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Rattata Chapter 42: The Water forgets the names of the Drowned
🕑 Added 2024-10-10 02:00:04 +0000 UTCDid you get the email notification?
Despite how much he'd been trying to avoid it, Joey found himself standing opposite gym leader King in the Cerulean gym with the vast expanse of water that was the pool separating them.
There was only one difference between the current situation and what he had thought would happen if he'd failed the job back in Saffron.
None of the plastic floaties were present in the pool. Instead, they were replaced with one enormous mound of dirt and stone peeking out of the water in the middle and taking out about 1/4 of the arena's surface.
It was due to this that the water was a bit murky with rock and dirt particles which King’s water-type Pokemon would probably not enjoy that much. Joey just hoped that they wouldn't take it out on him.
Another difference between what was currently happening and the potential scenario that he'd been envisioning was the fact that he found himself facing the gym leader deep into the night after most people had already gone to sleep. That included the referee. The man had understandably clocked out and standing in for him was King's daughter, Daisy Waterflower.
“This will be a three-on-three battle between Jonathan Joestar of Saffron and gym leader King Waterflower of Cerulean for the fourth badge of the League circuit!” the girl announced loudly while waving around the flag that she had taken out of the supply room.
If nothing else Joey was impressed that she still had enough energy to be this excited after everything that had happened today. Although, in the end, he guessed that everything had ended quite well.
He, on the other hand, was feeling incredibly tired.
“This will be a match with no substitutions which will continue until one party has run out of Pokemon,” Daisy finished raising her flag into the air.
“Challengers release your Pokemon!” she shouted.
Joey considered his options for one second before realising that there weren't any. His biggest hope was that maybe somehow Metapod could create an entry hazard by poisoning the water. If all of King’s Pokemon got poisoned upon entry onto the battlefield, then he might just not lose miserably.
“Go Metapod;” he called out as he threw his trusty green bug onto the mound of dirt in the middle of the pool.
“Me, me, meta!” the Pokemon called out as she appeared and it was only through knowing her very well that he could feel that she was already building up the poison in her mouth in advance. Technically illegal, but it was probably necessary in this case.
“Flood the field, Dewgong,” King called out from the other side of the battlefield releasing the large white seal-like Pokemon into the pool. It submerged itself immediately, not allowing Joey to truly grasp its size. It had looked a bit juvenile to him, so perhaps it was a more recent evolution.
“Both trainers ready?” Daisy asked and upon receiving a nod from both participants swung her chequered flag downwards, her blonde hair whipping around. “Then, let the battle begin!”
Joey thought that he heard King mutter something about how he shouldn't have let the girl drink coffee at the police station before he was too busy shouting orders to his Pokemon.
“Metapod, poison spill spin,” he called out just in time for Metapod to follow his orders and push herself flat on her back with the kinetic force of a String Shot out of her mouth which allowed her to dodge a rapid-fire Water Gun that would have otherwise hit her square in the face.
Once on her back, Metapod ejected an enormous amount of poisonous liquid from her mouth, the force of which made her spin on her back in a circle releasing a toxic spray in all directions. That way hopefully Joey could avoid poisoning only one part of the pool and thus simply blocking off a bit of space rather than setting up the real entry hazard.
“Sorry boy, but that's something I only let three-badge challengers get away with,” King called out. “Dewgong, Aurora Beam,” he ordered and Joey felt his heart drop as the Dewgong surfaced again to shoot out a multi-colour beam composed of circles at the poison falling towards the water. The accuracy was high and it hit approximately 3/4 of the poison, letting only a small amount of it fall into the water on the side of the hill where Dewgong wasn’t swimming.
There would have been no point in trying to catch the Aurora Beam with String Shot, considering that from Metapod’s positioning, the string would simply pass through the poison liquid and absorb it for itself making it just as useless.
The youngster knew without having to ask that Metapod didn't have any more poison in her, that she'd given it her all. He also knew that the amount of poison that plopped into the water wouldn't be enough to distribute itself meaningfully along the entirety of the water volume.
“End it, Aqua Jet,” King called out, making Joey curse. Special attack physical moves were one of Metapod’s weaknesses because she couldn't simply block them off with String Shot. The body of the enemy Pokemon was too big. Similarly, Iron Defense would only block half the damage from the move considering the other half of it was not physical.
“Dodge it and latch on” Joey cried out as the Dewgong emerged from the water in a violent stream and shot towards Metapod like a rocket.
Metapod for her part, a breakdancer with enough flair to get at least a bronze medal at the Olympics shot out more String Shot to throw herself backwards and start rolling down the hill of mud. It was there that she ejected a String Shot from midair at the incoming Pokemon.
The timing was correct, and the String Shot connected with the Dewgong just as it landed at the top of the hill. Metapod started reeling herself in for a Bug Bite before King ruined that plan as well.
“Meet it with Aqua Jet,” he called out, causing Dewgong to encase itself with water once again, this time having to create it, which would hopefully consume more energy, and met Metapod head-on in the air.
Metapod was big, she had been growing consistently for months now. But the average Dewgong weighed 120 kilos whereas the bug type barely weighed 15. The two forces collided and Joey thought he saw a green glow at Metopod’s mouth indicating a successful Bug Bite, but any happiness he could have felt at that was destroyed when his Pokemon was promptly smashed into the water. Before she could sink she was hit by an Ice Beam and turned into a crystal-clear fossil which floated gently on the waves created by Dewgong’s initial Aqua Jet.
He gritted his teeth as he recalled his first Pokemon, Daisy announcing it in the background. “Fuck,” he muttered to himself. His hand went to his Pokebelt as Dewgong returned to the water. “What now?” he wondered. Either Rattata or Diglett. Neither truly had an advantage. Maybe Diglett? Maybe he could...? Joey grimaced, to think that he’d have to bet it on such a dumb strategy.
“Challenger, release your second Pokemon,” Daisy announced as King waited patiently with his burly arms crossed across his big stomach.
Joey pulled out Diglett’s Pokeball and threw it out. “Go, Diglett,” he called out.
The mole-like Pokémon appeared on the hill of dirt with an anxious look on his face while the Dewgong stayed submerged.
“You got this Diglett!” Joey called out encouragingly at which Diglett gave himself a reassuring nod with closed eyes and breathed in deeply before letting it out.
Daisy for her part raised her flag once again and brought it down like an executioner axe with a call for the battle to “Start!”
“Dodge and Sandstorm,” Joey called out, having correctly predicted that without any orders Dewgong would spit out a fast Water Gun before anything else.
Thankfully Diglett listened to his order and popped quickly into the ground, reappearing a bit to the right with a strained look on his face. A sandstorm quickly picked up around him bringing up the dirt that was already there and crushing it down into smaller particles.
“Using a Sandstorm is foolish when you're close to such a large body of water," King proclaimed from the other side of the gym. "The sand will simply fall in and become mud making the move much more energy intensive."
Joey for his part smirked, the sand entering the water was after all one of his plans. "Diglett, biggest Mud Slaps that you can straight into the water," he called out.
He barely saw anything through the semi-tornado of sand that was enveloping half of the battlefield, the Dewgong swimming around the edges which were not yet impacted and popping up to shoot an occasional Water Gun in the hopes of getting a lucky hit in the low visibility.
"I see what you want to do, you little rascal!" King called out from the other side as the first enormous pile of mud landed in the water making it even more murky.
"The question is if you can stop me!" Joey called out from the other side over the loud winds produced by the storm. Another large dollop of dirt landed in the water with a splash.
"Dew, dew, gong," the gym leader's Pokemon said in annoyance as it emerged to shoot another Water Gun.
Joey's plan was simple. The one reason that this gym, in particular, was always going to be one of the hardest, was because of how the battle occurred on a pool of water with minimal to no physical surfaces.
Metapod's String Shot would simply fail to break through the surface and she would be completely vulnerable to getting sniped from a distance from any direction, considering one couldn't know where the water-type was hiding. Rattata would face a similar issue, having mostly physical attacks and not being able to contend with King's Pokemon underwater if they chose to stay there to simply harass him with ranged attacks. Under normal circumstances, Diglett wouldn't have even been able to participate.
It was this gigantic amount of dirt that changed everything. It had given Metapod the high ground advantage with which she could more easily dodge and block ranged attacks, and had forced the Dewgong to come up there personally despite how this hadn't worked out well for Joey.
As for Diglett? Well first of all he could actually fight, and second of all considering his control over the ground, couldn't he perhaps distribute the dirt that was poking up above the water into the water to create a swamp?
King's Pokemon were water-type Pokemon, not swamp-type Pokemon, so this would probably put them at a big enough disadvantage. After all, a tail like the one that Dewgonghad was made for swimming through water, not for swimming through something that had the consistency of marmalade.
Several more Mud Slaps landed in the water turning the entirety of it brown as the Sandstorm continued to rage and obscure the site for both trainers.
It had been a minute, and in another minute the water would likely become unhospitable. That was when King decided to try something. Or perhaps he had simply waited because the strategy he was about to use was too advanced to use quickly in a fourth badge gym battle?
"Ice Beam into the Sandstorm, show them how quickly it can turn into Hail!" King shouted out suddenly causing the Dewgong to emerge decisively already turning a bit brown at the edges and shoot out the cold blue energy beam which rather than piercing through the Sandstorm seemed to dissipate slightly when it reached its edges.
Joey watched with a dumbfounded expression as the Ice Beam latched itself onto the Sandstorm and started freezing the particles of sand the move was composed of. It must be taking an incredible amount of control to make an Ice Beam weak enough to not simply create large blocks of ice which would then fall to the floor, but strong enough to freeze something in the first place.
However, the ruination of his Sandstorm was something that Joey technically didn't have to suffer through. "Mud Slap at the Dewgong," Joey called out. "Stop the Ice Beam!"
Diglett heard him through the noise, his sensitive ears made to perceive vibrations underground more than up to the task and quickly shot a Mud Slap at the seal-like Pokemon.
King for his part didn't order a dodge and simply let it happen.
Considering that there was an Ice Beam exiting the mouth of the Dewgong, the Mud Slap obviously had to pass through it to hit the Pokemon. However, it was there that the large block of mud became frozen itself turning into a gigantic ball of ice that was now falling into the water.
"Send that ball right back where it came from!" King called out. Dewgong followed the orders to the point, jumping out of the muddy water to spin around in the air, extending its tail and slapping the ice ball right back into the twister composed by now of both sand and hail.
"Dodge underground and retaliate," Joey called out despite being unable to see anything.
By the fact that soon after he heard the ice ball crash apart on the dirt, a Mud Slap quickly came out of the storm of debris, Diglett had managed to evade the large ball of ice which could have very well knocked him unconscious had it hit them on the head.
Joey heard King curse from the other side of the platform.
"Use Ice Beam, again," the man ordered.
However, it was here that one particular issue arose. Ice Beam was a move that created an energy jet of extreme cold that was so powerful it created ice wherever it struck. Dewgong looked to have only recently evolved and had been using the high-intensity move for a while now while also having expanded some energy in the battle with Metapod.
That's why the next time it opened its mouth wide and collected the ice blue energy in a ball in front of it, the move failed to launch and the water type received a heap of mud onto its face and into its mouth.
The Dewgong sank into the water upon impact and it almost looked like it wasn't going to get back up, while Diglett continued madly sending Mud Slaps everywhere.
The pool now had the consistency of a very thick creamy soup, and even through the storm, Joey could faintly see the outline of the hill that had previously been twice as tall as it was now.
He was just about to celebrate his victory when Dewgong at the urging of King shouting suddenly emerged from the water with one last Aqua Jet and shot through the air screaming its name straight through the storm and onto the hill.
Joey wasn't able to see what was happening but could hear the sound of something heavy hitting the ground and the now iconic sound of a Mud Slap exploding onto an opponent.
The storm suddenly started clearing, and now the only thing that Joey could hope for was that Diglett had become too distracted by the incoming Dewgong to upkeep it.
However, once it had finished clearing the only thing he could do was hang his head when he saw that both Diglett and his opponent were lying on the ground knocked out and covered in mud, water, sand and small bits of ice.
"Double knockout," Daisy called out from the side of the arena and swung a flag in the direction of each trainer.
Joey critically looked at the pool as he recalled Diglett. It wasn't quite there yet. He would have preferred a swamp that could suck someone in rather than a creamy soup but it was probably already now very unpleasant to swim around in there.
"You did a great Diglett, I couldn't have asked for more," he told the Pokeball in his hand before clipping it back on this belt. Then he took Rattata's Pokeball in his hand and ran a thumb over the scrapes it had picked up since he'd gotten it.
He only had one choice, whereas King had two. That meant that if nothing else, the man could choose a Pokemon more suited for the environment that Joey had created.
He looked at the mud-covered and mud-splattered arena and shook his head. Diglett really had given it his all.
"Can't say I've ever seen that one before!" King shouted from the other side of the pool. "Very good use of the environment," he praised. "However that's not going to be nearly enough to beat me!"
"Trainers release your Pokemon," Daisy called out.
Both King and Joey reeled back their arms and released at the same time.
The choices unfortunately were not in Joey's favor and he quietly cursed to himself as he saw what his opponent's red light materialized into.
On Joey's side of the hill stood Rattata on his hind legs, tall, proud and powerful. On King's side unfortunately was a Wooper.
The fact that King's four badge team usually only had one evolved Pokemon didn't help Joey overly much when one considered that Wooper was perfectly suited for the environment that he'd gone to all the effort of creating considering it was one of few double ground and water types available in any region.
But, no matter what he believed in Rattata and his starter's ability to turn things around.
The match commenced and Joey didn't hesitate in telling Rattata to go all out. "All out Quick Attack, don't let it run away into the mud," he ordered.
Currently, his biggest fear was that Wopper perfectly capable of moving in swamp areas would retreat into the muddy water to reenact what Dewgong had been doing.
This would have meant that Diglett's preparation would go in vain, so he had to try his hardest to not let that happen.
"You're losing your cool," King shouted from the other side of their arena. "If I'd wanted Wooper to be in the mud, I would have simply released him there!"
Joey's brain stuttered to a halt while Rattata's body shot forward. The validity of King's statement pierced through his mind just in time for the man to shout his next command.
"Show those kids that water isn't the only thing you can swim in," he said, at which Wooper simply disappeared.
Joey intellectually knew that as a ground type, it had simply gone underground using the move Dig. "Fuck," he cursed.
"Rattata, Dig after it and fight it underground," he exclaimed. "Hyper Fang! It hadn't been his plan on using Dig to fight a ground type today but that was seemingly the only recourse that was left to him.
Continuing the trend of the match being completely impossible to see, the two Pokemon clashed underground, which could only be perceived by the collisions that sometimes shook the dirt above them. Joey wondered what was up with this match. Previously he couldn't have seen anything because of the Sandstorm and now he couldn't see anything because both Pokemon were underground.
He couldn't give any good orders like this, and could only hope that his starter had it in him to win the fight without his help. At least until they both surfaced.
However, unlike Joey, King had a few commands that he could use to turn the tides, he didn't hesitate to do just that. "Wooper, flood the tunnels, Mud Bomb!"
Before Joey was able to say anything the two holes in the ground that the Pokemon had used to submerge themselves exploded into gaziers of mud shooting out two small shapes into the air. It was almost impossible to distinguish between the two Pokemon as they stood still at the peak of their flight for a second, covered in mud as they were, but Joey nonetheless called out the only order that he could, "Swift!"
"Wash 'em down with Water Gun!" King exclaimed at the exact same time.
Both of the airborne Pokmon spun on their axis in the air, one of them releasing a tidal wave of white and yellow stars at the other and the other one releasing a stupendous amount of water from its mouth.
There was only one issue, while Swift could be submerged in the water and lose momentum, Water Gun could simply ignore the stars shaving off small slices of momentum from small parts of it. The only thing Joey could have done differently was to use the homing ability of Swift to not shoot the stars directly at the Wooper but above it.
The water impacted Rattata with fury and hurled the now once again purple rat out of the air and into the ground. Wooper for its part simply did a graceful black flip to land on its legs.
For one second Joey was afraid that he'd lost. However, his starter wasn't so frail as to fall conscious from one underground battle, one Mud Bomb, and one Water Gun. He stood up shakily on all fours and glared at the Wooper who simply tilted its head at him, before falling face-first into the ground with a wet plop, to the surprise of everyone in the gym.
Joey closely watched King who had furrowed his brows, trying to find out if this was a tactic of some sort, but the man seemed genuinely worried.
"Pause!" the man shouted and took a Pokeball from his belt, the other side than the one that he'd been using to battle Joey. A Poliwhirl, the same one who'd caught Archer back in the day materialised by the man's side. "Check on Wooper, will you?" the man asked his companion, who swiftly nodded and jumped into the air.
"Hold your fire Rattata," Joey ordered as he saw his starter's wet fur bristle.
The Poliwhirl knelt next to Wooper, before picking the muddy Pokemon up and releasing a small wave of water from his mouth to cleanse him.
What came to light after the shower was a Wooper that was more purple than the blue it was supposed to be. Bruises covered every single part of its body, even the purple antenna on its head. On its torso was a large ugly bite mark which could have only come from Hyper Fang.
"It seems I underestimated your Rattata," King said with a frown as the Poliwhirl retreated to his trainer's side. The gym leader recalled both his Pokemon and put on a thoughtful mien. "I hope you're ready for the last challenge of the day," he said, hand creeping to the third and final Pokeball on the belt he used for challenges.
Joey glanced at his panting starter who was, now that he looked closer, also covered in bruises and hurt. "You up for it, partner?" he asked.
A resolute nod was his answer.
"Already, don't say you didn't ask for it!" King shouted from the other side of the arena before holding up his last Pokeball and clicking the release button.
What coalesced was not necessarily something that Joey associated with the adjective threatening, however, he wasn't going to underestimate anything that a gym leader threw out when he got serious during his fourth badge challenge.
“Psy, psy, duck,” a small yellow duck said excitedly from where it landed on the dirt hill before suddenly shouting out in pain and clutching at its head.
Psyduck was actually one of the Pokemon that had never managed to encounter battle against. It was simply not a Pokemon very popular with beginner trainers because of the fact that its constant headaches made it a bit of a pain in the ass to train. Just like humans, when they were sick they became a bit difficult to talk to, and it was genuinely hard for them to complete tasks. Suffering from a permanent migraine was somewhat crippling even if it only flashed up irregularly.
“Quick Attack, don't let it recover,” Joey ordered hastily. They had to finish this up close as fast as possible. He gritted his teeth at the fact that Rattata’s execution of the order was much slower than usual and that the white trail was moving at a comparably glacial pace.
“Calm Mind,” King ordered from the other side of the battlefield and the Psyduck put its hands on its head again, just that this time it produced a sort of soothing pinkish energy from its cranium that looked more refreshing than a cold lemonade on a hot summer day.
Rattata landed to the left of the Psyduck which was the initial direction he had taken to avoid an in-the-face Water Gun, and pivoted from the dirty ground to jump at the Water Type. It looked like King was going to trade Rattata landing a Quick Attack to get off one Calm Mind.
However, Joey was disabused of this idea just one second before impact King issued another command. “Disable,” the man said.
Psyduck’s hands removed themselves from its head to reveal eyes glinting with startling clarity, and just as Rattata was about to impact the yellow Pokemon, they glinted with something else as well.
Quick Attack stuttered out in mid-air, but if there was one thing that Joey had learned from Mia it was that just because the Quick Attack was done didn't mean that the momentum was over.
“Transition to Hyper Fang!” Joey shouted and the Rattata very calmly, showing his familiarity with the moves, abandoned his Quick Attack but continued onwards with white glowing extended incisors instead.
“Catch it and Water Pulse,” King ordered. If he was surprised by the sovereign manner in which Rattata went through the disabling of his biggest mobility move, he didn't show it.
Joey, assuming that the ‘catch it’ was a code word for the use of Confusion to hold Rattata in place, smirked and called out the thing they’d been working on for Sabrina. “Transition to Bite!” he called out and his starter’s normal type energy quickly disappeared being replaced with dark type energy.
However, catch it had not been referring to Confusion, and Joey was boggled by the actual simplicity. Psyduck pushed its arm forward so that Rattata bit down onto it then it opened its bill and it blasted away Joey’s starter with a powerful Water Pulse.
The rat tumbled against the ground sliding and jumping at every impact before landing somehow on its feet with a pained grunt.
“Calm Mind,” King ordered placidly as Joey's Rattata gathered himself.
“It's very convenient to trade blows if one’s opponent is already exhausted," he commented idly.
Psyduck's hands meanwhile went back to its head, infused with a pinkish glow. The move seemed the same despite the shaking of the arm that had been bitten.
Joey furiously considered his options, of which there were not many.
Quick Attack was probably still disabled and even if it hadn't been it wasn’t like the previous use of the move had been successful. The only other thing that could reasonably do was, “Rattata, Dig,” he commanded and his starter, weary now from another powerful move straight to the face, started sinking slowly into the ground.
King for his heart simply shrugged. “Calm Mind,” he ordered for the third time in a row meaning that Psyduck was getting quite buffed. The move increased Psyduck’s special attack and special defence, but most importantly it seemed to give it the clarity of mind that it needed to function in battle despite its migraines.
Joey hoped that Rattata would emerge underneath Psyduck as it performed the move to take advantage of the commitment. As expected youngster and starter were on the same page and just as Psyduck finished the move the ground underneath rumbled.
“Fly,” King said calmly, making Joey tilt his head confusedly before Psyduck promptly enveloped itself in a purple glow and lifted itself straight into the air looking down below where Rattata emerged with an excited crash of ground-type energy.
“Swift to the side and then Detect!” Joey shouted not wanting to repeat the mistake that he made with the Wooper earlier.
Hearing the order Rattata nodded once and shot a barrage of yellow stars to the left where they started cutting a graceful arch in the air straight towards Psyduck. Then Rattata entered the hyperfocus state of Detect to dodge whatever retaliation was coming his way.
If Psyduck attacked it would get hit by the Swift, if it defended itself from a Swift Rattata could jump up in a Tackle because Psyduck couldn’t defend and fly at the same time. Joey didn't believe that the Psyduck was capable of using two moves at once.
“Drop and Confusion,” King ordered as the stars approached. Psyduck let itself fall but used the Confusion it had stopped using on itself to grasp at Rattata.
“Bite,” Joey ordered just as the purple glow enveloped his starter. Dark type energy emerged from his mouth to cancel the effect. At the same time, the stars impacted the Psyduck falling downwards causing white sparkles to explode around it and it to wince in pain.
“Hyper Fang,” Joey ordered, trying to meet it on the way down to take advantage of its distraction. Rattata's incisors glowed white and he jumped up to meet the falling duck.
“Water Pulse!” King ordered, causing Psyduck to reorient itself in the air with its bill facing straight down at the approaching Rattata.
“Dig!” Joey shouted desperately needing his starter to dodge. However, Rattata had already jumped into the air and from then onwards he couldn't manoeuvre.
A Water Pulse smashed into his starter straight up knocking him into the ground and creating a deluge of waves that spread outward in a ring turning the muddy arena into even more of a swamp.
Joey realised that Psyduck's Calm Mind also allowed it to recover more quickly from being attacked, which was that half-a-second window that he had needed to hit the Hyper Fang.
Psyduck fell to the ground in a jumble of limbs after the Water Pulse dissipated, but it didn't matter because Rattata was out for the count.
The purple rat was lying on the ground on its back bruises all over his body and swirls in his eyes.
Psyduck for his part got to his feet looking like he could go for at least another exchange
In other words…
Joey had lost.
-/-
AN: How's that for a battle? I was trying to write Joey as a bit more confused with his orders since he didn't train so much for this one in particular. Hope it showed.
Comments
bor902
Thanks for the confirm! Glad you agree, I think Joey can't be too op, losses now will make future wins even more impactful
Turnwise
I agree that a loss is pretty necessary for this kind of story and im enjoying how its going, also I can confirm the email notification is working.
bor902
First gym battle loss. I'd say there is a reason. I like writing realistic fics, so Joey having a fail like this means that it can be justifiable for him to go hard as fuck next year perfect run without anyone being able to say im unrealistic. He trained, got complacement, got kicked in the balls, trained harder, planned, etc.
Mrsean22
Yeah pretty much what I expected. His team wasn't suited for this. Doesn't help that the Gym leader picked pokemon specifically for Joey's team. Sucks because no Misdreavus for a long time. Though him losing being "Necessary" doesn’t seem right with me. Luckily it made sense besides it being "Necessary" but that shouldn't be the reason he loses. Needs to just make sense. Like Joey loses a lot already so it being "Necessary" doesn’t seem right. Hopefully what I'm saying makes sense.
bor902
Thanks! I was also think a loss was necessary one of those days. Need it to make the wins more impactful next season
Aman Ramnani
Interesting battle, and a loss feels necessary. Appreciate the creativity with freedom of movement with metapod.
Alexander S
It's explicitly a roadblock in his development with the way you've introduced license and badge levels effecting the type, evolution level and number of Pokémon a trainer can own. Increasingly those are really feeling like a catch-22, need the Pokémon to beat the gym to get the badge, but you need the badge to be able to own the Pokémon. I'm still not sure how I feel about that particular AU change. I've got no issue with occasional losses, it's gym losses that just lead into more of the same gym that bother me. Though, I feel like Joey has been taking nothing but wake-up calls lately. It's certainly been a while since he's had anything resembling a clean win that didn't somehow set him back. Maybe when he gambled on Lance? That was his last clean win I can recall.
bor902
Also I think in King's point of view, beating a talented youngster isn't mean, rather its a thing he can do to give him the opportunity to reflect and continue improving in the future
bor902
Imo losses are necessary to keep the tension. Also I have a plan that will make rechallenging cerulean not too boring. Joey has been goofing up some things recently with his indecisivness and getting comfortable with his progression. he needed a wake-up call and I think future gym battles will be more suspensful now that we know he can lose
Alexander S
I never like seeing losses in gym battles, I feel they cost Pokémon stories too much momentum. Whereas a loss in a tournament or conference is final and the protagonist can learn and move on from them; a gym loss must be repeated until the protagonist wins in order for the story to progress. Though, even the structure of the latest gym battle confuses me. The gym leader's response to a kid getting screwed over by helping his daughter with literally organized crime is to fight him at the absolute upper limits of what he's allowed to with a counter picked team? Who needs enemies when you have friends like these.
