章 80: Ace vs Hudson

"Milotic is unable to battle! Misty, Dawn, and May win!" Cried the officiator as the large and beautiful serpent fell, rendered unconscious from a powerful Crabhammer delivered by Misty's newly evolved Kingler.

It was the last to fall after Quaquaval and then Ludicolo, the former of which went down after May's Pichu evolved into a Pikachu, and the latter went down after both Pikachu and Chatot worked together against it. To be fair, I was really impressed they managed to win considering how tough the first half of the battle had been.

The turning point had been when Dawn ordered Chatot to abandon its fight with Ludicolo briefly to distract Quaquaval, giving the still then Pichu a chance to attack. And while Pichu's attacks had been too weak to deal a finishing blow at first, it had compensated by evolving into a Pikachu.

Afterwards Pikachu had gone to replay the favor to Chatot by helping it against Ludicolo, which had been lasting against its opponent due to it possessing the Rain Dish ability.

And once the two of them were defeated, Pikachu and Chatot both went to help Krabby, before it evolved into a Kingler and dealt the finishing blow against Daisy's Milotic.

"Wasn't that truly an amazing battle ladies and gentlemen!?" Daisy asked as she retrieved her mic, to which a loud cheer answered her. "Well don't go anywhere, because we've got even more up next!"

As she said that Daisy directed a look at me, making me cock a brow before a pair of doors behind her were thrown open. And the person who stepped through surprised not only me, but everyone else within the Gym, including Misty.

"Dad!?" She exclaimed, which I should've seen coming, but it was still surprising. After all, I was looking at none other than Hudson Williams, the former Leader of Cerulean city Gym before Daisy.

The only ones not appearing surprised were Daisy and her two other sisters, as she declared into her mic, "for today only, the former Gym Leader of Cerulean city, Hudson Williams, is coming out of retirement!"

The loudest cheer yet rattled the entire building as everyone grew excited to see the former Gym Leader battle, and I was no exception as I stepped forward.

"Ace Ketchum, am I right?" Hudson asked as I stepped up opposite him.

"That's right." I answered with my excitement growing, while I could also feel Lucario's growing beside me.

"This Gym match will be between the former Leader, Hudson Williams, and Ace Ketchum!" Daisy declared, apparently taking the role of officiator for this match.

"The match will be a six on six, no time limit. The challenger can substitute as much as they want, but no substitutions for the Gym Leader! Are the battlers ready? GO!"

"Go, Tentacruel!" Hudson cried out the second the match started, before a massive jellyfish looking Pokemon appeared in the pool, making my brows twitch when I saw just how big it was.

"An alpha right off the bat?" I uttered in exasperation, even as everyone 'ooh' and 'ah'ed the massive Tentacruel. And the thing WAS massive.

The main body of the Tentacruel itself was about ten feet tall, not to mention the eighty poisonous tentacles it possessed that spread out to fill the entire pool. And did I mention how they were all EXTREMELY toxic?

The entire time I could feel the Tentacruel looking up at me from the water in contempt, as if daring me to send one of my Pokemon down to it.

"That thing's like a damn kraken..." I swore under my breath, even as I palmed the Pokeballs on my belt.

I couldn't use Grovyle or Parasect, and while Exeggutor would be a decent matchup with his psychic powers, I doubt they'd be effective against a foe as big, powerful, and experienced as this Tentacruel.

"Looks like you're up first." I whispered to one of my Pokeballs, which jerked in response to my words.

"Go, Sharpedo!" I cried while throwing it out, before Sharpedo appeared in the water alongside Tentacruel.

"Oh? You intend to challenge a water type Gym Leader with a water Pokemon?" Hudson asked as he eyed my Sharpedo, but I knew she was the right choice for this battle. Her razor sharp teeth and Rough Skin ability would make her a natural counter to Tentacruel's tentacles, as well as its soft body.

"Tentacruel, Sludge Wave and then Wrap!" Hudson readily ordered, to which his Pokemon responded by flooding the entire pool with murky toxic sludge. It then shot out more than twenty tentacles at Sharpedo, obviously planning to entangle her within them.

The poison in the water was a problem, but not an immediate one.

"Sharpedo, Aqua Razor." I calmly ordered out loud, to which Sharpedo shot forward with the jets on her backside.

Water type energy covered her body similar to an Aqua Jet, but the water around her fins began to crystallize from ice type energy like when she used Ice Fang. Except this time it was her fins instead of her fangs, turning all four of her fins into deadly razors that shredded every single tentacle that tried to Wrap around her.

"!!!"

There was a low groan from Tentacruel as several of its tentacles were shredded, but since they were mostly made of water they'd grow back fairly quickly. Just not during this battle.

Outside the pool however no one could see what was going on since Tentacruel flooded it with toxic muck, but I could've sworn I saw Hudson frown as it was shredded.

"Use Hex, Tentacruel."

His command was immediately followed by a flash of pain that I felt through Sharpedo as she was assaulted by the ghost type move, which did significantly more damage since Sharpedo was obviously poisoned by now.

Crunch.

I communicated what I wanted through my aura to Sharpedo, while also channeling my aura so that she could sense where Tentacruel was in the thick muck.

It was a one shot hope, since Sharpedo was already severely poisoned while another Hex would take her out completely. But, Tentacruel had shit for defense, which was more than likely why Hudson had it cloud the water with topic muck.

Unfortunately for them, I had aura on my side.

There was an explosion of water and toxic sludge as Tentacruel was blasted out, before landing in a heap on the ground next to Hudson.

"Tentacruel is out of bounds and unable to battle! Sharpedo wins!" Daisy declared, though there wasn't too much fanfare from the outcome of the match. After all, no one could really tell what was going on in the sludge filled pool.

"Return Tentacruel.." Hudson stated while returning his Pokemon to its Pokeball, while I did the same with Sharpedo. Though she won the match, the severe poisoning and damage she took from the Hex meant I probably wasn't going to send her back out this time.

"You did really well." I whispered to her Pokeball, before placing it back on my belt.

"It's your turn now." Hudson declared suddenly, drawing attention back to the pool at her threw out his next Pokeball. "Go, Poliwrath!"

"Wrath!" The Poliwrath declared as it appeared on one of the platforms floating on the pool, flexing its arms to show off to everyone.

Again my brow twitched as I beheld the sheer size of this Poliwrath, which would normally stand at just a little over four feet, but this one was taller than me. Not only that, but it also sported an Assault Vest that would defend it from special type moves at the trade off of only being able to use damage dealing moves itself.

I immediately crossed Magneton and my grass type Pokemon off the list of those to send out against Poliwrath, since it's fighting type moves would make short work of the latter and the ice type attacks it undoubtedly knew would take out the latter.

"It's your time to shine, Flaaffy!" I cried while sending out one of my little sheep.

"Feeeeeee!" He cried out as the wool around his head crackled with electricity, and the little bulb on the tip of his tail gleamed.

"Fee fee!" My other Flaaffy cried as she too appeared beside me, cheering on her mate as fought.

"Keep it at a distance Poliwrath. Water Gun." Hudson commanded immediately.

"Wrath!" Poliwrath answered, before spraying a powerful stream of water at Flaaffy.

"Fee!" Flaaffy cried as he just barely managed to avoid the blast of water, before rushing in at Poliwrath.

"Keep it back!"

"Wrath! Wrath! Wrath!"

Poliwrath cried while shooting numerous blasts of water at Flaaffy, who agilely danced around them and onto the different platforms as he steadily got closer to Poliwrath. Distance attacks won't work because of the Assault Vest, so he had to get in close to deal physical attacks.

"Now Flaaffy, use tackle!" I declared once he landed on the same platform Poliwrath was on.

"Fee!" Flaaffy declared as he charged forward and slammed his entire body into Poliwrath. But Poliwrath barely even flinched at the contact.

Instead, it wrapped its arms around Flaaffy and slammed him down into the platform with a Submission that had enough power to make the entire platform tilt dangerously. I was even sure that they were both going to end up in the murky water, though Poliwrath seemed to have controlled itself to not do that.

I guess even it didn't want to go swimming in poison, though I could tell that the pool was already clearing as the filters purified the water. But I had to worry about Flaaffy under Poliwrath more at the moment.

"Flaaffy, use Discharge!"

"FEEEEE!"

With a loud cry, Flaaffy unleashed a wild wave of electricity that shocked everything around him, which was mostly Poliwrath at the moment.

Even with the protective abilities of the Assault Vest, Poliwrath still had to have taken quite a bit of damage from that attack from point blank as it released its hold on Flaaffy.

"Now, use Cotton Spore!" I commanded Flaaffy next, who shot numerous blobs of cotton at Poliwrath. Normally Cotton Spore would just make the cotton stick to their targets to impede their movements and slow them, but since I believe Poliwrath had the Damp ability it also served to weigh it down as the cotton became wet and soggy.

"Use Body Slam, Poliwrath." Hudson ordered calmly.

"Wrath!"

Even slowed down, Poliwrath still managed to launch itself forward at Flaaffy with the explosive power of it's muscles, slamming him to the ground.

"Flaaffy! Use-"

"Dynamic Punch."

"FEE!"

Flaaffy cried out in pain as he received a vicious punch from point blank range.

"Damn it... Flaaffy return!" I cried, attempting to return him to his Pokeball. I guess it was too soon for Flaaffy to be in a Gym battle.

"!!!"

"Fee!"

With a cry of defiance, Flaaffy rolled to the side and avoided returning to the Pokeball.

"Flaaffy..." I said in a warning.

"Fee fee! Flaaffy!" He declared defiantly while facing Poliwrath one more time, his wool crackling with electricity. But then, something I hadn't been expecting happened.

Light enveloped Flaaffy as his figure grew from two and a half feet to nearly five feet tall, before it faded to reveal that his wool had disappeared to be replaced with a fine layer of yellow fur all over his body.

"It looks as if he doesn't intend to give up..." Lucario muttered to me from the side.

"No. It doesn't." I answered him, even as I admired my newly evolved Ampharos.

"Fee....." The female Flaaffy beside me cooed lovingly from seeing her mate evolve.

"Alright then." I said with a smile. "Let's give this another shot."

(A.N. I am fucking exhausted and completely burned out from work the last few weeks. I originally planned to post the entire battle in one chapter, but decided to end it here so I can just get something out. I'll to write the rest of it when I get a chance.)