"Who do you think is coming?"
Rope asked suspiciously as he arrived at the Vermilion Gym matchup and looked across the table at Lt. Surge with interest.
"Who's what?"
Lt. Surge still feigned ignorance, but couldn't help glancing out of the corner of his eye toward his feet.
Rope shook his head when he saw this, fine, since he didn't want to talk, Rope didn't bother to pry that much, he came here to fight the dojo, no matter what this Lt. Surge guy was afraid of in the first place, if he didn't want to talk about it, Rope didn't want to hear about it either.
"Let's cut the crap and get started then. Three on three."
"Don't rush, novice battle or all-out battle?"
Lt. Surge hurriedly asked.
He knew that Rope was a novice, but if it was a novice instruction battle and Rope released that Entei, the badge might as well be for nothing.
Lt. Surge guessed that most of Rope's previous battles would be full power battles. After all, but that one Entei was more than they could handle. Lt. Surge is very self-aware, he looked at the Entei and knew that if he wanted to beat Rope, one-on-one with the Entei was just not possible.
He was also the one who had captured Zapdos. But in front of Rope's Entei, that Zapdos was just a late bloomer...
Rope nodded, feeling that Lt. Surge had asked a good question, if he had six Pokémon, he wouldn't have to worry so much, after all, he didn't have a lot of choices in 6v6.
But with only five Pokémon he could only choose the 3v3 rule...
"Novice battle it is, I just happen to develop a tacit understanding with the newly accepted Pokémon."
Rope pondered for a while, then looked up and said to Lt. Surge.
Lt. Surge immediately breathed a sigh of relief, a novice battle would be good. In a novice battle, he should still have the advantage with his tactical skills.
If it was a full power battle, Lt. Surge would have to find a way to restrict Entei...
In the end, a power that can be reduced to ten is a realistic situation in many cases. Tactics are important, but tactics go hand in hand with strength. After all, if you bring a bunch of lv1 Pokémon to fight Arceus, there's nothing you can do with a good combo...
"Let's get started then!"
With that, Lt. Surge pressed a few buttons on a console-like place beside himself. Then in a clicking mechanical sound. A silver-white alloy pair of platforms just rose up.
This was the regular sparring table of Vermilion Gym, which was normally not opened, and was only used for sparring with the prosecutor when he was kicked out or when the prosecutor came to visit.
More specifically, it was a stage for the Gym Leader to put his best foot forward.
Rope saw the corner of his mouth twitch.
"No, aren't we fighting a novice battle? Why did you raise this?"
Rope, of course, understood what it normally meant to have this thing up.
"It's a bit cooler, it's our first official battle, of course we need to be a bit more grand, in the past when we played wild fights with you, we were always turned over by you somehow. This time I'll show you what it means to be a real trainer!"
Lt. Surge's face held his own pride as an old-timer.
Rope cocked his head and shrugged his shoulders, looking at the pair of platforms that were a full three meters above the ground, and then at Lt. Surge, who had already taken his place on the platforms.
And then smiled.
"Er..." it was then that Lt. Surge remembered that he didn't seem to have left a step for Rope to come up on, after all, this thing was originally designed for two people to stand on a platform together.
As a result, it hadn't been used for too long.Lt. Surge had also forgotten the exact size of this platform, and as a result, Rope took a step back and didn't rise with it...
The proud smile on Lt. Surge's face froze for a moment, and then with an awkward grin, he prepared to lower the platform back down again.
"Don't bother." Rope said with a shake of his head.
Then flames leapt up behind him, forming a pair of fire wings.
To Lt. Surge's shocked eyes, Rope easily and effortlessly floated and flew from the ground to the dais, then made an inviting gesture towards Lt. Surge.
"Come on, Gym Leader Lt. Surge, let's battle it out."
Rope smiles, but there doesn't seem to be any warmth to it.
Lt. Surge shivered again.
He seemed to know where the bad feeling was coming from today.
"Come out Electabuzz!"
"Eh lu~"
An orange Electabuzz with black stripes on its body came running out and looked at Rope with a wary look on its face.
Obviously this wasn't Lt. Surge's main force. But it was still quite strong as well, and was considered to be in the lower middle of the Gym Leader class.
If you look at it that way, this Lt. Surge fellow does have a knack for nurturing as well. After all, if this Pokémon was placed in the hands of a Gym Leader that wasn't an Eight Gyms, it would be a mainstay.
In Lt. Surge's hands, this level of Pokémon could only be used when he was abusing vegetables.
Rope wasn't ambiguous either, and directly pulled out Gastly's Pokéball from his waist.
"Go for it, Gastly."
"Gas~"
Gastly, still a bit confused, floated out of the ball, then looked at Rope, with his own big innocent eyes to pass on this one question to Rope.
[Has dinner started yet?]
Rope: ?
No, you just ate three hours ago...
"Fighting, get a grip~"
Rope gritted his teeth and transformed his hand into an energy form, then rubbed Gastly's big head... or maybe it was his big face, with his energized hand! ...
"Gas gas gas gas gas, hiss...(un-un-un-un-understood...)"
Gastly said as Rope ravaged him.
After watching Gastly finally come to his senses a bit, Rope let go this time then pointed across the room at Electabuzz.
"Carroll him over for extra dinner."
"Gas! (Promise to get the job done!)"
Gastly looked stern and determined.
Then he turned around and looked at the dumbfounded Electabuzz as if he were an enemy but with a warlike intent, ready to fight.
Lt. Surge looked at the interaction between the man and the ghost and felt like they were looking down on them, but then had a hard time when they didn't seem to be saying anything to offend them...
"Electabuzz, Thunderbolt!"
Saying that you don't understand is still better than fighting, and as long as the fight is hot and intense, the opponent can always understand what you're thinking.
But it's not always true, some trainers know that today's battle must be fought as soon as they look at each other.
After all, you can't hide the look in your eyes when you want to punch someone.
"Gastly, Will-O-Wisp!"
With Rope's command, Gastly's large white eyes turned black, and the purple gas around her body seemed to be ignited, turning into black flames.
The original purple Will-O-Wisp also turned black, and a black flame fluttered around Gastly's side without a trace of temperature, as if it didn't exist.
Both Lt. Surge and Electabuzz instinctively sensed something bad.
"Get out of the way!"
Lt. Surge looked at the seemingly slow and leisurely Will-O-Wisp approaching Electabuzz's Will-O-Wisp like a ghost in an instant, and ordered in a busy panic.
And Electabuzz was no fool, having fought a lot of sparring matches and with a lot of combat experience, he instinctively felt that he absolutely could not touch this black flame, so he quickly retracted his hand before the already completed Thunderbolt came off, and then retreated back to avoid Will-O-Wisp.
And at that moment, the golden thunderbolt had already attacked towards Gastly.
"Gas~"
A sardonic smile spread across Gastly's face before a Will-O-Wisp at his side floated forward and collided with Thunderbolt.
Then the Will-O-Wisp flourished, burning straight along the lightning bolt. Almost instantly, the strike of Thunderbolt was engulfed by Will-O-Wisp. If Electabuzz hadn't already retracted his hand before that, I'm afraid that the flames would have burned along the lightning to Electabuzz's body by now.
Lt. Surge looked with a shocked face at the Gastly that had apparently even changed its form, and then turned his head to look at Rope.
Rope noticed Lt. Surge's gaze, and then smiled and shook his head.
"Don't worry, I've got it covered. This flame can be put up or down, but we're the only ones who can put it up."
Lt. Surge listened to Rope's words, and his eyes remained tightly fixed on Rope.
He knew that Rope had special abilities again, but he didn't expect that after switching to a Pokémon with a different attribute, Rope's special abilities seemed to have a different form of manifestation again.
In fact, Rope and Whitley hadn't thought of this at first.
Flame-Flame Fruit's ability gives Entei nothing more than a change in flames for them. The Flame-Armor's self-fueling wasn't really too much of a stretch; after all, it was only a change in appearance, not really a change in itself.
But when Rope strengthened Gastly with Flame-Fruit's ability, everyone froze...
Because Gastly was like a new Pokémon... Although he still looked like a Pokémon, he seemed to have become two Pokémon in essence.
He seemed to have an extra fire attribute... ...
Rope and Whitley froze. The Gastly in front of them declared a new regional form of Gastly anyone would believe.
And Will-O-Wisp also seemed to have become very scary, the black Will-O-Wisp seemed to burn nothing, unlike the wildness of the crimson flames, the black Will-O-Wisp seemed to be more stealthy, fluttering around one by one, but once it got on it wouldn't go out, knowing that it would burn out whatever it was attached to.
The good thing is that the stuff is controllable, and both Gastly and Rope can control this flame with ease.
That's why Rope dared Gastly to use this move in the middle of a fight.
Rope and the others were having fun watching Gastly, but Lt. Surge was having a headache watching Gastly right now.
Gastly just had four Will-O-Wisp's around him, one attacked towards Electabuzz and then burned on the ground against the station. The second one burned Thunderbolt.
But soon, Lt. Surge realized that the Will-O-Wisp on Gengar was back up to the number of three, and there were still stars of inconspicuous black sparks coalescing around Gastly, thought to be used to restore the fourth Will-O-Wisp.
"Electabuzz, Light Screen."
Lt. Surge didn't dare to attack randomly anymore now, at least he wouldn't strike randomly before figuring out the exact attributes of this terrifying Will-O-Wisp of Gastly's.
But if he didn't strike, would Gastly be idle?
Between the flutters, Gastly had disappeared without a trace.
Lt. Surge and Electabuzz only felt a coldness around their bodies before reacting quickly.
"Protect!"
A green barrier instantly coalesced around Electabuzz's body.Electabuzz turned his senses on full blast, alerting his surroundings without missing a single corner.
Suddenly, he sensed the shadows rippling in the corner of the wall to his right as if it were running water.
He turned sharply toward where he made a defensive gesture.
As expected, Gastly suddenly leapt out of the shadows, and then coalesced a flaming Shadow Ball in the air.
Protect's light grew brighter, and it was clear that Electabuzz had increased the strength of his defense.
But after the Shadow Ball flew out, it didn't collide head-on with Protect's shield.
Under the light of the battlefield, Electabuzz's shadow was stretched out, and where the Shadow Ball landed, it was also Electabuzz's shadow!
Electabuzz, who was inside the Protect shield, felt like his body was on fire, and the pain was so intense that he couldn't maintain the Protect shield. The shield breaks without attack.
Lt. Surge looked at the agonized Electabuzz, then at the ground that had just been hit, but seemed to have little damage, and seemed to understand something. Backpedaling, he then silently took Electabuzz back into the ball.
He looked at Gastly and then at Rope for a moment, not knowing what to make of his expression.
Rope looked at him with a smile on his face.
Whitley, who was acting as referee, subconsciously thought about raising the flag, but she quickly realized that what was going on was only Lt. Surge's rotation, not Electabuzz's incapacitation, although that wasn't far off.
So she could only continue to watch the next matchup in silence.
But Lt. Surge was slow to release the next Pokémon...
"What's wrong?" Rope asked suspiciously.
"I don't seem to have a good response to your Gastly."
Lt. Surge was also straightforward and said to Rope directly.
Hearing this, Rope said, "That's flattering, Gastly's ability is definitely not invincible. Not to mention the fact that I can top it off with my energy strength alone which is much higher than his, but just being able to endure the pain is also possible."
Lt. Surge really couldn't help but roll his eyes at that. It wasn't like his Electabuzz was some kind of hothouse flower, if that kind of pain and ache brought about by the searing shadows was that easy to endure, there was no way Electabuzz wouldn't be able to endure it.
"Still fighting?"
Seeing that Lt. Surge didn't seem to have the will to fight, Rope couldn't help but ask.
In fact, Rope could accept it up to this point, after all, the only Pokémon he had on hand that hadn't experienced a formal battle was Gastly. This battle was more for Gastly to prove himself.
As for Chimchar, naturally he didn't need to, his performance in that chaotic battle had naturally qualified him.
Chimchar was a natural fighter...
"Fight!" Lt. Surge's heart crossed, what's the point of wimping out, he hadn't wimped out himself on the battlefield, what did he have to wimp out now on the opposite side of the battlefield.
In fact, like Rope said, Gastly's flaws were all that mattered, as long as they could hold their own, it wouldn't be too hard to say they'd win the fight.
"Come on out Electrode!"
Lt. Surge unclipped Electrode's Pokéball straight from his own belt and threw it over.
Rope's mouth twitched straight up.
Rope stared at Lt. Surge with a puzzled look on his face: no, what happened to the promised novice battle? You can't afford to play unless you use the main team?
Lt. Surge: ...
Yeah, can't afford to play...
Rope: ...