The doors of the Chufisa City Pokémon Gym flew open as Orange confidently stepped inside, Red and Violet following close behind. Though she jumped a bit initially at the sudden noise, Vanna smirked as she saw the trio. "Ah, yes," she sneered. "The three losers from the other day, I remember. Back for more punishment, hmm?"
"We're back for our badges," Orange responded. "We're here to win!"
Vanna laughed at this. "You really think you got what it takes? I was under the impression you three wimps gave it all you got last time."
"Wimps, are we?" demanded Violet. "Go on, Orange, show her just how wimpy we are."
"It'll be my pleasure," stated Orange as he stepped into the challenger's box, a Poké Ball already in his hand.
"Well, I suppose I could whip you three again to get me warmed up for the day," smirked Vanna as she walked over to the battlefield, taking her position opposite Orange. Vanna then threw her Poké Ball onto the battlefield. "Weezing, time to win!" she shouted as her Poison-type materialized.
"Weezing," it groaned.
Orange took this cue to throw his own Poké Ball. "Let's go, Q!" he shouted.
In a flash of light, Orange's Q materialized, the Deep Sea Pokémon hovering in midair. "Kyuuuuuu," it sang.
"Making the same mistakes all over again, I see," Vanna sneered. "Weezing, let's give them a Thunderbolt."
"Dodge it!" yelled Orange.
"Weezing WEEEZ!" bellowed Vanna's Weezing as it unleashed a sizzling bolt of electricity. Quickly, Q floated up and evaded the attack.
"Alright, Q, use your Confusion attack!" Orange ordered.
"Kyuuuu," trilled Q as it released a ray of blue energy from one of its corners.
"Weezing! SmokeScreen!" commanded Vanna.
"Weeeeeez," groaned Weezing as thick clouds of black smoke erupted from its pores, blanketing a large portion of the battlefield in smoke. Though the lack of any sounds from within told everyone that Confusion had missed, Orange was grinning.
"We got 'em now, Q!" he said as the Weezing slowly rose up and out of the smoke cloud. "Disable!"
"What?!" Vanna exclaimed. "Weezing, Fire Blast!"
Q, however, proved to be the faster of the two, as a pink glow came over its yellow and black body. A similar glow then formed in all four of the Weezing's eyes, just before the larger head unleashed a star-shaped plume of fire from its mouth. Q screeched in discomfort as the move made contact, though it didn't appear to do much damage- it was, after all, a Fire move being used against a Water-type.
"I'm guessing she was hoping for Q to waste Disable on a move she wouldn't have ordinarily called for in this match," Violet remarked to Red, who nodded in agreement.
"I'm liking Orange's strategy, though," Red stated. "Now that Weezing can't use SmokeScreen, Vanna can't use it to evade Confusion anymore."
"Let's do it, Q!" Orange yelled. "Confusion attack!"
"Weezing, try your Smog attack!" Vanna called.
"Weezing weez," groaned Weezing as it proceeded to belch thick clouds of poisonous fumes from both mouths. Q's Confusion, however, cut right through the gases. Unlike with SmokeScreen, Weezing was unable to make use of Smog to shield itself with any semblance of rapidity, and therefore Orange heard the sounds of Weezing crying out as the Confusion attack connected with the Poison-type. Weezing fell to the ground, and though it was able to rise back into the air, it did so extremely unsteadily.
"Let's wrap this up," smirked Orange. "BubbleBeam!"
"Sludge attack!" Vanna yelled.
Simultaneously, Weezing fired off twin streams of sludge from its mouths as Q blasted a barrage of bubbles from its front. The attacks connected, the forceful torrent of bubbles and the streams of sludge holding each other at bay for a few moments. Then, Weezing's wobbling became somewhat more pronounced, the Confusion attack clearly having taken a toll on its stamina.
"No! Weezing!" Vanna exclaimed. However, her shouts did no good; Weezing's Sludge weakened, and Q's BubbleBeam was able to overpower the Poison move. As the bubbles blasted Weezing, it collapsed to the ground... and ceased all movement.
"I... I don't believe it!" gasped Orange. "We did it! Q, we did it, we won!"
"Kyuuuuu kyuuuuuuu!" trilled Q happily as it twirled around in midair.
Vanna said nothing at first. She wordlessly withdrew Weezing, then stormed over to where Orange stood, and pushed two objects into his hands; a pale yellow circular object with a black skull-and-crossbones design in the middle, and a purple disc which, according to the label, was a Technical Machine capable of teaching Toxic.
"Here," she grunted. "Your Sludge Badge and your TM04. It teaches Toxic." Without another word, she stormed back over to her side of the battlefield and placed Weezing's Poké Ball on a nearby healing machine.
"Nicely done, Orange," grinned Red as Orange and Violet hugged.
"Alright, now I'm up," Violet declared as she took Orange's place on the edge of the battlefield. "Not feeling so hot now, are you?" she smirked as Vanna scowled at the trio.
"That was but a fluke," growled Vanna. "Dumb redhead over there only won because of sheer dumb luck."
"That happens to be my boyfriend you're talking about," snapped Violet. "Now let's get going- it's going to be so satisfying to defeat you."
"Not even in your dreams!" exclaimed Vanna as she threw her Poké Ball. "Weezing!" she shouted as the Poison Gas Pokémon reappeared.
At the same time, Violet threw her own Poké Ball. "Flutters!" she yelled.
In a flash of light, Violet's Butterfree emerged from its ball and flapped its wings idly, floating in midair. "Freeeh, freeeeh," exclaimed the Butterfree.
Vanna snorted. "You're using a Bug and Flying-type that doesn't get any Bug moves, against a Poison-type that knows Poison, Electric, and Fire moves? That's got to be the three stupidest mistakes I've ever seen a challenger make- other than, of course, challenging me and expecting to win," she cackled.
"Yeah, well, you're the three stupidest mistakes I've ever seen!" Orange blurted out. As Red and Violet gave him a funny look, Orange blinked and muttered, "OK, that was bad..."
Vanna, meanwhile, was thoroughly enjoying this. "Hah!" she cackled. "What a way with words your man has," she laughed sarcastically.
Violet frowned at this. "OK, you listen up," she hissed. "Nobody but me talks about Orange like that. Flutters, go!"
"Freeh!" replied the Butterfree as it flew forward.
"Go get it, Weezing!" ordered Vanna.
"Weezing," groaned Weezing as it too floated forward.
"Yeah! You got this, Vi!" cheered Orange.
"Weezing, use Sludge!" commanded Vanna.
"Flutters, Harden attack!" called Violet.
As two identical streams of sludge flew across the battlefield, Flutters stopped flapping its wings, and became entirely motionless, its entire body appearing to gleam brightly in the light. The Sludge attack made contact, but did not seem do much damage to Flutters as the Butterfree started to fall. Once the attack had ended, however, the Butterfree started flapping its wings again, and was airborne once more. It was clear that the super-effective move had had an effect on the Butterfree, but the damage wasn't as major as it could've been, thanks to Harden.
"OK, Flutters, let's go with Psybeam!" Violet ordered.
"SmokeScreen now!" Vanna shouted.
As a multicolored beam of light erupted forth from Flutters's eyes, Weezing unleashed thick clouds of smoke in every direction. The Psybeam flew into the smoke, but Violet thought she could see it fly out the other end of the cloud. Then, she got an idea.
"Flutters, Whirlwind!" Violet ordered. Red and Orange exchanged looks of mild surprise at this command.
"Did you know she taught Flutters Whirlwind?" asked Orange.
"Nope," Red replied.
"Yeah, same here," Orange said as they turned to watch the battle again, just as Flutters was flapping its wings hard. The forceful wind it was giving off sent the SmokeScreen blowing away with little effort.
"Psybeam! Now!" Violet yelled.
"Weezing, go for another SmokeScreen-" began Vanna, but too late- Flutters launched a second Psybeam almost before its trainer had stopped talking, and struck the Weezing heads-on with the Psychic move.
"No more games!" snapped Vanna. "Weezing, Thunderbolt!"
"Flutters, use Sleep Powder!" called Violet.
"Freeeh, freeeh!" chattered Flutters as it soared above Weezing, scattering a shimmering blue dust with every flap of its wings.
"Weezing weez... weez... weeeezzzz," murmured Weezing as its attempts at an attack turned to snores- it was asleep.
"Let's finish this!" grinned Violet. "Confusion attack!"
"Freeeeheeeheeee!" bellowed Butterfree as twin rays of pale blue light issued from its eyes. Each ray struck one of Weezing's heads, and the two-headed Poison-type jolted awake- only to succumb to unconsciousness moments later.
"Oh, come ON!" screeched Vanna furiously as she withdrew Weezing (it took her multiple tries- so angry was she that her hand was shaking, and the Poké Ball's beam kept missing Weezing as a result).
"Yeah! Way to go, Vi!" grinned Orange as Violet strolled back over to him and Red, Flutters fluttering behind her.
"That was great," Red congratulated her.
"Heh, thanks," smirked Violet. She turned around to spot a seething Vanna standing before her. Wordlessly, the irate Gym Leader thrust a Sludge Badge and a TM04 into Violet's arms before storming back over to her end of the battlefield.
"Geez, she's a sore loser," remarked Orange.
"Well, looks like I'm up now," Red stated as he stepped into the box where Orange and Violet stood earlier for their battles. He selected a Poké Ball off his belt and enlarged it as Vanna healed up her Weezing. Once the healing machine gave a single pinging noise, she grabbed the ball off of it and threw it without a word, unleashing Weezing. Red raised an eyebrow at how progressively madder Vanna was getting, but decided to not comment on it. Instead, he called out, "Let's go, Snorlax!" as he threw his own Poké Ball.
In a burst of light, the ball opened up, unleashing the huge and heavy form of Red's Snorlax. Mercifully, the Normal-type had not chosen this time to be asleep, and was in fact standing on its stumpy feet, glaring at Weezing through its slit-like eyes. "Snooooorlaaaaax," it rumbled.
"Weezing, Sludge attack!" ordered Vanna.
"Snorlax, Harden attack!" called Red.
Like with Flutters, Snorlax stood still as its body seemed to gleam in the light. The Sludge attack barely even seemed to faze the Sleeping Pokémon.
"Now try a Thunderbolt!" yelled Vanna.
"Snorlax, Amnesia!" Red shouted.
Snorlax proceeded to absentmindedly scratch its head, as though it was trying to remember something. At that moment, a sizzling bolt of lightning struck Snorlax, but it seemed to be so preoccupied that it didn't even appear to feel the move.
"I see what Red's doing," grinned Violet. "He's boosting Snorlax's defense so Weezing can wear itself out."
"I just hope it works," Orange muttered. "Doesn't Weezing know Toxic?"
"Ooh, yeah, forgot about that," Violet muttered back.
"Screw this!" exclaimed Vanna. "Why I never taught you Haze... Weezing, try your Toxic attack!"
"Aw, craaaap," groaned Orange. Red, however, did not look worried by the clouds of poisonous gas billowing towards Snorlax.
"Use Surf!" Red commanded.
"Snor! Lax!" grunted Snorlax as its eyes glowed light blue. Then, a large tidal wave seemed to erupt right out of the ground. The wave forced the Toxic clouds to disperse harmlessly before crashing right down onto Weezing.
"Whoa!" Orange exclaimed. "So that's why Red wanted to have a look at my new HM this morning! I didn't know Snorlax could learn Surf!"
"Weezing, get up! Tackle it now!" yelled Vanna.
"Snorlax, use Headbutt!" Red ordered.
Weezing recovered from the unexpected Water-type move and charged forward. In response, Snorlax leaned back slightly, then thrust its head forward forcefully, colliding with Weezing.
"Let's wrap this up, Snorlax- Psychic attack!" Red exclaimed.
"What?!" Vanna screeched. "Wha- er- Weezing, SmokeScreen!" she hastily added, clearly not having expected this.
Snorlax's eyes flashed a bright blue, and its entire body emanated a wave of psychic energy. Though Weezing proceeded to unleash a SmokeScreen, the wave of energy was too large for Weezing to evade. The Poison-type collapsed to the floor, making no attempt whatsoever to get up.
"Noooooo!" Vanna wailed as she called Weezing back to its Poké Ball. "I don't understand! The other day, you all sucked! And now you're suddenly taking Weezing out easily, what is this I don't even..."
"We trained our Pokémon," stated Red.
"Yeah, and we learned a thing or two from last time," added Orange. "That helped us put our strategies together. We know SmokeScreen was Weezing's key to evading Psychic moves, hence Q's Disable."
"I knew Charizard wasn't an option, given that little stunt you pulled with Smog last time," Red continued. "So I was working with my Snorlax this morning. Taught him Surf and Psychic- thanks again for letting me borrow that HM, Orange- and not only does Amnesia help Snorlax take special hits better, it also powers up its own special attacks!"
"Flutters learned Whirlwind during our training yesterday," Violet chimed in. "That's when I got the idea to use it instead of Tombstone- between Whirlwind and Psybeam, it seemed only too perfect. And Sleep Powder didn't exactly hurt."
For a moment, Vanna was silent as she took all this in. Finally, she sighed, as though conceding defeat. "Fine," she sighed, in a decidedly calmer tone than before. "I suppose, given all that, that the three of you may very well, in fact, be better trainers than me. I'm not happy about it, but I still admit it. Here," she added as she strode over to Red and handed him a badge and a TM. "Your Sludge Badge and your TM04." She walked back across the battlefield, and once she got there, she turned around and nearly smiled at them. "I expect the three of you to have greatly improved when next we meet," she snapped. "Because you can bet I'll be training hard."
Red, Violet, and Orange all exchanged looks before grinning at Vanna. "Oh, so will we, believe me," Red replied. With that, the trio said their goodbyes to Vanna, and then exited the Gym.
Back at the Pokémon Center, Red turned to Violet and Orange. "All right, where to now?" he asked.
"Excuse me," came a voice. Red turned around- the center's nurse was walking back over to them, with three trays of Poké Balls. As the trainers accepted their Poké Balls and reattached them to their belts, the nurse continued. "If you're looking for the nearest Gym, there's the one in Nodacel City to the north."
"We've already been to that one," replied Orange.
"What about the Gym in Fansfor City?" asked the Nurse.
"Been there," said Red.
"Miliovern Gym?"
"Done that," said Violet.
"Well... I'm not sure how you'd get there, but if you can find transportation, you can cross the sea from here," suggested the nurse. "Bincanar Island's got a Pokémon Gym."
"Bincanar Island?" repeated Red, his interest piqued. "Well, maybe we could cross the sea on our Pokémon?" he asked.
"You could if they knew Surf," the nurse replied. "Surf, in addition to allowing the Pokémon to create a forceful tidal wave for attacking, helps to develop the Pokémon's swimming skills, and in some cases where it's necessary, helps them to develop the strength to carry passengers. But the HM is hard to come across-"
"I got it," Orange stated as he pulled the HM03 out of his bag.
"Oh. Well, OK, then," smiled the Nurse as she walked away from the table. At that point, Red, Violet, and Orange continued to eat their lunch.
"Alright, so what say after we're done," Orange said between mouthfuls of fried nines, "what say I teach Q and Migraine Surf, and we all set sail for Bincanar?"
"I'm all for that plan," nodded Red as he was munching on a well-done seven burger. "Finally, I'll get me some answers! I mean, I like being in Tanko a lot, but I still gotta wonder, how did I even manage to end up here in the first place?"
"I think we're all curious to know that, Red," agreed Violet as she munched on her even number salad. "I believe we're all in agreement here, then. Let's go down to the coast when we're done and get going. If we don't make any stops, we should reach Bincanar Island by nightfall."
That statement seemed to be all the motivation Red and Orange needed to finish their food quickly. Once they had all finished, Orange led the way out of the Pokémon Center and down the street. The beach wasn't too far a walk from the Center, and Red was slightly surprised to see that the beach was composed entirely of sand- he had expected a mess of gravel, clumps of grass, and assorted Nintendo gaming systems for some reason. He said nothing about it, however, as Orange and Violet sent out Q and Migraine, respectively. As Orange produced the HM03 from his bag and started to use it on his starter, Red took a Poké Ball off his belt and opened it up, unleashing his Snorlax onto the sand.
"OK, Snorlax, get ready," Red said. "We're gonna be setting sail soon."
"Lax," nodded Snorlax.
"And done!" declared Violet as the Hidden Machine fell off her Golduck's forehead and into her hand. She handed the disc back to Orange. "All right, according to the nurse's directions, we head south until we pass Afamose Islands, then we turn right and keep going straight. Ready to go?"
"Ready," nodded Orange.
"Same here," added Red.
"Then let's ride," stated Violet. "Migraine, Surf!"
"Q, Surf!" stated Orange.
"Snorlax, Surf!" Red said.
Migraine dove into the water, and resurfaced not far from the shore, looking back expectantly at Violet, as though expecting her to get on its back. Q landed in the water, bobbing idly on the waves, clearly waiting for Orange to board. And Snorlax turned its back to the water. Red was about to ask what it was doing when it then fell backwards, landing in the water with a great SPLASH, but still floated. As Red looked at Orange, confused, the latter shrugged his shoulders. "Fat floats, I guess," was all he said as he unsteadily climbed onto Q and sat down atop it. Violet, meanwhile, stood on Migraine's back, balancing carefully on the Golduck. And Red climbed up onto his Snorlax's stomach, where he had plenty of room to sit comfortably.
At once, the Pokémon started swimming. Migraine swam with beautiful form- despite its speed, Violet didn't look as though she was about to lose her balance. Q was also swimming, in spite of its distinct lack of appendages. Snorlax was kicking its stumpy feet furiously, propelling its large form forward.
"Bincanar Island, here we come!" grinned Orange as their Pokémon swam onward.