Monday, January 8th, 2018
Before opening the door to the gym, Cait hesitated and then turned back to look at John and me, "If Meggan asks you if you want your challenge to be a double battle, say no unless you want a much more difficult fight."
"Why's that?" I asked, wondering why she had waited until the literal last second to tell us.
"Fairy types tend to have a lot of supportive moves, so they're particularly good at doubles," Cait explained.
John considered for a few seconds, then nodded, "Makes sense. Thanks for the heads up."
"No problem," Cait said before turning back to the gym's entrance and opening the door for the three of us to enter. We were greeted by a lobby that had an identical layout to the one that we'd been in yesterday. In fact, the only real difference was that there was a solitary woman about my age wearing scrubs sitting behind the receptionist counter instead of the pair from yesterday.
She smiled brightly as we entered the lobby, "Well, good morning to you three. Cait, John, and Thomas, right?" Once we'd all nodded or otherwise mumbled our affirmations, she asked, "Who wants to go first?"
"I will," John volunteered with a slight raise of his hand. "Though, would it be alright if we watched each other's battles?"
"Sure! As long as all three of you are okay with that, it's not a problem at all." This time, just Cait and I had to nod before the woman glanced down at her computer. She quickly typed something in before looking back up at us, "The doctor will see you now, it'll be right through that door." As she spoke, she gestured toward a door that John eagerly started walking towards.
"Thanks," I quickly told her before following the other two through the door. The room on the other side was similar to the St Cloud gym, with the primary differences being a few items around the periphery of the court. While the St Cloud gym had only contained a single healing machine, this one had a machine on both ends of the room, with the far end also having a shelf with nine Pokeballs sitting on it. Oddly, the main thing that the room was missing was a gym leader.
"Guess we have to wait," John commented blandly, losing some of his excitement. Cait rolled her eyes, and the reason quickly became evident when I noticed the receptionist follow us and then walk to the far side of the room.
When she reached the other side, she turned back around with a smile and looked directly at Cait. "Thanks for not ruining my little joke," she said, to which Cait grumbled something that I didn't catch. "As you may have guessed by now, I'm Meggan, the Rochester gym leader and your opponent for today."
While the reveal didn't quite have the gravity that I think Meggan was looking for, I was impressed nonetheless. From what I could tell, people couldn't officially become trainers and start earning badges until they were eighteen so someone being a gym leader and doctor at our age was remarkable. I belatedly realized that the doctor part was probably part of the joke, but it still seemed impressive.
While I considered her accomplishments, Meggan turned towards John, "Do you want your challenge to be a double battle? I know some people like the format, and I'm somewhat of a fan myself."
"I'm good with a single battle, thanks," John replied as he moved into the spot on the floor designated for challenging trainers.
Meggan shrugged, "Alrighty then. This'll be a four-on-four singles battle with a Lady Slipper Badge and promotion into the amateur league on the line. The challenger will be allowed to substitute their Pokemon but the gym leader will not." After listing the battle's rules, Meggan briefly turned around to select one of the Pokeballs from the shelf behind her. After picking one, she asked, "Ready?"
"Yeah," John confidently answered, already reaching for his first Pokeball. He halted when Meggan's first Pokemon was revealed to be a Kirlia, and the gym leader smiled at his obvious hesitation. After a few seconds of quiet deliberation, John selected a different Pokeball from his belt and sent out his Swinub. Once Swinub had materialized, Meggan called for the battle to begin and a half-second later, John called, "Powder Snow!"
At her trainer's command, Swinub violently shivered, making snow gust off of her body with the majority of it flying towards Kirlia. The temperature of the room noticeably dropped due to the attack, making me glad that I hadn't taken my coat off yet.
"Avoid and disrupt," Meggan calmly told her Pokemon, paying no attention to the cold. Kirlia shimmered and then vanished, reappearing a moment later behind Swinub. A violet bolt shot out of Kirlia's forehead hitting Swinub directly in the back. The downside of Kirlia's approach was that it was easily in range of Swinub's ongoing attack, and the Pokemon shivered when some snow landed on it.
"Shake it off and use Secret Power," John told Swinub. Once again, Swinub shook her body, but this time an icy blue ring of energy emanated out instead of snow. The Secret Power move looked a bit thicker than what I'd seen previously. However, before the halo reached more than a couple of feet past Swinub, it suddenly contracted and struck its originator.
While John urged his Pokemon to snap out of her confusion, Meggan calmly called out, "Drain." An unsettling image of two large lips appeared in front of Kirlia and shot towards the dazed Swinub.
John glanced at the quickly approaching move, then his Pokemon, before calling out, "Swapping!" Swinub was returned barely in time to avoid Kirlia's attack, and John chose his replacement Pokemon with none of the hesitation he'd had before picking Swinub. "Secret Power into Metal Claw," John ordered Drilbur as the Pokemon appeared in the same spot that Swinub had been standing in moments before.
Though his was slightly thinner than Swinub's had been, Drilbur followed his teammate's attack and created another ring of icy blue energy. As the ring began to expand outwards towards Kirlia, Drilbur followed it as quickly as he could without running into his own attack.
"Sleep," Meggan called out, but John ordered a Rapid Spin before Kirlia's eyes could even begin to glow with Hypnosis. Undeterred by the failed status move, Kirlia Teleported again after another 'avoid' from Meggan, skirting Drilbur's Secret Power. This time Kirlia reappeared about where Drilbur had been sent out, forcing John's Pokemon to quickly try to reverse his momentum on the slicked floor. "Swarm," Meggan said, and a second later a small flurry of glowing leaves appeared around Kirlia's body before shooting off towards Drilbur.
Most of the Magical Leaves exploded in small puffs of light when they made contact with Drilbur's rotating claws, but a few of them managed to hit Drilbur in the head. While the mole Pokemon was staggered by the blows, he managed to maintain Rapid Spin and closed the remaining distance to Meggan's Pokemon before it could Teleport away again. I realized that the battle in front of me was almost an exact match for the Brawl exhibition match, and it ended in the same way, with Kirlia being battered by Drilbur's claws until it was knocked out.
"Good recovery," Meggan complimented as she returned her first Pokemon. John nodded his thanks, but the gym leader had already turned around. Kirlia's Pokeball was immediately placed on the healing machine on her end of the field before Meggan selected another Pokeball from the shelf and returned to her place on the field.
"Thanks," John said now that Meggan was once again looking at him, then faltered when Meggan's next Pokemon was revealed to be a Marill. With a sigh, John announced that he was swapping again and replaced Drilbur with Nidorino.
The rest of John's challenge started fairly well. Nidorino managed to knock out Marill, though not before the spiky Pokemon took significant damage from a Defense Curl and Rollout combo that I was particularly familiar with. Meggan's next Pokemon was a Swirlix that eventually knocked Nidorino out after repeated usage of Round. At one point, I thought that Nidorino had that matchup won when Swirlix was poisoned by one of Nidorino's darts, but the cotton candy Pokemon immediately cured itself with Aromatherapy. The Swirlix in turn was defeated after being pelted with numerous Rock Throws from Rockruff.
Meggan's last Pokemon turned out to be a Cottonee, which was somewhat of a problem for John given that Nidorino had already been knocked out. Rockruff managed to hit her opponent with a couple of Rock Throws but got knocked out by Razor Leaf when John tried to get her closer for a Fire Fang. Drilbur was the next to be sent out but was recalled almost immediately when Cottonee started using Mega Drain. After John's plan of getting some chip damage in with Drilbur failed, Swinub returned to the field and was eventually able to defeat the gym leader's last Pokemon with Powder Snow and Ice Shard.
"Congratulations," Meggan told John with a smile as she returned her last Pokemon and John breathed a sigh of relief. Once Cait and I had echoed her sentiments, Meggan asked, "Would you be fine waiting until the end to get your badge?"
John returned Swinub and shrugged, "That's fine. It makes sense to give all three of us our badges at the same time."
"It's good to see you have confidence in your friends," Meggan said with a soft laugh and then looked at me. "Thomas, would you be up for going next? I may or may not use some of the same Pokemon in Cait's challenge and I would prefer to give them a chance to recover."
"Sure," I answered and moved up to take John's place in the challenger spot. John smacked me on the back as I passed by him and loudly wished me good luck.
After retrieving her first Pokeball for our match, Meggan announced, "This will be a three on three single battle with substitutions allowed for the challenger. On the line is a Lady Slipper Badge. Are you ready?"
I noted that she hadn't even asked me if I wanted a double battle, but figured that it ultimately didn't matter since I would have declined as John had. "Yep. Ready," I called back. A moment later, a Morelull appeared on the field in front of Meggan. Apart from its name and typing, I couldn't really remember much about the Pokemon, but the fact that it was a grass type was all that I needed to know. I sent Blitz out without hesitating and said, "Get in there with Peck!"
"Rain Dance," Meggan told her Pokemon, who began to sway back and forth as Blitz approached. Droplets of rain started falling down across the room, and I noticed that Morelull's mushrooms perked up slightly. Even though the weather was bad for Blitz, I didn't give any serious consideration to swapping him out since he was likely going to be sticking to flying moves instead of fire. Besides, none of my other Pokemon would have been great choices, and I wanted to get some early momentum after watching John's match.
Morelull was still in the middle of its dance when Blitz reached the other side of the field, leaving the small Pokemon completely open to Blitz's attack. The force of Blitz's Peck knocked Morelull down to the ground where it lay prone pitifully. For several seconds the Pokemon didn't move until it suddenly appeared reinvigorated and hopped back to its root-like feet. Since I didn't have any way to deal with the rain that was presumably restoring it, I simply called out, "Keep up the pressure!"
"Ingrain and Confuse Ray," Meggan said, as Blitz wheeled around for another pass. Morelull somehow managed to dig its roots into the hard gym floor, and the lower half of its body began to glow green. Blitz dove down to hit the now-stationary target with another Peck but was forced to break his dive off suddenly when a beam of dark purple light fired out of Morelull's head.
I watched as Blitz circled his opponent, looking for his opening, and knew that just Pecks wouldn't be enough for us to take the battle. Morelull had two different things to heal itself, and between Confuse Ray and the rain slowing him down, Blitz had limited opportunities to actually inflict damage. So far, Blitz hadn't been hit, but I knew it was only a matter of time before Morelull retaliated. To make things worse, I was quickly losing the momentum that I'd wanted to seize. Running through Blitz's moves, I suddenly realized what to do and ordered, "Pluck!"
A few seconds later, Blitz finally found his opening and dove down towards Morelull, narrowly avoiding another Confuse Ray. This time, instead of stabbing Morelull with his beak, Blitz aimed a little higher and ripped the largest mushroom off his opponent's body. Morelull drooped visibly, and I watched horrified as Blitz flew away, slowing down only to pop the pilfered mushroom into his mouth and swallow. I'd wanted him to Pluck Morelull out of its Ingrain, not to eat the other Pokemon!
I nervously looked towards Meggan, ready to apologize profusely for Bliz's actions, only to see her giving me an approving look. Completely unphased by her Pokemon's missing body part, Meggan calmly said, "Sleep Powder." Morelull looked a bit better than it had a few seconds earlier as it weakly shook its remaining mushrooms. But because of the rain, the spores that emerged ended up settling on the mushrooms they had come from.
While Sleep Powder hadn't been dispersed into the air, I knew that it was actually more dangerous for us in this form. I couldn't risk Blitz using another Pluck that might end up with him eating the spores. Even Peck and Wing Attack seemed a bit dicey. "Double Team and Flame Charge," I called out, hoping that even with the rain, Flame Charge would protect Blitz from the Sleep Powder spores by burning them away.
Instead of using his speed to create after-images like he normally did when using Double Team, Blitz summoned flames around himself for Flame Charge and the heat from the fire distorted his outline. With the rain, his fire looked a bit less potent than usual, but that didn't stop him from diving towards Morelull for the third time.
"Astonish!" Meggan called out at the last second, and Morelull suddenly reared back before whipping its entire body forward and directly into Blitz. Morelull's remaining mushrooms smacked Blitz right in the face, but he pushed past the surprise attack and barreled directly into the other Pokemon, making contact with both his body and the flames around himself. Then for some reason, Blitz Plucked another mushroom as he flew away. Before I could stop him, he popped the second mushroom into his mouth and swallowed.
I scrambled for Blitz's Pokeball before the Sleep Powder could take effect and called out, "Swapping!" The beam of red light hit Blitz as he was starting to lose altitude, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a similar flash of light as Meggan returned Morelull. Glad that Blitz had at least managed to knock out his opponent before effectively taking himself out of the fight, I decided to chalk up the first bout as a win despite the setback. I would just have to hope that Blitz would be able to rouse himself given that he was my only Pokemon with a real advantage against fairy types.
Meggan's next Pokemon turned out to be a Snubbull, and after a second of consideration, I sent Nin out to face it. While Nin materialized, I thought about how we should approach the battle against the one Pokemon species that I had no idea how it had been classified as a fairy. Nothing came to mind as a particularly good strategy against a Snubbull, so I decided to just stick to Nin's strengths and called for a Glare.
"Scary Face," Meggan said at the same time, prompting the two Pokemon to pull themselves to their full heights before staring intently at the other. There was complete silence in the room as they tried to psyche the other one out, only for them to break eye contact after almost ten full seconds and hesitantly begin to approach each other. When the two had gotten a bit closer, I called out a new attack for Nin, only for Meggan to once again speak up at the same time, "Headbutt!"
Invigorated by their respective trainer's commands, Nin and Snubbull picked up speed and knocked their heads together. Both Pokemon were dazed by the dual blow, but Nin appeared to be recovering a bit faster so I quickly called out, "Wrap!"
Nin violently shook his head to clear it before lunging at Snubbull and Wrapping his body around the other Pokemon. Meggan's Pokemon cried out in pain as Nin began to put pressure on it, but the gym leader was completely unphased as she said, "Ice Fang."
Before Nin could disengage, Snubbull opened its mouth to reveal glowing blue fangs and then chomped down on the section of Nin's body in front of its face. Nin shuddered both from the cold and Snubbull's sharp teeth. To make matters worse, frost started forming at the location of the bite. The frost quickly spread across Nin and within seconds had solidified into ice, freezing him solid.
With Nin no longer able to apply pressure to his Wrap from his frozen cocoon, Snubbull was able to wiggle its way free and glanced back at its trainer for a new command. "Headbutt," Meggan repeated. She looked at me expectantly, but I decided not to swap Nin out in the hopes that Snubbull's attack would free him from his icy prison. Besides, unlike Blitz's drowsiness, I was pretty sure that recalling Nin wouldn't cure his frozen condition.
Everyone in the gym watched with rapt attention as Snubbull lowered its head and smashed into the head of Nin's ice cocoon, but the dog Pokemon stumbled when it met an unexpected lack of resistance. Where Nin should have been, there was nothing except a hollow chunk of ice shrouding some black snakeskin. After restabilizing itself, Snubbull whipped its head back and forth, trying to find its missing opponent. Before it could find Nin, a black tail wrapped around Snubbull's left leg, and a sudden yank from Nin brought Meggan's Pokemon crashing to the ground face-first.
My eyes followed the tail up to the rest of Nin's body, and I watched as he finished extracting himself from the ice. Nin's slightly thicker head got stuck in the thin spot that the rest of his body had been able to slip through, but after a few seconds, he was able to squeeze his way through. There was a small section of Nin's body that looked a bit discolored from where Snubbull had bitten him, but otherwise, he looked completely fine and even had slightly shinier scales.
While Nin had finished freeing himself, Snubbull finally staggered back to its feet, only for the snake Pokemon to slither over to it and knock the pink Pokemon back down with another Headbutt. Snubbull tried to regain its footing several more times, but each time Nin forced the other Pokemon back to the ground either with Headbutts or using his tail to trip his opponent. After Snubbull's fourth failed attempt to stand, Meggan returned her Pokemon and sent out her last, which turned out to be a Floette.
"Swapping," I announced before Meggan could give her final Pokemon a command. I didn't like Nin's chances against a Pokemon that could float, and even with Shed Skin, which I was glad to finally know about, I was pretty sure that Nin could use a break after being frozen. As I returned Nin, I briefly considered using Scout for the next battle since she could use the experience, but I decided that I shouldn't get over-confident. While Blitz and Nin were still up, they'd been hit by bad statuses, so I wasn't certain that they would be returning to the battle at full strength. After checking Blitz's Pokeball to verify that he was awake so that I knew my options, I selected a different ball and sent Peren out.
"Start it off with Leech Seed," I told my starter when he appeared. A moment later, several small seeds flew across the field towards Floette, but they were short-lived after Meggan told her Pokemon to use Fairy Wind. The sparkling wind that Floette generated knocked the Leed Seeds off-course, and they burst uselessly upon hitting the ground. The attack also washed over Peren, making him shudder lightly. With the weaker of Peren's ranged options out of contention, I switched tactics, "Bullet Seed."
Thankfully, Bullet Seed was able to overcome the wind resistance provided by Fairy Wind, and the seeds hit Floette directly, knocking the floating Pokemon back slightly. Meggan seemed oddly unconcerned by the hit and didn't issue any new commands for her last Pokemon. With no other good options, I likewise stayed silent, making for a very uninteresting battle as the two simply traded blows. From the way that it was slowly losing altitude, Floette appeared to be tiring faster than Peren, so I was fine with the dull match.
When it looked like Floette could only take a few more hits, Meggan confidently said, "Wish." I swore under my breath as a small star appeared about a foot above Floette's head and slowly started descending towards the Pokemon.
Knowing that we were suddenly on a clock, I desperately called, "Keep the pressure up Peren!" My starter took a deep breath before redoubling his efforts and firing a solid stream of seeds at his opponent. Floette drifted further down to the ground at the onslaught. For a second, I thought we had it, but the star finished its descent. Floette was instantly revitalized at the contact with its creation, and the Pokemon flew back up to its previous position. "Argh, just keep at it," I told Peren, trying to figure out what else we could do.
With no good options on our end and a winning situation on her's, Meggan and I once again fell silent as our Pokemon resumed trading Bullet Seed and Fairy Wind attacks. This time, Peren was definitely the one who was tiring faster, and almost as if to rub salt in the wound, Meggan calmly called for another Wish.
This time when the star appeared above Floette, I let Peren's current flurry of seeds finish before quickly calling, "Swapping!" The moment that Peren was off of the field, I pressed the button on a different Pokeball while yelling, "Quick Attack!"
Blitz streaked across the field, trailing red light as he was already on the move before he'd even finished materializing. He didn't even seem to notice the resistance that Floette's Fairy Wind was causing. Within seconds, he reached the gym leader's Pokemon, knocking it back at full speed. The Wish star sped up slightly as its target moved away from it, but Blitz quickly Pecked the other Pokemon, making Floette drop to the ground and the Wish star fizzle.
"Another great battle!" Meggan exclaimed as she returned her final Pokemon. My friends echoed the sentiment from behind me, but as I returned Blitz, I wasn't sure if I agreed. Two of the matches were more puzzles than actual battles, and I'd only won the third because of something that I couldn't have planned. Unaware of my slight frustrations with the match, Meggan clapped her hands together, "Only one more to go! Ready, Cait?"
I turned to walk off of the stage and saw Cait nod determinedly as she walked forward. Once she'd taken my place, Meggan asked, "Do you want your challenge to be a double battle?"
"Yes," Cait instantly replied.
"But you said to say no to a double battle," John protested from beside me.
Cait continued facing the stage instead of turning around to look at us as she replied, "I said you should say no to a double battle unless you wanted a harder fight."
Meggan laughed heartily at the explanation, "I knew I could count on you, Cait!"
"Wait, do you two know each other?" John asked with surprise that I shared.
Meggan looked at Cait with an exaggerated pout, "You didn't tell your new rivals about me? I'm hurt." The gym leader didn't wait long enough for Cait to respond before continuing, "We used to compete against each other in battle tents when we were younger and were hyped up as rivals for some reason. I had to stop competing once I was awarded the gym, so I've been looking forward to an official battle."
"In that case, we should get on with it," Cait interjected.
Meggan laughed, "I suppose you're right." She briefly turned around to retrieve four Pokeballs, attaching two of them to her scrubs. Before releasing her first two Pokemon, she hesitated and added, "For the record, this will be a four versus four double battle with challenger substitutions with a Lady Slipper Badge on the line." Once Cait nodded, Meggan sent out a Mawile and a Swirlix that I assumed was the same one that she'd used against John. Houndy and Poli appeared on Cait's side of the field. The second that the pair finished materializing, Mawile glared at the pair and aggressively mashed its back teeth. "Alright you two, get big and make small," Meggan told her Pokemon.
Mawile's back mouth began to take large bites out of the air. It looked like it was swallowing large amounts of air, and it started to look a bit bulkier as it repeated the process. At the same time, a slightly sweet aroma began to fill the gym and oddly, Swirlix appeared to start to cry.
"Focus Mawile," Cait told her Pokemon, "Double Fire Fang and Mud Shot." Though he looked a bit hesitant at first, Houndy began running across the arena with fire leaking out of his mouth. Poli likewise started waddling towards Meggan's side of the field, but the smaller Pokemon was easily outpaced by his partner. Houndy lunged when he got close enough to Mawile, but at a sharp command from Meggan, Houndy's target whipped its back head around and hit the dog Pokemon in the stomach.
The hit knocked the breath out of Cait's Pokemon, but unfortunately for Mawile, that meant that it was covered by the flames that Houndy had been holding in his mouth. Both Pokemon were stunned for a few seconds, but Houndy recovered more quickly and bit down on his opponent with a Fire Fang.
"Swap," Meggan instructed, and a small white rod appeared above Mawile before the Pokemon disappeared in a flash of red light. I was about to make a comment to John about Meggan not being able to swap, but then stopped myself when I realized that it must have been Baton Swap. My suspicions were confirmed a moment later when a Marill appeared directly in front of Houndy and the floating baton vanished with a soft popping noise. Like it had when it had faced John's Pokemon, Marill began to curl up into a ball and start to roll forward as soon as it hit the field.
"Roar!" Cait hurriedly called, and Houndy sat back on his haunches to bark loudly at the Pokemon only inches away. As quickly as it had arrived, Marill disappeared off of the stage, and Mawile was left once again standing in its place. Upon its return to the stage, Mawile aggressively mashed its teeth at Cait's Pokemon, though the effect was somewhat ruined when it was splattered by mud courtesy of Poli, who had finally caught up. The tadpole Pokemon was spraying water at the ground, which somehow created a spray of mud at the point of impact on the ground.
With Cait's second Pokemon joining the battle, I realized that I hadn't noticed Swirlix doing anything. A glance revealed that the Pokemon hadn't moved from its original spot and was still floating in place, though when I squinted I realized that there were familiar faint pink lines coming off of it. While Swirlix maintained its more subtle attack, Mawile was quickly overpowered by the combined attention that Houndy and Poli were giving it. This time when Marill came out of its ball to replace Mawile, the water Pokemon immediately blasted Houndy with a stream of bubbles after a command from Meggan.
"Houndy, change. Poli, match," Cait ordered and Houndy gladly ran away from Marill's Bubblebeam while Poli began countering the attack with her own bubbles. As Houndy started shooting a flurry of Embers up at it, Swirlix was finally forced to stop using Fairy Wind unopposed. With a 'drain' command from Meggan, Swirlix tried using a Draining Kiss, but Houndy was able to avoid the fairly slow-moving attack.
"Rollover Marill," Meggan called, and the Pokemon abruptly stopped blowing bubbles to roll itself into a ball. Marill was hit by several Bubbles from Poli but ignored them to roll right towards the other Pokemon. Poli was barely able to dodge but was left chasing after her opponent when Marill continued rolling towards Houndy.
"Dodge!" Cait urgently told her Pokemon, and Houndy jumped back from his attack on Swirlix, narrowly avoiding Marill as the water type spun past him. Houndy was likewise able to dodge a second pass from Marill, but Meggan's Pokemon continued gaining speed and hit Houndy on its third attack. Houndy tried to force the other Pokemon back by shooting Embers at it, but the flames scattered off its rolling body so the only outcome was that Houndy was hit and knocked out. Cait quickly returned her starter and replaced him with her Tynamo, "Poli, muddy the field while Keter charges up!"
Poli stopped in her tracks and once again shot water on the ground, creating mud splatters all around the arena. At a command from Meggan, Marill started rolling towards Keter, but the Pokemon slipped on one of the patches of mud that Poli had created. Keter took full advantage of his opponent's loss of balance and fired off a thin beam of electricity, knocking Marill even more off-balance. While Marill attempted to regain its momentum, Swirlix was able to resume using Fairy Wind on Cait's Pokemon unopposed.
Marill dodged the next few of Keter's attacks, though it avoided damage by increasingly thin margins as the width of Keter's attack grew. Meggan must have noticed the same thing, since she suddenly called, "Up and down Marill!" At the command, Marill finally unrolled itself and leaned back on its tail to Bounce up into the air. Keter managed to hit the other Pokemon with a Charge Beam while Marill was in the air, but that meant that he was left completely open when Marill landed directly on top of him. The small electric fish weakly tried to lift its body off of the muddy ground, but that ended up only allowing Marill to smash its water-covered tail into Keter, knocking him back down and out.
"Huge Power is something alright," John commented with a wince beside me as Cait returned Keter and sent out her last Pokemon, which predictably was Flit. Marill switched back to using Bubblebeam to try to disrupt Flit's swarm as it formed, but its task was made much more difficult by Poli spattering it with mud. Swirlix likewise had no discernible effect on Flit, and the growing swarm completely ignored its Fairy Wind.
Once her swarm was fully formed, Flit darted towards Marill stinger-first, but the attack was avoided when Marill once again Bounced away on its tail. Marill's jump propelled it directly through Flit's swarm, taking out a good-sized chunk of the conjured bugs. However, the Pokemon landed directly on one of Poli's mud puddles and slipped forward to land on its face.
"Poison and drain," Cait called quickly. Rather than physically turning around, the small bugs that made up Flit's swarm moved so that her stinger and mouth were on the other side of its body. Meggan called out to urge her Pokemon to stand, but her command wasn't heeded. Flit simultaneously stabbed Marill with her stinger and began Absorbing the other Pokemon with her mouth.
"Cleanse!" Meggan told her Swirlix, and a soothing aroma filled the gym. But it was too late for Marill, and the Pokemon collapsed back into the mud. Just as quickly as the other swaps in the battle, Meggan returned her Marill and sent out her last Pokemon, which turned out to be a completely normal-looking Ribombee.
"I thought Minnesotan Cutiefly didn't evolve," I quietly told John with a hint of confusion.
"They don't, thank Arceus," John muttered in reply. "She must have imported it."
The battle continued during our sidebar with Ribombee firing a puffy glowing ball at its partner after Meggan called, "Heal." Swirlix floated perfectly still, and when the ball exploded, the few wounds that the Pokemon had accumulated over the battle vanished. With her damaged Pokemon taken care of, Meggan pointed at Poli and said, "Drain."
"Poison and drench!" Cait ordered at the same time, mirroring Meggan by pointing at Swirlix. While Ribombee had been healing its partner, Flit had finished patching up the holes in her swarm caused by Marill, and the mosquito Pokemon darted forward at Cait's command. The two Pokemon of the same evolutionary line flew past each other before descending on their respective targets. Ribombee began using draining energy from Poli while she feebly tried to retaliate with Bubbles. On the other side of the field, Flit repeatedly stabbed at Swirlix, forcing the cotton candy Pokemon to put all of its efforts into dodging the swarm's stinger.
Flit had only landed a few glancing blows on Swirlix by the time that Ribombee had knocked out Poli after continually Absorbing her. "Harm!" Meggan ordered and Ribombee darted back towards Flit while Cait returned Poli. When the evolved Pokemon got close, it created another one of the puffy balls and shot it directly at Flit, punching another hole in the swarm when it made contact. Swirlix relaxed at the distraction that had been provided for it and resumed using Fairy Wind, but that turned out to be a mistake since Flit quickly reformed and hit Swirlix dead on with her stinger. Finally knocked out, Swirlix stopped hovering and fell to the floor with a loud splat as it landed in the mud.
"Disperse and coat!" Cait quickly ordered while Meggan was returning her mud-covered Pokemon. At the command, Flit's usual swarm shape fell apart as all of the constituent bugs flew up near the ceiling in a thin layer. Once they reached their destination, a bright purple powder began slowly drifting down, covering the entire area of the gym's arena. The Poison Powder's descent was halted when Ribombee used Fairy Wind to blow the attack back up, protecting itself and forcing Cait to amend her order, "Coat and drench!"
The section of the swarm directly above Ribombee began oozing a purple liquid that the Pokemon was forced to stop using its Fairy Wind in order to dodge. Ribombee managed to fly around for almost a full minute as it narrowly dodged Poison Powder and what I assumed was Venoshock, but eventually it got surrounded by the attacks and was forced to fly into a cloud of Poison Powder. Without Swirlix's Aromatherapy to cure its poison, Ribombee didn't last much longer and was knocked out after being covered with Venoshock.
Cait stood completely still while Meggan returned her last Pokemon. When I looked at my friend, I could have sworn she was shaking slightly. John looked like he was going to congratulate her but must have noticed the same since he opened his mouth, hesitated, then closed it. After a few seconds, Cait breathed a deep sigh of relief and returned Flit. The Pokeball's beam found Flit's real body, and the rest of the swarm instantly disappeared.
The silence of the room was broken when Meggan started clapping, "Well done all three of you! You especially Cait, it was really great to see what you can do with your own Pokemon!"
Cait took another deep breath before a smile finally appeared on her face and she looked at the gym leader, "Thanks Meggan. I'm glad we could battle again."
"Well, now for your prizes!" Meggan exclaimed with a final clap of her hands. Looking down at the toxic mud that now covered her gym floor, she hesitated. "Why don't you all go back into the lobby while I get this taken care of."
Since Meggan seemed to have the situation in hand, the three of us returned to the lobby to wait, with John excitedly recapping the highlights of all three of our matches. We had barely been waiting a minute when the door to the gym's stadium opened up to reveal Meggan with a floating Togekiss next to her. Right before the door swung back shut, I saw a very odd-looking Weezing floating above the gym's floor.
"Here's your winnings!" Meggan said with a smile as she handed each of us a Lady Slipper Badge, a debit card, and a TM that was labeled Draining Kiss. Once we'd all put away our earnings, Meggan handed Cait a slip of paper, "And here's my number!"
Cait looked down at the piece of paper then back up at Meggan. After pausing for several seconds, she eloquently asked, "Why?"
Meggan's faux-hurt expression from before returned, "Are you saying you don't want to talk to me? Now that you've earned my badge fair and square, we can go back to trading strategy tips like we used to without anyone getting on my case about favoritism. Yeah, you'll have to challenge me again in two years, but we don't need to worry about that for a long time."
Cait's smile had returned as soon as Meggan had mentioned strategy tips and quickly pulled out her Poryphone. By the time the gym leader had finished talking, there was a loud ding from the front pocket of her scrubs. "Done," Cait announced as she returned her phone to her bag.
"Well that didn't take much convincing after all," Meggan said with a light laugh. She then paused to give John and me an appraising look. Returning her attention to Cait, she winked, "And feel free to share my number with your friends!" I was somewhat taken aback by the flirty suggestion, but any discomfort I felt was replaced by amusement when I noticed my friends' reactions. Cait's expression had instantly turned mortified and John flushed red, leaving Meggan and me to laugh at their reactions.
A/N: Hopefully the battles were fairly interesting. I came up with a new way of choreographing fights for Cait's battle which I think will help to improve them going forward.
Thanks to krazykz and Dosidicus for betaing. Next up is Chapter 24: Training Montage
