Alright everyone, time for the big event to begin! Hope you're all excited to go!
Chapter 7: Trial of the Ninja
It goes without saying that I don't sleep very well the night before Koga's exam. I have trouble enough getting a full night's sleep on a normal evening, let alone the night before a test that will determine my future on a level well beyond anything I ever experienced back home. Something about this sponsorship exam feels weighty to me in a way life back home just didn't. Maybe it's because I don't want to let Dart and Ogrim down, maybe it's because I left my new friends behind to do this, maybe it's the fact that I'm betting everything I've got on passing this thing.
But I think it's something a lot more than that. In my old life, I never had a goal like what I'm aiming for now. I never knew what I wanted to do with my life. I never knew what my way forward in the world would be. I went to school because I was told to, got a job because I needed to, paid my rent and did my taxes because that's what a good citizen is supposed to do.
But this? Pokémon training? I want this. I really do, with every fibre of my being. And I've been working my ass off for it. I've put more of myself into training Ogrim and Dart than I can remember investing in anything in years. And I don't know what I'll do if I don't make it.
After hours spent freaking out I decide I need to talk to somebody about it. My first thought is Hilda or Bianca, but even if the time zones are different it's still the middle of the night for them as well. And if memory serves they've been dragged off to the desert resort in Unova on League business, so they probably don't have reception where they're at anyways.
That leaves one clear option.
"Golett?" Ogrim mumbles drowsily as he appears in a flash of light.
"Hey bud." I greet my partner, sitting uneasily on the edge of my bed. "Sorry for waking you up. Just… needed a friend."
That is of course, all Ogrim needs to hear. He toddles over without hesitation, eagerly hugging my legs. "Goooooo."
"Thanks Ogrim." I smile, patting him on the head. "You, uhh… you think we got this tomorrow? Dart and I?"
"Golett!" Ogrim replies immediately, stepping back. He leans back to look up at me, raising clenched fists. "Go golett, let golett!"
He doesn't have the slightest doubt. And while there is a cynical part of my brain that reminds me that he couldn't possibly know for sure, I find it strangely easy to tell that part to shut up after hearing Ogrim's encouragement.
Sleep comes pretty easy after that.
I wake up bright and early the next day, tear through a small mountain of pancakes from the Pokémon Center cafeteria, and arrive at the gym nearly half an hour ahead of schedule. In spite of this, there's still a long line to check in with the receptionist, and a sizeable crowd waiting when I get to the arena. The arena still seems to have been repurposed for this exam, though rather than a long mirrored section on the gym leader's side they've set up a stage with a podium.
I've still got ten minutes to wait by the time I've made it to the arena, and spend my time looking around at the other trainers assembled. Most look confident, though there are a few I see hiding snickers at a clueless moron bragging loudly about how his beedrill will fly circles around everyone. It seems to be an unspoken agreement by all in earshot: he can find out on his own.
What strikes me as odd looking at the crowd is that Keith is nowhere to be seen. I mean, the guy can hide himself damn well when he wants to, I figured that out pretty much the moment I met him. But I guess after the way we've been getting along I expected him to come talk to me. Or perhaps to sneak up behind me so he can fuck with me…
I spin around to look behind me. Nope, no ninja. Just some regular-ass trainers giving me regular-ass weird looks for doing my best baltoy impression in the middle of the crowd. And when I turn back to face the front… oh. Koga's standing on the podium now.
"Aspiring trainers, I welcome you back." Koga says, standing in front of everyone assembled, "One month I have given you to train your weedle into a truly impressive specimen. And today, I will witness the fruits of your labor. The hours to come will determine your fates. Though…" his eyes sharpen as he looks over the crowd, "Perhaps it is not hours I will need for some of you, but mere seconds. Trainers, release your weedle."
I take a moment to call out Dart and let him climb up to my shoulder, and look around to see most of the trainers present have weedle of their own appearing. But not all… scattered around the crowd I see quite a few have beedrill flying overhead. There's a few kakuna as well, either held in their trainer's arms, or in the case of the less responsible trainers, left to sit on the ground.
"Oh shit," one of the nearby beedrill trainers gasps, looking around at all the weedle around him, all equipped with everstones. When I happen to meet his eyes he stares at me in utter horror, "Ohhhhh shit. You're kidding me." I can only shrug in response.
It's a call echoed by most of the trainers who failed to get everstones, all of whom are slowly realizing that they've missed out on the trick until now. Those who aren't making noise are the ones who simply learned too late; trainers who didn't find out about the everstone requirement until after their weedle had evolved. They likely walked in here knowing that they'd already failed.
"I see there are quite a few trainers here who neglected to pay attention to the rules of the challenge." Koga says, looking out over the crowd. "My instructions were clear: I will only grant a sponsorship to those trainers with the most impressive weedle. Evolving makes a Pokémon stronger, yes, and is easy to induce in the weedle species. And that is exactly why I am not interested in seeing who can make their weedle evolve. Those of you who followed my instructions, you have spent the past month seeking strength by other means. Your talent, your mind, your ability to meet the needs of your Pokémon, those are what I am here to assess. Those are what a trainer truly needs to succeed. Those of you who have evolved your weedle: you have failed. I have no sponsorship for those who cannot heed my words."
"So this past month was all for nothing!? That's it?" A trainer shouts indignantly.
"For nothing?" Koga raises an eyebrow. "Whether it is all for nothing is entirely up to you. You failed to pass my exam. This is a fact. Whether you have managed to gain something else from your time, that is for you to determine."
Some of the trainers without weedle seem to reflect on that, but the majority can only seem to shout in outrage at having been tricked.
"If you feel so strongly about how worthless this month has been," Koga raises a hand and two gym trainers step forward with a large basket between them, "Feel free to relinquish your beedrill or kakuna to me and be on your way."
"We have to return them!?" The trainer I locked eyes with before cries in shock.
"Not at all." Koga replies. "As I said, whether this month has been for nothing is up to you. This includes whether the Pokémon you trained for the sake of impressing me is worth keeping as a companion. Will you and your ally continue to travel together on the next step of your journey? Or…" he chuckles mockingly, "Would you rather be rid of a lasting reminder of your stupidity?"
There's a moment of silence, before one of the trainers shouts angrily, "Screw this!" A beedrill on the other side of the room vanishes in a flash of red. Its trainer shoves through the crowd and tosses a Poké ball into the basket hard enough it nearly comes flying back out. The man jabs a finger furiously in Koga's direction and declares loudly for the rest of the room to hear, "You're a lowlife piece of garbage. I can't believe I ever respected you." He storms off to the exit without another word, ignoring the absolutely murderous glares the gym trainers are sending him.
Koga, for his part, doesn't so much as glance in the loudmouth's direction. And as yet more trainers start to make their way to the front he continues to completely ignore them.
The trainer next to me sighs in disappointment, but looks up at his beedrill. "Don't worry. This was on me, not you. We'll succeed next time… whenever that is." The beedrill buzzes back in a way I can only assume is affectionate.
"Those of you who wish to keep their beedrill or kakuna will be asked to remain here for the time being." Koga calls out, looking in the direction of a girl with a kakuna making her way to the door. "Before I fully surrender these Pokémon to your care, I must know that you can be trusted with them. In fact…"
Koga makes another gesture with his hand, and a large group of people I recognize as Pokémon Center employees enter the room from behind him. "This is a test that all of those with weedle must pass as well. You will submit your Pokémon for an examination of its physical and mental well-being. Those of you who fail this test will have much worse things to worry about than losing a month of your time. And once those of you who failed to procure an everstone have passed this health check, you will be free to leave. I wish you all the best in your future endeavors."
Koga steps back calmly, and his daughter appears to take his place. "Attention everyone! We will be calling trainers forward in order of the number they were first assigned upon registering with the gym. When your number is called, please step up to this point," She gestures to an area next to the stage, "and follow the directions of the Pokémon Center staff from there. Starting with entry number one… Keith Baxter."
"You don't have to sound so miserable when you call my name you know!" A familiar voice calls out from the far side of the crowd. Keith, in true ninja fashion, seems to appear out of nowhere as he steps up to the stage, shooting Janine a playful grin. Janine does her best impression of her father at Keith's playful teasing, but fails to fully hide her irritation. Out of curiosity I look towards Koga, still watching the proceedings from the stage. If I didn't know better I'd say he almost looks amused, in his own stoic way.
It takes a while before I'm called up, but the medical exam goes smoothly. Dart is given a clean bill of health, though they do recommend some supplements to go with the Pokémon food I've been buying. String shots and poison attacks are apparently more effective the more protein your Pokémon gets. I thought that those attacks were just created through weird Pokémon powers, but I guess there are some biological factors too. Though crazy Pokémon magic definitely still plays a part; for Dart to be able to throw out like ten times his weight in string over the course of a day he has to be breaking the laws of physics somehow.
Only a handful of trainers in the end are unable to pass the medical exam. Most are immediately dragged off by Koga's trainers for law enforcement to deal with, their weedle having shown signs of neglect or abuse. The one exception is a guy who looks barely old enough to train. His weedle is definitely not eating enough from the look of it, but neither is the trainer. Koga takes one look at the too-skinny kid clutching his poké ball with everything he has and says sternly, "I hope for your sake that you impress me today." The warning in the statement is clear. Koga won't pull his punches for anyone.
I thought I was feeling pretty desperate to win this but seeing this guy makes it clear I don't know the meaning of the word. That said, I won't be pulling my punches for this kid either. Don't think I can afford to; the look in his eyes makes it all too clear he's gonna play for keeps.
By the end of the medical exam there are roughly fifty trainers left, not counting the people with beedrill and kakuna who are loitering around to watch the proceedings. Koga takes his place on the stage once more, looking out over everyone impassively. "Those of you who are left, congratulations. You have proven yourself capable of raising a Pokémon without abusing it. You have achieved the bare minimum required of you as a trainer. From here you will be required to show that you are capable of something more.
"Those of you who have failed and yet remain… you are free to observe the test to come. Just know that there will be no second chances for you. Your failure is final. If you linger out of the delusion that I will change my mind then purge yourself of that notion here and now. The rest of you, follow. This battlefield is hardly enough for our purposes."
Our group is led down a series of halls, eventually emerging into a massive indoor battle area. The whole room is packed full of battle arenas, though they clearly aren't standard size. Still, it's a Pokémon battle arena, so it's not exactly small. Did we move underground at some point? The Fuchsia gym has a lot of space but this is ridiculous. This room looks big enough to fit the whole damn building.
Once everyone's filed into the room Koga reveals that this is indeed an underground training area. One which he's had repurposed for the test. From there the gym trainers send us each to a battlefield. And then, in a move that is both very weird, and very cool, the trainers start sending out venomoth to fly down and cling to our shoulders. As somebody who has a healthy appreciation for damn near all poison Pokémon I take this development a lot better than many of the trainers, even if I can't help but be a bit unnerved. Some of the other trainers completely lose their shit when their giant moth attempts to land on them. Surprisingly, Koga seems to have no problem with the trainers who don't accept this. He just has those venomoth move to other trainers and carries on.
"What exactly is the point of this?" I can't help but ask one of the gym trainers as she walks past.
"Can't say, sorry." She shrugs, "I'm sure you've figured out by now that Koga really likes his surprises. He'd give me hell if I spoiled it for you."
"Alright, well…" I frown uneasily, looking over my shoulder to the venomoth. "Looking forward to working with you, I guess."
The venomoth clacks its mandibles and nods in response. Seeing those giant bug eyes peering over my shoulder is honestly really creepy, but it helps knowing that my new passenger is friendly.
Once as many trainers as have the stomach for it have been set up with a venomoth Koga wastes no more time, simply raising an arm. "Release your weedle."
"Let's go Dart." I nod, tossing my Poké ball forward. Dart appears in a flash of light, looks around the room, and upon realizing that this is the real thing, starts flailing his body around like crazy. Across from me, the opponent releases their own weedle, whose reaction to the surroundings is much more subdued. The trainer in front of me looks unnerved by the difference in energy between his weedle and mine.
"Trainers, get ready." Koga's voice booms throughout the room.
"Let's pace ourselves Dart," I call out, "don't burn through all your energy in the first match, you'll regret it later." Though if Dart does have a cap to that energy of his we have yet to find it.
"You won't be needing to save your energy." My opponent calls back. "Because you're-"
"Begin!" Koga snaps, cutting him off. Bit of a shame, that. Sounded like he was gearing up for some pretty solid trash talk.
The room becomes a chaotic mess of shouting and Pokémon cries as everyone starts battling at once, and things prove no different here, as Dart immediately starts the battle by spitting a web wad straight at the opponent's face. The weedle across from me rears back, narrowly avoiding the shot, and fires off a tight spray of poison stings in response.
"Drown 'em!" I snap out. Dart reacts immediately, firing off a plaster shot which interrupts the needles and causes them to fall uselessly to the ground. He follows up with another web ball that splatters across the opponent's face. The opponent starts thrashing around in a panic, blinded by the string shot and rapidly becoming weighed down by the dirt of the arena as it clings to them.
"Wait it out!" I call out, watching as the other trainer panics and yells orders fruitlessly. "Let him struggle." Dart groans, wanting to get in there and finish things quickly, but doesn't charge. He settles instead for pacing back and forth. I don't want to risk him taking a nasty hit by the opponent's tail by getting overeager.
But before the enemy weedle can tire out properly Koga's voice echoes suddenly. "Stop!" I look towards him in confusion, wondering for a moment if things are over for everyone already. No, most battles are still ongoing. Only a few have actually reached anything close to an ending, mine being one of the more lopsided matches I can see.
My confusion only increases as the lights go out. And suddenly the venomoth on my back lets out an odd humming noise. There's a moment of sudden weightlessness, as I feel very suddenly dizzy.
The lights come back on. And I realize I've been moved three battlefields to the left. "What?" I look around in bewilderment, trying to wrap my head around it. Since the square I'm standing in looks the same as the last one it takes me a moment to understand. It feels almost like the room's walls have moved around me, since I didn't do anything to move myself.
This is what the venomoth are for. They're all teleporters. Koga's using them to jump us around the room to our different opponents.
…But he didn't jump our weedle. "DART!" I holler back at the field I was in before, getting the attention of my very confused weedle. Dart whirls around to face me, makes a bewildered noise, and rushes over.
"Get back to me the moment he calls a stop next time." I say as Dart crawls up to me. "If he moved me farther than this we'd have been screwed."
"Weedle!" Dart nods, taking his place in front of me. My opponent this time is a stern looking girl whose weedle is already waiting for us. The two of us turn to look towards Koga, waiting for him to call the start of the next fight.
Several seconds pass in which the other trainers ready themselves, though some, like my previous opponent, are struggling to get their weedle untangled from webs. And soon nearly everyone is watching Koga attentively. Koga looks around at all the watchful trainers, and raises an eyebrow. "Well? Why are you not battling? The lights are back on."
Ah. So that's how he wants to play it. My opponent and I spin back to the battlefield as one, and call out at almost the exact same time "String shot!"
The enemy is faster on the draw, but not quite by enough to matter. Dart's attack still comes out fast enough to collide midair with the enemy's attack, both web blasts falling uselessly to the ground.
"Reel!" I call out quickly. Dart responds with a web rope that latches onto the opponent and drags them quickly towards the mess of string covering the ground.
"Crap!" The girl yells as she realizes what I'm trying to do. "Bug bite! Cut the line! Slow retreat!"
It's quick thinking, and does the trick for my opponent. The weedle's jaws manage to chew through the line with seconds to spare. Dart attempts to connect another line, but her slow retreat command seems to have been given with that strategy in mind. The enemy weedle is moving away sideways, head and tail both pointed towards us, and the second line is interrupted by a thick spray of poison stings from both before it can connect.
"Not bad at all." I admit begrudgingly. "Cast some nets, Dart!"
"Hit the edge!" The girl calls immediately.
Another solid defensive call. Dart's webs are disabled immediately when a spray of poison stings cause them to fold in midair. "Shit!" I hiss, watching as the weedle continues its slow retreat. The poison sting defense is more formidable than I thought it would be. Even a web ball wouldn't be able to punch through that concentrated poison sting attack. Plaster would get past, but it isn't enough on its own.
"Plaster!" I call out anyways. Hopefully this will give me some sort of opening. The liquid webbing gets a hole blasted in it by more poison stings, but being liquid, that doesn't matter much in this case. The enemy weedle gets sprayed, and yelps in shock as the goo starts drying all over it.
"Come on Daisy, shake it off!" The girl calls out nervously. When that shows immediate results she regains her confidence quickly. "Roll around on the ground, that stuff breaks easily!"
"Hit as hard as you can now!" I call out. Dart deploys his namesake with gleeful abandon, hitting the other weedle with a heavy spray of poison stings. "Good, now fire a web ball!"
I'm too late. By the time Dart fires off the web ball the other weedle has recovered from being sprayed and manages to hit it with enough poison stings to cut off its momentum. That was a dumb mistake. If I'd called for the web ball first the fight could very well be over by now. I went for easy damage instead and now the stalemate is back.
"Spray again!" I call out, eager to remedy my error.
"Not this time!" The girl calls out angrily. "String shot!"
The string shot meets my liquid spray in midair, and manages to block off a great deal more than the previous. Instead of the weedle getting doused with the stuff there's only a light sprinkling, which is easily shaken off.
Ugh. She catches on quick. At this rate I won't be able to beat her without revealing Dart's mobility techniques, something I was hoping to keep in reserve for as long as possible. That's what I get for screwing up and throwing away my chance to finish the match, I suppose.
"Dart, let's-"
"Stop!"
I freeze up, having been caught off guard by the call even more than last time. I guess it's because I was in the thick of things this time, instead of just waiting for a chance to end the match. Thankfully Dart recovers faster than I do, wiggling over to me quickly. The lights go out as he draws near, and I feel him gripping my pant leg just as venomoth begins to hum again.
Another moment of dizziness. Followed by a moment in the dark spent reflecting on how I was saved by the bell just now. Hopefully the next opponent won't require that much effort. That girl's defenses were ridiculous.
The lights come back on, and I hold my leg out for Dart to jump off of. The opponent is taking a moment to look around at his surroundings, trying to figure out where in the room he's been teleported to. Apparently he missed the memo about the battles starting when the lights turn on. Oh wait, he's actually looking for his weedle, I guess it didn't make it back before he got teleported.
I watch for several long moments as he finds his weedle, running over to recall it from the last ring he was in. "Sorry about that!" He calls across to me, releasing his weedle as soon as he's back in his place. "Ready when-"
"Web wad." I cut him off.
The opponent howls in outrage as his weedle is pinned to the ground at both ends before he's had time to give a single command. "What the hell!?"
"You're the one who's late to the party dude," I reply dismissively, watching as Dart rushes in. "You heard Koga. Fight starts when the lights come on. I'm not going to sit around just because you weren't ready to go."
"That's such bullshit!" The opponent yells indignantly.
"Nah, he's got the right of it." A gym trainer interjects, strolling into our battlefield, looking between my opponent and his tablet. "Mister… Tarron, is it? Your weedle has been rendered unable to battle. Please recall your weedle and exit the battling area."
"What!?" The noisy bugger looks back to his weedle in shock. Apparently he was so busy throwing a fit that he didn't notice Dart going nuts with bug bite on his weedle. "Son of a bitch!" He yells furiously. "This is total garbage!"
"Uh huh. Better luck next time." The gym trainer replies, very blatantly ignoring him in favor of tapping away at the tablet. "I've cleared you from the running. You can either watch the rest of the matches with the others or take your weedle and go."
"Screw that." The guy spits, recalling his weedle and shoving the poké ball into the gym trainer's hand. "Keep the useless bug. I'm done with this." He shoots me an absolutely murderous glare and storms away, heading straight for the doors.
"Asshole." The gym trainer mutters, before looking over to me. "Keep up the good work Mr. Wilson."
"Thanks…" I reply, feeling a bit unsettled by the whole thing. Was that my fault? I mean, the guy needed to get his shit together, yeah, but was I out of line in stomping him before he was ready? I don't think I was, but still… watching the guy just abandon his weedle after it lost to me leaves a bad taste in my mouth.
Dart seems to feel the same, lashing angrily at the ground with his tail spike as he watches the trainer leave. Once the guy is out of sight he turns back to me, crawls over slowly, and climbs his way up to my shoulder. "Weedle." He snaps irritably, burrowing into the collar of my jacket and grumbling.
"Yeah, he was a real jerk, huh?" I comment idly, running my fingers along Dart's back. "Let's try not to dwell on it, alright? Gotta keep our heads in the game."
"…Dluh." Dart grumbles, before perking up a little, giving me a determined glare. "Weedle."
"That's the spirit." I nod.
"Ven." The venomoth riding my back chimes in encouragingly.
"Thanks." I reply, shooting the bigger bug a smile.
"Stop!"
"You heard the man." I comment as the lights go out and venomoth does its thing.
The next fight ends about as quickly as the previous one did, but the trainer thankfully doesn't act like a shithead about it. Part of that might have something to do with how exhausted he seems to be by the time he gets to me. The poor guy tells me why once our battle is over; he was sent to fight me right after fending off Keith.
I spend my free time looking around the room to see if I can spot the ninja battling, maybe get an idea of what I'm in for if we face off. By the time I find him I'm too late. He's already finished his opponent off, and is relaxing on his side of the field. He must have some sort of sixth sense for detecting when people are staring at him, because his eyes snap to mine after a couple of seconds. Cheeky bugger gives me a thumbs up. Which I return, because I'm not an asshole, but I'd be lying if I didn't resent him right now, just a little. Stupid ninja genius with his crazy scyther and his allegedly badass weedle.
"Stop!"
It looks like after four rounds of the same thing Koga's gotten bored. No weedle for me this round, instead I find myself faced off against a gym trainer. The same one I spoke to before all this kicked off, actually.
"Here comes one of those surprises I told you about." She calls out in greeting, a cheeky grin on her face as the lights come up. "Grimer, use sludge!"
"What the- Web ball!" I yell, looking at the sentient slime monster standing across of me where a weedle is supposed to be.
Dart's web ball hits the sludge attack dead center, sending the noxious stuff splattering all over the area around him. "Weedle!" He shrieks in disgust, rubbing his nose into the ground. The smell hits me a moment later and I immediately sympathize with the little bug. It smells like somebody dug up a fucking outhouse.
"God damn it!" I snarl in disgust, tugging my shirt up to cover my face. "Pin it down, Dart! Throw a net!"
Dart is still reeling from the stench of the sludge he just got pelted with, but manages to hurl a net, which drapes over the grimer.
"Melt through it." The gym trainer calls out casually. "Then hit them with mud bomb." The grimer calls out in acknowledgement, and grabs at the net, spitting acid onto it.
"Keep throwing nets." I reply, trying to keep my breathing shallow.
The grimer has barely pulled itself free from the first net when the second hits it. Then another. And another. I watch carefully as the nets begin to pile up, being thrown out faster than the grimer can melt through them.
"Okay, forget melting it grimer, just squeeze through the gaps." The gym trainer calls out impatiently. The grimer burbles in reply, and starts oozing its way through the net.
This is part of why grimer and muk are such a problem for trainers. It's not just that they leave toxic waste everywhere they go and touch; it's also the fact that they're so damn difficult to contain. They're made of liquid after all. They can just ooze through or around most attempts to stop them. And unlike the games grimer and muk are extremely difficult to hurt with physical attacks. There's a very good reason Koga's muk is frequently rated as one of the most unpleasant Pokémon to fight in Kanto's Elite Four; if you can't overwhelm a grimer or muk with superior firepower you aren't going to win.
Dart can't do that. Not like this at least. After he's evolved I could potentially teach him what he needs to damage this grimer, but with only poison sting and bug bite to attack with it's just not happening.
And with that in mind, I stick to using string shot. "Don't let it out Dart! Web ball!"
Dart's web ball collides with the grimer's face and coats that side of the dome of webbing in silk. The grimer makes a disgruntled sound, and starts trying to squeeze out on the other side. Unfortunately for the grimer, Dart has realized that grimer is having trouble with these web balls and starts spitting up more of them.
"Alright, now use plaster." I call out my finishing blow.
"Weedle!" Dart yells, coating the silken monstrosity he's created with very sticky, and very watertight goo. That slimy bugger can't ooze through the gaps if I seal them all.
"A bit wasteful, but not bad!" The gym trainer applauds. "I think I can let you off the hook with that."
I can't deny that the strategy tired Dart out a fair bit, but her superior tone still irks me. "Let me off the hook? What, you have a move to get through a watertight dome?" I challenge.
"Of course." She smirks, snapping her fingers.
The dome explodes into a ball of fire, sending Dart running in a panic. The grimer emerges from the flames a moment later, looking singed, but still very battle ready.
"Incinerate." She calls out as an explanation. "I usually use it to melt through any opponent trying to get cheeky with an ice attack, but it works well enough for webbing too. Though as you can see, burning the webbing isn't exactly fun for grimer."
"I can imagine." I reply, staring at the blackened remains of Dart's hard work blankly.
"Lucky for you Koga doesn't want me busting out any fire attacks against you guys." The trainer grins, looking just a bit smug. "So if I hadn't already declared you the winners you definitely would have won when I used that one just now."
"Stop!"
"Well, that's that." The trainer shrugs just as the lights go out. "Good luck with your next match. Now let's see if the next sucker sent my way can pull off anything like you did."
The lights come back on. I'm facing another weedle. One looking very wobbly. Dart is pretty worn out himself after spitting all those webs to deal with that grimer, but thankfully he's still fighting fit. This poor weedle is on its last legs.
They hold out a little while, but in the end Dart nails them with a web ball that sends them tumbling over for an easy bug bite finisher. The other trainer sighs in resignation as he recalls his Pokémon. "Well, I guess a weedle can only take me so far." He shrugs, moving to the stands. Oddly enough none of the gym trainers approach him. Either they're too busy battling now or Koga's got something else in mind for trainers who have made it to this point.
"Stop!"
The next opponent I face is another gym trainer, who attacks with a zubat. The beginning of the fight is completely one sided, with the speedy flier easily swooping around my attempts to snipe it out of the air.
"Right, guess it's time, Dart." I groan as Dart narrowly avoids a diving attack by the zubat. "Get above it."
"Weedle!" Dart cries out eagerly, firing a rope into the air and fixing it to one of the ceiling joists overhead. And then in the blink of an eye, Dart vanishes.
"What?" The gym trainer blinks in surprise. "Where did he-?"
"Net."
The zubat is actually not caught off guard to nearly the same extent as its trainer. The Pokémon's senses are clearly well above that of a human. But even if it can follow Dart's movement fairly well, it's no less confused about the flying weedle that suddenly launched itself overhead.
"Supersonic!" The trainer calls out desperately, having finally realized what's going on.
The move is too late to stop Dart's net from dragging the zubat out of the sky, but it manages to send Dart tumbling out of the sky. The waves of sound pass through the net easily, and Dart gets blasted with sound at close range. The shriek of pain he lets out somehow feel more painful than the zubat's attack.
Should have used the web ball. The net has a better chance of hitting, but it's not nearly as fast. I tried to play it too safe and now I'm paying the price.
"Airbag!" I call out, trying to get Dart to focus before the fall causes even more damage.
Airbag is a maneuver I've been teaching Dart for when his launches go badly. Just a web ball without the sticky crap, to help soften the landing. And Dart does his best to use it here, he really does. But thanks to the supersonic attack scrambling his senses, he doesn't know which way is up right now. The ball of silk lands in an ineffective heap roughly a foot away from the actual point of impact.
"Dluh…" Dart groans woozily, rolling onto his feet unsteadily. He's really out of it. If that zubat wasn't pinned to the floor right now this fight would be over in seconds.
"Come on Dart, focus up!" I call out, trying to get him to snap out of it before that damn zubat gets free.
"Stop!"
"Shit!" I hiss out, turning to Dart. The little weedle looks back to me blearily. He attempts to rush back to me, but can't stop swaying.
"Screw this." I snap after a moment, pulling out Dart's ball and recalling him just before the lights go out. Once the familiar dizziness of venomoth's teleportation wears off I toss the ball blindly out in front of me. "Dart, you good?"
"Dluh. Weedle." Dart groans in reply. He sounds a little better at least. Hopefully the next opponent won't be too fast on the draw, or else the troubles are just going to get worse from here.
The lights come back on.
"Do it, Rapid." My opponent calls out immediately. It's the half-starved kid from earlier. The one I really wanted to be in good shape for.
The enemy weedle fires off a poison sting attack. But that doesn't really do it justice. Because this little bugger is pumping out needles like some kind of goddamn Gatling gun.
"Weedle!" Dart yelps in shock as he's pelted by a non-stop stream of poison stings. Well if he hadn't snapped out of confusion before he certainly has now.
"Don't panic Dart, drop a web ball and get behind it!"
Dart struggles to follow my suggestion, but eventually manages to spit up a web ball big enough to hide behind, if only barely. He curls up tightly, gasping for breath. Poor little guy must have been hit by dozens of those damn needles while getting that barrier up.
"Sideways, up, and over!" I call out, now that Dart has a bit of space to maneuver properly.
Dart acts immediately, shooting a long rope of web out of cover and using it to zip away from the line of fire. The other weedle attempts to follow, but as impressive its rate of fire is (seriously, this little lunatic hasn't stopped firing needles since the battle started) it can't seem to turn fast enough to keep up with how fast Dart moves when using his webs to zip around.
Dart launches his counterattack from there. He launches himself straight up in the air, and then fires off another rope to pull himself along in midair. The time he spent pulling himself through the trees for the past month is paying off big in this room with its exposed rafters. Dart gets directly above the other weedle in seconds, and spits a net down from above.
The weedle has stopped firing at last, which seems to let it make sharper turns. But even as it aims up at Dart the web is already bearing down. And in stark contrast to the girl I fought earlier, this weedle doesn't seem to be prepared to use its poison sting defensively. If the girl had mastered using it to neutralize attacks, this guy has given his all to turning poison sting into a truly potent offensive tool.
It's a scary move, but the battle was over the moment I escaped it. Dart's net pins the opponent to the ground, rendering it unable to adjust its aim. From there it's simply a matter of landing properly and hitting the opponent with a few bug bites to finish the job.
Though simple isn't a word I'd use to describe the battle by any means. This matchup was short, but brutal. That Gatling sting was absurdly strong. Strong enough that Dart's carapace is covered with scratches from tanking it. I probably took more damage against that kid than the rest of my matches combined.
Despite the desperation he's shown and the brutality of his strategy though, the kid seems to take his loss well. He returns his weedle, looks back to me, and bows his head. "It was a good battle."
"Yeah, back at you." I nod in return. "If Koga wasn't impressed by that poison sting move of yours he's gotta be nuts."
The compliment makes the guy look intensely uncomfortable. "…Thanks." He nods stiffly, walking quickly to the sidelines. Maybe I was being nosey with the encouragement? I guess I did basically just reveal that I was watching what happened during that medical exam.
"That might have been a bit of a dick move on my part, huh?" I frown, scratching at my head uncomfortably. "Poking my nose where it doesn't belong."
"Weedle? Wee do weedle." Dart replies, tilting his head as he looks up at me.
"…I still can't understand you half as well as Ogrim." I mutter, dropping to one knee as Dart crawls back to me. "Come on, I should still have a potion or two in my bag. Hopefully that'll take the edge off all these scrapes."
"Stop!"
"Crap!" I hiss, fumbling with the potion as Dart hurriedly jumps on my arm. I spray haphazardly as the lights go out, trying to get as much onto the injuries as I can without accidentally shooting him in the eyes or mouth. Pretty sure at least half the damn potion just ends up on my sleeve. Once the lights come back on I'm able to see that Dart does look a little better, but there's no time to do things properly anymore. The next opponent is already in front of us.
I thought when the gym trainers started showing up to mess with me that Koga was taking off the kid gloves. Turns out he was only just getting started. Because after having my attempt at fixing Dart interrupted I stop having any sort of time to think. Most of my battles don't finish, instead being quickly cut off before I can even think of going for the finisher.
It takes me a few of these lightning rounds before I realize what Koga is doing. Every time a trainer gets a knockout, he shuffles the board. The only exception is if a gym trainer eliminates somebody. Basically, he's stepping in the moment it looks like one of us might have time to breathe.
It turns the competition to follow into a brutal test of endurance. The first part of the tests were roughly an hour long all together, and eliminated more than half of the trainers I was competing against. By my estimate there were about 20 or so left when Koga started upping the pace. Since then it's been another half an hour, and we're still at a dozen. Eight trainers eliminated in the same time it previously took to drop twenty. At first glance that might seem like a small drop, but now that I don't get a chance to breathe even if I manage a knockout the pace feels absolutely grueling. My mind is working overtime, constantly trying to adapt on the fly to whatever tricks the opposing weedle have come up with, to say nothing of the gym trainers appearing to really throw me for a loop.
And if I'm getting worn out, then Dart is barely holding together. It seems that thanks to Koga's challenge I am finally discovering the limits of the plucky weedle's energy. My earlier mistakes are coming back to haunt us here. Failing the finishing blow against that girl in the second round, moving too slowly with that grimer, every little misplay I've made is being amplified by the weight of time. Potions can take the edge off of the damage Dart's taken, but they don't do anything to give him the energy to keep fighting.
And so we struggle our way along, gradually feeling more and more worn down, even as Koga continues the brutal pace.
"Stop."
This weedle seems to have an attack similar to my own web balls. Neutralize with my own, get around it with ropes and hit it from behind.
"Stop."
A koffing now. The smell's almost as distracting as that damn grimer, but plugging its gas vents with plaster seems to ruin its day.
"Stop."
The weedle and its trainer are both on its last legs, but the field I've been teleported to is still covered with webs from the last battle, so Dart has to spend the fight running through the rafters.
"Stop."
"Stop."
"Stop."
My head is pounding. Dart's breathing is getting heavier and heavier.
Until finally, as the lights come back on, the opponent standing across from us is Keith Baxter. He smiles confidently at me, his own weedle looking ready to go. "You prepared for this Ben? The real fight starts right now!"
Sorry to leave things on a cliffhanger like this. My original plan was to include the entirety of Koga's test in one chapter, but... I got carried away. Part of the reason I first set this challenge up was to see if I could come up with a really entertaining battle sequence using a Pokemon with a limited moveset like Weedle. And I don't know if I can safely say I succeeded, since I'm probably biased, but I will say I entertained the hell out of myself writing things. Perhaps a bit too much...
Once I realized I had a full chapter's worth of content before I'd even begun the battle with Keith I had to choose between posting an update now or waiting longer to put out a chapter that would be damn near double the length of every chapter I've written for this fic so far. As you can see, I decided to give you some content now. Think of this as an appetizer. And next chapter, Keith will be here to serve up the main course. Expect a battle to push the limits of what worm vs worm combat can be. Like that one video game, but without the bananas or jetpacks.
And while you wait for that battle, come check out the Treehouse Discord! discord .gg/9XG3U7a