I arrived at Hearthome Gym while another challenger was battling Fantina, so I was forced to wait until there was an open time. Since Gym Battles happened roughly every hour or so, I just found myself a chair to sit in and wait.
Of course, Altaria released himself from his Love Ball to nest on my head. I ended up falling asleep due to his warm fluff and waking up only when my name was called.
I had to return Altaria simply because we were going into a battle. Every one of my Pokémon were in their Pokéballs for this, even Togepi, who was also in the middle of a long nap right now. Alone, I walked down an uncomfortably gloomy hallway to reach the battlefield where Fantina was waiting.
The arena room was similar to a lot of other arenas I’d been in, except the walls were painted a purple so dark they appeared black, and there was a mural of a starry sky on the ceiling. Hidden within those stars were tiny lights that illuminated the room. It took me a moment to even find hints of them being there.
Without an obvious light installation, the room had an almost ominous glow. Even more, there were enough lights in the ceiling to make it so people only had the smallest of shadows directly beneath them. The way that Fantina, the Gym Leader, had her sparkling, purple dress extended out around her feet made it seem like she didn’t have a shadow at all.
Everything felt off in this room. Despite it being a simple design overall, it was perfect for a Ghost Type Gym.
“Aha! My next challenger approaches! Enfin, we shall battle like a true performance!” Fantina announced.
Based on her reaction, she actually didn’t recognize me from either the Contest or the show battles I’d been a part of. Honestly, with the wide grin on her face, she just seemed excited to fight a match using her eight star team. A few people in the stands did murmur excitedly when I entered, but it didn’t seem like this Gym was a place to have that active of an audience.
The referee for this battle, a woman wearing a dark purple turtleneck sweatshirt, cleared her throat to gather everyone’s attention before speaking.
“This will be a four on four single battle between the challenger, Alex, and the Gym Leader, Fantina. The battle will be called once all of one side’s Pokémon have fainted. The challenger will be allowed three switches while the Gym Leader will have none. Trainers, are you ready?”
“Oui.”
“We are.”
“Then begin!”
That wasn’t a long wait before first entering this room and starting the match. I was prepared regardless.
Fantina threw forward a dark green Dusk Ball, which released a hot air balloon-like Drifblim, and I tossed forward a basic Pokéball, which sent out the floating grass goat-thing himself, Whimsicott.
With two flying Pokémon sent out, it seemed that this battle would take to the air.
“Tailwind.”
“Tailwind!”
Practically in sync, both Fantina and I ordered our Pokémon to use the same move. Winds whipped up over the field to push our Pokémon high into the air above the field, increasing their speed and promising a high-paced battle.
“Poison Powder. Ball games,” I ordered.
“Phantom Force!”
Whimsicott rushed along above us and let a stream of purple powder fall out of his puffy hair behind him. The wind from Tailwind caused that poisonous dust to be blown towards Drifblim, but rather than counter with its own wind, Drifblim gained a black tint before completely disappearing.
Whimsicott frowned at the absence of his opponent and chose to pull off a chunk of his fluff for Substitute rather than to prepare an attack. There was a long period where nothing happened on the field besides Whimsicott aimlessly floating in a circle. Soon, though, a towering shadow grew behind Whimsicott, and Drifblim burst into him with Phantom Force.
The force of the move was so intense that the Substitute broke apart in that one hit. Whimsicot tried to use this impact to sneak in a Poison Powder, but flames licked off of Drifblim and burned the powder away.
I did a double take seeing Drifblim on the field. It was burned, but it wasn’t burned in the normal way. Instead, the Pokémon was literally on fire, and I had no clue how that happened.
“Now! Fling!” Fantina called out.
With Whimsicott so close, he was unable to dodge the surprisingly fast attack sent his way. Curled up within Drifblim’s ribbons so neither of us had noticed was a red-hot sphere that it twisted around to chuck right at Whimsicott. He was hit by the orb, which then seared into his hair. He squirmed and screamed in pain as the item rolled off of him and fell to the ground.
The scorch marks on Whimsicott’s body let me realize what it was. Fantina had given Drifblim a Flame Orb, an item that burns whoever held it. What was worse was that through Fling, the orb had hit Whimsicott, and he was now burned as well.
Whimsicott quickly tried to use Shadow Ball, following my “ball games” order, but Drifblim easily dodged by accelerating far past the speeds it was moving at before. Its Unburden ability meant it increased its speed whenever it lost its held item. That combined with its Tailwind meant it was currently far faster than Whimsicott.
Fantina smiled and crossed her arms. She looked like she had no further orders to give Drifblim.
Whimsicott, unable to properly land an attack in the face of such a fast opponent, had to give up any attempts to use his various sphere-shaped moves to attack. Instead, a flaming orb appeared in his hands and he tossed it into the sky.
After a brief moment of eye contact, I returned him to his Pokéball.
“Good job, Whimsicott. You made a better call than me, asking to be returned,” I whispered to his Pokéball.
Replacing him came Florges.
“Aromatherapy into sun strats,” I ordered.
Florges gave me a slight nod and began to puff out a pink, healing mist. The move floated back towards me and coalesced around Whimsicott’s Pokéball to heal him of his burn.
A pitch black ball of shadow hurtled towards Florges, who just barely managed to turn it into a glancing blow thanks to Tailwind increasing the speed with which she twisted around. Annoyed, she held her hands back to begin unleashing a response of her own.
For all the speed Drifblim had, it was hard to dodge the literal laser beams of sunlight Florges fired its way.
With the sun up, Solarbeam didn’t need to spend nearly as long to charge up as without it. Florges was able to release quite an onslaught towards Drifblim’s position. Drifblim itself released a bone-chilling Ominous Wind that was far more powerful than anything I expected. Florges had to pause to shiver just to get it out of her system. However, Drifblim didn’t use that moment to move in. It stayed back in the air almost as if to take a breather.
Fantina frowned as she looked towards her Drifblim. There was something about its burn that was increasing the power of its attacks, but the damage it was taking over time might have been affecting it more than I realized.
“Go for Strength Sap,” she commanded.
With its immense speed, Drifblim suddenly rushed forward to wrap its arms around Florges. It was still far too fast to properly avoid, letting the move easily hit her.
With the physical contact, Florges’s physical strength began to be drained, and every bit of that lost vitality was sent into Drifblim to heal it. Scorch marks on its flaming body disappeared, and a slight pained expression in its red eyes lessened as the move continued.
However, in my mind, this was a mistake on Fantina’s part. Most of Florges’s strength lay in her special attack and defenses. Strength Sap was far less effective on her than on other members of my team.
“Moonblast!” I quickly called out.
“Back off!”
The second Florges started to create the pink ball of Fairy Type energy, Drifblim tried to fly away. Florges didn’t let that happen, choosing to lock her elbow down on one of its ribbons to try to keep it next to her. That failed due to her lack of strength, but it still succeeded with an opposite effect, bringing her up with the giant balloon. Like a cat who had something stuck on its tail, Drifblim wildly took to the air with an incredible speed, trying to move around erratically to get Florges off of it.
“Ominous Wind!” Fantina yelled.
Far up in the air, Drifblim let its three free ribbons blow out to its sides as a thick, purple haze drifted out from under it. Florges was chilled to the bone by the attack, but she kept building up her Moonblast. For a moment, it looked like the use of the move had given Drifblim a second wind, but the Moonblast slammed into its underside, dealing critical damage, and a quick use of Fairy Wind afterwards finished it off.
Drifblim exploded.
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Florges screamed, but she didn’t faint. The Ghost Type’s other ability, Aftermath, meant it unleashed all the energies stored in its body when it got knocked out. Panting, Florges let herself drift down towards the floor as Drifblim’s unconscious, deflated body began to float down next to her.
Fantina returned Drifblim by the time Florges hit the floor. The Fairy Type used this moment to release a refresh of the Sunny Day and hold out her arms. The bright light began to be absorbed into her body as a Synthesis provided her with the healing and energy to keep going.
Then, she was hit by a powerful Mystical Fire.
Mismagius, Fantina’s second Pokémon, was a ghostly witch of a Pokémon. It laughed at the pain it caused Florges, letting loose a mad cackle that sounded far too much like an old woman’s.
Rather than attack for a second time, the Ghost Type drifted off to circle Florges, a cruel grin slowly growing on its face. Based on the way its eyes were flicking about, scanning Florges, I’d wager it was using Nasty Plot.
Florges tried to used a Calm Mind to prepare herself, but then Mismagius unleashed another round of powerful Mystical Fire.
Florges was seared as the sun-boosted Fire Type move tore into her. The damage was too great for her to pull off a victory, as between the sun enhancing the Fire Type move and the Nasty Plot allowing the move to land in only the most painful spots, Florges would not last.
I used my second switch here.
Upon Altaria’s emergence from his Love Ball, the flaming orb in the sky was snuffed out and the weather condition cleared. Any attempts on Mismagius’s part to take advantage of the sun would now be moot with Altaria’s Cloud Nine canceling out the weather.
Fantina clicked her tongue in disapproval.
“Nasty Plot, Power Gem,” she said.
“Defend, Altaria!”
Mismagius quickly restarted its attack-boosting cruel plans as it sent out a beam of Rock Type energy from a red gem embedded in its chest. The super effective attack struck Altaria dead on, piercing through his growing fluff from Cotton Guard and completely ignoring it.
“Dive into Roost!” I yelled, panicked.
Fantina said nothing as Mismagius narrowly missed one more Power Gem, and Altaria slammed into the floor. He didn’t pull up like he usually did, choosing to take that crash damage and begin healing himself with his sole recovery move.
A Power Gem hit the immobile Altaria, but it did far less damage now that Roost had temporarily removed his Flying Type. I let out a sigh of relief.
“There we go. Power Swap and take it out,” I ordered, relieved.
Fantina’s eyes widened.
“No! Hide with Phantom Force!”
Her commands came too late. Psychic light left both Altaria’s and Mismagius’s chests only to rush into their opponents’. As Nasty Plot had boosted Mismagius’s special attack, Altaria gained the effects of the move while Mismagius gained the effects of nothing at all.
Once Roost was over, Altaria took to the air. Mismagius burst out of a shadow next to him to try to hit with a desperate Phantom Force, but a powerful Dragon Pulse knocked it back.
Almost ironically, a Flamethrower burned it into unconsciousness. It was taken out by the same Type of move I had sent Altaria in to counter.
Fantina had a mixed expression on her face as she returned Mismagius. It looked like she was having trouble deciding whether to be upset her prized Pokémon fainted so easily or to be excited that she was having a great battle.
The third Pokémon Fantina used was actually quite familiar to me. I was hit with the pang of nostalgia upon seeing another Banette, although this one seemed a bit more brutal than the one I was used to.
Its doll-like head hung limply to the side and swayed back and forth as if it was barely attached at all. Creeped out, I quickly ordered Altaria to try to take it out.
“Dragon Pulse. If not, Ice Beam,” I said quickly.
Altaria opened his mouth to form the Dragon Type move, but he was interrupted by an unexpected occurrence. With incredible speed, Banette turned to shadow and launched itself right at him, reentering reality right next to his head and using a shadowy hand to punch him across the face.
Banette’s strange use of Sucker Punch had positioned itself on his back. His Dragon Pulse was released, but all it did was uselessly slam into the now unoccupied ground. Frost formed around his beak as he twisted his head around—
“No! Dazzling Gleam!” I interrupted.
Dazzling Gleam was a move that would burst out of his entire body at once, and thankfully, it did manage to hit Banette. The flash of light off of his back seared into Banette just right, Nasty Plot boosting the damage to become ever so much more painful for it.
As the Fairy Type light faded away, Banette used this opportunity to attack. It leaned forward from where it was still easily standing on Altaria’s back and held up a hand. Cruel, shadowy claws grew off of it as it slowly swiped across Altaria’s neck. He choked from the Shadow Claw hitting him not physically but somehow spiritually, and he was unfortunately finished off.
I clicked my tongue unhappily. As much as Roost healed him from before, the Power Gem attacks had still dealt significant damage. The Sucker Punch into Shadow Claw combo was just barely enough to finish him off.
I returned him to his Love Ball. I had hoped his boost from Nasty Plot would carry him through. It seemed that would not be the case.
“Très bien, Banette!” Fantina called out.
The Ghost Type rubbed its head under the praise. Somehow, it was already back on the ground.
My next Pokémon was honestly one that most would consider a mistake to be sent out here. However, I knew he had what it would take to take out his opponent.
To avenge Altaria, I sent forward a Fast Ball to send out Dedenne. The little electric rodent squeaked determinedly, then stomped his feet like a sumo wrestler in preparation.
“Dedenne, you know what to do,” I said to him.
He nodded once in agreement.
Unlike the other three Pokémon I’d chosen in this battle, I didn’t expect Dedenne to do that much. Florges and Whimsicott were both chosen for their lasting power, and Dedenne and Altaria were primarily chosen because I knew they’d want to fight Fantina after what happened in the Contest. It wasn’t that I blamed her; we simply hadn’t performed well enough to move on. However, misguided or not, beating up a judge was always a good way to get over a loss.
...Wow, that could sound really bad out of context.
Fantina didn’t give her Pokémon any orders, choosing simply to let her Banette continue its already decently successful strategy. Dedenne, on his side of the field, stared it off and didn’t move. Sparks crackled around his body as he built up electricity within him with Charge.
Banette seemed to be waiting for something. Once Dedenne was satisfied with the electricity build up, he acted.
It was a bit embarrassing to see Banette try to attack. It wasn’t that it did it poorly, it was just that the outcome of Sucker Punch on a Pokémon not attacking was a lot sillier than I expected. Banette launched itself forward as a shadow just like it did against Altaria, but when it saw Dedenne wasn’t actually making a Sucker Punch opportunity with an attack, it stumbled and fell to the ground.
Dedenne continued his small, actually rather cute dance in the same spot I’d released him in. Cloud formed above. Rain began to fall.
“Use Shadow Claw, please,” Fantina requested.
Banette grumbled a bit and pushed to its feet, rushed forward after turning into a shadow once more. As soon as it reached Dedenne, it emerged from the ground right next to him, reaching a Shadow Claw at him the same way it had done against Altaria. I smiled.
“Thunder,” I whispered.
The field turned white.
Now, Dedenne wasn’t that strong. A single attack from Banette was likely to take him out. However, he had one caveat about his strength due to the way he’d been training himself up.
The mouse was all about power.
He was constantly expending every bit of electricity he had to build up his stores. We had a small portable charger to help him recover to do it faster when he traveled with me. At Professor Sycamore’s ranch, it had been reported to me that Dedenne had been hanging around his ranch’s generator often, stealing the power contained within.
For months now, Dedenne had been training his power. His control had fallen behind, and he still couldn’t quite match any high level Electric Types in sheer potential, but when he unleashed everything he had in a single attack, empowered by Charge?
He was a force to be reckoned with.
By the time the rain-enhanced Thunder faded, Dedenne was barely able to stand on his feet. That single Thunder had completely sucked him dry. Behind him, his opponent, Banette, very cartoonishly, was now singed pure black. It opened its zippered mouth to cough out some smoke before crumpling to the floor, unconscious.
Dedenne slowly climbed onto its head to squeak victoriously. Then, he also fell unconscious.
I held back some chuckles at his performance. I was so, so proud of him. Both Fantina and I returned our Pokémon, leaving me at a significant advantage.
She had a single Pokémon left. I had two, although they were both somewhat injured.
“Oh my! What a great show! My final Pokémon is here already! Gengar, front stage!”
"Florges, come on out."
I hummed, thinking about what a Gengar could potentially do.
"Misty Terrain," I ordered. I didn’t want it to get up to any Hypnosis or Toxic shenanigans.
"Swallow it whole!" Fantina yelled.
My cheerful confidence vanished. That order honestly terrified me.
Gengar sunk into the ground, disappearing into shadow as Florges sent out a pulse that covered the field in a faint, pink mist. This had the unfortunate consequence of causing Gengar’s shadow to almost disappear within the terrain, the darkness from the rain clouds above not helping at all.
Despite her Synthesis earlier, Florges was still a bit tired and wounded. She began to use Camouflage to hide within the terrain just as Gengar was doing, but the Ghost Type was faster than her and struck.
Initially hitting her with a Shadow Punch to throw her off balance, it followed up with a Lick of its massive tongue across her entire body. Florges shifted back slightly, absolutely disgusted by the attack, but not paralyzed thanks to Misty Terrain.
Gengar then tried to form a Shadow Ball as it floated around her, amused. Florges used this moment to try out her new move.
The ghost’s body gained a blue tinge. Its menacing smile was locked open. Psychic held Gengar in place.
Despite the super effective move affecting it, Gengar didn’t look bothered at all. The two Pokémon stared at each other for a few, long seconds, before I realized what was going on.
“Florges, get back!” I shouted.
Gengar then exploded in a Dark Pulse.
Now, the Fairy Type does resist Dark Type moves, but Florges opened herself up to them by using Psychic. The unperfected TM move was completely disrupted by the superior attack, giving Florges a serious headache.
She wasn’t looking good. Gengar took advantage of that. The field was suddenly obscured with pitch-black shadows.
Then, silence.
When the Night Shade faded, Florges was on the ground completely unconscious. On the other side of the field, Gengar stood and bounced its body back and forth, a pleased smile on its face.
Fantina made no comment.
I didn’t have any other option to send out, but at least Whimsicott wasn’t burned. Nervous in the face of such a terrifying Gengar, I released my final Pokémon.
As he appeared, I glanced up above him. The rain was still there, but it was soon to fade.
My eyes went wide. Florges had at least injured Gengar with her Psychic. If we could make use of Dedenne’s rain, we could pull off a victory right here and now.
“Whimsicott, Hurricane!” I screamed as fast and loudly as I could.
Whimsicott was caught off guard by my sudden order, but so was Gengar. It’d been quite some time since I first mentioned learning this move to Whimsicott, and he had even specifically learned Tailwind to develop it on his own. With Dedenne’s Rain Dance up, it was the perfect time to put whatever he’d figured out to use.
While the move itself still came out slow and wasn’t technically battle ready, the rainy weather bolstered both its speed and power. Gengar, eyes widening, ducked into its own shadow to try to avoid the powerful attack coming its way, but it was too late. A chaotic swirl of gale winds and storming gusts quite literally sucked it out of the ground and into the air, battering it around with the sheer force of the Flying Type move flinging it around.
However, it still looked as if it was still going to survive the powerful attack. Gengar, unable to free itself from the Hurricane, opened its mouth to form a Shadow Ball—
But a different Shadow Ball suddenly hit it in the face. Whimsicott giggled at managing to land an attack that wasn’t even sped up with Prankster as Gengar’s eyes rolled up into its head.
I let out the breath I didn’t even know I was holding. Narrowly, we had won.
The Hurricane faded just in time for the slightly singed and bruised Whimsicott to float down next to me. Tired, he almost made the mistake of stealing Altaria’s spot on my head, but quickly realized what he was doing and chose to hang off my shoulder instead.
He closed his eyes and pretended to sleep. I rolled my own eyes and patted his head. If he wanted to hang out there while injured, he was welcome to after that showing.
Since Rain Dance had been used some time ago, it didn’t take too long for the water to stop falling from above. The small amount of remaining clouds still obscured the painted, starlit ceiling as both Fantina and I approached each other on the field.
“The match is, how do you say, très fantastique!” she exclaimed. “Such impressive teamwork! My blood pumps at your strategy!”
I couldn’t help but scoff when she mentioned teamwork. My eyes widened once I realized what I’d done.
“Oh? You have a complaint?” she asked with a smirk.
“No, just, ah, I, uh...” I sighed, deciding it wasn’t worth hiding from a Gym Leader. “You didn’t say we had teamwork when we didn't get past the performance round of the Contest the other day.”
She furrowed her brow at my comment and looked at me, confused.
“But you were not a contest— Ah,” she said. “Well, I apologize for any rudeness I may have provided, but every loss is a lesson in itself.”
She tapped the side of her nose.
“Regardless, you have proven me wrong,” she continued. “You have still earned the badge of my Gym, non?”
I nodded. I was still upset about the Hearthome Contest. However, by losing there, I was unlikely to make the same mistake in the Grand Festival, which used the double performance format as well. Plus, losing had inspired me to put my team’s weather combinations to work. Without Dedenne’s Rain Dance and Whimsicott’s Hurricane, this battle might have been lost. It came down much closer than I expected.
Fantina held out her hand as a shadow traveled up her dress and across her arm to deposit a small badge into her palm. The badge looked like three ghostly, purple will-o'-the-wisps arranged in a silver circle.
“The Relic Badge,” she announced. “You have earned it in your victory. Bravo, Alex!”
The badge was passed over to me in a handshake, and we parted ways. As I left the room, Whimsicott, still on my shoulder, nudged me with a horn then hopped into the air to show me him rubbing his stomach.
I laughed.
“Pokémon Center first, then we go out to celebrate. Don’t worry, I’m planning to treat you all to a good meal, just like every time we win! You always deserve it.”