CHAPTER 95

After our little celebration, Cece and I hurried back to the stands. Craig had sat back down and pulled up a laptop from a bag, but I knew better than to check. Maybe he was sending that message to Lauren after all.

“Ah, you guys finally made it,” Denzel said. “Congrats on your win, Cece. You were badass as hell.”

“Thank you. That second half was certainly exhilarating,” Cecilia answered.

“Candice still taking a break?” I asked.

“Yeah,” Denzel nodded. “The battle should be starting any minute now.”

“So Zweilous, huh?” I pondered. “Are you going to name the heads?”

Cece let out a pensive hum. “I suppose I’ll have to, but obviously, I haven’t come up with different names yet.”

“How about… baby and sweetie?” I asked.

Cece slowly turned her head toward me and stared like I was clinically insane, and Denzel laughed so hard he could barely breathe.

“What? It’s cute…” I muttered, blushing and embarrassed.

“Baby and sweetie?” My best friend laughed. “I mean, come on, have you seen the damage they can do? You’re completely off-theme here.”

“I’m sorry, Grace, but I don’t think those are a very good idea,” Cece said. “Thanks for the… suggestion?”

“You guys suck,” I groaned.

“For what it’s worth, I find this side of you absolutely charming,” she smiled.

I sighed and closed my eyes, retreating into my thoughts. Anything would be better than thinking about what had just happened. What had I learned from Cece’s battle? Well, from the first half, not much, but I had at least learned that Candice was rusty with using lower leveled Pokemon. Was that a weakness I could exploit, somehow? Maybe it’d be smart to implement a more aggressive style for my battle, but I couldn’t be sure until I gathered more information. From the second half, however, I learned a lot more and confirmed what I had seen in the gym leader’s past battles. Candice was a fast pace battler who liked to speak over her opponent’s orders, which could be an irritating tactic if you weren’t ready to face it.

Luckily, I was ready, and she hadn’t really taunted Cece during their fight at all. I knew that she could be a lot more annoying, so it looked like she was still pulling her punches a bit.

The last piece of information I managed to extract from the fight was that since Candice had just used an offensive team of the physical variation, she was unlikely to use the same tactic against me. Candice was an easily bored person, and she never used the same tactic in quick succession. That meant I could mentally scratch that scenario off in my head, making more space for my strategy against the rest of her teams.

I opened my eyes and sighed when I saw that Candice still wasn’t back. I didn’t dislike her, but her way of running her gym was somewhat sloppy. Breaks weren’t supposed to be this long.

“...until I get him back under control,” Cece finished her sentence.

“What are you guys talking about?” I asked.

“I was asking Cece why she hadn’t bought any TMs for her team yet,” Denzel explained. “Her Pokemon are definitely good enough now to easily learn the mid-leveled moves, and she’s got the cash for it.”

“And I said that I was definitely going to look into buying some for Zweilous, but I’d wait until they listened to me again. Zweilous opens up a lot of possibilities for moves that can blow the enemy apart, though,” she smiled. “Earth Power, Flamethrower, Dark Pulse, the elemental fang moves… and the two heads can use two attacks at once, oh how wonderful.”

“Yeah, we definitely have a devastating battler on our hands,” Denzel said. “Our fights in Hearthome will be interesting for sure— ah, finally.”

Candice and Chase finally walked up to their platforms, and the referee let out an exasperated sigh.

“Sorry about the wait, I was thinking really hard about what Pokemon to use. Last battle was kind of lame, but I’m not going to go easy on you, got it?!” Candice yelled. Then, she scratched the back of her head and amended her statement. “Uh, I still have to hold back, though, 'cause otherwise you’d never win.”

“Save your breath for when you have to congratulate me for my victory,” Chase said as he grabbed his Pokeball.

Even from up here, I thought I saw a glint in Candice’s eye. She enunciated the rules again, this time perfectly. Even though Chase had five Pokemon capable of battling, the battle would surprisingly be a four-on-four and again have one switch-in. Cece’s battle had only had one switch-in too. Once was a coincidence, twice was a pattern. Candice wasn’t going to let us swap out a lot of our Pokemon today, which meant I’d have to adjust my starting Pokemon. Frillish would be a good all-rounder to begin with. Mobile, good offense, and good survivability.

Chase unsurprisingly sent out his Houndoom. I knew that he liked to easily blow past his opponents with the type advantage, and today was no different. Candice sent out an Alolan Vulpix with a grin. Another regional form that must have cost a lot of money, especially considering how expensive Vulpix were in general. If my suspicions were correct, Candice was going to use another offensive team, this time angled toward special attacks. The referee slashed his arm across the air, and the battle began.

“Incine—”

“Shut up! Me first, Moonblast!” Candice interrupted with a shrill voice.

Vulpix let out a smooth cry, and a miniature shining moon appeared in front of her mouth and flew off toward Houndoom. The dark type stared at Chase, loyally waiting for his command. The split second of surprise ended, and Chase swore.

“Dodge it, then Incinerate!” He yelled. “Remember our drills—”

“Keep blasting it!” Candice laughed. “Again, again, again!”

“Will you shut the fuck up?! Houndoom!”

Houndoom answered with a fierce nod. The fire type waited until the last second and easily sidestepped the fairy type attack, but there were more coming. A lot more.

“Run up to it,” Chase said after clicking his tongue.

Houndoom gave another nod and sprinted toward the small Vulpix, getting grazed by multiple Moon Blasts on the way.

“Slow him down with Icy Wind!” Candice said.

Vulpix ran to the side, away from Houndoom, and started to inhale.

Chase smirked. “Incinerate.”

Houndoom let out an eerie howl and spat out a stream of flames—

“Sike! Moon Blast!” Candice giggled.

Another Moon Blast— albeit smaller and less powerful than the ones that had come before— pushed past the flames and hit Houndoom in the face. The dark type yelped, but he shook himself off and tried again, this time grazing Vulpix’s tail. I observed the developing situation with a frown. It wasn’t so much that Vulpix was unbeatable, it was that Candice was odd to fight. She broke all norms and etiquette of Pokemon battling, and Chase wasn’t used to that at all.

“Is that all you got?” Candice taunted, using the slight lull in the battle.

“Shut the hell up!” Chase raged. “Feint Attack!”

The fire type howled and began prowling around Vulpix, slowly fading into thin air. He reappeared seconds later, right behind the ice type, and hit it away with a strong swipe.

“Burn it!” Chase continued.

“Nuh-uh you don’t! Extrasensory!”

Houndoom used another Incinerate, but its path was altered by a strange, psychically charged patch of air. Sure, Houndoom was a dark type and immune to psychic attacks, but that didn’t mean the move was unusable.

“Screw it! Keep Feint Attacking, it can’t counter you!” Chase said.

Houndoom sunk into the shadows once more. Candice stayed silent, waiting for the attack to come, but Chase grinned.

“Incinerate!”

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Houndoom appeared to Vulpix’s right and already had the Incinerate out of his mouth before the ice type could even notice anything. The flames consumed Vulpix, who cried out in pain and writhed on the ground, causing me to wince. Luckily it looked like Houndoom had gotten his flames under control, so the pain from the burns wouldn’t last for months, only days. Once Vulpix got hit once, that was it. The Pokemon was too fragile to survive Houndoom’s onslaught and too weak to dodge or counter it, and another Incinerate did the trick.

“Vulpix is unable to battle. Leader Candice, send out your second Pokemon,” the referee said.

Candice immediately grabbed her next Pokeball, not giving her next choice any thought, and sent out a Castform. I raised an eyebrow. I knew that the Pokemon wasn’t often used in battle, instead being used in swarms to dissolve hurricanes in Hoenn before they could actually make it to shore.

“Hail!” Candice immediately said. Dark clouds began to form over the battlefield, inside of the building, and large chunks of hail started to fall, slowly weakening Houndoom. Castform started to change too. Its body turned purple and small clouds wrapped neatly around its body.

“What a useless gimmick,” Chase said. “Incinerate!”

“Hydro Pump.”

Chase’s eyes widened when Castform blew Houndoom’s attack apart with its own. The Hydro Pump turned the Incinerate into vapor and the force behind the move sent Houndoom flying. The fire type whined as it struggled to get back up, but it fell to the ground quickly afterward.

“Houndoom is unable to battle. Challenger, send out your second Pokemon.”

Well, that had been something. I knew that Candice said that she wouldn’t take it easy on us, but Hydro Pump? One of the most powerful water type moves? I grinned and shivered in anticipation.

Chase clicked his tongue as he recalled his Houndoom. He thought for a few seconds, his hands hovering over his Pokeballs before sending out his Charjabug. The bug type screeched and sent small sparks flying around him.

“Dig, anti-flier setup,” Chase spat.

Chase had spoken about his anti-flying Pokemon strategy a few times, and it was time to finally see it in action. Charjabug quickly dug into the snow, shielding himself from the hail, and Candice ordered Castform to float as high up as possible. For a few seconds, there was a deafening silence, but then—

Charjabug burst from the ground, jumping slightly into the air as strands of string shot out from his mouth and wrapped around Castform. The ice type just shrugged it off, and I knew why. Castform didn’t fly with wings. This amount of string wouldn’t pull it down. Still, when I looked into Chase’s eyes, I knew this was a part of his plan. I understood what he was doing when I noticed that the electric type wasn’t letting go. It was attached to the Castform by his thin layer of string.

“Burn it off! Ember!” Candice said.

“Thunderbolt,” Chase smiled.

Electricity traveled through Charjabug’s thread and directly hit the Castform, who was in too much pain to use Ember. The bug type kept the attack going, not stopping for one second, and the ice type crashed to the ground, but they were still linked by the String Shot. Charjabug was still attacking. Castform returned to its normal state, and the Hail slowly came to a halt.

“Castform is unable to battle! Leader Candice, send out your third Pokemon,” the referee said.

“Legendaries, that was unexpected,” Candice said. “You caught me off-guard, but it won’t happen again!” She yelled, sending out a Vanillish. The ice type was so cold that there was mist emanating from its body. “Ice Beam!”

“Dodge with Dig!” Chase yelled with a sweep of his arm.

Charjabug narrowly avoided the attack and burrowed underground. After around twenty seconds, he jumped out and String Shot Vanillish again. Its body was so cold that the string was frozen solid, but it would still be enough. A smug grin split Chase’s face as he ordered another Thunderbolt, but Candice laughed.

“Idiot! You fell right into my trap! Mirror Coat!”

Vanillish’s body became almost transparent, and the Thunderbolt bounced back down the string and completely fried Charjabug’s body. The bug type let go of the string and fell to the ground with a loud thud, kicking up snow. Mirror Coat bounced special attacks back toward the attacker, and the fact that Charjabug had gone down in one attack showed how strong he was. The bug type might not have looked like much, but it seriously couldn’t be underestimated.

“Charjabug is unable to battle,” The referee said. “Challenger, send out your third Pokemon.”

“Good job,” Chase said as he recalled his Pokemon. “But we need to work harder.”

“Oh, give your poor Charjabug a break,” Candice said. “Maybe you should have known that I wouldn’t let you use the same strategy twice, stupid!”

Chase clenched at his forehead and stared at the ceiling exasperatedly. “Shut. The. Fuck. Up!”

He sighed, readjusted his cap, and sent out his Riolu.

“Bone Rush,” He said. “Anti-flier setup.”

A bone grew out of Riolu’s hand, and he seized it tightly. He ran forward with Quick Attack, becoming a blur.

“Again?!” Candice laughed. “Come on, don’t just tell me your strategy—”

Riolu’s arm bulged, and he threw his bone at Vanillish with all of his strength. The ice type’s eyes widened, and so did Candice’s.

“Dodge!” She yelled.

Riolu was too strong, and Vanillish was too slow. The bone hit the ice type’s cone, cracking it, but Riolu kept going. He kept throwing bones at the ice type.

“Acid Armor, then Ice Beam!” Candice ordered.

Vanillish’s body sunk into itself, turned into a jelly-like liquid and bones just passed through it like it was a ghost. Such mastery of Acid Armor was impressive, especially when I compared Frillish’s own. The ice type then sent out an Ice Beam toward Riolu, but the fighting type wasn’t done.

“Vacuum Wave,” Chase quickly said.

Riolu inhaled and hurtled both of his palms forward in one brisk motion. The air in front of him compressed and turned into a vacuum. The Ice Beam simply dissipated, and so did Vanillish’s body. I let out a panicked gasp when its entire body just exploded all over the arena, but I sighed in relief when I saw that Candice wasn’t worried. The small pieces of Vanillish slowly slithered across the ground and become whole again, but Riolu just started beating the life out of it with another Bone Rush before it could get off the ground.

“Vanillish is unable to battle. Leader Candice, send out your last Pokemon.”

“Aw, shucks!” Candice sighed, placing a hand on her last Pokemon. “Well, go!”

A Glaceon appeared in a flash of red and gracefully stretched.

“Come on, it’s time to battle! It’s been so long, and you sleep all day, how can you even be tired?! Ice Beam!”

“Riolu, hit it with Force Palm!”

Riolu gave a quiet nod and zig-zagged with Quick Attack toward Glaceon, narrowly avoiding each Ice Beam. His palms began to glow with a pale blue.

“Slow him down! Icy Wind!”

The ice type switched tactics, sending a frosty, cold gust of wind toward Riolu. Unlike the narrow Ice Beam, Icy Wind was too wide to dodge, and Riolu slowed to a crawl, leaving Glaceon enough time to finally hit him in the chest and arm with an Ice Beam, freezing him partly.

“Vacuum Wave,” Chase quickly yelled. Riolu’s arm flexed, and the air was sucked out around it. The quick change in pressure destroyed the ice, unfreezing Riolu in the process, but he directed another wave toward Glaceon, who was helpless and could only take the attack. “Again.”

Chase had found a weakness in Glaceon’s fighting style. The ice type was completely incapable of countering Vacuum Wave, and the attack was too large for him to dodge. Any ranged attack it sent would be dispersed by Vacuum Wave, and Riolu would always win at close range. On Riolu’s fifth Vacuum Wave, Glaceon finally went down. Chase had won his gym battle.

“Congrats,” Candice said. “If only I wasn’t so rusty… ugh. Who knew fighting at such a low level could be this fun? Being aggressive didn’t work, so maybe I should try something else…”

We cheered and clapped for him, but he ignored us and simply walked toward Candice with his hands in his pockets. It seemed like the ‘low-level’ comment had gotten to him somewhat.

“What’d you think of this one?” I asked, turning to Craig.

The older trainer sighed. “Those anti-flying tactics were ingenious. It shows that he’s a good trainer that thinks outside of the box. Unfortunately, once he uses it once, it’s completely unusable for the rest of the battle since it’s too easy to counter. It also kind of feels like outside of that, he hits his head against the wall until something sticks. It works right now, but it won’t in the future. That’s all he’s getting from me.”

“Thanks,” I said.

More importantly, what had I learned from this battle? I asked myself. Well, from what Candice had said, she was probably going to use a more defensive team next time. That could mean either stall, or just bulky Pokemon in general. I had also learned that she could taunt you when she wanted to, like she had done at the start. At the beginning of our Journey, all of those months ago, that probably would have gotten to Chase, and he would have lost for sure. Hell, they almost did, but the gym leader stopped midway through the battle, probably because she knew the trash-talking would have made him lose too easily. Still… talking over your opponent sure was a scummy strategy, especially with how loud Candice’s voice was. It would be less effective on me, because I had taught my Pokemon to be more independent with their moves and what they did in battle, but Chase was a leader, and his Pokemon were like soldiers. He always told his team what to do unless the situation was dire and it was a life-or-death fight, which was why Candice’s strategy had worked so well at the start.

“Well, my turn next,” Denzel said with a nervous grin.

“Good luck. You’ve got this, we’re way better than we ought to be at the third badge,” I said, encouraging him.

“Give her hell,” Cece said. “I find her quite irritating.”

Denzel nodded and left.

“Come on,” I said. “She’s not that bad. She’s just having fun.”

“I don’t know, I find her happy-go-lucky behavior to be somewhat grating,” she shrugged.

“It’s true that I’d rather she be more serious but…” I trailed off with a sigh, thinking of Gardenia.

“We all have different ways to cope,” Craig spoke up with a grave tone. “She has a lot of stuff going on. Being a gym leader isn’t all sunshine and rainbows.”

We stared at each other for a few seconds and then offered him a silent nod. Chase came back up to the spectating area, and after congratulating him, I gave him Craig’s advice, which he shrugged off.

“Your loss, kid,” Craig told him.

After another break that had been way too long, Candice finally ran up to the arena, and so did Denzel. I’d need to observe and pay attention to this one too. Each battle offered a nugget of information that slowly revealed Candice’s style as a whole.

Only one more battle, and it would be my turn. I had to stop myself from smiling.