John's Team
Tyrant - Slaking
Vordt - Ursaluna
Smough - Snorlax
Klee - Blissey
Port - Mantine
Zephyr - Pidgeot
Klaus - Wyrdeer
Luna - Clefable
Pixel - Porygon
The New Normal – 2-8 – INTERLUDE: Karen
Karen felt great as she made her way down for breakfast. After several days of being forcefully dragged out of bed by John at times that should be considered far too early for a person to be awake at, she was finally afforded the luxury of actually being able to sleep in and wake up on her own terms.
Not that she was annoyed at John for waking her up early; she knew that he had a schedule to stick to and had legitimately important things to do, so she didn't begrudge him on that. Still, some people just aren't made for mornings, like herself.
As she took her time to enjoy her breakfast, she got a text from John telling her that he was finished with his business at Devon Corp and that he was making his way back to the Pokécenter. Truthfully, she had wanted to accompany him to Devon Corp; after all, she wanted to get herself more involved in the more political and business side of things as preparation for if and when she became a member of the Elite Four.
But she understood why she couldn't go as some of the discussions were definitely private and not meant for her to overhear. She was satisfied and excited enough with being able to participate with John on their experiment with the Zigzagoon egg; she really hoped that the experiment would be successful as she thought that it would be such an important breakthrough in the world of science about alternate Pokémon forms. It would also do wonders for her own reputation too.
While she sat back and waited for John to arrive, she thought over the time that she spent with John. Spending time and journeying with John was very different to her relationship with Agatha. She found him to be remarkably friendlier and easier to be around than Agatha; she was allowed to be far more open and less guarded around John, and she enjoyed it. Their newfound friendship almost went too far for a moment, but she was glad they got control of themselves and explained and understood each other's limits.
Agatha was strict and demanding, and she had little to no patience for idiocy or incompetence. She was harsh and exacting, and her presence loomed over you wherever you went. Honestly, although she still loved and respected Agatha for taking her in as her apprentice and teaching her many things, she didn't really like spending more time with her than was strictly necessary.
Most people would feel bad about admitting such a thing, but Agatha would've probably shrugged such a comment off with her typical nonchalance and say that there's no value in having people like you, only that they fear and respect you. Despite being exposed to that statement hundreds of times over the years, Karen never could adopt it as her own.
She could admit that, whether out of vanity or a desire to be adored, on some level she wanted to be admired by the public for her abilities as a trainer. Of course, she wanted respect too, but she wanted to have a mixture of love and fear, rather than just the latter like Agatha does. Karen also didn't like how guarded Agatha had taught her to be, and she didn't really enjoy being as manipulative as Agatha wanted her to be. She much preferred gaining reputation and status through her own actions instead.
On that note, she decided that she wanted to challenge the Hoenn Gyms while she was here. She had already considered it before when she first arrived at Hoenn but initially dismissed it as a waste of time and because she had already beaten all of the Gyms in Indigo as per Agatha's instructions.
However, watching John's incredible battle against Norman had inspired her to challenge the Hoenn Gyms as well. Besides, she had already decided to spend a bit of time here in Hoenn to catch more Dark types, so she might as well use that time productively and challenge the Gyms now that she was already here.
Furthermore, Karen knew that defeating all of the Gyms in Indigo was an unofficial requirement for being selected to join the Indigo Elite Four if there is a vacant spot, which was why she went around Johto defeating all of the Gyms there in the first place. Yet, if she could continue her winning streak against the Hoenn Gyms as well, it would hopefully serve to increase her chances of being selected as the next member of the Elite Four in the event of a vacancy and it would also be useful as a means to continue training her Pokémon.
She knew that her team was strong, but especially after seeing John's Pokémon in action, she was starting to get worried that they might not be strong enough for her to challenge and win against a member of the Elite Four. But perhaps by integrating John's new training methods and fighting against the Hoenn Gyms would allow her Pokémon to improve and become strong enough that they'd fit in with the rest of the Elite Four.
"Hey, you okay there, Karen?" John's voice surprised her and shocked her out of thoughts. She turned to look at John who was looking down at her with a face of concern. She didn't realize he had already returned.
"Oh, yeah, it's nothing, I was just thinking deeply to myself." She replied, shelving her thoughts for later.
"Oh, okay then. I'm sorry you couldn't come with me to Devon Corp, but the conversation we had was pretty private." He apologized.
"No, it's fine." She said with a shake of her head, "I knew that I wasn't allowed to come anyways, and I'm not upset about it. Besides, I could finally sleep in for once instead of being dragged awake by the taskmaster that you are." She quipped and gave him a smirk.
"It's not my fault that you don't wake up at normal times like a normal person." He said as he let out an exaggerated sigh, "I dread to think what your journey to Hoenn might've been if I wasn't accompanying you. You'd probably spend more time out at night than during the day."
Karen shrugged at that; he probably wasn't wrong. She did prefer walking around at night than during the day, it was just more refreshing and atmospheric.
"Oh, John, I've decided that I'm going to be challenging all of the Hoenn Gyms now that I'm here." She announced, "I hope you don't mind accompanying me as I do so."
"Not a problem." John replied easily, "I don't have anything specific to do while I'm here anyways, so I don't mind accompanying you."
Karen could hear the slight bitterness at the reminder that John was here because he was being side-lined by the Indigo League. Honestly, Karen was amazed that John remained as calm as he was. She was positive that she would've reacted far more harshly if she was in his place.
Regardless, she told John that she had already scheduled a match against the Rustboro Rock-type Gym Leader, Roy, in about 30 minutes, so they started to make their way there.
Karen had already looked into Roy's previous battles the night before, and she knew that he favoured a defensive battling style that made use of his Pokémon's inherent defensiveness to allow them to set up and buff themselves before going on the offensive. If everything goes to plan, then she would have the perfect counter for his battling style.
The two of them arrived at Rustboro Gym shortly after, and the receptionist told the both of them to wait for their turn. It amused Karen that the receptionist didn't seem to recognise who John was in what he called his 'Hoenn tourist getup', but if he didn't want to be recognised then she wouldn't draw attention to him either.
Soon, it was her turn, and she was directed to the arena where she stood on the platform while John got seated at the audience section. She could tell that the battle section of the Gym was vastly different to the museum-like exhibit that constituted the waiting area, and that the arena was decorated with many scattered rock formations.
"Trainers, this will be a 3v3 8-badge match between challenger Karen and Gym Leader Roy! Each trainer is allowed 1 switch!" The referee announced, and Karen refocused herself for the upcoming match. She had her plan, she just needed to stick to it.
"Trainers, are you ready?!" Karen nodded and she could see Roy doing the same before they both released their Pokémon. "BEGIN!"
"Sneasel, you know what to do!"
"Golem, do what you're best at!"
Having already been told what her plan was, her Sneasel hit the ground running as he dashed rapidly towards the Golem with swiftness that demonstrated the effort that Karen put in to training her Sneasel and improving his speed.
"Stone Edge, Golem!" Golem started tearing up the battleground as it began launching large chunks of rocks at the speeding Sneasel. Each rock almost matched Sneasel in size and, coupled with Sneasel's inherent frailness and type weakness, would have led to a quick knockout if Sneasel was hit by them.
Karen had more than enough confidence in her Sneasel, though, and Sneasel affirmed her belief in him as he nimbly dodged past the storm of rocks with such ease that it barely seemed like Sneasel was in any danger.
Seeing that Sneasel was rapidly closing the distance, Roy switched tactics.
"Earthquake, Golem!" Golem stopped firing rocks before it started stomping on the ground, causing the arena to begin shaking widely.
"Into the air, Sneasel!" Sneasel nimbly leapt into the air, keeping its momentum, and avoided getting caught in the Earthquake. Now in striking range, Sneasel's hands glowed a bright orange as he clapped his hands right in front of Golem's face with a Fake Out, creating shockwaves that caused the Golem to flinch and interrupted its Earthquake.
"Sneasel, Low Sweep!" Sneasel landed and quickly dived for Golem's legs and struck one of them with a powerful sweep of his legs, tripping and knocking Golem over onto its back. Normally, being knocked over was a disastrous position for most Pokémon to be in, but Golem was one of the few exceptions.
"Gyro Ball on your back, Golem!" "Fall back, Sneasel!" Using its round shaped back, Golem started spinning quickly on its back and spun towards Sneasel, who had jumped backwards to avoid getting caught in the spin.
"Ice Shard, Sneasel! Keep your distance!" Sneasel made use of his superiority speed and agility and kept his distance from the spinning Golem while firing off Ice Shards at Golem. As it was stuck in its spinning, it wasn't able to create any rocks to block the shards and was hit by the super-effective move.
"Golem, stop spinning! Bunker yourself and Flamethrower!" Golem stopped spinning and started simultaneously surrounding itself with on all sides with a wall of rocks that were able to shield itself from Sneasel's Ice Shards and firing off a stream of fire that tracked after Sneasel.
"Agility then Icy Wind, Sneasel!" Sneasel was briefly engulfed by a pink glow before he started to speed up to the point where Golem's Flamethrower was unable to follow him. Then, he summoned a gust of chilling winds that swept into Golem's makeshift bunker and transformed it from a safe haven into a prison of ice that rapidly threatened to freeze Golem within.
"Dig and get out of there, Golem!"
"Taunt it!"
"No! Just Dig Golem! Don't fall for it!" Roy shouted in a panic. But before Golem could start digging its way down, Sneasel shot a burst of Dark-type energy towards Golem that caused it to become rapidly enraged. No longer heeding Roy's commands, Golem broke through its own rock walls and charged towards the Sneasel.
Karen smirked to herself as she saw this, it was one of her favourite tactics to use against other trainers that hadn't trained their Pokémon to resist her Pokémon's Taunt. They would fall into an uncontrollable state of rage, perfect for her plans.
"Ice Punch now, Sneasel!" With the Golem no longer surrounded by its own rock walls and now charging mindlessly towards Sneasel, it was the perfect opportunity for Sneasel to dash towards as he easily dodged under a swipe of Golem's Hammer Arm and he crashed his fist into Golem's face with a critical Ice Punch.
The Golem barely held on with its Sturdy, but a swift follow-up Ice Shard to the face knocked it out.
"Golem is unable to battle!" The referee announced, "The Gym Leader has thirty seconds to decide on his next Pokémon!" The crowd burst with excitement and cheers at Sneasel's flawless victory against Roy's Golem.
Karen tuned out the crowd and started thinking through her plan once again. She thought that her plan was going smoothly as she watched Roy withdraw his Golem. Sneasel remained undamaged and was definitely able to take on another of Roy's Pokémon. As she was thinking to herself, she felt Roy staring intently at her, so she decided to match him with a stare of her own as she awaited his next Pokémon.
After a brief stare down, Roy looked away and sent out his next Pokémon.
"Come, Probopass!" Probopass whirled as it was released and floated slightly off the ground. Karen had to hide her grin, it was another defensive and slow Pokémon, just like she was hoping for.
"Trainers, are you ready?!" Both trainers nodded to the referee, "BEGIN!"
"Ice Shards, Sneasel!"
"Power Gem and match them, Probopass!"
Sneasel started circling around the Probopass while shooting out Ice Shards that were quickly matched by Probopass' Power Gem. The Power Gems fired by Probopass actually were stronger than Sneasel's Ice Shard, and Sneasel was forced to dodge several incoming gemstones that his shards failed to break.
"Iron Defense, Probopass!" Seeing that Sneasel appeared distracted by the fired gemstones, Roy mistakenly thought that he had the opportunity to buff up Probopass' Defenses.
"Now! Icy Wind, Sneasel!" Making use of his boosted speed from his previous Agility, Sneasel shot forwards and was easily able to both dodge the incoming gemstones. Taking advantage of the opening, Sneasel fired off an Icy Wind that engulfed the Probopass. The damage was minor, but chunks of ice started to form on Probopass' exterior as it began to freeze over.
"Lock on and Flash Cannon, Probopass!" Switching it up, Roy went on the offensive as Probopass began spinning around as it attempted to lock on to Sneasel and fire a Flash Cannon.
"Keep avoiding it and Icicle Crash!" Maintaining his speed, Sneasel quickly formed large chunks of Ice in his mouth and fired them into the air. However, when Sneasel slowed down slightly to fire off the icicles, Probopass had managed to Lock On to the Sneasel and it fired a powerful Flash Cannon that homed into and blasted Sneasel backwards.
In return though, the icicles that Sneasel fired fell upon Probopass like a heavy torrent of rain and caused Probopass to buckle on to the ground so that it was no longer levitating.
Karen quickly glanced at both Pokémon. Sneasel was badly injured by that Flash Cannon, but she saw that he still had some fight left in him. In comparison, Probopass remained mostly unharmed thanks to its boosted Defenses, but it was noticeably slowed down from being hit by the repeated Ice attacks.
"Again!" Roy shouted with a sweep of his hand.
"Dig to dodge!" Karen quickly ordered, and Sneasel dove into the ground to avoid the sweeping gaze of the opposing Probopass.
"Earthquake, Probopass!"
"Jump out and Icy Wind!"
Karen saw that Sneasel was still agile enough to leap out of the ground just in time to avoid the Earthquake from landing a critical hit on him and fired off another gust of freezing winds at the Probopass. At this point, Probopass' exterior was almost covered in icicles and its movements were heavily slowed. It was frozen.
"Lock On and Flash Cannon once more, Probopass!" Roy commanded worriedly, but Probopass was too frozen to respond.
"Brick Break and finish it now, Sneasel!" Sneasel rushed towards Probopass as it struggled to break free and move from its frozen state.
"Shit! PROTECT!" Roy shouted desperately, but Probopass was unable to unfreeze itself and Sneasel landed a critical Brick Break that struck Probopass' frozen exterior. Probopass whirled in pain as it was hit by the 4 times supereffective move and was quickly knocked out.
"Probopass is unable to battle! The Gym Leader must send out his final Pokémon in the next thirty seconds!" The referee announced and the crowd cheered at Sneasel's second knock out, and Karen could hear that a few members of the audience were chanting for Sneasel to do a clean sweep. Karen considered it for a moment, but once she carefully observed Sneasel's condition she decided against it. Sneasel was already too damaged and had done enough already.
"I'm withdrawing my Pokémon!" Karen declared as she withdrew Sneasel, and she could hear that a few members of the audience booing her decision. But she ignored them, her plan was going better than expected she could almost taste her impending victory.
"Trainers, are you ready?!" For what Karen felt should be the last time, she nodded with Roy and they both sent out their Pokémon. "BEGIN!"
"Umbreon, win this for me." Her Umbreon landed gracefully onto the ground as he gave off a growl.
"Aggron, show her what we're made of!" Aggron crashed on to the ground of the arena and left a sizeable dent in the ground. Karen recognised it as Roy's Ace and it was known for having a mixture of powerful attacks and a solid Defense.
"Calm Mind, Umbreon! Start setting up!" Karen started, seemingly going against her previous aggressive actions with Sneasel.
"Iron Defense and do the same, Aggron!"
Both Pokémon were beginning to boost their stats, exactly as Karen was hoping for.
"Ok, Shadow Ball." Umbreon stopped setting up and fired off a Shadow Ball.
"Protect and Iron Defense again." Roy said calmly as he allowed Aggron to raise a shield to block the incoming Shadow Ball as it continued boosting its Defense.
"Set up a Light Screen, Umbreon!" Umbreon growled and a faint wall of light shimmered into existence in front of it.
Karen noticed that Roy had barely reacted at Umbreon's Light Screen, probably because he never intended to make use of Special Attacks in the first place, which made sense for an Aggron.
"Ok Aggron, Body Press and Stone Edge. Enough setting up." Roy commanded and Aggron let out a roar in agreement and began lumbering towards Umbreon, while rocks began simultaneously firing off towards Umbreon. Roy clearly intended to use the added weight from Aggron's Iron Defenses to cause its Body Press to become so powerful that it would instantly knock out Umbreon if it hits.
Each step Aggron took caused the ground to shake slightly as Aggron's heavy body charged forwards, each stomp of its legs leaving a crack in the ground and a cloud of dust trailing behind it. Umbreon showed off his mobility as he nimbly dodged past the incoming Stone Edge. All the while, Aggron continued glaring at Umbreon with its Scary Face in an attempt to unnerve the smaller Umbreon and make him freeze-up in terror.
Despite the incoming freight train of an Aggron that was about to slam into her Umbreon, Karen made no commands as she patiently waited for Aggron to approach. She could see that Roy was giving her a look of confusion and suspicion, obviously expecting her to order Umbreon to dodge or to react at all.
But no, Karen was content to wait. The trap was about to be sprung.
She waited until Aggron got closer. It was still too far away.
And it got closer, and Karen was gripping her own arm so tightly that she unknowingly left a mark on herself.
And the moment Aggron got within several meters of Umbreon, she sprung the trap.
"Confuse Ray, Umbreon!" Umbreon used a small gap in the rocks to fire off a ray of light.
"SHIT! DODGE IT AGGRON!" Roy shouted out in alarm, but it was too late. Aggron wasn't able to divert or pivot itself in time and was struck head on by a small ray of light that quickly disoriented it.
Aggron wobbled on its feet unsteadily as it became so disorientated that it could barely keep itself upright; its' previous charge long forgotten as it now stumbled around as it tried to regain its bearings. The rocks that were previously being fired off in a constant barrage now all fell to the ground, forgotten. In the distance, Karen could hear Roy shouting at Aggron to snap out of it to no avail.
With Agatha's help, Karen had meticulously trained her Umbreon to use Confuse Ray as a trump card against Pokémon that relied on brute strength. She found it to be the perfect counter against them as often times trainers would neglect to train up a Pokémon's mental strength and leave them susceptible to mental attacks like this.
And so, with Aggron thoroughly confused and unable to snap out of it, Karen moved to close out the battle.
"Guard Swap, Umbreon." Taking advantage of Aggron's confusion, Umbreon sent a pink line of psychic energy that latched on to Aggron before each Pokémon emitted a small pulse that swapped between them. Now, Umbreon had taken on Aggron's boosted Defense while Aggron lost all of it, and thanks to Agatha, Karen's Guard Swap was also unique in that it also dropped both of the target's Defenses proportional to the Defenses gained if it is successful.
"Dig into Double Kick, Umbreon." Karen watched as Umbreon quickly burrowed himself into the ground. Aggron was still stumbling around the battlefield and had no idea what was going on. In its confusion, it was randomly swiping at the ground with its tail and created huge gashes into the arena.
Suddenly, Umbreon emerged out of one of Aggron's created gashes with a growl and slammed into the Aggron with his head, knocking it back slightly and causing Aggron to react confusedly with a flurry of disoriented Dragon Claws.
Not needing further instructions from Karen, Umbreon dove to the side and kicked Aggron in the side of its head with his two hind legs, causing Aggron to fall onto its knees as it growled in pain from the boosted damage caused by its own lowered Defenses.
"Again, Umbreon! Finish this!" Karen shouted.
"Protect, Aggron! Snap out of it!" Roy responded, but Karen could hear it in his tone that he knew that the battle was lost.
Aggron did actually manage to form a shield, but it was formed in the wrong location and Umbreon slammed both of his hind legs into the back of Aggron's head once more, causing Aggron to crash its head face first into the ground, knocked out.
The crowd went wild as they witnessed Umbreon's turnaround and Karen adopted a beaming smile as her plan went off perfectly. From her research, she knew that Roy favoured using set up moves before attacking, so she led off with her Sneasel to go hyper aggressive to stop Roy's Pokémon from setting up and prevent Roy from using his preferred fighting style.
Then, when she swapped to Umbreon, she initially held back on the aggression so that Roy would be tempted to fall back on his more preferred battle style. Then, by setting up a Calm Mind and a Light Screen, that would encourage Roy to charge in with his Pokémon as any Special Attack move would be heavily reduced by Umbreon's set up.
Of course, that was exactly what Karen wanted as she could then hit them with a Confuse Ray + Guard Swap combo to quickly strip the opposing Pokémon of its defenses while making it so completely disorientated that the opponent loses all ability to fight back. Then, it was a simple matter of just knocking out the effectively defenseless Pokémon to secure the win.
Admittedly, there were many things that could've gone wrong with the plan, but Sneasel's incredible performance in managing to knock out two of Roy's Pokémon basically ensured her the win even if the plan fell apart.
As she noticed that Roy had already withdrawn his Aggron and was now approaching her side of the arena, Karen decided to stop praising herself for the plan as she went down to meet him. On the way, she kneeled down towards her Umbreon that had puffed up in pride at his victory.
Karen gave him an affectionate rub on his chin and gave him murmured words of praise before withdrawing him. Looking up, she could see that Roy was patiently waiting for Karen to finish up with her Umbreon.
"Congratulations on your victory, trainer Karen." Roy said with a smile that held no bitterness at his defeat, "That was an incredible showing from you. I felt like I was being strung along the entire time!"
Karen had to fight down the smirk that almost appeared on her face, she reminded herself that wanted to be humble in victory, unlike Agatha. "Thank you, Gym Leader Roy. I had done my research before approaching you, and I just stuck to the plan." She acknowledged.
"Well, it was a very good plan indeed, Miss." Roy replied, before giving her a scrutinizing look, "I can tell that you're here to challenge yourself, isn't that right Miss?"
"Yes, that's right." Karen confirmed, "I came to Hoenn with a friend, but I'm mostly here to catch new Pokémon and challenge myself further for when I return to Indigo."
"Ah, yes, I see that often is the case with ambitious trainers." Roy said with a friendly smile, "Truth be told, I'm getting a bit too old to be a Gym Leader, and I've been looking for someone to replace me, so I know I'm not the strongest of trainers anymore." He admitted with a hint of embarrassment.
"If you want a challenge, trainer Karen, you should keep going to challenge the other Gyms. I'm certain that you'll at least find something to improve on while you're there." Roy advised.
"That's what I'm planning on doing." Karen admitted, "Thank you for your advice though."
"No problem, and oh, before I forget, here is your Stone Badge as proof of your victory. Congratulations once again." He awarded her the Stone Badge, and they shook hands before Roy departed.
Karen looked around and saw that John was smiling at her before gesturing with his head towards the door of the Gym. She nodded at him and walked towards the entrance while giving polite smiles and thanks to a few members of the audience that congratulated her on her victory.
As she left the Rustboro Gym, she thought to herself that while this victory was a great start, Karen wouldn't rest on her laurels until she made it to the Elite Four.
Or, perhaps, maybe even further than that.
A.N I hope this battle showcases the differences between Karen's style of battling and John's and yet still remains exciting. Of course, John is more than able to fight tactically like Karen does, but his Pokémon aren't as suited for it and why would he force himself to do that when he has a Slaking?
I took some creative liberties in the fight and changed a few of the moves to be more powerful or have slightly differing effects than they had in the games. Hope you guys didn't mind that.
For those curious, the full scope of Karen's team will be revealed next chapter.
And to anyone who wants to support me, please check out my p atreon at CartecTNN where you can read 8 advanced chapters! Thanks to those who have supported me already!