Disclaimer is on chapter one.
(-o-)(-o-)(-o-)
"I can't believe you did that…" Yulie sighed as she treated Jin's injury from his fight with the wall.
Sitting on her lap, Jin remained quiet the blow to his pride stinging more than his headache. Getting beaten was bad enough but it was the fact that he had lost to a grass-type, something he should have advantage over, that really hurt. Especially when the obnoxious Smugleaf did little to nothing other than taunt and evade him allowing his short temper to take care of the rest. When next they battled, he was definitely going to make her pay for this embarrassment.
Yulie was thinking along similar lines to her partner as she finished treating Jin's sore head. Due to the agreement made before her battle with Sid, she was entitled to a battle with Alastor upon her victory which she made to collect only for him to brush her off with some lame excuse of not agreeing to their deal.
Too wrapped up in her obsession to get her battle against the bluenette, Yulie never noticed the two pairs of feet enter her field of vision. Seeing as their friend just sat there against the wall of the corridor without acknowledging either of them, the two newcomers leaned forward and snapped their fingers right by Yulie's ears. The resulting snap had Yulie jumping to her feet so quickly Jin was practically thrown from her lap.
"Ow-ow-OW! What the heck was that for?!" Yulie snapped covering her ringing ears as she finally acknowledged the presence of the two, smirking girls in front of her.
"You mean, asides from ignoring us?" The grinning orangette on the left asked.
"I thought it was just for battling that pervert that I had warned you about back in Sinnoh." The blonde on the right shrugged still smirking as she remembered the beat down she had laid on Sid the moment Yulie had left him.
With the ringing in her ears quietened down to a dull throb, Yulie blinked in surprise when she saw who her assailants were.
"Will? Kara? You here too?!" She asked excitedly her anger replaced with happiness and joy at seeing the two trainers she had travelled with while in Sinnoh last year.
Like herself, Kara was from the Vellgander Archipelago hailing from the desert island of Lagnish one of the main reasons why the two had decided to travel through Sinnoh together after meeting in Jubilife City only parting ways in Snowpoint City after they had both collected the eight badges to compete in the Sinnoh Pokemon League much preferring to train in their own respective ways and wanting to surprise one another should they get matched up despite it never happening.
Along the way, they encountered Will, a water-type specialist from the Orange Archipelago whose cheery attitude brightened many an evening for the three during the low points either of the others went through. Unlike Kara, Will opted to stick with Yulie as she began her training for the Sinnoh League having come to see the purplette like a younger sister as they continued to travel and wanted to help her.
Unlike his trainer, Jin was not as happy to see Will as that usually meant that…
(Yo.) Will's Buizel lazily greeted the Growlithe from beside his trainer's legs using them as a makeshift prop to keep upright.
Jin merely huffed in response slumping onto his belly while his trainer and the two other females began their own conversation not wanting to do any socialising with a pokemon that had type advantage other him.
"So, how have you girls been?" Yulie asked eagerly wanting to know what they had been up to after they had parted ways.
"Not getting into risky battles with perverts- or should I be saying risque?" Will added with that all too familiar grin Yulie had come to fear.
"There...There was a reason for that." Yulie assured the two as sweat began to form on her brow.
"A reason for risking becoming a model for that redheaded, skirt chaser? You do remember me telling you about my own encounter with that guy, don't you?" Kara interrupted Yulie's explanation causing more sweat to form on the purplette's brow.
"Only every other night we camped out." Will replied both herself and Yulie reckoning they could recall the entire story by heart from hearing it whenever Kara was in a particularly sour mood.
"Anyways." Yulie interrupted wanting to get her tale over with as soon as possible as she knew what would happen afterwards. "The reason I accepted his challenge is because, if I won, I would be able to battle against him."
"Him? As in, the same him you've been fixated on battling but not telling us why you want to find and battle for as long as we've known each other?" Will asked in surprise and disbelief.
"He's on this ship and you could not just challenge him normally like any other trainer?" Kara asked incredulously.
"I did but he declined!" Yulie grumped. "That's when Sid showed up and made his deal. Obviously, I won and had went to the guy to challenge him but he still says no and even got Jin hurt before you showed up!"
(Ah...No wonder you're looking so down. And sore.) Buizel commented to Jin.
Jin just grunted once again in response.
"Well, look on the bright side: you're both in this tournament so you're sure to get your chance to battle him." Will pointed out optimistically patting Yulie's head in a comforting way as she shared a look with Kara.
It was clear to the blonde and orangette that Yulie was greatly upset with not getting to battle with the mystery trainer. They did not know the reason why Yulie wanted to battle this trainer- heck, they did not even know his name or what he looked like- but the open end allowed Will ample opportunity to tease Yulie that she fancied him, wanted him to notice her, etcetera, etcetera. She did give the purplette some breathing room, as she was searching for someone herself, but the odd ribbing now and again was often a good way to lighten the atmosphere.
"Well, yeah but...what if I don't?" Yulie pointed out losing some of her confidence.
"Easy: follow him to whichever region he goes to next and challenge him again and again until he finally agrees to battle you." Will replied like it was the most obvious of choices.
"That's assuming this trainer you're chasing doesn't get knocked out before you get to battle him and leaves before the final match." Kara pointed out receiving a glare from the orangette. "There's nothing wrong with taking everything with a pinch of salt."
"What you call a pinch, we call a handful." Will countered.
Yulie however merely chuckled at her friends' bickering now feeling better than she was before they showed up. Figuring she might as well give up on finding Alastor for the time being, tomorrow was another day after all, the purplette looped an arm over the shoulders of Will and Kara and guided them down the corridor towards her room so that they could discuss what they had been up to since they last saw one another. Neither girl objected although Will asked if they could make a detour to another room wanting to introduce them to her travel buddy before they caught up themselves.
This did not surprise Yulie or Kara in the slightest. While in Sinnoh, their quest to gain eight gym badges took an unnecessary delay as the orangette got herself caught up in the problems of others while attempting to help them out be they human or pokemon. The funny thing was, she was trying to find someone herself yet her selfless attitude kept putting the needs of others before her own.
"You know, you keep putting your own goals on a backburner to help others reach theirs, I'll be surprised if you ever find that sister of yours." Yulie commented with a shake of her head.
"On the contrary: Cas is searching for someone also. Someone who my sister is also after. We find one, we're likely to find the other." Will rebuked with a wide grin before frowning slightly. "Fair warning though: Cas is kinda...cold, I guess so don't take it personally if he treats you like dirt. Also, he'll Likely-."
At that moment, a crash could be heard from behind the door of the room the girls had just arrived at.
"Ask you something silly when he sees you so just comply and it'll save a whole lotta trouble." Will finished with a heavy sigh as she pushed open the door to the room not at all surprised at the sight to befall her eyes whereas Yulie and Kara could not help but exclaim at shock and surprise at what they saw.
(-o-)
Stepping into the room, Alastor was surprised to see he was the first one to arrive not that he really cared about something like that. Still seeing how he had the choice of four beds to choose from, he quickly tossed his backpack onto one of the beds closest to the balcony before opening the balcony door and stepping outside while Snivy vacated his gilet hood in favor of the sun heated balcony floor and promptly went back to her nap.
Letting the soothing ocean breeze played with his azure locks, Alastor let his eyes scan the horizon as he allowed his curiosity to wander freely for a spell in regards to this tournament he was going to be taking part in and what was going to happen during it. He had never been invited to a tournament before and now that he had time to think about it, he wondered if there had been any reason as to why he had been picked or if it had just been some random selection and he was one of the lucky ones.
As he tried to figure out if the tournament in Vellgander was some elaborate con by a gang of pokemon thieves or the real deal, although it seemed to be the latter given the amount of trainers he had already seen of various calibre, Alastor never noticed the newcomer enter the room until he heard the sound of the trainer's bag drop unceremoniously onto the ground at the foot off the bed opposite his own.
'There goes the peace and quiet' Alastor thought to himself as he turned to at least greet the trainer praying that he, or she, had the common sense to not pester him too much.
What he was not expecting, was to see a bluenette like himself although unlike his own dark locks, this mysterious trainer's were lighter and spiked either attempting to look like a punk rocker or had just been the victim of a thunderbolt attack. Then there were the eyes, cold and icy blue reminding Alastor of several trainers he had crossed paths with during his travels who believed power was all one needed to gain victory.
"Your arms." Were the first words he said to Alastor.
"Excuse me?" Alastor replied not sure if he had just heard the trainer wrong or if he was mumbling something to himself.
"Show me your arms." The trainer elaborated.
"And I should do this...because why?" Alastor asked not liking the way this trainer was staring at him.
"Just do it!" The trainer ordered suddenly darting forward making a grab at Alastor's wrists.
Surprised as he was at the sudden lunge, Alastor reacted on instinct alone and batted away the trainer's hands but was unable to get away as the only way off the balcony was blocked by the trainer. Fortunately, the light scuffle had woken Snivy up and the grass snake, upon seeing what was happening to her own trainer, immediately lashed out at the assailant with vine whip pinning his arms to his sides.
"Thanks, Snivy." Alastor thanked his pokemon before turning his attention back to the now bound trainer. "Now then. Why don't you start explaining why you're so fascinated with my arms?"
"You speak like you're in control of the situation!" The trainer growled managing to grab the vines binding him and spun round.
Completely caught off guard, Snivy had no time to react before finding herself flung back inside the room to collide with the nearest wall. Her stunned state allowed the trainer to free himself from the pokemon's vines then quickly throw Alastor to the ground while his attention was on his injured pokemon. Seizing the moment, the trainer pounced on Alastor while he was recovering from the throw and once more grabbed at his wrists.
At that moment, the door to the room opened once more to reveal three more trainers, one of which Alastor was familiar with.
"See your making friends again, Cas." Will commented dryly while Yulie and Kara just stared at the scene before them.
"Not now, Will!" Cas snapped without taking his eyes off of Alastor before suddenly being grabbed by Snivy's vines again and flung across the room taking Alastor's shirt sleeves along for the ride with a loud rip.
(Throw me around, will you?) Snivy growled as she flexed her vines in preparation for another attack.
"Okay, time out, people!" Will called out quickly getting between Snivy and Cas. "Why don't we all calm down and talk this time. That includes you too, Cas!"
Cas grumbled something incoherent as he picked himself up. Noticing he still had Alastor's shirt sleeves still in his hands, the trainer looked over to the fellow bluenette's arms.
"No tattoos." He noted discarding the torn pieces of fabric he was clutching.
'That's why he wanted to see my arms?' Alastor thought in disbelief while Snivy jumped onto his shoulder still glaring daggers at Cas.
Before he could ask the bluenette about it, Yulie was suddenly right in front of him.
"You know, you could have just told the truth about why you didn't want to battle me." She told Alastor unable to keep the grin from her face. "If you just told me you had to meet your boyfrie-"
"IT WASN'T LIKE THAT!" Alastor cut over her red in the face and angry as an upset Primeape at what she was implying.
"Lay off him, Yulie. Cas has a habit of not explaining himself." Will defended Alastor having witnessed this spectacle time and again since first teaming up with the trainer. She was about to explain further when she suddenly realised something. "Hold on. He's the guy you've been chasing after?"
"You know him?" Yulie asked in disbelief.
"Have we met?" Asked asked at the same time.
"Well, obviously. He's the most recent trainer to beat Drake: the Orange Crew Leader and enter the Orange League Hall of Fame." Will explained to Yulie. "And before you go all Primeape on me, this was after we parted ways last year."
Getting her question answered before she could voice it, Yulie huffed in annoyance before locking horns with Alastor once again.
"No." Alastor replied before Yulie inhale the breath needed to ask him for a battle.
"Oh, come on! Why not?!" Yulie whined childishly.
"Why should I?" Alastor countered.
Unable to withstand his gaze, Yulie looked down at her feet as she tried to come up with a reasonable excuse to battle him rather than the actual reason figuring he would just brush her off again claiming it was childish or something along those lines.
"Well...how about to settle the matter of the pier battle: Winner gets the credit and the loser has to apologise for interfering." Yulie proposed feeling confident that Alastor could not worm his way out of this one. "If you back out now, you might as well apologise to me while you're at it- or would you rather I went around saying you could beat the Orange Crew but was too afraid to accept a battle from little old me?"
Her provocations aside, Alastor could not believe the persistence of the purplette. He had met a few trainers over the years who expressed an interest in battling him but Yulie was the first one to keep on challenging despite the amount of times he had declined her before. And from the determined look in her eyes, he knew she would just keep on pestering him until she got her way.
"You're really set on battling me, aren't you?" He asked although from his tone it sounded more like a statement than a question.
"Yup!" Yulie replied smiling excitedly as if sensing what was to come.
Seeing as there looked to be no way around things, Alastor sighed in defeat before walking passed Yulie to the door getting puzzled and confused looks from everyone else in the room.
"You rather we battle here?" He pointed out as he left the room.
It took a moment for his words to register but, upon realising he had just accepted her challenge, Yulie's face lit up as she quickly followed Alastor towards the battle arena with the others following along at a more sedate pace.
"So he's the one Yulie's been searching for. With his looks and achievements, perhaps all those comments of yours might be on target for once." Kara remarked to Will.
"Hey, I just call it how I see it." Will brushed off easily bending over to pick up her Buizel and sling him over her shoulder like a sack of spuds. "'Sides, you're curious about him yourself- although not as much as that guy you battled earlier on."
"Please. That boy is all talk." Kara huffed as she looked away from the orangette.
"Yet his Charizard held its own against your Ursaring." Will pointed out to which Kara could only click her tongue in response causing Will to grin.
(-o-)
The atmosphere in the battle arena had died down into a calm lull soon after Kara and Caesar's match, Zai dimly noted as he finished his sketch of Charizard and Ursaring locked in mortal combat. After the two trainer's had parted ways, the few battles that had taken place afterwards had done little to catch his attention allowing him to focus solely on completing his sketch he had drawn from memory alone.
"Hey, that's pretty good." Dragon complimented as he sat down beside the researcher.
"Thanks. It's just a habit of mine to draw whatever catches my attention." Zai explained after finishing off the shading of Charizard's underwing. "It also helps me in collecting data for Professor Rowan in his research on pokemon evolution."
Dragon only nodded as the researcher began a spiel on how his near one hundred percent accurate drawings had helped to uncover distinct differences between separate genders of the same pokemon species as most of what he was going on about went clear over his head.
As Zai continued to prattle on about dimorphism and the effects it had in discerning pokemon biology and behaviourisms, Dragon's gaze shifted to the few trainers still milling around the arena wondering if he should participate in a battle himself before finding his room for the duration of the trip to their destination. Just as he was about to make his decision, Dragon spotted Alastor walking into the arena with Yulie and her Growlithe right behind him.
"Hey, check it out." Dragon called out to Zai as he elbowed the researcher to get his attention. "It looks like Yulie's about to battle Alastor."
Zai took no notice of Dragon's words too busy staring in horror at the huge line he had just made right across his drawing when Dragon had elbowed him as if it had declared the end of the world. Why, why did this have to happen to him whenever he was close to completing a masterpiece?!
"How do you want to do this?" Alastor called out to Yulie as he stepped into the trainer box at one end of the ring. Since she was the one issuing the challenge, he reckoned it was her call especially since she had already battled not even an hour ago.
"Three-on-three singles work for you?" Yulie replied as she stood opposite from her opponent grinning as he nodded in response. "In that case-"
"Hold it right there!" A loud voice hollered as a familiar redhead appeared between the two trainers.
'What's he doing here?' Yulie thought hoping she was not about to get roped into wearing that ugly swimsuit Sid had shown her earlier were she to lose the battle.
'What happened to his face?' Dragon wondered noticing the black eye and puffy cheeks on the redhead's face.
"As the one who instigated this battle, I shall be the referee!" Sid declared.
"You instigated nothing, you pervert!" Yulie hollered with Jin barking flames in agreement.
"This shall be a three-on-three pokemon battle with substitutions allowed. The winner shall be declared when all three of one trainer's pokemon are unable to battle." Sid continued ignoring Yulie's words. "Do both of you agree to the terms?"
Seeing as Alastor just nodded his head again in agreement, Yulie could only swallow whatever foul insults she had in mind for the man and accepted the terms also.
She now had the more pressing matter of which pokemon to use first. Having seen Alastor use his Serperior on the pier, and the damage it had sustained, Yulie knew he was unlikely to use it again in this battle as well as his Snivy and Kirlia as the former seemed reckless while the latter looked to be too timid to battle properly. That just left the three remaining members of his team to go against her own.
'Simisage and Toxicroak are still recovering from that last battle so they're out of the question. Mannectric's still good to go and I suppose I could use Jin if Blue sends out his Snivy- providing Jin doesn't go off recklessly again.' Yulie thought as she went through her current team.
Alastor meanwhile, merely plucked one of the shrunken pokeballs off his belt and pressed the button to expand it to its full size.
"Sneazel, show 'em what you've got!" He called out as he threw the pokeball calling forth the bipedal feline-like creature from within.
(Let's do this!) The sharp claw pokemon grinned as she waited expectantly for her opponent.
"In that case…" Seeing the pokemon her opponent threw out, Yulie quickly grabbed one of the pokeballs from her belt and threw it out. "Aron, c'mon out!"
Materialising on the field, the tiny metal pokemon blinked owlishly before letting out a tiny bark as if trying to intimidate Sneazel who did nothing to hide it's snickering at the feeble attempt.
From his seat in the stands, it looked to Dragon like the odds were in Yulie's favor as Aron was a steel/rock-type both types strong against ice pokemon like Sneazel even if the iron armor pokemon looked to be not as experienced as the sharp claw pokemon.
"So she's starting with Aron, is she? A smart choice, I guess." Kara commented.
"Maybe, but let's just hope she isn't getting ahead of herself. Her opponent did beat the Orange Crew after all." Will reminded her friend.
"Perhaps." Kara agreed with a knowing smirk. "But I doubt he's ever battled an opponent like Yulie before."
Listening to the two girls talking, Dragon was confused as to what they were going on about other than the fact that it concerned the two trainers about to battle. All he could do was just watch like everyone else as the battle unfolded. Maybe over the battle's course he would understand and even learn a trick or two for use in his own future battles.
"Begin!" Sid yelled.
"Aron, strike hard and fast with Iron Head!" Yulie ordered.
The metal plate on its head glowing, Aron shot at Sneazel like a rocket- literally. Not expecting the tiny, metal pokemon to come cannonballing towards it at such a speed, Sneazel caught the attack square in the abdomen and was sent flying across the ground to the edge of the arena.
"I didn't know an Aron could that!" Dragon remarked in disbelief.
"Not normally. An Aron and their evolution line are rock and steel which are two of the heaviest types of pokemon- despite it's size, an Aron weighs around sixty kilograms on average which doubles upon evolving into Lairon." Zai explained coming out of his stupor. "However, most of an Aron's weight is gained through eating the iron ore in its natural habitat so it's likely this one's been dieting on food that still sustains it but does not supply the mass leaving it lighter than an average Aron."
"Making it the perfect pokemon to catch opponents off guard with." Kara finished off for the researcher.
It was one of Yulie's best battle strategies that had never failed to at least win her the first point in a more than one pokemon battle. It still had its high defense but it was Aron's speed that usually spearheaded the way to victory for her.
"It sure caught Alastor with his pants down." Will agreed recalling the shocked look on Alastor's face when Yulie declared her attack.
The bluenette, having not expected Yulie's Aron to be unsurprisingly fast, had been unable to command Sneazel to evade although it was unlikely that the pokemon would have been able to have done anything anyways as it had been caught off guard also. The question now was: could he do anything to counter the iron armor pokemon's high speed tackle?
"Use Iron Head again!" Yulie called out pressing her advantage while she still had it. She knew that that advantage would not last much longer and wanted to milk it for all its worth while she could.
'Not this time!' "Dodge it using Quick Attack!" Alastor ordered Sneazel who was just now getting up now that it had got its breath back.
Still grimacing from the earlier blow, Sneazel shot off to the left leaving a white contrail just before Aron shot through the space it was just in.
"Now use Icy Wind!" The bluenette ordered as he watched the Aron skid uncontrollably to a stop further down the field.
"Use Double Team to evade!" Yulie called out as Sneazel twisted round from where it landed and launched a beam of icy blue wind from its mouth aimed at her pokemon as it regained its balance.
Scuttling around to face its opponent, Aron briefly glowed white before making three more copies of itself making it look like there were four Aron on the field which quickly became three as the attack hit one of the decoys causing it to fade out and leave a portion of the field covered in a thin layer of frost.
"Now, strike back with Iron Head again!" Yulie ordered her pokemon.
Cancelling out the remaining decoys, Aron made to launch itself at Sneazel only to fall flat on its stomach as it slipped on the icy ground. Now it was Yulie and Aron's turn to be shocked as they realised that the attack they thought had been evaded had now hindered their strategy leaving Aron wide open for another attack.
"Clip it using Quick Attack!" Alastor ordered seizing the moment.
Once again shooting off leaving white contrails, Sneazel brushed passed the immobilised Aron hitting it just enough to make it start spinning wildly with no way of stopping itself.
"Aron, return!" Yulie called out holding out the pokemon's pokeball.
"Why did she do that?" Dragon asked in confusion as he watched Aron get recalled into its pokeball. Surely the attack could not have been that damaging against a pokemon with a strong defense even if it were faster than its brethren.
"That attack Sneazel used was meant to disorient Aron." Zai explained for Dragon. "While not doing much in terms of damaging Aron, it would have left Aron unable to properly battle for a while leaving it vulnerable to attack."
Dragon nodded his head in understanding. Even if Aron could still battle, it was doubtful that the pokemon could properly battle leaving it at the mercy of Sneazel or possibly another of Alastor's pokemon.
"Take a breather, buddy. You did well." Yulie complimented her stored Aron before putting it away and taking out another pokeball. "Now, Alakazam, let's go!"
"That's...unexpected." Zai remarked at a loss for words when the psi pokemon materialised on the field.
Dragon could understand why: psychic-types were weak against dark-types. Had Yulie let the pressure and excitement of finally getting to battle Alastor caused her to slip up? Even the bluenette in question looked surprised at the pokemon she had chosen.
"Nope. That's Yulie in a nutshell." A grinning Will corrected not looking even remotely worried about her friend.
"Use Focus Blast!" Yulie ordered of her pokemon.
(Pleasant dreams, Sheila!) Alakazam called out to Sneazel before unleashing a large ball of pale blue energy at the pokemon.
Caught off guard once again by her opponent, Sneazel was too slow in reacting to the incoming attack and unable to defend against the resulting explosion when the attack connected.
(-o-)(-o-)(-o-)
Finally back & starting to update my fics (I hope) I've decided to make this fic just a regular pokemon fic than a crossover with White Knight Chronicles because there isn't going to be much giant suits of armor & monsters happening.
Review if possible & until next time
Watch this space & peace out!