Today was the day, we had trained up and we were going to absolutely destroy this next gym challenge. Everyone was coming to watch and cheer us on while taking note of how their challenges would go. Really, I think I deserve even more praise. I watched videos of past challenges and had come up with a decent plan on how to work best with other trainers. The challenge was actually more about working together than individually fighting the dynamax Pokémon. 

My entire team had huddled around my pokedex and watched several successes and failures and Ian had actually been the one to point this out. With some faint military knowledge he determined that there were a couple of necessary roles to beat this challenge.

First, at least two Pokémon working on ranged attacks focused on the face to damage it and cause distractions. The target is huge but too far up for most physically inclined Pokémon to hit anything important.

Second, you are going to need something to protect the first two since they are doing the main damage and will be the focus of the dynamaxed Pokémon. While there is a gym trainer there, they mostly don't order their Pokémon around since they only have simple moves to use in the first place and the gym Pokemon isn't cognitively in the best state either to follow orders.

Ian's tactical advice only went that far but I figured that there should be someone weakening the dynamaxed Pokémon or causing status conditions. It is completely fair to try and wait it out and then beat the Pokémon after it snaps out of its larger form. Only, with so much energy packed into their special arenas it will take a long time for that to happen. 

Trainers who tried going toe to toe and fistfight the giant like they for higher badges were all met with defeat, the size of the dynamaxed bodies alone enhanced their strength far too much for weak Pokémon getting their second badge. So with that, Ian and Sin were out. Ian because he wasn't fast enough to act as a good tank for the damage dealers and destiny bond wouldn't work. Even if he hid them behind his new protect he would get tired within a few seconds at most as it was a very draining move because of how effective it was. Sin was all physical in nature, particularly strength and not defense even if he was slightly faster.

That left me with the girls who if I'm being honest are better options anyways for such a large arena that we'll have. Puff had finally figured out sing as well as cotton guard. Plus she was my original ranged attacker with hyper voice, and larger ears could mean more damage when hitting the face. Fly was a weaker choice but still workable, now able to extend her static field a bit in a single direction for about 3 feet so it could work. Also, she had more stamina than Puff as she could collect up more energy by running around right up until she was knocked out or her muscles started getting too overworked from the electricity empowering them.

I would just have to see and when I been nervously drawing new moves and variations in my notebook when my name got called up for my match along with a few others.

In my group of 6 there were four girls and another guy. Three of the girls knew each other and led our 5 minute discussion period. 

We started with our Pokémon, although one of the boys mentioned that we should only say what we might use. He was very muscly for someone our age and would be using a Mudkip. I cringed, thinking poorly of his choice.

The trio of friends had a bigger assortment, Sprigatito, Sobble, Eevee, Gligar, Horsea, Ducklett, Sandile, Dustox, and a Petilil. Good variety even though two of them said they wanted to specialize in water and grass types one day. Not sure how that’s relevant but their Pokemon made me think they were from the desert gym city and got their challenges in before that Flygon sinkhole destroyed everything. They had a few more pokeballs but didn’t mention any of their occupants.

The other girl had the strongest Pokemon in Flapple that was her father's Pokemon and also listed her others even though it was so obviously going to be her choice.

I told everyone about my two that I would use and my strategy, something that the Flapple girl seemed to know about from some online guide who thought I saw the same thing. I did it myself ok, no one out pizzas the hut!(Love this new phrase I learned by going to try restaurant pizza for the first time, delicious by the way)

From there we tried to plan out who we would use and came up with this group: Fly, Flapple, Mudkip, Sobble, Sprigatito, and Dustox. Flapple would be in charge of distracting it from the sky while Sobble and Fly took pot shots. Sprigatito was in charge of protecting them with Dustox working to poison our opponent.

The other guy said that he’d mess the gym Pokemon up and his now released Mudkip flexed its muscles. I’m not sure where he won his first badge from, but he says that he can beat the gym here like he did in his Omega Ruby game.

The timer went off and we were shooed into a large space that had an open roof and plenty of space. The terrain had some dips and a couple small ponds around. I noticed the dips looked like footprints, large ones that smashed the earth down under a great weight and had been left there from some previous battle. An engine started whirling and I started feeling nervous as small red particles started floating down from above. A primal energy that used to enlarge Pokemon. 

There were no platforms for this type of battle. Factors such as having 6 trainers participate at the same time and the large arenas forced the gym to cut corners somewhere since there was only so much space for these large battlefields. In fact, I think there are only 10 in the whole gym with the same amount of regular ones. I was lucky that higher badge challenges took priority or I'd have to wait another two weeks like Zac.

From loudspeakers the referee started explaining the rules although this time didn't allow an aid since we would be right there with our Pokemon, expected to keep ourselves out of the way of any attacks. Staff was on hand for immediate medical situations and were veterans in quick operations using plenty of Ditto gel to keep us easily damaged trainers alive and fully intact. These new jitters overrode my normal motions. My mind was a clear and calm as ever, the darkness started working with me this time and spread out of its hidey hole to dull all of my emotions. My grandmother's ripped image failed to enter my mind this time but this was on me. Like my grandpa said, I needed to fight some battles on my own and I purposely pushed her confident figure out of my head.

The gym trainer we were facing, a smiling forty something blonde guy, waved from the other side of the gym. I waved back and waited for the ref to finish speaking. We were prompted to release our Pokemon and we did so except the already released Mudkip. The two flyers started heading towards the sky and the others spread out while the blonde man evaluated us, specifically the Flapple and Sobble. He nodded and brought out a special pokeball, one that when clicked, increased in size until he tossed the bowling ball sized thing into the arena. Red light flashed as a ginormous Purrloin appeared.

It rumbled, a giggle that shook the ground as it looked at the two flying towards it.

“Battle begin!” the speakers boomed and the stands of watching parents, friends, and casual battle enjoyers cheered. The Purrloin watched with some interest before batting at Flapple. Sobble set up an aqua ring, feeding upon the excess water to restore its energy as vapor condensed in the air and drenching the water type as it became invisible. Its trainer was nervously tugging at her blue shirt and staying back. I ordered Fly to start launching sparks, making attacks as we jogged forward to get closer and deal more damage. 

"GO MUDKIP, FUCK THAT GIANT UP!" the muscly guy yelled with to much enthusiasm. Mudkip responded well though and slid forward while readying a rock smash. 

The others all started working on what we talked about. The girl with the Dustox fixed her glasses as powder started raining from the sky as I could see the currents made by the Purrloin's breathing. It smirked slowly as it missed the faster and smaller Pokemon. Purrloin swiped forward and did that rumbling giggle thing as it shot a beam of darkness that flowed like water through the air. It was less concentrated than the Z-move that almost killed me but looked just as impressive when Flapple dodged the max darkness a few times before it faded. 

The giant looked down at us next, the backliners peppering its face, and walked forwards faster than I would have thought. In two steps, it reached the advancing Mudkip and as it stepped over the mud fish Purrloin tried stomping down. "NOW!" the muscly boy called out for Mudkip to smash its fist upwards which caused a rippling of the Purrloin's fur as the approximation to a needle hit its foot. The stomp was completed anyways and when it was lifted back up the Mudkip was knocked out and embedded into the dirt much to the boy's shock. 

"Don't worry, we got this. Sprigatito tail whip!" Another girl from the trio, this one with a hoody, called out to the green kitty that started cutely shaking its butt. The Purrloin got distracted and started bending over to look closer but its trainer snapped it out its daze.

"Give it a max quake, make sure to target the Sobble before its aqua ring disappears!" the blonde man called out cheerily. That's kind of creepy, crushing dreams that joyfully? Guy's got a screw loose or something. The purple colossus responded quickly, stomping down for a line of cracks to appear in the ground that headed towards us.

"RUN" I told Fly and she took off like she was born with a purpose. Dustox tried swooping down to grab Sobble but missed and had to do a repass right as the ground exploded upwards at the invisible Pokemon within the aqua ring. On the second pass and in the air, Sobble latched on to Dustox and got out of there, drawing upon the aqua ring to heal itself and its ride. Sprigatito was left behind, the quakes were too much for the frail cat. When max quake ended, a second one of us was knocked out and recalled.

I myself got a shower of dirt thrown at me when the trail of earth passed by for the real attack. I followed my loyal hound further forward so I wouldn't have to yell once I dodged the attack. Longer legs helped me to somewhat catch up to Fly who was still unleashing spark after spark onto the Purrloin's face. It looked annoyed but was focusing its attention into the sky. Flapple had taken that chance to slice into it with wing attacks and done some real damage before a max guard halted its efforts temporarily. 

I noticed my chance and led Fly forward towards the unaware titan. The man saw us but was content to watch, even giving us a thumbs up. I took this chance to quietly tell Fly to stop attacking and start charging her static launcher thing. As she overcharged her ability to make this work I looked up from below Purrloin to see Flapple and Dustox dodging max strikes from the ground and batting paws. All the effort was draining Purrloin and it started moving slower as it was chipped away at by the poison in its system. The aqua ring hand done good work and restored much of Sobble's health while it kept spraying water from the sky.

It was weird, seeing the half invisible form of Sobble. Like a painting that someone had forgotten to finish on a see-through canvas. Dustox meanwhile had some winds helping it dodge the waving arms. It was having a harder time than Flapple, and got clipped once before too long. At that moment I gave Fly the ok. The static force that built up started vibrating around Fly until it burst forward and reached the purple fur. Like a conductor, the crackling energy ran farther up the leg and Fly kept pouring herself into this adapted ability/move thingy.

"FREEEEEEZZZZEEE" she barked as she dumped the rest of her energy through the static cloud. Purrloin sure felt it, or rather didn't, tripping over its unmoving leg before it landed on its own slim black nose. 

It growled and the noise thundered across the field but we kept at it until Fly ran out of juice to use. She started stumbling away to build up more energy as our teammates tore Purrloin a new one. I walked to follow Fly, she wasn't getting very far but a vicious tail lash swung into me and tossed me into a soft huge white leg. I got dizzy but it wasn't too bad. Purrloin's tail was as about the size of my waist so I walked away with a new bruise from the unexpected and unfortunate attack. It was around 30 feet tall but I still moved faster to get out of the tail's range.

Its growls grew as it started lashing its tail more, the idea from whacking me driving it to swat at Flapple who finally got hit and thrown to the side with minimal damage. Fly recovered and we went around to target the face again only to hear the second order of the match from the blonde smiling man. "Max darkness, keep going until you knock out that Dustox."

Thinking that the flying water gun duo was a good idea, their trainers had told them to stay together in the skies. Three max darkness beams, one right after the other, shot out and curved in an arc before squiggling to hit Dustox. Weighed down and not trained to be speedy, Dustox got hit by the first dark beam. The second one finished the job and knocked both Dustox and Sobble out. They were recalled out of the air feet before the third could hit. The ranged attack blasted into the audience's barrier and exploded as Purrloin purred in satisfaction before turning to the two remaining foes. 

Its leg was still nonresponsive but would wear off with time. Thankfully the Purrloin was looking drowsy, punch drunk from all the wing attacks and ranged moves it had been hit with. Poison energy infested its wounds to wear it down further but it still flipped into a sitting position to finish this. 

I had Fly back Flapple up and they were too quick for the hurting Purrloin. Even the max darknesses missed each and every time except one unfortunate situation where Fly's paw got stuck for a second in mud. That hurt to watch and she fainted soon after to a follow-up tail bash. That was the last real attack Purloin managed before collapsing to a final wing attack.

It shrunk at a rapid rate and we celebrated. I picked up Fly and her dirty paws shook when she woke back up from unconsciousness. I didn't notice it before but some black particles were sticking to the dirt on her fur where the max darkness had hit and when I brushed them off, they entered into my body. The darkness TE fed upon this and grew, dulling even my over the top excitement to mere satisfaction.

I ran over to raise my spirits and joke with the guy about carrying him which he didn't take too well. He was too appreciative to retaliate though and instead set his face to thank each of us with a handshake. Flapple, the real star of the show despite the initial roles, was being praised by three of the girls except for the one with the blue shirt who was doing some circle twirls filled with excitement.

The blonde-haired man walked over after recalling the gym Pokemon and had a bunch of shiny black and red badges in his hands "Congratulations you guys, you really put Purrloin through his paces. Here's your nephilim badges and let me say that was an awesome showing!"

He shook our hands and gave us our badges commenting on what he thought we did best and a few tips to work on. His advice and praise for me was “Nifty static deviation, with how well it works now I would advice focusing on it more. Be aware though, those attacks need to be stronger for the third badge so make sure to work on empowering them. If not for Flapple taking advantage of the paralysis, there wouldn't have been a point to your Electrike being there.”

That was kind of rude, we worked hard on that! To be polite I thanked him and left to go check out what I could get this time from the rewards counter quickly to beat the others. Thankfully, the darkness had not stopped moving around and dimmed the feeling that made me think I didn't deserve this badge. Did I?