“Keep going, JoJos! Double Team again, and head outward!” Skylar’s heart pounded in his chest, his eyes tracing around the blurry splotches of green and white. Pretty soon the splotches became just a blurry field of green, white, and red, all a good few paces away from the Shuckle in the center. Then the green and red began to move away from the Shuckle, running away from the range that Rock Slide could smash into all the clones, hopefully granting JoJo the edge that he needed.
Unfortunately, there really was no space for JoJo to run where he'd completely be out of range for Rock Slide, the indiscriminate hail of rocks caring not if it hit real or fake, real JoJo taking slight damage in the back. It was fortunate the rocks were so weak, or JoJo may have been in serious trouble.
‘You're falling back, aren't you?’ Lorette asked, ever perceptive.
‘That's my cue. Shuckle, Power Trick!’With Lorette's command, two lights suddenly swirled around Shuckle, trading places. Attack and Defense. Special Defense remained extremely high, while Shuckle's Defense was reduced to nothing. His Attack was… Now, Skylar is allowed one move to prepare for what was to come, for Lorette pointed forward and commanded.
‘Shuckle, Meteor Slide.’Now, Meteor Slide does not exist, but it sure fits what’s coming, as the bug in a rock made an expression of effort to summon far, far more powerful rocks than previously…!
“Oh no! J-JoJo...” Skylar shouted for his buddy, but try as he might, JoJo didn’t have much that he could do here. Double Team wasn’t as effective with the spread of Rock Slide, and JoJo couldn’t really find a good opportunity to keep dodging. Skylar and JoJo didn’t have much they could do, if anything at all, but maybe if the duo had a bit of heart and a lot of luck, they could pull through here.
“Confusion, JoJo! If the Shuckle hits himself, t-then we’ll have our opportunity!” Skylar shouted his idea to his Ralts. JoJo was speechless, raising his hands to his head and trying as hard as he could to confuse the Shuckle that was just about to smash his head with this powerful attack. They were banking on a lot, but it might just get them through this.
JoJo shot off his Confusion and hit Shuckle straight on…! … But unfortunately, Shuckle showed no sign of having been confused by the attack! Shuckle merely shook it off, but on an angry-bug face, and then focused more as suddenly a rain of far, faaar bigger rocks came crashing down from nowhere, slamming down across the battlefield. The wooden platform they were fighting on turned out to be considerably sturdier than it looked. However, JoJo didn’t manage to have the sheer luck to avoid being hit by some of the giant debris slamming down, the Ralts being knocked back and fainting. This turn went to Lorette.
‘Phew. That was my one counter to a field of clones. I don’t know what I’d have done if it’d had failed,’ Lorette admits on the other side.
‘Okay. Shuckle! Prepare to Power Trick again as quickly as possible…!’ Because currently Shuckle had virtually no Defense whatsoever. It was really likely that Skylar’s next Pokémon was significantly faster than Shuckle. Did he have someone who could strike Shuckle down in one shot?
Skylar had pulled JoJo back into his Pokeball quickly after he got struck by the blasting meteors. This… this wasn’t good. Not by any means. Skylar was down three, somewhat four with Smiley being asleep, and whatever Lorette still had in reserve could easily give Skylar’s team a run for their money. He looked up at his head to Seabreeze, his starter and ace.
“Alright, Sea, you’re up! Wing Attack while his defense is still low!””Wingull!”Seabreeze broke free from his random gazing, flying into combat and heading straight towards the Shuckle in the arena. He wasn’t likely to miss, and while the defense of the Shuckle was down, this attack was bound to leave a dent in this bug’s armor.
Seabreeze flew in and struck against Shuckle with a powerful Wing Attack, sending the Shuckle rolling across the stage back towards Lorette! With Shuckle’s defense all down, it was more damage than the bug-in-a-rock could handle, and Shuckle fainted. Lorette sighed out a bit on the other side with a smile, and then returned Shuckle to its Pokéball.
‘Got one, at least. Alright. Back to basics. Butterfree!’Lorette called and Butterfree was called back into battle, the great butterfly waving into the air in front of Seabreeze.
‘You know what to do!’ she told Butterfree, who focused on the bird before it and prepared for encounter.
“Up into the air, bud!” Skylar called, the white outline of Seabreeze doing just as Skylar had asked. Skylar wasn’t about to attack that Butterfree right now, since the special way they put out a Sleep Powder was way too much for Seabreeze to bear. It’d pretty much be the ultimate downfall of Skylar’s team. Instead, staying away from that powder was the goal, and Skylar was ready for it. After all, there were other ways for Seabreeze to do damage without getting close.
“Water Gun!” As his trainer called, Seabreeze started to leak some water from his beak, and let it loose towards the Butterfree from above. Might cause less damage, with the distance between the two, but at least Seabreeze wouldn’t be put to sleep!
‘Oh, you want a projectile battle? Fine by me! Butterfree, try to dodge, and Confusion back!’ Lorette commanded, and should Skylar intend on continuing the battle like that, it’d become quite the dog-fight of a big butterfly and a seagull flying about in the air above the battlefield shooting water and Psychic power at one another. Seabreeze was faster and had the advantage of using a move that was actually his own type, but Butterfree was a fully evolved Pokémon with the stats to match and was proving an equal match should Confusions and Water Guns be exchanged. Regardless of whom won, the other would be severely exhausted, unless Skylar switched tactics.
Seabreeze was faster, which bid well for this battle. After Butterfree fired off the first Confusion, Skylar had to take a risk or else this fight would end with a weakened Seabreeze and his likely defeat.
“Now, Breeze! Wing Attack!” Seabreeze zipped through the air towards the Butterfree, wings glowing with power and with his aim as true as it could be. Of course, he had to be careful, lest another Sleep Powder be used, so he was only going in for a drive-by of sorts before he flew back up out of Sleep Powder range.
A Confusion and a Water Gun was exchanged, both parties taking some damage on the distance that it was made at. Then, Seabreeze flew in the strike with a quick Wing Attack! Butterfree froze in mid-air realizing the impact that was about to happen, and could only brace itself as the powerful Super-Effective hit took place and Butterfree was knocked down into the ground!
However, as Seabreeze flew away, the flight suddenly turned unsteady before he fell to the ground. Butterfree had somehow managed to release her powder in the impact while taking the Wing Attack and falling to the ground. Seabreeze was asleep.
‘You… you’re so good, Butterfree!’ Lorette complimented her Pokémon excitedly, breathing out a little in relief as Butterfree, very damaged on the verge of fainting yet not out quite yet, slowly drifted into the air after the impact.
‘Butterfree has Compound Eyes. Makes her exceptionally good at hitting the target, like with Sleep Powder. But woah, that was close. You should have used one more Water Gun,’ Lorette advised.
‘Alright, Confusion until he wakes up!’ Lorette commanded, and, well, that turned out exceedingly unluckily for Skylar. Still, Butterfree is one attack of any kind from fainting.
Skylar’s fingers were crossed as he looked at his little buddy snoozing on the ground. This wasn’t good, it really wasn’t good! Skylar thought the strike was true and the Butterfree would fall, but now it kept fighting and Seabreeze was at the mercy of this Butterfree. There was only one thing Skylar could do at this point, aside from switch, but nobody could easily get in there to do anything, except…
“Seabreeze, return!” Skylar had to use his Pokeballs to switch out, unfortunately, but as Seabreeze was pulled back, Smiley was sent back out! Of course, he was still asleep, but Skylar could hope that Smiley came around in time to hit Butterfree where it hurts and level the playing field all that much more.
“Smiley, wake up please! We need you to go for a Peck, buddy!”When Smiley came in, Butterfree started by uselessly using Confusion at him. And, because Butterfree hasn't learned Gust yet, there was just one other option.
‘U-Turn!’ Lorette commanded, and Butterfree promptly slammed into the sleeping bird before returning back to its Pokéball. U-Turn is a decently powerful attack, so it did quite a bit of damage to Smiley, and then…
‘I guess I need to take out this bird as quickly as possible. For that, I guess I’ll need to use my darling. Alright, then. Are you ready?’ Lorette asked, before suddenly a small bug jumped up on top of her head. It was small, with white fur, and five, small red horns around its “mane”, which suddenly ejected a decent sample of flame ejecting it forward off Lorette’s head to land in front of Skylar.
‘Larvesta!’ the bug told, eagerly.
Pokédex Entry #636 – Larvesta, the Torch Pokémon. A Pokémon said to have been born from the sun. It lives at the base of volcanoes. It spews fire from its five horns in order to repel enemies, but can also use these flames to fly. When about to evolve, it encases itself in a cocoon of fire until the evolution has been completed.… On the plus side, Smiley found himself waking up, perhaps as a result of the U-Turn. Not quickly enough to immediately counter-attack, but at the very least quickly enough that Larvesta’s next action could be counteracted. Which was a good thing, because…
‘Larvesta! Flame Charge!’ Lorette commanded. For its next move, Larvesta cloaked itself in fire and took off at Smiley at a considerable speed, gaining speed due to the nature of Flame Charge. However, for now, Smiley was faster.
What would the now-awake Smiley and Skylar do now?
“Yeah, Smiley!” Skylar cheered for his Murkrow, still obviously slogging it since he had just recently woken up, but Smiley quickly straightened out to stare the Larvesta down with anger in his eyes. It might not’ve been the Butterfree that put him to sleep, but he was gonna make this Larvesta feel his attack!
”Krow!” Smiley didn’t even wait for Skylar’s command, immediately charging towards the Larvesta with his beak. Of course, it’s what Skylar would’ve done anyway, so the trainer clenched his fist and hoped Smiley could strike this bug hard.
”Peck, Smiley!”The bird and the bug went at each other at high speed. Now, Larvesta was cloaked in flame, merely getting close would damage Smiley, but the angry bird couldn’t care less and charged in for the Peck! The two slammed into one another, neither dealing a Critical Hit or anything, it was just pure damage. When the two separated, both had taken damage… but there was a clear level-difference between Smiley and Larvesta. Despite being Super-Effective, Larvesta’s Flame Charge had done more damage, around half of Smiley’s health whereas Larvesta had taken somewhere in the ballpark of two sevenths. And now, Larvesta’s Speed had been boosted…
‘Another Flame Charge! Don’t let up!’ Lorette commanded, and the fire-bug lit itself on fire and fired its horns to fly towards Smiley in high speed. If Smiley wants to Peck again, he can probably manage to do it as a counter-attack, but he’ll likely faint from the impact. What would Skylar and Smiley do?
”Go for broke! Hit him with one more!” Skylar commanded and Smiley did, the crow flying in for just one more strike onto the Larvesta, taking the same direct hit he would before, but striking the firebug with one more Peck as a counterattack.
Smiley and Larvesta took off towards one another again! They slammed into one another, one delivering their very best Peck, and the other another Flame Charge. Their impact could be felt by the players, as they gave their very best of efforts. After the impact… Smiley lay fainted, the damage of the fire bug too much. However, in reply, Larvesta also looked really, really damaged. It would not take much to make him faint. That’s two of Lorette’s Pokémon on the brink of fainting, and another which was asleep. However, after two Flame Charges Larvesta was showing off how incredibly fast he could swing around the battlefield and back to in front of Lorette. Whoever came next would need to catch him first.
‘Tihi. It feels like we’re both being backed down into corners now, doesn’t it?’ Lorette said with a smile. Skylar’s next action?
”Yeah, but we’re not giving up yet!” Skylar said with a smirk, calling Smiley back into his Pokeball. Sure, Seabreeze was asleep and this battle was in a corner, but one of Skylar’s Pokemon still was healthy and ready to try and finish this battle out.
”Celebrity’s got a score to settle with you, anyway!” The boy’s Jigglypuff hopped into the arena and stood on the opposite side from the Larvesta. If looks could faint, well, then Celebrity’d be fighting against a different Pokemon now.
”Wait for it to get close, and hit it with as strong of a Pound as you can!”Lorette breathed out a bit, looking to Larvesta for a bit…
‘You’re going to faint either way, huh? Well. Let’s go out with a bang, then,’ Lorette said, then smiled, pointing forward.
‘Larvesta, TAKE DOWN!’In a move that was basically too fast to properly react to on account of Larvesta’s boosted speed, Larvesta soared forward at Celebrity and hit with a magnificent amount of power, sending the light Pokémon flying back to Skylar for a bit. She’d taken HEAVY damage from the powerful normal-type move. However, in the impact Celebrity had managed to strike her own Pound attack into the incoming bug. With Recoil plus Pound combined, Larvesta fainted. Celebrity was free to return to the battlefield.
Celebrity grew to level 14!
Smiley grew to level 14!
Jonathan grew to level 14! Jonathan learned Lucky Chant!
the last because I forgot to give experience for Shuckle‘Two Pokémon left each, one of which has almost fainted, the other which is asleep…’ Lorette told, with a bit of a smirk. She took out a Pokéball, threw it into the air, and with a shine of red light, a sleeping Beedrill materialized on the floor.
‘Come on, Beedrill! Wake up and Poison Sting! One blow should do…!’ Lorette called to her sleeping giant bee, who would be fast enough to strike first at Celebrity… if he woke up.
”Celebrity, I’m sorry to ask you, but if you could hit that Beedrill hard then I’d certainly be appreciative!” Skylar asked politely of his Jigglypuff. Of course, Celebrity reacted with a moody
”Puff,” but that didn’t stop her from running her little legs over to the Beedrill in the arena to smack him with a Pound. Whether it did a lot of damage or none at all wasn’t an issue, rather it was just that damage being done. This battle was down to the wire, after all, Skylar and his team needed all the damage they could do.
Pound is a decently weak move, but at the very least it was helped by Celebrity’s part Normal type. Beedrill was fast asleep as the Jigglypuff ran over and then delivered her Pound attack on the head of the giant bee. Beedrill was fast asleep again as Celebrity delivered her second Pound attack, doing a notable amount of damage, leaving Beedrill at a little over half health. However, that was when Beedrill suddenly sprung to life, waking up and throwing a giant stinger forward, hitting Celebrity for a Super Effective Poison Sting that was a bit over the edge. Celebrity fainted, and Beedrill slowly rose into the air as its wings started working again.
‘Alright. Good morning, Beedrill. Our opponent only has one, sleeping Pokémon remaining, but we only have two and Butterfree is very damaged as well as slower than him. It’s really up to you to faint him before he wakes up…!’ Lorette called to her Beedrill, looking excitedly to Skylar to send out his ace again.
”Aw, come on! You can’t count Seabreeze out like that!” Skylar smirked as he sent Seabreeze back out, pulling his fainted Jigglypuff back into her Pokeball for just a little while. This was it, and Skylar was down to the wire with his team.
”Alright, Seabreeze! Wake up bud, we need to win this with a Wing Attack! C’mon buddy!” Skylar called, reeeeally hoping that his first pal would wake up and help him finish this battle!
‘Beedrill! Fury Attack!’ Lorette commanded, and Beedrill flew forward with stingers raised, and…! Beedrill’s high attack came through, as he struck at Seabreeze’s sleeping form with comparatively weak attacks that did decently heavy damage, and he came down for a second blow, and-
-and Seabreeze’s wing flashed up and slammed into Beedrill, sending the giant bee swinging through the air, ending that at only two hits. While hit with a Super Effective move, Beedrill wasn’t out quite yet, and immediately spun around to charge at the now waking up Seabreeze in order to deliver another Fury Attack-!
”Seabreeze! Heck yeah!” Skylar smiled seeing his buddy back up. They still had a chance at this, and they could win it! Seabreeze quickly shook awake and shot off the ground, soaring towards the approaching Beedrill.
”Alright, Breeze, one last hit then we’re home free! One last Wing Attack, and hang on after that!” he called to his ace, and Seabreeze let out a caw, wings glowing with a blinding white light as he soared. He’d take some damage from the attack, but maybe he could knock out the Beedrill before it took him out…!
Beedrill committed to another Fury Attack, striking forward with the two great stingers at Seabreeze, who was caught in the jabs, and was hit a total of… two times, only reducing Seabreeze to a bit under half health! That’s when Seabreeze slammed right back with another Wing Attack, and…!
And with that hit, Beedrill fell out of the air onto his back, Lorette behind him standing with her mouth somewhat open having intended on shouting something but, well, that was that. Beedrill fainted. Lorette smiled a bit with a sigh as she returned the fainted Pokémon.
‘Butterfree, it’s all up to you!’ she called, throwing out her remaining Pokéball so that the large butterfly took shape in mid-air, highly damaged, but-!
‘Dodge his attacks, and fly in for another Sleep Powder! That’s the only way you’ll win!’ Lorette commanded, and the determined Butterfree coated its wings in powder as it took off towards Seabreeze, both trainers down to their final Pokémon…!
Skylar thought for a moment on what he could do. This was the last battle, but if Seabreeze missed a Water Gun then that would simply be it and this Butterfree would have no problem taking Seabreeze down… though, Seabreeze was faster and had his Keen Eyes…
”Alright, Breeze, fly up and begin to circle the Butterfree! If you see an opening, dive in for a Wing Attack!!” Skylar shouted. Hopefully the circling could keep the Butterfree from easily hitting the Sleep Powder as easily, and with the speed Seabreeze could approach with a Dive Bomb, there might be a chance…!
‘Keep your eyes on him! Counter when he tries to attack!’ Lorette shouted back.
So Seabreeze flew around, attempting to flank the butterfly from above and aside… Thing was, where Seabreeze had Keen Eye, Butterfree had Compound Eyes. Two flying Pokémon both gifted with exceptional sight suddenly started circling one another, Seabreeze attempting to fly up and around Butterfree and the butterfly spinning and pursuing while rotating to avoid having an opening appear. Seabreeze was faster, able to stay higher, avoiding being caught in the trail of Sleep Powder that Butterfree was leaving behind. However, at no time did it seem entirely risk-free to dive in at Butterfree, who was insistently pursuing upwards…
And they were about to fly into the roof.
”Seabreeze! Water Gun, then continue the circle!!”Seabreeze took a sharp turn towards the Butterfree, firing off a small blast of water before very quickly returning to his flight path, continuing the circle. It was a risky move, but maybe it’d pay off? At least, hopefully it paid off before they hit the ceiling!
Butterfree realized that it was aimed for and quickly waved its wings in panic, barely avoiding the water-blast that went between its wings and by the body, after which it insistently waved its wings again, having been halted for just a moment. A moment that would be hard to take advantage of due to slight recharge time after Water Gun, but regardless, Seabreeze now reached the roof first, with Butterfree reaching closer, a wave of sleep powder following…!
”Not much more room to act, but I have an idea!” Skylar smiled as he raised his cane to the sky.
”Seabreeze, one more time!”Seabreeze looped around to go in for another Water Gun, but this time something changed. Skylar shouted to his buddy with a smile.
”Now! Wing Attack!”Both Butterfree and Lorette also heard the command for the Water Gun, and Butterfree frantically waved its wings to barely dodge the beam of water to the side once again, and then came Skylar’s follow-up command.
‘Butterfree, dodge!’ shouted a tense Lorette holding her breath on the other side, and Butterfree attempted just that. With a cloud of Sleep Powder following in its wake, Butterfree attempted to dodge the white missile of Seabreeze flying down for one final Wing Attack…!
It was soon followed by the sound of something falling hard down into the platform below. Having committed to this attack, Seabreeze had flown straight through Butterfree’s cloud of Sleep Powder, and had fallen asleep again as he fell down into the platform from remarkable height. And then…
and then fell Butterfree, onto its back before Lorette, having been hit by the Wing Attack and fallen fainted to the ground.
‘Aaaaaaaaaaaah… Woah...’ Lorette made a long sigh on the other side, stumbling back a bit, but nevertheless held a smile on her face.
‘I… held back less than I usually did… because I felt like it… and you beat me anyway. Oh, this… this is how a Pokémon Battle should feel. This is how a battle should end. Congratulations, Skylar. You’ve won!’Skylar gained 2500P for winning!
”Oh gosh, Seabeeze!” Skylar seemingly ignored Lorette’s affirmations as he ran down into the ring himself, cane swinging beside him while he rushed to his sleepy buddy. Flying types didn’t have really solid bones usually, so that impact had to have left Seabreeze taking a little bit of damage.
Seabreeze had indeed taken some damage on impact, but not enough to make him faint more than he was already asleep.
The trainer collapsed his cane down before he picked up his ace, carefully holding the buddy in his arms as he finally acknowledged Lorette’s congratulations, smiling happily.
”T-thanks! Sorry, got a little scared at that fall ‘Breeze had.”Lorette returned Butterfree to her Pokéball, and then walked forward towards Skylar, over the platform, smiling all the while.
‘Here, you’ve earned this,’ Lorette said, handing something over to him.
Skylar obtained the Shrine Badge!
‘Oh, and have this, too. When facing many different challenges, it’s a good idea to often switch Pokémon to deal with the current obstacle. This move should help with that! It does decent damage AND returns your Pokémon for you. It’s pretty handy!’Skylar obtained TM89 U-Turn!
‘Don’t worry about if you happen to lose the badge, your victory has already been registered into the Pokémon League database, meaning your feat today won’t go lost with just that. It also means stealing badges won’t get anyone very far. It feels special, doesn’t it, holding a badge for yourself? You’ve now taken your first step towards battling in the Pokémon League itself. Don’t let up now! You’re going all the way, aren’t you~?’ Lorette asked in a happy, playful tone.
”Heh, I wasn’t sure about going all the way with the League yesterday, but now... I think me and my team’ve got what we can. At least, we’ve got what it takes to become the strongest Flying Type trainer in Isson, for sure!” Skylar reached out to collect his items, missing the grab a few times before finally taking the Tech. Machine and his shiny new badge for himself.
Skylar placed his Wingull back on his head carefully, then pinned the badge to the strap of his backpack, smiling when it was all said and done. Though, there was one question to ask now.
”Lorette, you said you held back more than you usually do… what’s the usual like?”Lorette nodded, proud of the challenger, approving of Skylar’s intention to become the strongest Flying-type trainer.
‘Well said!’ And then there was the part about when Lorette doesn’t actually hold back…
‘… Well, um. I did go on my own Pokémon journey before I became a Gym Leader, and let’s just say I didn’t stop at level 15, heh, albeit I did stop early,’ Lorette told, keeping a bit quiet to the end there, but otherwise, yes.
”You can always go back to your journey, you know? It never really ends.” Skylar offered a smile before he turned back towards what he guessed was the entrance. He pulled his cane back out and began to prod his way back to the gym.
”Thanks for such a great battle, Lorette! I’ll let you know when I become the strongest official flying type trainer!”‘I probably could. Still, I’m a Gym Leader for now until this spring’s wave of new trainers wane out. I’ll see what I’ll do when fall comes,’ Lorette replies with a smile. And then, it was time to leave. Lorette stood where she was, raising a single hand to wave after him, however useless that might have been but the gesture surely counts.
‘I’ll look forward to it! Good luck on your journey, and come back whenever you need a reminder that you have the makings of a great Pokémon Trainer, because I witnessed it first hand! See you!’ Lorette called, and then remained standing there as Skylar left the building, back into the fresh air of Highhill Town again.
Skylar smiled as a cool breeze hit him, but then a thought struck him.
How was he gonna get back to the Pokemon Center…?
Crimson Flame
Skinner35
PlatinumSkink
