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Chapter 73: VS Norman - The Battle of Petalburg!
🕑 Added 2025-08-20 20:02:39 +0000 UTCHearing what Rotom had said, Cynthia gradually came back to her senses. Obviously, the game developer had intentionally designed it this way
Hearing what Rotom had said, Cynthia gradually came back to her senses.
Obviously, the game developer had intentionally designed it this way. Only by solving the problem on the third floor of the mansion could she find the so-called map there and discover the truth about that key. Everything was interconnected in a chain.
This way, the problem circled back to how to enter the library that Rotom mentioned on the third floor of the mansion.
She recalled the hint she had just seen.
[The blessing of something beautiful...]
For a moment, Cynthia really couldn't figure out what this was referring to. After all, such a description was far too vague.
She could only shake her head slightly and choose to set this matter aside for now.
Anyway, this mansion wasn't going anywhere, and besides, Rotom had already mentioned that this building had a very long history, and that guy on the third floor had been there all along.
That meant there was plenty of time to explore the mysteries within.
Moreover, compared to the situation on the third floor of the mansion and that key, the "Ultra Wormhole" was clearly more important.
Although the mist on the third floor looked quite eerie, she clearly knew this shouldn't have any direct or indirect connection to the Ultra Wormhole.
So there was no need to rush to explore it.
With this thought, Cynthia left the mansion with Rotom, walked along the path, and left Petalburg Woods again.
When leaving the forest, Rotom didn't return to its Poké Ball. Instead, it floated around Cynthia, looking left and right, appearing very curious about the outside world.
But it was also quite timid - at the slightest disturbance, it would immediately shrink back behind Cynthia, cautiously poking out half its head.
From this, you could see why Rotom had never thought of leaving despite living in this forest for so many years. It was limited by its own courage...
However, this seemed to be a good thing. After all, if Rotom hadn't been waiting in the mansion for Cynthia's arrival, there wouldn't have been anyone to provide her with so much information about the mansion.
...
Successfully passing through Petalburg Woods, what appeared before Cynthia was a road leading directly to Petalburg City.
Speaking of Petalburg City, memories from when she first played this game a few days ago suddenly flooded back to Cynthia's mind.
After leaving Littleroot Town, the first city she had actually reached was this place. She had even taught a young man named Lucas how to catch Pokémon in the grass nearby.
Speaking of which... she wondered how that guy Lucas was doing now, and whether she'd encounter him again in the future and possibly battle him?
While Cynthia was thinking, a middle-aged man wearing a red hat by the pond suddenly looked at her, a black exclamation point appeared above his head, and he excitedly approached.
"Hey there, young lady, I see you're carrying a fishing rod with you. How about it? Want to fish with me?"
"This pond has great fishing - I guarantee you won't go home empty-handed!"
Seeing this scene, Cynthia didn't hesitate to make her character turn around and run.
The chat comments in the livestream exploded with laughter.
[There's no way she's fishing - not in this lifetime.]
[Guess how many Gyarados are waiting for our streamer in that pond?]
[LOL, fishing gave our host PTSD.]
...
Cynthia controlled her character to run all the way until she quickly reached the entrance of Petalburg City Gym. The last time she came here, her strength wasn't sufficient to challenge the character's father, "Norman."
And now...
As Cynthia stood at the gym entrance, her character's communicator suddenly rang. It was a call from her father, Norman.
[Norman: Good child, I've heard about your achievements. You're excellent, able to grow to this level so quickly.]
[I believe you're ready to battle me, and I am too. That being the case, I'll be waiting for you in the final room.]
[Good luck, kiddo.]
After saying this, Norman hung up directly, and a wave of discussion arose in the livestream.
[Looking at the icon at this gym entrance... the protagonist's father seems to be a Normal-type gym leader. Normal-type Pokémon generally don't seem very powerful.]
[True, Normal-type just means no special characteristics, right? Normal-type usually doesn't have any rare Pokémon or pseudo-legendaries...]
[So this gym's difficulty should be lower than the previous ones?]
[I think so. After all, this is the protagonist's biological father. He can't really go all-out against her, right? He'll probably go easy on her...]
[Man, I wish my dad was a gym leader. I'm so jealous of the protagonist.]
...
Obviously, regarding Petalburg Gym's difficulty, the chat comments unanimously believed it wouldn't be particularly high this time.
But as Cynthia stood at the gym's entrance, she somehow felt an ominous premonition rising in her heart.
...
Compared to the other gyms she'd visited before, Petalburg Gym didn't have complex mazes or various mechanisms inside.
Its challenge method was quite straightforward: starting from the first room, continuously choosing one of two paths to enter the next room, and eventually successfully reaching Gym Leader Norman's location for the gym battle.
The only difference between these rooms was that the NPCs inside seemed to use different types of Pokémon, and Cynthia also noticed that different labels were posted at the entrances of these rooms.
She just didn't quite understand what these labels meant. For example, when she first entered the gym, the labels on the left and right sides were:
[Lightning-fast Speed]and[Rock-solid Physical Defense]
Based on her guess, these should be indicating the specialties of the Pokémon that the NPCs behind these two doors would use?
After brief consideration, she chose [Rock-solid Physical Defense] and entered.
Because if it really was as she thought, with Ludicolo, Pelipper, and Rotom's powerful special attack capabilities, she should be able to easily break through the opponent's physical wall Pokémon.
The next moment, as Cynthia entered the room, a purple-haired woman immediately approached her.
[You must be the gym leader's little daughter, right? I've heard about you for a long time, but even so, I won't hold back!]
The next moment, countless Poké Balls flashed across the game screen, and battle immediately began.
A red light flashed, and the opponent sent out their Pokémon first.
It was a Pokémon with a peculiar design - its body looked like a red teapot, with an orange head and limbs protruding from grooves on the teapot's surface, giving it quite a cute appearance.
This was Shuckle, a Bug and Rock dual-type Pokémon. In Cynthia's memory, this type of Pokémon indeed had outstanding physical defense, even quite impressive.
But this type of Pokémon also had a fatal weakness - its HP seemed very low. Whether it was sustained battle or taking damage from certain fixed-damage moves, it was extremely difficult for it.
So generally, no one would train this type of Pokémon as their main partner.
She hadn't expected to see it in the game now.
However, this Pokémon's appearance also confirmed Cynthia's guess was correct - the content of the labels above the rooms represented the characteristics of the Pokémon that the trainers in those rooms would use.
While Cynthia was thinking, her lead Pokémon, Pelipper, had already taken the field.
Since discovering Pelipper's Drizzle ability, Pelipper had become her most common lead Pokémon.
After all, when unsure of the opponent's strength, starting by setting up the "Rain" weather that favored her team was never wrong.
As Pelipper entered, light rain began to fall from the sky, and the first turn officially began.
Cynthia didn't hesitate and directly selected Water Pulse - a special attack move that could deal double damage to Rock-type Pokémon. No matter how high Shuckle's defense was, it wouldn't matter.
However, the next moment, as the turn began, it was actually the purple-haired woman on the opposite side who moved first.
She appeared behind Shuckle and threw a deep purple, oval-shaped item from her hand.
[Purple-haired girl Lisa used Defense Enhancer!]
A brilliant blue light suddenly appeared on Shuckle's body.
[Shuckle's Defense was greatly increased.]
Seeing this notification, Cynthia couldn't help but widen her eyes slightly.
Based on her experience, when "greatly increased" appeared as a notification in the game, it meant that a Pokémon's certain ability had received a two-stage boost.
In the Pokémon world, most moves could only provide a one-stage boost. Only a few top-tier boosting moves like Swords Dance or Nasty Plot could increase a Pokémon's Attack or Special Attack by two stages at once.
But correspondingly, the preparation time for such moves in the real world was quite long.
Yet now the opponent had only used an item to directly increase this Shuckle's Defense by two stages?
While Cynthia was thinking, water had already gathered in front of Pelipper and struck the opposing Shuckle.
[Super effective!]
Undoubtedly, the frail and low-special-defense Shuckle had its HP bar instantly emptied under one super-effective attack, losing its ability to battle.
The purple-haired woman also recalled Shuckle, showing a somewhat surprised expression on her face.
"As expected of Gym Leader Norman's daughter. Keep it up! Continue forward - your father is waiting for you in the final room."
After saying this, she turned and left.
Meanwhile, the chat comments had also noticed those items from earlier and began discussing them.
[There are items that can directly boost Pokémon's stat stages? Isn't that like manual cheating?]
[What cheating? Didn't you see it took a turn to use?]
[Even though it takes a turn, it can boost two stages of stats at once. Isn't that strong enough?]
...
While the chat was discussing, Cynthia didn't immediately continue forward. Her character stood in place.
She had fallen into deep thought.
Just like the second comment's point, the "Defense Enhancer" item just now didn't provide any substantial help in this battle. Instead, it wasted the opponent's turn.
—Although given the situation, the Shuckle without priority would have been taken out by Pelipper's Water Pulse in the first turn anyway, even if it had used a normal move.
But as a Champion, Cynthia keenly realized a problem.
If there were Defense Enhancement items like this, wouldn't there also be enhancement items for other stats like Special Attack, Speed, and Attack?
If such items really existed, that would be quite something.
These items would be equivalent to letting any Attack-focused Pokémon use Swords Dance in battle, or any Special Attack-focused Pokémon use Nasty Plot.
You have to understand that these two moves, as extremely powerful boosting moves, couldn't be learned by every Pokémon. Some Pokémon were inherently unable to master such techniques and could only settle for weaker, type-specific boosting moves.
And the appearance of these items... was equivalent to perfectly replacing these two crucial moves!
Moreover, item use had priority over speed determination and couldn't be interrupted by opponents - it would definitely succeed first.
And this was just for offensive boosting items.
If they were defensive ones, they could allow slower Pokémon without priority to further increase their defensive capabilities at the start of battle, making the opponent's attack deal even less damage.
If there were speed-boosting items, they could even reverse a medium-speed Pokémon's turn order, allowing it to maintain priority for the rest of the battle!
Just in this game alone, the information depth and important implications of such items were already quite rich and significant.
Actually, if it were just this, it wouldn't be enough to make Cynthia stop in her tracks and have such strong internal reactions.
But...
What if such items existed in reality too?
—You have to understand that reality isn't a game. Although boosting items' effects wouldn't be like in the game, directly doubling any Pokémon's certain stat regardless of circumstances, they would provide different enhancement effects based on the Pokémon's specific level and situation.
But using such items in the real world wouldn't require taking up a so-called "turn."
At the moment battle begins, the items could be used directly, letting the Pokémon immediately gain boosts to certain stats.
If there were no usage restrictions, you could even boost all of this Pokémon's stats by two stages instantly.
This effect could no longer be described as merely "exaggerated"!
But after the brief excitement, Cynthia gradually calmed down.
These items seemed to be like the "Rare Candy" she had seen before - they should belong to special items that the game developer had created for this game.
Although she had to admit that many things in this game were well-reasoned and corresponded to reality.
But after careful consideration, Cynthia didn't think these two items would exist in the real world.
Otherwise, the entire scientific research community and trainer field would be in an uproar!
After figuring this out, Cynthia somehow felt a bit disappointed.
Being able to quickly and effectively improve Pokémon's battle capabilities would naturally be a good thing for a top-tier trainer like her.
She sighed slightly in her heart.
Well, it was already pretty good that the game developer could design such interesting items.
If there was a chance later, she'd see if she could get some of these boosting items somewhere.
Perhaps they'd help her progress through the game and overcome difficult challenges?
With this thought, Cynthia took a deep breath and pushed open the door to the next room.
...
The NPCs in the following rooms of Petalburg Gym were exactly as Cynthia had guessed.
The labels above each room represented the characteristics of the Pokémon that the NPCs in those rooms would use, and they would all use different stat-boosting items corresponding to different attributes in the first turn of battle.
Although the effect of boosting two stat stages at once was indeed quite powerful, each room's NPC only had one Pokémon.
So in the end, Cynthia easily defeated all the blocking NPCs and stood before the final room's door.
At this moment, the livestream chat was full of cheerful laughter.
[These NPCs feel even weaker than those in previous gyms. Sure enough, no dad would go hard on his own daughter.]
[Haha, exactly. Maybe when she goes to the final room, Norman will just hand over the badge to our streamer directly.]
[Sigh, that's how dads are.]
...
At the same time, Cynthia discovered that waiting for her at this room's entrance was actually her character's biological mother.
Cynthia still remembered when she first left home after getting her Pokémon from the lab. The protagonist's mother had waited at the door, given her some advice, presented her with a pair of running shoes that could increase running speed, and asked her to come back often.
She hadn't expected to meet again so soon.
At this moment, the protagonist's mother stepped forward with a smile on her face.
"Child, you've grown so fast. Your father and I are both proud of you."
"Come, take a rest, then give it your all. Prove to your father that you can definitely become an even better trainer than him!"
With the protagonist's mother's words, a notification flashed across the screen.
[All Pokémon in the party have been fully restored!]
The next moment, the protagonist also stepped forward into the final room of Petalburg Gym.
Appearing before her was a man wearing a red tracksuit and gray athletic pants, handsome with short hair.
A weathered and deep male voice, filled with emotion, echoed in the room.
"I never thought this day would come so quickly... Child, I'm very happy to have a real battle with you."
The next moment, his tone suddenly shifted, becoming passionate!
"But Pokémon battles are no joke. As a gym leader, I'll do everything I can to win!"
"Now then, let me see your full power!"
Amid the stirring music, countless Poké Balls flashed across the screen.
Norman sent out his first Pokémon, and a notification suddenly appeared!
[Norman's "Swellow" (Lv.45) has entered battle!]
The livestream audience looked at Cynthia's team averaging under level 36, then at that Swellow's level, and question marks slowly appeared.
[?]
[???]
Wait, bro, what happened to going easy?
Isn't this supposed to be your own daughter?!
Can you explain what this level 45 means??
The livestream audience was naturally stunned seeing that Swellow's level. They had originally thought Norman's earlier words were just pleasantries.
But now it seemed he was actually being serious.
He was really going all-out against his own daughter!
—Good grief, how ruthless could he be?
However, what the audience didn't know at this moment was that, facing the serious Norman, a slight smile appeared at the corner of Cynthia's mouth.
She quite agreed with something Norman had just said: Pokémon battles are battles - no joke. Once they begin, you must give your all and respond seriously!
Even if your opponent is your own family, the same applies. As a Champion who had reached this level, her battle consciousness had long reached such heights.
But she hadn't expected to hear such words from a gym leader today.
This situation even rekindled Cynthia's fighting spirit after a long time. She took a deep breath, her whole being entering an excited state.
But at this moment, her heart was still calmly analyzing the situation of this battle.
Norman had sent out Swellow, a Flying-type Pokémon. So choosing to send out Grovyle and Ludicolo was obviously unwise, since both had Grass typing and were quite vulnerable to this Swellow, which had outstanding Attack and Speed and could counter them perfectly.
In such a situation, there was naturally no need to send out Pelipper to set up rainy weather either.
Even if Ludicolo triggered its Swift Swim ability, it couldn't compete with this Swellow. And Pelipper facing Swellow head-on definitely couldn't be described as having an advantage.
As for the remaining Bewear, it went without saying - as a Fighting-type Pokémon, it was also extremely vulnerable to Flying-types.
It could be said that before entering Petalburg Woods today, Cynthia's team was quite awkward when facing Flying-type Pokémon.
But now the situation was completely different. Facing this lead Pokémon, her team happened to have exactly the right Pokémon to handle this scenario.
That was Rotom, which Cynthia had just newly caught!
It was Electric and Ghost dual-type. Not only could it counter Swellow, but all the Normal-type moves that Swellow knew couldn't damage Rotom either.
And Rotom's Ghost typing was even more of a trump card and ace against Norman, this Normal-type gym leader.
Honestly, Cynthia didn't want to bring out Rotom so early and exhaust its condition, but facing this Swellow, it seemed like the best choice.
So Cynthia didn't hesitate anymore and directly threw out her Poké Ball, sending Rotom into battle.
Red light flashed, and Rotom appeared before her. It first excitedly and curiously turned its head, looking around at the surroundings.
Then it turned to look at Cynthia, then at the Swellow in front of it.
"What's going on? Am I supposed to battle it?"
Cynthia nodded.
"Yes, exactly. Use Thunder on it. Don't miss this time - please be accurate."
Rotom was stunned for a moment, then nodded. "You got it, boss!"
Intense lightning gathered on its body, but it wasn't the first to act!
As Cynthia input her command, the first turn began. A crimson flame suddenly flashed across the opposing Swellow's body, igniting and burning its feathers.
Along with it came a notification.
[Swellow's Flame Orb activated!]
[It became burned!]
Seeing this notification, Cynthia suddenly had an ominous premonition. A familiar scene seemed to appear before her eyes.
Could it be...?
Sure enough, the next moment, another notification followed!
[Swellow's Guts ability activated!]
Deep red light flashed across Swellow's body, making its aura suddenly surge!
On the opposite side of the field, Rotom's expression immediately changed as it carefully turned back.
"Boss, it's on fire..."
Before it could finish, Swellow suddenly opened its eyes, spread its wings, soared toward the sky, transforming into a brilliant bird-shaped light like a legendary phoenix, diving down at Rotom and crashing into its body with tremendous force!
[Swellow used Brave Bird!]
Normally, this move should only deal half damage to Electric-type Rotom, having minimal effect.
But when the "Not very effective" notification appeared, Rotom's HP bar suddenly plummeted like a roller coaster, instantly bottoming out and flashing red!
Brave Bird - Swellow's 130-power Flying-type STAB move, traded 1/3 recoil damage for incredibly powerful force. Combined with Swellow's STAB bonus and Guts ability enhancement...
Even with "not very effective" damage, with Rotom's low HP base stats, it was almost taken out in one hit by this move!
Of course, more importantly, was the level gap between the two Pokémon. Fortunately, after catching Rotom, Cynthia had battled several NPCs in the gym, allowing Rotom's level to increase.
Otherwise, if Rotom's level were even one lower, it would have been directly KO'd by Swellow's Brave Bird.
Fortunately, battles don't have "what-ifs." Rotom, hanging on with just a sliver of red HP, had finished gathering brilliant lightning on its body, transforming into earth-shaking thunder that crashed down on Swellow.
The "Super effective" notification appeared. Swellow's HP bar, which had been at 2/3, began plummeting madly, instantly emptying.
It wasn't as lucky as Rotom to retain some HP.
After all, Defense wasn't something Swellow excelled at either. Facing the equally high-powered Thunder move that could deal super effective damage, it naturally couldn't resist at all.
[Swellow fainted]
[Your party gained 23,812 experience points. Rotom leveled up to Lv.38!]
As the system notification appeared, the nearly-fainted Rotom on the field also excitedly turned around.
"Boss, how was that? Am I awesome?"
However, just as it finished speaking, another red light flashed on the opposite side as Norman sent out his second Pokémon.
It was a Pokémon with a streamlined body, gray fur, and a rodent-like appearance.
[Norman sent out Linoone Lv.41!]
Like Swellow, Linoone was also a Pokémon with Normal typing, except its type was pure Normal. According to Cynthia's memory, this Pokémon also specialized in speed.
Its streamlined body allowed it to move at extremely fast speeds, but the good news was that this Pokémon's performance in other areas wasn't that outstanding. Moreover, its level was only 41, a full 4 levels lower than the previous Swellow.
So relatively speaking, the threat shouldn't be that great.
While Cynthia was thinking, the livestream chat was also updating.
Everyone seemed to have just recovered from the shock that Swellow had brought.
[I've discovered that the least trustworthy thing in this game is the phrase "not very effective." Good grief, that was terrifying.]
[Why does it feel like every NPC Pokémon with Flame Orb in this game has the Guts ability? This Guts ability's damage boost is way too overpowered.]
[Good thing our streamer caught an Electric-type Pokémon, otherwise I can't even imagine how she'd beat this thing.]
[I know the answer to that one upstairs. Simple - Brave Bird deals 1/3 recoil damage, right? Just have Grovyle and Ludicolo each take one Brave Bird and you can trade two for one. It's a bit of a loss, but you tell me if it solves the problem or not.]
[GG, the person above is a Pokémon genius. I want to see you at the Indigo Conference this year.]
And seeing Linoone, everyone was obviously relieved. After all, compared to well-known Pokémon like Swellow, Linoone was quite obscure.
And its level was much lower than Swellow's, so it shouldn't be as overpowered as Swellow.
It couldn't possibly also have Guts ability and carry a Flame Orb, right?
Under everyone's attention, Cynthia thought briefly and ultimately let Rotom continue on the field, clicking the Thunder move.
Although Rotom had the ability to switch forms in the first turn of the game, to resist Swellow's Flying-type moves, Cynthia hadn't chosen to switch, keeping it as Electric-type.
Now that the first turn was over, it was too late to switch forms anyway.
Moreover, with Rotom's HP down to its last bit, switching it back to the party now wouldn't mean much.
Facing Cynthia's command, Rotom turned around, looking at her with teary eyes.
"Boss, I understand. From here on... I'll leave it to the other teammates."
After saying this, it turned to face Linoone with a heroic, resigned expression and closed its eyes.
However, the next moment.
Rotom found that the attack it had imagined didn't come. It couldn't help but open its eyes with some surprise.
—Huh? I'm actually okay.
But soon, its expression suddenly changed.
A stammering voice rang in Cynthia's ear.
"Boss, its, its, its belly - why did it suddenly get so big?"
Opposite it, Linoone's abdomen suddenly swelled to an incredible degree.
Like a war drum, it rumbled with deafening sound.
Its HP bar also dropped without warning directly to below half, beginning to flash dangerous yellow light.
Rotom was stunned at first, then showed joy on its face, placing two lightning-like little hands on its sides like they were on its hips.
"Boss! Look how awesome I am - I haven't even attacked yet, and it's already scared into losing HP!"
However, just as it finished speaking, a notification suddenly appeared.
[Linoone used Belly Drum. Linoone's HP decreased!]
The next moment, brilliant aura accompanied by sun-bright crimson light suddenly surged on Linoone's body.
[—Be careful! Linoone's Attack rose to 18,000 points!!!]
Rotom: ?
Cynthia: ???
