Chapter 25: Vanny, quit your bellyaching
It was now training time for Ash's class, and they were focusing on mock battles to test their might and see how far they have gotten under Ash's tutelage.
"Alright Charcadet, use Night Shade!"
Charcadet fired a pitch black beam from his eyes, which almost hit Felia's Vivillon. "We won't take that sitting down, Vivillon, use Bug Buzz!" Vivillon then fluttered her wings very hard, sending out damaging soundwaves in the process. Charcadet was caught in the sound waves, making him wince in pain and forcing him to cover his ears.
"Uh oh, this looks bad for Charcadet, if he can't focus, then he can't attack" Ash announced as if this were a tournament, with Pikachu standing right beside him "Pikachu Pika."
"Come on Charcadet, you can do it, power through that Bug Buzz and use Ember!" Nemona shouted out with determination. Charcadet opened his eyes and powered through the agonizing sound before launching a fireball at Vivillon. It ended with her catching her wings on fire and cancelling the attack, forcing her onto the ground in an attempt to put the flames out.
"Oh no! Vivillon!" Felia cried out as she brought out some water to put the flames out "Looks like I win" Nemona said with a wink, Charcadet standing there with arms crossed victoriously.
"Alright, who's up next?" Ash said, and Gus and Vanny stepped up to the arena. "I'm so sorry that you have to face me, but I guess that's how the cookie crumbles" Vanny said with a hint of arrogance in her voice. "Don't count your victories before they actually happen Vanny, cause me and Tadbulb have trained long and hard to face off foes like you" Gus said while bringing out Tadbulb's pokeball.
"Nacli, let's rock!" "Tadbulb, light em up!" The trainers sent out their rock and electric type respectively, whom were hyped up and ready for battle. "Battle begin!" "Pika pika!"
"Nacli, use Headbutt!" "Tadbulb, use Spark!"
Nacli hopped forward and angled his head while Tadbulb covered himself with electricity, and the two attacks rammed into each other, kicking up a bunch of dust and sending both Pokemon flying backwards.
"That won't stop us, right Nacli?" "Nacl nacl nacl!" "Alright, now use Mud Shot!" Nacli then formed balls of mud and fired them at Tadbulb. "Quick! Dodge them!" The electric tadpole managed to evade a bunch of them just fine, until he was caught off guard by the last blob of mud, sending him backwards.
"Now, keep slamming into him with Headbutt" Nacli hopped forward and began slamming into Tadbulb repeadetly with his head, dealing massive amounts of damage. Tadbulb cried out in pain as he kept getting slammed while getting stuck in the mud he's trapped in.
"Seems like Vanny has gotten Gus on the ropes" Arven remarked "Yeah, if Gus doesn't think of something quick, he's going down hard" Zeke said.
"Oh crud!" Gus shouted with panic in his face, and Vanny was quick to take the chance. "Alright, now use Smack Down!" Nacli then formed a stone out of thin air and chucked it at Tadbulb, sending it flying a few ways back.
"So what was that training about then? Making yourselves look like losers?" Vanny taunted, but this only deepened Gus' determination. "It's this! Tadbulb, use Water Gun in the air!" Tadbulb then got up and sprayed a water gun attack into the air, which then rained down and washed away the mud.
"Wow, that's very clever!" Penny remarked "I should try that out with Vaporeon!" "Same here" Carla added. "Now, use Mud Slap!" Tadbulb's tail then glowed brown and it 'swam' forward and slapped Nacli in the face with his tail.
"Fight back with Headbutt!" Vanny shouted, but the mud in Nacli's face, blinded it, and it kept missing its target. "Now let's finish this, use Spark!" Gus shouted out, and Tadbulb rammed into Nacli, knocking him out.
"Tadbulb Tadbulb!"
"Nacli, no..." Vanny could only muster those two words as she fell to her knees, her confidence shattered. She then returned her rock salt Pokemon as she then glanced over to Gus celebrating with his Tadbulb. The sight of the two really put a sour taste in her mouth, but it's what happened next that really deepended her negative attitude.
Tadbulb began to glow a blue color, and everyone immediately knew what this meant. Tadbulb's tail shrunk, and it began to grow more 'pudgy' with the addition of stubby limbs.
When the light died, they all saw a brand new Pokemon, it was a greenish frog Pokemon with a pronounced gut that was a different shade of green, and a single yellow dot in the center. On either side of its head were what appeared to be beady eyes.
"Belli belli beeeeeeeeelli!"
"No way! Tadbulb evolved!" Gus cheered for his friend's evolution, but everyone else was confused as Ash pulled out his Rotom Phone.
Bellibolt: the Elefrog Pokemon, and the evolved form of Tadbulb
They have fake eyeballs on the side of their heads, which are used for discharging electricity from within their belly-button
That was when Nemona spoke up "Hold on, isn't Tadbulb supposed to evolve through the use of a Thunderstone?" "Yeah, that seems really odd." That was when Ash stepped in "True, but such an event isn't entirely unheard of" "Pika pika" Penny then interjected "Why do you say that?"
That was when Ash decided to give a little history lesson "You see, back when I was just starting out, I encountered a magician named Melvin, whose Pokemon was an Exeggcute" "Ok but what does that have to do with Tadbulb evolving without a Thunderstone?" Carla said with her head cocked to the side.
Ash let out a small chuckle before continuing "You see, when Team Rocket attacked us, his Exeggcute managed to evolve without the use of a Leaf Stone, while there are many theories surrounding this, the one that I agree with the most is that a huge surge of will is what triggered the evolution."
Gus' eyes were sparkling at the fact that what he experienced was a rarity in the Pokemon world. "So you're saying is that Tadbu- I mean Bellibolt shattered the norm, AWESOME!" His newly evolved Pokemon was just as ecstatic as he hopped around happily.
Vanny however, was very unpleased, she was supposed to be the strongest, and now here is Gus raining on her parade with his newly evolved Pokemon. "He only got lucky, if he didn't pull up that strategy I would have won handily" She said with a huff "Vanny!" Thomas said in an undignified manner. "That goes for you scaredy-pants, I could easily defeat any of you single-handedly" She stormed off without saying anything else.
"Geez, what's gotten her pants in a knot?" Gus wondered with his Bellibolt wondering the same thing. Ash feared that this sort of thing might happen with one of his students, and it just so happens to be the one with the most fire.
"I've seen this before, sometimes a trainer gets jealous of someone accomplishing something, and they can get rather salty let me tell you" "Well I didn't mean to make Vanny jealous, I mean, how was I supposed to know Bellibolt would evolve out of nowhere?!" Gus said while waving his arms.
"I'm with you pal, I guess she just likes being the strongest" Felia said while rubbing Gus' shoulder "Yes, ever since she enrolled in this school, Vanny has been obsessed with becoming strong, she stated that her parents were top tier Pokemon battlers and she wanted to be like them" Nemona said while reading through Vanny's profile.
"Unfortunately, she's said to often pick fights whenever she gets angry, often times requiring the faculty to restrain her to diffuse the situation" "That sounds like a stick in the mud when it comes to battling" Felia said. Ash knew that he needed to pull Vanny out of this dump, so he took action.
He found Vanny sitting down on a nearby log and he sat next to her. "Hey there Vanny, you feeling alright?" In hindsight, Ash knew that was a bad question to ask, but how else was he supposed to start a conversation?
"NO! Gus now has a brand new evolved Pokemon and won out of sheer dumb luck, DUMB. LUCK!" Vanny shouted and emphasized the last two words to get her point across.
"Well you couldn't have known that Tadbulb would have evolved like that, none of us predicted that, besides, Gus had worked very hard with Tadbulb to get that Water Gun strategy down" Ash said, only for Vanny to bite back with "But I'm supposed to be the strongest trainer! How can I become the strongest when I get whupped by some act of luck!?"
Ash knew that someone like Vanny was a tough nut to crack, but he has taken on tougher challenges before, and this was nothing compared to those challenges. "I know how you feel Vanny, wanting to be the strongest, but you feel inferior, but you won't get stronger by sulking by yourself" Vanny then shifted her gaze to her teacher. "If you want to get stronger, then you need to take action, right here, right here" Ash said while standing up "I'll leave you to it."
And with that, Ash left to rejoin the group, and Vanny was left with what he said. After a few moments, she shot up and released her Nacli and Orthworm. "Alright guys, we got a lot of training to do!"
It was now time for a rematch, with Vanny pumped up and ready to redeem her name. Gus had his Bellibolt ready and the battle commenced.
"Bellibolt, use Water Gun!" Bellibolt fired a stream of water at Nacli "Nacli, use Mud Shot!" Nacli then retaliated with a blob of mud that cancelled out the attack. Bellibolt then charged forward with Spark, but Nacli fired Mud Shot on the ground, slowing the elefrog down and letting Nacli get away from the attack.
Nacli then fired a Smack Down attack that tipped Bellibolt over, allowing for the rock salt Pokemon to begin Headbutting him without pause. Bellibolt managed to get back up and smack Nacli away, but not before it used Protect to withstand the attack.
Bellibolt then propelled itself with Water Gun into the air before it was right under Nacli before it began to fall. That was when Nacli faced the attack head on with Headbutt, sending the frog away and back into the mud puddle created by Mud Shot.
Finally, Nacli used a final Smack Down attack that landed a critical hit, knocking Bellibolt out.
"You did well Bellibolt, return" Gus said while having a sad smile on his face. He then saw Vanny cheer like a little schoolgirl while hugging her Nacli.
Ash saw the joyous presentation, and knew that his pep talk was what she needed to get back up on her groove.
End of Chapter
Gus' Tadbulb evolves into Bellibolt