The first battle, between Alcea and the Phantom, begins! Will Alcea be able to keep pace with the Phantom's Shadow Pokemon?
Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Not sure if I'll do it, but it's nice to think about. Ian x Sango has a lot of pull going for it, too, so there's definitely a nonexistent love triangle going on in my head.
Aquahaze675: Well, we'll have to find out. Alcea's quite a powerful fighter, for sure. Whether or not that will be enough to defeat the Phantom and his Shadow Pokemon is another matter altogether. She'll definitely give it her best, though.
KedharS: Epic is one way to say it, that's for sure. Hopefully the battle will live up to the hype, Alcea is quite tough and Shadow Pokemon are definitely menacing.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 537
Rosetta emerged in a flurry of blue and red petals and landed in the center of the flower field, holding her bouquets up towards the Phantom in a challenge.
"Alcea's first pokemon is her Roserade," Lila declared. She added under her breath, "gee, what a surprise…"
"Predictable," Valon scoffed, reaching for his own pokeball. "Don't you have anything knew?"
Valon threw his pokeball out and released a small, slender purple pokemon with large eyes that were sparkling like diamonds and a wide, fanged mouth, gemstones covering its ghostly skin.
"Sableye!" The pokemon cackled, shadowy-violet miasma pumping out of his body as he twitched and shook, stalking forward.
"And the Phantom has chosen Sableye!" Lila added. "We're not sure if it's a Shadow Pokemon, but it certainly looks mean enough!"
Julia's head shot to Kitty, opening her mouth to ask if Kitty was okay, but just looking at her answered that question far more honestly than Kitty would have.
Kitty's face was even paler than normal and her eyes were watering. She had locked her jaw and her fingers were grasping the arms of her chair, squeezing so tightly her knuckles turned white. She was clearly in pain, resisting the urge to throw up in convulsions, if not worse. Julia held her tongue and turned her head back to the battle, understanding how hard Kitty was fighting the compulsion of her harmonia.
Kitty herself felt miserable. She wanted to curl up and die, the sensations of the shadows plaguing her were overwhelming. Just looking at the small pokemon and the horrid miasma oozing out of it made her feel like throwing up. She trembled, clinging as hard as she could to the chair in order to keep her from throwing herself out of it and vomiting all over the ground. She felt too warm and too cold at the same time, her forehead sweating. She tried to clench her eyes shut but she couldn't; if she did, that would be surrendering herself.
Then, a warm feeling spread from her left hand up through her arm and into her chest, filling her heart with warmth. She let out a soft, pleasured sigh and glanced down to see Julia's hand over hers, squeezing with a comforting grip. Kitty felt herself calming down a little, and even if the nausea was still there, Julia was doing a wonderful job at soothing it.
"Thank you," she whispered to her friend, the corners of Julia's mouth slightly turning up in response as she relaxed into her seat. Both girls continued to watch the fight begin, Kitty feeling a little more at ease now.
"Rosetta!" Alcea ordered. "Use-"
"Glint, fake out," the Phantom ordered. His Sableye charged forward, cackling, raising his clawed hand and striking Rosetta in the face, knocking her over.
"Rose!" Rosetta cried flinched in pain, jumping up from the flower bed and swiping at Glint, knocking the pokemon away.
"Now, use taunt," Valon followed. Glint's eyes began sparkling and he raised his claws, sharpening them against each other as he beckoned towards the Roserade, urging her on to fight.
"Rosetta!" Alcea shouted. But her shouts fell on deaf ears as her Roserade raised her bouquets, Rosetta releasing a tornado of rainbow-colored leaves that flew towards Glint and hit his spectral body, the pokemon groaning.
"Whoa, look at the strength of that move!" Dakota cheered. "And the Sableye's barely even left a scratch! Alcea's doing great!"
"It's not that simple," Akira countered, shaking his head. "Because that Sableye used taunt. And judging by its speed, I'm guessing he has the prankster ability, too."
"Prankster?" Lila said, not sure what that meant.
"What kind of ability is that?" Dakota asked him.
"I would think you, of all people, would know, considering how much of a troll you are," Akira replied, Dakota sticking her tongue out at him in response. "It's an ability that increases the speed that a pokemon can use status moves, to the point where it's nearly impossible to outspeed them," he explained. "Really good for a pokemon like Sableye."
"Yeah, but Alcea can probably beat it, right?" Dakota asked.
"Prankster's strong, but the real problem is that Sableye used taunt," Akira explained. "With taunt, that means Alcea's Roserade can't use any status moves, either. Which means no toxic spikes, no powders, no synthesis, no sunny day. Nothing. Only attacking moves. And for a lead pokemon like Roserade, that's gonna be tricky."
Dakota frowned, she knew that taunt was dangerous in this situation. She wanted Alcea to win (it would make a good story for the queen of queens to defeat a team of Shadow Pokemon on her own) but it wasn't off to a great start.
"Rosetta, return," Alcea said, knowing full well that without the boost from the sun and her ability to set toxic spikes, Rosetta wasn't going to be very useful in battle. Alcea raised her pokeball to recall her Roserade, but the Phantom had other ideas.
"Shadow hold, Glint!" Valon ordered, Glint raising his clawed hand. Shadows erupted from the flower bed and grabbed onto Rosetta, holding the pokemon in place and preventing Alcea's attempts to recall her from working. Rosetta, unable to escape, turned to fight, firing another blast of magical leaves at Glint instead, slicing into the pokemon.
Alcea narrowed her eyes into a glare, irritated by the fact that she couldn't bring Rosetta back. Without her setup moves or the ability to flee, this was going to be a difficult battle for her Roserade, and the Sableye hadn't even used a single attacking Shadow Move yet!
"So not only has Roserade been prevented from using some of her best moves, now she can't even switch out!" Lila gasped. "That's really not very good!"
"Sableye are very tricky and annoying pokemon," Akira said. "They can use their prankster abilities to make things difficult for their opponents, making them very good leads. But this comes at a drawback of not being very resilient. They're fast and agile, but a few good blows could probably take them out, even if their only weakness is Fairy types."
"Rosetta-"
"Shadow sky," Valon interrupted her, Glint releasing a cloud of choking smoke from the jewels on his body before Rosetta had a chance to respond. The shadows began to swirl around the battlefield and the flowers began to dim, the stadium filled in a toxic dark fog.
"Urgh…" Kitty ripped her hand free from Julia's and held it over her mouth, beginning to cough. The nausea was back, and way, way worse!
"Kitty!" Julia cried, turning and placing a soothing hand on her back as the other reached up to the girl's face. "Are you okay?"
"What's up with her?" Andy asked, the only one here totally in the dark about what was going on.
"It's a long story," Blake said, not in the mood to go into detail about harmonia with a total stranger, no matter how much fun she was to hang out with in class.
"I-I'm fine," Kitty lied, regaining her composure. "Don't worry about me, I'm okay."
It was obvious to anyone with eyes that she was clearly not okay, but she also wasn't vomiting her guts out so maybe there was something to be said for Kitty's willpower. Even if every other word was punctuated by a gagging cough.
"So that's the reason for taunt, is it?" Alcea asked, keeping her temper down and maintaining her dignified air, even though she wanted to scream. Her techniques were being handily blunted, the Phantom had really prepared for this match. "A desire to set up the weather as you want, is it? Preventing me from interfering with sunny day."
"You see quite well," Valon admitted. "Now, try watching this. Glint, use shadow panic."
"Sableye!" Glint began to cackle, the shadows twisting around Rosetta into a series of terrifying shapes, Rosetta looking around in fear as the shadows around her released her, not that she was any more free than she had been. Rosetta stumbled forward, coughing, smoke filling her lungs as terror struck her from within.
"Rosetta!" Alcea cried.
"With the shadow panic setting in, your Roserade will no longer be able to keep her composure," Valon calmly explained over the roar of the shadowy winds. "She'll begin stumbling around in the darkness in confusion, unable to find the way out."
"Rosetta," Alcea shouted. "Use solarbeam!"
"Solarbeam? Now?!" Lila asked, even more confused than Rosetta. Why would Alcea ever use that move solarbeam when there wasn't intense sunlight? It would be wasting a turn to charge up energy, and against a Shadow Pokemon every turn counted. She was leaving herself a sitting duck!
Rosetta closed her eyes and began to gather energy into herself, difficult as it might have been through the dark mist.
Valon rolled his eyes.
"Well, Glint, time to start softening her up," he said. "Use shadow down to weaken her."
"Sableye!" Glint nodded, a dark aura emanating around him. He released the energy, which began shooting towards Rosetta in tangling, grasping tendrils that threatened to drastically lower her defenses when they struck.
"Roserade!" But they never did. Rosetta's eyes shot open and she raised her bouquets, a powerful blast of light released in a strong beam that pierced through the darkness and burned a blazing hole through the shadowy sky, hitting the startled Sableye directly and sending the pokemon rolling backwards through the flowers.
"Sableye?!" Glint cried out in pain.
"What was that?!" Lila exclaimed.
"Solarbeam, obviously," Dakota said, rolling her eyes, even though she had no idea how the attack fired off that quickly either.
Akira had his suspicions, though.
"If you're going to fill us with darkness, then we can fight it off with light, is it?" Alcea asked, her smile obscured by the fog.
"That power herb," Valon scowled. "So you gave your Roserade a backup plan. I would have thought you'd give her a heat stone to prolong the length of your sunny day."
"You're a clever man," Alcea said. "I thought you would have been aware of the need for redundancy, a solarbeam like that can catch people off-guard the way it did you."
The Phantom narrowed his eyes.
"It won't be enough to win. That's a trick you can only use once," he calmly replied. "Against a normal Sableye, that move would have been devastating. But Glint is far more than that. Glint, let's try shadow down again. She won't be able to blast through it this time."
Alcea was aware he was right. Rosetta had consumed the power herb and used her solarbeam, but she couldn't do it twice. And even if she could, she was still confused by the panicking darkness, which had already started to gather back around the battlefield.
The dark aura struck Rosetta, the terrified pokemon's defense drastically dropping, which left her wide-open to being attacked by Glint as she coughed into the smoke, falling to her knees.
"Rosetta!" Alcea shouted through the darkness, her voice reaching Rosetta. The Roserade shook her head, clearing the confusion away just as Glint leapt out of the shadows at her feet, striking her in the chest with shadow sneak. Rosetta was knocked over, crying out in pain, as shadows began to gather around Glint.
"Shadow break," Valon ordered. Glint raised his claw, darkness gathering even tighter around him as he drove it down into Rosetta's stomach. Rosetta cried out in pain, thrashing as the shadows roared around her, draining the rest of her strength. Like a plucked flower, Rosetta slowly wilted, even as Alcea cried out for her Roserade.
"Milady!" Kate wailed, rising from her seat. "No!"
"Oof, that one had to hurt," Callie winced in sympathy, seeing how much pain the Roserade was in from the attack.
"Roserade is unable to battle," Lila decided, seeing the crumpled pokemon through the shadows. "Sableye is the winner."
"That was a really strong blow," Dakota gasped, shocked. "Are… are Sableye usually that powerful?"
"Shadow Pokemon are," Akira scowled. "Now, the question is, what will Alcea do with what she learned from this fight?"
That question was clear to Alcea. She recalled her Roserade and immediately sent out her next pokemon.
"Anastacia," Alcea declared, sending out her Tsareena.
"Her Tsareena!" Lila brightened, hoping that Alcea's powerful pokemon would be enough to defeat the Shadow Pokemon. She was fighting from a loss, but she certainly had enough tricks up her sleeve to defeat the Phantom…
Right?
"One of your aces, is it?" Valon mocked Alcea's speaking quirk, rolling his eyes. "Glint, begin with shadow panic to confuse her!"
"Sableye!" Glint nodded, gathering darkness into his claws to prepare to strike the opposing pokemon with terrifying darkness.
The tendrils of shadow passed right through Anastacia, however, not affecting her at all. She ran forward on her powerful legs, much to the surprise of both Glint and the Phantom.
"What the hell?" Valon cursed, not understanding how the Tsareena could have been unaffected by the Shadow Move, which affected all types of pokemon.
"We should have used taunt," Valon determined. "In order to prevent her from using sunny day. Try it this time, Glint."
Much faster than the Grass type, Glint tried to taunt Anastacia, beckoning her closer, to compel her to attack. Anastacia, instead, halted her approach, standing still in the center of the maelstrom of shadowy fog.
"Anastacia, sunny day," Alcea ordered, Anastacia shooting a ray of light up into the air, the sun brightening overhead and piercing away the shadows swirling around the battlefield. The flowers brightened up again, reinvigorated.
"Yes!" Lila cheered. "Just what we were hoping for, a change in weather."
"And you claim to be a genius?" Alcea asked, raising her eyebrow. The Phantom scowled, wracking his brain for a reason that this could be happening. Unable to come up with one, he determined that the only choice was to take control of the weather again, before the Tsareena began using the sunlight to her advantage.
"Glint, use shadow sky!" Valon ordered.
"Sableye!" Glint cackled, shadows shooting out from him and stretching across the battlefield… but the minute they approached Anastacia, they were beaten back, retreating into Glint's body. Glint fell backwards, shaking, not sure what was going on.
That was all it took for Akira to figure out what was going on.
"Now, Anastacia! Solar blade!" Alcea ordered. Anastacia closed the distance between her and the stunned Sableye, raising her hand, sunlight gathering around it into a long, sharp blade. She sliced the Shadow Pokemon and knocked him backwards, Glint crying out in pain as he rolled through the flowers, badly injured by the powerful blow.
The Phantom, seeing how his Shadow Pokemon had fallen, finally understood what had happened and why his Sableye's moves were failing. He wasn't happy with the answer.
"It's her queenly majesty," Akira finally explained.
"Oh, I see how it is," Dakota spat out, the venom in her voice obvious. "Of course you're getting the hots for her. That's just perfect. What a great day." The way he was gushing over her just pissed her off, why couldn't she get HER red hair to be that smooth and luxurious?
"What?!" Akira sputtered, turning to Dakota in disbelief. "No! I meant the Tsareena! Her ability, queenly majesty!"
"…Oh," Dakota said, turning a little red in the cheeks, realizing that she had just been jealous over nothing.
"Huh? What's her ability do?" Lila asked, confused.
"Queenly majesty prevents any use of priority moves from affecting the pokemon that possesses the ability," Akira explained. That should be enough to put it all together.
"Oh… oh!" Dakota gasped, figuring it out, too. "Oh, that's too good."
A few murmurs and cheers went through the stands as the more clever trainers began to figure it out as well.
"That's pretty brilliant, I gotta say," Cynthia said.
"Of course!" Kate proudly declared. "Milady is amazing, after all!" She crossed her arms over her chest and held her head up high. "…So, uh, what did she do, exactly?"
"Wait, but then… aren't all of Sableye's status moves priority moves?" Lila asked, confused. "Then, doesn't that mean… wait!"
"Exactly," Akira explained, nodding. "As long as her Tsareena is on the battlefield, that Sableye isn't able to use any priority moves at all!"
"A much more elegant method than simple taunts, is it?" Alcea asked, reaching up and flicking her long crimson hair behind her shoulder, giving the Phantom an arrogant smirk as his Sableye struggled to his feet. "This is how a queen fights, specter. Not by clinging to the shadows like a coward and scrounging for any scrap of power they can. Our power is real, because it is our own."
"Tsar," Anastacia nodded, stepping forward and raising her leg, green aura swirling around it as she kicked Glint in the face, knocking the pokemon over before kicking him two more times.
"Without his status moves, that Sableye is a tough Shadow Pokemon, but it looks like he's not a match for Alcea's Tsareena!" Lila realized.
"Now, finish him off," Alcea ordered. "Solar blade, once more!"
"Tsareena!" Anastasia shouted, raising her hand slashing Glint with a blade of pure sunlight, the shadowy pokemon letting out one last gasp of pain before falling to the ground, losing consciousness as the shadows around him died.
"Your Sableye put up quite a fight," Alcea admitted. "Shadow Pokemon are very strong, and good endurant, is it? But even they cannot last long when struck by a pokemon of my dear Anastacia's caliber, don't you think?"
"Sableye is unable to battle!" Lila cheered. "Tsareena is the winner!"
The Phantom growled at her, recalling his Sableye.
"We'll show you that your tricks are nothing before a foe of our caliber," Alcea declared with a flourish, Kate cheering for her loudly along with most of the rest of the audience.
Alcea is putting up a pretty good fight, considering she's fighting against Shadow Pokemon. Hopefully, she'll be able to pull off the win!