Crafty Moonlight
The morning sky was cloud-capped with row after row of mottled fluff like a quilt, but Aurélie Desamarais wasn't hopeful, the sun would burn through them before lunch as usual. The Fairy Tale Girl lounged at her post on Route 13. The infamous Lumiose Badlands were insufferable year round and particularly loathsome midsummer, fortunately her aromatisse knew Trick Room, that although limited, could stretch enough for temperature manipulation.
The Fairy Tale Girl draped herself over the smoothest boulder in the area, released the fairy and opened the online textbook app on her holocaster. Her high grade-point-average made her eligible to graduate early as long as she passed the senior exams, and she'd be sorry if she let the opportunity go to waste.
The teen was more than ready to be on her own and out from her parents meddling. They had pulled strings for an internship with Valerie the Laverre City's Gym Leader, but Aurélie would be declining once the parental controls were off her teleporting permit.
She planed on traveling the world outside the Pokémon League. She wanted to see the sierra of Fiore, the remote villages of Almia, the mysterious isles of the Decolore Archipelago, the Delta Pokémon of Holon, and the ruins of Oblivia.
She'd already submitted her application with the Backpacker's Guild, a Unova company with franchises all over the world, and she would leave as soon as she got her teleporting license. All she had to do was knockout these exams and her coveted future would be hers, whatever the consequences.
Balesémé stopped energizing Trick Room, the part of her mind that maintained the psychic-move was sore from the extreme repetition of the last couple of days. The downy fairy squinted her amber-hued eyes to use her long eyelashes as a buffer against the flying sand. She sashayed in her typical vivacious fashion and pressed her pokéball's recall button with a flourish. "Gee, thanks o' devoted one."
Aurélie's snarky expression was wasted on the encapsulated pokémon. Can't really blame her, this blows...chucks! The blonde thought as a small clump of dirt pegged her in the head. She sat on the ground beside the boulder to block the wind and settled in for another boring shift.
The heat intensified once the clouds were gone and her stomach gurgled on cue for lunch.
Aurélie cast out Chantey and teleported to Lumiose City for a bite at her favorite café, even though the Coumarine City's Hotel refectory was closer. The Shutterbug Café had been her go-to place since she'd started in the Schoolgirl's Club, the manager knew her usual savory choices and her entourages' sweet ones.
After shaking off handfuls of sand and freshening up she relaxed with her pokémon in the familiar comfort. Two coworkers walking by happened to glance through the bay window and spot her just as she was leaving. "Hey Aurélie, what do you think of Route 13?" the honeyed brunette asked as she set her minun down inside the door.
"It's a desert." Self-explanatory, she thought but throttled down the snideness because Jolie had always been nice to her, unlike her companion Macy. The platinum blonde snorted delicately beside Jolie and curled a lip in a 'smile' before walking to the counter for food, her two pokémon had already beat her there for free samples.
"Oh, you didn't like the trails?" Jolie asked, hazel eyes genuinely curious.
"Which ones?"
"On each side off the path there are gullies where trainers go to find shuckle and gabite, they're good places to rack up quota battles." Jolie supplied helpfully, her jumpluff and carbink hovered on either side of her like body guards while her delcatty leaned against her leg.
"Cool. I'll check them out," Aurélie responded, watching the flocculent whimsicott land and pull on the delcatty's turfed ears, the irritated cat shook her head and mewed in warning.
"Have fun. Oh, speaking of, there's a party tonight."
"Eh, not really-"
"It's on the beach, please come it's going to be great," Jolie interrupted to dangle the bait. "I heard some Tamers were going so we might finally do the rematch." The horned fairy tossed a tiny cottonball in front of the cat and pealed with glee when the delcatty was propelled forward unwillingly to bat the toy. She caught herself after a few quick taps and licked a paw, tail still twitching.
The golden blonde looked up from the playful display and caught the irritated look Macy and her froslass thew at Jolie's back. She pretended interest out of spite by widening her eyes and flashing a grin. "Where's it at?"
Large shadows fell on Aurélie and her wigglytuff when they teleported back to Route 13.
They glanced up to see a Sky Trainer and his pidgeot gliding side by side. The trainer with stitched wings, the bird on long beige ones. The Fairy Tale Girl waved them over and slipped on her goggles as they fluttered down expertly. "Want to battle?"
"Not really..." He looked peeved at being disturbed just for a battle.
"Worried?" the blonde girl goaded.
The lissome young man let out a hard laugh. "No, it's too hot...but if you insist," he amended at her eye-roll.
"Sweet, all in?" she asked.
"No, I can do three on three or four max."
"Aids?"
"Of course not," he scoffed, "wait, on the ground?" Aurélie grinned. "Ugh, fine." The large bird shrieked and flapped into the sky, glowing in rainbow hues. He exploded into a larger form with vibrant plumaged. His twenty-foot wingspan shaded both humans as he flew by. The Fairy Tale Girl couldn't help marveling at the brilliant new colors the tan pokémon had evolved into.
A shawl of bright rust now covered his shoulders while magenta and aquamarine flashed at his wingtips and tail, and a mane of soft yellow replaced the long tresses of red and gold. It took her a moment to remember she needed to bring him down. She mentally flicked through the move-sets of her pokémon and decided on Wîly.
The castform materialized and used his Forecast ability to transform into Sunny Form. A violent wind suddenly raked by them, stirring sand into billowing streams. It took all of Wîly's strength to keep hovering in place as the stinging sand pelted his tiny body.
Gales herald a coming storm and in seconds the wind began to howl. Ferocious and powerful it dragged cold clouds from the atmosphere and tore at the land, ripping clods of dirt, sand, and rocks from their places.
Thunder snarled across the sky and the world darkened. Sirens rang from the distant Power Plant, warning against the gathering force and within a minute the wind had amassed enough power to shift boulders and rip shrubs from the ground.
A crack of thunder broke the churning clouds and torrential rains hammered down, but the atmospheric changes for Hurricane worked in Wîly's favor too. His molecules stretched and forced another transformation, and he easily manipulated the heavy clouds, chilling the moisture into ice.
By the time snow started to fly he'd been blown miles away and battered by the elements. If it wasn't for his Rainy Form, the hard rain and whipping winds would have torn him apart. Hail struck the ground and finally the cloud-gates reached critical mass and broke open to release Blizzard.
Standing at the drop-off of the plateau the trainers could see the battle play out between the distant buttes and barren hills, they felt the effects of the far off attacks; the blasts of wind and the glacial frost.
When the snowstorm abated it revealed the artic scene the desert had become. A tundra now spanned miles, glittering with fresh snow. The mega pidgeot burst out of a snow bank and lifted tattered wings into the air. He saw the castform hovering as a signal snowflake in the sky and quickly flapped his enormous wings to summon up Heat Wave, his No Guard ability guaranteed a hit even through the frigid air.
Wîly's Snowy Form reacted to Heat Wave with devastating effects, he squealed and blew at the burns but the intense heat had already melted parts of his small body. He gasped in a breath and called to the receding clouds. The mega pidgeot had stayed on the ground, regaining energy with Roost and couldn't lift off in time to will the elements in his favor. Instead he sucked down cold air and blasted it out with Uproar, the racket attracted the distant vibrava who'd been startled into flight by the blizzard. Dozens headed in the battlers' direction, creating a lethal ultrasonic wall several miles before them.
The castform hyperventilated and desperately created more cold and moisture, snow flew by seconds later and Blizzard once again had its way with the desert. Shards of ice pierced into the giant bird and beat at his huge wings until he huddled in wet snow. His No Guard guided the blizzard's brunt to him, it was a blessing and a curse.
The wild pokémon took super-effective damage, most crashed to the ground and got covered in snow. The few vibration-pokémon that escaped fled to a mesa miles away, shuddering warning-signals to all in the area.
Aurélie flushed and the Sky Trainer winced, they glanced at each other, uncomfortable with the knowledge that they caused unintentional damage. Once the snow died down the mega pidgeot shook snow off his feathers and icicles from his eyes and nostrils. He was dizzy from the super-effective attacks but located the castform drifting down from the sky with his sharp vision and aimed another Uproar.
The infrasonic blast slammed into the weather-pokémon once more and finally sent him spiraling to the snow. The bird sang a triumphant song and took off, flapping hard to warm his cold wings.
"Hold on." Aurélie cast out Chantey and teleported to her fainted pokémon. The castform resembled a spec of ash on the expanse of snow, the spot where he'd lain was runny from the hot burns on his body, and the rest of the soft snow was melting too as the desert resumed its hot breathing. She looked around for fainted ground types but the snowcover disguised everything.
The mega pidgeot was preening his feathers when the girl teleported back.
He towered over the trainers at seven feet tall, his massive chest and wild crest of feathers only added to his imposing form. Aurélie studied him a second longer and finally decided this was a job for her ace, she quickly located her mouse's pokéball and cast him out.
Arçade popped out of a roll and glanced around to see the giant mega pidgeot stalking toward him, wings and beak open. The little mouse puffed out his fur into the togedemaru's signature sphere to hide his raised spikes.
"Wait, Pileus," the Sky Trainer warned but too late. Arçade spit out an Electroweb and snared the mega pidgeot's beak, pulsing shockwaves around his head. "Heat Wave!" the bird's trainer ordered, trying to focus his pokémon through the disorienting pain.
"Wings, get the wings!" Aurélie shouted, cheering as she smelled victory. The little mouse shot crackling nets at the flailing wings but the hot bursts of air batted the Electrowebs away. "Homerun!" the Fairy Tale Girl shouted, it was code for Iron Tail. Arçade rushed forward, already feeling the dry heat gusting off the bird on his sensitive nose and steel spikes.
He pivoted, twisting to bring his glowing tail on the bird's bulging breast and felt the fire lick his skin before slamming the muzzled bird with hot iron. The mega pidgeot stumbled back, burning from the branding and unable to gasp enough air around the zapping chains on his face.
"Pileus, take off, take off!" his Trainer shouted aghast, running at him and waving his hands as if to shoo him off.
"Watch it! Get out of the way!" Aurélie shouted, more rational than the Sky Trainer. Lacking enough air to take off and near fainting Pileus charged, pushing his trainer to the side and kicking the mouse as he rushed for the edge of the plateau. He tumbled off, holding his disheveled wings out to steady his landing.
If he could just get down he could Roost. The sand-laden wind wasn't friendly, it was a chore to fall through and aggravated the wound on his chest. He heard an electrical hum as he was about to land and rolled his scarlet eyes up to find a sparkling mouse barring down, spikes first. He fainted before hitting the ground.
"Dang."
"Been a while?" the girl asked, guessing he hadn't see his starter down in a long time.
"Yeah," he murmured, momentarily forgetting he could glide down on his own. Aurélie teleported to collect her togedemaru and spied his tiny form in the mess of shifting feathers. He was grooming his dry face, taking special care of his pointy nose.
She drew closer, uneasy at approaching such a large pokémon even while unconscious and flinched when crystal-clear thrilling reached her ears. She tilted her head up to follow the sound and stared in wonder.
A mega altaria was floating down from the high ledge, it was bright gold and surrounded by billowing cloud-like feathers. The young lady's mouth opened as she experienced the pokémon's beautiful soprano voice again and dream-like movements. It was like a ray of sunlight shinning through fluffy white clouds, not even the sand blowing in the wind could detract from it.
She'd always liked altaria and their outgoing pre-evolutions but dragons weren't her thing, and it hadn't been until recently that Drasna mega-evolved her altaria and broadcasted the new duality of the dragon. Aurélie hadn't payed much attention but now it was all she could think, see, and hear as if in a trance. She watched it land with a subdued Trainer on its back and decided she might need one in her life, a shiny.
The Sky Trainer quickly recalled his fainted pidgeot and smirked at her. It took the Fairy Tale Girl a few seconds to understand they would continue the battle where they were. "Arçade...ready?" The roly poly-pokémon squeaked an affirmative and began generating power in his yellow splotched cheeks with Charge.
"Uh, just a sec," the Sky Trainer said then to his mega altaria, "I'm not battling you." The humming-pokémon opened her beak and out came an icy blue laser that connected with the togedemaru. Arçade immediately retaliated with Spark before the Sky Trainer could recall the fairy dragon, frost covered his stiff fur from the Ice Beam.
Aurélie shot her mouse a loaded look, the trainer had been much to close for a move like that. Arçade twitched his nose as he scurried back to her, trying to figure out what had displeased her. "No! Moe, you can have a go," the trainer said while casting out his next pokémon.
A strange brilliantly-feathered reptile materialized on four clawed paws. Red and green scales covered his head and snake-like neck. He flapped his buff-colored, fuzzy wings, rippling the large blue feathers on his arms and hissed, revealing fangs. His long scaled tail was tufted by more blue feathers and swung behind him, readying to pounce.
Aurélie couldn't quit place his dual-typing but asked her pokémon to Charge. She noticed that like Arçade, Moe wasn't negatively affected by the flying sand. The creature sprang forward to dodge an Electroweb and turned at the last second to lash his drenched tail.
The Aqua Tail landed hard, blasting the round mouse into the air and dozens of yards away, but like a pinball Arçade bounced off rocks and boulders until he was accelerating horizontally on the skyscrapers of rock that towered over the desert.
The faint sound of crackling drew closer and the archeops struggled to use Dig, he took a glancing blow from Spark and backed out of the hole with a dripping tail instead of continuing with Dig. His trainer started to correct the mistake but instead encouraged the building Aqua Tail.
As the togedemaru came around again Moe swung his tail, but too high, and missed. His faster speed allowed him to scramble around and use Crunch as the steel-type was veering away.
One of the mouse's spikes punctured the top of Moe's maw and helped direct the next Spark into his skull, effectively fainting him. Arçade was bruised and wet but prepared for the next opponent with another Charge. Aurélie assessed his tired posture and praised his endurance and advised him, in code, to finish the next opponent as fast so he could rest.
The Sky Trainer looked annoyed and tossed out his next pokémon. It was large, brightly-colored and bird-like with two stiff wings and tail but that's where the similarities with flying-types ended. A decorated black barrel made up his torso and his three powder-blue eyes were only painted on.
Sigilyph were well known in Kalos but not exactly popular to train, the ancient protectors were scant more than automatons and referred to old magical coding if not constantly trained.
Most reverted back to their natural states and flew back to their hatching site pokéball-bound or not. Aurélie was curious to evaluate this one's training. The sigilyph channeled Cosmic Power, causing a fuchsia light to pulse over his form. He bobbed when the togedemaru slammed into him with Spark and raked the wet clay of the ground with his pointy tail before ascending once more.
Arçade was beginning to fatigue as he began a Charge again and quickly stopped as he calculated the opponent was flying out of reach. He spit out an Electroweb but Icy Wind blew the net to the side. After huffing out a breath he launched into a roll, confident he could gain enough speed to roll vertically up the rock wall and catch the flying type. "You got this, Arçade!" Aurélie cheered, thrilled at seeing her extensive training with the mouse paying off.
She hoped he read the situation right and tossed out Electroweb instead of going for a direct hit which could wait until the opponent was on the ground. Crashes to the ground, she corrected herself and taken fall damage.
She watched the trail of dust her togedemaru created as he zoomed up the plateau's rock base and measured how far the sigilyph had already flown. She frowned when she realized he was still ascending, was he deserting the battle? She opened her mouth to ask the Sky Trainer but stopped short when a faint keening reached her ears. "Oh f-"
Hyper Beam lanced out of the flying type, rearing him back in the air as the power shot out. It hit and mashed Arçade against the rock and dragged him against the jagged surface. When the power was spent the serene flying type flew down to his trainer, movements steady and mechanical.
A red glow highlighted Arçade as he fell back into range and quickly sucked him to safety. Aurélie mused silently to herself as she mentally weighed her remaining pokémon.
Chantey was out since she insisted on singing instead of battling lately. Probably time for her to take a vacation. Budélle would take too much damage from the flying sand, even with lots of healing and speed the sheer scale of the particles to her tininess were like fists to a face, and the hot wind would wilt her flowers and blow her off Grassy Terrain.
That left Balesémé and Rory, out of the two, the aromatisse could take more Hyper Beams and why put a dual-grass type against an obvious flying type? Not that the roserade couldn't handle herself, but she was more of a long-game player. With her mind made up, the Fairy Tale Girl cast her fairy.
The puffy pokémon flounced as she materialized and covered her delicate nose with a manicured claw. Her large eyes had immediately squinted against the stinging wind while the rest of her satiny hair whipped and tangled. She reluctantly reached into the psychic connection for Trick Room but was too sore and it failed. She threw a narrowed glance back at her trainer to clue her in. Meanwhile the sigilyph was covered in a vivid film as he channeled Cosmic Power again.
The blonde mentally facepalmed, she'd forgotten Balesémé's training fatigue. Oh, well. We agreed on four pokémon max, we're still in the lead. This'll be good training regardless. She felt the chill of Icy Wind and retreated a safer distance away as her pokémon used Nasty Plot. Darkness oozed from the aromatisse as the move took effect.
Suddenly a column of silver glitter shot out to meet the building brilliance from the sigilyph. Moonblast couldn't overpower the Hyper Beam, in fact the torrent of blinding light was overtaking the fairy-attack, but with considerable skill Balesémé angled the fatal stream to the ground.
The great effort of transmitting Hyper Beam weighed the flying type down, his wingbeats maintained a mechanical pace but he drooped as he moved away to stabilize. Warmed up now, the fairy tried Trick Room again and finally pushed her mind out enough to alter reality and celebrated with a puff of scent. "Ugh, cool it with the stench, it doesn't have a nose," Aurélie pleaded while holding her nostrils shut.
To the human, smelling the battling aromatisse was like sitting in front of a rotting plate of food with a fan blowing over it. The fragrance-pokémon simpered as she darted forward and easily hopped on the flying type. He spun slowly, retarded by the powerful psychic-attack and she was able to wrap her unconcealed long legs around his barrel-torso and puckered her lips for Draining Kiss. The wind tossed her flowy pink fair behind her like a long skirt, lending her a wild vestige.
As a high keening started up she pulled back with a 'smack' and generated a gleaming sphere of silver between her furry horns. Moonblast streaked into the pupil-less eyes of the sigilyph like a tangible shaft of silver. The fairy hopped off the fainted pokémon and swashed her way back to Aurélie, looking like a goddess, tangled mess of hair and all.
The Fairy Tale Girl spoke up when a flash of light revealed an aggravated bug. "Thought you said four?"
"I'm not counting the altaria," the young man responded quickly. Aurélie tossed her head back as she laughed, causing a cascade of golden locks to shimmer like precious metal. Already cheating. Balesémé was less pleased. Trick Room was ebbing away but the heavily loaded beehive-pokémon was slower, making her faster in the affected area, and she reeked.
The vespiquen was pumping out pheromones to muster the grubs in her abdomen and the stink burned the fairy's highly developed nose. Balesémé loped away when the bug lunged for her. The small company of grubs vibrated audibly in agitation but that wasn't what frightened the fairy.
The pungent, bitter smell of poisons dripping from the bug's claws and overgrown jaws did. Her mind raced as she skipped and dodged out of reach, using Nasty Plot and Moonblast until Power Gem tripped her up. The enraged clicking of the grubs chanted for her blood as razor-sharp claws slashed her back and two serrated mandibles pincered her fuzzy neck.
She shrieked in terror as the burning poisons ate at her flesh.
She thrashed in a desperate flail and raked the vespiquen's large headpiece with her horns, disturbing the ruby-red organ that dispensed pheromones. Without conscious effort she mimicked the bug's recall scent-signal and struggled out of the startled vespiquen's grasp and the biting fangs of grubs.
Fear kept her moving, blindly, as her vision was focused internally to fight the toxins spreading to her head. Her Healer Ability activated but struggled to expel the poison from her body. Then soothing red lights coaxed her into her 'happy place.'
"You're forfeiting?" the Sky Trainer asked, reaching for a pokéball.
"Oh, this isn't over." Aurélie smiled fiercely. Rory transitioned from the lasers and shook her rosy bundles like a cheerleader flicking pom-poms, but stopped short when she laid eyes on the vespiquen.
Her handful of Toxic Spikes rested around her but the roserade knew they'd be useless, she'd taken down several beehive-pokémon while fighting in a florges army. A predatory smile bloomed across her pointy face and lit her red eyes with a dangerous glint. She studied the enemy commander leisurely, evaluating the bug's hold on the larva.
"Rory, win and I'll make 'Substitute' happen," Aurélie bribed, not understanding her pokémon's lengthy pause. The bouquet-pokémon threw her head back in a cackle and blew on each rosette to shower Sleep Powder down in a tinted mist. A volley of shards struck her as the vespiquen used Power Gem, she took the blows philosophically, sneering at the bug's inadequacy. "Um, any day now...? Extrasensory?"
Rory nodded at her trainer's suggestion and went ahead with the move, causing the bug to seize, and sending her troop into a frenzy. Rory performed a pirouette and grinned at her trainer's sigh. She danced forward smoothly and snapped the barrage of Power Gems down with her whips, shrugging off the few pricks that landed. The vespiquen rallied her grubs again with Defend Order as the roserade drew closer, even enlisting larva too young to help.
When the roserade was close enough to trigger the grubs they wriggled out to attack but were instantly covered in yellow talc and put under. Extrasensory crippled the bug before she could exact revenge, the attack crushed any remaining offspring inside her abdomen to mushy pulps.
"Hivera, now!" the Sky Trainer ordered but was seconds late as Reversal had already landed. The amplified power knocked Rory back on her Toxic Spikes and when she opened her eyes saw a volley of jewel shards flying through the air in front of the avenging vespiquen.
The roserade locked burning eyes with the enraged bug and executed Venoshock even as Power Gem stabbed from above and Toxic Spikes pierced from below. She tortured the bug, repeating the attack until the vespiquen clawed at her own face in agony. Rory didn't let up the pressure, using her own pain and anger to keep the repeated attack strong each time.
The bug screeched, struggling in the sand-filled wind. She crumbled to ground and feinted from the crash damaged. "A bug losing to a grass type is - hey, thought we said four?" Aurélie spoke up when a glowing light announced a new opponent.
The roserade had already dispatched the sedated grubs unnecessarily, and now dashed at the materializing pokémon. Her glossy cape billowed behind her and her flowery bundles were held out in front like longguns.
"Dawn, Ice Beam!" The shiny altaria exhaled a freezing banner of icicles and caught the grass type mid-sprint. The attack fainted the roserade and entombed her in ice.
"Are you kidding me?!" The Fairy Tale Girl howled, oblivious to the sudden spike in the blowing wind.
"Are you kidding me?! You saw what she did!" The altaria thrilled in alarm and began to shine in rainbow colors.
"It's called winning you sore loser!" Aurélie cast out her three fairies and upended a Full Restore on her ice-encased Rory. "I will own you!" Budélle wrapped around Balesémé's neck and created a spongey, green groundcover with Grassy Terrain that began healing her team.
A bewildered Balesémé pumped up a rank, burning-flesh smell and concentrated with Nasty Plot while her energy restored. Sensing danger, Chantey inhaled endlessly, jumping in size as Rory spewed Sleep Powder from each bouquet like sparklers.
"Nope! No, I'm done," the Sky Trainer said and jumped onto the back of his bristling mega altaria. Aurélie gapped in fury, wanting to shout commands to her revved team but knowing it would be breaking the law. Neither trainer noticed the wall of sand that had sprung up across the desert.
"LOSER! Your mother raised a coward and a loser!"
"At least I'm not a cruel fairy witch!" he called back as his flying mount whisked him away. That's when they heard the singing. It wasn't distorted siren wails as they'd first assumed. Aurélie glanced at her fairies and noticed none had been facing the Sky Trainer, she glanced over her shoulder to see what they were all braced against and froze.
The Sky Trainer screamed commands at his mega altaria as a tsunami of sand cast a shadow over them. The force barred down and Aurélie began giving passive commands to her fairies; Grassy Terrain for the comfey, the scent of rain for the aromatisse, Sing for Chantey and 'wait' for Rory.
The Sky Trainer panicked as the sun was cloaked and the high-pitched ringing grew exponentially louder. The fairy group watched the ground dragons approaching, Aurélie ground her teeth, furious at having to stay and help the pathetic cheater instead of teleporting.
Suddenly a sparkling comet lanced out form the mega altaria at the incoming sandstorm. The attack aggroed the flygon pair and they shifted direction, aligning with the fairy dragon's flight. A couple of their vibrava-retinue kept their original course for the group on the ground but when they identified the fairy company standing by, they angled away to join the main charge.
Aurélie waited for the blasts of sand from their flight to roll by before barking out a laugh, but she broke off when the Sky Trainer got tossed around by Dragon Claw and swallowed up by the sandstorm. "Ugh. Chantey!"
She teleported to the top of the plateau, ready to cast her contingent of fairies and watched Ice Beam after Ice Beam sparkling in the sand tornadoes until the ground dragons reached the end of their territory and turned around. The mega altaria danced in the sky, powering up in case they turned around. Her trainer whooped in victory, and as one, they flew high into the sky. Idiot. Aurélie thought, furious all over again.
She ended up going to the midsummer party.
It was just past Baa de Mer Ranch on Route 12 and she was late, thankfully there were trainers still coming in or back from drink-runs. The off-duty Fairy Tale Girl watched a trainer gliding across the channel from Shalour City on a garchomp and another swooping in on a swanna. There were people everywhere, lounging, dancing, battling, and sitting by the huge bonfire.
Aurélie slipped off her shoes and walked on the soft sand to the gaggle of Furisode and Fairy Tale Girls. They had a spectacular buffet spread across several tables, it was more stuff than several party's worth of supplies and the Mr. Mime had also conjured chaise lounges, settees, divans, and ornate lamps. The comforts were almost exclusive to the two clubs because to partake of the food and finery one had to believe in the pantomime's mysterious power.
"You made it!" the honeyed brunette said when she saw Aurélie. Jolie's delcatty slipped off the furnishing to lay at her trainer's feet. The Fairy Tale Girl's minun twinkled in her lap, her whimsicott perched on her shoulder, and her cherished jumpluff and carbink drifted above her head with other flighted pokémon.
"Yeah, thought I'd drop by."
"Oh, there's Macy too. You guys just had to be fashionably late." Jolie giggled good-naturedly. The golden blonde sat in the vacant seat and reached down to pet the delcatty while watching the perfectly gussied-up, platinum blonde flying in on her togekiss.
Aurélie sighed and surveyed people outside the conjured lights. She saw a semisear popping burnt marshmallows into her mouth while roasting several others on multiple sticks. A delphox sat staring into the dancing flames, ignoring a joke and a playful elbow-jab from his laughing trainer.
A furfrou's white coat shined brightly in the darkness by her reclining trainer's side and battles lit areas further away. Aurélie found herself scanning the crowd for Dragon Tamers, one dusky Tamer in particular, but Jolie distracted her. "So, have you decided what to do after graduation?"
"...Nah," Aurélie lied, she wasn't about to risk anyone knowing her plans and it getting back to her parents. "Have you?"
"Well, yeah! I didn't get the Wanderer scholarship from Orre but they offered me the Arena Leader, so I'm taking it." Hearing a region outside the League piqued Aurélie's interest.
"That's far!" she said and Jolie grinned, enthused.
"Macy's traveling too! She just got hired at the Backpackers," Jolie supplied.
"Oh...great." They talked a bit more and listened to the usual complaints about overtime from the Fairy Tale Girls and strictness from the Furisodes, until glossy scales caught Aurélie's attention. She declined some hot coco and squinted to better make out what she was looking at.
Someone hissed as the scalding treat burned their tongue, their belief in the Mr. Mime's powers so entrenched that they couldn't simply disassociate from the illusion. The Fairy Tale Girl decided to get a better look at the shiny monster slithering on the shoreline.
She left the fairylights to walk along the water's edge where some trainers were frolicking, as she got closer the colossal mass took the shape of a seviper and mounted on its back was a Punk Girl.
In the water a primarina's lithesome form surfaced to spray water at a poliwrath, and sitting on the large tadpole-pokémon was a familiar Battle Girl. Aurélie's eyes narrowed as she identified the long blue hair, annoying voice, and toned figure of that Battle Girl.
She didn't question how she could be so sure but slowed her walk to search the bodies for Maël. On her second 'casual' stroll down the beach she finally heard his laugh and traced the sound to a brilliant floating smile. She grinned as she realized he was so dark that only the whiteness of his teeth and eyeballs showed in the darkness.
It appeared he was racing another Tamer who was straddling an ethereal-like milotic. Aurélie watched but couldn't follow them all the way out across the channel. Why swim out into deep water at night? she asked herself. She didn't fly or surf on purpose - teleporting was way more efficient and less dangerous.
It wasn't until much later that the Dragon Tamers brought it in to fuel up. Aurélie beat them to the bonfire and busied herself cooking a hotdog. "Thanks Maël, if it wasn't for your sacrifice we wouldn't know how slow dragalge are," someone said to the mirth of several people.
"Read a book, everyone knows that. They're ambush predators and don't need to be fast," Maël's husky voice rang out. Aurélie watched him with peripheral vison and couldn't help being thrilled at his shirtless appearance.
His black hair was plastered to his face and neck, not slicked back or finger combed like some of the others and his prominent eyeteeth caught on his full bottom lip when he spoke. She remembered their brief conversation in Santalune City and snickered. When she refocused her 'side vision' he was staring at her, even as his tall and beautiful girlfriend laughed at his side.
She watched him get up and walk around the large bonfire headed right for her. "Aurélie?"
"Fairy boy?" she asked without looking up, making a show of turning her hotdog to get an even burn.
He chuckled. "Last I checked I was a man."
"Maybe someone else should check." Aurélie snorted but quickly averted her eyes at the way that sounded. She could feel the difference in the silence and stared at her roasting food.
Maël's black brows were perched high on his forehead as the implication danced through his mind. "Torment any trainers lately?" he finally joked.
"Oh, so you've heard," she replied with forced ease, enjoying his attempt at repartee.
"I have a question for you."
"Me first," she blurted preemptively, quaking at the thought of him expanding on her awkward comment.
"Okay," he acquiesced.
"Why can't I turn around without tripping on you?" she glanced up and watched his lips curve into a knowing smile. The bonfire reflected in his smoldering eyes and made her think of dragons.
"I could ask you the same thing."
"Is that your question?" she taunted and made herself look away from his rakishly handsome face.
"No. I wanted to ask what fairy you had in mind for me before I got Dragonslayer."
"An impidimp," she lied and flicked her eyes up to catch his expression.
He was taken aback for a second. "Seriously?"
"Yeah, so you could hold your own against your girlfriend, even against an unbelted machamp." She made sure to enunciate 'girlfriend,' hinting that if he wanted to act on the interest, he'd tie-up loose ends.
He looked across the fire and found his girlfriend's blue eyes watching, he waved halfheartedly and looked back at the Fairy Tale Girl. She was watching him too from under her lashes, but even hooded he could see her tawny eyes glowing like candles.
"How's the fairy training going?" she asked to keep the conversation going, something she usually didn't worry about.
Maël made a face. "No one is exactly motivated..."
"Well, with that intel I can raise the stakes on the next duel."
"How do you walk around with such a big ego?" he joked, trying to match her banter.
"Easily with how often I exercise it." Aurélie smiled. "I've caught it flexing on its own, soon I'll just be a host," she added to draw a laugh out of him. Her quick wit fascinated him, like a moth to flame and he wished he knew why. He had a perfect girl waiting for him but couldn't get this prickly one out of his thoughts.
"I'll see you around," he finally said after a long moment of staring into each other's eyes.
"Stalker," she mocked, struggling to inject enough volume in her voice for sarcasm. The accompanying laugh was breathy, irritating her. Aurélie was tempted to watch him walk away, watch his well-developed back muscles, watch him go around the bonfire to his group, just to watch him.
Instead she offered her blistered hotdog to a nearby braixen who promptly flipped it over to nibble on the stick. She walked back to the fairy group, watching the ledian glitter in the night sky, and wondered what Maël wanted to do with his life.
Teaser for next chapter: (there's time to add a certain fairy/dragon if anyone wants to see a specific one, this is probably last chapter.)
The high cliffs of Route 8 offered panoramic vistas of the Muraille Coast. The sheer vastness of the ocean and sky stretched to a thin line far off on the horizon. There was a haze of cloud cover making for a spectacular view, seeming as if the sky was right over their heads. It buffered the sun, reducing it to a fuzzy bright spot in the sky. They couldn't have chosen a better day for the rematch.
The Fairy Tale Girls watched the calm ocean as they waited for the Dragon Tamers to arrive. An occasional leftover giggle would send them all into another round of laughter. They had a surprise for the Tamers.
They expected the Dragon Tamers to come flying in from Ambrette Town or up from Cyllage City, but instead heard familiar muted snarls echoing out of the tunnel behind them. Two glowing embers blinked into existence at the dark mouth of the cave before vicious growling announced the dark dragon.
Cobalt fur suddenly framed the lucent eyes as a face pushed out from the shadows, curling its muzzle at the soft sunlight. "Go on, Rath," a throaty voice carried the words far past the cave. The Fairy Tale Girls were facing the mountainside now, watching as the hydreigon balked.
A claret mane followed the snaking head as the dragon acquiesced to the command, her inky pelt detached from the darkness to show matte-black in the sunlight. Two furred heads flanked the dragon's sides as she walked upright on two bushy feet. Six, unshorn wings were curved down and held away like a barrier around her.
An ebony-skinned Tamer sat on her back in the brilliant white regalia that was his uniform. His large smile matched the finery of his garments as he flashed it right before a banner of fire shot out behind the girls.
Startled, they swirled around in time to see a charizard sail vertically past the precipice, displaying gleaming sorrel and flaxen scales and the teal inner webbing of his taut wings. Expertly mounted was another familiar face, the rosy-cheeked, blond Tamer dressed in black raiment. He laughed at their surprised faces as his charizard touched down on the rock ledge and hoisted its canvas wings high to properly scrunch them closed.
"I'm on my lunch break," he said by way of greeting, and appraised the hydreigon's low contact call to his pokémon.
"Save the excuses for when you lose," Aurélie suggested, skirting around her coworkers for a better look at the hydreigon's rider. Maël pressed his lips together to hide his amusement.
"Ha," the blond said sarcastically, looking up at the peaks of the mountain range. "Where-" a tell-tell swishing made him pause, "late as usual." A mass of aquamarine scales and lean muscle dropped through the haze of clouds straight onto rock. The rigid, crimson wings of the salamence wobbled from the impact.
"Not late! I'm not late." The raven-haired Tamer held his hands up to display his transparency. He was decked out in red and violet, his cape secured with pale clasps to match the pearlescent ivory of his dragon's claws, fangs, and underscales.
"Whatever, let's do this," the blond said, sliding off the charizard.
"How did we decide on a Monday?" Maël mused aloud, throwing one leg off hydreigon to slide between the wings. After a quick pat he dismissed her into the preferred darkness of her pokéball.
"Um, loser has to trade their fairy back," a honeyed brunette blurted.
"Dibs on first!" the salamence's trainer said, overriding the grumbling from the blond who was already striding forward, pokéball in hand.
He casted his fairy and folded his arms to patiently wait as it drifted around his face for the customary greeting. The spritzee let off tiny puffs of minty freshness, mimicking the gum he liked to chew. The Fairy Tale Girl tossed out her pokémon and all three Dragon Tamers pulled faces.
Maël's brows quirked, the blond's eyes narrowed, and the dark brunet scoffed before muttering, "Cheating little..."
"How's it cheating? You should know exactly how to win and I'm clearly disadvantaged." Jolie gestured between them, her horsea floated in the cone of water funneling from the pokéball. He blew a bubble in the cutest version of a challenge.
"Fierce," the Dragon Tamer automatically relented, unable to withhold credit where it was due. He petted his kingdra's pokéball on his belt and frowned. "Fine, loser gives up their pokémon."
"Sure. Smokescreen!"
"Fairywind," the Tamer said, surprising himself at remembering the attacks, he hadn't trained with the spritzee much. The gentle stir of wind betrayed the harshness of the attack, the glitter-like sparkling was actually sharp as needle tips.
Fairywind blew Smokescreen over the cliff, exposing the horsea. He uncurled his tail to propel away, covering his retreat with water bullets. Thankfully the tangible fairy attack intercepted Water Gun and threw off the aim.
Jolie asked him to counter with Twister, and the Dragon Tamers were visibly impressed the young dragonkin had learned the attack. A stiff squall rotated a column of air, spinning Fairywind and the thin, overhead haze into a whirlwind that chased the spritzee until finally trapping it. The vortex tossed and tore the fairy as it bashed him off the circulating walls of air.
"Uh Sweet Scent, no! Aromatherapy!" the Tamer shouted to be heard over the whooshing wind. The twister was only six feet tall and churning in place, but to the tiny fairy it was a life-size tornado. Seconds later the miniature cyclone was a twirling healing cell, smelling of pollen.
"Smokescreen, Water Gun!" As the twister slowed down, the horsea began pumping out dusty particles from his watery cell that lingered heavily on the breezeless day and obscured him. He fired off bullets while slowly moving in the soot, trying to keep his position hidden.
He couldn't aim through the thick cover but shot as best he could. One water bullet bounced off the charizard's muscled forearm, it grumbled much like its trainer and moved off to the cave entrance.
The fairy was tousled. His soft fur had tangled madly in the winds and his sensitive nose was still bleeding slightly from being smashed, but he valiantly exhaled a Sweet Scent to draw the opponent into view. The pleasant smell was like a dinner bell, luring the horsea out of Smokescreen despite his misgivings. The watery tail of the sphere he swam in stretched effortlessly to accommodate the distance. "Water Gun!"
"Fairy Wind!"
All it took was one bullet to actually land and the spritzee fainted, slowly sinking through the air like a listless leaf, to be caught by the Dragon Tamer's cupped hands. "Good battle," Jolie said, tossing a treat into the watery cylinder hosting her pokémon.
"I guess. I didn't really train," the black-haired trainer said.
"Okay...?" She wondered at the need to diminish her victory. The Dragon Tamer dismissed the spritzee and pulled out his trading cable, they went off to the side to make the transfer. The blond Tamer stepped up, aggrieved by the whole situation. Macy finally stepped up when it became clear Aurélie was too busy pretending not to ogle Maël. The platinum blonde quickly summoned her pokémon and smirked at the reactions.
"Seriously?" Maël asked, quickly evaluating the dragon whelp.
"Oh, of course!" the charizard's trainer exclaimed, growing sulkier.
"Now is it cheating?" the black-haired Tamer challenged with an arched brow.
A jangmo-o clinked metallic scales as he strutted around. His slitted, red eyes flickered from one face to the next on alert for attacks. The blond's face was twisted with silent rage as he carelessly tossed out his pokémon, already having decided it was a lost cause. The plump ball that bounced out kept jiggling after landing, then rolled directly off the cliff.
"What?!" the blond Tamer quickly recalled her to the safety of the pokéball.
"Come on, man..." Maël chided.
"It's her!" the trainer accused furiously, summoning the igglybuff again. "Charm!"
"Tackle!" The dragon's chainmail-like scales jingled madly as he galloped to execute. The golden, flat horn on his head slammed the vibrating ball-of-a-fairy with the force of a battering ram, but the softness of her body absorbed the blow. She volunteered a kiss before her trainer could command it and the whelp froze, completely entranced.
"Bide! Steady now," Macy coached. The jangmo-o hunkered down, even as his head swiveled and eyes rolled in confusion. The igglybuff sucked in a huge breath, puffing her cheeks out, and attempted a song despite her trainer calling for Flamethrower.
Their bond wasn't strong enough for her to feel obliged, so she squeaked the melody to a tune she'd been tinkering with, but her underdeveloped vocal cords dropped the pitch and ruined the drowsy effect she wanted.
"Flamethrower, come on!"
"Hold!" Macy called, reinforcing her expectations to the dragon. The fairy huffed a frustrated breath and a wisp of flame uncoiled in the air, then grew into a proper flamethrower until it reached the steel type. "Now! Hit!"
With a chime of metallic ringing, the little dragon unleashed the stored energy, amplified by the super-effective damage taken. The beatings didn't seem to hurt the fairy much, instead it bounced her off the cliff, and in all the dust and action it wasn't immediately noticed.
Or at least it wouldn't have been if the flashy whelp hadn't skipped to the edge with delighted mewling and clicking.
The black-haired Dragon Tamer sprinted to the edge and dived off, his salamence slammed his broad wings down to rise straight up, disappearing into the misty cloud layer only to appear as a flash of color bulleting past the ledge.
The fairy's trainer shouted in frustration and ran toward a charging charizard. The large pokémon rushed from the cave, unfurling its massive veiny wings, gusting uncomfortably hot air over everyone. There was no way he'd beat Samuel and his salamence but he had to try, it was his stupid pokémon.
All of the fairy specialist had burst into action too, casting for their flying mounts or hopping on the ones already out.
Macy had jumped on her togekiss before it finished transitioning from the first dimension, and as its velvety wings materialized her arms seemed to disappear into the fluff. It gave the breathtaking, winged-illusion that all Furisode Girl dreamed of achieving with their wide-sleeved kimonos.
Jolie's jumpluff had immediately accompanied the balloon-pokémon's fall, ready to save her if she didn't learn to drift on her own.
Aurélie and the two other Fairy Tale Girls simply teleported to the beach below as their pokémon solidified from the lasers. Aurélie on her wigglytuff, a strawberry blonde girl with her chansey, and a bottle-blonde with her mimikyu in hand.
Maël hurried to the edge to watch everyone weave around each other. He had no doubts Samuel or Aurélie would save the little fairy.