Chapter 41 – An Electrifying Battle
“And now the Mauville gym battle will begin! Each trainer will use three Pokémon; the battle ends when all three of either trainer’s Pokémon are unable to continue.”
“Go! Magnemite!”
My finger hovered over Numsy’s poké ball, but eventually shifted to Orin’s.
‘I could lead off with Numsy and attempt to sweep his team, but Orin needs the experience.’
“Go! Orin!”
The little candle Pokémon materialized on the field. His little stubby arms raised as if he were preparing to engage the Magnemite in a fist fight.
“Thunder wave!”
“Will-O-Wisp!”
Blue flame darted towards the floating screwball while at the same time streams of electricity connected the little candle Pokémon with Wattson’s Magnemite.
Will-O-Wisp came as easy as breathing for the ghost and fire type Pokémon. I didn’t even have to ask Rena to teach him the basics. The move was crucial in my strategies until Orin learned some stronger fire type moves.
Magnemite having to keep up the connection to my Pokémon in order to paralyze him didn’t have the reflexes to dodge the blue flame. Similarly, Orin wasn’t the most mobile of Pokémon. Until their evolution the Litwick species had to rely on awkward hopping to maneuver during a battle which basically made them sitting ducklett. That’s why, until that special time, Orin basically had to spray and pray during our battles.
The will-o-wisp was taking effect leaving Magnemite with a perpetual ghostly burn which sprang up and hurt him every time the magnet Pokémon executed a move.
“Hex!”
“Electro ball!”
Magnemite charged up an orb of electricity and launched it towards my Pokémon. Electro ball was a nifty move that increased in power the faster the user was in comparison to the target. Magnemite in general weren’t all that fast, but it was in comparison to my Litwick especially since the little candle Pokémon was now also paralyzed.
The attacks made contact hex acting more like a curse following its target everywhere. While the electroball hit Orin straight in the face. Electric currents raged through his small body damaging the candle Pokémon from the inside out. While simultaneously the hex’s dark flames did substantial damage to our opponent.
“Liiiiit!”
‘Orin can’t take much more than that, our next attacks will decide this round.’
Magnemite wasn’t looking too hot either. The burns and Orin’s last move taking a toll on its steely exterior providing none of its usual defense. Unless Orin suffered from a bout of paralysis this would probably turn into a double knockout.
“Night Shade!”
“Mirror Shot!”
Orin’s bright green eyes were already darkening up in preparation for the attack, but before he could perform the move a flash of energy shot out from Magnemite’s body. The flash of light blinding my little candle and resulting in his eyes being forced shut. The invasive steel type energy took its toll from Orin’s body.
“Lit…”
“Return!”
‘Temporarily blinding his opponent when faced with gaze attacks. Wattson isn’t a gym leader for nothing.’
“Sorry for having you face two gym battles in a row Orin. When we get back on the road we’ll slowly build up our strength again.”
“Magnemite return!”
“The leader has chosen to withdraw his Pokémon. According to the gym’s rules this means the score is evened out at one to one!”
“Huh!? Why?”
“Magnemite here was on his last legs as well. That Hex attack really packed a wallop! Now let us field some of our stronger competitors. Go! Electrode!”
“Numsy you’re up!”
We both called out our stronger competitors. His choice of an electrode made things really simple on our side. Electrodes have a fairly hard time learning any other moves beside electric ones. We’d have this in the bag as long as the sphere Pokémon didn’t try to blow up on us. Numsy using the protect at the right time would be the key factor for us making it out of this unscathed.
“Bulldoze!”
“Magnet Rise!”
My Camerupt tore up the battlefield turning the entire terrain into a series of nooks and ridges. Wattson’s Electrode would surely have trouble using its superior mobility on uneven ground. However, before the ground shocks could reach Wattson’s electrode its use of Magnet Rise lifted up the spherical Pokémon completely avoiding our attack. Using its magnetic powers to float a few inches above the ground left Wattson’s Pokémon safe from our attack.
“Don’t think using ground type moves will work on us! Here at the Mauville gym we pride ourselves on dealing with ground types! Swift!”
‘Even in the air electrode’s speed is incredible, so we just have to use moves that hit everything in their vicinity.’
“Lava plume!”
Stars formed by normal type energy hit Numsy on the side, but I wasn’t too bothered about that. As long as Electrode couldn’t hit us with electric type moves Wattson could pelt us with weak attacks all he liked.
Scarlet flames erupted from the miniature volcanoes on Numsy’s back dousing the entire field in flames. Electrode was fast but not fast enough to avoid getting hit. The impact resulted in the ball Pokémon being covered in soot sagging back onto the ground. Heat weakens magnetic fields so I was sure turning the ground molten hot would also ruin Wattson’s strategy of staying afloat.
‘Now there’s only one strategy left available to him…’
“Selfdestruct!”
“Protect!”
Electrode glowed bright for a split second before exploding like a frag grenade tearing up the battlefield even further and forming a small crater at the explosion’s epicenter. The crystalline shield protecting my Pokémon held firm, blocking Electrode’s final attack. The dust settled down and Numsy reappeared from the smoke a bit dazed but relatively unharmed.
“Electrode is unable to battle! The match stands at two to one!”
“You were anticipating our last move, well done challenger! Return Electrode.”
“Go! Manetric!”
‘A Manetric this guy’s way bigger than the wild Electrike on route 110.’
The Pokémon had a big blonde mane that seemed to be in a frizzy state as if it held an electrical charge which considering the Pokémon’s species it probably did.
“Earth Power!”
“Double Team!”
Manetric moved so fast that he left after images in his wake. Numsy now confused as to which one to hit whiffed on hitting his target. The Earth Power erupts harmlessly under one of the after images.
‘Speed is the only thing they have over us but as long as the battle is confined in an enclosed space, we’ll be able to pull through no problem.’
Not wanting to waste our time tearing up the field with a bulldoze and giving the gym staff extra work to do, I resorted to what worked the last time.
“Lava Plume!”
“Rain Dance!”
Just as the lava plume was about to impact the battlefield again a cloud of rain was summoned inside the building lowering the ambient temperature and reducing the effectiveness of our attack. Manetric still took a wave of fire to the face though the effectiveness of the move had been reduced significantly.
“Switch to ground moves Bulldoze!”
“Magnet Rise!”
‘Rain Dance and Magnet Rise? Ugh… I’ll have to dry my clothes after this.’
Just like with Electrode, Manetric floated up from the ground dodging the ground quakes rocketing the arena. Water filled all the crevices on the cracked land forming small puddles, the largest of which was the hole Electrode left behind after using Selfdestruct.
‘I refuse to believe Manetric can maintain its speed after floating off the ground. Unlike Electrode or Magnemite, animal type Pokémon using Magnet Rise to float must come with some drawbacks. If ground based moves don’t work anymore and my firepower is weakened I’ll have to try something different.’
Indeed, as I speculated, Manetric slowed down a fair bit and its maneuverability was gutted. The Pokémon only being able to move in straight lines. Being a four badge Pokémon, I wouldn’t expect it to be proficient at everything.
“Rock Slide!”
“Hyper Beam!”
‘Going all in? If Numsy can withstand this attack, we’ll have a clear shot to finish this.’
The hyper beam impacted Numsy first, blowing him backwards, the beam forming faster than we both anticipated. Still Numsy being in relatively fine condition it wasn’t enough to knock him out. He retaliated by forming large boulders made out of rock type energy and the surrounding materials and blasted those stones outwards towards the now prone Manetric. The attack hit its target pushing Manetric on its side, the effects of magnet rise now broken. The canine Pokémon is still active but now a sitting duck for a follow up attack.
Hyper beam’s drawback was that it used too much of the Pokémon’s energy all at once, leaving them vulnerable for a counterattack. When they inevitably had to remain still to catch their breath an opponent’s Pokémon would get a free shot at them if they hadn’t fainted by then.
“Let’s finish this…”
“Earth power!”
“Return!”
Before the ground ripple had a chance to reach Manetric, Wattson decided to forfeit the match by returning his Pokémon.
Having your Pokémon be needlessly injured when the outcome of the match has become apparent was the last thing a responsible trainer should do and I respected his decision to spare his Pokémon from any unnecessary pain.
“Wattson, the gym leader, has chosen to withdraw his last Pokémon. That means Camerupt wins. the victory goes to Egon from Lavaridge Town!”
“You did it buddy!”
“Ruupt!”
“Now let’s get you out of this rain, make sure to take it easy for the rest of the day. That Hyper Beam attack was no joke. Return!”
Numsy dematerialized into the beam of red light, having gotten my fire type out of this cold and clammy rain I walked in the direction of the bleachers where Flannery and her new friend Roxanne were waiting for me and Wattson. The gym leader did the same even though he just lost the match he didn’t seem to mind at all still being his old cheery self.
“Wahahaha! That was some battle youngster! As the gym leader I hereby award you with the Dynamo badge. Your Camerupt is a tough customer. Make sure to train up that cute little ghost of yours so he can compete at the same level as his teammate.”
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
He didn’t seem to find the battle deserving of an additional technical machine award. Not that I minded, out of all my Pokémon only Victini was capable of learning electric type moves. Her being able to use thunder punch was enough for now.
“Thank you, leader Wattson, for a great battle. And my apologies in advance for tearing up the field with my repeated use of the move bulldoze. I've worked as a gym intern before and fields like that are always a hassle to clean up afterwards.”
“Lavaridge gym right? So, Tim must be your sponsor. Are you the one that’ll be taking over for him in the future? The rest of us gym leaders have to accept many more high level challengers since his gym is only half operational.”
“Ehem no that would be…”
“Egon! Finish up quick! Roxanne is inviting us to go with her to that New Mauville place.”
At Flannery’s prompting Wattson got reminded that he promised to lend Roxanne the key to his failed project.
“Right, yes! The key, just wait one second...”
Wattson pulled out a ridiculously oversized keychain with at least 20 other keys hanging from the center ring. It took him a while, but he finally identified the key that opened the underground city of new Mauville. He removed that particular one from the keychain before handing it over to an eagerly waiting Roxanne.
“Wahahaha! We just have way too many keys! Watt! Note down that we’ll have to completely transition over to digital locks as soon as the budget frees up.”
The young man who acted as the referee during our match caught up to us before engaging in a heated debate with his boss.
“But sir we spent an entire two years of our budget on the fake Raikou mecha! You wanted it to be able to fire off real thunderbolts!”
“That investment will pay off for us big time in the long run! Just imagine how much people would be willing to spend on a theme ride featuring a legendary Pokémon. Electrifying!”
Flannery couldn’t help but butt into that conversation.
“No way! An Entei ride would be way better! Just the rumor of being able to see that Pokémon’s likeness will have all the hottest magazines raving about it! Egon! Remind me when I take over the gym to put in a Entei themed rollercoaster!”
“What?! I am your minder not your assistant! And you are not the boss of me, yet!”
“Wahahahaha! So, you are our esteemed elite four’s heir? When will I be accepting your challenge?”
“Grandpa says I’ll have to wait for next year to start my first circuit run. Something about me not being ready yet. I am older than Egon and he gets to do whatever he likes, not fair!”
“Well well missy, I’ll be looking forward to it. Your Grandpa is a stick in the mud during meetings, but I can already tell you’ll be an electrifying colleague to have!”
With that the three of us were escorted out of the gym by Leader Wattson’s overworked employee Watt. Being the one that has to manage the gym’s finances in addition to having all the other regular gym duties must be taking a toll on him. Not to mention having to curb some of the eccentric behavior of his enigmatic boss made me feel like he was a kindred spirit. He also explained how to get to New Mauville while we were walking to the exit.
“New Mauville can only be accessed from a cave underneath the cycling road on route 110. It used to be a natural one until Wattson decided to expand the cave’s interior in order to house all the new prospective residents. You will have to have a water or flying type Pokémon carry you over the river.”
Roxanne was the first to despair at hearing that news.
“But I don’t have any on my team… Flannery Egon, you wouldn’t happen to have any?”
“I don’t! Egon has that a gray colored bird Pokémon on his team though!”
Exasperated, I decided to expand Flannery’s knowledge on Unovan Pokémon.
"That Pokémon is called a Tranquill. You've met her a bunch of times, don't tell me you can’t remember her name?"
“Sorry! I only remember fire types.”
“Haaaa… in any case she is too small to ferry us over that river. We could try bribing some of the local water type Pokémon to transport us over. They’ll probably demand a good number of berries though. I know some wingull that live on that route. They could negotiate a better deal for us. Do you girls mind if I drop off Numsy and Orin at the Pokémon center before we go?”
Roxanne seemingly approved of my plan perking up at the mention of trading for wild Pokémon’s services. This is the one area where generalists have us specialists beat having members of your team suited for each type of terrain and it could be a real hassle traveling safely over Hoenn’s sharpedo infested waters with only fire type or in Roxanne’s case rock type Pokémon.
“That’s a great idea Egon! We are lucky that you made some Pokémon friends on route 110.”
I didn’t really have much interest in going spelunking, but Mr. Moore would have my hide if I let Flannery go alone in an underground complex filled with voltorb and electrode. She was terrible at lying to her grandfather so the truth would come out eventually. The upside to all of this is that I would get to watch how one of the more obscure methods of evolving Pokémon worked.
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Half an hour later on route 110*
We were gathered outside the hidden nature trail that led to the manetric’s territory. I’ve spent the last five minutes looking at the skies trying to spot the wingull flock we’ve gotten familiar with half a month ago. I sent out Tranquill to survey the areas where she met up with them the last time and to convince them to come meet with us for this important matter.
“Quill!”
“Win Gull!”
“There she is Egon! She brought the flock of wingull over just like you asked.”
The wingull led by Tranquill landed on the branches of a nearby tree while tranquill herself landed on my shoulder eager to receive her payment, one whole crushed up Lava cookie.
“Here you go girl you’ve earned it.”
“Quill!”
“Gull? Win?”
“Wingull is asking what he can help you with. He also wants more of our Lava cookies…!”
‘Relax I’ll ask Grandma to send over another batch when we arrive in Fortree city. We are in Hoenn now, shipping anywhere within the same region will only take a few days.’
“Heya old buddy, these are my friends Flannery and Roxanne.”
“Gull Gull!”
The girls and Wingull exchanged their well wishes before I got down to the brass tacks.
“So do you know the cave that’s situated underneath the cycling road?”
“Gull!” Wingull gave me a quick affirming nod.
“You see, we need to get over there. It’s a bit complicated since we don’t have any water or flying Pokémon big or strong enough to carry us over. Do you happen to know any such Pokémon living nearby? And could you maybe convince them to help us? We can pay in berries or cookies as you can see.”
I opened up my Tupperware displaying the various type of berries I’ve collected or bought in preparation for our journey.
“Winnngull!!”
At the reveal of my stash of berries large enough to feed me and flannery’s pokémon for a couple of days, wingull and the rest of his flock got a bit overeager, throwing what I imagined to be offers of cooperation in exchange for my food supply.
“Okay hold up, calm down! How about this? you each get half a berry now and after you’ve completed the job, you’ll get the other half.”
“Gull!”
Not needing to have Victini translate their acceptance of the deal. I fished out six oran berries dividing them in half before laying them in row on a nearby tree stump jutting out of the ground. There were seven wingull in this flock, but the leader and my erstwhile friend demanded to be fed the same thing as his romantic interest Tranquill. So, I measured out half a Lava cookie, crushing it and giving that to him instead.
The Wingull greedily munched on the half berries put on display, their feathers getting all rumpled up as a consequence of their eagerness while me and the girls looked on. Eventually they finished up each of their respective meals squawked loudly at each other and flew up in the direction of route 110’s meandering river.
Roxanne was the first to speak up.
“They are heading towards the direction of the river. That means they’ll be likely to ask the local water Pokémon to give us a ride.”
“Egon, I don’t want to get wet! Tell them to ask one of their flying type friends to carry us over!”
“Flannery… you do realize that there aren’t many flying types living in Hoenn big enough to give you a comfortable ride. Skarmory live up to the north in route 113 and Tropius live in the areas surrounding Fortree City. Not to mention the impossibility of flying on any wild Salamence. More than likely the wingull will ask a group of wailmer or a singular gyarados to ride us over.”
“Gyarados!?”
“Relax, if there is a wild Gyarados living in the river that could be swayed by a flock of wingull to come and meet us it would most likely have a docile temperament.”
While Flannery was panicking about the possibility of having to hitch a ride on a wild Gyarados. Roxanne was impressed by something else entirely.
“You really are knowledgeable Egon, we should compare notes sometime.”
“Thanks, before setting off on my journey I researched the wild Pokémon commonly encountered on each route. You must have done something similar in preparation for your journey right?”
“At the Rustburo’s trainer’s school we don’t spend much of our study time on pokémon habitats. Which is a shame but I did manage to study up on the ecological backgrounds of most rock type pokémon.”
“Are you aiming to become Rustburo’s gym leader? I’ve heard that the city’s gym leader is elected based upon academic merits. In contrast to the position being decided based on the previous gym leader’s familial relations.”
“Yes! I’ve even undertaken an internship at the gym when I was just seven years old. Our gym leader is holding on to the position despite her reaching retirement age until I’ve further proven myself by reaching the top sixteen at this year’s Ever Grande conference!”
Our talk about academic achievements and Rustburo’s meritocratic system seemed to have unnerved Flannery a bit. The redhead shuffling her feet and not having much to add to the conversation. Feeling bad for Flannery I decided to extend her an olive branch.
“There is something to say about keeping a gym in the family though. There is never a struggle to find a worthy successor and the leader’s family usually grow up inside the gym itself, gaining much needed experience just by being around daily goings-on of a gym.”
We reached the river’s shore and while we were waiting, Roxanne and Flannery decided to call out their teams and relax. Having no idea on how much time the wingull flock would need to try and convince wild water Pokémon to help us reach the other side of the river, I decided to kick back and watch how Flannery would interact with another trainer’s Pokémon.
Roxanne’s team composition surprised me with some of her more exotic partner Pokémon.
“Hello everyone, say hi to my new friends.”
“Noseee”
“Leeem!”
“Lair!”
“Shuck”
“Woodo!”
“Cargo!”
Roxanne had a total of six Pokémon with her. The Nosepass which we already knew about but also a Golem, Lairon, Shuckle, Magcargo and strangely enough a Sudowoodoo. I wasn’t knowledgeable enough to determine the strength of most of her Pokémon, but that Magcargo was keeping active even though we didn’t find ourselves in a volcanic environment. This meant she had trained it well even Flannery was impressed.
“Your Magcargo is looking great Roxanne! I can’t wait for my Slugma to evolve as well!”
Flannery decided to show off her team as well minus her Slugma who didn’t like being out of his ball in river country like this.
“Your Ponyta and Torchic are the cutest Flannery!”
Flannery’s Ponyta walked up to Roxanne and gave her a playful nuzzle to the face. Which the girl reciprocated by stroking its fiery mane.
‘This is discrimination! I’ve fed that Ponyta dozens of times and even cleaned out her stall and she won’t even let me pet her without burning my hand!’
“Calm down Egon!”
‘Okay count to ten… and move on. That Ponyta is clearly biased against boys.’
“Say Roxanne I didn’t know Sudowoodo lived in Hoenn. Did you catch it while on a trip to Sinnoh or Johto?”
“They do actually, I caught him while on a school trip to Metallica island.”
“Isn’t that the place where they are building up the battle frontier facilities?”
“Yes, the league hired professional trainers to remove the local bonsly and sudowoodo population. This one was in the process of being caught and relocated but I managed to convince the frontier’s hired personnel to gift him to me. We’ve been best friends ever since, isn't that right Woody?”
“Woodo!”
“Did you know some professors in indigo are still convinced that Sudowoodo is a grass type? As they say you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.”
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30 minutes later*
We were starting to get worried that the wingull might not come back, when finally we saw the lot of them streaking across the water with their new friends in tow. A trio of jolly looking wailmer followed behind the seagull Pokémon bouncing up and down the river’s waves. What came as an unexpected surprise was the Hoenn Pokédex that Roxanne pulled out to scan the trio of whale Pokémon.
Wailmer the Ball Whale Pokémon. Wailmer's nostrils are located above its eyes. This playful Pokémon loves to startle people by forcefully snorting out seawater it stores inside its body out of its nostrils. It swims along with its mouth open and swallows down seawater along with its food. On sunny days, it lands on beaches to bounce like a ball and play.
In hindsight it was pretty obvious that this year’s most accomplished trainer school graduate would be a Pokédex holder as well. The three bouncy pokémon beached themselves on the river’s edge and bounced up and down on the ground in front of us, each of them as tall as a professional basketball player.
“Waaaail!”
“Keep your distance Egon! Wailmer love dousing people in seawater!”
“Calm down Flannery, a little spray of seawater won’t kill you.”
‘Feeding these three is going to be expensive, unless they’d be satisfied with only a handful of berries each.’
“Why hello there I take it Wingull here has informed you of our plight to cross this river?”
The middle one who I supposed was their leader came forward to discuss terms.
“Waaaail!”
“What a beautiful dream…”
‘Wait… what did Wailmer say?’
“Wailmer’s goal is to taste every kind of berry in this world at least one time. Being relegated to stay inside the water makes it tough for him to achieve his dream. If you have a berry with you that he has not tried before he’ll let you ride on him and his subordinates’ back.”
“Okay Wailmer here says that if we give him a berry he hasn’t tried before that he’ll help us cross the river.”
“Amazing Egon! Do you understand pokéspeak?”
“Well uhmm… something like that.”
Not wanting the direction of this conversation to come to its natural end point I quickly tried to focus Roxanne’s attention on the matter at hand.
“Anyway! let’s open up our supplies and see what we got.”
It turned out that Roxanne by virtue of being a rock type specialist had little to no berries with her. Rock types rarely needed to ingest organic food since their diet mostly consisted of minerals scrounged up from underneath the earth. The only Pokémon on her team that needed to eat berries was her Shuckle. Which fermented them inside its shell to convert into berry juice before sipping from it throughout the day.
“It’s got to be this one.”
“No!”
‘You just told me that his dream was beautiful. The chances of Wailmer coming across a custap berry is slim to none. Besides with the extra money incoming from Mr. Moore I'll be able to afford all kinds of expensive berries. I’ll just buy cheap grains for that darned Ponyta to make up for the difference.’
“Okay… for his dream.”
“Wailmer try this one. I bet you haven’t tasted a custap berry before.”
Placing the custap berry in the Pokémon’s mouth we watched as Wailmer slowly chewed his mouth’s new contents intent on savoring and analyzing the flavor for as long as possible.
‘Truly this Pokémon is a gourmet enthusiast.’
Having finished tasting the most expensive berry I had on hand the wailmer was bouncing around energetically. Spraying seawater all around him in pure joy.
“Waaail!”