Today is Sunday, four days have passed since I took part in that competition.

Today is also when I scheduled my gym battle.

I really have to thank Elian, Oddish, and Leaf for the way they helped me train my three for today, otherwise I wouldn't have a couple ideas for todays battle, alongside some new moves.

I also have to thank Ralts for forcing me to check the league website for Celadon to realize that the gym only does a three v three against trainers who have one badge, it was kind of embarrassing how I hyped her up only to force her on the sidelines.

Heading to the large three story building that houses the grass type gym I notice that this gym is exclusively run by women. Its also one of the harder gyms to win against so obviously that must mean something.

Inside has a big contrast when compared to the Pewter gym as within this one there's plants and other fauna as far as the eye can see.

Thankfully there's a straight path that trainers can take to talk to the receptionist lady. Manning, or is it in this case womanning, the desk is a different kimono wearing lady than the one from last time. She notices me arriving on time for the gym battle and begins taking me to a different section of the building.

She begins with. "As you know every gym has their own trial a trainer can do to be allowed access to battle a gym leader," I did not know that, makes sense though "and the Celadon gym has a test of cunning and identification."

We stop almost 50 meters away from a wall. "The trial is simple, find four items that may help trainers in and outside of battle. Failure to do so will either mean you are forced to repeat on another day or you will be challenged at a higher badge level than you currently possess."

She hands me a pamphlet with six different items listed. They're all probably easy to find and even now some are sticking out in the plants and trees like a sore thumb... but didn't she say the trial is about creativity or something. That probably means the easy stuff is off the limits and the hard to find stuff is what I'm really supposed to find.

Hmm, the items in the pamphlet seem to be showing Pecha, Oran, Razz, Wiki, and something called a Kebia berry while also showing how to find a Big Root which is something that helps with life-draining moves like Absorb.

Actually, there seems to be a few berries and mushrooms near here which aren't listed in the pamphlet.

A few meters to my right underneath a tree root is a blue strawberry like fruit that's the color blue, from the identification book professor Oak gave its pretty obvious that this is a Rawst Berry and next to it is a pear shaped berry in the color yellow with brown polkadots. This one is an Sitrus berry commonly known as the better Oran Berry due to having better healing properties and not having a bitter taste, which many Pokemon enjoy when trainers switch healing berries.

I've already found half my required amount, all I need now is one more berry and a natural item or something.

About ten meters to the left of where I found the berries is another item, but it turns out to be an Oran berry. Ten minutes pass and I only just barely managed to find a yellow berry with blue half-filled circles serving as polkadots. I don't remember what it does but I know it's a berry due to its weird shape, you wouldn't look at something like this and think 'yup, this is totally a normal fruit and definitely not a berry that'll help a Pokemon in battle'.

After that is some more fruitless searching for another twenty minutes, seriously there's so many Pecha and Razz berries over here. Soon afterwards I realize that the receptionist lady is coming here, quick gotta find something.

I start leafing through the foliage with renewed fervor, discarding Wiki and Oran berries as I go, until eventually I find this strange berry which looks like a black seed with a white question mark on it. I also found this little springy mushroom that I thought was neat, you know, incase one of the berries isn't an actual berry and cuz it looked so cute.

Soon though her Breloom manages to bring her near enough to me so that she could use a megaphone.

"Trainer please head into this direction as your time is up."

In a smooth motion I begin walking towards her. Soon enough I'm right in front of miss receptionist... right I forgot to ask her name.

"Um miss, what's your name? I feel like it'd be kinda rude to call you miss receptionist lady."

She looked at me a little curiously before coming to some conclusion and giving a harumph. "Trying to buy time for your Pokemon isn't a nice thing to do you know."

Oh, she must think I was trying to cheat. "No no, not at all. My Pokemon are in their balls and I only did the test by myself. Here check it out."

I got the different berries and showed them to her, only to be stopped by Breloom who sniffed the berries before reluctantly nodding its little mushroom cap head. That's odd.

"Um, why is your Breloom looking like I'm forcing it to eat its medicine?"

She just looks uncomprehendingly to the berries... Shoot, I was meant to find an item.

A little worried about passing I take the little cutie pie mushroom "I-i also got this if this counts as an item." Please let this be enough.

Breloom took a sniff of the mushroom and nodded again, grimacing even more at that.

She then frowns for a few seconds before asking Breloom to sniff again, sending out a Slurpuff who also sniffed. Both nodded their heads, one happy and the other perturbed.

She then morphs her face into a smile replying "Please excuse me for one second." before hurriedly walking away deeper into the forest in the building.

...This is it. I failed. The forums were talking about how it was so hard to find the right berries and now because I didn't do enough I'm gonna have to retry or leave in shame. I'm sorry for being a failure mom.

What will I do now? Obviously challenge again, but what's the right answer? Was it a combination? Did I need another item? Was I supposed to get multiple of each berry?

Stupid Stupid STUPID

Halfway through my self-berating of my terrible choices I must've made, another lady wearing a yellow kimono with red and black outlines came with miss receptionist. They both take a second to look at me.

The lady in the yellow kimono asks "... a-are you crying?"

"M-maybe." OH GREAT JOB ME, now they're gonna ban me and take away my trainers license for being rude.

"Um, I implore you to please stop. Fortunately, you have passed." Wait What?

"Wait What?" I look up and wipe my eyes before widening them in realization. I was just crying in front of Erika, please someone just kill me already.

She looked at miss receptionist lady before coming to a realization. "Ah, you must have been thinking that due to Lindy leaving in such urgency that you failed correct?"

I nod and sniffle a little, gosh why won't I stop crying already.

"Well she just came to me to ask the precedent on the matter, I'm afraid you just might be the only trainer who got all four items that were not listed in the brochure, not only that but you found a springy mushroom which dragon type trainers would pay top dollar for." Gosh she has such a soothing voice. Wait.

"B-but I thought t-this was about creativity and identification." Please stop being so teary-eyed me.

"This was about cunning and identification. Though originally the challenge was meant to be about finding items without a list it caused too many trainers to lose to the point that there became a backlog of trainers held here in Celadon. We then had to modify the challenge for three badges and below, though it remained the same for four star and above as you really must know this essential information from memory." She replied before sending out a Vileplume, then everything got a little less blurry and I wasn't as distressed from almost losing.

Erika then took out a handkerchief from her sleeve and attempted to hand it to me, only to be rebuffed as I had my own.

After a few seconds she began explaining. "Due to the fact you obtained five items that were not listed in the booklet you are permitted to battle me in a gym battle, though I recommend you take a few minutes to prep yourself up before challenging me since the match will be recorded."

"Okay." After slapping my cheeks to snap myself out of it. "I'll have the battle now if you'll let me, after I wash my face." Oh wait "Um, could I keep the cute mushroom?" Please don't cancel our battle, please don't cancel our battle, please don't cancel our battle.

After looking to be in the act of thinking, miss Erika then nodded her head in agreement and motioned for us to continue walking.

We went back to the pathway in the buildings forest, only this time going behind the receptionist desk which I initially registered from. We did take a short break for me to wash my dirty hands and face and that really nice of miss Erika.

Heading through a pair of doors I immediately noticed that although there were cameras located throughout the room there wasn't any stands or any proper place to sit.

Miss Erika must've noticed because she then explained "Our gym is more likely to use spore attacks during each battle then not, so after one too many poorly managed barriers that didn't protect the people and challenger it was decided to be safer to simply record the challenge and put it on a dedicated channel," She then looked at me before continuing. "and do not worry about any status move affecting you, we have always kept an antidote spray near the challenger to use on them lest they get afflicted with any condition in such scenarios."

The field that would be used was grassy, flat, and filled with a few trees on the side furthest from the referee's high chair. The referee for today is another lady who seems to keep with the kimono style but with a sharper black and grey color, probably to show that she's the referee.

Erika then began moving to one side of the field so I mirrored her and headed for the other side.

Once we were both onto a small square on both our sides, that was our dedicated trainer zone, the referee lady began explaining the rules.

"Today's match between Erika-sama and trainer Evandros will be a three-vs-three with both trainers being allowed two switch-ins. Both trainers are only allowed to use one revive and potion. Standard league rules. Held items are allowed. Do both trainers comply?"

"Yes/Yeah"

"Then both trainers ready your first pick."

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Wordlessly both of us reached into our pockets to retrieve our starting poke ball.

"Trainers. Ready in 3,

2,

1.

Start."

Two orbs with a red and white color scheme were tossed into the sky. Both opened at the same time and the contents within spilled to the floor in a flash of bright white light. As fast as it came, the bright lights receded to show two forms.

On Erika's side is a little mess of vines, its green mass hiding the little body inside.

Just a little in front of me is a small, lupine, and quadrupedal creature eagerly shifting from side to side with an excited snarl escaping his mouth.

"Tangela, Vine Whip, probing strikes." "Lupa use Trailblaze to dodge and get close."

Both Pokemon started moving before our orders had even finished. Tangela began the offensive by sending out three of the outermost vines on its body towards Lupa who began sidestepping the attacks in favor of getting close.

He didn't.

He managed to dodge two of the vines before being forced to contest the third one and then stopping to duck the fourth.

"Keep running forward. Rocky Guard." "Return the vines and use Razor Leaf" Only after her order did miss Erika look at me with a questioning gaze, before focusing on Lupa.

Seems like Erika isn't planning on having the vines do a backstab, instead opting for a close range move that might do critical damage. Just as she hoped the energy for the grass type attack gained a sharper hue before zooming to the now dangerously close Lupa.

Though, my rock type wasn't idle. On his tail and forehead appeared two rocks stronger then the ones used in the Pewter Gym and against our newest buddies' Oddish. The rocks were positioned so that it they could easily be shifted to protect Rockruff and act as a non-damaging substitute that could be used as an attack.

When the leaves slammed into Lupa they were able to get through the first rock with only a third of the overall leaves, then when the second rock was shifted in front another third was used to pierce through. Though, by then Lupa got a clear gauge of the direction the attack was coming from and proceeded to sidestep the rest before running to be right in front of Erika's Pokemon.

"Now use Fire Fang." "Sleep Powder"

Tangela wasn't able to use its attack, its spores that were about to fly towards Lupa were burned away alongside the vines of the grass type.

"Vine Whip to push it away, then Poison Powder." "Sidestep with Trailblaze, then push back with Snarl."

Tangela scored a couple hits with its wriggling vines that act both as its body and weapon before Lupa dodged the rest, the poison mist being tossed in the entirety of the grass type's radius only to be blown back by weaponized sound alongside said grass type.

Tangela is now further from the trees where it would have an advantage as its vines could've been even more of a danger, I completely forgot about is looking up the abilities a Tangela may have so I don't know whether it has something like Overgrowth or Chlorophyll or maybe even Libro. What I do know is that Lupa is now double buffed in speed so he won't have trouble catching up to and beating the opposing Pokemon.

The main issue is that Lupa won't be able to strike Tangela without getting hit up close and from afar with Snarl is a bad idea as we opted to merely get him acquainted with as many moves as possible... so instead "Quick Attack, in and out."

"Vine Whip, wall and counter formation, dear."

Tangela began extending more and more vines from its body then the previous two times combined and started placing them in around itself. Too bad Lupa was too fast and hit Tangela at least three times in the time it took to protect itself, too slow to do anything but not unfocused.

"Get in the box and finish it off with Snarl" sound waves bounce around from walls or anything solid, so the Snarl should hit multiple times if Lupa aims it right.

Just as predicted the dark type energy bounced back after being fired at the Tangela, dealing damage equivalent of using the move twice despite the blue glow of a debuff appearing only once.

Tangela has fainted and Lupa is bouncing on the balls of his paws in wait.

Taking a moment to review the fight, all Erika did was nod her head in approval.

"Skiploom, onto the field."

"I'm keeping Lupa in" the multiple speed buffs will be more then enough to keep the fight going for a while.

On 1 both of us say our order to our pokemon.

"Fire off Rock Throw, then Trailblaze closer."

"Cotton Guard, move and then Bullet Seed dear."

The rocks on the Rockruff's tail materialized faster then its regular use and sailed at its opponent at an incredible speed only for it to miss as the Skiploom merely floated into the air and puffed up cotton around its body. Undeterred, Lupa began lunging towards his grass type opponent in an aura of green making him faster as he goes. The Skiploom tried to blast out pellets of seeds but it was too slow and the rock type knocked into it, latching on with its claws.

"Fire Fang now!"

"Poison Powder"

As the rock type ignited and bit into his opponent, Skiploom blasted out a ton of purplish powder which Lupa breathed in through his nose. Coughing, Lupa stopped latching onto the grass type and fell on the ground before himself back up.

"Taunt"

"Quickly Mega Drain"

Unfortunately for her, her pokemon was afflicted with dark type energy forcing it to use the same move instead of another one. This was useless as Lupa was already poisoned so the powder has no effect on him.

"Rock Throw while its under Taunt"

"I withdraw Skiploom"

"Lupa wait"

Listening to its trainer, the rock type didn't fire the rocks on its tail and simply kept them charging.

"Why are you withdrawing Skiploom?"

Erika only answered the question after she gave praise to her grass type.

"It is mainly due to the fact that that Rock Throw would have knocked out Skiploom and there would have been nothing she could do to stop it or even dodge, so it was an easy decision to take her out of the battle instead of letting her suffer a predestined fate."

That's an easy enough answer so I give a nod.

"Will you be continuing using your Rockruff?" Erika questioned

"Oh yeah, Lupa doesn't really like switching out so he wants to battle until the very end, even though he could have rested for a later match-up."

Accepting that answer Erika gathered a pokeball from her right hand instead of her left.

Tossing it onto the field, a Gloom appeared ready to strike. Just as the grass type came out, Lupa reflexively scrunched his nose in discontent but he still held on. Those training sessions against Oddish using a bad scent was really helpful in that regard.

"Sunny Day... then Sweet Scent"

"Fire it then use Rocky Guard, make sure to use Fire Fang if it gets close"

Lupa moved first, his boost in speed offsetting his exhaustion and the poison in him, firing his already created Rock Throw before making another one to be used into what our first maneuver together was before running right at Gloom. He sparked his teeth causing an eruption of flames in his mouth which was further boosted from the weather effect that Gloom pulled off.

The only problem was Sweet Scent.

The barrier in the field could do many things; it could block powder moves, regular moves, and to a lesser extent bulldoze and earthquake. What it can't do is block out smell.

When Sweet Scent hit it wasn't sweet at all. The move smelt like burnt trash added with Skuntank stink. It even made me, the kid who goes into garbage centers to feed the local poison types, curl my nose.

I had no doubt that it smelt even worse for Lupa and I was correct when even his battle lust wasn't enough to keep him from moving forward. He started running as far away from Gloom as possible trying his hardest not to breathe and scrunching up his nose.

"Mega Drain"

Faster than when she threw out Sunny Day, the grass type fired an orb of green light at Lupa that bypassed his rocks that covered and protected him before going back to our opponents grass type.

With that, my rock type fainted.

"Great job Lupa" I tell him after sending him back into his ball.

Putting his ball back into its magnetic lock, I pick another one to grab and toss into the field.

Onto the field appeared my second rock type.

"Gloom took down Lupa but he's the only one left, it's currently a two-to-one so its okay if we take our time okay." An order, not a suggestion.

"Bon" and with a nod from his head I can tell he's willing to listen.

"Gloom use Bullet Seed"

"Dodge then TL, then DC and Rollout"

Gloom fired out blasts of seeds aiming to strike Woody but my rock type simply moved faster by setting up Rock Polish while running, a neat trick I was trying to teach him, until the grass type had to take a breath to fire another salvo. Then, Woody used Tearful Look to lower the attack and special attack of Gloom.

Technically, only Lupa had a good move pool to use against most the pokemon that Erika has, and while Woody is as trained he isn't really as strong as my other rock type, so Woody and Pearl agreed to stalling our opponents out and staying on the defensive.

Which means we have to take as few hits as possible while making them as meaningless as possible.

A wail and some water flowing from my Bonslys' eyes cause a blue aura to momentarily surround the grass type opponent before he gets smacked by a seed, then another, and before a dozen more can hit Woody is moving again at a faster pace.

Once Gloom has to take a third breath does Woody actually begin an offensive strike.

He curls into a ball, white type energy moving in a circle using his body, causing an increase in his physical defense before rock type energy surrounds him. But there is a clear difference then regular.

The brown aura which barely covered Woody regularly is now bigger than a Miltank and rapidly approaching Gloom.

Gloom, meanwhile, wasn't doing nothing. Our opponent used some move which made it grow larger before Erika ordered it to use Acid Spray on the floor, probably to limit our battle space and made Gloom try to ready up another Bullet Seed.

"Jump up when needed Woody, not too high though otherwise you'll get hit."

"Fire in accordance to the plan"

It was a neat trick that we found with Defense Curl and Rollout being used synonymously would lead to the rock move becoming stronger, a niche we needed filled temporarily. It also meant that the added defense would allow Woody to shrug off a few seeds.

I was proven right when he jumped above a puddle of poison and rammed Gloom in the side. The grass type unable to follow as Sunny Day is starting to fade.

"Renew Sunny Day and set up Sleep Powder"

"Stop it with Hidden Power, then Rock Throw Gloom"

Two meters away, Woody stopped and fired an ice beam (not the move) to a fire ball about to enter the air snuffing it out.

"Dodge and Mega Drain"

Gloom moved fast enough to only get lightly scrapped by the hit before firing a green orb

"Spin backwards with Rollout, then Tearful Look"

Brown aura encapsulated Woody before he started moving out of range of the Mega Drain; then, after he was safe, moisture appeared from Woody's eyes forcing Gloom to become a little smaller.

"Bullet Seed"

"Move, then once you're safe use DC into Rollout again"

A repeat of last time occurred, with Gloom firing seed after seed in hopes of beating Woody. Then when it had to take a breath Woody began using Defense Curl before a light brown au-.

"Sunny Day now"

"Stop and Hidden Power it"

Another repeat with Woody barely able to stop using Rollout and instead using his ice type move at the orb of fire that nearly went into the air. Unlike the first moments of the battle Woody is now closer to Gloom then in the beginning, so if we don't try to keep sunlight out of this, the speed boosted Gloom would be able to dominate the rest of the match.

"Rock Throw, move when it attacks"

Too far away to get hit by powder moves, too close to dodge, and just the right space to hit with our own moves.

Erika said something about petals then pink leafs started whirling around Gloom. The rocks that were fired went in for a second and then sliced like butter in the next.

"Stay away, Defense Curl and Rock Polish only."

"Sunny Day now"

Woody could only buff himself up as we watched the petals move in the air swiftly, only to move faster as sunlight appeared once more.

The sun seemed to invigorate our opponent as the pink leafs began increasing taking nearly up the entire arena in hopes getting Woody.

"Rollout but stay in place, just keep spinning ok"

A nod, then Woody curled into a ball.

Spinning faster and faster while staying in one place, the dirt underneath him began to give way as he dug and dug into ground to dodge the petals.

Woody dodged it but just barely.

Only when the petals stop did I give my order.

"Come out now and use Rock Throw" but Woody didn't appear from the same hole.

He made another one. Right underneath Gloom.

Hitting it with a more earthy tone before firing off a Rock Throw, he hit the ground touching down on the pink petals which filled the field.

Before falling asleep.

Gloom looking a bit bashed up and tired took opportunity to fire a green ball looking more solid then Mega Drain at Woody, knocking him out while he was asleep, before trying to take a step and forward and face planting instead.

It was confused.

Not looking a gift Rapidash in the mouth I immediately recalled Woody and sent out Pearl.

"Rapid Spin into it and then use Clamp"

Erika seemed to go with a move that didn't require movement. "Sweet Scent"

Sweet Scent came out faster then Rapid Spin but Pearl closed her clamp so nothing could get in or out as she started moving, the petals blowing away in the wind followed Pearl's path, and hit the, currently, downwards facing opponent before opening her shell and closing it again; but this time with a body in her shell.

Clamperl is one of the few species that can't smell just like its evolution Gorebyss but Huntail can smell so her evolution could be either depending on her curiosity.

For now she has a battle to finish off.

"Now finish it off with Water Gun"

"..."

A blast of water and Gloom was pushed away rolling on the floor by the sheer force of the move. When it stopped rolling it was facing up and with a knocked out expression on its face.

"Erika-sama's have all been fainted or withdrawn, the winner is Evandros from Pallet Town."

"Yes, Yes, YES!" I cheered before heading into the field and giving a big hug to Pearl.

Erika came onto the field shortly after I did.

"Huh, it appears that the Sleep Powder is no longer active here." That caused a questioning gaze from Evandros. "The Petal Dance that Gloom used had Sleep Powder puffed into the leafs, that was why your 'Woody' had fallen asleep." Well that explains that.

I look down and notice that Pearl is actually asleep as well so it seems like the Pokemon was affected... maybe she used Sleep Talk for Water Gun and ended up spraying the Sleep Powder away.

"Moving onwards, Evandros, it is my pleasure to give you the rainbow badge. May your journey onwards lead you to excitement and powerful bonds of friendship. Moreover here is the TM for Grass Knot, may you use it wisely, and your winnings will shortly be transferred to your trainer account which is a thousand five hundred."

Taking the badge and TM before showing them to Pearl, who was on my head now, I thanked Erika and made my way out of the gym meeting up with Elian.

He looked super worried while he was outside the building and it only got worse when he spotted me coming out super stiff.

"Don't worry dude," I say after he glares at me because of the prank "you can do the exact same thing to me after you get your badge, though I probably would realize its a prank at this point."

And on that note, we headed into the pokemon center to get my team healed up and to celebrate my second badge.