AN: battle part two, written and brought earlier than expected because 8-0 baby! justice is not yet dead in this world!
Oh also a guest appearance by Faith the (former) Eevee.
Song: 'Smells Like Team Spirit' by Nirvana, Reshiram & Zekrom theme
Filled with an excitement he hadn't really experienced for a while, he grinned and cracked his knuckles. Samurott raised his head proudly.
"Samurott's my strongest," Hilbert said, feeling confident. "So if Drifblim wasn't your strongest, you better send out your strongest right now."
Dawn said something, but at that moment, a voice rang in his head. A familiar voice, coming out of a door in his mind that he had barricaded and blocked to the best of his abilities because he didn't want to open that door, didn't want to speak to that voice.
Liar.
Whatever expression he had been making – exhilaration at a challenging battle, pride for his Pokémon, just pure joy from the fun he was having – dropped. He had been doing such a good job of shutting out that presence and pretending it wasn't there, but the voice of the white dragon chilled him to his bones and rattled them.
"What?" he choked out, shaken. More surprising than Reshiram speaking was the god of truth considering itself as his strongest Pokémon, even after Hilbert had pretty much turned the cold shoulder towards it and done his best to forget about it.
Did that mean there was no escape? Was this just a temporary break before he would return to his life of being tied to Reshiram and its merciless blue fires forever?
"Can't," Dawn said, a little more loudly than before, and snapped him out of his daze. "She's too big. Glaceon!"
The next Pokémon was a glacial fox, with pale icy fur that glittered like cold diamonds. It shook its body out lightly, and its pointed ears twitched towards Samurott. Like Lopunny from before, its body had scars that marred the otherwise beautiful fur.
Hilbert waited, but Reshiram didn't speak again. Fine. He'd go back to pretending there was only one consciousness in his head and focus on the current battle.
As for his opponent, Hilbert guessed as he called for a Scald. It was definitely an Ice-type, from name and appearance. Boiling water flew towards the Glaceon, but Dawn didn't say anything, and the Glaceon didn't move, taking the Scald head on. Steam hissed angrily, and began to rise like fog or clouds hiding a nature spirit.
Moments later, Glaceon exploded in a multi-coloured supernova of light. The blinding aurora washed over his eyes, and for a split second all he saw was the dazzling light from the explosion.
When the light died out, Samurott was crumpled on the ground, unconscious, and Glaceon was shaking the still-steaming moisture out of its glittering fur.
"That was a Mirror Coat, right?" he asked, returning his fainted starter. The Glaceon didn't even look phased. "You sure that one's not your strongest?"
Glaceon hissed at him like it was offended he would dare to question its strength. Dawn cracked a smile, wistful like she was going over an old joke. "Steelix has size, type and weight backing her up. Glaceon is very close, though."
Hilbert eyed the Ice-type, and then made his decision. Special Attacks were out if a Mirror Coat was always going to be waiting to explode on him like a landmine, but he had a mixed attacker with some diversity and a type advantage. "Simisear! Brick Break!"
With a war screech, the monkey zigzagged towards the Glaceon, both arms raised threateningly.
But before he was halfway there, Dawn grinned. "Attract."
"Back!" Hilbert yelped, but confusing energy in the shape of obnoxiously pink hearts were already flying towards Simisear. The first two hearts missed, but the rest were on target, and Simisear, dazed and suddenly struck with 'love', nearly stumbled and fell flat on his face.
Nearly. Attract was a move Swoobat knew as well, and Hilbert himself liked to use it to disorient foe Pokémon and then poke fun at challengers by making a joke about how they'd been 'swept off their feet'.
It wasn't so fun on the receiving end, but the guys on his team had experience serving as practice dummies for the move.
"Simisear!" he shouted. "Snap out of it!"
Simisear swayed, what little logic and rationale he normally had fighting the overwhelming false emotions implemented in him by his foe.
"Water Pulse," Dawn ordered, not letting them get the chance to straighten out.
Glaceon hummed, and water began to gather, vibrating at a high frequency, into a round ring in front of its face. once the ring had reached peak frequency, Glaceon let it explode towards Simisear.
Simisear wasn't down, despite all that. And the water had temporarily shocked him enough to break through the haze of infatuation, if only by a bit.
Hilbert decided to go for a distance move. Even at the risk of Mirror Coat firing back, it was better to go for a –
"Flamethrower!"
"Ice Beam!"
Unlike the Water Pulse, the Ice Beam was the same type, and was much quicker in being pulled out. A stream of fire collided with the freezing energy in between the two, and a loud explosion filled the room. Shortly after the thundering sound, the burst of mist from the collision followed, fogging up their sight.
"Can you go for a Brick Break?" Hilbert asked.
In battle, he never asked questions. It was the principle of the thing – a powerful being was willing to share its strength with a fragile, weak human in exchange for a strategy to lead them both to victory. The least he could do was show confidence.
Unless it was deliberate, and a part of the strategy – to send a message to each other that opponents couldn't decipher even after hearing it in full.
Simisear dashed forth – and stumbled to a halt as the Attract seemed to return at full force.
Dawn didn't let the brief moment pass. "Water Pulse!"
Glaceon inhaled, and once more a ring of water began to gather when Simisear snapped his head up, eyes clear.
"Flamethrower!"
Simisear was faster in releasing the stream of fire that cut through the half-gathered ring of water.
The Flamethrower hit Glaceon, and Hilbert grinned. Checkmate.
Dawn, however, smiled right back as Glaceon once again erupted into a blazing aurora. He groaned at the second burst of blinding light as he remembered the Mirror Coat. He didn't think Dawn's Glaceon would be able to pull it off that quickly, but his miscalculations had cost him.
When the dazzling light was gone, Simisear was unconscious on the ground, while Glaceon was still standing, albeit in pretty bad shape this time.
Still, the Ice-type yipped happily and charged straight to Dawn once she was sure she had won.
"Good job," Dawn complimented lightly. She lifted her head to make eye contact with Hilbert. "And good battle."
He sighed, and returned Simisear after a 'good job, buddy'. "Yeah," he said, content even if he had lost. "Good battle."
And, it was the Truth. Even if for a moment, it looked like the sweet dreams were over, he still had some more time.
Hilbert headed to the healing machine at the corner of the battle room, and Dawn followed, pillow hugged tightly to her body.
"Do they give ribbons to challengers who beat Champions in Unova?" she asked as they placed the Poké balls into the machine's holding spots.
"Ribbons?" Hilbert asked, pressing the button. The machine whirred to life, and hummed along mechanically as the screen asked for patience while the Pokémon were healed. Healing machines for Pokémon were expensive things - of course Caitlin would have one in her villa, impractical as it was.
"When a trainer is registered into the Pokémon League Hall of Fame in Sinnoh," Dawn explained. "The Pokémon that were on the Champion Team are all given a ribbon to set them aside from . . . non-champion teams, I guess. They keep the ribbon even when they're traded from the trainer, because technically, it's the Pokémon that fought."
"No," Hilbert said slowly. "But that's a really good idea."
He hated to think about his vacation ending - he was procrastinating on that idea like it was summer homework from school - but when he got back, he wanted to run that through with Alder and the Elite Four. It was something that might begin to bridge the gap N had seen and fought to point out. Hilbert may have taken N and his Ideals down, but the Truth didn't allow for such a problem to be ignored either.
Dawn shrugged. "Hoenn came up with the idea first," she said grudgingly, like she was admitting something she didn't really want to. "But personally, I like the Sinnohan ribbon design better. It looks more regal, and majestic."
Hilbert laughed. "Biased, much?"
The blue-haired girl just smiled prettily.