Sitting with Oliver, two people had come over to me while waiting for the next match to begin and asking some questions before heading back to their seats. There was a few more people this time round.

“Welcome back and we shall start the second battle.” The same ref as before calls out. “Our challenger is Jennifer Hawthorn!” Which raises applause as she walks out into the arena waving. “And once again, the gym leader, Viola!” Which caused a similar amount applause.

“I’m guessing you’re the sister of the boy from my last round.” Viola says from her side.

“I am indeed.” Jen replies.

“Well, I hope your just as good.” Viola retorts grabbing her first ball.

“This will be a standard two on two match. The challenger is allowed 1 substitution. Choose your first pokemon!” The ref announces.

“Surskit, come out!”

“Fen, leys show them how it’s done!”

Upon seeing the fennekin, Viola says aloud to herself “You really are siblings.”

“Both trainers ready, begin!” Shouts the ref.

“Surskit, ice the field.”

“Fenenkin, use ember on the ground.”

The two pokemon both start using their moves on the floor scorching, melting, and freezing the floor.

“Skate and use bubble!” Viola calls.

“Dodge and use ember.” Jen responds.

While the bug fires bubbles and slides around the still frozen sections of the arena, the fox is dodging in the dry and damp sections shooting fire. Both pokemon land a hit but Fen is much worse off.

“Fen, get close!”

“Keep at it surskit.”

Fen ditches attacking with ember and runs towards the bug while it continues its strategy. The little fox charges also straight at the surskit taking hit after hit before finally getting close.

“Grab a hold of it.” Jen shouts.

“Jump up.” Viola yells which the bug swiftly does, avoiding Fens attempt to grab it.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Tackle.” Jen yells to her partner.

“Bubble.”

Fen dashes upward towards the bug which rains down a stream of bubbles. Fen manages to land the hit but upon coming down collapses while the surskit hits the ground wrong but is able to wright itself.

“Fennekin is unable to battle, the round goes to Viola!” Announces the ref to the applause of the crowd.

“You did well Fen.” Jennifer quietly says to herself before returning the ball and sending Hoot out.

“Begin1”

“Hoot, sky and use echo.”

“Surskit, ice beam.”

Hoot darts up dodging the jagged ice beam and uses echoed voice. While it didn’t seem like it affected anyone in the crowd, the water skimmer is clearly hit and affected.

“Keep at it hoot!”

“Surskit, ice beam!”

Hoot manages his move first knocking Surskit’s aim of sending the beam into the far wall leaving an icy mark. Hoot repeats his move which causes Surskit to collapse.

“Surskit is unable to battle, the round goes to the challenger!”

Viola once again said something I couldn’t hear while returning her pokemon. “I think I will give you the same challenge as your brother.” Viola says smiling as she tossed out the same artic Vivillon.

“Begin!”

“Stun spore!” Viola calls to her pokemon.

“Confusion.” Jen smugly calls out.

While the vivillon is pouring spores into the air, Hoots eyes start to glow a light purple before Vivillon suddenly loses proper control over their flight.

“Snap out of, gust!” Viola calls out to her butterfly. Vivillon hears her trainer but the gust is sent straight into the spore cloud and into the ground.

“Keep at it with echo Hoot!”

“Come on Vivillon, snap out of it use gust!”

Vivillon manages a gust but it was off while echoed voice hit it dead on before Hoot used it again to success. The second one hitting snapped Vivillon out of its trance before it shoots out a gust that slams straight into the owl.

“Sleep powder, we’re ending this!” Viola yells.

“Fly high and keep using echoed voice Hoot.”

Vivillon starts chasing the owl upwards spreading a purple cloud of powder while being struck by increasing damaging moves but the butterfly was slowly gaining despite every hit taking its toll. Hoot reached the glass roof and ran out of room to climb before the bug just about reached him.

“Charge with peck!” Jen called out to which Hoot quickly acted. As his beak glowed white, he rammed Vivillon dragging it into the sleep powder and to the ground. Everyone was tense as the cloud had become so dense from the powder that I could not even see inside it.

“Hoot, if you can hear me, use your wings to push away the cloud.”

“Vivillon, use gust if you’re conscious.”

Both trainers waited as they saw the cloud of status effects move around for about a minute, both waiting in anticipation as to who was still standing. As the seconds passed, it was clear only one of the two pokemon was pushing the cloud around. Hoot darted from the cloud of spores and powder struggling a bit to fly but very much awake. The crowd erupted in cheers and as after 30 more seconds, Vivillon hadn’t shown, it was clear who the winner was which the ref made official. “Vivillon is unable to battle, the battle goes to the challenger!”

“Your battle was just as well done as your brother, you deserve this!” Viola called before throwing the badge to Jennifer from the other side of the field. She has quite the throwing arm. Jen caught the badge as the ref announced the next challenger will be roughly 30 minutes from now before he took his leave.

Jennifer ran to us and gave her brother a hug. “I won, we both won! We won our first gym battle!” She said with the biggest grin I’ve seen on her face. “We did it bro!”

“Yes sis, we did.” Oliver responded clearly happy also. “Let’s head back and celebrate our first gym.”