The Return of Jai {for lack of better title}

[PBK]

The girl stared down at her Pokegear. Darkaan's number was highlighted with its cursor. The doctors had told her that the boy had wanted to speak with her as soon as she was out. But Jai wasn't ready. Not just yet.

There were a few reasons for her thought process (as absent as it was at the moment- she was still feeling slightly dazed from her recent stay at the hospital.) For one, Jai knew that there was the slight possibility that he would inquire about her connections to the Dark Hand, or even just mention it. Either way, she was in no mood to talk of it. Then, there was the problem of her mobility (or lack there of.) The girl had been wheel-chair bound for the past few days. Of course, this situation was not permanent. The doctors had simply insisted that she use it until they saw her again in a few days. She agreed when, after trying to stand up on her own for just a few moments. The dizzy sensation took what seemed like hours to go away.

Jai flicked the pokegear screen until it displayed the time. She had a few hours 'til they would be expecting her back. They had told her to get out, to get some fresh air- said it would be good for her recovery. The girl looked around and her eyes caught on the sign advertising the Shellau Town Gym. Jai had never seen the sense in competitive pokemon battling, however, it seemed to be the only thing of interest in this town. Anyways, it might be a good chance to get her back into a training mentality- needless to say, her pokemon needed it after their little training hiatus during that unfortunate encounter with the Dark Hand.

The wheels turned slowly as Jai pushed at them with her hands. How frustrating. This was infinitely slower than crutches would have been. She almost wished that she had refused to go out- feigned sickness, anything. The girl reminded herself that this was only temporary. Soon, she would be walking unassisted, or so the doctor's said. They had told her that she was lucky. The girl couldn't help but laugh. With her "luck," she'd probably be bed-bound for life.

Finally, she reached the gym as well as an unforseen problem: stairs. The girl paused a moment to rest up as well as to consider her options. If Dez was there, she could have simply ridden the Ponyta into the gym. Unfortunately, the pokemon was in worse a state than her trainer and had to be left at the hospital. There was always the option of using one of her other trainers to help her in, but Jai hated to bother any of them. Then, the teen noticed a ramp towards the other side of the gym. Jai shook her head, wondering how she hadn't noticed it before, then, slowly wheeled to it.

Finally, she got up and to the door, and with a great deal of difficulty, managed to get the thing open. The girl checked her pokegear for the time again. Nearly half of an hour had passed. She hoped that the gym leader wasn't busy. The doctors would be expecting her back soon, so if she couldn't meet with the leader right away, Jai would have to make up some sort of alternative plan.

"Hello?" she called out tentatively.

ooc|| Ah, glad to have my fave charrie back.

[Professor Gravon]

"ACK!"
Splash!

A wet gym leader pulled herself out of the pool near the entry way of the gym.

"Didn't you see me standing near you?" Lillian squawked.
Obviously Lillian could see through the heavy mist covering the gym.

[PBK]

"Oh," Jai said half-heartedly. The girl hadn't expected the gym leader to be in the water. She turned her head to see the vague shape of a person through the misty air. The girl couldn't imagine how anyone could live this way, though, she supposed later that she had survived worse. The girl's sight wasn't the only thing that was foggy. Her mind still drifted to other things. Focus. Focus. Focus. She repeated the word within herself, willing her mind to come under her command. The gym leader had come out of the water. That meant she would probably be using pokemon of the water variety. Jai lacked any electric pokemon, so she'd have to come up with some sort of other strategy- and quick.

Trying to buy herself more time, Jai asked, "Are you the gym leader?" A stupid question, she knew. Even if this wasn't the gym leader, undoubtedly, she'd have to battle the trainer in order to get to the gym leader. But the longer she could keep the girl talking, the greater chance she'd have of picking up any clues of weakness, anything that would help her to build some sort of strategy.

[Professor Gravon]

"Yes. I am the gym leader," said the gym leader.
She treaded water as she spoke.
"So do you want to battle or what?" She asked rather firmly.

[PBK]

"Yes," Jai spoke slowly. She already had her hand on a pokeball. "What are the rules here? Single? Double battle?" For a question so strange to her tongue, it came out rather naturally, almost casually. She glanced at all of the water in the gym. Fighting on the water- that would limit some of her choices. "If it makes no difference to you, I'd prefer double, no substitutes." The girl smiled. There was something about limiting her options that excited her. The fewer pokemon they could use, the more critical each move became; one mistake could take the whole battle. Yes, it was this kind of adrenaline rush that the girl lived for.

[Professor Gravon]

Lillian's eyes sparkled! She would not lose this battle!

"Then I choose Lottle and Lily!" Lillian said releasing her pokemon into the field with gusto. The lapras and quagsire cried out their pokemon cries and did fancy intimidation moves towards Jai.

"GO!"

[PBK]

Jai watched the Quagsire. Electric moves would have no effect. Not that it really mattered- Jai lacked any electric-type pokemon. The use of Blade was a given. But what for her second pokemon?

The girl threw a pokeball to one of the islands in the middle of the water ((I'm assuming there's some sort of land after reading other battles...otherwise, I can always change my post.)) Out came Blade, her Shadow Grovyle. The pokemon's majestic leaves flowed behind him as he effortlessly landed on the battleground.

Another pokemon. She needed to use another pokemon. It would seem right to use Viper. Her Arbok had been there since the start of Jai's journey through Kantex. However, she felt that the pokemon was a bit unreliable...didn't take this sort of thing serious enough. Then, there was Hunter. The Mightyena certainly had the type of mentality that would allow them to win. Still, having two pokemon that were land-bound would be a disadvantage. Fear could fly, however, the girl was unsure of his feelings about battling. This was not the opportune time to find out. Only then did Jai realize how unprepared she was for this fight. A few days at the hospital can do that to a person. Deciding that this could be considered just practice, the girl took the pokeball of her new Shiny Beldum. This would be the perfect time to try out the pokemon, especially if she didn't have the intention of winning.

Unfortunately, before she could release her second chosen pokemon, another light flashed from her backpack.

"Deli?" the pokemon mouthed dumbly before realizing two things: first, he was in the water...very inconvenient for a Delibird who has yet to learn to swim. Second, he was in the water, something very inconvenient for a Delibird who has not yet learned to swim. Pokemon of his mental stature tend to realize something more than once before finally taking action.

"Stupid," the girl muttered, in no mood for the pokemon's games. Oh well, she would have to go with it. Delibird had already teleported...directly onto Lily's head. The strange pokemon smiled wide before hugging the Lapras' neck and planting a big, fat kiss on the opposing pokemon's head.

Jai was suddenly thankful that there was so much mist in the gym. That way, Lillian wouldn't be able to see how incredibly embarrassed she was at the moment.

[Professor Gravon]

"Your delibird against my lapras? You have no chance! Lapras! Body slam! Lottle! Muddy water tha grovyle!"

Lottle summoned a wave of dirt water and surged it towards the leafy lizard pokemon.

[PBK]

It wasn't exactly hard for the Lapras to slam a Delibird which was attatched to her...poor thing. Delibird was pushed deep into the water. Upon which it realized for the third time that it could not swim and opted to teleport away (though that might be giving to much credit. More likely, the teleportation was completely unintentional.) Delibird was now on the other side of the pool...in the pool...where it realized that *POOF* the pokemon was gone again, this time appearing on the island next to Grovlye. The pokemon seemed to be relieved.

The observant Blade launched itself up into the air before the muddy water could hit him. This was rather unfortunate for his partner, who got hit with all of the mud and all of the water and proceeded to flop around, similar to a Magikarp. In fact, between the color similarities and the movements, one could almost imagine him the fish pokemon. Jai wished for a moment that it was. At least a Magikarp would evolve into Gyrados eventually. The stupid Delibird would be just that...forever.

"Okay, use Absorb on that Quagsire!" Jai ordered. Grass attacks would be super effective against Lottle, while only moderately so against the Lapras. It made sense to knock out the blue blob first.

Blade prepared to suck Lottle's energy from where he was up in the air.

[Professor Gravon]

Lily swam fast towards the island and pulled up beside Lottle who used amnesia to raise it's special defense.
However, Lapras aimed it's water attack at the delibird again. However, grovyle's absorb attack absorbed the water blast and recovered to full health from it!

Lillian shook her head. She seemed to think their was a specific special combo happening here against her pokemon. She tried into it, analysing Jai's pokemon and strategy. It was so different to what she had originally seen. Surely their was some method in this madness.

For one thing, it was completely putting her off and she actually felt like an idiot that her pokemon were looking worse then Jai's pokemon.

[PBK]

"Okay," Jai said, "Use absorb on the Quagsire again!" If she could just get that thing out of the way, maybe she could think of someway to knock out the Lapras. It would come. She just had to not to get ahead of herself.

Blade landed back onto the island and faced Lottle, palms outstretched and head-leaf pointed to absorb any remaining energy from the water pokemon. He was completely absorbed (pardon the weak pun) into his attack against the Quagsire that he was otherwise unaware of his surroundings.

The water that Delibird had been splashing in eventually flowed back into the pool. The pokemon soon realized that he couldn't drown and picked himself up. Delibird dusted himself off rather daintily before pulling a present out of his sack. Carefully, he set it down on the water, as one might set a paper boat. But instead of floating away, the thing sank. Quite disappointed, the pokemon set another present down on the water. This yielded the same results. He set a total of four presents in the water, before the first one finally exploded from underwater, creating a sort of underwater earthquake. Upon the second explosion, Delibird was hit off ballance, fell onto his side and fainted.

Though fairing okay, Blade once again jumped up to avoid the tremors of the earth.

[Professor Gravon]

Lottle let out a cry as the ultra affective attack hit him again.
Lily heard his cry and swam towards him.
Without question, she used a forceful watergun attack on him.
He absorbed the attack completely! Lottle regained a substantial amount of health!
Lily had her back towards the delibird as she aided quagsire with her watergun.

[PBK]

Jai realized for the first time that Delibird wasn't moving. Well, perhaps it was better this way. She sighed before returning the fainted pokemon to its ball.

"Hmm," Jai said to herself. As long as the Lapras was there to aid Lottle, the Quagsire had something to instantly heal it. She'd have to be pretty lucky and get a 1 hit KO in order to get Lottle out of the picture. Better get Lapras out of the picture first. "Okay," Jai said, "Blade, use Absorb again, this time on Lapras." On the plus side, Blade had it's own automatic healing tactic.

[Professor Gravon]

Lily squealed in pain as her life force was drained.
It was super effective. She tried to sing to lull the grovyle to sleep but failed.

Lottle, in desperation, lunged at the grovyle with a body slam attack.

[PBK]

Grovyle flinched when Lily squealed, so he didn't see Lottle coming at him. The grass pokemon was slammed to the ground. As soon as he could, the pokemon jumped back up and attempted to reabsorb energy from Lottle, who just happened to be closer.

"Bruised, but not broken," the girl said to herself, smiling a bit.

[Professor Gravon]

Lottle was devastated by the attack as he received the hit on a close-up, more concentrated scale.

Out of reaction he used amnesia, to raise his special defense as he tried to flee from the grovyle. He jumped in the water and started swimming towards Lily.

Lily regathered herself and used a body slam on grovyle, not realising that Lottle was swimming to her.

[PBK]

The Grovyle launched himself into the air once more, this time expecting the body slam. He wasn't the type of pokemon to fall for the same "trick" twice. Blade smirked when he realized that Lottle was swimming straight towards the attacking pokemon. He was feeling quite healthy after sucking the energy from his opponent. As long as they were attacking eachother, he could sit back and watch-

"Blade, use Absorb on Lillian's pokemon! You should be able to hit both of them now that they're this close together," Jai commanded.

The pokemon complied, completetly content to finish the battle off. He prepared to absorb energy from the colliding pokemon.

[Professor Gravon]

Lottle saw the lapras leave the water and jump over his head. All he wanted Lily to do was squirt life into him again. Instead, for some bizarre reason the lapras came down upon Lottle knocking him out!

Lillian groaned.
"Incompetent! Absolutely incompetent!" She said under her breath. She returned Lottle to his ball.

[PBK]

Jai saw the bright light returning one of Lillian's pokemon to its ball. Could it be that she actually had some sort of chance at this fight? The girl's heart rate increased as she prepared for her next move. It wasn't easy when one could hardly see the fight, thanks to the mist. However, that made it all the more exciting. Jai squinted her eyes, trying to get a better view. She saw outline of her Grovyle and Lillian's Lapras. The critical thing at the moment was not to allow Blade to get knocked out since the whole battle hinged upon his health.

"Okay," she said, "Use Quick Attack to raise your speed! Then, Absorb!"

[Professor Gravon]

At the same time, Lily used sing as Lillian ordered Lily to use body slam. The grovyle's quick attack cut Lily's song short. That hurt!

Lily fumed and attempted to use body slam on Blade.

[PBK]

Though the pokemon would have usually been able to avoid such an attack, due to the close range from his quick attack, Blade was hit by body slam and pushed under the water.

She couldn't see much, but Jai managed to deduce what had happened. Blade wouldn't be able to survive long under water- he'd faint from lack of oxygen, even if his health was otherwise near-perfect. A chill went down her spine when she realized that there was nothing she could do to help any of this. Even if she screamed orders, the gecko pokemon wouldn't hear her. All she could do was wait and watch and hope that nothing terrible would happen.

The pokemon was momentarily stunned when he was pushed under water. When he finally came to, the pokemon swam quickly to the island in the middle of the gym. Blade pulled himself onto it, but was too weak to perform any sort of physical attack. If he tried to launch himself into the air now, the water would surely weigh him down.

"Use absorb if you can," Jai shouted through the mist, "Otherwise, we can always come back here later. No shame in that."

Blade began gathering his own energy to attempt to drain some more from his foe. But he was much slower this time.

[Professor Gravon]

Lapras who was underneath the water decided to play a smart intimidation tactic. She waited under the surface of the water. The mist made it hard to see anything below the surface.

She waited...

[PBK]

Blade stopped his attack, realizing that he could no longer see his opponent. There was no use in trying to attack a pokemon that wasn't there.

ooc|| Death to muse. Drained by the SAT. xDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD

[Professor Gravon]

Suddenly, to the left of Blade, Lily emerged.
She slammed the island as hard she could, hoping to take advantage of the grovyle in water again. She hurt her self quite severely as she didn't know that the island was as solid as she thought it was.

[PBK]

The Grovyle's sticky, gecko-like features kept him from slipping off the island, however the impact did cause his knees to fail and the pokemon hit the ground. If the Lapras hit the island again, there was a good chance he wouldn't be able to resist.

"Focus!" Jai said through the fog, "It's all your game now!"

The Grovyle attempted to use absorb once more.