CH11 (72), My First Time

Mary and I are currently deciding on the rules of the battle and the stakes. "No swapping Pokemon, alright?" She asks me and I agree with her. "Yeah, no problem. So, recalling equals forfeiting the Pokemon, right?" She nods at my response.

"What about the stakes? Do you want to wager something?" I return a question of my own. "Sure, do you want to follow the alliance recommendation for wagers, or do you want to bet more?" I hear her inquire of me. "There are alliance recommendations for wagers?" I ask her in turn, genuinely surprised.

"Yup, they're actually for official battles, but there is nothing that says we can't use them for unofficial ones as well. The suggestions were published to keep the stakes from escalating to avoid creating strong resentment against the winner." I nod at that. It makes sense after all.

"For Rookies, it's a max of 300 Poke. Juniors have a max of 1000 Poke, and Seniors have 5000 Poke as the recommended maximum. All amounts that every trainer in that class should be able to afford to lose." She continues and I have to nod again. 'That makes a surprising amount of sense.' I think to myself before I answer her previous question. "We can increase the stake if you want. I'll tell you if I can match you or not." I tell her.

"Alright for unofficial battles the stake has to be either cash or something of equal value. Which one do you plan to use?" She asks me. Well, since I do not have any cash at hand I don't really have a choice. Fortunately, I am rich as hell as far as material wealth is concerned. "I'll wager something and you can match it, if you agree with my offer, okay?" I suggest to her, and she nods.

"Great! You said you were currently focusing on poison types, so would you be okay with me offering an E-Class Purple Lily for my wager?" I ask her. "An E-Class Purple Lily costs around 1200 Poke, so I'll put up 1000 Poke in cash to match it." She answers me, before she adds, "Don't be surprised that I am matching it with less than 1200 Poke, because 1000 Poke is what you will get if you try to sell it". I agree with her offer.

"Normally we would have to show that we have whatever we are wagering, but you don't need to take out the Lily, yet. You can take it out after I win our little battle. I surprisingly trust you enough to not lie to me about it." She tells me. 'Hmmm, could be a passive effect from my aura, or maybe I am just that handsome. Yeah, definitely has to be my mysterious look.' I think to myself.

"I have no problem with that as well. I am sure you won't run away after losing to me, just because of 1000 Poke." I fire back at her. *pfft* She laughs a bit at that. "Good, then let's get this show started. Let this big sister show you how to battle outside the sandbox, little guy." She says, before walking a bit further.

She stops around 25 meters and stands opposite of me. Meanwhile, I gain a little tick mark at her comment. I know that she said that to rile me up, and she succeeded as well. That's some high-level pre-battle trash talk right there. "Little guy?!! I'll show you something little. We'll see if you can call me like that afterward." I yell at her. 'Let's see your face when you see my larger than average Butterfree.' I think to myself, while simultaneously deciding on my first Pokemon.

*Hahaha* She laughs a bit, before she says, "Surprise me, little guy. The match starts as soon as both Pokemon are on the field, alright?" She asks and I agree. "We'll call out our first Pokemon on three." She continues after getting my confirmation, then we start counting together. "1, 2, 3" on three we simultaneously release our first Pokemon.

I call out my Butterfree, while she calls out a Venomoth. *pheeeeew* Mary releases a whistle after seeing the size of my Butterfree and I use the time to check out her Venomoth.

'Species: Venomoth

Gender: Male

Type: Bug, Poison

Potential: Deep Yellow

Stage: Bronze-stage (high)'

We give our orders virtually at the same time. "Free, use Fast Asleep," I tell Butterfree. I decided to call him Free while giving out an order since it saves time. Meanwhile, Mary shouted, "Start Dancing", and I could see Venomoth start using Quiver Dance, but I don't really care, because it will have to stop one way or another.

Butterfree released a cloud of Sleep Powder and was using Gust to blow it at Venomoth. Thanks to Gust the cloud was moving rapidly towards our opponent, and just as I expected Mary is forced to adjust her order after seeing our opening move. "Use Psychic to stop that cloud from reaching you." Venomoth already starts using Psychic after she says the part of her sentence. Showcasing their experience and understanding of each other.

'You wish!' I think before calling out, "Free, Bug Buzz." Butterfree immediately uses Bug Buzz, before I finish my sentence, "Stop that mimic from interfering". Just as planned, Bug Buzz interrupts Psychic, keeping it from interfering with our cloud of Sleep Powder.

Mary seeing this, tries to tell her Venomoth to dodge, but it's too late for that. Venomoth gets submerged in the cloud and falls asleep shortly after. I naturally won't allow such an opportunity to escape. "Free, wrap it up with an Electroweb and then keep spamming Psybeam until it wakes up or is knocked out." Butterfree does just that, and after only the 2nd Psybeam, I see more than hear Mary release a sigh before she recalls her Venomoth.

"Well, played. You surprised me, and it seems I underestimated you. That's not going to happen again, so don't think you have won." She says after recalling her Venomoth. 'That was easier than expected, probably because she underestimated me as she said.' I think to myself.

Mary puts away Venomoth's Pokeball and takes out another one. "Let's see how you deal with this one." She says, and an Arbok appears on the field. I quickly check it out and have to gulp at the result.

'Species: Arbok

Gender: Female

Type: Poison

Potential: Light Green

Stage: Silver-stage (low)'

'Ok, I did not expect that. Impressive, but I should still be able to beat it, her, whatever.' I hear Mary say, "use Overwhelming Shock", and not knowing what that order entails I give Butterfree an order. "Use Psybeam," I tell him, but he freezes up because of Arbok.

After Mary's order Arbok aims a Glare at Butterfree, while simultaneously releasing a Screech, that sounds more like a roar, which causes my Butterfree to freeze up for a moment. Arbok uses this moment to approach Butterfree and uses Wrap, followed by a Thunder Fang on him. Butterfree receives quite some damage, but at least it causes him to get out of his shocked/frozen state.

Seeing Butterfree all wrapped up like that I know that I have to get him free first, so I order him to "use Sleep powder". Mary yells "not this time", and orders "Arbok," to "use Acid Spray". The move soaks up the Sleep Powder rendering it useless. Before I can give Butterfree another order, Mary gives hers.

"Use Fire Fang." Arbok does exactly that and knocks out Butterfree. I am a bit stunned by the whole thing, but I release a sigh, before recalling Butterfree. "Good job, Butterfree. That one's on me, I underestimated her." I say before stashing away his ball.

I consider my options for a bit, but the only one that stood a chance was Xatu. Mothra would be an option as well if she had been a Butterfree, but as a Metapod she was too slow for Arbok. "Xatu, you're up," I say to Xatu, who had been watching outside his ball.

Xatu Teleports on the field and the fight resumes. "Disable!" Mary directly orders and manages to shut my greatest reliance for this fight right at the start. Now with Xatu unable to Teleport, the difficulty went up a notch. "Use Psychic", I tell Xatu, because Arbok is a poison type. Now the type advantage is the only thing I can rely on.

Xatu gets a grip on Arbok with his Psychic, and just when I am about to smile a bit, Mary counters. "Arbok use Crunch to break his psychic grip on you, and then use Dig until you're full." Arbok then used the dark energy of Crunch to get rid of Psychic, before it went underground.

'Full? Does she mean rested?' I think to myself. Still, seeing that there is nothing we can do to Arbok until it resurfaces, I give Xatu a few orders. "First use Protect and then start boosting," and Xatu does exactly that, but seeing the smirk on Mary's face, I feel as if I am missing something.

I receive my answer shortly after. Arbok resurface behind Xatu and Mary says just two words. "Spit Up", and Arbok releases a big, big beam of energy at Xatu. The beam crashes against Protect and the shield holds up for a bit before breaking, allowing the beam to smash into Xatu, causing an explosion.

'Well played, so that was what made me feel that something was wrong, but two can play that game. You shouldn't have allowed Xatu to boost himself like that. If Xatu loses, then he will take Arbok with him.' I think to myself.

Hoping that Xatu is not knocked out yet I yell out an order, "Xatu use Stored Power". A pink beam flies out of the cloud where Xatu is located and hits the surprised Arbok, that together with its trainer, probably did not expect him to stand after being hit by its attack. Stored Power being a psychic type move caused massive damage to Arbok, even more so since Xatu was boosted quite a bit.

Once the dust settles I can see that Xatu is on his last leg, claw, whatever, but the same can be said about Arbok. Just when I want to give Xatu another order he collapses. I have to sigh at that and I can see Mary sighing in relief. I recall Xatu and thank him for his effort.

Before I can send out my last Pokemon Arbok collapses as well and I laugh happily at that for a bit. 'Now I still have a chance to win this thing.' I think to myself. I consider my options before settling on Mothra. Mary seems to be a really strong Junior-Class trainer and the others are not strong enough yet. We release our Pokemon at the same time and I have to sigh again after seeing her Pokemon.

'Species: Golbat

Gender: Male

Type: Poison, Flying

Potential: Yellow

Stage: Bronze-stage (high)'

'Ok, that's going to be really hard. Mothra's only real chance are her psychic and electric moves, but I don't think she has a chance to get near Golbat, so that leaves me with Confusion and Electroweb. As for using String Shot to restrict or catch Golbat, I don't think Mary is going to let that happen.' I think to myself, and am once more proven right, when Mary gives out her order.

"Keep your distance and spam Air Slash as well as Air Cutter when necessary." She says and Golbat follows. I order Mothra to "use Electroweb", to take it down the air but Golbat uses Air Slash to cut it in half. Mothra dodges the next Air Slash it releases and I tell her to use String Shot to approach Golbat, but it simply changes to Air Cutter, destroying her strings causing her to fall mid-swing, and damaging her at the same time.

After that, it switches back to Air Slash landing a hit before she can recover. "Use Confusion to attack him and dodge to the best of your ability," I tell her because frankly, that's the best we can do right now. This is honestly not a good matchup and the only reason I did not throw in the towel after seeing Golbat is that Mothra knows electric and psychic moves.

Still, Mary and Golbat are fighting smartly without giving us the chance to use Mothra's moves, so our situation looks grim. Mothra succeeds in dodging quite a few Air Slashes but fails to land any attacks of her own. Seeing Mothra's dodging capability Mary tells Golbat to only use Air Cutter because it's a wide-area move in contrast to Air Slash.

After that, I can see that there is no real chance for us to win this. I mean we could probably drag this out for quite a long time, especially with Iron Defense, but I see no way to ultimately win this. At least not without letting Mothra evolve and I am not going to make her evolve just to win a battle, that's not vital in any way.

After coming to this conclusion I inform Mary that I am giving up. "Mary, I am forfeiting. I don't see a way to win this, so there is no reason to drag it out." I tell her, before walking up to Mothra who looks down after hearing my words. I bend down and hug her to console her. I can see and feel that she is really sad because of her loss.

"It's okay, darling. This is not your fault in any way. It was just a bad match-up, we simply had bad luck this time. You are strong and the only reason they won is that Golbat can fly, you would have wiped the floor with it otherwise." I tell her while stroking her spine.

"Meeee, taaa, pod." 'I could have won as a Butterfree.' She says sadly and I acknowledge her statement but still tell her why I stopped the fight. "Yes, you could have won if you were to evolve, but we're not ready for your evolution yet, and no win is worth sacrificing any of your prospects.

Let's just take this as a lesson that bad matchups can happen and to never underestimate anyone, alright?" I feel that Mothra feels a bit better now and release a sigh, before turning to Mary. She had approached us while I was consoling Mothra and has been waiting for us to finish.

I pet Mothra one last time before I recall her and then I address Mary. "Thank you for waiting, while I consoled my Metapod, that was her first loss. Anyway, that was a good fight. You're much stronger than I expected." I say to her, and she nods.

"No problem, I get it. It happens to all of us. Still. I have to compliment your Pokemon, they are quite strong, especially your Metapod. Having such mastery over her moves and having moves she should only have after evolving. That one is going to be quite the beast in the future, I can tell." She tells me, and I give her a grateful nod.

"Besides, there is no reason for you to be too sad, because of your loss. You did a good job and I can confidently say that you are in the upper echelon of the Junior-Class from what I have seen from your Pokemon. It is just that I am already a Senior-Class level trainer in all but name. My Pokemon are strong enough to qualify me for the class, but there are 1 or 2 other requirements I still have to fulfill, so no need to feel bad about your loss."

I nod again, really feeling a bit better after hearing that. "Thank you for your compliment and encouragement." I thank her, before opening my bag and acting as if I am taking something out from it, while in truth I am taking out a Purple Lily from my space. Taking out my hand from my bag there is a flower in it, which I hold out to Mary.

"A loss is a loss but thank you I feel better after listening to your explanation. Here is the Purple Lily I promised you." I tell her, and she looks me in the eye for a bit. Seeing my clear gaze she nods and accepts the lily. After that, we talk for a bit, before we separate. Still, she writes her phone number and ID number on a piece of paper that she gives to me, telling me to call her if I want a rematch or simply if I want to talk. I thank her and resume my walk after saying goodbye.

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