Chapter 48: Shots Fired
"You want to get serious about battling enough to kill my pokemon, huh, Adam? My near-brand new Frosmoth that I've only gotten to use a handful of times, and you want to order your Passimian to smash her into roadkill with a slab of rock?! And then you have the gall to try and end the battle right in the middle - oh no, no, no, no, no little brother." Although most people would be sounding more angry and hurt while mentioning ther lost pokemon, Evan's voice only sounded increasingly more manic and excited at how much more of a challenge this battle was shaping up to be then our previous encounter in the chambers of St. Meloetta's Church. The drooling had leveled up to be Evan just spitting loads of saliva everywhere as he ranted on, gripping onto the necks of his prized Dodrio he was still mounted on top of.
"I choose another one of my new Galar-region pokemon to take out your fucking monkey. Even though I could easily take that thing out with Mr. Mime or Dodrio, I'm going to prove to you that you just got a lucky shot in and take you down without any type advantage, because I am the superior trainer." Evan hurled a second pokeball from his belt, a black and yellow blur that I knew was the incredibly expensive Ultra Ball, and what popped out of it didn't quite resemble any pokemon I'd ever seen before.
It was one of the most anthropomorphic pokemon I'd ever laid eyes on - the first thing I noticed were its two incredibly long, skinny, black legs that went up for days into an upright, bipedal standing position with a hint of a cool slouch in there. The pokemon had black gloves on over what were - fingers? Yep, this blue-and-black skinned, five fingered, half-lidded eyed, long blue tailed pokemon also had a yellow fin sticking out of the top of its head resembling a 70's hairstyle and I knew I was in for an unexpected battle with whatever this thing was.
"This pokemon's the mother fucking standard issue official water type pokemon of the Galar region - only given out directly by Professors of the region to the most promising of young trainers as their starter mon - and I got one fully evolved thanks to my connections with Team Anonymous. I have pokemon as rare as this here Intelleon or Frosmoth or Mega Steelix - and what do you have? The flying squirrel?" Evan smirked mockingly at Emolga, who was still flying in the air slightly above my left shoulder, like one of those cartoon devils or angels always end up doing when characters are facing morality issues. "The outdated ghost type?" Evan locked eyes with my Gengar who was perched slightly above my right shoulder, with both his arms crossed, not breaking contact with Evan in a silent battle of glaring.
As I involuntarily shivered with a start, I recalled that the seven of us were all standing in an isolated patch of No Man's Land that had temporarily become enveloped with snow that covered the ground and rock formations for several hundred yards around us. Evan's Frosmoth sure had a lot of oomph to compensate for hardly being used if Evan was speaking the truth when he said he hardly got to battle with her. If that was the case, how much power could the pokemon he did use all the time, like Dodrio or Mr. Mime, dish out in comparison? Because covering any part of the dune-infested, dead-earthed No Man's Land with fluffy, cold snow was surely quite a feat.
"Passimian, let's take this one down even quicker than we did the Frosmoth!" I shouted encouragingly even though my comment didn't necessarily help Passimian in any way - it was more so to get under my brother's skin, and it was working. As Passimian trudged carefully to an appropriate 50 foot distance in the snow between the monkey and the lizard - the Intelleon was one-legged kneeling in the snow, pawing one of its gloved hands through the remaining snow on the ground, watching and taking it in carefully, seemingly oblivious to my Passimian as he made his presence known. It was as if the Intelleon had never seen snow before.
Deciding not to wait and to seize the potential opening of Intelleon's guard being down, I ordered out, "Just charge Intelleon and Close Combat head on!" Why bother doing anything less than throwing out my most damaging move against this bizarre lizard pokemon?
"Dark Pulse the ground!" Evan reacted sharply, nearly bouncing with rapid energy aboard his Dodrio that I could tell by its annoyed eyes didn't appreciate the unsteady rider, but was far too loyal to let Evan know and do anything other than stand tall with its feet entrenched deep in the snow.
Even at the speed Passimian was rushing toward Intelleon with his fists flying in every direction getting ready to pummel them into the lizard's torso over and over was not enough. Whether it was the snow on the ground slowing him down a little, or just Intelleon's superior reflexes - it didn't matter. With a burst of dark energy unlike most I've seen, the skinny lizard used the hand he had been sifting and pawing at the snow with to fire off a powerful blast of dark energy focused in a single beam of pure black energy - directly below him into the snow and earth. The momentum and power from which Intelleon summoned out of his paw, combined with his incredibly skinny and no doubt light body, sent Intelleon flying directly into the air while his Dark Pulse kept firing into the ground, the beam of black energy growing and extending, forcing Intelleon higher and higher just as Passimian collided into the Dark Pulse with his Close Combat, the monkey attempting to pummel what had moments ago been his blue opponent but was now a pole of dark energy that, while tough, Passimian's fists managed to clobber and decimate in a manner of seconds, leaving Intelleon suspended in mid-air for just a second as the Dark Pulse that had sent him 100 feet in the air was quickly destroyed.
Intelleon began sailing back down to the snowy ground below when Evan called out, "Use Reflect!" Evan sure liked using screens.
"Find another rock and use it to Smack Down that Intelleon so he doesn't keep taking to the sky!"
While a familiar shimmer like glassy skin seemed to envelop Intelleon as he plummeted back down to earth in order to boost his defense against Passimian's physical attacks, Passimian scurried and rummaged through a few piles of snow before coming up with a fresh, small slab of broken rock in one of his fists and a determined look in his eyes as he looked toward the sky at the descending water type.
Passimian chucked the slab of rock at Intelleon as it was just 20 feet directly above him, but Intelleon managed to avert the incoming missile with a smooth spin, even going so far as to slap at the rock with a beautifully satisfying THWACK using its tail, and the Smack Down rock went ricocheting right back down to earth even faster than Intelleon - the rock smacked off of Passimian's head, luckily bouncing right off the coconut perched like a helmet, and landing back in the snow. While the Smack Down hurt and it caught Passimian off guard, it was a resisted hit thanks to his useful Fighting typing and it didn't do much damage in the long run - but Intelleon had landed on both two feet gracefully, right beside Passimian just as he realized his own Smack Down had been fired back at him.
"Snipe Shot!" Evan ordered a move I had never heard of before, but it had been pointless, as both my pokemon and I discovered what this move entailed even before Evan started.
It was definitely a water move, that much was certain. Intelleon raised up one of his gloved hands in an almost comical gun snape, with the thumb pointing up as the safety, the pointer finger shaped as the barrell straight out towards Passimian's head, and the other 3 fingers folded in like the handle and trigger. And from the pointer finger, a powerfully concentrated, thin stream of water fired out like a bullet, right into the back of Passimian's head.
Passimian went flying several feet, the force of the Snipe Shot sending him off his feet until he landed upside down with his back right up against a large boulder that had been freshly sprinkled with snow.
"Easy," chided Evan with a chuckle, and even two of his Dodrio's two heads joined in, although one of them was too busy sniffling and snorting out mucus while looking momentarily miserable from standing in snow and ice..
"It's far from over, assshole," I spat at Evan. I looked toward Passimian. "I know you got more in you! Quick Attack, get out of that position, you're too vulnerable!"
"Don't ease up now on the monkey! Snipe Shot him again!"
The Intelleon remained standing in place and aiming, now with both hands, at poor Passimian who was pressed up against the boulder like it was a firing range. Passimian kept attempting to Quick Attack his way out of the line of fire, but Intelleon was relentless with his attacks, firing water bullet after water bullet, each one a clean hit on a different part of Passimian's body and each one sending him flying back into the massive boulder where he would be sprawled out and easy pickings for the next shot, with nowhere to go.
"Passimian!? T-Try Brick Breaking your way through the-" I stopped halfway through my command, because I knew it was pointless. Intelleon had been firing Snipe Shot after Snipe Shot, unendingly, for at least three or four minutes. I had tried ordering Passimian to Close Bombat his way through, to Quick Attack his way through, to Smack Down, to everything his way through, but either he couldn't hear me through the wave of unceasing wave of Snipe Shots firing into him from them damaging his ear drums, or he had been too choked up from swallowing several Sniper Shots directly into his open mouth and drowned minutes ago. Either way, the inhuman and unnatural way that Passimian's body was being limply cast into the boulder over and over let me know that somehow in the assault of attacks from this Intelleon - he had murdered my Passimian when any other trainer would have ceased the attack long ago when it was clear Passimian was beat.
I had done nothing. I had just sat back and watched as Passimian, the very last pokemon of Eliza's that she had trusted in me to take care of, was freshly murdered before my very eyes, by my brother's own pokemon.
CRAAaacccCKKOWWW!
A bolt of Thunder came striking out of the clear grey sky like an angry god and struck Intelleon directly upon his back, just as quickly as Intelleon had been firing Snipe Shots into my Passimian. Evan, Dodrio, Gengar, and I all simply watched in awe at the massive jolt of electricity firing intently and so concentrated on such a slim target, and Intelleon at last relented on firing out his own shots as his entire body started contorting and warping at inhumane speeds as the Thunder enveloped, overwhelmed, and cooked the water type pokemon alive.
Emolga had flown up to a higher point than even Intelleon had propelled himself using his Dark Pulse in order to get closer to the sky as well as get a clearer image of her target before she had struck him with her most powerful attack.
When Emolga at last relented on her Thunder, with the lightning dissipating as quickly as it had arrived, all that had remained of the Intelleon were several charred chunks of blue flesh, a few bones, and a pile of ash. And in that moment, caught up with seeing the shocked look on Evan and Dorio's face, and defending my troopers Emolga and Gengar and in honor of Passimian, I let my mouth get the better of me as I shouted out to my older brother who had just had his second pokemon killed by my team.
"I guess even the official water starter of the Galar region can't handle a couple shocks from the flying squirrel."
And then things went from oh so bad to so much worse.