The domed silver and blue-grey building would’ve looked a bit like the Death Star if it weren’t for the giant golden arches looped around it, mimicking the rings around a planet like Saturn.
There were ultra realistic and floating recreations of the celestial bodies on pedestals lining the grand walkway leading up to the gym’s front door. I was all for the space theming.
I certainly wouldn’t mind working in a building like this. This is AWESOME! I wonder how much it cost to build this place.
Thorondor, Banette, and Mismagius flew over to a few of the pedestals to take a look at the planets. They were extremely detailed, with every little cloud wisp and divot or mountain in the planet’s surface visible.
“hmph, i can do better.” Winnie raised a paw and created an illusion that mimicked the display of Saturn, then he began changing the planet’s colors. He copied a few other planets as we went up the walkway, taking color change requests from the others.
Banette and Mismagius slid back into my shadow as the glass doors slid open and I walked inside.
The inside was decorated similarly to the gym’s exterior, there was a lot of space themed stuff, an almost unnecessary amount of golden arches and planet stuff just floating midair, and the ceiling was literally one of those pictures of a galaxy, but irl.
My jaw dropped as I wondered how the hell they were able to even do this. Winnie and Thorondor both had similar expressions.
The lobby was pretty quiet, the only other people there were an Alakazam sitting at the somewhat out of place rustic styled front desk, and a trainer with sitting in one of the waiting seats with her Tinkatuff and Bisharp.
The TV screens behind the front desk had a large array of labelled rectangles that represented the battlefields in the gym. They were color coded to show which ones were vacant, being used, or being cleaned/repaved.
Only a handful of them were in use at the moment.
The Alakazam looked up from some paperwork and nodded, before telepathically speaking to us. Ah yes, you’re a tad early. Chloe and Zoe are finishing up a battle in arena three. You can go meet them there.
The psi Pokemon pointed down the grand hallway.
“Oh, uh, thanks.” I gave the psychic type a thumbs up before going where it had told us to go.
I don’t think I’ll ever get used to telepathy. It’s like, my brain says that there’s sound because it got something but my ears are like no there isn’t any sound because we didn’t hear anything.
I stopped to take a look at a few posters that were hanging on the hallway walls. Most of them had to do with job postings or event promotions. My favorite one was a poster of a stern-looking Mr Mime with its arms crossed. The caption next to it said: “We’re not reading your mind, we don’t want to know what you’re thinking you dirty scoundrel.”
Yeah, I wouldn't want to read people’s minds either. I frowned, I wonder how telepathy works here. Do they just hear people’s thoughts like you hear people talking, or do you have to like, actively tune into their minds?
Hopefully it was the latter, more so for the psychic’s sanity. It would probably be hell for both the psychic and the people having their thoughts listened in on.
We walked to the fancy gold doors labelled Arena 3 and quietly entered the room.
Inside was the usual gym battlefield with bleachers setup, just with the same galaxy theme as in the lobby.
Just as Alakazam said, the twins were currently in the middle of a battle against a challenger, and their Indeedee pair was faring pretty well against a Scyther and a Cacturne.
Thorondor fluttered off my shoulder and perched on the railing as we quietly walked over to the bleachers to sit down and watch the fight.
Scyther’s eyes briefly glowed red as it Leered at its opponents and charged, its wings violently hummed, sending out yellow–green waves of bug type energy in every direction.
“What are you doing Scyther!?” The Scyther’s trainer shouted at it as Cacturne hastily put up a Protect to defend itself from its ally’s attack. Scyther didn’t even acknowledge its trainer as it raised its arm scythes to swipe at the Indeedee pair.
The male Indeedee calmly blocked the shockwave from Bug Buzz with Protect, then the female Indeedee jumped in front and blocked Scyther’s Fury Cutter barrage with another Protect.
“Bullet Seed Cacturne, trip them up!”
Cacturne began spitting seeds out of its mouth like a machine gun. That combined with Scyther’s onslaught began cracking the female Indeedee’s Protect.
Neither of the twins said anything, but it seemed like the psychic types had received orders, and they began to make a retreat.
“Indee?!” The female Indeedee exclaimed as it found itself unable to move, its foot was caught in a sneaky Grass Knot. There was no time to react as Scyther broke through the female Indeedee’s Protect and hit it with a devastating X-Scissor.
A low hanging magenta mist swirled out from the male Indeedee and the female Indeedee quickly raised its arms, its eyes glowing blue as an explosion of psychic energy burst out from it, sending Scyther flying away like a bug that was just swatted.
“Pin Missile and get in close!”
Cacturne charged in and shot a barrage of Pin Missiles at its opponents, who countered the attack with Psybeam. There was a series of crackling mini-explosions as the attacks met and created a burst of smoke.
There was a moment where the smoke obscured the field before Cacturne leaped out of the smoke, Lunging at the male Indeedee who put up a Reflect.
Cacturne smashed through the barrier with Brick Break, and the female Indeedee met the cactus Pokemon’s attack with a Drain Punch. The male Indeedee leaped over its counterpart and body slammed their opponent with Play Rough, sending it stumbling back a few paces.
The female Indeedee then pivoted and sent another Expanding Force at Scyther, who had flown back in with a fury.
The bug type viciously slashed through the psychic explosion with Night Slash and seemed to teleport right in front of the female Indeedee using a speed boost from Quick Attack, its scythes already readying an X-Scissor.
“Cut them off from each other with Skitter Smack!”
Cacturne dashed in, sliding behind the male Indeedee in order to separate it from its partner and punching the psychic type with a bug type energy charged fist.
Right behind Cacturne, the female Indeedee ducked underneath a wide sweeping scythe attack from Scyther. Unfortunately, Cacturne was caught in Scyther’s attack range and was struck across its back.
“Cac!” The cactus Pokemon hissed as it was thrown forward, giving the male Indeedee a chance to grab Cacturne’s arm. With a grunt, the male Indeedee used Play Rough to sumo throw the cactus right into the ground before using Gravity to pin it down.
“Damn it!” Cacturne and Scyther’s trainer cursed aloud, “Retreat Cacturne!”
But the cactus Pokemon was too winded at the moment to fight back against the effects of Gravity.
Meanwhile, the female Indeedee used Psychic to pin Scyther’s arms together before comboing the bug type with a bunch of kicks and punches from Drain Punch.
Before anything else could happen, a beam of red light returned Scyther.
The trainer visibly sighed and put Scyther’s net ball back into his pocket, “I forfeit.”
The male Indeedee released the effects of Gravity, letting Cacturne get up. The cactus Pokemon then jogged over to its trainer as the referee announced Chloe, Zoe, and their Indeedee as the winners of this match.
“Ruff rufflet rufflet let.” Thorondor chirped critically, waving a wing in Cacturne’s direction.
“yeah that was kinda rough for cacturne.” Winnie agreed, he turned to me, “what was the bug’s problem?”
I shrugged, “Probably a newly caught or traded Pokemon. Some of them take a while to begin getting along with their new team and trainer.”
Chloe and Zoe returned their Indeedee and floated over to the challenger to talk. We were too far away to hear much, but it seemed like they were giving him a bit of advice. The trainer said something about how he knew it was too early to use Scyther in a battle.
Once the trainer left, the twins floated over and landed in the bleachers next to us.
“Hey Az!” “Hey Winnie!” “And Rufflet!” “How are you guys doing?” “What do you guys think of Anistar so far?”
Winnie pouted and dispelled his Lucario illusion as he realized that they had seen through his disguise.
I smiled at them, “We’ve been great, Anistar is beautiful. We went to see the Sundial right before coming here.”
The twins proudly grinned, “Yes! The Sundial is the shining star of our city!” “We’re glad you’ve been enjoying its beauty!”
Then their grins took on a crafty feel as they both said at the same time, “You excited for our battle?”
The one on the right said, “We’ve been perfecting a secret weapon.” They gave each other a knowing look.
Lemme guess, they’ve got mega evolution too.
“We’re hoping to use it” “during the battle today” “because you have a strong team.”
Wait what? Why am I gonna be your test run?
I raised an eyebrow, “Uh, that’s cool. Yeah, I’m pretty excited since this is my first time challenging a gym.”
Both twins paused for a second glanced at each other as they seemed to have a quick telepathic conversation. One twin shrugged and the other spoke, “Since this is your first time we’ll do a two vee two instead of a four vee four.”
“Cause of gym regulations.” The other added.
Well that’s a relief. I nodded, “Yeah, I was gonna ask for a two vee two anyways.”
One of the twins, Zoe from the nametag she was wearing, handed a few Pokeballs to her sister before the latter flew away to a backroom.
“She’s just gonna go switch out our roster. It’ll take a few minutes.” Zoe explained.
I gave her a thumbs up. “Got it.”
“You know Az, I’m surprised you’ve never challenged a gym before.” Zoe said as she tapped the railing.
I slightly tilted my head, “Uh, yeah. I thought you guys knew.”
“Eh, we kinda just assumed it.” Zoe shrugged, “Everyone else on the expedition had at least eight besides Marcus and Justine, and even they had around four total at the time.”
I thought about the expedition for a moment, “Yeah, I talked about gyms with Leo and Ben, I think, but never with you guys.”
“Yeah. Well, you should go do a few gym puzzles while you can.” Zoe said, “They’re available to every trainer who’s got less than three badges in the region they’re participating in. They’re really fun.” while you can.” Zoe said, “They’re available to every trainer who’s got less than three badges in the region they’re participating in. They’re really fun.”
The psychic then rethought her statement, “Well, most of them are really fun. You should do some research before you go for a gym trial.”
I nodded, “Yeah, you wanna know what you’re getting into.”
Zoe nodded emphatically, “Oh yeah. Some are really bland, Nacrene City’s gym trial was literally an exam. Some are also just straight up OSHA violations, like the one Flannery installed in Lavaridge when she first became gym leader, that one had to be shut down its the first week of operation. The ones that Volkner keeps putting in his gym are also a nightmare for safety inspectors.”
“I heard about the Lavaridge one.” I said, remembering the gym trial from the ORAS games. “I can only imagine the injuries people could get from using scalding hot geysers as elevators.”
No idea what Volkner could’ve done with his gym trial, it had been a while since I had played the Diamond and Pearl Games.
Nice to know that OSHA is a thing here though. Geez I’d hate to know what sort of rules they’d need to add in a world with Pokemon.
“Any fun ones you can recommend?” I asked.
“Yes!” Zoe clapped her hands together, “Our gym’s trial is pretty fun, you get to teleport around a maze. Snowbelle’s is popular too because you get to ice skate, Laverre's is something related to clothes designing, and you get to learn martial arts in Shalour.”
“Hmm, that’s cool.” I looked at Winnie and Thorondor, “What do you guys think?”
Thorondor shrugged with his wings, “Rufflet ruff.” He didn’t seem super interested.
“the kid says he’d rather do a battle.” Winnie translated, “i’d try one out if it sounds fun.”
“Duly noted.” I said.
We all looked up as the overhead speakers in the gym played a prerecorded message about the gym not accepting challenges anymore for the day, though the gym will be open for trainers to finish their battles.
“Were you guys busy today?” I asked, “There was like, one person besides me and Alakazam in the lobby. I went by Santalune not too long ago and they were swamped with challengers up until closing.”
“Yeah, we don’t get busy until the end of the season.” Zoe replied, “Anistar is rated as one of the harder gyms to beat in Kalos, because of Olympia’s reputation, so people don’t challenge us as often as other gyms.”
“Hmm, how often do gym leaders battle challengers by the way?” I asked, “Cause I doubt that the Santalune gym leader is battling every single challenger that comes in.”
Zoe nodded, “Yeah, battling is fun, but battling every day all day is no fun.”
She thought for a moment before replying to my question, “It kind of depends on the gym leader and how busy the gym is, but gym leaders generally don’t battle challengers unless they’re one, aiming for their final two badges, two, a trainer of interest, or three, challenging gyms to become an ace trainer. Gym leaders are required to battle the third type.”
“Challengers other than those ones are left to us gym trainers to handle.” Chloe said, rejoining the conversation as if she’d never left. She had just come back and had a bunch of Pokeballs floating next to her.
“By the way, we heard that Opelucid’s gym trial has moving dragon statues. Have you seen them before?” Chloe asked.
I shook my head, “Nope. But Ben and Collin are in Unova this season, you can ask them.”
Chloe nodded, “Yeah we need to remember to ask them. People aren't allowed to take pictures during gym challenges, buuuuut, I think one of them can sneak a photo or two.”
Both of the psychics grinned like Gengars as Zoe giggled, “Like in Cyllage.”
“What happened in Cyllage?” I asked with a raised eyebrow.
The twins stifled their laughter as they told me, “The gym trial there has to do with rock climbing.” “But Grant never specified that challengers needed to climb their way up,” “just that we needed to get to the top.” “So we flew up.” “Grant wasn’t happy about that.” “You should’ve seen his face.”
Both girls burst out laughing.
Winnie and I chuckled at that. Thorondor seemed a bit conflicted on whether that should be funny or not.
“Did he put up a no flying sign after that?” I asked with a grin.
Zoe shook her head, “No, even better,”
“He put up a sign banning trainers from using psychic powers!” Chloe finished before wheezing with laughter. “We got psychic powers banned at the Cyllage Gym!”
Zoe showed up a few photos of the beautiful and bold, NO PSYCHIC POWERS DURING GYM TRIAL, sign in front of the rock wall. Grant was standing in the background, arms crossed and with an annoyed face.
There was a loud *pop!* and a flash of red light as Sahara burst out of her ultra ball.
“GAH!” I jumped back in surprise as Sahara roared to let us know that she was ready for a battle.
Chloe and Zoe both yelped and recoiled as they were also caught off guard. There was a loud door slam as the referee who was just about to enter the room immediately noped out.
The ultra ball fell off my belt and I tried to catch it, only to find that it was burning hot. “Shitshitshitshitshitshit, owowowowow.” I let the ball drop to the ground and gave Sahara my own desert glare.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Sahara snorted and used a claw to point at the battlefield.
“Sorry guys.” I apologized to the twins before turning to Sahara, “Girl, I can see that you’re excited for the battle, but don’t do that again, it’s rude.”
The landshark rolled her eyes and huffed as if to say, ‘you guys are taking way too long.”
Winnie stretched, “i’m sure you could’ve waited another minute or two sahara, look,” he gestured at the door, “now you’ve scared the referee away and it might take longer to get to the battle.”
The massive dragon pouted and growled an acknowledgement.
“Yeah we should get to the battle,” “we don’t want to keep the other staff here too late.” The twins said as they floated over the railing and onto the field. “The referee will be back in a few minutes.”
“Aight.” I waved for Winnie and Sahara to take their places on the battlefield before I jumped over the railing.
Thorondor and the ghost crew would stay in the bleachers to watch. A few of them shouted words of encouragement and support to our team.
The twins sent out a Gardevoir and Gallade as I walked over to the trainer box on my side of the field, and the referee re-entered the the room with a Mr Mime who was holding a blue cube.
Once everyone was ready, the Mr Mime put the cube in a square divot in the ground in front of the referee box and readied itself to set up a large barrier, probably using the cube as some sort of amplifier or conduit for its barrier?
The referee cleared his throat and announced, “This will be a two-verses-two match between gym trainers Chloe and Zoe, and challenger Azalea. Standard league rules apply, three switches will be allowed per side.”
I frowned and slightly squinted as I spotted the silver crown that Gardevoir was wearing as well as what was embedded in it, front and center. Is that a Gardevoirite? Looks like I was correct about their ‘secret weapon’ being mega evolution.
The referee’s whistle snapped me out of my thoughts. Mr Mime channeled its psychic energy into the blue cube, creating a massive and sturdy barrier around the battlefield.
“You guys know what to do!” I told my team.
Chloe and Zoe stayed silent, they were using telepathy to communicate with their Pokemon.
Let’s see if Winnie’s theory works.
Using Night Shade, Winnie let out a burst of ghost type energy, making sure to sweep the entire field with it.
The twins, Gallade, and Gardevoir flinched as their telepathic communication was disturbed for a moment. Sadly for us their connection wasn’t severed, as the twins continued to stay silent.
That wasn’t a big issue. The main point of that was to make sure Winnie and Sahara’s real locations were concealed, and that seemed to have worked. The twins, Gardevoir, and Gallade were still focused on the now illusionary Winnie and Sahara, who seemed to use using buffing moves.
Gallade clashed his arms together and used Swords Dance to boost his physical strength, the blade Pokemon’s eyes were focused on his illusionary opponents, waiting for them to make a move. Gardevoir spread her arms out and began setting some sort of terrain move, I couldn’t tell what it was.
Before the psychic-fairy type could finish the move, she was hit hard by a metal claw to the back. Gardevoir stumbled forward with a cry of pain from the super effective move. Gallade whipped around and swung his arm, parrying another devastating blow from a now visible Sahara using Sacred Sword.
Sahara parried a few attacks from the blade Pokemon before disappearing into another illusion set by Winnie.
Gardevoir put her hands together and began using another move, but a Shadow Ball flew out of her shadow and hit her in the face. Gardevoir grit her teeth and almost instantly fired back with a Moonblast.
Winnie popped a head out of Gardevoir’s shadow and blew a raspberry at the two psychics, throwing a few Taunting insults at them.
Gardevoir’s eyes narrowed in annoyance, ice type energy gathered at her feet as she axe kicked down at Winnie with Triple Axel. Too bad for her, he was already gone.
Then like a Diglett, Winnie’s head popped out of Gallade’s shadow and he mockingly giggled. The blade Pokemon growled in annoyance. Dark type energy flared at his elbow blades as he sliced at Winnie, but the illusion fox had already disappeared back into the shadows.
Then something massive slammed into Gallade, sending him flying into the barrier with Dragon Rush and Winnie jumped out of the blade Pokemon’s shadow and began attacking him with a flurry of Shadow Claws.
The illusion over Sahara slipped away as she finished her attack and she pivoted, smashing through Gardevoir’s Protect with a glowing orange claw. The psychic generated a condensed wave of psychic energy from Expanding Force that parried Sahara’s Brick Break with a crackle of energy.
“Follow up with Metal Claw!” I shouted.
Then the landshark swung at Gardevoir with her other claw, silver energy already pulsing through her arm.
Gardevoir’s eyes glowed blue as she stopped Sahara’s arm midair and grabbed ahold of the dragon’s other arm. Then the psychic put her hands together, creating a bright ball of fairy type energy.
“Protect!”
The dragon created a barrier between her and the psychic. Then Gallade disappeared, teleporting out of his fight with Winnie and in between Sahara and Gardevoir.
The blade Pokemon smashed through Sahara’s Protect with Brick Break and ducked, giving his teammate room to blast the dragon in the face with a powerful Moonblast.
Sahara roared, stumbling back as she rubbed her face. She wasn’t used to being hit by super effective fairy type attacks, and these ones were particularly powerful ones.
Gallade dashed forward, bracing his glowing green arm blades as he prepared to slash at Sahara.
Looks like Leaf Blade or Solar Blade? Some sort of slashing grass type move. Gallade probably knows a lot of slicing moves due to its ability Sharpness boosting the power of slicing moves.
“Winnie!” I shouted for the illusion fox, “Get some distance Sahara and use Mud Bomb!”
Winnie was already on it, a wave of chilling malicious energy burst out from Gardevoir’s shadow, breaking her concentration on Psychic and releasing Sahara. The illusion fox then hopped over to Gallade’s shadow and leaped out, ducking low to avoid a swipe from Gallade and sweeping his leg out.
Gallade was too close to avoid being tripped and went with the fall, doing a neat roll to quickly recover before he slashed at Winnie again.
Winnie let out a loud echoing giggle as Gallade hit and broke the illusion of the ghost fox apart. Gardevoir tried to use Moonblast again, but yelped and canceled out the move as her hands were hit by a crackling Hex.
The two psychics leaped away as Sahara sent a flurry of Mud Bombs at them before Winnie once again turned her invisible with an illusion. Then the ghost fox followed suit and disappeared when he was sure his ally was covered.
Gardevoir and Gallade put themselves back to back. The latter began setting up barriers around himself and his teammate. Meanwhile Gardevoir raised her arms up and her eyes began to glow as she began creating tons of balls of psychic energy.
They’re gearing up for something big.
“Brick Break and Iron Head Gardevoir!” I ordered Sahara, “Winnie, you take care of Gallade!”
Portals began opening up around Gardevoir as she began sending the psychic attacks into the future.
This is crazy.
The Light Screen and Reflect layers set up around the psychic duo shattered like glass as an invisible Sahara broke through them with ease.
Gallade was ready to counter her. He didn’t need to see to know that his opponent would be where the shattered screens were.
A burst of pink energy emitted from the blade Pokemon, preventing Sahara from getting near without sustaining damage. Winnie, wherever he was, seemed to also have been forced to keep his distance.
“GAR! CHOMP!” There was a roar of frustration from Sahara as she was forced away once again and Gallade closed up the barriers around him and Gardevoir.
“Sahara Brick Break! Once she does that Winnie, Phantom Force and use Psychic to slam him into his shadow!” I issued out a few orders, “Sahara, you go in after him and use Iron Head on Gardevoir!”
Once again, Sahara smashed through Gallade’s barriers. This time Winnie acted first. Gallade suddenly found himself unable to move as he was picked up by Winnie’s Psychic and slammed to the ground, right into a double Shadow Claw poking out from the blade Pokemon’s shadow.
At the same time, Sahara dashed through the gap in the multi-barrier. Gardevoir broke out of using Future Sight and her body began to glow pink as she prepared to use Dazzling Gleam. Sadly for the psychic, she was too slow. Sahara slammed her steel-type reinforced head against Gardevoir’s head, making the psychic-fairy type reel back, holding her head in pain.
Gallade broke out of Winnie’s Psychic hold by channeling dark type energy into his arms in order to disturb the psychic type energy around him before freeing him arms and sending a Night Slash at his shadow where Winnie was. I couldn’t see if Winnie dodged the attack or took damage due to how close Gallade was to the ground.
Now that he was free, Gallade slammed his hands into the ground and used the force from Vacuum Wave to careen himself up into the air and in Sahara and Gardevoir’s direction.
“Garrrrrrr!” Sahara had just raised her arms to tear at her opponent with dual Metal Claws. Gardevoir, still holding her forehead with one hand, raised a fist that was cloaked in fire to counter the dragon.
There was a small burst of flame as Gardevoir countered Sahara’s Metal Claw with a Fire Punch. Then Gallade came in clutch, using a barrier from Reflect to jump from while in the air, he came in diagonally with a Sacred Sword and redirected Sahara’s attack.
“Make some distance!” I shouted as I saw pink energy begin gathering near Gardevoir’s hands.
A burst of Shadow Balls flew at Gardevoir and Gallade, covering Sahara’s retreat as the psychics were forced to use Protect to avoid being hit instead of pursuing their attack. The landshark jumped away just in time to avoid being hit by a double Dazzling Gleam from the pair before Winnie made her invisible again.
I shielded my eyes from the bright flash. When it was over, I saw Gallade holding a hand sized droplet of mystical blue water in his hands. The blade Pokemon scattered the water over himself and his ally, healing a large portion of their injuries.
Oh come ON!
“Pressure them! Don’t give them another chance to heal!” I was beginning to get antsy, the threat of Future Sight activating was still looming and I had no idea how the moves timing worked here compared to in the games because it clearly wasn’t turn based. Was there some sort of countdown timer? Or could they controll how far into the future the move went?
Gallade suddenly turned around while Gardevoir put a hand on the blade Pokemon’s back. Gallade’s arm glowed a bright green and he slashed at thin air, hitting something. There was a ripple and he slashed again, hitting a barrier. A third slash hit nothing and Gallade reeled back from being hit by an invisible attack. Gardevoir retaliated by throwing a Shadow Ball, but it hit nothing.
I frown, how did they figure out a way to detect where Sahara and Winnie are?
On the other side of the field, one of the twins pumped their fist victoriously as Gallade and Gardevoir continued to throw attacks at my team despite not being able to see them. I couldn’t see if they hit my team or not, but it didn’t seem like they were getting anymore big hits. We were basically at a draw until one of us figured out a way to outwit the other.
Squinting my eyes a little, I took a closer look at Gardevoir and Gallade. There was a slight haze of dust hovering about the field, most of it was concentrated around the two psychic Pokemon. I thought the dust was kicked up from the battling Pokemon, but it was kinda staying still and not drifting around or down like how a dust cloud normally would. Instead it was moving like how tall grass would part for someone walking through it.
I came to the same conclusion as Winnie did as his voice whispered to me from behind the barrier right in front of me, “az! they’re controlling the dust and using that to figure out where we are.”
“Dig!” I shouted. No holes appeared, but Gardevoir and Gallade stopped throwing out attacks as their dust field stopped sensing anything above ground.
I wonder why they haven’t mega evolved Gardevoir yet. Well all the better for us if they don’t use it. Since plan A isn’t working very well, we’ll have to switch to plan B. Probably should've gone to plan B earlier.
“Sahara! Use—GAH! What?!” I flinched and stepped back as the ground exploded with purple energy. The Future Sight attacks spawned in the tunnels.
Ah crap.
Dirt and dust began raining down on the field. I caught a glimpse of white and purple through the dust cloud, but that was quickly obscured as more psychic energy balls began raining down and carpet bombing the entire field, save for where Gardevoir and Gallade were standing.
“Use Protect! Spread out some copies of yourselves.” There was literally nothing else my team could do but shield themselves and wait for the carpet bombing to end.
Taking advantage of Winnie and Sahara’s dilemma, Gardevoir and Gallade added a couple of targeted Shadow Balls and Moonblasts to the Future Sight barrage. Even with the extra copies of Winnie and Sahara, my team were basically sitting Duckletts. Neither of them were able to come out unscathed, but they were far from being KO-ed.
As the carpet bombing came to an end, I quickly repeated what I was originally going to say, “Sahara, mess up the field with Earthquake and Rock Tomb! Winnie, spooky tactics, Catacombs version!”
Without hesitation, Sahara jumped and stomped her feet into the ground while Winnie jumped onto the dragon’s back to avoid being hit by the move. There was a slight delay before the ground shattered. Boulders, dirt, and rock shards were launched into the air from the shockwave.
Gardevoir and Gallade seemed to have been planning to create another round of Future Sight bombings, but they were forced to use Psychic to fly up in order to avoid being hit by Earthquake.
At the same time, a wave of chilling dark purple washed over the field as Winnie used Night Shade, he was setting up the supports for his illusion.
Then boulders began raining down, crashing into the uneven ground with loud crunching thuds. Gallade sliced through the boulders with Sacred Sword while Gardevoir blasted the rest away using a shockwave of psychic energy.
The two disappeared, teleporting behind Sahara. Gallade’s slashed down with both arms, sending two slices of dark type energy at Winnie, while Gardevoir hurled a Moonblast at Sahara.
“Brick Break and Iron Head!” I shouted.
Sahara whirled around and swung at Gallade, stopping his double Night Slash in its tracks and pushing the blade Pokemon back with her sheer strength. Then she countered Gardevoir’s Moonblast with Iron Head, headbutting the ball of burning pink energy.
The fairy and steel type energies violently sparked against each other for a quick moment before Gardevoir’s Moonblast exploded, kicking up another massive dust cloud.
The field went quiet for a moment. Then I heard a loud “What the hell is this?!” from one of the twins as the swirling dust slowly revealed a much creepier version of the Catacombs chamber where the rescue party battled Coraline. The candlelight was much harsher on the eyes and tinged with red.
The dust shifted into a disgusting yellow-green fog that clung to the ground, and judging by how Gardevoir and Gallade covered their noses, there was probably some sort of strong death stench clogging the air.
One of the twins gagged and the other put her hands over her mouth, her face turning a bit green.
The bone walls and floors were full of jagged, slimy, ribs and broken bones that jutted out, threatening to stab anyone who fell or stepped on the wrong place. The loose bones on the ground rattled unsettlingly with every step the psychic Pokemon took.
There was a rush of icy cold wind that pushed the putrid fog back further, revealing pretty horrifying sight.
Is that Sahara???
The landshark looked like something out of a nightmare. Her skin and scales had taken on a zombified, green-yellow hue, large chunks of slimy, maggot infested flesh were rotting off of her body, exposing the bone beneath. Her glowing red eyes were accentuated by her hollow eyes and unsettlingly large mouth, full of long spiked teeth like that of an anglerfish.
Sahara seemed to relish in the horror spreading across Gardevoir and Gallade’s faces as they saw her. I wasn’t very sure if she was aware of how Winnie made her look, but her horrifying appearance was doing a great job scaring the shit out of out opponents.
Stomping one foot into the ground, Sahara roared. Instead of her usual t-rex roar, the sound that came out of her mouth sounded like the gates of hell. I had to cover my ears to muffle the sound of countless people screaming in horror and pain.
Gardevoir and Gallade recoiled, and quickly backed away, eyes as wide as dinner plates. The twins were faring worse than their Pokemon in terms of dealing with the horrifying visual experience. One sister was tightly gripping her sister’s arm, the other was a bit pale.
I guess they must not be fans of the horror genre. I was a bit surprised that they were this scared by Winnie’s illusion. I mean, I guess I thought that they’d have more composure, but then again, not everyone handled horror the same way.
Sheesh, Winnie’s really outdone himself this time. I had only given him a few verbal descriptors on how to embellish the Catacombs, but he had taken those ideas to a whole nother level.
It seemed like the edges of the illusion towards my end were muchless detailed in order to help Winnie conserve energy. I could only imagine how much effort it took to keep something like this up and going.
There was an uproar of laughter from the stands. I looked over as Banette hollered encouragement, “YEAH! THAT’S IT! REMEMBER SPOOKY TACTICS FOR THE WIN!”
“YEAAAAHHHHHH! PSYCHOLOGICAL WARFARE!!!!” Haunter shouted, waving his hands around like a crazy sports fan. His enthusiasm spread to the rest of the ghost gang and they began cheering for their boss.
The ground beneath Gardevoir and Gallade’s feet crunched, and boney hands with glistening rotting flesh and ligaments reached out to grab their ankles.
Gardevoir shrieked as the skeletal hands seized her leg. The embrace Pokemon began kicking at the hand like how someone would shriek and smack a cockroach with a slipper. She at least had the sense to use Triple Axel to kick the hand away.
Similarly to his companion, Gallade was grossed out and spooked. He slashed at the rotting hands gripping his legs and gritted his teeth as he felt gross, slimy corpse liquid splash onto him.
“AHHHH! It’s just an illusion! Why is it this gross!!” One of the twins loudly complained, the other one flailed her hands and whined, “Ew ew ew ew ew ew EW!”
Both of the psychic Pokemon suddenly found it almost impossible to move, their feet had disappeared into the ground. I spotted a sneaky few sand grains swirling around Gardevoir and Gallade before they disappeared into Winnie’s illusion.
Is that a disguised Sand Tomb? How clever of you two.
“Get em with Iron Head!” I shouted, hopefully Sahara can take care of those two quickly.
Snarling like a Houndoom, Sahara charged, aiming Iron Head at Gardevoir first. The embrace Pokemon was able to put up a Protect in time to block the attack, but that barrier wasn’t enough to block the rotten flesh and maggots that sprayed onto them as Sahara bashed at the barrier again with Iron Head.
Gallade gagged and tried not to lose his lunch as he blocked a third attack from the hellish dragon. He and Gardevoir were already knee deep in the boney ground, and they could do little to break away.
“Brick Break!” Sahara smashed through Gallade’s Protect with Brick Break and opened her maw wide, exposing rows upon rows of needle-like teeth that gleamed from the light of the Hyper Beam that the landshark was about to shoot right in his face.
There was a burst of radiant light from Gardevoir that was immediately followed by an explosion of psychic energy that blasted Sahara to the other side of the field.
I had to briefly shield my eyes from the blinding light. Next thing I knew, there was a mega Gardevoir floating high in the air, Gallade was floating slightly below her and ready to fight once again.
“Hyper Beam again!” A searing beam of energy flashed out of Sahara’s mouth. Mega Gardevoir countered it with a Hyper Beam of her own, though hers was bright pink due to her ability Pixilate.
“Sandstorm!” I shouted to Sahara, “Drop the spook Winnie, proceed to the next course of action!”
Plan B ain’t gonna work against a mega. Plan C is up next. My heart rate began to pick up. This was gonna be a bit complicated to pull off, especially since it was our first time trying this out. Buuut, we’d get hella style points for winning this way.
The illusion of the Lumiose Catacombs immediately vanished, and was quickly replaced by a raging Sandstorm.
I inwardly groaned as I saw Gallade using Life Dew once more to heal himself and Gardevoir before the Sandstorm completely obscured the churned up field.
I needed to make teleportation impossible in the Sandstorm by changing up the terrain. “Spike twisters and continuous Rock Tomb, stay on the move and make use of Sand Veil!”
The resounding slams of boulders falling and metal on stone let me know that Sahara was doing what I had ordered. Then it was kinda quiet other than the loud hiss of sand and wind.
A few flashes of pink and white light up some rough silhouettes, but I couldn’t tell what was going on at all. I just had to wait for Winnie and Sahara to do their parts.
The sand and wind tore at Winnie’s white fur as he ducked behind a boulder for some shelter from the falling boulders created by Sahara. The fox sneezed and rubbed the sand out of his nose. He, or more correctly, Az was going to be brushing sand out of his fur for the next few weeks.
The illusion fox was close to exhaustion from the effort of having to pull off his most elaborate illusion yet. Unfortunately he didn’t have more than a few moments to rest, but he still had enough in his reserves to pull Az’s plan off now that Sahara’s Sandstorm was providing them cover, and the two psychics wouldn’t be able to use their little psychic dust tactic on them thanks to the sandstorm.
He just had to prevent them from using Future Sight again, what a nightmare of a move to deal with. Thankfully it required a bit of setup for the twins to use. Olympia and her team had shown a much more terrifying proficiency with the move in the VS recordings that Rotom had shown him, but her students were still far from getting to that level.
He had sent a few illusion versions of himself out to probe for everyone’s locations and had the psychics distracted for the moment chasing the fakes. He could see the flashes of light from them attacking and destroying a few of his illusions and boulders that threatened to fall on them.
Gallade and Gardevoir were in front of him and a bit to the right while Sahara was somewhere to his left, awaiting his signal.
Winnie created a few more simple illusions to join the others as distractions while he crept closer to their location, using a mixture of the sandstorm and an illusion to hide his form. His opponents were none the wiser about his location, despite Gardevoir’s enhanced abilities.
A wispy ball of ghost type energy danced in each of his paws as he waited a few moments for an opening as his illusions lured the psychics back onto the ground. Once he did, he smoothly slipped past Gallade and Gardevoir, hitting them with Confuse Ray.
The illusion fox grinned as he slid away, unnoticed, and whipped up a copy of Gallade and mega Gardevoir. Then he applied the final touches to the real Gardevoir and Gallade.
The psychics didn’t even notice their real partner disappearing and being replaced by a fake. It would’ve been nice if he could’ve broken Gallade and Gardevoir’s telepathic connection to each other and their trainers, but he didn’t have the juice, nor the time to try that. So he just had to settle with making the situations they were in identical while he guided them away from each other using his illusions.
Winnie ducked behind another boulder in order to have a bit of protection as he concentrated on this task, once he was confident that the two were far enough away from each other, he slid into the shadows of the boulder and hopped on over to Sahara’s shadow, popping his head out as to minimize his contact with the grating sandstorm.
“hey sahara, we’re good to go.” Winnie told the landshark, “gallade’s on the left.”
Sahara gave him a sharp tooth grin as she growled, “This will be exciting. Have fun with that annoying little fairy.” She spit out the words ‘little fairy’ like a slur as she turned and prowled away into the sandstorm.
Sahara didn’t need to go far to find her prey, lost in the sandstorm while none the wiser that his ally was a fake. She almost laughed aloud at Gallade’s folly, but contained herself, she didn’t want to ruin the fun of stalking her prey.
Gallade turned around, eyes darting around in search of either of his opponents, but Sahara had already slipped away into the cover of the sandstorm. She still hadn’t fully mastered the art of what her pet human called ‘Sand Veil’ due to her large size, but she would get there sooner rather than later if she had more chances to hunt like this.
Staying low to the ground, Sahara waited until Gallade’s back was turned to her before she rushed him, blue dragon type energy swirled around her, propelling her into her opponent.
Gallade, who was already on guard, was prepared to instantly use Protect. Sahara was expecting this and she smashed through the barrier with Brick break with a snarling grin.
Her opponent dodged Brick Break and her follow up Dragon Claw, retaliating with a blade of green energy that she blocked with Dragon Claw.
The type energies clashed against each other as the two combatants tried to push their opponent back. A foolish game in Sahara’s eyes, especially since she had her feet dug in. Gallade was unable to budge the landshark even though he was pushing her with both hands.
Sahara swung at Gallade with a Dragon Claw on her other arm and tore into his side before she used her other arm to knock him away. Fire flared at the sides of her mouth before he unleashed a flamethrower at the blade Pokemon, hitting him square in the chest and knocking him onto his back. Gallade’s eyes widened with a bit of panic anc confusion as he realized that the Gardevoir illusion was no longer there.
The landshark didn’t give him a chance to recover, jumping on the blade Pokemon and biting his leg. Then she took a page out of the two headed twat’s book and shook the psychic type around like he was a Pokedoll, fire type energy flared out around her teeth as she continued to swing around the blade Pokemon.
There was a flare of pain in her mouth and a flash of pink that forced her to let go, another one of those fairy moves, though the bladed one’s fairy attacks were nowhere near as powerful as his counterparts.
Gallade tucked his feet in and flipped away, landing somewhat unsteadily as his injured leg almost gave away. The blade Pokemon brandished the blades on his arm, fighting type energy swirled into his body.
With a wide sharp toothed grin, Sahara gestured for him to come at her. Gallade charged, Sahara braced for another clash, but was surprised when her opponent ducked down and swept his leg out and tried to sweep her feet out from underneath her.
The landshark braced herself and tanked the hit to her leg. Seeing that his opponent didn’t fall, Gallade retreated, dodging a lazy Dragon Pulse from the landshark, wincing at the injury he sustained on his leg from her rough scales.
He charged again, this time Sahara readied a Dragon Claw. It was a pain that she couldn't use any of her dragon type attacks on the fairy, but this one was fair game.
Well, Sahara didn’t get to use Dragon Claw as she had hoped. Gallade dodged past the dragon and ran straight into the sandstorm, leaving her a bit dumbstruck. Sahara growled in annoyance and resignedly renewed the sandstorm, she hadn’t noticed him snap out of his confusion.
Too bad the little fox told her to let him escape if he ran. She could’ve bested the male psychic on her own, but the plan her pet human has come up with should be able to bring them victory against that damned fairy type.
She would’ve preferred to not use the fox’s cheap tricks, but she decided that she didn’t mind using them after fighting that damned fairy type. Besides, cheap tricks weren’t cheap if they could consistently buy one victory.
The landshark began burrowing into the ground.
What a waste of a first encounter, she would’ve enjoyed fighting a mega Pokemon, but the first one they had to fight just had to be one of those stupid fairies.
Winnie was sitting under the cover of a couple of boulders, watching Gardevoir and fake Gallade battling an illusionary Sahara. Mega Gardevoir was none the wiser that she was wasting her flashy Pixelated Hyper Beams, and Dazzling Gleams on nothing.
He was glad that this part of the strategy was working. Both Gallade and Gardevoir were confused, and the fact that they both thought they were fighting Sahara seemed to have fooled their trainers as well via their telepathic connection.
This way Winnie and Sahara could separately wear them down. The illusion fox had no doubts that Gardevoir would snap out of it soon, he could already see the confusion in her eyes fading away. Well, it wasn’t like he needed her confusion to last very long anyways. All he had wanted was for Gardevoir to waste as much energy as possible, that was Az’s counter for any mega Pokemon Zoe and Chloe used.
The illusion fox ducked his head back behind the boulder, dodging a stray, hot pink Hyper Beam. He gathered ghost type energy and let a small wave from Night Shade out to as a probe to sense where Gallade and Sahara were. They were right on track.
Stretching his arms, Winnie got up, “alright, time for the finale.”
He let illusion Gallade and Sahara disappear as he walked out into the open. Gardevoir blinked and looked around, the shock of her partner disappearing into thin air snapping her out of her confusion.
“nice weather we’re having here!” Winnie called to the mega Pokemon over the howling wind from the storm.
“Nice weather indeed.” Gardevoir replied, firing a massive Moonblast at Winnie. The fox grinned as his illusion was destroyed in a fiery pink explosion.
Suddenly, Sahara burst out of the sandstorm, striking at Gardevoir’s head. The psychic’s eyes glowed as she stopped Sahara from hitting her before swatting the landshark away like a fly.
The dragon flipped as she was tossed in the air and landed before slashing through a few Moonblasts that were sent her way. A series of pink mini explosions followed.
“Gardevoir.” The mega Pokemon pointed at Sahara and pointed down to the ground, The ground beneath Sahara cratered as she was forced to the ground. Gardevoir’s eyes glowed with psychic power as she increased the power of Gravity, faceplanting Sahara into the ground. The dragon growled furiously as she struggled to get up, but it was useless.
Winnie closed his eyes and concentrated, letting a frost bitten anger settle in his stomach before he released an intense wave of ghost type energy with Bitter Malice. The illusion fox made sure to focus the energy near Chloe and Zoe, hopefully that would be enough to temporarily sever their telepathic connection. If he could fully master the move, it would be a better option than Night Shade for severing strong telepathic connections. Het could only use it in bursts at the moment.
From his hideout in the boulder patch, Winnie could see Gardevoir’s eye twitch as he executed the move.
She ignored the effect of Night Shade and rose up into the sky, her hands held above her as she gathered fairy type energy for a final attack. Moonblast quickly grew in size until it was like a miniature moon. Seeing this, Sahara increased her efforts to try to escape.
Finally, Gardevoir hurled the ridiculously big Moonblast at her opponent. Winnie ducked down again and braced as the attack created a pink mushroom cloud explosion and rocked the arena.
Peeking out again, Winnie’s eyes widened as he saw the massive crater that Gardevoir’s Moonblast had created, as well as the nearby boulders it had melted.
The dust was quickly cleared by Gardevoir, who recoiled as she saw who she had just hit. It wasn’t Sahara, it was Gallade. She had KO-ed her own teammate.
“Wait! What happened?!” The twins yelled in sync. “We couldn’t see anything!” “Was that all an illusion?”
The referee raised a yellow flag towards the twins and shouted, “Please return your Pokemon so the match can continue!”
Zoe took out Gallade’s Pokeball and returned him before the referee could yell at her again. The referee changed the flag to green and waved it, “You may continue!”
“Iron Head!” Az immediately shouted.
The ground beneath Gardevoir immediately split open and the real Sahara leaped out, headbutting Gardevoir with a steel-type reinforced head. Gardevoir let out a cry of surprise as she was hit by the super effective attack.
Winnie’s eyes darted to the twins as he noticed one of them wobble. Golurk had told him that mega evolution was taxing not just on the Pokemon, but on the trainer as well. Different types of power ups were fueled by different things, mega evolution for example, could only be sustained as long as the trainer had the vitality to support it. It seemed like the twins were reaching their limit.
There was a flash from Gardevoir as she went back to her regular form and stumbled to the side as Sahara’s follow up Metal Claw grazed her side.
A pink mist pulsed out from Gardevoir as she ducked around Sahara’s back and grabbed onto her back fin.
Winnie’s ears went back as he heard Az’s panicked voice yell, “Get her off and get out of there!”
Sahara slammed her back into the ground in an attempt to throw Gardevoir off, but the embrace Pokemon held on tight. Her entire body began to glow a bright pink.
The illusion fox reached out with Psychic to try to pull the psychic off, but fatigue had set in, and he moved too slow.
Winnie’s vision was filled with a blinding flash of pink and he was thrown back from a shockwave. The arena shook as a resounding BOOM filled the battlefield with pink stained smoke.
I held my breath, anxiously waiting to see who was still standing.
The Mr Mime cleared out the dust with Psychic once it saw there was no movement, revealing a fainted Gardevoir and Sahara laying in the center of a massive crater in the ground.
I did a quick scan of the field for Winnie as I returned Sahara to her ultra ball. Zoe sighed as she returned Gardevoir while Chloe facepalmed.
It took a second for the illusion fox to poke his head out from between a few boulders. He gave the referees a thumbs up and shouted, “I’m okay!”
“YES!” I literally jumped for joy as Mr Mime lowered the barrier and the referee pointed a flag at my side, shouting, “The winners of this match are Azalea, Zoroark, and Garchomp!”
I ran over to Winnie as he unsteadily climbed over the boulders and dropped onto the ground. The illusion fox wheezed as I grabbed him in a tight hug and squealed in excitement.
“You were so awesome Winnie! I knew you could do it!” I said, letting him go as the ghosts began floating over to congratulate their boss.
“Rufflet!” Thorondor cheerily chirped as he fluttered over to Winnie and I and began hopping around. “Ruff rufflet let rufflet!”
“Those illusions were exquisite!” Banette said with a grin, patting the illusion fox on the back, then she sighed and shot Mismagius a grumpy look, “Too bad you weren’t able to spook the other side enough.”
Mismagius nodded, “And now Banette owes me her share of Pokepuffs for the next week.”
I shrugged and teasingly said, “Too bad for you Banette, we’re gonna be getting some very nice Pokepuffs to celebrate.”
Banette rolled her eyes and grumbled, “Yeah, it’s my fault for believing in the boss’s illusion ability.”
Winnie chuckled and side hugged Banette, “it’s alright, i’ll share some of my pokepuffs with you.”
- (Utility) Detect, Agility, Torment, Will-O-Wisp, Confuse Ray, Taunt, Leer, Fake Tears, Hone Claws, Substitute, Protect, Calm Mind
- (Atk) Slash, Phantom Force, Foul Play, Dig, Shadow Claw, Low Kick, Low Sweep, Crunch
- (Sp. Atk) Bitter Malice, Psychic, Hex, Shadow Ball, Night Shade, Dark Pulse, Snarl, Icy Wind, Hyper Beam
- (Utility) Scary Face, Sandstorm, Swords Dance, Protect, Spikes
- (Atk) Metal Claw, Dragon Rush, Bite, Slash, Dragon Claw, Dragon Tail, Dig, Rock Tomb, Outrage, Brick Break, Fire Fang, Thunder Fang, Earthquake, Stone Edge, Iron Head, Crunch
- (Sp. Atk) Twister, Dragon Pulse, Sand Tomb, Hyper Beam, Flamethrower, Mud Shot
- (Utility) Work Up, Scary Face, Screech, Taunt, Nasty Plot, Roar, Protect, Thunder Wave, Endure
- (Atk) Crunch, Fire Fang, Thunder Fang, Ice Fang, Head Smash, Astonish, Body Slam, Dragon Rush, Outrage
- (Sp. Atk) Hyper Voice, Dragon Breath, Dragon Pulse, Dragon Rage, Draco Meteor, Dark Pulse, Snarl
- (Utility) Conversion, Conversion 2, Defense Curl, Magnet Rise, Nasty Plot, Recycle, Agility, Recover, Lock-on, Charge, Protect, Gravity, Magic Coat, Thunder Wave
- (Atk) Giga Impact, Zen Headbutt
- (Sp. Atk) Discharge, Zap Cannon, Psybeam, Tri-Attack, Hyper Beam, Swift, Psychic, Ice Beam, Blizzard, Dark Pulse, Shadow Ball, Electro Web
- (Utility) Agility, Leer, Roost, Tailwind
- (Atk) Zen Headbutt, Peck, Wing Attack, Crush Claw
- (Sp. Atk) Air Slash, Air Cutter