Chapter 48 – James versus Wally – part 2
"And now its time to start the second half of today's match," A commentator announced. This wasn't a great shock to anyone – James and Wally had taken their places, in the trainer boxes on opposite sides to the places they were previously; the umpires had moved back into their positions; the concrete field, which had swallowed up the remains of the ice environment at the conclusion of the last half, folded away, to reveal a blackened landscape, where the grass was burnt to ash and various charcoal logs littered the arena. The only object that reached higher then half a metre from the ground was a skeletal tree, burnt white and naked, which stood eerily just off centre.
"A fire environment!" A commentator said, excitedly. Although there were many different terrains, some occurred much more often then others. The fire field was rarely seen, but when it appeared the spectators knew they were promised an awesome battle. Although most fields were little more then a distraction, and could only be used as a weapon by the most skilled of trainers, the fire field was an exception. James smiled as he remembered the previous year – a trainer sprayed too much water onto the field of a fire environment and the result was a thick tar-like substance which immobilized both of the pokémon on the field at that time.
"Politoed!" James said.
"Altaria!" Wally responded. James felt a pang of disappointment as Altaria took to the sky – his strategy wouldn't work.
Unless of course, he could get Altaria onto the ground.
You never know.
"Begin!" The umpire said.
"DragonBreath!" Wally said.
"BubbleBeam!" James said.
"And yet again we see James' Politoed fending off damage with its BubbleBeam!" This time however, the water attack was simply swallowed up by DragonBreath. Politoed jumped clear.
"I think its safe to say Altaria has the advantage here," A commentator was saying, "What with being able to fly, and the strength of a dragon, Politoed might find its opponent's resistance to water too much to handle.
"Bounce, and pull it down!" James said. Politoed leapt into the air, but before it could land on Altaria's wing the humming pokémon soared out of the way.
Politoed's tongue shot out and glued itself to Altaria. The crowd screamed their mixture of amazement and excitement as Politoed landed on Altaria's back. The pair of them started to descend to earth – Politoed was too much for Altaria to carry.
"Roll!" Wally said, "Throw him off!"
"Don't let it!" James said. Politoed clung on while Altaria span to the ground. "Now do a Water Pulse!" However by this time they were too close to the ground, and they collided with the earth before Politoed could get the attack off.
"Now!" James said.
"Sing!" Wally shouted. And at once, a beautiful sound filled the stadium. Protected from its negative effects, James and everyone else could only watch while Politoed's eyes started to droop.
"No." James said, without much conviction, "Hyper Voice." But, just as how a person would decide sleep is better then waking up, Politoed chose to shut its eyes and sink into unconsciousness.
"Dragonbeath!" Wally shouted. Altaria screamed, and blasted fire at Politoed, encasing it in devastating energy.
"Politoed is unable to battle!" The umpire said, when Altaria stopped the attack. James half hoped that Politoed was simply still asleep, but the frog pokémon had been knocked backward – this was no light doze, that was certain.
But he was still leading 4-3.
The problem now, was deciding what pokémon to counter Altaria. James was confident that what had lost him the battle was Politoed's inability to fly. He had a pokémon that could fly, but he wasn't sure how well it would do against Altaria. In fact, he was fairly certain it would perform badly. Best just to keep it in reserve. He reached instead for his Dusk Ball again, and enlarged it.
"Dusknoir!" James said, throwing the capsule forward.
"And the reaper pokémon makes a reappearance!" A commentator said.
"Altaria, return!" Wally said, straight away, withdrawing his dragon. James raised his eyebrows – Altaria wasn't hurt, hardly even tired, and it had no dramatic weakness Dusknoir could exploit.
No, that wasn't true: Dusknoir's Blizzard would do four times the damage against an ice/flying type. James couldn't believe he hadn't remembered Dusknoir's Blizzard.
Doesn't matter; he had brought out Dusknoir anyway, and Wally had recalled Altaria. And now James had to concentrate, because Wally was throwing forward his next pokémon: Flygon.
"Flygon?" James laughed. If Altaria had a weakness to Blizzard, it was nothing to Flygon's. A ground/dragon type, it was quite possibly even worse off. James waited for Wally to recall his battler, however his friend made no attempt to.
"Crunch!" Wally said. Flygon leapt into the air and flew toward Dusknoir.
So that's why he chose Flygon. James thought, while Dusknoir fell through the ground.
"Blizzard it!" James said. Dusknoir rose from the earth and shot a gale after Flygon.
"OUTRAGE!" Wally screamed. Flygon's eyes glowed, and it exploded with fire.
"Holy-" James said, as the Blizzard dissipated and Flygon dived down to Dusknoir.
"Look at the power!" A commentator said.
"Again!" Wally said. This time James saw; he saw Flygon open its mouth and he saw fire explode forward, directed by the dragon's jaws. The attack hit Dusknoir before the reaper pokémon could take cover underground, and encased it in a pillar of fire.
"Will-O-Wisp!" James said. Enchanted orbs of blue fire broke through the vortex and shot toward Flygon, who had landed.
"OH!" The commentators said, as five of the orbs collided with Flygon, singing its scales. Flygon sat on its hind legs, stock still, as though it hadn't noticed.
"Flygon's fatigued!" A commentator said, "The two Outrage attacks were too much for it!"
"Return!" Wally said, and Flygon disappeared into a beam of red light.
"Altaria, DragonBreath!" Wally said while throwing his first dragon back into battle.
"Blizzard!" James said. Dusknoir shot a icy blast toward Altaria, but it was now utterly exhausted, while Altaria was fresh. The DragonBreath broke through, and Dusknoir took the full force of it. The reaper pokémon collapsed.
"Dusknoir is unable to battle!" The umpire announced.
"And Wally's hit-and-run tactics seem to have worked, for the moment at any case." A commentator said. James withdrew Dusknoir, and clipped the minimized dusk ball back onto his belt.
"Tropius!" James said, hoping that the fruit pokémon could tough it out long enough to wear down Wally's pokémon.
"A shiny pokémon!" A commentator said, excitedly. At this there was some mutterings, which quietened down as soon as people realized the battle had started.
"Altaria, Sky Attack." Wally said.
"Up in the air," James said, "And Air Slash!" The two pokémon took to the wing: Altaria elegantly, and Tropius very jerkily and with much flapping. Altaria gave a cry, and flew at Tropius with its body burning in red energy. Tropius brought its wings forward, and two blades of wind span forward to meet Altaria – and broke apart on impact. The attack didn't even slow Altaria down. The humming pokémon connected with Tropius before James could shout another command.
But it turned out he didn't need to.
Tropius, an instant before the sky attack had hit, bought up its hardened front feet, and Altaria slammed into them.
"Stomp!" James said. Tropius' wings stopped flapping, and it fell to the ground, with Altaria underneath it. A ten or so metre drop later and Tropius and Altaria slammed into the ground, spraying a sort of gravel in all directions.
"Altaria is unable to battle!" The umpire said.
"Now, Wally only has two pokémon left – his Flygon and an unknown battler," A commentator said, "and James has three, including Tropius."
"If Wally wants to have a reasonable chance," The other cut in, "He'll have to defeat Tropius with his next pokémon."
"Flygon!" Wally said, throwing it out.
"A good choice," A commentator said, "Flygon should put up a good fight."
"Flamethrower!" Wally said.
"Air Slash!" James said. The two attacks flew toward each other, but this time the Air Slash ripped through, turning the Flamethrower to falling embers while Flygon dodged out of the way. The shreds of fire fell slowly to the ground, and when they landed on the charred dirt they erupted into being once more. It was as though small patches of fuel had been poured over the arena.
"And there goes the fire environment," A commentator said. James saw Wally's face light up with inspiration.
"Flygon, drive it down!" Wally said.
"Leaf Blade!" James said. Flygon flew up, then dived toward Tropius, attempting to force it downward – and succeeding. Although the fruit pokémon flapped valiantly, and slashed out at Flygon with bladed wings, the combined weight of the two large pokémon were too much to support. The pair of them hit the ground hard, and Tropius threw Flygon off it. Flygon rolled over and sat up upon the flaming dirt. Tropius, burning amongst the fire, let out a roar.
"Solar Beam!" James said.
"Flamethrower!" Wally said. Quicker, the fire attack scorched Tropius and caused the ground around it to explode with flames. The Solar Beam suddenly cut through, blasting the fire away and ripping through the Flamethrower, to hit Flygon.
"Yea!" James yelled in triumph. Flygon however leapt away, and the result was only a glancing blow.
"No!" He said.
"Flamethrower, again!" Wally said. Flygon flew upward, before blowing fire down upon Tropius. This was finally too much for the grass type – the ground exploding from below, the flames washing down from above.
"Tropius is unable to battle!" The umpire said.
"All right!" Wally said. Flygon flew back down and landed. The flames didn't seem to be affecting it at all. After recalling Tropius, James reached for the obvious choice to battle Flygon, before catching himself and returning the ball to his belt. Not yet – he promised himself to leave it until last.
Pulling off the other poke ball, James yelled: "Gallade!"
The blade pokémon materialized, took in the field, then rose slightly off the ground, suspended a few centimetres off the burning coals by a layer of psychic energy under its feet. While battling, the quick contact its feet make with the burning ground would be tolerable – this was only temporary.
"Gallade," James said, "Send it a Psycho Cut!" Gallade extended its blades, then slashed its right arm out, sending the attack forward.
"Dodge!" Wally said. Flygon leapt into the air, but the Psycho Cut attack was so fast that it still managed to skim the pokémon's leg. Flygon let out a roar of pain as it ascended.
"Teleport and Close Combat!" James said. Gallade disappeared, and reappeared twenty metres up, right next to Flygon. Gallade delivered an uppercut to Flygon's head, kicked it in the belly, and punched down on its skull, before the pokémon could even work out what was happening. It fell, and recovered only just before smashing into the ground. Flygon evened out, and was flying parallel to the ground, before beginning to turn upward again.
"Teleport it!" James said. Gallade, safe on the ground, didn't even brandish a fist – it didn't need to. Flygon was gone for only the shortest amount of time, and it hadn't changed position hardly at all, so for a moment people were wondering why Flygon had rammed the ground, churning up soil for a good two metres before coming to a stop. Gallade had teleported it to the same spot – but in a different position. It had kept its velocity during teleportation, so when it arrived, facing the ground, Flygon ran straight into it.
"Leaf Blade!" James said. Gallade leapt into the air, its blades glowing green, and came down hard on its opponent.
"Flygon is unable to battle!" the umpire said.
"Ah, too bad," The commentator was saying.
"Yes, but its not over yet," Said the other.
James however, was fairly sure it was. Wally had one pokémon; he had two. Gallade wasn't even tired from this battle. This should be easy – his first final match was in the bag.
But then, he realized what pokémon Wally would undoubtedly be sending out, and suddenly he wasn't so sure.
"Gardevoir!" Wally said, throwing out his star battler, and the once mate of James' Gallade.
The two psychic types looked into each others eyes. Gallade, blades out, crouching at the ready. Gardevoir, straight backed, standing perfectly still. For a few seconds nothing moved, even the audience and commentators were silent. Then, Gallade straightened up, retracted its blades, then kneeled. One fist on the burning ground, its head down, it waited on one knee.
"Gallade is unwilling to battle, Gardevoir is the winner." The umpire said, slightly taken aback. The commentators were muttering amongst themselves. Gallade stood back up, stared at Gardevoir for a moment, before walking back to James. When it reached him, it hung its head in shame.
"No," James said to it, "No, you did good. I would never make you fight Gardevoir. You earned a rest; do you wana go inside or stay and watch?" Gallade appeared to be making up its mind, before it disappeared in a beam of red light.
Now was the time for that final pokémon. James pulled the premier ball from his belt once more.
So much for the advantage.
