Ivan vs Falkner- Zephyr Badge Challenge

[Nicola]

Before Ivan was able to answer the gym leader's question, their Pokemon were both springing into action, perhaps slower than they might have, as both were worse for the wear. Pidgey began lifting himself into the air as Dodger tightened her focus, concentrating on Ivan. The things she had felt towards Ivan came surging back into her system and began filling her with warmth, even faster than before. Tuning out everything else, she felt the happy feelings in her welling up just as they had before, and she was just about ready to release them when she was hit.

Pidgey rapidly hurled GUST attacks at Dodger, glad to see that they seemed to be taking more effect than the first time she had tuned him out. He had successfully drawn her out of her thoughts and knocked her onto her hurt paw. In his glee at having the upper hand, he flew lower, as if daring dodger to attack him. He continued his onslaught of winds before noticing that Dodger had gotten back up.

The Furret winced at the gusts of wind being hurled at her, struggling against them to stay upright and avoid increasing the shooting pain that the first fall had sent shooting up her bad paw. Using the pain to fuel her will, Dodger summoned the warm feelings again and mixed them with the feelings of pain to create a feeling even stronger than before. Sensing this new emotion well up to its fullest inside her, she unleashed an earsplitting cry. The force inside of her spilled out, reaching to the very edges of the gigantic bird cage. The gusts of wind were held back by the force of Dodger's RETURN of emotion for her trainer, and Pidgey was swept up by its waves, getting hit even harder than before due to the shorter distance. Even the trainers got a taste of the attack, the force of it sweeping their hair to the side.

When the waves of the attack had died out, Dodger stood panting heavily in the center of the floor, and Pidgey was found collapsed by the wall with his wings bent at funny angles and not a speck of energy left to battle.

Dodger: 26% [Defense +1] {Sprained Paw}
Pidgey: KO'd

Congratulations, Pidgey has been defeated! Dodger receives 7 Experience Points! (At least, I'm pretty sure she did. If I recall correctly, you get full experience from Gym battles, but I can't seem to find the rule on it.)

[RedFox]

(Well, I did get full XP for the battle against Tucker/ Team Shade, so I think that it works that way here, as well.  However, it may be 9 XP, rather than 7.  I know that Falkner's page lists the levels at 7/9 for his pokemon, but Pidgey's moveset indicates that the levels were updated to 9/13 to reflect their updates on HG/SS; it still makes Falkner a cheater with an early evolving pokemon, but whatever.  I did ask about that a couple of times, but no real solution came of it.  Oh well. I do appreciate the reffing!  Get out of the Underground so I can return the favor again!)

  Ivan couldn't help but smile.  Dodger had been injured in battle, spraining its paw, yet she was still able to put Ivan's plans into effect and actually defeated Falkner's Pidgey.  Ivan knew that the battle was far from over, but he still sighed a sigh of relief and a glance of admiration towards Dodger. 
  Ivan then turned his attention to Falkner, dropping his smile for a more stern, serious look.  Ivan had heard Falkner run his mouth the entire time, so he wanted to completely shut the young gym leader up by defeating his next (and last) pokemon, Pidgeotto.  Ivan knew that it would be a challenge, so he wasn't about to let up on his on-slaught again Falkner's flying friends.  Ivan also found much of Falkner's chatter to be just bird-brained banter full of hypocritical double-talk.  Ivan knew that he was going up against a tough opponent, so he was trying to use his pokemon to their full potential; Ivan was not the one doing the underestimation.  If anything, Falkner had underestimated him and lost his Pidgey in battle as a result.
  Also, Ivan wasn't too crazy about Falkner trying to psych him out of using his tactics.  The grounding of Pidgey was what Ivan saw as a necessity in order to have a chance to succeed in the battle; letting the bird flutter around mid-air would have been the mistake.  Ivan started viewing Falkner in a different light then how he started.  The mood swung from a reverent point of view to one of an arrogant, smack-talking, poor tactician. 
  Ivan breathed heavily for a moment before giving a word of encouragement to Dodger.  He was purposely ignoring the gym leader now, irking the blue-haired bird lover into making more mistakes.  Ivan was glad that he had finally gotten Falkner's full attention now.

  "Great job, Dodger!  You were great!  Now, hold tight and snack on your berry!"

(Dodger gains health, but loses its Sitrus Berry.)         

[Nicola]

Dodger gratefully bit into the Sitrus berry she had been holding, finishing it off before Falkner's next Pokemon was to come out. She nodded cheerfully to Ivan that she was feeling better after eating it and flexed her front paw a bit, grateful that it seemed in working order now. She readily assumed a battling stance now, prepared to take on Falkner's next, bigger bird.

Dodger: 63% [Defense +1]

[Aero Boy Falkner]

<sup>(It is 100% EXP for any Gym Battle/Major Site Villain Battle. And the levels will stay at 7 / 11 currently, as there are no plans to update the boards to the HG/SS variant, currently.)

Luck. It was just luck and strong pokemon. Falkner really hated that sort of thing... People would train up thier pokemon with sheer power and overwhelm thier opponents. The bird-loving boy adored his Pidgey's performance, however. It had managed to take down a stronger, fully evolved pokemon down to dangerous health levels.

"Okay, return Pidgey." Falkner stated, shooting back the bird in a flash of white light. "And go, Pidgeotto." Falkner switched pokeballs in an instant, sending out an evolved version of his Pidgey. Now, which tactic would he choose..?

"Tell me, kid," The blue haired leader called Ivan, even though Ivan was probably as old as him. "Why are you ignoring me? I simply want to have a nice conversation, don't you think it's as off-putting for me as well as you too? Mmm... well, Pidgeotto! You're speedier than this weasel in the air, so fly to the opposite end of the field and grab from grit. Then I want you to fly over the weasel and use Sand Attack."</sup>

[RedFox]

(Alright- thanks for the level info.  Just one thing, Pidgeotto is level 9, not 11.  Also, are the TMs going to be updated?  Mud Slap hasn't been a TM for a couple of generations now.  Also, it doesn't have anything to do with this RP, but Ivan's currently 11... yeah)


  Ivan looked at the Pidgeotto and decided that he wanted to make a switch.  He had read that before a gym leader sent out a pokemon due to fainting, a challenger was allowed to make a free switch-in.  It was an unfair advantage that went against the gym leader, but the eight gym leaders were expected to be better than the average run-of-the-mill trainer.  Ivan had, in fact, read the gym-leader challenge handbook that Falkner had alluded to; Ivan wondered (by the way things had gone thus far) is Falkner had actually read it himself.

  "Dodger, come back!  You were terrific, but you'll need to take a quick breather!"

  Ivan then turned his attention to Falkner and said quite coldly, "You completely ignored me and blew me off at the start of this battle.  Now that I've caught your attention, it's my turn to return the favor."

  Ivan had a quick plan flowing through his mind.  The Pidgeotto would probably use its speed and aerial maneuverability to its advantage.  So, Ivan decided to cut down the playing field size a little bit.  Ivan was glad that it had rained before, causing the retractable roof to be closed.

  "Come on out, Anubis!  Let's attack this flying foe with a nice SMOG!  You can do this!"

  Ivan hoped that the smog would poison Pidgeotto, but he was certain that it would cause Pidgeotto to do one of two things: 1) it would have to keep low to stay out of the poisonous fog or 2) it would have to fly higher to avoid the smog.  Either way, Ivan was formulating a plan to deal with Falkner's Pidgeotto's reactions; he was just hoping that his plan would work......

Anubis

Houndour
Level: 16
Happiness: 250 (MAX)
Holding: Charcoal

[Nicola]

Once the trainers had sent out their next Pokemon and called out orders, the battle was on. Pidgeotto was flapping his powerful wings to soar to the other end of the field, cutting through the air much faster than his younger evolution. Landing lightly on the ground, the majestic bird snatched up a generous amount of the grit spread across the floor.  After flapping his wings a few moments, Pidgeotto was in the air again, swooping down towards the Anubis.

Meanwhile, the Houndour was breathing out a dark SMOG, the murky gas spilling out of his mouth and upwards to fill in most of the dome. Pidgeotto soon noticed the black fog rising up around him and realized that he no longer had a visual on his opponent. Dropping the sandy grit from its claws and hoping that his SAND ATTACK would have the good fortune to hit the intended target, Pidgeotto focused instead on getting himself out of the fog. Anubis, safely under the fog with a perfect vision of everything that was around him, smirked as he spotted sand falling to the ground several feet away from him.

Rising quickly, Pidgeotto was finally able to get himself out of the midst of the smog and gratefully looked around to see that he was above the cloud of smoke and still couldn't quite see his opponent, as the dark smog blocked his view to what was below. He kept in mind to stay out of the inky stuff and began flying in circles around the top of the dome to hear what his trainer would ask him to do next.

Anubis: 100%
Pidgeotto: 100% [Accuracy -1 when in SMOG cloud]

[RedFox]

(Well, that's technically not how Smog acts, but whatever.  You're the ref; let's roll with this!   :P)

Ivan surveyed the scene and saw that Pidgeotto and Anubis were effectively cut off from each other for now.  However, Ivan did have a little ace up his sleeve in case a situation like this arrived.

"Anubis, use an EMBER on that smog cloud and then GET DOWN!  Get as low to the ground as possible!"

Ivan had remembered a little incident earlier in his travels.  While chasing down Dodger's kidnapper on Rt. 29, he had combined Anubis' fiery attacks with the noxious smog-cloud, resulting in an explosion.*  Ivan hoped to recreate that effect here and do as much damage to the Pidgeotto as possible.   


(*Reference to: http://pjoreborn.smfforfree3.com/index.php/topic,1503.0.html - End of page #1, beginning of page #2)

[Nicola]

(( Whoops! Sorry, I got Smog mixed up with Smokescreen. My mistake. >.< ))

[Aero Boy Falkner]

<sup>Falkner didn't expect the hell hound to conjurte up a poisonous stupor, yet he could see the logic behind it. If not even a Gym Leader could foresee this move, how could anybody else expect to counteract it? Smart; but now, what would happen? Would he mindlessly spam Ember and hope to hit Pidgeotto? Or would he lie down low and hope that his pokemon would brave the mist to reach his Houndoor?

Falkner was now not under-rating this challenger. Of course, he'd given up hope of talking to him. He wasn't being cocky or arrogant to begin with - just sleepy. Now that he'd woken up, had he been too confident with his strategies? Still, he was quite angry with his bold new challenger for misunderstanding him. He was just as bad; no, worse than Falkner for deliberately ignoring his challenger.

"Whatever, Pidgeotto! First off, if you spot an Ember flying about, dodge it. Now, what I want you to do is use Gust; I know you're not going to hit him, but he must be under that cloud somewhere! I want you to blow the smog into that Houndoor with Gust and trap it under the cloud!"

Of course, Falkner had no idea of the explosive reaction this could create.</sup>

[Nicola]

Anubis looked back at Ivan with a questioning expression. Was he really intending to cause an explosion? The fiery Pokemon looked unsure whether or not he wanted to comply. During his moment of indecision, the Houndour was hit. Pidgeotto flapped his wings, sending a GUST of wind at his opponent, puncturing a hole in the thick cloud before the smoke flowed back in to fill in the gap. The momentary glimpse of Pidgeotto, triumphant at having damaged Anubis, was enough to get him motivated. The dog-like Pokemon aimed his mouth upwards, spitting out a fiery EMBER, then ducked and covered his face with his front paws. Any moment now...

BOOM.

A pinpoint of bright light appeared where the ember had made contact with the poisonous smoke, then expanded outwards in a sphere of fire. Anubis was the first one hit by the explosion, sent flying into a wall and sliding down to the floor, knocked down. Pidgeotto was next to fall victim to the expanding circle of light, slamming into the dome and falling a long distance to the floor with a burn and several singed feathers. The force of the explosion sent grit flying and completely covered the two trainers in the stuff.

Once the explosion cleared, one could see that there was a gigantic burn mark in the middle of the floor, and a few singe marks around the bars of the giant bird cage, the sections touched by the explosion blackened. The smog was gone, having been completely incinerated by the explosion. The two Pokemon remained on the floor at the opposite sides of the arena where they had fallen.

Anubis and Pidgeotto both staggered up from the floor at the same time, obviously severely injured from the gigantic explosion. The two both trudged back towards the center of the arena and turned to their trainers, ready for new orders. Pidgeotto winced as he walked, however, feeling the pain shooting through him from the burn he received on his right side.

Anubis: 42%
Pidgeotto: 46% {Burn}

[RedFox]

Ivan looked at the scene and wondered what to do next.  He hadn't anticipated the blast and gust to hurt Anubis, but his Houndour was not in the best of health for the remainder of the battle.  Ivan decided, however, to keep using Anubis and hope for the best; Falkner's Pidgeotto seemed to be in pretty rough shape as well, so that could play a little factor in the rest of the bout.

  "You're doing great, Anubis!" shouted Ivan to motivate his pokemon partner.  "Now, flank that Pidgeotto and hit him with another EMBER... straight on this time!"

Ivan may have been paying full attention to Falkner's words, but he had been paying attention to his strategies.  Ivan hoped that by flanking his opponent, Anubis would hit Pidgeotto's wing, severely limiting its mobility (its greatest attribute) even more.  If Anubis missed the wing somehow, the side of Pidgeotto's body was large enough to give Anubis a clear target.  The strategy had failed for Falkner when Pidgey had battled Dodger, but it had just failed due to Dodger's resilience and higher level. 

[Aero Boy Falkner]

<sup>Falkner shielded his eyes from the blast. Mud and sand flew in all manner of directions from the dangerous explosion. Wait, so that had been his challengers tactic!

"Are you crazy, Petrov? Trying to blow open my gym? That could of been lethal, to us regardless our pokemon!" Ivan shouted across the gym, the palm of his hand raised to his mouth, elevating his speech. "As a thief, I doubt you'd care..." muttered his aftermath.

A burn? There was a searing mark scarred up Pidgeotto's side. There was nothing Falkner could do to save his pokemon - he was restricted to not using any healing items.

"You're really giving it your all, Pidgeotto. This guy is tough - well done." Now Falkner needed to get the battle over quickly.

Now, to think up his next move... What would his opponent do? Try to flank, or attack as soon as po--

"You're doing great, Anubis!" Aero Leader heard Ivan motivate his pokemon.  "Now, flank that Pidgeotto and hit him with another EMBER... straight on this time!"

"Pidgeotto! Quick attack, before he has a chance to move. He can't hit what he can't see; we're going to regain the initiative!"</sup>

[Nicola]

Pidgeotto was the first to move, shooting forward with a QUICK ATTACK. The bird Pokemon was a blur as he ran into his opponent and knocked Anubis over. Although having successfully landed an attack, the large tawny bird was still panting with the effort it had taken to run into his opponent. He winced just as he had before, the fire from the explosion sending a severe pain through him. Pidgeotto hardly noticed that he remained standing next to his opponent.

Although Anubis had given way rather easily from the bird's attack, he just as easily got up and spit more EMBERs from his mouth at his opponent's wings. Pidgeotto, who had simply been standing in the same spot, jerked to attention as if waking up suddenly from a nap and attempted to take to the air, but only managed to make a few lopsided circles through the air before landing unexpectedly on his side; his brief moment of inattention had cost him the use of his right wing.

Anubis: 27%
Pidgeotto: 24% {Burn}

[RedFox]

Ivan knew that Anubis was in pain, but he was performing admirably.  Ivan saw that he had managed to debilitate Pidgeotto's wing, which would make flying impossible and movement horribly labored for the flying foe.  Ivan hoped that one more attack would be enough to ground the pokemon and end the battle.

"Anubis!  Give one more EMBER with everything that you've got!  You can do this!"


Ivan was completely tuning out Falkner now.  Not only had he shown to be completely hypocritical and shown no interest in the early stages of the battle, but he was now throwing insults Ivan's way.  It was true that Ivan had taken money and a berry from the Bellsprout cultists of Sprout Tower earlier, but they had deserved it.  Besides, what right did Falkner have to just spout out such accusations at Ivan without any further comment... just because Ivan wasn't a run of the mill trainer didn't mean that he would do anything for his pokemon or at the very least cared for their feelings.

Rather than get too angry, Ivan focused more heavily on the battle than before- not allowing anything to deter his concentration.     

[Aero Boy Falkner]

<sup>Falkner assessed the damage stressily; Pidgeotto was severely burned and now had lost the ability of flapping it's right wing. Alongside that, it was a sitting duck for another lethal attack. He had no back-up pokemon, unlike his opponent. If he had any slim chance of taking down this thief's current Houndoor, he had to centend with a recently rejuvenated Furret. It was all too much.

The cyan-coloured Gym Leader raised his hand lazily above his head, and twirled it around the wrist slightly as if giving an awkward wave.

"I give," he called. "I don't want to see my pokemon put in further bludgeoning harm." the boy walked towards his heavily injured Pidgeotto and petted it slightly, before calling it back to it's pokeball.

"Here," he presented Ivan with the first Johto gym badge. "You earnt it; as the first opponent to force me to give up to gain more than winning. You showed a lot of skill..." Falkner coughed. "A bit of luck," Falkner coughed again. "But most importantly, you can recap the crucial battling rules in the heat of a battle. Forgive my earlier impertanance, I was just sleepy." Falkner grinned childishly.</sup>