Disclaimer: Pokémon is still owned by The Pokémon Company, which in turn is owned by Nintendo, Game Freak, and probably others I forgot. The following fanfiction is me playing around in their sandbox, using characters they envisioned and created, except for the odd character that wasn't. I own nothing of this.
Chapter 26: The Known Surprise
After both of the Trainers had reached their boxes, they bowed to each other from across the field. It caused a few whispered comments around Danny, but most of them were appreciative, about how these youngsters were so polite to each other.
The risks of sitting in front of a bunch of pensioners, Danny supposed. It had been the only open spot anywhere near where he'd been, off buying some food for later.
It'd be a bit of a weird battle. Max had come to the Center late, after Serena, Evan, and Chris had already left, and he'd requested to go to the Ever Grande Conference website. Apparently, Nicholas – and that had been a weird call the day before, requiring explanation – had asked that they only use Pokémon that had been with them back in Hoenn.
Maybe it was a small disadvantage for Max in team depth, but he had told Danny that Nicholas knew perfectly what he was asking. And that the Kalosian expected to lose. He just wanted a good battle, and Max wanted to give him that.
The first of those Pokémon turned out to be a proud pyroar; mane luxurious and roar piercing, causing an involuntary shiver to run down Danny's spine. He appeared well cared for, and under the midday sun… Fire-types were very common this tournament for a reason, and Water-types were even less common than normal.
Clefairy wasn't the best from a Type perspective, but the amount of stupidity that the small Pokémon could pull from Metronome had always been impressive. Sometimes, it wasn't a positive, though – Danny vividly remembered the time she used Hyper Beam against dusclops.
A predictable few opening moves occurred; Flamethrower meeting Metronome that turned into a miniature deep grey tornado – a Twister dispersing the flame everywhere and causing cinders to drop onto the standard field. In its wake, pyroar broke into an easy lope, looking to get closer without falling victim to something that his opponent could throw at him.
A Gravity field clipped the lion, causing him to stumble, and clefairy followed it up with a set of Magical Leaf and a leap away. Flame incinerated most of the projectiles, but from Danny's side view, he saw a couple connect right onto pyroar's nose before the fire consumed them. The announcer missed it, saying something stupid about Magical Leaf being weak against the Fire-type.
Getting hit in a sensitive place was still going to hurt, and Max had enough tricks like that up his sleeve.
The Metronome that clefairy had gone into ended with a strange glimmer surrounding the chanting Pokémon. Danny didn't recognise it, but Max seemed to do so, telling her to be aggressive and move closer.
It invited a Flamethrower, but… Clefairy withstood it before doing some kind of Gravity trick to allow herself to jump on pyroar's back, from where Doubleslap and those razor-sharp nails were cause for Nicholas's Pokémon to start bucking like an enraged tauros. He did fling the Fairy-type off, but not before some slaps had connected, and clefairy easily stuck the landing. "Whatever that move was, it allowed clefairy to deliver a nasty-looking Doubleslap! And it hasn't worn off yet!"
The near-adult also didn't seem to know what the chant had caused, and he took a cautious approach, still going for the offence, but choosing to use Hyper Voice in case clefairy was now resistant to fire.
And Max capitalised immediately. A Disarming Voice disrupted the resonance of the Hyper Voice, and a second Hyper Voice caused pyroar to be locked into using that move or physical tackling and biting for a while as an Encore connected.
That clefairy didn't completely avoid the Normal-type move was fine – even a part of her plan. "That is some distance on there. Surely the Hyper Voice isn't that po— And clefairy is already using Metronome again!"
Yup, definitely part of her plan, but for the second time, it hit something Danny didn't know; as a flash of muted white surrounded clefairy first, and then pyroar as he charged towards her, skidding to a stop in surprise.
For some reason, the pink Pokémon looked different now, though. How, Danny couldn't put his finger on, nor could someone behind him as she asked about it.
"That'd be Entrainment," an old man said. "Makes yer Ability the same as yer opponent's. Got some uses with stuff like Flash Fire. Dunno if pyroar has tha'."
Danny did know – they didn't. And Max knew that too.
Clefairy traded a hit for a hit; using the Hyper Voice to create some distance while plinking away with pinpoint accurate Magical Leaves.
Despite the obvious strength of the pyroar, she seemed fine still, and though her back was now against the wall of shields over at Nicholas's box, she was still raring to go.
"Pyroar, Overheat!"
One of the most powerful Fire-type attacks known to Pokémon tore through the air; an incandescent beam of pure heat sparkling in the sunlight and bearing down on clefairy. The few Magical Leaves that she'd sent out were vaporised, and Danny leant forward to see if she would be able to get out in time…
There was movement, but then the shielding flared into life as it had to stop the fire from breaking through and burning the audience. It did so easily, but in that time, the audience couldn't really see what was going on; at least on Danny's side of the stadium. "Oh, if clefairy got hit by that, that could be lights out!"
Suddenly, pyroar shifted, barely avoiding one large rock coming his way before leaping straight into the second. Danny recognised those rocks – Ancient Power rocks – which meant that clefairy had been able to use her Gravity trick to hurl her out of the way without too much hurt. She did look a bit singed, he thought, but pyroar was the one whining on the ground; curled around a rock. "How on earth..." the same old lady that had asked about Entrainment exclaimed, and there was a murmur of agreement around them, and a brief discussion broke loose.
When it became clear that the announcer wasn't going to talk about it – instead preferring to narrate the Signal Beam that was barely stopped by a Flamethrower – Danny turned around in his seat, and he felt the plastic in his pocket shift. "Excuse me?" he said as an explosion sounded behind him – Hyper Voice and Disarming Voice, from the commentary. "I think I know what happened."
"And that would be?" the lady said, smiling at him; a grandmotherly air around her. The good kind, too.
"Clefairy can use her Gravity to change gravity's direction and strength. So she –"
Danny's words were interrupted by a roar of the crowd, and he saw why as soon as he turned around – another scarily beautiful Overheat burst forth, and this time, clefairy, who had closed in, was clipped, hurtling through the air, but not losing control of the flying Magical Leaves as she did – which would've been a sign that she'd be knocked out. Still, that had to hurt.
"So clefairy used Gravity to push herself out of the way, huh," the man said, and Danny half-turned, which meant he could sort-of see Max's half of the arena from the corner of his eye. "Clever. And not somethin' I'd expect from a boy."
Danny turned away as he saw clefairy get up, snapping off an Encore that didn't hit before the pyroar got a Flamethrower in, but it looked pretty weak compared to earlier. Then again, Max's Pokémon wasn't in great shape either – she was able to stop the flame with a Gravity field, but the way she held herself… Definitely hurt. Still powerful enough to force pyroar to the ground as she pushed the field into him, but that wouldn't hold him for long.
"Last one," Max told clefairy, and she wagged her fingers once again, for the… Fifth? Sixth? Time of the battle, and it seemed to Danny that the entire stadium held its breath.
Power Gem appeared, slicing through the Hyper Voice. One of the projectiles, Danny thought, went into pyroar's mouth, and the rest hit his face. It was too much for the Pokémon.
The next Pokémon was one Danny knew, but didn't really know at the same time. He'd met ninetales before, but not the Alolan versions. He knew its typing was Ice and Fairy, which was a brave move for this weather.
Max returned clefairy, and he had no hesitation as he unclipped a pokéball on his belt, sending out… Sceptile?!
Danny assumed it had to do with the agreement between the two, or Max's interpretation of it. He, unlike what sounded like everyone else, didn't care about the Grass against Ice match-up. Or even the Ice and Fairy combination that resisted all of sceptile's blade moves except for Leaf Blade. That wasn't relevant – sceptile was that good.
No, what surprised him was that Max was now using his starter this early. Danny hadn't yet, and with all the talk about hiding information… It had to be that agreement.
The match started, and he quickly memorised the time.
Nicholas's Pokémon led not with anything Ice-type, but with a Psyshock, but by the time it had formed, sceptile had already crossed nearly half of the distance in a full-on charge; one arm held behind him as he hid the Night Slash blade.
Psychic balls launched, sceptile went one, two, three, and they were completely and utterly demolished, allowing the Grass-type unhindered access to his target, and his right arm went out, slicing and connecting with ninetales's jaw with Leaf Blade.
An instant, instinctive, aura of frost surrounded the pale white Pokémon, and sceptile immediately bounded off with a mighty push of his legs. He recognised that the Blizzard wasn't ready yet, and that he could go through the air for a short spell while ninetales charged the powerful Ice-type move, tails standing on end; swaying in the cold wind.
It unleashed the Blizzard, but sceptile took the shortest path back; straight through the cold in a Quick Attack, this time going for a grapple and absorb combination. He forced the fox to the ground, carefully keeping its jaw shut so an Ice Beam couldn't easily form, draining some energy, and then getting away when a sudden Psyshock appeared alongside the localised cold.
One of the projectiles hit sceptile's tail, but he gave it a look before deciding it wasn't worth his time, instead firing off a rapid-fire Bullet Seed salvo that only missed because ninetales had already been in the process of moving around.
Danny expected an Ice Beam to come out now – the attack being ever-present among all Ice-types – and he wasn't disappointed, but neither did sceptile disappoint. Quick Attack saved him from being turned into a frozen lizard-like Pokémon, and when another Psyshock appeared, he switched to an X-Scissor on his blades as he sped along.
The Psychic projectiles were swatted back effortlessly while at speed, and ninetales just couldn't dodge both them and sceptile in time. This time, there was no mercy, as Max's Pokémon delivered a brutal one-two-three combination: right blade staggering the Alolan Pokémon; left blade throwing her off the ground as he jumped up, and then the right again pile-driving her down. It was only two feet, if that, but the amount of energy sceptile put in the smash was enough to cause a cloud of dust to be thrown up.
"Ninetales is knocked out."
A minute five from start to finish. It was enough to make the entire stadium buzz with excitement and awe, while Nicholas was shaking his head ruefully, probably regretting having asked for Hoenn Pokémon only. The Kalosian recognised that he had made his bed, though, and readied his third Pokémon without delay.
Heracross made sense and not at the same time. Like the ninetales, it – she: the horn was vaguely heart-shaped – was resistant to most of the blades that sceptile could form, leaving him reliant on the physical aspect of hitting other Pokémon. They were also at least twice as heavy if Danny recalled, but choosing a Pokémon that wanted to get in close played right into sceptile's strengths too. Nicholas had used a palossand earlier in the tournament, too – which would've left him weak to Grass, sure, but at least the Ghost-type had ways of disrupting Max's plans.
But right now, Danny was pretty certain this was going to be a win for Max without losing a Pokémon. Barely, because clefairy probably couldn't take a lot more, but it was pretty impressive.
Heracross lifted herself off the ground immediately after she was allowed to, flying towards sceptile, horn lit up with Megahorn. In return, sceptile waited, bracing himself.
The impact threw dust outwards, but sceptile's blade-and-a-half block with X-Scissor held. Then he removed the right arm from his blade, which caused Megahorn to start to overpower him, but it was all calculated: Max's Grass-type ducked, which caused heracross to overbalance. In that moment, a Leaf Blade shot up, hitting the Bug-type in the abdomen and forcing her off.
She landed upside down, but she flipped herself back upright in an instant, rushing forwards with claws glowing. The first Arm Thrust hit sceptile harder than he was expecting, and the parry barely held. The second forced him to adjust his stance to something a lot less stable, and heracross thrust forward a third time with – Danny imagined – a loud cry of triumph.
Only for the starter to flip the script on her. Pushing forward into the still-locked claw-and-blade on his right, heracross, again, found herself overextended and out of balance. The Arm Thrust did hit sceptile's side, but it was a glancing hit, and heracross was soon lifted into the air. A quick flutter of small wings made the Dual Chop that went straight for her horn miss, but sceptile recovered pretty fast, unleashing a spray of Bullet Seeds to try and force the blue Pokémon out of the sky again.
That happened, and this time, a slight red tinge overtook heracross's eyes as she sunk into the rhythm of a Close Combat strategy the moment that she landed. A thrust forward, parried. A horn swiped: deflected and paid for with a Leaf Blade landing, but a kick hit sceptile in the side, and he had to block two punches and take a few steps backwards.
Two or three more than strictly needed, in fact.
The Forest Pokémon lunged forward in a close-range Quick Attack, breaking the meditation that heracross had going and forcing both of them to the ground, where the fight turned into a chaos in which both Pokémon got in several hits, with one big difference from before: sceptile was the attacker this time.
The defending heracross eventually forced him away with a mighty heave and maybe a hint of Megahorn, but if it had bothered Max's Pokémon, it didn't show. He landed on his feet, looking a bit worse for wear, but still eager to go, Leaf Blades as vibrant as ever, while heracross looked a bit scruffy.
But it wasn't nearly over yet, and both Pokémon surged forwards at the same time: sceptile sticking with Leaf Blades while heracross looked for opportunities with Arm Thrust.
Swipes, hews, and slashes met careful blocks for seven attempts, but the eighth was a miss as the Leaf Blade suddenly vanished – causing the arm to overshoot – and reappeared in a better position a moment after. The blow unbalanced heracross, and sceptile turned on his feet, slamming his tail into the Fighting-type.
She managed to grab hold of it before being flung off, though, and the plan went awry as sceptile was sent flying himself, though again, he managed to stick the landing easily, not even needing a hand to the ground. It did allow a few seconds for heracross to catch her breath and for her to start concentrating on something.
Something orange and purple."Giga Impact!"
Danny didn't like that. Maybe Nicholas was trying to knock sceptile out in one go with an attack that couldn't really be blocked like the others could, but if he had to guess, sceptile wasn't even half done.
"Off course!" Max commanded in return, and for once, Danny had no idea what to make of the command.
But it became clear soon enough. Sceptile planted both of his hands into the ground, unleashing a pretty weak Frenzy Plant – nowhere near as strong as others could use. But the single root that burst out from the ground was perfectly timed, and the low-flying heracross was knocked away, causing Giga Impact to miss sceptile and instead hit the shielding straight behind him.
Sceptile recovered faster, and this time, heracross was unable to withstand the flurry of attacks that came her way. By the time she was putting up resistance, sceptile was too close to her, within her guard, and only something like what ninetales had done earlier with the Blizzard would throw him off. That was not in heracross's moveset, however, and the Bug-type fell.
"Three to nothing! A dominant performance from the teenager from Petalburg! Look out in the Full Battles, folks, because he looks hungry for more!"
Danny scoffed as he stood up, thinking of what way he had to go to find the changing room Max was probably in. Hungry for more? The only thing Max was probably hungry for was actual lunch, thanks to being scheduled at around noon.
Which was why Danny had bought an energy bar prior to the match to give to Max.
It took him about ten minutes to make his way over to the changing room he thought Max was in – three of which had been taken up by a girl wanting to take a picture with him for some reason. He'd never understand fans, but smiling and nodding was easy enough.
After making sure it was the right changing room – he'd recognise those clothes lying on a bench anywhere – he sat down, waiting for Max to finish his shower.
Once he did, and once the blue-haired teen started flopping out of the shower area on slightly too big bath slippers, Danny threw the energy bar in that direction.
It hit Max on the chest, but he didn't even blink as he picked it up, only stopping to adjust the towel slung around his waist a tiny bit after doing so. "Hi to you too," he said as he unwrapped the food. "Couldn't have said you were here?"
"Where's the fun in that?"
"As you remind me so often," Max replied, but Danny knew that the younger boy loved it all the same. "Don't get why you went to sit in the audience instead of in the booth at arena level," he added before biting into the bar.
"That's the reason." Max stopped himself from taking a second bite out of the food, wordlessly asking a question. "Yeah. By the time I had one of those, it was about a minute until the battle." Danny shrugged. "Your clefairy tricks impressed a couple of old people. And I'm impressed you got that much done with Frenzy Plant."
"Sceptile could've dodged it for ages, but I saw where he stood, so why not. Not like I didn't have other Pokémon left." Max stood up, reaching for his clothing, and the older teen promptly stood up and turned around, facing the door. "Still has a long way to go, though."
"I'm not sure if it's worth it," Danny replied honestly. "You put that time into Frenzy Plant over the last month – along with regular scrapping, sure – and I got swampert to perfect Ice Punch in that time. And with this weather, too – Solarbeam works too, y'know."
"Maybe, but too late to worry about that now," Max replied. "I'm decent, by the way."
Decent meant trousers on, but that was fine. "True. No use crying over spilt milk. Bet Nicholas might be a little annoyed that he went for that challenge, though."
"Nah, he wouldn't be. He asked for it himself."
"Sceptile too?"
"Not in so many words, but he didn't want me to hold back anything. So I didn't." Max looked up after putting socks on his feet. "Bit more ruthless, right?"
~~§~~§~~
There was no warning for Max. One moment, he and Danny were casually walking down the pretty empty streets of Silver Town; the second Monday of the League. It was a day without any battles, and with only sixteen Trainers left in the tournament, a lot of people had left or were using the day to wake up late. As a result, not a lot of people were around to see Max nearly stumble and plant his face onto the pavement as something hit him in the back.
Something also pulled him back, but that wasn't needed, even as a Pokémon climbed up onto Max's shoulder, and he saw yellow from the corner of his eye. "No need to tackle me to the ground, pikachu," he said as Danny held in laughter – if the snort was anything to go by. "And Ash being up at this hour? Did I miss something?"
"I heard that," the Frontier Brain replied, not at all hurt by the accusation. It was true after all. "And it's all your fault anyway."
Max turned around fully, now seeing Ash in the morning sunlight. There was a second Pokémon next to him, explaining the small tug he had felt. "An abra? Huh."
"Huh?" Danny echoed. "Whatcha mean by that?"
"Just… Never thought Ash was the type for a Psychic Pokémon. No offence." Max shrugged, which caused pikachu to tense up a bit from the movement. "And why is it our fault?"
"Looked out the window, saw your backs." The Pallet Town native pointed back down the street to a hotel. "At least, I thought it was you. So I told pikachu to go find out while I went after him."
"And abra?" Danny asked, as Max checked the Pokémon by Ash's side. It was attempting to levitate itself, but it didn't appear to work that well.
"I'm not going to jump out of a third floor window without aid."
"Getting old, I see," Max remarked lazily, being rewarded with pikachu making a sound that sounded like a guffaw. "Though I'm not sure why you didn't just take the stairs. We would've waited."
"Got a reputation to keep up with you," Ash shot back with a grin. "'sides, any practice and all that. Only caught him last week and we don't think he's that old."
Max agreed, watching abra's attempts and noticing a slight hiccup in the self-levitation. It turned into the Psychic-type losing focus, dropping out of the hover, but Ash was there to return the beige Pokémon. "So, you here to check on future challengers? Have you even had any yet?"
"Just the one. Didn't work out for him. Pikachu knows more about that," the Frontier Brain told them, and Max thought the mouse struck a satisfied pose. Hard to tell, though. "You're right about the future challengers, though. Scott's going to invite a few people."
"Hope he's got a better way of springing it on people than he did with you," Max muttered as his spirits rose. The fact that Scott was here for invites gave them a chance to be invited themselves. "Is his driving still as bad as it was?"
Ash didn't need to answer in words to confirm it. The wry look and the complaining pikachu did that for him. "Turned down the ride here, flew in on tropius instead."
"Is it that bad?"
"It's worse," the two teenagers who had experienced the horror chorused. "He can make you seasick in a car." Danny looked surprised. "I don't know how he does it either."
"Enough about him, though. He won't be looking for you because..." A pause as Ash cleared his throat. "If you want to do the Battle Frontier, you can."
Silence. For about three seconds as the words echoed in Max's brain. "We're invited?" Danny asked, sounding like he wanted to make absolutely sure.
"Yep. You're invited. Youngest ever, blah blah blah. But Scott's had an eye on you since December and I know he's talked to a couple of the Gym Leaders. They were pretty positive."
Somehow, Max doubted that had included Lance for his Rising Badge challenge. Though it could've been Clair and the video. "Well… Guess we know where to go next."
"Yeah," Danny agreed, still… Uncertain? "Sorry. Max was convincing enough we'd get an invite, but..."
"But getting the invite is different," Ash finished for Danny.
"Yeah. Yeah, that's it," Danny agreed too quickly. There was more there. "It's just… I've never won a Full Battle."
"How many have you been in?"
"Two," Danny answered. "Not counting spars, of course. Both in Kalos."
Ash put his hand on Danny's shoulder, and Max's best friend looked a bit uncertain. "Where you lost to the winner and Max. But let me tell you a secret of the Battle Frontier," the Frontier Brain said, acting as if he was going to reveal something really big.
Max barely held laughter in when Ash looked around for eavesdroppers.
"Nearly all of the Battle Frontier doesn't have Full Battles either. With one exception, but that's only if you get lucky. Or unlucky." He shrugged, taking his hand off of the shoulder. "Greta added a Full Battle option as a small chance on her wheel."
That explained it. Max certainly didn't remember any Full Battles from that time. Three on three or two on two, mostly. "You're sticking with three on three?" he asked, but Ash didn't answer, smiling instead. "Fine, be that way."
"Right," Danny said, sounding both relieved and a tiny bit confused. "There's seven places, with the first six fixed and then the seventh… Moving? In a giant pyramid?" Nods all around greeted his attempt to get back to what he felt was normal.. "That's just too much."
"Brandon is a bit eccentric, but a very strong Trainer," Ash said, surprising Max – who hadn't expected Ash would know how to use 'eccentric'. The Pokémon on his shoulder seemed similarly surprised. "And yeah, that's it. You can't challenge the Battle Pyramid until you've done the others, which are all over the Kanto region. Max can probably tell you where all of them are."
That was a challenge he was up to. "The Factory's near Cerulean on Route 4. The Arena is north of Saffron, and the Dome is east of it, near Lavender. The Pike is south-east of Fuchsia," he listed off on his fingers. "You're out near the Seafoam Islands, and the Tower is near the Tohjo Falls. Which you should remember, Danny." A pause as he realised something. "Isn't the Tower closer to Pallet than the Factory? Why didn't we go there first?"
"Because Misty was with us, remember?"
Max had completely forgotten that, but another memory surfaced. "Right. And then her sisters started giving out Badges or something."
"Sounds like them." Ash stretched before looking sheepish. "I need to go get breakfast and tell the hotel that I'm out, but one last thing, okay?"
"Sure?"
"Please leave the Battle Palace for later on, okay?" the Frontier Brain asked. "I… It's not..."
"You want to get some time to prepare because you know us and stuff," Max guessed. It seemed to be a good guess, too. "Sure. Can do that. But you owe us some help for the Conference, then."
"I was going to do that anyway."
That, Max mused as Ash's stomach grumbled loud enough that he could hear it too, was entirely the point.
~~§~~§~~
Gary had never been inside the Grand Champion's mansion. He'd had dreams of living here when he was younger, of course, but those days were as done as the mementos hanging on the wall; the paintings and pictures that watched them before they reached a more comfortable setting, with a dragonair waiting for them. "She is still doing that?" Gramps asked, sounding amused as the draconic Pokémon checked them out, moving effortlessly and gracefully through the air. She gazed into Gary's eyes for a spell, but dragons respected strength of will, and so he did not yield. "Do you inform her every time there's someone new coming here?"
"Yes," Lance admitted, to Gary's surprise. "She is protective of hearth and home like none of my other dragons are. And for more… formal visits, it serves as a reminder."
"Of what?"
"Of the power that Pokémon hold. Which is something politicians often forget in this region," Lance remarked casually, but with an undertone of steel. "Though zapdos's rampage through the Power Plant last October certainly reminded them of that." He led them to the sitting area, where drinks had already been poured. Water, but with some kind of flavouring added probably. The colour was off. "But we're not here to discuss politics per se."
"Though undoubtedly we will touch on it," Gramps said, taking a battered Gem out of his coat pocket and placing it on the table. "This makes two methods of disrupting Pokémon that have been observed in connection to Hoenn."
"They shouldn't use these for more than that," Gary mentioned before taking a gulp from the glass. Ginger and something like lemon? Huh. Refreshing at least. "You need a more powerful signal for that, and these aren't renewable. Using Pokémon is."
Gramps sighed at his blunt words, but Lance gave a careful nod. "Crude, but accurate. There have been instances of Pokémon being controlled or influenced via signals before. Team Rocket was involved, usually," he added, needlessly in Gary's opinion. Everything he'd read about had happened on Rocket turf, and nobody else had the resources to sink into that. "However, most of the time, technology, not Pokémon, was the main energy source for the control."
"Do you think it likely that this technology will also be used?"
"It is not unlikely," Lance answered Gramps's question."I've known from the beginning that Rocket technology had leaked to Hoenn. It is how the three of them were able to find the facility in the first place," he said, filling in a gap that Gary had wondered about idly, but never really had felt the need to follow up on. "But that device was a lucky shot. By now, it seems almost certain that they'll have accounted for the eventuality and masked their signals."
"Actually," Gary spoke up, drawing a hissed breath and calculating scrutiny. "They're probably using radio waves. But probably ones that wouldn't be detected easily. Out of the way of the regular bands."
The silence was absolute enough that he could hear the faint sound of air conditioning and the chime of dragonair's bell as she settled on the back of her Trainer's chair. "This is out of my expertise, but… Wouldn't you be able to mask those? Encryption is a thing."
"It's not my area either," Gramps admitted, "but doesn't radio encryption make the message unintelligible to outsiders? You can still hear it if you're tuned in right, but it'd be a message you couldn't understand. Same like intercepting a letter without the cipher."
"That makes sense, but why would..." Lance said, trailing off and looking troubled. "Never mind. I'll deal with that later." The Grand Champion collected himself, but then something else visibly came to mind, and he paled. "Professor, apart from the ralts line, which Pokémon learn Hypnosis and are native to Hoenn?"
"None I can recall offhand," Gramps said, appearing uncertain of where this was going. "Well, spinda and poliwag do, but none of those Types have been used in an attack. Why?"
"Mandarin North," were words enough to turn the older Oak pale as well, though Gary wasn't sure on the reference. Lance noticed. "A drowzee hooked up to a warehouse-sized amplifier took aggressive control of Pokémon. They were used to attack on command as opposed to the more disjointed attacks we've seen so far."
Well, fuck. Gary wasn't even surprised to find out he'd said that out loud, nor did he care about Gramps being shocked at the language. "So if they get a Pokémon that knows that… And they used a ralts before..."
"May palkia have mercy on us if they realise this," Lance invoked softly. "Samuel, Gary, it's been enlightening, but I find myself needing to talk to Sabrina and find out why one of the tech department seems to have told me a half-truth at best." The Grand Champion quickly gulped down what was left of his own ginger-lemon water. "Can you connive an excuse to get this through to Birch?"
"We can think of something. Go, Lance," his grandfather ordered, and as the red-haired man left the room, Gramps hummed in thought. "A direct approach would be too obvious. It'll have to be you, but there are no conferences in the near future." Another hum. "Are there any hard to find and to care for Pokémon you'd like to catch?"
Gary cast his mind through the Pokémon he wanted at some point. He discarded the aerodactyl and the relicanth; the former too rare and the latter too common deep under the water. Honedge weren't native to Hoenn, but that did give him an idea. "I've got a Pokémon that's hard to find in mind." He told his grandfather, who seemed pretty surprised. "I know they appear in Sinnoh as well, but it's easier and faster to get to Hoenn from Pallet."
"Some are native to Kanto too," Gramps said, surprising Gary in turn, not that he'd admit it. "But if you want one, Hoenn and Sinnoh are better options. As much as some people dislike that fact."
Wasn't that the fucking truth.
~~§~~§~~
A skitty. Danny's opponent in the round of sixteen, a man who looked like he could have a job as a personal trainer or whatever that was called, looking as manly as a man could possibly get in the teenager's opinion, started with a skitty. Not any of the Fighting-types that his profile had revealed, or even the tauros that had done a number for him in the opening rounds. A. Skitty.
It threw Danny for a loop for just a few seconds, but he he didn't see a reason to not start with what he'd planned. The Full Battles in the Silver Conference made Trainers send out Pokémon in succession instead of simultaneous, but Danny had decided he'd lead with helioptile anyway, unless something like a Ground-type came up. Skitty wasn't one, so…
The yellow Pokémon appeared on the rocky field that reminded Danny of the place he had caught her in the first place. She was also fully charged up after receiving a good week's worth of rest: she'd only been used in the very easy, very first battle of the tournament for him. The rest showed as a Thunderbolt completely shattered the opening Disarming Voice that the skitty threw out, and the cat had to skitter behind a nearby rock to avoid being electrocuted five seconds in.
Danny's Pokémon also ducked behind a rock, and once behind cover close to him, she summoned a Sandstorm that would no doubt annoy the audience, but it did well to hide her, and after what happened to the Disarming Voice, he assumed that Bruce would tell his Pokémon to get in closer. Even if the twenty-something knew it was a trap, he had to spring it.
"Left," Danny said when he saw a flash of pink dash behind a rock on that side of the arena, and a careful Thundershock was met with a Disarming Voice to block, but another quick movement blocked his sight of the small Pokémon and made it completely safe from helioptile's Electric attacks in the process. "Prepare and hold."
As he guessed, so did it happen, but the exact attack wasn't in his plans. Instead of going around, the Kitten Pokémon burst through the rocks that protected it, outlined in some kind of semi-transparent energy.
Helioptile landed the Thunderbolt she'd been holding, but it didn't do anything, as the skitty slammed itself into her, sending Danny's Pokémon into the air. She clipped a rock before slamming into the shielding on the side, but she looked awake, if hurt, and immediately, she started forming a Parabolic Charge to sap some energy back.
Skitty hadn't come off unhindered, and she had to take the hit for a little while – a Disarming Voice finally disrupting the attack, but also causing a small explosion to happen in its face, blocking its sight and causing it to sneeze.
The instinctual dodge on the Thundershock was good, but so was helioptile's guesswork, and a second one managed to send it tumbling behind a rock for cover; in Danny's view.
The yellow Pokémon looked in his direction for a moment, and he quickly made a half-circle with his right hand, telling her what path to take while skitty hid and recuperated.
It also raised a paw, and a bit of light appeared on it – and Danny recognised it from Max's description of Assist.
It coalesced into a ring of water around its small body, which Bruce's Pokémon accepted gratefully. The Aqua Ring would revitalise it a bit, but it also had a downside, and helioptile had seen it happen as she was circling around – skitty not realising that she was doing so and the Sandstorm stopping its Trainer from warning it to move while doing Assist.
Water and electricity didn't mix, and helioptile proved that with a large Thunderbolt that caused a small explosion and an airborne cat. "Track and Razor Wind!"
With a swipe of her ears, the sharp slash of air tore through the rapidly diminishing Sandstorm, to where skitty was hazily visible to Danny's eyes, and it hit at just the right time, slamming into the length of its body.
The referee ruled it out after that, and Danny was surprised for a moment before realising that the Kitten Pokémon had slammed through a rock at least twenty times its own weight earlier. With something that, in memory, looked a lot like Double Edge. Which would explain why helioptile was looking pretty fatigued despite being hit only once – there had been a lot of power behind that move.
He hoped that his defence was enough to make it through the round.
The second Pokémon surprised him for just a moment, but then the Flying-type from Sinnoh accelerated in a harsh white light that caused Danny to bite back a minced oath.
Righteous anger as staraptor Retaliated skitty's defeat was more than enough to cause another meeting of Electric-type and shielding, and though she had managed to get off at least a bit of electricity, it had done basically nothing as the staraptor dove in with talons stretched out.
The return was a forfeit, and Danny knew it, but he was fine with that.
He had also gotten a close look at the bird, and though it had flown off before he could be certain, the spot on its forehead; underneath the black-and-red crest, looked too big to belong to a female one. Which meant that it was male.
And this time, there was no Gym Leader who would run out the clock on you for not being able to chase too high. Spritzee could work very well against it, him, if Danny was right.
He hoped he was.
Some surprise echoed around the stadium, announcer included, when the Fairy-type came out. There was more of it when no order came as staraptor started flying around, looking to pick up speed for something like an Aerial Ace. Spritzee just swayed in a non-existent wind, waiting patiently to counter whatever was thrown at her as the remnants of the earlier Sandstorm died out.
It wasn't Aerial Ace. It was Brave Bird.
The Predator Pokémon crashed into spritzee's Protect with a resonating clang, sending her hurtling through the air and going down to the ground himself; groggy from the reckless move and the impact on something harder than concrete. The increased power behind the attack meant Danny's small Fairy-type would have to hope that staraptor didn't see it coming or couldn't recover as he struggled to get airborne again.
The pink light connected. "Full suite!"
Spritzee dove towards the grounded bird, who seemed a bit out of it from being struck by love while recovering. Those troubles worsened, as a barrage of Sweet Kisses – and an additional Attract for good measure – bombarded him, followed by spritzee unleashing a scented wave of sweet perfume to further soothe.
From experience, Danny knew that Sweet Kiss and Sweet Scent were already a nightmare to get out of – the confusion and the smell just working together so that you didn't really want to do anything before you fell down face first. Adding Attract to that had nearly managed to defeat Max's sceptile at one point, before he broke through it just long enough to deliver a harsh Leaf Blade.
The plan was simple enough. Spritzee would alternate Echoed Voices with Sweet Scents and Sweet Kisses – with an Attract thrown in every so often, all to create a combo that an enemy couldn't get out of. The pain from the attack would be soothed away by the love and confusion and sweetness, until the point where the body just couldn't take any more and the Pokémon fainted.
Staraptor certainly seemed like he was headed that way, throwing up a wing to shield himself from the rings, but the attempts weren't enough to shield him from the effects, and after three Echoed Voices, every single flash of light spritzee produced; be it from Sweet Kiss, Echoed Voice, or even Attract, caused the bird to flinch as he expected pain soon after.
"Staraptor just cannot snap out of the combination that spritzee has locked it in!" the announcer told the audience. "And Bruce is looking worried, but returning now would be a forfeit. Will his Pokémon snap out of it in time?"
The answer was yes. Sort of. At the eighth Echoed Voice, the wing stayed down, and there was no flinch either when the Attract was thrown – nor did Danny think there was adoration on staraptor's face as he took a few uncertain steps forward, trying to get off the ground. "Retreat and prepare."
Spritzee did so, and finally, staraptor took to the skies again. It let out an incensed cry, flying up and then diving down at a sharp angle, looking to ram into spritzee again with something like Brave Bird.
Except he didn't. At the last possible moment, the bird changed tact; and with Protect already up, it was child's play for staraptor's feet to connect with the nearly solid shield, before a mighty flap of his wings provided him with momentum upwards.
And spritzee was sent down to the ground with equal momentum. She crashed lightly, able to slow her descent just enough that it was a soft landing, but as she dusted herself off with a small shake, Danny looked up and saw staraptor finishing a mid-air turn; white energy already forming around him. It was unstable, tendrils breaking off constantly, but that didn't matter. Protect wouldn't work, and spritzee had nowhere to hide. "Moonblast!"
She got the attack off in time, but the aim on Bruce's Pokémon was too accurate. Undeflected, he crashed right into spritzee, then into the ground, and the crash was loud and big enough that the ground inside the arena trembled just a tiny bit with the impact.
"Staraptor and spritzee are both knocked out!"
"Un-be-lieveable!" the announcer yelled as Danny bit back annoyance at the combination nearly working, but not quite getting there in the end. "Staraptor, despite the beating it took, managed to take spritzee out with a single Brave Bird! Talk about strength from Bruce's Pokémon. Bet that wasn't in the game plan for Danny!"
At least that meant there were no more flying Pokémon to deal with. Danny and Max's regular looking up of things the night before had revealed several things about his opponent. The many Fighting-types were some of them, but another was that he had only used the staraptor in this tournament and the last one – which was the same Sinnoh League that Ash had won. No other fliers had appeared, unless he was keeping something up his sleeve.
Danny suspected that his next Pokémon was going to give Bruce more than a few problems regardless of what her opponent was. "Dusclops, let's go."
The azumarill on the other end was out for three seconds when it was returned. Danny didn't fully understand why: phasing through water was pretty tricky, but the Pokémon that came out explained it.
Despite their Fighting-type, machamp were capable of learning Foresight with ease. Bruce had done his homework as well, it seemed.
"Guess this is what it's going to be like," Danny muttered into the microphone as the machamp advanced and red light swept over the arena. It failed to swat a Shadow Ball away, though, meaning dusclops got the first hit in at least before everything went into a brawl. "Will-O-Wisp defence."
Machamp let loose a double punch with both of its left arms to start, but only the lower connected with dusclops's body as the other one was burnt from a sharp burst of purple flame, stopping it in its tracks. Danny's Pokémon took a step back as the fist connected, summoning another set of flame in the way of the other punches that came in from the right side, again blocking the upper arm from hitting her. Then the left side came back in, but this time, one of the fists lit itself on fire instead, and the mixed flame produced a small shock wave that forced both of the Pokémon a step back.
Machamp went for a cheeky low sweep after that, but Protect took care of it, and dusclops went forward with a Fire Punch of her own after that, landing a hit on the abdomen and throwing up enough Will-O-Wisp to safely retreat into her waiting position. She then directed the ghostly flame forwards, covering the muscled Pokémon in fire just as it was about to launch another flurry of punches.
The opening she created with that meant that the next attack was blocked with a defensive Shadow Ball, before the Will-O-Wisps came back. The pattern was the same, though: left fists, then right fists, and this time, dusclops blocked the lower arms first, making sure that the hurt was distributed equally, or as equally as possible, and leaving machamp guessing where she would block next.
"An inspired defence from dusclops. Can machamp break through?"
The reapplication of Foresight gave another short moment in which dusclops could sneak an attack of her own in: Night Shade this time. It hit machamp's foot – the only foot that was left on the ground and that couldn't move, because the other had been attempting to go for a low sweep again, but instead, the only one who ended up on the ground was machamp.
It got up fast, but it had to take a weak Shadow Ball to the face in return.
The Superpower Pokémon's stance shifted, and the red glow revealed the Close Combat it was going for. "Deflect and yield."
Protect, step back, glancing hit, dodge, Fire Punch to block and be forced back. Shadow Ball on the approach, Will-O-Wisp in exchange for being hit. Protect, step back, dodge, glancing hit, dodge, Fire Punch to block.
In Danny's opinion, the machamp was still making a mistake by not going for an all-out offensive. As the third cycle of Close Combat-aided punched began, he noticed that it was still not going in with more than two arms at a time – though at least this was a diagonal pair, which was hell to block. But it wasn't powerful enough to really force dusclops on the defence – this was like fighting sceptile with a bit more power, instead of the heavy-handed punches that swampert doled out. She had trouble defending against those for too long, because they hurt too much, but all this would do – helped by that quirk of dusclops that they tired opponents out pretty easily – was to allow her to set the pace of the battle. The announcer jeered every time that a Fire Punch block occurred, sure, and the Ice Punch that machamp threw up at the last second was a cool defence trick to stop the fist from hurting too much, but he didn't know dusclops like Danny did.
And it was no surprise that after three rounds of Close Combat, the approach on the fourth attempt was just a bit off – a tired swagger in machamp's step as it advanced. And dusclops knew perfectly well what to do in that situation, first unleashing a Will-O-Wisp to ensnare the tired machamp, and using the seconds that bought to create a Shadow Ball that then impacted on the machamp, alongside the flame.
One arm had to go to the ground as its strength failed. "Fast spread."
At maybe eight feet away, dusclops couldn't miss her target, and her target was whatever machamp used to stay standing. The first small orb connected as it tried to resume walking. The second one knocked one wrist away from the ground. The third one knocked a second wrist away from the ground, and the fourth one hit machamp in the abdomen as it tried to lunge for dusclops.
But Foresight had worn off. Even before, Danny thought, and dusclops phased out of the physical world, allowing machamp to pass through; an eerie feeling at best, and it wasn't able to completely stop itself from crashing into the ground, landing on the two lower elbows.
Dusclops delivered a Fire Punch to its left foot before phasing out again, this time moving through the rock to her left. Machamp punched straight through it, some debris connecting with the Ghost-type, but she didn't care, instead throwing a Shadow Ball out, straight into the Fighting-type's face, and it howled in pain; both of its upper hands grabbing and covering its nose.
A four-orb Shadow Ball spread impacted on the centre of mass – two on the lower arms that were blocking, two on its abdomen – and though they weren't that powerful of themselves, it was more and more chipping away at machamp's strength.
A Foresight came through, as did a spray of flame, and machamp lunged forward, looking for another heavy blow like the one that had served staraptor so well earlier.
But Protect was up, and machamp went down like a bag of potatoes.
As the break started, Danny returning and immediately sending dusclops out as per regulations, just so that the field could be refreshed, he felt that he might actually have a chance at winning this Full Battle.
~~§~~§~~§~~§~~
One of the more peculiar and not well understood Abilities is known as Pressure. Seen most often on a variety of Legendary or rare Pokémon, this Ability causes attacks to be either more draining, which is the physical application, or for them to have less effect once connecting from range. The former is observed in all Pokémon in this list, while the latter is limited to the truly powerful specimen; almost always a Legendary.
Known Pokémon with this Ability are the Legendary Birds, the Legendary Beasts, absol, dusclops and dusknoir, vespiquen, and spiritomb.
Author's Note: Or that chapter in which punches are rolled with. Cliffhanger because the chapter as-is is already the longest in this fic and I don't want to push this to a 13k monster.
I'll leave that for later. Story ain't over.
Metronome list: Twister, Lucky Chant (which manifested as minor protection through avoiding the worst of attacks), Entrainment, Ancient Power, Signal Beam, and Power Gem.