The dark serpent barreled forward towards Castform, his tail glowing purple. He curled his body around to strike.
"Duck and tackle!" Mari commanded Castform.
The smaller grey Pokemon's eyes grew wide as she saw her opponent's tail sweep forward towards her. She ducked just in time as the glowing tail sliced through the air above her. Castform immediately slid under his tail and hit his main coils with her head. Surprised, Kendar put distance between himself and Castform. His body, however, looked quite unharmed.
"Crunch," Atzie commanded Kendar.
"Ember," Mari countered.
He smiled with pleasure at the command, and his long golden fangs glowed white and dark red, like his eyes. Lunging across the cobblestone walkway his jaws opened with a hiss, and closed on Castform's shoulder. She shrieked in pain as the magenta energy crackled off Kendar's fangs and seared her body. The energy in his mouth built up, and he flung her to the ground to relieve the stress.
As soon as her soft body hit the ground, Castform ignored the aching pain and bolted away from Kendar. She glared at him as he turned to face her. His fangs were their natural gold color again, but he was ready for more. He slithered across the walkway with incredible speed. His fangs began to glow and Castform stood her ground. Her eyes were ablaze, waiting for the right moment, and it soon came. On the final approach, Kendar opened his mouth to grab her in his vice-like grip, but she struck. A large ember shot down his exposed throat, and he stopped dead in his tracks. Coughing and writhing in pain, he rolled on the ground. The flames had vanished as quickly as they had come, but his flesh was burned. Even the skin in his mouth was charred.
"Good work, Castform," came Mari's enthusiastic, although somewhat repelled praise. "That should put his Crunch attack out of commission!"
Atzie's reaction was far more pronounced. "Kendar, are you okay!" was her near frantic call.
But the Seviper quickly composed himself and nodded to his trainer.
"Right," was the reply from Atzie. "I know you've taken worse. Now pound that little sneak into the ground with your Poison Tail!"
He nodded and with renewed energy charged towards Castform in a rage.
"Castform, Kendar's too angry to attack directly," Mari warned. "Use Attract and be careful!"
"Attack quickly, Kendar! Don't let Castform have a chance to distract you."
Castform smiled at him and began to dance with a rhythmic motion, never turning her eyes away from him.
Avoiding looking directly at her, Kendar jolted forward and lashed his tail out at her as he abruptly stopped in front of her. She neatly ducked under the tail and continued her dance. A pink aura slowly developed around her. Kendar was startled by this and accidentally looked at her. Castform's dance was becoming more pronounced as she danced her way next to Kendar, hoping to fully entrap him in her spell. The serpent's eyes followed her movements, and his muscles started to relax.
"Kendar, stop looking at her!" Atzie commanded, unwilling to surrender her Pokemon to the feminine wiles of Castform.
Upon hearing his trainer's voice, Kendar's muscles tensed once again, and he clamped his eyes shut. But he again began to relax. Shaking his head violently, he hissed and revealed his glowing fangs. Castform continued her attempts to Attract him, and cooed in his ear. The snake lashed out and snapped at Castform, who barely managed to get out of the way by retreating. Kendar's eyes remained shut as he shook his head. Castform frowned. Still dancing, she again approached Seviper, although more quietly. With the pink aura still surrounding her, she stopped just in front of Seviper's face. Leaning forward, she kissed his nose.
Kendar's eyes flung wide open. "Castform, get out of there!" said Mari, who feared the wrath of Seviper.
But Castform remained in front of Kendar. He looked at Castform, and she smiled back at him. A dopey smile came over his face and he completely lost interest in avoiding Castform. She had him.
"Oh, crud," Atzie muttered under her breath. "Kendar, quick, use Toxic!" she said aloud. 'I've got to get an advantage before he becomes completely useless!' she thought.
Kendar looked at Atzie as though she had betrayed him. Then he turned to Castform and back to Atzie. He was feeling weird. He knew he should obey Atzie, but something inside him screamed that he must not harm Castform.
The grey Pokemon's pink aura shone bright, and she continued to dance in front of Seviper.
"Good, Castform," Mari said. "You have him, now reel him in!"
This statement caused reality to briefly return to Kendar, and he spit a ball of poison out of his mouth at Castform. But the infatuation returned, and he was aghast to see Castform frowning in disgust at the purple liquid all over her body. He started to approach and help her when she shook it off and remained hovering a few feet above the ground. Letting out a sigh of relief, his smile quickly changed to horror when he saw beads of sweat form on her head and the pink glow around her fade, she had been poisoned by his attack.
Castform shook her head in anger and swallowed down a deep breath, unleashing a stream of water on Seviper. The force of the rage-fueled torrent sent him tumbling back several feet.
"Nice shot," Mari said. "But don't use your Water Gun again. That counteracts the burns Ember caused, and those burns could severely weaken Kendar in the long run!"
"Oh, poor Kendar!" Atzie said to take advantage of the moment. "I bet you'd like to show off for Castform, right?"
Without looking away from his beloved, Kendar nodded. Castform was in front of him, glaring at him in hatred.
"Okay, then," Atzie continued. "Why don't you show her how incredibly fast you are! You could do that using your Double Team technique."
Castform's anger abruptly turned to worry as Kendar nodded in response to his trainer, and took a position a bit farther away from Castform. Still smiling, his image began to multiply until four stood around her in a circle.
Mari, though concerned, smiled. 'She's smart. She knows how to overcome obstacles in battle. But I doubt even she can control an Attracted Pokemon for long.' "Castform, you have to attack quickly! Ember and tackle when you can. Keep your eyes glued to Kendar, and you should be able to spot the real one soon enough when he moves."
Atzie laughed. "You make it sound so easy! I can guarantee your Castform, especially as young as she is, won't have an easy time of catching Kendar. So, Kendar, keep multiplying!"
Kendar, eager to display his eye-catching agility, continued multiplying his images. Seeing this development, Castform quickly shot a spread of fire balls at three of the now five Sevipers. The one at the far left cringed and stumbled backward. She dove for Kendar, hitting his neck in a tackle. He wasn't hurt much and darted away, re-entering his image network of now six.
Castform was in the center of the rapidly multiplying false Kendars, and she stared intently at them, waiting for Kendar to slip up and make himself known.
"There, you see," Atzie said to Kendar, careful not to aggravate the affects of his infatuation. "Castform can't tell you apart from your image. Is that skill or what?"
The Kendars all smiled in unison, and another appeared. There were eight now, and Castform shot out more fire balls, hitting three. They proved to be fakes and were distorted by the attack, but they were quickly replaced by fresh images. The infatuated smile plastered across Kendar's face continued to get bigger and dopier, but Mari soon noted that no additional images were appearing. Castform's Attract was kicking in at full force. With any luck, his Double Team would diminish in effectiveness.
"Keep up the attack," Mari encouraged Castform. "But be careful not to use up a lot of energy. That Toxic is draining your energy, too."
She nodded, and dove at an image. Passing through it, she headed for the next one in line without missing a beat. A pained expression was on her face; the poison was eating at her. The second image was false as well, and she shot a fire ball at the third. There was a grunt, and the entire Double Team image network glitched momentarily. The scratched Kendar quickly re-entered and established the network. Castform tackled the same place, but Kendar had already slipped back into obscurity.
The sky overhead was grey and dark, threatening a storm. The waves of the Hoenn sea remained calm, but reflected the gloom of the sky. Castform's normally grey color slowly assumed a bluish tint that went largely unnoticed in the heat of the battle.
Castform dove again at another image. When she again passed straight though it, she turned to charge again but stopped. Cringing in pain, sweat covered her face. She took the time for a breather while Kendar was preoccupied with maintaining his Double Team.
Atzie was keeping a watchful eye on her Seviper. As Castform struggled to regain her composure, Atzie noticed a frown on Kendar's face. His eight images declined to seven, and it became obvious he was distracted. But this time, the source didn't seem to be Castform.
Kendar was frowning, but at no particular object. His painful burns were causing him to lose control over his Double Team. There were now six of the originally eight Seviper images.
Castform, also, was having problems concentrating. She appeared to be ill, and was stopped dead in the middle of the Double Team circle.
"Castform, are you okay?" called a concerned Mari. This was nothing like she had seen Toxic do in the past. "Try and throw Embers at the Double Teams!" She was getting nervous. Castform was quickly losing her strength.
"No, it's happening," Castform said, but didn't move to respond. A drop of water from the overcast sky landed on her head, and she became increasingly blue in color.
"Castform…" Mari whispered to herself. Something beyond Toxic was happening. She felt a few drops of water fall on her head and shoulders, and Mari realized what was happening. "Castform, you're changing!"
Atzie was confused as to Castform's condition, but maintained her focus on Kendar. He had not lost another Double Team image, but his expression of dopey infatuation was changing. It now turned to anger aimed at Castform. She smiled. "Kendar, Poison Tail!"
Kendar leapt forward for Castform, whipping his glowing tail at her. She was thrown several feet from him onto the ground, but she made no move to retaliate. Despite the fact that the Poison Tail hadn't been at full force, a leftover from the Attract, it had been a hard hit on the severely weakened Castform.
"No! Not now, Castform!" cried Mari. Her Pokemon was not moving from her resting place on the stone walkway.
But the rain was starting come down more, and Castform's body began to mutate. First it became deep blue in color, and then the bottom quarter of her body turned white while forming into a solid cloud-like shape. The upper part of her body, still deep blue, became transparent with a slight blue tint, like water! The core of her upper body remained a solid dark blue, and that's where her white-masked eyes and mouth remained. Castform floated up from the ground, and faced Kendar.
"I'm baaack!" Castform cheered.
"What the…" Atzie said in amazement and surprise.
"She changes with the weather!" Mari said with glee. "Castform, that's great! I don't suppose you can still use Ember, can you?"
"No, only water, normal, and similarly typed moves," Castform explained and waited for instruction while Seviper glared at her. He was cured of his infatuation, and wasn't phased by her transformation.
The rain was coming down regularly now, and both trainers quickly went into their backpacks. Atzie also had a CEIS Bin and brought it out, taking an umbrella out of it as Mari took her hood black water-proof jacket out of hers. Both were already somewhat wet, but were now safe from the chilling rain.
"Alright then," Mari said. "Water Gun!"
"Kendar, Poison Tail!"
The mentally renewed Castform released a blast of snow out of her mouth upon Kendar, hurling him away from her.
"What was that?" Castform panted, her chest was burning from the unexpected attack.
"Wow, that was awesome!" Mari exclaimed. "That's Powder Snow, Castform, don't forget," she said to make sure her Pokemon would be able to recognize the attack on command.
Atzie, meanwhile, examined her own Pokemon. The ice had virtually cured him of his burns, excluding the ones in his mouth. But the ice would also doubtless slow him down.
"Kendar, use Iron Tail to counter Powder Snow!"
He nodded his acknowledgement and charged for Castform.
"Castform, alternate Water Gun and Powder Snow!"
Castform went head-on for her opponent. A few feet before meeting Kendar, she swerved up and around him, dousing his body with water. The force knocked him to the ground, but he swung his tail up at her before she could move, dealing another Poison Tail. Castform spun backwards in the air a few times before re-gaining control and diving back at him. Kendar, too, lifted himself up off the ground. She unleashed another Powder Snow, and Kendar's tail shone silver. He slashed through her attack, cutting it like a knife. She had not been far behind and was hit on the head and sent plummeting to the ground. He lifted his tail to strike again, but Castform shot up and sidestepped his Iron Tail, unleashing her Powder Snow on him before he could counter.
Kendar hissed a shriek from the burning cold, and violently slashed at Castform with his tail, hitting her yet again. She remained in the air, but both were panting heavily.
Kendar's body was covered with ice crystals, and it was obvious that he was losing speed because of it. The fact that Castform had been failing to dodge his attacks was evidence of her exhaustion, and she was still being affected by Kendar's earlier Toxic. Neither had the energy to go much longer; the next few moments would decide the victor.