Charlotte Battenberg // In front of Striation City Gym
Charlotte initially was shocked at the trainer culture of open generosity, but was slowly starting to realize her initial read on it with Jonathan was probably correct. It was beneficial to be nice to new trainers, especially visibly progressing ones like ones trying out the gym challenge, because it was an investment in success. It was like how high-ranking highschools offered posh facilities or how companies would treat potential hires to expensive restaurants - when someone expects you to do well, they want to try to facilitate it, and potentially earn your loyalty.
"Now, I realize how rude this probably sounds, but I heard you say that the Litwick you gave to her had a sister," she heard Darius say.
God. How
entitled can you get? Charlotte glared at him. Yeah she got a free Pokemon to but she wasn't so shameless to ask for one. Darius just reminded her more and more of the boys at her school, and that was never going to help his case with her.
A green-haired man walked out of the gym, probably to check on the commotion. Charlotte's heart stopped when she saw the color- for a second she thought it was that absolute creep N again. But it was just one of the Gym leaders.
"Hello, I am a Gym Leader of this town. You must be our new challengers. What was the first Pokemon you chose?" He looked at their Pokemon one-by-one. "... I see. I think you need to prepare to face the type they are weak to. I'll be waiting for you inside."
Great. Time to roll. Darius had followed the gym trainer into the gym already, but hey, if he wanted to waste time begging for a gift that was his problem. She was going to go in with the rest of the group and leave him behind.
"Alright you heard him, let's go in," Charlotte said in Kyrin and Carmen's direction. She only made eye contact with Kyrin though, who, only two days in, was already the only trainer in the group she didn't have an issue with.
What a great start to a Pokemon journey.
Charlotte Battenberg // Striation City Gym
Charlotte expected the start of the challenge to be more official looking- like a waiting room or a registration table. But the interior of the gym looked like a regular cafe- there were even some Striation citizens enjoying coffee. The only thing that broke the illusion were three panels on the ground- water, fire, and grass- and a curtain with a flame on it.
A single older man with a League uniform casually leaning against the cashier's counter waved her over.
"Welcome, challenger, to the Striaton City Gym. I am Clyde and I'm here to guide you through this part if your journey. You'll have to battle four of our gym trainers and clear the gym puzzle before even meeting with the gym leaders. Want a tip? Come talk to me whenever. And now that the formalities are out of the way, here's a little something."
{Charlotte received a Fresh Water!}
"Good luck!" he saluted her.
"Thank you," Charlotte nervously accepted the water bottle and pocketed it. She faced the weird panels and curtains and stared at them. What was this? What did they expect her to do?
The cashier smiled at her as she checked out a customer. "Go on, what do you think you the answer is?"
An answer implied a test. This was her language. Charlotte studied for this. The weakness to fire? This was easy. This couldn't be a trick question.
Charlotte stepped near the water panel, but stopped. Wasn't there actually a fire-type exclusive ability where Pokemon could absorb fire? If so, wouldn't those fire types actually be more strong against other fire types than even a water type?
Charlotte stood frozen between the two types, sweating. Which one? It would be so embarrassing to make a mistake on the first gym, and her groupmates would never respect her if she did. She was growing increasingly conscious of Clyde and the cashier's stares as she stood and didn't make a move. She also knew she was holding up Kyrin and Carmen, who probably also hated her now.
Wait, what if she took so long that Darius caught up with them?
Spite won over anxiety. Charlotte broke out of her spiraling thoughts and stepped on the water panel, and the red curtains opened up to reveal a staircase.
Battle 1: Waiter Sebastian
There was another panel and curtain combination, this time a green curtain with the grass symbol. Not about to get stuck in the same mistake, Charlotte was about to press the fire button when a harried waiter pushed past the green curtain and ran up to her.
"Wait! You have to battle me first!" He stopped to catch his breath and Charlotte swore she heard him mutter something about Max choosing a terrible time to disappear in the staff room. He straightened up, introduced himself as Sebastian, and invited her to battle.
Her first gym battle! Charlotte scampered to the other end of the restaurant, noticing that the fancy tiles on the ground actually outlined a battlefield.
Sebastian sent out a familiar Pokemon- a Purrloin. Wanting to start off strong, Charlotte motioned for Wilbur to enter battle.
The gym trainer was clearly very experienced, and he worked with his Purrloin with a level of sophistication and understanding of strategy that Charlotte had never faced yet. She remembered that many gym trainers were those who had completed the gym challenge and were studying under the gym leaders. Their goal then wasn't to fight to win, it was to analyze the challenger and manipulate the battle to push the young trainer to their limits without making it impossible for them to win.
This meant that Sebastian was looking to be impressed. He wanted to see that Charlotte understood the fundamentals of battle. Yes, this was just like any school project. Understand what the teacher wants, and work towards that.
The Purrloin was weaving around the battlefield, taking advantage of her relative speed to avoid Wilbur's physical blows. Charlotte had sent out Wilbur to showcase her knowledge of type advantages, but that clearly wasn't going to work if Wilbur couldn't land a hit.
"Switch to Ember!" Charlotte commanded. "Don't build up power- send out as many quick bursts of flame as possible to corner Purrloin and hopefully burn her."
Wilbur complied and stood his ground, shooting out short bouts of flame. Purrloin was fast, but she couldn't avoid a constant rain of Embers. Her health was ticked down piece by piece until Wilbur gained enough of an advantage to rush over and finish her off with a final Arm Thrust.
Sebastian looked satisfied as he recalled his Pokemon. As they shook hands, he suddenly yelled "Max! How long have you been here!"
"Since the beginning, actually. We got the ping when the group came in," Another waiter carrying a plate under his arm laughed. "You're here to overthrow me and take my place?"
"Very funny," Sebastian grumbled. "Anyway, let's not keep this trainer waiting. Both of you head up to the second floor, you can just have your next battle there."
Max shrugged and motioned for Charlotte to follow him to the next floor.
Battle 2: Waiter Maxwell
Charlotte and co got more in the groove of things in the next battle. Maxwell's strategy with his Lillipup seemed to be to use a series of stat-reducing moves and finish her off with a final blow. It was an easy strategy to spot, and Charlotte had Merlin Yawn and put Lillipup to sleep to put a stop to the plan. Before Charlotte was hesitant to use the move because it made Merlin weak to attacks fora significant period of time, but it worked this time because Charlotte knew Maxwell wouldn't take the opportunity to attack. This battle was meant to teach trainers about stat-lowering moves.
After Lillipup was asleep, she was easy to finish off with Incinerate. Feeling more confident, Charlotte hugged Merlin and brought them to the next battle.
Battle 3: Waitress Tia
The next trainer was a quiet waitress named Tia- or at least, Charlotte thought her name was Tia. She said it too softly for her to really be confident.
Her Purrloin had the opposite personality. Right out of the Pokeball, Purrloin viciously clawed Wilbur to the ground. Charlotte flashed back to Carmen's Liepard's powerful swipes that practically took out their Pokemon in one hit. This Purrloin looked higher-level than the ones she had faced previously. Was the challenge this time to see how trainers reacted to Pokemon they were clearly outclassed by? Or maybe how they handled unexpected crisis situations?
Wilbur slammed his arm into the Purrloin's nose, tossing her back. Without missing a beat, he charged at the opponent with full force and executed a perfectly timed Flame Charge.
That snapped Charlotte out of panic. "Wilbur, go for Arm Thrust again!"
Wilbur and the Purrloin exchanged a quick flurry of blows before Purrloin fell, exhausted from taking multiple fighting-type moves in a row. This was by far the quickest, but most intense battle of the ones so far. As Charlotte went up the stairs, Tia whispered, "Good job trusting your Pokemon. He's trained well."
Charlotte accepted the praise, but it was really more Wilbur's quick thinking rather than her preparation. She pet Wilbur. "You'll get a break before the gym battle. You deserve it."
Battle 4: Waitress Lizzy
The last gym trainer was the peppy girl Charlotte had met at the front of the gym. She introduced herself as Lizzy and without missing a beat, sent out a Pidove.
Charlotte waited with Merlin for her to attack, but the Pidove stayed still. Lizzy smiled.
"What are you waiting for? For me to reveal my strategy?"
Charlotte was silent. Because, yes, she was. That's how she won the other fights.
Lizzy shook her head. "In a real battle, you can't afford to be reactive. You need to learn how to read a battle on the fly and react dynamically to the situation."
She punctuated that statement bu a quick gesture to her Pidove, who took off and grabbed Merlin, pulling him up in the air.
"L-lick!" Charlotte stuttered. That was a paralyzing move- something that could be useful right now.
Merlin tried the move, but it didn't seem to even hurt the Pidove. That's right! Normal type! Charlotte mentally beat herself up over the rookie mistake. All the while, Pidove was flying circles around the field, still holding onto Merlin. He wasn't doing any damage, so Charlotte had no idea what Lizzy was going for.
Suddenly, Pidove dropped Merlin on the ground. He staggered around, clearly dizzy and disorientated.
"Great job, Pidove. Attack!" Lizzy commanded.
Charlotte suddenly understood Lizzy's strategy and panicked. Merlin swung his arms around, but couldn't aim well enough to hit Pidove who was pecking away at him.
But there was one attack that would never miss. Charlotte commanded Merlin to use Yawn. She could see Pidove becoming drowsier, but trying to get as many attacks in before eventually falling asleep. As Pidove went in for a final move, Merlin pulled out his
Oran berry and bit into it, which seemed to revivify him a bit.
Lizzy knew she had lost then. Pidove passed out asleep and Merlin quickly polished off the berry and then finished Pidove off with a series of Incinerates.
"Good planning with that berry," Lizzy recalled Pidove and and led Charlotte to a side table.
"You can heal your Pokemon here and take a quick break before challenging the gym leader." She patted Charlotte on the shoulder. Charlotte could tell she was trying to sound encouraging because, despite the win, Charlotte looked terrified. "Hey you did a good job! You beat your first set of gym trainers, that's no easy feat. You'll do great at the gym battle, I promise."
Lizzy left Charlotte at the table while she readied the battlefield for the next person. Charlotte took this time to heal up Wilbur and Merlin and give Merlin another Oran Berry to hold.
Charlotte sat in the corner of the room with her face in her hands, hearing her heart pounding. She would get up when she calmed down.
