Chapter 46: Gardenia
Prinplup's beak hit the Reflect barrier and the impact rang through the whole gym. The force of Peck pushed through but not all of it. Maybe half. Turtwig skidded back on the grass but stayed on his feet.
"Razor Leaf," Gardenia said.
The leaves came fast. Sharp, spinning, a lot of them. Prinplup threw up her flippers and blocked most of them but three got through, cutting across her side and shoulder. She stumbled. Those were grass type moves hitting a water type. They hurt more than they should've and I could see it in how she held her left flipper slightly lower after.
Three hits. Three super effective hits and we'd barely started.
"BubbleBeam, push him back!"
Prinplup fired. The stream of bubbles hit the grass where Turtwig had been standing but he'd already moved, stepping sideways into a cluster of ferns. The green of his shell disappeared into the green of the plants.
That was the gym. The whole field was thick with plants, waist-high ferns and bushes growing out of real soil, and Turtwig knew every centimetre of it. We were fighting on his ground.
"Prinplup, watch the bushes. He's going to come from somewhere."
She turned, scanning. Already back straight, chin up. A rustling to the left. Prinplup fired BubbleBeam. Hit nothing but leaves.
"Razor Leaf."
The attack came from behind. Prinplup tried to dodge but caught two more leaves across her back. She cried out and the sound went straight through me. That was five clean Razor Leaf hits now and each one was super effective and she was slowing down. Her movements were heavier. Her breathing was wrong.
I was losing this matchup. Turtwig was using the field and Prinplup couldn't find him and every time she turned around another Razor Leaf hit her from somewhere she wasn't looking.
"Prinplup, get to the centre of the field. Open ground. Don't chase him."
She backed up toward the middle where the plants thinned out. Good. If Turtwig wanted to hit her he'd have to come out into the open or get close enough for the Razor Leaf to travel through clear air where she could see it coming.
"Turtwig, Bite," Gardenia called.
He came out of the ferns fast, low, mouth open. Not a grass move. Dark type. Prinplup wasn't expecting it and neither was I.
"Metal Claw, meet him!"
Prinplup swung. The glowing claw caught Turtwig on the side of the head mid-lunge but his teeth still clamped down on her flipper. Both of them stumbled. Turtwig held on, biting harder. Prinplup slammed her other claw into his shell and he let go and skidded back.
They stood a few metres apart, out in the open now. Both hurt. Turtwig had two Metal Claws in him but he was standing fine. Prinplup had five Razor Leafs and a Bite and she wasn't standing fine. Not even close.
I needed to end this before she took another hit.
"Peck, Prinplup, before he gets back to the plants!"
"Turtwig, Razor Leaf, keep her back!"
Prinplup charged forward, beak glowing. The Razor Leafs hit her mid-run. One, two, three, cutting into her chest and arms. She didn't flinch. Didn't slow down. Like the leaves weren't even there. Like she'd decided they didn't matter and that was that. Beak first, straight through, and Peck connected with Turtwig's body. He flew backward and hit the ground hard.
But Prinplup dropped to one knee.
Eight Razor Leafs. Super effective. Every single one. I'd watched her push through the last three without flinching and now she was on one knee in the middle of the field and her breathing was all wrong. She'd done that for me. She'd run straight into those leaves because I told her to and she did it without hesitating and now she could barely stand.
Turtwig was getting up. Slowly. The Peck had done real damage but he was tough.
"BubbleBeam, don't let him recover!"
Prinplup fired from one knee. The BubbleBeam hit Turtwig before he was fully standing and pushed him back down. He tried to get up again. Couldn't. His legs buckled and he went flat.
"Turtwig, return." Gardenia recalled him. She looked at Prinplup, still on one knee, breathing hard, barely holding herself upright. "That cost you."
Yeah. It did.
"Prinplup, you were amazing. Come back."
"Plup." She looked at me with an expression that said she was fine, she could keep going, she didn't need to be pulled. Then she swayed slightly and decided not to finish that argument.
I recalled her and held the ball for a second. One down, two to go. But Prinplup was done. Whatever she had left wasn't enough for another full fight. If I sent her back out there she'd go down fast and she'd hate it more than the losing.
"Rhyhorn, let's go."
Rhyhorn materialised and the field felt heavier. Ferns flattened under her feet. She looked around, sniffed the air once, and settled into her stance. Calm. Ready.
Gardenia pulled her second ball. "Cherrim, you're up."
Cherrim appeared in sunshine form, petals wide. The light from the glass panels seemed to brighten around it.
Small. Fast. Grass type against my rock-ground type. I had the advantage here. I just needed to hit it before it could set anything up.
"Cherrim, Leech Seed."
A seed hit Rhyhorn's shoulder before I could call a move. Roots spread fast, wrapping around her hide. She looked down at them. Shook once, hard, like she was annoyed more than worried. They held.
Damn it.
"Rock Blast!"
Three rocks. Cherrim dodged the first but the second and third connected and sent it tumbling across the grass. Good. That was solid damage.
Then the Leech Seed started pulling. Green energy flowing out of Rhyhorn and back into Cherrim. I watched the bruise on Cherrim's side actually shrink while Rhyhorn got heavier. You can know what Leech Seed does. You can go in knowing exactly how it works. And then you watch your pokémon's energy literally drain out of her and into something you just hit and it's completely different from knowing.
"Smack Down, Rhyhorn. Keep the pressure on."
Rock hit. Cherrim went down. Got up. Slower.
"Magical Leaf," Gardenia called.
Glowing leaves spiraled toward Rhyhorn. She tried to sidestep but Magical Leaf doesn't miss. It curved and hit her flank. Not heavy damage on a rock type but the Leech Seed was still pulling. Every second it pulled. Every hit she took mattered twice because she was losing health on top of it and Cherrim was gaining it back.
I had to outpace the drain. Just hit harder than it could heal.
"Smack Down again!"
Another rock. Cherrim went down harder this time. Got up but barely. The healing was losing the race. Each hit stuck a little more.
"Rock Blast, finish it!"
Two rocks. The first knocked Cherrim back, the second put it down. Petals closed. Stayed closed.
Gardenia recalled it. "Your Rhyhorn hits hard." She looked at Rhyhorn. The Leech Seed was still pulling. Her breathing was heavier than it should've been after two rounds. Her legs were trembling. "But she gave a lot to get that win."
I looked at Rhyhorn and something tightened in my chest. She'd won but the Leech Seed had taken more out of her than two Smack Downs and a Rock Blast were worth. She was tired in a way that rest wouldn't fix mid-battle.
Gardenia held up her last ball. Looked at it. Whispered something I couldn't hear. Then she threw it.
Roserade appeared and the gym changed. The air got thicker. The plants around the field straightened like they were paying attention. She stood there with red and blue flowers held at her sides and looked at Rhyhorn the way you look at something you've already figured out.
"Okay, Roserade. Grass Knot."
The grass under Rhyhorn reached up and wrapped around her legs. She bellowed. Grass Knot hits harder the heavier the target and Rhyhorn was the heaviest thing on this field by a lot. She staggered sideways and the grass pulled tighter.
"Rhyhorn, get out of there! Stomp!"
She ripped one leg out. Stomped. More grass came. And Roserade was already moving into the plants. Gone.
I couldn't see her. Rhyhorn couldn't see her. The grass kept climbing.
"Rock Blast, Rhyhorn, where you hear her!"
She fired left. Nothing. Fired right. A rustle but no hit. She stood there, head turning slowly, working through the angles. Not panicking. Just trying to find something to hit.
Roserade came out on Rhyhorn's blind side. Poison Jab, purple glow, right into her ribs. Rhyhorn roared. Not pain exactly. More like fury. She thrashed, swung her horn in a wide arc, hit nothing. Roserade was already back in the plants.
The poison spread fast. Purple lines crawling under Rhyhorn's hide. Her movements slowed. The Leech Seed and the poison together were eating her alive and I couldn't do anything about it because I couldn't find the thing that was doing it.
"Smack Down, Rhyhorn, just hit something!"
She fired toward the sound. Nothing. Just leaves.
Come on. Come on, why can't she hit anything. The grass was too tall and Roserade was too fast and every time Rhyhorn turned she was already somewhere else. Okay. Okay, calm down. If I'm not calm we're not going to win this. I still have Deino. I don't want to use him here but I think I have to at this rate. Which is fine. That's fine. Deino's fresh and Roserade's been running around for two minutes without taking a single hit.
Breathe. Focus.
Roserade came out again. Other side. Another Poison Jab. In, out, gone. Like she was practising.
Rhyhorn buckled. Caught herself. Her head dropped and came back up.
She looked at me. Not asking me to stop. Just checking. Making sure I was still there. Making sure I was watching.
My hand was already on her ball.
"Come back. You did more than enough. Come back, Rhyhorn."
I held the ball and didn't move for a second. She'd beaten Cherrim with Leech Seed draining her the whole fight. She'd taken two Poison Jabs from Roserade and a Grass Knot and she'd stayed standing until I told her to stop. I should've called it earlier. Thirty seconds, maybe a full minute. I watched her get hit twice and I didn't call it because I kept thinking the next Rock Blast would connect.
It didn't. And she paid for that.
Roserade stepped out onto the open field. Not a mark on her. She stood there with her flowers held slightly forward, petals catching the light from the glass ceiling, and she looked like she hadn't even started yet.
Gardenia looked at me. Patient. Like she'd been here before and she knew exactly what this silence was.
"Two down," she said. "What've you got?"