The Commander's lost his strongest pokemon, his Lucario! Will he be able to defeat the Phantom's remaining Shadow Pokemon with the team he has left? Or will the Phantom be able to overcome the disadvantage with the raw, destructive power of his Shadow Pokemon?
KedharS: Hopefully it will be.
Rowlets and Oshawotts: That's a good thing alright, compelling cases from a narrative standpoint why either side should win, I think. The question is, who will?
ZenoZen: Thank you! I always try.
Just a Bad Writer for Fun: He definitely has a few pokemon left. The question is, will they be enough? We'll have to see!
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 593
"So what will you do, Commander?" Valon smirked. "You only have three pokemon left. 'All you need is you' right? So why not send out your next one?"
"You only have two pokemon left, don't forget," Alden sharply reminded the Phantom, narrowing his eyes.
"Two Shadow Pokemon is worth four of yours," Valon sneered. "Without your greatest weapon at your disposal, you won't be able to defeat mine."
"…We'll see," Alden said, taking a pokeball off of his belt.
"Can… can he really defeat the Phantom's last two Shadow Pokemon?" Lila asked. Like Darla, she was also rooting for the Commander, even though on the surface she was pretending to be neutral. She couldn't help herself, not after what the Phantom had done to Darla, what he had threatened her with and what he was still capable of doing to her dearest friend.
"I don't know," Darla said, and Lila felt a lot less confident seeing the turmoil stretched across her face. She swallowed and averted her eyes back to the battlefield. If Darla couldn't look confident, then how was Lila supposed to be?
Lila clenched her fists at her sides and forced a smile to her face. No, that wasn't how she was. She would keep up her positive atmosphere and root for the Commander to win.
"Go, Jaune!" As the shadows swirled around him, Alden threw his pokeball into the air, sending out his Vikavolt, the only one of his pokemon still in perfect condition for a fight.
"Vika!" Jaune buzzed, dancing through the air. His body crackled with electricity and he flew towards Curse, his speed increasing.
"Agility, Jaune," Alden ordered, Jaune increasing his speed. He was already, naturally, a little faster than Curse was, and with agility it was now much moreso.
"So, you're thinking that you can get through this some speed?" Valon snorted. "A mere insect like that? Curse, use shadow mist."
"Cofagrigus…" Curse rasped, black shadows oozing out of his sarcophagus body, mixing with the massive swirl of smoke filling the sky, darkening and thickening the air around Jaune until he was finding it difficult to move. It was clinging to him like soot, so as fast as he may have been moving it was still like he had a big target on him.
"That mist will make it easier for the shadows to strike you," the Phantom explained. "Which means that you can't take advantage of that speed of yours. But… don't think that I'm a fool. Are you expecting me to try and use shadow panic on you?"
"Oh?" Alden raised his eyebrow and smirked. "Figured that one out, did we?"
"The advantage of a defensive pokemon is that they can resist the damage that their opponents inflict on them, while slowly wearing them down with status moves," Valon explained. "But to do that, those status moves have to hit, don't they? But in our current condition, that's not exactly probable, now is it?"
"Huh? Why not?" Lila asked. "I mean, he just hit him with a status move! Just now!"
"He was testing the waters," Darla explained simply. "Remember what happened, when he tried to use shadow panic before?"
Lila gasped in realization. "Oh! That's right!"
"Exactly," Darla nodded. "The Commander had his Vikavolt switch out for his Espeon, and reflected it back with her Magic Bounce. And you can bet that the Phantom isn't going to allow something like that to happen. If he uses the wrong status move, then it would be very bad. And at the same time, the Commander is clearly on that same page. Which means he can't recklessly switch into his Espeon knowing that the Phantom is expecting it."
"My brain hurts…" Lila complained. "Darla, you use too many big words sometimes, simple explanations, thirty words or less!"
"The Phantom tried to goad the Commander with that shadow mist," Darla explained. "Because he wanted to see if it would make the Commander switch out his Vikavolt to reflect it back."
"But he didn't," Lila said, starting to get it.
"Instead, we'll rely on some attacking moves!" The Phantom shouted. "Curse, use shadow fire!"
"Cofagrigus!" Curse held up his shadow hands, sculpting flames of darkness. He fired them at Jaune, the Bug type just barely able to outspeed the flames.
"You've got a lot of defenses, but we can punch right through them with Jaune's special attack," Alden said. "Jaune, let's not give him a chance to tip our hand, use eerie impulse!"
"Vikavolt!" Jaune released a pulse of ominous energy that struck Curse, startling the pokemon.
"Your special attack isn't very good to start with," Alden reminded him. "Because that's a defensive pokemon. So if you want to keep dealing damage without using moves like will-o-wisp or toxic or shadow panic, you'll have to use a lot of them, and wear us down slowly. But with your special attack dropping even lower, that's going to take a lot longer, isn't it? Sure, the shadow sky is doing some damage, but it isn't nearly enough, is it? Much too slowly. So come on then, you know that you're just dying for some fixed damage, ain'tcha?"
The Phantom smirked, shaking his head. "You're the impatient one, Commander, not met. I get the idea. Attacking out high defenses with your Vikavolt's massive special attack, while rendering me powerless to fight back? All the while, making me too wary to use my status moves to really wear you down in return?"
Alden shrugged. "Something like that," he replied, a wide grin on his face.
"No need to worry. We'll try a different method," the Phantom assured the Commander. "One that you can't get around so easily with your Espeon's Magic Bounce. Curse, first, use haze to reduce his speed and get rid of that pesky problem!"
"Cofagrigus!" Curse's black aura flared up, and he released another cloud of black fog, but this type wasn't made of shadows. It smothered Jaune, making it so that he couldn't move nearly as fast, much to the Bug type pokemon's irritation.
"Jaune, you good?" Alden called out.
"Vikavolt!" Jaune buzzed, still able to outrun the much slower Cofagrigus. He had already begun to attack, building up a charge of electricity in his mandibles that he was ready to release at the golden pokemon.
"Now, since you wanted to slow us down, there's got to be a reason why you didn't bother using thunder wave, now isn't there?" The Phantom asked, narrowing his eyes. Alden's expression turned serious. "Yes, just as I thought. Because you don't want us paralyzed, do you? If Curse is paralyzed, then that means he can't be afflicted with another status condition, isn't that so?"
"I suppose that's right," Alden agreed.
"Because if I Curse was paralyzed, and still using moves like will-o-wisp or toxic, like you suggested, then the omnipresent threat of using volt switch to call your Vikavolt back for that Espeon of yours to bounce it back at me wouldn't carry the same weight, now would it?" The Phantom finished.
"Oh! That's really smart!" Lila gasped.
"A good tactic, but what's the point of him saying all this?" Darla asked, confused.
"Well, you are a genius after all," Alden grinned. "Jaune, discharge!"
"Vika!" Jaune released a shockwave of lightning at Curse, zapping the Shadow Pokemon. Curse grunted in response, feeling a wave of pain, but resisted it perfectly fine. A little electricity wouldn't get past his defenses.
"Time for a real counter. Curse, use crafty shield," Valon ordered.
"Cofagrigus," Curse said, and created a barrier of shadows around him. The shadows were arranged in a bizarre hexagonal pattern, and wrapped around the Shadow Pokemon's golden body, protecting him. Valon laughed in response.
"Oh! That's crafty shield!" Lila gasped. "Wait, that's really smart! Nice!"
For once, Lila was the one in the know.
"Really, what's crafty shield do, Lila?" Darla asked. She knew perfectly well, of course, but a reversing of roles would be the perfect gimmick to explain the move to the audience.
"Certainly, Darla," Lila gave her partner a smug smirk, her voice haughty. Darla immediately regretted her decision. "It's a move that protects the user from all status moves!"
Darla gasped in mock surprise. "Oh! So that means that Cofagrigus doesn't have to worry about Espeon's Magic Bounce anymore!"
"So much for your plan," Valon smirked. "Looks like will-o-wisp is back on the table! Go, Curse! Burn that bug to ashes."
"Cofagrigus!" Curse growled. He created orbs of black flames in his hands, and flung them at Jaune. Jaune was quick, and had been able to dodge flames before, but with his current speed reduced and the fact that the clinging mist was turning him into a big target, it looked like he wouldn't be able to get away from the Cofagrigus' flames.
"Not a problem, Jaune! Volt switch!" Alden ordered. Electricity surged through Jaune and he released a shockwave that struck through the crafty shield and hit Curse, the pokemon letting out a cry. "Come back!"
Jaune returned to his pokeball, but the Phantom wasn't bothered.
"Magic Bounce won't help you, we're protected," he assured Jaune. "I made sure that Curse was well-adapted to this move, after all. All to take out your Espeon. She doesn't have a lot of health left, does she? She's still so weak. Easily taken out by one good Shadow Move."
Now it was Alden's turn to smile.
"But I have other pokemon, you know," he reminded the Phantom. "There's more than one way to get around will-o-wisp. Tracey!"
"Cinderace!" Tracey emerged from her pokeball, still weakened from her earlier struggle against Soul, but in better shape than Eifa was. The flames burst against her without fazing her one bit, and she cracked a grin in response.
"Oh, nice!" Darla said. "Instead of deflecting it with his Espeon, he used his Cinderace's Fire typing to nullify the burns instead!"
"Wooo! Nice!" Lila cheered.
"Tracey, that Cofagrigus has the ability 'Mummy'," Alden informed her. "Which means that if you make contact with him, he'll nullify your Libero ability, so be careful."
"Cinderace," Tracey nodded in agreement.
"Well, that's one trick," the Phantom admitted. "But remember, there's more types of status moves we can use. Curse, use shadow panic!"
"Cofagrigus!" Curse growled, his aura flaring up and shifting into oozing tendrils. The darkness shot towards Tracey to confuse her, but Tracey was a lot quicker than most pokemon. She dodged to the side and raised her hands, orange light beginning to glow between her palms.
"Let's light it back up again!" Alden said. "Sunny day!"
"Cinderace!" Tracey threw the orb of light into the air, illuminating the night sky and dispelling the shadows, creating a facsimile of sunlight above the stadium that began glowing intensely, lighting them up and boosting her Fire type moves.
"We beat your will-o-wisp, gonna try toxic next?" Alden asked, raising his eyebrow.
"If we did, you'd turn her into a Steel or a Poison type, with her Libero ability," Valon replied. "I'm not a fool, and I'm done underestimating you. No, to start with, let's not forget something important, Commander. Your Cinderace isn't wearing that shed shell, is she? Which means we can trap your pokemon again! Curse, shadow hold!"
"Cofagrigus!" Curse growled, shadows shooting out of his sarcophagus and grasping towards the Cinderace. But Tracey wasn't about to let herself be caught. With her great speed she dodged the grasping hands of shadow, but they were persistent. Even she could see that there wasn't a chance of keeping this up forever.
And luckily, she didn't have to.
"Baton pass!" Alden ordered. Before the shadows could render Tracey's escape impossible, the Commander recalled her to her pokeball, switching her out for a better-suited pokemon.
"Espeon!" Eifa emerged from her pokeball, cloaked in a ruby-red aura that repelled the shadows, landing on the ground. Unlike Tracey, though, she WAS badly injured.
"You're switching out your pokemon quite liberally, it seems," the Phantom mused.
"That's the flaw with your tactic," the Commander replied. "Your shadow hold is a really good move for trapping your opponents in place. But that Cofagrigus of yours is too slow to use it properly, isn't he? A pokemon like Gengar, or Dragapult, they can trap a pokemon before it can even attempt to escape. But a slow pokemon like Cofagrigus? I can switch out my pokemon as often as I please, so long as I can keep ahead of you."
"Indeed," Valon agreed. "While I did come up with plans to deal with that annoying tactic of yours, switching your pokemon out between one another, I do have to say that the fact that one of the only pokemon I have left to implement it is so slow is quite a major handicap. But it's not something to be concerned about. After all, we just have to finish you off. Curse, use shadow ball."
"Cofagrigus!" Curse held his four hands up and began to weave shadows together into the shape of a massive sphere, firing it at Eifa.
"Light screen, Eifa," Alden ordered.
"Espeon!" Eifa's eyes flashed and she created a barrier of crimson light around her, the shadow ball bouncing off it harmlessly.
"You'll have to try better than that to get through our defenses," Alden laughed. "Eifa! Now, why don't you show him YOUR shadow ball?"
"Espeon!" Eifa opened her mouth, an orb of ghostly energy appearing in front of it. She spat the sphere at Curse, hitting the slow pokemon directly.
"Cofagrigus!" Curse groaned in pain. His defenses were high, but there was still only so much abuse that he could take.
"Don't worry, Curse," the Phantom assured him. "This is what we've planned. His Espeon has high defenses as well, but it's not something that you need to worry about. Now, phantom force!"
"Cofagrigus!" Curse disappeared into the darkness, leaving Eifa standing alone on the battlefield.
"Oh, so that's your plan," Alden scowled. "Phantom force."
"It always hits," Valon grinned. "Even if the pokemon is hiding behind a barrier. Your Espeon might be able to protect herself, but not from this. And even if Curse's physical attack is rather abysmal, so if your Espeon's physical defense! Now, finish her!"
"COFAGRIGUS!" Curse appeared within Eifa's barrier, perched above her, his body covered in shadows. He cackled madly, his mouth stretching into a wide smirked, and his sarcophagus slammed shut, the shadows around him growing even larger.
Then, he slammed down upon Eifa with a powerful strike of ghostly energy.
"ESPEON!" Eifa cried in pain as she was knocked away, rolling across the battlefield.
"Oh, no!" Lila gasped.
"That one had to hurt," Darla winced.
"Eifa!" Alden called.
"Espeon!" To everyone's surprise, Eifa quickly jumped to her feet, filled with more energy than ever. Upon closer inspection, it was clear that her body was glowing red.
"What was that?" The Phantom growled.
"Forgotten already? Your Cofagrigus is slow," Alden reminded him. "And phantom force is even slower. That gave her ample time!"
Red light began shining down from the sky, emanating from the large fake sun burning overhead.
"Tracey didn't just use sunny day to burn away your shadows," Alden said. "She was also setting up for Eifa's recovery with her morning sun!"
"When used under the intense sunlight of a sunny day, morning sun restores two-thirds of a pokemon's health!" Darla cheered.
"Whoa, that's amazing!" Lila gasped. "Then that means she's almost fully recovered!"
"Corin isn't my only ace," Alden said. "Tracey and Eifa, Mimi, Jaune, and Finn, they're all great! We're a team, and we put our all into working together, playing off each other's strengths, and doing whatever it takes to help each other fight at our best! And thanks to Tracey, Eifa's ready for her second round, right, Eifa?"
"Espeon!" Eifa said, nodding in agreement.
"Great! Now, use calm mind to boost your stats, and we'll keep an eye on that Cofagrigus," Alden ordered. Eifa nodded and her eyes began to glow red as her ruby started shining, her body covered in a crimson aura.
"Boosting your stats? Well, fine then," Valon said. "Curse. It looks like we'll need to use that plan, instead. Nasty plot."
"Cofagrigus," Curse cackled, his special attack rising high.
"Oh, that's smart," Darla noted.
"What, what's he doing?" Lila asked, not sure what was so great.
"Remember, back at the beginning, when Sableye used nasty plot?" Darla reminded her. "He boosted his special attack by two stages."
"Yeah, what about it?" Lila asked.
"Remember what the Commander did?" Darla urged her further down that line of thought until the realization dawned on Lila's face.
"Oh! Yeah, he had his Espeon use psych up, to copy the stat boosts!" Lila cheered.
"A smart move," Darla said, nodding. "It let him get all the status boosts to his special attack stat without having to work for it. A nice shortcut."
"But then why would the Phantom try it again?" Lila asked. "It's just… OOOH! OH! Oh, oh, oh! The crafty shield! It immunizes Cofagrigus against the effects of status moves!"
"So Espeon won't be able to get a trace with her psych up," Darla agreed. "Meaning Cofagrigus can outpace her in terms of raising his stats. It doesn't have the attacking power to do much damage to Espeon with a physical attack, not when she can restore her health easily with morning sun. So he's going down a different path, and trying to boost his special attack instead!"
"Let's see if we can break through that barrier with one nasty plot, Cofagrigus. Shadow ball!" The Phantom ordered.
"Cofagrigus!" Curse raised his hands and sculpted a massive shadow ball, firing it at Eifa.
"Maybe it could break through, but you're too slow for it to matter," Alden said. "Eifa, dodge. Then, counter with a shadow ball of your own!"
"Espeon!" Eifa jumped to the side, skillfully dodging the shadow ball. She opened her mouth, and prepared a shadow ball of her own that she fired at Curse, the ghost attack hitting the Shadow Pokemon and causing him to make another pained grunt.
A smile crossed the Commander's face. "Well done, Eifa! Your speed's still holding through!" He turned to the Phantom. "So, Ricky, what's next? Your Cofagrigus has some good defenses, but like this he'll slowly be worn down. If you have any other tricks up your sleeve, Phantom, now's the time to use them!"
The Phantom only smiled.
I have quite a trick alright, Commander, Valon silently assured him. But you won't know it until it hits you, just you wait.
Even without their strongest pokemon, both trainers are putting up quite a show! It's anyone's game right now, who's going to win?