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The Johto League

Chapter 12

Bug Battle

The next morning dawned bright and sunny, and I awoke to prepare for my gym match. I prepped my pokémon with a little pep-talk and hoped that is we tried hard today, I could walk away with a new shiny token of victory.

We reached the gym, a large, round, domed building, and went inside. Then we stopped and checked to make sure that we actually had gone inside. The building was filled with a forest and grass, a sort of inside garden. I would’ve thought the Gym specialised in grass types if I hadn’t already been tipped off about the bugs… and sure enough, when I looked closer, the branches of the trees were filled with Caterpie, Spinarak and Metapod.

Having beaten this Gym the day before, Gary knew the way around, and led me through the indoor forest to somewhere near the building’s centre, where we met a purple-haired boy.

‘Hi, I’m Bugsy,’ he said with a friendly smile.

‘Hello. You seem pretty young for a Gym Leader!’ I replied. Bugsy smirked.

‘I guess I am a little younger than most, but I’ve loved bug-type pokémon since I was little. I’ve been training for years so you’d better watch out!’

Somewhat less nervous after this chat and finding that the Leader wasn’t so friendly, I took the challenger’s place on the battle field, and Bugsy took his. Our referee laid down the rules as a three-on-three match. Meowth and Gary sat at the side of the arena, and it began.

Bugsy threw out his pokémon first. I was surprised to see he chose a Kakuna. It was just a small, yellow cocoon pokémon, and I’d won easy battles against them. Didn’t seem like a good pick for a Gym Leader’s arsenal, but maybe he was just saving the best for last.

‘I pick Marina! Come on out!’ The ball opened and my Lapras, far larger than her opponent, appeared. ‘Okay… let’s start with your ice shard attack!’

With a beautiful sweep of her neck, Marina blew a blast of ice from her mouth, with ragged chunks of solid ice that hurtled towards Kakuna.

‘Harden, Kakuna! Then counterattack!’

Kakuna didn’t move, but its body darkened and became shiny, as if it were metal. When the ice shards hit they simply bounced off Kakuna’s shell, inflicting hardly any damage. Immediately after, Kakuna moved, using its lower end to fire stingers at Marina. She couldn’t dodge and was hurt.

‘Woah!’ I gasped, ‘I had no idea Kakuna could do that!’

‘Gym pokémon are tougher than any normal pokémon!’ Bugsy smirked.

I tried to have Marina launch another ice shard, but the same thing happened and Kakuna simply hardened its defence. It just allowed Kakuna to retaliate with its stinger. But Marina did have one other attack to try.

‘Let’s try your water pulse attack, go!’

This time, a sonorous blast of water shot from my Lapras’s jaws, and smacked into Kakuna, knocking it over. It was dazed, and repeating the assault led to the virtually immobile pokémon being knocked out for good.

‘Not bad so far, but we’re only just getting started!’ Bugsy lost no confidence, and replaced Kakuna with the next battler. He called out a Pineco, yet another bug pokémon that could defend itself with its shell.

‘Right, Marina, try ice shard to start off again!’

‘Pineco, use protect!’

Just as in the first battle, the icy gust from Lapras was deflected completely when Pineco shielded itself. Then it came for an attack, launched itself, and hit Marina with a take down.

‘Water pulse instead! Come on, you can do this!’

A surge of water shot from her mouth, directly on target, but Bugsy ordered yet another defensive tactic, a rapid spin. Pineco span at high speed, bouncing off most of the water. I groaned, as this battle proved to be simply a test of hitting my opponents. Marina tried each of her attacks again, wearing Pineco down bit by bit as it countered them, but she became worn out doing this as well.

‘Use a water pulse, and put all your power into it!’ I tried to finish the battle off with one big attack, but Bugsy had a final trick.

‘Pineco, now use self-destruct!’

I gasped but had no time for a command; Marina couldn’t get away. Pineco glowed brightly and suddenly exploded, creating a full-force blast. There was no escaping it. Dirt from the floor was thrown up and coated the arena with dust. We had to wait to see what the effect was, but it was what I’d feared. Both battlers were completely fainted.

I recalled Marina to her ball, thinking that at least I had the lead at this point. Bugsy was already summoning out his final pokémon, and when it appeared, it was over twice the size of the previous two. A massive green insect with wings and scythes for arms – a Scyther. As cool-looking as it was, it only meant danger for whichever pokémon I sent out.

‘I’m gonna battle your bug with my own bug! Give it your best, Vesper!’

I threw out the pokéball containing my little Ledyba. He buzzed into the air, but cowered a little at Scyther’s size.

Scyther immediately began the fight with a quick attack. Vesper was hit by it before we even realised that Scyther had moved.

‘Vesper, that Scyther’s really fast, but just hang in there and practice dodging its attacks!’

Scyther swept its scythes again and again, blindingly fast, and Vesper zipped around through the air, eyeing the blades and keeping out of reach. It worked for a time, but…

‘Lediiee!’ Vesper was hit again, and quickly tiring. This wasn’t going to work.

I tried to keep a confident tone to encourage him. ‘Use a supersonic attack!’

My little red ladybug had to fly up high out of reach and then used his wings to make waves of distorted sound. On the ground, Scyther faltered and looked dazed.

‘All right! You got it!’ I cheered, ‘now go on the offensive! Comet punch!’

The Ledyba swooped down into close range and pummelled the larger bug pokémon with his small legs, getting in a quick barrage of punches. I smiled hopefully at the successful hit, but that was when Scyther came back with a vengeance. A sudden slash hurt Vesper badly, and the shock made him turn and try to fly to safety. Scyther showed no mercy and followed up with a pursuit attack, leaping in a flash to stand in Vesper’s path and powerfully knocking him down. I knew this was all my poor bug could take, and recalled him gratefully.

‘For my last pokémon I choose... Spike!’

The newest member of my team, Spike the Cyndaquil, was released onto the field. I hadn’t trained him as much as the others, but as a fire type I still thought he had the best chance.

‘No problem, Scyther…’ Bugsy smirked, ‘let’s show them how we deal with fire types!’

‘Spike, be careful! Scyther’s really fast but try not to let him hit you!’

Scyther started off by trying to quick attack again. He seemed to completely disappear and reappear right by Spike, ready to strike him.

‘Cynda-!’ Spike was startled, but the shock helped him jump away, and at once the flame on his back ignited.

‘Let’s use that firepower! Attack with ember!’

I watched Spike bravely launch burning embers at his larger opponent now that his flames were activated. I thought this was sure to cause damage to the bug-type, but Scyther countered by spinning himself on the spot with his blades up protectively, deflecting all the fire. I groaned at how well Bugsy could defy the bug-type stereotype of being weak and easily defeated by teaching his team how to defend themselves so well.

‘C’mon Scyther, show them what we’re made of! Use your special fury cutter!’

After this command Scyther leapt at Cyndaquil, blades ready, and slashed. The first hit didn’t seem to hurt, but Spike wasn’t quick enough to escape, and with every blow that landed the damage increased.

‘Spike, don’t give up! Try a smokescreen!’

Instead of fire, Spike let out a cloud of smoke from his mouth, which immediately halted Scyther’s assault. It couldn’t see. Spike curled into a little ball and rolled between Scyther’s legs to safety, uncurling just behind him.

‘Now’s your chance, ember again!’

As Scyther stood, blinded, in a smoke cloud which stung his eyes, Spike again sent flaming hot embers out and this time, they hit. Scyther was burned by it and cried out.

‘Keep going! Tackle!’ I jumped as I said it, desperate to use this chance…

Spike ran at Scyther and collided head-on, knocking Scyther down. It didn’t get up.

‘Scyther is unable to battle. The battle goes to Cyndaquil. The challenger won the match.’

‘I won?!’ I just stood there, out of breath from adrenaline. ‘I can’t believe I won! Spike, you did it!’

‘Cynda cyndaquil!’ he chirped, and I ran across the field to pick him up and congratulate him, but I stopped. Spike was glowing. His body grew brighter until he was surrounded by light, just like the Pineco did earlier, and for a second I thought he would explode. Instead, Spike changed shape. After a few seconds, instead of a Cyndaquil, Spike had evolved into a Quilava.

‘Spike…!’

He grinned up at me, and I picked him up and held him. My first pokémon evolution… Spike no longer resembled a hedgehog, he had a longer body now. He was slightly larger, and seemed more confident, but still happily nuzzled me.

‘I hate to break up the happy occasion…’ Bugsy interrupted, ‘but I think this is what you came for!’

He held out a badge – the Hive Badge. I thanked him for it, and for helping Spike to evolve. Then I rejoined my team-mates to revisit the Pokémon Centre, where my battlers deserved to be healed.

‘Well, you actually did it,’ Gary said as we walked back, sounding like he was giving a compliment until he added, ‘…barely.’

‘I still got the badge. And I’m so happy for Spike… it was a huge success!’

‘You were okay… but don’t go getting cocky.’

‘Oh please,’ I said, trying to match Gary’s sarcastic drawl, ‘who are you to lecture me about being cocky?’

Gary just smirked. ‘When you’re as good as me, you’re allowed to be.’

I ignored him and talked to Meowth instead, since I had a few questions about what evolution meant for a pokémon.

‘Mostly, it’s what pokémon dream of doing. They all aspire to it…’

‘What about you? D’you think you could evolve?’

‘Don’t t’ink so. After all, I hate Persians,’ he flicked out a claw to emphasise the point.

‘That’s okay, I like you way better like this, anyway,’ I laughed, picking him up and tickling him until he purred.

We all healed and ate at the Pokémon Centre, and checked the map for our next route. The only way to go was to take a path through a forest to get to Goldenrod City, a place I’d heard of for being a heaven for shoppers. Then, that afternoon, I checked back with the pokéball artisan. His granddaughter greeted us again.

‘Oh hi!’ she beamed, ‘I remember you! I can give you your custom pokéballs…’ and she handed me some very interestingly designed pokéballs. I’d never seen anything like these.

‘That white apricorn made this ‘fast ball’…’ and she gave me what looked like a regular pokéball, only with a yellow zigzag on the top, ‘that’ll work well on quick pokémon that try to escape. And the blue apricorn made this ‘lure ball’. It’ll be good for catching a pokémon you fished up.’ That ball was aqua blue, with a red stripe and yellow lines. Then she gave me one that looked special… the ball was completely black, but with a thin red stripe, and gold trim.

‘That one’s a ball that will really make a pokémon like you if you catch it in there.’

‘Wow…!’ I marvelled at it, ‘these are great! Thank you…’

‘No problem! Kurt’s the master at pokéball crafting!’

I thanked her again, and we left. I got the new balls out to look at, in awe of the craftsmanship and wondering when I’d get to use these special devices.

‘You could’ve got some too, Gary,’ I said when I saw him glancing over, ‘but you thought gathering apricorns was stupid.’

Hey, it’s not what you’ve got, it’s how you use it…’

I just giggled at his protests.