Ace

Chapter 8

  "Meowstic, use Charge Beam!" my Meowstic fired a powerful beam of electricity at Valerie's Mawhile, but it jumped out of the way. "Crunch, Mawhile!" Mawhile crushed poor Meowstic between the enormous jaws at the back of its head with the super effective move. Luckily, Meowstic managed to take the attack and fought back with another Charge Beam, which hit Mawhile. 

  "Now, use Scratch!" Meowstic's sharp claws slashed at Mawhile, landing a critical hit and making it unable to battle.

  The next Pokemon Valerie sent out was her Mr. Mime. "Mr. Mime, use Psychic!" The Psychic-type move wasn't very effective against Meowstic, but since Meowstic was tired from fighting Mawhile, she ended up fainting. 

  "Go, Pyroar!" I sent out my Fire-type Pokemon next, since Fairy-type moves weren't very effective against Fire-types. "Pyroar, use Fire Fang!" Flames surrounded Pyroar's front teeth and it bit down hard on Mr. Mime's arm.

   Mr. Mime retaliated with Dazzling Gleam, and for a moment the battlefield was covered in a bright light that forced my eyes shut. When I could open them, I was worried that the powerful, albeit not very effective, move would render my Pyroar unable to battle. But when I actually opened my eyes, I saw my Pyroar battered, panting... but still able to battle.

  "Great job, Pyroar! Now finish it off with Incinerate!" The blazing-hot Fire-type attack pervaded throughout the battlefield and surrounded Mr. Mime in flames. When everything cleared, Mr. Mime was unable to battle.

  "Not bad, Astrid. But how will you fare against my Sylveon?"

  I sent out my Eevee. It was the very first time it helped me in a Gym Battle, and I couldn't wait to see how it would fare.

  "Eevee, use Take Down!"

  "Sylveon, use Quick Attack!" 

  Both Pokemon ran at full speed at each other and crashed. Eevee took some damage from both the recoil Take Down had and Sylveon's attack. Sylveon, however, appeared unfazed by the attack and remained as pristine and immaculate as ever. "Sylveon, use Swift!"

  The powerful attack hit Eevee in the flank and sent it sprawling to the ground.  Breathing heavily, it looked pretty badly injured. "Eevee are you all right?"

  No response.

''Eevee, please. You know I won't tell you to do anything you can't do, and now I'm telling you to at least try to stand up! Come on! I believe in you, Eevee, you can do it!"

  Just as those desperate words left my mouth, I saw the sky darken from the window. The moon started to rise, bathing the Gym in moonlight. And just as the moon rose, so did Eevee. It started to glow.

  "Wh-what's happening?" The glow grew brighter and brighter until I saw that Eevee looked very, very different. Now it was pitch black, with glowing yellow rings around its ears, tail and legs, and had ruby-red eyes. "Eevee... you evolved?"

  "Eevee only evolve into Umbreon if they have a strong bond with their trainer, and only at night," Valerie said softly. "Looks like you raised your Eevee well."

  I suddenly remembered what Karen had said to me the day she gave me Eevee. "I expect you to evolve it into an Umbreon."

  Looks like I did it. But I still had to continue the battle. And luckily, I knew what new moves Umbreon could use, too.

  " Umbreon, use Toxic!" Umbreon shot a small jet of poison at Sylveon, making it badly poisoned. Soon its health was slowly whittling away. "Don't give in, Sylveon, use Dazzling Gleam!" Umbreon took the attack, all right, but was lying on the ground. "Use Moonlight!" Using the silvery light that the moon emitted, Umbreon healed itself and stood up again. 

  "Nice job, Umbreon. Now use Confuse Ray!" Soon, Sylveon was either damaging itself with confusion or getting hurt by the poison, just like how Karen's opponent was. And sure enough, it was soon unable to battle.

"Sylveon is unable to battle! That means that Astrid is the winner!"

 "Yes!" I scooped up Umbreon. "Thank you, Umbreon!"

  And as I walked away from the Gym that day with the Fairy Badge, I couldn't help thinking how lucky I was to have such great Pokemon. If only that peace could stay that way.