I stuck around next to Hitmonchan to wait for a Pokémon Ranger to arrive. Using my Pokégear, I had sent a non-emergency message to notify them of the presence of a Hitmonchan on the route. While it was a native species in this area, it wasn’t safe for an aggressive Pokémon like Hitmonchan to live around where people traveled. Luckily, it didn’t wake up before the Ranger arrived and was carried off by a woman in an orange vest and her Aggron to bring it to a safer location to live.

The fact that she had a Steel Type Pokémon and was assigned to a route that was heavy in Fire and Ground Types made it clear her strength was not to be messed with. Pokémon Rangers had to be exceptionally skilled to be hired to patrol routes, and she had clearly earned her role.

Once the Hitmonchan was escorted off route, we continued to Lavaridge town without any more interruptions. I returned to the center of the route, where the least number of Pokémon lived, to make sure I could reach the Pokémon Center without needing to engage in another battle. Both Vulpix and Marill needed to be healed, and Floette needed a checkup to make sure everything was in order after her evolution.

If I was a generalist, Hitmonchan would have been a good addition to my team. However, I was a specialist so I would not be able to train it properly. It was likely to have been obedient since we had proven our strength by beating it in battle, but I had no clue how to raise a Fighting Type, let alone teach it new moves. I had done all of my research for Fairy Type Pokémon and moves that Fairy Types were likely to learn. I would only catch a non-Fairy Type Pokémon if it was capable of learning multiple Fairy Type moves and behaved similarly to my chosen Type. Considering that Hitmonchan fulfilled neither of those requirements, it stayed wild.

Also, like usual, I was in the process of saving up money and didn't want to be forced to spend it taking care of the Hitmonchan. After the Lavaridge Gym, I planned to catch a new team member that actually met my requirements for a non-Fairy Type Pokémon and would need funds to take care of that Pokémon.

I arrived at the Pokémon Center in town and handed off my team to the resident Nurse Joy. Since the process would take a while, I headed to the Lavaridge Gym instead of waiting. I wanted to reserve a slot for my challenge as soon as possible since challenging the Gym this early in the season warranted an extended wait.

The Gym building was built at the base of a cliff, and was designed to look like a massive old-fashioned dojo. Lavaridge itself consisted of old buildings with sloped roofs in various states of mild disrepair, so it fit right in. It wasn’t that the town was decrepit, it was just an old town whose buildings reflected their age. To my understanding, the presence of the hot springs within the town meant there was a large percentage of the population that were seniors, so there wasn’t enough actual work force present to keep up with the required maintenance.

Like Mauville, the interior of the Gym was crowded but this time it wasn't completely packed. There were actually one or two free seats, and no one was forced to loiter against the walls. I approached the receptionist to reserve a time for my future Gym Challenge.

Unfortunately, the earliest available slot for the battle was the first battle of the day two weeks in the future. Unhappily, I signed up for that option. The two week wait period would already be awful enough, but a 7am Gym Battle? I grumbled internally about needing to wake up earlier than usual and missed the receptionist saying something while I was distracted. I hoped it wasn't important. I was not an early riser. Waking up that early would be painful.

I wanted to sign up for the Gym Trial, but the earliest available slot for that was a month away. Since the Trial was so much easier to beat than a battle with the Gym Leader, more trainers challenged Gym Trials hence the longer wait. I decided to listen to the advice I was given in Mauville and not bother with the Gym Trial this time around.

I later checked the generalist forums to find out what the Trial would have been, and learned it was a Puzzle Trial. Challengers would be led to a room full of pipes and had to assemble them to redirect a flow of boiling water from one side of the room to the other. The pipes were cumbersome and hard to assemble, so the entire process required help from your Pokémon.

The thread discussing the Gym was filled with complaints about the steam-filled environment and minor burns. Despite the injuries, they claimed it was a vast improvement over the previous year's Gym Trial, back when Flannery first took over the Gym. Challengers had to go through a steam-filled maze and ride on platforms launched by geysers of boiling water. There were a significant number of injuries within the first week and the trial had to be shut down in favor of a simple written test.

Of course, the test also had its share of complaints but it wasn't like the generalist forums weren’t going to complain about something.

So with a two-week waiting period, we had nothing to do but check out the town and train, like usual.

Two weeks was a lot of time for my Pokémon to practice their moves. Vulpix and Marill worked on the efficiency of Extrasensory and Aqua Tail respectively, and I had a special goal for Floette.

Floette needed time to get used to her body, so I decided to have her learn a specific move to practice. Her species was decently bulky for a middle stage Pokémon and the move I chose would help her increase her survivability. She would never be as strong as an attacker as my other two Pokémon due to her lack of drive to be one, but she’d be invaluable as a support in battle. The move “Wish” was just that good.

Wish was a strange and abstract move that allowed a Pokémon to pray and focus on the desire to heal and turn that into a star of healing energies. Wish’s healing effect took time to activate since the star was created far above the head of its user, and needed time to float downwards to reach and enter its target to heal them.

Floette’s strong defense against special attacks meant she had enough survivability to live long enough to use Wish as long as she wasn’t caught in a melee, and using the move meant she would be likely to last even longer and go on to heal herself multiple times. Learning Wish would significantly enhance Floette's capability to survive, but that wasn't its only use.

It was also a way for Floette to heal other Pokémon in battle.

Due to Wish's delay, Floette could be switched out after creating a healing star and have a different Pokémon benefit from the move's effect. If timed well, I could have a Pokémon that had been damaged be healed back to perfect health in the middle of a battle.

The only shame about this strategy is most official battles had a limit on the amount of times a trainer could switch out their Pokémon, which meant that this strategy could only be used once or twice in each battle and at the cost of a strategic resource.

That cost could be reduced if I had a Pokémon on my team that could learn Baton Pass or another switching move that bypassed the imposed limits, but my team wasn't capable of learning any such moves.

So Floette had a decent sized goal for these next two weeks: learn and master Wish for the upcoming Gym.

In between training sessions, I explored the town with my Pokémon. Vulpix liked to walk by my side as usual, and Floette, now a bit braver due to her increased size and power, rode on Vulpix's head, which made it look like Vulpix kept a flower in her ear.

I expected there to be a decent amount to see within the town, but it honestly just felt like a retirement community. Outside of a few specialty shops selling herbal remedies with horrible smells, the only thing Lavaridge had going for it was the hot springs, which I tried out with my Pokémon.

Considering I was currently going through a real life isekai, the fact I went to the hot springs was not lost on me.

What's the next generic trope? A quest from a goddess to slay a demon king?

Vulpix didn't like hot water or steamy areas since she was an Ice Type, so she ended up sitting this trip out. Marill looked forward to the water and Floette was curious to see how it all worked.

As someone who never visited a hot spring before, it was a completely new experience.

I spent a bit extra to have a small private area that allowed my Pokémon to join me and we spent the time relaxing and enjoying the heat. Marill snoozed while floating around on the surface while Floette stuck the lower half of her body in the hot water and immediately decided she didn't like it. The heat made her uncomfortable and caused her flower to wilt, so I returned her to let her relax in a cooler environment.

It didn't last very long due to the limited time I booked the private space for, but it was nice while it lasted.

With little else to do within the town itself, we also frequented the wild area north of town, which was called Jagged Pass. It was a good location for both training and completing jobs, plus we didn't even need to camp due to its relative location to a Lavaridge Pokémon Center.

A lot of jobs we took required us to enter Jagged Pass so it was nice to be able to train at the same time. We generally took simple tasks such as collecting herbs or breaking obstructing boulders, but some jobs required us to deal with wild Pokémon that were too close to town. At one point we had to fight a Machoke that had been aggressively challenging nearby trainers, which Marill took pleasure in challenging by herself. She ended up losing, but dealt enough damage that Floette could finish it off. Like Hitmonchan, it was relocated by a local Ranger after we beat it.

Despite her Never-Melt Ice, Vulpix was uncomfortable in the heat of Jagged Pass and didn't stay out for too long while we were there. Because of that she was forced to spend most of her training time within the Pokémon Center's training fields, where she didn't have to deal with as much heat.

With our time divided up between jobs, training, and Jagged Pass, the two week waiting period ended uneventfully.

The results of two weeks of training were very obvious. Vulpix mastered Extrasensory, and was working on using basic telekinesis outside of battle. She couldn't lift anything, but she could cause a rock to wobble, so that was nice. I had the option to get her started on Aurora Beam, but I didn't want to distract her with a new move so close to the Gym Battle.

Marill's strength was unbelievable. She threw herself into training with reckless abandon, constantly challenging Pokémon much stronger than herself in Jagged Pass and almost always getting beaten up as a result. I tried to focus my attention on Floette during our training sessions, but I would need to frequently help Marill with whatever trouble she got herself into.

At one point, Floette had just manifested a healing star with Wish, but it fizzled when the entire area shook from an agitated Graveler’s Magnitude during its battle with Marill. Considering I had just seen her practicing Aqua Tail against boulders, it didn’t surprise me that she caused something like that to happen.

Difficult battles aside, Marill perfected Aqua Tail and could use that move as easily as a human could throw a basic punch.

Floette successfully learned Wish to the point that it was usable in battle. It still took a moment for the star to properly manifest, but would speed up as she used it more often. Her training was thankfully uneventful and I was happy to have a member of my team who didn’t cause trouble.

With the two weeks completed and my team's moves mastered, the time finally came to challenge the Lavaridge Gym and deal with the dreaded 7am Gym Leader Battle.

I woke up in my room at the Pokémon Center and groggily got ready. I was apparently going too slow for my team because Floette became annoyed enough to hit me with a weak Fairy Wind, causing me to feel like Pop Rocks were going off against my skin. She immediately freaked out and apologized after she realized she used a move on me, but I didn’t mind too much since it scared me enough to wake me up properly. Running on adrenaline, I rushed to the Gym to arrive for my battle on time.

I reached the Gym just before 7am, which was confusing since it was closed. A Gym Trainer unlocked the doors and let me in an hour later at 8am, upon which a small trickle of people started to fill the waiting room.

I informed the Gym Trainer at the reception I was present for my battle, and he told me to wait until my name was called. He warned it might take a while.

So I waited.

At 9am the room was almost completely filled up, but the only trainers who had been called up were people challenging the Gym Trial.

I was fed up with waiting and finally at 10am I went to the reception desk to ask what was going on. He was very apologetic when I informed him of how long I had been waiting.

"Oh, you've been waiting since 7am? I’m very sorry, Flannery must be running especially late today. We usually tell challengers not to show up until two hours after their scheduled time, but this is pushing it. Again, sorry about that. I’ll send someone over to wake her up and bring her here to start her Gym Battles. If you'd like, I can let you into the staff room so you can get a cup of coffee."

I groaned and declined his offer of coffee and went back to sit down, like I had for the past three hours.

So I needed to show up two hours later, and Flannery is still sleeping even this late? No wonder that slot was open.

It wasn't until 11:30am that my name was called and I was let into the Gym Arena.

Yeah, 11:30. I waited four and a half hours to start my Gym Battle.

The battlefield was slightly larger than those at the Pokémon Center and there were raised bleachers for people to watch. Rather than the stands being empty, there were a few sets of elderly people here to watch the match. My confidence rose when I saw that Flannery wouldn't pull any nonsense with an empty room like Wattson did.

Flannery stood in the opposite side's trainer box dressed in a black T-shirt and blue jeans. Her head was done up in a large, bright red ponytail, which made her look nearly identical to how she looked in the games.

Her eyes were half open and she was currently eating a donut. In the hand not occupied by a sugary treat, she held a paper that she skimmed over as I entered the room.

"Mmm... let's see... Alex, a one star team before the first Gym, probably two stars now. Um, maybe a three star challenge?"

"Hey, Alex!" She called out. "I need to get through a bunch of battles quickly, so do you want to do a boss battle?"

I stumbled a bit, caught off-guard by the sudden strange offer.

"What? What do you mean a boss battle?" I replied, confused.

"Well rather than using a full team of Pokémon, I use one really strong Pokémon you have to take down,” she explained, “It only works for low-level Gyms, so this is probably your last chance to do it."

I thought about it for a moment. My Pokémon didn't have any special status moves or anything to make my opponent's attacks weaker. However, I did have Marill and she had been training against strong enemies in Jagged Pass. It was a different kind of fight I wasn't prepared for, but I decided to try it out anyway. Even if we had to suffer through another two weeks of waiting, it would be a unique experience no matter what. I just hoped if we ended up losing due to being unprepared it wouldn't mess up my chance for a sponsorship too much.

"Sure. Let's do it."

Flannery pumped her fist and called over a Gym Trainer assistant who handed her a single Pokéball.

"Great! I'll be sending out a 5-star equivalent Pokémon I specifically trained for Boss Battles, alright?"

I nodded and Flannery sent out a large red tortoise with a black shell.

"Go, Torkoal!"

My hand hovered over the miscellaneous Pokéballs at my waist as I considered my strategy. A woman dressed in a red sweatshirt with a small Pokéball decal over her heart spoke loud enough for everyone in the room to hear. Her outfit marked her as the referee for this battle.

"This will be a 3 on 1 Pokémon Battle,” she shouted, “The challenger will have three minutes to prepare their strategy before they must send out their first Pokémon. The challenger has two switches to use at their discretion. The preparation timer will start now."

I started to go over my options in my mind. My Pokémon only knew attacking moves, something that I needed to correct soon. I wanted to make sure they had a solid foundation before branching out to utility moves, but that was currently biting me in the butt.

I had Wish, which meant that I could heal a Pokémon in battle, but that would cost both of my switches: one to switch to Floette, and the second to switch back to the injured Pokémon.

Not like I have anything else to use my switches on.

In terms of status effects, I only had the freeze status from Powder Snow, which wouldn't be effective against Fire Types. I also had Icy Wind, which slowed the opponent via frost forming on the body. It might work if Ice Type energy penetrated the body to somehow cause the effect, but I doubted it. Fire Type energy inherently destabilized Ice Type energy, and in general, heat melted ice. Icy Wind would be unlikely to slow Torkoal.

I didn't have any moves that would inflict a long lasting effect, so I considered other avenues of approach.

It might not be a status move, but if Vulpix could use Extrasensory the way I’m thinking...

As I finished creating a plan, the referee called out as my three minutes were up.

"Challenger Alex, please send out your first Pokémon."

I sent out Vulpix, appearing on the battlefield in a puff of snow and ice. Flannery, who had just finished her donut, wiped her hand on her shirt and raised an eyebrow when she saw my Pokémon.

"An Ice Type, huh? You sure that’s smart?”

She waited for the referee to give up the go-ahead before starting the battle.

“Torkoal, begin with phase one, just like we planned!"

Torkoal hunkered down on the other side of the battlefield and retreated into its shell, using Withdraw to protect its body. The opening for its head glowed a fiery orange before a stream of flame shot out of the hole.

Flamethrower in the second Gym? Is she trying to sweep us with that power?

The move was powerful but thankfully had weak tracking capabilities at range. Vulpix was able to easily dodge with Quick Attack. When the flames died down, I took the opportunity to give Vulpix my first command.

"Icy Wind on the entire area around Torkoal!"

Vulpix let loose a wide-range Icy Wind and a freezing gust swept across the entire opposite half of the field. The purpose of using Icy Wind to cover such a large area was not to hurt Torkoal, but to cover the compacted dirt of the battlefield in frost.

The interior of Torkoal’s shell glowed once more, and the frost built on its body melted and became steam. Icy Wind didn’t deal much damage, nor did it slow down Torkoal, but that wasn’t my objective.

“Now, Extrasensory! Churn up the ground!”

Since the ground was icy, Vulpix’s Extrasensory would have a greater effect as she could use her innate cryokinesis to supplement her weak psychic abilities. Her eyes glowed blue and the ground around Torkoal shifted and churned, turning the field into dirty slush rather than packed dirt.

Rather than giving an order to Torkoal to stop our strategy, Flannery just stood silently and watched. Her arms were crossed and she stood confidently. My strategy didn’t even register as a threat to her.

Once again the interior of Torkoal’s shell glowed but rather than shooting out a Flamethrower, small beams of fire came out of every hole around the shell and it spun rapidly, creating a tornado of flames with its Fire Spin. The frost on the ground around the Torkoal started to melt, removing the ice, but it remained churned up.

“Hey, I’m using my switch now!” I called out to the referee.

The woman nodded at me and shouted, “Challenger Alex has used their first switch of the match.”

I returned Vulpix and sent out Marill. The second she saw the tornado of flame emanating from Torkoal, she crouched down and readied her tiny legs, preparing to use Aqua Jet at a moment’s notice.

“Not so fast Marill, I need you to use Water Gun on the ground around it.”

Marill let out a “Tch,” and shot out a Water Gun like I ordered, much to her displeasure. From her position at range, she covered the opposite side of the field in a thin coat of water. Now that the field was no longer compacted dirt but loose slush, the other side of the field quickly turned into mud.

As a consequence of the difficult terrain, the spin from Fire Spin slowed down since Torkoal was unable to build up speed properly in the gunk. The mud coated its sides and it was forced to stop its spin and exit its shell, canceling its Fire Spin as well as Withdraw. Torkoal’s legs immediately sank into the mud, preventing it from moving and getting closer to Marill, but that’s when Flannery gave her second order.

“Torkoal, start phase two!”

Standing stock still, half sunk in the mud, Torkoal began to mutter silently as its body began to tense. Worried about what it may be doing, it was time for Marill to act.

“Marill, try to stop it! Hit ‘em with the classic!”

Marill, now bouncing in excitement, disappeared in a splash of water and slammed into the Torkoal with her Aqua Jet attack. I hoped the mud it sunk into would make it harder to defend itself, but Torkoal took the attack without flinching. In fact, Torkoal didn’t shift at all from the impact, but Marill continued the assault and used her new favorite move, Aqua Tail. Glowing with watery blue energy, she jumped up and slammed her tail down, impacting the top of Torkoal’s shell. There was still little reaction from Torkoal outside of a small grimace on its mouth, but the force of impact caused its legs to sink even further into the ground, causing the bottom of the shell to rest on the floor.

Torkoal continued to mutter under its breath and its body started to give off steam. Still not quite sure what was happening, I stayed silent and watched as Marill continuously slammed into Torkoal with Aqua Tail. It might be planning something, but Marill’s Type-boosted attack should still be dealing massive damage to it.

Flannery spoke up after a few more moments.

“Phase three! Go on the offensive!”

Torkoal twisted its body and snapped into a Rapid Spin. Unlike back when it used Fire Spin, it was able to move across the uneven surface. It smashed into Marill with its shell and knocked her back from the force of the impact. The mud around Torkoal was launched back and spread out from the force of the spin, removing all of my efforts to reduce its speed and keep it in place.

So Rapid Spin removes the effect of all field conditions, not just certain moves, huh? Well there goes my entire strategy.

Frustrated at my lack of knowledge and realizing I had wasted that time setting up the battlefield, I gave Marill her next command.

“Stay at a distance for now and use Bubble Beam. Keep an eye on what attacks it uses and try to dodge.”

Marill shot out a stream of bubbles at Torkoal. Torkoal immediately reacted by sending out a Flamethrower which popped most of them. Some of them still managed to impact Torkoal’s body and deal a bit of damage. Trying its best to ignore the attacks, it slowly walked towards Marill, defending itself with its fire.

I noticed that its walking speed was much slower than it should have been, and finally understood Flannery’s strategy.

The Torkoal powered itself up through the constant use of the move Curse! Its speed has been significantly reduced, but its physical offensive and defensive capabilities have been maximized. That’s how it shrugged off Marill’s Aqua Tail, its defenses had been massively strengthened!

Worried about Torkoal’s enhanced physical capabilities, I gave Marill an order that was counter to her usual strategy.

“Stay back at a distance, it can’t keep up with you!”

Marill unhappily hopped back to stay away from Torkoal and continuously used Bubble Beam. Torkoal’s Flamethrower continued to weaken her attacks, and unfortunately Marill started to tire from her constant use of a special attack. She was more used to physical combat rather than ranged combat, which caused her to expend her energy much more quickly than usual.

I planned to have Marill stay in the battle just a bit longer, but Flannery changed her strategy once more.

“Torkoal, Smokescreen combo!”

The hole on top of Torkoal’s shell spat out a plume of black smoke and obscured the entire area around it. Marill stopped her Bubble Beam attacks, no longer able to see and hit her target.

“Keep an eye out and be ready to dodge with Aqua Jet,” I told Marill.

There were a few moments of silence before Marill was suddenly launched back. Torkoal had shot itself straight out of the smoke in a fast-moving Rapid Spin that far outpaced its normal walking speed. Marill had no time to react to use Aqua Jet and dodge. Flannery shouted at me to brag about her strategy.

“How did you like that? Torkoal’s Rapid Spin lets him move far faster than he could with the speed decrease from Curse! Your Pokémon don’t stand a chance!”

Frowning, I pick up the Dive Ball at my belt to use my next switch on Marill. However, before I could state I wanted to use my switch, the referee shouted to interrupt me.

“Marill is unable to battle. Challenger Alex, please send out your next Pokémon.”

What?! She only took two hits!

Frowning, I looked over to Marill. She had been in the process of standing up when I first decided to switch, but she was just too exhausted and injured from the boosted Rapid Spins and had collapsed on the ground. The combined damage and exhaustion was just too much for her. I sighed and returned her to her Pokéball. The Torkoal was tougher than I had thought.

“You did a good job out there, her strategy caught me off guard.”

Grabbing the Heal Ball, I sent out Floette next. I wanted Floette to be able to use Wish to heal Marill, but it looked like my planned strategy was completely out of the window.

“Floette, float as high as possible!”

Floette didn’t have the ability to fly or perfectly levitate, but was able to manipulate the height she floated at. I told Floette to get as high as possible to try to avoid Torkoal’s Rapid Spin attack.

As she did so, it was Flannery’s turn to frown.

“Well, shoot.”

“Huh?” I asked, confused.

She scratched the back of her head and chuckled. “Well Torkoal’s Rapid Spin is strong and all, but we haven’t got jumping down yet.”

I blinked. “You’re kidding.”

She let out a nervous laugh.

I immediately took control of our sudden advantage. “Floette! Fairy Wind!”

She waved her flower and the same sparkling wind shot out of its petals. The air around Torkoal crackled from the move and it exited its shell it had Withdrawn into during Rapid Spin. It could still hit Floette with its Flamethrower, but it could no longer make use of its boosted physical capabilities from Curse.

Torkoal immediately started to use Flamethrower, like I expected.

“Stay at range, it’s tracking is weak!”

Floette floated back, narrowly dodging the initial Flamethrower. She continued to move away from Torkoal to increase the distance to it and make it easier to dodge. With Torkoal’s reduced speed from Curse, Floette massively outsped the Fire Type.

“Keep it up! It has to go down eventually!” I shouted.

Flannery panicked and tried to give Torkoal the chance to defend itself from Floette’s attacks. “Use Smokescreen to cover yourself! Try not to let it see your position!”

A dark cloud shot out of the top of its shell and cloaked the area around Torkoal once more. I once again took advantage of the situation by telling Floette to use a move that was immune to losses in accuracy.

“Floette, switch to Magical Leaf!”

While Magical Leaf was a weaker attack over Fairy Wind for Floette, Torkoal resisted both moves so the choice didn’t matter. However, Magical Leaf had the advantage of an innate tracking ability, causing the glowing leaves to home in on their targets. Torkoal’s Smokescreen now only served to blind it rather than prevent our attacks.

The battle went on like that, Floette staying high in the air using Magical Leaf when Torkoal hid, and Fairy Wind when Torkoal tried to approach. Torkoal would use Flamethrower offensively but Floette was easily able to dodge with her faster speed. Seeing that this had quickly become a losing battle, Flannery ordered Torkoal to try a last ditch effort.

“This isn’t working Torkoal, blast the entire area it’s in with Overheat!”

Overheat was a dangerous move to use. It increased the user’s temperature until the body reached its capacity and released it all in one massive attack. It could potentially cause serious damage to its user if performed incorrectly, but in most cases simply slowed the flow of Fire Type energy for a while, weakening all future Fire Type moves until the Pokémon had time to rest.

Torkoal sucked in a deep breath and its normally black shell glowed a bright red. The air around it wavered from distortions created by the heat and its shell turned orange, then yellow, then white. I realized that Floette wouldn't be able to dodge, so I gave an order to have her use a move right before Torkoal released its attack.

Floette needed to survive this. She hadn’t yet been hit so there was a chance, but we had only done a minimal amount of training for dodging and surviving hits. If she fainted, Vulpix would be unlikely to take out even a weakened Torkoal due to her vulnerability to fire.

Overheat was finally released as Torkoal shot out a massive burst of fire through its mouth. Overheat scorched the battlefield in a wave extending outwards towards Floette. Floating in the air over an empty battlefield meant that Floette had no way to minimize the damage or take cover.

The heat and light from the attack was too much and I had to cover my eyes.

You're using this move in a second Gym Badge Battle? Isn't this a bit much?!

After a few moments of persistent heat, the attack ended. Torkoal panted heavily a distance away as its head drooped and knees wobbled from the energy expended in that attack.

Floette was on the ground, just barely conscious and horribly scorched. The Fairy Type energy it constantly channeled into its flower meant that the flower had not been destroyed, but was instead brown and wilted.

The entire room was silent. Flannery was first to speak up, with a tinge of frustration in her voice.

"Hey ref, the Pokémon is unable to battle, shouldn't you call it?"

Floette was severely injured, but she wasn't unable to battle. Surviving special attacks like Overheat was what her species excelled at, so she just barely managed to hang on. At the moment she was simply catching her breath and waiting.

The referee was aware of this and did not speak. It was on Flannery to take advantage of Floette’s weakness but she assumed a powerful attack like Overheat would always faint her opponent.

One thing I had learned from zombie games in my old world was to always check the body. Flannery clearly hadn’t internalized that lesson.

Flannery’s eyes kept flicking back and forth between Floette’s near-motionless form and the referee silently standing there, waiting. She continued to not act.

That was a mistake.

As everyone watched Floette, a faint white light drifted down from above and entered her body. As it merged into her being, her wounds rapidly healed and Floette floated back into the air holding her flower, now no longer wilted and returned to its red color. The move she used before Overheat, Wish, finally took effect and restored Floette's health. She might not have been in perfect condition any longer, but she was more than able to continue the battle.

The referee took this moment to explain the situation. "Floette is still able to fight. Continue the match."

"Shoot," Flannery cursed.

Torkoal was exhausted after that attack and still slowed from Curse. Due to Wish, Floette only had light burns. The battle was in our favor.

"Now's our chance, Floette! Continue the assault!"

Floette let loose her own burst of Fairy Wind and Torkoal took no attempts to defend itself. The Fairy Type move crackled against Torkoal and the Fire Type dropped to a knee.

Expecting the battle to go longer, I was surprised when Flannery returned Torkoal to its Pokéball.

She gave me a sad smile.

"It looks like you’ve beat us, Alex. Good work. I'm calling it now since Torkoal doesn't have any other options left against your Floette. I didn't expect any Pokémon to keep going after getting hit by Torkoal's Overheat on a team at your level."

I returned Floette. She may have recovered via Wish but she was still tired.

"Thank you,” I replied, “I had her learn Wish specifically for your Gym Battle. I prepared for a normal battle, but it still managed to work out for a ‘Boss Battle.’"

Flannery walked to the center of the field and I did the same. She ignored the mud and just walked straight to the center, causing it to splatter over her pants and shoes. I shook her hand and when she let go, she reached into the pocket of her pants.

She pulled out a small metal pin, and held it up to show me.

"This is the Heat Badge. Possessing this proves you have triumphed over the Lavaridge Gym. Wear it with pride, Alex. Congratulations on your victory."

I took the badge and thanked her, then was quickly rushed out of the room. There was no time for any sort of conversation, for that which I was thankful for. For some completely unknown, and an almost unexplainable reason, there happened to be a large line of trainers waiting to challenge Flannery in a battle.

Seems I wasn’t the only one forced to wait for hours.

Despite my sleepiness from waking up too early, I actually remembered to pick up the reward money at the counter this time. It was nice to actually see the wad of cash I got for the victory, more than enough to help me support my efforts to catch my next Pokémon.

Badge put away and funds in my pocket, I returned to the Pokémon Center. My Pokémon deserved to be rewarded, and I deserved to take a nap.