Okay, how am I supposed to find Erika in these damn jungles? The plants here are so dense I can`t even see through them, not even walking. And the walls from two sides at once form some sort of… corridor? Maybe this isn`t actually all plants – just the overgrown labyrinth, and now I stand in the main room. The path behind me will lead me back to the entrance, so I have to move forward. And the best way to navigate in labyrinths is moving along one wall, so I will reach the end… someday…
But my conditions are much stricter right now. A bunch of girls with grass-type pokemon are looking for me with the desire to mercilessly beat my pokemon. I would like to battle a couple of them, just for the experience… But not all of them. I`m sure my team is strong, but not that strong, maybe.
So I have to find Erika in this maze without being spotted by myself. It`s pretty hard to hide in a place like this one, so I will orient by the sounds.
I closed my eyes and listened. I listened the rustle of leaves, distant voices, and… steps. Erika doesn`t need to move at all as she isn`t looking for me. All steps belong to her students. That means I need to run away from the sounds…. Making as little sound as I can by myself.
I followed the path in front of me, away from the steps behind. This led me to the crossroads, surrounded by the trees. I stopped here once again and listened to the sounds. This time steps were behind me and on the right. The choice was too easy to make as I turned left and ran along the trees deeper into the gym.
The forest became less dense and finally I found something like a meadow. This place would be perfect for Erika to hide, but it wasn`t… But a lone Oddish was here, looking around discomposedly. He seemed to be lost for some reason.
"Hey there, little one. Where is the leader of this place?" I carefully asked him. Why would I expect him to show me the way? No, he launched a cloud of yellow spores at me, immediately making my body to tremble. I fell on my knees and tried to resist this damn feeling, but it disappeared very soon by itself. I realized that this bastard has just paralyzed me!
"Oh well-well-well… We have found our prey." The pleased woman`s voice sounded behind me.
I pulled myself together and got up. The woman behind me was of a model look. Long blonde hair, expensive clothes, decorative bag and a small hat.
"Okay, okay. You got me, baby." I said to her trying to keep my determination. "Dirty methods, but I have the same." I knew what was coming. At least the fact that our eyes met meant that we have to battle each other. There is no way of running away from it, so I took my first pokeball and dropped on ground, releasing Dumpling outside.
Appearance of fire-type pokemon made the girl shook her head discontentedly. She definitely doesn`t like fire-types. Or Charmeleons specifically.
"You will cry when my grass pokemon defeats your fire pokemon!" She shouted and retreated back. I did the same, giving our battlers some more space for maneuvers. I could really need it.
"Oddish, use Stun spore!" The opposing trainer began the battle. Her small blue pokemon attacked my Dumpling with the same thing he has just attacked me. Well, it actually can even fail working on my Charmeleon. I think I`ll take some risk, just to reduce the time of battle.
"Dumpling, try to dodge it and then use Embers!"
But dodging this would be useless as the cloud of spores just grows bigger as it approached my Dumpling. Just before it touched him, he had time to spit his embers at the opponent. His attacks became much stronger recently, due to our hard trainings, and now I can perfectly see the result. His embers literally burn the air around them, and hit poor small Oddish right between the eyes and cause him to burn. The weed pokemon squeaked, then took fire and fell on ground, fainted. The fires disappeared as the motionless body was quickly returned back to pokeball.
But just then I noticed the satisfied grin on my opponent`s face. She… expected her Oddish to faint. I looked at my Dumpling to see his body shaking in paralyze. These damn stun spores reached him in the end!
"Hi-hi… My next pokemon is a Bellsprout!" She gladly declared and sent out her second pokemon. This one looked smaller and weaker than my Harry was, but the Dumpling`s paralysis could give the opponent a real advantage. You never know how hard it hits. But we fought the paralysis in Surge`s gym and won. I believe in my Dumpling. He never failed me before.
"Dumpling, let`s overcome this! Use Ember again!" I commanded with determination.
"Bellsprout, use Wrap!" The girl ordered.
My pokemon made a step forward, charging the attack in his mouth. But the paralyzing shock made him almost fall on the ground and disrupt the embers attack. And the opposing Bellsprout was perfectly fine and quickly stretched his vines to my Dumpling, but he didn`t wrap him immediately. He pushed the vines into the ground and just then they appeared under my pokemon`s feet and wrapped him there. Charmeleon screamed from the tight grip he was caught in.
"Not good… But we need to continue. Embers once more!"
"Keep him tight, Bellsprout! Wrap him even more!"
In a paralyzed state my pokemon could barely move. The opponent kept on squeezing him with his vines, dealing some small damage.
The shiver interrupted Dumpling`s attack once more. This is so NOT good. Paralyze state is so damn cheat, and it can change the whole battle. We need to get rid of this, but how?
I looked at the ground. I had an idea before, but I think this could work only with electric-caused paralyze. We could try to redirect the shock inside the body to the ground, but this one is a bit different.
I don`t have the time to think.
"Dumpling, come on! Pull yourself together! Use that damn Embers at last!"
My pokemon concentrated on the foe in front of him. The irritating Bellsprout was at a disadvantage in type, but with the help of his previous teammate he was winning! And I can`t let that happen. Dumpling understood this perfectly. He can`t let that happen too. He tensed all his body to resist the shiver and moved slowly but surely. He made a deep breath, burning the fire in his mouth and launched the good pack of embers right into his opponent. Bellsprout got some really nice burns, but the biggest of embers hit exactly his face. Well, my Dumpling is pretty accurate at his moves. This hit was critical, and destroyed the Bellsprout right where he was standing.
"Meh, nice one. Return." The opposing trainer said and beamed her Bellsprout back. She didn`t sound like she had just lost the battle. Instead, she got another pokeball from her bag.
"Another one?" I asked surprisingly.
"We are not finished yet!" She replied with determination and threw her next pokeball on the field. This time it was… Oddish again.
And just then I looked at my Dumpling. I thought that after the taking the Bellsprout away from the field, his vines wrapping my Dumpling will disappear too, but… They did not! He was still trapped in the prison and tightly squeezed each time he tries to move.
Our new opponent looked different. This Oddish was bigger and looked much more serious. I think this one is a lot better trained than the previous one.
"Oddish, use Acid!" The girl commanded.
"Concentrate again and give him your best Embers, Dumpling!"
Maybe he will succeed in launching another good fire attack even under paralysis; we may have the chance to win. I think, later we will train some more to attack in this state, but now we need to hope for our luck. He tensed all his body again to resist the shiver and tried to spit the hot embers into enemy Oddish, but the clot of purple acid from the opponent hit my Charmeleon first. He withstood this and through the pain executed the embers attack and hit the opponent. Oddish was hurt pretty badly, but… withstood this too! This guy is really an experienced battler.
And just then I realized her strategy… She used her weak pokemon to weaken mine. Oddish paralyzed Dumpling and lost. Bellsprout wrapped and immobilized Dumpling and lost. And now her ace pokemon with good attacking moves comes out to finish him. I wouldn`t expect such sacrifices in pokemon battle! But it seems to happen… Just to beat one my pokemon. Fire-type pokemon.
"We won`t give up!" I shouted to her. And we actually will not.
I have just noticed that the vines of previous pokemon slowly let Dumpling free. And that`s good and bad at the same time – because they were limiting the power of his body shivers and actually helped him aim better, keeping his head straighter. But we will use them once more.
"Then you will lose! Oddish, use Acid one more time!" The trainer commanded.
"Dumpling, cover under the vines!" I ordered my pokemon to defend himself. And despite the paralysis he actually managed to duck his head under the layer of vines, hiding himself from the approaching acid. This struck into his previous prison and literally melted it, making the vines black and rotten.
"And now answer him with Metal Claw!"
I was sure that even if the opponent hits us with another Acid attack, Dumpling will be able to withstand it. He tried his best to approach his opponent despite the paralysis and pain, raising up and charging his right hand. This final blow must be his!
"Acid!" The girl clicked fingers and gave a command. Her Bellsprout didn`t wait for too long and shot the clot of acid right into my Dumlping when he approached the foe, throwing him back and dealing really big damage.
My Charmeleon was lying here, between us with his limbs spread, and looked at me. I noticed the sorrow in his eyes before he closed them… And did not open.
This was my mistake. I really thought that we can defeat the grass-type gym with just Dumpling. I believed in my partner so much that he…
He roared loudly stating that he is alive! With even more determination he opened his angry eyes and raised from the ground. He snorted, blazed powerfully and jumped on the relaxed Oddish, swiping with powerful Metal Claw and finishing him off.
"Dumpling! You`re just great!" I couldn`t actually believe in what I just saw. I was sure everything is lost already, but he just resurrected and achieved the victory!
"Oh well, your pokemon is sure stubborn…" The girl sadly said and returned her pokemon back. But… she again got another pokeball from her bag and showed it to me.
"Fourth one? You`re kidding me!" I was surprised. But I can`t do anything yet, until the battle is still on go. If she has four pokemon – I have to defeat all of them.
Dumpling breathed heavily and looked at me questionably. He didn`t fail my trust in him, but should I press him to the edge again?
"How about you give Moment some time to have fun?" I asked him. He snorted again, but then closed his eyes and nodded. "Right. Even you sometimes need rest." I returned him back and switched with Moment.
And now the opposing girl`s face twisted in disappointment. She was going to exhaust my fire Dumpling with a bunch of her grass pokemon just to achieve the fact that grass-type pokemon defeated the fire-type one. Switching to poison-flying Moment took this triumph away from her.
"You`re mean!" She accused me and threw her pokemon on the ground in rage. The pokemon appeared to be… yet another Bellsprout!
"I have to admit, your… arsenal if pretty impressive." I timidly complimented her with a bit of sarcasm. "But we will blow it up mercilessly! Moment, use Wing attack!"
"Bellsprout, use Wrap!"
I tried to remember everything I knew about Bellsprouts to this moment. With a help of Harry, I learned what moves do they know in this evolutionary form. My opponent can have pretty decent moves against me, and all of them are ineffective grass-types or ineffective poison-types. Whatever she throws at us – we will withstand this and return the hit with double power!
The grass pokemon grew long vines in a second and launched them at my Moment. But defeating a fast pokemon like Golbat – especially mine Golbat – isn`t an easy thing. He hit the vines with his left wing, and then in a second approached the Bellsprout to hit him with the right wing. A super effective hit made the opponent screech from pain for some time, but it still wasn`t enough.
I looked at the girl on the other side of our battlefield. She was standing there with clenched teeth and angry look. She knew that we are unstoppable, and we knew that too. I finally noticed bits of worry on her face – this have to be her last pokemon. And she will fight until the end, she will not surrender.
"Okay, I give up." She suddenly surrendered.
"Really?" I raised my eyebrow questionably. This is a result of battle I didn`t expect.
"Yeah, yeah, go away, you defeated me." She turned away and silently returned her wounded Bellsprout back to pokeball.
"You can`t run from a trainer battle, remember?" I reminded her. This victory felt too… salty for me.
"But can you run from the trainers themselves?" She suddenly and angrily asked in return. "GIRLS, HE IS THERE!" She shouted loudly, calling to her friends.
Damn, this is not good. I guess, they stop their searches when the battle starts, otherwise they could easily catch me during the fight, but when it ends… The game continues.
And I immediately heard a bunch of loud steps approaching me from different sides at once. I looked around trying to understand where I should run now as the trainers approach me from everywhere.
I took the risk and rushed to one of the clearances in thick plantation with my Moment flying behind me. Fortunately, the last girl I fought stayed on her place and didn`t try to stop me from escaping. She is out of the game.
Suddenly an idea came to me. He could be useful to me if he searches Erika from above, but this could be too risky as other trainers can also spot him and track down my location too. Golbat is a pretty big pokemon, and very noticeable too.
The surroundings changed to overgrown maze again. Damn, how big this gym is? It wasn`t that huge from the outside… Maybe I`m just running in circles?
I stopped for a moment. The humming of other trainers was pretty far from me, and I didn`t hear any steps nearby. I don`t think these girls can hide in the bushes. Maybe, now I have some time to restore my pokemon. My champion Dumpling was beaten quite good, and also paralyzed. I have some Paralyze heals in my greatcoat, and those may help.
But I suddenly heard the rustle nearby. I don`t care – whether this is a pokemon or a trainer – this is a bad sign. And my bad feeling was right – one of the girls jumped right in front of me, preparing her pokeball for a throw.
Everything happened so quickly I even didn`t understand it…
Firstly, one thought appeared in my mind: if they use pokemon to stop me, I can use pokemon to stop them!
Then I commanded my Moment to use Supersonic on this pretty young girl…
…and he did this without hesitation, without any second thought.
But it wasn`t Supersonic.
He emitted a colorful wave of light that hit the girl and made her collapse on ground. Just some second later I realized it. He had just performed a Confuse ray! And this actually a very good thing as this is much better than just Supersonic. I`m going to fix this move a bit later.
The confused girl dropped her pokeball on ground and stared at me with blank eyes. Damn this looked creepy… Her Oddish appeared from the capsule, prepared for orders, but the trainer just turned around and crushed into the tree behind her. To say that her Oddish was surprised is the same that to say nothing.
I carefully moved the unconscious body on the road to block the road to others. She will be the leading mark anyway, so let her be useful a bit.
"Good job, Moment. Best timing." I complimented my Golbat, and he tiredly screeched in reply. Something is not right with him, another thing to deal with later.
I followed the overgrown maze, trying to locate the position of my seekers. To my luck, they all tried to seek me together in one large group, and this makes things easier for me. I hope there are no lone hunters anymore just like the previous…
Suddenly my vision gone purple and something exploded in my mind. I fell on ground and shook my head. I know this feeling… It`s like someone attacked me with Confusion.
"I`ve found you!" Loud female voice sounded in front of me. When my eyes returned back to normal, I saw a high woman in some pretty white dress, with short blonde hair and a shiny bag. She was looking at me down from above and grinning. Her Exeggcute pack was hopping right nearby, giving me serious looks.
"This is how you have fun, right?" I replied irritated while getting up. "Attacking challengers with that Confusion attacks?"
She looked old enough to have pretty experienced pokemon and to be experienced by herself. I could give her nearly thirty years, maybe, thirty-five. And her Exeggcute… Looks tough despite being so small and wicked-looking.
"Sure, why not? It`s fun!" She answered me with so calm voice.
I already don`t like her. Actually, all these girls in this gym are so… overconfident, rich and spoiled. Well, they are pretty too, so I could forgive them this. But standing on my way is unforgivable!
"Tell me your name, trainer." I determinately told her. I don`t know what for, the intuition said me this can be important.
"Me? My name is… Lori…" She replied with a bit of uncertainty. "Does it matter? Let`s battle already!"
"As you wish, Lori. Moment, do this!" I pointed at the Exeggcute and shouted loudly my command. "Wing Attack!"
"Step back, Exeggcute… Confusion!"
I suddenly realized that the opponents right now counter each other. My Moment can hit super effectively with his Wing attack, but the opposing Exeggcute can do the same with the Confusion! But we are much faster, and this gives us the advantage.
Moment rushed to his opponent like the lightning and hit him hard with wings. The Exeggcute was thrown back and scattered, but right in the air they started to glow purple and stopped. Their eyes flared and caused the purple explosion in Moment`s head, hurting him very badly.
"Owww, nasty boy… Exeggcute, use Reflect!" Lori commanded. Her pokemon suddenly shined with slight red glow for some seconds.
I haven`t seen that Reflect move before… But it doesn`t seem to do anything. Maybe, it just failed? Anyway, we have to continue the assault.
"Repeat the Wing attack, Moment!" I ordered.
Moment gladly crushed his powerful wings on the opponent, but this time on the contact Exeggcute shined again with the red glow and stepped a bit back. He didn`t seem to get much damage. More than that – the mysterious red glow remained, covering these hopping eggs whole.
I think I have understood how this Reflect works: it protects the pokemon from attacks somehow, reducing the damage. This is no good at all. But the opponent is quite beaten already, so even a reduced damage from us can make a deal.
"We have other tricks; you know…" I cunningly said to Lori and smiled. "Moment, use Confuse ray!"
I decided to try out the new move on practice. If we will succeed and have some more luck, we don`t even need to attack our opponent anymore.
"Exeggcute, use Hypnosis!" Lori answered us with her own attack.
Our colorful Confuse ray reached the foe almost immediately, and yet the Exeggcute managed to emit a wave of some sort that hit my Moment. Golbat right now closed his eyes and fell on ground… asleep.
But our opponent wasn`t feeling too good too. The effect confusion caused the eggs hop on place disoriented, sometimes colliding with each other.
"Damn it, Moment, wake up! We have a battle to do!" I shouted loudly to him, but he didn`t react.
"Pull yourself together, Exeggcute! We can finish this creep! Use Confusion!" Trainer Lori tried to keep the initiative at her hands as her pokemon isn`t sleeping, but mine one is. Even right now she has almost the same chance of victory as we do. I hope we do…
I crossed my fingers and watched the opponent. Her confused Exeggcute slowly turned around and launched the Confusion attack on each other. Maybe this wasn`t super effective, but it hit each one of them, slowly finishing all of the eggs, until the last.
"Why… No!" Lori screamed and stomped her leg.
"It was nice to see you…" I quickly returned my sleeping Moment back to pokeball and ran forward. "Take care!"
As I passed near Lori, I noticed her vengeful look on me. Why would she be so angered? I have only defeated her pokemon, they may lose to challengers every day!
Ah, I don`t care, I have to run quickly. The battle is over and the game continuous. I can already hear the chasers behind me.
After nearly a minute of wandering between the trees I noticed the familiar place… Yes, I have been there already! In the very beginning!
More than that – I realized that I returned back to the place where I met Erika. She was right there, sitting on her lounge, again. But this time she was wearing some interesting dress. It was a long yellow… kimono – that`s how it`s called, I guess? I have to say, this fits her very well.
When she noticed me approaching, she raised her hand high and stood up.
I`ve found her. The game is over.
"Well-well-well… You actually found me, and that was so fast. I`m impressed." She clicked fingers and loud signal stated the end of searches.
"This… game… of yours needs some more rules, I have to say." I said her honestly. "But this doesn`t matter. Now can I heal my pokemon before the battle?" I nodded at the direction of healing machine that appeared nearby.
"Of course. But don`t waste too much time. I want the finale." Erika crossed her hands on chest and sat back on lounge.
"As you wish, milady. As you wish…" I headed to the machine and put the pokeballs inside. Trainers start to gather nearby to look at the battle.
They will get the battle they want…