Battle between clarine and myself.
I looked across our battlefield at Clarine glowering. This time was going to be different.
"So rules are simple," she started, "three on three, no substitutions, no items."
Nodding I selected my first pokemon, as she did the same.
We waited.
Then WHOOSH! In a show of red light she released her first pokemon, a small black and grey dog. Fur on the back of its neck raised as it growled at me.
"I figured you'd start with Poochyena, which is why my first pokemon is this!" Another red flash revealed my own pokemon, a small pink pokemon, with a tiny horn on its head, two buck teeth and big spined ears.
Starting things off I shouted, "Nidoran, poison sting attack, try and poison him", my pokemon shot off, jabbing its tiny horn, now glowing purple, at the poochyena. Each lunge of my nidoran missing by just an inch as her poochyena dodged backwards on every lunge.
"Throw it off with howl Poochy", her pokemon lunged backwards a final time, raised its head, then howled mightily to the moon, lowering its head to howl at nidoran. Good thing I knew this strategy of Clarines, and had trained my Nido to ignore it, as the fruits of my labour were now paying off. Unfazed, Nidoran jabbed forward one more time before backpedalling to avoid the incoming bite from Poochyena, who by his own merit, just shook off our attack and growled at Nidoran again.
"Now it's our turn, Poochy get it with a sand attack then advance", not even a second after hearing the order her Poochy spun around, throwing up sand with its tail right into the eyes of my Nidoran who cried out in pain, stumbled away rubbing his eyes with his paws, as Poochyena lunged forward toward him.
"Nidoran, listen to me, use your ears, your hearing is excellent", my Nido stopped panicking, and stood its ground tilting its head to the right, "good, now hold like that",
Clarine's Poochyena came closer and I could see Nidoran heard it.
"Hold still", I said, and my pokemon stood stock still, unquestioningly, as Poochyena came closer still.
And closer.
And even closer.
Poochyena came close enough to touch Nidoran, the exact moment I shouted, "Double kick!"
Clarine, realising instantly what was happening shouted for her pokemon to stop, but it was too late as my Nidoran spun around, leant on his front legs then kicked the poochyena, right in the face, with its two back legs, sending him sprawling across the field, then followed it up by running him down and jabbing with multiple poison stings.
When he finally backed off, it was clear to all that Poochyena was not getting up anytime soon.
Clarine recalled her pokemon, "Hmmph, when did Nidoran learn double kick?"
"We've been training non-stop", I grinned, "And I've got more than a few surprises for you".
"Pointless for the good it'll do you", she pointed a pokeball at the field, "Go Tony!"
A red light flashed and out of her pokeball came a small bipedal lizard pokemon, green with a red chest and yellow eyes, but perhaps most noticeable was the giant green tail which I knew from experience was damn solid.
"Treecko!" it roared the challenge at my Nidoran, who glared back, looking tired.
"C'mon Nido, we got the type advantage", my pokemon nodded wearily to me, and that's when I noticed the effort he'd put in the last battle had really expended him. We'd need to dispatch of treecko quickly to beat her last pokemon.
"Quick attack! Go!", I snapped my head back to the battle, having been distracted from the problem at hand as her treecko ploughed with unimaginable speed into nidoran. My pokemon was pushed to the ground, and it didn't look like her treecko was going to be letting up..
"Pursuit", she shouted at the same time I yelled, "Get up", but it was too late. Her pokemon followed my pokemon and rammed into it again, with a black aura around it this time. Over and over again her treecko rammed into nidoran, never giving him a chance to rise. I tried shouting out orders but it was no use, nidoran was far too far gone, and with a final ram from her treecko, my pokemon's eyes lolled back.
It was over.
Not saying a word I recalled my pokemon. I hadn't even managed to make a scratch on her treecko. Clearly I wasn't the only one who'd gotten some extra training in.
Pulling a pokeball from my belt I almost called, but stopped. Her treecko was acting strangely, wincing, and leaning to the side a bit, its face looked a tad purple and I knew,
Nidoran HAD done something after all, unwittingly perhaps, but still crucial. Her treecko was now poisoned, meaning it would continually get weaker and weaker until it fainted.
This changed my strategy immensely as I replaced the pokeball in my hand with my other one and shouted, "Bumble your up".
From out of my pokeball came a buzzing bug pokemon, wings on its back and two gigantic stingers on the ends of its two arms, along with another stinger on its yellow and black striped abdomen. Beedrill was in.
Knowing full well the dangers of her poisoned pokemon, Clarine shouted for a quick attack, but I was prepared, telling beedrill to fly up into the air and avoid it. Again she tried for a quick attack, but like the last one, my beedrill flew too high up for her to reach, all the while her treecko was getting slower and looking sicker. The poison was taking effect.
"Now do you see why poison is my favourite type Clarine? You can't do anything but watch as your pokemon slowly drains", I grinned evilly, "surely your dark pokemon can't come up with something as dark as this. It's ironic really"
"Why don't you shove your irony right up your own dark hole! Tony use faint attack!"
Her pokemon dropped to the ground, looking for all the world as if I'd defeated it, but I knew better, it was merely the move, and was about to yell for Bumble to be cautious, when insanely quick, a black shadow version of treecko shot out of nowhere behind my pokemon, in the air, knocking him to the ground with his gigantic, black tail.
That was bad.
My pokemon, now no longer safe in the air, looked to me for instructions, and it was that moment that treecko stopped pretending to be fainted, sprang up and ploughed right into my beedrill with a quick attack, then followed up with a pound attack, slamming my pokemon into the ground with its tail, then again for good measure, but beedrill was not done yet, launching a fury attack right into treecko's chest again and again, driving it back.
Unfortunately what my pokemon gained from versatility in the air, it lost in speed and treecko used quick attack to run behind Bumble, then hit him with a full force pursuit attack.
Bumble was down.
She hadn't been kidding when she said things weren't over, I had gone from overconfident to enormously worried. How much training had she done with that treecko?! I knew it was her starter, but even still, that was insane.
I recalled Bumble, mumbling a few words of thankyou to the pokeball, before grabbing my final pokemon.
It was now 2v1. I had to be smart.
"Sauropod you're up!"
Aiming my pokeballs laser to the furthest edge of the field I called out my ace in the hole. What emerged from the red laser was a small, four legged, green dinosaur, with an unmistakeable dark green bulb on its back. Bulbasaur, my first pokemon was by far my strongest, and I had no doubts he could take care of treecko with ease, it was
Clarine's next pokemon that worried me.
"Careful Pod, her treecko is fast! Try to keep it at a distance" Sauropod made an affirmative noise.
Her treecko raced forward, white light trailing behind it, the tell-tale sign of a quick attack, so fast that Pod had no time to dodge. Fortunately that wasn't my strategy.
"Now pod! Use vine whip! Wrap him up and hold him at a distance!" From out of my bulbasaur's pod came two green vines which quickly snaked themselves around the treecko, no doubt slowed by the poison and exhaustion, and held him up in the air.
Treecko struggled and cried, but it was no good, he was just too exhausted to fight back and it wasn't long before his head lolled forward.
"Finally" that was one tough treecko, and one royal pain in my shiny ass! But I knew that now the tough part came.
Smirking, for she knew she had the clear advantage, Clarine called out her own final pokemon, "Capone, lets finish this", and out of her pokeball came a black winged nightmare. It had black feathers all over, a yellow beak and red eyes. Murkrow! The she devil!
"So how long do you think your bulb is gunna last against my birdy? We'll burst him open and see what's inside!" Her murkrow cawed menacingly.
"Yeah… well… Who names their female pokemon after a famous male? Pfft, soo lame"
My bulbasaur just looked at me despairingly, as if saying, "really Joel? That's your best?
A whole plethora of bird insults and you came up with that?"
Her murkrow cawed once more to bring our attention back to the battle and flew off high into the air, executing a smooth U-turn, racing now towards Pod, vicious beak first.
"Don't let her peck you Pod! Stand your ground and remember what we practiced."
Clarine looked quizzical at that, but didn't call off the attack, clearly confident in her birds ability.
A grave mistake.
Capone swooped right down above Pod, then WHOOSH!
A cloud of yellow, sulphurous powder erupted from bulbasaur's back, right into Capone's path; though not strong enough to stop the attack, as Capone flew right through the cloud and pecked bulbasaur on the head for massive damage before crashing to the ground. Though things looked bad for Pod, things now looked worse for Capone, as the paralysis from bulbasaur's stun spore kept her from being able to take off into the air again, which Pod took full advantage of, charging forwards for a tackle attack, knocking the bird back a bit, and then again knocking her even further.
Pod was about to go in for another tackle, when murkrow managed to get full control of her wings again and fly up to safety, however Pod would have none of it, using vine whip to follow after her, wrapping around her talons and slamming her back to the ground.
"Gust!" Clarine practically shrieked at Capone, panic clear in her voice, which Capone reciprocated, blowing Pod back across the field.
Using the respite to get back into the air, Capone then circle around Pod, while Clarine figured out what to do, I was on a roll, however, and grinned smugly at her, "You know what moves bulbasaur learns around the same time as stun spore?"
Clarine thought for a moment, then a light went on in her eyes, just as quickly as panic replaced it, as I shouted, "Bulbasaur, sleep powder"
More powder blasted from bulbasaur's bulb, this time blue, as it slowly drifted into the air. Capone used gust to blow it away, but that was just the diversion, for her murkrow needed to stay in the same spot flapping hard to keep up the gust, bulbasaur had an opening to grab her with vine whip again.
Which he did.
Slamming her once more to the ground he raced in for a tackle to end the match, but at the last moment Capone turned around and skreiked out an Astonish attack throwing
Pod off balance and making him swerve to the right of her, just clipping her. Capone then took the advantage to blow him further away with gust, flew up into the air, and swooped toward him with white energy in her wings.
Wing attack! One hit from that would floor Pod!
I shouted "Get away", but Pod had different plans, as he rolled to the side, releasing stun spores all the while, Capone was wise to this strategy now though, and simply swerved around the cloud, when a thought struck her and she used gust to blow the spores toward bubasaur.
My face paled as the cloud hit him, and the effects took hold, seizing up his limbs and making him a sitting duck! …or dinosaur… plant thing, more like!
Capone cackled as she went in for a final wing attack. All the while Pod was stuck on the ground trying to shake off the stun spore, when I had a crazy idea.
"Bulbasaur use stun spore!"
He looked at me incredulously, but obliged all the same, filling the air all around him with more yellow spores, paralysing himself even further due to his inability to direct it.
Capone Swooped closer as Pod continued to fill the air around him with yellow spores, until there was a cloud so dense you could barely see through it.
Finally, Capone shot through the cloud and I shouted as loud as possible, "Leech seed!"
Though it was hard to see, I managed to make out the tiny seed emerge from Pod's bulb and strike Capone right in the chest, releasing vines which wrapped themselves around her and started shocking with green energy, draining her. The combination of the thick sulphurous cloud and the shock of being drained caused Capone to lose focus and the energy disappeared from her wings, but she still smashed into Pod, sending them both sprawling out of the cloud.
Clarine and I watched with our breaths held.
Pod was severely paralysed from the continuous contact with the spores, and Capone was unable to move due to the mild paralysis also, and the vines wrapped around her draining her.
Seconds passed, but to me and Clarine they felt like… well seconds… that thing about time slowing is a total myth, seconds felt like seconds.
I released a gush of breath I hadn't realised I'd been holding.
Finally, slightly, ever so slightly, Pod stirred.
As the seconds dragged on, he slowly got more and more mobile, eventually being able to stand, while the leech seed drained Capone of her last vestiges of energy and giving them to Pod.
With a final heave, he got to his feet and shouted to the sky, victorious.
Capone had lost.
Clarine had lost.
While I was just staring shocked, Clarine woke me from my stupor by swearing like a sailor.
"HaHA! SUCK IT YOU DARK WEILDING LOSER!" I rejoiced, unsure what she heard in between her chorus of "Mother******!" and "Piece of Tauros **** eating Grimer ****!"
I ran towards Pod to pick him up, but froze. Something was wrong. I tried to look around but my muscles had seized up.
'SHIIIII' my mind thought, 'The stun spores were still in the air!' and I dropped to the ground to lay next to my bulbasaur, who could barely lift his head.
Time passed.
I watched as some black boots eventually came over to me, standing right inside my frame of vision… then sucker kick me right in the groin!
"I HATE losing" Clarine said menacingly low, before recalling her murkrow, stepping on my hand in the process, stopping, then coming back to whisper in my ear, "And here's a reason I choose to train dark pokemon you scrub". She then kicked me in the gut for good measure, took my wallet and left me, paralysed on the ground.
Through the haze of pain I managed to get out a final, "Bitch!" before my vision went black.
Well, at least I had won.