A swarm of Sandshrew

As usual, it doesn’t take long to find a Sandshrew to battle. You send out your Oddish and… hey wait! Several others are coming out of the grass! Uh-oh, it looks like your training from yesterday may have upset them. Oddish is already on the field though, so it’s his time to shine.

“Oddish, use Absorb!”

The attack lands and incapacitates one enemy, but the others are all over Oddish, landing several hits. Ugh, you’ll lose if you just try to take them out one by one. You’ll need to limit their ability to fight back somehow. Oh, you have the perfect idea.

“Oddish, Stun Spore!”

The cloud of spores is small compared to the field you’re fighting on, allowing them to space themselves out from Oddish’s attack. Only one Sandshrew is caught in the attack and paralyzed. After another series of attacks, Oddish looks pretty weak.

This really isn’t the fight for Oddish. Dugtrio would be a much better match. It could hit all of them, even as they burrow around underground, with Magnitude. You throw out your pokeball to have Oddish return, but it refuses.

“O-Oh. You want to keep fighting?” This isn’t such a dire situation that he needs to do that, but he must have some level of pride on the line here. That’s fine for him, but it puts you in a bit of a bind. You don’t know how to direct him in a fight like this…

You recall how skillfully Gina was able to control her Fearow in a high-speed air battle and try to mimic it the best you can, but there’s just no way. Oddish manages to take out one more Sandshrew before taking another beating. Surely he’ll back down now, right?

You try the pokeball again, but he again refuses, and instead dodges the next attack by… digging into the ground? Oddish plants itself firmly so that only its leaves are sticking out of the ground. And suddenly… the leaves turn into a flower! It evolved!

Oddish has evolved into Gloom!

Well, it’s a gamble, but let’s try this again. “Gloom, Stun Spore!”

The cloud is much bigger this time, completely covering the field and paralyzing the wild Sandshrew. From there, it’s just an easy matter of taking them out with Absorb one by one.

You run over and give Gloom a big hug, only for your mind to recall the danger of its smell. Oh god, this is going to smell… perfectly normal? The rancid smell Glooms are known for seems to be completely missing. Uh… that’s not right. There’s supposed to be a strong smell to completely overwrite the gas in Erika’s gym. Speaking of Erika, your chest feels a little heavy, and you miss the feeling of her hands between your legs. Maybe once you go back, you’ll ask her to… Wait, no! That’s a terrible idea. That’s what got you into so much trouble in the first place.

Anyway, you’re sure Gloom’s power is just laying dormant, waiting for the right time to unleash its fumes and protect you from the evil air that ruined your gym battle last time.