CH55 (669), First Gym Battle (2)

As the dust and smoke began to disperse, the silhouette of Steelix and Mars/Ursasol became visible, and seeing how its silhouette was moving, Steelix seemed to be still conscious. There was a collective feeling of surprise coming from the audience, and I had to admit that I was surprised as well, though our reasons were probably different. I could not believe that Steelix was still conscious after using Explosion on top of the damage it had suffered so far, and they were probably surprised that Mars still seemed to be conscious as well since his silhouette was showing minute movements as well, which meant that he had managed to use Endure before Steelix blew up.

"Rest, then Talk," Stephanie ordered as soon as she noticed the movements. "Get free while it's sleeping," I ordered as soon as I heard Rest. 'And climb on its head before using Hammer Arm to take it down while it's sleeping. Keep an eye out for whatever Sleep Talk will trigger,' I added telepathically. Visibility was restored mere moments later, and we all saw Mars freeing himself from Steelix's now slackened Bind, a consequence of its sleeping state.

Unfortunately, Steelix began to have that telltale shine which indicated that it was about to blow up while Mars was climbing up to its head. Sadly, there was no time to dodge the Explosion that followed as a result of an unlucky Sleep Talk, and the explosion hurled Mars away, causing him to first fly a bit before coming down and rolling along the ground until the explosion-caused momentum bled out. Mars got thrown out of the area covered by the dust released by the Explosion, so everyone could see that he was out cold.

However, Steelix was still obscured by the dust and smoke, so we had no idea if the Explosion had knocked him out as well, though I was pretty certain that that was the case. Nonetheless, the referee had to see the situation with his own eyes first before he could make a ruling, which was why he had not declared Steelix the winner yet even though Mars was out cold. Thankfully his wounds while serious were not critical, and I was sure that he would be fine once he was back inside his ball/Utopia.

After getting a picture of Mars' state, I took a look at Stephanie's expression since unplanned Explosions were quite harmful to those that triggered them, not to mention that this was the second one within a short period of time, but Stephanie showed no worry at all, and I could feel nothing in that direction using my emotion senses as well.

Thinking about it for a moment, I came up with an assumption for the relative calmness she was exuding. Stephanie definitely knew exactly how much her Steelix could endure, and that along with the Rest it used before likely let her infer whether her Steelix was in a critical condition or not. Either way, visibility was restored a few seconds later and once that happened everyone was able to see Steelix's unmoving body.

"Both Pokemon are unable to battle resulting in a draw. Contestants please recall your Pokemon and ready your next combatants," the referee declared after seeing that Steelix was knocked out as well. "You did a good job Rex, that was just bad luck," I heard Stephanie say to her Pokeball after recalling her Steelix. "Well done," I said to Mars, knowing that he had likely regained consciousness after being returned to his custom ball.

I then put his ball away and took out the next one. I saw Stephanie do the same, and once the referee saw that both of us had our second Pokeball in hand he cleared his throat before addressing us. "Are you two ready?" he asked and we both nodded. "Alright," he acknowledged. "Then release your Pokemon on my signal," he instructed before starting the countdown. As soon as he finished, Stephanie and I released our second Pokemon, triggering the cheers of the crowd.

"The usual Bron," Stephanie said as she released her Pokemon. "Double Down, Enji," I instructed as I released Enji/Arcanine. I tuned out the exclamations and noise the crowd made up in seeing Stephanie's Bronzong as well as my Arcanine, and watched as Enji's Intimidate as well as Alpha's Presence got to work. The two caused Bronzong to briefly flinch back, stopping it from using whatever opening move Stephanie had ordered it to use. Meanwhile, a dozen copies of Enji appeared on the field, all of which released a Howl.

"Prison, Rain" Stephanie instructed as Enji Howled and her Bronzong snapped out of Enji's intimidating aura before following her order. "Sunny," I ordered hearing her say Rain, and Enji directly released a Sunny Day once he was done Howling. While Enji was changing the weather, I saw Bronzong release a Block along with something else, which I assumed to be Imprison after Enji informed me over the telepathic link I was keeping up that he suddenly could not use some of his moves like Hyper Beam and the Sunny Day he just released.

Thankfully the move had already succeeded, though it got neutralized by the Rain Dance that Bronzong followed up with. "Rain, then Room" Stephanie repeated after the first one failed, and when I heard her say Room I could not help but think Shambles, though I threw that thought away and swiftly ordered a "Flamethrower" to get a quick hit in before the rain weakened Enji's fire moves.

Seeing the way Bronzong tanked the Flamethrower to complete the Rain Dance, I was pretty certain that it had Heatproof as its ability, or at least as one of them, making Enji's attack less effective than I would have liked. It also made the consequences of Rain Dance worse since it was now as if Bronzong was resistant to Enji's fire moves, making his fire moves a bad choice for the duration of the battle, at least for as long as Rain Dance was active.

To make matters even worse, I noticed Enji suddenly slowing down quite a bit while Bronzong seemed to have sped up, which made me conclude that the Room Stephanie had ordered was Trick Room. This meant that the speed difference between Enji and Bronzong had been flipped around. It was now Bronzong who was 3 to 4 times faster than Enji, which was not good, but thankfully we had a way to deal with the problem. 'Use Teleport to move around,' I ordered through telepathy, and out loud I said "Snarl".

Enji and all his copies then released Snarl, forcing Bronzong to perform a rather large dodge maneuver, which it managed to do thanks to its high speed. "Slide Wide," Stephanie instructed and Bronzong spread out Rock Slide. It was obvious that this was not aimed to hurt Enji, but to destroy his Double Team copies. Still, knowing that this was their plan and trying to stop it were two different things due to Enji's relatively slow speed.

"Pulse," I ordered and Enji used Dragon Pulse to intercept more than half of the rocks that got thrown out. 'Teleport behind it and use Crunch,' I then ordered, while Bronzong focused on destroying the Enjis that survived the first wave.

"Protect," Stephanie ordered as soon as Enji vanished. "Psychic," she followed up once Enji reappeared, but unfortunately for her, the Crunch Enji initiated stopped Psychic from getting ahold of him. Still, the Protect stopped Enji in his tracks, and I had him hit with an Iron Tail before retreating.

"Sight, then Ball," Stephanie ordered as Enji teleported away, and I saw Bronzong perform what had to be Future Sight, before releasing a Weather Ball to the right, where Enji reappeared. 'Dig now,' I ordered as soon as Enji appeared and he instinctively dug down, which allowed him to barely dodge the weather/water ball that flew over his head. "Defense," Stephanie followed up and her Bronzong performed Iron Defense while Enji was underground.

'Dragon Pulse,' I ordered, and Enji surfaced behind Bronzong before firing a Dragon Pulse at it. The move crashed into the Protect that was still up and successfully broke it after Enji kept the move going for a few seconds. That was enough time for Bronzong to complete Iron Defense and to start spinning in what had to be Gyro Ball, so when Dragon Pulse broke through the Protect shield, Gyronzon and Dragon Pulse briefly clashed, their confrontation resulting in most of the beam being dispersed, before Bronzong broke free and approached Enji.

I was not really all that worried about Gyro Ball but when it stopped spinning and glinting instead while "falling" toward Enji, that changed drastically. 'Teleport out of there,' I urged Enji, and mere moments after he vanished, Bronzong crashed into the ground, creating a pretty big crater, showing that it had just as I had suspected switched to Heavy Slam. "Flash Cannon," Stephanie ordered without waiting for the smoke to disperse.

"Dragon Pulse," I had to order since Flash Cannon was aimed in the right direction, which I assumed was thanks to Future Sight. While the two beams clashed, Enji suddenly spoke up over the telepathic link. 'Dad, I can use all my moves again,' he said, his excitement shining through. 'Great, Teleport away, then use Sunny Day to get rid of this pesky rain,' I instructed. Enji then stopped using Dragon Pulse and directly Teleported away before Flash Cannon could reach him.

He reappeared at the end of the battlefield and used Sunny Day before using another Double Team. "Rain again, then Screen," Stephanie ordered, seeing Enji's move. 'Another Sunny Day,' I ordered hearing her mention Rain. 'Then get behind Bronzong and use Snarl,' I followed up. Hence, when Bronzong tried to get rid of the extra sunshine, Enji reinforced it, causing Sunny Day to win out, which allowed it to persist. Enji then vanished and reappeared behind Bronzong before releasing a Snarl.

He vanished once again as Bronzong spun around, and appeared among his Double Team doubles. "Heat Wave," I ordered, and all Enji released the move. "Protect, then Sandstorm," Stephanie ordered, and her Bronzong did just that. It first blocked the Heat Wave with Protect, before raising a Sandstorm, which as usual coexisted with Sunny Day. I noticed that the effect of Trick Room finally got lifted, so I directly made use of that.

"Fire Spin," I said out loud. 'Then Xtreme Charge followed by Crunch,' I supplemented. "Weather Ball," Stephanie countered, and her Bronzong fired a freaking Magma Ball at Enji moments after he released a wide Fire Spin that not only heated up the place and put pressure on Protect, but also obscured Enji's body.

Enji then used Xtreme Charge, which allowed him to dodge the approaching Magma Ball. He was also able to close in on Bronzong undetected under the cover of Fire Spin and his doubles, resulting in him crashing into Protect, forcing his way through it, and biting Bronzong's handle with Crunch. The dark energy of Crunch hurt Bronzong, making it cry out. It also interfered with Bronzong's psychic energy, messing with its levitation which partly relied on said energy.

Had it not been for the part that relied on magnetic force, Bronzong would have done worse than just wobbling a bit in the air before the magnetic levitation took fully over. Nonetheless, that did not change the fact that it was hurting and that its psychic abilities were momentarily shot.

"Gyro Ball, throw it off," Stephanie ordered and her Bronzong began to spin in place. "Keep it up," I encouraged Enji to keep Crunch going and to hold on as Bronzong spun. "Hold Charge Beam, but don't release it," Stephanie ordered, and when Bronzong did that, its spinning attracted most of the electricity, turning into a yellow spinning top. The bit that Stephanie wanted to do and succeeded with was the electricity hitting Enji in the process.

The shock caused Enji to loosen his bite, which resulted in him being flung away due to Bronzong's spinning. 'Flamethrower,' I mentally ordered as soon as that happened, and Enji adjusted his position midair so that he could bathe Bronzong in flames while he was flying away.

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