Chapter 8: Bugging the Gym.
The next day Moon yawned as he walked out of the Pokemon Center. Vipik City, certainly a unique idea for a town, centered in the middle of a jungle with a compact town. Though, pollution seemed to run rampant just south, as apparently, the gym leader, Xavier, had opened up a dump after the first Augur's disappearance.
Though he was a little tired, he was also getting a late start, having taken a moment to contemplate his team building for this upcoming gym. Knowing that Xavier was a bug and poison speciality meant that this gym could be full of just about anything. And something told him it wouldn't be pushover early game bugs either.
As he approached the gym door, he was greeted by Damian, the white haired boy looked rather pleased upon spotting Moon walking towards the gym.
"Hey Moon!" The boy waved, "I see that I beat you to get the next badge. Xavier was one tricky opponent. But I was able to get in on things after a bit."
"I'm glad to hear." Moon replied, secretly, hearing this was joyful, if Damien could do it on his first try, he probably could too.
"Shouldn't be too big of a problem for you and Nora either." Damien continued, "You know, considering you were chosen by Mew and Celeb-"
"Keep it down." Moon shushed. "Nora wanted me to talk to you about that, you know nobody is supposed to know about that, right?!"
"Yeah, yeah." Damien's face went red. "She told me about that prophecy and stuff. Intriguing to think that there is actually someone out there the cults could be afraid of."
"Sure…" Moon replied glumly, remembering Persephone, and the thought of what she'd do to either him or Nora.
"Anyway…I'm gonna make my way to Helios City, next time we bump into each other, we should have a battle, my team has gotten a lot stronger since last time."
Moon simply nodded as Damien waved goodbye to him. As the boy left, Moon turned back to the gym.
As he walked in, he felt his nose scrunch up, the place reeked. A rather nasty smell, but not of garbage, of…well…less than ethical things for a children's game.
It didn't take too long of glancing around to find the man, looking just like that photo he had seen in the brochure.
Xavier waved at him as he stepped down onto the opposite side of the battlefield. Moon took note of the fact that he carried that strange bong down with him.
"Sup man, you're the third challenger I've seen today dude." Xavier had a very loose and casual tone of voice. Moon had a reminder of how Shaggy from Scooby Doo used to talk when he wasn't terrified.
"Alright man, sorry for the smell dude, but the Pokemon of yours shouldn't be too affected by it. I hope you're ready. Because I got a few tricks up my sleeve. Six Pokemon, you ready?"
"Yes sir!"
"Alright then, Shuckle, show off support!"
Moon watched as the little yellow tape worm in his stupid rock developed out of Xaiver's Pokeball.
"Satanel, Battle Stance."
The Delta Charmeleon developed in front the Shuckle with its boney face scowling.
"Shuckle, use Sticky Web."
"Satanel, use Shadow Sneak."
Shuckle withdrew into its Rock as Satanel vanished and reappeared behind it, swiping at the rock body. The worm withdrew and sprayed webs into the ground.
"Shadow Ball!"
Satanel charged up a ball of shadowy darkness and fired it at Shuckle. The rocky tapeworm took the ball of darkness head on, before it spit out some sharp rocks that landed on the side of the battlefield.
"Dragon Breath!"
Satanel breathed out blue flames that blasted into Shuckle with all sorts of smoke. Once again, the Rocky Tapeworm seemed unphased by such a blast.
Shuckle then spat out a purple ball of goo that splashed into Satanel, Moon watched a bunch of blue light surround his Delta Charmeleon, before the Shuckle then collapsed onto the ground and stopped moving. And that's when the horrific realization kicked in. He didn't have a Rapid Spinner, or a Defogger.
Xavier called back his Shuckle with a sly grin. Moon sensed he had already caught onto the fact that he didn't have any way to remove hazards.
"Alrighty then, go Kabutops!"
Moon flinched as a purple bug Kabutops jumped out of a Net Ball. It still had the signature Kabutops scythes, but it also had bloody red eyes, two antennas, giant bug wings, and two blood sucking fangs. Now if there was any theory that Kabutops was indeed what Team Plasma created Genesect from, this certainly was an answer.
"Satanel, come ba-"
Before he could finish, Delta Kabutops rushed into Satanel and viciously slashed at him with its scythes. Blasting the Delta Charmeleon backwards, Moon watched as his delta starter fell to the ground with swirls in its eyes.
"Fucking Pursuit…again." He muttered, returning the Delta Charmeleon to its Pokeball.
Judging at an eye glance, it seemed like a bug and dark type.
"Whiteout, battle stance."
The Delta Scyther emerged from its Pokeball. As it set foot, Moon watched the rocks smash into it, as well as blue light surrounding it.
Delta-Kabutops crossed its scythes before rushing at Whiteout. Whiteout quickly crossed his own scythes as Kabutops slashed into him. Pushing the Delta Scyther back.
Whiteout then swept his razor foot at the bug's foot and caused it to hiss in pain.
Kabutops scythe was surrounded by blue energy before slashing the air, unleashing an energy blast at Whiteout, who just barely avoided the psycho cut.
White out fired some ice shards from its icy wings that blasted Kabutops backwards. The delta bug honed its scythes again before unleashing another psycho cut from its scythes. This time, Whiteout was too slow to avoid the blast and was thrown backwards.
Both delta pokemon then honed their scythes before rushing towards one another, they both slashed at each other before falling to the ground and stopped movement.
Moon returned whiteout, thankful that the Delta Kabutops was out of the way. However, his troubles were far from over, as Xavier let out a Gengar. The big old ghost gave him a very cheeky grin.
"Ambio, Battle Stance!"
The Ghostly Ambipom developed from the shadows as it gave Gengar a pale smile with its ghastly white eyes. Once again, no sooner had Ambio touched the ground, then the sharp rocks crashed into him, and his speed dropped.
Gengar spat a few balls of fire from its mouth, which the ghostly Ambipom quickly avoided by sinking into the shadows. The Delta Ambipom quickly appeared behind Gengar and smacked it with one of its pale white tails. Gengar quickly let out a dazzling pink light from its eyes that flashbanged the whole stadium. Blowing Ambio back. The ghost monkey quickly dug its two pale white hands into the ground, before swinging itself back to Gengar.
Gengar charged up an electrical punch as Ambio surrounded its other pale hand in a shadowy darkness. Both Pokemon smashed their fists into one another and slid past each other without much effort.
Gengar turned back and quickly fired out three more flames from its mouth. Ambio once again retreated into the shadow, making the big ghost leap into the air as it reappeared behind it.
Gengar fired off a pulse of Darkness from its mouth. Which Ambio quickly smacked through with its pale white hand and fired another shadowy punch. Blasting Gengar into the ground, where it collapsed into nothingness.
Xavier returned the big ghost to its pokeball. Before letting out a Heracross, the big blue beetle landed on the ground with a thud, satisfying itself with its crossed arms and big horn. Heracross quickly had its horn flash before it rushed at the ghost monkey.
"Destiny Bond!"
Ambio's pale white hands grabbed onto Heracross as the big Beetle smashed into Ambio with all its might. The Dust explosion that followed yielded both of the Pokemon on the ground.
"Not bad lil dude. Quite the clever strategy you got for yourself."
Moon patiently waited, before Xaiver let out a large yellow Bee with drills for hands. He felt satisfied seeing a Beedrill, though his happiness soon faded as he spotted its scarf with a big old yellow and black stone etched into it.
"Terroriser, go!"
The Delta-Quagsire happily bounced out of its pokeball, the Jack-o-Lantern quickly lit up in excitement. Excitement that was soon crushed as the rocks and webs did their job once again.
"Will-O-Wisp!"
Rainbow light surrounded the yellow bee as its drills began to expand in size. The stinger on its rear began to grow as its own legs shifted into bigger drills as well. It emerged from the rainbow light in its mega form. Looking ready to kill the Quagsire where it stood.
The mega bug surrounded itself in blue light as it made a U-turn position, smashing into Terroriser with full force, before blue light surrounded it and it retreated into its pokeball.
Xavier let out a giant blue squid with a black underbelly. Whose tentacles surrounded itself in poison as it jabbed Terroriser in a combo play, knocking the Delta Quagsire out faster than Moon could even blink.
Moon returned Terroriser to its ball and quickly let Weiss out.
The Delta-Kirlia landed on the ground gracefully as the rocks smashed into her. However, thanks to her clear body, Moon noted her speed not get caught by the webs.
Tentacruel quickly shot scalding water from its body that Weiss quickly twirled around, the small delta Kirlia lept up before nuzzling herself against the Tentacruel. Shockwaves erupted into the big squid.
The squid began again by swimming towards Weiss on the land, however, just before it could wrap its tentacles around her, the sparks of paralysis halted it. Weiss jumped out of the way and sat down in a meditating stance. Red light began to glow around the Delta Kirlia's body.
Tentacruel's eyes flashed red as it made a wave of poisonous goo before it surfed into it. Weiss teleported in a flash of pink light behind the goo and quickly unleashed a shockwave. Which electrocuted the poor squid with full power.
With one last push, Weiss fired a beam of Ice from her mouth, blowing the squid up in a case of smoke, that, upon its clearing, saw the Tentacruel sprawled against the ground.
Xavier returned Tentacruel and gave Moon a satisfied smile.
"Nice done lil-dude." He called. "Most of the time, people don't expect my Tentacruel."
Weiss' body began to glow as the Mega Beedrill was let back out of its pokeball. Her tiny white legs vanished and were replaced with a dress that Moon instantly spotted little light blue markings on, seemingly in practice of a delta symbol? Her yellow helmet now fully covered her head, except for the ice blue eyes that leered behind it.
Weiss gave a mild shrug upon looking down at her new body. Before she looked back at Moon. "Gardev…"
Moon simply called Weiss back, before letting Helios out to take her place. The oily sunflora emerged with a salute, before its bulb caught on fire.
"Drill Run!"
Beedrill began to spin around at a rapid pace before it turned into a giant yellow and black drill that charged forward at the Delta Sunflora.
"Acid Armor!"
Helios' body melted down into the ground as the mega bee flew past it's gooey body as it sprung back up in a red glow.
Beedrill doubled back around with an aerial flight, which Helios shot three small wisp flames at, the bug was hit by the three flames and was set ablaze. However, it simply fluttered off and smashed into Helios with little effort, drilling to poor oily sunflower against the ground of the gym with a fast pace spin.
Helios let out a cry as a blast of fire surrounded the spinning mega bug with full force. Moon felt a small bit of satisfaction seeing the mega bee fly away from such a blast after a mere second.
Helios regurgitated itself back up before blasting another flamethrower at the mega bee. Beedrill went to fly away, however, it seemingly succumbed to the burn from the Will-o-Wisp as it hesitated suddenly before Helios' flamethrower blasted it into the wall behind Xavier.
Rainbow light surrounded the poor mega beedrill as it returned to normal and collapsed on the ground, halting its movement.
Xavier gave him a satisfied smile as he returned the beedrill to its pokeball and walked up to him, handing him a badge that looked like the stinger of the beedrill he just faced.
"Nicely done lil-dude. I had such a blast. Seems like I might need to work on my own stuff. Must be losin my touch."
"You did certainly give me that Mega Beedrill…" Moon replied.
"Ah, so you're familiar with Mega Evolution eh?" Xavier said. "I know it's been around for quite some time, but still, not everyone expects me to whip it out ya know."
"I could only imagine…" Moon replied.
"And my Kabutops too." Xavier continued. "I usually use a different Delta Pokemon against challengers, but you looked like someone who could handle the little thing before."
"So uh…are all the gym leaders from now on going to use Megas too?"
"You bet lil-dude. But, maybe if you're lucky, you'll get your hands on a Mega Ring before too long. I've heard that the Augur likes to give em out after a while. Jaern might be interested."
"So…uh…where am I off too next?"
"Ah, that'll be Helios City, the leader there is East, he runs a Sky themed gym, Dragon and Flying types, obviously. That Gardevior of yours will be a big asset."
"He…uh…he runs a what themed gym?" Moon asked.
"Ah, so you've heard about the sky cult eh?" Xavier said. "Don't worry, East was cleared by both the second, and first augur. He's not a cultist. He even protected both Augur's from the sky cult in the past. He was also a gym leader long before the cult's founding. Sky cult even tried to assassinate him once. Publicly too, made it very clear he ain't one of them ya know."
Moon felt a sense of relief at the thought. "Well then, thanks for the advice Xavier."
"Oh and uh…do me a favor…" Xavier handed him a sheet of paper. "If the authorities ask, you didn't smell nothin, got it? I can revoke your win just as easily."
Obligatory, haha, he's a stoner joke inserted. Yes, Xavier is in fact, smoking the mary jane. Honestly, I miss adult jokes like this in Pokemon. Made the series more grounded and universal.
Now, it needs to be addressed, I am well aware that I made changes to Xavier's team to better suit. Because of how I'm writing this story, I will not be showing off the Delta Pokemon that you can only get in the post-game. Moon's team will still end up being Gigantic by the end of the story. So, to better suit my need, I may add a Delta Pokemon here or there to boss fights that either A, do not have one, or B, use one that Moon will eventually own himself. Helps so you can see just how many deltas there are.
In Xavier's hard mode fight, of which this gym battle is based on, he does not use Shuckle, the Delta is actually his lead, and is a hazard setter, at this point, you cannot get a Pokemon with Defog, and the only rapid spinner available is Excadrill, who, at this point, is better off running Earthquake, Rockslide, Swords Dance, and Metal Claw for this gym.
His remaining team consists of Mega Beedrill, Choice Band Heracross, Focus Sash Gengar with Explosion (Fucking OUCH), Black Sludge Tentacruel, Expert Belt Croagunk, and the Delta with a Mental Herb, so you have to use Taunt Twice if you have an Axew with the move.
I quite like the design for Delta Kabutops, definitely plays into the Genesect is a Kabutops ancestor theory about Team Plasma. A lot of the Delta play into jokes and theories, the one Xavier uses actually plays into a gigantic meme about whether a certain Pokemon could count as a spider.
Regardless, a very fun and engaging gym battle, keeps me on my toes each time. While you have options to deal with Xavier, he's no pushover either.
Next up, Helios City, the gap between Vipik and Helios is actually quite long, without a lot of story or new deltas to help pad for runtime, so I'll have to think of something to do to pad the time. Maybe I'll do one filler chapter to give all of Moon's Pokemon a bit of personality...considering some of them likely are not going to be used again (Cough Cough Delta Quagsire).
Anywho, that's about it, feel free to let me know what you think, and I'll see you all, next time.
Moon's Team:
Sunny - Eevee
Satanel - Delta Charmeleon
Irwin - Feraligatr
Shortcake - Delta Crustle
Cobalt - Riolu
Sahara - Delta Grimer
Ambio - Delta Ambipom
Whiteout - Delta Scyther
Helios - Delta Sunflora
Weiss - Delta Gardevior
Terroriser - Delta Quagsire
Mew - (Unofficially)
