BIGGEST SPLASH

Cerulean gym battlefield

Later that day, Clover observed her Pokedex. She was still way too lazy to roam around and catch every Pokemon she could find. Thus, her Pokedex had many empty entries. To be fair, it brought her performance anxiety. After all, Oak sent her to fill all the entries, and she preferred adventure over collecting. However, now that she was on the eve of battle with Misty, she suddenly wished she paid more heed to Oak's advice.

"There are plenty of Pokemon living in the tall grass." he said, and there was also the water, and lakesides, and many other places she could explore. Beedrill might fly. Ivysaur was rather heavy and thus, probably a bad swimmer. Hence, to truly get this victory she would have to employ the power of her water Pokemon and she knew this.

Be that as it may, she considered the Bulbasaur since it had a type advantage.

"Maybe if I do that… hm…." she thought, deciding to check Marill's summary. She opened the section of her Pokedex with her party entries.

"So, Marill is apparently at level twenty! Twenty! It still didn't evolve, though… I remember how Marill evolves when it reaches high friendship. I don't suppose this Pokemon ever had a friend. It has powerful stats, I bet it was heavily trained."

She let the Marill out of the Pokeball. It had a certain ring around it's tail, but she did not notice it earlier. When she opened the summary section once again, she noticed something written at the lower corner.

"Power bracer. So, this item apparently does something. I wonder what it's all about." she kneeled, inspecting the red little bracer comfortably clipped just below the blue ball at the end of its tail. It was relatively heavy, and she considered what an odd item it was. Marill apparently didn't even care about this thing. Ever since his trainer left, he was sulking, just staring at the distance.

"Hey, Marill. How are you holding up?" she asked him.

"Marill..." he uttered.

"Yeah… she was a real trouble, wasn't she?"

"Marill!" apparently this angered the little, blue water mouse.

"You're still defending her?"

"Marill, Marill!"

"Well… I can't say I don't understand. She was your trainer. But we will have to get along, you know?"

The door to her room opened without knocking, so she turned her head around in surprise. This time it was Leaf along with Red. When he noticed the bracer around the tail, he knelt down by Pokemon's side and turned his attention to Clover.

"Beans, you know what this is?" he asked.

"Power bracer, but I have no idea what it does."

"Well, it's a power bracer, indeed. Do you know about effort values?"

"Is this something that will make my head spin?" she asked.

"Probably." he was serious.

"Ah… I guess I will have to hear this. Go on."

"Give me your Pokedex for a second."

Clover complied, and Red looked for a second before opening a summary section once again.

"As you can see, Marill's signature ability is Huge Power. This means his attack is double the usual amount. Marill is generally hardy, so having a powerful attack makes it extremely formidable in battle. Now, onto the effort value.

Every Pokemon has something they're naturally good at. For example, Pidgey is fast, Magneton's electrical discharge is extremely powerful, Geodude is as hard as a stone and so forth."

"Yeah, they indeed are. So what about it?"

"When your Pokemon fights Pidgeys, or Magnetons or Geodudes, it learns something from each battle. If your Marill were to fight Pidgeys, it would learn how to become faster in battle along with general experience it gets. This knowledge is called an effort value. In numbers, every Pokemon can get up to 510 points spread across all six stats. Weaker Pokemon yield one effort value each. Stronger Pokemon might yield better effort values. So, for example, while Geodude gives one point of Defense Effort Value, Golem gives three points."

"I think I get this. So, what you're saying is I can get five hundred and ten points in attack, if I wanted to?"

He waved his head.

"Not quite. You see, every stat is limited at two hundred and fifty points. So you can get 250 points in attack, 250 points in speed and distribute remaining six points in one stat of your choice."

"Okay, okay, I understand it so far. But why should I do this? Isn't it possible to win with my normal stats without having to bother with all this?"

"Let's put it this way. If you have a Bulbasaur, and you reach the level fifty, his base stat for special attack is 65 points. This is without any effort values. However, if you do decide to train him specifically minding his special attack and place 250 points at his special attack instead of 65, it will have up to 128 points."

"Seriously?!" she asked.

"Yes."

"Well… I have probably flunked it already. I trained my Pokemon randomly."

"It's not such a big problem. You can continue training your Pokemon thinking about this. Generally it's helpful to find guides on the extranet if you want to see which Pokemon yields which value. PC's at Pokemon Centers can help you with that."

Leaf let out a big, painful sigh.

"Rest in peace, sister. You will never train your Pokemon the same way." she uttered.

"I guess he told you the same thing?" Clover asked.

"I can't train my Pokemon any other way. That's what you get for having a nerd brother. Well, how is your Marill holding up?"

"Not quite well." Clover admitted.

Only an hour later, however, Clover had to go downstairs to apply for the battle. First rounds have already started, and there were many contestants who wished to get a chance to challenge Misty. Therefore, Clover couldn't just walk in and challenge her. She had to complete the form, then wait until the form gets signed by the administration. Meantime, she was asked general questions such as telling something about herself, and pool guards thoroughly expected her bags. When this was done, she had to sign the paper and only then she was allowed to actually participate.

"Why such a strict entry measure?" she asked the lady working at the counter.

"We're extra cautious because of the Rockets. They've been ordering thieves to steal Pokemon under the guise of trainers. With such measures, we hope to stop them. Sadly, this didn't work. Even Rockets are getting way too smart." she said.

First battle was the one between Misty and some random contestant with a pair of Goldeens. Two of his Pokemon fought as one, so Misty was forced to battle with two Pokemon at once. Her Staryu and Starmie had proven quite an opponent. The trainer stood no chance. Even though none of the trainers had an obvious advantage, Misty's Pokemon were cut above the ordinary water Pokemon. Clover remembered Red's explanation and considered the possibility Misty genuinely knew what she was doing.

Apparently, gym trainers were something else.

After a few more one-sided rounds, Clover was finally asked to approach the pool. She grabbed her Pokemon, went to the locker room and took her clothes off. The gym battles were all fought inside the pool, so contestants all had to swim and battle at the same time. She took her Pokeballs, leaving the safety of the locker room to approach the pool and the cheering crowd.

"Who is that?" somebody asked.

"Woah, she's quite cute." somebody else answered.

"I've never seen her around. Is she a rookie?" she overheard another voice. All of these voices have bothered her, she knew she had to leave an impression. It was easy to fight in Pewter. Brock was apparently neither as influential or popular as Misty, and he had no crowd while Misty had stands full of people.

As she approached the rim of the pool, a voice from the speakers announced her arrival.

"Our fifth contestant this day: Clover from Pallet City, known as an exceptional tactician and inventive user of Pokemon moves! Her favorite Pokemon is Bulbasaur!"

Crowd cheered for her, and she made a small nod.

"Clover will challenge Misty, the leader of this gym and fair daughter to our beloved mayor!"

"So, this is why she's so popular. No matter. Titles won't stop me." she said, taking her Ivysaur first. She jumped in the water, letting the Ivysaur out of the ball. However, as soon as she did her Ivysaur realized the water is too stinky because it started flailing around, trying to escape the water. Either it hated the water or was altogether a bad swimmer.

Clover remembered the tub in Pewter and how Bulbasaur hesitated to enter the tub before she called it. Now she regretted that she put her Pokemon in such predicaments.

"Ivysaur, return!" she uttered. Some of the people in crowd laughed, calling her a jester. Misty confidently held to her Staryu.

"Is this a stand-up comedy or a battle?" she asked.

"It's only a rookie mistake. Don't worry, it won't happen again. Go, Marill!" she let her Pokemon out of the ball. Now, Marill was a decent swimmer. However, one look at its face showed it was definitively not in the mood to fight. It looked absolutely disinterested and empty.

"Clover's Ivysaur didn't like swimming! Now, she called out Marill. But what's this? It doesn't seem ready to battle! Will Clover lose before she even started?"

She looked at her Pokemon, cursing her rash action. It was obvious Marill wouldn't even bother fighting. She had Beedrill; she could have sent that one. It flies, it wouldn't even touch the water. Instead, she wanted to rely on one Pokemon she couldn't rely on. Clover was always like this, that kind of behavior was always her biggest weakness.

Misty noticed this.

"That Pokemon is not obedient. Are you sure this is wise?" she asked.

"I'm not going to call them back two times in a row! Marill and I can do this!"

"Bravado won't win the battle. Staryu, use harden!" Misty ordered.

POKEMON BATTLE – CLOVER VS MISTY

Staryu's red crystal glittered and gleamed, making its whole body shine with same light. It seemed to be the same, but Clover knew something was different. She saw such move on TV when she was younger and knew it would be quite harder to break through its defenses. Hence, she had to think what to do. Clearly she couldn't check the moves – her Pokedex didn't like water. Luckily, she had analyzed Marill's moves before the actual battle started.

"I know my Marill has Rollout, Aqua Tail, Defense Curl and Tail whip. In such situations it might be wise to stack up on defense before actually entering the battle. Also, Defense Curl doubles the power of Rollout. Marill, use defense curl!" she ordered.

Marill threw her a glance over the shoulder, instead simply laying flat on the water surface.

"Marill, what are you doing?!" she asked.

"Marill." it cut her off.

Now even more people laughed. Misty looked at her with pity.

"This is enough. I won't allow you to mock me any longer! If you won't fight seriously, I will go all out and destroy you! Staryu, now, use your tackle attack!"

Marill closed its eyes, lazing on the water surface. As a consequence, it didn't expect a full on hit from the side. Staryu spun at high speed, hitting the Pokemon with strongest force it could muster. Marill slid over the water surface with such velocity it flew out of the pool, landing close the nearest wall. This definitively roused him up. The tiny blue mouse stared at Staryu with rage in its beady eyes.

"Marill!" it yelled.
"Staryu. Staryu!" Staryu answered.

Apparently it said something offensive. At the next moment Marill jumped to the water, turning around itself several times before it slammed Staryu over its surface so hard that the poor Pokemon almost cracked.

"Marill, what are you doing? You're supposed to do what I say!" Clover said.

Marill showed her the tongue, turning around, continuing swimming for fun. Misty rolled her eyes.

"Spare me from this disaster, Clover. Take this Pokemon back, else I will declare the whole battle void and you will lose!"

"No! He can still do this!"

"He won't obey. You're forcing him to fight, and it's fairly evident he doesn't respect you."

"If he won't respect me, I'll make him."

She scoffed.

"You're exactly like that troublesome idiot Ash. It won't work! Staryu, recover!"

As she ordered, Staryu's cracks mended and it was as battle ready as before. Clover clicked her tongue, unable to do anything as Staryu carried out another attack at the water mouse. There was nothing she could do to prevent this. Another tackle hit Marill's vulnerable spot and afterwards, it wasn't moving any longer.

"If you want to defeat me, you'll have to do much better than this." Misty said.

Clover never lost before, and she didn't plan to lose this time. She had Beedrill and was ready to use it. However, she knew Beedrill was only level ten. It didn't evolve since then, and Staryu seemed way too tough. However, she wouldn't buckle up, neither she would leave the challenge before it's over.

"Go, Beedrill!"

"Alright, so this is how it's going to be. Fair enough! Staryu, use water pulse!"

Staryu created a powerful vortex of water, a veritable whirlpool. The whirlpool turned into several pulsing rings of water turning around themselves. Beedrill tried outrunning the rings, but they surrounded it, crashing around the Pokemon. For a while, Beedrill was still flying in the air.

"Now, Beedrill, you can-"

She didn't complete the sentence. Beedrill hanged in the air for a little longer before it spun in the air as it fell, striking the water. It wasn't fit to fight no more.