Chapter 5: 16-19 The New Normal - A Pokémon Elite 4 SI by CartecFF

The New Normal - A Pokémon Elite 4 SI by CartecFF

Chapter 5: 16-19

The New Normal – 2-9 – Training to Mauville

I watched as Karen left the Rustboro Gym with a satisfied smile on her face, she approached me, and we started making our way to the Pokécenter to heal up her Pokémon.

"That was a great battle." I told her, "Did you predict how it was going to go?"

"Thanks, and yeah I did." Karen replied, "I had a basic idea of what I thought Roy would do, and I tried to manipulate the battle so that things would go how I wanted them too." Her voice took on a hint of pride as she proceeded to explain her thinking and her plan to me. I have to admit, it was a good plan and really showed off her tactical thinking and skills as a trainer.

"You planned it out well." I praised, making her proud smile grow even wider, "And yeah, you're right that most trainers haven't really trained their Pokémon to resist mental attacks. It's something I had to remind myself to practice training because it's all too easy to focus on developing your Pokémon's attacks and strength."

"Mhm, these kinds of tactics are my favourite." Karen admitted, "Though I have to thank Agatha for teaching me about it; she's much better at it than I am."

"Well, now that you have the Stone Badge, which Gym are you going to head to next?" I asked, "I don't have any plans, so I don't mind following you." And I really just wanted to relax for a bit. It's been a rather stressful morning.

"Hmm, well traditionally the next Gym that we would head to would be the Dewford Gym, but that requires us to take a boat from Petalburg to Dewford unless we choose to fly there." She thought aloud, "Or, we could make our way to Mauville City...we could probably even just fly there to save time. It's much closer than Dewford anyways."

"Yeah, that makes sense." I agreed, "I'm not too keen on wandering through Rusturf Tunnel either. Exploring the many caves of Indigo were the least favourite part of my own journey through Indigo back then."

"Same. I just hate sleeping or trying to rest on the hard terrain of the caves. And you can never really feel safe enough to sleep comfortably. It's horrible." Karen remarked with an exaggerated shudder.

Our conversation paused as we had arrived at the Pokécenter. Karen went to the Nurse Joy to get her Pokémon healed up while I checked the Pokénet as I waited for her.

Due to how busy I was over the past few days; I hadn't checked the Pokénet for a while and missed what kinds of articles were being posted. Browsing through them, I was filled with a mix of happiness and disappointment.

On the one hand, I was happy to see how much coverage I was getting on the Pokénet. Getting more exposure meant that you were relevant and interesting to the public, which was a great thing to prevent myself from being side-lined by the Indigo League any further. There were also many who praised my performance in the recent battle against Norman, which was nice. On the other hand, there were a few articles criticising my appointment and deeming me unfit to be a member of the Elite 4. Not unexpected, but I still found it a bit frustrating to see.

Perhaps after the news of my participation in working together with Devon Corp might change a few people's minds? One can hope.

"I'm done...something wrong?" Karen returned and gave me a look of concern as she saw how my brows furrowed as I read through the Pokénet.

"Nothing unexpected, it's just that I was disappointed to see that there were quite a few people criticising my appointment to the Elite 4." I told her slightly despondently.

"Aww, well I'm sure you'll be able to prove them wrong soon enough." Karen comforted sympathetically while giving me a pat on the shoulder, "Come on, stop looking at the Pokénet and making yourself more depressed. We've got to head to Mauville City so I can book a match with Wattson."

"Fine, fine." I said and put away my phone before following her out of the Pokécenter. "Have you even prepared for your match against Wattson yet?"

"Not really." Karen admitted with a shrug, "But I should have time before the match to prepare a simple plan."

I nodded at that, and we both proceeded to saddle up on our Port and Honchkrow respectively before we flew to Mauville City. It was a very short flight, and we probably could have just walked there, but I was happy to not have to risk spending the night inside Rusturf Tunnel.

Before long, we were both circling around the enormous construction site that was Mauville City. The wonderful complex that could be seen in the ORAS games was still in construction, but the construction of the Mauville Gym had been prioritised and had already been built.

We both landed in an empty spot of land on the outskirts of Mauville City to avoid the hustle and bustle of the many construction workers and Machokes that were running around hauling building material and equipment. Even now, after spending sixteen years in the world of Pokémon, I still marvelled at how efficient the Pokémon was at getting things done.

At this rate, Mauville City should be pretty much finished by this time next year. Which was an insane rate of progress compared to my old world.

"Let's go get my match booked." Karen announced as she walked towards one of the entrances to Mauville City with me following behind her.

As we entered Mauville City, I was once again taken aback at just how big Mauville City was. The games really failed to show just how large the city was and how many shops it would eventually contain.

Immediately my mind jumped to the potential investment opportunity here for my family's Moomoo milk business. Despite the predictably high rent for setting up a shop here, I knew that Mauville City would be a popular location for shoppers around the world when it finally opened, so it might prove to be a fruitful business venture.

I quickly jotted down my thoughts in my notepad just so I wouldn't forget about it. Karen gave me a curious look, but I just shook my head. I could tell that she wanted to ask, but we had just arrived at the Mauville Gym, and I gestured for her to go inside.

A quick few minutes later, Karen came out again with a smile on her face. She said that she had a match scheduled in two days, and so it was a perfect balance of giving Karen enough time to prepare and create a plan while also not forcing us to wait a long time for her battle.

With her match scheduled, we went to the Pokécenter to reserve rooms for the next two nights and then we bought takeaway for lunch at the partially opened food hall and made our way back outside to the outskirts of Mauville so that we could release our Pokémon to train and feed them.

We then spent the next half hour just making sure that ourselves and our Pokémon were all appropriately fed. I was just packing away the remains of Smough's Pokéblocks before Karen came up to me with a request.

"Hey, John, since my next battle is against Wattson, who's an Electric type specialist, I thought that this might be a good time for my Pupitar to brush up on his Ground type attacks." She said, "Would you mind if he trains up with your Ursaluna?"

"Of course not, it's no problem." I immediately replied, "I promised you before that I would help." I called out to Vordt to get over here to help Pupitar train.

As I did so, I thought to myself that this would be a great opportunity if all our Pokémon trained together. It would do them some good to have go up against a different sparring partner than what they're used to.

I relayed my thoughts to Karen who nodded back.

"That's a great idea," Karen agreed, "Let's pair up our Pokémon so that each of them would have a suitable partner."

After a quick discussion, we decided on the following pairings.

Pupitar would be training with my Ursaluna so that Pupitar could practice using his Ground type attacks while Ursaluna would teach Pupitar how to improve on them. I noticed that, while Pupitar certainly wasn't bad at using Ground and Rock type attacks, I could understand why Karen had asked for additional training because there was a lot to improve on. Its Rock Throws were inaccurate and slower than what you'd want, and its' Earthquakes lacked power.

Sneasel would be training against my Snorlax so that her Sneasel could train and improve the stopping power of his attacks, while Smough would be practicing trying to hit a very nimble and evasive target with his Rock Slide, as I realized that he was a bit lacking in that aspect as demonstrated by his fight against Norman's Swellow.

Soaring through the air, Honchkrow was flying around with my Pidgeot and Mantine to practice their aerial manoeuvres. Specifically, they were focusing on trying to land Wing Attacks on each other without being hit themselves. Surprisingly, despite being not as trained for battle as the other two, Port was able to best the other two Pokémon in terms of flight speed. Perhaps that was because it had so much practice as a transport Pokémon that it had become very fast at flying.

Her ace, Houndoom, and my Wyrdeer were running around trying to blast each other with their Special Attacks while avoiding getting hit by the other's. Sometimes, they would also charge against one another to see who had the greater endurance and strength. Watching them spar, I was surprised at how much Klaus was struggling against her Houndoom; she was really good at pursuing Klaus and timing her attacks so that Klaus wasn't really able to fight back. It was a really impressive showing and really demonstrated why her Houndoom deserved to be Karen's ace.

Umbreon and her Spiritomb would be practicing their regeneration and status-based moves with my Clefable and Blissey. They would also be firing and blocking the occasional Special Attack moves from each other as they all mostly relied on Special Attacks as their main source of offense.

I was really surprised when I saw Karen sending out her Spiritomb. I didn't realize that people had even discovered that Pokémon yet. I managed to conceal my shock from appearing on my face though, and when I asked Karen where she got it, she told me that it was a gift from Agatha.

"She never told me where she got it from." Karen admitted to me, "She just said that it was some Lavender Town secret and that all Ghost Pokémon fell under her domain, whatever that means."

"It has no weaknesses though!" Karen continued as she boasted, "It's Ghost/Dark typing means that nothing can hit it for supereffective damage. It's still relatively untrained as the Pokémon was one of the newer ones to join my team, but once I start training it to reach the level of my other Pokémon then I'm sure it'll be a powerhouse."

I didn't correct her statement about Spiritomb having no weaknesses because I didn't want to reveal my knowledge of the Fairy type just yet. I'm saving that 'discovery' for much later when I can justify 'finding out' about it. So instead, I kept my silence as I patiently listened to her describing how strong her Spiritomb was going to be in the future.

And lastly, our newest captures, Corphish and Porygon were paired together. Unsurprisingly, the fact that they trained and battled together in Petalburg Woods did wonders for their friendship and bond. Thus, they had no problem practicing their basic moves against each other; each of them trying to dodge the other's attacks while landing their own. I could see that Corphish had the upper hand in most engagements, but Pixel was catching up and didn't let itself fall behind.

After a while, I had Tyrant join in to help out as a pseudo-punching bag for the newer Pokémon to practice their attacks against, since he didn't have a suitable partner to spar against. Sometimes, I had Tyrant attack with slow and highly telegraphed sweeping strikes that the two had to dodge.

In the meanwhile, Karen and I were tasked with just making sure everyone was training properly. After a while and seeing that none of our Pokémon really needed our assistance, Karen went on her phone to watch Wattson's previous battles so that she could begin formulating a strategy against him. In the meanwhile, I sat down and made sure that the egg was still healthy and remained undamaged.

Our Pokémon continued training together for a few hours, until eventually most of them got tired and demanded to be fed. Considering that it was already late in the evening, we decided that we would wrap up the training shortly after a quick round of intense Gravity training to finish off the training session for all the Pokémon that would actually benefit from it.

This was Karen's Pokémon's first-time undergoing Gravity training, and I noticed that her Pokémon really struggled to adjust and power through the sudden weight caused by the shift in Gravity. However, none of her Pokémon complained or tapped out and they all managed to endure through it, to the cheers of myself and Karen as we watched them endure through with their grit and determination.

After our Pokémon had finished undergoing their Gravity training, we wrapped up the training and began setting up for dinner. Karen had decided to treat her Pokémon for their efforts in going through their first Gravity training, and I joined in since I didn't want my Pokémon to feel left out.

Thus, we had placed all the food on a large picnic blanket that Karen had brought in her rucksack and allowed our Pokémon to chow down on it. Except for Smough, he was quickly banned from the feast because he would have just hogged all the food and eaten it all before anyone else could. So, as punishment, he had to eat his own meal separately. He gave me a lazy shrug when I told him that he had to eat by himself, he didn't really care so long as he could still eat.

I relaxed and sat back with the egg cradled in my arms as I watched dinner progress, basking in the warm atmosphere of the evening rays as all of our Pokémon were chatting to each other and developing friendly rivalries from our earlier training session. This was the idyllic Pokémon life that I wanted, and I watched it all with a content smile on my face.

It was a day of aimless wandering and training, and while I didn't have a set schedule planned for my next few days in Hoenn, I didn't mind. Sure, I could be doing other, more productive things, like the hunting of Mega Stones, but I didn't have a clue where to find said Mega Stones as I didn't remember where they were found in game. Plus, I didn't even know if the Mega Stones would be in the same place as they were in the games.

So, I just treated this as a nice relaxing break that I hadn't really had time to enjoy ever since I won the Indigo Conference became a member of the Elite Four. I would worry about my other problems another time.

"You look happy." Karen commented with a smile of her own.

"Yes, I am." I replied relaxedly, and we both sat there in comfortable silence as we watched our Pokémon polish off their dinners and playfully fight for the scraps. Amusingly, we saw that Sneasel had the bright idea of trying to steal from Smough and take one of his large Pokéblocks but was forced to quickly retreat as Smough gave him a glare that threatened death if Sneasel dared touch his food.

Suddenly, my happy spectating of my Pokémon was interrupted by an unfamiliar soft cry of a Pokémon.

"...Whismur?" I could barely make it out over the din of noise from our Pokémon. It was so quiet that I thought that I was just imagining things. But the sound was getting louder.

"...Whis? Mur? Whismur?" No, at this point I knew that I wasn't imagining things and that I could clearly hear the Whismur. Apparently, Karen heard it too as we both got up and started looking around for it.

There! I could see a small Whismur shyly hiding behind a tree that was just outside of our designated training area. I thought that it got attracted to the food that we had laid out but was too shy to approach.

I calmly called out to my Pokémon to quiet down with the noise and Karen did the same; we didn't want to frighten the Whismur unnecessarily. Our Pokémon quickly obeyed, and I could see the immediate effect as the Whismur was now no longer cowering completely behind the tree and it started to poke its head out more often, but it still seemed too shy to approach.

I passed the Zigzagoon egg over to Karen as I picked up one of the medium-sized Pokéblocks and then slowly and carefully made my approach to Whismur with the Pokéblock outstretched in my hand.

"It's ok, you don't have to be scared." I said comfortingly, "Do you want some food?" I asked and motioned to the Pokéblock that I had in my hand.

The Whismur still seemed very uncertain, and I could see that a part of it wanted to back away as I slowly approached it. However, it seemed to get over its timidity and slowly waddled up to me.

As it got close enough to me to eat the Pokéblock, it curiously sniffed at the Pokéblock before taking a small nibble. I could see that it enjoyed it as it continued to nibble on it even further until it eventually finished the entire Pokéblock. It gave me such a cute look of sadness when it realized that it had finished the Pokéblock that I couldn't resist not feeding it another, so I took a step backwards and extended an empty hand towards Karen for her to pass me a Pokéblock to continue feeding the Whismur.

This time, as it was eating the second Pokéblock, I used my free hand to pat it gently and slowly on the head. The Whismur jolted at my touch, but eventually eased into it and allowed me to slowly rub its head as it ate the Pokéblock. I waited for it to finish before speaking.

"Hey, do you want to hang out with the rest of our Pokémon?" I asked softly before gesturing to our two teams that were all standing still and trying to not make any noise that would scare off the Whismur.

Unfortunately, Whismur took one look at them and immediately wrapped its ears around itself as if to hug itself out of fear. I sighed but continued patting it on the head.

"It's okay, they're not going to hurt you." I comforted, "They might look scary, but I promise they won't do anything to you."

"Whismur...Whis, Whismur..." It said, and I couldn't really figure out what it was trying to say. Whismur saw my confusion before it gestured to Pixel and Corphish with its stubby arms. I gave both of my Pokémon a considering look before guessing what it was trying to convey.

"You're not afraid of the smaller Pokémon?" I asked, and it nodded. I motioned for Pixel to come to me, and I asked it to introduce itself to Whismur.

"Pory, Porygon. Porygon."

"Whismur, whis...."

"Pory? Pory.....Porygon!"

I watched the two communicate with each other as I tried to figure out what they were talking about. Luckily, by now I was close enough with Pixel that I could mostly understand what Pixel was saying and, from that, figure out the gist of the conversation.

Basically, Whismur really wanted to find a trainer that would help it get stronger and overcome its shyness. But it was still too terrified of my larger Pokémon and really didn't want to be in the same team as my Elite level Pokémon as they unconsciously radiated an aura of danger that Whismur couldn't really handle.

I was disappointed to hear about this, as that meant that I really couldn't have Whismur joining my team. I thought about trying to persuade it, but ultimately decided against it as it looked like it was one misstep away from just bolting away. I sighed and was about to let Whismur go before I remembered about Whitney and how she wanted a Normal type Pokémon from Hoenn.

"Whismur, I have a suggestion for you." I told it, and I could see its ears perking up in interest. It really was a cute little thing. "I have a sister, Whitney, who's looking to become a Pokémon trainer in a few months' time. I promised her that I would send her a Normal type Pokémon for her to train up. She doesn't have any large Pokémon like I do, just her Miltank, so I don't think you'd get scared." I began to explain.

Seeing that Whismur was listening attentively, I pushed on, "If I catch you and give you to her after my time in Hoenn, would you want to be part of her team? I promise that she's a good trainer and that she'll help you become the best that you can be."

I watched patiently as Whimur tilted its big head to the side as it thought about my proposal. Pixel buzzed and beeped as it tried to encourage it to do so; Pixel was trying to sell Whitney to Whismur by listing how good of a trainer she will be and how she'd love to have it as part of her team and that she was a really kind person.

Eventually, Whismur nodded and wrapped its small hands around my own as it accepted my proposal. I personally thought that it was Pixel's encouragement that led it to accepting rather than my speech, but I was happy with the outcome regardless.

I quickly fetched a Premier Ball that I was given from Devon Corp and, double checking that Whismur actually wanted to be caught, threw it towards Whismur as it voluntarily allowed itself to be captured. Without any resistance, the Premier Ball clicked shut and I sighed with relief as I caught the Whismur.

I gave out a wide smile at my newest capture and I hugged Pixel tightly in thanks. Suddenly, the bubble of silence that engulfed the rest of our Pokémon was blown as all of our Pokémon that had watched our conversation cheered and howled as they celebrated.

I felt Karen's hand tapping me on the shoulder.

"Good job with that Whismur, John. Real smooth. You handled that really well." She commended with a smile that suddenly turned curious as she saw my Premier Ball, "What kind of Pokéball is that, John? It looks cool and unique."

"Oh, damn, I knew I forgot to tell you about something." I replied while glancing at my Premier Ball, "This is a new design created by Devon Corp that they've asked me to market for them. They've given me ten Premier Balls extra to gift away."

"They look really good; I can already see people lining up to buy it. How are they going to market it?" Karen asked and I proceeded to explain Devon Corp's marketing strategy. I also gave her four Premier Balls as a gift, saving the rest for Whitney, which she thanked me for.

I left her to inspect her new Premier Balls while I almost instinctively released Whismur into the midst of my Pokémon so that it could be introduced to my team before remembering that it was scared and that I promised it that it would go to Whitney. Thus, I kept it safe in its Premier Ball for the time being.

With that bit of excitement over and dinner also finished, we decided to pack up and make our way to the Mauville Pokécenter to rest for the night. In my room once again, Karen and I did another round of Dark energy infusion on the egg before she returned to her room, and I got ready for bed.

Before sleeping though, I texted Whitney that I had caught her Pokémon for her but wouldn't tell her what it was as I wanted it to be a surprise. She immediately responded demanding to know what it was, but I left her in suspense. I did ask once more to confirm that she didn't want me to catch anything else and she said that one Pokémon was enough and that she really wanted to catch her own Pokémon.

I was more than happy to encourage her independence, so I didn't ask her again and put my phone away for the night as I went to bed, happy that I managed to catch a Whismur for her.

I dreamed of a day where Whitney would evolve the Whismur into an Exploud that would sweep all before her with powerful Boombursts. That'd be incredible.

The New Normal – 2-10 – Preparations

The next morning, I spent some time checking over the egg with Klee in my room to try to see if there were any differences that could be found with the dark energy infusions. Sadly, there didn't seem to be any progress made yet, but at least Klee informed me that the egg was still growing up healthily and that the Zigzagoon inside remained safe.

I had hoped to spend today just relaxing and training with my Pokémon and Karen's, but those hopes of another peaceful day were promptly shattered as I heard my phone ringing.

"Hello, John speaking." I answered.

"John, lad, it's me, Drake." I heard his gruff voice through the phone, "Since I was the first to speak to you, the Hoenn League wanted to pass on a request for you on behalf of the Hoenn League." Normally, such a sentence would have immediately made me nervous, but the fact that Drake said it so casually managed to alleviate most of my unease.

"Trainers, are you ready?!" I could see the both of them nodding and they released their Pokémon, "BEGIN!"

"Sneasel, you're up."

"Electrode, go get'em. WAHAHHAHA!"

Immediately after both Pokémon landed on the field, they instantly started circling each other and making use of their high speeds. I noticed that, despite how agile Sneasel was, Wattson's Electrode was still noticeably faster.

"Ice Shard into Agility!"

"Magnet Rise and Agility! Get faster!"

Both Pokémon wrapped themselves in a pink glow as Sneasel quickly fired off sharp shards of ice that sped towards the Electrode, but they were easily dodged as the Electrode started levitating into the air and began bouncing around the arena. They had both boosted their speed, but Electrode was getting so fast that it was almost impossible to follow with your eyes.

The audience gave appropriate noises of 'oohs' and 'aahs' as they admired Electrode's speed. It was nothing more than a blur. It was obvious that Karen's Sneasel had no chance of out speeding the Electrode, and it needed to switch tactics.

"Electro Ball!" Wattson ordered, and a small orb of electricity rocketed towards Sneasel. All the while, Electrode didn't even slow down and was still continuously racing past the battle arena like it was a speeding pinball.

"Detect and Icy Wind!" In a feat of impressive acrobatics, Sneasel dove and spun past the rapid Electro Ball and fired off an Icy Wind in a wide cone that managed to almost cover half of Wattson's side of the arena. Despite all of its speed, Electrode wasn't ready for the unexpectedly large cone of ice that was coming its way, and it failed to dodge out of the way in time and was struck and slowed by the chilling gust of wind.

I could understand Karen's plan, she needed to slow down the Electrode with Icy Winds before her Sneasel got overwhelmed by its' blistering fast speeds.

"THUNDER! Don't let it continue!"

"Keep up the Icy Wind and Metal Claw into the ground!"

Sneasel immediately stabbed a metallic claw into the ground just as a loud BOOM resonated across the arena. Sneasel was struck dead-on by a huge bolt of Thunder that he failed to dodge. However, by using Metal Claw and stabbing into the ground, Sneasel had managed to mitigate some of the damage by dispersing some of it into the ground, though he still had to end to endure through and brunt a majority of the damage from that powerful bolt of Thunder.

I frowned slightly at that; it was a very high-risk strategy to use and was notoriously unreliable, since you risked paralysis every time you attempted it.

Remarkably, Sneasel didn't falter despite his injuries and continued maintaining his Icy Wind, catching the Electrode in a net of chilling winds that caused it to become increasingly slower as it tried to manoeuvre through the Icy Wind.

"Thunder again! Stop it!"

"DIG TO DODGE!" Karen shouted and Sneasel stopped its Icy Wind and barely scrambled underground in time to dodge the next Thunder, which created another loud boom that caused cracks to appear from the impact area.

"Agility again, Electrode, maintain your speed!" Despite having fired off multiple powerful Thunders, the Electrode hardly looked winded as it began wrapping itself in a pink glow once again.

"Taunt it and Ice Shard!" Sneasel quickly popped up from the ground and fired off a faint blast of Dark energy that wrapped around the slowed Electrode, causing its expression to morph into one of pure anger as it no longer bothered to use Agility and instead dove straight through the incoming Ice Shards to the Sneasel.

"Electrode?! Calm yourself!" Wattson shouted out but Electrode wasn't listening to its trainer, being too angry and tunnel-visioned to care at the moment.

"Ice Shard again and get close to it!" Sneasel obeyed and shot another round of Ice Shards at the incoming Electrode that it also didn't bother dodging. Instead, the Electrode instinctively fired off a Discharge and exploded with electricity, sending out a powerful shockwave that spread throughout the arena and it was only contained through the psychic shields.

"Get close and Metal Claw the ground!" Sneasel continued his charge as he raked a Metal Claw through the ground despite the oncoming burst of electricity, which allowed him to power through the shockwaves as it helped divert some of the incoming Electric damage and dispersed it into the ground. I could see Sneasel wincing in pain as he charged through the shockwave but was lucky enough to avoid paralysis. It was another high-risk move, but now it paid off as Sneasel was now in striking range of the Electrode.

"Damn! Get back, Electrode!" Wattson ordered, but Electrode still refused to listen, and Wattson changed his order, "Fine! Then Discharge again!"

"Ice Punch, Sneasel!" Electrode once again charged up for another Discharge, but just as the Electrode was about to release its stored electricity, Sneasel smashed its Ice-infused claws into its face and interrupted its attack. Coupled with the Icy Wind and multiple Ice Shards that it had taken, Sneasel's Ice Punch caused ice to begin rapidly spreading across Electrode's shell as it was beginning to freeze over.

Seeing Electrode was about to freeze over, Wattson recognized that the battle was over as Electrode was unresponsive to his commands and had no way of preventing itself from being frozen. Thus, he steadied himself and calmly employed his last resort.

"Explosion."

"FALL BACK NOW!" Karen yelled out. I could hear the audience scream as I watched Sneasel hurriedly backpedal away from the Electrode as he tried to scramble away to avoid Electrode's desperate Explosion, but it was no use. Wattson had evidently trained his Electrode very well in the art of exploding, and the Electrode Exploded quickly and without hesitation. The resulting blast created a wave of force that quickly erupted from the Electrode that the psychic shields struggled to maintain itself as they flickered briefly at the incoming blast.

Unfortunately, and unsurprisingly, the result of Electrode's explosion was a double knockout as Sneasel couldn't avoid the blast radius in time.

"Both trainers' Pokémon are unable to battle! Each trainer has 30 seconds to send out their next Pokémon!" I looked at Karen as both trainers withdrew their Pokémon, and I noticed that she didn't look unhappy at Sneasel's fainting. Perhaps she had expected something like this to happen? I guess that when you're dealing with an Electrode, expecting it to Explode is a reasonable thing to plan around.

I watched as she tapped a Pokéball with her finger briefly before sending it out.

"Let's go, Pupitar! Show your training!"

"Ampharos, show them what you got! Wahahahah!"

I sat up with more focus as I adjusted Pixel on my lap, I wanted to see how Pupitar would stand up in an actual battle and if his training with my Ursaluna had led to him improving.

"Trainers, are you ready?!" Both nodded, "BEGIN!"

"Pupitar, Earthquake!"

"Get in the air, Ampharas! Dragon Pulse!"

As Pupitar started to hop up and down as it began to shake the earth, to our collective shock, Ampharos had coiled up its tail and sprung up into the air, using its tail to bounce off the ground and managing to avoid a large portion of Pupitar's Earthquake. Ampharos landed surprisingly gracefully just as the Earthquake petered out and fired off a Dragon Pulse straight towards the Pupitar.

"Protect!" Pupitar was quick enough to form a shield in front of himself that managed to block the Dragon Pulse.

Just from that one exchange, it was obvious to any adequate trainer that this battle would not be anywhere close to the battle of speed between Sneasel and Electrode. Both Pupitar and Ampharos were much slower Pokémon that weren't able to dodge attacks nearly as well, but instead traded that speed for power.

"Dragon Pulse again!"

"Dark Pulse, Pupitar!"

A torrent of powerful Dark energy exploded outwards from Pupitar that crashed against Ampharos' incoming Dragon Pulse. The two bursts of energy struggled against each other as they pushed each other back and forth as they vied for dominance and each Pokémon strained to break through the other's attack.

"Aerial Ace and dodge to the side, Pupitar! Then Stone Edge!" Just as it appeared to be a stalemate, suddenly, Pupitar cut off its Dark Pulse and launched himself through the air with his Aerial Ace, eliciting gasps of surprise from the audience as they watched the unusually nimble Pupitar deftly fly past and dodge Ampharos' Dragon Pulse.

Ampharos tried to track Pupitar with its Dragon Pulse but a barrage of rocks from Pupitar's Stone Edge crashed into it before it could do so. Ampharos stumbled backwards and cancelled its Dragon Pulse, and Karen capitalized on the opportunity.

"Earthquake, Pupitar!" Pupitar slammed into the ground in front of Ampharos, unleashing a powerful point-blank Earthquake that Ampharos couldn't dodge in time. Ampharos quickly lost its balance as the ground began to shake heavily and it fell over with a shriek of pain as it endured through the Earthquake.

Unfortunately for Karen, Pupitar's lack of proficiency in using Ground type attacks was a flaw that reared its head at this very moment, as despite taking the supereffective Earthquake Ampharos was still not out of the fight just yet, which caught Karen and Pupitar off-guard.

"Ampharos, get up and Dragon Tail!"

"Protect-"

Pupitar only managed to create a partial shield that was quickly cracked and shattered by the hammering blow from Ampharos' tail that broke through the shield and slammed into Pupitar, cracking his shell, and hurling him across the arena until he crashed against the psychic shields. It was a heavy blow, but Pupitar managed to scrape himself off the ground and continue the fight. He wasn't out yet either.

With that, I noticed that both Pokémon were pretty badly injured. Pupitar's shell was chipped and cracked in a few places, and it wobbled unsteadily as he tried to keep himself upright. On the other hand, Ampharos had an eye that was sealed shut from its injuries and had a plethora of scrapes and cuts that were littered throughout its body.

Both Pokémon and trainer were now staring the other one down as they both dared the other to make the first move. I knew that this was a critical moment in the battle. Both Pokémon were far too tired and hurt to carry out any more complex manoeuvres, and so it was now a battle of endurance to see who had more left to give.

Karen's impatience broke their stare down as she ordered the first move.

"Pupitar, Dark Pulse. Win for me."

"Ampharos, Hyper Beam. Match it."

The air grew tense. This was it.

Pupitar's Dark Pulse shot forwards and once again crashed against Ampharos' Hyper Beam as both Pokémon were once again locked in a stalemate as they tried to overpower the other's attacks. It was a test of willpower, strength, and raw determination.

The other audience members and I all held our collective breaths as we watched their two bursts of energy push back and forth against each other as they both tried to overwhelm the other. I heard a few people muttering about how surprised they were about the power of Pupitar's Dark Pulse, which I supposed Karen had focused on training instead of its Ground type attacks.

I didn't even know how much time had passed as I continued to stare fixedly at the two rays of energy that were still locked together in a battle of wills, but I knew that something had to give soon. Sure enough, Ampharos must have been more injured than it appeared as its Hyper Beam started to falter and was being pushed back by Pupitar's Dark Pulse. I took a quick glance at the Ampharos and noted that it was breathing heavily and was exerting itself to its very limits. It looked like seconds away from falling over.

Suddenly, Ampharos' collapsed in exhaustion, causing Pupitar's Dark Pulse to rapidly shoot forwards, blasting the Ampharos back into the psychic shield and pinning it to the flickering shields momentarily. Pupitar quickly cut off his attack as soon as he recognized that the Ampharos was knocked out.

A collective silence surrounded the Gym for a moment as the audience took time to process what had just happened before it was broken by Wattson.

"WAAHAHHAHA! That was a great battle, lass!" Wattson shouted out as he withdrew his Ampharos.

I couldn't hear Karen's response as she was interrupted by the referee and the shouts of excitement from the crowd.

"Ampharos is unable to battle! The Gym Leader has 30 seconds to send out his next Pokémon!" I could barely hear the referee's announcement as the audience erupted with cheers and shouts at the conclusion of that epic battle. I looked around and saw that most of the audience members were standing up and applauding Karen's Pupitar, and some of them even had their phones out and had likely recorded the final exchange.

I wondered if I would be seeing Karen's Pupitar show up on the Pokénet? That'd be great for Karen's popularity and bringing her into the public spotlight. I looked down at Pixel who I had almost forgotten was on my lap and watched as it buzzed in excitement at the match. I guess it was finding these sorts of high-level matches entertaining. In that case, I should probably bring it to more matches.

I pulled myself back from my idle thoughts as I heard Karen's announcement that she was retiring for Pupitar. Understandable, it was far too tired to put up any sort of fight against Wattson's next Pokémon.

"Challenge Karen has retired her Pupitar! Both trainers now have 30 seconds to send out their next Pokémon!" Before the referee had finished speaking, both trainers had already sent out their next Pokémon.

"Come, Magnezone."

"Houndoom. It's your turn."

My eyes shot up in surprise as I saw Karen send out her ace. How did she guess that Wattson was going to send out Magnezone? I looked towards Wattson and noticed that he had a slight frown on his face; I guess he knew that this was a bad matchup for him.

Unfortunately for Wattson, poor type matchups would be the least of his problems.

"BEGIN!" "Fire Blast!" The moment the referee announced the start of the battle, Houndoom charged forwards and a pulsing ball of flames shot out of her mouth. Houndoom's flames burned with such intense heat that I could feel it even through the temperature regulation of the psychic shields.

"Magnezone! Magnet Rise! Dodge it!" Magnezone levitated itself into the air as it swerved around Houndoom's Fire Blast, causing it to explode powerfully on the psychic shield, but Karen wasn't done yet.

"Flamethrower, Wide!" Maintaining its' rapid approach towards Magnezone, Houndoom spewed forth a huge cone of flames that Magnezone couldn't possibly dodge with its meagre speed, even if it was levitating. Wattson clearly noticed this too as his eyes widened in alarm.

"Protect and Thunder!" Showing off its training, Magnezone was both able to deploy a shield while simultaneously firing off multiple Thunders. However, Houndoom was able to leap forward and dodge past each of the incoming bolts of Thunder as her flames managed to completely engulf Magnezone's shields and spilled across the sides and on to Magnezone's shell.

Magnezone futilely fired off more Thunders as it tried to interrupt Houndoom's Flamethrower, but Houndoom managed to nimbly dodge past each one and she continued with the pressure and maintaining the stream of flames that was steadily spilling past Magnezone's Protect shield and slowly consumed the Magnezone. Houndoom barely even looked like she had exerted herself despite her relentless attacks and dodges.

The situation was rapidly deteriorating for Wattson. I could tell that Magnezone didn't have the speed to avoid Houndoom's flames and Houndoom was too nimble to be struck by half-hearted attacks. Attempting to play defensive like this wasn't working, and Wattson knew it. I watched as his face slowly settle into one of calm determination as he uncrossed his arms and gripped his hands together tightly on the rails.

"Magnezone. Artillery Mode. Full offense." My eyes widened as I saw that Magnezone had dropped its Protect shield and became completely engulfed in Houndoom's flames. Before I could understand why it had done so, Magnezone began firing.

And firing.

"PROTECT!" Karen quickly shouted out. I could see that Karen was gripping the safety rail in alarm as I watched in fascinated awe as bolts of Lightning rained across the battlefield, with large orbs of electricity and steel also shooting across the width of the arena and blasting large holes into the ground before a large beam swept across the field and added more scars on the arena.

Wattson's Magnezone was firing a barrage of Zap and Flash Cannons, Thunderbolts, and Charge Beams in an overwhelming array of attacks that flooded across the battlefield. I could barely tell what attacks were being fired as all manner of bolts and balls and lights flashed and whizzed across the battlefield. I was mesmerized as I watched all sorts of explosions rained across the arena.

Magnezone had completely abandoned all defense and movement as it continued firing attack after attack in an overpowering barrage that filled the arena. Fortunately, it appeared that Magnezone had also sacrificed its accuracy in order to fire off this many attacks in such a short period of time, but the sheer number of attacks were still so overwhelming that Houndoom had to dedicate all of her attention to dodging and blocking the incoming attacks.

Houndoom narrowly leapt past a Thunderbolt before quickly needing to put up a shield that barely blocked an incoming Zap Cannon, and even before the Zap Cannon could fully dissipate on her shield, a Flash Canon slipped past it and slammed into her side, causing Houndoom to stumble. She had no time to recover though as she quickly had to fire off another small plume of flames to block an incoming Electro Ball before she pivoted on the spot and shot off another Dark Pulse to shield against another Charge Beam.

Her Houndoom barely had time to breathe in between the attacks! It was utter chaos! The arena was so absolutely scorched with flames and electricity that it was adorned with scars and small craters from Magnezone's bombardment of attacks. The psychic shields surrounding the arena were tested to the very limits as they valiantly continued to protect the spectators from the onslaught of explosions and impacts.

Despite all of this, I saw that Houndoom was doing a commendable job continuing to evade and block Magnezone's attacks, especially considering the sheer volume of attacks coming her way. Although she certainly wasn't unharmed, I noticed that Magnezone was slowly faltering as it gradually began to tire. A minute had barely passed since the beginning of Magnezone's artillery fire of attacks, but it clearly could not maintain this bombardment for much longer, no matter how trained it was. And Karen knew it.

For a brief moment, Magnezone's attacks slowed down, and Karen immediately jumped on it.

"It's tiring! Fire Blast!" Taking advantage of the brief window of opportunity, Houndoom had the space to fire off a Fire Blast that flew unimpeded as it struck Magnezone, rapidly engulfing it in a prison of flames and interrupting its constant barrage of attacks. Magnezone shook desperately as it tried futilely to shake off the flames, but it was no use. And Magnezone was slowly scorched ablaze as it failed to escape from the cage of fire.

The flames eventually dispersed, revealing a completely exhausted and badly damaged Magnezone that didn't even have enough energy to maintain levitating and was littered with scorch marks. Magnezone let out a weakened buzz as, coupled with its injuries, it didn't have the energy left to continue maintaining its attacks.

I watched as Karen and Wattson stared at each other for a moment, before Wattson eventually let out a big sigh and withdrew his Magnezone. Wattson looked at Magnezone's Pokéball for a moment before muttering something that I couldn't pick up on and pocketed the Pokéball.

As he looked back up, he lost all traces of his earlier solemn expression as he once again adorned his signature easy-going smile.

"WAHAHAHA! That was an amazing showing, lass! I'm surprised you were able to endure past Magnezone's barrage! Truly impressive! I hadn't had such an exciting battle in a long time!" He laughed, and the audience joined in with their shouts of cheers. Pixel also seemed to really enjoy the match as it wiggled happily and excitedly alongside the cheers of the crowd, and I had to hold on to it tightly to ensure that it didn't accidentally jump out of my lap.

"KAREN! KAREN! KAREN!" I smiled as I heard some beginning to chant that Karen easily overheard and turned to face the audience. Of course, I joined in with the chanting while looking Karen straight in the eye as I saw her blushing slightly at the chanting. But Karen didn't let any embarrassment show on her face besides a faint blush on her cheeks as she waved back confidently towards the audience.

Hearing the chanting only reinforced my idea that Karen was now slowly entering the public eye. Idly, I hoped that recordings of Karen's battle against Wattson would spread on the Pokénet; it would do wonders for getting her recognized and as a way to show off her strength.

Wattson stood patiently as he allowed Karen to wave to the crowd and bask in the attention for a few moments before she turned back to face Wattson. They exchanged words that I couldn't hear, but I did see Wattson awarding Karen with the Dynamo Badge. I saw her giving a slight bow in thanks before she turned to me and gave me a happy smirk, which I returned.

I did consider getting up and introducing myself to Wattson at the moment, but I felt like I had enough on my plate with my upcoming battle against Drake as well as my plans with Devon Corp and Norman. It might be a missed opportunity, but I wasn't perfect, and I didn't really have anything I wanted to discuss with Wattson at the moment anyways.

Also, it was nice seeing Karen so happy and cheerful. She seemed to really enjoy the attention that she was receiving from the crowd as she continued waving to the crowd as she made her way out of the arena.

I hoped that this battle was the start of Karen's rise to fame.

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