CH140 (754), First Stretch Done

Parvati/Beedrill and her doubles rushed toward Talonflame and released a blob of Toxic at it. She and consequently her doubles as well then raised their lances in the way of the blob, causing it to clash against it and turn into a Toxic sprinkle that covered more area but was less dangerous. However, that was unimportant since the goal was never to worsen Talonflame's poisoning using Toxic. The toxic sprinkle was just a diversion from the real goal, which was to apply Toxic onto Parvati's lances. This method was the alternative we came up with since Parvati had trouble combining her combo moves Furious Poison Cutter and Lance Dance into one ultimate combo move.

Our current approach allowed Toxic to act as a substitute for the poison energy of Furious Poison Cutter, allowing Parvati to achieve the same effect while using Lance Dance, though due to being applied onto the lances instead of being part of the move, the Toxic only lasted for a single use of Lance Dance. Nonetheless, because of Talonflame's lightly poisoned state, a single Toxic round of Lance Dance should suffice to achieve our goal, allowing Parvati to simply use the regular Lance Dance after that. As expected, our plan worked, and Winona as well as Talonflame's attention was drawn to the Toxic sprinkle. Talonflame released a Heat Wave to deal with the, in its perspective, Toxic rain since it was unable to determine which part was real and which one fake.

Parvati forced her way through the Heat Wave, tanking the little damage that forcing her way through the heat caused, and slammed her glinting lance into Talonflame as her doubles evaporated due to coming in contact with the same Heat Wave. Not that their disappearance helped Talonflame as Parvati followed up with her other lance, smoothly slipping into her Lance Dance. Talonflame tried to block Parvati's onslaught using Steel Wing, but Parvati was like a Sword-, or in this case Lancemaster, allowing Talonflame to only block one or two of her hits, while the rest slipped past its defense and landed on its body.

Parvati only broke off her onslaught and retreated when Talonflame literally lit itself up in an inferno through Flare Blitz in an attempted Kamikaze-style rush. Still, at that point, Parvati had already achieved her goal, and Talonflame's condition had grown worse since her speed had allowed Parvati to preserve most of the Toxic on her lances even after passing through the Heat Wave. After this, all Parvati would have to do was drag things out and occasionally cast Venoshock when the opportunity presented itself to secure her victory. Yet, Parvati would not be Parvati if she was satisfied with that.

No, my stubborn girl wanted to beat her opponent head-on, so she insisted on facing Talonflame "properly". Instead of wasting time and playing it safe, Parvati engaged in both close and long-range combat with Talonflame since she wanted to win through battle and not solely rely on poison. According to her, poison was only part of her strength and she did not want to win relying only on it. Seeing her determination I decided to not force the issue and let her do what she wanted after I made sure that she realized that this meant that she would be unable to properly face Winona's next Pokemon even if she won against Talonflame. Parvati said that she was fine with that, so I let her go with her not-too-smart battle plan.

As expected, Talonflame did eventually fall due to the damage caused by the poison and Parvati's various attacks. Nonetheless, Parvati was not looking good either. Winona recalled her falling firebird before the referee declared it unable to battle, following which Parvati flew down to the ground and sat down in pain due to the burns and damage she suffered, though she tried to not show her pain as much as she could. I praised her out loud while telling her over our mental link that I hoped that she would hopefully think twice before attempting a strategy like this now that she had gotten a first-hand feeling of the consequences of a decision that involved unnecessary damage to herself.

Still, slight scolding aside, I made sure she knew that she had fought well, and I let her enjoy the audience's cheers for a few moments before I raised my arm and forfeited her, following which I recalled her so that I could let her out inside Utopia for a swift recovery. While I could have waited for Winona to release her fifth Pokemon first before recalling Parvati to find out who we'll face next, and take advantage of that, I honestly saw no need to do that. I still had 3 Pokemon compared to Winona's two, and I frankly saw no way I would lose this battle, especially since none of the Pokemon I was considering using next would be at a disadvantage regardless of whether they had to face Tropius or Mandibuzz.

I heard the referee ask us to ready our Pokemon, and I decided to go with a fancier choice that would not only cause quite a bit of excitement due to its appearance but would also pretty much guarantee the conclusion of this Gym Battle in our favor without the need to use any further Pokemon. Winona and I released our Pokemon onto the field at the referee's signal, and while her (high) dark gold stage Tropius appeared on her side of the field, Moka/Crobat appeared on mine. There was a moment of silence as the audience took in the sight of a very large black Crobat with a white fluff scarf around its neck before they broke out in exclamations and cheers.

Unlike the audience, Tropius was staring at Moka for another reason, namely her Primal Grace, which was evoking feelings of awe in Tropius. Those feelings necessitated Winona's intervention; She shouted for Tropius to snap out of it and use Sunny Day. Moka was obviously not just just twiddling her non-existent thumbs during that time. She took the time that Tropius was distracted to set the foundation for its inevitable doom. Moka first released a SuperScreech and timed it so that it hit just as Tropius was about to release Sunny Day so that it could not dodge. She followed that up with a Double Team, which confused the already Confused Pokemon even further due to the many Crobat it saw.

Moka then Taunted the Confused Tropius on top of that, irritating it while locking it to offensive moves, which happened to interfere with Winona's order for Tropius to use Grassy Terrain. I suspected that she had wanted her Tropius to weather through the confusion by sitting within the Grassy Terrain, while probably using Synthesis on top if possible to endure Moka's attacks, but Taunt nipped that plan in the bud. While Tropius failed to evoke a Grassy Terrain, the many Mokas rushed at it and the original Moka delivered a powerful Cross Poison that hurled Tropius towards the ground at a 45-degree angle.

A little dust cloud rose at the point Tropius impacted, but Moka ignored that and followed up with a Hurricane. The cyclone was so strong that it not only hurt Tropius but also dragged its, at least, quarter-ton behind into the air. Winona tried to shout some orders, but sadly for her, the Confused Tropius was unable to follow them. Surprisingly, it was a single Synthesis that managed to make it through Tropius' addled mind a minute into its Hurricane experience, and more surprisingly the move actually worked. This indicated that Taunt had already run its course for some reason, which was pretty fast as far as I could tell from experience.

Not that a single Synthesis, even if it was one used under a Sunny Day, was going to help Tropius much, especially since Moka released a few Toxics and Venoshocks into the Hurricane while Winona futilely gave a bunch of orders, resulting in some severe poisoning and damage on Tropius' part; The latter only got partially healed by the successful Synthesis. Still, once Moka saw Tropius use Synthesis, she followed up with another Taunt to prevent any additional healing. Anyway, the battle ended not long after that since even Tropius breaking out of confusion did not help it against Moka once it had been poisoned and Taunted a second time.

A few Cross Poisons along with three Venoshocks were enough to take Tropius down, and all she had to do was tank some of Tropius' "weaker"/less effective attacks in return. The referee declared Tropius unable to battle, and Winona quickly recalled it as soon as he spoke the first word. Crobat enjoyed the audience's cheers as she was declared the victor of the battle, and we all watched as the referee asked Winona to ready her final Pokemon. I knew from my research into the Gym that it should be her Mandibuzz, and that assumption was proven right when a Mandibuzz did indeed appear across from Moka.

I honestly expected Winona to do some grandstanding for showmanship's sake since that was what happened at this point during any of my previous Gym Battles, but she simply said that I had fought well and that she was looking forward to how we would face her Mandibuzz. I mean, she did say her piece, and the audience did cheer for her; But how do I say this? There was no grandstanding, and her words were much more normal than expected. The battle had been too much in our favor for her to feel comfortable spouting some grand words I guess, but unexpectedness aside, I felt refreshed hearing her hand out some regular praise instead of some provocative challenge.

Either way, Mandibuzz ended up losing against Moka after going up against her for roughly 6 minutes. Once Mandibuzz fell and the referee declared that I had beaten Winona, the audience broke out in cheers, and I heard Mom shout "That's my son", which had me smile wryly. Winona, who had walked up to me to congratulate me on my victory and to hand the Gym Badge to me, chuckled when she saw my reaction, correctly inferring that it was indeed my mother who shouted that. She teased me by saying that she was envious of how proud my mother was of me before putting on a more serious look as she asked her assistant to pass her the Gym Badge before she handed it to me.

I inspected the Badge for a moment and noticed its striking resemblance to the one from the anime and games. The Gym Badge looked like a feather, just like the one in canon, and was similarly aptly named Feather Badge due to the privilege of having a named badge since the Fortree Gym was a Major Gym. The badge was silver in color but had a slight aquamarine tint that stood out at certain angles. The effect was honestly pretty well made and made the Badge a mix of the anime and game Badge colorwise since the Feather Badge in the games was silver, while the one in the anime was aquamarine in color.

Naturally, the Gym Badge still had 3 stars embossed on one side, though the other side had simply the word Feather embossed on it, which pretty much replaced the S since only S-rank Gyms could choose to name their Badges. Some like the Lilycove Gym still added the S, but it seemed that Winona decided that the Feather bit sufficed for her badge. Anyway, I put the Badge away once I was done inspecting it before thanking Winona for the Badge. Now that I had earned her Badge, I was done with the first stretch of my Hoenn journey.

The next stretch would see me traveling from Fortree City to Fallabor City. While Fallabor in the games had no Gym, the one here had a Major Gym, though before I made it to Fallabor I had to pass through the desert, which I was definitely looking forward to, and stop at a few cities that had Minor and Standard Gyms. Regardless, I would have time to ponder over the next part of my journey once I was alone. For now, I had parents and friends waiting for me, so I made my way to their side after the Gym Assistant declared the challenge complete before asking spectators to orderly vacate the stands/Gym.

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