AN: I am going to be slowing down after this since I think I've made the general idea of how this works down, and now I'm going to work on lateral instead of forward progress. Like, I'm going to try to do one of those forum post chapter things I've seen in a few different stories and fandoms. I'll try to do a couple different types of 'groups' one 'serious' and two less serious. I'm not good at not serious stuff so it will be a good way to stretch.
After that I may do a Pokemon POV - I already comprehend how they feel about things and why. They're not best friends with Greg for the most part, but they are respectful and trusting of him. I can show this in the chapter. (Though, yes, some of them do love him.)
So, Koga. The ideas for how to beat him had been swirling in my mind for weeks. This was a man who in a year or two would earn a spot on the Elite Four. He was below Bruno, who is below Agatha and Karen in terms of direct demonstrable power, but above Lorelei. So he's someone who technically fills the slot of Lorelei in today's Elite Four. Probably a bit worse off for lacking the prodigal skill and experience of someone who's been at that level for years like Lorelei. Still, though, it's his spot.
If we ignore the time he's going to take to climb those hills.
I know for a fact I am not really Elite Four level. I'm probably about equal to him if I'm lucky in terms of skill.
Poison types, however, have a weakness. They're about traps and overwhelming with numbers. They work in a way where they don't beat you in a straight up fight. They beat you by tricking you and causing you to bleed out slowly over the whole battle. Poison, confusion, evasion. This is the hallmark of poison type moves. They have some offensive power if you look at Crowbat and Gengar, with a few others sticking out. The issue is, most of them rely on those tricks and pack tactics, which is not conducive to a single battle style like Pokemon battling is.
Therefore, my strategy is to take what I did to Sabrina, and amp it up to eleven. Speed, power, control. He's going to try to win with tricks and traps and I'll win with power and walls. Milotic will be key to this strategy with Marvel Scale, and further, I have many team members who can outpace most of his team members.
Skuntank, Crowbat, Toxicroak, Muk, Ariados, Swalot. Or, more accurately, Ground, Fire and Flying type weaknesses. Milotic, Garchomp and Dragonite handle his team pretty handily on paper. I have Charizard, Pidgeot and Scizor as backups if things go poorly. This is mostly a battle of making sure I get him on the ground and making sure he stays there. Being fast and strong enough to ignore tricks and win before Poison does the work for him.
So, what's the best way to do that? What kind of 'unbeatable moves' can I make to force him into what I want? I'd been working on the concept for the last week, and had a few ideas.
Garchomp's geokinesis was the key to what he would do. Stone Edge but instead of standard, it was imbued with his control of gravity, so each stone weighs more. When they hit, their full enhanced weight drags the opponent down as a Smack Down would. He swirls those around and keeps a perpetual earthquake up while blitzing around trying to smash the foe with full-on dragon type moves. When he starts to wear out from the insane stamina this costs, he'll go into outrage. When it wears off he'll be fully spent, but I hope it'll remove one or at best two opponents.
I've been working on things like this all of the last week while also imparting concepts and how I see the senses and how I think we should train them with the aid of the Psychic types I'm training up. One week wasn't really enough to make them real moves, but they were rough outlines for what could be done in the future. Sandstorm but also filled with rocks and pebbles Garchomp controls is the peak of this control. All of them follow the concept of gravitational control.
Dragonite using Tailwind to make little invisible blades of wind to slice at opponents trying to chase him down, and refining Air Slash and Air Cutter to be something unseen as well. Weaker, sure, but a move you can't see is a massive advantage and will wall things below me. Mixed with Agility and Dragon Dance, he'd be fast enough to be almost unseeable with moves to match. The idea of unbeatable moves was a real eye opener. Something people below you can't overcome and people above you would have to make specific counters to overcome.
I can already tell I'll struggle really hard against trick room setups. I'll have to make special counters to those kinds of teams for my main battlers to use. I wonder how many of them can use Curse, trading speed for power and defensive abilities?
Fuck, I hate trick room teams.
But the idea of how to beat Koga was firmly in my mind as I walked into the gym. My battle pre-scheduled since I'd stepped off the St. Anne. I was the only battle for today - and while I couldn't see them, I knew there were cameras on the match. Some invisible audience we were playing to. Everyone from the Elite Four and the contenders in Indigo this year and even the other Gym Leaders would likely be watching. It had only been just under four months since my journey had begun, and I was battling one of the few ten-badge gym leaders who were considered a real threat to get on the Elite Four.
Outside of Blaine, this was 'the Strongest Gym Leader' of Kanto.
And me, a Rookie, will be battling his 'true team'.
As I stepped into the waiting room, I was surprised to find Koga sitting on the bench in the room, calmly sipping a cup of tea. He looks up as I enter, and offers me a smile, face uncovered. It's very faint, almost nonexistent, but it's a smile.
"It is good to see you in person, Gregory Daniels." He greets, offering a nod of the head. "I take my time before every bout like this to meet my opponent. Be it their first, second or even tenth try for my badge. The contents of these conversations can vary, but I would like to hear your thoughts. Are you excited?" he asks in the calmest voice, almost perfectly level with the faintest undertone of perhaps amusement.
"I suppose I am excited, yes." I respond, keeping my own voice equally as flat. "I hope for a good battle. It is not everyday someone fights a true battle with a Gym of this caliber. I've been planning on how to beat you since I defeated Sabrina. Of all the gyms in Indigo, this is the one I have been most excited for, to date." I complete the thought, then offer a faint shrug. "I do not expect it to be easy, by any means. But it should be fun." I conclude. He offers a nod, before finishing the cup of tea. Then, he stands.
"I agree, this bout will likely be fun. I commend you for your tempered outlook before engaging in battle. It is comforting to see someone stepping up to show that Kanto is not as weak as some would think, that we have potential to be at the peak like some others. As the seasons change, so does the world. I see Kanto as having gone through a winter. Our talent is lesser than those around us, but now?" He offers a chuckle, shaking his head. "Well, now it is spring. New talent grows like weeds. This, I feel, will be a season to remember. So many remarkable new faces." He sighs, then, and then bows minimally to me. I copied his bow. One of equals. "But I will not go easy on you for merely being of my home. I must see for myself if you, of the younger generation, are ready to take the mantle your elders are soon to vacate. Prove yourself, the young master of Indigo, before me. The 'great hurdle' as they call me." He puffs out a breath. "Should you do so, you may yet walk away with a badge, today." With his piece said, he vanishes in an almost undetectable blur of movement, through a panel in the ceiling.
"I will. Just remember to give me a good battle. I'd hate it if you just rolled over like everyone else. Sabrina was in a fight, but I'm not sure if she would measure up to me now." I mutter. Then roll my shoulders as I walk to the stage entry door.
The light flips green a second later.
I walk up the two-stories of stairs to the competitors booth, above the field. The room looked like a traditional dojo, and the field was almost like a sumo-wrestling arena, but about the size of a football stadium. All flat dirt and mud with lines drawn in it. Grooves from past battles. On either side of my box, and Koga's Box, along with next to the Referee and another box opposite that where someone who could only be Janine sat, were two Alakazam each, maintaining the barrier. I'd done more research on these since getting my Abra, and noted they had large spoons than average. Barely notable, but certainly indicative of a Pokemon trained for larger scale Psychic effects than a battler would be using. Namely, barriers.
The league liked using Alakazam because they were pretty easy to appease. They liked to learn secrets and figure out how to control their powers in unique intricate ways. There was a whole system made for Alakazam. They basically worked five days a week and the other two were spent in schooling about myth, legend, control classes for unique psychic abilities and manifestation of those abilities. Never battle skills, because these were the ones who were not interested in such things, nor teleportation, for those were a different 'career path'. These were the ones who wanted to help control and hold dangerous things. Arean controllers like this could be the end of the line for an untalented Alakazam. The true gems at the art of this kind of thing would move on to the Elite Four stadiums, then the Champion stadium. Those Alakazam also made and maintained the barriers around places and objects of importance. Like the Flame of Moltres, extremely sensitive league information hubs and if the rumors are true, hidden and dormant legendaries and mythical pokemon who are best left undisturbed.
Like the Regi Trio, for example.
Koga having eight of them was pretty normal for a gym. One badge through four would only need one. They could rotate. Two would be needed for five and six, then three and four for seven and eight badges.
All Eight is just a sign that this battle could break four barriers and so they have a fifth and sixth up, with two in reserve to reinforce the first and the sixth barrier. The safest they can make it.
Not everywhere is the St. Anne.
"This is a ten-badge level challenge to the Gym Leader, Koga of Fusicia City. As the Gym Leader, you are not allowed any substitutions. Standard gym rules apply." The referee calls, he looks somehow related to Koga. A cousin maybe? Then he turns to me. "As the Challenger, you are allowed two substitutions at any time. Further, you will release second as is the standard for a gym challenge. Note, that not using the substitutions in a ten-badge level bout will result in better rewards, as the challenge increases. You are also warned that you will be battling the true team of Koga, and that he is a specialist in Poison types. This battle can - and likely will - result in one or more of your pokemon needing to reside in the Pokemon center for at least twenty four to forty eight hours. I will call a Pokemon unconscious if they are too severely injured or otherwise inhibited so as not to risk their life unnecessarily!" He tells me in a deadpan voice, before turning back to the arena at large, and in a louder voice he calls. "Now, release your first pokemon, Gym Leader!"
Koga obliges, sending out his normal opener for a new challenger, Skuntank.
I offer a nod of respect before sending out Garchomp. We'd already planned on how to deal with this thing. Fast, big damage and tricks are what this thing has. Garchomp is just - hopefully - faster and stronger. So he knows what to do when the referee calls "Begin!"
Garchomp disappears, as does Skuntank, and then I see the arena start to tremble as fissures start to open under Garchomp sending Earthquakes off with every fourth step, which is his limit currently. Then, there's an explosion from underground which sends the whole arena up and blows Garchomp into the air.
I hadn't thought he'd try to do an explosion from a dig to completely alter the face of the field. Everyone waits, and when the dust settles, it is to see Garchomp, wounded but still able to go, picking shards of rock out of his side with a claw. The wet click of another bloody rock hitting the ground is punctuated by the sound of a recall as Skuntank is pulled back.
Garchomp has a small pile of inch or so long rocks all around, now. Koga can't possibly know how bad that is for him. Exploding a field of earth for a Garchomp practicing geokinesis is… probably the worst choice he could have made.
I can't blame him, who the fuck would have used a Garchomp this powerful in his gym before? Does he even know that's what a Garchomp can do? This is a Garchomp bred by the Shirona clan, who at least according to Legends Arceus have been using them for generations. Like the Wataru and their Dragonite and the Draconid and their Salamence.
Clink, another stone. They're all out. Koga, done contemplating or waiting for Garchomp to 'get ready' sends out his next mon.
Crobat. As expected.
"Pity them, truly. Garchomp." I say, and Koga raises a brow and the referee calls "Begin!"
The stones all over explode from the ground, and into motion as the two combatants vanish.
I hear the boom of impacts. One, two, three, four, five, six, sev- ah, there. Crobat had collided with a stone, and had been grounded as Garchomp slammed a foot down a meter or so away, body glowing bluish green as a claw descended, only to be met by a purple body. The two struggle for a minute before Garchomp wins out, sending Crobat into the ground and with another stomp and super-effective earthquake, the frail bat is unconscious.
Garchomp is, however, barely standing after the rush of combat, and having undoubtedly taken hits in the exchange. With open wounds for the poison I have no doubt Crobat put into the air - or was maybe already there from Skuntank, Garchomp is probably really feeling it along with the new slashes, bites and myriad wounds on his form. So, I allow Garchomp on final triumphant roar, before I declare "I am surrendering Garchomp. He is too wounded to do more good in this battle, and has won himself a great honor. I would be remiss if I left none for the others." Damn, Koga is getting to me. Who uses remiss in actual conversation? Fuck me.
I recalled Garchomp, and Koga sent out his Toxicroak. Dry Skin? Poison Fighting?
Have you heard of our good friend, Charizard?
"Pity them, Charizard." I call dryly as Charizard explodes out and greets the field with a roar of defiance. "Just as planned. Keep pace." I command as Koga explains to his Toxicroak what to do, the situation. The ref, having given us our moment, declares the match to start, and Charizard stands dead still, before dropping an earthquake, and exploding in his unbeatable move. Toxicroak appears behind, glowing with energy, and stumbles for the briefest of seconds due to the Earthquake.
Charizard takes ruthless advantage. Instantly, the Toxicroak is ablaze, inside of the Fire Spin and in a grappling melee with the Flare-Blitzing Charizard. They trade blows back and forth in the grapple. Knees and heads a flurry.
A damn shame Charizard has wings, and has been working on this combination long enough and with other close combat fighters to refine his brawling style to use his wings offensively when all else is even. I'm pretty sure he uses wing attack instead of Steel Wing, even, as he slams the Toxicroak with them, setting off Earthquakes with the Toxicroak's body by slamming it into the ground, as a finisher.
If I was willing to ignore the gash on his chest, bleeding purple from the poison injected by a headbutt which Koga had somehow made Poison Type, I'd say Charizard won handily, but I can tell he'll drop like a rock if he has to brawl again. Muk, Swalot and Ariados are all brawlers, so… I sigh, and surrender Charizard.
Out comes Muk, and the response of Milotic gets an inquisitive look from Koga. I assume he isn't familiar with Milotic who play in the mud. But water types in fields like this are good at making it, and Mud Shot does exactly what I need in this fight. Make Muk slow, vulnerable, and something we can deal with.
"Slow it and then keep it steady. Ranged fighting is our friend." I tell Milotic, getting an agreeing trill. Koga whispers his own commands, and then the battle is started. Muk starts to shrink, and then, it starts to rain. Koga nods, appreciatively, before blinking as my Milotic gleefully starts throwing mud wave after mud wave at the location of Muk.
Mud Shot is the name. It is exactly what it sounds like. Throwing energy infused mud at someone. Milotic is a long noodle and flexing and flipping her body to get the most mud she can in every 'shot' makes it more of a wave than a 'shot'.
"Close!" Koga yells over the sound of rain and the slapping of mud and stone on the ground.
"Set and Surf." I reply, and Milotic glows blue, before taking off around the arena on a big wave of water, which gets larger as more rain falls, and then notably a ring of water forms around her, spinning and healing her.
"Sludge Bomb" Koga calls coldly, and then, something changes. I don't know how, but the tiny Muk, using so many minimizes, managed to get ON Milotic.
And it explodes, per the move explosion, but also sends toxic Sludge all over the place. Fouling the pool of water into a toxic morass, splattering the barriers and knocking himself and Milotic out. I frown, but sigh. Recalling Milotic as he recalls Muk.
Next, he sends out Swalot, and I send out Dragonite.
At the sound, Swalot begins using Stockpile to eat the sludge, and Dragonite calls the heavens down on the poor thing. The rain clouds above answer, and a massive bolt tears down into the greedily eating thing, which is then amplified by Dragonite piledriving it with his feet and slamming his tail into the ground for an Earthquake all of a second later.
Swalot just keeps eating the Sludge as Dragonite starts to wail on him, using him as a heavy bag for his punches. Then, Swalot belches.
Loudly. Dragonite visibly recoils as though struck, slamming one more hand into Swalot, before kicking it away and glowing with Roost, and stomping. The earthquakes that follow send Swalot into unconsciousness, but Belch - as a move - is Swalots signature and is very powerful. I watch carefully as Dragonite rites himself and squares himself for a battle, snout crinkled.
Must be a horrendous stench. But he seems okay.
"I do think my Ariados could defeat your Dragonite, but I am less certain of your sixth member. So, I think it wise to end this here. I will surrender gracefully." Koga calls, before vanishing and appearing next to me in a blur.
I am less certain. I think Koga's ace pokemon could have, perhaps, taken out both of those I had left. While I think this is something of a mistake on his part, I feel he is taking it easier on me than others for some reason. Maybe to make Kanto look better, since he seemed concerned about that. Maybe because I was 'courageous' enough to fight him first. Maybe because he wanted to support me in some small way.
Whatever it is, he hands me a badge, TM, and with a bow, vanishes again. Not another word.
The Ref isn't even finished calling the match before we're both out of the room, and back in my preparation room.
The ref is sticking to the full formalities, and Koga doesn't seem to care for them, and I am only required to hear the "Victory goes to.." part. Mostly due to the fact I could have very injured Pokemon.
When I walk into the prep room, I find Koga on my bench again, sipping tea. Ariados at his side. A wry smile curves his lips. "You battle like Blaine. Power, ferocity. An unstoppable force. It really is my - and my type - one weakness. If someone is fast and powerful enough to hit us, then we can be stopped. Your Milotics technique to stop Muk's shenanigans was brilliant. I had to accept a trade. While I can tell you think I may have won with Ariados, I am sad to disappoint with the truth that my main Ariados is recovering from a battle with a wild pack of ground types who were quite upset with the opening of a recent mine going into their ancient abode. While they were stopped, Ariados took most of the damage and it would have been easy for two team members on the level I witnessed to overcome her. You were lucky, but such is the way things go with battling. We cannot choose our best days, nor our worst. Those who come after you, may or may not be as lucky." He comments, and I give him a look.
"You could have rescheduled" I comment dryly, and he shakes his head.
"No. If I seek to be an Elite, I need to take challenges when I am at my best and worst. I cannot choose the day a legendary awakens or a criminal syndicate needs to be removed or even when a challenger comes for my spot. I must be ready at all times. You are showing promise, but keep in mind you had time to ready yourself for me. I have the responsibilities of the largest purely land based county of Kanto to oversee, a gym to run, the Safari Zone to coordinate and as the longest standing gym leader I must plan and coordinate those meetings as well. I had very little time to look into and prepare a counter, or counters, for you. This is what you would face if you became an Elite. So I will say, with more time you may be up to the task, but if you had not the time to prepare or knowledge of my team, I daresay I would have won. Therefore, you are not ready yet. You have some seven months or so to become ready, lest someone unworthy take the spot over you." He concludes with a smirk, before he relaxes on the bench like he's in a recliner. It's eerily graceful.
"Let me guess, you and Blaine were asked by the Elite Four to judge which of the people are most able to become Elite Four?" I ask, and he nods.
"Us, Clair and Pryce from Johto as well. Every conference is being assessed. You did better than the other ten-badge challengers. At least you had an idea. You knew you had to catch and shove me into a corner as fast as you could. Taking two with your first pokemon then trading pokemon while working up to the finale where you'd have a Dragonite on the field and ready to go with a likely Scizor in the back to finish things up is good strategy." He compliments.
"I was considering using Ninetails, honestly. I was probably using Scizor, but Ninetails was an option if the battle looked favorable." I offered, and he gave me an impressed smile.
"Good. Type matchups are important, but at the highest level, if you can remove the opponent fast enough the only thing that matters is how powerful your opponent is. Type Matchups cease to matter as you get higher in the circuit. My Swalot is proof of this. He is very resistant to ground and psychic type attacks for having trained to resist them. Truly, his biggest weakness is water, now, because it can dilute his poison." He chuckles, and I note to look into resistance training.
That sounds useful as fuck. Maybe just training my dragons in a snow and ice storm is helping. Who knows.
"I kind of figured that out. I think it matters more for some than for others. Some types are inherently more defensible, some are more inherently offensive. For those with no set state it matters less. For those who are purely offensive it matters a lot more." I offer my opinion, and get a hum of thought, before he gives a shallow nod.
"That does explain why various Ice Type masters complain about certain things. They have a different outlook. Different type. Different experience." He nods. I offer a small smile as I sigh, stuffing my hands in my pockets. He glances up from his tea, and then nods.
"Be seeing you." I say, as he mutters a farewell, and then vanishes. Tea in hand. I see myself out of the gym, but as I exit Melissa pops up from the bench near the door, watching on her phone the battle which is under a delay but is considered 'live'. The delay is to give the commentators a prime-time slot for the high level battle maniacs to watch without us battlers being able to tap in and watch, getting prime information.
"Well, I think you've gotten scarier. You're not as scary as I think my main team is, but you're closing the gap unfairly quickly." Melissa huffs. I refrain from pointing out she has had a lot of artificial growth due to her sister helping her team - even minorly - to overcome hurdles she herself may not have climbed and gained knowledge of. She probably lacks the exacting understanding I've gained by people sprinkling breadcrumbs at me and helping me work with my pokemon by seeing how they work with their pokemon.
I could be wrong, but I'm starting to get the suspicion.
"Do you have an unbeatable move, yet?" I ask, and she gives me a look. Incredulous.
"That's not something I can come up with at the drop of a hat. I doubt anyone who hasn't won a conference has one, or if they do they're going to win a conference this year. People with those don't just lose conference titles." She rumbles, picking up the implication that I have one.
"Every ten-badge team has one. Literally every Gym Leader probably has one. You're going to need one to beat them." I tell her calmly, and smile to myself as she nearly misses a step.
I barely hear her muttering "Is that what she meant by we're weak?" as we continue on to the Pokemon Center.
Kalos is weak because they win not by might of arms but by might of their culture. I'm not too surprised they don't have a stable of Gym Leaders with signature moves.
Because I doubt any region has a full stable of gym leaders with signature moves. Most - but not all - probably have them. I very much doubt Erika has one. Her mastery of every facet of grass type moves is her signature. She just needs to tie it up into one monstrous whole. Then she'll be a real threat for the position of Elite Four.
Somehow, I doubt she's alone in this, however.
I smile as I think of how I can help her when I stop by for my visit, after smashing Blaine.
Hopefully.