Beyond the Battlefield: Visual Manipulation
by neptunesxdaughter
PITCH PERFECT AU
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Rating: T.
Genres: Romance, Friendship, Humour, Drama.
Cover: None at the moment.
Warnings: None in this chapter.
Type: Multi-chapter.
Inspiration: Another story that I'm working on, actually. And the Pitch Perfect movie.
Summary: All Misty wanted to do was to go to uni to complete a course to become a photographer, not compete on some battling team that is made up entirely of girls in order to compete nationally and against the boys' team from the same school. She wanted a normal experience, not this. Oh, Mew, help?
Pairings: [mainly] Pokeshipping & Ikarishipping. Oldrivalshipping is a side-ship for the moment. To the people who are requesting that I add May into the story, I am contemplating this.
The battle display was already turning into a disaster. The manager of the café in which they were to be performing the battle display had announced their names, pronouncing Leaf's name as 'Le-ahf', and the girls all seemed to be dreading it already. The strange stares that they had all received upon walking on the makeshift stage where the customers sitting outside could see was bad enough, they had even been called out by a little boy who seemed to be sitting with his aunt. She had been typing away at her laptop when he had made the snide remark.
"I feel ridiculous." Iris muttered with a groan, insecurely pulling down the skirt in hopes of allowing it to cover more of her thighs. Melody, who had traded in her trademark green bandana for magenta coloured one to match the logo on their shirts, turned up her nose in disgust as her friend voiced exactly what everyone was thinking. "Jessie, seriously? I can't wear this!"
The older girl swivelled around angrily to glare at the dragon-type trainer. "Suck it up, Iris! I designed the costumes. And besides," she continued with a sly grin. "We all look fabulous."
Somehow, Serena was the only one who could pull it off. She still didn't happy at all to be wearing the costume, but it definitely held more appeal on her that it did the others. She had worn her hair in a low side ponytail to try and take away some attention from the large 'R' on her chest and loosened her belt so that it sat lowly on her waist.
"Let's just get this over with." She sighed.
Misty nodded in agreement. Now she was wishing that she was allowed to leave her shorts on. They were definitely a lot more comfortable than whatever material they had all been forced into. It was way too hot to wear all this, especially since their hands were beginning to get all clammy within the confines of the grey gloves.
Lucy shook her head before letting out a frustrated sigh, her fingers indicating for the team to gather around her. "C'mon, girls. I know we've only been around each other for a few weeks, but we can do this. Think of it as a practice." She said calmly. They all had no idea how she tolerated all of this; it must be hard to lead a team where everyone had such strong personalities and opinions and somehow, she never lost her cool. "Alright, let's see… Melody, Jessie and Leaf will be battling on one side today while the other side will have Serena, myself and then Iris."
They all glanced each other, before finally allowing a smile to settle on their faces. Lucy held up a coin before placing it in her thumb, reading to flick it into the air.
"Melody, call it."
"Heads!"
They all watched as the piece of metal was spinning through the air, until the coin landed against their captain's palm. She slammed her hand against her opposing one, before lifting it to announce who had one. "Alright, Mel, you're up first. Good luck, everyone."
"Alright, let's do this!"
After the loud yell from Iris, the team gathered onto the stage where they all gathered to their sides, with Misty standing in the middle to play referee.
"First-up, on the A-Team, we have Jessie!"
At the mention of her name, the eccentric one of the bunch let out a large giggle before lifting her hand and waving. "Hello! Thank you for coming out and cheering for me!"
"And on the B-Team, we have Melody! Let's keep this fight clean, ladies."
The redhead raised one of her hands, the flag that held a large B to indicate that Melody would be the one to go first. The girl in question was grinning across the field at Jessie, who merely stood with her arms crossed as though not affected at all.
The brunette allowed herself to do a small twirl, something that reminded Misty eerily of the way Dawn threw hers whenever she called on one of her pokémon, and watching as the first one was revealed.
"You're up first, Lucia! Let's show 'em what you're made of!"
Ah, so she nicknamed them. They all watched as the light materialised into a purple feline. "Espeon!" it purred, raising a paw to lick at while it waited.
Their opponent gripped the pokéball before she too extended her arm and threw it onto the field. "I choose you, Wobbuffet!" Jessie shouted. The entire teams eyes were wide. Why had she chosen her wobbuffet? It wasn't that the Pokémon wasn't strong, it really was, but it was extremely goofy and couldn't attack unless physically hit first. What was she doing? She looked confident enough, but still… It was a strange choice.
"Alright, Lucia, we're gonna start this off! Begin with a Sand Attack!" called out Melody, grinning as the espeon swiped their paws against the ground to create a cloud of smoke. It was a good move, as it allowed the Pokémon to use it as a sort of camouflage.
Jessie remained patient as Wobbuffet stood vulnerably. There was no way for it to move anyway, everyone knew that, but she seemed to have a trick up her sleeve. Her Psychic-type was also surprisingly calm as it grinned hugely. Lucia suddenly appeared from the sand and dived straight at Wobbuffet.
"Use Facade!"
Immediately responding to the call of its trainer, the espeon began to form a dark sphere with purple sparks elating from it. It grew bigger and bigger before it was finally shot away in the exact direction of Jessie's wobbuffet. That would be a direct hit. It was definitely a smart move on Melody's part, so that it could set the attack and make it hit dead-on, seeing as wobbufet were not capable of speedily moving out of the way.
Her opponent seemed to notice this straight away, though, and before the attack could hit, called out her own response.
"Wobbufffet, Counter Attack!"
The blue pokémon followed its trainers orders as soon as the words left her lips and her hand stretched out upon the command, beginning to glow with a pinkish aura surrounding it. It murmured its name as it charged up the attack and bounced back slightly when the purple feline hit it.
It was a surprise for everyone. Misty remained in her spot, mouth agape, as the dark sphere was sent flying back in the direction of Melody's espeon. This definitely was not good, as Counter sent the attack right back to the caster along with double the damage. Unless Lucia did something to dodge out of the way, it was finished.
Melody gritted her teeth as her pokémon began to panic, glancing back its trainer for some sort of command. There was no doubt that the two trusted each other, but the panic didn't give the purple feline enough time to even brace the attack. It hit almost directly, Lucia was sent flying through the air before finally hitting the ground due to the impact.
"Esp-ee!"
"Espeon is down! Wobbuffet is the winner of Round One!" Misty said, raising the flag with the A on it in the direction of Jessie who was cheering loudly by herself. Wobbuffet continued to stand awkwardly, raising one of its arms as it loudly proclaimed its name once more happily.
"Wobbuffet!"
"Wait a second!"
All of the girls on stage looked up at the sound of the loud voice, frowning. "I'm not paying for this. You guys promised me a battle display not… This. An espeon that got knocked out immediately? And hot girls dressed like circus freaks? No way. You can forget about it." Said a tall man who had his arms folded. He had his arms folded in a stern demeanour and his facial expression was hard. He obviously wasn't happy.
Lucy rushed forward to try and fix the problem, looking up at the man. Despite being unusually tall, the man still towered over her. "Wait, you asked for a display! You know very well how battles can turn out. We're not going to be cheated out of something that was perfectly legal – Melody's espeon is weak against Ghost-type attacks because it's a Psychic–type!"
"I said no! I wanted the hot Girls Battle Team! Not whatever… This train-wreck is!"
"Well, that was harsh..." Misty murmured as she removed the gloves from her arms. Everyone was now back in the change rooms, getting themselves changed back into their normal clothes. Melody was sitting by herself in the corner, legs crossed on one of the benches with Lucia's pokéball is her lap. All of them were now looking at her in concern.
The brunette glanced upwards and shook her head. "I'm fine, guys, really. It looks like Lucia and I just have a little more training to do."
"Don't let him get you down. You and Lucia were fantastic." Leaf butted in. "It's not your fault. It's not Jessie's fault either. All of you were great. He was just being a prick. Obviously, he's not much of a trainer to understand battling strategies. Speaking of strategies, I am surprised at you, Jessie. When did you think to use Wobbuffet? You hardly ever use it."
Jessie was still wearing her uniform proudly, something that everyone else didn't know the reason too. "I've been doing some reading. My rival, Cassidy, has been berating me lately about how I have no idea how to use my pokémon, especially after the fiasco that happened at least years finals..." she trailed off with a cough, her face turning red.
"I have to admit, Jessie, I'm impressed."
They all turned to face Lucy who had walked into the change rooms only as Jessie had begun to speak, and everyone nodded in agreement. It was true; as arrogant as she came across, she was indeed dedicated to this.
"Hey, Misty, are you done? Gary and Dawn are waiting outside for us." Leaf said, walking over to the redheaded trainer. She was finishing zipping up her jacket now and pulling off the boots to put on her own sneakers. She nodded, seating herself down now to tie the shoelaces.
"Yeah, just give me a second. Thanks for inviting Dawn. I'm really not in the mood to third-wheel with you and Mr Big-Shot, especially since he has seen me naked." she laughed, moving onto the other shoe. Leaf just laughed in response, running her fingers through her chocolate brown locks quickly. It was almost like she was slightly nervous.
"Sorry about that. I was kind of desperate to get you to audition, and if that was the way to do it, then that was how I was going to do it."
The Water-type trainer just sighed and stood, and following the brunette outside. "By turning off the water in my dorm room? God, you and Dawn are so sneaky. It was really not necessary. The League isn't gonna be happy either when they hear about this, anyway..."
"Oh? Why not?"
"My decision to retire was kind of sudden. Daisy was fine to take over because she had been working with me with her training, but I think they preferred me because I was stronger and more experienced than she is. Still am, I guess. Even if I am rusty." Misty explained, shrugging her shoulders as she followed Leaf into the lobby of the Battle Complex. "It's still really weird to talk about. Brock's probably the only person around here who understands since he used to be a Gym Leader."
Her companion raised her eyebrows. "But you seem like you love it."
"I do and that wasn't the problem. It was the publicity that came with it."
"Oh... Now I get it."
"Took you long enough to get your cute little ass out of there, Leaf!"
The two girls snickered at the arrogant sounding voice and began to work in the direction of where it was coming from. Of course it was Gary, standing there in all his egotistical glory. He had his hands shoved in his pockets as he leaned against the brick wall coolly. "Where's Dawn?" asked Misty, glancing around for her blue-haired roommate. Gary raised his eyebrows in confusion before looking at Leaf.
"You didn't tell her?"
"Didn't tell me what?"
Leaf sweatdropped as she turned towards her teammate. "You know that text I got when Lucy told us about the battle display? Well... I sort of made plans for this to be a double date since Ash wants to meet you. He heard about you from... Brock, was it? And so, Gary and I set this up." she explained, giving Misty a sheepish grin. The redhead couldn't help but allow a frustrated sigh to leave her lips, shaking her head in annoyance. She couldn't get out of this now. She had to admit, she was interested to hear about the guy who had nearly got hit by her taxi when she had first arrived at the university.
"You so owe me for this." She answered, raising her pointer finger so that Leaf was staring right at it. "Where are we going? At least tell me it's not anywhere extravagant."
Gary shook his head. "Nah, nowhere special. Just to a café cross campus. Don't worry; it's not that one." he laughed, earning a jab in the side from Leaf.
"Whatever - let's just get this over with."
The brunette smiled innocently at her teammate when Misty sighed once more, following the couple. She trailed behind them by a few steps as to not seem so awkward. The two seemed to have a weird relationship. She pushed the thought out of her head and began to wonder about Ash. He had never spoken a word to her except for the time that Brock introduced her to him the day she arrived on campus, and she didn't really know anything about him except that he was a Pokémon trainer.
"Since the two of you are dragging me to a blind date, shouldn't I know something about him?"
"Ha! You called it a date! I need to tell your roommate!"
"There's nothing really to tell you, Red." Gary interrupted. "Ashy-boy's a Pokémon trainer through and through. He loves 'em maybe even a little too much. He's from Pallet Town, like me, and thinks he's call when he's really as much of a loser as he comes across as."
Misty wrinkled her nose. "Yeah, that's really getting me excited for this."
Soon enough, the three of them had reached the café. They all walked in and were greeted as soon as they opened the door by a waitress who led them to the table where Ash was already waiting. His pikachu was sitting in his lap as the trainer went through his Xtranceiver. "Hey, Ash!" Gary called, causing him to look up. He stood up upon all of them approaching the table as well with Pikachu looking at the strangers curiously.
"I'm surprised you're managing to say my name without insulting me." he joked with a grin.
"Did you want me too? 'Cause we both know I can, Ashy-boy."
"No! No! Please don't!"
"Anyway..." the former said, rolling his eyes at his friend. "You remember Leaf, right? And this is Misty - the Gym Leader of Cerulean City."
Misty stepped up at this, shaking her head. "That's former. I'm not anymore. Haven't beenI for a while." she clarified, clearing her throat when the other three people turned to look at her upon her interruption. "You're the guy that almost ran in front of my taxi."
Ash blanched at this, causing Gary to smirk and Pikachu to laugh as well. The little electric mouse was absolutely adorable. "Yeah, sorry about that." he laughed hesitantly, raising his hand to rub the back of his neck. It seemed to be a nervous habit of his. "I wasn't looking where I was going and I was late to meeting Gary and Brock."
"Should we sit down and order?" Leaf suggested, already seating herself on a chair. The other three followed suit. "i think I might grab a cappucino. Ooh, and a muffin! They do really good blueberry ones here. What about you, Misty?"
"I'll grab a latté. And a croissant. I haven't had one of them in ages."
"Are you from Kalos, Misty?" Ash asked curiously, his own mouth watering as his eyes scanned the piece of cardboard that was on the table already.
"No - my sisters and I were born here in Kanto. My grandparents migrated from there, though."
"You, Dawn Berlitz, are in big trouble!"
The blunette in question squeaked in surprise at the sudden outburst, dropping the pile of papers she had been holding in front of her hands. She was standing in the bathroom, in front of the mirror, rehearsing for a drama monologue that had to be performed to her whole class. She groaned and bent down to pick them up, not wanting to face Misty's wrath at the moment. "What did I do now, exactly?"
"You made me go on an awkward double date!" Misty complained, walking into their dormitory and dropping her bag against her cupboard. "That was not nice."
"Don't deny that Ash is hot, though. I did you a favour!"
The redhead walked towards the bathroom and leaned against the doorway. "Don't you have a boyfriend?"
"Barry and I have gone on a few dates, but we haven't really made anything official yet. He doesn't seem to be into me..." Dawn said once she had finally gathered the papers together once more. Her eyes were slightly downcast, and her roommate was staring at her in concern. "It's okay, really. Maybe I'm just not ready for a proper relationship, y'know?"
"He does seem to like you a lot, though, Dawn." Misty responded, walking out of the room with the slightly younger girl following her. The two of them seated themselves on their own beds so that they were still facing each other so that they could continue to talk. "So, what did you do today? Other than force me to go on a date with a guy that I don't know at all."
Dawn laughed in response, grinning innocently at the redhead. "You enjoyed it, don't lie."
"Okay, I have to admit, he is kind of cute."
"But that outfit you had to wear today was absolutely disgusting..." She said, pursing her lips before a small smile graced her lips once more. "Oh my god, you admitted that he was cute!" Misty's cheeks turned red slightly at the realisation that she had indeed said it out loud. The boy was strange, but there was something intriguing about him. People were just naturally drawn to him. "So, when's your next practice?"
"I have one tomorrow morning, because Lucy's going to want to talk to all of us about what happened today with that douchebag." Misty said with a sigh, allowing herself to topple against her mattress. "Plus, I have a feeling that Jessie is going to have a meltdown, so I don't want to miss that. And she's going to tell us when the first competition is. I'm so rusty that I really need to practice. Speaking of, do you think I should transfer Daisy's dewgong and Psyduck for some of my more competitive pokémon?"
The acting student pondered the last question for a moment. She knew her friend secretly adored her duck pokémon, so it would be hard to let him go. "Well, if you think it's necessary. If you're planning to use other pokémon for the competition, then I say go for it. It's probably a good idea, especially since you barely use Psyduck to battle at all."
"Alright, then I'll do it. My Kingdra hasn't had a good workout in a while and neither has my Quagsire. Mine are all water-types so I guess I need some better defense as well..."
A/N: Wow, hello everyone! This has been a while. I know I haven't updated in forever (personal stuff and school have been the main reasons behind my absence) but here is a new update. :) I've been working on it over the past few days and I'm so excited, oh my god!
I haven't written in ages, so I apologise for any mistakes.
Ooh, to anyone who is interested, I have created a Tumblr account! I'll be posting my stories and chapter updates on there as well. My URL is 'runningfromresponsibilities'.
Hope everyone is well! Please consider leaving a review. i really do appreciate the feedback.
EDIT: So I've taken into account the reviews that said I was wrong regarding how Counter worked. I'm so worry! I thought it worked on all attacks, and not just physical ones. Anyway, I fixed it! :)
Word Count: 3,439