Day 12
"About time, I was thinking I was going to have to go dig up my Gyarados for a bit there."
Zaffre walked into the Gym wearily, looking around, and quickly realizing that Misty had the home turf here. Massive pools of water, not much footing, and honestly even with his preparation he couldn't quite get rid of the awful feeling that he was about to get slaughtered. Still he had made the right call, leaving out the water susceptible Solrock to pull out both Grass types he had on him. Still there was always the faint chance he could get out of this.
"Uh, you see, the thing is I'm a researcher, so technically I'm exempt from combating gyms, and I really don't see the point of us battling at all. I'm pretty sure it's illegal to force someone to trade a partner with-"
"Go, Staryu."
Unlike what would normally happen, the red light did not release the pokemon out in the open, but instead somewhere within the water.
"Come on now, don't take all day." Misty said, a rather cruel smile on her face. "Otherwise my Stayu might get a little impatient."
Zaffre frowned. "Sprout, go."
The newly evolved Ivysaur erupted out of the ball and on to the moderately sized platform above the water. Misty's gaze seemed to change a little upon seeing it. Zaffre pushed the thought aside, she'd seen his full team earlier today, while Bulbasaur had been in the box, so obviously she wouldn't be aware he had another grass type to fall on. A plan now had already formulated in his head to remove this field advantage, and that needed his full attention at the moment.
"Light screen." Zaffre called, and in respose a faint glow engulfed both the Ivysaur and every pokemon he hadn't released yet.
"Tackle, Staryu." The obvious response, any water attacks would not be effective, and with the light screen up this was doubly true. Of course it also meant the Pokemon had to get close, which was just what he'd wanted.
Sprout tanked the damage, allowing itself to get hit as it waited for Zaffre's order. "Sludge bomb."
The poison ball fired from the plant on Ivysaur's back, hitting Staryu dead on before exploding into a much larger mass of poison. The poison washed over the area, mercifully missing both trainer as expected, but a considerable amount went in the water.
Misty frowned at this move, staring at the Plant Pokemon suspiciously, but didn't make mention of it before her next order. "Tackle again Staryu."
The second assault seemed a bit rougher on the Ivysaur, but he still had the power to keep going.
"Vine Whip."
Sprout's vine's lashed out rapidly, quickly assaulting the Staryu before it could get a chance to recover from its attack. However it was under the fast moving vines that the starfish suddenly collapsed, to Zaffre's surprise.
"I thought a real battle with a Gym Leader would be a little rougher." It was once the heavy glare was placed upon him that Zaffre suddenly realized he'd said it out loud. "Uh, no offense."
"Well I suppose I underestimated you a bit." Misty shrugged. "I only really have one Pokemon left I'm allowed to use against challengers, but before that, I wanted to ask about that Ivysaur."
Relieved that this was going so well and was already almost over, Zaffre responded. "I got it from an old lady. She seemed to have vanished though, saying something about it's previous owner..."
"Abandoned it. Well, something like that anyway. Full story's a bit more complicated than that, so right now I'm going to skip it. I'm going to focus my full attention on crushing you."
Zaffre opened his mouth to question what she'd meant about his partner, before he sudden felt a chill in the air. He suddenly realized she was being entirely casual about their first bout, going easy on him because she'd thought him to be significantly weaker than he was. Now however it seemed she was taking him a lot more seriously.
"Starmie, go."
The much bigger evolution of Staryu appeared on the platform this time, bypassing the now poisoned water entirely. Taking note of the Gym leader's much more serious gaze, Zaffre recalled the weakened Ivysaur, this time opting to send out his other Grass type.
"Your turn Shroom."
The insect Pokemon came out, and at the same moment, Starmie unleashed a wave of shurriken like stars upon it. Zaffre stared a moment, stunned at the Gym trainer.
The female leader shrugged. "Starmie's a Psychic type, I don't have to give it orders out loud, it already knows what I want it to do, like right there, with that Swift attack."
Having not tried to train Soul especially hard, this new information baffled him, but before she could just order the starfish to attack again, he had to make his first move. "Stun Spore, Shroom!"
The Paras unleashed the spores in a massive wave, effectively paralyzing the Starmie instantly. However despite this, another swift attack went through regardless, devastating the poor insect with the second onslaught.
"If I were you, I'd start taking this a bit more seriously, otherwise you're going to lose that lovely Chinchou of yours really fast." Misty said with a smirk.
Feeling incredibly fearful all of a sudden, Zaffre made his next move. "Cotton, let's go!"
Despite the electric type now on the field, clearly equipped with a magnet and the type disadvantage going on, the Gym Leader's incredibly terrifying gaze and confidence didn't let up. What does she know that I don't know?
Misty smiled just a little bit wider, sending horrified chills down the boy's spine. Deciding quickly not to risk it, Zaffre called out his next order, just as Starmie launched its next assault of golden stars. "Cotton Spore!"
The cotton spores usually just reduced speed, but paralyzed as it was, the Starmie would now be significantly hampered. Confident he now had the upperhand, Zaffre called for a Thundershock.
Surprisingly, the starfish lasted through two thundershocks, while it constantly fired those stars at his Flaffy, to the point where the sheep looked to have taken significant damage. Recalling it, Zaffre decided to send out Cha'Ding. Lanturn's only viable non water attack only really worked well when it was at lower health, and sending out Torch seemed rather silly at this point, so with the others weakened as they were, he could risk sending out his flier. It had no advantage, but certainly no inherent weakness either, and the Starmie was nearly finished anyway.
However the instant he sent out the flier, the water user's gaze became positively unnerving. Not wanting to take any massive risks, he decided to play it safe, just in case. "Sand Attack, Cha'Ding!"
The bird conjured up the sand from its wings, swatting it at the starfish. Not quite sure what this achieved however, only knowing that it would reduce accuracy, Zaffre watched as whatever order Misty gave could not be followed due to the paralysis finally kicking in. Feeling confident he now had this in the bag, Zaffre gave his order that would hopefully finish it.
"Fury attack!"
Cha'Ding charged, stick waving wildly, but unfortunately at that moment the order Misty gave finally went through, as electricity started to build up around the Starmie. With a degree of power even his Flaffy with its magnet would be hard to match, the Farfetch'd was instantly zapped and fried in one fell swoop.
Thunderbolt?!
"I warned you," Misty said with a smirk. "You didn't take this seriously enough."
Positively stunned, Zaffre considered his options, not finding them particularly pleasing. The terrifying gaze of the the Gym Leader somehow intensified even more, as even weakened the Starmie looked positively menacing as it crackled with electricity, swelling with power.
So this is what it's like to actually fight someone with actual skill. Zaffre thought, feeling a familiar swell of emotion rise in him. Well, it might be a little foolish, but I might as well meet her challenge head on.
"Torch!" Zaffre called, completely throwing caution to the wind as he summoned his original partner. Not even waiting for the red light to completely disperse, he gave out his first order. "Smokescreen."
Misty gave a wicked grin at his choice. "You sure about this?"
Once again, without the Gym Leader having to say a word, the water type backed off a bit, exactly as he'd expected, as it prepared to fire off Thunderbolt once more.
It really is like she's reading my mind. He wasn't fully aware of the mechanics of how psychics worked, but using the smokescreen to force the Starmie to shock itself had been his first plan, and now it seemed to be backing off, away from the walkway where he could easily attack, and was attempting to use the lack of moving space against him.
Still, it wasn't aware of a few things just yet either.
"Tackle, Torch."
Rocketing right out of the smoke cloud with the massive boost provided by the flames on his back, Torch Launched himself to the edge of the pool, allowing him to twist around to ram straight into the heavily weakened and significantly slowed Starmie before it could even fire the attack. Still not enough to do the starfish in however, Torch rocketed to the other edge of the pool this time, awaiting the next order.
Zaffre already had the plan in motion, it didn't matter if they could see his plan ahead of time if there was no way to avoid it. And mercifully Torch had very recently learned just the technique to pull this off. "Quick Attack."
The flames lit up behind Torch again, boosted even further this time as he rocketed forth far faster than before. As if expecting this however, the Starmie immediately fired off a Water Pulse directly into Torch's path.
"A good strategy." Zaffre responded, smiling warmly. "Wait for us to charge forward in the air then attack when we have no ability to dodge. Had Torch not evolved, that probably would have worked too."
This time the flame on his head lit up, propelling the pokemon to twist in midair around the attack. His speed seemed to multiply, as he flashed about multiple locations at once around the Starmie before finally ramming into it hard from behind.
"Right now, Torch is far too fast for you to catch with that sort of strategy."
The Starmie plummeted, right into the still poisoned water. Zaffre was ready for this.
"Also funny thing I learned about that sludge. It's flammable."
Misty's eyes widened for just an instant, before Zaffre gave the order. "Torch, Ember!"
The boosted wave of fire struck the now poison filled pool, setting the entire mass alight in a single instant. It wouldn't do much damage, hell the water itself probably negated the brunt of it, but the Starmie had taken a significant amount of damage already, and this certainly would finish it.
Torch landed casually on the platform, looking none the worse for wear. Grinning happily, Zaffre moved over to pet him, but upon the fire pokemon's flames sudden bursting out again, he turned back around.
The clearly heavily wounded Starmie floated above the now dying flames. It survived all of that? Well, surely one more hit will finish it, so it shouldn't be too much of a big-
Finally deciding to give an order aloud this time, perhaps to drive in just how futile everything up to this point had been, Misty immediately cut off his thoughts. "Recover."
In that fatal instant, all the hard work he'd put into the Starmie's defeat vanished before his eyes. Suddenly fearful, and realizing a vast majority of his team was worn out by this point, Zaffre realized this was going to be nowhere near as simple as he'd thought.
Recovering quickly, he gave out his next order, hoping to buy some time to figure something out. "Quick attack!"
Quilava launched himself at the now healed Starmie, just as it fired off a set of golden stars at him.
"I just said that wouldn't work." Zaffre said, running over his options quickly. All he really had left was Lanturn, and he wasn't sure how many hits it could take from that star attack before flail was going to work to the degree he needed. As he thought, Quilava effortlessly blitzed passed the golden stars, keeping on towards the starfish. Unfortunately, the second he passed them, the stars suddenly twisted around and kept coming after him.
Stunned, he almost didn't hear Misty's voice cut in again. "Yeah, the fun thing about swift is that it's a move that cannot possibly miss."
Torch flashed around the feild while leaving a trail of fire in his wake, desperately trying to shake the stars off him, but no matter which way he turned they stayed in hot pursuit, slowly gaining on him. Thinking fast, Zaffre called out his next order.
"Get Starmie between you and the attack!" Torch responded instantly, twisting himself after the Starmie again. The still Paralyzed pokemon couldn't quite respond quick enough, allowing Torch to use the flames to effortlessly twist around it.
Unfortunately the instant they were about to hit the Starmie dead on, they twisted completely around it, as if avoiding it on purpose, before bearing down on the Quilava again. Zaffre could only stare, stunned, as they hit Torch dead on.
Misty however didn't let the sudden opening go to waste, deciding to pronounce her order aloud again to drive the sudden despair the researcher had fallen into all the harder. "Waterpulse!"
Unable to recover in time, the water attack hit the fire pokemon dead on, driving Torch hard into the cloud of smoke he'd released earlier. Not one to miss an opportunity, Misty yelled out her next attack while Zaffre desperately fumbled for the pokeball to recall his partner before it was too late.
"Thunderbolt!"
The attack hit the smoke cloud just as Zaffre managed to point the pokeball at Torch and fire off the red beam to call him back. Frowning deeply, he stared at the now thoroughly terrifying Starmie as he considered his options.
"See, now that's what happens when you take a gym leader too lightly." Misty said, as the Starmie floated just above her. It was almost eerie how such an innocent looking pair were giving off such a horrifying aura.
Nothing left to do but wing it, and hope I can outlast her. Though if she uses recover again, I have no chance at all. Hesitating a moment before conceding there was really no other choice, Zaffre let loose his last teammate. "Lanturn."
Misty's smirk grew all the wider. "How nice of you to bring me my prize already." She said, before letting out a laugh.
Zaffre gulped, quickly realizing just how much he'd bundled this up. He really was completely out of options. "Flail, Lanturn!"
Though a Chinchou was a Water/Electric mix, it unfortunately hadn't learned any actual electric attacks yet, leaving Zaffre with only Flail to work with. And since Flail was a variable attack depending on how low the pokemon's health was, this didn't leave him with a lot of options.
Especially when the single swift attack the Starmie used in response nearly devastated the poor pokemon.
"Just because I think it's adorable doesn't mean I'll let you win with it." Misty said, still with that same smirk.
The next flail the Chinchou used did leave a bit more of an impact, but unfortunately his teammate could not last through a second swift. The Paralysis doesn't seem to be stopping it at all, and if it gets off another recover again, I'm done for. There's nothing I can do here.
The thoroughly weakened Sprout came out next, and though it's subsequent Vine Whip left quite an impact, all it took was a single attack from the Starmie to end it.
"Cotton." Zaffre called out, desperate at this point. "Thundershock!"
The Electric Attack finally seemed to leave an impact on the starfish. Finally, one more and it's done for!
Unfortunatley Misty seemed to notice this as well, because her next order happened to be the one he was most dreading. "Recover."
"Thundershock again!" Zaffre called, hoping against hope that the attack could get off before the starfish could complete healing itself. Fortune however seemed to smile on him, because at that very instant, the paralysis took hold again, allowing the sheep just enough time to charge up and fire the blast of electricity. In a single instant, the starfish fell the ground, finally unconscious.
Zaffre stared, stunned, not quite believing his luck. Misty however scowled. "Aw, and I was so looking forward to making that chinchou mine too..."
"Wha..." Zaffre said, unbelieving.
Misty recalled the Starmie, before walking up the the researcher. "You won, by a hair mind."
"Then why does it feel more like I lost." He meant it too, his team had been utterly devastated by pretty much a single pokemon from the Gym Trainer. Had that recover actually been able to get off, he was fairly sure he would have lost completely.
Misty however shrugged in response. "I've beaten people with a lot better teams than you with weaker teams than I have now. We Gym Leaders aren't supposed to be push overs after all. You won by pure luck sure, but that's the name of the game. It's a shame I couldn't nab that Chinchou though."
She flicked something at him, which he quickly recognized to be a badge. Still not feeling like he'd quite earned it, the researcher could only stare at it blankly.
"Come on now, you won, fair and square. Now pick that up so you can get started. I have a few more things to give you, but that can wait till after you're done."
Finally moving, Zaffre picked up the badge. Technically he didn't really need it, nor did he particularly want it, but he felt strangely joyous about it none the less. Of course then he put together the last bit of what she said.
"Wait, get started on what?"
Misty's gaze suddenly become monstrous. "Why cleaning this place up of course."
Zaffre glanced around. A bit of the electrified smoke still lingered on the platform, and though the flames had gotten rid of most of the poison, there was still some lingering within the depths. Further still a few bits of the pool seemed to be on fire, which he was fairly sure wasn't a good thing. "Uh, but-"
He was immediately cut off by her slamming her foot against his chest, sending him reeling into the water. Recalling suddenly he'd never quite gotten around to learning how to swim, he made a mental note to never come near Ceruleon Gym ever again before he fully submerged under the still poisoned water.