The machine slowly worked on my pokemon with her strange scanners from the bottom while I stand near it and look over the battlefield. I think this meadow actually to be too small for a large fight like gym battles usually are. The trees surrounding us can give grass-type leader a lot of advantage… somehow. But I think I can adapt some of my ideas to this surrounding.
"Lovely weather, isn`t it?" Suddenly Erika asked me. "I like the sun. How about we give some more of its light to us and our pokemon?"
What a strange question. Well, this won`t do anything bad, I guess.
"Okay, why not?" I replied to her still not understanding.
Erika smiled cunning and clicked her fingers. The glass roof of gym started to move, exposing the field to the sunlight. Does she want to blind my pokemon with this? I`m not sure. Maybe she thinks that this will hurt my Moment? This won`t work as he isn`t small Zubat anymore. Golbats don`t actually afraid of the sun. So what she is up to?
Meanwhile a large rail mechanism moved the screen to the center of the field and turned it on. Yeah, the status screen could be useful here. I have to watch over the health of my pokemon if I`m going to use just two of them.
Damn it, I can use just two of them! This is going to be a very tough battle.
Healing machine clicked as two of my pokemon were completely restored. I took the pokeballs and headed back to Erika. Somehow two opposing platforms rose from under the ground marking the places for challenger and the gym leader. As Erika slowly headed to her nearest, I went to the opposing one.
So, here we are… Stand before each other, stare at the eyes. She is so overconfident and determined… She considers herself very strong trainer, and I guess this is for a reason. But I have no right for the mistake.
"The battle between the gym leader Erika and the challenger Vengeance is about to begin." Suddenly Lori`s voice sounded from the loudspeakers. "This is going to be a one-on-one battle. Gym leader can use three pokemon and the challenger… just two. But only the challenger can make substitutions."
Phew… This is going to be very tense. But one thing worries me more than anything. How the heck did they know my name? I didn`t tell them!
"I think I`ll start with you, Victreebel!" Erika took her first pokeball from under the kimono and threw it on ground. The blue light raised up and formed a menacing figure… The first pokemon. And this pokemon looked so much like my Harry. But he was much higher, standing with his toothy mouth up and covered with large leaf. A long vine was coming from this point and right to the ground, where his two more large leaves are situated. And his eyes… With a look like this you really know this guy isn`t to mess with.
This is how my Harry will look when he evolves. This… this is just great! I like this pokemon already! But for now I have to defeat him.
"Dumpling, come on out!" I chose my ace pokemon to start with. The type advantage will give me the chance to win this crazy bet.
"A fire type?" Erika grinned. "Smart choice… But useless! We don`t afraid of them. Victreebel, start with Poison Powder!"
Poisoning right from the beginning? Not a very good thing. But maybe we can defeat this thing even before he hits us.
"Dumpling, use Ember!" I commanded to my pokemon.
And then something strange happened. I remember that my Harry isn`t the fastest pokemon, sometimes this becomes the problem and I already got used to it, but this Victreebel glowed yellow once and spit a large cloud of poison into my pokemon right after we started the battle. The effect got inside of my Dumpling and poisoned him, making the body shiver in constant pain. Despite that my partner launched his Ember attack at the opponent, suddenly igniting it right in the air and hitting the Victreebel very badly. I think the more powerful Ember attack is good, but how the heck Victreebel appeared to be faster than my Dumpling?
Erika noticed the misunderstanding look on my face and grinned.
"This is a small trick of ours. Victreebel, use Giga Drain!"
I don`t like the name of this move. I don`t like it, and that`s it!
"Dumpling, repeat your Embers attack!"
The poison hit him again, causing loud cough. And again the Victreebel so quickly launched his strange attack… Creating a large green ray… of life force… coming from my Dumpling to him. It looked like he literally sucked his life out!
This didn`t look too bad for my Dumpling, but this seemed to heal a couple of burns on Victreebel. Great, damn, just great! At least, then Dumpling got the strength to launch another pack of Embers – which ignited in the air again – and hit the opponent pretty good. Despite him trying to restore by himself, we deal much more damage. This will end sooner or later.
"Meh, this is no use. Victreebel, finish him with Acid!" Erika gave her final order to Victreebel, and he hurried to perform it.
"No way… Dodge it and shoot Embers, Dumpling, once more!" I counterattacked her. This is a risky move – even if we manage to dodge it, this is becoming much harder to attack after that. And we definitely need to finish this as soon as we can.
But we trained a lot. We trained to dodge Harry`s Acid attacks too, and Dumpling sometimes did this pretty good. This time he just needs to be more agile than usually.
The acid attack from Victreebel flew into my Dumpling, barely touching his leg as he jumped to the left. Anyway this still hurts as he roared at the opponent and launched the powerful Embers that burned even stronger this time and strike the opponent. This move burned the flycatcher pokemon like a toast; sucking the last strength in him and making him scream from the pain and finally faint.
"Victreebel is unable to battle, Charmeleon is the winner…" Lori announced. The viewers were shocked.
"Seems like your pokemon are tougher than I thought." Erika quietly said while returning back her fainted Victreebel. "I will remember that. My next pokemon will deal with this." And the released her second pokemon on the field.
This pokemon looked even wicker than the previous… It is just a clew of vines with two small red legs on the bottom and angry eyes looking through that.
But I have seen this pokemon in the newspaper. It`s Tangela, like the one that was missing. I`m not sure this is the one, still.
"You can deal with it, Dumpling?" I asked my pokemon with care. He growled positively in reply, but I noticed his tiredness. And this caused not just by the poison and all damage but the moves. Pokemon tire quickly if you use the same move again and again, and this is why you should actually alternate the moves if possible. Maybe using Embers could be better, but we should be careful with that. "Great. That means we`re on the top again. Let`s try hitting with Metal Claw!"
Dumpling was glad to hear that and rushed to his opponent with empowered claw ready to attack.
"Ha! Tangela, use Ingrain!" Erika commanded.
For some reason her pokemon looked up again and glowed again, just like Victreebel did. And then the vine pokemon just burrowed himself under the ground, suddenly growing roots around himself. Our attack did some damage but barely moved him. Tangela fixed himself on the place pretty solid.
Ingrain… This is a new move for me. But I actually can`t understand what it does. It just… fixes the pokemon on place? So he can`t be thrown back or something like that?
But the answer came immediately. The roots of vine pokemon glowed green, and some small scratches from our Metal Claw healed right now.
"Are you kidding me?" I was surprised. Dumpling looked surprised too. "Damn it. We need to strike harder. Dumpling, can you Ember it once more?" My pokemon was always ready to do this despite any fatigue, and he just nodded with determination. "Good, then do it!"
"Tangela, use Constrict!" The gym leader started to worry a bit, but her voice was still firm.
Tangela stretched the vines to my pokemon, wrapping him tightly and painfully. Just after that my barely breathing Dumpling managed to launch one more Ember attack on it, hitting hard but not enough.
How can this be? How can this pokemon be faster than my Dumpling? We have trained so much running around in circles, we have trained the reaction speed and still we are slower. Are the gym pokemon really so well-trained?
Not good. Not. Damn. Good.
"Dumpling, give it all you got! Burn it with Embers!" I shouted in fury, but the fading roar of my pokemon stopped me. Suffering from the pain from previous attacks and the strong poison, he fainted in the embrace of Tangela`s vines.
"Charmeleon is unable to battle and Tangela is the winner!" Lori announced so happily.
Damn, I lost him… I really put him to the edge. I expected to destroy this gym with my mighty Charmeleon, but… Maybe I overestimated him. No, I overestimated myself.
"Return, Dumpling." I said lowering my eyesight down. The red beam returned my pokemon back to pokeball. "You still did a good job."
Anyway, Erika has two pokemon and I have just one. And only one can actually handle with these wretched grass-types.
"Moment, I choose you!" I fiercely threw the pokeball in the air, releasing the winged figure outside. Thanks to the healing machine he isn`t asleep anymore, and fully ready to finish this. "Moment, start with Confuse ray!"
"Eww, a flying type…" Leader Erika distastefully said. "Not bad choice, though. Not very good either. We`re still faster, and we use Constrict!"
"No one is faster that Moment…" I slowly pronounced with grin.
My Golbat accelerated to the Tangela and crushed him with mighty wings, literally cutting in two, if he would give just more power. But the damage to poor vine pokemon was really huge and he barely restored, but, again empowered by the roots and something else he caught Moment for the wing with his vine and scratched it.
Damn it – the wings are Moment`s strongest and weakest parts at the same time. This can affect his speed a bit. We should be careful next time.
But our opponent looks like he is barely keeping alive. Moment`s attacks are really good, and also super effective here. Despite the chances of opponent to heal a bit, we still have the advantage. Anyway, one more hit will finish this creep.
"This is it, Moment. Use Bite!"
"Repeat the Constrict, Tangela!"
Constrict again? This move barely does any damage and just can affect the speed…
Oh no. She DOES aiming to take our speed away. Maybe even for the cost of her second pokemon.
I didn`t have time to react. My Golbat returned for another attack and opened his mouth wide to bite the Tangela, but suddenly his hurt wing twitched, and he stopped for a second. Another vine from Tangela struck him into another wing, hurting it too. Moment screeched more from anger than pain and finished the move – with a powerful jaws like this biting the body of Tangela, barely alive opponent had no chance, and so fainted.
"Tangela is unable to battle, and Golbat is the winner!" Again Lori announced the result for everyone. The viewers screamed in shock again.
"This was predicted." Leader firmly Erika returned her fallen pokemon back and grabbed the black pokeball with two yellow stripes. An ultraball. "But you managed to withstand our strength, you have some guts, challenger. Now you have to face my top pokemon!"
The ultraball released a large amount of energy that formed a large silhouette of a pokemon. This thing was really big compared to other grass-type pokemon I have ever seen. A blue body with short legs and arms… and a huge poisonous flower on the top.
Vileplume.
This thing looks very tough. I bet he can withstand a whole lot of damage from us, even a super effective one. But I also bet he is slow as hell… If he doesn`t use the same trick that previous two did.
But we have our speed decreased too – both of Moment`s wings are damaged a bit. I know that grass-type attacks will deal very little damage to my Golbat, and possible poison-type attacks will deal not very effective or have no effect at all. What else could we possibly expect from him? Erika doesn`t shake in fear before us, so she definitely has something in her sleeve. Something I will definitely won`t like…
"Okay, Moment, stay calm… We can do this. Just remember our training and do exactly as I say." I briefed my Golbat. "Firstly, keep the Matrix Mode during the whole battle. And let`s attack him with Confuse Ray!"
"What?" Leader Erika surprisingly asked. "Oh, your tricks… Mine are better. Vileplume, use Sleep powder."
Oh crap, not this thing again. Opponent knows this move – and that`s not good. This is actually the thing we should be afraid of. This and something paralyzing. Stun spore is possible too.
And again, her pokemon raised his face up to the sky and glow for some seconds, empowering himself somehow. How the hell does this work?
But no, my Moment can`t be slower than this thing. He is The Moment! He is the speed itself! Even with her cheating tricks no one can outspeed him!
That`s why he accelerated at the opponent and stopped on his halfway, sending the ray of colorful energy at the foe with doubled speed. This hit the Vileplume and confused him immediately, causing him to turn around and… sneeze the cloud of white powder in the air before him. Well, this would look funnier if he launched the powder on himself, but that`s too much luck for me.
"Good job, Moment. We can do this, pal. Let`s start finishing with Wing Attack!"
"Why you…" Leader Erika started to stomp the ground with her feet in anger. "Vileplume, snap out! And use Stun spore!"
I knew it, I just knew it, I frigging knew this creature knows Stun spore! And it`s too late to do anything…
My Moment quickly approached the opponent despite the damaged wings and hit him hard. Maybe this was intended, but the hit returned opponent back to his senses. Vileplume stepped back after that, and used the close distance to get perfect aim on my Golbat and launch the cloud of spores at him and paralyze.
My pokemon retreated back in the air, shaking from the paralysis and trying to stay in flight.
Just one move can change the course of battle. When you rely so much on speed – this is the move that causes paralysis. DAMN! I was going to train Moment`s resistance to paralysis on the next training. What do we do now?
We have lost our advantage in speed. Without the paralysis Moment was faster even after the mystical empowering of Vileplume, but now…
"Moment, concentrate. Let`s not hurry now but do everything correctly. Resist it. Tense your muscles. And perform the Wing attack!"
"Oh, I can`t look at this… Well, let`s just use Acid, Vileplume." Leader Erika turned her head away and waved hand to the pokemon.
This time my Moment was too slow to react to the attack. The poisonous spit got right on him, and even got inside his always opened mouth… Really ew… I should wean him from this awful habit to always open his mouth, because this hit him not very hard but he felt this outside and inside. And after some seconds of trying to shake off the disgusting stuff from his body and tongue, he struck the Vileplume with real fury, dealing some more good damage.
So… we are in a stalemate of some sort. Vileplume is too fat to be defeated quickly, so he definitely can withstand some more super effective hits from us. My Moment, on the other hand, gets only not very effective damage from him, but can`t hit first because of the paralysis. If this continues this way… I am not sure that Moment will be the last to fall.
I looked further again, at the opposing Vileplume. He regularly raises his head up and then glows. I`m sure that this somehow fastens his reaction, but what is it? What`s up there?
What options do we have? I don`t want to rely on pure luck with Confusion ray – the opponent can snap out right after the next few seconds, and we will literally lose our move. Bite won`t do too many damage. Startling him with Astonish will be useful only if we strike him first… Now it is NOT an option. Continuing the assault with Wing attack seems the best. I hope Moment can finish him faster than using the same move drains my pokemon completely.
"We will continue. Use Wing attack again!" I commanded with determination.
"Really? We won`t stop too. Use Acid again!" Erika gladly ordered too.
One exchange of attacks… Each side still hangs on… Moment keeps trying to resist the damn paralysis, and he seems to do this pretty well, but at the high cost of speed. Vileplume, on the other hand, just keeps taking the hits like they are almost nothing, but the wounds remain… Yeah, the wounds remain.
We repeated the same commands. Each time this becomes more and more tense. Both pokemon keep on fighting no matter what, and I see the real signs of tiredness. Erika still didn`t reveal her fourth move – I guess, it`s just grass-type move that would not be very effective against us. Her other two moves are status moves that will not have effect when one status ailment is already active. This limits her to just Acid. At least, I can switch to Bite for a couple of times if needed. But until…
"Wing attack, again!"
"Burn him with Acid!"
This put both pokemon at the limit. I see them heavily breathing, shaking and limping. If only we could find the way to strike first, we would win this!
The mysterious glow of Vileplume doesn`t let me calm down. All he does is raising his head up, looks at the…
Sun.
The goddamn sun!
All this time the harsh sunlight was lighting all over the field. The plants – and the grass-type pokemon too – absorb the sunlight to do something with their synthesis processes. This is definitely connected somehow to the acceleration of their body reaction and all.
And, of course, THIS was the reason my Dumpling had so powerful Ember attacks. Fire-type moves get stronger in the sunlight too! I completely forgot about that! And Erika asked me to open the roof on purpose, despite the threat of my Dumpling.
She knew it. She knew it from the very beginning, and she knew that defeating Dumpling with poison is her real strategy against me.
GODDAMNIT! I`m so stupid, I would`ve realized this before. I could block the sunlight with cloud of Smokescreen or something like that.
But we don`t have Smokescreen anymore. It`s just Golbat and Vileplume. One last move decides who will fall first.
"Moment, fly higher and spread your wings over the Vileplume!"
Erika surprisingly opened her mouth. She realized that I finally uncovered her trick. But she quickly recovered and returned her attention back to the field.
My Moment tensed his body and accelerated high up to the sky and spread wings as I told him to. The large shadow covered the field and Vileplume on it, taking away the sunlight that feeds him. The glow faded, and both opposing pokemon and his trainer angrily looked up.
"Too high…" Erika quietly said. "Vileplume, jump and get closer to attack with your Acid!"
Yes!
As the Vileplume lost the advantage of the sun, his movements became much, much slower – slower than even paralyzed Moment. And when he jumped high to attack my pokemon from the closest distance, we did our trick.
"SKYRAGE!"
Moment rushed down to the approaching Vileplume and hit him with wings as hard as he can, sending the wretched flower pokemon with doubled speed back to the ground where he crushed heavily on the floor and finally was defeated.
"Vileplume is unable to battle, and Golbat is the winner. The victory goes to the challenger!" Lori announced loudly at the whole gym.
Yeah… Skyrage maneuver never failed me before. It didn`t fail me now.
Moment slowly descended from the height and pitifully looked at me.
"Yes, yes, I see. You`re barely alive, but you did it. You. Did it." My words cheered the shaking Golbat a bit. "This is the strength I`ve promised to you. This is what I promise to every team member of our gang. But there will be much, much more… And yet… Have a good rest, you earned it."
I returned the beaten Golbat back to pokeball and stood up. Erika had already returned her pokemon and now just stands here silently looking down at ground. She has actually a lot to think about.
Well, we actually win. In the battle two-on-three we actually defeated Erika and now it`s time to get our first prize. First, but not the last.
"So… Leader Erika… Seems like we have much more guts than you thought us to have." I slowly approached her, enjoying the shocked looks of girls surrounding me. They were not just standing here, staring at me… They were applauding. All those girls that I ran away from, all those girls who I mercilessly defeated. I even noticed a girl behind the tree that I used a Confuse Ray on. Now, judging by her eyes, she is in love with me. Or with my Moment. Or she`s just still under the effect of Confuse Ray.
"I have to say… I really underestimated you." Leader Erika raised her eyesight on me. "And I do this very rarely. Honestly, you don`t look like an experienced trainer." She made a step forward to me.
"I am not." I simply replied. "I train pokemon just… for nearly a couple of weeks. I am not very experienced as a trainer… But very experienced as a person." I tried to give her a serious look, to show that I wasn`t joking about a date earlier.
"Well then… Your victory means much more. And this Rainbow badge is rightfully yours." She took a small shiny thing from her pocket. This looked like a small flower made of gems; every leaf has its color. Of course, this is not the actual gems – colored glass, maybe, or even plastic – but still looks really cool, a real rainbow, not comparing to Brock`s Boulder badge which is actually a boulder, I think.
After some second of letting me enjoy the light of Rainbow badge she also took a small disk from her kimono.
"And also I present you this - TM19. This contains the marvelous move called Giga drain. If you have grass-type pokemon, this will be very useful to you as it deals damage and heals your own pokemon at the same time."
"Wonderful. Harry will like it." I took the disk box and hid it in my greatcoat. I`ll upload it into the TM Case later.
Just now I realized another thing – I have collected four badges. Four more to go to be able to challenge the Pokemon League and, maybe, the champion himself. A couple of weeks ago I wouldn`t even dream of it, but now… Four gym badges is a real deal. Maybe I am ready now to face Team Rocket – who knows?
This battle was a real deal. I risked so much betting her, but for some reason I knew my pokemon will succeed. Both of them did really well – better than any when. Of course, I relied much more on my ace partner Dumpling, but he wasn`t ready to face the threat of such level. Maybe, I just expect too much from him. But Moment did really great in this battle. Moment is the star this time, and I wouldn`t really expect that HE will earn a new badge for me.
The fourth badge suits into its place in case so well, and looks awesome together with all the rest. Still, the feeling of something missing bothers me a bit. A perfectionist inside me wants to fill in the rest sockets with the remaining four badges, and when I`ll have all eight…
I`m not sure if I`m going actually to Pokemon League. I don`t really need it. But if I will deal with Team Rocket to that moment AND – what`s more important – will not die to that moment I may try. Just try for once. Just to prove myself that I CAN.
"Are you okay?" Suddenly Erika disturbed me.
"Ah, yes, fine. I was just thinking…" I snapped out of my deep thoughts and looked at the leader Erika. Well, despite the fact of her possible criminal connections, she looks pretty attractive now. I smiled to her. "My part of the deal is done. Do you remember about yours?"
This confused her a bit, but then she pulled herself together and proudly replied.
"A bet is a bet. I will meet you today at 11 P.M. near the PokeCenter. Be ready for this, I`m quite the lady…"
And with even more pride she turned around and walked away. As I looked at her now I feel something… relaxing? Confident? Pleasant… Not dark, criminal and deadly. This woman is the mystery by herself, and today I`m going to reveal it.
I turned around too and headed to the exit of the gym.
She said me to be ready… I will be much more ready than the thinks…