Chapter 10 - Status Matters

We came around to the spectator entrance for the gym battles and entered, nodding to the doorman. Spectating gym battles was free.

We walked down a long hall with the walls plastered with advertisements and came out to a brightly lit stadium. The stands had a decent crowd, made larger because you could have all your pokemon out to view the battle.

Once we entered the stadium, I quickly let Chaos out of her ball, into my hands.

“Happi!” She shrilled, happy to be snuggled in my arms.

There was still around 5 minutes until the gym battle started. I looked around to see where there were free seats and caught sight of a waving Elizabeth seated next to Alan, who we had met on the road to Cherrygrove.

I pointed them out to Ida and we made our way over.

“Hey, Elizabeth. Alan. How’s it going?” I ask.

“Just here for Matt’s gym battle. He’s going to kick ass.” Alan said.

“This is Ida, by the way.” I gesture to Ida, “And Ren.”

“Hello.” Ida says in a soft voice.

I take a seat next to them, “So, you think Matt’s cyndaquil is ready?”

“Yeah, its fire versus grass, can only be one outcome.” Alan says confidently.

“Well, type advantage isn’t everything, you know.” Chimes in Ida. “There have been many instances of type advantage falling through in gym battles. Everyone knows that gyms train extra hard to offset their type disadvantage.”

“Ladies and gentleman, pokemon of all sizes, please give a warm welcome to Gym Leader Perry.” A loud voice rang out as a wall that was covered in vines started wriggling. The vines coalesced into a humanoid shape that seemed to be coming out of the wall. Then the head was uncovered and the vines unfurled and bloomed, seeming to transform into a dazzling dress covered in flowers.

“And the first challenger, Matt Voori!” The door on the challenger side opened and Alan came out to stand in his trainer box.

“Matt is challenging for his first badge in a 1 vs 1. Are both trainers ready? Please send out your pokemon.” The referee said.

Matt released his cyndaquil, while Perry released an oddish.

“Go Bruno!” Yelled Alan and Elizabeth.

“Let the battle…begin!”

“Bruno, use ember!” Matt shouted.

“Quil!” Bruno started to flare the fire on his back and shot out a flame at oddish.

The oddish darted away, dodging the flame with a twirl.

“Again, you got this Bruno!”

Bruno let out another ember, but the oddish still dodged with ease.

Matt seemed to be getting frustrated and said, “Full power, Bruno, like we practiced.”

Bruno began to stoke his flame, taking longer this time and the oddish just stood and waited for him. Perry hadn’t given a single command in the match.

When Bruno shot off his ember, it was twice the size of the previous volleys. Oddish flitted away, seeming to avoid it again. But the ember let out a small explosion when it hit the ground, sending flames to lick against the leaves of the oddish, singing them.

“Stun spore.” A small voice came from the gym leader Perry.

The oddish started to shake their leaves, releasing spores that covered the arena. With a larger concentration around Bruno.

“Bruno! Burn those spores!” Matt yelled.

Bruno tried to flare his back, but he only managed to increase the flame slightly because he was exhausted from his attacks.

In short order, Bruno was paralyzed.

“Fight it Bruno!” Matt encouraged, starting to seem flustered.

The oddish remained impassive on their side of the field, Bruno having fired all his attacks at range. Meanwhile, Bruno struggled to fight his paralysis.

“Finish this.” Perry stated.

The oddish shot forward and slammed into Bruno, knocking him down.

At this point, the referee asked, “Challenger Matt, do you concede the battle?”

Matt was trembling while staring down at Bruno, who was at the mercy of the oddish.

After a moment's pause, he said in a soft voice, “I concede.”

“There you have it folks, Gym Leader Perry is the winner.” The referee said.

Elizabeth and Alan looked crestfallen, while Ida looked to be thrilled.

“Next up as the challenger, we have Joel Schultz. He will also be challenging for his first badge.”

What followed was a similar battle to Matt’s. With the pokemon, mudkip, exhausting itself trying to harm the oddish and falling prey to its stun powder.

In my eyes, these challengers didn’t really work on training their pokemon. Bruno just stood still lobbing embers and the mudkip didn’t seem to have done any agility training.

I hope that Chrys’ training is enough.

“Now, do we have a treat for you. Challenging for her 3rd badge, we have Kyra Bedna!”