Weathering The Storm... (A Pokemon OC Story)

Chapter 52: Set your Sights and Clear a Way!

Now, was Ellie's chance to earn her third gym badge. She appeared from the tunnel, looking around at all the eyes on her and trying not to feel overwhelmed at all. She knew they were expecting a great performance from her after Lucas' impressive performance before her, so all she could do is hope that she could deliver. Flannery appeared from the other end, smiling passionately as she got ready to jump into the very next battle. The battlefield dropped to the ground below, and a brand new battlefield appeared just for them to battle on.

"Both participants will use three Pokemon! The gym leader is not allowed to make substitutions but the challenger may. Now, Flannery, please throw out your first Pokemon!"

"Slugma, I choose you!"

Slugma appeared from its Pokeball and Ellie looked at the three Pokeballs she had in her possession, then found one as the best option for dealing with Slugma.

"Ralts, I choose you!"

Ralts hopped from its Pokeball and landed gracefully on the ground, using its psychic powers to raise a few pebbles from the ground.

"Battle begin!"

"Ralts, use Teleport and Pound!"

Ralts put its hands together, and swiftly teleported towards the Slugma, hitting it with a backhand before swiftly teleporting and repeating the same process. It did little damage at all, but the small hits added up to doing some decent damage when Ralts would continuously use its moves. However, Flannery knew a counter in mind, she waited until Ralts appeared and yelled,

"Overheat, full blast!"

Slugma's body radiated a red glow as Ralts still performed the Pound and attempted to Teleport away, but found that having been used too much, it couldn't teleport in time.

"Get out of there!", Ellie shouted, but her words were too late. Ralts was blasted to the other side of the battlefield, skidding across the ground and landing two paces from Ellie. Ralts opened its eyes again and tried to get up, but struggled immensely. It took it a couple of seconds just to recover from the giant blast, then a few more to gain a stable footing on the ground.

"Ralts, are you okay?", Ellie cried out from the sidelines, and the determined Ralts gave a firm nod, although its burnt and injured appearance didn't leave a lot of confidence in Ellie that it could fight to its truest ability. But, she had to believe that Ralts could do it because as it stood, she'd need a comeback to win this battle.

"Rock Throw!", Flannery commanded Slugma, confident that this last hit would be the one to finish off Ralts. Slugma sent slight cracks in the ground, digging up a rock that was blasted straight at Ralts. But, Ralts had experience with things like this, and Ellie shouted,

"Use Confusion to stop that boulder!"

Ralts' psychic powers went down to its hands, which it placed out front towards the direction of the rock. Slowly, a purple aura began to build up around the rock as it grinded to a halt in front of Ralts. Ralts then spun it around, gathering momentum until it was truly powerful and Ellie gave the command.

"Return to sender!", she shouted, with Ralts hurling the rock at full force towards Slugma. Slugma didn't even have time to react or try to dodge. It was just thrust from its position on the battlefield, carried over to Flannery's side. It didn't faint quite yet, but it was fair to say that the counter to Rock Throw made it an even game. Now, all there was to wait until one tipped the scales in their favour.

"Ember!", Flannery called to Slugma, who shook off the blow and spat forwards an attack coursing with fiery energy. Ralts, on instinct, teleported out of the way, using all its energy to land behind Slugma.