"Today I faced the toughest Raid Boss ever."

#PokemonGO: It was a chilly morning, foretelling the doom that I would soon face.On the way to drop my son off at daycare each morning, we drive around to all 6 of our small town's Pokemon Gyms. We get our 7-day Pokestop bonus, he catches a Teddiursa, and then we see that the last Gym has a Raid going.My son likes to face Raid bosses even if there is no chance of beating it. So we've faced 4-star bosses before without breaking a sweat, knowing that we'll lose and be able to walk away with our heads held high. "At least we tried," he'd tell me.But when I saw that 1-star Quilava boss, I knew something was wrong. There was a sinister feeling in the air, like that church had been transformed into something much much worse than a mere Pokemon Gym.Even still, the Quilava is only 5085 CP, our Gyarados eats Fire Pokemon for breakfast, and its stomach is growling in anticipation. I joke with my son that there is no way we'll lose this battle, and he is excited too.The battle starts, taking a bit too long for the "GO" to disappear, and I break out into a cold sweat. I'd heard rumors of a monstrous Pokemon so powerful that nobody had ever beaten it. The tales tell of how it slows down time as it approaches.I shake it off when the action starts. We beat that Quilava in about 25 seconds, and my son shouts "YAY!!!" from the back seat. Then time kinda freezes, except the Raid countdown is still going.At about 55 seconds left, the Quilava suddenly has full health again, and I fly into a frenzy. Gyarados chomps on him relentlessly, this time beating him a second time in under 20 seconds.Then we watch as time runs out. And then time freezes...an eerie calm descends on us as we wait to see what happens.I jump as my phone gives it's warning that the battery is at 15%, but then calm down again. I tell myself that this is just morning lag or network traffic, something normal.Then the monster appears, and I know we are doomed. My son starts crying in the back seat. I try to comfort him but no words come out. The dreaded, unspeakable "Network Error" dropped down right in front of us!I have no idea how long we were there after that. I remember waking up and seeing that old message telling us we were unable to beat the raid within the time limit. I dropped my son off in a kind of daze, and then returned home.It was only when I got home that I had a notification of a screenshot saved. I must have taken a screenshot before I blacked out. Here it is, but it is not for the faint of heart: The Monster via /r/pokemongo http://ift.tt/2vucjZv