Valerie

  The referee’s hand fell, and before Giovanni’s Persian could even begin to act, Sybil disappeared in a flash of pink Psychic-TE. They’d been working relentlessly on improving Sybil’s Psychic abilities, and it had paid off. Teleportation before they started training always took at least a few seconds to get going, but was practically instantaneous for shorter distances now.

  Longer distances still took more time, between half a second and a full second, ‘I doubt Sybil will have speed issues, but…’ The real issue was strength, Sybil wasn’t working with a lot of moves, and a lot of them she’d already known as a wild Pokemon. It didn’t help that Giovanni had chosen a Persian, which meant that Night Shade was out of the equation as a damaging move.

  Through talks, with Larry acting as an interpreter, Valerie learned that the little Flying-Types' life had been largely lethargic up until now. She and her family would stand in the same spots for most of the day, staring and focusing on things to improve their future sight before somehow spending a short amount of time hunting for food, ‘Well…It's definitely because of future sight, but that doesn’t help in a gym battle.’

  No matter how hard Sybil improved their future sight, she couldn’t use it offensively. They were spur-of-the-moment events she was entirely a passenger to, Sybil herself assumed that it would only be a thing she’d be able to do once she evolved.

  With that hashed out, their big strategy was to use a hit-and-run strategy, they had the run down, but the hit was still missing somewhat, ‘Persian isn’t the most defensively oriented Pokemon. If Sybil were fighting a Rhydon, I wouldn’t be able to see a win. But against a Persian…it might be possible…’ Again, Valerie found herself thanking Larry for his contribution, if he hadn’t taken out the defensively oriented enemies, this battle might’ve ended differently.

  The thought tugged at the back of her mind, spurring her onward to get this done, ‘We might be able to win this!’

  Persian turned, facing back towards Sybil as the Flying-Type lunged at it with a Peck. But before the attack managed to hit, Persian's paw shot out towards Sybil and smacked her away with extreme speed, ‘A Fake Out!’

  “Sybil!” Her Pokemon's small rotund body was launched away by the hit, rolling like a toy ball, but little did Giovanni or his Persian know that this was by design. Persian didn’t chase, expecting Sybil to be severely injured, but that wasn’t the case. In their training, they had found out that, while Natu had strong feet to jump and, surprisingly, climb with, they could also roll exceedingly well using their own body.

  By training with the small bird, she’d made the rolling motion into an escape maneuver. Few would try to take advantage of an opponent who was actively falling, what's with them being entirely unpredictable.

  Valerie pointed forward with a commanding arm, “Now!”

  So they abused the fact, a small light escaped from Natus' mouth as it rolled across the floor and languidly floated towards the Normal-Type.

  “Dodge it!” Giovanni commanded just a smidge too late, by the time his Pokemon jumped into action, it was already too late. The Confuse Ray drew the Persians' attention, forcing it to spin around in confusion as it followed the light to great effect.

  Its head bobbed from side to side as it wobbled in place. Their foe now firmly confused, it was time to enact their plan, “Now, Sybil, get to it!” Sybil once again disappeared and reappeared in the same breath just behind the confused Persian.

  “Snap out of it, Persian!” Giovanni cried from his position at the edge of his throne box.

  Sybil hopped up on the feline's back, hooking into its pristine white hide with its powerful talons. In the wild, Natu used their claws to climb trees and other tall plants to get at the fresh seeds at the top, so keeping on top of another Pokemon wasn’t the biggest challenge for Sybil.

  “Peck!” Valerie commanded, and Sybil went to work, smashing her Flying-TE empowered beak directly into the back of Persians head. If Persian wasn’t already confused before, it was now.

  “Peck!” Her beak smashed into the back of Persians head another time.

  “Peck!” Sybil reeled back more for another hit.

  “Peck!” Another hit connected, and Valerie wondered how Persian could just take these hits while standing. It seemed it had finally had enough, though.

  The Confusion finally subsided, and Persian let out a fearsome sound, “GRRRROOOWLLL!”

  Valerie was stunned for a moment by the sound, as the crowd's noise also momentarily cut out. Sybil herself didn’t mind, her Magic Bounce protected her from all Status-Moves. She proceeded to smash its beak into the Persians back once more with another Peck.

  “Persian! Slash!” With the Confusion gone, Giovanni took a chance at a powerful Normal-Type move, but Valerie had other ideas.

  “Stored Power and Away!” She called out, Sybil released her grip on Persians' back, and just as the Pokemon whirled around with a glowing paw, she exploded with accumulated Psychic-Type energy, temporarily forcing the feline to abort her attack. When she managed to catch her bearings, Sybil was already on the other side of the arena, watching her with that same listless stare.

  “Tch!” Giovanni clicked his tongue, “Playing Rattata and Meowth, I see.”

  “Of course,” Valerie found herself smirking up at the Team Rocket Leader. She’d had no plans to have such a climactic battle with the man, but she’d be a bad liar if she said she hadn't been enjoying herself, she was ecstatic, “If it works?”

  “I must agree, your tricks have worked so far. But,” The man adjusted his tie, “I can see you're fresh out of tricks.”

  Her eyes widened, ‘So he did see through me.’

  “And that reaction tells me I am right, Miss Riston.” He chastised, “You’ll have to improve that Poker Face of yours in the future. That Confuse Ray was well executed, but it won’t be enough in the end.”

  Wiping her sweaty palms into her jacket, Valerie felt the goosebumps rise on her arm, “It doesn’t matter anymore anyway. We’ll win this! Sybil, wear it down!”

  Sybil teleported, intending to Peck at the Normal-Type once again, but was met by a pair of Fury Swipes. She just barely managed to concentrate enough to initiate a dodge away from the feline's large claws, earning herself two gruesome marks across her previously pristine plumage, “Na-tugh!”

  “Again, Sybil!” She commanded with a grimace, and Sybil followed. It teleported above the feline, dropping down onto it before intending to explode into another Stored Power, but Persian was quicker. It swiped upwards with a Slash and managed to nick Sybil close to her legs before she managed to teleport out.

  ‘What’s going on? Why can’t we hit Persian anymore?!’ Valerie racked her brain for answers, but she already knew the answer deep down. Sybil was just too weak and slow to properly fight against the Gym Leader's Pokemon.

  ‘If we teleport around more, we’ll just waste all of Sybil's energy while trading hits. We can’t keep this up!’ Her hands were wrung the sides of her jacket as she tried to work out some kind of strategy that could eke them out a win. She didn’t have time to think too deeply as Persian seemed to slowly close in on their side of the arena with a relaxed gait, clearly playing with its prey.

  “Sybil, Confuse Ray!” She announced, ‘If we can just confuse Persian again, we might be able to get some more hits in. Please work!’

  With a wave of his arm, Giovanni instructed his Pokemon, “Dodge it.”

  In a feat of agility, Persian hopped over and around the ball which induced the confusion, all while keeping its eyes closed so as not to let its gaze stick to it. The Confuse Ray fizzled out of existence as the feline simply continued sauntering up to them in the arena.

  “My Persian won’t be hit by Confuse Ray twice in the same fight, Miss Riston.” Giovanni criticized with an evil grin on his face.

  Valerie's hands were balled into fists, her nails pressing into her palms painfully as she tried to come up with any sort of strategy to execute, which could help them out of their predicament.

  …

  Sybil

  She had been doing well up until a couple of moments ago, but now her prospects didn’t look so good anymore. Confuse Ray had really helped them out in managing to hit their opponent, but she did not have the strength or agility to keep up with the Persian when it came to a more honest fight.

  ‘And all of that when Larry had done so much work for us…’ The Rock-Type had beaten down two entire Pokemon in the Gym Leader's repertoire. Sybil could only watch in amazement at the power on display in his fight.

  Sybil could only teleport away when the Gym Leader's Persian was upon her, the Normal-Type could probably swallow her whole as she currently was. The only saving grace she’d been given was that the Persian wasn’t one for taunts, instead electing to stay quiet, just as she had.

  ‘This is vexing, but this fight is not over yet,’ Sybil thought to herself, ‘There has to be something…’

  Valerie had a look of concentration on her face, evidently trying to find any avenue of attack to take. Finally, she seemed to come to a conclusion.

  “Sybil! Do you trust me?”

  Nodding back, Sybil agreed readily, ‘Let us beat this challenge!’

  “The boulders!” She pointed at the large boulders Larry had created to dodge Nidoqueens Earthquake, “Use them as Leverage! Teleport on top of them!”

  Sybil did as instructed, appearing on top of one of the boulders in the blink of an eye. Persian sauntered up to the boulder and looked up at the bird with interest, but the Gym Leader shot down any hopes of beating him in a heartbeat.

  “Let’s end this farce, Persian! Power Gem!”

  The feline's eyes shimmered momentarily before an energy accumulated in the gem inlaid on top of its forehead.

  “NO! AWAY!” Valerie cried out in a last-ditch attempt, but Sybil's mind was elsewhere as she gazed up at the stage lights above, illuminating the arena.

  Just then, her eyes began to shimmer as well, but the glow didn’t subside, instead, it only intensified until her entire eye sockets shone with an iridescent glow as powerful as a searchlight.

  Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work!

  A vision, stronger than any before them.

  …

  The world slowed to a crawl as a harrowing scene began to envelop Sybil.

  They’re in a standoff, and the surrounding forest behind them is blanketed in a forest fire, reaching as far as the eye can see. The heat of the flames is palpable, but the rest is guesswork at best, with how blurry and indistinct the entire scene feels. Sybil can't even be sure where this is.

  Valerie stands behind her, commanding the team of indistinct Pokemon members with confidence, but Sybil can tell how her anxiety is growing. She knows something is nearby.

  Just then, something floats in view in front of them, stopping just short of the ground as it looms above them.

  It was a Pokemon of unimaginable power. Sybil can practically see the energies roiling off of it, even through the indistinct, muddy vision. She knows that even in her vision, she is terrified.

  One of Valerie's Pokemon, a large, hulking green beast, easily double her size, takes a step forward, challenging the monstrous Pokemon with a growl, ‘Wait…is that?... Am I taller?’

  Sybil drinks in every detail of the scene in front of her, every washed-out detail in the blurry vision. This is her future, the one she is currently vying for.

  The floating Pokemon's gaze wanders from the green one down to her as the vision fades into nonexistence.

  ‘Wait…No! I need to see more!’ Sybil cried out, her mind grasping at the vision helplessly, as it floats away into the ether, ‘If I find out how this vision ends, it will all make sense!’

  Her mental grasp slips, dropping down as the vision disappears into the nothingness upwards.

  ‘No!’ She denied, pulsing waves of Psychic-Type Energy forcing its way through her body as her emotions spike harshly, ‘I will not let the future run from me!’

  Inside her vision, she spreads her wings, coaxing the small appendages into entirely new ones, large enough for flight, as her form is overtaken by light.

  Her body grows, her head rising upwards like the bud of a flower, growing up higher as she takes to the skies with only a few flaps, chasing after the vision.

  She pushes Psychic-TE into her eyes and watches for the futures she wants to see. The one where they win this Gym and continue on their journey, where they grew strong enough to defy the present and the future.

  Strong enough to defy the forest fire, that dastardly Pokemon.

  Strong enough to save everyone she loves and cares for.

  “I won’t give up! I cannot give up when so many people rely on me!”

  Her eyes blazed with intense Psychic-TE, “I will not be a passive viewer of fate! My future is not just a vision to be watched!”

  “My future is not something I watch... It is something I take! I will not fail those who rely on me!”

  …

  Valerie

  Valerie watches as the glow from Sybil's eyes overtakes her entire form. She leaps from the boulder into the sky as her little wings begin to expand and grow.

  Persian’s Power Gem misses entirely, exploding against the psychic wall of the gym uselessly as the crowd chants intensify.

  Her body, previously nothing more than a head, grows outwards as her plumage expands into a beautiful tribal motif. The beak, previously small, grows several lengths longer before ending in a downward tip. Her tiny head feather splits and expand, lengthening until they are almost as long as her new body.

  Her eyes glint with Psychic-TE as she stares down at the Persian below.

  Valerie can hardly believe her eyes as she watches Sybil, formerly a Natu, now a Xatu, fly laps around the arena, “Oh…Oh, Sybil…Yes!” Tears begin to rim the edge of her eyes, “Yes! You did it! You evolved!”

  “XAAA-TUUU!” She cries out, her eyes shimmering with pink energies of Psychic-TE.

  Wiping at her eyes, Valerie throws out her arm. She'd prepared for this moment, “Sybil, Tailwind!”

  “XAAA!” Flying-TE encases Sybil as the grown bird gains a Tailwind behind herself, speeding up her flight around the tiny battling arena

  Giovanni’s face contorts in annoyance, “Persian! Power Gem at the bird! Now!”

  Persian's gem begins glowing again as it turns its head upwards to aim at the bird flying above.

  “Don’t let him hit you, Sybil! Air Cutter!” Valerie counters.

  Air focuses around her wings, and she releases the blades of air from around them by shucking them off and towards the cat, “TU! TU!”

  With its agility, Persian simply dodges around the blades, allowing them to disperse into nothingness against the ground before resuming to release its Power Gem.

  The beam shoots out, but Sybil simply teleports away, appearing across the arena within the blink of an eye, flapping in place above the arena, “XA!”

  Giovanni points at the bird wildly, irritated, “Persian! Hit that damned bird! I swear-”

  Just as the Gym Leader begins berating his Pokemon, something in the air shifts. Persian looks around in panic for a short second before hundreds of tiny needles made of Psychic-TE materialize around it in less than a second. The needles seemed to distort the space the feline was occupying. Like its very own localized mirage, Persian seems to distort and warp in space, as the cat begins to cry out in pain, “MRRRAAWW!”

  The crowd gasps in shock as the powerful Psychic attack assaults the Pokemon.

  Persians' cries die down shortly thereafter, as the phenomenon disappears entirely, the tiny pink needles dissipating just as quickly as they appeared.

  ‘What was that?’ Valerie looked at the injured Persian in confusion before her gaze rose to Sybil up in the sky, staring down at it with that same stare as ever, but a glint of challenge hidden behind it, ‘Another new move I didn't know?’

  ‘Whatever it was, we need to act now, it's got Giovanni and his Pokemon confused!” “Sybil! It's injured!” She pointed out, “Air Cutter!”

  Giovanni took initiative immediately, “Persian! Get away! Power Gem!”

  His Pokemon was still catching its breath, but followed his command anyway, energetic enough to dodge to the side. The blades of the Air Cutter exploded uselessly against the ground.

  They were just barely keeping up now, ‘Sybil is powerful enough to actually damage Persian now, even if she still isn’t very good at using her new moves…’ It was obvious by now that Persian wasn’t playing with its food anymore, it just didn’t have any other moves than Power Gem to fight against a flying opponent.

  At least with more physically inclined Flying-Types, they were forced to swoop down to initiate their attacks, but Sybil didn’t have that inclination.

  “Sybil! Another of that other move, whatever it was!” Valeire commanded, and Sybil's eyes glinted with more pink Psychic-TE as it swooped to the side to dodge another Power Gem, deciding to save the energy normally required for a Teleport. ‘She must be tired by now to not Teleport…’ Valerie waits for the attack, only for nothing to happen. ‘Where is the attack? Does it take time?’

  Valerie wiped more sweat into her jacket, ‘It doesn’t matter…The only question now is, does Giovanni have any other tricks up his sleeve?’

  The man seemed to have read her mind, as he pointed up at Sybil with a commanding tone, “Persian! Taunt!”

  ‘So that’s how he intends to get Sybil closer.’ Valerie panicked for a short second before her memory caught up to her, ‘Wait, that won’t work because-’

  “MRRRAAAW!” Persian cries out in agitation, Dark-TE bleeding out of its mouth and eyes in a clear challenge, but Sybil remains entirely unaffected, the Status-Attack simply bouncing off of the bird and back towards the cat.

  ‘Magic Bounce…’

  Giovanni also seems to catch onto his own mistake in that very moment, his face contorting in a wince as his Persians calm and cool expression gets replaced by one of pure hatred and vitriol. It growls in challenge as it gazes up at the bird, “Grrrrr…”

  “Sybil, another Air Cutter!” The end of the match is well and truly upon them now. With Giovanni’s mistake, Persian is now on a timer until either of them faints, her playful and timid fighting from before had now been replaced as she openly prowls around on the court below in an attempt to find an opening to lunge up at the bird with hate in her eyes.

  “Persian, Bite!” Giovanni instructs.

  Sybil launches the blades of air towards Persian, but the Pokemon simply dodges around them as it runs up towards the Psychic-Type up in the air on the other side of the court. Persian accelerates, its eyes locking onto the boulders in the middle of the arena before it takes a running leap onto them.

  On top of the boulders, its legs compress downwards, and it launches itself upwards with a powerful jump. For a second, it seems as if the Normal-Type takes flight, as it floats even above where Sybil is currently gliding.

  ‘No way…’

  Its jaw hinges open as it zeros in on Sybil, and Valerie can only watch as their eyes meet up high in the arena's opulent domed roof. Even the crowd seems to hold its breath to see if Persian’s attack will land.

  Then, the pink needles reappear.

  All of Persian’s momentum stops dead, the Pokemon floating up high in the Gym's ceiling, with not even gravity acting upon it. As it paws at the air around it in an attempt to be released before once again, the air, no, the entire space around it, begins to distort and warp.

  Flapping next to it in the air, Sybil simply floats there and watches as the feline cries out in pain, “MRRRAAAWWWRR!”

  Just as quickly as they’d appeared, the needles disappeared, and Persian was unceremoniously dropped out of the air.

  “Persian!” Giovanni cried out in an attempt to wake the Pokemon, with a heavy THUMP! the Persian landed on the Gym’s compacted dirt arena, kicking up a cloud of dust around itself.

  When the dust cleared, Persian still lay there in a heap on the floor, fainted.

  ‘What was that attack?’ Valerie understood that upon evolution, Natu naturally learned moves befitting of a Flying-Type, Air Slash, and Tailwind. ‘But that move wasn’t something I read about in my research…’

  The referee on the edge of the court raised a hand to Valerie's side, “Persian has fainted! Gym Leader Giovanni has no more Pokemon! Valerie Riston is the winner!”

  The small crowd erupted into a loud flurry of cheers as she watched Giovanni, still somewhat rattled, recall his Persian into its own Pokeball. The man could only sigh, “Haah…I concede, this is your win, Miss Riston.”

  With his announcement, the small crowd erupted into even more cheering applause. Valerie could hardly believe her eyes and ears, but before long, she was jumping up and down in excitement on her side of the court, “Yes! Yes! Woohoo! Sybil! We won!”

  “Xaa-Tuu! Xaa-Tuu!” She sang-songed as she sailed back down towards Valerie, with her gaze still similarly dead-eyed, only the sway in her body and head let Valerie know that the bird was clearly satisfied.

  The Psychic Barrier disappeared, and Sybil landed next to her, standing tall enough now to reach up to her shoulder. “Oh my goodness! Look at you, Sybil!” She couldn’t help but envelop her Pokemon in a hug as more tears started running down her face, “I’m so happy for you!”

  The crowd's enthusiasm finally died down, and Giovanni spoke up again, “This Gym Battle certainly didn’t go as I expected.”

  Rubbing tears into her sleeves, Valerie could only agree with a chuckle, “Hahaha! Me neither! Haha!” She rubbed the back of her head as she schooled her expression down into something more calm, “I-I didn’t expect any of this…Ha…”

  Giovanni had also long schooled his own expression back down to something far more relaxed. He picked up the unused Pokeball from the pedestal next to him, “It seems someone tampered with my selection of Pokemon, replacing all of them with Pokemon still in training at the Gym…” Opening the Pokeball next to him, a Nidoking appeared, barely big enough to reach the supposed crime boss's chest. The Poison-Type looked around curiously before its eyes fell on Giovanni, “King?”

  “You are also still in training, and not supposed to be used for a Gym Battle.” Giovanni answered the Pokemon with a quirk of his brow, “What are you doing here?”

  Nidoking simply shrugged in response, and Giovanni recalled it into its Pokeball with a sigh and a shake of the head, “No matter. I stand by my challenges, tampered with or not. You bested me.”

  With a snap of his finger, the referee, still in a gaudy set of armor, approaches Valeire and retrieves a small metal case from somewhere on his person. Opening up the case, a small badge the length of her thumb glinted back at Valerie. Next to it lay a Technical Machine in a plastic case, its cover reading Earthquake.

  “T-Thank you…” Reverently, Valerie took both of the items as the referee disappeared. The harsh light of the stage lights of the arena reflected beautifully off the small badge between her fingers. It's two tones of green shone brilliantly as another giddy grin spread across Valerie's face, ‘I-No…We. We really did it!’

  All of her worries about her qualities as a trainer washed away in the rush of adrenaline she’d gotten with her win. She swung an arm around Sybil's shoulder next to her and raised the badge high up in the sky, allowing the crowd to erupt into another roar of cheers, “We did it!”

  Her celebrations were cut abruptly when the same referee opened a side door, leading out of the battling arena, only to be held under duress by an armored man with a baton, “W-What?!”

  A group of armored men stormed through the small service entrance, one forcing the man down onto the floor as the rest charged by him and into the room, most armed with batons, but a few of them alongside a Pokemon, like a Growlithe.

  A middle-aged man in a brown trenchcoat led the group of men with a bipedal amphibious Pokemon Valerie didn’t recognize at his side, “International Police! League Enforcement! Hands where we can see them!”

  Episodes 48-54 from Season 5, which are all the episodes that introduce and feature Larvitar in them, with a nice cameo by Tyranitar in the last one. If you wanna see some anime episodes featuring a cute little Larvitar, these are the ones.