"Alright, Maestro, let's go," Eloy said, projecting a confidence he did not feel as he stood down the eternally smiling face of Marcel, the Mr. Mime. He tossed his pokeball lightly forward and with a flash, Maestro appeared. The Kricketot took several moment, looking about, until its eyes settle on Marcel and he physically recoiled, taking several steps back.
"Really? That's the best you've got?" Hansel said, cackling to himself, "Well at least I know my disappointment is almost over."
"You think so? Guess it won't feel so great if you lose then," Eloy retorted, "Get ready Maestro, we're winning this." Eloy knew that his chances of victory were slim at best, but he'd be damned if he was giving up now, against this particular gym leader. If he was going down, he and Maestro were going to make Marcel work for his win.
"The fact you have to say 'if' says it all. Marcel, Psybeam!" Marcel ordered and the battle was on once again.
The Mr. Mime thrust his hands forward and the blue beam awash with the abstract mash of colours was shooting forward towards Maestro, the little Bug type giving a little squeak as the attack neared.
"Struggle Bug!" Eloy commanded.
A red light overtook Maestro's body, rising up in a glowing pillar before it expanded, pushing outwards in all directions. Psybeam met Struggle Bug, the attacks exploding into a glittering cloud of remnants upon their collision.
"Aright, Bug Bite!" Eloy called.
"Tot!" Maestro replied, breaking into his comical, ungainly run with his stumpy legs. He approached at his full speed, which was faster than one might have expected given his body. Despite this though, Hansel didn't make a move to try and halt the Kricketot's progress. Maestro reached melee distance from Marcel, leaping forward in an attempt to bite down on the smiling Mr. Mime.
"Protect," Hansel said, sighing dramatically.
A sphere of green energy pulsed into existence around Marcel, Maestro slamming head first into the protective shield and falling onto the hard battlefield. The Kricketot rolled with the impact, quickly returning to his feet.
"Dazzling Gleam!" Hansel instructed, switching to the offensive.
A bright light flashed outwards from the Mr. Mime, forcing Maestro's eyes shut from the brightness. The force of the attack blasted Maestro off his feet and sent him tumbling across the battlefield once more. Maestro was halfway back across the battlefield when he once more returned to his feet. This time though, Eloy could see he'd felt the attack.
"Now, Hypnosis, Marcel," Hanel pressed on, gleefully smirking at the look of dismay his command prompted to form on Eloy's visage.
There was nothing that Eloy could do before the attack set in. Marcel's eyes glowed an eerie blue and he waved his hands around in front of him in a mesmerizing motion. Maestro couldn't look away, flashing with a pale blue light before falling forward in a deep sleep.
Laughing, Hansel gave the order for another Psybeam against the helpless Bug. Once more, the peculiar looking beam shot forward, striking Maestro and irradiating him in its light as it blasted him into the side of Eloy's platform. Maestro slumped there, still asleep.
"Maestro, wake up!" Eloy yelled, trying to snap his Kricketot out of Marcel's spell, but it was to no avail.
"See, it's hopeless for you. You should just give up already," Hansel sneered.
"Not likely," Eloy replied before continuing in his attempts to rouse Maestro.
"Suit yourself," Hansel said, "Nasty Plot and then Psybeam again."
For a brief moment, the perpetual, blank smile on Hansel's Mr. Mime was replaced with a look of intense malevolent glee as a faint black shadow emmenated over his body. Then, as the shadow faded, the smile returned and the attack continued.
Marcel thrust his hands forward in the now familiar gesture and with it came an explosive Psybeam, the scope of the attack seeming to have double in power after the boost from Nasty Plot.
Eloy winced as the Psybeam struck home, pinning the still sleeping Maestro against the platform as it bathed him in the bizzare light of the attack, inflicting heaping amounts of damage on Maestro while he could do nothing about it.
As the attack continued on, Maestro's exoskeleton seemed to darken, grey and harden. Then it began to crack. Eloy was horror-stricken for a moment, before it dawned on him what was happening. The dead shell exploded outwards, revealing Maestro in a freshly grown exoskeleton, wide awake. His ability, Shed Skin, had taken affect and freed him from his induced slumber. Maestro immediately began to scream out in pain.
"Struggle Bug, quick!" Eloy shouted.
Even as Maestro screeched, a red glow could be seen through the colour-speckled blue of the Psybeam. Then, that red light burst outwards, dispersing the Psybeam and freeing Maestro from the onslaught, earning him a brief reprieve. Yet Maestro was huffing and puffing, he wasn't standing as firm as he had before, he was on his last legs after having taken such a heavy assault and Marcel hadn't taken a single hit. Eloy grimaced, he could hear the bells tolling on his chance at defeating Hansel. He almost found himself reaching for Maestro's ball, but he couldn't bring himself to give Hansel the satisfaction of seeing him quit.
"Maestro…" Eloy began, unsure of what command he could even give.
"Tot!" Maestro shouted suddenly, and in that moment a brilliant white light erupted from his body, blindingly bright and radiating a powerful feeling. Eloy watched on in awe as Maestro's body grew within the light, thinning out as he became taller and his limbs extended. Then, instantly, the light was extinguished and Maestro was a changed Pokemon. He was twice as tall as before, with long antenna and even longed, bladed arms. His face was adorned with a fabulous moustache like appendage below wide, expressive eyes. Maestro had become the first of Eloy's Pokemon to evolve. Now he was a Kricketune.
Maestro turned to look at Eloy, then looked down at his new form, inspecting the blades on his arms. He gave a long,drawn out musical, joyous cry and then turned back to nce more face his opponent.
"Woah," Eloy breathed, feeling suddenly giddy with excitement. Every negative emotion he had, at least for that moment, seemed to evaporate and be replaced by the warmth of the pride he felt in his newly evolved Kricketune. He couldn't believe he'd doubted him.
"I hate to rain on your parade," Hansel said, his voice cutting through the pleasant atmosphere like a knife and returning it to the cold stagnant feel he had been fostering. It was clear that in actuality, he very much enjoyed raining on Eloy's parade, "That was quite the spectacle and all, but it doesn't change the fact that you have a weak Pokemon that's taken a severe beating, whilst Marcel hasn't even been hit once."
Eloy frowned, he didn't like it, but he had to admit that Hansel wasn't entirely wrong. Maestro was still pretty badly beaten up, the battle was far from over.
"We'll just have to hit him a few times then," Eloy said.
"I long to see you try," Hansel replied dryly.
As if on queue, a cloud of small green light began to rise up off of Maestro's body. The lights clustered around him, floating around his form. Then, the blades of Maestro's arms glowed with a deep, violent red colour, similar to the glow of hs Struggle Bug.
Now Eloy smirked a little himself, he was witnessing not only the activation of the Swarm ability, powering up Maestro's Bug moves, but also a new move entirely.
"Sounds like a plan, Maestro," he said, "Fury Cutter!"
Maestro's black wings rose up, buzzing into action as, although low to the ground, they carried him forward at a far greater momentum than he had previously been capable of. He rapidly closed in and viciously slashed at the Mr. Mime.
"Protect!" Hansel called, and Maestro's Fury Cutter was intercepted by the green light of Marcel's defense, "You never learn do you?"
"Again!" Eloy called, taking advantage of the chance to take advantage of the new move's special power. He knew that, like Gisele's Rollout, each successive use would make Maestro's Fury Cutter twice as powerful.
Maestro's blades glowed a deeper red, growing as the move powered up for a second slash. He lashed out again, his Fury Cutter colliding with Marcel's Protect in a shower of red and green sparks. The blades grew again, becoming truly fearsome weapons as their vivid red grew deeper still.
Maestro lashed out again, this time, Marcel's Protect didn't hold out, exploding into a trillion tiny glittering shards.
"Hypnosis!" Hansel yelled, suddenly frantic as he realised his win wasn't as assured as he'd thought.
"Again!" Eloy shouted over the top of the gym leader.
Marcel's eyes began to glow with the same eerie light, but Maestro ripped his Fury Cutter across the Mr. Mime before the Psychic move could set in and put him to sleep. Now on it's third use, Fury Cutter had become a very powerful move and Marcel was swatted across the width of the battlefield with the strong slashing attack.
Marcel careened into the wall of the sunken arena, striking the hard structure with a loud thud and slumping down onto the stone slab of a battlefield. Maestro turned and started walking towards the Mr. Mine as it climbed to its feet.
"Like hell we're losing here Marcel! Psybeam!" Hansel practically roared.
Staggering forward a few steps, Marcel raised its hands and fired off another enormous, powerful Psybeam. None of Maestro's moves had the range to meet it part way, leaving Eloy and Maestro with few options. Eloy didn't even think, he just reacted.
"Bide!"
Maestro slammed his blades down into the hard battlefield, bracing himself as the attack collided with him, sending him skidding back as he struggled to keep standing against its might. As the blue psychic beam surged across Maestro, he gradually began to glow a brighter and brighter white. Then, with another loud, musical cry, Maestro unleashed all the damage he had just withstood and then some back upon Marcel.
"Tuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuune!" Came the yell as Maestro's white glow condensed into an orb before him, breaking up the Psybeam as it passed over it before erupting forward and out in an enormous blast of pure white energy. The blast from the Bide annihilated Marcel's Psybeam and then immersed the Mr. Mime in a monstrous deluge. Eloy heard the cracking of the stone wall behind Marcel as the Fairy type was slammed against its surface with a hit like an atom bomb. When the blast finally fizzled out, it revealed the unconscious body of the Mr. Mime, nestled against a cracked crater in the wall.
"Uh..," The referrer stammered, gulping as she looked at the look of fury on her boss' face, "Uh… Marcel is unable to battle. The challenger wins." She sounded more apologetic than official.
Hansel returned Marcel with a scoff and a sigh, turning to look at Eloy with disdain.
"Alright, you got me," he conceded. He opened a compartment in the arm of the throne and withdrew a pink and silver badge in the shape of a book. He tossed it into the middle of the battlefield where it clattered to a halt.
Eloy rushed down the platform, past the inert Tale Badge on the ground and made his way right up to Maestro, dropping to his knees and embracing his Kricketune.
"You sure showed him - and me too," Eloy said brightly, "That was some battle, Maestro."
With that, Eloy returned Maestro to his ball and collected his badge before exiting the gym. On his way out, he made a point of suggesting looking for a new job to the receptionist.
Team Eloy