AN: As always, please review. Hope you enjoy
June 15, 2021 (Petalburg City)
People tend to overlook Normal-type Pokemon. For the most part because of the sheer abundance of them, and it didn't help that when most people thought of the type they immediately link it with the accursed 90 accuracy Tackle attack.
But as if to spit in the face of such a claim the world brought Norman, the world's first Normal-type specialist (AN: even though Whitney came a generation earlier she's younger so canonically it'd be Norman) the first person to truly show the true extent of the versatility of Normal-type. People even speculated that he was Elite 4 level in terms of pure skill. And with all that fame and following, especially with the new publicized way of gym battles came one huge drawback, all your matches are public which means all your strategies as well. Daniel Todd was not going to let that go to slip past him.
In his mind, all such videos and public information were fair game, even though it gives an unfair advantage to the challenger, whom the gym leader would have almost no prior knowledge of. But he supposed that the job of gym leader meant they were ready and capable enough to adapt on the fly, but Daniel Todd was no average challenger. When he strategized he left no room for failure... at least that's what he liked to hope.
Even on the morning of his scheduled match with Norman, Daniel couldn't help but constantly second guess himself, riddling himself with "what-ifs" which in all honesty would only even come to play if he slipped up. The crowd settled in and the announcer did the intro, it was time. Daniel chose to go first today. He was going to make waves today.
"Introducing the Gym Leader Norman! The Normal-type specialist who set the bar for Normal-type trainers worldwide!"
The hype train the commentator was taking the audience on was not having the same effect on Daniel, in fact, it only increased the doubts in his plan.
"Wait, will this work? What if... NO NO NO don't doubt yourself now you fool! This is going to work and then you're going to be famous! Fame sounds nice..."
"And now, the first challenger for today! With 4 gym badges and a backing from Stone himself! Danielll Toddd from Mauville City!"
Right on cue, Daniel walked into the spotlight and towards the trainer's box. He saw Norman on the other side, confident as always.
"The rules, it's a 3v3, substitutions from both sides are allowed. As always let's have a fair match, Gym leader Norman please send out your first pokemon." the referee goes through the rules and blows his whistle.
"Blissey! It's showtime!" Norman calls out his first pokemon.
"As expected. So that means everything is going as planned, no reason to panic"
"Ok Vee, time to fight" Daniel brings out his Umbreon.
"Woah! That's quite an Umbreon, isn't it! It's spots are blue instead of yellow!" says the announcer leaning forward to get a better look at the shiny pokemon.
"But does that mean that the Umbreon can pull an early lead for Daniel? We'll just have to watch folks!"
"Tch didn't your mom ever say 'if you don't have anything good to say don't say anything at all' damn this guy"
"Vee start with Mean Look!" wanting to waste no more time, Daniel begins to implement his plan.
A cold stare from Umbreon caught hold of Blissey no longer allowing it to escape.
"A good move to stop us from using our ability, but that's not the only thing Blissey is known for, raise your defenses with Amnesia Blissey!" Norman quickly reroutes his plan to take advantage of his now trapped Blissey.
"Vee get close and hit it with Toxic!" Norman looked visibly shocked at this losing his composure for the first time in the match. Still unaware of the true extent of Daniel's planning.
"A good plan Daniel, But a status ailment isn't going to hinder us for long!"
"I know I know! I know it's temporary but it gives us time"
"Blissey, we have to get rid of this toxic, but first let's go with our own attack. Hyper Voice Blissey!"
An eardrum-breaking scream erupted from Blissey greatly disabling Umbreon who was writhing in pain.
However, it didn't last for long as the pain from the poison spreading through Blissey quickly caused it to stop attacking.
"Before you lose your chance! Sand-Attack!" Vee quickly started kicking sand in Blissey's direction.
"By now Blissey should be at least close to half health. But just to make sure..."
"Now that it's blinded go in for crunch!"
"Umbreon!" Vee ran and pounced on the large pink pokemon, biting into it's face.
"Blissey!" Screaming in pain the pokemon tried to push Umbreon off.
"Ok then, Blissey use Body Slam to kick Umbreon off! Then use Rest!" Norman had dealt with these kinds of strategies before, when the challenger would exploit the opening of the toxic running it's course. But this just meant he'd have to take care of the poison by sleeping instead.
Vee was thrown off by Blissey taking a bit of damage in the process, but this was all according to plan... Including the rest.
"Vee it's all according to plan, don't waste our two free turns! Work Up and Baton Pass!"
Norman was just coming to realize how much of his moves were being baited. He thought that the mean look was so that he couldn't switch Blissey to cure the toxic, but no, it was to bait him into using rest!
"Go! Hoola!" Hoola the Masquerain now came out with a boosted attack and special attack.
"Masquerain!" the bug type cried as it came out to battle.
"No time for a slow start! Quiver dance now!" Daniel was not going to let his initiative slip.
As the opposing Blissey slowly awoke from it's slumber Masquerain managed to up it's stats to +2 in special attack and +1 in attack, special defense, and speed. Meanwhile if one were to calculate the same for Blissey it was on +2 defense but -1 accuracy. And something told Norman that this wasn't going to cut it, even with it back at full health.
"Amnesia, again!"
"Infestation Hoola!" With Hoola's infestation, despite it not doing much direct damage, it would aid in chip damage.
"Blissey increase your evasion with Minimize!" Norman still seemed to be in the lead from an outsider's perspective but Norman knew there was only one reason Blissey was still in battle.
"The kid can't do much damage with my defenses so high. But he really just wants to use Blissey's lack of attacking power to capitalize on stat boosts"
"Hoola! Use Quiver Dance and then use Swift!"
"Has this kid thought of everything! Even using swift to negate the evasion increase!"
The stream of yellow stars quickly found it's mark on the mini-Blissey but due to it's absurdly high special defense it could hardly do much damage, however, damage was not what Daniel was going for.
"Now that you've found it use psych up!" called out the boy to his pokemon. The bug type wasted no time in executing his order.
And with Psych Up, Masquerain had successfully copied all of Blissey's stat changes as well, the +2 defense, the +1 evasion, and even the -1 accuracy from Vee's sand-attack.
Norman had never felt so cornered in his entire career. He had lost before, but this was not losing. The battle was decided the moment he'd put out his Blissey. His unchanging opening move had caused his downfall. Had he started with Slaking, or maybe Kengeskhan this would never have happened. While his Blissey would be able to tank the coming attacks without issue, the moment he tried to heal using rest he'd leave himself open to getting hit and knocked out and his other two pokemon wouldn't stand a chance. He'd been playing baseball when the game had been chess all along.
"Hoola! Use Bug Buzz!"
"Masquerain!" the eyeball pokemon began it's loud shriek attack.
"Blissey!" the pink pokemon could do nothing against it, while the evasion increase decreased the chances of getting hit with a direct attack, it couldn't help against the loud noise that was Bug Buzz.
"If I can't use Rest then I'll just have to heal another way!"
"Blissey use life dew!"
"Hoola! Toxic!"
Once again Norman was baffled at what to do. While life dew let him heal, albeit less health than rest, but without the disadvantage of having to sleep life dew couldn't cure toxic the way rest could. Daniel had thought of everything.
"Hoola use Mist and follow up with Haze!" Daniel was happy that he was in control of the match, but Blissey was taking too long to faint. And so with Mist, he made it impossible for his own stats to change, but since Haze would have set his own stats back to 0 if he hadn't used it it was more than a justified sacrifice, Haze now negated Blissey's evasion boost as well as it's defense.
"Hoola! It's time to finish this! Use Lunge and finish with Fell Stinger!"
Both trainers had long since stopped listening to the crowd around them, completely focused on the battle in front of them. But with the fainting of Blissey, they were both pulled out of their battle for a moment. All they could hear were the excited cheers of the crowd.
"...And Blissey is down! After that hard-fought battle Masquerain comes out victorious! Will Daniel be able to keep this up! Only time will tell folks!" the commentator was happily exclaiming the result of the bout.
"Return Blissey, you did well," Norman calls back his pokemon and looks at his opponent. Daniel was visibly relieved. Norman smiled, even if he ends up losing the kid had worked hard for this result, he'd deserve it.
"With that being said I'm not about to let you walk right over me!"
"Kangeskhan! Come on out!"
"Kangeskhan!" The large pokemon roared, ready for battle.
"Ok Hoola let's wrap this up! Stored Pow-"
"Kangeskhan Fake out!" Norman's command boomed the large pokemon quickly attacked and flinched it's tiny opponent making it incapable of attacking.
"Try again Hoola! Store-"
"Disable!" Norman once again stops Masquerain from attacking.
"What! He's matching my every move! Did I... underestimate him?"
"If we can't attack then go for Toxic!"
In his desperation, Daniel had failed to remember the lowered accuracy he'd been suffering. And that caused Toxic to miss. Which only increased his desperation.
"It was going so well! Did I miscalculate? Where?"
"Kangeskhan Safeguard, we don't want that toxic hitting us."
Norman meanwhile regained his confidence and continued the fight.
"Calm down Daniel! You still have the advantage, Stored Power may be disabled, but you still have other attacks!"
"Hoola Bug Buzz!"
"Sucker Punch Kangeskhan!"
The large pokemon once again quickly punches the bug pokemon away with it's priority move. However, the move Bug Buzz can attack from anywhere.
"Masquerain!" the shrill shriek of the tiny bug pokemon was enough to hurt people in the stands and it was certainly powerful enough to knock out the Kangeskhan in one hit.
"Kanges... khan" As the large pokemon fell Daniel felt a wave of relief, Hoola was badly hurt but still had one or two attacks left, as long as he played this right Daniel could get a clean win.
"Return Kangeskhan, have a good rest" Norman calmly pulled out his last Pokeball.
"The rest is up to you buddy, let's do this Slaking!"
"Slaking!" A large gorilla-esque pokemon emerged from the ball.
"Slaking!" It yawned as if ready to nap, but all his past opponents knew not to take it lightly.
"Hoola Bug Buzz!" Daniel debated if it was the right move or whether he should baton pass to another pokemon but he wanted to end it soon so he kept Hoola in.
Once again Hoola the Masquerain did her worst, but this time Slaking just stayed, not moving, not shouting in pain, despite the strong attack.
"Slaking! Rock Slide!"
Suddenly out of thin air large rocks formed and were looming above Hoola slowly but surely coming crashing down.
"Use agility to dodge and get close for one more Bug Buzz!"
The large rocks crashing down onto the field obscured everyone's view. But they could still hear Hoola's shrieky Buzz. However, that settled down and so did Hoola's voice.
"It's a double knockout! Challenger Daniel still has 2 pokemon left and therefore is the winner!"
With the call of the referee, the crowd erupted into cheers. Nobody had ever seen a gym leader, especially one of Norman's caliber lose like this. The challenger hadn't even revealed his last pokemon and his first was hardly hurt!
When both trainers walked to the center to do the obligatory handshake both of them only thought of one thing.
"I need to get stronger!"
Daniel's Team:
Fin (Swampert)
Mikey (Charizard)
Vee (Umbreon)
Hoola (Masquerain)
Trip (Breloom)
Smiles (Snorunt)
AN: Please let me know which format I do better, the diary entry ones or the story-esque ones. It'll help a lot. Review and Enjoy