Kate's taken out the two members of Koffing and the Toxics, and now all that's left to do is defeat Roxie herself in battle! But Roxie's a dangerous foe, will Kate be able to stand up against her? Or will she be defeated like how Akira and Sylvia lost against Misty? Let's see!
KedharS: Well, she's not exactly weak. She has been trained by Alcea personally, after all.
Just a Bad Writer for Fun: I hope it lives up to your expectations, then!
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 856
"ROXIE! ROXIE! ROXIE!" The crowd chanted Roxie's name as she stepped out onto the battlefield, a wild grin stretched across her face. She twirled a pokeball between her dexterous fingers and her eyes shined in the light of the stage.
"Three pokemon each, Katie Girl," Roxie declared. "Ya ready for this?"
Kate's heart was tied up in knots. She was actually doing this! She was fighting against one of the pokemon trainers she idolized, the sort of Poison type user that she'd always wanted to be seen as! Was she ready?
Damn right she was ready!
"Rossa, let's start this out!" Kate declared, sending out her Roselia. Rossa had taken some hits in the first battle, but was in decent enough shape to keep fighting. She was in better condition than Reed was, that was for sure.
"So yer starting with a Grass/Poison type, huh?" Roxie grinned. "That's the sort of thing I expected out of ya! Let's rock, Skully!"
With a flick of her wrist, Roxie sent her first pokemon out. It was a Scolipede! Her long body shifted and churned beneath the scarlet armor plates as she slithered across the battlefield, rearing up to her full height with a hiss.
Kate wiped the sweat from her brow. Wow, Roxie had really started off strong! The Virbank City Gym Leader was famous for her use of the Poison type, but her signature pokemon was her Scolipede. It was the pokemon she used in all of her battles, and she was already sending her out!
It was definitely going to be a tough foe to face. But Kate also knew what she was capable of. She'd studied all of Roxie's matches, and had a pretty good idea of how to handle things. She was just lucky that she used Poison types as well.
Because Kate's team was composed of Poison type pokemon, Roxie couldn't take full advantage of her signature move, venoshock. It was an attack that devastated foes who were poisoned and was one of Kate's favorites as well, but against a Poison type team it was next to useless.
That's the only reason I stand a chance against her, Kate had to remind herself. Because she's not able to take advantage of the poison.
Facing Roxie without immunity to poison was a death sentence. But Rossa could handle it!
"Rossa!" She shouted. "Let's start with stun spore!"
"Roselia!" Rossa shouted, spinning like a top and spraying a cloud of golden spores across the battlefield towards the Scolipede.
"Hah!" Roxie snorted. "No way, Katie Girl! We ain't falling for that one! Skully, protect!"
"Scolipede!" The pokemon curled up into a ball, and a purple barrier of light shot up around her, protecting her from the harmful effect of the spores. Usually Roxie used protect in tandem with her pokemon's toxic attacks to wear her foes down, but it also served fine to protect her team all on its own too.
"Rossa! If she's going to hide behind her shield, use sunny day!" Kate ordered. She fully intended to make the most of this battle, and that included a powerful weather ball attack that would absolutely DEVASTATE Roxie's Bug type pokemon.
"Who's hiding?" Roxie laughed. "Skully, show 'er how we do it!"
"Scolipede!" Skully shot forward, breaking through the barrier at top speed. Kate gasped. She hadn't just coiled herself up to hide from the stun spore, she had curled up like that in order to propel herself forward like a spring! With Skully's agility, she was moving faster than Rossa could hope to catch!
"Take 'em down with a poison jab attack!" Roxie ordered. Skully lowered her head, and her large horns began to glow purple as they filled with poisonous energy. She hit Rossa head-on with a poison-infused headbutt, knocking the small flower pokemon off her feet.
"Rossa!" Kate cried.
"R-Rose…" Rossa panted, rising shakily to her feet.
"It's okay, Rossa, you're fine!" Kate tried to reassure her. She forced the franticness out of her voice. She wasn't going to let everyone see her panic! "Quick, use synthesis! You can recover most of your health thanks to the sunlight!"
"Rose," Rossa nodded, raising her flower hands to restore her health. Meanwhile, Skully was coming back around for more.
"Tryin' to get back some of yer health? Don't think it'll be so easy!" Roxie crowed. "I gotta say, yer not fightin' like a Poison type user, Katie Girl, though yer tactics would play great if ya could infect my Skully any!"
"Scolipede!" Skully chattered, picking up the pace as she charged Rossa.
"Let's finish 'er off with our special attack!" Roxie ordered. "Give 'er the ol' rolling poison tail!"
"Scol!" Skully curled up into a ball and began to roll forward like she was using a rollout attack. As she did, poisonous miasma began to ooze out of her tail spikes, which, at the rate she was spinning, caused her entire body to look like it was drenched in poison. One touch of that was really going to hurt!
Kate grinned. "We knew you're try that!" She laughed. "Rossa, you ready? Let's do this thing!"
"Roselia!" Rossa smiled, nodding back. She raised her flowers and spun, sending a wave of spiky barbs out across the battlefield.
"No way! That ain't toxic spikes, is it?" Roxie gasped in disbelief.
"Nope," Kate said, shaking her head. "It's just regular spikes! But they pack a mean bite, just you wait and see!"
Indeed, the spikes were the perfect method of slowing down Skully's movements. They sliced through her carapace as she rolled, not only slowing her down but causing serious injury as well. In a few seconds the Scolipede couldn't keep up her rotations fast enough to be able to hit Rossa, and was forced to pull back. She stood up on her legs to get away from the sharp barbs and hissed at the Roselia, frustrated.
"Not bad, Katie Girl!" Roxie cheered. "Ya musta seen a lot of my fights, eh? Know all about how Skully and I love rocking and rolling all over our opponents!"
Kate nodded, her heart swelling with pride at the gym leader's praise. "Absolutely! I knew what your Scolipede was capable of! That's why I was prepared! And that's not all I've prepared, either! While your movements are hampered, we can get you with this! Rossa, use weather ball!"
"Roselia!" Rossa held out her flowers and created an orb of light between them. The ball of energy began to absorb the sunlight, growing larger and burning bright orange. It flew across the battlefield towards the trapped Scolipede and exploded in a massive burst.
…But it was useless in the face of Skully's protect attack.
"Yer gonna hafta try a lot harder than that, Katie Girl!" Roxie grinned. "Skully here can bring up her force field like it's nobody's business!"
Kate scowled. She didn't like the sound of that. But she wasn't going to give in!
"Rossa, keep it up with those weather balls!" She ordered. Rossa nodded and began to fire more weather ball attacks, pressuring the protective shield until it snapped. Then the last one scored a direct hit on the Scolipede!
"SCOLIPEDE!" Skully roared in pain as he burned from the weather ball's flames, but Roxie didn't baulk for a second.
"Push through it, Skully, ya got this!" Roxie cheered on her Scolipede. "Quick! Get her with yer venoshock attack!"
"Scolipede!" Skully shook off the pain and opened her mouth, spitting a blast of poison between her fangs. The poison shifted into sharp blades of energy that rained down on Rossa, dealing some serious damage.
"Oh no!" Kate gasped. "Rossa, are you okay?!" Even though venoshock shouldn't have done much damage given the fact that Rossa wasn't poisoned, the attack still did a number on her. It was a testament to just how strong Roxie's Scolipede was.
"Nice work there, Skully! Now, hit her with megahorn!"
"Scolipede!" Skully shot forward across the battlefield with her agility, ignoring the pain of the spikes digging into her feet and underside. She lowered her head and her horns began shining, slamming into Rossa before the rose could react.
"Rossa! No!" Kate cried. Rossa was flung through the air and hit the barbed wire fence, crashing to the ground in a heap. She hadn't stood a chance.
"That's one down right there," Roxie grinned. "Not bad, if I say so myself!"
"Good work, Rossa," Kate sighed, recalling her Roselia. "You did your best…"
Roxie and her Scolipede were quite a fearsome pair. Rossa had dealt some serious blows, but you wouldn't tell it by looking at the two of them. Roxie was all smiles, goading Kate on with her shining eyes, and Skully looked as ferocious as ever, ignoring the burns and cuts on her carapace.
Kate would need to bring out the big guns next.
"Sludgy, you're up!" She shouted, sending out her newest pokemon.
"Muk!" Sludgy roared, landing on the battlefield with a splat. He puffed himself up slightly and raised his arms, ready to show the other Poison type pokemon who she was messing with.
"So ya've got a Muk, huh? I gotta say, I'm impressed Katie Girl! Type 2 Certification ain't easy to come by, that's for sure!" Roxie whistled, nodding approvingly.
"I've been studying my whole life for that!" Kate replied. "Let's show her what we can do, Sludgy!"
"Muk!" Sludgy bellowed, nodding eagerly.
As confident as Kate sounded, she knew this was far from a favorable matchup. Sludgy may have resisted Poison type moves better than Rossa did due to being a pure Poison type, but Skully with her Bug/Poison typing resisted them even better. And Sludgy didn't have much in the way of coverage, either. If Kate wanted to win this, she'd need to be smart about it.
"Sludgy, start with your screech attack!" Kate ordered. Normally, she would have started with minimize to reduce the likelihood of Roxie's attacks hitting her. But Roxie's Scolipede knew steamroller. Sludgy might have basically been a puddle of sludge, but that didn't mean she wanted him to get flattened into one!
"MUK!" Sludgy bellowed, a sonic blast shaking the music club. The place was used to loud noises, and this was just more of the same. Skully baulked, the sound lowering her defenses.
"That's nothing!" Roxie shouted over the screech attack. "Skully, fight it off with your iron defense!"
"Scol!" Skully nodded, hardening up her carapace to reduce the effectiveness of the screech.
Kate smirked. "Play that game all you want! Or didn't you notice?"
Roxie blinked. "Notice? Notice… oh, damn!"
While Skully's body was hardening, the shining silver light was revealing something else. Tiny seeds had embedded themselves within the gaps of her scales, and had started to sprout. Vines wrapped around her body, sapping her strength and giving it to Sludgy.
"That's right!" Kate grinned. "Back when you took out Rossa with that megahorn, before she fell she was able to infect your Scolipede with a leech seed attack! And now Sludgy can suck out your strength! But that's not all, Sludgy, use disable!"
"Muk!" Sludgy glared, raising his hands and glowing purple. Skully froze and began to glow purple as well, her body seizing up.
"With that, you can't use your iron defense anymore," Kate crowed. "And that means we can sap you down with screech to our pleasure!"
Sludgy screeched again, reducing Skully's defenses even further. But Roxie wasn't going down so easily.
"Skully, ya can handle this fine!" She shouted. "Take down that Muk with a double edge attack!"
"Scolipede!" Knowing that her health was dropping, Skully charged forward and lowered her head, ignoring the bite of the spikes. She slammed into Sludgy and sent the Muk rolling backwards, wincing in pain from the recoil.
"Sludgy, you good?" Kate shouted.
"Muk…" Sludgy panted, wincing. That attack had done some damage, but he wasn't done!
"Great! Then let's show her our real strength," Kate nodded. "In fact, I think it's time to USE strength!"
"Muk!" Sludgy slithered and oozed across the battlefield, grabbing Skully in his slimy hands. With his monstrous might he hoisted Skully up above his head and roared, before flinging the pokemon down onto the spiky ground.
"Scol-!" Skully choked out in pain, smashing into the spikes. She struggled to right herself, but Skully was having none of it. He oozed over the long pokemon, smothering her and pressing down on her with his bulk until Skully stopped thrashing about.
Roxie was stunned. She hadn't expected that much out of Kate. "Not bad, Katie Girl, that Muk of yers is a beast," she complimented, returning Skully to her pokeball. "But ya ain't won yet! Here's our next number, a rocking pokemon straight from the factories to yer heart! Weezy, let's do this thing!"
She sent out her next pokemon, a Weezing. The floating behemoth of toxic gases floated out over the battlefield, ignoring the spikes.
"Weezing…" Her two heads bellowed as one, oozing fumes.
"A Weezing, huh?" Kate smiled admiringly. "Always the best! I'm so excited, aren't you, Sludgy?" She asked, turning to her Muk.
"Muk!" Sludgy bellowed, already prepared to strike.
"Darn right! Get her with your gunk shot!" Kate ordered.
"MUK!" Sludgy inhaled, and spat out a blast of sludge that hit the Weezing directly, startling Kate. She'd expected more from a pokemon like that! Roxie hadn't even ordered her to dodge.
Roxie smirked. "It's fine, Katie Girl! We ain't gonna worry about small potatoes like yer Muk's gunk shot! Not when we got something better up our sleeve! Weezy, use fire blast!"
Kate couldn't believe what she was hearing. "Fire blast?!" She sputtered in shock.
Indeed it was. The two heads of the Weezing sucked in air, and then spit out twin streams of flame that mixed with the cloud of toxic gases surrounding it, forming a giant inferno in the shape of a star. The flames burned across the battlefield and hit Sludgy directly, causing the Muk to let out a cry of pain as he burned.
"Sludgy!" Kate cried, stunned by the attack. She hadn't expected a fire blast to come out of that Weezing!
"And that's not all!" Roxie grinned. "Weezy, let's follow up our hit single of fire blast with another chart topper! Heat wave!"
"Weezing!" The cloud of gas surrounding the Weezing began to burn again, and Weezy sent a blast of heated wind rolling across the battlefield. Sludgy had just recovered from the fire blast when the wave of heat slammed into him, burning him even more. His sludgy body began to crack and boil as it was superheated, and when the temperature died down all that remained was an unconscious chunk of burned poison.
"Sludgy!" Kate wailed, falling to her knees in shock.
"What's wrong, Katie Girl?" Roxie called. "Don'tcha know what the number one threat to Poison type trainers like us is? Steel types! Ya gotta come prepared! And luckily, ya've done all the preparin' for me!" She cackled, pointing up at the ceiling.
Kate glanced up to see the makeshift sun from Rossa's sunny day burning brightly overhead. It had helped her in the beginning, restoring Rossa's health and doing enough damage to Roxie's Scolipede so Sludgy could finish it off, but now the Weedle had turned and she'd had it used against her.
"Be careful when using sunny day," Alcea had always been sure to remind everyone. "It's the ultimate strength of a Grass type pokemon, but can also be their greatest weakness. Grass types fear the flame, so remember that when your own strengths are heightened, so are those of your opponents."
Kate had known that, of course, but she hadn't expected a Poison type trainer like Roxie to throw out so many Fire type moves. She recalled Sludgy to his heal ball, frozen in indecision.
She only had two pokemon that could still fight. Reed was weakened, but didn't have to worry as much about Fire type moves. But Bareru…
Her Amoonguss was at full health. But she knew that if he took a Fire type move to the face, that would be it for him. Was she really going to go down so easily?
"Come on, Katie Girl! The crowd's restless! Aintcha gonna show us what else ya've got?" Roxie shouted from across the battlefield, snapping Kate out of her funk.
That's right… why am I hesitating like this? I'm having a blast fighting against a Poison type master who I've idolized… this isn't the time for sweating! I should be giving it my all and smiling proudly! Kate reminded herself, a shaky smile crossing her face.
"Yeah!" She shouted to Roxie. "You got it! We can do this, let's go, Bareru!"
She sent out her Amoonguss, which surprised Roxie.
"Well now, didn't expect ya to bring out another Grass type!" She said, nodding. "Well, 's long as ya know what's gonna happen!"
"I don't think you realize what's going to happen!" Kate grinned. "Bareru! Use spore!"
"Amoongusssss!" Bareru bellowed, raising his toadstool-arms and barreling forward. He inflated the cap on his head and sprayed a wave of mushroom spores across the battlefield, surrounding Weezy before she could use one of her Fire type attacks.
"Spore attack? Oh no!" Roxie gasped.
"Weez… ing…" Both heads of Weezy began to get tired as they struggled to keep their eyes open before ultimately sinking down to the ground, falling into a deep sleep as they landed in the cluster of spikes. There was no way she could use fire moves now!
"Nicely done, Bareru!" Kate cheered, "Now we can take her out!"
"Moon!" Bareru nodded eagerly.
"That's quite a trump card ya've got there, Katie Girl!" Roxie said, nodding approvingly. "Even without poison it seems like yer quite a status master ain'tcha?"
"I do my best," Kate grinned.
"Well, no way Weezy can fight in this condition," Roxie admitted, recalling her slumbering Weezing. A wicked grin crossed her face. "But luckily, I've got a little trump card of my own, let me show ya!"
Kate gulped. She'd always known Scolipede to Roxie's signature pokemon, and now the gym leader was saying she had something else up her sleeve? She wasn't sure what she was about to face, but she knew she needed to have confidence in her pokemon, and hope that Bareru could put up a good fight.
…No, forget about putting up a good fight! Kate scolded herself, shaking her head. We've been doing great, and after coming this far… I want to win!
So what will Roxie's trump card be? What pokemon will she use against Kate and Bareru? Kate's put up a magnificent fight against a gym leader, even if it is because neither one can poison the other, but will she be able to pull out a win? Or will Roxie's ace destroy her? Let's find out!