684 CH64 (678), First Gym Battle (11)

'Whirlpool right above the gap followed by Thunder,' I instructed Stan/Gyarados who threw his Whirlpool towards the Flash Cannon Beam just as Scizor broke through the Surf-generated wave/water. Scizor ended up getting caught in the Whirlpool, its Flash Cannon failing to punch through Whirlpool as well, and just as it began to experience the joy of being whirled, Thunder came down from the heavens. Well, it came down from the rain clouds at the ceiling, but a bit of drama was okay. This was my inner voice speaking after all.

"Protect," Stephanie ordered moments before Thunder struck, and Scizor erected that shield as soon as the first syllable left her mouth. Just in time as well since Thunder crashed into its Protect, and the clash between the two moves actually ended up working in Scizor's favor since it got propelled out of the Whirlpool. It regained control before it caught up with the Surf that had crashed into the ground.

"Drill your way through, then Wing it," Stephanie followed up, and Scizor began to spin in place for a moment, and I suspected it used Sword Dance while doing that. 'Sunny Day, then let it get close before releasing a Flamethrower. Scizor will likely dodge or block that, but that's fine. Use the opportunity granted by Flamethrower to close in and use Outrage. Get in a few Fire Fangs if you can,' I responded telepathically as Scizor began flying/drilling its way through part of the Whirlpool.

Honestly, I was not expecting much from the Fire Fang bit, but Stan did have Strong Jaw so if he managed to get in a few bites, why not? We've been working on biting moves ever since Stan unlocked Strong Jaw more than a year ago, but while he had learned a bunch of those, he had yet to upgrade them like we were planning to. Crunch and the other moves only recently reached the required mastery needed to properly experiment with them, so only Frost Fang was in the works right now, and even that one was not battle-ready yet.

Anyway, Stan got rid of the rain that had already started to lighten and replaced it with Sunny Day. I was quite happy that the switch worked without any problems. The Flamethrower Stan then released at Scizor, who was still corkscrewing his way over, benefitted from the augmented sunshine, though I still ended up surprised by what happened next. I honestly expected Scizor to use Wing Attack or Steel Wing due to Stephanie's command, but it used Silver Wind instead once it had broken through the Whirlpool. Its Silver Wind then got caught in the whirlwind Scizor was generating through its spinning, turning into a Silver Tornado, which then clashed with Stan's Flamethrower.

Interestingly enough the Silver Tornado actually did not directly get swallowed by the Flamethrower, which was what I thought would happen, and managed to stall Flamethrower for some time. Still, the move did its job and blinded Scizor as well as Stephanie for a few moments to Stan's approach. That was enough for us, and before Stephanie could warn her Scizor of the impending attack, Stan crashed into it. Stan showed why Outrage was highly regarded despite the move's drawbacks. Not that that drawback applied to Stan thanks to Personal Pace, which protected him from volatile status conditions such as Confusion, including self-inflicted Confusion.

Stan stuck to Scizor and repeatedly hit it with draconic energy-charged attacks during his Outrage. Scizor did its best to block or redirect those attacks since it was left with no other choice due to Stan giving it no chance to dodge them. I heard confused as well as doubtful murmurs from the crowd when Stan still remained perfectly lucid after a series of exchanges, and I saw that even Stepahnie's brows furrowed after the sixth clash between her Scizor and Stan.

"Flash B, DT, then Fury Dance," Stephanie eventually spoke up when it was clear that waiting for Stan to get confused seemed futile. 'Surf, followed by Fire Blast, and then close in again. Restart Outrage,' I followed up in reaction to her order. I was not sure what Flash B was, but I was assuming that it was related to Flash Cannon in some way, so that could be blocked through Surf while it also took care of the doubles Scizor was going to release using Double Team.

A sudden radiant explosion that happened as Stan initiated Surf proved me wrong, at least partially. The bright flash so close to his eyes forced Stan to close his eyes in pain, and he ended up releasing his Surf prematurely. While that still managed to deal with the doubles that Scizor released after its momentary light show, the Surf was too weak to affect the real Scizor, and it easily broke through the water wave after being pushed back by just 4 to 5 meters. Scizor immediately rushed towards the still-blinded Stan, its pincer clad in a light greenish energy.

'Aim slightly to your right and tilt your head low by about 3 cm,' I spoke or more aptly thought up to act as Stan's eyes since he could not see Scizor's position. 'A bit more to the right and a little bit lower as well,' I quickly corrected after he followed the first instruction. 'Now fire,' I ordered as soon as I was certain that his Fire Blast would hit, and a moment later the fire blast left Stan's maw, heading for Scizor who was just 2 to 3 meters away from him.

Scizor, in a feat of impressive acrobatics, actually managed to squeeze/pirouette itself pincer first through the gaps of Fire Blast. Its pincer then ended up clashing with Stan's draconic energy-clad tail. Their clash not only forced Scizor's pincer back while Stan's tail remained in place, and I noticed that the energy around its pincer got a bit denser after the clash. Still, Scizor's pincer was not the only thing that got forced back, Scizor also had to retreat a few meters just to bleed off the force from the lost clash and it even added a spin while doing that.

That came in handy when Stan lunged head-first at Scizor right after his failed attack. Utilizing the momentum of its spin, Scizor intercepted Stan's draconic energy-clad head using its Fury Cutter pincer, and once again got forced back a few meters repeating its earlier actions while forcing Stan's head to stop in place. However, Stan in Outrage mode naturally did not stop and tried to once again hit Scizor with his tail forcing Scizor to defend itself again employing its Fury Cutter-using pincer. This time I noticed that the clash was more equal than the previous two, though Scizor was still at a disadvantage.

Over the next two clashes, Scizor's pincer managed to match Stan's attack without being forced back and it actually managed to force Stan's head back during the sixth clash, though there were no further changes during the next few clashes showing that Scizor's Fury Cutter had reached its peak. That was what we had been waiting for, so after a few more clashes to lull Scizor in a certain rhythm, Stan performed a two-pronged attack.

Stan clenched the muscles of his midsection to the limit and swung both his head/upper section and tail/lower section at Scizor at nearly the same time. This was something that made use of Stan's exaggerated length and had taken quite some training to get it right. Anyway, Scizor had no choice but to block Stan's tail but got nailed by Stan's head despite trying to use its other pincer to block it. A non-move boosted/supported pincer was just not enough to stop Stan's Outrage charged body/head.

The force behind Stan's head sent Scizor flying, and it actually crashed against his tail, which bled off some of its momentum in exchange for some extra pain. "Silver, then Q Scissor," Stephanie finally decided to interfere, and her Scizor executed her command without hesitation. Unsure if Stan had reached the number of uses to voluntarily interrupt Outrage after its latest use, I still gave a command.

'Flamethrower,' I ordered while noting that the Silver Wind was much stronger than before.

Thankfully Stan was able to switch moves and released the gout of fire towards the greenish current heading his way. The two moves clashed and interestingly enough, neither side seemed to be at a disadvantage. Meanwhile, Scizor who I noticed briefly flickering with energy had its arms crossed and glid below the fire, evidently heading for Stan's throat.

'Free Fall, and Fire Blast Scizor from below' I followed up and Stan began to drop out of the sky as soon as he stopped trying to actively fly. The sudden shift caused Scizor to sail past him from above and Stan swiftly followed up with Fire Blast. Their respective positions caused the Fire Blast to slam into Scizor's abdomen, causing Scizor to screech in pain. There was a collective hiss from the audience when Scizor's ass got lit on fire.

Scizor's screech turned from pain-filled to pain and rage-filled. It suddenly retaliated by firing a Hyper Beam at Stan. Left with no time to dodge, Stan tried to block it with Hydro Pump, though it was size smaller due to the ongoing Sunny Day. Not that he had much of a choice since Hydro Pump was the only move he could perform at such short notice that stood a chance against Hyper Beam. Still, despite Sunny Day, Stan's Hydro Pump managed to stop it in its tracks, dragging the Hyper Beam into a beam off. Scizor did not like that at all and released an angry screech following which its Hyper Beam suddenly increased by two sizes.

Everyone quickly understood where the sudden boost came from when Scizor's (mid) platinum stage undulation started to spread, and I really wanted to curse when that happened. What kind of shit luck was this? Wasn't I supposed the lucky one? Why then did Stepahnie's Pokemon keep advancing or breaking through during our battle? I thought shit like that only happened to Ash, though at least Ash's Pokemon also tended to evolve or suddenly get stronger during important battles/events. Not that I would want my Pokemon to suddenly evolve if we could avoid it since it would result in a wasted opportunity, but it was a matter of principle.

Anyway, thanks to its energy/aura getting denser as a result of its advancement, Scizor's power as well as that of its Hyper Beam rose mid-fight, and that sudden boost allowed Scizor's Hyper Beam to overwhelm Stan's Hydro Pump. Scizor's rage-filled Hyper Beam slammed into Stan and carried him all the way to the ground. Stan's involuntary crash into the ground caused a crater and the still ongoing Hyper Beam pushed him a bit further down before exploding after a panting Scizor was unable to keep supplying any more energy to the move.

A lot of dust/dirt was thrown into the air, and everyone was waiting with bated breath to see Stan's situation. Meanwhile, Scizor, who was temporarily unable to act due to the after-effects of its Hyper Beam, was falling out of the sky thanks to good old gravity. I, on the other hand, knew thanks to our telepathic link that Stan was still conscious. He assured me that he was fine, so I helped Stan aim at Scizor despite his blocked vision and had him fire a Fire Blast at it. Fire Blast successfully hit Scizor and sent it flying after a fiery explosion.

My happiness at that was cut short when I saw Stan's state after the shockwave dispersed the rest of the dust cloud around him. Stan looked pretty hurt, with some visible singed areas around his head/throat along with multiple bleeding areas all over his body. Our eyes met, and he used that moment to say, 'Sorry, boss but I don't think I can keep fighting' over our telepathic link before slumping over. 'I'm out of juice,' he added right after that, just when I had gotten worried at his sudden slumping.

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