Saturday, January 27th, 2018
"Leaves of three, let it be," I muttered to myself before speaking up so that Blitz could hear me. "Stick to ranged moves and make sure you don't get hit!" Blitz chirped loudly, letting me know what he thought about my advice before he flew up into the air.
"Use Vine Whip to bring it down!" My opponent for the last round of the St Paul gym gauntlet told her Minnesotan Bayleef. The regional version of Bayleef wasn't too dissimilar from its normal counterpart, with the most notable difference being that it had three leaves atop its head instead of a single one. Most importantly, it was a poison type in addition to grass, and I was fairly certain that I'd read that it commonly had an ability named Abrasive Contact which was Poison Point and Poison Touch rolled into one.
At Anne's command, twin vines erupted from pods around Bayleef's neck and shot up towards Blitz to swat him out of the sky. With a burst of speed from Quick Attack, Blitz avoided Bayleef's vines and put a bit more distance between himself and the other Pokemon. He then momentarily slowed down as he stopped using Quick Attack, but a moment later he started to regain speed as his beak began to glow and Gale Wings kicked in.
Bayleef had to continually pivot its body to keep an eye on Blitz as he flew above it. At one point it moved a bit too slowly and Blitz immediately took the opportunity to dive down towards his opponent while he was in its blind spot. Once he'd gotten close enough to the other Pokemon, Blitz fired off a single ranged peck, hitting Bayleef in the neck and making it take a step backward. The poisonous dinosaur quickly recovered from the blow and resumed trying to hit Blitz, but he was still moving too fast to be caught by its vines.
"Reflect!" Anne called out and Bayleef's vines momentarily stopped flailing as a mostly transparent barrier appeared in front of the Pokemon. Blitz took advantage of the other Pokemon's stalled offense to swoop down with another ranged Peck, but this time it had a much less noticeable effect. Most of Peck's energy was absorbed by the barrier and Bayleef barely winced at the super-effective hit.
With Reflect cutting Peck's damage, I knew that we would have to change strategies. Unfortunately, Blitz's only non-physical move was Ember and I knew that he would definitely get hit and poisoned by a Vine Whip if he changed off of flying moves. I watched the battle for a few more seconds until the sight of Bayleef's flailing vines gave me an idea, "Peck the vines! Reflect won't be covering them!"
While Blitz switched his focus to attacking Bayleef's appendages, I noticed that Anne was becoming more and more frustrated as Blitz managed to avoid being hit while stinging back with Pecks. I ignored her growing agitation and instead focused my full attention on carefully watching Bayleef. One of the first things that I'd learned about battling in this world was what Aeric had told John and me that Reflect and Light Screen's durations. Specifically, they were determined by their user's mental state. Between its trainer's anger and the constant wounds that Blitz was inflicting it with, I figured that Bayleef would lose its concentration sooner than later.
Sure enough, it was less than thirty seconds later when I noticed the shimmering Barrier in front of Bayleef fade away. "Target Bayleef!" I instantly called out and Blitz dove down towards the other Pokemon without any hesitation. This time Blitz was able to fire off two Pecks in quick succession that struck Bayleef before it could reestablish its Barrier. There was a loud slapping noise as Bayleef's vines limply fell to the ground and a second later the Pokemon followed them.
The moment that Bayleef hit the floor, the gym referee called out, "Challenger Thomas Fitzgerald has won the match. Please head to the waiting room until you are called for your gym battle." As he spoke, the referee pointed towards one of the doors leading out of the battle room.
Meanwhile, Anne returned her knocked-out Pokemon and began stomping towards the door that we had entered through. She gave me one final glare before leaving the room and I found that I couldn't really fault her frustration. It had certainly been a very favorable matchup for me, but I didn't feel bad about my win. I was simply glad that we finally had the opportunity to challenge one of the twin cities' gyms.
I recalled a preening Blitz and gave the ref a grateful nod before following his instructions and walking through the door, finding myself in yet another hallway in the large gym building. Thankfully, there were clear directions posted on every wall and within a minute I'd arrived at a room labeled 'Challenger Waiting Room.' Opening the door revealed a small room that didn't have any furnishing apart from four chairs along with a healing machine that already had a Pokeball and a Greatball sitting atop it. To go with the Pokeballs, there were two people waiting within, a man in his late twenties and a woman that I guessed to be about Al's age.
"Nice battle out there," the man offered as I entered and the woman hummed in agreement. I was momentarily confused until I looked up and saw that there were four small TVs mounted on the wall opposite of the healing machine. Three of them showed empty battlefields but the fourth displayed an ongoing battle between a Croagunk and a Litten.
"Thanks, but I'm pretty sure I just got lucky with the matchup," I admitted.
"That's just how it goes sometimes," the man replied with a dismissive shrug. He nodded to the television showing the two Pokemon, "Those two have something similar going on. That Croagunk would do great if they could actually get to Oliver, but Dry Skin isn't doing it any favors here. In blind battles like these, you just have to make the best of a bad situation or make sure you don't throw away your advantage if you've got one. And you did a great job of the latter."
"At any rate, you should get your Pokemon healed up while you wait," the woman chimed in, making me realize that I was still awkwardly standing in the doorway.
"Thanks," I repeated and walked over to the healing machine. The screen on the front of the machine displayed a Breloom under the Pokeball and a Rhyperior under the Greatball. Both Pokemon were already finished healing so either the Pokemon had barely been hurt or their trainers had been there for a while. After placing Blitz's Pokeball, I turned around in time to see Litten knock Croagunk out with an Ember.
With Blitz taken care of, I sat down in one of the chairs and waited for the fourth gym challenger to arrive. I mentioned to the other two trainers that their Pokemon had finished healing, but they didn't seem in any hurry to retrieve them and simply muttered their thanks for letting them know. After a few minutes, the door slowly opened and revealed a kid with wide eyes who barely looked sixteen.
Once again, the man was the first to speak, "That was well done. You did an excellent job of identifying your opponent's weakness." The woman nodded in agreement and I followed suit a moment later, figuring that I could support the kid even if I hadn't seen much of the match.
"Thanks…" The kid nervously replied as he walked into the room. A second later his eyes focused on me and any anxiety that he had was replaced by excitement as he blurted out, "You're Thomas Fitzgerald! Your battle against John Zimmerman was my junior trainer exam and it was really really amazing!"
I had absolutely no idea what the exam he mentioned was and was definitely uncomfortable by the sudden attention. After a second, I managed to smile awkwardly and say, "Glad you enjoyed it. Um, you can heal your Litten over there," I finished with a jab of my thumb over towards the healing machine. The kid nodded vigorously and scurried over to the healing machine to get his Pokemon taken care of.
Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that the woman was smiling widely and heard the man chuckle before softly asking, "First time meeting a fan?"
Before I could answer, the kid hurried back to where we were sitting, "Was that your Fletchinder? He was so awesome in the battle!"
"Thanks," I replied with a halting nod, trying to remember what exactly Blitz had done in that particular match.
Mercifully, the woman spoke up before the kid could continue talking about the battle that he clearly remembered better than I did, "It's tradition, in the cities gyms at least, for trainers to share advice while we wait. Do you young men have any questions for us old hands?"
"Maybe introductions are in order first?" The man interjected. "My name is Hal and I'm an advanced trainer."
"Ah right," she said with an apologetic smile. "I'm Emma and I'm also in the advanced league."
"I thought only one trainer per division could challenge the gym each day," the kid interjected. After a second, he sheepishly added, "Oh right. I'm Jake. I'm a junior trainer and this is my first time at a gym."
"No one from the masters division came to challenge the gym today so the advanced league got the extra slot," Emma explained.
Hal nodded and added, "There's only a handful of masters trainers in the league so that happens most days."
With Jake's question answered, I spoke up, "I'm Thomas, but I guess you guys already heard that. At any rate, do either of you have any tips for the gym battle? I'm trying to promote from novice to amateur."
Hal frowned softly, "Sorry, but I'm not sure what Oliver's amateur matches look like. I first earned my badge as a novice trainer, and then I was in the advanced league before I needed to renew it."
"It's the same for me," Emma added. "That said, it's important to remember that normal types aren't basic by any means. They usually have plenty of tricks up their sleeves to offset their more boring typing."
While I was a bit disappointed by the lack of specifics, Jake enthusiastically nodded at Emma's explanation. Any of his earlier nervousness had vanished and he quickly started peppering the three of us with questions about our journeys. With their experience, Hal and Emma had significantly more stories and I was more than happy to let them drive the conversation. Hal wasn't a full-time trainer anymore and had an office job, but he was still pushing to make the masters league. Emma was in a somewhat similar situation in that her primary job was running a Pokemon daycare, though she still challenged gyms often enough to stay in the advanced league for the free advertising that it gave her.
About ten minutes after Jake had entered the room, an intercom buzzed to life, "Jake Rand. Please make your way to the main battle area for your gym battle." Jake jumped slightly when his name was called and all of the nerves he'd shown before suddenly returned. After a second, he rose to his feet and retrieved his Litten before making his way back to the door. Once the three of us wished him luck on his battle, Jake gave us a small wave before heading back out into the hallway.
As the door clicked shut behind him, Hal glanced over at me, "You'll be next by the way. Oliver likes to work his way up through the divisions."
"Thanks," I told Hal and went over to grab Blitz's Pokeball so that I'd be ready when I was called. When I returned to my seat, the three of us fell silent now that we no longer had Jake's insatiable questions to drive a conversation. Rather than try to start a new one, I took the opportunity to use my Poryphone to look up what a junior trainer was. It definitely seemed like it would be something that I should have known already, so I'd refrained from asking Jake.
It didn't take me too long to find the page on the Minnesotan league's website describing the program. It was a way for sixteen-year-olds to start earning their first few badges after they'd passed some basic competency exams. Interestingly, the badges that were earned as a junior trainer didn't start to expire until after they became an official trainer which meant that they wouldn't expire until their twentieth birthday. The downside was that junior trainers had to maintain good grades to stay in the program and they were only allowed to challenge gyms on the weekends. An alternative to the junior program was doing a work-study as a gym trainer, but that came with a slightly different set of restrictions.
The extra rules around underage trainers led me down a small rabbit hole and I began investigating what the rules were for starting trainer ages in other regions. Matching what I was used to from the Pokemon show and games, all of the other regions that I checked allowed trainers to start somewhere between ten and fourteen. Frowning slightly at the discrepancy, I returned to the Minnesotan league website but couldn't find any clearly stated reason for the difference.
I was about to start expanding my search to different sites when the intercom sounded once again, this time calling me for my gym battle. Slightly disgruntled that I would have to wait for my answer, I put my Poryphone back in my pocket and left the waiting room after thanking Hal and Emma. As I followed the helpful signs to the arena, I decided that I would have to ask one of my friends about it later. Giving my full attention to the gym battle was much more important right now.
When I arrived at the gym's main battle area, I found that the gym leader was already waiting for me. Oliver was without a doubt the oldest trainer that I'd seen so far as he looked like he was in his early sixties at the very least. Besides the two of us, the only other thing in the room was a stool next to him that four Pokeballs sat on top of. Oliver gave me a brisk nod as I entered the room, "Welcome to the St Paul gym. This will be a four on four single battle with challenge substitutions. On the line is a Capitol Badge and promotion into the amateur league. Are you ready to begin?"
I was somewhat taken aback by the complete lack of preamble before jumping into the battle. "Uh, quick question. Would it be alright if my Ponyta watched the match? She just hatched and I was thinking it would be good experience for her."
Oliver frowned and narrowed his eyes at the question, giving me the distinct impression that I should have checked with someone else first. "You're the one with the foreign Ponyta correct? Are you trying to sneak something past me?"
"No! Not at all!" I hastily answered, "She doesn't even know Confusion yet."
Mercifully, Oliver relaxed marginally and took a few seconds to consider before giving me a curt nod, "That's fine, but I'll be watching very carefully."
"Thank you," I said and quickly sent Shadow out at my side so as to not further annoy Oliver. Once she'd appeared, I leaned down slightly and said, "Hey Shadow. I want you to watch the gym battle, alright?" I was completely confident that she wouldn't do anything to interfere so stressing 'watch' was mostly for Oliver's benefit and not her's. Regardless, I waited until Shadow gave me an almost imperceptible nod before fully standing back up to face the gym leader. "Thanks again. I'm ready now."
Oliver simply grunted in reply and selected one of the Pokeballs next to him, sending out an Aipom. Hoping to keep our momentum from the gauntlet battle going, I sent out Blitz in reply and said, "Let's get started with some ranged Pecks!" Blitz nodded shortly before taking off, picking up speed as his beak started to glow.
"Swift," Oliver said monotonously and Aipom's tail began to glow a second later. Not giving Blitz a chance to stop it, Aipom swung its tail forward and five small stars flew out of its tail and towards Blitz.
As the monkey Pokemon's tail began to start glowing again, I decided to switch tactics since it seemed that our opponent's ranged capabilities were a lot better than I'd expected. "Nevermind on the ranged version, get in there!" Blitz loudly chirped as he weaved around the first salvo of Swifts that Aipom had created and then dove directly down at the other Pokemon. Rather than trying to dodge or create more Swifts, Aipom smacked its glowing tail into Blitz and I barely suppressed a groan as the energy around his beak faded away. Without missing a beat, Aipom swiped its tail at the slightly stunned Blitz, preventing him from regaining his balance.
"Push it away! Wing Attack!" Blitz angrily flapped his wings at the other Pokemon and managed to buffet Aipom and force the other Pokemon back a few steps. Unfortunately, that still didn't give him any breathing room since the Swift stars that he'd dodged earlier came back around and hit him directly in the back. Blitz squawked at the blows but didn't allow it to slow him down as he lunged at Aipom again with another Peck.
"Baton Pass," Oliver ordered and Aipom giggled softly as it disappeared. Blitz was seemingly unconcerned with the switch and simply kept moving forward towards the red light that heralded Aipom's replacement. Before the Pokemon had even finished materializing, a cream-colored paw emerged from the light, swiping across Blitz's front and making his Peck fizzle once again.
"Get back in the air!" I urgently called to Blitz and thankfully he listened. Oddly, the Meowth that had finally been revealed now that Pokeball's light had faded didn't give chase and seemed perfectly happy to let some distance be put between the two of them. Though, the cat Pokemon did loudly meow and stick out its tongue as Blitz left. "Alright, now Double Team," I told Blitz, only for him to completely ignore the command and immediately dive back down toward Meowth.
I frowned, thrown off slightly by Blitz's disobedience. While he was certainly hotheaded, I hadn't had issues with him not obeying commands in a fight since the Vikavolt incident. In stark contrast, Meowth waited patiently for Blitz to reach it, completely unmoving apart from brandishing its claws. Even the threat of an attack from Meowth didn't deter Blitz and I finally realized that Blitz had been Taunted as the two clashed. After a few seconds, the two Pokemon separated and Blitz flew back up in the air, now with several feathers noticeably out of place.
"Spite," Oliver called as regained height and Meowth once again stuck its tongue out. A purple glow appeared around Blitz and a moment later his beak stopped glowing, making him suddenly decelerate and lose altitude. There was a brief moment where I thought the sudden shift would make him crash, but Blitz made a piercingly loud squawk and managed to righten himself before hitting the ground.
While I liked to compare Blitz to a barbarian, I was starting to think that we'd reached the point where he was too enraged to fight. The fact that he was locked out of his two most used moves ultimately tipped the scales and I called out, "Swapping!" Blitz's head swiveled towards me at the call, but I returned him before he could voice any protests. Nin was my next choice for the fight and I called out my order before he had finished materializing since I didn't want him to get Taunted as well, "Glare!"
I couldn't remember if Meowth could have Limber for an ability, but thankfully this one didn't and it stood stock still under Nin's gaze. With his opponent immobilized, Nin didn't wait for a command from me and slithered across the arena. As my Pokemon moved, I glanced at Oliver to gauge his reaction, but it was as if I was looking at a stone wall.
Since Oliver apparently was going to let us keep the initiative, I called out, "Headbutt!" I decided not to go with Wrap since I was completely certain that Meowth knew Bite and didn't want a repeat of our battle with Meggan's Snubbull. When Nin finally reached Meowth, he reared back his head and then smacked into the cat Pokemon. Meowth reacted instantly and the two normal type Pokemon became a whirlwind of Bite, Pound, Scratch, and Headbutt attacks. After almost a full minute of the two attacking back and forth, Meowth finally fell to the gym floor leaving Nin the victor.
Oliver still seemed completely unphased by the events in front of him and silently returned his Meowth, sending out a Linoone in its place. Oliver then gave a command to his new Pokemon, the first time that he'd spoken in several minutes, "Hone Claws." When Linoone started rubbing its claws together, I told Nin to Glare again, hoping that it would glance at Nin and have to stop before it buffed itself up too much. Unfortunately, when Linoone did look at my Pokemon, that only made it go even faster. Before I could think of what to do, Oliver told his Pokemon to use Slash and it took off towards Nin like a rocket.
"Match with Headbutt!" I quickly called, but Nin was too tired after his extended fight with Meowth and couldn't move before he was raked by Linoone's claws. A second swipe of Linoone's claws knocked Nin out, making a feeble slap of the snake Pokemon's tail the only thing he was able to do in return. I returned Nin and sent Peren out as far away from Linoon as I could while calling, "Bullet Seed!" While I wasn't sure what I was going to do about an opponent that was both super strong and fast, I figured that a Pokemon that could fight well at all ranges was a reasonable start.
With no obvious ranged options of its own, Linoone charged towards Peren with a loud clacking as its claws hit the floor. Peren fired off several salvos of Bullet Seeds at the gym leader's Pokemon, but the hits were largely ignored as it focused entirely on reaching Peren. When Linoone got a few feet away from Peren, I called out, "Switch to Double Kick!" The deer Pokemon reared back at the command and then brought its hooves down on its opponent.
Linoone lunged towards Peren at the same time, but Peren had learned from his battle with John's Rockruff and managed to at least land a glancing blow. Though the hit made it go slightly off-balance, Linoone quickly recovered and Slashed its claws against Peren's side. The normal type Pokemon kept running after its attack but was sent sprawling when Peren kicked out at it with one of his hind legs.
"Rest," Oliver called from his side of the field, and rather than getting back up, Linoone curled its body into a ball and went straight to sleep.
While I wasn't thrilled about Linoone restoring its health, I was certainly glad for the few seconds of breathing room that it gave us. Even though he'd only been hit once, the Slash looked fairly deep and Peren was breathing heavily so I said, "Let's get some Leech Seeds going." Peren nodded and launched a few more seeds which easily landed on his immobile target. A second later the seeds had begun to sprout among Linoone's fur and I was about to tell him to wake it up with Double Kick when Oliver interrupted me with a call for Snore.
Linoone loudly began to Snore in its sleep, making Peren and me wince at the noise. There was some slight movement at my side as Shadow recoiled as well, which was the first time she'd moved all battle. Now that I knew that Linoone knew Snore, I revaluated my previous plan and told Peren to use Worry Seed instead of Double Kick to wake it up. It being able to attack while simultaneously restoring its health made Rest-cycling a much bigger risk than I was willing to take.
Peren fired a single seed towards Linoone which arced over the green globe of energy that was slowly making its way to him. This seed landed on the floor next to Linoone and exploded into powder at the impact, jolting Linoone back awake. Oliver softly harrumphed at his Pokemon's disturbed sleep before ordering, "Pin Missile." Linoone's fur bristled at the command and tiny green darts started firing out of its body towards Peren, bursting both a Leech Seed bubble and my assumption that Linoone didn't have any ranged moves.
Peren cried out in pain as he was covered by the fast-moving darts so I called out, "Camouflage!" However, the constant barrage of pins made it impossible for Peren to concentrate on the move and his coloring only flickered a few times before settling back on the normal brown of his winter coat. I almost swore as I realized that we couldn't remove Peren's bug weakness, but held myself back for Shadow's benefit. The one positive thing was that Linoone was still fairly close by so I called, "Double Kick!"
Peren struggled to move towards the other Pokemon as it continued its relentless firing of Pin Missiles, but he still slowly managed to gain ground. When Peren reached a couple of feet away from Linoone, the Pin Missiles suddenly stopped and Linoone dashed forward with its sharpened claws once again extended. Thankfully, it wasn't moving nearly as fast as before, so Peren was at least able to hit it with a couple of kicks before he went down to another Slash.
I silently returned Peren, now feeling particularly nervous about my chances of winning the battle. Half of my team was already down and Blitz had taken some hits before I'd recalled him. On Oliver's side, Linoone's Rest would have healed off some of its damage and Aipom should still be fairly healthy given how short its fight against Blitz had been. He even had a third Pokemon remaining that I didn't even know about yet. Even though Blitz was probably the better choice against Linoone, I wanted to give him a bit longer to cool down so I sent Scout out with a call of, "Thunder Shock!"
"Pin Missile and Slash," Oliver ordered with his usual flat tone. I'd once again sent my Pokemon out away from Linoone, so it had to charge back across the field while firing the occasional burst of green darts. While some of them missed purely because of her small size, Scout was still hit by a few of the shots, making her cry out softly.
Scout pushed past the pain and began returning fire with arcs of electricity. I wished that I could have her Protect against the attack, but she couldn't use both moves at the same time and I wasn't even confident that Protect would be able to stop the thin attacks. The one good thing about Linoone attacking while it ran was that it left a small line of Leech Seed bubbles in its wake that were in no danger of being destroyed by a stray attack.
When Linoone reached Scout, I waited until the last moment as it was beginning to bring its claws up for a Slash before shouting, "Protect!" Scout had already been charging up for another Thunder Shock and seamlessly changed to the new move. A thin barrier formed between the two Pokemon and Linoone recoiled as its claws were only met with electricity. "Thunder Fang!" Scout leaped forward at the command and with electricity spilling from her mouth, bit down on Linoone before it could recover. Linoone tried to buck her off, but Scout maintained her attack until the badger Pokemon fell to the ground.
While Oliver returned his Pokemon, the three Leech Seed orbs reached Scout, revitalizing her and prompting small bursts of electricity to arc across her fur. The extra charge turned out to be short-lived as Aipom returned to the field and hit Scout while it was still materializing as Meowth had done to Blitz.
Annoyed by the second Fake Out, I told Scout to use Thunder Wave in the hopes of tripping Aipom up. I would have liked to put some distance between the two Pokemon, but given that I knew Aipom knew Swift, I wasn't sure it was worth it. While Scout tried to regain her charge, Oliver's Pokemon used its tail to repeatedly swipe at her. It took her longer than usual because of the added distraction, but after a few seconds, she was able to unleash a point-blank wave of electricity.
While I was in a slightly more comfortable position in the match than I'd been previously, I knew I still needed to take every advantage that I could get. Scout being in close range was far from ideal so I called for another swap and sent Blitz back out. Thankfully, he seemed quite a bit calmer than he'd been when I'd returned him, though his eyes did narrow at the sight of Aipom and he darted towards it before I could give a command.
Aipom launched another volley of Swifts at the oncoming bird, though its body locked up at the end of the move, making it only fire three stars instead of a full five. This time instead of trying to avoid the move and be hit by it later, Blitz punched straight through the Swift stars on his way to Aipom who was still trying to recover from paralysis. After his first Quick Attack hit, Blitz came back around for another pass when Oliver ordered, "Tickle."
This time when Blitz swooped down on Aipom, the monkey Pokemon was able to lean away from the attack while also swiping its tail across Blitz's breast. Blitz jerked up at the unexpected feeling, which I was glad to see given that I didn't want to run the risk of him being debuffed further. "Stay up there and switch back to Peck," I called out, hoping that Meowth's Spite had worn off. Thankfully, Blitz was able to once again build up the energy for Peck and started trading them with Aipom's Swifts.
With Aipom's paralysis limiting both its offensive power and ability to dodge, it didn't take Blitz long to knock out his opponent, though he did take a few more hits in the process. Oliver's last Pokemon turned out to be a Zangoose and once again the gym leader told his Pokemon to start off with Hone Claws. Blitz peppered the other Pokemon with Pecks as it worked, but he was largely ignored. After ten seconds of Zangoose sharpening its claws, Oliver calmly said, "Rock Tomb."
"Dodge!" I instantly called and Blitz pulled away from Zangoose, but he didn't know where to dodge since there wasn't a visible attack. That came a moment later when Zangoose sharply raised one of its claws into the air and four conjured rocks appeared below Blitz. They shot up in the air to surround him, and although he was able to move out of the way to avoid being trapped, one of the rocks still clipped him as he moved away. I didn't want to risk a prolonged fight against something with rock-type moves so, for the third time of the battle, I called, "Swapping!" Worst case scenario, I figured we could go for another quick knockout as we had against Meggan if it turned out that Scout couldn't take out Zangoose by herself.
As I pressed the button on Blitz's Pokeball, Oliver ordered, "Pursuit." A black aura appeared around Zangoose and the Pokemon dashed across the field at an impossibly fast speed to swipe at Blitz as he was being pulled inside his Pokeball. Zangoose's aura disappeared as soon as the red light of the Pokeball faded, and when I glanced into Blitz's Pokeball I saw that he was unconscious.
This time I wasn't able to stop myself from swearing under my breath as I sent Scout back out. Hoping for the same success that it had brought against Aipom, I told her to lead with a Thunder Wave.
"Quick Attack," Oliver said, and Zangoose dropped down to all fours before charging across the field towards Scout. She barely managed to create her Thunder Wave before Zangoose barreled into her, forcing her down to the ground. Zangoose quickly returned to standing on its hind two legs and swiped down with Slash, but another last-second Protect from Scout stopped it.
Between its paralysis and hitting an electrical barrier, Zangoose was momentarily stunned, allowing Scout a chance to return to her feet and me to try to think of a strategy. I needed a way for Scout to avoid Zangoose's claws and got an idea when I noticed the Pokemon's large fluffy tail. Desperately hoping that this would work, I called, "Get on its tail and start zapping!"
Scout quickly ran behind Zangoose in order to jump and land on the base of the much larger Pokemon's tail before it could move out of the way. Zangoose tried to swipe at Scout with its claws, but it barely couldn't reach her. His efforts became even more difficult when Scout began using Thunder Shock, repeatedly dumping electricity into her target via direct contact.
For the first time in the match, Oliver displayed an actual emotion as he frowned at his Pokemon's struggles and said, "Shake her off." Zangoose started wildly shaking its tail around, but somehow Scout was able to hold on. The paralysis definitely helped matters as the Pokemon wasn't able to use its full range of movement, which limited how well it was able to try to dislodge its unwanted passenger. Scout continued using Thunder Shock throughout Zangoose's attempts, and the Pokemon's movements slowly became less violent until it finally collapsed to the ground in a heap.
Oliver returned his final Pokemon, leaving Scout to roll to the ground as Zangoose disappeared beneath her. "Nice battle," the gym leader gruffly said as he set the Pokeball back on the stool next to him. "Now come over here and get your stuff."
A quick glance at Scout confirmed that she was fine, so I jogged past her and over towards Oliver. Without saying anything else, Oliver handed me a debit card, a TM that I already knew contained Secret Power, and the Capitol Badge, which was in the shape of a white building. I deposited the items into my pocket, and then looked back at Oliver, "Thanks."
Oliver simply nodded before saying, "Now get out of here. I've still got two more of these today." With that, Oliver picked the four Pokeballs back up and walked out of the room, presumably to get the Pokemon for his next match.
Slightly put off by the abrupt dismissal and exit, I was about to turn back to get Shadow and Scout when I felt an odd twinge that felt like the start of a headache. I shook my head to push past it, and when I did turn around, I found Shadow standing directly behind me with Scout sitting on her back. Scout looked completely worn out, but she still smiled brightly at me, prominently displaying her front teeth. I looked at Shadow to thank her for giving Scout a ride, but the odd twinge from before returned when I returned her gaze. This time, instead of fading after a second, the twinge turned into a feeling of warmth as if I was taking a hot bath in the middle of winter.
I smiled widely and reached out to rub the back of Shadow's neck, making the warm feeling grow in intensity. I hated to ruin the moment, but I definitely didn't want to still be here when Oliver got back, "C'mon, let's go get everyone taken care of." Shadow didn't visibly react to the statement, but the feeling changed to somehow give me an impression of green, which I took as agreement.
The three of us left the gym's main battle room and after a few minutes managed to find an empty room where trainers usually waited in between their gauntlet matches. I spent a couple of minutes scratching Scout, which she gleefully leaned into, before finally returning her and placing four Pokeballs on the healing machine in the room. While we waited for the machine to do its work, Shadow and I quietly sat in the room, basking in our newfound connection.
A/N: A massive thank you to Howling Armadillo for the shoutout in the latest chapter of Throne of Mud. If you like SI stories like this one, you'll love Throne, so check it out if you haven't already.
Thanks to krazykz for betaing. Now that Thomas is in the amateur league, Brawl matches will get a bit more interesting with Chapter 26: Backwards Battle
