"You all sleep well?" Leon asks waking up the next morning, wimpod sleepily riding on his head.
"Turn off the sun," Lana groans and covers herself more with the blankets.
Leon smiles as he closes the blinds and heads out to trade for the pokemon he would use in the gym battle
"I can't believe he listened to that," Gardenia yawns.
"It's because he is sweet like how he lets that wimpod rest on his head the entire night," Zoey praises as she stretches.
"So who do you think he is going to use?" Gardenia yawns and stretches.
"Beacon for sure," Zoey says.
"That, I believe," Lana says under the covers, showing her arm and pointing at her.
"Other than that, I don't know. He can be very unpredictable with his choices. Remember all the other battles he was in?" Zoey reminds.
"Before or after he destroyed every field?" Gardenia seems to joke.
"Did you beat him?" Zoey asks.
Gardenia throws a pillow at her and pulls the covers up.
"Anyways…I think he will use Tsunami and Ippo," Zoey adds.
"Sounds about right. He has to smash up the field if he wants to do it like last time," Lana says, still under the covers.
"Come on you. Time to get up so we can go see his match," Zoey says before trying to pull them both out of bed.
"Sleep more," Lana calls as Gardenia begrudgingly gets up.
"This will be a three on three battle. In addition, only the challenger will be allowed to substitute pokemon," the referee announces.
"Here we go," Leon says grabbing his first pokeball as the three girls watch with Lana holding wimpod for him.
"As leader of the Pastoria gym, it is my privilege and responsibility to see just kind of power and skill you and your pokemon have!" Crasher Wake calls, throwing his pokeball and a gyarados comes out.
"Alright then. Just as I expected. Tsunami, you're up," Leon calls throwing her pokeball out.
Tsunami roars as she comes out and lands in the pool with Crasher's gyarados roaring as well, both of their movements pushing the stone platforms away.
"Ready? Begin!" the referee calls.
"Gyarados, bite!" Crasher calls and his gyarados roars before swimming and charging at Tsunami. Tsunami waited until it got in close and then swims to the side by pushing against the pool wall, her fangs icing up before biting down hard on its neck. The gyarados roars loudly and tries to shake her off.
"Mistake," Leon says as Tsunami started to spark.
All the water and everything in it, but the stone platforms, soon sparked and became electrocuted. The gyarados roaring in pain and spasming widely. But Tsunami just bites down harder and splashes her tail down hard.
"Oh, that is an interesting strategy," Gardenia says.
"It's an anti gyarados strategy. Mostly they rely on moves like bite, but with one doing that anytime, it grapples with another like that it can't get away from that thunderbolt without disengaging," Lana says.
Tsunami kept splashing her tail against the water till she smacks down hard on one of the stone platforms, sending herself into the air and spins forward, keeping a tight grip on her opponent before coming down into the water and then whips her head around, sending the gyarados into the air and then gets hit hard into a stone platform as it came back down. Tsunami pushes herself against the far wall and moves back to her place next to Leon as she watches the gyarados lying on the platform.
"Gyarados is unable to battle. The winner is Leon," the referee declares.
"Good job Tsunami," Leon says petting her.
"Once again. He uses a strategy to undermine his opponent's," Zoey says smirking.
"Very good job girl," Leon says proudly as he pats her head and she growls affectionately and bumps her head against him.
Gyarados is returned now as Crasher sighs. "Not bad kid."
"Ok Tsunami, you rest up for now. I promised the other two that I would let them battle too," Leon says scratching her head now. Tsunami growls before licking his cheek and gets returned as Leon groans and wipes his face. "Not to self, have her control who she licks," he mutters to himself as he puts away her pokeball. "Omen," Leon calls.
Omen comes out of her pokeball on her own, landing on the first platform and looking around the slightly damaged arena.
Crasher smirks a bit and grabs another pokeball before tossing it. "Quagsire!" he calls and the large pokemon materializes on the platform closest to them.
Omen seems to hum before jumping onto the next platform and starts to nervously wag her tail and crave the tip into the platform.
"Ready? Begin!" the referee calls.
'Big. And bulky. Come on forest maiden. Show me a good plan,' Leon thinks worried as he looks to quagsire and worries about how it absorbs blows.
"This is going to be a bit of a problem," Gardenia says as Omen doesn't move yet and keeps nervously wagging her tail. "That pokemon is good for absorbing attacks. So it's going to be hard to damage it."
"Yeah…and I don't know if Omen's moveset has some attacks that can help. But Leon does train his pokemon well enough to fight back and win," Zoey says proudly of him.
"Omen, double team," Leon instructs.
Omen growls under breath and creates the visual copies on the other platforms and even some on quagsire's as it looks around at them all. All of them wagging their tail into the platform.
Crasher grins a bit. "Sludge bomb."
Quagsire reels its head back before spitting out a sludge of mud at one of the platforms. The sludge bomb striking and covering it with mud. The copy of Omen disappearing as she still stares quagsire down, her tail wagging and waiting.
"Again. Leave no spot uncovered," Crasher calls out and quagsire keeps firing sludge bombs at every platform. Covering each one and taking out another copy. Only when two remains did all the Omen jump. Her eyes glowing bright purple and then opening her mouth and screeching out loud. Dark waves of energy heading towards quagsire and making it cover its ears from the perish song.
Her horn then gains a dark aura around it and, with both Omen's in the air, she swings her head around and slashes at quagsire. The dark energy blade slice flying through the air and striking at quagsire on the head. Quagsire groaning and stumbles around before righting itself and looking up at her and then watches as she lands at one of the far platforms that weren't covered in sludge. Her tail wagging behind her as they all hear scraping.
Omen's body then charges up as it condenses on her before she takes off, jumping her way to quagsire as it runs to her.
"Ice beam!"
Omen actually hits one of her hind legs on the water and puts herself into a spin, dodging the ice beam that came her way and froze up the water it trailed on. Omen then crashes into quagsire who absorbs the impact with his large stomach, but Omen just plants her feet and jumps over him, landing behind him and then biting hard into its tail, a dark aura surrounding her fangs as quagsire tried to shake her off.
Omen then felt herself lifted up before being smacked down hard against the frozen water. Omen growls and lights up her horn in a light aura before letting go and sent up into the air, slashing her head around and sends off a psycho cut. Quagsire cries out as it felt the cut before being sent bowling over again as Omen came down with a slash from her claws. Then fire off a perish song point blank as it tried to turn again, only ending up with bad hearing and stumbling into the water. Omen quickly jumps onto another platform and looks to where quagsire went down and waits.
Leon frowns a bit before seeing a shadow come up and quagsire floating on the water, swirls in its eyes. "Quagsire is unable to battle. The winner is Leon."
Leon smiles as Omen jumps back over to him and he pets her head while looking over some of the bruises from the pounding. "Not bad forest maiden." Omen just smirks at that nickname as Crasher returns quagsire and chuckles.
"Okay. You are getting good kid. Trained your pokemon quite well," Crasher compliments while Omen sits beside Leon now.
Leon shrugs with a smile. "Nah. They know what to do and I trust them on that."
Crasher nods before taking out another pokeball. "Let's see if you take on your final opponent," he says before tossing it. "Floatzel. Come on out."
Leon hums as the large otter pokemon materializes on the remaining platforms. Leon sighs and pets Omen's head. "Rest here. Time to send out Beacon!" Leon calls as he throws another pokeball and Beacon shows up dancing like a happy go lucky alligator. One that left Leon and his group of companions sweatdropping. "Um…Beacon? Battle please."
Beacon stops dancing for a moment and balks at the sight of the large pokemon looking somewhat amused at him. "Flaaf?" Beacon says, holding up a paw, very nervously though.
Floatzel just smiles a bit and crosses its arms, waiting for the match to begin.
"Ready? Begin!" the referee calls.
"Let's open with whirlpool!" Crasher calls.
'That quick on a strong attack?!' Leon thinks shocked now. "Head in the game, now!"
Beacon steels itself as a large whirlpool starts to form in the pool, spinning them all around and making the platforms bunched together. Beacon growls as floatzel waits for the next part.
"Now, razor wind!"
Beacon immediately moves as strong gusts of wind hit where he was, cutting up and leaving marks on the platform. Beacon cries out as it's fur sparks before it sends out a thunder wave, striking it head on and making it not move for a few seconds. Beacon then moves in as it's body becomes covered in an aura before it tackles hard into floatzel's chest which then suddenly has its sacs inflate and makes him bounce off.
Leon frowns slightly as he sees this, now knowing normal attacks are not going to do much damage. However, Crasher just kept going. "Ice fang!"
Floatzel growls and has its fangs become covered in ice before charging and Beacon tries to jump out of the way before being caught in its mouth and crying out in pain.
Leon grits his teeth before calling out, "Thunderbolt!"
All the girls became shocked at this as Leon never once called out in fear unless it was something bad. And seeing how this battle was going, it's a good bet.
Beacon sparks itself before crying out as both he and floatzel became covered in lightning. Making floatzel let go and Beacon to land and try to get away before realizing he can't move part of his back and looks to see ice build up there.
"Beacon, charge!" Leon calls, making the girls realize he now has to take over to find a way to win this.
Beacon quickly jumps away more as the whirlpool slowly came to a stop and he builds up a charge, trying to get the strongest he can before letting it all go.
'Beacon's no good here. But he can try to damage floatzel enough that others can win. Sorry, Beacon,' Leon thinks, hating this fact.
"Bulk up and then ice fang!" Crasher calls.
Floatzel growls as it becomes covered in a red aura and its float sacs partially inflates before it dies down and it charges with ice fangs.
"Beacon, get as much contact and let loose," Leon orders.
Beacon keeps sparking and charging up, letting floatzel get close before jumping up and lets it clamps down on him. Now knowing what he is supposed to do, he cries out and lets loose another thunderbolt, releasing all of the charges he has built before it all dies down and floatzel lets go of him, making him land on the platform knocked out.
"Flaaffy is unable to battle. Which means Crasher is the victor."
Leon sighs and returns him. "You did good buddy. Did well…Omen, finish it."
Omen nods and jumps back onto the field, nervously scratching her tail into the platform still.
Leon frowns a bit as he puts Beacon's pokeball away and looks to Crasher who seems to be studying him. 'He's going to know I barely lost and this is one of the first. Not good. Going to exploit that. I just hope Omen can finish this off.'
Crasher smiles as the battle begins. "Whirlpool and then razor wind!"
Floatzel seems to be charging up the attack as another whirlpool forms, spinning them both around. Omen quickly jumps out of the way as the razor wind strikes where she was and follows up with a leer in the air before landing and then screaming a perish song, weakening it further.
"Ice fang!"
Omen quickly uses double team and dodges the ice fang bite coming at her, copies of herself on the other platforms that stare floatzel down. One of them going in for an iron tail that floatzel blocks by inflating its sacs and they get slashed from behind as the copy in front of it disappears. Floatzel quickly swings its arm around and hits Omen with its fin, sending her off and landing on another platform as the double team ended.
Omen groans and starts to get up before seeing floatzel charging. "Ice fang!" Omen breathes out carefully as the whirlpool reaches its apex before she brings her tail up and uses iron tail on the platform. The sudden break and whirlpool send her and the pieces flying into the air, floatzel stopping for a second as it sees this.
Omen quickly spins around and smacks a rock with her tail before using iron tail and slowly changing it into a psycho cut, her slapping of the rocks never stopping as it hits floatzel on the head before Omen cries out and spins widely, sending out a slash of psychic power that cuts and pushes floatzel back.
Omen grunts as she lands into the water and gasps for air when she comes back up. Floatzel recovering and shaking itself before seeing where she was.
"Jump in and use another whirlpool, followed by ice fang!" Crasher calls.
Floatzel quickly jumps in and a whirlpool starts to form, sending all the pieces and remaining platforms spinning around while Omen goes along with it. But floatel easily swims through it, going straight at her with an ice fang. Omen growls and waits till its a few feet in front of her and lets loose a perish song, quickly gripping its muzzle with her front paws and jumping over her. Her tail glows brightly before she spins around and sends out a psycho cut and then falling back down with a night slash on her claws as both attack claw into its back. Floatzel spins around quickly and sends her flying off into the water.
"Razor wind!"
Omen gasps as she tries to stay above water and sees the wind cutting the water and coming at her. She then uses night slash on the water in front of her and creates a wall of water that catches the attack before the wall breaks as floatzel comes through it, ice fangs showing brightly. Omen spins backward underwater and misses the bite that would have gotten her horn. And then perish songs from underwater, the sound waves quickly having an easier time traveling through before it bursts out and sends floatzel tumbling back down and them crashing into the wall. Omen growls loudly as she sends out a sword dance and swims widely at floatzel, cutting and slicing at it with her horn and tail. She then slashes at him hard and uses that to push herself off out of the water and back onto a platform.
Omen heavily pants and looks to floatzel as it slowly spins around and shows it knocked out from too much damage.
"Floatzel is unable to battle. Which means Leon, the challenger, wins the match."
Leon sighs in relief and smiles as Omen comes jumping back over to him and bends down to pet her. "Thanks for that. Was worried for a moment," he appreciates and gets a small lick on the cheek from her.
"You've done good kid," Crasher says returning floatzel and walking over to him.
"Thanks," Leon says, hiding he was disappointed in himself for letting Beacon getting defeated.
Crasher nods and takes the badge from the referee before holding it out to him. "Here. You've earned it."
"Thanks," Leon says taking it before feeling something crawling up his leg.
"Not bad of a battle," Zoey says patting his back and lets wimpod crawl onto his shoulder and chitter at him.
"Hey there. You enjoy the battle?" Leon asks before wimpod slipped into his jacket.
"Looks like," Zoey says smiling.
"Well, at least he didn't freak out while with you three," Leon says sweatdropping, feeling wimpod stay in place on his shirt inside his jacket.
Zoey chuckles as they walk out and give some waves towards Crasher before they all lose their smile and look at Leon. "Feeling okay?"
"I need to do better. My misjudgment was what made Beacon's lose. I should have been able to come up with a better plan," Leon says.
"You still won. And Beacon made sure to give Omen an easier time," Zoey points out as Omen nuzzles his leg.
"Even so. This is more my failure than theirs," Leon says.
"Come on. Let's get Beacon and the others fixed up and see what they think," Zoey said comfortingly.
"Alright…so where are we heading next?" Leon asks.
"Route 213," Zoey says.
"So anything to do before we head out?" Leon asks after they finished eating outside.
"How about that area…um…what's the name?" Zoey says, looking up the travel guide.
"Zoey, the inside of your bag is glowing," Leon says.
Zoey blinks and looks at her bag before digging around in it and takes out the incubator for her egg. "The egg…" she tries to say as it keeps glowing and fading while she takes the cover off.
"Oh, guys. Quickly, come out," Leon says throwing all of his pokeballs.
"You guys too," Lana calls and throws hers.
"Let's not leave these guys out," Gardenia says tossing hers.
"You guys too," Zoey says tossing hers as well as Leon coaxes wimpod out to watch.
The egg keeps glowing and fading till it glows and shines brightly, starting to change and morph itself until it left an eevee sitting where the egg stood. "So that's the pokemon," Leon says as every other pokemon smile at the new arrival.
"Eev…?" the little baby squeaks before starting to whimper and then cry.
"Oh, it's okay," Zoey says quickly and motherly as she picks it up and rocks it gently. "Shh. It's just your new family."
"See that? You guys you have a little sibling," Leon says.
They all cheer a little as Omen walks up to Zoey and she bends down to her, letting the forest maiden also comfort the little one which seemed to help as the eevee notices her and her small nuzzlings.
"I guess Omen did have to help with some mothers in the forest," Leon guesses and Omen smiles at him before going back to soothing the eevee and pokes its stomach, making it laugh. "What do you think wimpod?" Leon asks.
Wimpod chitters as it keeps watching the eevee laugh and plays with Omen.
"You will be that eevee's big brother," Leon says, having finally checked it out.
Wimpod chitters and keeps watching the little eevee play around.
"Want to stay a few more days to take care of eevee and get used to being around us before heading out?" Leon asks.
"Yeah. That's probably best," Zoey says.
"Then how about we go see the great marsh?" Gardenia asks, putting an arm around Leon.
"Yeah…maybe that in the meantime," Leon agrees.
"Don't be gone too long," Zoey says as Lana moves in to pet the eevee.
"Don't worry. The newlyweds will be back soon," Gardenia says.
Zoey gives a slight frown to her as the eevee squirms in her arms.
"So…one moment," Leon says before looking up the great marsh. "Ah. One of the rules those entering, cannot bring any of their own pokemon."
"Guess everyone is staying with the new kid," Gardenia says looking to everyone still somewhat gushing over the newborn.
"Alright. Wimpod, you will have to stay here, ok?" Leon asks.
Wimpod chitters nervously up to him and crawls onto his back a little and clamps on.
"Come on. You want to protect eevee as a big brother, don't you?" Leon asks scanning eevee with his pokedex.
Wimpod crawls back up and looks at him.
"She will need you to protect her," Leon says.
Wimpod slowly crawls over him and then down him to go to the ground.
Leon smiles approvingly at him as he tries to be brave.
"Come on you," Gardenia says dragging him along.