Bea and I sit in the stands beside the arena as Flannery walks towards the challenger's platform. The arena is a standard configuration, common for the first few gyms in a circuit, of mostly dirt with a few scattered rocks around. There are also a few deep pools of water that can be used for water Pokemon.
Different from other gyms though, is the lack of a waiting area. One side of the gym is filled with metal bleachers for the challengers to sit in and wait their turn. In the past hour that we had been sitting here, the reason for this became clear.
Surge is a brutal gym leader who finishes fights with lightning speed. Even though each match can last for up to twenty minutes, on average, a battle with Surge only lasts five minutes. His electric-type Pokemon dance around the arena like they own it. A few seconds later, Flannery is standing on the podium across from Surge with her hand floating near the pokeballs on her belt.
"You should already know the drill by now. Three on three, no switches." Surge says succinctly. I got the feeling from watching that he is a man who hates repeating himself. I see as Flannery nods to him in return as he tosses out his first Pokemon. "Pikachu, go."
"Let's do this Night!" Flannery calls as she tosses her first pokeball and releases her Houndour, Night. "Mud Shot!" Night barks in response as he dives forward into the dirt and kicks up a glob of mud that flies towards Pikachu.
"Dodge, Thunderbolt." Surge calls. Pikachu glows slightly as it dashes towards the side, only to get a faceful of ground-powered mud. Pikachu tumbles back from the force before letting out a bolt of electric energy from its tail towards Night.
"Night, use Howl into Bite!" The bolt just grazes Night as he dashes forward towards Pikachu while letting out a loud Howl. As he gets close, he attempts to bite at Pikachu.
"Avoid it. Thunder Wave." Pikachu dives to the side, seeming to avoid taking damage from Flannery's attack. A moment later, Pikachu lets out a loud cry as a burst of electric-type energy slams into Night, causing him to tumble away.
"Get up and Incinerate!" Flannery calls out, hoping that her Pokemon can power through the paralysis. Unfortunately, Surge isn't one to sit around and wait.
"Thunder."
"Night! Dodge it!" She yells, her voice sounding a little desperate. Unfortunately, the electric rat that she is fighting is merciless, and a thick and heavy bolt of electric-type energy crashes into Night. The poor puppy Pokemon is flung away towards the bleachers we are sitting in. I see Night lay there for a moment, his body smoking slightly from the attack. However, the prideful pup climbs to his feet a moment later with a low growl. "Come on, Night! We can win this! Mud Shot!"
"Electro Ball. Finish it." Surge coldly calls, not caring for the emotional sight in front of him. Pikachu starts to glow again as a sphere of electricity starts to form between its ears, yet before it can fire it off, Night dashes forwards before flipping around and kicking up another blob of earth. Pikachu moves to dodge it, but Night fired off a second shot right behind the first, and it nails the electric rat between the eyes and causes the half-formed attack to explode.
"Pikachu down! After an electrifying first round, Surge's Pikachu is unable to battle!" The announcer calls as Pikachu falls over and does not stand back up. The crowd explodes with a loud cheer at the call, which Night answers as he lets out a happy-sounding howl. He starts to glow brightly as the puppyish howl shifts to a deeper, darker tone. The light begins to fade, and a tall, menacing dog stands in its place.
"HounDOOM" Night lets out a loud bark that makes a few trainers behind me jump at the sound. I can see Flannery with a huge smile on her face at her new Pokemon. Now that the evolution is done, Surge tosses out his next Pokemon with a sharp flick of his wrist.
"Raichu, go. Rain Dance." He calls out as the evolved form of the earlier Pokemon appears. As soon as it appears, it begins to perform an odd dance.
Seeing that Surge has decided to continue the battle, Flannery recalls her newly evolved Pokemon and grabs another pokeball throwing it into the arena. "Mags, let's keep the pressure on! YAWN!"
With the sound of water being thrown into a hot pan, Slugma appears in the arena. The rain doesn't get anywhere close to the lava-form Pokemon, but starts to create a bit of steam from the evaporated water.
"Growl. Thunder." Surge orders calmly. Raichu lets out a deep-sounding growl that comically turns into a big yawn as Mags' attack hits. Raichu shakes his head and channels energy into the dark rain clouds above the arena.
"Endure it with Protect! Bulldoze!" Flannery quickly calls out as Raichu sends a small bolt of lightning into the clouds, which in turn drops a thick bolt onto Mags. I blink away the blindness brought from the fury of nature just in time to see a transparent dome shatter around Slugma. Mags lets out a loud cry as suddenly the ground around him explodes into a muddy mess.
"Quick Attack to dodge. Thunder Wave." Raichu attempts to dash into the air, but the muddy ground delays his jump for a split second. The delay cost him as the ground burst beneath him and showers him with ground-empowered mud. Raichu dashes out of the mud in a blink of an eye, but misjudges where Slugma is at. Raichu slams into Mags, and at the same time, it explodes with a burst of electric energy.
"Again, Bulldoze!" Flannery calls as Raichu falls to the ground, visibly burned with spots that glow a deep red all over its body.
"Dodge into the air. Thunder." This time, Raichu successfully bursts into the air as it sends one more spark into the clouds above.
"Protect, bulldoze!" Mags throws up another dome of Protection just in time for another bolt of Thunder to crash into it. Before the barrier even shatters, Mags causes the ground to start to shake once more.
"Keep yourself in the air. Electro Ball." Raichu's tail glows with a silvery light as he attempts to use Iron Tail to bounce off the ground. Just as his tail is about to hit, Raichu suddenly flinches as the burn on its body glows brightly for a second, which causes his tail to land wrong. Raichu lands face-first into the ground just as it bursts around him.
"And Raichu is down as well! Can our challenger keep up the heat?" The announcer calls, as Raichu does not rise from the attack.
"You are doing better than most who come to challenge me. Let's see if you are up to the challenge." Surge calls over to Flannery as he recalls Raichu. My fiery lover gives him a huge grin at the compliment.
"Of course I can! Bring it on!" Flannery yells back. "Just one more Mags! We got this!"
Surge nods at her as he tosses out his last Pokemon for the battle. What appears is a Pokemon made up of spheres and horseshoe magnets. "Magneton, come out! Supersonic!"
"Inferno!" Flannery calls out as Magneton lets out a high-pitched sound, like nails on a chalkboard, that causes me to flinch in pain. No one else around me seems to be bothered, though. Bea gives me a quick glance before I just signal that I'm okay as I suppress the slight feeling of seasickness and turn back to the match.
"Magnet Rise. Flash Canon!" I focus back on the match just in time to see Magneton suddenly burst into flame as Mags unleashes a wave of heat that seems to exhaust the poor lava monster. Magneton bursts out of the flame as it unleashes a bright spark that turns into a silvery beam of light that slams into Mags. What is with Pokemon and all these damn bright moves? They make it hard to watch.
"Slugma is down! Both trainers are down to their last Pokemon! Who will win this intense fight?" I hear the announcer call as my vision returns to normal again. I see that Mags is now doing an impression of a magma pool before Flannery quickly recalls him and grabs her next pokeball with her ace.
"Comet, let's finish this! Summer Dash!" Ponyta appears from the pokeball and lets out a confident-sounding neigh before she takes off across the arena. She begins to glow a mottled red and pink as a bright ball of energy flies from her into the rain clouds above, dispersing them and creating an artificial sun above the wet arena.
"Thunder Wave. Flash Cannon." Magneton seemingly keeps an eye on Comet as she races across the ground before it bursts with an aura of electric energy that slams into Ponyta. Unfortunately, it seems that Comet was unable to shake off the effect as she stumbles and falls into the muddy ground just as another bright silvery beam slams into her.
"Comet, get up! Flame Charge!" Flannery calls out, but I can tell she is trying to stay calm from that hard hit on Comet. I watch as Ponyta slowly gets to her feet with shaking legs like a newborn fawn.
"Screech. Magnet Bomb" Surge orders calmly, not letting up on Flannery. A similar high-pitched sound shoots through the arena, but this time, I notice a few other people flinch at the noise as well.
"Power past it, Flame Charge!" The sound seems to wash over Comet as she dashes at Magneton. Her whole body bursts into blue flame as she runs across the arena, leaving a dry, cracked path behind her. Magneton seems to toss a silver sphere at her that hits her side and seems to stick despite the flames coating her body.
"Flash Cannon!" As Magneton charges up for another attack, Comet slams into it. The Pokemon tumbles through the air before coming to a stop a meter away with a bright spark of energy fully charged. The world turns white as the blast rockets towards Comet.
"Hold on, Comet! Once more!" The blast slams into Ponyta again, knocking the horse onto the ground once more. For a moment, it looks like everything is over, but Comet slowly stands up again before taking off even faster towards the floating Pokemon.
"Thunderbolt!" Comet rams into Magneton once more, sending it tumbling through the air again. I notice a red spot suddenly glows brightly over one of the Magnetons' eyes just before it fires off a bolt of electric-type energy at Ponyta.
"DODGE IT! FLAME WHEEL!" Flannery screams, no longer caring to seem unfazed. Comet briefly glows pink as she gets clipped by the Thunderbolt. She stumbles and looks like she is about to fall before she ignites into another blaze of blue fire and tumbles across the ground and into the nearby Magneton. A nasty-sounding crash can be heard as a cloud of dust blocks our view of the two Pokemon.
The stadium falls into a standstill as we wait for the result of the battle to be called. The dust settles to find the two Pokemon on the ground in a pile. I notice, on a screen nearby, there is a ten-second counter going down quickly. As the counter falls to five, there is movement from the pile as Comet slowly starts to stand. The time seems to crawl by, as ever so slowly, Comet gets to her feet just as the counter reaches zero.
"WE HAVE A WINNER! It comes down to a near draw at the end! However, Challenger Flannery's Ponyta is the last one still standing, and she earns the Thunder Badge!" With that call from the announcer, the stadium bursts into a loud cheer.