Obligatory warning of bad pokémon battle is obligatory (that's a niche YouTube reference). This is a battle I've been looking forward to writing for a while, yet I never actually put any thought into it until now, like a moron! I'm also sorry this didn't come out yesterday, I was watching some of the Pokémon films for reminders. Specifically about Aura Guardians, but of course I'm taking artistic liberties with those. But enough said, enjoy the chapter.
Chapter 47:
Sibling Rivalry
Bonnie eagerly follows her brother into the gym, ready to battle him at last. Max walks behind her, eager to watch these two siblings have their long awaited battle. As usual, Max heads up to the stands to watch, and ends up standing with Meyer. A few minutes later, they're joined by Ash, Serena and Pikachu. Bonnie looks up at them and grins broadly. Clemont sees them as well and beams. As the siblings head onto the battlefield, Clemont jokingly asks, "Hey guys, which one of us are you rooting for?" The five spectators laugh. "Bonnie obviously!" Max replies, which causes Bonnie's cheeks to redden a bit. "I'm gonna root for Bonnie too," Serena replies. "Sorry Clemont, but I'd like to see Bonnie in the league." "I'm supporting both of you equally!" Meyer announces. Ash just shrugs. "Whichever of you is winning," he replies, before laughing. "I'm kidding. I'm supporting Bonnie too!" Clemont nods approvingly. "Wouldn't have it any other way!" Pikachu cries out in agreement. Bonnie beams at her friends, then readies her first choice.
The ref steps forward to give the usual instructions. It will be a three-on-three battle, with only the challenger being allowed substitutes. Once the rules were explained, the siblings were told to choose their first Pokémon. Bonnie has a suspicion on what Clemont will be choosing, so she sends out Talonflame. As she expected, Clemont's first choice was his Diggersby. It's a risk starting off with a fire type, but a flying type on top of that may play into her favour. Sure enough, Clemont tries to use an Earthquake but it doesn't affect Talonflame. Grinning at this, Bonnie orders Talonflame to charge in with Brave Bird. The attack collides with Diggersby and hurts him badly. But Diggersby isn't done yet. He jumps up into the air with Bounce, but Bonnie is ready for that. She orders Talonflame to chase after Diggersby with Brave Bird. The two attacks collide dead on, creating an explosion in the air.
The dust clears, and Bonnie gasps. Diggersby had grabbed Talonflame with his ears and pins her wings to her sides. He begins to try to throw Talonflame to the ground to be able to use a move like Earthquake, but Bonnie manages to come up with something on her own. She orders Talonflame to use Flame Charge to break out of Diggersby's grip. Talonflame lights her body aflame, and wriggles around in Diggersby's grip, hurting the rabbit in the process. She manages to break free, causing Diggersby to hit the ground hard. While he's still dazed, Talonflame charges in with one final Brave Bird. Bonnie knows it's a risk using Brave Bird three times in one battle, but it's the only move that could do enough damage to Diggersby. Luckily for her, Diggersby had fainted from that attack.
"Diggersby is unable to battle!" the ref announces. Clemont smiles at her as he returns his pokémon. "I can see that you and Max really do make a great team," he comments. "Perhaps separating you two would be a bad idea after all." Bonnie nods, before looking at Max with gratitude. She quickly refocuses on the battle, missing the way Max's own face reddens at that. "Arceus I really do like her like that!" he bemoans in his head. Meyer spots Max's blush and chuckles to himself. Clemont picks out his second pokémon and sends it out. Heliolisk leaps out of his pokéball, eager to battle. Bonnie winces a bit. She remembers Heliolisk giving Ash a bit of trouble during his battle against Clemont. And she still has his to deal with after. She knows that Talonflame will not be lasting long during this battle, but she wants to she if she can do as much damage as possible to Heliolisk before she faints. So to start with, she has her go in for a Flame Charge. It hurts Heliolisk, but not a lot. Heliolisk is able to retaliate quickly, striking Talonflame with a Discharge, knocking her out pretty quickly.
"Talonflame is unable to battle!" says the ref. Bonnie thanks her as she returns Talonflame. Now she'll need to be clever. She has a pokémon who will be able to actually do some damage to Clemont's Heliolisk, but she wants her to be in tip top shape to face off against his ace. So instead, she takes a gamble and sends out Dedenne. Clemont smirks, then orders Heliolisk to use Bulldoze. Bonnie quickly orders Dedenne to jump around the arena to avoid as much of it as he can. Dedenne does so, and manages to avoid most of the damage, but still takes a bit of damage. Once the attack is done, Dedenne charges in with a Play Rough. Heliolisk takes the damage, before striking Dedenne across the face with Mud Slap. Dedenne flies back from the super effective attack, but manages to get to his feet. Then, he charges back in for another Play Rough.
Heliolisk takes it, then goes in for another Bulldoze. This time Dedenne has an easier time avoiding it then runs in with a tackle attack, followed up by Play Rough.
Heliolisk is beginning to weaken from all these attacks in quick succession, so Clemont has him throw a mud slap, which Dedenne manages to avoid, but then he's hit with Bulldoze, which nearly knocks him out. Bonnie is tempted to use Mega Evolution here, but she knows that is she does, she won't be able to use it against Clemont's last pokémon. So instead, she orders Dedenne to use one final Play Rough, just as Clemont orders Heliolisk to use Mud Slap one final time as well. Both pokémon charge at each other as quickly as possible and meet in the middle. The attacks collide in the middle of the arena and trigger a massive explosion. When the dust clears, both pokémon have been knocked out.
"Both pokémon are unable to battle!" the ref calls. "Which means that both challenger and Gym Leader are down to their last pokémon!" The Citron Siblings return their pokémon, then grin as they send out their last ones. "Luxray!" Clemont shouts. "Gardevoir!" shouts Bonnie. Both pokémon appear out of their pokéballs, eager to battle. Brother and sister look at each other, before pulling out their own wristbands, tapping it, and shouting "LUXRAY/GARDEVOIR, MEGA EVOLVE!" Light goes from the wristbands to both pokémon as their forms change. Just as Gardevoir turns into Mega Gardevoir, Luxray's mane glows yellow as it grows bigger, and the black fur is replaced by volts of electricity. His fangs elongate and bend, becoming shaped like lightning bolts and jutting down to his chin. His body also elongates and becomes more muscular, with bolts of electricity flowing from his fur. Finally, his tail juts upward and glows. This is Mega Luxray, and it's making Bonnie nervous. But still, she refocuses on the battle, determined to think of a way to defeat her brother's ace.
Both pokémon run in to attack each other, with Luxray using Spark and Gardevoir using Dazzling Gleam. The attack clash in the middle, then Gardevoir jumps away quickly and throws Disarming Voice, blocking Spark from being used again for a while. Annoyed, Luxray charges in with Thunder Fang, crushing his fangs against Gardevoir. Gardevoir cries out, then Teleports away. She reappears on the other side of the arena, then uses Double Team. Then, she uses Moonblast over and over, pummelling Luxray from all sides. Luxray uses Discharge to get rid of the clones, but some still remain, hitting him with Moonblast. As a last desperate attempt, Luxray charges at the clones with Thunder Fang, biting through all of them. He manages to bite the real Gardevoir, damaging her. But Gardevoir uses Draining Kiss, knocking Luxray out and healing herself.
"Luxray is unable to battle!" says the ref. "Making challenger Bonnie Citron the winner of this match!" Everyone cheers as Bonnie recalls Gardevoir. Clemont returns Luxray, then walks over to his sister. "Congrats," he says, holding his hand out for her to shake. "I'm glad to see you managed to defeat me. I was even going all out." Bonnie scoffs. "No need to lie," she says. "I've seen you battle in the league." Clemont chuckles at that and apologises. Clemont has just enough time to hand the Voltage Badge to Bonnie, before they're both pulled into a big bear hug by Meyer. "I'm so proud of you both!" Meyer announces. "You had a brilliant battle, I was on the edge of my seat. Congratulations on defeating him Bonnie!" Bonnie thanks her father and shimmies around so that she can hug him back. She can see max cheering for her as well, and feels her face heat up a bit.
Meyer sets his kids down and claps his hands, rubbing together. "Right, it's decided," he says. "We're going out tonight to celebrate! You lot can come too!" He looks to Ash, Serena and Max as he says this, but Ash and Serena decline. "No thanks," says Ash. "We've already got plans." "Anyway, we wouldn't want to intrude" Serena adds. Max tries to decline as well, but Meyer is insistent that he comes. "You're Bonnie's first real friend her age!" he says, practically dragging him with them. "You helped her get this far, as she's told us on several occasions. You simply must join us to celebrate Bonnie's achievement. In fact, Meyer makes sure the pair are sitting beside each other during the dinner. Max sees the way Meyer looks at the two of them when they blush, and has a sinking feeling that he has a hunch of what's going on. After all, as Norman likes to remind May whenever he points out her crush on Drew, "A father always knows!"
So, that battle turned out more interesting than I expected it to. I hope you enjoyed it, because I was struggling to piece it together. I also hope you like Mega Luxray's design, but I'll be honest I'm not too happy with it. It was kind of thrown together last minute, so it may change if I get a better idea. But anyway, I'll see you all hopefully on Tuesday for the next chapter, but College is starting again tomorrow, so I may not have as much time to write as before. See you then.