No, soften it with Mankey first

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Town Whore Emilia – Your Raichu may be strong, but I still have two pokemon to take it down!

• Diglett – Weak, Healthy
• Oddish – Weak, Healthy
• Mankey – Weak, Hurt

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VS

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Gym Leader Lieutenant Surge – My Raichu has power and speed. You’re finished!

• Raichu – Capable, Healthy
• Magnemite – Weak, Fainted

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Diglett might not be enough to take this thing out, so you decide to keep Mankey out for now. Even if Mankey doesn’t win, the Raichu should be weakened and a lot easier to finish off with Diglett.

“Mankey, Karate Chop!” Mankey flies at its opponent, but is immediately knocked back by its opponent’s tail.

“Raichu, Agility!” The sizeable mouse begins a slow trot along the edges of the arena. You’re not really sure what that’s supposed to accomplish, but you’ll put an end to it.

“Mankey, Low Kick!” Again, Mankey is deflected before it can land its blow while Raichu doesn’t even have to break stride. That tail just has too much range!

“Keep it up, Raichu!” Its speed steadily increases to a respectable running speed. As you continue to try interrupting it, Mankey is repeatedly knocked away, and Raichu keeps gaining speed until it’s running laps around the disoriented monkey pokemon.

With none of your attacks working, you’re at a loss for what to do. You also don’t know what Surge’s game is by having her Raichu waste so much energy. It feels like you should stop it, but Mankey doesn’t have any way to engage an enemy from range. It has to get close to attack, and Raichu just has it beat in close quarters.

“Okay, that’s enough Raichu. Thunderbolt!” A blast of lightning, big enough to put Magnemite’s to shame, is fired at Mankey, KO’ing it on the spot. You’d hoped you could do a little more damage, but it’s not the end of the world. Looks like it will come down to Diglett against the Gym Leader’s prized rodent.

“Fine Surge, you want to fight my Diglett? Here it comes. Diglett, go!” As soon as the pokemon emerges, a terrifying smile lands on the maniacal blonde’s face, unlike anything you’ve seen before.

“Diglett, use M-” Before you can even issue your command, a lightning-fast Raichu has covered the whole field and is upon your Diglett.

“SLAM!!!” Surge screeches. The long, jagged tail that gave Mankey so much trouble comes slamming down on Diglett’s head, smashing it underground. “AGAIN!” No sooner than Diglett has rebounded to the surface, a second blow follows the first, driving Diglett back into the ground. This time it stays down. No way… It was so fast. You couldn’t do anything…!

You stare at the floor, pride burned by the fact that you figured out how to handle Magnemite, only to lose the matchup that you won last time. Well, that’s not entirely fair to say. She DID evolve her pokemon, after all.

“Where’s that pride of yours now, Emilia? Couldn’t back it up? Well, whatever. Since you think you’re above being an obedient recruit, let’s see how you like playing prisoner instead. Into the back room, now!”