is what we've been training for, buddy. You can do this, I believe in you," he said to his blind pokémon.
"A poison type…really? And a blind one, no less. I guess alakazam really did a number of it," Sabrina said, scoffing a little, not feeling much remorse for bulbasaur's condition. "Alakazam, let's make this quick. Use psychic!"
"Take the hit, bulbasaur," Niko said, finally understanding how alakazam operated. Sabrina would use psychic as full power, which exhausted the psi pokémon momentarily. If bulbasaur could survive psychic, then he might be fast enough to use stun spore.
The grass type took the psychic, and managed to survive. "Now, use stun spore quickly!" Niko had never seen the bulb muscles move as quickly as they did before—clearly the training had paid off.
Yellow spores engulfed alakazam, who stood frozen in place, paralyzed momentarily by the spores. Niko now saw his chance, commanding bulbasaur to use razor leaf. The sharp leaves slashed and cut at the psi pokémon, who tried using recover but found it difficult as its opponent wasn't letting up. Bulbasaur inched forward slowly, trying to get close enough that it could use vine whip. However, since it couldn't see, and there weren't any sounds to indicate how close it was, it stopped after a few feet and tried using vine whip. The attack hit successfully, but it stopped the razor leaf, and alakazam's paralysis had disappeared.
"Use psychic!" Sabrina commanded, ordering her psychic pokémon to launch bulbasaur into the wall next to the judge (and, evidently, directly under Niko's friends). The seed pokémon collapsed onto the ground, struggling to get up. Alakazam used psychic once more, this time sending it to Niko's feet.
"Bulbasaur, get up buddy, you can do this…" Niko said, caressing the seed pokémon's bulb. As he did so, bulbasaur started glowing, engulfing the surrounding area in a white light. Niko marveled at the sight of evolution, watching his first pokémon get bigger. Its body, bulb, and face all grew larger, and green leaves began to protrude from under the now bright pink bulb. Niko pulled out his pokédex:
"Ivysaur, the seed pokémon. When the bulb on its back grow large, it appears to lose the ability to stand on its hind legs."
"Ivysaur, eh?" Niko said, standing up and looking down at his newly evolved pokémon. "Let's go then, turn around and move forward. Alakazam will be right in front of you."
Niko began giving commands as if ivysaur was still blind. As he found out, from hearing his pokémon try to communicate with him, the evolution seemed to cure the blindness, for some reason. Once he realized this, he looked back up at Sabrina and alakazam, who stared back coldly.
"Alakazam, finish it off with psychic."
"Not so fast! Ivysaur, use razor leaf!"
Ivysaur cried out to the heavens as it unleashed a torrent of sharp leaves in the direction of alakazam, before the latter could retaliate. This time, ivysaur ran forward, all while using razor leaf, and unleashed a second stun spore, freezing the psi pokémon in place. It then switched to vine whip, slapping the psychic type a few times before ultimately defeating it.
"Alakazam is unable to battle, ivysaur wins! And the victory goes to Niko from Pallet Town!"
Niko ran over to a now exhausted ivysaur, getting down on his knees and hugging his pokémon tightly. "I'm so proud of you, buddy! You won this for us!" Hitmonchan and magnemite jumped over the stands and ran to their trainer, creating a group hug. Out of excitement, magnemite accidentally released a spark of electricity, shocking his trainer and teammates. It didn't frustrate Niko, however. He was much too happy for that.
Fay, JJ, and Brittany joined them a moment later, bringing their friend into another group hug and offering their congratulations as well. Niko thanked them, and turned to the gym leader, who stood there with a badge in hand and a smile on her face.
"You've earned this, Niko. Here is the marsh badge."
Niko took the badge from Sabrina's palm and looked at it, showing it to his team.
"Thank you for the battle. I really appreciate it. It helped to strengthen my bond with my pokémon."
Sabrina nodded, still smiling a little. "That's what matters in the end, Niko. I know you'll continue to get stronger with your team. Hopefully we can have a rematch one day."
"We certainly will. Count on it."
The group left the gym and, noticing it was midday, decided to go out for lunch after healing up their pokémon. At a diner in Saffron City, they sat down and plotted out the next leg of their journey.
JJ pulled out the pamphlet and map. "Alright guys, so the next gym around here is in Fuchsia City. The leader is Janine, and she uses poison types. I think only Niko has an advantage, here."
"Don't worry about advantages and disadvantages," Fay mentioned, "We'll be fine. How far is it?"
"Well," JJ said, "There's a few ways we could go. Down the cycling road, which is back through Celadon City. Or we could go south of Lavender Town and then west. By my estimates it should take…err…a few weeks, at least."
"That's fine with me," Brittany said, "It'll give us all time to train, especially Niko and Fay. And maybe we'll see some cool pokémon on the way!"
"That's true, actually," JJ said, folding up the map and pamphlet and putting them back in his backpack.
"Then it's settled," Niko said, a new determination in his eyes. "To Fuchsia City by way of Lavender Town!" the group cheered, now with a new destination set in stone.
Author's note: Yeah I know, not sure how evolution would cure blindness, but hey, I guess we can make it work, right? Hopefully you didn't see this episode as too farfetched, and enjoyed it all the same! See y'all in the next episode!
