Episode 3: A multi-battle among friends!
In the aftermath of their battle against Palmer, Niko and Lauren went to the Pokémon Center in the Fight Area to heal their teams and get started on their journey towards the Survival Area. Before they took off, Niko wanted to contact Pallet Town and grab a couple of his other pokémon to train with. Now knowing what Palmer was capable of, Niko wanted to be as prepared as he could be moving forward.
"Thanks Mom, Dad. I really appreciate it. How's rampardos adjusting?" Niko asked during his video call to his family.
"He's doing just fine, actually." Mom said. "He is itching to train more, but he loves socializing with the other pokémon. Him and aggron seem to get along particularly well."
Niko smiled. He was worried about rampardos not connecting well with the others due to his injury. To know that he is adjusting well and even making friends was music to his ears. "Well, thanks again. Talk to you both soon!"
"Bye Niko! Love you!" His parents said before hanging up the call. Niko breathed heavily, pulling out his two pokéballs from the transfer machine. He then got out of his seat and joined his friends, all of whom were eating dinner in their usual booth.
"How's the family?" Brittany asked as Niko sat down next to her.
"Great! Dad's fine—he just had a doctor's appointment. And rampardos seems to be doing well at home, too. He doesn't like being so constrained by his injury, but he is making friends with the others." Niko said with a cheerful expression.
"That's great to hear! Hopefully he's ready by the time you have to challenge Palmer again. I'm sure rampardos would love a crack at his dragonite."
"Honestly, I think he could." Niko said, looking up at his friends. "I really believe that."
The following morning, the group began their journey north towards the Survival Area. As usual, they would stop for some time to train and eat before moving on once again. Only this time, the terrain was far more wondrous to look at.
Like with the Fight Area, route 225 was filled with palm trees lining the edges of black hills, small and large. Niko, at least, found himself impressed with the natural world around him, and would occasionally make a comment about a waterfall he would see, or a massive palm tree hanging at an arc through the sky. He's never really seen palm trees in person before, and found them fascinating to stare at.
But above all, the most important task before him and Lauren was to train, for two different competitions—the upcoming Battle Hall, and their inevitable rematch with Palmer. To help with his training, Niko brought back two of his reserves—glalie and venusaur, giving him a full team once again. The face and seed pokémon were eager to get back in the game, just as Niko was excited to bring them back.
On their third day on route 225, the group was sitting down after lunch, watching the river in front of them run down a black hill at a comfortable incline. "Nature's so amazing…" Niko said in awe.
"Niko, it's a river." JJ commented dryly.
"I know. It's just…growing up in Pallet Town, I never really got to see much of the outside word. Just a small town on the edge of the ocean. Gets kind of boring after a while." He pointed to the palm trees. "See, if I had never gone on these adventures, I would never have seen a palm tree. Or these hills. Or Mt. Coronet. Or the desert back in Hoenn."
"You've got a good point." JJ said before taking a drink of soda. Then, out of the blue, an idea popped into his head. "Say, you guys want to have a battle?"
"A battle?" Niko, Lauren, and Brittany all turned to JJ. "What do you mean by that?" Brittany asked.
"I mean, we could do a double battle. Two of us versus the other two. It'd be fun, and we give Niko and Lauren some training against real opponents."
Niko scratched his chin, feeling the stubble on it. "Yeah, I'm down. What should the teams be?"
"Well, how about me and Brittany versus you and Lauren? We each use three pokémon, so that it would be an even six-on-six rematch." JJ suggested.
"I like this. Let's go!" Lauren said, leaping up onto her feet, her blue hair flying behind her. "C'mon, Niko! Let's win this!"
"You betcha." Niko said, scrambling up onto his feet. The four stood on the edge of the river with ample spaces between the two pairs. Each of their pokéballs at the ready, they all sent them out at once:
"Roselia, let's go!"
"Glalie, I choose you!"
"Blaziken, you're up!"
"Umbreon, let's go!"
Once on the field, the battle began. Niko commanded glalie to use ice beam on umbreon, who countered the attack with shadow ball. Meanwhile, roselia set up with toxic spikes, much to Niko's pleasure. Blaziken burst forward to use blaze kick on roselia, who successfully evaded and retaliated with magical leaf, smacking the tall chicken in the side.
"Blaziken, switch it up! Use blaze kick on glalie!" Brittany commanded. The blaze pokémon nodded, spinning her talon around to hit the face pokémon, who blocked with protect. Umbreon then also attacked glalie, leaping forward with faint attack while glalie was busy defending himself against blaziken.
"Glalie, double team, and then ice beam umbreon!" Niko commanded. The ice type obliged, duplicating himself into half of a dozen copies and all launching jets of ice at umbreon, who replied with faint attack, revealing the real glalie, both for himself and for blaziken, who spouted out a flamethrower at the rest of the duplicates before jumping forward to use blaze kick.
Glalie blocked with protect once more, and roselia attempted to distract blaziken with magical leaf. Brittany then asked blaziken to turn her attention back to the thorn pokémon, who used grasswhistle to try and put blaziken to sleep. However, the attack was interrupted by a shadow ball from umbreon, which knocked roselia over and gave blaziken the opportunity to strike.
"Blaziken, flare blitz!" Brittany commanded. The blaze pokémon charged forward at her opponent, knocking roselia out of the battle.
"Roselia, return." Lauren said, since there was no referee to declare a pokémon's defeat. "Lopunny, I choose you!"
"Blaziken, blaze kick on glalie!" Brittany directed.
"Umbreon, dig on lopunny!" JJ shouted. The midnight pokémon leapt into the ground, burrowing underneath the field. Lopunny waited, watching the ground under her, hoping for any sign of a movement. "And…now!"
Umbreon leapt out from underneath lopunny, forcing Lauren to command the use of bounce. Before umbreon could effectively strike at his opponent, lopunny was high in the air now.
"Use hi jump kick!" Lauren called out. Just as blaziken was breaking through a battle-weakened protect from glalie, lopunny crash landed on umbreon with hi jump kick. Both glalie and umbreon were launched backwards in their respective directions. The face pokémon was out, but umbreon still had some fight left in him. "Use thunderpunch!"
"Faint attack!" JJ commanded. Umbreon disappeared while lopunny charged forward, evading a flamethrower from blaziken in the process by using agility. Once umbreon reappeared and struck the rabbit in the side, lopunny quickly spun around to her left and socked the eeveelution in the face, stunning it and causing it to crumble to the ground. "Finish it off with hi jump kick!"
"Blaziken, use flamethrower!" Brittany shouted.
"Not so fast! Glalie, return." Niko said, shuffling around pokéballs. "Staraptor, let's go! Use aerial ace on blaziken!"
While the predator pokémon distracted blaziken, lopunny landed on top of umbreon, defeating the midnight pokémon.
"Umbreon, return. Growlithe, I choose you!" JJ shouted. "Use flame wheel on lopunny!"
"Blaziken, blaze kick!" Brittany commanded. The aerial ace struck blaziken, who then whacked staraptor in the side of the face with a flaming talon, knocking the flying type into the ground. Lopunny then ignored growlithe's flame wheel and charged at blaziken with a thunderpunch while staraptor dove in for another aerial ace. However, only staraptor was successful this time, since growlithe landed a flame wheel on lopunny, knocking the rabbit onto the ground and leaving a burn mark. Blaziken, meanwhile, was knocked back to the ground by staraptor. "Use flare blitz!"
"Double team, staraptor, and then quick attack into aerial ace!" Niko shouted. Staraptor duplicated himself, letting blaziken miss the attack before bursting around the fire type and then smacking blaziken from behind with aerial ace. The blaze pokémon crashed face-first into the ground, defeated.
"Blaziken, return. Pikachu, let's go!" Brittany shouted. "Use thunderbolt on staraptor!"
"Growlithe, flame wheel on lopunny!" JJ directed.
"Lopunny, bounce on growlithe!"
"Staraptor, close combat on growlithe!" Niko shouted.
All four pokémon collided their attack together, creating a mess of creatures, with only lopunny and pikachu coming out of the brawl unharmed. Staraptor was laying on the ground stunned, and growlithe was rolling through the grass after being hit by lopunny. Brittany then commanded pikachu to use volt tackle on staraptor. Lopunny meanwhile used hi jump kick on growlithe. The puppy pokémon evaded the attack swiftly and then belted out a flamethrower, hitting the rabbit in the other side and leaving a second burn mark. Staraptor, upon getting hit by volt tackle, fainted.
"Staraptor, return. Torterra, I choose you!" Niko shouted, summoning his final pokémon. "Use energy ball on pikachu!"
"Lopunny, hi jump kick on growlithe!" Lauren commanded.
"Flame wheel on torterra!" JJ shouted. The puppy pokémon once more dodged lopunny, forcing the rabbit to crash down on the ground a second time. Lopunny cried out as she crumbled onto the grass below her now injured foot. Pikachu then added insult to injury and defeated the rabbit pokémon with thunderbolt before getting hit with energy ball and collapsing onto the ground, down but not defeated.
"Lopunny, return. Haunter, you're up!" Lauren shouted, also sending out her third and final pokémon. "Niko…we have to pick it up here. We don't want to lose to these guys…"
"I know. We got this, babe." Niko said. "Torterra, earthquake!"
"Pikachu, jump into the air!" Brittany shouted. But she knew it wouldn't last long—torterra could keep the earthquake going as long as he wished. While pikachu was in the air, the continent pokémon attempted to strike her down with energy ball, but the attack missed, as pikachu had already landed and fell off balance, crashing onto the shaking ground.
"Growlithe, flamethrower!" JJ shouted, trying to at least get a move in before growlithe would succumb to the earthquake as well. Eventually, torterra ended the attack, and pikachu and growlithe both fell.
"Pikachu, return. Vespiquen, I choose you!" Brittany shouted.
"Growlithe, great job, bud. Shroomish, let's go!" JJ called out. "Use stun spore on haunter!"
"Haunter, reply with dark pulse!"
"Torterra, razor leaf on shroomish!" Niko shouted, trying to deflect the stun spore with a torrent of leaves. The tactic worked, but torterra then felt the onslaught of bees from vespiquen. Torterra then began charging forward towards the queen pokémon, fighting through the attack order. "Use crunch on vespiquen!"
"Bug bite!" Brittany shouted.
Meanwhile, haunter and shroomish were fighting it out. To both JJ's and Lauren's surprise, the mushroom pokémon managed to hold his own, mainly by moving away and evading haunter's dark pulse and shadow punch. He even used stun spore to somehow cover himself from the hypnosis attack, a strategy that JJ didn't even think would work. Throughout the battle, it made JJ wish he had focused on training shroomish, and the thought filled his mind with regret. Once shroomish finally got hit with a dark pulse, he flew backwards, landing in JJ's waiting arms.
"You okay?" JJ asked. The mushroom pokémon nodded, jumping back out and facing haunter. Suddenly, he began to glow bright white, momentarily halting the match. Shroomish grew from a short, stubby mushroom into a bipedal pokémon with kangaroo-like qualities. The newly evolved form had a mushroom cap as a head, a set of frilled segments around his neck, and two red claws for each arm and leg. He now had a tail with four forest green spheres running around it.
"Breloom, the mushroom pokémon. Its short arms stretch when it throws punches. Its technique is equal to that of pro boxers."
"Breloom…? What the heck?" JJ said as he pocketed his pokédex. "Why evolve now?" Breloom turned to his trainer and simply shrugged, as if he didn't quite understand it either. Nevertheless, he took advantage of it and burst forward with a newfound speed towards torterra, his left claw now glowing bright white. To everyone's surprise, the claw extended out of breloom's body and slammed against torterra's forehead. The continent pokémon then let out an energy ball, hitting breloom and knocking the mushroom pokémon back into vespiquen's arms.
"That was mach punch, JJ." Brittany said with a wink. "Vespiquen, use power gem on haunter!"
"Dark pulse on vespiquen!"
"Torterra, earthquake!"
"Breloom, stun spore on torterra!" JJ shouted, realizing that he needed to at least slow down torterra. If he could do that, and eliminate the continent pokémon, then he and Brittany had a good shot at taking down haunter together. For the most part, the plan seemed to work, as torterra was paralyzed and halted the earthquake. "Now, mach punch!"
Breloom bounded forward once more, this time leaping high into the air and landing the extended mach punch directly on top of torterra's head with enough force to knock the entire pokémon into the ground. Torterra fell to the ground, defeated.
"Torterra, return. You got me, JJ. Well done." Niko admitted, shrugging with a smile. Lauren, however, didn't seem as pleased.
"Great, now I have to defeat them both…" She said, almost irritably.
"It's going to be fine, Lauren. Haunter is one of your strongest pokémon, if not your strongest. You can do this!"
"Let's hope so…haunter, use dark pulse on breloom, and shadow punch on vespiquen!" She commanded. Using both of his disconnected hands, haunter shot out two attacks at once, hitting both breloom—who had made another failed attempt at stun spore—and vespiquen—who made a successful attempt at power gem. Haunter rolled backwards after colliding with the power gem, but then used hypnosis on breloom before moving back on vespiquen.
This time, the stun spore didn't deflect from the hypnosis, and breloom crashed down onto the ground. Meanwhile, haunter shot out another spectral fist, hitting vespiquen directly in the abdomen and following up with another quick dark pulse, defeating the queen bee.
"Vespiquen, return…well done, Lauren." Brittany said with a smile on her face. JJ, however, was gritting his teeth. "You can do this, JJ."
"I sure hope so…breloom, wake up! We can win this!"
"Dream eater!" Lauren commanded. Haunter closed his own eyes, trying to take a step into breloom's mind. His attempt was evident when breloom began convulsing a little in his sleep, indicating that the attack was a success. However, it ended when breloom woke up in a daze. Taking advantage of the brief amnesia, haunter shot out a dark pulse, ending breloom as well.
"Breloom, return. You did a great job. Way better than I had expected, honestly. Take a nice, long rest." He then looked up to Lauren. "You were great out there, Lauren." Brittany and Niko both nodded in agreement, although the latter seemed slightly perturbed. He did his best not to show it, although later on Brittany would admit she noticed it as well.
"Thanks guys. But I couldn't have done it with Niko. Although…" She looked up accusingly at her boyfriend. "It would have been nice if I didn't have to defeat both of them by myself." She said with a teasing smile.
"I'll try harder next time, I promise." Niko said, kissing her forehead, which made Lauren blush slightly. "Anyways, we should get to Survival Area so our pokémon can properly rest up, right?"
"Indeed!" JJ said before running over to his bag, which had a sleeping togetic laying on it. The others walked back to grab their things as well and set off through the palm forest towards their next destination.
During that time, Niko reflected on his battle. It was clear to him that his battling was off somewhat, but he couldn't pinpoint how. Nevertheless, he committed to focusing more on it in the future, as he would need to figure out the cause of the problem and solve it before he even had a chance of re-matching Palmer, much less winning any prints in the Battle Frontier.
Author's note: So shroomish finally got...something! I'll admit, one of my bigger regrets in terms of roster choices was shroomish. I had originally hoped for him to have a bigger role in the group dynamic but never really followed through on it. Which is a personal shame, since I actually kind of like breloom. Oh, well. Also, something's clearly up with Niko? What is it? Will it be resolved? What will happen once they get to the Survival Area? Hope you enjoyed!