Chương 66: 66-Traps

When she steps into the gym, the first thing Amelia notices is how different it is to how it was before. The last time she'd been in here it looked as if everything was moments away from falling apart, like if the trainer were to put her foot in the wrong place or lean against something the entire building would fall over. But now, looking around, that sense of instability is gone. It's a testament to how badly things seemed, because physically the room looks almost no different other than the fact that it's clean.

But the wastebins are empty, there's almost no paper on the front desk, and the line to that front desk consists of exactly one trainer talking to the receptionist who's trying to give him her full attention. Trying because Chansey is also there just to the side at the desk, watching the interaction as if making note of every word and movement even as she scribbles on a sheet of paper. The intensity seems to make the humans somewhat anxious.

Then her partner notices the Joy walking in with Taillow pitched firmly on her shoulder, so she puts down the paper and steps away from the front desk.

"Ch, sey sey." She grunts irritatedly, to which Amelia nods.

"Alright. Well we're not in a hurry." It's clear Chansey is more annoyed by the delay than her, but her partner is just like that. The instant her partner's attention leaves the receptionist the both of them relax, and in just over a minute he steps away.

"Good afternoon." Amelia says with a professional smile.

"I'm here for my four PM appointment." The receptionist's eyes flit high above the Joy's left shoulder for an instant before she nods.

"Yes Ms. Joy, Gym Leader Flannery is ready for you." She says, gesturing at the door to her left. With that, Amelia takes a deep breath, and steps toward the door, feeling Taillow's talons dig into her shoulder with every step she takes. Just as she gets to the door she feels a tap on her hip and a flash of red as Chansey disappears back into her pokeball. While it's not…

technically against the rules to have more than one 'mon out at a time in battle as long as they're not fighting, it's considered rude, especially in a gym challenge. As the glow fades and that strange sense of intangible weight appears on her hip, Amelia pushes through the door and walks down a long hallway to the other end of the building and steps out the other door. Outside is a large cobblestone path the size of a road, leading to stone steps that rise up a hill.

Walking to the stairs and taking them two at a time, Amelia comes to the top of the stairs and sees the cobble path continues, bracketed by trees, and ends at a familiar oval of dirt. Stopping at the top of the stairs, the trainer looks to her left and right, waiting for the trick. She'd grown up learning about every gym in Hoenn, so she knows that there are supposed to be… things happening on this path. It changes every year, but there's supposed to be some kind of trick to getting across.

One memorable year they'd built a bunch of walls and trapdoors, forcing challengers to solve a two story maze full of local volunteer trainers before getting to fight the man himself. She'd consciously avoided trying to figure out what the trick was for this year, especially with a new gym leader, but… Amelia hesitantly takes a step forward. Nothing. The talons on her shoulder are seriously starting to hurt now, so she looks to her partner, taps him in the belly, then waves at the path.

"Could you fly ahead for me? I'll be right behind you." Taillow hesitates for a moment, but obliges, launching himself from her shoulder and gliding down the path to the halfway point and settling down.

"... Tail?" He chirps, looking back.

"See anything?" The 'mon looks around.

"Lo." After a moment, Amelia looks around again, then slowly walks across the path with increasing confusion as nothing happens until finally coming to the other side with a vague sense of confused disappointment as Taillow settles back on her shoulder.

"Ah! There you are!" Comes the Gym Leader's voice, followed by the red haired woman stepping out of the forest.

"Good to see you again, Amelia." The Gym Leader looks… very pleased with herself and is trying to hide it, but as the trainer steps up to the challengers box at the end of the cobblestone pathway those thoughts fall away under anticipation. Because it's time.

"Gym Leader Flannery!" She shouts, grabbing Taillow's pokeball from her belt and holding it firmly in her grip.

"I challenge you to a battle!" Her words seem to almost cause the Gym Leader to stutter, blinking before she cocks her hip to the side and she grabs a ball from her own hip.

"Right to it then! Passionate!" She shouts back with a grin.

"Trainer! I accept your challenge!" Amelia feels those talons digging into her shoulder again, almost strong enough to break the skin even through her clothes, but she barely registers it as the referee rises from his covered seat at the right side of the arena.

"Trainers make ready." He says with a half yawn, pausing to confirm both sides are ready.

"Let this battle commence in: three… two… one…"

"Go Taillow!"" Go Torkoal!" The two trainers shout over each other, Amelia throwing her shoulder forward to launch Taillow into the field as their opponent appears in a flash of light. Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Immediately at the sight of the first 'mon the trainer's mind gets to work. Chansey saw the second badge team composition, Flannery has a torkoal, a slugma, and a growlithe on her belt.

When Amelia was drilling for this battle of the past few days she'd assumed the slugma was coming out first. This is likely a counterpick to seeing Taillow, meaning–"Smokescreen!" Flannery shouts as Taillow pumps his wings to get height, answered by Torkoal exhaling a blast of greyish smoke.

"Close range!" Amelia shouts in return. Torkoal is slow, his only chance is to disrupt vision or overwhelm with raw power. The trainer is making an educated gamble that the 'mon is not grossly overpowered for a two badge challenge. She's right, and as Taillow dives into the smoke the trainer can see the blur of a silhouette and a whistle of pain, followed by her partner exiting the smoke in a steep bank before shooting back in for another attack.

"More smoke!" Flannery shouts, and as the smoke thickens, taking a more ominous and ever darker grey hue Amellia finally realizes the plan.

"Get height!" She shouts as Taillow gets another attack off on the opponent, now completely obscured by smog. Smog, a pleasant way of describing the toxic nature of that much coal smoke. In small quantities it's practically harmless, but if a torkoal wants to burn dirty and enough smoke is allowed to gather in one place, it's a hazard. A hazard Taillow's unidirectional lungs and thin blood gas barrier are uniquely weak to. Not enough to disable all on its own, but more than enough to severely slow him down.

Squinting at the dark grey cloud of hazard as it spreads to occupy a quarter of the arena and Taillow climbs above it, Amelia considers her next move. She'd thought about this situation but she'd not thought of any particularly effective counters, thankfully as long as Torkoal is in that smoke, he can't see Taillow, so there's not an active threat for now.

Just as she thinks that a column of fire erupts from the smoke and Taillow blurs into two identical copies, splitting off in two separate directions until the fire engulfs one and the illusion dissipates. Apparently he can see through the smoke!

"Dont dive! Air slash!" Amelia shouts. There's a chance Torkoal is slow enough and Taillow is accurate enough he can just hit where the fire is coming from, but it's a slim one. Her partner listens, pulling up slightly and sending a blade of wind into the smok–"Now!" Flannery shouts at the worst possible time, where Taillow is at his most vulnerable following an attack.

More flames erupt from the smoke, in a different direction this time, and Taillow is forced into a steep corkscrewing dive, splitting off illusionary copies in an attempt to confuse the chasing flames. This time it's not enough, the opponent tracks the correct copy, and Taillow gives out a cry of pain and loses yet more speed.

"Llow!" The 'mon screams, burning energy to gain height away from the smoke as his belly practically touches it before firing another air slash down blindly, only to be forced into yet another dodge by fire coming from a different direction. Amelia grunts as she realizes they're not going to win like this, even if they're evenly exchanging blows Taillow will tire himself out first. She needs another angle.

Almost unbidden, she feels her hand coming to rest on Chansey's pokeball, but as soon as she realizes it, the trainer yanks it away as if burned. No. He can do this. They trained together, he's strong. Not because he was seemingly born ready-trained to battle and with a body to match, Taillow's battling skill has improved because they trained together. All the skills and strength he developed was with her help. They can do this." Taillow! Hold your breath and get close!" She shouts, flinching slightly at the risk.

Moving at high speed through smoke is going to irritate his eyes, weakening already poor vision, something Torkoal has proven not bothered by, but they need to change something. Taillow, to his credit, only hesitates for a fraction of a second before flipping upside down, flaring his wings, and shooting headlong into the smoke.

When he disappears Amelia finds herself holding her own breath, flinching as yet another column of fire erupts from the smoke, followed by a cry of pain, the crackle of fire, and an angry whistling. Then there is a near total silence, broken as Taillow erupts from the smoke, wisps clinging to him as he splits into innumerable doubles the instant before half of them disappear beneath another gout of flame.

Whatever happened in there didn't leave the 'mon unscathed, several feathers are singed or missing and it looks like he's struggling to breathe as he levels off above the smoke again. But it'll be worth it if…

"Did you get him!?"

"T-Tail!" The 'mon confirms even as he struggles to clear his lungs while in flight, made only more difficult as he's forced to dodge yet more fire. It worked! Amelia grins, staring into the smoke. She knows how powerful Taillow's attacks are, if even one air slash hit at point blank range he's got to be hurting.

"Again!" She shouts. For a moment she considers ordering double team on approach but decides against it, one of Taillow's weaknesses is transitioning between moves, and he's already flying blind in there. Whatever advantage it might give aren't worth the risk. But this time as Taillow tucks his wings in the dive, Flannery's voice calls out across the field.

"Flame wheel!" Amelia's eyes widen, but she's too slow to call off the attack, forced by her slow communication to watch helplessly as the 'mon disappears into the smoke. There's an eternal moment before the smoke begins to glow from within. Then a pained screech, the sound of erratic flapping, the unmistakable hissing pop of several blades of air striking something, a roar that sounds like something between a creature and train, then a thud. The trainer realizes she's holding her breath again.

A second later Taillow flies out of the smoke, but this time he's barely holding himself level as he half glides across the arena and lands near her feet in a coughing heap." Taillow!" Amelia shouts as she steps forward, only remembering that she can't leave the challenger's box as her foot touches the line.

"Are you alri–""Ta tail low." The 'mon grits out, eyes almost shining in victory as Amelia looks up from her partner and to the fading smoke. Which slowly clears to reveal Torkoal laying with his legs splayed out on the ground and head on its side. Unconscious. Flannery doesn't bother checking to confirm before pointing the 'mon's ball at him and recalling him in a flash of red.

"Well! I really thought Torkoal had you there!" She says, reclipping the ball to her belt and grabbing another as Taillow struggles to get back up.

"Can you… do you need to swap–" Amelia's muttered question is cut off by her partner shaking his head.

"Ail." He grunts, ruffling his feathers with a wince before turning back to face their opponent.

"Tail low!"

"Passonate!" Flannery yells back, before throwing another ball into the air.

"But let's see how you deal with this!"