The battle of Elaina and Blake vs. Kitty and Nikita begins with this chapter! What surprises are in store for us? Kitty and Elaina both have harmonia, making this quite an interesting match, to say the least! Hopefully they can both keep from losing control! Remember to review!
Just a Bad Writer for Fun: It's a special fire pokemon alright.
KedharS: Good energy!
Rosealine gold: It's sad, but it won't be so bad.
JoshGamerV: I wouldn't say NO way.
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 389
"Noctre!" Elaina shouted, sending out her first pokemon, her Noivern, the bat-like pokemon letting out an ear-shaking howl as she flapped her wings, landing on the ground.
"Elaina's starting pokemon is her usual lead, her Noivern," Darla declared, excitement at the dragon pokemon getting the better of her and leaking into her voice.
"Ugh, it's always the worst," Lila groaned, holding her hands over her ears.
"Weiss, go," Blake declared, sending out his Scizor to accompany Noctre, the crimson pokemon darting forward and taking to the sky.
"Yeah, go, Blake!" Ayame cheered, pumping her fist joyfully into the air.
"He's using Weiss already?"
Ayame was startled, glancing over her shoulder to see Cynthia, Sango, and Silver heading down the aisle, Cynthia waving good-naturedly towards her.
"Back from getting your pokemon healed up?" Nick asked.
"Yep," Cynthia chirped, skipping over to them, Sango in tow. Cynthia turned to Celia and Allen, who were in the seats to the right of Ayame. "Sorry, can you move?"
"Huh?" A sneer crossed the dark-haired man's face as he looked up at her. "Why should I-"
"Just do it," Celia said, taking him by the hand and vacating their chairs, Allen grumbling as Cynthia plopped down in his seat and Sango sat between her and Ayame. Cynthia lasted for about a second before springing back up.
"Aud!" Cynthia cooed, running over to Callie. The short girl handed the Vulpix to her trainer, Aud cooing in delight as Cynthia took her, cuddling the small white pokemon lovingly.
"Thanks for looking after her, guys," Cynthia giggled, nuzzling Aud against her cheek.
"Any time," Callie grinned. "Wait, but not when I'm going on a date with Nick. And not during club activities, or when I'm working on my job with the Eight Leaders, or on break, or-"
"Yeah, I get it," Cynthia laughed, returning to her seat.
Reiner was notably silent, not eager to offer the same as Callie.
"Are you doing okay after losing?" Ayame asked Sango. Sango nodded, and smiled.
"We were going to invite Maddi, but… she was healing up all her pokemon, and didn't really want to come anyway… same with Caelia…" Sango sighed, a distant look on her face. "I didn't know pokemon battling… could be so much fun. But I guess that's it for me."
Ayame gave her a sympathetic pat on the shoulder. "Doesn't have to be."
Before Sango could ask what she meant by that, she was cut off by Cynthia's cheers. She shot her a withering look.
"Elaina and Blake have sent out a Noivern and a Scizor, respectfully," Lila noted.
"I think those are fine choices, a really strong start. It puts Katherine and Nikita in a tough spot," Darla noted.
"Um, actually…" Lila whispered something into Darla's ear, unheard by the microphone. Darla nodded at what she heard.
"Wait, so she goes by Kitty?"
Lila nodded.
"That… that is the most adorable thing I've ever heard," Darla held her hand over her mouth to keep from laughing. Color was spreading through Kitty's cheeks, the crimson color of shame and embarrassment.
"Kitty, what should we do?" Nikita asked. She gulped, worried about facing down Elaina and her Noivern. She could send out Glitter to fight against the dragon, but Blake had made a smart choice and chosen to use his Scizor, meaning any fairy pokemon they sent out to fight her would be taken care of rather easily.
Kitty turned to Nikita and gave her a smile, Nikita calming down as she saw the look in Kitty's eye. It was a look she hadn't seen from the girl in a long time, and it brought a smile to her face. She knew what Kitty was going to say just from that smile.
"Let's just do our best to have fun," Kitty replied. "And enjoy this battle the best we can!"
Nikita nodded, her worries dispelled. She turned back to the battlefield and threw out her first pokeball. "Glitter!"
"Nikita's first pokemon is a cute Clefairy!" Darla announced.
"Kyaaaa!" Lila gushed into the microphone, fawning all over the fairy pokemon immediately, her partner rolling her eyes.
"Larosa, let's go!" Kitty said, sending out her Growlithe. Larosa landed on the ground and Kitty's harmonia surged up, filling both of them with warmth and power as she faced down Elaina. Her head was pounding due to proximity with the girl's harmonia, their abilities rising up to match each other.
"This battle might look nondescript, but it's probably more significant than we might think," Olivia said. Ayame glanced up to see Olivia had risen from her seat, her hand stroking her chin thoughtfully.
"Boss?"
"This is the first battle I've seen between two harmonia users," Olivia mused. "I think it's the first for most of us here, as well. I wonder what it has in store…"
Elaina didn't feel particularly intimidated by the Growlithe opposing her, or the diminutive trainer using her. At the same time, this was the first time she'd fought against another harmonia user herself. In the fall, Gerard had planned for her to face off against Kanone Harker, and she had been prepared for that, maybe even a little intimidated. But she wasn't feeling that way now. That girl… there was something about her that Elaina couldn't quite place.
"Do you want to be like her?" Harmonia's spectral voice oozed into her ear, Elaina gritting her teeth in irritation.
"Leave me alone!" She snarled. "Noctre! Hurricane!"
"Noivern!" Noctre howled, spreading her wings wide. With powerful flaps, she conjured up a massive hurricane of wind and water that tore through the stadium, raging straight at the two pokemon that opposed her.
"Elaina started out the same as she always did," Darla said, ducking for cover under the table.
"Watch out!" Lila cried. There were significantly less protections put in place for student safety than in the larger stadiums. Fortunately, there were no bleachers behind Kitty and Nikita, so there wasn't any real threat… hopefully.
Kitty wasn't worried. Her harmonia had let her and Larosa awaken powers that she was just beginning to get a grasp of the scope.
"Larosa! Use your heat wave!" Kitty ordered, her harmonia flaring up. The air around Larosa began to grow scorching hot, and with a roar the dog pokemon sent a wave of burning wind at the hurricane. The two attacks collided, wind and water meeting scalding air in an explosion of high-pressure temperatures, cancelling each other out.
"What?" Elaina gasped, stunned.
"Kitty managed to ward off the hurricane!" Darla gaped.
"Have… have we even seen that happen before?" Lila asked.
"Now, go!" Kitty ordered, her eyes flashing. Larosa dashed forward, picking up speed with her agility as she charged straight at the Noivern.
"Not a chance," Elaina snarled. She swung her arm and Noctre did the same, sending a blade of air slicing straight at Larosa. But a direct attack couldn't match Larosa's agility, and she quickly dodged to the side, zigzagging to avoid the dragon's wind attacks.
"Glitter, use your moonblast," Nikita ordered.
"Clefairy!" Glitter held her hands up, her body gathering light into it. She formed an orb of pink energy in her hands, and fired it at the distracted dragon pokemon. But the blast never arrived. A flash of red obscured her vision as Weiss quickly appeared in front of the attack, the fairy energy dispersing over his steel-hard carapace.
"Weiss, bullet punch," Blake ordered. Weiss shot forward like a crimson bullet, claws raised and ready to unleash a barrage of swift punches. But before the first strike could land, the Clefairy disappeared, Weiss hitting nothing but air.
"Clefairy vanished?" Lila gasped.
"Where is it?!" Darla looked around frantically.
Nikita smiled. Before Weiss had struck, Glitter had used her minimize to become incredibly small, allowing her to avoid being hit. And right now, the pokemon was looking around for her, expecting her to reappear somewhere, not knowing that Glitter was right under him the entire time.
"Enough of this!" Elaina shouted, growing tired of the Growlithe dodging all of her attacks. Her harmonia flared up and her head throbbed in pain, energy surging into Noctre to charge up her next powerful attack.
Noctre nodded, gathering energy into her ears and throat. She let out a long howl, a powerful boomburst attack. The sound so intense it formed an actual shockwave that emanated from her body, attacking everything around her with devastating sonic power. But Kitty was still too fast. Larosa frantically dug into the dirt of the stadium, burying herself in the ground. The cushion of dirt did well to block out the sound, protecting Larosa from the effect of the attack. The other pokemon, as well as the audience, announcers, and even the trainers, were not as lucky.
"Oww!" Lila groaned, hating all these sonic attacks. Why was everyone using sonic attacks?! She couldn't stand it!
"This is really annoying," Darla agreed, shielding her ears. Luckily, the sound quickly died down as Elaina recognized the futility of it, changing tactics immediately.
"Noctre, take to the sky!"
"Noivern!" Noctre nodded, flapping her wings and soaring up above the battlefield, gliding overhead and keeping a watchful eye out on the ground below.
"Good move from Elaina," Darla acknowledged. "Up there, her Noivern is totally safe from that Growlithe's dig attack."
"Now, she'll be able to see wherever she'll be coming from!" Lila nodded in agreement. "And she'll be able to attack first!"
"In pokemon battles, hiding underground is a good tactic to catch the opponent by surprise," Darla explained. "But when you're dealing with flying pokemon…"
"It's not that good," Lila understood.
Kitty wasn't perturbed. She linked her thoughts with Larosa and told her to be patient, and attack when she gave the signal. Her eyes slid over to Nikita, who nodded, a smile crossing her face.
"Glitter, use your gravity attack," Nikita ordered.
"Clefairy!" Glitter cheered, her voice almost imperceptible due to her miniscule size. She held her hands up, energy surrounding her body. Suddenly, the gravity of the stadium increased to many times its previous level. All the pokemon were immediately pulled towards the ground, a thick pressure forcing them downwards. Weiss fell to his knees at the weight bearing down on him, and Noctre plummeted out of the air, screeching frantically.
"Noctre!" Elaina shouted, feeling an immense wait tug on her, as well.
"We saw this attack before!" Darla remembered it working against Elaina in one of her battles for the Fall Festival Tournament.
"Smart thinking from Nikita, this way Elaina's pokemon can't escape into the sky anymore!" Lila said, awed by the maneuver.
"We'll take it from here!" Kitty said, her eyes flashing as she gave Larosa a silent command. Noctre hit the ground hard, crying out in pain, and Larosa erupted from underground, hitting Noctre in the chest with her claws and dealing her a significant blow boosted with harmonia.
"Urgh," Elaina grunted, clutching her breast as she felt a throb of pain shoot through her chest. But that was hardly anything. "You should know… that won't be enough to defeat someone using harmonia!"
Indeed, Noctre was barely fazed by the attack. She raised her winged claw, and swung it at Larosa. A blade of wind sliced into the Growlithe's belly, Larosa and Kitty both crying out in pain.
"Glitter! Use moonblast again!" Nikita ordered, not willing to let her partner be beaten down so easily.
"Clefairy!" Glitter squeaked. She gathered energy into her again, forming another sphere of fairy energy. Unlike its creator, though, the attack was not miniature-sized. She fired it at Noctre, hitting the dragon pokemon in the side with the surprise attack.
"NOI!" Noctre howled, whirling around to retaliate against her attacker, but her eyes couldn't see anything.
Weiss, on the other hand, had seen the entire exchange. The Clefairy might have escaped him before, but that moonblast had been a massive beacon signaling her location, and now he could see where she was. Still affected by the gravity, Weiss shot his claw out and grabbed the small pokemon, clutching her tightly between his pincers.
"CLEFAIRY!" Glitter wailed. Weiss's pincers were like a vice, clenching down on the tiny pokemon and causing her major damage. She struggled to get free, slapping her tiny hands against the pokemon, but her thrashing had no effect.
"Glitter!" Nikita shouted, seeing the situation her pokemon was in. Kitty saw it too, and quickly told Larosa. The fire pokemon's priorities shifted and she darted away from Noctre, increasing her speed with her agility as flames curled around her into a flame wheel.
"Watch out, Weiss! Larosa is coming for you!"
Familiar with Larosa's movements from the night before, Weiss was prepared now. He dodged to the side with his own agility, easily avoiding the dog pokemon even as Larosa turned tail to come back for another pass.
"Glitter, use your copycat!" Nikita ordered. Glitter waved her fingers from side to side, flames leaping up around her tiny body as she attempted to use a flame wheel of her own. This had the effect of making Weiss's claw suddenly become very, very hot.
"Scizor!" Weiss cried, the burning sensation in his pincer forcing him to let the small pokemon go. The minute he did, Glitter returned to her normal size, slamming into him with a full-size tackle, knocking him backwards with her copied flame wheel as Larosa charged right for him with her own.
"Noctre! Use tailwind!" Elaina ordered. Noctre flapped her wings, a powerful wind pushing across the battlefield. The burst of wind caught Weiss's wings and his speed increased. With the boost to his speed, he dodged Larosa's flame wheel by a paper's width, retreating back to his trainer. The pokemon returned to their sides of the battlefield, staring each other down.
"Both teams have been exchanging powerful moves and wearing each other down," Lila noted. "But no one's fallen yet…"
"It's quite an interesting battle," Darla agreed. "Elaina and Blake both have powerful pokemon, and Kitty's Growlithe is pretty strong as well."
"Don't discount that Clefairy," Lila reminded her. "She's shown a few tricks in this battle, after all."
"True. I think we can agree that anyone who expected this to be a completely one-sided battle was underestimating Kitty and Nikita," Darla nodded.
"…That was only you though." Lila snidely remarked.
"Sh-shut up, Lila!" Darla exclaimed.
Kitty smiled, feeling the rush of her harmonia. It wasn't just that exciting sensation that put a smile on her face, though. She hadn't enjoyed a battle like this in a while. None of her matches in the tournament had made her feel this… Happy.
I'm giving it the best I've got. I'm not using my harmonia as a crutch this time, or getting caught up in my own power. I'm just enjoying this battle for what it is, an opportunity to work with my pokemon and my partner to get stronger. Kitty's smile widened and her harmonia flashed, Blake smiling at her.
"Larosa, let's do it!" Kitty called. Larosa snarled, her fur standing on end as the air around her heated up. She sent a blast of hot air across the stadium, the heat wave roiling towards the two pokemon.
"Not enough," Elaina snarled, her harmonia surging in response. A single flap of Noctre's wings was enough to blow the hot air away. That opened the door for Glitter to fire off a moonblast, though, which Weiss countered with a powerful flash cannon. Another stalemate. But not for long.
"Just like last time, right Nikita?" Kitty asked, flashing her partner a thumbs' up. Nikita knew what Kitty was suggesting and smiled, nodding her head.
Kitty turned her attention back to Larosa, and sent another command. Another heatwave, Larosa!
"Growl!" Larosa nodded, using the power from her trainer to fuel another powerful heatwave. The blast of hot air threatened to hit both Noctre and Weiss. Noctre would probably be able to take it just fine, but Weiss was the real problem.
"Glitter, copycat!" Nikita ordered immediately, the air around her Clefairy beginning to heat up as well.
"A double heat wave?" Darla gasped.
"My makeup!" Lila wailed.
"Noctre! Blow it away with hurricane!" Elaina shouted, her harmonia flaring. Noctre spread her wings and prepared another hurricane, beating back the powerful burning wind with a maelstrom of powerful water. Like before, the two attacks collided, dispersing the hot and cold air in a dense cloud.
But Noctre just had enough power to counter Larosa's heatwave, and there was a second one that took the place of the first.
"Noi!" Noctre cried in pain, hot air hitting her in the face and forcing tears to her eyes. Elaina withstood the burning feeling on her flesh, forcing her harmonia to strengthen itself to buff her pokemon's defenses and push through the pain.
"Weiss!" Blake cried. His Scizor wasn't able to endure the heat nearly as much. He held up his pokeball and recalled Weiss before he could take any more damage.
"The double heat wave forced Blake to make the first switch of the match!" Darla declared.
"He must not have been expecting that Growlithe to be so powerful!" Lila wondered.
Actually, he had expected it. The problem was, he hadn't been expecting to be pushed this far back this early. He wasn't about to use Sarah, he hadn't even registered her for the match, and that was how he had defeated Kitty before. She really was strong when it came to pure power. And right now, now that her eyes were clear and she wasn't just pumping harmonia into her pokemon thoughtlessly, she actually was getting stronger.
Blake glanced at Elaina. He wished she would see that she could be in the same state as Kitty was, that she didn't have to lose herself to harmonia either.
One battle at a time, he reminded himself. The best way to get through to her was to let Kitty shine even more. But he also wasn't just going to let her win!
"Maria, go," Blake said, sending out his Mareanie to replace Weiss.
"Mar!" Maria chirped. Lunged at Blake, but he gave her a look that said now was not the time. She pouted and scooted over to the battlefield.
"Blake's next pokemon is his Mareanie," Lila said, shivering. "Ugh, that poison type is going to be bad news for Clefairy!"
"And as a water pokemon, it's going to be a problem for Growlithe as well," Darla agreed. "This match is just getting started!
Just a nice, easy start to a more easy battle after the last brutal one. Hopefully things can continue to remain this casual.