“OK, is it just me, or are you starting to get a little freaked out too?”

“La metta!”

As Brad and his meloetta continued to walk through the surrounding cave, it seemed like every other step there was a zubat flying right above them or a trainer that they couldn’t see. It was amazing that anyone would dare go through this cave, especially seeing as how the darkness was so deep that Brad couldn’t even see the pokémon on his shoulder.

“M-Meloetta?”

“Why would I teach you flash?! Would you rather be stuck with a useless move forever just so you can see a couple steps in front of you?”

“La meloetta!”

“I’m sorry. When am I going to need to lower someone’s accuracy again? I might as well teach you sweet scent at that point. I can’t believe a move like that even exists. Like a freaking smell is going to lower someone’s evasi--WHOA SHIT!”

Suddenly, before Brad even realized that he was falling, his face was in the ground with his mouth now full of dirt, rocks, and probably a diglett. As he pulled his chest off of the cavern floor, he shook his head wildly, spitting out as much of the filth as he could and brushing the grime off of his tongue while he looked around for whatever had tripped him. Of course, in this darkness, there was no way he’d be able to find the perpetrator, but just as he was about to get back up to his feet, a soothing smell began to slip its way into Brad’s nose. It was so peaceful, so relaxing, and probably the least-likely smell that he would expect to find in a dumpy old tunnel like this.

“Meloetta, please don’t tell me you learned sweet scent just to get back at me for not teaching you flash.”

He could hear Meloetta shaking her head violently. “Mel la metta!”

“Then can you help me up? I feel like I twisted my ankle on the way down.”

With Meloetta helping Brad up to his feet, the pokémon trainer looked all around him, desperately searching for the origin of the soothing smell, but it was almost pointless considering how little vision he had. At the same time, though, the scent seemed to be pulling him in closer, like there was a pokémon trying to guide him to its aroma, which he greatly wanted to find to fulfill his curiosity, if nothing else. As his Meloetta pulled him up, Brad started walking in the opposite direction, causing confused tugs from the psychic-type until he could hear the faint footsteps of a pokémon in front of him.

“Ha! I got you!”

“STEEN!?”

The pokémon then began to flail as Brad held it in his arms, trying to figure out what he was holding by feeling it all over. “H-hold still, whatever you are! I need to find out if you’re worth catching or not!” Just as he was beginning to pick up on the pokémon’s flowery physiology, however, he suddenly found himself touching a spot underneath one of its flower petals, making it flinch before freezing up. Then, pulling back on it some more, his face began to grow a bright red, practically lighting up the darkness as he finally figured out that whatever pokémon he had found, it was a female.

“SteeeeeeeNEENEENEENEENEE!”

Suddenly, out of seemingly nowhere, Brad’s face was getting pummelled by slap after slap, leaving a handprints on his face so deep that he could feel the redness. Then, once its slaps were finished, its whole body began to spin, causing a burn in Brad’s hands until he finally let go, receiving one last smack as the two of them fell back to the floor, one more gracefully than the other. While Brad sat up rubbing the marks on his face, however, he could both hear and smell the pokémon trying to escape, but he wasn’t about to let it escape so easily, especially after being on the wrong end of its BDSM fetish.

“Meloetta! Follow its scent and sing it to sleep!”

“ La metta!” The sounds of its footsteps were quickly growing inaudible along withs its scent becoming gradually untraceable, making him wonder whether or not Meloetta would be able to get to it before it disappeared in the dark cave. Just as he was about to give up and start blindly making his way towards the exit, however… “Meeeeloeeeettaaaaa Melooooeeeeettaaaaa!”

She did it! Brad had to fight off the urge to fall asleep himself, but once the song had finally ended, he heard his own pokémon begin to cheer, beckoning him over with the sound of her voice. Quickly, he pulled himself up to his feet and started running in the direction of where Meloetta was calling, and surely enough, the scent was gone, replaced by the soft sounds of a snoring pokémon.

“Sweet! Good job, Meloetta! Now, how am I going to catch this thing if I can’t see it?” Meloetta groaned, pulling an unused pokéball from Brad’s belt and tossing it down, making the trainer reflexively put his hands to his crotch as if he had just been violated. “Careful, Meloetta! You can’t just go around grabbing a man’s balls!”

“LA METTA!”

“Hmm?”

The two of them quickly hushed their voices, listening as closely as they could to the sound of the pokéball beneath them, rocking back and forth on the rocky cavern floor. There was a long wiggle at first, then a slightly less violent wiggle, and then a quiet roll until the sound of the pokéball turned into an audible click!, leaving the cave in silence once again. Brad remained silent for another moment or two, waiting to hear it pop out of the ball and begin running away again, but once the message finally sunk in, he bent down, felt around for the pokéball and picked up the sphere, which seemed slightly heavier than normal.

“Did… Did we do it?”

“Mel la metta!”

“YES!! That’s my fourth pokémon! Now let’s get out of here and see what I caught! I’m gonna be pissed if it turns out to be a gloom.”

Fortunately for both Brad and his pokémon, however, they were already on the home stretch, spending just a few more minutes dodging zubats until they finally found themselves at the mouth of the cave, leading them just outside of Route 5. Once again, they were surrounded by trees and a dirt path leading to the city, but this time, as night had already fallen with the moon high in the sky, the bright lights of Baltimare City illuminated the way. They weren’t far from reaching their goal, but before they even thought about walking whatever distance they had to get to the city, Brad pulled out the pokéball with his newly acquired pokémon and threw it onto the dirt path ahead of him, ready to find out exactly what he had caught.

“Pokéball, go!”

The ball collided into the ground and bounced into the air, opening up to expel a bright light into the dark night as the ball launched back into Brad’s hand like a magnet. The emerging pokémon wasn’t very tall, standing only about two inches from the ground, but it had slender hips with thicc legs, giving it a feminine figure that matched its gender perfectly. Then, as the light finally began to dissipate, the pokémon stretched its short, white arms while fluffing the pigtails on its head in the shape of giant leaves, similar to the stem of an apple. As it looked up at the trainer who had caught it, however, it puffed its cheeks, folded its arms and turned around with a grunt, making Brad suddenly feel like this new pokémon wasn’t going to warm up to him as well as the others.

“Hey, you! My name’s Brad. I’m gonna be your trainer from now on, OK?” The pokémon then turned her head over her shoulder with a suspicious glare, but once the two of them made eye contact, she stuck her nose in the air and turned away again, refusing to acknowledge him. “What?!” Brad had to look back at Meloetta, just to make sure she was seeing the same thing as him. “Can pokémon do that? Just not listen to their trainers?”

Meloetta sighed, shrugging her shoulders. “Mel la…”

“Are you freaking serious?! Ugh… Look, miss uh… What did you say your name was again?”

The grass-type looked back over her shoulder and glared again, speaking with as much bite in her voice as she could. “Steenee.”

“OK. Listen, Steenee. I didn’t mean to fingerbang you like that. It was an honest mistake. It happens to the best of us.” By this point, his new pokémon was finally facing him, albeit with a scowl on her face as she began verbally assaulting him, making the psychic-type by his side begin to hold her sides in laughter. “What? What’s going on? What’s she saying?”

“Mel la mel la mel la!” she laughed, giving Brad a scowl of his own.

“Look, Steenee! I said my sorries! Now it’s time for you to be a good little pokémon and get back in your ball!”

“Steeeeeen!” the grass-type replied, pulling down on her eyelid while sticking her tongue out.

“You whore!” Brad then threw his pokéball again, encapsulating his newly captured pokémon in a bright, red light, again launching back into his hand while he gave the psychic-type to his side a nasty look. “I’ve had just about enough of you. Come on. Let’s get going to Baltimare.”

As Brad began walking, however, Meloetta giggled a few more times before floating back over to her trainer’s shoulder, crossing her legs like she hadn’t just pissed him off. As much as Brad wanted to be angry, however, he was mainly just glad that he was out of that dark cave and finally on his way to Baltimare City, where he would hopefully get his next gym badge. Pinkie Pie’s gym probably wouldn’t be open during this time of night, but he still wanted to check it out, just so he had an idea of how he would prepare for their upcoming battle.

“Hmmmm…” Brad said, staring intently at the gym’s outer walls. There was nothing in particular that would give away what kind of typing Pinkie Pie would use based on the building alone, but seeing as how the lights inside were all turned off, he felt pretty safe in assuming that the gym was closed. This was his chance to get the upper hand, even though so far it just looked like he was probably going to do something illegal to people passing by.

“Meloetta?”

“Steel-type! No! Wait, wait, wait, wait!” Brad then placed his ear next to the building, knocking gently against the outer layer and feeling a rough, course surface of the bricks holding the edifice together. “I’ve got it! She uses rock-types!”

“La metta?”

“Fuck you. I’m a genius.”

“Excuse me.”

Brad and Meloetta both jumped back a step, taken off guard by a girl who seemed to appear out of nowhere. She had medium purple hair along with pale gray skin that went perfectly with her plain blue dress, making her look like she had just picked a towel out of her linen closet and turned it into an outfit. The creepiest part about her, though, was the low, monotone voice she used as well as her dull expression, making her come off as emotionless, almost like a serial killer, only not as hot.

“Could you please not knock on the walls? That clay is very sensitive.”

“Oh. Y-yeah… No problem.”

“Also, if you’re planning on doing something illegal, I’m going to call the police. This building is only for people who want to challenge Gym Leader Pinkie Pie, even though I also like to sometimes stare at the beautiful craftsmanship of the igneous rocks used to make these bricks. They must have been through so much in order to give us the luxuries we have now.”

The woman then placed her hand on the wall of the gym, rubbing it tenderly as Brad silently hoped that the people walking by didn’t think they were some kind of couple. “Uhh… I think I’ll just come back tomorrow when Pinkie Pie comes back.”

As soon as Brad turned to walk away, though, the woman said slowly, “What do you mean? Gym Leader Pinkie Pie is inside right now.”

“Wait, what?! It’s like 11:30 at night!”

“Of course. That’s when they come out to play…”

A sudden shiver went down Brad’s back, making him wonder whether or not he really wanted to see what was supposed to be behind those gym doors. Just once today, he wanted to be somewhere bright, but apparently, everything west of Sweet Apple Acres was covered in darkness aside from the few streetlights that brought him there.

“Maybe we should wait until tomorrow,” Brad said, turning towards Meloetta.

“Meloetta la mel metta!”

“But it’s dark and scaryyyyy!”

Then, out of nowhere, Meloetta had picked Brad up with her psychic powers, pushing him through the gym doors and throwing him inside. As Brad winced in pain from the landing, however, and after taking a second to rub his bottom, he finally got a good look at the gym’s interior, which was pitch black other than the blue, flame-lit candles hanging on the walls. Literally the only things that were visible were the arena, the referee’s box and a red velvet chair, which sat a girl in a black and blue dress, smiling down at Brad with a twisted grin.

“Brad?! Is that you?!” she asked, standing up from her seat. “Wowie! I didn’t expect to see you here! Is there anyone else here to see me? Is this a surprise party? HOW DID YOU KNOW IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY?!”

“Pinkie Pie, your birthday isn’t for another six months,” called a voice from the referee’s box. As soon as Brad’s pupils dilated enough for him to see the figures inside, he finally made out three women who all bore striking resemblance to the gym leader, albeit with much different auras.

The one who called out had a dark gray vest on top of her white shirt and light, black jeans, complementing the curves of her legs as well as the fierce attitude on her face. The girl beside her seemed like the polar opposite in every manner, wearing a black top with white pants that seemed to blend along with her dark gray hair, which covered half of her face. She seemed like she had been tormented half her life, and the way she rubbed her arms made it apparent that she wasn’t too fond of being there any more than Brad was. Finally, rounding out the group was the girl he had met outside the gym, still looking back at him with the same blank look as ever.

“Oh, well if it’s not my birthday, then he must be here for a sleepover!”

“I think he’s here to battle you,” the creepy one said in her signature monotone vice. “He seemed to be trying to figure out what type of pokémon you use.”

“You mean Brad wants a pokémon battle?!” Pinkie quickly jumped for joy with confetti shooting out of her armpits and all over the floor. The minute she touched back down, however, she put her finger to her mouth, suddenly deep in thought. “Waaaaait a second. You’re not a pokémon trainer, are you?”

“Why don’t you see for yourself?” As Brad opened up his jacket to reveal the badges inside, all four women squinted their eyes to see the three metallic objects shimmering faintly in the dim candle light.

Finally, once Pinkie realized what he was showing her, she clasped her hands to her mouth and gasped, bouncing up and down where she stood. “You mean you already have three gym badges?! This is incredible!”

“So what do you say, Pinkie? Are you ready for a gym battle?” Even though Brad was smiling with confidence, he really just wanted to get this over with as soon as possible so he could leave this creepy gym forever.

“You bet! Limestone, Marble, Maud, are you three good with being the referees?”

Marble and Maud nodded, whereas the girl at the end groaned in frustration, holding her head in her hand. “Ugh. Just when I thought we’d actually get out of here early for once.”

“By the way, Pinkie,” Brad began as he made his way to his side of the battle arena. “What is your specialty? Rock-types?”

“Nope! That’s Maud, but she’s on vacation from being a gym leader right now.”

Brad cocked an eyebrow, taken aback that his surefire guess had turned out to be wrong. “Then what is it?”

“Ghost-types!”

“...Say WHAT?!”

“Haunter! GO!”

As soon as Pinkie arrived on her side of the court, she tossed one of her pokéballs into the arena, releasing a large, gaseous, disembodied head with a matching pair of floating hands. Brad flinched in surprise as he tried to figure out how a girl as peppy and rosy as Pinkie Pie would choose to specialize in easily the most horrifying type of pokémon that existed. Realizing that everyone was waiting on him, however, Brad looked over to the pokémon on his shoulder and nodded, giving her the signal to take her place in the arena.

“Oooooooo! I’ve never seen one of those before!”

“Don’t change the subject! How in the hell did you end up specializing in fugging ghost-type pokémon?!”

Pinkie Pie, however, tilted her head in confusion, putting her hands on her hips as if the answer was supposed to be obvious. “That’s an easy one! I chose them because they’re so funny! Isn’t that right, Haunter?”

“Haaaaaaauuuuuuunt!”

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie and her ghost were having a battle of seeing who could make the funnier face, which her haunter was winning, not just because he could physically stretch his face farther, but also because Pinkie Pie fell into a giggle fit after every new pose. The sight of her cracking up at the creepy pokémon as if it didn’t resemble a severed head was almost heartwarming,until he remembered it was a living embodiment of death itself. Finally, though, once it was clear that Haunter was the winner of their face-scrunching battle, Pinkie Pie wiped a tear from her eye and faced Brad again, giving him the same bright smile as always.

“We’ll use three pokémon each! Does that work for you?”

“Works for me.”

The words had just barely escaped Brad’s mouth by the time Limestone announced, “Are both trainers ready?” The boy then nodded at Limestone, whereas Pinkie Pie jumped up and down with excitement. “I’m gonna take that as a yes. Challenger Brad vs. Gym Leader Pinkie Pie. Begin!”

“Alright, Meloetta!” Brad shouted, pointing his finger at the daunting haunter. “I’ve never really battled a ghost-type before, so I’m not really sure what we’re doing. Try hitting it with psychic!”

“MeloeeeeeeTAAAAAAA!!!!”

The psychic-type pokémon then levitated herself into the air, clutching her chest as her body began to glow a bright blue aura until, with the flick of her arms, a psychic wave coursed through the opposing haunter, which began to flail in pain. If Brad remembered correctly, Haunter was also part poison-type, which meant that every psychic attack would do massive damage, but he couldn’t, for the life of him, remember what else ghost-types could do. Finally, after Meloetta’s attack had faded away, Pinkie Pie’s haunter rose back into the air, disappearing and reappearing out of nowhere as it laughed maniacally.

“Wow, Brad!” Pinkie Pie shouted. “That’s a really strong pokémon! How did you manage to catch one of those?”

“...With my dick.”

Pinkie Pie stood in silence for several moments, but after shrugging her shoulders, she pointed her finger back towards the arena, causing her haunter to reappear once again. “You may have caught me off guard with that attack, but there’s one thing you forgot about!”

“Oh, yeah? And what’s that?”

“Psychic-types are weak to ghost-types!”

This time, it was Brad’s turn to stand in silence, sniffing in through his nose as he casually stuck his hands into his pockets, looking down at his feet and shaking his head in irritation. “That’s just my luck, isn’t it? Out of all the pokémon that you could be strong against, you just had to be strong against mine.”

“Haunter! Hit it with a shadow ball!”

“HAAAAUUUUNT!”

Brad couldn’t look, and neither could Meloetta for that matter. With a black and purple sphere of energy manifesting above it, Pinkie Pie’s haunter threw its hands forward, sending the ball on a collision course towards the shuddering psychic-type holding her arms up like it would help in shielding her… but when the ball made its impact, it disappeared without a trace. Brad waited several second to hear his pokémon crying out in pain, but when it never came, he opened his eyes, seemingly in just as much confusion as Meloetta was in. In fact, everyone except for Maud had a look of complete shock on their faces with nobody able to explain why Pinkie Pie’s seemingly smart move hadn't worked.

Then, pulling her jaw up from the floor, Limestone raised her arm and shouted, “Foul! Illegal outside interference!”

“Wait, what?!” Brad interjected. “How the hell did I do that?”

“I… I don’t know, but there’s no way that Pinkie Pie’s haunter missed a direct hit at point blank range like that! You had to be cheating somehow!”

“It wasn’t cheating,” Maud intervened in her usual monotone voice. “His pokémon must be a normal-type.”

Limestone grunted, now switching her annoyance to her sister. “I thought it was supposed to be a psychic-type!”

“It’s both. It’s a dual psychic/normal-type.”

Everyone remained silent, trying to figure out if there was any flaws to Maud logic, but surely enough, it would make sense, even if Brad had no idea himself the typing of his own pokémon. “Oh, wait!” Brad said, hitting his hand as if he had just had an epiphany. “Twilight said something about that, didn’t she?”

“La metta,” she responded with a nod. Then, with a smile growing on his face, he clenched his fists, jabbing in Pinkie Pie’s direction as he laughed with confidence.

“Get fucked, Pinkie Pie! You’ve got nothing on me now! How’re you gonna win without being able to use ghost-type moves, huh?”

Pinkie Pie, though, rather than being afraid, gave Brad a spooky smile, giggling to herself as his confidence dropped again. “Don’t worry, Brad! I still have a few party tricks up my sleeve! Haunter! Use hypnosis!”

“Meloetta! Quick! Use sing!”

As both pokémon faced each other with determination on their faces, the two of them opened their mouths, emitting loud sound waves towards the other as they released their attacks. Meloetta’s sound waves were by far more beautiful to the ears, but Haunter’s attack had an extra frightening tone, leaving the two moves to collide in a visible distortion of color in the middle of the playing field.

“What’s going to happen?” Limestone asked, turning towards Maud.

“Hypnosis has an accuracy rate of sixty percent, whereas sing’s accuracy rate is only fifty-five. It’s more likely than not that Haunter will come out on top.”

Maud’s lack of confidence in him wasn’t helping, but with another rush of emotion, Brad shouted out, “Meloetta! You can do this! Keep singing!”

“Extra loud hypnosis, Haunter!”

The sound waves seemed to get louder, affecting both the visibly-distorting aesthetics of the battlefield as well as everyone’s eardrums, making everyone but Pinkie Pie cover their ears to keep themselves from being affected. Finally, after the sound waves died down and the color of the gym returned to normal, both pokémon stood tall, waiting for the other to fall asleep where they stood… but no matter how long they waited, neither pokémon seemed to move an inch.

“I thought you said Haunter would put that thing to sleep!” Limestone shouted, but Maud just blinked her eyes slowly as if she had predicted this outcome all along.

“They both missed,” she replied in a low voice. “Pinkie Pie is running out of options. If Haunter gets hit by another psychic attack, it’s basically going to mean the end for this round.”

Finally, Brad was actually on the receiving end of good news for once! “You hear that, Meloetta? It’s all over! Give it another psychic attack and finish it off!”

“Destiny bond!”

Brad’s eyes grew wide. “Wait, what?!”

As Meloetta began to glow a bright blue aura around its body once again, Pinkie Pie’s pokémon began to laugh hysterically, releasing a white light into the air that encircled its body. Just as Brad began to figure out what was going on, though, it was already too late. Meloetta then released all the psychic energy inside her body, crashing against Haunter and making it once again flail in pain. As the ghost-type gradually descended to the floor, however, struggling to stay conscious until it finally stopped moving, Meloetta keeled over out of nowhere, grabbing her stomach as if the attack had caused herself pain as well. Then, closing her eyes, Meloetta fell to the floor, just as motionless as the haunter in front of her.

“No…”

“Both pokémon are unable to battle!” Limestone announced, raising her hand into the air. “Both Challenger Brad and Gym Leader Pinkie Pie are down to two pokémon a side!”

Brad cursed internally, pulling Meloetta’s pokéball out and summoning the pokémon back into her ball. He had really been hoping that he would be able to get through the rest of Pinkie Pie’s team, supposing the only good moves she had were ghost-type moves, but now he had to think seriously about who he wanted to use next. Seeing as how Lopunny was a normal-type, she would still resist ghost-type moves, but she would basically be restricted to bounce and endure, leaving her as a last resort at best. Kirlia was a psychic-type, which meant that unless Pinkie pie pulled out some crazy ghost/fighting-type, he was going to be at a harsh disadvantage.

Then, he remembered one last pokémon on his team, and with a smile finally forming on his face, he pulled the pokéball off of his belt and shouted, “Steenee! I choose you!” The pokéball then collided with the ground, releasing a grass-type pokémon sitting on the floor, pouting with her cheeks as she folded her arms grumpily.

“Steenee, huh?” Pinkie Pie replied with a giggle. “I know juuuust what to do about that! Mismagius! Go!”

Once Pinkie Pie threw her own ball into the arena, however, the white light that emerged steadily turned into a floating, purple ghost, somersaulting in the air with a large, creepy smile on its face. “Mismagius! Mismagius!”

“Alright, Steenee, let’s see what you can do,” Brad said, pointing his finger at the gym leader’s pokémon. “Hit it with your strongest grass-type move!” Several moments passed with everyone holding their breaths, waiting for the pokémon on the floor to make its move, but once the tension began to grow uncomfortable, the grass-type pokémon yawned loudly and fell over onto her side. Everyone’s reactions were completely different, from Pinkie Pie’s laughter to Marble’s cringing face to Maud’s indifference to Brad confusion. “Uhh… Steenee? Did you hear me?”

Again, another several seconds passed before Steenee stretched her arms, waving lackadaisically at Brad as if she were just trying to piss him off. “Steenee.”

“YOU WHORE!”

“Is that it?” Limestone asked, glaring daggers back at Brad. “If your pokémon’s not gonna obey you, it’s officially disqualified from the match.”

“Steenee, you ungrateful bitch! Use a move already!”

Barely looking over her shoulder to show Brad her furrowed eyebrows, Steenee faced Mismagius and tossed her leafy hair back, emitting a sweet scent across the battlefield. Brad immediately fell backwards, his feet flying up into the air as he landed from the sheer lack of effort that his pokémon was showing. Mismagius, though, other than having its evasion lowered slightly, didn’t seem to be affected at all, bouncing back and forth in the air with glee.

“Alright, Brad,” Limestone said, raising her arm up slowly. “I’m calling it. Steenee refuses to battle! Brad is now down to one pokémon!”

“YOU DENSE! MOTHER! FUCKER!” As Brad recalled his pokémon, he could see one last smirk before her body turned red, returning to the confines of her ball. He definitely hadn’t counted on being down two to one without even putting a scratch on Pinkie Pie’s second pokémon, leaving him with just one other option to finish off the battle. “Lopunny! Get out there and show ‘em how it’s done!”

“Lop! Looooop!”

“Oooooooo!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed. “You have the cutest pokémon, Brad!”

The teenage boy’s face blushed, somehow embarrassed about his overtly feminine team. “A-anyway! Lopunny! Hit it with a bounce!”

“Loooop!” Then, squatting down to the floor, Brad’s lopunny shot up to the ceiling, hovering above Mismagius as it looked around for its opponent, and with her legs turning upwards in the air, she kicked herself down once again, flipping in the air and crashing down on the ghost-type, making it cry out in pain.

“That’s it!” Brad shouted. “Now, do that again!”

“Don’t let it get away, Mismagius! Hyper beam, now!”

Brad’s eyes went wide. Just as Lopunny was about to bounce her way back into the air, a bright ball of energy appeared right in front of Mismagius’s mouth, soaring towards the rabbit pokémon and hitting her square in the chest. The normal-type cried out in a similar way that the ghost-type had, only there was no denying that Mismagius’s attack did far more damage than bounce had done to it.

“Lopunny, while Mismagius is recharging, use bounce one more time!”

Lopunny was slow in getting up, but nodding its head, it jumped into the air, soaring above the arena. The way Mismagius looked at Lopunny made it clear that it was terrified about not being able to get an attack off in time, which only became scarier once she kicked herself off the ceiling again, coming down hard and crashing into Mismagius yet again. The ghost-type cried out once more, but even after a second head-on attack, it looked ready for one more attack, especially now that it had finished recharging from its last turn. Brad was actually lucky that the one move Steenee decided to use was sweet scent, which made it a little bit easier for Lopunny to connect with her attacks. Now all she had to do was land one more hit, and the two trainers would be down to one pokémon a sid--

“This is it, Mismagius! One more move, so let’s make it count!”

“No!” Brad shouted, looking over at his pokémon. “Lopunny, use endure! Hurry!”

“THUNDER!”

Before Lopunny had the chance to comprehend her order, however, a storm cloud circled along the top of the gym, roaring a loud boom throughout the building. “Miiiismagiuuuuus!” Then, the minute Lopunny looked up to see what was going on, she was immediately hit with a tumultuous bolt of lighting, sending electrical signals throughout her body. The normal-type yelped in pain, being struck with so much electricity that Brad could almost see the bones within her body, and when the attack finally finished with the clouds beginning to dissipate, Lopunny fell to the floor. Motionless. It had all happened so quick. She didn’t even have the chance to use one final move to defend herself, yet in the world of pokémon battles, that was just how things played out sometimes.

It was over, and for the very first time, Brad had lost a pokémon battle.

“Lopunny is unable to battle!” Limestone shouted, raising her hand. “Gym Leader Pinkie Pie is the winner!”

“Yippeeeee!!!”

As Pinkie Pie jumped up and down with glee, Brad slowly walked over to the pokémon lying on the floor, falling to his hands and knees as he looked down at how much pain Lopunny had endured for him. It had endured this pain for nothing. The sight of his pokémon after being hurt this badly was heartbreaking enough on its own, but coupled with the fact that he himself was to blame for the loss, even after his team performed flawlessly, made this whole battle not even worth the fight. His team had been crushed, feeling unjustified agony, and it was all his fault.

With his hand covering his face, Brad summoned Lopunny back into her pokéball and held back his tears.