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The New Normal - 2-11
🕑 Added 2023-03-24 13:36:36 +0000 UTCThe New Normal – 2-11 – Karen vs Wattson
The next day, I somehow found myself seated in the audience stands in the Mauville Gym. As I blinked away my confusion, I recalled that I had apparently overslept and nearly missed Karen’s match against Wattson. Fortunately, and slightly degradingly, I was forcibly dragged out of my room by an impatient Karen to the spectator stands.
I didn’t even realize I was so tired when I went to bed last night. Perhaps I had slept restlessly the previous night because I was too caught up in my own thoughts and excitement about my match against Drake?
Regardless, I pulled myself out of my thoughts and I focused on the battle that was playing out in front of me. Currently, Wattson was finishing up on a 3-badge battle against a new trainer and Karen’s turn was next in line.
The battle was simplistic, and I saw that the trainer wasn’t really good enough to put up a fight against Wattson’s Electabuzz. The trainer’s Pokémon just wasn’t trained enough and was too slow to respond to the trainer’s commands. Sure enough, I watched as Wattson’s Electabuzz Thunderbolt the trainer’s Ponyta, knocking it out and finishing the battle.
However, I felt a spark of inspiration as I saw Wattson’s finishing move get replayed on the massive television that hung above the arena. I had been struggling to figure out how I would continue training Pixel in order for it to learn how to utilize its Electric type attacks, since I didn’t have any Pokémon that really specialized well enough in Electric type moves for them to Pixel.
Sure, Klee, Luna, and Klaus all knew Thunderbolt and Thunder, but I wasn’t too confident that they were the best teachers for Pixel considering that they only learnt those moves through TMs. I had been planning on using TMs as well on Pixel for it to learn its Electric type attacks but seeing Wattson’s battle in front of me gave me a different idea.
Being a Pokémon that was capable of moving through cyberspace, I knew that Pixel was effectively living data turned into a Pokémon. That meant that it had perfect memory and could replay a scene that it had witnessed in its own head as many times as it wanted with perfect recollection. Thus, I thought that if I released Pixel right now and had it watch the upcoming battle between Wattson and Karen, it could probably pick up a few techniques on how to make use of Electric type attacks.
Nodding to myself, I released Pixel into the stands, which fortunately the people sitting next to me barely noticed.
“Pory? Porygon?” Pixel asked curiously as it looked around the Gym in wonder. I supposed that this was the first time for it seeing so many people crowded together in an area before.
“Yes, this is a Gym battle, Pixel.” I explained, “I want you to study the upcoming fight between Wattson and Karen and record it for you to use later. Maybe you can learn how to make use of Electric type attacks by studying how Wattson does it.”
Pixel buzzed in agreement and settled into my lap just in time for Karen to make her entrance on to the arena.
“And for our next battle! We have an exciting 3v3 8-badge battle between challenger Karen and Gym Leader Wattson! Each trainer is allowed 1 switch!” The referee announced, and I felt Pixel squirming in my lap out of excitement.
Personally, I thought that Karen likely had this battle in the bag. But I kept my expectations low as to avoid any unwanted surprises.
“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. I could see 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 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. I could see that, despite its speed, the Electrode couldn’t dodge out of the way in time and was hit by the chilling gust of wind and was slightly slowed.
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!”
Almost as soon as Sneasel stabbed a metallic claw into the ground, a loud BOOM resonated across the arena as Sneasel was struck dead-on by a huge bolt of Thunder that he failed to dodge. But by using Metal Claw and stabbing into the ground, Sneasel had mitigated some of the Electric damage by allowing some of it to disperse into the ground. Yet not all of the electric was dispersed into the ground, and Sneasel still had to brunt a majority of the damage from the powerful bolt of Thunder.
Remarkably, Sneasel didn’t falter despite his injuries and continued maintaining his Icy Wind, and I noticed that Electrode was becoming increasingly slower as it tried to manoeuvre through and break free from the freezing gust of 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 actually managed to cause a slight crack in the ground.
“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 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 was dispersed it into the ground. I could see Sneasel wincing as it charged through the shockwave, but he was lucky to avoid paralysis and by pushing through the attack and the pain, Sneasel was now in striking range of 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!” Just as the Electrode managed to fire off a short burst of electricity, Sneasel’s smashed its claws into its face and interrupted the Electrode’s 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.
Wattson knew the battle was over, as Electrode was unresponsive to his commands to retreat and that it was steadily slowing down as it slowly froze over, so he 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 scrambled 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 using its tail to bounce off the ground and managed 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.
“Dragon Pulse again!”
“Dark Pulse, Pupitar!”
A ring 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, Pupitar! Then Stone Edge!” Suddenly, Pupitar stopped channelling his Dark Pulse as he suddenly launched himself through the air with his Aerial Ace, eliciting gasps of surprise from the audience, and he deftly flew past and dodged Ampharos’ Dragon Pulse.
Ampharos tried to adjust its aim with its Dragon Pulse but before it could do so it was blasted by large chunks of rocks that were launched by Pupitar. Ampharos stumbled backwards as it stopped its Dragon Pulse, and Karen capitalized on this 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.”
This was it. Pupitar’s Dark Pulse shot forwards and once again crashed against Ampharos’ Hyper Beam as both Pokémon were now locked in a stalemate to see who had the greater willpower. The other audience members and I all held our collective breaths as we watched their two bursts of energy pushed against each other as they both tried to encroach into the other’s territory.
I noticed that, although Hyper Beam is the traditionally more powerful move, Karen had clearly trained her Pupitar into mastering the use of Dark Pulse to such an extent that it was able to match up in power against Ampharos’ Hyper Beam. Perhaps this explains why Pupitar was so lacking with his 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, I watched as Pupitar’s Dark Pulse started to slowly push back against Ampharos’ Hyper Beam and I took a quick glance at the Ampharos and noticed that it was exerting itself greatly, breathing heavily with sweat pouring down its head, and looked like it was about to fall over.
Suddenly, Ampharos’ collapsed in exhaustion and Pupitar’s Dark Pulse rapidly shot forward and blasted Ampharos back into the psychic shield, the beam of energy pinning Ampharos to the shield momentarily. Pupitar quickly cut off the attack after that as he noticed that 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 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. Attemping 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.
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 metal also shooting across the width of the arena before a large beam swept across the field and created large marks in the ground.
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.
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 dodged past a Thunderbolt before quickly needing to put up a shield to block an incoming Zap Cannon, and just after the Zap Cannon dissipated on her shield, a Flash Cannon slipped past her shield and slammed into her side, luckily not doing too much damage. Houndoom had to quickly recover as she fired off a small plume of flames to block the incoming Electro Ball and then she shot out a Dark Pulse to block another Charge Beam.
It was utter chaos, and the arena was completely scorched and cracked as it was adorned with scars and holes from Magnezone’s rapid fire. The psychic shields instantly became strained as all manner of attacks blasted and crashed into it.
But I saw that Houndoom was doing a good job evading and blocking Magnezone’s attacks considering the circumstances and the sheer mass of attacks. She certainly wasn’t unharmed, but I noticed that Magnezone was slowly faltering as it began to tire. A minute had barely passed since the beginning of Magnezone’s onslaught of attacks, but clearly it could not maintain such rapid rate of attacks for very long, no matter how trained it was.
“It’s tiring! Fire Blast!” Eventually, Magnezone rate of fire slowed to such an extent that Houndoom had the space to fire off a Fire Blast that remained unimpeded as it collided into Magnezone and interrupted its constant barrage of attacks. Magnezone was rapidly engulfed by the blast of fire and as it shook desperately in a futile attempt to shake off the flames. It was no use, and Magnezone was set ablaze as it was trapped within the ball 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.
A.N What did you guys think of Magnezone’s barrage of attacks? I wanted to write something unique because I thought that these kind of ‘big combo moves’ would be more common in high level battles.
I might not add too many of them in future battles, so this was just a kind of taster to judge your responses. Thanks again to all my Patreons.
