“Solarbeam,” Erika commanded with winter in her voice, no longer projecting the tranquility of a forest, knowing that she couldn’t falter now.

  She pointedly ignored the beats of sweat gathering around her nape.

  Bellossom rushed forward with great speed. Under the effects of Sunny Day, she barely took a breath before firing out a concentrated beam of Grass-type energy.

  Unfortunately for her, Whimsicott had reacted to the command in Erika’s voice, rushing backwards before firing his own Solarbeam.

  Both moves collided in the centre for a brief moment before Whimsicott overpowered his opponent completely. It hit Bellossom who was too indignant to register the pain, her shock mirrored by the entire gym.

  What did it mean that Whimsicott, who was trained by a Fairy type specialist, was able to beat Bellossom in its own domain?

  “Razor Leaf!”

  Bellossom flung out a bunch of razor-sharp leaves that flew at Whimsicott at great speed. Without the need to recover from getting hit, Whimsicott carelessly released his own Razor Leaf, meeting Bellossom tit for tat.

  “Solarbeam again!”

  Bellossom immediately changed moves, firing a Solarbeam from joined hands.

  The sharp transition was something only those specialised in Grass type energy could do, so Whimsicott had no choice but to fire a slower Solarbeam moments later.

  The beams collided, but this time Bellossom’s was three quarters of the way towards her opponent. Seizing the moment, Bellossom concentrated on inputting even more energy into the move to try and overpower the fairy.

  “Whim —”

  Before Erika could even breathe a bit easier, Whimsicott managed to recover and increase his own input, abruptly pushing his Solarbeam to be three quarters towards Bellossom instead.

  “Si —” Whimsicott’s beam faltered as he panted in exertion, and Bellossom was able to push her move to the half-way point.

  “Cott!” As if the pressure was too much, Whimsicott was unable to hold on and Bellossom was able to pressure him, forcing the Solarbeam to be three quarters in her favor again.

  “Whim —”

  Before her victory and redemption could reach its apex, Whimsicott managed to scrunch up energy from deep within his reservoirs, pushing their stalemate to three quarters towards Bellossom once more.

  “Si —” He faltered, leaving the Solarbeams at the half-way point.

  “Cott!” He gave way, three quarters back in Bellossom’s favor.

  “Whim —”

  The cycled repeated itself from the top, and everyone snapped into awareness at what exactly was going on.

  Before anyone could express their disbelief at the ‘battle’, the sound of a yawn through the gym’s speakers was heard. Everyone’s attention focused back on Gray who was still casually perched on the rails of his trainer box, his bored eyes looking towards the field.

  Erika felt her hopes crumble. “Whim-Si-Cott!” The exact words, the exact same results with the Solarbeams again.

  Distracted, Bellossom couldn’t help the jolt of fear in her heart. Here she was, pouring out all her energy into her Solarbeam, rapidly drawing in energy from the sun before outputting it to the best of her abilities, while her opponent had the gall and bandwidth to stage a drama production of one.

  Her momentary lapse of concentration finally broke the stalemate, and Whimsicott’s Solarbeam overpowered hers completely.

  The crowd went wild, in shock and disbelief at the disparity on stage. Did experts not hype this match up as a clash of titans? Equally talented trainers needing to give their best in order to gain the upper hand over the other?

  How exactly was this so one-sided then? Gray’s previous gym matches had proved him to be a powerful trainer, that much was true. But it wasn’t to this extent, right?

  They could barely even consider pondering reasons for the difference in treatment when the answer hit them right in the face. Unlike Brock or Lt. Surge, Erika was the only gym leader to have gone public with her distaste for Gray. Going on public record and dissing not just him but his family must have irritated Gray enough to warrant the difference in treatment.

  Speaking of the trainer, the audience members turned their attention to him in awe. They stole more glances of him as Bellossom struggled to gain the upper hand against Whimsicott on the battlefield.

  Their careful attention made them realize something intriguing, and the infectious energy spread around the gym.

  Erika grit her teeth as Bellossom continued to struggle against Whimsicott. It was only when the rising energy of the crowd got too much that she unwillingly tore her attention from the height of action.

  Murmurs of Gray Oak’s name began to rise. All around, confusion shifted to incredulity happened simultaneously, their focus turning to trainer instead of pokemon.

  Annoyed, Erika did the same, choosing to sacrifice a few precious moments to try and see what everyone else seemed to have noticed.

  She observed Gray Oak, as he carefully lounged on the railings, boneless as he was right from the start of the match. The grass type leader couldn’t quite get it — what was everyone else seeing? Gray Oak was unmoved and unmoving, so what?

  Like a Thunderbolt strike, Erika finally caught up.

  As she watched Whimsicott carefully respond to whatever Bellossom threw at him, Gray did nothing. When she commanded Bellossom and Whimsicott responded almost instantaneously in turn, Gray had not uttered a single command.

  It would seem that ever since they started, Gray barely gave a command on his own even as Erika frantically tried to come up with ways to overcome their adversity.

  Noticing the attention on his person, Gray looked around in confusion. The fervency from some of the stares baffled him, why were they acting like he was the pokemon? Gray smothered a laugh.

  He met Erika’s blazing glare from across the field with a sardonic grin of his own before looking to Whimsicott who was still playing with his food.

  “Are you quite done yet?”

  Whimsicott, little terror that he was, merely laughed out loud.

  Angered that she wasn’t being taken seriously even as a gym leader, Erika commanded with great gravity.

  “Quiver Dance.”

  Bellossom darted away quickly for space. As soon as she was settled, she danced a few quick steps with a concentration of Bug type energy around her.

  She braced herself for another dancing turn, relying on her increased speed under the sun, thanks to Chlorophyll, to greatly aid her.

  It was a great misfortune for her that Whimsicott was similarly speed boosted.

  Whimsicott abruptly appeared in front of Bellossom, his small body engulfed by a sinister air of Dark energy.

  Invading her space, Whimsicott loudly shouted his Taunt to Bellossom, “Whim!”, sticking out his tongue for good measure.

  The sudden irritation pulled Bellossom out of her concentration, and she angrily tried to strike at Whimsicott in response.

  Before she could land her hit, Whimsicott turned and smacked her across the face with a small Moonblast, flinging her away. She crashed back first on a thick tree, letting out a winded cry of pain.

  Snickering, Whimsicott was amused that he barely had to put in much energy into the Taunt, giving him more than ample energy for the retaliatory Moonblast. He was delighted that the grass type was so agitated that a low-powered Taunt was enough to disrupt her concentration.

  Growing more frazzled, Erika tried for a last ditch attempt.

  “Petal Blizzard!”

  Keeping her focus on Whimsicott, Erika readied herself to give another abrupt command in response to the fairy’s retaliation, something that had been happening throughout the entirety of this match.

  Much to her and the audience’s surprise, Whimsicott simply shrieked in excitement, his tiny body giddily shaking as he kept his focus fervently on Bellossom. For a brief moment, Erika was worried that Whimsicott would be able to take control of this Petal Blizzard the same way he was able to neutralise their earlier Petal Dance.

  When Bellossom finally managed to rip out a Petal Blizzard with the last of her energy, the whole gym paused with bated breath.

  They watched as a great wave of petals and leaves made for Whimsicott. It occupied a wide range, leaving no space for Whimsicott to dodge.

  Just as the move was about to hit, Whimsicott began to move.

  If they thought his copied dances from Bellossom before were impressive, it paled and was nothing to Whimsicott as he was now.

  Whimsicott carefully rode the air currents in the Petal Blizzard, unbothered by the powerful whips of wind gunning to harm him. He danced in the air, an untethered leaf carefully swaying to the whims of chaos, staying completely unharmed.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  The whole gym was under his fingertips, their own concentration equally intense at the masterful display happening in front of their eyes.

  In the future, when Professor Samuel Oak eventually released a pokedex entry detailing Whimsicott as a species capable of ‘riding the wind’, this image of Whimsicott masterfully doing so in the middle of a Petal Blizzard would be on the forefront of their minds.

  As the fairy-grass type continued to master the wind, a pale bluish energy began to gather within him. He siphoned off the energy within the Petal Blizzard, reducing the intensity of the attack gradually, the stolen energy gathering within Whimsicott and increasing in direct response.

  Bellossom was forced to stop, her energy completely spent as she panted to catch her breath. There was no reprieve for her, however, as it was Whimsicott’s turn for retaliation.

  “Whim!” The pale-blue Flying type energy within Whimsicott was released all at once, a devastating Hurricane reminiscent of Bellossom’s Petal Blizzard.

  Like their previous back and forths, Whimsicott’s counter was both larger and more intense than his opponent’s move, leaving no doubt that in a contest of strength, Bellossom was not punching at the same weight class as her opponent.

  Before the match, Erika was adamant in claiming that her gym’s forested history would be able to weather whatever storm Gray and his pokemon threw at them.

  But at this very moment, Whimsicott’s hurricane caused some of the weaker trees in the battlefield to uproot. The emerald greenery of the field before the match was a bystander attacked, leaving a bare and weakened aftermath.

  By the time the winds died down, Bellossom was fainted in the epicentre of the field. Amusingly enough, she was nowhere near the centre of the field before Whimsicott unleashed his Hurricane, and it was thanks to the fairy’s expertise and penchant for drama that her unconscious body carefully ended up in the centre for all to see.

  The more experienced trainers in the crowd shivered, for Whimsicott’s casual choice to put his downed opponent there was visible proof that despite the devastation he wrought, he was in full control of his power.

  “Hurricane,” a calm voice sounded out in the awed quiet. It should have been a command to his pokemon, but Gray’s first instruction to his pokemon since the beginning of the match was said after the fact. More than a trainer expertly guiding their pokemon, this was an explanation of what just happened.

  Erika looked up to the trainer, emotions numb and mind helplessly blank. Gray drank in her panic, giving her a cocky grin. It was no labor on his end, because this smirk was something he had grown up seeing on a taller boy with ginger hair.

  Gray took two fingers and saluted at Erika with a wink — Blue Oak’s signature move.

  “Bellossom is unable to battle. Whimsicott wins, 1-0 in the challenger’s favor.”

  Erika braced herself for the trash talk after; another Blue Oak staple. But Gray did nothing of the sort, simply smirking once more for good measure before slumping back into place, as if Erika’s next move didn’t matter in the slightest.

  She openly took big breaths, concern for maintaining her infallible image long forgotten in favor of practicality. She told herself this wasn’t the end just yet. It wouldn’t do to lose the mental battle so early on.

  If Gray Oak thought that the match was over, she would prove him wrong.

  The Celadon gym leader sent out Vileplume, confident that his poison typing would prevail over Gray’s fairies.

  “Vi-leplume!” Vileplume announced himself to the world, releasing toxic powders all around himself that shimmered a violent-purple sheen under the Sunny Day.

  This was a point of pride for his species, the noxious concentration of poison residing in his gigantic flower carefully cultivated. The powder was a warning of the more potent toxic liquid hidden within.

  He brandished the powder with an expert hand and looked up to his opponent hovering in the air.

  To his surprise, Whimsicott had released his own Poison Powder in tandem. It was much paler than Vileplume’s own, signifying a lower level of toxicity. In order to make up for it, Whimsicott carefully controlled a localised Grassy Terrain to create a stunning jade backdrop to the Poison Powder.

  It was silly and dumb, wholly unnecessary on Whimsicott’s part because he wasn’t even making an entrance. Still, it served as a reminder that Whimsicott had been prepared for a match up against Vileplume.

  “Poison them!”

  Vileplume shot out a glob of concentrated poison perfectly perpendicular to the ground upwards. The ball of concentrated poison exploded far above Whimsicott, causing a rain of Toxic impossible to avoid.

  The fairy type traded places with Vileplume, choosing instead to focus downwards when Vileplume’s move went up.

  He flew closer to the ground, touching his foot to the floor.

  As soon as he made contact, pink mists began to creep around the forest floor. For the crowd, it looked like Whimsicott’s pink move had overwhelmed the green of the forest floor, leaving no blade of grass unaffected.

  Done with Misty Terrain, Whimsicott quickly floated back to his domain, taking drops of Toxic to his face with a grimace.

  Erika’s let out a smile of vicious amusement. Finally, their adversary was poisoned.

  All of a sudden, Whimsicott began to choke, his little hands clutched against his throat as he scrambled for breath. An unhealthy pallor began to show on his skin, Vileplume’s quick acting poison too much for the fairy-grass type to handle.

  Whimsicott flagged before succumbing as he fell down headfirst.

  Not one to miss an opportunity, Vileplume ran forward to meet the falling fairy. He prepared a Solar Blade, his body long accustomed to moving with increased speed thanks to his Chlorophyll ability.

  The poison type zipped across the pink terrain, eager to take control of the match. He leapt up to meet Whimsicott.

  As soon as his opponent’s feet left the ground, Whimsicott opened his eyes in perfect clarity. Righting himself with a twist, Whimsicott dodged the Solar Blade aimed at him. He smacked Vileplume with an upper cut Moonblast, sending Vileplume further up.

  Left without control of his trajectory, Vileplume was forced to stay in the air with a combination of Gusts and Tailwinds from Whimsicott. He became a midair pinball, carefully prevented from reaching the ground as he was battered left and right with moves.

  Erika patiently waited in vain for Whimsicott to falter again due to a tick of poison. When her predicted window of opportunity never came, she gritted out another command.

  “Acid Spray to the winds, Vileplume!”

  Despite being battered and prevented from landing, Vileplume released a continuous Acid Spray. The poisonous liquid followed the Gusts of wind, threatening to sear Whimsicott and limiting his movements in the air.

  Forced to take control of the winds to avoid getting hit, Vileplume was temporarily freed from control. Annoyed that his fun was stopped midway, Whimsicott gathered the poison and directed an air tunnel towards Vileplume with Tailwind, the Acid Spray returned hit Vileplume, smashing him to the ground.

  Angry that her attempts were foiled once more, Erika shouted out her grievance without care for her reputation.

  “How is your Whimsicott not poisoned! You’re cheating, Gray Oak!”

  Gray blinked at her lazily. Before he could even debate whether this was worth a response, emboldened Celadon gym trainers and passionate fans began to contribute their own accusations.

  “Cheat!”

  “I knew something was wrong! Gray Oak was cheating all along!”

  “Referee, stop the match and investigate! Gray must be doing something wrong!”

  Gray shot the announcer a look, concerned that they were already chewing their lips as if Erika’s accusations had a leg to stand on.

  Really? Was everyone here that dense?

  Gray sighed audibly, the mic catching the release of air. The fairy trainer commanded Whimsicott once.

  “Show them.”

  Whimsicott rolled his eyes before moving his fingers dreamily. The pink energy on the ground became denser, swirls of Fairy energy climbing up towards the sky.

  “This is Misty Terrain. A fairy type move. When it’s used, it prevents status effects.”

  Understanding dawned on Erika. Her Vileplume had always relied on poisoning his enemies to debilitate them, and Whimsicott was prepared. It burned her that she had instigated the crowd against her opponent when it was her own lack of knowledge to blame.

  Bored with his trainer’s lacklustre command, Whimsicott began to use Misty Terrain liberally. The Fairy energy on the ground began to dance as Whimsicott flitted around the air.

  Erika watched the move, unable to force herself to apologise. Just as the audience was, she found herself caught in watching the small fairy dance around the air, the moves familiar. In a matter of seconds, she placed the familiar movements — this was Vileplume’s Petal Dance move. Somehow, this little fairy had managed to choreograph it to the letter up in the air, using the Fairy energy in place of the usual petals.

  Before her fuse could tamper back to calm, Erika lashed out again with a command.

  “Sludge Wave, Vileplume. Drown the field!”

  A huge poison wave formed around Vileplume and crashed against the ground. The wave re-formed and aimed at Whimsicott who was still distracted with his copied dance.

  Irritated by Erika’s underhanded decision to continue to battle without addressing her falsehood against him, Gray Oak dropped the metaphorical guillotine.

  “End this farce, Whimsicott!”

  Instead of running away from the Sludge Wave like everyone expected, Whimsicott rushed it instead.

  A heady white energy surrounding him, Whimsicott flew down to meet the wave head on with Endure. Once he was clear of the Sludge Wave, Whimsicott coated his limbs with Fairy pink energy and began to pummel his opponent.

  Channeling his inner Grimmsnarl and Azumarill, he jabbed, swiped and punched at Vileplume to his heart's content, tiny limbs looking comically weak but nonetheless effective.

  Battered from the battle thus far, Vileplume had little recourse.

  To finish Vileplume off, Whimsicott released a point-blank Hurricane, funneling all the devastation to a small point and hitting Vileplume for super effective damage.

  Vileplume, unable to withstand the barrage, fell to a dead faint.

  “Vileplume is unable, Whimsicott wins. The count is currently 2-0, to Challenger Oak.”

  The back-to-back battle compounded with the Endure seemed to have taken its toll on Whimsicott, his tiny body huffing as he began to falter in the air. The four times super effective damage wasn’t something he could easily shrug off, even with Endure.

  Erika chose to patiently wait, eager to see the fairy finally faint. If Whimsicott fainted now, she and Gray would be forced to send out their next pokemon together, eliminating the slight advantage her opponent would have for being able to release second. Limiting Gray’s ability to counter was an advantage she hoped to prevent.

  A snort echoed around the room, Gray’s mic doing little to hide amusement he regarded Erika’s scheming.

  With no other opponent on the field, Whimsicott flourished under the attention.

  He dramatically fell to the ground with a pained cry, shooting up a Worry Seed directly above himself as he did so. The fairy’s eye closed in Rest, the perfect image of a knight finally getting rest after an ordeal. The Worry Seed reached its apex before going back downwards to plop down on Whimsicott’s resting body, causing the fairy to reopen his eyes.

  He shot back up in the air, completely recovered from his back to back battle after Rest. Whimsicott laughed freespiritedly at the indignation in Erika’s face, pleased that his quick recovery was able to catch her so off guard.

  He showed off his returned prowess by using Grassy Terrain, visibly regrowing the battlefield’s grass after the battle thus far.

  Gray contented himself with the embarrassment and anger in the Celadon gym leader’s face, the irony that it was the challenger who was returning Erika’s homefield advantage not lost on her and everyone else watching.

  “Did you really think Whimsicott was down for the count? You gonna excuse us of cheating again or something? That was Worry Seed and Rest, you should be familiar, yes?”

  Erika said nothing, though her eyes are enough to Blast Burn Gray.

  “But since you were looking forward to him being unable to battle, let me indulge you. I’m retiring Whimsicott for the rest of the match.”

  Whimsicott looked to his trainer, aggrieved. Gray did not react, however, raising a brow at him. Sighing, Whimsicott floated back to his trainer, knowing that his trainer was unlikely to budge on this.

  After all, everything thus far was according to plan.

  “... Gray has retired his Whimsicott. Count now is 2-1, to the challenger’s favor. Trainers, ready your next pokemon.”

  Erika kept herself still, paying no heed to the chattering of the crowd at Gray’s decision. Truthfully, she was pissed and embarrassed that her slightly underhanded tactic was exposed so clearly by Gray.

  Though a win was a win, the pity it was wrapped in threw her off. It was in accordance with Gray’s arrogance, thinking he had enough of a lead in the match that he could easily dismiss a rested pokemon.

  More than that, it was an insult to her and her identity as a gym leader. As far as everyone knew, not even in Brock and Lt. Surge match did the man retire a pokemon obviously raring to battle.

  “Trainers, ready your pokemon.”

  Both Erika and Gray release their pokemon at the same time. Tangrowth appeared out of Erika’s pokeball, landing on the field with a thud.

  On Gray’s side of the field, Ninetales leapt out, a glaring white eyesore amidst the recently renewed green battlefield.

  Withholding a smile, Erika mocked the fairy trainer internally.

  Based on his previous two matches, it wasn’t a stretch to say that Gray’s Ninetales was the least impressive. Its poor showing against Lt. Surge’s Luxray made her an obvious chink in Gray’s team.

  Since it was so easy to knock out then, it would likely be the same even now.

  However, before Erika could even utter a command to her Victreebel, a winter storm raged out of Ninetales.

  The few trees left standing on the field quickly withered, the grass disappearing under a heavy layer of snow and ice. Whimsicott’s recent renewal was made obsolete by his own teammate, as Ninetales combined the effects of her Snow Warning ability with the move Hail.

  The crowd looked on as Ninetales transformed Erika’s homeground into a desolate and cold snowfield.