Chapter Nineteen - Jazz Vs. Falkner Start!
Jazz had spent the time wisely. Or so she hoped. Six days of time to train meant three full days of all-day training, and then three days off for her team to relax.
She decided to be smart about it. Smarter than she'd ever been about Pokemon training. There was no coasting along here. She didn't have... she didn't have powerful pokemon with her to make the ride easy.
For Bellsprout, her training consisted of practising two moves. Vine Whip and Poison Powder.
The Poison Powder move was going to be a staple, she knew, so from the moment she met Bellsprout she'd been working to teach him that move and to improve it. For now, that meant spending morning spitting as many spores as far as he could with as much accuracy as he could manage. They'd gone out of the city to a windy hillside nearby to practice the move against the wind as well, for what it was worth.
Vine Whip had been easier to practice and use. Bellsprout was growing quicker with his vines and more accurate. He was hitting a little harder too.
She knew that Bellsprouts could use the Normal-type move Wrap as well, so they'd done a little bit of practice with that, but not very much. Sage was immune and she didn't imagine herself using it all that much.
It wouldn't be a solid part of her strategy.
Sage's practice was split two ways as well. First, he was immersed in Bellsprout's Poison Powder. That fulfilled two things, setting up a combo that she wanted to get down, and getting him used to Poison-type energy.
According to the forums and online Pokedex, gastly and his evolutions were definitely Poison-type, but she'd watched some videos and only rarely saw any use of Poison-type moves.
Most of the trainers who had a gastly, haunter, or the very rare gengar dismissed the Poison-typing. It was just one more immunity that the pokemon had.
She, of course, aimed to change that, so training with Poison Powder was her first step. Once Sage was used to poisons he might be able to replicate a few moves. Buying a TM was... way outside of her budget.
The other move they trained was Hypnosis. It was just a handy move to know, in and out of pokemon battles. Against wild pokemon, it was a way to subdue them without a fight and get away. And... and sometimes Jazz had a hard time sleeping.
The training had paid off, she found. Her team was stronger already, and she was a little closer to all of them. Bellsprout was his same old self, unbothered by most things, but now he'd gotten into the habit of wrapping his roots around her upper arm or leg and wiggling his flower head next to her.
Sage was a little slower to approach, but she discovered that he had a pretty deep love of history. She used her trainer ID to loan some books from the Violet City library, specifically the History of Types and Poisons, Ninjas, and the Unseen, which was a biography of Koga of Kanto, the Elite Four member that used Poison-types all the time.
It had been... nice. There was a constant undercurrent of tension, but it was still nice.
She'd spent evenings with Broccoli and Buneary, constantly asking Broccoli about her plans for the gym battle, but Broccoli seemed certain that everything would work out. They had a few quick spars, and it did seem as if Buneary was a little faster and stronger, so maybe she'd be okay?
The walk to the gym felt longer this time than the last. Maybe it was the knowledge that she'd be up against Falkner herself, but somehow crossing Violet City made her stomach churn and her heart beat like a drum in her ear.
"Oh, looks like it's busier today!" Broccoli said as she bounced next to Jazz.
Jazz glanced up. There were more people today. Not that many, still, but a few Falkner fans were waiting in a tidy line that slipped into the gym. The same line they'd used to watch Falkner's fight the other day.
Jazz licked her lips, finding them dry. "Okay... let's do this," she said.
This wasn't the first time she'd fought Falkner. If she won, it wouldn't be the first time either.
She hadn't told Broccoli yet, not because Broccoli didn't deserve to know, but because Jazz was a little ashamed still. She'd gone on her journey already, and had failed because of her own incompetence.
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This time it would be different, because it had to be.
They were greeted by Abe at the counter instead of Rod. He smiled, then led both of them to a waiting room where a third gym trainer she wasn't familiar with set her up with a microphone while giving her a waiver to sign.
She read through it, but it was standard stuff. A disclaimer, warnings, and an agreement that she read and understood the basic League rules that would govern this fight.
"Good luck out there," Abe said with a grin. "When the light there goes green, step through the door and onto the platform. Uh... are you scared of heights?"
"No," Jazz said.
"Cool!" Abe said with a thumbs-up. "There's barf bags in the cupboard over there if you need them, and water in the minifridge, though don't bring the bottle with you."
Jazz nodded. Then it was Broccoli's turn to wish her luck. That came in the form of a hug so tight that Jazz felt some of the air squeeze out of her lungs. Somehow, it didn't hurt. Broccoli squeezed her cheek against Jazz's. "Good luck!" Broccoli said. "Kick butt out there, okay? And remember, as long as you give it your all, that's all that matters!"
"R-right," Jazz agreed.
Broccoli's turn would be next, but the girl didn't seem to have a care in the world about it. Jazz was a little envious.
With Broccoli gone, it was just her in the room with her two pokeballs and a wall full of posters. A smiling Falkner with his thumb out and one eye closed in a wink wishing her good luck. A stern nurse Chansey poster was next to him, with the text 'Remember! Recalling your Pokemon Before Injury is Always the Right Move!' above it.
The light went green, and Jazz almost went to the cupboard for one of those bags. Then she closed her fists and refocused. A touch to the two balls at her hip recentred her.
She stepped through and onto a steel-grate platform in front of a crowd of... maybe three dozen? It was a lot smaller than she expected.
The gym was hanging in the air on a suspended platform, with a smaller, raised platform for her on one side, and another for Falkner on the other end. A slight wind slipped by, sending a shiver down her back. "Crap," she muttered, then winced as the microphone picked it up faintly.
There were some titters in the crowd.
The seats to the side could easily hold a few hundred people, but she was happy that they weren't as full. A few had some signs for Falkner, and it looked like there was a family of redheads there to cheer for someone else. One of the hopefuls coming after her and Broccoli?
"Ladies and gentleman!" Jazz glanced up. There was a referee in a cage built into the side of the arena. He had a Drowzee next to him, ready to throw up a barrier if a move went towards the crowd. "Prepare yourselves to see the true elegance of pokemon in flight!"
A few lights lit up, splashing the end of the arena where Falkner walked out in blues and whites. The gym leader's smile looked small from afar. He waved to the crowd, then focused on Jazz. "Are you ready, trainer? This will be a two-on-two battle with two switch-ins. The death of a pokemon will result in the immediate cessation of any fighting and a possible disqualification from the league."
Jazz licked her lips and glanced at her belt. "I'm ready," she said. Her pokeballs had little stickers on them. It wasn't very mature, but it helped her tell them apart. Bellsprout's had a small grass symbol in a ring of little poison-symbol stickers. She plucked his ball off her belt.
"Trainers, send out your first pokemon!" the referee shouted.
Jazz brought the ball close to her lips. "Give them a wiggle, Bellsprout," she whispered. She definitely didn't want the microphone picking that up.
She tossed the ball out. "Go Bellsprout!"
"Go, Pidgey!" Falkner cried.
Bellsprout appeared on the packed-dirt floor of the arena with a loud cry of his name and big old wiggle of his spindly body.
Across from him, a pidgey appeared from the red light of its pokeball. It cawed out its own name as it flew in a circle. It was, Jazz noted, larger than the pidgeys Abe had, with sharper eyes. It also looked to Falkner for instructions right away.
"Battle... begin!" the ref called.
***