The New Normal – 3-11 – Interlude – Karen
They had barely managed to save the port of Olivine, though it was undoubtedly in need of repair. Despite their best efforts to stop the plans of Team Rocket, having hundreds of Pokémon on a rampage is always a recipe for disaster.
She couldn't even imagine thinking what the damage could have been if they weren't there to stop it. If John had not chosen to rush onto the boat by himself to confront the huge group of Team Rocket members and crush them before they could do any more damage.
Oh sure, she helped too. The grunts were hardly a match individually against her Pokémon, but that was where lied the problem. Against huge groups of enemies like this, even with undisciplined and relatively untrained Pokémon, her Pokémon didn't have the overwhelming power to easily dispose of them.
During the fight, she managed to take a few glimpses of John's Team, and what a sight they were. A fully coordinated team of destruction, completely and utterly dominating the fight against a flood of enemy Pokémon. There was no need for smart tactics, but John's Pokémon were just so strong that they muscled through every threat with a versatile range of attacks.
From the ranged attacks of his Clefable and Blissey, to the pure pressure exerted from his powerful bruisers and the speedy flankers of his Wyrdeer and Pidgeot, John was able to sweep through all in his way.
And Karen's Pokémon were unable to do that.
She knew that her team was lacking in versatility and relied heavily on the use of tricks, but it was one thing to know about it intellectually and another to see just how different her team performed against the grunts. Sure, her Houndoom and Honchkrow were versatile and strong enough to overwhelm most Pokémon, but her other Pokémon just weren't able to perform at that same level.
Her Sneasel hit hard, of course, but he was ultimately too fragile and too reliant on dodging to stay in the fight. One or two stray hits would have knocked him out. Likewise, her Umbreon was too passive and didn't hit hard enough to instantly knock out the grunts' Pokémon. Perhaps her Pupitar and Spiritomb would have done better, but she didn't use them in the fight.
Regardless, this incident was an eye-opener for Karen, and allowed her to truly understand why Agatha, and sometimes John, nagged her so much that she needed a true frontline Pokémon that could be able to brute force through things. So far, in her 8 badge trainer battles, her strategy to manipulate and trick opponents into exploitable positions served her well, but that was only applicable in trainer battles with rules.
In real situations like this where everything goes to shit, she couldn't rely on such tactics. Her Confuse Ray strategy would never have worked; there were far too many Pokémon to handle. Likewise, making use of status and regeneration moves to stall out the fight is useless when the goal is to defeat and capture the assailants before they could do more damage.
And not only that, but the attack also exposed something she truly never considered before, her leadership abilities during an actual attack. Or in this case, the lack thereof.
Before John stepped in and started to give commands to the civilians who had participated in the fight, the fight was utterly chaotic. She herself was so lost in the fighting that she was unable to make up who was friend or foe; nor did she think to consider friendly fire at such a moment. She was so consumed by the battle in front of her that she was blind to the events happening around her.
She recognized that she had narrowly avoided disaster with friendly fire. With all the Pokémon attacks being thrown around in such a small space, eventually one of those stray attacks would strike her Pokémon, and if she was unlucky might have actually knocked her frailer Pokémon out.
No, she understood now. If she wanted to be in the Elite Four, she needed to show more than just tricks and smarts. She needed to show raw strength.
It was…upsetting to see the gap between herself and John once again. She had thought that, during her time in Hoenn, that she had trained up her Pokémon sufficiently to legitimately catch up to John, or at least be treated as his equal in terms of strength.
But now she saw that she had been deluding herself. And wasn't that a depressing thought. At least she had discovered her mistake now, while she still had time to improve herself before her eventual run for the Elite Four.
She swore by Arceus that she would catch up to John, one way or the other. She refused to be anything less than his equal.
A.N. Wanted to show a little bit of how Karen fared in the big battle. Thanks to Allute for BETAing this 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!