Kurishimi sighed before recalling her Gloom. She was disappointed that Gloom had lost, but happy for her Pokémon in achieving evolution. Now she needed to fight a stationary Raichu that could continue to use electric attacks. Fortunately, while Gloom had drained Raichu's health to replenish its own, Raichu had only been attacking while losing health steadily. Since she didn't want to decide her final Pokémon without knowing what Surge had next, she brought Chansey back out.
"Put up another light screen, but be careful," she told Chansey. "You'll need to outlast Raichu in endurance and it'll be brutal."
"Raichu, use a thundershock," Surge said cautiously. Raichu did as instructed, but the weak electric attack simply bounced off the light screen and seemed to do absolutely no damage whatsoever.
Kurishimi chewed her lip as she quickly thought about her opponent's strategy. Until this point Raichu had been using high powered electric type moves then switching to basic fighting skills when the opponent drew in closer. While fighting Gloom it had continued to use the more powerful attacks from a distance without getting nearer after being paralyzed. It was possible for thundershock to also paralyze the opponent, but the chance was around one in ten for that to happen; the same chances as thunderbolt would have. Surge wouldn't be trying to base his win off of that. Raichu was also very ready to fight. Chansey dodged its moves easily enough so the chance of paralysis was even less if it could hit, not to mention the occasional misfire due to Raichu's own paralysis. Surge wasn't panicking or brimming with confidence either. He seemed to be thinking hard about his moves just as much as Kurishimi was, so what was his plan and how would she counter?
"Chansey, at your next opportunity I want you to use an egg bomb on Raichu."
Chansey pulled an egg from somewhere behind the one it had in its pouch to lob at Raichu. On impact the egg comically exploded. The damage wasn't overly significant, but was at least more noticeable than the thundershock strikes had been from the opposite end. The light screen fell after the attack so Kurishimi instructed Chansey to put up a new one. Based on the impact damage, what was there at least, a few more egg bombs could probably knock Raichu out. Surge hadn't recalled Raichu yet though. Either he was waiting to decide on his last Pokémon, having Raichu tire Chansey out as much at it could, attempting to paralyze it, or he believed that Raichu could be quickly taken down by Kurishimi's last choice. Neither of them could predict the other's plans at all.
After a few more egg bombs Kurishimi said, "Get in close now Chansey and use fling again. This time aim Raichu straight up. Move quickly though. I don't want it to hit you with a close range attack."
Chansey danced across the open ground, still dodging Raichu's infrequent electric attacks. A couple of them connected, but paralysis remained absent. When Chansey got within striking distance of Raichu it did try to hit Chansey with a thunderpunch, but Chansey easily evaded the sluggish attack. But it was then that a sneak attack came from Raichu's blind spot in the form of its tail.
The tip of Raichu's tail cut through the air quickly while emitting a silver shine. Chansey attempted to dodge again, but she was too far off balance to do so successfully. Raichu's iron tail attack speared Chansey in her center of gravity for a direct hit knocking her down. Not letting her recover, Raichu used a mega kick to send Chansey back toward Kurishimi.
Having no natural defense against physical attacks and since the melee strikes were unaffected by light screen, Chansey was severely injured. It could continue fighting by firing egg bombs, but didn't have the endurance to withstand many more hits. When Chansey got up again her light screen faded once more, leaving her more susceptible to Raichu's electricity which was quickly exploited. Again a thunderbolt flew, and this time damage was higher.
"Chansey quick, throw another egg bomb!"
Chansey managed to toss another egg at Raichu before fainting. The attack did its job as Raichu also fainted. With a double knockout and both trainers down to their last Pokémon it was impossible to know who could win. Vaporeon couldn't win against Surge's final Pokémon by itself and she couldn't risk the battle with a less experienced fighter.
"Vulpix, you're up!"
"Manectric, let's finish this!" Surge called out.
Manectric was a blue wolf with a yellow mane that pointed into the air. There were yellow tufts of fur around the ankles on its front feet as well as larger ones decorating the back legs. Manectric's tail was formed to spike sharply into the air.
"Hey wait a minute," Kurishimi said as she remembered what Surge had said earlier, "that wouldn't be Akuma's old Manectric would it?"
"The very same," Surge told her with a smile. "I thought it would be interesting to show you what kind of Pokémon he passed on to me. We've been training together for the longest time trying to get in sync with each other after it trained with Akuma. This will be our first gym battle together. My strategies combined with Akuma's training will be sure to give you a tough run."
Kurishimi chewed her lip again as she considered what kind of power she would have to be fighting. She'd been hoping to use Vulpix's speed and experience to win the battle since it was the Pokémon she'd been with the longest with the exception of Vaporeon. Against an opponent like this she knew her chances of victory were slim to none at best, no matter what Pokémon she could have chosen to fight with. The battle would push her to the extremes if she planned on winning this fight.
"Vulpix, show it your confuse ray!"
"Manectric, thunder wave now!"
A brilliant light flashed from Vulpix's body into Manectric's face while the other released dancing weak electric bolts toward the young fox. Manectric instantly became confused while the electricity coursed over Vulpix's body causing a perfectly executed paralysis maneuver. Next Vulpix tried to weaken Manectric even further by burning it with a will-o-wisp. The burn was successful and caused Manectric's attack power to decrease as well. A successful discharge of electricity from Manectric struck Vulpix to do significant damage, but not enough to sway the prediction over who would win the battle as Vulpix fired a large flamethrower in Manectric's direction. Due to confusion, Manectric ran straight into the flames. Despite receiving the full force of the attack however, Manectric appeared to be undamaged.
The battle continued for almost five minutes which gave both Pokémon a high amount of exhaustion. Vulpix was sluggish due to paralysis while Manectric had been burned so it was taking consistent damage as well as having its attack power weakened. Vulpix had been using a confuse ray frequently since confusion wasn't a permanent effect, which did help a bit, but Manectric could use electric attacks from a distance which negated the attack power reduction from burning. At this point, both Pokémon were ready to collapse but neither of them could get in close for another attack. Vulpix's flames had been shortened while Manectric's electric attacks were almost too weak to do any damage. Akuma's training had been evident in Manectric throughout the battle. It was exceptionally tough with strong attacks, but not strong enough to do major damage. Surge's strategy was to use Manectric's speed to do hit-and-run attacks. Being trained by two trainers with different styles seemed to help a Pokémon's development. The problem for her was that she was fighting such an opponent now. What Surge didn't know however, was that she really did have a plan, and now was the right time to use it.
"Vulpix, catch!" she yelled out. Vulpix turned to see Kurishimi throw a small object toward her. Recognizing the shape, Vulpix leaped toward the incoming object, caught it in her mouth, and swallowed it. Immediately the paralysis effects dissipated, allowing Vulpix to move more freely again as the cheri berry was digested.
"Oh no, Manectric, use thunder wave again quickly before it can attack!" Surge commanded, but Manectric was too confused to obey its trainer.
"Okay Vulpix, let's finish this up. Fire a volley of embers at Manectric!" Vulpix showered a fiery rain at Manectric giving it spotted damage around its body. "Now finish it off once and for all with your fire spin!" Vulpix inhaled deeply before firing a thin stream of fire at Manectric. The wiry flames encircled Manectric in a growing spiral until the flames were just under Surge's height before growing thicker in a sudden burst. Now a fiery tornado, Manectric could not escape and to top it off the flames began to close in on Manectric until the eye of the fiery tornado was too thin to exist. As the flames overlapped each other they finally burned out. Manectric struggled against the pain, but still would not fall. "Oh no you don't, we're ending this. Vulpix, knock it down for good with your quick attack!" Now free of paralysis, Vulpix launched itself toward Manectric at high speed, crashing into its side which tossed it into the air before landing hard on the ground.
Surge rushed over to check on his Pokémon's condition, then shook his head and stood up. "The challenger, Kurishimi Akashi, is the winner of this match and has earned the thunderbadge!"
Kurishimi leaped into the air happily and caught her Vulpix in a hug while Surge applauded her with the others in the stands. Wait, she was alone with Surge when the battle started, wasn't she? Kurishimi looked up and saw Akuma, Chad, and Totodile sitting in the stands clapping in approval.
"When did you two arrive?" she asked them after receiving the badge and the two had come down to join her.
"Just a few moments after the battle started I believe," Akuma replied. "I came to see Surge, but I was apparently lucky enough to see your improvements as well. You're doing a fine job in your technique by the way."
"Why didn't you guys say anything?"
"Aw you know us better than that," Chad said to her. "We didn't want to break your concentration, ya know? Besides, we were enjoying the battle too much anyway. Oh yeah, I loved the way you beat Electrode too. That was ingenious!" Totodile nodded in approval as well with a happy grin.
"Uh, thanks I guess," Kurishimi said hesitantly.
"No need to be modest about it, the boy is right," Akuma said to her. "I wouldn't have thought to force a self-destruct by causing an explosion that way. You could've beaten me quite easily if I was in Surge's position."
Kurishimi blushed at the high praise Akuma gave her as Surge cut in. "Wah ha ha! She's your student all right, Akuma. She's a tough one to crack, and from what I heard she wasn't even fully equipped for a gym battle today. I'm surprised at her resilience and strategy, even with inexperienced Pokémon. You've made this girl quite a pain to take down."
"Perhaps, but she's the one with the talent. I only helped her discover her strengths. I'm expecting her to become stronger than most of the hunter groups if she already isn't."
Surge's face grew serious. "She's really that good, huh? That makes me a little happy that I didn't battle her while she was at full strength or it wouldn't have been much of a fight on my part."
"In her battle against the Cerulean gym leader she defeated Vaporeon, Omastar, and wounded a Seadra to nearly fainting with a full team of six; though I feel I should add in that her sixth Pokémon was a new battler at the time as it was recently captured. Akashi herself only lost one Pokémon, not counting her sixth combatant."
"Misty's Omastar lost? Oy, now I know this girl's tough. That Omastar is one of the toughest Pokémon among the gym leaders in Kanto. You have the utmost respect from this old war veteran." So saying, he stood up straight and gave the young girl a salute which she returned with a smile. Then Surge turned toward Chad who had been left out for the most part up till now. "And you're the young prodigy she mentioned too, right? Your name is Chad isn't it?"
Chad smiled nervously as Kurishimi did when she'd first met the man. "Ah, yes sir. That would be me, though I don't think I'm a prodigy."
Surge ruffled the young man's hair with a giant hand. "Ha ha, don't you be modest either, kid! From what I've heard you're going to give Akuma a hard battle someday, isn't that right?"
Chad looked down at his toes and mumbled, "I guess so, but he's way too strong for me to fight right now. It's certainly impossible for me to win against him. In fact I'm thinking more and more that I can't win every time I see him fight. He's got to be the best trainer there is and I'm… well I'm not."
Kurishimi looked worried when she heard Chad's tone. Surge's face dropped the goofy grin he was putting on to be friendly and studied the young boy carefully. Akuma also looked upon Chad with focused eyes while Totodile appeared uncomfortable. There was a long silence between the four of them while someone tried to think of something to say. Each of the veteran trainers was considering Chad's words carefully as well as possible replies.
Kurishimi started to say something, but Akuma beat her to it. He grabbed the young boy's arm and pulled him out of the gym. "Come with me. Right now," he told the boy with a stern tone.
"What are you doing?" Chad yelled as he tried to keep up with Akuma's pace, as was Totodile.
"You are failing as a Pokémon trainer. Either you fix yourself up today or our deal is off and you will never learn anything for the rest of your life as Pokémon trainer."