Chapter 6 – Fire, Water, and Grass
By the time Kimiko returned with some chips from the vending machine down in the pokémon center's lobby, the episode of Today's Trainers had already begun. She and Alex settled in on the bed to watch.
"–and today we're going to showcase two trainers – finalists in the recent charity tournament held in Pebble Town," said the host of the show, a young-looking, energetic brown-haired boy in a white suit. A nameplate on the screen identified him as Devin Sinclair, known to most in Vidiva as a member of the region's Elite Four. "Why is this battle special, you ask? This particular battle is a full battle, which these days is rarely seen outside of official league matches. But even that's not what makes this interesting! No, my friends, this battle was chosen for this week's feature because of the teams that made it to the finals! One trainer, a feisty young girl who trains fire-type pokémon. The other, a spirited young man who favors, of all things, water-type pokémon! Now, I know what all you at home are thinking, but I assure you, this battle might not be as one-sided as you're expecting! Now, why don't we get to the battle before I spoil it for you all, shall we?"
The screen changed to show the host standing in front of the image of a mostly standard battlefield, presumably the location of the battle about to be shown. "Now, as always, I'll recap the rules of this battle beforehand for you all. This battle is a fairly simple one: a full six-on-six team battle, with no time limit but no switching allowed. Also, as this is a mono-type tournament, each team must consist of at least three pokémon that share the same type. However, trainers were allowed to rotate their party in between rounds, and in addition, this tournament has an additional rule stating that before a battle, each trainer must show the other three of their current party, to allow for a bit of strategizing. Now, as always, due to time constraints, we won't be showing too many issued orders and of course some parts of the battle have been sped up, but rest assured that those of you watching at home will not miss any of the action! And that, my friends, is where we shall begin!"
The screen changed again away from Devin to that of the open-topped stadium of Pebble Town, now full of people seated to watch the battles of the day. It was a standard battlefield – white painted boundaries on the ground clearly identifying the border and dividing the field in equal halves as well as a large viewscreen for those in the farthest seats to get a closer look at some of the action – with the exception of extra rocks and boulders scattered all throughout, reflecting the city's namesake. There was a brief scene showing the trainers walking onto the field to shake hands; Lillia emerged from the left, wearing a light blue tank top with a slightly larger black tank top underneath and jeans, her long raven hair blowing behind her in the wind, save for a single white streak near her right eye. Walking alongside her was a rather menacing-looking houndour. Her opponent, a boy called Adam, was a very young boy, no more than age thirteen at the most, with short red hair, a simple yellow t-shirt with a red stripe across the stomach, and navy shorts. While Lillia appeared confident, Adam looked utterly terrified upon seeing the houndour at his opponent's side.
After shaking hands, Adam seemed to recover some courage upon realizing that the houndour was not about to pounce on him. As per the rules, both trainers selected a couple pokéballs and let them drop to the ground in front of them, releasing their inhabitants. Adam chose to reveal a floatzel, a seadra, and a primeape. Lillia had chosen hers as well; houndour was already out, having walked with her to the battlefield. She released a charizard and a torkoal in addition.
"I'll bet you anything that that primeape is that kid's ace," Alex commented.
"And I'll bet you that houndour is the ace Lillia mentioned," Kimiko added.
Adam had won the rights to choose the order of battle with a coin toss and decided to make the first move, probably deciding his type advantage nullified any pokémon choice Lillia made. The two trainers and their pokémon returned to their respective sides of the field. Recalling seadra and primeape, Adam sent his floatzel onto the battlefield to begin. Lillia considered this – Floatzel was a water-type that favored physical strength, and was also faster than any pokémon she brought. After careful consideration, Lillia followed Adam's lead and recalled two of the pokémon she revealed, sending in her torkoal, Zuko, rather than one of her still-unknown pokémon, hoping torkoal's strong physical defense would be enough to counter floatzel's powerful offense. In addition, torkoal were naturally slow and worked well that way, effectively rendering floatzel's amazing speed advantage moot.
The referee, a middle-aged brown-haired man in the standard black and white striped uniform, waved his flags to begin the battle. It didn't last a full two minutes. Every time the floatzel came in for an attack, Zuko either pushed it back with a powerful flamethrower or simply took the hit and responded with a strong lava plume. By the time Adam had thought enough to use ranged attacks despite floatzel's general less-than-satisfactory sharpness with them, Zuko had released a massive earthquake attack that KO'd the water-type before it could fire.
Adam simply smirked as he recalled his pokémon and sent out a completely new one. Lillia watched curiously as Adam's slowbro yawned; it didn't seem to even realize it was in battle. She laughed as she ordered another earthquake, but just as Zuko prepared to unleash the move, he was lifted into the air by a strange blue aura. Lillia scowled then; slowbro was paying minimal attention and still managed to halt any sort of offense with its psychic attack. She ordered a long-range flamethrower instead, which was blocked by several large boulders, lifted into the path of the attack, again by the slowbro's psychic. At Adam's order, the slowbro then hurled said stones at Zuko, who was buried easily. After a quick scald, Zuko was tossed aside and retreated into his shell, defeated.
Lillia sent in her houndour, Hades, next. She easily took down the slowbro, who apparently relied mostly on his psychic and other similar moves to win rather than water. Hades was defeated swiftly by a speedy close combat from Adam's primeape immediately afterwards, before it could launch a single attack. The fighting-type also knocked out Summer, Lillia's flareon, with minor difficulty, though quick thinking on Summer's part scored a will-o-wisp before she went down, leaving primeape a sitting duck for Lillia's vulpix, Vixen.
The episode cut to a commercial after a quick camera flash over to Lillia to show off her confident air – she clearly was having fun – and then to Adam, displaying a distraught reaction to the crowd. He obviously hadn't intended to have this much trouble against a team of fire-types.
"She's doing well," Alex said, biting into another chip.
"I wonder what's with the primeape," Kimiko replied. "It didn't really seem too much stronger than any of his other pokémon. If that was his ace, no wonder Lillia was so excited. She had more trouble with that than either of his water-types so far."
Several minutes later and the show returned, Devin back on the screen. "Welcome back to the show!" he exclaimed. "What an exciting back and forth match this has been, hasn't it? I bet you all can see why we were so interested in these two youngsters now, am I right? It looks like Lillia's pokémon are completely out-speeding and overpowering Adam's as if there were no type disadvantage at all! But it's just about to get interesting. Can Adam make a comeback? Why don't we find out! Let's get back to the battle!" And with that, the previous shot of the trainers' expressions was shown side-by-side, and the battle resumed.
Vixen also managed to take out Adam's next pokémon, an octillery, by repeatedly pulling off a surprising energy ball, a grass-type attack that the octopus just couldn't dodge. Adam turned the tables with Lillia's own strengths after that; her vulpix was finally brought down by Adam's seadra, who simply out-sped and overpowered the little fox. Lillia sent out a charizard next, who seemed to be more interested in her surroundings than her opponent. After the longest battle so far, Etna managed to bring down the seadra with a powerful solar beam, another grass-type attack. Unfortunately for Lillia, Adam's final pokémon was his true ace, which turned out to be not his primeape, but a rather bored-looking gyarados, who dispatched of Etna with a few crushing slams of its watery tail.
But when the camera panned to the trainer's box, Lillia smirked as she pulled out her final pokéball. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath before hurling it very animatedly into the arena, calling out her pokémon by name, where it opened to reveal Dante the magmar. He calmly glared up his foe, who looked more bored than ever with his new opponent. As both pokémon stared each other down, the show cut to commercials again.
"Where did she get a magmar?" Kimiko said, surprised. "There's no volcano around Vidiva that I know of."
"Who knows," Alex answered. "She's handed out quite a few surprises this battle so far. Who knew her vulpix could use a grass-type move? Charizard, sure, but a vulpix?"
"I guess you're not the only one of us that did any special training with their team," Kimiko commented.
"Guess not," Alex replied. "I wonder how she's going to get out of this, though. Magmar's moves are mostly fire-type, and there's not a lot it can really do against a virtually undamaged gyarados. A solid aqua tail or two could end it."
Another few minutes of speculation later and Devin Sinclair returned to the screen again. "And we're back! I bet you all are just dying to know what happens next, am I right? Well, you'll be happy to know that we'll be showing you the full final battle, with no edits or narration! Just the pure, original, unedited footage, every exciting moment, every breath and plea of the trainers, every single attack by their pokémon! Here's how we stand: both trainers, their best, their strongest, and their final pokémon on the field, neither of them damaged or tired in the least, ready to tear each other apart! Hang on to your seats, pokémon fans, this one's like nothing you've seen this far! Let's get to it!"
The screen changed to the previous shot of the magmar and gyarados staring each other down. As soon as the flag was waved, Adam's gyarados launched a dragon rage towards Dante and then turned his attention to the crowd.
Lillia wanted until the attack was almost on top of her pokémon before responding. "Fire Blast!" she ordered; where previously the only voices were the stadium commentators, now the voices of the trainers had been left in. Dante leapt straight up, just narrowly avoiding the blast, and let loose a barrage of flames at the gyarados.
"Gyarados, look out!" Adam called frantically to his pokémon, who was paying Dante no attention, possibly thinking his attack had already knocked his opponent out. The great sea dragon turned his head around just in time to catch a face-full of fire. Lillia ordered a feint attack as Dante fell back to the ground; her magmar vanished in a sudden cloud of dark purple energy, reappearing out of a similar energy surge below the gyarados's head. The dragon's eyes were still squeezed shut as the last of the fire faded; there was no time to react as Dante shot upward out of the opening and rammed himself hard into the gyarados's jaw. As the gyarados roared, more in rage than from pain, Dante disappeared into another energy surge, reappearing safely on the ground.
"Aqua tail, right below you!" Adam ordered. His pokémon obeyed, randomly thrashing the ground around him with his tail, now in a semi-liquid state, however all he accomplished was cracking the arena floor and crushing a boulder or two; Dante had retreated a safe distance as soon as the order was given.
Neither Lillia nor Dante made a move as they watched Adam try to calm down the rampaging gyarados. The younger trainer was clearly losing his nerve; he hadn't expected the battle to go this badly, and talking to his raging beast was about as effective as striking a rhydon's horn with lightning. He decided perhaps simply declaring another strike would satisfy his pokémon. "Hyper beam!" he called.
"Double team," Lillia countered, swiftly but calmly. Adam's gyarados seemed to accept an order for destruction and launched the vibrant orange beam of energy with gusto. Again, Dante waited until the attack was almost upon him before reacting, moving so fast that he became a blur as he created two illusionary copies of himself. The pure energy of the hyper beam attack created a massive explosion as it crashed right through one of the copies and into the dirt.
The failed attack was too much for the gyarados – it was pissed. Even as Adam tried to beg, the gyarados cloaked himself in blue-green dragon flames and hurled himself at Dante, his rage taking over. Lillia visibly tensed and shot a look at her pokémon, but Dante stood his ground, his expression as blank as ever, so she forced herself to relax. These were the kinds of situations she'd learned it was better to trust Dante, to leave her pokémon to his own instincts, despite her own instincts demanding her to react. Still, though, she couldn't help but feel a bit of paranoia as the gyarados drew nearer – she gripped at the railing in front of her and leaned over it, bouncing on her tiptoes, unable to remain still while she waited for her magmar to do something!
The battle ended all in a matter of seconds. Dante vanished into a familiar cloud of purple energy just as the gyarados exploded onto the scene, dragon fire erupting everywhere. Unable to control himself after the landing, the sea dragon continued to skid along the ground a short distance where he collided with the arena wall, nearly causing Lillia to topple out of her trainer's box. Meanwhile, Dante reappeared atop the gyarados' head, despite the dragon flames from the outrage attack still dancing around his body. With a spark in his fist, Dante jabbed hard at the gyarados' skull, sending a surge of electricity through his body. The beast cried out, whether in rage, pain, or both, until the magmar withdrew his fist and jumped from his perch to the arena floor. The dragon fire began to die out as the gyarados' eyes closed and unconsciousness took him.
The referee waved his flag and declared gyarados knocked out. The screen then changed to briefly show Lillia celebrating on her little podium before Devin returned to the spotlight. "Well, wasn't that a shocker!? A tough break for the youngster Adam, who's gyarados was just a little too overconfident. And so, the fire-type specialist defeats the water trainer! What an exciting match! Lillia and her magmar certainly have an intriguing battle style! When we return from the break, we'll analyze both of these two trainers and their pokémon, from their best moves to their –"
Devin was cut off as Kimiko turned off the TV. "Poor Adam," she said.
Alex raised an eyebrow at her. "Not the reaction I was expecting," he said. "That magmar of hers is a piece of work. But you're right, I guess, shame his gyarados didn't listen."
"A thirteen-year-old with a gyarados… that alone is pretty impressive. But you would think he would have trained it before using it in a tournament like this."
"I'm sure he did. Gyarados aren't known for their people skills. So, why did you turn that off, anyway? It wasn't over."
"You're going to bed," Kimiko said with a smile. "If Lillia can beat a whole team with a type disadvantage, it should be a cinch for you to beat Nyra with only one. And you're going to get a good night's rest so that you're ready for it."
"Someone's inspired," Alex replied with a smile of his own.
Kimiko only laughed, pulling the covers over the two of them. "Alright, let's go, bed time. Now."
"Why do gyms have these ridiculous puzzles, anyway?" Kimiko complained, her voice slightly distorted by Alex's pokédex.
She was watching from the stands as Alex spent the last twenty minutes shuffling through the tall grass inside the Blossom Town gym, searching for the leader's pokémon. According to Nyra, all Vidiva's gyms, as with every other region, have some special quirk to them in addition to just a battle. Being (traditionally) the first gym trainers compete against, Nyra's puzzle wasn't too complicated: Her team of six was released into the tall grass, and whatever three the challenger was able to locate first was the team Nyra would use in battle. So far, the Alex hadn't discovered a single one.
"Not sure," Alex replied in an irritated whisper, hoping Nyra didn't notice the active call in his pocket. "I would guess it's just some additional test to show you that there's more to working with pokémon than just battles, but a lot of them don't even let you use pokémon."
"Well, I think it's pointless," Kimiko continued. "All it does is waste time. You don't even know what we're looking for. Not that I'd be allowed to tell you if I'd even seen any of them."
"She has an oddish," Alex pointed out, remembering from their last visit the reason Nyra had been in the grass herself.
"We don't even know if it's part of her main team though," Kimiko countered.
"Maybe we're going about this all wrong," Alex said, his own words coming back to him. He hadn't been told he had to do the challenge alone... He reached for a pokéball on his belt and tossed it to the ground in front of him, where Thorn emerged in a flash of white light. She stared confused at her surroundings for a second before glancing to her trainer.
"Can you sense any other pokémon in the area?" he asked. Thorn closed her eyes and tried to focus, sniffing at the air, but whined in disappointment.
"Don't worry about it, then. Just cut down some of this grass."
Thorn squealed happily before firing off a razor leaf directly ahead of them. The leaves cut down quite a bit of grass, but it was so thick that they died short of reaching the end. Thorn frowned and launched another flurry.
A sharp cry caused the chikorita to jump. Looking ahead, Alex saw a small, round, navy blue pokémon sitting in the dirt. The three leaves on its head appeared to have been shaved off by Thorn's attack.
"Finally," Alex said. "There's her oddish."
"Well, most of it," Kimiko said, half amused and half sorry for the creature. The oddish glared at Thorn before turning and diving back into the tall grass. Above them, on a screen that extended over where the battlefield was, an image of the oddish appeared in one of three empty squares, signifying that it had been found.
"One down," Kimiko said. "On the bright side, at least you'll get to see what Nyra's going to be using."
"Hopefully I'll be able to actually use that to my advantage," Alex replied. He turned his attention to Thorn and pointed to his left. "Okay, let's try razor leaf this way, now."
It took another ten minutes to discover any more pokémon after oddish. Nyra's team had apparently caught on to Alex's strategy and began moving around rather than sit and wait, until there was only a small section of grass left. The first of Nyra's remaining pokémon to be revealed was what looked like six pink eggs that came rolling out of the grass towards them. Following that, one last razor leaf revealed the rest of Nyra's team, including a healthy looking bulbasaur, a mushroom-like shroomish, a rather plump grovyle, and a timid-looking deerling.
"Okay, so now what happens?" Alex questioned. "Do I get to pick which of the last four I want to fight?" The giant screen answered his question for him, however, as the second box lit up with the image of an exeggcute, followed by that of the bulbasaur.
Nyra walked towards them. "Bulbasaur was the first one detected by the camera, so he'll be the third," she said, recalling the shroomish, grovyle, and deerling. "So, are you ready?" she added with a wink.
"Where'd that confidence come from?" Kimiko asked no one in particular in a jealous whisper. "She couldn't even speak clearly the last time."
Alex followed Nyra to the battlefield, recalling Thorn as he went. The battlefield was a standard size arena, complete with white painted lines indicating each side's boundaries, with the small exception that the field was sitting on grass rather than dirt.
"Okay," Nyra said. "Since this is the first gym, it won't get too complicated. So basically, from here on out it's just a simple three-on-three standard battle. Switching is allowed for the challenger. Okay?"
"Right," Alex replied. "Ready when you are."
"Oddish, go!" Nyra cheered, tossing a pokéball to the field. The little blue weed pokémon appeared in a flash of white, still looking rather ticked off about having its leaves cut off. "Oh my, what have you done to her?" Nyra cried out, seeing her pokémon's peril.
"Er… let's do this, Koyomi," Alex said with uncertainty, throwing his own pokéball and releasing his staryu.
Nyra smirked slightly at his pokémon choice before opening the battle. "I see you went and found a water-type after all. Oddish, acid attack!"
"Move, Koyomi! Tackle it!"
Koyomi was easily faster than Oddish. The starfish waited until the blue pokémon launched a steaming glob of yellow-orange poison towards it before diving to the side and then flying through the air like a boomerang right into the oddish.
"Oddish, stun spore!" Nyra called. Her pokémon obeyed before even bothering to right itself. From what remained of her head leaves shot a cloud of fine green dust. Koyomi, however, had already shot herself back across the field.
Without missing a beat, Nyra gave another command: "Slow it down with sweet scent!"
"What's that?" Kimiko asked, loud enough to be heard from the stands. Her answer came through example, as a pleasant smell drifted around the arena.
"Koyomi, don't breathe it in! Uh, water gun! Maybe try to clear the air!"
Alex wasn't even sure if staryu breathed at all. He silently cursed however when Koyomi visibly relaxed and began to slump, completely forgetting to attack while caught up in a daze.
"Stun spore again," Nyra ordered. Oddish sprang into action immediately, blowing another sparkling green dust could at her opponent. Despite Alex's protests, Koyomi made no motion to avoid it and was completely covered in the powder. Alex grunted; speed was Koyomi's only advantage in this battle. Without that, the starfish was more of a liability.
"Oddish, use mega drain!" Nyra shouted, pressing her advantage.
"Koyomi, avoid it!" Alex pleaded, while his pokémon's opponent conjured a glowing green energy orb. If this hit, whatever little damage Koyomi had inflicted would be rendered moot.
"There's the healing move you were afraid of," Kimiko noted, oh-so-helpfully.
His plea was answered. Koyomi just managed to cartwheel to the side as Oddish's pale green orb crashed into the grass where the water pokémon had been seconds before and fizzled out.
Nyra opened her mouth to issue another command but Alex raised his pokéball first and recalled Koyomi to safety, telling his pokémon to heal itself as he did so, hoping her natural cure ability would counter the paralysis if he gave her enough time to rest. He hesitated slightly before picking his next pokémon. His first thought was to send in Diamond, as Thorn had a weakness to Oddish's poison-type moves. However, knowing one of Nyra's reserves was the half-psychic exeggcute, he debated holding his dark-type back. Diamond's willingness to obey commands was shaky at best, to boot. His hand hovered over Thorn's pokéball momentarily before changing his mind. He was at a serious disadvantage and needed to get on the offensive, not fall back on more defense. Now wasn't the time to start second-guessing.
"You're on, Diamond," he called, tossing the ghost's pokéball out. The sableye hissed menacingly as he eyed his opponent, though it appeared to be due to the light rather than the oddish.
Alex knew from the battle in the forest his sableye was able to use moves far beyond his experience level would suggest. He pulled out his pokédex to determine exactly what moves Diamond could use. He wanted to be sure he remembered them all, in case he needed to pull out something unusual.
Without an order, Diamond launched a night shade from his gem eyes at his foe. "Hey, wait –" Alex started; already Diamond was starting to disobey. Nyra countered by ordering another sweet scent; however, this time the move seemed to have no effect. Diamond's two beams of purple energy blasted the oddish into the greenhouse wall behind Nyra.
"Power gem," Alex commanded as oddish struggled to walk back to her place. He wanted to keep Diamond out of reach of Oddish's spores. From the gems on his stomach and his eyes, Diamond shot several green, blue, and red blasts of light that tore through the oddish, who collapsed with a high-pitched cry.
"Good job Oddish, now return," Nyra said as oddish was drawn back into her pokéball in a flash of red light. Nyra quickly picked a second pokéball and threw it, shouting, "Go, bulbasaur!"
Nyra's second pokémon emerged in a flash. She wasted no time issuing a leech seed. Her bulbasaur responded obediently, a small seed emerging from the bright green bulb on his back and forcefully shooting it towards Diamond.
Alex cursed. Another healing technique. "Can you do shadow ball?" he asked his pokémon, more of a question than an order. Of course he could; he'd used that move in the forest, too. Diamond, however, launched two purple beams from his eyes in response. "No, that's night shade," he said, wondering in the back of his mind exactly how a pokémon knew what human name corresponded to what attack.
"Eyeye," his sableye responded, waving a hand back at him.
He didn't have time to wonder for long, however, as his attention was drawn back to the seed that had struck Diamond and proceeded to release glowing red vines of energy all around him. Bulbasaur, meanwhile, was struck by Diamond's incorrect attack anyway and topped onto his side. He didn't seem too injured however, as the vines around Diamond snaked along the ground and around his foot, feeding him energy from his opponent.
"Cut those vines, Diamond! Shadow claw!"
"Sleep powder!"
Try as he might, Diamond was completely held in place by the vines, unable to free a hand to cut himself free. Bulbasaur let out a triumphant cry as he released a bright green dust cloud into the air, which hovered and settled all over the dark-type. Diamond's jewel eyes flickered and slowly grew dim, and he fell unceremoniously backwards.
"Return," Alex said, recalling his sableye with a frown. He'd been counting on Diamond to win this battle for him, and although being put to sleep wasn't an official knockout, he was essentially still out of commission, as was Koyomi if her paralysis didn't heal in time. At least now he knew how to tell when his sableye was awake. He hesitated only a second before gripping his next pokéball.
"Go for it, Thorn!" he shouted as his pokéball opened and his starter materialized before him.
Nyra seemed a little disappointed; Alex guessed she had been hoping to use leech seed to heal her bulbasaur again, which would be useless against another grass-type. "Vine whip," she called out.
"Reflect!" Alex countered.
Two vines erupted from underneath bulbasaur's seed and flung themselves at his foe. The chikorita was quicker to set up a defense though, and the vines smashed uselessly against the pale-yellow bubble of solid light that had sprung up around her.
"Poison powder!" Nyra shouted.
"Er… Thorn, try to blow it away with your leaf!" Alex called desperately. He had once seen an older pokémon perform similar defensive tactics before while at the lab, but he had never practiced this and was unsure Thorn could move fast enough. He wasn't disappointed; Thorn spun the leaf on her head rapidly, though she appeared to have some slight trouble keeping it spinning steadily, but it was enough to keep Bulbasaur's purple poison cloud at bay.
"Get up close with take down, then try again!" Nyra ordered after a slight pause.
"Don't let it hit you, Thorn! Move then tackle it!"
Bulbasaur lowered his head, and with a cry, charged at Thorn. The chikorita crouched in her typical defensive stance until bulbasaur was nearly right in front of her, then leapt to her right; Bulbasaur collided with her curved reflect shield at an awkward angle and rebounded onto his side. Thorn took her chance and lunged, ramming into her opponent's underbelly harshly. Bulbasaur cried out in pain and tumbled a few meters away.
Nyra bit her lip. "Tackle attack," she ordered, starting to sound unsure.
"Razor leaf, fast!" Alex countered.
Before bulbasaur had even stumbled to his feet, Thorn sent a flurry of sharp leaves at him with a flick of her head leaf. The blue poison-type growled as the leaves sliced open his skin and he collapsed again.
"Return, bulbasaur!" Nyra called, and her tired pokémon was drawn back into his ball.
"Two down and one to go!" Kimiko called from behind Alex, who just nodded in reply. That was the first time the thought had actually occurred to him: he hadn't officially lost a pokémon yet. He was winning.
"Okay, exeggcute, go!" Nyra shouted with notably less enthusiasm and more worry. Her pokémon emerged with a determined cry nonetheless.
"Let's win it, Thorn. Razor leaf!"
"Exeggcute, use barrage!"
Thorn was only slightly faster, having heard her command first, and flicked some sharp leaves towards the pink eggs. The exeggcute responded by forming tiny black bullet-sized specks in mid-air in front of them before sending them towards their foe. Guiding them with their limited psychic powers, Exeggcute's assault knocked down each and every one of Thorn's leaves.
"Again!" Nyra called, now looking worried.
"Tackle it!" Alex responded.
Thorn immediately charged her enemy even as the exeggcute created more tiny, bullet-like black specks and shot them at her. The attack didn't even slow Thorn, bouncing off her reflect as though they were nothing but harmless raindrops. She rammed herself hard into the six eggs and they scattered in separate directions with a cry.
"Poison powder, straight upward!" Alex called, a sudden spark if inspiration hitting him. His grass-type looked at him curiously for a minute before spinning her leaf once again and creating her own cloud of fine purple dust. She darted way before any of it could fall back down on her just as the exeggcute was beginning to cluster up – directly under the poison dust. Thorn bounded back towards her side of the field as Alex was about to issue another order, but Nyra cut him off.
"Wait… I surrender."
Alex looked at her questioningly, and even her own exeggcute, once they'd gathered again, turned to her and began hopping and chanting in protest.
"There's not much you can do," she said, directing her explanation at her exeggcute. "You might be able to defeat the chikorita with confusion, but you can't do anything but leech seed against his sableye, and the staryu would be too fast for you. In the end you would just be worn out by the poison. There's no need for that." She recalled her final pokémon with a sad smile, though the exeggcute didn't bother trying to hide their disappointment. She then turned her attention to Alex. "You win," she said, her face slightly red.
Thorn bounded up to her trainer happily as Nyra began to walk towards them. Alex knelt down and picked up his pokémon, thanking and congratulating her several times as Kimiko came up next to him and proceeded to do the same. Nyra reached behind her apron into a shirt pocket as she approached and held out her hand, a small metallic-looking green object shaped like a rose petal in her palm.
"Well…" she began, her face redder than earlier and refusing to make eye contact. "Um, this is the petal badge," she said nervously. "I, um… that was really well planned. Congratulations."
Alex didn't have the heart to tell her that the battle hadn't gone at all how he'd originally intended it would. Instead, he took the badge and said, "Thanks Nyra, it wasn't easy. You're pretty good yourself. It's no wonder you're a gym leader." The girl looked at her feet and smiled.
"Well, um…" Nyra started, turning to Kimiko. "I don't have the time to re-grow the grass before another battle, so… would you be okay just battling my remaining three instead of doing the puzzle?"
"And not have to wait another half hour? Yeah, sure. Let's do it."