Beverly fidgeted with the strap of her swimsuit as she paced back and forth in the waiting room. While Nina, her detached junior, just sat to the side and watched on in amusement.

“Relax, Bev. Take a deep breath and settle down. You’re gonna wear out your new sandals at this rate,” said the younger girl.

Beverly glared at her. “How am I supposed to relax?!” She exclaimed. Beverly wanted nothing more than to bury herself in sand and hide away from the world. “This was a bad idea. I’m gonna get my ass kicked and everyone’s gonna point and laugh at me.”

As Beverly was immersed in her own self-loathing, her thoughts were interrupted by Nina who pulled her into a sudden hug. “Have some faith in yourself. If not, then believe in the me who believes in you.”

Beverly laughed at her friend's ridiculous saying. “Pfft. ‘Believe in the me who believes in you.’ Where in Arceus do you even get these weird sayings from?” During the entire time that they have known each other, Beverly had noticed Nina was full of these little gems. “She probably made them up herself, Nina was smart like that.”

Nina kneaded Beverly’s cheeks in the same way that the older girl was prone to doing. “I believe in you Bev, you’re going to do well out there. Remember, try to down at least 2-3 Pokemon. We’re not looking for a full sweep here, but try your best regardless. There’s no harm in doing more.”

Beverly gave a determined nod and took in a deep breath. “How do I look,” she asked. The girl had specifically gone and bought a new swimsuit just for today — a cute blue and white patterned two piece, and a pair of tall wedges that accentuated her butt.

For the life of her, Beverly couldn’t find any bikinis that would fit her and not make her look like a kid wearing her mom’s clothes. Which was fine, it wasn’t like she had a figure to show off anyway. Beverly was not upset at all. Nope. Nuh-uh.

Nina adjusted the straps of Beverly’s top and smoothed out her friend’s hair before making her do a quick spin to check. “Yeap, all good,” she said as she gave the older girl a light pat on the back. “Go out there and show us the fruits of your labor!” Cheered Nina.

The walk towards the main arena felt like an eternity to Beverly, her heart pounding so hard that she could hear it echoing in the cold, barren corridor. “Should’ve taken Nins up on her jacket,” she thought, rubbing her bare shoulders to stop the chill from creeping up on her.

She emerged under the glaring spotlight into the Gym’s main arena in which she was deeply intimate with, having spent a good chunk of her life here. The familiar sounding voice of their Gym’s emcee blared out from the speaker system, hyping up her entrance and introducing her to the few audience members who weren’t any of the Gym’s trainers or staff here to support her.

Beverly looked out at the audience seat and saw a sea of familiar faces; Nina and the twins, her senior Gym Trainers, the supporting staff, even Daisy, Lily and Violet had taken time off during this busy Crunchtober to watch the match. The sight of them was nerve racking and heartwarming at the same time.

Across from her was the familiar form of Misty who was fully in her uppity bitch Gym Leader mode as the woman stared indifferently at Beverly, like the girl wasn’t worth her time. It was all an act of course.

Beverly had once caught her mentor practicing poses and expressions in front of a mirror. But she got in trouble later on when she couldn’t hold back her laughter at the part where Misty began blurting out catchphrases like a dork.

The thought of that pleasant little memory was enough to snap her out of her anxiety and sharpen her focus towards the upcoming match. “Nins is right, I’m worrying too much. At the end of the day, it’s just Misty.”

The girl has witnessed the Gym Leader’s battles countless times, dating back to her early childhood. Beverly knew Misty’s Pokemon like her own and came in here with a solid plan to counter them, all that’s left was to do her best in executing them.

“Trainers, ready?”

“Ready!” Beverly’s hand hovered over her Pokeballs on her waist. It was courtesy for the Gym Leader to choose their Pokemon first, but as a Gym Apprentice, she shunned such a handicap. She wasn’t some fresh ten year old who needed coddling.

The moment that the ref called for the match to begin, Beverly threw out her Pokeball at the same time as Misty. The Gym Leader briefly flashed her an approving smirk. Flashes of light from two Pokeballs unveiled a Cloyster on Beverly’s side, and a Starmie on Misty’s.

Beverly frowned. Starmie was a gift from Misty’s mother and one of her oldest companions. It wasn’t the strongest Pokemon around, but it was fairly experienced. And for whatever reason, Misty never bothered to give it a nickname.

“You know what to do, Pearl!”

“Psybeam,” called a nonchalant Misty.

Beverly’s Cloyster had barely begun to snap her spiky shell together when a Light Screen focused Psybeam shot through the thin gap and struck at the Pokemon within.

Beverly could hear her Pokemon’s muffled cry of pain. But nevertheless, Pearl managed to shut her shell to prevent further damage to her innards. The Cloyster’s shell gleamed as a triple layer of Withdraw, Iron Defense and Endure was used in succession. Further dissipating the purple beam that was trying to drill into Pearl’s shell.

“Start setting the field!” Called Beverly, prompting a thin layer of Poison Type Energy to surround her Pokemon before shattering and spreading Toxic Spikes all over the field. It was unfortunate that Pearl wasn’t strong enough yet to cover the entire arena with a dense layer of poisonous spikes. Hence why Beverly had instructed her beforehand to focus on spreading them as much as she could to limit the battlefield and hamstring Misty.

Misty stood frowning on top of her platform. “You sure learned some nasty tricks huh?”

In truth, it was Nina who first told Beverly about stall tactics. The older apprentice had thought it was a ridiculous and cowardly notion, until she was forced to use it against Surge during her match with the Vermillion City Gym Leader.

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It also happened to be the best tactic to use against Misty’s team. Beverly knew for a fact that outside of Milotic and Slowking, Misty’s other Pokemon weren’t very good when it came to long drawn out matches. A weakness that isn’t readily apparent given how quickly the Gym leader ended her battles.

The stall tactic that Nina had once described to Beverly involved the constant switching of Pokemon from the opponent to slowly wear down their entire team. However, Misty was unlikely to use any of her swaps, even if she could, to maintain her pride as a Gym Leader.

“Pry it open, Starmie!” At its trainer’s urging, a Psychic aura began forming around Pearl’s purple shell as the Starmie attempted to force open a gap in the Cloyster’s defenses.

Pearl persisted by doubling down on her buffs, but was ultimately unable to resist the more senior Pokemon’s willpower.

Starmie began spinning rapidly while maintaining the Psychic grip, aiming its edge towards the Cloyster’s gap, before launching itself forwards like a shuriken and using its own body as a wedge to widen the gap.

“Pearl, freeze it!” Instead of letting go of the spinning buzzsaw-like Starmie, Pearl clamped down even harder to hold it in place and blast it at point blank range with an Ice Beam, slowing down the intensity of the spinning Pokemon.

Misty grinned. “Not bad, but not quite there yet. I think it’s time to ‘shock’ our opponent, don’t you think Starmie.”

A sparkle of electricity crackled from Starmie’s jewel at the delivery of its trainer's terrible pun. A spark which eventually turned into a charge, which then transitioned to an explosion of Electric Type Energy as the starfish Pokemon unleashed a Thunder in close proximity to Pearl.

“Get out of there, Pearl!” Yelled the frantic Beverly, but it was too late. After the flash of heat and plasma subsided, her Cloyster was burnt black and smoking. But Pearl did not let her opponent’s audacity go unpunished either, Starmie's gem was now blinking feebly from the purple Icicle Spear that had pierced into it at some point. The Cloyster had managed to sneak in a Poison Jab amidst the turmoil.

Beverly held back her tears and returned her Pokemon. She whispered a barely audible thank you and gave the Pokeball a kiss before stowing Pearl away. “Starmie’s weakened, but Misty won’t let herself swap. Which means she’ll try to play getaway next round.” With that in mind, the girl sent out her next Pokeball.

The moment that the new Pokemon revealed himself on the arena, Beverly could hear a squeal from the audience stand, eliciting a grin from her. “Yeap, this one’s for you Nins.” Beverly recalled how nuts her best friend was for Quagsires when the derpy looking blue blob stepped out of the light to tilt his head slightly and give a friendly wave to his opponent.

“Quag~” cried Sir Quagsalot, with his silly sounding, buccal tone of voice.

Beverly didn’t really get the appeal of the little dorks until she found a colony of Woopers in the Safari Zone. “I get it now, Nins. I really do,” she thought at the time.

In truth, she was at the Safari hoping to catch a Dratini like her friend. Nina had refused to tell her where she caught Tini because she was under an NDA or something. But she did know that her junior found the Dragon in water somewhere. She had foolishly thought it’d be easy, only to waste two weeks of her time on the wild Mew chase.

“Continue what Pearl started, Sir Quagsalot!” The Quagsire was much better at producing poison than his teammate as Poison Spikes began jutting out from the little purple patch on his back and shot out all around the arena.

Starmie was not idle though, as Misty commanded her Pokemon to get into the water, regardless of the poisonous hazards that now floated on its surface. “I get it, no point pussyfooting around the poison when your Pokemon is already poisoned.”

Beverly scoffed. “I ain’t some chump who would challenge a Water Gym with Water Pokemon that can’t swim, Misty! Sir Quagsalot, get in there and chase after Starmie, use Muddy Water!”

Misty laughed out in amusement at her apprentice’s comments. “That’s right, our Gym doesn’t produce chumps. Show me what you got, Bev!”

The Quagsire dove into the water and immediately started spewing brown muddied water from his mouth, only for the Starmie to deftly dodge to the side. But the effect was apparent, as the previously clear pool water was now turned an opaque beige.

“Keep going Sir Quagsalot!” The Pokemon obliged, spewing Muddy Water until his figure was obscured even from the underwater cameras, leaving only the faintly blinking light of the Starmie in the polluted waters.

Misty’s Starmie hovered in place, unsure of where to go after losing sight of its opponents. That was until Misty reminded it to use its Psychic abilities to sense Quagsire. But that slight moment of hesitation was enough for Sir Quagsalot to Bulldoze into the starfish Pokemon and slam it against the pool wall.

“Take it out, Sir Quagsalot. Don’t let up!”

The blue blob thoroughly laid into his opponent, starting with a Body Slam as they both impacted against the hard walls, followed by Brick Break, Ice Punch, Drain Punch. The greatest strength of a Quagsire lay in their sheer robustness and versatile arsenal of moves.

Starmie tried to retaliate by using Psychic to hold back its opponent before trying to get away with a super concentrated Hydro Pump to propel itself. But Sir Quagsalot was having none of it as it used Mud Shot and Sludge Bomb to disrupt his opponent, weakening its Psychic grasp for just long enough for him to break free and crash into the starfish Pokemon again with a Take Down.

In the end, Starmie’s light went out and the Water Pokemon floated feebly onto the surface where Misty returned it with a proud grin. And without delay, she immediately sent out her next Pokemon — a Tentacruel with a vicious and sharp gaze. “You want to play with poison?” Said the Gym Leader. “I’ll show you what a real toxic field is like.”

And right on cue, the Tentacruel spewed poisonous liquid into the air, which solidified and rained down on the entire arena to cover the place in Toxic Spikes. Even the central platform which Beverly had been avoiding with her own Toxic Spikes got covered.

Misty’s Tentacruel was not spared of course. Since the woman released her Pokemon in the water, the jellyfish Pokemon was poisoned by Beverly’s Spikes as well. The problem was that Tentacruel was notorious for being extremely poisonous itself. And its partial Poison Typing made it resistant to the toxic environment. In fact, the Tentacruel relished in the abundance of Poison Type Energy and commandeered some of it to form a layer of Acid Armour.

Beverly frowned. Outside of a few mainstays in Misty’s team, there was always going to be a random element on who the Gym Leader was going to pick to fill in the remaining slots. “Just my fucking luck that she went with Tentacruel.”

The Gym Apprentice resigned herself to the fact that she was going to need at least two Pokemon to take down this fiend. “Deep breaths, Bev. Just 2-3 Pokemon… Just 2-3…” Beverly calmed her mind, taking solace in the fact that she still had two of her aces in reserve.

“Get in close, Sir Quagsalot!” The Quagsire zoomed towards his opponent with uncanny speed. And since Tentacruels weren’t very fast, Misty told her Cruella to attack the Quagsire instead, which the Pokemon obliged by shooting out a few quick Venoshocks in succession.

“Push through! Don’t let up!” Sir Quagsalot kept swimming, allowing the corrosive projectile to strike him and persevering through the burning pain that seeped into his skin, before finally crashing into the Tentacruel with a Take Down and getting all tangled up in Cruella’s tentacles.

Cruella Wrapped her tentacles around Sir Quagsalot to keep him in place, the microscopic needles in the appendage forcing the Quagsire to endure a constant agony of Poison Sting.

At this point, most trainers would panic and order their Pokemon to break free. But getting into close proximity like this had always been Beverly’s goal. And Luckily, one of her Quagsire’s arms was free from entanglement.

“Time to shake up this bitch’s world!” Beverly yelled, with a savage grin on her face.

Sensing that something was wrong, Misty called for Cruella to disengage. But it was too late. Sir Quagsalot threw out a punch after going through a ridiculously dorky winding motion, and slammed a full on Earthquake right into his opponent’s head.

Bubbles spewed from Tentacruel’s mouth as she cried out in pain from the quaking that was rattling her brain. “Get out of there!” Yelled a panicked looking Misty, worried that Beverly’s Quagsire would follow up with another Earthquake. But Cruella was still reeling from the ongoing impact and couldn’t hear her.

The Gym Leader didn’t even know that you could use Earthquake as a direct attack like that. But with the way that Beverly had set up the field with Quagsire’s Muddy Water ensured that such a ridiculous stunt was perfectly possible with the abundance of Ground Type Energy in play. Though she was still trying to figure out a way to use it without going through such an involved set up process.

Beverly also wasn’t ashamed to admit that she got the idea from one of Nina’s stupid questions. “If Pokemon are strong enough to cause an Earthquake by just striking the ground. Why not focus the strike directly onto a Pokemon’s head and cause a concussion instead?” They ended up getting into a childish argument about how a Pokemon’s head isn’t ground and that you need Ground type Energy to trigger an Earthquake, only for the younger apprentice to rebuke her with a thousand whys and logical loopholes.

However, unfortunately for Beverly. Sir Quagaslot was pretty worn down and wasn’t in the state to follow up with another Earthquake, so she simply commanded him to lay into Cruella in whatever way he could before he succumbed to his many wounds and poison.

In the end, no doubt thanks to the continuous application of Acid Armor, Cruella managed to outlast Sir Quagsalot as Beverly recalled her fainted Pokemon. Surprisingly, Misty also withdrew her Tentacruel from the match, citing a fear for her Pokemon’s wellbeing after such a devastating Earthquake. Beverly could even see her handing her Pokeball off to an assistant to be checked out.

Beverly grinned. “Sir Quagsalot managed to take down one of Misty’s Star Pokemon all by himself! Nins was right about Quagsires being cute and ‘overpowered’, whatever that means.”

The audience cheered for the challenger’s underdog victory.