A computer screen blinked on.
The user of said screen moved their cursor to join an annual meeting that occurred every month, due to the changing times and additions in members.
In the meeting five people were already present.
One of these individuals was a man with spiky brown hair and an expression on his face that some would assume that he was sleeping. He gave a greeting to his fellow member.
"Hey Erika, nice to see ya." Said the man lackadaisically.
Tittering at the nonchalant greeting at an otherwise serious call, Erika replied with "And a pleasure to see you as well Brock. Is anyone going to be delayed?"
Another man with blond hair in a buzzcut, who looked to big to be in the chair he was sitting, in replied "I heard Sabrina's got a movie she's making in Unova right now so she might be the only one held back a bit. Tardiness like that's gonna be unacceptable with the report we all got."
A teenager who looked like he might be turning into an adult soon gave the rebuttal "Surge, you gotta lay off her man. Just cuz she wants to pursue something other than battling or refining her psychic abilities doesn't mean she isn't interested in being a gym leader anymore. Plus her replacement's pretty good at his job, smart too unlike a military nut I know."
Before Surge could give a rebuttal, another two people joined the call. One was an old man wearing a lab coat who looked extremely exhausted while the other was a red headed woman wearing a jacket over her swimming suit.
"*CRASH* Sorry guys, I tried teaching my Psyduck how to use Metronome while it's asleep and now it just uses Hypnosis on itself twenty-four seven. Did I miss anything?" Replied the redhead
"No you did not Misty. And are you really fine to join these meetings Blaine, its no secret that your health has recently taken a turn for the worse." Softly spoke a woman in a black ninja costume with a red scarf around her neck.
"I'll live, I ain't gon' die till that bitch Agatha croaks." Despite the harsh words Blaine held a soft smile when thinking about one of his old rivals. "Till that day comes, I'll keep teaching young'uns how real battlin' can be. Young'uns like you Janine."
This caused Surge to scoff at the old fire type specialist's words. "Using just your' head ain't gonna solve everything old man, having power to back your words or just having the strength to make people fear ya is how battling should be done. It's why I was the third most feared in the war anyway."
Before this conversation could continue into unfruitful yelling on which side each gym leader believed in, 'an argument that never seemed to end' Erika thought, Lance appeared.
Taking a look at the list of who was in the video call, he took a sigh at the lack of appearance from the Saffron city gym leader.
"Sabrina's gonna be late huh." He stated more than asked. "Well, I have the other four gym leaders here so they will be listening in from my side of the call. The details of why they're here is classified as is natural."
Another screen appeared showing a man with his Mr. Mime cleaning the background, which happened to be a semi-busted battlefield inside a purple walled area. This was gym trainer Tyron who is known as the temporary Sabrina whenever she has to head for her movie shootings, it also helps that he's the second best human psychic in Kanto as he was the leagues greatest ACE psychic since before Sabrina learnt how to harness her powers from her father. After team rocket began displaying their strength and subsequent defeat he was ordered to run the gym alongside Sabrina to ensure she never joined forces with the team, a leash she accepted due to the orders of Giovanni.
"Sorry I'm late guy's I had to deal with finishing up with a seventh badge trainer. I'll send the report to Sabrina afterwards, she's busy." Tyron explained, using a backscratcher without holding it. A clear display of his psychic abilities, one which only Erika and Janine were interested in.
Once all twelve gym leaders had appeared on call; Lance began reading reports and discussing everything that might be important. This would range from some pokemon being hostile to certain cities that didn't have gyms to poachers in the silver range starting to show up. Most these issues would be dealt with by the rangers and wandering trainers however it is always important for a gym leader to leave their city of residence and show that they weren't stationary pillars that criminals could ignore.
Only when the meeting had drolled on long enough for every gym leader present to feel old and tired did Lance begin to talk about the crux of the regular meeting.
"-and now onto more disturbing news. *Sigh* Team Rocket attempted to attack Viridian City." Now all eight video calls had the gym leaders straightening up or tensing themselves "Has there been any attempts to contact you Surge?"
"Nope, there must be some rocket members on the higher up chain of command leading this resurgence cuz only Archer and a couple others actually knew about the bosses orders. So they're under competent rule and a strong trainer or trainers willing to do whatever they plan. I also have some sources sayin' that the masked marauder's around town alongside some of the other operatives on his level."
That information made some of the more emotional members grimace. The masked marauder was a dangerous man capable enough to handle a gym leader by himself, his Tyranitar was a known monster of destruction and the fact that he resurfaced means that Surge was right on assuming that someone competent, or rich, was leading the team. Nothing to be said about the potential danger if more skilled criminals like him are rejoining the organization.
"Well thankfully the files that weren't immediately deleted in their bases in Viridian Forest and Route 1 show that they plan to recombine the legendary birds once more, only this time their plan is to get not only Kantonian ones but also Galarian ones so the current champion is trying to talk to Champion Leon and President Rose. There's also a scarce mentioning on 'Project Placement', whatever that means, however there wasn't any actual information. Good work on spotting them and taking them down so efficiently Blue, Erika. With your fast response we're digging through files and projects that have been flying under the radar for too long." Lance spoke
The grass type specialist easily nodded to the praise and continued her act of silence, opting to review the files of projects that had been happening in her city; keywords “had been”.
Adopting a smug smirk of satisfaction for a second before wiping it away, Blue responded with "It was nothing. Honestly a hundred of those chumps couldn't give Ninetails and Machamp a good warm-up but they did have a couple Pokemon that were perfect for a hit and run. I gotta be honest, if I hadn't gotten that tip then I probably would've been stretched too thin to get 'em all plus the data we stole off 'em."
"Oh? And who might have given this tip?" Questioned Blaine.
"One of this years lab trainers, a kid named Evandros I checked on his account and he already had a team of four in Route 1 which includes his Ralts. The kid said he saw some poachers but it could've been his Ralts sensing 'em since Team Rocket had their base a kilometer or two off route. He also turned his Eevee into a Leafeon when the stragglers tried to steal Pokemon from the main Pokemon Center." When Blue explained the individuals in the call gave their own signs of respect, however minor it might have been, but the last sentence caused Surge and Blaine to grimace.
An action that Janine had noticed.
Voicing the question of why their body language shifted, Surge then decided to explain the shift in mood.
"Evolving pokemon earlier then they should naturally will lead to problems in their development in their later stages, especially pokemon with stone evolutions. A lotta trainers want to evolve pokemon like Sunkern or Poliwhirl as soon as they get them but they don't realize that they should have development before they decide to do such a thing. Its a mistake many people in the war, myself included, did to amp up the power of their Pokemon quickly which then lead to those Pokemon having a skill gap they couldn't cross even if they were meant to on regular circumstances." Blaine was nodding along to everything Surge had said even if it was, in his opinion, quite lacking.
Expressions of understanding adorned the type specialists within the call, understanding now why their predecessors had always informed them to only evolve Pokemon once they were trained to certain thresholds.
Noticing the somber mood, Misty decided to shift the topic into a lighter one.
"So how's everybody's gyms holding up?"
This lead to chuckles amongst the group, the only people that would be challenging this early were overconfident trainers who had a vendetta against the gym that stopped them in their run the year before or newbies challenging for their first badge. The first month had only just finished so now the real tactical trainers from last year would begin gathering their badges in the coming few months.
Tyron decided to speak up "As you can tell by the destroyed state of the arena behind me, I faced off against a pretty strong seventh badge trainer who ended up using an ingenious way to destroy my Trick Room with X-Scissors. I heard from him that he's gonna challenge Brock so watch out okay." Giving a nod over to the Pewter gym leader.
Others began regaling tales of their past month's battles against the rerunners who had new tricks or Pokemon up their sleeves. Only after Surge stopped guffawing at the audacity of one trainer who used an Explosion with their Electrode did the group begin talking about this batch of new trainers.
"-eah honestly, I liked that girls' battling style with the dancing and nonverbal queues but any tactical trainer or Pokemon like Metang or Alakazam would be able to tell what each move would signify at some point in her journey. The dancing Growlithe was pretty cute though." Misty ended, saying the only interesting battle she had against a new trainer.
"None from me unfortunately, only a stubborn brat who was willing to battle me every week until his Pokemon got strong enough to win. Points for determination though." Blaine replied.
The four with Lance gave similar remarks, their battles either bland or easy.
Brock had something to add about this years hot topics.
"As you all know I face off against the most people starting their journey and this year the lab trainers were no exception," Brock began "all of them had the beginnings of a style or the makes of one like how a kid named James was fine with baiting out moves and tricking me with his Zorua, or the girl Amy who went full offense and didn't leave my Pokemon a moment to breathe even if it would have been better for her to just not attack, and there was this other girl named Mirielle who relied on her Rookidee using Mean Look to lock my picks in before switching her Pokemon into something that handled them like her Eevee or her Pikachu both knowing Double Kick. She also was willing to send out a Scatterbug which ended up using copious amounts of String Shot and was a key contributor to my Onix losing. All solid strategies in my opinion and only time will tell if they develop into powerful trainers with those styles. They all had classic issues like stuttering and calling out a wrong move or two but that's something experience can fix.
I also fought against that girl Valencia, she didn't stutter like beginners would and her Pidgeotto knocked out most of my two star team with sneaky uses of switching and her Sewaddle evolving in the middle of her battle into a Swadloon. Didn't even need her dragon type for her second badge because her Sewaddle used Sticky Web early and her Fennekin dealt a majority of the damage to my four selected before I could knock it out."
"Guess Lance's protege can walk the walk. Now I won't feel so bad crushing her."
Lance merely grunted "She's not my protege. I just simply her some advice on how to handle any dragon types she catches and helped her calm down her Frigibax. I don't even know when the rumor started but it was probably the girls' family heads looking for extra publicity."
Blue noticed Brock hadn't spoken about Evandros and took the moment to ask about the last lab trainer.
"Oh, were there four ready Pokemon this year?" Misty asked
"Yup, Gramps ended up having four ready Pokemon for the Pallet trainers that passed this year and probably could'a gotten more from his cousin Samson if he really needed. Though, he ended up getting the Pichu from somewhere and wouldn't tell." Blue answered.
Brock took that moment to give his reply "Yes I can confirm I fought all four, it's just that the last one was a bit of an abnormality." This caused the people on the screens to adopt questioning gazes, all except for Erika.
"Well to start it off if you check his online license then you'll see he has a Leafeon, as confirmed by Blue, but he didn't use her in my gym at all; instead he opted to battle me personally in a four vs four with his Charmander, Pineco, Ralts, and Kakuna and before me he beat my brother Forrest using a Bonsly and Rockruff."
"Doesn't that just mean that you went harder on him, not only cause he picked Charmander, I mean even if he beat up team rocket to stop them from stealing balls from a center, if he forgot the type chart and opted to use his non-evolved pokemon against me then I probably would've beaten it into his head to use his stronger one's with some resistances no?"
"That's just the thing Surge; I did make the battle tougher for him not only because he challenged earlier than the rest but also because he didn't use his Leafeon, which was in the stands with someone I presume was his mother. He had a good head on his shoulders and set up Spikes early with his Pineco under a Sandstorm so I wasn't able to notice until it was too late to counter. The reason it's abnormal is because he still won even though I used a second badge Graveller."
This caused the group present to become more interested, after all even powerful trainers paid some heed to the type chart; it was why Red felt confident against Brock when he used his Poliwhirl, Bulbasaur, and Pikachu while Blue never sweated against Erika with his Ninetales, Pidgeotto and Charmeleon. Typings, no matter how much some people might detest it (Mainly Surge's hate towards ground types), is an integral part of battling that can never be forgotten.
"Well, if he challenges all of us with type disadvantage Pokemon then it would not only make him a powerful opponent in tournaments but it would also be a looming axe over others heads," Tyron thought out loud "his opponents will always be wondering if he'll suddenly use a Pokemon that's resistant to their Pokemon's attacks or is super effective or something, heck even I'd be scared if he caught a dark or ghost type."
"Hehe" Erika giggled. An action that everyone noticed.
"Oh? And why, pray tell, is Ms "Queen of the flowers" suddenly giggling without any of us?" Said Misty air quoting Erika's supposed title
"Well it must come as a shock then that he ended up challenging me two days back." Easily replied Erika
Brock, unable to resist his curiosity, asked "And what was your gym challenge like?"
"Honestly, surprising in good ways," noticing how she had everyone hook line and sinker Erika continued "firstly he had knowledge beforehand of multiple types of berries and some items found naturally if the small chat at the end I had with him was any indication. He ended up retrieving none of the berries listed in the brochure and even a springy mushroom he kept for himself.
Secondly when we battled in the standard three v three he ended up starting with his Rockruff which was more then strong enough to beat two of my three pokemon of the second badge level, so I used a three badge Gloom against him, more as a challenge as I would have given him a badge regardless of the outcome. The Rockruff was valiant but he is a dog variant so his sense of smell was far too sensitive to stick until the end.
His Bonsly was quite cute and he showed excellent prowess in switching strategies, where his Rockruff was always on the offensive this time Evandros took things on the defensive on the spot. Using debilitating moves to reduce Gloom's power and buffing himself to move faster than Gloom regularly would, he used Rollout as a dodging mechanism against Bullet Seed and waited out until Sunny Day fell before he started attacking. He was on the ball the entire time and would give orders to his Bonsly that I saw no fault in and by the time I managed to knock his second Pokemon out my own one was confused, heavily damaged, tired and had less power in her attacks.
His final pokemon was a Clamperl which was fresh and quickly finished off Gloom before she could recover. All in all he ended up battling me with multiple type disadvantages and still won handily. If I had resorted to using a weaker Pokemon then that Gloom then his Rockruff or Bonsly probably would have knocked most my other choices out."
Now the gym leaders were excited, not for a tough fight but for a rule breaking battle, all except Surge.
"Someone here's gonna have to tell him about his Leafeon though."
Blaine then answered "Then whomever he challenges next will have to inform him. Hopefully with his Leafeon present. Going by his logic that might be Janine, Tyron, or Surge and maybe Misty but whomever he challenges for his third badge must tell him."
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
And with that the gym leaders moved on and began planning for a private meeting face-to-face to further discuss any plans of action against Team Rocket, alongside further surveillance near the legendary birds before signing off.
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Elian was feeling nervous.
It wasn't because of his gym battle today, though that challenge was ankle biter itself, no. It was because win or lose, he would be leaving town with only one Pokemon.
It also didn't help that his new friend was new a star prodigy in battling, if he knew that he was meeting Evandros then he wouldn't have given cash for trainer tips from that crackpot a few weeks back, so he knew that win or lose there might be rumors of him by next week when they travel together.
Heading down with Dill, Elian had a light breakfast as his stomach was too queasy for anything heavy. He knew in his brain that he had a solid chance at winning, heck he even managed to get Krabby and Dill a few hits on Leaf and both could take a couple attacks that they were super weak to from battling his other friends before he met Evandros, but his brain also thought that there wasn't a level difference between a no badge trainer and a one badge trainer other then validation so what does it really know.
Noticing the turmoil in his son. A sun tanned man with golden hair shoved a white piece of enclosed paper under his boy's nose.
Elian barely noticed his father placing something under his nos-
"UGHAAN" The boy yelled, reeling from an ugly smell that even his starter Oddish shirked away from.
"WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT FOR!!" he shouted, Dill giving similar remarks in Pokespeech.
His father merely chuckled at his son's antics before moving a box to him.
The box had more of the little paper pieces inside with the name 'Skuntank Smelling Salts, Salvation indeed' with the picture of a Skuntank giving a thumbs up and smily face.
As he was reading it he realized that the smelling salts got him out of his funk, but he was still miffed at the betrayal to his nostrils so he stuck out his tongue at his dad.
Now with a clear mind he looked back at what he researched about Erika and the Pokemon she used for her first badge.
Either Oddish or Weepinbell were always used for the first badge; the second Pokemon after her first would typically differentiate between Hoppip, a Snivy, and a Bulbasaur. She had others, but they were so rarely used that it was hard to find videos of them being used.
Elian knew that the best bet was to breeze through the battle using Ice Beam with Krabby but he also knew that this would be the first and hopefully last time he would battle Erika so he wanted it to be memorable enough for a TM and some advice for his future catches near Fuchsia and Celadon. Plus, Erika is a gym leader, there's no way the grass type gym leader wouldn't have some type of counter to Ice and Fire types.
Elian entered soon finished his meal and gave a hug to his father before taking both of their Pokemon to the gym.
Drilling himself on what berries could look like and what was just a fake berry he didn't notice a couple of his friends walking ahead of him. He finally did when he bumped into them when they stopped at a red light on a sidewalk.
"Elian/Lee-Lee?"
"Kit, Pan?"
The boy gave a hug to his two best friends in the whole wide world before explaining to them that he was just getting final prep for his gym battle.
"Wait, I thought your dad's Krabby was for his disability? Are you sure he can stand not having it?" Kit asked.
Elian gave a groan in annoyance "For the last time dude, my dad is nonverbal not an amputee or something. He just doesn't talk so he has a Chatot that talks for him. Krabby's a catch from dads' hobby that liked him enough to stay. Plus dad knows sign so he could talk with his hands instead."
The affectionately dubbed 'Boy Blunder', for the fact that Kit could really put his foot in his mouth whenever he wanted, nodded along and easily switched the topic to how Krabby and Dill might do.
Pan seemed to think that the battle would be hard for him since Krabby is a water type, if she knew Elians' new friend then she'd have a heart attack at age 9, while Kit seemed to think otherwise since he knew his pal had taught the crab an ice move. Discussion on Dill was more mixed because she was a poison type and a grass type so the odds were in her favor until Pan brought up that Hoppip and a couple other of Erika's Pokemon might already know psychic, flying, or fire type moves to lower their weaknesses against bug and poison types.
The discussion continued so long that by the time the boy had reached his destination they were still talking about how useful the spore moves Oddish had would really be.
Waving good bye to their best friend the two others continued on to do their scout duties, mainly cuz they were part of the scout club called the Tediursa cubs.
They said they'd wait outside once they were finished though.
Steeling his nerves once more he sent a message to his friend Evandros and a couple others then proceeded to head into the building where all his training will be put to the test.
Gods even entering was terrifying for him, not in the 'I'm gonna die' sense but in the 'I got a bad report card and mom wants to know' kind of sense, like something really bad or humilliating is gonna happen if he passes through.
Repeatedly breathing in and out in a calming method, Elian finally managed to get through the door after a few minutes of loitering outside.
And inside was beautiful.
He had seen the gym's interior in a video once of the different plants grown throughout the building but being here face to face, with all the species of flowers both rare and common with plaques of their scientific and common names, brought a whole new sense of wonder.
He so wanted to stand next to the plants, read their history and observe their beauty but he had a challenge he got around to booking and he wasn't gonna miss it.
Following the clear-cut path to the receptionist, a lady wearing a red and pink kimono currently sitting down behind a desk lodged into a part of the wall, Elian felt his hands getting clammy and sweat glistening off his forehead due to the intense anticipation of his challenge.
He was only barely paying attention to the lady in the kimono, as he was playing out the strengths and weaknesses of his Pokemon, and followed her into a different part of the gym where the flora was more overgrown and the trees here were thicker then any in the park near his house..
Only after snapping her fingers at his face did he stop disassociating and thinking up half-cooked plans.
The lady then explained about the rules and how he needed to find three different berries before handing a brochure to him. The brochure held pictures of berries and some natural items but Elian didn't really need it, he usually went berry picking with his dad and knew how to find blackberries and berries from the bushes and trees near the farm they would visit.
The test only lasted five minutes which mainly consisted of climbing trees and walking around. When he got three berries listed in the brochure, which were all Oran Berries, Elian headed over to the lady to give them.
The lady in the kimono sent out a small Tropius, around the size of a medium sized person, which took one sniff of the berries before nodding to its trainer. The lady then sent Elian away to a waiting room with a couple other trainers, all of whom looked just as young as him and were probably also starting out their journey.
All of them noticed him but didn't give any indication that they wanted to talk as they were too busy planning with heir Pokemon or chanting things under their breath or some other task to take their minds off of their first badge.
At this point, Elians' nerves started getting to him and he began reciting the moves of his Pokemon and what ones Erika used regularly.
'Oddish, Bellsprout, no Tangela, Hoppip, Gossifleur, Cott-' "Um 'scuse me?" He looked up and noticed a girl sitting next to him with her Furfrou.
"Do you mind not talking so loudly? It's a bit distracting to the others." Elian didn't even realize he was talking out loud but looking around he realized that everyone aside from the girl talking to him were staring daggers at him.
"S-sorry sorry, I was just reciting the Pokemon that Erika's shown for the first badge throughout the month. I know she always uses Weepinbell or Oddish so I was trying to remember what the rest of them were." Despite apologizing he still held some embarrassment for his behavior.
"Oh no. You don't need to apologize to me, you were clearly thinking of strategy for your badge. I, actually wanted to ask about what Erika might use but no one wants to talk to strangers. Atira by the way, that's my name, heh."
"Well my name is Elian, pleasure to meet you Atira." Flashing a smile, Elian continued "Well like I said she always uses at least one poison and grass type so if you have something for that then you have it a little easier. Other than that she frequently uses Cottonee, Gossif-" And thus, the two began talking about what they would do for their first badge and what the gym leader might respond with. Elian found out that Atira had Furfrou and a Hoothoot while he divulged his current team members.
Time flashed by and the other beginners had slowly exited out to challenge for the Rainbow badge. During this time Elian kept on thinking about his week and a half worth of training with his new friend Evandros.
During this specific time, Elian had experienced more training then ever before, he would wake up and do early morning training with his Pokemon for like an hour then he would take a break before doing some short mid-day training and finally Evandros would force him and his Pokemon to do some training in the dark with low visibility. Initially it was daunting, then it became routine, and then it finally became fun especially with the tangible progress that Dill and Krabby showed. He saw firsthand just how strong his Pokemon are now so he wouldn't doubt them. Especially after the wins they were racking against other trainers.
At some point it was time for Atira to leave so that she could challenge Erika herself, but not before handing a contact number to her new friend.
Elian patiently waited, quieting down due to his nerves coming with back with gusto now that he wasn't occupied with something else on his mind, his face a mixture between stress and discomfort.
Once it was his time he robotically got up and shuffled slowly to where the arena was.
His nerves left him once more after he saw the battlefield.
On the left side of the field were trees that were perfect for hiding in while on the middle and right side was a grassy field that you could easily see someone that wasn't the size of a Joltik in.
His thoughts were then interrupted for the fifth time today as he saw movement from the opposing side.
Coming in from a corridor was Erika, gym leader of Celadon, with a light smile to her face and an air of professionalism that paradoxically both eased and ramped up Elians' anxiety. She had a slow pace as she walked closer, every step filled with purpose, until finally she stood in front of him on the opposite side of the field.
"Greetings, I presume that you are my opponent mister Elian." Elian immediately nodded back with a light blush, mainly from how pretty the gym leader was. "Then let us have a momentous battle, and the true beginning to your career as a trainer."
A teenage girl was on the side acting like a referee. She was most likely a gym trainer because she wanted to learn more on the strengths of grass types, either to counter or shore up weaknesses in her Pokemon. A very common thing for trainers both young and old.
"This will be a standard 2-on-2 Pokemon battle. The challenger will have two substitutions available. Any and all misplay, cheating, or malignant misconduct is grounds for trainers to be suspended indefinitely. Are both trainers ready?"
"Yes/Y-Yeah" both trainers replied.
The referee counted down, then both released their Pokeballs.
On Elians' side is Krabby, he chose the water type because it would handle whatever grass may send out with Ice Beam, Bubblebeam, and Metal Claw, and if worst goes to worst then he could send out Dill to buy time for stall tactics.
On Erikas' side appeared an Oddish, which notably calmed down Elian by quite a bit as he has experience with the species.
"Oddish use Absorb."
Panicking slightly, Elian took a bit before squeaking out "I-Ice Beam Krabby"
As the battle begins Oddish had already fired off his move when Krabby began preparing its ice type attack, so the water type was unable to dodge the super effective hit. The blast had blown the water type backwards but thankfully his concentration hadn't wavered too much so the beam of light blue fired true and onto the blue grass type, who wailed out, frost covering its body.
Realizing his advantage, Krabby hurried towards the Oddish and began using Metal Claw.
Erika, undeterred focused on Oddish and said "Stun Spore then use Absorb."
Thinking back to how Evandros would counter the very same move with Pearl, Elian hurriedly yelled out "Use Water Gun to bog down the spores!"
Krabby began moving towards the grass type in hopes of slamming it with his claw before hearing its trainer and starting up the water move while Oddish had already shaking its head laboriously in hopes of blasting out the green spores. Despite not having much practice with the basic water move, Krabby fired its Water Gun in a wide radius of Oddish, not dealing any substantial damage but blasting large chunks of spores in the air away with the water.
Still heading in, Krabby slammed his now metal claw into Oddish's face flinging the little bulb backwards with some serious airtime.
With a grin at his good fortune, Elian yelled out "Now use Ice Beam!"
Krabby gathered ice type energy in his mouth only to then freeze up, static clinging his body. Elian's face fell at the sight, somehow Oddish had managed to hit his water type with Stun Spore.
"Oddish use Growth." Eyes shooting towards the Erika, Elian realized he needed to try to order Krabby to use Ice Beam otherwise the next hit his Pokemon takes will be the last.
With a worried expression on his face Elian yelled out his order for Ice Beam once more. Krabby tried to power through the paralysis but that was taking time. Time that was beneficial for his opponent.
"Now use Absorb." Erika requested.
Despite being a weak move Absorb was still a grass type attack so not only would the move be super effective and do lots of damage, but its user's own typing can further strengthen a move. Combining all those factors and the fact that used it Growth to empower itself further meant really bad news for Krabby.
Right as Krabby fired its Ice Beam so too did Oddish fire the green light of Absorb, the two moves clashing in between the two of them. The first Absorb that hit Krabby had tired out the crustacean and Elian could plainly see that with how the water type was struggling to overpower its opponent in a beam clash despite the type advantaged attack. He grimaced in fear of what would happen if Krabby failed; the Oddish would recover some of its energy that it lost and he would have to send out Dill who wouldn't have any good moves against Oddish and Erika would pick up on that and send out another poison type to smother any chances of victory.
His worries were for naught though, as the water type somehow gained a second wind and further poured more power into its beam with a yell basically screaming victory. The move traveled along the light of Absorb and hit its mark onto the grass type Oddish who was blasted back once more.
This time, not getting up.
Elian knew that this was only half the challenge, but he still couldn't stop himself from screaming in happiness at the end result. His fathers' water type had, for the first time, beaten a grass type. One of his Pokemon had beaten the type advantage.
"You did it Krabby! Great Job." He said, stoping himself from jumping for joy. Krabby didn't have any reservations and even with the paralysis scuttled around blowing small bubbles.
Erika too was chuckling at the end result.
"My, My, it has only been two days and yet another of my starters child was knocked out by a water type of all things. She won't be too pleased to hear that. But let us focus back to the challenge now." Erika stated before holding a second Pokeball in hand.
Elian crossed his toes and fingers hoping it wouldn't be a Weepinbell or a Hoppip, hoping that the Pokemon would at least be manageable for Dill since Krabby is barely hanging on.
A light on Erika's side of the field dissipated to show a large yellow flower atop a green stem and in front of what looked like red hair. Elian was slightly relieved. His final opponent was a Gossifleur.
From what he studied with Evandros and by himself, the Gossifleur line isn't that strong but its abilities Cotton Down and Effect Spore would be something to watch out for and when this species had Tailwind behind them or any windy move on their side then they would be nigh untouchable. Though since this was the first badge it would be unlikely for any of the usual tactics that the species would use for high level battling to unfold here.
Once more the referee signaled the battle to begin.
Without hesitation Elian yelled out "Icy Wind!" to use the light body of Gossifleur against itself, preventing it from getting too close.
Unfortunately Krabby was still afflicted with paralysis which meant that its movements were laborious and slow. By the time the crustacean had fired its attack, the young Gossifleur had moved out of the way and fired three small balls of green energy.
Thinking quickly, a Metal Claw was raised to deflect the most definitely super effective move. But it couldn't block the two small seeds that grazed its head.
The two immediately burst into vines restricting and sapping energy out of Krabby and no matter what Elian yelled out, Krabby couldn't move out of the way or use any attack.
He didn't block the Leafage that was aimed at it once more.
He didn't get up.
Despite knowing that this was now a fair battle, Elian was now actively panicking in this gym battle facing against Erika. His thoughts a rampaging tsunami in his mind filled with thoughts of failure and doubts of his capability of winning.
Elian was too out of it to notice himself robotically recall Krabby into his ball, and he didn't notice the white light that called out his starter.
He did notice the smell.
"EEWWW?!" he shouted. This was the second stinkiest thing he had smelt today, but it was also what got him out of his funk.
Finally looking down Elian for the first time noticed Dill on the battlefield.
Realizing the fact that he was being dumb, Elian suddenly smacked his cheeks and put his game face on which wasn't really a game face and was more an angry frown.
"Sorry Dill, that won't happen again."
In the meanwhile, Erika was smiling at the development. So far she saw good behavior and reflexes from the rookie trainer and his Pokemon and with the scene that unfolded showed the sincerity he possessed alongside his will. Not many trainers can handle losing a Pokemon in a gym that well on their first try; that number becomes smaller if the Pokemon was swiftly and easily knocked out, regardless of any previous battling it may have done with different Pokemon, so to see him bounce back was good.
It was also easy to note the strength of his team was almost ready for the second judging by the power of his Krabby and the slightly darker coloring of his Oddish, clearly the boy was new but he also diligently trained. Elian didn't have the mentality or the number of Pokemon to register for the second badge but he does have clear training and his rapid fire response to Stun Spore was quite well done in her honest opinion. Unless her newest challenger did anything incredibly stupid, Erika would be willing to give this rookie trainer a badge regardless of whether he won or not.
Now however was clearly time to test him further and push any for any weaknesses his Oddish might have.
"Stay far and use Magical Leaf."
With haste, Elian yelled out "Use Acid, then Growth, ok!"
With an affirmative bob of her head, Dill fired out a glob of the poison attack to defend against the grass attack before becoming slightly bigger than previously.
Deciding not to give Erika an advantage, Elian spoke "Now Poison Powder around the field, as much as you can."
"Head into the trees and use Leaf Tornado to blast back the Poison Powder" Erika countered.
As the powder was already being fired out of the grass and poison type, the flowerling Pokemon had began running to the trees. Seeing this, Dill fired another Acid in front of the Gossifleur's path from escaping the purple powder that was already propagating within the air. Gossifleur prematurely fired off her Leaf Tornado to move away the Oddish and the poison move in the air to escape. The attack wasn't actually damaging to Dill but it worked in moving her and the powder away the grass type. Oddish, meanwhile, had restarted her Poison Powder and by now there was so much in the air within the battlefield that the entire top was sprinkled with tiny purple particles perpetually falling.
In a stroke of luck for Elian noticed that Gossifleur had grunted in pain from using her attack and that her complexion was already turning purple, so he yelled out "Finish it now Dill!"
The female Oddish, sensing blood in the water, fired a powerful glob of purple that nailed Gossifleur onto her back.
She tried to get back up... but fell right back down.
It took a second for him to realize, but once he did Elian whooped and ran to pick up and toss Dill into the air.
"WE DID IT, we did it, we did it, this is amazing Dill" he softly spoke to the grass type in that was now cradling in his hands.
For some odd reason Elian was now practically starving despite having breakfast like an hour ago and a banana in the waiting room.
He then noticed Erika going his way and walked to meet her halfway now clutching his starter in between his arms.
"Well I must say it brought fond memories seeing a delightful little grass type facing off against me once more. But now it is time to grant you your very first badge, a monumental achievement that will hopefully further your career as a trainer."
With a flourish of her right hand it opens to reveal the rainbow badge and a green disc signifying a TM.
"This is the TM for Mega Drain, a step up from Absorb and the first and most crucial aspect to mastering the move Giga Drain is to possess mastery of this move which I have no doubt that your Oddish will inevitably add in its repertoire."
Taking both the disc and the badge into his left hand, Elian couldn't stop the grin spreading along his face and Dill was a harder time doing the same task. Thanking lady Erika, Elian began walking away from the battlefield and towards the exit hallway so that he could finally read about those flowers at the front entrance.
All in all, today was a good day for the young trainer; and his first step towards being a fully fledged trainer.
Once he got a few pictures of the plants he decided to walk out and noticed two very sweaty people waiting outside for him. Kit and Pan must have ran while doing their duty as scouts.
Evandros was right. That prank did feel good for the soul.