Chapitre 8: Battling Gym Trainers

After a large celebratory dinner to celebrate the evolutions of Sucellus and Swadloon, the 4 of us spent the rest of the night where I told them of the plans for the week. Nothing else happened other than Swadloon convincing me to let her sleep in the bed next to me, I only relented because I know how clingy her species is during this stage of her evolution and that it could be detrimental to forcefully separate us.

The next morning after everyone was fed I returned Sucellus and Gaia to their balls and carrying Swadloon with me headed to the pokemon gym to inform the gym administrator of the evolution of Sucellus and Swadloon. I walked into the gym and saw her sitting behind the desk she was at yesterday. I walked over and said, "Good morning!"

Looking up at me she smiled and said, "Ah, Isaac. Are you here to challenge my husband?"

I smiled at how friendly she was and said, "No ma'am. I am here to let you know that my Sewaddle and Nuzleaf both evolved last night. I wasn't sure how it would affect the tournament if I just showed up with a Swadloon and a Shiftry, so I wanted to confirm with you that they did in fact evolve."

I watched as her eyes lit up as I spoke and she smiled while she said, "That's great! Congratulations! Let me just update your tournament profile." She then proceeded to type a bunch on the computer she was working at and after a few minutes she looked up and said, "Alright, you're all set for the tournament. Is there anything else I can help you with today?"

I nodded at her question and said, "Yes there is. While, I don't think I'm ready to face the gym leader, I was hoping to challenge a couple of gym trainers. My shiftry and Swadloon need to get used to their new bodies and I'd like to see how well my rhyhorn is doing. Nothing like a good battle to test that out."

She typed a bit more on the computer and then stood up and asked, "Would you please follow me?"

As we walked we chatted for a bit where I told her about when I started as a pokemon trainer among other things, and as we talked I learned that the weird female trainer, May, that I fought on the way to Petalburg was her daughter. I also learned that the administrator's name was Caroline. After only a few minutes of chatting we entered the battle arena and Caroline walked up and spoke to 3 of the gym trainers there. One of the gym trainers, a female with greenish hair, walked to the other side of the battle field while Caroline went up to the announcer's box.

Caroline spent a couple minutes reminding us of the rules, per league regulations, before she said, "Gym Trainer Mary, as this is an official gym battle please send out your pokemon first."

The now name Mary took the one pokeball off of her belt threw it while she said, "Go, Delcatty!"

Caroline then continued to announce, "Challenger Isaac, please send out your pokemon."

Thinking for a second I decided to give the fight to Gaia, as she hasn't actually fought anything besides wild pokemon yet.

Grabbing her ball I pressed the button and held it up while I said, "Go, Gaia!"

At that with a roar of excitement Gaia was ready to battle.

Caroline announced, "Challenger Isaac's Rhyhorn versus Gym Trainer Mary's Delcatty. Challenger Isaac may start when he is ready!"

At the announcement to start I yelled out, "Gaia, strategy Impair!"

What this strategy is, is to use the moves Scary Face, Sand Attack, and Tail Whip until I call for a change of strategy. Gaia is a slow tank so the use of these moves will not only make it easier for her to land her skills, but also make them hit harder. It makes use of her impressive defenses trading blows to guarantee the reduction in the enemy's abilities.

I watched as Mary called out for Delcatty to use Double Slap. I wanted to see how much Gaia could tank. Seconds later I watched as Delcatty looked to have hurt herself in the attack, while Gaia didn't seem to even notice she was attacked. Realizing I had either underestimated Gaia's defenses, or overestimated how strong the gym trainers were, I called out to Gaia, "Gaia, fangs."

With that Gaia went on the offensive, and immediately started attacking with the 3 fang moves she learned from her father. Gaia cycled between Ice Fang, Thunder Fang, and Fire Fang and by the time she stopped the Delcatty was laying on the ground with part of her frozen in ice, another part showing severe burns, and the rest sparking in electricity.

Caroline yelled out, "Delcatty is unable to battle! Challenger Isaac wins!"

With that Gaia came over to me and I spent a few minutes feeding Gaia her favorite berries while the battle field was cleaned up. After I returned her Swadloon had woken up from the nap she was taking, she had used String Shot to set up a sort of nest on top of, but not in the way of my backpack.

"Hey, Swadloon. Did you have a good nap?"

I smiled at how excited she was about it, and after petting her a bit while she ate a few berries, I heard Caroline calling for my attention.

"Challenger Isaac, if you could please send out the pokemon you want to use?"

Ah, I forgot I had signed up to fight 3 trainers. Finally turning my attention to the opponent I see a male trainer, also with greenish hair, standing there with a Linoone in front of him. Looking at Swadloon I asked her, "Do you think you're ready to battle?"

Swadloon looked at me nervously before she then huffed at me and jumped onto the battle field.

"Challenger Isaac has sent out Swadloon! When he is ready he may start the battle!"

"Alright Swadloon, do what you want."

At that Swadloon started by using String Shot, covering the entire battle field in it. Then to my, and everyone else's surprise Swadloon started to glow. The Linoone who had been charging to attack stopped in its tracks, evolution being a sort of taboo to interrupt pokemon instinctively leave an evolving pokemon alone.

In seconds the evolution came to a finish and standing there instead of a swadloon was instead a Leavanny. She immediately used Agility to up her speed and then ran in close and used Air Slash at such a close range the Linoone couldn't dodge even if it wanted to. With that, the battle was over.

"After the startling evolution of his Swadloon, Challenger Isaac has won the battle! Gym Trainer George's Linoone is unable to battle!"

I blinked in surprise before I called out, "Leavanny? Would you come here please?"

She looked at me seemingly unsure of how to act before doing as I said and walking up to me. Once she was close enough I jumped at her and hugged her while I exclaimed, "Congratulations on evolving so soon! Good job on winning!"

She proceeded to nuzzle against me as she exclaimed, "Leavanny!"

It took a bit of effort to finally separate from her, but once I did I walked over to Caroline and asked, "Caroline, is the other Gym Trainer at about the same level as the first two?"

She looked at me as if searching for something before she nodded and said, "Yes. They are all at the same level, and use slightly weaker pokemon that Norman, the Gym Leader uses for his gym battles."

I sighed at hearing that and asked, "So, Norman uses only slightly stronger pokemon but is ultimately a better trainer?" Seeing her nod I continued, "If that's the case could my last battle be against him for the badge? It seems I am stronger than I expected and unfortunately my shiftry would simply be angry at me for using him against a trainer and pokemon of the same level as the previous two. He's already going to be upset about the tournament if all the trainers participating have only a few badges and are struggling to get them. I'd rather not make him even more upset."

She frowned and asked, "Are you sure?"

I nodded and said, "Absolutely. He likes a good fight, and is my strongest pokemon. Although I think Leavanny could give him a good fight now."

Shaking her head a bit she said, "Let me go ask him. He didn't have any battles scheduled for today, so he might be training the pokemon making them unable to battle." With that she walked away.