Would it surprise you at all if I told you that I've changed my plans once again? Trust me, this chapter was going to be that Brock chapter, but then I realised that it wouldn't make sense from a storytelling perspective to have narrative leave the main protagonists for a chapter, go back to them for one, then leave them again for just one other, before once again returning to them. So, I've decided to cover Sootopolis first, then move to Brock. Plus, it also makes more sense in terms of timing, which you will see why soon. Anyway, enough about my plans for something that will take a bit more time to get to, let's get on with the gym battle. Also, there's going to be a continuity error here, because I didn't think to look at a map of Hoenn before I decided to change the order of the gyms.
Chapter 74:
Sootopolis Loss
After a few more uneventful days of travel, they finally arrive in Sootopolis. Well, as uneventful as a trip can be with an eco-terrorist group hunting you down. Bonnie is amazed by the sight of the city, which amuses Max. "Which way to the gym?" she asks quickly. "Just down that way," Max replies. "But I think you should wait a bit before you challenge it, because... aaaaand she's gone." Max barely has enough time to advise her on waiting, because the moment he pointed out the route to the gym, she takes off in its direction, eager to take it on. Max runs to catch up with her, but she's much better at ducking and weaving through the crowd than he is. So, by the time he's managed to reach her, she's already run into the building. Max swears at this as he follows inside. "Boldly charging in without a plan," he says to himself. "I'll give her about five minutes before Juan beats her."
He enters the building to see Bonnie standing at the desk, telling the reception that she's here to challenge the gym. "Just wait over there on the seats dear," the receptionist replies. "Juan is busy with another challenger right now." Bonnie nods, then sits down on one of the seats. Max sighs, then sits with her. "Do you really think it's a good idea to challenge Juan now?" he asks her. "He's probably the toughest gym leader in the region. You need a proper plan." Bonnie looks at him, and for a brief moment, Max is worried an overconfident look would be on her face. Instead, she looks slightly worried. "I'm aware," she replies. "But if I take too long, maybe I won't have time to challenge the League." "Bonnie the League isn't for another 2 months!" Max argues. "You have time to come up with a plan." "But, during those two months, I need to win another gym battle, you need to win 2 more contests and the Grand Festival, we need to actually make it to the League on time, and we need to do all that while going at a Slugma's pace while you write your notebook!"
Max has nothing to say to that, so he looks down sadly. Bonnie puts a hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry," she says. "That was mean. I'm happy to go at your pace Max, I'm just worried about timing. That's all." Max looks back up at her and smiles. "I know," he replies. "I'll try and think of something quick. We have the basis of one, so if I have just a bit more time, maybe I can think of something quickly." But at that moment, the door swings open, and Trixie steps out, holding the Rain Badge in her hands. She quickly spots Max and Bonnie and grins at them, tossing and catching the badge in her hand like it's a coin. "Well, well, well, look who's finally shown up," she taunts. "I see you're on to your 8th badge now. Glad to see you're not so far behind as me, otherwise I might feel bad about beating you in the League." Bonnie doesn't quite meet Trixie's eyes at this, and it doesn't take the other girl long to figure out why. Trixie begins to giggle at this. "You don't have 7 badges yet?" she asks. "And yet you're here, facing the hardest Gym Leader in the region?" She guffaws at that. "At this point, I'd save myself the embarrassment and just quit. But, if you still want to enter, maybe I'll do you the favour of taking you out early." Then, with another haughty laugh, she exits the building.
Max and Bonnie watch her go, with Bonnie's face flushed red with anger. "It's also because you want to beat her," he states. "It's also because I want to beat her," she agrees. Then, she marches up to the receptionist, and tells them that she's ready. As she's about to enter the arena, Max stops her one last time. "Are you sure about this?" he asks. "We can quickly come up with something." Bonnie thinks about it for a second, then nods determinedly. "I'm sure," she replies. "We have an outline. And I've come up with stuff on the fly before. Besides, I have 2 Electric types. Even if he's prepared for electric types, there's only so much he can do against two of them." Max relents to this, and heads up to the stands. Bonnie takes a breather, puts Trixie's taunts out of her mind, and heads into the arena to face Juan.
When she enters, Juan is waiting for her on the other side of the room, smiling at her. Between them sits a large pool, just as Max had described. Juan smiles as she enters, clearly ready to go already. "Well, hello there," he says. "You must be Ms. Citron." Bonnie stares at him. "How did you know?" she asks. Juan chuckles. "Word travels fast around here," he replies. "Seems you and your friend over there sparked quite a bit of trouble for us earlier this year." Bonnie goes a bit red at this and tried to defend both of them. Juan just laughs. "I'm only joking," he tells her. "You made our champion quite worried though. But, enough about that stuff, let's get on with this battle shall we?" Bonnie nods, then pulls out her first two choices. Juan smiles, then sends his out, Sealeo and Seaking. In response, Bonnie sends out Dedenne and Manectric.
This is pretty much the only part of the plan Max was able to nail down. He figured it was best to deal with these two as fast as possible, but he hadn't had the proper time to come up with anything else. So, Bonnie decides she's going to keep using whichever electric pokémon has the most amount of stamina, before swapping out to the other one, then finishing it off with the remaining pokémon that she has. It's a half-baked plan at best, but it's all she has right now, so she can only hope that it will work out for the best. With this in mind, she starts off the battle by having both Dedenne and Manectric use Thunderbolt at their opponents. Unsurprisingly, both manage to dodge the attacks. However, they're unable to avoid the second Thunderbolts that Dedenne and Manectric launch. Both Sealeo and Seaking are launched backwards, and hit the wall. Bonnie crosses her fingers, hoping that's enough to knock them out, but this isn't the case. Seaking is the first to rise. It responds to the attack by using Ice Beam on Manectric. Manectric is hit by the attack, and hurt by it. Dedenne tries to rush to his defence, but Seaking uses Water Pulse to knock him away. By this time, the Sealeo is able to get back on its feet. Seeing this, Bonnie quickly orders Manectric to use Charge Beam and knock it out. In response, the Sealeo uses Aroura Beam. The two moves meet in the middle, and a fierce back and forth ensues. Sealeo is eventually able to win it by overpowering Manectric's Charge Beam, and covering him in ice, freezing him in place. Bonnie starts to panic at this. In desperation, she quickly swaps Manectric out with Shiftry. This is a big risk, since grass is weak to ice, but it's better than using Manectric, who isn't able to move at all.
Bonnie decides to have Dedenne use the old faithful Quick Attack/Play Rough strategy on Sealeo, finishing off with a nuzzle, while Shiftry focuses on Seaking, who tries to hit him with Ice Beam. Shiftry avoids the attack, then goes in for his own. He wraps Seaking in vines, then throws it around a few times, adding Razor Leaf to each and every hit it takes. With this strategy, Seaking faints not long after. Now, she just needs to concentrate all her fighting on Sealeo. Shiftry uses Vine Whip on it repeatedly, while Dedenne zaps it over and over again with Thunderbolt. Due to the Nuzzle, Sealeo finds it hard to move. But still, it's able to overcome it enough to strike them both with Powder Snow. Shiftry falls to one knee from that attack, and Dedenne is nearly frozen as well, but he manages to shake it off and go for one more Nuzzle, which finishes Sealeo off.
Juan claps at this, then grabs his other three balls. "Well done Ms. Citron," he says. "You've finished the first half. But now, it's time for the single battle. Are you ready?" In response, Bonnie looks between her two pokémon. They're both pretty weak from the battle, though of the two, Dedenne is in a slightly better condition. So, she returns Shiftry to his ball, then looks to Juan. "Ready when you are," she replies. Juan nods, then sends out Luvdisc. The ref goes through the new rules. "Each trainer may only use three pokémon in this round! The round will end when either opponent has no more pokémon left!" Bonnie's eyes widen at this, while Max winces at this. "And THIS is why we needed a plan," he mutters to himself. Bonnie meanwhile is beginning to panic. She thinks back to all of her travels with Max since leaving Fortree. Had he mentioned this before? That she couldn't use anymore than three pokémon in the second half. Now that she thinks about it, he may have said that, and she wasn't listening. "I need to apologise to him after this," she says to herself.
She's brought out of her downward spiral by Juan ordering Luvdisc to use Water Gun on Dedenne. Dedenne is thrown backwards, but avoids being thrown into a wall. He gets back to his feet and uses Quick Attack/Play Rough, with the addition of Nuzzle. Luvdisc avoids all of this by diving into the water. Bonnie curses, then orders Dedenne top wait for Luvdisc to re-emerge from the pool. She figures that sending him in there would be a bad idea. Sure enough, Luvdisc reappears and uses Water Gun again. Dedenne dodges it, then jumps at it and uses Nuzzle. Now paralysed and unable to fight back, Dedenne attacks Thunderbolt once more. Luvdisc is clearly on its last legs. But still, it uses Sweet Kiss, which manages to confuse Dedenne. Now the two of them have difficulty attacking each other. It becomes a battle of luck as to which one will win. And luck is on Bonnie's side in this instant. Dedenne manages to work through his confusion to hit Luvdisc with one last Nuzzle, which takes it out.
"Luvdisc is unable to battle!" shouts the ref. Bonnie sighs with relief. Maybe she can win this after all. But then, Juan sends out a Whiscash, and Bonnie starts doubting herself again. So, instead of attacking it, she takes the opportunity to quickly cure Manectric of being frozen. During this time, Whiscash takes the opportunity to use Rock Smash. Dedenne is struck over the head with it, but doesn't go down. Seeing this, Bonnie hopes that maybe she has a chance here. So, she orders Dedenne to use Play Rough. Dedenne charges in, then hits himself in his confusion. Whiscash uses Rock Smash again, and takes Dedenne out.
"Dedenne is unable to battle!" the ref calls. Bonnie begins to panic slightly. While Manectric is almost at full health, he is at a severe disadvantage in this battle. So, she takes the risk of sending out Shiftry instead. Shiftry is still weak from the double battle, but it seems like he might be able to keep going with this battle. Whiscash starts the battle off again with Rock Smash, but Shiftry avoids it. Then, he fights back with Razor Leaf. While Whiscash reals from the attack, Shiftry charges in with Leaf Blade, then follows up with another Razor Leaf. Whiscash retaliates with Hyper Beam, which hits Shiftry. For a moment, Bonnie believes that it's all over. But then, Shiftry manages to get to his feet again. He's panting heavily, but he's still going. So, Bonnie has him go in for one last Leaf Blade. Whiscash also charges forward with Rock Smash. The two pokémon meet in the middle and their attacks collide in a small explosion. When the dust settles, it is revealed that both pokémon have been taken out by the attacks.
"Both pokémon are unable to battle!" the ref declares. "Meaning both trainers are down to their last pokémon!" Now Bonnie is really nervous. Manectric, while no longer frozen, is going up against Juan's fully healed final pokémon. "Please don't mage evolve!" she begs, as she sends Manectric out. In response, Juan sends out his final pokémon, a Milotic. Just as Bonnie feared, Juan raises his hand, revealing a Keystone on his wrist. He taps it and shouts, "Milotic, mega evolve!" Mega energy glows around it as it's form changes. As Bonnie watches, the Milotic grows another two heads. It's body grows longer, and the hairs on the sides of its three heads flow out behind it, growing a large scally fin down it's back. Bonnie swallows nervously. Then, she has Manectric start the battle with Charge Beam. The move sails straight for Milotic, but the pokémon easily dodges it by having it go straight through the gap between it's heads. Then, it launches Hydro Pump at Manectric, now with 3 attacks striking him. Manectric tanks the hits, then strikes back with Thunder fang. Milotic cries out from the pain, then turns its body so its 3 heads face Manectric. Manectric is blasted off of it by Hydro Pump. It quickly uses Recover, then whips it's elongated tail out, throwing Manectric into the water. Manectric tries to escape, but Milotic traps him in a Twister using the water from the pool, before throwing him across the room once more. Manectric hits the wall then crumples to the ground, completely unconscious.
"Manectric is unable to battle!" announces the ref. "Making Gym Leader Juan the winner of this battle." Bonnie returns Manectric to his ball with a visible look of frustration on her face. From the stands, Max watches this happen and feels nervous. Apart from Snowbell, every time Bonnie has lost a gym battle, she's flown off the handle in some way. As he watches, she and Juan meet in the middle of the gym. Juan extends his hand out to her. "That was a solid effort," he tells her. "Even with my Mega Milotic, you still had her on her last ropes before I used recover. If you got one more attack in, you probably would've won." Bonnie nods, clearly taking this in. "I'll bear that in mind," she replies. Juan smiles at this. "You should," he replies. "I'd say with a proper plan, you could've beaten me handily." Bonnie nods again, then turns and leaves, thanking Juan for the battle. Max watches all of this happen, then nervously follows her out, hoping that she takes this battle well.
He meets with her in the entrance of the Gym, and to his relief, she looks like she's taking the loss well. "Are you alright?" he asks, still a bit nervous. Bonnie shrugs. "I mean, I am a bit disappointed that I didn't win," she admits, "but it was my fault since I challenged him without a proper plan, so I amn't too bummed about it." Max audibly sighs with relief, which makes Bonnie elbow him in the ribs. "Hey, I'm not about to go into a fit of crying every time I lose," she tells him. "I was just in an emotional state both times I lost." Max nods in understanding as the pair leave the building. "Well, now that we'll be staying for a while," he says, "I think it's about time you let me do what I'm good at." Bonnie looks at him. "So you'll come up with a plan then?" she asks. At this, Max smirks. "I don't need to," he replies. "Because I already have one."
I would've posted this yesterday, but I went to a convention instead, and didn't have enough time to write this out. Plus, I needed the time to come up with Milotic's Mega design. I can't believe I forgot to do that with Slaking. Anyway, College is starting again tomorrow, which means I might be able to actually get some fucking work done on this thing. Over the past 2-3 months it has taken me, on average, 2 days to get 1 single chapter done. Hopefully now that I'm back in college, I'll be able to get back to my old ways of getting it all done in a single day. Anyway, if all goes to plan, I shall see you on Tuesday for that.