Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon. And you can probably count the number of times I've said this.
Well, the exams are over at last! Now I can begin proper on my fic again. As always, please hold on a second while I open another document to figure out where I last stopped.
…
Okay, here I am. Dave's Azurill versus Elizabeth's Aron. Ooh… just noticed a few typos in the later part of my previous chapter; hope no one found that too jarring. Anyways, yeah, the battle. I've got a few concepts for it already; seeing as it's Azurill, count on a few (if not more) laughs.
And really, that's all I have to say. I'm not sure how soon I'll finish this, since I've recently gotten my Rescue Team Seagreen up and fully operational, so I might sneak away for some Mystery Dungeon at times… but, well, Chapter 39, begin!
Post-Production Note: And here, seven days after I completed it, Chapter 39, begin!
"An Azurill…?"
Elizabeth couldn't help but smile at the choice. The small blue Pokémon shook its head as though awakening from a nap, smiling up at the Aron on the other side of the field. It seemed to be entirely oblivious to what was going on around it.
"You sure you're choosing that Pokémon…?"
Dave didn't know what to say; a choice had been made, and now all he could do was stick by it. He nodded, tensing in anticipation.
"Right then…" Sera spoke from the sidelines, "The battle between Dave's Azurill and Elizabeth's Aron begins—" she waved her flag at this, "now!"
"Dodge it!" Dave shouted.
Elizabeth opened her mouth to relay a command, and then shut it again. Azurill rolled around on the field. Dave frowned a moment, then spoke.
"Eh… I assumed you were going to use an attack from the beginning…"
Everyone else in the arena was at a loss for words.
"Fine, then. Aron; Mud Slap!"
The Steel-type rushed at Azurill, sending a wave of mud rushing forward toward the Pokémon.
"Now dodge it!"
Premature the command might have first been, but it would have served him well nonetheless. However…
"Darn it…!"
Azurill squealed as the soil spattered across its face. Aron skidded to a halt, turning to survey the damage.
"Azurill…?"
The diminutive Pokémon sat rubbing its eyes for a moment, dazed by the attack, before jumping back into the fight; however ineffectual the actual jumping was.
"You okay…?"
The only response Dave received was a look of incomprehension. It dawned on Dave a second before Espeon relayed the thought.
"Azurill can't…"
"… Understand human," Michelle stated matter-of-factly. The fact seemed to amuse Erynn no end, though, and she turned away from the battle for just half a second.
"I hope you understand your commands, at least… let's use a Bubble attack!"
This time, Azurill nodded. Aron turned to face it as it released a stream of bubbles into the air.
Before delightedly running around, popping them.
"This battle isn't worth the effort… Aron, attack with a Take Down!"
The Steel-type responded with a muffled grunt, lowering its head as it sped forward; each step it took, it accelerated just a little more…
Azurill stopped playing with the bubbles, turning to stare at its impending doom. Dave couldn't think of a single thing to say. Which was just as well; it wouldn't have understood anyway.
Aron slammed straight into the Water Pokémon; or would have, if the Water Pokémon had still been there.
"Wha…?"
Azurill bounced out of the way with a little cry of triumph. Using its tail as some sort of pogo stick, it expertly dodged each of Aron's attacks.
"What is it doing…?"
The look on Azurill's face wasn't one of a Pokémon fighting, either. The look of happiness on its face was unmistakeable.
"It's… playing a game…"
Everyone watched as Azurill continued bouncing around Aron; as the unusually-coloured Pokémon tired of the ineffectual rushes, the attacks ceased. Dave, on the other hand, was beginning to see the possibilities of Azurill's disposition. His only difficulty now was in translating the concept of 'Tag with Water Gun' to Azurill.
"That's it, Azurill! Now use Water Gun on Aron!"
Recognizing its name, the attack, and its adversary from his speech of apparent nonsense, the Pokémon fired a series of Water Guns at the other Pokémon.
"Dodge it!"
Aron complied, almost lazily. The attacks were slow, but that didn't tell about its potency. For all anyone knew, a single Water Gun might've been enough to take it out.
"Now, Take Down!"
Spotting a gap in the stream of Water Guns, Aron jumped from side to side until it managed a jump sending it flying right over Azurill, and on the way down. The baby Pokémon ceased its attacks as it squealed.
"Now, Bubble!"
As again, Azurill shot a stream of bubbles into the air. This time, though, the popping had some outside help.
"Aron!"
The Rock-Headed Pokémon might not have taken any damage from the recoil, but Bubbles were not something easily taken down, especially if you were a Steel and Ground type.
"That's interesting…"
Michelle turned to look at Ash.
"What is…?"
"Dave's Azurill's Bubble floats almost stationary in the air… the only reason Aron's taking damage at all is because it flew right into the attack."
"So would you say Dave's smart, or just lucky?" was Erynn's contribution.
"A little of both, I guess…"
Both Pokémon faced each other again. One with an air of indifference; the other, nonchalance. It was difficult to know which was which; in fact, it was difficult to discern the difference in insouciance of both words to begin with. The author just thought it'd be cool to add it there. Confusion reigned.
Back in the Elem region, Elizabeth sighed.
"Didn't think I'd have to use this move on such a weak Pokémon, but…"
"Azurill's not weak!" Dave called back, then, realizing that Azurill didn't understand a word he spoke anyways, conceded the point.
"Fine, it is. But it'll still beat your Aron any day of the week!"
Elizabeth couldn't help but shake her head at this.
"Any day, maybe, but I guess Friday's out of the question. Aron, use a Shock Wave, now!"
It was at about this time that Dave realized the author was writing this part on a Friday, and it probably wasn't going to end well for Azurill.
"Shock Wave… the unavoidable Electric attack…"
"… till you get ground down by a Marowak." Ash spoke out loud.
"Wha…?" the two girls stared at him as though he'd been struck by some contagious neurosis.
"Whoa…" Ash shook his head clear. "Dumb song…"
Azurill sat on the ground, almost entirely oblivious of the silent electrical energy coursing through the whole of Aron.
"Now! Combination Shock Wave Take Down!"
Azurill noticed, too late, the twin streaks of lightning flying either side of Aron as the Pokémon rushed toward it.
"This… doesn't look like fun…!"
The twin bolts zapped it on either side, paralyzing it as Aron ran straight into the Pokémon. It flew back, knocked out cold. Mercifully.
Dave recalled it with a twinge of regret. At having called it out to begin with and wasting one Pokémon choice.
"Really?" he asked the air thoughtfully.
No, just playing around with your personality a bit.
"You did great, Azurill. Too bad that nasty voice up there doesn't like you."
As a matter of fact I do! I like Azurills and Teddiursas and… Ditto! Ditto's cool!
He clipped the Pokéball back onto his belt as he considered the Aron on the field.
"Spectropus! Finish the job!"
The Pokéball opened in a flash of red immateria as a length of what appeared to be Octillery skin fell to the ground. Then it began to shudder, as it exuded an aura of defilement; of undeath. Slowly the shell rose, as ghostly wisps of tentacles peeled away from the flesh. Elizabeth raised an eyebrow.
"I'm surprised you caught one of these… they're not very common anywhere near the surface… you found a way down despite the collapse?"
Dave nodded, while the remaining three trainers and umpire stared at them quizzically.
"Come to think of it, Dave never did tell us how exactly he came upon Spectropus… I guess RJ knows the whole story."
"RJ…?" Michelle asked. Erynn waved a hand.
"Before your time. About half an hour before your time, really."
Michelle nodded slowly.
"Lucky him," Ash said under his breath.
Dave couldn't help but feel embarrassed at the commotion behind him. No one else really seemed to mind though, except that Sera was incapacitated as an umpire ala giggling fit.
"Spectropus; let's begin this with a Whirlpool attack!"
The command was sudden; startled back into reality, the fight between the trainers on the bench ceased. The attack itself, however, was a little slower in releasing.
"Get out of the way, Aron!"
The Pokémon sped to a side even if the attack was shot forth; in a whirl of tentacles, Spectropus manipulated the stream of water so it spread out in a raging cone-shaped whirlpool.
If the attack had been cylindrical, Aron might still have managed to remain on safe ground. As it was, the Pokémon was swept away by the power of the attack, crashing to the ground a distance away. The dust cleared only a moment later.
Shakily, the Shiny Pokémon stood, fazed by the dramatic difference in opponent difficulty. But it stood, and that was enough for its next attack.
"Shock Wave!"
The Pokémon charged itself with the same electric power again, its metal shell coursing with electrical energy.
"Spectropus, Withdraw!"
Even as the twin bolts of lightning streaked towards its target, the shell that was Spectropus shimmered and fell to the ground; the damage was there, but it was still insubstantial. A spark, and then it was just a scratch on the unfeeling, rubbery skin.
"Now, respond with a Constrict attack!"
Even as Aron recovered, Spectropus rose from the ground, rushing forward with astonishing speed.
"Aron! Charge yourself up with energy one more time!"
But it was too late; the tentacles lashed out, wrapping Aron within; they might have been merely spectral, but the damage they did was still real.
"Aron's natural resistance is no use in this situation…" Erynn spoke in an undertone. Michelle nodded.
"Its Steel body is no use against an attack from a ghostly body."
"I wonder… are all Normal attacks it uses turned to Ghost-type, then?"
Ash's question ended the small discussion as Aron was knocked out by a final Whirlpool.
"That's done it…!"
Elizabeth recalled Aron, nodding as she released her Lairon.
"It looks like the deal's on your side this time round… let's see if this can't even things up…"
Dave tensed to receive her attack.
"Start things off with a Take Down!"
"Acid Armour, Spectropus!"
T E N T O R F O G
He had been told that he would no longer have to return to Delta Twelve; that a new section had been set up that he would be joining shortly. He knew it was because of the SP Ball incident, but he still didn't know exactly how that made him different.
His new room was more spacious now; it was for him and him alone. In the dormitory he'd been assigned there were only three people he'd seen to date.
The first was a girl: long, strikingly-white hair; pretty—that sort. She wore glasses, strangely, in a world built around contacts and shades. She'd had an SP Ball on her belt when he'd first spotted her, but also two other Pokéballs. Considering he'd had all of his confiscated when he first arrived, he supposed she was some sort of Senior.
The second had been a boy, who'd come up behind him out of nowhere. A second later, he was gone. He still wasn't quite sure if he really existed.
The third person had been himself; the first time he'd passed by a mirror in months. He had no idea why he'd never seen another one, but even the glass in the facility was non-reflective. The weeks of training had toughened him up so he hardly recognized himself.
His hair had been a dark brown when he'd first entered the facility; now, for some inexplicable reason, there was a streak of white among the darkness: so white it was almost alien.
Stress alone couldn't have caused it. He knew, from the way it felt to his hand, that it was a mark. A mark he mightn't have asked for, but one he now had, for better or worse.
Of my Shadow Partner…
He was disturbed by the arrival of a new message; each room had an electronic glass panel which displayed holograms regarding official updates. He turned to watch it as it updated itself, displaying a series of notifications.
Standing up from his chair and walking over to the board, he waved a hand across the length of it to push away the uninteresting things until he found what he was looking for.
The creation of a new squad, Echo Five, was deemed necessary after the SP Ball testing inadvertently revealed a small number of deviant subjects…
"Deviant subjects…"
He mused over the term for a bit, and then skimmed through the rest of the information, which he had already known, or at least, guessed.
… the team is to consist of Angela Noir, Crim Maerin, Gerard Sharp, and Reno Quinn. Their trainer is yet to be…
There were to be four of them, then. He'd seen all of them but one; one of the two girls, obviously. He looked toward the end of the message.
… to meet outside Training Room Eight at 1300 hours.
"… In eighteen minutes' time…"
He waved his hand once more, to turn the screen off. Pulling his jacket over him, he turned the lights off and stepped out of his room, only to find three others already there.
"You're Reno, then," the girl he'd first seen observed.
He nodded, realizing that the three were most probably the other members of Echo Five.
"What's your mark, then?" a very pale boy was asking the other girl. The girl, in response, looked straight at him. Piqued, Reno stepped beside the boy and realized that the girl in question had irises of different colours. Red and Blue.
"Marks…?"
The boy turned to look at him in surprise.
"You're new, aren't you?"
Reno didn't know what to say, and instead decided to let him continue. At the very least, he wouldn't know less than he did before.
"Each of us already has figured it out. This SP Ball," he weighed the object in his hands, "can somehow give us the characteristics of certain Pokémon."
He waited for Reno to appear impressed, but it didn't happen.
"It's like an avatar," the red-and-blue-eyed girl took over, "as long as we have our… Shadow Partner, they call it—as long as we have it released, we can summon its powers from within ourselves."
"As a result," the first girl, who'd been quiet for most of the talk, continued, "we're all also marked in certain ways by the Pokémon within us."
"I'm Gerard Sharp," the boy spoke again, "and if I'm not mistaken, I've got a Kecleon for a partner." His skin seemed a little darker now.
The second girl proffered a hand, which he shook. "I'm Crim, and apparently I've got something like schizophrenia, because the ball landed me with Plusle and Minun."
Reno took a step back, unsure.
"You mean… we're Pokémorphs, or something?"
Gerard spoke again.
"Strictly speaking, no. We're still almost entirely human. It's only with the power of the SP Ball that we gain the attributes of our Pokémon. Well—most of them, anyway."
"But why was this new section necessary, then…?"
Crim shrugged. "Beats me; though I think we're the only ones adversely affected by the SP Balls… no one else has my eyes, anyway."
The first girl, Angela, apparently, spoke at last.
"They told me, when I was lying half-conscious in my bed, that the SP Ball copied our life signatures, transformed it into a conscious entity; a Pokémon. It's probable that this is just one of the side-effects…"
Reno nodded slowly. Crim turned to Angela before she could retreat into her quiet self again.
"What about you…? Your mark is…"
At that, the girl turned to face her, her hair fanning out gently behind her.
"This hair I have… it wasn't always this long… in fact; it wasn't anywhere near this length until a week ago.
"To the best of my knowledge, I believe that I have a Ninetales as my Shadow Partner."
"Isn't your hair supposed to split into nine separate parts or something…?" Crim asked, staring at it interestedly. Angela smiled, despite herself.
"If it did, I doubt I'd ever be able to fit in. Don't pull it though…"
"… The thousand-year curse of a Ninetales," Reno finished. "That'd be hard to live down."
The joke was appreciated, and attention shifted to him now.
"What about you…? I'm guessing that white streak wasn't dyed on?" Crim's thirst for answers seemed insatiable.
Reno shook his head ruefully.
"To be honest, I've no idea what kind of Pokémon my Shadow Partner is meant to be. I only just got here, and anyways I didn't want to risk feeling the pain again…"
"Pain…?" Crim wondered, "I had a feeling of uplifting; of euphoria when I first bonded with the SP Ball. Kind of like a sugar rush, but stranger."
"What pain?" Gerard echoed, "My experience of the bonding was just a tingling all over my body; felt funny, but wasn't painful, no."
Before any of them had a chance to respond again, Crim gave a small yelp.
"It's already five minutes to one! We'd better hurry if we're to get there on time…!"
She hurried off, followed by Gerard. Angela turned to go, but then stopped, turning back to look at him one more time. The expression in her eyes told him that the pain, for her, was all too real.
A/N: Chapter 39, complete in one night! If I had the internet connection up and running, I'd probably upload it tonight. But I don't; so there. There. A full explanation of the SP balls, just what you wanted! Almost. You can't, of course, be sure that their explanations were genuine; there's a lot more going on than most people know, or even understand.
And I'm realizing that the reason there was only one badge-collector in every Pokémon show is because it just takes too darn long to go through four battles in one Gym. Don't worry, though, I will prevail! I hope. Anyways, if you liked it, hated it, want to eat it (don't know if that's good or not) then review!