A/N: 2nd chapter already? I told you I was going to upload quickly. Anyways this next chapter showcases our first Pokémon battle in this story. And since that is the case I'm going to put a note here that in my battles, I will be removing the four-attack per Pokémon limit that exists in the games and is loosely enforced in the anime. It makes sense in the confines of the game where it adds another layer of strategy to how you build your team, but in an actual breathing world it doesn't add up to me. I mean look at egg moves. A real world explanation for egg moves is through genetic memory where physical skills can be passed genetically as they become part of the DNA through mitosis. Similarly, muscle memory should make it impossible to completely forget both Egg moves and all moves that are Physical attacks. Special attacks are a bit more difficult to explain but theoretically would operate on the same principles, and I guess TMs can be explained since they are moves embedded onto CDs and you can always rewrite CDs but...
Tyler: Uh dude... you're boring me. Can we just get on with my battle already?
DrPhill26: *sigh* Okay fine. I'll just go be a nerd who over thinks things somewhere else.
"I hope you're ready for this Justy." Tyler triumphantly stood poised confident he could take anything that Justy could throw at him. "I'm not going to lose today."
"I always liked that enthusiasm you have for battling." Justy calmly reached for his trainer belt detaching a Poké ball. "But as the leader of the Pre Gym, I won't be intimidated by you. I have a duty to uphold, and I won't hold back." A smirk rolled across both trainers faces. The excitement in the building was rapidly intensifying as everyone in attendance knew they would be treated to something special today. A judge, walked up to his elevated position beside the arena wearing a prim green colored shirt emblazoned with a Poké ball and vertical yellow stripes running the length of his shirt underneath the Poké ball symbol.
"The following is an un-official challenge to the Phenac City Prestige Precept Center." The audience around the arena roared in approval. "Our challenger today hails from right here in Phenac City, Tyler Lawson!" Tyler's right fist balled up and shot above him on announcement of his name to a roar from the crowd, before taking a ready stance; his hand hovering over Magnus', Caelum's and Eevee's Poké balls. Waiting wasn't exactly his strong suit and he wished the judge would hurry up so they could start.
"And his opponent, our fair city's top trainer and leader of the Prestige Precept Center… Justy!" In contrast to Tyler's aggressive fist pump, Justy calmly waved to everyone in attendance before he too assumed a ready stance. "Each trainer will be allowed the use of three Pokémon in this battle. The battle will end when all of either trainer's Pokémon are unable to battle. Only the challenger is allowed to substitute his Pokémon during this battle. Are both trainers ready?"
"Yes!" Tyler and Justy said in unison. Their fingers twitching over their belts respectively.
"Then let the battle begin!"
"Okay Eevee, time to shine!" Tyler ripped the Poké ball off his belt enlarging it and chucking it towards the field. In a sparkling white and silver burst of energy the Eevee emerged from her Poké ball proudly calling her name. She may have been a lazy Pokémon around the house, but her trainer's fiery passion for battling soon infected her after they became partners.
"I choose you! Cacnea!" Justy's own Pokémon, a pointy little cactus with arms entered the fray to the same sparkling burst of energy. The Pokémon flexed his arms making the barbs stick out in a show of intimidation before Justy made the first move in their fight.
"Use Needle Arm!" The cactus' arms both glowed as it charged towards Eevee intent on making this first assault as painful as possible with the barbs on his arms.
"Dodge with Double Team!" Shadowy copies of Eevee quickly appeared on the battlefield and filled their side of the field. Cacnea couldn't keep track of where the real one was from the middle of his charge and lunged at a copy with his attack causing it to dissipate on impact.
"Shift to Pin Missile!" Losing no momentum from its charge earlier, Cacnea started rotating rapidly folding its arms in before spewing small needles everywhere over the arena in the directions of the Eevees that had spread around the battlefield. One by one the copies were depleted until the real Eevee was discovered, and a final volley found its mark causing her to yelp in momentary pain.
"Shake it off Eevee, use Swift!" Having shaken the needles off her fur that still remained, Eevee opened her mouth as she darted back and forth quickly shooting yellow star shaped projectiles towards her foe.
"Keep it up Cacnea, Pin Missile again!" Another volley of green needles met with the stars in the center of the arena colliding in an explosion of dust obstructing Tyler's view of the field. He knew Justy's Pokémon specialized in these low visibility times having seen him training their speed and evasion extensively when he was in the advanced classes.
"Eevee, use Dig! Get underground!" Tyler's Pokémon rapidly dug a quick hole underneath the arena using this opportunity to let the dust settle. Already the crowd was really getting into it with an even split of cheers for Tyler and Justy through the crowd, which normally was in Justy's favor whenever he battled. As the dust settled in the middle of the arena the Cacnea stood alone with only a hole from where Eevee had started her digging greeting his confused gaze. "Now strike hard!" The Eevee then dug up from underneath the Cacnea sending him skyward.
"Cacnea no!" Justy cried out, as his Pokémon flailed around helpless in the sky.
"Quickly use Swift!" Another yellow volley of stars appeared targeting the airborne Pokémon striking it repeatedly causing it to continue flipping over and over above the attacking Eevee.
"Cacnea, use the momentum for another Pin Missile." Spinning with the attacks now, the stars bounced off effortlessly without much impact and were instead met with the same volley of green needles. Eevee took the full brunt of this attack and had to jump back as Cacnea landed on the ground.
"Not bad Justy, I'd expect nothing less from you." Tyler admitted with praise. That was probably only a move his teacher would pull off during the heat of the moment and really showed his experience. His praise was met with another grin from Justy.
"Ingrain!" Cacnea rooted itself to the ground and began absorbing nutrients from the dirt covered arena in an attempt to regain some of its lost energy from that barrage. Tyler knew he needed to get assertive before too much damage was healed.
"Strike before he's ready. Quick Attack!" After shaking herself back to alertness, Eevee charged at the stationary cactus before her looking for an easy hit.
"Needle Arm!" Before his opponent could react, Cacnea sprung to life and uppercut the Eevee with a full force swing. She flew backwards towards her trainer impacting with the ground and rolling over twice before coming to a stop, a glazed look over her eyes. She'd been KO'd.
"The winner is Cacnea!" The judge pointed at the spiked ball as the crowd roared in approval. Tyler jogged out and picked up his Pokémon in his arms, she looked back up at her trainer, mewing an apology to him for letting him down. He wasn't as disappointed in her as she was in herself, and his reassuring petting of her head told her as much before he returned her to her ball. All eyes in the arena were on him as he reached for another Poké ball.
"Ok Magnus, you're up!" Both the spots on Magnus' head and back sparked as a fire blazed across the blue fur ofhis back. The flames lapped out in every direction they could in a show of strength.
"Quil, Quilava!" The usual playfulness was gone from Magnus' voice and instead was far more intimidating than it normally was. "Let's get revenge for Eevee, use Flame Wheel!" The fire coming from Magnus intensified, quickly engulfing the fire type as he prepared to charge at the still ingrained Cacnea.
"Cacnea, Feint Attack!" With agility he'd come to expect from Justy's Pokémon, Cacnea leapt through the air and positioned itself behind Magnus poised for an attack. But as it approached, the flames continued to intensify from Magnus' body and Cacnea who was naturally weak to the fire became intimidated by its intensity and backed off his attack. "Cacnea what's wrong?"
"Go Magnus!" The fire type in its own display of agility flipped over the back of the distracted Pokémon. Still shrouded in flames Magnus began flipping in the air forming the wheel of the attack and on impact with the ground, charged towards the helpless grass type. A massive hit sent Cacnea flying completely across the arena into the ground by Justy's feet. The same glazed over look crossed its eyes once the dust settled; it had been KO'd by that viscous attack. Another roar of applause from the audience as the challenger had tied it up at one apiece.
"The winner is Quilava!" the judge said over the roar of the crowd.
"That was awesome Magnus!" Tyler exclaimed shooting his Pokémon a thumbs up. Magnus responded in kind with another puff of flames looking back at his trainer.
"Good job Cacnea. You deserve a rest." Justy nodded at his own Pokémon returning it to its ball. "We're just getting started Tyler. Go Sandslash!" The new Pokémon entered the arena, landing on its hind claws extending its front claws towards Magnus in its own show of intimidation. Now the battle was going to get interesting. Justy's Ground type Pokémon had a clear advantage over the Fire type. But Tyler remained cool and collected as he'd been preparing for battles with him at a disadvantage for a long time. It was time to see if his training would pay off.
"Start with Ember!" Magnus's maw opened and small red ashen projectiles erupted from it in an arc towards the Sandslash.
"Use Sandstorm!" Sandslash was well prepared for a fire assault as a thick cloud of sand quickly engulfed the arena. Tyler couldn't even see where the ember volley landed; much less know if it hit its target. This was bad; Sandslash thrived in this kind of environment more than any of Justy's other Pokémon. In spite of Magnus' best efforts, he quickly lost the spiky shrew in the sand cloud. Worse yet, larger chunks of sand pelted Magnus making it even harder for the Pokémon to focus.
"While he's distracted, get in there and use Slash!" Somewhere in the midst of the cloud, Justy's Sandslash kicked off the ground charging towards Magnus as if the dust cloud wasn't even there, its sharp front claws poised for attack. Repeatedly, the claws made contact with Magnus' body each time causing the fire type to wince in pain as his trainer was unable to help him. He was eventually knocked out of the sand cloud in front of his trainer who could finally see how much of a toll the repeated slashes had done to him. There were too many marks to count, and Magnus was clearly struggling to maintain his alertness in front of his trainer.
"One last blow will end this!" Justy's Sandslash emerged from the cloud poised to finish the job with this hit.
"Dodge it Magnus!" Having regained enough of a line of sight to identify his assailant, Magnus was able to dodge the blow but only just, wincing some as he landed on his legs. Thinking quickly Tyler reached for his Poké ball and called back Magnus. "We can still win this buddy, don't you worry." Tyler re-attached his ball to his belt and grabbed Caelum's.
"Time to fly Caelum!" Staraptor flew out of his ball in a graceful display of aerial prowess and flying above the silver spark shower. "Blow that sand away with Tailwind!" A powerful gale formed beneath Caelum's repeated wing flaps batting the sand cloud away revealing Sandslash in the middle of it looking up at the bird. Caelum let out a cry of intimidation that showed he wasn't going to be bullied like Magnus had in their fight earlier.
"Sandslash use Double Team. Then follow up with Swift!" The Sandslash started making copies of himself like Tyler's Eevee had earlier. Soon a small platoon of desert mice had appeared on the field, each one curled up into a ball and firing white stars out of the quills on their backs. The sheer volume of stars made it impossible to dodge the attack completely but thanks to the massive speed advantage, Caelum was able to dodge the majority of them with his natural agility. The handful that did make contact only glanced off his body doing minimal damage.
"A few shooting stars won't stop us! Caelum let's use Aerial Ace!" The Staraptor rolled out of the sky with white contrails surrounding his body as he flew with a predator's precision towards his prey below. Several clones were dissipated on impact with the attack surprising Justy in both its power and speed. If he was going to stay in control of this battle, he would need to slow down its pace and prioritize defense.
"Use Defense Curl!" The remaining copies tightened their ball shape as Staraptor continued to pick them off until only the original remained. Caelum's attack glanced off the side of the defensive Pokémon and two more attacks continued with the same effect. Tyler could feel frustration was setting in for Caelum as he too shared the same outlook on the battle. Sure they had the current advantage but momentum was only holding steady. They both knew they would need to press the attack and break the stalemate before him to really put the pressure on Justy.
"Let's really take the fight to them Caelum, use Close Combat!" The Staraptor dove out of the sky one last time with his wings spread wide. He flew into his target and quickly unleashed a furious combination of wing strikes, pecks, talon scratches and more trying to break through the Sandshrew's defenses. It proved successful as one wing strike managed to lift up a claw allowing for access to his body. The attack quickly unraveled his defense and sent the Pokémon flying backwards landing before his trainer landing with a jarring thud.
"Can you keep going Sandslash?" Justy asked of his injured Pokémon.
"Slash… Sandslash." The shrew stuck his front claws into the ground using them as a brace to stand up while nodding to his trainer with an impressive show of endurance.
"That's good enough for me. Use Crush Claw!" The claws Sandslash was using to prop himself up began glowing bright blue as he summoned the last of his energy and leapt towards Caelum who was still recovering from his attack earlier. Both claws were lowered across Caelum's back slamming the bird into the ground in a cloud of dust. But when the dust settled it was Sandslash who was unable to move as his opponent struggled in throwing the shrew's unconscious body off his back.
"The winner is Staraptor!" Another roar from the crowd as the leader now found himself in the rare position of being down to his last Pokémon before his opponent. Momentum was clearly in favor of the challenger, but Justy still kept his composure as he grabbed Sandslash's ball and returned him.
"Fantastic work today Sandslash, you've earned a rest." Justy looked across the field at his former student who stood confident with a smile on his face. "Most impressive Tyler, it makes me very proud that one of my students is able to push me this far."
"I couldn't have gotten this good without your guidance." Tyler called back. "But today is finally the day that the student surpasses the master."
"Not if we have anything to say about it. It's up to you Nosepass!" The Rock type with its magnetic red nose plopped out of his ball with a thud shaking the ground on impact. Tyler's heart raced as he knew he had a chance to defeat his teacher, but it wasn't going to be an easy one. Nosepass was the worst matchup for Tyler's team from a type standpoint, not to mention his both of his remaining Pokémon were already weakened from their fights with Sandslash. But there wasn't time to worry about such trivial things. Victory was before Tyler and he intended to take it.
"Set up another Tailwind Caelum!" The same field encompassing vortex of before returned and the Staraptor resumed his orbiting of the field. Tyler knew he was going to need his speed advantage in order to try and break through that strong defense of Nosepass.
"Nosepass use Rock Throw!" The bulky rock jumped into the air where it stood and slammed back into the ground. A group of rocks came from below the Pokémon that began flying in an arc towards Caelum.
"Dodge it!" Staraptor responded to his trainer's call and with the wind behind him easily dodged the slow moving attack. "Now get in closer with Aerial Ace!" Staraptor rolled out of the sky in a looping arc with white contrails surrounding him as he flew low to the ground towards his target.
"Use Shockwave!" This wasn't good, Tyler had forgotten that Nosepass could use electric moves and was about to pay for it. Nosepass' body crackled with blue electricity before a blue lightning bolt came from its magnetic nose. Caelum had no chance to react before the electricity struck him and he crashed into the ground with a thud before his opponent. Not only was the move super effective, but thanks to Close Combat's aftereffects it did even more damage than it normally would have leaving him in an electrified heap.
"Can you still fly Caelum?" Tyler asked watching his Pokémon struggle back to his feet.
"Raptor, Star Tor!" His body was shaking from all the accumulated damage he'd racked up, but Tyler could still hear the pride in his voice not willing to give up just yet.
"That's the spirit. Use Roost!" Caelum's body became outlined in a soft white glow as the shivering body began fading away and he regained energy. A smile came over Tyler's face seeing his Pokémon come back to alertness, but one came over Justy's face at the same time and Tyler realized he'd made another grave mistake.
"Nosepass, end this with Rock Tomb!" Nosepass jumped up from where he stood and landed back down with a resounding thud. When he did, stalagmites erupted from the ground around Caelum completely surrounding the startled bird and encompassing him in earth. Tyler cursed his lack of judgment as the tomb crumbled and revealed a motionless Staraptor inside of it.
"The winner is Nosepass!" The roars form the audience was getting more and more fevered as this white hot battle intensified. Both trainers down to their final Pokémon not a single person could tell who was going to emerge victorious. Tyler grabbed Caelum's Poké ball and in a pulse of red energy returned the fallen creature to his resting place.
"That was great Caelum, you did a fantastic job." Tyler's heart continued to race as he grabbed Magnus' Poké ball once again. He knew that if he was to have a chance, he needed Magnus to have regained some energy from his battle with Sandslash earlier; otherwise it would be as good as over already. "Let's win this Magnus!" A fireball erupted from the Poké ball bathed in red embers with the normal white and silver energy.
"Lava-va!" Magnus looked ready to roll and seeing his Pokémon's fiery energy fueled Tyler's own.
"Magnus use Ember!" The familiar volley of red ashen projectiles filled the battlefield arcing towards Nosepass, scattering as they made impact with his rocky body. It wasn't the most effective start to their fight but it was still damaging nonetheless.
"Rock Blast!" From inside the dust cloud, Nosepass once again surrounded himself with silvery white projectiles, shooting them at Magnus.
"Counter with Swift!" Magnus agilely hopped back and forth dodging each attack as he fired off a yellow star shaped barrage of his own. The stars collided with the remaining rocks causing a dust cloud to engulf the arena once again obstruct both trainers' field of view.
"Shockwave once more!" Taking full advantage of the low visibility, an electric pulse came from all directions of the Nosepass, there was no hope to dodge this attack and it struck shocking the Quilava.
"Can you still go Magnus?" Tyler asked with concern written clearly on his face. Magnus wasn't going to let his trainer down today, and looked back at him with an intense gaze.
"Qui… Quila!" "I knew I could count on you. Okay, use Quick Attack!" Magnus glowed white as he charged towards the Nosepass making a glancing blow in the process. Nosepass stood resolute in the face of the attack.
"I think it's about time we finished this battle Nosepass." Justy's voice became intense, as Nosepass responded in kind with a low gravely cry of his name.
"Magnus, Smokescreen, let's go!" A blacken ash cloud erupted from Magnus' back in an attempt to cloud Justy's own vision.
"Nice try, but that won't work. Nosepass, Lock On to your target!" The electromagnetic nose of Nosepass glowed white as it spun around trying to identify Magnus' electromagnetic energy.
"Quickly use Flamethrower!" Magnus arched his back as he readied his signature attack. A pillar of red-orange fire exploded out of the Pokémon's mouth rapidly approaching its target, with the arena glowing in response to the attack.
"Use Zap Cannon!" With an assist from the Lock-on previously, Nosepass already knew where the attack was coming from and fired off a massive yellow electric ball of energy in the direction of the attack. The two attacks collided in the center of the arena briefly canceling each other's momentum before becoming a massive explosion of dust, embers, ash and sparks that completely obstructed the view for everyone.
"Magnus hang in there!" Tyler cried out in desperation.
"Nosepass!" Justy's call showed the same concern. The dust finally began to settle and as vision gradually returned, two shadows could be made out in the dust. The bulky outline of Nosepass was still standing up stationary from where it fired the Zap Cannon. Magnus, breathing heavily was also standing but had electric sparks orbiting his body and a grimace on his face. His senses were overloaded from the attack and his body was paralyzed. "Okay Nosepass, finish this with Rock Tomb!"
"Come on Magnus, get out of there!" It was a futile attempt, as Nosepass jumped up once again. Magnus tried desperately to move his body, but he was unable. Tyler and Magnus could only stand helpless as Nosepass came crashing down with a resounding thud, once again sending an eruption of earthly spikes to encase the injured Quilava. When they receded, Magnus' eyes had glazed over as he lay sprawled out on the ground. He'd been defeated.
"The winner is Nosepass! That means the victory goes to Justy!" The judge pointed in the leader's direction as the crowd erupted in applause. Justy once again waved to the appreciative crowd. Tyler momentarily fell to his knees defeated, but with a smile gracing his face. He may have lost but he knew just how close he'd come to victory today against his idol and that was good enough in his book. Picking himself up as Justy called back Nosepass, he walked out to where Magnus lay, who having regained some movement already shook himself a bit turning around to face his trainer. Much like Eevee had before him, Magnus looked at his trainer disappointed in his performance. Tyler just picked up his friend and gave him a hug as he kept on walking towards the center of the arena where Justy stood waiting.
"That was a great battle today Tyler." Justy extended his arm towards Magnus in a gesture of appreciation for his effort. Magnus smiled and playfully nuzzled with Justy's hand. "I haven't been pushed that hard nor have I had that much fun for a very long time. You should be very proud of your performance today." Tyler nodded in agreement.
"Definitely. It was an honor today Justy." His smile beaming brightly again as the two trainers shook hands in the center of the arena. More applause showered down on them from the onlookers as Tyler's friends made their way down to the arena to congratulate his effort as well.
"If you can do that well against me, I have confidence you'll do fine in your upcoming journey. I wish you the best of luck!"
"Journey? What journey, what are you talking about?" Tyler was noticeably confused perhaps he'd misheard Justy's words and thought he'd said something different. After all, he hadn't heard of any journey that he was going on any time soon. Just what did he mean?
"You mean you don't know?" Now Justy shared his student's confusion and the look remained as Tyler's friends had now made their way to join him. "I guess I just assumed because your parents said…" Justy's words trailed off as embarrassment slipped over his face.
"What are you talking about?" Tyler asked looking around to his friends hoping for answers. "Guys, do you know what he's talking about?"
"I think you should go talk to your parents Tynamite." Charlie said trying to fight off a tear. Now things were really getting weird. Charlie never cried, not once. Tyler had seen him break his arm when he was nine playing soccer and not so much as a whimper came from him then. So seeing him with tears in his eyes caused his mind to race around as he tried to figure out exactly what they were talking about. Making no progress, Charlie's advice seemed to be the best course of action at the moment. But he needed to get his Pokémon healed up first, so a trip to the Pokémon Center was in order before anything else. And with a vague idea of what he needed to do, Tyler once again turned towards Justy thanking him again for the battle today and left.
A/N: There we go, that's two chapters in the books. Hopefully I didn't bore you too much with all that nerdy talk before the chapter began. Being a science nerd I have a tendency to over analyze everything that exists in a given world like Pokémon. I'd probably make a good professor if I existed in this world.
Tyler: Yeah you're just like a professor alright. Rambling on about stuff and putting everyone who's listening to you to sleep with your boring lectures.
DrPhill26: *mumbling* Yeah well if you hadn't interrupted me earlier then maybe you would have actually won your battle.
Tyler: Did you say something?
DrPhill26: I said you should probably get to a Pokémon Center and heal your team.
Tyler: Yeah... it sucks that we lost. I really thought we had him today.
DrPhill26: Just goes to show how good of a trainer Justy is. Now you go run along to the Pokémon Center, I've got to say goodbye to the reader. - This is DrPhill26 signing out and I hope to see you next time.