Vermilion City Gym (Part 2)

The Gym Leader battle was in the early afternoon. Despite the fact that Lt. Surge was known to be a dick with the locals, there was a crowd because a Gym Leader battle in Vermilion City was a less common attraction than in the two previous cities I've visited.

Victories against Gym Leaders aren't supposed to be impossible, you know. It's supposed to be challenging, of course, so that not every schmuck with a Pokemon has badges, but it's also supposed to be an attainable goal. Imagine becoming a doctor or a pilot: you want the exams to be hard enough to make sure these people are competent, but not impossible so we don't end up with no doctors and pilots, right?

In this sense, Gym Leaders are supposed to "self-nerf," so to speak, so that they're not just ridiculously overpowering young trainers. But Lt. Surge was a dick. He would tell his coaches to be less lenient so that he wouldn't have to schedule a Gym Leader battle. Many aspiring trainers would despair at Vermilion City Gym. I was planning to humiliate Surge as much as possible for this douchebaggery.

Which is exactly why I was shocked at Surge sending out a Voltorb, which was quickly defeated by Charmeleon, and then a Pikachu, which was equally dispatched by Ivysaur, and then… giving up.

"Ah, you did well, kid!" he shouted, officially yielding the battle. "You've earned the Thunder Badge!"

Even the crowd was disappointed. They wanted to see Surge's infamous Raichu, and I don't blame them. One of the spectators even booed until Surge shot a look in the general direction.

The staff did the paperwork and issued me the Thunderbadge, which was weirdly shaped like a sun. Actually, with the dark orange core and bright yellow leaves, it was like a sunflower. Could've made it look more like a bolt of lightning, in my opinion.

I didn't mind that the Gym Leader battle was anticlimactic. I got the badge, that's all that matters. Besides, I had another thing to do before I moved on from Vermilion.

In the afternoon I got a package from Bill waiting for me, delivered to me by Alan.

"Wow, I haven't been in Vermilion City for a while," he said. "My parents even gave me errands to run. Did you know that they have a seafood market?"

Alan wished me luck and went off on his way.

The device looked similar to the one I had stolen from Team Rocket a few days ago, but I could tell that Bill had worked on it. It came with a little note of descriptions, including "Effective Radius 15 yards." Important to note.

I left all my stuff in the Pokeroom, except the most essential things. I also purchased and wore an all-black outfit of t-shirt, pants, and black hat. It was easy to board the S. S. Anne again with my VIP ticket, and then I tried to sneak in again into the storage room on floor B4. This was considerably harder than last time, because there was a visibly heightened Team Rocket security presence. Probably because someone snuck out with Surge's special package last time.

Still, I was able to stealthily go by these goons, due to my small body. I also had purchased a Jigglypuff mask that covered my face and my identity. The pink stood out against the all black that I was wearing. Blackpink was in Team Rocket's area.

In the storage room, I noticed that there were even more cages and crates than there were before. I looked under the covers and indeed, found all sorts of Pokemon captured, bound, and caged. Many of them were in their evolved states, slightly less common than your regular Rattatas, Pidgeys, and so forth. There was a Marowak, a Hypno, 2 Fearows, 3 Nidorinos, and so forth. They were clean and well maintained, a sign that they were stolen from their trainers, and not from the wild. There were all conscious, but whimpered at the sight of me, a clear evidence of torture. I tried to explain that I was here to try to rescue them. I brought out my Clefairy to try to comfort them. She had a natural gift for bringing comfort and joy to other Pokemon, like a Chansey.

"Try to stay quiet, I'll see if there's a way to get you guys out."

Suddenly, multiple doors opened and several Team Rockets came in. There were about 10 in total and they surrounded me from all sides.

"We've got you now, punk!" one of them said.

"You stole from us, you THIEF!"

Sheesh. Talk about the pot calling the kettle black.

"Stand aside, he's mine!" I heard a gruff voice that bellowed the muscular form of Lt. Surge. "I'm not going to ask twice. WHERE IS MY SH-"

I didn't give him a chance. I whispered "Butterfree and Ivysaur" to my fancy watch, which gave the signal to my fancy belt that released two Pokeballs simultaneously.

Team Rocket and Lt. Surge DID react, as my two poisonous, powdery bois started releasing sleeping powder all over the small, enclosed space. They instructed their Pokemon to try to stop mine, but Butterfree and Ivysaur were agile enough to evade most of them, and tanky enough to withstand the hits that did land. But soon, one by one, the Team Rocket goons and their Pokemon began to fall asleep.

I had, of course, gone under a tarp that I had loosened, and covered my mouth and nose with a handkerchief. I also had my Gloom suck in the sleep powder particles that seeped in too close.

The air had become thick and visibility went down from the dense powder in the air. I asked Butterfree to flap them away, ventilating the room so I could move around.

But when I came out from under the tarp, Gloom pushed me out of the way, and took a full Thunderbolt to her face.

"Gloom!" I went up to the courageous girl. She was damaged, but not knocked out.

Lt. Surge's Raichu revealed himself from behind an electric screen.

"Nice try, punk," Lt. Surge came out from behind the same screen. It was a large triangular pyramid, with a Magneton at each of the 4 corners. The electric wave had burned up the sleeping powder particles as they touched the wall of extremely high output of electricity.

My suspicions were correct. Lt. Surge held back from his gym fights, only to use his most powerful Pokemon for his own personal gains. This idea was also confirmed when an Electabuzz almost as tall as Lt. Surge himself stepped in front of him.

Without hesitation I brought out Charmeleon, Graveler, and Sandslash. At the same time, I pressed a button to turn on Bill's new device. It was wrapped around my right forearm.

Then the battle was full on. The 4 Magnetons still maintained the pyramid formation, protecting Surge, while the Raichu and Electabuzz served as the main fighting force. They were very, very strong. Raichu was able to use extremely strong ranged electric moves, while Electabuzz started charging at us, using Thunderpunch. He was able to enfuse his body with electricity and preferred to fight in melee style.

Graveler stood in front of me, dealing with Electabuzz. The electric Pokemon's abnormally large fist was visibly empowered by electricity. But when it came flying, Graveler was able to catch it in his stone hands.

"Huh?" Surge was confused.

Even though Graveler was a Rock Pokemon, Electabuzz had enough power to at least deal some damage with his Thunderpunch.

It wasn't any different with Raichu, who channeled a powerful attack and unleashed it, only to have Sandslash tank it very easily.

"Ha! You think your Rock and Ground types can stop my Electricity?!"

Surge ordered his 4 Magnetons, who changed formations. They connected themselves together to create one huge mass of electrical power, and they started feeding their electrical power into Raichu.

Raichu again charged up and unleashed an attack. And again, It hit Sandslash, who flinched a bit, but was otherwise unhurt.

"That's… that's not possible! Even if it's a Ground type!"

But it was, Surge. It was possible. The machine on my forearm was glowing with power that was being emitted from inside.

"Wait," Surge noticed it. "That's MINE! What did you do to it?!"

I gave commands to my Pokemon to attack. The Electabuzz, or even the Raichu with the 4-Magneton buff didn't pose much of a threat. Their electric moves were being sucked into Bill's machine, being absorbed by the golden needle, and then dissipated harmlessly.

"I will work on further enhancements so that you can output the electric power that the machine absorbed," Bill had told me. "But for now, the machine should simply suck up the electric power so that it poses no real threat beyond some regular battle level pain. No permanent damage, either."

In short, Raichu's powers were easily bearable, and Electabuzz was just a regular brute without his Thunderpunch. Graveler easily overpowered him.

This was the REAL boss battle vs. Surge. Considering that I was outnumbered by Team Rockets, and that Surge used multiple Pokemon instead of one at a time, I would call it fair that I used Bill's machine to aid me.

I call this an absolute win.