Author's Notes: Fairly shorter than last chapter… But that pesky Altaria's back! Fun. (Yes, I like Altaria. I just hate Winona's.) Oh, and some nifty stuff with Oakley happens…
Chapter Thirty Four: Vs Tropius!
"Aw, man. Where was the Pokémon Center again?"
Lynnie grumbled to herself as she took what seemed like the millionth wrong turn. After leaving the gym, she'd wandered around for a few moments before finally deciding to go to the Pokémon Center, and was now lost.
However, soon she spotted a figure reclining on a tree trunk not too far away, and grinned. She normally hated asking for directions, but she was starting to get tired. Lynnie scurried over and tapped the gray-haired woman on the shoulder.
"Um, hey, I'm looking for the Pokémon Center," she started sheepishly. "Could you…"
The frail-looking woman wrinkled her nose slightly as she looked at Lynnie. Crossing her eyes, the blonde wondered if she'd said something wrong. Instead, though, the woman seemed to be studying her.
"You…" the woman whispered, stretching out her fists. "Can you guess? I've got a coin in one hand."
"You'll tell me if I guess right? Okay, worth a try… I'm pretty good at these things…"
Lynnie blinked at the woman's hand for a moment, and then tapped the right one. The woman flipped her fist over and uncurled her fingers, revealing a small gold coin.
"Not bad, child. Can you guess again?"
Lynnie sighed, but nodded. The woman put her hands behind her back for a moment and then stretched out her fists again. Looking between them for a second, Lynnie decided on the right again, and was once again shown the coin.
"Once more…"
Oh, for the love of Lugia, this is getting old, Lynnie thought impatiently. "Okay…"
After a moment, the woman extended her fists again. Lynnie almost instinctively reached for the right hand again, but then suddenly changed to the left. The woman smiled crookedly as she revealed the coin one more time.
"Good, good," she nodded. "You're the first one in a while to get all three tries right. You must have good internal balance."
Me? Balanced? Yeah right… Lynnie giggled, but said aloud, "Hey, thanks. Now, uh…"
"In fact, I bet your Pokémon do too," the woman went on. "Shall I see…?"
"Um, sure."
Lynnie quickly took Oakley's Pokéball off of her belt—the Nuzleaf was her only Pokémon that hadn't gotten worn out from her battle with Winona earlier, after all. The Grass-type materialized next to Lynnie, blinking nonchalantly and rocking back and forth.
The woman smiled and nodded, slowly putting a hand on Oakley's head. Oakley's eyes half-closed into semi-circles, and she glowed slightly. Lynnie blinked as the woman took her hand off of Oakley.
Then, the Nuzleaf spread her arms out, and the glow around her turned blue. She opened her mouth slightly and shot a thin beam of ice to the ground, looking pleased.
"Hey, that was awesome, Oakley! Do it again!" Lynnie exclaimed.
Nodding, Oakley slowly shot another mock-Ice Beam to the ground, causing a small patch of grass to freeze. The woman smiled again.
"Ah, Hidden Power is such an amazing move. It truly is unique. Your Nuzleaf seems to have a lot of inner power indeed…"
"What's that supposed to mean?"
However, by the time Lynnie looked up to where the woman had been, she was already gone. Frowning, Lynnie waved her arms frantically.
"Hey, now what? How am I supposed to find the Pokémon Center?"
"Nuz…?"
Oakley looked up and pointed at the platform above them. Lynnie took a few steps backwards and looked up as well, and then smacked her forehead with her palm. She'd been right under the building the whole time.
"Well, I guess Oakley learned something cool… And I actually did find the Pokémon Center… All right, come on, Oakley!"
Lynnie withdrew the Nuzleaf, and climbed up the wooden ladder. She managed not to hit her knees as much this time, and she sighed when she finally got to the top of the platform.
"Okay," she panted, sliding open the glass door. "Finally… got here…"
She grinned as she handed her Pokémon to the nurse, and then headed to the cafeteria. Fortunately, the line wasn't too long, and she grabbed a plastic-wrapped sandwich, peeling off the wrapper as she sat down to eat.
"I think… I just may have a plan for tomorrow," Lynnie said to herself, taking a bite of her sandwich as her grin grew.
- - -
The next morning, Lynnie untangled herself from her sleeping bag, blinking as she yawned. After turning in the sleeping bag, she grinned and headed to the cafeteria. The bonus to sleeping as late as she did was that the breakfast line was usually short.
Lynnie grabbed a pair of biscuits and ate one slowly as she sat down. Propping her feet up on the chair next to her, she started on the second one. Looking around, she noticed only a few other trainers, most of them clustered towards the back of the room.
After finishing her biscuit, Lynnie stood up and stretched. She then left the cafeteria quickly, grinning as she started towards the glass door of the Pokémon Center. Opening the sliding door, she managed to climb down the ladder in record time, miraculously without hitting her knees.
Lynnie suddenly blinked as her feet hit the ground. Where exactly was the gym again?
"Oh, right, it's on the opposite side of town," Lynnie grumbled, suddenly remembering. "Great."
Sighing, she hurried down the path from the Pokémon Center, ducking under a tree branch as she took a turn…
- - -
Lynnie proudly checked her PokéNav's clock as she arrived under the gym's platform. This time she'd managed to find it in less than twenty minutes, but just barely. Clipping her PokéNav back onto her bag's strap, Lynnie grinned and started climbing up the gym's ladder. Half way up, she paused to catch her breath, and then started climbing again.
A few minutes later, Lynnie managed to pull herself up onto the gym platform and sighed. Looking around, she spotted Winona sitting on the opposite edge, looking up into the sky with her arms leaned back behind her. Lynnie blinked, contemplating running up behind the Gym Leader and tapping her on the shoulder.
However, Lynnie stepped on a slightly weak piece of wood as she started walking towards Winona, and it groaned when she put her foot down. Winona suddenly looked over her shoulder, and smiled as she stood up.
"Good morning, Lynnie," she called. "I was hoping you'd be back soon."
"Good, 'cause I'm ready to go!" Lynnie grinned.
"All right. Is four-on-four still fine with you?"
"Yep!"
Winona nodded, and the pair turned to their respective risers. The lavender-haired woman pulled a Pokéball off of her belt and carefully tossed it out to release her first Pokémon.
"I'll start with Tropius this time."
The Grass-type materialized in front of Winona, and Lynnie's grin widened. She reached for Oakley's Pokéball and quickly released the Nuzleaf.
"Then I'll start with Oakley!"
Oakley rocked back and forth slightly as usual as she looked up at Tropius. Yawning, the larger Pokémon looked back at her, blinking.
"Okay, Tropius, let's start with Steel Wing."
"Oakley, try Hidden Power!"
Tropius slowly flapped its wings and lifted itself into the air. It then tilted itself forward, and its wings started to harden as it flew towards Oakley. Closing her eyes, Oakley spread out her arms again and paused as Tropius came a bit closer to her. She then shot the small ray of ice at Tropius, who tumbled backwards through the air, obviously thrown off guard.
When Tropius thudded on the platform, amazingly landing on all fours, a thin layer of ice was covering the front of its chest and neck, and it was panting slightly. Lynnie crossed her eyes; Tropius probably could still go on for a little while, but she might be able to get it out soon, too.
"Now use Faint Attack, Oakley!"
"Go with Headbutt, Tropius!"
Oakley darted forward and crashed into Tropius. It winced, but managed to lower its head and ram into Oakley. Stumbling backwards, Oakley nearly fell over, but managed to get back up.
"Now use Hidden Power again," Lynnie called.
Once again, Oakley half-closed her eyes and leaned forward as she opened her mouth. As she shot the beam of ice at Tropius, it tried to twist out of the way, but it didn't manage to duck in time. The attack hit it head-on, and Tropius wobbled before hitting the platform with a thump.
Lynnie barely resisted cheering as Winona recalled Tropius, as it had made her lose last time. Of course, Winona could always send out her last Pokémon that Lynnie hadn't seen yet…
"I'll go with Skarmory next."
Wow, I was right? Lynnie blinked as Winona released the large metal bird Pokémon. The sunlight glinted off of the tips of its sword-like wings, and Lynnie gulped slightly.
"Well… Hidden Power will at least help a bit. Use that, Oakley!"
"Aerial Ace, Skarmory."
Oakley tried to aim her attack at Skarmory, but it rose into the air surprisingly quickly. It then dove down towards her, flapping its wings forward and poking her with their edges.
"Nuz!"
The Nuzleaf cried out in surprise as the attack hit, and she stumbled backwards. However, Skarmory was still a bit above Oakley, and crashed into her one more time. As it got up, Oakley didn't even sit up.
"Aw, man, sorry Oakley," Lynnie grumbled, withdrawing her. "That was lame of me… At least you got Tropius. But…"
If I don't want to use Lucky too much, then who… Ok yeah, Pearl!
Lynnie released the Grumpig again, and she bounced eagerly from foot to foot. She looked carefully at it, but it smirked at her.
"Okay, Pearl, let's do a Shock Wave!"
"Agility and Drill Peck, Skarmory!"
Skarmory ducked slightly and darted towards Pearl, beak outstretched. However, Pearl managed to shoot the sparks out of the pearls on her stomach, and when they collided with Skarmory, it stumbled backwards. The electricity crackled slightly as it hit Skarmory's metal body, and it shrieked.
Pearl quickly launched another Shock Wave at Skarmory, and since it was still recovering, it couldn't dodge. Skarmory wheezed slightly, but somehow it was still barely hanging on.
"Should've known… Pearl, use Psybeam!"
"Use Swift, Skarmory."
The Psychic-Type shot twin rainbow-colored beams out of her eyes at Skarmory. It tried to counter by weakly blasting a few stars out of its mouth, but they faded quickly. The Psybeam still hit it, and it finally collapsed.
"All right…" Winona calmly withdrew Skarmory. "You remember what my other two are, right? Well, I'll save Altaria for last. Go, Pelipper!"
Lynnie grinned as she looked at the materializing Pokémon. She'd get it easily enough with Shock Wave… She then blinked at Pearl, however. The Grumpig was starting to look a bit tired, not from injuries but just from battling for a while.
Okay, maybe I will need a third Pokémon… But I wanna use Pearl as long as I can…
"Let's try Shock Wave one more time, Pearl!"
Pearl panted, but still managed to fire the Shock Wave at Pelipper. It didn't hit dead-on, though, but still seemed to do a decent amount of damage. Pelipper winced and shook itself, a bit singed.
"It's time to use Water Pulse, Pelipper."
Pelipper stretched open its beak and shot the spiral of water at Pearl. She didn't duck in time, and the blast sent her flying. Seconds later, she landed near Lynnie, knocked out.
"Well, we've both lost two…" Lynnie grinned as she withdrew Pearl. "This is getting exciting. I think I'll go with Domino."
Lynnie released the Breloom, and he grinned as he jumped quickly between feet. Pelipper still looked totally calm though, just like Winona.
"Domino, use Headbutt!"
"Aerial Ace, Pelipper."
Domino lowered his head and charged. Fortunately, he managed to ram into Pelipper before it could get into the air, and the head butt made it flinch. Lynnie grinned, deciding to go on and get it out; it looked almost ready to faint now.
"All right, now use Sky Uppercut!"
Domino nodded and sprung forward, hooking his claw under Pelipper and blasting it up into the air. The Flying-Type crashed back down to the platform, panting.
Winona smiled gently as she withdrew Pelipper. "You're still doing well, but…"
She released Altaria again, and the blue-and-white Pokémon delicately cleaned its wings as it materialized. It then carefully looked up at Domino, and the Grass-Type seemed to shrug.
"Dragonbreath, Altaria!"
"Sky Uppercut again!"
Domino charged towards Altaria, his claw stretched out slightly. Altaria, however, calmly waited for Domino to get closer, and then breathed the attack at him. The spark-like breath struck Domino, and he stumbled backwards, looking a bit numb.
Altaria then launched another Dragonbreath, easily hitting the Breloom. He wobbled slightly and fell over, wincing.
"Aw…" Lynnie sighed as she withdrew Domino. "All right. For my last one… I'll choose Skipper!"
The Marshtomp crouched as usual as Lynnie released her. Altaria still looked relatively clam, but it did start flapping its wings slightly.
"Okay, Skipper, let's go with Ice Beam!"
"Altaria, use Aerial Ace!"
Altaria started flapping its wings faster and managed to lift into the air. As it started flying towards Skipper, she quickly shot the Ice Beam at it. However, instead of tumbling backwards, Altaria's momentum caused it to keep falling forward, and it still crashed into Skipper.
The Dragon-Type slowly pulled itself to its feet, as did Skipper. Both Pokémon looked a bit wobbly, and Lynnie and Winona both held their breath. Altaria crashed to the ground first, and then Skipper collapsed as well.
"Well… I guess Altaria technically fainted first," Winona said, laughing slightly as she withdrew the Dragon-Type. "I must say, that was unexpected.
Lynnie grinned as she withdrew Skipper. "It was pretty close though."
"But it was rather impressive, especially with your Nuzleaf," Winona complimented. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a teal, wing-shaped badge. "Here. You've earned this Feather Badge."
"Cool!"
Lynnie clipped the badge onto her bag's strap below her Balance Badge, her grin widening. Winona smiled back at her as she looked up.
"Congratulations, Lynnie."
"Thanks! Well, I've got to get back to the Pokémon Center… Bye, Winona!"
"Goodbye, Lynnie. Good luck!"
Lynnie waved as she headed towards the gym's ladder. Climbing down, she paused half way to look at her new badge again. Grinning again, she hurried down the rest of the way, eager to find out where the next gym was…