Kate's accepted Roxie's challenge, and is about to face a gauntlet of battles against her and her band! Will she be able to make it through? Or will she end up losing before she can even get to Roxie? Does she have what it takes to handle Roxie and her band's pokemon?
KedharS: It's pretty much the only time she could ever be considered cute.
Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Kate's pretty forgettable. It doesn't help that her caustic, toxic personality makes you WANT to forget about her.
Aakareo Kokokuhikari: Lot of stuff went down huh.
Thunder Fire: Guess so. Or maybe I'm just a lazy namer when it comes to filler pokemon.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 855
"Grimes, another sludge attack!" Nicky shouted.
"Grimer!" Grimes spat more sludge at Rossa, this time scoring a direct hit.
"Roselia!" Rossa winced, but due to being a Poison type pokemon herself, she wasn't affected by the sludge's toxins.
"Shake it off, Rossa!" Kate called out. "While Grimer is paralyzed, it's going to be harder to score hits on you! So now's the time to infect him with your leech seed!"
"Roselia," Rossa nodded. She raised her flowers and shot out two thick seeds.
Grimes didn't even have the chance to dodge. Not only are Grimer naturally slow, but being paralyzed made it even harder for him to escape. The seeds dug into his slimy body and planted roots, vines springing out and wrapping around the pokemon.
Rossa harvested energy from the seeds, recovering some of her injuries.
"Whoa, not bad!" Nicky complimented. "I didn't expect a move like that from you! It's like being poisoned, but even better!"
Kate smiled. She was winning! Her time spend training Grass type pokemon wasn't a waste after all. She had learned how to make the most out of her pokemon's moves, and even though she was more comfortable with poison attacks, this was definitely the right way to go when fighting against Poison type pokemon.
"Keep it up, Rossa!" She cheered. "Use sunny day next!"
"Roselia!" Rossa raised one of the flowers on her hand up towards the ceiling, sending an orb of light into the sky. It began shining above the battlefield like a miniature sun, heating up the club and illuminating the dark room.
"Yow! That's a strange one!" Roxie said, intrigued. "Gotta say, Katie Girl, not the kinda move I'd expect from ya! Nicky, think ya got this one?"
"You bet Roxie!" Nicky said confidently. "Grimes, hit that Roselia with your poison jab attack!"
"Grimer!" Grime oozed across the field and raised his grimy fist, hitting Rossa in the stomach. He sent the Roselia tumbling backwards.
"Rossa!" Kate cried. "You good?"
"R-Rose…" Rossa rose to her feet, coughing, holding her flowers in front of her nose. She was too shaken to fight back.
"What do you think of that little number?" Nicky grinned. "Thanks to Grimes' foul Stench, your Roselia's been stunned! Now she's wide open for a sludge assault!"
"Grimer!" Grimes continued to pelt Rossa with chunks of sludge and grime, raining poison down on the Roselia's head. Even though Rossa was leeching energy off of him, her health was depleting rather quickly.
Kate flashed on a great idea. Pokemon like Grimer and Koffing were known for their terrible odors, but that wasn't a problem for Grass type pokemon like Roselia! "Rossa! Shake off that stench with some sweet scent!"
"Roselia!" Rossa nodded, brightening. A pink mist sprayed out of her petals and suffused the battlefield, erasing all traces of Grimer's noisome smell. As an added bonus, the odor of sweat that had permeated throughout the place since Kate had arrived began to fade away as well, and soon the entire music club was smelling like a flower bed.
Roxie whistled. "Damn, Katie Girl! That's the best this place has ever smelled!"
Kate held her head up proudly. "Don't sound so surprised! My daddy's a perfume manufacturer, I know all about the odors of Poison type pokemon- and also how to eliminate them! What do you think, Rossa, feeling better now?"
"Roselia!" Rossa cheered, her sinuses clear again. She nodded to her trainer and ran into the cloud of mist, raising her petals.
"Great! Then hit him with your weather ball attack!" Kate ordered.
"Rose!" Rossa raised her flowers, and formed a ball of white light between them. It throbbed and grew, burning orange with the power of the intense sunlight. She fired it at Grimes.
"Shoot! That looks nasty!" Nicky gasped. "Grimes, dodge it, quick!"
But Grimes didn't move. He was so caught up in the sweet smells that surrounded him that he barely even noticed the attack headed his way. By the time he realized what was coming, the weather ball was too close for his paralyzed body to get out of the way in time.
The weather ball hit the Grimer and exploded, knocking him back and knocking him out. The unconscious sludge pile collapsed in front of Nicky and the crowd went wild!
"Alright! Way to go, Katie Girl!" Roxie cheered. "Ya did a great job! Nicky's first pokemon is unable to battle!"
Nicky sighed. "Ah, well, you did your best," he mumbled, recalling Grimes to his pokeball. "I can see you've definitely got some skills, girl! But let's see how you handle my next one! Gary, let's do this thing!"
Nicky sent out his second pokemon. It was a Koffing! The floating purple mass of toxic gasses hovered above the battlefield with a dopey grin on his face that matched Kate's.
"A Koffing?" Kate asked, trying to contain her excitement. "Aww, yeah! I love that one! This is gonna be so fun! Let's go, Rossa! Same as last time, hit him with your weather ball!"
"Roselia!" Rossa raised her flowers and fired another orange orb at the Koffing. But unlike Nicky's Grimer, Gary was fast.
"Koffing!" Gary shot a jet of gas out of the holes on the side of his body, propelling himself out of the way of Rossa's attack.
"No!" Kate groaned. "That Koffing's good at maneuvering in the air, huh?"
"You're gonna have to do better than that!" Nicky crowed. "Why don't you try using that sweet scent of yours again, huh?"
Kate grimaced. She knew a move like that would be pointless. Koffing's odor couldn't compare with Grimers', attempted to use sweet scent would just see it countered by a particularly foul haze of fumes. There was no way it could work.
But there were other methods of slowing the pokemon down.
"Rossa, sweet scent is a no-go, but that's alright!" Kate called. "We can still slow down the gas cloud if we hit him with our stun spore, just like against Grimer!"
"Rose!" Rossa nodded, preparing a stun spore attack.
"Don't think it'll be that easy," Nicky laughed. "Gary, use sludge!"
"Koffing!" Gary spat a blast of sludge at Rossa, hitting her directly. And with no leech seed this time, those wounds would only fester.
"Stun spore!" Kate ordered, not paying any mind to wounds from a weak sludge.
Rossa raised her flowers and sent a cloud of stun spore over the battlefield, towards the Koffing.
But Nicky was happy. "I was expecting you to do something like that!" The drummer said. "Gary, nullify those spores with your poison gas!"
"Koffing!" Gary held his breath and inflated, releasing a cloud of foul-smelling toxic smog. The gas cloud rushed forward and smothered the stun spore, keeping the powder from getting anywhere close to its target.
"Darn!" Kate clicked her tongue. That was another plan down the tubes. This was turning around really fast. "Rossa, return!"
Roxie was intrigued by that. "Oh? Ya callin' back yer pokemon, Katie Girl? What for?"
"It's a bad matchup," Kate shrugged, smiling warily. "The right move might be to do as much damage as I can with her, but I can't afford to lose one of my pokemon this early, not when I have two more trainers to fight after this."
Roxie grinned and nodded along with her. "Right on, right on. Looking forward to seeing what ya come up with next then, Katie Girl!"
Kate's eyes shot up to the intense sunlight and she grinned. "How about this one? Lumia, let's do this thing!"
With a flick of her wrist Kate sent out her second pokemoon, her Vileplume. The top-heavy flower pokemon landed on the battlefield with a big smile on her face, basking in the glow of the bright sunny day.
"Another part-Grass type pokemon, huh?" Roxie whistled. "Ya sure ya ain't a Grass type trainer with alluv these?"
Kate grinned. "Damn sure! Now go, Lumia, hit him with your weather ball!"
"Vileplume!" Lumia nodded, lowering her head. Her flower crown began to glow with the light of the sun and charged with energy as she prepared an orange orb of light to blast the Koffing with.
Nicky wasn't bothered at all, though. "Don't worry your head about that one, Gary! We'll dodge it just like the last!"
"Koffing," Gary nodded, smiling.
Kate smirked. "Oh, I don't think you will! Fire, Lumia!"
"Vileplume!" Lumia fired the orb, and shocked everyone in the crowd with how fast it was. The light orb shot across the battlefield and hit Gary before he could even blink, exploding and knocking the Koffing out of the air.
"What the hey?!" Nicky gasped in shock.
"I didn't just take advantage of the sunlight to power up my weather ball attack," Kate explained, pointing up at the flickering orb of energy. "I also took advantage of Lumia's ability, Chlorophyll! Thanks to the sun's glow, her speed is doubled! No way your Koffing could have fought back!"
"Koff… Koffing…" The Poison type pokemon was clearly on his last legs. He could barely summon enough energy to remain floating.
"Damn, Katie Girl! Ya really are fightin' just like a Grass type trainer!" Roxie laughed.
"Well, I was trained by one," Kate admitted. "But don't get me wrong! I'm still a Poison type user, and don't you forget it!"
"Well if you're so knowledgeable about the Poison type… then I think you should be able to guess what's coming next," Nicky grinned. "Gary's just about finished, but Koffing have a natural defense mechanism when they get to this point, or did you forget!"
Kate gasped, realizing what he was about to do. "Oh, no! Lumia, quick, you gotta end this now before that Koffing-"
"KOFFING!" Gary's roar interrupted Kate, and her cries were drowned out by the blast of the massive gas explosion. A wave of noxious gas slammed into Lumia, knocking her backwards from the force of the attack.
"Lumia!" Kate wailed.
"V-Vile…" Lumia panted, trying to pick herself up off the ground. She was still conscious, but she'd been hurt really hard by the attack. Kate wasn't sure if she'd be able to keep fighting.
"Well, sorry about that, Gary," Nicky apologized, recalling his unconscious Koffing. The Poison type had released all the gases he had stored up for that attack."
Roxie whistled and the crowd cheered out their support. "Way to go, Nicky!" She shouted. "Great job there! You too, Katie Girl!"
Kate recalled her Vileplume with a sigh. She'd technically won the match, and without even having lost a single pokemon, but somehow she still felt like the loser. After all, she wouldn't have any time to heal up her pokemon, which meant she was going into the next match with a Vileplume that could barely even fight.
So that's their strategy, huh? Her band whittles me down, and then her team finishes me off? Kate was quite impressed. While someone else might call those tactics dirty and cowardly, in Kate's eyes they were deserving of respect.
After all, Roxie and her band were fighting exactly how a Poison type would, whittling down their opponents gradually in order to win. This was less like three pokemon battles, and more like one long stretched out across three trainers.
She could do this. She wasn't going to let them beat her!
"Who's next?" Kate shouted defiantly.
"That'd be me, Katie Girl!" Billy Jo strutted into the cage with her head held high, pokeball in her hand. "I'm the next one you're facing, can you handle my poison beauties? Go, Venus!"
With a flourish, the hot guitarist sent out her first pokemon, a Venipede.
Kate was already going in at a disadvantage. For one, the sunlight Rossa had conjured was sputtering out, so she'd get no help there. For another, the two pokemon who were best capable of dealing with Bug types with their weather ball were both injured, and both were Grass type pokemon, which made them risky.
"I can handle this, no problem!" Kate declared. "Reed, you're up!"
Kate sent out her Skrelp. The tiny pokemon landed on the battlefield with a defiant gleam in his eyes, and hovered up slightly in the air.
"Wow, that's a good one alright," Billy Jo whistled approvingly. "Venus! Let's soften him up with a screech attack!"
"Veni!" Venus nodded. She screamed, sending a sonic blast across the field that ground into Reed's ears, weakening him.
"Ouch! That smarts!" Kate wailed, holding her own ears.
"It should," Billy Jo grinned. "That's a taste of a pokemon who really knows how to rock! Now, we'll show you how we roll, too! Rollout!"
"Venipede!" Venus curled up into a ball and rolled right at Reed, hitting him head-on.
"Skrelp!" Reed wailed in pain, floundering backwards.
Venus wasn't done. One of the strengths of rollout was that the pokemon would just keep coming. She turned and headed on back towards Reed for a second shot.
"Oh, no you don't!" Kate growled. "Reed, hit her with you water pulse!"
"Skrelp!" Reed nodded, his snout widening. He shot a shockwave of water right at the Venipede, but it bounced off the pokemon's hardened shell, barely doing any damage.
"What?!" Kate gasped, shocked that Venus hadn't even baulked at the attack.
"While she's rolling like that, it's hard to hurt her!" Billy Jo explained. "Now go, hit him again!"
Venus smashed into Reed and knocked him backwards a second time, doing even more damage as the rollout attack picked up in power. Kate was in a bad position. She'd been doing great in the first battle, but now she was having a hard time dealing with Billy Jo's tricks.
But I'm not gonna let 'em see me sweat! She reminded herself. "It's okay, Reed! Shake it off!" She shouted. "We just gotta slow 'em down, that's all!"
"Sk… Skrelp," Reed nodded, floating back up. He was injured, but it wasn't critical. The more pressing issue was that Venus was coming by for a third round.
"Don't worry, I've got an idea!" Kate grinned, flashing on a surge of brilliance. "Let's hit her with a smokescreen!"
"Skrelp!" Reed nodded excitedly. He puffed up his snout and a cloud of black smoke covered the battlefield, hiding him from sight.
"Oh no!" Billy Jo gasped.
"That's right," Kate grinned. "Rollout's a pretty good move, but it won't work if you can't see where your opponent is!"
Venus erupted from the cloud of smoke, having missed Reed by a mile. She crashed into the barbed wire fence and wailed in pain.
"Now, Reed, use your water pulse attack one more time!" Kate ordered.
"Skrelp!" Reed fired a blast of water at the stunned Venipede. This time it was a direct hit, and a critical one at that! The bug pokemon collapsed, unconscious.
"Oh, well…" Billy Jo sighed, recalling her Venipede. "But she still did a good job! Nice work, weakening that Skrelp like that!"
"For that matter, I'm calling you back, too," Kate said, returning Reed to his pokeball. "We don't want you to use all your strength too early, rest for now."
"Taking a nice little break?" Billy Jo sneered. "I don't think so! Dora, come on out!"
She sent out her next pokemon, another Koffing.
"So you've got a Koffing too, huh?" Kate grinned. "Why am I not surprised?"
Billy Jo grinned, flicking her ponytail. "Well, our band is called 'Koffing and the Toxics', so of course we've got Koffing! And I think you'll find that Dora's got a surprise all in store for you!"
Kate wasn't a moron. She knew that Koffing was going to explode.
But before that happens, I'll have to take her down. Problem is, I don't want to put any of my pokemon in greater risk… but I'm probably going to lose somebody anyway… It was a tough call to make, but she was ready to make it. "Lumia! Try your best!"
Kate sent out her injured Vileplume, surprising everyone.
"Already?" Billy Jo asked, surprised.
"I know your Koffing's preparing to self-destruct in order to weaken my team," Kate nodded. "And the less pokemon I lose, the better! I already know I'm not going to use her against Roxie, so this is how she's going to help me win!"
Billy Jo nodded, that made sense. Still… "Pretty cold of you, sacrificing your pokemon like that."
Kate smirked. "I don't want to hear that from someone who's gonna make their pokemon blow up for their strategy. And besides, Lumia's excited to help, isn't that right?"
"Vile…" Lumia was tired. But she smiled, her eyes shining with energy.
"We're doing this together, right, Lumia?" Kate grinned. "Use sunny day!"
"Vileplume!" Lumia cheered with joy, lighting up the battlefield once again.
"Shoulda known you'd try something like that," Billy Jo smirked. "But the same trick won't work twice! Dora, use your smokescreen!"
"Koffing!" Dora grinned and released a cloud of toxic smoke that covered the field in a thick cloud of gas, preventing Lumia from finding her target. She looked around frantically.
"Your Vileplume doesn't have a whole lot of health left," Billy Jo reminded Kate. "Better get prepared to send that Skrelp back out, since she's a sitting duck if she can't see!"
Kate shook her head. "Not a chance! Lumia's got a trick or two up her sleeve! Lumia, use synthesis!"
"Vile!" Lumia's flower began to glow brightly, absorbing energy from the sunlight and restoring her health.
Billy Jo gasped. "What? No way!"
"That's right!" Kate grinned. "While in heavy sunlight, synthesis can heal up a pokemon's injuries but good! What do you think?"
Lumia had almost fully recovered from the effects of the previous self-destruct, much to Billy Jo's horror.
This was something Kate delighted in. As a Poison type trainer, she knew how they fought. Poison types were pokemon focused on attrition; they wanted to wear down their opponents over time. But tricks like that wouldn't work against Lumia, who couldn't be poisoned, and could restore her health with synthesis.
"I see! We can't afford to take it easy on you!" Billy Jo frowned. "Dora! Use sludge bomb!"
"Koffing!" A blast of sludge much bigger than the chunks that Nicky's team had been dealing with broke out the smog. Lumia was nearly drowned in toxins, but she wasn't going to go down so easily. Synthesis had given her a great buffer to burn through, after all!
"Don't worry, Lumia! You just focus on building strength!" Kate called out. "Use your growth attack next!"
"Vile!" Lumia nodded. She continued to absorb sunlight, but rather than healing herself, she used the energy from the sun to pump herself up instead. She was already moving at double speed beneath the sun's rays, but now her attacking stats had shot up as well.
Roxie whistled. "That's a great plan, Katie Girl! I see whatcha doin' now!"
Kate grinned. If the Koffing got too weak, she would absolutely self-destruct. The only way to prevent that was to take her out in one blow. And that's exactly what Kate planned to do!
"Lumia! Use petal blizzard to blow away that smokescreen!" Kate ordered.
"Vileplume!" Lumia nodded, creating a powerful tornado of flower petals swirling around her. Boosted by her growth, the petal blizzard swept across the battlefield and cleared away the toxic smoke, revealing Dora and cutting deeply into her for good measure.
"Dora!" Billy Jo shouted. "Watch out, she's going to-"
"Now, use weather ball again!" Kate ordered.
"Vileplume!" Lumia lowered her head and created a massive orb of orange light, boosted by the sunny day and the growth. The pulsing orb fired off and hit Dora directly, dealing a massive amount of damage to the Poison type.
Dora fell out of the sky, unconscious. She never had a chance to explode.
"Yes!" Kate cheered with glee. "Way to go, Lumia! You did it! We won! …Lumia?"
Dora hadn't been the only one to fall, however. Lumia tumbled forward and collapsed into unconsciousness, to Kate's horror. She ran to her Vileplume's side.
"Lumia?! What's wrong, girl?" She cried.
"Destiny bond," Billy Jo replied, recalling her Koffing. She walked over to Kate, looking down on her. "You were so wary about giving my Dora the opportunity to explode. We used that by preparing a destiny bond. That way, when your powerful attack hit and knocked her out, she could take one of your best pokemon out with her. We set a trap, and you fell right into it."
Kate sighed. Billy Jo was right. She recalled Lumia to her pokeball and stood up, a sheepish smile on her face. Once again, she'd won the fight, but still felt like the loser.
"I guess I really had that one coming, huh?" She said, shaking her head. "I really did my best, too, but I guess it wasn't enough."
"Not at all," Billy Jo grinned. "That was an awesome fight, and the crowd totally agrees, right?"
She looked at the throng of cheering fans. Hearing their support made Kate feel a little better. Billy Jo strutted off the battlefield, leaving Kate behind.
Now there was just one opponent left.
Roxie entered the cage, a wild grin on her face. Her bass guitar was left on stage, and she held a pokeball in her hand instead.
"Those were some rocking battles, Katie Girl!" Roxie complimented her. "But now it's time for the main event!"
Using everything she's learned about her pokemon's Grass type advantages, Kate managed to beat Roxie's band without much trouble! But how will she handle the gym leader herself? It's sure to be a rocking fight!