Chapter Twenty Eight – St. Elmo's Fire
"Good afternoon, good afternoon, good afternoon! And welcome to Bywater Amphitheatre, this is Hassan Ali for Metro FM here with live coverage of the Tigerlily Tourney final: Evelina Joy and Melissa Evans versus Georgia Lovelace and Laura Winters. It's a great atmosphere here today -"
Anticipation hung so thick you could have squeezed it from the air. Another crowd of ten thousand packed the stands, a sea of white t-shirts splashed with bright tigerlilies in the midst of which flags were fluttered and banners brandished. Over two thirds of them were in support of Lovelace and Winters, most of the rest in support of Eve. A few lonely banners declared for Melissa.
"- haven't seen crowds like this since 2009 – a League Champion is always a good draw, but there's a lot of buzz around Lovelace and Winters. You've got to admire their cheer squad, they've even managed to get them singing a Unovan anthem …"
The squad was down at the foot of the stands, making sure they were at the centre of attention. Their uniforms – of the short-shorts variety, crisp white trimmed with metallic gold – did a lot to ensure that. Most of the squad were leading the crowd in a shaky rendition of 'O, Unova Fair'. A couple of cheerleaders supported a huge, beautifully embroidered standard proclaiming LOVELACE WINTERS INVICTA.
"- the judicial team led by Janet Averill, a regular Goldenrod Gym referee, assistant referees Susie Taswell and Sì Qìshuĭ Yú – and here come the trainers!"
They emerged from the trainer's tunnels to a swell of crowd noise, egged on by frolicking cheerleaders, their captain in her reversed colour uniform flashing like Central Goldenrod at midnight. For once Eve was not the most exuberant girl on the field.
"There's a real spring in Joy's step, and who can blame her, 'cause over four battles she's proven Gym Badges are not everything."
Winters was almost the least exuberant girl on the field. Unlike her ever-buoyant partner she was composed and thoroughly focused.
"Laura Winters giving the crowd a quick bow, nice bit of courtesy there, from the Tigerlily favourite with two clean sweeps from the Heats and a spectacular Quarter Finals victory. Last we have Melissa Evans … too shy to interview, according to Joy. Has to be said, she does tend to fade into the background."
Melissa Evans was trying to fade into the background as the least exuberant girl on the field. Well, least exuberant apparent girl. Before the Quarter Finals battle the mood in the Amphitheatre had felt like an imminent thunderstorm. It felt like that again. It was the same feeling of pressure, that sultry sense of anticipation trying to discharge and earth itself. Thunderstorm anticipation: a mood that matched his black mood. It wasn't just the tight jeans, the make-up, the tits – although he could hardly wait to see the last of those. That psychic migraine had given him deeply unsettling dreams last night. The details were mercifully blurry, but he'd woken that morning to slowly fading visions of a persistent golden-haired girl with a predatory glint in her eye.
He stealthily observed the sparkling cheerleaders gambolling around the sidelines with much the same kind of I-can-do-this-all-day excitement you usually see in growlithe pups. Ordinarily he'd find the naked legs and midriffs bouncing around in his peripheral vision annoying, but at least they'd be keeping the attention off him.
It didn't seem to be working on Winters. Maybe it was anxiety talking, but he didn't like the cool look on her face. Does she suspect I'm not Melissa? He watched her carefully from beneath the brim of his hat. She was a very dark girl, so dark she was almost literally black. She was dressed with a kind of stark dignity that drew the eye in a way that was almost intimidating. Like a Gym Leader. Gold seemed to be something of a team colour – gold beads decorated her impressive cascade of satin black braids.
"Like sexy puppies, aren't they?" Eve commented, sizing up the cheer squad resentfully.
"Sex doesn't win battles," Josh murmured. He was calming his breathing down, tuning out the cheerleaders. The crowd. LOVELACE WINTERS INVICTA.
A loud clank and a shudder announced the field change. He focused on analysing the new field as it rumbled into place. It was the Grass field. Most of the field was open greensward peppered with wasteland wildflowers. Eve's side of the field was planted with a spinney of long-suffering railway poplars, bordered with a thicket of foaming white sweet cicely. The spinney was mirrored on the opposite side in front of Lovelace.
Too much damn grass. That sweet cicely might get him Giga Drain from Nature Power. Not useful. Josh snuffed the air a couple of times. Mud and wet grass. They must have watered the field this morning. They're too clever to fall for a surprise Nature Power anyway.
"With your permission! Lady Champion!" Referee Averill yelled. "Welcome to the annual Tigerlily Tourney Finals! Battling this year: Melissa Evans from Marion Town! Evelina Joy from Cherrygrove City! Versus: Georgia Lovelace from Mistralton City, and Laura Winters from Icirrus City!"
Elgyem. Krokorok. Eelektross. Cinccino. Pawniard. Seismitoad. Galvantula. Heatmor. He mentally chanted the names of their pokémon almost like an incantation.
"Trainers! Ready your pokémon!"
Josh was leading with Screwball. Eve was selecting Bailey.
"And – begin!"
"Bailey, you have the honour!" Eve yelled.
"Krokorok, to battle!" Lovelace replied. Winters said nothing, and released her galvantula.
"Bailey, Pin Missile!" Eve ordered, breaking with the plan but seizing the initiative.
Rubbish type match-up. Charge Beam was effectively useless, Magnet Bomb not much better. Withdrawing takes time – withdrawing's too obvious -
Krokorok dextrously scuttled away from the Pin Missile impacts on all fours.
If you can't attack a pokémon, you pull out its teeth. Eerie Impulse.
"Thunderbolt: Forretress," Winters called in a voice as sharp and strong as the strike of an iron bell. She wasn't watching her galvantula: she was watching his hands. Trying to figure out a coded signal from two hundred feet away, audacious.
"Spikes, Eve …" Josh prompted – she was supposed to be salting the field. Eerie Impulse, he signalled.
"Yes, yes, I know. Toxic Spikes!"
"Dig, Krokorok, and get the magnemite!"
Krokorok plunged smoothly beneath the field in a squall of mud and torn grass. Josh could feel Winters' eyes on him, waiting for an expected counter. She was left disappointed because he didn't intend to counter, while Toxic Spikes fell like a hailstorm. He was concentrating on the vibrations rumbling up through his boot soles.
"Spider Web: Forretress," Winters reluctantly commanded. Galvantula shot a six-foot wide web up at Bailey, Toxic Spikes bouncing and tumbling off the silken threads. Bailey was never going to be fast enough to escape the translucent trap. A classic simple, brutal Winters tactic: trap Bailey, paving the way for Lovelace to release Heatmor for a swift and decisive KO.
The vibrations stopped. "Screwball, return."
Krokorok surfaced, clawing madly at the air and grabbing pointlessly at red light where a magnemite should have been.
"Ohh, you got lucky, lady!" Lovelace taunted.
Lucky, nothing, Josh thought. Most digging pokémon pause to aim. And you repeatedly used Dig in the Quarter Finals.
He released Fionn on the basis that she at least couldn't be trapped by Spider Web. The Toxic Spikes kept hailing down.
Galvantula stalked into the cover of the trees, its abdomen crawling with electricity. It spat a Thunderbolt arc at Bailey, shocking her enough to stop throwing out Spikes and drop her into the grass. Fionn was bright enough to have phased away as soon as she materialised, while Krokorok roared in frustration, flexing and clenching his claws.
"Drop a Pin Missile down his throat!"
Bailey stitched a line of yellow-green explosions across the turf – when the fire cleared Krokorok was gone, escaped underground.
"Will o' Wisp. Have fun with it," Josh said. A little giggle pealed out from wherever Fionn was hiding. Krokorok tunnelled back up into the middle of the field and came practically nose-to-snout with her cherubic smile.
"Mis-dreavus!" she yelled, which probably meant something like 'Oi, knobhead!' He obligingly fell for the bait, lunged, teeth flashing – face first into a rolling cloud of Will o' Wisp. Oh Fionn, my sweet silly girl. Never change. A burned krokorok might as well be a toothless krok. Lovelace was smart enough to know that.
Josh gently prodded Eve in the midriff. "I think we can use their trap. Wait till Lovelace releases Heatmor, then Self-Destruct."
Eve glanced at Fionn, and smiled. Lovelace reached for a Poké Ball – here kitty, kitty – then Winters put out a hand and stopped her. Oh no.
"Roar, Krokorok!"
"Bollocks!" Eve said with false cheerfulness as Fionn and Bailey were swept back into their Poké Balls. "So close that time."
"It was naïve to think that trick would work," Josh reluctantly admitted. Screwball and Lyra materialised in their place.
"Never know. Let's do Havoc."
Winters thought fastest. "Electroweb!"
She was recalling Galvantula almost as soon as the Electroweb was in the air and trying to grab Lyra. Lyra hurriedly backed out of its reach - it hissed down empty and sparking into the grass.
Winters heaved an Ultra Ball at the middle of the field. It cracked open a foot off the grass, spilling out a large, muscular, serpentiform pokémon, flanks glistening with fish slime. It squirmed and wriggled into the air, trailing a pair of ropey, tentacular arms with an antic, abyssal grace. Its blunt head terminated in a perpetually gaping mouth fringed with gleaming fangs.
Josh didn't need a Pokédex to tell him what it was. Eelektross. Notholampetra amphibia. Winters' ace. He'd studied it more intensely than any other pokémon these past few days – cramming in everything he could find that looked relevant, and a lot of what probably wasn't. Most of it just told him how dangerous it was. Winters was going right for the jugular.
Alright, alright, calm down. This is how Winters confuses her opponents. Don't be intimidated. Debilitate and destroy.
"Pft. Light Screen," Eve commanded, undaunted. Lovelace did nothing, holding back while the Light Screen locked into place and her krokorok growled impatiently.
Debilitate. He signalled a Metal Sound to Screwball. The discordant screech rasped across the field, cheerleaders protesting and clutching their ears.
Eve giggled evilly at the sight. "The honour is yours, Lyra! Fly high girl!"
Lyra eagerly swept up to treetop height, the downblast of her ascent flattening a crop circle in the grass.
"Air Cutter right!" Lyra landed a hit on Krokorok's tail, snipping off a scute.
"Air Cutter left!" She was far too fast for Eelektross, slicing at its neck. It didn't even seem to notice, undulating through the air with a sticky rivulet of blood oozing from the wound while Krokorok angrily roared and thrashed. There was a clatter of applause, some yells of 'Cherrygrove!', Lovelace shrieking at Krokorok to get it the hell together. Winters only watched Lyra coldly. Josh suddenly realised why, St Elmo's Fire was glowing in the trees, so Eelektross was going to use -
"Lyra Protect!"
Thunderbolt slashed out at Lyra, white hot and brutally bright. Lyra's Protect flared just in time, her Light Screen smashed into a shower of molten globules falling like a hot rain. He could almost feel the heat of it, blinked away the after-images as secondary Thunderbolts crackled. One speared right through Screwball, sending up a fountain of half-molten Light Screen flakes; another earthed itself on a tree, tracing a line of fire from crown to root and blowing its bark into shrapnel.
"Boom! Better watch out!" the cheer squad chorused.
"Bitches," Eve muttered. "Lyra, flatten that fat lizard!"
"Stop her," Winters commanded. Eelektross discharged a staccato lightning volley at Lyra forcing her to pull up short before she was burned from the air, stray bolts frantically groping for Screwball. I wonder if a Sonic Boom might -
"Ree-buffed!"
Josh screwed his eyes shut in frustration, trying to tune that out so he could think. Debilitate and destroy would only work if Screwball was tougher than Thunderbolt …
"Get underground!" Lovelace yelled. "Go, go!"
Have it your way, Josh thought, reaching for the Poké Ball. The vibrations were pretty strong, considering his size. Vigorous little devil.
Lovelace tossed her hair contemptuously. "Earth Power!"
Earth Power detonated in a series of flat thumps, Light Screen flashing as it shielded Screwball from the blasts. A relatively weak Special attack delivered with poor accuracy, but that wasn't the point. The rumble of the Earth Power was masking the vibrations of Krokorok's tunnelling. Damn, that hinny learns fast!
"Hey, Evans, better watch out!"
Bloody well shut up! What's that eelektross going to try next -
[A coil to eliminate!] Screwball said urgently. It blazed a stream of Magnet Bombs at the ground in a desperate effort to smoke out the hidden krokorok. Lyra sliced at Eelektross with another Air Cutter.
In a sudden torrent of movement Krokorok burst snarling from the earth, snatching Screwball out of the air. Teeth ground against metal as he struggled to crush it between his jaws. There was a flash of blue and Krokorok roared with pain and rage – Screwball had blasted a Magnet Bomb into his eye. Screwball was rising up out of his reach, reloading -
"Dragon Pulse: Magnemite!"
A raging jet of dragonfire engulfed Screwball, the indigo flame razing the grass behind it down to the bare earth. The tips of its magnets appeared and disappeared like flailing arms. A moment later it dropped out of the fire, front hemisphere scorched dark brown. Inevitably, Assistant Referee Taswell swept an arm into the air to an inevitable swell of cheers and applause.
"Magnemite is unable to battle!" Referee Averill declared.
"Invicta!" the cheer squad yelled, accompanying that with a peal of claps. "Invicta!"
Their supporters caught on quickly. "Invicta! Invicta! Invicta!"
"We'll see about that. 'Invicta', my sweet arse," Eve said fiercely.
That was my fault. He'd let himself get overwhelmed, and left Screwball to strategise for himself. Unacceptable.
"Eve. Try bringing Bailey back in. I'm going with Ivysaur."
"What about Heatmor?"
"Got to face it sometime," Josh said. Winters was watching him again. She couldn't possibly see through Melissa, Josh unconvincingly reminded himself. She wants to win as well, there's no damn headspace for anything else.
"True," Eve replied. "Ok, let's do it! Umm, Checkmate."
"Invicta! Invicta!"
With a sharp twinge regret Josh dropped Screwball's Poké Ball into a pocket. "Ivysaur, battle's on."
[Indomitable as, eh Josh,] he croaked, eyeing Eelektross coiling slowly above him.
"Begin!"
Eve immediately recalled Lyra. "Bailey, you have the honour, but sit tight!"
Sleep Powder: Eelektross, Josh signed.
[Got it.]
Ivysaur had only just started his run when Winters unexpectedly recalled Eelektross. "Elgyem," she commanded. "This one is yours."
Elgyem. The psychic wall. From this distance he looked like not much more than a blue-grey egg. So much for Safeguard – he'd been released into a field full of Toxic Spikes. Winters had doomed her own wall. Her first mistake.
Krokorok took cover underground. Josh could still feel the digging in his boots, though that wasn't of much use now. There was a glint of gold and flash of naked midriff in his peripheral vision. "Invicta! Invicta!"
On second thoughts, that is annoying.
"You're not having it all your own way, Winters!" Eve yelled. "Bailey, Pin Missile!"
Alright, focus. Ruthless trainers focus on what's relevant … Eye, eye. That spinney of poplars in front of Lovelace, they were mature trees, not saplings. Under Winters' cold gaze he motioned Ivysaur into the cover of the trees. Take Down: Krokorok, he signed.
Elgyem mysteriously changed position in a flurry of Teleports. Ivysaur switched his attention to the ground, backing off a few paces. Hissing in frustration Krokorok wriggled to the surface, struggling frantically to free himself from the wet earth and sink his teeth into Ivysaur at the same time. Almost as if he's trying to contort round a tangle of unshiftable tree roots. Ivysaur hesitated in the face of that raw ferocity gleefully encouraged by Lovelace. A Psybeam from Elgyem cremated the leaf litter right in front of his face; he barked in alarm, took one look at Krokorok clawing his way out and snapped a Vine Whip tight around his jaws. Another Vine Whip pinned his arms to his sides.
"Invicta!" Eve cheered mockingly.
Ivysaur remorselessly dragged the flailing, reluctant Krokorok from the earth. He repeatedly smashed him into the ground, Lovelace's fans groaning in time with each impact. Eve shouted a warning – Ivysaur used his captive as a living shield against Elygem's Psybeam. Krokorok stubbornly kept struggling, his flailing becoming noticeably weaker.
[On your command,] Ivysaur said grimly.
"Do it," Josh confirmed.
Ivysaur turned and hurled Krokorok into the burliest tree he could see. He hit it spine-first, glanced off violently and went careening into the sweet cicley. He defiantly, painfully tried to flail back to his feet, cracking cicely stems like straws.
"Krokorok is unable to battle!" Averill declared.
"What?" Lovelace yelled disbelievingly. "Goddamnit!"
That first Psybeam. There was something suspicious about it. If Ivysaur hadn't hesitated it would have hit him square in the flank. He hadn't heard Winters give the order … did she know?
The cheer captain had started a shouting match with Referee Averill. The word 'bitch' was coming up a lot. Winters' cold attention was back on him again. He tried to twitch his hair closer round his face. Stop. Staring at me!
"I've made my judgement, now get back to the sideline or get off my field!" Averill bellowed. The girl did as she was told with an air of teenage haughtiness.
"Evening the score, huh? Not for fucking long," Lovelace said, curtly waving at the cheerleaders.
"Ace, ace, ace!" they started to chant. The fans were expecting this one. "Ace, ace, ace!"
"Is that supposed to be intimidating?" Eve said dismissively.
Lovelace expanded a Luxury Ball, apparently basking in the support. "Ace, ace, ace!"
"This has gone on long enough!" she announced. "You're the start of the end! Heatmor!"
"Let's hope so," Eve parried. "Time to stall it out."
"Are you sure about Bailey?" Josh asked. They were on opposite sides of the field, but -
"Spikes!" Eve commanded. "Offend to defend, sweetling."
Defensively, Growth and advance, Josh signed.
"Cosmic Power!" Winters ordered. "Attention left."
Josh ignored Elgyem sparkling with points of cold white light – Elgyem was poisoned anyway – instead deciding what to do about Lovelace's heatmor. He was a brawny, shaggy-furred pokémon, looking deceptively dopey as he peered myopically through the hailing Spikes. Black smoke drooled from his tail, his wrist vents glowed dully like a dying coal.
He didn't like the sound of 'Attention left'. Leech Seed: Heatmor.
Ivysaur nodded laconically and loped off through the wood, using the trees and the cicely thicket to hide his outline from Heatmor's poor eyesight. He stopped ambiguously a few yards from Heatmor, in his element, green scales masked by the green and white cicely.
"Heatmor, Fire Lash!" Lovelace interrupted. Heatmor's tongue whipped through the cicely like a rapier, a pencil-thin flicker that incinerated everything in its path. The wildflowers went up like torches. Ivysaur tried to flank him – Heatmor stabbed Fire Lash at him in quick pulses of fire that carved a chain of deep burns across his face and neck.
"Aaaaah, sweet!" the cheerleaders chorused.
"Enough, enough!" Josh yelled. Damn, damn, did that sound masculine? Ivysaur was howling and screaming in pain, cicely umbels were crumbling to ash. She knew! She bloody well knew, the brassy little besom! There were any number of things Ivysaur might reasonably have done, and she chose exactly the right move to counter it. If Ivysaur were reckless by nature that probably would have been a KO.
How … His eyes alighted on the culprit. Winters. She'd cracked his battle code.
Clever, patient, observant, icicle of a woman! She must have learnt it by heart from observing his battles – and then waited for the right moment to use it, because she knew he'd riddle it out.
No more signed - "Ow!"
"Focus, sweetling, or it's a dead arm for you," Eve said. "Be my anvil."
"Ow. Er. Calculating, ruthless," he said. "Ivysaur -"
[Dun werrit, I'm not done yet,] he defiantly replied.
"Alright … alors. Beaucoup de Vampigraine." Neither of them would be expecting him to try the same thing again. Ivysaur sent a spray of Leech Seeds over the burning cicely, four or five of them binding to Heatmor. He didn't seem to care, simply playing his fiery tongue across his body. The Seed tendrils blackened at its touch and flashed into flame.
Oh, that's elegant, Josh bitterly acknowledged.
"Elgyem, Guard Cycle," Winters ordered.
"Wait, wait," Josh murmured before Eve could say anything. "Scan that."
"Cosmic Power, a Psychic-type move. Cosmic Power raises the user's – Guard Swap, a Psychic-type move. Guard Swap switches the user's Defence and Special Defence changes with the target."
"Who cares, he's still poisoned," Eve seemed to deliberately raise her voice. "Bailey, get ready for Take Down!"
"Good, Heatmor, Return!"
What?
"Leavanny, to battle!" Lovelace called.
"… that's new," Eve said. The slender bug stood delicately in the tall grass, almost like it was mocking their surprise. Evidently Cinccino wasn't Lovelace's only joker. Its leafy clothing was sewn from waxy sycamore leaves – sycamore on poplar. So much for camouflage. Josh still didn't trust it. They'd kept this one hidden for a reason.
"Safeguard," Winters ordered. Why now, what the hell's the point -
"Leavanny, Heal Bell!"
"Oh … bollocks," Eve said. A single high, sweet note chimed, not loud but curiously penetrating. That same note was washing the poison from Leavanny, from Elgyem, and worst of all, from Heatmor. Attrition, their best weapon, wasn't an option now. Even if they brought down Heatmor regardless, there were still other pokémon waiting -
St Elmo's Fire dancing spectrally among the leaves. Thunderbolt slashed out at Lyra, white hot and brutally bright. Light Screen smashed into a shower of glistening globules falling like a hot rain, translucent, viscous, like molten glass.
Josh realised his pulse was quickening, his heart beating hard against his chest. He fought to keep his breathing steady as the anxiety tried to crush his ribs. Sweet Eostre, I'm actually feeling anxious. The chances that they might win were dwindling fast.
"Hey. About the tournament," he said, leaning against the cool stone of the gatehouse merlon.
"What?" Eve squeaked. "I mean, yes, buddy."
Josh took a long breath, staring east towards Violet Gym. Falkner had the whole Gym supporting him. He had Eve, yelling her heart out. "I'll do it. On two conditions. If we're going to do this, we're going to do this properly. And you're paying for everything we might need."
"… really?" Eve said in a small voice.
Josh turned to her, seeing something of Gabriella in her face. 'You'd better behave yourself': that was enough to make him see red. He wondered if Eve had had to listen to that meddling every day. "And then we show everyone what Evelina Joy can do."
Eve suddenly flung her arms around his neck. "I won't forget this," she promised.
She leaned down slightly so she could caress her cheek against his, seeming not to care that her extra couple inches height made it an awkward gesture.
Eve often liked to do things like that when cuddling, too. It was silly, but she made him feel tall.
Spikes were hailing down onto the field again – Eve was stubbornly trying to bring attrition back into play. A pair of shimmering domes briefly swirled around their opponent's pokémon as Elgyem renewed Safeguard. Complacency wasn't one of their failings. He hadn't got a trick past Winters all battle. Out the corner of his eye he could see that bloody banner. LOVELACE WINTERS INVICTA.
Concentrate. Ivysaur was still duelling with Heatmor, circling just out of reach of his tongue, his vines half-extended. Heatmor circled him in turn, supporting himself on his huge foreclaws, trying to keep him in sight. He pugnaciously snorted a cloud of smoke from his tail-muffler.
"Immobilisez," Josh commanded.
A brief moment of intense concentration. Ivysaur darted forward, seizing Heatmor's snout with a pair of vines and forcing his head up and back, growling with the effort of striving against his strong neck muscles. Flames spurted and flashed angrily from Heatmor's jaws. Ivysaur suddenly howled and jerked back. Fire Lash had whipped across his flower. His grip critically loosened, creating a tiny opening – not enough time to think but time enough to finish it with Fire Lash.
"Cover, Bailey, cover!" Eve hollered. Pin Missiles smacked repeatedly into Heatmor's face. "Don't bloody waste it!" she commanded.
"Um," Josh said. This isn't working, recall him. "Ivysaur, return."
Backed into a corner. The crushing pressure on his ribs eased a little. He had no choice but to try and stall Heatmor out the hard way. "Fionn!" he called in Kalosian. "Future Sight! And don't get caught."
You can't hit what you can't see.
"What do you think," Eve said.
"Patience," he replied for want of a better idea.
"I hate reacting."
"Elgyem, return," Winters commanded. "Galvantula, take over."
Fionn stared off into space for a few seconds, casting Future Sight – Winters invariably noticed, ordering Galvantula to strike her with Thunderbolt. It was a long shot, blowing a hole in the grass and leaving Fionn laughing ungraciously as she faded from sight.
"She can't hide forever!" Lovelace yelled. "Start up your Solar Beam!"
Josh scanned the field intently, looking for anything, anything, that might give him an edge; Winters had her calculating look, possibly searching for Fionn's hiding-place; Bailey cannoned past after Galvantula; the sweet cicely was still smouldering; Heatmor's wrist vents started to glow with captured light.
"Spider Web: Forretress!" Winters snapped. From its refuge halfway up a tree it flung down a web, easily engulfing the bewildered Bailey.
Most trainers hate feeling hunted, I suppose. When backed into a corner they attack and attack, looking desperately for that one break.
One of the shadows beneath the trees elongated, developed a toothy grin, and became Fionn spiralling up towards Galvantula.
"There!" Lovelace yelled, pointing.
"Allez!"
Not me. The Solar Beam seared off into the trees, every leaf flaring emerald as the light blazed through it. "Aaaaah, sweet!" the cheerleaders chorused in assumption of a KO.
I live for the attack. Waiting to see what you do.
The grass rustled strangely, waving in a wind that should not exist. "It's here," he said.
"Bailey, get to centre field!" Eve ordered.
The next moment, psychic bedlam, Like turning on a lamp, suddenly there were jagged shafts of kaleidoscopic light stabbing down onto the field, flicking up little plumes of steam.
Grind you down, bit by bit. Heatmor was smacked thrice in the head in quick succession. Until there's nothing left to do.
"Self-Destruct!"
But lose.