Yes I know that pidgeot can't learn close combat
But you do know that I do love me some sinnoh
And sinnoh means staraptor and close combat wootwoot
btw 750! 37.5% finished! and we're still not at life together! at least in terms of Green and Red! ...whoops
741. ignominy: shame; dishonor
Green released Arcanine, who raised a fuzzy white eyebrow at the sheer extent of destruction. Green drew a circle with his finger, and Arcanine nodded and proceeded to bolt around the arena, picking up speed. Arcanine was still slower than Alakazam (that teleporting was ridiculous), but the dog pokemon was fast enough to avoid the brunt of a psychic blast. Arcanine were known for their stamina, and Green's Arcanine wasn't about to bring ignominy on the name of his species.
742. temerity: excessive boldness or rashness
Arcanine grew progressively faster, and Alakazam's attacks fell further and further off target. The psi pokemon growled at Arcanine's temerity, and settled on calming his mind to prepare for a devastating counter attack whenever Arcanine attacked.
In seeing Alakazam stop launching attacks, Green held out his open palm and then clenched his fingers into a fist. Arcanine made another round, circling the arena a last time before changing direction and dashing towards Alakazam with jaws open, preparing to crunch and rip apart the defensive barrier the psychic had set up.
743. monograph: a scholarly book on a narrow subject
There was a reason as to why Eevee had been so hesitant about evolving – her bloodline almost guaranteed that she'd evolve into Umbreon, but she strongly disliked the harsh and cruel attacks that were given same type attack bonuses as a result of her type. Years before, Green had borrowed a monograph from his grandfather's library to read up on dark type moves, but it was a depressing and logical truth that dark type moves were… dark, traitorous, and cruel.
Green had made sure to lecture Tyranitar and Arcanine about dark type moves, as they could prove fatal if used on normal pokemon. Luckily, dark type moves were only effective against psychic types and ghost types. Psychic types generally set up defensive barriers, and when dark type moves ripped apart the barriers, their defense was generally weak enough that a normal hit would suffice. Ghost pokemon didn't even take lasting injuries, although they tired easily when hit by dark attacks – ghost pokemon were just a pain to catch or attack.
744. turpitude: immoral behavior
Arcanine was never one for turpitude anyway, and after shredding the barrier and bounding away, he made sure to check that Alakazam himself had not been injured – without their barriers, psychics were fragile and easily injured. Alakazam grew angrier with Arcanine's obvious concern, and lashed out with a shadow ball.
745. thrift: care in managing money or other resources
Unfortunately for Gold, all of Green's team had plenty of experience with shadow balls after practicing with Umbreon. Immediately after seeing the manifestation of ghostly energy, Arcanine bounded away to dodge.
The shadow ball crashed into the barrier, dissolving it and smashing the wall outside. The Mr. Mime paled, and the psychic's trainer looked aghast. Gold smiled sheepishly. Sighing, Green rubbed his forehead. Thrift and caution: two very important values in managing gym battles. He really should have paid a little more for another psychic…
746. shroud: to conceal; something that covers
Before Alakazam could shroud himself in another barrier, Arcanine charged forward, breathing fire, and bowled Alakazam over with a flare blitz. Gold shouted for Alakazam to take cover in Lapras' pool, but it was too late – Alakazam had spent too much energy trying to materialize another barrier, and couldn't muster the energy to teleport away.
747. procure: to obtain or acquire
Alakazam passed out before Gold had the time to procure and spray him with a burn heal. Arcanine was mildly injured from narrow escapes with psychic blasts, but still able to fight. Gold released Ambipom.
Ambipom was delighted to have an arena with hanging wires, torn up concrete, chunks of strewn floor and a tiny pool. For the monkey, the more obstacles the better. The four foot pokemon heaved up chunks of rock with its tail, and gleefully tossed them at Arcanine.
At first the rocks were easy to avoid, but Green realized too late that the projectile weren't being thrown indiscriminately – throwing rock after rock with his two tails, Ambipom cornered Arcanine and pelted the dog pokemon with chunks of concrete.
748. desideratum: something needed and wanted
A means of escape was desideratum – Arcanine whined when he was hit by a larger chunk of concrete. Green shouted for Arcanine to just take one more hit and run past Ambipom to open space. Arcanine heard his command and then dashed to the side, only to get tripped by one of Ambipom's long tails. Arcanine stumbled, and was unable to avoid the bop on the head that knocked him unconscious.
749. subsist: to maintain life
Green's palms were now sweating profusely – he had only one pokemon left: Pidgeot. Gold had his insane purple monkey and the colossal Typhlosion. Green clenched his teeth into a tight smile of determination, and released Pidgeot, his partner since so early on in his battling career.
Green yelled for Pidgeot to fly high to avoid any rock throwing from Ambipom, but the monkey was panting, apparently far more exhausted than it had let off earlier. Green noted the purple monkey's exhaustion, and made eye contact with Pidgeot. Two fist pumps.
In good health, Ambipom may have been faster, but Pidgeot swooped down and smashed into the monkey with clenched talons before the purple pokemon could dodge – close combat was risky, as now the bird was easily in the monkey's range, but judging by how Ambipom was lying prone on the ground, the attack had obviously been successful. Pidgeot had picked up the move from a friendly staraptor in Sinnoh, and it had proved to be a valuable, albeit risky, move. Gold recalled Ambipom.
750. metaphor: a figure of speech calling one thing another to imply likeness
Pidgeot circled up nervously as Gold's last pokeball opened, the red light flashing out to release the colossus known as Explotaro. The typhlosion was beyond just a metaphor of an unstoppable force – Gold's Typhlosion was famous for wiping out complete teams. The volcano pokemon landed on all fours, before slowly standing up, eyes still closed. Typhlosion stepped into an aggressive attack stance, and then opened its eyes and released a massive burst of fire from its back.
However, Pidgeot was not intimidated. No matter how overwhelming the enemy, there was always a chance, a weakness that could lead to victory.