Pokemon: Rise

by Intimidates JC

Pessimistic hater of Pokemon, Adam, is forced out of his home and into the world of battling with just 500 dollars in his pocket and an egg his parents gave him. He must learn to fend for himself against a hateful Pokemon gang and deal with his rivalry with his older brother while attempting to collect all the gym badges and beat the Ilragorn League.

28. Goldenleaf Gym

Ch 28: Goldenleaf Gym

My short stay in the ghetto known as Goldenleaf City was mostly spent waiting anxiously in the pokemon center for updates on Eliza's recovery process, but there were a few occasions when I ventured out into the town with the goal to level my team up or stock up on essentials. I will say that despite being by far the brokest of all the towns in Ilragorn, there was so much excitement and opportunity in terms of the kind of weirdos you can end up battling. With nearly every trainer in town having barely enough money to afford constant trips to the pokemon center or the herbal shop, that meant that trainers in general around these parts had tougher pokemon who naturally had to develop thicker battling skin due to the higher stakes of their living situation. As I'd seen on my trip to the herbal store, even the trainers weren't above jumping in on the fight in order to ensure victory: that's what getting those measly 20-50 bucks per winning meant to these poor trainers of Goldenleaf.

Knowing all of this, that did not stop me one bit from engaging in several battles against some of the local pokemon trainers and taking in their aggressive battle style. I got into it right outside the pokemon center with some trainer I got the sense was itching to steal some painkillers from the pokemon center based off his twitching, his restless eyes, and his temperamental attitude. A mere question from me instantly escalated into a fight between my new Passimian and his Carnivine, which was browning and wilting along its edges and looked like it was not neither well-fed nor confident in its own fighting skills for an overgrown plant. This tweaking trainer clearly didn't take care of his pokemon, and it showed. After Passimian used a few Bulk Ups in between dodging the almost slow-motion movements of Carnivine's Power Whip, Passimian Drain Punched Carnivine with a barrage of fists, each hit that landed snatching away some of Carnivine's energy and absorbing into Passimian. While it took a surprisingly long time to beat the Carnivine down, it was altogether an easy win and the tweaking trainer ran off, hopefully swayed to not bother coming around again.

There was another day where upon walking by the herbal store, I spotted two young trainers, a boy and a girl, robbing the shopkeeper through the front plate-glass windows. Based on the matching necklaces with hearts around their necks, I assumed this was some couple attracted to commiting crimes. As the couple was running out of the shop with bags filled with food and battling supplies filling both of their arms, their two pokemon partners stood in front of them as I blocked off the duo and their partners from leaving the area. I already had my Tropius and Lapras called out, who were face to face with the girl's Slowking and the boy's Sawk. It had been a long time since I had participated in a double battle, not since first entering Exeter Forest and facing that Weavile and Scyther with my Tropius and my deceased Kabutops, I recalled with a pang of guilt.

I ended up having a double battle right out in the open streets against this couple, but rather than feeling stressed and overwhelmed by the constant assholes I bumped into like I used to, I was learning to embrace meeting them and using them as tools to make me better. Like by beating them, taking their money, and making sure they feel pretty stupid for challenging me when I was through with them, and just maybe influencing them enough to rethink doing whatever illegal or unethical thing it was they were doing when they bumped into me. That was the kind of positive attitude and outlook I knew I needed in order to truly become the greatest trainer of Ilragorn. Not by feeling depressed and sorry for myself for not being able to connect with anyone back at school, and doing nothing but moping around in my room and feeling like shit to the point my idiot parents kick me out of the house with the lie that my bedroom was to become mine again after beating all the gyms when I knew they just wanted me out of the house, just wanted to be rid of their embarrassment of a son who could never compare to their precious Evan. It was no wonder I hated pokemon, with so much anger in me. I now understood that this was the reason I ended up where I did. My parents had kicked me out of Lunaris because I hadn't learned to transfer all the negative, ugly energy I was getting around me from them, from Evan, from so many people at school, into something positive. But somehow, along my journey around Ilragorn, I had learned how to do just that.

"Slowking, Flamethrower the Tropius!"

"Sawk, Brick Break Lapras!"

"Tropius, Air Slash the flames away! Lapras, Surf yourself!"

Slowking blew a stream of fire from his mouth at Tropius just as he was ascending into the air, and Tropius used his powerful leafy wings to slash at the air, causing the wind reverberations to safely blow out the Flamethrower before it even reached him. Lapras, taking a tactic I learned from Zach's Heliolisk, conjured up a wave of water that surrounded and encompassed herself, creating a protective wall made of water that dampened the blow of Sawk's super effective karate chop to the neck, with the thick wave of the Surf cushioning most of the damage from the attack.

"Lapras, Freeze Dry! Tropius, Energy Ball!" I switched from defensive to offensive, as the couple attempted to adjust.

"Slowking, Psychic the moves away!" the girl cried fearfully.

"Sawk, Poison Jab the Energy Ball!" the boy cried angrily.

One of Sawk's fists became covered in purple goo and Sawk charged at the dual attacks that were both aimed at Slowking, who didn't have the speed to dodge either one. Lapras was firing a beam of ice from her mouth that looked more slush-like and thicker than her regular Ice Beam attack, as this one had the ability to hit water types for hard damage, despite being an ice move. Tropius' Energy Ball was fired right alongside the Freeze Dry and the two attacks were honing in on the Slowking like a heat-seeking missile, but Sawk jumped in and took the force of the blow, aiming his Poison Jab at the Energy Ball to completely stop it from reaching Slowking, but the power and trajectory of Freeze Dry knocked Sawk off balance and making him completely miss his Poison Jab. Sawk took the full force of the Freeze Dry and Energy Ball, and since he was right in the center of all 3 mons, Sawk ended up getting caught in Slowking's Psychic as well, making Sawk spasm in convulsions as his body become overloaded with hits and he fell face-down, unconscious on the sidewalk outside the herbal shop.

Slowking attempted to mimic my strategy of using Surf as a protective shield as Tropius and Lapras fired off a second set of Freeze Dry and Energy Ball, but I've never seen a pokemon fall over so fast as that pink flabby fuck did when he got slammed with those moves.

I had a few other encounters with trainers who were less crazy than the ones mentioned, and they showed me that not all hope was lost for the citizens of Goldenleaf, as there were still a few good people around. After about two weeks of staying in Goldenleaf, it finally looked like Eliza would be checking out soon.

As a surprise to her since I was under the impression she didn't actually think I would have accomplished it, I had went ahead and scheduled a battle with the gym leader of Goldenleaf, which had turned out to specialize in the Bug type. Knowing full well that bug types were probably by and large the absolute worst type of pokemon for competitive battlers, I was so confident going into this battle that I was going in with what I considered the three weakest members of my team, since I would be letting Drapion and Gengar relax in the PC box during the gym match.

Eliza still hadn't made up her mind on if she would be joining me or not, but she promised she would have an answer by the time she was released from the center tomorrow. I just knew that if I could get that Bug Badge today, she would agree to come with me and the final stretch of my journey wouldn't have to be so miserable and lonely.

The Goldenleaf Gym was a hut that was considerably larger than the standard ones that the citizens lived in, but other than the size, the gym displayed no clear markings showing that it had anything going for it other than taking up more space. If not for the trainers sparring outside of it and comparing of gym badges when I had first encountered it, I might have walked right past the place.

Inside the gym's lobby, similarly to Wintervale, there was no secretary in this gym either, and seemed to lack even a computer or any kind of filing system at all since there were no filing cabinets or bookshelves in sight. The gym leader, a tall, thin man named Trevor was the sole proprietor of this gym, being responsible for all the battling, cleaning, and organizing. Tough gig.

"Good to see you again, Adam," Trevor greeted with a warm smile and a handshake as he walked up to me, which I reciprocated. Trevor looked to be nearing his thirties and was balding and wore glasses, making him look a bit like a mad scientist that might work for Team Anonymous, but I found he was by far the most pleasant out of all the gym leaders.

"Same to you, Trevor. Thanks again for opening up a slot for me, I'm sure you get a lot of challenges around these parts."

"Indeed, indeed. Nothing to do out here but battle, it seems. But somebody has to show these kids not to underestimate the little guys - even bug types can be tough to take down."

Trevor guided me to the arena, which was distinctly smaller than the ones in Peltagrow or Wintervale, but Trevor had gone above and beyond in terms of decorating his arena to match the theme better than Zach or Gladys ever did.

The entire floor of the fighting arena was carpeted in wild grass that reached up to my knees that had been grown indoors on the dirt floor. There were even a handful of slumping, hook-shaped trees that had been planted that could work as potential cover during battle, with the tops being covered in thick, rich yellow leaves. The arena very much resembled the forests of Ilragorn in a controlled environment, and Trevor's pride in bug types showed.

"This is your third badge you're aiming for, isn't it?" Trevor asked conversationally as he made his way to the opposite end of the field.

"Yeah," I nodded. "I've been on a pretty solid win streak and I'm feeling like today's not going to be any different."

"Oh ho ho! Confident, isn't he? Well, seeing as this is your third gym, I'm sure you already know the battling format, 3-on-3. You ready, Adam?"

"I'm ready."

"I choose Leavanny!" Trevor exclaimed, and a moment later - a tall, spindly, green bipedal pokemon that looked like she was made up of a bunch of leafs stacked on top of one another was standing in front of Trevor, a pleasant smile on her face.

"I choose Passimian," I replied, and I couldn't help but grin with pride as the pokemon gifted by Eliza sprung from his pokeball and landed on his hands and feet, facing Leavanny. My Passimian, like all of them, bore white fur around his body except for the black of his skin showing through in his muzzle, shoulders and tail, except for the white ring of fur near the tip. He had half of a coconut plopped on the top of his head like a protective helmet for a biker, and a full coconut in one of his hands, with a firm grip on it despite an itchy trigger finger just waiting for a command.

"Leavanny," Trevor started. "Sticky Web so we can slow the rest of his team down, you hear?"

"Passimian, Bulk Up," I said, happy to battle trainers who spent most of their time talking and unnecessarily explaining their decisions while not attacking my pokemon and allowing them to set up. Thanks for the free turn, Trevor. Who cares if there's webs on the floor if I got a Tropius in the back who flies anyway?

While Leavanny reeled her hand back as if she were going to throw a frisbee, and chucked a thick glob of thin, misty webs along the floor that slowly spread over the grass, Passimian stood in place and took those precious free seconds to make aggressive flexes with his body that were popping his muscles out and making them bulge to noticeably larger proportions, boosting both his physical attack and his defense simultaneously.

"Oh ho ho, he's getting stronger," commentated Trevor with a twinge of excitement over the unpredictability of the battle. "Leaf Blade, let's go for a crit!"
"Dodge it!" I countered, knowing full well my Passimian should be able to outrun this freakishly skinny thing with its toothpicks for legs.

Passimian sidestepped several feet to his left with one powerful bound, making it so Leavanny went whizzing by while trying to get a good punch in with her Leaf Blade attack, but she came skidding to a stop before nearly crashing into one of the gorgeous sloping trees, leaving a rough skidmark through the green grass.

"X-Scissor!" Trevor cried in frustration over Leaf Blade's failure to make contact, making me chuckle to myself with joy.

"Bulk Up," I repeated, knowing full well that my Passimian was going to barely flinch from a resisted bug move after already being up +1 in defense.

Leavanny felt otherwise, and crossed her arms over her chest so that they made an X shape, then charged forward to hit Passimian, who was back to flexing in a pose reminiscent of a bodybuilder showing off their biceps. Passimian hardly seemed to notice Leavanny threw off an attack on it as Passimian finished bulking up for a second time. Passimian looked at Leavanny the way a starved Persian might look at a plump Dedenne: like an easy snack.

"Leavanny, String Shot, try slowing him down so we can dodge his attacks too!" Trevor recommended.

"Bulk Up," I said for the third and last time. While Leavanny sprayed a fine mist of webs from her wrists that lightly coated Passimian, he Bulked Up freely for a third time, and secured the attack power needed in order to 1HKO Leavanny with the right move. While I knew the String Shot naturally weighed pokemon's speed down while coated with it, and Passimian was no exception. However, a very interesting thing happened when the String Shot was sprayed over Passimian: his entire body flashed brightly with white, raw energy not once but two times, as if his attack power had been boosted three times rather than once, but how could that be? Then I realized that Passimian had the ability Defiant, which meant that because the String Shot lowered Passimian's speed stat, his attack stat was automatically boosted two extra stages. In layman's terms - Passimian was strong enough at this point to take out 2 Leavanny's with 1 hit.

"Oh, dear, I forget about these Alolan pokemon and their overpowered abilities!" Trevor said worriedly, seeing how large Passimian's entire body frame and muscles had grown since the beginning of the match after basically 5 Bulk Ups. "Nothing to do left but go for the crit, Leavanny! Leaf Blade 'until the monkey goes down!"

"Passimian, U-Turn," I countered with mixed triumph as well as disappointment that all those delicious boosts were just going to be focused into one attack, when I could potentially Drain Punch the Leavanny down while Passimian ate up Leaf Blades day and night. But that left me vulnerable to being crit for several chances, and I'd learned long ago not to leave open opportunities for things like that to happen if I could avoid it.

Passimian was now outsped by Leavanny due to the stringy, sticky substance sprayed from the String Shot, meaning that Leavanny got his Leaf Blade off first, getting a solid jab right across Passimian's jaw. Passimian hardly seemed to notice, though, and proceeded to lunge his entire body at Leavanny, slamming into her, and then transforming himself back into red formless energy as he U-turned right back into the pokeball on my belt. What a cool move. I'd never seen a pokemon fall to the ground as fast as Leavanny did when my Passimian slammed his engorged, bloated, muscular body into her, and I tried not to, but I burst into laughter at the almost absurd sight of seeing a gym leader's pokemon, what many consider to be one of the strongest pokemon on Ilragorn - fell over in half a second from one hit. Suffice to say I was both surprised and impressed at Passimian's performance so far.

"Nice work, Leavanny, you got the webs up and got some hits off to weaken the monkey. Well done. Now, I choose Butterfree!"

"I choose Tropius."

The first thing both pokemon did was take their fight airborne, Tropius effortlessly gliding his large, leafy wings back and forth to rise whilst Butterfree shook and shimmied her thin, gorgeous wings whilst her pink body bobbed up and down, remaining mobile and vigilant against Tropius.

"Butterfree, Sleep Powder!"

"Tropius, Leech Seed."

With a flutter of her wings, Butterfree released a pollen into the air that was attracted to Tropius and slowly rested onto his unbothered face and neck whilst Tropius shot out a small green seed from his mouth toward Butterfree that upon contact with the bug pokemon, the seed shattered and a thin lasso of vine wrapped itself around Butterfree like a belt with its own mind. While the Sleep Powder did nothing to Tropius, the vine constricting Butterfree squeezed tightly for a moment, sucking a tiny amount of energy from the squirming mon as she flew up, down, and around in an attempt to shake off the Leech Seed. The vine belt would then fire off a small white orb containing that bit of extra energy back to Tropius to absorb for his own health.

"Aw, crap, I forgot Sleep Powder's a grass move, not a bug move. Darn, that set me back a lot." Trevor scratched at his shining head perplexedly, seeing the writing on the wall in terms of the fact he was on the losing side of this match.

Feeling more than assured in my momentum in the battle over the sheer dumb luck moment of an experienced trainer making a rookie mistake, I took enough pity on Trevor to not have Tropius end the match right then and there like I probably could by ordering out one of his STAB flying moves that would probably OHKO something as one of the first registered bug types in the pokedex.

"Tropius, Headbutt," I said.

"Butterfree, Quiver Dance around him and evade taking that Headbutt!"

While Tropius soared forward in an attempt to charge over Butterfree in mid-air with the use of his solid head, Butterfree let gravity do the work as she stopped fluttering her wings and let gravity pull her down, dodging right under Tropius as he Headbutted through her personal space. With a few spins here, and twirls there, Butterfree managed to perform a successful Quiver Dance while dodging an attack from Tropius. It wasn't common you bumped into a pokemon that could both dodge and perform powerful moves at the same damn time, and credit had to be given where credit is due toward this pokemon that I would have thought would have fallen to the group after 10 seconds with Tropius, but I could sense the fighting spirit in this Butterfree. As if on cue, Butterfree wrenched frustratingly in the air as the Leech Seed sucked a bit more energy from the Butterfree and spit it back out for Tropius to swallow.

Butterfree was now at a boosted speed, special attack, and special defense, meaning my tiny moment of overconfidence in a single turn allowed his Butterfree to gain enough pressure to possibly beat down my Tropius and begin the reverse sweep. But I was not about to allow my team to lose a fucking Butterfree, not a damn bug pokemon. Especially a bug/flying type, ugh, how many weaknesses can one pokemon have? Rock, ice, fire, electric, and flying? Way too much to be a solid pick for the team in my books, though I've always had a bit of snobbiness when it came to teambuilding and that was just hard to shake off, no matter how open-minded I allowed myself to be with pokemon now.

"Air Slash!" I told Tropius.

"Psychic it!" countered Trevor, his more talkative and friendly persona slipping away as the competitive gym leader inside of him came out.

Tropius slashed his wings at the air the way an artist using splash painting would slap their brush at the canvas, sending out the powerful wind reverberation toward Butterfree, but Butterfree was ready for it - with a gleam in the eye as she conjured up her inner psychic powers, Butterfree halted the Air Slash in mid-air, halfway toward its intended target, and ended it as a loud noise reminiscent of a police siren went off and the air momentarily flashed a psychedelic, hypnotic pattern of pink and black waves that I imagined to be psychic energy expanding throughout the vicinity.

Realizing I had foolishly allowed Butterfree to usurp my Tropius' capabilities in both speed and special attack at this point, I saw I now had 2 options to realistically win this battle at this point before Butterfree broke through Tropius and forced me to use another pokemon. I had to either stall out Butterfree of energy just from avoiding her attacks and letting Leech Seed slowly (very slowly actually) but surely wear her down to unconsciousness. Or I could catch a physical move on her, because even though she had bulked up on the special side, Butterfree could never boost her weak physical side. I went with a mix of the two.

"Air Slash right when she gets seeded!" I ordered Tropius, who waited several seconds and had to endure eating up a Psychic from Butterfree. The hypnotic pink-and-black waves flashed all around us once more as Butterfree seemed to grab Tropius with some massive invisible hand, and chucked Tropius straight to the floor of the gymnasium, where Tropius crashed right into the base of one of the slanting trees. The force of Tropius' body colliding into the thin trunk snapped the tree in half, and I have to say, it looked rather painful and my heart goes out to Tropius' back for enduring that.

But as instructed, the moment Butterfree began squirming nervously from the vine belt stealing more energy from her, Tropius slashed with his wings from the grassy floors at the Butterfree who was still several meters into the air.

"Dodge it!" Trevor begged, knowing it was a lot to ask Butterfree to evade the quickly-approaching Air Slash while struggling from the Leech Seed.

"Fly right into Butterfree!" I revealed my last move, adding a third layer to Butterfree's problems.

"Signal Beam if you can, the Tropius!" Trevor screamed, now asking Butterfree to dodge Air Slash, and fire off a Signal Beam at the Tropius pummeling through the air at her, all while pulling and recoling wildly from the belt sucking away at her.

Suffice to say, it was too much for Butterfree. Although she did evade the Air Slash with enough ease whilst biting at the belt in a moment of desperation, and although she did fire a Simple Beam at Tropius that did connect, the yellow beam of bug energy hitting Tropius right in his shoulder and burning through the leafy layers, it did not deter Tropius one bit from Flying with all the energy he could muster right into Butterfree, who was way too distracted to dodge the Fly right after so much. Tropius' wings slapped Butterfree's entire body down to the ground, where Butterfree happened to land right on top of the broken branches and splintered wood of the tree Tropius had broken in half. One piece of sharp wood in particular had pierced right through Butterfree's paper-thin wings, and Butterfree wasn't reacting at all because she was knocked out cold.

I surveyed the damage on Tropius while Trevor recalled Butterfree with some kind lies about how well she did. Tropius had taken a few Psychics and the Signal Beam had burned through his right shoulder enough to draw blood and the area was burned black, and he was pretty bruised from slamming into the tree. But he had redeemed himself after that piss poor display against Dugtrio in Wintervale, and I was content with just letting him stay in at this point to see the strategy behind Trevor's final pokemon. Tropius was too tired to even use his wings at this point, though, and preferred to remain stationary on the grass.

Trevor's final pokemon was a blood red colored pokemon whose hands looked more like the heads of some giant metallic snake. It was a Scizor, and a female one at that. And there was no way a Tropius could ever beat a Scizor. I whipped out my pokedex since I had never encountered one of these before, and did a quick check on it.

Bug and steel type. Could go defensive or offensive, amazing attacking power and bulk, very hard evolution to achieve, only the most passionate of Scyther trainers could own a Scizor. The top comment from the trainer comment section read, "If you don't have a fire type and it gets up a Swords Dance - :( " Well, hopefully this one doesn't have Swords Dance.

"I'm going to stick it out with Tropius," I confirmed with Trevor, who smiled and nodded.

"Ready, then?"

"Ready."

"Scizor, Swords Dance."

Fuck me. "Tropius, Air Slash!" Maybe I could get a flinch.

I hadn't thought of the fact that Sticky Web was on the floor and because Tropius was now playing it grounded, Tropius was now outsped by Scizor. So Scizor ended up beginning his boosting move before I could attack. Thankfully, the Air Slash landed and Scizor noticeably stumbled from the flying move, but it wasn't enough to stop her from performing the dramatic movements with her arms necessary to boost her damage output.

"Air Slash again!" I said stubbornly.

"Aerial Ace!" Trevor said triumphantly.

Scizor made a great leap in the air, surprisingly higher than I thought a steel type could lift themselves, and after performing some aerobic gymnastics in the air, as if warming up her body for the grand finale, Scizor then descended into a nosedive straight onto Tropius who was struggling to refocus the aim of his Air Slash upward instead of forward. Tropius was just way too worn out to even have a chance. Scizor's Aerial Ace, boosted by the +2 attack, sent Tropius' head slamming right into the grass, face first, with tremendously scary force that made me worried for a moment that he might not ever get back up. There was some blood from what I assumed was either a busted tooth or busted nose pooling from under Tropius' head, and he was surely down for the count, but he was still shallowly breathing - he was not dead, and for that I was very grateful. I had lost too many mons with great potential already. I then realized I was facing a gym leader, whose pokemon were surely trained to restrain themselves from ever going beyond the legal limits of battling, and that I was hanging around so many shady figures at this point and my luck was so bad that I was even starting to worry that gym leaders might have my pokemon executed.

Shaking my head at my needless paranoia, I recalled the fainted Tropius into his pokeball and wondered whether Passimian should come back out or if I should let Lapras have her moment to shine in her first gym battle. It felt right to let Lapras have her opportunity to beat a gym leader's pokemon, because that was always a huge boost in confidence to the pokemon itself, so I went with that instinct. If I wanted to enter the Ilragorn League and battle the best trainers on the island, I couldn't always depend on Drapion and Gengar to carry the team. Sometimes, it would be on Tropius or Passimian or Lapras to secure the victory in matches, and I just needed to be sure that every member of my team could perform at their highest potential. That's why even with the pressure being so fucking high with the League being just around the corner and me essentially needing the Bug Badge, like, today, I still brought the weaker members of my team to the gym match. Because if my weakest guys can't take on what was in my opinion the weakest gym, then there was no way I was ever winning the whole League.

"I choose Lapras," I announced, as Lapras emerged from her pokeball with a great wet slap as her heavy body plopped onto the grass. She didn't even notice as the Sticky Web on the floor slowly clung to her bottom portion, ensuring the slowdown. She seemed to enjoy the change in scenery though from her home waters, and Lapras seemed to forget she was in a battle for a moment as she ogled at the gorgeous sloping trees all around. "Hey, Lapras, get into it. Pay attention, man."

Trevor suppressed a smile at my bright-eyed Lapras who was clearly new to battling.

"Oh, well this one is absolutely gorgeous. This one should be modeling, not battling." Trevor switched gears, deciding not to push. "Well, ready?"

"Ready."

"Scizor, Bug Bite, you should be able to run circles around this large beauty," Trevor suggested, and Scizor responded in turn, using her strong two legs made of hard steel to hop back and forth in zig-zag formation toward Lapras so that she wasn't an easy target.

"Hydro Pump the shit out of Scizor!" I said, going for power over accuracy. Sure, I had Surf in the moveset, but I was probably only going to be able to get off one hit here, if I was being honest with myself. This Scizor was a serious threat, and his attack stat was through the roof right now. I just needed Lapras to get one big hit off on this behemoth.

Lapras fired off a powerful burst of water from her mouth aimed at a spot in the grass where Scizor was moments away from landing that Lapras had accurately predicted Scizor would jump to based off of her predictable zig-zag movements.

"Yes!" I cheered too early, because Scizor cleverly used her wings to halt herself mid-jump, just inches outside of the trajectory of the massive Hydro Pump unleashed by Lapras. So close.

Lapras was attempting to move, at least a little bit, but she was finding herself frustrated by her reduced speed, as she groaned and whining while pulling herself along the grass, looking at the ground in anger and wanting to attack it rather than Scizor for the moment. But she had her orders.

"Bullet Punch!" Trevor said. "Up close and personal!"

"Hydro Pump when she's close!" I responded.

Because Bullet Punch was a priority move, even without Sticky Web coming into play, Scizor still wound up right in front of Lapras' face as if instantly transmitted there by teleportation, except that Scizor had one of her fists slam right into Lapras' chest, above where her heart was.

In the moment that Lapras' heart stopped from the power of the Bullet Punch, Lapras released every bit of water she could unleash in the free hit off on the Scizor standing directly in front of her face, and as she opened her mouth and a Hydro Pump spat out with the force of a truck going 60 mph, that powerful stream of cold water completely enveloped Scizor and sent her flying all the way on the opposite side of the field. When Lapras ceased her attack, Scizor was laying in soaking wet grass in a large puddle of water, visibly shaken up after taking such a strong hit.

"Surf, don't let up!" I said, going for a move that was much more likely to connect with the Scizor.

"Bullet Punch!" repeated Trevor.

As if through movie magic, Scizor was teleported right in front of Lapras again, before she could start to fire off her Surf, and Scizor's wasfist once again punched as hard as she could into Lapras' body - this time in the face. Lapras flipped all the way over and landed on her back from the force of the hit, and she had been knocked out as well. I recalled her with worry, suddenly realizing that even Gengar and Drapion probably would have lost out to this thing in a 1v1, and it dawning on me that I just may get my second gym loss here. In a Bug Gym, of all the fucking gyms. It had to be a Bug Gym.

"I choose Passimian," I said flatly, because I had no other option. Passimian popped out of his ball, and while I had a moment of hopeless where I knew I was about to lose this match getting swept by this broken Scizor, Passimian suddenly began radiating that white raw energy, not once, but twice, as if his attack had been boosted twice simply for just showing up. Of course, the Sticky Web. I wondered if the hits he had taken from Leavanny earlier would be enough for Scizor to take him out with one hit, and if the hits Tropius and Lapras had gotten off on the Scizor were enough for Passimian to take her down with one hit back. Either way, both of us knew that both of our pokemon were only going to be able to get off one hit before the match was decided. If this Scizor didn't go down right now, I lost the match, because she could just Bullet Punch Passimian after and he would definitely go down.

"Ready?"

"Ready."

"Aerial Ace!"

"Drain Punch!"

Scizor took to the air again in her gymnastics-like display of aerodynamic movements while Passimian simply stood there, fists clenched tightly and trembling with nerves because he knew he had to eat up this hit if we were going to get this badge. The Sticky Web, while making him much stronger, also prevented him from trying to dodge any of Scizor's moves. The Aerial Ace landed as Scizor nosedived right into Passimian's right fist, the Drain Punch connecting with the Aerial Ace. Breaking Scizor's fall helped dampen most of the attack, but it still took a massive chunk of Passimian, and I can say most humbly that Passimian just barely clung onto consciousness from the force of that super effective move hitting him, but Passimian had fired right back with his own +2 Drain Punch, and despite all my worries, Scizor was the last pokemon to fall to the grass that day and not get back up.

Passimian rejoiced with the tiny energy he had left to smile, then I recalled him to his ball while Trevor thanked me for a spectacular battle and rewarded me with the Bug Badge of Goldenleaf. It was a murky brown, ugly color really, but I didn't care. It was the most beautiful sight I'd seen in a while, and it meant I was just 1 badge away from entering the Ilragorn League.

Author's Note I am so happy right now with how far I've gotten with this story. I've never actually finished a fully fleshed out story with long, built-up arcs and proper story structure and all that and I honestly never dreamed I'd be writing something that would amass over 200 pages on Microsoft Word with no added spacing. But at this point, I know I am committed to it because I know this will probably be one of the only things I will ever write with this much thought and heart put into it, especially because I've been building up to this amazing grand finale that I believe far outshines most of the cop out climaxes I see from stories here (sorry but I speak the truth) from the ones that can even bother finishing at least. I'm really appreciative to anyone who's ever even opened up this story to take a gander at my work, so thank you all, and I promise that the last 10 chapters will swing everything in a very different, but wild and exciting direction. I knew from the beginning that this is how I wanted to do it, because I wanted to put a lot of elements of my own life into it and not just do a repeat of what every other story here does and just like with how I envisioned originally writing this thing and finishing it 2 years ago, sometimes things just don't go as planned. But it all works out in the end, and in my opinion, for the better, as now I've had years to sharpen my vision, my writing skills, and ensure that I have one of the best climaxes for a Pokemon story on here of all time, because I wouldn't be building up to these last 10 chapters with so much thought and focus if I wasn't confident in my final act.