"Get ready guys, we don't wanna fuck this one up." Blizz stared across the battlefield, lit a golden hue by the sun that had just risen.
This fact was a point of irritation for the Prince. "We were expected to wake up at this hour for a mock battle?"
"I don't think there's any mock here," Kibo pointed out, his eyes locked with their opponent on the other side of the arena.
"Ready whenever you fucks are!" Lucario called. "Not taking it easy on you!"
"…At least we don't have to do a mission today." Rune's scarf began glowing as she charged up an Aurora Beam, waiting on Blizz's go-ahead.
"Okay, remember the plan. Charge in on three… One… Two… GO!"
All at once, the battlefield exploded as the combatants rushed towards the center of the arena. Blizz charged ahead with Quick Attack, but missed entirely as Lucario seemingly vanished from where he was standing.
Blizz quickly discovered where Lucario ended up, promptly getting blind-sided by an Extreme Speed. He was slammed to the side, bouncing twice before coming to a rest in the dirt.
Though Blizz was struggling, it gave his teammates an opening. The Prince fired a barrage of Shadow Balls in Lucario's direction, operating under the philosophy that at least one would make contact.
While one did, all it accomplished was gently remind the jackal Pokémon that there were three other fighters to deal with. Temporarily leaving Blizz to his crater, he rushed in towards Rune, planning on delivering a Close Combat.
Though Rune and the Prince were too stunned to adequately deal with Lucario, Kibo was not.
"Get away from her!" Before Lucario could finish the attack, he nailed his guildmaster with a Dragon Tail, sending him flying much like Blizz had moments ago.
Just for good measure, Rune finished her Aurora Beam, managing to hit Lucario mid-air.
Kibo flashed Rune a smile. "Nice shot!"
Blizz, having decided now would be a great time to stop being a part of the ground, got back up to his feet and used Quick Attack once again. Lucario braced for the impact, readying a Force Palm, however Blizz jumped past him, towards Kibo instead.
"What the hell are you guys doing?" It was painfully obvious that they were setting up something, and Lucario had more than enough time to get out of the way of whatever was about to happen, but curiosity prevailed.
As Blizz reached Kibo, the dragon type slammed him with a Dragon Tail towards Lucario. The combination of the Quick Attack and the speed of Kibo's launch capabilities meant Blizz was able to nail the guildmaster. He quickly wrapped around Lucario's chest, planning to keep using Absorb for as long as Lucario didn't throw him off.
Of course, the presence of their teammate did not stop the Prince from his barrage. He lowered his ears and began dashing towards the two with a far more elegant Quick Attack than Blizz's. Next to him, a Powder Snow made its way to Lucario as well.
Lucario finally managed to pry Blizz off, and proceeded to launch him into the air with a Force Palm, right as the Prince made contact.
Both the normal and ice moves did very little, though Prince was able to back off before Lucario could manage any counter attack.
"You fuckers are getting better! Let's see how you deal with this!"
He rushed in towards Kibo once again before the Jangmo-o could charge up another Dragon Tail. For the first time this fight, he pulled off a Close Combat, knocking Kibo unconscious.
"Not too well, I guess." Lucario was broken from his commentary by Blizz finally returning to the ground at what's probably the terminal velocity of a Treecko.
…Though there seemed to be two. Or three?
Both Lucario and the two conscious Apex members looked up in horror as it began raining Blizz's.
Though each of them vanished as soon as they hit the ground, the momentary sense of horror and dread the Prince and Rune felt when they had to confront the possibility that there could be clones of their leader caused them to cancel the attacks they were preparing.
The real Blizz descended onto Lucario with a Pound, managing a direct hit as the guildmaster was too distracted by the Double Team.
"Oh that's clever." Lucario threw the Treecko off him before he could latch on again
Blizz bounced back to his feet immediately. "I had no fucking idea what I was doing."
"I know, that's the best part." The moment having passed, Lucario dashed towards the Prince with Extreme Speed. Not anticipating the attack, the Umbreon was knocked unconscious.
"Crap..." Rune stared between Lucario and Blizz. Not that she thought they really had a chance of beating Lucario, but still, there it didn't feel like there was much just the two of them could do.
Blizz looked over to Rune, a confident grin on his face. "Hey, we can still win this. Got a plan, just follow me." He rushed into Lucario with another Quick Attack.
Lucario just kept his eyes on Blizz, and right before the Quick Attack was about to connect, nailed the Treecko with a Force Palm, immediately knocking him out and launching him 20 meters to the side.
"...Can I surrender? I don't have any moves that really can hit you..."
Lucario looked disappointed. "Seriously? All your teammates already ate shit, just gonna tell them that you gave up after they went through all of this?"
"...But what can I even do?"
"Fucking try, that's what." Lucario began slowly walking towards Rune, his palm glowing.
Rune desperately fired off a few Aurora Beams, none of which seemed to do much against the steadily approaching Pokémon.
"Got anything else?" Lucario asked.
"I... I don't know!" She started alternating between Powder Snow and Aurora Beam, hoping that she could at least slow Lucario down.
"Come on, I believe in you, gotta have something!"
"AHHHH!" With Lucario finally having made it to Rune's personal space, something inside her snapped. Her entire body glowed a brilliant white as a collection of ice energy larger than she's ever channeled before rose up in front of her.
"That's what I'm fucking talking about!" Lucario casually stepped to the side as the lethally cold but slow moving blast of ice inched by. "That move's really fucking strong, I'll tell you about it once you're up."
Rune was in no position to do anything else, that last attack completely wiped her of energy. She offered no resistance as Lucario ended the battle with a Force Palm, knocking out the Vulpix immediately.
The four members of Team Apex rested in hospital beds as Lucario walked back and forth through the waiting room of Chansey's clinic. Chansey, meanwhile, was giving the guildmaster an irritated glare from her desk.
"So are they good for me to start talking to them?"
Chansey sighed. "As a doctor, I would advise them to get as far away from you as possible. Medically though, yes, they are fine."
"Great." Not waiting for any other invitation from Chansey, he barged into the room where the four of them were resting.
"Yo, Lucario." Blizz waved at the guildmaster, not getting up from his bed.
"Alright so who wants their analysis first?"
"Oh, could you do me?" Kibo stuck a paw in the air.
"Hell yea." Lucario stepped in front of his bed. "So, you hit like a fucking Mudsbray, Dragon Tail isn't even effective against me and you still managed to launch me across the entire goddamn battlefield. Nice job on that."
"Thank you kindly."
"Main issue is that you can't move for shit. Not as big an issue in dungeons, but in an open battle like this all someone has to do is not stand near you and you're completely out of options. Try figuring out some ways to get around a battlefield faster."
Kibo seemed to mull on Lucario's advice, before an idea popped up. "Oh, what if I tried using Dragon Tail on the ground?"
Lucario centered his gaze on the Jangmo-o, pushing a finger onto Kibo's head scale. "Jangmo, that is the best god damned idea I've heard in the last three weeks. Let me know when you start practicing that, because I wanna see."
Kibo just flashed Lucario a smile.
"Alright, next up is Vulpix." Lucario started walking towards her, the ice-type steadily growing more worried with every step. "Now, first thing I want to point out, in the battle you learned one of the most powerful attacks known to Pokémon."
"…Pardon me, what?" The Prince seemed to be upset by this revelation.
"When the rest of you got knocked out, she tried to hit me with a Sheer Cold. Missed, because the move is fucking impossible to aim, but if you can land it that move will knock out just about any Pokémon in one hit."
The room went silent at that.
Rune was the first to speak. "…One hit? On anyone?"
"That's how it's supposed to work. Don't remember the last time I've seen someone use a Sheer Cold on a Pokémon they couldn't knock out in one hit anyways, but hey, you might get some traction out of it. Oh, should probably mention this, the limp-dick bureaucrats in the Federation decided that the move is too 'inhumane'-" Lucario put air quotes around the word. "Whatever the fuck that's supposed to mean, so it's listed as a banned move."
Rune looked worried. "What… does that mean?"
"It just means don't use it outside of dungeons, and don't tell an officer or whatever that you used it to knock out a Pokémon."
Abject horror crossed Kibo's face as the implications of Lucario's instructions settled in. "You're telling us to break the law just so we can use a more powerful move?"
Lucario shook his head. "No, I'm telling you to not give a shit about what the stupid fucking pencil pushers who've never even set foot in Varin have to say."
The notion of breaking a law set by the Exploration Federation as opposed to one set by a local government slightly eased Kibo's concerns. "Well… long as we don't have a vote there, breaking their laws is the right thing to do."
"That's the spirit! I think. Anyways, back to the analysis. It's obvious you depend on that scarf for a lot of your attack's stopping power, which is fair, but you really should practice without it too so you're not completely useless if someone you're fighting has Thief or some bullshit."
Rune looked down to her scarf, a guilty expression forming.
"Also, need to work on your combat strategy. Seems like your guys' main strat is to concentrate around Vulpix so she can dish out damage. Not bad, but completely falls apart when you guys are down one or two."
The memory of Lucario slowly advancing towards her with nothing she could do was still fresh in Rune's mind. "…Right."
"My advice is you learn Hail. You got Snow Cloak as an ability, it'll make it fucking impossible to hit you. Trust me on that."
"That's a TM move, right?" Blizz asked. "Think we can afford one if we go for a fac'd version…"
"Then focus on that." Lucario moved onto the Prince. "Now, your turn."
"I do not care for any suggestions you may have about how better to become a barbarian such as-"
"Honestly, you're probably the strongest guy in your team."
For the second time in five minutes, the entire room fell silent.
"…Pardon?"
"You got the best spread out of everyone here. Not the best at anything, but you can pull off just about everything."
Still not quite willing to accept the praise, the Prince stared blankly at Lucario. "…Would you care to elaborate as to what you mean?"
"So Treecko is fast and can take a hit but can't attack for shit, Vulpix has good ranged attacks but sucks at everything else, and Jangmo-o has the best melee hits out of all you guys but is slow as hell— you're the only one who can do everything and not be complete shit at it. Only a few other Pokémon can balance that stuff like you."
"…Well naturally, I'm inherently superior to-"
"But you still got the same issue when I followed you guys at Amber Canyon: you fight like a bitch."
The Prince opened his mouth for a comeback, but Lucario kept going before he got the chance.
"If you actually bothered getting in range like Treecko does you could probably dodge almost everything, but you're too afraid of getting hit so you just stand off to the side and throw a Shadow Ball out if you feel like it."
"Did you not still eliminate me with a melee strike? I would argue my distancing was too close."
"It was an Extreme Speed, that barely counts as a melee hit." Already tired of dealing with the Prince, Lucario wrapped up his thoughts. "Be less of a bitch and you could be one of the best battlers in Varin."
Leaving the Prince to his thoughts, Lucario moved onto the last Pokémon.
"So what's my deal?" Blizz asked, sitting up from his hospital bed.
"Treecko… Alright, already brought it up when we were talking about Umbreon, but you fucking suck at attacking. Your strongest move is Quick Attack, which is really pathetic."
"Yea, figured I needed to learn new moves."
"But let me say you are a fucking legend when it comes to getting in my face. And you just kept coming back, don't have a goddamn clue how you did that. Also, learning Double Team mid-battle was great, keep that move in mind because holy fuck I can't imagine how annoying you'll be to knock out once you have it figured out."
"Hell yea."
Lucario stepped back into the center of the room. "Now, last thing, your guys' teamwork is way better than it used to be. It's still shit, but way less shit than it used to be."
None of them knew if they should take that as a compliment or an insult.
"You got some good ideas, but you're the only four-mon team in the guild, you gotta be able to figure out something a bit more clever than 'Vulpix hits from far, Jangmo hits close, Treecko hits really close, and Umbreon does whatever he feels like.'"
"We'll keep thinking about it," Kibo assured.
"Good, now once Chansey gives you the go-ahead, get back to the guild. Iwanna see you guys take an A-rank mission tomorrow. Think you're ready for it."
Lucario left the room as Chansey entered, continuing her aggressive stare of the guildmaster. Only after the door shut did she return her focus to the patients.
"Okay, Treecko, Umbreon, Vulpix, Jangmo-o; I'm gonna ask you to stay here for just a bit longer to make sure there's nothing I missed, then you're free to go off. But please don't agree to a fight with him again, this is the third time this week he's beaten one of his own teams like this."
"…The advice is helpful though," Kibo pointed out, staring back at his tail.
"…I will never understand what goes through the head of a guildmaster…" Chansey set into doing routine work on the Pokémon, making sure everything was in order.
"YOU FUCKING FEDERATION BASTARDS WON'T BE TAKING ME ALIVE!" The Houndoom snarled at Team Apex, the four of them having backed the outlaw into a corner.
"Probably will, to be honest." Blizz pointed his arm at the canine, several leaves shooting out towards him. "Like, got a track record here and everything."
Rune looked nervous as she easily stepped out of a desperate Flamethrower's path. "Should I try Sheer Cold here? I don't know if this is a good time to practice…"
"Go for it!" Kibo encouraged, bashing the Houndoom's head with a Headbutt. A pleasant chime sounded out through the dungeon as the scale on Kibo's head resonated with the Houndoom's skull. "Got this guy on the ropes now, worst case scenario we finish him off normally."
"O-Okay…" Rune took a deep breath as her scarf began glowing. She summoned the same concentration of ice energy she felt when she was fighting Lucario.
"I fail to see why we need to allocate her the scarf during the testing of this move," the Prince complained as he bit down on the Houndoom. "All it does is lower the ambient temperature to a point neither Kibo nor myself are comfortable with."
The Prince's complaining proved to be the last burst of inspiration Rune needed, as the pulse of pure white energy slowly made its way towards the Houndoom. With the Prince holding him in place with Bite, he couldn't do anything but watch as it made contact with his body.
Immediately the area where it made contact froze over, soon encompassing the entire Houndoom. The Prince jumped away before the ice could spread to him as well.
"…So that's what it does…" Rune slowly approached the outlaw, observing in equal parts horror and fascination what she just did.
The attack wasn't over yet though. The ice showed small cracks in regions around the Houndoom, before rapidly spreading. All at once, the ice shattered, and the Houndoom fell over, unconscious.
Blizz gave a whistle. "Damn, that move's good."
"Yea… it's exhausting though…" Rune was swaying slightly. "We can go back now, right?"
"Hell yea, and watch this." Blizz held up his shiny new silver exploration badge towards the Houndoom. Like always, a pillar of light shot out of the floor, however rather than the usual golden hue, this time the light was blue. When the light faded, Houndoom was gone. "Now he's in a holding cell at Nova's police station."
The Prince began navigating his own badge, ready to warp out of the dungeon. "I still remain baffled that this feature was locked behind a silver ranking."
"Probably federation BS," Blizz pointed out, readying his own badge for a warp. "Anyone not ready to go?"
Kibo and Rune were silent. In response, Blizz tapped the button on his badge's display, taking the four of them back to the entrance of Roguesheen Crater.
After they returned to Nova Town, the four of them split up. Kibo went to the station to pick up the reward for arresting Houndoom, Blizz and Rune went into the town markets to browse TM's, and the Prince went back to their room to get his beauty sleep.
No one was particularly upset at the arrangement.
Like any good shopping session, they started at Kecleon's market in the town center.
"Yo, Purple!"
The purple Kecleon was somewhat shocked to see Blizz approach him over his brother. "Decided to buy some orbs today?"
"Looking for TM's actually," Blizz explained. "Trying to see if we can get a Hail for her." He made a gesture towards Rune, who was standing behind him.
"TM Hail... let me check my stock." He turned around and began navigating through boxes on the shelves behind him with a practiced efficiency. Blizz had no idea how Purple managed to keep everything in order as he haphazardly threw random discs and orbs around, before finally pulling out a light blue disc. "Here we are, TM Hail. A natural one too."
Blizz let out a whistle. "Really managed to get your hands on a natural?"
Purple nodded. "Yep, one of your guild mates sold it to me, Gible?"
Blizz nodded, thinking of Gible and Rockruff's team. "Yea, neither of those guys would want to use it. How much?"
"It is a natural, so... 15 grand?"
"...That's a little high..." It's been a while since Blizz last checked Apex's bank account, but they were probably somewhere in the low ten-thousands? Even if they could afford it, it'd pretty much empty out their savings. "Don't suppose you guys got a fabbed model instead?"
"...Honestly, your team never struck me as the type to opt for fabbed TM's. I don't have any Hail's on me, but I know the official vendor has one."
"Right, over at Pidgeot's store?"
"That's the one. Huge Exploration Federation logo on it, block that way." Kecleon pointed south. "Can't miss it."
"Right on, thanks for the help." Blizz and Rune took off southwards.
Once she was sure they were out of Kecleon's earshot, Rune whispered to Blizz. "I didn't want to ask there... what's the difference between a natural TM and a fabbed one?"
Blizz looked back to Rune, his goggles virtually lit up. "Oh you're in for a treat. Got the rundown on them from Chimchar and Shinx. They're pretty fun."
"...That worries me a lot more."
Blizz just gave her a smirk before he kept walking.
Eventually, they reached the building. True to Kecleon's word, it had a large Federation logo over it. Rune seemed to tense up as they passed under it.
The store itself had several aisles with shelves of discs out on display. Each aisle seemed to have a distinct color, with a few towards the front of the store being transparent. Across from these shelves was the front counter, where a bored-looking Drizzile was reading through a book.
"So yea this place is basically like Blockbuster," Blizz explained as he walked towards the shelves of light blue discs. "Really cool spot to kill time."
Rune just gave Blizz an apologetic stare, not wanting to disappoint her teammate. "...Right... Blockbuster... What a place..."
Blizz started looking through the various discs for Rune, holding up his explorer badge to translate the footprint runes to Unown Script.
"Here, think this one is Hail." He stopped in front of one of the discs, taking it off the shelf and holding it up. "Can't tell who's on this one though..."
"...Who's on it?" Rune was only getting more confused.
"Yea, you'll find out soon enough. But uh, first lemme go look around, see if they got a move I wanna learn." Before Rune could say anything, Blizz took off.
When Rune managed to find Blizz again, he was in an aisle filled with yellow-green discs, stopped in front of a certain one. "Hey, stupid question, you remember if Treecko's can learn X-Scissor?"
Rune just stared at Blizz confused. "...How would I know?"
"Yea that's fair, I'll go ask the dude then."
The two ex-humans went up to the front counter. Blizz set the Hail TM down, before talking to the Drizzile. "Hey, you got the chart somewhere around? Wanna pick up X-Scissor, don't remember if I can learn it though."
Drizzile just sighed, before getting up out of his chair and pulling out a large graph from under the counter. "...No, Treecko's cannot learn X-Scissor. Grovyles and Sceptiles can though."
"Bro that's bullshit."
The Drizzile sighed. "Take it up with Arceus, I don't get paid enough to deal with this."
Blizz left to go put the X-Scissor TM back, before returning with a darker green disc. "So I know for a fact I can learn Energy Ball."
"I don't care man, just tell me what you're gonna buy."
"Just these two." Blizz pushed the Hail and Energy Ball TM's closer to Drizzile.
"Ugh…" Drizzile opened up a notebook and began looking for the prices of each TM.
"So uh, you filling in for Pidgeot?" Blizz asked, trying to make conversation.
"Yes." Drizzile responded, not wanting to make conversation.
"Well uh... you know why she's out?"
"No- That'll be twelve hundred Poké."
His attempt at a conversation rebuffed, Blizz silently brought out one 1000 Poké coin and two 100's.
Drizzile took the cash and placed them under the counter. "Will you need a bag?"
"Nah, think we're fine."
"Then please have a great day."
Rune and Blizz left the shop, the two admiring their new TM's.
"So... Can you at least explain to me how it works?" Rune pleaded.
"Alright, so if you press the top of the disc it'll start up. It should have like, a recording or something that shows you how to use the move. Don't know the full details, apparently they also come with this like, psychic gem or something that makes it easier to learn the move while you're using it?" Blizz shrugged.
"Okay that sounds a little bit better... But you still never told me the difference between a fabbed and natural TM?"
"Yea, so you know how I told you that like, these things teach you how to do the move? Apparently natural TM's just like, glow for a moment then you instantly know the move. Kinda cool, but they're hella rare, only pop up in dungeons."
Rune nodded. "And these aren't?"
"Yea, Federation makes these. A lot cheaper, but like, you actually have to put in the effort to learn the move on them."
Rune studied the TM now that she had this new information. It made sense, but the fact that Blizz described them as 'awesome' still disturbed her; so far it sounded way too tame, he definitely was keeping something to himself.
Still, it would teach her a new move, and she needed that. She needed to prove she could hold her own without relying on the other guys. So as long as it didn't explode in her face, she could deal with it.
Eventually, the two made it to the clearing a short distance west of the guild. With their backs to the canyon, Rune laid out the TM in front of her.
"...You don't wanna go first?" She asked Blizz.
"Nah, I can learn Energy Ball whenever, but you wanna do Hail, which you can't really do with others around."
That made sense, but still didn't set her mind at ease. But without any other excuses, she pressed on, gently tapping the center of the disc.
Immediately, the TM lit up, showing a display similar to what they have on their badges. Unlike their badges, this display only showcased a single question mark.
Not long after, a robotic voice rang out from the TM. "What is your name?"
Rune looked around nervously, before shifting her attention back to the device. "Rune."
"Hello Rune. Press anywhere to begin the lesson."
Rune did so, tapping the center of the TM once again.
The question mark faded away as music began to emanate from the device. If she was going to hear any music here she expected it to be something a bit more traditional, or maybe something that could be performed with the instruments some Pokémon are born with.
What she got instead was a peppy synthesizer beat, with muffled vocals she couldn't make out.
A short distance away, Blizz was bopping his head. "Yo this song is great."
Rune sighed, as she refocused on the display. A figure seemed to be rising up, as a new voice rang out, much more alive than the robotic voice from earlier.
"YOU WANNA LEARN HAIL, HUH?"
The figure rising up in the display came fully into sight, revealing a Sandslash covered in shards of ice. What seemed to take center stage, however, was the brightly colored headband and sunglasses he was wearing.
Before Rune could respond to the question or even let the Pokémon on the display's appearance sink in, he kept shouting.
"WELL YOU'RE TALKING TO THE RIGHT GUY, I AM MACHO MON RANDY SANDSLASH! AND I'M GONNA BE TEACHING YOU HOW TO USE HAIL!"
"...What the fuck?"
"Yea they usually get Battlemania stars to make these videos."
Rune just shot Blizz an irritated glare.
"NOW, HAIL IS AN IMPORTANT MOVE FOR ICE TYPES. IT CAN REALLY [BLEEP] UP OTHER POKÉMON WHO DON'T THRIVE IN THE ICE LIKE ME, OR MAYBE YOU HAVE AN ABILITY THAT LIKES THE ICE! LOOKING AT YOU, SNOW CLOAK USERS!"
Rune's confused expression only grew. "They… censored him…"
"NOW, THE FIRST PART OF LEARNING HAIL IS REALLY FEELING THE ICE-TYPE ENERGY! IF YOU ALREADY KNOW AN ICE MOVE, THAT'S AMAZING! YOU'RE LEAGUES AHEAD OF ALL THESE OTHER WIMP POKÉMON THAT DON'T APPRECIATE WHAT ICE CAN DO! AND TO THOSE WHO DON'T KNOW AN ICE MOVE YET, I HAVE NO [BLEEP]ING CLUE WHY YOU WANT TO LEARN HAIL, BUT THAT'S NOT MY ISSUE!"
At once, Rune came to a jarring conclusion. "…He's just Lucario but more aggressive."
"Actually I think Lucario starred in a couple of these himself." Blizz explained. "Don't think we can learn any of them though... actually, Kibo might-"
"No." Rune's response was absolute.
"WHEN YOU'RE USING AN ICE MOVE, YOU HAVE TO CHANNEL THE VERY ESSENCE OF THE COLD! FEEL IT BUILD UP IN YOUR BODY, THE TEMPERATURE DROPPING AT YOUR COMMAND!"
Though completely off-put by Randy Sandslash, Rune obliged, more concerned with actually learning Hail. To her surprise, she was able to feel the ice-type energy move through her body in a way she never experienced before.
"NEXT STEP IS TO EXPEL THAT ENERGY! GO ON, LET IT THE [BLEEP] OUT!"
Rune closed her eyes, trying to bring the feeling of ice energy to her mouth, before breathing it out. When she opened her eyes, she realized she just used Powder Snow.
"IF YOU ALREADY KNOW AN ICE MOVE, YOU PROBABLY JUST USED IT THERE AND LOOKED LIKE AN IDIOT, BUT DON'T WORRY, NO ONE'S AN IDIOT NEXT TO MACHO MON RANDY SANDSLASH!"
In the middle of his exposition, the Sandslash struck a pose.
"...I hate this guy," Rune commented.
"Yea, probably one of his older works, recently he opted for a less cocky persona," Blizz explained. "But like, a lot of his die-hard fans hate the change, and it just evolved into a whole shitshow in the Randy Sandslash fanbase."
Rune gave Blizz an unamused glare. "Why do you know so much about him?"
"I follow most the Battlemania stars." Blizz pointed back to the screen, gesturing for her to keep paying attention.
"NOW THAT YOU KNOW HOW TO CHANNEL THE ICE ENERGY, I WANNA SEE YOU SEND IT EVERYWHERE! FILL THE AIR WITH IT!"
"You heard him," Blizz commented. "Fill the air."
Rune shot him yet another glare, before trying to follow the instructions. She focused on letting the ice energy out everywhere, not just from her mouth.
The temperature immediately dropped a few degrees as clouds formed over the two Pokémon. Tiny snowflakes occasionally fell out of the clouds, but it was far from a hailstorm.
"NOW YOU PROBABLY JUST MADE A REALLY PATHETIC GROUP OF CLOUDS! THAT'S PERFECT! THE LAST STEP IS TO WRING OUT THAT ICE ENERGY, AND LET THE HAIL FAAAAAAAALL!" As he said fall, he slowly dragged his claws downwards for effect.
Blizz opened his mouth to say something, but Rune managed to beat him to the punch. "Shut up, let me focus on this."
She tried to summon the feeling of ice energy again, except this time instead of being in her body it was all around the environment. "How do you wring it out though…"
Blizz resigned himself to being a silent observer until she figured it out, sitting down as his goggles protected him from the potentially crippling damage of the occasional snowflake.
"Maybe if I do…" Rune tried to reach out and pull back in all the ice energy she just expelled. While it didn't actually bring anything back to her, the effect was clear. Rather than individual snowflakes, large chunks of hail began descending over the area.
Rune immediately felt the shift as her Snow Cloak ability activated. "I did it…"
"Let's fucking go!" Blizz walked towards the blurry shape that he thinks is probably Rune for a high five. Rune reciprocated, before turning back to her TM.
"AND IF YOU FOLLOWED ALL THESE STEPS YOU WILL HAVE MASTERED THE MOVE HAIL! NOW GET OUT THERE AND SHOW THE WORLD WHAT AN ICE TYPE CAN DO!"
The display of Randy Sandslash faded away, replaced by floating text.
Repeat?
"Hell no." Rune shot an Aurora Beam at the disc, shattering it.
"Eh, not like we could resell it anyways." Blizz began walking back to the guild. "Nice job though, two new moves over two days."
Rune nodded, following behind. "Right… I think I can do better now…"
A/N: And back to regular chapters. Finally giving Rune some of the attention she deserves with a very interesting new move.
(please like the TM joke I've been saving that since I wrote chapter 2 of this story)
Kinda big announcement, I am now running a second story alongside this. PMD: Sierra Echoes is where all the special episodes/non-canon shenanigans will go that don't really fit into this story. Uploads there will be sporadic, but check it out if you want. Right now the only chapter there is the April Fool's Blizz/Prince ship.
Ch 15: What Do All The People Know - 4/16/22