Sinnoh Journey

Chapter 63 - Snowpoint Showdown

After spending the day playing and training together, the trio and their pokémon felt ready to take on the Snowpoint City Gym. Lucario had braved her fears of the snow and, although she wasn't totally comfortable in it, she could now walk in the snow without worrying.

On the way back to the pokémon centre, the group had a quick look at the Gym to see it was an Ice Type Gym, but they weren't the only one's there. Barry was midway through his Gym Battle, and much to his annoyance, it wasn't going too well.

Kyra was curious to see what was giving Barry so much trouble, so she decided to head inside to see for herself. Nate and Willow weren't surprised by how Kyra wanted to find out about the next Gym Leader so they followed.

The large board above the centre of the field showed that it was a three on three battle with both trainer's down to their last pokémon. Barry had his Jolteon out whilst the Gym Leader was using a pokémon none of the trio had seen before.

"Froslass, the Snow Land Pokémon, an Ice and Ghost Type. This pokémon can freeze foes with a single breath due to its -60⁰F temperatures. If it finds a person or pokémon it likes, it will freeze them and keep them as ornaments."

The trio were all intrigued to watch the battle at hand. What would normally be a one hundred percent accurate move from Jolteon was now never hitting, Froslass was doing all the damage whilst the hail was doing the rest.

"This is pointless, I give up. There's no point in battling when there's no possible way of hitting your pokémon Candice! I'm leaving, return Jolteon," Barry snapped, returning Jolteon to his pokéball and storming out of the Gym.

Candice praised her Froslass for the battle and noticed the trio standing on the sidelines with Lucario and Glaceon. She walked over to them, Froslass sticking close to her trainer.

"Sorry about that trainer, he's really not that much cop. I thought he started off really well with his Heracross, but Weavile and Jolteon weren't such good calls. I understand his logic, but he's no good trainer if that's how he treats his pokémon. As you guessed by that trainer leaving, my name's Candice and I'm the Gym Leader here. I take it you're here to challenge me too?" Candice explained, introducing herself in the process.

The trio confirmed they were indeed there for a battle challenge, Nate and Willow doing most of the speaking since Kyra was fuming at Barry once more. Kyra couldn't understand how Barry's pokémon hadn't left him yet, why would any pokémon want to be treated as Empoleon had been under Barry's 'care'?

Rather than letting Kyra battle whilst she was distracted, Nate and Willow took on Candice first to give Kyra time to settle herself. Kyra appreciated her friends battling first and she watched the battles intently with Lucario and Glaceon to try and gauge some sort of a strategy after seeing Barry struggle so much.

Nate took on Candice first, taking advantage of Type Advantages to give him a better chance. Rapidash easily handled Candice's lead of Abomasnow. Piloswine came out to deal with Rapidash and ended up taking the battle to a tense two on two as Nate's Steelix took Piloswine out as the Hail damage from Abomasnow's Snow Warning took out Steelix. The final match up was a risk on Nate's part by using Purugly to take on Froslass to take advantage of Purugly's immunity to Ghost Type Attacks. Nate's risk ended up paying off thanks to Purugly's use of Faint Attack and Shadow Claw to take Froslass down.

Willow had picked up on Kyra still being slightly distracted, so she decided to take on Candice next. After seeing Nate's battle, Willow felt slightly more confident, but she knew that getting cocky wouldn't help her.

Again Candice lead with Abomasnow whislt Willow played things safe by starting with Infernape. Thanks to Infernape mastering Flare Blitz, she was able to take Abomasnow down, but the recoil damage from using Flare Blitz caused Willow to return her for a rest incase she needed her later on in the battle. Candice's Piloswine came out and Willow let her Lopunny out to battle, taking advantage of Piloswine's lower speed and Lopunny's Jump Kick and Ice Punch to take Piloswine down. The three to one situation left Candice worried, she knew she needed to resort to Froslass' dirty strategy if she wanted to stand a chance at winning. As Froslass began setting up numerous Double Teams, Lopunny was left incapable of figuring out where the real Froslass was and she was soon knocked out. Willow turned to Infernape to battle, and eventhough she hit a successful Flare Blitz, the recoil took her out. Froslass wasn't finished after the Flare Blitz, so Willow sent out Mismagius and managed to draw out the battle long enough to result in a draw. Candice admired Willow's battling tenacity and agreed to give her the Gym Badge despite of the draw.