Helix Arc: 5
Nervousness shook Aria's hand worse than the tremors of a 100 year old grandmother with frostbite. Cereal jiggled out of her spoon and onto her lap in a spray of milk. Several curses and a chuckle followed. Aria flicked Raven a glare and wiped up the milk before brushing off the cereal bits to the growlithe and houndour below. Raven smoothed out the corners of his grin with his fingers before tapping the table and standing up. He grabbed a piece of fruit out of a canteen dish and tossed it to Aria.
"Let's try something a little simpler," he offered.
"If only things were simple," she replied.
The two exchanged morbid smiles before they finished breakfast and left for the stadium. Raven dropped Aria off at the coliseum before splitting off to handle his own affairs. Aria expected it had something to do with gambling but thought better than to ask too many questions. She went inside, scanned her badge, and entered B Group lounge. Faces she didn't recognize filled the chairs. A large chunk of A Group had transferred over to B in order to offset the imbalance created yesterday. The trainers were different but the bragging, trash talking, and hype remained the same. After the staff went over the rules, Aria rechecked her position in the brackets. Her name came over the intercom earlier than expected and she exited the lounge as her turn approached. The tunnel leading to the arena still felt like the entrance to oblivion complete with bright light at the end but Aria knew she wasn't dead. The way her heart raved in her chest told her she was still very much alive. It was no wonder Aces loved the game. The amount of thrill packed into each public match rivaled the power of a roller-coaster. She walked out at the same time as her opponent and the cheering increased, for who she did not know. The commentators were revitalized with their appearance:
"And now we have A Group's, Stacy Smith, and B Group's, Aria Wicket, stepping out into the arena for their second match."
"I have to admit, I've been looking forward to this, Frank. There's been a lot of controversy surrounding this B rated trainer the last 24 hours."
"If you forgot, yesterday, Aria and her tentacruel beat Adonis and his dodrio in a one hit KO."
"Some say it was luck. Others say she cheated and attacked before the match began."
"It was ruled a clean hit by the officials so the critics can complain all they want."
"I believe it was even diagnosed as a critical hit during the battle reel last night."
"I don't think critical even begins to cover it. By knocking a top competitor out of the tournament so easily, Aria's rank has skyrocketed and turned a lot of attention on trainers in the tournament that we haven't seen before. However, no one else proved to be as surprising as her."
"In today's double battle, I have a feeling Aria might just blow us away again."
"The pokemon she chooses will be critical in getting her through the second round of preliminaries."
"Watching the release of the pokemon is one of my favorite parts of this whole process. You never know what pokemon is going to come out, and once you see the pokemon on the field, it's hard not to get excited. I'm practically drooling to see what our trainers have in store for us today."
Aria stepped into her trainer's square and used the terrain as a point of focus. It was ground and rock based. Flat, slanted, and chipped boulders of various sizes dotted the dirt battleground. It was rougher than the mountain she lived on but not completely unfamiliar. It was good news for the fire canines. A plasma screen spotlighted the trainers for dramatic effect.
"For all you statistic buffs out there, I've been going over the trainer reports and I have to say, Stacy's got the upper hand. With two gym badges to her name and several tournament certificates to boot, she blows Aria out of the water in experience. Our newcomer doesn't have a single title to her name in any circuit for any region, and correct me if I'm wrong, Bill, but it says here that this is her first tournament."
"It looks like she's trying to go big or go home, Frank."
"The only thing she's got going for her is her sponsorship. The Greyblades don't pick any ace to join their legion. They also like to make sure their trainers are ready to fight before sending them out. I don't know where the Greyblades are getting their stock but if Aria gives us another performance like yesterday, we may have to start rethinking the rankings."
"It is possible they are using her to gain a little publicity."
"It's not like they need it. The Greyblade emblem is one of the most recognized in the entire country."
"Hold on just a minute, Bill. I don't think I'm reading this right. It says here that the face behind Aria Wicket is none other than the multimillionaire CEO, Liam Valenis himself!"
"Trainer B!"
Aria steadied her hands by filling them with the pokeballs of her fire canines. She let them warm her palms before release. Rolo and Lopo materialized at the edge of the battlefield. The blue sky was shortened, the trees were pulled away, and the mountain that watched over them had shrunken to the 135 pound frame of a single ace trainer. The pep talk Aria gave them last night wasn't enough to drown out the noise of the crowd buzzing in an unrelenting hum of judgment. Lopo took a step back from the terrain. Rolo felt his hesitation and glanced at his trainer. It was behavior the commentators couldn't ignore:
"It looks like Aria's pokemon are as inexperienced with tournaments as she is."
"The crowd has an intimidation ability as good as any pokemon. It's easy for professionals to forget how hot the spotlight is at full power."
"And it's burning up the coliseum today. There's a lot of pressure out there this morning. The crowd is bigger than the one yesterday."
"Which is good news because the North White Fantasy Tournament has lost popularity the past couple of years. It looks like fresh blood as renewed the interest in many of our viewers."
"And let's just hope the blood stays out of the arena, Frank. If our B Group trainer and her pokemon can't handle the stress, they might just get torn to pieces by our veterans."
"For all those tuned in through radio, Aria's fighting with a growlithe and houndour. It's not a horrible decision considering the species complement one another, but it's always risky to share types in a duel battle, especially when the terrain is rock based."
"But the last time we believed Aria had the disadvantage, she flushed out our doubt in an instant." "Hopefully, she's still got the magic that brought her to round two of preliminaries."
"If you ask me, the magic is fading fast because her pokemon look scared. What do you think folks? Live tweet us with your thoughts: will the newcomer show us another outstanding victory or will she crack under the pressure?"
Aria stepped out of her box and placed a hand on each canine.
"It's not how we usually battle but I know you two can do this," she whispered. "You've battled in scarier places than this."
Rolo and Lopo looked into the ranger's smile. They only had to think about their misfortune this past week to find their courage. There were no explosions, enemies bursting through walls, or trees shattering like glass bowling pins in front of them. Their trainer was safe and their goal was simple: accept the challenge and win.
"You two take care of each other out there."
Aria scratched their backs, kissed their heads, and pulled away. Rolo slunk over to his brother's side and licked confidence into his snout. It steadied the houndour's paws into a firm stance. While B Group settled, A Group's Stacy Smith released her pokemon. A raticate and exeggutor leered at the canines from across the battlefield. The first species was familiar and common but it did not lessen Aria's caution. If this mouse was anything like the ones in the forest, he would be quick, flexible, and have the ability to turn on a time with a single twist of his paw. They squiggled worse than hatchling weedle and had a bite as powerful as the driving punch of a primeape. The fire canines took a deep breath and stepped forward in unison. When they reached the edge of the dirt clearing in the center, they silenced the chattering of their opponents with a single simultaneous snarl. Even without Rolo's intimidate crashing over them like a legendary's surf, the fire duo set hesitation into pair.
The referee raised his hand, the buzzer went off, and not a single pokemon moved. For an entire minute, neither side shifted a grain of dirt. It was less than what the commentators and fans expected but not unheard off. Stand offs commonly stalled matches between defensive based trainers. Evaluating situations before acting was one of Aria's specialties. Charging head first into a wild pokemon battle hurt more than it helped. Old routines loosened the ranger's joints and readied her for battle. This was just like any other pokemon battle in the woods. The only question was: did the fire canines feel the same?
Are you ready?
Ready, Master!
Bring it!
"Quick flames and stalk!" Aria shouted.
Rolo and Lopo used flamethrower. They pulled back the corners of their mouths to keep the torrents wide and flat. A wall of fire formed in front of them. Raticate and Exeggutor were tempted to jump away until they realized the wall wasn't moving closer. It then disappeared, taking with it, Rolo and Lopo. The amount of control it took to maintain the strength and formation of the flamethrower while moving to hide sent chills across Stacy's neck. Her pokemon cautiously glanced around the rocks for any sign of movement. The fire canines could attack at any moment, but as the seconds ticked by, nothing happened. The attacks were offensive but the strategy was still defensive. Aria was forcing Stacy's hand. Stacy grit her teeth at the thought but did not mope over the inconvenience. After all, pokemon didn't use sight alone to win.
"Sniff them out, Raticate," she yelled.
The mouse put his nose to the air. He scurried forward several steps, sniffed, and repeated.
"Steady, Ex. They'll come for you."
The coconut pokemon shifted to the center of the field where his three heads could see an attack before it happened. Raticate edged into Aria's territory with his ears twirling like sonar devices. Sporadic bursts of movement brought him to the left.
"Rolo!" Aria warned.
Raticate jumped on top of the boulder Rolo was hiding next to. At the same time, the growlithe took off in a burst of agility.
"Watch out!" Stacy screamed.
Raticate threw himself off of the rock before a flamethrower soared over the top of it. As he hit the ground, Rolo lunged in a fire fang. He dodged the bite but lost a matt of fur in the process. A bullet seed from exeggutor sent Lopo racing off to the side away from the others before he could contribute again. Raticate chased after him while the going was good but before Rolo could follow another spray of seeds detoured him off the path. It was now one on one. A houndour couldn't out maneuver a raticate, but he could outnumber him. A clear path stretched out before the two. Forms blurred and stretched until one houndour became two in perfect synchronization. The double team was too concentrated for Raticate to differentiate the real from the fake. A large boulder split the houndours in opposite directions and Raticate dove after the one on the right. He had to choose a path or risk losing them both.
Rolo intended to keep Exeggutor from interfering with his brother's fight. He kicked into an agility and raced through the rocks for the coconut pokemon. Surprise was lost against the third set of eyes that spotted him and sounded the alarm. Exeggutor rippled and distorted the space around him in a confusion. Rolo was moving too fast to catch the nearly invisible attack in time. He ran straight into it and felt all five senses reverse roles. The growlithe stumbled to a halt, unable to tell if he was standing, sitting, smelling, or listening. A bullet seed sprayed over him but the pellets lost their sting against the thick fur bristling with fire energy better than heat from old coals. Compared to the pinpoint hydropumps from Styx or the slapping claws of a grumpy aggron, the attack was nothing but a volley of cotton balls. A flamethrower incinerated the spray, forcing Exeggutor back in a yelp as the torrent grazed the top of his palm branches. He lumbered in Rolo's direction with all three heads squabbling in a smoky panic. The growlithe rolled away with a spurt of flame that made him look like a swiss roll made of fire and spunk. He then encircled the enemy with similar bursts, sticking flames to Exeggutor's body until he was engulfed.
Lopo had no time to watch with Raticate nipping at his tail. The houndour and doppelganger weaved in and out of the stones, crossing Raticate's path to disorient him. The mouse figured out which was real by switching back and forth and using his nose to lead him to success. The houndour in front of him did not have the smell of burning wood. It was fake. Raticate continued to follow until he felt the burning sensation waft across his nostrils. He veered away from the clone, jumped over a rock, and ambushed the real Lopo lying in wait. Squeals sliced the air as a hyper fang dug into Lopo's shoulder. He screamed out a flamethrower that pooled within the rocks, forcing Raticate to skitter back in retreat. Lopo didn't dare lose sight of the enemy even though there was enough blood slicking his coat to give it a bright shine. He stood through the injury, pushed through the limp, and followed Raticate's trail. The mouse knew he was injured from the blood coating his teeth but it was too early to face him just yet. There was still too much heat in his flames. Raticate would drain Lopo of his energy before striking, or better yet, let his partner do him in. The two changed course and headed for the clearing.
"Activate Flash!" Aria yelled.
Rolo turned away from the smoldering exeggutor beside him and released a torrent of flame as Raticate appeared. The mouse waited until the flames singed his fur before leaping away in a near miss. Lopo ran head first into the stream while Raticate darted behind Rolo to strike from behind. But neither the flames nor the houndour stopped upon collision. As Raticate slid into position, he aligned himself not only with Rolo, but Lopo. The houndour jumped out of the stream over his brother with flames curling off his body like smoke. Blue, yellow, and orange embers dropped from his opening jaws like a broken faucet from hell. A fire blast enhanced by a flash fire blasted away half the terrain in an exploding cloud of smoke, rock, dirt, and heat. Lopo flew backwards in the air. The commentators up in the booth felt the tremor ripple across the arena. Several media personnel fell to the ground while Aria covered her face from the gust of earthen debris. Lopo hit the ground on his bad shoulder, squealed, and rolled to a stop. Bits of rock and dust clattered against the earth. It was easy to spot Raticate blackened and smoked to a crisp now that half of the battlefield was leveled by the explosion. The winning bell rang out and secured the win.
Aria rushed onto the field and slowed as Rolo pulled alongside her with a bark. He jumped at her legs before leading her over to Lopo's location. The houndour was already on his feet, leaning off his bad paw as they approached. Dirt dusted his coat and stuck to the blood running down his shoulder. Aria dropped to her knees in front of him, ignoring the sharp debris cutting into her pants, and put her hands on his chest and back. The injury churned her stomach more from the thought of her pokemon being hurt than the severity of the wound.
"That looks pretty nasty there, boy," she said with a stroke across his neck, "but you're too tough to go down with that."
Lopo closed his eyes and pushed his head into the ranger's hand better than a purring Persian. Aria smiled and pulled them both close.
"You were amazing, both of you."
Aria scooped Lopo into her arms and stood with Rolo's paw of approval on her foot. She looked out into the masses waving up and down like a living wall while the plasma screens showcased her image. Her heart fluttered so hard that it became hard to breathe. She froze, unable to speak or move as the entire stadium revolved around her win. Something heavy lifted off of her shoulders and the release was so strong that she smiled even though she wanted to cry. For the first time in a long time,
the crowd was cheering for her.
