Ooc: Yes Flannery is my favorite gym leader. Also next chapter, chapter 5, will be the introduction of one of our dear readers characters.
The idea hit Flannery like a Ninjask charging around full speed. The other would be gym leaders and their mentors were still back in the great hall. But Flannery was not one for talking. She believed that battling was the true way to know someone. Kabu had taught her that and she wanted to teach this to her first mentee. "I thought instead of boring talking, we could have a battle.", the unsure new mentor hoped her Chelsea would agree to the battle. It was practice and Flannery wanted to see exactly what she was working with. "If you don't want to it's ok. I just thought that it would be a great way to know each other."
Chelsea's mind was not fully on what Flannery said. Instead it was on her sister being paired with Giovanni. Did Lexi really want this? Had her sister really fallen so much that she wanted to work with that scumbag? Chelsea really did not understand what the hell Lexi could be thinking. She didn't like it. Chelsea was snapped out of her worried trance by Flannery who poked her on the shoulder. Chelsea jumped and looked at her mentor.
"Huh, what?", Chelsea was startled. She didn't even remember walking out of the great hall. Now she was standing in the middle of the training area behind the great hall. Flannery had cocked her head to the side like a hoot hoot.
"Do...You...Want...To...Batttle?", perhaps speaking slowly would get her new mentee to actually pay attention to her. If Chelsea was going to be a ditz then Flannery wanted a new mentee.
"Oh sorry sorry. I just had something else on my mind. Just thinking about that." Then Chelsea's green eyes lit up. A new fire and determination in Chelsea. She loved battle even if her mind was on Lexi right now. "Of course! Let's battle! This will be fun!"
"Great!", Flannery's red eyes burned with the joy of battle. At least Chelsea was eager to battle just like her. "We should do a Pokémon apiece. Loser can buy the winner a drink?", Flannery thought that adding stakes to the match would make it fun. Chelsea nodded. She went to the opposite end of the grassy practice area. Chelsea hadn't battled against another trainer all summer. It would be good to get the kinks worked out. Plus she would get to see where she stacked up against her mentor.
Chelsea reached onto her Pokémon belt. Her fingers hovering over certain pokeballs. She then stumbled on the one that she wanted to use. "Echo go!", she threw out her pokeball. Out came the infamous dragon/flying Pokémon, noivern. "Noivern!" Echo roared furiously. She loved to battle and was one of Chelsea's strongest mons. Chelsea usually wouldn't use Echo this early, but she wanted to send a statement to Flannery. Chelsea wasn't just some bird lover. No she had all different types of flying Pokémon at her disposal.
Flannery smirked, "starting out strong, huh? Fine, go Mags!l", the fire snail Pokémon emerged. "Magcargo", Mags did not seem as intense as Chelsea's noivern. The snail seemed as if it did not want to fight. But Flannery knew better. When Mags got into battle, she was as touch as nails. If Chelsea underestimated Mags, it would be a quick battle. That was one of the lessons that Flannery wanted to impart on Chelsea: no Pokémon was weak in a battle. "You can get the first move, Chelsea.", Flannery offered.
Chelsea nodded as she studied the battlefield. "Magcargo, huh? Well it's a fire type and I think rock. Well it's best to keep distance then." Chelsea looked at her Noivern. They did have an advantage in that Echo could attack from a distance. It would allow them to avoid whatever rock attacks the Magcargo. So Chelsea had to be careful to keep Echo away from any physical attacks. "Echo use gust." She commanded.
"Noi!", the flying dragon Pokémon flapped her wings furiously as the winds started to pick up and grow intense. Chelsea hoped that this gust would through the Magcargo off balance. If that happened then Echo and her would have the advantage. The gust of wind then was blown straight towards the Magcargo, it was going to be a direct hit.
"Mags, use harden then ember!" The Magcargo started to glow as the gust of wind neared her. Mags continued to glow as the gust of wind had a direct hit. However the attack did little damage as Mags just slid a little bit from where she was originally. Flannery smiled, Mags' dual typing with rock helped limit that attack. Mags had taken out many flying Pokémon with that typing.
"Magcargo!", Mags started to fire little burst of flames at Echo, which the Noivern easily avoided. Chelsea nodded as she watched. She just nodded Echo to continue to keep the distance. The Magcargo was slow and it's attacks were ineffective as long as they stayed in the air. Of course Flannery had obviously fought flying types before and had a strategy. Chelsea knew she had to be careful.
"Echo, use air cutter." The Noivern again started to flap her wings. This time however the gust of wind were sent towards the Magcargo. Chelsea just hoped that the Magcargo would be too slow to dodge the attack. It was a snail afterall.
"Mag!", the fire snail wailed as the Razor like wind dub into its skin. The pain caused the Pokémon to cry out. Flannery winced as she saw the pain on Mags face. This Noivern was quick and fierce. Chelsea had raised it well. Still, Flannery could tell that there was something holding Belsen back. She was cautious. A little too cautious. It was time to really test her mentee.
"Mags! Use rock Slide quick!", the Magcargo started to slam the ground. Causing chunks of dirt and small rocks to start to form into boulders. ",Cargo!", Mags used her head to throw the boulder like items at Echo. Echo would quickly avoid the boulders.
"Alright Echo get ready for-"
"Noivern!", Echo cried in pain. Chelsea looked confused as Echo cried again. Echo struggled to stay in the air. Smoke coming from her wing. Chelsea looked over and saw Flannery with a smirk. Flannery pointed as Mags body which had been covered in flames. Chelsea still did not understand. "How the hell did her Magcargo hit echo so quickly?" Chelsea tried to understand. It didn't make sense.
"Flame Burst. It's one of our favorite moves, isn't that right Mags.", the Magcargo looked over at her trainer and nodded. Flannery smiled at the confused Chelsea. "Since you were using the distance strategy, we needed a distraction. That's why we used the rock slide. Get you distracted then hit you with the flame burst. Caught you and Echo off guard.", the former gym leader gave a cocky glance at her mentee. This was just a feeling out process, but Chelsea was making rookie mistakes. Perhaps Flannery didn't have to worry about losing in front of her peers this year.
Chelsea meanwhile took in this information. She was usually aggressive in battle, but Flannery had her on her toes. She had to be cautious with how she was going to go about this. Flannery was known to be aggressive just like Chelsea, but now the gym leader was really using strategy. Chelsea had to take a different approach. She looked at her Noivern, who was still dealing with a bad burn from that Flame Burst attack. Echo had to heal. That's when the idea popped into the brunette's head.
"Echo! Use air cutter again!", that would be a good distraction. "Then use roost", Chelsea had covered her mouth to avoid Flannery from reading her lips. She just hoped that Echo had heard her. The Noivern looked at her trainer as she was pumping her wings quite fast. Again the wind was built up and came flying at Mags like a razor through the wind.
"Mags go into your shell!", Flannery did not want Mags to get carved up again. That would be bad. "Magcargo", Mags had sunk back into her shell as best as she could. The shell protected most of the attack, though it was partially damaged. But still some of the attack hit parts of Mags. "Cargo!", Mags helped again.
"Sorry Mags. I thought that would have protected you better. We should end this soon." Flannery looked up to see where Echo had gone. Instead the Noivern was not in the air. This confused the gym leader. "Huh? Where did Echo go?" Flannery continued to search the sky in utter disbelief.
"You're not the only one who can cause a distraction." Chelsea held her hands on her hips and winked at Flannery. Next to her, Echo was grounded with her wings folded. The dragon flying type got the rest that she needed. "Roost. We took your idea and enhanced it." Chelsea had to thank Flannery for giving her that idea. Echo was now somewhat healed.
Flannery had to chuckle. Her protege had learned afterall. But now it was time to end this. "Mags, use yawn." Mags took a deep, deep yawn. Echo would then yawn herself. Flannery nodded as this was coming to plan. She had to admit, she really only broke out yawn when Mags was in trouble. She had used it on Ash Ketchum once and had not really used it since. Flannery started to be impressed by her trainee.
Chelsea saw this and turned flush. "Shit. Next turn she'll be asleep. We have to take this Magcargo out now!" Chelsea scanned her memory for her memory to try to find a good move to take out the Magcargo. Afterall if she didn't then Echo was going to fall asleep and be vulnerable to any attack. They had to take out Mags. There was always boomburst, but that would do too much damage. And after what had happened against Lexi... she couldn't use an attack that devastating again. Chelsea didn't want to piss Flannery off like she had Lexi. Chelsea looked at the scene. There was another attack that she had in store.
"Echo, use hurricane!", the Noivern took back up into the air and started flapping her wings more intensely. The ground shook under the feet of the two trainers. Some of the ground had even been ripped up as the wind picked up. The Noivern's flapping created a huge funnel in front of the flying dragon Pokémon. Chelsea just hoped that this would work. She didn't want to use boomburst, so this would have to do.
Echo used all of her strength to form the hurricane. "Noi...Vern!", she released her attack that barreled toward Mags. Flannery's eyes widened. She quickly looked at Mags and the powerful attack that was coming straight toward them. Flannery knew that Mags was too slow to avoid it. "Well shit.", the gym leader knew that if Mags fainted she would lose. She needed to think fast. That's when she had a stroke of genius.
"Mags, use harden!", if Mags defense could rise just a bit more then Flannery hoped that she could survive the onslaught. The Magcargo started to glow again. The whole fire snail dug into the ground. "Magcargo!", it was as if Mags yelled defiantly at the attack. Flannery braced herself as well. "Just hold on Mags. Hold on." Sweat formed on Flannery's forehead. Sure it was just a practice battle, but the gym leader felt that this was one of the more intense battles she had.
The hurricane struck Mags. The attack lifted the fire snail into the air. "Cargo!", Mags cried out as she was battered by the attack. Flannery didn't want to watch. Mags was her oldest and closest Pokémon. Her being battered like that was not good. She just hoped her strategy worked. Chelsea couldn't watch either. The cries of the Pokémon brought her back. Back to the worst day she ever had. She knew what it was like to watch a Pokémon suffer. She didn't want to watch it again. She hung her head to avoid watching the carnage.
The attack had thrown Mags to the ground. Her body covered in cuts and bruises. It was brutal. "Come on Mags", Flannery silently hoped for any movement. "Cargo...", Mags softly whimpered. The Magcargo moved slightly to open her eyes. Echo meanwhile yawned again and fell asleep. She hurled to the ground, but Chelsea recalled her just in time before she hit the ground. Chelsea had lost.
Chelsea Gibbs hated losing. It could be a practice battle or a tournament. She loathed it. After failing to become champion of Galar, she had cried herself to sleep for weeks. Now she had just lost to her mentor. Sure it was a practice battle, but still a loss was a loss. What was worse was that Chelsea had not used her best Pokémon. She stared at Zara's pokeball. The Staraptor would have probably made quick work of the Magcargo. But Chelsea had not used Zara in battle ever since her fight with Lexi. Lexi's frosslass has been brutal to Zara in battle. Had nearly killed the Pokémon, in fact the staff at the Pokémon center had said they had never seen a Pokémon so damaged. Chelsea didn't want to watch that again.
"I'm sorry Zara, I can't lose you again.", Chelsea hoped that the Staraptor could hear her. Zara was just as competitive as her trainer. So Chelsea imaged that's Zara didn't understand why she wasn't being used. But Chelsea just could not take that risk. As she stared at her pokeballs, Chelsea felt a tap on her shoulder.
"Hey that was a great battle.", Flannery stood smiling. She would then wrap her arm around her new protégé. "You're just as aggressive as I am. You really pushed Mags and me. Can't wait to see how you will do when it's a six on six battle."
Chelsea chuckled as her green eyes burned with her competitive spirit. "Oh don't worry, Flannery. I'll come more prepared our next battle. And next time I am so going to win. I promise you that."
Flannery patted Chelsea on the back. She had heard that before from a seemingly endless amount of trainers. "We'll see about that. For now you owe me a beer."
Ooc: So ends the practice fight between Flannery and Chelsea. Next chapter we'll see what Giovanni has in store for Lexi.