A few more spectators gathered around - or maybe they were fellow contestants? Vandalgeist made sure to try and give some of them the evil eye. Most of those people recognized her face from the ugly Jumbotron picture hanging right above her, and they all gave her and Trenton odd looks. She suddenly felt worse about herself. "Here are the rules," the megaphone man continued, "in case you haven't heard. The game this time around: capture the flag! Your Pokemon will be pitted against each other in a BATTLE ROYALE in an attempt to grab the flag! The team who has the blue flag when I call TIME - and that means the realflag - will win~!"
Yes, mister man, Vandalgeist thought, biting her lip, butwhat is the prize?
"The winners will receive a Pokemon of their choice from our Wall of 'Mons!" A few people in the audience cheered and clapped as he gestured toward a corkboard with various Pokemon pictures on it. "You want it, you win it, we bring it to you!"
Vandalgeist examined the various pictures pinned to it. They were kind of far off, but she was pretty sure she saw something she liked. Trenton also looked at the wall and nodded, deciding that he too saw some cool stuff. Cool stuff.
"I suspect everyone's here?"
"Shouldn't you know that?" Trenton asked. "You're the one in charge after all." That got the couple even more strange looks.
"Sometimes competitors just walk around the mall! We...can't just fence them in," Megaphone guy said. "ANYWAY! I'll just automatically assume that YOU'RE AAAAALL READY FOR THIS BEAT-DOOOOOWN! The battlezone will be opened!" The battlezone? Oh, hey. Now that he mentioned it...there was a huge fighting area a few feet behind him, which must have been shielded with plexiglass up to the ceiling. A few doors lined the arena, all of them locked. Spectators seats framed parts of the battlezone.
Awesome!Vandalgeist thought.
"Oh this is cool," Trenton said, then looked around the arena at their enemies. Simona Carrone...Jeddy Swift. Wow, these people had some crazy names, man. He knew all these names because of the massivechart which had just replaced their faces on the Jumbotron. Yep, that was pretty much what had happened.
Sadly, it was impossible to judge a Trainer's power level just by looking at them. Some of them just looked like average folks...or at least looked as average as a Trainer could look. One of them was balding. Another one had a massive nose. They were a strange bunch, but Trenton and Vandalgeist were going to win this competition and the prize of a Pokemon from that board over there!
'Team number one!" the megaphone guy said, opening one of the doors to the arena. Number one...? That was a dumb name. At least Trenton and Vandal's team name was a lot better and creative. But 'Team NumberOne' was a little overly cocky. Oh well, they'd win and then rub it in 'Team NumberOne's' face. team consisted of the balding guy (Caillou Brown) and a tall, red-haired guy (Brook Starr). They silently slid into a booth, and the door closed behind them.
"Team Collision Course X!" A confident-looking duo arrived. One of them (Von Paint) had a fancy teenage twirly mustache and beret. The other (Big Ardagne) wasn't very big, or "Ardagne". She was just a semi-average-looking person. They walked along the side of the arena until the reached a second door, and went in.
"Team Blue Angel!"This team was made up of Simona Carrone and Jeddy Swift. Simona seemed like an attention hog, winking at everyone and stuff. Jeddy looked like a green-haired, big-nosed mad scientist. Their door was opposite of Team NumberOne's, meaning they had a long walk ahead of them..
"And last but not least, Team North Wind!" Trenton and Vandalgeist stepped out of the crowd and entered their own predictably-placed door. Inside there was one big metal desk with four red buttons, two microphones and two strange collars on top, two uncomfortable plastic chairs, an intercom in the upper right-hand corner, and a small, close-able slot in the front. The whole booth was made of that plexiglass stuff, ensuring that they would get to see all the action and not get hurt.
Looks kind of complicated...Vandalgeist thought. The first thing she did was plop her hoverboard on the ground, grab a chair and sit down. Trenton sat down in one of the chairs and shifted a bit, annoyed by the fact that they were very PLASTIC and UNCOMFORTABLE. Not that he would complain though. This was going to be a new experience for him. He'd never played capture the flag with Pokemon before.
"I guess we need to hear the rules from Mr. Megaphone Guy now, huh?" he said to his friend, then looked back out the plexiglass thing in front of them.
"Are you with me, everyone?" that guy said through the intercom. The music played. "Here are some additional things I need to point out! Those collars can be placed on your Pokemon if you wish to give them commands during the battle. Just speak into the mic with the corresponding number on it to talk to your Pokemon! However, due to the nature of the slot, which will be opened so that you may release your Pokemon from their Poke Balls without having to step out of the booth, your Pokemon will have to put the collar on itself. Kind of a bad design, right? BUT ANYWAY!
"In addition, the buttons each correspond to either another booth, or me, your very own Megaphone Guy! They will allow you to communicate with another booth (or me). So if you have any complaints or wishes to get out of the booth (which is currently locked from the inside) please contact me via the button labeled 'HELP'!" That last part made Vandalgeist feel a little paranoid. Oh well!
From some underground platform in the middle of the arena, a tall flagpole was slowly raised. "The battle is about to begin!" Megaphone Guy continued. "Everyone, send out your Pokemon at this time!"
Vandalgeist was still kind of confused, but hey, time to send out something through, uh, that slot. She decided on Typhoon for this one - flying was probably a good advantage. First, however, she had to toss the collaroutside. She didn't really know how it worked, but if the announcer guy told her to, she'd do it. She opened the Ultra Ball, letting a Tropius out into the fray. All she had to do to get him to put the collar on was whisper "put that collar on" through the slot-thing. Typhoon awkwardly swung the collar around his neck, which clicked shut.
Right then. Pokemon choosing time.
They had no idea what they were fighting, but Trenton sort of had an idea that Caesar and Typhoon could do together. So the Cyndaquil was released onto the battlefield. Typhoon looked him over with a huff.
Six other Pokemon started to appear. They were a bit far off, so Trenton and Vandalgeist could only see their general shapes. A couple were obvious, like Magnemite and Gastly.
"Typhoon, do you read me?" Vandalgeist said, talking into the microphone labeled 'A'. "When the Megaphone Guy says 'go', you get that flag. Just get it." She saw Typhoon nod.
Caesar wiggled himself into his collar and jumped when it snapped behind his neck. What was the purpose of this sorcery? He turned and looked back at his trainer behind the Plexiglass and nearly fell down when Trenton's voice sounded off in his ear.
"Okay, Caesar. He's the plan. Crawl up on Typhoon's back and burn things as he flies around and stuff!"Vandalgeist turned to Trenton. Then she held up her hand for a high five. Trenton slapped high five with the girl as Caesar scrambled up on top of the Tropius' back.
"IIIIIISSS EVERYONE READYYYYYY?" the intercom roared.
"Yeah," Vandalgeist said instinctively. Then she felt kind of dumb.
"On your mark, get set...GO!"
Finally, the dawn of a new battle. An age of reckoning. They could already see their enemies charging toward the flag. Vandalgeist stared ahead.
"Uh, hey, yo. They aren't gonna move till you tell 'em too, cuz Typhoon is your Pokemon, not mine."
Right... Caesar in particular was probably getting antsy. Vandalgeist leaned in close to the microphone and said, "Get that flag already!" Typhoon complied. He flapped his wings and flew gracefully toward the flag at a speed that was actually kind of slow and lumbering. Vandalgeist sighed.
Before they even reached the center of the arena, the flag was already taken! A Wartortle had snagged the flagpole in his mouth and started to Rapid Spin away. "Try to go towards that turtle?" she suggested. He had the flag, anyway, and he was probably spinning a little towards them, or something. It was a bit hard to see from so far off.
"Yeah," Trenton agreed, "And uh. Use your Flame Wheel attack at things too, Caesar! But only bad things that are trying to attack you guys." He nodded, deciding that his plan made absoluteperfect sense! He hadn't said things too many times at all.
Their Pokemon totally got all of that. Joining them at the tail end of the spinning Wartortle shell was that Magnemite, who was generating electricity around itself. It discharged this energy as a far-reaching Thunderbolt, giving Wartortle a lethal jolt. The Rapid Spin ceased, and Wartortle was splayed out on the floor, out cold for the time being. There was both a metallic opponent with a collar around one magnet to roast anda flag to catch!
Typhoon landed on the ground, taking a stance in front of Wartortle. He snatched the flag up with his mouth, and Magnemite started charging up another electric blast.
Nope not happening. Caesar's orders were to burn bad things that were trying to hurt them, and that Magnemite was trying to do just that! "Quil!" He huffed as he shot off a Flame Wheel at the Magnemite from his friend's back. He burned that steel-type all over, causing Magnemite to back off in order to try and recoup, or maybe just fall over and faint or something. Whatever the case, the flag was theirs!
The tile began to shake and tear apart. When they tore the ground beneath Typhoon's feet, he rose into the air, being a flying-type. The move was Earthquake, and it was ravaging the entire field! The source: probably a ground-type. The Trainers' vision of the field was even more obstructed. Such bad construction...
"Shoot," Vandalgeist faux-cursed. She grabbed Typhoon's microphone. "Stay up high and attack something?" As good a plan as any. She looked over the big red buttons, which they probably could've used to sic some mad taunts on their opponents! Vandalgeist lightly tapped the button labeled "COLLISION COURSE X".
"...just attacking wildly!"
Some weirdo's voice erupted from the intercom. Who what why?
"Well," a fancy man's voice replied, "we'll just have to counter them with strategy, I suppose!"
What the. "Oh this is brilliant. Who came up with this stupid design?" He frowned, looking around to see if there was a way to tell if anyone was listening in on them.
"Shushushushushush!"someone - probably Big Ardagne - whispered harshly. Collision Course X went dead silent.
Uhhhhhh. Do I have any paper on me?Trenton wondered, then reached into his pocket and grabbed the one thing that was in there. A container that had at one point held French Fries. Oh well, it would work for a while. He took out a pen from his other pocket and opened up the Fry container so that he could get at the white part of it and then wrote:
Oi. Let's write strategy on this thing, and scream insults at all of our opponents via the intercom. Till we run out of space, that is.
He handed her the container and the pen. Vandalgeist nodded, putting on her serious-business face. She located a few of perhaps several hundred speaker-holes decorating the side of the button-table and shouted right into it. "HEY, YOU. YOU GUYS. YOU GUYS SUCK AND ARE GOING TO LOSEDUE TO YOUR LIBERAL USE OF ACTUAL STRATEGY. DO YOU HEAR ME, YOU DUMB GUYS!"
"Ah, Vandal. We don't need to yell that loud, pal. Trust me."
"Don't scream!" came the squeaky, high pitched voice of the fancy man before. "We can hear you just fine, you ignoramus!"
"Ha." Trenton snorted, looking at the intercom. "Shut up, Mustachio."
"My mustache is not that big!"
Vandalgeist hammered her arm onto three buttons and screamed, "YOU ALL SUCK!"Heh heh! Belittling others was so much fun.
"If we say nothing, they'll stop,"some unfamiliar male voice said.
"No we won't. You're DUMB if you think we'll stop just because you're being DUMB and not responding to us calling you DUMB!" Trenton replied to the unfamiliar male voice.
"Would you be quiet!"came the voice that Trenton had dubbed 'Mustachio.'
"No can do, cap'n. I don't have the power."
"It's gonna be a long battle..."
"THIS IS A COMMAND STRAIGHT FROM THE MOTHERSHIP NORTH WIND," Vandalgeist screeched into Typhoon's microphone. "RAZOR LEAF ANYONE AND EVERYONE YOU SEE!"
"Except for your Cyndaquil buddy!" Trenton added hurriedly. "Speaking of which. BURN MORE STUFF."
Looking back out onto the Earthquake-changed battlefield, Typhoon and Caesars' positions were still safe. The only problem she really noticed was that Gastly was fast approaching, looping through the air and eventually arriving by their Pokemons' collective side.
"You idiots! You have to use strategy to win at this crap!" Big Ardagne replied. "Put them to sleep!"
"Gaah!" Gastly wailed with a crazy grin on his face. He stared into Typhoon's eyes, trying to convince him that he was getting sleepy. Typhoon responded with a quick Razor Leaf to the face, knocking Gastly back a bit and interrupting the attack...but by that point he was drowsy enough to start falling back down to the ground, taking Caesar along.
"Augh!" Trenton said, quickly searching his mind for something that would be logical to do here. Some kind of STRATEGY, "Augh! Caesar, leap off of Typhoon's head and bash that Gastly in the face with a brutalFLAME CHARGE!" He commanded and Caesar did as he was told, flying at the Gastly as a little ball of flame. With...quite the charge. Caesar barreled into Gastly's face, carrying all three of them down to the ground...!
Luckily for Trenton and Vandalgeist, Caesar had balance. He landed precariously on his feet, then spun to get back to the flag and protect it, but something was already grabbing it. A vine! It must have been from that Grotle that had joined the battle! Burn it!
Caesar spat an Ember at the vine, and did what he'd wanted to do; burn it...but he also burned the flag up.
"Dangit Caesar!"
"Who's the idiot now?"Mustachio demanded.
"Shut up!"
"MUHUHUHU,"Big Ardagne chortled.
"GRR," Vandalgeist hissed back. "Don't forget your Gastly is DEAD." On the other hand, the game was...probably over. "Dangit Trenton! You made the game end."
"But uh. The battlefield isn''t going away, so I don't think it's over yet..." Trenton frowned, watching as the Pokemon continued to duke it out inside the dome. "Maybe Megaphone Guy has a second flag?"
Sure enough, another little platform in the center of the arena arrived with a near-identical blue flag. It poked out from underneath the ripped-up tile. "Haw!" Vandalgeist yelped. "IT WAS OUR PLAN THE WHOLE TIME. THE CUSSING AND ALL OF IT. WHO'S THE IDIOT NOW, HUH, YOU COLLISION COURSE X PUNKS?"
"No it wasn't!"Mustachio protested.
"STUFF IT, MUSTACHIO." Trenton snapped at the thing.
Vandalgeist stared at him for a second. "...STUFF IT," she added. Then they really, truly realized it...their mutual dislike for Von Paint.
Trenton held his hand up for a high five. Vandalgeist was happy to oblige.
They said together, "STUFF IIIIIIT."
Meanwhile, in the heat of battle, the new defender of the flag had arisen...! Now the flag was technically in the possession of a Wobbuffet, who seemed to be wibbling and wobbling against enemy attacks. Not even Grotle's seemingly endless vines, which had burrowed their way through the quaky cracking floor and weaseled their way around Wobbuffet, could slap it into submission! Wobbuffet continued to wiggle, just like a punching bag. As that was going on, a Slakoth - the final competitor Pokemon - glanced over at Caesar and his sleeping friend Typhoon, two potential targets.
"Urgh. Caesar, don't let them get too close to you guys! Use, uh, uh..." Trenton had forgotten his Pokemon's moves again. "USE HEADBUTT!" he commanded, sticking a finger out dramatically, despite the Cyndaquil not being able to see his motions.
"Headbutt?" Vandalgeist said. "You should get a move list."
Okay then. Headbutting things was different, but Caesar was open to new things. So he ran toward the Slakoth and rammed it with his snout.
"Protect!"the unfamiliar male voice said at the last moment. Sadly for him, his command came in too late, or maybe Slakoth was just too slow. Either way, the sloth-thing flew into a slab of jagged tile and took some good damage.
"Hey! Wake up already," Vandalgeist said into the microphone, but Typhoon wouldn't obey. He sat comfortably on the ground, sleeping calmly. "Tch!Thanks for protecting Typhoon, Trent."
"Yep, no problem. Here, let me try something. Go poke Typhoon in the face!"
"'Poking' is not a Pokemon move!"Mustachio yelled at him in that scratchy, high pitched voice.
"YES I KNOW, SHUT UP." Trenton yelled back as he watched his Pokemon go and poked Typhoon cautiously in the face. He stretched and flopped over onto his stomach. And while that was happening, Slakoth was slowly, very slowly, getting back into action. Oh boy this was not good. Caesar had to think for himself now, and figure out someway to wake his giant friend up. Perhaps...biting him? Well, what was there to lose.
Caesar bit the Tropius on the snout; a bit easier than he would have if the Pokemon had been an enemy.
"TROPE!" Typhoon squealed, waking up. He looked at Caesar and simply huffed again. Time for him to get back into the fray... The Tropius stood up again and vomited a couple of Razor Leaves from his Swiss army mouth of grass-type tricks. They sliced at Slakoth, but in the end, didn't do very much damage.
A sudden object hit Typhoon in the back of the head. It was the shell of that Wartortle! Typhoon seemed like he was about to go out cold a second time, but regained his composure. The Rapid Spinner, hurt but not completely out of the brawl, magically flew toward Caesar and went for a leg sweep.
Ooh! That had to hurt Typhoon, Caesar thought as the Wartortle came flying at him. Unfortunately for the Cyndaquil, he didn't see it until the last second and could barely do anything but curl up into a ball. An improvised Defense Curl, that is. The Wartortle bounced off and landed a few feet away, now caught between Typhoon and Caesar.
"Whirlpool!"yet another unfamiliar voice said. Wartortle gave his opponents a cocky grin, put one clawed hand to the ground, and summoned a huge vortex of powerful water. Caesar stared at the vortex, but didn't know what he was supposed to do. He needed Trenton's guidance and Trenton wasn't responding.
"Uh! Quick Attack to dodge, Caesar!" Trenton ordered and Caesar did as he asked, diving over to the side, using the move to speed him up. Water was deadly.
Unlike Caesar, Typhoon was caught in the middle of attack, but he dug his feet into the ground and withstood the blow. That and his grass-type resistance to water made the attack lose its punch, even though Typhoon was still stuck inside. "Magical Leaf!" Vandalgeist fiercely commanded. Three sharp, rainbow-colored leaves shot out from inside the whirlpool and hit Wartortle. Now he was sustaining some serious damage.
"Shoot. Aqua Jet on Caesar!"Wartortle withdrew into his shell, covered himself in water and flew through the air, swerving around the whirlpool.
"Hey, Typhoon! Go dosomething!" But the whirlpool was really starting to restrict his movements, and he resorted to protecting himself form the blow instead. And that stupidsauce Slakoth was lumbering ever closer!
Yes, well. There was no good plan here, so Trenton just sucked it up and commanded the first semi-sane thing that came to his mind. A Wild Charge was the correct move to do here. It would still hurt Caesar, probably moreso than usual because there wasan Aqua Jet attack he'd have to charge through, but it would still take that Wartortle out of commission.
Hopefully.
"WILD CHARGE!"
Caesar, now with an aura of electricity around him, charged wildly into the Aqua Jet attack. Even though the water still hurt him, the electricity around him helped, and he burst through to Wartortle's shell. He ended up headbutting the tough shell - yeowch.
"Hey Caillou, Wartortle's on his last limbs,"Brook of Team Number one said. Vandalgeist smiled, knowing that it was their team taking the turtle down.
"Quillll..." The woozy Cyndaquil was rocked from the remnants of the Wild Charge and stumbled back to Typhoon, needing a little bit of cover as he recharged from his ultimate attack, being a wee bit tired out. But hey, the attack had rocked Wartortle, so he didn't really care now. The Wartortle was laying on the ground with a dent in his shell, charred all over with cartoony burn marks. The Whirlpool started to disappear, simply fading away, and Typhoon got himself back together.
"Okay, Typhoon. Let Caesar on your back," said Vandalgeist. She tried to think of which Pokemon were still in the running, and realized that every team was still in the running even though three Pokemon - Wartortle, Gastly and Magnemite - were most likely out. Every team but theirs had only one player in the running. And who knew what Grotle and Wobbuffet were doing? Slakoth was lumbering ever closer to them - he was almost in range! Oh no!
Caesar was quick to scramble onto the back of Typhoon, ready to get away from the fighting. It wasn't that he didn't want to fight, he just needed more time to recover before he could do anything. Hopefully, once Typhoon was flying about again, they'd be able to burn people and obtain the flag again. First came that, then victory.
This time it sounded like Simona Carrone was talking. "Stop and use, uhh, Ice Beam," she said.
As Typhoon rose higher into the air, Slakoth started sluggishly charging up an attack. A ball of light blue energy generated between his hands turned into a beam of iciness! But unfortunately, it missed. Slakoth fell on the ground and went to sleep, slacking off.
"Well that was lame," Vandalgeist spat. "THAT WAS LAME, YOU GUYS. BLUE ANGEL SUCKS."
"Oh, you be quiet. You couldn't do any better if you had a Pokemon with Slack Off as its ability either!" Simona retorted.
"Typhoon, forget about the sloth and keep going towards the fla-ag!"
Vandalgeist hastily scribbled a comment on the all-important strategy paper. "go on and defeat slakoth if you want i dont really care", it said.
"Okay, sure." Trenton scribble onto the paper in response, then spoke aloud again, "Go ahead and burn more evil stuff," he said to Caesar, who happily obliged, Flamethrowin' down at the sloth, who was singed up and knocked even moreunconscious than he already was by the attack.
"Okay, what's left?" Trent asked Vandalgeist, turning to look at his friend. He figured that they more or less had this battle won, so it was just a matter of who was left to beat up. And stuff.
Typhoon soared over the arena and found the last two contenders duking it out...but between them, the winner was clear. Using a thick web of vines from cracks all over the arena, all stemming from his back, Grotle had immobilized Wobbuffet, the defender of the flag. Another vine popped up and grabbed the flag.
"Dang," said Geist. "Has that thing been using those vines the whole time?"
"I uh, think so." Trenton confided to the Geist, staring out at the battle. "I could probably have Caesar try and burn them. Yeah, that sounds like a good plan. CAESAR, USE THE FIRE!"
The little Pokemon obliged and spat little flames at some of the various vines. Ember attacks were small, and worked just as well as the big ones! At least when they were involved with leaves and grass, right?
A few of the vines were burned, and it looked like Grotle felt it. He definitely looked weak from all of that vine-using. Wobbuffet's "corpse" plopped onto the ground, and some of Grotle's vines retracted.
"Put all of your energy into this!" a guy from Team Number One yelled. "Stone Edge them!"
A sharp pillar of mall tile flew up into the air and passed by Typhoon...but it skewered Caesar!
Ack. Stone Edge was a dangerous attack, but luckily for the valiant Caesar, it hadn't reallyskewered him. It had more poked him really hard and sent him flying off of the back of his companion and into...one of the Grotle's vines! Trenton bit his lip as he watched then, "Okay, uh. Uh." He was too late. The vines had tightened around Caesar and were now waving him about wildly. Typhoon was about to swoop in and help, until...
CRASH.
Caesar was smashed into the wall of the mall, and suddenly surrounded in a brilliant white light.
"Eh?" Trenton said, staring blankly out at the battlefield.
"How come this twerp's Pokemon gets to evolve and ours don't?" Mustachio demanded.
"Stuff it!" Trenton snapped.
Back on the battlefield, the newly evolved Caesar...erupted. Literally. Flames started to rip from under the ground, covering the vines of the Grotle and the Grotle himself. The Grass Pokemon fainted and Caesar ran to the flag, gripping it in his mouth. Typhoon landed gracefully on the ground nearby.
Vandalgeist looked over at Trenton with a knowing smile. As in...she knew that they had won.
"VICTORY IS OURS!" Trenton declared.
Grand Gallery of Battle B'Images
(somehow i JUST NOW noticed that the same number in the front of the url is also inside of it. OH WELL! ZING!)
(89) .us/img89/3706/donthate - Caillou Brown (it wasn't made by me)
(692) .us/img692/9187/request22 - Simona Carrone
(839) .us/img839/3057/request23kurtiss - Jeddy Swift
(269) .us/img269/827/request24 - Big Ardagne (why didn't I make a Von Paint picture?)
(217) .us/img217/8281/request30 - I guess this is Brook Starr
(12) .us/img12/8254/request27 - Caesar and Tropius meet again
(685) .us/img685/4213/request28 - Caesar kills a ************, and Typhoon watches with sadistic glee
(718) .us/img718/6552/request29 - Von Paint and Big Ardagne go mad in the torture chamber