Chapter 11
Witnessing Battle
The instant the timer on the screen hit zero and the starting klaxon rang, Azul had pulled out a ball and unleashed his rattata. Slower on the draw, almost struggling with his own belt, Stan got his voltorb out. Yang felt herself twitch. Just from the way the two moved to do the same thing it was clear who was the bigger threat.
"Why do I already feel sorry for Stan?"
The rat charged at his foe, a cocky smirk on his snout to match the smug grin on Azul's face. Even as Stan yelled an order and the voltorb's eyes glowed a brilliant gold their expressions didn't change. As if they knew the fight was already decided. It didn't help that the rat had started moving without Azul needing to say anything, their opening moves well practiced to the point of instinct while the voltorb didn't do anything without being told.
A thin flash of light, a crack that burst through the din of the crowd, and the rat grimaced in pain. While the aura bar for the little guy dipped to the halfway point he didn't slow down, just powering through the lightning bolt as his buck teeth began to glow and he closed the distance. She'd have thought getting hit with enough electricity to light your whole body up would leave you smoldering, and certainly make your muscles seize up for at least a few seconds. Then again maybe lightning shot from a living creature had different rules.
Once the rat got close enough he leaped, glowing teeth ready to do some damage. It was less of a bite and more of a scraping cut, slashing right between the ball's eyes up to the top of its..could she really call it a scalp if the entire creature was a hairless ball? And holy crap she was 'not' expecting an uppercut that involved teeth!
Stan stared in horror as the rat's strike left more damage on his Pokemon's aura bar than the lightning strike, stuttering as Azul calmly ordered the finishing blow. While the ball started to get moving and gained speed quickly it was still trying to get going from a dead stop. The rat was already sprinting and managed a downright amazingly sudden three-sixty turn that somehow let him keep his momentum, doing another tooth-uppercut from behind. Yeesh, if the rats on the road did crap like that..
Another buzz, and the picture of the voltorb was crossed out. Yang gave an impressed whistle. "Yeesh, was 'not' expecting anything like that. Guess I should take the rats on the road more seriously."
The old man gave an amused hum before responding, "Indeed, sometimes it's easy to assume pokémon of a certain species will always move and act the same as in the wild. But skilled trainers can make even the most unremarkable of pokémon into a force to be reckoned with."
As poor Stan scrambled and looked downright horrified as he retrieved his apparently unconscious voltorb and fumbled for another ball, Azul picked up his rattata and did a quick victory pose, one hand raised as a fist and the other holding his pokémon near his waist. The rat stood awkwardly on its hind legs, front legs clinging to his trainer as the little guy seemed to try impersonating a lion's proud roar. Not that anyone other than Azul would have been able to hear that over the cheering crowd.
That got Yang chuckling. "That was a nice start but it's a little early to start celebrating. Still two more to go."
Nodding at the solid point, her companion replied, "True but that voltorb's electricity was Stan's biggest edge against Azul's pidgey and squirtle. As you said before the first strike it's hard not to feel sorry for Stan."
As his opponent finally got the ball he was looking for off his belt holster, Azul smoothly, as if this entire thing was rehearsed ahead of time, stored his rat and released his pidgey. As if to highlight the sheer mismatch, the pidgey had a solid three seconds of waiting before the marril formed, Azul's casual quickdraw so much faster than Stan's scramble it was..well, highlighting how screwed Stan was.
It was hard not to wonder how Ruby would have measured up in this kind of contest. She was clever, more cunning than most would give her credit for. Hell, Yang couldn't hope to pull off half the kind of job her little sister had in getting team RWBY to work together the way they did in the span of two semesters. If anything Yang probably would have spent more time arguing with Weiss than actually getting anyone to work as anything more than a bunch of skilled individuals. And that sent a pang through her chest that Ruby wasn't sitting next to her, cheering and generally being excited. Which in turn made her think of Weiss trying to be more mature yet somehow becoming about as giddy without even noticing it. Or Blake acting pretty reserved until the sheer energy around her proved too much for her to contain. Maybe throw in uncle Qrow being a snarky jackass and her dad being a lovable goofball..
So she just focused on the person who 'was' actually here with her, trying to block out the thoughts of more familiar faces. "That's more because Azul down there looks completely confident. Physically on point, giving the sense he's in control, just giving broad orders that are smoothly followed by the little guy who adds his own little flare to it, that sort of thing. He knows what he's doing, and definitely trusts his partner to hold his own. Whereas Stan..he's a mess. Poor guy's practically tripping over himself, more reactive than proactive, and his little guys don't look like they have a lot of their own initiative. Still, he's not the one in the fight, just the guy yelling to the fighters."
The pidgey began a series of hit and runs, using his superior speed and maneuverability to claw at and occasionally outright tackle the ground bound mouse-esque ball of cuteness. A raging rag doll that could somehow spit more water out of his mouth than he had room in his body to hold, creepy, but a pretty hopeless rag doll all the same. Stan clearly had no idea how to handle this and just stopped trying to yell instructions, practically becoming just another member of the audience. Wasn't there a way for him to concede or something if he felt he was absolutely hopeless? Or pull the little guy out and switch to his third creature?
There was a moment after a particularly harsh tackle, with the marill bouncing off the ground like a rubber ball and the bird turning around for another pass, when the beaten down critter stared at the nearly crying trainer. Despite the long distance from the VIP lounge to the arena floor, and the awkward camera angle on the screens, Yang could still 'feel' the emotions exchanged between the two. Stan's sorrow and resignation, the marill's sense of helplessness and shame, and how when their eyes met the marill had a fresh flash of determination. It was the sort of thing she saw plenty of times at Signal Academy whenever someone getting their ass kicked would stop listening to their coach and started going wild.
Yang felt herself smiling at that. "All right little guy, what are you going to do about it?"
The old man gave her a quick glance but then his eyes were drawn back to the action. As the bird came swooping down for his next strike, the blue mouse didn't bother getting back on his feet or try spraying more water. He just bounced to smash into the bird, catching his assailant off guard. Both of their auras went down so it wasn't perfect, especially with how low the marill's already was, but it knocked the pidgey out of its rhythm, and made Azul freeze up in surprise.
The crowd went crazy as the mouse scrambled onto the still stunned bird's back, scratching and biting frantically. But where most people saw a valiant comeback and fed off the energy, Yang saw pure desperation and lack of technique. "Oh that's not going to last long enough to beat that pidgey. It's not even good enough to stop a determined enough toddler."
It's hard to keep a firm grip when clawing and biting for the sake of causing any damage at all. Eventually the pidgey managed to buck off the marill and took to the air again. Azul had an angry look on his face, either at the marill for giving the illusion of the one sided beatdown being an actual fight or his own pidgey for letting that go on as long as it did. Yang could only see his body language, she couldn't hear whatever he was actually saying. She didn't know if the bird picking the mouse up by the thin section of tail between the round bits was something ordered or just the pidgey thinking of payback on his own. Either way it felt a little too vindictive, practically asking for his opponent to counter. Too bad that Stan and his marill didn't understand that.
What she 'could' hear was the old man sounding impressed. "You've got a good eye on you. I can't think of too many trainers who could have seen that coming."
Part of her wanted to say that was because she was a huntress, not a trainer. But the words caught in her throat partway through. "That's..well, I've..gone through plenty of trouble. Easier to put myself in the shoes of someone in the thick of it rather than the person yelling instructions on the sidelines."
Her mouth kept moving as a thought occurred to her, whatever nervousness changed her words earlier gone as she kept talking. "Like right now. Getting lifted into the air, sure, that's a bad spot. But the pidgey's speed and maneuverability mean a lot less now, 'especially' when the weight the little guy's struggling to lift is the very opponent he's trying to fight. If you're going to grab at what you're fighting, you need a quick follow up or you're just asking for trouble. Just like he and Azul ran into trouble by getting too complacent beating the marill down. Not that the marill is thinking straight enough to try shooting more water or really anything else to take advantage of the long set up for the next move. He's just flailing around. Sure, making it tougher for the bird to keep a grip but no plan other than get out of those talons. I doubt the little guy even has an idea how to land if he 'does' get loose. He 'did' have the right idea earlier to try interrupting the constant swooping attacks, but didn't have anything to follow it up. Like a little kid tripping a bully just hoping that's enough to get the bully to back off."
He took in the information with a smile, nodding even as the pidgey stopped climbing upwards and just let the mouse drop. "Hm, yes. I'm more used to trying to get a read on the trainer, think what they can do with the pokémon they brought and circumstances they are given. Strategies and tactics, one thing leads to the next which opens up possible next moves, plans meeting opposing plans, the battle of the brains. You seem to have more of an eye for the immediate flow of battle, how reflexes and instincts can quickly change the complexion of a situation, the potential individual strikes and openings that a given clash creates, the emotions of those involved. It's quite a nice change of pace to react to a match with someone who looks from a different angle."
The landing looked painful, the marill bouncing like, well, a ball. A ball that was more water than air, squishing against itself in the painful impact. His aura was in the red but not low enough to warrant being out of the fight apparently. He was too dazed as the pidgey came down hard and fast, seeing but not comprehending as the bird slammed his beak between the eyes as if his entire body was a fist. A brutal knockout but the crowd was still cheering.
Yeesh, for a world where they didn't have to worry about anything like the Grimm they certainly made their sport fighting vicious. Granted, there were plenty of harsh blows thrown during the Vital Festival tournament, neither were to the death and for the most part nobody got 'really' hurt. That Mercury guy..yeah, she 'still' thought he attacked her after the match was over. Maybe it was just that load of crap that made seeing cute looking animals fighting 'that' hard catch her off guard. That sense that regardless of the rules there was still a chance of injury, and they didn't have the excuse of a dangerous threat to..
..okay, she was honestly about to think there was an excuse to go too far in a tournament fight while still thinking she was justified in countering an attack from behind by a beaten opponent the way she had. No wonder Blake hesitated to say she believed Yang. That was..yeah, not a good line of thought.
So she went back to focusing on what was going on down in the arena. Stan was once again putting a defeated pokémon back in its ball, though this time he wasn't scrambling to get the next ball out. He just looked at it dejectedly. Like he was thinking of just giving up right there. Understandable. Two of his team eliminated. All three of the opposition ready for him with only one with a significant amount of aura missing, and one was still completely fresh. And judging by how the previous two fought, this probably would be even more one sided. His morale was painfully low.
Conversely, Azul was back to looking smug and proud. One hand raised in victory, and his pidgey perched on his shoulder, doing the closest thing a bird of his size could manage to copy a lion's roar. The match as a whole already decided, even if it wasn't officially over yet. It was hard to call it complacency when his opponent looked so emotionally beaten and the one spurt of surprise hadn't managed to even take his bird's aura to the halfway point.
Eventually Stan made his decision, slowly pulling out the ball and unleashing the sandshrew inside. Again, Azul smoothly took his current pokémon off the field and got out a fresh one. His squirtle somehow managed to look more menacing than such a small, cute little thing had a right to. Was it the way he was grinning or just the sense of hopelessness from Stan?
Yang wasn't sure what to feel at this point, it might have been better for Stan to just call it a day. "Oh he outright knows he's beat now. If he isn't crying already he's certainly close to. Still, it takes a certain kind of guts to keep going when you're down two to nothing and can see the end ahead, though that's kind of canceled out by the fact that he's just seeing the pain on someone else, not feeling it himself."
The old man was also less than sympathetic to Stan pulling out his third against these odds. "Indeed, Stan doesn't have much he can do about that type disadvantage. And even if by some miracle he 'could' pull something off there's no way his sandshrew would be in any condition to contend with two more pokémon afterwards, even if neither of them are fresh. No matter how you look at it, it doesn't make much sense for him 'not' to concede. Not even stubborn pride, that seems to have been beaten out of him. Maybe he considers it more shameful to admit defeat than keep struggling."
Azul and his squirtle were in no hurry to finish the match, the blue turtle cockily doing a slow spin as he walked towards his opponent, making gestures to the crowd as if he was the star of the whole show. Conversely, Stan was kneeling with his sandshrew, saying 'something' as he shook with poorly restrained emotion while the little guy made a comforting few pats on his arm. That just made Stan 'visibly' sob. Yeesh, it was the first match of the first round of a random tournament for beginners. Sure, it sucks to lose but this..this was just downright pathetic. If anything he was making his rather public humiliation even worse.
As Stan almost tripped over himself backing away from his pokémon, the sandshrew did something oddly, comfortingly familiar to Yang. Like a boarbadusk, it condensed itself into a ball and started spinning in place, charging up for one last charge. Groaning a little, Yang couldn't stop herself from trying to facepalm with her nonexistent arm. "Ugh, really? Took you that long to think 'I have a lot of round creatures, maybe I should make the other guy play ball'? Stan, that is just 'sad'."
It took just a quarter second of "feeling" her arm make the motion and 'not' feeling it actually touch her head for her to realize her mistake and use her left hand to crack against her forehead with more force than she'd usually put into a facepalm. The old man jolted a bit from the sound of the impact, which to Yang's own ears sounded like a two-by-four smacking against cement with just barely enough force to avoid breaking. She winced more at his reaction than the self-inflicted pain.
The squirtle waited until the sandshrew started rolling right at him at an impressive speed before spraying his opponent down with an absurd amount of water from his mouth. It didn't look any different from the water any hose could launch, there didn't seem to be any especially impressive amount of kinetic force behind the spray, so it just felt odd to see the sandshrew's aura zip down so fast. What, was there something special about another pokémon soaking them down? Did water just work differently around here? And more importantly how the hell could a cute little thing like a squirtle shoot more water than his own bodyweight and not look the least bit dehydrated?!
To add insult to inexplicable injury, once the sandshrew's aura ran out and the klaxon rang out for the end of the match the squirtle started a victory break-dance. Sure, it was cute to see the little guy dance like that but after a one sided win like that it felt 'way' too mean spirited. The only way it could have felt worse was if the little guy gave a kick to the now laid out sandshrew. A quick fist pump and triumphant cry was one thing but this..this just made her hope that Azul and his team got their asses handed to them later on.
Still, that had been a fun match to watch. "Well that's one way to start a tournament. A complete, one-sided beatdown. Hope there aren't too many of those today though. That would just make me feel like the people in charge of this should come up with a better way to divide the competition."
The old man chuckled at that. "Regardless of the level of a tournament the first round or two tends to have a number of mismatches. People who technically qualify but aren't quite at the average getting weeded out as the average and extraordinary competitors prove they have what it takes. I'm not sure how many you'd think are too many but at least the one sided ones are generally pretty quick. And not every overwhelmed competitor refuses to surrender."
Katsumi wasn't counting how many matches happened before it was his turn. Hell, he barely paid attention to those matches when he could have been getting a feel for just how tough the average person was. He was too excited, absorbed by the sheer amount of energy that was all over the building now that things were kicking off. Everything after the first extremely loud noise signifying the first match all turned into one big blur.
Sure, he wasn't the only one in the tournament, and he'd already embarrassed himself. Still, it's not like the cameras caught him going to the lady's room. Just the..incredibly attractive one armed blonde amazon he'd met earlier. Not a great thing but not a day ruining disaster either. Besides, she was probably in one of the higher end competitions, not the one for low ranked trainers. Soon enough he'd be on stage, showing his stuff in front of countless people both in the arena itself and around the world. Or at least wherever else in the world people were getting the footage of the tournament. It wasn't adrenaline, at least he didn't think it was, but there was something in him that was like a drug. Something electric in his veins that made him too energetic to think or stay still and both sped up the clock and made everything and everyone around him feel way too slow for comfort. It just didn't make sense, and he didn't have anything to measure it against.
Hearing his name on the PA managed to get his attention and at least got his brain working enough to actually move. Red gate, station two. Shouldn't be too hard to find, even in this crowd of lively people. At the very least the signs for it were above the crowd instead of easily obscured by them.
And it 'was' easy to find. Just follow the big red arrows with a number two. And when he got there in the one-man waiting room there was a small screen with the name and line-up of his opponent. Tessa Yates, with a mankey, beedrill, and..huh, some ferret looking Pokémon. He didn't remember the name of it but he could have sworn that was a Johto mon. Okay, looked like a normal type, no secondaries. His charmander, nidoran, and pidgey shouldn't have too much trouble. At the very least he had two type advantages over her bug. The other two, well at least he didn't have any obvious weaknesses they could exploit.
The buzzer for the end of the previous match rang out, and he felt the hype build up again in his veins until he was shaking like a revved up engine. Oh yeah, come on, send the announcement that he was going in. Send it sendit!
"Five matches in and we've seen a surprising amount of talent from a number of first timers!"
"Hey, everybody's got talent somewhere, the question is who can draw on the right talent at the right time."
"Still, you've got to admit a few of these kids are head and shoulders above the average in their age group."
"I'll believe that when I see them keep it up for the second and third rounds. This is just their first impression."
"Well in my mind first impressions are as good a time to get a feel for someone as any. And as first impressions go miss Tessa Yates is making some waves before she even steps in! Her family just recently moved from Johto to Kanto and she decided the best way to get acclimated to an entirely different region was to join the first tournament in her new home city!"
"The kid's got guts, no doubt about it. Most people her age would be pretty shy when they make a move that big, not stepping in front of a major crowd. But it takes more than guts to go far in this game."
"That it does. Her opponent is Katsumi of Pallet Town. Technically speaking he's closer to home than she is but home field advantage doesn't count for much in your first round in your first tournament!"
"Well then why did you even mention it?"
There was something..intangible when he walked out of the gate and into the actual arena. Like an invisible field that took that energy in him and altered it, made it something he could actually use instead of be absorbed by. Earlier he was giddy with anticipation, and that giddiness was still there, but he was actually 'here' now. Surrounded on all sides by stands full of people in a mostly empty field. He was on stage, a focus for countless people. He'd worried he might get stage fright, that he'd be too scared to really do anything, but as he scanned the crowd all he could think was he was no longer a spectator. Now he was part of the show, and regardless of if he embarrassed himself or not..
There was an excited pair of twins in the second row that were rapidly chattering to eachother how awesome the last match was. A pair of old men in the seventh who were clearly far less awed, probably insulting the competitors so far. A father explaining something to his child. And more importantly, there was the girl coming out of the white gate, his opponent. Right this minute she had officially become the most important person in his life.
Truth be told she wasn't much to look at, but then it'd be hard for your average eleven to thirteen year old girl with shoulder length brown hair to make an instant impression like that Yang girl did. Not anywhere near the same number of attention grabbing details. Still, in terms of facial expressions that eager grin and the glint in her eyes meant she was having fun, and he found himself mirroring the expression as he thumbed his first Pokéball.
A loud buzz for the start of the match, and he let loose his nidoran with a yell. "Baragon! Let's get this started!"
When she first saw that Katsumi kid's name on the screen Yang leaned forward in her seat. Noticing the questioning look the old man sent her way Yang mentioned, "Ran into that kid today twice. Kind of reminds me of a few people I know. Not really rooting for him but it'll be fun watching how he does things."
He smiled at that, "Yes, it's a nice feeling when you personally know one of the competitors, even if it was a short meeting. Anyone else you're keeping an eye out for?"
Yang couldn't help it, she gave a quick laugh at that. "Yeah, another kid named Masamune."
And she felt guilty laughing at the definitely unintentional joke. Really? 'Keep an eye out' for the boy with just one eye? Yeah, she really doubted she'd personally laugh at any hand jokes, but it was apparently okay for her to laugh at an eye joke when the guy who was the butt of the joke wasn't even here to defend himself?
Shaking the thoughts from her head, she took stock of what each of the trainers let loose. Katsumi had sent out some purple thing with adorable rabbit ears and a horn. Not a very long horn either, it looked more like a nose just above its actual nose than a natural weapon. Nidoran, with a symbol for male next to the species name. Why did a purple rabbit thing get something to tell people what gender it was but all the others she'd seen so far hadn't? And she'd seen dozens of these pokémon things in the past hour.
On the other end, Tessa had let loose a 'very' disturbingly large bee. Holy crap, that bug was bigger than its trainer! And while she couldn't tell 'exactly' how long the two arm-stinger things were, she had the sense they were longer than either piece of Blake's Gambol Shroud. Why did it 'need' those stingers when the tail stinger looked so big and sharp on its own?! Most importantly why didn't it have legs?!
Now, she wasn't the type to be scared of bugs. Hell, she'd fought against the occasional deathstalker and those were bigger than a minivan! But as someone who liked bees enough to name her bike Bumblebee seeing this beedrill thing just gave her a shiver. It was..okay, probably wrong to say that it looked twisted and wrong, she could practically see Blake giving an annoyed glare as she judged that thing from sheer looks alone but come on! As if Blake wouldn't complain if Nora started hammering things left and right while wearing a bright pink ninja outfit!
The old man thankfully distracted her with a tactical analysis. "Well, Tessa is certainly lucky that Katsumi didn't start with either of his other pokémon. Still, even without a type disadvantage it's not like a poison type can poison another poison type."
The two creatures charged eachother at the same time, the cute little rabbit not at all intimidated by the large bug. The rabbit jumped, clearly hoping to tackle the bug in the midsection but missed as the bug dodged to the side. As it dodged one of those arm stingers lashed out, stabbing against a hind leg. Ouch. Not quite as fast as Ruby but still hard to track, and unlike Ruby it wasn't swinging around a large object. Probably the first creature in this entire tournament she thought would give the average Beacon student trouble. And its stabs..those were quick jabs, but when your arms look like small lances it's not like you need to use any hooks or uppercuts to get the job done. She wouldn't want to face something like that unless she was at her best, and her best was 'gone'.
No matter how she looked at it Yang couldn't see a good way for Katsumi to deal with this. "Yeah, definitely a mismatch in terms of speed. And since it can fly the beedrill's going to be tough to pin down or outmaneuver enough for the nidoran to jump at it."
The bee didn't give the nidoran the chance to escape or even get some distance. Just hovering near the rabbit's left rear leg and poking at the..was shoulder the right word? Yang wasn't an expert on four legged anatomy. But she did know that something capable of doing a moving hover and keep pace with you when you're running isn't something you should deal with in a one on one environment, and if something keeps jabbing at the same joint over and over again sooner or later you're not going to be able to use that limb too well.
Not that Katsumi had the option to send out any other pokémon to support his nidoran, though she didn't see any reason to keep that little guy out there either. At best he could yell directions at it, comically waving his arms like a traffic cop when the purple rabbit he was crying out to wasn't able to see the exaggerated motions, though the nidoran certainly heard him and made a sharp left, and then a few minor adjustments to his path that felt odd..until the bee, completely focused on its target, crashed against a wall it wasn't paying attention to. Nice use of terrain, but it wouldn't have worked if the bee had some better spacial awareness.
The crowd cheered as the nidoran spun around and tackled the dazed bug, biting at one of its shoulders as they hit the ground. Yang could only wince as the now flat on its back bug started to punch with its free spike, forcing the nidoran off its body. However, the little guy just jumped onto one of the bee's wings and started kicking at its head. Now the crowd was going wild as the nidoran and beedrill just traded blows. There was no thought of defense, no mercy, just frantic brawling where each hoped the other's aura ran out first.
Yang wasn't sure which part of the brutal ground brawl annoyed her more. The way everyone in the stands cheered for the now mindless beatdown. The fact that Katsumi apparently thought this was a 'good' exchange based on the way he was yelling towards his pokémon. The way the nidoran winced whenever one of its legs kicked out and the bee's aura took less damage whenever that happened. Hell, it could have been anything and everything. Whatever the case she just groaned. "Ugh, you've got to be kidding me. Really? Choosing to do a quick bit of attrition where you're likely to lose and everyone thinks that's a 'good' thing?!"
The old man hummed a moment before saying, "Indeed. While it was clever to use Tessa's lack of attention to the terrain to his advantage, there were better ways to use that opening. Still, there's something to be said about a very determined offensive."
Yang clenched her fists at that. "Yeah. And the thing that 'should' be said is don't get into an endurance contest in a 'fight' unless you're 'very' sure you completely outclass the other guy that way. Sure, it's softening the bug up for the next guy but..it's just a crappy and forced way to take one for the team."
Neither of their auras lasted long, and the nidoran had already taken some hits before they started the mutual beatdown. Yang groaned again as Katsumi seemed surprised his pokémon lost the exchange, outright slack jawed as the rabbit was pushed off the wing by one final strike and fell on his side, curling into himself. Really kid? Thought your little buddy could come out on top of a mess like that?
Then Katsumi looked at the big screen that showed the auras and started grinning again. Really? The kid was unconcerned one of his team was out of aura and out of the match and more pleased the beedrill was down to the red?!
Even worse was the fact that Tessa didn't make any move to return her bee as Katsumi withdrew his fallen pokémon. As if the fact that the bug had 'any' aura left was good enough for it to keep going. If anything the odd lack of empathy from 'both' of them got her eyes to shift to red, even if she was still calm enough to stay in her seat and not yell for the sheer sake of venting. Dear god, both of these kids made 'Cardin' look like a good leader. Cardin freaking Winchester, exhibit A of cocky morons who thought raw muscle was better than anything else and felt everyone smaller than him was lesser!
Katsumi sent out his pidgey, the bird wasting little time swooping towards the badly hurt bee. Now, the bee had already shown more speed than the bird was showing and probably had more maneuverability. However the bug didn't try to use either. It just flew straight at the swooping bird with its tail stinger ready to stab. Again Yang tried to facepalm with a palm she no longer had. "Just..just what the hell."
Even as badly beat up as the bug was it could have actually done some damage if it fought smart. Though the smartest thing to do was probably for Tessa to switch to a fresh pokémon. Not stick with one that was a love tap away from being done. Really, how the hell was an oversized bug flying right at an oversized bird's beak anything other than a bad idea?!
The bug didn't get to stab with its tail, so the now glowing purple tip didn't mean anything. Poor thing just took a midair tackle to the midsection and was driven to the ground harder than its aura could take. As much as she was creeped out by the oversized and vicious looking bee she couldn't help wincing in sympathy.
The old man seemed less concerned about whatever pain the now broken auraed bug had taken as he rubbed at his mustache. "Well in terms of trainer abilities the pair seem rather even. Unless their pokémon have some surprising tricks in store this should be pretty close."
Tessa sent out her mankey next, the little ape eager and raring to go, jumping and throwing a few kicks in the air in a quick bit of burning off excess energy before the fight. It was a furry ball of excitement and fury, and Yang couldn't help finding its antics cute. The little guy couldn't be more than two feet tall and he was acting like a prize fighter or something.
Then something else caught her attention, specifically the symbols for the types. Throughout the tournament so far Yang had seen a number of types and had a firm grasp of a number of weaknesses, even if she didn't understand them completely, and she was getting used to the identifying symbols. Fighting against flying type? "Wait, Tessa 'chose' to have a type disadvantage?"
It didn't really matter to Katsumi which of the two other pokémon Tessa sent out. As far as he could remember he didn't have any type advantages over them. Just keep up a solid offense and he'd have a good chance to win. "Hurricane, charge at him!"
Eagerly his pidgey swooped at their fresh opponent, pecking at and clawing the monkey while dodging rapidly swinging legs and arms. There were a number of close calls but so far nothing hit Hurricane yet.
In terms of damage dealt the bird was winning. But it's not like there was a timer and the match could be decided by who had a lower aura percentage. Still, the pidgey was doing a lot of hovering and dodging. That was all well and good for a flier like a bee but a bird with that kind of build was better suited for hit and runs, not staying still and wailing on its opponent. It just looked awkward.
If nothing else Yang couldn't help comparing Katsumi's pidgey to Azul from earlier. The one was predictable but mostly played to its strengths, using superior momentum and range of motion to control the pace of the battle. The other was clearly less skilled and pretty much danced around to the beat the opponent set. Sure, so far Katsumi's bird managed to make it work but..
"He can't keep dodging those hands and legs all day. Not that close."
The old man nodded. "Yes. The advantage of flying over fighting doesn't count for much when the flying type either doesn't know or chooses not to use a flying technique or superior mobility. Their bodies just aren't designed for a stationary slugging match. But that 'is' where a fighting type excels."
It still didn't make sense to Yang how the whole type moves thing worked. As far as she could tell somebody started to glow somehow, usually the spot where they intended to attack with, and based on a rather large but mostly understandable web of inter-type interactions the attack either was oddly dulled or landed with more force than it looked like. Seriously, how does a bird ramming into a plant while glowing light blue do a hell of a lot more than ramming into the same thing at a faster speed? It almost made her want to take hits from the various types just to feel the difference, because seeing it wasn't telling the whole story. Probably a little insane to want to even 'consider' taking hits to get a feel for the proverbial taste of them, but that's
Her thoughts cut off as the monkey finally got a grip on the bird, one of his legs catching the much skinnier leg. With one hand jabbing at the beak of his now panicking foe, the monkey's other hand started to glow yellow. A glow that started to audibly crackle and spark louder than the downright ballistic crowd, and Yang felt herself get caught up in the excitement. "What?!"
The glowing yellow hand pulled back for one of the most telegraphed hooks Yang had ever seen. Impressive considering how short he was and the foot grip he had on his opponent. The electric charged punch slammed into the side of the bird's face hard, sending the pidgey's aura from green to a sliver of red. Not quite enough for an elimination but certainly enough to convince Katsumi to return his pokémon and pull out his third ball.
"Well, that kind of trick changes things a lot."
"Indeed. And if Tessa has one trick up her sleeve she probably has others as well. Now, how is Katsumi going to try making up for that?"
While technically speaking Hurricane wasn't out of the fight a firm enough 'hug' would probably be enough to eliminate him. Holy crap that mankey knew thunder punch. Was there such a thing as water punch? If there was than Kiryu wouldn't stand a chance up close.
The moment his charmander left his ball Katsumi yelled, "Keep your distance, that ape's a tricky one!"
Of course Tessa yelled at the same time, "Grapple and dismantle that lizard!"
With that the mankey started to charge and Kiryu started shooting embers from his mouth.
Yang was not quite surprised to see little fireballs launching from the charmander's mouth. She couldn't help wondering if she would have been as willing to consider the three pokémon she'd first interacted with as cute, innocent and child-like if she'd known from the start this was the kind of thing they could do. Hell, from what she'd seen in the tournament so far it was hard to 'not' wonder just how terrifying the larger, actually intimidating creatures were if the cute ones could be so vicious.
The monkey stopped rushing forward around five yards away from his opponent, the fireballs too accurate and frequent for him to keep dodging and weaving around them. Now he was just rolling to the side and jumping straight up.
If the monkey was smart he would have just kept dodging until the charmander got tired, but no. He had to get impatient, grab a small rock from the ground and throw it in an attempt to distract his opponent so he could close the distance.
Unfortunately for him the charmander saw it coming, paused his fire just long enough to drop to all fours and when the rock came flying he spun around and struck the rock with his tail. The rock flew right into the monkey's eye, leaving him immobile for a precious few seconds in shocked pain. More than long enough for a fireball to crash against him, making him stumble. A second fireball struck, knocking him onto his ass and leaving his aura in the red. Dazed, trying to get back on his feet, the monkey tried to stand back up only to take a third fireball to the face. That finished him, his fur coat positively smoldering.
As Tessa withdrew the monkey and pulled out her final pokémon, a cute little bundle of fur called a sentret, and it somehow reminded her of the maril. Not quite the same shape, but still something that looked more like a toy meant to cuddle in bed rather than something that had any actual business fighting. Sure, the fluffy tail somehow had enough strength to pick the little guy up, and she couldn't tell if those two upper limbs were arms or meant to be some kind of wings that hadn't quite grown right. Maybe it was just a thing in the rookie tournament that people could more easily handle the cuter ones, but she was actually starting to get 'tired' of seeing especially adorable things trying to act tough.
Yang couldn't help glancing at her own pair of pokémon. Neither of them felt adorable enough to be plush toys, which made them more appealing to work with. Not that she'd 'object' to seeing plush toy versions of them, just that the toy makers would have to deform them a bit to get the same effect as things like the marill and sentret.
Phyllis looked downright fascinated by everything she'd been seeing down there, probably because she'd never imagined there to be so many different pokémon capable of so many different things. The wonder on her face just reminded her so much of Ruby the first time she'd ever gone to a weapon convention it hurt. So completely enthralled that it was like she was in a trance. A trance that allowed for her to zip all over the place to try to absorb as much of what was going on as possible, and given Ruby's speed that was 'very' tough to keep an eye on her but still..well at least Phyllis was unlikely to get 'that' fast, and that they could watch everything they needed to while sitting in one spot.
Whereas Duncan, well he was reminding Yang of Weiss. Trying hard to look disinterested and failing miserably. That sense of pride trying to hide the obvious excitement, definitely wanting to be the same or at least similar to the birds he'd seen down there. Of course Weiss had the excuse that she had a killjoy father who seemed to make everything worse just by the smallest possible connection to something. Why was Duncan trying to maintain some image that he was better than all this?
So it was with a sense of almost obligation that Yang started wondering how to make them 'better' in a fight. Definitely something she'd probably find even tougher than the whole interview thing that the professor wanted her to do. Hell, she couldn't even manage to teach her own sister hand-to-hand when she still had two hands! How was she supposed to in any way coach a bird and a plant-lizard?! And the whole ordering them thing..she wasn't really the ordering type. She either followed someone else's lead or went off in her own direction, she wasn't really the leader type. But it's not like she could just not try! Not the way they were looking at the tournament and when she saw even the occasional ten year old kid doing a reasonable job at it.
Her eyes again focused on the action in the arena. The sentret and charmander were both in pretty bad shape, their auras critical. Where the lizard looked tired and could barely shoot those fireballs anymore the ferret looked roughed up but raring to go as he eagerly spat another absurd amount of water..despite the fact the water was definitely more than the little guy's bodyweight and he didn't even have the vague excuse of being a water type.
Just as a fresh spray looked ready to splash against the almost done fire type, Katsumi switched pokémon, the water just phasing through the light like it didn't exist. The poor ferret was caught flat footed as the bird swooped for a tackle finished as the klaxon rang out for the end of the match.
Wow..he wasn't entirely sure he could actually pull it off but wow. He..managed to win. He won!
Judging from the look on Tessa's face she wouldn't mind him doing a little victory dance.
"Well that was certainly a close one!"
"It sure was, without a doubt the closest matchup we've seen so far. Tessa Yates had the skill and talent to get the job done, and she had a few unexpected counters."
"Well Katsumi showed he can think on his feet and has quite the team working for him. It'll be interesting to see these two grow in later competitions."
"Really? I'm seeing some bad form there. I could stand to see less of it."
"Well it's his first win in his first tournament, you've got to allow some, shall we say, less than professional behavior as he celebrates."
"I didn't mean he shouldn't do a victory dance, he deserves it. I meant he either needs to up his dancing skills or spare us from seeing that embarrassing thing. I swear I've seen drunks move more smoothly than that."
Author's Note: Right. Sorry it took me so long to get any writing done. Been a very busy time for me and I doubt the holidays are going to make things any easier but I'll certainly try. As the first real action bit in this story I wanted to really make it work, did three different rewrites before getting this bloated monster of a chapter. Also doing some mental reevaluating.
To be perfectly honest there is absolutely no way I'm going to pull off an entire bloody tournament, this was mostly just so Yang would have a chance to watch battles going on and see how even little kids manage to do a solid job of leading even if she's not really the leader type. And part of how I wanted to pull that off, with the old man/Shingen basically being the mentor character, just didn't really feel right as I was working on this. That what she needs isn't some Yoda hanging over her shoulder giving her constant nuggets of wisdom and knowledge as she goes from town to city to cave to whatever. She 'really' needs to figure things out on her own, with at best some friendly advice from people she comes across on the road.
And at this point the only constant companions she's going to have are her Pokémon. My initial thought was to have her, Masamune, and Katsumi being a traveling trio like the old anime with Ash, Misty, and Brock but it doesn't feel all that right the more I expand the story and think about it. 'Eventually' Katsumi and Yang are going to end up traveling together at some point, still like that idea, it just won't happen immediately as she leaves Viridian City the first time. And Masamune, well, I like the things I've put down in my notes for him to discard him completely but he's going on the proverbial shelf for now.
Before I close things up and finally get started on the next Modern Warfare chapter, I've got a question for the people reading this on FF net. I really feel that though Yang is in a completely different world it's still more of a RWBY fic than Pokémon, mostly because none of the characters feels one hundred percent like the incarnations of the characters from Pokémon to me, even if they share the same names. On the other hand when you try to search for stories with a T rating with Yang as a character this story is just 'buried' to the point it's hard for anyone to find. Especially with tens of thousands of stories in this category. So should I try to find a way to shift this thing over to the Pokémon/RWBY crossover section just for the sake of making it easier to find? Or is it okay for me to keep it in the RWBY section?
..okay, back to bloody work. Hope you enjoyed the chapter even if it is about twice as long as the last one.