A/N: So, for what I have put before Hugh challenges Elesa, I took a look at the clothing designs from Project Runway All Stars, season 1 episode 5.
After they have all ridden on the Ferris Wheel, Nate and Iris have gone to the Pokemon Center to get proper care so that their bodies can heal better. Once that was done, all four of made a bee-line for Elesa's new work environment, which appeared to be a runway modeling area. It was mostly dark aside from neon lights and a lot of people were excited.
"Hello everybody! Welcome to the Nimbasa City's 16th bi-annual fashion contest! What we have is for today's theme is what used to be casual clothing transformed into crazy creative fashion attempts. Let's see who will win the $100,000 dollars!" The series of woman had included a pink knit top and grey lacy shorts showing a lot of leg, a black dress made of leather with black and white stripes for the skirt and a big yellow zipper in the front like a rock star princess, what used to be a navy blue skirt were now skin tight pants along with a single strap rainbow top going along her shoulders. The cameras were flashing and everyone was cheering with each model that presented herself. Nate and Iris were entertained, especially Rosa as she was a huge fan of fashion. Hugh on the other hand just raised his right foot up and down with his arms crossed, impatient for his badge. After a particularly...risque fashion choice that involved a long tie-dye skirt and bikini top, the next like a black business suit went from stiff and boring to classy and eye-catching. Everyone especially loved the striped silk dress that was mostly black and white vertically striped, it did have some pink with white polka dots around the hips and horizontal stripes of white and yellow on the sides of her rib cage. And finally, the one everyone was waiting for...Elesa Parker! The most prominent piece of her design was her extremely poofy electric yellow puffer jacket around her body and arms, going down to her hips. The dress underneath is a two piece bright yellow and blue short skirt and crop top, connected by a white plastic clip with a button where her belly button would be. She wore new headphones with spikes pointing up and a red visor over her eyes.
Once all of the females have made their round and stood in line near the back of the gym, the announcer spoke, "Alright, the votes are in! The winner of this bi-annual contest is...Grace Roth!" Everyone cheered as she had a white sash with the word 'winner', was placed around her, the woman so happy as Elesa, a small smile on her face, handed Grace a trophy signifying her victory. She waved to everyone, crying with sheer joy. It was only after that the models have left, all but the gym leader and everything was over, did he call out to her.
"Hey, Elesa!" Even with her headphones, the model turned to Hugh who got up on the end of the catwalk. "I've waited for long enough! I didn't interrupt this contest so as to not ruin the event, but now that everything is over, I challenge you to a gym battle!"
"Hugh, that's Elesa! Show some respect!" Rosa scolded at him but he ignored her. Her expression showed no change as she faced towards him.
"It's alright Rosa. I can take care of this." The gym leader assured. She looked him down and up. "Hmmm, there's something about you mister. I can see in your eyes. So much...negativity. Tell me, why do you wish to challenge me with such aggressiveness?" She spoke with a voice as blank as her face.
"My goal is to become strong enough to beat Team Plasma, and fulfill a promise."
"Oh really? Team Plasma must've done something to you personally to make you this mad, right?"
"You could say that, yes. But don't try to preach to me about quelling my anger. Roxie already gave me a speech about it."
"Hmmm, her words may have tempered you, but I can still see it. Your body almost oozes with frustration, barely contained simply from consideration of others, am I correct?"
"Yeah, and it's for a lot of reasons. And the one right now is you not accepting my challenge right now. So come on, let's battle!" He yelled again, wanting the fight to start. She sighed.
"As you wish." To Hugh's surprise, the catwalk started to descend to the ground, and he jumped off. Once the runway, and the floor around it dipped a few inches below the ground, the floor split open to reveal a rising dirt based battle arena for Pokemon. "Tell me, which gym leader am I to you?"
"The fourth."
"Alright then. Let's get things started." Grabbing her jacket, she threw it off, her long black dyed braided hair whipping around from the motion. Once she was handed her six Pokemon, the field has been set and the two people stood on their respective ends. A model in a blue and black dress came in to referee.
"The gym battle between Elesa Parker the gym leader and...what's your name?"
"Hugh Brooks." He answered.
"Hugh Brooks is about to begin! Each trainer will use six Pokemon, and the match is over when all Pokemon on one side are defeated. Only the challenger may switch Pokemon! Let the battle begin!"
"Go, Jolteon." The electric variety of the eeveelutions appeared, a yellow and white spiky canine of a Pokemon.
"Krookodile, go get them!" Elesa was not surprised in the slightest to see a ground type on the first go. He growled at the Lightning Pokemon to intimidate it.
"Typical. Signal Beam." The gym leader went first. A rainbow colored ball appeared in front of Jolteon's open mouth, and fired it with a blast. But Hugh wasn't one to let an attack just hit him.
"Dig!" Clawing into the ground, the incoming attack missed its mark, exploding against the ground.
"Jump and use Hidden Power." Jeaping up into the air, she formed light blue orbs around herself, and fired where Krookodile burst through, creating another explosion. But apparently he was strong enough to push through the explosion and ram his body into the small creature. Jolteon yelped as she flew into one of the lights, breaking it before crashing into the ground, with the ground/dark type landing near by. Jolteon was down already.
"Jolteon is unable to battle! The winner is Krookodile!"
"Ha, take that!" Hugh boasted, but her face remained neutral.
"Ground types are hardly a problem. Go, Raichu." The evolved form of Pikachu, this mouse was mostly oval shaped with longer ears and a long black tail with a lightning bolt symbol on the end, the point not there to show it was female. "Focus Blast." Forming an orb of fighting energy, the Mouse Pokemon launched it at the hurt Krookodile.
"Come on, dodge it!" But try as he could, the blast tagged him and created an explosion. It showed Krookodile was defeated.
"Krookodile is unable to battle! The winner is Raichu!"
"Raichu!" She said her name in triumph.
"Grr. Krookodile, return. Pyro, I choose you!" Once his fire starter was out, Elesa continued with her offense. Thunderbolt."
"Raiiichuuuuuu!" She yelled as she fired a stream of lighting which struck against the Mega Fire Pig Pokemon hard as he yelled in pain. However, underneath the zapping energy surrounding him, a red outline glowed from his skin, and the fire around his head exploded with power.
"Emboooooar!" He yelled at the top of his lungs, flexing off the Thunderbolt.
"Yeah! Now use Heat Crash!" Jumping up into the air, Pyro surrounded himself with fire as bright the sun, before gravity took effect and he began to fall towards the electric type.
"Dodge it!" Elesa requested. But even when he did move out of the way, the way Pyro crashed into the arena caused the fire to be pushed out with so much force Raichu couldn't help but be fried from the splash damage of the attack. Even though she wasn't crushed under the fire starter's immense weight she was nonetheless overwhelmed as she tumbled into a wall, unconscious and burnt.
"Raichu is unable to battle! The winner is Pyro!"
"He's doing real good!" Iris commented with glee.
"Sure, but he's not going to have an easy time." Nate told her. "She's going to have a consistent speed advantage, and she's going to be more level headed about this match compared to him. I can only see him winning in one possible way."
"And that is?"
"Brute Force."
"Assuming he can catch up to her first." Rosa sarcastically chuckled.
"Raichu, return. Ampharos, go." A yellow kangaroo like Pokemon appeared. "Use Thunderbolt." Once she generated the power necessary for the move, the Light Pokemon fired another electrical blast that shocked Pyro again, but this time as he groaned the pain was too much as he lost his blaze aura, and collapsed on the ground.
"Pyro is unable to battle! The winner is Ampharos!"
"I wonder if this will be just back and forth?" The dragon tamer asked.
"Likely. He'll likely going to find some way to attack, and then she'll KO his Pokemon before hers are done. Eh, battles happen like that on occasion. You can't complain." Hugh's best friend shrugged.
"Pyro, return. Stoutland, use Retaliate!" Charging ahead, he rammed into the Light Pokemon hard, the foe grunting from the impact. But even with a blow like that she didn't faint as she simply fell back. "Pounce on her and use Ice Fang!"
"Focus Blast." Stoutland was able to smother the electric type with his really furry body, but as his fangs began to glow neon blue, Ampharos formed a ball of fighting energy on her forehead, and shoved it into the Big-Hearted Pokemon's face. An explosion erupted in between them, and when it settled, both Pokemon were down for the count.
"Both Pokemon are unable to battle! So it's a tie!"
"At least that bucked the trend." Rosa giggled.
"Ampharos, return. Emolga, go." The flying squirrel version of Pikachu came out, and Hugh smirked as he knew what to do.
"Magneton, go get them!" His trio of Magnemites have appeared.
"Electroball." Elesa went first. Forming a ball of electricity in her arms, she fired it at the electric steel type. Even though the attack didn't do a lot of damage, the buzzing from Magneton was notable.
"You use Electroball as well!" Using its magnets to forma similar ball of electrical power, it launched the attack which Emolga gladly took, absorbing it with no damage.
"What?!"
"Motor Drive. Emolga can absorb electric attacks and become faster. Electro Ball." Going on the attack again, flying much faster this time, she fired it into the back of the Magnet Pokemon, creating a staticy explosion.
"Counter with Metal Sound!" With its magnets glowing grey, the Pokemon created a high pitched sound, forcing Emolga to cover her ears in pain, thus falling to the ground.
"Now use Flash Cannon!" Magneton formed a ball of white energy before firing a stream of grey energy, which caught the deafened Pokemon off guard and dealt huge damage with a powerful explosion. Emolga cried out in agony before crashing to the ground, defeated.
"Emolga is unable to battle! The winner is Magneton!"
"Hugh's finally in the lead!" Iris cheered. Nate said nothing, not believing his friend is out of the woods yet.
"Emolga, return. Eelektross, go." A floating dark blue eel with arms and a cream colored underbelly finally was summoned. Her ace.
"Flash Cannon!"
"Counter with Flamethrower." As Magneton charged up its attack, the Elefish Pokemon expelled a stream of fire which countered the steel type attack, creating an explosion in the middle of the field. "Brick Break." Soaring through the smoke, the floating electric type coming in with a white glowing claw, and managed to strike against the electric/steel type. Despite the small damage of the two previous Electro Balls, this is what did the Magnet Pokemon in as it dropped heavily to the ground, shut down.
"Magneton is unable to battle! The winner is Eelektross!" Hugh growled.
"Magneton, return. Sigilyph, use Psybeam!" Summoning his Avianoid Pokemon, the cryptic creature shot forth a rainbow beam from its eye. Even though it managed to land a hit first due to its superior speed, the psychic attack didn't seem to do anything too bad as the electric type remained afloat.
"Thunderbolt." Even while it was being bombarded by psychic energy, the Elefish Pokemon generated jolts around herself before blasting against the Psybeam, and thus was able to overpower the attack, and zap the flying/psychic type for super effective damage. It fell in one move.
"Sigilyph is unable to battle! The winner is Eelektross!"
"Dang it!" The increasingly irritated challenger cursed as he returned his Pokemon. "Azumarill, go get them!" With his final Pokemon, it was clear who was going to win this. Even as the Aqua Rabbit Pokemon gained a white outline and powerful strength thanks to Huge Power, this was just a move of desperation. "Use Double Edge!"
"Counter with Brick Break." With another white glowing claw, Eelektross was able to halt the incoming rabbit's attack, despite the attack boost. As soon the recoil set in, it was game set match.
"Thunderbolt." Zapping the water type, the Aqua Rabbit Pokemon fell onto her back, having fainted with a painful moan.
"Azumarill is unable to battle, Eelektross is the winner, and therefor the victor of this match goes to Gym Leader Elesa!" The referee declared. As Eelektross floated to her, she petted her ace.
"Thank you. You did well." She said so with a small smile.
"Oh, I hope he won't take this too hard." Iris felt sympathetic for her friend.
"He will." Nate sighed in pity. After returning his Pokemon and thanking his Azumarill, he dropped down to the floor on his hands and knees, pounding the ground.
"What's wrong with me? That's the second time I've been beaten first! I'm training as hard as I can but...I'm not strong enough." Hot angry tears escaped from his eyes. "Amy...please forgive your brother for being so weak."
"Hugh Brooks." He heard his name being called. He looked up to see Elesa standing in front of him, her towering height making her imposing along with her blank expression. "You suffer a great burden, and from what I heard, you try to be strong for your sister Amy. Tell me, why is your passion to be strong so intense?" Looking down towards the ground again, he explained to her,
"Team Plasma took my sister's purrloin away, and I wasn't able to save him. I tried to but I failed. Purrloin was a gift from our grandfather before he passed away, so we cherished that cat with all our hearts. I vowed to become strong, so that I can retrieve our pet back, and beat every Team Plasma grunt if I have to before that." Taking a moment to think about it, Elesa responded,
"I can see how you would take this very personally. Team Plasma has hurt you and your sister very bad, so you're driven by revenge to both take them down and take back what they stole. A tragic story, but you shouldn't let that dictate who you are. Since I have very little emotion, I can't really tell you how you should manage yours. But one thing I can tell you is that the past is the past. It may hurt, but what's important is what you do with the future. Your goal is admirable, but it's up to you on how to achieve it. How do you envision yourself in your goal?" Hugh was silent as he contemplated on the question, before replying,
"A hero. I want to come back home, give Purrloin back to Amy, and she'd say, 'You're my hero'."
"And do you think she'll say that if you charge in with no plan first and act like a berserker?"
"..." He didn't say anything.
"Think about it. Think about how you want to be a hero to Amy." Elesa then left. Hugh was breathing heavily, having his character broken down again by another gym leader. He couldn't be that bad, right?" He felt two hands on his shoulders, and he looked to his sides to see Nate on his right and Iris on his left.
"Are you going to be okay?" Nate asked his best friend. Gulping, he swiped his eyes with his sleeve and coughed.
"Yeah, I'll be fine."
"However we rest up and take your Pokemon to the Pokemon Center?" The dragon tamer suggested.
"Axew." Iris's Tusk Pokemon agreed.
"Sure." Hugh said, his voice sounding empty and tired. As they helped him up and exited the gym, Rosa had an idea.
"Oh yeah! Hey guys, I know what can help you guys become stronger!"
"What?" Nate inquired.
"I could give you guys a week of training with the added help of vitamins, along with TMs and items. That way you can increase their maximum potential and be able to attain your dreams easier." Hearing that made Hugh face her directly.
"Please, help me become stronger. I must become stronger. So that I can be a proper hero for Amy." Rosa smiled.
"Sure."
A/N: I'm not sure if Hugh was OOC in telling Elesa his reasons, but I figured that with how well I wrote Elesa in the last story of Ash B&W, I wanted to do this again. Tell me what you think and the battle.