Episode 35: Magnemite's debut battle!
After Fay defeated Janine, it was now Niko's turn to fight. Stepping up, he held a pokéball in his hand as Janine appeared on the opposite end, ninja-style.
"You ready, challenger?" She said cheerily. Niko nodded, and as the judge declared the beginning of the match. "Come on out koffing!"
"Shellder, I choose you!" Niko commanded, sending out his new water type. "Let's start the match off with a bubblebeam!"
"Respond with sludge!" The gym leader commanded. The sludge collided with the heavy stream of bubbles, both attacks dissipating in the center of the field. Niko then commanded shellder to use withdraw as koffing used smokescreen.
Niko waited for several minutes before the smoke disappeared, and ordered shellder to use bubblebeam once again. The attack hit an unsuspecting koffing, who then retaliated with a tackle attack, knocking the bivalve pokémon across the ground.
"Koffing, use sludge, close-range!" Janine commanded. The poison gas pokémon then rushed up close to shellder, and is it released sludge from its mouth, shellder used withdraw and followed up with a clamp attack on koffing. It then used bubblebeam in close range, launching the poison type through the air at an angle.
"Shellder, leap into the air and use clamp!" Niko said, quickly realizing that this strategy might not work, just like it didn't work against JJ's beedrill. In the stands, JJ was once again shaking his head, unable to understand the strategy.
"Koffing, sludge," Janine said plainly. The poison gas pokémon then unleashed a ball of toxic sludge, hitting shellder in the face. The bivalve pokémon accidentally closed its shell and crashed into the ground, the sludge sitting inside it.
"Quick shellder! Use bubblebeam to get the sludge out!" Niko ordered, and his water type responded with a fast torrent of bubbles shooting through the air, cleaning out the inside of its shell. "Now use clamp again!"
"Niko…" JJ sighed, putting his head into his palm.
Shellder successfully clamped down onto koffing. For a moment, it seemed too easy. Then, koffing used self-destruct.
"Koffing and shellder are both unable to battle. Janine and Niko will send out their second pokémon!" The judge declared.
"Come on out, golbat!"
"Magnemite, you can do this!" Niko said, reeling his hand back and pitching his magnet pokémon out onto the field.
The little electric pokémon fluttered around happily, realizing that it was finally able to participate in a gym battle with its trainer.
"Let's go buddy! Use thundershock!" Niko said, cheering on his little pokémon. Magnemite hovered closer to golbat and released a few electric sparks, landing a direct hit on the bat pokémon, who retaliated with a wing attack, sending the magnet pokémon down onto the ground. "Get up and use thundershock again!"
"Golbat, dodge and use wing attack!" Janine commanded. The two attacks collided, both pokémon flying backwards and landing in front of their respective trainers. "Now, use confuse ray!"
"Magnemite, we haven't tried this move yet, but use supersonic!" Niko ordered. Golbat blinked, creating a flashing light at the same time magnemite vibrated the tiny magnets on its arms. Both pokémon, now confused, attempted to once again attack each other, but magnemite's thundershock went in every possible direction (instead of being focused on its opponent) and golbat slammed itself into the ground in an attempt at using wing attack.
"Magnemite, use thundershock one more time! Full power!" Niko said, and magnemite released as much electricity as its little body could emit. Sparks flew in every which way, eventually shocking the bat pokémon as it tried using wing attack again.
"Snap of out confusion golbat!" Janine commanded. "Use wing attack again!"
The bat pokémon shot forward, trying to orient itself so that it didn't slam into the ground. It ended up successfully hitting magnemite, so released a thundershock in retaliation. Both pokémon collapsed onto the ground once again. However, only golbat was able to get up.
"Magnemite is unable to battle, golbat wins! Niko will now send out his third pokémon!" The judge commanded.
"Return magnemite. I'm proud of you. Go, kadabra!" Niko declared, tossing out the psi pokémon's ball. "Let's use confusion to start!"
The psychic type moved its spoon back and forth, emitting the psychic energy necessary to pick up golbat and toss it to the side of the battlefield. The poison type, snapping out of its confusion, rushed in with a wing attack. It landed, but kadabra used a close-range psybeam that sent the bat pokémon crashing into a nearby bench.
"Golbat, get up!" Janine said with concern. The bat pokémon struggled to get up, but as it did it used confuse ray, blinking and creating a flash of light that caused kadabra to start whacking itself in the head with its spoon. "Excellent, now use wing attack one more time!"
"Kadabra, snap out of it!" Niko yelled. The psi pokémon, realizing golbat was coming straight for it, shook its head and realized it was in danger. It quickly fell to its left, landing on its side on the floor but successfully dodging wing attack. However, it was still vulnerable to future attacks, and took yet another hit from golbat before getting up again.
"Golbat, use confuse ray!" Janine declared. "Let's finish this!"
"Kadabra, psybeam!" Niko commanded. The psybeam was faster, landing inside golbat's large mouth. The bat pokémon feel onto the wooden floor of the battlefield, finally defeated.
"Golbat is unable to battle, kadabra wins! Janine will now send out her third pokémon!" The judge stated.
"Muk, come on out! Use minimize!" Janine yelled out.
"Not so fast, Janine. Kadabra, use psybeam!" Niko ordered. The psi pokémon focused its psychic energy on the sludge pokémon, and unleashed a powerful beam of energy at its opponent. However, muk was quicker, and it shrunk to half its size, effectively dodging the move.
"Muk, use sludge!" The gym leader said. The sludge pokémon opened its mouth and released a ball of toxic poison aimed directly at kadabra.
"Kadabra, use confusion and send it right back!" Niko commanded. The psi pokémon used its mind to get a hold on the sludge attack and tossed it back at muk, who absorbed it like it was nothing. "Now, use psybeam one more time!"
Kadabra unleashed a psybeam directly at muk, aiming towards the ground this time in anticipation of a possible minimize. Such attack did not happen, and muk took the hit head on. In retaliation, the poison type launched a series of sludge attacks at kadabra. Some hit, some didn't as the psi pokémon use psybeam to cut through the torrent of sludge balls.
Muk then used minimize, shrinking itself down to a quarter of its original size. Kadabra used confusion to lift the sludge pokémon up and toss it into the ceiling before unleashing a psybeam simultaneously, hitting the bottom of the poison type and sending it crashing into the ground.
"Muk is unable to battle, kadabra wins! Leader Janine will now choose her final pokémon!"
"Weezing, come on out!" Janine shouted as she sent out the poison gas pokémon. "We're not giving in now! Use sludge!"
"Kadabra, dodge it with teleport!" Niko commanded. The psi pokémon disappeared behind weezing as it slammed its body into the poison type. The two opponents crashed into the ground.
"Weezing, use toxic!" Janine yelled out. Her pokémon, with kadabra still on top of it on the ground, started to glow purple and a circle appeared below the two pokémon. Kadabra then began to glow purple and yelped in pain as the toxic took effect. "Weezing, use sludge!"
"Kadabra, dodge and use psybeam!" Niko commanded. Kadabra then slowly moved out of the way, but the sludge hit all the same, smacking the psi pokémon in the stomach and knocking it back over. "Alright then, we can do this…use teleport!"
The psychic type disappeared, but reappeared right in front of Niko before getting down onto its knees, the poison taking hold of its body. Janine then commanded weezing to use poison gas, further weakening the psi pokémon. However, kadabra held it in for a bit longer, launching another psybeam, albeit an unfocused one that missed its target completely. It then finally collapsed to the ground.
"Kadabra is unable to battle, weezing wins! Niko from Pallet Town will now release his final pokémon!"
"Pidgeotto, you're my last hope, let's go!" Niko screamed, sending out his bird pokémon.
"Weezing, use poison gas!" Janine commanded.
"Pidgeotto, use gust!" Niko responded. Pidgeotto flapped its wings aggressively, pushing the gas away and back towards its opponent. The gas didn't affect the poison type, instead it sucked the gas back in and converted it to a sludge, which it then launched over at Pidgeotto. "Dodge, and use quick wing attack!"
Pidgeotto shot into the air and dove down towards weezing, its body practically glowing. As it was about to land, weezing launched a sludge attack. Pidgeotto moved fast enough that it didn't seem phased by the poison as it crashed into its opponent. Weezing cried out as it felt the force of the combination move. Immediately after, pidgeotto felt the damage from the sludge move as it crashed into the ground.
"Weezing, use toxic!"
"Pidgeotto, get back into the air and dodge the toxic!" Niko ordered as his flying type leapt into the air and flew away from the purple circle developing underneath it.
"Use toxic repeatedly, don't let it get away!"
Weezing kept using the poison move as pidgeotto continuously dodged the attack, moving left and right whenever necessary. It also evaded multiple sludge attacks from the poison gas pokémon.
"Use quick attack!" Niko directed. Pidgeotto then dove straight down and slammed into weezing, causing the poison type to crash into the ground once again. "Now, use gust!"
"Respond with sludge!"
Pidgeotto moved its wings faster than Niko had ever seen them move before. It, more than anyone on that field, understood the importance of not giving up in that moment. The sludge was then repelled by the strong wind, and fell back down into one of weezing's exhaust holes.
"Pidgeotto, finish it off with quick wing attack!" Niko commanded. The bird pokémon dove down at its opponent and, in what seemed like a split second, crashed into the poison gas pokémon. From the cloud of gas that erupted as a result, only pidgeotto emerged, flying back over to its trainer as the gas dissipated.
"Weezing is unable to battle, pidgeotto wins! And the victory goes to Niko from Pallet Town!" The judge said, throwing up a flag in the challenger's direction.
"Great job, pidgeotto. I'm really proud of you," Niko said cheerfully, stroking his bird's back as the latter rested on his right arm.
Janine immediately reappeared in front of Niko as Fay joined them on the battlefield. She grabbed something from her pocket, handing two small badges and put them in front of the two victors.
"Here is the soul badge. Fay and Niko, you have both earned this soul badge, as proof that you have defeated me in battle. I wish you both the best of luck in the future, and if you make it to the pokémon league in a month, I'll be watching," The gym leader said, winking in Fay's direction.
"Thank you, Janine. I had a great time battling with you, and I know my pokémon certainly did," Replied Fay, putting out his hand to shake. Janine gave him a curiously glance for a moment, and returned the handshake.
Later, at the pokémon center, Fay and Niko were celebrating their victories with their pokémon while deciding their next course of action with JJ and Brittany. JJ pulled out his pamphlet and region map and examined it for a moment.
"So you only need two badges now, right?" Niko and Fay nodded. "Alright, so there's a gym on Cinnabar Island and Viridian City. It might be easier to go to Cinnabar first, since Pallet Town and Viridian City are directly north of the island."
"How long does it take to get there?" Brittany asked.
"Well, probably about a week or so. Problem is we'll need to travel by water to get there. There's also the Seafoam Islands, so we can check those out on our way to the next gym."
"Sounds good to me, dude," Niko began, "What does the Cinnabar gym leader use?"
"The leader, Blaine, uses fire types. From the looks of it, he's pretty strong," JJ mentioned.
"Well, luckily both of us have water types. Pretty sure we can beat him, right Niko?" Fay asked, turning to his friend. Niko, with a mouthful of food, nodded quickly before continuing with his lunch. "And as for getting there, we can all ride on gyarados. Shouldn't be too bad, and I'm sure there are places we'll be able to rest along the way, right?"
"Let's sure hope so…" Brittany responded, thinking about the obvious dangers of water travel.
The group then spent the rest of the day in Fuchsia City, preparing for their long trip through the water to Cinnabar Island and the next pokémon gym.