Nimbasa Arc: Gotten Lucky

"Can you fight some more, Absol?" Jacky asked, her voice trembling slightly. The Pokémon nodded doggedly as Manectric readied itself for another attack. Wild lightning twitched around it. Elesa stretched out her hand.
"Thunderbolt!" Manectric's lightning condensed before it shot a beam of electricity at Absol, who managed to dodge it. Manectric kept firing and the lightning bolts hit the ground behind Absol. Flashes twitched in the electric field and Absol growled. It would collapse any moment. "Psycho Cut!" Absol bit out and shot a brightly glowing blade at Manectric. The latter dodged it effortlessly. "Slash!" Jacky commanded, and Absol leapt forward. The attack hit Manectric's shoulder and it growled. Then, it built up more energy again with Charge, only to strike with Rising Voltage again shortly after. Absol leapt into the air and landed farther away. Manectric growled darkly and charged at the opponent. "Razor Wind! Stop it!" Absol fired bright sickles at Manectric. The latter deftly dodged them, but one hit it in the paw. It buckled for a moment. "Now! Go, go, Absol!" Absol jumped forward and lashed out with Slash. This attack did not miss the target and Manectric was forced back. "You guys are quite obstinate, I'll give you that. Manectric! Use Rising Voltage!" Manectric discharged a massive mass of electricity into the ground. The current in the electric field grew stronger and lightning twitched around Absol. It cried out loudly and Jacky gasped as a brief, lightning-like pain ran through her body. For a split second. "..." Absol staggered. Its legs threatened to give way. It stubbornly gritted its teeth and resisted defeat with all its might. "Let's finish it, Manectric! Thunder Bolt!" Manectric nodded and lunged at Absol. "Psycho Cut!" Jacky shouted. Absol suppressed another tremor of its body and waited until Manectric was close enough before its blade lit up and it executed a well-placed counterattack. The attack hit Manectric's ribs, knocking it off balance. "Razor Wind!" Absol unleashed another blade storm, which Manectric was now unable to dodge. It was nearly brought to its knees by the full force of the attack. "Let's put an end to this, Absol! Psycho Cut again!" Absol leapt forward, snarling, and let the attack thunder against Manectric's ribs. The electric Pokémon growled out, its legs gave way, and it went down. The lightning that crackled around its body weakened and faded. The electric terrain cleared. Absol staggered violently and Jacky feared it would topple over as well, meaning the battle would be lost after all, but the Pokémon managed to stay on its paws. "Hmph..." Elesa nodded appreciatively. "You beat me after all. Not too bad." She withdrew Manectric. Absol dragged itself back to Jacky and dropped into her arms, exhausted. She hugged it tightly.

"We won! You held on bravely, Absol!",
"What an embarrassment to lose twice in a row... But that's part of being a gym leader." Elesa came over to Jacky, who withdrew her Absol and faced her. The model stopped in front of her and held out an open box to her. "Here. You bravely claimed this one." Jacky reached out and took the badge from the box very carefully, as if she were afraid it would crumble if she squeezed too hard. She looked at the little glittery object in her hand before placing it in her badge box with a smile. The audience cheered and shouted congratulations to her on her victory. Mari came up to her. "You really turned the corner on that one!" she commented, holding out her fist to Jacky. "Well done." Jacky pressed her own fist against it. "Thanks...", "Now, your Pokémon need a break. They're exhausted. This battle visibly took a lot out of them.",
"True..." Jacky nodded. "Thanks for the battle, Elesa.",
"It was my pleasure," the gym leader humbly countered. "Go, kids."

"What exactly was that stunt you pulled with Noibat?" Mari asked when they were back at the Pokémon Center. "It was a really stupid idea to use it in the first place.",
"I know... I noticed..." Jacky muttered resignedly. "I don't know what got into me either...", "Thanks to that, you almost blew the battle. You've been extremely lucky that Absol was able to hold on long enough to be victorious in the end.",
"I know... I had extreme panic in between." She leaned back. "...For a moment, I even thought I could feel Absol's pain when Manectric electrocuted it...",
"You must have imagined it.",
"Yeah, definitely... I guess I was too overwhelmed with the whole thing. I'll never underestimate the usefulness of type advantages and disadvantages ever again...",
"Good plan. That battle hurt just watching it.",
"I can imagine..." Jacky scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. "I shouldn't have let the battle get out of hand so quickly... I almost gave up.",
"You better don't end up becoming like me and making the same mistakes..." Mari sighed. "Giving up on something you believe in just because you think you'll never make it... is an attribute of the weak. Nothing worth having just falls into your hands and no changes come unless you step up and make them happen. I know that way too well, because giving up on everything and just let things happen is what I've done a lot when I was younger. Don't be like I've been.",
"I'm trying...",
"Good. Enough reprimands. You look beat, you should rest.",
"Good plan...",
"After that, we can go to the musical hall. There's a musical playing today, and I think it sounded interesting.",
"Agreed. I can really use a little distraction..."

After Jacky had rested a bit, the two of them went to see the musical. They both liked it a lot, it was entertaining and very well performed. They kind of let their hair down in Nimbasa, tried out all kinds of stuff at the amusement park that they hadn't gotten to yet- though Jacky didn't let herself be lured into the Ferris wheel again- and had a lot of fun.

Then, a week later, they felt it was time to move on to Driftveil. Before they left, however, they decided to have another training battle, as practice for the Driftveil gym. Jacky thought that Medicham was in particularly good shape today and sent it into battle. Mari chose Zoroark for experimental reasons. She decided against making use of his Illusion ability. She merely wanted to test out the new possibilities that came her way after Zorua's evolution. "Well then! Zoroark, Shadow Ball!",
"We'll do the same!" Both Pokémon sent out an attack, their shadow balls colliding and exploding with a loud bang. Mari took advantage of the smoke to send Zoroark into the ground with Dig. It shot out from under Medicham and threw it into the air with force. "Shadow Claw!"
Zoroark leapt into the air and the attack was on point. Medicham crashed to the ground, but managed to roll off and quickly get back to his feet.
"Shadow Ball!"

Medicham formed a Psycho Cut blade in its hand and destroyed the Shadow Ball before it zigzagged towards Zoroark. "Shadow Claw! Stop it!",
"Get it!" As Zoroark attacked, Meditalis put a hand around Zoroark's wrist and held it in place. "Brick Break!" With his free hand, Medicham sent its opponent to the ground. Zoroark shook itself and immediately got back up. "Again, go!" Zoroark hissed and struck again, but Medicham used its Protect and Zoroark's attack bounced against it ineffectively. "Shadow Ball!" A blink of an eye later, a dark orb crashed into Zoroark's chest and it backed away, holding its ribcage with one hand. "Night Daze, let's go!" Zoroark exhaled and then sent a giant wave of shadows at Medicham, which was hit by them and faltered, but withstood the attack. "Shadow Shard, Medicham! Just like we practiced in training!" Jacky shadow. "Shadow what now?" Mari asked, raising her eyebrows. Medicham formed a Shadow Ball in front of it and burst it. The shards rained down at Zoroark. "Use Dig, quickly!" Zoroark escaped the attack and shot out of the ground right in front of Medicham. It struck with Shadow Claw, but Medicham was able to defend itself in time with a new shield. Zoroark's speed was remarkable. Medicham threw Zoroark back, which dropped to all fours and zigzagged rapidly toward its opponent. It lunged and hit it in the side with Shadow Claw. Medicham held the spot tensely as it backed away. "Go after it!" Jacky shouted at it. Medicham nodded and set after Zoroark, which had again created distance between them. It ran away from Medicham before suddenly whirling around and its claws hit its pursuer in the stomach. The Pokémon buckled for a moment. "Come on, Zoroark! Don't let it breathe! Keep striking!" Zoroark nodded and began to attack furiously.
"Don't give up, Medicham!"

Medicham dodged the attacks and blocked others with Protects, but it found it difficult to stay on its feet. Zoroark promptly took advantage of this. It disappeared back into the ground and appeared behind Medicham, from where it fired a Shadow Ball. "Behind you!" Jacky shouted, but too late. The attack hit Meditalis in the back. It sank to its knees. "Now, use Night Daze!" The shadows burst upon Medicham without mercy. It braced itself convulsively against the ground and sat out the attack before hoisting itself back to its feet and retaliating with Brick Break. Zoroark was hit in the shoulder and it had to step back. "Are you okay, Zoroark?" Mari asked. Zoroark nodded bravely. "Okay. Shadow Ball!" Zoroark attacked again and Medicham jumped back. The ball exploded on the ground in front of it, kicking up dust. Medicham coughed and held its arms in front of its face. Zoroark burst through the cloud of smoke seconds later and its claws struck Medicham on the upper arm. It groaned and slumped to its knees. "Ooookay, that's enough!" Mari commanded. She came to Zoroark and patted its head. "Don't you think so? We're fit." Zoroark nodded and enjoyed the petting. Jacky supported Medicham and helped it back to its feet. "Well done, Medicham. Get some rest." She withdrew it and put the ball away. "I still can't believe Zoroark has gotten so strong.",
"Well..." Mari scratched the illusion fox behind the ear before withdrawing it as well. "Supposed to happen sometimes. But, uhm... What kind of attack is that 'Shadow Shard' thing you did with Medicham? Never heard of that one before.",
"Oh, it's, uhm... It's something we tried out in training. In my opinion, Shadow Ball itself is easy to dodge or block. So, I figured shattering it would make it harder for opponents to evade the attack. I mean, sure, it loses impact force and general power. But it's more distributed and can target a wider range, like, you know, Ice Shard or something of that nature, and thus, it becomes harder to counter. It's practically a Shadow Ball, but we use it a little differently.",
"Aaah, I see. So it's more of a stealth attack then, yes?",
"Somewhat, yes.",
"So, instead of concentrating on generating an attack directed at one place, you scatter it to not only be able to target a wider vicinity, but to also make it harder to escape. Makes sense.",
"Yeah, it... was just a spontaneous thought I had. I think it worked out rather beautifully!",
"I can only agree. But what else to expect from a talented trainer like you? I might come back to this later.",
"What, are you going to steal my idea?" Jacky asked jokingly. Mari shook her head. "Of course not. But I think it might be rather... helpful to be able to modify moves like that. It might cause a decent surprise on the opponent's side, as it isn't common among trainers to do that.",
"Well... you're right on that one.",
"Mhm. Well then! Driftveil, here we come!",
"Oh yeah! Let's go!"