Chapter 23
Plant A Foot Up Your Ass
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Signal Jammer was simple, exceedingly clever, and kinda useless.
See zubats as a species use super sonic over a particular sound frequency, in large groups this boosts the effective power of the move and it becomes much more than the sum of its parts. But to do this they all need to use it in tandem with similar power outputs, if not it can cause an over amplification effect and throw the whole swarm into chaos as it overpowers their natural resistance to the sub sonic sound.
What Tiff, or whatever his name was, had done was train his yanma to do just that, overload the frequency with its own super sonic. This was a double edged sword because it didn't actually protect the bug, it just made the sound worse for everybody. But the zubats would stop before they could fully confuse anyone, effectively negating the move. And thus Signal Jammer was born.
And Luke would barely have to train for it, just crank up his power output. It was a rather niche technique though, as only zubat used super sonic like that, most other pokemon capable of the move just used any random frequency they could manage as it wasn't the sound that mattered but the energy sent along it. Maybe we could come up with some form of scanning skill to find the opponent's frequency, but we'd need something to practice on.
Damn it, we didn't get nearly as much as we gave. At least my curiosity is satisfied, if I didn't find out how he did that if was going to eat at me for forever. It's not good knowing there's a counter out there for one of my teams best abilities.
I spent the rest of the break going over a paper on Super sonic that I had dug up courtesy of the pókedex. It was about the energy waves that it used and the basic structure and form they took between varying species. It was a bit hard to get through some of the more technical jargon that they used, but I was doing alright. I think.
I wonder if Ash ever used it like this, probably not, he doesn't seem the type to do casual research. More of a hands on kind of guy.
So that's how the next few minutes passed after mine and Teds chat, and I found out where my next battle was, idly cramming info into my head as I absentmindedly ran my fingers through Lukes short velvety blue fur. Only perking up out of my focus as I heard the next matchs being called out, the semifinals.
Most of the competitors had been eliminated and now we were down to four. I shut the marvel of technology in my hands off and shoved it in my back pocket as I stood up. The red beam of the toxic slathered fang pokeball caught a very relaxed golbat and pulled him back into his strange hightech nest.
The next two rounds would be back to back instead of at the same time like the last three. With the battles being so short and the crowd slowly condensing as people were kicked out of the ranking, the guys in charge of this controlled brawl had decided to make the bleachers around the main battlefield even bigger so everyone can sit down comfortably.
And man did these people like watching battles.
There had to be at least a hundred of the overly loud fuckers chatting away up there, there colorful shirts and odd styles clashing and mixing into a strange form of visual static. It was spread out earlier so it didn't seem like much at all but now that everybody was in one spot it was giving me a bit of stage fright.
I tried to shake off the nerves as I stepped into the green chalk outlined trainer box. Loose strategies ran through my head in an effort to distract myself from the hundreds of eyes. What could he do, what might we go against, how would he act, all vague unknowns that were only tangentially predictable. So you know, like any other fight.
It was still just a bit odd, being in a fight and yet not doing the punching. Having my mind go full on towards planning and reacting instead of splitting that and recovering from a fresh fist to the jaw was just weird.
I let Jack out and we both ignored the few 'dawwws' that came from the stands as I handed him the primed pokedex. He raised it up and turned to the battle field, a bit more confident with it now that he had done this a few times.
"ON THE GREEN SIDE, ALICE THORN OF DELLITOWN!" My opponent this time was the trainer with the sneasel from the first rounds. He might be a decent challenge if his ice types behavoir was any indication, he knew how to use his pokemons instincts to his advantage.
"ON THE RED SIDE, MALIN COLLY!" A teenager in a red nylon jacket stood on the other side of the pit, confident and sizing me up. He was giving me an appraising eye, if my age was a factor in his judgement it was minor and taking a backseat to something else. I wonder if he saw one of my other matches, it's not like there was anything stopping him from scoping the competition after all.
"READY!" The refs hand went up in a hard set paddle shape before swinging down like an axe.
"BATTLE!"
Marks graffitied ball sprang forward and spat out its riled up contents. The scraggy hit the ground running, intent on rushing the grass type that had appeared on the other side of the field.
The roselia took graceful steps forward without any regard to the martial monster barreling towards them. A faint and steady green glow wrapping around their delicate rose like appendages. They seemed to grow from it, becoming more and more lush and vibrant as the light strengthened them.
"Poison sting"
Just as Mark reached the middle of the field the grass types arms snapped up level with his head, spewing thin slivers of mirrorish light. Mark side stepped avoiding the shower as well as he could as it blasted at him with a barrage of toxic needles. He wasn't extremely agile without his speed boost but he was flexible and nimble, dancing around the heavy fire as he made more and more progress forward.
He was only a few feet away skidding around at strange and twisting turns before the walking plant changed strategies on the fly. Its left arms swung out from it throwing what looked like organic caltrops on the ground around it, the tell tale noxious purple of poison coating them in a threatening glisten.
"BACK OFF!" Shit, its other arm is still spewing those fucking needles, interesting that it can use two moves simultaneously though. That opens up some options for my team if it's not too difficult to train them for that. For the moment however its pissing me off, " AND SAND ATTACK!" and hopefully that will piss them off.
Mark back flipped away, his tail scooping up a wad of suddenly loose and crumbling dirt that was flung away from him in a flashy sweeping spray, hitting the roselia square in the eyes. Its shot went wide as it flinched from the grime digging its way into the delicate organs.
Ah Sand Attack, a beautifully cheap application of basic normal type energy that results in an equally cheap and dishonorable tactic. The ground would suddenly soften around the user and become dusty and much easier to manipulate for just a few moments. After that it was entirely up to the pokemon on how to hit the other guy with it, whether it by throwing it with their paws, tails, or even fanning it with wings. Sand in the eyes was a tried and true method for street fights everywhere and I'm not ashamed to admit to doing it a few times myself.
"Dragon Dance!"
"Leech Seed to your left!"
He took his stance and started his odd and draconic ballet, but was forced to dodge a few seconds into it as his opponent blasted a spray of small brown seeds in a fanning arc in his general direction. His minor speed boost let him bound away and put a bit of distance between them and starting the process back up. The seeds, now without a target, hit the soil below and sprouted into parasitic vines that quickly withered without any flesh to dig into and drain.
His feet stomped, snarls crashing from his teeth and tail flailing wildly as he swayed to and fro. And then jumped away from another rain of vaguely thrown seeds.
This is fine, he doesn't need to get fully juiced for this and doing so would be overkill on both parties. Dragon Dance is powerful and makes him a monster at the cost of completely wiping him out afterwards, it puts alot of strain on the body due to the massive release of adrenaline and energy usage. It would effectively give him a time limit before he just couldn't move anymore, the longer he used it, the shorter the time he can fight.
The process repeated again and again, each moment letting the roselia rub the sand from its eyes and gain more accuracy, and simultaneously letting Mark become faster letting him dodge the blows anyway.
"Briar Garden!"
It stopped its assault in favor of blasting leech seeds everywhere, the little brown pods crashing into the ground in waves all around itself. Though oddly enough they didn't burst open and grow, weird. I don't like it.
"Tackle it knock it out of the circle!"
He dashed forward with more speed than his short legs would suggest he was capable of. His approach was both careful and blistering as he tiptoed around the fallen seeds. A hard footed leap towards the plant whose ground level fortress had suddenly turned trap and the meaty thud that accompanied it was wonderfully satisfying.
Both flew through the air just long enough to clear the venomed spikes that littered the floor, but not the small brown pods it had sent out earlier. Fresh green life draining vines sprung forth on skin contact and entangled the pair. Rosealia, either through some innate control or its immunity to the move itself, avoided the wriggling parasitic wires and just barely managed to get out of Marks grasp as he tried dealing with them.
Usually leech seeds either sprout immediately on skin or die when they hit the dirt, the fact that they had developed a technique to turn them into a form of land mines caught my interest. Looks like me and Karen have something new to work on.
Roselia sprung to its feet and pirouetted on one single stalk with its blue flower full of sparkling golden dust. Mark jerked forward, refusing to just let the grass type get away and the two met in the middle. A cloud of stun spore exploded onto my lizard just as he locked his grip onto their arm.
The living bouquet yanked and beat at him as he held on tightly, the stun spore slowing him down considerably but having no effect on his strength. He wobbled on his feet for a moment and took a bright shining swing with his head.
And missed.
Wait, what? How did he miss it's two feet infront of him!? Why is he struggling to stand like that, he's been hit by stun spore before and he can at least keep steady under the effects, he's acting like he's been poisoned.
Oh, it must have poison point. That makes sense, it's a rose, roses have thorns. So he's stunned, poisoned, and getting leeched all at once.
Excellent.
"FACADE!"
He drew his arm back, his fist curling into a knot of tendon and bone that began to blaze white with normal type energy. Far brighter than I had ever seen the move before.
Facade was one of those odd normal type moves that had its very own niche, which was that the more the user is laden down with status effects, the stronger it gets. It somehow used the foreign substances in the body to make a sort of amplification effect with the energy provided by the pokemon. Some researchers theorize that this move evolved so that normal types could more effectively deal with grass and poison types.
Mark couldn't get much more 'statused' without snoring right now, and he was still juiced from dragon dance. The power behind his strike was brutal and relentless. He fist swung forward at a blinding speed despite his nerves spasming and the shotgun bang of Facade delivering its payload into their face made the crowd raise in volume as if to compete with the sound itself.
The rosealia line must not have very good defense, or maybe the attack was just that strong, because it went out like a light. Its unconscious body sagged as its head rolled back and the crowd cheered even louder at the sight of our victory.
A beat passed as the judge watched for any more movement from the diantly plant.
"ROSEALIA IS UNABLE TO BATTLE, THE WINNER IS ALICE THORN OF DELLI TOWN, WHO WILL PROCEED TO THE FINALS!"
Sweet.
Alright then, time for damage control. I returned Mark from the now very hazardous pit and just as quickly released him back into reality next to me. He sat down shaking from both the stun spore and the adrenaline wearing off now that the battle was over. His face was flushed purple, confirming that he had been poisoned by his previous opponents natural ability. Nothing some meds won't fix though, and after Karen had joined the team I had made sure to keep stocked up on antidotes and paralysis heals.
"Here, let me." I was in the middle of digging through my bag for the kit when the other trainer suddenly handed me two bottles, having made his way over to my side of the field. Jack stepped forward and let out a bit of a rumbling hiss while Marks head just rolled backward in response.
"Oh," I stated in surprise, "Thanks dude." I took both of them, the metal cylinders were small and compact but judging by the weight they were full. One was labeled as a Devon brand antidote and the other a paralysis heal of the same brand.
"It's the least I can do, just because I lost doesn't mean I need to let the poor guy stay sick." Huh, good guy. Or maybe that's just one of those odd bits of manners that comes with a culture that has critters fight each other as a social interaction. Maybe I should start carrying a few extra antidotes on me to hand out after battles.
I sprayed him down as best I could, giving him a general coat of the foul smelling liquid all over. It wouldn't kick in immediately but he should be back to normal in about ten-ish minutes, albeit worn out from the posion and Dragon dance combo.
He was small so I didn't have to use the whole bottles and overdosing him would cause more problems than it would solve. I handed the rest back to, uh, fuck what his name? Melon? That's a stupid name, but then again they have people running around named ofter primary colors.
I stood and gave him a firm handshake before the ref chased us off to make room for the next pair of trainers. I grabbed the pokedex from Jack, returned both of my pokemon, jogged over to the bleachers, and planted my ass right in the middle of the bottom row.
Maybe I could get some info on the next guy. I would be fighting one of these dudes after all.
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Alice Thorn
May 4
Team
Jack
Buneary
Moves: Pound, Foresight, Frustration, Sweetkiss, Defense Curl, Baby Doll Eyes, Quick Attack, Jumpkick, Shadow Ball, Low Kick, Swagger, Protect, Fire Punch
Ability Limber
Luke
Golbat
Moves: Absorb, Super sonic, Astonish, Bite, Whirlwind, Wing attack, Confuse ray, Air Cutter, Swift, Protect
Ability Inner focus
Karen
Cottonee
Moves: Abosrb, Fairy Wind, Growth, Leech Seed, Stun Spore, Mega Drain, Poison Powder, Protect, Swift, Razor Leaf, Cotton Spore
Ability Infiltrator
Mark
Scraggy
Moves: Leer, Headbutt, Sand Attack, Feint Attack, Swagger, Low Kick, Dragon Dance, Protect, Endure, Facade, Pay Back
Ability Moxie
3318¥
In Box
N/A
I had major writers block throughout this entire chapter. Im glad I finally got it done though. Please leave a review.