Red glanced at the clock on the wall for the moment. There were still a few minutes till sunset, which meant Red couldn't start with Belladonna. Hence why he started the fight using Gabriel. The Butterfree flew gracefully above the water and spun around as it prepared for battle. Misty got off the first attack.
"Staryu, use Water Gun!" she commanded and the starfish pointed its top arm towards Gabriel and launched a stream of water out of it.
"Dodge it and use confusion!" Red ordered. Gabriel spun out of the way before flapping his wings, making a strange spiral pattern with the black and white coloration of his scales that started making the Staryu's aim feel off.
"Go for a tackle!" Misty commanded, and her Staryu obeyed by jumping in the air at Gabriel, but it ended up crashing into the wall instead, damaging itself. Red smiled as Gabriel descended behind Staryu.
"Go for a Stun Spore!" he said and Gabriel flapped his wings to shed off the scales necessary to inflict the paralysis condition. The Staryu was finding it extremely difficult to move now. Misty took out her Pokeball and recalled the Staryu.
"Not bad, you used your Butterfree to disrupt Staryu's sense of direction and paralyzed it while it was already dazed and confused," Misty began as she held up her ace's Pokéball, "Now then. Let's see how you handle the evolved form." She threw the ball out and Starmie dropped into the water.
"Quick go for another Confusion!" Red said, wanting to capitalize on his strategy as fast as he could.
"Counter attack with Bubble Beam!" Starmie shot out a massive stream of bubbles from the gem in the middle of its body. The bubbles refracted the design of the wings and broke the confusing pattern before it could affect the Starfish Pokémon.
"Gabriel, go for a Stun Spore!" Gabriel flapped his wings and started launching his scales at the Starmie. Like before, the attacks were ineffective as the scales stuck to the bubbles and floated around harmlessly in the air.
"Water Gun, full force!" Misty yelled and Starmie fired a massive blast of water, hitting Gabriel dead center in the chest. The force slammed him backwards into a wall and knocked him out of the battle for good. Red recalled Gabriel and sent out Belladonna. She let out a cute yawn as she stood on the field among the floating bubbles. Red glanced at the clock once more. Night was only a minute or so away. "I see, so you caught a grass type to help you with this fight. Pretty smart."
"Thanks. Belladonna, Absorb!" Red yelled out and the Oddish's leaves extended out to grab some of the bubbles and absorb the water inside to gain energy.
"Starmie, get up close and tackle him!" Misty said. Red smiled at that, it meant that Starmie didn't have any psychic type moves at its disposal, which was to his advantage given Belladonna's poison subtype.
"Dodge it!" Red ordered, but she was too sluggish in her motions. Starmie slammed directly into her and sent her flying across the room. She managed to get back to her feet and yawned once more, her eyes were closing as sleep threatened to take over her again. "Sleep," he whispered under his breath, "that's it." He watched as Starmie flew towards Belladonna again, ready to tackle her. "Sleep Powder!" Red commanded, and Belladonna blew out a cloud of pollen just before Starmie slammed directly into her and knocked her into a wall. Red looked nervous as he saw Belladonna hit the floor once again. Starmie was definitely hit by the Sleep Powder, but Belladonna seemed to be struggling to get back up herself. Maybe his efforts were too late? He wasn't sure if it was Belladonna's characteristic tiredness, or if she was about to faint. After a moment though, her eyes opened and she stood in front of the sleeping Starmie and glared. She was wide awake now. Red smiled as he realized he was still in the battle and quickly gave the order. "Go for an absorb while Starmie is still sleeping!" Belladonna's leaves extended and grabbed a hold of Starmie's limbs and began draining it of energy. Misty recalled Starmie and conceded the battle.
"Well done!" Misty said as she approached Red with the Cascade Badge in hand. "I'm surprised how close that battle was, you have the potential to become great you know?"
Red took the badge and smiled. "Thanks. Honestly, I'm still a bit surprised I won. You were ranked the second strongest Gym Leader if I remember correctly. During last year's Gym Leader Open."
"Well, seeing as you only had two badges, I did have to limit my power a bit. So if you wanna see me at my full power level, that means you'll have to rematch me once you become champion."
"I'll take your challenge," Red said, beaming with excitement as he shook Misty's hand. He picked Belladonna up and walked out of the gym carrying her. "You did so amazing!" he said, lifting her into the air and smiling. He also let Jeremy out of his Pokeball to praise him as well. "You did great too," he said, giving the Butterfree a pat on the head. He heard a familiar giggle and turned around to see Green standing there. "Something funny?" he asked with a slight eye roll. In spite of the eye roll, it was clear he wasn't actually mad about her giggles.
"Nothing, just that you look adorable," Green said with a sly grin.
"What's that supposed to mean?" he asked with a slight pout.
"A-do-ra-ble," she teased, emphasizing each syllable as she got closer. In the dimness of the moonlight, there was the faintest trace of a blush on Red's cheeks.
"Is it wrong to be proud of my Pokémon for a job well done?" he asked awkwardly.
"Of course not. Seeing you spinning in circles, carrying Blaze after you defeated Brock was just as adorable as this was," she replied with a bright smile. Red saw the smile and the way that the moonlight reflected off her glasses. For the first time, Red saw just how beautiful his best friend was and smiled a bit as he looked back at her.
"So, I guess this means we'll be heading out tomorrow?" Red asked. He stumbled over his words a bit, but hoped that Green hadn't noticed.
"Yeah, I guess we will, unless you wanna stick around for another day or so. Misty uses her gym as a public pool when she doesn't have challengers. Since the three of us were the only people who came here recently for the gym challenge, and we all got our badges, we could probably swim together. Take a day to relax."
On the one hand, Red wanted to continue his journey, but... his last few days had been so eventful, maybe taking a day to rest wouldn't be the worst idea. Plus, it had been a while since he went swimming. "Sure, I wouldn't mind that," he smiled.
With that decided, the two of them walked back to the Pokemon center. They checked their Pokémon inside and went to their respective rooms to spend the night. Deep in his room, Red was now lying awake, alone with his thoughts. "Green's gonna be wearing a swimsuit tomorrow..." he said out loud to himself.
A/N Shorter chapter this time. Sadly, there's not much you can do when one of the trainers essentially has two of the same Pokémon. Not sure if I'll keep the sleepiness gimmick once Belladonna evolves, but it's gonna be there so long as she remains an Oddish.
