Bonnie’s First Badge!
Ammon had to leave early the next morning, saying that he has an urgent meeting with some of his project heads. He wishes Bonnie luck in her battle against Viola and hopes that Max remembers the warning he gave him the night before. Then, he departs the Pokémon Centre and heads off in the direction of Shalour City. Once he's gone, Bonnie and Max go into a nearby park and Bonnie runs through her strategy once more. Max gives pointers whenever Bonnie asks for them, but otherwise stays out of it. Eventually, Bonnie is comfortable with her strategy, then goes to wake Max out of the Observant State he fell into watching the battle. Once he's ready, they head into the Gym.
The gym is a large green building that looks kind of like a museum. Bonnie smiles at it as the two approach it. "I remember watching Ash fight in this gym," she comments as they enter. "I wanted to copy his strategy, but I don't have a Pikachu, so this is the next best thing." Bonnie and Max approach the referee and let him know that Bonnie was the challenger. He points her to the arena itself and Max is directed to the stands. As he's heading over there, the ref calls out, "Oh, two people came in here shortly before you did to watch the girl's battle. If you know them, they're standing at the exact centre of the stands." Max perks up at this, curious to see who's come to watch. When he gets to the stands, he sees Ash, Serena, and Pikachu waving him over.
"What are you doing here?" he asks when he approaches. "Well, we're hardly going to miss out on Bonnie's first gym battle" Ash replies. Serena nods enthusiastically. "Of course we're going to show our support for her" she says. Max smiles, then pulls out his notebook, ready to take notes on all of these new pokémon he's never seen before.
Down in the arena, Bonnie steps forward with one hand clasped on her pokéball. Viola the gym leader steps up on the other end. "I remember you," she comments. "You're that energetic younger sister of the Lumiose Gym." Bonnie smiles and nods. "But now I'm here to challenge you," she says, raising one of her balls. "So, get used to knowing me as Bonnie Citron, as opposed to Clemont's younger sister!" Viola smiles. "You've got fire," she says. "Sorry to say that my bugs will be quick to put it out." The ref steps forward. "This will be a two-on-two battle between gym leader Viola and challenger Bonnie Citron!" he announces. "The battle will end when one pokémon is no longer able to continue. Only the challenger is allowed substitutes. Are you ready?" Bonnie and Viola nod. "Battle, begin!" the ref announces, stepping off of the arena. Bonnie and Viola smile, before releasing their first pokémon.
Bonnie sends out her Fennekin, and Viola sends out a Surskit. Bonnie grins. "Just like I predicted." She looks at Max and thinks, "Let's see if that mind of yours is as impressive as Ammon claims." "Fennekin use ember!" Bonnie orders aloud. The fireball comes shooting towards Surskit, who quickly dodges. "Surskit, Ice Beam!" Viola shouts back, "Cover the floor! Then, use pin missile as Fennekin stumbles!" "Skit!" Surskit cries, before doing just that. Within seconds, the entire arena becomes an ice rink. Fennekin loses her footing and begins to stumble on the ice, while Surskit glides with ease. Bonnie reluctantly has Fennekin take the pin missiles because of the type-disadvantage. Then, when Viola orders Surskit to use quick attack. As the bug lunges at Fennekin, Bonnie calls out, "Quickly, ember on the ground! Keep going until the ice is gone!" Fennekin charged up a huge fireball in her mouth and spammed ember over and over into the ground. Just as planned, right as Surskit was close to leaving the ice, The ice completely melted, causing Surskit to lose its footing. As it tripped over, Bonnie called, "Now, use scratch!" Fennekin's claws extended, and she sunk them into Surskit, causing it to cry out. As Fennekin clung on, Bonnie shouted, "Ember, as hard as you can!" "Pin Missile!" Viola responded. Surskit managed to fire a pin missile into Fennekin's mouth, but it was ultimately pointless. The fireball struck Surskit full force, sending it flying into the wall under where Max, Ash, Serena and Pikachu were standing, rendering it unconscious.
"Surskit is unable to battle!" the ref called. Viola grinned. "Impressive," she said. "That was a clever trick Bonnie. Now, let's see how you fare against this!" And with that, she sent out a butterfly with a small grey body and large pink wings. If Bonnie's memory serves her well, this was a Vivillon. One quick check on her pokédex confirms this to be the case. Bonnie looks over at Max and sees him scribbling furiously in his notebook. Bonnie can't help but chuckle at the sight. Then, she returns Fennekin to her pokéball and releases Fletchling into the battle. Then, both of the trainers signal to the ref that they're ready, to which he calls, "Battle, resume!"
Before Bonnie can call an attack, Viola immediately orders Vivillon to use stun spore. But, thanks to Max's planning, Bonnie is ready for it. "Fletchling, use gust to send the stun spore back at Vivillon!" "Fletchling, Fletch!" cries the tiny robin, before doing just that. However, as the spore drifts back to Vivillon, Viola says, "Did you really think you were the first one to think of that? Vivillon, use gust as well!" Vivillon starts beating its wings furiously, causing the small cloud to freeze in place. "Come on Fletchling!" Bonnie encourages, "Overpower it!" Fletchling starts beating her wings harder, but it soon becomes clear that she was tiring out. Eventually, the Vivillon gains the upper hand, and is able to send the stun spore over to Fletchling. Fletchling is overcome with paralysis and struggles to move. While she tries to do something, Viola shouts, "Now, use strugglebug!" Small pins come out of Vivillon and start flying at Fletchling, who is unable to dodge them or fight back. Bonnie watches as Fletchling is covered in these pins. Eventually, the combination of the pins, stun spore and being warn out causes Fletchling to fall out of the air. She hits the ground hard and struggles to get back up. But, before she can, Viola calls, "Now, finish it off with Gust!" Vivillon sends one last blast of wind at Fletchling, sending her crashing into the wall, knocking her out.
"Fletchling is unable to battle!" the ref announces as Bonnie returns Fletchling to her pokéball, thanking her for a good battle. Then she brings Fennekin back out. "Battle, resume!" the ref calls. "Stun spore!" Viola cries immediately. "Oh, come on!" Bonnie complains. "At least do something original!" Then she orders Fennekin to stay away from the cloud while she thinks of a plan. She thinks back to that morning and to Max's plans, when she remembers something the two talked about.
"Launch ember at this stun spore cloud!" Max told her. They were practicing his and Bonnie's plans on a few different pokémon in the field. They were up against a Butterfree, who just used said move. Curious, Bonnie did so. Fennekin's ember flew out of her mouth and through the cloud. As the flame passed through it, Max shouted, "Get down!" He, Bonnie and Fennekin ducked as the flame mixed with the spore triggered an explosion, knocking the poor Butterfree out. Max grinned to himself. "I knew it!" he exclaimed. "What?" asked Bonnie. "In order to produce the paralysing ability of stun spore," said Max, "the pokémon secretes the gas from inside their body. Since certain gases and chemicals that come from the body are combustible, it was just a matter of guessing." Bonnie smiled at him. "You're pretty clever" she commented. Max smiled back and rubbed the back of his head.
Bonnie focuses on the battle again and sees that the cloud has evaporated. "If I can get her as close as possible to Vivillon," Bonnie thinks to herself, "I can make it easier to set off that trap." "Alright!" she says aloud, "get in close and use scratch!" Fennekin's claws glow and she lunges at the Vivillon. Vivillon dodges as best it can and then launches Strugglebug in response under Viola's command. Both pokémon are damaged by these attacks. After a few minutes of this, Viola orders Vivillon to retreat and use stun spore again. "Finally!" Bonnie thinks to herself. Vivillon launches the spore at Fennekin. "Fennekin, fire ember through the cloud!" Fennekin charges up the fire attack, then fires it through the stun spore. Then, she and Bonnie duck. Max does so as well and pulls Ash and Serena down with him. Just like that morning, the flame mixing with the spore triggers a big explosion that covers half the room. When the dust clears, it's revealed that Vivillon has fainted.
"Vivillon is unable to battle!" the ref declares, "making challenger Bonnie the winner of this match!" Max, Ash, Pikachu and Serena cheer for her as she returns Fennekin to her ball. "Great job Fennekin," she tells her starter. "I couldn't have done it without you." Then, she walks up to Viola. "Congrats," says the gym leader. "I must say, you had quite a few interesting strategies." "Thanks," Bonnie replies as she shakes her hand. "But my friend Max over there is the one who came up with them. Not me." Viola looks at Max and sees him bashfully rubbing his head. "Well then," says Viola as she rummages through her pockets. "You two make quite the team. And I believe you've earned this." Then she hands Bonnie the Bug Badge. Bonnie takes the badge eagerly and shows it to her friends, who cheer for her happily. She smiles at the badge, then puts it into the little box in her bag and walks out the door to meet up with the others.