Chapter 36: 39,40
"Olivine City again," Ash said, as they stepped off the boat. "And it looks like Amphy is back to work in the lighthouse."
The others followed his gaze, and saw the clear light shining out of the lighthouse windows.
"Looks like," Brock agreed. "It's nice to see he's better."
Ash nodded. "Which means that Jasmine should be ready for a gym challenge!"
He started forwards, then stopped. "Hm..."
"What is it, Ash?" Misty asked, worried.
"Oh, I was just wondering who I should use in this gym battle," Ash explained. "I wonder if anyone is waiting for a battle..."
Based on this, they headed to the Pokémon Centre first.
"Right!" Ash said, some time later. "Let's do this!"
He knocked on the door of the Olivine Gym.
After a few seconds, the door opened. "Hello?"
"I'd like to challenge the gym!" Ash announced.
The girl who'd answered the door blinked. "You seem a little bit-"
She was interrupted by Jasmine's voice. "Is that Ash?"
The door opened further. "It is!" Jasmine said, smiling. "I see you're here for your gym challenge!"
"That's right!" Ash agreed. "Sorry for the wait."
"Not at all," Jasmine said with a shrug. "It's whenever you have time – which is now, I suppose. Come in."
"Uh..." Ash hesitated. "You're having the battle inside?"
"That's correct," Jasmine confirmed. "Why? What's the problem?"
"Oh, well..." Ash shrugged. "It's just that – well, I was wondering if you might not want to have it somewhere else. I kind of wreck gyms these days."
Jasmine smiled. "Don't worry, this gym is quite durable. It's actually made out of old rolled armour they never got around to putting on battleships, so the walls are over a foot thick and made of armour steel."
"Really?" Ash blinked. "Huh. Now that's tough."
"Precisely," she said. "Now that your worries are alleviated, perhaps we can go inside...?"
The gym was large, and nearly featureless – some sand on the floor, presumably for grip, but the walls were nearly blank steel.
"Seems kind of boring..." Misty said, looking around.
Jasmine shrugged. "There's living rooms in the back, they're much more pleasant. Right, challenger – select your first Pokémon!"
"Got it!" Ash said, reaching for a Pokéball. "Do we go on a three-count, or-"
"Why not. Three, two, one-"
"Go, Ivysaur!" Ash said, sending him out.
Brock blinked. "Are you sure that was a good choice?"
"Why not?" Ash asked, as Ivysaur formed.
"Well, he's part-Poison type, so-"
Ash shrugged. "Moves matter more."
"Indeed," Jasmine said, as her Aggron materialized on the other side of the battlefield. "This should be interesting. Aggron, Stone Edge!"
The ground trembled, and rocks burst up from it. They formed a large slab, which promptly fell towards Ivysaur.
The Grass-type wasn't there any more, however. He backed hastily away, vines lashing out at the slab to break it up again, and managed to get clear before the rock fell on him.
"Flash Cannon!" Jasmine added.
Aggron roared, energy gathering in its eyes.
"That's probably bad," Ash commented.
"I noticed!" Ivysaur said, using Dig to get underground just before Aggron fired his eye beams.
"Interesting," Jasmine said, as the Flash Cannon died down and revealed the hole in the middle of a small, glassy crater. "I didn't know that Ivysaur could Dig."
"He's been able to for a while," Ash shrugged. "It's actually quite lucky for us that the floor of the gym isn't steel like the rest of it."
"I need the clear earth for moves like Stone Edge," Jasmine agreed. "That and the steel plate was costly enough. Aggron – be ready to hit him when he emerges."
Underground, Ivysaur considered his options.
He could tell where Aggron was easily enough – that much Pokémon meant quite a lot of weight, so it wasn't hard to tell – but damaging him was another matter.
He stretched in the confines of his tunnel, and came to a decision.
"...is your Ivysaur coming back up at some point?" Jasmine asked, looking around. "I mean, I understand the need for tactics, but-"
The gym floor heaved up, and then huge roots came smashing up out of the floor towards the startled Aggron. They wrapped around his arms and tail, holding him still for a moment despite his thrashing.
Ivysaur punched up out of the ground directly underneath Aggron, delivering a powerful Dig attack as his target struggled to get free.
"Aggron!" Jasmine called. "Fire Punch! Use it to break the Frenzy Plant!"
Aggron roared, and his fist burst into flame. He pulled on the roots as they smouldered from the sudden heat, and they began to give way.
"Now, Heavy Slam!"
Ivysaur blinked, then started trying to get back down his tunnel.
Aggron came crashing to the floor in a belly-flop of doom, and mashed Ivysaur into his hole.
"Ivysaur!" Ash called, as Aggron got back off again. "Are you okay?"
A frond waved feebly. Then there was a crunch, as Ivysaur dug himself out of the hole.
He looked up in time to see Aggron coming down for another Heavy Slam, and his vines lashed out and up.
They wrapped around Aggron's shoulder-spikes, and Ivysaur used that leverage to get himself out of trouble – barely. The Heavy Slam came within inches of getting him a second time, and he skidded to a halt halfway across the gym panting heavily.
"You alright?" Ash asked.
"I've been better," Ivysaur admitted. He examined Aggron closely as the big Steel-type came back to his feet. "Not sure if this is going to work..."
He slammed his forelegs into the ground. "Fissure!"
The white line formed from his foreleg, and lanced out towards Aggron. The Iron Armour Pokémon took a forward step, foot landing just behind the leading edge of the Fissure, and then cried out as his foot sunk into the ground.
About two feet, leaving most of him still above the ground.
"Oh, well," Ivysaur sighed. "Ground's just not deep enough here to really – whoa!"
He broke into a run, barely avoiding another Flash Cannon.
Jasmine was doing some mental arithmetic. "Let's see... two hundred and sixty... one hundred and sixty... Aggron!"
Aggron deactivated his eye beams, and turned to her.
"Autotomize – twice! Then Heavy Slam again!"
Nodding, Aggron emitted a series of whirrs and clanks. His stance became more erect, less hunched over, and then he burst forwards with astonishing speed.
Ivysaur was unable to avoid the crashing belly flop of the Heavy Slam this time, nor did he have a convenient hole to dampen the effect. Aggron now weighed less than half what he did the first time, but that still meant over a hundred and fifty kilos of Pokémon landing on top of him.
There was a muffled shout from underneath Aggron, then a grassy explosion blew Aggron back to his feet as Ivysaur detonated a Seed Bomb at point-blank range.
That revealed, however, that the effort had been too much for Ivysaur. He was unconscious.
"Nice work, Ivysaur," Ash said, returning him. He gave Aggron a considering look, taking in how battered the Steel-type seemed. "Okay, Kingler!"
"That's an interesting choice," Jasmine said, as Kingler formed. "He's got type advantage..."
Ash shrugged. "Moves are the important bit – Kingler, you know what to do!"
Kingler clicked an affirmative, raising his pincers. Both of them clashed once, knocking like a pair of castanets, and then zeroed in on Aggron.
"Flash Cannon!" Jasmine ordered.
Kingler's left pincer fired a Bubblebeam straight at Aggron's face. The burly Steel-type was forced to raise his arm, blocking the stream of high-speed bubles from hitting him but also blocking his own aim with his eye-beams.
Then the right pincer opened up. It wasn't as spectacular – just a stream of water, which was losing momentum by the time it reached Aggron – but it quickly started pooling on the floor of the gym.
Janina hit a button on a control panel, and small platforms came grinding out of the walls for the trainers to stand on.
"Very modern," Ash said.
"I try," Jasmine admitted. "Okay, Aggron, that's enough water. Thunderpunch!"
Aggron's fist crackled with electricity, and he brought it down into the water.
Kingler grunted as the electricity grounded through the water into him, staggering a little, but seemed still fairly hale. His pincers rotated, clicking twice, and he switched to Surf on both of them.
As Aggron raised his fist, he took both bursts in the face. That made him stagger, and then – betrayed by his reduced weight – he overbalanced and crashed to the floor.
Kingler capitalized on that, scuttling forwards as Aggron came laboriously back to his feet. As the Steel-type finished standing back up, Kingler brought both pincers down in Crabhammers aimed for the knees.
That made Aggron stagger again. Roaring, he raised both fists and shrouded them in electricity before volleying in a one-two Thunderpunch.
Kingler was knocked off his feet by the second blow, pushed nearly under the water by the force and crackling with electrical bleed.
A grin formed on his crustacean face, and his pincers clacked open with a sound like the action on a gun.
Then they slammed closed.
One of the supercavitating explosions went off underneath Aggron, sending him a few inches into the air and fouling his Thunderpunch.
The other went down, into the hole Ivysaur had left, and blew a large amount of muddy water into the air to rain down over both combatants.
"Mud Sport," Kingler explained, pushing himself back to his feet and swinging his left claw in another Crabhammer.
Because it couldn't hurt to try, Aggron tried to use Thunderpunch again. The mud worked, however, making the attack fizzle before it finished charging.
Aggron switched tactics, and came down in a Heavy Slam.
He didn't make it to the floor. Kingler crossed his pincers, and managed to hold Aggron up off his carapace by main strength. (It helped that Aggron had reduced his weight by more than half.)
"Stone Edge!" Jasmine called.
Aggron nodded, thumping his tail on the floor. Rocks peppered Kingler's underside, but he endured the blows grimly.
His left claw glowed, and he slammed it into Aggron's neck. Getting a grip despite the Steel-type's struggles, he hauled Aggron off the ground and slammed him to the floor head-first.
The Guillotine did the trick. Aggron twitched, then slumped.
"Not bad," Jasmine admitted, returning her Iron Armour Pokémon. Her free hand toyed with her bow for a moment, then she took another Pokéball. "Magnezone!"
With a flash, Magnezone appeared. "Preparing to engage."
"Uh oh..." Kingler said. He stuck his right claw underwater, aiming it at the tunnel, and fired another Crabhammer burst – repeating his Mud Sport from before.
Mud rained down in spatters all over him, tainting the water a greyish colour, and he pulled a hunk of mud from the floor before aiming his claw at Magnezone.
"Magnet rise." Magnezone crackled, and drifted smoothly sideways away from the glob of mud. "Locking On."
Kingler glanced back. "Ash?" he asked. "Any ideas?"
"Hyper Beam!" Ash decided.
"Right." Raising his left pincer, Kingler clicked it. An orange glow built in the centre of the claw, brightening quickly.
Magnezone fired first. "Zap Cannon."
The high-impact Electrical attack shot unerringly for Kingler, then burst in a shower of tiny lightning bolts as the Hyper Beam fired straight through it. It hit Magnezone with an audible screeeeech, sending the Electric-type floating jerkily backwards, and small secondary beams went reflecting off all over the gym – scoring small lines in the armour plating of the walls and making the trainers flinch back slightly.
After several seconds, the Hyper Beam died away.
Magnezone was almost uninjured. Electricity crackled over its magnets, and then it fired a crackling, booming Thunder at Kingler.
Tired from his Hyper Beam, Kingler was unable to dodge. The mud helped, but not enough, and he slumped to the floor.
Jasmine waited several seconds, until the electricity playing over the walls subsided. "Uh... Ash?"
"Yes?" Ash replied.
"Sorry, but – can we drain the water? I don't fancy my entire gym being electrified with every attack Magnezone uses. It was bad enough when Aggron was doing it, but that was just too dangerous."
Ash shrugged. "Sure, we can take a break to do that."
Five minutes later, the gym floor was merely moist.
"Those are powerful fans," Ash said, as the artificial breeze died down.
"I've got them installed so I can do things like pump out poison gas," Jasmine explained. "It's kind of a problem, actually, because a surprising number of people forget Steel-types are immune to poison."
Ash blinked. "Wow."
"Yeah, imagine someone forgetting about type immunity," Pikachu chuckled.
"Fair point..." Ash said, remembering all the times he'd had Pikachu attack a Ground-type. Then he remembered the times it had actually worked, and frowned before shrugging it off. "Okay. Pikachu, you next!"
"Sure!" Pikachu said, jumping forwards and landing with a splat on the moist floor.
Magnezone's main eye rotated smoothly down to eyeball him. "New target acquired."
Its magnets rotated into position, and began to vibrate.
"I'm resistant to Steel-attacks," Pikachu pointed out. He rolled his neck. "So you may as well use Electric-type attacks like Zap Cannon."
"Incorrect." Magnezone's magnets spun faster. "Your ability – Lightningrod. It means electrical attacks are flawed."
"..kinda hoped you'd be fooled by that," Pikachu admitted. "But you don't have many good-"
"Type resistances are irrelevant against Sonicboom." Magnezone's magnets emitted a baleful, high-pitched hum, and then fired two closely-spaced pulses of sound and air pressure.
Pikachu jumped out of the way, getting lightly splashed by wet sand from the resultant crater, and began running around with Agility to avoid being hit.
Magnezone's eye narrowed slightly as it fired off more Sonicbooms, trying to pin Pikachu down, but with only two magnets able to fire at any one time it was hard to properly bracket the fast Electric-type.
"Magnezone!" Jasmine called.
Leaving off the attack for now, Magnezone spun to face her.
"Supersonic!"
"Affirmative," Magnezone buzzed. It rotated again, spinning up all three magnets, and got a Force Palm to the face.
"That's... new," Jasmine blinked, as her Magnezone went skidding backwards in mid-air with a noticeable paw-shaped dent next to its eye. "I was warned about you, but I didn't think it was that bad."
Pikachu went backwards from the recoil, skidded to a halt, and jumped forwards again.
This time, however, Magnezone was ready for him. It trained both magnets on him, emitting a rising whine, and Pikachu had just enough time to notice his mistake before they hit him with twin Sonic Booms.
The first one halted him, cancelling his forward momentum and leaving him falling straight down. The second one sent him rocketing backwards towards the wall, which he hit feet-first to absorb his momentum.
Ash shrugged as Pikachu avoided a nasty impact with the wall. "We originally worked on it to handle a Steelix."
Brock muttered something about hypocrites.
"I see," Jasmine said, with a little concealed smile. "Well, we'll see about that..."
As she spoke, Pikachu was running up the armour-plate wall, which shivered from near misses as Magnezone barraged it with more Sonic Booms – none of which hit, though a few came close.
"Tactic switch," Magnezone announced. "Locking On."
Red beams of light pulsed out of its central eye, bouncing off the steel walls around Pikachu until a few of them hit him.
The magnets raised, and fired off another Sonic Boom – this one aimed unerringly at Pikachu's position.
Pikachu's response to that was... unorthodox. Jumping off the wall, he curled into a forward roll, tail shimmering with Iron Tail, and produced a "buzz-saw" effect from the jagged appendage. When the focused air of the Sonic Boom hit it, it was slapped aside into two smaller pulses which burst on the steel either side of his former position.
Coming out of his roll, Pikachu raised a glowing blue paw as he descended. "Force palm!"
Slamming the close-range attack in, he drove Magnezone halfway to the floor with the force of the blow. A matching dent appeared the other side of Magnezone's eye from the impact, and a stray crackle of electricity arced between the tips of the outer magnets.
Then Magnezone used Metal Burst.
There was a thunderous bang, and Pikachu was sent backwards as fast as he'd come down. He hit the wall with an audible crash, and dropped to the floor.
Ash took his hands off his ears. "What was that?"
"Magnezone can't normally learn it," Jasmine admitted. "It's kind of a Steel-type fusion of Counter and Mirror Coat. I happen to like it."
Pikachu pulled himself up out of the sandy impression he'd left, brushing sand off his fur. "Ow."
He looked up, yelped, and jumped clear of another Sonic Boom which scattered the sand he'd landed in.
Pikachu kept running after that, avoiding two more Sonic Booms and a Signal Beam, before skidding to a halt on the other side of the gym. Magnezone's eye took a while to track around to see him, affording Pikachu precious thinking time.
He took a breath, and held up both forepaws. Each one began to produce a glowing blue sphere.
"Aura Sphere?" Jasmine asked, raising an eyebrow. "Interesting. Okay, Magnezone, be ready for this."
Magnezone's magnets came up, humming as they built resonance.
Pikachu grinned, and slammed the blue spheres together.
A cloud of smaller blue Aura Spheres went in every direction. The Sonic Boom detonated on one of them, but the rest were unscathed – and, as Pikachu ran for cover, they meant Magnezone was too busy to focus on targeting.
The twenty or so seeker spheres curved in towards their target, who was forced to use Protect – abandoning all its offensive capacity for pure defensive shielding.
When the cloud of explosions faded, his shield bubble took a moment longer to disappear.
Then Magnezone blinked, looking around. "Target not identified-"
Pikachu slammed into it from above, palm glowing with Force Palm.
Once again, the impact overcame Magnezone's electromagnetic levitation. It went jerking towards the floor with the impact – and, as it began to recover, Pikachu's other palm hit just as hard.
An unmusical crash echoed through the gym as Magnezone hit the ground, fouling its magnets with sand and dirt. The Magnet Rise shut down completely, and Pikachu kicked off from its body to land in the blind spot behind it.
As he charged a Force Palm, Jasmine raised her voice. "Stop!"
Pikachu did so, looking up.
"You win that one," Jasmine said with a smile. "No point carrying on."
She returned Magnezone, and reached for another Pokéball.
"Pikachu, come back here," Ash instructed.
"What?" Pikachu asked, indignant. "I can still-"
"Yeah, but I'd rather have you rested, just in case," Ash explained.
Pikachu considered it, then nodded. "Sure."
"I see," Jasmine said. "Please have your next Pokémon ready before I send mine out."
Ash nodded. "Ready!" he said, taking the Pokéball from his belt.
"Right. Bronzong!"
"Keldeo!" Ash said, then frowned. "Ugh. Psychic type... do your best, Keldeo!"
Keldeo nodded, and set his stance firmly on the sandy floor of the gym.
Bronzong hovered there for a moment, then rotated itself so that the open end faced Keldeo.
Keldeo cantered to the side, so that the open end no longer faced him.
Bronzong paused, then rotated so the open end faced Keldeo again.
Keldeo again moved so he wasn't being targeted-
"Just use an attack!" Jasmine said.
Bronzong's strikers moved outwards a little, then CLANGed back into the bronzed metal of its body. Air shivered in the body cavity, and then a pulse of psychic energy pulsed out towards Keldeo.
The Sword of Justice kicked off, using a quick burst of water from his hooves to gain height and avoid the Psychic. It hammered into the wall below him, and he landed on the far side with a Sacred Sword glowing on his horn.
"Wait a moment," Jasmine said, snapping her fingers. "I know where that Pokémon seems familiar from! He's like Cobalion, isn't he?"
"That's right!" Keldeo replied, with a quick smile. "I grew up with Cobalion, Virizion and Terrakion."
She smiled, then her expression firmed. "That means... Bronzong, don't let him close! That's a powerful Fighting attack!"
Bronzong clanged in agreement, and fired another Psychic which Keldeo galloped out of the way of.
Horn still lit, Keldeo turned at bay and tossed his head. The blazing blade separated from it, scything forwards, and the lower half of the attack clipped one of Bronzong's strikers.
The upper portion of the attack hit the armour-plate wall with a grinding, tearing sound, making a visible cut in it.
Jasmine gaped for a moment. "That... but – that's Vickers face-hardened steel armour!"
Ash blinked. "Is that bad?"
"Well, I've never seen it much more than scratched before," Jasmine admitted. "That's half an inch deep!"
Bronzong slammed his strikers into the metal of his body again, making the air in his central bell-cavity resonate more strongly before pulsing out another Psychic.
This one clipped Keldeo's hoof as he dodged, spinning him around slightly with a cry of pain.
Recovering, he cantered halfway around Bronzong and began to prepare another Sacred Sword. As he charged, though, Bronzong tracked around to face him and fired a Psychic, and he had to get out of the way.
Coming to a halt once more, Keldeo loosed his Sacred Sword – which hit a Light Screen, slowed considerably, and did very little damage to Bronzong.
"Ash, this kinda seems like a stalemate," Keldeo said, wincing. "Any ideas?"
Ash frowned. "Give me a minute..."
Keldeo nodded, willing to do that, and jumped over another blast of Psychic energy. The water spraying from his hooves whipped in the intense telekinetic shove, splashing into the wall behind him, but it didn't hit him directly.
Jasmine was thinking hard too. "Bronzong! Trick Room, and Gyro Ball!"
Bronzong bonged in agreement, and then bashed its clappers three times in quick succession.
Unlike the earlier ones, a resonance began to build in the whole room.
"Uh oh..." Ash said, frowning. "Keldeo, do you know Curse?"
"I don't – why?" Keldeo asked, then blinked. "Wait – did he say Trick Room?"
Trick Room activated.
Blue light pulsed out from Bronzong, washing over Keldeo, and he suddenly felt almost like he was moving through syrup – it took no more effort, but much more time.
Bronzong, on the other hand, began moving much faster. Lights sprang into life on the ends of its clappers, and it started to spin at speed.
"Look out, that's Gyro Ball!" Ash called in warning.
Keldeo tried to get out of the way, but the effect of Trick Room slowed his reactions. Bronzong hit him in the flank with one spinning arm, and he hit the wall with a cry – though one more of shock than pain.
He pushed himself back to his feet, raised a hoof through the slowing influence of the Trick Room, and braced himself against the wall with another hoof.
Then he opened up with Hydro Pump, as powerful as he could make it, and aimed at the oncoming Bronzong.
Water went everywhere, sprayed off in a broad arc by the high-speed spin. It also made Bronzong slow a little, and the Gyro Ball flashed and partially-discharged repeatedly under the stream of water.
"Keldeo!" Ash called, his own voice slightly distorted by the speed-altering effect of Trick Room. "Use your Hydro Pump to get around!"
Keldeo blinked, and nodded with a grin. "Got it!"
He lowered his hooves to the floor, and then fired full-power Hydro Pump from all four. That sent him rocketing into the air, and he controlled the sprays as best he could to avoid hitting the wall.
The propulsive force from the sprays wasn't affected by the psychic effect, and he shot off as fast as he could normally manage – though he had more trouble than usual steering, simply because his legs couldn't move as fast to compensate.
Bronzong rotated to try and fire on Keldeo, but the Fighting-type was moving too fast to pin down even with Bronzong's speed boost from Trick Room. Psionic bursts splashed off the walls and ceiling behind Keldeo, and he bobbed and weaved to make the job of aiming harder.
With a flash, he switched to Resolute Form, and formed Secret Sword as he hurtled overhead.
Raising his horn, he swung it in a sluggish circle as he landed. "Work Up!"
The glow of the Secret Sword increased in intensity, and he released it just as Bronzong's spin let it retarget.
The Psychic attack knocked Keldeo backwards into the armour plated wall, forcing the air from his lungs, and he gasped to try and recover.
Bronzong had it much worse. The attack hit like a freight train, sending it skidding into the wall, and those parts of it which weren't slowed by the Light Screen went on to hit the wall – cutting deep gashes into the armour plate of the wall.
The Steel-type seemed to have been left in a bit of a dent, struggling to get out again, and Keldeo had a few precious seconds to recover.
Jasmine shook off her surprise at the heavily damaged armour plate, and frowned. "Bronzong! Sandstorm!"
Bronzong's strikers came out one more time, and clanged back into the main body of the steel bell. The resonance rang in the room, picking up the sand scattered on the floor, and began to bring it up to hang in the air.
Keldeo inhaled, shaking his head as he shook off the stunning effect of the impact, and spun his neck again – much faster this time, as the Trick Room collapsed. "Swords Dance!"
A Sacred Sword formed on his horn, and went knifing forwards as he fired it. That was too much for Bronzong, and it went rigid.
Jasmine returned her Bronze Bell Pokémon, and took another look at the scarring on the inner wall of her gym. "That's not going to buff out..."
She sighed. "Oh, well. They've got some armour plate left over, I think."
Keldeo winced. "Sorry..."
Jasmine turned to him, and sighed. "Don't worry, it's not really a problem, it's just... inconvenient." She chuckled. "The others did warn me, and so did your trainer."
She cleared her throat. "Right. Do you want to switch Keldeo out?"
"Well-" Ash began.
Keldeo interrupted him. "I want to stay out!"
Ash waved his hands. "Sure – if you want to, I mean."
Keldeo nodded in confirmation, and turned back to Jasmine. "I'm ready!"
"Okay, then." Jasmine smiled.
"Rime Crasher!"
The Jumpluff was engulfed by a shower of freezing water, and came out the other side with ice clinging to his puffs. He wobbled, losing height, and Blastoise ignored the Mega Drain it pulsed down at him.
"You don't have the dedication to push through! You're just blowing in the wind!" Blastoise proclaimed, cannons clicking as they retargeted. "Ice Beam!"
Jumpluff went crashing to the floor.
"Not bad," Ramos allowed, returning his Pokémon. "Looks like I'm down to my last."
"I'll take 'em all on!" Blastoise announced. "Bring him on!"
"Hold on," Gary said, shaking his head.
Blastoise spun, giving Gary a look. "What!?"
Gary indicated Furfrou. "She wants a go."
"Indeed I do," she said, with a nod. "I want to try out some of my new moves."
Blastoise stared for a moment longer. "Fine," he said eventually, with bad grace, and stomped off the field.
Furfrou replaced him, facing across the grassy field. "Who am I to fight?" she asked, curiously.
By way of answer, Ramos sent out a Gogoat.
"Hello," Furfrou nodded to him.
"Greetings," the Gogoat replied. "I wish to thank you for your manners. Now – to battle!"
He tapped his hooves on the floor, producing a scent of new-mown summer lawn and making the grass glow softly. The plants hanging off his back glowed as well, bristling up and thickening.
"Interesting," was Furfrou's main comment. She tilted her head slightly, then dove underground with a quick Dig to avoid the storm of Razor Leaves sent her way.
"Underground is a bad idea here," Ramos said. "Gogoat! Earthquake!"
Gogoat reared up, and slammed his hooves into the floor. The ground shook – and Furfrou erupted from the ground in a huge torrent of water.
"Please!" she said, coming down to land with a splat. That threw her off her patter for a moment, and she looked with disdain at the wet grass. She tossed her head, and sighed. "Oh, that's awfully crude..."
Gogoat's horns glowed green, and he charged forwards towards her. His hooves drummed on the floor, turning to a series of splats as she reached the wet section.
As he arrived, Furfrou turned to face him, and took the Horn Leech attack on her shoulder.
She kept her footing quite easily, despite the water.
Gogoat frowned. "Normally this is more effective."
She batted her eyelashes at him. "Could you really hurt such a lady as myself with so brutish an attack?"
Gary chuckled. "Between Fur Coat, Charm and Cotton Guard... not really."
Furfrou tossed her head, her ears flying. "Now we've resolved that," she said as Gogoat stepped back warily, "Let's try the other side of the coin."
She jumped into the air towards Gogoat, evaded his horns with exquisite care, and nipped at his shaggy grass pelt with flame-shrouded teeth.
"Excellent," she pronounced, seeing the effect of the flames. "Just as I hoped."
Gogoat turned back towards her, horns glowing again, and used Giga Drain. She slipped underground just as the attack came in, and Gogoat started looking around for any sign of her.
The ground erupted again, this time beneath him. Furfrou's head emerged just long enough to deliver an Ice Fang, and then she was back underground and gone.
"This could take a while," Gary said, looking for a place to sit down.
Growlie bounded into the campsite, James on his back.
"We got takeout!" James announced, holding up some big carrier bags. "Who wants some?"
A lot of Pokémon wanted some, as did his partner-in-sort-of-crime. They got the groundsheet out, and settled down for a slap-up meal before bed.
Some way off through the foliage, an interested pair of blue eyes watched them.
Moltres frowned, not sure what to make of these humans. They'd certainly saved her, and she felt she owed a debt... but the question was what to actually do about it.
And even though she'd saved them... it didn't feel like the same. She was sure they'd have been able to handle it without her help...
"Ya know, that ain't really very polite," a voice said.
She jumped, her flames flaring up with the shock. "What? Who's there?"
Looking around by the light of her wings, she saw – nothing.
Then a Meowth seemed to fade out of the darkness beneath a branch. "Hey."
Moltres blinked. "But – you weren't there! I looked there!"
"Yeah, that's ninja skills for ya," Meowth shrugged. "Hey, ain't you dat Moltres what blew up Jessiebelle's helicopters?"
"I – well, I blew up some helicopters," she admitted. "I don't know whose they were."
"Why'd ya do dat, then?" Meowth asked, sitting down on a tree root.
"Because they looked like they were going to hurt – someone," she explained.
Meowth considered her for a bit longer, then shrugged. "Whatever. Thanks, I guess – but it is rude ta stare."
With that, he vanished.
Moltres frowned, not sure what to do now.
"Oh?" Jessie said, as Meowth walked back into camp. "Where were you?"
Meowth shrugged. "Just a walk. I got ta stretch my legs sometime, Jessie!"
40
With care, the Gym Leader took a simple Pokéball from her belt. "Rusty, let's do this!"
In a flash, Jasmine's Steelix materialized in the Gym. He took up a fairly large amount of the floor at full stretch, and he reared up to roar at Keldeo.
Unfazed, Keldeo set his stance.
Jasmine then shook out her wrists, and held up a bangle. She slipped it onto her right wrist, and held it up.
Ash blinked. "What's – wait, is that a-"
The small red bow on Rusty's head began to glow, matching the bangle Jasmine had just put on.
"That's a Mega Stone!" Brock said, blinking. "I didn't know Steelix had one!"
As he said that, Rusty flashed orange as the Mega Stone activated.
When the glow had died down, the friends saw through the gathering sandstorm how Rusty had changed.
He was a little bit longer – a few feet. His lower jaw had expanded, forming protrusions either side of the chin, and his head had flattened down a bit.
Most of the changes, however, had happened to his body.
A rotating ring of glowing crystals girdled the base of his neck, flashing irregularly as the energy of the Mega-Evolution jumped between them. There were pairs of similar iridescent crystals growing out of alternate body-boulders, with the other body segments smaller than before and marked with glowing blue hexagons.
"That's pretty cool," Ash admitted. "I didn't know you had a Mega Stone – or a Key Stone."
"You're well informed," Jasmine said, with a smile. "Most people haven't heard of it – this is for special occasions."
"I'll say..." Misty muttered. "Wish I had a Mega Stone."
"You know what to do, Rusty," Jasmine told him. "Begin!"
Keldeo squinted through the sandstorm, and dodged aside as Rusty's head came slamming down with Thunder Fang crackling.
Horn glowing, he lashed out with a Sacred Sword which splashed off Rusty's armoured carapace.
"What?" he said, blinking. "That should have done at least some-"
Rusty's head came forward again, lightning-fast, and slammed home with an Iron Head attack which knocked Keldeo backwards.
The Colt Pokémon kicked out with his rear legs, hitting the wall with a clang, and arrested his movement that way. Charging up another Sacred Sword, he tried to get a bead through the sandstorm.
He saw Rusty coming just a little too late.
The Steelix slammed into him at high speed, and this time there was nowhere to shed the force before hitting the wall. Keldeo cried out at the impact, fired his Hydro Pump more-or-less randomly, and went shooting off across the gym – his Sacred Sword fizzling as he lost control of it.
Landing one-hoof-first and staggering, he turned to look into the core of the sandstorm. Aiming his forehoof somewhere into the cloud, he fired a burst of water.
There was a brief sound of water drumming on metal, and then Rusty's tail came sweeping out of the sand at about knee height.
Keldeo was able to dodge that sweeping Iron Tail with another burst of water from his hooves, jumping barely over the appendage, but one of the crystals clipped his rear left leg and destabilized his landing.
Capitalizing on that, Rusty swung his tail back again to hit Keldeo before he recovered. This time, the Water-type was too slow, and Rusty sent him slamming into the wall.
Staggering a little, Keldeo lit off his horn and built up one more Secret Sword. He worked out where Ash and his friends were, and where Jasmine was, and then sent it shooting off into the clouds of sand midway between the two trainers.
Rusty roared in surprise and pain, and Keldeo felt a fierce triumph that he'd scored – then the Mega Steelix retaliated with a large rock at high speed, and knocked Keldeo out.
Ash held his arm up to shield his eyes. "This sandstorm is really annoying... okay, let's see if this works."
He reached for another Pokéball. "Okay, here goes – Charizard!"
The big Fire-type erupted into the air, and snorted at the sand as it reached for him. His wings hammered as he hovered near the roof, sending great gales into the swirling sand and driving it towards the floor.
A rock flew up at him from the cloud, and he smashed it aside with a Metal Claw before retaliating with a huge blast of flame – not especially potent, but hot enough and broad enough to drive most of the sand to the floor.
It cooled quickly, fused a little by the heat and made sticky and cohesive.
Charizard smirked, satisfied with his solution to the Sandstorm – then yelped, ducking out of the way as a blizzard of rocks flew in his direction.
Rusty's crystalline spines glowed as he levitated more rocks for a particularly dramatic Stone Edge, then flung them too at Charizard.
Flying out of the way, Charizard quickly came to a conclusion – the indoor gym, large as it was, was too small for a Pokémon his size to properly fight in the air.
Grumbling about that, he dove for the floor – managing to reach it quickly enough to avoid all the rocks, though one was a close thing – and roared defiance.
Rusty considered Charizard, spines flickering with multicoloured light, and then his tail slammed into the floor – shattering the glass there into smaller pieces.
Through the gap, more rocks came rumbling up to hover around him – ready for use.
While Rusty was preparing, Charizard had not been idle. He began with a shot of fire, aimed not towards the Mega Steelix – but to his left, towards the wall. It burst with a loud crack, releasing clouds of thick smoke, and he took a half-flapping leap into the concealing darkness.
The smoke drifted for a moment, and then rippled as Rusty sent the first half-dozen rocks into it.
There were a loud series of clangs as they struck the armour plate on the other side of the cloud of smoke.
Jasmine frowned. "That didn't quite sound right... I hope that doesn't mean that bit of the armour's unsound."
Rusty sent pattern after pattern of rocks into the smoke, producing loud clangs with a monotonous regularity – and no grunt of pain from Charizard.
It didn't sound like any of the rocks were hitting flesh, either.
Finally, after a couple of minutes of this, Rusty tired. He came forwards in a grinding, slithering motion, pivoted about a third of the way down his body, and whipped his tail through the smoke.
It hit something with a clang – and stopped.
Rusty blinked, clearly confused. He tried to bring his tail back, and found it was being held still.
"Inferno!" Charizard roared, punching out a lance of blue flame from the smoke cloud. It splashed off Rusty's head and side, heating it to cherry-red and even orange in some places.
The blast also sent the smoke away in coils, and everyone could see what had happened.
Charizard was standing up, refurling his wings – which had, until that moment, been shielding him in tough, hard-to-damage Steel Wings. And his tail was unwrapping from his legs, still shimmering with the Iron Tail which had made it, too, too tough for Rusty to damage easily.
Shaking his head and recovering, Rusty snatched his tail away from Charizard's grip. Rather than be dashed into the wall by it, Charizard let it go – instead, he took off once more, and fired a Draco Meteor at the pile of rocks which was most of Rusty's ammunition.
One flash of orange and a roar of overlapping explosions, and all Rusty had to work with was gravel.
Undaunted, he switched approaches. Coiling briefly, he launched himself forwards for a powerful physical headbutt.
Charizard was caught wrong-footed, coming down to land, and the headbutt hit him in the chest. He slid backwards several feet, then managed to dig his clawed feet into the ground and halt his backwards movement just short of the wall.
"Charizard!" Ash called.
Charizard looked over, then turned back to Rusty as the Steel-type's fangs began to crackle with energy. Using his head, he slammed the mouth closed again with a headbutt of his own. "Kind of busy here!"
"Whenever you want, use-" Ash began, then Rusty pushed forwards again with a grinding cacophany of metal on rock.
Charizard roared, putting one foot on the armourplate of the wall, and shoved. He drove Rusty skidding backwards a few paces, then unleashed a point-blank Fireblast and got clear in the explosion.
"-Blast Burn!" Ash completed.
A grin crossed Charizard's face. "Sure thing!"
He hit the ground arms-first, rolled, and came to his feet as Rusty turned towards him. The big armoured faceplate of the Steelix was shimmering faintly with heat as he cooled, and he looked a little more sluggish than he had done.
Charizard began to inhale, and an eerie light built in his throat.
Correctly interpreting this as terrible news, Rusty lunged forwards in an Iron Head attack to try to interrupt him.
The Fire-type opened his wings and beat them with a fiery crackle. Flame sprung from his tail, surrounding him and his wings, and then rocketed forwards in a bright orange-yellow pulse to spring up in a column of fire between him and Rusty. The same flap of the wings also sent Charizard into the air, out of the way when Rusty broke through the Fire Pledge.
Rusty turned in on himself and launched over half his body length into the air, jaws opening to try and grab Charizard's tail and pull him down that way.
Diving to gain speed, Charizard snatched his tail away from the clamping Thunder Fang, and pulled up just before hitting the cracked-glass floor in a wingover.
At about that point, he charged up as much as he was intending to.
A pulse of incandescent flame and plasma erupted from his mouth, slamming into Rusty's first thick body segment a little left of centre and driving him backwards into the armour-plating of the wall. Steel armour ablated off in a plume of golden radiance, and Rusty's body was nearly white hot by the time the second or so of the attack ended.
A little of the Blast Burn had missed Rusty's body itself, instead striking the armour plate of the walls directly. As the glow of overheated metal began to cool down, the spectators saw – with not a little awe – that there was a deep dent melted into the steel plate, and the whole section around it was deformed.
Rusty flashed orange and slumped forwards, revealing that the armour plate he'd been driven into was itself deformed and softened by the burst of intense heat. He was back to a non-mega-evolved Steelix by the time he hit the floor.
Charizard smirked. "Mine was better."
"Nice one, Charizard!" Ash called, after a few seconds of silence. "That was awesome!"
He glanced over at Jasmine. "One left, right?"
"...my poor gym..." Jasmine said, softly. Then she shook her head. "Right. Sorry about that... okay."
She raised a Pokéball, and returned Rusty. That done, she raised another.
"That's a Lure Ball," Ash said, recognizing it. "Back here, Charizard, that's going to be a Water-type-"
"No!" Charizard said immediately.
Ash blinked.
"I want to do this," Charizard told him. "If I faint, then fine – but this is the last one, and you don't need me to conserve my strength."
"Sure, then," Ash shrugged. "I'm going to leave Charizard out."
Jasmine blinked. "Fine, then. Empoleon!"
"Good day," Empoleon said, with an elaborate bow towards his opponent. "I am Empoleon, and I will be your opponent today."
"Yeah, I gathered," Charizard agreed. He slammed one fist into the other palm. "Let's do this!"
"Very well." Empoleon nodded. He stood up straight, clicking his heels together, with his flippers straight down at his sides.
Charizard blinked. "What's-"
"Aqua Jet!"
Empoleon took off, gouts of water erupting from the base of each flipper and sending him into the air.
When he was about halfway to the roof, he stopped there for a little – and then tilted forwards, sweeping his flippers up behind him and jetting towards Charizard.
The bigger Fire/Flying type sent a blast of flame towards Empoleon, which was met by a precise Water Pulse – both attacks detonating in mid-air – and Empoleon then swept past him, flippers coming out to his sides to slow down and perform a wingover.
As he did, water sluiced over the wall, producing a great cloud of steam from the still-hot metal.
Ash blinked. "I thought penguins couldn't fly..."
"Ash," Pikachu pointed out. "Keldeo flies. The same way, even."
"True," Ash agreed with a nod.
Empoleon banked around, flippers shifting again from beside to behind as he accelerated, and fired a string of Water Pulses at the dodging Charizard.
By dint of luck, skill and a judicious blast of Dragonbreath, Charizard managed to avoid being hit by all but one of them. That one hurt, though, slapping into his chest and knocking him backwards.
Growling, Charizard tracked Empoleon's next turn. There was definitely a weakness there... he just had to work out how to use it.
First, though, he had the attack run to deal with.
Empoleon rolled as he came in, accelerating hard, and opened fire with a Bubblebeam. The glowing white bubbles hit the ground in front of Charizard, tracked across it towards him, and then locked on.
Charizard used the moment's warning well. Sweeping his wing up – once more glowing with Steel Wing, as he'd done against Rusty – he used it as a shield, reducing the impact of the Water-type attack and protecting his tail.
Behind the wing, an eerie green glow built up.
As Empoleon reached his closest approach, he had to stop firing – and Charizard whipped his wing back down, opening fire with a gout of Dragonbreath that swept across the flying penguin from front to back.
Empoleon staggered in the air from the influence of the Dragon-type attack, then recovered. Sweeping his flippers back to their outer position to increase his manoeuvrability, he slowed and banked-
"Look out!" Jasmine shouted-
And Charizard arrived.
As soon as his dragonbreath blast had done its job, the Fire-type had pushed off from the ground with all the strength in his powerful legs. Wings snapping out, he hammered them against the steamy air and leaped after Empoleon, aiming to grab him and physically prevent him from using his unorthodox flight method.
This approach got him a faceful of water from the water-jets as they shifted position, but he powered through it and his grip slammed home on the banking penguin.
"Seismic Toss!" Charizard explained, another flap of his wings carrying him towards the wall – holding Empoleon out in front of him to take the impact.
This did not go as planned.
Jasmine's jaw dropped as the two fully-evolved starters slammed into the wall – and tore an irregular section of the steel off.
A rough circle about eight or nine feet across parted company with the rest of the armoured steel with a horrible screeching of rent metal, leaving a jagged hole in the side of the gym and admitting both Pokémon into the open air outside.
"What the-" she began, staggered.
Through the hole, she saw Empoleon struggle free of Charizard's grip and take off – soaring into the sky at the head of a plume of water.
Roaring, Charizard followed with a crack of leathery wings, and she lost sight of him too.
"What just happened?" Ash asked, looking over at her. "I thought you said this was battleship armour!"
"It is!" Jasmine replied. "Or – well, was? But..."
She blinked. "Oh! I know what it is!"
"What is it?" Ash asked, as the Gym Leader and challenger both hurried over to the hole to see where their Pokémon were.
"Steel expands when it's hotter. Your Charizard's attack heated that section of steel to..." Jasmine trailed off for a moment, calculating in her head. "About a thousand degrees? More?"
"Oh, right," Ash nodded. "I get it. So he heated it up, then your Empoleon cooled it down, and that made it weaker?"
They reached the hole, and picked their way carefully over the jagged edges of the torn steel.
"Pretty much," Jasmine agreed. "When it cooled down, that bit suddenly shrank – and it had expanded before, so there must have been cracks all through it as it changed size."
She looked skywards, searching for the combatants. "There they are!"
Charizard unleashed a Fire Blast, aiming it at Empoleon. The flying penguin's flippers tilted, letting him dodge away from the direct line of the attack, but Charizard had planned for that – it detonated near Empoleon, knocking him sideways a little in the air and making his flight path a bit unstable.
Water jets traced a path in the sky as Empoleon regained control, and then shot off at an increasing speed.
Charizard followed, losing ground steadily as Empoleon's jets pushed him faster and faster, and then kept a careful eye on his opponent as he began a wide, high-speed circle.
Empoleon didn't use Bubblebeam this time, as he steadied down on his next attack run. His trident glowed as he prepared an attack, but this time it was a single watery sphere striated with white lines.
Charizard recognized it, and slipped sideways in the air away from it. He had to get as much distance as possible, before-
The Hydro Cannon detonated.
The huge amount of high-pressure water still had the speed it had started with, and spread in a watery cone whipped by the wind and pulled down by gravity. By the time it reached Charizard, the slowing effect of air resistance on the leading edge had made it pile up into a kind of saucer-shape, the rim reaching for him as he tried to get out of the attack basket.
He almost made it. The edge of the disk of water slapped into his side, and only a quick tail-curl managed to keep his flame from being hit by the it was, though, his right wing was forced against his body by the impact, and he began to tumble. The ground went right-below-left-behind-above, and he fought the disorientation it produced.
Empoleon dropped into a shallow dive, following his foe down, and then hissed in disappointment as Charizard's right wing extended again and he corrected his spin. The yaw was corrected next, and Charizard pulled up and out of the dive – going low enough that he went sweeping past the glass windows of a skyscraper.
No Bubblebeams shot at him, despite his vulnerability, as Empoleon's Hydro Cannon had nearly spent his element. He was recovering fast, but during that period Charizard was most in danger Empoleon was having to use all the water he could just to stay flying.
Wings working, Charizard pulled back up again, and didn't stop climbing until he had a good few thousand feet under him for safety. Empoleon followed him up, and the two Pokémon circled warily for a moment before diving back in.
"This seems unusual," Brock said, shading his eyes to watch the battle overhead. "Is the water raining down all over the city going to be a problem? I know Pewter occasionally complained when Onix made the ground shake too much."
Jasmine frowned. "I'm not sure, it's never really been a problem before... oh, I'm going to have so much paperwork. I need to see if the naval yard has enough armour for replacing the gym wall..."
The two Pokémon flew at one another, rolling and passing at a distance of just a few feet. Steam exploded as their attacks collided, and Charizard wrenched himself around in a turn to try and get on Empoleon's tail.
The sound of Bubblebeams told him that Empoleon had had the same idea, as they whipped off in the direction of where he'd been going before the turn. That also gave him a target, and he slammed out a Dragon Rage which hit home with an explosion which rocked the dissipating cloud of steam.
Continuing to turn, he caught sight of the dark form of Empoleon. Water jets shot out erratically as he tried to regain level flight, and Charizard grinned before launching down a Fire Blast.
Unfortunately for Empoleon, the blast detonated just as he managed to recover, and threw him off all over again. The penguin seemed to stagger in the air, slowing, and Charizard dove hard.
Flame crackled in his mouth, then roared forwards and encircled Empoleon in a Fire Spin. It hissed as water blasted out into it, and Charizard pumped more power into it to keep it up.
He had a plan. Empoleon couldn't steer if he didn't know which way the ground was, and with the fire circling him-
There was a huge blast of water, erupting out in all directions and extinguishing the entire Fire Spin. Empoleon appeared from inside it as it fell to the ground below, pointing both flippers straight down with huge torrents of water flowing out to try and avoid crashing.
The lower he dropped, the slower he was moving as he shed speed. About fifty feet above the ground, and barely ten above the roof of the nearby gym, he finally bottomed out.
Charizard used Overheat.
The potent, hoarded Fire-type attack slammed into Empoleon, blowing away his water-jets and slapping him to the ground just outside the gym. As he landed, Charizard swept down on top of him and slammed his fists down in a Rock Smash.
Empoleon twitched, and finally went limp.
Charizard panted, watching Empoleon for any sign of a recovery, and when he was sure that the Water-type wasn't going to get back up again he roared his triumph. "Hah! Take that, Water-types!"
Ash came around the corner of the gym. "Charizard – that was awesome!"
He glanced over his shoulder. "I think you broke the gym, though..."
"You've certainly earned this badge, Ash," Jasmine said, a few minutes later. "Twice over, if you count helping Amphy. But now I really feel I should have insisted you take it just for helping him."
Ash chuckled nervously. "Sorry about the wall..."
"Hello, and welcome back to the breakfast hour," the presenter said, smiling into the camera. "Now, we have a very special guest joining us today – the powerful, mysterious Pokémon Mewtwo. Hello, Mewtwo."
Mewtwo nodded. It is nice to be here.
The presenter nodded, then frowned. "Oh, sorry, I'm being told that there's a few technical-"
Allow me. Mewtwo raised a hand, which glowed. "Sorry for the inconvenience."
"That's – er..." Her hand went to her ear for a moment. "That's fine now. What did you do?"
"Before, I was speaking using my psychic powers," Mewtwo explained. "I'm using psychic energy to create sound, so it appears I am speaking out loud. Your cameras can pick it up."
"Oh, I see." The presenter nodded. "Thank you for that."
"It is my pleasure," Mewtwo said placidly.
"Well... okay." She shuffled her papers, and decided to try and push past the confusing moment. "Mewtwo, I understand that you're returning to the world of media?"
"That makes it sound all very official," Mewtwo shrugged. "I'm writing a book, that's all."
"I see," the presenter smiled. "That's a lot more than a lot of us do."
"I try," Mewtwo shrugged. "It's mainly about the relationship between humans and Pokémon. I've come at it from the other side, as it were, so-"
There was a pink flash.
Mewtwo sighed. Not now, Mew.
"That's Mew?" the presenter asked, sounding startled all over again.
Ooh, this is nice! Mew giggled, waving into the camera. Hi, everyone! I'm in your TV!
They can't hear you, Mew, Mewtwo told her. That's a film camera. It records sound and images.
Awww... Mew pouted, then hovered over to just behind Mewtwo. What are you talking about?
"We're discussing my book," Mewtwo said, out loud this time as a courtesy to the camera. "This really isn't a good time, Mew."
Nonsense! Mew said, and tapped him on the forehead. Tag!
Mewtwo shook his head. "I'm sorry about this," he said to the presenter.
She took a deep, steadying breath. "Right. I know you're – sorry, this is just a bit startling."
"I understand," Mewtwo said, shaking his hand to try to get Mew off. "She's nice, and she's given me a lot of help, but – she can be a bit of a handful."
I'm on your hand, so of course I'm a handful! Mew giggled.
"Wuffles!" Whitney wailed, as her Bidoof bounced off two walls and came to a concussed halt in the corner.
Raikou rolled his eyes, and held up another sign. Do I get the badge now?
He'd had to make a lot of signs recently.
"No you don't!" Whitney said, crossly. She put her hands on her hips. "You've still not finished the battle!"
Raikou made a sound like thunder over the horizon, and wrote another sign.
Hurry up, then.
"I will!" Whitney told him. "Miltank! Get him!"
Miltank nodded, curled into a ball and began Rolling Out towards him.
Raikou examined her, then snapped a Thunderbolt at her from his tail and loped out of the way.
Electricity crackled around the bovine Pokémon, but she continued to roll on regardless.
"Hm, that's interesting..." Raikou mused, watching her turn the corner and pick up speed. "I suspect she'll just keep accelerating, becoming more and more dangerous..."
Another Thunderbolt. This one hit home, too, but Miltank toughed it out and kept coming. Raikou had a little less leeway dodging this time.
"Right!" Raikou said, electricity building on his mane and arcing over his body. "Let's start by paralyzing you, then!"
His legs coiled up behind him, and he launched himself foewards. "Nuzzle!"
Raikou hit Miltank with a thunderous boom of impact and discharging electricity. The Normal-type went cannoning across the room, and slammed into the wall with a thud.
She dropped to the floor, residual static frizzing up her fur.
"Miltank!" Whitney said, gaping.
She turned to point a finger at Raikou. "You beastly, beastly, beast!"
"What?" Raikou asked, rhetorically. "She's paralyzed."
He glanced over. "And unconscious, I grant you... anyway."
Loping back to the entrance, Raikou held up a sign. Do I get the badge now?
"Fine!" Whitney said, sulkily. "And never darken my doorstep again!"
Raikou accepted the badge, and pinned it to a scarf wrapped around his neck.
Three down, five to go. Now, where to head next...
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone