Chapter 14: Crestlight Gym Battle
In the dark Crestlight City, it is now raining as Ash and Alice walk towards the gym, Ash is now using his own towel to clean the rain from his body and he complains, "Geez...this city sure gives me some Dark feelings. The rain and the gloomy buildings...it is making me a little depressed."
"This is the Crestlight City after all, the darkest place in the Rikoto Region." Alice says. "And if you are afraid of the dark now, then how are you going to face Damon now? He is a Dark Type user and we all seen how his Werehide did back in the ghost house."
"That won't stop me from taking on this challenge." Ash says with a determined tone as Pikachu cheers for him. Alice giggles and says, "Now that is the determination that I want to see."
As they are inside the gym, they find that there are a lot of doors in front of them. "Great, so which room is the battlefield?"
"I don't know. But I guess it is the challenge that we need to do before facing Damon." Alice says. "We should check around the places."
As Ash and Alice are searching around the rooms, Damon is standing at the battlefield until he feels a presence behind him. "You know, after getting scared from you every time in the Unova Region, I don't think it is going to scare me now."
He turns around and smiles at the woman in front of him, he says, "Good to see you again, Delia. I was quite surprised that instead of Ash, you are the first one that arrives here."
"And your style of darkness hasn't changed as well." Delia says as she comes out of the darkness. "Are you able to contact your brother yet?"
Damon says, "No, but I am not going to know what he is doing right now. Anyway, are you here to watch your son being defeated by me?"
"Oh trust me, my son is very strong, I am sure that he can beat you and earn your badge without any problem." Delia smirks back at Damon.
"We'll see about that." Just then, they see Ash and Alice entering the room and Delia decides to stay hidden in the darkness. Ash says, "I hope this is the right room..."
"Yeah. It is easy to get lost in the dark place like this gym..." Alice mutters.
"So you made it here." Damon says as he walks towards the two of them. Ash says, "Finally, we made it..."
Damon nods and says, "Good. You were a great help to solving the crime in the Blackleaf Woods. As you know, I am Damon, the gym leader of this amazing city and I specialize in Dark type Pokemon. Many people fear Dark Types, that is because they do not understand them, they can be magnificent."
Ash says, "I know. I have a strong bond with a Dark Type Pokemon." Ash then reminds himself of his Greninja, who is also a Dark Type Pokemon that he trust the most aside from Pikachu.
After the referee states the rules, Ash is confused and he asks, "I know it might be rude to ask, but why didn't you turn on the lights? How am I supposed to see the battle if the lights didn't turn on..."
"Don't worry, like Donna, my field has a special effect as well." Damon says, "We battle in the Darkness, not knowing what happened is interesting in this kind of field. I hope you are ready since here is my first Pokemon, Vennap."
As the Pokemon appears on the field, Alice winces as she knows that she has almost been eaten by the same Pokemon yesterday. She says, "Ash, be careful...who knows what this Pokemon will do in the dark field..."
"Don't worry, Alice." Ash says, "So the first Pokemon is a Vennap...though I couldn't see him, but I could use this. Lophug, I choose you."
As the Pokemon appears, the match begins. Lophug is looking for the shadow, but when he finds it, Ash commands it to use Double Slap, but Lophug misses the attack as Vennap escapes with the help of the dark.
"I really can't see anything..." Ash grits his teeth with a little anger, and this causes Alice to worry. She mutters, "Ash..."
Damon says, "If you are just going to do nothing, then I'll do the honors. Use Wrap." Just then, yellow tentacles appear in the dark and starts to wrap the Pokemon. Ash is starting to panic and Damon continues to say, "Reel in and then use Bite!"
Ash sees that Lophug is about to be bitten, he winces and takes out the Pokeball, he yells, "Return!"
As the red beam goes towards Lophug, it just bounces off, much to Ash's horror, "But why..."
"Oh no! It must be Arena Trap." Alice says with realization. "The ability to prevent the opponent to change Pokemon as well as fleeing."
Ash grits his teeth as he really has nothing to do except for seeing his Pokemon fainting. He notices Lophug getting scared with its mouth gets closer, his brain is quickly operating. Just then, an idea occurs to Ash. "I know! Lophug, I don't know if you can do it, but please try it out. Use Dazzling Gleam!"
Much to his delight, the bunny Pokemon starts to emit light from its body, and Damon is surprised to see the field shines bright, even though it is only a second, it also shocks the Vennap. Ash smiles and says, "Now it is our chance! Play Rough!"
Lophug uses the fading light to keep attacking the Vennap, causing it to faint eventually.
"Well done, you are able to shed some light, but here is my second Pokemon and this time you won't be getting away easily. Vambat!"
As the Pokemon appears, Ash notices that the Pokemon's face looks really like an Emolga. He says, "I am keeping Lophug in."
"Then you are going to regret it." Damon says, "Use Supersonic." Ash widens his eyes in horror as Lophug is being hit by the attack and it is getting confused.
"Hang in there, Lophug! Try to concentrate!" Ash yells, but in vain as it keeps hitting itself. And then Vambat delivers the Wing Attack and knocks it out.
"Return, Lophug, you did a good job." Ash says as he recalls his Pokemon.
"Ash..." Alice shows her concern as she hugs Pikachu tightly. Pikachu doesn't mind the tightness from Alice as he is also showing worry for his Pikapi.
"Don't worry." Ash assures her and Pikachu. "I have been through worse situations, so this is not going to bother me. Now who should I pick..."
Ash thinks for a second and he takes out a Pokeball. "Okay, I have decided. Aquad, I choose you!"
As the Pokemon appears, Damon says, "You do know that my Pokemon is part Flying Type, right?"
"If you want to learn something from me, I can tell you that Type match ups doesn't work on me and my Pokemon." Ash smiles back. "Now use Aqua Slam!"
Aquad smashes into Vambat as it gets damaged. "Leech Life to recover that damage."
Aquad feels a little pain after being bitten, but it gets back up and shows its spirit. "Good, now Aquad, use Revenge!"
"Wing Attack!" As the two Pokemon keeps struggling with the opponents' attacks, the two Pokemon then also sends backwards to the wall.
"Aquad!" Ash yells. "Vambat, are you okay?" Damon asks, and the two Pokemon gets back up.
"Good, use Wing Attack once more." Damon says. But Ash shows a grin, he says, "Aquad, even though you are not a Buizel now, I know you can still do this! Let's do our special move, Ice Aqua Jet!"
"Ice Aqua Jet?" This causes both Alice and Damon to be confused, but then surprised as Aquad is inside of a frozen Aqua Jet and then it smacks to the Pokemon.
"No way...how did he do it?" Alice asks. Pikachu notices Alice's confusion and he says, "Ash trained this move with Buizel back in the Sinnoh Region when the Hoenn Champion, Wallace, suggests it."
"Wow...That move sure is amazing. I hope I can learn how to do that as well." Alice says with amazement.
But in the end, with both Pokemon clashing into each other, the force sends both of them flying to the wall again, but this time both of them have swirls in their eyes, causing the match a draw.
"I guess it is better then nothing." Damon says as both of them recall their Pokemon. Ash notices that Damon is looking at the darkness, he asks, "Is there something there? Why do you keep looking at there?"
"How about a deal, if you can beat my final Pokemon, I'll tell you. Now you get the chance to face my Werehide."
As the final Pokemon appears, Ash says, "I don't know what might be there, but I am not going to lose. If you are going to use Werehide, then I'll be going for the Sylveon."
As the Sylveon appears, Damon smiles says, "Sylveon I see...you know, the first Pokemon Delia got was an Eevee, who she evolved into Sylveon. I'll like to see if your Sylveon works similar to hers."
"I may not know what my mother's battling style was, but I am going to do this with pleasure." Ash says. Werehide uses Quick Attack to hit Sylveon even though it is dark, but Sylveon manages to get back up as it uses Moonblast, the light from the moon shines on the Werehide as Sylveon uses it as a chance to uses Swift. But Werehide dodges by going into the darkness again.
"Dark Matter." Damon yells as the attack hits the Eeveelution.
Ash uses Aura on Sylveon, "Pretend you are down and then use Attract once it gets closer."
As Sylveon disappears in the darkness, Damon says, "Find her and if you do so, use Crunch."
As Werehide uses the smell to find the Pokemon, but just as it gets closer, the attract hits him and he is immobilized in love.
"What's wrong? Werehide?" Damon starts to get worried as he didn't see or hear Werehide doing anything.
"It is attacked by Attract." Ash says, causing him to widen his eyes. "And then we will finish this with a Draining Kiss."
Once Sylveon kisses the Pokemon, Werehide faints. "What..." Damon is surprised at his defeat, but he sighs as he turns on the lights.
As Ash and Alice can see the room again, but what they see is a woman besides Damon, and the woman they know so well.
"Mom?" Ash asks as he gives her a hug. "That was why he was looking at the dark all this time? Because you were there this whole time?"
Delia smiles, "Damon called me and asked to watch your battle. And I am surprised that you even did the same trick I beat Damon for the first time."
"Indeed. Like mother like son." Damon laughs. "You have won this gym battle, congratulations! As your reward, you have earned this Darkness Badge."
He shows them the badge, which is a black circle with red outline, and there are three diamond shapes in it. Ash gets the badge and thanks him, Damon says, "Now that we are here, why don't we have a conversation, we have a lot to talk about."
Delia says, "I see you are still the same, Damon." Then they decide to leave the Battlefield and go to the Pokemon Center.
I have made some changes with the Gym battles, there will be an additional effect of the field and I hope you like how this gym battles in the dark like in the game. The next chapter will be more revelations.
