It felt a bit funny to wear as I wasn't used to having something on my face but I figured I'd get used to it eventually. I ended up being all but forced to stay in bed for the remaining two days until my challenge date with Watson by the some especially stubborn Joys. I wasn't alone though as Yani was out of her ball most of the time engaging me in mind games like type chess. I still had a board and pieces that Gaia made a while back and it was a good way to refresh my typing knowledge.-

Watson came to visit after he was done for the day at the gym and after learning the rules was a huge fan of the game. He praised it as a good game for trainers as it helps teach the type advantages and disadvantages while also having a great deal of strategy involved in it. He asked if I planned to make the game public and I admitted that I hadn't really thought about it since the game was mostly meant to waste time. He then said that if I ever did decide on selling it to the public that he'd help by having the league support it as it was that good for new trainers.-

"Now Mr. Drake I expect you to take it easy for another week at least do you hear me?" the middle aged Joy discharging me from the center said sternly. "Yes yes , I promise I won't do anything I don't feel up to." I said while holding my arms up in surrender. I found out the hard way over the last two days that the Joys aren't the pushovers they seem like at first glance. No in fact they can be pretty gods damned terrifying if you do something that truly displeases them.-

Something like trying to workout when half your body is shredded for example. Admittedly I might have a bit of a problem with not ignoring quests that I have even if I REALLY should. I had attempted to complete the exercise quest that I have and a Joy caught me and I swear that I felt like I was going to be killed. I got yelled at and forced back into bed like a child caught up after curfew , it was horrible.-

Honestly the only reason that I was allowed to leave was that I had been burning through my energy reserves constantly to repair my body with my healing ability. This led to me being a little fucked up rather than totally wrecked like I was before I came in. That was to say I could move my body normally but would suffer some pain if I tried to push it. After getting discharged I checked the time before making my way over to the gym as I had an hour until my challenge. Watson was a sneaky old man and tried to figure out how strong my team was before hand but I had managed to keep it secret.-

The Joys also wanted to examine them to make sure they were okay after the story of what we went through got around but I assured them that there was nothing to worry about. After all Watson could definitely check the files after the examination to see if he could spot any increases he needed to plan for. I was really looking forward to the surprise he was going to get when I send Gaia out after Rune. If anything though I had a disadvantage in this challenge at the moment as Watson was going to be using four pokemon to my three.-

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That was because that was the league standard for gym battles of the third and fourth badges. The leaders used four pokemon for those challenges and it was up to the trainers to match that level of power. Whether that was via using four pokemon or by having less pokemon that were much stronger the idea was the same. In my case I had Vulcan that was fast approaching elite territory at level ninety two.-

By my estimation an elite pokemon was one that was either near level one hundred or all the way up to one fifty. After that was the bottomless abyss of champion tier which was the last official power level known. Anyways Watson had his gym set up in a way that would give an advantage to electric types due to the sparking electrodes overhead. The air was literally charged with energy that made that type of move go just a little faster through the air. The arena was also an uneven but natural looking style that I understood the purpose of immediately. 'He wants to prevent me from using magma coat like I did against Brawly.' I thought with approval.-

By having the arena with uneven terrain unlike standard arenas covering the ground in lava with magma coat will instead create puddles of it instead of a single flat layer. This meant that so long as his pokemon didn't stupidly step in the puddles they could avoid the heat on their feet. It was clear that this arena was made to counter that strategy I used against Brawly but I couldn't blame Watson for it given how effective it would be against anything that wasn't fire type.-

Against anything that wasn't either hyper resistant to heat or didn't need to touch the ground using magma coat and keeping it hot was the equivalent of forcing someone on to a timer that they had to dispel by clearing the lava or by defeating Vulcan. That was the only choices available to terrestrial pokemon and as a result made things hellishly limiting for a trainer. Watson definitely recognized this and as a result removed that strategy of mine right off the rip. "I love what you've done with the place , really makes one feel welcome." I joked as i stepped out onto the field.-

"HAHA!" He laughed with a jolly smile. "It wouldn't be any good if you controlled the tempo from the start now would it?" he asked rhetorically. Once the ref made sure we were ready they like always went over the rules of the match. It was a simple four vs three with Watson having one switch and I having three. "START!" the ref called and both of us sent out our first pokemon to the field. "Rune , SET!" "Come out Manectric!" we both said as the two pokemon appeared in red beams of energy.-

"Oh? Using my own type against me right away? Ballsy!" Watson said clearly surprised at who I sent out. I could see why too as generally speaking electric vs electric was a bad matchup not because they did more damage but for the exact opposite reason in that they were highly resistant to their own type moves. My line up was so far with my best elementally matched pokemon up first followed by the second and finally third one. In theory Gaia would be the best due to her typing countering electric type moves. Rune was the exception to the rule though due to his conduit innate ability that caused him to not only not take damage from electric type moves but to even get healed from them as well , in other words a perfect electric type counter.