With the battle between Alcea and the Phantom continuing in this chapter, I'm quickly realizing how much longer it may end up being than I anticipated. There's simply so much to cover, as I'm quickly becoming aware.
KedharS: Not really. The Phantom doesn't care about worthy opponents. If he had his way, everyone would just meekly lose. That's the fundamental difference between him and the Commander. Alden likes to battle because he enjoys fighting, win or lose. The Phantom would prefer a victory without even having to battle in the first place, the winning is the important part.
Just a Bad Writer for Fun: Ian is special because he serves as a powerful trainer who isn't tied to anyone but can still serve as a disruptive element. And with the amount of Eight Leaders that are in the tournament, he was probably hoping to draw out Ian's best so he could gauge his strength against Shadow Pokemon, since Ian is a very talented trainer himself.
Thunder Fire: Interesting. May I ask why? Not a judgment, just a curiosity. I, myself, also ship Blake x Sango on occasion.
Hellraiserphoenix: The Sango Reverse Harem arc coming right after the Phantom Cup.
Aquahaze675: Probably what she usually does when she's not stalking Blake, thinking about stalking Blake.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 539
"Rayne, time to change the weather," Alcea ordered. "Use rain dance!"
"Ludicolo!" Rayne nodded, and began to dance. The sun was concealed behind large dark clouds that opened up and released a deluge onto the battlefield, extinguishing the shadowy flames still burning the battlefield away and leaving a charred ruin in its place.
"CHANDELURE!" Lamp cried, thrashing around as the poison began draining his health even more. He fired another blast of shadowy flames out of his body, but it didn't even come close to hitting Rayne, and the power was weakened by the heavy downpour as well.
"That poor pokemon," Lila said, staring sympathetically at Lamp, feeling bad that he was suffering like this from the poison and the rain, and of course the state he was in from the Shadow Pokemon's hyper mode. "Why won't the Phantom recall it to prevent it from suffering anymore?"
"Maybe he thinks it doesn't have much use anymore," Akira said, glaring at the white-haired student who was watching the Chandelure's agony with a cold, empty expression on his face. "So he's just leaving it out there to do whatever damage it can before it finally faints."
Dakota was less sure. She knew the most about Shadow Pokemon out of everyone in the announcer's box, thanks to the research the Mirar had collected, and she knew that the Phantom was probably not going to just throw away a pokemon that might not accomplish anything if it could still serve a purpose later, and she couldn't imagine there to be a reason to keep the Chandelure in the battle given the current opponent and the situation.
No, there has to be something more… Dakota reasoned. He must be trying to see something, maybe this is an experiment on the Shadow Pokemon or something, that's gotta be it.
Dakota was right that the Phantom wouldn't leave his Chandelure out there for no reason, though she wasn't exactly right about what that reason was. The Phantom wasn't recalling his Chandelure for the simple reason that he couldn't. When a Shadow Pokemon entered hyper mode, it became unable to be recalled to its pokeball. It would struggle and resist and refuse to be returned, which was currently a problem for the Phantom who was quite aware about how unlikely it was for his Chandelure to win.
So he was fine to watch the pokemon flounder and eventually faint, and let the announcers draw their assumptions about why, so long as it didn't clue into the observers that he WASN'T able to recall his pokemon when they entered hyper mode. That would lead to some problems.
He needed to find away to get rid of this ridiculous hyper mode issue. He would be devoting more time into finding a solution after this.
"Now, Rayne, finish it off with a surf," Alcea ordered. She was going to be economic about this, not sense in wasting a hydro pump on a pokemon that was about to faint anyway.
"Ludicolo!" Rayne bobbed up in the air and raised his hands, a torrent of water swirling around him as he created a massive tidal wave that roared across the battlefield and slammed into the fire pokemon, washing it away.
"Chandelure!" Lamp cried out in pain as he was submerged, the accumulating damage finally starting to get the best of him. He let out one last sputter of shadows before losing consciousness.
"Chandelure is unable to battle!" Lila declared. "Ludicolo is the winner."
"It seems there is much work to be done," Valon murmured, recalling his Chandelure. He considered his options. "The next course of action… Soul."
Valon sent out his next pokemon, his Spiritomb. The ghostly pokemon swirled around the stone, gathering together green souls as shadows burned around him, unseen by anyone who didn't have harmonia.
Kitty sighed in relief, feeling a little bit of stress wearing off of her now that the Shadow Pokemon was just normal and wasn't in hyper mode.
The fact that she was relieved at being only partially nauseous was something that didn't make Kitty feel very good.
"The Phantom has sent his Spiritomb out! We saw this pokemon do a lot of damage against Madison Whitmore, let's see what it can do against Alcea!" Lila said.
"Soul, use shadow rave," the Phantom ordered.
"Spiritomb!" Soul cackled, shadows swirling around him and channeling into the ground to strike Rayne, but Alcea wasn't going to sit back and watch.
"Rayne! Hydro pump!" Alcea shouted, Rayne firing a blast of compressed water at the ghost pokemon as it prepared a Shadow Move.
"So fast!" Lila gasped.
"It's her Ludicolo's swift swim," Akira explained. "It doubles his speed in the rain."
"Thank you, Mr. Water Leader," Dakota sarcastically sniped, rolling her eyes. Apparently she still wasn't all that happy with the fact that Akira was leaving to go to the Cerulean City Gym in the spring. Akira rolled his eyes in response to her snark himself.
"Spiritomb!" Soul cried in pain as the blast of water temporarily dispersed the swirl of souls that made up the Spiritomb's face, but they quickly reformed together and Spiritomb looked mostly uninjured, continuing with his shadow rave attack.
The ground beneath Rayne exploded in a blast of shadows, the blades slicing into the bulky pokemon from below.
"Ludicolo!" Rayne cried out in pain, stumbling back as the shadows struck him.
"Rayne, use surf," Alcea countered. Rayne quickly regained his balance and swiped his hand, sending a wave of water crashing at the Shadow Pokemon.
"Spiritomb!" Soul quickly retreated into his rocky hiding place, but that was the most he could do to dodge the wave. The surf struck him and send the rock rolling through the ash-covered battlefield, water rushing all around him.
"Oh! Wow! Since the Spiritomb is tied to that rock, his ability to dodge is very weakened!" Lila gasped in amazement.
"Alcea was quick to pick up on that, but the question is whether or not knowing that will allow her to seize control of the tempo," Akira warned her. "After all, I'm certain that the Phantom will be aware of that interaction himself."
"Soul, use shadow bolt!" Valon shouted. While the water continued washing over Soul, the stone he was hiding in began to crackle with black lightning, and a shockwave of shadow lightning erupted from him, channeling through the water and striking Rayne.
"LUDIIIIII!" Rayne wailed in pain, electricity surging through him as he stumbled back.
"Even though it's not an electric move, it still behaves like lightning," Akira observed.
"Oh, no! Poor Ludicolo!" Lila gasped. "The rain really backfired!"
"Now, let's get rid of that pesky rain," Valon snarled, waving his hand as Soul emerged from the stone, cackling madly. "Use shadow sky!"
"Spiritomb!" A wave of shadowy energy erupted from Soul's body, swirling around in the sky and pushing away the rainclouds, surrounding the battlefield in a dense fog of harmful shadows that made Rayne begin coughing in pain.
"Without the rain, the speed of Alcea's Ludicolo has been cut down," Akira noted. "And his Water type moves aren't as powerful as they used to be."
"That's really not good," Dakota agreed.
The Phantom smiled a little at having seized the initiative in the match, his eyes flashing green with a malicious glint.
"Now, Soul, use shadow storm!"
"Spiritomb!" Soul growled, the spectral green orbs swirling around the mass of his ghostly body spinning faster and faster as the shadows around him began to whirl, picking up speed and pulling in the shadowy fog filling the battlefield, molding the shadows until they formed a massive tornado that raged through the dark sky.
"Whoa, that doesn't look good!" Lila wailed.
The massive tornado roared across the battlefield and struck the slowed Ludicolo before he could dodge, sucking him up in the massive spout and battering him with a powerful deluge of shadows. Rayne cried out in pain as he was struck by the attack, and Alcea could hear him trying to hold on. She bit her lip in spite of herself, worrying about her pokemon.
"Rayne!" Alcea shouted. "Use hydro pump!"
Rayne opened his beak and fired a blast of water out of the shadows, hitting Soul directly, much to the surprise of the Phantom. He hadn't expected the pokemon to be able to aim so accurately while being assaulted by the spinning shadows.
But the attack didn't do much damage, and it wasn't enough for Rayne to break free of the shadow storm, either. He was still having his health drained away by the shadows.
Alcea didn't like it, but she could see that she would have to rely on a different strategy if she wanted to break free. There was only one move she could think of that might be powerful enough for Rayne to escape, but it had a major drawback.
No time to worry, is it? Alcea scowled. She knew that she didn't have much of a choice. "Rayne! Use leaf storm!"
"Ludicolo!" Rayne shouted, holding out his hands against the swirl of the shadows. He countered the roaring winds with a blast of wind of his own, slicing leaves shooting out of the large plant on his head as he pushed the shadows away, breaking free of the maelstrom and sending a massive tornado roaring towards Soul in turn.
Rayne hit the ground hard, letting out a wail of pain, as Soul shouted out from the feeling of the leaves slicing into him. But in spite of the attack's strength, the Shadow Pokemon wasn't going to be knocked down so easily.
"That Ludicolo has been firing off some really powerful attacks, but that Spiritomb looks like it's barely taken any damage…" Lila said worriedly. Alcea had been off to a great start in this match, but the way things were headed it didn't look like she would be able to pull it off after all. Shadow Pokemon were just too powerful.
"It gets worse," Akira said, shaking his head. "With leaf storm, that Ludicolo's special attacking power has been drastically reduced. Combined with the damage from the previous Shadow Moves and the loss of his speed boost from the rain, things aren't looking very good for Alcea."
But Alcea wasn't discouraged. If things weren't looking her way, then she would make them turn her way. She had a few ideas of how she could go about doing that.
"Rayne, teeter dance," Alcea ordered.
"Teeter dance again?" Lila gasped.
"It seems Alcea's trying to turn those Shadow Pokemon wild," Akira noted.
"Ludicolo!" Rayne raised his hands and began dancing, spinning around in a jaunty circle and shaking his hands, taunting the Spiritomb with his zany dance. Soul growled and began to shake, his head swirling around as the shadows burning around him began to increase in size and intensity, everyone seeing just how terrifying the corona of raging shadows was.
Kitty turned white and slumped over, nearly falling out of her seat again. Julia clenched her hand tightly, not about to let her fall over and pass out. Kitty nodded gratefully to her friend, trying as hard as she could to not let the sight of the Shadow Pokemon and the horrid state of its hybrid mode get the better of her.
It wasn't easy. Her harmonia was starting to overwhelm her, and she felt that one wrong move and the nausea she was holding back would come shooting out of her throat.
"I don't understand, why would her highness turn that Spiritomb into such a terrifying pokemon again?" Kate questioned. She didn't like the feeling of doubting Alcea, but she couldn't see a reason behind what the trainer was doing.
The announcers were also a little confused.
"She confused the Shadow Pokemon again, but it looks like all she did was make it more angry," Dakota noted worriedly.
"This isn't looking good," Lila agreed. "When that Chandelure was confused, it became harder for it to land blows, but when it did, they were a whole lot more powerful…"
Only Akira could see the merit in Alcea's tactic.
"It's smart," Akira corrected the two.
"Really?" Lila and Dakota both looked to him in confusion.
Akira pointed at the Phantom, whose brow was furrowed and whose lips were pinched into a tight line, clearly not pleased with this turn of events.
"Ian said it last round. Shadow Pokemon are powerful, but without a trainer to properly guide their moves, then no matter how strong they are they're thrashing around like wild pokemon and attacking everything in sight," Akira explained. "Alcea is a tactical fighter. If that Spiritomb is only attacking its enemies in a blind rage thanks to that hyper mode or whatever it is, then that means the Phantom won't be able to use it for any sort of strategy. The Phantom is smart, but if his pokemon won't listen to his orders then there's no point in whatever strategy he comes up with."
"Now, Rayne, return," Alcea said, raising her pokeball and recalling her Ludicolo. The Phantom's eye twitched in frustration. Alcea raised her eyebrow and smirked. "Something the matter, is it? Oui, I believe you said something about not letting me switch out any of my pokemon, is it?"
The Phantom didn't say anything.
"Now, Kanna, go!" Alcea said, a large dinosaur with leafy wings emerging in a tornado of leaves. Kanna roared and flew into the shadowy sky, wincing from the pain of the swirling winds.
"Alcea's next pokemon is her Tropius!" Lila announced.
"Spiritomb!" The enraged Soul thrashed, his body shifting wildly. Normally, a Spiritomb's orbs swirled around the center of its face, but right now, in hyper mode, his spiritual orbs were moving in all sorts of directions haphazardly with no direction to control. It created another tornado of shadows that began spinning towards the Tropius, but Alcea didn't mind one bit.
"We are quite used to the wind," Alcea scoffed. "Kanna! Use air slash!"
"Tropius!" Kanna roared, flapping her leafy wings and sending a massive blade of wind cutting through the air, slicing the tornado to shreds before it could swallow her.
"Nice!" Lila cheered.
"It was difficult for her Ludicolo to escape that tornado, but if she can disperse it before it manages to hit, then it doesn't seem that dangerous," Akira noted.
"Now we begin our offensive!" Alcea declared. "Kanna! Use sunny day!"
"Tropius!" Kanna's body began glowing white and she released a burst of energy up into the sky, the bright white light scattering the shadows and illuminating the battlefield with intense sunlight again, the shadows retreating.
"Oh!" Akira realized.
"I know, isn't it nice?" Lila asked, feeling the sunlight beaming down on her.
"Oh, what? Um, yeah, I guess, but I meant from a tactical standpoint," Akira said.
"Tactical? What do you mean?" Dakota asked, confused.
"Alcea's pokemon fight using the weather," Akira explained. "Most of her pokemon benefit from the sunlight, and her Ludicolo benefits from the rain. So it's fundamental for her to control the weather, which can be a problem with those Shadow Pokemon filling the sky with those painful dark clouds all the time. So by forcing the Shadow Pokemon she's fighting into this crazed state where they attack randomly, not only do they not have the foresight to seal her movements with that shadow hold attack, letting her swap her pokemon out, but they also won't necessarily think to use shadow sky, either, meaning Alcea can control the weather at will."
"Whoa, that's amazing!" Dakota marveled. "And she figured that out just from watching a few matches with Shadow Pokemon, and seeing Ian's fight against Lana?"
"Yes! Her highness is amazing!" Kate proudly declared, glad that the announcers were recognizing Alcea's skill.
"That's pretty awesome," Ayame had to admit.
"Especially since this is her first actual fight against Shadow Pokemon," Cynthia agreed. "She hasn't even fought against them before, and she's already figuring out tricks to get the better of them."
One glance at the Phantom told the whole story of how HE felt about Alcea's strategy for fighting his pokemon. Hyper mode was quite quickly becoming a downside that he was NOT okay with. He hadn't thought that his opponents would willingly trigger it, but Alcea was showing the whole world how to defeat his pokemon!
Something like that was absolutely not acceptable.
"Soul!" He shouted, trying to get his pokemon to snap out of his berserk state. But his attempt to call out to his pokemon fell on deaf ears, Soul too busy searching the skies for Alcea's Tropius and trying to attack it with bursts of fire and lightning.
None of Soul's wild moves landed, though. Kanna was simply too fast in the sun! Her chlorophyll ability doubled her speed, and with all of the sky to fight in she could quite easily evade the Spiritomb's haphazard Shadow Moves as long as she wanted.
"Now, time for our assault," Alcea said, waving her hand with a flourish. "Kanna! Use your solar beam!"
"Tropius!" Kanna roared, drawing in sunlight from the blazing sun above her, her four wings shimmering with light. She opened up her mouth and a massive beam of light shot from it, burning through the sky and striking Soul directly, sending him retreating back into his keystone.
"Spiritomb!" Soul's muffled voice echoed across the battlefield, his stone rumbling and shaking as more shadows poured out of it. The shadows grew stronger and stronger, and Soul emerged, turning his eyes upon Kanna and seeing her clearly for the first time.
A blast of shadows erupted from Soul and struck Kanna before the swift pokemon had a chance to dodge, the Tropius letting out a cry of pain.
"It still had that much power?!" Alcea gasped in surprise.
"You underestimate Shadow Pokemon," Valon snapped. "Soul, use shadow fire!"
But Soul was well beyond the point of following orders. Instead of conjuring dark flames, the shadows around his body began to pulse and crackle with electricity, the current throbbing in time with the bizarre swirls of Soul's spirit orbs.
"Spiritomb!" Soul howled, releasing a massive discharge of dark lightning out of the stone he was tethered to, more shadows spinning around him in a tornado to accompany the electrical storm in a maelstrom of destructive shadows.
"Whoa, that attack looks incredibly strong!" Lila gasped.
"Even in the air, that will be difficult for her Tropius to dodge," Akira noted.
"Then we won't dodge!" Alcea declared. "Kanna! Charge forward!"
"Tropius!" Kanna nodded in agreement, lowering her head and flapping her wings, flying straight for the massive storm brewing on Soul's side of the battlefield.
"She's charging in?!" Dakota sputtered. "Is she crazy?!"
"What's she doing? That attack looks way too powerful for something so reckless!" Blake exclaimed.
"Hey! Shut it!" Kate snapped, glaring at him. "Her highness is a genius of battling! Far better than someone of your level, Blake! She knows what she's doing, just watch! She's going to show us all that that guy's Shadow Pokemon or whatever are just peanuts!"
It was a marked change of attitude from how Kate had felt about the Shadow Pokemon not more than an hour earlier, that was for sure.
"Well, whatever it is, it's totally sweet!" Andy cheered. "Awesomesauce!"
"Interesting…" Kanou murmured, her voice drowned out by the cheers and gasps of surprise from the crowd around her. Her dark eyes glittered as she watched. A small smile crept up her lips. Yes, this was getting very interesting indeed.
"Spiritomb!" Soul's thoughts may have been cluttered by his hyper mode, but even he could see his opponent when she was charging right for him. She wasn't even building up energy for a solar beam or firing off an air slash, she was just flying forward. Soul began to let out a mad cackle as the shadows around him surged even stronger. "SPIRITOMB!"
Soul released all the energy he was building in a massive blast aimed right at Kanna, the mixture of wind and lightning and shadow storming towards her. But before the attack could collide, Kanna disappeared, and in her place, a stuffed Tropius took the full force of the attack, torn to shreds by the massive tempest it was struck with.
"She dodged it with substitute!" Lila gasped.
"Nice!" Dakota cheered.
"Amazing move!" Akira applauded, awed by the excellent timing. The attack had just been about to strike the Tropius before she disappeared, and Alcea hadn't even uttered a verbal command. That level of synchronicity, without any sort of mental link from harmonia, might have gone over the heads of most people watching, but to someone who was devoting themselves to being a trainer like Akira, it spoke loudly as to the hours upon hours of training that Alcea and her Tropius had no doubt undertaken.
"Spiritomb!" Soul cackled, his crazed state rendering him unable to tell the difference between Kanna and her decoy. He assumed that he had just shredded apart the real Tropius with his last attack, and that deafened him to his trainer's shouts, and blinded him to the reality of Kanna reappearing behind him, opening her mouth wide as sunlight began to glow between her teeth.
"It was said before, is it?" Alcea asked, narrowing her eyes at the Phantom and flicking her hair dismissively. "Oui, power without thought it worthless. Solar beam!"
"Tropius!" Kanna roared, firing a powerful solar beam, hitting Soul from behind at point-blank range.
"SPIRITOMB!" Soul shrieked, his cries of pain deafening the audience as he thrashed, trying to escape the attack but unable to move. His spirit wiggled in all sorts of directions as his withering shadows tried desperately to fight back, but as the force of the beam intensified, they, too, disappeared to nothing as Soul retreated into his stone home, unable to continue fighting.
"Spiritomb is unable to battle!" Lila cheered. "Tropius is the winner! And with that, she's taken the lead in this match, 3-2!"
"Obviously, is it?" Alcea said, Kanna returning to her side and turning to glare at the opposing trainer as the Phantom recalled his pokemon. "Compared to you, who sees pokemon as only tools for battle and does not consider the bonds formed between pokemon and trainer, this level of fighting is just that far above, is it?"
Valon said nothing. He simply began to think of the quickest and most painful options to shut this annoying wretch of a trainer's mouth for good.
Alcea is surging ahead! But this battle is far from an easy victory! Will she be able to overcome the Phantom and his Shadow Pokemon by exploiting their flaws? Or is the raw power they have too much for even her to handle, when paired with the Phantom's strategies? We'll have to find out for ourselves! Something tells me this match is just getting started!