Rafe's Woobat has evolved due to a nice little trick he was saving for just this sort of occurrence! So how will it go? Will Formalin's evolution be enough to propel the brother-sister duo into a powerful position? Or will the two ninjas be able to overwhelm the new Swoobat with their techniques and power? Will Callie contribute anything to the fight? Things are really heating up now!
KedharS: Yes, he's definitely very tricky, that's for sure.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 1095
The bright light of evolution engulfed Formalin and he began to glow, his body changing and growing into a new form.
"Your Woobat is evolving?!" Shima exclaimed, shielding his eyes from the light of evolution. "Why? What's going on!?"
"It's the Everstone," Rafe explained calmly, a relaxed smile on his face. "I gave Formalin an Everstone, and its mystical properties prevented him from evolving, even though he was certainly at a level which evolution would be possible."
Shima still didn't understand. "Why would you restrict your pokemon's evolution like that?" He demanded. "What would even be the point?" It didn't make any sense to him that someone would do something like that. But he couldn't deny the evidence of his own eyes.
Rafe shrugged, like he wasn't quite sure himself. "I mean… Formalin didn't really want to change, so I didn't really see a point in doing it until now."
Shima's jaw dropped. His smile had completely disappeared.
"I give all my pokemon Everstones," Rafe continued to explain. "And they're free to discard them whenever they choose. Elfuri, Charon, Nostradamus, all of them chose for themselves that they wanted to evolve, and so I granted them the opportunity to discard their stones and reach a new evolution, nothing more."
"It still seems weird to me," Callie mumbled, shaking her head. With all the hard work she'd put into bonding with Rio to give her the courage and confidence to evolve, she couldn't imagine someone going out of their way to stop their pokemon from evolving.
But then, that was Rafe all the way. Doing things that no sane person would do, all because he wanted to move at his own pace.
"Now Formalin's joined the others," Rafe said proudly as the light around him started to dim. "And would you look at that?"
The light faded, and in the place of the Woobat was a new pokemon, a Swoobat.
"Swoobat!" Formalin cried proudly, his eyes shining brightly where previously they had been hidden by bangs.
"You look great," Rafe complimented him. "Now go ahead, do as you like!"
"Swoo!" Formalin nodded eagerly, flapping his wings. He flew at high speed towards the two pokemon in front of him.
"You're much faster in your new form, I'll grant you that," Shima admitted. "But that won't be enough to win. There's still the issue of psychic terrain, and your wings mean you aren't protected! Go, Kalito, quick attack!"
"Pinsir!" Kalito lowered his horns towards the Swoobat and spread them wide. He launched himself like a missile at the flying pokemon, running over the purple flames at a speed that shouldn't be possible for such a bulky pokemon. It was a testament to shinobi that he was able to move like that.
Rafe wasn't fazed.
"You might be fast, but that won't matter," he assured Shima. "Will it, Callie?"
"No, it won't!" Callie shouted. "Ferno! Use quick guard!"
"Infernape!" Ferno raised his hands and began to glow scarlet. A barrier of light appeared around Formalin, and the Pinsir slammed right into it. Kalito tried to break through the barrier with his powerful horns, but no matter how tightly he squeezed, there was nothing to be done.
"That's well done," Rafe applauded. "Oh, and there's something I should remind you two of," he added. "Now that the Everstone is off my pokemon… well, it's time to show you a new trick we have up our sleeve."
"Swoobat!" Formalin nodded, spreading his wings. He disappeared in a flash, reappearing behind Kalito. When the Pinsir turned towards him he faced a strike to the jaw by Formalin's leg, and the bat pokemon disappeared once again, reappearing above him this time.
Shima knew well what was going on.
"Endure it, Kalito!" He ordered as Formalin unleashed a devastating acrobatics assault.
"Nice!" Callie cheered, ignoring the pain in her chest. "Without the Everstone weighing him down anymore, Formalin's free to unleash all his strength! That's great, big brother!"
"That's the idea!" Rafe nodded, smiling wide. "And that's just the start! We've got more tricks than that to take you down!"
"Muramushi!" Shinobu shouted. She couldn't let this go on. Kalito was one of Shima's strongest pokemon, if she just let it die like this, then…
A grim expression crossed her face. She didn't even want to think about what could happen. So she ignored that nagging feeling in her gut and pressed forward. "Muramushi!" She said again. "Use throat chop!"
"Heracross!" Muramushi spread his wings and flew towards the Swoobat, lowering his horn to hit the aerial pokemon. He struck Formalin hard in the jaw, swatting him off of Kalito, hitting with so much force that the Swoobat found himself temporarily voiceless.
"Hey!" Callie shouted, enraged. "That's not okay! Ferno, we need to get in there!"
She turned to her Infernape, but paused. Ferno was in really bad shape, and she wasn't sure if she should push him any further than this. But that hesitation lasted for only a moment. She saw the gleam in her pokemon's eye, and realized that he wanted to give this fight everything he had.
She nodded in assent, and Ferno charged across the field, flames licking up around him.
"Infernape!" Ferno roared, dodging around Muramushi as fire burned bright. His speed boost from flame charge put him in the perfect situation, and he raised his fist to strike the Heracross with a powerful fire punch.
But Muramushi was ready for him. The Heracross turned and swung his horn, catching Ferno's fist. He pushed against it, but to his surprise, Ferno knocked him away easily.
"Oh?" Shinobu raised her eyebrow slightly. With the power of Muramushi, he certainly should have been able to outmuscle an injured Infernape. "That power boost. Could it be Blaze?"
A small smile tugged at Callie's lips. She shook her head. "It's not Blaze," she said quietly. "But you aren't the first one to make that mistake." She thought back on her match against Cynthia. It felt like a lifetime ago. "Ferno gets pumped up when he's losing, sure. But that's not due to his ability. It's due to the fact that, just like me, he hates to give up. Do you see? The flames around Ferno? They aren't flames from the boost of Blaze. They're the same as they usually are."
Shinobu was curious, and Callie was eager to explain.
"You see, as a fighter, I believe in the strength of my pokemon, the same way you do. But I specialize in the Fighting type. A pokemon type that wants to give it their all, in pure combat. Yes, Ferno uses Fire type moves, but he isn't reliant on them. At his core, he isn't a Fire type with Fighting typing, he's a Fighting type with Fire typing!"
To Dokukage that sounded like a distinction without a difference.
"I see what you mean." The words of agreement came from a surprising source, Shima. He looked to Callie with a nod of understanding, to the short girl's surprise. "Your pokemon… you value it for what it can do as a fighter, not for its flames. An admirable conviction, and one that I sympathize with. I quite respect that resolve of yours."
"Oh, um, yeah," she mumbled, a little flattered. Then she reminded herself that this was her enemy giving her praise, and a terrorist. "Right! Anyway, Ferno isn't strong because Blaze boosts his Fire type moves. His ability is Iron Fist! The power of punching! Fire punch, thunder punch, mach punch, even ice punch, Ferno's soul as a fighter comes out in his fists, not his flame! And it was the force of that fist that knocked your Heracross down!"
Shima was pretty impressed. He nodded. "So even though the flames aren't so intense, it was the raw power of his fist. Not bad."
Callie was about to say more, when she caught the look in her brother's eye.
"What? What is it?" She asked, frowning. She didn't like that he was staring at her like SHE was the idiot of the two.
"Callie… why would you freely volunteer that information?" He asked quietly. "You realize you're explaining things to our opponents, right? That's very careless of you."
Callie's jaw hit the grass at the hypocrisy in her brother's words. "CARELESS?!" She screamed. "YOU'RE yelling at ME for being CARELESS?! Are you FUCKING KIDDING ME?!"
She could kill him. After this, she was absolutely going to kill him.
Rafe ignored her concerns, and turned back to his Swoobat. "Formalin," he ordered, "use calm mind to tighten your focus."
"Swoo," Formalin nodded, concentrating his psychic powers to boost his special attack and special defense.
It was the opening that both Bug type pokemon were waiting for, but neither was willing to capitalize on it. Both were cautious of the Swoobat, but Kalito was moreso.
Muramushi was the one who decided it was time to charge in.
"Rock blast," Shinobu ordered. Muramushi hucked more stones with his horn, but again, Ferno was there to protect his partner, exhibiting all the benefits of his ability, Iron Fist. Callie was proud of her pokemon for smashing through the stones with mach punch, but at the same time she was slowly becoming aware that all her pokemon could do at the moment was fight to protect his partner, when it came to offense…
I hate it… but that Heracross is at a higher level than Ferno is, Callie was loathe to admit. But she couldn't deny reality. He has more experience fighting, too. I can't pretend like Heracross aren't amazing pokemon, after all…
But that didn't mean she was going to meekly surrender to the opposition. If she and Ferno couldn't outmuscle their competition, then they would support Rafe and Formalin as they fought with their Flying type advantage.
That resolve didn't help the murky feeling welling up in her chest. First with Alcea, now Rafe, that was twice in rapid order that she was finding her own skills didn't match up to those of the other Eight Leaders.
Coming in behind Alcea was one thing, but Rafe? As much as Callie hated acknowledging the talent of her brother, she knew he was a skilled trainer. It just left a bitter taste in her mouth that he was so much better than her, while also being so careless all the time.
"Pinsir!" Kalito, noticing the hesitation from Callie and her pokemon, was ready to take the advantage. He charged towards Ferno, lowering his horns.
Callie wasn't a fool, though. She snapped back into things and shouted to her Infernape. "Inferno! The Pinsir's coming, use fire punch!"
"Infernape!" Ferno nodded. He dodged the Pinsir's charge, raising his fist and swinging it right for Kalito's face.
But before he could hit, the Pinsir disappeared, and a log appeared in his place. Ferno's fist hit the log and it burst into flames, and Kalito reappeared, cackling.
"Substitute!" Callie scowled. "I should have known!" The Pinsir had used substitute, shrinking a chunk of his own health, allowing him to get the drop on Ferno. And he was about to capitalize on that in a major way.
"Now Kalito! Finish it off with your guillotine!" Shima ordered, and Callie went pale.
"Ferno!" She cried. "Dodge it!"
"Infernape!" Ferno leapt back to try and dodge, but Kalito was just too close. With a burst of speed the Pinsir leapt forward, horns open, and clamped down hard on Ferno's throat. The strength of his grip was enough to choke the life out of Ferno, who collapsed to the ground, knocked unconscious immediately from the blow.
Callie winced. That had been tough to watch. I guess… we really are weaker than them, she acknowledged, recalling her Infernape. Guillotine, like all one-hit knock-out moves, only worked on pokemon of lower levels than the user. It was incontrovertible evidence that she wasn't strong enough to fight at this level yet.
Putting back her pokeball, Callie reached for another, when Rafe raised his hand and stepped in front of her.
She was taken aback by the serious look on his face. It was so un-Rafe.
"Hold off," he gently warned her. "You don't need to use another pokemon just yet."
Callie was stunned. How could he say that?!
"What do you mean?!" She exclaimed. "We're a team! I'm in this fight same as you are, let me help, Rafe!"
"Not right now." Rafe was adamant. He shook his head, and turned to Formalin. The Swoobat had finished concentrating his psychic powers, and was ready to fight.
"Formalin," he called to his pokemon. "Use expanding force."
Formalin landed on the ground and spread his wings wide, a pink aura rising up across his body. It mixed with the pinkish-purple flames of the psychic terrain, blending together until they were indistinguishable from one another. The flames of psychic terrain increased in intensity, until they started consuming the Pinsir and Heracross as well.
Then the flames started to burn.
"Pinsir?!" Kalito gasped as he was burned with the increasing psychic power of the mystical flames. Muramushi had a similar response, both pokemon assaulted by incredible psychic energies.
That was the first wave of the attack. Formalin channeled his strength into the psychic terrain, but that was only part of it. Then he called that energy back, gathering it into his body, and released it in a devastating explosion of psychic power.
Both pokemon were smashed by the shockwave, and were flung back. The force of the move was enough to snuff out the psychic terrain entirely, revealing a bright field of green just in time for both Pinsir and Heracross to hit it hard.
Kalito was taken out immediately. He'd been through too much already in this fight, and couldn't withstand that last attack. Shima recalled his pokemon, his face grim. He said nothing, leaving it up to Shinobu to express the thoughts of both of them.
"Don't think this is over!" She shouted, forgetting all about her traditions as a ninja. That wasn't what Shima wanted from her now, he wanted her rage. Or maybe she was feeling the expectations of Callie and Rafe. It didn't really matter at this point. "Muramushi! The psychic terrain is gone, now's our opportunity! Use rock blast again!"
"Hera!" The weakened Muramushi had taken a significant hit from the expanding force, but he was nowhere near finished.
That wasn't the case for his opponent, however.
"Swoobat!" Formalin was prepared to fight. He spread his wings and shot across the battlefield, moving so fast he was almost a blur. With a swipe of his wing he sent a blade of wind flying towards Muramushi that was so large Callie could hear the air tearing from the vacuum, and the Heracross was nearly cut in half by the power of the move.
With barely a whimper Muramushi collapsed to the ground, unconscious.
Shinobu recalled Muramushi, unable to accept the fact that her strongest pokemon had just been taken down so easily. Callie was just as shocked, falling to her knees with her mouth open.
She knew that her brother was a talented trainer. He often hid it behind his casual, "devil-may-care" attitude, but it couldn't be denied that Rafe was strong. Strong, and skilled.
And he'd just proved it to everyone. Formalin was the only pokemon still ready to fight, and he was only Rafe's second. Whereas Shinobu and Shima had each lost three.
"We still have pokemon left," Shinobu muttered, reaching to her belt. But for some reason, she couldn't send out her next pokemon. She could feel from Shima, that wasn't what he wanted. His expectations were something else. So she waited calmly to know what he planned to do.
"Shinobu… that's enough," Shima finally said, staring across the field at Rafe. "We won't settle anything by continuing this fight."
Rafe was surprised by that response. He raised his eyebrow.
"Are you sure?" Shinobu asked. "The Oracle is here. It's right within our grasp!"
"There's no point in showing more of our techniques," Shima said calmly. "Even though I have no doubt in our ability to win this battle… what then? There are more trainers after this, most notably your brother. If there's this level of resistance to claim the Oracle… we will need to be careful. Wouldn't you agree, mister Psychic type trainer?"
"It sounds to me like you're trying to run because you know you'll lose!" Callie snapped, rising to her feet. She was shaking. While she had no idea if they could beat her brother, she knew that she herself felt outclassed.
"Not at all," Shima said, a smile returning to his face. But it wasn't a cheerful smile like before, it was more dangerous. "Let me show you what I mean."
He threw out a pokeball, and a shocking pokemon emerged from it.
"Farfetch'd!" The small bird chirped, waving its stick.
That… was not the kind of pokemon Callie expected to see. But her shock couldn't be compared with that of Dokukage.
"What?! A Farfetch'd?!" He sputtered, breaking his cool, which was no easy feat.
Callie shook her head. "So what? Even if it's not a Bug type, that-"
"Go," Shima said, narrowing his eyes. The Farfetch'd narrowed his eyes into a glare and disappeared. He reappeared behind Formalin, tucking his stick under his wing.
Formalin blinked. Then a deep red gash drew across his fur and he coughed up blood, collapsing into the grass. He lost consciousness immediately.
Whoa. That was really something. It looks like Shima has more up his sleeve than we thought. A Farfetch'd that's strong enough to take out Rafe's Swoobat in one hit! Even if the battle wasn't a loss for Callie and Rafe, it's clear that we can't exactly consider it a win, either. So from here, things might get complicated. But at least, hopefully, they're leaving for now.
