Chapter 57 - Feathery Showdown

After saying our goodbyes to the kecleon group and their fledgling new business me and Victini walked into the direction of the gym. Since we’d been here before I had no problem navigating Fortree City’s jungle of shoots and ladders. Victini floating behind me while invisible. It was still early in the morning and a thick fog enveloped the city giving us the freedom to talk openly without much scrutiny.

“So... what places do you visit while not hanging out with us?”

“Vi Vi!” “Slateport beach is nice, the seashore house sells a pecha berry ice cream that’s really yummy!

“Wait, how would you know that? We’ve only been there once, and I don’t remember ordering any pecha berry ice cream.”

“...!”

“Please don’t tell me you have been raiding their freezer...”

“Vi!” “No! I left some money behind.”

“So, you were the one that has been swiping my loose change! You had me believing that one of the castle’s ghosts was suffering from a bout of kleptomania.”

“Vi!” “Sorry!”

“Well at least they won’t be likely to hire a private investigator to catch you in the act... but I don’t like playing favourites. From now on you’ll have to share with everyone else on the team the next time you go on a food excursion. Have you made any new friends while out playing?”

“The kecleon group asks for my expertise when new items come in stock. Sometimes I help out carrying their loot from on route 120 and back. Oh! I met a pride of Absol while out playing. They were also interested in trading away items to the store.”

“I spent all our time on that route looking for them and I didn’t even find a single one!”

“Vi” “I asked them, they avoid humans when at all possible.”

“Ah well can’t blame them for that I guess.”

As we got closer to the gym the paved street on the ground became more crowded and we had to put a halt to our verbal conversation to avoid being overheard. It was still early in the afternoon so the only people out and about were young hopefuls eager to visit the gym during walk in hours. Winona by all accounts was a fairly popular gym leader especially so with the local youths. There were enough kids blocking the entranceway to the gym that it would take a while before the doorman would manage to deal with them all.

“I have to go meet someone.”

“That’s fine. You’ll come watch my gym battle though, right?”

“Yup!”

With that my rabbit friend disappeared off to a place unknown. By my estimation Victini went off to go catch up with Tranquill before the match. It was good that she used her powers to keep up with all of our old friends. Being the inherently social creature that she naturally is.

It took a while having to stand in line but eventually the crowd of bored kids with nothing better to do thinned out and it was my turn to address the harried looking gym staff manning the reception.

“Check in for today’s gym battles?”

“Yeah, Egon from Lavaridge town first slot of the day.”

The receptionist took the time to verify my claims but soon enough he spotted my name on the list.

“Yep, there you are. Now go on through, the battlefield is located on the third door to the right of this hallway.”

The staff member shooed me off, seemingly trusting me to get there on my own without taking into account the slim likelihood that I was a bad actor. Security for league managed facilities was taken very seriously. I wouldn't be surprised to find I was being tracked by a psychic type Pokémon right this moment. This being a flying type gym it wouldn’t be difficult to convince a flock of Natu’s and Xatu to act as security in exchange for a lavish lifestyle and free training.

Without further ado I walked on eager to win my third Hoenn gym badge.

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At the battlefield*

The gym battle between Winona the Fortree gym leader and the challenger Egon from Lavaridge town will now begin! Each trainer will use three Pokémon and the match will be over when all of either trainer’s Pokémon are unable to battle. Only the challenger will be allowed substitutions!

I was starting to get worried that Victini would miss the gym battle when suddenly I felt a familiar presence joining my mind.

‘Tini! Where have you been?’

“Meeting up with an old friend, she and her new trainer have a big surprise for you during this battle.”

Once more I felt the mental presence of my psychic rabbit link up with my mind. For some reason she seemed extra excited for this battle. Undoubtedly, she was visiting Tranquill, while away, the big surprise probably being that she would be called on to participate in this gym battle. I estimated Tranquill’s strength to be around third badge level when I left her here at the gym. This being a fifth level badge must have meant that Winona felt confident enough that the bird Pokémon would put up a good fight.

“Stop trying to see through me!”

‘You shouldn’t have made it that obvious then.’

“Come out Tranquill!”

“Go! Raven!”

We each revealed our first Pokémon Tranquill materializing in the air above the battlefield while Raven took position on my side of the field. Tranquill had a fairly good idea what each of my team members were capable of having attended many of our training sessions. Raven being a recent addition should put her on the backfoot in this battle.

“This match will be a…”

The referee was about to officially begin our match but before he had the chance to start I felt the need to clarify something first.

“Tranquill, are you eating well? The other bird Pokémon aren’t bullying you right?”

“Quill!?”

“Have you made any new friends?”

“Tranq Quillll!”

“Hey! Of course she’s not being bullied! All of our gym Pokémon are total sweethearts! In fact, she’s close to making a special friend if you know what I mean.”

“No! She’s too young! Who was it that tried to seduce our innocent battle loving maiden?!”

“Quill…”

Tranquill landed on a nearby bird’s pole hiding her face underneath her feathered plumage clearly embarrassed by my verbal antics.

“I’ll have you know Swellow’s been a complete gentlebird. In fact, she’s the one who came onto him!”

“Lies!”

The referee took this moment to remind the both of us that we were in the middle of an official gym battle.

“Ahem! If the challenger and our esteemed leader are done, could we start the battle?”

“Oops sorry Jared!”

“My apologies as well. I was just too curious on how Tranquill has been doing since we left her here.”

“The gym battle between the Fortree gym leader and the Challenger Egon from Lavaridge town will now begin! Each trainer will use three Pokémon the match will be over when all of either trainers’ Pokémon are unable to battle. Only the challenger will be allowed substitutions. Let the battle begin!”

“Air Cutter!”

“Keep light on your feet and Snarl!”

Invisible blades of wind zoned in on Raven. Instead of immediately retaliating she tried to dodge as many of them as she could. I remembered Tranquill not being as accurate with her moves having been a spectator to many of her impromptu bouts with passing wild Pokémon. Clearly, she has improved since joining up with Winona. Every other windblade managed to accurately hit Raven. My Pokémon didn’t appreciate her spontaneous haircut seeing tufts of fur falling down on the ground. After the final volley of wind blades was sent out my own Pokémon retaliated with a loud screech carrying with it a dose of harmful dark type energy. Because the dark type energy was carried through sound waves Tranquill had no way of dodging the move. Sound moves generally weren’t all that powerful but this one seeped through her system crippling her ability to direct typed energy outside the body.

Snarl was our way of punishing flying strategies that overly relied on keeping out of the opponent’s distance. Since substitution wasn’t allowed during a gym battle Winona couldn’t get rid of Snarl’s after effect.

“U-turn!”

‘Or she can! Winona must have taught Tranquill a bunch of new tricks.’

“Wait for it just like we practiced!”

Raven knew what I was aiming for. We couldn’t stop Tranquill from switching out and ridding herself of the aftereffects of snarl but we could punish whichever Pokémon got released as a result of the move.

Tranquill snooped in glowing with a dim green light. U-turn required the user to get a blow in before allowing the Pokémon to switch out. Tranquill was the speedier Pokémon between the two so the only thing we could do was to hit Winona’s switch with everything we had. Tranquill slammed against Raven in a full body blow briefly staggering my houndour before dematerializing and being sucked inside my old poke ball hanging from Winona’s waist. Immediately one of the other balls hanging from that same belt opened up and in a flash of light a large Pelican like Pokémon was released in the exact same spot where Tranquill had previously dematerialized.

“Release Counter!”

“Pell?!”

Enveloped in orange light Raven tackled the startled Pelliper who didn’t have the time to fly away. Counter releases with twice the force the U-turn didn’t manage to hurt Raven significantly since she was also part fire type, but that Counter still packed a wallop.

Pelliper was blown back all the way to the edge of the battlefield before finally stabilizing midair. U-turn could startle Pokémon who weren’t prepared to switch in. Seeing as this was a fifth badge level Pokémon, Winona probably hadn’t trained this Pelliper’s preparedness and left its training in the hands of one of her gym trainers.

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“Sorry Pellipper!”

“Lipper!”

‘This is great! Pelliper would be a threat to my team but with it taking a full force Counter like this we might be able to take it out right away.’

“Snarl!”

“Water Pulse!”

Taking a direct water type attack like that would surely put Raven on her last legs if not knock her out directly combined with the previous hit she suffered from the talons of Tranquill. Pellipper weren’t known for their speed so this time we could get in first licks during our exchange of moves. Just like before the dark type energy carried by the Raven’s howl affected the pelican like Pokémon causing the Water Pulse which it was already charging up to lessen in effectiveness. Still with the battlefield constructed as it is there was no chance of my trusty pouch dodging the incoming blow. The blue ball of water impacted the battlefield producing waves of water that swept Raven in their wake. Raven emerged from the waves looking like a pitiful puppy forced to take its first bath which was probably true. Pellipper wasn’t looking much better having trouble staying at an even elevation. A single weak blow would probably be enough to finish up the fight.

“Can you still go on?”

“Arf!”

“Fine, let's finish this! Incinerate!”

“Water Gun!”

Raven fired off a series of fireballs in Pelliper’s direction while at the same time while at the same time the water bird Pokémon produced a jetstream of cold water in her direction. I didn’t need to see to know what the result of such an exchange meant.

“Both Pellipper and Houndour are unable to battle!”

I quickly recalled Raven back to her ball. She more than exceeded my initial expectations by taking out Winona’s water type paving the way for the rest of the team.

“Good job Raven. You can have all the extra deserts you like when we get back.”

“Pick me! I also want to earn those extra desserts!”

‘You have been working hard getting all those spars in with Phoebe’s team… Let’s all go get something to snack on after this. Just let me finish up this match real quick Raven wasn’t the only one on the team with something to prove.’

“Go Orin!”

“Swellow take flight!”

Both our Pokémon materialized on the field much to my surprise this particular Swellow was an off colour Pokémon or “Shiny” if we’d go by terms used in my previous world. The odds of two trainers both owning and releasing off colour Pokémon against each other at the same time was a small miracle. It was then that I remembered one of the offhand comments Winona made just a few minutes prior.

“Was it you?!”

“Sweeell?”

“Are you the one playing with Tranquill’s heart?”

“Looow!”

“Don’t you take that tone with me, mister! She’s too young to be shacking up with any old flirt no matter how exotic looking their plumage is.”

It was at this moment that the referee butted into my … speech.

“Ahem! Battle!”

Not wanting to lose the advantage I quickly focused my attention on the battle. Since Swellow was also a normal type most of the new ghost type moves he’d learned over at Phoebe’s wouldn’t work. Which left us with Orin’s learned fire type moves.

“Aerial Ace!”

“Counter Shield!”

Winona immediately went on the offensive demonstrating her gym’s signature move. Swellow dive bombed into the ground quickly executing the gym’s famed manoeuvre. Aerial Ace was(is) a move that confounds the opponent with blinding speed, almost making the user disappear before seemingly reappearing right in front of the opponent slamming into its target with pinpoint precision.

I knew trying to dodge Aerial Ace was a waste of time. So, I commanded Orin to do the next best thing. In his current evolutionary stage, his movement was greatly hampered only being able to perform a single hop in the time it takes for an opponent’s attack to land. So, between breaks while training we came up with our own version of Fire Spin one that shielded him inside a fiery tornado. Any would-be attackers would get scorched when trying to get physical with Orin. It didn’t do a whole lot of damage but not many pokémon would confidently wade through flames without flinching giving Orin a chance to avoid the attack.

Contrary to my expectations Swellow didn’t seem to mind getting scorched by flames. The swallow Pokémon bravely penetrated Orin’s fire tornado bashing head first into him, flinging the candle Pokémon away in the process.

“Lit…”

“You can do it Orin! Use Will-O-Wisp!”

“You know what to do Swellow!”

Teal flames sprang forth out of Orin’s wick in Swellow’s direction, but strangely enough Winona’s Pokémon seemed content to just stay still while using this opportunity to focus his energies. This course of action from our opponents set off a harrowing feeling in my stomach. Orin’s flames enveloped the colourful bird Pokémon burning up his once bright plumage. Unlike its previous dip inside our fire spin this time the flames were there to stay the fire type energy now within its body straining the muscle and flaring up intermittently as long as the bird wasn’t recalled inside its poké ball or got immediate treatment. Contrary to my expectations Swellow’s muscles seemed to have grown larger as if the Pokémon had just come back from an intense session at the gym.

‘Already trained up the Guts ability!? Winona must be planning to add this Swellow to her personal team. This is bad!’

“Brave Bird!”

“Curse!”

I knew my little candle Pokémon had no hope of surviving what came next but I was determined to make that blasted bird pay the price for snatching up Orin’s shot at getting his first gym victory. Using destiny Bond was out of Orin’s skill level at the moment but he had gotten pretty good at cursing other Pokémon while practicing under Phoebe’s tutelage. Swellow tucked in its wings burning bright blue with the amount of flying type energy he was processing in his body to jump up to speeds that were almost too fast to see with the human eye. Brave Bird was a devastating move where a flying type would disregard personal safety to deal as much damage to their opponent as possible regardless of the consequences.

But before Swellow had the chance to take him out Orin conjured up a spiritual nail before impaling himself with it. Normally I would never resort to a self harming move but under these circumstances I was forced to in order to win. Swellow had become a danger even to the more senior members of my team Guts wasn’t a joke. I've seen videos of raticates taking down Steelix’ with just their muscle power while guts was activated. The nail fully hilted itself inside Orin’s body acted more akin to a spiritual object not permanently harming the candle Pokémon in any way but it was enough to faint him.

“Orin Return!”

Orin had already fainted so I saw no point in having his unconscious body suffer the attack that was coming his way. Swellow on the other hand was not prepared for the sudden recall the flying type managed to just barely not crash land into the ground pulling up at the last second. Since the bird was now cursed and burned the referee had to make sure that I called out my last Pokémon as fast as possible. There were some trainers that would stall for as much time as possible to eke out as much of an advantage as possible but I wasn't one of those trainers.

“Go Numsy!”

In a bright flash of light my oldest partner appeared a small tremor rocking the battlefield as he did so. He was my ace in the hole for this gym match. With Pellipper gone and her final Pokémon being known to me I was assured that there would be no unexpected shenanigans coming our way. The only thing we had to do is hold out against her roided out bird until the burning and curses did their job. Winona obviously knew she was on the clock and thus wasted no time calling out her next move.

“Brave Bird!”

“Protect!”

A turquoise energy shield appeared around Numsy’s body just before Swellow dive bombed into him. The energy shield would always hold out, only specialized moves are capable of breaking through. However, that didn’t mean that we were safe from Swellow’s assault. Protect only guaranteed safety against the initial attack, the move becoming less reliable with continued use. While Numsy was busy sheltering behind his energy shield I could already see the effects of being cursed and burned start taking their toll on Swellow’s body. Most bird Pokémon weren’t known for their hardiness and Swellow’s species aren’t the exception.

‘We just need one good hit to make sure Swellow stays down.’

“Lava Plume!”

“Facade!”

‘She even taught Swellow such a highly specialized move!? This isn’t a fifth badge level Pokémon by a long shot!’

Numsy dropped his shield and immediately began pumping the entire battlefield with a blanket of scarlet flames centered around Swellow’s current position. The flying type Pokémon, disregarding our attack, covered himself in an orange aura flying straight into the sea of flames intending to do as much damage as possible.

“Ruuupt!”

“Loooow!”

Somehow Swellow managed to get past the first wave of scarlet flames slamming beak first into Numsy. The power of that blow was enough to leave my buddy staggering despite the size difference. That didn’t mean he got past the second or third wave though. The bird Pokémon didn’t seem to care much about its own well-being, a common psychological effect from having its guts ability activated. This effect on the mind could be mitigated with lots of training but it seemed like WInona hadn’t gotten to that part of Swellow’s training yet. Consequently, a distinct smell wafted through the battle facility in the aftermath of our Pokémons’ clash, one that most closely resembled the fried farfetch’d my grandpa had one time brought home for dinner.

Numsy had only taken just one blow from Winona’s Pokémon but at a single glance I could already tell he wouldn’t hold on against another move of similar power. Luckily, I was fairly sure Swellow was too fatigued to carry on. The bird Pokémon was back in the air struggling to keep his distance. The expression the Pokémon was making was full of fighting spirit, but his body was simply too ravaged for any responsible trainer to let him continue.

“That’s enough! You’ve done your fair share.”

“Sweeelloow!”

“Return!”

Swellow didn’t seem to agree with his trainer but despite his wishes Winona activated her poké ball’s return mechanism anyway. The flying type disappearing in a red beam of light but instead of calling out her last Pokémon she started addressing the elephant in the room.

“Sorry that you had to see that. When a battle gets really intense like this tailow and their evolved form have a worrying habit to fight till the bitter end. Especially when they are looking to prove themselves.”

“You don’t think that my comments earlier…?”

“Yeah… he might not admit it, but he is serious about Tranquill.”

‘Now I feel bad… it is not like it's any of my business as her sort of former trainer who Tranquill elects to spend her time with.’

“Swellow wants to be acknowledged by us. The best way to cheer him up is to praise his strength while Tranquill is watching.”

‘Fine, since we’ll obviously be sticking around for a bit longer, I guess we could do that.’

While Victini and I were having a mental conversation Winona saw fit to release her final Pokémon.

“Go Tranquill!”

Our old-time friend reappeared a few feathers out of place but looking energetic enough to give it her best. Numsy gave her a cheery hello despite being worse for wear.

“Came!”

“Quill!”

After the quick exchange of courtesies both Winona and I wasted no time to issue our next instructions.

“Rock Slide!”

“Detect!”

Numsy created multiple white orbs of energy around himself. The orbs of energy then turned into large gray rocks which chucked into Tranquill’s direction. Winona on the other hand was prepared, deploying the typical evasion tactics typical for flying type specialists. Detect was a special fighting type move that gave the user a brief glimpse of foresight allowing a Pokémon to perfectly evade an attack with no wasted movements. Which is exactly what happened when Tranquill expertly dodged the barrage of rocks flying her way. However, I knew that Tranquill wouldn’t be able to keep this up for long, so our opponent tried switching tactics.

“Dual Wingbeat!”

“Cover yourself! Yawn!”

Tranquill flew closer in an attempt to give my Camerupt a decisive blow, but this is what we wanted. Numsy expelled a copious amount of gas from both his mouth and humps enveloping himself and in a cloud of gas. We long figured out that one’s own yawn was unable to put the user to sleep and with a Camerupt’s unique physiology Numsy was able to quickly cover the surrounding area with the sleep gas.

“Get away! Don’t breathe in the gas!”

Winona tried to warn Tranquill, but it was already too late. Her close proximity to my own Pokémon meant there was no way to avoid inhaling a lungful. Tranquill successfully managed to execrate herself out of the situation but the drowsy expression she made afterwards made it clear this battle was as good as over.

“Quill...”

“Numsy if she tries anything, use Protect.”

“Rupt!”

“Return!”

Winona wisely made the decision to call the match. Avoiding a situation where a sleeping defenseless Tranquill got blasted by Numsy.

“The gym leader’s Tranquill is unable to battle! So, the victory goes to Egon from Lavaridge town!”

“We did it! Great job Numsy! Take a good rest.”

“Rupt!”

‘That was a close one that Swellow gave us a heap of trouble.’

I returned my own Pokémon and got off the high rise overlooking the battlefield to receive my winnings. I wasn’t particularly impressive during the fight, winning with only one of my Pokémon left standing, so I wasn’t betting on Winona letting me have a gander at her gym’s stock of technical machines. We walked up to each other, and she gave me the standard handshake congratulating me for my victory followed by her giving me the Featherbadge. We then started talking about the minutia of the battle.

“That Houndour of yours really pulled the air out of our sails. Without her you might not have won the match.”

“Yes, she worked hard these last few weeks. I couldn't be prouder. Swellow as well, he almost swept my entire team.”

“Indeed, I usually reserve him for 6th and 7th level gym matches. At the end of this year’s season, he’ll get bumped up to eight level if his process holds true.”

“Wait... is that standard practice to use stronger than appropriate level Pokémon during gym battles?”

“Sometimes a gym leader will use stronger Pokémon to test trainers who they deem to be at a higher skill level. We also do so if a newbie comes in with a legacy Pokémon inherited from his family. Well... in this case I wanted you to meet Swellow so you could see that he’s a standup flying type. You’d still have gotten your badge in any case. That Counter stratagem firmly placed you as fifth badge level worthy in my mind.”

“Sorry, again... any way I could make it up to him?”

“I still have to take on challengers until late into the afternoon, but Swellow has the rest of the day off. After he’s done recovering at the Pokémon center you can come visit him in our gym’s aviary.”

With that she turned around and walked off probably to greet the next starry-eyed challenger looking to earn him or herself a badge.