| Team IGNIS:
Ivysaur ("Basil", Lv25); Golbat ("Krow", Lv27); Pikachu (Lv25); Wishiwashi ("Wallow", Lv13);

| Team TERRA:
Wartortle ("Squirty", Lv19); Butterfree ("Petal", Lv12); NidoranF ("Ranne", Lv13); NidoranM (?, Lv?)

| Team HANA:
Charmeleon ("Emma", Lv21); Beedrill ("Mel", Lv18); Abra ("Yellow", Lv15); Bellsprout ("Bell", Lv15)

"Observe your Pikachu's battle and step it at the right time to take over its reigns!"

Ignis never really thought too much about her new life parodying the Pokémon games. Alongside this whole prophecy 'another world' trope thing, she figured she'd just score her way through each town, each village, each city, each of their respective gyms. Leeroy Jenkins was a memetic name she admired, simply because rushing ahead into taking offensive was easier than planning, and she wholeheartedly agree with that.

Having a test made for her, in order to earn her badge, however... well, she didn't mind that. It made things more fun for her, somewhat.

But the problem was...

"Pikachu," she called, but the rodent scowled at the girl before facing her opponent again. "Acchaa... guess she's set on not taking orders in battle."

"Don't bother with it," Lt. Surge called. "Every now and then we get these individuals who play alone. Your task is to watch your Pikachu's battle, and step in at the right time with a tactic that it will agree with." He grinned. "That is, if it lasts at all before Rai wipes it out! Rai, Thunder!" Lt. Surge said.

His Raichu nodded and released a violent torrent of thunder at the pre-evolved rodent, who was taken off-guard by the sudden attack but not too affected by it.

"Pikachu!" Ignis called.

"Not yet, Ignis!" Lt. Surge interrupted. "Watch how it battles, watch how I battle, and think up of something. Naturally, 'at the beginning' isn't the answer!"

"R-right!"

Pikachu scowled and released her own lightning bolt at the Raichu, who dodged with ease. "Ppeh...!" She then scurried towards her opponent, tensing her body to tackle the Raichu. However, again, the Raichu simply hopped out of the way. "Pika!"

"Impatience isn't going to get you anywhere," the Electric-type expert lectured. "Rai, Thunder again!"

As Hana and Phoebe watched, the blonde tilted her head confusedly. "...I don't get it. He's the Electric-type Gym Leader, am I not wrong?" she asked.

"That he is," Phoebe said. "Although I'm not exactly sure yet what he's doing now, myself."

A scoff came from their side, so they turned to see Visquez seated near them. "How disappointing! You're an Elite Four and you can't even tell? You let me down!"

Although they felt slightly attacked, the two shrugged it off and stared at her. "Oh, um. Can you explain please?" Hana asked. "I'd like to know, for future reference."

"Uh." The white-haired teen blinked before clearing her throat. "A-and give away the lieutenant's battle strategies? Of course I can't do that! No!"

"Oh, I see..."

Phoebe stifled a laugh. "Sure."

"D-do you doubt me!?"

Hana blinked. "...ohhhh..." She turned back to the battle, realizing that Visquez herself might not have known too and was putting up fronts. "...oh, well. I guess I'll just have to ask Ms. Ignis later, when she figures it out."

Back on the battlefield, Ignis was a bit worried. No, she was really worried.

Strategies were an important part of battling, and although she never planned much more than 'keep attacking' back when she was in her world, she always wondered how real Pokémon battles should be. Planning and strategizing was never useless - in fact, the way one battles and cleverly uses other factors to their advantage can help turn the tides of battles easily.

She knew and understood the important of analyzing others, of being able to counter them. There was just one problem, however.

Ignis wasn't the type of person who was into the analyzing part of strategizing.

The only skill she really had was to think of ways to go about her offense and test them out. If they don't work, abandon the ship and start anew. If they work, spam them. Ignis was not a strategist - she was a (non)-professional straw-grasper. Grasping at whatever she can, that's basically how she aims for victory.

And here, she was supposed to analyze both her acquaintance Pikachu and Lt. Surge? (And his Raichu.) That was absurd.

If that wasn't already troubling enough, the lieutenant's only used attack so far had been Thunder. Electric-type moves against an Electric-type opponent? Adding confusion to her head wasn't really nice of him.

But god damn it, I'm supposed to figure out what he's thinking, huh? she thought. Like hell I can do that, but fine!

Retreating deeper into her thoughts, she promptly narrowed her eyes at the Gym Leader.

So I know he's an army guy. However... he's not just any musclehead, that's for sure. While fiction might sometimes, or often, depict army people as people with nothing but offense on their minds, logic wasn't too hard to apply to them. He definitely knows more about planning out attacks than I do. Then she glanced at his Raichu. And I bet he's trained that Raichu extremely well too. Pikachu, on the other hand...

She gave her acquaintance a brief look, a sigh escaping her lips. Old me would be so proud. Arrogant and focuses only on attacking. That won't go too far in reality, though.

Looking back at Lt. Surge again, she couldn't help but wonder, however, what he was up to. Still... an Electric-type move against an Electric-type Pokémon? He sure does weird stuff, but that's definitely part of some sort of strategy. Ignis watched as Surge's Raichu shot another of many frequent Thunder at Pikachu. If only I studied up on the meta game and that stuff... even though I don't get any of its jargon.

"P-pi... ppikah!" the Pikachu groaned, snapping her out of her thoughts, as she rushed at the Raichu again, only for it to dodge much easily.

...no, hold on. Ignis blinked. Somehow, she felt as if Pikachu had gotten... slower.

As the ravenette narrowed her eyes and put a bit more focus on the electric rodent, Pikachu grunted as it continued its attempt to tackle the Raichu, but her decreasing speed made it impossible to even dream of reaching the evolved Pokémon.

Ignis frowned. So far, Pikachu's been hit a number of times by Raichu's Electric-type moves, but... The girl calmly exhaled, trying to calm her mind. There's no reason they should've taken that much of a toll against Pikachu, unless his Raichu's, like, I dunno, level 100 or something compared to Pikachu's... I think the Pokémon Center said an estimated level of 25?

Over and over, Pikachu tried to tackle the Raichu, and few times, she was hit back with a lightning attack from Lt. Surge's Rai.

It was only when Pikachu faltered slightly and electricity sparkled out of her cheek pouches that Ignis realized what was going on.

"Seriously...?" she whispered. It was a mistake on her part - upon coming to this world, Pokémon battling didn't seem to be too different from the games. Although certain factors, like turn-based battling, are now gone due to them being mere gameplay mechanics, she didn't think there'd be anything else to consider.

However, what the girl failed to take into account was the importance of lore within the Pokémon universe, as well as another major media source - the Pokémon anime. For the most part, she dismissed it due to the show simply revolving around a forever ten years old kid, Ash, but that didn't erase her memories of the early episodes and seasons.

Pikachu may be able to hold a shit ton of electricity, but it has a limit as well, and that was what brought on Ash's Pikachu's defeat during his battle with Lt. Surge.

Now that she thought about it, within this entire battle, her acquainted Pikachu hasn't even discharged her accumulated electricity once. On top of all the small damage she had sustained, the heart-tailed rodent also had to endure the harmful amount of electricity she was storing.

"I- I think she's realized something..." Hana whispered. "But what..."

"Does it matter? She can't turn the tides regardless," Visquez said. "I doubt knowing the lieutenant's strategy will help at all."

"So you've realized too?" Hana asked. "I still can't tell at all..."

The white haired girl flinched. "Uh... well. J-just keep watching, yeah!"

Phoebe chuckled. "Ohh, I think I get it now," she said. The other two turned to her, surprised. "I'm not too well-versed in Electric-type Pokémon, so it took me some time, but I think I get the gist of what's going on now."

"S-seriously...?" Visquez muttered, before she looked back at the battlefield. "...g-good! Glad you're not all talk about being an Elite Four, then!"

Hana turned back towards Ignis, worried. "Darn it... I suppose I must keep analyzing the battle, then."

Meanwhile, Ignis bit her lips. Now that she's gotten a grasp on why Pikachu was struggling, she had to now think of a counter strategy on the go, keeping her temporary partner waiting as she attempted to dodge the opponent's attacks.

"Oh ho, that look on your face... you're racking up an idea, aren't you?" Lt. Surge asked. "I guess you've figured out what Rai has been doing, haven't you?"

Ignis nodded. "Don't think you can keep doing that. I'll be taking control of this battle!" she said.

"Big words, but with no action to show your results!" the Electric-type expert retorted excitedly. "Bring it on then!"

She growled in her head. Don't let his words get to you, this is all part of battling! She closed her eyes briefly, and opened them up again after taking deep breathes, directing a fierce gaze at Pikachu. "Pikachu! I got an idea!" the ravenette worded carefully.

The Pikachu jotled slightly and jumped a fair distance backwards. "Pikka!" she hissed, seeming annoyed but willing to humor her temporary partner.

Nodding, Ignis pointed upwards. "Clear up your electricity! Lights off!" she said.

"Hm?" Lt. Surge and his Raichu raised an eyebrow, while Pikachu arrowed her eyes for a while. Then, getting a clear image of what the girl had been planning, Pikachu quickly released all of her pent up electricity upwards, hitting the lights illuminating the stadium and short-circuiting them.

Darkness took over the entire building, save for the brief split seconds of Pikachu's electricity.

"W-what the heck!?" Visquez screamed. "T-that's foul! That's foul, isn't it!?"

"Legal and acceptable!" Phoebe replied loudly, partly to let Ignis know it was okay.

Grinning, Ignis clenched a fist and pointed forward. "Now! Slam the enemy and keep attacking it!" she said.

Her eyes not requiring any adjustment to the darkness, Pikachu grinned as well in realization of her opportunity and rushed forward towards Lt. Surge's Raichu.

A loud tackling noise resounded throughout the area seconds later, followed by the sound of a Pokémon collapsing.

Ignis found herself smiling, believing it to be the tide turning in her favor. Eyes facing forward, although she couldn't see Lt. Surge, she could feel his presence far ahead and the girl directed a grin towards him. "Prepare to be defeated!"

"That was pretty clever, Ignis," Lt. Surge's voice echoed back. "I'm quite surprised how quickly you came up with a strategy after just figuring out what I had been doing. However... you've made one wrong judgement."

"Wh... what?" The ravenette heard the sound of fingers snapping, and suddenly, the lights turned back on. Everyone noticed a large number of Pokémon suddenly floating in the air - somewhere between ten to twenty Magnemite and Magneton were keeping the stadium illuminated without interfering with the battle.

Meanwhile, on the ground... the man's Raichu stood proudly with its arms crossed, a condescending smirk on its face.

Near her side, however, Pikachu lay on the ground, collapsed and unable to battle.

"Pikachu!?" Ignis yelled. She rushed over to the collapsed Electric-type, who stirred slightly but couldn't scowl at anyone.

"Visquez! Backup light source!" Lt. Surge yelled.

"R-right!" The white haired girl got up and rushed over to a wall in the room, opening up some sort of slot and pulling a lever down. Light returned to the building, through different areas in the ceiling, but nevertheless prompting all the floating Steel-types to no longer be substitute sources.

Hana and Phoebe reunited with the ravenette, who looked up at Lt. Surge. "Ack... guess Pikachu's not strong enough yet, huh?"

"Ms. Ignis!" Hana called. "Are you okay? I-is Pikachu okay?"

"Relax, relax, s'probably not too bad," Ignis replied and picked the rodent up. "Just needs some good healing. Usual stuff."

The blonde sighed with relief, nodding, while Phoebe forced a smile. "Well... you did your best, Ignis."

Chuckling, Ignis shook her head. "Was a sudden challenge, so I really just did what I could at the moment. I don't even have much experience with this fella, so..."

"Gotta give yourself a bit more credit than that, lassie!" Lt. Surge said. "I sometimes issue challenges like these to other Trainers as well, and it's not often they come up with something as quick as you did. However, like I said, you made a mistake. Tell me what you figured out and what you intended to do."

Ignis nodded. "So, obviously, Pikachu was starting to slow down and weaken," she said. "I realized that this is because you've been filling her up with electricity, to the point of overloading her body, somewhat."

"Huh? But Pikachu can contain well around a hundred thousand volt in its body, or so I've heard," Hana said. "I find it unlikely that a few shots of electricity can fill a Pikachu up that fast, much less overloading one..."

"That's not wrong, but you've got to keep in mind," Lt. Surge began, "Raichu are more powerful than Pikachu. They may not be as popular or well-known as Pikachu, but outside of reception, they are of higher class than Pikachu in almost every way."

"...oh! So that's why!" Hana realized.

"Yeah, that's why Pikachu was weakening despite only taking Electric-type attacks from his Raichu," Ignis continued. "So I decided that to take back the battle, I need to propose something that allows Pikachu to be at an advantage." She sighed. "Considering she lived in forests, I figured she'd be almost like an assassin in the dark, and had her release all that pent up electricity to destroy the lights."

"Ooh, that sounds like a rather cool idea," Phoebe said. "But still, how did... ah, I see."

"W-what, you get it?" Visquez asked as she ran up to them. "I mean, uh. Yeah, exactly!"

The Gym Leader rolled his eyes. "You don't get jack shit too, do you?"

"Uh... I do...?"

Hana thought back to Lt. Surge's explanations and widened her eyes. "I see! Because Raichu are evolved forms of Pikachu, if Pikachu can see perfectly fine in the dark, so can Raichu!"

Ignis sighed. "Yeah, maybe I couldn't think properly because I had to rush my thoughts..."

"No, actually, that's not always the case," Phoebe said, to their confusion. "Although Raichu are evolved forms of Pikachu, it's still only a corruption caused by evolutionary stones," she said. "It's entirely possible for any Pikachu to be born and raised outside a forest, and thus any Raichu having weaker night vision. Rather, recalling your Pikachu's habitats and possible abilities so quickly is impressive."

"Right. I'm pretty sure you also considered Rai being able to see in the dark," Lt. Suruge said. "But that's where you made a mistake. You made an assumption, didn't you?"

"Yyyyyeah, maybe... yeah, I kinda did," Ignis said. "I thought that since you've been to war, maybe Raichu was one of your war partners, and perhaps at some point it may have adjusted more to the light and explosions and stuff than the dark..."

"...that's a lot of oddly specific assumptions," Visquez noted.

"Covering different possibilities is something I like to do," Ignis replied.

"Also a habit that can affect your choices and battles," the Electric-type expert added, to her chagrin. "Nevertheless, you did pretty well this challenge, a lot better than I expected."

"...yeah, no, I'm not accepting a badge just because I impressed you," Ignis said with a sigh.

"What? No, of course not," Lt. Surge said. "That'd be an insult to both your honor and my position as a Gym Leader," he said. "Just wanted to say that I'm willing to treat you to something, whatever, tomorrow. Long as it's not too expensive, yeah?"

"You'll treat us to breakfast?" Hana asked. "That is... that would be a great honor, truely."

"Hey, not you!" Visquez said. "Only that girl, of course! You and her did nothing!" she said, glaring at the blonde and Phoebe, who laughed.

"You're coming to eat with us tomorrow too?" the Ghost-type expert asked.

"Hell no!"

Lt. Surge sighed. "Visquez, shut your yapping. You're being loud." He turned back to Hana, grinning. "As for that, well, sure. I don't mind treating you and anyone else as well, long as you're friends of Ignis. We have lots of catching up to do, after all!"

Ignis smiled. "That's... pretty nice. Gotta thank you for that. Anyways... I should probably head back to the center now, huh?" She glanced down at the Pikachu in her arms. "Gotta get her healed up quick."

"Righty ho. And I'll close the gym for tonight and go get my interrupted sleep," Lt. Surge said. "What say we meet in front of center at eight tomorrow?"

"Sounds fine to me. I'll see you tomorrow then!" Ignis bowed courteously and headed towards the exit, with Hana and Phoebe. The other two waved to the man as he retreated to the back of the gym, and also to the white haired girl following her leader as she stuck out her tongue at the group of three.

Within minutes of walking, they reached the Pokémon Center once more and entered the building.

"Man, I knew I was probably going to lose, but... still a bummer," Ignis groaned. "Working with someone who's set on not listening is pretty difficult, huh?"

"I suppose so," Hana said, "but at the very least, this may be the start of more cooperation from Pikachu. Wouldn't you think so?"

The ravenette smiled. "...I guess."

"So you're back, huh?" a voice asked. The three turned to see Terra approaching them in her nightwear, groggy eyes staring through their skulls. Obviously she was tired and sleepy, but after waking up from a short nap, the girl probably got all grumpy she was left behind and waited for them.

Ignis blinked. "Uh... yeah. Yeah, we're back," she said. "We - uh, I, went to challenge the Gym Leader here. Surge was wild! ...and I lost."

"Geez, don't keep me sleeping and take me too next time..." the brunette muttered. "Although I appreciate the consideration... wait, you what?"

"She, uh, she lost," Phoebe said. "I mean, she tried her best! It was a bit... more complicated, I guess."

"...right." Terra sighed. "I'll get an explanation out of you girls soon enough, so... how about we have dinner?" she asked.

The others blinked. "Dinner? Now? It's night time..." Ignis said, but Hana suddenly became rather thrilled about it.

"Now that I think about it, we haven't had a proper meal in the proper times recently!" the blonde said, turning to the ravenette. "Ms. Ignis, this is because you keep taking naps and messing up your time schedule. I bet you'd have gone to sleep without even having dinner!"

"...how have you been staying healthy at all?" Phoebe asked.

Ignis scratched her head. "Uhh... well. Ahaha. Funny me?" I did skip meals a lot back then and kept myself to two small meals daily, she thought before Terra pulled her over. "Uh oh."

"Don't 'uh oh' me, we're having dinner and girl talk!" Terra berated her.

"Eh, but-"

"Not open for discussion!" the brunette snarled.

"Yes ma'am."

Hana and Phoebe exchanged glances, before they followed after the two as well.

"This is for the best after all," the blonde noted.

"Finally! Girls' talk!' the Ghost-type expert cheered.

And of course, the meal that followed was great, but... Ignis wasn't sure if she could fully ignore having eaten Krabby meat shredded Tangela vines.

Childhood, rest in peace... she had to keep telling herself.

| Team IGNIS:
Ivysaur ("Basil", Lv25); Golbat ("Krow", Lv27); Pikachu (Lv25); Wishiwashi ("Wallow", Lv13);

| Team TERRA:
Wartortle ("Squirty", Lv19); Butterfree ("Petal", Lv12); NidoranF ("Ranne", Lv13); NidoranM (?, Lv?)

| Team HANA:
Charmeleon ("Emma", Lv21); Beedrill ("Mel", Lv18); Abra ("Yellow", Lv15); Bellsprout ("Bell", Lv15)