John's Team
Tyrant - Slaking
Vordt - Ursaluna
Smough - Snorlax
Klee - Blissey
Port - Mantine
Zephyr - Pidgeot
Klaus - Wyrdeer
Luna - Clefable
Pixel - Porygon
A New Normal – 2-2 – A Normal Battle
We arrived at the Gym and were promptly greeted by Gym Leader Norman. At first glance, I noticed that he was much younger than his in-game counterpart and he lacked his stern and stoic expression that he was known for. He also wasn't balding and still had a full head of hair, which I found quite amusing. Instead, Norman's eyes were shifting around, and his posture seemed a little too forced.
I saved him from any potential embarrassment by ignoring his nervousness and shook his hand, "Nice to meet you, Gym Leader Norman." I greeted and gestured towards Karen, "This is Karen, my friend and travelling companion. Thank you for taking time out of your busy day to humour me."
"Not a problem, Elite John." Norman said back with a mixture of nervousness and excitement, "It's an honour to meet you as a fellow Normal type specialist." I could tell that he was trying to conceal his nerves by forcing himself to act formally and stoically, with mixed success.
"Agreed, it would be nice to compare our teams." I nodded, before deciding to cut to the chase, "How about we battle each other if you have the time? A 3v3 fight, no stakes. I think a battle would be better than any conversation." I asked with an excited gleam in my eyes.
"Oh! Um, sure-I mean, yes, of course. I would be honoured to have a battle against you." Norman stuttered out before regaining his composure, "I will make the announcement now and have the arena cleared out in preparation."
I nodded and Norman dashed off to finish the preparations. I absentmindedly fiddled with my Pokéballs as I waited in anticipation; it's been only a few days since my last proper Pokémon battle, and yet I couldn't help but feel excited.
More importantly, it was a chance for Tyrant to challenge another Slaking. Throughout my journey through Kanto and Johto, we had never encountered a Slaking that was at the Elite level. That was likely due to the fact that it was a Hoenn Pokémon, and also because of how unpopular it was due to how difficult it is to overcome Slaking's inherent laziness to make it an effective fighter.
Admittedly, if this was a proper match that had stakes in it, I would have researched all of Norman's Pokémon and his fighting styles instead of going into the fight blindly like I am right now. But I was confident that my Pokémon were well-trained enough that could handle anything that Norman threw at them.
I thought about the differences between the games and the Pokémon world. For one thing, there were no such thing as held items. The use of berries and such were only allowed post-battle. Also, while abilities did exist, it needed to be trained up. Consequently, that meant that a Pokémon's ability could become far stronger or weaker than they were in the game, but it also allowed Pokémon to sometimes develop new abilities that weren't available in the games.
Therefore, the tactics and strategies that worked for the games often didn't work in the Pokémon world.
I was too distracted in my thoughts that I failed to notice that Norman had called out to me telling me that the arena was ready. Karen, seeing my lack of response, elbowed me in the side and pushed me forwards towards the arena, which caused me to stumble but it brought me back from my thoughts.
With renewed focus, I kept a lid on my excitement as I followed Norman into the arena. I immediately noticed that there was a sizeable audience sitting at the sides of the arena. I guess these were the audience members from Norman's previous battles that took place today.
Without prompting, Karen gave me a quick "good luck." and separated from me and made her way to join the other audience members, who were all chattering excitedly as some recognised who I was.
I turned back to see that Norman had taken his place on his side of the arena on the elevated platform, so I copied him and did the same.
At this distance, I couldn't make out Norman's exact expressions, but I could instinctively tell that he was as excited as I am for this battle. You couldn't call yourself a serious Pokémon trainer if your blood didn't get pumping at the prospect of a good battle. In the end, we were all battle junkies.
"Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to this very surprising match between Gym Leader Norman and John of the Indigo Elite Four!" A loud voice yelled out with a microphone, eliciting many cheers and screams from the audience. "This will be a 3v3 battle! Each trainer is allowed 1 switch!"
I was a bit surprised at the showboating, considering how solemn and serious the in-game Petalburg Gym felt, but I suppose that this was supposed to be an impromptu show-match anyways, so some degree of hype was to be expected.
"Trainers, are you ready?!" Norman and I both nodded and we released our Pokémon simultaneously. The announcer paused dramatically for a moment before saying "BEGIN!"
"Go! Smough!"
"Come, Linoone!"
Linoone landed onto the arena with a graceful huff that heavily contrasted with the loud boom coming from Smough's entrance. The sheer size and weight difference between the two Pokémon immediately informed any reasonable viewer that Linoone had to keep its distance from Smough in order to win. There could not be a contest of strength.
"Linoone, dash backwards and set up a Belly Drum!" Norman evidently thought the same, as Linoone rapidly pedalled backwards as it then began to set up his Belly Drum.
"Smough, disrupt it with an Earthquake!" Smough roared and the arena started shaking heavily and cracks were appearing throughout the arena. Linoone cried out in pain, but it clearly showed its training as it held its balance and maintained the Belly Drum despite the damage it was taking from the Earthquake.
Seeing that the Earthquake was unable to break Linoone's Belly Drum, I kept up the offensive.
"Smough! Hyper Beam! Don't let it finish!" Smough instantly fired off a powerful beam of energy that shot towards Linoone almost without any charge-up time, but Linoone had managed to finish its Belly Drum and dived out of the way, causing the Hyper Beam to only land a glancing blow. The remaining beam of energy continued and tore out huge gashes in the arena as it melted through the ground.
Still, a glancing blow from Smough's devastating Hyper Beam still did noticeable damage to Linoone, as even the heat that was emitted from the Hyper Beam was intense enough to cause Linoone's fur to briefly catch fire from where the beam had glanced off Linoone. I saw it stumble slightly to put out the fire as it recovered from its hasty dive.
"Now, Linoone! While it's vulnerable, Extreme Speed! Full Power!" Despite its injuries, Linoone pushed through the pain as it began glowing with a white light as it rapidly picked up speed and charged at Smough with all the force that it could muster.
Now, if this was the games, then Smough would be forced to recharge from his Hyper Beam and promptly be knocked out by a Belly Drum boosted Extreme Speed from Linoone. Likewise, even in the Pokémon world, most Elite trainers would still expect a Pokémon to have to be tired after firing off a Hyper Beam and thus would be vulnerable to attack.
Therefore, it was reasonable for any trainer to expect the same for my Smough, and Norman believed no different. In his eyes, the moment my Hyper Beam failed to interrupt Linoone's Belly Drum and knock it out meant that Linoone's victory was secured. No ordinary Snorlax could withstand the incoming boosted Extreme Speed from a trained Linoone.
Except Smough wasn't an ordinary Snorlax.
"GRAB IT SMOUGH!" To everyone's surprise but mine, Smough stood tall and barely stumbled backwards as he tanked Linoone's Extreme Speed with an audible groan. Before Linoone could respond to Smough's unexpected endurance, one of Smough's arms swooped in from above and latched onto Linoone's much smaller body in a tight grip. The audience gasped and shouted as, without pause, Smough then slammed Linoone powerfully into the ground repeatedly; each impact from Smough causing the ground to shake briefly and for loose rocks to be shot into the air.
"Hammer Arm, Smough!" I ordered, taking full advantage of the trap that I had set and Norman's inaction and shock to continue the offensive.
Smough let go of Linoone and clasped his hands together before he smashed them into Linoone with such strength that it cracked a hole into the arena that Linoone fell into with a howl of pain.
"Linoone! Protect! And Quick Attack to get away from there!" Norman recovered from his shock and tried to separate Linoone from Smough. Linoone painfully scrambled away with a short burst of speed from the hole that it was in and threw up a Protect as it tried to create some distance.
"Don't let it go! Body Slam!" Smough rushed at and shouldered through the hastily made Protect, shattering it and failing to reduce his momentum, before crashing into Linoone. The sheer weight and strength difference between the two caused Linoone to be punted across the arena, screeching painfully as it slid across the ground involuntarily, leaving large trails behind in the arena. It was undoubtedly knocked out.
Smough's victory was greeted with shocked silence from the audience. The quick battle just now possessed none of the fancy manoeuvring that was commonly seen in Elite level fights. There were no fancy tricks, no surprise moves, no narrow dodges.
It was just a pure, simple beatdown that made use of Smough's inherent strength and bulkiness to overwhelm and pummel Linoone. At such close range and being trapped in Smough's vice-like grip, it couldn't make use of its nimble and agile dodges that it was so well known for. As I thought at the beginning, the moment Linoone got in range of Smough, the battle was over.
"Return, Linoone. Good job out there." Norman mumbled out, which broke the audience from their collective stupor as they screamed out their cheers. It may have been an unusual fighting style, but the audience didn't care so long as it looked cool. And it did.
"Linoone is unable to battle!" The referee finally announced, "The Gym Leader has thirty seconds to send out his next Pokémon!"
I noticed that Norman was staring at Smough thoughtfully before sending out his next Pokémon.
"Go! Swellow!" Swellow emerged with a loud cry and landed on the arena accompanied by a gust of wind.
I stared at Swellow with a concerned look. Nomran clearly learned his lesson from Smough's earlier showing by choosing to use Swellow. I knew Smough was injured from Linoone's attack, and I also knew that Swellow could easily keep its distance and continue hitting Smough with a mixture of long range and hit-and-run attacks that would eventually wear him down. I needed to find a way to ground Swellow so that Smough could get close enough to knock it out.
Like it was with Linoone, if Smough got into grabbing range of Swellow, the battle was over.
"Trainers! Are you ready?!" I shook myself out of my thoughts as I nodded with Norman. "BEGIN!"
"Swellow, take to the skies! Keep your distance!" Swellow immediately swooped into the sky and stayed far out of reach of Smough.
"Smough! Slack off and Amnesia!" Knowing that this might be a much longer battle of attrition, I decided to allow Smough to recover his health and bolster its defences.
I watched as Smough seemingly slumped over as he rested and restored his health, seemingly unaware of his surroundings. But I had trained all my Pokémon to remain alert during their recovery moves so that they could instantly counterattack if an opposing Pokémon tried to attack them while they were vulnerable. I was hoping that Swellow would take the bait and try to hit Smough with a Brave Bird, but it didn't fall for the trap.
"Swellow, Hurricane!" Swellow flapped her wings as the wings started to swirl around it, eventually forming a large tornado that quickly shot forward and devoured Smough within it. I briefly saw Smough getting battered and cut up by the howling winds before I lost sight of him within the tornado.
Although I could barely see Smough or hear anything in general due to the dust and rocks that the tornado kicked up and surrounded itself with, I shouted out my order hoping that Smough could still hear it.
"Disperse it and convert it into a sandstorm!" I think I made out Smough's roar of agreement through the howling wind as I noticed that the tornado was slowly dissipating and being converted into a general sandstorm that covered the entire arena.
"Swellow! Air Slash while it's busy!" Taking advantage of Smough's momentary distraction as he focused on creating a sandstorm, Swellow fired multiple blades of air that gouged painfully into Smough. Smough gave off a groan of pain as he tanked the hits to finish dispersing the tornado and creating a sandstorm.
"Now! Smough, Rock Slide!" Making use of the abundant rocks that were now being carried around the battlefield by the sandstorm, Smough manipulated the rocks and shot them towards Swellow.
"Dodge them, Swellow and keep Air Slashing!" Showing off its aerial prowess, Swellow managed to dive, swerve, and veer past all of the incoming rocks while continuously firing Air Slashes between its dodges.
I grimaced as I watched Swellow's display of skill. I knew that Smough wasn't the most talented at manipulating rocks, Vordt was far more skilled at that, and this weakness meant that Smough's ability to knock down aerial targets was poor. I had hoped that the sandstorm would force Swellow to fly slower to adapt to the unfriendly weather, but Norman had evidently trained Swellow to maintain its ability to dodge even from within the sandstorm.
I was tempted to switch out to Vordt, but I realized that I wanted this match to show the world my abilities as a trainer. Withdrawing Smough could imply that my team had weaknesses, and it might be construed as me being undeserving of my new title. It was probably just paranoia, but I wanted to be stubborn and not withdraw Smough. I wanted this match to be perfect.
Thus, the battle entered into a stalemate, with both sides seeing who would trip up first. If Smough could land a good hit with his Rock Slide that caused Swellow to fall out of the sky momentarily, then Smough would win. If Swellow could maintain its dodges and wear down Smough with its Air Slashes, then it would win.
Luckily, I had a trick up my sleeve.
"Smough, Yawn!" Smough stopped firing rocks as he let out a gaping Yawn. Swellow had been laser-focused on Smough in order to dodge the incoming rocks, so it couldn't tear its' gaze away in time to avoid the Yawn.
Swellow's eyes began drooping as it was overwhelmed with a need to sleep, and it was dropping steadily out of the air as it began to fell asleep.
"No! Keep yourself awake with a Boomburst, Swellow!" Normal quickly ordered with a panicked look in his eyes.
"Smough, Protect!" Swellow forced itself to stay awake as it let out a piercingly loud screech, waking it up and firing out sound waves that were so powerful that it actually managed to create tears in grounds of the arena as it blasted against Smough's hastily erected shields and also caused the arena's psychic shields to flicker dangerously.
Fortunately, the psychic shields held on, and the sound waves were dampened so that the Boomburst wouldn't destroy and likely cause permanent damage to the crowd's ears.
While the Boomburst did manage to negate the effect of Smough's Yawn, Swellow had already lost a lot of altitude from its earlier Yawn-induced descent. In fact, Swellow was currently only a few meters off the ground, which was something that both trainers noticed.
"Swellow, fly higher! Make some distance!" Norman quickly commanded with noticeable alarm.
"Smough, Shock Wave! Stun it!" Smough stomped and discharged a wave of electricity that zapped Swellow as it tried to take off into the air again. Strictly speaking, the electricity that Smough emitted was far weaker than attacks coming from most electric types, but it was sufficient in making sure that Swellow couldn't take flight.
Norman saw that Swellow wasn't able to fly up quick enough to avoid Smough's inevitable follow-up, so he changed tactics.
"Boomburst again!" Swellow again let out a penetrating screech, the sound waves this time impacting Smough directly as he was too close to dodge or block them. Smough was blasted backwards to the edge of the arena and let out a groan of pain as his feet slid backwards from the force of the attack.
"Swellow, Brave Bird! Hit and run!" Swellow squawked loudly as it did an aerial somersault to pick up momentum as it also started to become surrounded with silvery energy. It rapidly sped up and fell in a dive towards Smough as its surrounding silver energy was radiating with so much brightness that it was nearly blinding to look at.
Time seemed to slow as I quickly dived into my thoughts to analyse my next move. Smough was already hurt from all of Swellow's earlier attacks, though due to the Amnesia he probably wasn't as injured as Norman was expecting, but I wasn't confident that Smough could endure a Brave Bird right after taking a Boomburst. Similarly, I couldn't just order an Iron Defence to bolster Smough's defence, because Swellow would simply use the momentum of the attack to fly into the air again and remain out of reach of Smough's attacks.
Well, if playing defensive was no longer an option, then it made my next command very simple.
"Smough, Giga Impact. End it." Smough gave out a bellowing roar and rapidly broke out into a sprint as his own bright orange glow started to form and spread from within him. Smough's charge was rapidly picking up speed as he continued towards the incoming Swellow, now completely surrounded with his own bright orange glow that transformed into a purple orb with streaks of orange. Norman's eyes widened in alarm as if he wasn't expecting this course of action, but there was no stepping back now. Both Pokémon were far too committed in their attacks to stop.
Without any more commands that either trainer could give, we watched in solemn silence as we watched our Pokémon advance closer to each other. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that the psychic shields were being reinforced in preparation.
And I could feel my heart beating out of my chest in controlled anticipation as I braced myself with the railings as the two got closer.
And closer.
And suddenly I was nearly knocked over as a wave of force crashed into me and I had to grip tightly onto the railings to avoid getting blown back by the resulting cascade of energy. All I could hear was the ringing in my ears as my platform was engulfed by a wave of dust as they continued to spill outwards. I forced myself to keep my eyes open and remain focused on the impact.
Apparently, the resulting boom from their collision caused waves of dust and energy to explode out from the point of impact. The psychic shields around the arena that had been reinforced flickered rapidly as they barely withstood the resulting impact and the blast of energy.
Members of the crowd, especially those of a younger age, were knocked over as the psychic shields failed to fully dampen the outward blast of force from the collision. A part of me wanted to look over at the audience and check to make sure if everyone was okay, but the competitive part of me kept my eyes locked on to the slowly dissipating smoke cloud that marked the impact point between our two Pokémon.
I wanted, no needed to know who had won. Cold-hearted as it may seem, but I owed it to Smough to not be distracted and be ready to give commands to finish the battle if necessary. Besides, I told myself that I didn't know if I could do anything to help anyone that was injured anyways. A traitorous image of Karen's face appeared in my mind briefly before I dismissed it as I remained focused on the arena.
The dust slowly scattered to reveal the damage to the arena, and I saw that there were numerous cracks that seemed to spread out from their point of collision. The immediate area where they collided was completely ruined, and all that remains was a giant hole that exposed the structural foundations of the arena that was still filled with dust.
Eventually, the remaining dust cleared to reveal a very badly injured Smough standing victoriously over a knocked over Swellow. When I saw him, I gave out a loud cheer and Smough responded by weakly raising his arms and letting out a roar that almost managed to disguise his very damaged state.
"SNORLAXXXX! SNORLAXX!" I watched as Smough continued roaring out victoriously, but I quickly noticed that he was wobbling uncertainly from his injuries that he tried to power through as he awaited the announcer's call.
"Swellow is unable to battle!" the referee declared as they recovered from the explosion and saw Swellow's fainted expression.
Not wanting for Smough to feel embarrassed by fainting in front of the audience, I quickly withdrew him and informed the referee that I was retiring Smough from the match, which he announced.
Norman withdrew his Swellow with a grimace, and he signalled to the other gym trainers to fix up the gym, as it was too damaged to be used for our last battle. As the arena was being fixed, he left his platform and walked up to where I was standing, gesturing with his eyes that he wanted to talk. Seeing this, I got down from my platform and waited for him. I heard the crowd muttering to each other as we approached each other. As he got close enough, he began to speak.
"I wasn't expecting that." He admitted, "I thought you would have tried to make use of your Snorlax's bulk to withstand the attack before following up with a counterattack like you did with my Linoone."
"You're right. It was my first instinct." I confessed, "But I realized that, with your Swellow's momentum, it would have been really hard for Smough to pin your Swellow down like I did with your Linoone. If that had failed, then you would be free to take to the skies again and continue your long-ranged attacks. Thus, I had to go on the offensive." I explained.
"I see, so it wasn't actually a calculated gamble." Norman thought aloud, "But rather it was your only sensible option left in this scenario." Norman shook his head as he finished his own explanation.
I remained silent as I allowed Norman to figure out his own thoughts. After a moment to think, Norman turned his attention back to me and asked.
"For our final battle, would you mind if we went Slaking vs Slaking?"
"Sure, that was what I was hoping for too." I said excitedly, "I've been looking forward to facing your Slaking. I wanted to see how Tyrant matches up."
"Ah, well, please take it easy on me." Norman spoke uncharacteristically nervously, "I'm sure my Slaking isn't as strong as yours."
"No promises," I joked, before turning serious as I saw Norman remained nervous, he really lacked his in-game stoicism. "Norman, take a deep breath and regain your calm. If you are nervous when it comes to a battle, your Pokémon will be negatively affected by that. You owe it to your Pokémon to stay calm and direct them as best you can."
It was weird giving advice to someone who was nearly twice my age, especially since that person was Norman, but I instinctively maintained a mentoring tone as I tried to reassure Norman. I blame Whitney for developing my mentoring instincts.
I watched as Norman took a deep breath and exhaling. After repeating this a few times, he looked back at me. "Thank you, Elite John. You're right of course, I owe it to my Pokémon to be the best that I can." He sighed and shook his head, but had a smile on his face, "I still have a lot to learn as a trainer and as a Gym Leader."
"Don't worry Norman, I'm sure you'll be able to get it in the future." And I knew that because canon Norman was stoic and always appeared calm.
One of the Gym Trainers approached the two of us to inform us that the arena had been fixed and that we may continue our battle. We both nodded at that, and I gave Norman a thumbs up before we separated and returned to our platforms.
As I stood on my platform while fiddling with Tyrant's Pokéball, I put my recent conversation with Norman in the back of my mind. I did want to discuss things further with him later, but now wasn't the time for it.
I felt my heart pumping eagerly in my chest again. It was time for Tyrant to battle.
A.N This was my first ever try at writing a battle scene, and I struggled really hard when writing this chapter and had gone through multiple revisions. But I hope that you were satisfied with the final edit and that the battle was exciting even if the battle didn't really follow what you might be used to in the games.
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!