13. Rematch in the City of Water flowers.
Danny stepped out of the Pokémon Center filled with positive energy. The sun was shining like never before and the entire city was booming with people. Fountains were splashing water and children were playing around with their friends.
Everything seemed to be right again.
How couldn't it be? Training went amazingly well yesterday and the day before that, Pidgey ended up joining his team, the future sure seemed bright.
Well, there was one dark cloud: the rematch against Misty. Danny sure was nervous about that one.
But the training the day before was promising: both Bellsprout and Pidgey did better and better with avoiding the attacks.
Before the gym battle Danny was persistent on having today, the final test awaited: training on the lake.
Not only did Michelle agree to help out, but she had also alerted Misty about the fact that Danny would be back, to make sure they wouldn't end up at a bad time.
Richard wouldn't join along today, he had a bit of a headache and remained in bed to sleep.
Danny was early when he arrived at Michelle's boat, but luckily for him Michelle was a morning person as well and she was already awaiting him.
"Just you today?" She asked, clearly missing Richard.
"Yeah, Richard's sleeping off a headache."
"Did you guys get drunk last night?" She laughed.
Danny laughed as well. "We don't drink, we aren't even allowed to yet."
"Smart, my dad always tells Ron and me we shouldn't drink until we're at least 21."
Danny shrugged his shoulders. He never gave alcohol any thought and most likely wouldn't for years to come. Pokémon battles are way more urgent at the moment.
The boat brought them safely and dry back towards the entrance of the cave and while the walk inside was not nearly as anxious as the first time, the lake was easily just as beautiful and jaw dropping.
"So, you want to train like it is a gym battle?" Michelle asked and Danny nodded.
"That's the plan anyway. Come on out guys!"
The entire team appeared outside of their Pokéballs and were amazed by the beautiful lake they were viewing, aside from Charmander who would much rather see a boiling volcano.
Danny squatted down to face his team.
"Now, Beedrill and Bellsprout already know a bit about this, but I would like to train like the gym battle. That means Beedrill, Bellsprout and Pidgey will take turns dodging attacks. Krabby, you will be our Starmie and faint attack from below the surface. Just remember, don't hit them."
Everyone nodded in agreement.
"Now to make things a bit more difficult than they will be this afternoon, I would like Charmander and Abra to stand on a plate each and attack as well. If you can beat three attacks now, you'll have no problem dealing with one attacker later."
Instead of using their own moves, they would be throwing rocks. Using Ember had shown not to be the best way and rocks didn't hit nearly as hard. They quickly gathered a lot of tiny rocks, which Beedrill and Pidgey brought towards the two plates from where Charmander and Abra would attack.
Abra easily transported himself onto one of the plates, while Beedrill flew there. Charmander, on the other hand, had no idea how to get to his plate.
Michelle saw the Fire-type's struggles and decided to help out. She let Butterfree out of its Pokéball.
"I think if Butterfree and Beedrill work together, they can get Charmander where it needs to be."
"Are you up for it?" Danny asked Charmander.
The Fire-type was afraid, but the trust in his trainer ran deeper, so it nodded.
"Awesome!"
The two Bug-types lifted Charmander into the air and safely placed him onto his plate. Danny was holding his breath but let go when he saw Charmander's feet touch the rocks of the plate.
Beedrill was up first and was more than ready.
"Okay guys, let's go!"
Charmander and Abra started throwing rocks, which Beedrill all dodged. Meanwhile, Krabby was underwater, waiting for an opportunity to strike.
The Fire-type threw another rock, which Beedrill saw coming from a mile away and it jumped backwards. It was the moment Krabby was waiting for and it jumped out of the water. The crab Pokémon didn't actually touch Beedrill, but the latter knew he had been caught off guard.
"It's okay Beedrill, let's try it again," Danny said. He was both excited for the gym battle as nervous and a part of him just wanted to train forever.
"Try to keep your focus on the entire battlefield, not only the attacks coming from the sides. Stay in the air as much as possible."
Beedrill nodded and flew up. Being in the air made it easier for Beedrill to avoid the rocks thrown by his teammates, but it also meant Krabby would attack with Bubble instead of a fake attack. The first Bubble was already on their way and Beedrill could dodge it just in time. Krabby nodded towards the Poison-type as a compliment, which Beedrill appreciated.
On the sideline, Danny nodded and softly clapped. Next to him, Bellsprout and Abra were paying close attention to Beedrill's movements.
"This is going well," Michelle said, watching with great interest. She only had one Pokémon and it always amazed her to see a team work so well together.
Danny nodded. "I hope it will be enough."
For a half hour, Beedrill kept this up. While Krabby's attacks were a difficult thing to avoid, the rocks Charmander and Abra threw barely hit the bee.
To make sure they wouldn't get too exhausted, the three Pokémon in training wouldn't be training for too long. So, after that half hour, Bellsprout switched with Beedrill.
Not being able to fly, Bellsprout had to rely even more on his agility. Over the past two days, he figured out multiple tricks and moves that would make it easier for the Grass-type to avoid the attacks.
One thing it started doing was not avoiding the rocks. Instead, it smashed them away with Vine Whip. However, this left it vulnerable from attacks from below. While Krabby just did what it was told to do, it continuously got onto Bellsprout's nerves. It always managed to fake hit Bellsprout and the latter couldn't figure out how to get aware of the attacks from below the surface. While focusing extra on Krabby, it neglected the rocks thrown at it and when one hit, Bellsprout grew even more angry.
"Take it easy Bellsprout!"
The Flower Pokémon looked at his trainer, clearly fed up with the training.
"Why don't you try this? Instead of smashing the rocks with your vines, stand onto them. That way you can see Krabby earlier."
Even though Bellsprout was in no mood to accept advice, he did end up trying the tactic. Standing on two vines, it had a bit more trouble dodging the attacks from Charmander and Abra, but the next attack from Krabby missed.
Krabby happily waved and Bellsprout waved back, his mood improving drastically. Krabby started to switch between long-distance attacks and the fake attacks, but Bellsprout seemed to be in his element and dodged all of them.
It went that well, Bellsprout didn't even want to leave the battleground. It wasn't until Danny, a bit annoyed, gestured to Bellsprout to come back to the mainland, when he finally left the plate.
Pidgey had carefully watched the other two and was now up for the training. It started off not flying, which gave it a harder time dodging the rocks. Krabby's attacks were never a problem for the Flying-type. When the rocks hit one too many times, Pidgey flew up and was never hit by them again.
While the Pokémon were still training, Michelle sat down on a comfy-looking rock, spending some more time with her Butterfree.
"Man, he's really good with his team, no wonder my dad gave Pidgey to him."
Suddenly, Michelle heard something behind her. She turned around and saw Danny had heard it too.
"I'll go check it out," she said and she walked towards the entrance towards the cave. Behind her, she heard Danny order Krabby to put a bit more power behind his bubbles. Apparently they didn't get high enough.
She climbed into the gape and quickly saw what was wrong.
"Ahh, it's so cute!"
Now Danny was interested, gesturing his Pokémon to stop for a second.
"What is it?"
Michelle came crawling out of the gape, with in her arms a small, pink creature.
"This Clefairy was stuck in a gape, isn't it cute?"
Michelle had the Clefairy in her arms and hugged it, which the pink creature didn't seem to mind at all. Meanwhile her Butterfree was flying around as well, quite interested to meet the Clefairy.
Suddenly Michelle pulled her head up. "Should I capture it?"
"Well you like it and it seems to like you, you can always ask if it wants to join you."
"I've never captured a Pokémon before! My dad captured Butterfree for me, how do I do it?"
Danny smiled. "Just lay the Pokéball on the ground and if Clefairy wants to join, it'll know what to do."
"Do you want to be my Pokémon?" Michelle asked with a high-pitched tone. Clefairy hugged her in response.
"Well that seems like a yes," Danny laughed. Michelle took a Pokéball out of her bag and softly pressed it against Clefairy, who was absorbed without any resistance.
Right after the capture was confirmed, Michelle released her new Pokémon back into the open. She sounded clearly happy and Clefairy directly jumped into her arms, and waved at Butterfree.
Danny and his team had been delighted bystanders of this all, with his team taking the moment to take a break. Their trainer had taken out his Pokédex, ready to register yet another Pokémon in his device.
Adored for their cute looks and playfulness. They are thought to be rare, as they do not appear often.
"Seems like you got really lucky," Danny said, but Michelle didn't hear him, she was too busy cuddling with her Clefairy.
Danny decided to let the two alone, and returned to his training, which they directly continued.
"Let's continue! Pidgey, it's up to you."
Pidgey flew up again, and by doing so barely escaped a Bubble from Krabby. When it looked down in surprise, it got hit by a rock from Charmander, causing it to plunge into the water. Charmander gasped and Danny was in shock for a second, before running towards the water to dive in.
But, unlike Beedrill, Pidgey flew out of the water without a problem, shaking his red and brown feathers to get rid of the last drips, but overall, it didn't seem to mind the water.
Danny came to the same conclusion. "So water doesn't harm you?"
The Tiny Bird Pokémon shook his head, a bit puzzled by the question. While Danny was still counting his blessings, the other team members had heard this as well. Beedrill flew towards Danny and started gesturing towards itself and Pidgey.
"Wait, are you sure?" Danny asked. "I thought you wanted your revenge?"
But Beedrill shook his head and once again pointed towards Pidgey.
Danny shrugged his shoulders, secretly glad Beedrill had made the decision for him.
"Okay then, if you fly over there you can help with the training. I think you can take Abra's place," Danny answered, based on the snoring sounds coming from one of the plates.
Beedrill happily nodded and flew away.
And so the training continued. Without Beedrill in between, Bellsprout and Pidgey had less time to rest, but neither seemed to mind. Both learned from each other and grew a lot. Bellsprout stopped standing on his vines as Pidgey gave some insight on how to see when Krabby is on his way up. It took the Grass-type awhile, but he figured it out eventually.
After a while, Charmander and Beedrill were out of rocks. The Fire-type sat down and enjoyed the show, while Danny had another plan with Beedrill.
"To make it a bit more challenging, why don't you fake attack them as well?"
Beedrill nodded and became a new airborne threat to the two trainees, one they also managed to overcome.
While Michelle had been playing with her new Clefairy, she did pay attention to the training and grew more and more impressed. She saw how Danny was still actively coaching, despite the fact they had been at this for hours. He didn't show the slightest sign of slowing down.
"Bellsprout, on your left!"
The Grass-Pokémon jumped up and saw Krabby appear besides it. From the corner of his other eye, Bellsprout saw Beedrill coming and blocked the fake Twineedle with a vine, before landing back on the ground.
"That's it, amazing!"
Pidgey had stopped training a short while ago, Danny was worried about training too much and the additional gym battle would be too much for the recently recovered bird. He felt sweat on his forehead and a rumbling stomach, but the overwhelming feeling was adrenaline.
As he watched Bellsprout jump around on the plate, carefully escaping both the attacks coming at him and safely landing back onto the ground, Danny knew they couldn't procrastinate any longer.
"It's time," he said.
Michelle and Danny returned their Pokémon and quickly made their way out of the cavern. Both went through the narrow gape, Danny looking behind one more time at the beautiful lake. A part of him wished he could come back, but he also hoped he wouldn't be back here all too soon.
As soon as the boat hit the mainland, the duo made their way towards the Pokémon Center to quickly refresh their Pokémon.
"Do you mind if I watch your rematch?" Michelle asked, to which Danny shook his head.
"Of course not!"
Inside the Pokémon Center, Richard was enjoying some lunch with Squirtle.
"Richard! Glad to see you are up, how are you doing?"
Richard raised his thumb. "A bit better, but I still have a bit of a headache. Nurse Joy gave me something for it and it seems to help. How did the training go?"
"Good! I think we're ready for it."
After healing their teams, Nurse Joy was surprised to see Michelle suddenly had two Pokéballs, the trio made their way towards the Cerulean Gym.
As they walked the path Danny and Richard had done a few days ago, Danny felt a strange sense of determination. Usually when going into a gym battle, he was nervous, but for some reason he felt more confident. The training had gone well, this should be alright.
They walked towards the gym, which seemed abandoned once again. Michelle, knowing this place better than the other two, opened the door and walked in.
"Misty!" She shouted, but there was no reaction.
They continued walking when another girl, older than Misty and with blue hair, walked up to them.
"Hi there Michelle, what are you doing here?"
"Hi Violet, is Misty around?"
Violet started to laugh.
"Of course she's around, where else could she be? Outside and socializing?"
Michelle sighed loudly.
"Well you're no fun. You should laugh sometimes, it's really healthy you know."
Michelle turned around to Danny and Richard.
"I'm sorry you had to meet Violet. She's Misty's ' funniest' sister."
Now it was Violet's turn to sigh.
"I'll get her."
She walked past Michelle and looked at Danny.
"And who do we have here?"
Danny felt his cheeks grow red. "I'm Danny, I'm here to battle Misty."
"Ah well then I'll be rooting for you," the blue-haired girl answered with a wink.
She wasn't gone for too long before the trio heard a familiar voice.
"Danny, Richard!" Misty walked towards them. "Glad you guys made it back."
She walked past them and hugged with Michelle.
"I see you've met my best friend Michelle."
Richard had trouble to keep his poker face and Misty noticed, which caused her to grin herself.
"Do you know what this is about?" Michelle asked Danny, who waved it away.
"Just a bad case of humor."
As the four trainers walked into the battle room, Daisy was just tiptoeing in the water.
"You're back soon!" She laughs, seeing Danny and Richard walk in.
"Do you want to be the referee again?" Misty asked, to which Daisy nodded.
"Better her than Violet," Michelle said to Richard, who were walking behind the others and the two shared a laugh.
Misty jumped onto her plate with the same elegance as the last time. Danny, this time, had less trouble keeping balance. Standing back on that plate, memories flashed by before his eyes.
He saw Beedrill plunge into the water. He saw Bellsprout captured in a Psychic cage.
Danny shook his head, not today.
"Are both battlers ready?"
"Yeah!" Misty was all in for it. She loved rematches because the opponents always bring something extra to those matches. Danny being no different. He slowly nodded.
"Then let the battle begin!"
"I hope you didn't cling onto my Staryu, because I have a different matchup for you," Misty shouted, letting out a Goldeen.
Danny quickly scanned the Pokémon, before letting out his Pidgey. The Normal-type flew up high and shook his red and brown feathers.
"A completely different matchup it seems, awesome. Goldeen, start things off with Water Gun!"
Goldeen dove down underwater, almost impossible for Pidgey to keep track.
"Watch out up there!" Danny ordered with sweaty hands.
Pidgey didn't need the heads up though, he saw the Water Gun coming from a mile away and easily dodged it. The training seemed to have paid out, which put Danny at ease a bit.
"Fire back with Gust!"
Pidgey cawed and flapped his wings, creating a small whirlwind which he sent to Goldeen with his regards, causing the Water-type and the water surrounding it to be delivered to Misty's plate.
"Don't give in Goldeen, use Aqua Tail!"
Goldeen dove down again, only to gain speed to get up high. When it left the water, its tail was still engulfed in water and it swung that tail towards Pidgey, but the Normal-type remembered the training carefully and flew aside.
"Good job Pidgey!" Danny wanted to jump up, only to realize that would probably cause him to fall into the water. Instead, he kept to clapping his hands.
Now out of the water, Goldeen was not in its element.
"Use Gust again Pidgey!" Danny ordered and witnessed how another Gust blew Goldeen onto one of the smaller plates in the arena. It was vulnerable and Danny knew he should capitalize on it.
"Quick Attack Pidgey!"
Pidgey flew down, as fast as he could and hit the Water-type before it could recover. Due to the impact, Goldeen was pushed into the water.
Both Danny and Misty held their breaths, but when Goldeen floated back to the surface it was in no shape to continue. The swirl eyes indicated Goldeen was done for the day.
"With that, Pidgey gives its trainer the lead," Daisy announced.
While that sounded optimistic, Danny was everything but that. Goldeen was just a test, the real exam had yet to come.
Meanwhile, Michelle had let out her Clefairy and was enjoying the match. She wasn't too surprised that Pidgey won.
"All that training really paid off," she said to Richard, who was impressed by how swiftly Pidgey handled Goldeen.
"I can see that, Pidgey's really strong!"
Michelle nodded.
Back on the battlefield, Danny decided to re-call Pidgey.
"Take a good rest, you've worn out your wing long enough."
Pidgey nodded slowly and for the first time, he was visibly worn out. Training was one thing, but a gym battle was way more intense. Not only the moves, but the pressure and the will to win were tiring.
"You know what's next, right?" Misty asked with a wide smile. She didn't even call out its name, she simply opened the Pokéball and let Starmie take the stage.
And it looked even more terrifying than a few days ago.
"We got this," Danny whispered to himself. "We trained for this. We got this."
He took Bellsprout's Pokéball and released the Grass-type into the open. "It's all you now!"
Unlike Pidgey, Bellsprout didn't mind the pressure. To the contrary, he thrived with it.
"Use Razor Leaf!"
Bellsprout swung his two leaves and released a whole bunch of sharp-edged leaves, which Starmie dodged by diving under.
"This is it," Danny thought with a lump in his throat. Time to see if Bellsprout truly learned.
He stood quietly on his plate, turning in a small circle to look everywhere. After all that training, it was almost a sixth Sense and Bellsprout just knew where Starmie would show up, on the right.
And Bellsprout was right.
The part Psychic type appeared above the water and heard Misty call out for the Psychic move, but the order came too late.
As soon as Starmie was out of the water, Bellsprout had released two vines and smashed them onto Starmie. The Gym Leader's Pokémon was thrown away and hit a wall before it stopped flying.
"Well done Bellsprout!" Danny was now jumping from excitement. He didn't care if he would fall in or not, it was working!
Meanwhile, Misty was simply shocked. It was the 'extra' she hoped Danny would've brought.
"I can't believe it, it worked," Michelle said astounded, while Richard was simply clapping his hands as if the battle was already won.
"Don't give up Starmie," Misty recovered. "Use Bubble beam."
Bellsprout was too caught up with the successful move and the response he got, he didn't even saw the attack coming and was blown off the plate, into the water. Starmie jumped up again, with no intention to give up, not in the slightest.
Bellsprout quickly jumped up.
"Use Razor Leaf!" Danny ordered and saw the sharp leaves fly again. Starmie was too far away from the water and not very agile on land, so the super effective attack hit. Starmie still didn't seem too damaged though, and it jumped back into the water to regain the upper hand.
"They can't see us coming twice…" Misty mumbled.
But the first time had caused Danny and Bellsprout to grow more confident. The Grass-type didn't doubt his instinct and fired off a Razor Leaf to his left, which hit Starmie, who had just come up.
It dived back down and, to change the rhythm, came up on the left side again. But once again, Bellsprout was ready for a hit and struck it down with Vine Whip.
Misty had no idea what she was seeing. Her strategy, the one she has used a lot of times and had never failed, was failing. She was out of her trumps.
"I have never seen something like this before," she said. Not just shocked, but also impressed.
All Bellsprout's training had paid out. Bellsprout was still fresh while Starmie was worn out.
The Gym Leader was rocking her brain to find a new strategy.
"Starmie, use Recover."
Underwater, they could now clearly see Starmie's silhouette growing green. All of their hard work was gone.
Danny grinded his teeth.
"Don't get discouraged Bellsprout, we'll beat them!"
Bellsprout nodded and went back to concentrating. Starmie could come up again any second.
Starmie didn't come up though. Coming up would mean a direct hit and it didn't feel too comfortable with its own abilities anymore.
"Come back here Starmie!"
Just as her Pokémon, Misty decided to abandon the strategy, time for something else. Starmie jumped up onto a plate near her, far away from Bellsprout's attacks.
"Why don't you use Psychic from here."
Danny's fear had come true.
While he was pretty confident the close-up attacks wouldn't work out in Misty's favor anymore, Bellsprout was still weak to Psychic attacks.
But, as quickly as the fear came in, an idea came in as well. It could be described as stupid.
"Jump into the water Bellsprout!"
Starmie's core was already glowing a bright pink, and Bellsprout was confused by the order, but jumped anyway. Away from Starmie's control.
"Once you come up, use Vine Whip!"
But Bellsprout wasn't a Water-type and staying underwater drew from his strength. When he came up he managed a weak Vine Whip, which did hit Starmie, but not nearly as hard as Danny had hoped.
"Starmie, watch out!"
Danny was gaining more and more control in the battle while Misty felt it slipping away.
"Use Bubble beam!"
Bellsprout had jumped onto a plate nearby, took a deep breath and jumped back down underwater.
Not needing to cover as much distance as last time, Bellsprout could land a stronger attack.
Danny held his breath as he watched Bellsprout go under and didn't breathe again until Bellsprout came up behind Starmie. His vines hit the Water-type hard, extremely this up close. Starmie fell down. It tried to get back up, but once again fell down.
Daisy, also impressed by the battle, needed a few seconds before she could react to what had just happened.
"Starmie is down, meaning Bellsprout and Danny win this gym battle!"
"We did it!" Danny cheered, almost in rhythm to the applause coming from the stands. He jumped from plate to plate towards Bellsprout to hug with the Grass-type, who was still covered in water. But Danny didn't care, he had won the Cascade Badge.
Meanwhile, Misty returned her Starmie. Being beaten by her own strategy was not something she was prepared to face, but she surely was impressed.
As soon as both trainers had their feet on solid ground again, Misty walked up to the happy trainer.
"What you showed out there was nothing short of impressive," she said with a smile. "You more than deserve this."
In her hand was the blue, rain-formed badge.
He took the badge out of her hands and looked at it. But he didn't see the badge, he saw Beedrill, Bellsprout, Pidgey, but also Charmander, Abra and Krabby. His team had worked so hard to make this happen. A smile broke through on his face.
"Congratulations," Misty said.
"Thank you."
Michelle and Richard had quickly made their way towards them, and Richard was petting Richard on his shoulders.
"That was some excellent battling, the best you've done so far."
Michelle agreed. "You both played amazingly, a joy to watch."
Clefairy cheered in agreement.
While Danny was growing more and more happy with his badge, Misty had to smile as well. Danny reminded her of an old friend. It was good to see there were more people like this friend.
While Michelle decided to stay at the gym, Danny and Richard left after saying their goodbyes. Pidgey and Bellsprout deserved some healing.
"I see I can congratulate you!" Nurse Joy said cheerfully, as she saw Danny walk in with a smile. She hadn't forgotten his distraught look from a short while ago and was glad to see his hard work had paid off.
He showed her the badge in response. "We did it!"
A little while later, after Joy had healed the two battlers, they all sat down in the lobby. It was late and no-one would be coming in anymore, so Joy allowed it.
Danny kneeled down with his team, holding both the Boulder and Cascade badges in his hand.
"This is all thanks to you guys, you were amazing," he said.
Beedrill, who had given his place to Pidgey, proudly petted the Tiny Bird Pokémon. Meanwhile, Pidgey was just overjoyed to be part of this team.
"But, it's not just the battlers I should thank, but you guys helped out so much as well," Danny said, now directed at his other four Pokémon. "Two badges down, six ahead."