AN: Due to the holidays being exceptionally busy in both my private and professional life, I might have to skip the update of next week as I might not have the new chapter ready on time. That being said: happy holidays everyone!
Razi: I thought that was an excellent suggestion, I hadn't thought of that myself! Though I do intent to make Yun struggle some to grow her team, and let her feel the pain of a double weakness before training to fix it. You inspired me to include a move tutor of sorts later on in the story.
She recalled Tenno right before he got hit. While she knew he wouldn't thank her for it, she just didn't want him to suffer needlessly. Despite that the choice left her feeling desolate, she had really been banking on Tenno taking out the first Geodude using only a special move. It might have tricked Roark into using his second Geodude instead of the Onix. For the last several days she had been having nightmares about her small Pokémon getting crushed underneath that monstrosity.
But there was nothing to it now, she would have to reveal Reign and his trump card and with Tenno running out of juice, he would have to face three Pokémon before they could possibly even win. The confidence she felt before disappeared into thin air with that prospect.
"You did great." She whispered against Tenno's Pokéball with Roark patiently waiting for her next move.
"Go for it, Reign."
Her starter appeared in a flash ready for action, immediately sizing up his opponent.
A short burst of laughter coming from the opposite side of the field startled her. "Wow, you're going to have a much easier time against Gardenia, kid."
The remark wasn't meant to be mean, she noticed, just humorous. It was that insight that allowed her to reply. "I hope so." This earned her another chuckle.
Reign didn't waste time following the conversation. While running for the Geodude, his tail started glowing. His opponent simply waited for the bug to attack and did nothing as Reign struck. It toppled over, arms flat on the ground.
Yun blinked. How anticlimactic.
Roark simply recalled his Geodude and thanked him briefly before sending out his next Pokémon. Another Geodude.
Yun released a breath she hadn't know she was holding. They stood a chance. The rock Pokémon was slow compared to either her Pokémon and Reign had a move that would actually do something against it.
"Rock Polish."
The Geodude started gleaming as Yun struggled to recall what that particular move did, only figuring it out when the Geodude moved. It was twice as fast as the one that came before.
"Tackle."
Yun resisted shouting at her starter to move away, opting to trust him. As the Geodude attempted to body check him, he spun around with a glowing tail. The moment the two made contact they both got pushed back as their moves clashed.
"Again!" The gym leader commanded and his Pokémon rushed to follow the command.
Reign was smart enough to know he shouldn't turn this is a test of endurance against the rock type. This time he dodged the incoming tackle with his stinger darting forward to clip the Geodude. It left no more than a scratch but Yun knew rock types weren't fully immune. If they could manage to poison the Geodude, they could wait out this battle.
The two then followed up with a series of clashes most of which were in Reign's favor. The rock polish from before had made the Geodude faster, but not as fast as her starter. It was just enough of a difference to level the playing field though and the Skorupi definitely took damage during some of the exchanges.
Then with the Geodude attempting to charge the bug type once again, Reign decided to change tactics. Aided by his stinger striking the ground, he jumped over the rock type and flipped in midair to strike the Geodude with iron tail from above. Unprotected by his arms, the rock type keeled over after being struck and didn't get back up.
"Yes, amazing Reign!" She called to him aided by Chihiro's loud cheering. His little claws started wiggling, a motion she was beginning to recognize as a sign of happiness.
Roark clapped his hands, effectively silencing the room. "Not bad, not bad indeed. But are you ready for the real challenge?"
Unlike herself, she smiled. "I will just have to see, won't I?"
Both Geodudes should have been around the same level, which meant they used the same moves. Yet he had not instructed the first to use rock polish, when Tenno would have gone down with even a glancing hit, and he had not used rock throw against Reign when the battle had to be close quarters. Chihiro hadn't been lying when she said the matches were thrown, Yun could see it now. That didn't mean he would make it easy, he was simply giving her a fighting chance. Most people still had to try two to three times to receive their coal badge after all.
With a brighter flash than it's predecessors, the Cranidos appeared. It was almost cute compared to it's well known evolved form but Yun could not be deceived. She knew this little dinosaur packed an impressive punch.
"Careful, it's not Nelly but one wrong move can still be the end of this fight."
Reign had never sparred with the Rampardos seeing as Yun had forbid it, breaking his shell once was enough for a lifetime, but Nelly had helped him learn iron tail and even that left an impression. There hadn't been a tree nor boulder able to withstand the full might of the bulky dinosaur. While flawless, Reign's execution of the move was decidedly less spectacular. Rampardos, and in extension it's predecessor, abandoned everything else in favor of raw attack power. This wasn't a fight that they could afford to play around with.
She had explained all this in excessive detail to her starter, knowing out of him and Tenno, he was the best equipped to deal with that knowledge. Yet... a sliver of uneasy entered her mind. The trust she had for her starter now always accompanied by her fear of him getting hurt.
Still she bit her tongue as the battle started with the Cranidos charging the smaller Pokémon without prompting, setting a different precedence then his teammates. Roark decided to sit back and watch, much like her except that he was relaxed about it.
Faster than the Geodudes, the Cranidos managed to keep Reign on his toes as the bug jumped rolled and scrambled to dodge the incoming attacks. They were relentless and managed to stalk Reign's movement in a way that seemed almost unnatural.
Pursuit, Yun realized with a frown. The more Reign attempted to retreat, the more this dark move would be fueled by it.
"It's using pursuit, Reign." She informed him with a shrill note to her voice.
Reign had been taught what the move did, as it was listed as one of the Cranidos' official moves, and changed his approach by running directly between the dinosaur's legs. What followed was a rather awkward scuffle where the larger Pokémon attempted to trample the scorpion with it's clawed feet and said bug barely managed to avoid that very thing from happening while stinging the offending appendages multiple times.
The poison stings wouldn't do much, she knew, and iron tail would get better results. But her starter didn't get the breathing space nor time to charge for one.
"No, Reign!"
The fight ended abruptly when the Cranidos managed to stomp down on his opponent, effectively pinning him to the ground. Yun was only slightly comforted by the fact that her starter was still repeatedly stinging the other Pokémon in it's leg.
Huffing in annoyance, the little dinosaur strengthened it's grip on the Skorupi as it lifted the bug from the ground, only to slam him back down. Watching it felt like a punch to the gut and with trembling hands, Yun gripped her starter's Pokéball. Reign wasn't out cold yet and was still stinging his opponent, trying to get as much damage in as possible.
He was slammed to the ground twice more before he stilled, fully knocked out. With blurry eyes, she recalled her starter.
"I-I'm proud of y-you Reign, you fought till the end." She stammered at his Pokéball, almost relieved it was over.
She was ready to accept her defeat if only Tenno didn't have other plans. The red glow of release marked to second time he had exited his ball of his own accord and the look in his eyes sent a shiver running down her spine. They where angry, beyond angry, and Yun was starting to understand something. Her Pokémon wanted this, to be pushed to their limits so that they could grow beyond it.
Despite feeling rather frayed by watching her Pokémon get beat up she nodded at her little menace. "Go for, it." This time, she would let him decide when he was done fighting.
He didn't need to be told twice as he raced towards the Cranidos, targeting it's flanks for several pecks. luckily it was hard for the dinosaur to retaliate against an opponent that small and Yun noticed a stumble in it's gait. Poison.
"Your teammate left us a parting gift, Tenno." Suddenly starting to feel optimistic again, they might actually win this.
Tenno responded with an excited chirp and redoubled his efforts.
After a few more attacks slipped past the Cranidos' defenses, Roark decided to intervene when Tenno rushed the dinosaur once more. "Turn, now!"
It was too late for Tenno to stop and his own momentum carried him straight into the incoming tail of his opponent. While it w
The Cranidos attempted to follow up but Roark stopped him.
"Wait."
It was a testament to it's training that it halted mid stride, awaiting further instructions. When the dust cleared, Tenno was lying on the ground, motionless. She frowned. Theoretically she knew that the little bird had no defenses to speak off and his opponent had overwhelming strength on it's side. Still it didn't fit with the image she had of her bird for him to stay down like that.
Aren't you going to recall him?"
She didn't respond, watching her bird intensely. He stirred.
"Come on, Tenno!" Chihiro cheered from the stands. Yun agreed with the sentiment waiting with bated breath for his come back.
The bird in question starter fluttering his wings, kicking up more dust but he was unable to rise. After a while, he managed to hop onto his little legs and stopped making attempts to fly.
"Are you going to continue?" Roark asked still not allowing his Cranidos to attack.
It was a good question and if it was up to her, then no. Instead of saying just so, she made eye contact with Tenno and found nothing but determination.
"Yes."
For a second Roarks lips pulled taut as he grimaced, then his faced smoothed over and he called out to his Cranidos reluctantly. "Pursuit."
It wasted no time to charge towards the little bird and Yun had the resist the urge to close her eyes. If the Cranidos managed to stomp down on Tenno like he did with Reign... she didn't want to think about that.
But the Fletchling surprised her once more by spitting out another fireball, the largest he had managed to produce by far. It hit the Cranidos dead on and it stumbled back, shaking it's head to dispel the fire. Unfortunately, despite swaying it didn't keel over and recovered all too soon.
It rounded on the little bird again but stopped immediately when Tenno started glowing. The whole room fell silent and Yun's heart started pounding in her ear when she realized what was happening. The glow became so bright it was painful to look at but Yun could not and did not want to avert her eyes, not wanting to miss a second of this moment./
The first evolution on her team.
The bright, almost white light flashed a few times and then broke apart without warning and leaving spots dancing before her eyes. When everything cleared Yun no longer saw her little bird, for Tenno was indubitably large now. Even from afar it was clear he would no longer fit her shoulder.
Tenno straightened himself and bellowed a battle cry at his opponent, now almost the same size. Then he started swaying and fell forward, wings spread... out cold.
"W-what?" Yun struggled to comprehending what just happened.
"Evolution is nothing to scoff at, it takes a lot of energy." Roark took it up to himself to explain. "That's why evolving mid battle is rarely a good thing. He has a strong will, that's for sure, but even he was going to hit his limits eventually. Still it's been a long time since I have witnessed an evolution, congratulations."
By the time she recalled Tenno, Yun had tears in her eyes. It was embarrassing but she couldn't help it. She just felt incredibly frustrated. Her boys had fought so hard, had given their all and it still wasn't enough, they still lost. What was worse it that they were going to have to do it all over again if they ever wanted that coal badge.
They came so close too, she could see the Cranidos drooping with Reigns poison slowly taking more and more effect. One more Pokémon and...
She grabbed her last Pokéball and Roark didn't seem at all surprised, even smiled at her encouragingly. The receptionist had asked how many Pokémon she carried... she had told him she had three. It wasn't cheating, she rationalized, but bringing a Pokémon she hardly knew to a gym battle was a bad idea regardless.
Roark raised an eyebrow when she released her final team member right before her own feet. Hurriedly she wiped away the few tears that had fallen, not wanting to look so pathetic before her newest Pokémon. It- she raised her blue eyes to meet Yun's.
"Aron." It was a greeting maybe? Her voice had a metallic ring to it and Yun realized she couldn't read her at all. It would take time to get to know her tells, like it had with Reign.
"Will you fight for me?" She was inwardly glad her question came out strong, trying to make a decent impression.
The little steel type cocked her head then looked behind her to the Cranidos who lowered it's own head in challenge. Without preamble, the Aron kicked of ground to charge her opponent with such vigor that a large cloud of dust rose up behind her, leaving a fine layer on Yun's close. She barely noticed though as the two rock types met each other head on, literally.
They clashed heads, the impact making enough noise to make Yun flinch. That was not a headbutt she wanted to be on the receiving end off, ever. The Aron stood her ground while the Cranidos stumbled backwards. One step, it swayed, the second step, it fell on the ground with a dull thud.
It was over. Yun blinked, barely believing it as the sound of Chihiro's cheering reached her ears. Roark was smiling too, not at all looking like someone that just lost a battle.
"That settles it, well done kid." He recalled his Cranidos and Yun fought a rising blush.
"My Pokémon did all the work really."
Her Aron bounded back towards her and she knelt down to thank her. There wasn't much of a response that Yun could make out of the metallic sounds that the little creature made but that didn't dampen her mood.
Soon after, she was ushered out of the battle field by the secretary into another room to heal her Pokémon as they prepared to engrave her Coal badge with her trainer number. Not long into the wait, her friend burst through the door with nothing but enthusiasm.
"Damn, kid, what a roller coaster!" That made Yun laugh.
What a roller coaster indeed.
AN: Aaaand done. The first badge is in! Aron's basic move set includes metal claw... which makes no sense to me at all and is hard to write as it has no claws. I changed it to iron head, an egg move, so I can at least line up Aron's attacks with my imagination. In the same line I made Yun face two Geodudes because I just couldn't see her already disadvantaged Pokémon take on that rock giant. Expect other creative liberties like that to happen but I will try to keep things 'realistic' (so no water gun for an Arcanine).